Liu Qiao asked Yang Gongchun to take him to inquire about the Heavenly Master Temple in the afternoon of the same day, and in the warehouse behind the Jinyi Wei duty room, Liu Qiao saw the records related to the Heavenly Master Temple in Western Sichuan. It said that Emperor Jiajing believed in Taoism since he ascended the throne, and there were Taoist priests of Longhu Mountain in the palace all the year round to refine the pill for him and pray for the blessing of God, Jiajing forty-three years in June, when there was a young Taoist priest who said that he looked through the ancient books and found that the pill lacked a medicine lead, and he should go to the famous mountains and rivers to find it, and after the consent of Emperor Jiajing, he took the silver money to go out of Beijing to find the medicine he said, and the result was not gone until Jiajing died.

Later, someone reported that he found traces of that person in the western Sichuan area, saying that he built a Taoist temple called the Heavenly Master Temple, and Jinyiwei sent someone to see it because of the crime of bullying the king, only to see a small Taoist temple of small scale and did not find the person, some people did not give up and squatted for half a year, but they did not guard it.

Originally, Emperor Jiajing was just the son of a prince, and he just wanted to live his life in peace and quiet, but who knew that his cousin Emperor Zhengde had no queen, and after he died, he let him pick up a bargain, which was regarded as a pie in the sky and fell into his mouth. After he ascended the throne, he found that it was good to be an emperor, he could eat, drink and have fun, he could beat whoever he wanted, and he could scold whoever he wanted, and after spending a long period of emptiness, boredom, loneliness, and unbearable days, he began to believe in Taoism. As the saying goes, the poor want to be rich and the rich want to be officials, officials want to be emperors, and the emperor wants to go to heaven, Jiajing's idea is to go to heaven to become an immortal through faith and cultivation, and this idea is even stronger after he was almost killed.

Cultivation is a mastery that everyone knows but no one is proficient in, and in the end there are many bad reactions to cultivate under the conditions of Emperor Jiajing, the most powerful of which is that he can't control his muscles and nerves, and even his temper will be uncontrollable and appear moody. It is said that there is a year of the Chinese New Year many officials to the emperor on the congratulatory table, this congratulatory table is to use exaggerated methods to praise the emperor commonly known as patting the horse's ass, Emperor Jiajing heard one of the muscles on his face when he heard it, moving and fainting, the people next to him thought that the official patted the horse's leg without patting the horse's legs, and was about to arrest someone to ask for the guilt, who knew that Emperor Jiajing woke up and said that he liked this one.

Patting the sycophants is making people feel comfortable, which is a happy thing, but because Jiajing's muscles are jumping and he faints, everyone thinks that he is angry and faints. It's nothing like this kind of thing to appear in ordinary trivial matters, and if it encounters a militaristic major event, it will cause big trouble, so Jiajing also accelerated his cultivation efforts to become an immortal as soon as possible.

I don't know if he cultivated or not, anyway, his later ending was the funeral, after his funeral, some people blamed all the faults on those Taoist priests, and those Taoist priests did not admit that their pills had fake methods of becoming immortals, and insisted that the emperor's career of becoming immortals was not successful because the medicine was not sent in time, so all the faults were pushed to the person who found the medicine lead. Jiajing's son, Emperor Longqing, didn't believe that people could become immortals through cultivation, but he only didn't believe it on the surface, and he was still looking forward to the statement of becoming an immortal in his heart, so he also secretly sent someone to find the Taoist priest who was looking for medicine, so as to avoid falling short like Jiajing one day in the future.

Liu Qiao nodded secretly after understanding the cause and effect, and when he was about to leave, Yang Gongchun stopped him and told him about the topaz, saying that the topaz handed over to him by the emperor was sent to the palace by outsiders, and there were words on the cloth outside, but because of the age, only the words "Chendong Arrest" remained, and asked him to check the relationship between the Taoist priest and the topaz by the way, saying that there should be some kind of connection between the two□ Qiao originally thought that the Taoist priest was cheating money and running for his life when he saw that the emperor was not good, who knew that there was another mystery in it, and he didn't come up with the result after thinking for a while, I had to take one step at a time and prepare to go to Sichuan to find the truth.

The next day, Liu Qiao came to Wenzhao Pavilion, but the apocalypse was not there, Tan Jing handed him a bag made of silk and satin, which was sealed with fire paint, and asked him to personally hand it over to Qin Liangyu, the general soldier of Sichuan, and told him that it was about the emperor's body and asked him to go early and return early. In the next two days, Liu Qiao went to all parties to inquire about the trip, and after clarifying everything, he took more than 50 people to follow Chromium out of Beijing.

Liu Qiao, as a deputy envoy, followed Chromium to Guizhou, along the way, the officials received officials and sent delicious food and drink, which was very beautiful, but he was not very happy ♀ to see Chromium, after all, Chrome's identity was there, although the officials along the way were very respectful, but that kind of respect also belonged to the respect and distancing, no one wanted people to misunderstand that they had too close a relationship with a prince. When everyone greeted each other, they all said some official words with expressionless faces, which was very different from the feeling of welcoming the boss like a spring breeze, and there was no private greeting for warmth, which made Liu Qiao feel a trace of sympathy for chromium.

After Liu Qiao arrived in Guizhou, he looked around and turned around, said some official words to the officials on the front line of the counterinsurgency in Guizhou, and after staying for a few days, he said that he had gone to Sichuan on a business trip. After meeting Qin Liangyu, the general soldier of Sichuan, in Yongning, giving him a satin bag and having a brief conversation, Liu Qiao went north to Luzhou early the next morning, and after passing Luzhou all the way north to Chengdu. Because Qin Liangyu served as the front-line chief officer for Shizhu Tusi, in fact, there was also a chief military officer named Hou Liangzhu in Chengdu, who was previously a deputy general who was promoted to the chief soldier in May of the sixth year of the Apocalypse, and is now stationed in Chengdu to prevent a rebellion in Sichuan.

In the past ten years, natural disasters have continued, and the grain production in Shaanxi, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi and other places in the north has been reduced for many years, causing famine. Nanzhili, Jiangxi and other places are responsible for Shandong and Shanxi, Huguang is responsible for Henan and Sichuan is responsible for Shaanxi, so as to save manpower and material resources and other transportation costs, so that the whole country has struggled to get through the difficulties. Sichuan's grain from Sichuan to Shaanxi had to pass through Guangyuan Jiange, and the soldiers led by Hou Liangzhu were stationed in the area from Chengdu to Mianzhou to ensure the safety of the transportation route.

Hearing that Liu Qiao was going to northwest Sichuan on an imperial order, the governor of Sichuan neither wanted to offend Jinyiwei nor have anything to do with Jinyiwei, so he said that the front line was fighting and he needed to allocate materials in the middle. But the emperor's affairs are not trivial, but he suggested that Hou Liangzhu and Hou General Soldiers accompany Liu Qiao, one is to escort Qin Cha to express his respect for the emperor, and the other can also be said to find a way by the way. Hou Liangzhu listened and readily agreed to take 500 people on the road, Liu Qiao was not sure in his heart, afraid that his 50 people would be surrounded by barbarians, and saw that there were local officers and soldiers escorting his heart to Da'an.

Generally speaking, soldiers are clumsy and silent, because they move their mouths more when they do it, and they rust even when they don't use it, and they naturally don't like to talk if they don't speak for a long time. But Hou Liangzhu is an alternative, he is a person who is uncomfortable without talking, some people say that some people talk all the time, when they are alone, they have to talk to themselves, and they have to talk in their dreams when they fall asleep, Hou Liangzhu is such a person.

As soon as Hou Liangzhu saw Liu Qiao, he asked long and short questions, the slight smile and shining eyes made people have affinity at a glance, no one would have thought that this was a second-class master, after asking Liu Qiao's destination, the two set off from Chengdu and went straight to Shifang "It was the end of June and nearly July, looking at the endless rice fields on the Chengdu Plain, Liu Qiao couldn't help but admire: "It is said that Sichuan is the land of abundance, I have never understood why I say this, I want to see so many mountains when I first entered Sichuan, I retreated, I wondered how the Sichuan people lived under such harsh conditions, and when I arrived in Chengdu, I realized that the customs and customs here were indeed suitable for people to live in. ”

Hou Liangzhu said: "I heard that Lord Liu came from Luzhou, and he didn't go east to Chongqing, the road in Chongqing is really difficult to walk, fortunately, there is a waterway to walk, otherwise it will be a bad life." However, there are many mountains and dangerous roads in Chongqing, and it is rainy to take a walk in Chongqing. ”

Liu Qiao frowned and said, "How much higher is the mountain?" And the mountain road is still rainy? How can that feel? ”

Hou Liangzhu said: "The feeling of homesickness, I think Lord Liu has heard the phrase Bashan night rain, Chongqing in eastern Sichuan ancients called Ba country, Bashan night rain is a person in the continuous mountains, in the endless night watching the endless drizzle, and listening to the sound of the rain hitting the leaves all night□ adults think if you are a lonely person in that environment, how will you feel?" Do you miss your hometown and your family and friends very much? ”

Liu Qiao thought for a while and nodded: "This is also true, the mountains constantly make people feel that the road is difficult, the drizzle blocks people from moving forward, there are strange environments everywhere, and strange people can't do anything, and they will indeed be very, very homesick." ”

Hou Liangzhu said: "Fortunately, Master Liu brought 50 brothers, and I also brought 500 younger brothers, even if I walked through the Ba Mountains, I would not be lonely." ”

Liu Qiao said: "I think Brother Hou is a straightforward person, and we are all soldiers, not sour and rotten literati who are polite in everything, since we are destined to get together, we don't want to be called adults, we are just brothers." ”

Hou Liangzhu said: "The little brother has this intention! After saying that, he laughed.

When the two were walking and talking, the team turned into a fork in the road, Liu Qiao looked at the situation before and after, and then asked, "Why did Brother Hou let people turn into the path?" ”

Hou Liangzhu said: "That big road leads to Mianzhou, and the specific location of Brother Liu is not very clear, but it should be in Shifang, Mianzhu and other places, and there should be no problem for us to search along the side of the mountain." ”

Liu Qiao nodded and said: "I see, but I can understand what my brother said about Mianzhu, presumably there are many bamboos in that place, what is the name of Shifang?" ”

Hou Liangzhu said: "This allusion brother knows, when the Han Gao lord Liu Bang achieved a great cause, he was unwilling to reward his soldiers for a long time, at that time someone ran to ask him what the reason was□ Bang said that the merits of the soldiers are big and small, he is counting must be accurate, so as not to reward unevenly, but it is better not to reward≡ the people on the side said that everyone can't wait, and then don't reward for fear that something will happen but not beautiful, suggesting that he reward two people first to settle people's hearts□ Bang thought about it makes sense, so he named Yongya named a person named Shifang Hou for three generations, Three generations later, this place became Shifang County. ”

Liu Qiao asked: "Is this person named Yongya very meritorious?" How did I hear that Zhang Liang, Han Xin and others in the early Han Dynasty were the ones who made great contributions? ”

Hou Liangzhu shook his head and said: "This person's merits are generally not to mention that he has offended Liu Bang, Liu Bang just used him to settle people's hearts, which means that this person who has offended me can be crowned marquis, and everyone's reward will definitely not be a little relieved to wait slowly on the side, so everyone waited honestly." ”

Liu Qiao nodded and said, "It seems that this emperor's heart is indeed different from ordinary people. ”

Hou Liangzhu glanced at Liu Qiao, and wanted to ask what was going on, but after thinking about it, he forgot it↓At this time, a soldier came to report that the road ahead was broken and asked what to do.