"Something's wrong this time!" Ziyuan was the first to arrive that morning. He was in charge of the grain supply in Jingzhou. He shouted at me as soon as he arrived. After being woken up by the cold, I lit a fire in the stove in the hall and was reviewing the bamboo slips that I would never finish. I was a little confused when Ziyuan said this.
"What's wrong, Fatty? What happened?" I asked with a smile to the worried person in front of me who was staggering with snow on his body, "Isn't it just snowing? ... Ah!"
I suddenly realized something, "Oh no, new seedlings in the fields!"
"It's snowing, this is bad!" Just like that, one by one, this morning, mixed with this voice or similar words, they all rushed in. Just after the hour of Yin, everyone except my sister arrived.
"I wonder how serious the disaster is?" I frowned. "Send people to various places in Jingzhou to check. Ask the counties to report the losses." I looked at my original position unconsciously, but I only saw Ziyuan's fat body. My sister didn't show up this morning. Many of my classmates caught a cold. I wonder how my sister is doing. My sister's health is not as good as mine. Is she sick? My heart began to tremble.
However, we still had to do it, and we discussed it for a while, but thought that this would not affect us very much. After the snow, we would re-sow crops, and the autumn would be slightly affected, so the loss would not be very big. I thought we were too surprised, so I told everyone who caught a cold to go back and rest, and the others to disperse.
My sister arrived at the hour of Mao, and I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, because I saw that my sister looked fine and didn't seem to be sick. However, my sister brought me a piece of news that also made me sad: Kong Ming was ill.
"where are you going?"
"Go back and see Kong Ming!"
"I'll send Kong Ming to Zisheng's house and ask them to help take care of him first. You have more important things to do, so you can go back in the evening."
"It's nothing, I'll just be gone for a while."
"Is anything wrong?" My sister looked at me. "Are you confused because of the fever?" Then she used her hand to test the temperature of my head.
"I'm normal."
"Do you know the consequences of this heavy snow?" my sister asked with her eyes wide open.
"I know. A poor harvest is inevitable. We also need to prepare seeds for after the snow. What else?"
My sister propped her head up with her hands and shook her head, "Sit down, why are you standing so high?"
I sat down as I was told.
"It's been hot lately, and something strange has happened, so I've been paying attention to the newspapers in various places, just these few days... Have you read the newspapers as well?"
"It's snowing in the north? What's going on?"
"I also asked merchants from the north, including that one." I nodded to indicate that I knew which one my sister was referring to. "Before the heavy snow, it was suddenly very hot for a while, and the result was the same. Do you understand what this means?" I shook my head.
"Spring comes late in the north, so it is not the time to sow seeds yet. Therefore, heavy snow will not hinder farming in the north. But... The situation is different for the towns that are mainly engaged in animal husbandry. They have also caught up with the abundant rain in various places this spring, because grass seeds will sprout when they encounter humidity and heat, but they will die when they encounter such heavy snow. After the snow, there will be no grass seeds that sprout again. Who will suffer the most from each town? Gongsun Zan in Youzhou in the northeast, and Ding Yuan and Dong Zhuo in Liangzhou in the northwest. Therefore, the world will definitely be in chaos this year. The teacher will definitely rush back as soon as he finds out about this. I think he already knows the seriousness of the situation. Gongsun Zan is still far away from us. There is Lu Zhi, He Jin and Huangfu in Luoyang among them, so they are not a concern. Ding Yuan lives in the northwest of Liangzhou. Dong Zhuo is in front of him, so it is not convenient for him to go south. There is only one Dong Zhuo. If anyone provokes a fight, it must be this person. Once a war breaks out, with the current situation in the world, He Jin would like all the princes to fight each other, and he will not care about all the disputes between us and Dong Zhuo. Others are more willing to watch the fun, and they may come over.”
"That's right. Once the fight starts, only one of us can survive, Dong Zhuo or us."
"Or they will all die," added the sister.
"How does our army compare to Dong Zhuo's army?" I already felt that a war was inevitable.
"No." The elder sister shook her head. "Our terrain is open and flat. Xiliang has mostly cavalry, and we have mostly infantry. If we defend the city, all the farmland outside the city will be handed over to Dong Zhuo. If any city is in trouble, we won't even be able to rescue each other."
"Then we... But given Dong Zhuo's character, he will definitely come and attack us." I felt the seriousness of the situation, and I stood up to look at the screen behind me. There was nothing on the dark red screen, so I picked up a pen and started drawing on it. I must admit that my drawing skills are terrible, but fortunately there are people who know what they are doing.
"Map of the world?" my sister asked. I nodded, and then I sat down in front of my map and thought about things.
"It's... a really bad painting. If I had known you would do this, I would have given it to you earlier. You wouldn't have to waste this screen."
My sister asked someone to take the screen down, and then she came back and sat down with me, who was very embarrassed, to look at the picture.
"Sister, how did you get this picture?" I didn't know how to start for a moment, so in order to avoid embarrassment, I started with this question.
"My teacher gave it to me. Oh, not your teacher."
"You have a teacher too? How come I've never seen one before?"
"Because at first you were still playing outside all the time, and then you grew up and went to school. Whether you had classes or not, you would only go home when the evening drum sounded." She smiled at this point, and I thought she had not forgotten that incident. "And he never stayed at our house, so of course you had never seen him."
"Who is he?" I was very curious. I finally knew why my sister was so powerful. It turned out that there was a master who was teaching her behind the scenes.
"You don't know him? Even Zhou Cang and his sister know him. I thought you thought it was him."
"Oh, I remember now. Brother Zhou Cang and his sister had a man who taught them to read. His name was... Mr. Shuijing. Yes, Mr. Shuijing. It was him, right? I even pretended to be his student." Seeing my sister nod her head, "I must meet him. In the future, let Kong Ming and he study with the teacher. Ah, Kong Ming is still sick?" I suddenly thought of Kong Ming, and my heart ached.
"Now we must think of a good solution, otherwise, we, including Kong Ming, will be in danger." I understood that my sister was right, so I calmed down, sat down and looked at the picture carefully.
Although the road from Shangyong to the southeast is not completely flat, it is impossible to stop hundreds of thousands of cavalry from the other side. We will not hide behind the 100,000 or 80,000 mountains. Remember that the southern barbarians have attacked us before. If we hide in their territory, who knows what will happen. And we can't leave Jingzhou to be ravaged by Dong Zhuo.
Shangyong City is too big and has insufficient food and grass. If we go to rescue it in case of danger, we may be easily ambushed. If we are charged by tens of thousands of cavalry, it will be difficult for us to survive.
"Well," I circled a place on the map, "Here, I'm going to set a trap for Dong Zhuo here."
"You..." My sister was stunned and said nothing. This plan was really too incredible and probably the most risky one.
"Sir, Lord Dong Zhuo, Duke of Liangzhou and Duke of Tianshui, has sent an envoy to visit!" My sister and I looked at each other, and my sister retreated to the back hall. I sat upright and waited for the envoy to arrive.
This was a middle-aged man of medium build and medium fatness, whose appearance was somewhere between extremely ugly and extremely disgusting. His voice was extremely arrogant and he clearly looked fearless.
"Who is Lord Wei Dingguo, the governor of Jingzhou? Ask him to come out and see me." I was thinking to myself, you are finished this time, I would not be named Xie if I don't beat you half to death.
I happily let the middle man sit down.
"I am now acting as the governor of the state. If you have any requests, just tell me." I smiled and thought about how to deal with him.
"I won't go with you. Let Lord Wei Dingguo come."
"Then you can stay here first. The teacher won't be back for half a month. Someone, please ask the guest to leave."
"Hey, what do you mean? Then I'll take it with you." The Japanese soldier handed over a letter.
I took a quick look and saw that Dong Zhuo wanted something. I had already made up my mind to fight him, so I might as well do it to my heart's content this time.
"Yinling, come and take a look." It was the first time I realized that my sister's name was really nice. I leaned close to her ear and said, "Look, you have a big appetite, right?"
"Why do you have female officials here? No wonder you are so weak." The messenger must not have understood the situation. He didn't even see the clues and was still speaking coldly. My sister knew what I was thinking when she saw my smile, and she smiled along.
"Okay! Someone, take this gentleman to the warehouse. Let him receive it personally."
I turned to my sister and said, "Let's go and watch the fun!" My sister showed great interest and was very happy to do so. I even asked my brother to call all the brothers along.
"Five thousand shi of grain and three thousand pieces of cloth, please take a look, Your Excellency." I had the happiest smile on my face.
"Yes, yes, it's rare that you are so straightforward. It would be fine for me to go to Mr. Dong's place." Almost all of my classmates knew what I wanted to do, and they were all looking forward to watching the fun.
"It would be bad if they got lost on the way." I pretended to be worried, and my sister took the opportunity to say, "Yeah, it would be hard for you to report it."
"You must protect me, otherwise, if you destroy the friendship between Liangzhou and Jingzhou, you will be punished." Humph, friendship, how can the lives of so many people in Nanyang and Jingzhou be counted? For the first time, murderous intent appeared on my face.
"Okay, come on, tie up this whole house with ropes!"
"Hey, what do you mean?" The guy finally felt something was wrong.
"Come here, watch this warehouse day and night, and don't let anyone steal the things we sent to Duke Liangzhou. Ah, noble envoy, please take them away by yourself. To show our sincerity, this big house and the other supplies inside will be sent to Lord Dong. Come here, leave this warehouse to your noble envoy." Everyone understood what I meant, and happily tied this guy who started to howl like a ghost to the warehouse door.
"What about the followers?" someone asked.
"Send one person back to tell them that the things are on the way, and the others will help carry them. Oh, give them some more horses to help pull the things, and fan the envoys if they are hot, and give them food if they are hungry, and let the people come to comfort them."
Finally, I added to the desperate middleman: "When you get to Tianshui, don't forget to ask me to give Master Dong a hello. I am Xie Zhi, the Marquis of Ping An Fengyun."