Chapter 223 – The Four Battles of Northern Liang (V)

In the Western Capital of the Southern Dynasty, a mansion with a threshold so high that a child would need to roll over, was filled with cars and horses.

Guests are here to celebrate the mansion’s old master to become a hundred years old, the entire Western Capital City, live to this age, there are very few, and the old master of that kind of reputation, you really can not find out. Even if it is also survived to the old age of the Xijing officialdom big brother, most of them are not clear about the real name of this person Rui, are shouting a Wang Weng, younger can only shout Wang old master. Wang family as one of the south dynasty b word big family, although lower than the old master Wang two generations of Wang’s children are not climate, only out of a south dynasty ceremony minister and two military town lieutenant, and now also died two, but fortunately, the old master’s great-grandson is very competitive, all the way from the North Mang army bottom climbed up, and froze by virtue of the real military success when the king’s tent four big pressed bowl one of the winter pressed bowl, and now a high with a high A character character spectrum of the Longguan After the marriage of nobles, the whole family trend, can be said to be flourishing.

Today’s birthday celebration, also not from beginning to end of the harmony. As the North Mang South Dynasty snake Long Guan aristocracy, internal intertwined, there are marriage also have a feud, some people with the Wang family this outsider family as in-laws of the A word big family do not deal with, today, the Wang old master’s 100th birthday, but also be affected by the fish, there are some people to send a picture of the word in a dignified manner, only the four words of “longevity”.

This kind of reckless slap in the face, even the guests who visit the door can not see past, but the old master Wang even smilingly took the word personally, but also did not forget to ask the butler to send that errand to send the word of the servant a happy silver.

After all, the old master is a hundred years old, it is not possible to stay too long, and some of the important ministers of the Western capital or the younger generation of the family friends have met, it was handed over to the nephew of the Ministry of Rites for sixteen years to entertain visitors, the old man went back to the elegant quiet courtyard to rest, the small courtyard is not small, planted dozens of extremely rare plum trees, the old master Wang is also therefore self-proclaimed Plum Forest wild old man.

In the dusk of this outside crowd, the old man let the yard underlings moved a rattan chair under the plum tree, in a clear-eyed maid carefully assisted, trembling lying on the chair padded with a piece of soft Shu brocade.

The little maid did not dare to leave, according to the old rules to sit on a small bench, she respected this good-tempered to the unimaginable old man, from the time she entered the courtyard as a maid, she has not seen the old master angry once, she clearly remembered when she just arrived at the courtyard as a servant, one day sitting in the inner room watching the old man nap, outside the house someone accidentally broke the tea cups, the old man who sleeps very shallow immediately woke up, she was scared to death! She was scared to death, but when the old man woke up, he just smiled at her and shook his hand, signaling her to pretend she didn’t know anything. Later she heard that someone in the courtyard had failed in their duties in the early years, and that the plum forest had frozen to death several plum trees in one winter, and the Wang family was so enraged that they were about to use the family law, and when a hundred lashes went down, people’s lives were naturally lost. Still the old master spoke up, said there are a lot of valuable things under the sky, but there is no one thing can be worth more than human life, the tree is gone, it does not matter, anyway, this life can not see the new plum into old plum, look at the withered plum is also good.

The old man quietly lying in a chair, looking at the head is not lush plum branches, slowly said: “Chai rice little girl ah, this time the summer is going to pass, in my hometown side, there is a period of time called the plum rain season, because when it rains, when the yellow ripe plums in Jiangnan, so it is called the plum rain, a very nice saying, right? If you are not a scholar, you can’t think of such a name. When I was young, I often recited some proverbs heard from elders, the reasoning does not understand, is smooth, ‘hair all peach blossom water, must be dry yellow plum’, ‘rain hit the yellow plum head, forty-five days without sun’, now read, also will feel catchy. ”

The maid asked softly with a face full of curiosity, “Why does the old master like the plum tree so much?”

The old man who was too lazy to be so chatty with people slowed down his breathing and laughed: “In my hometown there are all kinds of preoccupations there, some interesting, some uninteresting, not only are people divided into three, six, nine classes, even the flowers are not an exception, such as epileptic willows, frivolous peach blossoms …… and this plum blossom bones. ”

Since childhood poverty so reading and literacy not much of the maid whispered: “Bone?”

The old master of the Wang family smiled, “Readers do poetry and literature, to the words of the correct, the intention of the best, it will be known as having the bones of the wind. Then a reader’s style of being a man would probably be what the Confucian sage Zhang Shengren called, ‘If you are poor, you are alone, and if you are great, you help the whole world’. This is very difficult, I just want to do well, but can not do. Only I have a point than many people to do well, is that some people own no spine, they can not see others have the bones, not only not ashamed of themselves, but also spit or even make trips, I, the least to see the virtuous mind still have.”

The little maid quietly scratched her head, confused, not quite understand ah.

Probably tired of talking, the old man began to close his eyes to rest his mind.

At this time the courtyard door over there came a burst of thin and broken footsteps, the maid hurriedly turned her head to look, froze, not only that served as the minister of the Ministry of Ceremonies but always had no access to the position of the head of the Wang family Wang master came, and he entered the courtyard always slightly piled up smiles bending down, lagging behind the two unfamiliar men of the half a body, when the maid raised her eyes and looked at the result of the eyes at once can not move, because the three people in the youngest one of the The woman is really too good-looking. After approaching the rattan chair, Minister of Rites Wang Xuanling, an “old name” in the Southern Dynasty’s temple hall, slightly accelerated his pace and whispered to the old master, who seemed to be asleep, “The Crown Prince is here.”

The old master opened his eyes, just to get up under the assistance of Wang Xuanling and the maid Chai Mi, the tall man in his prime hurriedly smiled and said: “Wang old master do not need to be polite, lie down is, Yelu Hongcai this trip came empty-handed, this is a loss and rude, the old master does not blame is fortunate.”

Although the trembling Minister of Rites has received the eyes of the Crown Prince of Northern Mang, but still can not resist the insistence of his own old master, the latter stood up, very strenuous but respectfully made a bow, the Crown Prince, who was visiting the Wang family’s mansion privately in micro-suits, said helplessly, “The old master this is to be Yelu Hongcai groundless, ah, sit down, hurry up and sit down.”

The old man tried his best to straighten his back and sit on the rattan chair, Wang Xuanling and the maids of the small courtyard each brought over a yellow pear chair, and when the Lord Squire saw that the stunningly beautiful woman even took a seat with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince at almost the same time, he suddenly had a tremble in his eyes.

This Northern Mang Imperial Crown Prince who rushed back to Xijing from the battlefield of Tiger’s Head City, said with a pleasant face, “The old master is renowned all over the world as an essayist, and is a pure courtier and gentleman that His Majesty also praises, this time, I heard about the old master’s 100th birthday temporarily, and rushed here, and I couldn’t get the right birthday gift in a while, so I had to visit the door with two hands and empty hands, and will definitely make up for it in the future, and I hope that the old master will be patient with me. ”

The old man laughed cheerfully, “Your Highness the Crown Prince discounted the old man, discounted the old man.”

See these years speech less and less the old master of the talk is quite high, the response is more appropriate, more did not make the old fool, afraid to make what moth Wang Xuanling heavy sigh of relief, thinking that the family has an old as a treasure really did not say wrong, look at the situation, at the moment can only stand their own, it is expected to sit on the seat of that the minister of education?

Yelu Hongcai although in the North Mang royal court is not subject to those prairie big Xie tick of hospitality, there are no several North Mang most powerful generals and hold the section order to expressly stand behind him, but this person is ultimately the name of the king’s account of the first heir, in the most important importance of orthodoxy in the South Dynasty legacy, there is still a considerable portion of the nobility is more optimistic about the Yelu Hongcai, the previous two former north and south of the two hospitals king, Huang Songpu and Xu Huainan, in fact, are to this gentle character of the royal court, the king is the most important thing. The two former kings of the north and south, Huang Song Pu and Xu Huainan, were very close to this gentle prince, but with the violent death of Xu Huainan and Huang Song Pu’s resignation, as well as the rise of Dong Zhuo, Hong Jingyan, and the rise of a large number of young and strong generals, Yelu Hongcai has become more and more low-profile.

On the side of the bundle of hands standing still and holding his breath Wang Xuanling of course not stupid, His Royal Highness the Prince of this quiet door, half of it is rushing to Wang Jingchong that child’s identity of the Winter Bowl, half of it is because of their own master in the South Dynasty remnants of the prestige that can not be underestimated. Especially after the marriage of the Wang family and the A word big family, it is equal to touch the real center of the southern dynasty, not like those unusual B word family, the surface looks like scenery, the family also has someone as a general, but in fact is a group of dependence on the Longguan valiant answer to the bugs only.

Wang Xuanling a time without reason mixed feelings. This piece of land under his feet, Mei Lin courtyard, Wang’s residence, the entire Xijing City, as well as the entire South Dynasty, it is that the bold and majestic Murong’s old woman, specially for the Hongjia north run of the spring and autumn relics opened up a side of the paradise, in addition to that year that inexplicably happened bloody GuaManChi, cut off a number of countries from the Central Plains moved to the territory of the South Dynasty, “Peach Tree! “, let a person fear, in addition, Murong empress of these South Dynasty remnants of them by and large can be regarded as quite caring, some of the northern tribes of the south to seek provocation, after the fact will be subjected to the Yelu king account not small chastisement, perhaps not too heavy, but can not be said to be painless. Just like his Wang Xuanling where the Wang family, although it can not be called in the past years in the Central Plains of the bells and whistles of the great families, but at least also topped the identity of a 10th Hanlin, still thousands of miles of exile, uprooted from his home town, simply worse than the mud rolling in the mud to plow food of the mourning dog, where can I think of in the South Dynasty to become a new wearing yellow and purple court dress of the temple ministers?

Yelu Hongcai face suddenly gloomy, whispered: ”Old master, I just also heard about the calligraphy, that Longguan second clan is really unreasonable! When I return to the prairie king’s tent, I will definitely talk to his majesty personally about this, there is no reason whatsoever to let the old master suffer such a heavenly grievance!”

The old man smiled and gently waved his hand and said, “No harm, no harm, not to mention the meaning of the word, as far as the word is concerned, in our Southern Dynasty, it is not too much to say that the word is a thousand pieces of gold, although there is no inscription, but it is obviously one of the world’s four great calligraphers of the world, Yu Liang wrote, the old minister has this eye power, worthy of being a ‘strokes such as a dragon clawed out of the clouds, filled with bones and goldstone gas’, not the one who can be a good calligraphy, but the one who can be a good calligraphy. The ‘strokes like a dragon’s claws appearing among the clouds, full of bone and stone’, not the military armor counselor who can make even the literary world of Liyang admire, how can he not write this mood. Besides, it’s not easy for the old minister to live to this age, he should also rely on the old to sell the old, a lot of things can naturally be regarded as children’s words of impunity, a laugh, a laugh can be put aside. Ancient poetry books say ‘life is but a hundred years’ a phrase, this ‘but’ actually said ironic, even if the old minister can not pass, and what does it matter? So ah, your highness don’t worry about this matter, when the talk after dinner are better than the big anger.”

Hearing the old man’s words, the woman with an arrogant and cold demeanor seemed to be a bit surprised as well, and for the first time, she looked squarely at this old master of the Wang family.

Yelu Hongcai laughed brightly, “The birthday girl is the greatest, I’ll listen to the old master.”

While the old man smiled, he did not move and glanced at Wang Xuanling, the latter was at least an old man in his flower age, but in front of the old master was still like a child who made a mistake, and immediately panicked, “It’s not that my nephew is talking too much ……”

Yelu Hongcai helpfully explained, “Old master, it has nothing to do with Minister Wang, it is what I heard myself.”

The old man smiled, “In this courtyard, your highness is the biggest, the old minister will listen to your highness.”

Yelu Hongcai would smile, seemingly a simple sentence of joking and gossiping, let the crown prince swallow back many of the originally already typed ventriloquism. Since the fire is enough, add more firewood, but too late.

And the old man chatted about poetry and painting, military matters are not mentioned, Yelu Hongcai saw the old master of the Wang family is difficult to hide the fatigue, get up to say goodbye, of course, will not let the old man get up to send each other, by the eyes of the Minister of many years of that Wang accompanied by the minister to leave the courtyard.

The maid named Chaimi secretly patted her chest, so it was His Royal Highness the Crown Prince in person, really can’t see, half a bit of frame is not.

Lying back to the rattan chair, the old master of the Wang family closed his eyes, one hand leisurely patting the rattan chair armrests.

Chai rice tiptoe to fetch a round fan, for the old master gently fan breeze.

The breeze on the face, already not heavy late summer summer more and more reduced.

A smile appeared on the old man’s face, murmuring, “Sitting calmly in the mountains and the sea, pinpointing the world has been a thousand years.”

The maid did not dare to speak.

It only sincerely hoped that this hundred year old man, would be able to live for another hundred years.

The old man went on in silence, not knowing how long it had been, and opened his mouth, “Chaimi ah, don’t fan it if your hands are tired.”

The maid laughed, “Old master, don’t worry, the slave girl can still fan for a while longer.”

The old master of the Wang family softly said, “Take advantage of today’s good spirits to talk more with your daughter.”

The maid carefully said, “Isn’t the old master tired?”

The old man laughed, “Don’t feel tired yet.”

The maid quietly glanced at the courtyard entrance, “Then the old master can speak freely, the slave girl listens.”

The old man slowly said, “Little girl, tell you ah, in the future it is best not to marry a scholar, especially a talented scholar, talent is too strong, it is easy to use in many women, the mind is most fluid, in a woman can not stop. This year, the flower in front of the moon, perhaps next year is to accompany other women. To marry an honest man, not without honest readers, there is, is too little. Like me this bad old man, when I was young is this kind of negative readers, wait until the real quiet time, too late.”

The young girl stopped shaking the fan, hiding her mouth and stealing a smile.

The old man laughed: “Do not believe? Do not listen to the words of the old man, is to suffer.”

The young girl hurriedly said: “Believe it, believe it!”

The old man snickered, “Answering so quickly, it is obvious that there is no heart, little girl you ah, still do not believe.”

The young girl wrinkled her little face.

The old man shook his wrist, “Go on, go back to the house and rest, let the old man alone for a while, you will come back after two incense sticks.”

The young girl hmmm, carrying a small bench to sit under the eaves of the house, not far away, not close, can not hear the old man talking, but clearly see the plum tree that rattan chair.

The old man actually did not talk to himself.

Just look a little sad.

In the blink of an eye, spring and fall of the country is gone, in the blink of an eye, teachers and friends have passed away, in the blink of an eye, twenty years in a foreign country. Turning eyes again, I am a hundred years old.

Then the young girl was shocked to see a scene, the windy old man tried to stand up, as if knowing that she was going to go over to help, the old man did not turn his head and waved his hand at her.

The old man managed to stand up, tilted his head back and stared in fascination at the plum tree branches and leaves.

The old man smiled.

Mr. Li, Mr. Nalan.

The bones of our Central Plains readers, I, Wang Du, have not lost them.