Presenting Xigou Village

  Zhu Yuanzhang felt that the time had come, and the opportunity to send charcoal in the snow had arrived! He lowered his voice and said seriously: "I thought of a way, I don't know if it will work."

  Ma Qianjiu and Second Master were so anxious that their heads were about to crack, when they heard Zhu Yuanzhang say he had thought of a plan. The two men immediately urged: "Quickly speak..."

  Zhu Yuanzhang said calmly, "For now, we must take a bold move and cut off our own wrist. Before the county magistrate moves against us, let's first give the land deed of Xigou Village to someone else!"

  "Ah..." Ma Qianjiu and Second Master hesitated together, the 200 mu of land in Xigou Village, giving it all away would be a huge loss, and besides, is it still possible to send it now?

  Ma Qianjiu thought for a moment and said: "Zhu Ba, this method may not work... When it comes to the head, only then will you send Xiguzi Village, I'm afraid there's no use, other families won't dare to accept it either. And even if we send Xiguzi Village, our Ma family still has Dongguzi Village and Nanyan Village. The county magistrate can still find another village in our family's property and use 'guile' to control us... This is treating the symptoms but not the root cause."

  Zhu Yuanzhang smiled slightly and said seriously, "That's right, if we simply give Xigou Village to someone, it would indeed be treating the symptoms but not the root cause, without much use. But if we carefully consider the question of 'who to give it to', we can come up with some clever ideas." He deliberately emphasized the three words "give it to whom" and dragged out a long tail tone.

  "Give it to County Master! Let him investigate his own... uh, no, that's not possible."

  Ma Qianjiu then shouted: "Give it to Zhang of Chengcheng and let him tell the county magistrate to back off? I'm afraid... others may not be willing to accept it."

  Zhu Yuanzhang slowly shook his head: "These two are not eligible, they are sharpening their knives and waiting to slaughter us. Sending gifts to them would be like giving meat buns to a dog. I'm talking about someone else... Someone with a strong background, who is not afraid of the county magistrates of Cheng City and Baisui, and is extremely greedy, swallowing all the meat that comes his way. If we give two hundred mu of land in Xigou Village to such a person, he will jump out and take the blame for this 'ghostly' affair."

  After listening to Zhu Yuanzhang's words, Ma Qianjiu's face suddenly changed, a mix of surprise and shock. He had only heard a few sentences before he knew that this plan was absolutely feasible, not only could it resolve the crisis for the Ma family, but also form an alliance with a new friend, which would make County Magistrate Fan and the Zhangs of Chengcheng extremely uncomfortable.

  This is indeed a clever plan, killing three birds with one stone. This guy Zhu Ba is really something, to come up with such a vicious scheme in such a short time, it's almost too much. Ma Qianji was so shocked by Zhu Ba's clever plan that he forgot to respond for a moment.

  Zhu Yuanzhang said to Ma Qianjiu, "Ma Guanshi, I'm not very familiar with the local aristocratic families. Which family is relatively close to us and has a strong presence?"

  Ma Qianjiu suddenly woke up and quickly pointed south: "Bai Shui Shan, his mansion is only five miles away from our Ma family, hurry up and we can arrive in a moment..."

  Zhu Yuanzhang nodded: "Then what are we waiting for, Second Master? Please trouble yourself to bring out the land deed of Xigou Village and the sale contracts of the villagers. We'll send them to the White Water Clan at the fastest speed."

  The second young master was still bewildered at this moment, his brain was really not very useful, after listening to it, he didn't understand what was going on, and muttered: "What the hell? In the end, we still have to send someone away? What a wonderful plan!"

  Ma Qianjiu said with a mixture of laughter and tears: "Second Young Master, please hurry up, I'll explain to you later."

  The second young master finally got up and reluctantly ran towards the Ma family's ancestral house, where important documents such as land deeds and contracts were kept. In the past, it was always the eldest young master of the Ma family who was in charge, but since he went to Xi'an Prefecture, the lazy and incompetent second young master had no qualifications to intervene. His two braided maidservants chased after him, shouting: "Second young master, slow down! Your buttons are still undone, and your chest is still open..."

  "What's the big deal about being open-minded? It's all family in the backyard..." Second Master said vaguely.

  "It doesn't matter about others, but Third Miss is still unmarried. If she sees you in this state, it's really not proper..." The little maid cried out.

  "What's wrong? That's my own sister, and she's staring at my chest again?" The Second Master's voice gradually faded into the distance.

  Ma Qianjiu sighed and said, "Second Master is really... Alas... With the Ma family in his hands, it's really not reassuring. I can only hope that Eldest Master will return soon to take charge of the situation. Ah, yes... Zhu Ba, I know the old steward of the Shi family, so I'll personally deliver these contracts by fast horse and you come with me too, to meet the master of another household and broaden your horizons. I think you're a clever and resourceful person, destined to be the pillar of the Ma family in the future. The more people you meet and the more experiences you have, the better you'll serve the Ma family..."

  Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, he had intended to take a look anyway. With the experience of his previous life and floating in the sky for hundreds of years as an onlooker, he had seen it all, but that didn't mean he didn't need to see more, think more, and listen more. The more detailed he could grasp the situation around him, the more beneficial it would be for him.

  Before long, the second young master brought out the deeds of Xigou Village and the contracts for selling oneself, a thick stack. Ma Qianjiu and Zhu Yuanchang didn't have time to examine them carefully, they hastily stuffed them into their bosoms and rushed towards the outside of the courtyard. The family servants had already prepared two fine horses, waiting at the gate.

  Ma Qianji flipped over a horse and turned his head to ask Zhu Yuanzhang, "Can you ride a horse?" ?? Late Ming Zhu Chongba 23

  Zhu Yuanzhang nodded: "Yes."

  Ma Qianjiu was shocked again. In this era, horses were extremely expensive, and a good horse would cost twenty taels of silver. Not every household could afford to raise one, and most ordinary villagers wouldn't know how to ride a horse. Someone like Zhu Ba, who was used to slowly riding an ox, wasn't unusual, but being able to ride a horse was extremely rare.

  "Where did you learn all these skills?" Ma Qianjiu couldn't help but ask: "You can read, do arithmetic, and ride horses... If you said you were a young master from a wealthy family, I'd believe it. But if you said you're a cowherd, I wouldn't."

  Zhu Yuanzhang casually said: "My family was originally also a wealthy family, but after declining, I went to the Ma family... and wasn't born as a cowherd."

  Ma Qianjiu acknowledged this interpretation, which dispelled curiosity.

  Two men rode horses southward at a rapid gallop, both of which were excellent horses that ran extremely fast. First, they sprinted along the yellow earth road that Ma's family had built themselves, and before long, they reached the official road. After running along the official road for a while, another fork in the road appeared ahead, which was obviously not an official road but a path paved by some wealthy family at their own expense. The wide and even yellow earth road was covered with small stones, laid out extremely neatly.

  "This is a road built by Bai Shuihan himself..." Ma Qianjiu explained.

  Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, he knew that in this era, wealthy merchants and nobles usually had to pay out of their own pockets to build a section of road, connecting the gate of their mansion to the official road. Otherwise, luxurious carriages would not be able to enter the house, what a loss of face?

  The two of them ran swiftly along the road built by Shi Xiu, and soon a temple appeared at the side of the road ahead. This temple was extremely magnificent and solemn, with vermilion doors and carved beams, even covered with glazed yellow tiles, almost like a palace.

  "Hmm? How did the Shi family's house end up being built like a palace?" Zhu Yuanzhang felt slightly curious.

  "That's not the Shi family's house..." Ma Qianjiu lowered his voice, speaking in a mysterious tone: "That is the ancestral temple of the Nine Thousand Year Old."

  "Nine Thousand Years? Born Temple?" Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly woke up, and in his vast memory treasure house, there was indeed such a thing. In the late Ming Dynasty during the Tianqi period, there was a powerful eunuch who held power, named Wei Zhongxian, who called himself "Nine Thousand Years", eliminated dissenters, monopolized state affairs, to the point where people "only knew of Zhongxian and not the Emperor". After the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Chongzhen, came to power, he cracked down on the eunuch party, convicted Wei Zhongxian of ten major crimes, ordered his arrest and trial, and hanged himself, while the rest of his party was thoroughly purged.

  At that time, Zhejiang Governor Pan Ruzhen borrowed a machine to build a temple for Wei Zhongxian on the west side of West Lake. Wei Zhongxian was very happy and promoted Pan Ruzhen to Nanjing's Minister of Justice. This set an example, and building temples immediately became popular. All over the country, people rushed to build temples for Wei Zhongxian.

  The ancestral temple that appeared before Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes was undoubtedly Wei Zhongxian's ancestral temple.

  Zhu Yuanzhang was so clever that the moment he understood this link, he immediately knew who Bai Shuixin's backer was. However, he still pretended not to understand and asked Ma Qianjiu: "Director Ma, what is the origin of this Bai Shuixin?"

  Ma Qianjiu said in a low voice: "This Bai Shui Shi... is the family of an eunuch in the government, this eunuch is a member of the castration party..."

  As expected, Zhu Yuanzhang nodded his head.

  Ma Qianjiu continued: "The Shi family was originally a declining family, and there were many children in the house. They had twelve children, and they were so poor that they couldn't make ends meet. The old master of the Shi family gritted his teeth and sent the twelfth child in the family to the palace to become a eunuch."

  "After Shenyi's twelfth promotion to officialdom, he was assigned to work under Wei Zhongxian... Not many years later, with the help of Guest, Wei Zhongxian rose to power and became the Nine Thousand Year Old... Shenyi's value also skyrocketed, becoming a powerful and feared eunuch. Everyone dreaded his authority and didn't dare call him by his original name, so they gave him a nickname, Thirty-two Lord." Ma Qianjiu said in a low voice: "With Thirty-two Lord rising to power, the Shenyi family also became formidable, dominating Baishui Town... Not only did the county magistrate have to give way when he saw Shenyi, even the governor of Xi'an Prefecture didn't dare provoke this powerful god..."

  Zhu Yuanzhang's face turned black as ink, hearing this, it stirred up his anger towards his own descendants. The emperors of the Ming dynasty were so disappointing! There had been many instances of eunuchs abusing their power, one after another, Wang Zhen, Liu Jin, Wei Zhongxian... each one more detestable than the last, each one more foolish than the last. How did my great Ming dynasty end up like this?

  "Although the Shi family has great power, because their family had fallen before, they don't have much land in their grasp. They are extremely greedy for land. If we offer them a village with two hundred mu of land, the Shi family will definitely swallow it up." Ma Qianjiu sighed.