The Rise of the Cold Gate in the Eastern Jin Dynasty

Chapter 2 The Great Injustice Seeds Xiao Shu

Xiao's manor is divided into the east house and the west house, and the ancestral hall is located between the two. It was built for the Xiao family with funds, and the scale is not bad. There are huge murals on the four walls of Jumang and Rushou. The ancestors of the family—Di Ku with the surname of Ji, the younger brother of Wei Zi, the concubine of Emperor Yi of the Shang Dynasty, and Zhongyan, the Duke of Song in Zhou Dynasty, placed the spiritual throne of Xiao He, the last waiter in Chinese, at the C position, offering sacrifices and burning incense all year round.

The ancestral hall is the most important place of the clan. It should be a solemn and solemn place, but it is a bit funny at this time. More than ten young men are forced to kneel in the hall, all of them are downcast. 32 cards and hundreds of five baht Money, all messy scattered on the ground.

Patriarch Xiao Qing was dressed in a Confucian robe with wide sleeves and a small black gauze crown on his head. With his hands clasped behind his back, he blew his beard and stared at the group of bastards angrily, and then his angry eyes fell on Xiao who was kneeling in the front. on the book.

"Oh!"

The sound of clogs colliding with the flesh sounded, Xiao Shu was knocked down by his father, and after rolling a somersault on the ground, he only curled his lips, then got up as if nothing had happened, dusted off the dust on his body, and knelt down again.

This made Xiao Qing so angry that he hit Xiao Shu's back with the tail of the stag in his hand, several times in a row, Xiao Shu didn't say a word, he was fighting against his old man.

With a "snap", the tail of the stag broke off, and Xiao Shu's back was soaked red. This was the first time the patriarch Xiao Qing got so angry, and the others were so frightened that they didn't dare to make a sound, and fell silent like a cicada.

Seventh Uncle and Ninth Uncle rushed to persuade him, but Sixth Uncle held Xiao Qing and persuaded him:

"Second brother, please speak carefully. The second nephew is still young and his skin is tender. If he is beaten like this, he will either die or be injured. How will you explain to the second sister-in-law when you go back? Besides, you are a scholar, so pay attention to self-restraint."

"Hmph! A woman's opinion is all thanks to her, and she gave birth to such a bastard, but is there any use? As an elder brother, it is unrighteous to take the lead in running away; It is not righteous; it is unfilial to contradict the elders and not listen to the teachings; it is disloyal to corrupt the discipline and insult the family style." Xiao Qing threw off the shackles of the sixth uncle, picked up the wooden stick on the side shelf, and said angrily:

"Don't stop me. Today, in front of my ancestors, I, Xiao Qing, as the head of the clan, cleared up the family and vowed to kill this unfaithful, unfilial, unrighteous, and unrighteous son, so as to rectify my Xiao family style."

Seventh Uncle and Ninth Uncle are both martial arts practitioners. They are burly but nimble. They stepped in front of Xiao Shu, grabbed the falling wooden stick, snatched it, and threw it at Sixth Uncle.

He hit and scolded, and the goal of showing majesty was achieved. Although Xiao Qing still had an angry face, but with a ladder, he could step off the stage by the way, because he turned his back to the crowd and faced the ancestor's spiritual throne.

Sixth Uncle kindly said to Xiao Shu: "Why, do you still want to have a fight with your father? Hurry up and admit your mistake, accept it softly, don't make a mistake next time and it will be over."

Unexpectedly, Xiao Shuniu's temper came up, but he didn't admit his mistake, wiped away his tears, held his head up and said back: "Sixth Uncle, don't worry about it, let him beat me, he gave me this cheap life, and I will pay it back today He, too, will be white and clean, and my mother's kindness will be repaid in the next life."

"Nizi, you naughty boy!" Angrily, Xiao Qing rolled up his sleeves, without caring about his demeanor, touched the candlestick on the table, and threw it away. Fortunately, Uncle Jiu was quick and caught it in mid-air.

Uncle Liu reminded again in a low voice: "Second brother, if you have something to say, don't hit people at every turn. If you really miss and hurt someone, you will regret it."

Xiao Shuhong said with eyes wide open: "All these years, apart from scolding and scolding me, have you ever said something nice about me? In your eyes, good things never occur to me, and bad things are always done by me. When I was seven years old, my eldest brother Houshan roasted cranes to eat, I passed by and smelled the aroma, but after eating a piece, I was scolded by you for a long time, how did I know that what I ate was crane meat?; when I was eight years old, the words I wrote seriously were recognized by you What I said was worthless, so I went to your study to find the copybook you liked, and copied it stroke by stroke, but you beat me half to death; when I was ten years old, I just chopped up a few purple cloud bamboos for fish Gan, I was scolded by you again..."

Countless indelible memory scars, while talking, Xiao Shu shed tears again, but protested: "You never listen to my explanation, you always force me to do things I don't want to do, I want to practice martial arts, but you don't want to I am asked to read, but I am obviously not made for reading. When I read a book, I get a headache, feel dizzy, and want to sleep. I don’t know why? I tried hard, but I just couldn’t read it. You let me What should I do?"

"Hit me, kill me, even if you kill me, I won't study anymore."

Seventh Uncle and Ninth Uncle smiled awkwardly, and Seventh Uncle smiled and said: "Second Brother, Second Nephew doesn't want to study, so he won't study, he can learn martial arts with us, and in the future, it's okay to follow Fourth Brother's path, who said A fifth-rank official must rely on reading? Then Taiwei Tao, aren’t the ancestral chariots and riders all generals?”

Uncle Jiu said frankly: "If you want me to say, our Xiao family does not have any materials for studying. Over the years, the fourth brother who has been the biggest official has joined the army at the sixth rank, and there is no one who is higher than the eighth rank. Instead of going with a group of Nan It's better to learn from the fourth brother and make contributions on the battlefield."

It's true that which pot can't be opened and which pot can be lifted, Xiao Qingqi's heart hurts, and he yelled: "You two reckless people can't write two characters with one stroke. If the shoulder pole is upside down, I don't know if it is a single character, and the big character is not good. If you know one, you still have the face to say it?"

Seventh Uncle and Ninth Uncle resentfully smiled crookedly at their nephews.

Uncle Six said at the right time: "Second brother, calm down, the nephews are all here, at least save some face for Lao Qi and Lao Jiu, if we have something to say, let's talk slowly in private."

"Huh!" Xiao Qing said coldly, then turned his back and stared at the ancestor's spiritual seat, the pain in his heart could not be expressed, the huge Xiao family, seeing that the collapse was imminent, but it was irreparable, as the head of the clan, Xiao Qing It's hard to escape the blame.

The Lanling Xiao clan moved to Lanling after Xiao He of the Han Dynasty. During the Yongjia Rebellion, the Lanling Xiao clan moved southward for decades, but there was not a fifth-rank official, especially in the In last year's Zhongzheng assessment, he fell from a noble family to a poor family.

"There are no low-ranking scholars at the top, and no nobles at the bottom."

In this era of emphasis on family background, the sons of the noble clan are born with privileges, and it is almost impossible for the sons of the humble family to rise to the top. It's even worse.

However, there are only a handful of people in the clan who have a sense of urgency, and the generation that bears Xiao's hope is so unbearable, acting like a young man, which undoubtedly makes Xiao Qing feel desperate.

In this world, the weak are preyed upon by the strong. Xiao Qing knows best how the Xiao family grew from an outsider to a powerful man with a hundred hectares of land in just a few decades.

Xiao Qing turned around and stared at his brothers and nephews with cold eyes. There were many words pent up in his chest, but he couldn't say a word, and finally said angrily:

"It's good to kneel!"

After finishing speaking, he turned around without saying a word, and suddenly knelt down towards the ancestor's spiritual throne. Seeing this, the sixth uncle, seventh uncle, and ninth uncle also knelt down. Incense, the rising white smoke seems to have solidified, and the silence is terrifying.

How could Xiao Qinzhi think so far, he only felt the pain in his kneeling knees, but he could bear it, glanced sideways, and saw that Xiao Shu's back was already soaked in blood, his whole body grinned in pain, presumably his flesh was torn, This is not a trivial matter. There is no tetanus shot in this era. If the wound is infected, even a god will not be able to save it.

What's more, Xiao Qinzhi was the mastermind of gathering people to gamble, and Xiao Shu was just an accomplice, taking the blame for himself.

"Second Uncle, my nephew has something to say."

The quiet ancestral hall was broken by this sound, and everyone turned their heads to see who was brave enough to stroke Xiao Qing's beard at this time.

"Say!" Xiao Qing stood still, becoming more and more cold.

"I am the mastermind of this matter, not my second brother. I am willing to bear all the punishments. Let your second brother go back to deal with the wound. The flesh on his back is broken. If you don't deal with it in time, you will easily get ulcers and your life will be at stake."

Xiao Qinzhi paused, and then said: "I heard from my mother that my father was wounded by a knife, and he was fine when he came down from the battlefield. After a few days, he developed an ulcer and died."

Before Mother Xiao received the sad news of Xiao Lie's death in battle, she received a letter written by Xiao Lie himself, which mentioned that she was injured. Based on this, Xiao Qinzhi deduced that Xiao Lie should be caused by wound infection.

Xiao Qing knelt down and said nothing, Sixth Uncle understood, got up and wanted to pull Xiao Shu back, unexpectedly, Xiao Shu stuck his neck and said:
"If I don't go back, I will die sooner or later, and I will die once and for all."

What a big stubborn, can there be anything more precious than a small life?Seeing that Xiao Qing didn't speak for a long time, Xiao Qinzhi had no choice but to lean into Xiao Shu's ear and whispered:

"Aren't you stupid? The days to come are still long, and you lost your life now, wouldn't it be a big loss. Besides, didn't you always want to marry the young lady of the Yang family? If you die, you still marry a Mao? "

It’s okay not to mention, but when it was said that Xiao Shu became more emotional, a strong resentment arose in his heart. When he was about to get engaged, Xiao Shu caught the young lady of the Yang family with a single glance, but Xiao Qing couldn’t see Yang’s being a poor family, and instead Xiao Shu made an appointment with the little lady of the Yan family, and now that the Xiao family has fallen into a poor family, and the marriage contract with the Yan family has also been annulled, if he turns around and asks the Yang family, she will obviously disagree.

Filled with resentment, Xiao Shuzhu said with red eyes: "Fourth brother, stop trying to persuade me. If I step out of the ancestral hall today, I won't be his adopted son."

"Nizi, see if I don't kill you idiot!" Xiao Qingqi's sleeves gradually puffed up, and just as he was about to explode, he heard Xiao Qinzhi ask:
"Sixth Uncle, is the Yang family a noble family?"

Uncle Six said, "No."

Xiao Qinzhi asked again: "Does Miss Yang have a marriage contract?"

Sixth Uncle thought for a while and said, "I haven't heard of it."

"It's done!" Xiao Qin slapped his hand on his thigh and vowed:
"You're not a noble family, and you're still unmarried. What are you worried about? Second brother, I dare to boast to Haikou, and I guarantee that you will get your wish and marry the young lady of the Yang family."

Xiao Qing didn't say anything, and he didn't object. Obviously, he tacitly agreed to marry the young lady of the Yang family, but Xiao Shu still had doubts, so he heard Xiao Qin's domineering voice:
"Second brother, you trust me this time. If the brothers don't handle this matter for you, I will write the word 'Xiao' upside down."

"It's important that you hurry back and treat the wound."

In view of Xiao Qinzhi's full confidence, and his father's attitude softened, Xiao Shu didn't hold back, and climbed down the pole, was half pushed and half pushed by the sixth uncle, and left the ancestral hall and went to the east house.

(End of this chapter)