The winter is already deep and the cold is so cold this year. This winter is colder than last year. The hungry people outside Fenglei Village shrank together and used their bodies to keep warm. However, people must eat their stomachs to get hot before their bodies will become hot. If they don’t eat, even if they are squeezed together, it will be useless.

Zhu Yuanzhang was not unable to let them eat enough. He had already stocked up a lot of food. It was easy to make these people eat enough. However, for that purpose, he could not let the people eat enough, so he only gave them a handful of brown rice every day, barely maintaining that most people would not starve to death.

On that day, he was patrolling in Fenglei Village, observing the mental state of the hungry people, and considering whether to launch an uprising.

"Brother Zhu... something big happened!" Li Chujiu hurriedly ran over and shouted, "County magistrate... Gu Huaxiu, who brought his master and thirty yamen runners to our house. No... Could it be that our affairs were exposed?"

"Oh?" Zhu Yuanzhang frowned: "You said, he brought thirty yamen runners and his master?"

"Yes... What a big group of people." Li Chujiu was sweating profusely and looked very frightened.

"Don't be afraid, just bringing such a few people proves that our affairs have not been exposed." Zhu Yuanzhang said lightly: "If he really knew that I was gathering people to rebel, he would not have brought thirty yamen runners, 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 stopped a little.

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said, "There is no airtight wall in the world. We are doing so many things in Fenglei Village. It is impossible for Gu Huaxiu to know nothing. He must have known something, so he ran to the Ma Mansion and wanted to learn about the situation from the Second Young Master Grandma. Let's go back quickly and try to eavesdrop on their conversations as much as possible. I want to know what Gu Huaxiu is going to do. By the way, you can invite Wang Er by the way..."

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

－－－－－－－－－－－－

Ma Family Courtyard!

Gu Huaxiu and his gang salute to Mr. Ma’s Jinshi pole in front of the door. The guards quickly welcomed him to the main hall of the Ma family’s front yard and asked him to wait for a while. The yamen runners he brought were resting in the yard and sent the guard to monitor him. Then they quickly informed the Miss Zhang family who was playing with embroidery in the inner yard.

When Miss Zhang heard that the Lord Zun of * County was coming, she did not dare to neglect her. She dressed up a little, then corrected her demeanor, walked out of the inner courtyard with her personal maid, and went to the hall to meet Gu Huaxiu.

After meeting the two sides, the lady Zhang family saw Gu Huaxiu smiled wickedly, obviously the intention was wrong, and the master next to her looked at her as if he was looking at a piece of gold, and he felt unhappy.

Gu Huaxiu was a little surprised when he saw Miss Zhang's family. He thought that the second young lady from the gentry's family would definitely not be much better. When he saw him, he was so scared that he was so scared that he was humble. Unexpectedly, when he met, he saw that she was very beautiful and had a kind and kind temperament. He obviously had no fear of him, County Magistrate.

The ancients were afraid of officials, but why was the Miss Zhang not afraid of officials? The reason was very simple. Her father Zhang Douyao was a county magistrate. Miss Zhang saw officials every day and saw them more often, so she knew that officials were also ordinary people and there was nothing to be afraid of.

"Mr. County Master is polite!" Miss Zhang gave a tribute to Gu Huaxiu. In ancient times, men usually bowed to men, but women could not bowed to men. They had to give "blessed gifts". This etiquette can very well reflect the softness of women and seemed very well-educated: "I wonder if Mr. * County Master has any advice when he came to my mansion?"

Gu Huaxiu couldn't help but think in his heart: This woman is really good, why did she marry that idiot? She has been in Baishui for several months. I heard that the second young master of the Ma family is an A Dou who can't help him, but I didn't expect that he had a good woman.

He cleared his throat and laughed, "I'm here to talk about your family manager Zhu Ba..."

"Oh? Manager Zhu?" Miss Zhang's family was a little surprised. Manager Zhu was just a little man. Do you have to let the emperor of a county come to the mansion and ask in person?

"Do you know what Manager Zhu is doing recently?" Gu Hua said.

"I know a little bit." Miss Zhang said seriously: "He is helping me buy food. Our uncle gave instructions to purchase a large amount of food... Uh... I don't need to say more about the reason, the county master should understand."

Gu Huaxiu laughed and said, "Has he done this? There should be something else!"

"What else? I don't know." Miss Zhang asked curiously: "What else did he do?"

Gu Huaxiu saw that the lady Zhang family was confused and obviously knew nothing. He even more determined his guess. The man named Zhu Ba must have stolen the food from the master to distribute porridge, so he hid it from this woman. He laughed and said, "Your Zhu Ba is doing something big. He set up a porridge dressing shed in Fenglei Village and donated porridge to a thousand people every day. It was such a big deal, big deal... Hahaha!"

"What?" Miss Zhang was shocked: "Is there such a thing? Why don't I know about such a big thing? No one has ever told me... If I had known it earlier, I would have set up a porridge dressing stand!"

When Gu Huaxiu heard her first few words, she was quite right. The last sentence was immediately sweating. Hey? Woman, are you thinking something wrong? The first thing you should think about now is not to set up a porridge stand yourself, but how could Zhu Ba get so much money to donate porridge?

"Cough!" Gu Huaxiu coughed lightly, and had to explain: "He is a mere manager, so where can he get so much money to do this? Grandma Er Shao, can you tell me the reason? Think about it again, what is he doing for your Ma family recently?"

Speaking of this, even the insane Miss Zhang family finally turned her mind. Her face suddenly changed: "Mr. County Master, what do you mean... Manager Zhu took advantage of the opportunity to help our Ma family to store grain, robbed the food and used our family's food to give porridge?"

"That's right!" Gu Huaxiu smiled and said, "I came to your mansion this time to investigate this matter."

"Impossible!" Miss Zhang said anxiously: "Mr. Zhu, our family, is not such a person... He is famously honest, kind to others, loyal to the master, and diligent in his work. People from all over the country praise him as a good person. Our old man and uncle praised him for his praise. How could he do such a bad thing that insists on stealing himself?"

At this time, the Shaoxing master who was standing behind Gu Huaxiu suddenly stepped forward and chuckled, "Grandma Second Young Master, it's actually very easy to find out this matter. Take Wansheng to the cellar where the grain is stored in the palace, and then show me the account book. We will know it in one pair."

Miss Zhang frowned and thought for a while, but after all, she still wanted to figure out the matter, so she said to her close maid, "Go and bring the account book..."

The close-fitting maid ran to the backyard. After running for two steps, she encountered Qiuye.

In recent days, Qiuye has been kind-hearted. She knew that her beloved brother Zhu was going to rebel, but the persuasion was ineffective. Even the initiative could not dispel his idea of ​​rebelling. Qiuye had nightmares for several days. In her dream, she always saw brother Zhu being captured by the government and beheaded at Caishikou and displayed in public.

The little girl's heart was about to break, and she lost weight all over. Today, she was helping Zhu Yuanzhang clean the room while crying. Suddenly, she heard that the county magistrate was coming, and she was immediately scared to death. Could it be that Brother Zhu's affairs were exposed? Is the government here to arrest him?

Qiuye was so anxious that she stomped her feet in the backyard. When she saw the lady's close maid running out of the hall, she hurried over and asked, "Why did the county master come to our house? What are they talking about?"

The personal maid saw that it was her sister who asked a question, and replied casually: "Mr. Zhu said that Brother Zhu stole his own custody and stole our family's grain to give porridge to the poor. He wanted to check the account books for the family's grain purchases... I'm going to help them get the account books."

"What?" Qiuye was shocked... Brother Zhu was preparing to rebel and was targeted by the government? Sure enough... Brother Zhu was about to be beheaded by Caishikou...

Qiuye was not very brave. When she was frightened by this, she almost felt weak and could not come back to her senses for a while. When she came back to her senses, the personal maid had already walked away, took the account book, and returned to the hall.

At this moment, Qiuye is so tender...what should I do?

At this time, Miss Zhang had already taken Gu Huaxiu and Master to the inner yard. Because the entrance of the cellar where the grain was stored was in the backyard, Qiuye saw them coming, and she immediately knelt at the door of the cellar with a "thump" and started crying.

"Huh? Qiuye, why are you crying here?" Miss Zhang was shocked.

"Miss, do you want to check the food?" Qiuye cried.

"Yes! What are you doing here?"

"No need to investigate... Brother Zhu didn't steal food, it was the maid who stole it... I stole a lot of food and gave it to Brother Zhu. He didn't know that the food was stole... This matter has nothing to do with Brother Zhu, it was all done by the maid..." Qiuye said vaguely while crying, no matter how often he spoke, he was a mess.

She had no life experience. How could such an obvious slap can be hidden from everyone present? Not to mention that Miss Zhang, who knew him, didn't believe what she said, even Gu Huaxiu and Shaoxing Master could see that this little maid wanted to help others take the blame, and she didn't know anything at all.

Everyone looked at each other and thought to themselves: This little maid jumped out to help Zhu Bading, which means that Zhu Ba was indeed guilty. If someone was not guilty, why should others jump out to help him?

Miss Zhang's family actually didn't believe that Zhu Ba would steal food from her family, 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, how is it going to be like this? Whether Zhu Ba is guilty, let's take a pair of books and grain storage."

"Miss... it was really stolen by the maid... it was really..." Qiuye 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!"
Chapter completed!