Mysterious Martial Arts: The Record of the Swordsman

The Vairocana Buddha in the Fayun Pavilion lowers his eyes and looks lovingly at the world, regardless of whether they are good or bad, good or bad. The fire in front of the Buddha was still smoldering in the dark, stirring up incense clouds and mist, soaking through the clothes and sleeves.

The finely ground agarwood powder that is ground before the Dharma meeting is said to be able to increase the growth of various large roots in the body of the practitioner. The incense is lit in the fire. It is the coolness rising from the heat that permeates the heart and allows people to maintain their righteous thoughts. Transform troubles into bodhi and form a solemn pure land isolated from the world, just like this, silently fumigating the altar, sprinkling the earth, and burning continuously.

But outside this "solemn pure land" is the Sidtan Temple, which is bursting into flames everywhere. As far as the eye can see, all the corridors are in chaos, the houses collapse, and the monks are in a panic. Some are encouraged to put out the fire, some are panicking, and some are panicking. People's hearts are filled with fear, just like what the Buddhist scriptures say: "The house of fire in the three realms is filled with suffering."

Just like the original blessings have come to be enjoyed one day, all sentient beings can only be confused and confused in the sea of ​​suffering, unable to escape from the "three realms".

In Fayun Pavilion, facing Wu Zhimao, who was like a violent and terrifying Rakshasa, Master Anren stood upright and did not avoid or follow him.

His face was thin and his expression was resolute. His muscles and bones were exposed under the thin monk's robe. His clothes moved with the wind despite the wind. There was light in his eyes, like an old and miserable Arhat statue. Even if the world collapsed, Even if all things perish, they will live forever in the world and protect the righteous Dharma.

Wu Zhimao was suffocated by An Ren's fearless look, and finally calmed down in the thick agarwood-soaked atmosphere.

He turned around and took a secret letter from the sea arrests from his subordinates. The masked maid handed it to the princess. After Princess Pingxi quickly read it, she announced it to everyone in the audience.

I saw that it was written in thick ink and heavy pen, with lines of large characters scrawled on it.

"The Guangzhou rebels and others have committed evil deeds and absconded after the incident. This shows the age, appearance and place of origin of each of the rebels. Your government should urgently publish a notice and offer a reward."

"One: Jiang Wen, a native of Chong'an, Fujian, over 20 years old, with a medium build, long hair and no beard, wields a sword, and often walks around dressed as a Taoist. According to Foshan news, Jiang Wen and the rebels confessed The great thief Luo Yuan had a close relationship with him and was given the nickname "Junzi Sword"..."

"One: Luo Shuang'er, fourteen years old, thin, the daughter of the rebel Luo Yuantong, armed with two swords..."

"One: Zhao Pu..."

"One: Zhou..."

"...the above-mentioned criminals, if the first one is found, the first criminal will be rewarded with 5,000 taels of silver, and the accomplice will be rewarded with 3,000 taels of silver. If there is anyone with the same appearance and suspicious appearance, regardless of whether he is a soldier or a civilian, we will keep it confidential. Send me the news and report, be careful not to hide anything, keep everything secret."

At the bottom of this secret letter, in addition to the signature of King Pingnan Shang Kexi, there was also the seal of Li Qifeng, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. It was obviously sent quietly to prevent the enemy from being alerted. The paper is full of traces of wind and rain splashing, and the edges have been wiped out, and it was obviously rushed to the border of Yunnan through the Guandao Station.

After all, Yunnan is only separated from Guangdong and Guangxi by a thin line, and Li Dingguo mysteriously attacked the city of Guangzhou. There is no need to think too much here in Yunnan, everyone knows that this is the top priority of the court's prevention.

"Monk Anren, this Jiang Wen is a rebel in Guangzhou. Although his whereabouts are strange and his origin is unknown, after a thorough investigation by Pingnan Palace, many clues have been obtained, confirming that he is deeply involved in the banditry. , and even have connections with various masterminds.”

"After Prince Shang, Prince of Pingnan, found out about this matter, he immediately reported it to the imperial court. He is expected to be listed as an imperial prisoner soon, and he will be hunted down by the whole world, making it impossible for him to escape!"

Master Anren retorted resolutely: "General Wu, conspiracy to rebel is a matter of life and death. How can you convict someone by false accusation based on your own speculation?"

Wu Zhimao said coldly: "Well said. As the host of Xitan Temple, you should know all the lay pilgrims well. Do these two people have official guides? Could it be that they jumped out of the ground?"

In order to prevent refugees from causing chaos, both the Ming and Qing dynasties strictly implemented the checkpoint system that dates back to the Zhou Dynasty. These transportation thoroughfares were for land and water for customs and water. Anyone who violated the strict system would be severely punished—— [Anyone who has no literary quotation and travels to Guanjin privately can be given eighty sticks].

And if someone sneaks over from a place other than the pass, it is called "crossing over", and the punishment is more severe - [If the gate cannot be passed through the gate, the river cannot be crossed, and if the pass is overstepped, ninety sticks will be imposed. 】

Such regulations must be supervised regardless of officials or civilians, let alone the Manchus and Han Dynasties. For example, the "Qing Code" promulgated in the third year of Shunzhi even specifically established the crime of officials "exceeding the limit of appointment" - [Those who exceed the limit without reason will be punished. Ten whippings a day, one more every ten days, eighty sticks to stop crimes, and he will remain in office. 】

When Jiang Wen heard that Luo Shuang'er and the others were hurriedly thrown to Jizu Mountain in Binchuan, Yunnan Province in order to suppress Wuyang in the boiling sea, they naturally did not have these belongings. In order to prevent being interrogated and exposed, they even hid at the foot of the mountain. After a few days, I tentatively went to Sidtan Temple to place an order.

After staying there, Abbot Hongbian was very thoughtful. In order to prevent the two people's identities from being exposed, he also forged Guan Ping Lu Yin and other deeds for them. The counterfeit items were enough to defend against general interrogation, but facing the Pingxi Palace, which was raising troops to investigate, Master Anren was not sure whether he could hide the truth.

If we were to prepare for the worst, Wu Zhimao's move must have been done with bad intentions and he had set up numerous traps. If this move was exposed on the spot, Xitan Temple would have to add charges of forging documents and shielding criminals, making it even more difficult to end the situation. .

To the Buddha, the joy of meditation felt by heavenly beings is like sitting in a prison. His mind is heavy and he does not dare to think in vain. Mortal people yearn for joyful pleasures, but in the eyes of the Buddha, they are all hells in a house of fire, full of suffering, and extremely terrifying.

Listening to the endless sounds of collapses and fires outside the house, the house on fire in the Three Realms, and the sufferings of all the people, Anren didn't even know which one was more miserable inside and outside the pavilion at this time, and he was caught in a dilemma for a while...

---------

The fire in Xitan Temple became more and more intense. Although it started from the outer monks' residences, it could not stop its gradual spread. This made the people of Pingxi Palace very angry.

They were ordered by Commander-in-Chief Wu Zhimao of Sichuan to guard Xitan Temple and drive away all outside pilgrims in order to protect Princess Pingxi from being disturbed. Commander-in-Chief Wu also specifically told him not to disturb his Fayun Pavilion even if the sky fell and the earth collapsed today. Violators of important matters will be dealt with according to military orders.

But what he was facing now was the difficult choice of being burned to death, fumigated to death, or beaten to death with a military stick. The leading soldier frowned and thought carefully, and immediately came up with a good idea not to disobey the order.

After the generals decided on the plan, they quickly separated some soldiers from Prince Pingxi's palace and went into the temple to capture the lama who set fire to the temple. Among the people who were lingering outside the temple, they also selected a group of honest-looking pilgrims to enter the temple to put out the fire. Caught the fire.

However, when there was chaos, someone took advantage of the situation. I saw two figures, one large and one small, scooping water from the water tank outside Fayun Pavilion. They looked absent-minded and turned out to be Tang Yuanwai and his son who had specially paid homage to Buddha before.

"It's weird, why didn't I see the Miaobao Dharma King? Instead, I saw the old Dharma King from twenty years ago. Could it be that I saw a ghost in broad daylight?"

Tang Yuanwai stretched his neck to peek into the pavilion and murmured, "No wonder the backs of the few people who entered the temple just now seemed familiar to me, and I felt uneasy..."

Then he glanced around and found that his son was also looking longingly, so he asked: "Why are you acting like a hanged man?"

His son said confidently: "I'm looking for my beautiful sister that day. I've searched all over Sittan Temple but can't find her. She must be here!"

Tang Yuanwai hated the ironclad and taught him a lesson: "Every day is spent playing and having fun. At such a young age, you spend all your time thinking about women. What a shame!"

But his son curled his lips and muttered: "That's better than worrying about an old monk..."

"Rebel!"

---------

"Can't take it out? Still don't dare to take it out?"

Wu Zhimao smiled slightly, showing a confident smile, "Then let me take it out for you!" His soldiers stepped forward again, handed over two thin pages of paper, and then handed them over to the masked maid.

From a distance, it can be seen that this thing is rectangular, narrow horizontally and long vertically, about half a foot wide and one foot long. It is printed vertically on white cotton paper. There are large blanks in the four corners and on the left side. It seems that the local official has filled in the text and Cover it with a big seal.

Master Anren lowered his eyes slightly. He didn't even need to look at this thing. He could even recite the name, surname, age, place of origin, reason for living in exile, and travel history on it -

Because these two documents are basically Guan Ping Luyin hidden deep in the Sidan Temple, and all the information above was concocted by him!

Logically speaking, except for his senior brother Hongbian and several temple elders, no one else has ever seen the existence of this Guan Ping Lu Yin, but now for some reason it has appeared in Wu Zhimao's hands...

There must be someone inside!

"Anren!"

Seeing that the other party was silent, Wu Zhimao shouted loudly and threw the teacup in front of him. This sound of knocking on the mountain and shaking the tiger also scares the people of the Tusimu family and the Kagyu monk sect, vowing to use the evidence they have as the last resort to completely destroy this Sidtan temple.

Luo Shuang'er vaguely sensed the other party's naked malice and frowned slightly, but what concerned her more was the strange sight that she had noticed from the beginning. The direction seemed to be to the side of Prince Pingxi's Mansion, but she could not find the exact direction. source.

So she looked past Wu Zhimao and gently landed on Princess Pingxi. The faint halo reflected in her eyes was like a beautifully carved jade Guanyin, looking at the world coldly.

Compared with Wu Zhimao, the commander-in-chief of Sichuan, she is more representative of the Pingxi Palace. She is neither sullen nor caring, nor is she happy or indulgent. Her eyes are like a pool of extremely silent clear water, and all emotions can be seen instantly. Bottom - and there, you can see it at a glance and it's truly calm.

The masked and disfigured maid frowned slightly, as if she noticed the offense in Luo Shuang'er's gaze, and moved gently to block Princess Pingxi.

Wu Zhimao was originally scowl with anger, ready to take the opportunity to get angry, but he suddenly noticed the silent changes around him, and thought that he had recklessly bumped into the princess. He quickly squeezed out a bit of flattery out of his rage, and quickly lowered his rough voice a bit.

"Jiang Liu'er? Fang Baihua? A guest of the Jingnan Prince's Palace? The Prince Geng's favorite? You must have never imagined that Prince Geng recently sent an envoy to Prince Pingxi's house to lobby for Shao Cheng's title!"

"I have previously described the appearance and behavior of Jiang and Fang in detail and asked the envoy of King Jingnan for information. After the envoy heard about it, he said that he had never heard of anyone like Jiang Liuer or Fang Baihua, let alone Knowing that he has something to do with Prince Jingnan’s Mansion, Jiang Liuer’s speech and behavior seem to be very different from a Taoist priest whom Prince Jingnan once befriended——”

"And what a coincidence, this Taoist is also called Jiang Wen. Do you think it's strange or not?"

Wu Zhimao looked at Master Anren with great pride. He had never expected that a mere envoy from the Jingnan Palace could play such a big role.

And during the questioning process, he naturally deliberately used some tricks to add insult to injury, such as concealing the contents of Shang Kexi's secret letter from the sea, such as inducing the other party to reveal the relationship between Jiang Wen and Prince Jingnan, and even earnestly persuading him. Fang Zi's matter is serious and he must write a letter and return it to the Jingnan Palace to prevent anyone from pretending to be his identity.

So there was another letter, sent from Yunnan to Fujian. After a 800-mile round trip and the death of countless horses, it was finally returned to the hands of Prince Pingxi yesterday.

Wu Zhimao now holds this letter in his hand. The letter states that the Jingnan Palace has only sent envoy Jiang Wen to Guangdong, and no family member named Fang Baihua has ever come to worship the Buddha. It tells the Pingxi Palace to do more screening to prevent villains from causing trouble. .

The court hall was filled with treacherous clouds, and Prince Jingnan was still too naive. If Wu Sangui had such a letter in his hand, it would perfectly match Shang Kexi's arrest document. Moreover, if these two letters were handed over to the court, the Qing court's suspicious and sensitive style would inevitably guess who was behind the Guangzhou Rebellion. It would be extremely easy for the Geng family to threaten Geng Jingzhong who was eager to seize the title.

At this point, seeing that An Ren was silent, Wu Zhimao no longer planned to cover up, so he took the urgently sent letter from the Jingnan Palace from the soldiers, and handed it over to Princess Pingxi by the masked maid, while he couldn't wait to see it. said.

"Prince Jingnan has already replied to the letter. There are no Jiang Liuer, Fang Baihua or others in the house. If anyone forges their identity and deceives them to get through, they should be punished!"

"An Ren, one of the two people in front of you wields a knife and the other wields a sword. Although the weapons have been exchanged without revealing any flaws, their whereabouts are suspicious and their origins are unknown. Many clues are consistent. What else can be said? Is it possible that I want this officer to arrest you all? Are you willing to tell the truth only if you get up and torture me?"

The monks in Xitan Temple were whispering and panicking, and Master Anren also had a look of intolerance in his eyes.

Now that Abbot Hongbian's body is still cold and his blood has not condensed, Xitan Temple is about to suffer such a catastrophe. He cannot stand aside no matter what. However, Jiang Wen and Luo Shuang'er are also very kind to Xitan Temple, so what can he do? Do you have the heart to say things that add insult to injury and protect yourself wisely?

But once involved in a rebellion, let alone a mere Xitan Temple, even the Mu family of Dali Chieftain would never be able to provide shelter again...

Wu Zhimao felt that he had already secured victory, and the day when he officially took up the important post of Sichuan Army General was just around the corner.

In order to deal with the Mu family's forces left in Jizu Mountain, many spies from the Pingxi Palace were running around, and all the hidden stakes were activated, just to avoid Bu Shang Kexi, who was plotted under the nose and made the world laugh. Same mistake.

However, just when Wu Zhimao was feeling proud, Princess Pingxi, who had never spoken a word in the audience, made a clear voice and asked him.

"Mr. Wu, I have no secular intentions and should not interfere in these foreign affairs. However, I see that the meaning in the letter seems to be somewhat different from what you said."

Wu Zhimao was a little surprised and hurriedly took the letter again from the masked maid and started reading from the beginning. He saw that the description in the previous text was exactly the same as what he said. They all said that Jiang Wen was an envoy from the Jingnan Palace. It is a joy to be ordered to go to Guangzhou to pay homage to King Pingnan. If there are any traitors pretending to be king, they will be severely punished.

However, the following paragraphs suddenly became completely unfamiliar to him.

It said that when Jiang Wen was sent to Guangzhou as an envoy, he was forced to join forces with the rebel bandits, and he endured humiliation and humiliation in order to protect the safety of Fang Baihua, the sworn sister of the crown prince of Jingnan. Fortunately, after learning the information about the bandit leader, Jiang Wen , had taken the opportunity to withdraw from the chaos in Guangdong and Guangxi and hid in Yunnan.

"...???"

The ink on the letter was clear, and the handwriting was exactly the same as what he had seen before, but the content was so bizarre that Wu Zhimao was completely confused. He once suspected that the letter he had seen before was just a traceless dream from last night...

I saw the following continue: Jiang Wen now changed his name to "Jiang Liu'er" in order to avoid being chased by the thieves. Then he wrote down the two people's names, surnames, ages, origins, reasons for living in exile, and their travel history, and also stated their names and surnames. The Guan Ping Lu Yin Wu Zhimao obtained was exactly the same.

In the letter, Prince Jingnan said that Jiang Wen had made great contributions by going deep into Longtan, and that his adopted sister Fang Baihua was also a relative of the prince's family. He also warned him in a tone that was quite consistent with his status as a playboy that he would write to Shunzhi himself for the remaining details of the matter. Prince Pingxi must ensure the safety of the two of them and escort them back to Fuzhou as soon as possible without any loss!

Emotions of confusion and suspicion, confusion and astonishment were alternately playing out on Wu Zhimao's rough and powerful face, which had been living outside the customs for a long time. A kind of dizziness suddenly attacked him, causing ripples of confusion.

Did I miss both sides?

Or did I really have a dream yesterday?

Or maybe what I'm in now is just a ridiculous dream?

Wu Zhimao barely managed to stabilize his mind. He really couldn't figure out why the fatal blow failed, let alone what happened to him. As he staggered and clashed with armor, a clue suddenly appeared in his mind, appearing and disappearing like a firefly under the moon. After searching hard, he finally noticed the clue!

According to his investigation, the content cited in the official document was clearly prepared by Monk Anren. In this case, how could the Jingnan Palace write it word for word, word for word, and word for word?

...Unless there is a mole among one of our own!

As soon as this idea came to his mind, it sounded like a bell in his mind, causing his internal organs to feel a dull pain, and a kaleidoscope-like chaotic pattern appeared in the corner of his eyes, spinning rapidly like a wheel.

In a rage, Wu Zhimao, the commander-in-chief of Sichuan Province, suddenly clenched the letter and suddenly let it go, and his hands became strangely stiff.

Before his soldiers could help him, they saw him spitting out a mouthful of blood and falling backwards. The soldiers started shouting "No! The general is vomiting blood!", and there was a chaos.

With the sudden collapse of the powerful general of Prince Pingxi's Palace, it also meant that this discussion of Jizu Mountain came to an end amidst a sea of ​​death and injury and fire everywhere.

Luo Shuang'er stood quietly, as if she was still looking for the source of her gaze, while Princess Pingxi was calm and independent of the noisy world, as if she had lost interest in mundane affairs, and moved lightly towards the door of Fayun Pavilion. Go to the back hall.

The masked and disfigured maid followed closely behind her and turned around to leave with her sleeves fluttering. Luo Shuang'er suddenly felt her sight disappear. However, just at the moment when the other party turned to leave, she saw her hands folded in front of her belly, making a red lotus shape. The appearance of the holy fire burning brightly... (End of this chapter)