Merchant of the Underworld

While I was digging the soil below, a small stone suddenly fell from above. I looked up and saw Little Red Riding Hood sitting on it looking at me and smiling: "Uncle, is there any progress?"

I smiled bitterly and said, "You really gave us a big problem."

"Are you hungry? Come on, I'll treat you to some noodles." Little Red Riding Hood said.

"No, no, let's get down to business first..." I shook my head.

"Talk while you eat!"

She insisted on inviting us, so the man in the T-shirt and I followed her. On the way, Little Red Riding Hood said, "Actually, I quite like this place. There is no one on the street at night. I can go wherever I want to play."

"You are the only one who thinks so." I said, "By the way, where are your parents, did they really go to the Maldives?"

"yes!"

It turned out that she had a small treasury in private, which she had saved in the past. In order not to involve her parents in this trouble, she called a travel agency and booked a trip for two to the Maldives, and sent her parents away for a month.

We came to a noodle shop. Little Red Riding Hood said that the shredded pork noodles here were delicious. The man in the T-shirt and I ordered shredded pork noodles and green vegetable noodles respectively. We exchanged our thoughts while eating. Little Red Riding Hood said that there is a place in the ancient city that she suggested to us. Maybe it will be helpful to us if we go and take a look at night.

At this time, the sky was getting dark, and the noodle shop owner was in a hurry to close the shop and urged us to leave quickly. We settled it in twos and twos and went out.

Soon, the ghosts of the ancient city came out again. Little Red Riding Hood led us to a place, which was a local middle school. When we came to the playground, there was nothing. Little Red Riding Hood said: "Don't worry, there will be some in a moment." It’s a good show.”

Today I came prepared and drew a circle on the ground with eel blood. We can stand in it without being discovered by the Yin spirits.

Waiting is very boring. I chatted with Little Red Riding Hood from time to time. Her state of life interests me very much, just like the rebirth novels on the Internet. Just imagine that a child has the mind of an adult and is able to live and learn all kinds of things like a fish in water. It would be interesting to think about how I could reinvent my life all over again.

The man in the t-shirt suddenly interjected: "You were Chu Ziqian in your previous life, who were you in the next life?"

Little Red Riding Hood said mischievously: "I have only done this once to evade fares from Lord Hell. You will have to ask him in the previous life."

After a while, a cloud of Yin Qi suddenly appeared in the open space. Inside the Yin Qi, there was an ancient singer singing and dancing. Her dancing posture was very graceful, but when her skirt was lifted up, she could see a white skeleton underneath. , very strange.

As the Yin Qi spread, other Yin spirits gradually appeared, all of them ancient soldiers wearing armor, but their bodies were sallow and thin, like mummies. In the middle sits a tall general, whose armor is much more delicate than other Yin spirits.

Although they spoke, there was no sound, and the scene was like a silent movie.

Suddenly the general who was in the middle of the attack stood up, grabbed the singer's hair, and pulled out the sword from his waist. The singer begged desperately for mercy, but the general cut her throat with his sword, and her body fell limply. on the ground.

The general cut off some meat from her body and gave it to his servants to boil in a pot. After it was cooked, it was distributed to the generals. They held the meat in their hands but did not dare to eat it. One of them even stood up and objected fiercely.

The general suddenly stabbed the opponent to death with a sword. The others, with a bit of fear on their faces, lowered their heads and ate the human flesh in their hands.

I suddenly understood that this scene was exactly what happened in Suiyang City that year. The person who killed the singer and shared the flesh with the generals was none other than the famous Tang Dynasty general Zhang Xun.

Little Red Riding Hood suddenly said to the man in the T-shirt: "Uncle, please lend me your sword."

The man in the t-shirt pulled out his sword, and Little Red Riding Hood cut her thumb on it, then walked straight towards the ghosts. She dropped her blood around Zhang Xun. Zhang Xun couldn't see her, but he was guided by the smell of blood and walked toward us.

Seeing it approaching, we couldn't help but get nervous. When he stepped through the circle of eels painted with blood, he suddenly saw us, immediately drew his sword and prepared to attack us, and shouted: "Who are you? You are a trick sent by the enemy!" "

I was stunned for a moment, he could actually talk to us. Little Red Riding Hood was smiling at me next to me. Only then did I understand that she used her own blood as a medium to communicate yin and yang.

Zhang Xun is different from the Yin spirits I have encountered in the past. He is not inhabited by some Yin object, so his consciousness still remains in Suiyang City thousands of years ago. Without a medium, we would not be able to communicate at all. .

I hurriedly said: "General Zhang, we are not meticulous workers, we are... descendants thousands of years from now."

Zhang Xun looked at our clothes up and down and seemed a little unbelievable. The man in the T-shirt and I secretly held weapons in our hands. If he made a move, we would fight back.

Fortunately, he finally believed it, put away his sword and asked, "Is the Anshi Rebellion over?"

"It's over a long time ago. All the rebels have been wiped out. General Zhang is indispensable. The emperor personally built a temple for you and named you Zhongliehou." I said quickly.

"Does it deserve all the credit?" He smiled bitterly: "Young man, please don't lie to me. I know that the decisions I make will be reviled by future generations and will be infamy for thousands of years."

Since he has this kind of self-knowledge, I said it bluntly: "To be honest, later generations will indeed have mixed praise and praise for you! Some people say that you are a hero of the Tang Dynasty, while others say that you are the executioner who harmed the people."

Zhang Xun looked up to the sky and sighed: "Back then, Suiyang City had no food and no reinforcements. I thought more than once that I would die for my country. At least I would be known as a loyal minister. But what about the soldiers under my command? The country of the Tang Dynasty was lost. what to do?"

"The entire Tang Dynasty is behind me. This city must not be lost. If I can save the lives of more people with the 30,000 people in Suiyang, I, Zhang Xun, will it matter if the five thousand soldiers under my command become evil ghosts in hell?" "

After saying that, he grinned, revealing a mouth full of incomplete teeth. History books say that when Zhang Xun led his troops in battles, he often had his eye sockets cracked and his teeth shattered. After he was captured, in order to confirm this, the enemy pried his mouth open with a knife and found that there were only three or four teeth left in his mouth. This is what Wen Tianxiang said in "The Song of Righteousness", "For Zhang Suiyang" allusion.

Zhang Xun was indeed a staunch and patriotic general. I estimate that if the man who guarded Suiyang City had been replaced by another general, the Tang Dynasty would have perished long ago!

In this world, sometimes it is really difficult to judge something in terms of black and white, good and evil. When I was a child, I watched "Iron Teeth and Bronze Teeth Ji Xiaolan" and there was a scene like this. Ji Xiaolan angrily criticized He Kun's corrupt officials for replacing the rice to provide relief to the victims with bran. However, He Kun said that one portion of rice can be exchanged for four portions of bran, which is equivalent to saving three times more victims. At the time, I felt that He Kun was completely quibbling, but when I grew up, I felt that what he said made sense.

Zhang Xun was in that kind of environment. In order to defend Suiyang City, he had to do this regardless of all human nature and morality!

Later generations accused him of massacring people and cannibalism, but no one could give a better alternative to cannibalism, because behind him was the entire Tang Dynasty!

I bowed respectfully to Zhang Xun: "General, you are a hero who dared to brave the disapproval of the world. No matter how future generations belittle you, you saved the prosperous age of the Tang Dynasty."

Zhang Xun burst out laughing, laughing and crying: "Okay, okay, I never thought that after a thousand years, there would still be people who could understand me. I, Zhang Xun, will never regret it even if I die!"

(PS: Not only will there be additional updates during the Dragon Boat Festival, but there will also be additional story updates! Please follow Laojiu’s WeChat public account: Daomen Laojiu. The story of Zen Master Baimei when he was young and Chu Chu’s mother, Granny Linglong, has been updated.)