On the seventh day of April 197, a convoy of more than 100 people was driving on the road gradually moving away from the eastern capital, and the end of the convoy was more than 200 meters apart. There are as many as six or seven six-wheeled caravans drawn by eight horses, and there are no less than 100 carriages pulling goods, in addition to more than 30 people who are followed by simple cavalry (convoy guards) next to the convoy, counting the passengers in the caravan, the total number of this convoy is not less than 100 people, so it walks in the empty suburbs, and the destination is the county town "Milu County" located in the western capital.

The convoy of more than 100 people set off from Shichang a few months ago, from the beginning of winter to the end of spring, passing through dozens of counties and more than 100 towns, and also bypassed many detours...... It's about staying alive.

And the owner of this train fleet is not an ordinary family, is just from the Ministry of officials to return to the hometown of the original Ministry of Lang Zhongsu Bridge Jie, the relocation of the family from Shichang to thousands of miles away to find deer is really helpless, the old man is nearly sixty years old this year, since childhood in the Eastern Capital, because of reading early and good at reading, fifteen years old in the national examination and the first, and was admitted to the most famous Tianmu School in Shichang City, and then rely on the help of the family forces, all the way to the career is also very smooth, only yesterday's Ministry of Lang Zhongsu Bridge Youjie.

People in officialdom are like saplings in the field, and this is not an ordinary field, but the most high-quality field with the most fertile land in the world, where you can get the most adequate nutrients, and soon the small sapling can grow into a towering tree, and when the growing sapling has the ability to flourish, it can use its own shade to shelter those flowers that were once as short as themselves.

The old man has been busy in officialdom for almost forty years, and the contacts and knowledge accumulated here can provide unimaginable great help to his descendants and clansmen, but now after resigning, he rushed to the Western Capital with his whole family as if fleeing, abandoning all the business over the years, this is a kind of courage, but also a life and death choice......

In fact, everything comes from the dispute over the rites......

Cangluo is a monarchy, and still follows the six-ministry system, which includes the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Crime, and the Ministry of Industry.

The main function of the Ministry of Officials is to manage the appointment and evaluation of officials, which makes the power of the Ministry appear to be greater than that of the other five departments.

The main function of the household department is to manage the world's money, grain, and chambers of commerce, which can be called the state's money bag and the basis for tens of thousands of people to have enough to eat.

The main functions of the Ministry of Rites are to supervise schools and make codes, that is, to educate the academy and promulgate laws, so it can be said that the future of a country is composed of what kind of people are all determined by the Ministry of Rites.

The main functions of the Ministry of War are to manage the national army, formulate strategies, dispatch generals, and dispatch soldiers in wartime.

The main function of the Penal Department is to determine the guilt of the people and give them reasonable punishments in accordance with the law.

The main function of the Ministry of Works is civil construction, which includes construction-related matters such as building buildings, paving roads, dams, and bridges.

I don't know when the Ministry of Rites began to meddle in the affairs under the jurisdiction of the other five ministries, and gradually had the momentum to suppress them, during which there was naturally a open and secret fight between officials, and Suqiao Youjie couldn't stay out of the matter, and finally ended up in this situation.

'For the foundation of Cangluo Wandai, the peak of the glory of the ancestors, we should abandon the old scientific code, and make a new chapter of the law, so that the talent can not learn the posture, and the character can be involved in the three arts, do not let the ugly enter the temple......

The old man sitting in the caravan can't forget this passage in the court half a year ago.

And the meaning of this passage is that for the sake of the foundation of Cangluo country, and in order to reproduce the appearance of the heyday of Cangluo country, we should start to cancel the existing old examination system and replace it with the unique examination system of the new Cangluo era, so when we select talents, we must give priority to whether their appearance is in line with contemporary aesthetics, as for their talents, they can be cultivated again, and the same advantages and disadvantages of their character and character should also be directly referred to as the three arts (singing, dancing, and musical instruments) that Cangluo people must learn. The most important point is that we must avoid those ugly people from entering the court as officials, because such people will affect everyone's mood, and will also damage the face of the country. and whether the practice of the three arts is qualified.

After all, this is the Cangluo country that advocates Confucianism, and those officials who have practiced 'the original nature of man's goodness' since childhood have expressed their own opinions, governing the world has always been based on its talents rather than its appearance, and scientific education is the fairest system for career promotion, which has been used for nearly 3,000 years, how can it be easily abolished! It is really undesirable to judge people by their appearance, which is obviously biased, and it is precisely because of the opposition that the opposition is relatively loud that this version of the Ministry of Rites has no way to get the approval of His Majesty the Emperor after all, so it can only be temporarily shelved.

It's just that...... In the past hundred years, several generations of kings have despised Confucianism more and more, and began to listen to the doctrine of the courtiers next to the pillow, which has caused great dissatisfaction in the Confucian circles, but the Cangluo country is dominated by Confucianism, and as an emperor, he has to worry about the power of the Confucian community to help himself rule the world, so the emperor of the Cangluo country weighed the pros and cons left and right, and only postponed the new proposition of the Ministry of Rites, of course, this is only a delay and not a rejection.

This battle seems to be a victory for Confucianism, but every time such a victory comes, the power of Confucianism will be quietly weakened, because at this time the enemies of Confucianism are the emperor's cronies and close ministers, so every time there is a political conflict, it will soon lead to several former ministers of Confucianism, either under coercion and temptation to take refuge in the favor of the courtiers, or directly demoted to deal with.

Suqiao Youjie belongs to the latter, just for the last face, so this time he took the initiative to resign, which is better than being deposed.

If this kind of thing happened two hundred years ago, maybe Suqiao Youjie wouldn't have to do this, because the former 'Su clan' was also the same as the 'Wen clan', they were all big clans in the Cangluo country, although they were still worse than the Wen clan as a whole, but their influence in the Eastern Capital region was also not small, and their clansmen were very vocal in both the official and business circles, but they were just ...... The situation is abnormal, the moon is full and the moon is lost, and after all, it has gradually declined in the past hundred years.

Of course, the Su clan has not taken rescue measures......

Not to mention anything else, let's talk about marriage, the Jiao clan in the same predicament at the same time, has frequently intermarried with the Su clan, the Su clan values the influence of the Jiao clan in the business community of the Western Capital, so the number of intermarriages between the two clans every year is not less than 100 people, Suqiao Youjie also married the love of his life Jiao Mengxuan during this period, although in the end the people of the two clans failed to save the decline of the family, but it is also a blessing (husband and wife) to rain under the same roof.

The book goes back to the main text.

Among the above-mentioned convoys that left Shichang in the eastern capital and rushed to the western capital to find deer, there were descendants of the Sujiao clan, whose family name was Suqiao Youjie, an old man who was nearly a sixtieth year, and his wife Jiao Mengxuan was an old woman who was more than half a hundred years old. The two have three sons and one daughter, the eldest son Su Jiao Chengwang, the second son Su Jiao Chenglu, the third son Su Jiao Chengxing, and the eldest daughter Jiao Cheng Yan.

The family sat in the front row of a six-wheeled caravan, which was about seven feet long, less than eight feet wide, and more than one foot three feet high. The body is divided into front and rear cabinets, and is provided with upper and lower floors, the front cabinet has four windows on the left and right for people to discuss and view, the rear cabinet has no windows, there is only one ventilation port, which is to help the heater in the car exhaust smoke. A short ladder was installed to lead to the upper lounge.

At this time, the second elder was sitting in the front cabinet and chatting, although the second and third sons were also talking in the front cabinet, but they had already dozed off, only the eldest son was still looking at the unfamiliar scenery outside the window with great interest, and the eldest daughter was resting on the upper floor of the frame due to spring sleepiness, although the car was a little bumpy and the environment was also very unfamiliar, but it did not affect her sleep, just because her family was still around.

Suqiao Weijie: "Hey...... Time is not with me, as it is...... In vain, I still have this kind of enthusiasm, but I don't want to end up looking at the river and sighing that I can't do anything."

sighed for a long time, and muttered with a sad face.

Jiao Mengxuan: "Husband, as the saying goes, you have good achievements in the temple, you are fortunate to return to the green silk dyeing snow, you have fulfilled your duties as a courtier for half your life, I see these in my eyes, and now the situation has changed, it is not your fault, don't blame yourself for this"

Earnest persuasion.

Su Qiao Weijie: "Madam, I was suddenly degraded, but it has affected you, this is a long way to the Western Capital, and you have to endure this bumpy suffering, after all, it is my fault......"

He lowered his head with a mournful face, and there were tears hidden in his eyes.

Jiao Mengxuan: "You and I are husband and wife, what do you say is not even involved, and I am not afraid that the children will hear the joke about you, besides, when you were an official in the court, I also had a good time, and now you have resigned from the government for the people, and I am also happy to be a people's woman, from now on, you don't have to deliberately deal with those staggered plans, let's be an ordinary couple, and when we have grandchildren in the future, we will tease our grandchildren together, which is not much better than staying in the Eastern Capital." ”

Jiao Mengxuan quietly stretched out her hands and held one of Suqiao Weijie's hands in her hands, and the wrinkled hands of the two people overlapped like this.

Suqiao Weijie: "......"

Although he didn't speak, the expression on his face was no longer so sad.

Jiao Mengxuan: "As long as our family can be together peacefully, this is the best, and I will be content" raised his eyes and looked at the three sons in front of him

Suqiao Weijie's eyes were filled with tears again at this time, I can't remember how many times this is the first time such a scene has occurred in half a year, at this time the convoy is moving towards an inn not far away, where it is expected to be replenished and rested, this has been out of the eastern capital boundary, but there is still a long distance from the western capital, and this inn used for supply seems to be unusual, the reason is that the back of the inn is against an abyss, this abyss also has a heroic name called 'Tianyao Pass', although the name has ' The word 'off', but it is not the meaning of the fortress pass, but because of its wonders.

At this time, our perspective is in mid-air, and the time at this time is about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and the sun will set in less than an hour. The dusk of late spring has a slightly cool feeling, Tianyaoguan is in the wilderness far away from the city, looking down from the air, only to see the chaotic stone and dense forest irregular, scattered on this barren land, the beast and the snake is the master of this land, if you walk here alone, you can occasionally see the fleshless white bones, of course, most of them are beast bones, but in the dark that seems to have a gloomy look, I don't know where it came from, and it is such a place that is difficult to like, However, it is a connecting passage between the eastern capital and the western capital, stretching for more than 700 kilometers from east to west, and has a nice name 'Yong'an Oasis', of course, this name is more people's hope for the environment here, rather than an evaluation.

Because this is a barren land with an area of 370,000 square kilometers, no matter how the seasons change, the climate is always not so friendly, the high temperature during the day can be a fried egg on the road, the frost and dew at night can make people lie in the cold winter snow, and the wild sand often covers the sun, and a sandstorm can bury many lives alive.

It is such a terrible place, but it has not been able to stop the footsteps of the Cangluo people, for thousands of years, there have been two roads artificially stepped here, so that the passage between the east and the west, can save thousands of kilometers of unnecessary travel, but even now, basically a team of more than 100 people dare to pass here, the reason for doing this, is not only to prevent wild beasts from hurting people, but also to deal with the danger can rely on each other.

At this time, at the end of the picture, a tall and thin figure appeared, this figure slowly walked over from far to near, this person should be a monk, about more than 180 centimeters tall, bare head with the ordination scar, burned with incense, three horizontal rows and three vertical columns of a total of nine white dots. The monk was dressed in an old gray robe, covered with an equally old blue robe, with a string of six wooden Buddhist beads hanging around his neck, a five-foot-long wooden staff in his hand, and a pair of straw sandals under his feet. When the monk approached, we saw his appearance clearly, one eyebrow and small round eyes, but the second eye was blazing, the monk's face was so kind, giving people a feeling of a practitioner who does not fight with the world, but between the eyebrows, you can see the faint wolf forbearance. Although I don't know where this monk came from, I think I am tired of walking, and I don't even care that there are wild beasts here, so I found a big stone under the tree, walked straight over, and then lay on the stone and closed my eyes to rest, and the tall trees on the side opened up a natural shade for the monk, and occasionally the breeze blew through the leaves to cause a rustling sound, and the monk soothed his limbs and slept naturally.

Dusk came to Tianyao Pass, the sky outside the pass suddenly darkened, a large cloud in the sky slowly moved to the inn where Su Jiao stayed for Jie's family, a cold wind struck, which was mixed with the unique smell of rain before the rain, a group of servants hurriedly shouted, everyone hurriedly covered the car with a rainproof cloth, and the lasso on the foot force horse was also removed, and then was taken to the forage room to feed and rest from the rain, the inn's little two saw with his eyesight that this was a great family, He also hurriedly moved the best forage for the horses, and the housekeeper of the Su Jiao family (similar to the housekeeper) also went to the cabinet, briefly told the shopkeeper about the situation, and cleverly concealed the true origin of the family, and handed over a silver ticket worth 300,000 silver silk to the shopkeeper as a deposit.

This is a large inn about six or seven zhang high, with five floors and no less than 300 large and small guest rooms, which are made of gray stone and brown trees as a whole, reinforced with lime water mixed with glue, and finally colored with earth paint. The overall appearance of the inn is biased to brown, only the sloping roof piled up with green tiles is blue-gray, and there is a wooden pole about six or seven zhang standing at the door of the inn, on which a shop flag with black characters on a yellow background is hung vertically, and there are four large characters in Cangluo script "Donglai Inn" written on it.

It was originally the off-season to welcome guests, and the inn seemed very deserted, but at this time, Su Jiao Weijie's family came here, and suddenly more than 100 guests were added to the inn, and it instantly became lively, and the shopkeeper judged who was the head of the house according to his own eyesight, and then ordered the chef to make two plates of local snacks, and several fruits in the season were also cut into fruit plates, and then sent to Su Jiao Weijie's guest room through the shopkeeper.

Su Jiao Weijie and his wife's room was arranged in the middle of the third floor, next door was the eldest daughter's room, and then the room of the three brothers was arranged on the left and right of their parents and sister, which also played a certain role in warning.

At this time, the outside of the inn has gradually dimmed, after all, here is close to the place of the pass, there are few people walking in the morning and evening, and the inn is lively in obvious contrast, the surroundings are quiet, not far from the dense forest will occasionally come out one or two birdsong, and then the wind blows the leaves, suddenly, there was a standing flash in the originally dim night sky, instantly illuminated the environment within ten miles, and then the thunder also reached the front of the pass, not long after, the heavy rain fell from the sky, the raindrops hit the sand fiercely, In response to the sentence that the rain hit the beach 10,000 pits, even after a quarter of an hour, the rain did not seem to weaken in the slightest, and the rain smoke rose after the rain landed, but fortunately, the roof was carefully designed by craftsmen, even if the rain hit the green tiles will make a crisp sound, but the guests who live on the top floor will not hear even a trace of noise.

At this time, Su Jiao Weijie and the eldest son and the second son were invited by the shopkeeper to come to the first floor to watch the rain, as for why they came to the first floor to watch the rain, this is naturally for a reason, this Tianyaoguan has a special scenery, the scenery is not common, but the origin of the name of Tianyaoguan is closely related to it.

There is a canyon on the north side of Tianyao Pass, named "Yangju Gorge", it is said that this canyon is more than 1,700 zhang deep, there seems to be a stream passing through the valley bottom, and there seems to be only the white bones and rocks of wild beasts, there have been many explorers to explore the valley bottom, but not even one person has climbed up alive......

And then there is a wonder in the canyon, that is, when the sun is behind in the west, there will be the golden brilliance of the sun between the canyons that are not deep and bright, even if they are miles away from the canyon, you can also see the golden light refracted from the valley, and this is not the most special, if it is rainy weather at this time, the golden light can be turned into seven-colored rainbow light, and this light will float above the canyon, as if a colorful pontoon bridge was built in the valley, only the length of the colorful pontoon bridge above the valley is not less than 100 zhang, Its height is also 30 zhang, standing in front of the valley and looking up, it is like a heavenly gate hanging above the head.

But whether it is a golden light or a colorful pontoon, it will only exist for a quarter of an hour at most, after which the canyon will return to its original darkness again.

It is said that this colorful pontoon bridge can carry people into the deep valley safely, but no one seems to have tried it so far, after all, this is so unreasonable that even adventurers will not make such an attempt that lacks common sense.

Today, it happened that the sunset was not dissipated, and it was a rainy day, and the guests in the inn gathered on the outside of the first floor, where there was a specially built circular rain viewing hall, where everyone waited to watch this rare beautiful scenery.

And at this moment, there is such a small cabin in the oasis of Yong'an, and there are two men in official clothes? It seems that the age of the two should be around twenty-five or sixteen, with long lips and white teeth, slender eyebrows and long eyelashes, obviously carefully modified makeup, the original skin color can no longer be seen, only the white color painted by fat powder. Because they are adults, they have performed the crown salute, but they are different from ordinary men, they wear a square feather crown hat on the top of their heads, the forehead of the crown hat is inlaid with a green opal, the back of the hat is higher than the front, used to place the bun, a silver swift hairpin across the bun to hold the hat. The two are wearing a pink stand-up collar truncated sleeve one-piece skirt, the skirt is different from the women's, its left and right sides have been deliberately cut out from the lower part of the hips, the trousers in the skirt will be visible when walking, the outer side of the skirt is covered with a white gauze shirt, this white gauze is embroidered on the shoulders, down to the feet, left and right and wrists, and the chest is embroidered with golden Cangluo text, from top to bottom, from left to right writes "clean clothes for the messenger, dirt does not exist", this is the official uniform of the deputy envoy of the clean clothes division, and a pair of red hollow shoes are pedaled under the feet, and the front end of the shoes is triangular, Both of them are equipped with "swords" around their waists, and at this time the two are waiting for people in the wooden house to shelter from the rain.

【Source World Weapon Spectrum】

1. Zuo Knife (Excellent Quality): A weapon made by Seiko with a slightly curved forward hilt, three and a half inches in length, and a gray color. The blade is two feet three inches long and weighs two catties and four taels, and there is nothing peculiar about it except that it is relatively expensive to build, but it is a weapon worn by the Pure Clothes Division or the Deputy Envoy of the Pure Spirit Division.

At about 6 o'clock in the afternoon, the travelers in the Donglai Inn have begun to eat in the canteen on the second floor, at this time everyone in the inn is talking about what they have seen and heard during the journey. The rain outside the inn is weakening, but it does not stop, this moment of rare quiet night, but was disturbed by a sound of horses' hooves from afar, a large group of white-clothed guests wearing rainproof hats and leather raincoats, are riding fast feet to run over, the horses' hooves splash everywhere, several people in the horse team carry long night lights for the horses to illuminate the road ahead, a group of people hurried, even if passing by the Donglai Inn in front of the pass did not stop for a moment, ran straight over, but one of the horse team in front of the inn when passing by, After a sneaky glance at the second floor of the inn, he turned around and continued on his way.

After dinner, Jiao Mengxuan and her third son and eldest daughter were gossiping in the room on the third floor, while Suqiao Weijie and his eldest son were talking intently about something in the corner of the first floor of the inn. At this time, there were only five or six people left on the first floor of the inn, which seemed a little deserted, and even Xiao Er secretly hid aside and was lazy. The rain outside the window through the roof tiles, turned into raindrops, and finally fell to the ground, the sound of ticking seems to have a rhythm, so that people do not feel bored, at this time, at first heard the knock on the door, but the sound is not loud, at first everyone thought that it was the sound of the wind blowing on the door, but after three or five sounds, the little second brother was also woken up from sleep, only to see him rub his eyes, and then impatiently walked to the door of the store.

The second brother: "It's coming, it's coming, why are there still guests on this rainy day!" Sick of it. ”

The first half of the sentence is very impatient, and the second half of the sentence mutters and scolds people in his heart.

"Squeak" sound came, two wooden doors opened to the left and right, only to see a monk standing at the door, this is only one inn in front of the pass, there is no good shelter from the rain around, just happened to have such a heavy rain, but this monk in addition to a few drops of rain on the top of the head, there is no trace of rain on the monk's clothes, the little second brother looked at the monk's dress, he knew that it was a foot monk, and it was the kind of money that had no money, and thought that just now his good dream was stirred up by this monk, and he was very unhappy for a while, so he blocked the monk in front of the door, There is no intention of putting it in at all.

Little second brother: "You monk, it's really timely, it's raining so hard, why are you still wandering around?" It's getting dark, why don't you go to a temple to rest, wander around here, and be careful that wild beasts eat you as a supper!! ”

Tilting his chin up, he said.

Monk: "Don't worry about the poor monk, as long as there is the Buddha's light in your heart, you can not be afraid of the night, and the fate of the poor monk has already been set, so you should not be afraid of misfortune."

Said with a smile on his face.

Little second brother: "What nonsense you monk said, I don't understand!" But I'm telling you, I don't give you a relationship here, let alone a white house, you see your poor and sour appearance, I don't even bother to pay attention to you, you hurry up and let me go, otherwise I'm welcome! ”