The Book of Heaven

Chapter 7 Internal and External Affairs

"You're not bad either." The third uncle patted the dust off his palm lightly, and looked him up and down. He didn't expect the mandrill to stand up so quickly.

This mandrill is very tall.When he stood up, he was about one foot tall, and Ma Zheng's generation was almost two meters three. He was strong and his muscles were shiny.

"What's your name?"

"No name."

In front of this old man who knocked himself down with a stick, the mandrill had to hold back no matter how irritable it was, because it was holding back, so its voice was a little humming.

"No name? With your skill, it would be too wronged to be a bandit..."

"I'm not a mountain thief, I'm a horse thief..."

"Oh, where's the horse?"

"I can't bear it..." The mandrill's dustpan-sized head drooped.

Ma Zheng wanted to nod, he thought that with this weight, only hippos could do it.

The third uncle also laughed, "There are two choices, either I kill you now, it's easy and there will be no future troubles."

Even though he said he was going to kill someone, the third uncle's face remained calm, but the mandrill's pupils contracted violently, he was afraid of death.

"It seems that you still don't want to die, so how about you treat him as the master?" The third uncle pointed at Ma Zheng with a smile.

"I?"

Ma Zheng believes in disasters from the sky; Ma Zheng thinks that such things as pies from the sky will not happen to him under normal circumstances.
Eyeballs moved to the mandrill, Ma Zheng quietly waited for the answer.

The mandrill swears.

What the third uncle said next, only his own people and the dead can listen.

Mandrill doesn't want to be a dead person, so he chooses to be his own.

Oaths are actually not very reliable, at least Ma Zheng thinks that swearing by some god of heaven and earth is actually a hooligan, because no one has really seen it, it is far better to curse oneself for impotence, at least there will be a psychological barrier .

However, this is because Ma Zheng has lived for too long in a world where there is no belief or everyone believes in rights and wealth.

This world is different, regardless of whether there are gods or not, at least people in this era, whether it is Buddhism, Taoism, or Confucianism, after all, most people still have a belief.

Cultured people respect Confucianism, capable people practice Taoism, and fearful people believe in Buddhism.

But the third uncle seems to be the same as Ma Zheng, he doesn't really believe in these illusory things. Ma Zheng thinks that the third uncle's belief should be his own, so he lightly warned the bandit, saying:
"You don't need to raise your head to look at the gods. If you disobey me, you will naturally make you promise."

Just such a simple sentence made the mandrill docile, squatting aside looking like a bear but more honest than a dog.

"Third uncle, don't you want to help me find a mount?"

Seeing the mandrill's appearance, Ma Zheng couldn't help laughing.

"It's okay, let's talk again if we can't sleep. What did you just say?"

The third uncle pouted, sat down again, and asked Ma Zheng, "Have you heard of the Zhao family?"

Ma Zheng grew up in Majiapu "from a young age", and ordinary people like him only know about Majiapu, so how could he know about the Zhao family.

The Jiazibaobao where Ma Zheng grew up was first built 800 years ago, and after 800 years of wind, frost, snow and rain, countless expansions and reconstructions, it has the current scale.

If you look down from the air, the strict sense of the A-shaped fort wall is actually a nearly perfect circle prototype. The circumference of this fort wall is a full ten miles, which means that the east-west width of the A-shaped fort has reached more than three miles.

In such a large area, there are two inner walls separating it. The inner wall at the core is not high, that is, about seven or eight feet, and the area occupied is not large, but the surrounding area is the center of the fort. The core was once used by the owner of the Ma family. After the new castle was built, this area became the place where the owner of the castle, Ma Daogong, lived and handled affairs.

There is also a middle wall between the inner wall and the outer wall, which is more than one foot high and divides the remaining space into two.

Close to the outer wall is the place where ordinary fortresses live, including people like Ma Zheng and Sanshu. It is messy and dirty, and the buildings are almost out of order. Only the area near the Dongfang Fort gate is relatively tidy, and everyone usually trades. Everything is going on there. After all, there are fort soldiers watching, so nothing will happen.

As for the circle near the core area, only those with status and status can enter and live in the castle. The inside is lined with trees and houses are lined up. It can be described as a paradise.

The children outside the main house of the Ma family, as well as the core and backbone of the Xuanjia cavalry, are eligible to live here. They usually rarely deal with people living on the periphery, and even if they come out, they only hang around near the east gate.

But no matter how sad it is in Majiabao, in this wild and barren place in the northwest where soldiers and bandits are infested, Majiabao is still a paradise in the eyes of those who are struggling.

The three concentric circles that make up Majiabao are also like a three-layer filter, which keeps some trivial things out and prevents these things from disturbing the core area, unless it is an extremely important event.

For example, four black armor knights were seriously injured.

At this time, the seriously injured Xuanjia knight was put on a stretcher, passed through the east gate, middle gate, and inner gate, and finally entered the core area of ​​Majiabao, where he was placed in front of Ma Daoming, the owner of Jiazibao.

There are very few black armor knights composed of the Ma family's children.

Less is better.The Ma family guards the northwest, and the Black Armored Knights are definitely the most capable of fighting in the established army.

But today, four black armored knights were seriously injured. Although none of them died, it can be called "a vicious incident in a peaceful age".

No matter how reclusive Ma Daoming, the owner of Jiazibao, can't ignore it after this kind of thing happened.

At this time, the night was getting darker, and in the main hall in the core area of ​​Majiabao, lanterns were picked up one after another, and the main hall, which was ten feet long and seven feet wide, was brightly illuminated.

The grand master's chair at the end of the main hall remained unchanged, and a yellowed portrait hung on the wall behind the square table between the two grand master's chairs.

There is a general in the portrait, with his back facing the main hall, standing proudly on the top of the mountain, holding a long stick in his hand. It is said that he is the head of the Ma family, but for some reason, he did not draw the front face, but only a back view.

Taking a quick look, Ma Daoming's back is actually [-]% similar to the back in the portrait.

It's just that the back view in the portrait makes people feel that he is in his prime, while Ma Daoming looks like he has entered old age.

The long beard mixed with silver threads, the ashes-like temples, and the fish tails at the corners of the eyes all show Ma Daoming's age, except for his eyes, which are as clear as a baby's. From time to time, there will be a flash of divine light.

In his own home, Ma Daoming certainly didn't have the habit of holding weapons. He put his hands behind his back and was circling around the four stretchers under the hall.

The injured Xuanjia knight was lying on a stretcher.There were no other people in the main hall, only one housekeeper, Ma Yaoyao, and two Ma Daomings were left to guard the elders.

After Ma Daoming looked at it, he went straight to the side of the main hall and looked out the window, wondering what he was thinking. Then the two elders who were not too young also went to check on the injured, and met their eyes after getting up.

"how?"

With his back to the two elders, Ma Daoming asked.

(End of this chapter)