Yesterday, two major events happened in Bianliang City.
The first one was that Xu An, a great talent who had been famous in the capital for the past year, was beaten in a brothel. He also admitted in public that all his poems were plagiarized. Not only was his face disgraced, but his cultivation level dropped from the ninth level of Body Refining to three levels in a row.
In this state, he is now seriously injured and lying on the bed, not knowing whether to live or die.
This incident caused an uproar in the literary world of the Song Dynasty. Many literati reacted and wrote in seal scripts one after another to criticize the traitor Xu An for being extremely shameful and an eternal shame for the literary world of the Song Dynasty.
Some people also came forward and said that Xu An was only punched and kicked by the one-armed martial artist, and he had no choice but to admit that he had committed plagiarism.
But regardless of whether he was forced to do so or not, Xu An's behavior still lost the pride of a scholar. Whether he plagiarized or not is no longer important.
There were always more scolding voices than words of support. From then on, the "talented" Xu Dashikui was completely nailed to the pillar of shame in the literary world of the Song Dynasty, and was despised by literati of all dynasties.
The second one was only circulated in the market, and only the imperial court knew whether it was true or not.
After the curfew last night, the east gate of Bianliang City was actually haunted, and not just one or two, but thousands of ghost soldiers gathered to try to attack the city.
The rumor came from the mouths of the soldiers guarding the city. At first, it was lifelike and relatively close to the truth. However, as it spread through the mouths, it gradually retreated from reality and turned towards exaggeration.
After spreading, it evolved into the theory that someone on the city wall was frightened to death on the spot. It was even said that the gate of hell was opened, and countless undead souls came out, almost alarming the king of hell.
What the truth is is not something that these ordinary people can understand. They still live their own lives, and the two lecture platforms in the east and west still hold lectures on time every day, and the number of people who go to the audience to listen to the teachings is still unabated.
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In the imperial palace, in the Chongde Hall where monarchs and ministers discuss matters, Hui Emperor Zhao Shuo looked gloomy, wearing a yellow robe embroidered with nine lifelike golden dragons, with five-color clouds in between, as if swallowing the sky and the sun, demonstrating his supreme status as the Nine-Five Supreme Being.
The emperor did not speak, but kept a calm face and did not know what he was thinking. The civil and military officials on the stage were whispering to each other and looking at each other in confusion.
Before going to court, most of them had heard about the haunting at the East City Gate last night, but what they heard was not what they had seen with their own eyes. They, the senior officials in the court, were also full of doubts. They wanted to find out what happened when they went to court this time, but from the beginning
, the emperor just sat there and said not a word, which made the officials who had their own thoughts very strange, but they did not dare to ask.
"Wang Ming, the guard of Xuandong City, enters the palace." Hui Emperor Zhao Shuo said abruptly.
Everyone froze, thinking that His Majesty the Emperor had finally spoken.
The great eunuch Yishu who was beside the emperor and responsible for delivering the imperial edict bowed slightly, and then shouted in a high-pitched voice.
"Your Majesty has decreed that Wang Ming, the guard of East City, enters the palace!"
Hearing this, all the officials turned back one by one to look at the entrance of the hall. Not long after, a burly man wearing a military attache's official robe walked cautiously into the Chongde Hall.
Wang Ming, the general who guarded Dongcheng in the imperial capital of the Song Dynasty, was a third-rank official. Due to his responsibilities, he had almost no chance to participate in the morning court.
Now, due to the incident that happened in Dongcheng last night, the city guard general had to temporarily leave his post and come to this hall where the highest-class figures in the country gathered.
Wang Ming was a little nervous, and his lips were a little white. On the one hand, he had not yet recovered from the haunted incident last night. On the other hand, the last time he went to Chongde Hall was when he was awarded the title of East City Guards thirteen years ago.
time.
After more than ten years, he returned to his hometown and met the Holy One in person, which made him feel terrified.
Wang Ming walked cautiously, and when he came to the main hall, he immediately knelt down and bowed down, and respectfully performed the courtesy of a courtier to Hui Emperor Zhao Shuo.
Emperor Hui Zhao Shuo did not let him get up, but waved his hand.
"Tell me what happened last night in detail."
Upon hearing this, Wang Ming immediately repeated in detail what happened at the east city gate last night, from the appearance of the Yin soldiers out of thin air, to the ancient talisman being shot into ashes by an arrow, to finally the Yin soldiers disappearing out of thin air.
Although this process was short, Wang Ming's description seemed to bring the courtiers into the scene at that time. During this period, many high-ranking ministers took a breath, and the timid one turned pale with fright.
Zhao Shuo, who was on the high platform, had a sullen face. It was obvious that he was very unhappy that such an incident had happened.
At this important moment, the Song Dynasty was about to hold a national ceremony, announcing that the whole country would join the Twelve Divine Palaces, welcoming the divine envoys into the dynasty as deacons, and bringing new hope to the country. Of course, the most important thing was for his own wish for immortality.
At this juncture, a haunting occurred, and tens of thousands of ghosts appeared at the East City Gate. Once such a bad omen spread, those civil and military officials in the Song Dynasty who opposed surrendering to the shrine, as well as the folk scribes and warriors, would surely take advantage of the situation.
, stood up and used this matter to advocate.
Five years ago, when he was in charge of government affairs, Hui Emperor Zhao Shuo told himself that the world belonged to him alone. He liked the feeling of controlling the country with one hand, so he hoped to live forever and enjoy wealth and wealth in the world forever.
But in fact, the world is not owned by him alone. There are always people who are not afraid of death who stand up and make their voices heard. Since the decree of surrendering to the Twelve Divine Palaces was issued, although there are rare voices of opposition in the court, there are many among the people.
Literary men wrote articles to criticize him, and even martial artists stood in public and accused him of being a coward.
In this regard, he cannot kill them all with an imperial edict, otherwise it will arouse national resistance and the situation will most likely bottom out, which will be even more detrimental to this plan.
So he thought of many ways, such as setting up two high platforms to give lectures, and slowly penetrated it ideologically.
Then he asked for more sophisticated papermaking technology from the Twelve Divine Palaces, and printed promotional pictures of the Twelve Divine Palaces on it to stimulate the curiosity of literati. After all, throughout the ages, no literati was immune to the four treasures of the study. A piece of good paper is of great benefit to literati.
It can be said to be as valuable as gold foil.
Originally, things were going very well. Emperor Hui Zhao Shuo ordered the Ministry of Works to build the Xuan Shen Platform. By then, the king and the people would be together, and the whole country would be able to see it. It was enough to choose a good and auspicious day to announce the matter.
But at this time, the East City Gate was haunted by ghosts, and the city was almost attacked. Emperor Hui Emperor Zhao Shuo was extremely depressed and even thought that what he had done was in vain.
As the saying goes, whatever bothers you brings you. When Hui Emperor Zhao Shuo was feeling depressed, a civil servant wearing a purple official robe came out from the audience.
This man has a gray beard and gray hair, a face like a ravine, and embroidered birds and cranes on his chest. He is the second-rank imperial censor, Wang Huan. He is responsible for supervising the Prime Minister Gao Wen Chong and assisting the Prime Minister in prosecuting hundreds of officials.
Wang Huan strode out of the queue, came to the front of the ministers with a serious look on his face, and said respectfully to Emperor Hui Zhao Shuo.
"Your Majesty, it must be God's will that such a bad omen appear in the capital. We do not want the Song Dynasty to surrender to the Western barbarians and become a vassal state. Those dead souls must be soldiers who followed Emperor Taizu to conquer the country. They returned to the world to remind Your Majesty to be careful.
!”
Upon hearing this, the court fell silent. Wang Huan was the second person in five years to voice his objections to surrender in court.
The first one was a cabinet bachelor. Five years ago, this person was dragged out and cooked in court. His home was also ransacked, but his family was not exterminated.
At this time, Zhao Shuo, who was sitting on the dragon chair, had a gloomy face that was almost dripping with water, and he stared coldly at the old ministers in the audience.