On the outskirts of Ava. Gongs and drums are noisy, and guns and cannons are ringing in unison.

In the midst of this uproar, the Burmese king Mangda bid farewell to the ministers who saw him off, and went out of the city on a war elephant.

Tens of thousands of disheveled Burmese soldiers lined up in a loose array in the clearing. They stood in the sun, either with spears, or with knives, or with rusty birds' guns on their backs. The vast majority of these Burmese soldiers were conscripted peasant soldiers, and naturally they had no military appearance to speak of, and it was already very good to be able to barely stand like this. The war elephants on the side also snorted and fanned their ears, maybe this would make them cooler.

Equally scorched by the scorching sun were dozens of wizards who swirled and danced on the stage: they sang and danced and chanted words one moment, and then threw something like a rune into the fire; If he was tired, the wizard took out a little powder wrapped in paper and put it in his mouth, and then danced even more wildly. Doing this strenuous exercise in the hot May sun, the sweat of the wizards soon soaked the table. Although Myanmar believes in Buddhism, these are not in conflict with Buddha in the eyes of Burmese people.

Some Burmese soldiers folded their hands and made a wish on stage, while many more simply watched it as a theatrical performance: for Burmese who had never been to a lord's city in their lives, such a "performance" often did not occur several times in their lives.

At noon, a wizard with slightly gray temples stepped down from the stage and whispered something into the ear of the Burmese king.

Manda nodded in satisfaction, and with a wave of his hand, he gave the wizard a purse---- which contained a heavy Spanish silver dollar. This coinage entered Burma with the arrival of Westerners, but it was in very small circulation, and only great nobles such as the Burmese king could use it as a reward.

The sorcerer touched his purse and found that it was a mediocre silver dollar, and immediately smiled and thanked the king of Burma. Due to the convenience of counting and carrying, a silver dollar, which weighs only eight coins, can actually be used as a tael of silver in use. A quarter of the extra extra money made the wizard smile, perhaps out of excitement, the wizard leaned into the ear of the Burmese king and said some "precautions" for divination.

The Burmese king Mangda listened with a smile on the surface, but in his heart, thousands of alpacas galloped by: Dare I don't give you more money, and you don't even tell all the results of divination? Do you really think that this king is a soft persimmon? However, in front of the army, Mangda didn't want to trouble this wizard, but secretly wrote down the little black book in his heart: If this king returns from victory, he must find an excuse to kill you!

Waving his hand to drive away the greedy sorcerer, the Burmese king, wrapped in a layer of iron armor, slowly walked up to the wooden platform, ready to give a pre-war mobilization speech.

This kind of speech was not so much for the soldiers as for the nobles who led the troops--- and the speeches were full of ornate rhetoric that only the nobles could understand. The soldiers were forcibly brainwashed by the meaningless murmur of "every letter can be understood, but when they are connected together, they don't know what it means", they all sweated profusely and became drowsy, and even many weak people fainted from heat stroke.

Going out in the sun in Myanmar in May is torture for anyone. The recklessness of fine clothes and food since childhood is even more unbearable. It's just that after standing on the stage for a while, he was choked by the armor that seemed to melt into molten iron, and he could no longer hold back the burning heat on his body and the sweat that kept flowing onto the stage, and forcibly jumped from the beginning to the last sentence.

"This king ordered the whole army to march out and destroy the false Ming!" Regardless of the response from below, Mang Dafei, who just wanted to take off his armor, jumped off the stage like him, and asked the left and right to help him unload this torturous scrap metal. The sound of the armor clattering to the ground, and the reckless ran into the tent with the well water out of breath, enjoying the cool breeze from the waiter behind him.

The soldiers dispersed as if they had been granted amnesty, and the previously quiet open space was instantly turned into a vegetable market. The petty lords, who acted as low-ranking officers, scolded their soldiers with swords and gathered them away, and from time to time they caught people who ran in the wrong direction. The formation is like the headphone cables that are wound together, "cut constantly, and the arrangement is messy". From time to time, the crowd resounded with the sound of foul shouting and the clashing of weapons.

Only the immediate troops of the Burmese king were not bad, and the professional officers turned the phalanx into a marching formation in less than a quarter of an hour. Regardless of whether the peasant soldiers who were used as cannon fodder were left behind, Mangda took the troops directly under him and drove away first.

The greedy old wizard had returned to the city with his disciples and grandchildren. The old wizard was very generous, and divided most of the silver dollars that the king of Burma had given him. "Disciples, this is your reward."

When the apprentices saw the shiny silver dollar, they were overjoyed and hurriedly put it away. "Thank you, Master."

"A little money is a small matter, but if the king of Burma returns, he will kill us. Therefore, the apprentices still ran together as teachers. ”

The disciples didn't know what he meant, and they asked the master what he had done. The old wizard didn't want to say it, but he couldn't stand the disciples from asking questions non-stop, so he had to let his family retreat and close the doors and windows. "You haven't heard what I've said since you left this door. Otherwise, we all have to worry about our lives! ”

The disciples were impatient, and hurriedly said yes, they just wanted to know what their master had done as soon as possible, so that they had to smear oil on the soles of their feet now.

"A few days ago, the king's favorite servants visited me and asked me to do something for the army. I asked him why the king raised an army, and he said that he was going to crusade against the Ming Kingdom. ”

"So, as a teacher, it was decided that the king of Burma would lose this battle!" The old wizard shook his feather fan and observed the suspicious eyes of his disciples. "Yes, it is true that the Ming Kingdom has lost its teachers and land for decades, and even so, there are tens of thousands of elites in Yunnan. These soldiers were all brought by the Ming Kingdom from far, far away, which one is not the rest of the battle? That reckless person wants to go to the tiger whiskers of the Ming Kingdom, I'm afraid it's not crazy! ”

"Even so, why does Master say that he is killed?"

The old wizard smiled and told his apprentices everything he had done in the audience. Everyone looked solemn, and the two trembled. "Let's go. It doesn't matter if you follow as a teacher, or if you go back to your own home. This Ava City is absolutely stunned! ”

The old wizard looked up and sighed, "I don't know when we will meet again, or which of us will die or live in a few months." Before parting, I have something to say to you. ”

"Disciple, wait for your ears to listen!"

"You have all come to learn divination with me. Spellcaster. But can those ordinary things really decide things thousands of miles away? No, never! The reason why the teacher has the name of divination is that it is not a major event, and the second is that there are hundreds of Chinese books and they are studied every day. Xiucai doesn't go out, he knows everything in the world. It's okay to deceive others with these little tricks of divination and spells, don't deceive yourself and others, and mistake yourself! The old wizard didn't look back after speaking, and hurried away.

Leaving his disciples, the old wizard got into a carriage in the courtyard. Thinking of his father's last words before he died, he couldn't help but burst into tears when he was over half a hundred years old.

The sword scene decades ago, he will never forget in his life.

"Father, the son will live up to his father's expectations!"