"Ten, eight? Why are you pulling weeds alone in this month at a young age, and where are your slaves, oh tenants, and by the way, where is your father? After listening to the child's words, Lu Di hurriedly asked. More and more now, he feels that something is wrong. After all, the child's family is a low-level nobleman, a scholar's family, not a poor person, if the poor man's child is in charge of the family early, he can understand, but as a scholar's family, what he has should not be the current situation, at least not what he should have in the country's policy.

Politically, what they should have is a well-off life as a small landlord.

Lu Di gave his own answer in his thoughts, that is, the local officials were lazy and did not implement his strategy: "Damn, what does Ulantai do!" ”

Lu Di hated even the inspection officials at the moment.

The eight-year-old child naturally didn't know Lu Di's thoughts, and of course he didn't know the identity of the white uncle in front of him who asked him, he only knew that Uncle Huabai's words pulled out his sadness, his eyes were red, his nose was sour, and he immediately cried and cried.

Lu Di didn't know why the child was crying, because she didn't say anything bad about him.

After comforting him, the child still couldn't stop crying. Then the longer child said, "Gentleman, we are a clan of small scholars, and there are no tenant farmers and slaves, and as for the father, father, he, he died in battle!" ”

When Lu Di heard this, he first breathed a sigh of relief, fortunately it was not a local official who was lazy, and then his whole body trembled, his eyes were sour, he stepped forward and hugged the boy who was still howling tightly, and said to the older boy: "What about your mother, brother?" ”

The older boy said: "My brother was also killed in the battle of Yidi, and my mother was so grief-stricken when she heard the news not long ago that she also died. ”

The older boy couldn't hold back any longer, and big tears fell down. Lu Di closed his eyes, he seemed to see the iron horse Binghe, the broken spear and the broken sword, saw the corpses all over the field, bleeding and drifting, and saw the father of the child in front of him, the child's brother, lying on the battlefield after the war.

Lu Di stepped forward and hugged the longer child tightly in his arms, and after a long time, he let go of the two children, his eyes were red, and he said with tears on his sleeves: "Child, go, go to your village."

The village has no name, only a large stone mill, which is used by the whole village to grind noodles. The old donkey was pulled in circles by an old woman. Make a squeaky squeak.

In his imagination, the life of his country's gentry should be a happy pastoral life of "cooking smoke rising, doing it at sunrise, returning at sunset, chickens, dogs and children playing". Instead of this kind of "withered vines and old trees, faint crows, grinding plates and old donkeys pulling and grinding".

The arrival of Lu Di and his party quickly attracted the attention of the people in the village, and the old woman who was driving the donkey hurriedly ran to Lu Di and shouted: "Gentleman, but my grandson, my grandson, ..... he died in battle?" ”

When the old grandmother saw that Lu Di was silent, she was immediately heartbroken, and tears fell down her eyes.

This village, where the nobility came, was nothing more than two things: first, conscription; Second, come to report the funeral.

Conscription was no longer possible, because there were no more young people in the villages, and the nobility knew about it. So there is only one answer, and that is to come to the funeral.

When the old grandmother saw Lu Di coming, her tears burst into tears, which is the truth.

Lu Di opened her mouth to speak, and at this moment, a group of old people, women and babies poured out of the village, all of them crying and shouting the names of their relatives to Lu Di, hoping that Lu Di could give an answer that her relatives were still alive.

"Crying for what? I'm not telling you, they died for the country, for the family, for the king, and they died for the sake of it! There was a sudden shout from behind the women, children and the old man, and everyone got out of the way, only to see a middle-aged man with one arm limping over with a cane.

The words of the one-armed middle-aged man silenced the women and children, but they were not silent for long, and a woman with a baby in her arms said: "I don't want any country, I don't want any king, I just want my husband, I just want him to be by my side, so that I can sleep comfortingly......"

The one-armed middle-aged man seemed to hear the woman's words, and he glared angrily: "Woman's opinion! ”

"Without a kingdom and a king, how could we be where we are today?"

The woman was silent, then she bowed her head and wept, and the baby in her arms babbled and stretched out her little hand to wipe away the woman's tears.

The one-armed middle-aged man walked up to Lu Di at this time, bowed down and said, "Gentleman, I am a gentleman in despicable places, please go to the mill over there and read out the list of sons and daughters who died in battle, right?" ”

After speaking, the middle-aged man raised his head, looked at Lu Di, and stretched out his hand to invite.

But when he saw Lu Di's face, he trembled: "Great, king!" ”

With that, the crutch fell, and the man fell to his knees with a thud.

Obviously, this gentleman had followed Lu Di on the battlefield and was fortunate enough to meet Lu Di.

This scene changed so quickly that the women, children and old people didn't know why.

Lu Di was already in tears at this moment: "I don't want any country, I don't want any king, I just want my husband, I just want him to be by my side and let me sleep peacefully."

What a touching sentence, what a depressing sentence.

Fame and wealth, what is it in front of this group of women and children?

Lao Tzu said that there are three kinds of things in this world that are closest to the Tao: one is water, one is a baby, and the last is a woman.

Could it be that the "Tao" is what the women and children said in front of them: "I don't want any kingdom, I don't want any king, I only want my husband, I just want him to be by my side, let me sleep peacefully"?

Thinking of the old man with a pear forehead sitting under the pine and cypress, Lu Di had completely collapsed, and rushed to the edge of the wax torch turning into ashes, he was unconscious, and walked straight to a young woman, and held the three-foot child in the woman's arms in his arms, and his voice was choked: "What about his father?" ”

The woman faced Lu Di, the nobleman, a little at a loss, and panicked: "I died in battle, and the nobles reported the funeral the year before last."

"What about your husband?" Lu Di looked at the other women holding the child with tears in her eyes.

The voices of the women were either crying or disturbing, some said that they had died in battle five years ago, some said that they had died in battle three years ago, and some said that they had been conscripted into the army last year to participate in the battle of Zheng Guo, but now we do not know the news.

Lu Di took a deep breath and asked the old women again, what about their husbands? Some of their answers said that they died in the battle when Lu Di returned to China to quell the rebellion, some said that they died in the battle to destroy Wu, some said that they died in the battle of the Huangchi Alliance, some said that they died in the battle of Tunlu, some said that they died in the battle of destroying Yan, some said they were killed in the war of destroying Vietnam, some said that they were killed in the war of destroying Vietnam..... some said they were killed in the battle of Chu, some said they were killed in the battle of destroying Cai, and some said they were killed in the battle of destroying Zhongshan.

A country was destroyed by Lu Di, and Lu Di was proud, but now listening to the women crying the news that their husbands died in battle, Lu Di lost a little bit of pride, and there was a sense of shame, endless guilt and self-blame.

Death has become a number for Lu Di. Yes, I don't know when it became a ruthless number.

Lu Di prides himself on being a gentleman, but he forgets that a gentleman should have the virtue of reflecting on his body three times a day. He hadn't reflected on himself for a long time, and since Meng Jiangnu's death, he hadn't reflected anymore, how many years? More than thirty years!

After more than 30 years of travel and fighting, Lu Di has to be ruthless, he only cares about what he wants, and never cares about what the people he wants should be paid.

He felt no guilt because he had set the most appropriate laws and reward mechanisms for the country.

Isn't it enough for a soldier who dies in battle to give you money, a fief, a reputation, and a blessing for your heirs?

Lu Di thinks that is enough!