The villagers of Maojia Village are all stove households, the so-called stove households are the families of ordinary people who have lived by boiling salt for generations, they have no land, they are not allowed to engage in farming, and they are not allowed to change jobs at will, and their only source of livelihood is salt.

However, the salt is monopolized by the state, and the salt produced by the stove households can only be sold to the government, not sold privately, and the taxes are extremely heavy, and the officials responsible for collecting salt use all kinds of means to deduct catties and taels, so the stove households live extremely poorly, and the silver earned all year round is barely enough to support the family, and they dare not rest for many years, and they are reluctant to see a doctor when they are sick.

It can be seen from the fact that Maojia Village is full of thatched houses, and the life of the stove households is indeed very poor. Despite this, in order to entertain Xu Jin and others, the old patriarch Mao Zhigao categorically ordered the slaughter of the only pig in the village.

Xu Jin naturally wouldn't let a group of bitter villagers suffer, and under the pretext of building a cemetery for his parents in early spring and early summer, he insisted on giving the old patriarch a hundred taels of silver. Don't underestimate this one hundred taels of silver, the purchasing power in the Ming Dynasty is leveraged. For example, Xu Jin bought a house of 100 square meters in Shangrao County, and even spent 50 taels with a storefront. Therefore, spending a few dozen taels of silver to build a tomb can definitely be very local, and a hundred taels should be able to leave most of it.

Of course, one hundred taels of silver is just a drop in the bucket for Xu Jin's current net worth, if it weren't for the fact that he didn't have much silver, Xu Jin wouldn't blink an eye if he gave a few hundred taels.

Soon, the men of Maojia Village, who were working in the salt factory, returned to the village one after another, and the old patriarch, who had just received a hundred taels of silver, was also extremely arrogant, and immediately asked people to go into the city to buy wine, meat and vegetables, incense and candles, paper money, firecrackers and other items.

In the afternoon, the smoke of cooking in Maojia Village is everywhere, the air is filled with the tempting aroma of meat, the adults laugh and laugh, the children run and play, lively and festive like the New Year, it should be said that it is ten times more lively than the New Year.

It's no wonder that in the eyes of these salt households at the bottom of society, the county magistrate is a great official, not to mention the Lord Qincha from the capital. Therefore, Lord Qincha's visit to Maojia Village is naturally ten times more important than the New Year, and it is a major event that can make their descendants blow for a hundred years.

Bang Bang Bang Bang ......

A string of extremely arrogant firecrackers rang off at the entrance of Maojia Village for several minutes before stopping, and the white smoke with a strong smell of gunpowder filled half of the hillside.

Seeing this, Xu Jin couldn't help but smile bitterly, after making such a fuss, it is estimated that the Chongde County Commander will soon receive the news and come to see him.

The early spring and early summer were obviously extremely nervous, and they stayed by the master's side with an apologetic face, and they didn't expect that things would be so publicized and cause big trouble to the master.

Xu Jin patted the elastic round buttocks of the two pretty maids, and said with a smile: "What are you doing here?" It's hard to come back, hurry up and go to your clan and aunt to have a home, get acquainted, you don't need to wait here. ”

In early spring and early summer, Xia Fei's cheeks were all Xiafei, and the latter took advantage of no one's attention to quickly kiss the old man's face, and then ran away happily, early spring was not as bold as his sister, but gently told the old man that if something happened, he would remember to call her.

In front of the courtyard of the old patriarch's house, the village women and sisters-in-law were chatting around the stars and the moon in early spring and early summer, and the men became the main force of cooking. At about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, more than a dozen tables of sumptuous banquets were set up in the courtyard, and nearly 100 people in the whole village, men, women and children, all attended.

Xu Jin and the old man in the village sat in the same position, and his Jinyi guards and five hundred battalion soldiers also occupied a seat each. Xu Jin noticed that Mao Dazhong's goods did not enter the table, but just squatted in the corner of the courtyard with a bowl of food, eating alone, and the other villagers obviously didn't want to see him, and they didn't even bother to take a look.

The villagers carried tables and stools back to their respective homes, leaving only a few diligent village women to clean up and clean up, and they also ran to help clean the dishes and chopsticks in early spring and early summer.

The old patriarch Mao Zhigao instructed the villagers to arrange a place for Xu Jin to live, and then took the submissive Mao Dazhong into the house with a black face and closed the door. The two Jinyi guards who were staring at Mao Dazhong glanced at each other when they saw this, and sneaked to the back of the house, intending to eavesdrop on what the two were saying.

After about half a burnt incense, the old patriarch Mao Zhigao opened the door with a solemn face and walked out, Mao Dazhong's face was pale, and he followed him with a bowed head. The old patriarch Mao Zhigao stood still at the door, leaning on crutches and shouting in a deep voice: "Please come out, two of you!" ”

The two brocade guards flashed out from behind the hut, embarrassed and a little curious, this old thing is seventy-six, and it is still so deaf and clear-sighted.

The old patriarch said lightly: "Take the old man to see Lord Qincha, the old man has something important to report." ”

The two Jinyi guards didn't dare to underestimate this bad old man in the countryside at this time, nodded their heads, and took the old patriarch and Mao Dazhong to see Xu Jin.

A few village women who were still cleaning in the courtyard couldn't help but look at each other, pulling the early spring and early summer to ask in a low voice what was going on, and the two pretty maids were naturally confused.

The old patriarch Mao Zhigao came to Xu Jin and fell to his knees again. Xu Jin was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly reached out to help, but the old man refused to get up this time, and said in a mournful voice: "Lord Qincha, the family is unfortunate, and the old man has no way to control it, so that there is a scum in the clan who has brought disaster to the country and the people, and I have come to ask Lord Qincha for guilt." ”

Xu Jin's heart moved, and he pretended to be surprised: "Why did the old patriarch say this? ”

Mao Zhigao turned around and shouted: "Bastard animal, don't get in and confess your guilt to Lord Qincha." ”

Mao Dazhong, who was waiting outside the house and shivering, staggered in, knelt on the ground from a distance, and said in a trembling voice: "Lord Qincha spares his life, the little one is just a little minion who is exploring the way." ”

Xu Jin frowned and said, "What little minion?" Make it clear! ”

"The small one is the little minions under the pirate Xu Hai, the big boss...... Xu Hai and the others were planning to attack Chongde County, so let the little ones come to explore the way. ”

Xu Jin's face changed slightly: "What did you say?" The pirates plan to attack Chongde County? ”

Mao Dazhong nodded, and then, 1510 explained everything.

It turned out that this Mao Dazhong had fled the village with several villagers from neighboring villages a few years ago and went to sea by boat to become pirates.

These days, Xu Hai is planning to attack the mainland, so he sent a group of pirates who are familiar with the local area to sneak back to the mainland to find out the news, and Mao Dazhong is one of them.

After Xu Jin listened to Mao Dazhong's confession, his face instantly became solemn, if he really cut the grass without eradicating the roots, the spring breeze blew and gave birth again, in just two months, the Pujing monk, Zhimeizi and others who had escaped before made a comeback.

Xu Jin quickly calmed down and asked carefully, "How many men and horses do they have?" ”

"Xu Hai brought back twenty ships from the Wa Kingdom, about 1,000 people, and recently a lot of people have been recruited, I'm afraid there are 2,000 people. How many people Orinobu Miko and Hosokawa Takeshu have, the small ones are not clear, it is estimated that there are thousands of people each. Wang Zhi of Jintang Island was the strongest, with thousands of people, hundreds of bow ships, and I heard that he also got muskets from Westerners. ”

Mao Dazhong obviously wanted to strive for frank and leniency, so he told all the information he knew without concealment.

After Xu Jin heard this, his face became unprecedentedly grim, that is to say, the total number of these groups of pirates was six or seven thousand, and the situation was quite serious, and he asked in a deep voice: "When will they start?" ”

"At high tide this evening, before the city gates are closed in the dark." Mao Dazhong replied affirmatively.

Xu Jin hurriedly took out his pocket watch and looked at it, secretly screaming that it was broken, it was already five o'clock in the afternoon, and there was not much time left for him.

"Zhao Datou, go back to the city immediately!" Xu Jin commanded decisively.

Zhao Datou was Xu Jin's personal soldier, and it was Xu Jin's safety that he thought about more, so he shook his head and said: "My lord, it's too late, my subordinates think that you should stay in the village and transfer troops, and wait for the army to move later." ”

"Yes, Lord Qincha is a heavy burden, so you can't get into danger, so let's stay in the village." The old patriarch also spoke out to persuade.