Reincarnation of the powerful minister

The continuous heavy rain this autumn caused the lower reaches of the Yellow River to burst again.

The Yellow River has often changed its course for thousands of years, and every time it changes its course, it is a catastrophe that turns the fields into oceans.In addition, the Yellow River has a large amount of cement and sand, and after a long period of sedimentation, the riverbed gradually rises, and the dams are overwhelmed. A few days of heavy rain may destroy decades of water control achievements.

Before Su Yan left Beijing, he heard a report from the Ministry of Industry that the Yellow River had breached in Guide Prefecture, Henan Province, flooding thousands of people, and their lives were devastated.

He was very worried when he heard this, but he could not intervene in the flood control and disaster relief. He could only pray that the natural disaster would end as soon as possible and that the people would be properly rescued and resettled.

This time he left Beijing to take up his post. He traveled south along the waterway called "Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal" in later generations and "Cao River" by people at that time. Unexpectedly, when he arrived in the Xuzhou area, the water boats couldn't get through.

It turned out that the river courses in Feng County and Pei County (the old course of the Yellow River) also burst due to the surge in water level, and the flood spread and silted up the Cao River, making it impossible for boats to sail on the river section from Xuzhou to Suqian.

Su Yan had no choice but to disembark with the servant and luggage, and ride around the waterway.

"Look, my lord—" Su Xiaobei pointed to many people busy on the banks of the Cao River in the distance, "The corvettes are dredging, and it is estimated that in ten days and a half a month, this section of the river will be open again. .”

Su Yan rode on horseback, set up an awning to look out for a while, and said: "The Nanjing Mausoleum Ceremony is held on the winter solstice, less than [-] days ago. We have only traveled half of the distance, so we can't wait for the river section to resume sailing here. Let's go! Let's see if we can take a tank boat and continue south after arriving at Jingjiang."

Su Xiaobei responded, took the long reins of the two horses carrying the luggage, and drove the horses below him to move on.

This time when he went to Nanjing, Su Xiaojing did not accompany him.Because before Su Yan set off, he was bitten by a mosquito and contracted malaria, and his whole body fluctuated from hot to cold.

In this era, malaria is a serious disease that is close to death. Even though the doctor prescribed "Bupleurum Ju Malaria Drink", Su Yan was still worried about the ineffectiveness of the medicine, and thought that cinchona trees still grow on the land of the Indians these days and have not been taken by the voyagers. Discovery is even more worrying.

"...Use Artemisia annua for him!" Su Yanfu thought deeply of the female pharmacist who won the Nobel Prize for discovering that artemisinin was effective against malaria, and hurriedly said to the doctor, "Artemisia annua, do you know?"

The doctor stroked his beard and nodded: "There is a saying in "Elbow Reserve Emergency Prescriptions", 'One hold of Artemisia annua, soak it in two liters of water, wring it out to get the juice, and take it all', it is used to treat malaria. It turns out that the adults have also done a lot of research on medical skills. This Artemisia annua—”

Su Yan interrupted him: "It's not Artemisia annua! The medical books confuse the names, and the one containing artemisinin is Artemisia annua! It's also called Artemisia annua!"

The doctor was surprised and said, "Stinky Artemisia, not Artemisia annua? But... there is no mistake in medical skills."

Su Yan couldn't explain clearly in a few words, so Su Yan had no choice but to use his power to suppress others: "Use Artemisia annua. My own servant, I will take responsibility for any accidents!"

The doctor had no choice but to follow what he said, twist the water with Artemisia stifolium, and give it to Su Xiaojing with decoction.

Su Yan was able to leave at noon, but because he couldn't let go of Su Xiaojing's illness, he dragged it off until dusk.It wasn't until it was too late, seeing that Xiao Jing was conscious and his condition seemed to be improving, Su Yan breathed a sigh of relief, held his hand and said: "Xiao Jing, the emperor ordered me to leave Beijing today, I can't resist the order, but you You are so sick that you cannot follow me to the post...you can stay in the capital and help me take care of the house, the doctor will come to the house for treatment every day, and I have told the servants at home to take good care of you."

Su Xiaojing received unprecedented care from Su Yan, was moved, and said weakly: "My lord, don't worry about me, I will take office. I will get better soon, and help you take care of this family."

Su Yan comforted him a few more words, and then took Su Xiaobei to set off.

During the ten days they spent on the tank boat, they were still worried about Xiao Jing.However, it is easy to write a letter from home and send it back to the capital through the post station, but it is more difficult to receive a reply in time, after all, they are always on the move.So I had to send a letter to inquire about the condition first, and asked Xiaojing to send the reply directly to the Ministry of Rites in Nanjing.

Su Yan rushed to the mausoleum sacrifice ceremony on the winter solstice, and left in a hurry without staying here, his back gradually drifting away on the muddy dirt road.

And on the dredging boat on the Cao River, Jing Hongzhui, who was tying the iron dragon claws to the hemp rope and throwing them into the water, suddenly felt a palpitation, as if hearing some call, she turned her head to the direction of the road on the bank.

Occasionally, there are a few pedestrians passing by on the road, and there is a small dot at the end, which suddenly disappears.

Jing Hong watched in a daze.

In the past six months, he has used extreme repression and restraint as a chain, and used countless times of getting drunk as an anesthetic to barely seal his longing and longing for Su Yan in the deepest part of his heart.But at this moment, for some unknown reason, this longing is like a grass sprout tenaciously pushing open the stone slab, protruding out the green tip.

I got a cane on my calf.Jing Hongzhui frowned, and looked back to see Old Ghost Wei's face that people hate ghosts.

Old Ghost Wei said: "Work hard, don't think about being lazy!" As he spoke, he tremblingly turned the rope on the pulley and dragged the iron dragon's claws on the river bed to clean up the mud.

Jing Hong asked: "Why do you have to serve corvee? What can an unborn master do to make a living without becoming rich?"

Old Ghost Wei asked him back: "Why don't you take corvee? During the slack season, every family has to pay corvee. Otherwise, who will clean up the silted river? Who will fill up the crushed road?"

Jing Hongzhui retorted: "But you are obviously not an ordinary person—"

"—each of us is a common people!" Old Ghost Wei slammed his calf again with his crutches, "put away your killer mentality that regards human lives as mission figures! It’s amazing to be able to take someone’s life?”

Jing Hongzhui's heart was shocked, she subconsciously looked down at her hands...there was only mud and sand between her fingers, but no blood stains, but the bloody smell of years seemed to have penetrated deep into her flesh and blood, becoming a part of herself, how could she wash it off? clean?

"Why, miss the glory of the past?" Old Ghost Wei asked sullenly.

Jing Hongzhui shook her head firmly.

"Then tell me, why did you draw the sword?"

"...It used to be for survival, for revenge, and later...for protecting a person."

"What about that person now?"

Jing Hongzui pursed her lips tightly and said nothing more.

Old Ghost Wei shook his head on his knees together with his crutches, and murmured in an imperceptible voice: "I should have thrown you out long ago. Your ghostly character is not the same as I was back then..."

He suddenly raised his voice: "Hurry up and clear the silt! Go back and thresh the millet for me after that, this year's autumn tax has not been paid yet!"

Jing Hongzhui continued to dredge the silt, and worked so hard until dusk fell that the water surface could not be seen clearly, so she was able to disembark and return to the thatched hut with Old Ghost Wei.

There was only one thatched hut, and Jing Hongzhui was determined not to sleep under the same roof as Old Ghost Wei, so she went to sleep on the firewood pile alone.When he woke up, he found himself covered with a torn quilt, and there was a pinch of burnt wormwood ashes at his feet.

The weird old ghost Wei, so he has a knife mouth and a bean curd heart?

This newly born idea was immediately ruthlessly drowned out by the other party—Old Ghost Wei suspected that he was not skillful in cutting and threshing rice, so he poked him into the rice field with a crutch.

Jing Hongzhui was lying on his back in the rice field, the ripe golden ears of rice swaying around him, almost covering the sky above his head.

He closed his eyes unknowingly, listening to the sound of the wind blowing through the ears of rice, mixed with the rustling of the farmers' sand sickles cutting the rice stalks not far away——

The wind flows between the heaven and the earth, without form or form, without form or action.

It blows through fields, hills, rivers and jungles, and also blows through capital villages and markets.

It sees all kinds of things in the world, and is contaminated with all kinds of clean, dirty, fragrant, and smelly breaths, but it does not change its essence.

"What is wind?" Old Ghost Wei's voice came through the rice bushes, asking this question for the second time.

"Through the invisibility of all things, it becomes its shape. It is invisible but omnipresent. It is the wind." Jing Hongzhui closed her eyes and answered in a low voice.

"Then what is a sword?"

"...It is iron in the hand, it is the mind in the heart, it is the physical force externally, and the faith internally. All forms and intentions are controlled by the heart and are omnipresent. It is the sword."

After a moment of silence, Old Ghost Wei's aging voice sounded like a broken door hinge: "There is still a little bit of understanding. But... it's early, it's early, get up! Thresh the millet! After threshing the millet, use the rice paddy Threshing the bed, raising and drying the grains... You can tell me how ordinary people live day by day, you understand?"

"Understood." Jing Hongzhui stood up and said calmly.

Where he couldn't see, Su Yan took his servants on a new tanker and continued to travel southward, passing Huai'an where autumn mountains and twilight bells passed, Yangzhou where riding cranes around his waist, and Zhenjiang full of scenery. , and finally arrived at Jinling, where the tide hit the empty city, as scheduled.

Su Yansu, the newly appointed left servant of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites, accompanied the prince when he held the mausoleum sacrifice ceremony, when he was accompanied by the prince to get rid of the crime of desecrating the imperial mausoleum, when he closed the door to block the snow, and when he hugged the cat to read, he accompanied the prince During private visits and caring for Chun Geng, accompanying the prince to get acquainted with Qu Shi, visiting veterans, accompanying the prince through the lowest ebb, the most lost, and the most depressed period of life...

Jing Hong chased after being an ordinary citizen.

He is one of the hundreds of millions of people in Daming, who go to farm, serve, cook, buy and sell... to witness birth, old age, sickness and death with his own eyes, and to re-understand people and life.

In nearly a year, he has learned more than in the past 20 years combined.

He still doesn't like to laugh or talk, his eyes are clear and cold lakes.But he will help a woman fleeing from her husband's beatings to stop her husband's pursuers; he will pick up mischievous children and hang them on the treetops, and save them when they cry and admit their mistakes; he will use the copper coins he is going to buy for meat , to buy and sell the last bouquet of apricot blossoms wilted in the flower girl's basket.

Before he knew it, there was no evil spirit in his gaze, and the residual smell of blood could no longer be smelled in his hands.

The number of times he was forced to attack became less and less, and he even forgot the moves. He broke the willow at will and flicked it, and wrapped the legs of the famous devil in the world, and hung it upside down under the plaque at the gate of the yamen at night.

As his condition worsened, Old Ghost Wei's body curled up even more, and he liked to manipulate him more and more.Jing Hongzhui didn't take it seriously, she did everything with ease, and lifted the weight as if it were light.

Old Ghost Wei specially poked the crutch he used. From the beginning, it was a hundred hits, and gradually became five or six out of ten hits, and then one or two out of ten hits. In the end, it couldn't even touch the hem of his clothes.

He didn't deliberately dodge, but just chopping firewood, lighting the fire, and cooking on his own, with smooth movements.What kind of weapon in the world can poke the cloud and split the water?From then on, Old Ghost Wei never poked him with a cane again.

Suddenly one day, Jing Hongzhui felt a slightly hot and swollen breath from his dantian.

"What is this?" He asked the old ghost Wei, "I clearly dissipated my dantian, how can I still feel aura?"

Old Ghost Wei huddled on the kang to warm up the fire, like a bowed inchworm, rolled his eyes and said, "The fields in midwinter are deserted, the soil clods are cracked, and the rice stubble in the fields is burnt to ashes. Why can we continue to cultivate in spring?"

Jing Hongzhui realized something: "Because a new seed has been planted..."

Old Ghost Wei drank his filial wine and nodded in satisfaction: "When the seeds germinate, let them grow naturally in the world, in the world, in wind, frost, rain and dew. Have you found your sword now?"

Jing Hong answered: "My sword is my whole life. Before the moment when my body dies and my soul disappears, there is an infinite 'Tao' to go on in my pursuit."

As large as mountains and rivers and forests, as small as weeds and ants, as moving as storms and thunders, as quiet as morning clouds and mist, as soon as the two armies are at war, as soft as lovers whispering...Everything in this world, to see and experience, is human beings. life.

Old Ghost Wei was drunk, and murmured: "You realized it earlier than me, and you are luckier than me... Back then, if I had awakened in time, I wouldn't have to bear the blood debt... If I hadn't been entangled in illness... If I hadn't Losing my beloved wife and daughter, maybe... I might..."

How about "maybe", he couldn't go on, because there are not so many "maybes" in life.

But Jing Hongzhui still roughly spelled out Old Ghost Wei's past from his drunken chatter.

——Twenty years ago, the whole family of the Tianyin sect, who were good at using music as an attack method, was slaughtered, except for an infant baby left behind, which was written by this old ghost Wei.

For half his life, Old Ghost Wei was so cruel and merciless that he was moved by the pure staring and fingertip-sucking instinct of a newborn baby, so he spared this little life, and stuffed the Crane Bone Flute, a township weapon of the Tianyin Sect, into his swaddling baby. It was left at the door of the baby's uncle's house.

Later, the baby grew up to be 12 years old. In order to avenge his family's blood feud, he entered Yinjianmen to learn art, and became the only junior who could call Jing Hong to chase "Senior Brother" - Fuyin.

It's a pity that before Fuyin found his enemy, he fell into the tragic fate of being a medicine man, and even more so, he not only failed to get out of the quagmire, but also wanted to drag everyone to be buried with him, and finally died in the only one who really cared about him, But in the hands of Han Ben who he killed.

"Maybe it's the retribution of killing too many people and being too bloody when I was young, so I contracted this bizarre rickety disease, and finally became human, ghosts and ghosts...

"Seeing that I am distorted and deformed day by day, and that I can't be cured even after dissipating all the family's wealth, I fell into the trap of an adulterer in a panic, and in order to avoid being humiliated, I took my little daughter and threw myself into the river.

"It took me ten years to get out of the grief of family ruin, and another ten years to gradually comprehend my own 'Tao'.

"However, no matter how good the martial arts are, so what? I am already alone, dying of illness, like a candle in the wind.

"I just want to be an ordinary citizen, spend the rest of my life in labor, and pay for my sins. If I go to Huangquan Road like this, they may still be waiting for me.

"You boy, luckier than me... The person in your heart is still alive, and you can still think about it with hope... Do you know why I didn't pick you up from the firewood pile and throw you out?"

Jing Hongzhui listened silently, and only then did she ask: "Why?"

"Because when you were so drunk, you kept repeating a person's name, 'Qinghe', 'Qinghe'... Ha, I thought at the time, isn't this God's will? You should come to dredge the river for me... …

"Besides, I see the shadow of the past from you. I am at the end of my way, but fortunately, you still have a long way to go.

"Go your own way, go..."

Old Ghost Wei lowered his head heavily and snored.

Jing Hongzhui smelled the old man's lifeless smell coming out of him, it was the smell of approaching death.

Old Ghost Wei won't live long, Jing Hongzhui thought, we don't have the name of master and apprentice between us, but we have the meaning of master and apprentice, I will send him for the last time, and then——

Take the sword, meet the person I want to see, and finish my life.