Chapter 1114: Heartbreak
Perhaps today is really a good day.
Not only did Sima Shi get married, but Xia Houmao also held a small banquet at his house.
Although he was the only one at the banquet and no one else was drinking with him, this did not prevent him from drinking and enjoying himself.
It doesn't matter if there are no guests, but there are beautiful ladies in the house to accompany you.
But I saw silk and bamboo in disorder, gauze flying, and a dozen singers dancing gracefully.
Under the iridescent ribbon, the bare white thighs are faintly exposed from time to time, like a watery flower at the bottom, or like the stamens in the petals.
Each singer had a bright and charming smile, looking charmingly at Xia Houmao, who was sitting in the main seat.
Xia Houmao narrowed his eyes and shook his head, not sure whether it was because he was drunk or because he was lustful.
When he was guarding Chang'an, he kept many concubines in his house.
Princess Qinghe was so jealous because of this that she united with several brothers of Xiahou Mao to frame Xiahou Mao.
Although Xia Houmao escaped by chance later, he completely fell out with Princess Qinghe.
Although the two are now called a couple, in fact they have not interacted with each other since age and death.
After the two separated, Princess Qinghe followed suit and began to develop a good appearance.
Xia Houmao was also happy that no one would disturb him as he cultivated his family skills, and even more intensively cultivated his hobbies.
At this moment, I saw a servant trotting up and reported to Xiahou Mao, saying only that Xiahou Wei was visiting.
Xia Houmao, who seemed to be half-drunk at first, had a look of surprise on his face when he heard this. He immediately got up and went to welcome Xia Houwei in person:
"I was wondering where to find someone to have fun with me, but I didn't expect you to come over, Ji Quan. Could it be that I heard the sound of singing and dancing from outside?"
While he laughed, he motioned to the maid to pour wine for Xia Houwei.
Xia Houwei did not raise his glass, but glanced at the dancers who were still dancing below.
Xia Houmao looked at it and felt a little bored, but finally waved his hand.
After all the musicians and dancers had retired, Xiahou Mao raised his glass and drank alone.
His nose, brow, and eyes wrinkled up, and then he let them go, smacked his mouth, let out a contented "ah" sound like a sigh, and finally exhaled a breath of alcohol.
“What about the good wine from the west? There are probably not many people in Luoyang who have this wine. Are you sure you don’t want to have a drink?”
Xia Houmao swung his empty wine glass and asked.
Xia Houwei shook his head. He didn't want to drink at first, but he seemed to have something on his mind, so he unconsciously picked up the wine glass and drank it down in one gulp.
“Huh! That’s right!”
Xia Houmao immediately beamed when he saw it, as if he was extremely happy to have someone drinking with him.
He quickly served Xiahou Weiman himself.
"This wine is peach wine? Did it come from Shulu?"
After Xia Houwei finished drinking, he also exhaled and was a little confused, "It doesn't look like it."
Xia Houmao said proudly: "The drinking method passed down from the Shu captives is that this peach wine is not ordinary peach wine. It is much stronger than what we drank before. When drinking, we need to add other things."
Xia Houmao took another sip of wine. He didn’t know if it had been a long time since he had any guests. He took advantage of the wine and started chatting immediately:
"Don't mention it, there are so many new things in Shulu, and they can do all kinds of tricks when drinking."
“Just like that candle, the Wei Dynasty could not get many candles in the palace before. What about now? Hey!”
Xia Houmao patted his thigh and said, "The caravan coming from the west is selling them box by box!"
“That thing is smooth, round and white, as beautiful as white jade. Compared with them, Gongzhu is far behind.”
“I heard about Sima Ziyuan’s wedding, and the house bought hundreds of candles, tsk tsk tsk!”
Xia Houwei listened to Xia Houmao's chatter silently, and after drinking another glass of wine, he asked:
“I heard that the caravan heading to Guanzhong this time included people from your family?”
"Yes." Xia Houmao nodded and looked at Xia Houwei, "Why, your family also wants to go? It's too late. Next time, remember to go to the Taifu's family early to beg."
The caravans going out from Luoyang are not just people who want to leave, but those who have a quota.
Who can go and who cannot go must obtain the consent of the Taifu Mansion to prevent some people with evil intentions from collaborating with thieves.
Whether you can get through to thieves or not, it definitely depends on whether you are loyal to the Wei Dynasty or not.
Especially this sincerity, the sincerity of sincerity.
"The three Xiahou clans are now trapped in Luoyang. What method did you use to get the Taifu to agree to let your caravan out of the city, and to go to Guanzhong?"
Xia Houwei had never thought of asking about this before.
After all, it is not easy for every family of the Xiahou clan.
In addition, when the late emperor was still alive, they tried to minimize interactions with each other, which could also reduce a little suspicion from the emperor.
Especially after Xiahou Ba fell into the hands of the Han Dynasty, Xiahou Yuan's lineage was the most low-key.
Xia Houmao was a little surprised when he heard that Xia Houwei kept asking about this matter:
“What? Do you really want to participate?”
Xia Houwei did not answer, but looked straight at him:
“You haven’t told me yet, why did the Grand Tutor let your caravan leave Luoyang for Guanzhong?”
"Hey, what's the matter?" Xiahou Maohun replied nonchalantly, "When I was the general of Anxi, I had been the governor of Guanzhong for nearly ten years, and I still know some people in Guanzhong."
“The Tutor allows people from my family to go to Guanzhong because of these connections...”
Before Xia Houmao finished speaking, he heard a "bang", interrupting him.
After a closer look, it turned out that Xia Houwei had thrown the wine glass directly on the table.
The wine glass rolled a few times, fell to the ground, and broke into pieces with a "bang" sound.
Xiahou Wei stared coldly at Xiahou Mao who was not ashamed but proud, and was angry that he refused to argue:
“How is this different from being a traitor?!”
Xia Houmao was originally kind-hearted, but when he saw Xia Houwei's words and actions, he was stunned for a moment, and it took him a while to realize:
"What do you mean?"
Xia Houwei looked at Xia Houmao expressionlessly:
“These wines, as well as the candles you mentioned, even the brown sugar that wealthy families in Luoyang can’t get, and even the woolen materials and silks that have been in short supply in recent years.”
“Even if you are in Shu, if you don’t have access to these things, you probably won’t be able to buy them as much as you want, right?”
Seeing the unhappy look on Xia Houwei's face, Xia Houmao understood. It was a rare occasion for the other party to come here, and he was actually asking for an apology?
But seeing him sneer, he asked: "What do you want to say?"
“The Wei and Shu captives have sworn to be incompatible, so they would be so kind and sell you so many good things? Don’t forget, when you were in Guanzhong, you…”
This time it was Xia Houwei's turn before he finished speaking, when he was interrupted by Xia Houmao: "Shut up!"
But seeing Xia Houmao's face turned red, he didn't know whether he was drunk or angry, so he smashed the wine glass in his hand to the ground.
"Feng Thief! Who knew about Feng Thief's viciousness back then? Not to mention me, even if it were someone else, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to escape this thief's plan. Do you blame me? How can you blame me alone!"
The fact that Guanzhong was tricked by a thief without knowing it was actually a scar that Xia Houmao has been unable to heal over the years.
Fortunately, over the years, Wei Dynasty has suffered more and more losses at the hands of this thief.
Comparatively, the Guanzhong incident was not so conspicuous.
Unexpectedly, Xia Houwei would actually talk about this matter in front of him today. How could he not be shocked and angry?
Xia Houmao stood up and glared at Xia Houwei. He was probably extremely angry and foam started flying at the mouth:
“The late emperor…”
"Okay!" Xia Houwei also stood up and shouted, "Don't say any more!"
The two of them glared at each other for a long time like fighting cocks. Finally, Xia Houmao sat back first, picked up the wine bottle and drank several sips.
“Cough cough cough!”
Unexpectedly, I drank too quickly and choked.
He coughed several times and put the wine bottle firmly on the table:
"Why don't you say it? Why can't you say it? Our Xiahou family has a share in this Great Wei, right? This Great Wei world was not conquered by the Cao family, right?"
"You..." Xia Houwei wanted to stop him, but it was too late.
Xiahou Mao’s eyes are already red:
“How many years have Emperor Wu and Emperor Wen left behind such a huge empire? It has only been a few years!”
“During the years I was guarding the pass, I didn’t lose an inch of my territory. What next?”
"What about some people? It only took ten years, ten years! They even lost the land of three states, and even fled Luoyang after being frightened by thieves, ha, ha ha ha!"
Xia Houmao laughed like crazy as he spoke.
“Luoyang, the capital of the Wei Dynasty, it’s hard to say whether its surname is Cao or Sima!”
"You're drunk!" Xia Houwei gritted his teeth and said to Xia Houmao word by word, "Be careful what you say!"
Xiahou Mao refused to listen. He pointed at Xiahou Wei and shouted:
“The three Xiahou tribes are said to be one body, but Xiahou Taichu (ie Xiahou Xuan) has been repeatedly recruited by Cao Zhaobo (ie Cao Shuang), and now he has decided to go to Xuchang.”
"And you, over there in Shu, you have a second brother and a younger sister who is closer than your own sister! Of course you two don't have to worry, but what about me?"
“Have you forgotten that the Xiahou clan has three clans, not two!”
I thought that marrying the eldest princess would be a glorious event, but who would have expected that it would be a fatal event!
The eldest princess is simply a jealous old poisonous woman!
He is so vicious that he would even think about taking his own husband's life.
When ordinary people encounter something like this, wouldn’t black smoke billowing out of their ancestral graves?
But for Xia Houmao, things are much more than that.
It’s just that the wife is vicious and wants to kill her husband.
Unexpectedly, even his own brother actually listened to the old poisonous woman's instigation and wanted to conspire with her to kill his brother.
Is there any natural reason for this?
Husband and wife are like enemies inside, and brothers are like enemies and bandits, but outside they are jealous of the emperor...
Then he encountered great chaos and was trapped in Luoyang.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the sky and the sky are not responding to each other, and the earth and the earth are not working properly.
"You said, what can I do? What can I do? I can't just wait to die like this, right?"
As Xia Houmao talked, he actually cried, wiping his tears and saying:
“Do you know how frightened I was when the Han army came to the east of the river and the emperor patrolled east? I asked many people for help, but no one was willing to lend a hand.”
“More than a hundred people in the house are pointing at me to help them find a way to survive. What can I do?”
Brothers from other families surrendered to Shu. It seems that they harmed the brothers who stayed in Wei.
In fact, it left hope for the family.
Where is your brother?
Hand together, they want to put the charge of "slandering your Majesty" on their brother's head.
Don’t they know that if the crime is really confirmed, they, as their brothers, will eventually be implicated?
It is conceivable that Xia Houmao, who was almost desperate and under tremendous pressure, naturally had to hold on tightly when facing the overtures of some big families, treating them as the last straw.
As for why Taifu agreed to his caravan leaving the city for Guanzhong, he couldn't care less whether there was anything wrong.
Even if he knew something was wrong, he didn't have the ability to refuse.
As if to defend himself, Xia Houmao murmured:
“It’s not like I have to send someone there. So many people are asking me, what can I do?”
"Do you know who is in these people? Even if I don't agree, there is nothing you can do about them?"
"Just like the Xin family, their ancestral home is in Longxi..."
Xia Houwei watched Xia Houmao holding his head and crying, and suddenly talking to himself, looking like he was mentally disturbed. He didn't want to answer the conversation.
Unexpectedly, he heard the other party mention the Xin family. This made him feel excited, and he subconsciously asked:
“What Xin family? Which Xin family?”
"Which Xin family is there? Naturally, it is the Xin family of Xin Weiwei (i.e. Xin Pi), who is the same as Zhongquan (i.e. Xiahou Ba), who is also related to the Yang family by marriage."
Yang Hu married Xiahou, the daughter of Xiahou Ba, and Yang Dan, Yang Hu's uncle, married Xin Xianying, the daughter of Xinpi.
Although they are uncle and nephew, the two families are related by marriage to the Yang family, which is indeed not wrong.
When Xia Houwei heard this, his forehead suddenly rumbling.
That’s it, that’s it!
“Longxi Xin family, Longxi Xin family, Taiyang family…”
He sat down in despair, picked up the wine bottle, and took two sips. His eyes were confused and he murmured what he had said in front of Yang Hu:
“Great Wei, why did it become like this?”
Ten years ago, the Wei Dynasty was still the center of the world, and it was not an exaggeration to call it China.
But it’s only ten years, just ten years…
Xia Houmao didn't know when he stopped crying and moved over to hug Xia Houwei, regardless of whether his tears or nose smeared on him.
I could only hear him say with a bit of a tongue-in-cheek:
"Ji Quan, admit it, the current Wei Dynasty is no longer the original Wei Dynasty. Why are those big families so anxious to send caravans to Guanzhong?"
Xiahou Mao chuckled twice, not sure whether it was a sneer or a mockery:
“Because the Minister of the Wei Dynasty has fled to Guanzhong and surrendered to the Shu Kingdom. It is the Pei family from Hedong. Haha, these aristocratic families..."
“Even Shangshu Ling took the initiative to surrender to the Kingdom of Shu. You can imagine what the state of the Wei Dynasty is like now? Unless, unless Emperor Wu is reincarnated, otherwise, just because of that..."
Before he could finish his words, Xia Houwei slashed his neck with a knife.
Xia Houmao's body fell softly.
The midsummer sun shines brightly on the earth.
Xia Houwei, who had just walked out of Xiahou Mao's mansion, felt cold all over.
Looking at the people coming and going in the distance, listening to the noise in the distance, everything is singing and dancing, as if the world is at peace.
He felt everything was so magical.
Looking to the west, the sky is clear and clear.
But he seemed to see black clouds in the sky, like a huge monster, looking at Luoyang eagerly.
At this time, Xia Houwei finally realized what it means to be helpless and what it means to be unstoppable.
He let out a long sigh and walked towards his house in a daze.
(End of this chapter)