Chapter 17 of Chaoge: Looking at all things with a cold eye
Emperor Xin led his army on the way back to Chaoge City and camped in the main tent behind the camp.
Li Pingan saw clearly what happened here.
They were discussing how to deal with the captives brought by the Dongyi tribe.
Di Xin felt a little headache after listening to the reports of these ministers.
Shang Rong said: "Your Majesty, if the captives here want to be brought back to Chaoge City, the amount of food and grass alone will be an incalculable amount. It is better to dispose of them on the spot."
Several military ministers each advised:
"Your Majesty, if you don't want to shed a river of blood and show your tender heart, you can also reward the captives to various princes along the way, reward the weak princes, support them to grow stronger, and you can slowly plan it to restrain Fang Bo."
"The various princes are already a close enemy of my Chao Ge, and then you reward them with slaves?"
"Your Majesty! I think that with our great victory this time, we will frighten all the princes, so why not confiscate the princes' grain and grass in various places! If they dare not to pay the grain, they are disobedient to the king. We can kill them on the spot to serve as a warning to others.
!”
"Yes, Your Majesty! That Dongbohou is really hateful. He refused to send troops for several years before. Now you are personally conquering Dongyi, and they are coming back and forth. You even deliberately left a gap in the battle formation to allow the main force of Dongyi to escape!
"
Emperor Xin muttered for a few times: "Dong Bohou is the leader of the eight hundred princes, but he is the current trouble for me. If I attack him hard, I may provoke chaos among the two hundred princes in the east."
"Your Majesty, why didn't the Dongyi tribe attack Dongbohou's land? This matter is really strange."
"Your Majesty, we have captured a large number of generals from various tribes. I am going to interrogate them severely. If I can find evidence that Dong Bohou deliberately led the Dongyi tribe's coalition forces to invade my business, I will punish them severely!"
Di Xin waved his hand: "Then let's interrogate him quickly!"
"Your Majesty, please make your decision early on whether these prisoners of war will be killed, released, or brought back to Chaoge City."
"As I said just now, I will order the princes from all walks of life to contribute food and grass."
Di Xin said calmly:
"My ancestors all demonstrated their military exploits by the number of prisoners of war.
"This is my first expedition. You should let me, the merchant, see that in my hands, the foundation of the great business will become more solid, so that my people don't have to worry."
After hearing this, several ministers did not dare to persuade him any more. They bowed their heads and bowed before retreating.
Di Xin swept his sleeves and sat in a chair, constantly thinking about the next steps.
A name popped up in front of his eyes.
Ji Dan.
But when Di Xin thought about it, the name Ji Dan became very vague again. He remembered that his father once recruited Ji Dan to Chaoge City, and he was very familiar with him.
It's like everything is covered with a thin layer of fog.
In recent years, whenever Di Xin encounters some problems, he will subconsciously think of this name. It seems that as long as he finds this guy, everything can be easily solved.
'But he is the fourth son of Xibohou Mansion and the son of Ji Chang, how can he be used by my great merchant?'
'What's more, it is said that he went to the heavenly gods. Although we don't know whether this is true or not, Ji Dan has disappeared now. I can't even think of bringing him back to Chaoge City.'
'My father-in-law...heh.'
Di Xin sneered and sat there with his eyes closed to relax.
Li Ping'an stared at this place with some thoughts in his eyes. The vision he had seen in Heaven seemed to originate from here...
Just when Li Ping'an was having some doubts, he wanted to calculate directly through the way of heaven. This would save time and effort and would lead to less insights.
Outside the big tent, two ministers left and came back. After entering the big tent, they knelt down and saluted.
"King!"
"Huh? I don't want to rest, but what's the important thing?"
"Your Majesty, this time you achieved great victory in the Eastern Campaign. All the tribes of Dongyi were defeated, the world was shaken, and the princes surrendered. You should report this victory to the heavens and ask all the ancestors to read it!"
"oh?"
Di Xin raised his eyebrows slightly and smiled slightly:
"What do you mean, dear?"
"Your Majesty, before you killed priests and animal officials, there were actually some criticisms from various places. For your great victory this time, why not restore the ancient system, warn the heavens and the earth, and let the gods in the heavens know about your bravery, Your Majesty."
Di Xin leaned back slightly.
Just as he was about to nod, some thoughts came to his mind.
Sacrifice of human beings is too cruel.
But such thoughts soon faded away. Di Xin thought about how he was sitting in the carriage, leading the soldiers to charge into battle, and killing the Dongyi Allied Forces before they were completely defeated. He really wanted to laugh a few times.
"Then restore it! Now there is no shortage of sacrificial uses."
"Your Majesty is wise!"
The two ministers were ordered to retire and began to arrange for people to go to Chaoge City to make preparations in advance. They would hold a sacrificial ceremony when the king returned to Chaoge City.
Li Pingan watched this scene, closed his eyes and sighed softly.
His shadow quietly dissipated, and when he opened his eyes again, he was already in the apse of the Notre Dame Palace filled with golden light.
Mother Nuwa opened her eyes and looked at Li Ping'an, and said warmly: "Have you seen it?"
"A matter of human sacrifice."
Li Pingan sighed:
"When Donghuang Taiyi left, he cut the knot quickly, but he never thought that now Emperor Xin has restored this tradition.
"I'm tired, let's destroy it and take over Nanzhou directly."
Nuwa couldn't help but frown.
"I'm just kidding," Li Ping'an smiled bitterly, "The turmoil in the Shang Kingdom is right in front of us. I won't take action randomly. I also want to take advantage of this opportunity to learn more about the great truth."
Nuwa asked: "Ping An, what do you think caused the collapse of the Great Chamber of Commerce?"
"The chaos among the princes is obvious."
Li Pingan said:
"In the final analysis, the population in various places continues to grow, the princes are getting stronger and stronger, and the merchants have become relatively strong from the original absolute strength.
"The Shang royal family also became more and more bloated. Many royal families had their own private lands, but they were unwilling to submit court songs.
"There are too many loopholes in the taxation law. The contributions from the princes are not much different from those many years ago. However, there are more and more merchants and they are becoming more and more luxurious. There are many drunkards among the merchants. Where does this wine come from? Just
In exchange for grain for wine making, merchants would have a large amount of wealth flow into the princes everywhere every year.
"This means that the social system must be reformed. The Shang Dynasty's system is no longer applicable."
Nuwa sighed: "Although we are ordinary people, when war breaks out, lives will be lost."
"War is just a means in the process of civilization and a way for conflicts among all strata of society to erupt."
Li Pingan sighed:
"There is no other way. I just hope that after this battle is over, there will be peace for eighteen hundred years."
Nuwa asked: "Can't Heaven set restrictions on every living being to avoid disputes?"
"The way of heaven will lead to death."
"Um?"
Li Pingan said sternly: "What the Holy Mother said has actually been deduced by Pingan. It is to instill the thoughts of peace and non-dispute in everyone, and then deduce the world... that was originally controlled by the Western religion and refined Taoist weapons.
Those small worlds are essentially the same."
Nuwa nodded slowly.
Li Ping'an smiled and said: "The freedom of living beings actually lies in this. The essence of freedom is to reduce the restrictions on living beings. How to balance restrictions and freedom itself is a balance that Heavenly Dao needs to constantly explore."
"You are becoming more and more like a Taoist master."
"this……"
Li Ping'an shrugged: "We must complete the goal of opening up the world of stars, and we can't break our promises."
Nuwa said: "The Transcendent One should have already made arrangements. You don't have to make yourself so tired."
"His arrangements are his arrangements, and my efforts are my efforts."
Li Pingan said calmly:
"This way I can accept it a little better.
"Recently, I have also discovered that as I continue to understand the great road, the closer I am to the great road, the farther I am from the living beings, and gradually my heart has become a little unsettled.
"I see life and death as beings like flowers picked up in the morning and evening.
"And there is only one thing that I can't help but care about, and that is... everything I have now is a gift from that father.
"I can look at the world with cold eyes, but I can't look at myself coldly, otherwise I will become numb and degenerate. I obviously have the opportunity to make up for the regrets that this old man has caused countless living beings, but in the end I just muddle along.
"I don't want that.
"So, his arrangement is just the last option for me. On this basis, I still have to do a lot of things."
Nuwa smiled softly: "Actually, you are also a victim. After all, it was he who did so many things without your permission."
"I am the beneficiary. Being alive is the best reward. How can I be said to be a victim?"
Li Pingan’s shadow gradually dissipated:
"Your Majesty, you can always call me when something happens. Now most of my soul is immersed in the sea of Taoism, leaving support outside."
"good."
Nuwa gently raised her hand, and a willow leaf followed Li Ping'an's shadow.
The willow leaves turned into a Yao Qin song, which gave Li Ping'an a moment of relief.
He returned to Ji Dan's place, continued to study, deduced the sixty-four hexagrams, listened to the voices of all sentient beings, and did not interfere in the affairs of Chaoge City.
As he said;
Just give him a cold look.
The most important thing now is to liberate ordinary thoughts, and this is exactly what Ji Dan can do.
…
The years are like fallen leaves outside the dungeon, falling to the ground swayingly, and then being cleaned over and over again by the servants of Xibohou Mansion.
News from Chaoge City and other places continued to reach the low table in front of Li Pingan through the strange beasts galloping on the earth and the birds soaring in the sky.
Ji Fa would come to the dungeon every now and then, and would persuade Ji Dan to go outside for activities if nothing happened.
Li Ping'an kept refusing.
It's nice to have him down there.
Emperor Xin's great victory in the Eastern Expedition rekindled the princes' awe for the great merchants.
It's not much, but it's still there.
Chaoge City once again started the sacrificial ceremony. The streets were empty, and merchants were stationed to watch. As the heads fell one after another, human and animal corpses were sacrificed, as if the national fortune of the great merchants was once again prosperous.
I don’t know which deity passed by, and deliberately thundered and rained during this sacrifice.
Li Ping'an didn't delve into this either.
In addition to the sacrificial ceremony in Chaoge City, there are many small things here.
During Emperor Xin's Eastern Expedition, the merchant army collected grain and grass from all over the place on their way back. It was originally to feed the prisoners of war, but in the end it turned into collecting tolls. - It means to collect tolls after passing by.
Dozens of princes in the east presented many treasures and even took out many young slaves as rewards for the army, and all of them complained about this.
The Jiang family of Dong Bo was reprimanded by Emperor Xin, but they gained further trust and support from the princes in the east.
This is really hard to judge.
When Emperor Xin returned to Chaoge City, at the first court meeting, Xibohou, Beibohou, and Nanbohou jointly presented a memorial, saying that Dong Bojiang's family had a disobedient heart, deliberately neglected the military situation, and refused to carry out the king's orders.
Then the officials became angry and denounced Dong Bohou.
Although Jiang Huanchu, the Marquis of Dongbo, was seriously ill, he struggled to get up from the bed, drove straight to Chaoge, and came to apologize.
When Jiang Huanchu arrived at Chaoge City, presented dozens of car frames as gifts, knelt down in front of Emperor Xin and cried bitterly until he coughed up blood, he calmed down the anger of the ministers.
——This is actually the political drama within Dashang.
Nowadays, the situation of the Shang Kingdom is very obvious.
For merchants, the two hundred princes on the east road plus the tribes of Dongyi are now a serious concern. There are also cases of resistance to the king's orders among the great passes in the east.
Emperor Xin and his ministers will focus on this in the future.
Although the Sanfang Bos headed by Ji Chang were ranked among the Three Dukes, they were basically honorary titles and did not participate in merchant government affairs. They also became an important 'chip' to contain Dong Bohou.
This actually won Xiqi a valuable development opportunity.
Otherwise, they would always be watched by Emperor Xin and the merchants, and if the Xibohou Mansion slightly expanded its armaments, it might lead to disaster.
Just as Li Ping'an was watching this human drama with great interest, wondering if there would be any 'black swan' that would break the fragile balance between the central and local governments in the Shang Kingdom, there was an explosion from the east.
There is a problem over at Chentangguan.
Just two and a half years after Huozha was born, Chentangguan has become extremely lively.
The reason was that the heavy rain caused by Taiyi Zhenren caused groups of shrimp monsters and fish monsters to appear in the waters around Chentangguan. The fishermen continued to suffer disasters, and Li Jing was tired of dealing with them.
And these shrimp monsters and fish monsters gradually developed a little "linkage" with the soldiers and horses trained by the East China Sea Dragon Palace.
This caused the relationship between Li Jing and the East China Sea Dragon Palace to become tense.
This matter is actually good for Li Jing.
Li Jing had an idea and sent someone to send the ten-foot-long giant shrimp carcass to Chaoge City to explain why he had failed to respond to the king's order in time to send troops to attack the Dongyi tribe.
This move caused a huge shock in Chaoge City.
The merchants were not in the habit of eating shrimps at this time, but when they saw the monster corpses showing their teeth and claws, only empty shells were left, they were all shocked.
Emperor Xin was very happy, and directly sent many rewards to Li Jing, and encouraged Li Jing to continue to guard the eastern seaside gateway for the great merchants.
This is tantamount to acquiescing to the separatist rule of Chentangguan by the 'anti-monster general' Li Jing.
On this day, two groups of guests came to Li Ping'an's clone Ji Dan's dungeon.
The first people to arrive here were Master Taiyi and Master Huanglong. They were obviously worried about something, but they were both too shy to speak, so they each made excuses.
Before Taiyi Zhenren could sigh and prepare for his emotions, rolling thunder appeared in the sky above Xiqi City.
A dark cloud came from the east, a strong wind blew in the city, and there was lightning and thunder everywhere.
Then an old dragon wrapped in a blindfold rushed down, transformed into the Dragon King of the East China Sea Ao Guang, and appeared in the dungeon.
Master Taiyi and Master Huanglong had already taken the first step to hide.
Li Ping'an held the carving knife and tilted his head to look at the old Dragon King. Looking at the sad and angry look on his face, he couldn't help but ask:
"My dear, is there something wrong?"
"Your Majesty! You have to make the decision for me!"