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The supervisory organ of the Ming Dynasty was the Metropolitan Censorate. Under the Metropolitan Censorate, there were 13 supervisory censors. The supervisory censors usually worked in the Metropolitan Censorate in the capital, which were called internal censors or regular censors. When they were ordered to inspect the local areas, they were called patrol censors.
The Inspectors were all officials of the seventh rank. Although their rank was not high, their powers and responsibilities were very heavy when they were ordered to inspect local areas: the Inspectors toured on behalf of the emperor, inspected the ministers of the vassal states, and the officials of the prefectures, counties, and prefectures, and were particularly specific in impeaching and impeaching. They reported major matters to the emperor for judgment and made immediate decisions on minor matters.
The performance of local officials, their promotion or even dismissal, all depended on a single imperial edict. After all, no matter how well you did, there would always be omissions.
Even if there is really no problem, he can still create problems for you.
Therefore, even the chief officials of the three envoys' offices tried their best to curry favor with the inspectors.
When inspecting local areas, the imperial envoys represented the emperor and supervised the discipline of all officials. They not only had to be from a formal imperial examination background and be in the prime of life (between 30 and 50 years old), but also had strict requirements on appearance.
If a guy with shifty eyes were allowed to represent the emperor in inspecting local areas, the people would think that the emperor looked like that. Wouldn't that bring shame to the emperor and the court
Therefore, the candidates for the Inspector General must at least have regular facial features, and preferably be upright yet elegant, so that people can feel righteousness when they see them. Of course, this was the requirement in the past.
Ever since the formation of the Donglin Clique, the factional struggles in the court have intensified. In addition, the six departments and thirteen provinces have always been the most fiercely contested battlefields among the parties. No matter how unloved you are, as long as you are a member of the same party, as long as you are loyal to our party, and as long as you are good at attacking the enemy, that's enough.
Ma Mingyuan, the imperial envoy of Jiangxi Province, had a bitter face, with his eyebrows always knitted together. He looked at everyone as if they owed him a debt. Half a year ago, he even knocked out a front tooth after getting drunk.
There are no porcelain teeth to fill your mouth these days. Whenever Ma Mingyuan opens his mouth, air leaks.
He had just accepted a banquet hosted by the Governor Wang Shousu and was seven-tenths drunk before he was helped down the Tengwang Pavilion by his attendants.
Tengwang Pavilion was first built in the fourth year of Yonghui in the Tang Dynasty. It stands on the east bank of Ganjiang River and is known as one of the three famous towers in the south of the Yangtze River. It is embellished with the poem of Wang Bo, a poet of the early Tang Dynasty, "The setting sun and the lone wild goose fly together, and the autumn water and the sky are the same color." Countless people come here to visit it every day.
Although Ma Mingyuan, who is nearly fifty years old, always has a frown on his face, he has eyes that are good at discovering beauty.
He was drunk and was attracted by a petite figure at first sight. Although this person was wearing men's clothes, her eyebrows and eyes were picturesque, her skin was as white as cream, and her lips were slightly upturned, showing a bit of playfulness. Her eyes were full of charm and she was so beautiful that she was beyond description.
The most amazing thing is that her petite and slender figure is like a scented fan pendant, and her delicate appearance arouses infinite pity. She is exactly the type that Ma Mingyuan likes most. His heart melts at the first sight of her.
He sobered up immediately and quickly ordered his servant Ma Shisan to follow her. If he didn't find out the origins of this girl, Ma Mingyuan would probably lose his appetite and sleep from then on.
The person targeted by Ma Mingyuan was Li Xiangjun. She had finally arrived in Nanchang with Xu, the shopkeeper of Rentong Trading Company. Rentong Trading Company had a branch in Nanchang and wanted to unload some of its goods for sale.
It would take one or two days to count the goods and record them in the accounts. Li Xiangjun had longed to visit Tengwang Pavilion for a long time. With nothing else to do, she changed into men's clothes and came to visit with her maid Xing'er.
Tengwang Pavilion is located against the city and facing the river. It is magnificent and unique. When you step into the pavilion, the phoenix bells on the corner of the building ring with the wind, and the painted buildings are surrounded by Nanpu clouds. Looking to the west, you can see the vast and majestic clear river, the singing of the clear waves, and the sun shining on thousands of sails.
Seeing this beautiful scenery, Li Xiangjun was intoxicated for a moment, and felt that all the fatigue and hardships she had endured since arriving in Nanjing flew away with the white clouds and drifted away with the waves of the river.
As she was feeling from the heart, she opened her mouth and leaned against the railing to chant slowly: "The high pavilion of Prince Teng overlooks the river bank, the jade-wearing phoenixes have stopped singing and dancing. The painted beams fly with clouds from the south bank in the morning, the pearl curtains roll up the rain from the west mountain in the evening. The shadows of the idle clouds and the pond are leisurely, things have changed and the stars have moved for several autumns. Where is the emperor's son in the pavilion now? Outside the railings, the Yangtze River flows in vain."
Li Xiangjun's voice was like the gentle singing of a yellow oriole, so melodious and moving that it made Ma Mingyuan's bones tingle.
Having been an official for so many years, he has seen many beauties of all kinds, but none of them is like the petite and delicate beauty before him. At first sight, his heart is filled with lust, and his desire for her blossoms like flowers, and he can't stop lusting after her.
He followed behind Li Xiangjun, watched her admire Tengwang Pavilion, and then followed quietly all the way. When he saw Li Xiangjun enter the Nanchang Rentong branch, Ma Mingyuan could not help but be overjoyed. If this girl was the daughter of an official, it would be troublesome. Now it seemed that she was at most the wife of a lowly merchant.
In Jiangxi, even the governor who is in charge of the military and political affairs of the province has to look at his face. A lowly businessman can be manipulated by him as he pleases.
He instructed Ma Shisan to find out the woman's background as soon as possible, and then returned home happily.
Ma Shisan pretended to be a customer and entered the Rentong Store. The store was very large and had two floors. The first floor sold silk embroidery, and the second floor sold high-quality furs.
In the middle of summer, the second floor of the fur shop was deserted. Two or three shop assistants were chatting. When they saw a customer coming up, one of them hurried over to greet him.
Ma Shisan used a piece of change to easily get all the details about Li Xiangjun from the waiter, but he did not leave immediately because the conversation between the two waiters in front of the counter caught Ma Shisan's attention.
The two were talking about what the caravan encountered on the way from Jinling to Nanchang. One of the men had just returned with the caravan and was still frightened when he talked about what happened on the road. When he mentioned Yan Mao's soldiers and bandits, he couldn't help cursing.
"What kind of world is this? The soldiers kill and rob people, and they are more vicious than tigers and wolves. But it was those rebels who saved our lives. If we hadn't met the woman in red this time, I'm afraid none of us would have survived."
"That's strange. I've never heard of rebels being so easy to talk to. I've heard that they were like locusts, robbing everything wherever they went. The goods our boss brought in this time are worth at least 100,000 taels. It's really strange that those rebels let you go."
"You know what? They were unwilling to let us go, but this group of rebels had a mission. They kidnapped the craftsmen from the Nanjing Military Arsenal and wanted to take them back to help them make firearms. Besides, no matter how powerful they are, there are only a hundred of them. The south of the Yangtze River is not their territory. How can they escape with so much goods?"
"Oh, that's the only explanation."
"I'm afraid you won't believe me, but the leader of the rebellion this time was a woman in red, who was as beautiful as a flower and had a nice figure. In short, she was so beautiful. But this woman in red was really not easy to mess with. She had superb martial arts skills. The whip in her hand was like lightning. In one blow, Yan Mao was whipped until his face was covered in blood. Later, Miss Li Xiangjun, who was accompanying her, stopped her and talked to her for a while. I vaguely heard her call her Red Lady."
When Ma Shisan heard this, he had an idea and felt that there was a lot of room for maneuver. If nothing else, as long as he accuses Rentong Trading Company of colluding with rebels, he could then do whatever he wanted to anyone, including Li Xiangjun.
They were even more reluctant to leave and pretended to select furs, but their ears pricked up and they wrote down every word the waiter said.
The two guys were talking to each other happily and didn't pay attention to him.
After a cup of tea, Ma Shisan left Rentong Trading Company contentedly and hurried back home to report to his master.
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ps: Please recommend and collect. I took a look and found that in the past seven days, I updated 6314 words per day on average. I really admire myself and worship myself for maintaining such an update during a breakup. I feel like a legend. For this reason, Haoyuan decided to shamelessly ask for rewards, recommendations, collections, and rewards from you all. Gentlemen who pass by, please smash the silver and copper coins in your hands to make me feel pain and happiness.
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