Pei Gonggui

The rising sun evaporated the rain from the previous night, forming an extremely light layer of mist in the streets of central Beijing, which made this huge city tinge with the damp heat of early summer.

On the avenue leading to the west city gate, veterans, soldiers and common people who came to bid farewell to Jiang Yue, the Prince of Jin, were surrounded along the way.They were all stopped by the officers and soldiers of the Xicheng Bingma Division, and they stood on tiptoes looking forward, and there were many whispered discussions in the silence.

Pei Jun rode on a tall horse, looking for Mei Linyu's shadow all the way, until the funeral procession turned into the main street of Xichengfang, he saw Mei Linyu in civilian clothes in the crowd of people on the street corner.

Mei Linyu nodded and winked at him, motioning him to look upstairs to the east.Just as Pei Jun looked after him, a row of tricksters singing big drums upstairs suddenly began to play and beat, and the sound they made collided with the music of the funeral procession, which was very distinct——

This is the arrangement of Pei Jun and Jiang Yue's advisers.The row of buildings is close to the underground water outlet in the west of the city. The sound is to inform Jiang Yue in the coffin that he has arrived at the place where the incident happened, and he can knock out of the coffin later.

The first officials of the Ministry of Rites heard the gongs and drums, and immediately came out of the queue, temporarily suspended the music of the funeral procession, and shouted loudly to order the row upstairs: "The prince's funeral is here, don't make any noise! ​​Sparing the coffin is a capital crime, can you afford it? "

This frightened the people upstairs to put away their gongs and drums and kneel and kowtow in a panic, and the guard of honor moved on.

But in the short interval when the gongs, drums and sheng on both sides stopped, there were suddenly two bangs and bangs in the long funeral procession.

The head of the etiquette department accompanying Pei Jun's horse turned his head to look at the team, and raised his eyebrows uneasy: "Who is knocking?"

In response to this sound, there were two more slapping sounds, which made the master call out impatiently: "You are not allowed to play the drums indiscriminately before you get the order!"

But the musicians in the team looked around, but found that no one was beating the drums.Hundreds of people looked at each other in blank dismay, and when they didn't know where the sound came from, the ceremonial officer guarding the coffin in the middle of the line suddenly pointed at the coffin where King Jin was, and said in a trembling voice, "Yes...it was the sound from inside the coffin. !"

Everyone was shocked to see that the nanmu coffin lid painted with black lacquer was actually slightly trembling by the beating inside, and there was a very clear slapping sound in the utter silence of the surroundings:

"Bang!—bang!—"

"It's amazing..." "It's haunted!" The people who were watching the excitement and sending their gifts all around shouted loudly, the officials of the Ministry of Rites looked at each other nervously, and the leading officer took a step back, and the blood on his face faded little by little: "This... How could such a thing happen in such a clear sky!"

A terrified cry came from the crowd of onlookers: "Could it be that Prince Jin has something unfinished, and he can't rest in peace, and now he's revived?"

With this sound, the crowd suddenly erupted like a frying pan.The head of the Ministry of Rituals hurriedly followed the prestige, but couldn't find the person who spoke. He was looking around in surprise, and another voice came from behind: "I heard that Prince Jin was the last prince summoned by Lord Yongshun... "

This statement made everyone around gasp in surprise, and not far away someone said again: "The world is immoral right now, and the prosperous age does not exist, and Prince Jin died so badly, I'm afraid he will have no face to see the late emperor when he arrives at Jiuquan!"

"Who!—" The head of the Ministry of Rites yelled, his heart was already extremely flustered, and he was looking around but couldn't find anyone who made a sound. In desperation, he couldn't help but shout loudly to scare the people and the accompanying team: "Discussing the government indiscriminately!" , Spreading rumors is a felony! Don't be presumptuous!"

But in response to this, there were countless whispering voices all around: "What's going on..." "Could it be that the ancestor emperor appeared?" At this time, there was a sudden bang at the end of the crowd, and everyone followed Looking sideways amidst the sound of rushing water, I saw that the ground in the central avenue of Xichengfang suddenly cracked, and a spray of water shot up into the sky, instantly spraying the surrounding crowd all over their bodies and faces, and drenching everyone.

The people who watched the ceremony and watched the excitement immediately screamed, fearing that it would be a disaster and cause chaos for a while.Crowds of people running around avoided the ground water gushing out of the cracks in the ground, and had to stand on the eaves or stone piers, and the gushing ground water spread across the streets and alleys and over the insteps of the feet in a short time, attracting an old road. Among the fleeing crowd, holding a broken fortune-telling flag and shouting:

"The ground and water are surging! This is a great change in the world!"

At this moment, the banging sound of knocking on the coffin suddenly stopped.The eerie silence made the people in the street panic even more after the sudden flood.The head of the Ministry of Rituals didn't know how to deal with it. At this time, he took Pei Jun's tall horse out of the way, and asked with a trembling voice, "My lord, what can I do about this!"

Pei Jun frowned, pretending to be angry and said: "This is the way the ancestors entered the capital when they founded the country. Water came out of the ground, and the meaning has changed drastically. It must be because of the difference in the number of days... Hurry up and find the Qin Tianjian Look, if there is trouble, no one can afford it!"

The head of the Ministry of Rituals listened to the order, immediately let go of the horse's reins, and galloped towards the direction of the imperial palace. At this time, the groundwater gushing from the ground had spread to the coffin in the middle of the mourning team.Just when the mourners wanted to avoid but did not dare to mess up the queue, a bird chirped suddenly from nowhere, "chirp - chirp -" two long whistles, and the sound of knocking on the coffin in the coffin was repeated again. It sounded, and in response to the banging sound, there was a hoarse but majestic growl from inside:

"Come... come! Come and open the coffin!"

The people running all over the street were even more frightened when they heard the sound, many of them stared at the coffin in shock, and some of them tripped and fell to the ground.In an instant, the people in the street filled the streets with horrified shouts:

"The Lord Jin is not dead! The Lord Jin is alive!—"

The old fortune-teller on the street corner ran with his wet robe in his hands and shouted, "A vision descended from the sky, born of water! This is the true fate of the dragon, the Chosen Son!"

The accompanying officials from the Ministry of Rites were all frightened. Pei Jun led the horse's head and ran towards King Jin's coffin, while shouting orders to the left and right: "Quick! Open the coffin and have a look! Quick!"

The other chief officer heard the words and rushed behind him to dissuade him anxiously: "No way, my lord! The time for sealing the coffin has passed, and opening the coffin now is probably a big disaster! If the palace blames it, our Rites will all suffer!"

Pei Jun reined in his horse and turned back, angrily scolded: "This elephant is very fierce. For some reason, there are already beatings and shouts in the coffin. If it is really the spirit of Prince Jin who has returned, why don't we have to carry it away and bury it? You will open the coffin immediately." Identify yourself and see what is causing the trouble!"

Because the people below did not dare to delay, they hurriedly called the craftsmen to open the coffin.And the craftsmen were terrified to death. The first two were rushed to the side of the coffin, and they tried to avoid approaching each other. It was only after Pei Jun gave an order that they swallowed their saliva and walked forward tremblingly.

Not only them, at this time no one dared to get close to the coffin, they all stood on the edge of the street and stared at it from afar, fearful and reluctant to leave.The accompanying guard of honor also gradually formed a circle around the coffin in silence, stretching their heads to watch the craftsman insert the shovel into the gap of the coffin lid with extreme worry, and pry it with shaking hands and gritted teeth——

The coffin suddenly opened a crack.With another pry, the coffin nails came out of the holes, and the cover plate was loosened. The craftsmen on both sides looked at each other, stretched out their hands with their necks closed, and pushed the coffin to the ground with a bang, and quickly avoided it and shivered.

The people along the street held their breath and watched with their heads. They saw the gold and jade artifacts in the ebony coffin reflecting light, and a figure wearing a luxurious shroud sat up straight from the gold and jade coins, holding the eaves of the coffin with both hands, and slowly stood up. body.

Once the veteran who was in the same army as King Jin on the street was identified, he shouted with red eyes: "It's Prince Jin! It really is Prince Jin!"

The soldiers on the side also spread word of mouth: "The Prince of Jin is not dead?" "How could this be?" "Is the Prince of Jin a man or a ghost?"

As if in response to this question, Jiang Yue who stood up from the coffin slowly raised his right hand, frowned and pulled out the long and thin silver needle that penetrated his right palm, then raised his right hand high, calling All the onlookers could see a thin stream of blood gushing out of the opening, dripping down his palm, and dripping onto the ground beside the coffin, which was bright red in the sunlight.

"Blood! It's blood!... Prince Jin is alive, he is alive!"

The head of the Ministry of Rituals sat down on the ground in fright, and the onlookers also screamed and boiled again.There was already a queue in the Bingma Division rushing towards the palace to report, but Jiang Yue only put away the silver needle in his hand, put down his right hand, and said in a low voice to the people watching the ceremony:

"Everyone! I was poisoned and died alone, and my soul returned to Jiuquan. I met Liezu face to face and reported the hardships of the world. Unexpectedly, the ancestor was furious, and my father scolded me, making Gu ashamed to be an heir, and my soul was restless. Gu then worshiped Liezu The life I borrowed from the ghosts, and then returned to the world, this time I will do my best, vowing to stop violence and cleanse the wrongs for the people, so that the world will be peaceful and a prosperous world will be shared!"

As soon as the words fell, the street was silent, and then gasped and sighed in surprise, and some people in the crowd began to kneel and kneel sporadically.In the silence, around the kneeling crowd, more people looked at each other in blank dismay and then slowly knelt down.Gradually, the kneeling people in the crowd exchanged glances with those still standing, and when the standing people realized that there were more kneeling people, they also raised their robes and knelt down.

At this time, the street was completely silent, and people seemed to have some established tacit understanding.Pei Junzheng also wanted to get off his horse and kneel down, but just as he let go of the rein, he saw a silver light flashing in the direction of the pavilion in front of him.

He only heard a "swish", and it was a sharp arrow flying towards himself!

At this time, it was too late to avoid, he could only turn his body slightly, but the sharp arrow still flew towards him at a very fast speed, the arrow pierced hard into his right chest, causing his body to sway, and he fell heavily off the horse.

For a moment, he only felt that the sky was shaking, and his mind was lax.He heard Jiang Yue's voice calling his name, desperately trying to open his eyes but couldn't see the front clearly, and couldn't tell the distance from each other anymore.

The pain in his chest invaded his body like a tear, and the pain seemed to be pulling his soul.Before his consciousness dissipated, he only heard an endless and illusory scream from a very far away place:

"There are assassins killing the king! Come and protect the emperor!"