The next day, before dawn, Zhu Yuanzhang got up. When it was time for his morning exercise, although there were nearly a hundred corpses lined up in the courtyard, there was still a place to stay, so he punched in a small open space and stretched his body out.

The four housekeepers also got up and looked at him with awe.

After Zhu Yuanzhang finished punching, he casually instructed these families: "You guys go out, buy a few coffins and come back, and give them to Master Zhang, Young Master Zhang and his wife, and the others...... There is no need for coffins, a few ox carts are piled up and pulled out of the city to be buried. By the way, we don't have enough manpower, so you can remember the coffin shop and hire more coolies who are not afraid to bury the dead. ”

"Okay!" A family member responded: "Steward Zhu...... Buying a coffin and hiring a worker all need silver...... We don't have it on us. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned, took the family to the backyard, and called seventeen maids to dig out the belongings buried yesterday. After the looting of Zhang's mansion, there were not many belongings left, most of them were robbed of useless things by the rioters, such as land deeds, house deeds, deeds of sale of domestic slaves, and household registration.

Zhu Yuanzhang checked it, and there were about four or five gold hairpins, more than a dozen silver chains, and a few ingots of gold and silver, and everything else was gone. He picked up all the gold and silver and belongings, handed them to the kindest maid, and said, "Use these things to buy coffins, hire workers, and divide the unused twenty-one of you." You can leave the house deed, land deed, and deed of sale to the second young grandmother. ”

"This ...... Will this work? The maid was startled, although the remaining property was very small, but it didn't cost much gold and silver to buy a few coffins, and it was cheaper to hire a laborer, and a dozen cents could hire a bold one to help dig up the grave and bury the body, and the twenty-one of them would definitely get a large sum of silver, wouldn't this be a private theft of the master's property?

She hurriedly said: "This is the master's property, I'm afraid it's not good for us to deal with it privately." ”

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned slightly: "I said to deal with it like this, deal with it like this, and when the second young grandmother asks about it in the future, I naturally have a reason to tell her, you just have to take the flowers." ”

It is impossible for the family members to get along with money, since Zhu Yuanzhang said so, they didn't think much about it, and nodded and agreed.

Seeing that they were holding gold and silver, Zhu Yuanzhang pulled a faint smile at the corner of his mouth, this group of people was instigated by him to divide up the last bit of the Zhang family's property, which is equivalent to all having a handle in his hand, and this group of people will be easy to call in the future. As for what they are for, Zhu Yuanzhang hasn't considered it yet, anyway, the more people who can use it, the better, as a former emperor, he is used to controlling everyone around him.

After a while, the family hired a large group of people, old and young, men and women, all of whom were hired with the help of the owner of the coffin shop. In this era, the coffin shop generally has to undertake the one-stop service of funeral rites, so you can find a large group of "practitioners" related to the funeral at any time, including the old woman who is responsible for washing the corpse, the porter who is responsible for entering the coffin, closing the coffin, and carrying the coffin, the young men and women who play the role of filial sons and daughters, and those who beat gongs and drums......

After a day or two, the bodies of nearly 100 members of the Zhang family were collected, and the gongs and drums were beaten and buried outside the city.

In the past few days, Zhu Yuanzhang has been wandering around the yamen, concerned about the current situation in Chengcheng.

The administration of Chengcheng was seriously stagnant, because most of the civil officials in the city were killed in the yamen by Zheng Yanfu and his gang, and many administrative tasks were not handled, so an old squire who had retired and lived at home for the rest of his life had to be invited out to temporarily replace Zhang Douyao. This old squire used to be a county magistrate, and he was familiar with handling the affairs of a county, but he was seventy-two years old this year, and he was dying of old age, and there was no other clerk to assist, and all the political affairs of a county were pressed on this old man, and he was so tired that he was miserable.

Three hundred household officials led troops to "guard" the county seat, and twenty soldiers were arranged at each of the four city gates, and it seemed that the county seat was relatively safe, so they wrote down what happened here into a chapter, and quickly sent it to Xi'an.

During this period, there were spies and folk news that Zheng Yanfu and his gang did not run far, and reunited on Hutou Mountain again. Hearing this news, the three hundred household officials should have immediately led troops to clear the situation, but the three hundred household adults almost said in unison that the news had not yet been determined, and they should not rush in...... As a result, the bandits who had reunited on Hutou Mountain soon dispersed again......

This was naturally expected by Zhu Yuanzhang, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were so useless, he couldn't get angry even if he wanted to.

After arranging the future affairs of Zhang's mansion and basically grasping the current situation in Chengcheng, Zhu Yuanzhang left two family members to watch the house temporarily, and returned to Baishui with two other family members and seventeen maids.

With such a strange team to walk more than 70 miles, but also through the dangerous mountains at the junction of the two counties, it is not possible to do without preparation, Zhu Yuanzhang let the two family members dress in tatters, covered with mud, and let the seventeen maids all wear their heads, making them very ugly, and the clothes on their bodies are also covered with mud, so after dressing up like this, they dare to go out.

He thought it through so much that these family maids who did not go out of the door and did not step out of the door admired and trusted him even more.

Along the way, the situation on the official road is a little different from the deserted situation when I sent my relatives over a few days ago. Between the post station and the post shop, there were fast horses galloping, and the knights on the horses were in a hurry, obviously delivering urgent letters. There is no need to guess to know that this is a letter delivered between Chengcheng and Xi'an, and the officials of Xi'an Mansion have obviously been alarmed and have begun to ask the garrison in Chengcheng about the situation.

Since the end of Wanli, although Shaanxi often has rogue haunts, robbery and murder, all kinds of evil, so that the government has a certain resistance to the word "rogue kou", but the Chengcheng Zheng Yanfu rebellion is the first time that the rogue invaded the county seat, killing the county commander-level officials, Xi'an Mansion was shaken......

Zhu Yuanzhang was big enough to guess that now the officials of Xi'an Mansion were hesitating to report the matter to Yanjing. Such a big thing, it seems that it is unreasonable not to report it, but if it is reported, the officials of Xi'an Prefecture do not know how many will be convicted of a crime of failure to investigate, Chengcheng is a county under the jurisdiction of the Shaanxi Chengxuan Political Envoy Division, and such a big thing happens, Shaanxi Chengxuan political envoy can not get rid of the relationship, Shaanxi Commander can not get rid of the relationship, and the governor of Shaanxi can't get rid of the relationship......

And these dignitaries must have their own connections in the court, and they must now hold off the news as soon as possible, hide it from the emperor, use their connections to open up and down the joint in the court first, and wait until everything is arranged to stop, and they will not be afraid that the news will leak into the emperor's ears. Among these fast horses going back and forth on the post road, I don't know how many are letters that pull relationships and go through the back door.

Officialdom is a huge network of relationships, intertwined and complex. Improving it from within is an extremely difficult, or impossible, task. Zhu Yuanzhang became even more determined to overturn the chessboard of the Ming Dynasty.

The group stayed overnight, and it took two days to walk from Chengcheng to the vicinity of Ma's house. The seventeen maids all walked with sore legs and feet, but fortunately, the maids were all from poor families, and they didn't have their feet entangled, otherwise they would have fallen down a few long ago.

When the Ma family's compound was faintly visible in the distance, several maids of the Zhang family couldn't help but be a little scared, and said in a low voice: "Steward Zhu, is the young master of the Ma family fierce?" Will he beat and scold us, the subordinates from the Zhang family? ”

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and said: "Don't worry, the eldest young master has no time to take care of the affairs of his subordinates, and the second young master is not in the mood to care, in the Ma family, as long as you don't offend Ma Qianjiu, the chief steward in the front yard, there will be no embarrassment." ”

"Is Ma Qianjiu very fierce? Which is more right, the steward or you? A few little maids asked.

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed: "The horse steward is not fierce, he is the steward of the front yard, and he is in charge of the affairs of the family." I'm just a housekeeper, in charge of the family's farming and tenants. ”

The little maids sighed, and then they boldly whispered: "Steward Zhu is the most powerful steward I have ever seen, who is Ma Qianjiu?" It's actually bigger than Steward Zhu? I'm not convinced. ”

"Even so, I'm not convinced." Another little maid also whispered, "We met Miss, oh...... Now it's the second young grandmother of the Ma family, just say more good things about Steward Zhu in front of her, and let the young lady go to the second young master to talk about it, and change Steward Zhu to take care of the front yard. ”

"That's it!"

A group of little girls who don't understand anything, Zhu Yuanzhang sighed in his heart, don't say that your method is useless at all, even if it works, it is not uncommon for me to continue to climb up in the Ma family, I now want to look at the peasant uprising in a year...... Cultivate their own fame and prestige among the people, and sit on the tide of peasant uprisings.

Now that the goal has been changed, there is no need to deliberately help the Ma family in the future, and help the poor farmers and villagers in ten miles and eight towns is the most important thing.

When the group arrived at the gate of Mafu, they had already been seen by the guards when they came far away just now, and the two guards went in to report it, but the other hurried up to meet Zhu Yuanzhang and shouted: "Brother Zhu, you are finally back." Get on board! The eldest young master, the second young master, the third young lady, and the second young grandmother who has just entered the door are all anxiously waiting for you...... Especially the new second young grandmother, she has been crying like a tearful person for the past two days, you hurry in, they have a lot to ask you. ”

When he said this, he paused, and then said: "The descendants of our Ma family are also very concerned about the safety of Bugling Zhu, you came back a few days later than the third lady and them, and everyone is worried about death." ”

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, patted Jia Ding lightly on the shoulder, and said, "Brother Lao cares!" Thank you. Come, say hello to these brothers and sisters behind me, they are the family members and maids of the Zhang Mansion, and we will be a family from now on. ”

"Huh? Brother Zhu, I feel that you seem to have changed a little......" Jia Ding was flustered, he felt that Zhu Ba was more amiable than before, but this feeling was very mysterious, and he couldn't tell why.

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled secretly in his heart, he had been hesitating which way he should take to save the Ming Dynasty, so on the one hand, he was currying favor with the young master of the Ma family, expecting to improve his status and blend into the court. On the other hand, he also earns himself popularity among the people, hoping to be supported by the people around him. But after returning from this trip, he has already determined the path he wants to take in the future, and he doesn't have to go left and right, he only needs to face one side, and his attitude is naturally different towards those who may be absorbed into his team.