Harmony and kinship

  You started by praising me? This person is extremely good at winning people's hearts! Zhu Yuanzhang hastily said, "It's too kind of you to say that, these are things a humble person like myself should do."

  Ma Zhixiong expressionlessly said, "Not at all, don't be modest either. I'm not a fan of saying polite words, let's just get straight to the point and talk about reality."

  He paused here, turned his head to Ma Qianjiu and said: "Withdraw one hundred taels of silver from my account to reward Zhu Ba. I'm not in the mansion, you guys don't take things seriously, Zhu Ba has made such a great achievement, how can there be no decent rewards?"

  Ma Qianjiu said in a low voice: "The old master rewarded him with twenty taels of silver, and the third young lady also gave him several sets of clothes, shoes and socks..."

  "Go! What's the use of this reward?" Ma Zhi Xiong waved his hand and said: "The face of my Ma family, the safety of my second brother, is it only worth twenty taels of silver and a few sets of clothes? One hundred taels are not enough, but I'm afraid others will be jealous if I give too much. For now, I'll just give him one hundred taels, and reward him more later."

  Ma Qianjiu hastily paid the silver and left.

  Ma Zhi Xiong then said to Zhu Ba: "My second brother, alas... Father and third sister all know that they should reward you, but he, the master himself, doesn't have any intention of doing so. I'll apologize on behalf of my second brother, don't take it to heart, and in the future, help our family do things properly."

  Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, thinking to himself: This Ma Zhiyong is indeed a formidable character. On the one hand, he heavily rewards me, and on the other hand, he deliberately uses the reward to highlight the differences between him and the second young master, making me even more disgusted with the second young master and even more grateful for his appreciation... If I were just an ordinary cowherd without any insight, I'm afraid I would have been completely won over by these two sentences and become his loyal dog.

  Controlling people's minds was originally Zhu Yuanzhang's specialty, and now there is actually someone of the same type as him, which makes him inevitably vigilant.

  Ma Zhi-xiong pointed to the chair beside him, indicating that Zhu Yuan-zhang should sit down and talk, while saying: "By the way, Zhu Ba, this time dealing with Chen County Magistrate made me look at you in a new light. I want to ask you, how will our Ma family and Zhang's family of Cheng City end up?"

  He was a practical person who didn't talk nonsense, so Zhu Yuanzhang didn't make any excuses and pointed with two fingers: "Two methods."

  "I'd love to hear more about it!"

  Zhu Yuanzhang said in a low voice: "The first method is to borrow the power of the Shenyi family to thoroughly defeat the Zhang family of Cheng City... The second method is to borrow the power of the Shenyi family and turn the conflict with the Zhang family of Cheng City into friendship..."

  Ma Zhi Xiong was taken aback and lost his smile: "Both of your methods are relying on the power of others, but the specific plans are going in opposite directions, like eight sticks that can't hit the same target. What is your consideration for this?"

  "The first method is to consider that the two parties have already formed a grudge, and if we don't get rid of each other, we may be gotten rid of by the other party at any time." Zhu Yuanzhang said in a low voice: "Young Master can't stay at home forever, soon he will go to Xi'an to manage the rice store. To solve this trouble once and for all, it's necessary to slap the Zhang family to death with one palm, so as not to leave future troubles."

  "Good point!" Ma Zhi Xiong smiled: "But since ancient times, the people have not fought with officials. We don't have the ability to take down the Zhang family. If you try again to frame the Zhangs as Donglin Party members, Shenda might not fall for it this time. I reckon by now, Shenda has also figured out that Chen Guanyu is not a member of the Donglin Party and was misled by you. But he wants to save face and won't bring up this matter."

  "That's right, so I've been considering the second method again." Zhu Yuanzhang snorted and smiled: "The Shenyi family and our Ma family have joined forces to scare away Chen Guanyu. The Zhang family of Chengcheng must already know about it. The county town of Chengcheng is over 70 miles away from the county town of Baishui, and news travels slowly and chaotically. Now he's probably still unclear about the relationship between the Shenyi family and our Ma family. We can take advantage of the Shenyi family's influence to visit the Zhang family of Chengcheng at this time... The Zhang family will be forced by the pressure from the Shenyi family, and they will definitely put aside their past grievances with us... If we drag it out for some more time, when he finds out about the true relationship between the Shenyi family and our Ma family, who knows, maybe another mess will happen."

  "Good!" Ma Zhi Xiong slapped the table and said loudly: "What a great plan! You're indeed a clever person."

  Just now he heard Ma Qianjiu's story, and although he also admired Zhu Ba's outstanding ability, he was still a little skeptical in his heart. A rural cowherd boy, how could he be so powerful? There must be some untrue rumors or accidental mistakes. However, after hearing Zhu Ba's few words, his perception had completely changed, and unknowingly he regarded Zhu Ba as a strategist-level figure.

  He can actually utilize the remaining momentum of the shirt family to this extent, this insight, let alone a small county like Baishui, even if it were placed in the prosperous Xi'an Prefecture, it would be one in a hundred.

  Ma Zhi Xiong thought carefully for a moment, as a merchant, he valued harmony above all else, after all, harmony breeds wealth. So when he heard Zhu Ba's second method, he immediately agreed with it in his heart. His mind was also racing quickly, and he immediately thought of a question: "If we negotiate a truce and the Zhang family finds out that our families have no connection, what if they want to back out?"

  "This is not difficult to handle, from now on, our family will make an effort to improve the relationship with the Zhang family, as long as this relationship becomes a real one and can withstand the test of the Zhang family, he will not dare to act rashly." Zhu Yuanzhang said seriously.

  "No way!" Ma Zhi Xiong unexpectedly refused outright: "Our family has a scholar's rod, while the Shi family is just a nouveau riche. This time, sending someone to deliver land and people has already lost face, from now on we can't have any dealings with the Shi family."

  "This..." Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but laugh, this Ma Zhiyong is indeed a formidable figure, but he also has this blind arrogance? Indeed...he was once a successful candidate in the imperial examination, and to some extent, he has that air of disdain towards those who suddenly become rich, which is typical of scholars. With such an arrogant attitude, it's unlikely he'll achieve great things. Well, after all, the Ma family is just a rural gentry family, how easy can it be for them to produce someone truly exceptional?

  Zhu Yuanzhang no longer expressed his opinion and quietly waited for Ma Zhiyong to make up his own mind.

  After a few moments of silence, Ma Zhi Xiong lifted his head and chuckled: "Right, since ancient times, there has been an excellent way to talk that can tightly bind two families together, making it impossible for them to turn against each other..."

  "Are you talking about a marriage?" Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but pause for a moment.

  "That's right, Brother!" Ma Zhi Xiong said with a pleased smile: "Second Brother is twenty-four this year and still hasn't taken a formal wife. Third Sister is fifteen and has reached the age where she can be married off. I heard that Zhang Diao Yao of Cheng City also has a son and daughter who are at the right age for marriage. Why don't we just arrange for these two pairs to get together? Third Sister will marry the son of the Zhang family, while Second Brother will take the daughter of the Zhang family as his wife - it's a win-win situation!"

  What a joke! Zhu Yuanzhang's heart suddenly felt disgusted, in his previous life he was extremely opposed to the policy of marrying relatives. Under his influence, in the 276th year of the Ming Dynasty, there was no intermarriage, no compensation, no cession of territory, no tribute, the emperor guarded the country gate, and the king died for the country. Although many foolish emperors appeared in the Ming Dynasty, even the most foolish emperor carefully protected the iron bones of the Ming Dynasty, and none of his descendants had ever lost face by marrying relatives. Unexpectedly, after rebirth, he encountered a clan leader who used his own younger siblings to play at intermarriage, it really made him speechless.

  Ma Zhi Xiong smiled at Zhu Yuan Zhang and said: "What do you think of this marriage alliance plan?"

  Ma Zhi Xiong was very pleased, but Zhu Yuan Zhang was completely uninterested and said in a low voice: "This matter concerns the second young master and the third young lady, what right does a person like me have to interfere? The eldest young master can make his own decisions."

  Ma Zhi Xiong did not notice Zhu Yuan Zhang's displeasure. Even if he had noticed, he wouldn't have taken it seriously. He smiled and said: "That's right, you don't have the qualifications to speak on this matter, I'll handle it personally. San Mei is easy to deal with, but Er Di is a troublesome person... Someone come, quickly go to the inner courtyard and invite Second Young Master over."

  Before long, Ma Qianji returned first, with 100 taels of silver packed in a small blue cloth bag, which was quite heavy. He handed the silver package to Zhu Yuanzhang. This was a considerable sum of money. The purchasing power of silver during the Ming Dynasty was extremely strong. A high-quality maid was worth only about 20 taels of silver. A slightly lower quality maid could be bought for just five taels of silver. If you used silver to buy food, one tael of silver could buy a thousand baked buns. In terms of later prices, if we calculate that one bun costs one yuan, then one tael of silver is equivalent to 1,000 yuan. One hundred taels of silver would be 100,000 yuan.

  Ma Zhi-xiong didn't even frown and rewarded Zhu Yuanzhang with such a large sum of money, indeed sparing no expense to win people's hearts.

  Zhu Yuanzhang put on a grateful and tearful face to accept the money, just as he was about to bid farewell and return to his own hut. Second Master Ma Zhibin walked in, complaining discontentedly: "Has big brother returned? Ah! He's back, why didn't he go to the inner courtyard first, but instead called me to the front courtyard? What's going on again?"

  "Second brother! You've been having a great time causing trouble at home lately..." Ma Zhi Xiong's face sank.

  Seeing his face change, the usually arrogant and out-of-tune Second Master suddenly became timid, clearly afraid of his older brother. Although when the Eldest Master was not around, the Second Master would often show off at home, acting recklessly and defiantly towards Ma Qianjiu, putting on an air of "even if you call my older brother, I'm not afraid". But when he truly stood in front of Ma Zhiyong, he still felt his legs trembling and spoke with difficulty.

  "I didn't start the trouble!" The second young master hesitated for half a day before protesting, "The Zhang family came to our place first to steal water, so I called on the people of Xiguan Village to drive them away. They then beat up the people of Xiguan Village, and I had Qiguanzhi organize people to fight back... all this has cause and effect."

  "What a load of nonsense!" Ma Zhi-xiong was furious: "He's the county magistrate of Chengcheng County, what are you? A scholar? A candidate for the imperial examination? A licentiate? You're not even qualified to fart, what makes you think you can fight with him?"

  "Our family has a jinshi!" Second Master argued strongly.

  "That jinshi pole is Father's, not yours. But Zhang Dou said that he himself can become the county magistrate, which means his family's jinshi pole is his own!" Ma Zhi Xiong said in a bad tone: "You just know how to add trouble for our family, making Father worry about you even when he's old."

  The second young master was so angry that he didn't dare argue again.

  Ma Zhi Xiong waved his hand and said, "I've made up my mind. Tomorrow, I'll send someone to deliver gifts to the Zhang family and propose a marriage between our families at the same time. Let's mend the relationship between our two families. Don't make any more trouble."

  "Propose a marriage?" The second young master was bewildered: "What is this for?"

  Ma Zhi Xiong said in a low voice: "I want you to marry Zhang Douyao's daughter and have Sanmei married off to his son."

  "What?" The second young master suddenly jumped up.