Around midnight, it started to rain lightly in Zizhou, and the gray rain covered the earth.
A group of people who inspected the garrison construction site went up the city wall, but did not come down for a while. Ning Yi looked out through the window on the city tower. There were only a few small spots of light remaining on the city wall in the rainy night.
A little light every tens of meters outlines the vague outline of the city. The soldiers who changed the defense put on their scorpions and walked along the city wall into the distance, gradually drowning in the darkness of the rain, and occasionally there were shreds of human voices.
In the inner perimeter of the high wall, the buildings of the city stretched far into the distance. In order to defend the city, houses should not have been built within a few dozen feet of the city wall. However, for more than 200 years of the Wu Dynasty, Zizhou, located in the southwest, has never had any military disaster. In addition, it is located in the main road, with developed commerce and residential buildings. Gradually, it occupied everything in the field of vision, first the houses of the poor, and later the courtyards of the rich.
The upcoming war has scared away 30% of the people in the city. The residents living near the northern city wall are given priority to leave, but in the courtyards, large and small, sparse lights can be seen. What's more, if you look closely, there are traces of items left by the owner in the small courtyard nearby.
Carrying lanterns, two watchmen hid under the eaves outside the uninhabited courtyard.
It has been more than ten years since the first Jurchen went south. Blood, battles, life and death... The dramas are staged one after another, but for most people in this world, everyone's life is still an ordinary continuation , Even if the war is coming, people are still troubled by tomorrow's firewood, rice, oil and salt.
Before rushing to Zizhou, Ning Yi received a message of failure from Jiangnan.
Since the Huaxia Army broke out of Liangshan and entered the Chengdu Plain, Jiange has always been a key point in the next strategy, and the fight and lobbying of Jiange defender Si Zhongxian has always been going on.
Si Zhongxian is loyal to the Wu Dynasty, and he is wise but kind and flexible. In the past, the Huaxia Army communicated with the outside world and sold weapons, and most of the business had to go through the Jiange line. Si Zhongxian has always provided convenience for the orders supplied to the regular troops of the Wu Dynasty, and he has been quite severe in dealing with the private goods that some families, gentry and local forces want. The ability to distinguish and select these two types of business proves that the general has a considerable overall view in his mind.
The overall perception of Si Zhongxian by the General Staff of the Huaxia Army is positive, and for this reason, Ning Xi and Ning Ji will also think that this is a good general worth fighting for. But in reality, the division of good and evil is naturally not so simple. Whether Si Zhongxian is loyal to the people of the world or the orthodoxy of the Wu Dynasty is a matter that is debatable.
In short, in the first half of the year, it was a logical thing to leave Sichuan Fourth Road to attack Jurchen through Si Zhongxian. The fundamental interests of the Wu Dynasty. However, in the second half of the year, the Wu Dynasty was on the decline, Zhou Yong passed away, and the orthodox court was still divided into two. Si Zhongxian's attitude was obviously shaken.
There are more complex situations in between.
Si Zhongxian was originally from Xiuzhou, Zhejiang Province. His father, Si Wenzhong, once served as a minister of the Ministry of War more than ten years ago. After he became an official, the whole family has been living in Pingjiang, the later generation Suzhou. The Jurchen broke through the capital, and Si Wenzhong took his family back to the countryside of Xiuzhou.
In July, Wanyan Xiyin led the Jurchen army to attack Xiuzhou. After the city was broken, he invited Si Wenzhong out and conferred the post of Minister of Rites, and then sent Si Wenzhong to Jiange to persuade him to surrender. At that time, there were not many people in the Huaxia Army in the south of the Yangtze River. Ning Yi ordered the front line to respond and deal with it as appropriate after careful inquiries. He repeated the caution needed for this matter in the order. In the end, he decided to go to the rescue.
In this operation, the Huaxia Army lost five people, and the Si family also suffered casualties. After the frontline's action report and review were sent back, Ning Yi knew that the balance of the Jiange negotiation was already tilting towards Jurchen.
At this time, Ning Yi could not help but review his own shortcomings in organizational construction. The construction of the Huaxia Army imitated the later Chinese army in some outlines, but there were a lot of differences in specific aspects.
In essence, the main axis of the Huaxia Army comes from the management system of the modern army, strict military law, strict upper and lower supervision system, and in-place ideological management. It is more similar to the modern US military or the modern flower-growing army. As for the initial Ning Yi was unable to simulate its unswerving belief system.
In the world where Ning Yi once lived, there were too many things in modern China that could not be replicated. In that era, the West was developing rapidly with each passing day, and China was a backward thinking and political system. More than a hundred years of humiliation and pain had gone deep into the bone marrow, countless. People kept hitting the wall and looking for the way, and finally forged such an army with firm proletarian beliefs.
The humiliation experienced by the Wu Dynasty is still too little. After more than ten years of encountering a wall, people have not been able to realize the urgency of taking another path, and they have not been able to make several kinds of thinking collide, and the final result is even the first stage. There is not enough time for consensus. On the other hand, Ning Yi could not give up the industrial revolution and capitalism he had been cultivating.
Because of these reasons, Huaxia Juncai broke with Lao Niutou. It is also because of these reasons that Huaxia Jun is more like a large company and a large enterprise in later generations in some directions. What makes everything up is the professional system that surpasses the times and the professional way of doing things. After experiencing victories again and again, the officers in the army have high fighting spirit and a spirit of optimism that is almost proud.
For such a spirit, Ning Yi has carried out a lot of rectification, but of course the effect is limited. Without a hundred years of humiliation, without countless failures, without the April 12 massacre, without the embarrassment of always being at a disadvantage and the confidence in this embarrassment, we cannot cultivate the kind of persistence and seriousness that go deep into the bone marrow. After defeating Lu Qiaoshan and easily taking most of the Chengdu Plain, some Chinese soldiers even had contempt for Jurchen.
This year's foreign work, the casualty rate is higher than Ning Yi expected. Under such circumstances, generosity and heroism are no longer things to be promoted. Each kind of doctrine has its pros and cons, and each kind of thought will lead to different directions and contradictions. In the past few years, what has really troubled Ning Yi's thinking has always been the correlation and turning point of these things.
How to make people understand and deeply accept the necessity of the study of things and society, how to make the bud of capitalism, how to let go of the thinking of "democracy" and "equality" at the same time as this bud, and make capitalism move toward the ruthless drive When the extremes are favorable, there can still be another kind of relatively warm order to balance...
And what happened to Si Zhongxian will also determine the direction of the whole world.
The sage is not benevolent and regards the common people as dogs. It wasn't until this day that he came to Zizhou that Ning Yi realized that what troubled and worried about him the most was not all the major events in the world.
When the news about Ning Ji came, he was originally worried that the second son had seen the chaos in the world and became cruel and ready to kill. Ning Xi was willing to pass the news back, and the vague worry might be precisely this. After the meeting, the child's confession made Ning Yi understand the whole story.
As a martial artist, after seeing the confusion of this world, the child has been keenly aware of the way to become stronger, and the wildness in the subconscious is growing out of the safe area prepared for him by his father and brother. Want to experience battle, want to become stronger, want to accept equal challenges when the opponent sacrifices his life.
This is a laudable thought.
Ning Yi has been fighting all the way.
He wasn't a real outlaw.
Starting from the dock outside Jiangning City, and now after the monarchy, he has fought head-to-head with the Jurchen and fought for his life countless times, not because he is a desperado who doesn't take his own life seriously. On the contrary, he not only cherishes his life, but also cherishes everything in front of him.
However, countless experiences in the past have told him that it is only the basic condition that he really wants to fight with people in this cruel world and risk his life. Those who do not have this condition will have a higher probability of losing and a lower probability of winning. He is just calmly pushing up the probability of winning every point, using cruel reason to suppress the fear of danger, which is an instinct that has been tempered repeatedly in the experience of the previous life. If he doesn't risk his life, he will only lose more.
No matter in prosperous times or in troubled times, the essence of the operation of this world is always a selection competition that focuses on ranking. Although it has continuity and complexity in actual operation, the fundamental nature is actually unchanged.
In this world, there are two generations of wealth and power, which is a manifestation of continuity.
To do things well in this world, we must not only think hard and act hard, but also have the right direction and the right method. This is a manifestation of complexity.
For mediocrity, many things in this world seem to depend on luck. So-and-so chose a certain direction, so he succeeded, and his timing and luck have problems... But in fact, what really decides people's choices is Time and time again for the serious observation of the world and the serious thinking about the law.
At the top of this world, smart people think hard, choose the right direction, and risk their lives to overdraw themselves. Even in the last world where Ning Yi came into contact with, in a relatively peaceful world, every successful person, capitalist, and leader had certain characteristics of mental illness: perfectionism, paranoia, consistent self-confidence, and even a certain anti-humanity tendency…
Mental health is defined by the average person as nothing more than the general empathy and weakness of pets. In the prosperous world, people raised the bottom line through order, so that people would not be too embarrassed even if they failed. Correspondingly, the ceiling was lowered and the upward path was frozen. The public sold the "possibilities" that they did not urgently need in exchange for Understandable and secure. The world is so magical, its essence never changes, people just make adjustments after understanding the rules.
Ning Yi understood all this clearly, so he risked his life.
Now, it's his child's turn.
Thirteen-year-old Xiao Ningji wants to choose "possibility" and give up safety and steadfastness. This kind of thinking is not reflected in the reckless death, but it will definitely determine his choice in the face of danger countless times in the future, just like before. Choose to fight with the enemy instead of being protected. Ning Yi knew that he could also choose to kill his idea here and that way, of course it existed.
That night, under the ginkgo tree in the medical hall, he and Ning Ji chatted for a long time, talking about Zhou Tong, about Hongti's master, about watermelon's father, about such and such things. But until the end, Ning Yi didn't try to kill his thoughts. He just made three chapters with the child, hoping that he would consider his mother at home and study medicine until he was sixteen years old. Before that, he would step back a little in the face of danger. After that , he will support any decision Ning Ji makes.
"I hope that in two years, your younger brother will find out that practicing martial arts can't save China, so he should become a doctor or write."
After chatting with Ning Ji that night, Ning Yi once made such a joke with his eldest son. But in fact, even if Ning Ji becomes a doctor or writes essays, the many dangers they will face in the future will not be missed at all. As Ning Yi's son and family, they faced the greatest risk from the very beginning.
A few years ago, Ning Xi was more or less eager to move, but as the eldest son, the public opinion and atmosphere of his parents and people around him had set him a direction since he was a child, and Ning Xi also accepted this direction.
In the end, with the help of Chen Tuozi and others, Ning Xi became a relatively safe manipulator. Although he did not face the danger and bloodshed on the front line like Ning Yi, this would make his abilities not comprehensive enough, but he would eventually make up for it. Methods. On the other hand, when he faces the greatest danger one day, he may also pay the price for it.
In the past few years, Ning Yi has been calm and single when talking about these things to the outside world, such as Li Pin and Song Yongping. If something really happened to these children, what would their mother be like
Tan'er has always been strong, and maybe she will fall because of this. What will happen to Xiaochan, who has always been gentle? To this day, Ning Yi can still clearly remember that when he first arrived more than ten years ago, the little maid jumped and walked with him on the streets of Jiangning...
In a few years, I am afraid that children like Wenwen and Ning Ke will gradually give him a headache.
No matter how big the world is, the children will walk their own tracks, grow up slowly, and gradually experience wind and rain. That night, Ning Yi watched Zizhou in the dark from the tower, and was silent for a long time.
At the other end of the head, across the open space outside Zizhou City, the most subtle light is still lit in the sentry tower on the far mountain, and the construction sites for building fortifications are lying dormant in the rain of the night...
*****************
No matter how big the world is, the children will walk their own tracks, grow up slowly, and gradually experience wind and rain...
When a young man named Ning Ji in the southwest made the decision to face the wind and rain, another child who was thousands of miles away in this world was already wrapped up in the wind and rain, and was walking on a bumpy road.
Mu Anping, who was born in Wu Jianshuo three years ago, is eight and a half years old this year. It has been more than two years since the night he lost his parents. He was renamed Ping'an by Lin Zongwu, shaved a small bald head, and walked alone in the troubled times of Jindi for more than a year.
In September of the eleventh year of Jianshuo, Ping An returned to Vaud, where he had lived for many years in ragged clothes, but he could no longer find the house where his parents once lived. With the attack of the Jurchen, the division of Jin, and the continuous military disasters, the state of Vau has completely changed. Half of the city has been burnt down. The skinny beggar-like people live in this city, spring and summer. At that time, there was a tragedy of changing children and eating, and in autumn, it eased a little, but it still couldn't hide the sense of loss inside and outside the city.
The ragged little monk searched for two days in the city, but he couldn't find his memory of his parents. He ran out of food. He secretly shed tears in the dilapidated house in the city. He slept for a day, feeling at a loss Wandering in the streets again. At this time, he wanted to see the only monk master he could rely on in this world, but the master never appeared.
On the street several dozen meters away from him, Lin Zongwu, who was wearing a large monk robe, was handing a small bag of coarse grain steamed buns to the scrawny martial artist in front of him.
Soon after, the warrior followed behind the little monk, and when he reached no one, he drew his sword.
Ping An turned around, tears still hanging on his face, and the knife light shook his eyes. The thin villain stopped for a while, the bag beside him suddenly burst, and some food fell to the ground, adults and children couldn't help but be stunned...
In the corner of the street, Lin Zongwu put his hands together and smiled.
Tigers and leopards grow claws to hunt; crocodiles grow scales to protect themselves; apes walk out of the woods and build sticks…
In the wind and rain, people's blood will flow down, and before they die, people can only try to change themselves to be stronger.
Natural selection, survival of the fittest.