Seventy-one, thirty-two men

  Zhu Yuanzhang hid behind a tree and observed the large cart approaching from afar.

  This large carriage must be eligible for very wealthy people to ride, its wood is very good, the paint is fine, and the visible parts of the car body are very luxurious. The decorations inside are even more so. The coachman wore a black cloak on his body, wrapping his whole body in it, apparently to conceal his identity.

  The cart moved forward in the quiet and desolate countryside at dawn, with no pedestrians on the side of the road. The carter might have felt hot and happened to lift his cloak. Only then did Zhu Yuanzhang see that he was wearing brown clothes, white leather boots, and a small belt. This set of clothes was slightly dirty, apparently he had been through a long period of hard travel before arriving here.

  Seeing this outfit, Zhu Yuanzhang was slightly startled. This is not something an ordinary person has the qualifications to wear. In his impression, in the great Ming dynasty, only one kind of person had the qualifications to dress like this - the Eastern Depot's leader.

  The Eastern Depot, also known as the Dongji Factory, was a secret police agency established by Zhu Di, the fourth son of Zhu Yuanzhang and the Yongle Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Its main function was to inspect officials and monitor the Imperial Guards. Throughout the entire Ming Dynasty, the Eastern Depot was notorious for its numerous wrongful convictions and executions of loyal ministers and generals. The head of this terrifying organization was called the Factory Director, also known as the "Imperial Commissioner and General Supervisor of the Eastern Depot".

  Under the factory director, there are one thousand households in charge of punishment, one hundred households in charge of reason, and more than 40 people in charge of classes, leading classes, and rooms.

  Specifically responsible for detective work are the Yìzhǎng and Fān Yì. The Yìzhǎng is also known as the Dàngtóu, equivalent to a squad leader, with over 100 nationwide. The Fān Yì is the lowest-level scout, also known as the "Imperial Eagle Claw" often appearing in martial arts stories.

  What Zhu Yuanzhang saw before his eyes was a Dongchang guard leader.

  The entire Ming dynasty had only a little over 100 East Factory archivists, far fewer than the number of county magistrates. Calculating that they were quite high-ranking officials, now such high-ranking officials are actually helping people drive? From this, it can be seen that the identity of the person in the car is extremely extraordinary.

  The big carriage came to the front, and the driver of the Dong factory turned his head to look at the Wei Zhongxian ancestral temple by the roadside, and couldn't help but exclaim: "The ancestral temple has been demolished? Heaven! His hand shook, the reins were pulled straight, and the eight strong horses pulling the carriage neighed in unison and stopped abruptly.

  Then he turned back and exclaimed to the carriage: "Master, something terrible has happened! The ancestral temple of the 9,000-year-old has been demolished!"

  The window of the carriage was suddenly opened, and a white face with no beard appeared at the window. He was about thirty years old, his skin had a sickly pale complexion, not even a single whisker under his chin, and his hair was covered by a square hat in the middle. Zhu Yuanzhang saw it at a glance, this was a eunuch from the imperial court, because there was a unique flavor of eunuchs on this face.

  It's interesting that this face always makes Zhu Yuanzhang feel like he's seen it before. After taking a few more glances, he suddenly remembered that this eunuch looked very similar to Shi Da. Zhu Yuanzhang vaguely recalled that when Ma Qianji introduced him to the Shi family, he mentioned that the Shi family had risen to prominence because of their twelfth brother becoming an official and a eunuch. The eunuch in front of him seemed to be Shi Ershi, also known as the Thirty-Second Duke, a high-ranking eunuch and a loyal follower of Wei Zhongxian.

  The thirty-two-year-old man glanced at the Wei Zhongxian Temple on the side of the road, which had been demolished and was now unrecognizable. His pale face suddenly turned red, unable to express whether it was anger or helplessness. He furrowed his brow and said in a low voice, "Does even a remote small county in Shaanxi know about the Emperor's plan to deal with the Ninth Thousand Years?"

  He leaned in and whispered, "This matter reeks of evil intentions... We're only back here because our position as the Ninth Thousand Year is unstable, we sensed danger and hastily retreated eight hundred miles. Logically speaking, such internal secrets shouldn't have spread so quickly, how could someone from a remote small county like White Water possibly know that the Ninth Thousand Year was going to fall?"

  "Shady business, really shady! Anyway, this isn't the time to lament about it. Since the news has already spread here, we're in even greater danger. Let's hurry back home, pack up our belongings and run for it, or else everything will be too late."

  "Hmm!"

  The coachman hastened to whip the horse and the carriage continued to gallop towards the Shi family's mansion.

  Zhu Yuanzhang had completely figured out the situation by this point. It turned out that Emperor Chongzhen had already taken action against Wei Zhongxian, and the group of sycophants under Wei's command were now fleeing in disarray. This eunuch was clearly a master at sensing the wind direction, seeing that Wei was about to fall from power, he actually brought his confidant back home and planned to escape with his family fortune. It seemed he had become a startled bird, and upon seeing the temple of Wei Zhongxian which he had destroyed, he was so frightened that his pants were wet with urine.

  Ha, it's really interesting, very interesting!

  Zhu Yuanzhang took a glance at the direction of the Shi family's mansion, thinking to himself: It seems I can still make another fortune... The ill-gotten wealth of the thirty-second Duke, if I don't take it, wouldn't that be unfilial to Heaven?

  He emerged from his hiding place and hastily rushed to the gathering place of his subordinates, which was a small mountain ditch about two miles south of Ma Fu. The young people had already arrived and were rummaging through a large pile of bamboo baskets. Someone held up a piece of glazed tile and chuckled: "Can this tile be exchanged for a dou of rice?"

  Someone next to him laughed and scolded: "This is a crystal, crystal, you know? One dou of rice, look at your little temper!"

  "Wow, then I'll take it and exchange it for food." ?? Late Ming Zhu Chongba 712

  "Don't move, before Zhu Ba Ge comes back, whoever dares to take a single copper plate, I'll fight him to the death." A young man retrieved the glazed tile and put it into the bamboo basket.

  At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang happened to be walking back, and the young people rushed over: "Zhu Ba Ge, you're back! Great! Come and arrange these things quickly."

  Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and waved his hand: "Do you all want to take these things away to exchange for money and grain?"

  "Really!" The young people burst out laughing.

  Zhu Yuanzhang said seriously: "Smash those two silver candlesticks and divide the broken silver among you. As for other things, dig a hole and bury them all. Within half a year, no one is allowed to touch them."

  "What? Why is this?" The young people were shocked: "Good things, why bury them?"

  Zhu Yuanzhang knocked on the heads of several young men in front of him: "Fool, today Wei Zhongxian's ancestral temple was demolished by someone, tomorrow you will go to the street to sell glazed tiles, isn't it written on your face 'I demolished it' four words? In a twinkling of an eye, he was caught and taken into prison by the government.

  "It was only then that the young people suddenly realized, and immediately they became disheartened: 'It turns out these things are temporarily useless, alas... we thought we could get some money to help our poor brothers in the village.'"

  "Do you want cash?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked suddenly.

  "Of course we want..." The young people burst out laughing together: "Who doesn't want money?"

  "Then... are you dare to kill people?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked in a deep voice: "Dare to kill, I will give you money."

  "What's there to be afraid of?" The young people laughed.

  "Killing someone isn't that simple..." Zhu Yuanzhang said in a gloomy tone: "When you stab the knife into someone's heart or cut it across their neck, blood will gush out wildly, splashing all over your face and head, filling your nostrils with the stench of fresh blood. The person will let out a miserable cry under your knife, groaning in agony. Even after they're dead, their body will still twitch convulsively. Some people won't even close their eyes when they die, but instead stare at you with a death glare, making you remember their face even in your dreams..."

  "Ah!" The young men gasped in unison. One of the bolder ones couldn't help but ask, "Zhu Ba Ge, are you really going to take us to kill someone?"

  "That's right! Do you dare?" Zhu Yuanzhang said calmly.

  Thirty-five young people fell silent at the same time, this is not something that can be nodded or shaken easily. Some turned pale, some turned red, and some turned green... When faced with a difficult decision, each person has a different expression.

  After a long time, nine young men took a step forward at the same time. Zhu Yuanzhang recognized them as the nine poor villagers from Xigou Village who had come to learn martial arts from him and had rebellious intentions. Their faces were stern and they said seriously: "Brother Zhu Ba, who do you want us to kill?"

  Not bad, these nine young people are indeed the ones I've been eyeing. Zhu Yuanzhang smiled to himself, but his face remained expressionless as he said: "I can't tell you who we're going to kill right now, in case something unexpected happens..." He didn't say what kind of unexpected thing might happen, but not everyone present was a fool, and several people caught the drift - this was meant to be kept secret, lest word get out.

  "Is he good or bad?" The young people couldn't help but ask.

  "He's a bad guy! And an extremely bad one at that. Killing him is doing the world a favor." Zhu Yuanzhang said calmly.

  "Alright, let's do it with you!" The nine young men from Xigou Village said without hesitation: "We believe in Zhu Ba Ge, since we're going to kill a bad guy, let's just kill him."

  These nine people took the lead, and other hesitant young men also gritted their teeth. People are afraid of being urged on, and the binding effect appeared again. Other young men said with a determined look: "We will listen to Zhu Ba Ge too, and go kill people." ?? Late Ming Zhu Chongba 712

  Zhu Yuanzhang was satisfied in his heart, he smashed the two silver candlesticks and distributed them to the crowd, then let the young people dig several large pits and bury all the glazed tiles. The sandalwood case tables and gauze tents were given to those who needed them to take back home for use. He did not hide the location of the buried glazed tiles from anyone, as this was a new test. If any young person could not resist the temptation of these glazed tiles and secretly came to dig them up when no one else was paying attention, then that person would be excluded from his future rebel army. He needed all the original members of his rebellion team, all of whom were the most loyal warriors.

  Having dealt with this batch of goods, he waved his hand and said: "Go back, the killing is not urgent today. You all have a good sleep first, tomorrow evening, come here again, we'll go kill people and rob money. By the way, don't bring knives, each person bring a sturdy wooden stick!"

  He knew that the Yan family had a large amount of property, and it would take at least a day to convert all this property into silver coins, not to mention dispersing the servants. Moreover, if the Yan family wanted to escape with their entire household, they wouldn't choose to do so during the daytime, as that would be too conspicuous. They would definitely choose to do so at night... That's when it would be his turn to take action. As for letting them bring wooden clubs, it was to unify their weapons. He didn't want his subordinates to be like Zheng Yanfu's men, holding all sorts of fancy weapons in their hands. It was better to have a uniform style, making it easier to command.