Liu Yan took a deep breath and said, "Come to the my house for dinner at night. Remember to bring the younger sister too."

While talking, he looked at Liu Xiu again, patted his arm, and dragged his clothes, muttering with fear, "This time I was almost scared to death!"

Liu Xiu smiled at Liu Yan and pretended to say carelessly: "Elder Brother, look at me. I am okay!"

Liu Yan nodded and said, "Okay, go home quickly. The world is not very peaceful recently, and you will have to stay in the field less in the future."

"Where do you want to go?"

"I have to go to you second elder's house and inform your second elder brother to come to dinner at night."

"Oh!" Liu Xiu responded. He felt something inexplicable in his heart. His brother's money was spent on making friends and acquaintances, so he was not wealthy. How could he invite everyone to dinner today?

When leaving his eldest brother, Liu Xiu walked home, thinking about the things just now, and the more he thought, the more dangerous he felt.

If it wasn't for his elder brother who happened to come, he might have been hurt by the two men's sword.

But who were these two? Why did they want to kill him? Liu Xiu's brain was inexplicable and puzzled.

That night, Liu Xiu, his second brother Liu Zhong, and younger sister Liu Boji came to his brother Liu Yan's house.

The three brothers of the Liu Family had very different personalities.

The eldest brother Liu Yan had a bold nature, amazing natural power, and amazing force. He was very famous in Caiyang County. Everyone mentioning Liu Yan would raise a thumb up and call him "Bosheng" respectively.

Many people came to Liu Yan for his fame. There were many robbers who stole dogs and robbed of others, and Liu Yan never refused anyone of them. No matter who the other person was, he could be intimate with him and became close friends with him.

The second brother Liu Zhong, with a temperament opposite to Liu Yan, was an honest person. He had very few words. To put it bluntly, he did not like talking. Even if he was bullied, he would not speak loudly. .

In the Liu family, Liu Zhong had no sense of presence.

And Liu Xiu was like a complex of his two brothers. He was low-key, cautious, not arrogant, scheming, loving, but picky at making friends.

His temperament was neither as arrogant and lofty as Liu Yan, nor as lumpy as Liu Zhong. He looked very soft on the surface, but in fact he was firm and tough.

The condition of the Liu Yan's family was not bad. The house he built was not small.

This time it was a family dinner, but at the banquet, there were still several friends of Liu Yan. Zhang Ping and Zhu Yun who were often beside Liu Yan were naturally among them.

Both Zhang Ping and Zhu Yun lived in Liu Yan's home for a long time. Their relationship with Liu Yan was both like friendship and follower-lord relationship.

Liu Xiu was not very clear about what Zhang Ping used to do. He knew that Zhu Yun used to be a bandit leader. Later, the thief's den was surrounded by officers and soldiers. He fled to Caiyang County in chaos, and was later taken over by his elder brother.

In the living room, Liu Xiu saw Liu Yan and Liu Zhong, and gave the two elder brothers a formal greeting, saying, "Elder Brother, Second Brother!"

"Ah, ah, A'Xiu is here." Liu Zhong nodded to Liu Xiu.

Liu Yan patted Liu Xiu's shoulder cheerfully, and it could see that he was in a good mood today.

He smiled at several of the friends present here: "My youngest brother's skill I admire most is farming. Now that the drought in Nanyang is so severe, the land of other people's homes has been sparse. But A'Xiu's land has great harvest every season. "

Saying this, Liu Yan couldn't help but sigh: "Think back then, Emperor Gaozu's elder brother was also very good at farming!"

Upon hearing this, Liu Zhong's body shook and his face changed greatly.

Other people present here had somewhat unnatural expressions.

The Emperor Gaozu mentioned by Liu Yan naturally referred to the founding emperor of the Western Han Dynasty, the Emperor Gaozu of Han Dynasty Liu Bang. He first praised Liu Xiu's good farming skills, and compared Liu Xiu to Liu Bo, the elder brother of Liu Bang, which was equivalent to comparing himself to Liu Bang.

If his words reached the ears of the officials, even if Liu Yan had ten heads, it was not enough to be cut.

Zhu Yun suddenly laughed facing the roof and said aloud: "Is there anyone born as a king, duke, general, or minister? I think Bosheng is no worse than the Emperor of Gaozu."

Liu Xiu secretly sighed and couldn't help reminding: "Elder Brother speaks carefully! Brother Yun speaks carefully!"

Zhu Yun patted Liu Xiu's shoulder and said briskly, "I'm afraid of nothing. There are no outsiders here! A'Xiu, your courage is still too small. In this respect, you can learn more from your brother."

You should not be a coward like your second brother! He murmured in his heart. Zhu Yun especially looked down on good persons like Liu Zhong.

Liu Yan also realized that his words were overdone. He turned sharply and asked cheerfully, "A'Xiu, I heard you have a girl you like?"

"Who said that?" Liu Xiu looked at his elder brother blankly.

Liu Yan's eyes naturally glanced at Liu Boji. Liu Xiu saw this and immediately understood that she must talk some nonsense with his elder brother.

He glared at Liu Boji and was about to speak. The little girl hurried to Liu Yan, hugged his elder brother's arm, took a handkerchief like a treasure, handed it to Liu Yan, and said with a smile: "This is what I made for Elder Brother. See if you like it or not the embroidery! "

Liu Yan took the handkerchief, looked closely, couldn't help making a series of chirps, then raised the handkerchief high and showed it to everyone, and asked, "Look, see, how is my young sister's needlework?"

Everyone looked at it with praise. Liu Boji embroidered clusters of peony, with red flowers like fire, and green leaves like emeralds. They were all like the real flowers. As far as needlework was concerned, Liu Boji really outperformed her peers.

Liu Xiu also overflowed with pride in his heart. He deliberately pretended to be still angry, with a cold face, reached out and asked, "What about me?"

"Does Third Brother also want one?"

"Elder Brother has one, why don't I?"

"I didn't do it for Third Brother!"

"You little girl!" Liu Xiu pulled the little girl closer to him. His hands scratched under her armpits. The little girl laughed, begging for mercy while smiling: "I did it, I made one for you..."

Looking at the brothers and sister playing together, Liu Yan couldn't help but feel mixed in his heart. Their father had passed away for seven years. The seven years went so quickly. His brothers and sister had grown up.

Liu Yan folded the handkerchief from the little sister carefully and put it into his shirt. Then he waved to Liu Xiu and Liu Boji and said, "Okay, okay, how old are you. You are a little childish."

Liu Xiu and Liu Boji finally stopped playing, and the little girl took out two handkerchiefs, one for Liu Xiu and one for her second brother Liu Zhong. When Liu Xiu took the handkerchief, he also pinched Liu Boji's pink face and said with satisfaction: "Well, forget you this time"

When Liu Zhong took the handkerchief, he said in a proper way: "Thank you, young sister."

During this family feast, the food was not rich. Under such difficult conditions at that time, Liu Yan was also difficult to prepare a hearty meal to treat everyone, but since the family sat together, they happily enjoyed the meal.

At dinner, Liu Boji said sadly: "It would be happier if the Elder Sister and the Second Sister are in Chongling village. Then today our family can get together!"

Liu Yan suddenly thought of something and said to Liu Xiu: "A'Xiu, I have mentioned it to you several times. You moved out of uncle's house and lived with me. Are you still afraid that I can not afford to raise you two?"

Liu Xiu said with a smile: "Elder Brother, little sister and I live very well at uncle's house."

Liu Boji, who was sitting beside Liu Xiu, also nodded. Liu Xiu said again: "Not to mention that uncle and aunt are both old and need someone to take care of them."

"This is also true!" Liu Yan nodded, and then turned around, said: "After I leave, I was most worried about your sister-in-law and your two nephews!"

Liu Yan had two sons, eldest son Liu Zhang and second son Liu Xing.

Liu Xiu heard Liu Yan's words and was puzzled, and asked, "Leave? Where are you going?"

Liu Yan cleared his throat and said righteously: "This time I invite everyone to come over, because I have one more thing to announce to everyone."

Liu Xiu, Liu Zhong, and Liu Boji put down the tableware and looked at their elder brother in unison. They didn't know what made him so serious.

Liu Yan said: "This year, the southern barbarians has not only caused chaos at the border, but has attacked Yizhou Province, burned and looted, without any kindness. Countless people in Yizhou Province were dead or got injured. Wang Mang sent Lian Dan and Shi Xiong together with 100,000 troops soldiers to Yizhou Province, to fight against the barbarian army. In addition, Wang Mang will organize 100,000 volunteers to cooperate with Lian Dan and Shi Xiong to fight for Yizhou Province together. I plan to join the volunteers. "

With a nervous expression on his face, Liu Zhong stuttered and said, "Elder... Elder Brother, don't do that. The brutal barbarians are cruel, they are cruel!" Liu Zhong himself couldn't tell the reason, anyway, he felt that the elder brother going to join the Volunteer Army and fight for Yizhou against the Southern Barbarian Army was too dangerous.

Looking at his mourning appearance, Zhu Yun was furious in his heart. He snapped the table case and said aloud: "What is to be afraid of? If Wang Mang wasn't usurping the throne, those southern barbarians were still subject to us!"

Since Wang Mang usurped the throne, he had implemented a series of new policies both internally and externally, but none of them were popular. In terms of foreign affairs, Wang Mang downgraded all the neighboring countries from the kingdom to principality, deprived the taxation of Huns to Wuhuan, which caused the Huns to mess up at the border. Therefore, the Wang Mang had to send 300,000 soldiers to guard the northwest border to resist the Huns. The northeast was not too peaceful at all. Wang Mang killed the leader of Gaogouli, and changed the name of Gaogouli to Xiagouli to show humiliation, which led to the war on the northeast border. The Qiang people and Ailao in the southwest directly attacked the Yizhou Province, causing chaos.

Now in Yizhou, it was already a mess.

The elder brother was going to Yizhou to fight the southern barbarians. Liu Xiu did not have any opinion on this, but one thing he could not understand. He asked, "Why does Elder Brother help Wang Mang to fight?"

Since Wang Mang usurped the throne which belonged to the Han Dynasty, Liu Yan had been nagging to restore the Han Dynasty. And now he wanted to join the Volunteer Army. Did not that mean helping a tyrant to victimize his subjects?

Note:

1. Huns: The nomadic people of the ancient Mongolian plateau

2. Wuhuan: One of the nomadic peoples of ancient northern China

3. Gaogouli: A regime that existed from the 1st century BC to the 7th century AD in what is now northeast China and the Korean peninsula.

4. Ailao:In the 5th century BC, the small tribes in the middle and upper reaches of the Lancang River and Nu river formed an alliance, which was recorded as "Ailao" in Chinese classics in transliteration.