Chapter 502 Different paths lead to the same destination
The next day.
At dawn, orders rang out from the outside of the military camp, and the war drums and soldiers' shouts shook the sky and the earth. Even in the central area, they could still be clearly heard:
"Dong dong dong..."
"Kill - kill -"
…
Inside the camp, Ye Jingtang put on his robe, stretched out his arms, and the fatigue of the past few days completely faded away at this moment.
In front of him, the two plank beds that were originally separated have been put together. Qinghe is lying on his left side obediently, with a seductive blush on his cheeks. Because the blanket only covers his arms, he can see the infinite space under his neck by looking out his head.
Spring.
Shui'er was lying on the right side, sleeping in an upright posture, with a hint of repulsion between his brows. It seemed that because he deceived his master and destroyed his ancestors yesterday, he didn't know how to use the magical weapon to subdue the fox demon.
I don't want to talk to him anymore.
Ye Jingtang came and looked at them carefully for a moment, and saw that both of them were quite sleepy, so they didn't make any noise to wake them up. They just lightly tapped their foreheads, and then left the camp.
The men and horses from various departments in Xihai arrived last night, and today they have all been equipped with armor and weapons.
Although each unit is said to have strong soldiers and horses, because it has been in disarray for the past two decades and has never experienced large-scale combat, it is obviously not possible to directly enter the battlefield at the moment.
At this time, all the soldiers and horses were gathered in the vast wilderness under the command of Yao Cishan; and the generals of the Wei Dynasty served as external instructors to teach the troops and horses how to arrange their troops.
The empress stood on the generals' stage outside the golden tent, holding a telescope to watch the military training on the battlefield. There were many officials from the Wei Dynasty beside her, talking and discussing among themselves.
Ye Jingtang came to the side of the general ordering platform, and the courtiers above quickly raised their hands and saluted.
The empress also put down her telescope. She seemed to have completely forgotten about the incident of wronging Bala and begging for mercy last night. She was left with only the domineering spirit that surpassed ten thousand people and asked calmly:
"How is Ye Aiqing's rest?"
"Thanks to Your Majesty's love, I had a good rest."
After Ye Jingtang responded, he came to the empress and watched the military training with her.
Finding that all the ministers on the left and right were looking into the distance, and Yuhu ignored him, Ye Jingtang thought for a while, calmly raised his hand and pinched the back of the dragon robe.
?!
The empress, who was looking through the telescope, was suddenly touched, and her body shrank significantly. She looked left and right, and then looked at the rebellious Concubine Ye. Her eyes probably meant - you are playing with fire, right?
After the Night Terror Hall changed to holding his hands behind his back, he acted as if nothing had happened.
Because there were people all around, the empress didn’t care about Ye Jingtang and said:
"When is Ye Aiqing going to Shazhou?"
"Prince Jing has been away for nearly a month. According to the news, he has already gone back to Shazhou City. I can't contribute to the military affairs. I should go there early so that we can meet up at Wangheya."
"Then ride my horse over there. Go early and come back early to defeat Beiliang City. You, the leader of Xihai, must be the first to get there. Otherwise, history books will not be able to write about what you did during the war.
.”
Ye Jingtang came here ready to say hello and set off, but he felt a little regretful if he didn't take a bite before leaving.
How could the empress not understand Ye Jingtang's thoughts? She turned around and walked into the golden tent at the rear:
"Night Terror Hall, come here."
Ye Jingtang made a posture of preparing to listen to the secret edict and entered the golden tent in a polite manner.
But as the golden tent door curtain closed, Ye Jingtang straightened up, hugged Hu Niuniu back, who was still condescending, lowered her head and kissed her ears and neck.
"?"
The empress leaned into Ye Jingtang's arms, held the hand around her waist, tilted her head and said:
"You are proud of your favor, right? Do you really think I dare not treat you?"
"Shh~"
Ye Jingtang signaled to be silent, but without any restraint, his hand slipped into the dragon robe and held the fat dragon of good size, which was enough to humiliate the king of a country.
The empress struggled twice, but to no avail. She could only stand still and let Ye Aiqing be frivolous and ask softly:
"Didn't you send Miss Hua back? Why did you bring her back again?"
Ye Jingtang swung his arms around Yuhu and responded:
"When Master Xue left, he left a family letter saying that Miss Hua and his servant had eloped. Now that the news has spread, it is not good for Miss Hua to go back. We can only wait until later."
"Humph, later..."
The empress is not stupid. When she saw Hua Qingzhi go and come back, she knew that this scholarly lady would not be able to escape.
Although she was Hua Qingzhi's defeated general, the empress was extremely talented in literature and had a one-sided sympathy for Hua Qingzhi. She had no opinion on this matter and asked instead:
"Does Hua Qingzhi have any objections to Xue Baijin?"
"Uh...how do you know?"
"I passed by by chance in the morning. I wanted to go in and chat about a few poems, but I heard the maid telling Hua Qingzhi to look away, lest Xue Baijin comes back and gets beaten..."
Ye Jingtang felt that Yuhu was not passing by by chance, but came specifically to pinch the iron persimmon. He shook his head and smiled:
"It's just a joke. Leader Xue also obeys my arrangements. I can't blame her..."
"Explain to her. Before she even entered the door, she was thinking of abducting the lady for you. No wonder you dote on her so much."
"..."
Ye Jingtang opened his mouth, but had nothing to say.
After the empress was touched for a while, she found that her hands were touching the tiger's head. She was afraid that she would be pressed on the chair and stabbed through the curtain, so she twisted her shoulders and pushed Ye Jingtang away:
"Okay, go and come back quickly."
Ye Jingtang smiled, took two more mouthfuls, then stopped with satisfaction, and said respectfully:
"Wei Chen resigns!"
The empress rolled her eyes, lightly kicked Ye Jingtang's calf, then straightened her clothes and walked out with dignity...
——
Leaving the golden tent, the rising sun has risen in the east.
Ye Jingtang put on ordinary Jianghu people's clothes, and fetched Yuhu's precious horse. After hanging up his weapons and water bag, he came outside Hua Qingzhi's tent, ready to say hello and set off.
Hua Qingzhi was not bullied at night. She must have gone to bed early and gotten up early. She had already woken up a long time ago.
At this time, papers and pens were laid out in the tent. Hua Qingzhi was sitting on the ground, holding a paintbrush, and was painting portraits of birds. The painting style was freehand, with simple lines, highlighting features and leaving details blank.
Niaoniao was originally very happy, but now she was squatting next to the small case, tilting her head and staring at the portrait on the paper, obviously with some deep thoughts and doubts - is this freehand brushwork? The painting is obviously a ball...
When the door curtain was opened, Hua Qingzhi stopped painting, raised her eyes and looked around, and found that Ye Jingtang had changed into Jianghu attire, with a bamboo hat on her back, and asked:
"Master, are you leaving now?"
Ye Jingtang hooked his hand and asked Niaoniao, who pretended not to recognize him, to come over:
"I don't know how to arrange troops. Instead of sitting around here, I might as well go back early and get things done."
"oh……"
Hua Qingzhi originally wanted to get up and say goodbye, but after thinking about it for a while, she asked again:
"The stone tablet left by the First Emperor must also be written in ancient Liang script. Even if the young master finds it, if he is illiterate..."
"..."
When Ye Jingtang heard this, he suddenly remembered that he was illiterate and did not know ancient Liang script at all. If the stone tablet was found and the first emperor had written a lot of things, wouldn't he have to be blinded on the spot?
It was definitely too late for Ye Jingtang to learn now, so he immediately said:
"Prince Jing is very knowledgeable and talented, so he should be able to understand."
When Hua Qingzhi heard this, the arrogance of the most talented woman in Yanjing was revealed again, and she responded:
"Prince Jing is a master of both calligraphy and painting. His great skills and knowledge are not necessarily omnipotent. For example...for example, has Prince Jing read those miscellaneous books that are not on the market?"
"Well……"
Ye Jingtang is not very easy to answer this question. After all, Benben used to be very innocent. When I saw him watching "Tears of a Heroic Girl", I was very surprised and embarrassed. In the end, I was led astray by him and started to watch those arts.
Taste……
"Prince Jing has been under strict control since he was a child. He probably hasn't read those miscellaneous books before, but history books..."
"Gu Liangwen is not a history book, but a historical relic."
Hua Qingzhi shook her head, like a lady who follows instructions, and explained softly:
"The royal family of the Northern Dynasties considered themselves to be the descendants of the relatives of the emperors of the Liang Dynasty, so the first worshiper in the ancestral temple was the First Emperor, and the country's name was also 'Liang'. And 'Old Liang script', as the ancestral writing, even if it has long been abandoned, the court still
Students who learn these will be rewarded, lest in a few hundred years no one even knows the names of their ancestors."
"As for the Southern Dynasties, after they were recognized as criminals, their ancestors had nothing to do with the First Emperor, and they did not know ancient Liang literature from the beginning; even if there were scholars in Yun'an who knew it, they only wanted to study the ancient bamboo slips excavated from Shazhou, which is not normal.
He will give special lessons, and the Dongfang family will not be interested in these useless knowledge. I guess Prince Jing doesn’t know..."
After listening for a while, Ye Jingtang nodded slightly, walked into the tent, pulled up Hua Qingzhi, who was still sitting on the blanket and analyzing carefully, and held her in her arms:
"That makes sense. Then you need to bring a translator."
"Eh?"
Hua Qingzhi was stunned. She didn't expect that she could still be smart but was misled by her cleverness. Her cheeks suddenly turned red;
"Young Master Ye, you...I am saying this to ask you to think carefully. There are so many counselors in the military camp. Since we are coming to the West Sea to fight, there must be someone who understands ancient Liang script. Why don't you just take one with you..."
Ye Jingtang estimated that there were indeed such capable people in the military camp, but the translator around him didn't use it. He went to recruit strangers from the imperial staff. Isn't this looking for distant people at the expense of the near? He shook his head and said:
"Miss Hua has already recommended herself. If I look for someone else, wouldn't it mean that I look down on your knowledge? Furthermore, you promised to be my staff, but now you just want to enjoy the happiness and not do anything?"
Hua Qingzhi did say that she was a think tank, but it was difficult to refute it at the moment, and she looked around:
"Where are Sister Lu and the others?"
"I can ride the holy horse that can accommodate two people. They have been running around for so long, so let them rest."
"I don't need to rest?!"
"I'm taking you with me, and I don't need you to run away and fight. You can just rest on the horse."
While Ye Jingtang was talking, he put Hua Qingzhi on the horse and sat on her side, then turned over and got on the horse:
"drive--"
Hua Qingzhi was a frail young lady with limited legs and feet. Faced with such an act of robbing a common girl, she had absolutely no room to resist.
Seeing that the fierce horse rushed directly outside the camp, and patrolling soldiers appeared around, Hua Qingzhi quickly covered her face:
"Young Master Ye, you are really..."
"Drive-Eh? Where's the bird?"
Ye Jingtang ran a few steps and suddenly found that the bird was gone. When he looked back, he found that the little broken bird was squatting secretly outside the tent, with his back turned to him and looking up at the sky, as if he didn't want to go to work.
Seeing this, Ye Jingtang didn't urge him, but just said to Hua Qingzhi:
"The roasted camel hump in Shazhou is a must-have. I just want to take you to try it this time..."
"grumble?!"
The bird was startled, and immediately turned around and chased after it. In an instant, it flew to the front and began to lead the way without complaint...
——
At the same time, deep in the desert.
The desert in the midsummer of June is like a furnace that can burn everything in the world. The air is so hot that even the sand dunes in the distance are distorted. There are almost no living things in the ocean of yellow sand. Even the original small oases are under the scorching sun.
The ground has dried up, leaving only the standing poplar trees.
And in such an extreme environment, a team of more than ten people was slowly heading south.
At the head of the team was a small leader of the Shatuo tribe. He was originally one of the dozen or so people who followed Jingkong to meet with the Beiliang envoy. However, Jingkong was gone, and so was leader Huang. The people who came from the Shatuo tribe were leaderless.
, he could only follow the father-in-law Ziliang he met and help find the missing Li Si in the desert.
At this time, Li Si had been found, and everyone gathered in the desert. There were many familiar faces in the team of more than ten people. In addition to Hua Junchen, Xu Tianying, Li Si, the three brothers in distress, there were also Ziliang, Yin Lian, and Eunuch Xu.
Cao Aning and a bunch of eunuchs.
Eunuch Ziliang brought all the main forces with him, originally planning to encircle and suppress the Night Terror Hall that suddenly appeared in the Wuma tribe with Huang Liangsheng. Now that the plan failed and people had already arrived, he could only do the next best thing and stop by Qianfo Temple to visit.
, can you recruit some available people to Beiliang?
The outside world knew very little about the situation in the cave, and Eunuch Ziliang didn't know why Huang Liansheng, who had such a tough tone, suddenly disappeared. Since they met in the early morning, he has been asking about the whole story.
Li Si rode on the camel and kept complaining to Eunuch Ziliang about Huang Liansheng's "great ambition and talent". He also praised Hua Junchen and Xu Tianying for their loyalty and courage. After he finished talking about the story, he said:
"Although the surprise attack on the rear of the West Sea was a mistake, our army's weapons and food have not yet been delivered, and our manpower has not been lost. We only wasted one pill, which generally speaking does not cause any harm to our muscles and bones. If we can recruit Monk An Shenchen, from now on
It is also feasible to raise troops in Shazhou to disrupt the Southern Dynasty's rear plan..."
Although Monk Shenchen is a monk, his reputation and influence are worthy of the title of 'King of Shazhou'. If he takes the lead in stirring up trouble and rebellion, his deterrence will be much greater than that of the desert barbarian Huang Liansheng.
But as the head of the twelve servants, Eunuch Ziliang knew a lot about the strange people from the north and the south. He shook his head and said:
"Monk Shenchen is both good and evil. Even the Imperial Master can't see through it. It's not that easy to recruit him."
Li Si frowned: "Taoism was respected in the Southern Dynasties. Only Shazhou among the twelve states can see temples all over the place. I, Daliang, have made conditions for establishing Buddhism as the state religion, and there is no way to invite Monk Shenchen to move to Beiliang.
?”
Cao Aning, who was following behind, because he was Eunuch Cao's disciple, knew a lot about Monk Shenchen, so he answered:
"In fact, after the deposed emperor of the Southern Dynasty succeeded to the throne, he was afraid that he would not be able to secure the throne, so he secretly sent someone to invite the monk Shen Chen. The conditions he offered were to turn the 'two saints' into true two saints and confer two national preceptors, Shen Chen and
Lu Taiqing sits on equal terms."
Li Si turned around and said, "What's the result? How did Monk Shenchen reply?"
Cao Aning said: "Monk Shenchen said that the deposed emperor was interested in his martial arts, not his Buddhist teachings, so he rejected the imperial court."
Li Si opened his mouth but was speechless.
Eunuch Ziliang answered:
"The Queen Mother has believed in Buddhism since she was a child, and the Holy Master respects all three religions. If Monk Shenchen is a true holy monk, we can also invite him on the grounds of promoting Buddhism.
"But it is a pity that a truly enlightened saint would not forcefully persuade people to follow Buddhism.
"In the eyes of the national master, Shen Chen doesn't seem to care about whether he can become a Buddha. He is more like an outsider in charge of the Buddhist school. He does not have a Buddha in his heart, but he has to do his best to help the Buddhist school pass on the Buddha's teachings. For this reason, he can only
When you break the rules and regulations, you can do what you want to do, such as punishing evil and promoting good, and eradicating violence and bringing peace to the good."
Li Si touched his chin and thought about it:
"That doesn't sound wrong."
Eunuch Xu was in charge of the anti-theft office. He shook his head and said:
"In punishing evil and promoting good, we also pay attention to 'Killing must be measured and doing good must be measured.' The most severe punishment for pickpockets is to chop off both hands. If someone steals a few pennies from you, you can directly punish them with hard labor and imprison them to
Death is obviously too harsh and has nothing to do with punishing evil and promoting good.
"But Monk Shenchen only distinguishes between 'guilty and innocent', regardless of the size of the crime. If he is caught, he will be a slave for life. This unreasonable behavior is considered a devil in the world. At least Ye Jingtang still has it.
Give people a good time."
Li Si thought for a while and commented:
"Actually, according to the Ministry of Punishment, guilty people regret being caught rather than regretting having done bad things. There are not necessarily ten thousand people who can truly blame themselves and repent for what they have done.
Maybe Monk Shenchen didn’t let them go because he knew they didn’t sincerely repent…”
Xu Gong said fairly: "This is indeed the case, but 'the country cannot be established without it'. The punishment for any crime must be strictly in accordance with the laws and regulations. I think you are wrong, so I will sentence you to life-long slavery. If you are an emperor, you will be a tyrannical king."
, Monk Shenchen is just a monk, how did he get such great authority?"
As the group talked, it turned into a debate.
Eunuch Ziliang listened for a moment and raised his hand to stop everyone's words:
"So, Monk Shenchen is both good and evil. It's hard to tell whether he is a saint or an evil person. Our court respects Buddhism as the state religion, so we may be able to attract real eminent monks, but this is not necessarily the case with Monk Shenchen."
Li Si knew the current situation in Beiliang. The only masters who could take action were the Imperial Master and Emperor Shangao, who were far away from Beiyunbian. If he could not poach people like Shen Chen, the situation would be quite passive.
Just when the group of people were frowning, Li Si had an idea and suddenly remembered something:
"By the way, I followed the soldiers of the Shatuo tribe. When I came out of the cave, at the exit of the military road, I found an inscription left by the First Emperor when he sent out troops. On it was written in ancient Liang script, 'Nine arts are taught by gods.
Yu Kawakou'.
"I guess these nine arts are the Minglong Diagram. If we find it, can the nine Minglong Diagrams be used to save the night?"
?
Eunuch Ziliang and even the people behind him were stunned when they heard this.
Cao Aning said:
"Nine-nine are unified, and they can kill gods and Buddhas with swords. What is the Night Terror Hall? But the Ming Dragon Picture was left by Wu Taizu, and the First Emperor was born eight hundred years ago. Where did the Ming Dragon Picture come from at that time?"
After saying that, Cao Aning calmly turned around and looked behind him.
Li Si knew that the time was not right, but after thinking about it he still said:
"Even if it's not the Minglong Diagram, these 'nine arts' can help the First Emperor unify the world, and they are absolutely extraordinary. It's better than nothing."
Eunuch Yin and others thought about it, and interjected and asked:
"Where is Kawaguchi?"
As the Minister of Rites, Li Si was responsible for diplomacy with the West Sea and knew the history well:
"In the desert outside Shazhou Pass, there used to be the source of the Red River, but it has long since stopped flowing. According to previous research, it should be near Crescent Bay."
"Where is Crescent Bay?"
The guide who was walking in front turned back and said;
"Go southwest for about four hundred miles. The leader and I have been there once. Except for a lake, it is surrounded by no man's land and there is nothing."
Li Si shook his head and said: "Things from two thousand years ago have been buried underground for countless feet. Where can I find things around? How about we go take a look?"
Eunuch Ziliang thought about it for a moment and asked:
"Would you like to drop by Thousand Buddhas Temple?"
"We have to go around a bit, but we can't go too far."
Seeing this, Eunuch Ziliang didn't say much, raised his chin slightly, and followed the guide toward the southwest...
I'm a little stuck on writing. I wrote 10,000 words but only 5,000 can be used or2