Yellow-leaved red maple, thousands of purple and green mountains are full of Pingshan. The lake is connected by mountains and rivers, and the solitary vulture is falling. The wind drives away the remaining heat, and the ripples and frost moon are clear in the bath.

In mid-October, each household began to pay rent, and a load of new grain was sent to the Xu family's barn. The Xu family has always been very generous to tenants, and this year is a good year, and every family has a lot of surplus, which is enough to live a good year.

Soon the government sent people to collect a part of the autumn tax, divided into grain and cloth, every family in the village had to plant mulberry trees for weaving, and the list was assigned to this year's labor, and the chief organized the men of the village to dig a ditch for ten days to build water conservancy.

There is one thing that shocked Xu Hao, the elderly in the village who are over 70 years old have rice and noodles and other food sent by the government every month, and everyone in the village is very respectful of the elderly.

The peasants of the Ming Dynasty were not idle all year round, and as soon as they finished their labor this year, they had to start preparing to store all kinds of grain, sell the old grain to merchants or use it to make wine. The pigs raised in the large pen are fattened because of the good food, some are slaughtered and some continue to be raised, and the large herds of sheep are either sold or kept.

As for dozens or hundreds of geese and ducks, they don't need to feed them at home, they all go out early in the morning, and in the evening, a person goes to the lake and calls, those geese and ducks are all mature, used to hearing people's voices, and those who drag them all go home, count them, and don't bring any less.

The yard of every house is dried with bacon, pickled chicken, salted fish, skinned rabbit and other game. The jar under the wall was filled with salted duck eggs, which were exchanged for money.

There are small crabs and dried shrimp on the stone platform of every house. The trees and mountains are full of walnuts, dates, persimmons, chestnuts, peaches, etc., which are dried and put away for leisurely enjoyment.

In addition, there are gourds, winter melons, eggplants, beans, tsubaki sprouts, yellow flowers and other vegetables, dried and put for the winter, the villagers are also busy cutting down the trees that do not become wood, burning them into charcoal and stacking them in the firewood room for storage, it seems that they are still busy, but in fact they are much more leisurely than when the farm is busy.

Xu Hao got up every day when the sun was red, freshened up, practiced his unadjusted fists and feet, ate a glass of warm wine, came to three bowls of mung bean millet sticky porridge made of sweet water in the stream, and got a burst of fragrant fragrance in front of him, snow-white syrup small tofu accompanied by green onions, full of food, and put on a thick cotton jacket to go out.

Sometimes, as the chief grows in knowledge and experience in dealing with trivial matters in the village, sometimes he visits all over the village and asks the elders some problems in farming, all of which are kept in mind. Sometimes storytellers come to the village, and Xu Hao squats in the village square with the children, listening to some "Miss Yingying's Night Party Lover", "Tang Wang Goes to Hell", and "Zhao Zilong Rides the Savior Alone".

Life in the countryside is monotonous and fulfilling, Xu Hao's father and mother are optimistic about it, Xu Hao has never begged for a penny from his family for several months, and he has not caused a single trouble, even if there is nothing to do in the future, he is certainly not a loser.

The eldest sister often writes to the eldest sister, saying that some trivial things happen at home, such as the eldest brother Xu Wen was selected by the lord of Pucheng County, and he was engaged last month, and when he became a relative in the coming year, he would send the second sister north to the Qin Wangfu and make a concubine for the prince of Qin.

Affected by this incident, the second brother Xu Ji began to be angry and moved to the capital Guozijian, determined to study hard for three or five years in the cold window and participate in the imperial examination. Xu Hao guessed that the second brother planned to wait for him to get ahead and marry an official daughter whose identity was no less than Zhu Qiaoqiao's, which was also quite haode, at least he had a goal and an ideal.

It is said that Zhang De is bent on marrying Luzhu as his wife, and his wife Zhang Yi did not agree at first, and they couldn't stand their son making a lot of noise at home all day long.

The old lady readily agreed, and he was going to be engaged next month, and it happened that the fourth Xu Song had caused a lot of trouble outside, so he sent him to Beiping to send a letter to the third uncle to inform his daughter of the happy event.

In addition, the other sisters also began to look for suitable families, but the eldest sister did not mention her future in the letter, and there was a faint grievance between the lines. Xu Hao sighed lightly, because of Zhu Gaochi, who would dare to marry the eldest sister? This matter made him embarrassed, Zhu Gaochi respected his eldest sister and respected himself, and he never let go of the hints of the Xu family, I am afraid that now the whole family is expecting him to come forward.

Wait a minute, anyway, with this, the eldest sister's status in the family has skyrocketed, and she will talk about it in a few years.

The old man Xu Da recently had a cold and his body was not good, which made the whole family very nervous, and the old lady was worried about it and had a minor illness.

The eldest sister urged him to return home as soon as possible, saying that the cheap father went to Hangzhou to buy goods, and the old lady, who was worried that her husband was having an affair, had not been in a good temper recently, and the family was in a bad mood.

"Hangzhou." Xu Hao's heart was a little moved.

There is another thing that makes Xu Hao feel unpleasant, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered to draft girls for the sake of his grandchildren. No wonder the family is in a hurry to find someone, what to do with the red leaves?

In the capital of Yanwangfu, because the emperor ordered the vassal kings from all over the country to send the princes to Beijing to receive education together, Zhu Di took this opportunity to stay in Beijing for a few months, and now he has to return to the fiefdom.

Before leaving, Zhu Di accidentally remembered Xu Hao's coming, so he ordered someone to call Zhu Gaochi to come for questioning, and Zhu Gaochi has been paying attention to the recent situation of Xu Hao's sister and brother, and the answer is fluent.

When he heard that Xu Hao lived alone in the countryside, lived an almost secluded life, and had no intention of going home for a short time, Zhu Di smiled.

"Interesting, this is a sign of heart to the king."

Zhu Gaochi asked in a proper manner: "The child doesn't understand." ”

Looking at the eldest son's fatter and fatter body, Zhu Di was a little uncomfortable, but in recent days, his father has frequently praised his son, and it is not easy to reprimand, so he said: "You have inconvenient legs and feet, sitting and talking." ”

Waiting for Zhu Gaochi to sit down slowly, Zhu Di said with a smile: "This Xu Hao is a little interesting, he deliberately left the house to tell his father that he disdains to be a franchise." You say, did the Xu family send someone to mention sending Qinglian into the palace recently? ”

"Yes." Zhu Gaochi's expression was complicated, and he said honestly: "The child doesn't dare to make his own decisions, and he doesn't want to wronged Qinglian, so he refused." ”

Zhu Di asked, "What if Xu Hao spoke in person?" ”

"This." Zhu Gaochi immediately lowered his head.

Zhu Di secretly scolded for nothing, frowned and said: "Qinglian's girl loves her brother the most, it can be said that her sister and brother are of the same heart, if Xu Hao opens her mouth, it also represents Qinglian's own mind, you just wait for this day, right?" It's a pity that Xu Hao's kid was stubborn and ran to the countryside. ”

Zhu Gaochi sighed softly and didn't dare to speak. Seeing this, Zhu Di snorted coldly: "It's just a woman, what's there to look forward to?" ”

Zhu Gaochi really wanted to say out loud, Qinglian is not an ordinary woman, I like her.

Fortunately, Zhu Di didn't continue, after all, as a person who came over, he also knew that the word was the most wonderful, beyond the influence of manpower, he and his father Zhu Yuanzhang were not exactly the same, although there were three thousand beauties in the harem, but why not only love his wife?

Since the death of the crown prince Zhu Biao, Zhu Di thought that there was a possibility of becoming the crown prince, but the emperor chose Zhu Yunwen, who was not his grandson, which made Zhu Di deeply disappointed and dissatisfied.

The current Zhu Di did not dare to have any ambitions, and was worried about the future, because some Wenchen had already expressed concern about the power of the feudal palaces in various places, and was worried that it would turn into the rebellion of the eight kings of the Han Dynasty, but fortunately, his father did not listen.

The father is already old, and it is time to cultivate his own shili in the capital, and take precautions, and the province will be caught off guard by his nephew who has not dried up in the future.

Thinking of this, Zhu Di said: "How many people are scrambling to tie up with you and my father and son, but Xu Hao chose to do the opposite, this is the usual trick of those who claim to be smart, and they are just fame-seeking." In front of his father-in-law, this king doesn't care about his children, and he is still a talent in the end. By the way, has he never even contacted the girl of the Mu family? ”

"Yes." Zhu Gaochi hid the shock in his heart, his father even knew about such a trivial matter?

Zhu Di pondered: "You are so patient at a young age, even your sweetheart can resist not seeing each other, well!" This son is by no means an idle person. I had a feeling that he expected to be a father who would fulfill him. ”

"Fulfill him?" Zhu Gaochi was taken aback and became stammered, "Could it be that father, father wants Xu Hao to become the county lord's concubine?" ”

Zhu Di said proudly: "It's just a trivial matter, why not?" ”

Zhu Gaochi felt that the older he gets, the more he can't see through his father, but the dignified King Yan directly intervened in the marriage of the younger generation of the Xu family, and now he plans to let Xu Hao climb to the county lord of the Mu family, so that through the marriage of the Xu family, King Qin and the Mu family are not afraid of being suspicious from the emperor's grandfather?

Zhu Di saw through his son's thoughts at a glance, and said coldly: "Confused, how can the saint be angry about the marriage between my royal family?" On the contrary, if the Mu family marries other noble and wealthy families, it will be a disaster of annihilation. ”