Chapter 1: Perplexity
Shaoxing Prefecture has been a land of fish and rice since ancient times. Before the Northern Song Dynasty, it was called Yuezhou. When the Northern Song was destroyed by the Jin State, Emperor Gaozong fled southward from the pursuit of Wanyan Zongbi and once stayed here, making Yuezhou a temporary capital. The next year, it was renamed Shaoxing Prefecture, hence the name Shaoxing.
Walking on the main street of Shaoxing City, Gao Huaiyuan felt a thousand emotions. Being able to revisit Shaoxing in this era was something he had never thought possible. In his past life as Huang Chao, he had been here once before, and now revisiting Shaoxing again brought about another wave of feelings.
After the incident of severely beating the wicked servant, Gao Huaiyuan became the focus of discussion among the people in the mansion. He also caught the attention of his father, Gao Jian, and his status in the mansion was significantly improved. Although he still lived in the original small courtyard, his quality of life had been greatly improved. Gao Jian ordered people to renovate the house in the new small courtyard for him and Liu'er, replacing the old and worn-out furniture with new ones, and even bought some new clothes for Gao Huaiyuan. Liu'er no longer had to wear those tattered clothes from before.
Not to mention Gao Huaiyuan having to eat the leftover food of others, overall he has started to have some status as a young master of the Gao family. However, Gao Huaiyuan is not grateful for what Gao Jian did, in his opinion, these things should have been his all along and are only late in coming. He is very clear that one must rely on their own abilities to speak, if he were still foolish then Gao Jian would still not look at him straight now.
As for those underlings who used to bully him for fun, they now dare not provoke Gao Huaiyuan again even if they were beaten to death. The outcome of Li's servant is still fresh in everyone's mind - he was brutally beaten by Gao Jian's order and left on the streets as a cripple, forced to beg for a living every day. His fate can be said to be miserable beyond words! From then on, no one among the underlings dared to touch Gao Huaiyuan's hair again.
They were originally puzzled, how could a twelve or thirteen-year-old boy like Gao Huaiyuan knock out the sturdy young man under Li's command. Later, they secretly heard from the young man who was beaten out of the Gao mansion that although Gao Huaiyuan still looked like a teenager, his physical strength was abnormally strong. At that time, he was punched and flew out with one punch, followed by a series of heavy blows, and it was true that he was beaten to the point where an adult had no power to fight back. As a result, the servants in the mansion regarded Gao Huaiyuan as a monster, and when nothing was happening, they didn't dare to provoke him, let alone avoid him.
In the Gongfu, those so-called relatives still do not get along with Gao Huaiyuan. The reason is simple: first, Gao Huaiyuan has a bad birth, no matter how foolish he is now, he is still the illegitimate child of a maid servant, and there is no need to associate with him! Another reason is that this time Gao Huaiyuan was struck by lightning, many people think that Gao Huaiyuan is an unlucky person, regard him as a monster, so they are unwilling to approach him, just treat him as nothing.
Gao Huaiyuan himself was also very clear about this reason, so he also ended up being quiet and lazy, not bothering to socialize with the people of the Gao family. As for the things that Gao Jian gave him, he didn't even bother to look at them. Among the clothes sent by the servants, he only chose some casual ones to wear, and as for silk shirts and other formal clothes, he was too lazy to wear them. Anyway, having nothing to do was also a way of passing time. These days, Gao Huaiyuan spent his days eating his fill and then going out to stroll around everywhere, taking in the scenery of Shaoxing while also getting a sense of the current situation.
Although the Southern Song Dynasty seemed peaceful and prosperous, there were still people in the streets discussing the battles between the Mongolian army and the Jin army in the north. The people of the Southern Song Dynasty were excited when they mentioned this matter, as the Jin Dynasty, which had previously bullied the Great Song to the extreme, was now being bullied by others. In their view, this was a form of retribution. The two countries of Song and Jin could be said to have been sworn enemies for generations. The Northern Song Dynasty was destroyed at the hands of the Jin Dynasty, and the humiliation of the Jingkang incident still made the Song people ashamed to mention it today. Therefore, when they heard that the Mongols had defeated the Jin Dynasty, they couldn't help but feel a sense of schadenfreude.
In his past life, Gao Weiyan had some understanding of history, but he wasn't a historian. As for the Southern Song Dynasty era, he only knew some superficial things. After rebirth, the silly kid's mind was muddled and empty, with nothing useful left behind. So when it came to understanding the current situation, he could only start from scratch. The other day, just talking to Liu'er alone wasn't enough for him to learn much, and in the Gao household, there weren't many people he could talk to either. He had no choice but to spend his days wandering around town, chatting with strangers, and trying to get a sense of the current situation.
After several days, he began to understand the various things at this time. The current emperor of Southern Song is Emperor Ningzong of Song Zhao Xun, and in the eighth year of Jiaqing, it should be around 1210 or so, but as for which specific year, Gao Hua Yuan didn't have that skill!
Then Gao Huaiyuan thought for a while, and finally sorted out the historical memories in his mind. Now it was during the reign of Emperor Ningzong of Song, which means that the powerful minister Shi Miyuan should be in power at present!
At this time, it was also the heyday of Genghis Khan. The Jin Dynasty in the north of Southern Song and Western Xia were probably not going to last long. He didn't remember clearly which year the Jin Dynasty and Western Xia were destroyed by Mongolia, but he knew that these two countries would not be able to hold on for much longer!
From the analysis of materials occasionally seen before, in terms of dealing with Mongolian affairs, the three countries of Song, Jin and Western Xia were all confused, and none of them had a clear understanding. If the leaders of the three countries were wise men, they would join hands, or at least two of them would unite to resist the Mongolian army, making it difficult for Mongolia to destroy any one of these countries!
Unfortunately, no country had such a wise leader appear, and the three countries not only failed to unite in the face of this danger, but instead dispersed their forces and went to war with neighboring countries. Not only did they fight each other to the death, but they also squandered large amounts of manpower and resources. When the Mongol army decided to destroy them, it was too late for regrets, and in the end, they all became sacrifices to the Mongols.
After some sorting and understanding, Gao Huaiyuan also verified these things in these days. In the past few years, the Mongolian army invaded Western Xia, Western Xia was defeated by the Mongols, and asked Jin Guo for help. However, Wei Shao Wang of Jin Guo refused to send troops to rescue Western Xia, taking a wait-and-see attitude, and the people of Western Xia harbored resentment towards Jin Guo from then on.
Moreover, he also heard that in the fourth year of Jia Ding, Genghis Khan led his army to attack the Jin Dynasty. The Western Xia took a more confusing approach and turned to rely on the Mongolian army. As they did before when dealing with the Northern Song Dynasty, they wanted to take advantage of the Jin Dynasty's weakness and occupy some of its territories. Therefore, they dispatched a large army to attack the Jin Dynasty from the flank. As a result, Western Xia and the Jin Dynasty fell into an irreconcilable situation, where both countries not only had to face the Mongolian army but also had to be constantly on guard against each other's military forces. The shortsightedness of both sides accelerated their own demise. Although neither Western Xia nor the Jin Dynasty has been destroyed by the Mongols yet, that day is not far away!
Song Ningzong was not a wise man either. In the past, he indulged in the treacherous minister Han Tuozhou, who monopolized power and supported Han's northern expedition. However, Han launched the northern expedition without proper preparation in Southern Song, resulting in being defeated by the Jin army, wasting the national strength of Southern Song, and almost losing all the elite troops of Southern Song.
This incident dealt a great blow to the Southern Song Dynasty, and Emperor Ningzong was disheartened at this time. Han Tuozhou was also ambushed by Shi Miyuan, who colluded with Empress Yang, and his head was sent to the Jin State as a gift. From now on, the Southern Song Dynasty can be said to have completely lost its courage to look north, and it will only seek to maintain a precarious existence in Jiangnan.
The Jin Dynasty was destroyed, and the good days of Southern Song were completely over. The Mongolian army would soon move south, and Southern Song would be thoroughly plunged into turmoil, never having a peaceful day again!
Thinking of this, Gao Huaiyuan sighed and lamented that it was really a bad time to be born! In this life, wanting to live a peaceful and stable life is probably also difficult! Who knows, by the time he's old, he might still have to suffer at the hands of the Mongols!
But looking down at his own body, Gao Haiyan didn't have any good solution. Although he was mature in thought, his body was that of a 12 or 13 year old boy. And because of his position in the family, it was hard for him to do anything!
He patted his own pocket, apart from the clothes on him, Gao Jian didn't give him any money to spend. It could be said that he had a good appearance but was empty-handed, Gao Huaiyuan could only shake his head and smile bitterly, then turned around and headed towards the Gao residence.
Although Shaoxing is not a big city in Southern Song Dynasty, the scenery is very beautiful. The city was built early and has a crisscrossing river system, with a typical Jiangnan water town landscape. The wine industry is also well-developed here, with many small bridges in the city, earning it the reputation of "Oriental Venice". Although he had been wandering around for several days, Gao Huairen still hadn't covered all the places in the city. So he chose a road he hadn't taken before and headed back to the Gao Mansion, taking the opportunity to see some new sights along the way. After all, being reborn once, it's better to see more things. He could also use this time to think about what he should do next.
Although Gao Jian agreed to let him go out and have fun, and also let the family servants accompany him, but Gao Hua Yuan never wanted to bring any family servants when he went out. These family servants didn't want to follow him either, so basically after his first time going out, he left home alone. So walking around was very comfortable for him, wherever he wanted to go and take a stroll, he would just go there.
While walking, he suddenly heard a child's cry for help from the front. He thought it was nothing and walked over to take a look at the commotion. After turning a corner, he saw several boys around his age surrounding a slightly younger boy, punching and kicking him. The younger boy was beaten to the ground, crying out loudly.
