Chapter 472 Hanamura
Chapter 472 Baihua Village (5k)
The sun sets in the west.
On a dirt road within the Huaishui Channel, a gray donkey snorted, swung its tail, and leisurely dragged a cart covered with thick straw.
The leather collar on the donkey's neck was worn out and the copper bell in its mouth was shaking gently.
Zhao Duan wore a straw hat and swung a whip like a country man. Behind him, on the straw piled on the carriage, sat the only female emperor of the Dayu Dynasty in 600 years.
"...So, at the critical moment, Eunuch Hai showed up with his men and stopped the pursuers, so I was able to escape." Zhao Duan softly recounted the story, saying with a bitter face:
“I was supposed to meet up with Your Majesty before noon, but…I accidentally got lost in the forest and went in the wrong direction. I had no choice but to go around in circles before I caught up with you.
On the way, we passed a small town. I wanted to buy a horse-drawn carriage, but I didn't see any. So I spent some money and got a donkey cart.
Xu Zhenguan was wearing men's clothes and sitting on the donkey cart with a smile on his face, without any sign of disgust.
Listening to the story of Zhao Duan's escape in the forest, her palms were secretly sweating. When she learned that Hai Chunlin had arrived and Zhao Duan was lost, she burst into laughter for no reason.
"In that case, it was wise for me to wait a little longer." She said with a smile, not without pride.
It seemed as if squatting under the wall for a whole day was a very honorable and wise decision.
Zhao Duan happily supported the joke:
"Your Majesty is wise and powerful, and you are blessed with great fortune. Thanks to Eunuch Hai and his men, we can take a breath. Next, when we step into the Huai River, the pressure will surely be much less."
Xu Zhenguan warned him seriously to be cautious and not to be arrogant:
"Prince Huai'an may not hunt me down, but I'm afraid that many local nobles along the Huai River have already joined forces with Prince Jing, Prince Mu and others. We still can't be careless. We must be careful of these nobles and watch out for them tipping off the rebels."
"I know." Zhao Duan nodded. He was certainly not stupid enough to think that he would be safe after entering the Huai River.
At most, the pressure of escape is slightly less.
Moreover, there was one thing that the king and his minister tacitly did not mention:
If the Eight Princes had rebelled, would the "Li Party" officials who remained in the capital still be obedient? Li Yanfu was afraid that he would become the most destabilizing bomb in the capital.
However, the capital still has the "imperial party" such as Yuan Li and Xue Shence to check and balance it, so it will not be in chaos for a while.
The setting sun gradually went out, and the dark night spread like ink, covering the sky.
Xu Zhenguan suddenly said:
"The journey is long, and there will be many dangers like today. Next time, you are not allowed to rashly abandon me and go into danger on your own."
Zhao Duan did not look back, driving the donkey cart, and said calmly and seriously:
"it is good."
After a pause, he added:
"However, if that day ever comes, I will definitely die before Your Majesty."
The empress was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Why?"
Zhao Duan smiled:
"Your Majesty is the king and I am the subject. Isn't this natural and right?"
The Empress remained silent for longer this time than ever before. Just as the world was plunged into complete darkness, she sat behind the donkey cart and said softly:
"Just the monarch and his subjects?"
Unfortunately, the sound was too soft, almost as loud as a mosquito's cry, and was drowned out by a long donkey's bray, so Zhao Duan didn't hear it clearly.
……
……
Inside Jiancheng Road, there is a large Buddhist temple named "Hanshan".
A few days ago, Prajna Bodhisattva from the main temple of Shenlong Temple in Beijing climbed the mountain alone to take over the assets left behind by the "Great Master" who defected to the Western Regions.
Hundreds of monks in the temple respectfully welcomed the Bodhisattva.
The old nun then lived in the temple and dealt with the accumulated affairs of the temple one by one.
When the news of the Fengshan Ceremony at Luoshan, the disappearance of the empress and Zhao Duan, and the rebellion of Prince Jing, reached the temple.
Prajna Bodhisattva could not hide his astonishment, and immediately announced the closure of the temple and forbade the monks in Jiancheng Dao to go down the mountain, trying his best to protect himself.
She was not yet aware of the ignominious role Xuan Yin played in this matter, but her instinct and logic made her feel extremely uneasy.
One day, the Bodhisattva, who was feeding the golden carp in a water tank in Hanshan Temple, learned that Prince Jing Xu Wen had personally climbed the mountain to visit him.
"Prince Jing, why are you visiting Han Temple?"
Dressed in a nun's gauze dress, with her hair loose, and holding a jade bottle in one hand, the plump and fair Prajna Bodhisattva looked at the group of uninvited guests who walked into the inner courtyard with a little caution.
Prince Jing Xuwen was actually dressed in military uniform!
Wearing brand new armor, with a sword hanging from his waist, he looked like a general about to go to war, followed by a team of strong soldiers.
"Hahaha... Why, the Bodhisattva doesn't welcome me? Or do you think that a secular person like me shouldn't defile the outside world?"
Prince Jing's face flushed, he laughed loudly, and there was a hint of disdain in his eyes!
With the favorable geographical location and favorable people's relationships that he had painstakingly built up over the years, and the empress's disappearance at the right time, Prince Jing was able to swallow up Jiancheng Dao extremely smoothly!
He encountered almost no resistance and was able to take over a piece of land in the name of "entering the capital" to serve the king.
These days, most of his energy was spent on "digesting" the territory. However, Xu Wen knew clearly that there was more than one person competing with him.
Therefore, although it was still urgent, he was still prepared to lead his troops north in person. Before leaving, he came to Hanshan Temple.
"Your Highness, you are joking. It's just that our Shenlong Temple has never participated in the struggle for imperial power."
Prajna Bodhisattva's brows were calm, and his almost transparent eyes stared at him:
"Or, is the prince here to seek personal revenge? Because I was traveling with Zhao Shaobao a few days ago?"
Prince Jing laughed again and waved his hand:
"Bodhisattva, you are joking! Bodhisattva has never been an enemy of this king. How could he be angry with your temple over such a trivial matter?
I took the liberty of coming here, firstly, to burn incense at the Buddhist temple and pray for good fortune before going to war;
Secondly, everyone in the world knows that Prajna Bodhisattva can save sentient beings by cultivating Medicine Buddha...
On this journey north, my soldiers are bound to get hurt. If the Bodhisattva is willing to accompany me and lend a helping hand, I can promise to help the Bodhisattva go further. How do you think?
Did you take a fancy to my ability to save people... Prajna's expression remained calm as she put her hands together:
"Amitabha, the two armies are fighting, killing and bloodshed, I am a poor nun with little power and influence, I only wish to stay in Hanshan Temple, chanting sutras and worshiping Buddha, and have no intention of going out to fight."
"That's it..."
Prince Jing looked regretful and tried to persuade her a few more times. Seeing that Prajna insisted, he smiled:
"Since that is the case, I will not force you. I will take my leave now. Don't worry, Bodhisattva. I have already instructed my people not to disrupt any Buddhist temples, big or small, within Jiancheng Dao."
Prajna bowed gently and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty. I will escort you down the mountain."
A monk and a dignitary came to the mountain gate to exchange greetings.
After burning a stick of incense, Prince Jing said goodbye and went down the mountain.
Walking on the mountain path, a trusted private army general beside him said:
"Your Majesty, this woman is so disrespectful to you, do you want to..."
Prince Jing put away his smile, shook his head, and snorted coldly:
"This old nun doesn't know how to respect you... but she is from the Shenlong Temple after all, so don't provoke her."
Even though Prajna and Xuanyin have differences, in the final analysis, they both come from the same source.
Prince Jing and Xuan Yin have formed a secret alliance, so it is impossible for him to displease Xuan Yin and suppress the Shenlong Temple at this critical juncture.
"Unfortunately, Xuan Yin was unwilling to publicly take sides due to the reputation of Buddhism, or he was too closely watched by Zhang Yan, and he was unwilling to leave the capital. Before the Fengshan ceremony, he was only willing to send the gods to help in the battle."
Xu Wen frowned secretly in his heart.
He didn't know the truth that "God of Dharma" was the incarnation of "Xuan Yin".
I just thought that the God of Law was an extremely powerful master kept by the Shenlong Temple in the martial arts world.
Prior to this, Shenlong Temple also used the powerful underworld force of Fashen Sect to secretly contact several of the more promising ones among the Eight Kings.
Yes!
Abbot Xuanyin is betting on several of the Eight Kings at the same time, not just helping Xu Wen!
Therefore, he didn't dare to offend the Shenlong Temple. There was no need to take the risk.
"Your Highness, what if this nun secretly helps the false emperor and the man surnamed Zhao?" another confidant whispered.
Not long ago, the news that Zhao Duan and the Empress' whereabouts were exposed and they fled into the Huai River reached Prince Jing's ears.
The information about how Eunuch Hai led people to stop Ouyang Ye, which led to the failure of the arrest, was recorded in great detail.
"So we sent people to keep an eye on Hanshan Temple. If nothing happened, we would go in and check if the old nun was there. As long as she didn't wander around, we didn't have to worry about her."
Prince Jing said calmly:
"As for the king and his ministers who escaped... Humph, do you really think that they can return to the capital alive just by the two of them? Hai Chunlin and others can stop my people, but they can't stop those who are heading south from the north."
According to the plan, the empress died directly on Mount Ruolo.
Then the Shenlong Temple will keep itself out of the fight and no longer get involved.
But the empress is not dead... she is still alive, which poses a huge hidden danger. With the empress's intelligence, she must be able to guess that it was Xuan Yin who took action.
In this case, Abbot Xuanyin must continue to work hard to ensure that the empress cannot return to the capital.
As long as the empress was not dead, the previous instructions were still valid. Zhang Yan stared at the Xuan Yin to make sure that Tianrenjing would not suffer the same fate.
Wu Xiankui, the martial artist who had trained himself to a point of confusion, only agreed to attack once. At the critical moment, he even punched the God of Law in the back, and he could not be counted on at all.
and so……
Prince Jing has learned through magic that the Shenlong Temple has secretly sent a team of troops south to besiege the empress.
"In this way, my people will attack from the south to the north, and the people of the Shenlong Temple will attack from the north to the south. She will be unable to escape even if she has wings!"
Prince Jing sneered, raised his hand to lift up the bright red cloak behind his armor, took a step forward and looked at the neatly-arranged, black mass of armored troops guarding the foot of Hanshan Temple.
"If the Yu Kingdom wants to prosper and the ancestral foundation wants to last forever, how can we entrust the great country to a woman? When she really gives birth to a child and passes the throne to the next generation, will the country be ruled by the Xu family or the Zhao family? She deserves to die for destroying the country and stealing the seed!"
Prince Jing jumped on his horse, pulled the reins, turned his head and looked at Chang'an, his eyes burning:
"This world should be ruled by the surname Xu, for thousands of years! No mistakes can be made!"
Inside Hanshan Temple.
"Buddha, the army at the foot of the mountain has left."
A monk pushed open the door and said to the Bodhisattva who had his back to him.
"I understand." Prajna said softly, lowering her eyes to look down at the large water tank in front of her.
There was a lotus planted in the water tank, with lotus leaves covering half of the tank, and a fiery red dragon fish swimming underneath.
According to folk legend, when a dragon fish appears, many heroes will compete for supremacy.
"It's a troubled time. It's a pity to waste that excellent furnace and cauldron..." Prajna Bodhisattva murmured, seeming that he was still thinking about Zhao Duan.
She immediately shook her head, not believing that Zhao Duan, who had lost the support of the empress, could still survive.
"And... Xuanyin... are you involved?"
Prajna looked down at the water tank, and ripples appeared on the clear water surface, and the scene of the capital city seemed to emerge vaguely.
The old nun frowned. She wanted to return to the capital immediately, but she knew that Prince Jing would not allow her to go north.
"I wonder what's going on in the nunnery in the capital."
……
Beijing.
In this age when letters are very far away, the transmission of news is always slow.
However, due to various magical means, the news of the empress's disappearance and the eight kings' rebellion was first known to a small number of people within a few days.
One day, Master Bian Ji knocked on the door of Jizhao Temple.
Princess Yunyang was found by the pond in the courtyard where Prajna lived.
After Prajna left, no one in the nunnery could suppress the Grand Princess anymore, although she was still under "house arrest" and unable to go out.
But inside the nunnery, he could move freely and no one dared to restrain him.
So, the eldest princess, who was almost going crazy, took over Prajna's residence openly and claimed it as her own.
At this moment, she changed into a bright red long dress, sat barefoot by the pond, and soaked her feet in the water.
"Master, you are here!"
Princess Yunyang's eyes lit up, she stood up, stepped on the stone, and looked at Bian Ji, who had red lips and white teeth and was a feast for the eyes, with a smile.
Master Bianji clasped his hands together and said calmly, "I came here to tell Your Highness a piece of news."
"what?"
"Your Majesty failed in his Fengshan ceremony, was seriously injured and missing, and the eight kings have raised an army. Now troops from all directions are rushing towards the capital." Bian Ji sighed.
"what!"
Princess Yunyang was shocked. She pulled Bian Ji aside and interrogated him carefully. When she learned the detailed information, she cried and laughed at the same time. Her heart was full of mixed feelings and she didn't know whether she felt more happy or sad.
When Xu Zhenguan was alive, she had nothing but resentment towards her niece, and the year-long confinement made her hate her even more.
But when he learned that his own niece might really die, his heart was overwhelmed with sadness and emptiness, as if he had suddenly lost the target of his hatred.
Princess Yunyang stood there in a daze for a long time, as if she had grasped a life-saving straw. She grabbed Bianji's sleeve, pulled his hand over, pressed it against her chest, and begged:
"Master, it hurts so much here. I feel so bad."
Bianji looked compassionate: "Amitabha."
A sentence from a Buddhist scripture he often read suddenly came to his mind:
To save yourself you must first save others.
"Your Highness, why don't you go to the meditation room and let me help you untie the knot in your heart."
……
……
The carriage drove along the long official road and entered Baihua Village.
Midsummer of every year is the most beautiful season for the famous Baihua Village located on the Huai River.
At that time, the sunlight that crosses the equator will be evenly sprinkled on this village hidden among the green mountains and clear waters. The flowers planted by the farmers from all over the country will bloom one after another, vying for beauty. When the fragrance of the flowers is the strongest, it can drift for ten miles.
The villagers living in Baihua Village are no different from the people who have lived in the royal gardens for generations, and their names are all recorded in the government's register of craftsmen.
From generation to generation, they have planted flowers for the royal family.
The mature flowers would be planted in pots, loaded onto ox carts in batches, and sent thousands of miles to the capital in the north.
It appeared at banquets in the imperial palace, filling the gap in the imperial garden, circulated deep in the mansions of the dignitaries in the capital, was sought after by noble ladies, and even gave rise to entertainment activities such as "flower fighting parties".
Zhao Duan drove the carriage that he had managed to purchase along the way, carrying the empress. The two of them changed their appearance and entered Baihua Village.
The carriage was traveling on a dirt road in the countryside. On both sides of the road was an almost endless sea of flowers with a rich fragrance.
In the flowers, large groups of butterflies are dancing in an entanglement.
"Your Majesty, according to the map, passing through Baihua Village is a relatively safe route. This area can barely be considered as an asset of the royal family, and it can avoid the eyes of the local nobles to the greatest extent."
Zhao Duan was wearing a straw hat and looking around with a slightly vigilant look while speaking.
Many days had passed since they escaped from Jiancheng Road. Along the way, they encountered enemy pursuit dozens of times.
A considerable part of them originated from local clan forces along the Huai River.
As expected, after Prince Huai'an closed the door, the entire Huai River became the stage for the major aristocratic families.
These families with deep roots have dense eyes in the local area, and they also secretly keep martial artists in the underworld.
Although Zhao Duan is not afraid of most of the family thugs, he is worried about exposing his whereabouts and attracting the attention of the masters who are chasing him in secret.
Therefore, if you respond passively along the way, you will inevitably get hurt.
Fortunately, he did not fall into life-and-death crisis, and several dangerous situations were apparently resolved by the worshippers who followed behind.
Even so, after traveling all the way, he lost a lot of weight and his skin became much darker.
However, his eyes were bright and sharp, and the Qi in his Qi sea was full of powerful Qi, and when he breathed in and out, there was a faint sound like the roar of mountains and seas.
He had a premonition that he was approaching the peak of the Divine Chapter and was getting closer and closer to the Mundane Realm.
"Okay, then we'll stay in Baihua Village for a day. Don't stay too long, lest our identities attract pursuers and cause trouble for the people of Yu."
Inside the carriage, Xu Zhenguan opened the curtains and looked at the colorful sea of flowers outside, and his tense heartstrings relaxed a little.
She used a mask to change her appearance, and now she looked like a pretty woman, wearing an ordinary woman's skirt. She no longer dressed as a man - that would easily arouse suspicion.
Now, to outsiders, the king and his subject looked like a young couple on a journey.
As for the injuries...
Xu Zhenguan kept regulating his breathing along the way, and the "palm power" left by the mysterious seal in his body finally gradually dissipated. Although there is still some residue now, there is not much left.
Unfortunately, due to the existence of this palm power, her internal injuries recovered extremely slowly.
Although he can move freely now, his strength can only barely reach the initial level of the Divine Chapter, which is not sustainable.
Once the Qi is circulated, the internal injuries will be aggravated... Let alone returning to the peak, it will take some time to recover to the "worldly" state.
Along the way, she had witnessed the fall of places and the capture of government offices by rebels, which had made her extremely anxious.
"Your Majesty, please relax. At least the Huai River has not been completely captured by the rebels yet, right?
Further north, Linfeng Road is definitely still in the hands of the court. There are border troops stationed in the west and north. The Qingzhou King in the east is too weak, and the Beijing Camp is enough to deal with him. "
Zhao Duan comforted softly.
The empress nodded and smiled: "You are right, I was just impatient."
At this time, the carriage drove into Baihua Village, and houses appeared in front, like a fairy tale world.
(End of this chapter)