The winter mornings in Zigui still start to brighten up in the valley, just like the river valley from Chencang to Hanzhong. There are no wood chips in the river, but there are still some scattered on the river bank. In the dimness, the whole Zigui has risen. People inside and outside the city are silently packing up and setting off, and the layers of mist blowing from the water surface make Qu Ping's hometown even more desolate. From the county government, you can hear the commotion inside and outside the city, and the disturbed people seem to want to dispel this faint resentment with action.
Soon, when Chen Ou's army came over the river, they also brought the first ray of sunshine to Zigui. The rising sun left a bright streak on the river bank, stretching from the first berth in the east to the city wall in the west, but soon it hid behind the mountains on the south bank, leaving only the heavy back of the mountains to Zigui.
The expression of the future Zigui prefect suggested that their guess was the same as ours. He and I discussed building a city wall on the slope behind the shore, and he did not comment, but just knew it.
This made me start to worry. Maybe Dong Zhuo deliberately left us with such a big handle, and he actually wanted to come down from the river after all.
In war, there is no fixed pattern, and the opponent cannot be allowed to guess the next move. No matter what Dong Zhuo and his strategists thought. Anyway, I can't guess what his move means now. If everyone can figure it out, then Dong Zhuo's move is too stupid.
While the masses of the people were walking on the plank roads, most of the soldiers of Yizhou were taking the water route. We were going to set out a little later.
In the last one or two hours in Zigui, I felt a little lost. I hadn’t really looked around here for two days, and I wanted to leave some memories for myself.
Finally, I went to Qu Ping Temple, a dark brick and black tile temple that stood alone by the river, southeast and northwest. Qu Ping was loyal to the State of Chu all his life, so after his death, the local villagers built a temple for him facing the land of Chu. Although it was very noisy outside recently, the temple was still very clean, but there was not much incense. I had no place to find the sacrificial objects, so I could only pay tribute to him in vain.
"The road ahead is long and arduous, I will search for it up and down." I couldn't help but recite the sentence from "Li Sao". He didn't understand it at the time, but how many people understand it now? Only the road ahead is still long, and future generations will continue to search for it.
I stayed in front of Qu Yuan for a long moment, just looking at his clay statue. He was very thin.
When my sister found me, I was still looking at the skinny guy. To be honest, I respected him, but I didn't like him. Maybe this idea was instilled in me by the teacher, but I can't remember the teacher's reason. I have never been a student who listens carefully, or to be specific, a student with a poor memory.
"We are leaving in half an hour. Do you want to go to that house?" My sister interrupted me while I was thinking about the reasons why I didn't like Qu Ping and put forward an idea that I had rejected long ago.
"Sister? Oh, I won't go."
"So you're not going to say goodbye to your father-in-law?"
"Oh, yes!" I suddenly remembered that I should go see the old lady and say goodbye to her, but when I thought about going to her house, her beautiful figure kept coming to my mind, and I felt something was wrong: "Sister, did you know?"
Sister head, no extra words: "Go."
When I was leaving, my sister called out from behind me: "Stand up straight! You are so young, but you always act like an old man. I am getting married, so you have to be careful in the future. You can't be like this as the Marquis of Ping An Feng Yun of the Han Dynasty."
"Got it. Sister, go and have a rest first. I'll be back soon." I straightened my back. I didn't turn my head and smile embarrassedly like usual, because I wasn't in the mood to smile today.
When I arrived at the door of the old man surnamed Chu, I remembered that they still had to make arrangements for their family. They couldn't always live in someone else's home like this.
I had just dismounted from my horse when Huang Tian pushed the door open to greet me, which made me feel a little strange.
"You seem to have been waiting for me at the door?"
"I saw many people leaving this morning, and there were some disturbances outside the city, so I asked you to come over." Huang Tian bowed to me respectfully.
"No, how is your father now?"
"I'm in good spirits this morning."
I saw Huang Yi feeding porridge to my "father-in-law" beside his bed. Huang Yi glanced at me, without turning her head, but continued to feed her father. But the old man noticed me first.
He wanted to say something but nothing came out. Instead, he coughed violently, his voice was cracked, which made us all panic. If I had known this, it would have been much better if I had come later.
As soon as he calmed down a little, a kind smile appeared on his face. He stopped eating the porridge and just looked at me, trying to say something to me in repetitive and indistinguishable sounds. The difference from the night before was that this time it was Huang Yi who explained to me, and Huang Tian only corrected her occasionally.
"Remember to come back and bring Xin'er with you later." I didn't know where to find another Xin'er. But at this moment, I could only smile.
"Definitely...definitely." The first one was a warm reply, the second one was a helpless self-mockery.
Huang Yi was still feeding her father porridge, wiping the juice that leaked from his father's mouth from time to time.
Before leaving, I decided to express my gratitude to the owner of the mansion as the son-in-law of an elderly man who had been taken in.
The old man lived in the back hall of this place. When I arrived behind him, he was muttering something to a clay statue of some unknown god in the niche in front of him.
I wanted to wait for him to finish, but he kept on talking and I didn't know what he was going to say. To be honest, I was a little anxious, so I just came out to greet him.
"General, what do you want from an old man like me?"
"Thank you for taking them in. I will have someone pick them up and settle them down. I'm sorry for the trouble they've caused during this period. Thank you very much."
"No need, the Buddha is merciful, just let these people stay, there is no distinction between you and me, there is no you and me. The Buddha said: It can eliminate all suffering, it is true and not false." I didn't talk much to him the last few times, but this time when he said this, I found that he was very knowledgeable - at least I don't know what he is talking about. But I am sure it has something to do with the clay thing in the shrine that I don't recognize.
I roughly knew what he meant, which was that there was no need to be polite, but you still had to be polite and some things had to be done. I made up my mind at the moment and bowed deeply. Before I turned around, I noticed that he had a bunch of peach pits or something similar in his hand. He pinched them one by one, looking at me, but still muttering something.
A strange man, I wonder if he believes in some new way. Maybe it's the Way of the Heavenly Wolf. As he walked, he thought about it in his mind, but the person who appeared in front of him immediately washed away all his thoughts.
"Zirui... This is the scripture I copied for Uncle Chu yesterday. I feel its meaning is profound when I read it. Some parts are exactly what I have never figured out before. It makes me feel as if everything has suddenly become clear. So I copied another copy and will give it to you and Xin'er." She spoke to me calmly, but there was a sadness in her eyes.
"Do you live in Zigui?"
"Father's body cannot stand the fatigue of the journey, so please stay here for now."
When I left, I patted Huang Tian's head, and he also called me brother-in-law in a friendly way. In this way, I didn't know when Huang Xin and I got married. Although she could only be an illusory wife who might exist in dreams, I knew that she must be a good wife. Thinking of this, I felt that I was not so miserable, and I felt a sense of enlightenment.
On the way back, I opened the piece of silk she gave me with some scripture written on it and took a look at it. I let the horse take me to my sister on the shore. It wouldn't go there anyway, and I knew I wouldn't get lost.
But unlike the Daodejing she copied for Zuo Ci before, this time she didn't break the sentences. This reminded me of the Hundred Words Whirlwind Array she wrote, but since she copied the sutra, there shouldn't be so many twists and turns.
"Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva practices profound Prajnaparamita" I only read a dozen words and wondered what this was, especially what Bodhisattva and Prajnaparamita meant. The following was somewhat understandable: "For a long time, I saw that the five aggregates were empty, and I was able to overcome all sufferings. The relics and the children were the same color..." What was this? I just had some idea, but I was confused again.
(Around 100 AD, Buddhism was introduced to China. The Heart Sutra was translated by Master Xuanzang of the Tang Dynasty. However, since I cannot obtain the oral Sanskrit version of the Heart Sutra circulated during the Han Dynasty, and cannot translate it even if I obtain it, the Chinese version of this sutra was published 500 years later. Author's note.)
“What are you looking at? Another girl’s poem… Why are you looking at me like that?” My sister pulled my horse back. I felt like this scene looked familiar.
"I feel like it's a little bit like the past. Oh, I remember it now. That was when I was leaving home to go to the north to meet Generals Huangfu and Zhu Jun. That day, my sister pulled my horse like this, and I told her that I was going out. But this time, although my sister still pulled my horse like this, she was going back."
My sister didn't answer anything else, but just stretched out her hand to indicate that she wanted to see.
"I don't understand what scripture she is reading. Maybe I am not well-informed. I don't know."
My sister took it and took a look at it. "Isn't this the Heart Sutra of Prajnaparamita?"
"You know?"
"What's wrong? Are you surprised?"
"Then why have you never told me these things?"
"You have your teacher to teach you. And I just read this, and I think some of the words in it are still very reasonable. But I don't believe in it. Since I don't believe in it, why should I teach others? Don't you think that what I teach you is what I think is good?" My sister is very reasonable, but my sister knows too many things. I originally thought that I would surpass my sister in a few years of following the teacher, but I always find that my sister knows this and that. Mr. Shuijing can't have taught my sister for a long time, because I haven't met him once in all these years. If he can teach my sister so well, then he is really a strange person I have never seen in my life. But why did he choose my sister
"Sister, how could Mr. Shuijing teach you? You were with me all the time."
"He taught your sister when you were still young." I couldn't remember the past, so I couldn't find an excuse. "At that time, I didn't understand why he chose a girl like me to teach."
"Then why don't you teach me everything you know?"
"Didn't I teach you? You learned to read and study before going to school. Wasn't it too early to teach you some things then? But when you grow up, I still have to send you to school, because you can't always study at home with your sister. You have to grow up like other boys, do things that boys do, and act like a boy. At that time, I didn't even object to you playing with gangsters like Zishe. Don't you think it through now?"
"Was he so bad when he was Zishe?" I was a little surprised and a little amused, although I also knew that Zishe was not a good person, even now.
"It would be fine if he was just a villain. Later, I often heard that he was followed by a big helper. Although he was stupid, he was very strong."
"I?"
"Yes!" My sister is so mean. She actually found something I couldn't remember to teach me a lesson. I couldn't refute her, especially when my sister sighed.
“I don’t understand this either. What’s this about Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva practicing deep Prajnaparamita and seeing that the five aggregates are empty, and that all sufferings are overcome, and that relics and children’s colors are the same… What is all this?” I leaned over, pointed my finger at the silk, and complained to my sister.
"Wrong, the punctuation is like this: When Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva practiced deep Prajnaparamita, he saw that the 'five aggregates' were empty and he was able to overcome all suffering. Sariputra's color was no different... How can you understand it if you can't even punctuate it properly?"
"Look at this, what is this Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra... What does this Prajnaparamita mean?"
“Wisdom, clearly, is the greatness of wisdom that is selfless and boundless.”
"Yeah." I nodded repeatedly.
"You understand?"
"No, I think you and Uncle Chu speak in a very similar way."
"Then he must have believed in this way and studied Buddhism. This is a common term in Buddhism. This way originated in Sindhu and was introduced to China around the Yongyuan period. This is the general outline of the Prajnaparamita school, so it is widely circulated. However, it was originally written in the language of Sindhu. I don't know when a master translated it and made the sentences clearer. I read it before and although I occasionally thought about it, I still didn't like it."
"Oh, sister, you are awesome."
"Take a good look at it. It just so happens that you are in need of Prajnaparamita." We seemed to have returned to Xiangyang a year ago, happily bickering. Although I often lost miserably, it was mostly because of my stuttering, so I kept fighting. As time went by, I no longer stutter, but I can no longer bicker and chat with my sister so happily.
I asked Chen Ou to help me take care of that family. After all, we were brothers, so he agreed readily. Of course, because we were brothers, he asked me about the relationship between Huang Yi and me without hesitation or taboo.
It was almost noon when we finally set off. My sister decided to ride a horse because she felt so shaken on the way here that her bones were all broken.
Since my sister was by my side, I tried my best to pretend that nothing happened. So, I only looked back a few times, and I used the excuse of looking at the carriage team behind me. Although I could no longer see the person or the house, I could still feel a little relieved just by looking at the city.
The last time I saw Zigui was at that pass, and I said goodbye softly in my heart: "Yier, I'm leaving. I will take good care of Xiner."
This feeling burns on the lake and is buried in the mountains and forests.
On this return trip, we let the people of Yizhou go first, and we stayed behind to keep them safe, so that they wouldn't get into trouble if they heard anything. However, the people were not as fast as the soldiers, and it took two hours for them to get on the plank road, and some of them left on the boat. Originally, they asked for our opinion on whether to board the boat, but my sister was a little seasick, so we all rejected this proposal, including Chen Ou who made this suggestion.
However, the march on this plank road was very slow because the people in front of us were marching very slowly, which made our march also very slow.
My sister was in the front, and I guess she wanted me to be alone for a while. But because the team in front was stagnant, she came back to my side and looked at my expression.
I felt embarrassed by my sister's gaze and laughed. My sister stretched out her right hand, and my left hand naturally went up. As soon as I held her hand, I suddenly felt much more at ease.
"Zi Rui is already 18 years old, and his hands are so big!" My sister was very interested in comparing her hands with mine, and then looked at my riding boots, "Big hands and big feet." Not only was she looking at it, I was also looking at it and felt that my hands looked very huge.
"When we used to wash our feet in the same basin, I once asked you, Zirui, who is whiter, you or my sister?"
"What did I do then?" I asked anxiously. I had a feeling that this would be another topic that my sister would laugh at, and this time my sister would use her usual tricks.
"You were so shameless calling me."
"What about the reality?" I looked at the slender hand like mutton fat in my hand, and compared it with my own hand. I didn't notice it before, but now I realize that I am indeed very dark. Even I feel ashamed of what I said at that time.
"It seems like it's really you." My sister seemed unsure, "Is that right?"
"No way?" I looked at my hand, then at my sister's. "No way, I'm already so dark."
"That's true. It's as if you don't belong to the same person below your ankles. But after that incident, I thought that if I didn't let you go out and stay at home all the time, it would be strange if you weren't as white as Bai. It was after that incident that I asked you to go out and find someone of your similar age to play with, but I didn't expect that the first person you met was that villain." Zishe estimated that by now he had been sneezing so hard that he needed to see a doctor.
"Sister, how come you are so sensible?"
"It's different when you're five years older, do you understand?" My sister suddenly acted like a senior again.
"Alright, alright. Stop arguing about your ages." Unexpectedly, Zi Shi suddenly interrupted from behind.
"You bitch, have you been eavesdropping from behind?"
"You think I want to? I can't help it. The team is moving so slowly and the wheels are making so much noise. I'd be surprised if I can't hear you."
"Forget it, Zishi, let everyone take a rest on the roadside for now. It will be more tiring if we walk like this. Tell Captain Sun in front to lead a hundred soldiers to follow the civilians to reassure them. The others can take a rest first, for an hour." My sister gave the order.
My sister, Zishi, Zhou Yu and I got off our horses and went to a flat spot beside the plank road to spread out our felt blankets and rest.
I remember that the night before, I slept with my feet touching each other, and we had a very happy conversation, but we couldn't stand the smell of each other's feet. In the end, we went to wash our feet together. At that time, Zishi laughed at me and said that the color of my feet was too white, which was very different from the color of the rest of my body. In fact, he didn't know that I always felt something was a bit strange. I remember that when I wore hemp shoes barefoot in the summer, my feet were rubbed by hemp and had cracks everywhere. My sister felt sorry for me and had to let me wear soft cloth shoes all year round. She was also very surprised that the skin on my feet was so tender.
It was noon, and most of the soldiers were resting. There was no wind in the forest, and the sun was shining brightly. It was a rare warm winter day, perfect for a nap. My eyelids quickly gave up twitching back and forth and closed directly.
In the silence, I heard the sound of gurgling water.
I asked my sister for leave because I had left something in Zigui, so she asked me to go back and look for it. I rushed back to Zigui, but found that it was an empty city and I couldn't find anyone. I looked for people along the water and in the city, but there was no one anywhere. Time was running out, but I couldn't find the person I wanted to see. I was so anxious that I almost went crazy.
I was woken up by my sister. I was still anxiously looking for her everywhere at that time. When I woke up, I realized that it was just a dream. Zishi and everyone else kept their distance from me. It was Zishi's deliberate instruction. Zishi also threatened that I might hurt someone when I woke up, but people thought I might bite someone, so many people stayed away from me.
I didn't have the energy to argue with them about this, and on the way down, I barely said anything. I just felt angry at the dead branches and rotten leaves, ugly rocks and mosses nearby, and I almost ordered the mountain to be set on fire.
My sister kept me quiet all the way, and it was only when we were about to leave the plank road that she came over and grabbed my hand. To be honest, when I was touched, I almost waved my arm to hit this person who was annoying me, but as soon as my hand was grabbed, the irritation in my heart was quickly dispelled by this warm gesture. I was finally able to smile, and when I left the plank road, my heart finally calmed down, and I told myself again: everything is over.
In Chen Liang's camp, I wanted to find something to do to relieve the depressed mood in my heart, so I listened carefully to the various temporary residences and resettlement plans that Brother Chen had decided on for the people of Yizhou.
After the people of Yizhou left Zigui, they could not help themselves. Our reasons were very legitimate: the flood in Jingzhou had not yet subsided, so they could not live in the water; the people of Jingzhou also had to live, so they could not live in the fields of the common people. Therefore, the first step was to separate the army, civilians, and officials of Jingzhou into a list. Officials were also divided into different levels, and we were short of clerks and chief clerks in various places. Therefore, these types of people among the officials were divided out, and in addition to their families, there were also different numbers of people, because when they were appointed as officials, some land was also allocated to them, and these lands were left to these officials to rent to these new foreign tenants. The restrictions on officials were that land could not be bought and sold, and they could not harm these tenants without reason. But the benefit was that in addition to the salary we paid, all the taxes on his share of land were collected by him at his own rate, and he only had to hand over a quarter of the tax on these lands to us, and we didn't care how much he collected in the rest. We also added a clause: if they reclaimed new wasteland, they only had to pay one eighth of it, and the rest would belong to them. In the second step, more than half of the people in Yizhou were assigned to Hanzhong and Tianshui, where there was a shortage of labor and reconstruction was underway. The rest were in the north of Xiangyang, near Nanyang, and were tenants on the fiefs of the newly arrived Marquis of Jiange and some gentry with some status.
Finally, and most importantly, the Yizhou army was incorporated by us, and most of the officers were retained. A main force of 5,000 people, led by Liu Gui, Wu Lan, and Wu Ban, was stationed in Huangpi, east of Xiangyang. That place should also be a very important place, which shows our trust. But in fact, it is an awkward place at the junction of Yuzhou and Yangzhou, with eunuchs on one side and He Jin on the other. Whoever comes out from either side must consider the opinions of both parties. Once the other side suddenly turns to us, once this place is broken, the opponent who rushed in will be more worried about his fate. Moreover, there are two heavily stationed areas in Jiangling and Jiangxia in front of Xiangyang at a distance of 500 miles. I don’t know if they will understand it in the future. In fact, we don’t care about the threat of their movements, nor are we afraid of a sudden mutiny. Even if there is a change, they need to cross the Yangtze River or Han River before they can threaten us. Of course, if Shi Changshi doesn’t mind, they can also bypass Yuzhou.
In this way, we solved the settlement problem of the people of Yizhou in a very political way, rather than a very upright way. We immediately obtained 300,000 laborers who could reclaim wasteland, and also solved the problem of the officials who were in short supply in Jingzhou to manage various affairs. However, due to the layers of peeling, the people of Yizhou have been completely assimilated into the people of Jingzhou, and many conflicts can only appear among them.
I don't like this approach, but I know it's the right thing to do, and the people of Yizhou also find it acceptable, especially many poor people who are even cheering for having land to cultivate. I may not be suitable to stay in such a place, but I must stay, at least for the five-year agreement.
On the evening of the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month in the second year of Zhongping, I discussed with everyone in Chen Liang’s army the possible next steps for Dong Zhuo.
"Dong Zhuo probably isn't building ships," the person who spoke this said showed that he wasn't sure either. "I think it's better to focus on guarding the Bashan Pass in Hanzhong. Of course, we also need to be careful in the south. We need to pay attention to the movements of the southern barbarians to see if they make any unusual moves. Dong Zhuo may also ride on their corpses to Jingzhou."
"What Zishi said makes sense, but Dong Zhuo's way of scattering the sawdust left some loopholes, which makes it difficult for us to explain. We still need to station some soldiers here." With the maturity and stability of age, the middle-aged man repeatedly grabbed the dark red sawdust in the bag with his hands.
"Tomorrow I will write to the teacher to cultivate the land. At this time, leaving a large number of troops in these three places may not be worth the loss. I don't know the situation in Wuling and Guiyang, but at least Hanzhong and Yiling are not suitable places for cultivating the land."
"What does Zirui think?" The middle-aged man patted his hands which were covered with sawdust.
"I have been troubled by this matter for the past two days. The key is that Dong Zhuo put on such a big show and deliberately left such a big flaw. It is puzzling."
"We saw this strange sight at the mouth of Xiling Gorge that day, so we ordered people to take the sawdust in the water to look at it. Most of these sawdust were from the good wood for shipbuilding, but they were all so fine that it was really suspicious. But winter has come, and it is very cold in Sichuan. Moreover, the cold in Sichuan is different from that in Liangzhou. Liangzhou is dry and cold, and people can still bear it if they wear more clothes; Yizhou is wet and cold. If you sit there and don't move, you will soon feel the chill all over your body. Moreover, there is a lot of rain in Sichuan, which is even more difficult for the people of Liangzhou to endure. If they really want to cut down trees on a large scale to build ships, it is very likely that they will sift out the large pieces of debris and burn them to keep warm. However, the strangest thing about them is that they only have more than two miles of sawdust with clay, and they actually threw it down first. If they had thrown it together with the sawdust of a hundred miles, we would probably have missed it as red pine wood, and I don't know what they think."
"Brother Wendong, there is one thing I don't understand. Where does the clay on the wood chips come from?" A young girl of quite noble status among the crowd had been listening the whole time, and she brought up the thing she still didn't understand.
"I just learned some information from a soldier who used to be a potter yesterday, and also got some information from the people of Yizhou. It turns out that Shuxi is an important place for pottery making. The storage of pottery after firing and before selling is mostly carried by sawdust; and the surface of pottery is polished clean, mostly with sawdust. Therefore, all pottery workshops will drag a lot of sawdust from shipbuilding or woodworking places, sieve them, burn the big pieces in the kiln, polish and wash the finer ones, and store and polish the finer ones. It just so happens that Shuxi is the place where the Ba people produce wood products, and it is also an important place for shipbuilding in Shuzhong. It is indeed convenient to go back and forth. If Dong Zhuo really intends to use this to set a trap for us, it is possible. But why would he put the most tricky thing in front and throw it down? This place is quite suspicious."
"Brother Chen, I think Dong Zhuo definitely didn't build ships. Otherwise, when the weather was cold, why didn't Dong Zhuo's army burn wood chips to keep warm? Why bother? Wood chips can be burned." When we were about to leave, Zishi decided to give a definite result to the evening's discussion. I thought it made sense and blamed myself for not thinking of it. But my sister shook her head, and Brother Chen had a weird smile on his face.
"Zishi, how about this? You stay in this tent to warm yourself up for a while, and then come out after a while. I will use wood chips to keep you warm."
Brother Chen smiled and asked everyone to go out. Sister did not hesitate to pull me, who was confused, with one hand and Zhou Yu, who was confused, with the other hand, out first. Seeing this, the other generals also went out. Through the curtains that kept rising, they saw Brother Chen's back, holding a sawdust bag in one hand, and Li Zhen, who was sitting there at a loss. Soon, Brother Chen came out and motioned with his hand for everyone not to leave, and counted the time on his fingers outside the tent.
When Brother Chen hadn't used up one of his hands, the embarrassed man came out coughing. When Zishi couldn't explain what was going on inside, Brother Chen simply smiled and explained the reason: "The wood chips are fine and easy to absorb and produce smoke. Dong Zhuo's army wanted to keep warm, not to smoke out mosquitoes."
On the second day, the people of Yizhou began to rush to their new land. For those people, land is what they want most, and we give it to them. However, I still have some doubts. It may be too bold to divide the land among them. Although he is the governor of a state, the power is not that great.
But my sister woke me up and used only one word: "wasteland." She actually added another word at the end: "I guessed."
There is nothing else. After the flood, there are a lot of unowned wastelands. I originally planned to cultivate land because most of the arable land was abandoned. Yangzhou and the south of the Yangtze River are sparsely populated, and the labor shortage is even more serious. But there is still one thing, which may make our officials a little jealous, and feel that the salaries of these fugitives are more generous than ours. Especially Zishi once said that his salary was only enough to fill his family's stomach and put on clothes. Although there is nothing to complain about, it is still a bit tight.
But this time I thought of it myself. Since it is difficult to increase the salary, I can supplement it from the military farms, or directly use one-fourth of it.
"Who is in charge of collecting agricultural taxes?" When I was supervising the departure of the people from Yizhou with others, I suddenly remembered something and asked everyone. However, no one responded, so I had to draw everyone's attention to myself and asked again.
"It was Ziyuan before; after you sent him to Jingnan, it was Bin; then, Bin came out with me, but I really don't know who took over later." My sister is the one who gives me the most face.
"I don't know. I stayed in Xiliang. After I left my troops to Spartacus, I went to Jiangling and then came here. When I passed by Xiangyang, Binbin was scolded by Teacher Wei for being too careless."
"Don't look at me. I was in Changsha at first, and then I was with Yu'er in Jiangling. Then I went with Zheng Ge and his wife to pretend to be with Gan Ning. I didn't even go back to Xiangyang very often. My family moved to Jiangling."
"Brother Zhen and I have always been together. Anyway, none of you will let me manage the accounts. I still can't tell which is bigger, the hu or the dou."
"I, I don't know. The generals under us never take care of these things. I only know that Brother Pei has managed food and grass."
After a long while of finding nothing, they were disappointed, but then they saw a familiar person in the team. He immediately rode over, which again made everyone confused.
"Brothers Wu Ban and Wu Lan," I greeted my acquaintance's elder brother first, "you are going to station troops in Huangpi, so how will Wu Yue be settled?"
"Well, since the Marquis has some potential, we will teach him martial arts and fighting methods in Huangpi, and prepare him to go into battle when he is eighteen years old."
"But you have to train every day, and you have to deal with various military affairs, and you also have to patrol and protect the local people. Can you handle it?"
"What do you mean?" I cursed in my heart. Do I have to come out? It's as if I'm begging you. However, after looking at the skinny boy, maybe it was a sense of guilt, or maybe I felt that he had too much potential, I decided to take the initiative.
"Let him follow me. I will let him learn both literature and martial arts. There will be someone to take care of him every day in Xiangyang, and he is too weak."
The two brothers immediately dismounted and saluted me, attracting many people and soldiers to stop and watch. I had no choice but to dismount quickly, help them up, and praise Wu Yue to them, telling them not to worry and to quickly reorganize the team and set off.
I stared at the boy, and he stared at me. I smiled, and he smiled too.
He said something that made me happy all morning: "I think you are like a hero. I have felt this way since the morning before yesterday. I want to be like you."
If being humiliated and not feeling ashamed can make you a hero, then heroes are worthless. The other me in my heart humiliated myself.
But I have no shame in the heavens above me, and no regrets in the earth below me. If I ask myself, I have a clear conscience, so what do your words mean
Obviously, this me is more powerful and immediately overwhelms that me. Therefore, everything in me agrees that today is a happy day.
The people of Yizhou all disappeared from our sight at dusk.
One day passed like this. My elder sister was leaving tomorrow. I was going to go back with her to prepare for her wedding, but I ran into my master's wife arriving that evening.
The master's wife came by water with dozens of disciples. She came to treat the injuries and illnesses of the Yiling soldiers. But when we went to greet her, she grabbed me and pulled me to the brightly lit area inside the tent. She looked at me carefully, asked me to take a deep breath, smelled the air I exhaled, took my pulse, and whispered something that scared me to death.
"Fortunately, I see you now. If it were half a month later, you would be dead." My sister didn't come in. She was inexplicably still outside like everyone else. Otherwise, she would have been scared and would never have left me.
Fortunately, I was quick-witted, so I explained to everyone that I owed my master's wife the astragalus membranaceus, and that she wanted to use this medicine to save people, so I asked my sister to return to Xiangyang quickly and ask someone to send it to me from Po Liu Han Lie Ya. I also asked my master's wife to cure my tuberculosis thoroughly, and then discussed with Brother Chen the plan of deploying troops in various places.
My sister didn't want to leave, so she asked the others to go back. She must have noticed something was wrong. My sister was getting married, so she had to prepare well. She also needed to send Wu Yue back so that he could be with Song Qian. She also needed to report on the matter of coming to Zigui. Anyway, I had thought of all the reasons I could think of. My sister was relieved when my master's wife said I was fine.
But my sister still asked me what my plan was, and wanted to test my strength. Naturally, I said what I had planned in a relaxed and comfortable way: "I'm afraid the situation in the north will be a bit tight now; but changing the direction and going to the south is not impossible, but whether the southern barbarians will agree to let him go is also a question. From a normal point of view, it is unlikely that Dong Zhuo wants to get along with the southern barbarians, so maybe now is our chance to establish a good relationship with the southern barbarians."
My sister left with her family the next day, and before she left she asked me to go back early.
On the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month of the second year of Zhongping, I woke up in the tent of Brother Chen's camp, with a lot of conflicting doubts in my mind: Although Master's wife's medical skills were very superb, I still thought that Master's wife was exaggerating because I couldn't feel any abnormality in my body. At the same time, although I felt that my body was in good condition, I still decided to let Master's wife treat me because I thought that I might really have a serious illness, because that morning, my appetite suddenly became unusually poor.