After being forced to marry the prince

Gu Baiji nodded, "Very likely."

Chen Siyuan heard the words and asked: "Do you need to send someone to guard outside the gate of the mansion and arrest him?"

Gu Baiji shook his head, "No need."

Chu Wudao: "Now I can't see any malicious intentions from the other party, let's see what he will do again."

On the second day, the bamboo tube was thrown over again. The inside was still the same sheepskin, and the word Yuzhou was still crooked on the sheepskin, but the content of the painting underneath was different.

The villain in this painting still has no belly. Although the painter's skills are poor, he obviously worked hard to draw the whole body of the person completely. Only the belly is still just a spine and a few ribs.

There are more and more people lying down, and the picture is even more shocking. In the center of the picture: someone is holding a firewood, and a corpse without a belly is lying on the firewood. A group of people are sitting in a circle, holding severed hands in their hands, or Holding the broken leg, he was gnawing ferociously.

"Here..." Chen Qi pointed to one of the pictures and said in disbelief, "These two people are holding a knife in one hand and a child in the other. Are they exchanging?"

Chu Wu nodded and sighed softly, "Eat the child."

"Ah You." Gu Baiji asked, "What do you think of this painting?"

Chu Wudao: "With just a few strokes, it is difficult to paint the common people. If you don't see it with your own eyes, it is difficult to give such a feeling to such a simple painter." He paused for a moment, then continued, "General, now in the hall, The king is not for the community, the minister is not for the people, if the scene in the painting is true, this person will come to you, I am afraid, there is nowhere to turn."

"I think the same thing." Gu Baiji said, "Don't worry too much, I will send someone to Yuzhou to check the authenticity, if there is no falsehood, no matter what others do, I will definitely go there myself."

Gu Baiji quickly gave orders, and then told Yuan Shiqi, if there is any movement, send it immediately, and let the guards pay attention, if the other party shows up, stop him immediately.

On the third day, the bamboo tube came again. Unexpectedly, the person who came came was quite nimble. There was always someone holding the handle at the gate of the general's mansion, but the other party had no intention of showing his face from the beginning, and only held the things from a distance. Throwing it outside the gate of the mansion, in order to prevent the rain from washing away the handwriting on the sheepskin, I also specially found a bamboo tube to pretend.

Although the skills of the two guards were not very good, they were still a bit nimble. After several years of fighting on the battlefield, the two of them together could not stop him.

However, Gu Baiji did not force him, otherwise he would have to wait until this day if he really wanted to arrest someone.

What the other party sent was still the same bamboo tube, the same parchment roll, and the rough painted villains still had no belly, but almost none of them were standing. The lying ones were obviously dead, but the crawling ones all turned around one direction.

There is a house in that direction, which is completely different from the dilapidated and barren places in other places on the screen, with high eaves and resplendent gold.

"What does this mean?" Qi Le asked strangely, "Everyone is dead, and they all went to hell?"

No one refuted his words. Now it seems that there is indeed only one explanation. Chen Qi followed, "I think so too."

Chu Wu frowned deeply, Gu Baiji asked: "Ah, what's wrong?"

"I always feel a little weird."

Gu Baiji said: "How to say?"

Chu Wu thought for a while, and analyzed: "The person who drew this painting saw the misery of being starved for thousands of miles, and the common people had to change their children to eat. It is not surprising that they would imagine the underworld as a fairy-like place. This is a kind of psychological comfort. I hope These people who have a hard life can have a good home after death, but in reality it doesn't work that way."

Gu Qing followed suit, obviously thinking the same way, and Gu Baiji was also stunned.

Seeing that Qi Le, Chen Qi and others were still in a daze, Gu Qing pointed to a few small people with belly outside the house and said: "These people are holding weapons and have fierce expressions. Obviously, they have no intention of letting these people approach. If the painting is really hell, What is the purpose of the other party deliberately beautifying the underworld like this but not letting people approach after death?"

A few people suddenly realized, Qi Le asked strangely: "I don't understand, then what is he working so hard to draw these things for?"

Obviously the first two paintings are easy to understand, why the third one is like guessing a riddle.

"There's no other information right now." Gu Baiji said, "We'll wait for news from Yuzhou to come back."

After the third bamboo tube, that person never appeared again.No one knew whether he was disappointed by the general's indifference or whether he went to find someone else.

A few days later, the people who went to Yuzhou came back, saying that the news was true, and that Yuzhou had indeed been in severe drought for a long time.The natural disasters were severe, the people had no harvest, beggars everywhere along the way, and those who starved to death didn't know who they were.

But what is strange is that what they saw was the situation outside Yuzhou City or in other counties of Yuzhou City. The gates of Yuzhou City were closed tightly, and no one came out or entered.

They waited outside the city gate for two days, and it was still the same. A large number of refugees gathered outside the gate, and after receiving no response, they died in despair under the scorching sun one by one.

After hearing this, Chu Wu sighed silently a few times, and then remained silent for half a day.

When Gu Baiji woke up in the middle of the night, his side was empty.He picked up a cloak, opened the door and went out.

Chu Wu was sitting on the stone steps outside the door, heard footsteps, turned around:

"General, did I wake you up?"

Gu Baiji put the cloak on his shoulders, "Without you by my side, I woke up naturally."

Gu Baiji sat down behind Chu Wu, hugged him in his arms, "Ah You, can't sleep?"

"Yeah." Chu Wu nodded, "When you close your eyes, those paintings will come to mind, and those scenes seem to come alive, and the powerless cries of the victims are almost still echoing in your ears."

Gu Baiji lightly pressed his temples, "Ah You, you have fallen into a demon. Blame my carelessness. You didn't eat much for dinner, so you should have noticed."

Chu Wu relaxed himself and leaned his head on his shoulder, and after a moment of silence, he said: "General, I used to think that life was so difficult, and I was exhausted in order to survive. Only now did I realize that my vision is narrow, and I have been busy for half my life. I can only see my own sorrow and joy."

"It's not your fault." Gu Baiji sighed softly, "It's also because they were born at the wrong time and didn't meet a good king. It's unfortunate to encounter natural disasters. If the court doesn't care about it, they have completely lost their way of life."

"I know that natural disasters are indeed beyond manpower." Chu Wudao, "But in fact, the court is like this, that is, the land is fertile and the rain is abundant, so the people's life is not easy, right? Corrupt officials are rampant, unjust cases It's hard to complain, there are countless miscellaneous taxes, no matter how much harvest, how can it be exploited?" Chu Wu sighed lightly, "So this time, it's just a natural disaster that caused Yuzhou to erupt earlier."

Gu Bai was very afraid of the cold on the ground, so he hugged him on his lap, Chu Wu put his head on his shoulder, and said slowly: "General, I was also starved when I was a child, and I know that kind of person who is empty in the stomach and anxious about the future. Taste. But after I was adopted by my concubine, I never experienced this kind of feeling again. But I only saw that I was in a difficult situation, but I didn’t notice that I have always enjoyed fine clothes, fine food, and clothing. The ones are silk, satin and silk."

"It's all the same." Gu Baiji said, "Your life is threatened by the eyes of relatives around you, but what threatens their lives is endless hunger, so Ah You, you did nothing wrong."

Chu Wu shook his head, "It's different after all. General, people in the world respect the Chu family. They gave Chu the highest respect and enjoyment. Therefore, as a king, he should be responsible for the life of the people in the world. But no one did it. The Chu royal family lost themselves in the power. Everyone stepped on the imperial power built of gold and jade to pursue higher and more comfortable power and enjoyment. No one noticed that under this power, It's piles of bones, it's starving for thousands of miles, it's mourning and moaning."

"Ah you..."

"General." Chu Wu said softly, "No matter what the country's surname will be in the future, but now, my surname is also Chu, and I am also... one of the members who stepped on this pile of bones."