Daming Yinghua

Chapter 222 New Sign
Mu Zaohua walked past rows of village houses that had been replaced with tile roofs and brick walls.

Even outside Yanzhou City, such brick and tile houses are not common in Lu Wang Mansion, General Jing Guo Mansion and other members of the clan.

On the wooden door arched by the fence, there are neat ink letters pasted on it.

"Rice is like oxtail flowers like eggs", "Jibei is far away in autumn", and so on.

Jibei, that is, cotton, has now become the main crop grown by households in Zhengjiazhuang.

Mu Zaohua felt that she had come to a world that was more novel than Liaoyang back then and later Yanzhou. But neither is timid or numb or cunning.

Of course, because of the loss of a leader just now, there was a faint joy in this busy farming world.

Mu Zaohua walked past the courtyard of Zheng Shoukuan, the owner of the young villa. The young people in the courtyard had just got married, but there was no happy word pasted on the courtyard door, and there was no colorful silk hanging under the eaves. Mu Zaohua could only see the curling smoke from the morning stove. Only the intermittent conversations of young men and women can be heard.

She continued to walk away from the coast. She passed Zhengjiazhuang's military training ground and artillery testing ground. She mustered up her courage and looked up at the bell tower.

The day seemed to turn into night in an instant, and Mu Zaohua imagined the scene of Mr. Wu ringing the alarm bell in the middle of the night.

The life of the person in the spring girl's dream ends at that moment.

Now that more than a month has passed, Mr. Wu's body should have started to rot in the coffin underground.

Mu Zaohua continued to walk towards the hillside.

It was piled up by farmers during their slack, as a graveyard.

Life is like a post, and everyone has a deadline. Mrs. Zheng said that graves are as important as cotton fields and salt pits.

Mu Zaohua climbed up the cemetery, bypassed the Hall of Martyrs where the piles had just been laid, and came to the plum tree that had been transplanted again.

Mu Zaohua stared at the person in front of the tombstone, watching her orderly lay out tall pottery, put rice cakes, rice dumplings, and dried fruits on it, poured a glass of wine, and took out a bowl of white fish soup from the food basket.

Mr. Wu loves to eat fish.

Mu Zaohua clearly remembered that when she was in Zhenjiang, when Chen Sanni and Chen Sanni caught the swindler and went to collect the reward money, she heard Mr. Wu say "Jiang Dao" and "Hai Dao" to Mrs. Zheng. At first, she thought it was The name of Bingren was later known to be a delicious fish.

The situation in front of me is like the scene in the past, just two people talking, yin and yang have different paths.

Zheng Haizhu turned his head: "It's the Dragon Boat Festival, how can there be Jiangdao, I asked General Xu to catch a squid, which is also delicious."

Looking at Mu Zaohua's complexion again, he asked in a harmonious voice: "Chongming is humid, Meiji is more difficult than Zhenjiang, did you sleep well last night?"

Mu Zaohua shook her head: "No, I've been dreaming about Mr. Wu."

"He spoke to you?"

"No, I can't catch up with him," Mu Zaohua knelt down and picked off a few strands of weeds that were not pleasing to the eye, but You Sheng said frankly, "Madam knows that when the son is alive, he is like the bright moon in the sky to me. no."

Zheng Haizhu looked at the plum tree in front of the grave and said, "Bond is actually just like you and me. He is an ordinary person, with love, hate, ignorance, and emotions, and six desires."

"But he is dead," Mu Zaohua gasped, "I never believe in ghosts and gods or reincarnation. When a person dies, he is dead. Mrs. Zheng, I am indeed not good enough for Mr. Wu, but as long as he lives, at least I will Seeing him and hearing him talk a lot. But now, now..."

Mu Zaohua grinned and began to cry.

However, no matter how intensely she cried, she didn't hug the tombstone.

No matter how heartbroken the woman is, she still has scruples about her self-esteem. After understanding the origin of the plum tree, she can cry ugly, but she will not lose her composure.

Zheng Haizhu let her cry while she stood up, took the food box and went to a new grave nearby.

Aya was buried inside.

That night, after Tong Fengnian shot and killed Wu Bangde, Aya struggled fiercely, refusing to be taken captive to the sea and boarded a boat.Tong Fengnian, who was eager to leave the island with his small cannon, was probably afraid that his subordinates would be interrogated by Yue Tuo, so he didn't dare to harm Aya's mother and daughter, so he simply gave up on them.

After seeing Zheng Haizhu, Aya told everything she knew and experienced, including the whole story of being threatened with her daughter's life and tricked into opening the gate of the artillery field.

Not long after, Huang Zunsu's Songjiang Bingyong and Xu Yilong's young sailors returned in defeat, reporting that they hadn't intercepted the Jurchen's boat. Hearing this, Aya found an excuse to let Liaomin girl Hua Er go back to the house with Xiaodoubao in her arms, and then suddenly pulled out the boat. He took a soldier's waist knife and killed himself.

"Don't hate her," Zheng Haizhu turned back to Wu Bangde's grave, and said to Mu Zaohua, "The ones who should really hate are the Jurchens, the carpenter Ashan who doesn't know who Nurhachi's descendants are, and the traitor whose surname is Tong, I guess. , and Han Xiying. However, people’s hearts are turbid, and their knowledge is superior or inferior. I am always afraid that Xiaodoubao will live in the eyes of the farmers in the future, so I want to send the baby to Yan Xuanfu in Taiwan, and their husband and wife Daughter for company."

Mu Zaohua had stopped crying at this moment and started to burn the paper.

She murmured a little calmly: "To tell you the truth, Ma'am, when I landed on the island, I heard a few peasants talk about it, and I was really not happy. But as soon as I saw the little bean buns, my baby threw herself into my arms and cried, saying that my mother was It's not that I went to the north, why didn't I come back, how can I have any other thoughts about her, I just feel that she is too pitiful, I don't know how to feel sorry for her."

Zheng Haizhu nodded.

After the Battle of Fushun and the temporary calm in Liaodong, Mu Zaohua and Aya walked side by side for a while to Denglei to the spy station of the trading company in Yanzhou. To Xiaodoubao, she was like an aunt. No wonder the motherless Xiaodoubao got close she.

Zheng Haizhu hesitated for a moment, then tentatively said: "Then, or, let Xiaodoubao follow you to Yanzhou?"

Mu Zaohua raised her eyes: "Madam, I don't even want to go back to Yanzhou, I want to go to Hetuala."

……

A few days later, Xu Yilong came to Zheng Haizhu's yard.

"Brother Yan ordered the ship to bring the things Madam asked for the month before last."

"Carry it into the house." Zheng Haizhu said, staring at the box.

The box was not small, but it was not padlocked. Instead, a labyrinth of pits had been dug into the lid, and several pieces of wood were embedded in the slots.Zheng Haizhu and Yan Siqi agreed on a set of sequential codes for unlocking, and each memorized them.

When Zheng Haizhu sent Xu Yilong out of the courtyard, he asked, "The people on board also talked about the current situation on both sides of the Fujian Sea, right? Is Xu Guerrilla okay?"

"Xu Guerzilla" is Xu Yilong's father, Xu Xinsu.As a confidant of Yu Zigao, the commander-in-chief of the Fujian Navy, Xu Xinsu also won the title of "Praise Guerrilla" of the Fujian Navy just like Zheng Haizhu was appointed as his wife after his meritorious service in the Minghe naval battle.Zan Hua Guerrilla is not a real guerrilla general, he cannot lead troops, and is similar to a staff officer.

Xu Yilong said respectfully: "Madam Lao is concerned, everything is going well for my father. Governor Shang and Mr. Yu are also in harmony with each other. It is Yan Xuanfu's department that has some minor problems."

"Did Liu Xiang make Brother Yan angry?"

"Huh? Madame already knows?"

Zheng Haizhu said frankly: "I guess, when I was beating the red hair, I had a face-to-face with that Liu Xiang. Yilong, I don't care whether he and your father worked under Li Dan before. Now you follow me, I will You should also be treated as a nephew. Let me tell you straight, our sailors, don’t associate with this Liu Xiang in the future, this man has a wicked heart.”

Xu Yilong's face was solemn, but he changed his address and said, "Yilong would like to follow my aunt's teachings. Well, my aunt really knows people. This time, I heard from someone over there that Yan Xuan fined Liu Xiang's military salary. Because he sells it on the island, what kind of A Piao mother cream is sold."

Zheng Haizhu thought in his heart that a greedy pirate like Liu Xiang is far inferior to a hero like Yan Siqi who knows how to measure profit and loss. It is expected that there will be such a day.

Then she said with piercing eyes: "So that's it! Brother Yan is still soft-hearted, he should have been relieved of his military power and driven out of Taiwan! Yilong, that A Piaomu, is a kind of poppy ointment from overseas It is poisonous, and it is very addictive. After eating it, the limbs will become weak. Not to mention that you will lose in battles on land and sea. We in Chongming must never let this thing come in."

Xu Yilong was terrified when he heard that.

Fujian can be regarded as a place that has been blessed by Longqing Switch and opened its eyes to the ocean, but when he was in Xiamen, he had never heard of such a terrible imported product.

But both Yan Siqi and Zheng Haizhu were elders whom he admired extremely, so of course he believed in them.

"Auntie," the young general said sternly, "Yilong will definitely investigate the daily habits of the sailors in the future, don't let this A Piaomu ruin the brothers."

"Okay, let's go back to training."

After Xu Yilong left with his entourage, Mu Zaohua appeared from the back room.

Zheng Haizhu's fingers fluttered, moving the wooden bar, and there was only a "click" in a moment, and the most critical copper core of the box bounced.

Mu Zaohua walked to the box.

Zheng Haizhu took out a tin can and opened it, and twisted a piece of black paste from the silk package.

"Zaohua, this is A Piaomu, it can also be called opium."

Mu Zaohua smelled a smell of urine and felt like gagging.

Instinctively she turned her head away, but quickly turned back, staring at the opium cream.

She knew that in the next few years, she would have to deal with this thing all the time.

Zheng Haizhu bowed again and took out a wooden pole from the box, and said slowly: "And this, you have to take it to Hetuala, the old lair of the Jurchens."

Mu Zaohua took it and stroked the shiny part of the pipe.

She showed a sinister smile: "Mrs. Zheng, Mangurtai likes the water smoke from the west of Mongolia. He will definitely be fascinated by this opium smoke soon."

(End of this chapter)