Every day the number of new sick people in the city proliferates, and the number of people dying outside the city increases, so that the fire burning in the pit of the dead never stops, and only the flesh and bones can be turned into dry bones for the living to rest......

It's a pity that the newly dug graves can no longer contain those soldiers who died in battle and the Chu people who were infected with the epidemic, and there are constantly common people who are reported to hold sacrifices privately at home, and the hundred officials are tired of dealing with these surging trivial chores, and the political situation in the country is faintly turbulent.

The increasing number of infected and dead people in the royal city seems to confirm Bu Yin's prophecy and Li Lao's accusations, and all kinds of persuasions to the emperor to abdicate automatically or come out to sacrifice to the heavens to calm the wrath of the Eastern Emperor, piled up inside and outside the Zhu Palace and the He Palace day by day.

Walking silently in the last turbulent winter of the nineteenth year of King Chumu, between the various court rooms behind the Zhu Palace, Li Chen looked up at the black clouds above his head for the first time, his eyes gradually narrowed slightly, and he exhaled a cold breath from his mouth.

It was perhaps the closest he had come to the eye of the storm in his life.

Because of the outbreak of the "Witch Case", Li Chen, who was soon forgotten, should have enjoyed acting as a behind-the-scenes promoter for the first time, and the audience in front of the curtain watched how this scene of mountain ghosts and ghosts sent the rebellious people to the burning altar and let the usurper ascend to the golden palace of power and applaud, but everything was swept away by the "broom star" that slowly appeared in the sky, and everyone was disgraced.

……

As usual, the children of the Wang family waited early in the morning to send Wang Yin to the palace car to enter the palace, but Wang Yin, who was not very good-looking, suddenly fainted on the wheel when he boarded the car.

"Father's ......"

"Your Excellency...... What's wrong with you?"

Wang Yin saw a large number of figures in front of him, but he only felt cold all over his body, holding his limbs, and his teeth chattered: "Madam, I'm cold...... It's cold...... Is it going to snow?"

Mrs. Wang looked around: "Your Excellency...... Where is the snow?"

"Snow ......"

Wang Yin squinted his trembling eyelashes, passed through the figure in front of him, and looked at the white sky above his head: "What a big snowstorm...... Cold...... I'm so cold......"

"Someone, go and get the imperial doctor!"

Wang Shiyu had already changed her face when she heard the words: "No, no, please witch!"

"Go!"

……

"Lord Liyin was found to have a high fever when he left the mansion today, but he was afraid of cold, Qi Chu Gong, did he also move out of the city with his clan?"

"What?...... Wang Yin is also sick?"

In a word, Wang Ding, who seemed to have blown up, blew up the entire Zhu Palace, and everyone's faces began to become unpredictable.

"Not only that, but the number of infected people in the army today has reached hundreds, and there are also several nobles in the city who have been quarantined, and there are ...... "The military doctor in charge of the epidemic in the capital has a hard time reporting every epidemic."

"Oh my God!

"But the army is a place where people gather!"

No one cares about the death of the common people, but the death of a soldier and a nobleman is enough to make everyone thrilled, which means that the morale of the army will be unstable, the people's hearts will be unstable, and now together with the scholars and doctors who are officials of the court, they are also infected with the evil plague, who is still sitting? They are mixed with Wang Yin every day!

Ruo Ziyan did not speak.

But at this time, even Li Lao, the first person under the royal family, couldn't help but turn a little pale in an instant.

On the Golden Palace, someone already wanted to leave quickly, and someone suddenly pinched his throat and coughed a few times: "Ahem, cough, cough......"

"Ahh

"He's also possessed by malaria!"

Suddenly, everyone looked at that person in horror, like an evil ghost, and scattered in a hurry, running in all directions, and even banging on the closed temple door: "We are going out...... Open the door of the temple!"

The crying and shouting of blessings echoed throughout the Golden Palace, and if Ao Ziyan patted the copper case and yelled, he ordered people to "be quiet, what are you afraid of the epidemic?!" But no matter how they could dispel the dark shadow shrouded in the hearts of hundreds of officials and workers.

That was the most terrifying plague in the Chu State!

No human can stop it.

Who would have thought it would spread into the royal city?

Fear may be the true fear of the ghosts and gods in people's hearts.

The greatest ordeal of these nobles' lives was nothing more than the Ruoao Rebellion a month ago, and the dirty shoes had just been shaken off the filthy sludge, and now they were caught in a new doom and quagmire......

Why does even the plague visit the sacrosanct royal city?......

The number of sick and dead people is surging every day...... Dead people piled up outside the city, and the smoke never stopped...... Now it has spread into this impregnable royal court.

Did the state of Chu suffer some kind of heavenly punishment this year?

Perhaps fear is the only thing in this world that can overwhelm everything without the words of intimidation, or the grandeur of power, or even the bloody war, and even it has the most widespread transmission base, a scream, a cry can infect everyone.

"Ahh......hh

"I don't want to die ......"

"Whoever can save us, we have no fault ......"

"Woo ......"

The dust in Zhao De's hand was thrown frequently, and he hurriedly approached someone to bring it out: "Come on, come on!"

"Get him out!"

"Take it out!"

"Hurry up and invite the priest, big blessing, small blessing to come and dispel evil spirits!"

"No!"

At this point, Ruo Ziyan could only announce the suspension of the dynasty to avoid the epidemic, and sent someone to quickly ask the priest to lead the entire Siwu to eliminate evil for the court.

When Lao Wu received the order, the faces of all the palace guards were almost pale, and they trembled to close all the palace gates to prevent the plague from spreading in the palace...... All the court officials fled from the palace like crazy, and those palace people, temple people, servants, forbidden soldiers, and officials who could not escape...... Almost all of them have lost the will to live, or they keep kowtowing to the heavens and praying to the gods for holy water to ward off sickness and avoid bad luck.

The entire Chu Palace was almost in a state of semi-paralysis.

No one can stop the terrified mortals......

……

The miserable white winter sun shone faintly on the southeast suburbs outside Yingdu, and the tall statue of the god was pulled out by the sun with a long shadow, which extended to the royal pawn garrison area all over the mountains and fields behind, enveloping the green trees and morning birds and soldiers and civilians in it, as if a god was guarding this place.

A stone tablet stands on the square in front of it, and the four characters of "Donghuang Zhiyi" are lofty and sacred, as if there is great divine power, attracting the sick Chu people not far away.

The birds walked among the weeping crowds, pecking at the weeds growing in the cracks of the stones, and did not know the suffering of the world.

"The medicine is exhausted. ”

The witches in charge of healing said: "I am afraid that the sick in many villages near the shrine will not be able to continue to be treated. ”

"Now all these sick people have gathered outside the shrine, begging us and other priests, for fear that they will attract the attention of the officers and soldiers. ”

"Let's check it out......"

"Yes, Priestess. ”

The farmland around the shrine has long been barren, not to mention the autumn harvest, trampled by the hooves of war-torn horses, there is no one to clean up, and there are wild dogs everywhere with rotten corpses in their mouths, running by in shock, startling those comfortable birds.

When the priest's white feather coat stained with the lowest dirt appeared in their field of vision, all the Chu people who begged for blessings rushed to them as if they had seen a god, crying: "Wu Xian can bless me!"

The witch in red and white robes jumped forward from behind the priest, and softly soothed them to stop their steps, but she didn't know if she could save them.

A woman threw herself at the priest's feet with a baby crying in her arms, and begged, "My lord, please bless him!"

"He's just been born. ”

"Even this world hasn't come yet, and I haven't had time to open my eyes and take a look. ”

The priest put the sachet of wormwood into the woman's arms, and the witch behind her tried to stop her: "Priest, there is not much wormwood...... What if you get sick too?"

"The Eastern Emperor must not bear to die more in this world. ”

Looking at the statue standing in the distance, he compassionately put his hand on the child's red and wrinkled little face and stroked it to relieve the cough in his lungs: "Child, grow up well." ”

The army of the royal soldiers stationed near Phoenix Mountain is still cleaning up the wilderness in the southeast suburbs day and night, clearing out the camps for the soldiers and civilians to temporarily relocate, but this is just a drop in the bucket for the entire Yingdu and beyond, seeing that the priest has taken in a group of sick refugees, Ouyang Nai saw it, but silently ordered the royal soldiers stationed in the southeast area outside the city to make way for him.

……

In the capital city, which is ten miles away from the Donghuang Shrine, Li Chen is silently watching the news he has collected over the past few days, the most of which is naturally the every move of the one in the palace, but the entire Zhu Palace is in chaos like this, and there are constantly people trying to escape by all means, but the silence on the side of the palace makes him feel a little weird, even ridiculous.

"Uncle, this fire is fierce. ”

Is that one so calm because of the lack of information? But the fire is no longer humanly stoppable, and even he is a little frightened.

Li Chen said hesitantly: "I'm afraid no one will sit still at this time......

"No matter whether she will sit still or not," Elder Li said firmly: "The success or failure of my Li Clan's family in the next twenty years will be all here!"

"But, father...... Wang Yin had a close relationship with my Li family, but now he is suffering from a vicious disease...... Then wouldn't we ...... too" Li Li said with a worried face, he is not worried about the demise of Mihuang now, what he is worried about is that all the clans will be buried with her, but he will only be forty years old, in his father's words, when Li Lao retires, the future of the Li family will belong to him.

But let's not talk about the future now.

He didn't know if he would survive tomorrow.

The other three brothers also echoed: "Father, why don't we stop here!"

"The matter has come to this point, and we have an explanation for Chu Gong. ”

"Lives matter!"

"Rats!"

Li Lao flicked his sleeves and said angrily: "Power is in danger!"

"If you're afraid of death, I'll let the old man stay at home!" When the words fell, he was already extremely disgusted with Li Li's four brothers, and he was angry with him!

Li Li's four brothers agreed with trepidation.

If a rat escapes, he can't wait to immediately leave his resignation and hang up the seal.

"Chen'er, you also see your brothers, uncle can only rely on you now!" The situation has developed so far, and Li Lao is also quite powerless at this time and slumped back on the couch.

"Li Chending will do his best to help my Li family tide over the difficulties. ”

"Good, good, good. ”

Li Laolian said three good words, and handed him the exorcism charm that people begged for, and told him to take care of himself, but when he left the main courtyard, his attendant Yan Chi said worriedly: "County lord, the boss seems to have belittled the four sons, but in fact, he asked you to be this pawn!"

"Now that malaria is raging in the city, how can the county magistrate solve it?"

The situation that others could see clearly, how could Li Chen, who had a gloomy face, not understand what his old fox-like uncle was thinking, but Li Lao's sentence "seeking power in danger" collided fiercely in his mind.

"Let's go, go and ask the priest!"

"No!"

Then he led the men to the ox cart and left.

The sky was full of thick, low gray clouds, and the whining and roaring of the north wind, raging in the wilderness, mountains, forests, and villages on the outskirts, like a scythe-wielding grim reaper, harvesting the last souls of the winter.

Winter also hid from the east to the west in fear, leaving only a lifeless black shadow on the ground and pressing towards the Taimiao.

The shrine and the temple, one southeast, one northwest, look at each other from afar.

Its scale is so large that it is one of the four major building platforms in the entire Yingdu. Just a Taimiao, can accommodate thousands of people, there is even an auxiliary road, from the Taimiao can go straight to the Zhu Palace, through the Tongque Terrace...... Among the temples, the Ming Hall is the most prosperous, because the Ming Hall is enshrined in the ghosts of the ancestors of the Chu State.

The cry shook the sky, and even if there was no need to invite him, the priest who was about to return to the temple was already alarmed, and the cry and begging came to him in the night wind of early winter, mixed with a terrible curse.

From a long distance, you can see the children of the courtiers and nobles of the major clans who have come to pray for blessings, all of them bent down their noble waists, and prostrate at the foot of the Taimiao Temple for most of the day, just to ask for his protection, and the priest with the mask of the ghost of the bronze mountain walked out of the car with the cry of the witch man.

"Lord Priest, please wish me and other Chu people who are in dire straits!"

"Malaria is rampant, no one can stop it!"

"Only you witches can!"

When life is on the verge of death, mortals are left with only sincere prayers.

The bronze bird staff in his hand touched the ground, got off the cart, and crossed the crowd of begging for blessings, and the priest under the mask of the mountain ghost sighed.

People's hearts are in turmoil.

What about manpower?

This sigh made people sit on the ground even more desperately, and the whole heart completely fell to the bottom, and cursed loudly: "My Da Chu is going to be finished!"

"I'm going to finish my Chu people too......"

The wailing is all over the place, but that's it.

Da Zhu and Xiao Zhu tried their best to appease the turbulent crowd, saying that they had sent out all the witches to get rid of the evil disease, but the malaria evil was invisible and everywhere, and they could not do anything.

At that moment, a vision appeared in the sky.

Li Chen was mixed in with the crowd of kneeling to beg for blessings, listening to the huge exclamation outside the hall, a long light and shadow like a broom crossed the head of every Chu person, slightly illuminating the dim bright platform, even he could feel that unforgettable fear gradually enveloping him.

"Long Stars Strike the Moon!"

"It's a broomstar!"

"Star!"

The priest with the mask lined up the crowd and walked out of the main hall quickly, looking up to see that in the night sky where the moon and stars were sparse, the full moon hanging high was slowly swept across the moon palace by a golden sweep.

The bright starlight illuminates Jing Man.

But the priest in the white robe raised his fingers, but he kept trembling, and he couldn't speak, but Wuxi behind him had already knelt down in fear, as if the end had come.

There are star officials corresponding to the star map, shouting: "In July, there are stars entering the Beidou, practicing the land of the Central Plains, walking Tianji, Tianshu, more than 23 days, rising in the north...... The flame goes straight through the Purple Palace Arctic ...... To the opening of the sun and according to the festival of the slow journey, ten years and then south, fifty-six days with the red bird lurking. Therefore, in July, the disaster of swords and soldiers arose in the north, and swept the Central Plains in the south, and in August, when I entered Jingnan, there were many disasters and plagues!"

"When King Wu was defeated, the stars appeared. ”

"Now this is a sign from heaven to us!"

Xingxiao, also known as the long star, the broom star, the main conflict, rebellion.

Since the establishment of the Western Zhou Dynasty, it is the most famous disaster star in the entire Kyushu. Wherever its broom sweeps, it brings bad luck with it, and wherever its light rushes, disaster befalls it.

When King Wu was defeated, this disaster star started in the east and the handle was in the west, so the alliance of Wu Wangshuai swept the Shang army in one day, and Yin Shang became history.

For the Chu people to see this long star attack on the moon with the naked eye, it was first observed by Uncle Nei Shi in the Northern Zhou Dynasty.

At that time, after 20 years of war between the north and the south, Zhao Dun in the north was organizing an alliance of princes, when the "broom star" rushed to Beidou, Neishi Shufu knew that something unfortunate would happen, of course, the disaster did not correspond to all the vassal states in the entire Great Zhou, but should be in the "Beidou".

Beidou is a dipper shape composed of Tianshu, Tianxuan, Tianji, Tianquan, Yuheng, Kaiyang, Shaoguang, and seven stars, which is called "Dou".

Because Beidou has been revolving around the North Star, guarding the peace of the North Pole day and night, and the North Star is the place where the Emperor of Heaven lives, known as the "Zhongyuan Arctic Ziwei Palace".

Therefore, the Zhou people virtualized this celestial phenomenon to the world, and its corresponding geographical divisions are:

The North Pole of the Imperial Palace, corresponding to Luoyang, the royal city of the Son of Heaven on earth;

The Big Dipper corresponds to the seven princes who protect the Son of Heaven in the world.

In the Yellow River Valley, the various vassal states scattered all over the country were all vassals of Zhou Tianzi, from east to west, corresponding to the seven largest princes in the field: Qi, Lu, Song, Zheng, Wei, Jin, and Qin.

They are like the Big Dipper in the celestial phenomena, "rotating" around Zhou Tianzi.

Therefore, this time, Uncle Neishi found that among the seven stars of the Big Dipper, three stars were disturbed by the long stars, and the geographical division of these three stars was the Jin Kingdom, the Song Kingdom and the Qi Kingdom.

So, Uncle Shi made a bold prophecy in Zhou: "In less than seven years, the kings of Jin, Song, and Qi will all be in chaos." ”

That is to say, the three stars representing the Song Kingdom, the Qi Kingdom, and the Jin Kingdom in the celestial phenomena have been offended by the broom stars, and within seven years, the kings of the Three Kingdoms will either suffer bad luck or die!

This prophecy of the history of the week was fulfilled because the Duke of Jin Linggong was killed by Zhao Chuan, and was officially recorded in the history books for the first time by the historian of the Lu State, leaving a legend since then.

In autumn and July, there are stars entering the Beidou.

The Fourteenth Year of Lu Wengong

(This is the earliest recorded Halley's Comet, which was observed with the naked eye for 56 days, and the time that can be observed with a telescope is 3 months, so it takes about three months to go from north to south.) ）

It's just that the Chu people didn't know the impending doom of the three major vassal states in the north at this time, but the sky appeared a vision, as long as the Chu people with eyes could see it, but when everyone saw what was happening in the sky, they only had to exaggerate their mouths and sit on the ground with a sad face.

The annual stars are easy to meet, and the long stars are rare.

Since he was born, few people have seen such a unique scene.

The sky that gradually darkened, because of a star dragging a long broom, slowly crossed the night sky, approaching the Moon Palace, the night sky in Jingnan became brighter and brighter, but Li Lao only felt that his loose teeth and bones were trembling.

Long stars hit the moon.

It's a big ominous!

Was this a warning from heaven, or to the one in the Golden Palace? or was it the one who hadn't gotten out of the car yet?

Li Lao, Zhao Hou and the others who spread rumors, all had blue and yellow faces, and no Chu people wanted to see the rumors come true: "The anger of the Eastern Emperor is true!" And it was fulfilled on Wang Yin's body, is this God's punishment for them?

Who will come next?......

Is it them?

The star officer trembled, and his hands could no longer support the weight of the astrolabe.

In the chaos, Bu Yin lined up the crowd and stepped forward to speak: "For today's plan, only by letting the person who bears all the sins come out and bear all the sins, can the anger of the Eastern Emperor be appeased." ”

"Yes!"

Hearing this, everyone seemed to open a glimmer of dawn in the darkness, patted the floor tiles and climbed up, climbed to the front stone steps, and said deafeningly: "Now in the capital, the plague is spreading, and Bu Yin has long said that it is someone who does not respect the will of the Eastern Emperor, which causes war and evil plague in the country, and it ......is endless."

"She is the one who brings all the bad luck!"

"It's up to her to come out and plead guilty for this!!"

"Duke Chu, it was Xinjun who brought all this disaster!"

Under the fear of death and premeditation, everyone from the courtiers to the common people was stimulated with the greatest desire to survive, and excitedly denounced the faint monarch hidden in the deep palace: "The Eastern Emperor has shown us that this person is the new monarch who is mediocre and unreasonable." ”

"As long as she comes out to take on all this, we don't have to die!"

"Yes, my Da Chu will be saved!"

“……”

The stars in the sky were still rushing towards the Moon Palace at a very slow speed, and they looked at the miscellaneous condemnations, and their eyes were full of extremely desperate Chu people.

Ruo Ao Ziyan's figure was tall and majestic, peerless and independent, glanced around, looked up and looked deeply at the broom star that suddenly appeared, and said to Liu Yi and Qi Da, who were standing solemnly in front of the car: "Go to the palace!"

……