With the mediation of Shi Kefa, Ma Shiying and Gao Hongtu stopped arguing.

Ni Yuanlu looked at Gao Hongtu, whose face was flushed, and felt a little confused.

There are three people who need money, why does Gao Hongtu choose to confront Ma Shiying?

That doesn't make sense!

Although he was the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue in Nanjing, he was only the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue in Nanjing.

Outside of Nanjing City, his power is not as great as that of a prefect!

Manage your money well, take care of your home, and spend it however the prince tells you to.

Even if there is no credit, there is hard work.

Waiting for the day when the prince ascends the throne...

No, Gao Hongtu most likely won’t be able to wait until the crown prince ascends the throne.

Gao Hongtu was born in the 11th year of the Wanli reign and is now 61 years old.

Sudden!

Ni Yuanlu thought of Gao Hongtu's other identity: a veteran of the Fushe Society.

The Fushe in history was a political and literary group whose core members were scholars from the south of the Yangtze River, and was known as the Little Donglin.

Although the Fushe was called the Little Donglin, it was different from the Donglin Party.

Most of the Donglin Party only shouted slogans but did nothing practical.

The Fushe did not shout slogans, but worked secretly.

What they actually did was not to serve the country and the people, but to manipulate the imperial examinations.

Take the imperial examination in the 16th year of Chongzhen as an example.

Fushe took charge of the first place.

The top three candidates in the imperial examination were all members of the Fushe Society.

It was precisely because of this operation that the Fushe Society had "half of the world's followers" and more than 3,000 members who left their names were included.

Over time, Zhang Pu became the underground Minister of Personnel of the Ming Dynasty.

In the third year of Chongzhen, Zhou Yanru became the chief minister of the cabinet, but resigned because of inappropriate remarks.

Zhou Yanru, who was living in seclusion at home, found Zhang Pu in order to make a comeback.

With the help of members of the Fushe Society, Zhou Yanru once again became the Prime Minister of the Cabinet in the 14th year of Chongzhen.

That’s not all.

Even Fan Jingwen, Li Banghua and others had close relations with the members of Fushe.

Ruan Dacheng, who was recommended by Ma Shiying, was a "remnant of the eunuch party", and Fushe Sulai was at odds with the eunuch party.

In addition, Ruan Dacheng had a bad reputation to begin with, so Gao Hongtu, a veteran of the Fushe Society, came into direct conflict with Ma Shiying.

After thinking through all this, Ni Yuanlu, who was nearly fifty years old, suddenly felt his head swelling and his scalp tightening.

The relationships in the Ming Dynasty court are too complicated!

It was so complicated that he was already tired of the court and resigned to teach.

He never expected that he would encounter such a thing again after resigning from office.

Ni Yuanlu sighed in his heart and stood there watching the situation develop.

Zhu Cilang obviously didn't know the hidden story here. He simply thought that Ma Shiying and Gao Hongtu had a quarrel due to personal grudges.

"You two are both pillars of the Ming Dynasty. You both want the best for the Ming Dynasty. Let's put aside any grudges. It would be better if there were no grudges. How do you think?"

"I dare not!"

"Your Highness, please forgive me!"

Ma Shiying and Gao Hongtu both bowed and pleaded guilty.

"How about this..." Zhu Cilang's gaze stopped on Xu Hongji, Shi Kefa and Ma Shiying in turn.

"Wei Guogong."

"I'm here." Xu Hongji bowed.

"Strengthening the city's defenses is not something that can be accomplished in a day or two, and the money cannot be given out all at once. I will first allocate 100,000 taels of silver to you, and we'll talk about it later if it's not enough."

Xu Hongji gave a helpless smile and said, "I accept your order."

"Minister Shi, how about reducing the number of recruits for the Beijing Camp by half, and also reducing the amount of silver consumed by half?"

Shi Kefa had already intended to compromise, and when he heard Zhu Cilang say this, he took the opportunity to agree.

"Governor Ma can recruit soldiers according to the original plan. If weapons and armor are insufficient, you can apply for transfers from the Nanjing Camp."

"It will be handled by the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue."

Although Gao Hongtu felt helpless, he had no choice but to agree.

After all, he was a minister and Zhu Cilang was the crown prince.

After solving this "simple" problem, Xu Hongji, Shi Kefa, Ma Shiying and Gao Hongtu left one after another.

After these people left, Zhu Cilang asked Liu Wenbing and Ni Yuanlu to come forward and handed them the two books presented by Ma Shiying.

The first book is "The Book of the Locust" and the other is "The Book of the Flies".

After Liu Wenbing and Ni Yuanlu quickly flipped through the book, they returned it to Zhu Cilang.

"What do you think of this book?" Zhu Cilang asked.

Ni Yuanlu was a member of the Donglin Party. He smiled bitterly and said, "Your Highness, these two books say that Donglin is a locust, Fushe is a caterpillar, and all the followers are flies. The purpose is to catch all the people of Donglin and Fushe in one fell swoop."

"The book also says that the Donglin Party is a group of people with short-sightedness and no ability to govern the country. In terms of uniting the party and suppressing dissidents, they are even worse than other parties."

"I think these words are only half right."

"Oh?" Zhu Cilang was a little surprised. He thought Ni Yuanlu would avoid the question. "Mr. Ni, please continue."

Ni Yuanlu stood there and sighed, "Your Highness, I think some things and some people cannot be generalized."

"The original intention of the Donglin Party was to return government affairs to the six ministries and to entrust public opinion to the censors, so that the world would be "happy and hopeful for governance." At the same time, they advocated reducing taxes and corvée labor, reducing or exempting commercial taxes, reclaiming wasteland and building farms, and developing water conservancy projects."

"But the court is short of money! If we don't solve the money problem, all our proposals will be empty talk and nonsense!"

"After realizing this problem, a split occurred within the Donglin Party. One part continued to hold high the banner, shout slogans in vain, and mislead the country and the people; the other part kept their heads down and worked in a down-to-earth manner."

"It's unfair to confuse the latter with the former!"

"Then..." Zhu Cilang blinked and thought for a moment, "Mr. Ni is deeply trusted by my father, why doesn't he quit Donglin?"

Ni Yuanlu smiled bitterly again: "Other parties can be in harmony with each other, but the Donglin Party has the same likes and dislikes! If you are listed in the Donglin Party, you can get support from other Donglin Party members. Why not do it?"

Zhu Cilang was stunned for a moment, and then continued to ask: "Mr. Ni, what do you think of Ma Shiying's idea of retaking Henan?"

Ni Yuanlu smiled and shook his head slightly.

He had long guessed that Zhu Cilang would fully support Ma Shiying.

There's no way, Ma Shiying is too good at catering to his superiors.

Zhu Cilang was the crown prince of the Ming Dynasty. After moving south, he made no achievements and had no opinions. He sat in the Wenhua Hall every day and sighed.

In fact, this cannot be blamed on him. The Beijing court had no money, and the Nanjing court had even less money.

Nothing can be done without money!

Now that the money has come, he urgently needs a chance to prove himself.

As for the outcome, Ni Yuanlu dared not make any rash comments.

He bowed deeply to Zhu Cilang and said, "Since Your Highness has given his full support to Ma Shiying, just wait and see what happens!"

Zhu Cilang was somewhat unwilling and turned to look at Liu Wenbing: "Xinle Hou, what do you think?"

Liu Wenbing didn't want to get involved in such matters at all, but he had to answer Zhu Cilang's questions.

After much thought, he finally said: "I think... we should wait and see what happens."

Zhu Cilang was a little angry: "Everyone go back, I am tired."

Inside a mansion in Nanjing City.

Ma Shiying, Ruan Dacheng and Qian Qianyi sat opposite each other.

Seeing that it was getting dark, Qian Qianyi stood up and said, "You two, this is not impossible!"