Chapter 268 The Death of Li Wuqu
In a dense water pool, two-meter-high reeds sway, and two gray-haired old men.
"There is still a long way to go, the general. I was lucky enough to come here with that Taoist leader back then. That Taoist leader is a real god, who can directly step on the water, without having to crawl in the mud pit like the two of us."
The old yamen servant chanted tirelessly, like an ordinary old man who talked a lot.
"I remember that for so many years, I came here once a year to see it, just thinking about being lucky. But I didn't get lucky. I'm an old bachelor with no wife and no children. I'm looking forward to you."
Li Changsheng looked around, without the slightest sense of familiarity. In Tianhe City, the scene and houses must be different from his memory, after all he has been in the army for decades. It is normal for houses to be renovated and roads to be changed.
But the location remains the same, as long as Taojiang does not divert, Tianshui City will not change.
"How did this place become like this? That mountain is a bit similar, but I remember that there is not so much water here, at most there is a small stream."
As Li Changsheng pointed to a certain place, he followed his finger and saw a long strip of road with lush flowers and plants, and several pig dragons (crocodiles) lying there.
Judging by the body shape, it shouldn't be the kind that hurts people.
The old yamen servant replied: "According to the head of the Taoist priest, this place was not a water marsh, but it became like this when the earth dragon turned over and collapsed 1,000 years ago. Only those outsiders know what's going on."
"You should be the hunter here, right? There was indeed a group of people who lived here before, and they hunted and killed those pig dragons to make medicine."
Li Changsheng shook his head without saying much, and continued walking forward. His forehead was slightly numb, his breathing suddenly became a little dazzled, and his eyes often appeared in a trance.
Obviously stepping in the mud, there is no similarity with the hometown in memory, but it gives him an inexplicable sense of familiarity. In an instant, the world began to split, memory and reality conflicted, and the two were comparable and overlapped each other.
He was referring to the dense reeds, and there was a nest of wild ducks hidden inside, and the female duck was watching them with her teeth and claws guarding her eggs.
"Where is the Wei family, the only big house in the village. Although there are no big landlords in Qingshui Village, 1/3 of the people put the land under the name of Wei Xiucai. He has a reputation and can reduce taxes, and the Wei family does not receive much. .I can’t even figure it out now, how did my father get the confidence to propose marriage to someone, and the teacher agreed.”
At the beginning, the engagement between Wei Xi and Li Changsheng was a sensation. Although Wei Xiucai's family was not considered rich and powerful, it was still from a poor family that had been rich by his ancestors. He has a certain network of contacts in the city, and he has a reputation as a scholar.
In that era of being well-matched, it is really puzzling for a poor daughter from a wealthy local family to marry a kid from an ordinary family.
After Li Changsheng passed the Tongsheng exam, many people shut up. After becoming a scholar at only about 10 years old, the situation of this matter reversed, and people praised Wei Xiu for his vision.
People's words change quickly, and Li Changsheng has long been used to it.
Wei Xiucai's house is a three-entry compound, even if it is placed in the city, it is quite grand. There are two jujube trees in the courtyard of the house, and the jujubes are big and sweet.
There is a stone table under the jujube tree, Wei Xiucai often cooks a small stove for Li Changsheng here. Wei Xi sometimes listens beside him, and has been proficient in all kinds of piano, chess, calligraphy and painting over the years.
Women are not allowed to take the imperial examination, but there is no restriction on women's reading and writing. The social atmosphere is relatively open. If it catches up with the Empress Dowager's dictatorship, it may be possible to join the female officer.
【Changsheng, do you know why I betrothed Xi'er to you? 】
【Students have a photographic memory, with ten lines at a glance, outsiders call me a child prodigy. 】
【Hahaha, this is the truth, you have to remember that there is no love without a reason. Excellent people are more likeable, and vice versa. But I don't think this is the case with people. There are many talented people in the world, but very few people with conscience. 】
【Today, someone from my family insulted you, saying that you are not worthy, so I will send you a sentence. It is not a shame to be born in a humble background, and it is an encouragement to be a husband who can bend and stretch. Bamboo can be burned but its integrity cannot be destroyed. Although the body dies, the name can be hanged on the bamboo and silk. This is the way of being a human being. 】
【Students keep this in mind. 】
The old yamen servant probed his head, squinting his eyes, but still couldn't see any clues, and felt a chill in his heart.
He wondered if the old general had been bewitched?
Li Changsheng didn't notice the strange eyes of the people beside him, and continued to walk forward on his own. Suddenly, a pool of dark mud appeared in front of him.
The yamen servant hurriedly said: "General, don't go any further, there is a swamp with water ghosts underneath."
Li Changsheng stopped, but he didn't hear the dissuasion from the yamen servant. He cast his gaze into the swamp, and what he saw was not a puddle of foul-smelling mud, but a clear stream.
The stream flows quietly, whispering, and the surface of the water is like glass-like crepes.
The teenagers and girls stood in the stream and built a high dam, and the small fish and shrimp were driven down. The girl looked less than 9 years old, with baby fat on her face, as if holding two quail eggs.
She scooped up the balance with a lotus leaf and showed it to the boy with both hands. The smile is like a flower, the cheeks are flushed, and the sun shines through the shade of the trees on the lotus leaves.
【Brother Li, I’ll give you all the fish I caught, so don’t play with the second girl next door, okay? 】
【As well as Li Ergou, Sangou, and Sledgehammer, don’t play with them. They're sick of it and they're always making fun of me for not being able to herd cattle. Especially that second girl, always following behind your ass. 】
【Aren't you also following me? My brother and sister also eat vinegar? 】
【Hmph! Xi'er is different, Xi'er is an unmarried wife. 】
【It’s a fiancee, do you know what a fiancee is? If you don't want it when you grow up, tell me, and I will help you. You are still young and should not be bound by a comprador marriage. 】
【Of course I know, the fiancee is to get married in the future, and then they can stay together forever. 】
Li Changsheng turned and walked in another direction, and the two walked ashore without knowing it. He pointed to the place where the wild deer drank dozens of steps away, and said, "That's my home."
Several mud houses, fences made of fine bamboo, and vegetables growing in the yard.
Li Changsheng's father was just a clever farmer, only 1.6 meters tall, with dark skin and calloused hands and feet. And his mother died after giving birth to him, and he didn't know what his mother looked like.
【Big dog, go to study tomorrow. 】
【Where do you get the money from? 】
【Hey hey hey, big brother borrowed it. Together with our family, we can send you to a private school if we save money. 】
"The general is ahead."
The old yamen servants walked in front, pushing aside the tall reeds constantly, and the rustling sound of them crossing the reeds could be heard in my ears. For some reason, there was a fragrance in the air, and suddenly a strong wind came, and the falling from the sky overwhelmed all the reeds in front of him.
His eyes widened in an instant, and he saw a village in the distance.
Light blue smoke rose from the house. The aroma of rice and rapeseed wafts in the wind.
A few children at the entrance of the village are chasing and playing, and the old people are sitting under the banyan tree chatting. The prime of life is working in the fields, and the woman is ready to eat for the day.
As the saying goes, the eaves of the thatched cottage are low and small, the smoke is plume, the grass is green on the stream, and the buffaloes appear in the river.
"Village?" The old yamen servant was stunned. He never thought that there would be a village in this place?
Here is in a water pond, there are many snakes and insects, once the water rises, no house is useless. And places with such heavy humidity are not suitable for long-term living.
Why is there a village here?
"There is something wrong with the general, there can't be a village here. This must be caused by ghosts, let's leave quickly..."
When he turned his head away, there was no white-haired general, only a young man standing there. He took off his armor and dropped his horizontal knife. The wrinkles on his face were smoothed by the breeze blowing from the village, and his white hair turned into three thousand strands along with the green smoke.
The living are passers-by, and the dead are returnees.
I am old, and I am tired after walking for two thousand years.
The young man stepped into the village, and a middle-aged man dressed as a scholar stood there, with a refined smile on the corner of his mouth, and said in a gentle voice: "Changsheng, welcome home, I have suffered you outside all these years."
"Teacher, I have become a talent." The boy showed two rows of white porcelain teeth, flamboyant and presumptuous. The modesty of the past is gone, only the spirit of a young man remains.
It seems that he is still the boy who just came out of Qingshui, a young man who is not a weak crown, but who has no youth and madness?
"Wen can carry a pen to secure the world, and martial arts can mount a horse to determine the universe. Let's look at the world, I monopolize nine buckets, and let future generations divide the remaining one bucket."
"Good! Good! Good!"
Wei Xiucai said three good words in a row, and nodded emphatically every time he uttered a word.
"As expected, I was not mistaken. Your talent is not weaker than anyone else in the world, and it is better than the heroes you have come and gone with."
Then Wei Xiucai turned his head and looked at the crying old man who was hugging the white-haired veteran behind him, and said, "Is this the end? You can still call on the world's soldiers and horses to seize the position of the Ninth Five Supreme, and then create a prosperous and peaceful world. "
"Can the emperor kill all the corrupt officials?"
"cannot."
"Can being an emperor put an end to the world's injustice?"
"cannot."
"Can the emperor make the good return to good and the evil to end?"
"cannot."
After three questions and three answers, Wei Xiucai shook his head, and Wei Xiucai explained: "Changsheng, no one can divide the world into black and white. Even if you have a set of perfect and strict laws, as long as people are enforcing them, it is inevitable." The emperor can't act recklessly, there are some things you have to endure."
"Not happy, not happy, whoever likes to be the emperor of this bird."
A beautiful figure came from a distance. The woman was wearing a long skirt and had a beautiful appearance. She said angrily, "Husband, why didn't you look for me when you came back, instead you looked for Daddy first."
"Hahahahaha, you girl even eats your father's jealousy. You are really a married daughter who spilled water."
Wei Xiucai and Wei Xi may no longer be the two they used to be, but he is definitely not just an illusion. It was the existence from the ancient times who set up this situation, the terrifying existence known as the ancestor of the heart demon.
Won't do such unsightly and crude things.
Those who wish to believe can be true.
In a blink of an eye, there are no young people, only an old general lying on the ground, his pale hair was blown by the breeze, and there was a slight smile on the corner of his mouth. That face full of grooves, I don't know how many winds and frosts it has gone through to get this smile.
"General!!" The old yamen servant almost rushed over, ignoring the sand and stones on the ground piercing his flesh and blood.
With tears in his eyes, he said:
"General! Wake up, this world cannot live without you. If you leave, who will seek justice with us ordinary people! Don't leave us, woo woo woo."
Li Changsheng, formerly known as Wei Pingchuan, nicknamed Wuqu.
The No. 1 Scholar of the 15th year, the first official position, the right supervisor, turned to fight against corrupt officials. The official is upright and unselfish, even if he is a prince, he will not show any favor. The folks call it "iron face and blue sky". Later, he served as a court official, rectified the law, and wrote many times to reform taxes.
Proposal to collect taxes from aristocratic families and relatives of the emperor, but was later excluded and abandoned his pen to join the army.
After serving in the army for one year, he single-handedly raided hundreds of miles to kill the rebel generals, and was promoted to general who conquered the north. After two years in the army, he led the army and repeatedly won military exploits and killed thousands of enemies. His reputation for bravery spread throughout the court.
After three years in the army, he was appointed General Hussar by the emperor to lead the three armies of Beijun.
In the sixth year, the southern barbarians were destroyed. In the second tenth year, the mountains were conquered to destroy the northern barbarians. In the fifteenth year, the northern plains were conquered. In the eighteenth year, the Hu tribe was destroyed, and the rebellion of the kings was put down, and eighteen princes and princes were killed.
At the age of 45, he died in Mizuze, Tianhe, and was posthumously named Marquis of Wu'an.
Postscript: Five years after Li Wuqu's death, Nanyi once again established a state and asked Wu Dynasty for peace. For ten years, due to the corruption of the imperial court, the three armies in Beijun were short of food and grass, and the military supplies were not complete. It has reached the point where there are no guns available. Having no choice but to retreat from the grassland, Hu Qi made a comeback.
At this point, the border has once again fallen into chaos for many years, and Hu Qi continued to go north to burn, kill and loot, which indirectly further increased military expenditures. The more military expenditures, the more taxes the people will pay, and it happened that the land equalization law advocated by Li Changsheng was abolished.
The imperial court no longer collects taxes from aristocratic families and relatives of the emperor, so people who can't afford to pay taxes can only mortgage their land to the landlord's name.
In the thirteenth year, Nanyi entered the pass, Beijun fell, and the hinterland of Guanzhong was no longer protected by natural dangers. At the end of the same year, Hu Qi went north and slaughtered 12 cities in a row. In the end, the imperial court sent Li Wuqu's "Tiger Leaping" card, and the Nanyi Huqi was regarded as a sacred object, and then each of them retreated in half.
In the fourteenth year, the emperor of the Wu Dynasty took out the "Ten Strategies of Wuqu" of the year, intending to carry out reforms, but he was unable to suppress the aristocratic family, so he was saved and imprisoned in the deep palace. The emperor cried and lamented: "I was wrong. Without Li Shishu, the Wu Dynasty would not be here."
In the sixteenth year, the emperor collapsed, and the young emperor succeeded to the throne. Peasant uprisings broke out everywhere, and the rebel army broke through the capital like a mighty force. The Thirty-Six Courtyard of the Imperial Palace was ransacked, and the kings from all walks of life competed for "Ten Strategies of Wuqu".
Thirty years later, the Northern and Southern Dynasties separated each other, and each line of "Ten Strategies of Wuqu" worked hard and began to expand abroad. By the way, the last five strategies of "Ten Strategies of Wuqu" were all destroyed, because it had to collect taxes from scholars, imperial relatives and other groups, and there were many other changes that touched the interests of the scholar class.
A scholar thinks that Li Wuqu's method is too extreme and not like a king.
—
In the River of Forgetfulness, two thousand miles deep into the Underworld, a Taoist man in white stands on the River of Forgetfulness.
He has an ordinary face, his eyes are slightly closed, and his breath is full of divine light, just like an ordinary person.
The Taoist in white was shrouded in a strange gray mist, and it has been a hundred years since he went back and forth like this, and he still hasn't woken up. But the gray mist couldn't completely corrode him, and it was even difficult to wipe off his skin.
An impatience came from the void.
Li Changsheng is not really immortal, as long as he is given enough time to eat up the opponent, he can live a lifetime with this flawless glass body. But this time is a bit too long, a layer of skin has just been broken in a hundred years.
How long will it take to swallow this body?
The gray mist surged again, turning into various animal shapes and crashing into Li Changsheng's body.
Hey!
A rapid and bright thunder sounded, and the most masculine and steadfast power swept through the void, and the gray fog dissipated for dozens of miles in an instant.
The River of Forgetfulness was silent for a long time, and it took several days for the gray mist to extend again.
It's not that Li Changsheng woke up, it's just his body's independent body protection, and it's also the biggest obstacle to refining this body.
I don't know how much time passed, the eyes of the Taoist in white moved slightly, and in an instant the entire river of forgetfulness began to surge. Countless gray mist gathered here, turning into a cage to seal the Taoist in white inside, trying to keep him here forever.
I don’t know how many great powers, how many laws, and how many eyes are cast in the void.
Li Changsheng finally opened his eyes. They were a pair of quiet eyes, and there seemed to be an endless volume of history contained in the light.
Open your eyes, the world will open.
The gray mist split into two, and the Taoist in white raised his hand lightly, and an eyeball in the void was taken into his hand.
"You have this ability?"
(end of this chapter)