Tomorrow, on the 18th day of the first month of the second year of the Qi Dynasty (1622 AD), Emperor Xizong Zhu You announced his wedding date to the world.
The emperor's wedding naturally required him to accept the worship of hundreds of officials, but Zhu Youxiao had no intention of doing this. Instead, he was even more obsessed with carpentry.
At the same time, Ma Xiaoquan, who is the fourth-grade Jin Yiwei and equivalent to the commander, also began to plan for the rise of his family.
Judging from Ma Xiaoquan's plan and some past experiences, the best way to get rich quickly is to contract for government projects. Of course, such contracting is not something ordinary people can do. First, there must be someone who can work in the court.
People who can speak well, secondly, also need a strong personal charm to confuse people's hearts.
Ma Xiaoquan is confident in his personal charm, but his personal connections in the court are far from enough.
In fact, Ma Xiaoquan was also a little conflicted. After all, from the bottom of his heart, he hated making connections, and if he wanted to make connections, he would inevitably give and take bribes, and secretly form gangs.
When the Ming Dynasty reached this point, although it was already in chaos, his actions were indeed promoting the downfall of the dynasty.
"Hey," Ma Xiaoquan shook his head and murmured, "I, Ma Xiaoquan, have hated bribery for so many years. Who would have thought that I would take this path? It's really fate that makes people work, God makes people play with people, hey."
After that, Ma Xiaoquan returned to the table and unfolded the map on the table.
This map is a topographic map inside and outside Beijing, which contains the location of all the houses in the Forty-Nine City.
The city of Beijing in the Ming Dynasty was much smaller than it is today. Places such as Tongzhou and Huairou were not within the scope of Beijing. Of course, although they were not under the jurisdiction of Beijing, they were still under the jurisdiction of Beijing.
Ma Xiaoquan kept tapping the map with his hand, clicking and humming. At this time, Li Qinghan suddenly pushed the door open and entered.
Seeing Ma Xiaoquan frowning and looking at the map, Li Qinghan couldn't help but asked curiously: "Ma Xiaoquan, what are you doing looking at the map?"
Ma Xiaoquan raised his head and saw that it was Li Qinghan and said, "Well, I'm studying real estate."
"Real estate? What is real estate? Can it be eaten?"
Ma Xiaoquan laughed: "Of course you can't eat it. Real estate, as the name suggests, is an industry of houses and land."
Li Qinghan said oh and asked again: "Do you want to do real estate?"
Ma Xiaoquan snapped his fingers: "Smart, you got the answer right."
"Oh, is this easy to do? How to do it?"
Ma Xiaoquan smiled bitterly. In fact, he didn't know how to do it. After all, he had never been exposed to real estate development before.
Ma Xiaoquan pointed to the map and asked Li Qinghan: "Qinghan, from your personal point of view, which piece of land in Beijing do you think is the best, uh, besides the palace."
Li Qinghan stepped forward to take a look, raised his head and said: "As for which one is good, I think as long as it is relatively close to the palace, it is good."
Ma Xiaoquan nodded: "However, the palace is surrounded by the houses and land of dignitaries, and they are all living there. I'm afraid it will be very difficult for me to get involved, so I plan to temporarily target the surrounding areas of Sijiu City.
"
...
The next day, Ma Xiaoquan led Li Qinghan to inspect the surrounding areas of Sijiu City.
The area around Beijing in the Ming Dynasty was mainly divided into three major departments. The first part was used as a training ground for the Central Army, the second part was where merchants traveling to and from Beijing gathered, and the third part, which was also the largest part, was farmland.
The troops and horses were not moved, and the grain and grass went first. The farmland part was not taken into consideration by Ma Xiaoquan for the time being. However, after Ma Xiaoquan passed the inspection of the first two parts, he decided to find an opportunity to intervene.
Returning to Ma's house, Ma Xiaoquan immediately started preparations. His first target was the training ground of Army Group Center.
The training ground is located in the south outside Beijing, with outdated facilities and potholes.
Ma Xiaoquan's original draft plan only focused on the renovation of the training ground's housing and land, but after repeated thoughts, he felt that he should start from the overall point of view, that is, completely renovate the training ground.
However, the renovation work of the training ground has been proposed for many years, but there has been no movement. Ma Xiaoquan also learned a lot about the reason for this through Jinyiwei's internal files.
Ma Xiaoquan was very puzzled. Since he had already mastered a large amount of evidence, why didn't he deal with it actively? For this reason, Ma Xiaoquan inquired in many ways and found some information. Combined with the new information, the Ming government has been unable to deal with it.
The most fundamental reason for renovating the training ground is the decline of national strength and serious internal problems.
...
"Well" Ma Xiaoquan frowned, threw the information in his hand on the desk, stood up slowly, and took a deep breath.
Next to Ma Xiaoquan, Li Qinghan asked: "Ma Xiaoquan, what should we do? Do we want to do the training ground?"
Ma Xiaoquan nodded: "We have to do it, but how to do it, I don't have a good idea yet. By the way, Qinghan, how many of our sisters from Zijia Academy are now in place?"
Li Qinghan said: "All the five golden flowers are in place, it will take some time for the others to arrive."
"Well... very good, then let's wait a few more days. Qinghan, I need you to help me do something these days. Well, bring the five golden flowers together.
It’s like this…”
Li Qinghan put his ear to his ear and kept nodding while listening. After listening, Li Qinghan said in surprise: "Ma Xiaoquan, is this okay? Isn't it a bit risky?"
Ma Xiaoquan smiled and said: "It is natural to take risks. Well, I will go to meet the emperor early tomorrow morning to see the situation in the palace."
"good!"
...
While Ma Xiaoquan was discussing how to intervene, Wei Jinzhong also held a secret meeting with his gang of losers.
Coincidentally, Wei Jinzhong has also recently focused on renovating the training ground. Of course, his and Ma Xiaoquan's goals are different. Ma Xiaoquan wants to do practical things and get more from the project funds, while Wei Jinzhong has not thought about it at all.
His purpose of renovating is just to make money.
"You guys, have you got any results?" Wei Jinzhong knocked on the table and asked.
In front of Wei Jinzhong, Dai Zheng said angrily: "Uncle, there are results, but there seems to be a slight change."
"Well, what change?"
Dai Zheng stood up and said respectfully: "Uncle, the renovation of this training ground has always been a matter of the Ministry of Works, and those who have something to do with the Ministry of Works include the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Punishment, especially a man named Lu from the Ministry of Punishment.
I heard that he is actually the main person in charge of every training ground renovation project."
Wei Jinzhong frowned slightly, nodded and said: "Lu Zhan, um, Minister of Justice, I have an impression of this person."
Dai Zheng chuckled and said, "Uncle, the Lu family where Lu Zhan lives is at odds with the Ma family of Ma Xiaoquan."
"Oh? How discordant is it?"
Dai Zheng shook his head and said uncertainly: "I heard it's a feud, huh."
"Feud..." Wei Jinzhong chuckled, "Ma Xiaoquan, Ma Xiaoquan, I didn't expect that your Ma family still has a feud. Well, Dai Zheng, you go down and implement it to see if this is the case. Also, look for
Let’s arrange some time and I want to meet with Lu Zhan.”
Dai Zhengyin smiled and said: "Uncle, do you mean to get a piece of the pie from Lu Zhan?"
"A share of the pie? Humph, I want them all!" Wei Jinzhong said, clenching his fist fiercely.
