Chapter 2 Chapter Two

In Linzi, the capital of the Qi State, in the mansion of the famous general Sima Juju, the mourning hall was extremely hot.The general's body was decomposing bit by bit. Where the arrow sores burst, there were already maggots wriggling, and they began to emit a foul smell.The etiquette system strictly restricts the size of the ice bowl and the number of ice cubes used by the common people after death. The general has been demoted to the common people, and no one can do anything about it.So I lighted the incense.Cigarettes and rancid smell mixed together, and the mourning hall became more and more stuffy and suffocating.

Since the beginning of summer, there has been no rain for two months.Three couples of boys and girls have been thrown into the big river, begging the Dragon King for rain, but the sky is still dry, so that people's hearts are cracking like the earth. Sun Wu closed his eyes and sat on the mat before the funeral for two days and three nights.He was very quiet, as if the heat had nothing to do with him, as if he was expecting something. Finally, in the middle of the night, the clouds rose and the sky opened up, and the rain that had been accumulated for a long time poured down all at once.

A gust of cool wet wind hit, and Sun Wu's bloody eyes suddenly flashed like lightning.He kowtowed to Sima Yuju who was lying silently on the corpse bed: "Uncle is in the spirit of heaven to forgive my nephew for being unfilial, Sun Wu should go." The wife, Bo Nu, who knelt down and worshiped at the side, looked at Sun Wu in surprise: "Let's go?" "The car is ready." Sun Wu said calmly. "Where are you going?" Sun Tzu didn't answer. This dignified five-foot man decided to leave Linzi, the capital of Qi State, say goodbye to Le'an, the hometown of food and clothing given to his ancestors by Qi Jinggong, and go to Gusu, the capital of Wu State.Going so far away and never looking back, at this moment, if he feels lost and even tears because of leaving the country; if he is full of ambitions for the realization of his ambition, it is understandable even if he expresses his feelings emphatically.However, he just said the word "go" calmly and didn't repeat it again, which made his wife and daughter dare not ask again, knowing that he made a sudden decision and it was irreversible, so he could only pack his bags silently.

Ten days ago, when he told Sima Juju about this decision, the general was very angry. At that time, the general was still a general. Sun Wu said: "Master Uncle, Sun Wu is about to leave, so I bid you farewell first." "Where are you going?" "Go south to Gusu, the country of Wu." "What? Isn't Qi State too small?" "No. In the past, the Taigong established Yingqiu as his capital, stretching to the sea in the east, the Yellow River in the west, Muling in the south, and Wudi in the north. Wrapping the hooves of the horses with cloth, the chariot crossed the dangers of the Taihang Mountains. Who would dare to disobey? Duke Huan led the army to meet three times, and rode the chariot to meet six times, a total of nine times to join the princes of the world, great is the state of Qi!"

"Then why are you leaving?" "Uncle, you know that Duke Huan dominates the world, but the five princes formed their own cliques and fought to be the crown prince. When Duke Huan died, the five princes were fighting fiercely. The corpse was put into the coffin, and the corpse was left on the bed for sixty-seven days, causing maggots to crawl around. In thirty years, our Tian family, together with the Bao, Gao, and Luan families, expelled Xiang Guoqingfeng. Not long after, The four major families of Tian, ​​Bao, Gao, and Luan fought each other again. The so-called chaos of the four surnames has not stopped. Now, our descendants of the Tian family have been given the surname as grandson by the King of Qi, and Le'an has been granted the land of food and harvest. As the Sima of a country, you defeated the Luan Gao clan and temporarily gained the upper hand. But, my lord uncle, the rebellion of the four surnames will not subside. The nobles around King Jinggong are sharpening their swords. Although uncle is a Sima , do you know that the death of Duke Huan of Qi will not happen again?"

"So, are you trying to avoid disaster?" "Not just to avoid disaster." "Then, is it because the vastness of the Qi Kingdom can't accommodate your child's strategy and art of war?" "Uncle, don't you think that the "Sima's Art of War" including your tactics is grand and unfathomable? Do you think that a "Sima's Art of War" is the battle of Shang Tang or even the battle of Qi, Jin, Yan, and Han? Is it the inside of it?" The battle-tested general was dumbfounded. Da Sima looked at his twenty-year-old nephew, and listening to the young man with the downy lips talking calmly, he smelled aggression.There is an unreasonable emotion rising in my heart.The young man prophesied that his final destination was worrying, and that was what he was worried about, but he didn't want to be told.Sun Wu's grand theory of Sima's art of war clearly concealed his disapproval of his illustrious military exploits, which made him a little annoyed.He snorted and asked:

"How does your art of war compare with Sima's art of war?" Sun Tzu smiled lightly. This smile almost made Da Sima jump up. The words have been made clear, Sun Wu, a young man, is not happy and angry on the surface, but very arrogant in his heart, but Sima can no longer argue with him, lest he hurt his Sima dignity even more.For the irritable Sima Juju who forbears here, it is simply a miracle for him.He said as pleasantly as possible: "If you stay here, you can also assist uncle one or two times. The blessed land of Qi, where you can drink the essence of Mount Tai and absorb the essence of the Yellow River, is still a place for you to display your talents."

"I'm just worried about your safety." "Then you can't leave me alone." Having said that, let's put it aside for the time being. Five days later, a strange event touched Sun Wu again. That day, the sky was full of clouds and clouds, but it was hot and rainless. Sun Wu was walking casually on the city street, when an old man in front of him blocked his way with outstretched arms.This old man was born very ugly and weird, with a protruding forehead to shield the eyes from the rain, protruding cheekbones, higher than the nose, a shrunken mouth, and an upturned chin. Just one look, you will never forget it in your life!

The old man pointed to the lame foot and said, "Would you like to buy my fake foot? The old man's fake foot is carved from Mount Tai's thousand-year-old Yang wood, which is no different from the real one." Sun Wu said: "Why did you buy your artificial foot? Didn't you see that I am intact? Could it be that you want me to cut off the fleshy foot and replace it with a wooden one?" The old man said with a smile: "Don't you know that the King of Qi used the torture of breaking your foot? You didn't know that you were walking well in front, and the ax that broke your left foot has been raised behind? Are the shoes (shoes) cheap and the fake feet (false feet) expensive? I can sell them to you for a rainy day.”

Sun Wu shook his head and said, "Where do you start with this? Why do I, Sun Wu, need anything?" Hearing Sun Wu's words, the old man laughed so hard that his hair stood on end, and then he walked away without a trace. prophecy? Attunement? Or is it a warning? Sun Wu hurried to his uncle Sima's mansion, but saw doctors Bao and Gao leading soldiers wandering in front of the door.Sima's mansion has just been ransacked, and General Sima has been reduced to a commoner for the crime of treason without knowing the reason.The general has always been of a staunch temper, facing Bao and Gao Ershi who came to raid the house, he yelled, arrow sores broke out, a foot-long bloody gash opened on his back, and he fell down.

Sun Tzu has been calling for a long time. Sima Juju woke up from the coma, saw Sun Wu beside him, and said in tears, "Mr. Changqing, you are unfortunately right! Go, you go." "Uncle is sick and can't afford bed, Sun Wu abandons uncle and goes away, it is unfilial." "Do you want me to die quickly?" "uncle!" "Bring my sword." Sima Juju said to the servant.The servant didn't understand what he meant for a moment, he didn't know what this fiery general was going to do, he was hesitating, Sima Juju shouted again, "Bring the sword!" The servant had no choice but to take the general's sword tremblingly, and brought it with both hands. Unexpectedly, Sima Juju jumped up, drew the sword and was about to kill himself.Sun Wu hurriedly grabbed the sword and burst into tears: "Uncle, why are you doing this?" Sima Juju gasped for breath and coughed up some black and purple blood.Shocked, all the old and young people in the house surrounded him, the general's wife and youngest son were so frightened that they cried loudly and became a mess.Sima Juju took a breather and waved his hands to let the people retreat, leaving only Sun Wu. He sighed repeatedly and said, "I know, you and I love each other like father and son, and you can't bear to leave me. When you were young, you often followed me to read Bing Boyi, but Changqing, you already knew that our Tian clan and Bao clan launched an attack together, defeated the powerful Luan Gao clan, and planted the root of disaster. Uncle was relegated from Da Sima to common people, it was they who shot him from behind The cold arrow." "I know." "You know? You should also know that among the descendants of the Tian family, you are the only one who can inherit the incense of your ancestors. You know Jiang Taigong's method of strategizing, you have the spirit of the Yellow Emperor to fight Chiyou, and you are familiar with the art of war, so you can become a family." "Uncle won the prize." "shut up!" "uncle!" "You have long been a confidant of Luan Gao's surname. Now I have a sudden arrow sore, and I will die soon. The next one will be you, your Changqing! Don't you want to show off your talents, so hurry up and choose a tree to live in, and hurry up. Don't you know that a net has been opened outside?" "But uncle, you..." "I'm exhausted, and death is a matter of time. Things die at the age of one, and people die at the age of a hundred. What is there to regret? Uncle never died in front of the battle, and it is God who gave me the number of years." .Mourners are dead. It means fleeing, not to be seen again. I have always regarded death as home, so you don't have to wait to bury me. Burial just means hiding, burying is. Someone hides me. Under the pile of loess, don't worry about it, I don't want to see you again!" After Sima Juju finished speaking, she closed her eyes tightly.Moreover, since then, water and rice have not entered. It was not until he died that Sima finally opened his dim old eyes to take another look at the world. When he saw Sun Wu, he opened his mouth wide, with a gurgle in his throat, but could not speak, only Ruo Duan was in his mouth. Ruolian lost his temper.He shook his hand and grabbed Sun Wu's hand.After drawing a few straight strokes in the palm of Sun Wu's hand, he lowered his hand and breathed a sigh of relief. Sun Wu looked at the general who died suddenly with blurred eyes of tears. He understood what his uncle was worried about and entrusted to him.The general, who never used divination, drew the thirty-sixth hexagram in the Book of Changes in his palm: Ming Yi.It is not difficult to decipher the image of the hexagram. It means that the sun has sunk below the horizon and collected the last ray of light.Yi means harm.Look carefully at the hexagram, isn't it a bird flying with its wings down? "Mingyi is flying, hang down his wings. A gentleman is walking, and he will not eat for three days." Uncle is telling Sun Wu that the sky in Qi is cloudy and the sky is dark, and a gentleman should not stay for long.Hurry up and restrain your wings, fly out of Qi country quickly, the journey is hard, don't stop if you don't eat for three days. Sun Tzu's heart was trembling.It was an evening of hot flashes that were so stuffy that one was going crazy! It's not easy to get away, the eyes and ears of Bao's, Gao's and Tian's are walking outside the door.Sun Wu is their immediate target and their confidant.If they escape, they can be used as an excuse for rebellion. Sun Tzu looked out of the dark window and said, "Uncle, rest in heaven, it will rain in three days." Rain, as promised.Sun Tzu opened the window of the mourning hall with a bang. The wild wind and rain immediately pushed him out of the dark sky.Yu's arrow hit his cheeks tightly, and the fine hairs all over his body quickly retracted in self-defense.The smell of rain, along with the roaring noise, collided unscrupulously in the mourning hall.The white curtain flew wildly, and the flames in the bronze brick lamps struggled and flickered.The window sills creaked and shaken, and the tiles on the roof shattered and fell with a loud clatter, which startled Bao Gaoer's ambush soldiers under the eaves. Facing the dark wind and rain, Sun Wu's heart was agitated like a tide.Looking up at the sky where the thunder is running and the lightning is running, he secretly asked: Where is the ancestor Emperor Shun?Where is the ancestor Chen Guojun? With a century-old foundation, the ancestor Chen Wan fled to Qi State and changed his surname to Tian, ​​and the common people returned like flowing water.Grandfather Tian Shu also galloped on the battlefield, and also escaped death, and made great achievements in defeating Ju.Qi Jinggong bestowed the surname Sun, and only Sun Changqing was young and rich.The ancestors built their achievements endlessly, and they were also wrapped up in the endless chaos of the four surnames of Tianbao, Gaoluan.Internal strife, chaos like cotton wool, chaos like hemp, like random arrows fired by a disorderly army, disorderly rain like disordered clouds.The first result of this civil strife for the Sun Wu family has already been seen, that is, the death of Sima Juju. Uncle Sima Ju Ju's writing is convincing to the masses, and his martial arts can formidable the enemy. At that time, Shang Qing Yan Ying recommended him to serve as Sima, and made an appointment with the supervisor Zhuang Jia to inspect the three armies. Came late to camp.The uncle was strong-willed, and in a fit of rage, he smashed the clepsydra for timekeeping, smashed the wooden watch, and cut off Zhuang Jia's head.Duke Jing of Qi hastily sent envoys to pardon Zhuang Jia, who was decapitated.Not only that, but because the king's envoy was driving a chariot in the barracks, my uncle beheaded the envoy's servants, killed the horse driving the chariot on the left, cut off the wood on the left side of the chariot, and let the envoy of the king of Qi parade in the army to show the public. "The general in the army is not subject to the order of the king", what kind of majesty is this?In a blink of an eye, the general was demoted to a common man because of a few words from a villain, and suddenly he let go of the world. If the emperor is dead, people will put pearls in his mouth, princes will put jade in his mouth, doctors will put jade in his mouth, and even "scholars" will put pearls in his mouth.But the general who became a commoner could only leave with a mouthful of grain.He spent his whole life as a soldier, and at the end of his life, he couldn't even wear a rhinoceros armor, let alone silk.Who dares to violate the etiquette without authorization?A set of nineteen layers of shrouds was used for the funeral, and the etiquette system was also very strict: the king wore brocade clothes, the doctors wore white silk, and the scholars also wore black cloth, and all of them could enjoy mourning at the end. But what about Sima Juju?Only shroud in sackcloth!Once upon a time, poems and hairpin tassels were the icing on the cake, and dignitaries kicked the threshold, but now the front door is deserted, and there is a window of wind and rain, who will come to pay homage to the funeral?The general's mother was a concubine, and the general had been humiliated since he was a child, and he held grudges all day long amidst the humiliation.Could it be that you, Sun Changqing, will be the next descendant of the Tian family to die in the civil strife?Could it be that your talent and strategy can only be exhausted in the civil strife that cannot be resolved? No, Sun Tzu smiled lightly, and looked far away, piercing through the wind and rain, extending to the South Celestial Pole.There, in Gusu, the state of Wu, after Prince Guang assassinated Wang Liao, he called himself Helu and established himself as king, ambitious to dominate the world.Your king of knowledge and experience is waiting for you beyond the wind and rain!Gusu, Gusu!The rich and prosperous town of Wu!It faces the sea in the east, Yue State in the south, Qiang Chu in the west, and Qi and Jin in the north.The Hongze Lake, Poyang Lake, Sheyang Lake, Baoying Lake, and the vast Taihu Lake are the hometowns where fish and dragons flicker and move! His wife, Bo Nu, stood by the door and asked at a loss, "Master, where are the prepared carriages and horses?" Sun Wu put his finger on his lips, shhh—to indicate that there are ears outside the window.He said: "Madam, do you remember that there is such a sentence in a poem? The yellow bird ends at the thorn, the yellow bird ends at the mulberry, and the yellow bird ends at Chu?" Silk girl is a lady from a famous family, so of course she understands what this means.Of course, my husband would not say that the yellow bird landed in the thorn forest and lived in the mulberry wood. "Pain". So nothing. At dawn the next day, with light rain, a funeral was held in Sima Juju's mansion, only relatives and friends came to see him off, while those who sent the general to the grave were close relatives.The funeral of the common people is done hastily and cannot be publicized.However, the wives and children cried and paid homage to the funeral, stomped their feet to express their grief to the extreme, and sprinkled some libation coins along the way.The willow cart carrying the coffin was pulled by people, and the four wheels were cut from whole wood.Sun Wu cried in the funeral procession, and the silk girl supported Mrs. Sima in grief.The Bao family and the Gao family sent to investigate, but there was no sign of Sun Wu fleeing with the money, and the guards at the gate of the city did not see any fast horses for Sun Wu to ride away except for the willow chariot, so they let him go.The willow cart babbled and drove to the cemetery in the wilderness. The servant Tian Di had already prepared the carriage and waited. Sun Wu knelt down and kowtowed three heads to Sima's coffin, got up and jumped into the carriage with the silk girl, and galloped south . Sun Wu said to Tian Di: "I will drive!" He stood on the carriage, shook the reins vigorously, and let the carriage run like flying. "Ma'am! Hand in the oriole, the sea and the sky are open!" The sound of the car was rumbling and I couldn't hear it clearly. The silk girl asked, "What? What did you say?" Sun Wu said again: "Ma'am, do you know about gardenias? In the city of Gusu, the state of Wu, there are green plantains all over the city, and gardenias are blooming all over the city!" "What? What the hell are you talking about?" "Drive! Drive!" Sun Wu still thought that the sweaty horse was not running fast. Silk girl laughed and said, "Tian Di, look, Mr. is really crazy."