The incense stick was given by the Taoist priest near Ci'en Temple. At that time, he said that he had the ability to reach the sky. Xie Wangzhi didn't believe it, but just thought it was a way for him to escape. But somehow, she kept the incense stick with her, and she didn't even forget the day she left home. After a hard night, her mind was not clear, and she actually thought of Xuanyuan Hall.
Xie Wangzhi took out the oil paper bag from her sleeve, carefully took out the incense stick, and lit it with the long-burning lamp in front of the spirit tablet. In Xuanyuan Hall, only oil lamps were used to worship the former emperors, and there was no place to put the incense stick. She hesitated for a moment and simply held it in her hand. Fortunately, the incense stick had no smell when it burned, and it was not smoky, so it was still bearable.
She held the lit incense sticks, knelt on the mat, bowed her head devoutly, and apologized to the people on the spirit tablets: "I should have lit incense at Xuandu Temple or Ci'en Temple, but Chang'an City is so crowded... I can't leave for now, so I can only bother your majesties and borrow a place. Please forgive me."
Xie Wangzhi waited for a while, but of course the spirit tablet gave no response. She held her breath and carefully stared at the eternal lamp for a while. Seeing that there was no change in the fire on the lamp, she continued.
"The gods and Buddhas of heaven are spiritual. I thank you for forgetting them. I am holding the incense to bother you now. I hope you will just listen. I only have this body. I am willing to pay for the bad words I said today with ten lifetimes of misery." She looked at the curling white smoke. "Kang Lie, the governor of Fanyang, started a rebellion. Wherever he went, the people were miserable and innocent people died unjustly. Since he was unfaithful, unjust, unkind and unwise,"
Xie Wangzhi closed his eyes, recalled what the Taoist said at that time, and said the most vicious words in his life, "Let him be bitten to death by the snake!"
She suddenly opened her eyes, took a deep breath, blew out the incense sticks, looked deeply at the spirit tablet, and suddenly stood up.
After praying, the girl walked out in a hurry without looking back, and she did not see that the oil in the lamp in front of the memorial tablet had burned out, and the small flame flickered for the last time and then suddenly went out.
**
The coalition forces of Shuofang Army and Huihe arrived in time, and the rebels retreated temporarily. With these two garrisons, troops from various places would be dispatched one after another. Even if Chang'an City was saved, the heavy stone on everyone's heart would fall to the ground. But it was not the time to be happy. The rebels turned back to Fanyang, and there were also roving soldiers in various places who were trying to rebel, waiting for Li Qishen to deal with them. The most terrible thing was Li Chengjing. It would take some time to send a message from Chang'an to Chengdu. It was calm for the time being. Once he knew, it would not be certain.
However, Li Qishen was too lazy to care about him and made his own arrangements. After reorganizing Chang'an City, he held a funeral and buried the soldiers who fought to save Chang'an City with state ceremony. The coalition forces arrived earlier than expected, and at least they were not completely wiped out, but most of the remaining people were seriously injured. Huo Jun led the way and now he is lying with the soldiers who fought with him.
Xie Wangzhi had never seen the person who presided over the funeral. She was a girl wearing the light armor of the Tiance Army. The exposed skin was covered with thick bandages. It looked like she was seriously injured. But she looked calm and her eyebrows did not move at all, as if she did not feel the pain of the wound, or as if the pain was too severe to feel.
"She was a lieutenant in the Tiance Army. Her surname was Wen and her given name... seemed to be Yueshu, quite elegant." Li Qishen stood on the shady side, watching the funeral on the sunny side, and said softly, "She came from Luoyang. I met her once at the Qujiang Banquet that year. It wasn't easy for her. She was the only one left in that team, and even the people she knew outside were gone."
Xie Wangzhi's eyelashes trembled, and she wanted to go forward to comfort Wen Yueshu, but then she thought that they were not familiar with each other, so there was no need to go up and make her sad. She just said "hmm" and looked over with Li Qishen.
From this point of view, there were so many people who died in the defense of the city that those who could barely distinguish between friend and foe were lying on the hillside. Everything in Chang'an was in tatters, and there were not so many coffins. Huo Jun followed his wishes before his death and did not have a coffin. The bodies lay side by side on the wood soaked in kerosene, waiting to be burned out by fire.
The moment the fire started, Xie Wangzhi was startled and couldn't bear to watch any longer, so he turned his head away abruptly.
Li Qishen was quite calm. He looked at the fire for a while, then patted Xie Wangzhi on the shoulder and said, "Go see Shu'er?"
Xie Wangzhi paused, then nodded slowly: "Okay."
Although he said he was going to see Shu'er, in fact, Shu'er didn't even have a decent tomb. After all, she was still young, so she had to be considered dead. It was not easy to hold a grand funeral. Moreover, the current situation was still like this, and there was no decent burial companion. When Shu'er was buried, she couldn't even put together a set of princess gifts. A princess who died young couldn't be buried in the imperial mausoleum. In the end, Li Qishen chose a sunny place, a small nanmu coffin, and buried it deep in the ground. After much deliberation, he decided not to erect a tombstone.
The two walked for a while based on their memory and found a trace of the grass being turned over. When Xie Wangzhi saw the new grass, he was stunned for a moment: "… It has all grown."
"It's only May, the time when grass and trees grow wildly. It rained a few days ago, so it should grow so fast." Li Qishen used the tip of his boot to push the grass leaves. When he pressed down, the grass leaves fell down. When he moved his foot away, the grass slowly stood up again, swaying green in the wind. "Besides, this is a weed. As long as the roots are not dead, you can't burn it all."
"I used to hear that girls should be like flowers, delicate and tender, so that people can hold them in their hands and care for them. But now I think that's not necessary. Everyone is born a human being, so why should we depend on anyone?" Xie Wangzhi lowered his eyes and looked at the lush green grass. "It's better to be like these grasses, which can't be burned or stepped on, and live happily all our lives."
Li Qishen knew that she was thinking of Shu'er. The little girl lying on the ground was indeed a flower that needed to be cared for. It was a pity that she fell from the branch while still a bud. Even when she was still on the branch, the gardener who planted this flower never loved her.
The person is gone, and there is no point in talking about this. He just reached out and lifted Xie Wangzhi's chin, and gently stroked her eyes with his fingertips. His tone was as relaxed as when he was young, and he picked up a little crying baby under the wall of Daming Palace: "There is no one here now, do you want to cry for a while?"
"... No, crying is not good." Xie Wangzhi took a deep breath, forced down the tears, and tried to smile at him, "Shu'er loves to laugh, why should I cry for no reason?"
That was what he said, but the last few notes were broken in the wind, with a faint sobbing tone, slightly sticky, and it was obvious that she was about to cry. Li Qishen sighed softly, pulled the girl into his arms, and put his arms around her waist and back, feeling the prominent butterfly bones and a thin waist, which was more than enough for one arm to hold.
How much worry must have gone into her to become so thin? She didn't seem real when I held her in my arms, like a paper shell that could be blown away by a gust of wind. He felt distressed and was silent for a moment. In the end, he just kissed her hair and said, "Then don't cry. Let me hold you for a while. I have to treat Xianyu Khan to a simple meal tonight, and I'll trouble you again."
Xie Wangzhi responded, wrapped her arms around his waist, hugged the man in front of her tightly, and buried her face in his arms. In May, the clothes were thin, and through the lapel, she could faintly hear Li Qishen's heartbeat. She got closer, pressed against his shoulder, and when she closed her eyes, her eyelashes trembled slightly, and the tears at the end fell.
**
Xie Wangzhi's worries always came and went quickly. He cried for a while on the hillside in the afternoon, but he felt better by the evening and began to prepare dishes for the banquet.
It was a small banquet, but it couldn't be too shabby. It was hot, so she gave up the flatbreads that filled her stomach and ate cold rice instead. She took two small bowls on the side, one of which was sugarcane juice mixed with mint, and the other was ground salt and salted flower petals. She could adjust the sweetness or saltiness. She also chose light side dishes. The only hot dish that could be considered strong was a soup, which was cooked with fresh bamboo shoots, pickled meat and fresh meat. The soup was clear, but the aroma of the three ingredients blended together, so fresh that it could make your tongue swallow.
However, Xie Wangzhi was not sure whether Xudar would like it, and whether Li Qishen had any intention of using the dishes at the banquet to show off. After the dishes were served, he spoke carefully: "Please forgive me, Khan, there are only these things in Chang'an City now, which are not worthy of your attention."
"Thank you for your thoughtfulness, madam." Xudar didn't care and scooped up some sugarcane juice to mix with the rice. A few years later, his appearance hadn't changed much, except that his features had become a little harder. He still had a pair of green eyes that looked like they were filled with worry. He spoke Chang'an Mandarin better than when he was young, and there was no awkwardness in his pronunciation.
"It's good to have these things. What's there to complain about?" Chang Ning poured a bowl of hot soup, avoiding the meat in it and only scooping a few pieces of bamboo shoots. "Having something to eat will not starve to death. Saving a life is much better than the people outside the city."
This was too sad, but fortunately no one cared. Li Qishen just smiled and glanced at Xudar across from him: "After we parted that year, we didn't communicate through letters again. I didn't expect that this time I would meet Xianyu Khan again."
"I have met Khan before, I wonder if you still remember." There were many unpleasant things in Daming Palace when she was young, but there were also many happy things. Xie Wangzhi could still remember the group of cats in the snow at that time, all fed by the Khan now. She casually brought up a topic, "Excuse me, how has Khan been doing these years?"
"Not bad." Xudar didn't really remember Xie Wangzhi, but he smiled at her. "I saved a lot of people, and I also killed a lot of people, so it's fair."
Xie Wangzhi was stunned, then thought that the person who was speaking was the Khan, who was equivalent to the emperor. It was true that he could kill people and save people in a moment of thought, so he said nothing.
Li Qishen spoke up, his tone calm: "The Khan has killed fewer people than he has saved, right? This time we saved Chang'an, which is considered to be saving all the people in the world. The Khan is willing to come to help, which shows his benevolence and righteousness."
"I am happy that I saved them, but they actually have nothing to do with me. This is the empire's business, not the Uighurs' business." Sudar ignored the compliment and said calmly, "But the people I killed were related to me. I killed many people in the Uighur king's tent, and also killed my brother and my father."
The author has something to say: Xudar is a sincere child who dares to say anything (.) And it is set that the Huihe people are from the grassland, so their customs and names are different from those of the Han people in Chang'an_(:3)∠)_
I promise that the frequency of death will decrease in the future. Well, when has your drunk pigeon ever lied to you? Thanks to the little angels who voted for me or irrigated nutrient solution during 2019-11-28 17:43:34~2019-11-29 12:00:23~
Thanks to the little angels who threw the grenades: Yu Hehe 1;
Thanks to the little angels who irrigated the nutrient solution: Biluo 39 bottles; Speech Under the National Flag 10 bottles; One Two Three Four Five, Believer of the Wind 5 bottles; 23074058 1 bottle;
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!