Little Jinbao was only eight or nine years old, and some people went crazy. When Taiping Taoist and Chang Sheng were drinking tea and talking, little Jinbao kept jumping up and down next to him. While Taiping Taoist comforted little Jinbao, he apologized to Chang Sheng apologetically, saying that he was a bad teacher. Neglect of discipline caused little Jinbao to lack manners.
Changsheng smiled and waved, saying that children are still children after all, and there is no need to be too harsh on them.
Changsheng said this not out of courtesy as a guest, nor because he had obtained Xiao Jinbao's Dharma Collection of Right Eyes and the Manual for Conquering Demons in his previous life, but because he seriously believed that there must be a process for human growth, and he could not use the standards of adults. Go ask the child, otherwise it will be unfair to the child.
Everyone likes to hear good words, especially children. Seeing Changsheng did not criticize himself. On the contrary, little Jinbaoer restrained himself and took the initiative to run to the kitchen to help the mute mother-in-law light the fire. When the food was ready, he helped serve porridge and vegetables.
Changsheng brought some fruits and snacks with him when he left, and gave them to little Jinbao'er to eat. The terrain here is remote, and fine snacks and fruits from the Western Regions are rare. Little Jinbaoer got the fruit snacks and ran to the side to select and distribute them, "This belongs to Master. This belongs to Granny Mute, this belongs to me..."
After little Jin Baoer walked away, Changsheng asked Taiping Taoist about his next plan. Taiping Taoist only said that he would still live here, live peacefully and take care of himself.
Listening to Taiping Taoist's words, Changsheng nodded. As the saying goes, those who are not from my race must have different minds. It does not mean that aliens must be bad, but that aliens have many different ideas from humans. Different ideas create different Different styles of behavior and different ideal pursuits, most of the heterogeneous practices are just to prolong life.
Taiping Taoists know that Changsheng is not only a Taoist priest of Longhu Mountain, but also a prince of the imperial court, but Changsheng does not mention temples, officialdom, and people's livelihood, nor does it take the initiative to ask, because it does not care about these things at all. Those are what humans should care about. thing, and it's just an anomaly.
Changsheng was indeed hungry, so he was talking to a Taiping Taoist while eating. The Taiping Taoist was very involved in health preservation. Seeing that Changsheng was thin and losing his appearance, he was worried that he was not doing the right thing, so he kindly discussed with him the way of keeping good health.
Changsheng never told Taoist Taiping the real reason for his weight loss, because he chose his own path, and if he accepted its benefits, he would suffer its disadvantages. He was a very human minister, and when he was appointed king and prime minister, he should think about what he might one day pay. There is no need to show off your achievements to others, and there is no need to tell others about your difficulties.
It was almost four o'clock after dinner, but Changsheng did not refuse Taiping Taoist's earnest invitation to stay and stayed overnight at the Taoist temple.
Sandalwood is burned in Taoist temples. Sandalwood has the effect of calming the mind and calming the mind. After lying down, Changsheng fell asleep quickly. The faint aroma of sandalwood made him feel at ease and familiar. This familiar smell came from Longhu Mountain. Not just from Longhu Mountain, but also from somewhere further away.
Because his vitality was not restored, he fell into a deep sleep. It was already Chenshi when he woke up. Taiping Taoist was very grateful to Changsheng and sincerely hoped that he could stay for a few more days. However, it knew that Changsheng was entangled in trivial matters and Changsheng insisted on leaving, so it was inconvenient for him to stay. Taoist Temple It buried a large amount of treasure nearby. Even though he knew that eternal life would not be short of silver, he still dug out two bags of horseshoe gold from the Han Dynasty to pay for it.
Chang Sheng was exhausted both mentally and physically and had never recovered. He liked the tranquility of the Taoist temple and wanted to rest here for a few days, but there were still a lot of troubles waiting for him to deal with outside, and he was also very worried about Zhang Shan and Zhang Mo, so he could only Leave early.
Changsheng led the horse out of the temple, and Taiping Taoist came out with little Jinbao to see him off. Changsheng had already mounted the horse and was about to leave, but suddenly remembered something, turned around and praised little Jinbaoer a few more words, saying that although he was young, he was extremely smart, just like yesterday At such a critical moment, he was able to stay calm in the face of danger and promptly inform Taiping Taoist's location.
The reason why Chang Sheng praised little Jin Bao'er was because thanks to little Jin Bao'er last night, he didn't know where Taiping Taoist was. If little Jin Bao'er hadn't told him in time that Taiping Taoist was holding the iron pot in the backyard, he would have There was no way to get over before the first thunder struck.
Little Jin Baoer did not mention this detail to Taiping Taoist, and he might have even forgotten it, but Changsheng had to mention it. He had to let Taiping Taoist know that thanks to Little Jin Baoer, the contributions of others could not be buried at any time.
After leaving Taiping Temple, Changsheng returned on horseback. Since he was not in a hurry, Changsheng did not fly across the sky, but rode fast. He could not just do this one thing on his way out. He needed to observe the people's sentiments and inspect the real conditions of various places on the way back. people's livelihood.
Places like Qianzhong Road, Jiannan Road, and Lingnan Road were originally very poor, and the people's lives were already very difficult, but this year it was more difficult than usual. There were few refugees along the way, but most of the villagers were not fully clothed. There are dishes on the side.
During the rest and resting on the way, the villagers mostly talked about three things. One was how brutal the Xichuan War was. Second, prices are soaring and rice is in short supply. The third is what kind of monster appears somewhere.
Hearing the villagers talking, all Changsheng could do was sigh silently. Xichuan was part of Jiannan Road and was originally a separate kingdom of Wang Jian. Long Haotian captured Xichuan some time ago, but Long Haotian did not return to the court with his troops. He directly stayed in Xichuan and replaced Wang Jian. The court wasted a lot of time and effort, and provided money and troops. In the end, not only failed to quell the rebellion, but instead made a wedding dress for Long Haotian. The reason was that the emperor was afraid of him and Longhushan. Because of the relationship, he was worried and handed all the 300,000 troops into Zhang Shan's hands, thus laying the root of the disaster.
The so-called starting over and starting over are all lies, because everything, including life, has continuity. Everything you have done before will add up to each other and have an impact on the final result. All wrong decisions will have consequences. The adverse consequences will affect the final result. The emperor was coerced by the eunuchs in his early years, and it is understandable that he is fearful and suspicious. However, his method of dividing his troops into three groups resulted in a serious waste of manpower and material resources and a large loss of regional soldiers.
Changsheng had talked with Song Cai before and knew that prices had skyrocketed this year and that prices had more than quadrupled compared to previous years. However, only through personal experience can one truly feel the negative impact of skyrocketing prices on people's livelihood. In fact, gold, silver and copper coins themselves have no value at all. No, the reason why they are valuable is that they can be easily exchanged for rice, grain and cloth needed for people's livelihood. If farming is not prosperous, everything will be wasted. Insufficient food is the main reason for soaring prices.
As for the talk of monsters in the market, I am not surprised, because similar things have happened a few years ago, but it seems that there have been more recently. The large number of monsters has made people everywhere panic. The harm caused by evil spirits and ghosts is not great, but the impact is extremely bad, because everyone knows that if a country is about to perish, there must be evil spirits. The large number of evil spirits and ghosts makes the world generally believe that the Tang Dynasty is going to die.
Qianzhong Road is located to the west of Jiangnan West Road, and to the north is Shannan East Road. In the evening, Changsheng arrived at Huazhou, which borders the three roads. He calculated the time and found that there were still two days left of the three days that Chong's servant told him when he left. It was still plenty, so he wanted to make a short detour to the east to see how far the plague was in the states south of the Yangtze River.
Due to the loss of Qi and blood, he gets tired easily. After some hesitation, Chang Sheng decided to rest in the city for one night and head east tomorrow at four o'clock.
Huazhou is located at the junction of three roads, with many merchants coming and going. Changsheng had just sat down in the lobby of the inn. Before the food was served, he heard a very important news. A few days ago, someone saw a large number of Taoist priests from Longhu Mountain heading north overnight. , so vast that there are tens of thousands of people.
Hearing the discussion of the vendors, Changsheng suddenly realized that the news should be true. All the Taoist priests of Longhu Mountain had indeed come out of the mountain. The previous rainfall on both sides of the Cao River was most likely caused by the joint efforts of the Taoist friends of Longhu Mountain. However, the rumors The number of people is wrong, because the total number of Taoist priests in Longhu Mountain is only 3,000, and there are many old and weak among them. Only about 2,000 are able to practice, so how can there be tens of thousands.
When the food was served, Chang Sheng had no appetite at all. Although he had never led the troops in person, he could feel the tremendous pressure the Zhang Shan brothers and sisters were under. In order to capture Luoyang, they even gave up their last possessions...
