After living a life without an official and a light body, Chen Chong still rose up from the rooster's crow and rested with his arms in his arms. He gave lectures to Baibo military officials every day, and also enlightened the children in the village. In his spare time, he sorted out the volumes handed in from various counties. It took nearly two months to finish sorting out the three counties of Sanchuan, Huanyang, and Huanyin. .
But it was already December, and there were many family reunions and wedding banquets in the common people's homes, even in the military. Chen Chong's three thatched cottages were able to relax. Although he was only accompanied by Guan Yu and Pengtuo, the people here also regarded him as a relative and friend, and often gave him salted meat, salted fish and some chickens. Chen Chong would give him some homemade tofu in return. The villagers discussed privately: I heard that the gentleman is far away from the kitchen, but Chen Longshou can cut open an ox as well as a bamboo. He is really an incredible person.
This month, Chen Chong also received replies one after another. Uncle Chen Ji advised him not to put his emotions first when doing things, but to think about ways to preserve his life first and not to worry his family. His father Chen Jize reprimanded him in the letter for being self-righteous and lawless, and asked him to follow the rules and not to associate with thieves.
The letter written by his wife Cai Yan is very simple. It is a poem about wild geese: The wild geese are coming back to the south and want to send a side message, and the wild geese are returning to the north to get my sound. The wild geese are flying high and are hard to find. I am empty and heartbroken, thinking and wandering. I raise my eyebrows towards the moon and caress the elegant harp, and the five beats are cold and full of meaning.
Accompanying the letter was a sachet containing a few strands of green silk she had cut, and Chen Chong was told to carry it with him.
Finally, there was a reply from Zheng Xuan and Zhong Yao. Zheng Xuan did not talk about becoming famous. He only attached a new work called "The Bian" and talked with Chen Chong about the relationship between revenge and loyalty and filial piety.
Zhong Yao wrote a letter saying that the political situation in Luoyang was turbulent recently. Near the end of the year, the emperor fell ill and had not participated in the regular court for ten days. The officials of the court were discussing the appointment of a prince. The three princes and nine ministers all supported the establishment of the emperor's eldest son "Shihou", but the emperor preferred the emperor's second son "Donghou". The two sides were in a stalemate and could not reach a conclusion for the time being.
Before Chen Chong could think of how to reply to the letter, he put it aside and invited the villagers to gather in the hall for a New Year's Eve dinner. The food was not abundant for a hundred people, so he made a day's meal of mutton, dogwood, shepherd's purse, vegetables and dried beans. Smell. At night, he and Guan Yu replaced the villagers with new peach charms, and the children followed him and lit firecrackers all the way.
On the first day of the first month of the sixth year of Zhongping, he woke up Guan Yu and his attendants. They put on new clothes and left the countryside on horseback. Others didn't know where they were going, so they just followed Chen Chong westward along Yanshui.
The surface of Yanshui has formed thick ice edges, which shine like gold and stone under the sunlight. There is no one on both sides of the bank, except for hares scurrying in the withered grass. Chen Chong and others walked along Yanshui for three hours, and saw three high mountains from the vast loess. Surrounded by the high mountains was a city. Chen Chong had led his army to this place many years ago. This place was called Fushi (today's Yan'an).
At this time, Fushi was occupied by the Tiefu Xiongnu. When Chen Chong came to visit the city, the people of Helian were quite frightened. The Marquis of Heliangudu, Helianchi, had been summoned by Shanyu and was offering sacrifices to the sky in Meiji. There was no one in the city to support the little king, only a few guards and the state minister. A few people accompanied Chen Chong on a parade around the city. Chen Chong and them They only talked and laughed.
Chen Chong and his party rested in the city that night. Guan Yu was about to lie down at night, when he suddenly heard the sound of the door opening next door. He was alert, picked up his knife, put on his robe, and went out to see each other. He saw Chen Chong, neatly dressed, holding a jug of wine and untying the horse rope in the courtyard. .
Chen Chong couldn't help laughing when he saw his appearance. He turned around and put his hands on his hips and said, "Yun Chang, please rest first. I want to be alone for a while." Guan Yu refused sternly and said, "You are in a foreign country at this time and your safety is uncertain. You should be more careful." Chen Chong could only ask helplessly: "Do you want to go with me?"
Guan Yu naturally agreed happily and asked Chen Chong to wait for a while at the courtyard gate. After he put on a green military uniform and a black shawl, the two of them rode out of Fushi City in the night.
Chen Chong rode Qing Wei in front, crossed the ice of Yanshui, and galloped up the slope of Jialing Mountain. The slope was full of gravel and sand, mixed with a few shrubs. The higher you go up, the more steep the mountain becomes, and the more noisy the mountain wind becomes. , until Qingkai didn't know where to step, Chen Chong walked back to the path, listening to the whistling mountain mist turning into the sound of rocking wood.
When they reached the top of the mountain, it was the waning moon. The moon marks were light, but the stars were shining brightly. The top of Fenglin Mountain is an open flat land with only a few pine trees. Chen Chong got off his horse and tied Qing Wei to the pine tree. Then he moved a rock and placed it on the edge of the cliff. Dafang Hu sat on the rock and looked down at the mountain.
Guan Yu followed suit and sat aside. He also looked down and saw that in the darkness, Yanshui seemed to be a blue crystal running from east to west. It reflected the towering shadows of Qingliang Mountain, Fenghuang Mountain, and Fenglin Mountain against the starlight. The shadows between the three mountains were also reflected. The outline of Fushi City is looming in the gap. At this time, Shanlan also fell silent, and the two people on the silent mountaintop looked down at the three mountains and two rivers in silence.
Guan Yu was immersed in this wonderful atmosphere when he suddenly heard that Chen Chong stood up from the stone, smiled at him and asked, "Yun Chang, do you want to roar?" After hearing this, Guan Yu looked up and saw Chen Chong's excited expression and his eyes. He was familiar with the emotion, which was the boiling blood of a warrior. He stroked his beard and smiled and replied: "That's exactly what I meant!"
The two looked up at the world between heaven and earth and howled wildly. Chen Chong was short of breath, but Guan Yu was long. Chen Chong vomited all the excitement in his chest until his voice was hoarse, but Guan Yu still had plenty of energy left. Chen Chong heard Guan Yu's roar flowing away like water from the east, but there was no echo in the wilderness. After Guan Yu finished his whistle, he sat down with some lingering charm, smiled at him and said, "Ting Jian, I have never seen you look like this before."
Chen Chong gently rubbed his face and touched his short mustache. He couldn't help but smile and said, "How do I look now?"
Guan Yu thought about it, then shook his head and laughed and said: "I don't know how to say it, but I think that once you are determined in your heart, Ting Jian, you will be determined to the end, and no one can stop you." He looked up and recalled, and said in a brisk tone: "I When I first met Tingjian, I knew that your heart was as solid as stone."
Having said this, he turned to Chen Chong and asked, "Why did Ting Jian come here on a whim today? I have never heard of any wonders here."
Chen Chong sat up straight and said to Guan Yu in an exaggerated tone: "Yun Chang, that's because I know God's will, and God's will led me to this place. This place is extraordinary and can touch the aura of a saint! I only tell you, you Don't talk to others." "Just say it, Ting Jian."
Chen Chong was about to continue joking, but he looked sad when thinking about the aftermath. He sighed and said: "The loser is insignificant, the loser is insignificant."
Seeing that he was sad, Guan Yu shook his head and said seriously: "How can Ting Jian say this? Even though I am a warrior in the county, I also know that life and death are not the same as success or failure. Mencius often said that one should sacrifice one's life for righteousness. Quzi also sang: "The direction of my heart, although it is Nine deaths without regrets. You and I want to do something big, but I thought you already regarded life and death as normal!"
Chen Chong looked at Guan Yu and suddenly smiled and said: "Yun Chang, you are right. I do have a barrier in my heart. Since the chaos was over, I have been extremely unhappy. Even steel that has been tempered hundreds of times will break one day. If I am not here I'm afraid I won't be able to bear this venting." Chen Chong stood up, took off the jug from his waist, and poured all the wine from the jug. He watched the wine gurgling away and said solemnly: "If heaven is affectionate, heaven will also grow old. The right path in the world is the vicissitudes of life."
After saying this, Chen Chong felt relieved. He smiled frankly to Guan Yu and said: "I am the same me now, Yunchang. Now I can fight against the heaven and the earth!".
He turned around and walked towards Qingkui, and was about to untie the horse's rope when he suddenly heard a murmur. He carefully discerned that there was a man chanting sutra: "Shariputra said Subhuti. How can there be no heart? Subhuti said, there is no heart either." . It’s not nothing. It can’t be obtained. It can’t be known.”
The man's words were harsh. Chen Chong looked closely and saw him walking out of the forest. He had dark skin and blue eyes. He was wearing a worn-out cassock and his hair had been picked off. He looked like a Buddhist ascetic from Tianzhu.
When he saw Chen Chong and Guan Yu, there was a smile on his face. He stepped forward and bowed and said: "The young monk is resting on the mountainside just now. He suddenly heard the voice of the gods and humans on the top of the mountain, so he went up the mountain to have a look. After all, I unexpectedly saw two of them.”
The three of them greeted each other and found out that Nana, the branch secretary, came from the Western Regions and wanted to preach in the Central Plains. But when he arrived at Wusun, he was unexpectedly in chaos in Liangzhou and the roads were blocked. After waiting for more than a year, but still no improvement, he took a detour through the desert and walked for seven days from the desert to Shangjun.
When passing by Fushi, Zhishi Nanana saw the Fenglin Mountain, which was like a giant palm lying across the front of Fushi. He couldn't help but climb up the mountain and rest in a cave on the mountainside. Unexpectedly, he heard the sound of Buddha in his dream, and dreamed that there was a nine-story pagoda built on the top of the mountain, and there were Buddha statues everywhere under the pagoda. After he woke up, he made up his mind to carve various reliefs in the cave and has been persisting for more than a month.
Chen Chong asked: "Listen to what the master just said, what he is reciting is the "Tao Xing Sutra", but the master practices Mahayana Buddhism?" Sub-branch Nana shook his head and said: "The young monk is indeed reciting the "Tao Xing Sutra", but the young monk belongs to Theravada. . Mahayana is mostly lies and has little merit. The donor knows that those who practice Theravada are the true Dharma."
Speaking of this, the branch of the Sangha Naradasi said: "The Sangha has been divided for hundreds of years, and new laws are established every hundred years. What the young monks learned was all formed from the four gatherings of Kashmila. The World-Honored One said: That person If they don't understand, 'We will be destroyed!' If they know this, they will stop arguing. But the young monk cannot give up his own anger and travels thousands of miles to this point. He wants to achieve the fruition, but he still doesn't know where he will wait. hour."
Chen Chong didn't know much about this, but after hearing the introduction of the situation in Tianzhu by the branch secretary Nana, he knew that most of the monks who came to the Han Dynasty to preach were from the Northern Buddhism, and the orthodoxy of the World Honored One (Sakyamuni) was in the Southern Buddhism, and the Northern Buddhism The Tradition of Buddhism knew that it was not the true words of the Buddha, so it denounced Theravada Buddhism as Hinayana and respected itself as Mahayana. The Southern Buddhism calls itself Theravada Buddhism, and the Northern Buddhism the Popular Buddhism.
Ten years ago, Branch Shi Nana set out from southern Tianzhu, entered Guishang via the northwest, then entered the Western Regions from Guishang, and finally entered the Han Dynasty from the Western Regions. He talked about his experiences along the way and sighed to Chen Chong and Guan Yu: "What the young monk heard and saw along the way was that the three poisons were rampant, all living beings suffered, paranoia and falsehood, and the true nature was not seen. It is like this in Tianzhu, like this in Guishan, and it is also like this in the Han Dynasty. How near is the end of the Dharma mentioned by the World Honored One? Existence is not existence, emptiness is not emptiness. When will the world wake up?"
But Chen Chong shook his head and said: "Master, I respect the Buddha, but I don't worship the Buddha. The World-Honored One said: All living beings are suffering, and all sentient beings are evil. Then, if you seek to illuminate the five aggregates and realize the Buddha nature, you can escape the sufferings of the six paths. But I only feel In this life, people do not ask for cause and effect, but only ask whether there is existence, emptiness or emptiness in this world. I came to this world to seek results."
Branch Sri Lanka opened his eyes wide and sighed to him: "The donor can be said to be angry. He can abandon the appearance but is paranoid about the appearance. But the donor has the original Buddha nature and has already followed the Bodhisattva precepts. Good, good."
After saying that, the branch officer put his palms together and said goodbye to Chen Chong and Guan Yu. Chen Chong and Guan Yu came down from the mountain, met with the guards in the city, and returned to Santangli by the same route after dawn. Spreading out the paper, Chen Chong tried to write a reply to his family, but he suddenly became so confused that he only wrote the beginning and could not continue writing.
In the evening, he heard a rapid horse cry outside the hall, and saw Meng Jian hurriedly come in and said: "Teacher, there is news from Yanmen that the war is not going well. Liu Shijun was defeated by Sang Qian!"
