Tang riddles

The attack on the prisoner happened suddenly, and the government army escorting the prison car couldn't respond in time, so that almost the whole army was wiped out.Shen Sui, the inspector of the imperial envoy Dali Temple, speculated that the convoy of prisoners might be attacked, so he rushed to meet him in advance, and snatched the survivors of the team from the gangsters.The criminals who attacked the prisoner escaped, Shen Sui hired a caravan passing by halfway, and the survivors of the prisoner caravan and the casualties returned to Jiangling.The Fu soldiers who survived were all seriously injured, and most of them fainted and couldn't speak for the time being.Of the five prisoners, one died, and the remaining four suffered trauma to varying degrees.In a short period of time, there will be no further arraignment.

The above situation was reported by Shen Sui to Jiangling Inspector Xiao Zhongfei, Zhang Shuo, Pei Yaoqing, Liu Yucheng and other main officials after returning with the Qianyumen troops.

All the officials were almost numb to Shen Sui's ability to predict things like a god every time, so no one doubted him.It's just that the prisoner was attacked, which undoubtedly reminded everyone: Zhu Yuanmao's case is indeed hidden behind the scenes.

Shen Sui knew that this case was also inextricably related to the big case 17 years ago, just like the previous Charity case.With regard to the case of mercy, she had the ability to hide it from the world, making everyone ignore the existence of the black hand behind the scenes.But for Zhu Yuanmao's case, she was helpless.The mastermind behind the scenes has made things very explicit. If she continues to forcibly conceal it, it may backfire, so she should let go.However, Shen Sui believed that the so-called mastermind behind the scenes was something these officials would avoid and would not touch.Officials don't know who is behind the scenes, and they don't want to know. This stems from the political sensitivity of any official in the officialdom.

One more thing is worse than one less thing, or that sentence, the truth is never the most important thing for people in the officialdom.

As expected, Xiao Zhongfei, governor of Jiangling Mansion, handled the prisoner attack incident in an unusually conservative manner. Although he drew portraits of the five principal criminals according to Shen Sui's description, he released a search announcement for the prisoner raiders, and Posts are all over the city.But there was a lot of thunder and little rain, and not many government soldiers were dispatched to search and arrest.

As for the surviving government soldiers and four prisoners who witnessed Shen Suiyu's amazing ability to make birds, Shen Sui naturally would not ignore them.The brothers of Qianyumen branch in Jiangling have all kinds of methods to make them shut up and not utter a word.Xu Zhi, the head of the Jiangling branch, was originally from a family of cruel officials during the reign of the Empress Dowager Zetian. Later, the cruel officials suffered a major purge and fled to the south to settle down.Xu Zhi's methods of dealing with people are ever-changing, and he can see through people's hearts. Shen Sui feels relieved to entrust this matter to him.

In addition, according to Xu Zhi's investigation, the nun and her maid who stayed at the inn in the city had mysteriously disappeared on the day of the incident, and even escaped the multiple eyeliners arranged by Qianyumen. Their ability to disguise and hide is not terrible.Now that the enemy was hiding in the dark again, Shen Sui and the others had long nights and dreams. They still followed the original plan and hurriedly set off on the night of the incident, leaving Jiangling City and heading north.This trip has Zhang Shuo and a special newcomer-Li Bai, and Pei Yaoqing and Liu Yucheng will continue to stay in Jiangling City until Jiangling Mansion completes the interrogation of the criminals and the case is finalized. Shen Sui goes to Luoyang to report the trip to the saint. survey results.

As for Li Bai, the swordsman and poet, Zhang Shuo really caught his eye.After being introduced by Shen Sui, the two talked very speculatively. Zhang said that he decided to lure him to the north and recommend him to important people in the court. Whether he can win the favor of the saint in the end depends on Li Bai's own ability.

It has been nearly two months since Shen Sui and his party came out, during which many things happened in Chang'an.After the incident of Princess Jin’s horse falling, there was a spring drought in the north. According to the Taishi Bureau’s calculations, the climate in the north was slightly warmer last winter and there was not enough snowfall.Taishi ordered the sage to go to Luoyang to eat in advance [note], and the sage agreed.In mid-February, a large number of court guards of honor had already set off.By the end of February, the first members of the royal family had arrived in Luoyang.Therefore, the central court is not in Chang'an right now, and Shen Suizhou made a round trip. After three months, he will finally return to Luoyang.

But for Shen Sui, this is not a bad thing. Right now Luoyang also has a headache waiting for her to deal with, and it happened to be resolved together this time when she went back.

Shen Sui and his party left in a hurry, for Zhang Shuo and Li Bai, there were doubts in their hearts.Zhang said that he was mature and prudent, and the city was extremely deep. Although he saw something weird, he didn't appeal to it.Li Bai asked Shen Sui in private why he left in such a hurry. Shen Sui explained: She snatched the prisoner and prevented the mastermind behind the Zhu Yuanmao case from achieving their goal, so she was afraid that the other party would be unfavorable to them, so she left as soon as possible , to avoid staying in Jiangling and being controlled by others.

Suddenly, Li Bai accepted Shen Sui's explanation.However, this time he left Jiangling in such a hurry, naturally there was no time to say hello to his father-in-law and his wife, so he could only leave a letter from home, and one family member would report the letter. In this way, there was only one family member left by his side, namely Li Bai called the family member who supported the drunk Li Bai that day, "Ayan". Later, Shen Sui realized that his original name was "An Yan", and he came from Suiye City with the Li family. She got it wrong.

The group trekked overnight and left Jiangling City, but instead of going directly to Luoyang City in the northeast, they made a detour to the northwest and headed for the territory of Kipzhou.Shen Sui didn't forget that Zhang Ruohan had one more task to complete during this trip. She was going to pay a visit to Yuquan Temple in Xiazhou to pray for Princess Li Jinyue of Jin.In fact, even Wu Ya who was next to Zhang Ruohan almost forgot about this incident. They encountered many things when they came out this time, so that the purpose of coming out in the first place was blurred.

Although this was just an excuse for Zhang Ruohan to come out with Shen Sui, it had to be done.First of all, Zhang Ruohan really wanted to do this. She is a Buddhist disciple, and this was what she had vowed to practice many years ago; second, she really wanted to pray for Li Jinyue, hoping that the Buddha would bless her for a peaceful and happy life. Not to be threatened by life, influenced by power, and troubled by love, and bless the three of them to untie each other's entangled knots; third, she vowed to go out for a long trip, but instead of completing what she wanted to do, she stayed with Shen Sui instead Having been together for two months, gossip was unavoidable, she didn't care, but Shen Sui cared, Li Jinyue cared, many people cared, so she had to care.

About five days later, Shen Sui and his party arrived at Yuquan Mountain in Dangyang County, Kipzhou, where Yuquan Temple is located.This journey was quite hard, almost non-stop day and night, Zhang Ruohan, Shen Jin, Zhang Shuo, Li Bai and others slept in their respective carriages, Shen Sui, Hutuo, Blue Robin, Qianhe, Wuya, An Yan, etc. People take turns driving horses and carts.By the time they arrived at the foot of Yuquan Mountain, the group was exhausted.

It wasn't until Shen Sui went up the mountain to enter the temple that Shen Sui received a letter from the local Qianyumen Branch White Pigeon confirming her safety, and she was relieved.

That day was the first day of March in the 17th year of Kaiyuan, and Shen Sui suddenly remembered that there were still eight days left before Zhang Ruohan's birthday, the ninth day of March.So she began to worry, what kind of birthday gift should she give Zhang Ruohan this year?

Every year in the past, Shen Sui would prepare a birthday gift for Zhang Ruohan, but it was never given out. It has been accumulated for 16 years, and this year is No.17.

The group spent two days recuperating in Yuquan Temple. During the period, the abbot of the temple sat down with Zhang Ruohan to discuss the Tao, and led Zhang Ruohan to pay homage to the Buddhas. They agreed to hold a ceremony for the Princess of Jin in the Daxiong Hall every two days.

And these two days, because of Zhang Shuo and Li Bai, Shen Sui couldn't get too close to Zhang Ruohan, and had no communication with her on the surface.It's just that Shen Sui missed Zhang Ruohan's female guests at night, climbed over the wall and entered the courtyard, and quietly looked at her outside her window.Or let the white-tailed swift send a letter to Zhang Ruohan, write some scattered words and sentences, and read the few words she replied to comfort the pain of lovesickness.

Xu Shi has a good heart, Zhang Ruohan's window is always open, and he can see the scene inside the house.Zhang Ruohan didn't always appear at the window, sometimes she would come outside the house and sit on the stone bench in the courtyard with her clothes on.Shen Sui was not close, even if there was only a few feet between them, they could still see each other.They were just entangled in their eyes, and they could look at each other for a long time, and then Zhang Ruohan would always get up and go back to the house first or disappear by the window, and Shen Sui would leave silently.

This way of getting along made Wu Ya, Blue Robin, Qian He and others who knew it very puzzled.But this seems to be a tacit understanding between Shen Sui and Zhang Ruohan.They had never reached such a tacit understanding with words, but they both chose this way of getting along.Unable to hold back, Wuya once asked Sanniang.Zhang Ruohan's answer made her heartbroken:

"She and I seem to be standing very close, but in fact we are far apart. There is still an unhealed gully between us. If any of us can't help but take a step forward, we will fall into the gully. As a result, she was seriously injured. I don't want her to get hurt, and she doesn't want me to get hurt, so we can only hold back."

Wuya knew that the "gully" that Sanniang referred to was Li Jinyue, Princess of Jin.As the return date approaches, Sanniang and Shen Dalang will finally face this embarrassing and headache knot.

On the fifth day after arriving at Yuquan Temple, the blessing ceremony was held in the Daxiong Hall on behalf of the Princess of Jin.The protagonist of this ceremony is Zhang Ruohan. That day she changed into her Buddhist home priest’s attire—that white and flawless wide-sleeved cross-neck skirt, and took out the one hundred and eight bodhi seed holding beads that had been hidden at the bottom of the box. , the whole body is pure and cold, as if seeing mercy for the first time.That appearance only makes people feel that she is safe in this life.Accompanied by the musical instrument playing and the monks singing scriptures, Zhang Ruohan faced the tall golden Buddha statue alone, held his waist and skirt, and prostrated several times, silently chanting Buddhist scriptures along with the monks. Ninety-nine 81 times, extremely devout.

This is the highest standard of blessing, and it is Zhang Ruohan's choice.

Standing aside, Shen Sui's feet were numb, but she seemed to be unconscious, her eyes only fell on Zhang Ruohan's back.Looking at her slender body, knelt down, bent down, kowtowed, and stood up constantly, the corners of Shen Sui's eyes were swollen hot, his throat seemed to be rolling, but he just gritted his teeth and endured it.There are many people around her, and she knows she can't show anything wrong.

In the middle of the ceremony, Zhang Ruohan was already sweating through her clothes and exhausted, but she still persisted.Shen Sui clenched his fists tightly to restrain the surging emotions in his heart, so that he couldn't open his hands for a short time.

Zhang said that he was very distressed, and tried to stop Zhang Ruohan from worshiping again several times, but Zhang Ruohan stopped him with his eyes.His heart was sour, Zhang Ruohan had done his best for the princess of Jin, if the princess still refused to let her go, he Zhang said that even if he risked his life, he would keep Zhang Ruohan from being entangled again in this life.

Wuya hid aside and secretly wiped away tears, Qianhe gripped his knife tightly and stood silently beside Wuya.Shen Jin's eyes were red, and Bluebird and Hutuo closed their eyes and lowered their heads, unable to bear to look any more.

Only Zhang Ruohan himself understood why he tortured himself like this, to worship an existence that was already nothingness.Because she sincerely hoped that the Buddha would hear her wish, hope that the Buddha would have mercy on his followers, and help his helpless followers out of the sea of ​​suffering.Every prayer, she would repeat her wish, and she repeated it ninety-nine and 81 times:

May the Princess of Jin be safe and happy in this life and relieve her knots; may Yin Ziji be revenged for her blood feud and have a brighter future; may Yin Ziji and I live together in this life and grow old together.

By calling the name, all crimes are eliminated, which is the cause and condition of many good roots and blessings.Namo Amitabha Buddha.

The author has something to say: In this chapter, Shen Sui's original name finally appeared: Yin Ziji.

Shen Sui: Lotus maid, if the Buddha betrayed you, I will not betray you either.

The second volume is finished.

[Note] A political phenomenon that appeared in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the ruler went to the place where there was food, which was called eating.At that time, Luoyang was the place I usually went to, because Luoyang was well connected by water and land, which was much more convenient than Chang'an for freight transportation.This is also one of the reasons for the two capitals system in the Sui and Tang Dynasties.