The turmoil caused by the conviction and massacre of the Heluo nobles and the nobles and the court was no less powerful than this natural disaster.
But what is most widely circulated among the people is the incident of General Ningyuan and the eldest master of the Zheng family praying for blessings in Xingyang.
First, this kind of mysterious deeds of God’s manifestation have a natural appeal to the public, ranging from eighty-year-old men to five-year-old children, whether they are women living in the back house or knocking on the streets.
Anyone can talk to a beggar in a bowl, so there is no threshold at all.
Furthermore, in comparison, it is too dangerous to talk about the political disputes between the nobles. Due to the turmoil and military disasters everywhere, the imperial court did not hesitate to use cruel officials, words and deeds to suppress rumors and statements that were unfavorable to the saints.
A little carelessness can lead to disaster.
Those big nobles are too far away from the common people like them. Just listen to it for stimulation. If you really want to get addicted to it, you have to pray for blessings and effective results. First of all, you must keep your head stable and not moved.
And successful prayers, in a certain sense, represent the approval of God. Those who pray successfully have always been regarded as the embodiment of auspiciousness.
Natural disasters turned into auspiciousness, like holy totems representing hope emerging from the mud. For a time, Xingyang praying was talked about everywhere, and it quickly became the first choice of storytellers in major teahouses.
"...The culprit was sacrificed in front of all the people. General Ning Yuan and the great man of the Zheng family knelt on the altar for three days and three nights without eating a drop of rice..."
"On the third day, when the Yellow River was about to overflow, weeping could be heard everywhere inside and outside Xingyang City. It was so miserable..."
"General Ningyuan wanted to evacuate the people first and leave this place, but the people of Xingyang City refused to leave and vowed to live and die with General Ningyuan and Xingyang!"
"The people in the city were so grateful that they worked hard to sew two Wanmin umbrellas as gifts... guess what?"
Facing the expectant gazes, the storyteller energetically slapped the tree awake and said in a measured tone: "As soon as the Ten Thousand People Umbrella was opened, the dark clouds dispersed, the sky was filled with golden light, and the rain stopped suddenly!"
All the guests in the hall were in an uproar and there were countless exclamations.
However, the storyteller suddenly stood up and said, "However, this is not the most bizarre thing!"
"It is said that a giant dragon suddenly appeared on the bank of the already overflowing Yellow River. It spit out dragon chants from its mouth, opened its mouth wide, sucked the overflowing flood into its belly, and then turned into clouds and disappeared!"
There was an explosion in the hall. Everyone looked surprised. Some people rolled their eyes on the spot, thinking that this storyteller was just making things up. Who on earth believed this kind of mindless book?
The applause from all around gave him the answer - good guys, everyone except him believed it!
The rolling eyes of a few people were not enough to affect the atmosphere and push it to a boil.
"...No wonder even my daughter-in-law said that General Ning Yuan was the reincarnation of a general. I didn't believe it before!" The man who spoke slapped his thigh with a serious expression and fell into a fatal reflection.
Don't blame him for not being firm in his stance, but think about it, a little girl of sixteen or seventeen years old can kill the traitor Xu in one battle and rule the world, and pray for blessings to stop the rain in the Central Plains. How can she be an ordinary person?
Someone else asked the storyteller longingly what the dragon looked like. The storyteller described it vividly, as if he had seen it with his own eyes while squatting in the sand beside the Yellow River.
Storytelling requires half-truths, half-falsehoods and exaggerations to attract the attention of the people.
Moreover, this book was sent to him by a girl who asked her maid yesterday. It is said that there is actual evidence for reference.
"Well said, reward!"
On the second floor, a girl's bright voice came, and several pieces of silver reward were quickly sent to the cases in front of the storyteller.
The storyteller clasped his hands to express his thanks, and threw more and more broken silver and copper plates at him.
"...Sister Wu's book is so well written!" Yao Xia lowered her voice and said excitedly in the private seat next to the fence on the second floor.
The other girls also echoed, and the enthusiastic response from the audience lasted for a long time.
Wu Chunbai looked downstairs and smiled: "If it wasn't for my good writing, this incident should have been so sensational."
"Everything is good, everything is good! My deeds are good, and so is my book!"
"By the way, A-Xia, if you continue to tell us, what else did your distant relative say about Mrs. Chang in the letter..."
A group of girls were chattering in this room. In a private seat not far away, Yao Yi, who was wearing regular clothes, sat alone. In front of him were a pot of tea, two plates of snacks, and a plate of pine nuts.
Yao Tingwei peeled the pine nuts slowly in his hands, glancing in the direction of his niece from time to time.
His niece couldn't hide things. He had long known that the popular story-telling books in Beijing in the past two days were all written by the girl from the Wu family.
These girls... do they know what they are doing?
It should be noted that not everyone has books to read these days, so speaking of truth, among the people, making something easy to understand, such as a play or a nursery rhyme, is the widest, fastest, and easiest to penetrate people's hearts.
way for spreading.
And her deeds, one after another, with the help of these girls, are about to turn from deeds into legends.
If her deeds become a legend, then she will no longer be a "person" in the ordinary sense, but will become the embodiment of the legend.
Do these girls know what this means?
Did she ever know it herself?
How could she not know that she herself had previously claimed that she had received guidance from the Savior Immortal!
Thinking of her "cousin" who said nothing shocking when they said goodbye to each other in Dayun Temple last year, Yao Yi felt like he was sitting on pins and needles, his heart was rising and falling, and a dangerous thought was crawling in his mind.
Listening to the voices about her in the hall, Yao Yi felt the alternating feeling of coldness and boiling all over his body, and every pore in his body was opening and relaxing. A voice in his mind asked - is there really such a thing as God's will?
?
He also whispered to himself.
"Master, what did you say?" There was a commotion everywhere, and the servant bent down to ask.
"Check out." Yao Yi slapped the pine nuts in his hand on the table and stood up uneasily: "Go home."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The boy agreed and took out a few broken pieces of silver and put them on the table. When he saw his master peeling a bunch of pine nuts, he was surprised that there was not a single one.
To eat, the boy stuffed handfuls of them into his mouth and followed them contentedly.
The storytelling content in the teahouse here spread quickly.
The common people spread this word of mouth, and fellow storytellers in various street teahouses suddenly felt a sense of crisis. In just one day, the dragons appeared!
Okay, okay, let’s play like this, right? Wait!
Someone started to write madly: "...it seems like it will be late, but soon, the umbrellas of all people will open, hundreds of birds will surround the altar, and the dark clouds suddenly turn into colorful auspicious clouds. Looking at it faintly, the cloud still looks like an immortal..."
Driven by a sense of crisis in the capital's story-telling industry, countless bizarre but extremely attractive versions were spewed out.
Speaking of a sense of crisis, Wei Miaoqing also has some recently.
A month ago, a distant relative of Yao Xia appeared out of nowhere and said that he was working under General Ning Yuan. Therefore, he often wrote to Yao Xia about Chang Sui Ning's current situation.
At first, Wei Miaoqing was still a little skeptical, but after reading several letters, it became clear that there was indeed such a person.
As a result, Yao Xia's status among them has increased, and she is extremely popular. This makes Wei Miaoqing, who has been accustomed to being the center of attention since she was a child, quite jealous. She began to frequently recall that when her brother went to Jiangnan to quell Li Yi's rebellion, she was
The wonderful feeling of being surrounded by sisters.
Driven by vanity, Wei Miaoqing, who was once more valued than her younger brother, once again set her sights on her elder brother.
"...The disaster in the Central Plains has been severe this time. The saint must have sent an imperial envoy to provide relief and appease the victims, right? Brother, why don't you recommend yourself?"
During these days, seeing that my brother had to burn incense twice a day to pray for Mrs. Chang who was marching outside, Wei Miaoqing concluded that her brother had already been deeply in love and could not extricate herself. At this moment, she lowered her voice and said: "In this way, brother can also take the opportunity to
Let’s meet Mrs. Chang.”
"..." Hearing this, Wei Shuyi was a little nervous for no reason.
Looking at her brother who was particularly handsome, Wei Miaoqing suddenly thought to herself: "Ms. Chang is out fighting and doing disaster relief and praying for blessings. She is so hard working. It would be nice to see my brother's beauty and relax a bit..."
"..." Wei Shuyi looked at his sister with a smile on his face: "There is no need to tell me everything in your heart truthfully."
Wei Miaoqing suddenly covered her mouth. She was not a fool. She didn't want to tell him the truth, so she did it anyway.
Looking at his sister who was carved out of the same mold as his mother-in-law, Wei Shuyi became even more melancholy about the possibility of his sister becoming a crown princess in the future.
At this time, his melancholy sister suddenly felt distressed: "No, that Governor Cui is in Xingyang. With him here, how can he look like an elder brother when it comes to beauty?"
Wei Shuyi felt an arrow in his heart. Seeing that his sister couldn't spit out ivory from her dog's mouth, he stood up with a decent and gentle smile, took off the curtain around his waist, and handed it to his sister: "The affairs of the imperial court are not your child's play. This matter is yours."
Don’t bother.”
Wei Miaoqing subconsciously took the purse, opened it, and saw dozens of golden beans. She couldn't help but ask: "Brother, why did you give me this?"
Wei Shuyi turned around and left without looking back: "When you have free time, you can go to the Huichun Pavilion to grab a few pairs of symptomatic medicine."
"...!" Wei Miaoqing gritted her teeth and stamped her feet.
…
As Wei Shuyi said, disaster relief is no longer a child's play. In addition, this disaster happened at the same time as the Heluo nobles, so there was no room for any mistakes.
During the morning meeting the next day, many officials felt as if a huge stone had dropped in their hearts when they heard the disaster situation reported from Heluo and the preliminary estimates of the amount of money and food needed for disaster relief by officials from various ministries.
Zhong was originally the location of the Dasheng Granary, but the disaster was so serious that this year's summer harvest was destined to fail. In addition, the court also needed additional disaster relief money and grain. The losses could be described as double and huge.
Nowadays, wars are breaking out frequently everywhere, and the war requires a lot of money and food to support it. The national treasury is already empty, and it is impossible to come up with such a large amount of disaster relief money at this moment.
However, it is impossible not to provide relief for this disaster. Luoyang in the Central Plains is no different from other places. It is absolutely impossible for the victims to riot and rebel.
"Fortunately" there is still a way to replenish the national treasury... The entire property of those Central Plains nobles is a big piece of fat, especially the Zheng family.
Speaking of this, now in the main hall, among the hundreds of officials, there are many vacant positions. Those are the positions of officials from the Central Plains gentry. While the Central Plains gentry was being liquidated, the descendants of the tribesmen who were officials in the court were also
They were purged, and most of them are now in prison awaiting final disposition.
Now that the "evidence of guilt is conclusive" and all the dust has settled on the surface, it is time for the emperor to issue the final punishment.
Although the officials did not say it on the surface, most of them knew in their hearts that the severity of the punishment was destined to be different due to Zheng's "special response".
As the head of the Central Plains gentry, the Zheng family first killed the culprit family leader Zheng Ji, and then offered all their property and books without any resistance in order to save the lives of innocent tribesmen. Such a low profile was not at all like a gentry.
Make a party.
And the former head of the family, Zheng Chao, who killed Zheng Ji, had merit in praying for blessings and water control, and was gifted the Wanmin Umbrella by the people of Xingyang...
The effective prayer represents God's will, while the Ten Thousand People's Umbrella represents the people's will... With the two coexisting, the handling of this person and the Zheng family requires careful consideration.
In addition, some distinguished scholars from the Central Plains even submitted a joint letter to the capital to show that Zheng Chao was a man of great virtue and that he was not a scholar or a commoner in his eyes, and asked for mercy from the emperor.
The person who submitted this joint letter was Song Xian, the new top scholar appointed by the saint.
Song Xianben was also a native of the Central Plains. He claimed that by chance, he had been taught by Zheng Chao who was sitting in the thatched cottage. In this way, he was half a teacher. The teacher was in a difficult situation. As a student, he could not remain silent and watch. He also spoke for Zheng Chao in his words.
Chao begged for mercy.
The Duke Zhuangyuan and a group of scholars and scholars who came from a poor family interceded on behalf of Zheng Chao, who came from a noble family. It can be said that they abandoned the view of being a poor scholar, which is really rare.
Another official stated this matter in the main hall. When Grandmaster Chu heard this, he felt gratified in his heart. This might be the beginning of the great development of the world's civilized education.
And he felt that Zheng Chao's various self-rescue actions in Xingyang... were probably the work of his disgusting student.
In addition, some people submitted several letters to impeach Li Xian. Zheng Chao brought a series of effects and influences. Some people criticized Li Xian for humiliating the nobles during the massacre in Luoyang, tortured them to death, and even sacrificed innocent scholars to heaven.
dissatisfied.
Emperor Shengce listened to those angry words of impeachment and finally said: "There is indeed something wrong with Li Xian's actions."
If all these nobles were to be killed in one go, they would be killed. However, Zheng Chao's incident changed the direction of public opinion on the matter. Under such pressure, her attitude also needed to change. What should she do next?
I already have a plan in mind.
However, her goal has been achieved. This change only caused the Central Plains gentry to turn from decline to decline, thereby saving some people's lives. She donated her books, confiscated her family property, and became common people. From then on, there were no gentry in the Central Plains... This is not the case.
It really disrupts her chess game.
She thought that the person behind Zheng Chao who was adding fuel to the flames also thought of this. He was very smart and sober, and knew where her bottom line was... She meant, her Ashang.
