Qi Yuanxiu · Self-cultivation

15 years later

The winter solstice is the arrival of the cathode, the beginning of yang qi, the arrival of the south of the sun, the arrival of the shortest day, and the arrival of the long shadow of the sun, so it is called "winter solstice".

Ji Xiu put down the book in his hand and stared at the snow falling outside the window for a while, it was the winter solstice.Ji Xiu, who only wore a single shirt, didn't feel cold at all. Every winter solstice, he would think of one thing.

That night was bone marrow cold.The coldness in my memory was overwhelming, and it seemed that it had never been warmed. In that coldness, there was a red warm light in the distance, which was out of reach. It was a place I would never be able to reach with my dead mother. The light evolved into a fire that filled the sky, covering the sky and covering the earth, sweeping the entire world.

Fifteen years have passed since the Taikang Rebellion. The Ning Dynasty has experienced a hundred years of conflicts. The Taikang Rebellion has finally become the last straw that broke the camel's back. This country that has ruled for more than 15 years has finally revealed its abuses. Grassland The large-scale invasion of the people made the fiscal deficit more obvious, exorbitant taxes were imposed, the people suffered unspeakably, mob riots broke out in various places, and many places revolted and established themselves as kings.Turkic ran to Beidu in one breath and forced the emperor to death, even if the veteran Yu Xiaoqing came to rescue him, it was a foregone conclusion.

Some old officials took the little emperor to the south, referred to as the Southern Dynasty, and the original capital is now controlled by the eunuch Liu Ling, referred to as the Northern Dynasty.The Great Ning Dynasty was divided into Jinyang, Shangwan, Xiawan, Jinzhou, Hanzhong, Xinzhou, Yongzhou, Yuyan, Zhongshan and other places, and each place occupied the mountains as kings.If it weren't for my grandfather being the prince of Jinyang, I would have died in the heavy snow 15 years ago, and I wouldn't be able to be the cheap emperor of Jinyang even if I co-authored it.

Maybe it wasn't a bad thing when Emperor Gong demoted himself and his mother and concubine to common people.

"Who? Come out."

Uncle Zhong, the general manager of the palace, came in from the door with his hands in his hands, "My lord, someone from the Liu family in Hanzhong came to remind me a few days ago."

"understood."

"The status of the Liu family in Hanzhong is second to none. The culture, economy, and appearance are not bad. If our palace is married to such a family, then we can take down Hanzhong without a single soldier. This..."

"I know."

"That……"

Seeing that King Jin was silent for a long time, Uncle Zhong went on to say: "Actually, the prince should also plan for himself. I remember correctly, the prince is nineteen this year, and the prince just took over the throne two years ago. Our palace should also add a child." gone."

Ji Xiu took over the throne two years ago, and the first thing he did after taking over the throne was to dismiss all the servants, leaving only a housekeeper and an accountant.

This is not a nobleman's mansion, and ordinary people in Jinyang are no more than that.

"Uncle Zhong is still complaining about that."

"Don't dare, I have served the old prince with my old bones, and I plan to stay in the mansion for the rest of my life," Uncle Zhong said.

"Ah."

As the Prince of Jinyang, he is just a name. It is better not to put on airs than to put on airs. Grandpa is kind-hearted, and he supported those old Beijing officials who didn't know what to do, and made himself empty.Since my grandfather let me be the prince, then I have the final say on this Jinyang.

"Yin water is bordered by the upper bowl and the lower bowl, and the interests are raging. Now it's a state of no-things." Ji Xiu suddenly said something irrelevant.

Uncle Zhong thought about it, and indeed, a few days ago, Yicheng sent a letter, which was sent by the head of the Yinshui county government.

"I heard that there's a group of Green Turbans making trouble over there, and the leader's name is Sandao," Ji Xiu continued on. "Do you have any news?"

Uncle Zhong shook his head.

"I'm going there, and there are people visiting during that time." Ji Xiu paused, and then said to himself, "How could someone visit..."

After finishing speaking, he left the hall without looking back.

Jinyang, on the surface, is the area of ​​power of the King of Jinyang, but in fact it is controlled by those veterans of the old school. These veterans came to Jinyang from the northern capital to seek refuge during the Taikang Rebellion. After the Taikang Rebellion, there was no one to go back. Meaning, I stayed in Jinyang with a thick skin. A large number of ministers and servants lived in this city. The old King Jin’s house was kind-hearted, but he raised a group of white-eyed wolves who ate and vomited. Unscrupulous, the Jinyang Prince's Mansion has long been emptied into an empty shell by those people.

The prince of my family is good at everything, but he is extremely stingy with his appearance and temperament. Since he came to the Jinyang Palace, the expression on that face has not changed.When the old prince was alive, he loved him dearly, and he hired the best teacher and bought him the best things, but he didn't seem to express his happiness.It's a pity that he was only nineteen years old, and he didn't have a confidant around him. He was only eleven when the old prince let go, and the veterans of the old school also bullied Jinyang Palace. He worked hard alone to continue the big Jinyang stall, Over the years, he has tempered his character to the utmost.

The prince went to the ancestral hall again. In the white snow, Uncle Zhong followed Ji Xiu's direction and said with emotion, Jinyang's master is such a person, and he doesn't know whether it is a blessing or a curse.

Yin water

"The heavens and the earth are dark and yellow, and the universe is prehistoric," a fortune teller walked slowly, ringing a bell in one hand and carrying an alms bag in the other.

We will be in Yinshui County just ahead. There are many people in the county, so business should be easy to do.

Yinshui City is a small border town in Jinyang. The fortune teller looked at the dark clouds surging in the sky. Large swathes of dark clouds were piled up extremely low, making one's heart ache.

All fortune tellers want to entrust their longevity to the heavens, and this magic stick looks like a man and a god, especially the one-foot-long white beard, which is dry and discounted.This fortune teller claims that he is 34 years old, but his hair and eyebrows have turned white, and he feels like he is about to enter the world, but he himself feels that this is worthy of his name of fortune teller.

Shen Suanzi walked absent-mindedly, staggered accidentally, and threw the octagonal copper bell in his hand a foot away. Shen Suanzi immediately rolled to pick up his treasure, feeling very distressed.

Looking again, it turned out that he had tripped over a corpse.

Amitabha, Amitabha, the fortune teller doesn't want to take care of this matter and plans to leave.

But he never thought that the corpse's hands grabbed his ankles, and the fortune teller turned pale with fright, and had to face someone.

This person's skin was blue-gray, his eyeballs were deeply sunken, his cheekbones were high and protruding, his jaw was injured in some way, and it was bleeding pus. You can break this person, and there is a large blood stain on the front of the shirt. Looking again, there is a hole like a spoon in this person's chest.

Shen Suanzi frowned, and slowly picked up a piece of fabric on the man's body that was close to the inside.

He doesn't know this person, but he knows this.

The color of the fabric is no longer recognizable, but the pattern is very delicate. The complicated ham pattern can be seen to be produced in Persia in the Western Regions. Back then, this kind of material was specially imported for the royal family. After the Taikang Rebellion, only the Zhenyuan Mansion on the border in use.

This person is from Zhenyuan Mansion?

Just at this time, a sound of horseshoes approached from a distance.

A man in black rode a black horse roaring past the two of them, but the cold-blooded ruthlessness of the owner of the horse came from the wind.

The fortune teller looked at the disappearing black spot, and then at the ashen-faced person in front of him, as long as he was from Zhenyuan Mansion, he would be saved.

At the beginning of Xiyun, the pavilion was sinking, and the rain was about to come and the wind filled the building.

I'm about to die, it's so cold, I can hardly feel anything, first the body, then the blood, and then the whole person just freezes like this.In his vague consciousness, he thought that he must have died. He heard that people are closest to the gods when they are close to death. It turns out that death is not a very painful thing.

There seems to be a sound around, is it a god?Shan Xuechen slightly opened his eyes, and his eyes, which had not been exposed to light for a long time, were slightly stinging.As soon as I opened my eyes, there was a gray roof.Still alive, he struggled to sit up, but all the bones in his body seemed to be broken, and the pain was terrific.

Someone came in, and Shan Xuechen quickly closed his eyes.

"I know you're awake," the person who came was not polite. He sat down and poured himself a cup of tea. The person sipped the tea and asked, "How is your body?"

Shan Xuechen opened his eyes and looked at the person who came. He was dressed in gray cloth and rags, and his white hair and beard were eye-catching. He said, "Did you save me? Thank you!"

Shen Suanzi put down his teacup and walked up to him: "What's your name?"

"..." Shan Xuechen was at a loss for words, the experience along the way made him feel full of what he had lacked in the past 20 years, and now the bandits and hooligans are everywhere, it really taught him not to trust others completely.

The fortune teller said disdainfully: "Don't think too noble of me, I saved you only because of your clothes, your clothes belonged to Zhenyuan Mansion, I have received the kindness of Zhenyuan Mansion, and I swore that I would definitely save you in this life. Everyone in Zhenyuan Mansion, you'd better tell me the truth, you've been hurt so badly this time, I'm afraid I can't save you by myself, I have to ask someone."

clothing?

Shen Suanzi showed him a piece of fabric in his hand, "This."

Shan Xuechen felt that he had met a god-man this time, and said, "This belongs to my good friend..."

"good friend?"

"Well, a friend who used to study together in the academy."

"what is it call?"

"Yu Songming."

Shen Suanzi was silent for a while, Yu Guanli, the eldest son of Zhenyuan Mansion, was sent to study by his family three years ago, his scientific name was Yu Songming, and he had good friends with the eldest son of the Shan family, "You must not be Shan Xuechen. "

He left Zhenyuan Mansion since he was a teenager, and traveled around, but the news about Zhenyuan Mansion has never stopped, he has traveled all over the world, he knows a lot, and his brain is better than ordinary people.Shan Xuechen, the number one son of Jinzhou, is good at writing and painting, and is known as the son of Liuchu. How did he end up in such a state?

Good luck tricks people.

Shen Shuanzi has no friendship with the Shan family, but Shan Xuechen is a friend of that silly camel, since he is a friend of the silly camel, then he saved him.

Shan Xuechen felt dejected.

Thinking back on his ups and downs along the way, and being insulted several times, he could hardly believe that he had survived.It turned out that no one could be trusted. He was relying on his family, but he was sold by Erniang. If he hadn't realized it early, he might have become the ghost of a bandit.

Originally, he was the son of a noble family in Jinzhou. He learned from List Xuechen and nicknamed Xuebai. The Jinzhou Shan family is a well-known aristocratic family. Change single house.That Jinzhou was originally the first state in the south of the Yangtze River, and it was famously rich. Rao was a vegetable grower, and he lived in a compound with high walls.As the saying goes: the scholar who goes to the bowl is the prostitute who goes to the bowl, the rich in Jinzhou are shining, and the prosperity of Jinzhou can be seen.It's a pity to hang around. Since the Taikang Rebellion, there have been many bandits here. Wearing wolf skins to rob the rich and help the poor, Jinzhou has been turned into a miasma. The rich basically ran away, but this single family, relying on branches With deep roots, he insisted on staying.The various gangs were fighting openly and secretly, and the imperial court was too busy to take care of this mess. Finally, after more than ten years of struggle, a gang called the Ye Zi Gang appeared. They did not know what to do, and they just took Jinzhou under the table. Ye Zi The leader of the gang is also not polite, and he blatantly establishes himself as the king.

The water turns and the mountains don't turn, how shrewd the Shan family is, the change of dynasties has not seen one ebb and flow, and it will not fail for a hundred years.The current head of the Shan Family is a woman named Hui Niang. This Hui Niang was originally the second wife. Hui Niang was the only one who was worrying about the family. On the surface, she managed the Shan family in an orderly manner. The elders of the clan also admired this woman. On the surface, Hui Niang was giving the eldest son all the supplies he should have, but when Ye Zi helped Jinzhou, Hui Niang didn't know what method she used, what she said was for symbiosis and co-prosperity, to protect the single family well, and to bring the family together. This young master gave Ye Zi Gang as a hostage, and no one in the Zong family objected to this kind of thing!

The snow bait boy was deceived like deaf and dumb.On the way, he found that something was wrong, and under constant questioning, the boy finally told the truth.

Then he fled.Along with what was discarded, there is also the world view of the past 20 years. It turns out that not everyone is so good, and a young master like myself can be regarded as a waste of time, and such days will pass day by day.Thinking of this, he couldn't help but sighed heavily again.

Yuelai Inn

Just as Ji Xiu sat down, an unexpected guest came beside him.

The man put an octagonal brass bell on the table and sat down beside him. He looked at the man. His skin was slack, his hair and beard were more than half white, and the color of his clothes had long since disappeared. He put up a white banner and wrote: Gods of heaven, he remembered this man, the man in black riding a black horse on the road that day was him.

He took a sip of water.

"I see that the benefactor's seal has turned black recently, and a big event is about to come, why don't you ask for a hexagram?" the fortune teller asked, twirling his dry beard.

Ji Xiu was expressionless.

The old magic stick continued on his own: "This hexagram is nothing more than the ancient art of heaven and earth. How many people have participated in the mystery? To be honest, 15 years ago, Emperor Qi Mian of the previous dynasty I made a divination for my youngest son, and the divine man said that the demon star is coming to the world, and the world is in chaos, so it is best to get rid of it quickly. I thought it was absurd, but this old man really believed it, but no matter what, he is his own son. The killer is too inhumane, the old emperor demoted the young son and his mother to common people."

"The Taoist priest is very interested," Ji Xiu said with a sneer.

"Where is there, according to the poor Taoist, what the magic stick said is not all lies. Sure enough, if the grass is not eradicated, the Taikang Rebellion will follow. Those royal heirs, which one can escape? It is the commoner prince—— "

"It seems that the master knows a lot."

"Don't dare, it's all guesswork."

The two smiled at each other.

"I think the Taoist priest's eyes have been opened. Through the past and the present, he must have reached this level at a young age. I am afraid that the old man can't bear to let the Taoist priest go to heaven to make offerings at such a young age, but the Taoist priest's dignity is obviously too embarrassing. For Laojun's face, see you next time, the Taoist priest will spend a lot of time on makeup," Ji Xiu said, put down the money and left.

Wang Jian broke out in a cold sweat. If he guessed correctly, Ji Xiu had murderous intentions just now.

This is the Jinyang King Qi Yuanxiu, looking at the back of the man walking away.Wang Jian felt a little worried, it was too difficult to deal with, but only by asking him could he save Shan Xuechen's life. He had heard a lot about this prince before, but this was the first time he had come into contact with Long Xuechen. Qianhu is hidden and the city is deep. This Jin Wang Qi Yuanxiu looks like an emperor, but he is too cold and not suitable for controlling the world.

In the Yamen of Yinshui County, the county magistrate obviously didn't know that King Jinyang had arrived at this place, and at this time in the inner Yamen, he was really having fun with that concubine.

"My lord, I said that the green scarf soldiers, I heard, have infiltrated into the soldiers," Ming Mingxiang, with his breasts half exposed, sat on Sai Luozhou's lap, letting the old man do his best.

"Oh, my beauty, why are you so worried? Didn't Master Li send a letter to tell the higher-ups a few days ago?" Sai Luozhou smoothly swallowed the grapes handed over by his mistress, "That's the one from the higher-ups." Why do you think so much about it? To be disrespectful, the new Jinyang King is just a brat who only inherited the throne the year before last. He has nothing to do with these things.” Said magistrate Sai pinched Tearing Mingxiang's cock made the beauty spit lightly, and then the two of them hugged each other and rolled onto the bed, doing that mediocre thing.

Master Li and other people in the front hall were in a hurry like adding fuel to the fire.

"My lord is still there?" Master Li glanced inside, then lowered his head in shame. Sai Luozhou was originally an official of the previous dynasty. , and shaved off his beard, saying that grandpa would not keep it, how could his grandson keep such shameless words, and he also paid a lot of gold, silver and jewels by the way, so he went to Yinshui to be the county magistrate, this Sai Luozhou, Adhering to the fine traditions of the eunuchs, I usually don’t see doing anything serious. Corruption and bribery are easy to catch. Helping the landlords to exploit the common people is also comprehensive. The common people can’t stand being oppressed. A green scarf is tied on the sleeve, against this dog!

This dog's IQ is also negative, and I don't know if he understands that the purpose of the Green Turban Army is him, so he sent a letter directly to Ji Xiu, saying that he was bullying the good people, and by the way, he will be charged with all the crimes When it comes to the head of the green scarf army, it is full of loopholes.Thinking that the king of Jin sent troops over to hand over these rioters, he was also happy to be at ease.

Master Li was originally a scholar in the former dynasty, and his family was still poor. When he was saving enough money to prepare for the exam in Beijing, he encountered the Taikang Rebellion. Just copy and write, I don't agree with this skinning game, and I don't dare to go against it, I just want to live in peace and stability.It just so happened that the county magistrate of this dog made a big death, so the prince came here in person, and he was still lightly dressed and without any entourage. If the green scarf army knew about it, he might not be able to resist it.

The Dongyang incident was originally during the seventh year of the Taikang Examination, the era when Emperor Gong Qimian.Song Dongyang, Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites, was found to be teaching exam questions privately, and he agreed to the shady scene in the examination room of the students. This kind of shady scene happens every year, and the court also turns a blind eye to it. It is a glorious tradition to form cliques among bureaucrats. Everyone They all knew that if the agreed student won the first prize, his side would be even more powerful, sharing prosperity and humiliation. , Zhao Quande and Guo Bing, the Minister of the Ministry of household affairs, and others jointly committed fraud, so they ordered to investigate and deal with it.

In March of the eighth year of Taikang, the censors Yu Daoquan and Ding Tingju reported that Guo Bing, the minister of the household department, used his power to collude with Song Dongyang, Shangshu of the Ministry of rites, Li Yu, an official of the procuratorate, and Zhao Quande, Hu Yi, Wang Daoheng, officials of the procuratorate, etc. Grading, selling test questions openly, and setting up clever names, collecting various taxes such as water feet money, food money, treasury money, gods and Buddha money, etc., filling private pockets.Emperor Gong was furious and ordered the interrogation department to torture him. The case involved 400 chief secretaries across the country, including Zhao Mao, Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites, Wang Huidi, Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment, Wang Zhi, the minister of the Ministry of War, and Mai Zhide, the minister of the Ministry of Industry.A total of 700 million taels of silver was embezzled and accepted. The house is almost destroyed."

The struggle of the imperial court has always been the struggle of gangs.

No matter which faction wins, the one who gets hurt the most is the irrelevant one.

Wang Jian's father was the Zuo Pushe of the Ministry of Industry at the time, but he was bitten by a group of people just after sending a letter to the inspector.When passing through Yongzhou, thanks to the strong protection of Zhenyuan General Yu Xiaoqing, the whole family was saved from danger.Wang Jian is the youngest son of Wang Pushe. This youngest son is talented and has the ability of photographic memory.General Zhenyuan saw the interest relationship behind the Dongyang incident, and carefully raised this child. When the child grows up, he can assist Ming Jun, restore the great rule, and at the same time keep the Yu family alive.

Unexpectedly, a few months later, the Taikang Rebellion occurred. Taking advantage of the emptiness of the Central Plains, the barbarians invaded the northern capital, burned, killed and looted, and the people were in dire straits. At this point, the mainland fell apart.

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