After dinner, it was already dark, and the long-term workers in the dining room had dispersed back to their earthen and grass huts. The moon was halfway up, and the stars began to peek their heads out. Yang Chao was the last to come out of the dining room, looked left and right, and no one noticed him, so he bent down and burrowed into the shadow of the corner.

After walking along the wall for a while, I arrived at the gate of the side courtyard, and now it was just dark, and there was no light at the door, Yang Chao secretly called out to help me, pushed the gate open a crack, and squeezed out.

As soon as I left the courtyard gate, there were fields outside, and there were no crops in the fields at this time, so they were bare. Yang Chao touched the edge of the field, turned over and went down the ditch, these ditches were originally used to irrigate the fertile fields, but this year's drought, there is not a drop of water in the canal, it looks like a staggered ditch.

Yang Chao hurriedly walked in the ditch with his waist bent, and when he arrived at the place agreed with the three dead friends, he saw that there were already two black shadows squatting there, and it turned out that two dead friends had come, but he didn't see Li Chujiu's figure.

"Li Chujiu hasn't come yet?" Yang Chao asked in a low voice.

The other two sworn friends nodded.

"Damn coward, he shouldn't be afraid, so he didn't dare to come, right?" Yang Chao scolded in a low voice.

The two die-hard friends were actually a little cowardly in their hearts, and said timidly: "Brother Yang Chao, do we really want to betray Qi Guanshi?" In case this leaks out, we won't be able to stay in the Ma family. ”

"God knows, the earth knows, you know, I know, no one else knows about this matter." Yang Chao said in a deep voice: "If you don't do this, then Zhu Ba will be even more happy to take care of things, if I don't get on the throne, you guys won't have a good time, and you're still holding back." ”

"Okay...... the two die-hard friends gritted their teeth and said forcefully: "Then let's go, it will take an hour or two to walk from here to Ren Village, let's hurry up and come back before dawn." ”

The three of them got up from the ditch, lifted their feet, and walked eastward.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he raised his foot, he heard a gloomy voice, humming with a hint of cold chill: "Three watches in the middle of the night, where are you three going to go?" ”

"Huh? The voice of the officer? "Yang was shocked! He turned his head and followed where the voice had come from...... Not far away, in the ditch of Tiankantu, the upper body of Steward Qi was exposed, it turned out that Steward Qi was in a ditch very close to him just now, and after listening to their conversation, he stood up from the ditch. There is also a person standing behind the Qi manager, that person has a thin body, and it looks like the wind is blowing down, Zhu Ba!

This time Yang Chao was really shocked and almost fainted, he only felt that his whole body was shaking, and the sweat soaked out of his forehead at once, flowing down his temples, his legs and stomach flashed slightly, and he even felt difficult to stand.

Qi ...... Even...... Qi Steward...... When are you ...... Over there? Listen...... What do you hear? Yang Chao was so frightened that he couldn't speak.

I saw Zhu Ba smiling shallowly at him, this kind of smile Yang Chao had never seen on Zhu Ba's face, with a touch of disdain and contempt in the smile, he took Yang Chao's words and said: "I have been here with Steward Qi for a long time, and we are eating dinner in this ditch, as for what we heard...... Tsk, God knows, the earth knows, you know, I know! ”

"Yang Chao! I misjudged you. Steward Qi snorted coldly: "In order to become the manager of the partial hospital, you actually want to frame me, if you leak the fact that we are going to Chengcheng County to fight, the Chengcheng Zhang family can be ready to ambush and beat me into a pig's head." If I am beaten, I will be angry with Zhu Ba. I'm angry with Zhu Ba, and he can't be the manager of the partial hospital. If he can't be in charge, you can! Tsk, you are so scheming, who taught you such insidious ideas? ”

"Li Chujiu betrayed me! No wonder he didn't come. Yang Chao understood everything: "Zhu Ba...... You...... You bought Li Chujiu! ”

"Am I buying? Don't laugh. Zhu Yuanzhang said lightly: "Brother Li's salary was given by the Ma family, and it was given by the Qi manager, if you want to betray the Ma family and sell the Qi family, you are betraying Brother Li's food and clothing. Don't bite indiscriminately, at this time, I advise you to obediently kneel down and kowtow to Steward Qi to admit your mistakes. ”

"You fart! You framed me! It's you! ”

"Stop talking nonsense." Steward Qi snorted coldly and said, "Come back to the side courtyard with me, I have to report this matter to the second young master, and please ask the monk to deal with you." ”

Family Law Disposal? Yang Chao's heart shook...... It's not easy. You must know that the gentry clans of the Ming Dynasty had very much power in their own territory, and lynching by abusing private law was as common as playing. For example, if a wife in the Ming Dynasty stole a man behind her husband's back, and was known by the local people, she did not need to notify the government, and the local "respectable" gentry directly announced the "dipping pig cage", saying that if she was killed, she would be killed, and the government would turn a blind eye to this kind of thing.

Another example is that robbers in the Ming Dynasty went to a certain village to steal something, and if they were caught by mistake, the people usually did not report to the official, but invited the local "highly respected" village chief to give an order casually and beat him to death.

This kind of abuse of lynching was especially serious in the late Ming Dynasty, because in Shaanxi at the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were often rogues rampant, and the squires organized their own militia teams. If you catch a rogue, you will kill it directly, not only will you not be guilty, but you will be rewarded by the government.

Yang Chao knew in his heart that the crime he committed was betraying the Ma family, and this matter fell into the ears of the impulsive and irritable second young master, where would he tell him any truth and family law, he was afraid that he would be killed with a mess, and if he didn't report any fornication, the county order would also open his eyes and close his eyes.

The panic slowly calmed down in Yang Chao's heart, and was replaced by a kind of resoluteness like a broken jar, and the anger burned out his last surname. He didn't think much about it, reached out and touched the ground, picked up a fist-sized stone and pinched it in his hand, and shouted: "Steward Qi, I have followed you for the past few years, calling you around like a dog, if you don't take care of me, you still have to hand me over to the second young master's family law to deal with?" I'm fucking fighting you. With that, with a flick of his arm, a fist-sized stone smashed head-on at the Qi Steward.

Looking at the stone that flew out of Yang Chao's hand, Zhu Yuanzhang estimated that there were at least two or three ways to catch and block it, otherwise there would be plenty of time to pull away from Steward Qi, but he didn't make a move, and let the stone smash at Steward Qi's face.

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang could rush over to restrain Yang Chao at the beginning, but he didn't do it, but talked nonsense with him, just to help Yang Chao eliminate the initial fright, brew his anger, and make him dare to let go.

No one is better at playing with people's hearts than Zhu Yuanzhang, he knows that a gangster like Yang Chao who has no ability, usually runs rampant with his cleverness, once he is pinched by someone, his first reaction must be panic, if at that time Steward Qi opened his mouth to let him go back to receive the family law, maybe Yang Chao would obediently follow. If you let him slow down, after the panic is put away, the dog will definitely jump off the wall and bite back. And the shot is ruthless and spicy, as long as he deliberately says something to help Yang Chao stabilize his emotions from the panic when the initial plan is recognized, and then provokes the conversation to let Qi Guan Shi come out and say a few cruel words, Yang Chao will definitely be evil and angry at Qi Guan Shi......

Steward Qi is not a wooden man, as soon as Yang Chao's hand moved, the fist-sized stone flew out of his hand, and he guessed that something had smashed over, and quickly turned his head to the side, wanting to avoid the stone that smashed into his face. Unexpectedly, as soon as he turned his head, he suddenly felt that his shoulder was lightly bumped by Zhu Ba, and his deflected head was knocked back into the track where the stone had smashed him.

"Huh? What are you doing? Steward Qi was shocked in his heart, and before he could think about it, the big stone thrown by Yang Chao had already smashed into his face, only to hear a muffled sound of "bump", Steward Qi's head fell back suddenly, and blood flew backwards, sprinkling a poignant red arc in the sky...... The nose, eyes, eyebrows, and forehead were all crumpled together by this stone, and blood flowed everywhere, which was very terrifying.

I heard a terrible scream in the night sky, and Steward Qi's body fell backwards and fell into the ditch. He really didn't understand why Zhu Ba suddenly stepped in to help Yang Chao, in the process of his body falling down, he had been thinking about this problem very desperately, but unfortunately, with his poor wisdom, he really couldn't come up with an answer to this question.

In the process of him falling, Zhu Yuanzhang was not idle, and with a light kick of his toes, he kicked a brick-sized stone in the ditch in advance at the back of Steward Qi's head where it was about to land...... Then the Qi steward fell down violently, the back of his fragile head fell heavily on the hard stone, and the sound of "clicking" broken bones, blood slowly flowed out from the crack that was opened, and slowly spread, staining the mud and sand in the ditch red. Steward Qi only felt that his eyes were dark, and he fell into eternal darkness.

Until he died, he didn't understand what Zhu Ba was doing!

Zhu Yuanzhang sighed lightly in his heart: Stupid guy, don't you understand? After you are transferred to the inner courtyard, I will take the position, it is far faster than directly killing you to the position, and ...... After killing you, there will be a shortage of candidates for the deputy steward of the inner court, this is a better opportunity for me, I can not only be the manager of the side court, but also peek into the deputy steward of the inner court, this is called killing two birds with one stone! I didn't make a move before, just because I was waiting for a chance to kill you safely and not arouse suspicion, Yang Chao's stone, smashed well!

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't look at his corpse, jumped out of the ditch, and shouted loudly: "Come on, Yang Chao smashed to death Qi Guanshi, come on!" ”

The moon and stars are scarce, the night is silent, and this roar, like a bomb, instantly woke up half of the Ma family's partial courtyard......