Soon after, the young man helped an old man in his seventies out, and he was the owner of this courtyard, Zhang Yizhang. Don't underestimate this old man, although he is now inconvenient in his legs and feet, and he is no longer able to hear normally, he is a very important and powerful figure. Zhang Yi was originally not surnamed Zhang but Liu, and was the youngest son of a military family in Jinyiwei. Jinyiwei, like other military households in the Ming Dynasty, also has a population crisis. As the name suggests, the military household is a family of soldiers in the Ming army, not only the military family, but also the main source of soldiers. According to the regulations of the Ming military household, each military household must have at least one active soldier, otherwise it cannot be regarded as a military household. Except for the soldiers, who are responsible for defending the country, the rest of the people enjoy the benefits of not having to pay taxes and food. Therefore, some ordinary people are very envious of military households and hope to become military households. However, military households also have the difficulties of military households, and the men in the first family need to be soldiers, and not only can they not work at home, but their lives are in danger at any time. Second, if a soldier dies or gets old, another man in the family needs to step up. Sometimes after a battle, the husband will not be delayed, but the son will die, and if the son has no other sons and grandchildren, he will have to worry about being disqualified from the military. Like the Jiangnan military households, the number of military households has decreased by nearly half in just over a decade, all because there are no adult men in the family who are disqualified from serving as soldiers. Third, even if there are many children in the family, they are worried. Military households near the capital have encountered this kind of problem. Only one male in a military family can inherit the status of a soldier, and the soldier not only has a military salary but also does not have to worry about stomach problems. Therefore, when there is no war, the children of military families want to be soldiers. However, there is only one place, so the other children have to find their own way. According to the regulations of the military household, if an adult man is not a soldier, he can be separated from the military household registration and become a common man. When you become a common man, you need to pay taxes for service, and you can't rent the land of military households, so life becomes a big problem. Therefore, the children of ordinary military families either become sons-in-law of other people's families, or find a relatively wealthy in-law to live.

Zhang Yi's family is the same, he is the youngest child in the family, and he is not qualified to inherit his father's military status and become a Jinyi Wei military household. Jinyiwei is a little better than the average military household, and some children can help in Jinyiwei as an unstaffed Jinyiwei. However, Zhang Yi's father wanted Zhang Yi to study since he was a child, hoping that Zhang Yi would have a career. However, the children of Jinyiwei could not participate in the imperial examination, which was a means for civil and military officials to restrain Jinyiwei. Even if Zhang Yi learned culture, he could not be an official, so he could only work as an account clerk for a large family or a clerk for the yamen. Zhang Yi was lucky and met a good opportunity to become the bookkeeper of a large family, and since then he has lived an enviable and peaceful life. The master's family not only valued Zhang Yi very much, but also began to woo Zhang Yi, and his wife gave his dowry maid to Zhang Yi as his wife. Soon after, Zhang Yi had her own son, and she thought that she would live so peacefully and happily. Unexpectedly, the big family offended the powerful and was framed for false tax evasion and tax evasion. This was an extremely serious crime at that time, because the Ming Dynasty was a large agricultural country at that time, and the main tax revenue was agricultural tax. Tax evasion by large families has become the most important thing in the imperial court, but these big families have backstage, and it is not the case that the ordinary yamen offend. The imperial court also didn't want to offend too many gentry at once, so it often knew when it didn't know how to deal with it. Of course, when this kind of thing happens to some big households without a background, it just happens to be used as a typical example, which can not only make an example of a hundred people, but also calm down some public grievances. Zhang Yi's master's family became the chicken that killed the chicken and set an example for the monkey. Zhang Yi was also implicated, and the family was arrested, and they heard that they were going to be punished for abandoning and kidnapping. For the safety of his son and to leave hope, Zhang Yi begged his elder brother, who inherited his father's position as Jinyiwei, to take the child away. Zhang Yi's brother has no power to rescue Zhang Yi, but it is still possible to take away a baby, and since then this child has become the child of Zhang Yi's brother's family.

Originally, Zhang Yi was not a slave of the master's family, at most he was just a hired bookkeeper. However, he married the maid of the master's wife, and in order to show his loyalty, he voluntarily joined the master's family, and became a servant of the master's family. According to the rules of the imperial court, the master's family and the slaves were punished together, Zhang Yi's master's family property was confiscated, and all the people were sold by the official, including Zhang Yi and his wife. Every day they were dragged to the human market like goods for everyone to watch and bargain, and soon after, Zhang Yi's wife, who missed her children, died. Later, Zhang Yi was bought by a businessman from other places and became a real slave, a person without freedom. The businessman who bought Zhang Yi was quite kind, and when he knew that Zhang Yi's wife was dead, he asked for the body and found a place to bury it. Zhang Yi has since been surnamed Zhang with this merchant, and in order to swear allegiance to Zhang Yi, he changed his name to Zhang Yi. This businessman is Zhang Juzheng's uncle, he bought Zhang Yi and gave it to Zhang Juzheng, who had a future and could become an official, and Zhang Yi became Zhang Juzheng's slave from then on.

After Zhang Juzheng came out to be an official, the people in the family were worried that Zhang Juzheng would not be able to take care of himself, so he asked Zhang Juzheng to bring three servants to cook. One is Zhang Yi, and the other is You Qi, the big housekeeper who can almost cover the sky with one hand in Zhang Juzheng's house, who was Zhang Juzheng's little follower and little scholar at the time, and the other is Mo Niang, the cook who is in charge of Zhang Juzheng's diet. These three people have different division of labor, Zhang Yi looks after the gate and manages public security, You Qi is responsible for taking care of Zhang Juzheng, and Mo Niang is responsible for cooking and cleaning and financial management.

After Zhang Juzheng served as Yuwang's attendant, Jinyiwei sent someone to work at Zhang Juzheng's house. Originally, a five- or six-grade petty official like Zhang Juzheng did not need Jinyiwei to sit on duty, but Zhang Juzheng was not an ordinary fifth- or sixth-grade petty official, he was a confidant of King Yu, and the boss wanted to seize Zhang Juzheng or King Yu's handle, so he sent Jinyiwei to work at Zhang Juzheng's house. The so-called shift is actually 24-hour monitoring, two people in each shift follow Zhang Juzheng alone, and one is at Zhang Juzheng's house to monitor Zhang Juzheng's every move in his house, especially who often comes to Zhang Juzheng's house. The Jinyiwei who is on duty cannot have contact with the people in Zhang Juzheng's family, and he must bring his own food and drink, which is the rule of Jinyiwei. However, the Jinyi guards who came here to work were all people who were excluded from within the Jinyi Guard, so they did not seriously implement the rules of the Jinyi Guard. Zhang Yi, who knows the rules of Jinyiwei, also wants to know the purpose of Jinyiwei, so he often delivers food and meals to Jinyiwei who is on duty, although it is not a good thing, but it is always hot. Especially in the winter, it is a very happy thing to be able to eat a mouthful of hot water, so gradually Zhang Yi and the Jinyiwei who are on duty are familiar with it. After inquiring, he learned that this Jinyiwei was also surnamed Liu, and the memory that Zhang Yi had forgotten in his heart came back, and he wanted this Jinyiwei to inquire about the whereabouts of his brother and child. Unexpectedly, this Jinyiwei was the child of his brother's family, Zhang Yi was very excited. But this Jinyiwei said that he didn't have a younger brother, could it be that Zhang Yi's brother gave the child away. Zhang Yi had the courage to find an opportunity to go home with this brocade guard and met Zhang Yi's sister-in-law. After inquiring, I found out that this child was actually Zhang Yi's own son, when Zhang Yi's brother cheered for three children, he didn't expect two to die, and one died when he went on a mission many years ago, and Zhang Yi's son replaced him as the active Jinyiwei. The sister-in-law asked the child to kowtow to Zhang Yi, the biological father, and the father and son could finally recognize each other. But in order not to attract everyone's attention, this secret was only known to Zhang Yi's father and son's family, and Zhang Yi only told Zhang Juzheng alone afterwards. Zhang Juzheng had the secret help of Zhang Yi's son Liu Shouyou, and evaded the surveillance and interrogation of Jinyiwei many times. After Zhang Juzheng gradually increased his strength, of course, he also began to promote and reuse Liu Shouyou. After Zhang Juzheng became the first assistant of the cabinet, he recommended Liu Shouyou to Feng Bao, who suggested that Liu Shouyou be the commander of Jinyiwei. Zhang Juzheng didn't personally recommend it because Jinyiwei was the royal guard after all, and if he recommended his own people, he would give a bad impression to the queen mother of the two palaces and the civil and military officials.

Since his son Liu Shouyou became the leader of Jinyiwei, Zhang Yi actually no longer needs to give Zhang Ju a proper servant. As early as when Zhang Juzheng started to use Liu Shouyou, he no longer regarded Zhang Yi as a person. It's a pity that Zhang Yi is unwilling to stop working, he still looks at the door every day, and still regards himself as a slave of Zhang Juzheng's family. Later, when he was too old to do anything, he obeyed the arrangement of Zhang Juzheng and his son Liu Shouyou to live outside. However, almost every day, Zhang Yi still goes to Zhang Juzheng's house to sit and instruct Zhang Juzheng's servants to do things. By the way, to see if Zhang Juzheng is healthy and safe, Zhang Yi has never treated himself as a member of the Zhang family. Therefore, Qin Tai wanted to know about Zhang Juzheng's family, so he had to come here to ask Zhang Yi for advice. Zhang Yi knew the relationship between Qin Tai and Zhang Juzheng, so he would not and could not hide anything from Qin Tai.

Zhang Yi was both surprised and felt normal by Qin Tai's arrival. He was surprised that Qin Tai came so soon, and felt that it was normal because there was a murder here, and it was strange that Qin Tai didn't come to investigate the case. However, he didn't know that Zhang Juzheng didn't invite Qin Tai to investigate the case, and even Qin Tai didn't know that he came to the capital, he thought that the old man Zhang Juzheng invited Qin Tai to investigate and solve the case. Zhang Yi asked the young man to bring out the best tea and snacks to entertain Qin Tai, and at the same time told Qin Tai everything he knew. He didn't know what Qin Tai wanted to know, so he told Qin Tai all the big and small things he knew about Zhang Juzheng's family over the years. It was also because of Zhang Yi's nagging and tirelessness that it helped Qin Tai to understand the case and find the murderer.