Ma Shaoguang has been an official for many years, so he naturally knew that Lin Yangzu said this to form a community of interests with him. Ma Shaoguang is not an honest official like Hai Rui. Of course, he should not take any move at all, but it should be his own.

Ma Shaoguang thought of this and smiled: "Brother Lin, I am a newcomer. If you have any problems in Beijing in the future, I still need several brothers to take care of you!"

Lin Yangzu was very happy when he heard Ma Shaoguang's admiration: "Okay, then I'll make a decision. Tonight, Brother will be the host of Chunfeng Tower!"

At this moment, the pen holder in the outer room said, "Sir, a father-in-law is here in the palace!"

Someone came from the palace? Lin Yangzu frowned. He was from a Jinshi and was very disgusted with these dead eunuchs. He was about to ask something. The pen holder looked at Ma Shaoguang and said, "Sir, that father-in-law came from Kunning Palace. He was sent by the imperial concubine. I want to see Lord Ma!"

Lin Yangzu remembered that Ma Shaoguang was Ma Jiyuan's son, and the imperial concubine who is in charge of the harem is Ma Shaoguang's sister.

Lin Yangzu quickly turned around and said to Ma Shaoguang: "Brother, since the nobles in the palace have invited you, please go! Don't forget your and my agreement tonight!"

Ma Shaoguang nodded and went out to enter the palace with the little yellow gate.

After Ma Shaoguang left, the pen holder asked in a low voice: "Master Lin, what kind of way is this Ma Shaoguang? How can he have any contact with the palace?" This is not that the pen holder does not recognize noble people, but Ma Shaoguang is a fifth-rank official. This kind of official Wenxuansi has to meet a hundred or eighty-year-old person every day, and the pen holder has no time to check the files in detail. Today, Ma Shaoguang was able to receive the doctor Lin himself, which has already surprised the pen holder. Unexpectedly, this Guangxi man could still have something to do with the palace.

Lin Yangzu glared at the pen holder and said, "If you don't know, don't inquire about it, do your own job!"

After hearing Lin Yangzu's reprimand, the pen holder quickly bowed out.

Lin Yangzu sat on the chair and thought about the matter carefully. Now he has a relationship with Ma Shaoguang, and the next step is to get close to King Qin.

Lin Yangzu attached so much importance to Ma Shaoguang, although it was certainly involved in the salt industry, but the most important thing was to be close to the King of Qin. Lin Yangzu is almost fifty years old this year. According to his qualifications and abilities, at most he would be a minister. It would be extremely difficult to become a minister of the Shang Dynasty. As for entering the cabinet, there was no need to think about it.

But I had already reached this position and couldn't stand it when I saw that position was right in front of me. This feeling was really tormenting. Although Lin Yangzu was a Chu party, he and the prince were not at all. If he wanted to go further, he had to make plans. At this time, Lin Yangzu happened to hear the news from the palace. The emperor was very dissatisfied with the prince and intended to abolish the prince.

This made Lin Yangzu discover the opportunity. If the prince is deposed, the one who has the most hope of taking over is the King of Qin. It just so happens that there are no literati around the King of Qin, so he will naturally be reused if he goes there. If the King of Qin succeeds in the future, which Secretary of the State Council will not hold a handful of hand? Maybe he still has hope to enter the cabinet?

Lin Yangzu thought it was pretty good, but he had nothing to do with the King of Qin. He couldn't go to the King of Qin's mansion by himself! That way, let alone whether the King of Qin could pay attention to it, even his identity as a literati could not do such shameless things.

Just when Lin Yangzu was worried, he happened to receive news that Ma Shaoguang was going to Beijing to become an official. He knew who Ma Shaoguang was so clear. After receiving the news, Lin Yangzu felt that the opportunity had come. Ma Shaoguang was the uncle of the King of Qin and must have a close relationship with the King of Qin. If he made friends with Ma Shaoguang, wouldn’t he be able to make friends with the King of Qin?

Only in this way did Lin Yangzu get his subordinates to pay attention. If anyone from Guangxi and the official surnamed Ma reported, he must not stop him.

When Lin Yangzu saw Ma Shaoguang being called away by the eunuch, he felt even more determined in his mind. It seemed that Ma Shaoguang had a relationship with the King of Qin, and he had really taken the right step.

Ma Shaoguang originally thought that as long as he came to the capital, he would not participate in any party. It would be fine! But Ma Shaoguang was wrong. His identity was too special. Once he arrived at the capital, he became the focus of competition among all forces. This really fits the saying, a man as outstanding as Ma Shaoguang, no matter where he was, was as distinctive and outstanding as fireflies in the dark!

The Organization Department is the first yamen on the left side of Qianbulang. After walking a few steps out of the yamen, it is Chengtian Gate, which is the Tianan Gate in later generations. Here we go inside, the imperial city.

When he arrived outside Chengtian Gate, the little eunuch took out the token of the imperial concubine Ma Ruyan. After the inspection was completed, the Jinyiwei guard at the gate released Ma Shaoguang and walked into the imperial city.

The large area from Chengtian Gate to the Meridian Gate is the Taimiao and the Sheji Altar. At the same time, the headquarters of the Imperial Guard Division is also close to the left outside the Meridian Gate.

Passing through Duanmen is the Meridian Gate, here you enter the palace city, which is the emperor's home. The guards here have changed into Jinyiwei, and the imperial guards guard the imperial city, and the most core palace city is the Jinyiwei. Of course, this Jinyiwei and the Jinyiwei led by Qian Lide have nothing to do with each other, so Zhu Hongsan will never hand over his safety to Qian Lide, so the guards of the palace city are called Jinyiwei, and they are actually the most elite non-commissioned officers in the army. Although Zhu Hongyi is named as the Minister of Guards, Zhu Hongyi cannot command these Jinyiwei, and they directly obey the emperor's orders.

The inspection here of the Meridian Gate is much stricter than that of Chengtian Gate. In addition to checking the seals of Kunning Palace, Ma Shaoguang also needs to take Ma Shaoguang into the house to check whether he had weapons. After all the inspections, the Qianhu guarding the Meridian Gate took out a card and wrote Ma Shaoguang's figure, appearance, time of entry and exit, where to go into the palace, etc. There are also patrolling Jinyiwei in the palace. If you check that the cards do not match your own, you can immediately kill them.

After all the inspections were completed, Ma Shaoguang followed the little eunuch into the palace city from the left gate on the east side of the Meridian Gate, and passed through the arrow path of the Union Gate and passed through the front three halls. The three halls were burned by Li Zicheng into Kyoto that year. After the Qing Dynasty occupied Beijing, the Fengtian Palace was repaired and the country was destroyed. Zhu Hongsan took over and continued to repair it. After the renovations in recent years, the Fengtian Palace has been renovated, but the Huagai Palace and Jinshen Palace have not started construction.

Outside the Union Gate is the Ming Dynasty Cabinet. The center of the empire is here. There are more than a dozen houses and more than forty rooms. Seven prime ministers and direct offices in the cabinet are working here. Ma Shaoguang looked at the place that literati across the country yearned for, and then followed the eunuch north and entered the deep palace.

Follow the arrow path outside the three halls, and finally you will see the Qianqing Gate, which is the intersection between the inner palace and the outer palace. Further inside is the Qianqing Palace where the emperor lives, the Kunning Palace where the empress lives, and behind it is the Imperial Garden and the place where the concubine lives. All those who carry the handles here cannot enter, but there are exceptions, which are the prince and the emperor's relatives. These people have special orders to enter the harem with restrictions.

When Ma Shaoguang arrived at Qianqing Gate, he had to change his clothes. If he wanted to enter the harem, he could only change his clothes in a unified green hat. Of course, not everyone had to change clothes. Princes and princesses didn't have to change, and some ministers with high status didn't have to change, such as Ma Jiyuan, Ma Mingyuan and others. Emperor Ma Jiyuan dared to scold you and let him change clothes? Ma Mingyuan was very good at all. Although he didn't dare to scold the emperor, he still pinched you, a little eunuch.

But Ma Shaoguang did not have the domineering nature of his father or the skills of his uncle, so he had to change his clothes according to the rules.

Ma Shaoguang, who had changed his clothes, was taken by someone to enter the harem at the inner left door beside the Ganqing Gate. Only the emperor could leave the Ganqing Gate. If Ma Shaoguang stepped on a floor tiles in Ganqing Gate, it would be a great crime of disrespect and would lose his head.

Emperor Zhu Hongsan was not at home today and was playing in the Old Summer Palace, so there were not many guards here in the Ganqing Palace, but he was also 10 steps and 5 steps at a time. Ma Shaoguang lowered his head and followed the little eunuch through the Rijing* Gate and came to Jinghe Gate. From here, he was Kunning Palace.

Kunning Palace has always been the residence of the empresses of the Ming Dynasty. In ancient times, the position of the empress was contrary to that of the emperor. It was the most noble among women in the world. The emperor was the heaven, the empress was the earth, the emperor was Gan, the empress was Kun, and the empress was also the only one in the world. The empress’s bedroom was taken from the sentence “Kun got one and is peaceful” in the Tao Te Ching, so it was named Kunning Palace. Similarly, the emperor’s bedroom was called Ganqing Palace.

Kunning Palace was first built in the 18th year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty. From Zhu Di's empress Xu to Chongzhen's empress Zhou, a total of seventeen empresses lived here and died. The last empress Zhou was hanged in this Kunning Palace.

Kunning Palace is located in the north and south. The main hall is wide and the corridor is nine rooms, and three rooms are deep. On both sides of Kunning Palace are the east and west warm pavilions, the east warm pavilions are the residence of the empress herself. The west warm pavilions are the residence of the empress’s underage children. However, the owner of Kunning Palace is Ma Ruyan. Ma Ruyan has only one son, and the King of Qin Zhujiang, so there is no one living in the West warm pavilions, and there is a Buddhist niche inside.

According to the etiquette, the queen should live in Kunning Palace, but Zhu Hongsan's only queen, Ma Xiaofang, died in Guangzhou. Later, after entering Beijing, Zhu Hongsan issued a special order to allow the imperial concubine Ma Ruyan to live in Kunning Palace and to take charge of the harem.

Zhu Hongsan originally thought that he could not only appease the Chu party, but also preserve the position of Prince Zhu Hai, but then he thought that it was Zhu Hongsan's way that made Ma Ruyan have other thoughts.

Ma Ruyan is 48 years old this year, the same age as Queen Ma Xiaofang, and three years older than Emperor Zhu Hongsan. When Ma Ruyan was snatched away by Zhu Hongsan as a concubine, she originally thought that she would be like this in her life. But then she thought that Zhu Hongsan's career was getting bigger and bigger, and eventually occupied the whole country. Ma Ruyan also became the number one person in the harem, only one step away from the world of Mother's etiquette.

If the queen Ma Xiaofang was still alive at this time, Ma Ruyan would never dare to have any thoughts. After all, Ma Xiaofang was much stronger than Ma Ruyan regardless of her status. But she never expected that Ma Xiaofang would die young and die in Guangzhou.
Chapter completed!