A month later, Ma Mingfeng left the capital with everyone around him and went to Henan. In fact, many officials in the court had heated discussions at this time. A small prefect of Kaifeng was nothing to those officials in the capital, especially for those officials with unlimited futures who served in the Hanlin Academy. This kind of position was equivalent to a demotion, because you worked as a prefect for three years as a prefect, and you may still be a prefect, but if you worked in the Hanlin Academy for three years, you would at least be a posthumous or a posthumous lecturer, and you might even be a bachelor's lecturer or a bachelor's lecturer. Although the grade is low, your future is even broader.

But Ma Mingfeng didn't care about this. He knew that when the colleagues who were also working in the Hanlin Academy were promoted to attendance or lecturer, the rebel army was almost at the city. Not to mention being attendance or lecturer, even if they were attendance or lecturer, they would probably have no life.

Of course, before leaving, Ma Mingfeng made some arrangements, such as conducting a detailed investigation of the capital, especially the city defense, in order to kill back in the future.

The house he lived in was left to Ji Tengjiao, and he paid the rent for three years. In this way, Ji Tengjiao could still live for three years without paying the rent as before. Ji Tengjiao was a little embarrassed, but after all, the rent had been paid and could not be refunded. Ji Tengjiao had no choice but to agree to continue living there. He was full of gratitude to Ma Mingfeng and decided to repay Ma Mingfeng's affection as soon as he had the chance.

In addition to Ji Tengjiao, Ma Mingfeng also kept Liu Yuling and rented a house for her near Ji Tengjiao's house. He also paid a year's rent and gave Liu Yuling one hundred taels of silver as her expenses. Because it was July of the 13th year of Chongzhen, Xue Guoguan had been dismissed, and her uncle Zhou Yanru was about to take office soon. It was not suitable to bring her to Henan. It would be better to keep her in the capital. I believe that after Zhou Yanru took office, she would be able to come directly. Although she could not meet Zhou Yanru in person, she was good at Liu Yuling these days, and she treated her as a eldest lady. In addition to her previous life-saving grace, I believe that Liu Yuling would not forget her kindness.

The most important thing is that now he has been sent to Henan, and he doesn’t need much help from Zhou Yanru. However, based on the principle of being a thorough person, Ma Mingfeng still arranged everything Liu Yuling.

So after everything was arranged, Ma Mingfeng took Yu Zhenlong, Liu Zhaolin, Liu Zhaoqi, Jiang Pingjie, Ni Zhihua and the third guards, and a total of twenty people, riding horses through the prefectures and traveling to Henan to take office.

At this time, the disaster was getting worse and worse, but because the capital was just given relief from the emperor, the people would not starve to death, and they were a little angry.

However, the disaster is still very serious, mainly because of the arrival of locust plague. The crops in many places were eaten up by locusts, and there was not even a single green leaf, which made them unable to see the future at all.

Fortunately, some of Ma Mingfeng's suggestions were being implemented. When Ma Mingfeng came to the capital, local local officials were leading the people to catch locusts to reduce disasters.

Ma Mingfeng couldn't help but nod when he saw this scene. It seemed that Chongzhen was not stupid at all. At least he could break through traditional understanding and actually ordered the capture of locusts.

You should know that in the original understanding, locusts were sent by God to create disasters, and they can only be eliminated through the monarch's own repentance and prayer.

So when faced with locusts, local officials can only pray, so where can they dare to catch them?

However, it was different from the capital. When they arrived at Baoding Prefecture, the local officials became timid and dared not interfere with the locust plague except praying. Even the relief grains were delayed. The people's eyes were filled with despair.

Under this circumstance, the road was not peaceful, and there were thieves everywhere. Ma Mingfeng encountered several waves of hungry people robbed along the road. However, these hungry people were only one or twenty people gathered together. Where were the elite opponents of these troops under Ma Mingfeng?

However, when Ma Mingfeng saw that these robbers were all pale and thin and ragged, they did not hurt them. They just warned them and led the team to leave.

Ma Mingfeng and others went south, through Baoding Prefecture to Zhending Prefecture, and through Shunde Prefecture, they came to Zhangde Prefecture. Zhangde Prefecture was already the territory of Henan, but along the way, the group of twenty people were all heavy in their hearts, because within a thousand miles from the capital to Henan, the people had almost no good life, there were disasters everywhere, and disasters everywhere, which were the foundation of the Ming Dynasty, but now these fundamentals are all struggling on the line of life and death. In this case, it is probably not difficult to guess what choice the people would make when encountering the rebel army.

Seeing these tragedies, Ma Mingfeng felt deeply moved: "I really didn't expect that a small ice age would have such a serious impact on the Ming Dynasty. In such an era, the powerful power of drought is not something that humans can resist. If it weren't for natural disasters, the pressure the Ming Dynasty would have to bear might have been much smaller, and there might be a chance to survive. However, because of this disaster, the foundation of the entire north was weakened. This is also one of the reasons why the Iron Cavalry of the Qing people could quickly move south after entering the Central Plains, right?"

Ma Mingfeng silently thought about the future of the Ming Dynasty, while still thinking about what he should do after he arrived in Kaifeng Prefecture? He knew that Kaifeng is probably no different from the places he experienced. There are people suffering from disasters everywhere. Because of the severe disaster, many people plunder everywhere in order to survive, and even rise up. As the prefect of Kaifeng, how should he calm the hearts of the people and provide relief to the people, and at the same time find ways to unite the people, raise money, and prepare to deal with the upcoming war.

"Kaifeng is the location of the Henan Provincial Administrators. There are not only Henan Provincial Administrators, but also Henan Commander, Henan Administrator, Henan Governor, Henan Administrator, Henan Administrator, Henan Administrator and other officials of all sizes. With so many officials, how much role can I play in the small Kaifeng prefect? ​​Especially in terms of military defense, how much power can I have to speak? What is the relationship between officials? All this is unknown. I am afraid that after Kaifeng, I will not only fight with the people and the rebel army, but also fight with these officials. Hehe, this difficulty is really doubled."

Ma Mingfeng smiled bitterly. He felt a headache just when he thought of these things. It can be seen how difficult it would be to do something real in such an era?
Chapter completed!