The new era of chaos begins in the Song Dynasty

Chapter 411: The Next Journey (Part )
Chen Shen sneered, "That evildoer harmed people, but he found an accomplice. He must be an accomplice of evil deeds! You are an accomplice, no exception! When death is imminent, you are still trying to make excuses. You deserve to die!"

As he spoke, Chen Shen picked up a bamboo pole beside the wooden frame with one hand and stabbed it at the wooden frame next to him. But there was a scream, and then a strong woman fell on the wooden frame, rolled into a pile with some charcoal, and died with convulsions.

And where the strong woman fell, there was still a long-handled bamboo sword, which can also be called a Pudao, left.

When the shop owner saw the strong woman being killed, he screamed, turned around and ran to the backyard, shouting as he ran: "Alian, run! Someone is here to kill people for revenge!"

Chen Shen followed the guy slowly, turned a door, and came to a yard.

The yard was quite large, most of it was filled with charcoal, there was a well in the corner, a stone mill, and some haystacks.

Chen Shen looked down at Douchong'er, whose eyes were wide open, and then he held up the bleeding bamboo pole and chased the shop owner step by step until he came to a pile of neatly stacked charcoal.

The pile of charcoal suddenly fell towards Chen Shen, and then a skinny old man came at him fiercely with a sledgehammer.

Chen Shen swept the bamboo pole and flicked the fallen charcoal back, then stabbed the old man several times, stabbing his limbs and chest until blood gushed out.

The old man howled and screamed, "Good man...good man, don't kill me! My second son is an official, the magistrate of Yushan County!"

Chen Shen naturally understood what the old man meant. In that era, the families of Song Dynasty officials had certain privileges to protect themselves, especially from being harmed without reason.

Even when political enemies attack each other, they rarely target their family members. Otherwise, they would break the recognized unspoken rules of officialdom and be attacked by everyone.

Of course, if an official who had committed a crime was dismissed from office and his family members were implicated and sent to the Ministry of Religion, that would be a different situation.

If bandits intentionally harmed officials' families, the outcome would be even more tragic. At the very least, they would basically not be able to obtain the amnesty granted by the emperor.

There is a saying circulating among the outlaws of the Song Dynasty: If you want to be an official, kill people and set fires to others and be recruited.

The killing in this "murder and arson" has its own rules. You can't kill everyone. Ordinary people, wealthy merchants, landlords and powerful people can all be killed, but officials and their families cannot be touched. It can even be extended to scholars.

For example, in the Water Margin, the three bandits of Qingfeng Mountain robbed the wife of Liu Gao, the chief of Qingfeng Village. Song Jiang urged the three bandits to release Liu Gao's wife. Many people said that Song Jiang was too much, but it was not true. At this time, Song Jiang really cared about the three bandits. Although he was just a bailiff, he knew the taboos of officialdom.

But who would have thought that Liu Gao's wife came from a humble family and didn't understand the ins and outs of the matter. She turned against him and treated him like a nobody. Then his family really couldn't function as a human being anymore.

The imperial court would certainly severely investigate the killing of officials and the extermination of their entire families. This was the reason why the three mountain bandits had almost no objection to joining Liangshan.

Anyone who doesn't run away after committing the crime of killing an official and exterminating his entire family is a fool!
Not only does he have to run, he also has to seek protection from a powerful figure, and the foolish Liang Shan (Chao Tianwang) has to bear all the consequences.

Liangshan did similar things many times in the future, and it can be said that it offended everyone in the Song Dynasty.

Therefore, even though Liangshan was successful in finally obtaining amnesty from the emperor and made many meritorious services, it could not escape the fate of “the birds and beasts are all gone, and the good bows are hidden”.

What the old man said to Chen Shen was that he wanted to use the identity of an official's relative to save his own life.

It’s a pity that Chen Shen never cared about these trivial things.

I am already a man who has looked into the horizon of the stars and the sea, and you actually tell me this? Who are you looking down on?
Chen Shen just smiled coldly, then stabbed the frightened old man to death with a bamboo pole, and then threw the bamboo pole out, which hit the thigh of the shop owner who was about to escape from the yard.

Chen Shen walked slowly to the side of the wailing shop owner and stepped on him in the lower back.

The shop owner wailed, "Please spare my life, sir! Please spare my life! My brother is Qin Minxue, the magistrate of Yushan County, and a Jinshi selected by the government! I also have millions of dollars in property and several acres of good land, which I am willing to give to you, sir. I only ask you to forgive me!"

Chen Shen laughed loudly and said, "I am not afraid of being an official, nor do I care about money! Even if you are a relative of the emperor or a prime minister, I will kill you today! Remember to do more good deeds in your next life!"

After saying this, Chen Shen pulled out the bamboo pole that was stuck in the store owner's thigh and stabbed him to death with it.

After Chen Shen killed the shop owner, he did not stop there. He set his sights on where the hay was scattered. This was originally Beanworm's food when he turned into a donkey, but now it was of no use.

But the haystack was moving without any wind, as if there was a person hidden inside...

It's really a Tibetan!

Chen Shen used a bamboo pole to pick up the straw, revealing a terrified girl in a lake green skirt.

The girl was quite good-looking, and looked very charming, but her eyes were like a hungry wolf seeing ready-made fresh meat, cruel, greedy, surprised, and tyrannical.

This is not a look a normal person can have!
A heretic! A heretic who is falling!

Chen Shen has seen too many similar looks.

As expected, any mortal who works for the evil is a major hidden danger, whether they actively cater to it or are passively used.

Chen Shen drew out the Liquan Spear. Only the fallen were qualified to enjoy the love and care of this demon-suppressing weapon.

The girl blinked her eyes, and the distorted look disappeared immediately, leaving only a heartbreaking panic, just like a little animal that suddenly lost its home, making people feel pity for it.

The girl begged, "Please spare my life! If you don't mind my appearance, I will serve you day and night to relieve your hunger!"

Chen Shen couldn't help laughing and said, "If you use this method on someone else, it's fine. But you want to deceive me. You must be crazy! When you get to the evil demon, remember to tell your master that the person who killed you is Chen Guang, a famous family in Xiangzhou!"

Before he finished speaking, Chen Shen stabbed out with his gun, piercing the girl's neck directly.

Later, Chen Shen found a firewood axe in the yard and chopped off the evil girl's head, but collected her body parts and the bodies of other dead people and threw them into the charcoal pile.

He lit the charcoal pile on fire, and the raging flames soon burned the remains of the corpses to ashes.

However, Chen Shen, in the blazing flames, refined the girl's evil head into another evil skull bead.

Compared to the evil skull bead that was originally given to Han Cunbao, the evil skull bead refined by Chen Shen this time is smaller and more delicate, and of course, has more powerful functions.

In addition to the malicious alarm function shared by all evil skull beads, this evil skull bead made from the skull of a little beauty can also charm malicious people, inducing them to speak the truth uncontrollably.

Chen Shen strung the evil skull bead with a red string made of twisted fine thread, and handed it to the dazed Douchonger, saying, "This is a protective treasure I made specially for you. Wear it with you all the time, and no one can harm you!"

Douchonger subconsciously took the evil skull bead pendant and said in a daze: "Brother, this evil...evil guy is just killed like that? Isn't it...a bit too much?"

Chen Shen sneered, "You are such a good-hearted person! They humiliated and abused you in every way, but you didn't think of revenge, but instead pitied them! If others heard this, they would laugh at your soft-heartedness!"

Douchonger smiled awkwardly and said, "Brother, you are right."

Then he twisted the evil skull bead with some curiosity, and muttered in a low voice: "Although the young lady of the Qin family has a bad temper, she is still very beautiful. Now my brother has cut off her head and refined it into such a small thing. It is really a waste of nature's gift!"

Chen Shen scolded with some amusement: "I think you are just a cheap bastard! That Qin family girl must have abused you a lot! A mere vicious and vicious girl, no matter how beautiful her appearance is, she is still an ugly thing! What a pity! Also, my skull bead is not an ordinary thing, but if someone nearby has bad intentions towards you, it can give you a warning in time, and it has some special functions. If you dislike it, just return it to me!"

Douchonger quickly put away the evil skull bead and shouted, "Brother, how unreasonable! How can you take back what you just gave away? You are so stingy!"

Having said this, the guy ran out.

Chen Shen followed behind with a smile on his face.

It is natural for a young man to admire younger women. Didn’t he fail to escape the “poisonous hands” of his sister-in-law and Cao Xiangu and be eaten by them?
Of course, what made Chen Shen even more gratified was that Douchong'er's soul had recovered to a certain extent due to his enlightenment, which meant that Chen Shen could slow down the frequency of taking the Three Treasures Medicine a little.

Hmm! It has been delayed from once every half a month to once every three weeks.

Rounding it off, it means that the risk of Chen Shen collecting herbs is reduced by half, which is perfect.

After a big fire broke out in Qin's Charcoal Shop, all the onlookers were scared away.

After all, no one is a fool. The charcoal shop is full of flammable charcoal. If you don't stay away from it at this time, do you think you will live too long?

After Chen Shen left the scene with Dou Chong'er, he did not stay in Huangzhou, but went to the dock outside the city, hired a passenger ship, and crossed the river directly to the south.

At night, Dou Chong'er was half lying in the cabin, sipping the thick porridge cooked by Chen Shen himself.

The porridge cooked by the brother was indeed very sweet. Douchonger felt that he could eat it for the rest of his life without getting tired of it.

After eating the porridge, Douchong licked the bowl clean as usual with a level that would shame a dog. He felt that he had more energy all over.

He asked curiously: "Brother, where are we going?"

Chen Shen sighed and said, "Tengzhou! Let's go meet the Hangou hermit!"

Douchonger said in surprise: "Are we going to see Uncle Qin?!"

Chen Shen nodded and said, "That's right!"

If we were to say who among Su Shi's disciples had the highest talent and gift, apart from Su Shi, it would definitely be Qin Guan and Qin Shaoyou.

Qin Shaoyou was a true young genius. He had read classics such as "The Book of Filial Piety", "The Analects of Confucius" and "Mencius" before he was ten years old.

Qin Guan was bold and handsome when he was young. He was good at poetry and prose. His generosity overflowed in his writings. He was almost a replica of Su Shi.

In the end, Qin Guan and Su Shi soon became friends because of their similar personalities and Qin Guan became a leading figure among Su Shi's disciples.

Qin Guan's fate was similar to that of Su Shi. His official career was basically either demoted or on the way to demolition.

The problem is that Su Da Huzi's character is really open-minded and heroic. Even when he was criticized, he was always optimistic.

However, Qin Guan's generosity was only an appearance. In fact, he was very sensitive and delicate. To put it in a positive way, he could be called meticulous. To put it in a more serious way, he would easily become depressed when faced with adversity.

In history, Qin Guan suffered from long-term depression. Although Su Shi occasionally consoled him, he still died suddenly at the age of 52.

In the present Song Dynasty timeline, due to Li Gefei's influence in the court, Qin Guan's official career has changed a lot. He first worked as the wine supervisor of Ruzhou for several years, then moved to Gaoyou, and then to Leizhou. Recently, he was demoted to Tengzhou (now Teng County, Guangxi) as the wine supervisor.

Tengzhou is the place where Qin Guan died in another timeline.

Qin Guan is very important. Historically, his death can be regarded as the beginning of the decline of Su Shi's disciples.

In this disaster that was a mixture of reality and illusion, Qin Guan was also a key figure.

As long as Qin Guan is alive, there will be no problem for the Ten Disciples of Su Men.

But if he died, it would inevitably trigger a domino effect, causing the other nine sons' luck to plummet, and then they would be defeated one by one by the evil spirits, cutting off their fate lines, and ultimately indirectly cutting off Su Shi's fate line.

It took Chen Shen and Dou Chonger more than a month to reach Tengzhou.

During this period, Chen Shen went to Rouchenlin again.

The good news is that he made it out successfully.

The bad news was that there were a lot more powerful demons in the Meat-Stem Forest, and Chen Shen had to work very hard to achieve his desired goal.

There is no doubt that when Chen Shen goes to Rousanlin next time, the difficulty will probably be greatly increased.

Speaking of which, Tengzhou can be regarded as a remote and bad state in the Song Dynasty. Here, both the living standards of the people and the social development are relatively backward.

The scale and prosperity of Tengzhou City are not even comparable to a small country town in the two capitals (East Beijing and West Beijing).

Most of the people here are immigrants from Lianghuai and Jiangnan, and they were settled here by the Xiang army after Yu Di and Wu Xiang conquered Nong Zhigao.

As for the real local natives, they had basically been massacred or abducted by Nong Zhigao's rebels.

So when Chen Shen and Dou Chong'er entered Tengzhou City, they could barely understand the local dialect.

However, what puzzled Chen Shen and the others was that almost everyone in Tengzhou City was talking about the anecdote about the family dispute between Qin Jiujian and his wife Su Xiaomei.

Douchong'er was Qin Guan's junior, so how could he not know Qin Guan's family? Qin Guan's wife was Xu Wenmei, the daughter of Xu Chengfu, the former chief clerk of Ningxiang, Tanzhou. They got married at the age of 18 and were very much in love.

In addition, Qin Guan also had a concubine named Bian Chaohua, who was originally a maid of Madam Xu. There was no other concubine besides her, so where did Su Xiaomei come from?

As the two continued to investigate, even more outrageous rumors emerged.

Everyone said that Su Xiaomei was the younger sister of the great writer Su Shi. Because Su Shi admired Mr. Qin's talent, he betrothed Su Xiaomei, who was known as a talented woman, to him. The story of "Su Xiaomei's three tests for Mr. Qin" was spread by the people of Tengzhou.

Just this rumor made Douchong very angry.

It should be noted that Qin Guan was Su Shi's teacher, and the two were of different generations. Regardless of whether this Su Xiaomei was true, this rumor was corrupting the relationship between the Qin and Su families, and was extremely vicious.

What Chen Shen found more problematic was the latest segment about "Qin Langjun and Su Xiaomei competing in poetry and prose".

Judging from the content of the joke, Qin Guan's situation does not seem to be very good. Whether it is poetry, prose, or calligraphy and painting, he seems to be surpassed by Su Xiaomei.

(End of this chapter)