Chapter 7: Entering the Civil Service
A flat silver pot was placed in Yun Ye’s hands. Under Cheng Chumo’s winking, he pulled out the stopper and smelled it. It turned out to be wine. It wasn’t very strong. A small sip of it was very dry, about 30 degrees. It hadn’t been mixed or flavored. The strongest wine in the Tang Dynasty was only lees, three fermentations, the alcohol content can reach 30 degrees or so. It’s not bad, and the wine is a bit cloudy. Never mind, if you have wine today, you should get drunk today. Pick up the pot, “gong, gong,” two mouthfuls, this is not a problem for Yun Ye, who is used to drinking strong barley wine. Cheng Chumo’s face was drawn.
“Three-leaved sorghum?”
“Why?”
“What do you mean?”
“Brother Yun is only 14 or 15 years old, right?”
“Fifteen years old.”
“Why do you drink strong liquor like water, and name it at a single gulp? You are obviously a connoisseur of wine, and you must drink this kind of wine often. Sanlejiang is produced in the Western Regions and is famous in Chang’an. It is very expensive. Most people can’t get a sip of it. Brother, you stole my father’s precious wine. I originally wanted to show it off in front of you, but I didn’t expect you to drink it without changing your expression, and to name it at a single gulp. I was really surprised. Brother, you must come from a distinguished family. Why are you living in such a remote place?
“Brother Cheng, you are too kind. It’s hard to explain my situation in a few words. I was adopted by my teacher when I was young. According to my teacher, I should be from Chang’an. When I was found, I was still in my swaddling clothes. The word “Yun” was written on the swaddling clothes, so my teacher named me Yun Ye. It was a chaotic time, so I couldn’t find my parents. I took my younger brother with me and traveled all over the country, on both sides of the Yangtze River. When I was ten years old, my teacher’s health wasn’t feeling well, so he and I built a hut by the river, far from the world. Early this spring, my master passed away. I respected my master’s last wish and cremated his body and scattered the ashes in the river. I built a hut by the river to mourn my master. I didn’t expect a flood in spring to destroy my hut at night. I climbed to the shore and wandered in the wilderness for a whole month before I met Uncle Zhang and his group and had this experience of getting salt.
There was no other way. I had to make up a complete life story. Anyway, my Yun family has lived in Langguan since the Sui Dynasty. In the future, I may have to pay my respects to my ancestors. In that case, I wouldn’t be lying to him. My background is so unbelievable that if I tell him the truth, he will think I’m lying to him. It’s still a kind of lie without technical content.
“It’s better not to talk about my younger brother’s affairs. The past is like smoke, and it can never be investigated. It is already a blessing from heaven to be able to survive in this world. Today, I am fortunate to meet with you, Cheng, and we can drink together.” Yun Ye took another big sip.
“So, Brother Yun is now alone, without any worries?”
“Exactly, a real man has no worries and should roam the world freely.” Yun Ye pretended not to see Cheng Chumo’s earnest eyes.
“Brother, how do you think of the brothers in my camp?”
“They are all men of old-fashioned virtue, brave and good at fighting.”
“Will you not be disgraced by being with us?”
“I have just arrived in the world, and I would be happy to be in the company of my brothers. I am afraid that I am a nobody and my background is unknown, which will cause trouble for you.”
“Trouble? Brother Yun, you don’t know that my family, the Cheng family, has never been afraid of trouble.” It’s true, a devil wouldn’t be afraid of trouble.
Since Yun Ye agreed to work with the Cheng family last night, he has never felt at ease. He is really worried about Cheng Chumo’s character and feels like he has boarded a pirate ship. History is written by people. If the guy who writes history has a pen that is a bit off, and uses the spring and autumn brushwork, Yun Ye will feel that he is being wronged to death. It is said that sons resemble their fathers. If Lao Cheng is also like this, where can he go to reason? This is the after-effect of Yun Ye’s agreeing to become Cheng Chumo’s marching secretary, and the wine pot being taken away by Cheng Chumo.
Yun Ye felt as if he was born to be a Tang Dynasty man. After only one day of blending in with the crowd, he had a big brother and a little brother, and a group of people who followed him around for a living. Life was really flourishing. The past was really fading away like clouds and mist. It was only vaguely painful. Life must go on. Once you start, you have to finish. This is the worst of times, and the best of times.
In the early years of the Zhenguan period, the young Tang Empire faced its most perilous moment. The Turks had invaded the Central Plains, Jingzhou, and Wugong was in urgent need of help. Li Er, the emperor, rode out of Chang’an with a small entourage and six horses, and met with Jili on the banks of the Wei River. The next day, Li Er met with the Turks on the Wei River bridge, killed a white horse as a pledge, and the Turks retreated.
Yun Ye knew that this was a delaying tactic by Emperor Li Er. Now, within the Great Tang, there were still rebellious princes, the people were suffering, and the grain left over from the Sui Dynasty had been exhausted. Eighteen rebellious princes and seventy-two groups of smoke and dust were fighting each other, and there were only ten men left for every hundred. The Han people were still there, but they were no longer as powerful as they used to be. The surrounding ethnic groups are itching to move, the Turks are constantly plundering the border, the Tufan want to take advantage of the situation, and the Tibetan Sun Zan Ganbu has also grown up and started his own journey. Silla and Goryeo are even more covetous of the northeastern plains.
Throughout history, all the great emperors who have shone for thousands of years have blazed a bloody path through the thorns. Now, Emperor Li Er has put away his claws, curled up his body, and licked the blood from his wounds. Waiting for the moment to leap nine days.
Yun Ye knew that the glory of the Tang Dynasty would shine forever. At the thought of this, Yun Ye would tremble with excitement. And coldly watch these clowns’ final performance.
In the eyes of Cheng Chumo, the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty is a wise, open-minded, brave, and enlightened leader. In the eyes of Yun Ye, the Emperor Li Er is a dark-hearted man shrouded in countless auras. Cheng Chumo is happy and proud, and Yun Ye is suffering. The higher the leader’s IQ, the more difficult it is to fool. Thinking about how he gets along with so many great people, Yun Ye feels that the future is bleak and he can’t see his hand in front of his face.
The entire camp is now under Yun Ye’s control. He is the marching secretary and the logistics camp is his biggest. He tried hard to push away the thick legs pressing on his neck. No wonder he had nightmares all night last night. Cheng Chumo still slept with a thunderous snore.
The Chinese people are hardworking and kind, and Yun Ye has never doubted this. Look at these guys, they have been working since dawn, and their biceps are tanned by the sun, like bronze statues, a hundred times better than the ones deliberately tanned in later generations. Yun Ye was so scared that he didn’t dare to take off his clothes. Compared to them, his limbs were the only parts of his body that had been tanned by the sun. The rest of his body was still pale, like a panda.
When he went to help them, he was persuaded by a group of people to come back, saying, “Please sit down, Mr. Secretary. Why bother with the hard work? We will definitely arrange it properly.”
He was persuaded to come back, but the secretary, he is not a worker, no matter how big or small. Anyway, there are not many secretaries who work in the future. What’s more, they are extremely vigorous, and the assembly line method explained yesterday is also very smooth. There is nothing to pick on.
Cheng Chumo woke up, rubbed his back and walked out of the tent. He asked Yun Ye why his back hurt after drinking. Yun Ye, of course, would not tell him that he had kicked him. Nonsense, anyone who has their feet shoved into their mouths will go crazy.
He asked Zhang Cheng to bring him a bow and arrow, and planned to go hunting. Since seeing the bow and arrow last night, he has been crazy about this main weapon of the cold weapon era. You haven’t seen the storyteller say that the left hand pushes the full moon, the right hand holds the baby, and the two fingers loosen, and you only hear the enemy scream…
Yun Ye was envious of Cheng Chumo’s bow, but unfortunately he couldn’t pull it apart no matter how hard he tried. I heard that it was a three-stone bow, made by the best craftsman in three years, worth 300,000 yuan, or 600,000 yuan in RMB. My God, I bought a BMW for that price, and this is only worth a broken bow. By the way, Yun Ye likes the value of this bow.
Yun Ye was completely immersed in the dream of holding an AK-47 and sweeping the world. He couldn’t help but grin when he thought about having the world in his hands with an AK-47. Cheng Chumo and Zhang Cheng unconsciously took a step across, leaving Yun Ye far away. The two women thought he was having a fit with love on their faces.
Ignoring these low-quality people, he drove Zhang Cheng away and took Wangcai and the two women into the woods to pick wild onions. When Cheng Chumo saw that Yun Ye could not even pull the softest bow, he looked down on him and took a few guards into the forest to hunt. He said that he would not take the children and women, as it was unlucky.
The uninhabited land is a huge treasure. The wild onions are fat and tender, and a handful of them is a lot. This is delicious. Just think about it, smearing it on the dough and frying it in oil, and the fragrant scallion pancakes make people drool. It was too good to be true. They even found a pepper tree, which was still green but would be fine as a spice. The women had been picking for a long time, but they had only picked a handful. This guy was full of thorns. Wangcai ate a bite and his mouth was dripping with saliva. It must be numb. It was too much trouble, so he chopped down the tree and dragged it back. He picked two more baskets of wild vegetables and returned to the camp.
He was teaching the women how to make dough for flatbread when Cheng came back. He killed three wild goats, and when he saw one of them with its long horns and many warts, he knew that the first goat had not survived. The ancients said that the butcher who could cut a cow into pieces without seeing it was a master, but Zhang Cheng used a knife half a foot long to cut the three goats into pieces of meat of various sizes that could be cooked in a pan in no time. Yun Ye was stunned.
Yun Ye decided to cook the meat by hand. He didn’t wash the sheep, and threw it into the pot with blood. As soon as the water boiled, he poured out the entire pot of water and added more water to cook it. A handful of wild onions and a handful of Sichuan peppercorns were all it took.
The two women served diligently for two days and could not be treated badly. After asking them in detail, I learned that one was Zhang Wangshi and the other was Liu He. They had no names of their own. During the war, they were displaced and assigned to Zhang by the government. Liu Erjunshi was his wife. Since they were assigned by the government, they had no choice. This time, they were going to Heikou to meet their husbands.
Soldiers in the army are like brothers and sisters. As long as they are assigned by the government, they are brothers and sisters-in-law. No one else will have any ideas. If something unexpected happens, it is definitely a taboo in the army. From top to bottom, no one will let go of the guy who has a bad idea. It seems that His Majesty Li Er has resorted to unscrupulous means to increase the population.
In order to give the two women a skill to fall back on, Yun Ye decided to teach them how to make butter and scallion pancakes: “Dear sisters, you have worked hard these past two days. Yun Ye is grateful for your care and attention. I have a small skill that, although it cannot make you rich and powerful, can still provide you with food and clothing. In the future, opening a small shop is a way to make a living. I wonder if you two sisters would be willing to learn?”