Throughout mid-February, Meng Zhong lived at home with his mother and sister, and helped him buy some firewood at home.

I remember that before going to war, he prepared firewood for the house in advance for a pile of firewood. However, since he left home for more than half a year, Ge and Meng Yan and his daughter still had to chop firewood by themselves. Although the elder Meng Jian ordered the clan servants to help the mother and daughter prepare firewood every now and then, Ge was thin and embarrassed to accept special care from the clan repeatedly.

On February 12, a celebration banquet was held in the township. Although the scale was not as large as the gift, it made the entire tribe feel quite dedicated. Because the joy of victory of the country slightly dispersed a little bit of the sadness brought about by the death of the tribe members in battle.

It was also in these days that Meng Hu's father, Sima Mengqing, the former family of the Meng family, was buried. He was buried with the rest of the tribe who died in battle.

Perhaps because of his father's death, Meng Hu seemed to have become mature all of a sudden. Although his careless personality has not changed, he has changed his previous naughtiness and playfulness and is more keen on practicing martial arts. Perhaps as he said, he also wants to become a warrior like his father Meng Qing.

It is worth mentioning that when the Montessors were celebrated, the county magistrate of Shangqiu City, "Biguanji", came to Mengyi in person and conveyed the rewards given to the Montessors on behalf of the King of Song. The entire Montessors' rewards for how much land the Montessors got Mengzhong did not pay attention to it, but he received a total of 500 acres of "military merit fields".

It has to be said that in addition to the Meng Hu family who received a thousand acres of military merit fields because his father Meng Qing killed Teng Hu, Meng Zhong received the most military merit fields, which made Meng Zhong's reputation even greater in the townships. Even other big families nearby such as Le family, Hua family, Xiao family, Ge family, etc. also learned about Meng Zhong, the outstanding Meng family's son.

Meng Zhong just turned fifteen years old this year and was already at the age of marriage, so the elders of other families came to Mengyi to talk to Xiang, hoping to betroth the daughter of the clan to Meng Zhong, so that both parties could become in-laws.

However, since the relatives were only ordinary tribes from other families, the elder Meng Jian politely rejected Meng Zhong - how could this elder allow the younger generation he valued to marry only ordinary tribes from other families? At least they had to be the legitimate women of each family.

However, Meng Zhong is just a child of the Meng family. Will there be women from other families who are willing to marry him? Or will the elders of that woman agree with this?

Not to mention, there are really families who are willing to betroth the daughter of the legitimate clan to Meng Zhong, and this family is the Le clan.

A few days later, the elder Meng Jian took a carriage to the township of the Le family, and after he came back, he told Ge about this.

Coincidentally, the woman from the Le clan is also named "Yan", who is one year older than Meng Zhong and is the youngest daughter of Le Guo, the leader of the Le clan.

"Did that child not betrothed last year?" Ge asked curiously when he heard that the woman named Le Yan was sixteen years old this year.

The elder Meng Jian shook his head and said, "I don't know why, the Le's child did not appear in the feast last year. Maybe he is not a good candidate."

Indeed, for women from all families, it is not necessary to get married at the age of fifteen. There are many people who get married at the age of sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen. Of course, if they are not married at the age of eighteen, then her family may start to be anxious.

At that time, Meng Zhong was not at home, but went to the mountain with Meng Heng, Meng Min, Meng Hu and other brothers to chop firewood and hunt. Their luck was not good, but they were not without gains. After catching a nest of pheasants, they encountered a group of wolves, which looked about six or seven.

Young people of this age, when they encounter a pack of six or seven wolfs, their legs are so scared that they are weak. However, for Meng Zhong, Meng Hu, Meng Heng, Meng Min and other soldiers who have been on the battlefield and have also killed people, wild beasts like wolves are not a terrifying thing.

Just now, in the end, these brothers skinned and slaughtered the bodies of the wolves in the mountain stream, and then each carried a large piece of meat home.

As for the nest of pheasants, Meng Heng, Meng Min gave two of them to Meng Zhong and asked the latter to take them home as a gift to his sister Meng Yan. In the past, when they went up the mountain to hunt, they often brought some pheasants, small mountain rabbits, and other things for Meng Yan to keep.

When Meng Zhong returned home, Meng Yan told his brother about this: "Brother, do you want to marry a woman named "Yan"?"

At this time, Meng Zhong was scooping water from the water tank at home. He was stunned for a moment after hearing this, his expression a little strange.

Fortunately, Meng Yan was not stupid either. Seeing that his brother had a strange expression, he immediately thought of something, and blushed his face and said, "Oh, it's not me, it's a woman named Yan from the Le clan."

"oh."

Meng Zhong then let go and asked with a smile: "Where did it sound? Why didn't I know that this happened?"

Meng Yan secretly told her brother: "It was mentioned by Elder Meng Jian today. When the elder and his mother mentioned this, I eavesdropped outside the house..."

"What are you doing for eavesdropping on this?" Meng Zhong asked casually.

"Uh..." Meng Yan was speechless and ran away in anger.

That night, when the whole family was having dinner together, Ge began to inquire about Meng Zhong’s thoughts about getting married, and Meng Yan lowered her head to make the rice.

"Zhong'er, I heard that the Le clan has a child named "Yan"... Well, I have the same name as our Yan'er. That child is said to be quite good. Otherwise, let Elder Meng Jian take the time to take you away and have a look?"

Although there are many people talking about marriage at the age of fifteen in contemporary times, Meng Zhong did not want to get married so early, so he said tactfully: "Mom, I am only fifteen years old now. Don't you think it's too early to mention this now? Mom, I am still studying with my master."

"This is..."

Ge seemed a little hesitant.

The next day, February 19th, Meng Zhong was afraid that his mother would mention this topic again, so he quickly said goodbye and went to Zhuangziju.

As a result, when they arrived at Zhuangziju, Lejin and the two Lexu brothers came up terrifiedly. The former said to Meng Zhong: "A Zhong, let me tell you something. There is a sister of the legitimate clan named "Yan" in my Le clan who has not yet been betrothed by others. If you marry her, we will be brothers in the future."

After some exchange, Meng Zhong realized that the two brothers Le Jin and Le Xu were the brothers Le Guo, the leader of the Le family, and the grandson of the elder Le Ke. In terms of relatives, Le Yan was the cousin of the two brothers.

In other words, the Le clan was willing to betroth the daughter of the legitimate clan to Meng Zhong, Le Jin and Le Xu brothers made considerable efforts from it.

"After doing it for a long time, it turns out that you two are doing it?"

Meng Zhong angrily knocked the bamboo slips in his hand at the two brothers, and he felt strange. Why did the Le family want to marry the daughter of the legitimate clan to him? The relationship is joyful, and the Lexu brothers convey the news that the Le family has long known him.

Joining Wu Ying, Hua Hu, Mu Wu, Meng Sui and others, Meng Zhong finally convinced Le Jin. The Le Xu brothers were not allowed to cause trouble for him in the future, and finally brought Zhuangziju back to his former peace.

The next day, Zhuangzi began to explain to his disciples "Songzi", which is the discussion of the Taoist sage of Song Dynasty "Song Yan". Because Zhuangzi's own thoughts and opinions have been explained to his disciples over the years, the rest can only be experienced and understood by each disciple.

This is how Taoist thought: being able to understand the truth is only the initial. The second step is how to find one's own "Tao" from it, and the third step is how to realize one's own Tao.

Even Zhuangzi is still between the second and third steps now, and has not yet achieved the idea of ​​"aching life" and "forgottening" he advocates, so as to finally reach the state of "unity of Tao and self".

Not to mention Meng Zhong and other disciples, they were at best just to understand Zhuangzi's thoughts and opinions.

Zhuangzi respected Song Yan very much, and Zhuangzi personally admitted that Song Yan was actually the Taoist descendant who truly inherited Lao Tzu's thoughts, while Zhuang Zhou, who was an alternative.

It must be admitted that compared with Zhuangzi's thoughts, the "Songzi" written by Song Yan was widely circulated in Song, Wei, Han, Chu and other countries. In addition to "harmony between man and nature", his thoughts also had the idea of ​​"few desires" and "not humiliating when seeing insults". The former refers to restraining people's desires, while the latter refers to being able to endure insults - the endurance of insults here is actually to advise people not to fight with others because of insults. At that time, most of the secular world was "difference to one word, drawing a sword to face each other."

In short, Song Yan advocated "few desires and no disputes", which is the more mainstream idea of ​​Taoism in the world.

It was around mid-March, and Zhuangzi's letters were finally delivered to Zou Kingdom and to Mencius.

At that time, Mencius was teaching and teaching to his disciples in the residence, and saw a disciple hurriedly coming from the back seat, holding a bamboo slip in his hand and said, "Master, two postmen from the State of Song sent the bamboo slip to the residence, saying that it was sent by Master Zhuang Zhouzhuang of the State of Song to them."

"oh?"

Under the surprised gaze of hundreds of disciples, Mencius temporarily stopped teaching and spread the bamboo slips on the low table to watch. As he looked, his brows quietly frowned.

Wan Zhang, Gongsun Chou and other disciples who were closest to Mencius, vaguely felt that their mentor had a bit of gritting teeth.

"cough."

After coughing, Mencius said to the disciples: "You are here to sit quietly, pondering what you have just taught me, and write a reply for me..."

“…”
Chapter completed!