The Sichuan Provincial Government Envoy Department has jurisdiction over 13 prefectures, six Zhili prefectures, 15 major prefectures, 111 counties, one Xuanfu Department, one Appeasement Department, and 16 long official divisions.
Ever since a letter came from the East, there has been an undercurrent surging throughout Sichuan's prefectures and counties.
People flowed towards Mianzhou from every state capital, but strangely, such a large flow of people failed to cause any sensation in Sichuan.
In the main hall of a post station affiliated to the imperial court outside Mianzhou, a dwarf man refused to sit on a stool. Instead, he squatted on the table like an ape.
In front of the man were all the postmen of the post station, including Yi Cheng, and hundreds of White Lotus followers. These people were the majority of the core members of the White Lotus Religion in the entire Shu.
Last year, the senior officials of the White Lotus Sect in Central Sichuan were completely wiped out in the Qinglong Gorge. Although Xifozi quickly promoted a large number of capable officers after escaping from the Qinglong Gorge, making up for the vacancies in the senior leadership a year ago.
However, the lack of backbone still severely weakened the White Lotus Sect in Sichuan.
Last year in Qinglong Gorge, the White Lotus Sect lost a Buddhist disciple and a large number of high-level Bodhisattvas with five pillars and above. Although the Buddhist disciple died at the hands of a saint, the White Lotus Sect still unanimously blamed that person for this.
How could the White Lotus Sect not avenge such a great hatred?
So after receiving the news that the man left Beijing for Yunnan, Fozi made an instant decision. In addition to leaving enough manpower in Shu to maintain the daily operations of the sect, all other mobile forces should go to Yunnan. This time he must We must keep that person on the land of Yunnan forever.
Buddha half-crouched on the table and saw that everyone was already standing at attention. He fiddled with the wall, and an altar enshrining a small Buddha statue appeared on the wall.
He read in a very charming voice: "The master of Nantianmen Jiugong is invincible in his magical skills. The silent old mother passed down an altar to his disciple Jiugong. Please come up to the altar!"
After the Buddha finished reciting, the White Lotus believers below the altar bowed and recited at the same time: "The world of mortals is like a prison, all living beings are suffering, reincarnation is endless, sorrows are endless, have mercy on me, the world, there is a god descending from the sky, an old mother without life, a vacuum hometown..."
After a group of White Lotus believers recited the sutra three times with weird accents, Buddha's eyes instantly burst out with strong anger.
"Go out and take revenge!"
"Revenge!"
Around the inn, a team of thousands of people went south from Mianzhou, entered Dongchuan Prefecture from Douchuan Pass Wuchi Road, and headed towards Qujing Prefecture in a mighty manner.
Three days later, an ape-like figure climbed into the woman's room from the window.
After a faint sound, the woman called someone to call the one-armed man, and they started plotting in the room.
…
…
The residence of Lin'an Prefecture is called Jianshui, which is two hundred miles away from Tonghai County.
In the original plan, the distance of 200 miles was supposed to be covered in one day, but after leaving Tonghai County, Chen Kan changed his mind again. He decided to slow down and really see the people of Yunnan with his own eyes. living status.
Then Chen Kan discovered that when he did not show hostility to the natives of Yunnan, the natives of Yunnan were more enthusiastic than he imagined.
In order to confirm his suspicion, Chen Kan deliberately left the large army with only a few personal guards and ran into the village of the local villagers.
Although the ordinary villagers in the village did not speak the same language as them, they would always warmly invite him into their homes, and then entertain him with the dried meat at the bottom of the box at home.
On the third day after leaving Tonghai County, Chen Kan came to a village called Wangyue Village. According to Chen An, Wangyue Village belonged to a local chieftain named Baiyi.
When Chen Kan stepped into the village, the first thing he saw was a huge golden-domed Buddhist temple.
There are many Buddhist temples in Yunnan. Buddhism was the Buddhism of Dali Kingdom during the Dali Kingdom. Chongsheng Temple in Dali Prefecture became famous throughout the country in later generations.
But this Buddhist temple is different from ordinary Buddhist temples. The golden dome is shining and the pagoda has sharp edges and corners. This kind of Buddhist temple is often seen by Chen Kan in later generations when he travels to Yunnan. It is a kind of short Buddhist temple in Theravada religion.
Buddhism in the Central Plains now believes in Mahayana Buddhism.
Hinayana Buddhism is only popular in Annan, Yunnan.
So the moment he saw this Buddhist temple, Chen Kan understood what kind of chieftain this Baiyi was.
They are the hospitable Dai people!
After Chen Kan showed what he thought was a charming smile, he raised his hand and knocked on the door of the village.
A girl with slightly dark skin and bright eyes opened the door of the village and looked at the leading boy with curious eyes.
The villagers on duty at the watchtower of the village had already discovered this group of uninvited guests, but saw that a few of them did not seem to have any ill intentions, so they did not drive them away.
At this time, seeing that this group of uninvited guests seemed to have the intention of entering the village, a large group of people, old and young, soon gathered in the square behind the gate.
Just when Chen Kan was about to speak, the girl turned around and ran away shouting.
Chen Kan touched his nose in embarrassment. Fortunately, the girl didn't let him get rejected, otherwise it would be embarrassing.
He crossed the threshold of the bamboo gate and saw many villagers looking at him curiously. After straightening his clothes, he cupped his hands and said to the villagers: "I am a son of the Han family. I am on my way to Lin'an. I passed by your land. I'm so thirsty that I want to go in and ask for a drink of water. I wonder if you can do this for me?"
…
No one paid attention to him, and Chen Kan was not in a hurry. In such a large village, there should be people who understand Chinese.
As for the ordinary villagers in front of them, after listening to Chen Kan's self-introduction, their eyes suddenly showed confusion.
At this time, Han people were still a rarity in Yunnan. In the entire land of more than 300,000 square kilometers in Yunnan, the total number of Han people would not exceed 500,000, and most of them were gathered in cities. Therefore, when they looked at Chen Kan, they looked even more... It's like looking at some rare wild animal.
"Why did the Han family live here?"
As expected, as Chen Kan expected, a moment later, an old voice came from the village.
Chen Kan followed the voice and looked, but it was an old man with a beard that had grown to his chest.
The old man walked slowly towards Chen Kan with a cane and the support of the girl who just opened the door for Chen Kan.
Chen Kan bowed his hands and said: "Old man, this boy and his entourage are heading to Lin'an Mansion. They were very thirsty while traveling. When they saw a village on the roadside, they thought of coming to your place to ask for some water. I don't know if it is convenient or not. ?”
The old man slowly approached Chen Kan. When he saw that Chen Kan only brought four followers, and there were no weapons or other things on his body, he stretched out his hand to signal the villagers not to be nervous.
Then he responded in very authentic Chinese: "It's just a sip of water. What's the inconvenience? I'm a barbarian people who don't understand the Mandarin of the Central Plains. I've neglected the Han family. Please don't take offense."
The old man spoke Chinese very smoothly. This was the first time since Chen Kan entered Yunnan that he had met someone who spoke Chinese so well and who even practiced Han family etiquette so well.
Chen Kan couldn't help but asked curiously: "Have you been to the Central Plains?"
The old man smiled and said, "That happened many years ago."
While the two were talking, the girl supporting the old man looked at Chen Kan with curious eyes.
Chen Kan returned her an indifferent smile.
A blush suddenly appeared on the woman's dark face, and then she shook the old man's hand and asked in a low voice in jerky Chinese: "Grandpa, is he the Han you often say?"
The old man didn't answer. He leaned on his cane and said a few words in dialect that Chen Kan couldn't understand. Then the villagers standing at the door of the Buddhist temple dispersed.
Then he looked at Chen Kan and said with a smile: "Han family man, come with the old man."
After Chen Kan thanked him again, he took a few followers and followed the old man towards the village.
Except for the Buddhist temple in Baiyi's village, all other buildings are made of bamboo. A small two-story bamboo building is the residence of the old man and the girl.
Outside the bamboo building is a pigsty made of stones, and chickens, ducks and other poultry are also raised in the yard.
Seeing Chen Kan staring at the poultry, the old man smiled and said, "This is the breeding method that I learned from your Han family when I went to the Central Plains when I was young."
Chen Kan nodded, looked at the bamboo building, and asked: "Old man, are there only two people in your home?"
The old man said: "Yes, the old man has a son, but the child is older and the village can no longer contain him, so the old man can only let him go and live in the village with his little granddaughter."
The old man responded casually and suddenly asked: "The Han family is an official in the city, right?"
"Um?"
Chen Kan was stunned for a moment, then asked with a smile: "Why did the old man say this?"
Chen Kan was a little curious. The old man could see through his identity at a glance. You must know that he had changed into casual clothes before coming.
"Haha, twenty years ago, the old man met a Han official who looked very similar to you. The old man's son was in the city at that time."
The old man didn't seem to say anything, but he seemed to have said everything.
Chen Kan paused in his heart, and then asked: "Is the Han official that the old man has met named Chen?"
The old man shook his head: "How could the old man know that the high official came with a large army at that time?"
Hearing this, Chen Kan felt something was wrong. Could it be that he had arrived at the home of his father's enemy?
As if he had read through Chen Kan's thoughts, the old man shook his head and said with a smile: "That high-ranking official should be your relative, or your father? But there is no need to worry, Han family members. The chieftain we are rejecting has nothing to do with you Han people." There was a war and we don’t like war.”
"come in!"
The old man explained, pushed open the unlocked bamboo building and invited Chen Kan.
The bamboo building is very short, so short that Chen Kan had to bend his head slightly to get in. The layout inside the bamboo building is very simple, with a firepit, and something seems to be cooking in a large iron pot on the firepit. There is a very fragrant smell. The smell permeated the bamboo building, and there was another room inside, separated by walls made of bamboo strips.
The second floor should be where the grandfather and grandson live.
Blushing, the girl moved four bamboo stools for the four of them, then hid her face and ran away.
It can be seen that this is a very shy woman, completely different from Maggie riding a tiger.
Chen Kan sat down on the bamboo stool, and the old man blew the flames in the fire pit with a bamboo tube, and said with a smile: "The Han family came at the right time. The old man went to the mountains to find some good things last year. After they were dried, they were used here. It’s the right time to eat it in season, so the Han family might as well try it later to see if they can get used to the food of our mountain people.”
This meant that he wanted to save food, and Chen Kan would certainly not be polite. Although the food in the mountains was rough, the taste was definitely top-notch.
He stood up and cupped his hands and said, "In that case, thank you very much, old man."
"hehe!"
Seeing that Chen Kan was really rude, the old man laughed and said, "We have to wait a little longer!"
The woman took out five large bowls from the inner room and handed them to Chen Kan with a blushing face. Chen Kan didn't mind them, picked up the bowls and drank all the water in them.
Then he said with emotion: "The spring water in this mountain is sweet and quenches thirst."
"That's natural. This old man has been drinking this water for decades."
The old man responded and then concentrated on stirring the big iron pot on the fire pit with his bamboo chopsticks.
The woman had no intention of taking back the pottery bowl. Instead, she moved a small bamboo stool and sat around the fire pit. She supported her chin with her hands and looked straight at the food boiling in the iron pot.
Chen Kan, Zhang San, Fang Xu, and two hundred households also waited quietly.
After waiting for a while, the old man was still stewing the food slowly, but the aroma in the bamboo house became stronger and stronger. It was the aroma of meat, mixed with some kind of smell that Chen Kan couldn't describe.
Anyway, it’s just one word, fragrant!
Even Fang Xu and others who were used to eating Central Plains delicacies couldn't help but twitch their noses.
The girl subconsciously twitched her nose and asked the old man in a dialect that Chen Kan couldn't understand. After receiving the old man's answer, a flash of disappointment suddenly flashed across her face.
Then she looked at Chen Kan and asked in a low voice in jerky Chinese: "My name is A Jin, what's your name?"
Chen Kan showed a smile on his face and responded: "My name is Chen Kan."
The woman murmured the word "Chen Kan" and asked again: "You just said you were going to Lin'an, right?"
Smelling the fragrance in the air, Chen Kan replied absently: "Yes, go to Lin'an!"
"Then can you bring a message to my parents?"
Just as the woman asked, she heard the old man suddenly say in a deep voice: "Ah Jin, don't be rude!"
"oh!"
Ajin's face looked a little sad when he heard this.
Chen Kan hurriedly said: "Old man, it's okay."
Then he turned to look at Ah Jin and asked, "Are your parents in Lin'an? What do you need me to say?"
Ah Jin glanced at the old man cautiously, and when he saw that the old man had no intention of stopping him, he said, "My parents are in Lin'an. They haven't been home for two years. I miss them very much."
Just as Chen Kan was about to agree, he heard the old man say: "Okay, okay, you can eat. Mr. Han, pass me your bowl."
"Eh!"
Hearing this, Chen Kan quickly handed over the bowl.
The smell was so delicious that he couldn't hold back the greed in his stomach for a long time. As for the matter of sending a message to the little girl's parents, there was no problem in talking about it later.
Seeing Chen Kan's impatient look, the old man smiled and filled Chen Kan with a full bowl of delicious food.
"It's a bit hot, eat slowly."
Chen Kan reached out and took the big pottery bowl. Seeing this, the woman hurriedly went to get him a pair of bamboo chopsticks.
Chen Kan took a look at the food in the bowl and suddenly understood. No wonder it smelled so good. It turned out to be Yunnan's specialty mushrooms.
Chen Kan also tried mushrooms when he traveled to Yunnan in his previous life, and the fresh taste on his tongue is still fresh in his memory.
Unexpectedly, in the Ming Dynasty, people in Yunnan already had the habit of eating mushrooms.
What was stewed with the mushrooms was the meat of some kind of bird. The aroma of the meat mixed with the aroma of the mushrooms immediately made Chen Kan open his index fingers. He picked up a chopstick and put it into his mouth without caring about the heat.
"tasty!"
Chen Kan knew that some mushrooms were poisonous, but Chen Kan didn't think that the old man would cook poisonous mushrooms for him to eat, because these mushrooms had obviously been cooked for a long time.
After being praised by Chen Kan, the old man immediately smiled and said: "I didn't expect that you Han people are also used to eating mushrooms. This stuff is really good in Yunnan."
"tasty!
Chen Kan nodded heavily. Although they were dried mushrooms, they still tasted extremely delicious.
Chen Kan actually ate a full bowl of the pottery bowl the size of a human head, and in the end there was not even any soup left.
"Hiccup~"
After burping, Chen Kan asked enthusiastically: "I heard that some mushrooms are poisonous. How do you tell the difference between poisonous and non-toxic mushrooms?"
The old man slapped his hand and said with a smile: "I didn't expect that the Han family also knew that the fungus was poisonous. If you just eat it like this, aren't you afraid that the old man would cook the poisonous fungus for you to eat?"
Chen Kan said: "The old man is joking. You should also be a highly respected clan elder in the village. If the old man really has any bad intentions for the boy, just give the order. The boy doesn't think that the five of us are capable of walking out of the village, so why bother? Woolen cloth?"
"Hehehe, yes, yes, the Han family is brave. The old man is in the village. In the words of you Han people, he should be regarded as the village chief."
The old man chuckled, and Chen Kan quickly raised his hand and said, "I don't know if it's the village chief in front of you. I'm disrespectful, disrespectful!"
The old man gave up and said, "In front of the officials of the imperial court, I am nothing."
They joked with each other and the two became familiar with each other.
Chen Kan asked: "Old man, what is your son doing in the city? What message do you need him to bring?"
The old man waved his hand: "No, it's just my granddaughter who misses them."
Chen Kan asked curiously: "It doesn't seem too far from Zhaizi to Lin'an. Why don't they go home to see you in old age?"
From the map, it seems that Wangyue Village is only forty or fifty miles away from Lin'an. It can be reached in an hour by horse. Even if you walk, it is only a day's journey. The old man's children should not be so cruel, right?
The old man said with a smile: "Haha, I forgot to tell you, my son is also an official of the Ming Dynasty, but he is an official in the military camp. As for my daughter-in-law, she does some small business in the city. On weekdays, I’m so busy that I don’t have time to go home.”
"I see!"
Chen Kan suddenly realized that if he was a soldier in the army, it would be really difficult to go home.
However, has Mu Sheng's business in Yunnan reached this point?
He asked: "Old man, are there many local chieftains in Yunnan like you who have relatives serving in the Ming army?"
"There are many, why are there not many, but not everyone in the general's army wants it. First of all, it is the chieftain forces like us who have never fought against the army, so the general will choose to recruit troops. Other old men don't know , under the rule of our chieftain, many young and middle-aged people are proud to join the army."
After listening to the old man's words, Chen Kan once again had a clear understanding of the Mu family.
It has to be said that the Mu family does have some skills in running Yunnan.
This army recruited people from the chieftain forces. What's more important is that the local chieftain government would tolerate Mu Sheng recruiting troops from their own tribe. This is very interesting.
Qing Qing's own strategy of reforming his country and returning to his homeland is actually out of date. The Mu family has already begun to unite the nation.
Chen Kan thought for a moment and said: "Old man, in fact, I am an imperial envoy sent by the imperial court to inspect Yunnan. If I eat your meal and do nothing, it means that I don't understand etiquette. How about this? You tell me what you are doing." What is your son's name? After I go to Lin'an, I will ask the general to give your son two days off so that he can go home and fulfill his filial duty."
Unexpectedly, after listening to Chen Kan's words, the old man suddenly exclaimed: "Oh, Mr. Han is the imperial envoy?"
Chen Kan smiled and said: "Yes, I can't eat your meal in vain."
The old man said sadly: "Oh, what are you talking about? The Han family has already said that you are an imperial envoy. How can I serve you with such food? You are neglecting me. I am neglecting you."
"What are you talking about? It's such a delicious food. Even if you want to eat it in the Central Plains, you can't eat it. How can you say you're being negligent? You're exaggerating."
Chen Kan stood up, cupped his hands and asked, "Now that we've finished our meal, it's time for me to go on the road. What's the name of my son?"
The old man stood up and tried to persuade him to stay: "Oh, I have to leave now, why not stay in the village overnight to recuperate, and it won't be too late to go tomorrow."
Chen Kan responded politely: "No, I still have official duties to attend to, so I won't bother you any more."
"Why!"
The old man sighed and said, "The old man's worthless son is called Ah Dao. Now that the Han family is gone, there is no need to force the general to serve the country. How can he worry about the love of his children."
Chen Kan said: "Old man Gao Yi, don't worry. If the military affairs are urgent, I will naturally not force it. In this case, I will leave."
"What a night of rest."
The old man still wanted to keep Chen Kan, but Chen Kan had no intention of disturbing the people. It was already embarrassing to eat someone else's meal. If he stayed overnight, he would be really thick-skinned.
After bidding farewell to the old man, under the expectant eyes of the girl, Chen Kan walked out of the village and came to the entrance of the Buddhist temple, where he unexpectedly bowed in front of the Buddha statue.
"Sir, don't you believe in ghosts and gods?"
Facing Fang Xu's inquiry, Chen Kan shook his head. He didn't know why he did such a move.
But I have to say goodbye, and besides, it’s not a bad thing to say goodbye.
"Let's go!"
After leaving Wangyue Village, Chen Kan went to the official road. After joining the large army, he ordered: "The whole army should speed up and reach Lin'an before sunset today!"
The closer he got to Lin'an, the more curious Chen Kan became about the Mu family. Especially after passing Wangyue Village and his party, Chen Kan was even more curious about how Mu Sheng governed in Yunnan.
In the evening, a brand new city came into view.
At the same time, Wangyue Village once again welcomed a new wave of guests.
The new guests, headed by a woman, led a dwarf man and a one-armed man into the village in the name of worshiping Buddha...
