The stars are like brocade, the night is deep, there is still a lone lamp in a courtyard in the mansion of Wu Guogong, Ma embroidered tiger head shoes under the lamp, her technique is very skillful, and the slender silver needle keeps shuttling on the upper of the shoe, as if she has eyes.

From time to time, she also took a needle and teased her sideburns, even though the hair there looked like it was carved up. I don't know if I thought of the cute appearance of children wearing tiger head shoes, and the corners of my mouth couldn't help but show a shallow smile.

Hiss, she suddenly took a breath of cold air, perhaps because of her distraction, and accidentally pierced her finger with the tip of the needle, and a little red blood gradually floated up to her fingertips, she put it between her lips and sipped the fishy sweet taste, and there was a palpitation for no reason.

The first time she felt this way, her husband was put in prison by his stepfather; the second time, his father-in-law died of illness in Chuzhou; The third time, his son Zhu Wenxun died in the Taiping War......

......A loud cry interrupted her thoughts, and she got up to look at the carved sandalwood bed on the side.

There were five children sleeping there, the eldest was no more than six or seven years old, and the youngest was only two years old, and they were arranged from the head of the bed to the end of the bed, of different heights, like a pan flute.

One of them was pressing his hands and feet on the youngest child at the moment, and the little baby naturally didn't do it, struggling to get rid of it, but his strength was small and he had to cry helplessly.

A fourteen or fifteen-year-old little maid sat on the edge of the bed, dozing off with her cheeks, her little head shaking constantly, as if she could fall down at any time. Hearing the child's crying, he immediately woke up and hurriedly went to correct the dishonest child.

Ma Shi held the crying little baby in his arms, shook it gently, and after a short time stopped crying, and fell asleep sweetly again. Ma let out a long breath, if he woke up the other children, I am afraid that he would not have to sleep tonight.

As soon as the child was put down, a familiar footsteps sounded in the yard, and a middle-aged man in a purple robe strode into the house, and saw that several children on the bed were sleeping, so he immediately relaxed his steps and asked in a low voice: "The child is crying again?" ”

Ma nodded, "The fourth child is not honest when he sleeps, and he makes the little one cry." ”

The man smiled, "This is like me, I heard my mother say that in the past, I used to make the family restless all night." There is nothing to eat, I am hungry. ”

Ma Shi nodded, "There is also a bowl of millet porridge warmed in the cage drawer, Lu'er, you can bring it." She went to the cabinet next to her and took out a small bag of dim sum, opened it and put it on the small table on the side, and the little maid also brought a big bowl of rice porridge and a small plate of pickles.

The man picked up the porridge bowl, picked up the pickled vegetables and planed them, and a big bowl of rice porridge snorted and went down.

That's right, this man is Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and now he is a prince who occupies half of Jiangnan, southern Anhui, eastern Zhejiang, and half of Jiangxi.

As for why his supper is so simple, there is no need to be surprising, because he is a miser, stingy with others, and can only be said to be harsh to himself, and when he became the emperor, he didn't have a rich meal, let alone now.

At this time, he was only thirty-five years old, in the prime of life, with a dark face, thick eyebrows and tiger eyes, a nose like a gall, a pitch-black mustache, and a short beard under his chin.

There is really nothing remarkable about the appearance, and if you change into a ragged shirt, there is no difference between a peasant who is digging in the field. Of course, it is not the most widespread terrible appearance of the earth in later generations.

If you have to find something extraordinary, it is that his jaws and cheekbones are relatively large, which makes the original simple face a little more majestic.

As for this woman, she is Lao Zhu's wife, the future mistress of the Ming Dynasty, and the Ma family who is nicknamed Empress Xiaoci Gao. Of course, she also has a more resounding name, Ma Dajia.

Lao Zhu put down the dishes and chopsticks, carefully wrapped the open mung bean cake, and handed it to Ma Dajia's hand, "It's too sweet, it's so tired, leave it for the children to eat." ”

Ma Dajia wiped off the porridge film stuck to Lao Zhu's mouth with a handkerchief, and asked casually, "Why is it so late today?" The concubine thought that her husband had gone to sleep elsewhere. ”

Old Zhu Nong's eyebrows twisted, "There are important matters that are difficult to decide, so I have been discussing with everyone for a long time." ”

Ma Dajia just snorted, her husband didn't say anything about military affairs, and she never asked. Don't think that her godfather, godbrother and husband are all "thieves", and she is a rough woman before she has bound her feet.

After Guo Zixing accepted her as a righteous daughter, he carefully taught, not only did the knitting girl do well, but the history of Wenmo was not bad at all, "there is wisdom, good history books" is the evaluation of her.

On the contrary, Lao Zhu looked like he wanted to speak and stopped, Ma Dajia couldn't know more about her husband, she waved away the maid and asked: "If the husband has any difficult things, he might as well talk to the concubine, and he can always share some of them." ”

Don't think that Ma Dajia is talking big, at the beginning of Lao Zhu's business, she has always been Lao Zhu's confidential secretary and logistics director, and later Lao Zhu had more ministers and brave generals, so she gradually withdrew from these two roles.

During the Battle of Longwan, many people saw that Chen Youliang was powerful, and many people suggested that Zhu Yuanzhang surrender or escape, while she took her female dependents to make military uniforms, shoes and socks to raise money and distribute money to boost morale.

Push it a little further, if it weren't for her, Zhu Yuanzhang might have had his head cut off by Guo Zixing, she is Zhu Yuanzhang's staunchest supporter, irreplaceable.

Lao Zhu smiled, "This matter is related to Madame, so I don't know how to speak." As he spoke, he took out something from his sleeve, a red rope hung on his finger, and a jade pendant swayed slowly in the air.

It was a pale cyan jade pendant, obviously in the shape of a yin-yang fish (Note 1), with a horse's head carved out, and I don't know what the idea was.

The quality of the jade is not too good, there are a lot of impurities, the oily and shiny seems to be often played, and the carving is generally even a little clumsy, and it is only a few taels of silver on the market.

Ma Dajia smiled, "I don't know when I lost it, but I was picked up by my husband." She subconsciously touched her chest, and her face suddenly changed. She pulled out an identical jade pendant from her neckline, looked at herself, and then looked at the face full of astonishment in Zhu Yuanzhang's hand.

She suddenly tore off her jade pendant, snatched the jade pendant in Zhu Yuanzhang's hand, gently put it together, and formed a circle together.

Lao Zhu sat aside, caressing Ma Dazu's back and soothing, I don't know how long it took for Ma Dazu to stop sobbing, and his eyes were red when he raised his head.

"Where are the people?" She looked at her husband expectantly.

Zhu Yuanzhang took out three letters from his arms, two of which were signed, namely Zhu Wenzheng, the governor of Dadu, and Deng Yu, who participated in the politics of Jiangxi.

After reading it one by one, the color of expectation in his eyes was greatly reduced, but there was more disappointment, of course, more incredible.

Metropolitan Governor Zhu Wen is the nephew of her husband, although he has been arrogant in recent years, he has a straightforward temper and is not good at lying.

Although Deng Yu is young, he is old, and he defected to his husband with tens of thousands of horses when he was more than ten years old.

He also has his own family of people in Hongdu, even if Zhu Wenzheng's official position is higher than his, it is difficult to coerce.

What's more, the two have no reason to lie at all, and it's such an absurd and bizarre lie. She still subconsciously asked, "Really?" ”

"I'm afraid it won't be fake, there is still the information I handed over from the inspection school (Note 2) that I placed in the army, and this inspection school was on the scene at the time, and the letters from Wenzheng and Boyan can corroborate each other, and it can't be wrong."

Ma Dajia twisted his eyebrows, "Nothing else?" Since this man has been unconscious? Why don't you send it to Yingtian, or find a famous doctor for treatment. ”

"Wen Zheng didn't say in the letter, maybe he is not in a coma, but in a meditation. Originally, I also wanted to send Yingtian, but I was afraid that he would be halfway...... Flew away. When he was packing up his belongings, he saw this jade pendant and hurriedly sent it over. ”

Ma Dajia looked at the two jade pendants in his hand, "Wen Zhengding is determined to see that I often see things and think about people, so I fell into the heart, and I used to think that this child was born with me because he misunderstood him." ”

She suddenly raised her head, "I'm going to Hongdu to ask for clarification!" She looked at Zhu Yuanzhang with envious eyes, "The concubine still remembers the joy of her husband when she met Wen Zheng in Chuzhou." ”

Zhu Yuanzhang thought for a moment and sighed: "I know that this matter can't stop you, so let's clean it up." Wen Yingming will come back from Zhenjiang early tomorrow, this kid is close to you, and he is also careful in his work, and I am relieved to have him serve you all the way. ”

Ma Dajia was very happy and gave a deep salute, "Thank you, husband!" ”

Lao Zhu stretched out his hand to help his wife up, "Why do you and I have to say such unseemly words." But you can't delay too long in Hongdu, I have prepared a few clippers for you, more sailors, and you can go back and forth in a few days. ”

Ma Dajia was stunned, "Where is the husband going?" ”

Zhu Yuanzhang said lightly: "My father has decided to rush to the aid of Anfeng, tomorrow Xu Da and Chang Yuchun will lead the army first, and after Mr. Li raises good grain and grass and the army is assembled, this father will lead the army to set off, no more than ten days." ”

Ma Dajia snorted twice when he heard this, but he didn't say anything.

Note 1 Yin and Yang Fish: Tai Chi pattern, just like two fish entangled with one black and one white, the black one is yin, the white one is yang, and the jade pendant mentioned in the text is the shape of black or white in the Tai Chi pattern.

Note 2: The predecessor of the inspection school brocade guard