It was a middle-aged man in his early forties, his navy blue robe was covered with mud, and his appearance was well-born, but there seemed to be a depressed color between his eyebrows and eyes, and his beard, which had not been taken care of for a while, looked a little messy at the moment, which added a sense of decadence and depression to him.

At a glance, he looks like a typical depressed middle-aged literati.

"This time, it was this gentleman who accompanied me to inspect the embankment of the Yellow River and temporarily dredge the main roads." Cui Jing introduced it, but it didn't seem to be introduced at all.

He didn't mention the other party's name or surname at all, only called Mr.

But Cui Jing clearly explained the gentleman's achievements: "The various sections of the Yellow River have been silted up for a long time, and the embankments are in disrepair. ”

Cui Jing never deliberately exaggerated when he spoke, Chang Suining was in awe, raised his hand to give a deep salute to the other party, and said sincerely: "Mr. Dade." ”

This is not a compliment.

Since the floods have occurred, thousands of houses have collapsed in nearby states alone, and she has seen too many people killed and injured, and farmland has become a sea of devastation.

And if the Yellow River bursts its banks, the situation will only get worse, and perhaps they will not even have a chance to build a shelter for refuge at this time.

Looking at that person, there was also respect in the eyes of the shepherd's cabbage, and he couldn't help but say: "Mr. has saved an unknown number of lives with this great achievement, and he is the one who is in the court!" ”

But seeing the man smiled silently and bitterly, he said: "It's just a matter of doing your best, the shortcomings of the Yellow River embankment have existed for a long time, and the blame has been passed up and down, and it has been delayed until now, and I and Ling An are only forcibly dredged and strengthened one or two, and now everything that can be done has been done, if the rain can not be stopped, within five days, the damned people will still have to die." ”

This frustrating remark made the shepherd's cabbage not know how to answer for a while.

"No matter what, if you live for a lifetime, sooner or later it will be just a dead word." The man turned around to himself, waded through the stagnant water that overflowed his ankles, walked to a high place, and whispered: "Rise and fall have their own definite cause and effect, and the sky is going to die, and we ordinary people can do nothing." ”

Shepherd's mouth opened, this gentleman is really depressed, if he is thrown into the enemy camp, one person may bring down the morale of the three armies, everyone loses their swords and guns, and hug each other and cry.

The news of Cui Jing's arrival did not alarm the victims, and those officials in the county only thought that someone had come to meet General Ning Yuan, but they didn't know that the person who came was the governor of Cui Dadu.

Chang Suining and Cui Jing walked to a slightly higher place, sat down on the stone and talked, Ah Dian was just about to follow, but was pulled aside by Yuan Xiang to speak: "...... General Ah Dian, why is there a lot of people around Chang Niangzi? ”

This is purely a lack of words, diverting Ah Dian's attention, Ah Dian lowered his voice, and said mysteriously and a little proudly: "I picked it up!"

He whispered again: "But you have to stay away from her, she bites!" ”

Yuan Xiang looked surprised, followed the words and asked, and successfully dragged Ah Dian.

"You should already know about Luoyang." Chang Suining sat on a boulder, stretched out his tired legs, looked at the lights in the place where the victims gathered in front of him, and said, "When you come back at this time, aren't you asking for trouble?" ”

It was inevitable that Emperor Shengshu wanted to use this matter to clean up the Luoyang Shi clan, and he specially ordered Cui Jing to lead the Xuance army to stay and suppress it, obviously with the heart of "test".

Because the target of the Holy Book Emperor is not only the Luoyang Shi clan, this knife will soon fall on the head of the Zheng clan in Xingyang, and the Zheng family is the mother clan of Cui Jing's biological mother, the Zheng clan.

Dasheng has a system of relatives and relatives, so all cases have always been handled, there is an unwritten rule that relatives avoid suspicion, such as the former Pei case, the Holy Book Emperor specially ordered Yao Yi, who was the secretary of Dali Temple, to avoid it temporarily.

This is also a manifestation of the emperor's love for his courtiers.

But this time, the emperor specially ordered Cui Jing to stay behind to suppress the scholar clan with the same root as Cui Jing, and then if the Zheng family is involved, Cui Jing can certainly avoid suspicion and not show up, but then talk about avoiding suspicion, it is equivalent to watching coldly, such an attitude is undoubtedly equivalent to making Cui Jing turn his back on the scholar clan and draw a clear line with the scholar clan head-on.

The state has national laws, clans also have clan rules, and many big clan patriarchal laws are even above the laws outside the country in a certain sense, Cui Jing will be infamous because of this, and will be spurned by people outside the world's corporal clans and even the noble clan.

And if Cui Jing dares to go against his will and shield the Zheng family, if he is not careful, he will be judged as a fellow party.

Emperor Saint's move was to force Cui Jing to make the final choice, at this time, the imperial power of the country was shaking, and the emperor no longer needed a Cui son to control the military power of the Xuan Ce army, even if she wanted to get back this sword, but she also needed a plausible name to cushion the turmoil caused by the sword.

However, this flood, to everyone's expectation, Cui Jing went to the Yellow River to repair the embankment, so he was able to temporarily stay away from the center of the whirlpool, which also avoided some criticism, and at the same time cut off the opportunity for some people to take the opportunity to do things.

"You could have been in such a hurry to get back." Chang Sui Ning Dao.

"Yes." Cui Jing also looked at the sparse firelight with her, and said slowly, "I know." ”

But he decided to come back anyway.

The middle-aged man in a shirt sat alone on a piece of graphite, looking in the direction of Xingyang from afar, and as time passed, the depressed expression on his face gradually became numb.

At this moment, a thin figure approached and knelt down towards him in the dark.

"Uncle Zheng!"

The man was a little surprised: "You are ......"

The girl kneeling beside him raised her face: "The younger generation is the eldest daughter of the Yuan family, Yuan Miao, who met Uncle Zheng with her grandfather two years ago. ”

"It turned out to be you." The man sighed imperceptibly: "I heard that your grandfather has committed suicide in Luoyang Prison, and your father has also ......."

Tears welled up in the eyes of the fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl: "So the younger generation came to Xingyang and wanted to ask the Zheng family for help and rescue my brother!" ”

But I saw the man shaking his head weakly.

The girl knelt down and took a step forward and bowed her head: "Although the younger generation is young, he also knows some right and wrong, I know that the Yuan family did collude with the thief, the Yuan family has had, and it should bear the consequences, but this mistake should not harm the lives of my brother and other ignorant children!" ”

"That Li Xian acted brutally, often tortured and killed under the pretext of excuses, and even the unsuspecting relatives of the side tribe were surrounded by his army, and they were not allowed to enter or exit, and the rebels were killed, and those who did not dare to resist were also trapped and starved to death and drowned for more than ten days! Many of them are innocent women and children, and even if they were according to the law, they would not have deserved to die! ”

"They also killed the famous people of all the tribes, and sacrificed to the heavens in the city of Luoyang...... Those who refused to give in were even dragged and humiliated by them on the long streets...... Even ordinary people and literati can't bear to see it, and they know that a soldier can be killed but not humiliated! ”

Tears of grief and indignation were forced into the girl's eyes, and her voice was full of hatred: "They are acting like this, it is clear that they are wantonly venting their anger, and it is clear that it is not enough to drive us all away, but also to smash the backbone of the corporal in the world!" ”

The man closed his eyes, his eyelashes twitched slightly, and he didn't speak.

"Not only that, but they also used the pretext of chasing fugitives to loot innocent people's money during the flood, and they ......"

"Needless to say, the situation dictates that no matter how wrong they are, it won't help." The man interrupted her and said, "This matter is not in my charge, I am no longer the head of the Zheng family, I am just a waste, and I can't help you in the slightest...... If you are lucky enough to save your life, leave as soon as possible, and go as far as possible. ”

"Uncle Zheng......"

The man looked at Xingyang, and there was a dead silence in his eyes: "The Zheng family will not escape this catastrophe." ”

This will be a catastrophe for the entire Central Plains Shi clan, and no one can escape.

In other words, he had long expected that there would be such a day, the prosperity would decline, and the decline of the scholars had long been doomed.

But he never imagined that the way it withered would be such a brutal and brutal slaughter...... Although it has existed, it also has its foundation for survival, the foundation of a thousand years, and will it be destroyed in such a way?

The man's cold fingers clenched up, suppressing the trace of helplessness.

The girl still knelt there and refused to get up, tears raining down.

In the darkness, Chang Sui Ning looked at the kneeling figure from afar and said, "That's the girl of the Luoyang Yuan family." ”

The girl of the family has no experience in escaping, and she has the family emblem of the Yuan clan on her dagger.

Cui Jing asked, "Why did you come to the rescue?" ”

"She asked me to save it." Chang Suining propped her hands on her side, "I asked her if she needed help, she nodded, and I saved her." ”

Cui Jing raised the corners of his mouth slightly, and his voice was very low: "Your Highness is really responsive." ”

Chang Sui Ning also smiled, but the smile was not as good as the bottom of her eyes, she looked around the distance, and said: "I have never thought of interfering in the dispute between the Shi clan and the imperial power, and I don't have the ability and position to intervene, and I think that the previous Pei clan or the eldest grandson clan will be defeated, and they will be defeated, and they will become the king and lose the king, and it is understandable to be willing to gamble and lose." ”

"In this robbery of the Luoyang Shi clan, I never thought of interfering. In fact, if you do the math, their catastrophe was also facilitated by me, I killed Xu Zhengye, and there was Xu Zhengye's defeat first, and then they had their current catastrophe. ”

"There is also the next Xingyang Zheng family, the Zheng family is also among the four families, and it is your foreign family." As Chang Suining spoke, he turned his head to look at Cui Jing on the side: "Cui Jing, do you blame me?" ”

Cui Jing also looked at her: "If I say weird-"

"That's weird." Chang Suining said without hesitation: "But even if I do it all over again, a hundred times, I have to kill Xu Zhengye." ”

Looking at her like this, Cui Jing's voice was lowered: "I know." ”

He said, "If it were me, it would be the same." ”

Therefore, he can't blame her, he is not a three-year-old child who does not have the ability to distinguish the real cause and effect, even if she didn't kill Xu Zhengye, the catastrophe of the world's corporates would have already been written.

Since the previous dynasty, the imperial power wanted to get rid of the influence of the scholars, and suppressing the scholars was the heart disease of many emperors, and it was also the desire of the poor people in the world.

When the king of the dynasty claimed the emperor as a woman, the conflict of political interests further intensified the contradiction between the imperial power and the nobles, and it has become a life-and-death situation and is inevitable.

Following the question of "strange or not", Chang Suining asked Cui Jing again: "Then do you recognize the existence of the scholar system?" ”

Cui Jing looked ahead, and his voice was very low: "What does Your Highness think?" ”

Chang Suining looked at the young man beside him who was covered in mud and had just returned from digging up the mud and sand from the Yellow River.

He left home at a young age, entered the military camp at the age of twelve, and has borne a lot of scolding from the scholars over the years.

"The existence of the scholar clan is indeed unfair, aside from the suppression of imperial power, this injustice is even more unfair to the poor scholars in the world." Cui Jing said: "Its arbitrariness and mistakes, except for it, everyone in the world knows about it." ”

"In many cases, whether something is just or not depends on the position of each person, and it is difficult for the beneficiaries to realize it, or they will not easily admit that it is unfair." Chang Sui Ning said: "You are in it, and it is very rare for you to be able to detect the abnormality very early with your own consciousness. ”

So, in the final analysis, this is the root of Cui Jing's "anti-bones".

What he wanted in his heart was completely contrary to his family's interests, and he had no way to agree with the way of survival of the Cui clan and other scholars, so he walked out of a path that was not recognized by the clansmen.

"When I was naïve, I also tried to persuade my grandfather at home, my grandfather was not a rigid and inflexible patriarch, but under the generations, like a ship, the helmsman alone could not easily change the direction of the journey." Cui Jing said: "But I have always believed that things are man-made, and there is not only a dead end ahead. ”

Chang Suining: "Can I think that when you chose to join the army at the beginning, you were actually trying to make another plan for the Cui family?" ”

"Yes." Cui Jing replied seriously: "But not all." ”

Chang Sui Ning couldn't help but look at him, and said admittedly: "You are a very good general, and you are also a very good disciple of the Cui family. ”

He woke up early, but he was destined not to be understood.

Chang Sui Ning didn't ask Cui Jing's thoughts again, nor did she insist on discussing the merits and demerits of the scholars, she looked into the distance and said: "This is the Central Plains, the heart of China, and it has always been said that those who win the Central Plains win the world. ”

And what is very "unfortunate" is that the foundation of Heluo culture is still tied to the body of these scholars, and most of them are still passed down from generation to generation.

"These long-handed things, so that the people have courtesy, so that the country can be governed by law, if it completely collapses overnight, it will be burned, and if you want to reappear, I don't know how long it will take."

These rituals are related to political stability.

If these cultures are severed, they will not be for a while, but for a long time to come.

Like the bright stars, if they are connected to a hidden danger, you can break them up, you can dim them for a while, but if you crush them completely, is it too much?

And this situation is particularly special, man-made disasters collide with natural disasters, and the two are enough to destroy all seemingly solid foundations.

"There is no right or wrong in political struggle, but I don't agree with Li Xian's move to kill everything." Chang Suining said bluntly: "These cultural foundations that have been inherited for thousands of years should not be slaughtered and cut off. ”

This time, as always, she didn't want to judge right from wrong, she just wanted to do what she wanted to do.

Therefore, she wanted to give it a try and seek a "middle way".

Chang Suining got up and looked at Cui Jing: "Do you want to give it a try together?" ”

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