The sun is scorching in the sky and the heat wave is rolling.
Both sides of the Yellow River are vast and fertile fields are endless. When a breeze blows, the wheat waves are overwhelming, like the tide of the golden sea, which is particularly magnificent.
After leaving Tongguan, it was as if the world had changed, and the temperature had risen several degrees out of thin air. As long as it was sunny, from the time the sun rose in the east to the time it set, Li Chengzhi felt that the sweat on his body had not dried.
He wished he could take off his pants and wear only silk clothes, with his arms half exposed and his bare feet riding on the horse.
A dozen riders and three carts followed closely behind, driving leisurely on the ancient Yellow River road.
Today is May 21st, which is the seventh day since he set off from Jingzhou. At this time, he has left Dingcheng County (today's Tongguan County).
Looking at the fields with cars and animals like dragons and the bustle of people, Li Chengzhi was in a leisurely state of mind.
It’s summer harvest time again!
It's cool in the pass, and it's estimated that it will be time to harvest the fields in about ten days. Once the tens of thousands of acres of fertile fields are harvested, Zhang Jingzhi and Li Shixian will rush to Hexi with hundreds of thousands of grains and 50,000 to 60,000 refugees. p>
I hope nothing goes wrong...
Thinking in his mind, Li Chengzhi noticed a chill on his body and subconsciously raised his head.
Things have changed?
A gust of cool wind blew, and Li Chengzhi was trembling, feeling indescribably comfortable. Even the war horse under his crotch felt the coolness, shaking his head for a while, and his hooves became much lighter.
He looked at the sky and shouted to Li Rui, who was driving, "It might rain, hurry up!"
Li Rui hurriedly agreed and shouted twice quickly. Then he saw a skinny old man coming from the rear of the team and approaching Li Chengzhi.
"Mr. Sir, since the wind has picked up, it must be much cooler in the car. Why don't you dismount and ride?"
This is Li Xie, the uncle of Li Rui and Li Cong. Li Shixian and Guo Yuzhi were afraid that Li Rui would get into trouble, so they asked Li Xie to go to Beijing with Li Chengzhi.
Li Chengzhi agreed without thinking.
Riding a car is still more comfortable than riding a horse.
He jumped off the horse and got into the second car.
In the carriage, which is nearly six feet wide and ten feet long, except for a narrow passage near the window that is large enough for Li Chengzhi to lie down, the rest of the space is filled with books, piled high.
One-third of them were collected by Li Chengzhi in the past few months, such as those sponsored by Hu Baozong, Guo Cunxin, Zhang Jingzhi, etc. The other third was collected by Li, and the remaining third was collected by Yang Shu.
Gift.
The Five Classics and Four Books, Confucianism and Taoism, various schools of thought, astronomy and geography... there are all kinds of books.
Regardless of the rest, half of Li Chengzhi's reputation for being good at war comes from the knowledge of later generations, and the other half is due to those military books.
Don’t think that Taoist books are useless, take a look at what Li Chengzhi saw in the books.
"Baopuzi·Neipian·Golden Elixir": eliminate stone, alum, cinnabar, stone sulfur... amalgam combined with fire, you can get the golden elixir!
If the Taoist priests of the Tang Dynasty had not accidentally created gunpowder based on this alchemy method, Li Chengzhi would have dared to chew this book alive.
Or "Baopuzi·Jinkui Prescription": One handful of Artemisia annua, soaked in two liters of water, wring out the juice and drink it all, malaria can be cured...
Isn’t this the first time in Chinese history that artemisinin won the Nobel Prize in Science 1,500 years later?
It is still the "Baopuzi·Elbow Backup Emergency Prescription·Cholera (Cholera) and Epidemic Repellent Prescription": moxibustion, burning dogwood in the house, marble (quicklime) paving the floor...
Are you still using it during the COVID-19 pandemic?
There is also more than one Ge Hong's "Baopuzi", and there is also the Tao Shenxian who is still alive. That is, Tao Hongjing, who was hailed by the Southern Dynasties as a wizard who had not been born for 500 years, recorded in the "Compendium of Materia Medica":
The gourd is called garlic, and the garlic is called small garlic, because its gas is similar... Soak it with wine, which can kill the poison of fish, fish, and fish...
Only then did Li Chengzhi know that allicin, which made him so proud and complacent, had been researched during the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
But why is it that one generation is inferior to the other and most of the good things are lost?
Just because "everything is inferior, only reading is superior!"
As long as anyone who can understand Taoist scriptures and medical books, who is not a scholar? Instead of studying and practicing lowly business, it is better to study a few more articles to take the exam.
There is plenty of money, dignity and comfort, why not?
Li Chengzhi sighed and pulled out "Emergency Prescription".
In another month, around the beginning of autumn, Hexi will be the hottest time. Li Chengzhi is going to do some research, figure out a few articles on epidemic prevention methods in military camps, and send them to Li Song and Li Liang, so that he can be prepared.
I don’t know how long I walked, but I felt that the noise outside was much louder. Li Chengzhi put down the book and took a look outside.
It is a county town. There are three or four soldiers hanging outside the gate, and Li Xie is negotiating with them. The wall is not high, more than two feet at most, and there are two large seal characters written on the door: Hu County!
This county already belongs to Sizhou territory and is less than 500 miles away from Luoyang. If we speed up, we will arrive in three or four days at most...
It rained heavily that night, and we stopped in Hu County for a day the next day. We set off on the third day. After another four days, we arrived at the foot of Luoyang City.
In Li Chengzhi's memory, apart from the ancient capital of the Thirteen Dynasties, Luoyang is most famous for Mudan.
It's a pity that the time has passed. If I had come half a month earlier, I might have been able to see the grand scene of "only the true national beauty of Mudan, and the flowers in bloom move the capital".
But it was a worthwhile trip. As soon as he entered the city gate, Li Chengzhi's eyes were opened.
They came from the west, so they naturally had to enter the city through the west gate. There are four gates in the west city. Afraid that the two gates in the middle would be too crowded with people, Li Chengzhi deliberately chose the northernmost and relatively quiet Chengming Gate. However, as soon as he entered Guocheng
, that is, there are no seas of people.
Just like the famous scenic spots after the National Day holiday in later generations, people are next to each other, shoulder to shoulder, and the crowds are as dense as sardine cans, so dense that it makes people feel numb.
Look again, good guys, at least half of them have bald heads, which are so bright that they are blinding.
The altars on both sides of the official road are next to each other, with colorful flags fluttering on the platforms, each with its own name, such as "Dajue Temple", "Yongming Temple", "Rongjue Temple"... At a glance, Li Chengzhi alone can see
There are more than ten temple flags in the Qing dynasty.
Half of the platforms were either monks giving lectures or giving out porridge. A small number of the platforms were filled with nuns, handing out talismans.
The most exciting thing is the acrobats doing somersaults and climbing bamboo poles.
This kind of stage has the most people in the audience, with three floors inside and three floors outside. In addition to the spectators, there are many monks and nuns walking among the crowd with bowls. Behind each of them is someone carrying a bag, which is only ten at most.
A young novice monk in his early years.
If you don’t take ten steps at most, the bowl will be filled with coins, and the monks and nuns will pour them into the pockets on the novice’s back...
Li Chengzhi was surprised and surprised.
What's strange is that the monk can not only draw Taoist talismans, but he can also be so fashionable. He invites jugglers to gain popularity?
What is surprising is the generosity of these people in the audience.
More than a hundred years after the founding of the Wei Dynasty, the country was still bartering. You can imagine the extent of the country's copper shortage.
In the entire Wei Dynasty, the Han five baht was circulated only around Luoyang, but it was not that expensive. One copper coin could be exchanged for at least one pound of grain, and the purchasing power was more than ten times that of the middle and late Sui and Tang Dynasties.
But when these good men and women threw a lot of money into the bowl, they didn’t feel the least bit distressed?