Lu Huai smiled slightly, "I am not talented enough to compare with you, sir."
"Haha, no problem, no problem." Prefect Qu patted him on the shoulder happily.
There was another knock at the door, "Knock, knock, knock—"
Prefect Qu turned his head and glanced at him. "Come in."
It belongs to the shopkeeper.
He walked respectfully to Prefect Qu's side, bowed, and said, "My lord, gentlemen, the play is about to begin."
Prefect Qu stroked his beard and nodded with an air of authority. "Hmm, I understand. If there's nothing else, you may leave now. I'd like to chat with this young man for a while."
Hey buddy? Want to chat?
This was quite a strange thing. The shopkeeper's brow twitched, and he looked at Shu Zhan curiously, his eyes asking what had happened.
Shu Zhan shrugged and gestured towards Lu Huai with his lips.
The shopkeeper looked over, only to see that Lu Huai remained calm and composed. Before he could figure out what was going on, he heard Prefect Qu speak.
Magistrate Qu frowned, his tone slightly displeased, "Is there anything else?"
The shopkeeper quickly waved his hand, "No, no, I'll go out right away."
Prefect Qu snorted unhappily.
After the innkeeper closed the door again, Prefect Qu impatiently shut the door to the private room. Then he approached Lu Huai and raised his eyebrows with great interest.
"Come, come, young man, let's continue. This opera, you know, is divided into several types, each..."
However, before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by the sound of a gong.
"Knock knock knock—"
It turns out the play has started.
Prefect Qu hurried to the window and called out to Lu Huai and Shu Zhan, "You two young brothers, come and see! I heard this is a new play written by the Shu family, its first performance, and nobody knows what it's about. Come and see!"
Shu Zhan stole a glance at Lu Huai. Did they really think they didn't know what was going on? Lu Huai had written the whole thing; no one knew it better than him!
Even so, they couldn't reveal the slightest clue. Hearing Prefect Qu's words, they could only feign curiosity and move closer, saying, "They're here, they're here."
Several people leaned against the windowsill, watching with great interest as the actors below began to sing.
The story of this play is set in a chaotic dynasty. It tells the tale of people living in misery under the oppression and exploitation of a tyrant. Finally, one day, the people, unable to bear the burden any longer, rise up in rebellion.
This passage describes the different outcomes of two cities that rebelled during a chaotic period, and how their different attitudes towards suppressing the rebellion led to different outcomes.
The first city was called Dingcheng. The governor there was incompetent and thought the rebel army was just a lackey of the imperial court, a "tyrant" who was ordered by the tyrant to suppress them.
Ignoring the advice of wise men, he resolutely ordered everyone not to let the rebel army into the city, and devised a plan on the rebel army's way to catch them off guard.
What he didn't expect was that the leader of the pacification army was actually a capable general who had fought alongside the late emperor to establish the empire and loved his soldiers like his own children. He had come here under duress from the Second Emperor and had no other choice.
He had been hesitant about what to do, but upon hearing that his troops had been ambushed and suffered heavy casualties, he immediately flew into a rage. He ordered his troops to speed up their march and follow him to quell the rebels.
The prefect of Dingcheng had thought his previous plan would inflict heavy casualties on the enemy, but little did he know that the imperial army sent to quell the rebellion numbered in the hundreds of thousands. His clever little scheme had only enraged him, and he panicked. He tried to escape, but it was too late. Dingcheng was destroyed, and the prefect's body was never found.
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