After the Chinese New Year, Meng Zhongben is twelve years old.

In the spring of February, he sent his mother Ge back to his hometown and helped his mother take care of the dust in the house.

It has been a year and five months since my elder brother Meng Bo rushed to the battlefield two years ago in the autumn.

Compared to two years ago, Meng Zhong had grown much taller at this time, almost as tall as Ge, and he gradually became stronger, thanks to his frequent physical exercise.

Meng Zhong's physical exercise began when he was eight years old. At that time, Sima Mengqing taught the juniors of the clan how to exercise their bodies. Because of his laziness, the other Meng family members only fished for three days and had to dry the net for two days. Meng Zhong kept persisting. The only exception was that during the three months when he tried every means to become a disciple of Zhuangzi.

After that, Meng Zhong resumed training, especially after his brother Meng Bo served in the war, Meng Zhong was more strict with his training because he had deeply realized that Song State was not a country that could last for a long time. Even if this country was not attacked by other countries for the time being, Song Wang Yan's ambition to dominate the Central Plains would prompt Song State to launch wars against the outside world.

Although Meng Zhong has become a disciple of Zhuangzi, it is still difficult to guarantee whether he will be forced to serve and enter the battlefield to participate in the war.

In order to survive and to protect his cherished relatives, Meng Zhong did not dare to relax his demands on himself.

Zhuangzi didn't know how to persuade his disciples to work hard to train their bodies and martial arts every day, but he didn't know how to persuade them - even if Zhuangzi was ten years old, he couldn't eliminate the fear and anxiety in his disciples' future.

Zhuangzi had only hope, and hoped that the war in Song State would not affect his disciples, especially Meng Zhong.

After all, Meng Zhong is a disciple who he hopes to inherit the Taoist tradition, although he has not yet personally admitted that Meng Zhong is his disciple.

Unfortunately, things went against my wishes. Around March, a bad news came back from the front line of the battlefield: the army of Song State was defeated in Tengcheng, and Song's army suffered heavy losses as a result.

When Meng Hu ran to Zhuangziju with a panic and nervous look on his face and told Meng Zhong the news, Meng Zhong was stunned.

You should know that in the letter written to him by his brother Meng Bo last year, Teng's army was no match for Song's army from the beginning, and was defeated by Song's army. Waiting around September last year, Teng's country had only one city, namely its capital Teng City.

However, under this circumstance, Teng Guo actually reversed the victory or defeat?

"How could this happen?" Meng Zhong asked in shock.

Meng Hu shook his head and said, "I don't know what exactly it is. I learned from my grandfather that Tenghu, the monarch of Teng Kingdom, used tricks to deceive us and pretended to surrender, but attacked our army at night while our Song army celebrated." At this point, he licked his lips and added carefully: "It is said that many people died in our country."

After hearing this, Meng Zhong's heart skipped a beat and didn't know what to say.

He suddenly was very worried about his brother Meng Bo, who was in the army.

"Wait for me for a moment, I will tell my Master about this and then go back to my hometown with you."

"Um."

After a while, Meng Zhong obtained Zhuangzi's permission and rode a donkey Huihui and Meng Hu back to his hometown together.

Since the news of "the defeat of the Song army" has not yet spread to the entire township, even Ge did not know about this. He was surprised to see his youngest son Meng Zhong return home - because it only took two days to visit her last time.

In order to avoid false alarm, Meng Zhong did not dare to tell his mother about the actual situation.

But unfortunately, the paper can't keep the fire. Two days later, just when Meng Zhong was chopping firewood in the yard, Meng Hu ran to the yard with sweat on his head, and said with a panic look on his face: "A Zhong, A Zhong, Meng Bo, brother..."

Hearing this, Meng Zhong's heart skipped a beat. He immediately put down the axe in his hand, almost walked to Meng Hu, and asked in a low voice: "What's wrong with my brother?"

Meng Hu saw Meng Zhong show this expression for the first time, his lips squirmed and hesitated: "Just just now, another team of carriages carried the corpses of his tribe back to the village. I saw Brother Meng's... corpse... corpse... in the carriage."

It seemed as if a thunder sounded in Meng Zhong's ears, making him stunned.

You should know that the brothers' father Meng Qu passed away very early. The elder brother is like his father. The elder brother Meng Bo takes good care of him like his father. Whenever there is anything good, Meng Bo first respects his mother and then gives him to his younger brother. As for himself, he will always be at the end. This is why Meng Zhong respects his brother from the bottom of his heart, although he often jokes with his brother.

However, such a respectable brother left forever because of this war.

『…』

Meng Zhong clenched his fists tightly, and the look flashed in his eyes. Even Meng Hu felt a little unfamiliar and afraid: "A Zhong, A Zhong, are you okay?"

Meng Zhong looked at Meng Hu silently, shook his head slightly, and then turned around and looked at the direction of the house. He didn't know how to tell his mother Ge, who was still looking forward to the return of his eldest son.

At this moment, the neighbor's aunt suddenly ran to Meng Zhong's house. After taking a look at Meng Zhong and Meng Hu's brothers, she didn't care about taking care of her kindly as she usually did, so she walked into the main house in a few steps.

During this period, Meng Zhong heard the aunt say to his mother Ge in the house: "Ge, it's not good. Something happened to your Meng's uncle. Our son saw Meng's uncle..."

Hearing this, Meng Zhongxin thought it was not good, so he rushed into the house. Sure enough, he saw that his mother had no blood on her face and her body staggered. If he hadn't come forward to support her in time, he would have fainted on the ground.

After a while, Ge took a rest. She said to Meng Zhong anxiously: "Zhong'er, hurry up and support Wei Niang. Wei Niang wants to see him, see your brother...he..." At this point, her eyes were already red, and a layer of crystal clearness was faintly covered in her eyes.

Meng Zhong did not dare to disobey, so he and Meng Hu helped Ge to the east of the township. Sure enough, he saw a large group of people surrounding him.

Among them, one of them saw Ge and deliberately lowered his voice and said to the people around him: "If you give me a word, let me give me a word, Meng Bo's mother Ge is here."

Hearing this, the crowd moved aside and looked at Ge with complex gazes such as sympathy and regret, so that Ge, Meng Zhong and Meng Hu could finally squeeze into the crowd and saw Meng Bo lying on the carriage without any hope.

In an instant, Ge's face turned pale and there was no blood at all. Seeing the eldest son's cold corpse, she felt nothing in front of her eyes.

"Mom? Mom?"

Meng Zhong quickly greeted.

"Mom... it's okay."

Ge, who came to his senses, shook his head and looked at the body of his eldest son Meng Bo from afar, not daring to step forward.

At this moment, she was trembling.

"Ge."

At this time, Meng Hu's uncle Meng Zhi walked over with the help of a tribe member, looked at Ge Shi with shame and said, "I'm sorry to you, sorry to Uncle... Uncle did it to save me..."

"Uncle?"

Meng Hu looked at Meng Zhi in disbelief.

Beside him, Meng Zhong also looked at Meng Zhi carefully. He found that Meng Zhi's face was also bloodless, and he even needed help from others to stagger, which was obviously caused by serious injuries.

After a closer look, Meng Zhong found that blood was oozing out of Meng Zhi's chest, abdomen, thighs, and arms.

So he asked Meng Zhi, "Uncle Meng Zhi, what's going on? Last year I received a letter from my brother. Isn't my Song State advantage very big?"

"It's Fujihu." Meng Zhi sighed and explained: "He pretended to accept the surrender of the army Sima, but secretly organized dead soldiers. When our army celebrated that it was about to end the war, Fujihu personally led 300 dead soldiers to attack our camp at night and seized the tent of the commander, causing chaos in our army. After that, the Teng people in Teng City saw our army's chaos and rushed out... At that time, I met Fujihu, the monarch of Teng Kingdom. This man was gifted with divine power and was brave and unstoppable. I tried to stop him, but was seriously injured. In order to save me, Ah Bo took the initiative to meet Fujihu, and then... was killed by Fujihu..."

Speaking of this, he looked at Ge with guilt and lowered his head: "Abbot, it's all because of me. No matter whether Ge wants to beat or scold, or even take my life, I have no complaints."

Hearing this, Meng Zhong secretly looked at his mother, but saw her mother pursing her lips tightly, and she forced herself to prevent tears from coming out of her eyes.

After a long time, Ge exhaled a long sigh and forced a smile and said, "Meng Zhi, you are so serious. Boer is willing to sacrifice himself to save you. It must be because he admires you. This is the decision made by the child. How can I, a mother, blame you against his will? If you want to blame, I can only blame the child for not having this blessing..." She sucked, forced a smile and continued, "No, there is no such blessing."

Meng Zhi opened his mouth, but didn't know if he should thank Ge for his forgiveness. Finally, he took out a piece of cloth from his arms and stuffed it into Meng Zhong's hand: "This is... your brother's."

Looking at Meng Zhi's departure, and then looking at the scene of the aunts and sisters-in-laws in the tribes around him howled and cried. Meng Zhong took a deep breath and spread out the piece of cloth that Meng Zhi gave him.

Sure enough, this piece of cloth is also a letter from my brother Meng Bo:

"On September 19th, Teng Kingdom finally surrendered. They hoped that we would not attack the city again. Two days later, they would be led by the monarch Fujito to surrender. The army Sima was very happy and ordered the siege to stop the attack and reward the three armies. The war was finally over. Although I am sorry to those who died in this battle, whether it was the Song people or the Teng people, the war was finally over. Although Uncle Meng Qing and Uncle Meng Zhi scolded us, the tribe members still couldn't help cheering... Let's write this first today. Meng Heng and several tribe brothers were going to take me to drink and celebrate. Mother, and Ah Zhong, the war is about to end, and we can finally go home."

『…』

After reading my brother Meng Bo’s last letter to home, Meng Zhong breathed a long sigh.

『Tenghu…』

Holding the cloth tightly, he remembered the name firmly.
Chapter completed!