This time the Northern Barbarian Rebellion lasted for five years.
The ambitious Northern Barbarian King originally wanted to drive away wolves and tigers, and use the troops of the thirty-six countries in the Western Regions to disrupt the southern part of Daqian, causing Daqian to focus on one thing and not the other, and relieve the pressure on the northern front.
Tianjing twenty-five years.
Folk legend: A flying star fell from the sky in the west of the desert, and the enemy in the western region was killed by tens of thousands of people.
Somehow this happy event spread quickly throughout the north and south of Daqian, and the people called "God bless Daqian"; at the same time, since Chu Chengfeng, the leader of the largest rebellious party "Chushan Army" disappeared for unknown reasons, the remnants of the Chushan Army Not a climate.
The imperial court issued another "Edict" at the right time, with generous conditions, and high-ranking officials were promoted to nobility. It can be said that "one person enlists in the army, the whole family is glorious and the descendants have no worries." Under various conditions, it was difficult for the rebels to refuse, and they were disheartened and turned to the imperial court one after another. Now that Daqian has stabilized internally in a very short period of time, and the south is at peace, the imperial court has organized the former rebels and rebels into another army, called the "Suppressing Barbarian Army."
The suppressing barbarian army was led by "Pingxi General" Xie Yunliu.
Xie Yunliu led an army of 50,000 to suppress the barbarians, and marched northward to join General Zheng, one of the four generals of the Zhenguo.
In the same year, the Zhenman Army arrived at the front line, fought alongside General Zheng, and began a counterattack.
Using the Zhenman Army and General Zheng as arrows, a huge breakthrough was made on the front line. General Zheng and Xie Yunliu joined forces and were invincible, cutting off the hands of the Northern Barbarian King on the front line.
The Northern Barbarian King was defeated and retreated. General Zheng and Xie Yunliu chased the enemy for thousands of miles, even going deep into the interior of the Barbarian Kingdom, and almost penetrated the Barbarian Kingdom's "holy mountain" Bagnamo Mountain - in the Northern Barbarian language, "Bagnamo" has The connotation of "endless life and endless life" was almost extinguished.
In the twenty-eighth year of Tianjing's reign, due to the difficulty in penetrating the enemy's country with baggage vehicles and supply difficulties, and the full retreat of the Northern Barbarian army, they had already lost their temper. Xie Yunliu and General Zheng commanded the remaining troops and returned to the Daqian territory.
In the same year, the imperial court issued an urgent military order. In order to prevent the Northern Barbarians from coming back, the Ministry of War issued a document ordering Generals Zheng and Xie to temporarily guard the border.
In the twenty-ninth year of Tianjing, the defeat of the Northern Barbarian Army was a foregone conclusion and the general trend was determined.
The Zheng family has been loyal and loyal for generations, so General Zheng naturally accepted the order happily.
General Xie defied the order brazenly. In front of thousands of soldiers, he smiled casually, took off his armor and helmet, and rode away.
When the Ministry of War learned of this, Xie Yunliu acted in disobedience and became a fugitive general. However, the merits and demerits were balanced, and the Ministry of War reported the matter. In order to stabilize the morale of the army, the new emperor decided not to pursue the matter. The merits and demerits were balanced, and Xie Yunliu's military status was removed. From then on, there was no Xie Yunliu in the army.
Thirty years of Tianjing.
As the domestic dynasty was stabilized, the new emperor arranged for the late emperor to perform cumbersome funeral ceremonies such as small coffins, large coffins, funerals, and offerings to heaven. On March 3rd of the following year, the new emperor officially ascended the throne. He found out from nowhere a "legacy edict" left by the previous emperor and announced it to the world.
New country name: Yonggong.
In the first year of Yonggong, the new emperor granted amnesty to the world, revived all industries, and wished peace to the world.
Immediately afterwards, the new emperor began to gather historians from the court and central government to compile the "magnificent" twenty years in history books.
In the history books, the secret factory has been deleted, Lou Mengkong has been deleted, the martial arts knights who caused rebellion have been deleted, and Cheng Xiao's killing of the late emperor has been deleted. In the history books, the late emperor worked hard to cure the disease and worked hard, but finally fell seriously ill and died. In this way, the history books gave the late emperor a reputable face and restored the innocence of the imperial family. As an emperor, he must never let anyone behead him.
In this way, the world changes.
The green hills remain the same, the setting sun remains red, right and wrong, success and failure have become empty.
In the second year of Yonggong's reign.
A bald man rode an overburdened pony to a small town that no one cared about.
The setting sun cast its long afterglow on that bald head, shining brightly. The bald man looked exhausted, and the officers and soldiers beside the city gate were drowsy leaning on their spears.
"Excuse me, have you ever seen this person? He has two broken legs, is nearly forty years old, likes painting, and has an orange kitten."
It's a monk.
He asked around where his eldest brother lived.
Soon, he found out.
A kind-hearted lady told him:
"Sir, the weirdo you mentioned lives in this town. Now, walk along this road, turn right at the fifth intersection, and you will see a dilapidated small courtyard in the seventh alley..."
The aunt said that he was a weirdo who lived in seclusion. Although he didn't have a cat, he said he had one all the time. He was crazy and burned things in the house all the time. The neighbors were afraid of him.
The door to the courtyard was unlocked. When the monk pushed the door open, a hoarse curse came from inside:
"No! No! None of it is right! This is wrong! Wrong!"
Tear!
Inside the house, two crutches were casually abandoned. Papers were flying, and some fell on Meow'er. Meow'er turned over with a grimace and looked at the anxious man in the room with contempt.
The man had disheveled hair and a messy beard that almost covered his entire face. When the monk entered, he was losing his temper hysterically, his eyes were sinister, and he tore off pieces of "semi-finished products" irritably, exuding a lifeless smell.
"Monk! You're back!"
The moment he saw the monk, the man's face lit up with joy. He fell to the ground, but seemed to feel no pain. He anxiously crawled toward the monk on the ground. After crawling a few steps, the man's dirty clothes were stained with another layer of ink. . Seeing this, the monk immediately stepped forward to help him. The vicissitudes and fatigue reflected in the man's brow made the monk, who had served in the army for many years as Xie Yunliu, shed tears.
This war lasted for five years. At the beginning, the monk said he did not want to go. But the man refused to let him go. He said that the monk was Xie Yunliu, and he must continue to be Xie Yunliu. will be wasted.
Therefore, when he won the battle, the monk immediately gave up his identity as "Xie Yunliu", gave up his high position and generous salary, gave up his glory, disbanded his armor and returned to his fields, and went home to find his good brother.
"How did you..."
The man waved his hand: "No problem, tell me quickly, can you detect anything strange in the scenery that 'I' have never experienced?"
The monk helped the man sit down on the bed. There was an unpleasant smell coming from the bed, which was covered with a layer of discarded paper. The monk was silent. He could not imagine how a man who had lost his legs could persevere in the past five years.
Day after day, year after year, he was persistent, obsessed, crazy, and blamed himself, just to paint the legendary "cannibal painting".
All the windows in the house were boarded up and dark. The monk found an oil lamp and after lighting it, he recounted his military experiences over the years. At the end of the sentence, the monk expressed his thoughts: "Except for your grandfather, the rest of the soldiers made the young monk feel that they were more like walking zombies than they were taciturn."
"That's Zheng's great-great-grandfather," the man bit his nails hard and corrected the monk casually. Only then did the monk notice that the man's nails were pitted and there were traces of blood on some of his fingers. When the man heard this, his sinister eyes gradually glowed behind his face covered by his long hair: "As expected! As expected!"
"Everything is fake! Fake!"
"As 'my' painting spreads widely in the world, everyone who sees that painting will fall under the spell of 'soul-capturing' hidden deep in the painting!"
"Capturing the soul will not completely take away the 'meaning' in the soul, but as long as you capture a trace of it, supplement it with painting skills, and shape it in a painting, you can make a portrait look like...a person in the world in the painting. !”
"That's right! My original idea was right! This is the basis of cannibal paintings! It is the basis of cannibal paintings!"
"In this world, 'I' have never seen my great-great-grandfather! The reason why he can draw it is because the legend of his great-grandfather is widely circulated in the world. His bravery, his good fighting skills, his righteousness, everything about him is It is spread in the mouth of every common people, and his image lives in the hearts of the common people! In the hearts of everyone who has seen the 'painting', there is a 'General Zheng', and it is exactly all the 'General Zheng' who are in the painting. The center is full of itself, forming the General Zheng you see fighting side by side with Xie Yunliu!"
"A large number of human souls can bring Chang An and Chang Shi close to each other and form a boundary... Ghost! Perhaps, a large number of human souls are not necessarily needed! Each person only takes a little bit, which does not affect his life and soul... Use quantity To make up for the quality! Maybe, that’s okay too!”
"So, 'I' don't need to paint every bit of this world. I just need to use my paintbrush to create a plausible and false world. That's it!"
"It's done! It can be done! It can be done! If it's fake, it can be done!"
The man danced with his hands and laughed.
"Meow!" At this moment, the silent little Feng Miao raised her head, with two bright eyes, and silently jumped on the man's shoulder, patting the man's hair gently with her paws, as if she recognized his statement.
The more the man spoke, the more excited he became. The stunned monk who was listening to the side became more and more gloomy. After hearing the meow, the monk suddenly widened his eyes angrily, and let out a low growl from his throat like a wounded beast. He stood up suddenly, and swung He picked up his hand and slapped it hard on the man's face.
"Snapped!"
The monk slapped the man's face aside, and the little phoenix meow on the man's shoulder was so frightened that he jumped off the man, stared blankly, covered his face with his paws, and stared blankly at the two people who suddenly started fighting. , the movement seemed to empathize with it, and even it felt pain.
After hitting the man with his palm, the monk was a little confused. He looked at his red palm and couldn't recover for a long time. Looking at it, the monk looked up blankly and saw the man's red and swollen face and the blood flowing from the corner of his mouth. He suddenly cried. : "The young monk doesn't like to hear this!"
"Why is it fake! Why is it fake? Although the young monk did not remember the past at that time, he only remembered that he became the master when he was young. But, Lao Chu, Lao Xiao, and Bai Xiaopang, they traveled thousands of miles across the yellow sand, Just to fight side by side with the monk, is this a lie?"
"In front of the sand and under the moon, the young monk drank with them and talked about the harshness of the world and the impermanence of life. Is this false?"
The more the monk talked, the more excited he became. He stepped forward and grabbed the man's collar, with tears and snot running down his face: "Lao Chu said that he had already put aside the grudges in the world, and he knew that he was wrong! He also said that he returned from the desert After that, he and Miss Wen will have twins again! He also wants to live a life full of children and grandchildren and grow old together with Miss Wen! Is this also a lie? "
"They can't go back! Old Chu and Miss Wen used their lives to rescue the young monk from there! Could it be that this friendship is fake in your opinion?"
"You and my sister... no, Xie Luohe... no, the ten years you spent with Miss Fengbei, the ten years you slept together, do you also think that was a lie!"
"The young monk doesn't understand this, the young monk doesn't understand painting, but the young monk believes that even if we are trapped here and experience all kinds of disasters, the people inside may be drawn by the ghost painter two hundred years ago with mysterious magic, but everything that the young monk has experienced , what the young monk saw, the wine he drank, and what the young monk said are all true! Even if everything is false, the love must be true! What is false cannot be true! What is true cannot be false! "
"Brother Zheng, wake up! No matter how stupid or stupid the monk is, he can still distinguish right from wrong! If you don't think their love is true, then their death was in vain!"
The man was grabbed by the collar by the monk, his eyes were blank, and he gradually lowered his head.
The monk wiped the snot and tears from his face vigorously, cried and cursed, and his mood calmed down a little. He touched his bald head, looked at the slumped man sitting on the ground, his lips trembled, and he didn't know what to say for a while.
The two were silent for a long time, and Xiaofeng meowed again.
The monk glanced at Xiaofengmiao, clasped his hands together, and sighed:
"There are three 'rebirths' in a person's life, one is when he is born, the second is when he becomes an adult, and the third is when he is recorded in history; there are also three 'deaths' in a person's life, one is when the heart stops, and the second is when he is carrying The third time you are insulted by thousands of people, it is the time when you are completely forgotten by the world."
Hearing this, the man's lowered head suddenly lifted up, staring at the monk in disbelief from the gap in his hair.
The monk smiled slightly, with tears on his face: "This is what 'sister' once said to me. Brother Zheng, no matter that person is Xie Luohe or Fengbei, she is still her. If even you forget her, she will He is really dead."
The man was shocked.
The monk touched his bald head again: "You have also seen what I have experienced over the years. I have suffered from inner demons and have been ignorant for many years. Brother Zheng, have you ever thought about the things that have appeared in front of Brother Zheng from beginning to end? , is not the Xieluo River that really existed two hundred years ago, but the Feng girl who gave birth to the 'Xieluo River Inner Demon'?"
The man was stunned, and after a moment, he burst into tears.
The next day.
The bright sun is shining, washing away the bad luck.
In front of the hospital, the monk carefully wiped the man's body, trimmed his hair, shaved his beard, and put on brand new robes. He used the military pay accumulated over the years to buy a carriage, carried the man on his back, sat on the horse, shouted, and the carriage staggered away from the small town.
In the carriage, the man had black hair with white hair, which looked like a head full of silver threads from a distance. The monk neatly tied up his silver hair, making him look radiant, but his thin face and sunken eye sockets made him no longer handsome as before.
"Brother, where are we going?"
After leaving the city, the monk asked happily. He was very happy that his eldest brother could get out of his decline.
"Go home." In the carriage, the man pursed his lips tightly, said indifferently, and pointed in the direction.
The journey was bumpy, the two of them were together, and the monk took care of the man with the broken leg. They headed east. After March, the weather was warm, and they came to the coast of the East China Sea. There was a valley with birds singing and flowers fragrant. In the valley, there was mist, and flying buttresses could be vaguely seen. , it was uploaded in the town outside the valley, where a reclusive master once lived, but now it has declined and the home is deserted.
Along the path, the carriage stopped, and the monk carried the man on his back and walked up the mountain. There is a big house sitting on the mountainside. The entrance of the big house is cold, the walls are covered with moss, and the wooden door is covered with mildew. Two vivid bronze lions are inlaid on the door, with the door knocker in the lion's mouth, and it is covered with a thick layer of patina. , rusty.
The monk stepped forward and pulled the door knocker. Click, the door knocker broke. The monk was helpless and looked back at the man. The little phoenix on his shoulder seemed to find it very interesting and chuckled.
"It's okay, go in."
No one was taking care of the outside of the mansion, but there were piles of fallen leaves in the courtyard inside, so it was obvious that someone was living there. The monk shouted a few times, and soon a white-haired old woman walked out of the inner hall. She glanced at the two of them with squinted eyes, and first said: "The Gongsun family stopped visiting guests ten years ago. If you want..."
When she saw the middle-aged man behind the monk clearly, her squinted eyes suddenly opened: "Young Master?"
Everything about the "Gongsun Family" is just a strange memory to the man, and he has never really lived here. However, when the old woman cried and hugged him with his broken legs, an inexplicable yearning came to her heart. At this moment, he became Gongsun Mo, who had been away from home for many years, a wanderer returning home.
After drinking tea, the men offered incense to their ancestors in the ancestral hall. The "people" in his memory were all neatly listed there, becoming cold spiritual places.
The old woman is Gongsun Mo's nanny. She has taken care of Gongsun and his son for many years. Now she has gray hair, a stooped back, and her appearance has changed.
"No one in the Gongsun family can escape the destiny of not living past fifty." Turning away from the memorial tablets of his ancestors, the man said to the elderly Mei Niang: "Mei Niang, I have suffered so much for you these years."
The old woman wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and grinned: "It doesn't matter, it will be good if the young master comes back, and it will be good if the person comes back! I must be very happy if I know what I am doing. But, these years have been hard on the young master... the young master's legs, ugh!"
"It's just a pair of useless legs. Fortunately, I still have my hands." The man asked: "I wonder if Mei Niang knows that back then, both my grandfather and father repeatedly warned that descendants of the Gongsun family must not draw Man, why is that?”
The old woman shook her head: "Master, I don't understand this. However, when I was grinding ink for the master, the master muttered some strange words, and I still remember it fresh."
"The master once said that it is difficult to paint the heart when painting bones and skin. It doesn't look like the painting when you look at it horizontally or vertically. It's better not to paint at all."
"He said that when you draw people, you can't just draw likenesses. You have to draw souls and spirits. It's easy to say, but it's not easy. It's hard to say, but it's not difficult at all!"
"When I heard what the master said, I felt strange, so I mustered up the courage to ask more questions."
As if recalling the grace of the master when he was young, a long-lost blush appeared on the old woman's face.
"My master said that when you draw people, you have to draw their 'hearts'. But if you want to draw the 'human heart', it is easy to put your own 'heart' into it as you draw."
