Ma Xiangdong is undoubtedly the most tragic prime minister in the history of Great Chu. None of the prime minister was as embarrassed as he is now. Since the founding of Great Chu, there have been many crises, and naturally not only this time, from the beginning of the founding of the country, to the large-scale invasion of the late emperor Min Weiming period, although he was facing the danger of destroying the country every time, the Chu State at that time was united, striving to form a group, and the whole country copes with the crisis together, and resolving dangers to the barbaric time, thus creating the richest and most powerful Chu State in the world, and at the same time, the second-ranked comprehensive strength.

In his generation, it seems that good luck has finally been used up.

In terms of ability to govern the country, Ma Xiangdong naturally cannot compare with his predecessor Yang Yihe, but he is also a diligent and hardworking old ox. Unfortunately, diligence does not mean efficiency. When he, as the chief assistant, cannot assist the king in formulating a correct national policy and cannot have a long-term and feasible strategic goal, failure becomes an inevitable thing.

The expedition to Qi was the most wrong decision made after the new emperor of Chu State Min Ruoying ascended the throne. But this was the grand dream that Min Ruoying made when she was a prince, and it was also the slogan for him to attract supporters. Min Ruoying was confident, but reality gave his confidence a ruthless blow and defeated Luzhou, Qi State. The destruction of hundreds of thousands of Chu State troops officially kicked off the decline of Chu State.

The Ming Dynasty's infiltration of Chu State began at this time. Obviously, Ma Xiangdong, as the prime minister, was completely wrong in dealing with this. He treated his feet with pain, and received headaches. He seemed to solve the temporary difficulties, but he planted seeds for today's dilemma. After several years, this seed took root and sprouted and grew vigorously. Today, it has grown into a towering tree, covering the sky and completely covering the Chu State. Their roots have been deeply rooted in every corner of the Chu State. When they slightly pulled one of the roots, the big tree would shake, and then the Chu State would be dark and there would be no more Minglang's sky.

By the time Ma Xiangdong understood that it was already done, and he could not change all this. The State of Chu had thought of forming an alliance with the Qi people and put this idea into practice. Unfortunately, the civil strife in Qi officially broke out at this time. Qi, which was not concerned about it, could no longer draw out its strength to interfere with the Ming Dynasty's invasion of Chu.

Yes, it was an invasion. Although the Ming Dynasty had not yet sent troops to the Ming Dynasty to declare war, the sharp butcher knife had long been chopped off, and the first knife cut the blood of the Great Chu.

This economic war without gunpowder completely put Chu State into chaos.

Without food, no business is not stable, no business is not rich, no work is not prosperous. The Ming Dynasty's national policy was announced to the world, but the Chu State now only occupied one of them, that is, no business is not rich. The silk from Jiangnan created a large amount of wealth for them, and at that time it became their main source of wealth to support the Jinghu battlefield, but the life gate of this wealth was in the hands of the Ming people.

In order to repay the loans of Mingren, to purchase the weapons of Mingren, and to seize more wealth, the court and merchants reached a rare agreement. Jiangnan destroyed fields and planted mulberry trees on a large scale, but they did not know that all this was secretly manipulated by Mingren.

When the Ming people raised the butcher's knife, Chu people suddenly realized that everything was irreversible.

As the prime minister, Ma Xiangdong had basically no intention of spending this year. He just returned home on New Year's Eve to have a New Year's Eve dinner with his family, and then returned to the duty room. His case was filled with urgent memorials sent from all over the country.

Want money!

Ask for food!

Need soldiers!

But Ma Xiangdong couldn't take out anything. A few years ago, he used all his strength to make Shangjing City barely support him. As for other places, he really couldn't care about it.

These days, his right eyelid has been pounding constantly, his left eye twitching, his right eye twitching, and Ma Xiangdong was frightened, just begging not to make any more troubles, so that everyone can have a peaceful New Year.

Although he knew that this was unlikely, since the Ming people had raised their butcher knife, they would never stop. The so-called arrow on the string and had to be fired. A brief calm would inevitably lead to a more violent attack, but Ma Xiangdong did not know where the fatal blow would be launched.

It was already deep in the night. Ma Xiangdong, who was sitting in the duty room, felt his right eyelid twitching violently. He covered his eyes with one hand and gently rubbed his temples with the other hand. He silently felt the silence of going to the capital.

In previous years, this time was the most lively time in Shangjing. Unlike the capital of Ming Dynasty, Shangjing will have a curfew after nightfall. The only few days after the ban are lifted are the days of the New Year. The curfew will not be restored until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

But now, even during the Chinese New Year, the curfew has not been lifted. In previous years, Shangjing was rich and had no worries about food and clothing, but this year, Shangjing was poor and hungry. Once the ban was lifted, no one dared to say what would happen.

A sudden sound of horse hooves sounded outside, and Ma Xiangdong's heart couldn't help but jump up wildly. What he feared the most was such a sudden sound of horse hooves. For him, there must be no good news, only bad news came one by one.

He took a deep breath and made mental preparations. He would not worry about too much debt, he would not itch if he had too much lice, and he would not be afraid of boiling water. If he had already done this, how could it be broken?

But when he saw that the inner guard commander Lei Guard was almost trotting in, his heart still couldn't help but sink into the bottomless abyss. Without particularly significant and amazing news, Lei Guard, as the inner guard commander, would never come here in person at this time.

"Sincere assistant, something big happened." Lei Wei said in a trembling voice, and handed Ma Xiangdong a stack of information he had just received.

Ma Xiangdong, who was also trembling with his hands, took the information, but he was reluctant to open it.

"The chief minister, Zeng Lin rebelled, and all the five eastern counties returned to Ming Kingdom."

"The Jiangnan rebelled, and the four counties in Jiangnan surrendered to the Ming Dynasty."

"Xinning is back!"

"Quanzhou is back!"

"Anyang is back!"

Every word from Lei Wei was like a heavy stab in Ma Xiangdong's heart. His body swayed, his hands were weakly released, and the information from thousands of miles came to the ground like snowflakes.

Lei Wei snatched the previous step to support Ma Xiangdong, "Since the Supervisor, what should we do now? Do you want to report to His Majesty the Emperor immediately?"

"Of course we have to report!" Ma Xiangdong tried his best to prevent his body from trembling anymore. "How could he not report such a big thing to His Majesty the Emperor as soon as possible? Let's go to the palace immediately, Lei Wei, are these news true? You are sure that you are not wrong."

"Prime Minister, who dares to talk nonsense about such a big thing? These places are indeed reversed. In fact, there have been signs before, but we didn't expect that things would worsen to this extent." Lei Wei said.

"Enter the palace, go to the palace immediately to ask for the emperor."

The country has become like this, and Emperor Min Ruoying's life is naturally difficult. In recent years, the downward trend of Chu State has been so obvious, and its control over the local area has become weaker and weaker. Bian Wushuang and Zeng Lin from the five eastern counties have become the country among the country. Although the Fire Phoenix Flag of the Great Chu was still hung on the city wall, the emperor's will was no longer useful. In fact, since the Chengwuben period, the imperial court's will was no longer effective. In the end, Xinning and Anyang places dared to openly reject the court's request for them. The country was in chaos. The Ming people took the sword and fell, which put the Chu State's economy into a collapse.

But no matter what, the New Year still has to pass. Min Ruoying is an incompetent emperor, but a filial emperor. In the past two days, he has been with his elderly mother in the harem.

Usually he is busy with state affairs and is trapped in endless troubles all day long. There are only a few days when he returns to the harem. In the past two days, he decided to be filial to his mother, talk and have a meal with her.

The Queen Mother's body was completely ineffective. She didn't get out of bed this year, and her viewing was completely blurred. Through the imperial physician, Min Ruoying knew that her mother's life was about to come to an end, but she just said that it would be a day after day.

"Mother, please have another glass. This is the fruit wine that Xi'er specially brought to you from the Ming Dynasty. It is said to be wine, but it is actually juice." The queen smiled and delivered a glass of bright red fruit wine to the empress dowager.

"I've had two drinks today." The queen mother smiled. These two days were her happiest days. The best day for the whole family to be together for dinner and chatting is the best day for people of her age. She no longer cared about the rest.

"It's different from the previous two glasses. Queen Mother, what you drink, each glass is made of fruit wine made from different fruits." The queen said.

"Okay, okay, then try it. It's rare that the girl still misses me so much. She's brought me any things from afar." The queen mother happily took the wine glass and tasted it, "This is made of pears."

"The Queen Mother is so amazing. She tasted it after taking a sip." said the Queen.

"The emperor also drinks a glass of wine. This fruit wine is good and it doesn't hurt your body. You should drink less wine. I heard from the previous one that you often drink wine during this period, which is not good." The Queen Mother said to Min Ruoying.

"Yes, mother." Min Ruoying picked up the wine glass in front of her and took a sip with the queen mother. The queen mentioned Min Ruoxi before, and his brows frowned slightly, not knowing it inside. Did he know that now his sister and brother-in-law have become the biggest enemy of Chu.

The eunuch general manager at the door had already reached in several times. Min Ruoying stood up. Something must have happened again, otherwise he would not be so unaware of the matter. "My mother, please drink slowly first, and your son will come."

Seeing Min Ruoying get up and leave, the queen said to the queen unhappily: "You send someone to see the emperor and call him back tightly. The ministers in front are really like that. Why are you so anxious to call the emperor over at this time? This Ma Xiangdong is far inferior to Yang Yihe."
Chapter completed!