In November of the fourth year of Zhao Wanghe, Meng Zhong, Le Yi, and Meng Hu bid farewell to Pang Xuan, Ju Xin, and Zhao Hao on the south bank of the river.

Soon after, Meng Zhong also disbanded the Xinwei Army.

After all, Lord Zhao's father was dead, and Meng Zhong also decided to return to the Song Kingdom, and if there was no accident in the future, he might not return to the Zhao State again, and the twenty or so Xinwei soldiers who followed him all the way here, they all had their own families in the Zhao Kingdom, and they were unwilling to leave their families to follow Meng Zhong to the Song Kingdom.

Of course, the key point is not to leave behind his family, not to be unwilling to follow Meng Zhong, and even some Xinwei soldiers told Meng Zhong before leaving that they would take their families to Mengyi in the Song Kingdom to defect to Meng Zhong in the future, which Meng Zhong and others of course welcomed, after all, they have been together for more than a year, and they also have a deep relationship with each other.

Meng Zhong took Le Yi, Meng Hu, Meng Sui, Wu Ying, Hua Hu, Mu Wu, and Le Jin to continue to rush south, arriving in the area of "Liaohe County".

Liaohe County, also known as Liaocheng, was originally a city under the Wei Kingdom, but since more than 100 years ago, it has become the territory of the Qi State, and the Qi State has divided this area into "Dong'e (County)".

Having said that, although they arrived in Liaocheng, Meng Zhong and the others did not dare to enter this city in a grand manner, firstly, they were wearing the armor of Zhao Guo's soldiers, and once they entered the city, they would inevitably be interrogated by the defenders in Liaocheng, and secondly, they did not have much spare money, even if they entered the city, they could not do anything.

So in the end, Meng Zhong and others found a village in the Liaocheng area and persuaded the civilians in the village to live in the village.

It may be that Meng Zhong, Le Yi, Meng Hu, Meng Sui, Wu Ying, Hua Hu, Mu Wu, and Le Jin are all wearing armor and swords at their waists, although they look quite young, they look like soldiers who have experienced the battlefield, so although the civilians in the village are reluctant to let Meng Zhong and others stay in the village, they do not dare to forcibly expel them, so they can only compromise and acquiesce to Meng Zhong and others to live in the village.

Meng Zhong also felt a little uncomfortable about this, but he couldn't help it, because he knew that they needed a temporary place to stay, at least until the whole winter had passed.

In order to compensate the villagers, Meng Zhong and the others also helped the residents of the village within their ability, such as sentry posts or something, after all, there are often tragedies of wild beasts eating people in winter.

At the same time, Meng Zhong and others also followed the young people in the village up the mountain to chop firewood or hunt wild beasts to obtain meat.

It has to be said that when hunting wild beasts, Meng Zhong and others showed their quality and strength as regular soldiers, for example, when they encountered a group of mountain wolves, Meng Zhong and others easily killed those ferocious beasts, frightening the rest of the wolves to turn around and flee.

During this period, the most shocking thing for the young people in the village was Meng Hu, who took advantage of his three-layer thick armor to deliberately let the wolf bite the wrist armor, and at the same time, the sharp sword in his right hand pierced the wolf's abdomen in one fell swoop, clean and sharp.

Seeing this, Meng Zhong, Wu Ying and others followed suit one after another, and quickly killed a few wolves, so frightened that the rest of the wolves quickly turned around and fled.

This incident made the young people in the village clearly understand the ability of Meng Zhong's group of teenagers - personal martial arts are still secondary, the key is Meng Zhong and the others' adaptability not to avoid blood, and they all know at a glance that they are soldiers who have been on the battlefield and killed people.

"Are the soldiers of Zhao State as powerful as you?"

A young man from the village asked Meng Zhong and the others in surprise, because he felt that although he was a few years older than Meng Zhong and the others, if they fought each other, he could not be Meng Zhong and the others' opponents at all—these eight teenagers might have the strength to slaughter a village.

Meng Zhong smiled and said nothing at the surprise of the young villagers, while Meng Hu, Hua Hu, Mu Wu and others boasted to them without seeing anything, for example, several of them were at least soldiers at the rank of commander general, and the young villagers were stunned.

It's no wonder, after all, the commander is a soldier who commands a hundred soldiers, and there are only about 100 people in their village.

After that, the villagers were much less vigilant against Meng Zhong and the others, after all, the villagers also realized that if Meng Zhong and the others really did anything wrong to them, they would hardly be able to resist.

Of course, what is more critical is the goodwill shown by Meng Zhong and others in recent days.

Time passed day by day, and in the blink of an eye, it was the New Year.

I remember that when he was fifteen years old or even before the age of fifteen, Meng Zhong spent his New Year in the Song Kingdom, and when he was sixteen years old, he spent it in the Zhao Kingdom, but he didn't expect that when he was seventeen years old, he would spend the New Year in a small mountain village in Dong'e County, Qi State.

Yes, after the New Year, Meng Zhong will be seventeen years old, and if it is placed in their hometown of Mengyi, most of the young people of this age are already married and have almost given birth to their first child.

In fact, even in the village where Meng Zhong and the others stayed, the situation was similar, and the young people in the village basically got married at the age of fifteen or sixteen, and then had their own children after about a year.

In the first month of the New Year, the weather was still cold, and it was still snowing heavily, so Meng Zhong and the others were not in a hurry to go, in addition to helping the villagers within their ability, Meng Zhong and the others mainly exercised their martial arts and physique on weekdays.

After all, when they went to Zhao State this time, they encountered Lian Po and Niu Qian, two fierce generals who were almost irresistible, and the personal force of those two people shocked Meng Zhong and the others a lot.

Especially Menghu, although he is still giggling on weekdays, but when exercising martial arts and physique, he is more serious than anyone else, even in the cold winter wax moon, he is also naked, carrying logs around the village and running non-stop, so that the young people in the village are amazed.

By February, when spring arrives and the snow and ice melt outside, and the weather warms up, it's finally time to say goodbye to the village and continue the journey back to the Song Kingdom.

In order to thank the village for taking them in, Meng Zhong and the others left three sets of armor to compensate for the food they had consumed in the past two months.

I have to say that the three sets of armor of the Zhao army, although a little worn, are still worth a lot, and with these armors, the villagers will obviously be safer to hunt in the mountains.

On the ninth day of the second lunar month, under the send-off of many old and young people in the village, Meng Zhong and his party of eight people left the village with some dry food, stepped on the snow that had not yet melted, and continued to return to the Song Kingdom in the south.

In order to hide people's eyes and ears and avoid unnecessary trouble, Meng Zhong and others asked the villagers for a cloth coat before leaving, and put it on the armor on their bodies, otherwise they would walk in the territory of Qi in a dignified manner wearing the armor of Zhao Guo's soldiers, and once they bumped into the soldiers of Qi, they might cause some trouble.

To the south of Liaocheng, it is Dong'e County, and it is also the county of Qi in Dong'e County.

Similarly, in order to avoid unnecessary trouble, Meng Zhong and the others did not dare to enter the city and continued to the south, anyway, the dry food and dried meat they brought were quite sufficient.

Originally, from Dong'a straight to the south, you can reach the Wei Kingdom, and then continue south from the Wei Kingdom, you can reach the "Taoyi" of the Song Kingdom, that is, one of the most prosperous cities in the Song Kingdom, but after contemplation, Meng Zhong did not choose this road, but decided to go southeast, in the direction of the Lu State.

There are two reasons for this.

First, regarding the death of Zhao's father and the great changes in Zhao's country, Meng Zhong believed that Song Wangyan and his brother-in-law Hui Ang should be informed as soon as possible, so that Song could make changes as soon as possible.

After all, it can be predicted that after the death of Lord Zhao's father, the Zhao and Song alliances basically ceased to exist, so the Song State needed another way to deal with the pressure from the Qi State.

And Song Wangyan and Hui Ang were both in Pengcheng, that is, the western part of the Song Kingdom.

Second, on the way to Pengcheng, Meng Zhong also wanted to visit Mencius in Zou State, and if he was lucky, he might also meet his new brother Kuang Zhang, who had met last year.

Around March, after a month's journey, Meng Zhong and others finally arrived in the Zou Kingdom.

Mencius and his disciples were of course quite welcome to Meng Zhong's visit, after all, to some extent, these Confucian disciples of Mencius had long regarded Meng Zhong as their junior disciple.

After instructing his disciples to prepare food and wine, Mencius took Meng Zhong to the inner room alone and asked him about the reason for his sudden visit to the kingdom of Zou.

Meng Zhong respected Mencius very much, and of course he would not hide anything, so he told Mencius about his experience in Zhao, including the change in the Dune Palace, and the death of Zhao's master's father, only to hear Mencius sigh.

"As soon as Master Zhao's father dies, I am afraid that there will be turmoil again in the Central Plains." Mencius sighed at the time.

I have to say that Mencius also felt quite sorry for the death of Zhao's father.

Of course, what he regretted was not the death of Master Zhao's father, after all, Lord Zhao's personality was no different from Song Wangyan, they were both monarchs who advocated force, and the key was Lord Zhao's attitude towards Meng Zhong.

Last year, when Kuang Zhang went to Zhao to sign a submission agreement with Zhao on behalf of Qi, on his way back to Qi, he also visited Zou and his teacher Mencius.

At that time, Kuang Zhang told Mencius about the situation of Meng Zhong, the "little junior brother", in the Zhao State, and when he learned that Meng Zhong was quite valued by the Zhao master's father, Mencius was quite relieved, but also hoped that Meng Zhong could gain a foothold in the Zhao State, after all, this was also a good thing for their Confucianism.

You must know that although Meng Zhong was not a disciple of Meng Ke, this son was very sympathetic to his idea of "benevolent government", so Mencius felt that if Meng Zhong could become an important minister of Zhao, he might be able to spread his Confucian ideas in Zhao.

Just like the Song State, although Song Wangyan had no interest in Confucianism, he could not stand the fact that the important minister Hui Ang around him was deeply influenced by Confucianism, so the governance of the Song State was actually inclined to the Confucian idea of benevolence, which was far more lenient than the Qi State, the Zhao State, and especially the Qin State.

If Meng Zhong could also become an important minister like Hui Ang in Zhao, with Meng Zhong's good impression of Confucianism, Mencius would certainly have the opportunity to spread his ideas of benevolence in Zhao.

But it is a pity that the father of Zhao, who values Meng Zhong the most, died in a failed coup d'état, although the current monarch of Zhao State, Zhao Wang He, actually has a lot of good feelings towards Meng Zhong, but because of the relationship between Anpingjun Zhao Cheng, Fengyang Jun Li Dui and others, Meng Zhong is destined to be difficult to return to Zhao, which makes Mencius feel a little regretful.

Of course, regret is regret, Mencius still tried his best to enlighten and comfort Meng Zhong, after all, as far as Meng Zhong's account of the Dune Palace change process is concerned, Meng Zhong himself did not commit moral deficiencies, and did not make any mistakes, the reason why the coup between Gongzi Zhang and Zhao's father failed was only due to two reasons, first, Zhao's father failed to listen to Meng Zhong's advice; The second is Niu Qian's defection.

As for Meng Zhong himself, Mencius thought that this son had done a good enough job in this matter, and although he finally ended up in defeat and fled to the Song State, Mencius felt that those experiences in the Zhao State were an excellent tempering for Meng Zhong.

He smiled and said to Meng Zhong: "Ah Zhong, you are still young, look at the old man, when the old man was in his forties, he traveled around the world, spent twenty years but achieved nothing, and finally had no choice but to return to Zou Guo to teach disciples, you are only seventeen years old now, what is there to worry about?" ”

Meng Zhong heard this and said: "The juniors are not in a hurry, the juniors just feel a little ...... Somewhat...... I don't know how to describe it, the younger generation had a chance to redeem the Zhao and Song Alliance, but ......"

Hearing Meng Zhong's words of self-reproach, Mencius smiled and said, "That's something that Song Wangyan and Hui Ang need to think about, not you...... Besides, there are many things in the world that we can't control, and the only thing you and I can do is to go with the flow......"

"Hmm......"

Meng Zhong nodded slightly.

After that, Mencius chatted with Meng Zhong about the situation between the Qi and Song dynasties.

Like Meng Zhong's thoughts, Mencius also felt that after the upheaval in Zhao this time, Qi might seize the opportunity to attack Yan and Song, in retaliation for their previous assistance to Zhao's master's father in attacking Qi.

As for why the State of Qi did not take the opportunity to attack the State of Zhao and attack the two countries of Yan and Song, in fact, it is not difficult to guess, after all, the father of the Lord of Zhao is dead, and the King of Zhao He is still young, and the country is bound to be controlled by Zhao Cheng, the king of Anping, and Li Dui, the monarch of Fengyang, and Zhao Cheng and Li Dui have always been friendly to the State of Qi, so of course the State of Qi will keep the State of Zhao to fight against the State of Qin, how can it be possible to take the opportunity to attack the State of Zhao and push the State of Zhao, which originally had good intentions towards the State of Qi, into the arms of the State of Qin?

Compared with the Zhao State, the Yan and Song States have always been malicious towards the Qi State, and the Qi State will of course choose to attack these two countries in order to save the face of being forced to submit to the Zhao State in the first place.

"The old man doesn't know much about the Yan Kingdom, but the old man thinks that the Yan Kingdom should not be able to stop the Qi State......" Mencius stroked his beard and sighed, obviously sighing that he couldn't stop the war between the Qi State and the Yan State.

Hearing Mencius mention the Yan Kingdom, Meng Zhongdang even thought of the two people who were separated by the river, Ju Xin and Zhao Hao.

Ju Xin and Zhao Hao were Pang Xuan's right-hand men, and they were also the two most powerful generals in the Tan Wei Army at the beginning.

Let's talk about Ju Xin first, Meng Zhong actually doesn't know much about Ju Xin, but from his original communication with Pang Xuan, he knows that Ju Xin's role in the Tan Guard Army is like Le Yi in the Xinwei Army, from training soldiers to leading troops to fight, all of them are comprehensive, Meng Zhong has no doubt that after Ju Xin defects to Yan Kingdom, he will definitely be reused by Yan Wang.

As for Zhao Hao, he is also a young general who is good at commanding troops to fight, and he is quite disciplined in his use of troops.

If there are Ju Xin and Zhao Hao in the army of Yan State......

『…… Well, I'm afraid I still won't be able to resist the Qi army."

After thinking about it carefully, Meng Zhong shook his head secretly.

It's not that he despises Ju Xin and Zhao Hao, but because Yan Guo's army is too weak.

I still remember that when Zhao, Song, and Yan jointly attacked Qi the year before last, Zhao's father took Meng Zhong to the north of Qi (Rao'an) to discuss major matters with Yan Wangzhi.

According to Meng Zhong's observation at the time, compared with the soldiers of Zhao and Song, the soldiers of the Yan army were weak and undisciplined, as if they had not been trained, even if they were the commanders of Ju Xin and Zhao Hao, how could they resist the attack of the Qi State?

What's more, if the Qi State prepares to attack the Yan State in the spring of this year, Ju Xin and Zhao Hao may not be able to catch up with this war.

Thinking about it, Meng Zhong didn't think that Yan Guo could stop Qi Guo.

After all, in the case of the drastic changes in Zhao and the defeat and submission of Yan, Song is the only country around Qi that is still hostile, so Qi will inevitably focus most of its energy on the side of Song, which is not a good thing for Song.

What's more, compared with the Yan State, which is remote and not prosperous in China, the Song State is in the most prosperous part of the Central Plains, such as Pengcheng, Taoyi, Shangqiu and other prosperous cities, and the Qi State has long coveted them, so it is not difficult to guess that after forcing the Yan State to surrender, the Qi State will definitely immediately step up the attack on the Song State.

As soon as he thought of this, Meng Zhong's mood became a little heavier.

As if he had guessed Meng Zhong's thoughts, Mencius comforted him and said: "The war between Qi and Song, the old man can't control it, but if it's just the Meng clan...... " He paused, and then said: "If things really fall into an irreparable situation in the future, you can go and ask Tian Zhang for help, I believe that he has the ability to protect your Meng clan......"

The Tian chapter in Mencius's mouth is Kuang Zhang.

With Kuang Zhang's status in the Qi State, it is easy to protect the Meng clan, to put it mildly, with the relationship between Meng Zhong and Kuang Zhang, even if the Song State is overthrown by the Qi State, the Meng clan can also gain a foothold in the Qi State and enjoy a place.

But Meng Zhong also knew that this was the last retreat that could only be taken unless it was absolutely necessary, after all, although Kuang Zhang could shelter the Meng clan, it was unknown whether other families in Qi were willing to accept the Meng clan.

Whether rich or poor, strong or weak, in the end, it is still the best for one's own country, and there will not be too much exclusion, hostility and contempt for each other.

Not to mention that Kuang Zhang is now in his fifties, although his body is still quite strong, even if he can come forward to protect the Meng clan in the future, how long can he shelter?

Thinking of this, Meng Zhong still decided to go to Pengcheng as soon as possible and tell Song Wangyan and Hui Ang about the great changes in Zhao State, hoping that they could come up with a countermeasure as soon as possible.

In view of Meng Zhong's eagerness to go to Pengcheng, Mencius did not keep him, but only told him not to relax his studies, and to come to see him more when he had free time, after all, he was still very optimistic about Meng Zhong.

The next day, Meng Zhong said goodbye to Mencius and took Le Yi, Meng Sui and others to Pengcheng in the Song Kingdom.

Before leaving, Mencius also presented Meng Zhong with some Confucian books.

To the south of Zou is the territory of Teng County, that is, the former Teng State, which has been the territory of the Song State since here, so Meng Zhong does not have to worry about being arrested and interrogated by the guards in the city, but they are still wearing the armor of the Zhao State, so it is better to be cautious, in case there is a misunderstanding that will cause them to be arrested by the guards of the Song State, it will be too embarrassing.

It is worth mentioning that it has been two years since the fall of Teng State, and the territory of Teng County, which was almost destroyed in the war, has now also been developed, and on the way of Meng Zhong and others crossing Teng County, they saw that those towns that had been destroyed by the war had developed again and were populated, but it was not clear which families these towns belonged to.

Only two days later, Meng Zhong and the others arrived at the "South Lake (Weishan Lake)", which is more troublesome here, because on the east and west banks of this lake, there are water villages where the Song army is stationed, although the Song State does not prohibit the people in the country from fishing in the lake, but considering that Meng Zhong and his party are all wearing the armor of the Zhao State and also wearing weapons, how can they easily let them cross the river?

"Let's try it first, if it doesn't work, I can only borrow the reputation of my brother-in-law Hui'an."

Meng Zhong said helplessly to Meng Hu, Le Yi and others.

In fact, when passing through Teng County, Meng Zhong had considered this matter, but the problem was that Meng Zhong, the official sent by Song Wangyan to govern Teng County, did not know him at all, so why did the other party believe his words?

Even if Meng Zhong said the name of his brother-in-law Hui An, most of the other party would send someone to Pengcheng to verify it, wouldn't it take a lot of time to come and go?

Therefore, Meng Zhong decided to go to Nanhu Lake first to check the situation, and if the precautions here were not very strong, he could find a way to ask the local fishing boats to carry them to the other side.

Unexpectedly, the defense on Nanhu's side was quite strict.

In desperation, Meng Zhong and his entourage took the initiative to contact the local garrison.

Probably because of the accent, those Song soldiers did not embarrass Meng Zhong and others, and immediately brought Meng Zhong and others to the garrison general "Cao Xuan".

And this Cao Xuan, Meng Zhong is not a stranger, this person is the Song Army Sima Jing under the command of the Sima Sima, when the Meng clan followed Jing Hui to attack Teng State, Meng Zhong also followed Meng Qing and Meng Zhi many times to contact Cao Xuan, although they have no friendship with each other, but at least they know each other.

Sure enough, Cao Xuan also recognized Meng Zhong - yes, as the righteous brother of Hui An, an important minister around Song Wangyan, even the military Sima Jingwei had to give Meng Zhong some face, how could Cao Xuan not recognize Meng Zhong?

"Why did Little Brother Meng come to Nanhu? And still wearing...... This seems to be the armor of Zhao State? ”

Cao Xuan was very surprised by the arrival of Meng Zhong and others.

Meng Zhong also did not hide anything, and said truthfully: "The year before last, I followed Dr. Li Shi to Zhao State, last year, Zhao State underwent a great change, and I fled back to Song State for some reason. ”

Because Meng Zhong was Hui An's brother-in-law, and there was an urgent matter, Cao Xuan did not dare to slack off, and immediately ordered the soldiers to carry Meng Zhong and others to the other side by boat, and gave Meng Zhong a guide to prevent Meng Zhong and others from being stopped by the soldiers of the Song State.

With the guidance given by Cao Xuan, Meng Zhong and the others easily entered Pei County on the west bank of Nanhu, and then after resting in the post house in the city for a night, they continued to go to Pengcheng non-stop, and finally arrived in Pengcheng on March 24.

After entering Pengcheng, Meng Zhong came directly to the mansion of his righteous brother Hui Ang according to his memory, but unfortunately Hui Ang was not in the mansion at this time, so Meng Zhong and the others waited in the front hall of the mansion, and by the way, they asked the people in the mansion to help send a message to Hui Ang.

About half an hour later, I saw Hui Ang hurriedly walking in, and when he saw Meng Zhong, a few traces of surprise and confusion flashed in his eyes.

"Ah Zhong? When did you return to Song? Hui Ang asked in surprise.

At this time, Meng Zhong was also not allowed to say hello, and hurriedly said: "Brother Yi, a great change has occurred in the Zhao Kingdom, Gongzi Zhang and Tian Buyu failed in their rebellion, and they were ambushed one after another, and even the father of Zhao died on the way to escape......

"What? …… Go, come with me to the king, and then I will talk about it in detail. ”

Hui An's complexion changed when he heard this, and he didn't care about listening to Meng Zhong's details, so he immediately dragged Meng Zhong to the palace.

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