"The Change of Heaven"
Volume 2: The Horizon
Chapter 137 The Road to the South
For the first time in eighteen years, I knew my biological parents, but what I knew was not what I could see, and what I saw was not what I could know.
And who could have known that things would turn out like this
Can you imagine such a story? Or how can you imagine such things. For eighteen years, you "didn't" have your own parents, you never saw them, and you didn't know them. But you had a sister who had no blood relationship with you and lived with you. Then suddenly she was not your sister, but your original wife; so you wanted to marry her, but later found out that she was not your sister, but someone else, so you married another person. When you grew up and could support yourself, someone "adopted" you. Regardless of whether someone asked the family to "adopt" you or they took the initiative to "adopt" you, because everything behind this has gone beyond the imagination. You regard them as your own parents, but you know in your heart that they are not, and you finally find out that they are your real parents, and you are not the original self, and even the original wife you thought was not your real original wife. What does it feel like to go back and forth for eighteen years? Being in it, it is difficult for me to sort out the clues, but an indescribable feeling in my heart was vented without restraint at that moment.
However, in this situation, the hall was silent most of the time, simply because this story could not be explained clearly to everyone. Even if they cried, it was silent sobs.
Who could have expected things to turn out like this
"Father, mother, I bow once for you to receive my eighteen years of amnesty." I couldn't hold back my tears. I cried for a long time in my parents' arms, then suddenly broke free, stepped back a few steps, prostrated myself, and bowed again until my parents helped me up.
My name is Shen Gongshe. It is the first time in 18 years that I have my original name. When my mother was pregnant with me, the whole country was hunting down party members. My uncle and father knew that this was not right, but they had no choice.
My uncle was very kindhearted, and he often turned a blind eye to the situation. The court was wary of county marquises like my uncle. If things went on like this for a while, some people would spread rumors, and the eunuchs would often speak ill of my uncle. Fortunately, the current emperor was related to the Shen family by marriage. I heard that one of my aunts had married a concubine to the previous emperor, but she died a long time ago. She was very good to the emperor before, and the emperor remembered the old relationship, so nothing happened. After the lesson of "smoke coming out of the chimney", my father had a mind, so on the surface, my father still pretended to be ruthless to the party members, and arrested them when he found them. In fact, most of the people he arrested were released by himself, but he killed a few death row prisoners on the spot and reported them to make up the number. My uncle, who was also straightforward by nature, believed it to be true, so he said those words to Taoist Zuo that day.
In fact, the father, who received the imperial edict to "inspect and arrest the fleeing party members", originally planned to arrest an innocent person at random, and then release him if he found something wrong, and just report it. But he didn't expect to hug the "sloppy" Taoist Zuo, and had to admit that he had to wear more decent clothes when doing "bad" things in the future. Then he searched out the fatal letter. When the two brothers saw it, they had the same idea and said to each other on the surface: "According to the imperial edict, he should be executed and reported to Luoyang."
So, that night, one of them secretly released the person, while the other, my father, secretly swapped me, who was only a few days old, with Jiang Wei, the real son of Fan Pang. He even asked his close personal warrior, Jiang Shu, to send Fan Pang's son, Jiang Wei, to Jingzhou, because the Party Ban was not so serious there. He also asked Jiang Shu, who was originally a young lieutenant named Jiang Lang, to settle down there, and falsely reported that the son was one year older. For this purpose, he also asked Jiang Shu to wait a few years before letting Jiang Wei see people, so that no one would notice that something was wrong. After all, there is a big difference between one year old and two years old, but not many people can tell the difference between four years old and five years old.
However, this made my mother suffer. She naturally refused at first, but later she just hugged me and cried, not letting my father touch me. I was only a few days old at that time, which should have been the happiest day for my mother. However, my father had no other choice in a hurry, and he also advised my mother that my uncle might secretly release Zuo Ci, but he was not sure.
My mother is also a person who understands the greater good. In the end, she handed me to my father while crying, and my father's tears had almost dried up that night.
My father didn’t expect that my uncle would actually release the people that night. If that was the case, he wouldn’t have to go through all this trouble. When my uncle knew that I was replaced, he was so anxious that he scolded my father. After all, I was the only boy in the family at that time. But they didn’t expect that a few days later, they heard that Zuo Ci and others were found, and then some of the party members were executed on the spot. At first, my uncle and father really thought that I had died, and they didn’t even dare to tell my mother. Later, my uncle passed away, and my father succeeded him. My mother often urged my father to find me, but my father just said that he had been looking for me. In fact, he had died in his heart a long time ago. He didn’t expect that I would "appear" again eighteen years later.
That jacket was made for me by my mother in a hurry. She was afraid that it would be found out by others, but she wanted us to be able to recognize each other in the future, so she specially sewed a piece of cloth for me and stuffed it inside. She was sewing clothes for me at that time, and the last hour was the most painful for my mother. Not only were her hands pierced with wounds due to the rush and mental damage, but her heart was also broken. It was my mother's blood and tears that made my new clothes. Those two words were thought of by my father because they are similar to "谢", so even if they are found out, there is an excuse in the letter. And the two words are similar to my name in pronunciation, which can also be used as evidence.
Our whole family spent three days together, crying and laughing, talking about the past. Suddenly, I remembered something: "That's not right. How could I have a sister who is the same age as me?"
"No." Father sniffed and wiped his face. "Your sister Qi is his uncle's daughter, otherwise how could you have a sister who is only 25 days older than you. Your uncle and I married your mother and your aunt at the same time, and we got pregnant at about the same time, so your sister Qi came out 25 days first, and then you. Later, your uncle passed away, and your aunt was too heartbroken and passed away very early. Only your sister was left, and she didn't understand, so I adopted her and treated her as my own. I even used to be with her when she was still alive. From now on, the whole county will be yours. In fact, if I die, without you, the country will be gone."
My father was very good to my mother. After I died, my mother fell seriously ill and could not have children. However, my father never took a concubine. My sister was adopted from my aunt's family. My father was disappointed after I died and my uncle died. He felt that there was no hope for anything in this world.
Suddenly, footsteps were heard in the corridor outside. I heard it first. I immediately asked my parents to stop talking and look back until Sister Qi came in wearing a nightgown.
"Oh, Brother Zhi is here too?" The elder sister was a little surprised, but she was more tired than anything else. "Jin'er has already fallen asleep. I greeted my father and mother and then went to sleep too. I still have some things to do tomorrow."
"Okay, Qi'er, go to bed early." My parents naturally understood the seriousness of the situation, and even their tearful faces suddenly showed a comfortable and loving smile.
"Second brother, you should also go to bed early. I'll go first." Sister Qi felt a little sleepy. She bowed again and stepped back until she left.
Sister Qi's visit helped us return to normal and calm down to discuss the problem. But my mother obviously couldn't stand the fact that I had to leave again after just recognizing my son. She suddenly wanted to go to the south with me to take care of me, and asked my father to announce it to the world immediately.
"You are confused. You have forgotten the important things now that you have a son. Besides, the imperial edict must be issued by the emperor, not by me. If he is my son, it will be inconvenient for Zirui to stay in Jiaozhou after he pacifies it. He can only come back to supervise the country for me and wait for the old man to die to take over my throne. You will ruin Zirui's future. But you and your son, hey... wait until Zirui's situation there is settled, and then I will take you away. Alas, the old woman misses her son, can the old man stop her? Anyway, we are a family. Do we need others to recognize us?" The father pretended to be angry, but his eyes were full of joy and happiness, as if he had become many years younger.
The mother also laughed, with tears still in her eyes, but she pretended to pat the father's back fiercely, and the whole family laughed.
Suddenly someone came to visit me. It was none other than a very important person related to my life: Jiang Wei.
I was naturally very surprised: "Why is he here? Didn't he just leave not long ago?"
"Oh, it's almost the beginning of winter, the queen misses her daughter, so she asked the emperor to invite Marquis Qin and his wife to hold a banquet." My father said cheerfully, "Isn't it because my daughter is married? Queen He is still thinking about this, and the emperor doesn't care, so naturally we don't care either. It's human nature, look at my family, didn't we just... uh, haha, hey, what are you still doing down there, go and invite them! Ah, it may be too late to change clothes, old woman, help me fold my clothes."
"I didn't expect to meet the second brother." I was even happier, and I happily moved to the chair to sit in another seat. My mother came over to help me wipe my face and straighten my clothes. I smiled at my parents, and from time to time I glanced at the door of the hall where old friends were coming. At the same time, I sat there proudly, even a little arrogantly. This is my place, this is my place. My father looked at his clothes again, weighed the pros and cons, and finally decided not to greet them.
The voice arrived before the person did. There were still dozens of steps away, and a voice came from the corridor: "It's so late, husband, I'm afraid Uncle Wang has fallen asleep. Let's come back tomorrow morning, okay?"
"Hey, Your Highness the Princess, we are all here. Let's go! I saw the lights on here from the top of the Imperial City Tower. That means Uncle Wang hasn't rested yet. I have to go and pay him a visit." Although the voice was low, it was still clear in the quiet of the night.
Before he finished speaking, the two of them had already reached the corridor. My father stood up and bowed, "Princess, please forgive me. I hope my clothes are not in order and it is inconvenient for me to come and greet you from afar."
"I hope you won't mind my late night visit. I'm sorry to bother you, Ru Sui-husband." Sister Ru was still very polite and virtuous. She was not as unruly as her adoptive father at that time and needed to be disciplined. Or maybe she had already been disciplined by her stepfather.
"Jiang Wei greets the benefactor!" Ziyu bowed very respectfully, but just after he finished bowing, he noticed me returning the greeting, so he said in surprise: "Third brother!"
"Just now I heard Zirui calling you the second brother, and now you call you the third brother. What's going on?" My father must be very confused, and he pointed his sword at me.
This explanation took some time, but my mother was very understanding, as long as Deng, Po Liu and Han Lieya also came home to sit down. With me, my mother seemed to be open-minded about everything.
"This time, the Queen sent a letter to invite us to spend the beginning of winter here. We have some formalities to attend to, and also to..." He looked at me and said, "We are brothers after all. Even my wife knows everything, so I won't hide it. Benefactor, how can my father Fan Pang clear his name?"
It seems that the eldest princess may have known about this matter a long time ago. She nodded repeatedly, looked at her father, and said, "I will go to help, but Zi Yu won't let me. It's because such things can't be handled in the palace."
"It's not easy to pass through the palace. I don't know what's going on. Why can't Brother Mengbo be cleared of his name?" Father frowned. "I heard that Brother Mengbo had done something that offended the emperor. Some prophecies have made the court avoid mentioning him. But this time Zirui refuted the prophecies in the court, so it should be a little loose, right?"
I knew about the prophecy, but I thought it was not a good idea for the time being. Since my father was already here, I would not want Ziyu to be unhappy. But since Ziyu had confessed to me, I looked at my father and got his tacit consent, then I told him my story. I even proudly told him something that was still a little stunned at the time. But the facts proved that I was a little hot-headed at the time and thought about some wrong things, so I suffered a great loss. But at the beginning, I thought I was getting a bargain. So, usually when you think you can get a bargain, you will usually suffer a great loss. I am such an example.
"So, I am the one who was swapped with you, and I am my father's biological son. I just found out." I finally smiled and looked at his wide eyes. "Also, since you are one year older, I am older than you. I should be the second child and you should be the third child."
His mouth was still wide open, but as soon as I finished speaking, he immediately understood and smiled, saying, "But you forgot, since you represent the original me, your birthday is the one I used, and mine is the one I used for the original county, which is your birthday. But to keep it secret, a year was added out of thin air, which means our birthdays have to be swapped. You are still older than me, that is, I was born on the fourth day of the twelfth lunar month in the second year of Jianning, and you were born on the sixteenth day of the twelfth lunar month. I am still older than you, and..." Ziyu suddenly looked to the right and back at the princess. From the side of her face, you could see that she had an extremely disgusting and heuristic expression. The princess thought about it and suddenly understood, "Ah, if that's the case, then I am two days older than you. I was born on the fourteenth day of the twelfth lunar month in the second year of Jianning."
"Okay, Third Brother, Brother-in-law, Second Brother, you pick one." Ziyu looked like a winner, or a man who had achieved success.
Fortunately, my father came out to smooth things over: "Since Zirui is my son, and you are my sworn brother, you should stop calling me benefactor all the time. If you are a benefactor, you can also call me father. If you feel closer, just call me dad."
"How are you doing there?" Ziyu sent the princess to the Queen's palace - this was also the Queen's request, it seems that all mothers in the world are like this - I don't know what will happen to Yinling in the future - and then he came out to "make love" with me, and my first question was this. But before that, I also gave him a very important letter, which I originally thought was for me. When he saw it, he was completely silent, so my first sentence and the words I spoke throughout the night did not involve the content of this letter, but he mentioned it himself later, which made me silent.
"Not bad." He nodded, casually looked at the place I arranged for him to stay, and tilted his head, not knowing which one it was.
"How is Uncle Jiang?"
"Well, dad has become much younger." He smiled, "The old man is always looking for people to hunt and train horses. My dad has been suffering for many years. He was a handsome, good at riding and martial arts. When he first arrived in Xiangyang, he thought he was useless. Now he has finally made it. Look at how happy my dad is. Even his rheumatism has improved a lot. Not long ago, he came to see your dad. He was even happier when he went back. My mom couldn't help it. She kept saying that dad was like... an old lunatic."
Uncle Jiang has had a hard life. It is time for him to enjoy his life. Unfortunately, he is old. Time flies. He left his father in his twenties and is now in his forties. The title of the founding father of the Qin State is a kind of compensation for him. This kind of life is the most comfortable, without having to worry about politics. He has such a precious filial son and married a princess daughter-in-law. (The title of the retired emperor began in the early Han Dynasty, and Liu Bang's father was the first one. Author's note)
Deng is the general of Qin State. This is a special relationship that the eldest brother has, and he is indeed capable. The lightest of the same clan is General Fubō in Chu. It seems that he has to leave his clan temporarily. Jiang Jiong is the Minister of Works, Zhou Mi is the Minister of Works, Zhou Cang is the General of Cavalry, and the Grand Commandant is concurrently held by Jiang Lang, that is, Jiang Shu. The rest of the people are mostly promoted from various counties, and I don’t know many of them. I always think that the most interesting thing in their court is the work between the Grand Commandant and the Marquis of Qin. There are inevitably troubles in etiquette between the monarch and the ministers, and between fathers and sons. Ziyu also asked the teacher to let Shengbin and Luo Xin come to help. I headed and said that these two people must be able to get along with him. But he, in fact, Brother Wensheng (Yan Yan) and Brother Hongwei (Yang Shuo) are also good, but these two are older than him, and he will have to call him brother more often in the future, which is quite unpleasant.
The second brother is the same as me in this respect.
"Haha... What will you be called in the future? Fan Wei?" I always feel that this name is a little funny, but I don't understand why.
"Fan Jiangwei, my parents gave me life and raised me, so I can't get rid of the word Jiang. But if my father can't be rehabilitated, I will still be called Jiang Wei." Ziyu nodded at me firmly, and I nodded back a few times. But he suddenly squinted his eyes and said to me in a rare nonchalant way: "Zi, you stole my original wife... Humph, but please help take care of her, thank you, and I'll give you the surname Xie, you must repay the favor."
I casually asked him how he fought against the Xianbei. He had already attacked them, and it was led by Father Jiang, because Deng was not very familiar with horse fighting. But the two in the west fought more fiercely than them.
Nothing happened after that night, and what happened before that night was far more important to me than what happened after that night.
I found my home, my parents are still alive, and God really dotes on me.
But when I thought of Guo Pei, I suddenly felt depressed again.
I didn't tell her what happened tonight. I just held her tightly in my arms, kissed her forehead, and faced the questioning in her eyes with a smile without saying a word. However, I still felt guilty when I fell asleep in her arms.
On the second day, I went to see my parents early in the morning before going to do my business. The next few days were the same, and I felt very happy and even a little conceited.
In the past few days, I have also discussed this problem that I find difficult to figure out with my father. My father's view is a bit pessimistic: "The foundation of the Han Dynasty is now rotten, and the trend of heroes rising up is obvious. Instead of joining forces with the villains to plot against the Han Dynasty, it is better to gather loyal ministers with them and drive out the villains with them. Divide them by profit and drive them away by profit; gradually reduce their strength and suddenly recover their land. Although it is slow, it may be possible to achieve a revival." He also told me that Brother Meng De gave advice during the discussion. His advice was really a bit too wild: "The Han Dynasty is now in decline, and the four directions are not paying homage. Why? There are gaps within and no external forces. It is better for us to control the interior and Let the powerful and wealthy resist outside, slowly cut off their territory, and don't ask what they can gain from outside. Think about the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, the area was no more than a hundred miles, and the princes were enfeoffed. After a few hundred years, Chu expanded to Luoyue and Bashu; Qin reached Longxi; Yan reached Liaodong; and Wuyue expanded to Fujian. Therefore, there were eight hundred years in the two Zhou dynasties, but why did it end in the Qin Dynasty? It was because it was weak to suppress the others. Now, Ma Teng and Han Sui of Xiliang are used to resist the Xiongnu and Qiang; Gongsun Zan, Ding Yuan, and Lu Zhi are used to resist the Xianbei. Divide the rest of the people under the rivers and enfeoff the emperor's relatives to mix them. There is no need to worry about the unrest in the world and the powerful and wealthy. This is what is called: driving the tiger to swallow the wolf. "
Thus, three different ideas and a similar method eventually led to the current situation. I just don't know whether the situation will eventually go in the direction of the ideas of these three elders.
During these few days, I also did one thing, which was to transport most of the food and grass given to me to the teacher, and asked the teacher to help me store food in Lingling. This was to put all my hopes on the teacher, and it actually saved me a lot of effort in transporting food.
In a few days, we were leaving. As soon as the word "zhong" came, we set off. That day when I bid farewell to my parents, I almost broke my head. I don't want to mention it anymore, so I skipped it.
Seeing that I had too few people, my father specially asked a leader from his own guards to join my army heading south with 200 people. If Cheng Yuanzhi had not been on the front line of Zhao State, he would have asked him to help me. But this guy of my father is not bad, so he was sent to my command. It sounds like this man is an official. His name is Gao Sheng. He is a member of the Yellow Turban Army, but he looks like a scholar. His weapon is even stranger. It is like a seven-inch long dagger, erected on a long pole, and the long pole is tightly wrapped with cloth. I can't call out his name, and neither can he. I heard that his family was quite well-off in the past. His family hoped that he could become an official in the future, so they let him study and learn the classics. But they didn't expect that his family offended a local tycoon because of something. The tycoon spent money to frame Gao Sheng's father and put him in jail. Fortunately, his family sold the land to borrow money to redeem him. (In the Han Dynasty, people could forgive crimes with money. It seems that it started when the treasury was tight during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han. This system was not abolished during the Eastern Han Dynasty. Author's note) I thought that if I endured this and worked hard for a few years, there would be no problem. In fact, there was a big difference between having land and not having land. If you have land, you can save a few thousand yuan every year; if you don't have land, you have to rent the land of the landlord (according to the literature, if you just rent land, you usually have to pay half of the rent in the Eastern Han Dynasty. If you also rent cattle, you have to pay two-thirds, and you have to pay taxes yourself, author's note), and you also have to pay debts. The annual income is simply not enough to maintain a normal life. From then on, Gaosheng stopped studying and farmed for the family in order to barely make ends meet. My father fell ill because of his imprisonment and died soon. Gaosheng, who had only one male child in the family, became even more difficult. He also encountered a severe drought in the sixth year of Guanghe. Nothing could be grown in the land, and he couldn't survive. Gao Sheng had to go to the mountains to collect firewood and carry water every day, while his mother and sister at home picked some wild vegetables to get by day by day. At this time, the rich man actually came to tangle with him, and the means was still to bribe the local people and force Gao Sheng to do corvée. Gao Sheng knew some rules. Although he was over 23, his father had just died, so he could be exempted from corvée for three years; and there was a severe drought that year, so the people should not be mobilized. But those "dog officials" who were paid didn't care about these things, they just locked him up to repair the river bank. He hated that bastard in his heart, and was worried about his mother and sister, so his life was very difficult. The next year, the Yellow Turbans rose up, and as soon as the rebel army arrived, he was released from the place where he was doing corvée, but he did not join the Yellow Turban Army out of gratitude, but ran all the way back home, only to find that the whole village was gone in the war. He couldn't make a living, and there was no place to take revenge, so he joined the nearby Yellow Turban Army. Actually, at first, apart from the feeling of being touched, he just wanted to make a living. In his mind, he still thought that he should farm, study, and become an official, but he really couldn't survive at that time. Hearing this, I suspected that he was just telling me a lie, but I continued to listen. Speaking of this weapon, this was his head given to him when he was in the Yellow Turban Army. His head used to be a pig butcher, and the dagger was used to cut the meat from the pork chops. It was very strange. At this point, we both looked at each other's ribs, and then we continued to listen. This knife is fast at cutting meat, and it is also good for stabbing people, but it is not suitable for blocking and fighting. After all, it was originally used to cut the immovable pork chops, which is much worse for fighting people. So he asked the blacksmith in the army to help him make a long iron bar, asked the carpenter to put a wooden stick on the iron bar, and then asked the blacksmith to weld it with bent nails, and then he found some scraps of cloth to wrap it up, and then it was suitable for him, and it became the strange-looking weapon it is now. From what he said, it is very likely that his butcher's head is dead, so he treasures this weapon so much. I also asked him if he had found that guy to take revenge. He naturally knew who I was referring to. He shook his head sadly. He didn't know where the bastard had gone. Every time he went to a place, he would rush to the front to seek revenge on him, but he never found him. He didn't find him, so his military achievements were in vain.
Compared with other Yellow Turban brothers, this one, at least judging from his current performance, is still a gentle one, and he knows a little bit about literature, so he can be of more use in the future.
"Song Yudong, you are the quartermaster, and you are responsible for dispatching all the required weapons, clothing and other supplies; Tian Jian, you are the grain officer, and you are responsible for dispatching all the required money and food supplies." I sat upright, looked at the people around me, and began to give orders.
"Yes, sir!"
"Bian Xi, Deng Mao! You lead a brigade to clear the way."
"Yes, sir!"
"Sun Zhong, Gao Sheng, you lead a brigade to guard the central army's chariots and horses. Zhao Hong, you lead a brigade to escort the grain and grass in the back."
"Yes, sir!"
"Let's go!" I was extremely confident and cheerful that day and I even remembered the names of all the new people.
"Li Beihai, take your men to Jiangxia County to meet General Bō. If you have any questions, ask the local officials there. Most of them are my classmates and will help you." I called the two people who had been eager to fight for days to my side and ordered them one by one: "Nan, quickly go to Xiangyang to present my letter to my teacher. If you have any important matters, do it yourself."
Of course, there is another person who must be properly explained, but the method is different: "I will give you thirty people to closely protect my wife's carriage and not leave it, even if there are beauties on the road! If you dare to leave your post to see a beauty, I will kill you."
Finally, I said to the older one of the three guys in my family who was still waiting for orders seriously: "Wu Yue, keep an eye on your brothers and don't tell them to run away. Well, you are responsible for guarding the commander's flag carriage. You must not leave your post without permission and don't let strangers approach!" Halfway through, I saw the obviously disappointed expressions on these three guys, so I immediately changed my tone and wrote the following paragraph, which immediately let these three guys ride their horses to guard the commander's flag.
And me? I am wearing a full set of Lingxi armor, holding a Tianlang, still wearing a ponytail, full of vigor and ambition. Thinking back, this is how I looked when I first arrived in Hanzhong, and only this look is the Ping An Fengyun Hou that everyone should have in mind.
There was nothing serious. My mother sent a letter to me by express horse, saying that the weather had suddenly turned cold recently and she was worried about my health. She also asked a lot of questions, including how my daughter-in-law's legs were doing. Guo Pei's legs were still the same. She could move a little, but she couldn't walk. Every day when we were camping, I would massage her legs for a while. One night, I found that she could feel itchy in her legs and feet, so I tickled her soles. If we hadn't been camping, I would have made her laugh to death that night. Maybe I was too naughty, even Guo Pei was as happy as a child in the past few days.
But I may be too selfish. I have temporarily entrusted the relatives of others to the teacher. Because I think the future is uncertain, I dare not let those relatives follow us to take risks, including Wenwen and those children, I will let them stay in Lingling first; and before that, I didn't let Yi Yue leave Xiangyang at all, and entrusted her to the teacher's wife together with Kong Ming, just because they are temporarily not suitable to follow me. But my wife, now as the queen of a country, I think she must not leave, just as I can't leave. This is really unfair to Guo Pei, and she is not actually my real wife, but I have decided to let her become my real wife.
Ten days later, we arrived in Jiangxia, and winter had also arrived, but that day was sunny and the weather was mild. The smooth encounter with the troops led by Beihai, Bōcai, and Han Xian made me feel relaxed and happy, like a spring breeze.
Huangfu Song didn't know Bōcai, but he felt very strange about this man with a northeastern accent. However, it was this man who conquered the Yellow Turbans in Runan without any effort, which surprised him even more. But in any case, he should be relieved.
There were more than 14,000 people in the group, with three big leaders, namely Liu Pi, Gong Du and He Yi. Liu Pi was obviously the big leader in the middle, and seemed to have a more decisive attitude. In fact, these three seemed to have read some books, and their temperament was much different from the ordinary northern men who plowed the fields, collected firewood and collected herbs, etc., and they seemed to be promoted.
At that time, my army was completely like the Yellow Turban Army. The scene was spectacular. The 1,700-plus people I led were from the same hometown as the other side, and some were even from the same village. This process of recognizing fellow villagers took us a while, but when I saw the tearful scene, I couldn't bear to interrupt it, and I had to give the order before the team could set off.
Nan caught up a few days later, but he brought Wenwen with him. Both of them were dressed in red, and Beihai and I made fun of them.
They asked me if I wanted to wait for Yin Ling, but I didn't have to. I believed that if Yin Ling gathered enough people, she would directly enter the Nanhai County of Jiaozhou from the east and suppress the rebellion directly, because there were also rebellions there, and based on what Yin Ling usually did, she would never take a detour.
We changed boats in Jiangling and sailed south. Taking advantage of the prevailing northwest wind in winter, we arrived at Lingling County in less than five days. During these days on the water, many soldiers were seasick, and the others were not very energetic. It was not until later that they got better. There were only three of us, and we practiced very hard every day. It also aroused my temperament. On the first day, I fought one against three, and I was able to sweat a lot. Then ** tried to jump off the boat but failed, fell into the water, and was fished out. The next day, Nan and Beihai also went up, but the fight was messy; so much so that the day after that, Deng Mao, Sun Zhong, Bian Xi, and Zhao Hong also crossed the boat to join in the fun; on the fourth day, with Gao Sheng, Liu Pi, Gong Du, and He Yi joining in, everyone almost had a group fight on my boat; on the last day, with **, who had recovered from his illness, enthusiastically asking to join in, everyone was tired, and only Liu Pi, Gong Du, He Yi, Gao Sheng and the other three were still energetic, and the others just watched them fight. In addition to Han Xian who was leading the way, there was also Bō Cai who just watched us from the boat for five days without saying a word. On the evening of the last day when we were almost there, he pointed at a few people and said to me, "That one, that one, and that one who is leading the way, that one is the best."
The first one is Po Liu Han Lie Ya, the second one is Hu Sa Lie Nan Guo, the third one is **, and the last one is Po Liu Han Lie Ya.
On the way to Lingling County, we have to follow the Xiang River, which is already very high. We also have to pass through Changsha County and Guiyang County on the way, but I didn't bother them because now is not the time to reminisce about the past.
Although it is called Lingling County, its seat is not in Lingling. That city was destroyed in the battle with Wuling Man and Southwestern Yi long ago. That is why it became the place where I entertained the King of the South. But after this division, it became the rear base of the teacher, and there will definitely be great changes. But now the seat of Lingling County is still in Quanling, and on the evening of the fifth day, Quanling City appeared on our left. The setting sun sprinkled on the city walls, quiet and peaceful.
Brother Gan Ning was away for the time being because of something, so Brother Su Fei came with a group of strangers, acquaintances, and people I didn't know well to pick me up. Among the acquaintances were E Huan, Yan Rou, Xing Daorong, Ye Jian, Chen Ying, Guan Hai, Sun Yu Hai, Zhao Deli, Pan Xiang, and Wang Wei; the people I didn't know well enough were a man brought by my third uncle who was probably called Zhang Hua; and his eldest disciple, who seemed to be called Jian Feng; and Brother Chen's two sons, one was called Chen Kai and the other was called Chen Yu; Liao Hua's younger brother, the scout I chased away in the Mingzi battle, frankly I don't really know his name, but I remember his brother's name very well; and another one who looked very familiar, but I couldn't remember who he was at all. It was only when someone behind me shouted, "Brother!" that I remembered who he was. The one he called was Nalan, and the big man in front of me was Nayan. Before the enfeoffment was about to take place, he said goodbye to Liu Bei and came to find me. At that time, he knew that I had been dismissed from office, so he came directly to Jingzhou. Of course he didn't find it, but the teacher knew about it. He didn't know what happened to Nayan at Queen He's place, so he didn't dare to let him go to Luoyang. But since he was looking for me, the teacher placed him in Jingzhou first, but it was not revealed until today. It was just a pity that the brother and sister met three months later. I knocked on this sturdy man with my fist, and he smiled, and I smiled too. But I looked at E Huan, and he was also eager to talk to me, so I signaled that I would talk to him when I was free.
When meeting with acquaintances, most of these brothers were not as casual with me as before, and were much more reserved, probably because of the Yuehou crown on my head. When they were allowed to chat with each other, Su Fei had already introduced those people I didn't know to me while welcoming us into the city.
There were only one man and one woman I didn't recognize. The man was already outstanding, about sixteen or seventeen years old, more than nine feet tall, with a fair complexion, handsome eyebrows and eyes, and a certain demeanor in his every move. The woman was even more eye-catching, about twenty years old, from top to bottom, with a bun on her head, a spike as a hairpin, the rest of her hair hanging down to her shoulders, rings on her ears, a slightly dark face, rosy cheeks and white teeth. Her facial features were deep, her cheekbones were slightly protruding, and there were several silver chains and silver rings around her neck, mostly decorated with cow, sheep and flower patterns; she was wearing a hemp green, left-lapel, close-fitting dress, a short skirt, a horse-knot, and cowhide as armor on her vital parts, tied to her knees with cloth belts; the most eye-catching thing was that the woman was nearly eight feet tall, and her bare feet were nearly eight inches long.
This man appears to be a Han Chinese, but this woman must be a southern barbarian.
After asking Su Fei, he found out that the man was Hua Tuo's son, named Hua Rong. He hurriedly bowed and said, "He is the son of my benefactor, how can I not respect him so much? His father wanted his son to enter the government, so the teacher thought of me and asked him to follow me." The name of this southern barbarian girl is impressive. She was originally from Nanyue Village. The southern barbarian tribes formed a marriage alliance, so she married into the Wuling barbarian tribe. It happened that the Wuling barbarian tribe and the Southwest barbarian tribe were fighting, and her husband died before they met. She became a widow before she got married. Unexpectedly, the Wuling barbarian tribe had a broken rule that those who died on the battlefield were considered heroes and needed their wives to be buried with them. This woman came here to die. The woman naturally refused, but she was unable to defeat four hands with two fists. As soon as they fought, she was taken down by the barbarians. When she was about to be executed, the Southwest barbarian tribe attacked the Wuling barbarian tribe by chance, and rescued her, thinking she was their sister. And she naturally had nowhere to go. When a village girl got married, she had nothing to do with her natal family, and she couldn't go back. (The village people were a minority in Lingnan during the Han Dynasty, and they became the modern Li people. At that time, the social development of the village people was uneven. Some were patriarchal, some were matriarchal, and some had already lived with the Han people. The hypothetical situation here is a patriarchal clan society. Author's note) So she wandered around in the mountains. At first, she was alone, because she was very capable, and she actually gathered some barbarians whose clans were broken up, and took root in the northern foothills of Nanling. It was originally like this, but they sometimes had no food and robbed our town in Jingzhou at the foot of the mountain. Gan Ning had just arrived at that time and knew the specific situation. He didn't say anything, but he took dozens of soldiers to challenge the front of the village. Gan Xingba was great, he captured this barbarian girl, but according to Brother Xingba, he also felt that this girl had high skills, so he made an exception and kept her for the army. They also moved all the barbarians from the scattered tribes here to live with the Han people. But it is said that this person is very slow in learning Chinese, far less than Zheng's wife. Moreover, she has a strange personality. She often whips Gan Ning with a whip while laughing, and asks him some questions that he can't understand. There are no locals around, and Gan Ning doesn't understand why, so he just lets it go. He even made the wicked woman who beat him unhappy. Fortunately, the woman got tired of making trouble later, so she let it go. Otherwise, who knows what will happen now. Su Fei only said her name here: "Her name is Gong Yi Nu." Gong Yi Nu is the approximate pronunciation of her name in Chinese, and then he found the simplest character in our characters to spell her current name. Finally, she can have a name that the Han people can call, and also a name that she can write.
After entering the hall of the government office, I also met Uncle Zhang Jian, and even Mr. Xing and Mrs. Xi. That night, Su Fei hosted us for a meal. Of course, more importantly, during the meal, Su Fei gave me a list, which was handed over to me by the teacher. It seems that my idea is right. In addition to storing a lot of military food, clothing, weapons and other supplies here, the teacher intends to give me a lot of people to use. He also gave me more than 3,000 soldiers and horses, more than 1,000 of which were moved from Mingzi, more than 1,000 were southern troops, and more than 1,000 were yellow turban troops. However, the letter said: "Since they have been appointed, they will be returned to you." However, Uncle Zhang Jian is an exception. The teacher wanted to keep him, but he took the initiative to ask the teacher to work under the son of "Fan Mengbo". This made me wonder what to do, because in fact I am not, but I am not good. It is not good to suggest that he go to Qin Hou, because that is the real son of Fan Mengbo.
But all this was unimportant; even that night almost all the people coming from the north slept in tents outside the city; and it didn’t matter that there was a strong wind that night.
Just because late that night, Su Fei suddenly sent someone to report on horseback that there was a robbery in Lingling County.
When I heard the news, I immediately sat up and pondered in my tent, because I had not thought of it. But once I thought of the cause of the disaster, I immediately called everyone over and prepared to take action.
It was the tenth month of winter in the first year of Chuping. This year, there was a flood; this month, the water had receded; this day was winter!