Zhaoling.
An old eunuch was guarding the mountain gate.
He was very old, with a haggard appearance, his white hair was like a bunch of withered weeds, gently floating in the night wind, his face was covered with age spots, and his arms were covered with light cyan blood vessels like leaf veins.
"Eunuch Gao, it's so late, why don't you take a rest?"
"Just let the slaves do the doorkeeping!"
A young eunuch quickly went up to help him, but was pushed away by Gao Quan.
He said in a garbled voice: "The sword, the sword moved."
"what did you say?"
"The sword moved, he, he is back, come back to see His Majesty..."
"I have to... wait."
Seeing his crazy words, the little eunuch finally shook his head, put a coat on him, and turned around and left.
It is unimaginable that this Eunuch Gao was once the most trusted eunuch around Taizong. Even the prime minister was respectful to him when he met him.
However, the ninety-two-year-old Eunuch Gao has been guarding Zhaoling alone for more than forty years, with no one paying attention to his sword.
The night was getting darker and darker, and Gao Quan could no longer stand. He sat on the ground and took a nap against the mountain gate.
Footsteps sounded slowly.
Gao Quan suddenly opened his eyes, his cloudy old eyes seemed to light up, and his old bark-like hands tightly grasped the white clothes.
"Gao Quan, the guardian of the mausoleum, comes to see... the national preceptor!"
He stood up tremblingly and wanted to salute, but was blocked by Li Daoxuan's wave.
"Brother Gao, long time no see."
Li Daoxuan looked at him with a hint of emotion in his eyes.
In the face of time, life is really fragile. The majestic and heroic Taizong back then has become a withered bone in the grave, and the loyal and hard-working Eunuch Gao has also run out of time and will soon follow his old master.
"Gao is a eunuch with a dirty body. He is not worthy of being called Brother Gao."
Gao Quan had tears in his eyes. He looked at Li Daoxuan, whose black hair had not changed and his appearance remained the same. He felt very ashamed of himself.
But those words about Brother Gao stirred up his heart and moved him deeply.
After forty years of trials and hardships, he had become accustomed to seeing people take their tea for granted, but he did not expect that before he died, he could still gain the respect of the Imperial Master.
Li Daoxuan looked at his white hair, sighed softly, and said, "How many people in this world can guard the tomb for forty years?"
Although Gao Quan was just an eunuch, in Li Daoxuan's eyes, his loyalty and perseverance exceeded that of most people in the world.
"Brother Gao is waiting here, but do you have something to ask me for?"
"yes!"
Gao Quan took a step forward, bowed tremblingly and said, "I beg the Imperial Master to do me a favor for the sake of the late Emperor."
"you say."
Gao Quan trembled: "I'm about to die."
"But Zhaoling cannot be left unguarded. After the Queen of Heaven came to power, fewer and fewer eunuchs were sent here, and the people here became less and less careful. They have no respect for the late emperor at all!"
"I beg the Imperial Master... to find a reliable person to replace me!"
Li Daoxuan was silent for a moment and said, "Only this?"
"only this."
Gao Quan once again bowed deeply to Li Daoxuan and said in a trembling voice: "Those who are about to die have nothing else to ask for. I just can't let go of this matter."
"Okay, I promise you, I have brought that person, right behind me."
Gao Quan was stunned for a moment, and then he tried to open his cloudy eyes, only to find that there was another figure behind the Imperial Master.
He was wearing a simple Taoist robe. He looked about forty or fifty years old, with a very ordinary face and a trace of vicissitudes in his eyes.
For some reason, when Gao Quan looked at him, he could faintly see Taizong's shadow.
"Okay, okay, okay!"
He said hello three times in a row, and he felt relieved. He naturally trusted the people chosen by the national master.
Under the moonlit night, the white-haired old man laughed and left, his gray figure gradually disappearing into the night.
Li Daoxuan glanced at the somewhat moved man and said calmly: "Let's go, it's been a long time since you came to pay homage to Taizong."
There was a hint of shame in the man's eyes.
In the Zhaoling Mausoleum, the man looked at the tombstones of Taizong and Empress Changsun with tears in his eyes, knelt down and cried bitterly.
After a long time, his emotions gradually calmed down, and he looked at Li Daoxuan with complicated eyes, ranging from gratitude to confusion.
"National Master, why don't you kill me?"
The man in front of him was single-handedly responsible for the reputation of regicide, but he actually did not kill him. Instead, he concealed the truth and changed the situation.
What was burned to ashes by the true fire of Samadhi was just a hair.
Li Zhi couldn't understand. He could have gone down in history as an innocent man, but now he had to leave a trace of regicide in the history books and be saddled with countless controversies.
Li Daoxuan glanced at him, as if he had seen through what he was thinking, and smiled faintly.
"The world denigrates me, slanders me, praises me, praises me..."
"What does it have to do with me?"
He smiled brightly and said: "Whether I leave a name in history or be infamy for thousands of years, I will only do what I want to do. If I want to kill you, I will kill you. If I want to save you, I will save you."
His voice echoed in Zhaoling, so free and wild, with an indescribable romance.
At this moment, Li Zhi suddenly understood why his father respected and trusted him so much, and also understood why so many people still remembered him after decades.
Li Zhi said nothing, but bowed deeply to Li Daoxuan.
"From now on, you are no longer the aloof Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, but just an unknown tomb sweeper in Zhaoling."
"Your magic power and body have been sealed by me. You are no different from ordinary people. You will gradually grow old and even die. Unless you can one day overcome your inner demons and truly let go, you can break the seal and restore your cultivation. "
"Before that, please guard the tomb of your parents..."
Li Zhi bowed and silently retreated.
The mausoleum became quiet, and only the ever-burning lamp burned quietly.
Li Dao
"You and Queen Changsun only have three sons in total, and he is the only one left alive. Seeing that he finally came to his senses and was somewhat responsible, I gave him a chance."
"If he really died in Zhaoling, then you can't blame me."
Li Daoxuan took a sip of wine, and then spilled a lot more on the ground.
"Three pots of wine, three hundred years. Now that I think about it, I have really suffered a big loss. If we can meet again in the future, you have to make it up to me..."
In the Zhaoling Mausoleum, voices kept ringing out, as if two friends reunited after a long absence were talking all night long.
…
The next day, early morning.
Li Daoxuan left Zhaoling. No one knew what he said that night, and no one saw him leave.
Only Li Zhi, who was sweeping the floor outside, seemed to feel something and looked back.
He knew that man was gone.
After being in a daze for a while, he sighed softly and continued to clean the fallen leaves, his whole temperament becoming calmer and quieter.
Strangely enough, away from the power disputes, he felt more at ease in this quiet Zhaoling Mausoleum.
…
Chang'an City, Xishi execution ground.
This place, also known as Duliu Shu, is one of the two execution grounds in Chang'an. The other place is called Goujiling, which is the execution ground in Dongshi.
Prisoners with certain identities are often interrogated and executed at Duliu Shu. For example, Zhang Liang during the Zhenguan period was one of the twenty-four heroes of Lingyan Pavilion. He was regarded as treason by Li Shimin because he adopted 500 adopted sons, and he was eventually interrogated here. cut.
Early in the morning, the place was packed with people.
Watching beheadings has always been one of the few entertainment items for ordinary people. Especially when corrupt officials are beheaded, everyone claps and applauds with great excitement.
What's more, after beheading, some people will rush forward and tear off a few pieces of meat.
For example, the cruel official came to Junchen. This man was rampant in Chang'an, preying on the people, raping wives and daughters, and killing people like hemp. In history, when he was beheaded, the people swarmed up to cut his flesh and cut his body into thousands of pieces.
People all over Chang'an are running around telling each other, beating gongs and drums to celebrate, just like celebrating the New Year.
But now the abominable Lai Junchen was sitting on the stage, looking at the prisoner who was about to be executed with a sinister smile.
That was a fat man with a gentle face. Even though he was taken to the execution ground, he still remained calm and calm in the face of danger.
Wu Sizong was sitting on the supervisor's seat, looking at Di Renjie with a proud look on his face, and said with a smile: "Mr. Di, I didn't expect you to be here today."
Di Renjie sneered and didn't answer, but his heart was racing like lightning, thinking about a way to escape.
Yesterday, he waited in the inn for a long time before Brother Kong came back, so he went to Da Ci'en Temple alone, wanting to ask the monks in the temple and find out what happened to the holy monk Xuanzang.
Unexpectedly, they happened to see Wu Sizong and Lai Junchen violently attacking the women who came to offer incense.
Di Renjie stood up and rescued the woman, but he didn't want Wu Sizong to say that as the magistrate of Pengze County, he went to Beijing privately with the intention of treason.
Di Renjie took out the imperial edict, but what he didn't expect was that the two extremely arrogant people actually said that the edict was false, forcibly arrested him, and then rushed to jail to forge evidence.
Without going through a trial in Dali Temple or reporting it to the Ministry of Punishment, they convicted him overnight and took him to the West City to be executed early the next morning.
If Di Renjie was still the prime minister, they would definitely not dare to play like this, but now Di Renjie is just a small seventh-grade county magistrate, and he is really nothing in the eyes of these two people.
"The time has come, let's make a decision!"
While Di Renjie was still thinking hard, Lai Junchen laughed sinisterly and threw out the token.
He was a little afraid of Di Renjie. He knew that this man was extremely smart, had many connections in the court, and was quite prestigious. It would be too late for things to change, so it would be better to execute him early.
The executioner was a little puzzled. He looked at the sun that had just risen and said depressedly: "Sir, noon has not yet arrived."
When the Yang energy is strong at noon, the prisoner will not turn into a ghost after being beheaded.
Lai Junchen's feminine and handsome face revealed a knife-like smile, and there was a huge sense of oppression in his calm voice.
"I said it, that's it. Look again, is it noon now?"
The executioner trembled all over, sweating like rain, and said hurriedly: "It's noon, it's noon!"
He raised his sword and was about to slash at Di Renjie.
The people below stepped forward and shouted loudly.
"It's only Chen time now, it's still early before noon time!"
"Duke Di asked for orders for the people. He is a good official. Why do you kill him?"
"God, is it possible that even a good official like Mr. Di who takes care of our people will die at the hands of those dog officials?"
…
For a time, the crowd was excited, and the people stepped forward one after another. If it were not for the officers and soldiers to stop them, they would have rushed to the execution ground.
Over the years, Di Renjie's official reputation has spread all over the world. No matter where he is an official, he can benefit the local people and have outstanding political achievements. When he is transferred, the people often go out of the city to see him off, stretching for more than ten miles.
If it hadn't been for him, hundreds of thousands of people in Weizhou City would have been slaughtered by the Wu Si Sect.
Temples of Duke Di and merit monuments have long been in bloom everywhere.
When the people of Chang'an heard that it was Duke Di who was going to be executed, they couldn't help but cursed the executioner who was about to execute him.
The executioner was also confused and seemed hesitant.
"If you don't kill me, you won't have to kill me anymore."
Lai Junchen's voice sounded faintly, with a chill that made people's hearts tremble.
There was a look of struggle in the executioner's eyes, and he finally closed his eyes.
"Mr. Dee, I'm sorry."
Of course he knew that Duke Di was a good official, but he had no choice. If he didn't kill him, he would be the one to die, and even his whole family.
"It doesn't matter, you also have a wife and children at home, don't involve them because of me."
At the critical moment of life and death, Di Renjie still showed his innate open-mindedness and kindness. He also wanted to live, but if destiny was like this, he would accept it calmly.
The executioner was shocked, but he could only grit his teeth and swing the butcher knife.
Click!
The sword flashed and Di Renjie's head fell down, blood splattering.
The angry people suddenly froze, showing sadness.
Judge Dee... died at the hands of a villain like this?
At this time, someone suddenly shouted: "Mr. Dee, Mr. Dee has grown another head!"
Everyone looked at it, and sure enough, there was already a head on the ground, but Di Renjie was still unscathed, as if another one had grown out instantly after being chopped off.
"Cut again!"
Wu Si Zong, who was supervising the execution, suddenly shouted loudly, with a hint of panic in his voice.
The executioner could only swing his knife again.
The sword flashed again.
Another human head rolled down, but Di Renjie's head was still on his neck, which he found incredible.
The executioner's hand holding the knife trembled violently. He took a few steps back, turned around and said, "Sir, what should I do -"
The sound stopped suddenly, and both the chief behead officer Lai Junchen and the supervising officer Wu Sizong were seen to have no heads, and the blood on their necks was constantly gushing out.
His face turned pale, and he quickly looked at the two heads he had chopped off before.
One is feminine and handsome, with a dead eye, and the other has a sharp mouth and monkey cheeks, and a hateful face.
It was the cool official Lai Junchen and General Zuo Yuwei Wu Sizong!
"God has appeared. Lai Junchen is dead! Wu Si Zong is dead!"
"Everyone, hurry up and chop those two dog officials into pieces with a thousand knives!"
The people broke through the defense line like a tide and ran to the execution ground one after another. They rushed towards the corpses of Lai Junchen and Wu Sizong like locusts. Those with knives directly cut the flesh, and those without knives tore it with their hands, quickly cutting their bodies into thousands of pieces.
But Di Renjie was untied and someone put a piece of clothing on him.
He touched his neck, feeling like he was surviving a disaster.
"Brother Di, I saved your life again."
Li Daoxuan came floating in the air and smiled lightly.
Di Renjie smiled bitterly and said, "Fortunately, Brother Kong, you arrived in time, otherwise I would have gone to see the King of Hell."
"Don't worry, I don't agree, and the King of Hell doesn't dare to accept you."
…
Thank you for the 500 reward that you have come a long way to express your gratitude!
