In Nanyang, Jingzhou, Zhuge Liang stood at the door of the small courtyard and said to the visitor: "Thank you general for your kindness. Liang has no plans to leave the mountain. Please come back."
The person who came was a military attaché dressed as a general. He frowned and said, "The general invites you sincerely and has sent people to invite you again and again. At your young age, don't you have any plans to become an official?"
Zhuge Liang slowly closed the firewood door and said, "No, I won't send him far." After that, he went back to the house.
The general looked at the closed wooden door and felt angry. He couldn't help but raise his feet. The guards on the left and right quickly grabbed him and whispered: "General, this man is Huang Chengyan's son-in-law. You can't afford to offend him."
After hearing this, the general had no choice but to give up angrily. Following Zhang Xiu's order, he came to ask Zhuge Liang to be his counselor. At first he thought it was an easy job. After all, Zhang Xiu was in Nanyang, so who would dare not to give him face?
But it wasn't until he arrived at the mountain where Zhuge Liang lived in seclusion and inquired about the background that he realized how difficult the matter was.
Zhuge Liang's Zhuge clan was originally from the Langya clan, but that was fine. After all, Jingzhou was not Xuzhou, but it was the subsequent discovery of Zhuge Liang's relatives that gave the general a headache.
Zhuge Liang's sister married Pang Shanmin, the son of Pang Degong, a famous scholar in Jingzhou. Pang Degong was not only well-received by Liu Biao, but also had a high reputation. He had a disciple Pang Tong, who was extremely talented and learned, and was well-known in Jingzhou.
Not only that, the general learned that Zhuge Liang married Huang Chengyan's daughter and became related to Liu Biao. This made things complicated, because Zhang Xiu was not Liu Biao's guest general.
The general understood that this task was not easy, so he had to beg in a low voice. Even if Zhuge Liang rejected him, he did not dare to anger him.
But he begged repeatedly, but the other party gave him no face at all. Seeing that Zhang Xiu's mission was about to fail, he became more and more anxious, thinking to himself, how could he explain to Zhang Xiu when he returned like this?
He glanced at the thatched cottage and went down the mountain unwillingly.
Zhuge Liang entered the house, where Huang Yueying was weaving and tailoring. She used ordinary linen thread, which was quite rough, and the linen weaved had a lot of fluff.
Before the advent of cotton, except for the silk and satin used by the rich, most people's clothes were mostly made of kudzu. This plant fiber is very rough. After being woven into cloth, it is not flat but has sharp velvet, making it unsuitable for wearing.
So after the linen garments are made, in order to make them wearable on the body, there is another process, which is to flatten the fluff on the linen garments to make them soft and suitable for people to wear. This is called pounding clothes. In Yang Shen's "Sheng'an Poetry", This was specifically explained.
Pounding clothes, "Zi Lin" says: "Pounding straight is called pounding. In the ancients, two women faced each other, holding a pestle, just like pounding rice. Now it is easy to make a lying pestle, sitting opposite to pound it, and get rid of it. It is seen in the Six Dynasties This is how someone painted the "Picture of Clothes Breaking"."
Cotton appeared on a large scale in the Song Dynasty. Before the Han and Tang Dynasties, people still mainly wore linen clothes. Therefore, there are many allusions about breaking clothes in poems. The original meaning is that when the husband has not returned home from going out, when the autumn cold is approaching, the wife at home will do it. Prepare winter clothes, or prepare clothes for your husband’s trip.
So when Zhuge Liang saw Huang Yueying weaving linen, he was a little surprised and said: "The east clothes are enough for this spring, why is Madam so anxious to prepare new clothes?"
Huang Yueying smiled and said: "Wear new clothes when traveling. This is prepared for my husband's long journey."
Zhuge Liang was startled, "How did Madam guess that I was leaving?"
Huang Yueying said with a smile: "These Xiliang generals are rude, behave incoherently, and are confused. My husband can't avoid them, and he doesn't want to rely on Liu Jingsheng's relationship. So he has no choice but to travel to avoid them."
Zhuge Liang sighed: "Madam is really smart, but I haven't decided where to go yet."
Huang Yueying thought for a while, "How about traveling south to Jingzhou?"
Seeing Zhuge Liang's hesitation, Huang Yueying knew what he meant and said with a smile: "My husband is really brave. Are you going to leave Jingzhou?"
Zhuge Liang said with a look of shame: "Now that the world is changing rapidly, I would be a little reluctant if I didn't see it with my own eyes."
"I want to go to Yangzhou first."
"However, there is a fierce war outside. It is too dangerous for a woman like you to follow me. You should go back to your parents' house first and stay for a while."
Huang Yueying was stunned and pouted, "After a few months of marriage, my husband is going to abandon me?"
Zhuge Liang was ashamed, "Madam, I am a scholar. If I encounter bandits, it is difficult to protect myself, let alone madam?"
Huang Yueying's eyes rolled a few times, "My husband said, if I disguise myself as a man..."
Zhuge Liang was shocked, "My wife is naturally beautiful, no matter how much she pretends to be, she doesn't look like an ordinary person."
After hearing this, Huang Yueying felt happy at first, but she had a clear mind, and then she became suspicious, "My husband's reaction is not right."
"You are not going to Yangzhou, but to a more dangerous place, right?"
Seeing that Huang Yueying had guessed his intention, Zhuge Liang couldn't help but smile bitterly: "It's really difficult to hide it from Madam."
"Madam's guess is correct. I feel that my stargazing skills have reached a bottleneck. Deviations often occur in small joints, so that the final development of the situation is often different from what I originally expected."
"I think if I make a breakthrough, I will ask an expert for advice."
"There are rumors that Fierce Tiger has people who are proficient in stargazing, so I thought if I could find a chance to visit him. If I could learn the key, I would get what I wanted."
Huang Yueying listened, but she disagreed with Zhuge Liang's words, "I don't think so."
"The theory of stargazing is illusory and unheard of. It cannot be fully believed."
"I believe that the right way is for your husband to start with the general trend of the world and predict the future situation based on the influence of people's attitudes and actions."
"The ferocious tiger might have just been fooled a few times, and then used his stargazing skills to build momentum for himself. In fact, he might have been lucky enough to be fooled, or he might have guessed wrong many times, but he would not rely on failed predictions. It’s just propaganda.”
"I say this because many of the prophecies about Tu Gao, the Han successor, are beneficial to him. However, these prophecies have only begun to spread in the past three or four years. This is likely to be spread intentionally."
"If you act like this, how can you avoid making people suspicious?"
Zhuge Liang knew that his wife had great ideas. Although she admired his talent and learning, she did not blindly follow him. Instead, she liked to investigate and debate issues with herself, often in depth.
This made Zhuge Liang often have to think hard and exhaust himself to convince Huang Yueying when he was explaining his reasoning. However, Zhuge Liang did not reject it, but was extremely happy.
Because only Huang Yueying's tit-for-tat debate can inspire her own deep thoughts. This is equivalent to Zhuge Liang's spur on the road to questioning. How can we not make him happy?
He said aloud: "Although Madam's idea has some truth, it is still preconceived."
"What the fierce tiger did may be what the lady said, but it may not be."
"Because madam, there is no direct evidence."
"But I admit, I haven't either."
"He may be a liar, or he may be an expert. If you want to find out the truth, you need me to see it with my own eyes and find the evidence myself."
"If he is really a liar, I will return to Nanyang. Anyway, I won't lose anything."
Seeing Huang Yueying's dull silence, Zhuge Liang smiled and said, "Why, madam, do you agree that what I said makes sense?"
"But Madam is unhappy because she feels she has not refuted me, or is it for other reasons?"
Huang Yueying said unwillingly: "I admit that Madam is right. If you want to know the details of the vicious tiger, you have to see it to believe it."
"But I don't have a good impression of the ferocious tiger. She was embarrassed by her husband when she was gone, and she even learned bad things from him."
Zhuge Liang asked curiously: "Madam, do you think Fierce Tiger is evil?"
"I remember talking about Fierce Tiger with my wife the day before yesterday. She quite appreciates the internal affairs and people's livelihood under his rule, right?"
Huang Yueying said angrily: "There are no problems with his internal affairs, but there are problems with his life!"
"When I was not married, I heard from several noble women whom I had good friends with that it was rumored that every noble woman he had ever met could not escape his clutches!"
"And it is said that there are many women among them who are of high status, enough to become the wife of a noble scholar, but in the end they became his concubines. I don't believe it. Are all those women willing?"
"That man must have used some unscrupulous means to coerce those women!"
"The way he treats women shows what kind of person he is. He hides so much that he is probably a tycoon like Cao Cao!"
"If my husband follows him, his reputation will be damaged, or he will learn bad things from him, then"
Zhuge Liang was dumbfounded. He didn't expect this to be the reason, so he smiled and said, "In this case, Madam should not come with me."
"What if he plots something against Madam?"
"So Madam, please wait for my return in Nanyang."
Huang Yueying became anxious upon hearing this, "How can that be done!"
"My husband's appearance is unique. If he falls in love with me..."
Zhuge Liang patted Huang Yueying's head gently and said, "Madam, don't think about nonsense."
"Don't think I don't know what you do when you have nothing to do."
"When I got married, I was thinking about something. Madam knows all the young talents in the world, and she seems to be too familiar with them."
"Later I discovered that Madam was actually writing some extremely outrageous unofficial histories when she had nothing to do."
"The friendship between Sun Ce and Zhou Yu is better than that of husband and wife, the relationship between Liu, Guan, and Zhang when sleeping together is beyond brotherhood, the love and hatred between the three sons of the Yuan family, the entangled relationship between fierce tiger, son, and dragon, these are all nothing!"
Huang Yueying didn't expect that the story she secretly made up would be discovered. She held her head and said aggrievedly: "What's wrong with liking fantasy!"
"Besides, although I admit that these things are just based on speculation and speculation, my husband has no evidence to prove that these things did not happen, unless seeing is believing!"
Zhuge Liang didn't expect Huang Yueying to use what he just said against him, so he couldn't help but feel angry and funny, "Madam, are you asking me to ask the person involved about this kind of thing myself?"
"And if this kind of thing is passed down to future generations, it can easily cause misunderstandings!"
"It's a good write-up, but don't write it again!"
Seeing that Zhuge Liang was so serious, Huang Yueying had no choice but to agree with tears in her eyes and seal all her proud works.
She secretly thought in her heart that these things that she had poured her heart and soul into would one day see the light of day, and then she would spread them around and let everyone in the world know about them, hum!
Seeing Huang Yueying's appearance, Zhuge Liang couldn't help but shook his head secretly, "Madam, just stay here. If you hurry up, I can come back in a year and a half."
Huang Yueying was anxious, "I want to follow my husband, and there is war in the North now. Isn't it safe for my husband to go any way?"
(End of chapter)
