Gu Huaiyang had already turned off the lights and lay down. He was half asleep and half awake when he was awakened by the knock on the door.
He rubbed his eyes, put on his clothes and sat up. He didn't know who came to him in the middle of the night. He didn't seem to be in a hurry when he heard the knock on the door, and it didn't seem like there was something imminent that he had to talk about in the middle of the night.
He opened the door, and saw Shi Wuduan standing there with his head down, with a very ugly face, holding his ghostly astrolabe in his hand, but he looked like a frost-beaten eggplant, standing precariously in the night For a moment, Gu Huaiyang thought he was falling asleep, dreaming and hysterical, and was wandering around unconsciously.
After a long while, Shi Wudu's eyes turned numbly, and he whispered like a normal living thing: "Brother."
"What's the matter?" Gu Huaiyang asked puzzled.
Shi Wuduan's mouth, which was usually eloquent, suddenly became dumb, and stuck there like a wooden stick, without saying a word. Gu Huaiyang didn't know why, and it was not easy for him to stand outside in the cold wind, so he waved him in, and Shi Wudu followed obediently.
Gu Huaiyang said again: "Sit down."
Then he sat down very smoothly, like a puppet with joints.
Gu Huaiyang lay down for a while, there was no hot water in the room, and he was not entertained, so he asked again: "What's wrong with you?"
Shi Wuduan raised his head when he heard the sound, staring straight at the teacup on the table, that look made Gu Huaiyang feel goosebumps, he felt that the teacup was about to make him want to wear it out. Gu Huaiyang saw that Shi Wudu was not normal, and smelled the alcohol on his body, thinking that he was drunk, stared at Shi Wudu for a while under the dim candlelight, and finally couldn't help stretching out a stick He poked Shi Wudu with his finger and asked, "Do you... still know who I am?"
Shi Wuduan said: "Brother."
Oh, this is someone I know—Gu Huaiyang judged, and asked again: "Are you drunk?"
Shi Wuduan paused, nodded slowly, and said, "It's a bit high."
Still sober, so what happened
Gu Huaiyang looked at him suspiciously, he had known Shi Wuduan for several years, he knew in his heart that this young man looked like a fool, as if nothing had grown in his head, but in fact, except when eating, Emotions have always been quite restrained.
He can always maintain a blankness that is so annoying that his teeth itch, but they know that he is not really confused.
Seeing that he was silent, Gu Huaiyang also stopped talking, dialed the lantern to make the flame a little bigger, then turned his head and yawned, and sat patiently with him.
I don't know how long it took before Shi Wudu's fingers unconsciously spread flat on the table curled up and clenched into a fist. He opened his mouth suddenly, but didn't make a sound. Gu Huaiyang couldn't help but poked his head over and asked: " What?"
Then Gu Huaiyang heard clearly, what he said was: "I'm not wrong."
At that moment, Gu Huaiyang even felt that he was showing a little anger, just like his real age - without too much concealment and suppression, whatever he thought of, his face showed something, like a young man with a little unwillingness to be angry.
After a while, he heard Shi Wudu repeat word by word: "I'm not wrong."
Gu Huaiyang was stunned for a while, he was stunned for a while, a small wind happened to come in through the crack of the open door, blowing and shaking the candle flame.
Shi Wudu shook his head, came back to his senses, his eyeballs moved, a ray of light flashed quickly, and then immediately returned to calm.
Then he stood up from his original position, and said softly in his usual, slower than ordinary voice: "I got drunk and lost my mind, and I delayed my brother's rest."
This is a complete awakening, Gu Huaiyang thought with some pity, so he said: "Xiao Liu, remember what did the elder brother say during the sworn ceremony just now? We are all one family. You see, the fifth is a violent temper , Whenever something goes wrong, I have to quarrel with you. You should be the same as him. If there is something you can't think about, when you are unhappy, just talk to the elder brother. Can I let you call me brother for nothing? "
Shi Wudu agreed: "Yes."
Gu Huaiyang saw that he looked like a dead pig who was not afraid of boiling water, and obviously didn't want to say anything, so he could only sigh and said: "You have worked hard these days, go back and rest earlier."—This brat is still three-legged Can't kick a fart.
It wasn't until a long time later that Gu Huaiyang recalled the three words "I'm not wrong" heard from Shi Wuduan's mouth on that cold night, and suddenly realized that they Xiao Liu, Bai Li, Yan Zhen, and even those who died , or those who have never left, are actually trapped on this altar that looks like Ji language, no one can get down, no one can move.
Over time, these three words seemed to become a huge patch on their souls. Once they were peeled off, the souls of these individuals would all look the same—leaky air.
In the early morning of the second day, Gu Huaiyang was still a little worried and called someone to see how Shi Wudu was doing, but the person came back after a while to report, saying that he took his friend who lived in the yard out early in the morning, They said they were going to line up to buy rabbit cakes in the south of the city, and they also kidnapped Lu Yunzhou's youngest daughter, Lu Lu. Third brother Lu couldn't find the child and was sharpening his knife.
This is good again—then General Gu, who had just taken office, was in a brisk mood and went to do what he should do.
The orders of the court came down one by one. Since he was recruited and paid, he had to do things for the superiors, at least to maintain the safety of one party. Usually, he was fine. He often received calls to suppress bandits around Haining and clean up some rogues. task.
Now that the wings of the Red Scarf Army have hardened, they no longer need to curry favor with the bandits in the hills, so they transformed themselves into a business of robbing the bandits and cleaning the hills. Brother Lu San and Meng Zhongyong were responsible for the killing and the looting. After being reviewed by General Gu, they were uniformly allocated to Shi Wudu, and enough benefits were given to the warlord. Most of them were given to the brothers to eat meat, and a small part was handed over to the court to show their military exploits.
It is Li Rushuang's task to clean up the rogues. Li Siniang is also very gentle to those who are willing to surrender. The list is reported, the names and places of origin are registered, and they are incorporated into the Red Scarf Army. No matter if you have a 70-year-old woman or a young child, you will be guaranteed in the future. Li Siniang also has a specialty to deal with those who are disobedient and insist on finding death. In fact, she only has two specialties in her life. One is that she is especially good at cooking. One is especially good at killing people.
Shi Wuduan shouldered the responsibility of bullying superiors and inferiors, bribing and teasing, and opening joints.
Gu Huaiyang and the others settled down in Haining like this, as if they wanted to live in peace for a long time, and they worked conscientiously as "local officials". After a long time, Bai Li began to suspect that Shi Wuduan and Gu Huaiyang he saw through the water mirror the other day had a misunderstanding. Should rebels behave like this
He also found that although Shi Wuduan was still busy all day long, but when he came back every day, as long as he hadn't turned off the lights, he must have a conversation with him and drink a glass and a half. Occasionally, when he is free, he will be taken out for a stroll.
Haining is not a big place, but there are many places to go. Right now, they are all under Gu Huaiyang's management. It is as close as Guji City and as far as Changpu, Anqing. If you are on a fast horse, you can go back and forth in a day or two.
Shi Wuduan seemed to have no memory of what he saw or said that night, and he led Bai Li around in Haining without any suspicion, sometimes with the two of them, sometimes with Xiao Lu Lu and Xia Duanfang's half Big and small apprentices.
Head Xia and these young apprentices drove half a month before they were picked up. It can be seen that the only surviving Haiji Hinayana Pope is really at the end of the road. The older one was only thirteen or fourteen, and he looked like he was raised in a remote mountain and had never seen the world.
Such a downfall, with no successors, it is no wonder that Xia Duanfang cares about everything and looks forward and backward. The cubs are much easier to deal with than Xia Duanfang's cunning guy. They give a few more pieces of candy when they meet each other, bring a bag of snacks when they go out, and are amiable, and they are all very well-behaved—even though Xia Duanfang repeatedly ordered them not to be with Shi Wudu. People with evil intentions contacted, but unfortunately it didn't work very well.
Day after day, the New Year has passed like this, and spring has begun. Seeing the grass and everything grow again, the weather is getting hotter. Xia Duanfang couldn't leave, and after a long time, maybe because of the comfortable living, maybe because of the three apprentices, his attitude eased slightly.
The one who lived the most happiest life was Bai Li. Although Shi Wudu did his best for his so-called "big brother" and made him see it, he felt very uncomfortable, but when he heard that Gu Huaiyang had booked a marriage, he was about to After marrying a daughter-in-law, Bai Li's expression softened a lot. When he saw Gu Huaiyang, he no longer just stared at him coldly with cold eyes, but nodded his head slightly to say hello.
Gu Huaiyang was probably born with a lot of experience in government and military affairs. After he settled down in Haining County, within half a year, Haining was like a godsend. Not only was he not affected by the war, but he became organized. He expanded the original number of Red Scarf soldiers by more than three or four times. He practiced non-stop, and often had the opportunity to go out to grab a mountain top, to support the war with the battle, and to support the army with the soldiers.
Haining is surrounded by mountains on one side. When there is no war on weekdays, when there is more than enough training for soldiers, Gu Huaiyang will personally take them to open the mountains. Once the mountains are opened, there will be fields. On the one hand, the families of the Red Scarf soldiers will be settled, so that the cultivators have their fields. On the other hand, they will also use this to raise soldiers —The military salary of the imperial court cannot support as many private soldiers as Gu Huaiyang.
I don't know why, in these years of natural disasters and man-made disasters, although Haining is not the hardest-hit area regardless of drought or flood, the yearly situation is not so good, but in the first year Gu Huaiyang was appointed general, and in the second year Haining County had a miracle The weather is getting better.
At the end of the new year, the central government sent censors to inspect and assess the achievements of officials from all over the country. The censor saw Haining, which was extremely lively with lanterns and festoons. After staying for half a month, Master Yu Shi left contentedly. As a result, in this year's performance assessment, the governors and generals of various places, and all the adults with strict and distinct ranks, no one in this small border county was able to get out of it by recruiting security. The nondescript "general" has good grades.
It also became a classic joke of that year.
After the new year, General Gu finally got his wish and married the daughter of Wang Zhao Honglu, who had a different surname from Huyang County, a neighboring county of Haining.
King Huyang is a famous founder of the country, and the throne has been passed down from generation to generation. It is said that his daughter is eligible to be selected into the palace as the empress. However, when it was passed down to Zhao Hongyu's generation, the ancestor's loyalty to the royal family had already died in his blood. Zhao Hongyu was restless, guarding the coast of the South China Sea. I don't know how many private soldiers have been raised, just waiting to fish in troubled waters.
Tata never thought about marrying her daughter to the emperor's half-grown old man who was killed at some point. After searching around, he found that he and Gu Huaiyang were very similar, and took aim at Haining. It became a good place with geomantic omen in my hand, so I happily married my daughter, planning to be a good son-in-law if I continue to speculate in the future, and if I don’t speculate one day, I will wait for an opportunity to snatch my son-in-law’s land one day.
However, no matter what the old man surnamed Zhao planned, the wedding was a happy event for both young men and women.
Taking advantage of the celebration of the new year, ten miles of red makeup was spread on the snow, and Haining was as festive as a peach blossom garden.
Even Bai Li changed out of the plain robes he wore all the year round, and under Shi Wuduan's pointing, he found out from nowhere a long gown with gold trim, and gave him a congratulatory gift very sincerely—he is I am really happy for Gu Huaiyang to marry a daughter-in-law.