The new era of chaos begins in the Song Dynasty

Chapter 455 Provocation?

When Cheng Zhishao was beheaded, in a house at the foot of Mount Li in Qizhou, a dazed old man suddenly woke up from the mist of the unknown.

He opened his slightly cloudy eyes wide and looked around blankly. The familiar yet unfamiliar scenery made him quite confused.

The old man couldn't help but mutter to himself: "Where am I?"

After he finished speaking, he felt an itch in his throat and couldn't help coughing.

The voice was heard outside, and a beautiful woman in plain clothes came in holding a teacup.

Seeing the old man coughing non-stop, the woman put down her teacup, took the thick robe beside the bed and put it on the old man, then patted his back and said to herself: "Father, you just fell asleep, how come you woke up? Is the cold getting worse? I will prepare some cold-repelling medicine for you to take tomorrow."

Unexpectedly, the old man said, "Abao, your father is fine. I just woke up and couldn't tell where I was for a while, and I'm a little anxious."

Ah Bao was horrified when he heard this and shouted, "Aye! Do you know my child?! God bless you! Aye!"

The old man coughed and said in surprise: "Cough cough cough... If I can't even recognize my own child, I am as blind as a blind man!"

Ah Bao suddenly burst into tears and said, "Aye! You finally recognize your daughter!"

The old man was puzzled and wanted to ask what was going on, but he kept coughing badly.

Ah Bao didn't bother to continue crying and was busy patting the old man's chest to calm him down.

The old man coughed for a long time and finally vomited a pool of filthy stuff that looked like ink.

Then he felt refreshed, and some of the vague memories of the past became vivid.

He finally remembered that he was the former Shangshu Zuo Pushe of the Song Dynasty, the leader of the four scholars after Su Shi, and Li Gefei of Qizhou.

Thinking of the bizarre events he had experienced during this period of time, Li Gefei felt as if his faith had collapsed.

To put it bluntly, Li Gefei was badly harmed by the evil spirit.

Long before Chen Shen left Xiangzhou and headed south, Li Gefei was dismissed from his position as Zuo Pushe by direct imperial decree (without going through the Secretariat) by Zhao Ji, who had just secured the throne. Although the dismissal process was generally not in accordance with legal procedures, it expressed the intention of the current emperor.

If Li Gefei had been more sensible, he would have submitted a petition to request to be transferred to another post.

It's just that at this time, the evil spirit intervened and distorted and blinded the memories of those involved.

Li Gefei did not remember receiving the imperial edict, and the messenger in the palace only remembered that he seemed to have conveyed some edict, but he could not remember the specific content. Even Zhao Ji, the source of the incident, had vaguely forgotten it.

But even if the parties involved had forgotten about the matter, the imperial edict's documents had to be archived. In addition, with the help of evil spirits, rumors slandering Li Gefei for being attached to power began to spread wildly throughout the government and the country.

It just so happened that at this time, Zhao Ji, Cai Jing and others tinkered with the [Yuanyou Party Stele] and persecuted and suppressed the people on the stele and their disciples and children, while the disciples of Su's school were temporarily spared because of Li Gefei's official position.

At this time, even if Li Gefei wanted to resign due to fear of rumors, he did not dare to do so. Therefore, Chen Shen went south for the second time to create the illusion that "Su Shi and Zhang Dun died accidentally."

Finally, Chen Shen entered the dream of Mount Qishan, and the entire Song Dynasty was turned upside down. Li Gefei was once again demoted by the court. This time, Cai Jing and his men followed the formal process, with the Secretariat drafting the document and Emperor Zhao confirming the use of the seal. As a result, Li Gefei was finally driven out of Bianjing and sent to Huangzhou as the deputy envoy of the Jiedushi.

However, the person who arrived in Huangzhou was not the real Li Gefei, but an evil demon in disguise who had kidnapped Li Gefei's son.

The real Li Gefei, however, completely lost his mind due to repeated memory distortions and was hidden by the evil spirit in Li Gefei's hometown in Qizhou, where he was taken care of by his daughter Li Qingzhao.

Of course, fooling Li Gefei was not the purpose. He was just a tool to restrict and detain Li Qingzhao.

Because Su Baniang had plagiarized Li Qingzhao's talent, as long as Li Qingzhao did not reveal her identity in public, Su Baniang would not have to worry about her identity being exposed.

Just imagine, with Li Qingzhao's personality, how could she leave her demented father alone and run out to show off her saintliness in front of others? !

But who would have thought that there was someone named Chen Shen in the world who knew the "answer" in advance.

As the saying goes, man's calculation is not as good as God's calculation.

Su Baniang plagiarized Li Qingzhao's future poems in front of Chen Shen, which just happened to give him the opportunity to see the flaw.

At this moment, Li Gefei woke up from his dream, and the father and daughter should have hugged each other and cried for a while.

But what surprised and unfamiliar Li Gefei was that Li Qingzhao was quite interested in the pool of ink-like filth that Li Gefei vomited out.

Li Qingzhao took a rattan box from the outer room, picked out a bone dagger the size of a child's palm, drew a circle around the filth, and then took old incense ash from the ancestral hall at home and sprinkled it on the filth to cover it.

As Li Qingzhao recited a sacrificial speech, the filth shrank and condensed, eventually turning into a black plum blossom.

Then Li Qingzhao took out a small jade box from the rattan box, carefully put the black plum blossoms into it, and stored them away.

Li Gefei looked at his daughter in shock. After watching Li Qingzhao clean up everything, he asked hesitantly, "What did Abao do?"

Li Qingzhao said with a smile: "Let my father know that this is the ritual of exorcism that my mother taught me. It can eliminate disasters and diseases and bring peace to the family."

Li Gefei was shocked, but couldn't help saying, "A gentleman doesn't talk about strange things! You have read a lot of poetry and classics, how can you indulge in such unorthodox techniques!"

Li Qingzhao was not angry, but just lowered her head and said: "Aye, you are right!"

The two talked for a while. Li Gefei had just woken up and felt tired. Li Qingzhao helped her father to sleep, but then went out happily.

Li Gefei's fame in Qizhou was second to none. He had been hidden here before, and was influenced by evil spirits that confused reality and illusion, so that Li Qingzhao and her daughter were like invisible men in Qizhou.

Now that the evil spirits were gone, Li Qingzhao could finally go out and visit friends.

Of course, Li Qingzhao basically traveled under the name of Li Gefei.

Li Gefei had a very high reputation in Qizhou, and he had many friends, disciples, and even literati who were proud to have Li Gefei write for him. For example, the Qilu hermit Lian Fu had Li Gefei write the article "Lian Xiansheng Xu" after his death, which attracted the attention and even respect of poets and Confucian scholars of all generations, and his name was passed down to future generations.

Therefore, Li Qingzhao borrowed the name of Li Gefei and her own identity as "Mulan Ji" to not only enjoy smooth transportation in Qizhou, but also be able to find out many major events in the world.

For example, the news of Cheng Zhishao’s death did not reach Qizhou until more than a month after his death.

By the way, in the Song Dynasty, whenever a famous official died, the court would issue a public announcement to inform the world.

As for the grievances between the Su and Cheng families, basically every disciple of the Su family is very clear. After all, the Cheng brothers have always been the vanguard in suppressing and attacking Su Shi and his disciples.

Although Cheng Zhicai and Su Shi have reconciled in the past two years, Su Shi's impression of the Cheng brothers is still mostly negative.

Along with the news of Cheng Zhishao's death, there were also rumors that several Sumen scholars were either missing or had died.

Even though it was just a rumor that had not been verified, it was enough to make Li Gefei heartbroken every time, so much so that Li Qingzhao was a little afraid to go out to find out the news later.

Of course, the person Li Qingzhao missed most was her uncle Chao Buzhi. It was not that Li Qingzhao had a special affection for Chao Buzhi. The key point was that Chao Buzhi was the witness of the marriage between Chen Shen and Li Qingzhao.

Women in the Song Dynasty were generally supposed to get married at the age of 16 or 17. Li Qingzhao was already an "old maid" of 20 at this time. Seeing that the date of her marriage was far away, how could the young lady not be anxious?

One day, Li Qingzhao went to Miaodi Temple outside Qizhou City to attend a gathering as usual. As soon as she entered, she found that some familiar ladies looked at her with strange eyes, eyes full of pity and sympathy.

Li Qingzhao could not help but have some ominous premonitions in her heart, so she found the girl from the Lian family who she was most familiar with and asked, "Sister Lian, I see that everyone is looking at me coldly. But what have I done wrong?"

The Lian family girl looked a little sad, but she forced a smile and said, "Abao, don't be suspicious. It's not that she is waiting for you, but there is a piece of news that concerns Abao's closest relatives. She is afraid that you will be too sad if you know it, so she has some sympathy for you."

Li Qingzhao's heart couldn't help but skip a beat. She had received too many unfortunate news in recent days, but never one as solemn as today.

Li Qingzhao said with a pale face: "I still have some spirit. No matter how unfortunate the news is, I will bear it myself. Sister Lian, please stop keeping me in suspense and tell me now!"

The girl from the Lian family said sadly, "A Bao, yesterday we received news from Huangzhou that your father, Mr. Li, had unfortunately passed away due to illness, and your brother, Li Rui, was missing."

After the girl from the Lian family finished speaking, she was about to comfort Li Qingzhao who had suddenly heard the bad news, but she did not expect that Li Qingzhao had any sadness on her face. Instead, she showed a strange smile.

The girl from the Lian family was shocked when she saw this. She thought that Li Qingzhao had gone insane because of excessive grief, so she burst into tears, "Abao, if you are sad, just cry. How can you lose your mind?"

Li Qingzhao said with a smile: "Sister Lian, please be at ease. It is not that I have lost my mind. In fact, the news from Huangzhou is a lie."

The Lian family girl held back her tears and asked with a snotty face, "How can Abao be sure that the news from Huangzhou is false?"

Li Qingzhao whispered: "My father has been living in seclusion here, and I have taken good care of him. How could he die of illness in Huangzhou?!"

The girl from the Lian family was even more surprised, and couldn't help shouting, "Wasn't Mr. Li banished to Huangzhou by the government? Why is he living in seclusion here?"

Li Qingzhao smiled bitterly and said, "The inner story is quite complicated, and even I can't explain it clearly. It's really hard to describe it in one word!"

The girl from the Lian family calmed down a little, and then she said, "In the past, we didn't know where Mr. Li was, so we didn't pay our respects to him, which was extremely impolite. Now that I know where Mr. Li is, I will go home and tell my parents, and I will come to pay my respects to them tomorrow!"

Li Qingzhao hurriedly said, "Sister, please do not spread the news of my father's whereabouts. Although there are many reasons beyond our control, my father has left his post and is now in hiding, it still has some problems with the court. If those flattering officials knew about this, they would probably use my father to curry favor with the powerful officials of the court."

The girl from the Lian family suddenly realized what was going on, and then the two of them agreed to talk. The girl told the other that the news from Huangzhou was a false report, but she did not mention where Li Gefei was.

Shortly after the meeting, the girl from the Lian family returned home and told her father, Master Lian (what a grand name) about Li Gefei.

In the evening, Master Lian brought his eldest son Lian Li and Lian's daughter, and the three of them quietly visited the Li family's old house.

It is said that once a secret is known by a third person, basically everyone knows the secret.

Somehow, the secret of Li Gefei's seclusion in the Li family's old house in Qizhou spread among many scholars and literati in Qizhou.

As a result, there was an endless stream of people coming to visit Li Gefei, but for the sake of the almost nominal cover-up, most of them chose to visit at dusk or late at night, so that the father and daughter of the Li family almost became night owls.

Of course, the officials of Qizhou would not be unaware of the unusual movements in the Li family. Among them, there were some lucky people who wanted to use Li Gefei as an opportunity to curry favor with the current emperor and the powerful prime minister Cai Jing.

However, these officials soon discovered that their decrees and messengers were not allowed to leave the Qizhou government office.

But if there was a messenger who carried a letter of accusation to Bianliang, he would have one leg broken, be stripped naked and thrown in front of the government office the next day, and there would be a small pile of ashes from the burnt letters next to him.

Officials then selected yamen runners and constables to forcibly search for the perpetrators, and even went to Li's house to arrest Li Gefei. As soon as these constables and yamen runners left the government office, they would be beaten with clubs, tied up and thrown into a deserted place, and released only after a day and a night, without food or water.

At the beginning, the Qizhou government felt that they were being provoked by Wuming and would not let it go. They even mobilized local troops to help.

However, after three or five cycles, the superiors did not feel anything, but the soldiers and runners below were already scared. However, they had to receive the order from their superiors and started to slack off as soon as they went out. No one dared to really do their job.

After several negotiations, the officials of Qizhou finally recognized the situation. The governor of Qizhou visited the Li family in disguise at night and met with Li Gefei to apologize. The two sides had a friendly conversation and reached a consensus.

From then on, Li Gefei could visit friends and have fun in Qizhou without being too ostentatious.

As the saying goes, good things come in pairs. Li Gefei had just been released when his good classmates Zhang Lei and Li Xi, who were rumored to be missing or dead, suddenly showed up in Qizhou, and paid a visit with great fanfare and presence.

This one move alone shocked and angered the Qizhou governor, who had just left the Li family a few days ago.

You bastard! I just agreed with you that we should not be too ostentatious, but you guys ignored my words! You really don't care about my dignity!

I can tolerate this uncle, but I can’t tolerate my aunt!

The Qizhou prefect was about to call on his assistants to gather the yamen runners and helpers, but after he shouted once, he gave up in a disappointed manner.

There is no way. If he had the ability to control those remnants of the Yuanyou Party, why would he come to Uncle Li Wen's house a few days ago and be subservient to him? !
(End of this chapter)