On May 11 in Shanxi, the weather has gradually become hotter. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info especially in the afternoon when the sky is shining, it is so hot that people don't want to move, just want to find a shady place to hide until the sun goes down.

But at this moment, there was a huge army marching on the official road, although they complained from time to time, but they did not dare to pause at the slightest, this group of men and horses was ordered to go to Shanxi to quell the rebellion.

Yang Zhen rode to the middle of the team, and from time to time he could hear the bitter cries of some soldiers in the Beijing camp: "This ghost weather, when is it a head." Lao Tzu is so good in Beijing, why did he get on this unlucky errand. ”

"Who's to say it's not. Going to Shanxi to quell the chaos is enough to give people a headache, and the road is still so hot. In our case, even if we arrive in Shanxi in time, I am afraid it will be difficult to confront those rebels. ”……

All kinds of similar complaints came one after another, and Yang Zhen frowned again and again. But even if they knew that a boss like Yang Zhen was beside them, they would be right. Obviously, they are not afraid of Shangguan's blame at all, and it is a big deal to send Lao Tzu back to Beijing, and Lao Tzu still wants to do this.

Yang Zhen saw through their thoughts, so even if they were so noisy, he didn't mean to be angry with them, but in his heart, he looked down on these so-called elites in the Ming army. Just these uncles of the Beijing army who can't even stand such a little hardship, can they really expect them to dare to fight desperately with the enemy? Thinking about it this way, Yang Zhen was a little more uncertain about this errand.

"Second brother, how long will it take to get to Datong?" At this time, Cai Yingyang suddenly came to his side and asked loudly. Obviously, this hot-blooded young man was already a little impatient, and the journey was too boring after all.

"We have been traveling for more than ten days, according to the speed, we will be able to enter Datong City in another ten days." Yang Zhen replied casually: "What, are you so anxious to go to the battlefield?" ”

"That's nature, and that's what I'm here for." Cai Yingyang said without the slightest hesitation.

Yang Zhen heard him say this, but he just laughed and didn't say anything. He felt that Cai Yingyang might be disappointed this time, because judging from the Shanxi military report sent the day before yesterday, several rebels had been suppressed by officers and soldiers, and it was impossible to wait for them to arrive in Datong, and the rebellion had been completely put down. But in order not to dampen the enthusiasm of this brother, Yang Zhen did not tell his guess.

Just as Yang Zhen was thinking about what he should do if the Datong rebellion had been quelled, Cai Yingyang, who was beside him, suddenly pointed to the side and exclaimed, "Second brother, look, what are they doing?" ”

"Huh?" When Yang Zhen heard this, he looked up, and saw that on the side of the official road, it was a small village that looked a little dilapidated, and in front of the village was a temple that was much more elegant than all the buildings in the village. At this moment, in front of the temple, there are many villagers in plain clothes.

In fact, since entering the Shanxi territory, Yang Zhen has not seen this kind of temple ancestral hall that is not Buddhism or Taoism. I also asked people who knew the reason for this, and I learned that because life is not good, people always want to pray to the ghosts and gods in the sky, hoping to get their protection. So in the folk of Shanxi, many kinds of shrines and temples arose at this time.

What these shrines and temples worship is not at all the Bodhisattva gods and goddesses of Taoism or Buddhism that people know every day, but some evil gods whose names have not even been heard. In fact, to put it more seriously, the gods and ghosts that these people believe in are no different from the White Lotus Sect, and they can also be classified as cults. It is only because they can only influence the people of one village, at most one town, that the government turns a blind eye to them, and let them fool around or cheat the believers out of their money.

This is another sorrow for the people at the bottom. They wanted to change their poor fate by worshipping the gods, but in fact, their faith not only did not bring them the slightest benefit, but instead allowed them to spend what little money they had left on the evil gods, thus fattening the unscrupulous people who acted under the pretense of the gods.

Yang Zhen, who already knew the inside story, wouldn't care too much when he saw people gathered in front of this kind of evil god ancestral hall, he was not a magistrate after all, and he was not qualified to take care of this kind of. But after looking over closely, he suddenly changed his mind and decided to go over and ask what was going on.

For the people gathered in front of the ancestral hall were not praying, but piling handfuls of firewood at the feet of a man who was tied to a wooden frame, and seeing that the person was going to be burned alive.

The other soldiers had also noticed the change in the situation next to them at this time, and they also showed curiosity one by one, and some people whispered, guessing why they were setting fire to people over there. However, no one objected to this, because in their opinion, it was all the other village's own business, and they could not interfere at all.

But Yang Zhen didn't have so many worries about them, and when he saw such a situation, he couldn't help but step forward and ask for an understanding. He was a character who did what he thought, and immediately turned his horse's head, slapped his horse, and ran towards the shrine on the side of the road. As soon as he moved, several guards around him followed, and suddenly there was a little commotion in the entire neat team.

Although this commotion was not big, it was still noticed by Zhong Yu, who was sitting in the car reading a book to pass the time. He couldn't help but lift the curtain and look outside, and saw Yang Zhen rushing towards those people, which made his face sink uncontrollably: "Why is this Yang Qianhu not in a hurry, what do you want to worry about with the people?" As soon as the words came out, he saw the reason, the anger on his face was a flicker, and then he patted the car wall and said: "Let's rest here for a while, and then hurry after Yang Qianhu and them come back." ”

The subordinates who were driving the car quickly stopped the car and announced the order to everyone in front and behind. Originally, the sergeants felt that it was really hard to travel under the sun, and now that they could get a chance to rest, they naturally would not object, and those who were clever quickly ran to the shade of the trees by the roadside, and those who reacted more slowly sat down on the spot and rested.

It was not easy for the team of thousands of people to stop completely, and by the time they had completely stopped, Yang Zhen had already rushed to the shrine and opened his mouth to ask those people what was going on.

"What are you doing here? Why did you tie him up and set him on fire? Yang Zhen dismounted, his eyes swept over the faces of the dozens of people in front of him, and asked in a deep voice.

Those people had already seen the army walking on the official road, and when they saw Yang Zhen running from that team, they were a little afraid in their hearts. Now that they heard his unkind questioning, the crowd was even more speechless. At this time, ordinary people have always been the most afraid of seeing officials, and they won't reply when they see officials, although Yang Zhen doesn't look like an official master, it is enough to make these villagers feel afraid.

After a while, a village man who was much better dressed than the other people, and who looked a little whiter, replied in a somewhat hesitant voice: "Back to this uncle's words, we are dealing with the thieves in the village." ”

"Thieves?" Yang Zhen glanced at the person who was tied to the shelf, this is a man in his forties, who looks honest and honest, no different from other villagers, how did he become a thief. So he looked at the person who replied: "What is your name, is it the head of this village?" What did he do to deserve such a poisonous punishment? ”

"Uh...... My name is Huang Shilang, not the village chief, he is the ......," he said, pointing to the man who was tied to the shelf.

Yang Zhen was stunned when he heard this, although this kind of village chief is not a big official, his status in the hearts of ordinary villagers is also quite high, especially in such a remote place. It is really rare for villagers like this to take down the village chief and burn him to death.

But in this way, Yang Zhen was even more interested. He pondered for a moment before asking, "Then tell me, why are you doing this?" This village chief - what's his name? - What did you do again? ”

Huang Shilang saw that this adult must ask what was going on, so he had to tell the story carefully with a bitter face-

It turns out that this village is called Huangjiagou, and most of the people in the village are surnamed Huang, and the tied village chief is naturally no exception, named Huang Qishan.

Originally, although this village was not rich, it was still able to have food and clothing. Unexpectedly, in the past two years, there has been little rain, and the crops in the field are difficult to grow, and the people have no choice but to hope for the blessing of the ghosts and gods, which is the origin of this shrine in front of them.

And after having the shrine, there are two more priests in the village who are responsible for communicating with the gods, that is, this Huang Shilang and another villager named Huang Baifu.

At first, there was no problem. But as the people became more and more superstitious about this god called Baiying God, the prestige of the village chief Huang Qishan gradually declined, and it was more likely that he would be replaced by those two priests recently. So Village Chief Huang was unhappy, and clashed with the two priests several times, and even had a big fight.

But the more he was like this, the more the villagers believed in the Baiying God, and now Huang Qishan was completely out of tricks.

No, just the night before yesterday, Huang Baifu was found dead in the shrine, and now the matter is a big problem. Huang Shilang insisted that this incident was done by Huang Qishan, who had a great deal with the two of them, and also used the will of Baiying God to say that if he refused to put Huang Qishan to death, Baiying God would bring a catastrophe to this village.

When the villagers heard this, they immediately panicked, and quickly tied up Huang Qishan according to Huang Shilang's wishes, and prepared to set him on fire today to burn him alive to atone for his great sin of killing the priest, so as to pray for forgiveness from Baiying God......