Li Jichen looked at He Qizhou seriously and said: "Young man, are you ready to take part in the martial arts? The future is long, what you hear may be false, what you see may not be true, the world is dangerous, you have to clear the clouds to see the future. There is another thing, what happened today
I said that the matter involves Jinling sect secretaries, so I hope it will be kept secret."
Abbot Xincheng also said: "The little donor has a compassionate heart and is born with a pair of wise eyes, and he can definitely distinguish right from wrong."
He Qizhou, who still wanted to hear the story, said: "Okay, okay, I understand, I understand, what happens next?"
The abbot smiled and said: "The porridge was all finished, and I will be hungry tonight."
He Qizhou and Lin Chuan looked at each other and suddenly felt hungry. They bowed to the abbot and Li Jichen and ran into the temple quickly.
The thin young man looked at Li Jichen and said, "Master, when will you teach me the Guangling sword technique?"
"Let's talk about it one day when the six meridians are opened." Li Jichen had obviously been troubled by this problem for a long time and walked quickly into the temple.
Yuantong Temple is a famous temple of the Pure Land Sect. It occupies a very large area, from the middle of the mountain to the top of the mountain. It has four main halls plus a sutra collection building, a total of five floors and four entrances. Dozens of simple pavilions are built with moso bamboo and oilcloth in the square at each entrance.
Thousands of disaster victims were lying on the ground in the pavilion. In the wing rooms on both sides of the temple, the Luohan Hall arranged for the elderly, weak, women and children to stay temporarily. In the Jialan Garden behind the temple, in addition to the monks of the temple, there were also many alms-givers and people such as Li Jichen.
Such distinguished guests came to help. The peaceful place of Buddhism turned out to be a scene infested with human beings.
The victims in the temple all had sad faces and kept sighing. Some were lamenting their own plight, and many people were worried about the white-clothed thief. Abbot Xincheng and three other people walked slowly along the corridor.
Walking into the temple, from time to time there are busy monks and victims in the square paying tribute to the abbot. He is clear and has no airs. He returns the greetings one by one. His old and compassionate face can't hide the fatigue. When he arrives at Arhat
At the door of the hall, Xin Cheng said to Li Jichen with a hint of guilt: "Looking at the rain in the past few days, the peak of the disaster has passed, but there will still be many victims leaving their homes in the next few days, but the small temple is unable to accommodate any more victims.
, I hope Mr. Zhang will inform Magistrate Zhang tomorrow."
Li Jichen said: "The master is an eminent monk and a great virtue, and Jichen feels inferior to him. When the manpower is exhausted, the master must not blame himself. My nephew, the head master, should be raising money and food in Jiangnan these days. Relief materials will not be transported in the future."
Going to Jiangling Mansion, although it is a drop in the bucket, I hope it can relieve my urgent needs, but in the end the problem must be solved by the court. Tomorrow I will go to Zhang Luyao's Mansion to ask about the disaster, and by the way, I can ask for mercy for the thieves."
He Qizhou and the others had already lost all their food on the road, and finally received a mouthful of thin porridge and a steamed bun for each of them in the temple hall. After the meal, they found the scholar's family and the twins in the west wing.
The mother should be a lady, and her already frail body couldn't bear the bumps of hunger and cold, which was caused by the invasion of wind and cold. He Qizhou took out a few pills that warmed and dispelled evil from the medicine he carried with him, saying that as long as he was no longer hungry,
He recovered in two or three days. Looking at his wife who couldn't afford to be sick, the scholar was a little skeptical about the curative effect told by Qizhou, but he still thanked him again and again. He Qizhou rarely got sick himself, but he often treated poor people in the countryside. Of course,
Knowing that these pills prepared by Huang Quan himself were very effective, the old man once boasted that with the same medicinal materials, his medicine was better than that of Ouchi Palace.
After spending the night under a bamboo shed in the temple, Qi Zhou and the two set off for the city at dawn. Fortunately, the rain finally stopped. After changing their clothes, the two of them regained their youthful appearance.
Along the way, there were still twos and threes of victims heading towards Jiangling City. The two of them arrived at the west gate around midnight. There was already a long queue of people entering the city under the tall city gate. It turned out that a large number of victims had poured in in the past few days, and there were some gangsters among the victims.
They stole and robbed in the city, and several murderers had their heads displayed at the city gate on the spot to shock the restless victims.
Starting from the day before yesterday, except for relatives in the city who guarantee to take care of them, all disaster victims can only follow the government's dispatch and go to designated temporary residences inside and outside the city. Because everyone needs to be screened for identity and hand over weapons, the speed of entering the city is as fast as
Guixing. Fortunately, He Qizhou and the two had military certificates issued by the county and were not disaster victims. Therefore, they could move freely in the city even though they carried bows and swords on their backs.
After waiting in line for nearly half an hour, when they were about to reach the city gate, there was another sound of hooves like a rain. It was the people who captured the white scarf thief yesterday who were galloping all the way. The man who called himself Bai Hui was tied up with five flowers and lay on his back.
In front of Long Yin, when the two of them passed Qi Zhou on horseback, Bai Hui seemed to wink at Qi Zhou. The city gate had been opened long ago, and the horse team ran directly into the city without stopping.
After the cavalry had gone away, the crowds queuing up to enter the city suddenly started to boo and sigh for the white scarf bandits. Some people cursed the county officials for being corrupt and unkind, and many people shed tears. As a famous poor house in South Zhili, Jiangling Prefecture is among the most famous.
After the tax reform in the past few years, many people have fallen into extreme poverty. In the past two years, the white scarf thieves have robbed the rich and given to the poor in some poor villages in the northern part of South Zhili. He Qizhou has also heard about it. About a moment later, He Qizhou also heard about it.
At 2 o'clock in the morning, the two of them entered the west gate and walked towards the inner city. After entering the city gate, the victims had to wait for the officials to take them to several relief locations, so the victims could not be seen walking around freely on the streets of the inner city. He Qizhou told Lin Chuan
said:
"Last time I went to Jiangling City to take the scholar examination, I didn't go to Chengjianghu Tower. I must go and see it no matter what this time."
Lin Chuan said with a sad face: "I heard that the food at Jianghu Tower is extremely expensive. We only have so much money. We still have to go to Jinling and Luoyang. What should we do in the future?"
"We are just going to experience it and eat less, okay? Mu Mu, do you know why our Jianghu Tower in Jiangling Prefecture is so famous?"
"I don't know. I only know that we have run out of dry food and are running out of money."
Qi Zhoudao: "Let me tell you, our Jiangling Prefecture is known as Little Yangzhou. It is an important water transportation hub from the south of the Yangtze River to the northwest. Most of the rice, silk, porcelain and other products that go to Luoyang have to pass through Jiangling Prefecture and come overland.
He said that Jiangling Mansion is also a crossroads where the four directions meet. There are mountains everywhere here, and only Jiangling Mansion is a large flat land. Therefore, all the cars, boats and horses traveling from south to north have to pass through here. Many heroes from the world will also stop here. I heard that
In the past, masters often fought in the building, and Jianghu Tower was beaten to pieces countless times, but so many people still went to Jianghu Tower to drink every day."
Lin Chuan said: "No wonder it's so expensive. It turns out that the extra money is needed to repair the building."
Qi Zhou glared at Lin Chuan and said, "That's it, let's go to Jianghu Tower to eat now, buy some dry food in the afternoon, and then find an inn at the south gate. We will set off for Jinling tomorrow morning. Let's go to Jianghu now.
Lou Kuaiyi’s grudge!”
Jianghu Tower is easy to find. It is located in the most famous Osmanthus Alley in the city. Osmanthus Alley contains the best restaurant, the most expensive brothel, and the largest casino in Jiangling Prefecture. Because everyone knows it, the two of them only asked a passerby.
They knew how to get there. Jiangling Mansion was neither big nor small. The two of them led their horses and walked for half an hour until they reached Yangzhou Avenue. Yangzhou Avenue is in the center of Jiangling City. On one side of the avenue is the best mansion in Jiangling City, the largest
Shops and inns, with the Jiangling Government Office in the middle, and the Yangzhou Lake with a radius of several miles on the other side. Flowers and willows are planted all around the lake. Due to the excellent scenery of Yangzhou Avenue, the mansions on one side of the avenue are even more expensive than those in Jinling City.
mansion.
A pair of stone-carved green lions stood at the entrance of the government office, one head taller than the four guarding government officials. As they passed the government office, they could already see the tall archway at the entrance of Osmanthus Alley from a distance. Near noon, the entrance to Osmanthus Alley was already crowded with people.
Ruzhi, the two of them had just walked in a few steps when they heard someone yelling and cursing on the right side of the alley. They stopped and looked at it for a while. It turned out that there were about ten people gathered at the door of a rice shop, one of whom was in his sixties or seventies.
The old man cursed at the rice shop, saying something about darkening one's conscience, making it difficult for the country to make money, being a vampire, and so on. A few middle-aged women couldn't help but curse, and more people were just holding bamboo baskets of rice and worrying.
, I saw a strong man walking out of the rice shop and shouted loudly: "New rice is one hundred and fifty cents per catty, old rice is one hundred and twenty cents per catty. If you want to buy it, buy it. If you don't buy it, get out."
"How can it increase tenfold in three days?"
"Report to the official!"
"Raised by a bitch!"
More people started shouting and cursing at the door.
Another old man walked out of the rice shop and said calmly: "There is almost no rice in Jiangling City. If you want to buy it, buy it quickly. There is no chance that the price will increase in two days." Then he pointed to the shop sign that was fluttering in the wind, which said Chen
With the word "Chen" written in vermilion, he continued: "There are still people who want to affect our business. Don't blame me for being rude." After saying that, another strong man came out of the store, probably the rice mover, and faced the door.
The crowd's eyes widened.
The scolding in the crowd suddenly subsided, and a few people silently entered the store to buy rice. Most people just reluctantly walked out of Yangzhou Avenue, probably to try their luck at other rice stores. Qi Zhou sighed.
, the two continued to walk deeper into Osmanthus Alley. Osmanthus Alley is on the right side of Yangzhou Lake. It was built near the lake and has a history of hundreds of years. The bluestone pavements on the street can be seen, and there are several deep...
There are rutted roads, and osmanthus trees are planted on both sides of the street. They are all old osmanthus trees with a breast diameter of more than a foot. It is late summer and early autumn, and the tall osmanthus trees block out the sun. Although it is approaching noon, there is no feeling of summer when walking in the alley.
The two men and two horses walked slowly in the alley, looking at the rows of shops on both sides. Most of them were restaurants, pawn shops, antique calligraphy and painting shops, gouache shops, etc. Most of the people walking in the alley were well-dressed. They walked hundreds of steps.
After that, the two saw a strange building, with a wall more than twenty feet wide and two feet high. Even if they looked across the alley, they couldn't see the houses inside the wall clearly, but the facade in the middle of the high wall was only about six feet wide.
The door frame is made of green glazed tiles, and the brick carvings around the door frame are full of simple lotus patterns. The strange thing is that there is only a door frame but no door. Three feet inside the door frame is a huge brick screen wall, with a painted peach blossom on it.
The peach trees were bright and moving, and the screen wall also blocked passers-by's view of the courtyard. He Qizhou wanted to step over the high threshold to find out, but Lin Chuan immediately pulled Qi Zhou's sleeves and said loudly: "Young Master