The night is deep, and the moon and stars are scarce. There was no sound in the Shen house in the chessboard alley.

Silent sat barefoot, wearing only a cotton robe, and a withered hair in the west courtyard. The walls of the room were empty, the door was closed, there was only a cotton mattress on the ground, and the lone lamp on the side of the mattress was like a bean, and he sat on the mattress, facing the lamp in front of him, motionless, like a clay sculpture, for three days and nights.

During this period, Sanchi came in and brought him water and food to add oil to the lamp, but except for the consumption of lamp oil, the water and rice did not move at all, but his breathing was thin and long, and there was obviously no danger, as if he had entered Buddhist meditation.

Three days ago, Sanchi heard him say that he was going to think about it behind closed doors for a few days, and then he came to this empty room, and he sat like this, and he didn't come out until now. Of course, Silence has this time now because he was impeached...... As is customary, if an official is impeached, he must defend himself and resign at the same time, although no one really wants to leave, but this gesture must be done.

Shen Mo now just wants to pass the past few years in peace, so that check...... Oh no, the excerpt of self-defense, he also wrote it seriously, and then handed it over, and then he didn't have to go to work, self-reflection at home, and waited for the final result. This is actually the usual practice, and every official does this, but the silent introspection is very thorough. He locked himself in the house for three days and three nights, without eating or drinking, sitting and meditating, and re-examining himself...... Recently, the situation has changed too quickly, and his mood has fluctuated too much, and even some impetuous emotions have come to the fore, making the whole person in a state of restlessness.

Yes, restlessness. When he saw the opportunity to regain control of Suzhou, his blood was restless, and he changed his original intention of Taoguang and obscurity, desperately rushed towards the goal, and finally achieved the goal with his previous accumulation.

Although he re-deduced it, every decision he made was necessary and effective, and there was no stupid trick, but Shen Mo was sure that his behavior was too abrupt, and he committed the taboo of exposing his strength, and finally attracted Yan Shifan's jealousy and Xu Dang's vigilance, which would make him walk on thin ice for a long time and make it difficult.

Why is this happening? I didn't do anything wrong, but I felt that I was wrong?

Shen Mo stayed in this dead end for a long time before he suddenly realized that it was strength! If your strength is insufficient, but you covet more difficult goals, you can only go off the rails and use strange things everywhere! But this is actually a taboo for soldiers!

Shen Mo once read "Sun Tzu" deeply, and said to the sentence "All those who fight, with the right fit, with the odd victory." Therefore, the good is surprising, infinite as heaven and earth, inexhaustible as rivers and seas', naturally familiar, but the eyes are always on the second half of the sentence, like to win by surprise, but forget that its premise is - to coincide!

The art of war is also cloudy: 'First for oneself can not be defeated, and wait for the enemy to be defeated.' And the 'righteous soldier' is the foundation of being invincible for oneself! If the army blindly 'wins by surprise', always relying on trickery and trickery, and ignoring its own layout, defense, and construction, although it may be victorious for a while, it will eventually be defeated by a powerful enemy.

Just like himself, in the case of insufficient strength, he forcibly uses troops, and he can only keep going sideways, so that even if he wins several games in a row, he can't be truly strong; Because as long as you lose once, you will lose all the games, and all your previous efforts will be lost.

Although it has not reached that point now, Shen Mo can feel that with his exposure in front of Yan Shifan, the good life of pretending to be a pig and eating a tiger will inevitably end, and he will face an extremely dangerous future, if he does not make any changes, it will definitely be a dead end.

Therefore, he calmed down, removed all distracting thoughts, reviewed his own shortcomings, and carefully studied those old guys who had stood in the court for many years, such as Yan Song, Xu Jie, and even Lu Bing, Gao Gong, and Yang Bo, these five people in his opinion all have extraordinary ability to resist blows, and they can basically do whatever the wind and rain blow, and I will not move.

Originally, although Shen Mo admitted the gap in strength, he believed that with the passage of time, this gap would inevitably get smaller and smaller, but now he suddenly realized that the biggest gap between himself and them was actually in his mentality, if he didn't adjust his mentality, he wouldn't get so much time, maybe one day he would die on the road, and he would never be able to catch up with them.

He found that although these people had different routes and reached different heights, they had a common mentality, that is, they were extremely patient, and when the conditions were not ripe, no matter how great the temptation was, they would never show their grandeur.

What these people have been doing is to constantly strengthen their own victory factors, first make themselves invincible, and they must always exist before they can have any hope of winning. Even when the time comes, patience is needed, because even if they defeat the enemy, they will not attack head-on, but will take advantage of the opponent's weakness to defeat the enemy, but the flaws will be revealed by the enemy or guided by their own side, so they still have to wait.

Patience, calmness, tenacity, and positivity, if you want to survive and even succeed, the shortcomings of these personality factors must be filled!

At dawn, the east slightly dew the white belly of the fish, and once again held the meal, gently pushed open the door, but saw the adults lying on the ground and sleeping. To Sanchi's delight, his brow, which had been tightly locked, finally loosened, and he slept very peacefully, obviously thinking about silence.

When Shen Mo woke up and found that he had returned to his bedroom, he sat up and asked, "What time is it?" ”

Shen An from outside heard the news and came in, grinning: "Master, you should ask what day it is." ”

"Slept for so long?" Shen Mo got up, took off his robe, and walked straight to the inner room, where there was all-weather hot water, and Ouyang Bijin sent his own set of shower devices, and he could finally get rid of the clumsy bath tub.

"No, it's been a day and a half." Shen An gave him essence, pancreas, and a bath towel, and stood at the door of the bathroom.

After turning on the mechanism and testing the water temperature, Shen Mo stood under the head of the shower and took a hot shower comfortably.

Shen An watched from the side, shook his head and said: "Adults' hobbies are really strange, how comfortable it is to soak in the bathtub, and you can also drink a little wine, but you have to stand and take a bath, and you have to take a shower, and you are not comfortable at all." ”

Shen Mo touched his face, smeared soap essence on his head, and closed his eyes and said: "You know a fart, the water in the shower is always clean, it's like a bathtub, all the ashes are in the basin, and it's still soaked in it, and it's not comfortable after washing." ”

Shen An pursed his lips, obviously still defending the traditional bathtub and refusing to accept the new style of shower.

After taking a shower, putting on a clean pair, he was silent for a while, refreshed, sat back in the dining room, and was having breakfast, Xu Wei came.

He has been serving the emperor in the palace for several days, and he doesn't know about the silent retreat, and he sees that he didn't eat breakfast until noon, and he has a good appetite. couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "People who are impeached have insomnia and don't think about tea and dinner, you are good, sleep until the third pole, and eat Ma Ma Xiang." ”

Shen Mo rolled his eyes and said: "What I said is that even the condemned prisoners have to eat a full meal, not to mention that I am not guilty to death, why can't I eat enough." Saying that, he wiped his hands and said, "What's the result?" ”

"The best you can think of!" Xu Wei sat down, picked up a dog bun, took a bite and said: "This time you guessed the result, you didn't guess the process, but it's okay anyway, anyway, congratulations, you can go home for the New Year." ”

Shen Mo was surprised and said, "It's so good? ”

"It's that good." Xu Wei shrugged his shoulders and said: "We underestimated Your Majesty's favor to you, although you don't want to cause trouble, but the emperor just asked you to go home for the New Year, avoid the limelight, and come back next year." ”

"Long live my emperor!" Shen Mo may have shouted this sentence for the first time, and smiled happily: "Then I'll leave tomorrow, you go and ask them if there's anything you want to take home." "This is of course the brothers of the Qionglin Society.

"In such a hurry?" Xu Wei asked.

"It's not a good place to stay for long." Shen Mo smiled and said: "When I leave, the Xu Party and the Yan Party can clash head-on, and the real drama can be staged." ”

Xu Wei shook his head and said: "Without your participation, this good show will be a lot more boring for me, and there is no sense of substitution." ”

Shen Mo shook his head and said softly: "Our strength is not enough, let's wait for the next one to be the protagonist." ”

Xu Wei nodded thoughtfully and said, "Actually, this is what I have always wanted to say to you." ”

"Then why don't you say that?" Shen Mo rolled his eyes angrily.

"I think you're too powerful." Xu Wei smiled bitterly: "I thought my feelings were wrong." ”

"You're right, I'm wrong." Shen Mo shook his head and said, "I'm going to change it now." ”

Except for having a drink with his brothers at night, Shen Mo didn't say goodbye to anyone, because he was actually 'suspended from work and reflecting' now, how could he run around.

The things at home have already been packed, and the next morning, they left Yanjing City, Sanchi really gave birth to a son, and Shen Mo gave him a vacation, as well as the guards from the north, all of them were put back for the New Year, and they will return to Yanjing next year to gather.

In the afternoon, we arrived in Tongzhou. It's already November, and it stands to reason that there should be several snowfalls in Yanjing, but this year's climate is weird, and there hasn't been a little snowflake yet, and the temperature is higher than in previous years, and the Grand Canal hasn't frozen, which hasn't happened for many years.

The guards were very happy, because they could take the boat, so they would save the fatigue of carriage and horses, but Shen Mo was a little worried, the winter was too warm, and next year there would be a large-scale outbreak of pests and diseases, and I don't know how many fields would be extinct, and how many people would flee the famine.

Sitting on the boat of the Cao Gang, he looked back at the direction of Yanjing City silently, and said secretly: "Yanjing, I will come back." ’

Perhaps God really heard his call, and only two days after he set out, a team of fast horses chased after him from the north and said in a loud voice: "It's Lord Shen on board!" ”

The guards warned, "Who are you?" ”

"We are from Jinyi Wei Shuntian Thousand Households!" The men in the power suits said loudly.

"What?" Seeing that their faces were wrong, the guards did not dare to relax their vigilance.

"There is a letter from the Ninth Master, please take a look at Lord Shen!" The man said loudly.

The bamboo pole hanging basket was lowered on the boat, and the man in the strong suit put a letter in the basket, and the guards took back the hanging pole and took out the letter.

According to the security regulations, letters of unknown origin should be read by the guards and relayed to adults. So the guard who read the letter opened it and looked at it, his face suddenly changed greatly, and he ran to the silent room, and said in a deep voice: "My lord, Zhu Jiu sent a letter, saying that Lu Taibao died violently!" ”

"What?" Shen Mo sat up from the bed and said, "You say it again!" ”

"Zhu Jiuye of Jinyiwei wrote that Lu Taibao died violently the night before yesterday!" The guard repeated.

"How so?" Shen Mo's first reaction was impossible, his senior brother was a top master, strong, immune to all diseases, and it should be okay to live to be one hundred and eighty years old, how could he say that it would be gone?

"Bring the letter!" Shaking his head, silent still not believing.

The guard unfolded the letter, placed it on the table, and said, "Don't touch it with your hands, sir. ”

Shen Mo nodded and read it from beginning to end, hoping to find any flaws in it, but the more he looked at it, the more shocked he became, the letter looked unlikely to be fake!

Could it be that Lu Bing really had an accident? A fine layer of sweat appeared on his forehead, and the reason why he dared to use small and big and weak against strong was that he relied on this backer to make the opponent dare not use the next three indiscriminate means to deal with him, if this backer fell...... He didn't even dare to imagine what would happen to him next.

"Since it was easily found by Jinyiwei, I can't run away," Shen Mo muttered secretly, "No matter what, we must first confirm the real surname of the news." Then he ordered the people to turn the bow of the ship, sail to Tongzhou again, and release the carrier pigeon, so that the three feet of Jingli could quickly inquire about the news.

A day and a half later, he returned to Tongzhou Wharf, and Sanchi, who was full of anxiety, was already waiting there, confirming what Shen Mo was most worried about - the Lu family had issued an obituary announcing Lu Bing's death. The capital is already panicked and chaotic. Who doesn't know the weight of Lu Taibao in the emperor's heart? It is said that the emperor has not eaten tea and rice for several consecutive days, and his mind is in a trance.

Jiajing's only edict these days is to order Dongchang to strictly investigate this matter, and must find out how his grandmother brother died.

Sanchi said with a worried face: "My lord, Dongchang has been suppressed for so many years, once he has great power in his hands, he is extremely arrogant, and he has detained all the people in the house, and he has also searched the whole city to arrest those who have had contact with Lu Taibao." He lowered his voice and said, "My lord, the capital is too chaotic at the moment, you better not go back, go back to Shaoxing to avoid the limelight first." ”

"Do you think I can walk?" Shen Mo glanced at the group of men in strong clothes who had been following in the distance, their identities were undoubtedly confirmed, it was the person of Jinyiwei, and after sending the letter, he had been following the boat, as if he was afraid that he would run away. With a wry smile, he said: "I am Lu Taibao's junior brother, and I am also suspicious in their eyes, and I don't want to go back to Shaoxing until I clear my suspicion." Saying that, he sighed helplessly and said, "Go back to Beijing." ”

"It's too dangerous." Sanchi said in a deep voice.

"As soon as Lu Taibao dies, I will be in danger everywhere," Shen Mo shook his head and whispered: "It's better to be at the feet of the Son of Heaven, so there is still a group of people who can take care of it in the same year." ”

When I returned to Yanjing City, I saw the only winner of the Ming Taifu Taishi, the Shaofu Shaoshi, the Shaobao, the Three Princes and the Three Gus, the Governor of the Jinyi Guard, the commander of the Inner Guard, and the mourning banner of Lu Bing fluttering in the wind at the head of the city.

Looking at the plain white flag. The last trace of luck in Shen Mo's heart was gone, and he only felt a pang of grief and dizziness in his heart. The heavens and the earth and the city wall in front of him seemed to be spinning rapidly, surging rapidly, and I quickly closed my eyes, but I was still spinning in the sky.

Sitting silently on the carriage, he entered the city with a restless expression, his eyes were full of white curtains, white paper money, white cases, white filial piety clothes, the cold wind blew, and the whole Yanjing City was struggling, like a ghost town. Emperor Jiajing ordered the whole city to wear filial piety, and use the highest specifications to pay the highest condolences to his milk brothers.

But all this has nothing to do with silence, he doesn't care, his heart is extremely chaotic, both mourning and regret for Lu Bing's early death, and even more overwhelmed by the future, this is the first time for him, he doesn't know what kind of future he will face, everything is gone because of that person...... Looking up at the gray sky in silence, where the sun hung high in a fiasco, he couldn't help but sigh secretly: 'Oh my God, is this a lesson you taught me?' It's a bit too tragic. ’

In the midst of this confusion, his carriage went directly to the Lu Mansion, and the vermilion lantern had been removed and replaced by a couplet, a wreath, and a blue lantern.

Shen Mo got out of the carriage, and the butler of the Lu Mansion who received the condolences at the door recognized him, so he handed him the white belt, Shen Mo took it and tied it on his waist, took off his hat, took a white hat, and put on a white cloth, as Lu Bing's junior brother, he should be so filial piety.

Walking in with a solemn face, he saw the mourning hall where the coffin was suspended in the courtyard, and he couldn't help but feel sad, walked over with tears, and cried loudly: "Senior brother, senior brother, why did you leave so young?" You're going to hurt me to death! His crying came from the bottom of his heart, not only for his dead brother Lu Bing, but also for his own fate. His cry infected everyone in the mourning hall, and they all cried loudly, whether it was real or fake, it was not visible from the appearance anyway.

(To be continued)