"Feeling weird?" These were the next words he said after seeing my facial expression. I decided not to hide it. Since others had already seen it, hiding it would seem meaningless and a bit hypocritical.
"What a refined and heroic Southern King." I praised with a smile, or maybe it could be called a fake smile, and said, "Are you really the Southern King, or are you here to trick us?"
“Why would I lie to you about this?” He also laughed, and there was a hint of a Jingzhou accent in his words, which made me even more suspicious: “But when you came in, you scared me.”
"Why?" I asked nervously.
"Your face is imprinted red by the red cloth behind the bamboo curtain, while this gentleman's face is imprinted by the bamboo curtain, and the situation seems to be separated by Yin and Yang." This made me more wary of this Nanman King. I don't know if this person is the Nanman King or not, but he can't know everything.
However, Yu pretended to be a servant delivering water and came in and nodded slightly to me, which made me realize that I had sent the mother and son to wait for them at the south city wall of Lingling and to spy on their news. Now there was no problem with the head, of course, there was no problem with the person, and there was no problem with the situation.
Song Yudong was on my right, and he deliberately asked in a harsh voice, "Why are you so slow and delaying the reception of my host's distinguished guests?"
The ghost immediately said with some grievance: "There are three strong men blocking the stairs. It's quite difficult to get up."
I didn't blame him, and waved him away expressionlessly, with an elegant and hospitable smile on my face, and said casually: "It should be the warrior under the Southern King?" Then I laughed with him, but slightly moved the spear lying flat on my knees.
It took me a lot of trouble to figure this out. Lingling City has long been ruined. After the drought in the sixth year of Guanghe, this place has been ignored by all parties in the past few years. Even the teacher mentioned that there is no financial, material and military resources to revive this city. Local affairs are all under the jurisdiction of Guiyang. In recent years, the southern barbarians have purchased salt and rice here, and we have purchased iron here, but there is no government office. There are few people here. Those who dare to stay here are merchants and ruffians who are well-off on both sides. Maybe calling them merchants or ruffians is a bit hurtful, but I can't think of any good words. If there are no residential houses in a city, only markets, restaurants and places where men and women have sex, it is a bit inappropriate to call this city a city. It may be more appropriate to call it a nest, especially since there are all kinds of gangs in this city that are gathered together in unknown ways, which makes this place even more messy. For this reason, both sides finally chose to meet here. It seems that neither of us is a good person. In order to guard against these unreliable southern barbarians, we have 300 people who have entered Lingling. They are all in contact with the former gangs in the city and pretend to be their people. Among them, there are 100 prostitutes, 100 diners, and 100 merchants. Once there is a disagreement, a fight can be started in the city. At this moment, there are more than a dozen of our diners who are pretending to be but are really eating downstairs. Ziyue ordered his newly recruited generals to lead 3,000 people to hide ten miles outside the city. The most eye-catching thing is that the general who led the troops has a shocking and sensational appearance, and speaks with an evil and ferocious accent. In fact, he feels pretty good. When separated, he looks like a human being, and especially the beard, which is quite majestic. The only difference is that the two nostrils seem to have the desire to become a funnel, but they look wrong no matter how they are put together. I can never forget that look after just one look, but I forgot his name. As for Ziyue, it stands to reason that after all these arrangements are made, he should go find a place to sleep for a while. It's up to him. At least someone has to take charge of the overall situation in Guiyang. The people in the city are fine, but the one who worries me the most is the hundreds of "prostitutes" headed by **. If they start fighting, I'll have to hide in their bed. To be honest, I think the one who can't control himself the most is the "good kid". This kid has nothing else to lack, and has many advantages in many aspects; but the problem is that he is not very good-looking, but very, very good-looking. However, in my heart, I also hope that I don't have to negotiate, so that I can also wait for news among the prostitutes. Thinking about that scene, it's really "walking around and watching the flowers, the thin gauze of the brothel". Then he warned himself that those who have wives should pay attention to their status and moral standards. Of course, the warning is a warning, and I don't think I really listened.
"Marquis Ping'an Fengyun, are we still waiting for someone?" He seemed to notice that I was distracted.
"Lingling has become a place of flower viewing and brothel veil." Of course I had to cover it up, and then I said it with some pain.
“A quick glance at the flowers… The thin gauze of the brothel… Very well, Marquis Ping An Feng Yun is indeed very talented. His ordinary and plain words can actually convey such profound meaning.” In fact, his “ordinary” words were enough to make me ponder for a long time. I wonder how this person could come up with them so quickly.
"Please forgive me, King Nan, for making fun of you. Why are you wearing Han Chinese clothes?"
"My mother is Han Chinese, and I lived with her when I was young, so I have always worn Han clothes. Besides, if I wear southern clothes when I come to see you this time, it may cause some inconvenience and may be rude to you." He said this as if he was the host.
However, the first half of this sentence allowed me to guess a lot of important things. I thought this was a good thing and started to think about his subsequent words.
"Is the king the only son?"
"No, I already have a half brother, and a half brother or sister."
As expected, but the last sentence still made me think about it for a moment, and then I smiled.
"Is your brother still young? Could he be the fat black guy below?" I asked with a smile.
"That's right, my second brother Meng Huo, who is only three years old, is really naive and cute." He also laughed.
"Is your second mother from the south?"
He nodded, and at the same time gave me a look of admiration. Actually, there was no need to admire me, I could not even think of this, I would just sell my head in the meat market.
"Did the former King of Nan die in a fierce battle with the Xichuan government troops?" This is not my guess. We heard that the King of Nan died in battle, not from illness, so we asked this question.
He nodded again, and there seemed to be a trace of pain in his calmness, but the wound was in his heart; this suddenly reminded me of a sentence I heard at some point: "If the heart is wounded, the person will die." Thinking of this, I sighed and then said.
"Maybe you should hate me." Then she looked him straight in the eye without tilting her head.
"No, this has nothing to do with you. I know about you and the thief Dong, but this is the hatred between me and the thief Dong." The firm and resolute eyes show that he is indeed a character.
"So I help you, because I also have a grudge against Dong Zei."
Yudong looked at us more and more strangely, because the whole negotiation was indeed simple in words and progressed strangely smoothly. The childish words of the two negotiators in the later period made him feel like he was in another world. In his words, it was just two mouths talking, and many times there were questions but no answers. Moreover, after reaching a preliminary agreement, the two people seemed to have met each other too late. The more they talked, the more speculative and enthusiastic they became, and the more outrageous they talked, they began to discuss the appearance and figure of the girls in places like this. So my military advisor finally concluded that these two people were not good people, at least at this age, they were not good birds.
Meng Jie got up and went down to settle down. Song Yudong and I quickly got up to greet him. After we left, I asked my adviser what he thought about this matter, because I felt that my head seemed to be a little hot. He looked at me for a long time before he started to speak, but the first sentence was: "What do you think, my lord?"
"Well... we can't afford to fight, but we can make peace." I thought about it and lowered my voice. Although I knew he might know it very well, I couldn't help but explain, "It's spring now. If we fight, it will delay the spring farming in Jingnan. It's not a good thing. There are still a lot of lands under water in the north. I don't know why the flood is draining so slowly. You know, there are 10,000 soldiers scattered all over Jingnan. It's still easy to feed them now. But if we fight, even if we only send out 10,000 local people to fight, 10,000 young men will be killed. "A man must eat at least one jin of food a day, which means 10,000 jin of food a day. In order to boil water and cook, hundreds of thousands of jin of firewood and grass are needed. It's very troublesome to raise them in the middle of spring." I sighed again, not for other reasons, but because I remembered that I almost emptied the Jingzhou treasury during the Battle of Hanzhong. This year, there was a flood again, so when I submitted the war petition to my teacher, I was sure that the remaining things in the Jingzhou treasury could not withstand my tossing again.
He heaved a long sigh, as if he was relieved. He raised his head, smiled at me with satisfaction, and then said, "Ping An Feng Yun Hou, I am relieved that you think so. I don't have to settle this account with you."
"Why do you call me so strange now?" I thought for a moment, "But don't call me Lord for the time being, it seems like I want to form a clique, at least I am still a commoner now."
I don't intend to hide my secret from him, and of course I won't tell him directly. If he can't understand what I mean, then there is no point in telling him directly. As a result, I am also confused. Now I am thinking about the reasons for telling him or not. I feel that my brain is starting to get confused. It seems that I still need a good counselor to remind me of these things in normal times.
In fact, I have a best counselor, she has talents that I cannot match, she will always think of me first, not herself. And she is the one I love the most, but now I don't know how to find her. I once again made up my mind to tell my wife about this as soon as I saw her, but I asked myself whether I could say those words at that time, but the answer was I didn't know.
It seems that after I got married, I have lost the courage to make decisions, and maybe I have become a coward.
Just as I was feeling confused and self-blaming, he seemed to be confused and asked me, "Then what should I call you?"
"You are older than me, so call me big brother first." I said casually, and then in order to cover up my confusion, I asked, "What do you and others think?"
"Brother, I'm actually worried about this."
"Hurry up and think about it." I quickly pulled myself together and tried my best to drive away the evil clouds in my heart.
"Since the death of General Ma Gong, the barbarians have had many grievances with the Han people, and there have been frequent fights. This peace negotiation must be due to the internal and external difficulties and the instability of the new king's position. If we appease them, we will be able to relieve the troubles in the southwest of Jing. There are many benefits and no harm." He paused: "But... But I'm afraid we really need to help this Southern King."
"What are you helping? Speak again." In fact, my voice was louder than his. I felt embarrassed to say this to teach someone a lesson.
"I have seen a caravan of southern barbarians in the north. From what I heard, the southern barbarians are not as well governed and strict in their laws as the Han people. Most of them have one king in each mountain. The so-called southern barbarian king is just the leader of many tribes in name. Moreover, this southern king has half of our Han blood, which will inevitably make those who occupy the mountains and become kings unwilling to submit. Once a mountain king with a little power takes action, it is likely that a large area of mountain strongholds will follow suit, and then Meng Jie will be in real trouble. So he came to form an alliance with me, probably to use his Han identity to get close to us and sign an alliance, so that the kings under him would think that we are backing him up and dare not act rashly. From what I heard from his words, he still lacked confidence. I am afraid that he was afraid that we would see through his weakness and threaten him and ask for some benefits from him... Asking for a bargain makes us look too greedy and unjust. But we'd better let them know our sincerity, and poke his sore spot intentionally or unintentionally, so that they can truly understand our sincerity, otherwise he will think we are too stupid, look down on us, and regard us as weak. If he comes to bully Jingzhou again when his position is solid, the disaster will be even greater. It's best for us to pacify his subordinates when they are dissatisfied, and pacify them quickly with the force of the wind, and make it clear to the southerners that we are sincere and then retreat, which will show our strength. After that, the southerners will not dare to covet our land in southern Jing."
I was sweating all over because of him. I suddenly felt that I was really useless. I didn't think about these simple things. I almost stood up and bowed, but when I saw the bamboo curtain next to me, I remembered that there were people below and it was inconvenient for them to have other ideas, so I gave up the idea.
"What do you think of this Mengjie?"
"He is a character. You can tell from the fact that he went upstairs alone without any weapons. And they are more frank than us. They are all downstairs where everyone can see them."
"Yudong, what you said is not very nice." I pointed at my gun, pretending to be angry but still asked with a smile: "It seems that I am the kind of weak and cowardly person?"
"Brother, that's serious." He also laughed: "We have secretly arranged so many people around us. If you don't bring weapons, although there is no danger, we will appear a little hypocritical. You thought of defending against them, which is naturally right. You also brought a weapon, which shows that you didn't intend to hide at all. This is good, at least I know that it is easier for me to deal with you like this."
I looked at Song Yudong with a somewhat strange look, but I was still quite happy in my heart, but I also felt that he was trying to please me.
There were footsteps on the floor again, and a woman came up the stairs, shouting "Excuse me" in the local dialect. Then I heard her calling other guests next door. After a while, this country woman in coarse clothes but slightly dressed up came to our room. While calling us for something else, she dipped her finger in wine and wrote on the table, "There is someone next door, seems to be eavesdropping." I nodded slightly, let her serve some more wine and meat, and let her leave.
Song Yudong made a few jokes at the right time, and then the woman pretended to be angry and said a few coy words, turned around and left, and Song Yudong and I laughed again. Then I asked him to whisper: "Do you know all this?" Then I heard his reply: "I learned it from someone, but that young lady pretended to be really good."
I also think that this female thief is not very capable, and that Nanman King doesn't seem to be a good person either. But thinking about myself, I really want to have a fight with him. I just don't know how many people he brought in beforehand, and he actually hid it from us all.
After a while, footsteps were heard on the stairs again. If I was not mistaken, it was Meng Jie. His steps slowed down unnaturally, and then he continued to move forward at the original pace.
My heart began to tense up, and my hand tightened around the gun. I then signaled Yudong to come to my side, lower his body, and signaled not to signal. I glanced sideways downstairs, and the southerners below didn't seem to be moving, but this made me hold the gun tighter.
Suddenly, the noise in the corridor got louder, and then I heard the sound of weapons hitting each other. I thought, something has finally happened, but there is no one else upstairs except us, and without Song's signal, the people downstairs will just stay put. So, I immediately realized that the people eavesdropping next door might be another group of people. This can be seen from the fact that the people downstairs found something wrong, and they were a little confused, but also a little at a loss.
At the same time, I also realized another important point.
Meng Jie is in danger! He immediately waved his hand to Song Xin, and signaled that he must not give a signal to anyone to take action, because after all my thinking, I still missed that a third force would appear. Once the signal is given, all our people have to do is attack all the southern barbarians.
While I was thinking, my hands were not idle. I started to act. However, the first thing I did was to smash the door of this compartment with my gun. Of course, the wooden walls next to it were not spared either.
I just heard Song lying on the ground and saying to me, "Don't hurt innocent people." I had already pulled down the two wooden walls from my right hand. I was also surprised and quickly explained why I made such a big noise and caused so much damage. The store built the wall too carelessly. I don't know what kind of rotten wood was used. It's too weak. And at this time, my heart was much calmer, but I still thought that the innocent people Song was referring to were probably mainly me. At this juncture, I actually laughed.
The collapse of these wooden walls immediately made the entire scene upstairs clear and simple, that is, there was no one on the right. So I didn't hesitate, and immediately swung my arm to knock down the wall on the left. Now I finally saw people. Meng Jie and a few others were hurriedly avoiding the unexpected collapse. There was movement under the wooden board, as if struggling to get up. This scene seemed familiar, but I couldn't remember when it happened. Several of Meng Jie's strong men immediately rushed up with sharp blades, chopping into the wood, wailing and screaming, but only a few blood flowers splashed and fell casually. I turned my face away, because I didn't develop such a hobby of appreciating killing.
Looking back, this scene seemed a bit ridiculous.
I fired two shots and the fight was over. Judging from the situation, I guessed that it was some king of the mountain who came to assassinate him. At least I clearly understood that we didn't arrange anyone next door.
"Someone tried to assassinate you? I'm afraid there are other tricks. Do you have anyone with you?" I pointed my gun outside, but accidentally blew away the bamboo curtain, leaving only a red scarf swirling in front of the window.
Song and I both cried out at the same time. Song immediately pulled off the red scarf and shouted loudly to the people downstairs with me, "Don't do it. The bamboo curtain has fallen by mistake."
The noise downstairs suddenly became louder and then subsided, but when I turned around, the look in their eyes was not very friendly. Meng Jie looked at me and said slowly, "Do you want to ambush and kill me in this building?" Then the big men pointed their knives at me.
I held my gun in my hand and said, "No, I just wanted to protect myself from you cheating. Jingzhou and the southerners have been at war for a long time. How can I not be on guard when they suddenly make peace? But these people are definitely not my people."
Meng Jie lowered his head and shook it, then looked up into my eyes and said, "I know it's not you, how many people did you bring with you?"
"Three hundred." I said calmly. I pretended not to know when Song hit me from behind. I thought it was better to be honest with others at this time.
"You are so confident." He suddenly pulled up the left side of his mouth and laughed, very strangely, and then his face was relaxed: "Just as you said, we have been fighting for a long time, we are at peace, and you came, and you chose this place. I don't trust you... So... I also brought 500 people." After that, he pulled up the right side of his mouth and laughed.
I looked at Song, and Song looked at me. I laughed, and Song also laughed, shook his head, stood up straight, and coughed slightly. Knowing the strength of my opponent, I didn't feel any danger, but I couldn't find any words.
"Oh, Song Yudong, are you not fully recovered yet?" Suddenly I found that the person behind me was coughing. I felt a little guilty. It was my fault that I brought him to this dangerous place even though he was not in good health.
"My Lord, that's not the case... cough cough... I choked on the smoke." I sniffed it and it seemed like someone was cooking chili oil or something. The spicy smell was so strong that even I couldn't stand it. I also heard people coughing downstairs, but no one in Meng Jie's group reacted, and there didn't seem to be any reaction from the southerners downstairs.
The atmosphere was a little tense, so I used this as an excuse to ask, "Why don't you seem to be afraid of the smell? You are not bothered at all by the smoke, unlike my brothers who can't stand it."
"We have lived in the mountains and forests of southern China for a long time. It is hot and humid all year round, and cold at night. We like to eat spicy food to drive away the cold, so we are not afraid."
"Tiannan?" This word sounded quite strange and novel to me, so I asked directly, thinking that there must be an allusion behind it.
"Two hundred miles southwest of here, there is a mountain that stretches for thousands of miles from east to west. It is so high that it reaches the sky, and the floating clouds only reach its waist. It is so difficult to climb over it that it is like climbing to the sky. Therefore, my people call the land south of the mountain Tiannan. I often think about it, probably because the people in the northern Han Dynasty call it Tianxia."
"Nan Wang, my brother can't stand this spicy atmosphere. Would you like to go out with us and talk while walking? Anyway, there are abandoned courtyards everywhere in Lingling, and no one lives there."
He readily agreed to this.
Then, when I walked downstairs, I saw that everyone was divided into two groups. They couldn't be hostile to each other, but it was not excessive for them to confront each other. At least the atmosphere was not very harmonious.
"Is this your man?" I asked, but I didn't expect him to ask at the same time, "Is that your man?"
Then, the two of them nodded and looked at each other for a moment, and they couldn't help laughing.
We both gave way to each other, and I finally gave the order, "There is no need to do this for both sides. Just eat and drink. The people here are all friends, not enemies. You and I will entertain the brothers under the command of the Southern King and let them drink more."
Nan Wang Mengjie also explained, but also added: "Let them drink more, at least don't get drunk before them."
Then he looked at me and laughed again.
But one of our people said to me, "My Lord, we have been eating for more than an hour. Although we usually have a large appetite and a large wine drinking capacity, we are now full and can't eat any more." Seeing the southerners were the same, I wanted to scold them, but after thinking about it, I smiled at him and said, let the brothers in the city come over to eat. Meng Jie also let the people outside the building come in to eat something, and settled a few relatives. This was considered calm. When these people came out, they were mostly groaning, as if they were full. I really want to say something to them, look at what you have done.
I felt that we hit it off right away and that we had met too late. He probably felt the same way. Because along the way, we held hands and kept pointing at these people and saying they were my subordinates and those people were the southerners. We laughed all the way. Among the merchants, our people bought things from the southerners and sold them a little further away. The southerners also bought our things and sold them again. They didn't do it to make money, but just to keep them here. They kept changing their identities as buyers and sellers in the market. At this moment, people in the market looked at each other in surprise. Some people sī said, no wonder these pottery looked so familiar.
We laughed again.
When we arrived at that place, I found out that I had ambushed people there, and he had also deployed some people. I asked him how to prevent these people from using public power to do such things. He said frankly that the girls he sent were all unmarried girls, and who would be willing to let others break their virginity? I was shocked and only said, "My people are probably... your girls."
"You are all men in there? Aren't you afraid of making mistakes?" He was a little surprised.
I stood expressionless, and suddenly shouted, "Where is the captain in the city? Order the hundred men to come out."
Then he ordered his men to let the women come out.
At this moment, I suddenly heard the sound of killing outside the East City. Meng Jie was in doubt, but I looked at Song and said helplessly: "The red flag is still too slow."
Then I ordered Song Yudong to do the work quickly, but I hurried to comfort the Southern King. He frowned and asked me what was going on, so I told him what was going on. When the bamboo curtain fell, several food ports below started to fight together, but the other 200 people, when they heard the shouting and killing here, surrounded us from all directions. At the same time, our scouts were far away from the restaurant. When they saw the red scarf falling from the curtain, they gave a signal. One person in half a mile passed the message one by one, and they could reach the place where our soldiers and horses were lying in ambush ten miles away in a moment, and they could surround the city in a moment, and it would be safe.
Meng Jie frowned, then pulled away his hand and asked, "Although this plan of Ping An Feng Yun Hou is good, I have only made some preparations in the city, but you are trapped here... Could it be that you are a fake Ping An Feng Yun Hou?"
"How is that possible? I didn't come in person to do this kind of thing, but asked someone to impersonate me. Isn't that too rude?"
"King Nan doesn't know." This was said by the person next to him. It was a bit rude, but seeing that he was also interested in listening, he let this subordinate say: "Our Marquis has always been the first to rush forward and never hides behind us."
"Why is this?"
"Our Ping'an Fengyun Hou is brave and invincible. Back then, the mountain road on Mufu Mountain was very dangerous, but our Fengyun Hou just spurred his horse and rushed up the mountain alone, killing even the bandit leader Qu Xing and more than a thousand of his men." This is a bit mysterious, but it really helps me.
"No, it's three thousand people." This is even more mysterious.
I quickly came out to dispel the rumor, saying, "They were not credible in this matter. I was a little too confident at that time."
But at this moment, suddenly someone from the south came to report that a man called Panlong Cave Master was coming with two thousand soldiers. He had heard that the Han people wanted to hurt the King of the South, so he came to help. He was already forty miles outside Lingling and would arrive in an hour. There were many dialects and slangs that I couldn't understand, but fortunately I could understand the general idea because he spoke slowly.
Meng Jie frowned greatly, and seeing that many of his close followers were frowning, he understood what was going on. He immediately ordered his men to mount their horses and quickly ask Song to bring his troops over.
After the arrangements were completed, he turned around and greeted: "Could it be that this cave master wants to harm the Southern King in the name of helping him?"
"What Ping An Feng Yun Hou said is very true, but it doesn't matter. I just bought a heavy crossbow trigger from the locals, and now I want to show my power as the King of the South." Then he walked to the front of the tarpaulin. At this time, the surrounding men and women of the King of the South came one after another. Although it was a bit noisy, they were not disturbed, just waiting for Meng Jie to give orders. This surprised me. It seemed that Meng Jie had established his power. It was really not easy for him who had just reached the age of twenty and had some Han blood. Moreover, looking at the clothes of these women, ** and others should not have succeeded, and I felt relieved.
Meng Jie climbed onto the carriage and shouted, his voice was so loud and high-pitched that it immediately drowned out all other sounds in the arena. Therefore, all the voices below were in dialect, and one could only vaguely understand that Panlong was coming with life, and those who wanted to fight with him, except Meng Jie, should come to the side of the carriage, and the rest should just hide in the empty houses and courtyards around Lingling to avoid losing their lives.
Then he lifted the tarpaulin on the car with one hand, and it was full of crossbows, iron swords, spears and other weapons. Then, no one said a word, most of them just took the weapons and surrounded Meng Jie to protect him. There were also some who whispered and then disappeared without a trace. Meng Jie just smiled and didn't order anyone to stop them.
I stepped forward and saluted, saying, "Brother Nan Wang, don't worry. When our troops arrive, I will help you defeat the owner of the snake cave."
"At this moment, you are calling us brothers. You might as well wait for the next King of the South." His words were a bit sour and hurtful, but I didn't take them seriously. I only heard him say, "This is my Nan family's business. I don't need your help." I thought to myself, you came to ask me to meet you, and your words seemed to indicate that you wanted to form an alliance. Why are you doing this now? I thought, maybe you are unwilling to beg me in front of so many subordinates, so I will fulfill your wish and give you enough face. I hope that from now on, there will be no war between me and the Nan people. It will be a great blessing.
"We hit it off right away and we regret not meeting each other earlier. I want to become brothers with the King of the South, but I'm afraid that you will look down on me, so I dare not speak rashly. Now that we are in such a dangerous situation, you should not have expected him to be with you. I wonder if you can do it?"
He was somewhat moved, but he tried to keep a calm expression, as if he was thinking. The other southerners all looked at him and me, and the place was silent for a while.
The man spoke in a dialect for a long while: "The name of Ping An Feng Yun Hou is known throughout the southern part of the world. It is my long-cherished wish to have friends with you. Now that I have a brother, I am willing to die for you."
Because of the urgency of the situation, they followed the ancient method of the southerners. They made a slanting cut two inches long on the three inches below the left hand of each person, and then held their hands together, with the two wounds also put together. They named it: From then on, the blood of the two people flowed into one place, indistinguishable from each other, and they could not go against each other. I am you, you are me.
They then drank a bowl of wine together, held each other's silk threads, and bandaged each other.
"According to the ancient customs of us southerners, from now on, regardless of age, we shall call each other brothers, and this will never change." Because he was in front of southerners, he did everything according to the southern customs, which was a good thing. Otherwise, he would have had an extra brother, and from then on he would be the youngest. Given my personality, I would have felt depressed, but helpless.
When everything was done, Song came riding towards us. When he saw us like this, he seemed to know something about it. I said another few words and he understood everything. He congratulated us first. After all the formalities, he said that General Xing had led the army to arrive and we were ready to meet the enemy.
When the battle array was set up outside the South City, I mounted my horse and patrolled in front of the array with a gun. I saw that the morale of the soldiers in the array was high, so they could be used.
Suddenly, a scout came to report that the enemy was fifteen miles away and would arrive in a moment.
When we were ready for battle, Meng Jie stepped forward and advised, "It seems inappropriate to go into battle without any armor. I know that you are brave and invincible, but on the battlefield, swords and guns have no mercy..." He didn't go down, as if he wanted to save my face and self-esteem.
"I really can't. You are so big, and there is only one piece of armor that fits you, and I left it in Luoyang."
"This is a bit troublesome," he looked at me with a smile, and thought for a while, "Just take a rib cage and wrap it around your brother, and add a shoulder strap, and it can protect many important parts of the body. You can ask someone to bring this thing."
After a while, the item arrived. It was really simple to put on. I just wrapped it around my armpits, put down the two shoulder straps, buckled them on both sides, and tied it with a belt at the back. It really made me feel much more at ease. My brother did all this for me, so I hurriedly thanked him politely. However, he was still a little angry, saying that I was too distant. I quickly realized that there was still an important part of the armor that was not covered, and then pointed at the bottom, which only made him laugh. He pointed at me and said nothing, and then I let go of what had just happened.
Afterwards, the scout came back to report that the enemy was five miles away and would arrive in a moment.
I turned around and told Yudong to let him take charge of major affairs in Lingling as a backup, and especially told him to keep an eye on ** and not let this kid cause any trouble.
After everything was arranged, I asked about the owner of Pan Snake Cave. He laughed and asked why he was called Pan Snake. I said, "Dragons and snakes are mixed, how can I know what kind of person he is." He explained, "This is not a self-name. It is because his tribe is stationed in Panlong Cave, 80 miles away from here. It is the closest tribe of our southerners. They have always been at odds with the Han people. When I ascended the throne, this tribe did not send anyone. I did not punish him, but he came here to plot something illegal. This time I want to see how he will resign."
But I was secretly thinking that people in the south can’t build houses, but instead they have to dig caves. I wonder when they will ever become civilized.
But at this moment, a horn sounded loudly, and a group of soldiers and horses appeared out of the woods ahead, followed by a carriage full of strong men. Although there were only two thousand of them, judging from the momentum of their march, it seemed that they were endless, which made people feel a little oppressive. It seemed that they were determined to fight this time.
I suddenly looked around unexpectedly, and somehow my heart felt empty. I knew I shouldn't be like this at this moment, but... I really had no choice. Suddenly, I missed her so much at this moment.
"Brother, what's wrong? Are you scared?" My brother woke me up.
Immediately, I returned to normal, looked at the army in front of me, curled my lips, turned around, and said to the King of the South and the soldiers with disdain: "Are they just like this?"
Then, he turned around again and calmly looked at the southern barbarians who were slowly pouring out like an undercurrent in front of him, but he silently said in his heart: "Yinling, where are you?"