Forty-Nine, Shocking and Awe-Inspiring

  "Lord Bai has shown courtesy!" Zhu Yuanzhang sat in the chair, not getting up, and slightly bowed his head as a gesture of courtesy. Then he said seriously: "I am Zhu Ba, the manager of the White Water Horse family, and I have been ordered by my young mistress to help with some trivial matters at the Zhang's."

  Zhu Yuanzhang was not a person who liked to show off his arrogance. In the past, when facing Bai Shui Ma's family, Shan's family, and County Magistrate Chen Guanyu, he had always adopted a very low-key attitude. But this time, against Ye Yuxuan, he showed his strong side from the beginning.

  Because he knew that military and civil officials are different, when facing civil officials, if you show strength, it's easy to hurt their dignity. Even if they're not as capable as you, they'll still jump up and bite you, and entangle with you endlessly. For example, those Eastern Forest Party guys, they have no real power, can't accomplish anything substantial, but all they have is a mouth, yet they refuse to admit defeat, constantly fighting with the eunuch party, even if it kills them. With this kind of person, if you're low-key, they'll actually be more easily influenced by you, and can be led by the nose using encouragement tactics.

  However, when dealing with rough soldiers, the weaker you are, the stronger they become. If you show strength, they will back down instead. Because rough soldiers don't read as many saintly teachings as officials do, nor do they care about unnecessary "honor" like officials do; they are more flexible and yielding. When faced with someone even stronger than them, they retreat faster than each other.

  Zhu Yuanzhang didn't even give Ye Yuxuan a courtesy, not even standing up from his chair, just casually saying a few words. Behind him, nearly a hundred corpses were piled up, and the aura of these corpses brought out a bloody smell that scared Ye Yuxuan's heart into skipping a beat. In his mind, he secretly thought: "Oh no, I've encountered a formidable figure! This official seems to be quite extraordinary, could it be that the Bai Shui Ma family has some powerful backing? I'd better be careful not to offend some big shot."

  Ye Yuxuan's heart shrunk, and his mouth naturally didn't dare to be hard. He actually cupped his hands and said in a very polite tone: "So you're the steward of the Baisui Ma family, greetings! I'm Ye Yuxuan, the hundred-household leader of the Longchong Army Garrison. I heard that the rebels attacked Zhang's mansion, so I came to help Zhang's mansion clean up the bandits..."

  He suddenly felt something was off, huh? I clearly came to the Zhang estate, and it's a person with the surname Zhang, but here's someone from the Ma family chatting nonsense with me for half a day, what's going on? Isn't this like trying to put a cow's head on a horse's body? He looked at Zhu Yuanzhang with an added hint of suspicion, and asked strangely: "You're a member of the Ma family, why are you running around in the Zhang estate?"

  Zhu Yuanchang said in a low voice: "Miss Zhang has already been promised to the second young master of the Ma family, that is, the second madam of my house."

  "Ah!" Ye Yuxuan felt that this relationship was a bit far-fetched, although the Ma family seemed to be in a strong position, but he couldn't be too lenient either. He turned around and ordered the soldiers behind him: "You... go to the Zhang Mansion and search carefully, see if there are any hidden thieves, if so, bring them all here!"

  "Hold on!" Zhu Yuanzhang interrupted him before he could speak, saying: "We've already thoroughly searched the mansion and all the dead bodies have been brought out and laid out here..." He pointed to the rows of corpses in the courtyard: "They're all here."

  "I'll have to take another look." Ye Yuxuan smiled and said: "What if there are still some that slipped through the net?"

  "This won't do!" Zhu Yuanzhang said, "The soldiers under your command are rough and careless. If they were to accidentally break something in my house or take something by mistake, that would be most improper."

  Yue Yuxuan listened to him talking incessantly, suddenly feeling impatient, and said loudly: "Hey, you're in charge of this, make it clear, this is the Zhang family's house, you're a steward from the Ma family, always chattering here, aren't you annoying?"

  Zhu Yuanzhang said calmly: "Mr. Zhang and Young Master Zhang were unfortunately killed by the rioters, but Miss Zhang is still alive. Everything in the Zhang family, from top to bottom, naturally belongs to Miss Zhang. Miss Zhang married my second young master of the Ma family and became the second lady, this mansion naturally became her dowry... I am the manager of the Ma family, the dowry of the second lady, I cannot manage it, who can manage it?"

  Huh? This guy is eloquent and troublesome! Ye Yuxuan was shocked again.

  "What if I really want to search the mansion today?" Ye Yuxuan sneered.

  Zhu Yuanzhang saw him put on a fierce face, knowing that this was the most common trick used by officials and soldiers. As long as he intimidated you, you would be finished. But if he couldn't intimidate you, he would retreat instead, and this step was crucial.

  He suddenly stood up from the chair, kicked the chair to one side with one foot, and pointed at the rows of corpses in the courtyard: "If you want to search the house, it's simple, just walk through these corpses... See if the spirits of Old Master Zhang and Young Master Zhang will let you pass this hurdle..."

  Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly shifted his attention to the corpses on the ground. He looked at them and saw Zhang Douyao's headless body lying in the first row, with congealed blood around his neck, looking extremely terrifying. Next to him was Zhang Shao's corpse, also with a gruesome expression, twisted face... The rows of corpses under the lanterns seemed to be shrouded in a dark aura... Among them were several maids who had been bullied to death and still hadn't closed their eyes, staring up at the sky with a pair of unblinking dead eyes... Although they weren't looking at Ye Yuxuan, he felt as if they were staring at him...

  Good grief... Do we have to make our way through these corpses? Ye Yuxuan's heart was racing, and his soldiers felt their legs go weak, as if they were about to collapse.

  He suddenly realized that the manager, Zhu Ba, had been sitting in front of these corpses all along without even frowning, this person is really terrifying! If he were to sit among such a pile of corpses himself, he would probably have fled three streets away due to nausea.

  It's actually the difference between having a guilty conscience or not. Ye Yuxuan thought he could take advantage of the Zhang family being dead to rob them, but how can he be calm in front of their corpses? If he really just wanted to enter and perform his duties, capture the fugitives, and avenge the Zhang family, he wouldn't be afraid of these corpses.

  But even if he didn't have a guilty conscience, it was still extremely impressive that Zhu Ba could sit amidst the pile of corpses like this. Ye Yuxuan's intuition told him that this person was terrifying, and it would be best not to provoke him if possible.

  He flattened his mouth and shook his head, saying: "Forget it, the bandits have been scattered for half a day, I'm sure there are no thieves hiding in Zhang's house, so I won't go in to search... You tell me what happened here, and I'll go back and report."

  Zhu Yuanzhang said in a low voice, "The bandits rushed in and killed everyone they saw, then snatched gold, silver, and valuables before escaping. It's just that simple, not complicated at all, nothing to say. If the military officer wants to make amends, I do have a good gift to send."

  He pointed to the dozens of bandit corpses in the corner of the wall and said in a low voice, "These bandits were left behind by our Zhang family's brave house slaves. We don't want to report these corpses as merit, we just hope that from now on we won't be disturbed again, so let's give these corpses to the military officer."

  "What? Send it to me to report the merit?" Ye Yuxuan was overjoyed, he took a glance and saw that there were at least twenty corpses there. If he beheaded these guys and presented their heads as proof of his achievement, saying that under his leadership, the soldiers of the Longchong Army had bravely suppressed the bandits and obtained more than 20 bandit heads, this would be a pretty good achievement.

  During the Tianqi era, bandits were rampant in Shaanxi, causing a great deal of trouble for the government. The local officials would deceive the emperor if possible, while pressuring the military officers to quickly quell the unrest. Whoever could eliminate a group of bandits would be greatly rewarded, and possibly even promoted. As a result, over twenty people reported to the authorities, and Ye Yuxuan made a fortune from this.

  "Haha, with such good stuff, why didn't you bring it out earlier? If you had brought it out earlier, I wouldn't have said that we need to search the mansion." Ye Yuxuan was overjoyed and nodded at several soldiers under him. The soldiers immediately surrounded the corpse of the bandit and carried it away.

  Get it out quickly, you'll have to search the mansion! Zhu Yuanzhang actually understood in his heart that if he first calmed down Ye Yuxuan and then gave him these heads, he would give him a sense of surprise and satisfaction, and retreat with pleasure. If the order were reversed, who knows what might be taken away by the soldiers?

  Ye Yuxuan retreated with satisfaction, and Zhu Yuanzhang finally relaxed his demeanor. He instructed the servants and maids hiding behind the house: "Alright, it's all settled. You can rest now. Tomorrow morning, dig a big hole to bury these people, then gather our valuables, bring the property deeds and land deeds, and follow me to Baishui to find your mistress."

  The servants and maids were hiding in the house, seeing that the officials and soldiers had come with ill intentions, they were all nervous. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang resolved the danger with just a few words, and only then did they breathe a sigh of relief. When they heard Zhu Yuanzhang's call, a group of servants and maids rushed out and knelt in front of him, kowtowing and saying: "Thank you, Zhu, for resolving this matter. Without you, who knows what would have happened if the officials and soldiers had come in? We owe it to you."

  "I didn't do anything!" Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said: "From now on, we are all one family, no need to be so polite."

  Everyone thanked and returned to their rooms to sleep, this was originally their home, their rooms were still there, returning to the house to sleep was quite natural, only Zhu Yuanzhang had no room in this house, he lay down on the floor of Zhang's mansion...

  The cold moonlight spilled into the courtyard, where a hundred corpses lay in a terrifying scene. Zhu Yuanzhang was not afraid at all, and he felt nothing. In his previous life, he had seen so many dead bodies that they could fill half of the Yangtze River; what were these mere hundred corpses compared to that?

  He was quickly calculating his gains for the day in his mind... He had done a good deed, helping the maid and house servant of the Zhang family. The whole thing from start to finish had been witnessed by the crowd through the gate, and his reputation would be loudly spread again. Steadily and surely, step by step, he was expanding his folk reputation, making more and more people feel respect and admiration when they heard his name... Could his reputation surpass that of Wang Er of Baishui in a year's time and become the number one good fellow of Baishui County?

  When the time comes, he will rise up and shout with a loud voice, I don't know how many people will gather.

  Just as he was thinking about this, a small figure suddenly walked in from the side door of the hall. It was a maid, holding a quilt in her hand. She walked to Zhu Yuanzhang's front and said softly: "Zhu Guan Shang... You sleep in the hall at night, it's so cold, take this quilt for now..."

  Under the moonlight, Zhu Yuanzhang took a closer look and said, "Hey, I've seen this maid during the day. She was almost insulted by three refugees, but fortunately, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zheng Yanfu arrived just in time to save her." It turned out that she had narrowly escaped and was one of the seventeen surviving maids.

  It's a good idea to give Zhu Yuanzhang a blanket, which shows that she is a considerate and kind woman. Zhu Yuanzhang thought to himself: Is this what they mean by "good people will be rewarded"? Hmm... In my past life, I never believed in such things as "good people being rewarded", but after experiencing reincarnation, have I started believing in the existence of gods? If there were no gods, how could I have been reborn into this world? Have I also started believing in those supernatural things? Ha ha, how is that possible?

  He waved his hand at the little maid and said: "Thank you for your concern, go back and rest quickly, you must have been scared to death today..."