At this moment, there was a sudden high-pitched quarrel outside, as if the Ma family was trying their best to prevent someone from breaking in, Ma Ziyi's brows immediately furrowed, and he glanced at the personal servant next to him, and the servant hurriedly ran out. But soon he came back, with a look of disbelief on his face, and whispered a few words in Ma Ziyi's ear.

"Dog kills!" Ma Ziyi slapped his palm on the case next to him, and scolded angrily: "You go and take him to Jinglun Hall, I want to see what tricks this guy can play!" “

"What's going on, sir?" Master Zhao pointed to the servant's back and asked with some puzzlement.

"That Qiu Ba actually dared to rush to my house directly with the housekeeper in my house, it was really Sven sweeping the floor!" Ma Ziyi said hatefully, her teeth gurgling.

"What? Is this worth it? Liu Juren's face suddenly changed color: "What kind of system is this, this guy must be beaten to death to set an example!" “

Ma Ziyi led Liu Zhao and the others to Jinglun Hall in a menacing manner, only to see the maidservants in the house standing in groups of three or five pointing at the hall, looking at the hall, only to see a tall man wearing a five-grade military attache robe sitting on the top chair on the left, behind him stood two strong soldiers in armor and holding soldiers, and their butlers stood aside with their heads bowed and their hands down. I couldn't help but rush up to the top door angrily, flicked my sleeves and took three steps and two steps to grab this Jinglun Hall, and pointed at the man and shouted: "Wu Na man, who allowed you to come to the hall, don't roll down to the hall and wait!" “

The man ignored it, stood up with a smile, arched his hand so-so, and said with a smile: "This official is Liu Cheng, the military training capital of Yansui Town under the command of Yang Zhijun, and he raised the matter of cleaning up the Juntun in Yanzhou. Last night, a group of thieves set fire to the city of Qianhusuo in Juzhou, and I captured many people, and this person was one of them. He claimed to be the steward of your mansion, and said that he was instructed by someone. Although the official didn't believe it, he still brought this person to the old gentleman's mansion for identification, since the old gentleman said this, presumably this person is talking nonsense and slandering your mansion. The official retired first, and came to thank him after the case was over, and invited Haihan to the place where he collided! After Liu Cheng finished speaking, he turned around and left, and the two soldiers pushed the housekeeper and wanted to take him away.

"Wait! Where are you going? “

Liu Cheng stopped and said with a smile: "Naturally, I will send this person to Lu Zhizhou to find out his identity, after all, we are not government servants, and we are not good at trying cases." ”

"Sit down and talk!" Ma Ziyi said coldly, he walked to the main seat and sat down, Liu Zhao and the others behind him also hurriedly sat down on the chair on the right when they saw this, staring at Liu Cheng viciously, Liu Cheng smiled and said: "The elder gives, don't dare to resign, since this is the case, the kid is disrespectful!" ”

"Tell me, what do you want to do?" Ma Ziyi tried to suppress the anger in his chest, but he still felt a burst of tightness in his chest, as if a pair of invisible hands were squeezing his chest hard, making him breathless.

"The old gentleman is a cheerful man!" Liu Cheng laughed: "Okay, I'm also a cheerful person, so I opened the skylight and said something bright, to be honest, I was also startled when I caught someone last night, the thousands of households in the house, the housekeeper of your house, the rebel who is disobedient and unfilial, the smuggler who is a salt dealer, the murderer who fights and kills, and the thief who steals and slaughters the cattle ran to everything to burn me to death, this match is very wonderful, if it didn't happen to me, I must have thought it was a drama made up by someone else?" Speaking of this, Liu Cheng couldn't help laughing.

"Enough is enough!" Ma Ziyi shouted: "Don't go too far, I'll give you three thousand taels of silver, and you will release him immediately!" “

"Three thousand taels of silver?" Liu Cheng suddenly laughed, stimulated by his laughter, Ma Ziyi's face became more and more ugly, the horse raised people couldn't stand it anymore, stood up and pointed at Liu Cheng and shouted: "Don't be too greedy, three thousand taels of silver is enough to buy you ten lives!" ”

"Shut up!" Ma Ziyi stopped the speech of his pig teammates, stared at Liu Cheng with a pair of eyes, and asked, "Too little?" Okay, how much do you say? “

"I don't want money, as long as you agree to my request, I don't want a tael of silver to release people!"

"Don't want a tael of silver?" Ma Ziyi's frowning brows did not relax because of Liu Cheng's answer, judging from his long life experience, those who don't want money are often more troublesome than those who ask for money.

"Yes, I only have one request!" Liu Cheng took out a document from his arms: "Sir, your house has occupied a total of 75 acres of cultivated land and 25 acres of cultivated land in Juntun, and 30 acres of grassland, which are divided into four places. As long as you return all the occupied military cantonments, what happened last night will be as if nothing happened! “

"Don't think!" Before Ma Ziyi could answer, Liu Juren on the side shouted loudly, he pointed at Liu Cheng and shouted: "The surname Liu, don't go too far, a military training department, Lao Tzu can give you a good look if he sends a letter to the imperial court." You say that these lands are military cantonments, and they are military cantonments? This is obviously the land of Mr. Ma's family, you get out of Ma's mansion for me immediately! ”

Liu Cheng sneered, but ignored Liu Juren, and put the piece of paper back in his arms: "Old gentleman, I haven't finished talking just now, and the military cantonment land occupied by these two people, I don't know the names of these two, the number and address of the fields they occupied will need to be checked in two days before they can be reported, please forgive me!" ”

Liu Cheng's words seemed to add fuel to the fire, and suddenly Liu Ju jumped up with anger, Ma Ziyi stretched out his hand to stop his companion, and said coldly: "Liu Dusi, why are you suffering?" No matter how much we spit out of these military cantonments, not half an acre will fall on your head, and all the white silver will fall into your own pocket. Well, how about I add another thousand taels for a total of four thousand taels? ”

"Mr. Ma, I don't think you understand what I mean." The smile on Liu Cheng's face also disappeared: "I'll repeat again, I don't want silver, not a tael, do you understand?" ”

"I see!" Ma Ziyi nodded and stood up: "I misjudged you, come here, send off guests!" ”

As soon as the words fell, several healthy servants who had been waiting for a long time rushed to the hall, holding sticks in their hands, looking like they were going to beat Liu Cheng out. The two soldiers behind Liu Cheng hurriedly drew their swords to meet them, looking tense. Liu Cheng stopped his subordinates and said in a deep voice: "Mr. Ma, I think I haven't made it completely clear just now, after catching these thieves, I have already asked my subordinates to write their defenses and press their handprints, and then let people quickly send these things to Lord Yang Zhijun of Guyuan." Another hundred cavalry are about to come from Yan'an, and they will arrive this evening. Don't try to snatch these captives away from us. Recruit outlaws, burn down the guards, you are a scholar and you should know what this crime is. Okay, even if you have enough protégés of the Ma family to pass the buck, but I remember that you have a younger brother who is still an official in the court, and I am afraid that the old men of the Metropolitan Procuratorate will not let it go easily! Will he be returning to his hometown in the prime of life? A little military land, the career of your younger brother, which is more important, Mr. Ma, you weigh it yourself! ”

"You-" Ma Ziyi, who had always been reserved, was broken by Liu Cheng for the first time, and he pointed at Liu Cheng with trembling fingers and shouted: "You actually dare, actually-"

"Why not?" Liu Cheng sneered: "You dare to shelter outlaws and set fire to the Weisho City to take the life of someone from me, Liu, why don't I dare to break this matter into the sky and ruin the official reputation of your Ma family?" At least I haven't had anyone set a fire to your house yet. To tell you the truth, either you say yes or you pull it, you choose! ”

In the face of Liu Cheng's aggressive words, Ma Ziyi's attitude became shaken for the first time, and Liu Juren and Master Zhao next to him wanted to cheer him up, but he didn't know what to say. Finally, the old man's straight back collapsed, and Ma Ziyi lowered his head: "Okay, I promise you, you can draw the location of the military camp occupied by my family, and I will let people withdraw tomorrow." ”

"Okay, as for these two-" Liu Cheng's gaze turned to Liu Juren and Master Zhao, and Liu Juren was just about to speak, when he heard Ma Ziyi reply: "Don't worry, this matter is on me!" ”

"That's good!" Liu Cheng laughed: "Then I'll quit!" With that, he bowed to Ma Ziyi and turned to leave, followed closely by the two soldiers with the butler.

As soon as Liu Cheng's figure disappeared behind the courtyard wall, Liu Juren grabbed Ma Ziyi's cuffs and said hurriedly: "Old man, how can you agree to this guy?" As soon as the words fell, I heard a wow, Ma Ziyi spit out a mouthful of blood in her mouth, and fell to the sky, but fortunately, the servant behind her reached out to support her, and shouted anxiously: "Master, what's wrong with you, what's wrong!" ”

Ma Ziyi's face was as defeated as a dead man, and the blood at the corners of his mouth was shocking, his fingers trembled slightly and pointed in the direction where Liu Cheng left, and muttered: "Give him the land!" ”

Rumors are like the legendary blue bird, by the evening of the same day, everything that happened in the Ma Mansion in the afternoon had spread to the living room of every upper-class family in Yanzhou, and the gentry and their relatives and friends were worried about Mr. Ma's illness, and indignantly discussed the matter of cleaning up the military camp. In the eyes of these well-educated people, the lands that belonged to their families in the distant past (when of course people always subconsciously exaggerated the time they had possessed those lands to the point that it is impossible to find out) were indisputable legitimate possessions, on which they spent so much money and energy to plant fruit trees, repair dikes and ridges, build houses, and even the tombs of their ancestors. How is it possible that a bullshit commander has swallowed it all with just an edict from the Trilateral Governor's Palace? It is not difficult to imagine how many mouths Liu Cheng would have to throw to ashes at this kind of gathering, but surprisingly, he was not the target of the most attacks. Because in the eyes of the vast majority of gentlemen, a martial artist like Liu Cheng is just a tool driven by others, and the first-class goods of dogs and horses are not qualified to bear their hatred at all, and Yang He, who stands behind Liu Cheng and initiates all this, is the real enemy. There are also some gentry who are dissatisfied with Ma Ziyi's weakness and making concessions just because of his brother's career, which in their opinion destroys the united front of the Junzhou gentry to resist the clean-up of the military camp, which is tantamount to a traitor.

At this time, Lu Boqi, the governor of Yanzhou, was in a very embarrassing situation, and this old man, who originally had the highest purpose of returning to his hometown with a full eunuch bag, never thought that he would encounter such a troublesome thing in the last year of his tenure as governor. If his previous idea was very simple, it was to honestly stand on the side of the local gentry, after all, although Yang He, as the vice minister of defense of the Ming Dynasty (the military department squire) and the highest military governor in the northwest (governor of the trilateral military affairs), was not his top boss Lu Boqi, even if he didn't like him, he could only send a badge to the imperial court and could not take off his black gauze hat; And offended the gentry and gentlemen in Juzhou, it is a trivial matter that the annual taxes and salaries cannot be collected, and it is not impossible to lose their heads.

But now the situation is different, Ma Ziyi, who is the head of the local gentry, has obediently handed over the occupied military tun, and that He Qianhu is like a servant all day long under the drive of Liu Cheng, although that He Qianhu used to have a low status among the gentry in Yanzhou, but he is also a hereditary military attache of the fifth grade of the hard state, will it cause any trouble to work against such a person?

Therefore, Lu Boqi, the supreme governor of Dunzhou, adopted an attitude similar to that of an ostrich when encountering danger, burying his head in the sand, anyway, as long as no one beat the big drum in front of the yamen, he would treat nothing as if nothing had happened, and hid at home every day and held a copy of the "Notes on the Four Books", as if the Zhu Yuanhui and Zhu Sage in the book could give any answer.

It seems that God heard the prayer of this Lu Zhizhou, and it has been half a month since Ma Ziyi was vomited blood by Liu Chengqi, and the Ma family really handed over the Juntun land drawn by Liu Cheng as he promised, although the other Liu Juren and Master Zhao were a little reluctant, but firstly, Ma Ziyi made an example, and secondly, both of them had the handle in Liu Cheng's hands, and they had to procrastinate and hand over the occupied tuntian. Liu Cheng saw that the three families handed over the tuntian, and also released the horse steward and the captured house slaves back, of course, these people all left a fingerprint and did not mention it. In this way, in less than a month, Liu Chengcheng recovered a total of more than 100 tilts of Tuntian and nearly 200 tilts of grassland, which was absolutely outstanding among the first batch of personnel sent by Yang He to clean up Tuntian.

Just as Liu Cheng was thinking about how to take another bite of food from the mouths of those local gentry in Dunzhou, an uninvited guest-Xu Hecheng came to his residence-Qianhu City, Yanzhou, after the fire, he asked He Qianhu to provide a lot of materials, and took his own soldiers and a hundred new cavalry to build houses in the city while repairing the city walls, looking like he was going to live here for a long time. When Xu Hecheng saw Liu Cheng, he saw that this notorious master of the capital in the city of Yanzhou was shirtless, directing a group of subordinates to put up a beam in a lobby.