How to Easily Capture a Long Aotian [Quick Transmigration] 70

Chapter 70: The Peerless Minister of a Troubled World (Part 1)

In the fifth year of Chang’an, Wei Zhiji was seventeen and was still the heir of the Marquis of Zhennan.

At that time, the court was still stable, and the future turmoil was not yet in sight. His older brother was leading troops outside, leaving him and his grandmother in Luojing. Wei Zhiji was in a tight-fitting suit with narrow sleeves, and the golden bells on his saddle were tinkling. He would wander through the barracks, ride his horse through the long streets, and he was full of spirit.

The seventeen-year-old little marquis was the most noble in the world. He would walk past the west market gate with a smile, and when he was in the mood, he would buy wine, and he would also fight against injustice, and he would beat the corrupt officials of the court in the street. With one man and one horse, he would ride south, and his proud wind was strong, and his bow and horse would shoot at the sky.

The seventeen-year-old Wei Zhiji was the most arrogant and unrestrained young man in Luojing.

At that time, Luojing had already begun to decay. The Feixing Tower was just being built, and the emperor and the noble consort were lingering in it, laughing and talking, and seeking immortality, and they did not care about the drought in Yizhou, the withered refugees, nor did they hear that the official documents for selling official positions in the Ministry of Personnel were piled a zhang high.

The seventeen-year-old Wei Zhiji was born in the royal city, and the capital was extravagant. He could not see these things. He just lay on the red walls and tiles of Luojing and frowned, thinking about where his hairband had fallen.

As he was thinking, his gaze turned to the distant world, and it was at that time that Yu Lin had returned to Luojing.

The seventeen-year-old new top scholar, at the age of twenty-one, had already made a great contribution to water control, and he had returned to the capital to be promoted to the position of a minister in the Ministry of Revenue.

He was still young. He had come on horseback from the misty rain of Jiangzhou. His long and slender fingers were tightly gripping the reins, and his wrist bones were clear and elegant. His figure was tall and slender, and in his lowered gaze, there was a gentle rain curtain, and he had also brought with him the cries of tens of thousands of people from the bottom of the Jiangzhou River.

Wei Zhiji was lying on a tile, with a foxtail grass in his mouth. For some reason, his mind was captivated, and he looked down with his eyelids lowered, and he only saw a corner of his clothes that had been wet by the rain.

Later, he had heard that this new minister of the Ministry of Revenue had a rather strong backbone. As soon as he had returned to the capital, he had reported the disaster situation in Jiangzhou without any changes, and had requested that the construction of the Feixing Tower be stopped, and that the court should provide disaster relief in Jiangzhong.

This was not good. The emperor, who was easily swayed, could not listen to these truths at all, and the new minister had become unpopular.

Although this top scholar, who had been personally appointed by the emperor that year, had an elegant and graceful demeanor, and the style of a famous scholar, he had still inevitably annoyed the people above. They had wanted to send him away again, and it was all thanks to the old prime minister, Li Gelin, who cherished his talent and had done his best to save him, that the matter had been put on hold.

Wei Zhiji had passed through a restaurant, and when he had heard of this, he was stunned for a moment, and a bit of curiosity had risen in his heart.

After all, he had grown up in the royal city, and he had been raised in a pile of gold and jade. He was dressed in a crimson robe and a golden belt, and he was a young and romantic man. He knew very little about the outside of the capital, and he was even less clear about the suffering of the refugees.

Such a noble young man, if he had not been born in Dayong, he should have lived a carefree life.

He had officially met this famous and upright minister a few months later.

Near the Qianling Village in the western suburbs of the city, Wei Zhiji was hunting here. He did not like to be followed, and he was alone, in a tight-fitting suit and with a sleeve arrow. He had chased a wild fox here, and when he had looked down, he had met a young official who was talking to a few village officials.

He had only faintly heard a clear voice, “The water in Jiangzhou is flooded, but there is a great drought in Guanzhong, and there is also a locust plague after the drought. I have just come from Jiangzhou. The capital seems to be peaceful and prosperous, but we should build a water channel as soon as possible and raise livestock to prevent disasters.”

The village officials had looked at each other, their faces bitter, and their faces were full of furrows. “I have long heard that the great lord has been controlling the water in Jiangzhou, and it will benefit thousands of generations. But this year, the tax has been increased by another 20%, and the young and strong are in service. There is really no one left at home.”

The young official was stunned for a moment and said in a hoarse voice, “I’ll find a way.”

Yu Lin’s mission at that time was to play the role of a righteous and upright minister, and he did not have much of a role with the protagonist.

He had met Wei Zhiji by chance, and he had looked up by chance, and his gaze had swept over the young man’s clear and bright features, and the smile that was lightly hooked on his lips. The mountain flowers were brushing against the willows, and they were as bright as the proud sun.

Yu Lin looked at him, and his soul trembled slightly. He lowered his eyes, and with a sweep of his gaze, he had completed the world line.

Wei Zhiji was a young and romantic man, and he was as precious as gold and jade. He was a carefree little marquis in Luojing, and he should have had a smooth life.

However, in the last years of the dynasty, wars had broken out everywhere, and the court was corrupt, and there was singing and dancing. The iron hooves of the foreign tribes had come south and had crushed the border. It had all been thanks to the Wei family’s hundreds of thousands of troops to resist.

Wei Da had held a heavy army, and to avoid suspicion, he had become a lone minister, and he had left his grandmother and younger brother in Luojing, one to live out her years in peace, and the other to be ignorant of the world, to avoid disaster for them.

However, it was still not enough. The iron hooves of the foreign tribes had crushed the backbone of the border, and several imperial edicts had come from the court, but they were to sue for peace and cede land, and they had requested to withdraw their troops, and to hand over the border to others. The people were priced as pigs and dogs, in exchange for the peace of the royal city.

Hundreds of thousands of troops were guarding the city gate, and they were gritting their teeth, and in their ears were the sounds of crying, and they could not retreat.

The court was furious and had judged that they had ulterior motives. They had cut off their food and had recalled them, but they had found that the army was still motionless. They had listened to the instigation of the foreign envoys and the treacherous ministers, and had joined forces with the foreign army, and had trapped hundreds of thousands of troops in the Luoxia Valley, and had annihilated them in one fell swoop.

A few days later, the border city had been broken, and the hundreds of thousands of troops in the border city of Dayong had been wiped out. Wei Zhiji had been stripped of his crimson robe and golden belt, and his title of marquis had been taken away, and he had become a prisoner, and had been exiled for a thousand miles.

He had grown up in one day. He had ordered his old subordinates to risk their lives to take his grandmother south, and he himself had been exiled for a thousand miles, and he had been bullied and insulted, and his tendons had been broken and his bones had been fractured. Along the way, he had been through wind, frost, rain, and snow, and only he himself knew.

In short, this little general who was going to pacify the world in the future had a broken leg when he had officially appeared, and his appearance was completely destroyed. After the world had calmed down, he had died in his thirties.

He was almost as miserable as the prime minister of a troubled world, the pillar of the dynasty, that Yu Lin was playing this time.

And on this afternoon in the fifth year of Chang’an, the two people who had been equally brilliant in the history books of later generations, but who had died one after another and had not had much interaction, had met.

Wei Zhiji was holding a wild fox in his hand, and his crimson robe and golden belt were dazzling in the proud sun. A willow branch by the field was gently wrapped around the jade buckle of his sword hilt, and he had casually cut it off.

He did not leave either. At first, he was teasing the chirping wild fox, and later, he didn’t even bother to act anymore, and he leaned against a tree with his legs bent and listened.

At that time, the sun was just right. After Yu Lin had finished talking to the village official, he looked up at him, and after identifying the serious expression under his smiling eyes, he let out a light laugh. “Did you understand?”

The little marquis blinked.

He knew very little about these things of people’s livelihood and water conservancy, far less than his knowledge of the fine wine of Luojing, but for some reason, he had listened quietly.

At this time, when he was asked, he was stuck for a few seconds, and he pressed his lips together, and said vaguely, “It’s… it’s okay.”

He was obviously only half-understanding. After a long while, he licked the sharp teeth in his mouth and asked with curiosity, “Have you been busy with these things all this time?”

He came over with his arms crossed, and remembering the rumors in the capital, his eyes narrowed slightly, and he was puzzled. “You’ve angered the emperor. Instead of staying in the city and thinking about how to remedy the situation, and doing some proper work, you’re doing these things all day long. Aren’t you afraid of being punished again?”

This emperor of theirs had a bad temper, and his words were well-intentioned. Hearing this, Yu Lin raised his eyes slightly, and with a light laugh, he asked him in return, “What is considered proper work?”

The young official was really good-looking. His pair of eyes fell in the gentle light of summer, and they were smiling. The little marquis was dazed by him, and he pressed his lips together and said, “Huh?”

He moved his inexplicably numb fingertips, coughed lightly, and said randomly, “Probably…”

He had not entered the court, and he had said a few things randomly. He looked at him and let out a light laugh.

In a hazy light and shadow, the bean seedlings in the field were blown by the wind with a clear fragrance, and the waterwheel was creaking and swaying in the wind. The daylight suddenly became bright, and Wei Zhiji heard him say, “Come here.”

A few days later, Wei Zhiji had inexplicably started to follow this person around, and he had been running errands for him and doing things for him.

He also did not ask about his identity. He, a dignified little marquis, had been ordered by him to ask about the price of rice, to steal the official scales, to climb onto the roof to repair a house, and he was also responsible for the survey of the ditches.

These miscellaneous tasks had made him covered in dust.

“…” In the middle of the night, he quietly jumped down from the yellow earth wall, like a little thief, and handed the thing in his hand to this person, and he was puzzled. “What do you want these things for?”

He couldn’t understand and asked with confusion. This person didn’t answer, but just looked at him and smiled, his features curved.

During this period of time, in order to help the villagers on the edge of the city to build a water channel, Yu Lin had not been back for a long time. Occasionally, he would receive a few letters, and after reading them, he would just be silent.

At that time, his brow was furrowed, and he was far from as cheerful as he was now.

The night was deep, and there was only a sparse light in the small courtyard of the farmhouse. A few small flowers were hanging on the climbing vines on the wall, and there were small yellow cucumbers in the vegetable garden.

The seventeen-year-old Wei Zhiji was holding a bag of coarse salt that he had casually taken from the government, and he was standing under the potholed wall. He looked at him and heard his heart pounding.

What’s wrong with me? he thought. I’m probably sick.

He had not been to the tavern for a long time, nor had he gone to the brothel to listen to music. In the evening, a few young masters from noble families had invited him to a garden party. The activities, which had been quite interesting in the past, had become boring after he had gone for a while.

He had replied perfunctorily and had then left in a hurry. In the dark night, he had run to do things for this person who was both familiar and unfamiliar.

He walked forward and sat down by Yu Lin’s side. There was a glass of warm water on the tea table. He picked it up and drank it all, but he still felt thirsty.

The person by his side took the salt, and after a moment of careful observation, his expression became a little cold. After a while, he looked at him, and his eyelashes lifted slightly, and he had a helpless look on his face. “Your chin.”

Seeing that he did not understand, this person reminded him again, “It’s stained with pollen.”

He had just come from a banquet, and he didn’t know whose lost perfume he had been stained with. Wei Zhiji was stunned for a moment, and then his face turned red. He randomly wiped his chin, and with his lips pressed together, he looked over, and for some reason, he explained, “A few friends invited me… I had a drink.”

He stuttered, “I only had a drink… I didn’t drink much. I didn’t do anything. I came out as soon as I went.”

The moonlight was just right that night.

They had been together for a few days, and they were both familiar and unfamiliar. This person looked at him, and he was also stunned for a moment. After a long while, he only nodded lightly. “Okay.”

The two of them were a little at a loss. They sat on either side of the stone table, and they listened to the wind blowing gently, and the moonlight falling quietly.

After that, they had inexplicably become familiar with each other. Yu Lin’s room would always have a cup of warm tea for him. He would help the villagers with their work, and the villagers would give him a watermelon, and he would also bring it back to eat together.

The watermelon that he had grown himself was very sweet and juicy. He had cut it with a knife, and after thinking for a moment, he had washed a clean white jade bowl, had removed the seeds one by one, had cut it into small pieces, had put it in the well to cool, and had waited for him to come back to eat.

But he had not expected that a civil official’s constitution would be so weak. It was just a small bowl of iced melon. At night, he was lying in the other empty room of the small house, and he had not yet had time to savor the position he had gotten.

He had heard that on the other side of the wall, the originally steady breathing had become a little ragged, followed by the sound of water and a cup falling to the ground.

Wei Zhiji was stunned for a moment, and he turned over and got up. He fumbled from the side of the window, and the hand that had been used to draw a bow and an arrow was supporting the earthen wall. He looked in with alarm, and in the moonlight, his gaze met the person who was holding a cup at the table.

This person had a stomachache in the middle of the night, and he was frowning slightly. His clothes were only loosely draped over his shoulders, and his face was pale, and his features were upright. He looked at him in surprise.

Wei Zhiji looked at him, and his gaze quickly shifted, but the cold white skin in his mind could not be erased. His Adam’s apple bobbed slightly, and the tips of his ears were inexplicably red for the most part.

After that, it was him who, with his lips pressed together, was carrying him on his back, under the stars and the moon, and was silently walking for dozens of miles in the night, and he had knocked on the door of a doctor and had asked him to come out to treat him.

“I’m sorry.” The moon in the mountains was always a little brighter than in the royal city.

In the very end, he only remembered that he had held the person’s finger bones with trembling hands, and he had apologized in a low voice. The person had let out a light laugh, and his fingers had gently brushed over his high ponytail, and in the end, they had bent slightly and had flicked him on the forehead. “It’s nothing.”