Throughout mid-February, Meng Zhong stayed at home with his mother and sister, helping to buy some firewood for the family.

I remember that before the expedition, he helped the family prepare firewood for a firewood room in advance, but because he was away from home for more than half a year, Ge and Mengyan's mother and daughter still needed to chop firewood by themselves - although the elder Meng recommended that he ordered the clan servants to help the mother and daughter prepare firewood every once in a while, Ge's thin-skinned family was really embarrassed to accept special care from the clan repeatedly.

On the 12th of February, a feast was held in the township, which, although not as large as the feast, made the whole clan feel quite dedicated, because the joy of the victory of the country was slightly dispelled by the sorrow of the death of the clansmen.

It was also in these days that Menghu's father, Sima Mengqing, the former family of the Menghu family, was buried, and was buried on Mengshan Mountain along with the rest of the clansmen who died in battle.

Maybe because of his father's death, Meng Hu seems to have become mature all of a sudden, although his big grinning personality has not changed, but he has changed his previous stubbornness and playfulness, and is more keen on practicing martial arts, maybe as he said, he also wants to become a warrior like his father Meng Qing.

It is worth mentioning that when the Mengshi clan held a celebration, the county magistrate of Shangqiu City, "Piguanji", personally came to Mengyi and conveyed the reward given to the Mengyi clan on behalf of the Song Dynasty - how many fields the entire Mengshi clan received Meng Zhong did not pay attention to, but he got a full 500 acres of "military merit field".

I have to say that in addition to the reward of thousands of acres of military merit fields from Meng Hu's family because his father Meng Qing killed Teng Hu, it was Meng Zhong who received the most military merit fields, which made Meng Zhong's reputation in the township even greater, and even other big families in the vicinity, such as the Le's, Hua's, Xiao's, and Ge's, also learned about Meng Zhong's outstanding Meng's son.

It just so happened that Meng Zhong was fifteen years old this year, and he had reached the age suitable for marriage, so the elders of other families came to Mengyi to say that they hoped to marry the clan daughter to Meng Zhong, so that the two parties could become in-laws.

However, since the object of the marriage was only the ordinary clan girls of other families, the elder Meng recommended it for Meng Zhong to refuse—how could this elder allow the junior he valued to only marry the ordinary clan girls of other families? At the very least, it has to be the daughter of each family.

However, Meng Zhong was just a minor disciple of the Mengshi clan, would there be any descendants of other families willing to marry him? Or would the woman's clan elders agree to this?

Not to mention, there is really a family that is willing to marry the daughter of the sect to Meng Zhong, and this family is the Le family.

A few days later, the elder Meng recommended a carriage to the Le clan's township, and when he returned, he told the Ge clan about it.

Coincidentally, the woman of the Le clan is also named "Yan", who is one year older than Meng Zhong and is the youngest daughter of the patriarch of the Le clan, Le Guo.

"Didn't that kid promise to marry someone last year?" Hearing that the woman named Le Yan was sixteen years old this year, Ge asked curiously.

Elder Meng Jian shook his head and said, "I don't know what the reason is, the children of the Nale clan did not appear at the feast last year, so it may be that there is no suitable candidate." ”

Indeed, it is not necessary for the women of each family to marry at the age of fifteen, and marriage at the age of sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen abounds. Of course, if she is not married by the age of eighteen, then her family will probably start to worry.

At that time, Meng Zhong was not at home, but went to the mountains with Meng Heng, Meng Min, Meng Hu and other brothers to chop wood and hunt, their luck was not good, but it was not without harvest, after catching a nest of pheasants, they met a group of wolves, about six or seven.

Ordinary young people of this age, when they encounter a pack of six or seven wolves, they are afraid that their legs will be weak in fright, but for Meng Zhong, Meng Hu, Meng Heng, Meng Min and other soldiers who have been on the battlefield and have also killed people, the wolf is not a terrifying thing.

No, in the end, the brothers skinned and slaughtered the carcasses of the wolves in the mountain stream, and then each carried a large piece of meat home.

As for the nest of pheasants, Meng Heng and Meng Min gave two of the chicks to Meng Zhong, and asked the latter to take them home as gifts for his sister Meng Yan - in the past, when they went up the mountain to hunt, they often brought some pheasants and rabbits for Meng Yan to raise and play.

When Meng Zhong returned home, Meng Yan told his brother about it: "Brother, do you want to marry a woman named 'Yin'?" ”

At this time, Meng Zhong was scooping water from the water tank at home to drink, and was stunned for a moment when he heard this, his expression was a little weird.

Fortunately, Meng Yan was not stupid, and when she saw her brother's strange expression, she immediately thought of something, stomped her feet with a red face and said, "Oh, it's not me, it's a woman named Yan from the Le clan." ”

"Oh."

Meng Zhong was relieved and asked with a smile, "Where did you hear that?" How did I not know there was such a thing? ”

Meng Yan secretly told her brother: "It was mentioned by Elder Meng Jian today, and when the elder mentioned this to his mother, I eavesdropped on it outside the house......

"What are you eavesdropping on?" Meng Zhong asked casually.

"Uh......" Meng Yan stammered and ran away in annoyance.

That night, when the whole family was having dinner together, Ge Shi began to inquire about Meng Zhong's thoughts on getting married, during which Meng Yan lowered her head and picked up the rice.

"Zhong'er, my mother heard that the Le clan has a child named "Yin"...... Hmm, it's the same name as our family's concubine, that kid is said to be pretty good, why don't you let Elder Meng take the time to take you to see it from afar? ”

Although it is common for contemporary men and women to talk about marriage at the age of fifteen, Meng Zhong didn't want to get married so early, so he said euphemistically: "Mother, the child is only fifteen years old now, doesn't it seem a little early to mention this now?" Mother, the child is still studying with the Master. ”

"That's ......"

Ge Shi looked a little hesitant.

The next day, February 19, Meng Zhong was afraid that his mother would bring up this topic again, so he hurriedly took his leave and went to Zhuangziju.

As a result, when they arrived at Zhuangziju, the brothers Le Jin and Le Xu came up in a hurry, and the former said to Meng Zhong: "Ah Zhong, let me tell you something, my Le clan has a sister named "Ying" who has not yet been married, if you marry her, then we will be brothers in the future." ”

After some exchanges, Meng Zhong learned that the two brothers Le Jin and Le Xu were the younger brother of Le Guo, the patriarch of the Le family, and the grandson of the elder Le Ke.

In other words, the Le clan is willing to marry the daughter of the sect to Meng Zhong, and the brothers Le Jin and Le Xu have contributed a lot.

"It's been a long time, so it's the two of you who are messing around?"

Meng Zhong angrily knocked the bamboo slip in his hand to the brothers, and he felt strange, why was the Le family willing to marry the daughter of the Le Sect to him, and the feelings were passed on by the Le Jin and Le Xu brothers, and the Le family had already known him.

Together with Wu Ying, Hua Hu, Mu Wu, and Meng Sui, Meng Zhong finally persuaded the brothers Le Jin and Le Xu not to allow him to cause trouble in the future, and finally restored Zhuangziju to its former tranquility.

The next day, Zhuangzi began to explain to his disciples the treatises of the Song Tzu, that is, the Taoist sage of the Song Dynasty, because Zhuangzi's own ideas and ideas have been explained to the disciples over the years, and the rest can only be experienced and comprehended by the disciples themselves.

Taoist thought is like this: understanding the truth is only the most preliminary, the second step is how to find one's own "Tao" from it, and the third step is how to realize one's own Tao.

Even if he is a Zhuangzi, he is now stuck between the second and third steps, and has not yet achieved the ideas of "attaining life" and "forgetting oneself" that he advocated, so as to finally reach the state of "unity of Tao and self".

Not to mention Meng Zhong and a group of other disciples, they at best only roughly understood Zhuangzi's ideas and ideas.

For Song Xuan, Zhuangzi is very respectful, and Zhuangzi also admitted that in fact, Song Xuan is the Taoist heir who really inherited Laozi's thoughts, and he Zhuang Zhou is an alternative.

It must be admitted that, compared with Zhuangzi's thoughts, Song Zi's "Song Tzu" written by Song Jun was widely circulated in Song, Wei, Han, Chu and other countries, and his ideas in addition to "the unity of heaven and man", also had the idea of "having little lust" and "not insulting when you see insults", the former refers to restraining human desires, while the latter refers to being able to endure insults - the endurance of insults here is actually to persuade people not to fight because of other people's insults, and at that time, most of the world's "disagreement and drawing swords against each other".

All in all, Song Xuan advocated "few desires and no disputes", which was the more mainstream idea of Taoism in the world.

It was around mid-March that Zhuangzi's letters were finally delivered to the state of Zou and to Mencius.

At that time, Mencius was lecturing and teaching to his disciples in the house, when he saw a disciple hurriedly coming from the back seat, holding a bamboo slip in his hand, and said: "Master, there are two post guards from the Song Kingdom, who sent this bamboo slip to the house, saying that they were sent by Master Zhuang Zhou Zhuang of the Song Kingdom. ”

"Oh?"

Under the astonished gaze of hundreds of disciples, Mencius temporarily suspended his teaching, spread out the bamboo slips on the low table and watched, and his brows furrowed quietly.

Several disciples such as Wan Zhang and Gongsun Chou, who were closest to Mencius, faintly felt that their teacher had a bit of gritted teeth.

"Ahem."

Coughing, Mencius said to his disciples, "Wait and sit here in silence, meditate on what the teacher has just taught, and write a reply letter for the teacher......

“……”

The disciples looked at each other, wondering what had happened.