Winter is already deep, the cold is pressing, and this year's winter is colder than last year's. The hungry people outside Fenglei Village huddled together and used their bodies to keep warm, but people had to eat enough to get their bodies hot, and if they didn't eat, even if they were huddled together, it was useless.

It's not that Zhu Yuanzhang can't let them be fed, he has already hoarded a lot of food, and it is easy to let these people be fed. However, for that purpose, he could not feed the people, so he only gave them a handful of brown rice every day, barely enough to keep most people from starving.

On this day, he was patrolling the village of Fenglei, observing the mental state of the hungry people and considering whether to start an uprising.

"Zhu Bugs...... Something is wrong! Li Chujiu hurriedly ran over and shouted, "County order...... Gu Huaxiu took his master and thirty servants to our house. Oh no...... Could it be that our affairs have been exposed? ”

"Oh?" Zhu Yuanzhang frowned: "You said, he brought thirty officials to arrest quickly, and he also brought his master?" ”

"yes...... That's a big bunch of people. Li Chujiu was sweating profusely and looked very frightened.

"Don't be afraid, just bring such a few people to prove that our affairs have not been exposed." Zhu Yuanzhang said lightly: "If he really knew that I was gathering a crowd to rebel, it would not have been thirty officials who had been arrested, at least three hundred households, and three hundred officers and soldiers." ”

Hearing Zhu Yuanzhang's calm voice and seeing his calm expression, Li Chujiu's panic was suppressed a little.

Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile: "There is no impermeable wall in the world, we are doing so many things in Fenglei Village, Gu Huaxiu can't know anything, he should know something, so he went to Mafu and wanted to learn about the situation from the second young grandmother." Let's go, let's go back quickly, and eavesdrop on their conversations as much as possible, I want to know what Gu Huaxiu is going to do. By the way, you go and invite Wang Er to come by the way......"

"Okay, let's go!" Li Chujiu turned around and ran away.

－－－－－－－－－－－－

Ma family compound!

Gu Huaxiu and his group saluted the old lady Ma's jinshi pole in front of the door, and the guards hurriedly welcomed him to the main hall in the front yard of the Ma family, and asked him to wait for a while, while the officials he brought rested in the courtyard, sent the guards to watch, and then hurriedly reported the Miss Zhang family who was playing embroidery in the inner courtyard.

When Miss Zhang heard that the county lord was coming, she didn't dare to slack off, dressed up a little, and then straightened her demeanor, walked out of the inner courtyard with her personal maid, and went to the hall to meet Gu Huaxiu.

The two sides took a look, and when Miss Zhang looked at it, this Gu Huaxiu had a wicked smile on her face, obviously with the wrong intention, and the master next to her looked at her as if she was looking at a piece of gold, and she was secretly unhappy.

Gu Huaxiu looked at Miss Zhang's family, but was a little surprised, he thought that the second young grandmother of the squire's family would definitely not be much stronger, and he must have been so frightened that he would grovel when he saw him, but he didn't expect to meet her, but he saw that she was very beautiful, and she had a bit of a knowledgeable temperament, and she obviously didn't have any fear of him.

The ancients were afraid of officials, why was Miss Zhang not afraid of officials? The reason is very simple, her father Zhang Douyao is a * county magistrate, Miss Zhang can see officials every day, and when she sees a lot, she knows that officials are also ordinary people, and there is nothing to be afraid of.

"The county lord is polite!" Miss Zhang Jiaxiu gave a salute to Gu Huaxiu, in ancient times, men saluted men, usually bowed their hands, but women to men, they can't use bows, they must give "Wanfu Ceremony", this kind of etiquette can very much reflect the softness of the female surname, and it seems very educated: "I don't know if the county lord came to our mansion, what advice do you have?" ”

Gu Huaxiu couldn't help but think in his heart: This woman is really good, why did she marry the idiot of the second young man of the Ma family? It's been a few months since I came to Baishui, and I heard that the second young man of the Ma family was a dou who couldn't be helped, but I didn't expect him to have a good woman.

He cleared his throat and said with a smile: "I came to you to talk about your family's steward Zhu Ba......"

"Oh? Steward Zhu? "Miss Zhang's family is a little strange, Steward Zhu is just a small person, can he let the lord of a * county come to the mansion in person to ask?

"Do you know what Steward Zhu has been doing lately?" Gu Hua cultivated.

"I know a little bit about it." Miss Zhang said seriously: "He is helping me buy grain, and our uncle has given instructions to buy a large amount of grain...... Belch...... I don't need to say much about the reasons for this, the county lord should understand. ”

Gu Huaxiu smiled and said, "Did he do this?" There must be something else! ”

"Something else? The concubine doesn't know. Miss Zhang asked curiously, "What else did he do?" ”

Gu Huaxiu saw that Miss Zhang's face was dazed, obviously she didn't know anything, and she was even more sure of her guess in her heart, the person named Zhu Ba must have stolen the grain of the main family to give porridge, so he hid it from this woman. He laughed and said: "Your Zhu Ba is doing a big thing, he has set up a soup kitchen shed in Fenglei Village, and he gives porridge to a thousand people every day, which is really generous, generous...... Hahaha! ”

"What?" Miss Zhang was taken aback: "There is such a thing? Why didn't I know anything about such a big deal? No one has ever said that to me...... If I had known earlier, I would have set up a soup kitchen! ”

Gu Huaxiu heard her first few sentences, which were quite right, and the last sentence suddenly sweated profusely, huh? Woman, is there something wrong with you? The first thing you should think of now is not to set up a porridge shed yourself, but where did Zhu Ba get so much money to give porridge.

"Ahem!" Gu Huaxiu coughed lightly, and had no choice but to explain: "He is just a manager, where did he get so much money to do this?" Second young grandmother, can you tell me why? Think about it again, what has he been doing for your Ma family lately? ”

When it came to saying this, even the unwitting Miss Zhang family finally turned her mind, and her face changed suddenly: "Lord County, what do you mean...... Steward Zhu took the opportunity to help our Ma family store grain, guarded and stole himself, and took our family's grain out to give porridge? ”

"Exactly!" Gu Huaxiu smiled and said, "I came to your mansion this time to investigate this matter. ”

"Impossible!" Miss Zhang said hurriedly: "Our housekeeper Zhu is not this kind of person...... He is famously honest, good to others, loyal to the master's family, and diligent, people from all over the country praise him as a good person, and our old lady and uncle are full of praise for him, how can he do such an evil thing of insisting on self-theft. ”

At this time, Master Shaoxing, who was standing behind Gu Huaxiu, suddenly stepped forward and chuckled: "Second young grandmother, in fact, it is very simple to find out this matter, take Wansheng to the cellar where your mansion stores grain, and then show me the account books, we will know as a pair." ”

Miss Zhang frowned and thought for a while, but after all, she still wanted to figure out this matter, so she said to the personal maid beside her: "You go, bring the account book......"

The close-fitting maid ran to the backyard, and before she ran two steps, she ran into Autumn Leaves.

Recently, in these days, Autumn Leaves is full of knots, she knows that her beloved Zhu Bugs is going to rebel, but the persuasion is ineffective, and even the initiative ** can't dispel his idea of rebellion, Autumn Leaves even had nightmares for several days, and in her dreams she always saw Zhu Bugs being arrested by the government and beheaded at the entrance of the vegetable market to show the public.

The little girl's heart was about to break, the whole person lost weight, today she was crying while helping Zhu Yuanzhang clean the room, and suddenly heard that the county magistrate was coming, and she was immediately scared half to death. Could it be that Bugling Zhu's matter was revealed? Is the government here to arrest him?

Akiba was so anxious that she stomped her feet in the backyard, and when she saw the young lady's personal maid running out of the hall, she hurriedly greeted her and asked, "Why did the county lord come to our house?" What are they talking about? ”

The personal maid saw that it was her sister who asked, and replied casually: "The county lord said that Zhu Bugs stole our family's grain to give porridge to the poor, and he wants to check the account books of the family's grain purchase...... I'm here to help them get their books. ”

"What?" Akiba was shocked...... Zhu Baba is preparing to rebel and is being targeted by the government? Really...... Zhu Starling is about to be beheaded by Caishikou......

Autumn leaves are not very bold, and when they were frightened by this, the whole person almost softened, and he couldn't come back to his senses with half a sound. By the time she came to her senses, the maid had gone away, took the books, and went back to the hall.

This time, the autumn leaves are really soft...... What should I do?

At this time, Miss Zhang had already taken Gu Huaxiu and her master to the inner courtyard, because the entrance to the cellar where the grain was stored was in the backyard, and Qiu Ye saw them coming, and immediately didn't think about it, and knelt at the door of the cellar with a "poof" and cried.

"Huh? Akiba, what are you crying about here? Miss Zhang was taken aback.

"Miss, do you want to check the grain?" Akiba cried.

"Yes! What are you doing here? ”

"No need to look it up...... Zhu Bugle didn't steal the grain, it was the servant who stole it...... I stole a lot of grain and gave it to Zhu Bugs, but he didn't know that it was stolen...... This matter has nothing to do with Zhu Bugs, it was all done by the servant......" Autumn leaves said vaguely while crying, no matter how many times they spoke, one sentence was a mess.

She has no life experience, how can this kind of obvious top tank hide from the eyes of everyone present, not to mention that Miss Zhang, who knows him, doesn't believe what she said, even Gu Huaxiu and Master Shaoxing can see that this little girl wants to help people take the blame, she doesn't know anything at all.

Everyone glanced at each other, thinking in their hearts: This little girl jumped out to help Zhu Ba take the guilt, which shows that Zhu Ba is indeed guilty, if he is not guilty, why should others jump out to help him with a roar?

Miss Zhang didn't really believe that Zhu Ba would steal the family's food, but Qiu Ye's actions changed her mind, her face suddenly sank, and she whispered to the maid next to her: "Go and pull Qiu Ye away, what kind of system is this?" Whether Zhu Ba is guilty or not, let's take the account book and the grain storage pair. ”

"Miss...... It was really stolen by a servant...... It's really ......" Akiba was pulled aside by the two maids, but she was still crying.

Miss Zhang sighed and said, "Let's go, let's go into the cellar!" ”