Volume 5 Inside and Outside Chapter 506 Undercurrent (1)

The mountains in the west of Sichuan are called Minshan and Qiongshan in ancient books. In fact, these mountains belong to the famous Longmen Mountains.

The Longmen Mountains, located in the Hengduan Mountains, are one of the most famous seismic zones in China and the world.

According to incomplete statistics, in the past 1,000 years, there have been 26 devastating earthquakes in the Longmenshan seismic zone.

On the day of May 12 in his previous life, Zhu Pingjin rushed out of his office for the first time, and then took out his mobile phone to call his wife. But as with all disaster movies, all communications are paralyzed and traffic is blocked.

In the end, Luo Yuhong walked to the S Committee to find him, and it was already ten o'clock in the evening.

After May 12, Sichuan entered a state of emergency in an all-round way, and Deputy Director Zhu, who was a member of the department, was certainly no exception. His main task is to stay in the office on duty, answer the phone at the table, summarize all aspects of the situation, and be responsible for mixing bubble noodles with water bubbles for the big leaders who are on duty in the command heart and holding meetings.

Zhu Pingjin listened to his wife's voice and describe the frightening moment.

Luo Yuhong was talking about ideas and feelings in the conference room on the 35th floor of a famous landmark building in Chengdu, and then the whole building danced his wife's best dance - square dance with unstoppable momentum, mixed with the harsh sound of the steel structure as an accompaniment.

The bones screamed and rushed out of the room, then stupidly pressed the elevator. And the wife just returned to the seat of the meeting host, tidied up her clothes, and ate the conference doughnuts with the coffee left over from the table.

"If you want to die, you can't get out", this is his wife's original words, and Zhu Pingjin remembers it very clearly. She said, the house is going to collapse early, where can you run down from the thirty-fifth floor? If the house is not crossed and the stairwell collapses, then it is not unjust!

……

The time goes back to the late spring and early summer of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen.

Longmen Mountain, which is also a mountain containing destructive power, will once again disturb the land of western Sichuan, which has just subsided.

From the endless Kawanishi Dam to the towering Longmen Mountains, there is hardly any excesses and articulations.

The snowmelt from the high mountains in the west is blocked by the Longmen Mountains that stretch from the north to the south, and is helplessly released through the canyons and fissures between the rocks into the fertile plains of Bazi in western Sichuan, forming large and small rivers and irrigation canals.

Along the green mountains and valleys, tracing the clear stream of the white stream, it is probably the only choice for Pingba people to enter the mountain.

A tributary goes into it, and there is a valley, a farmland, a village, and a people who have lived there for generations and may not have set foot in the mountains in their entire lives.

However, in this paradise-like green mountains and green waters, there is a group of strange people. They were all ragged, yellow-skinned, and seemed to be no different from the people of the mountains. But if you look closely, you will find that this group of people is different:

There are only men, not women; Only the strong, not the old and the weak.

That's right, they're bandits. The bandits who escaped the battle of Jiangkou were all hidden here.

Under the heavy mountains, several high ochre-red cliffs tightly seal the outside world.

At the foot of the cliff, a small stream twists and turns.

The slopes on both sides of the creek are scattered with small patches of farmland.

On the edge of the farmland, there are many houses built high and low. Some are slightly more decent, and more are improvised huts made of wood bark.

It was originally a mountain hunting village, and it was a temporary place for hunters to settle down when they entered the mountain. After Chen Huainian's remnants of Niujiaozhai entered Qiongshan, they fell into the grass here. The local mountain people knew that this group of people was not serious, but they neither stole nor robbed, so they gradually got along well. The daring villagers also left pheasants and wild boars and other prey outside the village to exchange some silver money from the bandits.

……

As the sun set, the bandits took over their farm work and began to work to comfort their empty bellies.

In the largest and best house in Hunting Village, there lived Chen Huainian, the former second master of Niujiaozhai, and Chen Huaijin, the fourth leader of his clan. Chen Huaijin hadn't come back yet, and Chen Huainian was curled up in the bed made of wooden planks. The violent coughing made him bow like a dying shrimp. The plank bed creaked and creaked, as if it was about to fall apart.

"Second uncle!"

A bandit heard the movement inside, moved the wood door made of tree branches and ran in, and a mountain breeze with the smell of medicine poured into the dim room with his figure. The little bandit looked like he was fifteen or sixteen years old, tall and thin, with his hair scattered over his shoulders and his tattered clothes showing off his strong muscles. He ran to Chen Huainian in a hurry and rubbed his second uncle's chest and back, hoping that his actions would make the patient in the bed feel better.

After a beating, Chen Huainian gradually stopped coughing. He lay flat and took a weak breath, his sunken eyes staring at the light leaking from the roof.

"Good boy, it's useless. The second uncle can't do it. In this life, the second uncle has made mistakes again and again, harming himself, Chen Village, and Da Ge'er, your father and son. ”

This young man is Chen Huainian's serious nephew, named Chen Shida, nicknamed Da Geer.

Da Ge'er's father is Chen Huainian's eldest brother. When Chen Huainian fell into the grass Niujiao Village, his father risked the mountain to persuade him, but Chen Huainian insisted on going his own way and left his father in the mountain.

It's not that Da Ge'er's father wants to be a bandit, that's no way. It is a heinous crime to be a bandit, and according to the law of the Ming Dynasty, it is necessary to connect the nine clans. Chen Huainian didn't go down the mountain, and his father would die when he went back.

Chen Shida's father was in the mountains, and within a few years, he was depressed and died of illness, leaving behind a son who had just completed the moon. Chen Huainian adopted his nephew, taught him to read and reason over the years, and trained his muscles and bones, and he grew into a young man in more than ten years.

"The rest of the second uncle's mind is on your two brothers." As Chen Huainian spoke, he grabbed Da Ge'er's shirt with difficulty. Chen Shida hurriedly stretched out his hand and held the second uncle's thin hand in the palm of his hand.

"Although everyone here is surnamed Chen, when I entered Pengshan and saw blood, people's hearts changed. The second uncle secretly wrote a letter yesterday and hid it under this pillow. You take it and go to Shu Shizi, for the sake of my atonement, he may be able to give you a future. ”

Da Ge'er was reluctant to leave his relatives who were so ill, so he had to find a reason.

"Second uncle, the fourth uncle still expects me to help him!"

"You stupid boy!" Chen Huainian was in a hurry, and coughed violently again, "Why don't you understand?" You've read books, and it's not all the way to the bastards out there. How long your fourth uncle can last, he doesn't know. Why are you involved in it! ”

"Second uncle, I'm going." Da Ge'er muttered, "It's just that as soon as I leave, then who will take care of you?" ”

"Don't forget, I'm not dead now, I'm still in charge!"

Chen Huainian laboriously took out the letter from under the pillow, and handed it to Chen Shida. Da Ge'er hurriedly took it, this is a folded and sewn silk silk. Under Chen Huainian's forced gaze, he didn't dare to open it to watch, so he stuffed the letter into his clothes.

Chen Huainian stared intently at Da Ge'er's every move. At the end, he suddenly straightened up and reached out to grab Chen Shida's shoulders.

His throat made a hoarse voice:

"Remember, don't tell anyone! Including your fourth uncle!

Just go, the faster the better. I'll explain this to your fourth uncle in the future!

There are too many goods this time, and the Shu Wangfu has not finished pulling, and it may come again in the near future. You go to help deliver the goods, and then quietly find their leader, and tell him that Chen Huainian has a letter to report to the prince. This matter is so secretive, their leader must be a close confidant of the prince, and he has a way to send you over!

When you see the son, you just kowtow! What he wants you to do, what you do; He asks you something, you answer honestly, what you know and say what, don't make it up if you don't know. Do you understand? ”

"Got it, second uncle. I'll do as you say! ”

Chen Shida knew that this was his second uncle's last wish. Large streams of tears poured out of his eyes and dripped on Chen Huainian's shriveled chest.

"Swear to the second uncle, in front of the ancestors of the Chen family. In the future, you must glorify your ancestors and revive my Chen family! ”

"I swear to my second uncle! I swear to my ancestors! ”

"Remember, go see your brother! Let's go! ”

Chen Huainian's hands let go. He closed his eyes in weariness.

Chen Shida reluctantly looked at the man who raised him like his father, ruthlessly, wiped his face with his sleeve, and turned to go out.

……

Early the next morning, Chen Shida carried a bag on his back, a roll of fur, a hunting bow on his shoulder, and a pheasant in his hand, and several bandits disguised as hunters selling mountain goods, and came to a small courtyard under the White Crane Mountain in the west of Qiongzhou City.

There is a thousand-year-old temple on the top of Baihe Mountain, called Baihe Temple, and this small courtyard is next to the mountain road where the mountain enters the incense.

The small courtyard has three earthen walls, and there are seven or eight adobe thatched houses such as the main house, the wing room, the ear room, and the cover room. There is a small flat dam on the road outside the door, and the wall of the hood room has been changed into a tea shop facing the street.

The building looks shabby and dilapidated from afar, but when you walk inside, you find that the space is large enough to be used as a storehouse. Chen Qichi Xinchang Town was defeated, and the remaining parts of the weapons, clothing, and grain abandoned by thousands of officers and soldiers were secretly stored here.

The Baihe Ancient Temple on the top of the mountain provides a relatively safe environment here; The proximity to the road made the courtyard a good transit point for bandits and supplies to enter and leave the mountains.

Of course, the tourists who stayed in the past also made the small courtyard an important window for the bandits to know about the outside world.

There are many people with mixed eyes, and when Chen Shida first arrived here, he did not act rashly. The two bundles of calamus for communication were hung out for a long time, and the people over there did not come to connect.

A few days later, several pilgrims returned from the ancient temple and stopped to rest at the tea shop on the street. From the mouths of the pilgrims, the bandits who acted as runners learned a very valuable news.

Recently, people in Qiongzhou have been panicking, to the government, down to the people, there is only one hot word that has been discussed the most: the new policy of Shufu.

Tenants are most concerned about whether the fifty percent tenant rule can be implemented, and many of them have already paid last year's autumn grain and regret stomping their feet;

The landlords bitterly scolded the new policy as a chaotic government, what fifty-fifty shares, what forced requisition, and what one-size-fits-all, all of which are another conclusive evidence of the adulterer and adulteress in the Shu Wangfu's preying on the people and harming the people.

The scholars hated the restrictions on the number and treatment of students in state and county schools. As for making them serve as Qiu Ba, they are like a woman forced to marry - they will not obey to the death.

As for the government, of course, he pulled out the law of the imperial court as a shield, and clearly rejected the actions of the political secretary.

It is rumored among the people that the impeachment of the two states of Qiongmei has been sent to Beijing as soon as possible, and it is also accompanied by the blood of the Qiongmei gentry.

The confrontation between provinces and places caused by the new policy of Shu Province was great news for some bandits who had been trapped in the mountains for a long time. They are anxious to know what effect this antagonistic situation will have on their fate.

Hearsay is unreliable.

The bandit leader of the small courtyard immediately decided to personally bring people into the city to find out the news the next day. Chen Shida, as the nephew of the head of the family, naturally wants to go.

Chapter 507

Undercurrent Undercurrent (2)

The next morning was a foggy day.

The valley was filled with large clumps of white cotton wool. The fog rolled and crashed all the way down to the plains below, engulfing the fields, the cities, and the pedestrians of the road.

In this morning mist, the bandit leader led Chen Shida to disguise himself as a hunter who entered the city to sell mountain goods again, and stepped on the path into the city.

Baihe Mountain is not far from Qiongzhou City, only about six or seven miles. After walking for half an hour, I arrived at the stone bridge in Qiongshui. After crossing the stone bridge, it is a thousand acres of lotus pond outside the west gate of Qiongzhou City (Note 1). At the end of the lotus pond is the west gate of Qiongzhou.

It was already dawning, but for some reason, the city gate was not opened. The crowd of people waiting to enter the city was crowded at the city gate.

When the two saw it, they hurriedly mixed in the crowd and listened to people's discussions.

In less than a while, they got most of the information they wanted to know from the gossip of the gossip, such as the whereabouts of the Qiongmei official army, such as the whereabouts of the Qiongzhou Wang Zhuang Fu (Yuanlan) Zhuangtou.

The bandit leader immediately decided not to enter the city. Return to Baihe Mountain first, and rush back to the cottage as soon as possible to report. But at this moment, the mist sounded the sound of scattered horses' hooves.

"Occupy the bridgehead and surround everyone!" A huge voice overwhelmed the panicked cries of the people, and it was extremely rough and loud, "Lao Tzu is short of soldiers and major generals, God just sent some strong!" ”

"Run, bring the news back! Lao Tzu stays and sees if it's good or bad! ”

Under the coercion of the white mist, the bandit leader pushed Chen Shida off the embankment of the lotus pond.

The lotus pond is connected to Qiongshui. With the help of the cover of lotus leaves, Chen Shida finally swam to the edge of Qiongshui.

Qiongshui brings together mountain streams, and although it is not deep, the ice is piercing. Chen Shida waded across the river, freezing his whole body stiff, and the corners of his mouth were blue. By the time he stumbled and fled back to the small courtyard at the foot of Baihe Mountain in the mist, the people who stayed behind had already learned the news of their accident.

It turned out that when bandits went out to inquire about news, they always went in teams and two groups. A group of people showed up to do business, and a group of people answered after the palace.

The people who answered the back of the hall saw the officers and soldiers of the brigade galloping with ropes and blocking the Qiongshui Stone Bridge, and they knew that the people who crossed the bridge were wrapped dumplings and hurriedly fled back.

A pair of messages on both sides, the situation is completely clear:

The reason why the thousands of households in Qiongzhou were eager to arrest their husbands was precisely because of the new policy of the Qiongmei government against the Shu Wangfu and the governor's yamen.

The royal army has occupied Dayi County north of Qiongzhou, and the Wangzhuang of the royal palace in Qiongmei and Qiongmei has all been withdrawn. Whether there will really be a fight between the two, no one can say.

However, the Qiongzhou government is eager to expand the army, which may still be an opportunity for the bandits who have been living in poverty for a long time. The bandits met and discussed, and felt that they should send people back to the village. Chen Shida, as the nephew of the second master, is the best person to go back to report.

It's just that Chen Shida remembered the second uncle's entrustment, so he deduced that he sprained his foot when he jumped into the river to escape and couldn't walk the mountain road.

The bandits did not suspect him, so they left Chen Shida and another bandit who acted as a running boy to guard the courtyard and the weapons hidden inside, while the rest returned to the hunting village overnight.

……

One morning at the end of March, the warm spring light has sprinkled the famous Tianguan Garden in Qiongzhou City.

Bai Juyi's poem says: "The world is full of fragrant flowers in April, and the peach blossoms in the mountain temple are in full bloom." It shows that the end of March is a good time to enjoy the flowers and stay in spring.

However, at this time, the Tianguan Garden was filled with a tense and solemn atmosphere.

More than 100 fierce soldiers dressed in strong costumes surrounded the garden inside and outside. Their gloomy and murderous expressions are like the extras in Hengdian, performing facial paralysis acting skills collectively in the divine drama.

In the delicate and spacious lotus pond lotus pavilion in the northwest of the garden, there are already many guests.

Most of these guests were officials and famous gentry in Qiongzhou City. When they are bored, they either argue sharply, or whisper, or ponder without saying a word.

After waiting for a while, an old man came slowly in a sedan chair, and a graceful girl in a green dress and red dress surrounded him, arching him as the stamen of the pink peach and the bud of the red apricot.

The guests hurriedly got up and dressed up, and went out of the water pavilion to give a salute.

The sedan chair fell to the ground, and a young man with a Confucian crown and a silver and jade buckle took a few steps forward, and stretched out his hand to support the old man:

"The old man has a childish face, and he is old and strong. When I see it today, we have the backbone of the heart! ”

"How can you be old and decayed, dare to work hard for your parents to help?" The old man smiled and said modestly. It turned out that this old man was the owner of the garden, and Yang Shen, the original official of the Ministry known as Yang Tianguan, chose Shilang Yang Shen. And the Xu parents in his mouth are Xu Kongtu, the governor of Qiongzhou.

Yang Shen's heart is as calm as water when he encounters things, but Xu Kongtu does not have such self-cultivation.

When he heard what Yang Shen said, he laughed at himself: "Boss, the eyebrows are burning!" If the boy from Shu Mansion succeeds, the parents of this official will not be able to do it! The big guys are here to hear your ideas! ”

When Yang Shen heard this, his face immediately collapsed.

"The adult's head is black, but the emperor gave it! It wasn't given by his Shu boy! Lord Xu should be careful! ”

Yang Shen's words immediately resonated with the guests.

A tall and fat official wearing a black veil and a red robe made up of a lion shouted at the back of the crowd in a voice that burst his eardrums:

"What Boss Yang said is very true! I am waiting for official clothes, all of them are given by the emperor, why does that kid say that he will pick it up! According to my old Zhang, that kid is good at Weifu, and he must be plotting rebellion! ”

"Oh, it turned out to be Master Zhang!"

Yang Shen narrowed his old eyes and looked in the direction of the voice, with a kind and kind smile on his face. He beckoned to Zhang Moumou and motioned for him to speak closely. The tall and fat official got the blue eyes of Boss Yang, and smiled as if he had found a treasure in the deep mountains. With his own strength, he squeezed away a few unconvinced scholars, and quickly greeted Yang Shen's sedan chair. Yang Shen grabbed Master Zhang's thick and powerful rough hand, and walked into the water pavilion hand in hand with the envious eyes of everyone.

"Understood?" A scholar who was dragging behind muttered to his two companions.

"The boss's intention is to fight martial arts with force!" Another scholar exuded a strong vinegar aura, and also responded in a low voice, "Otherwise, Zhang Deaf will come before me and wait for a reckless pawn who kills good and risked his merits!" ”

"Not necessarily! It's just a bluff! The last scholar laughed and said, "The only thing we can do with Shu Mansion is silver and grain!" ”

……

With the blue eyes of Mr. Yang, who is known as Zhang Deaf, he is known as the Chengdu avant-garde commander, and Zhang Hongbin, who guards thousands of households in Qiongzhou, naturally sits in front. But at the head of him, there is also a scholar. Even if the scholar was facing Master Zhang, he was also spying on the cardamom girls beside Master Yang.

"Meizhou student Li Jing!" The scholar looked at the woman intently, and bowed to Zhang Hongbin on the other hand, "Meizhou Li Zhizhou is the father of the family......"

"Oh, it turned out to be Li Gongzi!" Zhang Hongbin pretended to be surprised, but his heart welled up with ecstasy:

Qiongmei and Zhili Prefecture live next to each other, one is prosperous, and the other is lost. I HEARD THAT LI CHUANDI, THE GOVERNOR OF MEIZHOU, IS A YIN OWL (ZHI), AND HE IS THE BEST AT GATHERING TROOPS. With Meizhou's strong support, Qiongzhou can save a lot of effort. This Li Gongzi is a slanted eye, and I heard that people asked about the slanting sun. Although it is unsightly, since he is here, it shows the attitude of his father Li Chuandi.

"Master Zhang, can you know that the person sitting opposite Lord Xu ......" Li Jing glanced at the woman and asked Zhang Hongbin in a low voice.

The person asked by Li Jing was at the head of Li Jing.

The man was richly dressed, about forty or fifty years old, but he was born white and red. A neat and supple black hair, lightly attached to the underch. The strange thing is that the man has not said a word since he was seated. When Yang Shen arrived, the man didn't go out to meet him, but just sat and drank tea and looked at the sky. It wasn't until Yang Shen and Xu Kongtu led everyone in that he stood up and bowed gently.

Zhang Hongbin said honestly: "I don't know, I guess it must be a mountain master!" ”

Zhang Hongbin is used to talking with a roar. He didn't pay attention to the sound for everyone to hear.

Of course the man heard it. He put down the teacup and glanced contemptuously at Li Jing, whose face was red and red, but his eyes were always glancing at a woman: "The contemptible person is not a mountain master!" A contemptible slave born in the house! ”

The man spoke, although in a southern pronunciation, with a slight Huguang accent, and the people in the audience immediately noticed it. Could it be that this matter also stirred up a certain Huguang official in Sichuan?

Seeing that the man took the initiative to speak, Xu Kongtu had no choice but to stand up and introduce to everyone present:

"This is the cronies of the Yao officials in Wuling City, and the single name is a Hui character. Yao Xiaoguan is also ......"

The man unceremoniously interrupted Xu Kongtu's introduction.

"The contemptible people have already said that the contemptible people are a living slave, and they should not be any big officials or small officials!

On the orders of the master's mother, the contemptible people came to Sichuan to exchange money for silver. Unexpectedly, the gate of Chengdu Mansion was not entered, but it was intercepted halfway by an official sent by Lord Xu and taken to this remote ghost place!

The contemptible man has something to say today: If you come up with an idea that can make the contemptible house and the lady of the contemptible mansion earn money, then the contemptible man might as well put together a share, and if you win or lose, it should be a game; If all you come up with is some bad ideas, my Yao family is a noble relative, just find someone else for such trouble-making! ”

As soon as Yao Hui opened his mouth, he was shocked.

The people present were all human spirits, and they quickly linked the two keywords of "Wuling City" and "Heavenly Family's noble relatives" together.

Wuling City, that is, another name of Huguang Changde Mansion. The noble relatives of the heavenly family in Changde Mansion, there is only Zhu Cizhao, the king of Changde, who is the king of Changde!

Thinking of this, everyone was full of ambition, but they couldn't help but be shocked: King Rong has come in, can the chips under this game be smaller?

It's a pity that the people and things that surprised everyone are still to come.

After Xu Kongtu unsuccessfully launched Yao Hui, the house slave of Princess Rong, he immediately restrained his face under Yang Shen's eyes and stood respectfully behind Yang Shen's side. I saw that Yang Shen led Xu Kongtu, kneeling and bowing to the long flower and stone screen behind the main seat:

Please ask the envoy of the two princes to declare the holy will!

"Our family has come thousands of miles away, just for one thing: Your Majesty's decree, Wang Dehua, the governor and eunuch of Dongchang, sent a special envoy to investigate the lawlessness of Zhu Pingjin, the son of Shu!"

A short man with a white veil on his face pointed his voice and a thick Beijing accent, slowly turned out from behind the screen with his hands behind his back. A tooth card engraved with seal characters was carried by him with a little finger, swaying at will, disappearing from time to time.

Note 1: Today's Wengting Park. It is said to be the former residence of King Zhuo's grandson, and God knows whether it is or not.

Qiongshui, an ancient river flowing through the west of Qiongzhou City, flows into the Pujiang River south of Xinjin County.