After the Zhang family's affairs passed, life returned to the right track. The eldest young master, Ma Zhixiong, took his fifteen swordsmen and went back to Xi'an Mansion to run a rice village. He handed over the affairs of the family to the second young master, who was not successful, but in fact, he let Ma Qianjiu manage it, and the second young master made a false name, but did nothing. The second young grandmother maintained a state of separation from the second young master, lived in a small courtyard, quarreled and played with the second young master every day, and the third young lady continued to be a lady who was raised in the deep boudoir.

The Ma family has returned to peace, but the surroundings are not peaceful, and all kinds of news about Zheng Yanfu and his group are circulating in the countryside.

Zheng Yanfu listened to Zhu Yuanzhang's words, reunited on Hutou Mountain and then dispersed, and then ran to the Dongzi Cliff at the junction of Chengcheng and Baishui to gather. But after this reunion, he didn't listen to what Zhu Yuanzhang said and ran into Huanglong Mountain, but took root in Dongzi Cliff. Nearby thieves, robbers, and bandits all joined his command, and it didn't take long for the scale to reach more than 400 people.

The news began to circulate in the countryside that the officers and soldiers were going to suppress bandits on a large scale, and the elder brother of a villager who was a soldier in Xi'an Mansion swore that the officers and soldiers of Xi'an Mansion had received an order to transfer troops, and that they would soon go to the mountains and forests at the junction of Chengcheng and Baishui to search for Zheng Yanfu and his gang, arrest them all, and behead them at the entrance of the vegetable market to show the public.

With the spread of such news at the same time, there is also a story about Steward Zhu's courage to protect the Zhang family, which spread in the two county towns of Chengcheng and Baishui at the same time, and then spread in the teahouses and villages of the two counties, and Zhu Ba's prestige was once again raised a lot.

Spring passes quickly, and early summer arrives!

The hot wind blew over the fields, and the farmers straightened up, their faces covered with sweat. There was very little rain this year, and there were two or three light rains throughout the spring, and the ground did not even get wet, and the rain stopped. In the summer, the situation became even more serious, and the earth was cracked one after another, as if the porcelain vase had fallen on the ground, and it did not break, but there were many cracks, which stretched out along the four sides of the porcelain vase.

The water level of the Baishui River has dropped considerably, making it more difficult to fetch water from the river to irrigate the fields, and now the Ma family's long-term workers have to travel back and forth between the fields and the Baishui River countless times a day. Zhu Yuanzhang specially organized a group of long-term workers, who did nothing but carry water from morning to night, so as to barely maintain the amount of water needed to irrigate the fields.

Zhu Yuanzhang inspected the edge of the field, and from time to time there were long-term and short-term workers in the field who raised their heads to greet him.

"Brother Zhu, it's early, ......"

"Brother Zhu, let's inspect our area today?"

"Brother Zhu, this year, it seems that there is going to be a big drought...... this is what an old farmer with a little experience said.

"Well, it looks like it's going to be dry, our place is fine, it's close to the Baishui River, I'm afraid it's a little embarrassing in other places." An old farmer said in a low voice: "The fields of the Zhang family in Chengcheng are now abandoned a lot, and the tenants have fled a lot, I heard that they went to the mountains to be homeless, and the second young grandmother was in a very bad mood. ”

"Cut, when won't the two of you quarrel?" A young farmer laughed and said, "The little couple should have quarreled at the end of the bed, but these two don't sleep in the same bed, so they can't get along when they quarrel." ”

"Haha, look at what you're talking about...... Although the second young grandmother has a bad temper, she is also a good person, and she is very good to her subordinates, don't gossip about her behind her back, if you want to talk about the second young master, it's okay, I pretended not to hear. ”

The peasants were busy in the fields, giggling and chatting casually about things that were out of tune.

Zhu Yuanzhang walked around, and Li Chujiu walked up to him, and said to him in a low voice: "Brother Zhu, the people from Xigu Village have been found, and I want to ask you for help with something......

"Oh? Xigu Village? Zhu Yuanzhang is really familiar with this name, what happened after reincarnation was almost all because of a fight in Xigu Village, but he didn't expect this village to come to the door again, he couldn't help asking: "Didn't Xigu Village give it to the shirt family?" What are they coming to me for? ”

"I don't know, they won't tell me." Li Chujiu said in a low voice: "Why don't you drive them away?" After all, they are members of the shirt family, and now I am afraid that it will not be good to see them spread out. ”

"It's okay, what's wrong with passing it out? At most, the second young master is not happy. Zhu Yuanzhang said lightly: "Whether he is happy or not, I don't bother to care, you call the people from Xigu Village to come to my room." ”

He hurried back to his small courtyard and waited for the people from Xigu Village to meet him. It has been several months since I lived in the steward's room, and the things in the room have gradually increased, and there was only a square table, a few stools, and a set of tea sets in the living room. Now there is a small earthen vase on the table, with a few blooming morning glories in it, which are helped by a few maids who like Zhu Yuanzhang.

Since the third lady returned to the Ma family, she seems to have a little bit of a complaint about the involuntary marriage of women. So I strongly encouraged the maids around me to pursue the person they liked. With the encouragement of the young lady, this group of maids intensified, and ran to Zhu Yuanzhang's room all day and night to "help clean up", the table that was wiped by Xiaohua in the morning was wiped by Xiaoyu again, and Xiaocao had to come and wipe it again in the evening......

I don't know which girl got the little vase on the table, and I kept changing the flowers every day, and the wild lilies were inserted in the morning, and the gardenias became gardenias in the afternoon, and the rape flowers were replaced in the evening...... Thanks to them, flowers can be plucked from the hillside in this year of great drought.

The teapot was also full of water at all times, and it was lukewarm. Once it gets cold, there will be a maid who will come over to change it to a hot one, and I look forward to saying a few words to Zhu Yuanzhang when I come to change the water.

This enthusiastic offensive is very harmful, and now except for sleeping, Zhu Yuanzhang easily does not dare to go home, otherwise there will always be women around him, and he is not good at dealing with women, so he simply hides outside.

Sure enough, he returned to the small room and sat on a pillar of incense for less time, and the people from Xigu Village didn't wait, but rushed in a maid first. Holding a stack of washed clothes in his hand, he put it on his table, and said softly: "Brother Zhu, I took your clothes to wash without authorization the day before yesterday, are you not angry?" Now I'll get it back for you. ”

Is this Xiaohua, Xiaocao, Xiaoyu, Xiaohong, Xiaoqing, or which one is who? Zhu Yuanzhang fixed his eyes and looked at it, huh? This girl is actually autumn leaves! Zhang's that.

"How are you?" Zhu Yuanzhang was a little surprised, if it was any maid of the Ma family, Zhu Yuanzhang would not be surprised, but it was the maid of the Zhang family, which was really strange.

Autumn leaves looked out, no one came, and looked left and right again, there was no one else in the study and bedroom, so she reached out to her arms and took out the boss's ingot of silver, at least twenty taels. She put the silver in Zhu Yuanzhang's hand and said in a low voice: "This is from my young lady, thank you for what you have done for the Zhang family." In fact, Miss has wanted to thank you for a long time, but it has been inconvenient in her hands, and she has sold a few pieces of jewelry for a while to have this money. ”

It's actually for the sake of farming, Zhu Yuanzhang can't cry or laugh, is it worth delaying time for this kind of trivial matter? He put the silver in his arms, took a sip of the tea on the table, and said to the guests: "Thank you for helping me, Grandma Er, it's okay?" ”

"That...... There's still a little thing......" Akiba hesitated, and her little face instantly turned red.

Zhu Yuanzhang had a bad premonition in his heart, and said in a hard voice: "If you have something to say, I still have something to deal with." ”

"That...... My young lady asked me to ask you, do you want to ask for a daughter-in-law......" Akiba said in a very small voice: "The male should marry, and the female should marry...... This one...... That one...... Of the seventeen maids who came from our house, do you have any one who is pleasing to the eye, just open your mouth, and the young lady will marry her to you...... By the way, Miss's dowry maid, that is, the maid who married into the Ma family with Miss, will serve the young master in the future, so she can't be chosen. ”

She hesitated, then blushed and plucked up her courage to say, "Not her, but me......"

It turned out that Zhu Yuanzhang's protection of Zhang's mansion in Chengcheng left a deep impression on the hearts of these maids, and many people secretly fell in love, but they were just lowly little maids, and they didn't dare to expect Gao Pan to be such a powerful manager, so they didn't say anything. But after arriving at Baishui Ma's house for a long time, they inquired about some things about Zhu Ba, and knew that he was born as a cattle herder, and he has not yet married a daughter-in-law. This cowherd baby was born, and the maids felt that they could afford it, and their status was quite right, so they started to think.

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't squirt out a mouthful of tea, the maid of the Ma family was enough to give him a headache, and now he has to add the maid of the Zhang family? Can you women find something serious to do?

His face sank, and he waved his hand and said, "I'm not interested in courting my daughter-in-law, I understand the kindness of the second young grandmother." ”

Qiu Ye felt Zhu Yuanzhang's unhappiness, was startled, and said a little timidly: "You don't like any of them?" ”

Zhu Yuandian waved his hand angrily: "Hurry up, I'm not interested in talking to you about this." ”

"Why don't you like any of them?" Akiba suddenly cried: "I'm not ugly, and I can have children...... Do you not like it because I was stripped of my clothes by thieves and lost my virginity? ”

Zhu Yuanzhang was so depressed that he couldn't do it, what kind of reputation did this woman have? Where is it so sensitive? What he doesn't look down on is all the maids, and it's not for Akiba alone, why is she crying?

"I can't stay in this room......" Zhu Yuanzhang stood up and wanted to go out, but the people from Xigu Village wanted to come to see him in a while, so they couldn't talk in the courtyard, right? Those people had come to see him to discuss something important, and it might not be convenient to be outside the house, so he just stood up, sat down again, and said distressedly: "Akiba girl, let's go, I really have something important, and I don't have time to talk to you about this." ”

Qiu Ye turned around in disappointment and moved out of the room step by step, and the muffled cry slowly went away, making Zhu Yuanzhang irritated for a while.

After another pillar of incense time, Li Chujiu walked over quickly, followed by nine young farmers, although they had not seen each other for several months, Zhu Yuanzhang still recognized them at a glance, these nine people were indeed villagers of Xigu Village, not very tall, and their bodies were thin, but they were in good spirits.

Zhu Yuanzhang welcomed them into the house, and Zhu Yuanzhang, Li Chujiu, and nine villagers stood in the small living room, which was suddenly crowded, and he said casually: "Brothers, I haven't seen you for a long time, what's the matter with me?" ”

The nine villagers glanced at each other, and suddenly knelt down neatly with a pop, and said loudly: "Brother Zhu, you are angry, we want to ask you for something." ”

"Tell me about it."

"We want to practice martial arts! Ask Zhu Bugs to teach us boxing. ”

"Huh?" Zhu Yuanzhang was slightly curious: "What do you want to do with martial arts?" ”

"Get fit!" The villagers bowed their heads and said.

"No, you're not trying to get fit." Zhu Yuanzhang sneered and said: "When you said this, your head was lowered, your eyes looked at the ground, you didn't dare to look at my eyes, and your voice trembled, your back was not straight, and your heart was obviously ......weak."

"This ......" The nine young men were startled and speechless.

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't ask them what the real reason was, because if he asked, he wouldn't necessarily say, he just looked at these nine people carefully with a pair of perceptive eyes. These nine people have one thing in common, that is, they are all young, their bodies are very weak, and they seem to have not eaten enough for many years. The clothes on his body were also tattered, with holes everywhere, and he hadn't been washed for a long time.

Obviously, they are the poorest kind of poor people, and they can't even afford to marry a wife, so no one washes their clothes. This kind of person suddenly wants to practice martial arts, and in most cases there is only one possible surname.

Zhu Yuanzhang lowered his voice and asked coldly: "You learned martial arts, do you want to use it to rebel?" ”