The officials and soldiers have arrived

  Remember in one second

  Zhu Yuanzhang stepped forward, cleared his throat, took a deep breath, and shouted loudly: "I am Zhu Ba, the manager of the Baisui Horse Family, I'm here to help you!"

  Four of the Zhang family's servants lifted their heads, revealing dull eyes, and the terror of being left alive after a disaster had not yet been driven out of his body. Looking at Zhu Yuanzhang's face, they all trembled uncontrollably. The seventeen women, on the other hand, all shrank back, their heads hung even lower.

  "Stop staring and get up!" Zhu Yuanzhang's low voice was filled with an irresistible aura of authority, scaring the surrounding servants and maids into a stiffened state, as if they had suddenly become clearer-headed.

  "Your master and young master are both dead." Zhu Yuanzhang said directly: "From now on, this family can only be handed over to your miss to take charge. Your esteemed lady is now married to our second young master of the Ma family and has become Mrs. Ma Er. Therefore, we are already a family, you don't have to be afraid, I will help you deal with trivial matters and respond to inquiries from the authorities, hurry up and cheer up."

  His words had some effect, the servants and maids who had never been in charge of anything big before and always listened to their masters' orders, regained a bit of energy from their previous helplessness: The old master and young master were dead, the sky seemed to have collapsed, but the young mistress was still alive, she happened to have gone to Baishui and escaped disaster, as long as they found the young mistress, they could still make a living.

  The four servants gradually regained their composure, and with a slight tremble in his voice, one of them stepped forward and bowed to Zhu Ba: "Are you the steward of the Ma family? That's great! Our master and young master Zhang, as well as all the stewards, are dead. We didn't know what to do, so please take us to see Miss."

  "Don't rush off, tidy up this house first"

  "Alright, I want the four of you to help me move the bodies of our family members to the front courtyard and arrange them neatly. Also, gather the bodies of the bandits in one place. This is important, otherwise when the government troops arrive, they will be running all over the house, causing a big mess. And the 17 young ladies, please go to the backyard and collect any valuables that the bandits didn't take, dig a hole and temporarily bury them. Although I'll try my best to stop the government troops from entering the house to loot, it's always better to be prepared."

  He spoke in a calm and orderly tone, which had a soothing effect on the panicked servants and maids. Everyone involuntarily followed his instructions and took action. Ten maids rushed to the backyard, locked the small door first, and then started cleaning up. Although Zheng Yanfu's gang stole many things, they came and went in a hurry, and their looting was not thorough. Many rooms still had some valuable gold, silver, and jewelry left behind. The maids gathered these items and buried them in the backyard garden.

  Zhu Yuanzhang and four living servants moved the corpses, one by one, to the front yard of Zhang's residence, placing them in a square according to their status. The headless corpse of Zhang Deyao was placed first, followed by Zhang Dashao, then Zhang Deyao's wife, concubine, housekeeper, and Zhang Dashao's personal maid... A row of corpses formed a long string. Some maids' corpses were stark naked, clearly having been violated by the bandits before their death. Zhu Yuanzhang carefully wrapped each of them with curtains.

  His movements were steady, his hands didn't shake, and his heart didn't skip a beat. He spoke in a calm and powerful tone, making the remaining servants feel that he was very reliable, and they unconsciously followed his orders completely.

  "Zhu, what's the point of arranging our family members' corpses like this?" A servant with blood-stained hands couldn't help but ask, he really didn't understand the use of such an arrangement.

  "Frightening to use!" Zhu Yuanzhang said lightly: "After the bandits have passed through, many rich and wealthy families in the countryside have been looted by officials and soldiers who come to ask questions. As soon as they enter the house, they use the excuse of searching for remaining bandits to loot wildly. Since the head of the household has already been killed by the bandits, how dare the servants resist the officials? The result is that the bandits loot once, and the officials come again to loot a second time. This is still considered good. If they need to report their achievements with heads... Heh, killing you few and taking your heads, saying they are the heads of bandits, is also very possible."

  The four family members were shocked and took a step back at the same time.

  "With just a few of us, it's impossible to stop the soldiers from looting by brute force, so we need to use the dead to scare them off..." Zhu Yuanzhang said calmly: "As soon as the soldiers enter the house and see the courtyard filled with corpses, they will be shocked. Soldiers are also human, they will have a fearful heart, and when they walk in front of so many corpses, it's impossible not to be shaken. This way, we can protect this family and also protect ourselves."

  The four family members were immediately convinced, this reason is not profound when said, but ordinary people would never think of it. They asked again: "Then what do we gather the bandits' corpses for? We'd rather chop these guys' corpses into pieces"

  。”

  "You'll know soon enough!" Zhu Yuanzhang was too lazy to explain further to these people, anyway they would find out themselves before long.

  After everything was ready, the sky had darkened, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered his servants to light many torches and lanterns, which were hung around the front yard, illuminating the entire courtyard clearly.

  The Zhang estate has become tidy, although the ground still shows solidified deep red blood clots. The corpses are all concentrated in the front yard, with the Zhang family's bodies neatly lined up, while the dozen or so corpses left behind by the bandits are piled together haphazardly in a corner of the front yard.

  The onlookers outside the mansion never dispersed, with one batch leaving and another arriving. They would occasionally stick their heads in to take a look, and upon seeing the corpses filling the courtyard, they would let out a cry of surprise and retreat with their faces covered.

  Just after it had completely darkened, the onlookers suddenly started to stir. The people at the outer edge of the crowd began shouting: "The government troops have arrived...the government troops have finally arrived..."

  The common people made way, and more than 40 soldiers came over under the leadership of a military general. The onlookers obviously recognized these soldiers, and even one of Zhang's servants knew them, whispering in Zhu Yuanzhang's ear: "Zhu Guan Shi, this is the Longchong Army Camp... This army camp is just five miles southeast of Cheng City..."

  Although Chengcheng is a small county, it is located at the intersection of SX1 and SX2, making it a relatively important border county. As a result, there are three hundred households in total, each with one hundred soldiers, ten small flags, two general flags, and a total of 113 people. The three hundred households together have 336 soldiers and three hundred households.

  Such a force defending a small county town is indeed more than enough, but due to the corruption of the military system at the end of the Ming Dynasty, many officers had the bad habit of "eating empty salaries", so each hundred households only had thirty or forty people. Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the officials and soldiers who came over separately from the common people, only forty-three in total, and sighed secretly: it seems that the actual number of troops stationed in Changchun is only these forty-three people, but the officers are receiving military salaries for one hundred and thirteen people from the court, how can the burden on the country not be heavy?

  He dragged a chair from the side and placed it in front of Zhang Fu's body, then sat down on the chair with his back facing the gate.

  The hundred-household officer of the Longchong Army Garrison was named Ye Yuxuan, who was thirty-three years old this year and in his prime. He had eaten a lot of empty salaries, so he lived quite well, and his body was well-nourished and robust. He wore a suit of green iron armor, topped with an iron helmet, and on his back, he still wore a large red cloak, looking very majestic. However, he was actually a fake product, having only a fierce appearance but no martial arts skills in his hands and feet. At the age of thirty-three, he had never fought a real battle.

  。

  This afternoon, he was drinking tea and daydreaming in the hundred households when he suddenly saw an old soldier riding a thin horse running from the direction of the county town. It turned out to be the gatekeeper of Chengcheng, who told him that there were rioters rushing into the county town and asked him to hurry up with his troops to quell the riot.

  Ye Yuxuan asked, there were two or three hundred rioters, and he was suddenly frightened. With only these forty-three shrimp soldiers under his command, how dare he go to quell the riot? He hastily dispatched a fast horse to inform the Di Cheng Army Garrison in the southwest and the Kai Yan Army Garrison in the north, ordering the other two army garrisons to send troops at the same time, so that he dared to come into the county town to take a look.

  The other two military officers who received the news were also startled, and all three had the same thought: With just a few dozen men in my hands? Quell the rebellion? Don't get yourself killed instead.

  So the three hundred officials all led their men to walk slowly, from afternoon till nightfall, before finally arriving outside the county town. They gathered together and had a total of 140 people, only then did they dare to enter the county town to take a look. When they found that the thieves had already left, they let out a sigh of relief.

  Two of the bailiffs stayed behind at the yamen to handle the aftermath, while Ye Yuxuan volunteered to go to Zhang Douyao's home to take a look.

  He was more cunning than the other two hundred households, knowing that nothing good could be obtained from the government office, but coming to Zhang Deyao's home might yield something. It was said that Zhang Deyao and his son had been killed, leaving only a few servants and maids in the house. He had set his sights on the Zhang family's wealth, planning to come over and "search" the Zhang estate, gathering up the valuable items inside and moving them back to his own hundred-household compound.

  In recent years, Zhang Deyao's tenure as county magistrate had not been wasted; he had embezzled and accepted bribes in Cheng City, seizing wealth and property by force. Although it was impossible to take possession of the land due to the existence of deeds, various valuable items could still be plundered.

  Ye Yuxuan led his forty-three men into the Zhang estate, ready to loudly declare "I am so-and-so" to intimidate everyone. Suddenly, he was taken aback by a bright light in front of him. Under the illumination of lanterns and torches, he saw a young man sitting in the middle of the front courtyard of the Zhang estate. The young man wore clean and tidy cotton clothes, looking like someone in charge. Behind him, dozens or nearly a hundred corpses were lined up in a row...

  A gloomy and eerie array of corpses, a bloody aura wafts forth...

  Ye Yuxuan's heart skipped a beat, his legs trembled slightly, and the prepared lines were all swallowed back into his stomach...

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