The Eight Winds of Rebirth

After Gu Xiangtan finished speaking, he was not in a hurry to let the master make up his mind, and he would tell himself when Fu Yalian had finished deliberating. In addition, the incident happened not long ago, so the master was inevitably on guard, so there was no rush for anything.

So in the next few months, Gu Xiangtan was the same as before, obediently fasting in Luli every day to calm the morning and evening, and going to Xiangguo Temple to listen to the Zen masters' lectures from time to time, as if he had never left for the capital Same.But Fu Yalian knew that occasionally in the middle of the night, when he opened his eyes, he would see the dim light in Gu Xiangtan's room, that child always holding a string of purple jade Buddha beads, kneeling in front of the Buddha statue for a whole night, so All they read are scriptures that pray for peace and avoid disasters, so it is no longer necessary to say who they are.

Every time at this time, Fu Yalian could not help but listen in a daze, and for a moment, the sky was already bright without realizing it.

Finally, when Chan Master Guan Yun came to check Gu Xiangtan's pulse on this day, Gu Xiangtan asked how the master was doing, and the Zen master said: "Lay Fu is a heart disease. If the heart demon does not disappear, this disease will be difficult to solve. The Imperial Physician will have some wonderful remedies, you can try it when you wake up."

Gu Xiangtan's eyes lit up immediately: "Jingli? Did the master finally agree to go back with me..."

Zen Master Guanyun nodded with a smile.

Gu Xiangtan couldn't help but hastily stood up, just about to be happy, but he looked at the Chan Master knowingly and felt a little embarrassed.

"Zen Master... Xingzhi failed to do what you and the masters wished, and devoted himself to practicing Buddhism in Luli."

Guan Yun proclaimed the dharma call and said: "It doesn't matter if the Buddha is in the heart, it's in the sky. Even if you enter the world of mortals, you can save sentient beings, which is considered a merit."

After hearing this, Gu Xiangtan hurriedly said: "The way to wake up is shallow, and you can't save sentient beings, but I just ask you to do your best."

Guan Yun didn't say much, but only gave a warning.

"No matter what happens here, there will be treacherous and sinister intrigues, but you still need to keep in mind that people who practice Buddhism will always have compassion in mind, and karma and retribution will never be counted in front of the stage of reincarnation. If there are few, you should accumulate virtue for yourself and the people you care about, never forget your original heart, never lose your kind thoughts, and forgive others when you have to forgive them."

Gu Xiangtan was startled, lowered his eyes, and nodded after a while.

……

It was not yet summer when we arrived in Luli, and it was already autumn when we left.

Outside the courtyard in the countryside, Su Xi and An Yin hurried back and forth to pack up, prepare the carriage, and carry luggage. After Gu Xiangtan and Yan Fang confirmed the return route, they returned to the courtyard and saw Fu Yalian standing in front of the door with his hands behind his back, silently Looking at the two tall vines in a daze.

A few days ago, the grapes were already ripe. Together with his master, he picked them himself, kept a few bunches for himself, and gave the rest to the monks of Xiangguo Temple. Not many things were brought into the carriage, and it seemed that there was a smell of people going to the empty building everywhere.

"Master..." Gu Xiangtan called softly.

Fu Yalian turned around and saw his worried eyes, she smiled and shook her head: "I'm fine, but I'm just a little sighed when I think about the past. How about the arrangements when you return to Beijing?"

"Well, the guards in the palace are already on their way. When we leave Luli, we will meet them just in time."

Fu Yalian nodded, turned her head to look at the small courtyard again, turned around and got into the carriage outside.

Gu Xiangtan also looked at the empty grape vine trellis, and whispered softly: "If one day, I come back here again, everything must be settled..."

The two got into the carriage together, Yan Fang was driving outside, but Gu Xiangtan didn't let the people from Xiangguo Temple see him off, and the two masters left quietly.

Now that she has decided to return to the imperial court, Fu Yalian has asked Gu Xiangtan for a while to learn about many trends in the imperial court. Fu Yalian was already the number one scholar in high school when she tied her hair back then, and became an official in one fell swoop. Famous in Beijing, since then, he has been ups and downs in Vanity Fair for more than ten years, and finally became a good minister who is under one person and above ten thousand people, so even though he has been away for seven or eight years, the middle of the story is straight to him. Even if he hasn't cared for a long time, he can guess eight Nine is inseparable from ten, so when Gu Xiangtan talked about the current power of the Three Kings, Fu Yalian said.

"The death of General Yulin really hurt Zhao Dian's vitality, but he will leave the army to stay. The foundation is not a big change. General Hou is also implicated. The sixth son is young. It will also take time for the Shenwu Army to come back. Emperor Zongzheng With the military power in their hands, the three kings still have nothing to fear. If they want to really fight against one of them, they must have troops." But they are civil servants, and they can't help much in fighting, and with Zhao Yuan around, Fu Yalian firmly believes that he will not let him go. The elder brothers were disappointed, "However, the soldiers and horses went ahead without using food and grass. If we want to shake the foundation of the Three Kings, apart from fighting with our troops on the battlefield, perhaps what we can do more is to find a way to break his retreat."

"Food and grass..." Gu Xiangtan was thoughtful.

Fu Yalian nodded: "It's better to raise the soup to stop the boiling. It's better to go to pay. The three kings stationed troops in Dongxian County. Dongxian County has been impoverished for many years. The local crops alone may not be able to support a cavalry battalion. Those rations may be used to secure troops. The supplies are all shipped from other places, and now the treasury is empty, and Emperor Zongzheng doesn't even have much money left, so where did the three kings get the money to reward those troops?"

"It's nothing more than exploiting the people to fill their own pockets!" Gu Xiangtan couldn't help gritting his teeth when he thought of the words of the peasants he met when he came here. The falcon alone could feed some corrupt officials under the Three Kings to their heads.

Fu Yalian smiled coldly: "Then just take this opportunity to get rid of the bottom of the pot and cut the weeds."

Gu Xiangtan's heart moved: "The three kings must be wholeheartedly cultivating a good general who can replace General Habayashi, and before he is found, he will not easily mobilize troops, but he still has to practice without soldiers. Money is also indispensable. ..." Such and such, isn't it a good opportunity to catch him.

Fu Yalian said: "We are not in a hurry, he is exploiting layer by layer, we will investigate layer by layer when we go back, I don't believe that he can be allowed to grow so big, even if he can't be knocked down with one blow, we still have to. Let the Habayashi army suffer a little bit, but... I am afraid that someone in the court will obstruct it."

Gu Xiangtan thought for a while: "Emperor Zongzheng's subordinates all look up to his right minister Zhong Xuliang, Qu Guang and others, and the minister of the Ministry of Rites is cunning. Although such a person is cunning, he really cherishes his life. I won't hurt the killer," because he also knew that Emperor Zongzheng had little chance of winning, and if he lost in the end, he could only protect himself.

"And Lord Right..." Gu Xiangtan smiled, "Master, don't worry, Xiangtan has his own way."

Fu Yalian looked at Gu Xiangtan when he said these words clearly and coherently, he was no longer the naive and ignorant child who hadn't grown up more than a year ago, but he only went to the capital, and it's not what it used to be.Thinking of everything that Gu Xiangtan has experienced, Fu Yalian's heart is complicated. He hopes that Gu Xiangtan will be sensible soon, but he doesn't want him to know too much, especially such trivial things. Involuntarily, there is nothing more important than Gu Xiangtan being able to live well.

Fu Yalian collected her thoughts and continued, "Where are the two Dukes?"

"Duke Jing is sincere to the emperor." He switched from the three kings to Emperor Zongzheng. If he didn't work hard, there would be no way out. "But the princess is more sensible than him." You Gong Yi With the mausoleum here, Gu Xiangtan believed that even if Jing Guogong had some small tricks, he would not be able to cause too much trouble.

"As for Lord Ciguo..." Gu Xiangtan frowned, "Although he is Yuan... the grandfather of the sixth prince, the two of them have never been close. I heard that there seemed to be grievances and grudges in the past, but it's just that Xiangtan didn't know each other. I don't know."

When mentioning Ci Guogong, Fu Yalian obviously paused, and sighed heavily for a long time: "I didn't expect that after so many years, this knot in my heart still hasn't been solved."

Gu Xiangtan raised his eyebrows and didn't ask any further questions, just silently waiting for the master's next words.

Sure enough, Fu Yalian said slowly: "Lingzhou's family is poor, and the Duke of Ciguo has only one son and one daughter. He was not partial to them at first, and treated them equally. It's just sister Fu... the princess has been gentle and gracious since she was a child. Both tolerance and tolerance, but Lingzhou's eldest son was raised to be domineering and arrogant. Even though Ci Guogong knew that his son was not good enough, he was only a single seedling and could not be cruel to him. It was this kindness that eventually ruined Lingzhou. Zhou Jin's fate."

As soon as Fu Yalian said the first thing, Gu Xiangtan could almost guess the whole thing, but he still asked: "What did the eldest son of the Lingzhou family do? And...how did he die?"

Fu Yalian shook her head, it was a little hard to say: "One day after the palace banquet, I was drunk and ran into the prince's princess, the princess was so ashamed and angry that she hanged herself at home. , Lord Ciguo has been begging for many days to no avail, saying that he will be executed in a few days, so in desperation he can only go to the great prince for help."

But Zhao Mi is the most upright person, if he is selfish and vicious towards his relatives, his soldiers and other people in the government and the public know how he will rule in the army in the future, and Ling Zhoujin is not the first offender, In the early years, there were already many evils, even if Lord Ci Guo pleaded for mercy in every possible way, Zhao Mi was unwilling to protect him.

"In the end, the emperor kindly changed Ling Zhoujin from beheaded to exiled after autumn, but he didn't expect that the eldest son died of illness on the road due to the difficult journey. Since then, Ci Guogong has hated him. The great prince felt that they were unkind, disregarding blood relationship and kinship, and released words to cut off ties, so even the prince died, and the princess didn't even look at them when she was dying. He's confused! He didn't even think about it, if the eldest princess was really cold-hearted and didn't care about her brother, how could his good son be spared the death penalty overnight? It's all because Ling Zhoujin did too much evil, Even God will accept him."

From Fu Yalian's words, it's not hard to hear that he had a lot of complaints about Lord Ci Guo, which made Gu Xiangtan a little surprised for a while. He lamented the injustice and strangeness of the old things, and was surprised that the master would do it for someone other than himself. people are so angry.

Speaking of this, the carriage has gradually driven out of Luli, and when it reaches the north of Tianping County, there are guards from Daye Palace waiting here, ready to welcome Lingfo back to the palace.

At this time, there was a soft whistling sound from the sky, Gu Xiangtan opened the curtain and looked up, and saw a faint shadow hovering in the sky among the vast clouds. When it swooped close, it turned out to be a black falcon.

Gu Xiangtan waited until it came to a complete stop on the mast of the carriage before reaching out to untie a bamboo tube from its foot, and took out a note from it, looked at it, and couldn't help but smile.

Fu Yalian showed suspicion on the side, Gu Xiangtan handed him the note and said happily: "Master, this is good news."

Fu Yalian took it and looked at it, and saw that there were two names written on the paper, with a total of only a dozen characters.

The imperial examinations are released.

Champion: Meng Su

Second place: Gao Jinting

……