Bai Chongyan brought two followers, a book boy and a bodyguard.
The bodyguard was none other than the ancient uncle Gu San. He looked at the former Pao Ze with multiple blood marks on his face. He was holding the stick tightly in both hands and wanted to smash it out.
Bai Sheng and Shi Biao were similar, they both glared at the official.
Ju Ming, with a smile on his face, extended an invitation: "We are about to have a meal, why don't you have a drink with us? Call your brothers!"
"Official Zhu is so generous!" The official was so happy that he even changed his title.
Perhaps because it is deep in the mountains and there are villages nearby, the delivery shops here also provide catering services.
Ju Ming didn't have much money with him, but he was very generous at this moment. He threw out a pile of gold and silver coins and said: "If you have any good wine and food, take them out and go kill chickens and sheep quickly!"
The soldiers at the delivery shop were overjoyed. Zhu Ming paid for it himself. They could make extra money, so they immediately went to find nearby farmers to buy sheep and chickens.
Even the official ship that brought them here and several stewards on board were invited by Ju Ming to drink.
Li Hanzhang, a military-loving scholar with tattoos on his body, was also a generous person. He was afraid that the money given by Ju Ming was not enough, so he took out the money and threw it out. He called all the scholars to come, and he wanted to have a good tooth ceremony today - before They all live on the boat, and the food is really disappointing.
As a result, those officials and stewards called them "Zhu Daguanren" and "Li Daguanren" one after another.
In an instant, the two of them went from going to Beijing to raise a son, to becoming heroes who spared money and were generous.
The prominent "elites" were eating and drinking, while the tea-carrying soldiers and tea-carrying laborers had to continue working.
It was no longer possible to sail the boat ahead, so both the scholars and the tea transporters had to get off the boat and walk along the plank road. The farmers were moving all the tea on the boat to the shore.
After finishing the work, the tea delivery shop did not care about the food, so they had to chop wood and make a fire to make food.
The food for the tea movers was severely deducted. It was all old grain mixed with sawdust, and they cooked a large pot of gruel. They sprinkled a few coarse salts in it, and there were no vegetables. They had to go into the mountains by themselves. Dig wild vegetables.
Before, you could also take a boat, which was a little easier.
Next, they had to travel over mountains and ridges. Everyone was carrying tea on their backs, and they were working extremely hard. Malnutrition was definitely a problem. No wonder the mortality rate was so high.
The food of the soldiers serving tea was slightly better, but it was still gruel. These people belonged to the rank of rural soldiers and were also the targets of exploitation. Only their officers could go drinking with them.
The soldiers and civilians in Hanzhong were not actually the worst off. The real ones were the counterparts in Yazhou.
Yazhou was the farthest away and had to cross the Shu Road, so the mortality rate was easily over half. The most serious incident was when 500 Yazhou soldiers were recruited to move tea. Most of them died within two years, and all the rest fled.
The impact of that incident was so bad that it directly led the imperial court to change the method of transporting Sichuan tea. Instead of letting rural soldiers transport tea, local officials instead asked local officials to recruit civilian laborers.
"You four, come and eat together!" the soldier in charge of serving food ordered.
Four civilian husbands from Xixiang County, thanks to Ju Ming's care, instantly had the food and treatment of soldiers.
The rest of the people were envious.
A village soldier also said with emotion: "This Zhu Daguan is really benevolent and righteous, and he is willing to pay real money for you."
The blood stains on the face of the civilian husband were not gone. He had cried bitterly before, but now he sounded proud and patted his chest and said: "Tou never treated us badly. When I was an archer, I withheld the rations and made us unable to eat. I was full. Without saying a word, Du Tou led us to make a big fuss at the county government office and beat up the county government official. Later, I followed Du Tou to suppress the bandits, and I received more than ten pieces of reward money, all of which were distributed by Du Tou himself. of."
Another soldier asked: "You have received more than ten thousand dollars in rewards, why do you have to be sent around to carry tea?"
The citizen sighed and said, "Well, after taking back more than ten thousand dollars of reward money, I spent most of it to pay off the old debts of the landlord's family. The county government secretary couldn't hold his breath and changed my family to a fourth-class household. I have paid a lot of taxes in the past two years. .You’ve been assigned another job this year, so how can you still have money to hire someone to replace you?”
"The public servants are not very good!" The rural soldiers actually scolded the subordinate officials. They were the local army with a formal establishment.
Another civilian husband said: "When I returned to Xixiang, I no longer tolerated the evil spirit, and the whole family went to join Zhu Xianggong. Zhu Xianggong was Dutou's biological father. I heard that he was also very righteous, so if he went there, he would be able to If you divide the land, you won't have to pay much in taxes, and you won't need to do any rounds of labor."
"Really? How come I didn't know?" The person who asked the question was also a civilian who had been an archer.
The man before said: "Your place is too far away from Daming Village, so you don't know the news. My home is close to Daming Village, and Heifeng Village has long been changed to Daming Village. This year, the village has planted fairy grains, one acre of The land can harvest several acres of grain, and every household there will not be short of grain."
One of the soldiers was actually tempted: "I am from Xingyuan Prefecture, can I go and vote for Mr. Zhu?"
"How do I know this? I can probably go, Mr. Zhu is benevolent and righteous." The citizen replied.
Hundreds of tea-carrying men were sitting not far away eating, listening to their conversation with open ears.
Many people were moved, thinking that if they did not die and returned to their hometown alive, their families would move to Daming Village.
The four archers began to brag again, talking about how powerful they were when they suppressed the bandits. Zhu Ming, Zhang Guangdao, and Chen Ziyi were all described as having a bravery that no man could match.
Drilling and suppressing bandits were the only highlight moments in their lives. The four archers would never forget them in their lives. They would tell people about them over and over again whenever they had the chance. Many of the stories they made up, after being told several times, they themselves believed them. .
Sometimes when they are bullied, they always imagine how great it would be if the archer team had not been disbanded and they could have followed Zhu Dutou all the time.
As I thought about it, I started to laugh out of joy.
In the delivery shop, the "elites" drank heavily, hugged each other and left.
The tea officer had difficulty standing still, but he patted his chest and promised: "Zhu Daguan is my brother, and Zhu Daguan's soldiers are my own soldiers. If the four of them die, I will cut off their heads to apologize to Brother Zhu!" "
"It's easy to say, they are all brothers!" Zhu Ming was completely relieved.
Zhu Ming was also drunk and walked to the river to blow in the wind. Bai Sheng followed closely, fearing that Brother Zhu would fall into the river.
Seeing him passing by, the four former archers all knelt down to thank him. The rest of the country soldiers and civilians also looked at him with admiration, viewing Ju Ming as a good man who was considerate of soldiers and kind to the people.
That kind of look and expression made Ju Ming's heart feel like needles pricking his heart, and he almost woke up from the drunkenness in an instant.
Even though he has done nothing, he can be admired and loved by a group of strangers.
All I can say is that it’s not how good Ju Ming is, but how bad others are!
Especially those rural soldiers who guarded the tea, after hearing about the treatment of the archers in Xixiang County, they wished that Ju Ming would immediately go to Xingyuan Mansion as an official. If they joined Ju Ming's command, they would have enough to eat every day.
The rural soldiers really have no other requirements, they just want to have enough food every day.
It was getting dark, and Ju Ming sat by the river in a daze.
At some point, Chen Yuan and Xue Daoguang strolled out and stood behind him.
Chen Yuan asked: "Does Dalang have something on his mind?"
Ju Ming pointed at the rural soldiers and civilian husbands and said, "I can see that they like me very much. Some of the rural soldiers even bowed to me."
"Isn't this bad?" Chen Yuan asked again.
Zhu Ming shook his head dizzily: "I only benefited four people today, why are there hundreds of people who admire me? It shouldn't be like this."
Chen Yuan was thoughtful and stopped talking.
Xue Daoguang said: "My little friend has the heart of a benevolent person, which is quite rare."
Zhu Ming suppressed the sadness in his heart and grinned: "Taoist Priest's inner elixir method can save the world if he only cares about becoming an immortal himself?"
Xue Daoguang shook his head: "We can't save him. I still have some medical skills. I can only pass by the countryside and save a few rural patients."
At this moment, Zhu Ming was drunk and mentally stimulated. At this moment, he really wanted to talk nonsense with others: "Taoist Master, in Daming Village, you talked about a lot of inner alchemy sect. In fact, it can be summed up in just four words, "
The Return of Origin and Life in the Tao Te Ching.”
A mere four characters, like Hong Zhong Da Lu, shocked Xue Daoguang and was stunned on the spot.
The Ziyang Sect didn't even have a name at this time, and its theory hadn't yet matured, but its basic framework had been finalized.
Xue Daoguang wanted to take Ju Ming as his disciple, and he often tried every means to spread the idea of inner alchemy. Luo Liba talked a lot, and to Ju Ming's ears, it was just the words "return to one's roots and return to life."
Such a concise summary would have to wait ten or twenty years later, when Xue Daoguang became successful in cultivation and compiled it in his own Taoist scriptures.
Ju Ming continued: "Those Taoist poems you talked about are a lot of confusion, but you just refuse to explain them clearly. I will simply help you summarize them into three points: First, everything in the universe is real, not illusory. This is
Form; second, the laws of the universe are orderly, that is, existence and non-existence, yin and yang, order and reverse, this is God; third, the universe exists, the laws of the universe are natural, this is nature!"
"When you cultivate the golden elixir, you are cultivating the form, spirit, and nature. You are returning to your roots and restoring your life."
"The cultivation method and state you mentioned are nothing more than refining essence to transform Qi, refining Qi to transform into spirit, refining spirit to return to emptiness, and refining emptiness to combine with Tao. Is that true?"
Xue Daoguang was dumbfounded. He understood everything Ju Ming said. But being in this mountain and not knowing the true face, it was difficult for him to explain it so clearly to Ju Ming.
These words can be used as the general theoretical outline of the Ziyang Sect. The three theories of cosmology in it were even summarized by later Taoist researchers, and even Bai Yuchan did not seriously summarize them.
"Taoist Priest, have you cultivated Yang Shen?" Zhu Ming asked.
Xue Daoguang shook his head: "According to what my little friend said, I am still refining my energy to become a god. As for the Yang Shen, I can only cultivate it by refining the god and returning it to the void."
"The Taoist priest always said that the three religions are integrated into one, but you only understand one point of difference. What about Confucian benevolence and righteousness?" Zhu Ming shook his head and said, "Benevolence and righteousness are the foundation of Confucianism. Even if you combine benevolence and righteousness, you are still a small benevolence and a small righteousness, not a small righteousness."
This is great benevolence and righteousness. Your three religions are united into one, which is not quite right."
Xue Daoguang frowned.
Zhu Ming continued: "The Taoist Master said that he was refining Qi and transforming into God. Great benevolence and righteousness are also in the Qi. The Taoist Master said that he has been in Tokyo for several years, living in the bustling city and living in the same light and dust. He must have been realizing this kind of Qi form. Has he ever realized it?
Have you realized the great benevolence and righteousness? Without great benevolence and righteousness, the form will be missing after all. If there is a missing form, how can you transform into a spirit? How can you refine the spirit and still cultivate the yang spirit?"
Xue Daoguang knew very well that Ju Ming was just sophistry.
What Zhu Ming said was in conflict with the Taoism he practiced.
But the sophistry was so reasonable that it was enough to shake his moral heart.
Ju Ming chuckled: "So, Taoist Master, please follow me in practice. Save the world and save the people, be benevolent and righteous, and make up for the missing piece of the alchemy method."
Xue Daoguang felt like vomiting blood when he heard that. He entered the world to practice, but he was experiencing the "being" of the secular world, that is, the social part of "form", and he would eventually fall into "nothing". His ultimate goal was to be born in the world, but Ju Ming let him
He is immersed in the world, and he is immersed in it very deeply. If you don't pay attention, you won't be able to get out.
But it does make sense. If you don’t follow Ju Ming’s words, the “shape” seems to be missing a piece!
Chen Yuan laughed when he heard this. He wanted to say something: Welcome Taoist Master to join the Confucianism School Luo Xueyong Sect.
Zhu Ming pointed to the rural soldiers and civilians: "Look, they also have 'existence' and 'form', and they also exist in real ways. How can the Taoist priest turn a blind eye? Only by helping the world and saving the people can we truly practice cultivation!"
Xue Daoguang's scalp was numb at the moment, and his Taoist mind was really unstable: "I need to meditate for a while and think about something before I say goodbye."
He had a vague feeling that something was wrong, but he couldn't refute it and had to think about it first.
Under normal circumstances, Xue Daoguang would not be so slow. The main reason was that today Ju Ming gave a perfect summary of the theory of the Ziyang Sect, which suddenly confused his mind.
Xue Daoguang left, and Chen Yuan stayed where he was.
Chen Yuan sighed: "Rescuing the world and saving the people is the true spiritual practice. This is a very good thing to say, but it is not easy to do it."
Ju Ming said: "Now that you know it, you can do it, and know and do as one."
Chen Yuan murmured to himself: "Knowing and doing are one, knowing and doing are one..."