"The Change of Heaven"
Volume 2: The Horizon
Chapter 134 The World
The master was wearing a hunting suit and a red jacket, holding a bow and standing on his horse. No matter how the horse moved, he remained motionless, like a hero. But as soon as I got close to him, the master looked at my smiling face and said to me, "Don't flatter me. Your teacher is waiting for you."
I laughed even more happily: "Then Master, wait for me."
He then rode back to the group and asked Lao Zhao to arrange for everyone to rest at the hillside. After the arrangements were completed, he followed. First, let Nan, Deng, E Huan, Bo Cai, and Han Xian come up with me. When we were about to set off, we all found that Song was not in the team. Considering his condition, he was probably left behind. We asked Lao Zhao to find some more people to go back and meet him. Then, without delay, we took the brothers and set off.
During this period of pause, Han Xian seemed to suddenly realize that there were quite a few female soldiers in our team, as well as some soldiers who looked different. Deng's appearance looked even more alien under the sunlight. He was stunned and started muttering to Bōcai. Bōcai, on the other hand, didn't care at all. He looked at them and nodded, perhaps to express his agreement that there were some peculiarities in these people.
This time, with the strange and extremely eye-catching E Huan, the master leading the way would obviously come and whisper, "Zi Rui, who is that guy with an eagle nose, tiger mouth, monkey eyes and pointy ears? Is he new here?"
"Sure enough, almost all of our people asked him first." I nodded, "It seems that he can't be asked to take action this time. Yes, he brought his people from Yizhou before the battle of Mingzi. His name is E Huan."
“Oh, E Huan, I’ve read Wen Dong’s letter, and he mentioned this person. Your battle in Mingzi… was pretty bad… I heard there was no one left after you finished fighting… Now, it’s okay, right?” The master hesitated, obviously feeling a little taboo.
"I shook my head, said nothing, and acted relieved, but said, 'It must pass, never mind.'" In fact, I didn't move at all, and didn't even have any expression. I just said this, and then looked at Master who was already laughing with a relaxed smile, and laughed with him.
In fact, it is not easy to really let go, but I shouldn't let others worry, I should just keep this matter to myself. So I did this just to make Master feel completely at ease.
"That's good, that's good! Your teacher will find it hard to let go of this matter, and I'm afraid you will be troubled and sad for a long time. You also asked me not to mention this, how can I not mention it, and I wanted to persuade you, but I didn't expect you to do so, so I am relieved." I smiled naturally on my face, but I could only sigh in my heart. The teacher really understood me. But in order to quickly restore myself to normal and not let the master see anything, I asked the master: "What do you think of the two middle-aged people behind?"
"Hmm... Not bad, they look like they can accomplish great things. The one with dense hair should be more down-to-earth, while the one with sparse hair may be more courageous." The master had a good eye, but he immediately asked me, "I have never seen these two before. You just picked them out of the army."
"No, they used to be members of the Yellow Turban Army."
"Of course I know that they were the Yellow Turban Army in the past. How many of our troops are not the Yellow Turban Army in the past?" The master laughed. In fact, he did not understand what I meant, or I expressed it incorrectly.
"The one with dense hair is called Bōcai, and the one with sparse hair is called Han Xian." I decided to go straight to the point.
"Bōcai!" The master was a very straightforward person, so when he heard the name he shouted in surprise, and then observed carefully afterwards.
"I'm here!" Bō thought that the master was calling him and actually answered.
"Hello." The master obviously didn't know what to say. He just thought that he had just called someone's name, and now he was looking back at him, it would be rude not to say anything, so he just said this. But it wasn't over yet. The master suddenly urged the horse to run faster for a while. I didn't know why at the time, so I hurriedly whipped the horse a few times to try to keep up. Unexpectedly, he pulled the horse's head again, and the horse turned suddenly. I was not so cool and neat. I drew a big circle of fifteen steps before I came back. I saw the master bowed to the person who was still galloping behind him, and greeted loudly: "I have heard of your great name for a long time, and I didn't expect to see you today. I am very honored."
"And not at the table." I added as I approached him. The master showed his "sinister" and "old-timer" nature here. He smiled and even kicked me with his foot, causing my horse to take me around again. Of course, I didn't dare tell him about my "nature".
The situation behind was even more interesting. When E Huan reined in his horse, the horse, though not quite obedient, turned a few circles before stopping. Deng Henan slowed down and stopped quickly. The front horse, Bōcai, even pulled back his body and waited for the horse's front hooves to kick, bringing the horse's head with its body. Then he pressed his body against the horse's neck, pressing down the raised horse's body, and then he stood still. Then he bowed and said, "Bōcai seems to be a rough man, I dare not. General, you are very skilled and good at searching for tricks."
When he said this, Han Xian, who was the last one, could not stop and rushed past them at an incredible speed. Hearing him say "Oh my god", Han Xian stopped his horse beside us, but he only stopped the horse. We can see a horse standing beside us, shaking its mane and wagging its tail. It is very charming. It must be a mare, but there is no one on it. The master and the apprentice looked back slowly and soon saw a big man struggling to get up from the ground, spitting out broken grass from his mouth.
I turned around and saw Nan in front of me laughing very happily. If his brother-in-law was here, I bet he would laugh too. But even though he laughed, he still hit his brother-in-law, as if to warn him not to laugh at others casually, and Nan could only do nothing. Everyone laughed, only Bō laughed helplessly, and got off the horse while laughing.
The master had already dismounted to see what was going on. As soon as he dismounted, the others naturally dismounted as well to ask about the situation.
"Damn it, how could this happen?" He was very angry. After all, being thrown down like this was somewhat embarrassing.
"This horse is bad and doesn't like strangers. I'm sorry to General Han. I have often heard of General Han's name. Fortunately, he is safe." The master's words sounded a bit high-sounding.
But Bōcai was too direct and honest, which was not fair to Han Xian.
"General, don't blame the horse. My brother and I have never ridden a horse, so it's a bit embarrassing." He also helped Han Xian pat the broken grass behind him very seriously. These words must have made Han Xian very angry, but after Bo Cai's action, he couldn't get angry.
"Ah, the road ahead is not far, and the scenery here is also nice. How about abandoning the horse and walking?"
"Okay, so that my brother won't fall again." Bōcai was really unable to sympathize with Han Xian's face, and his master's efforts were wasted again.
I was in the same row with E Huan, Nan, and Deng. Because of this incident, they had a lot to talk about, and the atmosphere was very harmonious and relaxed. In front of us, the master was holding someone's hand, and they were talking happily. I just looked at the surrounding scenery and listened to their words casually.
The horses were left on the hill to graze, or do other things. I think if horses had thoughts, they would gather together to discuss, for example, how to leave the man behind even further. Some of them might even become bored and become the yin and yang, or understand the universe. Thinking of this, I thought of the four horses. I wonder how they are doing recently. I really don't have the habit of visiting the stables.
Seeing the master's move, I thought Han Xian would feel better. But a moment later, Lao Zhao rode up on horseback, and as soon as he said a word, Han Xian knew that he would be betrayed by the sincere and concise Bōcai again.
"Why don't you mount your horses and go, but just leave them on the grassy hill?"
"Nothing, just talk." The master was indeed very talkative, and at this time Han Xian was already looking at Bōcai eagerly hoping that his elder brother would stop talking too much, but Bōcai politely shattered his extravagant hopes: "My brother is not very good at riding a horse, and he just fell off the horse. We were afraid that something might happen, so we left."
Old Zhao also dismounted and walked with us. He also asked Han Xian with concern how he was, whether he was bleeding or injured.
This time, I could completely understand why Han Xian complained about Bō Cai in public at such an inappropriate time when we first met that day.
After climbing over the mound, there was a basin with a lake in the middle. To the east of the lake was a thatched pavilion with two people sitting inside and two standing next to them. The one sitting was obviously the teacher, and the one standing was obviously Po Liu Han Lieya; but it was not clear who the other one sitting and standing was. All we knew was that the one standing was thin and small, like a child, and the one sitting looked like a scholar.
As we got closer, we finally saw that the person sitting was Tian Jian, and the person standing was Yu's mother, whose surname was Su. This was very confusing. I noticed that she was looking around because she kept looking around after seeing us. I could tell that she was not looking for us, but for her child, and she didn't know where Yu was.
The teacher was playing chess with Xuelin. When they saw us coming, they didn't stop. But Xuelin kept looking at us and then at the teacher, as if thinking that now was not the time to play chess anymore.
At this time, several Xianbei people came out from the pavilion on horseback with Yu. Yu was very happy on the horse, and nothing seemed to have happened. But the mother would still look after her child with concern, which was an indelible nature, and she seemed to follow them unconsciously. Until Yu jumped high and landed very skillfully, even showing off his ability, and stood steadily in front of his mother, with sweat all over his face with a bright smile.
I should have paid attention to everything about the teacher in the pavilion, but I was looking at the mother and son, the way they looked at each other. They were oblivious to the people around them, and in my eyes, there seemed to be no one else except them.
My master had to call me back: "Hey, idiot, what's wrong? Are you jealous of others? Okay, that's enough!"
"I'm sorry." I was a little sad.
"What is there to be sorry about? You've suffered a lot over the years." The master sighed.
In fact, I am not suffering that much, I am very happy. I just feel a little regretful about this matter. But what makes people feel "comfortable" is that I am somewhat similar to those ancient saints and sages in this respect. However, there are some differences between me and those ancient saints, who all knew who their mothers were, but not their fathers, while I already know my father, but I may never know who my biological mother is.
After I recovered, I heard the teacher talk about the connection between doing things and playing chess. I didn't know the previous words, so I didn't know the main point of this time, but I knew the teacher's way very well. We usually call Teacher Wei "tireless in teaching people". In the past, he would talk to us about this and that, and usually at the beginning, it seemed to have nothing to do with the things he was teaching us, but then it became related to what we usually do. Just like this, time dragged on. I don't know why the teacher's spirit is so good, so when the teacher teaches me, as long as I don't talk and the teacher's voice is not loud, I will mostly doze off.
Finally it was over. Tian Jian accepted the instruction respectfully, bowed and stood up, without avoiding us. After bowing to us, he especially smiled at me and then stood behind the teacher.
"Zirui, here you are!" the teacher said with a smile.
"Yes, teacher!" I saluted respectfully.
"Who are these people?" He obviously didn't know them yet, but just as we were about to talk, he found that one of them seemed familiar, but this familiarity really made him feel very surprised: "Mr. Bōcai?"
"Do you recognize me?" Bō was as surprised as we were.
"I once traveled to the north and met you when I passed by Chenliu. At that time, I felt that although you came from a farming family, you were a man of strategy and well versed in military tactics." The teacher suddenly smiled.
"How... did you know?"
"Sir, you were in Chenliu, Yanzhou, the Yellow Turban area. That afternoon, I was chatting with someone in the tavern about the situation there. Someone was talking about the events of the spring and autumn outside the tavern, and you were listening."
"I like listening to that kind of music." Bō smiled a little embarrassedly.
"Sir, you have a majestic figure and can be seen at a glance in the crowd. Moreover, whenever you get to the important part, you seem to be thinking about something; after listening to half of it, you seem to have understood the ending. Even when the previous strategies were used incorrectly, you questioned them, but you were humble and well-reasoned in your words, showing an attitude of concentrating on learning, and never having the intention of being arrogant. I knew that you must be an extraordinary person." The teacher actually stood up and bowed properly: "I knew it was you when I asked people. When the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out, you were often mentioned. At that time, your name was already in the newspapers. I know the internal affairs of the Yellow Turbans, and I know in my heart that if the Yellow Turbans were weak, you would be of great use; but if they were strong, you would have no place to stand. Now the eunuch party and the relatives of the emperor have all been eliminated, the party members have been cleared, the country has a lot of waste to rebuild, and the people are looking forward to peace. You are a great talent, if you don't abandon me, please ask Dingguo to ask for advice on military strategies."
Bōcai sighed: "That's it. You passed, no thanks." After saying that, he looked up and bowed, and the teacher also stood up and gave way to Bōcai, which meant that he was determined to keep Bōcai.
Although Bo Cai was good at ruining Han Xian's plans, he still had some brotherly loyalty. He grabbed Han Xian and said, "My brother is cold."
It is natural to keep Han Xian. However, it is even more surprising that the teacher knows Han Xian's background. I even doubt whether the teacher has ever joined the Taiping Qingdao. Not only that, he also uncovered something that I think is worthy of attention. The Chanyu of the Southern Xiongnu actually wanted to join forces with the Yellow Turban Army of Han Xian to attack the Han Dynasty. I didn't expect that my Han Dynasty would treat him like this, and he would treat my Han Dynasty like this. No matter what the Yellow Turbans are, they are still my family. The Southern Xiongnu were originally the descendants of my enemies, but they were kept as guests by my Han Dynasty. They should be grateful. This is really unfair. (The views of people at that time should be viewed dialectically, author's smile note)
In addition, the teacher also smiled with the master, asked Deng a few words, chatted with E Huan, joked with Nan, greeted Lao Zhao, etc. This conversation lasted for half an hour before it was my turn, and Song Du had finished talking. At that time, the teacher asked everyone to rest, and wanted to ride out with me to chat.
The teacher’s horse riding skills are better than I thought. At least now when I mention horse riding, I will think of a Han Xian gliding and flying in the air.
I couldn't tell the teacher about this thought. I was just following the teacher on a horseback stroll, so it couldn't just be a stroll. So, even though I could see beautiful scenery, I had to pay attention to every word the teacher was going to say.
"Do you know why I asked you to accompany me riding horses?" the teacher suddenly asked.
Frankly, how could I know? But at least I had to make a guess, and of course I had to make a more sophisticated guess: "The teacher has something to say to me."
This is obviously correct nonsense. The teacher smiled and said, "Of course I want to talk to you, otherwise why would I ask you to come out and ride a horse?"
"Teacher, if you have any instructions, I will be glad to learn from them." Since I still haven't figured it out, I'd better just listen and learn.
"Come out and tell me what you are going to do." The teacher still had a faint smile.
"Yes." But before answering, I decided to ask myself a question: "Did the teacher really ask me to break out of prison?"
"How do you know I'll let you rob?"
"Otherwise, why would you and Zishi say that only I can save you? If it's useless, will the teacher?"
The teacher smiled without shaking his head, but suddenly reined in his horse, lowered his head, and lowered his voice.
"I knew about Ziyu's matter a long time ago, but I didn't stop him." He said this with a gloomy face, which made me feel that he was talking to himself: "There are many things I didn't tell you. When you know the mystery in the future, don't blame the teacher. You will understand why the teacher said that."
"Teacher, is everything okay?" The teacher rarely acts like this, and I was a little worried.
"Zi Rui, you are simple-minded. You always think that everyone in the world is the same, and everything in the world is the same. You think you can use yourself to move others, impress others, and make others become like you. But... this is impossible. Of course, people with the same open mind as you will have a deep friendship with you, and many people will respect you. But not everyone is like this. There will definitely be people who think you are stupid. In fact, I don’t know who is stupid, but you will eventually meet this kind of people. In the future, you will be happy." The teacher raised his head, his face stern, not looking at me, but looking around. I didn't say anything, just wanted to continue listening.
"Fortunately, you are able to listen to others, which makes me very happy. If you have a group of capable people who trust you around you, you will be able to turn danger into safety. The more urgent the situation is, the more ingenious plans you will come up with. This is the most important talent in this world. You may not be able to do as much as I do in the future, but you will definitely leave your own career in history, because you are actually very suitable for such a world. Some people will not agree with the teacher, but they have forgotten the people, and you have not, so I believe I am not wrong." The teacher smiled again. He seemed a little old, which made me sad.
"Teacher, thank you for your hard work in Luoyang." I bowed and said sadly.
"Do you know why the teacher noticed you so early? And you often fall asleep in class and I don't wake you up, or I only wake you up sometimes."
"The teacher didn't wake me up by calling me, he beat me." I was a little indignant, but I immediately asked, "Why?"
"Do you feel that what you learn is different from what is taught in other schools?"
"Others prefer the classics of Chunqiu, but the teacher only loves Laozi and Zhuangzi." I discovered this a long time ago, but I didn't ask. Maybe I didn't have time, or maybe I forgot it later, but I trusted the teacher and never thought that the teacher would teach us bad things.
"I don't like Laozi and Zhuangzi's retreat from the world, but I like the strategy of 'doing nothing and being free from disturbance' in governing the country and pacifying the world, and the state of 'having no desires and no requests' in cultivating one's character." The teacher seemed not to be talking to me, but just expressing his own thoughts. Only then did he say to me with a serious face: "However, among these students, only four of them can fully understand the doctrine and put it into practice. The others can either 'do nothing' or 'have no desires', but none of them can do both. The first is Ziyu, who is calm and stubborn. If he is under the control of a bad person, he may break without yielding. The second is Ziyue, who seems lazy but is actually diligent and easy-going, but not good at socializing. It is difficult for him to accomplish anything if he meets bad colleagues. Shengbin is similar to Ziyue."
When I thought about it, it seemed to be true, so I nodded.
"The fourth one is you. You are both lazy and stubborn." The teacher suddenly said this. He was still stern for a while before relaxing. "But you can listen to others and talk to others. When you encounter official business, you can definitely work diligently. That's enough."
"You have another advantage. When you are arguing with your classmates, it is easy to understand the words of others, but it is difficult to understand your own words. Because you hold on to a correct thought, you will never be biased from beginning to end and will never give up." The teacher shook his head: "When I was your age, I couldn't do that either."
"Teacher, you are too kind. In fact, some of my classmates are difficult to refute."
"No, Wen Zheng is good at speaking, but when he is at a loss for words, he makes excuses and talks about other things, and never admits defeat. This is not worth learning." The teacher actually said this. Fortunately, Brother Wen Zheng was not there, otherwise he would be embarrassed: "In fact, he is much more talented than you. If he can study hard and learn with an open mind, he will achieve much more than he has now."
"Brother Wen Zheng is only nineteen years old, teacher, please don't worry."
"So what? Huo Qubing would have led a war at such a young age." The teacher was getting excited, which made me immediately give up arguing with the teacher for my classmates. It's not easy for the teacher to get angry, but once he gets angry, it can be scary.
I was a little surprised to hear that Brother Wen Zheng was mentioned, but the teacher quickly explained the reason: "The Baiyue people in southern Jing and the Southwestern Yi have always been at odds with each other. They have quarreled before, as you know. You and you, especially since you have sworn brotherhood with the Southern Barbarian King Meng Jie, how should you deal with it?"
"I wrote to persuade my brothers not to fight if possible, as the autumn harvest is almost here. If the fight gets out of hand, the court won't be able to intervene and all the grain will be wasted. If it really doesn't work, I told my brothers not to bother with them. Let them make trouble as they please and we will just defend the farmland in the prefectures and counties. If we help the Southwestern Barbarians, the Baiyue people will not only hate the Southwestern Barbarians, but also us. It will be troublesome if they come to cause trouble every now and then during the sowing and harvest seasons. But this is not as bad as helping the Baiyue people. Once that happens, there will be a rift between my brother Mengjie and me and Jingzhou. If they become resentful and join forces with Dong Zhuo, our Jingzhou will be in danger."
"Yes! It's very simple, that's it. I know his wife is from Baiyue, so it's okay if he is a little biased. But he shouldn't have asked our Jingzhou army to help the Baiyue. The people of Southwest Yi knew that Meng Jie, the king of the southern barbarians, had a hard time, so naturally Meng Jie was very unhappy. He wrote to you to ask for clarification. You were not there at the time. Chen Liang knew that things were not going well, so he quickly brought gifts and went there to make peace again. He also gave a lot of gifts to show that it was a misunderstanding. It took a lot of effort to calm it down. After a while, I'm afraid you will have to clean up your ass again." The last word was a bit unclean, and the teacher noticed it, laughed out loud, and shirked responsibility: "I learned it from your third uncle."
But soon he stopped laughing again: "We asked him what happened, ah, what happened to him? One moment, the Southwestern Barbarians looked down on us and killed our border guards, so I punished them a little; the next moment, I knew it, but the low-level soldiers accidentally injured them; there were a lot of such words of shirking responsibility, anyway, he was not wrong, what should we do!"
"Teacher, don't worry. As soon as I have time, I will go to the south."
"Well, it's nothing actually. Chen Liang acted promptly and said good things, so it's not bad. It's just that our Jingzhou government treasury suffered some loss."
I also smiled, and followed the smiling teacher: "This year seems to be very peaceful, but undercurrents are surging inside and outside the government. I don't know when something will happen again. We must not let anything happen at this time. Now, I will transfer Jiang Zheng to Changsha, and let Gan Ning and Su Fei guard Lingling. What do you think?"
"The teacher is right." I nodded.
"Do you know what's going on in Jiaozhou?" I shook my head. Usually there are reports of rebellions by the Baiyue, Liren and other ethnic groups. I usually don't read the Jiaozhou reports.
"I know you don't know. I've paid attention to the court reports you've read and the ones you haven't read, that is, the ones during the time when you were acting as governor. I've also checked the review records. You'd better take a look at it later. We will have such a neighbor in the future. At least you have to know the doors of the neighbor's house, how many doors it has, how many people are in the family, their views of us, and what's going on in their family?" The teacher's strange words made me think for a long time, and suddenly I understood a little, which really surprised me.
“Could it be…” I made a gesture and the teacher nodded his head when he saw it.
"How could this happen?" I was very surprised. "Isn't this going backwards? You should remember the lesson of the war between the seven kings of the Han Dynasty. How could this happen?"
"It's not that you are so strong, but you are helpless due to the current situation. When the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out, most of the powerful landlords and princes in the north were killed by the Yellow Turbans and other rebels. Only one survived, and many of the remaining ones hid in Sili. But a group of new forces also emerged. The original princes and princes in the counties, the powerful and wealthy, relied on the support of people in the inner circle and their wealth. They took advantage of the empty land system to encroach on the land of the poor without fear. But after all, they had no soldiers or only had some courage to defend the land. If they wanted to... "If we can eliminate them, we can slowly expand them and classify them into different categories, and then we can level them. However, most of the new nobles who are taking advantage of this time to start a rebellion originally have connections with the inner circle, and none of them are poor. But the key is that they all have heavy troops, which makes things troublesome. If you provoke one, the others can rebel!" The teacher sighed, and wrinkles appeared on his baby face, which made me feel a little sad: "The troops cannot be taken away, and we cannot take them away. If we take them away, the world will be in chaos again. Therefore, we must..." The teacher also made a gesture, exactly the same as mine, and added: "This matter must not be told to outsiders. For the time being, we are still discussing the details."
"Well... Listen to the teacher, I understand. The Han people really can't afford to be injured again... This may be the only way. But have you ever thought about what the common people will do?"
"Of course I have thought about it, but if we don't do this, the people may suffer even longer!"
The teacher seemed helpless and at a loss. I had never seen the teacher like this before, so I continued to think about it. In fact, I didn't know much about politics, so I finally decided to firmly agree with my teacher because he was my mentor after all: "The teacher is right. We really don't have the strength to do anything else. This is the only way for the time being. After all, these vassal states can check each other. At the beginning, they can't ask for too much, and later, they can't make trouble at will. Let them create their own cracks, and we will reap the benefits. One less vassal means one less disaster."
"It's good that you can understand. Let's put this matter aside and carry out your plan. Don't worry, of course I asked you to come, I won't stop you, just go and save them, even your adoptive parents won't blame you. But don't let anyone catch you for the time being, otherwise it will be bad." The "for the time being" in the teacher's words made me feel a little strange. I knew there must be something fishy here, but I couldn't figure it out for a while. But the teacher's words about these vassal states made me feel a lot.
Things in the world will eventually be like this, seemingly plain on the surface, but actually very complex and exciting on the inside. Just like a perfectly good day that suddenly changes for no reason.
The word "greed" has become the living cause of everything, driving people at will, as if it has forgotten that it comes from the human heart, or people themselves have forgotten it.
And this kind of things mostly happen in this temple. If it always happens like this, I might as well find a place at the end of the world and not care about these things. These things are really dirty.
After I presented my plan, the teacher asked me without showing any emotion: "Did you come up with this idea yourself?"
"Well, everyone proposed it at first, and I chose some ideas in the middle. When I proposed it last night, no one objected."
"Oh, this plan shows that you are extremely familiar with the situation in Luoyang. It doesn't seem like you are planning it." The teacher raised his eyebrows and smiled at me: "You, um, I think there are many places you have never been to."
"Well, there are some things that Song told me." I have always been very honest.
"Okay, that's fine, not bad, much better than I expected. You gave up your official position and got married, and you can still learn something from the Sima family. Haha..."
"The teacher made fun of me. Did the teacher know everything?"
"Hmm!" The teacher's voice changed, revealing a rare nonsensical teasing tone, which was probably due to being corrupted by his two brothers after being with them for a long time: "But, I don't know anything about what you did at night, on the mountain, or even in the mountains!"
I could see that the teacher's mood suddenly seemed to improve. He was obviously very satisfied with my plan, but more importantly, he had a feeling of relief. Perhaps his plan was about to succeed.
I don’t know what the world will look like in a certain period of time. And where will I be then
The plan started two days later in the morning, when all the conspicuous people disappeared from Luoyang.
Song brought people into the city, while we were outside the city, thinking about it in vain, especially me, the proposer of the plan, who was thinking about it everywhere in my mind, but I could only stay in one place quietly. At noon, there was news from the market that there was a riot in the city, and the Yuan Gate, Shangdong Gate, Pingcheng Gate, and Yong Gate were immediately rumored to be closed. In the afternoon, everyone went out from Shangxi Gate, Gu Gate, Daxia Gate, and Hao Gate. At this point, I was finally at peace. On this day, most of the people outside the city were scattered and hidden in the city in the southwest of the city. There were just shops there, and most of the people were vendors from other places. With our different accents here, no one doubted us, or had time to doubt us, so we were very sensible and became different vendors. So that morning we bought 45 pigs, 500 shi of rice, 15 pieces of cloth, 30 jars of wine, and 100 kilograms of cooked meat; at noon we sold 45 pigs, 500 shi of rice, 13 pieces of cloth, and two jars of wine. We didn't leave until the market was closed in the afternoon. When we left, we bought 15 jars of wine and 72.3 jin of cooked meat. Because there were only so many left and the boss wanted to close the stall, he gave us 70 jin, which made E Huan very happy.
I picked up Ziyu in the west of the city at dusk, and the job was done. He was a little listless and shrugged.
After this, Deng led 37 people to leave via the main road. It was said that they left with 2,000 stones of salt and 4,000 pieces of cloth.
Song and a dozen other people stayed in the city, and the teacher thought someone would pick them up.
Bōcai and his group entered the mountain by the same route, and were led by Poliu Han Lieya and Husa Lie Nanguo to return to the mountain by the same route we had taken. Han Xian and others took a large boat upstream and downwind to Shanghe. Zhang Jian was asked to leave by the teacher as soon as he came out that day, and his whereabouts are still unknown.
We did not leave for the time being, but first hid in the "fairyland" that looked like the horizon. It was originally He Jin's garden, and now it belonged to the teacher. The teacher did not do anything to it, and truly practiced "non-action" governance, so it remained the same. There were deer in it, they ran in at night, so they did not run away; there were also wild boars, I did not even see them enter our camping area, but I saw them on the racks; as for wild ducks, I did not know they had been there until I ate them.
"How come these brothers are like vicious wolves?" This is how Ziyu started talking that night.
"Everyone is hungry." I decided to keep it simple. Ziyu is just like the teacher, calm and peaceful, like the calm water. You can never see him in a hurry, at least I have never seen him. He won't tell jokes like Zishe, or say any dirty words like Yunshu, or chatter like the old brother Zisheng, or talk nonsense like the current brother Wenjie. He always speaks calmly, even with a sense of sadness. Many people think that we look alike. In fact, that was when I was still young. It seems that our eyebrows and eyes were interchangeable. In fact, we can still see the similarity now, but later when I grew taller, my face became longer. According to my brothers, "our face has been deformed." We don't look alike anymore, so I became a "big guy" and he became a "handsome man". This was what the neighborhood aunties said back then. I don't know if these aunties feel sorry for the deformation of my face.
"How can this be? As soon as any living creature comes in, it becomes a hedgehog. Who are they?"
"Two Xianbei people can't do it, the rest are all from Wujun, Yangzhou, most of them were from the Yellow Turban Army. Brother Chen seems to have considered it, and they are all archers. It seems that they were hunters at that time." I roasted my meat on the fire, a little absent-minded, but I still did it. I know it should be a kind of bird, but in my hand, there is only a round lump of meat.
"You actually came to save me?" He said calmly. He remained like this afterwards. He looked at the fire and said absentmindedly, "Why did you come?"
"You are my brother, we grew up together, and we looked alike when we were two." I blew hard and saw the steam coming out of the skin, which made me itchy. It was still far from cooked at that time.
"The last one doesn't count as a reason, right? I look like you, so I'm at a disadvantage. And I'm the eldest brother, I don't want to confuse brothers."
"You're still paying attention to this at this time of year." I can usually speak in the tone of the person I'm talking to, and when I'm talking to Brother Ziyu, I quickly fall into a state of almost dreaming. Of course, I know I still have to eat, so I flip the roasting fork very seriously.
"Thank you very much."
"Don't be polite, brother. Actually, it was Zishi who ran back after not sleeping for several days; and the words my teacher brought to me hinted that I should come to rescue you; Shideng did nothing but ran so far just to divert our attention, and he deliberately let his people set up a cover in the city, and the Xianbei brothers of Po Liu and Han Lieya spoke various dialects everywhere, confusing people and making it difficult for people to find out; Song Yudong was responsible for all the movements in the city, and you can see that I didn't do anything in the city because I was too conspicuous. There were nearly two hundred of us, but in fact only more than sixty people were doing the real work, and the others were covering outside, and they had been running with me for ten days." I poured some more salt water on the meat, then put the meat on the fire and started to concentrate on the words.
"Your choice?"
"Um."
"How on earth did you do it? I still haven't figured it out."
"First, we are closer through the Daxia Gate. I originally planned to go through the East Gate, but I might be checked if I go through the East Gate. Going through the Valley Gate is too close to the Taicang Arsenal, and there are too many guards to prevent being checked. I feel it is unsafe. I am familiar with the Daxia Gate. Coming in through the Daxia Gate..."
"Oh, I remember you walked here once and entered Luoyang from the north gate." This person smiled for the first time, but with some ill intentions.
"Okay, big brother, don't choose this time to laugh at me." I was a little dissatisfied, but I was really helpless: "There is Zhuolong Garden in the east, and there is only one street with people between it and the palace. I asked them to split into three groups. One group went to Taicang Arsenal to hang out for a while, but went straight south and circled around the east side of the palace to the southeast city, which is Shangkaiyang Street. There are backyards of most officials there, and each family has servants to guard the yard. Usually, there are not many people walking outside. I asked them to disperse in groups of two or three and wander over and over. When they met, they talked together in various dialects. The patrol officers usually didn't dare to ask people who walked here. I asked them to wear gorgeous clothes and be arrogant, so they would definitely think that our people were either rich or noble, or at least had a great relationship and didn't dare to ask. When I was the assistant minister in Beijing..."
"It was this year, it seems like it was ages ago."
"Well, this year, when I was the Regent, I went in and out of there."
"Oh, you don't want to take the Pingchengmen Road?"
"Well, if I were on that road, all the people coming and going would be officials and dignitaries, and I would have to be polite to everyone I met, so how could I get to where I want to go? There would be fewer people going through the back door." I let out a breath, feeling a little overwhelmed when I thought about that time: "As you know, recently, it's the time of 'dividing the spoils', and there are a lot of people going to and from the residences of the Three Dukes and the Imperial Censor. So, we kept an eye on this patrol team, and of course they thought they were keeping an eye on us. This patrol team walks through the front and back streets of the Three Dukes' residences, so that we can know when there is no one on the Imperial Road. There will be no one on the Chi Road, and the earth wall is just right for us to do our work."
Ziyu had begun to understand, and was somewhat dazed.
"Nangong has four gates, and the Huangmen Temple is southwest of Nangong. Deng and a group of people bought this and that, and I also asked them to have some trouble with those street rogues. At the same time, there were several groups of customers from different places coming to buy things. Among them were people from Po Liu and Han Lieya, the Yellow Turban Army, and natives of our Jingzhou. They spoke accents from Youzhou, Jingzhou, and Qingzhou. We have people from these states, and the rest of the accents were learned by Po Liu and Han Lieya's men. There should have been ten such caravans on the scene at that time, and they would do business with each other. In short, everything must be delayed until noon."
"When everyone goes home for dinner." Zi Yu almost understood everything.
"It's hot, who wants to stay in the bird's nest in Nangong? You will definitely get sick. So when the group of people went back and everyone was having dinner, Bōcai led people to rush in from the west gate of Nangong. Nangong is not the imperial palace, and the four gates are never closed all year round. After rushing in, they arrived at Huangmen Temple in a few moments. Oh, Brother Ziyu, you didn't suffer, did you?"
"No, somehow they were very nice to me. The eunuch in charge was named Zhang, and he seemed to be new. He was said to be familiar with you, and he was very obedient to me. Except for not letting me go, I got whatever I wanted. They also put me in the cell closest to the temple door, so I wasn't suffocated... This genius of yours... The genius of the Yellow Turban Army?"
I looked up and turned over the roast meat.
"He's not dead? In Jingzhou?" He was a little surprised, but not for long. He just thought about it and then suddenly figured it out. I don't know what he figured out, but I don't think it's necessary to waste time on this. Anyway, he will understand it later. I'm interested in another question.
"How could I know a eunuch? I've been away from Luoyang for such a long time, and he's still new... Oh, it turns out to be the eunuch who was sent back. Well, I do know him, but I'm too familiar with him." I laughed: "You were in the outermost room, no wonder they rescued you after a while. While they were rescuing you, the city patrol team was turning in from the Imperial Street to the Sangong Backyard Street. There were not many people in the Nangong Palace, so naturally no one called the police. When the guards in the palace discovered it and closed the four gates, they came to chase us, but our people had already rushed out with you."
"Who let them run into someone as familiar with Nangong as you are?"
"Who dares to walk on the highway?" I didn't respond to his question and continued.
"So you asked them to take me in a carriage, and just as we turned the corner, you emptied the thatched straw on the carriage."
"Add another layer of wet thatch and then give the horse a good beating," I decided to add.
"There was smoke all the way, and we climbed over the wall under the smoke to get to the residential area." Zi Yu was already recalling the scene at that time.
“Except the emperor, no one dares to enter the road without permission. The road is more than three miles long, and it takes a moment for a horse to run across it. Moreover, there are many stones on the carriage... Of course, others are not fools, and of course they will guess, but they can't climb the wall, and they dare not do so. But even if they immediately go around from the south gate of Nangong to the west gate of Nangong, and wait for them to go back from the south gate of Nangong to the west gate to pass the news to each city gate, you have already left among the four thousand pieces of cloth, because I believe that unless a death order is given, no one will open hundreds of boxes and check them slowly. The people from the procurement teams below will go out separately from noon to dusk, and each batch will bring one or two more people, because if nothing big happens, they will not close all the gates of Luoyang to create tension, but will only intensify the inspection, but there is nothing suspicious about them , they went in with their faces covered, and the legitimate merchants came out, buying normal things. In order to confuse the investigating officials, I even arranged for a group of people to leave in a panic from the ferry south of Luoyang in the afternoon. They would take a big ship to Shanghe, and of course they did nothing. The same number of people as the one who broke into the palace just now, of course not the person himself, would stay in the city. In this way, if the inspectors entering the city are smart and capable, they may find a gap in the number of people here. It depends on how carefully they check, but being careful is useless. Even if the city is closed and searched, if these people are found, they really did nothing, and many inns and taverns can prove it.”
"You are really brave, you really dare to play."
"I know the situation. But it can only happen this time, because this is the first time. Next time, if there is someone, I really don't know what kind of defense I will be. I made so much trouble so that we can all leave safely before they figure it out. But I really didn't do anything. I spent the whole day in Nanshi drinking and eating meat, and I was very full. So I didn't eat the deer and wild boar in the evening. Hey, it's almost done." I took the meat off the rack and took a bite. "It's fresh and fragrant. It seems to be duck. Hey, it's a wild duck, right? Well, as expected... It's roasted just right! I'm a little hungry now. Do you want to have some?"
"No, I'm full. Well, I owe you my life."
"It should be the teacher. If he hadn't asked Zishi to come and inform me, I wouldn't have known. Without the teacher's help, I wouldn't have been able to do it so smoothly."
"You didn't, I forgot. Here is a poem my teacher gave me. He specifically asked me to read it clearly. However, I haven't figured out the other meaning yet. Come and have a look." After saying that, he took out a piece of brocade from his bosom and handed it to me. This is strange. According to the teacher, silk is used. Brocade has many colors. This piece of brocade with galloping horse pattern is bright red. The black words on it are not clear at night. I held the duck in one hand and folded the brocade with the other. It took me a long time to realize that I had held it upside down. I quickly turned it over and it quickly gathered into a pile.
"Can't you just put the duck down?" Brother Ziyu obviously had an opinion.
Seeing the black on the ground, I was reluctant to put it there, but I was afraid it would burn if I put it on the shelf. So I asked him to take it for me so I could look at it myself. This made it easier. I could see that the teacher had written a five-character poem with ten lines. This was all I could see for now. I had to slowly decipher the words on it, but the situation made me nervous.
Because I didn't expect this person to take it, smell it, take a bite, and then start eating.
"Hey, hey, aren't you full?" I was a little anxious and folded the brocade in my hand again because I wanted to get my duck back.
"I have nothing to do, so I just eat a little. Yes, it's really fresh and fragrant." He was not modest either. As a result, he recited the poem to me while eating. I also lowered my head to the fire to recognize the words: "'And I am drunk and laughing while singing. What do you say? Self-love violates the prohibitions, and I am sent to prison. In the palace, who can compete with me for the imperial decree? If a person is destined by heaven, he will not get it even if he does not ask for it. When the retribution is reported in the underworld, his name will fall into the White River.' It seems that the teacher is unwilling to talk to me. Maybe he thinks I am too stupid."
"Give me back the duck." I reached out and took the scarred "important thing", then showed him the folded brocade, "Take another look, the teacher is actually reminding you."
"Ask who... left the palace... who... didn't sign up!" Ziyu's voice got louder for the first time tonight because he was very surprised.
I took a bite of the duck and said to myself, "Now I can't figure out why the teacher asked me to come here. Is it just for these wild ducks? But to be honest, they are really delicious."
I couldn't understand, I really couldn't understand, how could there be such a thing in the world. It was far more complicated than the process of my kidnapping, but simpler than roasting a duck.
But I would rather admit it and eat roast duck.
I am even more convinced that tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, or even the day after tomorrow, in short, the nearest day, something will definitely happen in Luoyang, and it will definitely be a big thing.