When he arrived at Tianjin Tanggu Wharf, Sun Yuanqi had Lao Zhao and Lao Zheng waiting with a few people. Yang Du was free and easy, carrying a small cloth bag on his back, and gave Sun Yuan a long sway, saying "Gou is rich and noble, don't forget each other", and then drifted away.

Sun Yuanqi was stunned for a moment and touched the back of his head: Could it be that I really have a bone in the back of my head?

Yang Du was still shaking the folding fan in his hand, and he could still hear the crooked poem he chanted from a distance: "The red sun is scorching like fire, and the fields and rice are half scorched." The farmer's heart is like soup boiling, and the prince and grandson shake the fan. Childe, that prince and grandson, shake the fan—"

It is said that Yang Du said goodbye to Sun Yuanqi, took the sea ship to Shanghai, and then transferred to the river ship to Changsha, and arrived in Xiangtan in mid-October. As soon as he got off the boat, he hurried to visit his mentor, Mr. Wang Minyun, who lived in the city.

Just about to enter the door, the porter caught his eyes, but he didn't believe it, and rubbed his eyes. After being sure that it was Yang Du, he asked for peace while going to the backyard to report the good news to the old lady: "Young Master Yang, you can come back, the old lady is talking to you three times a day!" The little ears are almost grinding out of the calloon. The little one will go in and tell the old lady to make his old man happy! ”

Yang Du waved his hand: "Sensei is in, I'll go and surprise the teacher myself!" ”

When I entered the courtyard, I saw that the brothers and sisters were all there, as if they were still busy with something. The heart said: Why are all the brothers and sisters gathered here? Did you know in advance that I was coming back? But I didn't tell anyone when I came back!

When everyone saw each other, they were all overjoyed, and the greetings and laughter did not need to be mentioned. After asking, I learned that the younger brother Qi Baishi had received travel expenses and dowry money from his friend Xia Wuyi, who went to Shaanxi as an official, hoping that he could go to Xi'an to teach his wife to learn painting. In order to broaden his horizons, Qi Baishi decided to travel thousands of miles to Xi'an.

Some people may ask: Qi Baishi, who was born in the second year of Tongzhi (1864), how could he be Yang Du's junior brother? As I said earlier, Yang Du was born in the twelfth year of Tongzhi (1874)!

This has to be talked about by the late Qing Dynasty celebrity Wang Minyun. It turns out that this set of university scholars, great poets, and great conspirators in one of the great celebrities, the most educated, in addition to Yang Du, such a young talent, the children of the eunuchs, there are also many handicraftsmen born poor, the most famous is the "three craftsmen of the royal family": blacksmith Zhang Zhongyang, coppersmith Zeng Zhaoji, carpenter Qi Baishi. In 1899, Qi Baishi took poetry, literature and painting as a greeting gift, and worshipped Wang Xiangqi as his teacher, which was several years later than Yang Du, who had started in 1895. - Isn't there such a thing in Jin Yong, Ling Hu Chong is younger than Lau Denuo, just because of the first order, Lau De Nuo has to call Ling Hu Chong "senior brother".

Qi Baishi, who is not confused in his youth, is well-known in Xiangtan for his skills in carving, painting and engraving, but as a rural painter, his footprints are still limited to the vicinity of Xiangtan and have never gone far. In the next few days, he will travel far away, and the brothers and sisters will gather together, first, to give advice and tell him some common sense of travel; The second is to give him food.

Wang Minyun heard the laughter in front of him in the backyard, and hurriedly came out with his crutches, and saw Yang Du in the crowd at a glance. ”

When Yang Du heard the sound, he hurriedly took a few steps forward, knelt down, and respectfully saluted the teacher: "How can the student not come?" Shaoling is 'never forget the king every meal', the students are dull and dare not speak the king's way, but the father and teacher do not forget every meal! ”

Wang Minyun said: "Hmph! will say good things and pour ecstasy soup for the teacher. The old man asks you: Why don't you listen to the persuasion, but prefer to hide it as a teacher and go to that barbarian country? ”

Yang Du kowtowed again: "Back to the teacher's words, the students have heard how foreigners are strong and cannons, how arrogant and unkind; Later, I followed the teacher, and I heard that Lin Wenzhong Gong and Zeng Wenzheng Gong proposed foreign affairs, and they learned from Yi to control them. Every time students have doubts in their minds, how do Yiren live? Why is it so powerful? On newsprint, there are mostly barking and false rumors, which are not enough to rely on; Occasionally listen to the words of foreigners, or a leaf blind, do not see Mount Tai, or a blind man touching an elephant, it is difficult to see the whole leopard. Therefore, students want to see it with their own eyes, so that they will not be dazed and crowded. ”

"You monkey! Is this barbarian state to go at will? Wang Minyun's face was a little pale, and he paused for crutches, "You come to the study with the old man, and ask you a few questions for the teacher, if it doesn't meet the old man's wishes, I will have to knock you on thirty lonely crutches!" ”

Then he turned around. Yang Du kowtowed before getting up and followed him to the study.

Entering the study, before Yang Du had time to salute, Wang Minyun picked up a piece of letterhead from the case and handed it over. Yang Du hurriedly bowed down and took it, but there was a poem on it, the pen and ink were dripping, and it was still not dry, it should have just been written:

The frost in the empty mountains is deep, and the moon is cloudy for thousands of miles.

The son is not lying high, and he is lovesick with this heart.

One night Wutong is old, and Wen Junjiang is on the piano.

- "Sending Yang Xianzi".

A small poem actually made Yang Du, a seven-foot man, cry: It is conceivable that he went to Japan without telling his teacher, and the teacher must be concerned and thinking about it every day, so that he dreams of it. Immediately knelt on the ground: "Teacher, the blue son is wrong!" ”

"Kenko!" Wang Min turned around, patted Yang Du's shoulder, and affectionately called out the nickname of a proud disciple. - Wang Minyun is not very tall. It is said that after his death, a certain newspaper in Shanghai once had a couplet: "Xuefu Wen Zhongzi is like Wu Dalang." Although it is a mischievous ridicule, using Wu Dalang as a comparison, it shows that Wang Minyun is indeed not high. And Yang Du is very tall, so he doesn't have to bend over, he can pat his shoulder. He said softly: "Xianzi, I want to ask you for one thing for the teacher, can you agree?" ”

In the era when master and apprentice are like father and son, there must be something big about the teacher being able to talk like this. Yang Du bowed to the ground and said respectfully: "Please ask the teacher to command!" ”

"Xianzi, there are countless disciples of the old man, but you are the only one who is the smartest, so he passed on the art of the emperor to you." The old man paused and continued, "The old man is seventy years old this year, and his life is seventy years old. For decades, although he boasted of his fame and career, he actually achieved nothing: he assisted Su Zhongtang, and Su Zhongtang died; See Zeng Zhongtang, and Zeng Zhongtang does not use. Looking back on his life, the old man was a little arrogant, and privately thought that he could use 'famous all over the world, slander all over the world' to cover the coffin. Thinking about it today, I think that the word 'delusional' that Zeng Wenzhenggong said back then is very appropriate for me! ”

This is a very famous public case: after Zeng Guofan conquered Nanjing and quelled the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Rebellion, Wang Min ran the Liangjiang Governor's Mansion to discuss the general trend of the world with Zeng Guofan. Wang Minyun believed that after Zeng Guofan pacified the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he should take advantage of the great expectations of the world, based on the south of the Yangtze River, with the Hunan army and the Huai army as the main force, wave his army to the north, overthrow the Manchu Dynasty, and then ascend to the throne of Dabao. After Zeng Guofan heard this, he didn't say a word. After Wang Min left, the people who cleaned up the tables and chairs found that the table next to Zeng Guofan was full of the word "vain" written with his fingers dipped in tea......

"Teacher!" Yang Du saw him talk about emotion, afraid that something would go wrong, so he quickly got up, helped him sit down on the rattan chair, and brought hot tea.

Wang Minyun took a sip of tea, put down the teacup, and patted the armrest of the rattan chair heavily: "Alas! The art of the emperor is mistaken for my life! When I was young, I was famous, and I didn't go to study and do learning, I always dreamed of moving the prince and taking the throne with clothes. Zhi is a talented person, talking about the emperor's learning, there is no ink in his chest, and between the old and the dead Penglai, it is just to make people laugh. Throughout the history books, it is those who are familiar with the emperor's vertical and horizontal arts, how many people can get a good death? Wu was up and down, Su Qin was split, Han Fei was imprisoned, Li Si was executed, Li Sheng Ding cooked, Pang Tong was arrowed, and Zhuge died early...... Is it so easy to do it?

"Xianzi, Huizi, people say 'people are about to die, and their words are also good', the teacher has been thinking about this recently, and since I think of this layer, I can't help but think about you. You are the old man's most proud disciple, and you can live a peaceful life, which is the old man's greatest wish. What kind of fame and career, it's all a passing thing! Kenko, if you don't listen to me, don't-"

The old man's gray beard trembled slightly, and his eyes were firmly fixed on Yang Du, as if he wanted to get a promise from him to make him feel at ease.

The small study room fell into a terrible silence for a while.

In the middle of the confrontation, the old man suddenly found something new on Yang Du's face, and said in a lost voice: "Xianzi, did you meet any strange people when you went out this time?" ”

The teacher originally wanted to persuade himself to give up the study of the emperor, but Yang Du was naturally unwilling. Now changing the topic is exactly what Yang Du can't ask for, and immediately said: "It's really an eye-opener to go out this time." I first went to Yokohama, Japan, because the port was the earliest, so the people were the most civilized, and the streets were full of blond and blue-eyed foreigners, and the Japanese people regarded it as ordinary people——"

"The old man asked what strange people you met!" The old man was very upset and slapped the armrest heavily.

"Strange people? Oh yes, I met a lot of strange people. Yang Du immediately agreed, "Judging from the few strange people that the students have seen, I'm afraid that this Qing Dynasty is qi will be exhausted!" ”

"Oh?" Wang Minyun is the master who persuaded Zeng Guo to destroy the Qing Dynasty, and naturally he did not have much loyalty to the Qing Dynasty, so he did not move when he heard the words, twisted his beard and said slowly, "At the same time, the old man watched the sky at night, and saw that the Ying was too faint, and the emperor was very anxious, and Ziwei Star was crumbling, and there was a big star in the Chu Division, which was shining, and the emperor sat around, and there was always the appearance of entering the Ziwei Palace. Later, there were thieves, bandits, and chaos, and the luck of the Manchu Qing Dynasty would continue. The land of my lake will overlap each other, and the most authored is Zeng Wenzhenggong. The old man thought that this person was in response to the heavens, so he was willing to commit the crime of nine deaths and interfered with Zeng Gong. If you don't succeed, you will be slandered by 'fools'. Alas! Now that decades have passed, this purple microstar is dim and faint, but it is just a lingering breath. In the first three or four years, suddenly a new star came out of Youzhou, gradually brightened, hovering between Wen Kui and Ziwei, but he didn't know who should be. By the way, can you tell me about the strange people you met? ”

"The students first studied in the crash course of the teacher training of Hongwen Academy in Tokyo, Japan, and met Huang Xing from Changsha Prefecture, Hunan Province; Later, I heard that some of Kang Liang's rebels were in Yokohama, so I went to Yokohama to visit them, and by the way, I checked the reality and saw Liang Qichao of Guangdong Xinhui, as well as Ma Tong of Guilin in Guangxi, Cai Yi in Baoqing in Hunan and others around him. Looking at the faces of these four people, although they are not eternal, they can rarely survive the sixtieth birthday, but they can all be ranked as the second king, if it is not for the change of dynasty, how can they suddenly get this high position? It can be seen that the matter of changing generations is in a matter of years! Yang Du analyzed firmly.

"These are the strange people you've met?" Wang Minyun asked suspiciously.

"No, there's one more! This person is really a strange person, even students can't see through him! ”

"Oh?" Wang Minyun's appetite was whetted by Yang Du. As for the words that persuaded Yang Du not to learn the imperial technique just now, he had already forgotten it for a while, "Yang Xianzi, who has no eyes, actually has a time when he can't see through it?" Say it and listen to it as a teacher, and let's refer to it together! ”

Yang Du said: "I have been with him for a few days, and I have carefully observed: when he is bored, if his body is boneless, if his body is without muscles, he often needs to rely on it, and then he can settle down, but the ordinary small wealth is the most ordinary." However, when he stood up, he was long and jade, towering like Mount Tai, and comfortable, amiable, and turned into a sage. If you walk, it's even greater! The dragon and the tiger step, the eagle and the wolf, have the potential to dominate the wind and clouds, it is really expensive! ”

Wang Minyun was taken aback, and Shou Mei shrugged slightly: "Heh, there are such characters in the world!" If it's really as you said, wouldn't it be better than Zeng Hou's leprosy dragon appearance? ”

Zeng Guofan's "leprosy dragon" appearance is the most talked about anecdote in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China. It is said that when Zeng Guofan was born, his great-grandfather Zeng Jingxi dreamed of a dragon that meandered down from the sky and went straight into the Zeng family's house, with its head hanging on a beam and its tail coiled on a pillar, with brilliant scales and armor, and a wagging tail and drumming. The next morning, Zeng Guofan's biological father, Zeng Linshu, went to report the news of the joy of Zhang, and if he realized something, he told the dream and asked him to take care of this son carefully, and he would be able to glorify the lintel of Zeng's house one day.

Coincidentally, on the day of Zeng Guofan's birth, a green vine grew behind the old house of the Zeng family, entangled in the tree, after the tree died, the vine was still lush and lush, hanging an acre of shade, rare in the world. This giant vine, called "python vine" by the villagers, is shaped like the dragon that he saw in his dream. According to Ye Shi, the family can see what the situation of Zeng Guofan is when they look at the withered glory of the vine: if he is promoted to an official position and his career is smooth, the branches and leaves of the giant vine are luxuriant, and on the contrary, it is described as withered. The giant vine seems to have become the embodiment of Zeng Guofan. After the death of Zeng Guofan, the giant vine also lost its leaves and withered, and soon died.

What's even more strange is that Zeng Guofan has had a body of eccentricity since he became a junior sergeant, which will not heal for the rest of his life, and often tosses him restlessly. In his "Diary" and "Letter to Home", he is often seen complaining about this. Therefore, every morning when he wakes up, he must play Go and concentrate on the chessboard, so as to forget the pain. When eccentria attacks, the pain is unbearable, the hands are scratched, and the dander is flying. Its grasping posture resembles a dragon with its teeth and claws. Zhang Lihan, the prefect of Raozhou, was good at face-to-face, and after observing Zeng Gong's appearance, he said: "Sit and watch, open your claws and shave your beard, like a leprosy dragon."

In a dream, the vine is like a dragon, ringworm is like scales, all kinds of weird and mixed together, and it follows the association, so there is the legend of Zeng Guofan's "reincarnation of the leprosy dragon".

When the teacher asked, Yang Du couldn't be sure: "Zeng Wenzhenggong, the students are not fortunate to see it, so they naturally don't know the heroic posture of the sages." However, this person's strange appearance is indeed the only thing that students have seen in their lives, and they are still a little uncertain. I want to visit him in Beijing again in a while to see how this person is! ”

"You can't go to Beijing!" Wang Minyun saw that Yang Du was about to speak, and waved his hand, "The old man has already written to Xiang Shuai a few days ago and recommended you to his curtain. Xiangshuai was 15 years old in Xie Yuan, 26 years old into Tanhua, and then from Qingliu to Zaifu, after Zeng Wenzheng, Zuo Wenxiang, Li Wenzhong, the most famous minister. His brother Luanpo Zhongtang was also a champion in his early years. Brother Kejia brilliant, career Tengda, Tongden phase, who is not envious of the people of the four seas? You enter his curtain and socialize with celebrities at home, which is the most suitable for raising hope! ”

Yang Du knew that the "Luanpo Middle Hall" that the teacher said was Zhang Zhiwan, and the "Xiang Shuai" was the famous Zhang Zhidong - well, there was no Xiang Shuai of Chu Liuxiang at that time. He is young and much more lively, how can he be willing to go to the door of an old man in his sixties to be a staff member? And it is likely that he will stay for several years, and then beg: "Teacher......"

"Needless to say, I've made up my mind!" Wang Minyun directly refused. After a pause, he was afraid of hurting the heart of his proud disciple, and explained: "Xianzi, you have also read the "Old Tang Book", you say, why did Li Taibai live in seclusion in Culai Mountain with a few people such as Kong Chaofu, Han Wei, Pei Zheng, Zhang Shuming, Tao Wei and a few others, singing and drinking every day? It's just to get people to notice. Later, when he heard that Wu Yun was famous, he ran to Huiji and lived with the Taoist priest Wu Yun. Not for hope? Another example is that he entered Xu Yushi's house. Although Li Tang has an open atmosphere, his son-in-law has a bad reputation after all. Why is that? It's just because this Xu Yushi is the prime minister of the former dynasty! and he traveled east to Weiyang, and in less than a year, he squandered 300,000 silver to help the down-and-out sons and grandsons. Didn't he know that this silver was earned by his old man's hard work? It's just the cost of being famous all over the world!

"Xianzi, the person who learns the emperor's art says 'the minister chooses the king', after all, it is a minority, and the righteous man is still 'the king chooses the minister'. If a scholar has no reputation, how can he see the Lord? is a hero like Han Gaozu, the first time he saw Li Sheng, he also washed his feet on the bed, not to mention waiting for him? And what about reuse? So, Kenko, you better go to Xiangshuai's curtain! ”

After listening to the teacher's painstaking persuasion, and no longer allowing himself to give up the imperial technique, Yang Du finally reluctantly agreed.

The old man was happy: "By the way, Xianzi, what is the name of the strange person you just said?" ”

This person's surname is Sun, his name is Yuan, the word Baixi, is the nephew of Shouzhou Zhongtang, few people know in China, and he is famous in the West. He now runs a school in Beijing called 'Jingshi University'—"

"Jingshi University? This name is so familiar, let the old man think about it! Wang Minyun suddenly remembered something, got up and went to the back bookshelf to check for a while, and finally found a letter from it, "It seems that I haven't been old and confused, and I remember that there seems to be a letter written by 'Jingshi University'." Let me see...... Hey, it turned out that the old man was invited to coach. In that case, why don't I go to Beijing first? ”;