Gu Changwei is worthy of being an expert in killing people and setting fires, and the fire in the south of the city made him right, it was Xu Dahu who deliberately set fire to all the surrounding houses in order to ensure that all the people in Huaiyang Tower were burned to death. Xu Dahu's reason is very simple, at that time, the shopkeepers and men of these shops also saw that they committed murder, and they were also eyewitnesses, in order to reduce the trouble of the second master, Xu Dahu took it upon himself to expand the ignition area.

Xu Dahu's main worries, coupled with the poor fire prevention awareness in the Ming Dynasty, and the southeast wind in spring, the people of Fengyang Nancheng were unlucky. In the eighth year of Chongzhen, it was already choked by Li Chuang, and with the fire in Nancheng this time, Fengyang City, which had just recovered some vitality after seven or eight years, was beaten back to its original state.

But fortunately, after Li Chuang's destruction in Fengyang, there is basically nothing to burn in the city, so this Nancheng fire slowly stopped after burning half of the Nancheng, but it was a pity that the bell and drum tower in Nancheng, the only building that could have been preserved to future generations, was also burned in this Fengyang fire after being implicated by Ma Cheng.

According to the data reported by Fengyang County, the fire burned down half of the southern city, more than 3,000 families lost their homes, and more than 2,000 Fengyang residents died in the fire, and countless property was damaged.

Xu Zhenye, the magistrate of Fengyang, who originally dreamed of being promoted to an official and making a fortune, sat on the ground in fright after learning that half of Fengyang South City had been burned down. Killed so many people, burned so many houses, and cut it still in the central capital of the empire, don't say that he is Xu Hongji's godson, even Xu Hongji's own father is not useful, he is guilty of this black pot.

Just when Xu Dazhi County was thinking about the rest of his life, our protagonist Ma Cheng was preparing to study seriously at home.

In fact, Ma Cheng's study in his previous life was not bad, he was able to go from a township junior high school to the county focus, and then make persistent efforts to be admitted to an ordinary university, Ma Cheng still has some experience in exam-oriented education.

So Ma Cheng also made up his mind after being grounded by Yue Qijie, and he was ready to prepare and make his cheap son Ma Shiying come back and be impressed. But Ma Cheng thought very well, and he was dumbfounded when he took the Analects and looked at it.

In his previous life, Ma Cheng couldn't do liberal arts, or he couldn't choose a computer major, but he could still understand half-literate Ming Dynasty novels such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Journey to the West. So Ma Cheng thought that even if he didn't recognize traditional characters, he wouldn't be the same as illiterate!

Ma Cheng confidently flipped out the Analects in the dusty books, but when he opened it, he was dumbfounded, if they were all traditional Chinese characters, Ma Cheng would have recognized them, fortunately, most of the traditional Chinese characters are similar to simplified Chinese characters, and he may guess what it means in context, but the lack of punctuation and broken chapters really gives him a headache.

Ma Cheng looked at the first sentence of the Analects of Linguistics, "Zi said: Learning and learning from time to time is not also said to have friends from afar, and people are not happy to know and are not ashamed of gentlemen", Ma Cheng didn't recognize a word except for the sum of it, let alone read it fluently.

Ma Cheng was originally unfamiliar with the Analects, and most of them were traditional Chinese characters that he didn't recognize, and there was no punctuation.

Ma Cheng flipped through the Analects for a long time, didn't remember a word, and couldn't pick up a book of Zengguang Xianwen from the desk again, and opened it to see that the first sentence was "In the past, the Analects were collected and resonated, and the number of views and news increased." It's similar to the Analects, but I don't know what it means.

Ma Cheng picked up the third book, and at first glance it was a thousand-character text, "Heaven and Earth, Xuanhuang Universe, Flood Desolation, Sun and Moon, Bright Chen, Column!" Ma Cheng knew the first sentence, but the second paragraph of the sun and moon Yingyu what the word Ma Cheng did not recognize, the Ming Dynasty did not have pinyin, Ma Cheng did not know what the pronunciation was.

Ma Cheng sighed and flipped through on the table, picked up the most basic three-character scripture, and saw that he knew this, in fact, he didn't need to look at Ma Cheng to understand, if a Chinese didn't even know the words "people's original nature is similar to goodness and habits are far away", then it is really Chinese.

Ma Cheng knew that the three-character classic was the lowest-grade enlightenment reading, and he was enlightened at the age of five in the Ming Dynasty, which meant that five-year-old preschool children should learn the three-character classic, and Ma Cheng was now eighteen years old and was still reading the three-character classic, and Ma Cheng himself felt that he couldn't afford to lose this person.

"It seems that no matter what life I have in my past life, I am not a material for reading! It seems that the promising career of the second ancestor is suitable for him! Ma Cheng found a reasonable explanation for himself and threw away the book, ready to go to the end on the road of the second ancestor wholeheartedly.

Just when Ma Cheng was completely dead in his mind of studying, the courtyard door rang, and Gu Changwei ran in from outside.

"Second master, second master! The news is back! "It turned out that Gu Changwei was instructed by Ma Cheng today to go outside to investigate the damage caused by last night's fire.

"Gu San is back, how about the losses outside?"

"Second master, the loss is very large. The villain went to ask Xu Dahu, he originally just wanted to burn down Huaiyang Tower, but he didn't expect the southeast wind to blow strongly last night, so the fire took advantage of the wind and burned down half of the southern city! ”

Ma Cheng stood up when he heard that half of Nancheng had been burned, and scolded: "Okay, this Xu Dahu, didn't he just let him kill people and kill his mouth, why did he burn half of Nancheng?" ”

Gu Changwei saw that Ma Cheng was angry, and Si Si Ai Ai explained: "Second master, in fact, you can't complain about Xu Dahu and them, they are also for the good of the second master!" ”

Ma Cheng was angry when he heard it, what? Burned half of Nancheng or for the sake of the master?

"Gu San, why did Xu Dahu burn half of the southern city, and he still wanted the master to thank him if he burned so many people?"

"Second master, if you just kill the guys in Huaiyang Building and burn down Huaiyang Tower, then you will definitely be suspicious of the second master. So Xu Dahu is making their own opinions, since they set fire to it, they will set it bigger, anyway, they are all burned, and Wei Guogong is not sure whether it was a fire or someone set it on fire! ”

Ma Cheng heard Gu Changwei say this and had nothing to say, did he want to punish his subordinates who were loyal to him? Who's going to follow you after that? Thinking of this, Ma Cheng had no choice but to acquiesce to what Xu Dahu did.

Ma Cheng thought about it, since he agreed to what Xu Dahu did, he would be rewarded! In this way, you can make your subordinates more motivated. Thinking of this, Ma Cheng asked, "Gu San, how much silver do I have?" ”

Gu Changwei said with a bitter face when he heard Ma Cheng ask for silver: "Second master, now you can receive eight taels of silver every month, but the second master used to be very bold, and yesterday he rewarded forty taels at once, and now there are less than ten taels of silver left!" ”

Ma Cheng's face was full of incredulity when he heard Gu Changwei say this, his dignified governor's concubine could still lack silver? In Ma Cheng's impression, corrupt officials and corrupt officials are everywhere in ancient China, isn't there a good saying, three years of Qing prefect's 100,000 snowflakes of silver. A four-rank prefect can get 100,000 silver, and his father is the commander of the second-grade military region, don't you get 1.8 million to be worthy of the word governor?

"Fart, did Lao Tzu's money make you eat kickbacks?" Ma Cheng was born in the countryside and was extremely sensitive to money, and now he will inevitably get angry when he hears Gu Changwei say that he is a poor bastard.

Gu Changwei heard Ma Cheng say this, and quickly knelt down and explained: "Second master, the villain has the courage to embezzle the second master's money!" The second master's monthly use of eight taels of silver is given by the old lady! ”

Gu Changwei raised his eyes and looked at Ma Cheng and said: "Actually, eight taels of silver is already a lot, a border army is only less than nine taels a year, and the pacesetters of the Lord's Governor's Mansion are only a dozen taels, even the lord himself, it is only more than one hundred and twenty taels per month!" ”

Ma Cheng was surprised when he heard Gu Changwei say this, didn't he act very well in the TV series in later generations, he had dozens of taels of silver for a meal, and Wei Xiaobao was even more burdened with millions of silver tickets. But the reality is like this, his own Lao Tzu is a dignified and second-class governor, and he only earns more than 120 taels a month.

Ma Cheng saw Gu Changwei swearing to the sky, knowing that Gu Changwei shouldn't dare to lie to himself, Ma Cheng asked, "Gu San, how much do you pay every month?" ”

"Second master, the villain is a hereditary hundred households, and there are two stones of brown rice sent by the imperial court every month, in addition to these villains, they are also the second master's long-term followers, eight dollars of silver per month, which is enough for the villain's family to chew. However, in the past few years, only 50% of the brown rice of 100 households has been distributed, and the supply has been cut off from time to time, but the monthly monthly salary in the house can still be distributed in full! In addition to the more than 20 acres of land accumulated by the ancestors of these villains, the land in Guizhou is barren and there is no income every year. These items add up to an income of forty or fifty taels a year, and the villain's family of seven is counting on this to live. ”

After listening to Gu Changwei, Ma Cheng found that although there was a large influx of silver in the Ming Dynasty, silver still had a lot of value among the people. Gu Changwei's family of eight people only spends fifty taels a year. Ninety-six taels per year alone, which is twice as much as Gu Changwei's family.

"Gu San, is forty or fifty taels enough for seven people in your family a year?"

Gu San smiled bitterly and said: "Second master, of course it was enough when you were in Guiyang, but when you get to Fengyang, it is a little insufficient, the price here in Fengyang is too high, and you have to put money in it every month." Fortunately, the villain lives in the house with the second master all the year round, and the villain is exempted from eating alone, so that the general can be maintained. ”

"Of the eight people in your family, who has come to listen to it, and what do you need help with?" Gu Changwei can be said to be Ma Cheng's first confidant, and he has always been unambiguous about his own people, after all, only when his subordinates have a good life can they work for you.

Gu San heard Ma Cheng's question and quickly replied: "My father died in battle ten years ago to protect the old lady of the Gu family, the old mother of the family is still alive, there is a younger brother and a younger sister, and the villain has a mother-in-law and two sons, a total of seven people!" The villain's younger brother is now an errand boy under Master Gu, and the eldest son Gu Zhong became a Ding last year, and he has been promoted by the old lady to become a pacesetter under the old man's governor's standard, so he also has some income every month! ”

Gu Changwei's eldest son was a personal soldier in the governor's yamen, no wonder Gu Changwei saw Zhang Guozhu like a mouse and a cat, it turned out to be like this.

Ma Cheng nodded, thinking that he still lacked a girl, if Gu Changwei's sister was old enough, she would get her to be a maid ring for herself, after all, Gu Changwei was his own person, so it was more reassuring to use it.