Chapter 164 Xiangfu spring, the courage of the people, the wind of the country’s soldiers

Although a year’s plan is in the spring, the spring of the first year of Xiangfu, but once the Qingming has passed, it is also the time to close. Guangling Road, the ancient capital of Western Chu, after being broken by the Xu family iron horsemen, has been renamed by the divine Phoenix City, full of humiliating meaning of the loss of the tripod city, deep in the mountains on the outskirts of the city, there is a grinding brick temple, the temple name originated from a section of the famous Buddha’s wit, to the Spring and Autumn period of the intensification of the sitting Zen matter to lower the fire, because the grinding brick temple presided over the said a grinding bricks can not be made into a mirror, how to sit in Zen to become a Buddha? This day at dawn, the morning birds cawing, three people walking in the forest path, the old man is very old, white hair and snowy eyebrows, leaning on a green bamboo cane hiking, stepping on the pavement with different sizes of cobblestones on the mountain road, stumbling, but do not want to be assisted. Green shirt Confucianism is not young, both temples white, but the temperament is especially elegant and dusty, a see forget vulgar. The woman is the most young, stunningly beautiful face, not like a woman on earth, carrying a rosewood sword box, light footsteps. Probably too old to take care of the old man, the three climbed the mountain and no words, into the clean temple without the shadow of the incense, only a teenage monk with a large broom sweeping the rustling sound. At the time of the end of the Buddha from the sun, even the two Zen temples have been closed to the door, grinding brick temple this twenty years of incense light, on the contrary, escaped a disaster, but also some monks left to continue to hide in the mountains to eat fasting and read the Buddha, saw the three guests, the young monk hastily put the broom clamped under the armpits, hands folded in salute, especially out of the corner of the eye glimpsed the woman, the bare head is more and more lowered for fear of violating the precepts, far away from the Bodhi heart. After returning the salute, the old man took the Confucian and the woman to the five hundred Luohan Hall, not the common gold make-up Luohan in the grand temple, but colorful wooden tires, even more rare is the five hundred Luohan, each of which is lifelike, or sitting or listening to or palms together, and even staring at the people who beat a gong or drums scratching their ears and cheeks, the immortal and Buddhist gas is very few, but the city of the smoky air is not light. The old man led the two to a venerable front, left hand mirror, right hand even tear open the vicissitudes of the face of the benevolent eyebrow, revealing the face of a young boy, enough to let the onlookers jaw-dropping.

The old man stood at the feet of this wooden tire luohan, calmly said: “The old minister heard that the Minister of Rites, Zeng Xiangqi, in the first year of the Yonghui year of a snowy day, alone, carried a large altar of wine into the temple, and died drunk here, probably even the last words are some wine words drunken words. I know that in the past, the old Zeng was not a drop of alcohol, and always advised us to drink to avoid trouble, I remember once His Majesty drank too much and missed the morning court, the old Zeng blew his beard and eyes rushed into the palace to scold His Majesty, if it was not for the Empress to stop, His Majesty was about to fight with this old man, afterwards His Majesty was still angry, and told the old minister in private, the night before the celebration of the banquet on the old man is the most unkind, he was not drinking, so he could force others to drink, and he was not drinking. He himself does not drink, so he can vigorously pouring other people’s wine, even he did not let go, and the result is that the next day he turned his face away from people. Who would have thought that such an old man who hated alcohol as much as an enemy in his life would end up pouring himself to death in a confused manner?”

Secretary of the Ministry of Rites Zeng Xianglin, naturally, is not a second-ranking official of Liyang, but the last Secretary of the Ministry of Rites of Western Chu, and the Grand Priest of the Shangyin Palace of Learning Qi Yanglong is the same teacher and brother, and is also the teacher of Wang Mingyang who has died ten years of defending Xiangfan.

The old man reached out to touch the cool Luohan pedestal, said softly: “I think the old Zeng is here to look for the Ministry of households Tang Shangshu, Tang Jiahe was in the old minister in this group of people the most diverse learning, originally also the most do not look down on the Buddhism of this foreign religion, I did not expect to escape from Zen Mill Brick Temple, as to whether it is really submerged in the Buddha, or disillusioned, God knows. The old minister and Tang Jiahe lifetime political disagreement, but that is still considered a gentleman’s quarrel, the party of Chu, neither between the ministers in order to compete for power, each other, nor is it a gentleman and the little man fighting each other, now it seems, more like a gentleman and a gentleman between the intentions of the people, the hearts of the people, after all, they are still to the word Jiang, to the people, but each walks on a different path, and inevitably, the literati are light, and only brewed into a The great disaster. However, Tang Jiahe has two words said extremely insightful, he said that the world’s living beings, the love of the bell, all can die, martial arts death of the sands, civilian death of the temple, not exclusive to men and women obsessed, since people in this life can only be dead once, so always store in the heart, in order to be good for its death. People as a grass, also think that five winds and ten rain period ah, not to mention that people are not grass, but he really want to die one day Tang Jiahe, that will die, never want to live. But the result, this once in the chess scales even lost our side Cao head show sixteen games of Tang Shangshu, also reversed, he fled in the grinding brick temple for a few years, and then perhaps afraid of the old minister and the old Zeng these people to find him, and then to the deeper mountains to escape, so far is dead or alive, no one knows.”

White-haired old man continued: “When often taught by His Majesty to read more literate General Song Yuan, don’t always blindly make jokes in the temple, so a stubborn old codger, is really crazy, the only grandson at home, were already in the six years of the Yong Hui sneak into the first degree, so he burned to death, but also burned himself to death in the few books in the dilapidated bookstore. The only grandson of the family had already secretly become a scholar in the sixth year of the Yong Hui reign. When we were in the heyday of Chu, there were no swordsmen, no poor students, no women, no powder, no mountain men, no smoke, no monks, no incense, and it was recognized as a flourishing world that had not existed for 800 years after the Qin Dynasty, and it was only a small dynasty that started from the barbarians in the north, and the clans and towns had been divided for 50 years, and eunuchs had been interfering with the government for 50 years, and the great eunuch Fan Gongliang had killed a total of one emperor, two kings, and six concubines, and he still managed to live out his twilight years peacefully. How could a dynasty that never knew what etiquette was become the princess of the world after fifty years? And how did our Chu die just like that? The monarch is wise, but the fault does not lie with the king. The fault lies not with the ministers, but with the loyal men and women. The fault lies not in the people’s hard work. So the old minister Sun Xiji, is very curious to know what is going on, since the death is not rest in peace is already a luxury, would like to die before they seek a peace of mind, know an answer to get by. I’m not afraid to bear the name of the two surnames of the family slaves, so stand in the temple of the city of Tai’an cold eyes for more than ten years, but in the end, still can not understand can not figure out, why Chu lost, and lost so badly and quickly. However, the old minister recognized two people, one is the human butcher Xu Snapdragon, one is the blue-eyed child Zhang Julu, right away to fight the world, under the horse to rule the world, they let the old minister began to have to resign to fate, Xu Snapdragon did the right thing, a good knife, as long as held in the hands of the right person, the faster the knife, the people’s blood, on the contrary, the less. Zhang Julu did a good job, and Han Sheng Xuan was privately known as the risk of standing emperor, the Zhao family’s yard to take care of the sewing to be airtight. The old minister had already resigned himself to his fate, only that Changqing asked the old minister to come and see you, so the old minister came, not for any other reason, an old man only thinks that being able to die in his homeland is better than anything else.”

The three men were Sun Xiji, the old master of Western Chu, Cao Changqing, who had achieved the realm of the Confucian Sage at the ruins of the Western Basement Wall, and Jiang Nai, the deceased princess whose real name was Jiang Si.

They drank a pot of tea in the grinding brick temple, the old master is probably tired of walking and talking, no more words, and then the three went down the mountain back to the city, the old man is still nominally the Liyang Guangling Road, the official residence is in the Lost Tripod City outside the imperial city of the old site of the residence of the six ministries, the royal residence of the Guangling King is not in the city, but the southeast of the feudal lord’s jurisdiction of the Valley of Rain City, the Lost Tripod City at the moment the gone are all gone, most of the gone is the bottom of the Spring and Autumn Period after the other deceased countries Remnants, the left behind are also left behind, left behind are the Western Chu remnants, to lose the Ding City as the center of the circle, surrounded by six towns and eighteen cities, just short of tearing off the word Zhao. Especially the Lost Ding City, with the Secretary General’s residence and White Deer Mountain as the skeleton, the east mountain again, supporting a new and vibrant new temple, victory, is the Chu, negative, now Liyang history books of the Western Chu will probably be replaced by the back of the Chu.

Three people down the mountain, there are more than a hundred elite halberdiers horse escort back to the city, the old master brought two people to the east city of a restaurant, said to invite your highness to taste the anchovies, in the second floor seat, the old man laughed softly: “your highness, this anchovy is a delicacy of the human world, the old minister has to show off a few words of knowledge in order to enjoy, don’t mind the croakiness. People to food for days, good things on the table, often pay attention to from time to time not to eat, the reason why this anchovy is called anchovy, that is, it is like a migratory bird, a period of a while, every year in the spring in the Guyu City outside the Chunxue building in the river, along the upper reaches of the Guangling River, as a matter of fact, to us here, it has to be a small full of summer at the same time, rich and plentiful, if it is supplemented by the Copper Paper City’s speciality of the cockle rice, it is really a taste of the human world, and then after that, the anchovy, once it comes to the Xiangfan City side, the mouth to eat is poor, but the old minister wants to later want to steal leisure to quench their thirst, it will be difficult, and can not afford to care about the sage old gourmets of that set of preaching.”

Jiang Nai gave a hmmm and left it at that. When the meal was quickly served, she held her chopsticks and wanted to eat, the old man saw her chopsticks and laughed and joked, “Your Highness, we all believe that the higher and longer you hold your chopsticks, the further away you’ll have to go in the future to find a husband, I remember that when the old minister was young, the older generation of the family would always talk to us about this for fear that the women in our family might marry too far away, and that the men might grow up to marry women who don’t know where they came from. I remember that when I was young, the older generation of my family always talked to us about this, fearing that the women among us would marry too far away and the men would grow up and marry women from unknown sources. We were following the elders mind down the chopsticks, while in the heart do not think, as a whisper, just did not expect to wait until they became elders, and then began to read with their own children. This is probably the inheritance, a family is so, a country is also.”

Grip chopsticks very high Jiang Nai really smooth downward grip, the old man to amuse, haha laugh: “Your Highness do not take it seriously, the old minister is just casually said. In fact, the woman married far away is good, but also will be outside the military orders are not.”

Jiang Nai laughed softly, lowered her head to eat her meal and ate fish, the fish spines were soft, not prickly, in the past she didn’t eat fish she also ate a lot. Cao Changqing asked for a jug of wine, and the old man slowly shared a drink, are not persuaded to drink, drink their own. Wine and dine, settled the bill, the three out of the century-old restaurant, in the street no longer see the old days bustling, the old man suddenly stopped, said wait a moment. Cao Changqing sighed, did not make a sound. Not long after, a ragged old night watchman came out from an alleyway, knocking the night watch in broad daylight, madly yelling “all are dead, all are dead”, “open your eyes and see, there is not a living person in Da Chu”, the old night watchman just walked on the street, knocking and shouting, tearing his heart out. Knocking and shouting, tearing his heart out, but the street passers-by have obviously long been accustomed to, even jokes are too lazy to laugh, one by one, turn a blind eye, cloaked more man walked up to the three people in front of the eyes, saw them, froze for a moment, holding a more mallet pointing to Sun Xizi, hoarse and loud laughter: “Dead people!”

Then pointing at Cao Changqing, he laughed and said, “Half a dead man, not far from death!”

When he saw Jiang Nai who was carrying the sword box, the old lunatic first had a blank look in his eyes and then cried out, “A living person? How is there a living person? Go away, go away!”

The old night watchman froze when he saw the woman’s indifference, turned around and ran away, continuing to knock the night watch and hiss.

Sun Xiji looked at the back of the night watchman and calmly said, “Jiang Shui Lang, who used to be in charge of the Chongwen Academy of Da Chu, in charge of the three academies with a hundred librarians and the six hundred editors of the Secret Pavilion Canon, went crazy just like that. The Liyang court and Guangling King Zhao Yi purposely did not kill this old madman, just to make all the outsiders who come to this city see the joke.”

Sun Xiji walked towards the carriage and bowed, “Your Highness can let Changqing lead the way to see that home, the old minister still has matters to return to dispose of.”

Home.

Jiang Si’s home was, of course, the Great Chu Palace that had reached such a peak that the later Tai’an City was forced to imitate it.

Then it really was Jiang Nai’s home?

Jiang Nai followed behind Cao Changqing, looking around in a daze, she was still young when she left here, her memory is fuzzy, and she has long forgotten what she saw in front of her vaguely know why it was hailed as the most glorious sight on earth. Men and women in the palace saw them, are in awe and full of hope, Cao Changqing walked all the way to the northeast corner of the old palace of a pavilion, after taking a seat, there are white hair of the Confucian scholar is sitting there, do not say a word. Cao Changqing, from the Dragon Carp County Cao’s family, is a generation of deservedly prodigy, under the Huang Sanjia before the wisdom of the world’s master Li Mi, learn chess for more than ten years, and ultimately in the chessboard over Li Mi, become the chief of the chess waiter in Chu, once many times with His Majesty the emperor in the pavilion to talk about hand, this Cao head of the show is the first class of the Palace of the eunuchs off the boots and pouring wine, how is not the Cao family and even Chu’s most proud of the talents of God? Cao Changqing’s eyes were warm. Cao Changqing eyes warm, looking out of the pavilion, the pavilion to the northeast, when he was still young himself, once saw a humming country song of the woman, with the palace does not match the jumping temperament, the first time in the palace she saw him, see him like a mute goose, but also towards him to do a ghost face. After that, she became a consort, became the empress, Cao Changqing or that talented but always in the chess wait for the imperial decree of the flowing chess player, those years and the emperor of a harmonious game of chess to win, the hand power far less than the Cao family pleased king is always frowning staring at the chess board, she stared at the king, and was called by Li Mi from the heart of the winners and losers and therefore undefeated young chess wait for the imperial decree, but occasionally sneak a few glances at her, it is enough. When he lowered his head to drop the ball, he could always see her embroidered shoes that did not conform to the etiquette of the royal palace, ordinary, but he could not forget it, after so many years, why could he still not forget it?

Jiang Nai softly said, “Uncle Chess Waiting Royalty, I know that Sun Tai Shi’s intention is to let me be this princess, I will do it.”

Cao Changqing returned to his senses and softly smiled, “Your Highness, don’t mind this old man’s ramblings. Fighting the rivers and mountains is a man’s business, it’s fine for a woman to watch the rivers and mountains.”

Jiang Nai smiled heartily, then worriedly, “The secret letter said that the master of the Secretary’s Supervisor’s sealing eunuch Song Tanglu, an old sable temple is escorting a coffin southward, it is clear that the high tree dew that Huang Longshi said is specially used to deal with Uncle Chess Waiting Royalty you. Under the celestial man, all are laymen, not called immortals. Under the heavenly way, all are small ways, not counting the great way. But this great devil, after all, is in possession of a realm that is said to be one step beyond that of a land deity.”

Cao Changqing smiled, “It’s fine. I’m not so bad at being a pipsqueak.”

Jiang Nai was about to speak, and Cao Changqing said softly, “Princess might as well just walk around and look around, and I’ll sit down for a while.”

Jiang Nai nodded and went away in a negative box.

Cao Changqing sat alone in the gazebo and closed his eyes.

A few moments later, a stone heavenly phenomenon I alone eight buckets of Cao official son seems to light time back, after opening his eyes, is no longer that four over the Liyang Palace such as over the corridor of the master, not what the martial arts extreme pittance of the courage of the dead country to play to the fullest extent of the mad Confucian, simply become that young but spirited chess waiter, the face of the smile, fingers together as a flick of a chess piece shape, in the empty stone table, lifting the son of the seeds fall like a fly.

Western Chu has Qing Yi, the state scholar is unrivaled.