Chapter 16 Section fifteen

Xiang County is a land of no worries. Even in the winter of constant wars and natural disasters, the people of Xiang County are still having fun in the luxury of money and money. I once saw a drunk man chasing every passing woman in the brothel district. Several rich men surrounded a dog and stuffed a long twisted paper cannon into the dog's anus. When the paper cannon exploded, the dog turned into a mad dog. to the curb.I don't understand why those people would turn a good dog into a mad dog, and I don't understand the way those people have fun.There is still a lot of traffic and horses in front of Fengqiao Tower. I have looked up at the lights and figures in the window many times in front of the building, heard the singing of Sheng Xiao and strange women in the flower building, and heard the rough and wanton laughter of the prostitutes.Concubine Hui has already left the brothel, and the name of Bai Jiuniang of Pinzhou on the lantern in front of the building has been erased, and the new lanterns belong to Miss Li of Tazhou and Miss Zhang of Qi County.When I was wandering in front of the brothel, a waiter came out and picked up one of the lanterns. He glanced at me and said, Ms. Li has a guest, and Ms. Zhang is idle. Do you want to meet Ms. Zhang when you go upstairs?

I'm not a son, I'm the king of walking ropes.I say. Busker?The waiter noticed my clothes, and then he smiled grinningly, entertainers are fine, as long as they have money.Nowadays, it is the most cost-effective thing to spend money to buy laughter in this world. You don’t know when you will fall from the rope, and you will die if you want to play, but you will not be able to play.I'm the rope king and I'll never fall off a rope to my death.I stopped the waiter and asked him where Concubine Hui was. I told him, if you tell me where Miss Nine has gone, I will reward you as well.Nine girls went to the capital to sell for a lot of money.It is said that Nine Miss's skin business is different. Do you know that her business has been secreted by the court, and she serves the emperor.She and the bustard didn't share the spoils evenly, so she ran away in a fit of anger.The waiter came over and whispered to me, suddenly remembered something, stared at me with wide eyes and said, who are you?You are always wandering around here just to find Miss Nine?

I didn't know how to explain it to him, so I said casually that I was his man.The waiter's expression became astonished and curious, a ridiculous hissing sound came out of his mouth, the lantern in his hand fell to the ground with a slam, my mother, the waiter suddenly yelled, are you a waste king Duanbai?You came to Fengjiao Tower to find the abandoned concubine Bai Jiuniang?The waiter grabbed my sleeve in ecstasy and ran into the building door, saying as he ran, go upstairs to drink tea, you don't need a penny, who let me be the first to see your beautiful face.Half of my sleeve was ripped off at this time, and the waiter's discovery made me feel flustered and frightened. I broke free from the rough and enthusiastic hand and ran to the street. Go forward and shout to me, King Xie is back, and I will find Nine Girls for you, without a penny.I waved the remaining half of my sleeve to him, and answered him in the same high-pitched and agitated voice, no, don't look for her, let her go, never look for her again.That was really my inner voice.My beautiful but ill-fated concubine Hui has turned into another free white bird.Since then, we have been flying under the same sky, and we just waved our hands hastily when we got together and separated. Everything confirmed our respective worship and dreams of birds.Different routes lead to the same goal.The inside story of the Suo Wang juggling troupe was exposed by the waiter of Fengjiao Tower, and the news caused a sensation in Xiangxian County.The next day, the ancestral hall of the Dong family where we lived was surrounded by citizens, and the small officials of the county government lined up on both sides of the gate of the ancestral hall in neat clothes, waiting for us to go out, including Du Bicheng, the magistrate of Xiang County.

The little girl Yusuo was frightened by the crowd and noise outside, she hid inside and refused to come out, so Yan Lang had to hold her in his arms.That day, I faced the crowd kneeling on the ground with sleepy eyes, and heard someone shouting long live to me, and I was at a loss for what to do.Du Zhixian, who was over sixty years old, knelt at my feet, his expression mixed with shame, curiosity and a trace of fear.Please forgive the officials in this county for their blind eyes and ignorance of Xie Wang Longyi Ziqi.Du Zhixian kowtowed on the stone slab, and asked King Xie to visit the humble house.I'm not King Xie, don't you know that I was demoted to a commoner long ago?Although King Xie is being demoted, he is still a majestic emperor. It is the good fortune of this county to stay here. Ancestral hall, go to the humble house to avoid the harassment of the people for the time being.You don't have to.After pondering for a long time, I rejected Du Zhixian's invitation. I said, now I am just a rope walker, who would come to murder a rope walker?I'm not afraid of crowds watching. For entertainers, the more spectators, the better. With so many people in Xiangxian County cheering me on, I believe my walking rope will make a unique skill.If the performance of the Suowang juggling class is a miracle, the audience is like an ant colony densely packed around the open space on the street.Yanlang and the little girl Yusuo's rolling log has already won bursts of applause, and my outstanding appearance on the suspension rope aroused thunderous cheers, and the crowd wailed and screamed one after another. Wang, King Xie, King Suo, King Suo.I know I've been recognized as a tightrope artist, so amazing, so moving.I also heard another faint echo, which came from the indefatigable mouthpiece of the gray bird. The gray bird flew towards me from the eaves of Fengjiao Tower, and sprinkled a familiar sound that surpassed human voices. whine:

Dead... dead... dead. Starting from the streets of Xiangxian County, my walking rope king juggling class became famous and became popular all the time.The later "Secret History of Xie Palace" recorded the unique skills of the Suo Wang Juggling Troupe and the scenes of thousands of people emptying the streets when they performed.The author Dongyang Xiaoxiaosheng believes that the success of the Suowang juggling troupe is a coincidence and accident. The reason why he has the best performances is that King Zuo Suo, as the former deposed king, has tended to the people's mentality that watching dramas is better than watching people. A generation of kings has become a showman. Who doesn't want to witness the strange people and rare things of the past and present? The judgment of "Secret History of Xie Palace" may be accurate, but I believe that no one can know all the stories of the second half of my life, no one can understand all the stories of the second half of my life, whether it is Dongyang Xiaoxiaosheng or others What boring literati.By the spring of the following year, the juggling troupe had expanded into a large troupe with 18 entertainers and 20 kinds of tricks, which was unique in the history of Xie Kingdom.Wherever the juggling class passed by, there was a carnival atmosphere at the end of the century. Men, women, old and young rushed to the scene to verify the anecdote that I had turned into a rope king.I know that their cheers are because I brought some joy to their dying lives, and brought a breath of life to the city and countryside of Xie Kingdom, which is full of natural disasters and man-made disasters, but I can't bear people's worship of an abolished and demoted king. People cheered King Xie's frenzy, and I thought bitterly how many people's eyes were blinded by the black panther's dragon crown deception. But he was still deceived by the Black Panther Dragon Crown.I saved myself as a part of a great deception, but I could never give the naive and dull crowd a clue.

The road of exile and performing arts seems to be coming to an end, and the little girl Yusuo is about to arrive in the capital she has always dreamed of.Before entering Beijing, we set up a stage in Youzhou to perform for three days. It seems that we intentionally or unintentionally postponed our trip back to Beijing.The little girl Yusuo was spinning around me like a spinning top in the past few days, asking me about various things about the capital and Daxie Palace.The little girl came to Yan Lang's place in a hurry, and I saw Yan Lang silently hugging the little girl on his lap, his eyes full of sorrow.

Why are you upset?Are you afraid of entering the capital?Yusuo said.Fear.Yan Lang said.afraid of what?Are you afraid that people in the capital won't watch us perform?No.Fear of what we don't know. Yan Lang explained the doubts and fears in my heart with one word.As the day of returning to the capital approached day by day, I tossed and turned sleeplessly in the big inn in Youzhou City.I imagined the walking rope performance I performed in front of the old ministers, officials, royal relatives, and wondered whether the eternal enemy Duanwen had really forgotten me.If I set up a platform on the grass behind the Daxie Palace and walk the rope, will a poisonous arrow shoot at me from the turret of the Daxie Palace, and finally end my bizarre life of forgetting my ancestors?Needless to say, I'm really afraid of things we don't know, but I know that the walking rope king's juggling class must finally reach the capital, which is the ultimate place for a ceremony.

On the morning of the fourth day, the Juggling Troupe of Suowang withdrew from the camp. Eighteen entertainers took all the juggling equipment and left Youzhou in three carriages to go north.It was a misty morning, and the fields in the central part of Xie Kingdom were filled with soft grass and the fragrance of newly plowed black soil. The hoeing farmers saw this group of artists who had all disappeared later on the side of the road.Where are you going?The farmers said, the north is at war, where are you going?Go to the capital to perform art.The little girl Yusuo answered loudly in the car.

In the spring, Peng Guo aggressively invaded Xie State, and more than 30 battles were fought on both sides of the long and curved border.The entertainers of the Suowang Juggling Class have become accustomed to frequent wars. They migrated north, talking about the lost juggling skills on the road, and occasionally talking about vulgar affairs of adultery, incest and bed affairs, interspersed with Seeing the half-knowledgeable laughter of the eight-year-old girl Yusuo.Artists are always so happy on the way to perform, unaware of the impending catastrophe of Xie Kingdom.They arrived in Beijing in the early morning of March 7th in the lunar calendar. According to the "Secret History of Xie Palace", this day happened to be the anniversary of the death of Peng Guo's 10,000-strong army marching straight into the gate of Xiejing. Now it seems that this coincidence seems to be a careful arrangement of history.

When the troika passed through the south gate of the capital, the sky was dimly lit, and the familiar sour smell of vegetables, fruits and rotting dead livestock wafted from the ditch under the city wall.The drawbridge was lowered, and the city gate was open. If one looked up at the tall flagpole on the city tower, it was not difficult to find that the black panther flag of Xie State had been torn down and replaced by the double eagle blue flag of Peng State.Several soldiers guarding the city leaned against the city gate and remained motionless, turning a blind eye to the group of jugglers who arrived in the early morning.The man driving the car turned around and said to the entertainers in the car that they were probably drunk to death, and they often drink half to death, which saved us the road tax for entering the city.Eighteen entertainers traveled through the night, everyone was extremely sleepy, and no one paid attention to the abnormal movement near the south gate.When the carriage stopped in front of the porch of the South Gate Inn, a few entertainers went up and knocked on the door of the inn. The door was locked, and a trembling voice came from inside, "It's closed, you should find another place to stay."The knocker said, how can there be no reason for an inn not to keep guests?We've been driving all night, let's come in and have a rest.The door of the inn was opened a crack, revealing half of the innkeeper's swollen and flustered face, he said, you came at a bad time, don't you know that the Peng people have entered the city?Don't you see that the tower is full of Peng Guo's soldiers?The jugglers in the car woke up suddenly from their drowsiness. Looking back, the city wall of the south gate was indeed crowded with dark figures.The little girl Yusuo was terrified by the terrifying atmosphere in front of her, she let out a habitual scream, and Yan Lang immediately covered her mouth.Yan Lang said, don't bark, don't make a sound, no one should make a sound now, the people of Peng Guo are all murderous lunatics.

There was the creaking sound of the suspension bridge being re-suspended from the city gate, and then the city gate was closed by Peng Guo soldiers.I suddenly realized that the gate of this dead city was specially opened just now for me and the rope king's juggling class.I don't know if this means my long journey is coming to an end. did you see it yet?The city gate was closed again.Do you know why the Peng people only let us into the capital?I asked Yan Lang who was sitting in the car. Yan Lang hugged the little girl Yusuo, covering her eyes with his hands to prevent her from screaming again.He said, maybe they found out that we were a group of buskers, maybe they also like to watch sideshows.No, this is an invitation to die.I looked at the double eagle blue flag on the city tower fluttering in the morning wind, and suddenly I saw the melancholy and mad face of Sun Xin, the old palace servant who had passed away for many years, and the disaster of Xie Kingdom had come.I said that since my childhood someone had predicted this catastrophe, I used to be terrified, and now that the day has actually come, my heart is empty.You touch my hand, you listen to my heartbeat, now I am as calm as water, I am a commoner, a juggler who walks the rope.What I am facing is not the sin of the subjugated king, but the choice of life and death, so I have nothing to fear.We are like a group of ignorant lambs breaking into the pack of wolves, and the way to escape has been blocked.After the city gate was closed, the hidden Peng soldiers rushed from the city walls, houses, and woods to the houses on the street. I saw a young military official riding a horse and holding a knife and running wildly in the street, shouting, King Peng ordered, kill, kill, kill, kill it. I witnessed with my own eyes the tragic scene of the bloodbath of Xiejing by the people of Peng Guo.The frantic killing lasted from early morning to afternoon, and the city was full of Peng Guo cavalry in blue clothes and white helmets. The swords in their hands were soaked into crimson with blood, and the armor was splattered with blood stains and strangely shaped pieces of meat.The screams of the murdered before their death resounded all over the city, and the people of Xiejing who were disheveled and disheveled ran to and fro. I saw a few men climbed up the city wall and were quickly hit by arrows. , Seeing them falling from the air like avalanches, they let out a desperate cry. Before a group of Peng Guo cavalry rushed to the South Gate Inn, my mind went blank.I remember Yan Lang pushed me into the haystack, hiding here, they won't find out.Yan Lang said that he wanted to hide the little girl Yusuo, but the haystack could only accommodate one person, and when the jade lock came towards me, the hay began to peel off.I heard Yan Lang's last words, don't be afraid of Yusuo, I'll hide you in the vat.Then the hay was quickly gathered tightly by Yan Lang, and my eyes became pitch black.I fell into the darkness, vaguely heard the sound of horses’ hoofs approaching the yard beside the inn, heard the screams of jugglers hiding in the trees, chicken coops and under the carts, and heard a large tank being smashed to pieces with a blunt object.I heard the screams of at least fifteen jugglers who died in a catastrophe. From their voices, I could see that the dead were caught off guard by the catastrophe, and I could find out how happy and simple tramps they had been.I can't distinguish Yanlang's dying screams, maybe he didn't make any cry during the inn massacre, since he entered the palace as a child, he was always so silent and shy.Later I found the big vat in the yard where corpses were strewn all over the place. Yan Lang was sitting in the vat with his head hanging on the broken edge of the vat. The three wounds on his chest were shocking like three red flowers.I straightened his head so that the deceased faced the sky after the catastrophe. The spring sun penetrated the bloody air and reflected the few drops of tears on his cheeks.There is still no beard on his lips and under the temples, retaining all the characteristics of the lovable young eunuch back then. The stagnant water and human blood in the vat melted together, drowning Yan Lang's knees. After I dragged Yan Lang out, I saw another dead person in the vat, an eight-year-old girl Yusuo, her little purple coat It had already been dyed red, and she was still tightly holding the small and simple log that belonged to her in her arms.I didn't find any sword wounds on Yusuo's body.But her breath was cold and motionless.I think it was Yan Lang's body that shielded the little girl from Peng Guoren's sword, and it was Yan Lang's body that crushed the unfortunate little girl to death.At last I lost the faithful servant whom God had given me.Yan Lang died for me, which made his promise in Qingxiu Hall become a reality.I remember he said to me when he first entered Xie Palace at the age of twelve, Your Majesty, I will die for you.Many years later, he really died, and he took away the only gift I gave him, a jade lock from a little girl in Qingxi bought for fifty taels of silver. I think this is his last true love.This is another piece of profound providence. The killing had ceased, and Peng's soldiers put away their curly swords and gathered in the square to drink.Another group of black-clothed cavalry began to gather the surviving citizens of the capital and drove them in the direction of Daxie Palace.I squeezed among the group of survivors and walked towards Daxie Palace, occasionally jumping over some dead bodies lying on the road.Some people were weeping softly in the crowd, and some were secretly cursing Peng Wang Shaomian.I walked and looked, and what I looked at were my own hands.Dried blood red was printed on my palm, no matter how I wiped it off, it was useless, I knew that it was the blood of other people who was extremely strong, not only from Yan Lang and Wang Suo, but also from the abandoned concubine Dai Niang, Yang Song who joined the army, and the imperial physician Yang Dong. As well as the blood of all the soldiers who died on the frontier, I know that they have been turned into a special palm print and engraved on my palm.So why did the invitation to die leave me alone?A man with a heinous crime?A sudden sadness seized my heart, and I sobbed together with the group of people in the capital who survived the catastrophe. So far, I shed the first tear in my life as a commoner. The driven crowd suddenly found that the sky ahead was red.The Peng people set fire to Daxie Palace.When the people in the capital were brought to the gate of the palace, tongues of fire shot up to the sky from the huge wooden beams of Guangxie Gate.Peng Bing ordered the crowd to stand in a formation of geese to watch the fire in Xie Palace.An old military official announced in a loud and passionate voice that they had won the battle of Xiepeng: People of Xie Kingdom, look at the fire that is raging in the sky, and look at how your filthy and obscene palace has been reduced to nothing. Ruins, watch how your weak and pitiful little country is returned to the supreme Peng Kingdom!I faintly heard the desolate and desperate voices of people in Daxie Palace, but as the fire spread wildly, the whole palace turned into a glorious sea of ​​flames, and the loud noise of burning and collapsing halls covered the cries and cries of the palace people .In the sea of ​​fire is the place where I was born and grew up, where the other half of my life, joys and sins are accumulated. I cover my nose with my sleeve to block the choking smoke, trying to recall it once before it disappears, recalling The magnificence of the famous Eight Halls and Sixteen Halls of the Xie Palace, recalling the Fendai and Jinluanlong couch in the Sixth Palace, recalling rare treasures and exotic flowers and plants, recalling every court story when I was a king, but my thoughts suddenly froze, What emerged in front of my eyes was the real Xiegong fire, which was nothing but fire.My ears were filled with the usual whine of the bullfinch. Dead... Dead... Dead The sixth generation Xie Wang Duanwen died in the fire of Xie Palace.His charred remains were later found under the ruins of Fanxin Hall, and his face was no longer recognizable. The only physical evidence was the black panther dragon crown, which was made of gold and jade treasures. Still clasped tightly on the dead man's head. Duanwen, the sixth King Xie, reigned for only six years. He was the shortest-lived and unluckiest of the previous King Xie.From the analysis of historical phenomena, later generations of historians generally believe that Duanwen was the king of subjugation, and it was his arrogance, arrogance and self-confidence that ruined a beautiful country. I became an outsider.This spring I dreamed countless times of Duanwen, my half-brother, my natural enemy.In the dream we were calm and drinking together, the long battle for the Black Panther Dragon Crown finally came to an end, and we found that both sides were deceived by history. On the ninth day of the third month in the lunar calendar, Peng Guo's 10,000-strong army swept across all the territory of Xie State like a wind sweeping through the clouds, and all seventeen prefectures and eighty counties were in their pockets.Standing on the ruins of Daxie Palace, Shaomian, the legendary great Peng Wang, shed tears in front of the ocean-like adherents of Xie Kingdom on the square.Shao Mian raised Peng Guo's Double Eagle Blue Flag with his own hands, and then solemnly declared that the corrupt and incompetent Xie Kingdom had perished, and the world belonged to the sacred and invincible Double Eagle Blue Flag.According to the "Secret History of Xie Palace", nearly a hundred members of the royal family and their descendants of Xie Kingdom were almost wiped out during the March Disaster. Has been reduced to a wandering juggler.Dongyang Xiaoxiaosheng recorded in detail the death methods of the last batch of Xie Kingdom figures in the "Secret History of Xie Palace", including: Xie Wang Duanwen: Died in the fire of Xie Palace. Prince Ping Duanwu: Died in the fire of Xie Palace. Duanxuan, Prince Feng: beheaded, and the head was separated in Prince Feng's mansion and the market.Prince Shou Duanming: After being killed, he was thrown into the well of Shouwang Mansion.Da Jun, King of the Eastern Fan: He died in the Anti-Peng battlefield, and later generations built the tomb of the Eastern King for him.Nanfan Wang Zhaoyou: After surrendering to Peng, he was killed by his personal guards. Northern King Dayu: After the body was divided by five horses, citizens soaked his limbs in wine jars.Southwest Wang Daqing: Died of a stray arrow on the way to flee Yao. Northeast Wang Dacheng: Suicide by swallowing gold. Prime Minister Zou Ling: When he knelt down to worship King Peng, he was stabbed to death by King Peng himself, and he was reviled by future generations.Former Prime Minister Feng Ao: Died by hitting his forehead against a wall, he was a generation of heroic ministers of the Xie Kingdom.Queen Huangfu: Bai Ling died by hanging. Tang Xiu, Shangshu of the Ministry of War: After Xie's death, he became ill and died of hemoptysis.Zhu Cheng, Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites: The whole family died of dove poison to show the humiliation of the subjugation of the country.Haizhong, the Imperial Capital Army: The dead body was found in the vegetable market, the cause of death is unknown. My Xie country, my beautiful and troubled Xie country, now no longer exists. It has been merged into the territory of Peng country so naturally and helplessly, making the prophecies of many philosophers come true.Xiejing had been renamed Changzhou by the ruler of Peng.In the spring of this year, the craftsmen of Peng State made a big construction in Changzhou City, and built many round houses, archways and temples with strange shapes.There is the sound of hammers and the short and difficult slang of the Peng people. They seem to want to wipe out all traces of the Xie Dynasty.The residents of Changzhou are now wearing Peng Guo's cumbersome and bloated clothes. They choose their way among the ruins, looking tired and indifferent.For them, the turbulent life is still going on. Whether it is Xiejing or Changzhou, they have lived here for generations, and they have to live carefully.