Human dimension reduction

Huan Zhenzhi walked out of Wang's mansion slowly under the guidance of his servants. Under the steps, a green cloth carriage with Huan's emblem was already waiting there. This carriage was not very luxurious and expensive, and the frame was all ordinary. It is made of wood, but it is better than being clean and tidy. The sackcloth on the hood is neatly combed and organized.

Wang's servant bowed slightly: "Mr. Huan, go slowly."

Huan Zhenzhi turned his head and stared at the screen wall carved with mountains and rivers for a while, and suddenly showed him a spring-like smile.

Watching the chariots and horses carrying Mr. Huan go away, the servants sighed twice. The status of the Huan family in the entire capital is a bit embarrassing and special. They are not the top families like the Wang and Xie clans. It's just a second-rate family among thousands of nobles in the big city, but with this status, Huan Zhenzhi can befriend their successors in the Wang and Xie clans, except that Huan Zhenzhi himself is quite talented and learned, which is admirable In addition, Gai had a unique surname - "Huan".

The surname Huan is not very common. It just so happens that the royal family of the previous dynasty had this surname.

This dynasty has been established for a hundred years. The Taizu did not get the right position. He used his ministers to force the emperor. He snatched the throne from the last emperor of the previous dynasty. In the next few years, the men of the Huan family continued to die suddenly due to various accidents and diseases, but after checking, it was only these nobles who suffered accidents.

In the end, only one extremely intelligent and clever little prince survived. Although he was too young and didn't remember anything when the palace changed, he survived those natural and man-made disasters safely and passed on the Huan family's blood. up to now.

Huan Zhenzhi is his fourth generation descendant.

But no matter what, the Huan family was still suppressed intentionally or unintentionally, from the former royal family to an ordinary family that can't be mentioned in the capital.

Looking back on the family history of the royal family in this dynasty, I have to sigh that Feng Shui cannot turn around like this.

Due to their special status, the Huan family has always kept a low profile in the capital. They are all cautious in their words and deeds.

Although everyone knows that hundreds of years have passed, and it is not up to them to restore the old dynasty, who knows what the emperor above thinks?It's hard to say when he's in a bad mood, he's going to start digging up old scores.

Huan Zhenzhi's name has the word "He" in his name, and Zhenzhi is his name. The Huan family has few members. He is the only seedling of this generation. Woke up and waited at the door for a long time.

Huan An didn't wait for the carriage to come to a complete stop, he jumped out of the carriage, stepped forward in two steps, and held Mrs. Huan's elbow: "Mother, it's windy outside, why did you come out again?"

Mrs. Huan was supported by him to walk back, and told him in a soft voice what happened at home today. The wife often has to hold a needle and thread to mend clothes for her husband and son.

Huan An patiently listened to his mother talking about these trivial matters, and echoed a few times from time to time, reminding his mother to be careful of the broken stones on the steps. Mrs. Huan heard this voice, and her face showed a bit of sadness: "The corridor must be paved again before the spring of next year, otherwise how will you treat guests and friends?"

Huan An lowered his eyebrows and looked gentle: "Mother, don't worry, I will find a suitable craftsman later."

Mrs. Huan frowned: "How can you be a gentleman to do this matter? Just ask the servants to look for it. If your grandfather was still there, you are not as rich and comfortable as Wang Xie at the moment, and you will never It’s not much inferior, among the surrounding houses, which ones are not owned by the Huan family? And..."

The woman began to babble about the past of the Huan family before Huan An was born. In fact, the Huan family was already going downhill at that time, but when she married in, the Huan family still had beautiful flower shelves, and they had the air of a wealthy family.

Huan An did not refute Mrs. Huan's words, and sent her mother back to the room to rest, and talked with her for a while before turning back to her yard.

When alone, Huan An finally removed the mask-like gentle smile on his face. When he was not smiling, the spring breeze-like warmth in his eyes receded like water, and something as hard as stone and as cold as ice took over. his pupils.

He was sitting in front of the short table, with a straight body, and his left hand unconsciously pressed the wrist of his right hand, as if there was something on that empty wrist. He wrote a thick short note, raised his hand to rub the ink and licked the pen, wrote a line of words on the note, stuffed it into a special envelope, and called the servant: "Send it to the mansion of Minister Zhao of the Ministry of War."

The servant bowed and left in a hurry, Huan An closed his eyes and concentrated on thinking.

Xie Zhuo, Xie Yinyu... Could this person be you, Mr. Qiao?Hope I won't be wrong this time.

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Xie Zhuo, who is thousands of miles away in the snowy and icy north, didn't know that someone was looking for him, and he almost secretly turned over and pulled all the people who had a change in the capital. He was seriously following Zhao Wuque on the "Six Little Classroom on Memoirs of the [-] Campaign".

The two retraced the circuitous retreat of the Dingzhou Army in the past. After walking for a week, they finally reached the edge of the vast grassland. See that line of gray city winding like a crouching dragon.

Zhao Wuque stood on the hillside with a grass stalk in his mouth. His face was unshaven, his clothes were twisted like a ball of dried vegetables, and he was dressed in the standard style of eating and sleeping in the open. Xie Zhuo who was behind him was much better, although The appearance is slightly messy, but it is basically clean.

It doesn't look obvious on the surface, but Zhao Wuque is quite caring. The scar on his face looks very hideous and terrifying, which adds a lot of ferocity to him, but after getting along for so long, this There is actually a soul like a little daughter-in-law in one's bones.

All Xie Zhuo's shock was used up when he saw Zhao Wuque washing his clothes. The dignified general of the Dingzhou Army is skilled and neat in washing clothes. He is not inferior to the girl who has been washing clothes for many years. In addition, he is also a martial arts practitioner. , The hands are strong enough, and the washed clothes are extremely clean.

Xie Zhuo... Xie Zhuo didn't know what to say, so he could only express his gratitude with a dull face, and got Zhao Wuque's contrived wink: "Oh, then the gentleman must repay me well."

Zhao Wuque squatted on the small mound, the dog's tail grass in his mouth trembled, and lit a deep furrow in front of him, which was filled with gray-black embers of burned vegetation, which was nearly two feet wide. It can be seen from a long distance, like an ugly wound on the border of the pale yellow and deep green grassland. What is even more strange is that the side of the furrow near Dingzhou is full of white flags. Old, plain white paper was pressed with stones and placed beside the furrow, and various sacrifices were placed on the ground. When the north wind blew, countless white banners came suddenly like heavy snow, and there were rustling sounds one after another in the wind.

Zhao Wuque held the blade of grass in his mouth, and said vaguely: "This is the boundary between Daxia and Beiman. Fifty-two miles away is the gate of Dingzhou City. Every spring, the Dingzhou Army will come here to burn the pit and burn the grass here. Burn them all and fill them in."

"In Dingzhou's geography, it is recorded that this line is called 'Dingzhou Boundary', but we Dingzhou people privately call it 'Filling Corpse Line'."

"After the northern barbarians invaded, the first batch of soldiers who died on the border were all thrown here by them."

Xie Zhuo suddenly remembered someone.

As if guessing what he was thinking, Zhao Wuque squatted on the mound, squinting his eyes: "My eldest father is also inside. After the death of my eldest mother, following her last wish, I also buried her here."

Xie Zhuo looked far into the distance and saw this gray-black "filling line" zigzagging up to the endless horizon. Who would have thought that there were tens of thousands of soldiers' bones buried under these grassy corpses? ?

"Where is Old General Zhao buried?"

Zhao Wuque shook his head: "I don't know, Beiman threw people's brains into the pit to fill the pit. It was summer, and I couldn't risk the epidemic to pick up tens of thousands of corpses for inspection and embalming, so I simply set fire to them." burned."

As he said that, Zhao Wuque sighed helplessly: "So no matter how long this line is, I can only guard it. Otherwise, if I lose the remains of my ancestors, wouldn't that be unfilial? I'll be stabbed in the back."

He squatted on the small mound like a big dog, staring at the line. After squatting for a long time, a woman came from a distance with a few children, holding a bamboo basket in her hand. Putting the sacrificial items, he randomly picked up an open space and stopped, took out the incense sticks and paper money in the basket, and lit them one by one.

The humming whispers were blurred in the wind, Zhao Wuque stared at them coming and going, and sat down on the ground: "I have finished what I want to say, is there any question for Xie Langjun? If not, you can Come to receive your contribution."

He raised both hands forward, making a posture of stretching out his hands, Xie Zhuo looked at him for a while, and suddenly asked: "You told me a lot of other people's stories, but you didn't tell me about yourself, the look on your face Injury, how did it come about?"

After Zhao Wuque heard this sentence, his first reaction was to subconsciously raise his hand and touch his face.

The scar was really eye-catching and hideous, running across half of Zhao Wuque's face. The wound was uneven, as if torn apart by some uneven sharp weapon, so it was impossible to align it when it healed, causing the skin on both sides of the scar to be distorted. From the chin and cheeks, it can be seen that Zhao Wuque originally had a handsome face, but after being scratched by this scar, his eyes were full of blood and evil, which was terrifying and frightening enough to stop a child from crying at night.

"I don't have much research on weapons, but I saw them in the barracks these days, and it was an eye-opener. An old sergeant showed me a piece he captured in the six-year campaign, called the 'Spike Saber' ', is the weapon that the lieutenant generals of the northern barbarian army will be equipped with, because the blade is intertwined with canine teeth and looks like wolf teeth, so it is named after it."

Xie Zhuo lifted the hem of his clothes, sat beside Zhao Wuque, took the burden that Zhao Wuque had carried all the way, and began to sort out the messy paper, pen, bamboo and various pieces of cloth inside.

After he finished speaking, Zhao Wuque sat blankly on the spot, didn't answer or move, and waited until Xie Zhuo had sorted out all the things, tidied them up one by one, arranged them in order and packed them again—— Back, he tied the burden to a knot.

The sun in the sky began to set slowly, and the wind blowing from the depths of the grassland was bitingly cold. Xie Zhuo threw the burden on his back, stood up, as if he had forgotten the question he had just asked, and patted Zhao Wuque's Shoulder: "General Zhao, it's time to go back to camp."

Zhao Wuque followed him to stand up silently, absently slapped the dust on his buttocks, and followed Xie Zhuo back.

When passing by the place where the woman worshiped and burned joss sticks, Zhao Wuque stopped suddenly, stared at the faint pile of ashes on the ground for a while, and asked irrelevantly, "What do you say about me outside?"

Xie Zhuo didn't care about the abruptness of his topic, he thought about it seriously, and said: "You have no talent and reputation, and you act absurdly, it all depends on the legacy of your ancestors."

These are not good words, but in fact the rumors in the capital are much uglier than this, and they are almost laughing at Zhao Wuque as a good-for-nothing coward who is greedy for life and afraid of death.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Wuque was not angry when he heard these words, but instead he laughed in agreement: "It's really appropriate."

"I originally had some selfish intentions, and I didn't want to be famous in history, and I didn't want to be reviled in history books, but since the historian is asking, it's meaningless to hide it."

Zhao Wuque looked up at the sky, and replied calmly: "This scar, the legend in the Dingzhou army is that my uncle was hung in front of the northern barbarian corpse. I was so angry that I went to the camp alone to steal the corpse. Nine deaths, wounded by the northern barbarians."

"Actually not. That day, I went out of the city alone to escape."

"I'm timid, I want to be a deserter."

The general of the Dingzhou Army frankly admitted to the line of burials of tens of thousands of soldiers and the historian who recorded the pictures in the annals, and admitted the truth enough to make him nailed to the pillar of shame.

Xie Zhuo was taken aback.

After Zhao Wuque admitted this, he became more relaxed, and that frivolous smile appeared on his face again, but this time, there was not much lightness in his smile.

"Too many people have died. Many people died in front of me to protect me. They believed that I could lead them to victory, but what they believed was not me, Zhao Wuque, but my surname. I also felt ambitious at first. Full of blood, but more and more people died, until I saw my uncle's body hanging in front of the battle—"

Zhao Wuque paused for a while, swallowed the blood and bitterness in his memories, and said lightly: "So I ran away, but on the way, by chance, I met a woman who was alone and was captured by the Northern Man, I rushed to rescue her , left this scar."

"It's a good thing they didn't recognize who I am, otherwise it wouldn't just be about this scar."

Zhao Wuque laughed.With a nonchalant expression on his face: "The sergeant who came to find me rescued me, maybe they misunderstood me because of the same direction, and I didn't explain it at the time, but in fact... I'm just a despicable deserter, not a hot-blooded and lonely soldier. hero."