Miaozhu suddenly remembered something, called a little novice, and said a few words in his ear, and the little novice agreed to retreat. Miao Zhu said: "To tell today's story, there is no one missing, I have instructed Tong'er to go to the Yangshi Curtain Ziji Palace to invite the old man of the late Qing Dynasty, the Yangshi Curtain is not far from here, we can talk about the past first." ”

Wang Xinghui asked: "The old man of the late Qing Dynasty that the master said is not ......?"

Miao Zhu didn't wait for him to finish, nodded and said: "Yes, the old man of the late Qing Dynasty is the world-famous Master Hongyi, and the surname of Li Mingshu is the same." ”

Li Shutong is a famous scholar in the late Qing Dynasty, in the piano, chess, calligraphy, painting have quite high attainments, during the Republic of China, he once lectured in Zhejiang, Qiantang and other universities, the school song of Nanjing University was created by its occasion, the song "farewell" he later made is sung to this day, Chen Qizhen, Pu Shu and other singers have covered it, the famous cartoonist Feng Zikai got a hand-copied original, cited as a family heirloom; the calligraphy and painting works that are now circulating in the world have been bought more than 10 million yuan, and have a great impact on later generations.

Master Hongyi had long been famous at home at that time, and when Wang Xinghui and Lao Zhang heard that this matter was related to Master Hongyi, they were immediately shocked and moved. Miao Zhu continued: "This Master Hongyi originally lived in Yuquan Mountain, Zhejiang, and had many contacts with Liu Zhiping, Xia Yazun and other celebrities in our Pingxiang County. This time with Xia Yazun to Wugong Mountain to observe and travel, now just in the Yangshi Curtain Ziji Palace as a guest, he felt that Master Hongyi's name was too big, deeply tired, and now he has called himself an old man in the late Qing Dynasty. ”

The green smoke in front of the Buddha is slow, the light in the hall is like a bean, and the moon stars outside the screen window are scarce. The three of them sat down again and listened to the temple blessings.

"The situation we have caused today is called the cycle of three tribulations, every three steps and a round, repeatedly, endlessly, the cycle of robbery in the world is very rare, because to this situation, both sides must be on the top of the chess skills, equal; and the mood and character of the chess player is very related, the general chess player finds this game, even if it is with a greater loss, will find another way and will not play this kind of game. Because this is really a dead fish and a broken net, and both sides are defeated. For chess players, it's really boring. ”

Miaozhu asked again, "Do you know why I was so angry just now?...... Just because the old man who played chess with me 30 years ago once told me that more than 50 years ago, there was a small lonely country called the Ryukyu Kingdom outside the Oriental Ocean of China. At that time, there were two relatively large forces in the country, respectively in the hands of two generals, one was called Shang Ba Xian, the other was called Cai Sasamachi, General Shang Ba Xian saw that the people were displaced, and could not bear to use the sword soldiers, he heard that General Cai Ba Town was very conceited about his chess skills, so he made great efforts to find a young chess master, and announced to the whole country, stipulating that the two sides would be superior in chess skills, if the chess player found by General Shang Ba Xian was inferior to General Cai Sasamachi, then General Shang Ba Xian would voluntarily admit defeat and recognize General Cai Ba Town as the leader; if General Cai Ba Town lost to the chess player found by General Shang Ba Xian, and no one could defeat General Shang Ba Xian's chess player, then he will obey the command of General Shang Baxian from now on, in short, the loser must bow his head, and the two sides are no longer allowed to fight each other, so that the people of the whole country can be spared the suffering of war......"

"This was a good thing to turn hostility into friendship. The whole country military and civilians naturally supported the proclamation very much, and his opponent, General Cai Sasamachi, was also a great figure, not only superb chess skills, but also more rare is that he always has compassion and compassion, and has long had the desire to stop the war, as soon as he received Shang Baxian's notice, he immediately gladly agreed, so the two generals who fought on the battlefield on weekdays made an appointment to play in Shengguang Temple in front of the three armies, and decided the outcome of this war with chess......

"...... Cai Sasa general boasted of his superb chess skills, naturally disdainful of inviting people to come out, Shang Ba Xian invited this chess master, is also very good, so the two national players in front of the two armies in front of the game, the two sides of the clever hand, no one can win whom, the soldiers of the two armies are hanging their hearts waiting for the results of the battle, General Shang Ba Xian is also watching the battle from the sidelines, not leaving an inch, the two fought for three days and two nights, it is still difficult to distinguish the winner, in the third night, seeing that the chess players invited by General Shang Ba Xian are about to lose, he has no choice but to suddenly set up a game, the sound of the east and the west, give up a large piece of himself to lure General Cai Sasa into the court, which is to grab a first move, the last son to lay the situation, actually played this three-tribulation cycle. ”

“...... The two admired each other, laughed, General Shang Ba Xian was also very happy, and immediately agreed with General Cai Sasa to strike the army and make peace, Shang Ba Xian in order to show sincerity, more willing to obey General Cai Sasamachi's scheduling, the two sides agreed to work together to build Ryukyu, most of the three army soldiers are not willing to raise swords again, as soon as they heard the news, they abandoned their armor and embraced each other, and the cheers were thunderous. But unexpectedly, that night, General Shang Ba Xian's lieutenant was unwilling to let his relatives be killed by General Cai Shamachi's people, so he rebelled that night and killed Shang Ba Xian, and the young chess player was also missing in the war. Soon, General Cai Sasa also died of depression, and since then the war has broken out again, and the people have been miserable, until later the Japanese country saw an opportunity to take advantage of the opportunity and took the opportunity to send troops to the Ryukyus, and the Ryukyu country ceased to exist. ”

Wang Xinghui nodded silently and said: "Yes, according to the literature, after the Japanese occupied the Ryukyus, they forced the islanders to change their Japanese surnames, and many Ryukyu people who did not want to change their sexuality fled to Fujian, Taiwan and other places. ”

Miao Zhu said, quite approving, nodded and continued: "Yes, the destruction of the Ryukyu Kingdom, it is only a matter of fifty years, I heard you say that this old man has learned both China and the West, and is really a wise man who has insight into the opportunities of heaven and earth, Amitabha, fortunately, even ah! The Ryukyu Kingdom originally took the Rinzai sect as the state religion, and after the destruction of the country, many monks on the island fled to China to find temple shelter, and there is a temple in this county, and the Ryukyu monks are regarded as the ancestors of the Rinzai sect, and they have accepted several Ryukyu monks. ...... Since then, among the refugees who have fled to China, the chess players have regarded the "Three Tribulations" game as a great bad omen, and they are afraid to avoid it, and whenever they encounter such a situation, one side will admit defeat in advance or give up the game. It was also at that time when our country was in crisis, and I felt this taboo against the Ryukyu refugees, and over time, people in the chess game thought that this game had an ominous meaning and was a symbol of disaster. ”

"Thirty years ago, I played chess with an old man by chance, and the old man forced me to make peace with this step, and he told me the allusion of this chess game that day, and once said to me with sorrow: "I am out of helplessness today, out of this play, only afraid that a word will become a prophecy, and from then on the war in the world, I don't know when it will stop." ”

When Wang Xinghui and Lao Zhang heard this, they knew the origin of this chess game. Although Lao Zhang is also a good chess player, he is far from being a master, and he has been fighting and killing in the gangs over the years, with a bold personality, and rarely interacting with celebrities and elites in the world, he has never heard of these taboo rumors, and even if he heard them, he did not take them to heart.

Wang Xinghui sighed and said: "It was originally nonsense to speculate on the direction of war in the world with chess images, but since ancient times, people have used hexagram divination to speculate about the future, and many of them think it will work. In fact, it is nothing more than to ask for a peace of mind, peace of mind, less worry in the heart, can be single-minded in doing things, and the goal that the heart wants to achieve is naturally easier to achieve; ”

After listening to Wang Xinghui's words, Miao Zhu thought so, and hurriedly bowed his body and recited the Buddha's name: "The little donor is young, and he has such insight, which is really good! ”

Wang Xinghui hurriedly replied. Lao Zhang said impatiently: "Great monk, you should tell me about your mistake thirty years ago!"

At this moment, the candlelight flickered outside the screen window, and the door of the temple was pushed open, and the little novice led a man into the temple.

The three of them hurriedly got up. Miao Zhu stepped forward and held the man's palm: "The arrival of the mage has made the small temple suddenly prosperous, and the disciple is polite." ”

Wang Xinghui and Lao Zhang saw that the man was about fifty years old, and Miao Zhu was only afraid of being the same age, but when he saw Miao Zhu bowing to the ground, he was very respectful, and he thought that this person was naturally Master Li Shutong. Sure enough, I saw Master Hongyi's wide ears, short hair and steel beard, and a pair of ** treasure elephants, which made people respectful, Rao is Lao Zhang's usual rough, lazy and informal, and at this time he was also respectful, The two of them stood behind Miao Zhu with their hands down, not daring to be abrupt.

Miao Zhu said: "Today's disciple lost again at the hands of others, and he had the heart to talk about the endgame thirty years ago, because he knew that the master was a guest in this county, so he specially invited him to come and alarm the master and the Buddha, and sinned and sinned. ”

Master Hongyi replied: "Amitabha, on the way here, there have already been disciples who have explained your profound meaning to me, and I can't imagine that thirty years later, this situation will reappear in the world. "Master Hongyi is magnanimous and open-minded, although he calls himself an old man in the late Qing Dynasty, but Miaozhu has a great friendship with him, and he is still called by the title of Master at this kind of private meeting, and Master Hongyi does not care.

After the ceremony was over, several people sat down again, the temple Zhu invited Hongyi to sit at the top, and he accompanied the prime minister under him, Wang Xinghui was the youngest and sat on the opposite table.

Miao Zhu cleared his throat and said, "So, I will tell the ...... Before I became a monk, my surname was Hu, in the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, my family had a big official, the official went to Zhejiang according to the judge, was the local second-grade member at that time, when the Taiping army rose in Liangguang, all the way to conquer the city, hit the territory of Zhejiang, and the soldiers came to the city of Hangzhou......"

"At that time, our urgent documents were sent to Beijing like snowflakes, and the emperor sent Zuo Zongtang, the commander of the Hunan army who was stationed near Jiujiang in Anqing, to come to the rescue, but after receiving the order, he was reluctant to send troops, do you know why?"

Master Hongyi saw that Wang Xinghui and Lao Zhang couldn't answer each other, and said: "At that time, it was rumored that Zuo Jinliang had the great talent of saving the country through the world, and had the opportunity to look up to heaven and earth. ”

Miao Zhu nodded and said: "The world calls this prince in the name of Wenxiang, that is to praise his merits, the Qing court gave the name Wenxiang for the four famous ministers of Zhongxing, and the mage called it in the name of Jinliang, it can be seen that it is indeed superior, why don't you ask the mage to talk about his life?"

Hongyi said: "That's okay, the name of Wenxiang was given by the Qing court, and Mr. Jinliang started by suppressing the Han people, and it is really inappropriate for us to call it." ...... At that time, Mr. Jin Liang sat back and watched the city of Hangzhou break, the governor Wang Youling was martyred, and the southeast half of the wall fell into the hands of the Hunan army,...... At first, I thought that Mr. Jin Liang didn't save Hangzhou, just to preserve his own strength, but his later behavior made me wonder at the time......"

Miao Zhu replied: "Yes, not long after the city of Hangzhou was broken, this duke immediately waved his army to Hangzhou, attacked with all his might, and in less than half a month, he occupied the entire territory of Zhejiang, so that Zhejiang was lost and recovered, and the imperial court appointed him as the governor of Zhejiang. ”

Lao Zhang suddenly slapped his forehead and said: "Wonderful, this strategy is really high, he attacked the Taiping Army when its foothold was not stable, and he was caught off guard, and this battle was really beautiful!"

Master Hongyi was silent. Miao Zhu said: "Lao Zhang, you only know one and don't know the other, if you talk about the art of war strategy, at this time the enemy has entered the city, but how can there be any advantage, in fact, before the city, the long-haired army is also the end of the crossbow, if this public can send troops three days earlier, we should be outside together, why not worry about the long-haired army gathered and annihilated under the city of Hangzhou." Because the city of Hangzhou is not only related to Zuo Zongtang's failure to send troops to rescue him, but also has a direct relationship with the Taiping Army, he has always refused to call these two parties with kind words, but refers to "this duke" and "long hair", "this duke" is "this old man", and "long hair" is "a person with long hair" The contempt in the words is overflowing.

Lao Zhang said: "Could it be that the chess game we are going to talk about today is also related to Zuo Zongtang?"

Master Hongyi said: "Mr. Jin Liang boasts that his chess skills are quite high, but he has not achieved the highest quality, and said that chess skills, in today's world, it is naturally better to be a great monk, otherwise how could you be recruited by Mr. Jin Liang as the main book of the march, often take you by your side, and lead you to be a close person." ”

Miao Zhu said with a smile: "The mage made fun of me, at that time, I have not been defeated since I started art, it can be said that it is very good, but it is not Zuo Zongtang who wants me to listen to the order in front of the account, the reason why I joined the account at that time was to avenge my family's revenge, waiting for the opportunity to assassinate this person, otherwise the two of us would not have been friends since then, with the same hatred and hatred." ”

Wang Xinghui thought to himself: "It turns out that this temple Zhu destroyed the city of Hangzhou so that his own family surnamed Hu died in the war, so he was angry with Zuo Zongtang, and he deliberately approached Zuo Zongtang in order to take revenge, well, his chess skills are worthy of being a national player, and Zuo Zongtang loves to play chess, so it is extremely easy for him to get close to Zuo Zongtang, but I don't know why Master Hongyi has a feud with Zuo Zongtang." ”

I heard Master Hongyi say: "Yes, that day, by chance, I heard you secretly praying, and learned that you also wanted to have a plan, I thought that Zuo Zongtang had a lot of guards around him, and if he wanted to achieve great things, he was afraid that it was beyond the power of one person, so I told each other frankly, and from then on, we secretly united, and we just wanted to take Mr. Jinliang's life." ”

Lao Zhang said: "Zuo Zongtang tried his best to maintain the rule of the Qing court, and killed our Han people, if it weren't for him, it would not make sense that the Qing court would have been overthrown decades earlier, and even the Buddhist people like the master also wanted to do their part for the people of the world, so the Qing court was unpopular. ”

Master Hongyi couldn't help but sigh and said, "I'm really ashamed, I didn't become a monk at that time, and besides, I wanted to murder this person, but it wasn't for any national event, the rise and fall of the world." ”...... I'm afraid that even the great monks don't know about this matter, just because my purpose is too selfish and narrow-minded, and I have been reluctant to talk about it for many years...... Well, I'll say it together today......"

Master Hongyi was silent for a while, sighed lightly, and continued: "I and Mr. Jin Liang are both from Hunan, my hometown is in Hengyang, Xiangdong, Mr. Jin Liang's family is in Tanzhou, Xiangbei, my father and Mr. Jin Liang were both in Daoguang fifteen years of the examination for Jinshi, my father was the seventh in the examination, Mr. Jin Liang was the eighth, and the two of them also secretly competed with each other, and the hometown fathers and elders were proud of the two of them, because my mother was from Tanzhou, and the people of Tanzhou took their son-in-law as half a son, so they often said that Xiangtan produced "one and a half" Jinshi. ”

Later, Mr. Jin Liang was relied on by the Qing court, Zuo Zongtang's name gradually heard throughout the country, Xiangtan's reputation also changed to Hengyang, everyone only knows Zuo Zongtang, but I don't know my father, all kinds of praise, but also slowly changed into "Hunan out of a half Jinshi", Xianfeng 11 years, the two were promoted to governor at the same time, in the mouth of the world, also said "Hunan out of a half governor", the two entered Beijing at the same time as an official, also said "Hunan out of a half Beijing official" No matter how hard my father tried, his reputation was always covered up by Zuo Zongtang, and he gradually became resentful, and then Mr. Liang became the official of the prince Shaobao, and my father was no longer able to compete with him, and he was haunted all day long, from jealousy to hatred, but there was nothing he could do, so that he only ended up depressed. ...... Before he died, he said to me that his self-proclaimed knowledge was not under Mr. Jin Liang in his life, and his diligence was even better, but people in the world always took Zuo Zongtang as one and my father as half, and he was about to die, really because there was Zuo Zongtang in the world. ”

Wang Xinghui and the other three just listened on the side, and Lao Zhang said: "Oh, great monk, it turns out that you blamed your father's death on this Zuo Zongtang, so you lurked beside him and wanted to take revenge, you are really a little, a little ......" He has limited knowledge in his stomach, and he can't say what it is for a while.

Master Hongyi said silently: " At that time, I was only seventeen or eighteen years old, and I was exposed to my father's long-term anger because of this person, so I was angry for a while, so I didn't understand it very well, and I completely thought that since my father was gritting his teeth at this person before he died, I, as a son of man, must take out this evil breath for him, so I later conspired with this great monk, many years later, I realized that in fact, my father's death was all caused by his own inner obsession, and it was indeed a bit out of nothing to accuse him of this account, so I was silent about the details later, it was really a ridiculous thing when I was young, and I was ashamed to say it, insufficient with outsiders also. ”

Miaozhu folded his hands and thanked him: "Amitabha, what a lack of humanity with outsiders, the Master is willing to confide in the reason today, which shows honesty and righteousness, thank you for solving my 30-year mystery." When Miaozhu was young, he and Hongyi formed an alliance by accident and plotted to kill Zuo Zongtang, but the two tacitly did not inquire about each other's past origins, and he did not know the reason for Hongyi and Zuo Zongtang's grudge until today.

Hongichi shook his head in return, his face quite relieved. Wang Xinghui also said: "The so-called people are not saints and sages, not to mention that you were young and ignorant back then, and you didn't distinguish between right and wrong when you were young, and what is there to be ashamed of, the master can not only say this cause frankly today, but also never see you put a bad word on Zuo Zongtang from beginning to end, which shows that you have no favoritism in your heart, and you have already let go of your father's hatred and obsession." ”

At that time, Master Hongyi listened to Wang Xinghui's words several times, and his heart was quite comforted, and he saw that his eyebrows were beautiful and his eyes were like autumn water, knowing that he was a manufacturable material, and silently appreciating him, and thinking that his several apprentices Huigen were not very high, and it would be difficult to inherit the mantle after a hundred years, at that time, the idea of accepting Wang Xinghui as a disciple arose, but I also thought that since Wang Xinghui would appear here when a group of green forest people on the edge of Hunan and Jiangxi met in a big way, he must be a person who does things, how could he be willing to bow his knees to worship under the Buddha hall? Therefore, he nodded, and secretly shook his head helplessly.

Lao Zhang is a rough person, where did he think that Hongyi would have so many thoughts in his heart, and kept urging him to go down and say: "Well, you and the great monk are wearing a pair of pants, you should tell me quickly, did you two hurt Zuo Zongtang in the slightest? What do you say have to do with this game of chess? Who is the old man who beat you in chess?"