Sui and Tang Dynasty Generals

Chapter 10 Dow's Concerns

"Zihou, how about we go hunting together today?"

In the small courtyard, Fu Zhi looked at Fu Zihou who was playing with ants and persuaded him softly. The brothers Zhao Han and Zhao Gu beside Fu Zihou also looked expectant.

However, seeing Fu Zihou, who looked excited but hesitated for a few breaths and shook his head helplessly, the two Zhao brothers looked at each other and showed regretful expressions again.

However, compared to the Zhao brothers, Fu Zhi looked at Fu Zihou with a hint of worry in his eyes.

But watching the two Zhao brothers getting ready to set off, Fu Zhi could only look back at Fu Zihou and follow behind. The occasional prey he hunted these days improved the family's food a lot. Whether it was his mother, grandfather, or wife, they all encouraged him to go hunting every day and expected him to bring more prey back home.

"Ants, ants!"

Watching his cousin leave with the Zhao brothers, Fu Zihou sat bored under the wooden house, staring at the wooden stick in his hand, or rather, the ants crawling back and forth on the stick.

"The teacher said that if you observe carefully, you will find your sharpness and courage! I chose you from so many ants, don't let me down... Bite me now!"

As Fu Zihou spoke, he kept putting his hand in front of the ant, but to his disappointment, the ant climbed onto his finger again.

Seeing this scene, Fu Zihou's face was filled with despair. He threw away the stick and looked depressed.

Since becoming his disciple, Fu Zihou found himself suddenly turned into a fool. He used to be calm and confident, claiming to have the memory of two lives, but he was beaten to a pulp by his teacher in terms of power and human nature.

Fu Zihou finally understood why the ancients were so terrible. They had no entertainment at all and spent their entire lives studying people! No matter they were scholars or warriors, they were all the same!
The most annoying thing is.

Now even a tiny ant has become an insurmountable gap in Fu Zihou's eyes.

Sometimes Fu Zihou wondered if he had not met his teacher, would he become arrogant in the future, be fooled by others and die without knowing how.

As his thoughts returned to the ants, Fu Zihou sighed and looked at the discarded stick. The ants left the stick and fled in panic.

I think about how every time the teacher picked out ants, they were all very aggressive, and every one of them bit people ferociously and fearlessly, without exception.

Fu Zihou even doubted whether his teacher's method was a magic trick, but when he thought of the selection of forwards mentioned by the teacher, Fu Zihou knew that there must be a reason and a pattern behind it, but he just didn't understand it.

Moreover, unlike usual times, this time, the teacher did not explain the reason, but let Fu Zihou figure it out himself.

"Let's find another one!"

Fu Zihou slowly stood up and walked along the eaves to the ant nest he had found earlier.

Fortunately, it rained heavily a few days ago, and the ants, which were very sensitive to the weather, moved under the eaves of the Fu family before the rain, so Fu Zihou did not have to look for them everywhere in the village.

Feeling the silence around him, Fu Zihou picked up another small wooden stick.

Looking at the ants crawling around above, although he had failed in the past few days, Fu Zihou was not without gain. He had always remembered in his mind not to look down on or neglect the people in ancient times, especially when it came to power and human nature.

Just like the simple selection of a striker in front of you, it not only requires energy to observe and judge, but also to understand the essence of it.

In later generations, who would use ants to understand such a thing, but the ancients did!
Just like the teacher said, the size of each ant is mostly the same. Selecting the vanguard among ants is just like selecting the vanguard in an army. Some people are brave in words and some people are brave and fierce in daily life, but these people are often timid and cowardly at critical moments, or even defect in the face of danger.

On the battlefield, no matter how many soldiers there are, they cannot stop the defeat of an army; in the barracks, no matter how brave the soldiers are, they will gradually be influenced by a group of cowards.

Therefore, this requires the generals to use their own vision to select elite soldiers from the army. Only when the elite soldiers gather together, live together, and get along with each other, will every soldier be ashamed to retreat, ashamed to be afraid of fighting, and even more ashamed to be inferior to others.

Select the striker! It means selecting the elite!
Xiang Yu was able to use his own army to defeat Zhang Han in Julu, relying on the elite troops selected under his command to break through the defense line of Zhang Han's army. The same was true in the Battle of Pengcheng.

Erzhu Rong also relied on the selection of elite 7,000 cavalry to defeat Ge Rong's 300,000 troops in one fell swoop.

No matter whether they were the soldiers under Xiang Yu or the elites selected by Erzhu Rong, those soldiers were the same. When facing enemies that were ten or even dozens of times their number, no one thought of retreating. Only in this way could they successfully defeat their opponents.

"According to the records in ancient books, only by learning to select the vanguard can one become a qualified general and lead the troops..." Fu Zihou looked at the ant nest on the ground, and the indifferent look of his teacher emerged in his mind. He doubted whether every general could select the vanguard. Why did he feel that the teacher was exaggerating?

But he had never been to the battlefield, nor had he met any generals. Fu Zihou's doubts were just doubts after all, so he had to study hard.

………………

It's approaching noon.

Aunt Zhang and young Tai had just returned from collecting firewood. Before entering the house, they noticed that Fu Zihou in the corner was actually whispering to an ant, constantly urging the ant to bite him.

Seeing this, Tai looked at her brother-in-law with a strange look in her eyes, while Zhang just frowned, shook her head, turned back to the small courtyard, and came to Tao who was still storing firewood.

"Mother of Hou'er, please take a look at your son. It's been a few days. I think you should stop letting Hou'er study with that liar. If he continues to study, he will become a fool!"

Zhang turned her head to look at Fu Zihou in the far corner and muttered softly.

Zhang's words made Tao put down the firewood in her hand and look at Fu Zihou. She was about to refute Zhang, but she suddenly heard Fu Zihou feel pain, then looked at the ant excitedly, and shouted, "It really bit me, it really bit me..."

Seeing this, Tao frowned and sighed.

Tao smiled awkwardly and asked Zhang to go into the house to rest first. When Zhang and Tai had entered the house, Tao put down the firewood in her hand and was about to go back into the house. After thinking for a while, she decided to step by step to the side of Old Liu who had been guarding the yard all day.

"Mr. Liu, do you know what's wrong with Zhihou'er? He has been acting strangely these past few days!"

Tao looked at Fu Zihou, then turned back to Liu Lao and asked worriedly, "As a mother, how could she feel at ease seeing her son's strange words and deeds?"

When Mr. Liu heard what Tao said, he quickly put down his work of repairing the wooden trailer, stood up and looked at Tao, saluted respectfully, then looked at Fu Zihou not far away and shook his head at Tao.

"Madam! I don't know why this happened!"

Old Liu frowned and sighed, his expression full of confusion at this moment.

According to the impression Liu Zhiyuan had given to Old Liu before, he should be a young scholar, and from his words, he could sense some knowledge, so Old Liu was relieved and let the young master follow him to study.

However, these past few days, seeing the young master's appearance, the elderly Liu was really puzzled.

Whether they were the elders in the village, the wise teachers in the city, or the famous scholars he met when he was a guest of a wealthy family in his youth, Mr. Liu, at his old age, had met many wise teachers.

But without exception, I have never seen anyone who would teach his disciples to play with ants all day long!

From the children of famous aristocratic families to the children in the village, everyone was learning to read and write under the guidance of a teacher while studying ancient books by famous authors.

Seeing that Fu Zihou would go to the small garden and squat on the ground to watch ants whenever he had free time these days, Old Liu couldn't help but feel worried. Did he have misjudged Liu Zhiyuan?
"Madam! How about I go and ask today?"

Old Liu looked at Tao, and after thinking about it, he finally asked.

Ever since that night when his reckless behavior put Liu Zhiyuan in danger, Mr. Liu, feeling guilty, no longer had the face to see Liu Zhiyuan.

But now it concerns the young master of the family, so even if Mr. Liu has to be thick-skinned, he will go and get to the bottom of it.

"Forget it! Anyway, we will be leaving this place soon, so Mr. Liu, please don't ask!"

Seeing that Mr. Liu was also confused, Mrs. Tao looked at Fu Zihou who was not far away, and finally sighed helplessly and shook her head.

Since she has already become his disciple, and thinking that she will have to move away soon, Tao looked at Old Liu and did not want to cause any more trouble. It did not matter whether the man was talented or not, as long as he did not teach her son to do evil, her son would not be studying for long anyway.

(End of this chapter)