Whoever wins the crouching dragon wins the world

Suppressing the dust and rushing forward, ten days later, I finally entered Hongnong County as I wished, and I was in a trance all the way.Not only because of the many sallow and thin compatriots who were still struggling to survive on the death line, but also because not long ago, there was news of soldiers suffering from Helin County, which we had just left.

Simply incredible.

Cao Cao is a hero of a generation. Although he shamed many people of insight who were loyal to the Han Dynasty by coercing the emperor to make the princes, but in all honesty, he is a capable man of action.Even if you only think about it with your toes, you will know that the land under his jurisdiction cannot be completely devastated like the one I see right now.Leaving aside the wealth of Xudu, even the abandoned capital Luoyang, which has gradually recovered its vitality, is also fascinating.However, Cao Cao had a strong desire to fight. When he devoted most of his attention to fighting Yuan Shao, destroying Yuan Shu, and conquering Wuhuan, he spent less energy on recuperating and rectifying internal affairs.

According to Liu Xi's estimation, of the more than 100 million square kilometers under Cao Cao's rule, he can actually control less than [-]%.Hongnong is very close to Luoyang. Only when you enter Hongnong can you really enter Cao Cao's sphere of influence. But He Lin is only ten days away from Hongnong. If even He Lin is worried about military disaster, you can imagine other places What a mess it will be.

But we have traveled all the way, except for the usual refugees, we have encountered nothing.As long as you inquire carefully, you will find that many places were attacked by guerrillas from nowhere on the second day after we left.

"Could it be that you can pinch it?" Our itinerary is completely controlled by Kong Ming. From the perspective of probability, it is impossible for him to be favored by the goddess of luck every time.

Kong Ming shook his feather fan lightly, and said in a deep voice, "My husband has his own tricks."

Pretending to be a magic stick again!

Ever since he "borrowed" a gust of wind in the Battle of Chibi, Kong Ming has become more and more immortal. Liu Xi once joked that he would create a four-person group of great Han gods in the Three Kingdoms. At present, Kong Ming, the god of wind, and Liu Xi, the god of thunder, have all died Returning to the original position is only due to the God of Rain and the God of Electricity, which still needs to be further excavated.

"The god of electricity is Ma Chao! His eyes can discharge electricity, XX is so handsome!" Thinking of the new little fresh meat who joined the camp, Liu Xi's eyes lit up, "The god of rain should be Liu Bei, right? Liu Biao died and cried, seeing the common people Crying in distress, unwilling to return Jingzhou, or crying, isn’t there an allegorical saying called Liu Bei’s Jiangshan—crying out? It’s a pity that he was killed by a butterfly, otherwise there is really no more suitable person than him!”

... In myths and legends, the mother of lightning is a goddess of lightning, and she is also married to the god of thunder. When the thunder god and the mother of lightning quarrel, there will be lightning and thunder in the sky.If Ma Chao knew that you promoted him as a sissy who descended from the mother of electricity, he would definitely shoot you to death.

Liu Xi has no sense of crisis at all, and is immersed in her own world, thinking: "Your husband is the god of wind, so you have to get a famous name to be right with him. How about Princess Iron Fan? Coincidentally You are also a princess in this life, it’s not that the whole family does not enter the house, and the wind is drawn when the banana fan is beaten, what a match!"

"Hehe, the Bull Demon King will kill you." Most importantly, please don't compare me with you false gods who play tricks!

However, on a very hot day, since Kong Ming racked his brains to help me avoid the military disaster, I will give him some face and let him be proud for a while.

Presumably my reaction was also expected by Zhuge, the master of clever calculations. A smile flashed in Kong Ming's eyes: "Princess, would you like to walk around the city?"

Of course I would.

Hongnong County used to be a territory of Liu Bian in name. After Dong Zhuo came to Beijing under the name of "King Qin", the deposed Liu Bian was renamed Hongnong King.It's a pity that he had no relationship with Hongnong, until he committed suicide under the coercion of Dong Zhuo at the age of 15, and he failed to set foot in Hongnong.On the contrary, I once followed Liu Xie to experience a period of wandering life here.At that time, it was the second year of Xingping, and there was great chaos in Chang'an. Li Jue and Guo Si competed to kidnap Liu Xie as a hostage. These two younger brothers and sisters who pretend to be crazy and foolish don't even have a normal person who can discuss their future.At the most desperate time, the eunuch instigated the court ladies to flee privately with their money, and there was no one around Liu Xie to use.In contrast, although Liu Xie is now reduced to a puppet and restricted by Cao Cao's house arrest in the palace, at least he has not been harshly treated in terms of living standards, and it is impossible to experience the precariousness of the Hongnong period.

At that time, the situation of Liu Xi and I was not much better.There were no maids to serve, and Liu Xie was afraid that we would run away and get lost, so he simply tied the door of the house with an iron chain and didn't allow us to go out.So, although we stayed in Hongnong for more than a month, I never had the chance to take a good look at the town.Although it is a revisit to the old place now, it is actually the same as the first visit.

Kongming dispatched a tea-serving bodyguard and led me to walk slowly along the road.

It was midsummer, and the weather in the north was dry. Under the threat of the scorching sun, Hongnong was quite tired and sluggish.The heat wave of summer baked all the leaves and weeds into a drowsy state. At a glance, the decline was obvious, and there were no pavilions and towers as imagined. Only the thatched huts were sparse, and the rest were brown and yellow. dust.

I was somewhat surprised.On the way to escape during the Xingping period, Liu Xi once gave me a general introduction to Hongnong's situation.He said that this county between Luoyang and Chang'an has always been a place where talents come forth in large numbers. The famous Hongnong Yang family originated here, and the Yang family, which is famous in later generations, also has a close relationship with it.Therefore, in my impression, even if there are no flowers and beautiful mountains and rivers here, at least there should be a lot of traffic and a lot of people's voices, so as to be able to bear the name of "outstanding people and spirits".However, the scene in front of him was quite different from what he had imagined.Kong Ming and I were the only ones walking on the main road that was hundreds of meters long, which is really not what a major town with a population of tens of thousands should look like.

In fact, not only Hongnong, but under the shadow of the war, even Chang'an, which was full of flowers in the past, is said to have been turned into ruins.

I walked and sighed all the way, and when I finally saw the crowd, my heart was already quite heavy.

Business is withered in troubled times, and it is noon at this moment, the city is not noisy, only a few peddlers gather together in twos and threes, trying their best to attract business.

"Ma'am, do you want me to buy a steamed bun?" A little boy who was not even taller than my waist stood in front of me, holding a dirty pancake in his hand, looking at me expectantly.

This is a staple food that the local people are used to eating. It is said that the cake is baked on heated stones, so it is called Shizimo. Hongnong people like to put it in mutton soup. Soak and eat.

"Want to eat?" Kong Ming asked thoughtfully, but one hand had already reached into his sleeve pocket and took out five baht.

But I still shook my head: "I don't want it." I was born in the south, and I didn't like noodles very much. Besides, the bun in the boy's hand looked a little too dark.

"If you don't want me, how can you not try the local stone buns when you go to Hongnong?" Kong Ming didn't think it was dirty, so he bought the buns with the money, and suggested that I eat the sweet custard on the next street, "It's not far from here." Not far away, the owner of the store is an elderly woman who is very generous and generous. In the eighth year of Chuping, Hongnong was caught in a war, and the people were devastated and hungry. , There are countless living people, great kindness. Brother Jun and I also got a meal from her back then, and I miss her so much."

Although it is impossible for the streets to be full of benevolent people who donate their wealth to help the hungry in troubled times, there are always one or two in every city. Asked: "Your uncle was still alive in Chuping, how did you two brothers fall to the point where you have to rely on others to help you?"

The Zhuge family lived in Langya, and they were a prominent local family. Although Kong Ming lost his mother at the age of three and his father at the age of eight, and his younger brother Zhuge Jun was forced to live with his uncle Zhuge Xuan, but Zhuge Xuan was a loyal man. Common people with no roots.I heard that when he was alive, he regarded Zhuge Liang and his brothers as his own children, and never treated them harshly for food and clothing. I really didn't expect Kong Ming to have such a bitter past.

Kong Ming explained with a smile: "It's not my uncle's fault. Although he was recommended as the prefect of Yuzhang, he was defeated by Zhu Hao soon and took me, Jundi and others to Xuzhou. Unexpectedly, it happened that Cao Cao was repaying him. My father's enemy attacked Tao Qian, and we fled everywhere to avoid the flames of war. During this time, our money was gone, and we were also separated from our elder brother Ziyu (Zhuge Jin). After that, my elder brother avoided chaos in Jiangdong, while younger brother Jun and I detoured to Jiujiang, Runan, Hongnong, etc. After walking away for several years, he suffered from being displaced, and finally went to Nanyang to join the family friend Lin." Zhuge Xuan died of illness in the second year of Jian'an, five years after Cao Cao attacked Xuzhou, and was buried in the Jinji Tomb in Pingding Mountain. Now Kong Ming and Ziheng have no elders to rely on.

I heard from Cui Zhouping that Kong Ming experienced ten years of homelessness before he settled down in Nanyang. At that time, I thought it was just a rhetorical false finger, and I took it for granted that Zhuge Xuan would take care of him. There is no rice to cook.Unexpectedly, no one was spared in the troubled times. Zhuge Xuan had been seriously ill since the sixth year of Chuping. When the brothers came to Hongnong, they even had to drink the porridge given by the village women, which was really embarrassing.

Counting the years, Kong Ming should have come here after I left Hongnong. After years of war and chaos, the soup shop he has been thinking about is still there.

"That year I got porridge soup, and the stone buns saved by my uncle were as dirty and dark as this one. I couldn't tell the true color of the ingredients, but chewing it into my mouth, it was really delicious in the world." Kong Ming's face was full. Chatted with me reminiscently, and walked through the market in a short while.Turning a corner, he suddenly pointed to a signboard in front of him that said "Shaojia Congee" and said with a smile, "Look, that's the one."

I took a closer look and found that it was just a very small storefront, with only a shed left in a shabby place, which was ventilated on all sides. The small space could barely accommodate two square tables and eight benches. It would not be an exaggeration to describe it as a tiny place.

I was still lamenting how hard it is for the store to run, but Kong Ming had already stepped forward and shouted extremely loudly: "Is Aunt Shao here? Here are two bowls of sweet custard!"

It was a man in a long gown with a wicked eyebrow and a mouse eye who came out in response.He obviously didn't know Kong Ming, but he spread his hands very familiarly, and said with a fake smile: "Sir, hasn't he been here for a long time? This shop has established a rule since last year, no credit, two bowls of custard 25 For baht money, only official currency is accepted, private money is not accepted, and the money is paid with one hand and the delivery is delivered with the other, no deception." He actually regarded us as the diners who came to play the autumn wind.

The princes of the Three Kingdoms separated their regimes and the currency system was chaotic. Although the coins used in various places are collectively referred to as "five baht coins", they have different shapes and crafts.The long-clothed man made it clear that he wanted official currency, which meant that he only accepted the five baht issued by Liu Xie's court, and refused to accept the rest.

Kong Ming frowned: "Where is Aunt Shao, why don't you see anyone?"

"He's dead long ago." The man pouted his mouth towards the back kitchen, and said casually, "Nao, it's hanging on the wall at the back."

Kong Ming's face darkened in an instant, but he always held his breath and didn't teach the man anything, but he didn't even have the mood to eat the custard, so he pulled me out and walked out.

A vulgar scolding voice came from the man in the long gown behind him: "You know it, I'm here to eat free food again, hmph, you look like a human being, and you can't even get 25 baht..."

After walking a long distance, Kong Ming just sighed and explained: "Aunt Shao has two sons, the youngest son is simple and honest. Unfortunately, he died outside the conscription in his early years. I don't know where his bones are buried. The one you saw just now is the eldest son. He pretended to be seriously ill during the conscription. , pushed my younger brother out to replace him, and stayed in Hongnong to steal chickens and dogs, but I didn't expect that he is still alive and well."

In this world, sometimes it is true that good people don't live long, and evil people last for thousands of years.

Kong Ming originally wanted to return Aunt Shao's porridge money to her face to face, but now that the situation is like this, he has given up his mind.But we missed the sweet custard, so we couldn’t even skip lunch, so we had to find a wonton shop on the side of the road to worship Wu Zang Temple.

This time we were lucky. The shop looked inconspicuous at first glance, but the owner was warm and generous. The wontons he made were thin and thick, and the shrimp seasoning was rich and fragrant. Kong Ming and I were very happy to eat them.

Kong Ming ordered an extra plate of beef, and deliberately picked out the best part and put it in my bowl.

"No, I'm already full." I quickly declined.The food here in Hongnong is different from that in Nanyang. No matter what snacks you make, you must mix and match.For example, stone buns need to be soaked in mutton soup to eat, and custard must be boiled together with porridge and rice. Just now, the price of the bowl of wontons is not one cent more expensive than Nanyang, but Shengsheng has two taels more noodles than Nanyang. I almost ate it. I can't stand up straight.

Kong Ming didn't understand my stomach, and wished he could stuff all the beef into my mouth: "You should eat more, or your brother will be angry with me next time he sees you losing weight."

... This is indeed very similar to what Liu Xi would do.I pretended not to see the envious eyes of the girl at the next table, and buried myself in the meat, my face was already as red as the sunset.