Concentricity

After the training of recruits is over, it will be Dongyue, and the end of the year will be approaching.Every autumn and winter, Japanese pirates would take advantage of the monsoon and go southward to plunder the southeast coast, with Fujian bearing the brunt.Therefore, as soon as winter comes, all places along the river and sea have raised their vigilance.Zhong Yong sent soldiers to various places to inspect, and they rotated every half a month.

After four months of enlisting in the army, Mo Jinyan finally started to go on patrol with the army.The patrol officers and soldiers patrol a town with 50 people from the general banner, and the general banner is divided into five groups, with ten people from the small banners as the unit, and each small banner patrols for several miles, and the personnel are fairly densely arranged.

Mo Jinyan belonged to the Bow and Crossbow Battalion, and he was assigned to another general banner during patrolling. This time, Zhuang Xu wanted to drag his brother into his team no matter what, so Mo Jinyan came out with Zhuang Xu.

"Why don't you come here with a warship?" Mo Jinyan asked Zhuang Xu facing the surging river. Since he joined the army, the number of times he has been on a boat is still very small. Patrolling in the river and sea, I think the pirates will not dare to do anything wrong, just attack casually."

Tonight it was the turn of the two brothers to be on duty. They walked along the embankment and found nothing unusual.Zhuang Xu spit out the dog's tail grass in his mouth, rolled his eyes and looked at the sky: "In our entire plum blossom station, there are only five warships in total, one of which is Meng Chong, and the other four are heavy buildings. Two buildings are already very heavy. They are old, the ships you often go to practice are these two ships, they are too old to go to the battlefield. How can you sail out to patrol in this situation?"

Mo Jinyan didn't understand: "If you don't have enough boats, build them."

Zhuang Xu sneered: "Hmph, where did you get the money? Besides, all warships are uniformly distributed by the shipyard, and they are not something you can build just because you want to."

"Why is that?" Mo Jinyan asked.

Zhuang Xu explained: "After the founding of this dynasty, several groups of remnants of the former dynasty led their fleets to flee overseas, trying to find an opportunity to counterattack. Some survivors of the former dynasty fled overseas privately, wanting to join these overseas remnants, and were later arrested by the court. The navy captured a group of fugitives. The imperial court was furious, thinking that the external condition for these survivors to flee was that the people could privately build ships, so they banned private shipbuilding. The shipyards left over from the previous dynasty were confiscated or destroyed, and many shipbuilders were also affected Involved, countless casualties. Many shipbuilders fled because of this, without a trace, causing many shipbuilding skills to be lost. Therefore, today’s shipyards are inferior to those of the past in all aspects, which is why our navy is stretched. Facing the This little Japanese slave, we are helpless."

Hearing this, Mo Jinyan didn't know how to explain it. He had probably heard it from his father from another angle. There should be many shipbuilders like his father who escaped from the sky. It's just scattered among the people, and the skill has not disappeared. I just don't know if there will be a day when it will be seen again.However, it is not impossible to catch up with or even surpass the previous dynasty in terms of shipbuilding skills. The opportunity is good, and the level can be restored in three to five years. If the opportunity is not good, it may take another three to fifty years. .

Zhuang Xu couldn't hear Mo Jinyan's answer for a long time, so he asked carefully: "Xiaoyan, I remember the last time I went back with you, you brought a lot of ship models from home, your ancestors—couldn't they be escaped shipbuilders?" ?”

Mo Jinyan answered no, and no answer, and finally nodded: "Yes, my ancestors were originally shipbuilders in Mingzhou. Later, my grandfather died under criticism, and my father moved to Fujian." Speaking of Then the voice became lower and lower.

Zhuang Xu didn't ask any more questions. The environment at that time was really unpredictable. He couldn't tell what was right and what was wrong, so he changed the subject and said, "After we go back this time, you should go to the boat to practice."

Mo Jinyan knew that he could not chase the enemy by boat, and he lost enthusiasm for boarding a boat, so he just asked: "Brother Xu, the winter solstice will be in a few days, will you have a holiday?" Parents and Nie Shiweng both died before the winter solstice, according to the custom , the winter solstice is going to sacrifice.

Zhuang Xu understood his thoughts: "There should be some, do you want to go back and have a look?"

"Yes. Go see my parents and Nie Shiweng." Mo Jinyan nodded.

Zhuang Xu sighed: "It's time for me to see my mother too. It's so fast, my mother has been gone for 12 years."

Mo Jinyan's nose was a little sore. His mother had a difficult delivery when he was born. He didn't even know what his mother looked like. He just heard people say that his mother was still a beauty.

For a while, both brothers were a little depressed.The cold wind was bitter, and the two people's noses were red from the cold. The cotton coats on their bodies seemed to be useless.

Tonight, the clouds are thick, the moonlight is completely covered, and there is no movement on the river at all. Even if Japanese pirates come by boat, it may be difficult to detect for a while.Mo Jinyan looked at the dark river, but couldn't see anything. He frowned. In such a situation, even if there were soldiers patrolling all over the place, it would be impossible to guard against it.

As soon as he had this idea, he heard the sound of gongs and drums coming from the opposite side. "No, the pirates came ashore from the other side of the river." Mo Jinyan exclaimed.

Zhuang Xu frowned: "Go back to the village quickly."

"Aren't we going to the opposite side?" Mo Jinyan was a little puzzled.

Zhuang Xu said: "There are also our people on the opposite side. The pirates are extremely cunning. If they are discovered, they will definitely retreat and commit crimes in another place. Let's see the situation before deciding whether to go to support." Zhuang Xu obviously has more experience.

Mo Jinyan didn't say anything more, and ran to the village where they were stationed.Over the years, the people along the river and sea have become accustomed to being harassed by pirates, and they are all very vigilant, and they will get up whenever there is trouble.All the soldiers staying at the people's homes gathered at the entrance of the village. Zhuang Xu left a man to guard under the big bell at the entrance of the village, while he took the rest of the people and ran to the river.

As he was running, the sound of gongs and drums on the opposite side sounded again, and each sound was interrupted for a long time. This was a signal for the Japanese pirates to retreat. See where they go."

While talking, I don't know who lit the wildfire.At this time, the grass is withered, the river bank is full of dense vegetation, and there are straws that people have harvested and piled up as firewood in the fields, all of which are very easy to catch fire. Once the kindling is thrown away, the raging flames will immediately rise up, almost illuminating the entire night sky.

In the light of the fire, Mo Jinyan vaguely saw three small boats paddling down the river in a hurry, and he quickly chased them along the embankment.

Zhuang Xu shouted from behind: "Xiaoyan, what are you going to do?"

Mo Jinyan didn't answer, he held the bow in one hand and the arrow in the other, heaved a sigh of relief, and ran for a mile, then stopped, quickly set up the bow and shot the arrow, the sharp arrow pierced the night sky with a whizzing sound, and shot at the boat in the river Go, the first arrow missed, the arrow landed in the ripples behind the boat.

Mo Jinyan shot two more arrows in a row, one fell on the side of the boat, and the other hit the boat, but he didn't know if any of them hit the pirates on the boat.Mo Jinyan still wanted to take an arrow and shoot again, but the boat had disappeared out of the light.He waved the arrow in his hand as if venting, if there is a boat that can catch up at this moment, it will definitely make him come and go!

Zhuang Xu also chased after him: "Did you hit the shot?"

Mo Jinyan put away the bow and arrow, sighed and said, "Only one shot hit the boat, I don't know if it hit or not."

Zhuang Xu patted him on the shoulder: "Good job! We should give them more arrows."

Mo Jinyan sighed: "It's too dark to see. It would be great if there was a boat."

Zhuang Xu also sighed: "The conditions will gradually improve in the future, let's go, let's go back and have a look." No one knows whether the pirates will come again tonight, so they can only go back and watch.

The second half of the night passed very peacefully, and there was no sound of bells or drums.Zhuang Xu faintly felt that the three arrows Mo Jinyan had played a role, maybe one of the arrows that hit the boat just hit the person, and the Japanese thief was afraid, so he didn't dare to do it again.But in the near future, we must strengthen our precautions. Since the pirates have already come, there is no reason to go back empty-handed.

Sure enough, three days later, Minqing County in the upper reaches of Changle was robbed. Minqing is located in the west of Fuzhou and is already very inland. Japanese thieves rarely invade there, so the defense is relatively weak.

But this time, the pirates took advantage of this loophole and not only robbed property in Minqing, but also murdered people and set fire to them, as if venting their anger, setting fire to everything they passed.Although the local people were vigilant and resisted in time, more than 20 people were killed and injured, and countless property losses were lost.

A few days later, the pirates plundered a small coastal town in Lianjiang, and then left.

Mo Jinyan was so angry that he was so angry, but the scope of Zhong Yong's jurisdiction was limited, and the number of troops under his command was also limited, so it was impossible to cover everything.This made Mo Jinyan more and more aware of the importance of warships. As long as there are warships, he can patrol the river and sea day and night, and interrogate any ships at night, so as to prevent the possibility of Japanese pirates going ashore to plunder.

After the change of defense, it happened to be the winter solstice festival, and the household camp also gave the soldiers a day off. Those who were close to home rushed back to celebrate the festival, and those who were far away stayed in the camp for the festival.

Mo Jinyan went back to Jiangkou Fishing Village alone to pay respects to his parents and Nie Shiweng.There was light rain in the sky, and the wind was bleak, as if catering to Mo Jinyan's thoughts.He carefully pulled out the grass on the grave, added some soil to the grave, burned incense and paper, kowtowed, and mourned for a long time in the rain.

The fine raindrops fell and stuck to the hair, as if it had turned white.He didn't realize it, he just looked at the yellow soil bag in front of him, and suddenly felt that he was alone, like a dispensable dust in this world, his relatives had left him one by one, would anyone need him?

Then I thought of Master and Brother Zhuang again. Yes, even if Master and Brother Zhuang don't need me, they will definitely care about him. He is not that dispensable dust.Or maybe, in a certain corner of the world, Brother Yu would occasionally think of him.

Mo Jinyan thought well, in a corner he didn't know, Yu Simian was missing him.

During the winter solstice, the government office had a holiday, and all the officials went home for the holiday.When Yu Simian returned to the mansion, Chen Liang came up to welcome him: "My lord, the sacrifices are all ready, shall I offer them to the old lady?"

Yu Simian said lightly: "Let me come, you go and do your work."

Yu Simian was not the tea merchant he and Mo Jinyan mentioned. In fact, he was the commander of the guards of Jianning Mansion, the capital of Fujian Province, a fourth-rank military officer of the imperial court, and was in charge of the safety of Northwestern Fujian.On the way to the post, he was plotted against by someone and almost died on the Minjiang River.However, this encounter, although he did not lose his life, made him lose a heart.

Yu Simian washed his hands, and when he came back, he personally placed the three animals of fruit and burned incense to worship.There are four tablets on the altar table. The names and identities of the people on the first three tablets are clearly written. It belongs to the mother, the benefactor Dr. Nie, and the righteous sister Nie Yun. Only the fourth tablet is written on it. It reads "The Divine Throne of Wife Mo's All Words".When outsiders saw it, they thought Mo Jinyan was Yu Simian's dead wife.

This is the memorial tablet that Yu Simian specially set up in order to make up for his own regrets and Mo Jinyan's wish.Outsiders only know that Yu Simian has already been married, his wife had an accident on the way to the post, Mr. Yu is deeply affectionate, mourning his dead wife day and night, regardless of marriage.

Only Chen Liang was a little confused by his lord's actions. Mo Jinyan, who was asked to look for him at the beginning, was obviously a young man, so how could he become the lord's dead wife again?Could it be that there is another girl in the Mo family?But Yu Simian has always been indifferent and reticent, and his description is very serious, so he didn't dare to ask too detailed.

After the sacrifice, Yu Simian knelt on the futon, held Mo Jinyan's memorial tablet in his hands, gently wiped off the dust with his sleeve, and rubbed every word on it with his fingers.In fact, there is no dust at all, and the tablet has to be wiped almost every day, so it is smooth and shiny.

He put the memorial tablet on his lap, staring at the curling smoke from the incense burner, but his thoughts drifted to the small boat on the Minjiang River. A figure leaning forward and backward appeared in a trance in front of him, shaking the oar rhythmically again and again, and occasionally Looking back, I smiled at myself, brilliant and bright.On those cold nights, in the narrow cabin, that stubborn and strong child lay beside me with his hands and feet stiff, because of shyness and embarrassment, he refused to get close to him, and his breathing was deep and shallow, so how could he not know The child's little mind.But at that time, I would rather pretend to be confused.

That voice, smile, and warm breath seemed to be right in front of his eyes and ears, making it impossible to believe that this person had already gone.

Maybe this is the best way. I haven't seen him for the last time, and I haven't seen that cold and broken body, so that he can continue to live in my memory, which will always be fresh, vivid, and full of all kinds of things. Emotions, anger, sorrow, and joy are always warm.

Yu Simian's eyes blurred, and he murmured: "Xiao Mo, can you come back, brother promises you, what did you say that brother promised you. Do you still hold grudges against brother, so you never want to appear in my dreams? If you are willing to forgive me, would you like to see me in my dream?"

However, the more you want to see it, the more you cannot see it.These three words Mo Jinyan became the cinnabar mole on Yu Simian's heart that could never be removed, and would stay there for the rest of his life, never to be forgotten.