The dust settles

Chapter 19

In this way, Mai Qi's family has another slave.According to the chieftain's uncomplicated laws, the damned, since they are immortal, can only be our slaves.In this way, Weng Boyisi brought his teachings that he believed to be invincible, but they were not accepted by us.The result was that he himself was accepted in this most uncivilized way by what he considered a savage.

Every day, Xiao Eryi went to treat the wounds of his first execution target.

I went to the cell more than ten days after the execution.

In the morning, it was the short time when the cell was exposed to sunlight.Umboisi was looking at the little patch of sky that was shown in the window when we went in.Hearing the sound of the door opening, he turned around and even smiled at me.It was difficult for him to put on a visible smile.No, when he smiled, the wound hurt him.

I raised my hand and said, "Okay, no need."

This was the first time I raised my hands like my father and elder brother when I was speaking, and I immediately discovered the benefits of doing so, because I felt that I really had supreme power in my hands, and it was very beneficial to me.

Weng Boyixi smiled at me again.

I thought I liked this guy, and I asked him, "What would you like?"

He made a face that meant: "What else do I want?" Or it could be interpreted as: "I want to talk, okay?"

But if I want to give someone something, I must give it.I said: "Tomorrow, I will send you books. Books, don't you love books?"

He slid slowly along the stone wall to the ground, lowered his head and stopped talking.I think he likes this.As soon as I mentioned the book, I didn't know where it touched his heart.He just kept shrugging his shoulders like that, and never raised his head again.When we walked out of the cell, Xiao Eryi said to him: "You bastard, the young master treats you so well, you don't say anything else, you can't use your mouth, can't you use your eyes?"

He still didn't look up, I think there must be some heavy things in his head, are they the books he has read before?I feel a little pity for him.

Although I am the young master of the chieftain's family, it took a lot of work to find books.

First of all, I can't ask people to ask for books with great fanfare. Everyone knows that the two young masters of the chieftain's family, the smart one, and the one who will be the chieftain in the future can only read.As for that idiot, there are thirty letters in Tibetan, and he can probably recognize three or five.I asked the cripple butler to find some scriptures, he said, what are you kidding me, master.It is impossible to find books early in the scripture hall.As far as I know, in such a large official village as the Maiqi family, apart from the scripture hall, there are only one or two books in the chieftain's room.To be precise, it is not a book, but the first three Maiqi chieftains recorded when Maiqi's family had a clerk.As mentioned earlier, there was a clerk who also wrote down things that should not be memorized. As a result, under the chieftain's sun, there was no such slave anymore.I know my father kept that book in the closet in his room.Ever since Yang Zong was pregnant, he woke up from that bout of ecstasy, and he never lived in that room for a long time.Even if his mother asked him to go there once in a while, he only stayed one night and returned to the second wife's room.

When I entered, Yang Zong was sitting in the shadows singing.I don't know how to speak to this person, and I haven't spoken to her alone since she came into the McGee's house.I said, "Are you singing?"

Yang Zong said: "I am singing, the song of my hometown."

I noticed that her accent was not quite like the rest of us.She has a soft southern accent, and her pronunciation is so vague that a northerner will feel that there is a lot of meaning in it.

I said, "I have fought in the south, and I can tell you have their accent."

"Who are they?" she asked.

I said, "It's Chieftain Wangbo and the others."

She said her hometown had to go south.We couldn't find words anymore.Because no one knows where to start.I stared at the closet, and Yang Zong stared at his hands.

I saw that what I wanted was there, wrapped tightly in a piece of yellow silk, between the important and the less important.But I just don't dare to step up, open the cupboard door, and pull out the early history of our family.I think this room smells of dust.I said, "Well, this room needs a good cleaning."

"The servants come every day, but no one is doing a good job," she said.

Silence again.

Again I was looking at the closet and she was looking at her hands.She suddenly smiled and asked, "What's the matter, young master?"

"I didn't tell you, how do you know?"

She laughed again: "Sometimes, you look smarter than everyone, but now, you look like a complete fool. Your mother is so smart, how did you give birth to you?"

I don't know if what I'm doing is the work of a smart person or a fool.I lied and said I forgot something was here a long time ago.She said, can a fool also lie?And asked me to show her what I wanted.I refused to point out, so she went to the closet and took out the bundle.

She was sitting in front of me with the yellow silk bundle on her stick, and was blowing the dust off it towards me. For a while, I couldn't keep my eyes open.She said: "Ah, look at me, I almost blinded the young master's eyes." Then she leaned over and licked the dust out of my eyes with her tongue.Just at this moment, I think I know why my father loved her so much.There is a faint fragrance of orchids on her body.I reached out and hugged her.She blocked me and said, "Remember, you are my son."

I said, "I'm not." And I said, "You've got a real floral scent on you."

She said: "That's what killed me." She said that she has the fragrance of flowers on her body, and she was born with it.She stuffed the package into my hand and said, "Let's go, don't let anyone see it. Don't tell me that it doesn't contain your family's history."

Walking out of her door, the scent of flowers disappeared immediately.Walking out into the sun, the weird feeling of her tongue in my eyes was gone too.

Xiao Eryi and I went to the prison to deliver books.

Weng Boyixi held his head under the small window.Strangely, overnight, his hair grew a lot.Xiao Eryi took out the medicine bag.He opened his mouth screaming and let us see that the blood scab and the powder on it had been removed from the half of the tongue, the wound had healed, and it was a tongue again, although it was not complete, it was a tongue after all.Xiao Eryi smiled, put the medicine bottle back into the bag, and took out a small bottle of honey from it.Xiao Eryi used a small spoon to smear on Weng Boyixi's tongue, and a happy expression appeared on his face immediately.Xiao Eryi said: "Look, he can taste the taste, and his injury is healed."

"Can he talk?"

"No," Xiao Eryi said, "I can't."

"Then don't tell me his tongue is healed. If it's a good tongue, I'll ask your father to cut off yours too. Anyway, the executioner doesn't need to talk."

Xiao Eryi stood aside with a low eyebrow and said nothing.

I took out the book in my arms and put it in front of Umberisi who had just tasted the honey.

The happy look on his face after tasting the honey disappeared, and he frowned at the book.I said, "Open them up and have a look."

He wanted to say something to me, then realized that he had nothing to say with it, and shook his head in pain.

I said, "Open it, it's not the kind of book you think."

He looked up and looked at me suspiciously.

"It's not the scriptures that harmed you, but the history of the Maiqi family."

He couldn't really dislike books.As soon as I finished speaking, his eyes shone brightly, and he reached for the burden.I noticed that his fingers were long and very sensitive.The bundle was opened, and there were indeed some rough hand scrolls inside.I heard that at that time, the Maiqi family grew hemp and made paper by themselves.It is said that the source of this craft is the same as the source of opium that makes us rich, and it is also the place of the Han people.

Xiao Eryi went to the prison the next day and came back and told me that Weng Boyixi wanted to get paper and pen from the young master.I gave it to him.

Unexpectedly, the next day, he came out with a long letter from the prison, specifying that I should hand it over to the chieftain himself.I don't know what he wrote on it.I'm a little uneasy.My father said, "Everyone says you like to go to prison, so that's what you did?"

I didn't have anything to say, so I just smirked.Giggling is a good way to go when you have nothing to say.

Father said, "Sit down, you fool. You said you weren't stupid, and you're being stupid again."

When reading the letter, Toast's face changed many colors in an instant like the summer sky.After reading the letter, the chieftain didn't say anything.I dare not ask.It was many days before he had the prisoner taken out of the cell and brought to him.Looking at the new long hair on the monk's head in Wengboyixi, the chieftain said, "Are you still the one who wants to spread Protestantism in my territory?"

Umboisi didn't speak because he couldn't speak.

The chieftain said: "I sometimes think, this guy's teaching method may be good, but your teaching method is so good, how can I rule my territory? Our place is different from Tibet.

In your place, people in cassocks rule everything, but not here.You answer me, if you were a toast, you would be like me? "

Weng Boyixi smiled.A person with a short tongue, even if he laughs, seems to be pinched by someone's throat.

Then the chieftain said: "Damn it, I forgot that you don't have a tongue!" He ordered someone to bring a pen and paper, put it in front of the preacher, and officially started their conversation.

The chieftain said, "You are already my slave."

Umboyisi wrote: "Have you ever had such a learned slave?"

The chieftain said: "I didn't have it before, and the Maiqi chieftain didn't have it before, but I have it.

The previous Maiqi toasts were not strong enough, but I am the strongest Maiqi. "

Weng Boyixi wrote: "I would rather die than be a slave."

The chieftain said: "I don't want you to die, I will keep you in prison forever."

Weng Boyixi wrote: "Better than being a slave."

The chieftain laughed and said, "He's a good man. Tell me where did the ideas in your letter come from?"

In fact, Weng Boyixi only said one meaning to the chieftain in the letter.It is that he can be the clerk of our family, continuing the tradition that has been interrupted for many years.He said that he read the history of the first few chieftains in our family and found it very interesting.Chieftain Maiqi thought that he was already the most powerful Maiqi in history, so he should leave something other than money to future generations.Tell them to remember themselves.

The chieftain asked, "Why do you remember this?"

Weng Boyixi replied: "Because it won't be long before there will be no chieftains on this land." He said, no matter the east or west, on that day, you earth kings will no longer be tolerated.What's more, you yourself threw a fire on the dry wood.

The chieftain asked him what the fire was.

He wrote: "Poppy."

The chieftain said, "You told me not to want that thing?"

He wrote: "Then why bother, all things are destined, planting poppies is just to make things that are coming come faster."

In the end, Chieftain Maggie agreed to his request, and the tradition of clerks in the Maggie family resumed after being interrupted for many generations.For the position of the clerk, the two argued for a long time. Finally, the chieftain said, if you don't want to be my slave, I will fulfill you and let you die.Tongueless Weng Boyixi put down his pen and agreed.

The chieftain asked him to kowtow to his master."If only this time," he wrote.

The chieftain said, "Once a year at this time."

The Tongueless Man showed that he did have the long-term vision of a history writer, writing on the paper: "And when you die?"

The chieftain smiled: "I don't know if I will kill you before I die?"

Weng Boyixi wrote that sentence again on the paper: "What if you die?"

The chieftain pointed to his elder brother and said, "You should ask him, then he will be your master."

My brother said: "When that time comes, it will be free."

The man without tongue came up to me again.I knew he was going to ask me the same question, asking me to make a promise not to kowtow if I made toast.I said, "Don't ask me, everyone says I'm a fool, I don't know how to make toast."

But he still stood in front of me stubbornly, and my brother said: "What a fool, if you promise him, it will be over."

I said: "Okay, if one day I become a chieftain, I will reward you with the status of a free citizen." But my brother couldn't bear this sentence again.I said, "Anyway, it's fake, so it doesn't matter if you talk about it."

Weng Boyixi knelt down in front of my father and kowtowed.

The chieftain gave his first order to his new slave: "Remember what happened today."

20. What should I be afraid of

In those years, the Maggie family waged several wars to defend the exclusive right to grow poppies.

In every war, the new weapons of the McGee family are invincible.But after all, we still have no way to prevent other chieftains from getting what makes us rich and powerful.Not many years later, poppies burned all over the chieftain's territory like fire.Faced with this situation, not only me, but also my father and brother felt that it was unnecessary to start so many wars.

If you ask how those toasts got poppy seeds.Their answer must be, the wind blows, the bird's wings bring.

At this time, the Han Chinese who communicated with Chieftain Maiqi was no longer Commissioner Huang, but a regiment commander Jiang of the Allied Defense Forces.

Commissioner Huang objected to the Allied Defense Forces helping the Central Army to fight against the red Han people, but he was promoted secretly and became a provincial senator with positions but no powers.Commissioner Huang brought good luck to Mai Qi's family. When they heard that he stumbled, everyone sighed for him.Jiang is not tall, but strong, with two pistols pinned to his waist, one on the left and one on the right, and he likes fat sheep and good wine.Toast Maiqi asked him, "Do you write poetry?"

Jiang's voice was very loud: "I write fucking shit poems, I eat too much and have nothing to do, I'm going to risk my fucking shit!"

Father said: "Okay!"

Jiang was still thinking, he said: "If I write poetry, you will look down on me! I am not a friend of the chieftain!"

The father and elder brother shouted: "Jiang is our friend! We are Jiang's friends!"

Compared with Commissioner Huang, my father and brother preferred to deal with this man.But they didn't know that this person was not only the enemy of Commissioner Huang, but also the enemy of our Maiqi family.Huang advocated only making one chieftain strong to control other chieftains.Jiang's opinion is to let all chieftains have that thing, let them all get silver and machine guns, and kill each other.

As soon as ginger came, the poppies ignited like fire in the territories of other chieftains.That year, the price of opium fell by more than half.The lower the price of opium, the more the chieftains have to use a larger area of ​​land to grow poppies.After two or three years like this, after the autumn harvest, the chieftains all found that there would be not enough food for the coming year.Something that hasn't happened in decades is about to happen on the chieftain's territory, and his people are going to starve to death.Maiqi's family was rich and powerful, so they exchanged all the worthless opium for food from the Han people.The red army and the white army in the Han area are fighting. Food is not cheap, and it is even more expensive to transport it to our territory.

At the beginning of spring, the Maiqi family sent people around to inquire about what other chieftains were planting in the fields.

Spring came to the south first, where the toast still planted a large field of poppies.Toast Maiqi smiled, but he still couldn't decide what to plant this year.Multiple grains or multiple poppies, or only grains or only poppies.It was not an easy decision to make.The location of Maiqi’s house is in the middle of a group of chieftains. The spring in the south comes earlier than us, but the spring in the north is later than ours. Waiting for the news of their planting is very tormenting.These days, I feel, are more tense than any poppy war we've ever waged.

When we go to war, we do not doubt that we will be victorious.Things are different now.

If the northern chieftains don't start sowing, we will miss the farming season. Then, when the wheat is harvested, it will encounter rain, and when the corn is ripe, it will encounter frost.That means no harvest, which is worse than growing the same thing as other toasts.

Our neighbors to the north are not stupid either, waiting to see what kind of seeds Maggie Toast will throw in the fields.We just can't wait any longer.My elder brother insisted that we still grow poppies. After hearing this, my father was noncommittal, and turned his questioning eyes to me.I don't know when it started, and my father always wanted to see what I had to say about anything.I quietly asked Tana next to me: "What kind of plant are you talking about?"

She also said, "Poppy."

The older brother heard it and said, "You're not so stupid as to ask the maid about everything, are you?"

I said, "Then why do you say the same thing as she said?"

I don't know from which day, my brother doesn't love me like before.At this moment, he gritted his teeth and said, "Fool, it's your lowly woman who imitated me."

His words really irritated me, and I said loudly to my father: "Food, grow all the grain." I want him to know that not everyone in the world wants to follow his example.

Unexpectedly, my father actually said, "I think so too."

I was overjoyed and smiled hehe.

My brother rushed out of the room.

After making the decision to grow food, my father still didn't feel easy.If I were to be a toast like this, I would fall to the ground and cry a lot.He was worried that the chieftains in the north would follow our example. If they didn’t plant a single poppy, opium would be worth a lot of money in the coming year. Then the chieftains in the south, including chieftain Wangbo, would laugh.What my father was more worried about was that his heirs would look down on him in that case.Laughing that he actually listened to the fool's nonsense.He walked to his wife's cigarette couch and said to her, "Your son has made me worry."

The wife said: "He is right, just like I told you to accept the seed of Commissioner Huang." My mother's maid told me that the wife said to the chieftain: "Your eldest son will make you worry."

I went to my father and said, "It doesn't matter. It's not because they are smart that they don't plant seeds in the north. It's because the weather there is bad. Winter just passed and they came back again."

This matter was told to me by the clerk Boisi.

My father didn't answer me directly, but said: "I see that your friends are very devoted to you.

Although we are chieftains and kings of the land on both sides of this river, we still need many friends, all kinds of friends.I see you have all kinds of friends. "

"My brother said that those people are slaves, and he laughed at me."

My father told me that toast and toast will never be friends.So, having a few loyal minion friends is not a bad thing.This was the first time Chief Maiqi spoke seriously to the fool's son.For the first time put his hands on my shoulders instead of my head.

Just this afternoon, the definite news came.

(End of this chapter)