He was a middle-aged man in his early forties. His navy blue gown was stained with mud. He had an upright appearance, but there seemed to be a gloomy look between his eyebrows. Some of his beards that had not been taken care of for some time now looked a bit messy.
, which added a bit of depression and depression to him.
At first glance, he looks like a typical depressed middle-aged scholar.
"This time it was this gentleman who accompanied me to inspect the embankments of the Yellow River and temporarily dredge the main roads." Cui Jing introduced it, but it seemed that he did not introduce it at all.
He didn't mention the other person's name or identity at all, and only called him Mr.
But Cui Jing clearly explained the contribution of this gentleman: "Each section of the Yellow River has been blocked for many years and the embankments are in disrepair. If it had not been for Mr.'s guidance this time, the Yellow River would have overflowed by now."
Cui Jing never deliberately exaggerated when he spoke. Chang Suining felt awe in his heart, raised his hand and bowed deeply to the other party, and said sincerely: "Sir, you are a very virtuous man."
This is by no means a compliment.
Since the floods have developed, thousands of houses have collapsed in nearby states. She has seen with her own eyes too many people killed and injured, and the farmland has become a vast ocean.
And if the Yellow River breaks its banks again, the situation will only get worse, and they may not even have the chance to build a shelter at this time.
Looking at that man, shepherd's purse also had respect in his eyes, and couldn't help but say: "Sir, this great achievement has saved countless lives, and it would be better if he was the one to serve in the imperial court!"
But I saw the man smiled silently and said: "It's just a matter of human resources. The shortcomings of the Yellow River embankment have been there for a long time. They have been pushing the blame up and down, and they have been delayed until now. This time I and Ling'an only forcibly dredged and strengthened one or two, and now we have done everything we can."
, if the rain doesn’t stop and it doesn’t last for five days, the damned person will still die.”
These depressing words left Shepherd's Purse at a loss as to how to answer the question.
"It doesn't matter, a person's life will be nothing more than death sooner or later." The man turned around, waded through the water that covered his ankles, and walked up to a higher place, while whispering: "Rise and fall have their own determined cause and effect, and God will die.
What can we ordinary people do about it?"
Shepherd's Purse opened her mouth. This gentleman is really depressed. If he is thrown into the enemy's camp, one person may bring down the morale of the entire army. Everyone has lost their swords and guns. Let's hug each other and cry together.
The news of Cui Jing's arrival did not alarm the disaster victims. The officials in the county just thought that someone came to meet General Ningyuan. They did not know that the person coming was Governor Cui.
Chang Suining and Cui Jing walked to a slightly higher place and sat down on a stone to talk. A Dian was about to follow but Yuan Xiang pulled him aside to talk: "...General A Dian, why is there so many people around Mrs. Chang?
"
This was purely to find something to say to divert A Dian's attention. A Dian lowered his voice and said mysteriously and somewhat proudly: "I picked it up!"
Then he whispered: "But you have to stay away from her, she bites!"
Yuan Xiang looked surprised, followed the words and asked, and successfully grasped A Dian and held him back.
"You should already know everything about Luoyang." Chang Suining sat on a boulder, straightened his tired legs, looked at the lights in front of where the victims gathered, and said: "You come back now,
Are you asking for trouble?"
It was already inevitable that Emperor Shengce wanted to use this incident to wipe out the Luoyang gentry. He specifically ordered Cui Jing to lead Xuance's army to stay and suppress them. It was obviously with the intention of "testing" them.
Because the target of the Holy Emperor is not just the Luoyang gentry, this sword will soon fall on the head of the Zheng family in Xingyang, and the Zheng family is the mother clan of Cui Jing's biological mother, the Zheng family.
Dasheng has a system of hiding relatives from each other, so it has always been an unwritten rule for relatives to avoid suspicion when handling cases. For example, in the previous case of the Pei family, the Holy Emperor ordered Yao Yi, who was the minister of Dali Temple, to temporarily stay away.
This is also a manifestation of the emperor's love for his ministers.
But this time, the emperor specifically ordered Cui Jing to stay and suppress the noble clans with the same roots as Cui Jing. If the Zheng family is involved in the future, Cui Jing can certainly avoid suspicion and not show up, but if he talks about avoiding suspicion then, it will be equivalent to watching indifferently. Such an attitude , is undoubtedly equivalent to asking Cui Jing to turn his back on the nobles and draw a clear line with the nobles head on.
The state has national laws, and clans also have clan rules, and the clan laws of many large clans are even superior to foreign laws in a certain sense. Cui Jing will be infamy for this, and will be cast aside by the gentry and even people outside the gentry.
And if Cui Jing dares to disobey the will and protect the Zheng family, he will be accused of being a party member if he is not careful.
The emperor's move was to force Cui Jing to make the final choice. At this time, the imperial power of the country was in jeopardy, and the emperor no longer needed a Cui son to control the military power of Xuance's army. Even if she wanted to get back this sharp sword, But it also needs a name that makes sense to buffer the turmoil caused by the act of seizing the sword.
However, this flood was unexpected by everyone. Cui Jing went to the Yellow River to repair the dam, and was able to temporarily stay away from the center of the whirlpool. This also prevented some criticisms from arising, and at the same time cut off the opportunity for some people to take advantage of the opportunity to do anything. .
"You could have rushed back in less of a hurry." Chang Sui Ning said.
"Yes." Cui Jing also looked at the sparse firelight with her, and said slowly: "I know."
But he decided to come back.
The middle-aged man in a shirt was sitting cross-legged alone on a piece of graphite, looking far away in the direction of Xingyang. As time went by, the depressed expression on his face gradually became numb.
At this time, a thin figure came over and knelt down towards him in the darkness.
"Uncle Zheng!"
The man was a little surprised: "You are..."
The girl kneeling beside him raised her face and said, "I am the eldest daughter of the Yuan family, Yuan Miao. I met Uncle Zheng with my grandfather two years ago."
"So it's you." The man sighed almost imperceptibly: "I heard that your grandfather committed suicide in Luoyang Prison, and your father also..."
Tears welled up in the eyes of the fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl: "That's why I came to Xingyang to ask for help from the Zheng family to rescue my brother!"
But I saw the man shaking his head feebly.
The girl knelt and took a step forward, kowtowing her head: "Although I am young, I also know some right and wrong. I know that the Yuan family did collude with the rebels. The Yuan family has made mistakes and should bear the consequences, but this mistake should not be blamed. And the lives of my brother and other ignorant children!"
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Li Xian behaved cruelly, and often tortured and killed people with excuses. Even the houses of relatives of the side clan who had no idea about it were surrounded by his troops and were not allowed to enter or exit. Those who resisted were killed, and those who did not dare to resist were starved to death and drowned for more than ten days! Most of them were innocent women and children, and even according to the law, they did not deserve to die!"
"They also killed the famous people of various tribes and offered sacrifices to heaven in Luoyang City... Those who refused to surrender were even dragged and humiliated by them wantonly on the long street... Even ordinary people and literati could not bear to see it, and even intellectuals could not bear it.
It can be killed but not humiliated!"
Tears of grief and indignation burst out of the girl's eyes, and her voice was full of hatred: "They are clearly venting their anger wantonly by acting like this. They clearly want to drive us all out, and they also want to smash the backbones of the world's scholars!"
The man closed his eyes, his eyelashes trembled slightly, and said nothing.
"Not only that, they also used the pretext of hunting down fugitives to take advantage of the flood to plunder innocent people's money. They..."
"No need to say more, the current situation dictates that no matter how many mistakes they make, it will not help." The man interrupted her and said: "This matter is not my responsibility. I am no longer the head of the Zheng family. I am just a useless person. Help
Nothing will be done to you... Since you are lucky enough to save a life, leave as soon as possible, and go as far away as possible."
"Uncle Zheng..."
The man looked at where Xingyang was, his eyes filled with deathly silence: "The Zheng family cannot escape this disaster."
This would be a devastating disaster for the entire Central Plains gentry, and no one could escape.
In other words, he had long expected that this day would come. The prosperity must inevitably decline, and the decline of the noble clan was already doomed.
But he never thought that the way it withered would be such a cruel and brutal massacre... Although it had a history, it also had its roots in the world. Would it be destroyed like this for a thousand years?
The man's cold fingers clenched his hands, suppressing the trace of helpless intolerance.
The girl still knelt there and refused to get up, crying like rain.
In the darkness, Chang Sui Ning looked at the kneeling figure from a distance and said, "That is the girl from the Yuan family in Luoyang."
After all, the girl from the aristocratic family had little experience in escaping, and her dagger had the Yuan clan emblem on it.
Cui Jing asked: "Why did you come to the rescue?"
"She asked me to save her." Chang Suining put his hands on his side, "I asked her if she needed help, she nodded, and I saved her."
Cui Jing raised the corners of her mouth slightly and said in a low voice: "Your Highness is really responsive to all requests."
Chang Suining also smiled, but the smile was not as deep as her eyes. She looked around in the distance and said: "I have never thought of intervening in the struggle between the nobles and the imperial power. I also do not have the ability and position to intervene. And I think that Pei before
No matter whether it is the clan or the Changsun clan, if they lose, they will lose. If they become a king and lose a bandit, there is nothing wrong with them being willing to accept defeat."
"I have never thought of intervening in the catastrophe of the Luoyang nobles. In fact, I have contributed to their catastrophe. I killed Xu Zhengye. Xu Zhengye was defeated first, and then their current catastrophe happened.
.”
"The next one is the Zheng family of Xingyang. The Zheng family is also among the four families and is your maternal family." As Chang Suining spoke, he turned to look at Cui Jing aside: "Cui Jing, do you blame me?
"
Cui Jing also looked at her: "If I say it's strange——"
"That's strange." Chang Suining said without hesitation: "But even if it were to happen again, a hundred times, I would have to kill Xu Zhengye."
Seeing her like this, Cui Jing's voice became even lower: "I know."
He said: "If it were me, I would be the same."
Therefore, he could not blame her. He was not a three-year-old child who did not have the ability to distinguish real cause and effect. Even if she had not killed Xu Zhengye, the disaster of the world's nobles would have been written long ago.
Since the previous dynasty, the imperial power has wanted to get rid of the influence of the gentry. Suppressing the gentry has been the heartache of many emperors and the aspirations of the poor people in the world.
When the king of the dynasty proclaimed himself emperor as a woman, the conflict of political interests further intensified the conflict between the imperial power and the nobles, and it has now become a life-or-death situation that is unavoidable.
Following the question of "weird or not", Chang Suining asked Cui Jing again: "Then do you recognize the existence of the gentry system?"
Cui Jing looked ahead and said in a low voice: "What do you think, Your Highness?"
Chang Suining looked at the young man next to him who was covered in mud and had just returned from digging out sand from the Yellow River.
He left home at an early age and joined the military camp at the age of twelve. Over the years, he had to bear countless scoldings from the nobles.
"The existence of the gentry is indeed unfair. Putting aside the suppression of imperial power, this injustice is even more unfair to the poor scholars in the world." Cui Jing said: "Except for him, no one in the world knows its arbitrariness and mistakes."
"Many times, whether a thing is fair or not depends on the position of each person. It is difficult for the victims to realize it, or they will not easily admit that it is unfair." Chang Sui Ning said: "You are in it,
It is actually very rare to be able to detect abnormalities very early with one's own consciousness."
So, in the final analysis, this is the root of Cui Jing's "rebellion".
What he wanted in his heart was completely contrary to the interests of his family. He could not agree with the way of survival of the Cui family and other noble clans, so he took a path that was not recognized by his clan members.
"When I was young and naive, I tried to persuade my grandfather. My grandfather was not a rigid noble clan leader who didn't know how to adapt. However, it has been passed down from generation to generation. Just like sailing a ship, the helmsman alone cannot easily change the direction of travel." Cui Jing said: "But I
I have always believed that everything depends on human effort, and there is not only a dead end ahead."
Chang Suining: "Can I think that when you first chose to join the army, you were actually trying to make another plan for the Cui family?"
"Yes." Cui Jing answered seriously: "But not entirely."
Chang Suining couldn't help but look at him and said sincerely: "You are a very good general and a very good disciple of the Cui family."
He woke up very early, but was destined not to be understood.
Chang Sui Ning never asked Cui Jing what she thought, nor did she insist on discussing the rights and wrongs of the gentry. She looked into the distance and said: "This is the Central Plains, the heart of China. It has always been said that the Central Plains is the heart of China."
He who conquers the world, this place is not only a place where military strategists fight, but also because it has accumulated over thousands of years, forming a splendid and profound Heluo culture."
What is "unfortunate" is that the foundation of Heluo culture is still tied to these noble families, and most of them are still passed down from generation to generation.
"These things that have been passed down for a long time allow the people to follow the etiquette and the state's laws to govern. If it completely collapses overnight and is burned to the ground, we don't know how long it will take to recreate it."
These etiquette are related to political stability.
If these cultures are cut off at this point, this failure will not be temporary, but will last for a long time in future generations.
Just like the bright stars, if they are connected and become hidden dangers, they can be scattered and dimmed for a while, but if they are completely crushed, is it too much or not?
And this situation is particularly special. Man-made disasters collide with natural disasters. The combination of the two is enough to destroy any seemingly solid foundation.
"There is no right or wrong in political struggle, but I don't agree with Li Xian's act of extermination." Chang Suining said bluntly: "These cultural foundations that have been passed down for thousands of years should not be destroyed by massacre."
This time, as usual, she didn't want to talk about right or wrong, she just wanted to do what she wanted to do.
Therefore, she wanted to step in and find a "compromise method".
Chang Suining stood up and looked at Cui Jing: "Would you like to give it a try together?"
