Sixteen, cunning and deceitful

  After dinner, the sky had darkened, and the long workers in the dining hall had dispersed to their respective earthen huts and grass houses. The moon had climbed halfway up, and the stars were beginning to peek out. Yang Chao was the last one to walk out of the dining hall, looking around left and right, no one noticed him, so he crouched down and slipped into the shadow at the corner of the wall.

  Walking along the wall for a while, I came to the gate of the backyard. Now that it's just dark, the door hasn't been lit yet. Yang Chao whispered "Heaven help me" and pushed the gate open a crack, squeezing out.

  As soon as they left the hospital gate, there were fields outside, and at this time, there was no crop in the fields, so it was a barren expanse. Yang Chao felt his way to the edge of the field ridge, turned over and fell into the ditch. These ditches were originally used for irrigation, but this year's drought had left not a drop of water in them, making them look like intersecting earth trenches.

  Yang Chaomao rushed to the designated place with his waist in the ditch, only to see two black shadows already squatting there. It turned out that two of his sworn brothers had arrived, but Li Chujiao was nowhere to be seen.

  "Has Li Chujiao not arrived yet?" Yang Chao asked in a low voice.

  The other two nodded in agreement.

  "Damn coward, he must be scared, so he doesn't dare to come?" Yang Chao cursed in a low voice.

  Those two sworn brothers also had some misgivings in their hearts, and they stammered: "Yang Chao, are we really going to betray Qi Guan? What if the news gets out, we won't be able to stay in the Ma family anymore."

  "Heaven knows, earth knows, you know, I know, no one else will ever know about this matter." Yang Chao lowered his voice and said: "If we don't do it this way, Zhu Ba will be even more pleased to see us in a mess. If I don't get the position, none of you will have good days either. And now you're still hesitating?"

  "Alright..." The two sworn brothers gritted their teeth and forced themselves to say: "Let's go, from here to Ren Village, it'll take at least one or two hours. We have to hurry up, we can only make it back before dawn."

  The three of them crawled out of the ditch and headed east on foot.

  No sooner had they lifted their feet than a gloomy voice, with a hint of coldness, hummed: "At midnight, where are you three going?"

  "What? Qi Guan Shi's voice?" Yang Chao was shocked! He turned his head and looked in the direction of the sound... Not far away, on the ridge of a field, Qi Guan Shi's upper body appeared. It turned out that Qi Guan Shi had been hiding in a nearby ditch all along, listening to their conversation, and only stood up after they finished talking. Behind Qi Guan Shi was another person, who looked thin and frail, like he would fall over with just a gust of wind - Zhu Ba!

  Yang Chao was so shocked that he almost fainted, his whole body kept trembling, cold sweat suddenly broke out on his forehead, flowing down along his temples, and his legs felt a little weak, even standing up felt difficult.

  "Qí... qí... qí guǎn shì... nǐ shén me shí hòu... zài nà lǐ? Tīng... tīng dào le xiē shén me?" Yáng Chāo xià de shuō huà bù lì suǒ le.

  All he saw was Zhu Ba smiling faintly at him, a smile that Yang Chao had never seen on Zhu Ba's face before. The smile carried a hint of disdain and contempt. He took over Yang Chao's words and said: "I and Qi have been here for a long time, hiding in this ditch eating dinner. As for what we heard... Tsk, tsk, heaven knows, earth knows, you know, I know!"

  "Yang Chao! I underestimated you." Qiguan Shi sneered coldly: "You want to become the head of the Imperial Guards so badly that you even want to frame me. If you leak out our plan to go to Chengcheng County to fight, the Zhang family in Chengcheng can prepare an ambush and beat me into a pulp. If I get beaten, I'll take it out on Zhu Ba. If I take it out on Zhu Ba, he won't be able to become the head of the Imperial Guards. He can't become the head, then you can! Tsk tsk, your plan is so deep and sinister, who taught you such a thing?"

  "Li Chujiao has betrayed me! No wonder he didn't come." Yang Chao understood everything: "Zhu Ba... you... you bribed Li Chujiao!"

  "I'm the one who's been bought? Don't be ridiculous." Zhu Yuanzhang said calmly, "Li brother's wages are paid by the Ma family and Qi Guan Shi. If you want to betray the Ma family and Qi Guan Shi, that means you're betraying Li brother's breadwinner. This is a righteous act of abandoning evil for good, what does it have to do with me? Don't randomly make baseless accusations. At this time, I advise you to kneel down and kowtow to Qi Guan Shi to admit your mistake."

  "You fart! It's you who framed me! It's you!"

  "Stop spouting nonsense!" Qi Guan Shi snorted, "Follow me back to the side courtyard. I'll report this matter to Second Young Master and ask him to mete out family law to deal with you."

  Family law disposal? Yang Chao's heart trembled... This is not a trivial matter. It should be known that the gentry clans of the Ming Dynasty had very great power in their own territory, and the abuse of private laws and punishments was as common as playing. For example, during the Ming Dynasty, if a wife cheated on her husband with another man and was discovered by local people, she would not need to notify the authorities, but would be directly declared "pig cage" by the local "virtuous and respected" gentry, and if they said kill, they would be killed. The government turned a blind eye to such things.

  For example, if a group of bandits came to a village in the Ming dynasty to steal things and were caught by the villagers, they would not usually report it to the authorities. Instead, they would invite the local "respected" village elder to come out and give an order, and then beat them to death with sticks.

  This kind of abuse of private punishment was especially severe in the late Ming dynasty, as Shaanxi was frequently plagued by bandits at that time. The local gentry organized their own militia to deal with the bandits, and when they captured them, they would not bother to read them the "Great Ming Code", but simply kill them on the spot. Not only would they not be punished for this, but they would even receive praise from the authorities.

  Yang Chao knew in his heart that the crime he committed was betraying the Ma family. If this matter fell into the ears of the impulsive and violent Second Young Master, where would he be able to reason with him about family law? He might just beat him to death with a stick, and then casually report it as private communication with bandits. The county magistrate's side would also turn a blind eye.

  The terror in Yang Chao's heart slowly subsided, replaced by a resolute determination like a broken jar. Anger burned away his last shred of rationality. He didn't think twice, reached down to the ground and picked up a fist-sized rock, grasping it tightly in his hand. "Qi Guan Shi," he bellowed, "I've followed you for years, serving you like a dog, coming and going at your beck and call. You didn't even take care of me, but instead want to hand me over to the Second Young Master's household for punishment? I'll fight you to the death!" As soon as he finished speaking, his arm swung back, and the rock hurtled towards Qi Guan Shi.

  Watching the stone flying out of Yang Chao's hand, Zhu Yuanzhang estimated that there were at least two or three ways to catch it or block it. If not, he had enough time to pull Qi Guan Shi away, but he didn't move his hands and let the stone hit Qi Guan Shi's face.

  In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang could have rushed over to subdue Yang Chao at the beginning, but he didn't do so. Instead, he talked nonsense with him, just to help Yang Chao eliminate his initial fear and brew his anger, making him dare to fight back.

  No one is better at manipulating people's minds than Zhu Yuanzhang. He knew that someone like Yang Chao, who was incompetent and relied on his cunning to get by, would be terrified if he were caught off guard. If Qi Guan Shi spoke up and told him to go home and face family law, Yang Chao might have obediently followed. But if he were given time to calm down from the initial shock, he would definitely become desperate and lash out. Moreover, his methods were ruthless and severe. All Zhu Yuanzhang had to do was intentionally say some things to help Yang Chao stabilize his emotions after his initial plan was exposed, and then provoke Qi Guan Shi into saying a few harsh words. Yang Chao would certainly become furious and lash out at Qi Guan Shi...

  Qizong didn't expect that Yang Chao's hand moved, and a fist-sized stone flew out. He guessed something was coming his way and quickly dodged to the side, trying to avoid the stone hitting his face. But just as he did, he suddenly felt a light bump on his shoulder from Zhu Ba, and his head, which had been dodged, was knocked back into the path of the incoming stone.

  "Huh? What are you doing?" Qi Guan Shi's heart skipped a beat, but before he could think further, Yang Chao's large stone had already smashed into his face. A dull "thud" was heard, and Qi Guan Shi's head jerked violently backwards, with fresh blood spraying out in an arc... His nose, eyes, eyebrows, and forehead were all mashed together by the stone, with blood flowing profusely, a terrifying sight.

  Only a mournful cry echoed in the night sky, and Qi Guan's body fell backward into the ditch. He really couldn't understand why Zhu Ba suddenly helped Yang Chao, and as his body fell, he desperately tried to think of an answer, but unfortunately, with his meager wisdom, he couldn't figure it out.

  As he fell, Zhu Yuanzhang didn't idle, his toes lightly kicked a brick-sized stone from the ditch to the spot where Qi Guanshi's occipital bone was about to land... Then Qi Guanshi crashed down, his fragile occipital bone heavily smashing onto the hard stone, "crack" the sound of shattered bones, fresh blood slowly flowed out from the cracked opening, slowly spreading and dyeing the mud in the ditch red. Qi Guanshi only felt a darkness before his eyes, falling into eternal darkness.

  Until his death, he never understood what Zhu Ba was doing!

  Zhu Yuanzhang sighed inwardly: Foolish guy, don't you understand? After I'm promoted to the inner court and take your place, it's much faster than killing you directly. Moreover... after killing you, the inner court will also lack a deputy manager, which is an even better opportunity for me. Not only can I become the deputy manager of the inner court, but I can also spy on the deputy manager of the inner court. This is what they call "killing two birds with one stone"! Before, I didn't make a move because I was waiting for a safe chance to get rid of you without arousing suspicion. Yang Chao's rock hit the spot!

  Zhu Yuanzhang didn't even glance at his corpse, and with a loud shout, he leaped out of the ditch: "Someone come! Yang Chao has killed Qi Guan Shi, hurry someone!"

  The moon is bright and the stars are sparse, the quiet night is soundless. This loud shout is like a bomb, instantly awakening half of the Ma family compound...