Ma Xiaoquan returned to Ningyuan and met Ma's mother, Hua Yue and other female relatives. Ma's father was busy repairing the damaged Ningyuan City border defense, so he was away from home most of the time.
The second brother Ma Yuan was seriously injured and was recovering at home, while the third brother Ma Cheng followed Ma's father to repair the border defense.
During the rare post-war rest, Ma Xiaoquan also had a rare opportunity to sleep in. He didn't get up until noon that day.
"Bang bang bang~~" The door rang. Ma Xiaoquan stood up and was about to open the door, when a jade hand suddenly grabbed him.
Turning his head, he saw Beiming Shuangxue looking at him with big watery eyes.
"Are you awake too?" Ma Xiaoquan said with a smile.
"Hmm~" Bei Ming Shuangxue hummed lazily, wrapping her arms around Ma Xiaoquan's neck.
"Okay, let's stop making trouble now, someone knocked on the door~"
Beiming Shuangxue pouted and insisted on kissing Ma Xiaoquan. Ma Xiaoquan had no choice but to kiss her gently.
The knock on the door rang again, Ma Xiaoquan called out to wait a moment, and then he and Beiming Shuangxue quickly put on their clothes. When she was sitting at the table combing her hair, Ma Xiaoquan stepped forward to open the door.
With a creak, the door opened, and there stood a messenger soldier outside. Judging from his appearance, he must have come from the capital.
"Huh? Are you from the capital?" Ma Xiaoquan asked.
The messenger soldier half knelt down and said: "To tell you what to say, the young one is coming from the capital~"
"Oh, what's the matter?"
"Sir, the governor has sent someone to express his gratitude to the court. The court sent subordinates earlier, and now they are here to report."
"Oh? Brother Yuan has already decided that the battle of Ningjin will be won? Interesting~ Then tell me, what should I do?"
The messenger cupped his hands and said: "Sir, my subordinates came from the capital mainly to convey the emperor's oral instructions~ The emperor means that sir, thank you for your hard work. If there is any inconvenience, you can come to the capital at any time to rest."
"Oh, I understand~" Ma Xiaoquan nodded, "You have also traveled a long way here, so don't leave in a hurry. Take your time, but we have nothing to entertain you here~ Well, let's do this~ Xiaomei, here
My thing..."
Bei Ming Shuangxue, who was combing her hair, raised her head and took a look, throwing an object casually. Ma Xiaoquan reached out to grab it, then smiled and handed the thing to the messenger, "This is a gold hairpin, it's not worth it."
You can take a few dollars back and sell them or pawn them, of course, it would be better to give them to your woman~"
The messenger was overjoyed and quickly knelt down to thank Ma Xiaoquan.
...
After the messengers left, Beiming Shuangxue also combed her hair.
"Why did the imperial court suddenly send someone here? What are they going to do? Is it possible that Wei Zhongxian wants to deal with you again? If so, I will go and kill the old eunuch."
"Haha, no need, no need. This messenger soldier is really not sent by Wei Zhongxian."
"Who is that?"
Ma Xiaoquan smiled and said: "King Xin!"
"King Xin? You mean Zhu Youjian?"
"Yes, hey, now that I'm here, King Xin still doesn't trust me."
"Then I will help you kill King Xin." Beiming Shuangxue vowed.
"What are you doing? King Xin is the next emperor, so you can't mess around."
"Oh, okay~"
"But..." Ma Xiaoquan dragged his chin, "I'm afraid Brother Yuan is in danger."
"What's wrong?"
Ma Xiaoquan smiled bitterly and shook his head: "It's nothing, there's nothing I can do to help, hey~~"
...
In the blink of an eye, more than ten days have passed. During these ten days, a lot of things happened. First, there was the reward based on merit after the victory of Ningjin. This reward is very interesting to talk about. But those who are at the forefront of the reward are basically eunuchs.
Or eunuchs.
And as people who work hard in the war, they basically don’t get much reward.
For example, Yuan Chonghuan was rewarded with a promotion of one rank and a reward of thirty taels of silver; Ma Xiaoquan was already a first-grade official and could not be promoted anymore, so he was simply rewarded with a reward of five taels of silver; Zhao Lejiao was promoted by half a rank and was rewarded with 30 taels of silver.
Twenty taels of silver, etc...
Ma Xiaoquan was already rich, but he didn't care at all about the five taels of silver reward. What he cared about was Wei Zhongxian's sudden renegade. It seemed that Wei Zhongxian still had doubts about him.
At night, Yuan Chonghuan came to see Ma Xiaoquan, holding a secret letter in his hand, and handed it to Ma Xiaoquan for him to read.
After reading the secret letter, Ma Xiaoquan frowned and asked: "This Li Yingjian really doesn't know how to commend himself, and he actually used the word 'malignant' to impeach Brother Yuan."
Yuan Chonghuan smashed the table and said angrily: "I, Yuan Chonghuan, have never made any mistakes in sticking to Liaodong. Today, they insulted me like this. I quit, I quit~~"
Ma Xiaoquan slapped his lips and asked: "Brother Yuan, do you really want to quit, or are you retreating in order to advance?"
Yuan Chonghuan sighed and said: "It's good to be able to make progress by retreating~"
"Then I will advise Brother Yuan not to do this."
"Why can't we do this? Is it because I am a member of the Donglin Party?"
"No, actually, Brother Yuan, think about it for yourself, how much status do you have in the Donglin Party?"
Yuan Chonghuan was stunned and shook his head to express his incomprehension.
Ma Xiaoquan said: "When I was still in the capital, I thoroughly checked Brother Yuan. Brother Yuan, tell me, who admitted you when you were a Jinshi?"
Without thinking, Yuan Chonghuan blurted out: "Grand Scholar Han Kuang."
"Okay, so who is Han Kuang?"
Yuan Chonghuan did not answer.
"Let me ask you again, who promoted you?"
This time Yuan Chonghuan's tone was half weaker: "It's Mr. Hou Xun, the censor."
"Okay, who is Hou Xun?"
Yuan Chonghuan still didn't answer.
"Also, who is the person who trained you?"
Yuan Chonghuan stopped talking.
Ma Xiaoquan sighed and said: "Then for me, the person who trained Brother Yuan is Sun Chengzong, so who is Sun Chengzong?"
Yuan Chonghuan smiled bitterly and shook his head. He shook his head and said: "Brother Ma, I understand. I am also a common man who is not guilty. I am guilty of guilt. What should I do?"
"Brother Yuan, don't do anything more, don't say anything more, just be your governor of Liaodong~"
Yuan Chonghuan nodded.
"But...if Wei Zhongxian really deals with you, I'm afraid there's nothing we can do."
Yuan Chonghuan said: "If this is true, I will admit it."
...
After that night, Yuan Chonghuan did not say anything or do anything as Ma Xiaoquan said, but Wei Zhongxian did not let him go. Can't you Yuan Chonghuan tolerate it? Well, then I will send someone to imitate your handwriting and write something
Seal your resignation letter.
In this way, Yuan Chonghuan was killed by Wei Zhongxian. To be precise, he should have been framed by Wei Zhongxian. Of course, in order to cover up, Wei Zhongxian later sent someone to forge Yuan Chonghuan's resignation letter and killed the person who forged it at the time.
Come on, everyone really thought that Yuan Chonghuan resigned from office by himself.
...
Yuan Chonghuan was dismissed from office, and the momentum that had just been built up in Liaodong collapsed again at this moment.
Originally, there was Yuan Chonghuan's suppression, and the generals in Liaodong were very polite. Now that Yuan Chonghuan packed up and left, the generals in Liaodong naturally disliked each other.
Since the Ma Jiajun was assigned to Man Gui before the battle of Ningjin, when the generals were making trouble, they could rely on the overbearing and unreasonable Man Gui to retreat. Of course, they had no choice but to return to Man Gui.
Although Man Gui and Ma Xiaoquan had nothing to do with each other, he had killed his fellow countryman before. Man Gui felt that he should settle this matter with Ma Xiaoquan, so he reported to the court, saying that the deacon had been seriously injured, so he still wanted to see the court.
Giving the deacon time to recover from his injuries, the implication is to ask the court to remove the power from Ma Xiaoquan's hands first.
Ma Xiaoquan had long expected that such a day would come. Whatever the case, he couldn't stay here for long anyway, and there wasn't much time left before he could leave here.
...
At night, Ma Xiaoquan summoned a Vulcan believer and asked, "Can I believe you?"
The believer nodded.
"Then how long do you have to live?" Ma Xiaoquan asked again.
The believer said: "The doctor said that it will not take more than two months."
"Well, now I have a task for you to do. This is the last thing you do for me before you die."
The believer knelt on the ground respectfully and said: "It is a great honor for me to serve the God of Fire. If it were not for the God of Fire, I would have died long ago, and my wife and children would have starved to death~"
"Okay, as long as you have this consciousness, okay, I have a note here with some words written on it. You take it and have these words engraved on your body, and then you rush to the capital to see
Letter to King Zhu Youjian and show it to him~ Your lifespan must be up by then." After saying that, Ma Xiaoquan handed the written note to the believer.
The believer took the note, carefully stuffed it into his arms, and then respectfully stepped out.
Ma Xiaoquan exhaled, shook his head gently, and murmured: "I hope this will all pass smoothly."
...
While Ma Xiaoquan was sending out his followers, there was also a turbulent situation in the capital.
Since Ma Xiaoquan left the capital, there is no one left who can oppose Wei Zhongxian.
Without Ma Xiaoquan's obstruction, Wei Zhongxian can be described as domineering.
He has a very long official name, so long that it takes more than 200 words to explain clearly. This official name was also secretly imitated by Wei Zhongxian after Emperor Wanli's Taoist title at that time.
In addition, in order to prevent the emperor from having an heir so soon, Wei Zhongxian specifically ordered the people around him to find a way to kill any concubine around the emperor who gave birth to a son.
So up to now, although Emperor Tianqi had had seven sons, all of them died early without exception. Wei Zhongxian naturally knew the reason for this.
Now Emperor Tianqi is in trouble. He has no son, and the heir to the throne has become a sharp sword hanging over Wei Zhongxian's head.
In fact, Wei Zhongxian's idea is very simple, that is, he can enjoy happiness during his lifetime, and after he dies, you can do whatever you like.