Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 859 Ma Shiying

On the day they arrived in Fengyang, Zhang Xijun and his party stayed in a mansion in Fengyang. This mansion belonged to the Marquis of Yihui. Speaking of this Marquis of Yihui, he was not ordinary. He was the only one among the titles conferred by Zhu Yuanzhang that was not conferred for military merit, and his title was higher than that of Liu Bowen, who had outstanding merits.

When Zhu Yuanzhang was young, there was a great disaster in the world. His parents died, and Zhu Yuanzhang was the only one who survived. After his parents died, Zhu Yuanzhang had no way to bury them. You know, although the world is big, there is no land that belongs to him. Without land, he could not bury his parents. Could he just leave the bodies of his parents and relatives alone and let wild dogs eat them? The young Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to cry but had no tears, and was extremely sad.

At this time, a local landlord named Liu came to the rescue. This landlord was Liu Jizu. Seeing that the Zhu family had suffered such a great disaster and Zhu Yuanzhang was only 17 years old, Liu Jizu was kind-hearted and gave a piece of his own land to help Zhu Yuanzhang bury his parents and relatives for the sake of their neighbors.

But no one expected that it was Liu Jizu's good deed that brought endless benefits to his descendants. Later, when Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, he recalled the past and decided to repay his benefactor. However, when he inquired, he found out that Liu Jizu had passed away. Thinking of Liu Jizu's kindness to him, Zhu Yuanzhang felt very uncomfortable and posthumously conferred the title of Marquis Yihui on Liu Jizu. This title was hereditary and would guarantee wealth to Liu's descendants as long as the Ming Dynasty existed.

In this way, a mere country landlord suddenly became one of the top nobles of the Ming Dynasty. After being conferred the title, Liu Jizu's descendants did not move to the capital, but took the initiative to propose to Zhu Yuanzhang that the Liu family was willing to guard the tomb of Zhu Yuanzhang's parents in Fengyang for generations.

Zhu Yuanzhang was even happier with the Liu family's attitude, and he rewarded the Liu family generously, and ordered the Yihuihou lineage to stay in Fengyang forever to guard the royal mausoleum. In this way, Liu Jizu's Yihuihou title has been passed down from generation to generation until today.

Although Marquis Yihui was not well-known among the nobles, and had little contact with other nobles because he had lived in Fengyang for a long time, he was very famous in the Marquis Yihui's family in Fengyang. Even the eunuchs guarding the tombs in Fengyang had to be respectful when they saw the current Marquis Yihui.

This time when Zhang Xijun came to Fengyang, naturally he had to arrange a suitable place to live. Upon hearing this, Yihui Hou Liu Lin took the initiative to give up one of his new houses and moved his family to his old house. Zhang Xijun said this was inappropriate when he learned about it, but Liu Lin, who greeted Zhang Xijun in the city, smiled and said that this was what he should do. A mere house was nothing. Zhang Xijun was an imperial envoy representing the emperor. This time he came to Fengyang to worship the ancestors on behalf of the emperor. Let alone one house, even if it was two or three houses, he would do his best as long as he had the ability.

Marquis Yihui is worthy of his name, and Liu Jizu's descendants are as honest as Liu Jizu, which makes Zhang Xijun very emotional.

Unable to refuse, Zhang Xijun had to move into Liu Lin's house with his people and had a conversation with Liu Lin. On behalf of the court, he praised Marquis Yihui for his contributions in guarding the royal tombs for more than two hundred years. He also told Liu Lin that he would tell the emperor about Marquis Yihui's good deeds when he returned to Beijing. This made Liu Lin very happy and he couldn't stop smiling.

That evening, Liu Lin, Li Jiqian and others hosted a welcome party for Zhang Xijun at his residence. All the guests were happy and the atmosphere was good.

The next day, Zhang Xijun rested for half a day. In the afternoon, he had just finished lunch and was drinking tea and reading in the study when a servant came to report that Tongzhi Ma Shiying came to ask for a meeting.

Upon hearing that Ma Shiying had arrived, Zhang Xijun asked someone to invite Ma Shiying to wait in the guest hall, and he got up and went over afterwards.

When Zhang Xijun arrived at the living room, Ma Shiying was already waiting there. When he heard footsteps and looked up to see Zhang Xijun walking in, Ma Shiying quickly stood up and saluted to greet Zhang Xijun.

"Mr. Ma, you are welcome. Please take a seat." Zhang Xijun smiled and waved his hand, asking Ma Shiying to sit down and talk, while he sat in the main seat at the top.

"Sir, I will assist you in handling the imperial tomb sacrifice. I have made some arrangements for this purpose, but I don't know if there is anything missing. Please take a look at it." Ma Shiying respectfully handed over the prepared papers, and then waited anxiously for Zhang Xijun to speak.

Zhang Xijun took it and looked at it carefully. After a few glances, he nodded slightly. Ma Shiying put a lot of thought into it. Not only did he arrange the entire process clearly on these papers, he also prepared many items for sacrifice. He even communicated with the eunuchs guarding the imperial mausoleum in advance.

Li Jiqian is the prefect of Fengyang and the top leader of Fengyang Prefecture. Logically, Li Jiqian should have accompanied the sacrifice this time, but Li Jiqian has too many things to do, especially now that the Chinese New Year has just passed, and he has to deal with all matters big and small inside and outside the yamen. So at the welcoming banquet last night, Li Jiqian proposed that Ma Shiying be the coordinateer, and he would personally accompany to the imperial mausoleum on the day of the formal sacrifice. Zhang Xijun agreed to this request. After all, Ma Shiying, as the co-prefect, is the second-in-command, and it is reasonable for the second-in-command to be responsible for specific matters.

But no one expected that Ma Shiying would act so quickly. He arranged everything in just one night. He even thought of some details that Zhang Xijun had not thought of, and wrote them down and handed them to Zhang Xijun.

Looking at these contents, Zhang Xijun was very impressed with Ma Shiying's work efficiency. Compared with the elderly Li Jiqian, Zhang Xijun admired Ma Shiying, who was in his prime, even more.

"Well prepared, it seems you have put in a lot of effort." "This is my duty, but time is tight, and I cannot ensure whether there are any omissions in a hurry. If you think there is anything wrong, please let me know so that I can make adjustments in advance." Ma Shiying replied neither arrogantly nor humbly.

Zhang Xijun nodded slightly, put the papers aside, and said that he would take a closer look later and wait until tomorrow to confirm whether there were any omissions. Anyway, there were still a few days before the sacrifice, so it was not too urgent at the moment. Ma Shiying could also carefully review it himself to see if there was anything else that needed to be added. It would not be too late to discuss it then.

Ma Shiying nodded repeatedly and said that he would check it several times after returning to make sure everything was correct. After saying this, Ma Shiying was wondering whether he should ask Zhang Xijun whether he could go to the imperial mausoleum in advance before the sacrifice to see the actual situation, but Zhang Xijun spoke first.

"I remember that you were once the deputy envoy of Shanxi Yanghe Road, and also served as the Right Censor-in-Chief and the Governor of Xuanfu?"

"Your Excellency has a good memory." Ma Shiying said with some shame: "In fact, I was an official in the capital in the early years and had the honor of meeting you once."

"Oh, there is such a thing, but I don't remember it. When did it happen? Where did you see it?" Zhang Xijun was stunned and asked with a smile.

Ma Shiying answered Zhang Xijun's words. After listening to Ma Shiying's explanation, Zhang Xijun remembered that there seemed to be such an incident. It was during the Tianqi period. At that time, Zhang Xijun and several officials under Wei Zhongxian had a party. There were many people that day, and there was indeed a minor official from the Ministry of Revenue.

At that time, Ma Shiying was not yet the Right Censor-in-Chief, but just a doctor of the Ministry of Revenue. Because of his low official position, he sat far away. The two of them only met once at the banquet and did not even have a few words to talk. If Ma Shiying had not come up early today, Zhang Xijun would have forgotten it long ago.

Talking about the past, and their previous meeting, Zhang Xijun and Ma Shiying suddenly became closer. They talked about the past of the capital and the people they knew. After a while, Zhang Xijun couldn't help but ask Ma Shiying, why did he become a lower-ranking official after so many years? As early as the fifth year of Chongzhen, he was the Right Censor-in-Chief, but now he has become a mere Tongzhi of Fengyang Prefecture. What's the situation?
Hearing Zhang Xijun's question, Ma Shiying seemed a little embarrassed and told him the situation with a wry smile.

It turns out that Ma Shiying was a Jinshi in the 47th year of Wanli's reign. There were many Jinshi in the 47th year of Wanli's reign, and the most famous one was Yuan Chonghuan, the then governor of Ji and Liao. In addition to Yuan Chonghuan, there were also Sun Chuanting, Jiang Yueguang and others, which was a great gathering of talents.

But among these people, Ma Shiying's official career was not smooth, or it can be said that his official career was very good at the beginning. After he ranked 19th in the second class of Jinshi, he first entered the Ministry of Revenue to observe government affairs. Not long after, in October, he was appointed as the director of the Guangdong Division of the Southern Ministry of Revenue.

In the third year of the Tianqi reign, Ma Shiying was promoted to Langzhong of the Shaanxi Division of the Ministry of Revenue. In the fourth year of the Tianqi reign, he was promoted to the prefect of Yanzhou, and then transferred to the prefect of Henan. If nothing unexpected happened, Ma Shiying would be transferred back to the capital in a short time, and then he would be appointed to the six ministries. After a few years, whether he was sent out or continued to stay in Beijing, his official position would not be low.

But who would have thought that in the seventh year of the Tianqi reign, Ma Shiying's father Ma Mingqing passed away, and Ma Shiying returned home to mourn. Although his career was interrupted during this mourning period, he avoided the liquidation of the eunuch party after the death of Emperor Tianqi and the accession of Emperor Chongzhen.

In the second year of Chongzhen, Ma Shiying was reinstated after mourning for his father. He was appointed as the prefect of Datong through connections, and later promoted to the deputy envoy of Yanghe Road in Shanxi. In the fifth year of Chongzhen, Ma Shiying was promoted to the right assistant censor-in-chief, and the court asked him to be the governor of Xuanfu. But at this time, Ma Shiying's career took a sharp turn for the worse, and bad luck came.

Because Ma Shiying was involved in a public funds case just one month after taking office as the governor of Xuanfu. The eunuch Wang Kun in charge of the garrison at that time embezzled public funds and gave the newly appointed governor Ma Shiying a sum of money on the grounds of custom. Ma Shiying had no idea what was going on and thought it was just routine money so he accepted it. However, he was exposed as soon as he accepted it and was impeached directly in front of Emperor Chongzhen. The unfortunate Ma Shiying was directly dismissed from his post. Not only did he fail to become an official, he also became a typical example of corruption.

After being dismissed from his post, Ma Shiying went to Nanjing, where he wasted several years. Later, with the help and recommendation of his good friend Ruan Dacheng, he had a chance to be reinstated, but it was impossible to get his original post back. He worked very hard to get the position of Tongzhi of Fengyang. After nearly twenty years of wandering around, others became higher and higher officials, for example, Sun Chuanting is now the Governor-General of Shaanxi and Gansu, a frontier official, but Ma Shiying, who was in the same class, became a lower and lower official, which was really helpless.

After listening to Ma Shiying's explanation, Zhang Xijun felt a little sympathy for this unlucky guy. He knew that the public treasury case was not targeted at Ma Shiying at all, but was caused by the struggle between the Donglin Party, the Zhejiang Party and the Chu Party. Ma Shiying was just unlucky to be involved in it and became a scapegoat without knowing it.

It was also for this reason that Ma Shiying was not punished in the end, let alone pursued. Otherwise, he would not have been dismissed from office. Not to mention that he would have had a chance to be reinstated in Nanjing. Otherwise, he would have been killed long ago, and his grave might have been covered with grass by now.

So this is the only way it can be. We can only blame his bad luck at the time. It was such a coincidence that he encountered this. He was so unlucky less than a month after taking office. It was all fate and timing.

(End of this chapter)