After dinner, it was already dark, and the workers in the dining room had already scattered back into their respective dirt and thatched houses. The moon was halfway up, and the stars began to poke their heads out. Yang Chao was the last to come out of the dining room and looked around. No one noticed him, so he lowered his waist and drilled into the shadows in the corner of the wall.

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

As soon as I left the yard, there were fields outside. At this time, there were no crops in the fields, so it was bare. Yang Chao touched the edge of the ridge of the field and turned over and went down to the ditch. These ditches were originally used to irrigate fertile fields, but this year, there was no drop of water in the canal. It looked like interlaced ditches.

Yang Chao walked in the ditches with his waist and rushed to the place he agreed with his three best friends. He saw two black shadows squatting there. It turned out that two best friends had already come, but Li Chujiu was not seen.

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

The other two best friends nodded.

"Damn it, he is afraid, so he doesn't dare to come, right?" Yang Chao cursed.

The two best friends were actually a little cowardly and said timidly: "Brother Yang Chao, do we really want to betray all the business? If the news leaks out, we will not be able to stay in the Ma family."

"Heaven knows, earth knows, you know, I know, no one will know about this." Yang Chao said in a deep voice: "If you don't do this, then Zhu Ba will be more happy to be in charge of the affairs. If I fail to get to power, you guys will not have a good life, and you are still shy of retreating."

"Okay..." The two best friends gritted their teeth and forced themselves to support: "Then let's go. It will take an hour or two to go from here to Ren Village. Let's hurry up and come back before dawn."

The three of them got up from the ditches, raised their feet and walked eastward.

Unexpectedly, as soon as I raised my foot, I heard a gloomy voice, with a hint of cold chill, "Where are you three planning to go in the middle of the night?"

"Ah? The voice of the governor of Qi?" Yang Chao was shocked! He turned around and looked at the origin of the sound... The upper body of the governor of Qi was revealed in the ditches in the Tiankan Tudou not far away. It turned out that the governor of Qi was in a very close ditch. After listening to their conversation, he stood up from the ditch. Behind the governor of Qi was a man. The man was thin and seemed to fall down after the wind blows. Zhu Ba!

This was really shocked that Yang Chao almost fainted. He only felt his whole body shaking constantly, and sweat suddenly soaked out from his forehead, flowing down his temples, and his calves flashed slightly, and he even felt difficult to stand.

"Qi...qi...qi...qi's affairs...when are you...where? Listen...what did you hear?" Yang Chao was so scared that he couldn't speak smoothly.

Zhu Ba smiled at him slightly. This kind of smile was something Yang Chao had never seen on Zhu Ba's face. There was a hint of disdain and contempt in his smile. He took Yang Chao's words and said, "Mr. Qi and I have been here for a long time. We were having supper in this ditch. As for what we heard... Tsk tsk, heaven knows, earth knows, you know, I know!"

"Yang Chao! I misjudged you." Qi Guanshi snorted coldly: "In order to take the post of the manager of the side courtyard, you even want to frame me. If you leak the fight we are going to Chengcheng County, the Zhang family in Chengcheng can prepare to ambush and beat me into a pig's head. If I get beaten, I will take my anger on Zhu Ba. If I take my anger on Zhu Ba, he will not take my anger on the side courtyard. If he can't take my anger on the side courtyard, you can take my arrogance! Tsk, you are so scheming. Who taught you such a sinister idea?"

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

"I'll buy it? Stop joking." Zhu Yuanzhang said lightly: "Brother Li's wages are given by the Ma family, and are given by the Qi-manager. If you want to sell the Ma family and sell the Qi-manager, you are betrayed Brother Li's parents. This is a righteous act that abandons secrets and follows the light. What does it have to do with me? Don't bite it randomly. At this time, I advise you to kneel down and kowtow to Qi-manager. "

"You fart! You framed me! It was you!"

"Stop talking nonsense." Manager Qi snorted coldly, "Go back to the side courtyard with me. I have to inform the second young master of this matter and ask the monk to deal with you."

Handling family law? Yang Chao's heart trembled... This is not an easy task. You should know that the gentry clans of the Ming Dynasty had great power in their own territory, and abuse of private law and lynching was as common as playing. For example, if a wife in the Ming Dynasty stole a man with her husband on her back, she was known by the local people, and if she didn't need to inform the government, the local "respected" gentry announced that she would "sink pig cages" and said she would kill her. The government would turn a blind eye to such things.

For example, during the Ming Dynasty, robbers went to a village to steal things. If they were caught by mistake, the people would usually not report to the officials. Instead, they would invite the local "respected" village chief and issue a random order, and beat them to death with sticks.

This abuse of lynching was particularly serious in the late Ming Dynasty, because bandits often rampant in Shaanxi in the late Ming Dynasty. The gentry organized militias themselves. When bandits attacked villages, would the militias tell the "Ming Dynasty Law" to the bandits? They would kill them directly when they caught bandits. Not only would they not be guilty, but they would be commended by the government.

Yang Chao knew in his heart that the crime he committed was to betray the Ma family. This matter fell into the ears of the impulsive and violent second young master. He would not tell him any principles or family rules. He was afraid that he would be beaten and killed after a mess. Before he could, he would just report any private bandits, and the county magistrate would open his eyes and close his eyes.

The fear slowly calmed down in Yang Chao's heart, replaced by a kind of determination like a broken can, and the anger burned out his last rationality. He didn't think much about it, and reached out to touch the ground, picked up a stone as big as a fist and squeezed it into his hand, shouting, "Qi Guanjun, I have followed you in the past few years and have been calling you like a dog. It would be fine if you don't take care of me, but you even have to hand me over to the second young master's family law to deal with it? I'll fight with you." After saying that, he swung his arm and the stone as big as a fist hit Qi Guanjun.

Looking at the stone flying out of Yang Chao's hand, Zhu Yuanzhang estimated that there were at least two or three ways to catch it and block it, otherwise there would be plenty of time to pull the Qishuoshi away, but he didn't do it and let the stone smash it towards Qishuoshi's face.

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang could rush over to control Yang Chao from the beginning, but he did not do so. Instead, he said some nonsense to him, just to help Yang Chao eliminate his initial fear, brew his anger, and make him dare to let go.

No one is better at playing with people's hearts than Zhu Yuanzhang. He knew that a gangster like Yang Chao who was incompetent usually relied on his cleverness. Once someone grabbed the handle, his first reaction would be horror. If the Qi Guanjun asked him to go back to obtain the family law at that time, maybe Yang Chao would follow him obediently. If he was asked to calm down and his fear was put away, he would definitely jump over the wall and bite him back. And he was ruthless and harsh. He just wanted to say something on purpose to help Yang Chao stabilize his emotions from the panic he had discovered in the first trick, and then provoke the talk and let the Qi Guanjun come out to say a few harsh words. Yang Chao would definitely be brave and act angrily at the Qi Guanjun...

The governor of Qi is not a wooden man. Yang Chao moved his hand and the stone as big as a fist flew out of his hand. He guessed that something had hit him, so he quickly turned his head to avoid the stone that was smashing towards his face. Unexpectedly, he just turned his head and suddenly felt that Zhu Ba's shoulder was gently hit, and his displaced head was knocked back to the track where the stone was hit.

"Huh? What are you doing?" Qi Shushi was shocked. Before he could think about it, the big stone thrown by Yang Chao had hit his face. Only a muffled sound of "touching" was heard. Qi Shushi's head suddenly tilted backwards, and blood spilled out backwards, sprinkling a shrill red arc in the sky... The nose, eyes, eyebrows, and forehead were all crushed by the stone, and blood flowed everywhere, which was very terrifying.

There was a shrill scream in the night sky, and the body of the governor fell backwards and fell into the ditches. He really didn't understand why Zhu Ba suddenly helped Yang Chao. As his body fell down, he had been thinking about this issue desperately. Unfortunately, with his poor wisdom, he really couldn't come up with the answer to this question.

During his fall, Zhu Yuanzhang was not idle either. He kicked his toes gently, kicking a brick-sized stone in the ditches in advance to the back of Qi Guanshi's head where the back of Qi Guanshi was about to land... Then Qi Guanshi fell down with a bang, and the fragile back of his head fell heavily on the hard stone. The sound of "cracking" bone-breaking sounds, blood slowly flowed out from the crack that broke open, slowly spreading, dyeing the mud and sand in the ditches red. Qi Guanshi only felt the darkness in front of his eyes and fell into eternal darkness.

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

Zhu Yuanzhang sighed in his heart: Stupid guy, don’t you understand? After you are transferred to the inner courtyard, I will be far faster than killing you directly. Moreover... After killing you, the inner courtyard will also lack a candidate for a deputy manager. This is a better opportunity for me. Not only can I become a manager in the side courtyard, but I can also peek at the deputy manager in the inner courtyard. This is called killing two birds with one stone! I didn’t take action before, just because I was waiting for an opportunity to kill you safely without arousing doubts. Yang Chao’s stone was smashed well!

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't even look at his body, jumped out of the ditches, and shouted: "Come on, Yang Chao killed Qi, and came on!"

The moon is bright and the stars are sparse, and the night is silent. This loud roar is like a bomb, instantly awakening half of the Ma family's side courtyard...
Chapter completed!