Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

The child's steps were feeble, but his thoughts of running away were firm. There seemed to be something terrifying in the thatched house, forcing him to stagger out with his calves.

After a few steps, he bumped into Jiang Xinghuo's thigh with a thud. If Jiang Xinghuo hadn't quickly caught him with his quick hands, he almost fell to the ground.

Inside the house, a pale-faced woman managed to hold on to the door and walked out. When she saw Jiang Xinghuo and the others, her first reaction was not to negotiate with them to get her son back, but to be frightened.

"You guys leave quickly!"

The woman's voice was not hoarse, and she was obviously not short of water, but she was just a little weak.

Jiang Xinghuo looked at her bulging belly and roughly understood something in his mind. Either she drank a lot of water, or she ate something that was too bloated to digest.

Seeing that Jiang Xinghuo and others refused to leave, the woman wanted to say something else, but there was no need to say it.

Behind him, in the porridge shed, a dozen green-skinned gangsters who had eaten their fill of porridge came over, shirtless.

To Jiang Xinghuo's expectation, what happened next was not some slap-in-the-face plot of "village gangsters bullying orphans and widowed mothers, and a national master passing by to help out".

The leader, the rogue with a tiger tattoo, looked at the clothes of several people and said rather respectfully.

"I just looked at a few distinguished guests from a distance and didn't dare to come forward to disturb them. It seems that you guys came to Aunt Liu's house, but I have to take the liberty to ask, I wonder which landlord Aunt Liu still owes? If it's not much, A few of our brothers worked together to pay it back for her, so you don’t have to go in."

After that, he pointed to the woman's house and looked through the door panel. It would not be an exaggeration to say, "The house is bare of walls."

"Passing by."

Jiang Xinghuo said sincerely, "I was just passing by."

The leader, 'a tiger', let's just call him that, was quite happy when he saw this. He just cupped his fists and said, "Then please leave the village quickly, I'm afraid you won't be able to escape later."

"Why?"

Jiang Xinghuo didn't think it was a big deal, so he asked patiently.

Before 'A Tiger' could answer, he heard movement in the distance, but his expression suddenly changed.

Without further explanation to Jiang Xinghuo, more than a dozen green-skinned scoundrels returned to the porridge shed under the big locust tree and took out some homemade grafting weapons, such as sickles and long sticks.

Then, under the leadership of "Yi Hu", he walked towards the north end of the village.

The woman's complexion became increasingly gloomy, but the next moment, when she saw her son lying on the ground in agony, she became panicked and there was a hint of life in her eyes.

"Yaowa, please bear with me."

The woman took off her son's clothes and actually took a small branch to open his eyes as he clutched his stomach and wanted to roll around on the floor.

"Soon, soon"

The child did not cooperate, and the woman became more and more anxious. The child cried in pain because he could not pass stool.

"Just hold on a little longer, it'll be fine soon!" the woman said and pulled harder.

"Wow--"

The child cried loudly, as if he wanted to express all the grievances in his heart.

Jiang Xinghuo couldn't stand it any longer, so he took something out of his arms and handed it to the woman.

"Use this."

The woman took it and looked at the clean and clear grease in the small bottle, and was stunned for a moment.

She had never seen such good oil in her life.

"Use it quickly."

The woman no longer hesitated. With the help of the fish-man ointment, the child quickly expelled the feces blocked in the stomach.

Seeing that her son's life was relieved, the woman who was not good at words kowtowed to Jiang Xinghuo repeatedly.

At this time, Jiang Xinghuo could finally ask the doubts in his mind just now.

"Didn't those people just want to be exterminated?"

The woman was startled and then said: "My lord, you have misunderstood. They are all close friends and nephews of my late husband."

If you could be friends with these people, would they be hard-working farmers? Most of them are libertines, or want to be knights.

"Then I saw they all drank porridge."

Song Li next to him couldn't say much, but his meaning was very obvious.

You two, mother and son, are in such difficulty, how come these friends, nephews and nephews refuse to share a morsel of porridge?

There was a quarrel from the north end of the village.

The woman looked a little anxious.

Jiang Xinghuo said, "Tell us the whole story, maybe we can help you."

The woman gritted her teeth and told a story about what happened in the past few days.

——————

The woman's husband was born in the eleventh year of Hongwu. This year is the first year of Yongle. He is twenty-five years old. His name is Li Liuqi.

But Li Liuqi, an old bachelor, never got married. His family was too poor. Not only could they not afford him a wife, but his father's own children also had to be sent out to adopt sons or marry daughters, thereby reducing the burden of food rations.

It wasn't until last year that I married a woman whose husband had died, who was also known as "Aunt Liu" to the green-skinned scoundrels.

Originally, the family could barely make ends meet by working as sharecroppers for the landlord in the next village. But this spring there was a severe drought, and the green seedlings withered and turned into yellow seedlings. The yellow seedlings were washed away by a flood that diverted the river. If everything is clean, there will definitely be no harvest this year. The landlords still have some surplus grain to survive, and the farmers really have no choice but to wait to starve to death.

In addition to him, his mother-in-law and their children, Li Liuqi's family now includes his parents, his eldest brother, sister-in-law, nephew's family, and his second brother who is a bachelor. There are a total of nine people in his family. The rest of his brothers and sisters have all been adopted or married off.

As for the rice vat at home, there was only a shallow layer of rice covered with dust.

The story comes to Li Liuqi's last day.

"Squeak~"

The old door shaft, which lacked lubrication, made a heart-breaking noise. My mother, Mrs. Chen, walked in with her left hand behind her back and a broken clay bowl in her right hand.

She was very weak, and she had to hold on to the window lattice for a long time to take just a few steps.

"Shhh"

Li Liuqi took the clay bowl in front of him, which contained less than half a bowl of turbid soup, with some meat foam floating in the middle. Seeing that Li Liuqi was still dazed, Mrs. Chen hurriedly urged in a low voice: "Hurry up and drink!"

"What kind of soup is this? Have you drank it?"

Mrs. Chen looked at the youngest who felt most distressed, forced out a smile and said: "The yellow dog in the village stewed it. My parents drank it, so drink it quickly."

Li Liuqi had no doubts. He was really hungry. His body was tall and majestic. When he was young, he had studied martial arts with his master, practiced martial arts, and had traveled around the world. He was not famous, but in Shiliba Xiangdao also had some prestige and was particularly intolerant of hunger, so he drank it without hesitation.

After half a bowl of warm broth was consumed, and even the bone residue was chewed and swallowed finely, Li Liuqi regained some strength and no longer had stars in his eyes.

"Thank you, mother."

Looking at her energetic little son carefully, as if she wanted to remember his appearance in her mind, Ms. Chen smiled with satisfaction. She picked up the bowl with one hand and put it in front of her belly with the other, and walked out of the house.

"Bang~"

Smoke and dust rose, and the clay bowl shattered and spattered on the ground. Chen fainted and fell to the ground unconscious before he could even cross the threshold.

"Mother!" "Mother!"

Two anxious shouts rang out at the same time inside and outside the house, and Li Liuqi and his second brother staggered to Chen's side.

When Li Liuqi saw the broken fingers of Chen's left hand on his abdomen, he seemed to remember something, his face turned livid, his stomach was churning, and he was about to vomit it out.

"Don't spit it out! Swallow it back!"

The second brother said viciously and pinched Li Liuqi's Adam's apple with his hand, pushing back the nausea.

"mother--"

For a moment, Li Liuqi seemed to be blind. His vision was completely white, his ears could not hear clearly, and big tears fell down.

"Get up, this is my mother's decision. You have to live. My nephew and sister-in-law are still waiting for you to bring rice home!"

The second brother helped Li Liuqi up. It took a long time before Li Liuqi's eyesight recovered. He looked at the strange but familiar home. His father and elder brother were lying on the bed too hungry to get up. His sister-in-law was holding a few children in her arms. The one-month-old nephew, his wife and her ex-husband's baby looked at him timidly from the door of the woodshed.

After helping Mrs. Chen to lie down on the kang, she cooked some rice soup that could be counted in the grains of rice and drank it down. After waiting for a long time, Mrs. Chen slowly woke up, but she was too weak to say anything.

"Let's go with my second brother to the landlord's house to borrow rice."

He and his second brother walked together, and they didn't go very far. After passing a village, at the other end of Guzhuang Village was the landlord's home.

The landlord's house was naturally different from his thatched house. It was an imposing tile-roofed house with three entrances and three exits, and a thick wall outside. A vicious dog barked at Li Liuqi at the door, and a servant stuck his head out when he heard the dog barking.

Before long, the fat landowner, wearing a brocade-cut blue printed copper coin robe, came to the door.

The landlord was holding a heavy bag of rice in his hand. He looked at the two Li brothers who came to the door with a smile and said one thing.

After silence, the landowner asked: "Has the decision been made? Who will come?"

Li Liuqi held the second brother's hand and said in a deep voice: "Second brother, let mother and the others live."

"good."

The second brother, who felt guilty, nodded heavily, took the rice bag from Landlord Fan, turned around and strode away.

A drop of water fell to the ground and was instantly scalded.

The servants flanked Li Liuqi through the door. The door to Landlord Fan's house was closed, and the sunlight was blocked behind him, creating a stark contrast between light and darkness.

To Li Liuqi's expectation, Landlord Fan did not do anything to him immediately. Instead, he placed him in the woodshed and even gave him half a black hard bun at noon.

Li Liuqi slowly licked the steamed buns mixed with wheat bran and sand with his saliva. At this time, there was a movement in Landlord Fan's house. Li Liuqi hid the steamed buns that were as hard as a stone in his arms. , lying on the window listening to the conversation outside.

A strange voice was chatting with Landlord Fan: "Huang County Magistrate sent the young man to personally thank Mr. Fan. He has received the things, and this matter will be taken care of by Mr. Fan."

Landlord Fan smiled and said: "Where is it? I have no way of teaching my son, and I just caused a big disaster. I killed people in the town by mistake. I also want to thank County Magistrate Huang for his tolerance. Come on, I sent people to work hard all the way. I am disrespectful for my small thoughts." "

"Oh! Mr. Fan is too polite. This is not the person who will take the blame for Young Master Ling. Has Mr. Fan found him?"

After a while of pretending to give in, the messenger asked.

Mr. Fan said with a smile: "After we found it, the lowly man agreed with a bag of rice and kept it in the woodshed."

"Okay, then we'll take it away."

Two police officers wearing soap robes and straight underwear broke in. Seeing Li Liuqi's majestic figure, the police officers holding up shackles and torture pills were a little hesitant.

The sun was dim, but the landlord still looked like a smiling tiger. He said softly: "Think about your family members who are about to starve to death."

Li Liuqi sneered without saying a word, and stretched out his hand to ask the police to put on the shackles.

Seeing that this boy recognized him, the two policemen breathed a sigh of relief. Otherwise, it was hard to say whether they would be able to defeat this strong young man with the iron rulers at their waists.

"Master, please stay here for a moment. I'll take this kid back to the county office later."

PS: [Important reminder (there is no charge for this content)] Chapters 316 to 356 are about the rectification of officialdom and the suppression of rebellions in Jiangnan. They do not contain any theoretical knowledge. They are all practical content. If you are not interested, you can jump directly to Chapter 366. "Class" will contain theoretical knowledge content from now on.