Delong

Chapter 144: A Journey Through the Sea of ​​Bitterness (11)

On the night when he came to Taiyuan, Zhang Xing had a dream. He dreamed that he had returned to his hometown—not only the previous world, but also the hometown of the previous world, a typical agricultural township surrounded by farmland on the Great Plains, a Rapid development, but destined to be eliminated.

He dreamed that he was wrapped in a quilt as clothing, and walked out of the house without hesitation.

He walked across the grass, and the blue vines attached to the quilt, but as if being nourished by the true energy of longevity, they quickly grew up, weaved into living ropes, transformed the quilt into clothes for him, and tied them tightly on him.

He walked through a strange field, which seemed to be harvesting, but also seemed to be declining. Halfway through, he realized that it was a field of sunflowers all head down.

He walked to the only cross street in the town, filled with dust, it seemed that he should turn left to go to school, but the bus to the county town on the right was about to leave, but at this time, he was not hungry, but he chose to sit down , I ordered a bowl of camellia from my hometown.

Then, before the oil tea was poured out, he woke up.

This made Zhang Xing a little suspicious.

It's not his fault, he hasn't dreamed of the last world for a long time, let alone the hometown of the last world, and, it seems that there are no ghosts in this world, but there are really gods.

Don't you see, after the sage had a dream, he killed his only sister and the whole family... Not to mention being cold or not, the key is that no one ignored his dream.

Everyone believed that the dream was foreshadowing, but the direction of interpretation was different.

So, in the middle of the night, Zhang Xing didn't care whether he would collapse or not, and immediately decided to go to Li Ding to interpret his dream.

But as soon as he got up, before he could use his true energy to illuminate the light, he heard movement on the roof.

"Chang Jian." Zhang Xing sighed below, and asked seriously. "Can I not sleep when I reach the alchemy realm?"

"Zhen Qi itself can allow people to exercise for a long time without getting tired, and it can be replenished through meditation." Bai Yousi replied on the roof. "But generally speaking, it's better for your body to rest well, otherwise you'll have to return it when you're old... But I haven't reached that point yet. The main reason is that the things you talked about today are quite interesting. What if you don't Immortals and real dragons, people have to be monkeys for millions of years to come to the coexistence of hundreds of races before Lord Qing... Do you think there will be such unlucky people?"

"I had a dream." Zhang Xing ignored those topics that were destined to be unsolvable, thought for a while, turned and lay back on the kang, and then confessed in the dark. "It's a bit strange... I dreamed of a place, the countryside, it should be my hometown."

There was an obvious pause on the roof, and then he asked back: "What are you all about?"

"I just left home, but I have no nostalgia for home... In the end, I didn't go to the donkey cart to the county seat, and sat at the intersection and ordered a bowl of bone stick soup from Beidi... Then I woke up without drinking the soup." Zhang Xing briefly described it, but changed the background factors slightly.

"Is it dissatisfied with the current situation?" Bai Yousi began to try Bai Po's dream interpretation. "Being stuck by vines, I feel that the current state is bound; the quilt is turned into clothes, because I feel that my current identity is a step by step step by step in order to survive; I finally stopped at the intersection, not wanting to go to Heidi to watch the class, I didn't get on the donkey cart either, which means I'm a little confused about the future path... As for the sunflowers that are full of seeds not facing the sun, it should be the most important thing... But I don't know how to explain it."

Zhang Xing nodded in the empty, dark room, and said sincerely: "That's true...I have already told Chang Jian about the things I want to leave, and the things I don't know what to do after I leave...It should be That’s what it means. But speaking like this, it seems that I’m too greedy.”

"How to say?" The female voice on the roof was slightly surprised.

"I'm alone, almost impoverished to the extreme. At this time, I can have a place to stay and a bowl of rice. I should be grateful. I can leave, but I shouldn't dislike the past and hate my own experience." Zhang Xing looked at the dark place. The roof, blurted out. "Even if it is the Great Wei court, I guess I will go against it sooner or later in the future, but I have to admit that the experience of the past two years still makes me feel a little grateful for the people and things in it... People have to learn grateful."

On the roof, Bai Yousi sat there without responding for a long time... It's not that he didn't want to respond, but he didn't feel the need to speak out... Because if he went on, he wanted to ask the other party if he really couldn't stay?
There is an issue of final choice involved.

The identities of the two parties are too different, the ideas are always approaching, but there are always differences in routes... and the two sides have always respected each other, regarded each other as equals, and left the final choice to the other party, rather than doing it blindly. Press hard.

In this state, some inquiries are not real inquiries, but a statement.

But to express one's position, both parties once is enough, if they say too much, it will appear hypocritical, and a more realistic expression is needed... especially since the two parties have reached a seemingly neutral and compromised plan...to be a magistrate together Well.

Bai Yousi was even more unwilling to easily break this balance.

"I didn't expect Zhang Sanlang to be quite gentle." Bai You thought for a long time, and could only say this sentence. "I remember that you have been sending money to the aunt in his village who took you in through Qin Bao?"

"Yes." Zhang Xing sighed in the dark night. "But it's useless... Her husband is dead, and her son should be dead too... A peasant woman in a village is getting old, and the day and night farm work in the early years has hurt her foundation, and she has no sustenance. Her body collapsed quickly. Well, it was already dead before I came out this time... I guess there will be bad news when I get back after half a year."

Bai Yousi responded silently.

"Is it raining outside? Why is it so dark?" Zhang Xing turned over and continued to ask.

"Not yet." Bai Yousi came back to his senses and explained. "But it should be falling soon. The autumn rain on the north side of the Dahe River will turn cold...Many rich people have elderly people in their families. When the autumn rain starts, they will directly burn the kang."

"I know." Zhang Xing blurted out. "There is no one in the north who doesn't know about the kang... In winter, they basically don't want to get off the kang, and they eat and sleep on the kang."

Bai Yousi finally had nothing to say.

Fortunately, the autumn rain that arrived as promised rescued her. With a drop of autumn rain falling, she took advantage of the situation to leave, and Zhang Xing continued to turn around and fell into a deep sleep.

When I woke up the next day, the autumn rain really brought a layer of obvious coolness.

Taking advantage of this coolness, the "Western Tour" team obviously panicked. Everyone was afraid of going on the road in the rain. It is very common in this era to freeze to death, drench to death, and die of illness on the road... Not to mention anything else, I once fell in the rain Zhang Xing, who had fled back from Longtan, had seen that scene with his own eyes... so the people in Taiyuan, the accompanying capital, were panicked for a while.

At this time, several officials also understood that they could no longer ignore people's hearts. Prime Minister Su Wei led Sima Changying and the two ministers took the opportunity to speak again, citing the slippery roads in rainy days and the cold weather, and the lack of winter clothes for the accompanying soldiers and palace officials. I asked the sage to stay in Taiyuan for a while, and wait for the winter clothes to be transferred from several warehouses south of the Dahe River before setting off.

At this time, if you stay here and replenish your winter clothes, as long as you delay a little bit, everyone will be able to spend the winter in Taiyuan, and then wait for the news of the project from Dongdu, and you will be able to return to Dongdu before the Chinese New Year.

And using winter clothes as an excuse can be regarded as giving each other a step.

In fact, this time, I don’t know if I think Taiyuan is one of the accompanying capitals, the place where the foundation of the previous dynasties was laid, it is worth staying for a few more days; or this smart hairy saint has realized that he has disturbed people before. Woke up, so he hesitated for a while, and finally replied simply, saying that he would wait until the rain stopped before making any calculations.

For a while, the whole city sang praises, and everyone praised the grace of heaven.

But at the same time, the upper-middle-level bureaucrats and the attendants around the holy man are still worried, because they have access to some additional information, so that they are very sure that the holy man is only suspended due to the weather, and he does not really want to continue. go north.

At the very least, the envoys sent by the saint to Fenyang Palace to inquire about the preparations have never stopped, and the number is almost the same as that of the envoys to the Eastern Capital and the Western Capital.

It's just that at this point, even the envoys to Fenyang Palace have fallen into a delicate situation.

For these middle- and lower-level bureaucrats, it is of course bad luck to offend a saint, but if they offend the entire inspection team, the result may not be very good... Therefore, they often cooperate with Wang Daiji and Zhang Shijing who just took office to say that Fenyang Palace The preparations are very good, and the saints are welcome at any time, but, under the autumn rain, the road is really too difficult.

The roads are muddy, the rivers are swollen, and the weather is cold, but the key is that the luggage and guards of honor cannot be moved at all, and the Hall of Watching the Wind can not be moved.

In this regard, the sage was unhappy while continuing to send envoys.

The times seem to be calling for another Wang Daiji, but this time no one dares to take the objective natural conditions as nothing.

Thanks to Qiu Yu's favor, the west tour team rested in Taiyuan for four or five days.

Then, the autumn rain suddenly stopped.Not only did it stop, but the weather suddenly turned warmer, and it was a little sunny spring at the end of autumn, but within a day or two, the road surface was already dry.

Except for the sage, everyone was speechless.

Immediately, the sage directly decreed that the team should go north along the Fenshui River to Fenyang Palace, and try not to delay the Cold Food Festival in early October to commemorate the Heidi Lord.

Everyone had no choice but to prepare hastily and set off on the road again.

In the past few days, the journey went smoothly. Although there were resentments in the upper and lower levels, there was really no big problem, especially after five or six days of rest in Taiyuan, everyone recovered a little bit of vitality.

However, when we reached Jingle, the county town of Loufan County, the weather changed again, the autumn rain fell, and the temperature dropped sharply for two consecutive nights.The western tour team stayed here for two or three days without embarrassment, and the low-severity disease had already begun to reduce the number of staff due to the weather change... So several senior officials came to persuade again, please wait for winter clothes, otherwise the team will have to worry about it. Sickness and fatigue fled in the mountains.

Although the saint was extremely dissatisfied, he hesitated again.

And just when everyone felt that it seemed possible to drag it on again, suddenly, Emperor Maoren had an attack.

On this day, in Jingle City, many middle and high-level officials who spoke out before were dismissed. It was later discovered that the even more unlucky group was the messenger who reported information to and from various places... On the eve of this day, dozens of people belonging to the North The attendants, father-in-law and Jinwuwei officers of the Yamen system were collectively executed.

Many people speculated that it was likely that bad news came from Guanzhong, which aroused the sage's anger and broke out completely, and this was done in order to cover people's eyes and ears.

At that time Zhang Xing lived on the western city wall and occupied a small gatehouse with a few subordinates. He didn't know what was going on at all, and he didn't want to alarm Bai Yousi in front of the imperial court, so he went to ask a few people on duty, and they didn't know what happened. At a loss, he only said that the message from a certain messenger that night should be a bit bad, but no one knows what it is, otherwise people would be killed in vain.

This actually confirmed the rumors.

Moreover, it was too late to ask the root of the matter, the bloody role model was in front, except for a very few senior officials who could rely on, no one dared to speak... In fact, even a few senior officials were silent.

Trembling with trepidation, the western tour team braved the still pattering autumn rain under the majesty of the saint, and headed northward vigorously.

Then, as some people expected, due to the rain and the cold weather, the disease began to spread in a low-intensity manner. Many palace officials, eunuchs, and soldiers who got sick were abandoned along the way in post shops and villages that lacked medical care and medicine, which triggered a new crisis. Rumors and fear... So some people began to try to flee to the surrounding mountains, and even a very few officers abandoned their posts and led the crowd to flee.

After walking for seven or eight days, I finally arrived at Fenyang Palace.

In fact, to be honest, during these seven or eight days, the rain has stopped in the last four or five days, and when Fenyang Palace heard that there was a problem with the western tour team, it immediately took the initiative to greet... Wang Daiji is a villain, but he is definitely a worthy man. A villain of ability, he sorted out Fenyang Palace properly within a few months. At this time, he arrived with Fenyang Palace's own garrison troops, as well as stored medicines, tents, and clean military uniforms. The urgent need of the team.

However, after this incident, the ups and downs of the huge western tour team are far worse than those in Taiyuan, not to mention the flamboyant ones when they just left the Eastern Capital, and the calmness when they were in Guanzhong, and even worse than Taiyuan... Zhang Xing has always been in the most core area. I really don't know how many downsizing in the past few days, whether it has hurt the west tour team, but the morale has fallen to the bottom, and the atmosphere has become completely wrong, but it can be seen at a glance. of.

Under such circumstances, Zhang Xing really had nothing to do. He could only use his relationship with Wang Daiji to ask for medicine, hay, and food as soon as he arrived at Fenyang Palace, and then told his subordinates to take care of their horses and luggage in case of emergencies. need.

Fenyang Palace is located at the junction of Yanmen, Mayi and Loufan Counties, on the edge of Tianchi Lake in Guancen Mountain, the source of Fenshui River. It is condescending and echoes Yanmen County City. Storage base.

In this area, the Dahe River and the Luliang Mountains are to the west, the Hutuo River and the Taihang Mountains are to the east, the passage along the Fen River to Taiyuan is to the south, and the Loufan Pass is to the north... This world does not need the Great Wall, nor does it have the Great Wall. But the rudiments of the Great Wall, the side walls and fortresses, still exist.

The area to the north of Loufan Pass, the south of the Sea of ​​Bitterness, the east of the Great River, and the west of Yanshan Mountain may be the most famous border town in this era in the world.

Because they are the key to the Central Plains relative to the territory of the Northern Wilderness and the Wu Clan - there is a big gap between the Sea of ​​​​Bitterness and the Poison Desert, and it is also an important passage for the Wu Clan and the Northern Wilderness people to go south.

In the past, there was civil strife in the Tang Dynasty, the hegemony collapsed, the clothes of the Southern Tang Dynasty went south, and the north rose and fell one after another. Dozens of regimes successively separatist regimes, and finally waited until the Great Jin once ruled the North. The border town gathered here...Of course, it is an official history book. In fact, many people think that at the beginning of the Great Jin Dynasty, it was more like a gang of thieves composed of Wu tribe and Beihuang people, and there were even more Wu tribe people.

It's just that the Wu Clan is actually not much different from the Human Clan in terms of race, and at that time, this place, as the hub of the north, was in chaos, armed groups kept coming and going, there were everyone in it, and the racial color was meaningless .

It can only be said that since they have been stationed in this place for a long time, they must have been influenced by the culture of the Wu people, and then tried to cover it up.

Not to mention, the Great Jin went south from here, controlled Taiyuan, unified Hedong, attacked Hebei, swept through Guanzhong, Central Plains, and the Eastern Border, once unified the North, tried to go south, and confronted the Southern Dynasties, but because of its weak foundation, it was still difficult to reconcile the upper North The conflict between the nobles and the aristocratic families of the Central Plains finally followed the old path of the Tang Dynasty, and the civil strife got out of control.

And at this time, it was the border town here that suddenly rebelled. Even considering the injustice and oppression that the border residents suffered at that time, it can be called an uprising.

The result is that the five major border towns here revolted together, following the route of the Great Jin Longxing that day, all the way southward, unstoppable, and in fact caused the demise and split of the Great Jin... What's interesting is that whether it was the Dongqi gang, or The Guanlongmen faction of the Great Wei Dynasty and the former Dynasty of the Great Wei Dynasty were generally born in the five border towns of this uprising.

Under such circumstances, hundreds of years of political and military traditions are here, and it is no wonder that until the situation of the Great Wei Dynasty, we have to pay special attention to this place that does not shit.

The day I arrived at Fenyang Palace was early October, but because I missed the Cold Food Festival, there was a hasty sacrificial ceremony for the Hei Emperor right after.

During the ceremony, strange signs appeared.

"What's that?" On the mountainside under Tianchi, Zhang Xing, who managed to hide away and was watching the excitement from a distance, suddenly noticed a dark cloud in the north, and then poked Li Ding who was looking at the top of the mountain in a trance. "Why is it floating so fast? There is no north wind today? Otherwise, I would have frozen to death."

Li Ding, who has a higher level of cultivation, looked at it for a while and was not sure: "It really doesn't look like a cloud, but it's hard to say... Could it be a bird? A bird that travels between the sea of ​​bitterness and the south?"

In fact, at this moment, not only Zhang Xing and Li Ding, but also many people with cultivation bases were sensitive to the movements in the north.After a while, ordinary people also noticed the movement.

And the cultivator finally determined what it was - it was a bird, densely packed with birds, covering the sky and covering the sky, from north to south, it seemed that they were indeed migratory birds traveling from north to south. normal.

Don't you see, is Yanmen County next door?

"It's not a wild goose, it's not a waterfowl...it's a crow." After a while, Li Ding's face suddenly changed.

"It's a crow." Zhang Xing also obviously heard the cry of a crow, and became uneasy again. "Does the crow say something? It's unlucky?"

"I don't know." Li Ding turned around and spread his hands. "It's not necessarily unlucky. In ancient times, there was a saying that crows pecked grains and collected them on the roof of the holy king, and then the holy king established his hegemony. But there is also a saying that crows pecked at the tyrant's body after his death, and his bones were instantly wiped out... You Beihuang and witches The clan also has some supernatural sayings about crows... It can only be said that this thing does have some signs."

Zhang Xing was silent for a moment, looking at the crows that were getting closer, and asked sincerely: "Then do you think they are here to pick up millet and give gifts to our saint?" Li Ding was speechless: "If so, it is the way of heaven. Both the Supreme Being and the Supreme Being are closed eyes."

"Then do you think they will peck the flesh of a saint?" Zhang Xing lowered his voice and continued to ask.

"I think it's also a bit difficult." Li Ding looked nervous at the flock of crows that were flying overhead.

Zhang Xing didn't ask any more questions, but stood together with Li Ding, staring at the crows.

Slowly, the countless crows got closer and closer, and finally reached the top of Tianchi. Then, amidst the tension of the people below, these crows neither dropped grain nor pecked anyone's flesh, but There was noise above Tianchi, circling a big circle, dropping a lot of shit into Tianchi by the way, and then heading north.

There is one thing to say, birds are shitting in the sky, so it can't be said to be a bad omen, so this group of miscellaneous birds seems to have just heard that the saint is here to visit, and they came to watch the fun.

But in any case, the saint became completely unhappy, and even refused to drink the water in Tianchi and Fenshui.

PS: Continue to promote the book "Three Kingdoms: Starting from Jieting"

(End of this chapter)