At dusk, the golden sunset fell on the lake, creating layers of sparkling waves. Yang Guang was wearing regular clothes, holding a purple bamboo fishing rod in his hand, sitting leisurely on a wicker chair next to the water pavilion by the lake in Prince Wei's Mansion. , the whole person exudes a lazy and casual atmosphere.
On the grassland shaded by flowers and trees, bursts of childish laughter can be heard from time to time. But Yang Hao, Yang Ming, and Yang Chang were playing with Yang Guang's grandsons Yang Tan and Yang Tong; Yang Guang's daughter Qinghe Princess Yang Feihong arrived here and became the king of children, playing with her cousins and nephews. Very happy.
In the pavilion next to the waterside pavilion, Xiao Ying, Liu Rumei, Pei Shuying and others were chatting and laughing with Queen Xiao Xiao Zhaoyi (Concubine Xiao) preparing dinner.
Yang Ji's concubines had long been accustomed to the emperor and empress's visits; at first, they were a little uneasy when facing the emperor and empress, but after Yang Ji returned in triumph, the Sui emperor and empress came to the palace from time to time with their grandchildren to have dinner; Over time, they will become accustomed to it.
"I haven't cooked for many years. It feels good to do it occasionally." Empress Xiao put a large plate of fish and meat on the table and suddenly felt something: "The palace is too deserted, with only strict rules and no trace of human touch; even though Mr. and Mrs. Shiming and Mr. and Mrs. Shizhen also regard us as kings, not parents, let alone other palaces of the royal family. Only your side is the most smoky and comfortable. Don't say that the children like it now. , looking forward to coming. Even us adults can’t bear to leave.”
This was not an easy thing to say, so Xiao Ying evaded the important point and said: "Actually, the same is true for ordinary families. When the children of ordinary families grow up, they gradually drift away from their parents, and there is nothing to talk about. Hao'er, Ming'er, Hao'er They are still young and clingy now, but when they grow up, they will be just like Shiming and Shizhen, who are alienated from their parents and have nothing to talk to. So sometimes I hope that the children will grow up quickly and become pillars of talent. , but sometimes I hope that they will grow up later, so that when they talk in the future, they will only have the gift of mother and child without family affection. But each generation has its own way of life, and parents can’t control so much? The only hope is that the children Promising."
After hearing this, Queen Xiao looked at Xiao Ying in surprise and said, "I didn't expect my sister to be so open-minded?"
"Both A-niang and Wenhui are like this, and I am also deeply affected. What's more, this is something that cannot be changed. What can I do if I am not open-minded?" Xiao Ying said with a smile: "I think I can correct it in time in the future. This will neither It is annoying, not hurtful, and easy for children to accept. If you interfere too much, the children will be unhappy and uncomfortable, and you will also feel uncomfortable, so why bother?"
"That's true!" Queen Xiao thought deeply.
Just as they were talking, Yang Ji finally finished seeing off all the people who came to visit the patient. He came to Yang Guang and sat down next to him under the setting sun. He picked up the teapot and poured himself a cup. He drank it all in one gulp, and then had another cup. .
Seeing him drinking three drinks in a row, Yang Guang said very funny: "Send everyone away?"
"Send away!" Yang Ji said: "It took a lot of effort to convince everyone that I am not sick."
Yang Guang laughed loudly: "Many people regard you as the God of Plague. I never imagined that you have such good popularity."
"It's not that I'm popular, but that the prime minister and the minister make people popular." Yang Ji said with deep feeling: "People like to use the word "a sparsely populated house" to describe a house that is desolate and has few guests. In the past, the palace of the Prince of Daxing City was not so popular as a sparrow. It was a 'wild dog' that strayed into the front of the house, and it was walking very fast. If you had decreed that you should take down the position of prime minister or minister, the people at the door would definitely stay away."
"Even in a family or a small family, it is unavoidable to praise the high and the low, not to mention the fiercely competitive officialdom? And people always climb higher, strive for higher benefits, and yearn for a better life, so those who do not have official positions Preparatory officials want to seek official positions from you; those who have official positions also want you to mention it so that they can take a step forward. The key is that you have to have a strong balance in your heart and don't lose yourself." Yang Guang paused. After a while, he said again: "I am very relieved about you. You are not like some people; some people suddenly rise to high positions, and then slowly lose their true nature in the crowds of people, and become a sharp knife in the hands of others."
"For example?" Yang Ji picked up a fishing rod and put the bait on it, and threw the hook into the lake with a "beep" sound. The fish below dispersed in a flurry, and no one was left.
When Yang Guang saw that all the fish were gone, he couldn't help but glared at Yang Ji and said angrily: "Take me for example, I am your sharp blade."
Yang Ji said plausibly: "The emperors of all dynasties are sharp swords that everyone wants to use and everyone is using. If anyone uses it well, he can be invincible and invincible and save one or two generations of time; no What a surprise. Besides, when will I use you to attack a city with this sharp blade?"
Yang Guang was amused, and glanced at Yang Ji and said: "As soon as you left my sight, you started causing trouble everywhere, and then left a lot of mess for you. I didn't accuse you, King Wei, of all these things unjustly, right?"
"There is indeed no injustice, but it has always been the family head's responsibility to clean up the mess for the children of the clan. What's more, what I did is beneficial to the country and the people, so you should be happy." Yang Ji said it matter-of-factly, and then added: "Actually, many times I don't want to make things big, and I want to stop them. But things are so big that it's hard for me to restrain myself. What can I do? By the way, my sister-in-law has told you, right?"
Yang Guang couldn't keep up with his thoughts and asked: "What did you say?"
"Integrate the royal family's industry and issue an edict to the world!" Yang Ji said.
"Said!" Yang Guang nodded and said, "This method is good. I will arrange it tomorrow morning."
"Then I'll be relieved." Yang Ji breathed a sigh of relief and said, "This matter must be done quickly and cannot be delayed."
"Yeah!" Yang Guang responded, suddenly feeling that something was wrong.
"Oops, the fish is hooked..." At this moment, Yang Ji shouted excitedly. The float of the fishing rod in his hand sank with a swish. The fishing line tightened immediately, and then Yang Ji caught the fish. A lively water snake appeared.
"Haha, hahaha!" Yang Guang almost died laughing.
Yang Ji said proudly: "As long as it's edible, it doesn't matter. Besides, eels are more delicious than fish, and there's no need to invest in fry. I'll make a lot of money this time."
"What do you earn? Your so-called 'eel' seems to specialize in eating small fish and fry, right?" Yang Guang said with a smile.
Yang Ji said: "Eliminating it is equivalent to saving countless fry and small fish, and in the end we still make money."
"..." Yang Guang was speechless. Although this was fishing, not snake fishing, from a utilitarian point of view, Yang Ji's fallacy was not wrong at all.
"Have you ever eaten it? Do you dare to eat it?" Yang Ji asked.
"Not to mention snakes, I have eaten grass, weeds, and leaves." Facing Yang Ji's disbelieving gaze, Yang Guang smiled bitterly and said, "I know you don't believe it, but this is a fact."
"When I was still the general manager of Bingzhou, I once conquered the Turks in the north during the Sui Dynasty. At that time, I was the general manager and Chang Sun Sheng was the deputy general manager of the march. He was familiar with the Turkic folk customs and knew that both men and horses needed to drink spring water, so he poured water into all springs and rivers. The poison caused all the Turkic soldiers and livestock to drink water and were poisoned to death. What followed was a plague. Seeing that the situation was not good, we were so frightened that we killed all the captive livestock, threw away all the food and baggage, and fled all the way back to Wuhan. The original county is Dali County. On the way to escape, what we ate was grass, weeds, and leaves."
Yang Ji suddenly said: "If you hadn't said it yourself, I would have thought you were retreating calmly."
"How dare you take it easy? It was just a desperate attempt to escape." Recalling the "extreme collapse of thousands of miles" escape scene in the past, Yang Guang said with fear: "The plague turned a thousand miles around into a death realm, death. For several years, no one dared to set foot in this forbidden area. Fortunately, we escaped quickly, otherwise, none of the tens of thousands of troops, including me, would have survived. However, someone actually accused me of absconding in fear of fighting and returning without success; Aye knew that That's not the case, but everyone said so, so he had no choice but to neither reward nor punish him, and Changsun Sheng was named the Third Division of Shangkaifu Yitong."
After calming down, Yang Guang told Yang Ji very seriously: "The plague does not distinguish between friend and foe, it is intangible, invisible and cannot be cured. It is really terrible. When you go to the battlefield in the future, you must dispose of the corpse in time. Don’t give the plague a chance to breed. If our soldiers are unfortunate enough to be infected, we must not be merciful; if there is any kindness from a woman, it will definitely kill the entire army.”
"I will!" Yang Ji nodded when he heard this. He also knew that once the plague breeds, it will quickly spread in all directions. If it happens on the battlefield, no matter how many doctors and medicines are available in the army, the treatment will not be enough, and the whole army will eventually die of illness. The only way is to cut off one's wrist as soon as it happens.
"I've finally been lazy for a while, so let's not talk about these serious topics!" Yang Guang stretched out and said, "It's been a long time since I've eaten weird food. How about you come up with some?"
Yang Ji couldn't help laughing: "Do you want to eat the grass and leaves?"
"You make it, and I'll eat it!" Yang Guang leaned back on the wicker chair and said lazily: "To tell you the truth, during that great escape, I was half starved to death, and even eating grass felt like the most delicious food in the world. Later, people specially brought weeds and leaves for me to eat, but no matter whether it was raw, fried, boiled, stir-fried, or stewed in a pot, I still couldn't get the wonderful feeling I had when I thought about it. , It’s really…”
After "really" for a long time, Yang Guang couldn't find a suitable adjective. He simply asked Yang Ji: "What is it really...?"
Yang Ji said with a smile: "It's really a shame, it's really not good!"
"Yes, yes, that's right." Yang Guang nodded repeatedly and said with a smile: "For people like us who like to toss, it's not good to be mean!"
Yang Ji's face turned dark: "What does it have to do with me?"
Yang Guang said: "You love to toss so much. It's not that you are a bit mean and should not be good, so what is it?"
"Isn't it because of you? Isn't it because you want to make Sui better?" Yang Ji was too lazy to pay attention to him, took the bait again, and started fishing for snakes.
Yang Guang, who was enjoying a rare vacation, ignored Yang Ji and looked ahead in confusion. Suddenly his eyes lit up and he saw three huge eagles flying towards the lake. They quickly grabbed two big fish and immediately cut through the sky. , disappeared into the distance.
He sat upright and said excitedly: "Did you raise him?"
"Yeah, what's wrong?" Yang Ji looked at Yang Ji puzzled.
"This feeling and this scene deserve a poem." Yang Guang said, "Come on and write one!"
"The poem is too powerful." Yang Ji said to Yang Guang: "If I write a poem, don't kill me!"
"Aye even turned a deaf ear to He Ruobi who wrote anti-poems and was too lazy to pay attention to it; as the second emperor of the Sui Dynasty, if I don't even have such a big heart, why should I be an emperor?" Yang Guang shook his head and said: "Just come."
"The eagle strikes the sky, the fish flies to the shallow bottom, and all kinds of frosty sky compete for freedom. I am so melancholy that I ask the vast earth, who is responsible for the ups and downs?" The long and short sentences recited by Yang Ji can be described as swallowing up the rivers and mountains with majestic momentum, which made Yang Guang listen. I feel so proud and filled with emotion!
After a while, Yang Guang raised his finger and praised: "Just these few sentences, a king's spirit rushed to his face. I especially like this sentence 'Ask the boundless earth, the ups and downs of the Sui Lord'."
Yang Ji: "..."
He actually liked more gorgeous poems before, but gradually he fell in love with simple but domineering poems, such as "Three Chapters of Meiling". When I was a naive teenager, I couldn't appreciate it at all, and even foolishly thought that it had no literary talent. However, after experiencing the world, I feel that it is far more charming and powerful than those exaggerated poems.
Especially now that they have experienced a mountain of corpses and a sea of fire, the moods of Yang Ji and Chen Shuai seem to have an indescribable and strange resonance. At the same time, they also like what Chen Shuai wrote, "How do you feel today when you have been decapitated? Starting a business is difficult and full of battles. This Go to Quantai to recruit old troops and kill Yama with a hundred thousand banners."
"Come on, come on, let's have a drink." Yang Guang was agitated at this moment. He held on to the wine pot like a guest and poured two glasses of bright red grape wine.
Yang Ji was really miserable at the wine table these days, being treated badly by his wife and his wife. He was even afraid of the smell of wine. When I saw it was wine, I finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Yang Ji felt that he could drink this wine and that his drinking capacity was good again.
He touched it with Yang Guang, took a big sip of the wine in the glass, and thought about it carefully. He felt that it was very ordinary, not to mention compared to what Wei Zheng brewed, but even compared to the "works" of ordinary winemakers. Not as good as that.
He looked at Yang Guang and saw the look of expectation on his face. He suddenly understood. He also thought that Xiao Ying had said that Yang Guang and his wife planned to go to Mianchi's "real estate" to grow vegetables, so he asked curiously: "I remember there are many things in the palace." Grape rack, this wine isn’t made by you using the grapes from the palace, is it?”
"As expected of the Saint of the Wine Country, he actually tasted it after just one sip." Yang Guang smiled coquettishly: "The grapes in the palace grew very well last year. We couldn't eat them all, and we couldn't give them away. We had nothing to do, so we gave the grapes to others. We picked it to make wine. We think it's okay, but this is the first time in our lives. We really don't have the confidence, let alone give it away to others. Today is the first time I've given it to you to taste, what do you think?"
Yang Ji said calmly: "To be honest, this wine tastes very bad and is not suitable for giving away. However, the quality is better than that of many skilled winemakers."
Upon hearing what Yang Ji said, Yang Guang picked up the wine glass in front of him, tasted it carefully, and said with some disappointment: "It really doesn't work."
"As far as I know, wine is very delicate. Whether it is sealed or filtered, it is very particular about temperature and humidity. If the conditions are not met, the wine produced will not be good. Try it a few more times and it will definitely get better." Yang Ji originally wanted to tell Wei Zheng, but he also knew that once he told Wei Zheng, Wei Zheng would most likely become a winemaker, so he simply ignored the matter.
"That's right!" Yang Guang felt much better, but he said stubbornly: "The wines of the Hu people are very coveted. Many dignitaries would rather spend a lot of money to buy wines from the Western Regions than taste our wines from the Sui Dynasty. Taking a sip of wine, it seems that I, the Sui Dynasty, are inferior to others. I don’t believe that my Sui Dynasty is not as good as the Hu people. This year I must brew a good wine that even the Hu people can’t match. I don’t believe that the Hu people can make wine well, but I, the Sui Dynasty, are not as good as others. no."
Yang Ji liked to hear this.
If you are not as good as others, you must recognize it; if you recognize it, you must learn and surpass it. If you know you are inferior to others but insist on thinking that you are great, that is a fatal thing.
"Dinner is almost ready. Have you finished talking?" Queen Xiao and Xiao Ying walked over. The sisters were speechless when they saw that their brother actually drank.
"That's it!" Yang Ji said, "But as soon as I hooked the fish hook today, I immediately caught an eel. I must use eel as my staple food today."
Xiao Ying stepped forward to look at the fish basket and found that the so-called eel was another water snake. She sighed: "Aying caught a lot of eels today and is stewing them in a casserole. Even if he doesn't eat other food, it's enough for us." full."
When Yang Guang heard this, he couldn't help laughing.
He originally thought that Yang Ji was unlucky enough, but he didn't expect that there was someone even more unlucky in Prince Wei's palace.
