The first year of Zhongping in the Eastern Han Dynasty, 184 AD, May 29th.
Peng Tuo committed suicide, thus extinguishing his loyalty to Zhang Jiao. Zhu Kui and the others admired this very much. The misty clouds and mist in the Yunwu Valley were quite fairy-like, so they took it upon themselves to bury him in the valley.
Zhu Kui treated the Yellow Turban surrender soldiers as surrendered soldiers. Along the way, these ant thieves were safe and abided by Zhu Kui's military regulations.
At the same time, in Wu County, Wu County, Jiangdong, the Zhu family of Wu County, one of the four surnames in Jiangdong, was holding their annual ancestor worship meeting.
The Zhu family of Wu County has Zhu Zhen, the Marquis of Yanling who committed suicide in the Western Han Dynasty, as his ancestor. The date of Zhu Zhen's birth has long been unknown. Hundreds of years have passed. At first, Zhu Zhen was jealous of Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty and committed suicide to save his family.
Then his family moved away from Chang'an, the capital, to the barren land south of the Yangtze River, avoiding the intrusions of political opponents, and finally spread the Zhu family. After hundreds of years of business, they have become one of the best natives in Jiangdong.
On the day when our ancestors went south, everyone in the clan determined the date for the sacrifice.
This year, in addition to the six male members of the direct line, including Zhu Fa, Zhu Yang, and the eldest son Zhu Zhi, there are also eight elders from the collateral lineage, thus forming a gathering of dozens of people for ancestor worship.
However, an unusual guest came to this ancestor worship meeting. He was personally accompanied by the head of the family, Zhu Fa. It was Zhu Kui's father, Zhu Laoshi, who was invited to attend.
By the way, half a month ago, Zhu Zhi, the eldest son of the Zhu family in Wu County, personally went to Moling City and met Zhu Laoshi at the Piaoxiang Building of the Zhao family. This encounter was naturally a coincidence. Zhu Zhi had already inquired about everything, so
Zhu Laoshi has nothing to do on weekdays, but one hobby is to often listen to a storytelling program invented by his son. He spends two hours every day staying in Piaoxiang Building, which has a specific private room arrangement.
After an encounter, Zhu Zhi made insinuations and ramblings, and the two of them started talking. They were all named Zhu. They should have been a family five hundred years ago, and they were all descendants of the Zhu Kingdom. Then Zhu Zhi
After hearing some stories about Duke Wu of Zhu, Duke Yan of Zhu, and his ancestor Marquis Yanling, etc., Zhu Laoshi's eyes lit up again and again, and he felt how capable his ancestors were.
In fact, he didn't know anything. Zhu Wu Gong and others were just minor princes with no reputation in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period, so they could only be used by Zhu Zhi to deceive him.
Later, when Zhu Zhi changed the subject, he asked about the names of Zhu Laoshi's father and grandfather. The tone of Zhu Zhi's relatives made Zhu Laoshi relax his guard, and he opened his mouth and said that his father's name was similar to his own, called Zhu Dalang, but his grandfather's name was
There are many people named Zhu Qing.
At this time, Zhu Zhi suddenly jumped up and said in surprise. He vaguely remembered seeing a collateral uncle named Zhu Qing in the family tree. He didn't know how the two were related. The surprise on his face was hard to change.
He sneered in his heart that he had already done some secret research on Zhu Laoshi's hometown, Shigang Village, and found out the names of Zhu Laoshi's father and grandfather, but no one knew anything about them.
After Zhu Laoshi heard that, he smiled stupidly and explained that this should be a coincidence, and there was no connection between the two. His grandfather's generation was basically poor farmers, and there was no way he could have anything to do with the Zhu family in Wu County. Otherwise, his father and he would naturally have been together since childhood.
He would not suffer so much. It was not until his son became rich that his life improved greatly.
However, Zhu Zhi had a serious face and took the matter seriously, and said that soon he would invite Zhu Laoshi to participate in the ancestor worship ceremony of the Zhu family in Wu County. That was to start a genealogy search and find out about his distant great-uncle Zhu Qing.
Is it related to Zhu Laoshi?
The bells and drums rang together, and the atmosphere of mourning filled the whole place. Under the sound of the trumpet, the head of the family, Zhu Fa, held the spiritual wine and led the clan members to toast three times in front of the ancestor's tablet in the ancestral hall.
Then, the three offerings in the ancient ritual are carried up, which is to offer food, that is, to offer meat and other gifts for the ancestors to enjoy, to express the worshiper's intention of "pursuing the filial piety"...
Immediately afterwards, Zhu Fa, the head of the family, said a eulogy: "The spiritual status of the ancestors of the Zhu family is changing, and the rain and dew are wet. When I look at the tombs, I am overwhelmed with admiration... I dare to use wine to recommend it. At the end of the year, the descendants of the twenty-eighth generation have only enough food to enjoy themselves."
After saying three bows, he poured wine on the ground, burned paper money, and stepped aside. Immediately after, his cousins and brothers repeated the rituals and sacrifices, but unlike the head of the family, they could not read the eulogy.
After everyone has paid their respects, they begin to remove the wine utensils that were placed in front of the ancestors' tombs and replace them with ancestral hall accessories such as everlasting lanterns. At this time, the sacrifice of "pursuing filial piety" to the ancestors has been completed.
After that, it was time to prepare for the banquet, and it was time for all the members of the direct lineage to communicate with each other. However, before that, it was necessary to open a family tree and register the children of the new members of the family in the past year one by one, as a backup.
After registering the names of all the newborns in the direct lineage of the collateral line, Na Zhuzhi naturally proposed to search whether there was any record of Na Zhu Qing among the twenty-six generations of Zhu's descendants.
Everything was rehearsed. Zhu Fa dug out an old bamboo slip among the pile of genealogy bamboo slips, checked it up and down, and said with the same sigh: "The twenty-sixth generation of grandsons do have a branch. My great-uncle separated and even left the house on his own.
According to the family records, the father of Uncle Zhu Qing was the son of the twenty-fifth generation head of the family. He was originally a direct lineage, but he failed to fight for the head of the family and several brothers turned against each other. He was heartbroken and broke down the door and left. Later, it was recorded that he was independent. There are no records of Menmen and Danyang County after that."
As soon as he said this, the head of the family, Zhu Fa, pretended to be surprised and looked at Zhu Laoshi, with some tears in his eyes, and said kindly: "Brother Xian, could it be that you are really my Zhu Fa's clan brother?"
"Brother?" Zhu Laoshi was a little surprised after hearing this. He was originally watching the ceremony. Along the way, he didn't believe what Zhu Zhi said before that his grandfather might be related to some of his distant uncles. His family was a farmer. , it is impossible to be involved with the Zhu family of Wu County.
Zhu Laoshi was illiterate. He stepped forward and looked at the words as big as soybeans. He felt dizzy and smiled bitterly. But he was not embarrassed. He only had one good thing. Zhu Laoshi was an honest man with self-awareness. Occasionally he heard people say on the street Even when he was a nouveau riche, he always smiled.
However, Zhu Laoshi was illiterate, but the three attendants he brought were literate. After Zhu Kui became rich, he naturally paid attention to the safety of his family, and had highly skilled guards to protect him when he went out and in.
There are three escorts who came to Wu County with Zhu Laoshi. Ma Yuanyi helped arrange it. Although Ma Yuanyi is no longer a member of Taiping Road, when he was the commander of Taiping Road, he had a lot of dealings with the powerful forces on the ground in Jiangdong. He took advantage of the situation and sent a few letters After writing the letter, some people came to his side to serve him, but they were all brave warriors and did not know much about etiquette and literacy. However, these three people were all civil and military guards with good abilities, so they were naturally assigned to Zhu Laoshi. .
The three of them glanced at each other. The black ink characters on it did indeed record the life of an ancestor named Zhu Qing. It was not much different from what Zhu Fa read about just now. The three of them said to Zhu Laoshi: "Grandpa, what is recorded in it is
That Zhu Qing, indeed, as the head of the Zhu family said, established his own branch in Danyang County, and in the Moling area."
"Oh! Really?" Zhu Laoshi's face looked a little happy.
The three guards nodded, but one of them came closer and reminded him in a low voice: "The things recorded in the genealogy are very strange. The Zhu family of Wu County seems to have an agenda. Why don't you wait until the master returns before discussing the truth or falsehood?"
." This guard was attentive. He noticed the joy on Zhu Laoshi's face and reminded him as he did his duty.
However, although Zhu Laoshi understood the guard's thoughts, besides being honest, he was also very stubborn and had his own ideas. He thought in his heart that he, the Zhu family, had very few members, and that his father had never brought anything to Sanwa.
No matter how much help he received, didn't the Zhu family of Wu County just want to marry him and become brothers of the same clan? Why not just accept him...
My surname is Zhu, and I have only myself, the eldest son, the third son, and the infant grandson. The number of people is too small, and the burden on the shoulders of the third son is too heavy. As a father, I should try to help
A little force.
If the Zhu family of Wu County can be treated as brothers, they are a prominent family in Jiangdong. If they can cooperate and help, it will definitely be of great help to San'er's career. Zhu Laoshi thought very naively, this is the idea of a kind person.
An honest and kind-hearted person, for the sake of his son, pretended to be surprised and surprised, and looked like a brother, and said: "Brother, could it be that you and I are really related?"
Zhu Laoshi was so smart, which surprised Zhu Fa, the two brothers Zhu Yang, and Zhu Zhi. They all thought it would take a lot of lip service to pry open Zhu Laoshi's heart and install a trap.
Brother-cousin relationship.
However, Zhu Zhi came to his senses very quickly. He had long heard that Zhu Kui of Moling was a scheming man, while Zhu Laoshi was an honest farmer. He blamed all of this on the ignorance of the common people or on the aristocratic family.
With a clinging heart, I intentionally pulled my father Zhu Fa's sleeve to signal for an answer.
"God's will! I didn't expect that I, Zhu Fa, would meet a brother again in my old age." Zhu Fa shouted to the sky in an exaggerated manner, squeezing out a few tears from his eyes to highlight his old age's excitement, and said loudly
The elders of the collateral clan introduced Zhu Laoshi.
In fact, for today's scene, the two brothers Zhu Fa and Zhu Yang had made arrangements. They had already notified all the people from the side clan, and congratulated each other, and then specially opened the memorial hall in the ancestral hall for Zhu Laoshi to pay homage.
Zhu Laoshi knelt down in the same manner and bowed three times. After all, they are all dead people. In the eyes of common people like him, they are all spiritual. He said a few words silently in his heart.
"I, Zhu Laoshi, have never told lies in my life. I have told you this beforehand. I recognize you as my ancestors so that you can protect my son, go north to fight against the Yellow Turbans smoothly, and have a prosperous career."
After the worship, Zhu Fa and Zhu Yang took Zhu Laoshi and started today's banquet, introducing all the members of the Zhu family in Wu County.
However, after looking at it, Zhu Laoshi found that the wine and meat at the Zhu family's banquet in Wu County was not rich. It was not as pompous and grand as the last time his son held a crown ceremony. The banquet table was filled with simple meals.
Zhu Laoshi was surprised.
Zhu Fa explained with tears that the Zhu family in Wu County has been very difficult in recent years. During the Kuaiji rebellion a few years ago, several of his brothers died. The family began to have difficulties. In fact, they have been working hard to maintain the whole family these years.
In fact, many tribesmen are unable to arrange their work and sit idle at home, sighing one sentence after another.
Zhu Yang and Zhu Zhi also chimed in, describing the bitterness of these aristocratic families, and a sense of sympathy arose spontaneously.