When you're out and about, it's rarely a smooth ride.
Even the old rivers and lakes will encounter accidents.
The caravan people looked at the closed city gate, and then looked at the sun that had not yet completely set in the sky, stunned.
- The city gate closed early, and they rushed all the way, but in the end they were not able to enter the city.
Although there is a fixed time for opening and closing the city gate every day, it is normal to delay it by a quarter of an hour in advance, especially in the county towns below the state capital.
There are no shacks and houses near the city, and there are few trees, mainly moats and ditches.
The rain in Yuzhou this year is still sufficient, the fields are green, and there is water in the moat, but it is relatively turbid. It is obviously impractical to find a sheltered place nearby to stay overnight. Not only people need to sleep, but mules and horses also need to drink water to rest.
The person in the caravan who had the idea and the escort decided to try their luck in a village more than ten miles away.
Not only was the caravan rejected by the city gate, Meng Qi and the others also failed to catch up.
The ink carp didn't plan to climb over the wall and go in.
—Climbing over the wall is easy, what about the horse and the cart? Just throw it out
Mo Li counted the dry food he carried with him, and found that there were also a bag of fried chestnuts, a bag of sugar cakes, and four hard buns.
The chestnuts and sugar cakes were bought in a larger town yesterday, and the taste is far worse than that in Taijing. But for Meng Qi, something is better than nothing, so what's the point of being picky
The cakes brought out by Taijing were eaten early, and they would go bad if they couldn't bear to eat them. It is better to put them in the stomach early, Meng Qi said. Not to mention the matter of what he said while stuffing Mo Li's mouth.
Even at this moment, when Meng Qi saw Mo Li taking out the dry food, he couldn't help but touch two pieces of sugar cake, and then one for each person.
"It's too loud." Mo Li refused.
There are several kinds of sugar. The cakes in the Beijing store use the best soft white sugar, the particles are even and the taste is delicate, and then there is maltose. As for the small towns in the countryside, there is no such good sugar, and there are many impurities. The dessert fillings made with it are very good. It's hard, and it's particularly stubborn. You must drink water when you eat it.
They had enough dry food, but not much water.
Although Mo Li thinks he is a fish, he doesn't drink raw water. There is no reason. This is the result of Mr. Qin's words and deeds. As early as hundreds of years ago, many medical books and famous doctors of Xinglin knew that some diseases originated from raw water.
The people are poor, and most of the firewood is used for cooking. Well water and river water can be drunk directly. If all the water is boiled before use, the firewood expenditure will be doubled immediately. Even the mountain people who make firewood themselves, It will also add a heavy burden.
Therefore, it is useless to understand this truth. If people have no money, they will drink raw water all the time. If there is an outbreak of an epidemic, it will be shocking.
However, for hundreds of years, the courts of all dynasties did not always eat leisurely meals. Now the larger state capitals have "water shops", that is, shops that sell hot water, and people who carry the burden to sell in the streets and alleys, and the common people also have them. The habit of buying water saves money and is not troublesome than burning it yourself, just buy it and use it. If you have no money at home, you can go to a tea stall. The worst kind of rough tea is a big bowl of penny, which quenches thirst and is clean.
Now there are no shops here, and I can't even find firewood to make a fire. Mo Li thinks that this piece of sugar cake Meng Qi can eat by himself.
It is said that you don't need to drink water to eat such a sweet thing, is it a skill? I just don't know if this advantage is the dragon's own, or it is unique to the master of internal power.
Mo Li couldn't figure it out, because he clearly had both, but he still didn't have this talent.
Perhaps this is the difference between a fish and a fat rat.
"It's really not as good as the capital. By the way, which store in the capital does the doctor like sugar cakes?" Meng Qi reported seven or eight names to Mo Li in one breath, all of which were bought by Meng Qi.
Mo Li thought blankly, did the sugar cakes come from so many shops? He seems to have only tasted one difference, one is sweet-scented osmanthus, and the other is rose brine.
"The flour is different and the taste is different."
"… yes?"
Looking at Mo Li's confused eyes, Meng Qi silently swallowed back what he didn't say.
He originally wanted to tell Mo Li that Taijing sugar cakes are truly delicious. Even if he travels all over the world and eats it all over the country, he still has to return to Taijing to taste that taste. Quietly abducting people back again, how wonderful! If the doctor wants to go back to Zhushan County, Pingzhou, he can still pass by Taijing!
As a result, the words just started, and they couldn't continue. Meng Qi nibbled on the sugar cake in frustration.
"You eat less." Mo Li couldn't help but wonder what the dragon with all the broken teeth looked like.
I can only think about it, basically I can't see it.
The original appearance of the dragon is transformed by the spiritual energy. If the spiritual energy is lacking, the dragon may be very inactive, the scales are dull, the eyes are dull, and the dragon's horns are broken and the shape is incomplete, and it will not only lack teeth.
The carriage swayed slowly, it was getting dark, and the mules and horses in the caravan seemed restless.
Because the grass was not fed in time, the speed of Mo Li and the others also slowed down, and the horse pulling the cart kept shaking its head, as if to turn its head to urge the people in the car.
"Jingle Bell."
There was a faint sound of bells in the wind. Mo Li didn't care at first. He stopped the car and began to rummage for bean feed, which was used for feeding horses. Just like children, horses love to eat, drink, and play. After feeding them well, let them eat bad forage, and they will not agree.
These bean ingredients are mainly bean cakes that are easy to carry, and they can also be used as rewards for training horses on weekdays.
The sound of the bell gradually became louder, mixed with high and low shouts, and the ink carp raised its head in confusion.
The speed of the caravan was slower than theirs, and the escort and the brawler were dragging the mules and horses forward, trying to get to the next destination as soon as possible.
At this time, a few horses quickly ran past them. It was the young man who approached Mo Li on the way. He seemed to be preparing to ride to the front to investigate. Behind him were three men dressed as family nurses. There is a big difference between the clothes of the escort and the executioner.
The young man was a little surprised when he saw Meng Qi's figure. He didn't expect that there was another person in the car.
It was just that it was dark, and Meng Qi turned his back to this side again, unable to see his face at all.
"Damn!" A bodyguard cursed loudly from behind.
The wheels of a loaded wagon got stuck in the dirt.
The pit was not very big at first, but the goods they were carrying were relatively heavy, and the person pushing the cart didn't see it when it was dark, so they fell into it. Everyone panicked and hurriedly wanted to push the car out, but instead the pit got bigger and bigger.
"Jingle chirping..."
Meng Qi listened to the voice and said strangely: "Could it be that there are walking corpses here too?"
There are very few people ringing the bells on the night road, and this is not the Gobi, and the caravans are all hanging camel bells.
Especially when there is only sound and no fire, this is very bizarre, who still walks in the dark
While talking, the young man on horseback came back, this time he didn't have the heart to look here, but hurried back to the caravan.
"There is a holy lotus altar in front of the congregation holding a dharma meeting. I can't get around it, so I can only turn around."
"What? It's really unfortunate, I can't go to the village or town."
Mo Li frowned. He didn't expect to hear these three words in the hinterland of the Central Plains.
Seeing the change in Mo Li's expression, Meng Qi patted the back of the doctor's hand in a gesture of comfort, then got up and went to the caravan.
Although he was wearing a bamboo hat, his clothes in Haruhi had tended to be thin. The drink was stuck in his throat, but he instinctively clenched the hidden weapon.
"Everyone, please, let's go out to play with friends. This is the first time I have set foot here. I don't know where the holy lotus altar came from? What happened to the dharma meeting?"
There are ready-made people who can ask, Meng Guoshi can be lazy if he can be lazy.
The people in the caravan looked at each other in dismay. After a while, the young man squeezed over. He looked up and down at Meng Qi with obvious surprise on his face.
"The holy lotus altar... is a group of poor people who believe in the true Buddha and the true way in a confused way. They talk about it all day long. Generally, if you can't get close, you won't get close. They are very bad to foreigners, not to mention staying overnight. The village will be driven out by the blind eye." The young man said a few words casually, and couldn't help but mutter, "It seems that there have been more and more in the past two years, obviously it was not like this in the past."
Meng Qi's expression froze when he heard this.
He bowed his hands to thank him, said nothing else, turned around and went back to the carriage.
"Who is this, so rude and rude, I don't know how to say hello when I see an old man here." The boy beside the young man complained.
"Okay, don't look for trouble when you go out! Do you know what the other party is?" The young man slapped the servant's head down.
"What's the background? Could it be a relative of a royal family?" the little servant muttered.
Even if it is an unfamiliar old man, if a young man wants to talk to this side, he must first bow and ask his old man, otherwise he does not know the etiquette. There was indeed an older steward in the caravan, who was also the one who made the decision this time. He was considered the leader of the caravan. Although Meng Qi ignored him the whole time, he nodded when he heard the young man's words: "Young Master Qiu is right. Yes, that person looks unusual, let's get out of the car and quickly turn around."
When Meng Qi returned to the car, he saw that the ink carp was also heavy, and there were more and more people in the holy lotus altar, which was definitely not a good thing.
Meng Qi did not delay for a moment, and immediately suggested that he go to the village and town over there to check.
Mo Li wasn't worried about him. It's hard for such a small place to be dangerous. He just felt that the Holy Lotus Altar or the King of Heaven might be planning something, so he warned, "Don't startle the snake."
Meng Qi waved his hand, indicating that there was nothing wrong, and his figure disappeared into the darkness in a flash.
The sound of copper bells, gongs and drums came from afar, and the ink carp could distinguish it carefully, and could even hear the sound of bowing to the Big Dipper Ziwei Xingjun.
Ziwei Xingjun should be the god of Taoism.
Taoism pays attention to the nature of heaven and earth, and even if it worships the gods, it is not so noisy. The people at the holy lotus altar held magical instruments, and they did not shave their heads and only wore their hair, but they took the same style of worshiping Maitreya in the past, so it seemed that the monks were not monks or Taoists, and they were more like things created by the wicked ways of the rivers and lakes.
When Meng Qi arrived, he saw that all the people in the village were kneeling on the ground, and a dozen people in white clothes and white robes were dancing around with tambourines, chanting words in their mouths.
Three animals are prepared for the table, and there are wine and fruit products.
It is not a live sacrifice, nor is there a statue of a god, only a sandalwood tablet with the name of Ziwei Xingjun written on it.
Those white-robed Saint Lotus altar believers looked like villagers. They said they were white-robed, but in fact they were all yellowed, and none of them knew martial arts. Meng Qi circled the village and found that except for the elderly with limited mobility, everyone else gathered at the entrance of the village to worship Ziwei Xingjun.
The congratulatory speech is very common, nothing more than good weather, family happiness and so on.
No strangeness was found, Meng Qi's expression did not change for the better.
He returned to Mo Li without saying a word, and shook his head at Doctor Mo.
"Isn't it the Holy Lotus Altar?" Mo Li wondered, he didn't hear the sound of fighting, and the sound of the tambourine continued.
Meng Qi said with a sullen face: "They are all ordinary people... They just believed in the holy lotus altar."
The ink carp was thoughtful.
It is inevitable for people to believe in gods and Buddhas, it's just the difference between what they believe in.
"A whole village believes in Lord Ziweixing of the Holy Lotus Altar." Meng Qi frowned, he thought more deeply and farther.
It doesn't matter what the people believe in. If you don't allow others to believe in different things from yourself, or if you only believe in one god in the same village, it is very dangerous and abnormal in Meng Qi's view.
"I don't know if it's just a village or town, or if there is such a trend nearby..."
"Even if the holy lotus altar is in trouble, they want the people to give up their comfortable lives and start rebellion. Instead, I'm afraid it will be a bit more difficult." Mo Li thought differently from Meng Qi, and felt that the matter had not reached the point of being irreversible.
"They don't need to do anything here, as long as they cause trouble to the Qi Dynasty, such as creating rumors that the land tax is going up, or simply killing people, framing and framing the dummies of the government, they can incite people. At first, the common people may just beg for money. It is said that the immediate conflict will be unexpectedly large, and when the two sides are out of control, no matter who comes forward, it will not be able to calm down.”
Even if Meng Qi knew, there was nothing he could do.
I don’t know how many villages and towns like this exist, and they are not as evil as the townspeople in Qinghu Town. They just worship Ziwei Xingjun. After listening to the bewitching words, if someone comes forward and forbids them to do this, it will arouse the heart of rebellion. , but it is easy to do bad things.
"The emperor Lu Zhang is really confused. Are all officials in the Qi Dynasty a bunch of fools? If you don't discover the shortcomings of the Holy Lotus Altar early, let them grow!"
Meng Qi was angry. When he gave up his job and didn't do it, how could there be so many hidden dangers in the world