Ma Cheng heard Gu's words and thought of his parents in the later life, Ma Cheng was born in the countryside, his parents were honest farmers, Ma Cheng was admitted to the county key high school with the first place in the town junior high school, and it was a sensation in the whole village at that time.

Ma Cheng still remembers the grand occasion when the village chief came to his house to deliver the admission notice, and the honest parents were blushing with excitement for the first time, and his father, who was not good at words, went to the ancestral grave to inform the ancestors afterwards.

But when Ma Cheng went to the county high school to study, he realized that the help of his family was an insurmountable gap for a rural child. The families in the class who studied well were either civil servants or intellectuals, and at that time, Ma Cheng began to feel disgusted with his family for the first time.

Ma Cheng began not to go home and began to alienate his parents, so Ma Cheng's studies deteriorated, and he was only admitted to a third-rate university in the provincial capital in the college entrance examination. Ma Cheng originally thought that this achievement would make his parents sad, but he knew that his parents did not blame him at all after returning home, but carefully prepared his luggage and living expenses for him.

Ma Cheng took the 10,000 yuan saved by his parents and left the passenger station, and when he saw his parents who were tanned by the wind and sun to see him off, Ma Cheng shed tears for the first time.

After four years of college life, Ma Cheng is no longer the kid in high school who complains about his parents for his family background, Ma Cheng deeply knows that it is not easy for his parents to support a college student as a farmer. When Ma Cheng graduated, he also thought about finding a good job to take his parents to support, but the cruel reality made Ma Cheng's ideals gradually fall short.

Ma Cheng has been in the capital for five or six years, although he can't achieve nothing but is far from success, but his parents in his hometown have always encouraged Ma Cheng, which is why Ma Cheng can persist in the capital.

Now Ma Cheng saw Gu's doting on him, and gradually remembered his parents, thinking that Ma Cheng couldn't control his tears anymore, and crawled in front of Gu's to hug his legs and cry bitterly: "Mother, my son is wrong!" The son is not filial! My son has worried my mother too much in the past few years! ”

Gu naturally burst into tears when he saw his son crying, and Gu hugged Ma Cheng's head and cried: "My son! You can rest assured, as long as you live for your mother for one day, you will never let my son suffer the slightest grievance! ”

"Mother, don't worry, my son will follow his uncle's instructions, never go out to mix these days, and concentrate on studying at home! In the future, I will definitely pay homage to the marquis and earn a pair of first-class orders for my mother! ”

In this world, the mother is the greatest, and the mother's love for her children is also the most blind, although everyone knows what kind of virtue Ma Cheng is, in the past, Ma Cheng held Gu's leg and made a poisonous oath that there were no one hundred and fifty, but in the end, Ma Cheng could abide by it.

But Gu is a mother, it is inevitable to be confused by his love for his son, when Gu heard Ma Cheng say this, he said with relief: "My son, my mother doesn't ask for any orders, as long as my son can grow up healthily, he will be satisfied with marrying a wife and having children as a mother in the future!" ”

Ma Cheng wiped his tears and stood up and said firmly: "Don't worry, my son will do what he says, and he will definitely let his mother be this lady in the future!" ”

Although Ma Cheng said it loudly, but no one in the house believed it except for Gu's, the eldest daughter-in-law Zhang and Ma Luan have been married for more than ten years, and they know their unsuccessful little uncle very well, and now seeing the little brother-in-law's old tricks to coax his mother-in-law Gu to be happy, Zhang's face inevitably brought out disdain.

Ma Cheng was only a few steps away from Zhang's at this time, Zhang's disdain was clearly seen by Ma Cheng, Ma Cheng secretly scolded his sister-in-law in his heart, he really had long hair and short knowledge, didn't he know that the master was going to do a big career?

When Zhang saw Ma Cheng find himself, his cheeks were red and he lowered his head. Ma Cheng found out that his sister-in-law looked pretty good, although she was nearly middle-aged (the Ming Dynasty woman was fifteen years old and adult, and the Zhang family was now twenty-eight years old, which is middle-aged), but there was still some charm.

Gu Shi only cared about wiping his tears, he didn't see his son molesting his eldest daughter-in-law, wiped away his tears Gu Shi said: "My son, it's getting late now, you have a good rest at night, and start reading books tomorrow, as for that matter, you don't have to worry about it, your uncle will solve it for you!" If the Duke of Wei is embarrassed, you have to make the decision for your mother, and you will be angry with your mother, and you will burn down his Wei Mansion with your own soldiers! ”

Gu Shi said the last sentence has been very loud, Gu is not an ordinary soldier, the Gu family guards Guizhou for the Ming Dynasty and fights with the local ethnic minorities all the year round, although the Gu family does not go to the battlefield, but the martial arts are not blown, plus his own minister Ma Shiying is a feudal official, there is no way to really take people to burn the Wei Guogong's mansion, as long as Wei Guogong's immediate family is not burned, Xu Hongji can only pinch his nose and admit it.

Ma Cheng was relieved to hear that Gu was supporting him, and Gu was very relieved to see that Ma Cheng was so sensible, and it happened that it was getting late now, so he left Ma Cheng to eat in the inner house.

Ma Cheng was very happy to hear that his mother left him to eat at first, so that he could take the opportunity to hook up with his sister-in-law Zhang, but what made Ma Cheng depressed was that there was no Zhang when he ate.

In the Ming Dynasty, etiquette was strict, and women were never allowed to eat at the same table with men, not to mention that Zhang was still Ma Cheng's sister-in-law, so there were only Gu and Ma Cheng when eating.

The Ma family is a scholarly family, and they strictly abide by the rule of not saying anything about food, and there is no nonsense when they eat, and only after eating did Gu Shi say a few words of gossip with Ma Cheng.

After eating, Ma Cheng got up and said goodbye, Gu knew that this son was very stubborn when he was a child, and the determination just now was probably in vain, but the mother had absolute hope for her son no matter when.

"Son, your father will be back in a few days, and he will definitely ask you about your knowledge when he comes back, and this time you will have to memorize a few sentences of the Analects to calm your father's heart, you know?"

Ma Cheng nodded and agreed, Gu saw that Ma Cheng agreed very happily, but he didn't know what the effect was, Gu sighed and waved his hand to let Ma Cheng out.

Ma Cheng returned to his small courtyard and it was already dark, there was no light pollution in the Ming Dynasty, and it was absolutely dark after the sun set.

Ma Cheng looked at the sky and asked, "Gu San, when will Xu Dahu do it?" ”

Gu Changwei looked at the sky and said: "Second master, killing people and setting fires are all in the second half of the night, and everyone is not asleep at this hour, so it is naturally difficult to do it!" ”

"Okay, I'll go into the house and sleep first, and when the fire starts in Nancheng, you can tell me to get up!" After Ma Cheng finished speaking, he entered the house and lay down, leaving Gu Changwei to wait in the courtyard.

Ma Cheng didn't sleep deeply because of something in his heart, and listened to Gu Changwei call himself in a daze: "Second master!" Second master! Let's do it! ”

Ma Cheng rolled over and sat up from the bed, rubbed his eyes and asked, "Have you started?" ”

"Second master, there is a fire in the south of the city, it looks like it's done!"

Ma Cheng got up and rushed out of the house, because there was no light at night in the Ming Dynasty, it was easy to see a red light on the south side of the city.

Ma Cheng stood in the courtyard and couldn't see clearly, looked around and said to Gu Changwei, "Gu San, is there a ladder?" Let's go up to the roof and have a look! ”

Gu Changwei hurriedly found a ladder, and the master and servant came to the roof from the ladder, and they could see clearly from the Nancheng side.

There were no buildings in the Ming Dynasty, and Li Chuang came to Fengyang a few years ago and set a fire, so now the tallest building in Fengyang City is the Huaiyang Tower in the South City, except for the Imperial Palace in the North City and the Bell and Drum Tower in the South City. I saw a fire in Huaiyang Building, and the houses around the fire were not protected.

Gu Changwei looked at it for a long time and said with a smile: "Second master, I didn't expect this Xu Dahu to be ruthless enough, and set the surrounding houses on fire in order to kill people!" ”

Ma Cheng was stunned: "What?" Are the surrounding houses on fire? ”

"Yes, second master, look! Huaiyang Tower is three miles away from the Governor's Yamen, and we can see such a big fire here, so the houses around Huaiyang Tower must be on fire, otherwise there can't be such a big fire! ”

As soon as Gu Changwei finished speaking, he heard a panic outside the governor's yamen, and a group of officers and soldiers of the inspection department who were patrolling the night shouted: "Quick, there is a fire in Nancheng, there is an order from above, let us all go and put out the fire!" ”

Ma Cheng heard the officers and soldiers of the Inspection Department outside the wall say this, and sighed in his heart, he made such a big fuss for such a thing as himself. Ma Cheng looked at Gu Changwei beside him with great interest, sighed and said, "I'll go down first, tomorrow you go to Xu Dahu and ask them about the situation!" ”

Gu Changwei was on the rise, and he didn't pay attention to Ma Cheng's tone, nodded and agreed. Ma Cheng came down from the ladder and went back to the house to lie down, at this time he couldn't sleep.

Today is the second day of Ma Cheng's crossing, and it is also the first day that Ma Cheng comes into contact with the real Ming Dynasty society, thinking of the numb citizens in the city in the morning, thinking of the unjustly killed shopkeeper, and thinking of the ordinary people who are now wailing in the fire, Ma Cheng knows what kind of society he has come to.

This era is not the era in which there is a law to ensure that human life is higher than everything else, human life in this era is like a mustard, the Ming Dynasty official army, the Manchu Qing Tartars, Li Chuangliukou, none of these forces are human beings.

Ma Cheng remembered that it was written very clearly in the history of the Ming Dynasty that in the troubled times of more than 40 years at the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were more than ten records of cannibalism in the history of the Ming Dynasty. According to later estimates, due to war, famine, and natural disasters in the late Ming Dynasty, the entire Chinese population was reduced by 70 percent, and the Chinese population was directly reduced from more than 100 million people in the Wanli period to 30 million in the early years of Kangxi.

Of course, this is not much, the historical period with the largest population loss among the various dynasties is the Three Kingdoms, and the national population loss reaches 95 per million. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Shaanxi-Gansu Rebellion at the end of the Qing Dynasty directly reduced the Chinese population by 100 million, and the eight-year War of Resistance against Japan also caused the whole of China to lose 50 million people. Others, such as the end of the Qin Dynasty, the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the end of the Song Dynasty, and the end of the Yuan Dynasty, were times when human life was regarded as a mustard.

Thinking of this, Ma Cheng asked himself, do you want to become like those heroes in troubled times who kill people without blinking?