Mafu.

Ma Ziyi got up very early, although he is over sixty years old, he still maintains the school he used to study as a teenager

When he had good living habits, he got up at four o'clock with the help of his sixth aunt to freshen up and change clothes. While he was waiting for breakfast, a personal servant walked in briskly and whispered a few words in Ma Ziyi's ear, his eyebrows immediately furrowed.

"Where's the man?"

"Tell the master, I'll let him wait in the ear room of the side door!" The servant replied in a low voice.

"Okay, you lead that guy to the firewood room next to it now, I'll go over later, remember not to let others see it!" Ma Ziyi said in a low voice.

"Yes, sir!" The servant withdrew from the door. Ma Ziyi paced back and forth in the room a few times, and scolded in a low voice: "Waste! ”

At this time, the sixth aunt came in from the outer room, and behind her, two maidservants carried breakfast on trays. The sixth aunt Taiyuan is from Suzhou, but Ma Ziyi was accepted when she was in the eunuch, she just entered the door and did not see Ma Ziyi's gloomy face, and said with a smile: "Master, I made your favorite chicken porridge and Huzhou zongzi this morning, you can eat more!" “

"That's it!" Ma Ziyi forcibly suppressed the anger in her chest, pretending to be casual and said to the sixth aunt: "You eat alone, I have something to do to go to the side yard!" “

"Master, it took me a few days of hard work, it's not easy to get rice and leaves from Huzhou zongzi in Shaanxi, you better eat some!" The sixth aunt smiled too much and took a zongzi and brought it up, and put the peeled zongzi to Ma Ziyi's mouth while being coquettish.

"I've already said I'm not going to eat it!" Ma Ziyi swept his right arm and knocked the zongzi to the ground, he looked at the sixth aunt who was stunned by his behavior, snorted coldly, and pushed the door out.

In the firewood room, Qi Jiu was holding two steamed buns and swallowing them heavily, looking at him, he was obviously hungry. At this time, Ma Ziyi walked in from outside, and Qi Jiu hurriedly stood up and saluted when he saw it, but he was accidentally choked by the food in his mouth, and grabbed his throat in pain and made a gratifying sound. Seeing him like this, Ma Ziyi's brows furrowed more and more, and she pointed to Qi Jiu's servant beside him: "Help him!" ”

"Yes, sir!" The servant hurriedly walked to Qi Jiu's side and slapped the other man's back hard, and soon Qi Jiu spat out the food in his throat, bent down and coughed in pain.

"Now tell me everything that happened last night, quick!" Ma Ziyi asked impatiently.

"Yes, sir!" Qi Jiu swallowed his saliva and said in a low voice: "Last night, we were ordered by Steward Ma to go to the side of the Qianhu House, and joined He Qianhu and a few of his own soldiers. The fire burned very fast, and in the blink of an eye, we saw that the flames were soaring into the sky, and half of the sky was illuminated, and we hid in the woods and thought that none of the military families in this city would be able to escape—"

"Shut up!" Ma Ziyi couldn't bear Qi Jiu's verbosity anymore, and shouted: "Whoever asks you this, pick up the important ones!" ”

"Yes, yes, yes!" Qi Jiu hurriedly responded, he looked at the personal servant standing behind Ma Ziyi with some confusion, wanting to get a hint, seeing his subordinates like this, Ma Ziyi had to sigh: "Just tell me what happened later, why did you run back alone, and the others?" “

"Yes, yes! Later, we saw that the city of Husho was burning bigger and bigger, and suddenly the back of the woods was also on fire, and everyone had to run to the small river to avoid the fire, but they were attacked with firearms, and many people died, and then someone came with knives and guns, and I was so frightened that I turned around and ran back into the woods, and broke through the flames to escape with my life! ”

"Wait, you said your attackers had firearms?" Ma Ziyi finally found some valuable information from the messy reports of his subordinates.

"Yes, yes, it's definitely a firearm, I heard a sound, the first dozen or so seemed to have been struck by lightning, fortunately I ran slowly, otherwise I would have died by the river!" Qi Jiu's face was full of joy and fear.

"What about the others? What about Steward Ma, and what about He Qianhu? Ma Ziyi asked with a glimmer of hope.

"I don't know!" Qi Jiu shook his head: "It was dark at the time, it would be good to be able to take care of yourself, where to take care of them, it may be dead, it may be caught by thieves, and it may be lost." ”

"That's it!" Ma Ziyi covered his eyes in pain, he never expected that his carefully planned strategy would fail like this, obviously the attacker was Liu Dusi who came to check the military tun, otherwise they would not have so many sophisticated firearms, all they can do now is to pray that He Qianhu and Steward Ma will not fall into the hands of that Liu Dusi alive, otherwise they will suffer endlessly.

"Master, do you want to dispose of this person to prevent future troubles!" The personal servant glanced at Qi Jiu, who was standing there stupidly.

Ma Ziyi thought for a while, then shook his head and said, "Forget it, anyway, there is no shortage of this person in the hands of that Liu Dusi now." “

"Yes, sir!" The servant answered and said in a low voice: "Then do you want to invite Lu Zhizhou here, and you can be prepared if you inform him." ”

"Forget it!" Ma Ziyi shook his head: "Lu Boqi is a rogue official, it is easy to let him act as if he didn't see it, but if he knows and doesn't do anything, it will be difficult." You go and invite Liu Juren, Master Zhao, and a few of them, and discuss them together before making a claim! “

"Yes, sir!"

looked at the personal servant who was walking towards the door, and then looked back at Qi Jiu, who was sitting on the ground and continued to nibble on steamed buns, Ma Ziyi couldn't help but shake his head and scolded in a low voice: "Rotten wood can't be carved!" Then he went back to his study, and while he had breakfast, he waited for the guests to arrive. I don't know why, the delicious chicken porridge and Huzhou zongzi are like wood in the mouth, and it is difficult to swallow, Ma Ziyi flicked her sleeves after eating a few bites: "Withdraw it, I'm already full!" “

Ma Ziyi was like an ant on a hot pot in the study, standing up every few minutes and walking to the door to see if the invited person was coming, and at noon I saw the personal servant running over, Ma Ziyi hurriedly asked, "Is anyone coming?" ”

"Liu Juren is just outside the door, and Master Zhao may not be until the afternoon." The servant replied breathlessly.

"Why is it so slow?"

"Tell the master, yesterday was Liu Juren's mother-in-law's birthday, Liu Juren went to pay his birthday and got drunk, and he woke up at noon; Master Zhao had a nephew of the same year passing by yesterday and went to Yihong Mansion to make trouble for two watches, and I heard that Mrs. was angry, and even her face was broken! The servant's voice became quieter and quieter, and at last it was like a mosquito.

"Lack of erection and conspiracy!" Ma Ziyi suddenly scolded: "What time is it, I can't let go of the word wine!" I, Ma Ziyi, am really blind to be in the company of such characters! ”

When Ma Ziyi was pointing to the sky and scolding the earth, a black fat man panted into the yard, and he was still more than ten meters away from Ma Ziyi, so he smiled and said: "Mr. Ma, I made a birthday for my mother-in-law yesterday, so I drank a few more cups, I don't want to oversleep, Haihan, Haihan!" Seeing this, Ma Ziyi was even more angry, and without speaking, she flicked her sleeves and turned around and went into the house. Seeing this, Liu Juren's face changed slightly, and when he saw that the personal servant gave him a look, he hurriedly followed him into the house with a shy face, and sang a fat promise to Ma Ziyi: "Mr. Ma, I really didn't expect you to come to look for me early this morning, and you also know that I have this hobby on weekdays." “

"Say no more!" Ma Ziyi forcibly suppressed the anger in her chest: "Do you know where we are now? Privately sending house slaves and burning the guard at night, what kind of crime is this? If you're not careful, you're going to raid your family and exterminate your family! “

"Old man!" Liu Juren snorted: "You may not be too careful, Liu Mou said a big word, in this Dunzhou, one acre and three points of land, is not our world?" That bullshit Dusi still dares to measure Tuntian, not to mention arson, what if the house slaves rush up and kill him? At most, everyone spent a few hundred taels of silver to buy a few lives to pay for it. ”

Ma Ziyi saw Liu Juren's confident appearance, and the anger in his chest disappeared all of a sudden, and he sneered: "Then what if things don't work out and let people catch the handle?" ”

That Liu Juren still looked indifferent: "Handle? What can be the handle? Can we all be arrested and sent to the church? Then Lu Zhizhou is fed with silver, can we still lose this lawsuit? ”

"Really?" Ma Ziyi laughed instead of being angry when she heard this, and shouted to the outside world: "Call that Qi Jiu!" After a while, he pointed to the confused Liu Juren and said to Qi Jiu, "You tell Master Liu what happened last night!" ”

"How so?" A few minutes later, Liu Juren, who looked gloomy, turned his head to Ma Ziyi and asked, "Isn't He Qianhu all arranged?" How did it come to this? By the way, what about Steward Ma and He Qianhu? Where did these two go? ”

"Where else can I go?" Ma Ziyi sneered: "The city of Qianhu is also seven or eight miles away from here, and even the rolling and climbing in the night has already run back this morning, and now that noon has passed, even if you climb, you can climb back." Either he died in the chaos, or he fell into the hands of those Qiu Ba. ”

"Amitabha, the Buddha blessed these two dead, don't fall into the hands of those Qiu Ba!" Ma Juren closed his eyes and prayed, at this time there was a rush of footsteps outside, it turned out that the old man Zhao who had tossed the night in Yihong Mansion last night finally came, only to see that he was wearing a silk robe, and a large piece of plaster was pasted on the right cheek, and he made a group as soon as he entered the door, and said with a smile: "Let the two of you wait for a long time, I don't know what I shouldn't eat last night, I sent a wheal, and asked the doctor to put a plaster, and I don't know when it will be better!" “

Ma Ziyi was too lazy to quarrel with these disgusting things at this time, but just turned his head to the side and didn't see it, but Liu Juren jumped up as if he had been amnestied, pointed at Master Zhao's nose and scolded: "Okay, you Zhao Laosan, you dared to go to Yihong Mansion to drink flower wine last night when such a thing happened, and what kind of wheal did you say, it was obviously Mrs. who scratched her face, and came to deceive me, do you think we are easy to deceive?" “

That Master Zhao is a good-natured person, and he was not annoyed when Liu Juren pointed his nose and scolded, but he kept begging for mercy: "Master Liu, didn't there be a distant guest last night, I had to do it!" Spare me this time, and the host of Yihong Mansion will be mine next time! ”

The two of them were arguing hotly, but Ma Ziyi on the side couldn't listen to it anymore, stood up and shouted: "Both of you shut up for me, Qi Jiu, you tell Master Zhao everything that happened last night!" “

When Qi Jiu told him carefully about the arson last night, but was ambushed, Master Zhao's well-maintained white fat face was already covered with beads of sweat the size of soybeans, and he couldn't stop saying: "How is this good, how is this good!" “

"Zhao Laosan, you just don't say a few words!" Liu Juren on the side directly interrupted Master Zhao's words, turned his head and said to Ma Ziyi: "Mr. Ma, as the students see, the most important thing at the moment is that everyone should form a group, although the incident last night was only done by the three of us, but in the end, it is for everyone, as long as the gentry in Dunzhou can form a group, the big thing will be a fart in the end!" “

Listening to Liu Juren's words, Ma Ziyi nodded silently, although the other party's words were rude, but they were very appropriate to describe the local political pattern at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Different from the great unified regime established by the Han people such as the Han, Tang and Song dynasties, in order to reduce the cost of the operation of the regime, the Ming Empire actually gave up the efforts to intervene in the grassroots and obtain fiscal and tax resources from the grassroots from the founding of the country, but embarked on a road of entrusting the grassroots politics and taxation to the gentry group in exchange for the support of this group and obtaining fiscal and tax resources. In other words, the identity of the gentry in the Ming Dynasty was not just a simple retired official and student, but also assumed the responsibility of a "tax collector" and a grassroots judge. It is not difficult to see that under this pattern of interests, except for the founding emperors such as Taizu and Chengzu, who had great political prestige and strong force, the subsequent imperial power was actually quite weak in the face of this group, because the central government could not bypass this group to obtain the necessary financial resources from the grassroots, so when there was a conflict of interests between the two sides, in order to avoid destroying the overall situation, the central government often had to make certain concessions. Therefore, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, it is not surprising that the people of Jiangnan were crushed by the transshipment of grain, while the gentry were often in arrears of taxes for decades, and the eunuchs and brocade guards who were sent to supervise the collection of taxes were beaten to death by the people instigated by the local gentry in the street, and finally it was not resolved. Under this political pattern, if the gentry of Dunzhou can really form a group, then even if this conflict is in front of the Son of Heaven, the final result is likely to end in harmony.

Liu Juren saw Ma Ziyi nodded, and slapped his palms excitedly: "Okay, I'll post it immediately, and I'll talk about things at my house in the evening, and invite Lu Zhizhou to come, so that he can also understand the attitude of our Junzhou gentry!" “