Zhao Jun looked at the mountains and fields. They were empty, with no villages and no people.
"History of the Southern Dynasties - Biography of Liu Zhilin" Emperor Wu said to him, "Your mother is both old and virtuous; therefore, I will take good care of her when you return home in glory."
Returning home in glory has been one of the proudest things for the Chinese people since ancient times.
But the same.
The saddest thing in the world is that you return home in glory, only to be met by "children who do not recognize you and ask you where you are from with a smile."
Your hometown has long since changed. Not only do people not recognize you, they have even forgotten your existence.
That feeling of sadness will surge in your heart.
However, at least for Zhao Jun, this is not the saddest thing.
Because even if things have changed and many people in your hometown don’t remember you, as long as you have money, they will remember you soon.
When you drive your luxury car around the village, the villagers will immediately recognize you.
So you are So-and-so from So-and-so’s family. Now I remember that I held you in my arms when I was a child.
Even when you finish building the old house into a luxurious villa, all your distant relatives will come to your house to join in the fun.
So as long as you and your hometown exist in the same era, even if more than ten or twenty years have passed and you have not returned to your hometown for a long time, time will still not take away the traces of your life here.
But the saddest thing in this world is that you do not belong to this era, and there is not even a trace of you having lived here.
Even your ancestors had not yet migrated here, and only wilderness remained.
Is it still your hometown?
Therefore, for Zhao Jun, the sadness is that he doesn’t even know whether he should recognize this hometown, because this is his hometown thousands of years later, not the wasteland in front of him.
Zhao Jun stood on the mountain and looked at the land for a long time.
He remembered that the town was at the riverbank at the foot of the mountain, and then heading north from the town was his hometown, Zhaojiawan. Although it looked different from a thousand years later, the overall topography of the mountain had not changed much.
When he was a child, Zhao Jun often grazed sheep on the hillside with his friends. The terrain of the entire town and village had long been imprinted in his mind and had never been erased.
But now the plain farmlands on both sides of the river are covered with dense jungle, and the location of the town is a grassland. The surrounding mountains are dense, and there is almost no sign of human life in the distance.
"Zhiyuan."
Seeing that he was looking at the bottom of the mountain ridge, the mayor pointed to the distance and said, "Twenty miles further from there is Meishan."
"oh."
Zhao Jun responded. He knew the location of Meishan better than the mayor. He pointed down the mountain and said, "Looking at the terrain, it should be possible to build a village here. Why is there no one living here?"
The mayor smiled bitterly and said, "This place is too close to Meishan. The Meishan barbarians live high up in the mountains and don't allow Han people to come to the foot of the mountain, nor do they want to live there. These Meishan barbarians, except for occasionally coming to the town to exchange for some food, rice, oil, and salt, hide in the mountains year-round. Sometimes they even argue and fight with the Han people. We suffer terribly."
"I see."
Zhao Jun responded, not knowing how his ancestors had managed to overcome this barrier and settle here. However, that was during the Southern Song Dynasty. Perhaps the barbarians had already been wiped out by the government, or perhaps they had come into contact with the Han people. Who knows?
The mayor said, "There are no Han villages beyond this. Those barbarians will drive away anyone who approaches. You should go back."
"No."
Zhao Jun looked around and turned to the Shaozhou prefect and Xinhua county magistrate and said, "You have the responsibility to defend your territory. Go back. I will stay here for one night. You don't need to stay with me all the time."
He said so, but how could the two dare to leave?
Since Zhao Jun is in their territory, he must be with them 24 hours a day.
The two of them quickly said, "It's okay, it's okay. We are accompanying the governor on his inspection tour, and it's our duty."
"All right then."
Zhao Jun did not force them, and then ordered Jiang Dalang and the others: "Set up camp here."
"yes."
Jiang Dalang and his friends actually didn't want to camp in this desolate mountain area.
After all, it was the end of the year, and although the soldiers had followed Zhao Jun far away from home, they all loved to join in the fun, so naturally they wanted to hang out in the county town.
Firstly, they had saved up a lot of prize money along the way and wanted to spend it in a brothel, a tavern, a gambling house or something like that.
Secondly, the end of the year is approaching, and I still hope to have some fun, which is much better than staying in the mountains.
But they had to obey Zhao Jun's order, so the soldiers had to go down the hillside reluctantly and set up tents at the foot of the mountain.
As night fell, the soldiers set up camp by the stream in silence.
The crackling sound of firecrackers could be heard in Baisha Town in the distance. Zhao Jun just stood by the river, quietly watching the stream flow.
A thousand years later, he often swam in this river. The river was not big, only about twenty meters wide. The deepest part was a pool below the dam. Now there was no dam, just a high and low gentle slope, but the pool was there.
Zhao Jun looked down at the pool of water. When he was a child, he almost drowned in it and was pulled out by the adults who were bathing in the river with him.
At that time, people often swam in the river in the summer. When I grew up, I don’t know why, but the river became smelly, full of domestic sewage and garbage, and even dead babies and pigs. Naturally, no one went into the river anymore.
There is also a hillside on the east side. On the gentle slope of the mountain is the Zhao Family Ancestral Hall. Later, the ancestral hall was built very large. It was donated by the wealthy people who left the Zhao family. It can accommodate hundreds of people for worship. During the annual sacrificial ceremony, Zhao Zhen’s spirit tablet is hung high on it.
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