Three Kingdoms.

  Chapter 359 Tree

   "So, the last general will leave!"

  Li Ru nodded, stood up, and sent a general out of the hall.

   Just as he was about to walk back, his eyes fell on a tree in the courtyard. After looking up and down a few times, he turned around, walked under the tree, and stood with his hands behind his back.

The tree is a very ordinary tree, with long and tall trunks, smooth off-white bark, and occasional longitudinal cracks. The crown is not lush, but it is not sparse. Some buds are also being pulled out, which seems a bit springy.

   Li Ru's eyes seemed to be on the tree, and it seemed that he was not looking at the tree at all, but at an unknown place...

   "This tree is too big...it should be cut down..."

  ×××××××××

Inside Hongnong Yang's Ancestral Hall, six old men sat silently on the mat, like a section of rotten tree stumps, although they are still intact when they are opened, but they can feel the vitality in them is gradually disappearing. Go, the gray hair and beard are like the fungus growing on the stake, and like the ashes left after the wood is burned.

The ancestral hall of the Yang family is very spacious. The main hall is about ten feet long and four feet wide. On the front wall, there are tablets dedicated to the sages of the Yang family. In short, the black lacquered tablet with golden fonts looks extraordinarily solemn.

  Hongnong Yang family has established itself in the Han court for nearly three hundred years.

After the death of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty succeeded to the throne. The general Huo Guang promoted a young man named Yang Chang. This person later married Sima Qian's daughter. Yang's first appearance in the Han Dynasty.

Later, Yang Zhen of the Hongnong Yang family, starting from the word Bo, also served as the prime minister, and from Yang Zhen to Yang Bing, and now Yang Biao, they all ranked among the three princes, so the Yang family also had no water at all. There is no "four generations and three males".

  Nowadays, the Yang family is undoubtedly standing at the top of the mountain of the great Han gentry, a well-deserved famous family in the world, only the Yuan family can match.

  Sitting in the ancestral hall now, under the light curtain, are the only six remaining elders of the Hongnong Yang family, and they are also representatives of the six side branches of the Yang family.

A large family naturally has many side branches, and if there are many side branches, there will naturally be some outstanding disciples. Although these disciples failed to ascend to the position of Patriarch in the end, they still have some right to speak, such as the Yang family. , there are currently six elders.

  The six elders sat together, but they were all like wood carvings, not saying a word. Only the occasional flickering of the eyebrows and the rolling eyes under the drooping eyelids seemed to prove that these were still living people.

  Outside the main hall, there was a sound of duk duk duk, and the six elders stood up from their seats one after another, and stood in silence with their hands folded.

  A dove stick appeared at the door, and then the old hand holding the dove stick. The hand was dry and thin, covered with large and small age spots, like a dry and rotten branch.

  The six elders with bright heads saluted slowly: "Welcome to the Great Elder." The slow movements were not because they looked down on them or were dissatisfied with waiting for too long, but because these six were indeed too old.

   There are six elders in the Yang family, but if you don’t mention the name, but only one elder, it means one person, Yang Rang. However, this name has not been called for a long time, and the Yang family generally only call him the Great Elder.

  Although the great elder was old and his body was already rickety, he didn't want to be helped by others. Instead, he walked to the right seat in the hall and sat down by himself, leaning on a dove stick.

  More than a dozen servants came in one file at a time, presenting each elder with a freshly ironed thin silk face towel.

  The great elder took the face scarf, raised his head slightly, covered his face, and waited quietly for the heat to spread on his face, as if this could add some heat and power to his old body.

  The heat of the silk towel quickly dissipated along the wrinkles on the face, and those wrinkles were like an abyss, quickly devouring all the heat. The Great Elder tore off the silk towel that was no longer hot, and wiped his old face very carefully, but inside those wrinkles, there still seemed to be tiredness and dullness that could not be wiped clean.

As the great elder put the towel back into the golden basin, like a silent order, the six elders also put down the silk towels in their hands one after another, and the servants left the hall humbly and orderly. With the sound of the door, the hall Inside became a separate world with only these seven old people.

   "Ms. Wang is sitting on the wall and watching, I'm afraid I won't be able to wait." An old man broke the silence.

  Another old man said: "The rampant and short-sighted people are not enough to plan. Now that the soldiers of Hanoi are going south, and the soldiers of Liangdong are going north, the national thieves can't be both head and tail. This is the right time."

  The great elder lowered his head slightly, his face was shrouded in shadow, and said slowly: "How about Yuan?"

"Yuan Taifu has been trapped in Xiatai, and he can't be seen, but there is a token, which can be ordered both inside and outside the capital." Another old man slowly took out a jade pendant from his sleeve, gently placed it in front of him, and walked forward Pushing it a little, exposed the jade pendant to the light.

  The jade pendant is round and has intricate patterns. The Yunlong carved on it seems to be flying from the surface of the jade pendant under the light. On the dragon head of Yunlong, a small "Yuan" character can be seen faintly.

   "Yuan Yulong, hehe, he is also domineering..."

The elder sitting on the left side of the Great Elder coughed, obviously not wanting to continue this crooked topic, and said slowly: "The national traitors are going against the grain and destroying the foundation of our Yang family. It is dusty. Now the king of Hanoi is stationed in Mengjin, and his front is pointed at Heluo, forcing the country's rebels to sleep and eat. He led his troops to resist in the north. Now he needs to pretend to attack Shanjin. Rescue, so Luoyang City will be empty, and you can get Yuan's help, internal and external pressure, taking the city is as easy as turning the palm of your hand! The Dong thief loses his foundation, and there will be chaos, and then he will attack Hanoi's soldiers, and he will break it in one fell swoop! This one It can relieve our danger, and secondly, it can spread the name of agriculture, and the world will be excited, and everyone will look forward to it, and it will be an inexhaustible contribution! This is an opportunity of a thousand years, and if you miss it, you will regret it for the rest of your life!"

Everyone looked at the Great Elder one after another, but it was a pity that the darkness covered the Great Elder's face all the time, making it difficult for people to see his expression clearly. They only heard the Great Elder slowly say: "Yuan's desire for change is worse than Dong's thief. It is sharper than jujube, and then it is lost and gathered in Bianshui, and then it cannot be escaped from Luohe River. Now Naihe is trapped in a prison, and there is only a tendency to attack from the north and the south, but the time has been missed, so it cannot be relied on."

  The elder sitting on the left side of the Great Elder was silent for a long time, and then said word by word: "Since the Great Elder's intentions are at odds...let's call on the clan to execute!"

The family decision is the vote of the elders of the family. According to the Yang clan rules, when the opinions of the elders cannot be reconciled, each elder has one chance in his life to apply for his opinion to be voted on by all the elders. can be implemented.

  The Great Elder slowly closed his eyes, and said after a long time: "...In that case, let's fight..."

  The elder sitting on the left side of the Great Elder was the first to take out his elder seal and put it in front of him...

  ××××××××××

  The gate of the ancestral hall finally opened, and the six elders hurried out of the hall with serious faces...

   After a long time, the Great Elder appeared at the door of the hall leaning on a cane, and his steps seemed even more staggering.

  The Great Elder slowly walked through the front yard by himself, walked out of the front door, and stopped suddenly. Instead of boarding his own carriage, he came to the woodland outside the courtyard and walked under a big tree.

   This tree was planted together with his elder brother Yang Li when he was a child. Now that the tree has grown up, people have long been separated from each other.

  The Great Elder stroked the tree trunk with his withered hands, looked up hard, and sighed: "The tree is old...there are many dead branches and leaves..."

   Only when the roots are deep can leaves flourish... Seeing some book friends say 411, I feel really sad from my heart, and I can only comfort myself like this...

  (end of this chapter)