The sun has risen for a while, there are more pedestrians on the streets of Yanchang County, the weather is not so cold, there are many busy figures in outdoor activities, at the city gate, the flow of people is intermittent, and several officials guarding the city gate hide under the base of the city wall to shelter from the wind and sun, drowsy under the warm sun. The work of defending the city should have been done by the soldiers of the guard, but the damned Wu Baihu pulled all the soldiers out of the city at once, saying that he was going to suppress the bandits for several months and did not return, and this work could only be done by the officials and the strong men drawn from the city. A few days ago, it was said that the bandits defeated the officials and troops from Yan'an Mansion, and they were frightened to learn that the county adults urged them to step up their precautions every day to prevent the thieves from attacking the city, so that everyone stood guard there in no black and white, and suffered a lot, but fortunately, it was just a false alarm. A month has passed, the thief has no movement, everything is calm, and everyone can relax. It's just that the people who enter and exit the city gate are some poor ghosts, and there is no oil and water to fish, so the officials would rather squat at the base of the wall and pretend to sleep, than bother to care about the crowd coming in and out.

At this time, one of the officials sensed that the situation was a little abnormal, and looked up to see the smoke and dust that was faintly raised by many people walking outside the city gate. He quickly woke his companion with his elbow, causing a whining. The officials opened their sleepy eyes and looked out from the city gate, and sure enough, a group of people and horses walked towards the city gate, and the officials suddenly became nervous, it could not be a thief who came to attack the city at this time.

There was a burst of chickens and dogs jumping at the city gate, and some of the officials immediately went over to close the city gate, and a sharp-eyed officer saw the banner of the official army, and hurriedly shouted not to close the city gate is the official army, and the team approached was indeed the official army, and it was the team of Wu Baihu who was originally stationed in the city, and everyone was relieved.

Wu Baihu rode in front of the team, a few guards followed closely, the unsheathed saber flashed with cold light, Wu Baihu seemed to be very unhappy, his face was gloomy and did not speak, the officials hurriedly came over to salute, Wu Baihu just waved his hand.

A general banner came and gathered the officials and said that when the officials and soldiers returned to the city, they would not have to work to guard the city gates, and the officers and soldiers quickly took over the city gates.

The general banner also ordered the conscripted strong men to gather in the teaching ground of the guard station, saying that the hundred households should take a look at the defensive strength in the city, and the officials did not dare to slack off, so they notified everywhere and then gathered together in the teaching field. The city gate of Yanchang County returned to calm, but the guards of the city gate were replaced by officers and soldiers.

Wu Baihu led the team to the county office. The group walked straight to the county government, and the head of the official who guarded the door saw it and saluted Wu Baihu and said, "Lord Wu is back, do you want to report to the county magistrate." ”

Wu Baihu twisted his face to the side, and one of the guards behind him stepped forward and kicked the leader of the officials to the side. Everyone in the county government saw that Wu Baihu and others were holding knives and guns, and their faces were gloomy, so they were so frightened that they avoided from afar.

Ma Zhixian and Master Song both came to the lobby when they heard the movement, and saw Wu Baihu who was coming in. Ma Zhixian looked at him in a complicated mood, this guy didn't know if it was good luck or great ability, when the thieves were so bad, he led the team to suppress bandits outside the city but was safe and sound, saying that he was a bandit, but he dared to return to the city, how to deal with him is really not good.

Wu Baihu didn't salute when he saw Zhixian but stood aside, and a young man behind him walked over and bowed his hand to Zhixian: "Ma Zhixian, I've been friends for a long time, and I finally met this time." ”

Ma Zhixian looked at this rude young man and wondered, seeing that he was dressed ordinarily, not like the son of any family, how dare he talk to him like this, so he said angrily: "Who are you?" ”

"I'm Zhang Chu, I wrote to you, do you have an impression of the Ming security guard?" Zhang Chu approached and replied.

Ma Zhixian's hair stood on end all of a sudden, and a thick urge of urine came from his lower body. This Wu Baihu really seduced the thief, and also led the thief to the county office, wanting to summon the official to come up, but there was no official in the hall, only a few unknown officers and soldiers stood there with knives and guns and glared at him angrily, Ma Zhixian knew that everything was over, and he was speechless after sitting in the bookcase in the lobby.

"It's good to think about it. Now you are a dead man, according to the law of the Ming Dynasty, the head of a county has the responsibility of defending the land, and if you lose the county seat, you want to kill your head, do you want to die now or later? Zhang Chu pressed forward step by step, and was almost at the back of the desk in the lobby.

Of course, Ma Zhixian didn't want to die immediately, but as a scholar, he couldn't let go and begged for mercy on the spot. He just stood up from his chair tremblingly and couldn't speak. Zhang Chu didn't give him time to think, and said to the guards behind him: "Pull it out, find a place where no one is around, don't be here, it's hard to clean up the blood." ”

When they arrived at the entrance of the lobby, Ma Zhixian couldn't resist and shouted: "I don't want to die immediately, let me do anything." The guard let go, and Ma Zhixian knelt on the ground and crawled to Zhang Chu: "I surrender, I surrender, the king spares his life, spares his life!" ”

Zhang Chu ordered him to be taken aside first, and the guards came over and dragged Ma Zhixian out.

Zhang Chu turned to face Master Song, who was shrunk into a ball: "You don't have to be afraid, you are still useful, you won't be able to die for a while." What will happen to you in the future? ”

Master Song begged for mercy repeatedly.

The guards came over and took Master Song away to count the property and account books in the county.

Early in the morning, Li Zhongxiao was told that he was going to move, and the whole family could only follow the security army to the county seat. During the month since he was caught, the thief has been talking and not abusing him or harassing his family. But the days are really hard, every day is according to the workload to receive food, the first few days can not put down the Hou Ye's shelf, want to be loyal to the Ming Dynasty, refuse to go to the thief to do the work of paperwork, the thief did not urge, but there is no food to send, the family immediately ran out of food, looking at the hungry but forced to endure the silence of the wife and daughter, Li Zhongxiao had to come out and find the guard. I went to Zhang Chu to report, I was hungry and busy for a day before I received a little food, and when I went back, the whole family started to cook the rice before eating the first meal here. The hateful thief had already taken away the servants of the house and did not know where to work, so that the master of the slave and maid had to do everything himself. But the whole family still couldn't eat enough, so Li Zhongxiao had to find Zhang Chu to promise his wife and daughter to teach in a girls' school. The whole family's life has improved greatly after their hard work, and they are already able to eat their stomachs.

Marquis Li Zhongxiao lived a life that he had never had before, earning grain and rice by himself, and then cooking with his wife and daughter, and the whole family sat together and ate with relish, and not even a grain of rice was wasted.

After a month, he found that Zhang Chu did not lie to him, he and his family did receive more rice and grain than other workers, and if they were compared with other people around them, they would really live a good life. Even Zhang Chu's food and clothing are not much better than him.

Zhang Chu took him to walk around the county and deal with various affairs, and for the first time he really saw how the poor lived. When I walked into the dim and dark houses of the people, and saw the hungry people who were only skinny and dying, I slowly felt a different feeling in my heart, if I could save some of the food I had saved and help the victims, then many people might not die. Back then, he talked impassionedly and loudly in the court, doing a job of saving the country and saving the people, did he really save the victims, and was the famine in the Ming Dynasty really caused by natural disasters?