Kong Ming had a high fever, and the joy he had just felt was gone. My sister was very anxious, and I sat silently by the couch, watching Aunt Zhong constantly applying wet towels to Kong Ming's head to cool him down.
"If the burning continues like this, even if Kong Ming is well, he will be burnt into a muddleheaded state." The elder sister was anxious and paced back and forth.
"Has the doctor come to see you?"
"The child is too weak, so the doctor didn't dare to prescribe strong medicine. All he gave was mild medicines like licorice and rhubarb that can clear away heat and reduce internal heat."
"Quack! If anything happens to Kong Ming, I will kill him." I couldn't help but get angry.
In the meeting hall, the screen was back again. I don't know whose idea it was, but the screen was completely painted black. Even though I was annoyed, I still laughed. I discussed the current situation with everyone and made the arrangements we had in mind: "Brother Yang, you go to Jiangling and exchange Ziyu back. Brother Yan, you go to Changsha to exchange Li Zhen, and take Zhou Cang, Zhou Yu, Pei Yuan... and call them together. Ziyuan, it's not that I'm cruel, but I'll trouble you to go to Wuling this time to exchange for Brother Wenzheng's wife. Wuling and Guiyang are our southwest gateways. You and Ziyue must work together to defend these two counties. I'll leave you 10,000 troops, 10,000 in Guiyang, and 5,000 in each of the other surrounding counties. Only guards will be left in the hinterland of the state to maintain law and order. The rest will all gather in Xiangyang. Xinye Yunshu Office... The troops will not move in case of changes in the north."
Seeing everyone start blinking, I knew that everyone thought I was possessed. I coughed and continued, "Chen Ou, you take all the light cavalry in Xiangyang and quickly deliver this letter to Brother Wendong in Shangyong. Let him act according to the plan in the letter." Chen Ou took the order and left. I knew that the war was coming, and I suddenly felt inexplicably excited. I continued my speech, "When the messenger we sent back arrives at Dong Zhuo in Tianshui, it may be the time of the war. Time is running out..."
"Brother Zirui, why don't you detain all of them? This may buy some time."
"Dong Zhuo is anxious because of the heavy snow and is ready to attack us, so this envoy dares to be so rude in my Jingzhou land, because he is confident. Dong Zhuo's army is stronger than ours and has more soldiers and horses than us. If we give him the troops, he will fight. If we don't give him the troops, he will also fight. He must have calculated the time and knew when he would get the news. I noticed that the envoy was very anxious. I guess if they don't go back in a few days, Dong Zhuo will send troops to attack us. He doesn't want to be a slave here. So he wants to go back early, and he will definitely send a quick person first. I rushed to Dong the thief to report the news, so as to avoid a fight between the two sides before I returned. This man is obviously the kind of person Dong Zhuo intends to give up. But it is also true that he walked around Xiangyang City, and I felt that Xiangyang's image was greatly damaged. I might as well tell him that we should fight, maybe he can't figure out our strength, and maybe he will send someone to come politely in the name of asking for someone to come and test our situation. That would be the best, otherwise, we will reach Hanzhong before them, but I just hope that Dong Zhuo has not occupied it long ago."
"What's your plan?" Zitong was still a little skeptical. However, my plan cannot be revealed now.
"Wait until soldiers from all over the country arrive."
"Is Kong Ming's fever still not gone?"
"It subsided in the afternoon, I drank porridge, and the fever came back in the evening."
"Sir, Ding Yuan's envoy has arrived with gifts." Early the next morning, another lord from Liangzhou came again, but this one was very polite and looked much more approachable than the one from yesterday.
"Your Excellency, I wonder why you are here?"
"My Lord Governor, here is my master's personal letter to you, plus five carts of various rare treasures from all over the Western Regions. This is the gift list. ... I wonder if Lord Xie Zhi, the Marquis of Ping An Fengyun, is here?"
"I am!"
"Ah, sir, please forgive me for my ignorance."
"It's okay. Since the teacher is out, I will take over his position temporarily."
"Here is the letter from my young master to you, as well as the armor he gave to the Marquis." Then, another envoy held up a black leather jacket with both hands.
I took the letter and saw a few rough words written on the light red cloth: From Lu Bu, the Earl of Wuwei, Dingxi.
"Your Excellency, there is a piece of ornament on your young master's left ear..." I couldn't think of how to describe the ornament for a moment. But I felt that I knew that Lu Bu was him.
"Yes, sir. That is the black iron ring. My young master is the lord's adopted son. He told us that he had met the marquis once in Luoyang. This time when we came, he asked us to bring this armor to the marquis." This envoy was really smart and answered all my questions at once.
I took out the letter from the bag and read it. The letter was very brief: "Thank you, Lord Ping'an Fengyun Hou: It has been a month since we parted in Luoyang. I wonder if your martial arts have improved. I would like to give you a set of Lingxi Black Iron Armor. This item is made of a whole rhinoceros skin, and the vital parts are reinforced with black iron. Ordinary swords and arrows cannot hurt it. I heard that it is raining in Jingxiang, so please take care. Words are written on it."
I ordered my men to entertain the envoy well and quickly ordered people to gather everyone together, because I thought I knew why Ding Yuan came.
"Have you opened the teacher's letter?" Zi Tong asked.
"No." I didn't dare to open the teacher's letter casually. "Sister, what do you think of this letter?" When Zisheng and Zishe were not around, my sister became the number one military advisor in Xiangyang.
My sister put the letter down and said, "No need to open the teacher's letter. It must be full of clichés. This letter is the real topic!"
"Yes, everyone, come and see." To be honest, I was not confident at first, because I felt that Lu Bu was not a wise man when I was with him, and I felt that it was unlikely that he would report the news to me like this, so I wanted to ask my sister for her opinion, but when I saw my sister, I suddenly remembered that Ding Yuan would always have capable people to assist him, and they could teach him face to face, and Lu Bu could write it by hand. So, I had an idea. "Zitong, when you lead the envoys here, did they know that Dong Zhuo had sent an envoy first?"
"You asked the people to 'reward' him. The whole Xiangyang was cheering, and the streets were talking about who hit that guy with what. Along the way, even a fool would understand what was going on. But they seemed to have discussed something and were completely indifferent to the noise in the streets." The envoy was certainly not a fool, and I laughed.
"Ding Yuan's letter is just an official statement, and Lu Bu's letter to me is the real topic." I showed everyone the letter, "Ding Yuan's behavior is nothing more than saying that he will not help Dong Zhuo. In fact, he just wants to watch us fight. Lu Bu said in the letter that he would give me Lingxi armor. Lingxi is a spiritual beast that can be found by the Dongting Lake in Jingzhou. Why do we need him to give it to us? Dear students, please pay attention. The problem lies in Lingxi. Lingxi is a spiritual beast that can read people's thoughts. When hunting, we can only surround it in groups and kill it with one blow. This is meant to remind us that the gift he gave me is armor, which means that I should be on guard. And we have rain here, and rain is water from the sky. Ding Yuan already knows that Dong Zhuo wants to fight us, but don't think he is kind, sister, right."
Sister: "He also knows that Dong is stronger than us. He is afraid that we will be vulnerable and not be prepared. If he lets Dong succeed, we will not be defeated and will be greatly strengthened. This is called the strategy of driving an ox to fight a tiger."
"This matter..." I always feel that I can't let Ding Yuan be happy behind the scenes, how can I drag him into this
Suddenly a messenger came in, but he was not looking for me. He whispered something to my sister. I saw my sister went out with a happy look on her face. I thought, could it be that Kong Ming's illness has improved
After a while, my sister came back and handed me a piece of silk. I quickly unfolded it and saw several similar pictures. It seemed to be a story. There were two birds perched on a tree, each with a nest. Then, one bird was about to leave, and the other bird was about to attack the eggs in its nest. Then, the two big birds fought, and then one of the birds took its eggs away.
"I understand." But I immediately turned to my sister and asked, "Who gave you this? Where are the others?"
"My teacher's boy, just leave it to me."
"After this battle, I will go to his house to thank him for his kindness. My plan had many flaws, but now, we are almost safe." I was very excited, and I understood what he meant. "Quickly call all the guards who will be guarding the next shift of Dong Zhuo's envoys. Zixiang, you should quickly find some people with loud voices and smart work. We want to let the two birds of Liangzhou fight. Tonight we will entertain Ding Yuan's people with great fanfare, and tomorrow morning we will kill Dong Zhuo's people with great fanfare." Others were still confused, but my sister was already laughing.
People were quickly called together, and I told them one by one that they needed to do this and that, and so on, and so on. There was no end to the story.
"Kong Ming is alright?"
"The fever has subsided again. He has just finished dinner and gone to bed. Do you want to go see him?"
"No, Uncle Zhong, let him sleep well. We'll leave first. I'll trouble you and Auntie to take care of Kong Ming."
We set up a show in the official post to invite the Liangzhou envoys. I acted very enthusiastic, happy, and even felt disgusting. My classmates also talked about relatives with this one and that one, just like meeting an old friend, and never mentioned Dong Zhuo. I could feel the strangeness on their faces. My sister came close to me, her lips did not move, her eyes looked at the table and hummed something. This trick we often do when talking about others on the street: "Hey, you can see that they seem to be very anxious and are still pretending to laugh."
"Of course," I also said vaguely with my mouth turned away, "How can they not be anxious? The whole Xiangyang is rumored that they want to join us to fight Dong Zhuo. I will kill Dong Zhuo's people as a sacrifice tomorrow, and let the others go. Dong Zhuo will definitely get the news, and they really came. He can't deny it even if he wants to... Ah, let me offer you another drink." Seeing that the envoy was looking at me, I stopped talking in order to prevent him from suspecting more.
The banquet lasted until late at night in this atmosphere.
The envoy who was arrogant at first finally behaved himself. When I pretended to be drunk and was supported by two tall servants to see him, he was sleeping with a horse. He was filthy and sleeping in horse manure. When he saw me, he knelt down hurriedly and said, "My Lord, please forgive me?" Now, he knew that I was the Lord.
"Yeah, it stinks, it's okay... you don't have to stay here tomorrow."
"Thank you, my Lord."
“No need to thank me. I’ll clean him up tomorrow… kill him… uh… use him as a sacrifice to beat that bastard Dong Zhuo.” I felt that I was really good at pretending to be drunk. I’m afraid that anyone who sees me will think that I look like a drunk.
"Please spare my life." The joy just now was immediately replaced by greater terror. The guy kept kowtowed in the pile of horse manure. But I just waved my sleeves, left behind a smell of alcohol and turned away.
"Fortunately, it seems to be getting better. It didn't have a fever all night."
"… "
When the sun was high in the sky, I went to the post station to see off Ding Yuan's men: "Please forgive me, we are going to start a war with the Tianshui Dong bandits soon. In order to ensure everyone's safe return to their hometown, we will send you through Xinye Wancheng, and you can go back to Liangzhou via Luoyang and Chang'an?" I acted very sincere and bowed deeply.
This was not a big deal. The envoys all knelt down, and the leader hurriedly said, "How can we accept such a great gift from the Marquis? However, there is one thing we are not sure whether we should ask the Marquis."
Oh, now I have something important to say. But I still tried to act as if nothing had happened: "Your Excellency, please feel free to speak."
"My master is on good terms with Dong Zhuo and they are from the same state." I don't know who would believe this nonsense, but I continued to listen expressionlessly. "We were preparing to leave this morning, but suddenly heard that someone from Dong Zhuo was going to be executed at noon. I secretly thought that this was absolutely impossible."
"Why?" I frowned. "He is a traitor and speaks outrageously in the court. Why not kill this messenger?"
"Even when two countries are at war, they don't kill envoys. Besides, we are all fighting for the Han Dynasty. Killing the envoys would be like provoking war. The emperor would also blame us."
"But that thief Dong bullied me too much. How can I get over this anger?" I said angrily like a child.
"My Lord, please calm down. We beg you to spare the envoy's life. We are willing to go to Dong Zhuo as his guest to avoid a war for Jingzhou." My expression softened a little, but I felt the timing was not right, and my face suddenly turned cold again.
"My dear ministers, please stop talking nonsense. I have made up my mind. I will kill the envoy and fight the thief Dong to the death."
"My Lord!" This leading envoy was truly a man of talent. His emotions were so sincere, as if he was the one being killed. "If my Lord insists on doing what he wants and doesn't care about the people of the world, I shall be executed as well."
"This..." I hesitated for a long time. In fact, I was thinking about how to waste this time while having an ideological struggle.
"Well, for your sake... I can spare his death sentence, but I can't escape his punishment. Someone, give that ignorant person a hundred military sticks."
"Thank you, sir." Seeing their happy faces, I was also happy, but unfortunately I couldn't show it. I could only stomp my feet in anger and left without seeing them off.
"Oh no, Kong Ming is starting to have malaria." The joy in his heart was instantly extinguished by the bad news.