In Zhuge Liang's tailor-made jihua for Wei Ba, getting close to Xiahou Mao is a very important part. Xiahou Mao was the general of Anxi and the governor of Guanzhong, and under the current situation of Cao Zhen, the supreme person in charge of Cao Wei's Western Theater, was recuperating in Luoyang, Xiahou Mao was the most important link in the Western Theater, and it was much more beneficial for Shu Han to command the entire Yongzhou campaign than Cao Zhen. Therefore, one of Wei Ba's tasks was to encourage Xiahou Mao to take charge as much as possible and delay Cao Zhen's entry into Guanzhong.

How to approach Xiahou Mao, Zhuge Liang was very troubled by this. Xiahou Mao's interest is in health, and Wei Ba's shortcoming is that he reads less books, not to mention those Taoist books, that is, the most common Taoist classics "Lao Tzu Five Thousand Words" and "I Ching" are all ignorant, let him talk about these things with Xiahou Mao, and ensure that the two sentences will be exposed.

Fortunately, Wei Ba is not nothing, he has his strengths. First, arithmetic can be said to be unique in the contemporary era, since Yang Yi can be counted as vomiting blood, when it comes to Cao Wei, he can almost run rampant. The second is that his thinking is different from ordinary people, in Zhuge Liang's words, his vision is very unique, and he can see something different in places that others think are normal.

In Taoist terms, this is called understanding, called discernment.

Zhuge Liang actually doesn't know, that's not called understanding, it's not called discernment, it's called science. These unique views, which are completely different from common sense, are the crystallization of thousands of years, especially the development of modern science.

Zhuge Liang doesn't know that it doesn't matter, he can also give full play to Wei Ba's strengths. The use of mathematics to "study" Taoism is one of the important contents. The direction was mentioned by Zhuge Liang, and the specific content was cleaned up by Wei Ba himself.

In the eyes of some scientists, shijie is a mathematical shijie. In the eyes of some pseudoscientists, this shijie is also full of surprising numbers. When it comes to Wei Ba, it doesn't matter if he is a scientist's insight or a pseudo-scientist's nonsense. They were all melted into one furnace, with only one purpose, to impress Xiahou Mao.

"General. Man is one of the three talents of heaven and earth, and is the spirit of all things, so he is also the most clever in numbers. As the saying goes, all Dao Nine is the Supreme. In fact, nine is the number of heaven and earth, and it is impossible for people to be human. In my personal opinion. Five is the highest number of people. ”

Xiahou Mao also has a burning gossip heart, and when he hears these strange theories. Suddenly came the spirit. "Where does this start?"

"General, think about it, what kind of animal in this world has more than five fingers?"

Xiahou Mao scratched his sideburns and thought for a long time: "Does a centipede count?" ”

"The centipede claims to have a hundred legs, but on each of its feet, how can it have two fingers? The subtleties see the spirit, and only the subtleties are observed. to see the difference. Wei Ba said solemnly: "General, many animals have limbs, which is not much different, but the number of fingers is very different, only people have five fingers. The others are either only three or four, or only one or two. But there are five people. Then I thought, could it be that people have five fingers and all five elements, so they will be the spirit of all things? ”

Xiahou Mao hahadaxiao: "Strange talk, strange talk." ”

Wei Ba also smiled: "Indeed, this is just some of my questions, in fact, there is no knowledge." However, when I started from this, I found that everything in this world is full of all kinds of numbers, and because of this, I became interested in arithmetic. ”

Wei Ba can be said to be nonsense, even judging from Xiahou Mao's knowledge, there are many far-fetched places. However, it is precisely because of this that this has further weakened Xiahou Mao's defensive psychology. If Zhuge Liang really wanted to send someone to plot against him and rely on the Dao method to get close to him, how could he send such a half-understood teenager to come? Bashu was originally the base of the Heavenly Master's Dao, and there were countless clever Taoist priests, who was not better than Wei Ba, a half-man?

Out of such a mentality, Xiahou Mao let down his psychological guard and laughed with Wei Ba, both as a pastime and as a joke. Wei Bacai didn't care about this, his purpose was just to get close to Xiahou Mao, not to do scientific research, so it didn't matter if he made some jokes.

Not only did Xiahou Mao relax his vigilance, but even Xiahou Hui, who had been hiding behind the screen and was silent, relaxed his vigilance because of this. Unconsciously, she also pricked up her ears and listened to Wei Ba's nonsense, if it weren't for the fact that she couldn't show her head as a woman, and Wei Ba was an outsider, she might run to the front to pick a thorn. Listening to Wei Ba's far-fetched explanations, she found it amusing, and she couldn't help but have the idea of correcting him, this complex psychology was like two opponents, repeatedly fighting in her heart.

Wei Ba talked nonsense and went back to the post house to rest. The more Xiahou Mao thought about it, the more he felt cola, and couldn't help but invite Xiahou Hui out and express his own opinions on Wei Ba's opinion just now. Xiahou Hui also endured a little ruthlessly, and at this moment, he didn't care about analyzing whether Wei Ba really surrendered, and first criticized his crooked explanation for a while.

However, even Xiahou Hui had to admit that although most of the so-called opinions that Wei Ba said were nonsense, there was no lack of insight, and some of them had not even been paid attention to by Xiahou Hui. For example, Wei Ba said, weishenme Lao Tzu said that goodness is like water? Not only because the characteristics of water are weak, which is in line with the Taoist tendency to be soft and noble, but also because the water embodies a deeper truth.

For example, a drop of water that falls on the surface of an object that cannot be soaked will shrink into a round droplet, and when a drop of rain does not hit the ground, it will be almost spherical. From a mathematical point of view, a circle is the shape with the smallest surface area for the same volume. This is like a person, his ability and ability are certain, but if he wants to save himself and follow the Taoist Guirou thoughts, he will try to keep a low profile and reduce the attention of others to himself.

Xiahou Hui didn't fully agree with the extension of those meanings, but she was attracted by Wei Ba's mathematical explanation.

"Uncle, is the round really the smallest on the surface?"

Xiahou Mao was stunned for a moment, thought for a moment, and said with a wry smile: "Where did I think about such a question, but it sounds like some truth." ”

Xiahou Hui nodded: "Uncle, the next time you talk to him, you ask him how to use arithmetic to calculate." ”

Xiahou Mao looked at Xiahou Hui in surprise, hesitated for a while, and couldn't help asking, "Yuanrong, are you interested in these?" ”

Xiahou Hui laughed softly: "Uncle, I do have some interests, but what I am more interested in is not these. But if this person is really unique in arithmetic, then he can be used by his uncle. ”

Xiahou Mao looked at Xiahou Hui with bright eyes, he was very interested in this question. Up to now. He already had a keen interest in Wei Ba. Regardless of whether this person was the young man who defeated Sima Yi or not, just by virtue of his ability to say so, he was a good candidate to be a guest. Compared with Wei Ba's humorous and good talk, he is not optimistic about Wei Ba's ability to use troops. After all, Wei Ba's father, Wei Yan, was a general of Shu Han, how could he let Wei Ba lead the troops to fight.

If you want to use him, you can only use his skills outside of the military. It is impossible to put him in charge of the army under any circumstances. Although Xiahou Mao is not familiar with military affairs, he does not lack this common sense.

"I have sent someone to Hanzhong to inquire about the news, but the road is far away, and when the news comes back, it is estimated that it will take a month or two, not to mention that the detailed workers are inconvenient to move, and they may not be able to inquire thoroughly." Xiahou Mao rubbed his temples. While thinking about how to maximize the value of Wei Ba's strange goods, he regretted it a little. He had paid too little attention to these news before, so that he knew very little about Wei Ba now, and he didn't even know what he was good at.

"When the details come back, the time has dragged on for too long." Xiahou Hui shook his head and said, "He will definitely not say it at this moment." But don't forget, uncle, he also has a close attendant by his side. Since he can escape with him, he wants to be the most intimate person, and he knows more about Wei Ba than a detailed work. Why didn't Uncle start with him? ”

Xiahou Mao's eyes lit up, and he slapped his thigh: "Yes, why did I forget him." Yuanrong, you are really my good military advisor. ”

"What is your good military advisor, she is still your lucky star." Princess Qinghe walked over from the back hall, looked at Xiahou Mao, who was inexplicably excited, and snorted unhappily. Xiahou Mao's face suddenly froze, and he hurriedly got up and saluted. Princess Qinghe didn't even look at him, walked straight to the chairman and sat down, glanced at Xiahou Hui, and said half-truthfully: "Yuanrong, in the end, you are all surnamed Xiahou." As soon as you arrived in Chang'an, you forgot about me, surnamed Cao, and only knew that you helped your Uncle Xiahou, but you didn't mention the things I confessed. ”

Xiahou Hui pursed his lips and smiled: "Princess, you say that, how can I afford it." It's not that I don't mention it, it's really that my uncle has been worried about the military for the past two days, and he doesn't have time, so it's hard for me to mention it. Uncle, don't you say? ”

Xiahou Mao knew that the princess had been here for so many days, and he hadn't slept with the princess yet, Xiahou Hui reminded him twice, but he was really not interested in the princess, the old woman, and he refused to answer the call under the pretext that he had something to do. Now the princess can't bear it, and she comes out of the back hall to ask for the guilt, and even Xiahou Hui is faintly a little blamed, how can he not be nervous. As soon as he heard Xiahou Hui's words, he immediately grabbed it tightly.

"Princess, although Yuanrong is surnamed Xiahou, she has the blood of the Cao family, how to say, she is also half of the Cao family. What's more, although she was not born to a princess, she was very favored by the princess, and in her heart, the princess was only afraid of being like her mother, but my uncle was far away. ”

Xiahou Mao pretended to be a hearty daxiao to hide his weakness. Princess Qinghe didn't talk to him, and asked about Xiahou Hui with a smile. She also knew what Xiahou Mao was busy with in the past two days, and if Wei Ba was really Wei Yan's son, she could roughly guess how much effect he would have on Xiahou Mao. Of course, she hopes that her husband will make a meritorious career and not be looked down upon again, no matter how strong her desire is, she can still clearly distinguish the importance of this.

"So you've been busy for the past few days, but what progress have you made?"

"Princess, something has progressed." Xiahou Hui said obediently: "Uncle just tested that person and got some very important news, and now it seems that this person should be of benefit to uncle." ”

Xiahou Mao echoed continuously, and relayed the interesting part of what Wei Ba just said to Princess Qinghe. Princess Qinghe is a standard woman, and when she hears these strange things, she is both novel and surprised, and she is happier than hearing a joke. Unconsciously, he became interested in Wei Ba.

"Call him when and tell me about it."

――――――

The second shift arrives, asking for a monthly pass, asking for recommendations, asking for motivation, and preparing for the third shift. (To be continued.) )