Chaos in the Eastern Jin Dynasty

Chapter 112 Zhuge in Shu

In a feudal society, this kind of opportunity for free love is already rare, but although they agree with each other, in most cases they have already discussed it in private,
The elders on both sides have also communicated with each other. Otherwise, if the two are really in love and the parents at home disagree, even if they give each other gifts, it will be uncountable.

Of course, Guan Ziyang didn't know all this. Seeing that Qing Chan got a headache, he went back to his room early and went to sleep.

The drizzle lingered all night, and Guanjiabao was shrouded in misty rain.

After enjoying a quiet life at home for a few days, Guan Ziyang decided to leave for Jiankang tomorrow.

Don't look at the prosperity of the family, if there is no Guan Ziyang's hard work outside for many years, the Guan family used to be a family that even depended on God's will for eating.

Thousands of miles away at the same time, Tianfu Chengdu.

Shu land, which has not seen snow for many years, is also covered with snow in the cold wave.

On the edge of the Minjiang River, everything is covered with a thin layer of white clothes. Among the snow-white, you can vaguely see a huge building group not far from the riverside.

Red bricks and blue tiles, corridors and waists, high eaves and teeth, intrigues, extremely gorgeous, not much worse than Jiankang's imperial palace.

There are three plaques with large characters in Zhuge Mansion, hanging high in the middle of the vermilion lacquer gate.

Among the dozens of large and small pavilions in Zhuge Mansion, the tallest five-story tower is particularly eye-catching.

Although the tower has five floors from the outside, its interior is a whole space. There are no windows around the tower wall, and no ray of light can penetrate into the tower.

The curved dome on the top of the tower is 30 meters above the ground, and hundreds of thumb-sized night pearls are inlaid on the dome, just like stars in the night sky.

With the dim light of the night pearl, one could see a person standing on the ground. His white beard hung down to his chest and his white eyebrows grew behind his ears, but his complexion was rosy and there were few wrinkles on his face.

The old man stared at the dome of the starry sky for a long time, and sighed slightly: "The sky and the earth are hanging upside down, the creatures are innocent, the emperor's star is shattered, and the alien star will be robbed!
"Hey... I don't know if my Zhuge family can use this alien star to fulfill the last wish of our ancestors this time."

The old man turned around and walked out of the tower. Hundreds of people, including men, women and children, were kneeling outside the tower. They all shouted excitedly in unison: "Welcome to the safe return of our ancestors..."

These hundreds of people are all descendants of Zhuge's family. The old man entered the pagoda for half a day, and everyone waited anxiously outside, until the old man came out, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

It is extremely dangerous for mortals to spy on the secrets of heaven!
The old man seemed to be very exhausted physically and mentally, and two gray-haired old men at the side quickly stepped forward to support him, and called out in an old voice: "Grandpa..."

This old man turned out to be the great-grandfather of these two old men. These two old men are estimated to be seventy or eighty years old, so how old is their great-grandfather...

Could it be that one or two hundred years old...

"The old ancestor showed the heavenly secret, Changmin, you have traveled all over the world for many years, and today I ordered you to go to Fuling County to get a boy's birth date..."

"The Changmin have orders!"

……

The four surnames in central Shu are Quan, Li, Chang, and Zhuge. The Zhuge family in Chengdu was originally the Zhuge family in Langya, Shandong. Because Zhuge Liang helped Liu Bei establish the Shu Han, Zhuge Liang’s descendants settled in Chengdu all the time, and it became the Zhuge family in Chengdu today.

After the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty and the turmoil in the north, the Zhuge clan in Langya moved south, and most of them went to the Zhuge clan in Chengdu.

After decades of development, the current Zhuge family in Chengdu has a faint tendency to become a high-class noble family.

The person who came to visit Guan Ziyang by name this time was Zhuge Changmin, one of the four surnames in central Shu, from the Zhuge family in Chengdu.

Guan Ziyang still has a little impression of the big man Zhuge Changmin. According to later history books, this Zhuge Changmin was a general under Liu Yu, and Liu Yu was the king who changed the dynasty and established the Song Dynasty by himself.

(In history, Zhuge Changmin's birth year is unknown. He attempted to rebel in 413 AD and was killed by Liu Yu, who was still a Taiwei. At this time, it was 355 AD, and there was no such person as him.)

Zhuge Changmin in front of him was in his early 30s, dressed as a Confucian scholar, and looked polite. Guan Ziyang couldn't figure out what this famous historical figure whom he had never met would want him for.

After Zhuge Changmin saw Guan Ziyang, he said sincerely: "I heard that the governor of Guan Ziyang is very skilled in chess, so I have the courage to teach you a game."

Zhuge Changmin said that he is a chess idiot. He watched the chess game between Guan Ziyang and Chang Rong during the promotion ceremony of the nobles of the Wei family.

As a respectable gentry in the middle of Shu, he couldn't bear to find an unknown boy who was still a commoner to play chess. Now that Guan Ziyang is the first-rank governor of the imperial court, his status is naturally not to be taken lightly.

That's why today I brought only two boys to visit.

Guan Ziyang knew that his chess strength was not very high, and he only relied on the established formulas of the chess masters of later generations to win by surprise. He didn't know how strong this Zhuge Changmin was. If he fought rashly and lost, it would be embarrassing, so he declined .

"The elders don't hesitate to teach you, Ziyang is very honored. I am not very good at playing chess. I am afraid I can't let the elder Zhuge enjoy himself. My father is the teacher who enlightened the boy Yidao. Why don't you talk to my father about a game with the elder Zhuge?"

Guan Ziyang's words meant that he was not strong enough in chess, so letting his father accompany him to the next game as his teacher was regarded as respecting the opponent.

But Zhuge Changmin felt a little bit wrong when he heard this. He was here for Guan Ziyang's chess.
Now that Guan Ziyang hadn't played yet, he let others play first. He felt that Guan Ziyang looked down on him and wanted to see how good his chess skills were before deciding whether to play against him.

He couldn't believe that the so-called father and teacher who was able to play the "doubles lore" in the Wei family back then was still superior to him in chess, so his father is not a contemporary "chess master"!

This "doubles lore array" is also the name Zhuge Changmin gave to the game between Guan Ziyang and Chang Rong.

At the Wei Clan dinner after the Wei Ceremony that day, there were many guests, most of them were dignitaries, or celebrities in Sichuan.
The opponent talked about how many people have researched a game. After they discussed this game with great interest, Zhuge Changmin gave this game a title of "double-player lore".

Guan Ziyang didn't want to fight, and he couldn't force it, so he said: "Then have the courage to teach me, and ask my nephew's father and master to talk about it, my nephew's father and master must be the great sages of Yi Dao."

Guan Zhengqian listened to his head getting bigger. It is true that he taught Guan Ziyang how to play chess, but what can his three-legged cat's chess ability teach him?
Apart from the rules, I don't seem to have taught Guan Ziyang much. How come my son has become a Go prodigy in the eyes of others!

Now that the matter has come to this, Guan Zhenggan has no choice but to bite the bullet and get on with it. He is really a 'bad boy' with his strength!

Guan Ziyang knew his father well. He used to be the magistrate of the county government, and he had heavy official duties on weekdays. He had no time to touch the hobbies of ordinary officials such as piano, chess, calligraphy and painting for a long time.

Therefore, it is almost impossible to rely on his father to try out Zhuge Changmin's chess ability, but Guan Ziyang is different. He relies on his knowledge of the Go formulas of later generations. By observing Zhuge Changmin's chess playing habits and chess moves, he can choose The most suitable formula to entertain him...

Sure enough, as soon as the middle game was reached, Guan Zhengqian placed Gemini on the chessboard and said, "Mr. Zhuge is superb in martial arts, I lost."

Zhuge Changmin also replied with a half-smile: "Accept."

Then he turned his head to look at Guan Ziyang: "I don't know Mr. Guan, can you teach me another round?"

At this time, all the members of the Guan family gathered in the ancestral hall, and they were very angry when they saw Zhuge Changmin coming to play chess.

Guan Zhengqian lost the game again, and felt that Zhuge Changmin was hateful, but Naihe had no skills in his hands, so he could only swallow his anger and watch him be arrogant in the Guan family.

Guan Zhengqian saw that Guan Ziyang wanted to refuse, so he said: "Mr. Zhuge is a visitor from afar, and you are too tired to travel. Why don't you wait for Mr. Zhuge to have lunch first, and then I will find someone who is good at chess to talk with him."

What he said was obviously because he was afraid that Guan Ziyang would lose face, and he wanted to help Guan Ziyang escape this game...

The autumn rain had come, and it was raining continuously. Zhuge Changmin saw that he had not had time to clean up the mud on his wooden clogs, and he was already playing chess in the ancestral hall. .”

He whispered a few words to the two servants beside him, and they led the way out.

After a while, when everyone was eating, two servants came back carrying a large wooden box. Zhuge Changmin put down the bowls and chopsticks in his hands, and ordered the servants to open the box.

Although it had been raining outside, the two wooden boxes showed no signs of getting wet, so they should have been placed in the carriage of the bullock cart.

Everyone in the Guan family was wondering what was in the box, and when the box was opened, it revealed a large box full of books.

At this time in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, papermaking had become popular, and paper was not considered a very precious thing, but books were. At this time, there was no printing technique, and books were all copied by hand.
So if it is not a noble family, ordinary people only want to make a living, how can they have time to study and copy books...

The Guan family now has money and land, and what they lack the most is the cultural core passed down by the aristocratic family for tens of hundreds of years, that is, books.

Whether it is documents, martial arts, or other miscellaneous books, the powerful families will have special personnel to collect and transcribe them. It can be said that books are the fundamental weapon to maintain the rule of the gentry class.

So Zhuge Changmin sent a box full of books, at least three to four hundred, which can be said to be a generous gift. Guan Zhenggan stared at the box full of books, his eyes were shining: "Mr. Zhuge, such a generous gift, My Guan family, He De He Neng..."

Before he finished speaking, Zhuge Changmin interrupted him: "This box of books is given to Dudu Guan. It is a gift for our Zhuge family to make friends with your Guan family..."

Guan Zhengkun's eyes widened when he heard the word 'make friends', with an expression of disbelief.

"Friendship" is not a casual talk. Today is the world of powerful and powerful families. "Relationship" is productivity.

Now someone else took the initiative to send a meeting gift and said that they wanted to make friends, so everyone in the Guan family couldn't believe it.

Guan Ziyang squinted his eyes and thought to himself: "In history, although this Zhuge Changmin was versatile in both civil and military affairs, his conduct was not good.
And what kind of idea is he playing in this action? Could it be that he wants something from me? "

At first I thought it was just a chess idiot from Zhuge's family, but I didn't know that he took the initiative to make friends with Zhuge Changmin, and Zhuge Changmin instantly changed from a "noble guest" to a "noble person".

Now all the dissatisfaction with Zhuge Changmin from the young and old of the Guan family just disappeared, and Guan Zhengkun ordered someone to fetch his daughter Hong who had been buried in his home for many years.

This was originally a wedding wine for his eldest daughter, Guan Tongyun, and now he didn't care about his future son-in-law, so he opened two large altars to entertain Zhuge Changmin...

During the banquet, the Guan family warmly toasted Zhuge Changmin to show their respect. You must know that although Guan Ziyang has a high official position, in the eyes of their gentry, his family is at most an upstart. In fact, everyone thinks highly of their Guan family. It's just a bit of respect for Guan Ziyang in terms of words.

Although they couldn't figure out why the Zhuge family wanted to make friends with the Guan family, they really didn't think there was anything in the Guan family that the Zhuge family could covet...

After drinking for three rounds, Zhuge Changmin was not afraid of those who came, bowl after bowl, and drank more than [-] bowls. The wine is good wine, but Zhuge Changmin's drinking capacity is really amazing. At this time, the landlord was too drunk to drink and fell on the table.

Zhuge Changmin brought a bowl of wine, staggered to Guan Ziyang, and said drunkenly: "Guan Dudu is indeed a dragon and phoenix among people... At first, I thought that the patriarch asked me to come...Birth date...It's very strange,
Seeing your chess...I just realized...the patriarch is really...predicting things...predicting things like a god...the secret of the ancestors..."

Before he finished speaking, he turned his wrist, and the bowl fell to the ground, and he was about to collapse immediately.

Fortunately, his two servants were well prepared and quickly supported him. One of the servants asked: "The master is too weak to drink, so I wonder if I can ask for a guest room."

Guan Zhengkun forced himself to wake up at this time, and ordered a servant to send Zhuge Changmin to the best room in their west building to rest.

Guan Ziyang also drank some of the patriarch's "Nv'erhong" but at this moment he was not in the mood for alcohol. He shook his head and thought dismissively: "This rice wine is the Nv'erhong that is being transmitted? My [-]-degree Moutai can do it." Two catties, is this rice wine still intoxicating?"

When Zhuge Changmin woke up, it was already dark, and he slapped one of the servants who served him hard.
Angrily said: "Why didn't you persuade me when you saw me drinking! You don't know that drinking will cause bad things, what if I accidentally reveal the secrets of the family! Did I say anything at the wine table..."

The servant who was beaten covered his face with one hand, and said aggrievedly: "We persuaded you, Patriarch, you didn't listen, and you didn't say anything about family matters..."

Zhuge Changmin knew that when he started drinking, it was impossible for these two servants to persuade him.

Before the patriarch Zhuge Hui ordered him to come to Fuling, he knew that he was fond of wine, and he had told him not to drink alcohol for fear that he might make a mistake. However, as soon as the head of the Guan family opened the 'Naughty Red', the aroma of the wine made him throw away the patriarch's advice. in the back of my head...

But he thought about it again, fortunately there was nothing wrong, as long as he could get Guan Ziyang's birthday horoscope without being suspected, this task would be considered complete, and he could also play chess for a few more days along the way.

(End of this chapter)