"I really don't understand why the court still re-employs this guy with such a bad reputation." Datou curled his lips and said.
"Back then, he rebelled against the enemy in Chang'an and transformed from a rebel to a hero of protection," Changsheng said. "In addition, a few years ago, during the Huangchao rebellion, many young men died in battle. Now in the Tang Dynasty, there are more women than men. There are more than 10 million men, so it is not easy to recruit soldiers, and the Beggar Clan happens to have someone in their hands. The Beggar Clan's disciples are doing evil everywhere, so rather than letting them cause harm, it is better to recruit them."
"It's just such a ragtag group of people, and it's useless to recruit them." Datou said with disdain.
At this time, the army was passing through the city. Hearing Datou's words, a nearby soldier turned to look at him.
Datou looked back with disdain, "What are you looking at, sir, are you seventy this year?"
Datou was wearing an official uniform, so the soldier naturally did not dare to contradict him, but Datou did not give up and pointed at a soldier behind him, "What are you doing? You are holding a spear, not a dog-beating stick, carry it!" "
After hearing Datou's scolding, the soldier hurriedly put the spear in his hand on his shoulder, and accidentally almost poked the soldier behind him.
Datou sighed helplessly, "Sir, let's go back first. We won't be able to finish this posture in a while."
Changsheng nodded in agreement, and the two of them walked around the south gate and returned to the government office.
After returning to the government office, Changsheng began to write a memorial, reporting what happened in Lizhou to the emperor, and asking the emperor to appoint new officials to fill the vacancies. There were thousands of candidate officials in the Ministry of Personnel, so there was no need to worry about no one becoming an official.
By the way, the memorial mentioned the current location of the troops led by Tilong Haotian. Firstly, it gave the emperor an idea. Secondly, it indirectly told the emperor that he did not go out to enjoy the mountains and rivers, and indeed went to the prefectures and counties near Xichuan to organize things. The official is here.
After the memorial was sent out, a deputy was assigned to be temporarily in charge of Lizhou affairs, and then he and Datou left on horseback and rushed to the southwest.
In order to avoid unnecessary trouble and to reach their destination as quickly as possible, the two rode horses across Xichuan without making many stops along the way. They hurriedly traveled over mountains and rivers to Yuzhou.
Changsheng had been to Yuzhou in his early years. The Gelug Monastery was in Yuzhou that day to welcome the reincarnated soul boy, and he also took an official boat from Yuzhou down the river to Ganzhou.
Although both the black master and the sweaty horse can travel thousands of miles in a day, it still took three full days to get to Yuzhou despite the dust.
Seeing the city of Yuzhou again, I had mixed feelings about immortality. The last time I was mistakenly thought to be a reincarnated soul boy by Leng Jingnan, a layman of the Geluk Monastery, when I was brought to Yuzhou, not only was my hair burned off by the fire, but I was also a lame. Now I am revisiting my old place. Touching the scene makes you emotional, and you have many feelings in your heart.
Liu Youcheng, the governor of Yuzhou, is a layman of the Gelug Temple. Last time, a group of Tantric monks from the Gelug Temple came to Yuzhou to inspect and welcome the reincarnated soul boy. Liu Youcheng lived in Liu Youcheng's house. If it were anyone else, he would definitely go there to see him after his career. Seeing Liu Youcheng, he could not only thank Liu Youcheng, but also take the opportunity to feel the vanity of a crow turning into a phoenix. However, Changsheng did not bother Liu Youcheng, but chose to stay in a secluded inn in the city.
He had many reasons for not going to see Liu Youcheng. One of the reasons was that he didn't want to embarrass Liu Youcheng. Another reason was that if the local officials knew that he was coming, they would definitely go to see him, and it would be difficult for him to be clean.
After settling in, the two had a simple dinner and then rested behind closed doors. If they went to see Liu Youcheng, they would probably still be talking about business at this time and not even have a meal.
After resting for a night, the two of them got up early and continued their journey westward. Sky burial is a unique burial method of Tantric Buddhism. If you want to find large birds that can carry people, you can only go to the southwest border where Tantric Buddhism is practiced.
Before leaving, Changsheng searched for some suspected clues through Song Cai and others at the Taiping Inn, and several clues were concentrated in the southwest area.
After walking for another day, the two finally arrived at the southwest border. Although this place was still nominally the territory of the Tang Dynasty, the government was almost just a decoration, because there were mostly natives here and few Han people. These natives all believed in Tantra, and the Dharma King was there. There is a supreme being in their hearts.
The temperature here is higher. Changsheng has the Hunyuan Divine Art, which can stimulate the spiritual energy to cool down on his own, but it doesn't work. He sweats all the time, feels sticky all over, and is miserable.
Fortunately, Changsheng would use Xuanyin Qi to cool down the water bladder every time he took a break to drink water. It was really refreshing to take a sip of ice water when he was sweating profusely.
There are currently three suspected clues, all related to Tantric temples. Once we get here, progress is slow because we have to find people to inquire about the locations of these temples, and there are not many people here who can speak Chinese. After asking ten people, nine They were all gibbering, and the other one couldn't hold a normal conversation.
After finally finding a tantric monastery, the two of them naturally couldn't explain their intentions to others, so they could only act secretly and sneak up to the celestial burial platform.
The sky burial platform is far away from the temple. It is at the highest point of a mountain to the east of the temple. There may be many reasons why it is not located on the top of the mountain where the temple is located, but the unpleasant smell is definitely one of the reasons.
The so-called sky burial is actually to carry the corpse to the mountain and let the birds of prey peck at it. You can imagine how bloody the scene is. Coupled with the high temperature, you can imagine how unpleasant the smell is.
The two of them covered their mouths and noses and hid in the forest to peer at the celestial burial platform in the distance, not daring to breathe.
"Sir, what kind of custom is this? It would be nice to bury it." The big head frowned and grinned.
Changsheng did not answer. Sky burial does not end in one day. Vultures and eagles will stop eating when they are full. Moreover, these scavenging raptors have a habit of eating their internal organs first, then their faces, and finally their meat. , several corpses that were buried in the sky were beyond recognition and too horrible to look at.
"It is said that the deceased should be buried in peace, how could they ruin the dead like this?" It was difficult for Da Tou to accept this custom.
Changsheng still didn't answer. He was gasping for air when he spoke, and the stench immediately hit his face. He had always felt that cremation in Zen Buddhism was a blasphemy to the deceased. Now it seems that compared with sky burial, cremation is not too bad.
The ancients said that don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you, which means that you can't force others to do things you don't want to do. In fact, the realm of this sentence is not high. The higher level is to do what you want to do to others, and do not do to others. To put it bluntly, it means not to force others to accept your ideas.
Although Changsheng cannot accept the method of sky burial, he is unwilling to make irresponsible remarks or point fingers, because everyone has different beliefs, so just take care of yourself and don't interfere with others.
Changsheng's attention has been on the birds in the sky burial platform. Most of these birds are vultures, occasionally there are some hawks, and even some crows, but the size of these birds is similar to that of the same kind, and none of them are too huge.
"Sir, why don't we go and take a look elsewhere." Datou said. There are very few vultures in Middle Earth. This is the first time Datou has seen this kind of bird. It has a long neck, a big bald head, and is very ugly. It does not have the power of eagles and eagles at all. .
Changsheng still didn't answer. The birds parked on the sky burial platform looked lazy and showed no signs of vigilance. This meant that there were no natural enemies of them nearby, so the possibility of giant birds inhabiting and moving around was not high.
After waiting for a while, Changsheng finally couldn't hold it in any longer, turned around and went ahead, and only let out a sigh of relief after he was far away from the celestial burial platform.
The odor was also poisonous. I had smelled too much stench before, and Datou's face was very ugly. Changsheng took out a bottle of licorice powder from his waist bag and handed it over. Datou took it and took a few deep breaths, which relieved him slightly. "Oh my God, it's so terrible, it's all infested with maggots."
Changsheng nodded. This kind of burial method would definitely not be acceptable to the Han people.
"Sir, why don't I feel that Tantra is not a good person?" Datou said.
"You can't say that," Changsheng shook his head and said, "Both Tantric and Zen sects regard the human body as a skin, and the Buddhist scriptures record that the Buddha cut his flesh to feed eagles. The sky burial must be imitating the Buddha, who used his skin and flesh to feed birds and creatures. "
Datou grabbed the medicine bottle containing licorice powder and smelled it deeply, but did not answer immediately.
The two walked down the mountain. When they reached the mountainside, Datou turned around again and looked back, his eyes full of disgust.
Seeing this situation, Changsheng said, "Don't treat others as alien monsters just because their ideas are different from ours. The cremation of Zen Buddhism will also burn the corpse until it becomes sizzling. It seems cruel to us, but in our eyes, It seems normal to them, because whether it is Zen Buddhism or Tantric Buddhism, what we practice is the spirit, while what we Taoists practice is the physical body, so we attach great importance to the physical body."
Datou nodded and said, "This trip has been really informative."
Changsheng said, "It is said that reading thousands of books and traveling thousands of miles is not unreasonable. When I first joined the court as an official, I was not used to it because I didn't like being an official at all. Later I slowly thought about it. Understood, when you are alive, you cannot just stand at the foot of the mountain. No matter it is the mountainside or the top of the mountain, you have to go and see. Only when you have been to every place and done everything can you know what the Xuanhuang Heaven and Earth is like and the prehistoric universe. What's going on?"
"What the Lord said is absolutely true," Datou nodded in agreement, "My life has been worthwhile if I can follow the Lord. I have suffered sins and enjoyed blessings. I have also ridden the five hundred thousand taels of hard-earned BMW."
"You don't understand what I mean," Changsheng said, "Forget it, I won't tell you anymore, you are a common person."
"Haha." Datou was not angry.
"Let's go quickly. There are two other locations. We have to go and check them out one by one..."
