On this day, during the conversation with Empress Dowager Li and Wanli in the Qianqing Palace, Yang Ning finally told Empress Dowager Li and Wanli his plans regarding the reform of Dongchang. He also gained their full support.

The attitude of the two people was within Yang Ning's expectation. It was just about the issue of Xing Tiefeng. Yang Ning really didn't expect that Empress Dowager Li trusted her so much. She didn't have the slightest suspicion or dissatisfaction. This also moved Yang Ning. .More determined to try his best to solve the problems for the mother and son before leaving.

According to what Zhang Juzheng said, the current situation of the Ming Dynasty can be said to be extremely pessimistic. There are powerful Tatar cavalry in the north that are constantly invading the border. There are intensifying uprisings and rebellions in Shandong, Henan, Guangxi and other places. However, the entire imperial court is full of official corruption, and the treasury is Empty and lax military equipment. It can be said that the entire Ming Dynasty has fallen into a precarious situation of internal and external troubles. There will be the danger of destruction at any time. Such a situation makes Yang Ning no longer dare to believe in the history of the Ming Dynasty that he knew in his previous life. Maybe, if this continues, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty will no longer be Emperor Chongzhen, but the young Emperor Wanli.

After coming out of Qianqing Palace, Yang Ning went to Funing Palace. Now whenever she enters the palace, Yang Ning always goes to Funing Palace to talk to Princess Yongning, eat and make her happy. She also takes advantage of Ying'er and other palace maids. When the eunuch is not around, it has become a "routine" to secretly take advantage of Princess Yongning and say love words that make the beauty blush and make her heart beat sweetly.

As for Yang Ning's running to Funing Palace, Empress Dowager Li never said anything.

When chatting with Princess Yongning, they inevitably talked about the current situation in the court. What surprised Yang Ning was that although Princess Yongning had lived in the inner palace since she was a child, she had thorough insights and insightful views on major court affairs. It took her a while to analyze things. Seeing blood and getting to the point. This made Yang Ning secretly think: If this Princess Yongning was born a boy and became the emperor, she would definitely be many times stronger than that kid Wanli. But it's a pity... Well. It's a pity. If that were the case, how could I have the chance to embrace this beauty?

It was already afternoon when she came out of Funing Palace. Yang Ning planned to leave the palace and return home. In the past few days, because she was busy with Dongchang affairs, she had somewhat neglected the little girl Ling'er. Therefore, Yang Ning felt that it was necessary to spend more time with her.

The sedan chair had just left the palace not far away when it suddenly stopped. Yang Ning suddenly became alert. As the saying goes, once bitten by a snake, you will be afraid of ropes for ten years. Since the last attack on the way back to the capital from Changping, Yang Ning felt a little agitated. I suffer from "sedan phobia". I always feel uneasy when sitting in a sedan. Even now I am walking on the streets of Beijing.

"What's going on?" Yang Ning immediately raised the curtain and asked.

"Father, the street in front is full of people. We can't get through." Zhang Biao, who was following the sedan, immediately reported.

"I can't get through. The road we take is not so crowded on weekdays. Where is the place ahead?" Yang Ning asked curiously. Although the mansion he lives in is not far to the east of the palace, if we take a straight road, we will inevitably have to pass through the capital. The most prosperous and bustling Qipan Street. In order to pass easily, Yang Ning always left the palace gate and walked north for a while before walking east. The area he passed through was basically where some of the "cold yamen" of the imperial court were located. For example, Baochao Department , Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Taicang, etc. Therefore, the flow of people is relatively sparse. The road has always been smooth. Unexpectedly, it was blocked by a crowd today.

Zhang Biao observed again and said: "The north side of the street seems to be the large empty space in front of the warehouse. It is now crowded with people, and it extends to the street. These people are wearing everything. There are officials and servants from various yamen. There are also basket bearers, mules, horses and carts, and quite a few soldiers. Everyone seems to be taking advantage of their necks to watch the excitement in the storage warehouse. Well, judging from the situation, there seems to be a conflict in the storage warehouse..."

Storage warehouses, basket bearers, mules, horses and carts, government officials and servants...

Yang Ning frowned and thought for a moment. Suddenly he understood: Ever since he gave Zhang Juzheng a "bad idea" of "exchanging things for salary" that day, he later learned that Zhang Juzheng had summoned officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs, warehouse officials and other personnel to pass by. After discussion, it was decided to use a huge batch of "pepper sumac" in the imperial warehouse to compensate the officials for this month's salary. In terms of time, today is the day when the imperial court distributes salary. And the person who stored this "pepper sum" .It is the storage warehouse located in the northeast of the imperial city.

This "pepper sappan wood" is originally produced in Nanyang. Pepper is a good condiment. The sappan wood can be used to dye cloth and can also be used as medicine. These two things are transported across the ocean by the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty every year. When they arrived in the capital, they were all put into the imperial court's warehouse. In the eyes of ordinary people, they were luxury goods and rare items exclusively for the use of the imperial palace. However, a lot of these two things were shipped every year. However, the actual use of the imperial palace was not This resulted in a large backlog of these two things in Taicang. Therefore, after listening to Yang Ning's idea and after detailed discussions with officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs, Zhang Juzheng decided to use these two things to "compensate" for his salary.

After Zhang Juzheng made his decision, he also told Yang Ning about this decision. To be honest, Yang Ning did not agree with the choice of these two things. In his opinion, it was wrong not to give people the salary they deserve. He had no choice but to do so. If you want to "exchange things for salary", you must also choose some daily necessities such as rice, noodles, cloth, etc., and set the discount standard high. This can avoid the resentment of officials and people's hearts to the greatest extent. It's turbulent. But this pepperwood can be said to be a very "unpopular thing". Each official will be given a dozen or twenty pounds when the time comes. He won't be able to use it at all. Of course, they can all sell it. And Originally, the prices of these two things were pretty good. But with so much peppercorns leaking out, all the officials had to sell them off. No matter how valuable the things were, they became worthless. How could those officials deal with it, and how could they accept this? thing.

Although there were some different opinions in his heart, Zhang Juzheng and others had already decided. They had already sent people to carry out the inventory and valuation work. Yang Ning couldn't say anything more. He just felt a little uneasy. Originally, this happened One idea was enough for him to regret. It wasn't that he regretted meddling in other people's business. It was that he felt that he was too hot-tempered and didn't think carefully about this matter. Now that he was given such two rare things to compensate for his salary, he felt even more sad. It feels uncomfortable.

No. Look at the situation in front of the storage warehouse. Sure enough, something happened.

Yang Ning couldn't help but feel upset: now there are bad things happening everywhere inside and outside the imperial court. One after another, one thing is pressing, and one of them has not yet been solved. This matter of exchanging salary in kind went wrong again, which directly affected the "people behind Zhang Juzheng". The more profound "Beijing-Cha" reform will undoubtedly make the long-term situation of Ming Dynasty worse.

"Let's go down and have a look." Yang Ning said to Zhang Biao. He first stopped the sedan at a distance. Then he changed into a set of casual clothes that were always ready in the sedan. He was wearing this gorgeous and majestic red suit. The over-the-shoulder cloud python shirt is really too eye-catching.

This time Yang Ning did not use a crutch. Zhang Biao supported him with one hand and walked towards the crowd in the square in front of the warehouse. Behind him, a group of Dongchang attendants who were escorting Fanzi were signaled by him to stay where they were.

Walking to the edge of the empty space in front of the warehouse, Yang Ning saw the situation in front of the door of the warehouse. At this time, the door of the warehouse was tightly closed. There were a hundred or so Jinyi guards holding weapons and blocked the door of the warehouse. The reflection of the blade was shining. The sound of shouts and curses could be heard endlessly. The sound coming from one of the broken gongs was particularly harsh. "Brothers, smash them to death for these little bastards. I will take care of them if they die." .”

Yang Ning held Zhang Biao's shoulders and stood on tiptoe to look at the sound. He saw that the person who made the broken gong's voice was a very fat man with a protruding belly and a black face. Looking from the side, this man had a reputation for attracting attention. Big ears, bulging eyes and rolled lips. He stood there with his belly protruding and yelled. He looked exactly like a gorilla. But this gorilla had a high official position. He was wearing a court dress embroidered with a bear bandana. The uniform of a fifth-grade military attaché. This military attache uniform is originally very powerful, but it looks awkward when worn on this "broken gong voice" with a protruding belly and bulging eyes.

Following the "gorilla"'s shouting and inciting, the rest of the Jinyi Guardsmen all clamored even more loudly. They used their knife handles to hit the door of the storage warehouse with a loud bang. On the courtyard walls on both sides of the door, there were many warehouse guards who poked their heads around. The soldiers, all holding spears, looked nervously at the Jinyi Colonel who was making a fuss outside the door. Logically speaking, they and Jinyiwei had the same military rank, but their status and momentum were far different.

There were two official-looking figures beside the gatehouse of the reserve. One of them looked like he was a ninth-grade civil servant. He was pointing at the "gorilla" and scolding him. Because his voice was not loud, Yang Ning couldn't hear clearly. The other one beside the civil servant was talking to him. Yang Ning recognized the "gorilla" who was pointing at his nose and scolding him. It was Wei Xuezeng, a capable official of the Ministry of Household Affairs who had followed him in fundraising and disaster relief work. Yang Ning couldn't help but be a little surprised. Wasn't this Wei Xuezeng promoted to the Shandong Cleaning Bureau of the Ministry of Household Affairs? Did you become a doctor? Why did you appear here? Could it be that you came here for the purpose of distributing salary?

Yang Ning winked at Zhang Biao beside him. Zhang Biao understood and took two steps forward. He patted a soldier who was stretching his neck to watch the fun and said: "Master, please come here."

The soldier turned around. His expression was both excited and impatient. He glanced at Zhang Biao and said, "What's the matter?"

Zhang Biao pretended to please with a smile and said: "That's right. My young master came back from entering the palace today. He passed by here in a sedan chair, but was stopped by the crowd. Therefore, I want to ask the military master what happened in this storage warehouse."

Zhang Biao's words "enter the palace to meet the saint" startled the soldier. He hurriedly looked around and subconsciously looked around at the "young master" in Zhang Biao's mouth. He saw Yang Ning looking at him with a smile. The soldier's eyes were on Yang Ning's clothes. I couldn't help but have doubts on my face. I turned around and looked at Zhang Biao. Just as I was wondering, I heard a loud shout coming from the barn door.

Yang Ning hurriedly turned around and saw that the ninth-grade civil servant and Wei Xuezeng had disappeared from the wall. There was a loud commotion in the courtyard of the storage warehouse. "It's not good. Mr. Wang let them fall to death."
Chapter completed!