Something happened in Xigu Village. It turned out that when Li Chujiu inspected Xigu Village this morning, several big-footed women suddenly ran over, reached out and grabbed Li Chujiu's sleeve and shook it violently, saying that it was early in the morning that his own man was captured by Baishui County Magistrate Chen Guanyu. He asked them why the county magistrate arrested people and what happened. These big-footed women were too short-sighted to say it.

Li Chujiu was not very surprised and ran back like Fei. When he saw Zhu Yuanzhang, he immediately told him what he was like pouring beans in a bamboo tube.

After listening silently, Zhu Yuanzhang looked dark and said, "I understand. You should hurry up and go to the gate of the inner courtyard to send a message, and ask the servants to call the second young master to the front yard. I will go to the front yard to find the manager of Ma Qianjiu. This matter is very serious. The second young master and the manager of Ma must make up their minds."

Li Chujiu asked with a little strange feeling: "Why is this related to the front yard? The second young master had already told me that something happened in Xigu Village, just hit me directly."

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head: "The current situation is no longer something that can be solved by hitting it. Go quickly and don't ask more questions."

Li Chujiu went to the inner courtyard to report, but Zhu Yuanzhang hurried towards the front courtyard.

When he walked around the front yard, the Jinshi pole appeared in front of Zhu Yuanzhang's vision again. He couldn't help but raise his head and glanced at the pole, thinking to himself: I'm afraid this time is not small, and I don't know if this Jinshi pole can protect the Ma family. How can there be a complete egg when the nest is destroyed? This time it seems that I have to use my strength to help the Ma family overcome this difficulty.

After informing the servants guarding the yard, Zhu Yuanzhang entered the gate and came to the hall. Ma Qianjiu was sitting in the hall, holding a few books of account and watching carefully, while looking at it, and gently clicking on the account and seeing Zhu Yuanzhang come in, he frowned and asked, "Why did you run to the front yard? What happened?"

Zhu Yuanzhang lowered his voice and said, "This morning, the county magistrate sent someone to capture all the villagers of Xigu Village!"

He said everything that smart people don’t need. Just one sentence was enough to scare Ma Qianjiu’s whole body, and the books on his hand slid down and fell to the ground with a "splash". But he didn’t care about picking it up at all, and he was stunned.

After a while, he woke up from his shock and frowned and said, "I have been in charge of commercial affairs in the front yard. I don't know much about the farming affairs in the side yard. Tell me, are the villagers of Xigu Village "spoken" in our house?"

“That’s right!”

"That's not going well..." Ma Qianjiu's eyebrows were almost twisted together.

"It's really not good, the situation is extremely urgent now!" Zhu Yuanzhang bowed and said, "I have sent someone to invite the second young master. I hope he can take charge of the overall situation, otherwise our Ma family will likely fall into this matter."

Ma Qianjiu nodded, and the two of them looked forward to the second young master coming quickly.

The waiting time felt quite slow, and Ma Qianjiu said to Zhu Yuanzhang: "Brother Zhu Ba, what do you think about this? Tell me and verify it to me to see if we think the same."

Zhu Yuanzhang coughed lightly and whispered: "Last time, the magistrate Chen blocked our family's 'intention' and pointed out that this matter was the instruction of Zhang's family in Chengcheng. It gave us a signal that our family quickly resolved with Zhang's family in Chengcheng, otherwise there would be a backup plan to deal with us. However, our family has never expressed any expression. He has neither shown goodwill to the county magistrate of this county nor has he gone to negotiate peace with Zhang's family in Chengcheng... It seems that the other party felt despised and took action again."

"Yes, your tricks are quite shiny." Ma Qianjiu snorted coldly: "He did it very well this time. He didn't catch any people from any village, but he caught people from Xigu Village. The place where he fought last time was Xigu Village. This is obviously telling us that we have to settle the old accounts."

Zhu Yuanzhang whispered: "Master Ma, after the last time he failed to send a 'indiscretion', the hostility of the county magistrate was already very obvious. Why didn't our family go to the activity and give the county magistrate some gifts and other things to try to solve this matter?"

Ma Qianjiu sighed lightly, pointed to the direction of the inner courtyard, and whispered: "It costs a lot of money to give gifts. I can't make the decision. In this family, only the second young master can pay the money. He doesn't want to, and I can't do anything."

"Why don't the second young master?" Zhu Yuanzhang said strangely.

"It's so good to have a face!" Ma Qianjiu shook his head: "The young man just can't stand it. He said that the county magistrate beat Qi to manage the affairs, which is to wipe out the face of the Ma family. If our family still wants to give gifts to please others, our family will bow their heads. This matter should be given to our family..."

Zhu Yuanzhang was speechless. This second young master was too stupid. The Ma family was just a local gentry. Although the old man in the family had been the county magistrate, he was already gone. You dare to rely on the old man's identity as a yellow flower yesterday to be angry with the county magistrate of the county. He is really a child who is ignorant of the importance of the matter.

"Oh, it would be great if the eldest master was there." Ma Qianjiu sighed: "If the eldest master presided over this family, there would not be the last fight. Even if there was a fight, the county magistrate could handle it properly."

The two of them waited for a while, but the second young master was still missing. In a hurry, a servant in a small hat ran over and said to the two people in the hall: "The second young master is taking a nap and has no time to take care of the matter. Let's ask you to take care of it yourself."

"What?" Ma Qianjiu jumped up and kicked the servant who was passing the message, cursing angrily: "What's going on? The Second Young Master is still taking a nap? The Ma family is in great danger and the family is almost gone. You kill me, no matter what method you use, call the Second Young Master here to discuss matters within half a cup of tea." Others are afraid of the Second Young Master, but he is not very afraid. After all, he has the support of the eldest young master behind him. Even if he offended the Second Young Master, he can still make a living in this family.

The servant was beaten but did not move and said with a sad face: "The Second Young Master was woken up during a nap and wanted to beat someone... You beat me too, and the Second Young Master also beat me too. I don't know which side of the beating should be beaten."

Ma Qianjiu was furious and kicked him to the ground, cursing: "Then you can just be beaten by me. I'll go to find the second young master in person. Zhu Ba, come with me too."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and followed behind.

Ma Qianjiu raised his foot and walked towards the inner courtyard. There was a courtyard and a corridor between the front yard and the inner courtyard. There was a beautiful hanging flower door in the middle of the long corridor. The old saying goes, "If the gate does not go out, the two doors will not step in." The second door in this sentence refers to the hanging flower door. It is a dividing line between the front yard and the inner courtyard. Women from wealthy families, especially daughters who have not yet left the house, are not allowed to go through this door to the front yard. When leaving this door, it is called showing up in public, which is a manifestation of not being abiding by the wife's manner. This door does not allow women to go out, and at the same time does not allow men to enter. Not only foreign male guests must abide by this regulation, but even their own male servants must pay attention.

Two servants in green clothes and hats guarded the left and right sides of the Chuanhuamen, responsible for taking care of the entrance of the inner courtyard and preventing idle people from entering.

Seeing Ma Qianjiu and Zhu Ba coming, two servants in green hats reached out and stopped him, "Master Ma, Zhu, what are you going to do in the inner courtyard? If you have anything, let us pass on it." Although they stopped people, their attitude was quite respectful, especially when they were not disrespectful to Ma Qianjiu.

"Go away." Ma Qianjiu said angrily: "I have something very urgent to find the second young master. Chi Ze changed, how can I have time to wait for you to slowly spread... Huh? No! I am the Ma family's old slave, I can enter and exit the inner courtyard at will. When did I get blocked? What do you two mean?"

The two servants smiled bitterly and said, "Master Ma, we dare not stop you. But just now, a side director named Li Chujiu came to tell him that he wanted to invite the second young master to the front yard, but he woke up the second young master to take a nap. He got angry and issued a strict order, blocking anyone, and saying... Ma Qianjiu must come, blocking it together and not being allowed to enter."

"What?" Ma Qianjiu was furious: "What's the point of this? The second young master is still making trouble."

Zhu Yuanzhang next to him was secretly amused. This second young master was really too negligent. When Zhu Yuanzhang was the emperor in his previous life, he was so diligent. If the ministers had urgent matters to find him, even in the middle of the night, he would have to get up to review the memorials. How could he be as useless as the second young master of the Ma family?

Ma Qianjiu said angrily: "Get out of the way, you only have the second young master in your eyes, but there is no eldest young master?"

The two servants did not move and blocked the door without any permission. They smiled bitterly: "This... we... don't have the courage... It's just that the second young master must listen to the orders..."

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly realized that the people of the Ma family had to be divided into two factions, one was the eldest son's faction, mainly the servants of the former courtyard, and the leader was Ma Qianjiu, the chief manager of the front courtyard. The other was the second son's faction, mainly the servants of the inner courtyard. In addition, the Qishu in the side courtyard also stood in the second son's faction, so the second son told Qishu to do things. Qishu that he would choose an obedient new manager of the side courtyard, so he could help in the future. The secretly meant that he wanted to continue to let the Shuhu on the side of the second son.

Zhu Yuanzhang used to be a low-key person and did not notice this faction problem. Moreover, the eldest young master was not in the mansion, so the situation was not obvious. It was not until this time that the two sides began to compete. He realized that the servant who was passing the message was firmly standing on the side of the second young master, so he was unwilling to help Ma Qianjiu pass the message. The two servants guarding the gate in front of him were also standing on the side of the second young master and did not sell Ma Qianjiu's account.

It's fun! Zhu Yuanzhang sighed in his heart that factions are really everywhere. At that time, he also had two major factions, Li Shanchang Sect and Liu Ji Sect. These two factions were in a state of upside down. Civil and military officials and generals took sides to compete in some trivial matters. Unexpectedly, a mere gentry family also had similar problems, and they also competed in some trivial matters such as passing messages and guarding the gate. Are you upset?

I have to choose a side, right?

Zhu Yuanzhang decided where to stand without thinking. He lifted up his two fists and thrust at the door-to-right side of the servants guarding the gate... When the fists arrived, the person flew, and the servants covered their chests and fell one foot backwards.
Chapter completed!