Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather

"Check out!"

"Okay!"

The shopkeeper's beard almost crooked with laughter when he saw the books Yang Zhengshan had chosen.

Whether it was martial arts or military tactics, they were all inventory in his store.

With inventory like this, he might not be able to sell even one copy a year.

I didn't expect to meet a fool today who actually bought six books at once.

"Take care, sir!"

After leaving the bookstore, Yang Zhengshan went to the Treasure Medicine Pavilion to buy a hundred-year-old ginseng.

It cost a total of seven hundred taels of silver, which almost made Yang Zhengshan heartbroken.

Then Yang Zhengshan bought some fine tea, furs and cloth.

"Damn, I have to save more money in the future, otherwise I won't have money for the New Year gifts!"

Yang Zhengshan secretly complained in his heart.

That day, he spent more than a thousand taels of silver. If it weren't for the two thousand taels of thank-you silver from Mr. Lu, he really couldn't afford the gift.

He didn't care how Yang Mingcheng prepared it. He stayed in the small courtyard for another night and then returned to Yinghe Fort.

Now there is still half a month before the Chinese New Year, which means he has to write a book of military tactics within half a month.

Time is tight, Yang Zhengshan hurried back to Yinghebao and plunged into the study.

At first, he wanted to write a record of military training, but after thinking about it for a long time, he found that this record of military training is not easy to write, and many things need to be carefully considered before they can be written.

Queues, battle formations, these trainings look simple, but it is difficult to write. The purpose and reason of each training must be explained.

If there is time, Yang Zhengshan can think slowly and write it sooner or later.

But he is in a hurry to give Zhou Lan a New Year gift now, and this time is definitely not enough.

There is no way, Yang Zhengshan can only copy the "Thirty-Six Strategies" first.

"Thirty-Six Strategies" refers to thirty-six military strategies, divided into six sets: the first set is "Victory Strategies", the second set is "Enemy Strategies", the third set is "Attack Strategies", the fourth set is "Melee Strategies", the fifth set is "Combined Strategies", and the sixth set is "Defeat Strategies".

The first three sets are strategies to be used when you are in an advantageous position, and the last three sets are strategies to be used when you are in a disadvantageous position. Each set contains six strategies, for a total of thirty-six strategies.

If you don't think about some things, you feel that you can't remember them all, but if you think about them every day, you will find that you can remember them all.

Yang Zhengshan racked his brains for five days and finally remembered all the thirty-six strategies.

Then he wrote it down according to his memory and modified the inappropriate parts.

The reason why it is written instead of memorized is that Yang Zhengshan can't write it down word by word, so he can only rewrite it according to his own ideas and language.

As for the inappropriate parts, such as Wei Wei Jiu Zhao, there is no Wei and Zhao in history here, so where does Wei Wei Jiu Zhao come from?

Yang Zhengshan thought about it and changed Wei Wei Jiu Zhao to besiege the city and attack the reinforcements.

There are certain similarities between the two. Even if there are differences, they are all written by him anyway. If he says it is, then it is, and there will definitely be no one in this world to refute him.

There are not many words in the Thirty-Six Stratagems. Yang Zhengshan only spent two days to complete the first draft, and then spent three days to carefully consider and revise it, and finally it was completed.

On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth lunar month.

Yang Zhengshan took the Thirty-Six Stratagems he compiled and two large carts of gifts to Jianning Guard.

At the end of the year, Zhou Lan was still very busy.

Busy with training soldiers, busy with military affairs, and busy with sending New Year gifts.

However, Zhou Lan did not need to go out in person to send New Year gifts, but only needed to arrange servants to run errands.

After Yang Zhengshan came to Jianning Guard, he did not go to see Zhou Lan immediately, but went to Zhao Yuan first.

Zhao Yuan had a large courtyard in Jianning Guard, and he could stay with Zhao Yuan temporarily.

After settling down, Yang Zhengshan started his visit.

Jianning Guard had a commander, two commanders, three commanders, and two pacifications.

In addition to these, there were also garrison officials and patrol inspection offices.

Yang Zhengshan sent a New Year gift to all officials with names.

None of them were expensive, just a pound of tea, two nice-looking furs, and a few pieces of silk bought from Luo's cloth shop.

Depending on the rank of the official, the amount of New Year gifts sent increased or decreased.

Yang Zhengshan didn't want to please these officials, he just wanted to show his heart and let the other party know that he didn't ignore him.

As for whether the other party was satisfied with the New Year gifts, that was a matter of opinion.

If they were not satisfied, Yang Zhengshan had no choice. He only had this family background, and he couldn't really let him go bankrupt.

The key was that even if he went bankrupt, people might not be able to appreciate it.

In fact, many officials didn't care about his New Year gifts, and didn't even come out to see him, but just let the servants send him away.

Those with a better attitude prepared a return gift for Yang Zhengshan to take away, and those with a worse attitude only said, "My master knows."

The warmth and coldness of human feelings were fully reflected at this time.

In two days, Yang Zhengshan visited all the officials of Jianning Guard and met many of them.

For example, Zhong Luan, the commander of Jianning Guard, and Mu Qiu, the garrison commander of Ningzhou City.

These two probably knew that Yang Zhengshan was Zhou Lan's man, so they were quite nice to Yang Zhengshan. Not only did they meet him in person, but they also gave him a gift in return.

After everyone else was almost taken care of, Yang Zhengshan went to the General's Mansion to meet Zhou Lan.

In the mansion, Yang Zhengshan followed an attendant into the main hall.

However, when he stepped into the door, he paused slightly.

Because there was not only Zhou Lan in the main hall, but also a middle-aged man in his thirties.

This man was wearing a loose Confucian shirt, with a handsome face and a gentle and elegant temperament.

He sat below Zhou Lan, with a smile like spring breeze.

When he saw him, Yang Zhengshan suddenly felt that he didn't know how to describe it.

This guy is so handsome!

Yes, handsome!

Yang Zhengshan thought that he was also a handsome uncle, especially after his beard became thick and neatly arranged, with a bit of the meaning of "being white, with a thick beard, walking in the mansion, and walking slowly in the mansion".

But the man in front of him was different from him, with a face like jade, eyebrows like swords, pupils like ink, thin body, handsome spirit.

Envy and jealousy!

Yes.

Surprise and curiosity.

Yes.

But more of it was vigilance.

Yes, vigilance.

Just one glance, Yang Zhengshan knew that this was a master.

Although the other party was just sitting there quietly, he gave him an extremely dangerous feeling.

He looked gentle and elegant, but he felt that he was more like an unsheathed sword.

The edge was restrained, and the murderous intent was hidden.

However, Zhou Lan was here. Although Yang Zhengshan felt that this person was dangerous, he just paused and stepped into the main hall.

"Your subordinate greets General Zhou!"

He clasped his fists and saluted.

"No need to be polite, Lord Yang, this is my brother, who came from Kyoto to see me." Zhou Lan seemed to be in a bad mood, and there was a bit of dissatisfaction in his eyes.

Of course, this dissatisfaction was definitely not directed at Yang Zhengshan, and Yang Zhengshan did not provoke him.

Brother?

Yang Zhengshan's mind moved slightly, and he immediately understood the identity of this person.

Zhou Lan was the legitimate daughter of the Ningguo Mansion, so his brother was one of the masters of the Ningguo Mansion.

He also inquired about the situation of the Ningguo Mansion. After all, Zhou Lan was his thigh, and it was necessary to understand some things.

The current Duke of Ningguo, Zhou Lan's father, Zhou Mao, served as the Left Commander of the Central Military Commander's Office, was in charge of the Beijing Camp, and was given the title of the Prince's Grand Tutor.

Zhou Mao had four sons, among whom the eldest son died in battle in the northwest in his early years, the second and third sons were both concubines, and they all served in the army, and the remaining one was Zhou Xu, the prince of the Duke of Ningguo's Mansion.

The person in front of him should be Zhou Xu!

"The subordinate Yang Zhengshan, the defense officer of Yinghe Fort, pays homage to the prince!" Yang Zhengshan saluted Zhou Xu again.

The titles of Darong were all virtual titles, that is, there was no fiefdom but only land.

"No need to be polite!" Zhou Xu looked at Yang Zhengshan with a very gentle attitude and raised his hand to signal.

Zhou Lan didn't care about his attitude, but just asked Yang Zhengshan: "What are you doing here?"

"As the year is coming to an end, the subordinate prepared a small gift for the general!" Yang Zhengshan said straightforwardly.

"Give gifts!" Zhou Lan blinked and looked at him strangely, "Anything good?"

Giving gifts for the New Year is the most common thing in the officialdom, and everyone is used to it.

Of course, some people will use this to make a lot of money or bribe their superiors.

Zhou Lan is not a greedy person, and she doesn't care about any gifts.

During this period, she received a lot of festival gifts and gave a lot of gifts, all of which were just personal exchanges.

However, he was very curious about Yang Zhengshan's small gift, because she knew Yang Zhengshan's family background very well, and you said she had been to Yangjia Village.

What good things can the Yang family give her with their family background?

"Well, there is nothing good, this is just a token of my heart!"

What can Yang Zhengshan say? Although the gift contains his carefully prepared military strategy, he can't brag about how powerful his copied military strategy is.

As he said, Yang Zhengshan handed the gift list to Zhou Lan.

Zhou Lan glanced over, and she glanced at other things, even if it was a hundred-year-old ginseng, she didn't care much.

However, she still saw the "Thirty-Six Stratagems" on the gift list.

"Thirty-Six Stratagems!"

"What is this?"

Yang Zhengshan waved to Yang Minghao outside the door, and Yang Minghao immediately came in with a wooden box in his hand.

After handing the wooden box to Zhou Lan, Zhou Liu curiously opened the wooden box and took out a thin booklet from it.

She flipped through the booklet, and was just curious at first, then stunned, and finally shocked.

As a general born in the Ningguo Mansion, Zhou Lan has been reading military books since she was a child. She has read countless military books, but she can be sure that she has never read this "Thirty-Six Stratagems".

She was even more shocked by the strategies in the book.

The "Thirty-Six Stratagems" is based on the theory of yin and yang changes in the "Book of Changes" and the ancient military strategists' ideas of mutual transformation of opposing relationships such as rigidity and softness, odd and even, attack and defense, self and others, virtuality and reality, host and guest, labor and rest, smooth and rough, high and low, life and death.

Each strategy reflects superb wisdom and tactical skills. It was formulated based on comprehensive consideration of the actual situation, enemy and our own situation, changes in the situation, and other factors, and is highly practical and operational.

"Where did this come from?"

In just a quarter of an hour, Zhou Lan read the entire booklet. In fact, she just glanced through it roughly and did not think about it carefully, but even so, she could still see the extraordinaryness of this military book.