Since everything was ready, there was no reason to stay in Luoyang. Zheng Rong divided the 500 people he brought from Youyan into three teams - the front team of 200 people led the way, the middle team of 200 people escorted, and the rear team of 100 people covered the rear - and they went out of Luoyang East Gate again, finally ending their short two-day trip to the capital.
From Youyan to Beijing, you can take advantage of the Yellow River's water transportation, but from the Central Plains back to Youyan, you can only rely on your legs. More than 100,000 taels of silver weigh more than 10,000 kilograms, and each of the Ministry of Revenue's silver-depositing carts can carry 300 kilograms, and more than 30 carts are fully loaded. If the Ministry of Revenue follows the usual practice of depositing silver, it will set off during the day and rest at night, and the work and rest schedule must be checked between loading and unloading. In order to ensure that they can stay at the relatively safe imperial post station at night, they would rather walk less than more every day. In this way, they can travel at most 50 miles a day.
And how could Zheng Rong's team be compared with those ordinary officials of the imperial court
Before Zheng Rong came to Beijing, there was a secret report that the Turkic tent was not far to the north of Guangyang, so Zheng Rong selected 2,000 elite soldiers and searched in the direction of the secret report. Although they found the Turkic tent 600 miles to the north, they did not know why it had been extinguished, leaving only a ruin. Zheng Rong felt strange and immediately ordered the army to return. He then rushed back to Guangyang City without stopping. He traveled 1,200 miles in two days and one night without losing a single soldier. It was a team composed of such elite soldiers. First, they were not afraid of robbers and bandits, and they could hide during the day and go out at night to avoid the heat; second, they had no improper intentions, and they had no examples of committing crimes; third, they did not know fatigue and sleepiness, and they would act when ordered and stop when prohibited. Therefore, they could walk at least 200 miles a day. After walking for three or four days, they were already in Nanyang County, Dengzhou, Henan Province.
The drought in Henan is indeed very serious. Dengzhou in Henan is a fertile and prosperous place. At first glance, it should be a vast expanse of fertile fields, but now only sparse weeds are left, drooping their heads and sticking sickly in the cracks of the soil. A gust of wind swept by, raising a cloud of dust from the ground, making people cough uncontrollably.
When Zheng Rong saw this, he kept shaking his head. His right hand holding the horsewhip made a canopy on his forehead. He looked into the distance and saw a small village in the wind, sand and scorching sun. He pointed with the horsewhip and ordered, "Let's go into the village and take a look." Then people moved, horses neighed, and wheels turned. The team of neither long nor short advanced forward in an orderly manner along the straight official road.
As the saying goes: "If you look at the mountain, you will die." The village that Zheng Rong pointed at took the team two hours to reach. Looking around the village, there was no sign of life, not to mention people, even the crowing of chickens and barking of dogs could not be heard. Zhongli Kuang, who was not good at riding a horse, felt it was strange and called the guards around him: "Take four or five people and go to the village to take a look."
Zheng Rong raised his hand and said, "Wait a minute, let me go and see for myself." Then he dismounted and walked slowly towards the village under the protection of eight or nine capable attendants. Seeing this, Zhongli Kuang quickly put on his shoes and tried to hurry up and follow Zheng Rong.
After entering the village, I found that it was even more desolate than it looked from the outside. The adobe walls were full of cracks due to lack of repair, and seemed to be about to collapse at any time; the window paper had not been replaced for a long time, and only pieces of paper were left hanging on the window sills under the ravages of wind and sand; the tiles were also incomplete, and even the weak light of the setting sun could easily penetrate the roof, but there was no need to worry about leaks in the rain after a long drought.
Zheng Rong saw this dilapidated scene, compared with the prosperity of Luoyang, the capital, it was hard to believe that the two places were under the same sky of the Han Dynasty. Zheng Rong sighed secretly, and was about to order his men to find a villager, but someone flashed out from the alley, blocked everyone, and asked, "Who are you?"
Zheng Rong saw that the man was about 20 years old, short and dark-skinned. Although his face was a little thin and swollen, his eyes were full of heroism. "He is a man," Zheng Rong thought to himself, and asked, "Where is this? Who are you?"
The short, dark-skinned man was so naive that he forgot he was the one asking the question first. He followed Zheng Rong's words and answered, "This place is called Zhaojiadai. Most of the villagers have the surname Zhao. The one called Zhao Heizi is me."
"Haha, that black guy blocked our way. What does he want for you?" When Zheng Rong heard this simple name, he felt even happier.
"Nothing, just telling you, even if you catch someone, I won't sell the land!"
Zheng Rong was puzzled and said, "Brother Hei may have recognized the wrong person. We are not here to buy land."
Zhao Heizi grinned and said, "You can't fool me. Look at you all, you are all well-dressed and tall and strong. You are obviously the reinforcements invited by Mr. Zhao. But please go back and tell Mr. Zhao that he has occupied 60% to 70% of the land in the village. He should be content. The few acres of thin land of the villagers are kept for their lives. Even if they starve to death, they will not sell a penny!"
Zheng Rong was a very smart man. Zhao Heizi guessed the general idea in just a few words and said, "To be honest, brother, we are..." Zhongli Kuang flashed in front of Zheng Rong and said first, "We are soldiers coming from the capital to Youyan Road for a rotation. Today we are just passing by this precious land." Zheng Rong's eyes turned and he immediately understood Zhongli Kuang's intention, so he said, "Yes, we are going to Youyan to pay the military pay. From what you said, brother, are there local gentry bullying the good and forcibly annexing land by taking advantage of the drought? We are all soldiers from poor backgrounds, and we are here to help you!"
Zhao Heizi was so surprised that he took a deep breath. Then, disappointment appeared on his face. He said, "You foreign monks, how can you recite the local sutras? What is Mr. Zhao's background? What use can you, a few poor soldiers, have?"
Zheng Rong smiled and shook his head, saying, "Young man, what you said makes sense, but we still believe that there is justice in the world. I wonder if there are any elders in the village who can talk to us?"
After hearing this, Zhao Heizi was relieved as if a long drought had finally come to an end. He hurriedly said, "Yes, yes, please follow me, soldier." After that, he almost trotted to lead Zheng Rong and his party to a small house deep in the village.
Zheng Rong led eight or nine people into the house. The sun had already set, and the house was pitch black. Zheng Rong stared wide-eyed, but could only vaguely see a thin figure wandering in the house. Zhao Heizi shouted at the top of his voice, "Old man, a distinguished guest is here!" He almost shouted down the shabby house.
"Little bastard, the sun has already set, why are you still yelling?" An old voice came from the figure. As a bean-sized flame lit up, it illuminated an old face full of deep and shallow, long and short wrinkles. The old man said: "I have only lived for two more years. I know a few words and my words are reasonable. Therefore, the old and young in the village trust me and call me 'old man'. I wonder where these distinguished guests are from?"
Zhao Heizi rushed before Zheng Rong and told him everything that had happened before.
Unexpectedly, Mr. Zhao sighed and said in an old voice: "I appreciate the kindness of these soldiers on behalf of the villagers, but I still want to advise you not to wade into this muddy water."
"What do you mean, old man?" Zhongli Kuang thought that the elders in the village would be very happy if someone came to their aid, so how could they refuse such a kindness? So he asked coldly.
"Alas..." The old man sighed tremblingly, sounding extremely desolate, making people's hearts move. "My dear officials, you may not know that Mr. Zhao is the leader of the gentry in the surrounding area, and his brother is the governor of Henan. All the land in our village has been bought by him. What's the point of filing so many lawsuits in the village?"
Zhongli Kuang was stunned for a moment, and whispered to Zheng Rong, "Tsk tsk, I didn't expect that he is the younger brother of Henan Governor Zhao Fude. Zhao Fude's family has been officials for generations, and they are deeply rooted in the government and the country. I'm afraid they can't be easily moved. Your Majesty is in control of Henan affairs this time, so you can just take action against this Mr. Zhao, but you can't be hasty and reckless, you have to think long-term and act carefully."
Zheng Rong nodded and said to the old man, "Don't worry, old man. I will definitely wade through this muddy water, but not today." Zheng Rong paused and asked, "Does your place have any accommodation?"
The old man thought that the soldier in front of him was young and full of vigor. After hearing Mr. Zhao's reputation, he was unwilling to admit defeat and only wanted to stay for one night and leave tomorrow. He pointed out: "This is a remote and poor place. There are no post stations or inns. There is a dilapidated temple two miles north of the village. Our Zhaojiadai may be poor, but there are no thieves. It's okay to stay here for one night."
The ruined temple is a relic of the previous dynasty. After hundreds of years of wind and rain, only one main hall remains. However, judging from the shape of the main hall, it was probably a large temple with a lot of incense when it was prosperous. Five hundred soldiers under Zheng Rong lined up the silver carts loaded with more than 100,000 taels of silver neatly in the square outside the temple gate, leaving four hundred soldiers to sleep around these thirty silver carts. Zheng Rong took a hundred guards into the main hall to spend the night.
The main hall was indeed very large. There were three empty pedestals on the altar in front. I wondered whether the original offerings were for the Taoist Three Pure Ones, Yuanshi Tianzun, Lingbao Tianzun and Daode Tianzun, or for the Three Buddhas, Sakyamuni Buddha, Amitabha Buddha and Medicine Buddha. The floor of the hall was originally paved with huge blocks of bluestone, but it seemed that most of it was moved away for other projects. Now, except for a corner of the hall, the rest was covered with loess. Six huge pillars stood on the ground, which had survived hundreds of years and were still standing. The huge pillars, which required two people to hug, were dutifully supporting the wide dome, but the dome had collapsed in half. The whole hall was in a dilapidated state, with firewood and garbage piled up in a mess around it, emitting a smell of decay.
Zheng Rong looked around the hall in the moonlight, and then asked Zhong Likuang beside him, "I didn't expect that such an ordinary little village would have such a magnificent temple. I wonder where it came from?"
Zhongli Kuang twirled his beard and answered, "The emperors of the previous dynasties were all devout believers in Buddhism. Every state and county built temples on a large scale, treated monks as guests of honor, and regarded the common people as grass. After the founding of our dynasty, Emperor Taizu Gao suppressed Buddhism. When Emperor Wu of the dynasty conquered the northern barbarians, he forcibly confiscated temple property and dismissed the monks. Buddhism has never recovered since then, which is known in history as the destruction of Buddhism by the Holy Martial Emperor. This temple must have been spared because of its remote location, otherwise it would have been razed to the ground or used for other purposes."
After hearing this, Zheng Rong nodded continuously and praised: "Sir, you are indeed knowledgeable. You can still infer things that are not seen in history books from common sense. I really admire your courage and insight."
The two were talking when they heard a commotion in a corner of the hall. A guard came to report, "There's an assassin!" Zheng Rong lowered his head and thought, he had just arrived in Henan less than half a day, his whereabouts had not been exposed, and there were many warriors around him. Even if there was an assassin, he would not attack at this moment. It must be a false alarm, so he ordered, "Don't panic, let me check it myself."
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PS. If Confucianism is excluded from the category of religion, then it can be said that ancient China never formed a religious force that could influence politics. Whether it is Buddhism, Taoism or other religions, they can only be one of the hobbies of the monarch. If the next monarch has no love for it, then the end is often very tragic. (To be continued)