After Ma Mingyuan made arrangements, he came out and sat in a sedan chair with sixteen people carrying green. In front was a chess and card officer with thirty-two people, holding open-lane chess and card cards, and in front was a yamen runner holding two gongs in his hand, using the sound of gongs to open the way, reminding the people around him to travel, and the idle people avoided it.

Ma Mingyuan's sedan chair left Mafu Street, which is the downtown area of ​​Confucius Temple. When people around him saw this scene, they knelt down and bowed. Zhu Hongsan was the highest etiquette for the chief minister. Except for the prince, everyone else had to bow when they saw the chief minister. Those with fame and fortune were bowed, and those without fame knelt down and kowtowed.

However, Ma Mingyuan is even more powerful. He is the Grand Tutor, the teacher of the prince and all the princes. Even the prince will get out of the sedan chair to salute him when he sees him, so Ma Mingyuan does not have to avoid anyone except the emperor's chariot in Nanjing.

Confucius Temple has always been a place where literati and poets miss it. There are many scholars with fame. Some people saw Ma Mingyuan playing the sign of the prime minister again, and while bowing, they whispered: "What's the matter?" "Looking at this situation, Ma Mingyuan will probably be the prime minister again!"

In this way, the news spread quickly. After some officials in the city learned the news, they immediately came to see the new chief minister with gifts, trying to get familiar with the leader. But they didn't know that the chief minister Ma changed his previous appearance. The door of the mansion was closed, no one opened his name, and no gifts were collected, which made the officials who came to hold their feet very disappointed.

Ma Mingyuan and a group of hundreds of people walked on the streets of Nancheng. All the civilians who had no time to hide knelt down and kowtowed. After passing Gongyuan Street, they entered the imperial city. Ma Mingyuan got off the sedan chair in front of Hongwu Gate, sat on the shoulder chariot prepared for him alone, and came to the gate of Wenhua Hall.

Ma Mingyuan had just gotten off his shoulder chariot and saw his elder brother Ma Jiyuan walking out by two Jinyiwei. He was so embarrassed to see his elder brother Ma Mingyuan. After all, he was the brother of a compatriot, and he was now like this for the sake of power.

Ma Ji saw Ma Mingyuan coming from afar, spat in anger, turned around and left with the Jinyiwei. Seeing that his elder brother was like this, Ma Mingyuan couldn't say anything, so he had to give a deep salute from afar.

Emperor Zhu Hongsan and all the ministers in the hall had been waiting for a long time. Zhu Hongsan saw Ma Mingyuan coming in and said with a smile: "Second brother is here!"

Ma Mingyuan stepped forward and bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I have received the order. I will definitely devote myself to Your Majesty until my death!"

"Okay! I hope my second brother can come up with a plan that will satisfy me! Second brother, the Northern Expedition is imminent now, but the financial gap between the court is very large. What do you think should I do?"

Ma Mingyuan hasn't done anything in recent years and has been studying how to make money. It's easy to deal with without money. The easiest thing is to re-open the new policy and include scholars who did not pay taxes into the tax system, so that a large number of investments will come in within two months. However, doing so immediately offended the great gentry of Nanzhili, so Ma Mingyuan thought of a few tricks to help the court temporarily get rid of the financial dilemma.

"Your Majesty, it is very simple to ensure that the Northern Expedition will be carried out as scheduled. It is nothing more than two things to increase revenue and reduce expenditure! I have one, please read it by the emperor!" After Ma Mingyuan said that, he took out his memorial, placed it on the tablet, and presented it with both hands.

Li Chengen came down to take it and handed it to Zhu Hongsan. Zhu Hongsan took it and watched it in detail. Ma Mingyuan drafted a total of five items:

The first is that the tax amount in Guangdong has been set this year. It is October now, so don’t change it easily. Maintain the original first and wait until it is unified next year.

The second article is to suspend infrastructure in several new provinces such as Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Yunnan, and Guizhou. At the same time, civil affairs measures such as baby care, Anjifang, Jukaiyuan, Futianyuan, and Luzeyuan, which were promoted three years ago in Jiangsu, Anhui, Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Fujian, etc., will be suspended, so as to save four to five million silver dollars.

The third article is that the provinces do not use white rice to provide relief to refugees, but all use sweet potatoes and wheat transported from Guangdong. At the same time, those refugees should not eat enough and have nothing to do. They use these labor-free laborers to renovate farmland, water conservancy and roads in various places.

Article 4 is to moderately reduce the salaries of officials. In the past, a seventh-rank magistrate's salary reached 1,200 silver dollars. From now on, each person only paid half of it every year, and the other half was reissued with salt and sugar.

The fifth article is to reopen the silver dollar exchange, but this is not the radical version of the past, but a moderate version improved by Ma Mingyuan. This time, silver exchange is open to everyone, and silver dollars with a face value of one or two taels can be exchanged for nine cents and five cents of silver. This is the foundation of Ma Mingyuan’s five items. In the past, silver exchange was controlled by Huguang Patrol. They exchanged silver dollars in the country, and exchanged them with one or two to one or three cents in the market for silver dollars. This is how the Huguang Patrol used monopoly to quickly complete the original accumulation.

The most criticized by scholars in Southern Zhili was this unequal silver exchange bill. Ma Mingyuan was demoted back then, which was one of the main reasons. Now, in order to quickly stabilize people's hearts, Ma Mingyuan had to take out the greatest interests in his hands and share them with others.

Zhu Hongsan was very happy after reading Ma Mingyuan's comments. Ma Mingyuan had two tricks, and these five pieces could basically ensure the cost of his Northern Expedition.

"Okay! The words that my second brother said are deeply my wish! Li Chengen, read this memorial!"

When Li Chengen finished reading the memorial, the ministers in the court discussed that these few things had little to do with them except for the reduction of wages, and the last one was the biggest concession made by the Huguang faction. The officials in Nanzhili and Zhejiang were mainly afraid that Ma Mingyuan would do what he had to do when he came to power. What was the new policy? It was to cut off the life of the scholar group, so naturally he could not agree, but now Ma Mingyuan's moderate reforms could be accepted.

"I have no objection!" The Donglin Party and the Zhejiang East Sect first came forward to express their agreement. The Guangdong Sect's boss had not yet entered Beijing, and there was a group of intermediate officials who were not qualified to speak. However, they had the most benefits today, so they had no objection. The biggest loss was the Huguang Sect, but Ma Mingyuan was the Huguang Sect's boss. He had convinced all forces of the Huguang Sect, so the Huguang Sect also remained silent.

Zhu Hongsan nodded: "Okay, since the cabinet agrees, let's follow the implementation of this note!"

Zhu Hongsan was also very happy to solve the most important thing. It was noon now. All the ministers stood for a long time, but the water and rice had not been in, but the matter was not resolved. There were still a large number of officials in the local area who had not arranged any vacancies.

"My dear friends, it's already noon now, so don't go home for dinner. I will take care of the meal at noon today. After the meal, I will continue to discuss the gap between local officials!"

It was a great honor to have dinner with the emperor. More than 50 ministers in the hall bowed to thank him.

Zhu Hongsan did not prepare any decent meals for lunch, but the lunch box in later generations. However, the lunch box in the palace is completely different from the one that costs ten yuan per person on the street in later generations. Even the lacquer box that packs the lunch box is worth a few taels of silver.

The meal for lunch today was two dishes and one soup, which was chili pepper dried tofu and wood beard meat. The standard for lunch in later generations was tomato and egg soup served in wooden bowls with lids. These foods were not worth mentioning in later generations, but peppers and tomatoes were rare in the Ming Dynasty, so the ministers still enjoyed it.

Zhu Hongsan did not return to the harem to have dinner by himself, but stayed in the hall to eat with the ministers. Several cabinet masters had separate small tables, but the other ministers did not have the treatment, and they directly had long tables and long stools. Although the meals and seats were simple, these ministers stood there all morning and were so tired that they were all very happy.

Zhu Hongsan saw forty or fifty people ate hard. This scene made him feel like he had returned to the roadside lunch stall in later generations. However, there were still differences. These ministers were all well-read people. They were very particular about eating and sleeping. Even drinking soup, they covered their beards with their hands and sipped. This was completely different from the market scene in later generations that shouted "Boss, give me some more meal!"

After dinner, Zhu Hongsan gave these ministers a quarter of an hour to rest, and could go to the bathroom or close his eyes to rest.

When Ma Mingyuan saw Chen Zilong going out to the bathroom, he quickly went out with him. He wanted to ask himself what happened in the court when he didn't come? Why did his elder brother treat him with this attitude! According to Ma Mingyuan's estimate, the elder brother was only exempted from his official position and should have all treatments. However, just now he saw that his elder brother Ma Jiyuan was taken out of the hall by the Jinyiwei and his official hat was stripped off. This is not a normal resignation.

The chief assistant went to the toilet and made a lot of moves, and some flattering officials who were holding their feet quickly came up to accompany him.

"Yuan Fu, please accompany the Lord!"

"Haha, everyone, I am not old enough to need someone to accompany you when I go out. I should do this by myself!" After Ma Mingyuan said that, he pulled Chen Zilong, who had just left the door, to the gate of Wenhua Palace.

After leaving the door, Ma Mingyuan looked around. The Han general was around a dozen steps away, so he shouldn't hear what he was saying.

"What happened in the hall just now? Why did I see my elder brother being taken away by the Jinyiwei?"

Chen Zilong sighed and said, "Yuan Fu, something has changed, it is different from last night's discussion! Zhang Jiayu, a villain, has changed his mind, I don't know why he hooked up the case of Xu Bengao's rebellion with his elder brother!"

"Zhang Jiayu changed his mind? What did he say in his impeachment memorial?" Ma Mingyuan knew that things were not that simple. Xu Bengao's incident had nothing to do with Ma Jiyuan. The emperor also knew that there must be other reasons for using this incident to deal with his elder brother Ma Jiyuan.

"Yuan Fu, the little ponyboy of Zhang Jiayu, Tang Yuanji, impeached his elder brother for five crimes. The others are far-fetched. The most powerful one said that the elder brother scolded the emperor behind his back, saying that the matter in Xinyang was the emperor's fault, and that the elder brother's family was not Yu Xinyang, and that the emperor's instructor was also the emperor's instructor!"
Chapter completed!