I was the emperor in the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 70 Undercurrent
After the morning court, Li Tian went back to the Imperial Study Room and began to practice the Nine Forms of Guyang. The whole morning passed in a flash, and he was only a step away from breaking through the third form.

Zheng He and Jiang Bao watched clearly from the sidelines, and when Li Tian got up from work, he hurried forward to congratulate him:
"Your Majesty is talented and intelligent, and he has made great progress in practicing exercises, which makes our family (the old slave) very envious."

Zheng He called himself our family, and Jiang Bao called himself an old slave. The difference in one word showed the difference in status between the two.

Although Jiang Bao had been walking in the palace for more than thirty years, compared with Zheng He, who grew up with Zhu Di in Yan Wang's mansion, his qualifications were not a little bit worse. As for Wang Fu, it was even worse.

He is also the head of the inner court. When he met Jiang Bao, Wang Fu dared to talk a little bit, but when he met Zheng He, Wang Fu could only listen to the training with his tail between his legs.

Stretching his limbs and tasting the white dew tea brewed with Yuquan mountain spring water, Li Tian stretched his waist and said with a smile:

"I can still carry how many catties and taels I have, so don't say such things against your will here."

Zheng and Jiang Bao looked at each other when they heard the words, pursed their lips and smiled secretly, Wang Fu was itching like a monkey scratching his heart as he watched from the side. Sound report:

"Your Majesty, Marquis Yangwu, please see me."

"Let him come in and talk." Li Tian knew that Xue Lu was here to report the fact that the Nanjing garrison eunuch Ma Dazhong was out of pay, so he looked at Wang Fu and said in a deep voice.

As soon as Wang Fu led Xue Lu into the door, Xue Lu hurriedly knelt down on the ground, and after shouting long live three times, he got straight to the point and said:

"Your Majesty, that guy Ma Dazhong is too worthless, he manages 2 people in the Southern Capital Four Guards.

But in fact, there are only 20 soldiers in the battalion, and each soldier receives 20 taels of military pay a year. That old thing is worth more than [-] taels. "

Just spent a million taels of silver yesterday, and Li Tian didn't think it was a lot when he heard more than 20 taels of silver, but he was curious why Xue Lu was so eager to shoot at Ma Dazhong.

Empty pay is a craft, but it is the housekeeping job of a military general. There are more than 300 guards in the Ming Dynasty. Except for his personal guards, which are fully staffed, the rest of the guards will more or less eat some empty pay.

It's not that the generals are short of those tens of thousands of taels of silver, but that the matter of eating empty pay has always been top-down. Everyone has a share and eats some empty pay, and the army is united.

Signaling Xue Lu to stand up and speak, Li Tian turned to Zheng He and asked with a smile:

"Uncle Bao, Ma Dazhong, the Nanjing garrison eunuch, used to be your follower, right?"

If other people were asked such a question by the emperor, their legs would definitely be slapped, but Zheng He smiled lightly, and answered the words in a calm and unhurried voice:

"That's right, when the late emperor was alive, Ma Dazhong served as the young eunuch in Shangbao Supervisor, and the eunuch who was Shang Baojian was our family."

While inquiring about Zheng He, Li Tian was also watching Xue Lu's expression. It is impossible for Xue Lu to know the relationship between Ma Dazhong and Zheng He because Xue Lu has guarded the Xuan Mansion, one of the nine borders of Ming Dynasty, for more than ten years.

Seeing Xue Lu's face as usual, Li Tian suppressed his doubts, looked at Zheng He and continued to ask:
"So based on your understanding, Uncle Bao, Ma Dazhong is such a bold person?"

Zheng He pondered for a while when he heard the words, and did not reply to Li Tian's words, but looked directly at Xue Lu and said:
"Xue Shaobao, Ma Dazhong has been a garrison eunuch in Nanjing since the 19th year of Yongle. It must not be a day or two before he has been out of pay. But Xue Shaobao only found out about Ma Dazhong's outage now?"

"Eunuch Zheng, you can't say that. My old Xue Wu has been around for more than ten years. How could I care about such things before?" Xue Lu had already thought about the words and said without thinking.

Waving his hand to signal Zheng He to be safe, Li Tian put on a smiling face, looked at the carefree Xue Lu and said:

"What does Xue Shaobao want me to do? Is it to kill Ma Dazhong as an example, or to thoroughly investigate whether the eight hundred guards in the world are greedy for military pay?"

As soon as Li Tian said a word, an imperceptible strangeness flashed across Xue Lu's face, and he cupped his hands and said:

"Your Majesty, I feel that Ma Dazhong should be killed, and the eight hundred guards in the world should also be investigated."

Li Tian was a little surprised by Xue Lu's words, but the initiative was in Li Tian's hands, Li Tian was not in a hurry to ask questions, and immediately said with a half-smile:

"Then how about I start with the three guards of Xuanfu under Xue Shaobao's command?"

As soon as Li Tian said this, Zheng, Jiang Bao, and Wang Fu all turned their attention to Xue Lu. They wanted to see how Xue Lu would react.

Xue Lu's face was slightly stiff when he heard this, and he didn't dare to look directly at Li Tian, ​​so he bowed his hands and said:

"Wei Chen is no longer in command of the three guards of the Xuan Mansion. Your Majesty can investigate as much as you want, and Wei Chen has nothing to say."

"Okay." Li Tian didn't give Xue Lu a chance to change his words, and directly ordered:
"I'm going to give you the post of inspector of the Nine Frontiers right now, and specialize in checking the vacancies. How about the first stop being the three guards of Xuanfu?"

When the words rushed to such a point, Xue Lu's face finally changed color, and he stammered:

"Your Majesty, guarding the frontier on the nine sides and defending the capital, how can you just inspect it casually? I think this matter needs to be discussed in the long run."

"Oh?" Li Tianheng laughed twice, got up and said in a slightly unfriendly tone:

"Didn't you, Xue Shaobao, say before that I can investigate if I want to? There is nothing wrong with it. Why are you taking a long-term view now?"

Xue Lu licked his somewhat dry lips, not knowing how to respond for a moment, his head drooped, and he simply said nothing.

Upon seeing this, Li Tian said noncommittally:
"Tell me, who gave you this bad idea to impeach Ma Dazhong?"

Xue Lu still bowed his head when he heard the sound, but his expression was no longer as calm as when he came.

"Don't say?" Li Tian frowned slightly, and said in a slightly joking tone:

"Then let me make a guess, the generals feel that I have lost the hearts of civil servants by wantonly reforming the law, and want to use military power to meddle in political affairs?

Or did the generals think that I am reforming the law again and again, and want to use my hands to remove the eunuchs' right to command the troops?

Or maybe Ma Dazhong did something outrageous, making you want to die with Ma Dazhong on poles before you wiped your butts clean? "

Li Tian asked three times in a row, Xue Lu who asked directly knelt on the ground, kowtowed and said non-stop:
"The impeachment of Ma Dazhong is a matter of my own, and there is no other person's instigation, and it has nothing to do with the generals in the court. Please also learn from your Majesty."

"Then tell me, where did Ma Dazhong offend you and let you impeach him at the court meeting? Don't tell me what it is to be a minister, I don't want to hear it."

"Alas." Knowing that he still couldn't get away with it today, Xue Lu sighed like a discouraged ball, and said with a bit of regret on his face:
"It was Li Bingbu who asked Weichen to impeach Ma Dazhong. I owe Li Bingbu a favor, and it is really hard to refuse."

Li Qing, Shangshu of the Ministry of War?

Li Tian's expression became extremely solemn in an instant, and he still vaguely remembered the words of Qian Yi, Minister of the Ministry of Officials.

Li Qing's nephew Li Cunliang was a subordinate of Zhang Yiliang, Shangshu of the Ministry of War in Nanjing, and Li Qing's teacher was the younger brother of Li Minzhong, the chief examiner of Jinshi, official Xiaoru.

Damn it, after going around in a big circle, why did it go back to Li Min again.

(End of this chapter)