When Zhu Yuanzhang was in office, in order to observe the people's feelings, he preferred traveling incognito. Once, he passed a farmhouse in a carriage and happened to see a peasant woman feeding pigs in a pigsty. Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly found this scene interesting and smiled at it. Because every emperor has an official who records what the emperor does and says every day, this official also records Zhu Yuanzhang's smile at the peasant woman in the pigsty.
After Zhu Yuanzhang returned to the palace, he didn't say anything, but Ma Huanghou called the eunuch around him and asked Zhu Yuanzhang if anything special happened in his trip today. The eunuch told Ma Huanghou what he had recorded. Ma Huanghou began to wonder what Zhu Yuanzhang's smile meant. After thinking for a long time, she thought that Zhu Yuanzhang might have a crush on the peasant woman.
As his wife, Ma Huanghou immediately sent someone to the farmer's house and gave the family a lot of gold, silver and jewels. No matter the farmer is married, forcibly take her back to the palace and arrange for her to serve Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang felt familiar at the first sight of the maid-in-waiting, so he asked the people around him about her origin. After learning that the woman separated from her husband because of her casual smile and was forced to come to the palace, she went to Ma Huanghou to explain the cause and effect of the incident. Then I gave the peasant woman many rewards and sent her home.