Merchant Zhu wanted to curry favour with Chen Ang and the others, rushing the caravan. In just two days, they had passed through the pass that Qin had set up at the border of the Yi River Country. After exiting the pass, the world suddenly became vast and boundless. White grass covered the ground and snow covered the ground, covering it. The path that the caravan had taken had already been covered in snow, making it hard for people to tell if they were on the right path or not.
The world was a vast expanse of whiteness, with no direction. The mountains on the horizon rose and fell, winding like a dragon. The caravan trudged through the snowy plains and the snow that covered their ankles made it even harder for them to identify the path.
The people walking at the back could only follow the footsteps of the people in front. The several thousand people in the caravan melted the snow and the road became muddy. Stepping on the melted snow, even if one had good felt boots, they would still be soaked. On the road, there were already several dozen people who were frostbitten.
It was also a good thing that merchant Zhu was very talented. He divided the several thousand people into several groups and had a few capable fellows as the vanguard to find the right path. There was also a vanguard that left half a day in advance, looking for a place with a water source, finding a grassland, and setting up a camp. The middle group drove the horses and cows for half a day before stopping to practice for two hours. There was also the rear group that took care of the old, weak, and frostbitten people.
As for Chen Ang's group and merchant Zhu, they were in the last group of the middle group.
Although the Monkey King came from the East Sea's Ao Lai Country to the Central Plains, he had seen a lot of things, but he had only seen the wonders of the sea. He had wandered through many countries, but he had never come to the northwest plateau of the Nanzhan State. In this thousand mile wilderness, there were no signs of human habitation, it was a bit strange. The caravan passed by many War Hounds camps, but they were all abandoned.
That youth surnamed Zhu smiled as he introduced, "The customs of the Xi Rong Hu are very different from our Central Plains. They live as nomads and chase water plants. This kind of camp is only used in spring and summer every year and they have to prepare to migrate in autumn. They should have already migrated to the south by now. But the War Hounds have also learned farming from our Central Plains. Their capital has a righteous canal and also has farmland, so they can support the nobles in the city and not be nomadic. We'll be able to see it in half a month! "
The Monkey King laughed, "On my way here, I've seen a few places with fertile soil and abundant water sources. The people of Yi Qu would rather grow grass than farm. I'm sure there's a reason for that."
The youth surnamed Zhu proudly said, "That's natural. When they plough the land, won't they provoke us Old Qin people to come and rob them? In the past, when Baili Xi conquered the twelve cities of the Righteous Canal, they were supported by farming. That Righteous Canal's War Hounds people, after that, they also understood the logic of a man's wealth becoming a crime! "
"So what if the Hu gave up farming and went to pasture? This good land will belong to us Qin people sooner or later! "
The youth was very proud of this. He was very respectful to old man Chen Ang and often asked him for advice. He was also very polite to Yi Xi, but in front of the Monkey King, he did not show any respect. He was not very respectful, but because of this, he was able to talk to the Monkey King more easily. The reason for this, the Monkey King had already seen through it!
It was most likely that this person had a very strong view of the barbarians in his heart. Towards people like Chen Ang, old man Yi Xi, and people like him, he was naturally very respectful. As for people like the Monkey King who were from the "Hairy People Country", he could not help but look down on them, so he was much more casual.
Moreover, old man Chen Ang was a person who had a very deep understanding of all things. Whenever he spoke, his words would be filled with true truths. As for Yin Xi, he learned the true words of the 'Dao De' and was an important minister of the Zhou Dynasty. He came from a scholarly background, so his words were very refined. It was completely different from the wild and unbridled temperament of the Monkey King.
In the eyes of the youth surnamed Zhu, the Monkey King was someone who studied the structure of space every day, as well as the transformation of energy into matter. This kind of craftsman was probably just an errand boy of old man Chen Ang, a servant that he had raised, but he did not receive the true teachings.
This youth did not know what he had missed. After walking like this for ten days, half of the cows and horses froze to death and the corpses were scattered all over the road before they could see signs of people. When the caravan set up camp, they found people spying on them several times. The youth picked up his bow and rode his horse, leading his retainers to chase them away. Not long later, he came back with a cold face.
The youth held his bow and proudly said, "It was those War Hounds Tribe barbarians spying on us. I killed a few of them and they ran away in all directions!"
"Those barbarian barbarians, if it wasn't for father not wanting to cause trouble, I would have sent my retainers that are good at tracking to their tribe and then lead my troops to kill them all! We can also find a camp to rest in and perhaps we can even steal some cows and sheep to make up for our losses on the road. "
The Monkey King secretly said, "This brat is quite interesting, but he doesn't think highly of me. Is it because I call myself a hairy person? If he knew that I'm not even a hairy person and am just a monkey, I wonder what kind of face he would have? "
The youth saw that the Monkey King was writing those symbols that he could not understand and said with a smile, "Are you learning those mathematics and physics again? What kind of geniuses are the two teachers? Every word they say is inherited from the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. They are the laws of every country. You are lucky enough to be a disciple of your teacher, but you don't want to learn the proper ways of governing a country. Instead, you bury your head in these strange symbols every day. Are you really neglecting your roots and pursuing trifles?
"It's because you know that you have a lowly status that you don't dare to ask your teacher. Mister Wen Shi is of the same generation as you and he was taught the « Sacred Text of Dao » by father's teacher. I've heard a bit of it from him and it's extremely profound, but you don't ask him about it. You're really wasting a great opportunity!"
Yi Xi didn't know whether to laugh or cry when he heard the youth's words. He had no choice but to explain, "Senior Monkey King seeks the laws of heaven and earth and understands all living things. He is well-versed in the Grand Dao passed down by the two teachers. His knowledge is only higher than mine and he can be called a celestial being. You've already fallen into the lower class by looking down on him like this. You can't say such things again! "
The youth thought that Yi Xi was only saying these words to save face for the sake of Monkey King, so he merely chuckled and didn't take it to heart.
He thought to himself, "This Monkey King is only a hairy person after all. Look at how he's so obsessed with mathematics and math; how much of their knowledge could he possibly have learned? I'm afraid he's not even as good as me. I've been coming here every day to listen to the two teachers discuss the Dao, but aside from those cryptic mantras, I really don't understand anything else. Things like how to use joint probability density to represent two-dimensional random variables and how to calculate the distribution of discrete probability clouds in space. How to use Chebyshev's inequality to calculate the convergence of the probability clouds in the distribution of vital energy is really beyond my comprehension.
"As for « Dao », « Politics », « Economics », and so on, they've all enlightened me and I feel like I'm making great progress.
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