Li Zhonghang glanced at his son and sighed helplessly. If he gave the quota to the Ma family, he would lose it soon after the news spread to the emperor.
His Majesty valued military power more than anything else!
"Well, you don't have to get involved here!"
Li Zhonghang waved his hand and said, "If I don't give the quota to the family, I don't know what will happen. Find a place to hide and try not to show up."
Li Xi nodded quickly and said, "Yes, father, I understand!"
He reached out and picked up the list on the table. On the side of the Honours were the House of Lords, Dingguo Mansion, and Marquess Wei Mansion. In addition to these three old dukes, the rest were Marquis Zhenbei, Qi Jiguang, and Marquis Gongshun's Mansion.
On the side of the Jin businessmen, besides the Zhang family, the Wang family, the Fan family, and the Ma family, there were nine families.
Li Zhonghang pondered for a long while before a smile suddenly appeared on his face.
Since the news of the textile mill spread, countless businessmen gathered in Datong City, including those from the capital of the south of the Yangtze River.
In terms of who had the most sensitive sense of smell, businessmen were definitely at the top. Naturally, the Ministry of Internal Affairs became the most popular government office.
However, compared with every day, the government office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was particularly lively today.
Carriages came in one by one and stopped. Then people got out of the carriages one by one.
They talked and laughed and walked into the Ministry of Internal Affairs with invitations.
However, it was obvious that there were two groups of people. One group was the Honours from the capital, and the other group was the Jin businessmen from Shanxi.
In the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the big conference room had already been prepared. There was a long table with chairs behind it.
This time, there were nine families participating in the meeting, and they were the nine families on the list. When everyone had arrived and the tea was served, Li Zhongxing walked out from inside.
Everyone quickly stood up and bowed to Li Zhonghang.
Although these people were family stewards, they didn't dare to act rashly in front of Li Zhonghang.
Li Zhonghang's gaze swept across the crowd and he realized that there were quite a few familiar faces. There were people from the Zhang Clan and the Wang Clan. None of them were from the Situ Guan Faction. The one from the Wang Clan was Wang Chonggu's younger brother, Wang Chongjun.
Li Zhonghang stretched out his hand and said with a smile, "The reason I called everyone here today is to discuss the textile factory."
"Right now, I still have one more spot in my hands. I intend to auction it, and the highest bidder wins."
At this point, Li Zhonghang waved his hand and said, "Of course, this has little to do with what happened today."
Everyone looked at each other. Was it really not that important?
If it wasn't a big deal, Li Zhonghang wouldn't have said it at this time.
"I will discuss with Inspector Zeng about the venue and will soon come up with a plan. Today, I will discuss with everyone about the scale, number of people, and money."
Li Zhonghang took it out and gestured to the person in charge of internal affairs beside him. That person hurriedly distributed the pamphlets to everyone.
There were many things written on it, and each of them was an agenda. Li Zhonghang was prepared to discuss them one by one.
Inspector Yamen.
Ceng Shengwu sat on a chair and glanced at Zhang Cheng, then at Ma Lu, who was sitting below, and said, "Commander Ma, I called you here today because I have two things to discuss with you!"
"Sir, please speak!" Ma Lu nodded and said. In reality, he was also very puzzled.
Yesterday, he had received a notice from the Inspector Yamen to come over early in the morning. Accompanying him were his four deputy commanders.
Now that he saw Zhang Cheng and Ceng Shengwu's serious expressions, Ma Lu also became serious.
There was no need to talk about Ceng Shengwu. He was the Great Inspector of Xuan, a person of high status and power. Zhang Cheng, the eunuch of the Imperial Horse Surveillance, was also here. This meant that something big was going to happen.
In reality, it was already abnormal that Zhang Cheng hadn't returned to the capital for so long. Ma Lu had also thought about this matter. After all, Zhang Cheng wasn't the Inspector of the Army.
Now, it seemed that he would get the answer soon.
Without waiting for Ceng Shengwu to speak, Zhang Cheng spoke first, "Let me talk!"
Seeing Ceng Shengwu nod, Zhang Cheng then said, "Whether it is Sir Ceng or me, we came to Xuan University this time with the Emperor's orders.
It's just that I came earlier than Sir Ceng, but our purpose is the same.
We are under the Emperor's orders to rectify military discipline. However, what I do is different from what Sir Ceng is doing.
I'm in charge of arresting people, arresting the dregs of the army! "
As he spoke, Zhang Cheng nodded to the people behind him. A young eunuch placed a booklet in front of Ma Lu. Zhang Cheng made an inviting gesture, indicating for him to take a look.
"These were found after I arrived at Datong after a thorough investigation. Commander Ma, please take a look!"
As Ma Lu listened to Zhang Cheng, his heart sank, and it sank very heavily.
Reaching out to flip open the booklet, Ma Lu saw two names at a glance: Zhang Lianhuan and Qin Biao, his two Deputy Commanders.
Reselling military equipment, smuggling salt, raping civilian girls, embezzling military funds, and so on were all clearly written.
"Commander Ma, even if I don't say it, I'm sure you know that these things are not secrets."
Zhang Cheng continued calmly, "It's just that after I investigated, I discovered that it was shocking!"
Ma Lu naturally knew that these things were indeed not secrets, and doing such things was common.
"Sir Ceng, Eunuch Chang, this, this!" Ma Lu said hesitantly, "If we punish these people, Datong's defenses …" At this point, Ma Lu paused. Clearly, he also realized the problem.
Who would dare to attack Datong now?
The imperial court was scheming!
Ma Lu immediately thought of this. When had Zhang Cheng arrived? He had arrived before the northwest war with Qi Jiguang.
Clearly, the imperial court was prepared to do this before the northwest war.
Ma Lu closed the booklet. He knew that he could not change the final outcome, but he still asked tentatively, "Have you investigated everything?"
"I won't hide it from Commander Ma. The investigation of the imperial horse did not start now, nor did it start after I arrived in Datong. In fact, it started a few years ago.
At that time, they were even more daring to resell military equipment to Wala. "
"Marquis Zhenbei seized a lot of Wala military equipment, and they were all Daming's."
Ma Gui was silent. After a while, Ma Gui said, "Sir Ceng, Eunuch Chang, may I bring some men to arrest these people?"
Since he could not change the situation, he could only minimize the losses. These were all his comrades, and Ma Gui did not want anyone to be wrongly accused.
If he did this himself, he could minimize the possibility of being wrongly accused.
"Of course!"
At this moment, Ceng Shengwu spoke first, "I can guarantee on my honor that after these people are arrested, I will personally interrogate them. No one will be wrongly accused. General Ma can come along."
"In fact, I'm also here!" A voice came from outside, and then a person came out from behind.