Journey to the West: I am entertaining in Datang

All of a sudden, the weather was calm and the ferry arrived safely.

The passengers were very surprised, not knowing who "Lord Cai" is.

There was a pregnant woman in Putian, whose husband was named Cai. She thought that the child she would give birth to in the future would be an extraordinary person, so she secretly made a wish: If the child can become a tool in the future, she will teach him to build a bridge on the Luoyang River.

After the woman returned to her hometown, she gave birth to a boy named Cai Shouchang, named Junmo, nicknamed Duan, who was very intelligent and intelligent.

When Cai Shouchang grew up and became sensible, Cai's mother told him about the experience of crossing the river when he was in danger, and urged her son to realize her long-cherished wish of building a bridge.

Shouchang Cai silently kept his mother's instructions in mind.

Soon, the imperial court began to recruit scholars. Cai Shouchang was selected as an official in the imperial court due to his extensive talents and knowledge, and was highly regarded by the emperor.

He was thinking about his mother's long-cherished wish, but he also felt distressed: If he stays in the capital all the time, when will he have the opportunity to go to Quanzhou to build the Luoyang Bridge?

(To be continued)

Chapter 1147

One day, Cai Shouchang was called to accompany the emperor to visit the imperial garden.

With an idea, he thought about it, and secretly asked the little eunuch to write two lines of big characters on the banana leaf with honey. After a while, the ants climbed up the banana leaf to suck the honey juice.

The emperor was very surprised to find that the densely packed ants had formed word arrays on the banana leaves, and couldn't help but move closer.

Looking at the handwriting on the banana leaf, he blurted out: "Cai Duan Cai Duan, I am an official in this government!"

When Cai Shouchang heard this, he hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed to thank him.

The emperor changed his words: "I just read the words on the leaves, not seriously!"

Cai Shouchang couldn't afford to kneel: "If you don't joke, how can you break your trust?"

Then he frankly stated that his mother made a wish to build a bridge.The emperor had no choice but to let him be the prefect of Quanzhou.

Cai Shouchang rushed to Quanzhou day and night to take up his post. He immediately called his officials and sages to discuss the construction of Luoyang Bridge.

When the people heard the news, they rushed to tell each other, cheering and cheering, and craftsmen came everywhere at once.

On the day when work started, the river bank was crowded with people.

However, because the Luoyang River is five miles wide and unfathomably deep, a boatload of stones was thrown into the river, and was instantly swept away by the raging waves;

The Moonlight Bodhisattva Pagoda built in the Song Dynasty on the Luoyang Bridge, one day he suddenly dreamed that Master Avalokitesvara instructed him to send someone to ask for help from the Dragon King of the Sea.

Shouchang Cai was very surprised when he woke up, so he wrote a request for help to Sea God and asked his subordinate officials: "Who can go down to the sea?"

A government official immediately replied: "Xia Dehai, a villain!"

It turned out that this person's surname was Xia Dehai, and he mistakenly thought that the master called him, so he answered casually.

So he was sent to Poseidon to deliver official documents.

Xia Dehai knew that he would never return, so he bid farewell to his wife, bought a jug of wine, got drunk and lay down on the beach, trying to let the tide sweep him away, but when he woke up, the yellow briefcase turned into a Red briefcase.

But the word "vinegar" was impressively written on the palm of his hand.

Xia Dehai hurriedly staggered back to the government office and reported to the prefect.

Cai Shouchang was worried about the difficulty of laying the bridge foundation. When he saw the word "vinegar", he suddenly realized: Isn't the word "vinegar" taken apart to mean "the twenty-one day and the unitary hour"?

It's clearly the sea god's signal that it's time for the ebb tide!

Cai Shouchang turned his worries into joy, and immediately sent people to post notices on the gates of the four cities, ordering the people and craftsmen on both sides of the Luoyang River to prepare for the foundation laying quickly.

At you hour on the twenty-first day, the turbulent tide really receded, and the entire bottom of the river was exposed.

Cai Shouchang personally directed thousands of craftsmen to throw stones to lay foundations and build bridge piers. The Luoyang River was full of traffic and shuttled endlessly.

Solid bridge piers stand tall in the river.

But when it came time to build the No. 40 six piers, the stones on the riverside were exhausted.

If the last pier cannot be completed within three days of low tide, once the tide roars in, the foundation of the bridge will be washed away, and all previous efforts will be wasted!

Just at the critical juncture, it happened that Lu Dongbin, one of the Eight Immortals, was roaming by here on a cloud. He was deeply moved by Cai Shouchang's extraordinary spirit in building the bridge. All nodded.

With another wave, all the rocks on the mountain jumped up; with another wave, all the big rocks turned into "pig mothers", running down the mountain in groups, running to the beach, and jumping into the bottom of the river where the bridge pier was built.

In a blink of an eye, these "pig mothers" turned into big stones and piled up layer upon layer.

There was a "pig mother" who accidentally fell and injured a leg, walked slowly, and fell behind. When she rushed to the river, the last bridge pier had already been built.

It had no choice but to lie on the side, becoming a "pig mother stone" with a fat body.

When the surging tide swept in again, Cai Shouchang ordered the craftsmen to lay the foundation of the bridge.

The first battle was won, and the crowd was full of enthusiasm and thunderous cheers. The 46 bridge piers were like the mainstay, and the turbulent tide was frightened.

In the nearby Baisha Temple, there was a monk named Yibo who tried his best to raise funds for the construction of the bridge, and was ridiculed harshly by many rich and powerful.

He worked so hard to spend every copper coin he begged for on bridge building.

Regardless of the harsh winter or hot summer, the monk always worked tirelessly to make tea and deliver meals to the migrant workers. He also often went to the Mangxie Mountain to collect herbs to treat sick craftsmen.

Once, due to the continuous wind and rain, all the firewood in the kitchen was burned out.

The firewood cut temporarily from the mountain will not burn even if it is wet.

In order to continue the construction and complete the long bridge as soon as possible, Yibo monk quietly closed the door of the kitchen, and resolutely put his feet into the stove to cook instead of firewood.

Strange to say, the feet of the monk Yibo suddenly looked like two flaming firewood, and blazing flames rose up.

When his feet were burned to ashes, a large pot and a large pot of rice in the kitchen were cooked.

The bridge builders were all moved to tears.

Later generations wrote poems praising Yibo's heroic deeds: "Give up your life to build the Hongqiao, and weep on your knees to pay for the ghosts and gods. The bottom of the pot is as red as blood, and it has a good reputation through the ages."

In order to pave the large stone bridge 360 ​​feet long and [-] foot five feet wide, it is urgent to put tens of thousands of huge stone slabs on the bridge piers.

In this season, there is a lack of a large number of fir ships to ship stones, so the construction progress is slow.

Cai Shouchang is very worried about this.

One late night, Shouchang Cai was thinking about how to solve this problem, and after thinking about it, he fell asleep on the desk.

In the dream, I suddenly saw a white-haired celestial being, and instructed him to send someone to the foot of Qingyuan Mountain to ask the "Three Men and One Eyed Immortal" for help.

When Cai Shouchang woke up, he was skeptical, and summoned Xia Dehai, a government official, to go down Qingyuan Mountain to find out what happened.

Xia Dehai hurried to Qingyuan Mountain and waited for a long time, but he didn't meet any shadow of "three people and one eye fairy".

Near dusk, suddenly saw three ragged beggars coming in a file with their hands on their shoulders.

The first one had only one eye open and the other was blind; the other two were both blind.

Xia Dehai couldn't help being surprised and delighted: Isn't this the "Three People and One Eye Immortal"?

He ran over in a hurry, stopped him, and begged bitterly.

Seeing that he was very sincere, the three beggars agreed.

One of them muttered: "At the head of Luoyang River, there is an ancient well. Wood can be used to build boats, and water can be used to drink wine..."

After saying that, the three beggars suddenly opened their eyes, and it turned out to be Lu Dongbin, Li Tieguai and Zhang Guolao.

Sanxian laughed loudly, and drifted away like a gust of wind.

Xia Dehai was stunned with fright, and hurried back to report to the prefect Cai.

A few days later, in an ancient well by the Luoyang River, many fir trees gushed out like a fountain. Cai Shouchang and the bridge builder were overjoyed and praised.

Migrant workers who built the bridge went to draw water from the well, and there was a strong smell of wine. After drinking the water, they suddenly felt hungry and quenched their thirst. You and I drank it happily.

And this well never runs dry, and the aroma of wine overflows, attracting people around to come here to fetch water, so it is called "Sakai".

(To be continued)

Chapter 1148 Bitter Mouth

When Venerable Kassapa talked about this, the audience in the live broadcast room were very surprised, why did he say these things, and it has nothing to do with Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva.

One of the people eating melons: "My lord, what is the meaning of this, it is just a bridge repairer, it is necessary?"

Melon-eating crowd [-]: "It is estimated that Guanyin Bodhisattva has not come out yet, what she is good at is to transform into a beautiful young woman, so that she can marry whoever she wants to do."

This sentence made the audience roar with laughter, savoring it carefully, it really is the case,

Venerable Kassapa worked hard to whitewash the Bodhisattva, but in the end he still left everyone with something to talk about.

He hesitated to continue talking, because the ending was guessed by the audience.

But if you don't talk about it, someone keeps urging you.

He had no choice but to continue.

Cai Shouchang concentrated the wisdom of craftsmen and created the "raft foundation", which made the pointed pier separate the water potential and reduced the impact of the wave.

One day, Cai Shouchang discovered that there were dense clusters of oysters growing on every reef in the Luoyang River. He thought that if he could use the method of "planting oysters to strengthen the foundation", the oysters would multiply and the bridge foundation and pier stones would be glued and coagulated into a solid whole. How nice!

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew up on the river, blowing all the oyster clusters all over the river onto the Luoyang bridge piers like a rainstorm, as if countless steel nails were stuck on it, making the stone bridge on the Xiongzhi River even more indestructible.

Shouchang Cai was very surprised. He looked up and saw Guanyin of the South China Sea standing on the cloud and said with a smile: "The bachelor's painstaking efforts and sincerity are appreciated. I just did a little trick."

Nanhai Guanyin then said: "1000 million taels of money have been spent to build this long bridge, and the treasury is already in short supply. After I help you raise enough funds, I will ask the Eight Immortals to help you eliminate demons, so that you will never have trouble again!"

After all, Avalokitesvara of the South China Sea suddenly turned into a stunning beauty and went boating along the Luoyang River, claiming that if anyone could cast her with money, she would marry her as his wife.

For a while, there were crowds of people on both sides of the river.

People gathered to watch the gorgeous beauties on the Yanbo River and threw money at each other.

Those sons of the rich and powerful who are usually greedy for money, don't hesitate to throw away thousands of dollars.

Money rained down on the boat, but no one hit it.

Every day the small boat returns with a load of money, while the dandies return dejectedly.

In this way, a large amount of funds was raised to build the three-bladed handrails on both sides of the long bridge, as well as "seven pavilions, nine towers, and 28 stone lions".

Seeing that the Lingchang Bridge is about to be completed, the turtle spirits and basilisks lurking at the bottom of the river are unwilling to give up. They gather 99 dragons from the upper reaches of the Luoyang River, set off violent winds and waves, and rush straight at the stone bridge with their teeth and claws.

Zhang Guolao rode on his donkey and trampled the vicious tortoise into a ball of mud.

Li Tieguai opened the fire gourd, and a puff of smoke and fire immediately spewed out from the gourd, burning the 99 dragons to death.

At this time, a rainbow appeared in the sky, the waves on the river were as smooth as a mirror, and strings were singing on the shore.

People on both sides of the Luoyang River were beaming, beating gongs and drums, and cheering for the long bridge across the sea that was finally built after seven years.

In order to commemorate Cai Shouchang's achievements in advocating the construction of Luoyang Bridge, people on both sides of the river specially built a "Cai Shouchang Temple" in the south of the bridge, and erected a statue and monument.

Due to limited funds at that time, the height of the bridge was not enough, and the bridge deck was often submerged during floods.

So later it was said that Li Wu, a wealthy businessman from the National People's Congress of Quanzhou County, invested in the bridge to increase its height by three feet.

Li Wu is a wealthy businessman in Quanzhou. Because of his extravagant life, he was falsely accused by villains and arrested in the capital for questioning.

When his prison car crossed the Luoyang Bridge, the water had submerged the road, and he crossed the bridge with great difficulty, so he swore to God that if he could return to his hometown without incident, he would definitely pay for raising the Luoyang Bridge by three feet.

Sure enough, he returned home smoothly three years later, so he invested in raising the bridge by three feet.

After the story was finished, Venerable Kasyapa waited for the reaction from the live broadcast room, but there was no movement for a long time.

He tentatively asked: "Everyone, the poor monk has talked so much, do you feel that the bodhisattva is still there to save the suffering?"

"no feelings."

The melon-eating crowd poured a basin of cold water down, filling Venerable Kasyapa's mouth with bitterness.

"No, benefactors, what does this mean?"

"It means that Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, who claims to save the suffering, is best at deceiving other people's feelings, turning into a beautiful young woman, promising to marry whoever she is, but not marrying in the end. This has become a common trick of Avalokitesvara!"

"Hahaha! You are simply a master of cheating marriages!"

As soon as this title was said, the people in the live broadcast room were startled, and Venerable Kassapa was even more frightened.

What, dare to say such a rebellious thing, it's really audacious!