North and South groceries

There are many monks here in Dunhuang City. After all, monks are also human beings, and among these monks, their character is also uneven.

Some monks are dedicated to Buddha and take it as their duty to spread Buddhism to all living beings. Other monks are speculators. For them, religion is a profession and a tool. They use this to get close to the powerful, deceive the people, and gain fame and fortune.

When the monks of this era went to various places to preach, they often started with the local dignitaries. As long as these dignitaries believed in and supported Buddhism, then Buddhism could develop relatively well in this place, and these monks were therefore supported by the dignitaries. , the admiration of the people.

In order to cater to the dignitaries from all over the world, the monks even often involve in some Taoist work, such as helping some local bigwigs with divination or something.

Before the beginning of winter this year, another monk came to Dunhuang city.

During these days when I came to Dunhuang City, I didn't even visit the local dignitaries and rich families. I just sat on the streets of Dunhuang and preached the scriptures to the ordinary people in the city all day long. After a long time, I was also loved by many Dunhuang people.

In the early morning of that day, the monk came to the street as before, meditating cross-legged on a big stone placed for him by the people in the city.

It was a cold winter morning, and many people in Dunhuang City hadn't woken up yet, and there were few pedestrians on the streets, and occasionally one or two people walked by, and they came and went in a hurry.

"Did the mage come from Gaochang country?" Suddenly someone asked, the voice was deep and thick, like an extraordinary person, when he looked up, he saw a burly young man.

The monk hadn't had time to eat at this time, and he only ate a little yesterday, so he was a little dizzy from hunger. When he looked up at the man in front of him, he felt unusually tall, as if he was looking at the Buddha statue in the Mogao Grottoes .

"Exactly." The monk said.

"The Turks will be destroyed, and Gaochang's security will be intact. Why not surrender to the Tang Dynasty instead of resisting in the corner?" The tall and strong young man opened his mouth and said.

"..." The monk was taken aback for a moment, and then asked, "Where did the strong man hear about this?"

"You reach out," the man said.

The monk stretched out his withered and thin palm according to the words, and then saw that the other party was holding a square white object in his palm.

The man's palm was wide and thick, and the nail cover was almost two or three times the size of his own.

The monk looked carefully at the object in his hand, and saw that it was a neatly folded piece of paper, and when it was unfolded, it became a long thin strip. The quality of this paper was also strange, and he had never seen it before.

There is a line of text on this piece of paper, which is extremely neat, the font is quite small, and it is extremely clear and refined. It is not like ordinary people can write, but this word looks like Chinese characters at first glance, but it is somewhat different from Chinese characters when you look closely, but it is still similar after all. Even if he guessed it, he could barely understand it. Reading from right to left is not a book, it should be reading from left to right. After reading it, he broke out in a cold sweat.

I saw this slender piece of paper on which the book said: "In the 14th year of Zhenguan (640), Gaochang was destroyed in the Tang Dynasty, and Xizhou and Tingzhou were established."

You still think of the last sentence the other party said: "The situation is urgent, Er Gaochang needs to make a decision early, don't let the people suffer, and the people suffer."

Looking up again, the man was long gone, leaving only the empty street in the early morning of winter, with one or two hurried figures passing by occasionally, as if the tall and strong young man had never appeared before.

The monk suddenly had a quick wit, and after waking up, he quickly contacted several monks in Dunhuang City who were also from Gaochang Kingdom.

In the afternoon of that day, these monks hurried out of the city, heading north all the way towards the direction of Gaochang Kingdom.

From Dunhuang to Gaochang, although there is no need to enter the desert, there are still large areas of the Gobi Desert, and the journey is also difficult, especially in winter.

The sky and the earth are boundless, the Gobi Desert is howling with strong winds, and the monks' robes are rattled by the strong wind, but the monks don't care about the many, they keep walking fast, and their foreheads are almost sweating...

At this moment, Luo Yong also met someone on a Gobi Desert outside Changle County.

This person's name is Chen Ji, and he was born in an ordinary wealthy family in Ganzhou.

There is another elder brother above him, who came from the principal wife, and Chen Jinai, who came from the concubine's house. His mother was very favored when she was alive, but it's a pity that she was poorly blessed and passed away at a young age.

In their generation, the Chen family had only these two males. Chen Ji's father loved the concubine like a legitimate son, and Chen Ji's elder brother also loved him very much. deep.

Others said that as a bastard, Chen Ji was a great blessing to be born into such a family, and Chen Ji himself thought so, he was filial to his father and respected his elder brother.

Chen Ji once fell in love with a woman when he was young, and when he learned that his elder brother also fell in love with her, he offered to give in.

He felt that it was what he should do. His elder brother was more mature, stable and responsible than him, and he was the son of the Chen family, so he could give that woman happiness more.

Over the years, as long as it was what his elder brother wanted him to do, no matter how difficult it was, he would try his best to do it, and he wanted to repay his elder brother's love for him.

Father Chen was very pleased with the brothers and friends of his two sons. On the day he passed away, seeing his two sons standing by the bed, he also died with a smile on his face.It's just that after he died, everything was different.

Chen Ji's sister-in-law, that is, the woman he fell in love with when he was young, framed Chen Ji for bullying her. His elder brother drove him out of the house in anger, and he refused to listen to his excuses. Half of the generosity he treated him in the past?

Chen Ji had no choice but to go back to his mother's natal home, intending to live there for a while, and then slowly think of a way to deal with it, never thought that his mother's relatives would not let him into the house.

Based on his brother's and sister-in-law's one-sided remarks, without any evidence, these relatives believed that Chen Ji was a morally corrupt man, and that he was worse than a beast. In the end, they were still afraid of the Chen family's power and didn't want to get involved in trouble.

Chen Ji met his elder brother several times later, and then he gradually understood that the generosity and friendship that the other party had treated him all these years were all false. He didn't know how to plan for himself at all, and Chen's father never made any plans for him.

Now his elder brother suddenly turned against him, and Chen Ji was kicked out of the house by him, empty-handed, penniless, and his reputation was ruined.

Overnight, almost all the beliefs of this young man collapsed.

There was no place for him in his hometown, so he walked along the post road all the way to the west in a daze, until he reached Changle County, where there were free pancakes every day, so he stayed.

Later, when he was working in a cement workshop, he was very moved when he saw that Apu was willing to take such a big risk for the sake of two young men in his tribe to protect them both.

It is precisely because he has seen too many hypocrisy that he can understand the value of true love. He admires Apu very much. That night, when Apu and others went to the tenant's house, Chen Ji also escorted them. Little is known about this.

"Everything that the Ming government said has already been done. Yesterday afternoon, those Gaochang monks hurried out of the city and went to the north. This person also saw it with his own eyes."

At this time, this tall and strong young man was riding on a horse, facing the cold wind on the Gobi Desert, he cupped his hands and said to Luo Yongyan.

"If this move can really save Gaochang Kingdom from war, it will be of great merit." Luo Yong was also sitting on the horseback at this time, bowing his hands to Chen Ji.

"Why does the Ming government think that monk is trustworthy?" Chen Ji asked puzzled.

Although the monk did not seem to be ingratiating to the rich and powerful on the surface, but was in the company of the poor in the market, who could tell whether he was flaunting his virtues in this way, and in the end he was trying to gain fame and wealth. support.

"If this person is not a pure person, then he is an extremely intelligent person. No matter what kind of person he is, it does not contradict our purpose." Luo Yongyan said.

If Luo Yong gave him such a reminder, if he was a pure person, he would definitely do his best to prevent the tragedy from happening.

If he is a smart person, then this incident can become an opportunity for him to get close to the Gaochang royal family. He can pretend to be someone who has seen the Buddha, and the Buddha revealed the secret to him. As long as this can be done, then His position in the entire Buddhist circle in Gaochang Kingdom in the future is quite different.

"Now, what should we do?" Chen Ji asked again.

"The matter has come to this point, it's all about obeying the destiny, and now it's all about Gaochang Kingdom's decision." Luo Yong replied.

"This place is too close to Gaochang. Now that you have shown your face in front of the Gaochang monk, I can no longer keep you in Changle County." After a while, Luo Yong said again.

"But it's sent by the Ming government." Chen Ji clasped his fists.

"My elder sister in Chang'an City intends to develop in the Suyang area of ​​Luoyang, and now you take my letter to Chang'an City, and follow them south after spring."

"I think you have a good character, you value love and righteousness, and you have this kind of literary and martial arts. My sister can also know people, so I will definitely not treat you badly."

Luo Yong gave him a letter, untied a bag of copper coins from the horseback, and a bag of dry food and water, and handed them to Chen Ji.

Then Chen Ji took the money and rations, carefully placed them on the saddle, clasped his fists at Luo, took a deep look at the young magistrate in front of him, and rode his horse to the east.

Regarding the origin of that note, he never asked a word from the beginning to the end.

He also believed in the words on that note.

Going to Chang'an now, going south to Suyang, I don't know what kind of scene it will be.

In the past, because he trusted his elder brother wholeheartedly, he ended up being swept out of the house by the other party in the end.

Now, because he treats Apu and others with his true nature, he has been appreciated by Lishi Luosanlang, and he has done a big thing with him, something that cannot be known by others, but which makes him feel extremely proud in his heart.

He, Chen Ji, is not useless, he is upright and treats people with sincerity, and what he gets is definitely not just ridicule and fooling.

The last time he made a mistake with his true feelings, how about this time, huh... Facing the cold wind on the Gobi Desert, Chen Ji grinned.

The world is so vast, what is the little Chen family worth!

There are so many heroes and heros in the world, the hard-bodied Haoerlang, what is the loss of a hypocritical brother!