Chapter 9 first quarter
The edict was transcribed on sheets of flimsy paper.
The yellow paper was pasted all over the streets and alleys of Chang'an City.
I am ordered by the emperor, to inherit the ancestral business, to rule all nations, to educate the common people, and the successor has come, what is wrong with it?And the voice of slander spreads all over the world!Killing no more than a thousand is called torture; walking shoulder to shoulder is not rare enough.Fang should be severely punished, just like me!
The resentful voice hidden in this passage is nothing more than: You say that I am bad, and I will show you that I am bad, so what can you do with me? !
There was a wind in Chang'an that night, and the edict fluttered in the wind that filled the entire Chang'an city.
It's a pity that although the edict was plastered all over Chang'an, no common people came forward to watch it—this is what the current emperor hates the most. What he hates most is this situation where there is no response to a punch.
Since he took the throne, this situation has happened more than once, and it even made him wonder: Is it because he doesn't exist?Otherwise, under the throne, why is it always silent?Except when he tortured and ordered the entire family to be beheaded, some shrill wailing passed through the palace gates and reached his ears.
But in Chang'an City, is there really no echo?
The flame of that oil lamp has been adjusted very small, as small as a bean. The beans were so green that they only slightly illuminated the faces of the two people sitting by the oil lamp. The person on the left opened his mouth first, his voice was very low: "The big guys are all together today. This is the first time since we started the 'Ten Less than 10'. There is nothing else to commemorate. Let's sing a name Well, start with me." He lifted the ripped blanket over his lap, exposing his legs underneath.The legs were empty from the knee down.He said with a miserable smile, "I'm 'insufficient'." As he said that, he pointed to the man sitting on the right: "He is just 'not capable' - General Qian Zhechong, when fighting Ma Qiu, he once killed seven generals under Ma Qiu's command, but it is a pity that he is just a tongue-twister now. People, I have to do it for me, a cripple, even to report the number. Please report your own code name, and see how many people in this world are so cruel, just like my two brothers, who have to call themselves crippled. " A voice came from the corner: "I am 'less'." "I am 'None'." "lack." "hurt." "Crippled!" "destroy." "Cross!" "Only." The tones of the people who answered were different, some were downcast, some were depressed, some were angry, and some were slightly self-deprecating.But there was also resistance in that suppressed voice. You must know that in today's Daqin, there are ten words that are never allowed to be mentioned, that is: insufficient, not possessed, few, nothing, lacking, injured, disabled, destroyed, partial, only - just because these are the words of the current emperor. taboo.The current emperor hates people mentioning these words because he is disabled.It is said that Cheng Yan, the imperial physician the day before yesterday, mixed the medicine for the emperor, just to introduce the efficacy of ginseng blindly. The eyes, and then handed over to the guards to cull them in court. As for the "insufficient" legs, of course they were chopped off by the current saint.What he hates the most may not be this - he was originally a retainer of Lei Ruo'er, who was led by the Qiang people. And still lead.Zhao Shao, Dong Rong and others who looked down on Fu Sheng's favorites were the first ministers to be killed just because of their honest nature.He was not the only one who was killed, but also his nine sons and twenty-seven grandsons.The whole family of Lei's family was wiped out in one day, and even spared the "inadequate" family. Counting it all down, there are not many Gu Ming ministers left behind by the first emperor in the court.The "ten deficiencies" at the meeting today are the great rebellion that came out of the reaction under such massacres. Just listening to the "insufficiency" beside the oil lamp said leisurely: "There is a secret in the world today." "Anyone who knows this secret is guilty. That is, the current emperor has only one eye—it's a pity that everyone knows his secret, so everyone is guilty." "Today, you all are listed as amnesty, and you are named as 'Ten Incomplete'. It can be said to be congratulations." This is an airtight small room, and there are about ten people in the small room.Except for the two people sitting by the oil lamp, the rest of the faces were covered with masks. The house is hidden deep underground and has no windows in itself.The heavy stale air is glued together, the smell of suet from lamp oil, the smell of dust on the floor, the smell of rotten bedding, the smell of rust from weapons on the wall, and the smell of sweat from everyone's bodies, mixed together, It would have been absolutely unbearable.But there is one thing that overwhelms these pungent smells, and that is fear. All the people present here have forged a deep blood feud with the current Holy Majesty, otherwise they would not have come to participate in this meeting at the risk of exterminating their families. "Quiet" cleared his throat: "Everyone, according to the news I just received, Shang Shu Ling Xin Lao was also shot dead by the emperor. So far, our last thoughts are exhausted. The reason for taking the risk today, please come forward." Come, only because we have nothing else to do but launch that plan." He glanced around: "Do you have any objections? If so, there is still time to exit, take off the mask on your face, light it in front of this light, and then go out and don't pass. Although Er is no longer a good brother, no one will make things difficult for him in the future." After saying that, he flipped his hand over, drew out a short blade under the miserable green flame, swiped his finger, and a drop of blood dripped into a large cup of wine. "Whether it's Di people, Qiang people, or hybrid Hu, even Huns, Xianbei, and Ding Ling, the blood-draining rules should be the same..." "If you agree, just cut this knife and drink this mouthful! From now on, the emperor will never break his oath!"
The secret meeting lasted for more than an hour. The people at the meeting didn't talk much, but the discussions were intense. There was only one person who never spoke.He huddled in a corner, wearing a brown fur with a cloth belt around his waist, and a black Ge scarf on his head.If he is not covered, his attire is no different from that of ordinary traffickers.The mask on his face is also extremely simple, unlike everyone present, it is either exaggerated to make people grin, or colorful to make people frightened. This person is tall and calm, although he doesn't say anything, but there is a hint of uprightness. Until the discussion is over, everyone goes their separate ways—everyone leaves a moment apart when they go out, lest others guess their whereabouts. This is also one of the "ten incomplete" rules. The grown man was the last to leave.As soon as he went out, the fresh air outside was like a punch into his throat, which made him dizzy and refreshed him. He went through the people who had just attended the meeting in detail in his mind, and vaguely guessed the identity of each person. People can put on a mask, but they cannot hide the hidden mood, sustenance and purpose when wearing the mask. Chang'an City was already under curfew at this time, he had to avoid Jing Zhaoyin's soldiers on his way this night, so his walk was tortuous.But he was not in a hurry to go home, and walked west of the city in the dark. The southwest area of the city was originally the site of Jianzhang Palace in the Western Han Dynasty. After the Wang Mang Rebellion, it was destroyed and abandoned until the Eastern Han Dynasty. After the fall of the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was burned down again. There was originally a garden in this area, named Luo Garden, which was the residence of the former King of Hejian in Chang'an City.There is also a platform in the garden, called the viewing platform, which is hundreds of feet high. Thousands of people were used to build it with soil.Although the pavilions on the stage are destroyed, the stone foundations are still there, and it is the best place to climb in the west of the city. After all, it has only been more than 50 years since the garden was built.But after more than fifty years, the Luo Garden has been full of bushes. The man raised his eyes and saw a hundred-step high step hanging between the bushes and grass. The stone steps are open and straight, the edges and corners still remain, and they are as green as old. Although they are speechless, they seem to have exhausted the ups and downs since the Sangluan. The man climbed up the steps step by step, keeping his head down. When he got to the top of the stage, he suddenly raised his head, only to see a sky full of stars smashing down.In this endless dark night, Chang'an City is as small as a mustard, and the universe seems to be bigger.People are caught between the city and the wild, trying to squeeze out the "emptiness" hidden in their hearts. The man walked to the edge of the platform, leaned on the sill and looked west, but he saw the stars falling down, and the bucket was shining brilliantly.At the foot, the place where the lights are faintly scattered after midnight is Chang'an.Back then, he walked to this famous ancient city step by step in this way. The person who helped the threshold looked east, and in the dim starry night, he seemed to see a young man with a dustpan walking along the road leading to Chang'an in the east. The young man's clothes were covered with dust, but his expression seemed to be a little careless, with the attitude of "shaking the clothes for thousands of hills, and washing the feet for thousands of miles". It's good to be young—Fujianren recalled the day when he first came to Chang'an when he was a teenager, and he was only seventeen years old at that time. He was originally from Beihai, and his family was too poor to make a living, so he made a living by weaving dustpans.He came to this pass step by step from Shandong.Those thousands of miles of travel, compared with reading, have benefited him a lot.The starving corpses along the way made him understand the meaning of "governing the world" in the book.He couldn't forget the huge fantasy that the name "Chang'an" had ignited in his heart when he was a teenager—it wasn't somewhere else, it was Chang'an! That's Zhou's Ho Kyung! ——Qin's Xianyang! ——Chang'an of the Han Dynasty! A boy who lived in the countryside once read in a book that in the second year of the first year of Emperor Ping of the Han Dynasty, Chang'an City had a circumference of fifty miles: a city wall winding for fifty miles, and within the city wall lived 88,000 households, a total of twenty More than 40,000 people, what a huge number!Not to mention its Twelve Gates and Eighth Street, Changle, Weiyang, Mingguang Palaces, Shanglin Garden and Kunming Pond... There, the red and purple ribbons of the three important officials are arched, and the high crowns and belts of the royal officials are fluttering. Habayashi Erlang's golden saddle jade le...the girls there: blue field jade on the head, big Qin beads behind the ears, long skirt with tie belt, wide-sleeved acacia jacket...there is the so-called "shade with open sleeves, sweat and rain"; There, there are people like Zhang Qian, who travel thousands of miles to the West; there are people like Su Wu, who have a bright moon, and shepherd Beihai; there are also flying generals like Li Guang, and queens like Gillian...that is a nation. It is a place that can only be built by devoting all of its ingenuity and labor. There it is: the hub of the world. It's a pity that later, the Han Dynasty lost power, and the whole Han Dynasty fell apart because of the "five buckets of rice". Since then, the world has been in turmoil for more than one hundred and twenty years.There was also Jin Zhongxing in the middle.At the heyday of the Jin Dynasty, Chang'an City was still an important town in the world, with more than 40,000 households—this is also a remarkable number. After the Yellow Turban Rebellion, although Cao Cao ruled all the land in the north of the Yangtze River, the population under his rule was only The lower area is five million, which is barely more than a big state in the Han Dynasty.Since the rise of the Jin Dynasty, the population has become increasingly prosperous, and with the addition of the Xiongnu, the population of Guanzhong has been enriched again, but among them, foreigners such as Rong and Di have accounted for more than half.At the time of Yongjia's disaster, the Eight Kings rebelled, and the Di tribe Qi Wannian rebelled, and the population of Guanzhong dropped sharply again.By the time the last emperor of Jin, Emperor Xiaomin, was greeted by his officials and succeeded to the throne, the remaining residents of Chang'an City were less than a hundred households, and the number of public and private vehicles and horses combined was only four.The last emperor of the Western Jin Dynasty died in such poverty! And this is no longer the Chang'an he imagined. Not even the Chang'an he wanted! A long sigh suddenly sounded from behind. Only one person sighed: "The Han Dynasty lost power, Dong Zhuo is in chaos! If you want to usurp, kill all the sages first. Just now I was watching the stars here, and I saw Taibai committing crimes in Dongjing again. Within a few months, I am afraid that the capital will be killed." There's a riot." The person who helped the threshold turned his head, and saw a person behind him wearing a court dress and a mountain crown, with a long body and a tall body. The crown on the man's head was nine inches high, but he never suppressed his airy and distant attitude. The man who helped the threshold smiled and said, "Who am I? It turned out to be Brother Zhu. Brother Zhu is now in charge of the Heavenly Supervisor. He is not watching the sky at Xuanji Terrace, but what is he doing in this abandoned place?" The man replied: "Looking at the sky is only for the sake of human affairs. If the human affairs are not clear, what's the use of observing the sky? Speaking of which, it has been seven years since we left Tongguan. Time really flies by. I'm afraid the wood of the tomb has already been arched at the master's burial place. Why did my virtuous brother come to Chang'an if he wasn't in the mountains to honor his master? I always knew that my virtuous brother was talented and had a long-standing ambition to clarify the world. I remember that before your venerable master left, There was a command to tell my virtuous younger brother to wait for the weather and wait for the Ming Lord. Why don’t you follow Jiang Taigong’s example of going fishing at the current time, but come to this place?” The person who helped the threshold gave a dumb smile: "What time is it?" "What if the sky doesn't give me the right time?" He opened his eyes sharply, and threw down the mask in his hand, but saw that he had a lion nose and a wide mouth, and he should be thirty-two or thirty-two years old, while the person behind him seemed to be more than ten years older than him. The person in court uniform, whose surname is Zhu Mingtong and whose style name is Yiyun, is now an official in the court, in charge of Qin Tianjian.The person who helped the threshold was called Wang Meng, and his style name was Jinglue. He was only a commoner.Both of them once lived in seclusion in Xihua Mountain, one lived in the sun of the mountain, and the other lived in the shade of the mountain. They are both famous people in Guanzhong, and they are also the two great scholars of this dynasty.If the world knew that these two met in the middle of the night, they would be full of excitement amidst surprise. Just listen to Zhu Tong calmly said: "The way of heaven is unpredictable, but Mingjun is hard to meet. With Jiang Shang's ability, he only met King Wen in his eighties. Brother, what are you in a hurry for?" Wang Meng stroked the threshold with his palm: "You ask me why I am anxious?" He looked at Chang'an at his feet: "Do you know what I saw here?" As he said, he stretched out his hand and pointed forward: "Can you see a lonely car? According to the system of the previous dynasty, the emperor's law should have used vermilion lacquer as the wheel, and gold, jade, ivory, bear skin, and sandalwood as the wheel." There are thirty spokes on the wheel, corresponding to the number of one month, two heavy hubs, flying bells, engraved beasts on Shi, engraved dragon heads on the yoke... But the car is so dilapidated that it can't be compared to a car. An ordinary firewood cart. But the person sitting in the cart is Jin Tianzi, the former Emperor Xiaomin! He was welcomed by the officials and entered Chang'an." "But what was Chang'an City like at that time? The walls were ruined, the wormwood was like a forest, and all the residents had no more than a hundred households... That was Chang'an, which had a population of 150,000 before the chaos! Where did all those people go? Go? Is that the Chang'an you and I have seen in the book?" "Do you know what else I saw? You can see the distant team coming from the east more than 30 years later? The team numbered more than 100,000 people, with half and half soldiers. The people brought their families and mouths, and the Di people , Qiang, Han, and Jiehu are all mixed together. It was more than ten years ago, the governor Fu Jian, with tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians under his rule, moved back west from Fangtou, Henan. The journey of more than two thousand miles, All the way to pass the river, to fight fiercely with the enemy, and tens of thousands of people to migrate thousands of miles, what is it for? It’s just for a family! If he had not defeated Du Hong outside this city, and moved the army and civilians under his control to Chang’an, Chang’an City has been in Chang’an until now It's just an empty city." "Although the city is surrounded by thousands of miles of fertile soil, there are Hangu Pass in the east, Dashan Pass in the west, Wuguan in the south, and Xiaoguan in the north, so it is called Guanzhong, and it has been holding the king's spirit for a long time. Wang Qi will be exhausted one day!" "You ask me why I'm anxious—I, Wang Meng, can wait as much as I can, but can they wait?" Hearing his high-spirited words, Zhu Tong couldn't help but smile slightly: "So my virtuous brother really can't wait? But good ministers and famous generals have always had to wait for the Ming Lord, otherwise you will have the strategy to govern the country and control the people. , but you have spent too much time learning the ability of knowing people and judging things, and cultivating the spirit of silence. You have no family background, and you have no time to gather people. If you don’t have a master who can gather people, you just have Even the great talent and learning can't be displayed." Wang Meng snorted: "Then I have to wait? How do I know if I can wait?" He looked up and shouted: "God?!" "Who knows what the sky is thinking...During the Ran-Min Rebellion, millions of people in the world were driven back to their hometowns. Among those millions of people, there were Han, Qiang, Jiehu, and Huns. Those who robbed and killed each other on the road, and finally returned to their hometowns, would be one out of ten people left? At that time, what was the sky thinking? The sky is tying people to eat each other!" "hey-hey……" "If the sky doesn't give me a Mingzhu, can't I create one?" Zhu Tong laughed: "Jing Lue, Jing Lue! You really deserve to be Wang Jinglue. But now that Great Qin has its own emperor in power, can't you just go out of the mountain and become an official?" "Emperor? You mean the tyrant?" Zhu Tong's eyes suddenly narrowed: "Tyrant?" "You call him a tyrant, but what is the basis? Are you referring to the rumors that have been raging in Guanzhong in the past two years? I've always wondered, where did these wild words come from?" He stared at Wang Meng. Wang Meng suddenly did not answer. Zhu Tong stared straight at him, and slowly said: "Actually, you and I should know about Jinshang's temperament, and it's not as bad as outsiders say." Wang Meng sneered and said, "Then, how many ministers left for him by his late father? I remember that the late Emperor Fu Jian left eight ministers for him: Yu Zun, Prime Minister Lei Ruo'er, Grand Tutor Mao Gui, Sikong Wangzhuo, Shang Shu Ling Liang Leng, Shang Shu Zuo Servant She Liang An, Shang Shu Right Servant She Duan Chun... Mmm! There is also a Shang Shu Ling Xin Lao. Now, how many of these eight ministers are left? Hehe Who killed Lei Wei'er and his nine sons and twenty-seven grandsons?" Zhu Tong said indifferently: "When he succeeded to the throne today, he was not young enough and was born with a disability. He was forced to have what he is today. Even if he is cruel today, it does not mean that he will be cruel when he succeeds to the throne. But he was forced to go to the throne. Today, I’m afraid it’s the rumors spreading all over the world and the ever-present framing. Jing Lue, when you returned to Chang’an two years ago, it seemed that you had just ascended the throne today. Do you still remember the first thing you did? What is it?" Wang Meng's face suddenly changed, his gaze suddenly turned to Zhu Tong: "I didn't expect Brother Zhu to stare at me so closely." Zhu Tong said coldly: "Ashamed, Taibai first committed Dongjing that year. Although I observed it, I didn't expect that the person who committed the crime was not in the court, but in the court. I didn't find out until two years later, after the rumors spread in Chang'an. , In the city of Chang'an, there is actually a commander of rumors sitting in command! Although this person has no power, no soldiers, no money and food for the time being, what he can command is rumors. I just didn't expect the power of rumors to be so terrifying..." Wang Meng cut off suddenly: "Although Fu Sheng is not as cruel as people say, but he is too short-tempered and unworthy of the position of leader. I want to get rid of him to make way for Ming Jun. What's wrong?" Zhu Tong said indifferently: "So, if you want to create a Ming Lord, you must first create a 'tyrant', right?" Wang Meng didn't answer, he looked towards the audience: "Spring is about to begin." "Before farmers plant crops, don't they always burn the wasteland first? If they don't burn the wasteland, how can good seedlings grow?" Zhu Tong said coldly: "So if you want to save the world from fire and water, you have to sink the world into fire and water first?" Suddenly a shooting star flashed across the sky.Zhu Tong raised his head to look, his face was miserable. When he turned his head, he saw Wang Meng bowed suddenly and bowed down to himself. Zhu Tong looked at him. The person who had lived in seclusion with him for nearly ten years in Xihua Mountain finally couldn't hold back, and was about to start...killing to save others? He thought of the great truth of "killing people to save people" that has been circulating for thousands of years since Xia Jie, and suddenly began to smile wryly. The thousands of stars in the sky are silent. After watching for a long time, it seems that they are going to hang down from the universe to wash away the blood that has been stagnant for more than a thousand years in this closed place.He seemed to suddenly see that between the earth and the stars, there was never any idle time, either the sea of sweat was overflowing, or the stagnation of blood was churning like a sea. He didn't avoid Wang Meng's bow, and heard Wang Meng say in his ears: "Brother Zhu is indeed a straight man. The real man is speechless, but the real man is speechless. It's a pity that the world is full of evil spirits, and all sentient beings have murderous intentions, but they are not real men and straight men." All that can be saved." Zhu Tong looked sideways at the palace. That's the end of the story, although the current emperor is kind to him—otherwise he wouldn't be out of the mountain to become an official—but such a dangerous situation is really beyond what he can save.
The flame of that oil lamp has been adjusted very small, as small as a bean. The beans were so green that they only slightly illuminated the faces of the two people sitting by the oil lamp. The person on the left opened his mouth first, his voice was very low: "The big guys are all together today. This is the first time since we started the 'Ten Less than 10'. There is nothing else to commemorate. Let's sing a name Well, start with me." He lifted the ripped blanket over his lap, exposing his legs underneath.The legs were empty from the knee down.He said with a miserable smile, "I'm 'insufficient'." As he said that, he pointed to the man sitting on the right: "He is just 'not capable' - General Qian Zhechong, when fighting Ma Qiu, he once killed seven generals under Ma Qiu's command, but it is a pity that he is just a tongue-twister now. People, I have to do it for me, a cripple, even to report the number. Please report your own code name, and see how many people in this world are so cruel, just like my two brothers, who have to call themselves crippled. " A voice came from the corner: "I am 'less'." "I am 'None'." "lack." "hurt." "Crippled!" "destroy." "Cross!" "Only." The tones of the people who answered were different, some were downcast, some were depressed, some were angry, and some were slightly self-deprecating.But there was also resistance in that suppressed voice. You must know that in today's Daqin, there are ten words that are never allowed to be mentioned, that is: insufficient, not possessed, few, nothing, lacking, injured, disabled, destroyed, partial, only - just because these are the words of the current emperor. taboo.The current emperor hates people mentioning these words because he is disabled.It is said that Cheng Yan, the imperial physician the day before yesterday, mixed the medicine for the emperor, just to introduce the efficacy of ginseng blindly. The eyes, and then handed over to the guards to cull them in court. As for the "insufficient" legs, of course they were chopped off by the current saint.What he hates the most may not be this - he was originally a retainer of Lei Ruo'er, who was led by the Qiang people. And still lead.Zhao Shao, Dong Rong and others who looked down on Fu Sheng's favorites were the first ministers to be killed just because of their honest nature.He was not the only one who was killed, but also his nine sons and twenty-seven grandsons.The whole family of Lei's family was wiped out in one day, and even spared the "inadequate" family. Counting it all down, there are not many Gu Ming ministers left behind by the first emperor in the court.The "ten deficiencies" at the meeting today are the great rebellion that came out of the reaction under such massacres. Just listening to the "insufficiency" beside the oil lamp said leisurely: "There is a secret in the world today." "Anyone who knows this secret is guilty. That is, the current emperor has only one eye—it's a pity that everyone knows his secret, so everyone is guilty." "Today, you all are listed as amnesty, and you are named as 'Ten Incomplete'. It can be said to be congratulations." This is an airtight small room, and there are about ten people in the small room.Except for the two people sitting by the oil lamp, the rest of the faces were covered with masks. The house is hidden deep underground and has no windows in itself.The heavy stale air is glued together, the smell of suet from lamp oil, the smell of dust on the floor, the smell of rotten bedding, the smell of rust from weapons on the wall, and the smell of sweat from everyone's bodies, mixed together, It would have been absolutely unbearable.But there is one thing that overwhelms these pungent smells, and that is fear. All the people present here have forged a deep blood feud with the current Holy Majesty, otherwise they would not have come to participate in this meeting at the risk of exterminating their families. "Quiet" cleared his throat: "Everyone, according to the news I just received, Shang Shu Ling Xin Lao was also shot dead by the emperor. So far, our last thoughts are exhausted. The reason for taking the risk today, please come forward." Come, only because we have nothing else to do but launch that plan." He glanced around: "Do you have any objections? If so, there is still time to exit, take off the mask on your face, light it in front of this light, and then go out and don't pass. Although Er is no longer a good brother, no one will make things difficult for him in the future." After saying that, he flipped his hand over, drew out a short blade under the miserable green flame, swiped his finger, and a drop of blood dripped into a large cup of wine. "Whether it's Di people, Qiang people, or hybrid Hu, even Huns, Xianbei, and Ding Ling, the blood-draining rules should be the same..." "If you agree, just cut this knife and drink this mouthful! From now on, the emperor will never break his oath!"
The secret meeting lasted for more than an hour. The people at the meeting didn't talk much, but the discussions were intense. There was only one person who never spoke.He huddled in a corner, wearing a brown fur with a cloth belt around his waist, and a black Ge scarf on his head.If he is not covered, his attire is no different from that of ordinary traffickers.The mask on his face is also extremely simple, unlike everyone present, it is either exaggerated to make people grin, or colorful to make people frightened. This person is tall and calm, although he doesn't say anything, but there is a hint of uprightness. Until the discussion is over, everyone goes their separate ways—everyone leaves a moment apart when they go out, lest others guess their whereabouts. This is also one of the "ten incomplete" rules. The grown man was the last to leave.As soon as he went out, the fresh air outside was like a punch into his throat, which made him dizzy and refreshed him. He went through the people who had just attended the meeting in detail in his mind, and vaguely guessed the identity of each person. People can put on a mask, but they cannot hide the hidden mood, sustenance and purpose when wearing the mask. Chang'an City was already under curfew at this time, he had to avoid Jing Zhaoyin's soldiers on his way this night, so his walk was tortuous.But he was not in a hurry to go home, and walked west of the city in the dark. The southwest area of the city was originally the site of Jianzhang Palace in the Western Han Dynasty. After the Wang Mang Rebellion, it was destroyed and abandoned until the Eastern Han Dynasty. After the fall of the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was burned down again. There was originally a garden in this area, named Luo Garden, which was the residence of the former King of Hejian in Chang'an City.There is also a platform in the garden, called the viewing platform, which is hundreds of feet high. Thousands of people were used to build it with soil.Although the pavilions on the stage are destroyed, the stone foundations are still there, and it is the best place to climb in the west of the city. After all, it has only been more than 50 years since the garden was built.But after more than fifty years, the Luo Garden has been full of bushes. The man raised his eyes and saw a hundred-step high step hanging between the bushes and grass. The stone steps are open and straight, the edges and corners still remain, and they are as green as old. Although they are speechless, they seem to have exhausted the ups and downs since the Sangluan. The man climbed up the steps step by step, keeping his head down. When he got to the top of the stage, he suddenly raised his head, only to see a sky full of stars smashing down.In this endless dark night, Chang'an City is as small as a mustard, and the universe seems to be bigger.People are caught between the city and the wild, trying to squeeze out the "emptiness" hidden in their hearts. The man walked to the edge of the platform, leaned on the sill and looked west, but he saw the stars falling down, and the bucket was shining brilliantly.At the foot, the place where the lights are faintly scattered after midnight is Chang'an.Back then, he walked to this famous ancient city step by step in this way. The person who helped the threshold looked east, and in the dim starry night, he seemed to see a young man with a dustpan walking along the road leading to Chang'an in the east. The young man's clothes were covered with dust, but his expression seemed to be a little careless, with the attitude of "shaking the clothes for thousands of hills, and washing the feet for thousands of miles". It's good to be young—Fujianren recalled the day when he first came to Chang'an when he was a teenager, and he was only seventeen years old at that time. He was originally from Beihai, and his family was too poor to make a living, so he made a living by weaving dustpans.He came to this pass step by step from Shandong.Those thousands of miles of travel, compared with reading, have benefited him a lot.The starving corpses along the way made him understand the meaning of "governing the world" in the book.He couldn't forget the huge fantasy that the name "Chang'an" had ignited in his heart when he was a teenager—it wasn't somewhere else, it was Chang'an! That's Zhou's Ho Kyung! ——Qin's Xianyang! ——Chang'an of the Han Dynasty! A boy who lived in the countryside once read in a book that in the second year of the first year of Emperor Ping of the Han Dynasty, Chang'an City had a circumference of fifty miles: a city wall winding for fifty miles, and within the city wall lived 88,000 households, a total of twenty More than 40,000 people, what a huge number!Not to mention its Twelve Gates and Eighth Street, Changle, Weiyang, Mingguang Palaces, Shanglin Garden and Kunming Pond... There, the red and purple ribbons of the three important officials are arched, and the high crowns and belts of the royal officials are fluttering. Habayashi Erlang's golden saddle jade le...the girls there: blue field jade on the head, big Qin beads behind the ears, long skirt with tie belt, wide-sleeved acacia jacket...there is the so-called "shade with open sleeves, sweat and rain"; There, there are people like Zhang Qian, who travel thousands of miles to the West; there are people like Su Wu, who have a bright moon, and shepherd Beihai; there are also flying generals like Li Guang, and queens like Gillian...that is a nation. It is a place that can only be built by devoting all of its ingenuity and labor. There it is: the hub of the world. It's a pity that later, the Han Dynasty lost power, and the whole Han Dynasty fell apart because of the "five buckets of rice". Since then, the world has been in turmoil for more than one hundred and twenty years.There was also Jin Zhongxing in the middle.At the heyday of the Jin Dynasty, Chang'an City was still an important town in the world, with more than 40,000 households—this is also a remarkable number. After the Yellow Turban Rebellion, although Cao Cao ruled all the land in the north of the Yangtze River, the population under his rule was only The lower area is five million, which is barely more than a big state in the Han Dynasty.Since the rise of the Jin Dynasty, the population has become increasingly prosperous, and with the addition of the Xiongnu, the population of Guanzhong has been enriched again, but among them, foreigners such as Rong and Di have accounted for more than half.At the time of Yongjia's disaster, the Eight Kings rebelled, and the Di tribe Qi Wannian rebelled, and the population of Guanzhong dropped sharply again.By the time the last emperor of Jin, Emperor Xiaomin, was greeted by his officials and succeeded to the throne, the remaining residents of Chang'an City were less than a hundred households, and the number of public and private vehicles and horses combined was only four.The last emperor of the Western Jin Dynasty died in such poverty! And this is no longer the Chang'an he imagined. Not even the Chang'an he wanted! A long sigh suddenly sounded from behind. Only one person sighed: "The Han Dynasty lost power, Dong Zhuo is in chaos! If you want to usurp, kill all the sages first. Just now I was watching the stars here, and I saw Taibai committing crimes in Dongjing again. Within a few months, I am afraid that the capital will be killed." There's a riot." The person who helped the threshold turned his head, and saw a person behind him wearing a court dress and a mountain crown, with a long body and a tall body. The crown on the man's head was nine inches high, but he never suppressed his airy and distant attitude. The man who helped the threshold smiled and said, "Who am I? It turned out to be Brother Zhu. Brother Zhu is now in charge of the Heavenly Supervisor. He is not watching the sky at Xuanji Terrace, but what is he doing in this abandoned place?" The man replied: "Looking at the sky is only for the sake of human affairs. If the human affairs are not clear, what's the use of observing the sky? Speaking of which, it has been seven years since we left Tongguan. Time really flies by. I'm afraid the wood of the tomb has already been arched at the master's burial place. Why did my virtuous brother come to Chang'an if he wasn't in the mountains to honor his master? I always knew that my virtuous brother was talented and had a long-standing ambition to clarify the world. I remember that before your venerable master left, There was a command to tell my virtuous younger brother to wait for the weather and wait for the Ming Lord. Why don’t you follow Jiang Taigong’s example of going fishing at the current time, but come to this place?” The person who helped the threshold gave a dumb smile: "What time is it?" "What if the sky doesn't give me the right time?" He opened his eyes sharply, and threw down the mask in his hand, but saw that he had a lion nose and a wide mouth, and he should be thirty-two or thirty-two years old, while the person behind him seemed to be more than ten years older than him. The person in court uniform, whose surname is Zhu Mingtong and whose style name is Yiyun, is now an official in the court, in charge of Qin Tianjian.The person who helped the threshold was called Wang Meng, and his style name was Jinglue. He was only a commoner.Both of them once lived in seclusion in Xihua Mountain, one lived in the sun of the mountain, and the other lived in the shade of the mountain. They are both famous people in Guanzhong, and they are also the two great scholars of this dynasty.If the world knew that these two met in the middle of the night, they would be full of excitement amidst surprise. Just listen to Zhu Tong calmly said: "The way of heaven is unpredictable, but Mingjun is hard to meet. With Jiang Shang's ability, he only met King Wen in his eighties. Brother, what are you in a hurry for?" Wang Meng stroked the threshold with his palm: "You ask me why I am anxious?" He looked at Chang'an at his feet: "Do you know what I saw here?" As he said, he stretched out his hand and pointed forward: "Can you see a lonely car? According to the system of the previous dynasty, the emperor's law should have used vermilion lacquer as the wheel, and gold, jade, ivory, bear skin, and sandalwood as the wheel." There are thirty spokes on the wheel, corresponding to the number of one month, two heavy hubs, flying bells, engraved beasts on Shi, engraved dragon heads on the yoke... But the car is so dilapidated that it can't be compared to a car. An ordinary firewood cart. But the person sitting in the cart is Jin Tianzi, the former Emperor Xiaomin! He was welcomed by the officials and entered Chang'an." "But what was Chang'an City like at that time? The walls were ruined, the wormwood was like a forest, and all the residents had no more than a hundred households... That was Chang'an, which had a population of 150,000 before the chaos! Where did all those people go? Go? Is that the Chang'an you and I have seen in the book?" "Do you know what else I saw? You can see the distant team coming from the east more than 30 years later? The team numbered more than 100,000 people, with half and half soldiers. The people brought their families and mouths, and the Di people , Qiang, Han, and Jiehu are all mixed together. It was more than ten years ago, the governor Fu Jian, with tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians under his rule, moved back west from Fangtou, Henan. The journey of more than two thousand miles, All the way to pass the river, to fight fiercely with the enemy, and tens of thousands of people to migrate thousands of miles, what is it for? It’s just for a family! If he had not defeated Du Hong outside this city, and moved the army and civilians under his control to Chang’an, Chang’an City has been in Chang’an until now It's just an empty city." "Although the city is surrounded by thousands of miles of fertile soil, there are Hangu Pass in the east, Dashan Pass in the west, Wuguan in the south, and Xiaoguan in the north, so it is called Guanzhong, and it has been holding the king's spirit for a long time. Wang Qi will be exhausted one day!" "You ask me why I'm anxious—I, Wang Meng, can wait as much as I can, but can they wait?" Hearing his high-spirited words, Zhu Tong couldn't help but smile slightly: "So my virtuous brother really can't wait? But good ministers and famous generals have always had to wait for the Ming Lord, otherwise you will have the strategy to govern the country and control the people. , but you have spent too much time learning the ability of knowing people and judging things, and cultivating the spirit of silence. You have no family background, and you have no time to gather people. If you don’t have a master who can gather people, you just have Even the great talent and learning can't be displayed." Wang Meng snorted: "Then I have to wait? How do I know if I can wait?" He looked up and shouted: "God?!" "Who knows what the sky is thinking...During the Ran-Min Rebellion, millions of people in the world were driven back to their hometowns. Among those millions of people, there were Han, Qiang, Jiehu, and Huns. Those who robbed and killed each other on the road, and finally returned to their hometowns, would be one out of ten people left? At that time, what was the sky thinking? The sky is tying people to eat each other!" "hey-hey……" "If the sky doesn't give me a Mingzhu, can't I create one?" Zhu Tong laughed: "Jing Lue, Jing Lue! You really deserve to be Wang Jinglue. But now that Great Qin has its own emperor in power, can't you just go out of the mountain and become an official?" "Emperor? You mean the tyrant?" Zhu Tong's eyes suddenly narrowed: "Tyrant?" "You call him a tyrant, but what is the basis? Are you referring to the rumors that have been raging in Guanzhong in the past two years? I've always wondered, where did these wild words come from?" He stared at Wang Meng. Wang Meng suddenly did not answer. Zhu Tong stared straight at him, and slowly said: "Actually, you and I should know about Jinshang's temperament, and it's not as bad as outsiders say." Wang Meng sneered and said, "Then, how many ministers left for him by his late father? I remember that the late Emperor Fu Jian left eight ministers for him: Yu Zun, Prime Minister Lei Ruo'er, Grand Tutor Mao Gui, Sikong Wangzhuo, Shang Shu Ling Liang Leng, Shang Shu Zuo Servant She Liang An, Shang Shu Right Servant She Duan Chun... Mmm! There is also a Shang Shu Ling Xin Lao. Now, how many of these eight ministers are left? Hehe Who killed Lei Wei'er and his nine sons and twenty-seven grandsons?" Zhu Tong said indifferently: "When he succeeded to the throne today, he was not young enough and was born with a disability. He was forced to have what he is today. Even if he is cruel today, it does not mean that he will be cruel when he succeeds to the throne. But he was forced to go to the throne. Today, I’m afraid it’s the rumors spreading all over the world and the ever-present framing. Jing Lue, when you returned to Chang’an two years ago, it seemed that you had just ascended the throne today. Do you still remember the first thing you did? What is it?" Wang Meng's face suddenly changed, his gaze suddenly turned to Zhu Tong: "I didn't expect Brother Zhu to stare at me so closely." Zhu Tong said coldly: "Ashamed, Taibai first committed Dongjing that year. Although I observed it, I didn't expect that the person who committed the crime was not in the court, but in the court. I didn't find out until two years later, after the rumors spread in Chang'an. , In the city of Chang'an, there is actually a commander of rumors sitting in command! Although this person has no power, no soldiers, no money and food for the time being, what he can command is rumors. I just didn't expect the power of rumors to be so terrifying..." Wang Meng cut off suddenly: "Although Fu Sheng is not as cruel as people say, but he is too short-tempered and unworthy of the position of leader. I want to get rid of him to make way for Ming Jun. What's wrong?" Zhu Tong said indifferently: "So, if you want to create a Ming Lord, you must first create a 'tyrant', right?" Wang Meng didn't answer, he looked towards the audience: "Spring is about to begin." "Before farmers plant crops, don't they always burn the wasteland first? If they don't burn the wasteland, how can good seedlings grow?" Zhu Tong said coldly: "So if you want to save the world from fire and water, you have to sink the world into fire and water first?" Suddenly a shooting star flashed across the sky.Zhu Tong raised his head to look, his face was miserable. When he turned his head, he saw Wang Meng bowed suddenly and bowed down to himself. Zhu Tong looked at him. The person who had lived in seclusion with him for nearly ten years in Xihua Mountain finally couldn't hold back, and was about to start...killing to save others? He thought of the great truth of "killing people to save people" that has been circulating for thousands of years since Xia Jie, and suddenly began to smile wryly. The thousands of stars in the sky are silent. After watching for a long time, it seems that they are going to hang down from the universe to wash away the blood that has been stagnant for more than a thousand years in this closed place.He seemed to suddenly see that between the earth and the stars, there was never any idle time, either the sea of sweat was overflowing, or the stagnation of blood was churning like a sea. He didn't avoid Wang Meng's bow, and heard Wang Meng say in his ears: "Brother Zhu is indeed a straight man. The real man is speechless, but the real man is speechless. It's a pity that the world is full of evil spirits, and all sentient beings have murderous intentions, but they are not real men and straight men." All that can be saved." Zhu Tong looked sideways at the palace. That's the end of the story, although the current emperor is kind to him—otherwise he wouldn't be out of the mountain to become an official—but such a dangerous situation is really beyond what he can save.