Although he was deeply surprised by such a thick letter from his eldest brother, Zhuge Liang still maintained his politeness, and continued to chat with the messenger first, without directly opening it.

He also asked the third brother to cook green onion and ginger tea soup for guests, and asked the only waiter in the family to light the fire, and asked his two sisters to help prepare meat.

There are still two sisters in the Zhuge family who are not married, and they usually don't see outsiders, and they only take care of housework in the back house.

Tang Guang was quite uneasy, and hurriedly said that he didn't need to entertain, he was just a messenger: "Sir, it's better to read the family letter first, Mr. Ziyu told me that I am not allowed to open it, there must be something important in it." ”

Of course, Zhuge Liang had already noticed that there were fire paint seals on the scrolls, but he didn't care: "It's okay, there are some things that I can't know from the family letter, so it's better to ask you - let's talk about what kind of trick the eldest brother used to repel Yuan Shu and capture Guangling." ”

The other party was a little embarrassed by his determined tone: "Why does the gentleman conclude that this is not written in the family letter?" Maybe you'll know it at a glance, but I'm stupid and can't tell. ”

"Impossible." Zhuge Liang denied it, "Big brother has always been humble and self-disciplined, and he never says anything about boasting, so he can only ask bystanders - why don't you gamble?" ”

Although Tang Guang didn't know what was written in the scroll, he didn't dare to bet on Zhuge Liang's determined expression. So 1510 talked about the battles between Huaiyin and Guangling, and also said that he had invented drift gillnet fishing and solved the problem of military rations.

Zhuge Liang listened very carefully.

Hearing that the eldest brother advised Liu Bei to block the news and not to rush into a decisive battle when he first learned that Xiapi was missing, he couldn't help but sigh and comment:

"As it should be, the art of war is false, and the real is false. When the enemy thinks that your morale is broken, even if you succeed in sneaking up the camp, the enemy will fight to the death. Only to survive, to be suspicious of the enemy, to treat the enemy arrogantly. However, the key is to block the news, otherwise it will be all in vain, it seems that General Zhendong is governing the army well. ”

And when he heard the sneak attack on Guangling, Zhuge Liang frowned slightly:

"In the end, it's still a little risky, and the preparation is not sufficient-when the eldest brother left Huaiyin, he shouldn't have thought about stealing the city, right? Most of them were annihilated halfway through Lei Bo before they made a temporary decision, otherwise why not prepare in advance when the troops were initially divided? ”

It's a pity that Zhuge Jin is not here, if he can hear these words with his own ears, he will definitely feel empty-hearted:

That's right, when Zhuge Jin was just escorted by Zhang Fei to break through, he really didn't think about relying on Zhang Fei's strange soldier to steal Guangling. After arriving in Haixi County, Mi Fang informed a new bad news: Kong Beihai had just been destroyed, and the army's rations could not be bought in time.

Zhuge Jin saw that Liu Bei was forced into a new desperate situation, so he helped Zhang Fei die as a horse doctor, and supported several dangerous tricks.

Zhuge Liang basically guessed the mental journey of the eldest brother, but he only guessed one thing wrong-Zhuge Jin didn't think so far at first, not because he was incapable, but because when he first crossed over, he was still very cowardly, and he just wanted to take one step at a time and protect himself.

In a word: Zhuge Liang underestimated the foresight of the eldest brother, but overestimated the courage of the eldest brother, one positive deviation and one negative deviation, and the final conclusion was almost the same.

Tang Guang listened to Zhuge Liang's comments, and secretly wondered in surprise: "Mr. Ziyu once said that his brother's talent is ten times that of him, and now it seems that the second son is really extraordinary, just a few words, he figured out the gains and losses of his brother's army, and I don't know if it's ......right or wrong."

He lacked judgment and couldn't talk to Zhuge Liang deeply, so he had to say: Mr. Ziyu asks you to reply to the letter as required after reading the letter in the past few days, so that he can take it away.

Zhuge Liang understood everything he should know, so he didn't pester the other party.

After dinner, he asked Zhuge Jun to arrange another place to rest.

……

After opening the messenger, Zhuge Liang finally took out a knife and opened the seal on the scroll.

Noticing that each seal had numbers written on it, apparently representing the order of reading, he began reading the first volume.

The first volume is just a normal family letter, talking about the situation of his eldest brother, mother and uncle in the past two years, so that he don't worry, it's all common words.

There was really no invitation and boasting in the letter, but there were some complaints, and it was also mentioned that "the world is difficult, and my brother has been forced to deal with it in the past two years, but he has also grown a lot." I sleep all night, occasionally exhaust myself, and I have a lot of income in my dreams."

Zhuge Liang felt that this writing was not like the eldest brother, who rarely complained.

Even if you complain, it is often just a modest foreshadowing, in order to show that "today's results are completely fluke".

But between the lines, there is no trace of luck, but it reveals a sense of "I deserve all my meritorious contributions".

Could it be that I have suffered too much and grown too much in the past two years, so I have become confident and become "who else can I be"?

Maybe people will be changed by the persecution of the environment.

At the end of the family letter, the eldest brother also took care of himself to write a reply, and the reply must contain the following parts:

In the past two years in Jingzhou, how has the progress of learning been, and what books have you read so far, I have to list all the lists to my eldest brother.

Then, I have to write down what friends I have made in Jingzhou in the past few years, what contacts I have met, and whether the second sister in the family has the intention of being hired, all of which have to be described in detail.

In the end, he also said that the remaining scrolls are mostly the experience of dealing with world affairs in the past few years, as well as the ancient books and miscellaneous studies found in the Quartet, and he sorted out the manuscript by himself, hoping that he will study well and not lose time.

……

Zhuge Liang closed the letter and thought about it, and decided to write the reply letter first, and then slowly learn the pile of materials given by his eldest brother.

After all, it takes a long time to study, and he can't let the messenger wait all the time, and the other party will leave first tomorrow with a reply.

He first reported his study progress in Jingzhou in the past two years.

Zhuge Liang has been smart since he was a child, and his eldest brother has known this for a long time. When they separated two years ago, the fourteen-year-old Zhuge Liang had already read much more than the nineteen-year-old Zhuge Jin.

Zhuge Liang learned to read and write before his biological mother Zhang's death, when he was only four years old and finished in a few months.

Then he began to learn to read and write by relying on "Erya", and then read "Analects" and "Book of Filial Piety", and at the age of six, he recognized all the commonly used words.

At the age of seven, he began to read the "Book of Songs" and "Mencius", and at the age of ten, he read the thirteen classics of Confucianism (excluding biography and commentary), but they all looked at the general outline, did not seek to understand much, and could grasp the main ideas with a little reading. In contrast, Zhuge Jin studied and worked hard, and when he left Langya's hometown, he hadn't finished reading the Thirteen Classics.

After his father passed away, Zhuge Liang taught himself the Dharma and Tao ink of the hundreds of sons in Langya's hometown, from the spell of Shen Shang to "Han Feizi", from Lao Zhuang to the Book of Ink, all of which were skimmed to get the essence of the theme, and he would compare and confirm the study of Confucianism, Taoism and ink, and their respective advantages and disadvantages.

Idle and bored, he also self-studied "Zhou Ji Sutra", "Nine Chapters of Arithmetic", and read "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", "Yu Gong", and "Han Shu" with the mentality of reading a storybook. Geography. Zhuge Jin couldn't teach him these things at that time, and his father was deceased, and Zhuge Liang was completely self-taught with the book, and he couldn't understand the place due to his lack of knowledge, so he had to take notes and put them first, and then ask for advice when he had the opportunity.

Fortunately, after being exiled to Jingzhou, the opportunity to further study and consult soon came. Zhuge Liang met Sima Hui by chance last year, and Sima Hui also knew arithmetic, so Zhuge Liang asked for advice on the places that could not be understood in the "Nine Chapters".

When Sima Hui was young, he also traveled all over the famous mountains and rivers, and had a wide range of knowledge of geography and terroir, and in just over a year, Zhuge Liang's understanding of astronomy and geography made up for the shortcomings.

With the help of Sima Hui, Zhuge Liang finally spent more than a year thoroughly reading the full text of "Historical Records" and "Book of Han", but originally in Langya's hometown, he could only read the allusions to the characters in them as a storybook.

Now I finally understand the parts of the professional "books" such as "Geographical Chronicles", "Book of Laws", "Book of Heavenly Officials", "River Canals", and "Pingzhun".

You must know that the ten tables and eight books of the historical records, the twelve books and the seventy biographies of the thirty families, in fact, the most difficult for the ancients to understand is the "eight books", because these are all professional knowledge.

In contrast, the Honki, the Family, and the Biography are just storybooks that record events, and there is no obstacle for young people to understand them.

……

Zhuge Liang smoothed out his memories, organized the writing, and reported his new learning experience and progress in the past two years in 1510 in his family letter:

He thoroughly understood all the contents of the "Historical Records" and "Book of Han", filled in the difficult parts of the "Nine Chapters", and learned some fragments of "Sun Tzu" and "Wu Zi" from Sima Hui. Finally, there is the Xijing Miscellaneous Records as a literary pastime and some Han Fu anthologies.

After learning four sets of tomes in two years, I also made up for three sets of fragments and a bunch of literary pastime books, this progress should make my eldest brother praise, right?

At least as a book that was learned in the world, Zhuge Liang felt that he was almost finished reading, what else could the eldest brother teach him?

Isn't it enough to look at the general outline, he has to study the scriptures and pick out the words in the purity?

After reporting his studies, Zhuge Liang started another paragraph and continued to tell his eldest brother about the characters he had known in the past two years.

Today, the highest-ranking celebrity in Jingzhou is Cai Wei, who is the father-in-law of Liu Biao and Huang Chengyan, Cai Mao's father, and the brother-in-law of the late Taiwei Zhang Wen of the Lingdi Dynasty. (More than ten years later, when Liu Biao died of illness and Cao Cao went south, Cai Wei had already died of old age, but he was still alive, just old and sick)

Zhuge Liang relied on the face of his uncle Zhuge Xuan before, and barely saw Cai Wei, but it is estimated that the other party is old and dizzy, and he no longer remembers this young man, at most Cai Mao still has a slight impression of him.

Among the lower generation of celebrities, Zhuge Liang met Liu Biao and Huang Chengyan, and also studied with Sima Hui, and met Pang Degong at Sima Hui.

After all, it is 196 years now, and those scholars of Zhuge Liang's generation have not yet emerged.

Among the so-called "Four Friends of Zhuge in later generations", Cui Jun and Meng Jian have not fled to Jingzhou yet.

Xu Shu and Shi Tao have already fled, but they have no fixed place to live, and they don't know Zhuge Liang yet. If history is not changed, Xu Shu will go out to wander and cause some trouble in the future, and finally he will completely change his mind and come back to learn.

Now Zhuge Liang's friends in Xiangyang are all from the three local families of Kuai, Huang, and Pang in Xiangyang, and there is not a single exile in Beishi.

Including Pang Degong's son Pang Shanmin and nephew Pang Tong, several juniors of the Kuailiang Kuaiyue family, Kuai Qi and others, and Huang Chengyan's daughter Huang Yueying (mainly Huang Chengyan has no son)

Among these people, Pang Shanmin and Kuai Qi still set their sights on Zhuge Liang's two sisters, and wanted to marry the Zhuge family, so they often came to study with Zhuge Liang and send Zhuge Liang all kinds of rare anecdotes that he couldn't see, in short, the motives were not very pure.

And Huang Yueying's motives ...... It may not be pure, but she is not eyeing Zhuge Liang's sister.

As soon as Zhuge Liang thought of the hardships of his family being surrounded by others, he couldn't help but tell his eldest brother all these inside stories, and by the way, see if the eldest brother had any other arrangements.

If the eldest brother doesn't mind selling his two younger sisters to marry, he really can't stand it on his own. The Zhuge family is actually a pure and foundationless outsider now, if they have to support one and refuse to marry, it will be difficult to mix well in Xiangyang.

"I hope the eldest brother will reply sooner and give an explanation." Zhuge Liang thought silently in his heart, stuffed the reply letter into the bamboo tube, and then took the eldest brother's family letter, and then went to show the two sisters and the third brother.