In the winter of the eleventh year of Jianyuan, the Imperial Study Room.
It was snowing again outside the window, and it had been snowing heavily for three days and three nights. After lunch, the emperor stood in front of the window and looked out. The snowflakes were blown to his face by the wind and instantly turned into a drop of water.
The emperor stood by the window for a long time, accompanied only by the silently radiating heat of the stove.
The guard on duty entered the house, knelt far away, and reported: "Your Majesty, a message has been sent from the army that General Ji is critically ill."
The emperor was still standing by the window, but there was an obvious shock from his back, and there was no response for a long time.
The guard knelt for a moment, then stepped back silently.
Shen Hai came in from the door and stood behind the emperor, the cold air came in from the open window, and soon he felt the coldness on his face, while the emperor was still standing there, looking out the window, the sky and the earth turned white, as if he had become sculpture.
Snowflakes fell rustlingly, and some tried to break into the house, but were steamed into water droplets by the heat from the stove halfway, and fell on the bright yellow dragon robe of the person in front of the window.
Shen Hai took a few steps back and knelt at the emperor's feet, "Your Majesty, take care of the dragon's body."
The emperor turned around after hearing the voice, closed the window by himself, ignored his words, and only said: "General Ji is dying."
Shen Hai was stunned for a moment, and quickly realized, "General Ji has been away for a year."
The emperor said "hmm", sat back on the chair, and said unhurriedly: "As soon as the old general leaves, I should take back the tiger talisman."
He said again: "I don't know if Ji Jiu can come back quickly." The voice of this sentence was very soft, as if he was talking to himself. After a short pause, the emperor raised the volume again and asked Shen Hai, who was kneeling beside him, "Does Ji Jiu know that I deliberately dismissed him?"
Shen Hai didn't know how to answer such a question. After the border town is the desert, and after the desert is the green land, and above the green land must be the gathering place of the Huns. The children living in the frontier all year round knew such a simple matter, but the emperor sent Ji Jiu away to explore the terrain.
This kind of terrain, whether to explore or not, actually makes no difference. Because the sand in the desert is flowing sand, even if Ji Jiu walked over, he might not be able to walk back according to the previous route. How to advance and retreat, whether you can find it in the court of the Huns, whether you can find it once, whether you can find it a second time, all depends on God's will, and whether the general himself is sharp.
Shen Hai was silent for a long time, and then said cautiously: "General Ji is very smart." He said, only said this sentence, and then said nothing else.
The emperor was also silent, looking at the memorials on the dragon case, he said for a long time: "He doesn't care if I dismiss him on purpose." What he cared about was just the promise. When he returns to Beijing, it will be the time when the soldiers and horses of the world will be handed over to him. The emperor fiddled with the memorials on the case, thinking that in this world, no one understood Ji Jiu's eagerness to wipe out the Xiongnu better than him, because he was the same too.
Therefore, before everything was ready, he wanted to exile this person far away, to a far away, dangerous place where he didn't have to face dark guns and cold arrows.
Before commanding the Xiongnu, he wanted to wash away some people, many of whom had close contacts with Ji Jiu. If Ji Jiu was there, they might have a dispute, or they might implicate Ji Jiu in it.
No matter what the situation is, he doesn't want to see it, so exiling Ji Jiu is the best choice. This imperial city is far more dangerous than the desert.
When he came back to his senses, the emperor looked at Shen Hai and asked, "Is the memorial ready?"
"Okay." Shen Hai responded, took out a notebook, and said: "Tomorrow morning, Mr. Zhang will play in person..."
The emperor waved his hand and interrupted him, "You can do the rest."
Shen Hai hurriedly kowtowed and stepped back.
As soon as Shen Hai left, the emperor summoned the guards who had reported earlier and asked him about the condition of General Ji. If you can't hold on, then come to report.
"How long can it last?" asked the emperor.
"It's said that we don't drink soup anymore, I'm afraid we won't be able to survive the winter." The guard stood up for a while, and added: "The old general is getting old, and it's normal for him to get sick when he says he's sick."
The emperor snorted lightly, noncommittal, and made him retreat after a few words of advice.
After all, he is a young man, his experience is too shallow, how would he know that General Ji is not old and frail, but his only son left for a year, no news from him, worried and seriously ill.
These generals on the battlefield have experienced too many killings, and seen too many partings of life and death. For a long time, all of them seem to be hard-hearted. But I don't know that the heart wrapped in iron and stone is also soft, and there will be care and nostalgia. The care and nostalgia will only be deeper and more secret than ordinary people, because it is the weakness of the generals, and it will affect the whole body .
The guards retreated, and the emperor went back to the window alone, looking at the snowflakes flying outside, wondering if he would see Ji Jiu come back in the next snowflake year.
In March, General Ji died of illness. The soldiers carried his coffin back to the city and buried it in the ancestral tomb of Ji's family. The emperor sent him off in person.
In the autumn, a secret letter came to the palace, saying that they seemed to have seen Ji Jiu in the nomadic team of the Huns.
In the blink of an eye, it was another winter, and the bloodbathed court returned to stability. Shen Hai went to the frontier town in person, found one of the 500 soldiers Ji Jiu left in the city, and inquired about Ji Jiu's movements.
After he left, the group of soldiers, dressed as a camel caravan, went into the desert.
On February 16, the first day of the new year, Ji Jiu's camel caravan slowly appeared on the horizon.
February is Ji Jiu's favorite season. It has a beauty of sprouting, a kind of undercurrent sprouting that is about to stretch.
The complexion on his face was darker, and the edges and corners were much clearer than before. It was a kind of vicissitudes and fortitude after the wind and sand. His arm was wounded, and the white silk wrapped in it had turned into a muddy muddy yellow. Leading the camel, he walked from a distance, and there were about thirty people behind him, who seemed to be following him slowly but step by step.
Shen Hai went up to meet him and hurriedly said, "General."
Ji Jiu smiled, her voice was a little hoarse: "I didn't expect that the first acquaintance I met was you."
"This way, General..." Shen Hai paused, omitting the greetings, and said, "General, come back to Beijing with me."
Ji Jiu said yes, took two steps, then turned to him and asked, "Is my family okay?"
Shen Hai hesitated for a moment before saying: "The old general... went in spring last year."
Ji Jiu's expression changed, the pain flashed from his eyes, and he quickly regained his composure. He turned over and rode on the horse he had brought, and cupped his hands and said, "Something happened at home, so Ji will take a step ahead. Master Shen can join the horses and horses together. Then go to Beijing to meet Ji. Farewell." After saying that, he called Shen Jue to follow, and the two rode away without a trace of stagnation.
Along the way, the people Ji Jiu had arranged earlier finally saw his master after waiting for two years, and greeted them one after another, telling them all about what happened in the past two years. Some colleagues were all beheaded, which is also a specious attitude, and no comment will be made. As if everything had nothing to do with him.
Only when he heard that the old Xiangguo had been copied and Ge Jue ransacked his home, his eyelids jumped, and he was stunned for a long time at the table full of food.
He didn't speak either, as if he had nothing to say.
Back in the imperial city, Ji Jiu didn't go home, but went straight into the palace, still in the study, and met the emperor.
The monarch and his ministers face each other, and the other party in their eyes is familiar and unfamiliar, as if two years have passed, so that they have forgotten what each other looks like in their minds. After standing for a long time, they began to talk.
But there were no pleasantries.
Ji Jiu didn't mention the exile, the emperor didn't mention the old general's death in depression, and he didn't even ask about the personnel changes in the past two years, all the thrilling experiences.
Sitting on the ground, there was a huge map in the middle. In the blank space in the northwest, Ji Jiu took out his blueprint that he had drawn for two years, and the blank was filled instantly, with mountains, rivers, deserts, and everything in between.
Except for this picture, it seemed as if nothing had happened in the past two years, as if Ji Jiu had never left Beijing, but just returned from the army.
Each of them tacitly concealed everything that happened in the past two years.
Talking until late at night, the candles were lit, and when the sky turned white and the sun was shining, the candles were extinguished. Ji Jiu leaned on the ground, closed his eyes and fell asleep.
The emperor put away the picture, took the cloak, covered him, and then sat aside to review the memorial.
From time to time, I also went to see the person lying on the ground. After two years, it seemed as if a sword had been tempered. It had no edge, and its whole body was pitch black, as if dull. Only the person holding him knew the power of this sword—unstoppable.
With this sword in his hand, he will wipe out the Xiongnu, pacify the world, and shake the world. This is the emperor's purpose, and also Ji Jiu's purpose, so he is willing to be the sword of others, willing to be the eagle and dog.
for their ultimate goal. Everything else is trivial, so they don't talk about it.
They are all the same people, heading straight for one goal and clearing away all obstacles. As for what will happen along the way, they don't care.
The emperor hadn't slept all night and was also tired. Holding the memorial in his hand, he dozed off after reading two lines.
Ji Jiu only took a nap, but soon woke up, and saw the cloak on his body, which was full of dragons and tigers. This kind of embroidery and color can only be matched by kings in the world.
Ji Jiu grabbed the cloak and got up, pinched the corners of his eyes, and saw the emperor sleeping on the table at a glance. Then put the cloak on him.
Then quietly left.
There are too many similarities and differences between them, but this does not prevent them from fighting side by side in the face of foreign enemies. No matter what kind of encounters and choices they will have in the future, at this moment, their purpose is the same.
Life and death, honor and disgrace, are tied together, and no external force can separate them.
Support and help each other, until the last day, this will not change.
Qi said no clothes, and the same robe as the son.