Chapter 177: The Living Sacrifice
"Wa Ta Niang - what are you crying about, it is a blessing for our daughter to be able to marry the Dragon King, who has not come over like this in our lives. Wasn't the son of the old Zhang family also chosen? As long as the two of them go to the Dragon King together, are they still afraid that they will not have a good life? What is the system of a woman's family crying and crying? The scolded wife is a farmer in Taohua Village, their family has a total of five people, the daughter is just seven years old this year, and a five-year-old and three-year-old son is still a little trembling when walking, and his husband Li Ergou also makes a living by fishing on the Yangtze River. It's just that they have a rule in this place, that is, every year on the eighteenth day of the third lunar month to the dragon king, as long as the dragon lord is offered, they will bless them with good weather and abundant grains, since this woman married to this village has been spread for a long time, but she feels that her daughter is still so young to give to the dragon king, and her heart is somewhat reluctant.
The people of Peach Blossom Village were led by the village chief to walk to the water's edge, and the villagers in front of them were playing gongs and sounding roads. There are a few Taoist priests in the middle carrying an incense case, the tablet enshrined on the incense case is the god seat of the Yangtze River Dragon King Chitose, the incense burner in front of the tablet is lit with three pillars of high incense, there are four plates of fruits and four plates of dried fruits on the table, there are four tables of people behind the incense case, each of which sits on a small child, and it is two men and two women, the big one looks about ten years old, and the small one is about seven years old,
"Folks—it's about to be by the river, are you ready for your respective incense money and offerings?" A mustached village property touched a little beard on his chin, he spent a lot of money to become the village chief of this peach blossom village, in charge of all the big and small affairs in the village, he really has the feeling of a mountain king.
"Village Chief—this is not the first time we have worshiped the Dragon King, we have already prepared!"
"Hey, village chief, why do you see that there are so many boats by the river, and they are flying the military flag of the Great Han? Which official is resting here? Isn't it a little inappropriate for us to worship the Dragon King today? Do you want to go and see what is going on first? "There were a few literate scholars in the village, and as they walked, they found that so many boats had docked on the riverside overnight, and they were a little dumbfounded for a while! The fishing boats that usually go out to fish are usually docked on the riverside, and now they are docked with tall warships, where have they seen these things, fortunately they can still recognize the military flag of the Han Dynasty.
"Old pedant—what do you say? Those are official ships - what kind of officials have come to Peach Blossom Village? No one told us who was coming. Luo Daochang, you should lean aside and rest for a while, let me go over first to see what kind of immortal it is, otherwise we were originally here to worship the Dragon King, and suddenly it became a worship to them. Damn Guasun-" The village chief also saw more than a dozen large and small warships when he turned around, he was more or less a person who had seen the world, but he couldn't figure out that there were only people from Jingzhou with such a large fleet, right? That is, I heard that there is such a large-scale naval army, and it seems that he also mentioned to him that the governor of the Jingzhou naval army is surnamed Cai. He steadied himself, turned his head and ran briskly to the edge of the Yangtze River.
"Stop—who's coming!" The guards on the boat noticed that a mustachioed villager had run over, and a group of villagers not far away were beating gongs and drums as if there was some important activity, so they stopped the mustache in front of them.
"Li Jin, the head of Xiaomin Taohua Village, I don't know which adult is here on the boat? Several military masters took the trouble to give a briefing, and said that the people had something important to ask for! The mustachioed village chief seemed to have guessed that the big man on the boat was surnamed Cai, but he didn't dare to say it directly, if this adult was out on patrol and didn't want people to know who he was? So isn't he incurring disaster for himself by talking such nonsense?
"Get out - what's the matter with a broken village chief, our family is resting-" A soldier said very angrily, they used to be dragons galloping on the Yangtze River, but no matter how majestic they were, they were called thieves by people, as long as you carry the name of a thief for the rest of your life, no matter how you turn the clouds and rain on the Yangtze River, you are just a small loach that can't turn over the big waves. Now their identities are different, the Jinfan thief has changed his name to Yangzhou Water Army, they have really become official soldiers, and they can also stand up and be people.
"- Gan Ning, this is your subordinate, you know the consequences of letting me hear such a disrespectful person to the common people. Since we want to form an army, first of all, the first thing is not to bully the people, why do you live alone on Dongting Lake, why do you rob the rich and help the poor? Why don't you give the people your surplus money and food? Do you remember what you were trying to do? Officials have been persecuting the people since ancient times, aren't you just bullied by those corrupt officials and corrupt officials and can't live before you fall into the grass? Why did you put up a stand that you were an official as soon as you became an official soldier? Such great prestige, such great official prestige - do you also want their wives to be separated and repeat your mistakes? Gan Ning - today I told you to go back and give me a good rectification of your navy, what I want is not a Yangzhou navy that will only show off its might and spread wildness at the people, but to build a Yangzhou navy for me, as long as the banner of Yangzhou is together, the two sides of the Yangtze River are welcomed. Take out some of the chivalrous hearts that you used to help the people, people don't want to live for eternity, and don't want to leave a stench for thousands of years! Today, your kid's military law will be written down for you first, and then you will see your performance in the battle, and the punishment will be doubled if you don't perform well! Let's go – go and see what's going on! "It's really dark clouds and I didn't look at the yellow calendar when I went out, this soldier almost didn't smack himself a few mouths, blame himself for being idle and having nothing to do? The appearance of Lord Zhou in front of him made him tremble, he didn't realize that Gan Ning had such a murderous aura on Gan Ning's body, and Gan Ning, who was passing by him, also glared at him fiercely, it seems that he will not have a good day in the future, hurry up and earn military merits! Otherwise, the next military law will be doubled, grandma's is really unlucky!
"This-" The mustachioed village chief was scolded by the soldiers on the ship, and he was also extremely embarrassed to stand on the shore, not knowing whether to go or not?
"The village chief, please stay - this official is Yangzhou Prefecture Mu Zhou Yu, I don't know what the village chief is looking for?" A voice reached his ears, and he looked up to see a few more people on the bow of the boat, and in the middle stood a young man dressed in white looking at him with a smile on his face, presumably he was the adult who spoke to him.
"Small-people-Lujiang County, Taoxi, Xi County, Taohua Village, village, village head Li Jin visited the state pastor!" Looking at this posture, it didn't seem like he was lying to himself, he was sure that the person in front of him was talking about Yangzhou Prefecture, and he couldn't help but feel a little weak, so he knelt down, and he felt a little unable to exert his strength. At that time, how big was the official of the state pastor, which was equivalent to the current high-ranking official of a province, and it should be said that it was even greater than the high-ranking official. A village chief is the smallest ungraded official in the whole Han Dynasty, and there is a gap between the bosses, even anyone will be startled and tremble, this is the breath of the superior.
"Excuse me—village chief, you get up to speak, I heard that you have something important to ask for, what is the matter?" Zhou Yu was also a little crying and laughing, what he has been practicing now is to bow down, and he can't change everyone's opinion now, but he is also a common man and has a better attitude.
"My lord-the little people want to worship the dragon lord on the Yangtze River today, and bother the lord's boat to move, so as not to make the dragon lord blame for missing the good day and auspicious day! Xiaomin is very grateful, and must pray a lot in front of the dragon lord! Li Jin still didn't get up, he just said his purpose tremblingly.
This thing is easy to do-Zhou Yu waved his hand, and the boats crowded on the shore of Taohua Village began to move one after another, and the village chief Li Jinqian ran back to let the gong and drum team continue to make noise, and he didn't expect Lord Zhou Mu to be so easy to speak.
"Gan Ning, come here—why do they still carry a child to make a sedan chair when they sacrifice to the Dragon King? Could it be that these children are the reincarnation of the Dragon King? Dian Wei looked at the team that was walking and suddenly said loudly.
"Boss - you don't know this, do you? They have always had the custom of offering to the Dragon Lord along the coast, saying that it is to give the boy and girl to the Dragon Lord to serve the Dragon Lord to bless them with a year of good weather, in fact, I don't know who came up with the idea, I Gan Ning has not seen a shrimp soldier and crab general on the Yangtze River for so many years. Gan Ning said indifferently.
"What? Sacrifice of the Living—Come, come down, and surround these people!" Save those children-" Zhou Yu, who was bored, was about to turn his head back, but he was shocked when he heard the conversation between Dian Wei and Gan Ning, and hurriedly asked people to go down to stop him.