The next day, Zheng Yan wanted to sleep lazily, but he was woken up by his grandfather, saying that it was time to make breakfast, Zheng Yan just didn't come out, and then he felt that the house was suddenly much colder, the cold soaked to the bone marrow, the quilt couldn't keep out the cold, and it was getting colder and colder, knowing that it must be grandpa who was doing ghosts, so he had no choice but to get up and cook.

In fact, there is not much surplus food at home, and grandpa is responsible for the position of the old guard of the clan, so the clan will regularly send some money and food, but the old man runs out all the year round and refuses to stay in the village, so he is all deducted...

After heating up the rest of last night's meal and eating breakfast, thinking that he would have to wait for the patriarch to come over, Zheng Yan had to set back the arrangement of going down the mountain to buy and sell for two days.

The walls of the courtyard are made of stones, and the scattered stones can be re-built without mud or mortar. The half-human high courtyard wall, in fact, is just a formality, some people's yards raise chickens, cattle, sheep and pigs and other livestock, but also mainly afraid that they run around, the village of the clan generally has few outsiders to come, not to mention that it is still in the mountains, from the foot of the mountain to here ordinary people estimate that they have to walk for a day, and some dangerous places may not be able to come up.

After building the courtyard wall and starting to pick up the overgrown yard, Zheng Yan ran to the neighbor's house next door and borrowed a big sickle, first picked up the stones in the yard, and then threw off his arms and cleaned up the half-human-high weeds with a few strokes of the sickle.

The yard and the small vegetable garden on the east side were neatly tidied up, and the harvested weeds were spread on the walls, and dried to make firewood, and then a pair of doors and windows were cleaned up, some of which were scattered and re-bound, and some of which were deformed and rotten were removed first.

After eating, the old man took a small bench and sat in the yard to watch Zheng Yan busy, talking about some gossip while having a match, the grandfather and grandson are actually the kind of people with very poor mouths, but Zheng Yan began to learn to restrain after realizing the truth that too many words must be lost a few years ago, and only people close to him can talk nonsense, and now the content of the two chatting is very poor and very nutritious.

The old man said that Zheng Yanbai was blind with a good background, except that he would not be able to give birth to a child, he would do anything else, so what should he do, Zheng Yan said that his grandfather's life was chaotic, and he didn't know how to check when he was old.

In the end, Zheng Yan couldn't help but mention the old man's more than eighty grandsons, the old man was speechless, and said that Dongou was a great old man, with hundreds of sons, thousands of grandchildren, and eighty or ninety daughters, and began to pry Zheng Yan to marry Dongou women, but this time he hit the idea directly on the eighty or ninety princesses, and said that Zheng Yan would definitely grab a few of them when he went south this time.

Speaking of which, the men and women of the Dongou royal family are indeed very handsome, and this is similar to the Ye family and the Tai family of the Great Zhou, and many people who disdain such things as bloodline have to be silent in front of these families. At present, four of the top ten beauties in Middle-earth are from Dongou , two of them are the current Dongou princess, Princess You Lian and Princess Yinglan, Princess Yinglan became famous earlier, but Princess You Lian is a latecomer at the age of fifteen or sixteen, and the other two are also distant relatives of the royal family, as if the top ten beauties of the previous generation are also in Dongou Majority.

There is a little girl outside the courtyard wall who has been probing her brain, and Zheng Yan found that she just beckoned the little girl and ran in happily, she wanted to climb over the wall, but she just raised her legs and put them down, and came in from the chaimen, but the chaimen was really shabby, and the little girl fell apart when she closed it, and she was at a loss for a while.

Zheng Yan put down the hammer in his hand and walked over with a smile, picked up the little girl and kicked the door aside, "Xiao Su'er, why did you come?

The little girl is Xingshuang's younger sister, Zheng Xingsu, who is exactly ten years old after the New Year, and she is still a little happy when she falls into Zheng Yan's arms at this moment, and her big eyes are full of smiles.

Zheng Yan walked into the house with the little girl in his arms, first took out a small table, then took a small bench, and then returned to the house and took out the pocket he brought and put it on the table, but he was never willing to put down the little girl, and the little girl had no intention of coming down.

Zheng Yan put Xiao Su'er on a bench, squatted on the side and began to peel pine nuts and chestnuts for her.

"I was in a hurry this time, I didn't have time to see your aunt and Zheng Gu when I set off, and the road was a little miserable, I didn't care about preparing gifts for you and Xingwen, and I waited for tomorrow or the day after tomorrow and my brother to go down the mountain to the city to buy some New Year's goods",

The little girl took the peeled chestnuts and smiled sweetly, but she was still a little reserved, and Zheng Qi gloated on the side and said, "Don't let his father hear this, otherwise you will break your legs, and hooking up with other people's big girls is not still thinking about other people's little girls, hum",

Zheng Yan didn't pick up his words, and asked with a smile in his hand, "Where is your sister?"

The little girl's mouth is very similar to her sister, but now she is still young, she looks a little delicate and soft, swallowed the things in her mouth and said crisply, "My sister went to the ancestral hall, my brother and my father went into the mountains to hunt, my mother and my sixth aunt are frying potatoes for Brother Yan, there are also orchid eggs, it will be fine in a while, my mother said that I thought you would come back a few days late, so I didn't have time to prepare a lot of things",

Zheng Yan subconsciously swallowed his saliva, and as he was talking, the patriarch Zheng Bailing walked in with two old men that Zheng Yan didn't know.

The selection system of the patriarch of the Zheng clan is actually similar to the imperial throne inheritance system, all of which began to determine a number of new patriarch candidates more than ten years before the old patriarch abdicated, and after more than 10 years of experience and assessment, the final qualified person is the new patriarch, and the others will become the right-hand man of the patriarch; these candidates must meet some conditions, and they must be outstanding in a certain aspect, fair, just, resolute and fearless, and they must do everything to put the interests of the family first, and the people who can sit in this position are definitely carefully selected and tempered characters.

Speaking of which, the patriarch is still Zheng Man'e's father, the girl who came with Feng Yi yesterday, the best among the young children of the Zheng family, may be even more amazing than Xiaowu and them, the young children with such qualifications seem to have a total of five in the Zheng family now, not cultivated in the clan, but practiced in the Yiwangmen, so they generally do not participate in the assessment and ranking within the clan, this is not a privilege, nor does it look at talent, only one condition needs to be met, and they can reach the authentic realm before the age of sixteen.

Zheng Yan sat behind his grandfather with Xiao Su'er in his arms, and he didn't serve the table, so the patriarch naturally couldn't come to see him, he should be looking for something to do with his grandfather.

The three middle-aged women came over with some things, and saw that the people in the courtyard were a little stunned, the patriarch smiled and motioned for a few people to come in, Su'er's mother glared at the little girl, put some snacks and snacks on the table, and whispered to Zheng Yan to take the time to go over, and then pulled the little girl and a few aunts to leave, Zheng Yan naturally had to send it to the door, fortunately the patriarch was here, otherwise it would inevitably be teased by them again.

After a few small talks, the topic quickly brought to the point, the first of which was the trial. Only then did Zheng Yan know that the patriarch and the two clan elders who were in charge of this trial came over today to ask grandpa for his opinion on letting Zheng Yan participate, it turned out that the matter had not been decided yet, and the reason why grandpa said that was to let himself participate in the trial, so that he could go down the mountain and be happy!

"No problem, this kid is also old, not to mention that his practice and schoolwork in Luoyang will be aggravated in the future, always running back and forth is too delaying time and energy, so I simply participated this time, and I have to run the province in the year after tomorrow", grandpa is very determined,

Originally, Zheng Yan wanted to remind his grandfather to give up, but when he heard the content behind, he thought about it or forget it.

After talking about the recent changes in the Taihua Demon Clan, he learned that Zheng Qi was going south to the border before the New Year, and the patriarch asked to investigate whether the Donghe Zhou Yunmengze and the East Sea Demon Clan were connected by the way, Zheng Qi seriously agreed, and glanced at Zheng Yan, probably saying that they let him go, but I didn't want to leave you alone.

Probably thinking that the conversation was almost over, the patriarch made eye contact with one of the old men and said thoughtfully, "Will the second uncle enter Luoyang when he goes south this time?"

Zheng Qi bit the potato chips on his mouth, and said with a smile, "I don't want to enter, I will be annoyed when I go in",

The patriarch smiled and said, "All along, our clan has not done intelligence collection, most of them are obtained from the Zongren Mansion and Sedum Prison, and the second uncle also knows that the procedures are really cumbersome, this time I want to ask the second uncle to explore their tone first, if I can simplify some of the procedures, I will negotiate with them after the New Year, now the situation in the world has changed one after another, we can't close our doors",

On the side, Zheng Yan nodded thoughtfully, on the one hand, it was true, and on the other hand, it was revenge on his grandfather.

Zheng Qi glanced at Zheng Yan and smiled, "Xiao Yan, what do you suggest?" I heard that your grandfather said that he often sent you some copies of the Di newspaper from all over the world, and you also thought about it very carefully."

Zheng Yan could only lament in his heart, the old fox, he still had to think seriously on his face, and after a while, he groaned. In fact, borrowing directly from them is to ask for people after all, it is inevitable that there will be some limitations or ulterior motives, I think we can establish our own set of intelligence system, do not need to establish a comprehensive intelligence collection network, only need to rely on local trading companies and semicolons to collect and sort out the news of the people, this has always been a short board, many people want to make up for it, but the cost of manpower and material resources can not be counted, so it has always been like this, our many trading companies can do this, and exchange with them what we need。 We should take advantage of the present moment to intervene, don't try to control, just put key people in, the establishment of a full-time yamen is an inevitable trend, and we may be able to fight for some rights at that time."

The patriarch thought for a while and nodded, "What else?"

Zheng Yan thought for a while and said, "The position of the governor of Caoyun will definitely expand in the future, now it is only inland river freight, and in the future, the sea and post roads will definitely be crossed, and at that time it may be a situation where the cabinet is directly in charge of the six ministries, the key is that this system is too suitable for intelligence, although it will be very cumbersome and complicated, but as long as it is graded, it can reduce a lot of trouble, I think maybe we can lead this reform in the back."

Zheng Qi had been a little silent after sending away the three patriarchs, Zheng Yan was peeling rabbits and snakes on the side, and after enduring it for a while, he still said, "Didn't I say a little too much just now? If they realize that I am so good, will they send two daughters-in-law over immediately? Man'e Xiaoqian may not be sure,

Zheng Qi actually nodded, Zheng Yan shook his head helplessly,

"Your vision and pattern are indeed not small, you haven't said a lot of words just now, but I don't know if they can hear it, obediently, relying on Caoyun Post Road to do intelligence, you really dare to think, but the idea of grading is really good, many things are afraid to ponder, and afraid to ponder carefully, so that the seemingly impossible often becomes possible, but have you ever thought about it? The more and more extensive the information you have, the more people will often become addicted to it and unable to extricate themselves, and when the time comes, the distracting thoughts are light, what should you do if you break your cultivation mind?",

Zheng Yan felt that his grandfather seemed to be a little serious, so he couldn't help but stop what he was doing, thought about it and said, "Grandpa, do you think the clan should still be safe?"

The old man knocked on the table with one hand and put his cheek on the other, and said softly, "Who do you think needs to have as much information as possible to make what they think is the most correct judgment on the changes in the world?"

Zheng Yan looked weird, and said tentatively, "Smart man?",

The old man smiled and said, "It's a smart person, but it's also a weak person."

Zheng Yan suddenly nodded and said, "I understand, powerful people can naturally dominate the operation of the world, even if the world is overtaken by others, they can take back the dominance, but our Zheng clan is the strongest in the world?

The old man looked at Zheng Yan and asked with a smile, "What have you seen or heard along the way?"

Zheng Yan said about the encounter with Taisu Jingjie Temple, Daqinggou and Deng Nan, "I think that two thousand years ago, the Taihua Demon Clan went south not only for their internal needs, but also for some external reasons, someone is promoting this matter, I remember that Lu Yin and Mu Hanyang mentioned prophecy and borrowing, and our Zheng clan was also coerced in... We seem to be the beneficiaries, can't it be us?",

The old man said disdainfully, "The clansmen of that period didn't do anything like this, okay, don't think nonsense, you should concentrate on cultivation at your age, and ponder what these flies and dogs are all day long!" The rules for the operation of our world are all formulated by cultivators, you have to remember this, practitioners think about things from different angles and perspectives than ordinary people, saying so much I actually want to tell you, when you have certain thoughts in your heart, don't think about expressing them immediately, think about your own motives first, that is, the position in which you make these thoughts, you must always have a clear position for yourself, your grandfather said that you are casual and impetuous, and sure enough, the key for practitioners is to cultivate the mind."

The old man picked up the whole table and entered the room, Zheng Yan was still a little stunned, did he teach himself not to consider the problem from the perspective of the weak? Or did he not have a clear position on the issue of dealing with the clan, and it seemed that it was really not good for a cultivation family to get involved in intelligence management, and he was indeed a little short-sighted.

Sister Lan was kept in the forbidden place behind the ancestral hall by her grandfather, that is, Xingshuang's grandfather, and according to Xingshuang, several times she ran out to see Zheng Yan was caught in the middle of the road, and Zheng Yan couldn't get by, these days I only saw Xingshuang twice and never saw it again, and I don't know what I'm busy with, and I'm not at home.

So he pulled Xingshuang's younger brother Xingwen down the mountain and went into the city to buy and sell things, mainly to buy some cotton clothes and salt Chinese patent medicine, and the rations were bought for more than ten days, anyway, when he entered the mountain, his grandfather would leave the village, and he also bought a Xuanwu military standard marching bag, which could not be bought in other places, but this is Yiwang City.

Xingwen is now fourteen years old, and his strength is not small, Zheng Yan found the bow and crossbow workshop that his grandfather was full of, and bought a small repeater and a strong bow for Xingwen, and let him make the bow and arrows himself, and bought some arrows, and bought another five catties of jerky at Xingwen's suggestion, after all, the trial lasts for three months, and if you can't hit the prey, you can only eat dry food.

After returning to the village, Zheng Yan repaired the doors and windows of the courtyard and began to dismantle and wash the bedding again, anyway, he couldn't be idle, and he didn't go to practice, which made some adults in the village look speechless, and they couldn't figure out for a while whether this was overconfidence or broken jars.

After eating at noon that day, Zheng Yan sewed the futon in the yard, Xingsu helped on the side, and yesterday there was a cotton player in the village, who happened to re-"sacrifice" the quilt that his grandfather used almost like an iron piece. Just as Zheng Yan was threading the needle, a stone shot out from outside the wall, Zheng Yan didn't move, Xing Su, who was originally full of happiness, immediately changed his face, caught the stone several times larger than her small hand with one hand and threw it back as fast as lightning, Zheng Yan had just built the courtyard wall was smashed out of a big gap, and at the same time there was a scream,

"Zhang Huoxi, if I want you to fix the wall first before you come in," Zheng Yan said indifferently while helping Xingsu wipe his hands.

A tall boy scolded and built the wall, and finally stepped in after the sloppy completion, and walked up to Zheng Yan, only then did he say in a weird manner, "Yo, Miss Yan, this is embroidery!"

Xing Su glared at this uninvited guest hatefully, and this guy grimaced at the little girl,

"You are really, you haven't been on the mountain to see me for seven or eight days, do you know that I am counting the days waiting for you to come",

Zheng Yan said angrily, "I swear not to go to your Yiwangmen again, I'm afraid that Long Aohuan will arrest me as the husband of the village",

"I, Senior Sister Ao Huan can take a fancy to you!? Do you know that your little white-faced cousin is still stalking her, and what do you say that Ao Huan will not marry in this life, you are really numb, you are better than that little white-faced?", Zhang Huoxi was very arrogant, as if he was better than Zheng Yan,

"Brother Yan hit him two with one hand", Zheng Yan didn't speak, and Xingsu stepped forward to defend it,

"Oh, why don't you let them fight?", a joking voice suddenly came from outside the courtyard wall.