Chapter 16: The Life of the Old Duke of Fanwai (I)
My parents died young, and my uncle and aunt raised me. My cousin is a scholar, but he doesn't want to take the imperial examination, and he doesn't want to be recommended by his fellow villagers, saying that "Hu Yi is not an official in the court", so our family has always been hungry and full.
When I was fourteen years old, I was a soldier in the village, and my cousin was just sixteen years old, and the wind could blow away my skinny body, but I drank water and grew up, I thought about it, and risked my cousin's age to become a soldier.
When a soldier is good, he will not starve to death, he will eat and drink to his heart's content, and I will send the monthly military salary to my home, I only hope that my uncle's "backbone" will not leave me with regrets.
Life in the barracks was boring, but I found myself well suited to this monotonous life. 1 exercise a day, practice calligraphy, practice martial arts, patrol the camp, and ...... Homicide.
I actually like to read, but my black-skinned and burly image is automatically branded as "well-developed limbs and simple mind". I finally knew the distress of Zhang Fei. It's a pity that I don't know how to draw beautiful pictures, otherwise I would definitely have to draw a few pictures and burn them to him for comfort.
Chu Yue, the clerk in the barracks, saw my ambition and brought me military books and history books, taught me the art of war, and taught me strategy. I am very grateful to him and see him as my mentor and friend, and I have nothing to talk about.
By the time I was twenty-four years old, I had already mixed up with the "mighty captain", Chu Yue also mixed up with an important position in logistics, and the brothers in the rich barracks couldn't wait to put him in a sack every night.
I sometimes wonder if he deliberately made me a friend because he was worried about this day.
I'm twenty-four years old, and I'm not married at this age, which is still rare in our township. My aunt sent me home, saying that she had found me some girls from the same township and asked me to look at each other.
I've always felt that marrying a daughter-in-law is very troublesome, and the life of a bachelor is quite good. Chu Yue has always felt that I am not interesting as a person - I go to the restaurant to eat, everyone thinks the dishes are delicious, I don't think there is anything, I really march to the army, and I don't think the coarse bran rotten dishes are not unpalatable. A girl who others think is good-looking, I think it's nothing more than two eyes, a nose and a mouth, and she doesn't have more flowers than others.
Of course, I can still tell if the body is good or bad. I'm not blind!
The girls my aunt found for me were all poor people who couldn't survive, or girls who were too old to marry. I don't care about age or how the other party's family is, but I always think that getting married is such a thing, and you always have to be willing to do it, right? I am not good-looking, and I am a poor soldier, and other people's girls always look at me with an expression of "endure humiliation" or "sell themselves to support the family", which makes me uncomfortable.
Until one day, I met Qiu Bing.
I will never forget the way she frowned and blocked the door and said that she wanted to occupy her house.
She didn't scold, she didn't cry and wail, she just stared at the cousin coldly, and said word by word everything her father had done for his family when he was there, and the details were clear about how many bricks were laid and how much land was planted that day. Her disdainful eyes were like a knife, and even I, the person who licked the blood on the head of the knife, became excited.
I'm probably bad at being a soldier. I felt like I had found the woman I wanted to live with for the rest of my life.
I asked my aunt to go to Qiu Bing's house to propose marriage, and brought more than 20 taels of silver that I had saved in the barracks. Qiu Bing is twenty years old, guarding his younger brother and sick mother at home, and life is very difficult. Although I am very old, there is nothing wrong with me, and I would like to take her brother and mother to live with me. I built a big house in the township, and I'm sure she won't refuse.
It's a bit of a danger to do this, and I know that such a girl with my conditions shouldn't refuse. There is a cloud in the art of war: "Take advantage of the situation, and be rigid and soft." "I really treat marrying a wife as if I were fighting a war.
Aunt Cousin came back, her expression a little unhappy. The girl said yes, but wanted to see me. My aunt thought that such a girl was a little too casual, but I went to see her happily.
My aunt said that it was not good to wear the clothes of the army to meet the girl, but I only had a few clothes in total. If she really wants to marry me, she must get used to my status as a "poor soldier". If I hadn't made friends with Chu Yue, I guess I wouldn't even be able to get the money to marry my daughter-in-law to build a house now.
That day, she was standing in the house, and I was sitting in front of the house, and we talked all afternoon. I didn't say anything, I just talked about my situation, half a year in the army, income, hobbies, and some opinions about her.
Her eyes lit up when she heard that I could write.
Half a year later, I married Qiu Bing. She was a good girl, farming, weaving, making clothes, raising poultry, everything she did very seriously. I also tasted the benefits of marrying a wife, and every time I took a break, I ran back with the envious eyes of a bunch of people, and even Chu Yue joked that I "can't forget it once I get wet".
No matter what, no one can stop it.
Later, we had our first child, a girl, Qiu Bing was very disappointed and felt that she didn't give me a child. But I like her very much, and I think she looks a lot like me.
I don't know why, but as soon as I said this, she became even more depressed.
Later, we had two girls and a son. My son is very obedient and looks a lot like my mother. My mother turned out to be the daughter of an eunuch, and the Hu people had a few years of wantonly looting women to fill the harem, and my mother cheapened my father. He was also as smart as my mother, he was early and sensible, and he never let us worry about it. When my son was three years old, I enlightened him and I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly he could read.
I feel like this life has been worth it.
In the forty-seventh year of the Apocalypse, there was a sudden drought in the Central Plains, and there was no harvest in three years. Officials were rampant, the Hu people in the court were still fighting on all sides, and the soldiers were often transferred to the Western Regions, often not one out of ten.
In the forty-ninth year of the Apocalypse, we were transferred to suppress the mob, and the so-called mob was actually a group of bitter people who were so hungry that they wanted to change their children. Chu Yue, who came with the army to "allocate military salaries", distributed some military rations to these people. We were denounced by the prison army, and we were all sent to prison, and Chu Yue and I were sentenced to beheading.
Chu Yue's younger brother rebelled with the entire Chu clan. The Jingnan Chu clan is a big family with a surname, and if they rebel, the entire south will be reversed by half. The bitter people who couldn't survive smashed the Hu people's official mansions and mansions, searched for money, food and materials, and heard that the ropes that stringed the money were rotten, and the grain under the barn was moldy, but they just refused to give it to the Han people.
Should!
Chu Yue and I were rescued from the prison, and I went home overnight. My wife and family didn't know about it yet, and I had to go back before they knew.
After a few more days, Chu Yue brought someone to find me to go out together, and I hesitated.
Qiu Bing is alone with three children, as well as his mother and younger brother, who is still a minor......
At this time, all the prime people in the township had become Chu Yue's people. Their family has enough food, and if they follow him, at least they won't starve to death. I held my wife and discussed all night, and finally chose to go out with Chu Yue.
God is not long-sighted, the family has no production, and he is guilty of sin, in this troubled world of disasters and famines, he has no ability to survive except for killing people. If you stay at home, you will only starve to death.
My family has been entrusted to my cousins and aunts, and I have received so much in my life that I can't pay them off.
Chu Yue's team has been like a bamboo, the alien race has ruled us for fifty years, and the people have long been miserable, this flame has burned the entire Central Plains, even Chu Yue didn't expect that the spark that burned just to survive would spread so fiercely.
I killed more and more people, our army became stronger and stronger, and gradually, Chu Yue began to change, I know that he has the ambition to be the king and dominate from the initial self-preservation.
Whatever, when Luoyang City is in our hands and the rear is calm, I will unload my armor and return to the field, and go back with that pile of silver money to continue to do my "great human affairs".
In the fifty-third year of the Apocalypse, my cousin came to look for me in the barracks with red eyes. When I saw him, I knew something was wrong.
I have been mixed up for so many years, and I have already mixed up the name of "General Li", and countless generals have died under my hands. Some of the family members of Hu Jiang were unwilling, so they secretly changed clothes and rode lightly, and went to our township to take revenge.
My aunt, my sister-in-law, my two daughters, and my wife's family all died in the catastrophe.
Qiu Bing dragged his son to hide in the well and escaped.
I don't know what kind of mood she used to keep her son at that time, but the well in our house was so small that it could only hide two people. My eldest and youngest daughters......
I didn't dare to think about it anymore, so I hurriedly took leave with Chu Yue and returned to my hometown to pick up my wife.
My clever son is so thin that he is skeletal and his wife is sunken and not as beautiful as she used to be.
I sent the money back! Do they ......
"I received the money, but I am a woman, and my wealth is not exposed, and now the world is so ......chaotic," she told me the answer calmly.
I don't think I'm a thing. I just remember to send money home, but I can't imagine if the family suddenly has money, those fellow villagers will ......
In troubled times, the human heart is the most unreliable thing.
I left my wife and son with me, and my cousin was left in the barracks for a job. This is the first time I begged Chu Yue, and he seems to be very happy.
For all these years, he kept giving me women, fields, and treasures. I have a wife, and I'm really not interested in other women, and even if I need to, I just take a cold shower. Chu Yue first thought that I thought those women were dirty, so she found some broken noble daughters for me and asked me to send them back.
My woman takes care of the housework and feeds my children at home, and I have a woman outside, and I can't sleep at night, right?
I don't want Qiu Bing to tell me coldly as if he was facing that person: "After you leave, how many years of land have I farmed at home, how many chickens have I raised, and how many cloths have I spun......?"
I shudder just thinking about it.
I probably knew Chu Yue's thoughts, he felt that I didn't want anything, I was afraid that he wanted more things. But I didn't bother to explain to him, I have been with him for so many years, if he still can't see what kind of person I am, he will know each other for half his life.
I left a lot of money and treasures, and even if I returned to the field, I didn't want my family to go hungry. My cousin and I are not the same kind of people.
I told him what I thought, and he smiled and patted me on the back, shook his head and said:
"You're only thirty years old, and you're thinking about unloading your armor and returning to the field?"
"If you can calm the world at the age of forty, and I can unload my armor and return to the field, it would be great. Fighting a war is tiring. ”
I mean it. The words come from the heart.
I don't even let my son learn the art of war, just practice some self-defense martial arts. I've done too much sinister, I'm afraid I won't end up well, I hope my son can be a rich man and live his life well.
The military advisor took a fancy to my son and said that he was a "genius of heaven". I don't see anything about my "genius" other than my handsome son. But he told me that he wanted to learn from the military advisor, so I went with him.
The son wants to be motivated, but the old 1st son can't pull him down, right?
In the following years, it became more and more smooth, and there were fewer times when I needed to lead troops to go on expeditions. My wife and I finally settled down and added two more boys.
She has a problem, she loves to eat greasy things, especially fatty meat, and must eat every meal. Because of this, she rarely eats with her children. Now that life is better, there are servants and cooks at home, and the children's stomachs are not as good as those of adults, and they all eat their own.
I don't pay attention to food, and I can't see her eating alone, so as long as I am in the house, I will definitely eat with her. I could see that she was very happy, and she was much more enthusiastic even at night.
My wife is good at everything, but she's too shy.
The eldest son, Li Meng, basically lives in the military advisor's house now, and I heard that he also gets along well with the niece of the military advisor who was orphaned.
He had seen that girl, who was from a large family, very beautiful, and had a very knowledgeable personality.
Well done kid! It's better to strike first.