One moment it was still a clear sky, the next moment was a storm, the weather on the southwest road was really as many as rumored, a row of extravagant convoys on the official road had to stop because of a sudden heavy rain, this is not in front of the village and there is no shop on the official road There is a broken temple, otherwise a convoy of 30 people will have to be drenched in soup.
The broken temple is a mountain temple, the worship of nature is the mountain god, built on a flat land separated by the official road and dozens of steps, but in recent years, this mountain temple has been demolished because of the construction of the official road, and the mountain temple has not been demolished is also everyone thinks that the mountain temple can not be destroyed, otherwise offend the mountain god, everyone will be unlucky in the future.
So the mountain temple was preserved, but with the passage of decades, no one came to the mountain temple that was still full of incense earlier, and the biggest role of the mountain temple at this time was to make a shelter for people walking on the official road.
But speaking of which, if it weren't for this mountain temple standing on a remote section of the official road, a good part of the people who came and went would have to suffer from running away in the snowstorm and rain.
No, today, the team of ministers sent by the Son of Heaven from the Taisho capital two thousand miles away to inspect the southwest province would have been drenched if it weren't for this mountain temple.
There is no doubt that the minister was supported by many officers and soldiers and invited to the mountain temple, and seven or eight days have passed since the departure to today, if it were not for the troubles of the various states and counties along the way, it would have been longer.
The minister is a young man, with a noble face, and there is a calm demeanor between his hands and feet, and he is wearing the most special black official uniform of the Taizheng Imperial Court, which is the official uniform of the four divisions of the Taizheng State Supervisor Tiansi and the autocratic government, this official uniform represents that this person is an official position that can be compared to the official position of the minister of the imperial court.
Even the identity of this minister himself is not something that can be criticized casually, because he is the fourth secretary, the little prince of the Zhenshi Palace, and the concubine of the seventh princess, he is Ling Yan.
In the mountain temple, the subordinate who had been following him used his own sleeves to sweep away the ash that had been squeezed several layers, and only after wiping it clean did he invite Lord Ling, who was so noble that people felt frightened, to sit down.
"Zhu Si, it's been seven or eight days and I haven't reached the southwest border, are you taking the wrong path?"
Ling Yan spoke to an official beside him who was drenched with the left half of his body, this official had a pair of small eyes, and as long as he smiled, it would be extremely difficult for others to confirm whether he had his eyes closed or open.
The figure is a little thin, with a small beard under the chin, and it is estimated that he often takes care of his beard at ordinary times, and the man's name is Zhu Si, who is a person from the capital, but since he was only two or three years old, he followed his ancestors everywhere, and he did not return to the capital until he was more than thirty years old, but he has experienced a lot outside, and his eyesight and knowledge have been greatly exculpited.
However, there are dozens of such directors of the Ministry of Rites, and Zhu Si, the director of the Ministry of Rites, is a Qingshui official, and he does not have any power in his hands.
This time, when the imperial court sent Ling Yan out of Beijing to inspect the Southwest Road, because Zhu Si had been in the Southwest Road for several years in the past, so the imperial court sent Zhu Si out of Beijing by the way.
If you put it in the local state and county, it also needs to be knotted.
So Ling Yan just said this, Zhu Si hurriedly said: "My lord, Zhu Si has been in the Southwest Road for eight years, and his subordinates can guarantee that he has not made a mistake.
The subordinates remembered that half an hour before this mountain temple was the southwest boundary, and the boundary monument was placed there. ” Ling Yan dusted off his sleeves, accidentally stained some spider webs just now, and said with a smile: "Since this is the case, wait for the rain to light up and continue to walk, it is urgent to do things for Your Majesty, you should understand that you are sloppy and want to do the wrong thing."
Zhu Si nodded and said yes again and again, took advantage of the situation to grab all the cobwebs on Ling Yan's back and head, and then shouted to all the officers and soldiers who were crowded on the threshold: "Help clean the mountain temple first, if you dirty the adult's clothes, be careful that you can't eat and walk around." ” Thirty officers and soldiers cautiously stepped over the opening sign and gong placed on the ground to the statue where Ling Yan was sitting and cleaned this side well, Ling Yan watched quietly, along the way, he, the minister of the temporary Jian faction, was very powerful, never got off the carriage and walked a long way, and the food on the road was carefully arranged by the local officials, but Ling Yan resolutely did not do it, that is, he was not subject to a trace of property, whether it was real money or rare curios, he would not accept anything.
This point made the accompanying officers and soldiers slander in their hearts, but it was really a two-sided light of, everyone was the most bitter along the way, but even when they encountered heavy rain, they could only be on the very edge when they even sheltered from the rain, and there were obviously some empty places in the middle, but they were all encroached upon by the things carried by the team, and now they are still allowed to pull this broken temple that has been abandoned for many years, just for fear of soiling your clothes.
But no matter how much they complained in their hearts, they could only do it silently in the face of the words of the official master.
Ling Yan looked at these busy officers and soldiers lightly, there was no fluctuation in his heart, if his performance along the way reached the capital, he would definitely be criticized by some people, but what he wanted was this, your emperor put one for me, then let you block some rumors for me.
He looked up again at the statue of the mountain god that had been ripped off and was covered by cobwebs earlier, and now he could see the appearance of the mountain god, and he couldn't see whether it was a man or a woman, but he could see the majesty of the statue of the god, the body was mighty, the left hand grabbed the big snake, and the right foot stepped on the big stone, which is a symbol of Zhenyue's poison, but because no one has taken care of it all the year round, the statue has fallen off a little, for example, the eyeball can no longer be seen as it is, Ling Yan stood up and looked at the statue carefully, this tribute stone platform is okay, In addition, you can see some decaying tributes on it, and it seems that this mountain temple has indeed not been visited for a long time.
Ling Yan raised his head and said slowly: "There are mountain gods worshiped everywhere in the world, and I have seen many statues of gods worshiped in mountain temples in many places, most of them actually look quite similar, but the mountain gods I see today are different from what I have seen in the past."
Seeing that Lord Zhu was interested in this, he hurriedly took advantage of this topic and said, "The mountain gods of the Southwest Road are indeed different from those in other places."
"Then tell me what's different."
"There used to be a village under the highest kind of Tongtian Peak in the southwest province, and there was a family in the village, and there was only an elderly couple in the family, and there was no child under their knees.
One day the couple went into Tongtian Peak to cut wood, the old woman suddenly fell off the cliff, the old man was in great pain, cried in the mountain for several days, and finally he went down the mountain with grief and went home, but the old man who returned home was pleasantly surprised to find that the old woman was intact and lay on the bed at home, the old man was very happy, but immediately he found that no matter how much he called the woman's name, the woman would not wake up, and the strange woman's breath was still there, and if the woman was fed, he would also have a reaction.
The old man spent many years of savings to go to a town dozens of miles away to invite Lang Zhong to come, but Lang Zhong came but finally came to a conclusion that the old woman was pregnant. ” Ling Yan laughed and said, "This old woman is carrying the mountain god in her belly."
"So, you've heard this story before?"
Ling Yan said: "I haven't heard of it, but I can guess it when I get here."
Later, the villagers should have told the old man that the old woman should have been hit by a demon in the mountain, and there was a ghost in her stomach, so how could a person fall from the cliff without dying, and now he is willing to learn that it is a monster to survive, so let him bury the old woman quickly.
However, the old man is very reluctant to give up the love of the old woman, he firmly believes that the old woman is not dead, take care of it, and finally the hard work pays off, the old woman also woke up after giving birth to a son, and the child is a baby age but with magical powers, it took decades to experience in the mortal world and finally became a generation of mountain gods, as for his godhood process, I don't bother to think about it, but it should be not much different from what I thought in my heart. ” After listening to Ling Yan's follow-up words, Zhu Si shook his head, and Ling Yan asked suspiciously, "Could it be that what I said is too outrageous?"
Zhu Si said: "The first half of what the adults said was indeed like that, everyone was persuading the old man to kill the child in the old woman's womb, and the old man did not agree in the end.
The only difference that adults talk about is that when the old woman gave birth to the mountain god, the mountain god is not a child, but the image of the god we see, stepping on the boulder with her head and grabbing the giant snake with her left hand, and on the day the mountain god was born, the old woman and her old man stepped on the colorful auspicious clouds together and ascended to the sky, and the villagers said that this was the god of heaven to be a fairy.
After the birth of the mountain god, there were fewer torrents in the southwest mountains, and the poison gradually stopped hurting people too much, and later the mountain temple prevailed in the southwest. ” Ling Yan sighed, and laughed at himself in his heart: "It seems that I really am not the kind of person who is particularly smart."
"Since this mountain god is so effective, I will also worship, please let the mountain god make my trip to the southwest smooth."
Ling Yan said, "Zhu Si, you take out some of the food we brought with us and offer it to the mountain god." ” Zhu Si naturally took several boxes of pastries with his hands and feet, and it was impossible to take seasonal fruits and vegetables with him on the road.
Ling Yan had just bowed three times and stood up, when he sensed a chaotic qi swaying wantonly in the heavy rain.