Around midnight, it began to drizzle in Zizhou. The gray rain enveloped the land.
The group of people who were inspecting the construction site climbed up the city wall and didn't come down for a while. Ning Yi looked out through the window on the city tower. There were only a few small spots of light on the city wall in the rainy night.
Every few dozen meters, the spots of light outlined the vague outline of the city. The soldiers on duty put on straw raincoats and walked along the city wall into the distance. Gradually, they were drowned in the darkness of the rain. Occasionally, he could hear the sound of people talking.
Inside the high walls, the buildings of the city were faintly extending into the distance. The green tiles and grey walls, as well as the courtyards of various sizes, had gradually melted into one at this moment. In order to defend the city, it was not supposed to build houses within a few dozen feet of the city wall. However, the Wu dynasty had been peaceful for more than two hundred years, and Zizhou, located in the southwest, had never suffered from a war. Moreover, it was located on an important road and had developed commerce. Residential buildings gradually occupied everything in sight. First, it was the houses of the poor, and later, the courtyards of the rich.
The impending war had scared away thirty percent of the people in the city. The residents living near the northern city wall were given priority to leave. However, sparse lights could be seen in the courtyards of all sizes. No one knew if the owners had woken up at night or something else. Upon closer inspection, there were traces of belongings left behind by the owners who had left in a hurry.
Two night watchmen carried lanterns and hid under the eaves of an uninhabited courtyard.
More than ten years had passed since the first time the Female Daoist had gone south. Blood, battle formations, life and death … scenes of drama had played out one after another. But for the majority of people in this world, everyone's life was still an ordinary continuation. Even if the chaos of war was about to arrive, what troubled people was still the daily necessities of tomorrow.
Before rushing to Zizhou, Ning Yi received news of failure from Jiangnan.
Ever since the Huaxia army had killed their way out of Liang Mountain and entered the Chengdu plains, Jiange had always been the key point in the next step of their strategy. They had always been fighting for and lobbying Jiange's general, Si Zhongxian.
Si Zhongxian was loyal to the Wu dynasty. He was wise, benevolent and flexible. In the past, most of the Huaxia army's business with the outside world and weapons sales had to go through Jiange. Si Zhongxian had always been convenient with the orders supplied to the Wu dynasty's regular army. As for the private goods that some families, gentry and local forces wanted, he was quite strict with them. The ability to distinguish and choose between these two types of business proved that this general had a good view of the big picture.
The general's overall impression of Si Zhongxian was positive. Because of this, Ning Xi and Ning Ji thought that he was a good general worth fighting for. However, in reality, the division of good and evil was naturally not so simple. Just whether Si Zhongxian was loyal to the people of the world or to the Wu Dynasty was a matter worth discussing.
In short, in the first half of this year, borrowing Si Zhongxian's path to leave the Fourth Sichuan Road and attack the Female Enlightened Master was a logical thing to do. Liu Chengzong's ten thousand men also headed to Xuzhou with Si Zhongxian's cooperation — this was in line with the Wu Dynasty's fundamental interests. However, in the second half of the year, the Wu Dynasty declined, Zhou Yong passed away, and the legitimate Imperial Court was split into two. Si Zhongxian's attitude clearly wavered.
There was an even more complicated situation in between.
Si Zhongxian was originally from Xiuzhou in Zhejiang. His father, Si Wenzhong, had served as an assistant minister of the Ministry of War over ten years ago. After he retired, his entire family had always lived in Pingjiang Prefecture — later known as Suzhou. The Venerable Woman conquered the capital and Si Wenzhong brought his family back to the countryside of Xiuzhou.
In the seventh month, Wanyan Xiyin led the Jurchen army to attack Xiuzhou. After the city was breached, he invited Si Wenzhong out and gave him the position of Minister of Rites. He then sent Si Wenzhong to the Jiange to persuade them to surrender. At that time, there were not many people in the Huaxia army in the Jiangnan area. Ning Yi ordered the frontline to respond. After careful investigation, they would act according to the situation. He repeated the need to be cautious in this matter. If they were not confident, they could even give up the operation. However, the frontline personnel finally decided to save the people.
In this operation, the Huaxia army lost five people, and the Si family also suffered casualties. After the report and review from the frontline was sent back, Ning Yi knew that the balance of the Sword Pavilion's negotiations was tilting towards the Female Daoist.
Every time this happened, Ning Yi could not help but reflect on the shortcomings of his organization. The construction of the Huaxia army imitated the later Chinese army in some aspects, but there were many differences in the specific links.
In essence, the main axis of the Huaxia army was derived from the management system of the modern army. It had strict military laws, a strict supervisory system, and in place ideological management. It was more similar to the modern US army or the modern flower planting army. As for the original Red Army, Ning Yi could not imitate its unswerving belief system.
In the world Ning Yi once lived in, there were too many things in modern China that could not be replicated. In that era, the West was advancing with each passing day, while China had a backward thinking and political system. More than a hundred years of bone-deep humiliation and pain, countless people constantly ran into walls and searched for a way, and finally forged an army with a firm belief in the proletariat.
The Wu dynasty had experienced too little humiliation. More than a decade of running into walls was not enough to make people realize the urgency of taking a different path. It was also not enough for several different ways of thinking to collide and finally reach a conclusion. There was not even enough time for the first stage of consensus to appear. On the other hand, Ning Yi could not give up on the industrial revolution and the budding capitalism that he had been cultivating.
It was because of these reasons that the Huaxia army broke off with the old Ox Head. It was also because of these reasons that the Huaxia army was more like a large company in the future. Although Ning Yi had also carried out a lot of propaganda about the "Huaxia" concept, what really supported everything was a professional system that surpassed the times and professional methods of doing things. After experiencing victory after victory, the staff in the army had a high fighting spirit and a spirit of optimism that was close to pride.
Ning Yi had carried out a lot of rectification for such a spirit, but the effect was, of course, limited. Without a hundred years of humiliation, countless failures, no 412 massacres, and no constant embarrassment of being at a disadvantage and a deep belief in this embarrassment, it would not be able to cultivate that kind of persistence and seriousness that was deep in the bones. After defeating Lu Qiaoshan and easily taking over half of the Chengdu plain, some of the Huaxia soldiers even had feelings of contempt for the Jurchens.
In the past year, the casualty rate of the foreign work was higher than Ning Yi had expected. Under such circumstances, generosity and heroism were no longer something worth promoting. Every doctrine had its advantages and disadvantages, and every thought would also lead to different directions and contradictions. In the past few years, what really troubled Ning Yi's thinking was always the connection and turning point of these things.
How to make people understand and deeply accept the necessity of studying things and society, how to make the germination of capitalism, how to let go of the idea of "democracy" and "equality" at the same time, so that when capitalism moved towards the ruthless pursuit of profit, there could still be a relatively warm order to balance it …
And Si Zhongxian's matter would also determine the direction of the whole world.
The saints were heartless and treated the common people like dogs. It was not until this day when he came to Zizhou that Ning Yi realized that what troubled and worried him the most was not all the world affairs.
When the news about Ning Ji came, he was originally worried that his second son would start to become cruel and murderous after seeing the chaos in the world. Ning Xi was willing to pass this news back, which was probably what he was worried about. After meeting, the child's confession made Ning Yi understand the whole story.
As a warrior, after seeing the confusion of the world, the child had already keenly sensed the way to become stronger. The wildness in his subconscious was growing out of the safe zone that his father and brother had made for him. He wanted to experience battles, he wanted to become stronger, and he wanted to accept an equal challenge when the other party risked his life.
This was a thought worthy of praise.
Ning Yi had also been fighting along the way.
He was not a real desperado.
From the dock outside Jiangning to the present after the regicide, he fought head-on with the Jurchens, and fought with his life countless times. It was not because he was a desperado who did not care about his life. On the contrary, he not only cherished his life, but also cherished everything in front of him.
However, countless past experiences told him that if he really wanted to fight with people in this cruel world, risking his life was only the basic condition. Those who did not have this condition would have a higher probability of losing and a lower probability of winning. He was only calmly pushing the probability of winning, using cruel rationality to suppress the fear of danger. This was an instinct that he had repeatedly trained in his previous life. If he did not risk his life, he would only lose more.
No matter if it was a prosperous or chaotic world, the nature of the world was always a competition that focused on ranking. While there was continuity and complexity in actual operations, the fundamental nature did not change.
In this world, there were rich second generations and powerful second generations. This was a manifestation of continuity.
To do things well in this world, one not only had to think hard and act hard, but also had to have the right direction and method. This was the embodiment of complexity.
For mediocre people, many things in this world seemed to depend on luck. Someone chose a certain direction, so he succeeded. One's timing and luck were both problematic … But in reality, what truly determined a person's choice was the careful observation of the world and the careful consideration of the rules.
At the top of this world, smart people thought hard, chose the right direction, and then risked their lives to overdraft their own results. Even in the world that Ning Yi came into contact with, a relatively peaceful world, every successful person, capitalist, and leader mostly had certain characteristics of mental illness: perfectionism, paranoia, self-confidence, and even a certain anti-human tendency …
The definition of mental health by ordinary people was nothing more than empathy and weakness like how the public treated pets. In the prosperous world, people raised the bottom line through order, so that even if people failed, they would not be too embarrassed. Correspondingly, the ceiling was lowered and the path of ascension was solidified. The public sold "possibilities" that they did not urgently need in exchange for understandable stability and steadiness. This was how the world was. Its essence never changed. People only made adjustments after understanding the rules.
Ning Yi was very clear about all of this, so he risked his life.
Now, it was his child's turn.
Thirteen-year-old Xiaoning Ji wanted to choose "possibilities" and give up stability and steadiness. This idea was not reflected in rashly courting death, but it would definitely determine his choice in the face of countless dangers in the future. Just like before, he chose to fight with the enemy instead of being protected. Ning Yi knew that he could also choose to stifle this thought of his here — that method naturally existed.
That night, under the ginkgo tree in the clinic, he talked with Ning Ji for a long time. He talked about Zhou Dong, Hongti's master, Watermelon's father, and all sorts of things. But until the end, Ning Yi did not try to kill his idea. He just made a promise with the child, hoping that he would consider his mother at home and study medicine until he was 16. Before that, he would slightly retreat in the face of danger. After that, he would support any decision Ning Ji made.
"I hope that after two years, your brother will realize that practicing martial arts can't save China, and that he should become a doctor or write novels."
After chatting with Ning Ji that night, Ning Yi joked with his eldest son. But in reality, even if Ning Ji became a doctor or a writer, they would still face many dangers in the future. As Ning Yi's son and family, they faced the greatest danger from the beginning.
A few years ago, Ning Xi had more or less been tempted, but as the eldest son, the public opinion and atmosphere of his parents and the people around him since he was young gave him a direction. Ning Xi also accepted this direction.
In the end, with the help of Hunchback Chen and the others, Ning Xi became a relatively safe manipulator. Although he did not face the danger and bloodshed directly like Ning Yi, which would make his ability less comprehensive, there would always be a way to make up for it. And on the other hand, one day when he faced the greatest danger, he might also pay the price for it.
In the past few years, when Li Pin, Song Yongping and the others talked about these things, Ning Yi appeared calm and carefree. But in reality, every time he imagined this, he could not help but feel pain. If something really happened to these children, how sad would their mothers be?
Tan'Er had always been strong, but she might collapse because of this. What would happen to Xiaochan who had always been gentle? Until now, Ning Yi could still clearly remember that when he first came over ten years ago, the little servant girl bounced along the streets of Jiangning with him …
In a few years, Wenwen, Ning Ke, and the other children would gradually give him headaches.
No matter how great the world was, the children would walk their own path, grow up slowly, and gradually experience the wind and rain. That night, Ning Yi looked at Zizhou in the darkness from the city tower and was silent for a long time.
On the other side, across the open space outside Zizhou City, there was still the slightest light in the sentry tower on the mountain far away. Many construction sites for fortifications were hidden in the dark rain …
*****
No matter how great the world was, the children would walk their own path, grow up slowly, and gradually experience the wind and rain …
When the young man named Ning Ji in the southwest made the decision to face the wind and rain, there was another child thousands of miles away in this world. He was already walking on the turbulent road, carried by the wind and rain.
Mu Anping, who was born in the third year of Wu Jianshuo, was eight and a half years old this year. It had been more than two years since the night he lost his parents. He was renamed Ping 'an by Lin Zongwu and shaved his head. It had been more than a year since he walked alone in the chaotic world of Jin.
In September of the eleventh year of Jianshuo, Ping 'an returned to Vaud, where he had lived for many years, in ragged clothes. However, he could not find the house where his parents used to live. The invasion of the Jurchens, the division of the land of Jin, and the continuous disasters of war had completely changed the state of Vaud. Half of the city had been burned down, and people who looked like skinny beggars lived in the city. During spring and summer, there was a tragedy where people traded their children for food. In autumn, the tragedy was slightly alleviated, but it still could not cover up the atmosphere of death inside and outside the city.
The shabbily dressed little monk searched the city for two days, but he still couldn't find the memory of his parents. He ran out of food and secretly shed tears in the shabby house in the city. After sleeping for a day, he wandered the streets in a daze. At this time, he wanted to see his monk master, the only person he could rely on in this world, but his master never appeared.
On the street dozens of feet away from him, Lin Zongwu, dressed in a loose frock, was handing a small bag of coarse grain buns to a skinny martial artist in front of him.
Soon after, the martial artist followed behind the little monk. When there was no one around, he pulled out his saber.
Ping 'an turned around, tears still on his face, and the saber light shook his eyes. The skinny evil man stopped for a moment. The bag beside him suddenly broke, and some food fell to the ground. The adults and the child could not help but be stunned …
In the corner of the street, Lin Zongwu put his palms together and smiled.
Tigers and leopards had to grow claws and teeth to hunt; crocodiles had to grow scales to protect themselves; apes and monkeys walked out of the forest and built sticks …
In the wind and rain, human blood would flow. Before death, people could only strive to become stronger.
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