Jiapingguan Chronicle

Xue Ruitian touched his chin, looked at Liang Jieque, and raised his eyebrows slightly at her.

"Aunt Liang, you have never mentioned these words before, so we didn't ask, what are the origins of these two Hu businessmen who have close contacts with Tian Mo and De Xiao? As far as I know, even Hu businessmen, Not everyone is qualified to sell something as precious and rare as an elephant, right?"

"Yes, they are indeed extraordinary. If the two ancestors had not carefully investigated and been introduced by others, they would not have gotten to know them." Liang Jieque thought for a moment, "My grandfather said that the masters behind these two people were It's still quite big, but no one has ever seen its true face. But according to the person behind this, the unreasonable indulgence of the emperor, as long as it is a rare thing that the emperor wants, he will get it for the emperor unconditionally, eight out of ten times. Ninth, there was some involvement with the royal family of the previous dynasty. Tian Mo and De Xiao also investigated secretly, but they were warned after finding nothing. This shows that the person behind this has great hands and eyes, and is far more powerful than them. Imagine it’s much bigger.”

"Were you warned?" Xue Ruitian glanced at Shen Haolin and Shen Cha, then thought for a moment, "Were you warned by whom? Hu Shang?"

"No." Liang Jieque shook her head slightly, "I heard that someone put a knife next to the bed late at night, with a piece of paper underneath the knife. It told them not to meddle in their own business and do their best. My duty. But..." She paused slightly, "My grandfather also told me that his grandfather, Tian Mo, mentioned the piece of paper and said he smelled it vaguely. The smell of Buddhist incense. And that Buddhist incense seems to be specially provided to Xiangguo Temple, so Tian Mo suspects that the person who warned them is probably the legendary Master Fa Lian who was selected as the son of Buddha." She looked at it. He looked at everyone and asked, "You all know Master Falian, right?"

"I know." Xue Ruitian nodded, "The Buddhist disciple who has not been seen in a hundred years was accepted as the only closed disciple by the master of Xiangguo Temple at such a young age. It is a legend of the previous dynasty. How could you not know about it? But isn't it rumored that he has disappeared? ?how come……"

"He's just missing. It's not said that he is really dead." Liang Jieque spread his hands and said, "Tian Mo can be sure that Master Fa Lian is not dead, and those two Hu Shang should also be following his orders."

After listening to Liang Jieque's words, Shen Haolin, Shen Cha and Xue Ruitian looked at each other and sighed softly. It seemed that their guess was correct.

"Is there any evidence?"

"There is no evidence. He said it was intuition. Because they were warned by the other party, they definitely did not dare to investigate further." Liang Jieque sighed softly, "Although they did not investigate further, Tian Mo and De Xiaodu began to pay attention to the Hu merchants who had frequent contacts with them. Including the two Hu merchants who helped build the Elephant Garden, there were a total of six Hu merchants who smelled of the special Buddhist incense made by Xiangguo Temple. Therefore, they could I am sure that Master Falian is definitely not missing and is hiding in Xiangguo Temple."

"He is a closed disciple of Xiangguo Temple, and he has inherited the mantle. Why can't he appear in Xiangguo Temple openly and openly? Instead, he has to hide secretly. He..." Shen Zhonghe frowned slightly, "Is he wanted?"

"No." Liang Jieque sneered, "He is just a victim of the struggle between the royal family and the big clan. If he appears, the big clan will still target him and force him to burn himself as a sacrifice."

"Self-immolation as a sacrifice?" Xue Ruitian was stunned. Second Master Jiang had not mentioned this before, "Isn't he a Buddhist?"

"When Master Falian was just born, the powerful clan used celestial phenomena to force him to become a monk, saying that he was the auspiciousness of the previous dynasty and the luck of the previous dynasty. Later, after he became a master, he began to Target him." "How to target Fa?"

"Because there was a severe drought in the world in those years, not a blade of grass grew, and the people had no way to make a living." Liang Jieque sighed softly, "The big clan advised your majesty that this is a warning from God to the royal family. It means that the royal family has done something bad. If If you want to eliminate this scourge, you must sacrifice someone in the royal family, and the most effective one is Master Falian, the Buddhist son who represents the destiny of the royal family. If Master Falian could burn himself on the altar in front of the ancestral temple, it would move heaven. God will remove the warning, and the people will live a good life."

"Emperor Chongde agreed?"

"Agreed." Liang Jieque nodded, "If you know Emperor Chongde, you should know that he actually has no feelings for his son. If he had feelings, he would not believe the nonsense of the big clan. He would not believe it. His son was a Buddhist son, and he had to send such a young child to Xiangguo Temple. Therefore, when Emperor Chongde heard what the big clan said, he quickly arranged for Master Falian to go to the altar to self-immolate as a sacrifice, so that his world would be safe and sound. , don’t have so many eggs, don’t have natural disasters, don’t have man-made disasters or anything like that.”

"But there's no sacrifice, right?"

"Yes." Liang Jieque nodded, "I heard that Master Falian's master received the news in advance and took him away quietly. He said he was traveling around, but in fact he was going to see the disaster-stricken places in person. So, That’s how we dodged a bullet.”

"I understand, if he showed up in Xiangguo Temple upright, he would definitely be forced to self-immolate as a sacrifice." Shen Zhonghe sighed softly and said, "I didn't expect these big clans to be so sophisticated..."

"Xiaoman!" Liang Jieque shook his head gently, "At that time, except for the generals who led the army and those nobles, almost all officials participated in this operation, as did the Tian family and the De family."

"So that's it!" Shen Zhonghe sneered, "If he is the power behind Hui Niang, I can understand him. They are here to take revenge. If you force them to die, they will use the same means to retaliate. It’s nothing big, right?”

"I don't know if he is behind Hui Niang. If he lives to this day, it would be a miracle, right?" Liang Jieque waved his hand, "Let's talk about Tian Mo and De Xiao first. They later returned I have had a lot of dealings with these Hu merchants. After all, although it is an elephant garden, it cannot really only have elephants. Later, many other small animals were added one after another. Less than half of these small animals came through these few Hu merchants. I bought it from Shangcai. So, their relationship is quite good, they are the kind of friends who can have a drink or two in their spare time and have a heart-to-heart relationship."

"What happened next?" Shen Zhonghe thought for a while, "Just now you said that Ding Shangshu offended the last emperor in Xiangyuan, so he was..."

"Yes!" Liang Jieque nodded, "Because the last emperor got tired of looking at elephants and fell in love with something else, he asked to raise white lions in the inner courtyard of the palace and asked Ding Shangshu to build him a lion room in the harem."