When Ma Cheng heard Gu's words, he thought of his parents in later generations. Ma Cheng was born in the countryside and his parents were honest farmers. When Ma Cheng ranked first in the town junior high school, he was admitted to the county key high school, which caused a sensation in the village.

Ma Cheng still remembers the grand occasion when the village chief came to his house to send an admission notice. This was the first time that his honest parents were excited and blushed with excitement. His father, who was not good at speaking, even went to the ancestral grave to inform his ancestors afterwards.

But when Ma Cheng went to the county high school to study, he realized that the help of his family was an insurmountable gap for a rural child. The families in the class who studied well were either civil servants or intellectual families. At that time, Ma Cheng began to feel disgusted with his family for the first time.

Ma Cheng was not going home and began to alienate his parents. In this way, Ma Cheng's study was getting worse and worse. He only passed the third-rate university in the provincial capital in the college entrance examination. Ma Cheng originally thought that this score would make his parents sad, but then he knew that after he got home, his parents did not blame him at all, but carefully prepared luggage and living expenses for him.

Ma Cheng left the passenger station with the 10,000 yuan saved by his parents' frugality. When he saw his parents who were dark-faced, Ma Cheng shed tears for the first time when he saw him seeing him off by the wind and sun.

After four years of college life, Ma Cheng is no longer the boy in high school who blames his parents for his family background. Ma Cheng deeply knows that it is not easy for his parents to support a college student as a farmer. When Ma Cheng graduated, he also thought about finding a good job to bring his parents to support him, but the cruel reality gradually made Ma Cheng's ideals fade.

Ma Cheng has been in the capital for five or six years. Although he can't achieve nothing, he is still far from success. However, his parents in his hometown have always encouraged Ma Cheng, which is why Ma Cheng can persist in the capital.

Now that Ma Cheng saw Gu's spoiling for him, he gradually remembered his parents. Thinking of this, Ma Cheng could no longer control his tears, climbed in front of Gu, hugged his legs and cried bitterly: "Mom, my son is wrong! My son is unfilial! My son has made my mother too worried in recent years!"

Gu saw his son crying bitterly, and Gu hugged Ma Cheng's head and cried: "My son! Don't worry, as long as you live for your mother for a day, you must not let my son suffer any grievances!"

"Don't worry, mom, my son must follow his uncle's instructions. He will never go out to mess around again in the past few days and concentrate on studying at home! In the future, he will definitely be appointed as a marquis and generals, and earn a first-class imperial edict for his mother!"

Mothers are the greatest in this world, and mothers love their children the most blind. Although everyone knows what kind of virtue Ma Cheng is, there are absolutely no 100, fifty swears Ma Cheng made when he held Gu's legs, but in the end, there was nothing that Ma Cheng could abide by.

But Gu is a mother, so he is inevitably confused by his love for his son. When Gu heard Ma Cheng say this, he said with relief: "My son, my mother doesn't ask for any imperial edicts. As long as my son can grow up healthily, he will be satisfied with marrying and having children for his mother in the future!"

Ma Cheng wiped his tears and stood up and said firmly: "Don't worry, mom, I will do what I say, and I will definitely let my mother be this imperial lady in the future!"

Although Ma Cheng was very loud, no one in the house believed it except Gu. His eldest daughter-in-law Zhang and Ma Luan had been married for more than ten years and knew very well that he was an incompetent brother-in-law. Now that he saw his brother-in-law re-using his old tricks and coaxing his mother-in-law Gu, Zhang inevitably brought disdain to his face.

Ma Cheng was only a few steps away from Zhang at this time. Ma Cheng saw Zhang's disdainful eyes clearly. Ma Cheng secretly scolded his sister-in-law in his heart. He really had long hair and short knowledge. Do you know that my master is going to do a big career?

When Zhang saw Ma Cheng, he found himself red and lowered his head. Ma Cheng then realized that his sister-in-law was pretty good. Although she was almost middle-aged (a woman in the Ming Dynasty was fifteen years old, and Zhang was now twenty-eight years old, and she was middle-aged), she still had some charm.

Gu only cared about wiping his tears, but did not see his son teasing his eldest daughter-in-law. He wiped his tears away. Gu said, "My son, it's late now. You have a good rest tonight. You will start to review books tomorrow. As for that matter, you don't have to worry about it. Your uncle will solve it for you! If the Duke of Wei makes things difficult for you, you have a mother to make the decision for you, and it will make Wei mother angry and lead his personal soldiers to burn his Duke of Wei's mansion!"

Gu's last sentence was already stern. Gu's family was not an ordinary soldier. The Gu family fought with local ethnic minorities for the Ming Dynasty. Although Gu did not go to the battlefield, his martial arts were not a joke. In addition, his father-in-law Ma Shiying, as a chief official, had no choice but to take people to burn the Duke of Wei's mansion. As long as the Duke of Wei's immediate relatives were not burned to death, Xu Hongji could only pinch his nose and recognize him.

Ma Cheng felt relieved when he heard Gu support him. Gu was also very pleased to see Ma Cheng so sensible. It happened that it was getting late and Ma Cheng was left for dinner in the inner house.

Ma Cheng was very happy to hear that my mother kept her for dinner, so she could take the opportunity to hook up with her sister-in-law Zhang, but what made Ma Cheng depressed was that there was no Zhang when she was having dinner.

The etiquette and law in the Ming Dynasty were so strict that women could never eat with men, not to mention that Zhang was Ma Cheng's sister-in-law, so only Gu and Ma Cheng were eating.

The Ma family is a scholarly family and is determined to keep the rules of eating but not sleeping. When eating, there is nothing nonsense. Only after the meal Gu talks with Ma Cheng a few gossips.

After dinner, Ma Cheng stood up and said goodbye. Gu knew that this son was very naughty when he was a child. His determination just now was probably wasted again, but the mother had absolute hope for her son no matter what time.

"Son, your father will be back in a few days. When you come back, you will definitely have to ask about your knowledge. This time, you have to recite the Analects of Confucius a few words to satisfy your father's heart. Do you know?"

Ma Cheng nodded and agreed. Gu saw that Ma Cheng agreed very happily, but he didn't know what the effect was. Gu sighed and waved his hand, asking Ma Cheng to go out.

Ma Cheng returned to his yard and the sky was already dark. There was no light pollution in the Ming Dynasty. It was absolutely dark after the sun set.

Ma Cheng looked at Tianse and asked, "Gu San, when will Xu Dahu and the others take action?"

Gu Changwei looked at Tianshi and said, "Second Master, killing people and setting fires in the second half of the night. Everyone hasn't fallen asleep yet at this time, so it's natural that it's hard to do it!"

"Okay, I'll go to bed first when I get fire in the south city. Tell me to get up!" After Ma Cheng said that, he went into the house and lie down with his clothes, leaving Gu Changwei waiting in the yard.

Ma Cheng had something to do and couldn't sleep deeply. He heard Gu Changwei call himself in a daze: "Second Master! Second Master! Take action!"

Ma Cheng turned over and sat up from the bed, rubbed his eyes and asked, "Has it started?"

"Second Master, there is a fire in the south of the city. It seems that he has taken action!"

Ma Cheng got up and rushed out of the house. In the Ming Dynasty, there was no light at night, so it was easy to see a red light on the south city.

Ma Cheng stood in the yard and couldn't see clearly. He looked around and said to Gu Changwei, "Gu San, is there a ladder? Let's go up to the roof and take a look!"

Gu Changwei quickly found a ladder, and the master and servant came from the ladder to the roof, and then they could see clearly from the south city.

There were no buildings in the Ming Dynasty. In addition, Li Chuang came to Fengyang a few years ago and set off another fire. So now, the tallest buildings in Fengyang City are the Imperial Palace in the North City and the Bell and Drum Tower in the South City, and the Huaiyang Tower in the South City. I saw a fire in Huaiyang Tower, and the houses around the fire were no longer protected.

Gu Changwei looked at it for a long time and smiled, "Second Master, I didn't expect that Xu Dahu was ruthless enough to ignite the houses around him in order to kill people and silence them!"

Ma Cheng was stunned: "What? All the houses around him are hidden?"

"Yes, Second Master, look! Huaiyang Tower is three miles away from the Governor's Office. You can see such a big fire here. The houses around Huaiyang Tower must be on the rise, otherwise there would be no such big fire!"

As soon as Gu Changwei finished speaking, he heard a panic outside the Governor's Office. A group of inspectors and soldiers who were patrolling the night shouted: "Hurry up, there is a fire in the south city. There is an order on it. Let's all go to put out the fire!"

Ma Cheng was moved when he heard the officers and soldiers of the inspection department outside the wall saying this. He was so furious for such a thing. Ma Cheng saw Gu Changwei beside him and sighed and said, "I'll go down first. Tomorrow you go to Xu Dahu and the others to ask about the situation!"

Gu Changwei was in high spirits, but he didn't pay attention to Ma Cheng's tone, and nodded and agreed. Ma Cheng came down from the ladder and lie back in the house. He couldn't sleep at this time.

Today is the second day of Ma Cheng's time travel, and it is also the first day that Ma Cheng came into contact with the real Ming society. Thinking of the numb citizens in the city in the morning, the shopkeeper who died unjustly, and the ordinary people who are wailing in the fire, Ma Cheng knows what kind of society he has come to.

This era is not the kind of era in later generations where laws guarantee that human life is higher than anything else. In this era, human life is like grass, the Ming Dynasty's official army, the Qing Dynasty's Tartars, and Li Chuang bandits. None of these forces think that the people are human.

Ma Cheng remembers that it was very clear in the Ming Dynasty that in the 40-year chaotic times in the late Ming Dynasty, there were more than ten records of people who cannibalize people in the Ming Dynasty. According to later generations, due to war, famine, and natural disasters in the late Ming Dynasty, the population of China decreased by 70%. The population of China decreased directly from more than 100 million in the Wanli period to 30 million in the early years of Kangxi.

Of course, this is not too much. The historical period of the largest population reduction among all dynasties was the Three Kingdoms, and the national population reduction reached 95 million. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Hui Rebellion in Shaanxi and Gansu in the late Qing Dynasty directly reduced China's population by 100 million. The eight-year war of resistance against Japan also caused China to lose 50 million people. Others, such as the end of Qin, the end of Tang, the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the late Song and the end of Yuan Dynasty, were even more of an era when people were treated as grass.
Chapter completed!