Fifty, back to Ma's home

  Remember in one second

  The next day, before dawn broke, Zhu Yuanzhang got up

  It was time for his morning exercise again. Although there were nearly a hundred corpses lined up in the yard, there was still room to move around, and he did a round of shadowboxing on the small patch of empty ground, stretching out his body.

  The four servants also got out of bed and stood beside him, looking at him with reverence.

  After Zhu Yuanzhang finished speaking, he casually instructed the few family servants: "You several go out and buy a few coffins back, for Zhang Lao Ye, Zhang Shao Ye and their wives to use. As for the others... no need for coffins, just get a few ox carts, pile them together and pull them outside the city to bury. Ah yes, we don't have enough manpower, you remember when you arrive at the coffin shop, hire some laborers who are not afraid of burying dead people."

  "Alright!" A house servant replied: "Zhu the steward... buying a coffin and hiring workers all require money... we don't have any."

  Zhu Yuanzhang furrowed his brow, bringing the house servants to the backyard and calling up seventeen maidservants together. They dug out the valuables that had been buried yesterday. After Zhang's mansion was looted, there were not many valuables left behind. Most of them were useless things snatched by the rioters, such as land deeds, house deeds, slave contracts, and household registers. These things were impossible for the rioters to take away for their own use. Only a small number of gold and silver jewelry had not been looted.

  Zhu Yuanzhang took a look and found that there were about four or five golden hairpins, more than ten silver chains, and several gold and silver ingots. Everything else was gone. He casually picked up all the gold and silver treasures and handed them to the kindest maid: "Use these things to buy coffins, hire workers, and divide the remaining among you twenty people. Leave the house deed, land deed, and sale contract for Second Lady."

  "Is... is this okay?" The maid was startled, the remaining wealth was very little, but it would not take much silver to buy a few coffins, and hiring workers would be even cheaper, ten or twenty cents could hire a brave one to help dig graves and bury corpses, they would definitely get a large sum of silver, isn't this stealing the master's property?

  "She hastily said: 'This is the master's property, we'd better not handle it privately.'"

  Zhu Yuanzhang slightly furrowed his brow: "I said to handle it this way, so handle it this way. Later when the second young mistress asks, I will naturally have a reason to tell her. You just take it and spend it."

  The family members couldn't get past Qian, and since Zhu Yuanzhang had said so, they didn't think much of it and nodded in agreement.

  As they left with gold and silver, Zhu Yuanzhang's mouth curled up into a faint smile. This group of people had been instigated by him to divide up the last bit of wealth from the Zhang family, which was equivalent to having a handle on all of them. Later, it would be easy for him to control these people. As for what specific use they could be put to, Zhu Yuanzhang hadn't considered that yet. Anyway, the more useful people he had, the better. As a former emperor, he was accustomed to controlling everyone around him.

  Half a day later, the house servants hired back a large group of people, old and young, male and female, all of whom were invited by the coffin shop owner.

  In this era, funeral homes generally have to provide a one-stop service for funerals, so they can always find a large group of related "industry personnel" at any time. There are old ladies responsible for washing the body, footmen who are responsible for putting the body in the coffin, closing the coffin and carrying the coffin, young men and women who play the role of filial sons and daughters, as well as those who beat gongs and drums...

  After being busy for a couple of days, they finally collected the bodies of nearly 100 people from the Zhang family and buried them outside the city with drums and gongs.

  In these few days, Zhu Yuanzhang was wandering around the government office, concerned about the current situation in Cheng City.

  The administration of Cheng City was severely paralyzed, as most of the civil officials in the city were killed by Zheng Yanfu's gang in the government office. Many administrative tasks had no one to handle them, so they had to invite an old retired scholar who was enjoying his life at home to temporarily take over Zhang Douyao's work. This old scholar had previously served as a county lieutenant and was familiar with handling county affairs, but he was already 72 years old this year, weak and frail, and without other officials to assist him, the entire county's government was on his shoulders, exhausting him to the point of unbearable suffering.

  Three hundred officials led soldiers to "guard" the county town, with twenty soldiers assigned to each of the four city gates. The county town looked relatively safe, and they wrote down what had happened here into a memorial, which was sent to Xi'an Prefecture by fast horse relay.

  During this time, there were scouts and rumors among the people that Zheng Yanfu's gang had not run far and had reassembled on Tiger Head Mountain. Upon hearing this news, the three hundred officials should have immediately led their troops to eliminate them, but the three hundred officials almost unanimously said that the news was not confirmed and they could not act rashly... As a result, the bandits who reassembled on Tiger Head Mountain quickly dispersed again...

  This was naturally within Zhu Yuanzhang's expectations. In the late Ming dynasty, the officials and soldiers of the Great Ming Empire were so useless that he couldn't even get angry about it.

  The funeral arrangements for the Zhang family have been made, and I have a good grasp of the current situation in Cheng City. Zhu Yuanzhang left two housekeepers to temporarily watch the mansion, and took another two housekeepers, 17 maidservants, back to Baisui.

  With such a strange team, to walk more than 70 miles, and to cross the dangerous mountainous areas at the junction of two counties, it is not feasible without preparation. Zhu Yuanzhang let those two family servants wear tattered clothes, their bodies covered with mud, and also let the seventeen maids dress in a sloppy manner, making them look very ugly, their clothes were also stained with mud. After dressing up like this, they dared to go on a long journey.

  He was so thoughtful that the gatekeepers and maids who did not go out or step down were even more impressed and trusted his ability.

  The scene on the official road was a bit different from the deserted situation when I came here a few days ago.

  Between the relay station and the post house, there were constantly swift horses galloping by, with riders on horseback rushing to and fro, their faces filled with urgency. It was clear that they were delivering important letters. Without guessing, it was known that these were letters being delivered between Cheng City and Xi'an, and the officials of Xi'an Prefecture had obviously been alarmed, beginning to inquire about the situation from the garrison in Cheng City.

  Since the late Wanli period, although Shaanxi has frequently had bandits emerging and committing robbery and murder, doing all sorts of evil, causing the government to have a certain degree of resistance to the two words "bandit", however, the Zheng Yanfu rebellion in Chengcheng was the first time that bandits broke into a county seat, killing a county magistrate-level official, shaking Xi'an Prefecture...

  Zhu Yuanzhang guessed that the officials in Xi'an Prefecture were now hesitating whether to report this matter to Beijing. Such a big thing, if not reported, seems to be unacceptable, but if reported, how many officials in Xi'an Prefecture would be convicted of dereliction of duty? Chengcheng is a county under the jurisdiction of Shaanxi Provincial Administration Commissioner's Office, and such a big thing happened, the Shaanxi Provincial Administration Commissioner cannot shirk responsibility, the Shaanxi Provincial Commander-in-Chief also cannot shirk responsibility, and the Shaanxi Governor-General even more so...

  These high-ranking officials must have their own connections in the court, and now they need to stall the news for the time being, deceive the emperor, use their connections to pave the way up and down the court, and after everything is arranged, it doesn't matter if the news reaches the emperor's ears. Among these fast horses coming and going on the postal road, how many are carrying letters that pull strings and go through the back door?

  The officialdom is a vast and intricate web of relationships, with roots that are inextricably intertwined, making it extremely complicated. To try to improve it from within is an extremely difficult, or rather, impossible task. Zhu Yuanzhang became even more determined to overthrow the great Ming dynasty's chessboard.

  A group of people traveled day and night, taking two days to get from Cheng City to near Ma's house. The seventeen maidservants all had sore legs and feet, but fortunately they were all from poor families and didn't have bound feet, or else several would have collapsed already.

  As they caught sight of the Ma family's mansion in the distance, several maids from the Zhang family couldn't help but feel a little afraid and whispered: "Zhu, is Young Master Ma fierce? Will he scold and beat us, the servants from the Zhang family?"

  Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and said, "Don't worry, the eldest young master doesn't have time to bother with your affairs, and the second young master is not in the mood to care. In the Ma family, as long as you don't offend the steward of the front yard, Ma Qianjiu, there won't be any trouble."

  "Is Ma Qianjiu very fierce? Who has more authority, Ma the steward or you?" Several little maidservants asked in a flurry of questions.

  Zhu Yuanzhang burst out laughing: "Ma Guanshi is not fierce, he is the front yard manager, in charge of all household affairs. I am just the side yard manager, in charge of farming and tenant households."

  The little maids all exclaimed, and then a bold one whispered: "Zhu is the most formidable steward I've ever seen. Who is Ma Qianjiu? He's even more powerful than Zhu? I don't accept this!"

  。”

  "It's true, I don't like this either." Another little maid whispered: "We've seen Miss, oh... now she's the second young mistress of the Ma family. Let's just say a few good words about Zhu in front of her and ask Miss to mention it to the second young master, so that Zhu can be transferred to manage the front yard."

  "Exactly!"

  A group of ignorant little girls, Zhu Yuanzhang secretly sighed. Don't mention that your methods are useless, even if they were useful, I'm not interested in continuing to climb up in the Ma family now. What I want is to look at the peasant uprising a year later... cultivate my own reputation and prestige among the people, and wait for the arrival of the great tide of peasant uprisings.

  Now that the goal has changed, there is no need to deliberately help the Ma family do things in the future. It's more important to help poor farmers and villagers from all over the countryside.

  A group of people arrived at the entrance of the Ma Mansion. They had been seen by the gatekeepers from afar as they walked towards the mansion earlier. One of the two gatekeepers went in to report their arrival, while the other quickly approached Zhu Yuanzhang and called out loudly: "Zhu Ba Ge, you've finally returned! Hurry up and go in! The young masters, the second young master, the third young lady, and especially the new second young madam, who has been crying like a tearful person for the past two days, are all anxiously waiting for you. They have many questions to ask you."

  He said this and paused for a moment, then continued: "The servants in our Ma family are also very concerned about Zhu Ba Ge's safety. You returned several days later than the third young lady and they were worried to death."

  Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, and gently patted the shoulder of his family servant, saying: "Thanks for your concern, brother! Come, let me introduce you to these brothers and sisters behind me. They are the servants and maids of the Zhang household. From now on, we're all one family."

  "Huh? Zhu Ba Ge, I feel like you've changed a bit......" Jia Ding was stunned for a moment, he felt that Zhu Ba was more gentle and kind than before, but this feeling was very mysterious, and he couldn't quite put his finger on why.

  Zhu Yuanzhang secretly smiled to himself. Previously, he had been hesitant about which path to take to save the Ming Dynasty. On one hand, he was trying to curry favor with the young master of the Ma family, hoping to elevate his status and enter the imperial court. On the other hand, he was also building up his reputation among the common people, hoping to gain their support. But after this trip, he had already made up his mind about which path to take in the future, no longer needing to hedge his bets or try to please everyone. He only needed to be nice to one side, and his attitude towards those who might be absorbed into his own camp was naturally different.

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