351 General’s Ident.i.ty
“Who’s General Hu Dingbang?” A villager said, “The village chief told us that the great general’s name is Hu Da.”
In their Hu Family Village, Hu was a big surname. There were more than 70 families with the same surname out of the hundred over families in the entire village.
When there were too many people, naming became troublesome.
Therefore, everyone just took up the same names. When they ran out of names later, names like Goudan, Shuanzi and so on started appearing.
Therefore, when they heard that General Hu’s name was Hu Da, they felt that it was a very intimate name.
It was obvious from his name that he was from their village.
However, the county magistrate said that the general’s name was Hu Dingbang.
This was different from what the village chief had said.
Zhang Zhan sighed with emotion. “I heard that General Hu’s common name is Hu Da. Later on, he was given the name Dingbang by the Emperor. He was also conferred the t.i.tle General Zhen Yong. He’s a superior first-grade martial artist and enjoys a huge status.”
On this stele, there were a few words that briefly recorded the legendary life of General Hu Dingbang.
Previously, someone had also gone to the cave to look at the words, but the villagers could not read, so they felt that those words were the real words. As for the other small words, because they were not commonly used in the Great Chang Nation, they thought that they were patterns.
If not for Zhang Zhan’s curiosity, they would probably have taken a long time to find out about the meaning of the small words on the stele.
At the mention of General Hu Dingbang, Zhang Zhan thought of more about the military books that had disappeared with the general.
Of course, Village Chief Hu had already handed it to him previously.
It was also the batch that Zhang Zhan had been looking for. Now, that batch of military books and armor had long been secretly sent to Wanning City.
At that time, Zhang Zhan had already suspected that the general of Hu Family Village was Hu Dingbang.
Now, it could only be considered as a confirmed fact.
If not for the presence of General Hu Dingbang’s tomb here, the batch of military books found in Hu Family Village might very well have brought disaster to the entire village.
This was because the Imperial Court would think that the village had kept it as a private collection or that they were a village of thieves.
Even if evidence was found later to refute this, the Imperial Court might do something to seal their mouths permanently to prevent rumors.
At that time, the casualties would be hard to estimate.
Zhang Zhan verified Hu Dingbang’s ident.i.ty and went to the General’s Temple to pay his respects.
He even mentioned to the villagers that if nothing unexpected happened, the county office would allocate a sum of money to renovate the General’s Temple.
At that time, more people might come to the Hu Family Village to pay their respects to this famous general from more than 100 years ago.
When Village Chief Hu heard this, he was not happy at all. “Lord County Magistrate, can we discuss this matter later?”
Zhang Zhan: “Don’t you want more people to come to the village?”
This was strange.
The other villages tried their best to recruit more people to their village. This way, the village could become richer.
For example, Feng’an Village in Yongding County was doing quite well. They would hold a peach blossom festival in spring. Not only were the people from Yongding County fond of going there to admire the peach blossoms, but the people from the other counties and provinces also liked to go.
It was said that many scholars had left behind calligraphy treasures there. It could be said that among all the poor villages of Yongding County, Feng’an Village could be considered one of the most well to do.
Now, it was verified that the Hu Family Village was the place where General Hu Dingbang had come from. He was also the only invincible General in the history of the Great Chang Nation who did not have any obvious flaws. If this matter was made known, the village would attract many famous guests.
Village Chief Hu was a little embarra.s.sed and did not know how to explain.
The main reason was that their village was currently planting optimal grain. Other villagers might not notice anything, but Village Chief Hu felt that this must have been something that Old man w.a.n.g’s family had spent a lot of effort to obtain.
Especially the matter regarding the divine rain. What if one of the villagers leaked the news and caused a disaster for the village?
Moreover, there was a little lucky star in their village. Previously, the entire village had tacitly agreed to protect Ah Yu.
If there were too many outsiders in the village, how could they protect her?