My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 61 Zhuge Liang's Farewell

Seeing the surprised expression on the second brother's face when he read the letter, Zhuge Zhi and Zhuge Lan, who were doing housework, also came over. The three faces gathered together to read the eldest brother's letter.

Only the young third brother Zhuge Jun was left, still tinkering with the new toy heartlessly.

"Brother wants us to go to Yuzhang as well to help him and my uncle? What do you think, my dear brothers and sisters? Liu Biao should still hold us hostages, right? Should we sneak away?"
Ah Liang, you go out a lot. Do you think we will be inspected if we take a boat to cross the Han River? Or should you disguise yourself and go alone? Anyway, as long as someone stays, Liu Biao will not make things difficult for us. "

After quickly reading the important matters in Zhuge Jin's letter, the eldest sister Zhuge Zhi took the overall situation into consideration and was the first to think of this.

Liu Biao had no ill intentions towards their family, he just wanted some protection and there would be no danger in them staying.

Zhuge Lan was a little worried after hearing her sister's idea. She sighed and said, "Sister, you might be making things worse. My second brother left without saying goodbye. If we stay, we will only be watched more strictly in the future. I'm not saying this out of selfishness."

Zhuge Zhi: "I didn't say you were selfish, I just made a suggestion. After all, my brother came with his troops, and I was afraid that he would waste time waiting for Aliang."

Zhuge Liang felt that his sisters were really noisy, so he forced himself to calm down and said with finality:

"Don't be afraid! If we're leaving, we'll leave openly. Although Liu Biao has no ill intentions, the Kuai and Pang families have been wanting to form an alliance with us for a while now.

If I run away alone, your situation will only become more difficult. This little thing is not unsolvable. I am not the kind of person who would sell out my sister."

Zhuge Zhi and Zhuge Lan don't understand much about what's going on in the outside world, so at times like this, they still need a male heir to reassure the family.

After hearing what their brother said, they felt relieved instantly and felt that there must be a way.

Zhuge Lan, in particular, felt a little warm inside - she didn't care about selling her brother to the young lady from the Huang family before, because the man could still take concubines in the future anyway.

But her brother would not sell her to Pang Shanmin, and she couldn't help feeling a little ashamed.

The two girls waited quietly and no longer disturbed Zhuge Liang's thoughts.

After about a cup of tea, Zhuge Liang finally came up with an idea:

"I think our family should find an opportunity to ask for an audience with Liu Biao when he is hosting a banquet for famous scholars, and use the name of filial piety to squeeze Liu Biao.

Just say that we heard that Yuzhang was in danger again and the war situation had changed, and we are willing to rush to help our uncle. Then show Liu Biao a private letter reporting urgent military information -

You don't have to worry about the source of the letter. I will use the blank silk cloth given by my elder brother, which is stamped with the seals of the Yuzhang prefect and the Pinglu commander, and write it myself in his handwriting.

Liu Biao named us Eight Horses, so he certainly doesn’t want to embarrass a kind and filial young man like us when we are all so well attended, so he will let us go.”

As Zhuge Liang spoke, he pulled out a blank piece of silk with a seal on it from the pile of scrolls next to him.

It was obvious that Zhuge Jin had prepared multiple plans for his brother in advance so that Aliang could act according to circumstances.

Upon hearing this, Zhuge Zhi and Zhuge Lan looked at each other and each raised some minor doubts.

Zhuge Zhixian said, "If he was visiting relatives to help, why would he bring his women along? Besides, when my uncle was defeated, he sent us back to Xiangyang because he was afraid he couldn't protect us. Wouldn't Liu Biao take this opportunity to persuade us not to fight against a rock with an egg?"

This question was very simple, and Zhuge Liang answered without even thinking:
"When I begged for mercy, I certainly didn't specify how many people were going to go, and Liu Biao couldn't possibly write that much detail in the release document. As for the egg-to-stone persuasion... I naturally have a way, but I can't explain it clearly at the moment."

Zhuge Liang did not explain it in too much detail. My sister would not understand even if he explained it to her about matters of military strategy and strategy.

Zhuge Zhi thought about it and decided to trust her brother without questioning him anymore.

Zhuge Lan also thought of some hidden dangers, and then asked: "What if Liu Biao has no plans to host a banquet for celebrities recently? Can my uncle and elder brother wait?"

Zhuge Liang frowned and said, "We can only ask around. If there is a plan to host a big banquet within a few days, that would be the best. If not, we can only find a way to ask someone to create an opportunity."

Zhuge Lan's mind moved: "Who can you ask for help? Lord Pang De? Or Mr. Shuijing?"

Zhuge Liang: "If there is really no other way, we should ask Lord Cai for help. He is Liu Biao's father-in-law and is highly respected..."

Zhuge Lan interrupted quickly: "You don't want to ask the Huang family's daughter to go to her grandfather's house and act like a spoiled child, do you? Second brother... I was just joking last time."

Zhuge Liang sighed, "Nothing, in fact, I know Yueying is a good person and smart. I don't mind beauty or ugliness. You are right, men can still take concubines anyway."

……

Zhuge Liang had a brief discussion with his sisters. After they brainstormed and patched up the obvious loopholes, they decided to execute Zhuge Liang's plan.

That afternoon, Zhuge Liang went out and returned to the city to inquire. He learned that Liu Biao had no plans to hold a grand banquet recently.

He knew that he had no choice but to take another alternative plan.

When he got home that day, it was already late. Zhuge Liang was in a state of restlessness, so he just lit the oil lamp, took out the new scroll given by his elder brother, and studied some mathematics to distract himself and relieve his depression.

As expected, only mathematics can soothe his heart.

In just one cup of tea, Zhuge Liang completely understood "factorization" - of course, this was also thanks to Zhuge Jin's easy-to-understand teaching plan. Many basic mathematics textbooks in later generations directly listed formulas and asked people to memorize conclusions such as "(X+Y)=X+Y+2XY".

For someone as smart as Zhuge Liang, if you directly give the answer without telling the principle, it would definitely be easy to be exposed and arouse suspicion.

Therefore, the latest scrolls given by Zhuge Jin use diagrams to provide the most intuitive demonstration.

For example, draw a square and write that the side length is equal to (X+Y), then draw two perpendicular lines at a distance of X length from the fixed point on the side to divide the square into four parts.

The areas of the four pieces divided in this way are X, Y, and two pieces of XY, and the sum of them is X+Y+2XY.

Taking this as an example, Zhuge Jin could draw out all other decomposition formulas with diagrams, and Zhuge Liang could understand them instantly.

Even after Zhuge Liang learned the idea, he could deduce the decomposition methods of some formulas that were not mentioned in his elder brother's secret scroll, and create complex formulas by analogy.

Feeling that factoring was too unchallenging, Zhuge Liang pressed on and continued to attack the quadratic equation based on it.

This time he was finally able to warm up, and it took him half the night to understand the main points of quadratic equations.

But this is also very impressive - for normal third-year junior high school students, in order to take care of the poor students, these two contents will generally be repeated for half a semester, and the real academic masters can finish them in half a month.

One night for Zhuge Liang is equivalent to half a month for a top student and half a semester for a poor student.

After finishing all this, Zhuge Liang fell asleep peacefully.

……

When he woke up the next day, perhaps because of the good quality of his rest, Zhuge Liang felt refreshed and his courage was doubled. He was about to implement his plan to escape.

Coincidentally, in the morning, a servant from Huang Chengyan's family in Xiangyang drove a small carriage to Zhuge's house.

After the car stopped, a thin woman with dry yellow hair, who was two or three years younger than Zhuge Liang, got out.

He carried a modified fishing rod on his shoulder and a wooden box in his hand. He didn't shy away from the Zhuge family and headed straight into the yard, greeting them as he walked:
"Brother Liang, let's go fishing for mandarin fish together today if you have time. I have improved your longline fishing rod, but unfortunately I am not strong enough to pull it.

I also asked my craftsman to make the complete set of triangles that you asked me to make last time."

When Zhuge Liang heard Huang Yueying's voice, it helped him make the final decision.

He quickly washed his face, tidied up his appearance before meeting Huang Yueying, and then opened the door and came out.

Although he looked quite handsome without any tidying up, Huang Yueying's heart naturally beat faster after he was tidying up.

"Why does Brother Liang look more handsome today than usual?" Huang Yueying was confused for a moment, holding a wooden box of triangles and not knowing where to put it.

Zhuge Liang looked at the new fishing rod and the pile of right-angled triangles that Huang Yueying brought, and he felt a little touched.

So before talking about business, he checked these things very seriously to show his respect for the other party's achievements.

Ever since his eldest brother sent the first wave of secret scrolls more than two months ago, Zhuge Liang has been sharing some of the interesting ideas in them with Huang Yueying.

Huang Yueying shared his interests and helped him make some things. The two of them often went out together to fish with their homemade new fishing rods.

Of course, with Zhuge Liang's self-discipline, he would never waste time. So he would bring books and oil-paper umbrellas, or go fishing under the shade of trees, waiting for the fish to bite while reading, studying, chatting and discussing, just the right way to entertain and improve himself.

The new fishing rod that Huang Yueying brought today had improved floats and weights compared to the sample Zhuge Jin had given him at the beginning, making it easier to set the depth for all hooks. Zhuge Liang really wanted to try it, but he didn't have time.

As for the box of right-angled set squares, you can find a way to make them into specific vertex angles so that you can directly measure the trigonometric function values of that angle with a ruler without having to make blind calculations.

Or it could be a tool that Zhuge Liang used to "use the Pythagorean experiment to measure the square root value of integers" to help himself better understand "irrational numbers."

These two things were figured out by Zhuge Liang himself, and were a result of his own learning and self-verification of the contents of his elder brother's first wave of mathematics textbooks. They are also the epitome of Zhuge Liang's hard study over the past two months.

At this moment, after seeing what Huang Yueying had made for him, Zhuge Liang expressed his gratitude and praise politely but absent-mindedly.

But Huang Yueying was not happy after hearing this, because her intuition told her that although Brother Liang's comments were very accurate, they were not sincere.

No matter how rationally and accurately a man speaks, if he has no emotions, women can tell.

"You have something on your mind." Huang Yueying pointed out bluntly.

Zhuge Liang readily admitted the mistake: "Actually... I received a letter from home yesterday. My uncle was threatened by the rebel army again in Yuzhang, and my eldest brother asked me to go and help."

"Then you are going to leave Jingzhou? Then will you come back?" Huang Yueying felt inexplicably distressed.

(End of this chapter)