"The donor is a general of the Tang Dynasty, and this battle is a great victory, why should he become a monk?"

"Pray for the dead."

"Monks don't speak."

"Repentance for committing murder."

"The Buddha wants to see your sincerity."

"For the death of his wife, a fox demon."

"Yes."

Under the Hanshan Temple, the abbot twisted the Buddha beads in his hand, and his old face could not see the meaning of compassion.

The man kneeling at the door, covered in red blood, swaddled in his arms, and the baby was sleeping soundly.

......

--Strange Stories of Spirit Wine • Cold Bell (Notes)

One

The glimmer of early dawn shines through the clouds and pours into the courtyard of Lu Yao Pavilion, dyeing a thick golden glow in the mist of the winter morning.

The busyness of the new day in Chang'an City was also awakened, and the streets and alleys gradually sounded faint shouts and shouts.

A melodious flute quietly drifted into the boudoir, gently waking Lian Xi from her drunken dream.

After a brief wash, Lian Xi walked to the inner hall with careful steps, a little hurried. Ruoxuan was leaning against the window and blowing the flute.

"Master, how long has Xi'er slept?" Lian Xi's fair cheeks flushed slightly, and she asked out with a little shame.

"Three days. Did you sleep well? The sound of the flute stopped, Ruoxuan put down the jade flute in his hand, raised his eyes to look at Lianxi, and there was a hint of fun in his eyebrows.

"Back to the master, Xi'er slept well." Hearing that she had slept for three days, Lian Xi was even more ashamed of herself, and in the face of Ruoxuan's playful gaze, she couldn't wait to find a crack in the ground to get into.

Originally, Lianxi's amount of wine was poured with a glass, but on her birthday, she drank half a bottle by herself, drunk and sleepy, and accompanied by her father's breath into a dream, naturally she was immersed in a sweet dream and did not want to wake up, and she had never been comfortable and stable.

Suddenly, there was a noise outside the door, and the screams and curses of the neighbors came and went.

Maybe Bai Lao's illness has flare up again, Xi'er took "Kailing" and hurriedly went out to visit, so as not to let Bai Lao cause any trouble. ”

"It's the master."

......

The white old man in Ruoxuan's mouth is the white-haired old man who gave the lotus wax clay puppet that he met in Yangzhou when the two of them first went down to the human world.

The white-haired old man still sells homemade clay dolls in the city every day to make a living. If you have nothing to do, you will come to invite Ruoxuan, play a few games with it, and by the way, you will also rub some Ruoxuan's wine appreciation.

However, the dementia of the gray-haired elderly has become more and more serious in the past ten years, and the number of attacks has become more and more frequent. In order to keep the old man sober, Ruoxuan specially brewed spiritual wine for him to "open the spirit", which has the effect of removing obstacles and clearing the spiritual platform. Whenever the gray-haired elderly have an attack of dementia, they try to feed and take it to keep them awake normally.

At the beginning, every time he took "Kailing", he could keep the white-haired old man awake for about ten days. However, in the past ten years, as the disease has gradually worsened, the effective time of "Kailing" is not as good as before. This time, the time since the last time I took "Kailing" was shortened, and it was only less than five days.

At this moment, the white-haired old man was like a three-year-old child, sometimes sitting in front of the door, holding a mud ball in his hand, and throwing it at a pedestrian's hand every time he walked by; From time to time, he smashed the door at the door of the neighborhood, and even untied his pants and defecated in public, attracting passers-by to watch and accuse and scold, but the old man was completely ignorant of the disgust of the people around him, and laughed heartily at his own heart.

All of a sudden, in the ancient alley, there was no longer quiet, and there was a bit of a smell of chickens flying and dogs jumping.

Seeing this, Lian Xi hurriedly stepped forward to push aside the crowd and squatted down beside the old man.

"Senior Bai, offended." As soon as the words fell, I saw that Lian Xi slightly condensed her spiritual power on her fingers and gently landed on the old man's back. The delirious old man fainted in Lianxi's arms.

"Stop!"

Turning his hand to conjure up a porcelain vase, Lian Xi opened the screen, and was about to feed the old man to take the "Kailing", but suddenly there was an angry shout, and a figure jumped up from the crowd and attacked the door of Lian Xi's face.

Lian Xi hurriedly dodged backwards, the tips of her hair brushed the opponent's fist, narrowly dodging the attacks of the attackers, stabilizing her body and looking at the comer.

I saw that the person who came was wearing a hat on his head, and the clothes he wore around him were gray and white sea green with wide waist, wide sleeves, wide round neck, and square placket, with his right hand hanging in front of his chest, and a string of brown Buddhist beads twisted in his left hand, dressed as a standard monk. On his back, a child of one or two years old was sleeping soundly.

"Amitabha...... Who is the benefactor? Why do you want to be so vicious and do such a vicious treatment to this white-haired old man?! The monk spoke indifferently, with a hint of anger in his voice.

"Get out of the way, don't be nosy." Seeing that the visitor was not good, Lian Xi did not want to bother to explain, so she wanted to bypass the monk and continue to feed the old man with spiritual wine.

"Presumptuous! Don't think I can't see the details of you! The monk didn't allow it, a wisp of divine power in his palm, and opened his posture to blast at Lianxi.

"Divine power?!" Lian Xi originally saw that the person who came was just a mortal, although he was very good, but he didn't take it to heart, but he heard that this monk actually saw through his own details, and he could use his divine power, so he immediately stopped being careless, and hurriedly used his spiritual power to resist.

I saw the fists and palms touching, and the air wave swept down and instantly pushed the onlookers away. Lian Xi was also repulsed by three or four steps.

"It's a good job."

Lian Xi secretly exclaimed in her heart, the jade hand that had just received the opponent's punch trembled slightly, and she was actually shocked by the opponent's divine power. One move is relatively different.

"Bold monster, suffer death!" The monk had the upper hand, but he did not relent, and used his divine power to punch Lian Xi again.

The monk's figure moved, and in an instant, his fist was less than an inch away from the door of Lian Xi's face.

At the same time, a white-clothed figure silently appeared between the two, and the seemingly soft white hand landed on the monk's wrist lightly.

The punch that was full of divine power was easily stopped, and no matter how the monk moved, he could not make an inch.

"Monk, wait."

......

Two

In 617 AD, Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty was satisfied with his selfish desires and dug a canal to work hard and lose money. Under the tyranny, the people were angry and resentful, and the warlords from all sides rose up one after another to resist the tyranny, forming a situation in which the heroes rose up together. After ruling the Central Plains for more than 30 years, the Great Sui Dynasty had exhausted its qi and had only an empty shell, and its overthrow was only overnight.

The following year, Li Yuan and his second son Li Shiming raised troops in Jinyang, Taiyuan, and drove all the way to Chang'an. The Great Sui Dynasty came to an end, and it was a rare short-lived dynasty in history.

In the troubled times, the northern ministries waited for the opportunity to unite, taking advantage of the undetermined foundation of the Tang Dynasty, the Turkic forces had repeatedly raised troops to invade the Central Plains for more than ten years, and the Tang army was repeatedly defeated and had to cede land and sue for peace.

After the "Xuanwu Gate Shock", Li Yuan's son-in-law Li Jian and third son Li Yuanji were all shot and killed by Xuanwu Men. Soon after, Tang Taizong Li Shimin successfully ascended the throne to succeed the emperor, changed the Yuan "Zhenguan", recruited virtuous and virtuous people, and made great efforts to govern the country, and the national strength became stronger and stronger, known as "the rule of Zhenguan" in history.

In 629 AD, the Tang Dynasty pacified the warlords of the Quartet and recuperated their armour, and the time was ripe to fight against the Turkic forces. In October of the third year of Zhenguan, the Turks once again raised troops to invade Hexi. The two armies rejected each other across the strait, and a national war was about to break out.

Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty appointed Li Jing, the secretary of the military department, as the head of the march on the Dingxiang Road, and the galloping army marched to support Suzhou, and the troops were divided into six routes to encircle and suppress the Turks.

The Turkic army is in the city, located in the city of Suzhou, which is resisting the front line, in the conference hall of the general's mansion, the generals and ministers are arguing and clamouring one after another, and the main general Bai Jingxuan sits in the chief, and his chin is holding his forehead with a headache.

"General! The Turks came to attack my Tang Dynasty, and now the soldiers are coming to the city, and they send people to provoke and insult at the city gate every day, laughing at us as turtles with shrunken heads and tails! Please ask the general to allocate 5,000 elite soldiers, and go out of the city with the last general to fight, and break the rabble, so as not to be ridiculed by the world again! ”

"General, the last general is willing to go with the army to meet the battle!"

"That's what I mean! It's time to extinguish the arrogance of those barbarians! ”

When the controversy is at its most intense, the next one will get up and ask for battle. Suddenly, the debate stopped, causing many secondments.

"Enough! Quiet! Bai Jingxuan couldn't bear to be disturbed, and suddenly put his palm on the table and shouted loudly, and the paper and pen on the table trembled and scattered. The council hall was silent for a moment, and the generals all listened with bated breath.

"Pass my order, hang a war-free card on the city gate, Suzhou City belongs, without my order, you must not go out of the city to fight. Those who violate this order will be killed! ”

After giving the order, Bai Xuanjing let out a long breath and got up to leave the meeting hall.

As Bai Jingxuan moved behind the scenes of the conference hall, in the conference hall, sparse discussions and sighs gradually rose.

"How can General Bai be so forbearing? The barbarians are so provocative that they don't send troops to fight back? ”

"You're new, you don't know. General Bai was originally a heroic and powerful god general, and he took the head of the enemy general in the army of ten thousand troops. Current affairs, Suzhou city army up and down, all proud. It was only later, after the defeat of the army about five years ago, that General Bai survived and fled back, and since then, General Bai's temperament has changed greatly, and he has never regained his previous sharp and martial posture. ”

"There's such a story?!"

"It is true that General Bai was brave and invincible, but later he disobeyed the order and led 3,000 elite soldiers to attack the Turkic camp overnight, but unexpectedly fell into the trap of the barbarians and ended in defeat. Of the 3,000 elite soldiers who went into battle with him, none of them survived, and all of them died. ”

At that time, the soldiers in Suzhou City thought that General Bai was also killed in this battle, but half a month later, he appeared under Suzhou City and returned safely. Since then, General Bai has not been as sharp as before, and in the face of many Turkic attacks, he has passively avoided war with the card of exemption from war. It's a pity that the invincible god general who was invincible back then turned into today's conservative nature because of his recklessness and conceit. ”

"Humph! According to what I see, Bai Jingxuan is a cowardly rat, victory and defeat are a common thing in soldiers, but he is slumped and spineless because of this, occupying the position of the main general, doing nothing, and even causing us to make barbarians laugh together! ”

"Shhh, be quiet, General Bai hasn't gone far yet, if you let him hear it, your official position will be difficult to protect!"

"Humph! A gutless rat with a false name, I need to be afraid of him? I'm just saying what you're thinking. It's really a soldier who instigates one, and will instigate a nest! When General Li Jing leads the reinforcements to Suzhou, see if I don't join him! ”

Behind the scenes of the council hall, Bai Jingxuan leaned against the wall with a tired face, and the shameful laughter and discussion of him in the hall fell into his ears word for word.

Shaking his head helplessly, Bai Jingxuan got up and left, not angry because of this. In the past five years, the Suzhou army has questioned it a lot, and he has heard less of such discussions and laughter?

He has a hard time, and how many people know how many people are sympathetic?!

......