Chapter 3: The Lemmings

In April, the slight cold is entrenched in the world, the drizzle and haze alternate, the swallows hovering low at the corners of the eaves, you can see countless southward birds migrating north, year after year, following this invisible natural law. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Sima Yu left in a hurry from the East Palace, crossed Taicheng and went straight to the Datong Gate in the north of the palace to meet Xie An in Taixue, drizzling all the way, but the air was stuffy, just like the depressing atmosphere of the entire Jiankang.

The Qinhuai River is the lifeblood of Jiankang, the river first floats with rat corpses, and then you can see live rats in the water, and the people who live by the water have not started work for several days, which makes the whole Jiankang City panic.

There are even more rumors that the country will be in trouble, but I am afraid that there will be another civil strife or the southward movement of Qianhu, this rumor is like the wind, it is difficult to suppress, Sima Yu was ordered to investigate this matter, although he only needs to take on the name of the investigation for the lord, but he always feels that this matter can not be investigated by the people of the Yu family first.

So he came to Xie An.

Xie An also heard Huan Wen talk about this matter yesterday, and couldn't help but be curious, and asked Sima Yu carefully, "Where did this group of rats start when they threw themselves into the river?" ”

The river runs through the east and west, one after another, and the source must be found in order to explain to the people.

Sima Yu figured out Xie An's temperament, it was best to confess in front of him, if he went around in a circle, he would only attract respect, "Fast horses patrolled overnight, and the report was from Stone Town, I'm afraid I have to go upstream to investigate again to make it clear, I plan to go to Stone City to stay in the next few days, can you go with me?" ”

Xie An looked behind Sima Yu, "You didn't bring an entourage?" ”

Sima Yu said: "I will come to you as soon as the court meeting is dispersed, and I have asked Hehuan to prepare for the pack later." ”

The two are the same age, and since the small entanglement four years ago, they have been able to open their hearts and dialogues, Xie An packed up the things at hand, and asked casually: "It seems to be very urgent, but you don't want the Yu side to have the upper hand?" ”

Sima Yu nodded, and Xie An simply asked the guards of Tai Academy to bring the letter home, and asked Ruyi for some snake repellent powder. He rode with Sima Yu to Stone Town.

is probably influenced by Xie An, and the people who are close to him rarely twist their style, although Sima Yue is still introverted. But he rarely stutters when he speaks, Sima Yu was originally a person with great ambitions, and now he has the decisive demeanor that a royal family should have.

Stone City is backed by Qingliang Mountain, in the northwest of Jiankang, Zhuge Liang Zeng Yun Jiankang "Zhongshan Longpan" during the Three Kingdoms. Stone tiger, really is the emperor's house also", this stone is the old name of Qingliang Mountain, after the battle of Chibi, Sun Quan because of Zhuge Liang's suggestion to move the capital to Moling, and the Moling was renamed Jianye, the stone city was built in the hands of Sun Quan, and became the defense point in the northwest of Jiankang City.

There are natural cliffs on the west slope of Qingliang Mountain, which is also the foundation of the stone city, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack. It is a place for armament storage, and there is also a beacon as an alarm.

The two young men arrived at the foot of Stone Town in half a day, and they all said that the children of the family like to ride ox carts and do not like to ride horses, but Xie An has often ridden horses and galloped in Jiankang City for four years, which has become a fashion in Beijing.

Xie Jiazaburo's reputation has always been the highest among the children of the same age, even he is good at riding horses, which naturally drives the children of the family to follow suit, and even in recent years, there are several times more people raising horses in the south of the Yangtze River, and when trading with the north, the transaction volume of this good young horse also accounts for a large part.

The Jin people also realized. If you want to fight with the Karma, sooner or later, you must be proficient in horsemanship, so that you can fight with them on land for a long time.

All fashion trends come subtly, and Xie An asked Shen Jin to set up a horse breeding industry in the Shen family's business. The climate in the south of the Yangtze River is good, the population is not large at this time, and there is a lot of wasteland, so a little effort can open up a lot of pastures for breeding good horses.

After all, Sima Yu is the prince, he has been pampered for a long time, and he is tired after riding for a long time. Seeing Stone City from afar, he was busy dismounting and wanted to go to the river to drink, and as soon as he approached the shore, Xie An heard his exclamation from a distance.

"Ahri, there are so many rats!" Sima Yu pulled out his sword and swung it in the grass, Xie An rushed over and pulled him away, and the two went up to the small mound and looked condescendingly at the scene on the shore.

I saw a group of brown-gray rats coming from nowhere, crazy and seemed to jump into the river, the two of them looked at it for a long time and didn't see any clues, and the group of rats that consciously went to death was really incomprehensible.

Sima Yu's mouth was dry, and his stomach was full of doubts, "This is good, why did you throw yourself into the river?" ”

It stands to reason that animals have abnormal movements and encounter natural enemies to drive away, or induce earthquakes, as far as this Jiankang is concerned, there was a small earthquake in the land of Danyang fourteen years ago, and then twenty or thirty years ago, all of which were small-scale earthquakes, which were recorded in Taishi Ling.

If there is an earthquake, it should not only be a rat that reacts, for example, domestic pets and domestic animals will be manic, even the fish in the river will not live in peace, throughout their lives, the big white goose and the silly chow chow are all good, and the chickens and ducks raised at home are no different, but this mouse ......

Xie An pondered for a long time and said, "This doesn't look like a house mouse. ”

Sima Yu got goosebumps, "It doesn't matter if it's a house mouse or what kind of rat......

"That's different." Xie An stretched his ten fingers and proposed to him, "Go catch one and take a look?" ”

Sima Yu's shoulders shrunk, revealing a look of disgust, "This is not appropriate, right?" If you really want to see it, we went to Stone Town and ordered the guards to come to the shore and catch it. ”

"The guards are the ones who defend the city, so don't bother people." Xie An took out an arm-thick cyan cylinder from his satchel, Sima Yu had never seen this thing, and he forgot about his nausea for a while, and asked with interest, "What is this?" ”

Xie An wrote lightly: "The hunting tube made by a man, which can pop out of the net, was originally used to catch birds, and it seems that it can also come in handy today." ”

He said that the person was Bai Zhou, Sima Yu saw it fresh for a while, and forgot to ask where he came from, so he saw Xie An jump down the mound and set up a hunting cylinder towards the group of rats throwing water into the river.

Sima Yu didn't see where Xie An pressed the cylinder, but after hearing a soft click, a green net shot out of the cylinder, covering several rats under the net, and he took out the medicine powder to repel snakes and insects and sprinkled it on the net, and the rats around him avoided it.

Sima Yu seemed to have forgotten to be afraid, so he jumped down and followed Xie An forward, only to see that the mouse in the net was not gray all over, but brown hair, and its size seemed to be smaller than that of a house mouse.

If you look at it alone, it's quite cute, but it's a little infiltrating just by throwing water in groups.

"This is a lemming!"

Just as Xie An and Sima Yu were studying the mouse, a young man in a gray shirt came out from the side, saw that he was covered with grass clippings, and yawned again. Having slept in the grass, he had the same little mouse in his hand, and repeated, "This is a lemming." It is a rat that lives in groups, does not run to human settlements, nor steals grain from warehouses. ”

The young man in the kudzu shirt carried the tail of the lemming, stuffed the little mouse struggling in the direction of the river into his pocket, and smiled at the two of them. "Lemmings like to migrate and throw themselves into the water, but because the group is strong and the food is not enough to eat, they choose to throw themselves into the water and exhaust themselves."

"How do you know?" Xie An reacted as soon as he heard the lemmings, in his previous life, he had seen the lemmings migrating into the water when he watched the news, and he didn't connect this situation for a while, the death migration of lemmings is quite famous, they will consciously die when they reach the peak of breeding in a settlement, leaving only a few breeding offspring, but how can this lemmings appear around Jiankang?

"The place west of Stone Mountain is their hometown. I've just come from there in the past few days, so I don't have to rush, and in a few days they will stop when they are all flooded. The young man in Ge shirt smiled lightly, "This little Langjun, can you give me the mice in your net?" ”

Xie An thought for a while and said, "I only need one, and I can give you the rest, what are you going to do?" ”

Seeing his skinny appearance, Sima Yu couldn't help asking, "Don't you want to eat rat meat?" ”

The young man in Ge Shirt smiled, "I practice pills, but I don't know the strength of the medicine. Catch a few little mice and feed them, maybe they will be immortal after eating my elixir. ”

I didn't expect Xie An and Sima Yu's investigation to go so smoothly, the young alchemist I met was simply unexpected, and Sima Yu became interested in the young man's elixir again. Inquiring about immortality, Xie An sneered, thinking about the elixir of immortality at a young age, it was better to exercise a lot to be effective.

The three of them watched the last group of lemmings thrown into the water and headed towards the river in Jiankang City without hesitation, and the young man in Ge Yi took a few lemmings from Xie An and was about to say goodbye, so he looked at Xie An carefully. A pair of light brown pupils stared at Xie An a little uncomfortable.

The young man in Ge shirt said: "I seem to have seen you somewhere, but I just see that you are all children of the family, right?" I don't know any kids. ”

Xie An didn't say a word, tied up the net, and there was an innocent little lemming in it.

The young man in Ge shirt walked a few steps, then patted his thigh and turned back to him and said, "Are you Xie Jia Saburo?" ”

……

Xie An didn't think he was so famous, how could someone who had never seen the children of the family know him, and he was also an alchemist who seemed to live in the mountains.

He nodded slowly.

The young man in Ge Yi grinned and said crisply, "Little senior brother, I'm Huang Xiaoxian!" ”

Before Xie An could answer, Huang Chuping nodded to himself and said, "Thanks to the senior sister who showed me the latest portrait of the little senior brother this year before I went out, this is much more handsome than last year's." ”

"Hatsuhei?" Xie An suddenly brightened, thinking of the words in the letter of her sister Bao Gu a few months ago, that she and Ge Hong had accepted a very talented apprentice, who had achieved success in several years of study, and was specially sent to Xie An to treat Baizhou's eye disease.

Ge Hong devoted himself to writing "Hug Puzi" in Luofu, and was afraid that he would be retained by Director Wang when he returned to Jiankang, so he simply taught the new apprentice the art of medical eye medicine and sent Jiankang to Xie An to help.

Huang Chuping was proficient in medical skills before he worshiped Ge Hong as his teacher, and was known as a little doctor immortal, and was called "Huang Xiaoxian".

Huang Chuping went north from Guangzhou, lived in the place of Wei Huacun, the wife of Nanyue in Hengshan, for the winter, and then went north from Wuchang all the way to the east.

As for the reason why he will feel that Xie An is familiar, Bao Gu asked for Xie An's portrait from Xie Yi, almost every year, in her words, since he has no eyes to watch Xie An grow up, this portrait is not less, otherwise it is always boring to stay in the mountains to face the husband of the fairy wind bones, Huang Chuping naturally passed Xie An's portrait when he was a doctor in the mountains.

Although Huang Chuping started later than Xie An, he was a few years older, so he had to add a "small" word when calling his senior brother, and Xie An couldn't take him, so he could only call him.

The matter of the lemming's throwing into the river is clear, but it is just to explain it to the people, and it is another matter to quell the rumors of national disasters.

That night, the two stayed in Stone Town, Huang Chuping wanted to go back to the mountains to pack up his things and then go back to the city to find Xie An, Sima Yu admired Huang Chuping's chic and calm, Xie An knew the life experience of his junior brother, and said lightly: "Civilians suffer a lot, and it is a last resort to be so chic and free." ”

When the night tide hit the empty city, the mountains were cold and lonely, Xie An was blowing the wind flute at the head of the city, and calmed his heart through this empty night, but the sound of the tide was faint, and he stood in this stone city, which made him think of Liu Yuxi, who wrote "Wuyi Lane" and "Burrow Ming" in the Tang Dynasty.

It's just that in Liu Yuxi's Jinling Five Questions, from the Stone Town, Wuyi Lane, Taicheng, Shenggong Lecture Hall, and Jiang Ling's Mansion are all lonely shadows after the prosperity fades, Wang Xie Tang Qianyan flew into the homes of ordinary people, representing the loneliness and decadence of the scholars.

Don't blame the Jin people for being uneasy, the lemmings are just the introduction, the Jin Dynasty abandoned Luoyang, retreated to Jiankang, the road was bumpy and not mentioned, just in the early years of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there was civil strife and unrest, if there was another disaster, this was to force the people who were already hungry to death.

Although the imperial court is controlled by the nobles, the country is a country of the people after all, and the people need to work hard to defend against foreign thieves, quell civil strife, or develop national strength.

Therefore, to calm the unrest of people's livelihood, the only way to appease is to take practical actions.

Xie An thought for a long time, until Sima Yu put the cloak on his shoulders and came back to his senses, Sima Yu had slept for a while, and he was going to go up to the city to see the night of the river, but he didn't think that Xie An was still there.

Xie An asked him, "Have you figured out how to settle this matter?" ”

Sima Yu said helplessly: "Your junior brother said that they will naturally dissipate after they run out of water in a few days, and it seems that this is the only way." ”

Xie An shook his head, "Such a large group of lemmings threw themselves into the river, and after Jiankang they would gather downstream, if they encountered a slightly narrow river, wouldn't they be full of such disgusting rat corpses at a glance?" I am afraid that the weather will be hot and humid at that time, and the rat corpses will not be channeled, and they will be prone to epidemics. ”

Sima Yu was shocked, and couldn't help but admire Xie An's thoughtfulness, it was really right to bring him this time. On the second day, the two hurriedly returned to Taicheng to report the matter to the Empress Dowager Sima Yanyu and explain the consequences.

Then Xie An showed everyone the lemmings he brought back, and sure enough, they were not house mice.

The two of them were one step faster than the people sent by Yu Liang, and Yu Liang was not angry, but he gave the two of them a problem, "I don't know what kind of guidance San Lang has?" Which section of the river should be channeled? What if the epidemic strikes? ”

This is obviously something that you, a person with great power, should consider, Xie An'an slandered in his abdomen, looking indifferent from the matter, Sima Yu wanted to make further meritorious contributions, so that Sima Zongqin could sweep away the decline of Sima Zong's civil strife four years ago in front of the Yu family, and his brain was hot: "This king naturally has considerations." ”

Yu Liang couldn't help but glance at Sima Yu, who had blindly retreated in front of him in previous years, and couldn't help laughing: "King Huiji is involved in world affairs for the first time, but don't talk about it, this is not a trivial matter." ”

Although it was a dialogue between Yu Liang and Sima Yu, it was related to the two major factions and Sima Yan's position.

Sima Yan is thirteen years old, if the Yu family is willing to let go, it will also be able to reach the age of pro-government, but in the era of this gate valve ****, it can only be wishful thinking, and his attitude is also Sima Yu's attitude, so when Sima Yu responded, he didn't stop him.

Xie An faintly felt that he was being stared at by Sima Yan who was sitting in the seat, and Sima Yu was still pulling his sleeve behind his back, so he simply smiled at Yu Liang, "It is precisely because King Huiji was involved in the world at the beginning that he was able to personally investigate the rat infestation with his own danger, which proves that he is resolute, so I hope that Lord Yu will cooperate more." ”

On the one hand, he praised Sima Yu, and on the other hand, he regarded Yu Liang as a deputy who cooperated with Sima Yu's actions, worthy of Xie An, Sima Yan and Sima Yu sighed at the same time in their hearts, this sentence provoked Yu Liang to no longer object, and said coldly: "Since this is the case, then I will wait and see...... It's really terrifying! ”

(To be continued.) )

PS: Ps: 1. The lemmings borrowed from the "Southern History": In Wushen in the summer and April, there were countless rats, which entered the stone from the bank of Caizhou, crossed the Huai to both sides of Qingtang, and died for a few days, and flowed out of the river. It is the month, and the water in Nanpu, Yingzhou, is as black as ink. 2. The prototype of Huang Xiaoxian is the Taoist Huang Daxian, and the deeds can be found in Ge Hong's "Legend of the Immortals".