Myriad Paths

Just leave as soon as you say it. Although Li Qi is an indecisive person in the consideration stage, once he has finished thinking, he is very decisive in the execution stage.

The lives of over 100,000 people cannot be wasted. It would be better to leave early and return early.

So, he simply fed the old horse, said goodbye to Shen Shuibi, and then quickly set off for Guangyang City.

Li Qi had been to Guangyang City, but he only stayed briefly, replenished supplies and then left. It was about 1,500 miles away from the town pass.

According to the average physical fitness of people in this world, and the large army will definitely delay the journey, this 1,500 miles will take about ten days.

Being able to walk more than a hundred miles a day, to be honest, this speed is already very scary. This also depends on everyone having skills, even farmers, so they can maintain this kind of marching speed.

But for Li Qi, it’s not that troublesome. After Old Matthew’s journey, he can already travel two thousand miles a day. It only takes five hours to reach Guangyang City and return, and it only takes ten hours to travel day and night. That’s all.

Since we can come back tomorrow, there is no need to worry too much.

Li Qi packed up his things and rushed off.

Naturally, there was nothing special happening along the way. After all, his cultivation was not shallow, and ordinary monsters or robbers were unlikely to seek bad luck on him.

His destination is Guangyang City.

Guangyang City, a state city in Bailin State, is similar in size to Lizhou City. The prefect lives here and commands the state. He is also responsible for the defense of the town.

Naturally, the prefect of Guangyang was in charge of the military pay and food for Zhenguan officers and soldiers, and Sima Guangyang was responsible for the specific implementation and arrangements.

The horse was riding fast and lightning, accompanied by thunder shadows. The true dragon bloodline in the old horse, with the blessing of Bu Qun Ge, sparkled with lightning all the way, tearing out a series of auspicious clouds and blue thunder in the sky.

Although it looks cool, it is actually a sign of poor skill.

The real dragon moves in the sky, and the clouds follow it. Although it passes by, there is no trace, and its movements are completely undetectable.

Someone like Lao Ma, who wants everyone to know where he is, is at a disadvantage.

The journey was non-stop and also safe. Five hours later, we quickly arrived at Guangyang City.

Five hours have passed, the sky has darkened, and it is now night.

Under normal circumstances, Li Qi would definitely take a night's rest before visiting, but it involved hundreds of thousands of people, so he couldn't care about that at the moment.

No one is allowed to fly into a big city like Guangyang City, so Li Qi landed directly, took the old horse, and walked quickly towards Sima Mansion.

The post of military commander is in charge of the command and order of a state's sergeants, their chariots, horses, and soldiers' armor, and the identification of the six horses and soldiers' armor.

In fact, he is the commander-in-chief of a state's soldiers and horses. He is in charge of the operations of a state's sergeants and is responsible for their logistics. He also has personnel rights and can "identify the subordinates of the six horse soldiers and horses", that is, he can promote talents on his own.

It can be said that he has great power and authority. As a military commander in a state and one of the three divisions, he can be said to be on par with several people and only inferior to the prefect.

The so-called three divisions are Sima, Situ and Sikong.

Si actually means "responsible". The word after the word "Si" directly represents the specific powers and responsibilities of the official position.

Sima is in charge of military logistics, supplies, personnel transfer, external campaigns, internal defense and other responsibilities.

Situ was responsible for the land map and the number of people in the founding of the state. He also had to compile scriptures, distribute official positions, taxation, and finance. He was the core of the regular official system. He had the function of supervising and recommending officials in various places. He was also responsible for the formulation and implementation of specific policies for people's livelihood.

Sikong is responsible for infrastructure construction, farmers' land acquisition, road construction, water conservancy maintenance, urban planning, industrial technology reserves and other basic engineering construction, all of which fall within Sikong's scope of authority.

These three are collectively called the Sansi, who are directly responsible to the prefect. Apart from the prefect, the three of them are the pinnacle of power in this state.

As far as Li Qi knew, among these three people, except for Situ, who had an eighth-grade cultivation base because of his intelligence and wit, the other two were both seventh-grade.

Going to visit a seventh-grade strong man and a high-ranking official in the middle of the night, Li Qi would naturally not come directly to the door without courtesy.

You still need to prepare some gifts.

The selection of gifts is a bit particular.

Li Qi couldn't afford to give it away if it was too expensive, and he didn't have the money.

You can't fool around casually, otherwise you'll make your face look bad, and you might even have to be kicked out.

On the way there, Li Qi thought for a while, and then outside the city, he picked some 'Guzhong' by hand and beat it into a curtain. Then after entering the city, he found a tailor and spent dozens of dollars to weave it into a curtain.

The kapok cloth soap tent is called "Gu Zhong". Kapok cloth is thicker than silk and is warmer than silk. The reason why it was used in palace curtains is to embody thrift.

There is an allusion to this object, which goes like this: "Emperors have always respected frugality in their use since ancient times. There are still people who value frugality in the palaces and curtains. The families of scholars and common people should be aware of thrift!"

In this way, the gifts are prepared and the people are flattered. As the saying goes, don't hit the smiling person. In this way, if you come to the door to ask for an autograph, there will probably be no problem.

Now that everything has been considered, all that remains is the visit.

Li Qi led the horse all the way to Sima Mansion.

The nightlife in Guangyang City is also quite rich. As Li Qi walked along, although it was already night, the whole city was brightly lit with wine shops on the street. From time to time, pedestrians came into the city, and the mountains and lakes were reflected in the eyebrows, and fish and bamboo shoots were cooked. , drink and talk.

However, if there are people enjoying it, there will naturally be people doing the work.

Along the way, vendors from all walks of life carried goods shoulder to shoulder, constantly transporting supplies to the city.

Guangyang City has a population of one million, and its daily consumption is countless. Naturally, it requires countless people to be responsible for the daily transportation and handling of materials. Vendors and shops also need to distribute the materials through retail.

Li Qi also passed by a strange scene, and saw a large family building a huge pillar at the door. There was a tarpaulin on the pillar to protect the pedestrians below from the rain, and there was also a water gathering charm that continuously sprayed out condensed water columns. Provide free water for pedestrians under the pillar.

The huge pillar is 20 feet high and has a message: "Zhangjiafu Land". Tens of thousands of bats are carved on the giant pillar, so passers-by also call the place "Wanfu Laichao". It is the place where this big family prays for their virtues. .

But when Li Qi passed by, there were hundreds of beggars under the pillars, densely packed with stench, fighting for water, sheltering from the wind and rain under the pillars. The word "Fu" could not be seen at all, and it had already become a beggar's den.

Li Qi was a little surprised, how could there be so many beggars in Guangyang City, so he asked the vendors around him.

Hearing this, the hawker fried snacks in his hand and said to Li Qi with a smile: "Countless refugees have been evacuated from Zhenguan recently. Some have found a living, and some can't do anything, so naturally they can only gather here." ”

"There are so many refugees? What happened over there at Zhenguan?" Li Qi asked curiously.

The small vendor seemed to be a talkative person, and they replied: "The officials are joking, we are just a stall owner in the city, how do we know what happened in Zhenguan? I just heard people say that those people over there in Zhenguan The military masters have all withdrawn, and they have brought back a lot of refugees. It has been better these days. In the first half of the month, the city and outside were full of people, and now there are only some beggars left, begging for food. Oh, there are a lot of new girls in Yichun Tower. The officials think you are single, so you might as well give it a try, the price is very low. "

"Stop talking about that. Give me two skewers of tofu and two skewers of fried cabbage. By the way, give me one of these tiger eggs and some chicken feet. By the way, according to what you said, so There's no big announcement from Sima Mansion?" Li Qi ordered some fried skewers and asked curiously.

"What kind of announcement can the Sima Mansion make? Mr. Sima has been running to Tianning Temple these days. Maybe he didn't even handle official business~." The vendor said cheerfully.

"You know all this kind of thing?" Li Qi was greatly surprised. He just asked casually to see if there were any government notices or anything like that. It turned out that this little vendor knew so much?

When he worked as a tracker and was at the bottom of society, he never knew this. It was already good to be able to read the notices twice.

"Hey, the manager just came to Guangyang, right? I don't need to ask about this. Ask everyone in the city. Who doesn't know that Master Sima believes in Buddhism and basically lives in Tianning Temple." The vendor said to Li Said while starting the fried tofu.

Li Qi, on the other hand, suddenly frowned.

Wait, Buddhism? Tianning Temple?

Buddhism? Worri, I have never heard of this.

After being in this world for so long, he had almost forgotten that there was such a thing as Buddhism.

It is said in the book that there is an infinite Buddhist kingdom in the far west of the world, but because it was too far away, Li Qiji just took it as a story.

And now, within the sphere of influence of the Witch God Mountain, there is actually a Sima from a country, state, and city who believes deeply in Buddhism and even opened a temple here. This is not unusual.

"You've never heard of officials like this, have you? I've never heard of any temples or Buddhism before, but they claim to be no different from our common witches and goddesses, and they can treat people's illnesses. Praying for blessings and so on, no one cares about it anymore. Anyway, I don’t do any evil things. I often come to the city to give alms and so on. Even I have eaten the food they gave me~" the vendor said in disbelief. He said, still with a smile on his face, very sunny.

The vendor added: "I guess they are similar to those Taoist priests. They are all from outside, but they are much better than the Taoist priests. Those Taoist priests squat in the mountains all day long, and when they show up occasionally, they have dead faces. It's too bad. It’s not as festive as those with bald heads, all of them kind-faced, smiling, friendly to everyone, and free of charge for medical treatment.”

While talking, Li Qi asked for news about the so-called Tianning Temple. When the fried skewers exploded, Li Qi had almost all the questions he should ask. He paid the money, held the old horse, and prepared to leave.

He was still going to visit Sima Mansion.

According to this small vendor, he came to Tianning Temple about ten years ago.

At the beginning, a group of great monks came. They were all skinny and skinny, claiming to be ascetics. Their mission was to travel all over the world and spread the message of Buddhism.

This group of skinny monks numbered about four to five hundred people, but they only left one here. The rest didn't stay much and left quickly.

According to them, traveling all over the world is an arduous task, so they cannot delay and will only arrange an ascetic in a place they think is "destined" to spread Buddhism here.

This ascetic monk, who called himself Zen Wisdom, stayed here to spread Buddhism, but he did not spread it at the beginning.

This Zen wisdom left behind, he first went around begging for alms, which was called alms, but in reality it was begging. Someone saw that he was skinny and thin, so they gave him some charity.

And he would leave something in return, such as some handwritten pages of Buddhist scriptures, or when he didn't even have any pages, he would sit at someone's door and read a passage of scripture, saying that he was praying for the host's family.

This style of behavior is still very pleasing to people. After all, although most beggars can say auspicious words, they don’t have the calm and gentle temperament of him. Although he is thin and old, his eyes are still as warm as water.

Moreover, those auspicious words that have long been tired of hearing are not as good as the mysterious and wonderful scriptures.

After a period of time, one of the families who had received alms suddenly suffered a disaster. An evil ghost broke into the house at night, wanting to take people’s lives and suck their blood.

But as soon as the evil ghost entered the door, he saw that the family’s house was shining with golden light, and there were bursts of Sanskrit sounds, which were loud and loud. The evil ghost wailed and lost its resistance.

Later, when the local demon-killing department arrived, they were extremely surprised, so the matter spread.

Now, the whole Guangyang City knows that a monk named Chanzhi has real skills. As long as you give him a meal, he will protect you and pray for you.

For a while, Chanzhi went around explaining to people that his name was a Dharma name, not a name, and he was not worthy of being called a monk, at most he was a monk.

But the masses didn't care about this. They didn't know what a monk or a Dharma name meant, but they knew that Chanzhi was a man of real ability. They invited Chanzhi to eat, and all kinds of delicacies and precious ingredients were sent to his mouth. Rich families invited Chanzhi to be their guests and held a big banquet for him.

However, after this incident, everyone found that they couldn't find Chanzhi.

He disappeared for half a year, and only reappeared after the Chanzhi craze subsided. After reappearing, he continued to "beg for alms" in front of a poor family, asking them to give him some leftovers from last night.

That family was not rich to begin with, and what they ate was no different from Li Qi when he was a boatman, very shabby.

Moreover, they didn't know that they met the famous Chanzhi.

But out of simple kindness, they still gave Chanzhi their own food.

After Chanzhi finished eating, he chanted mantras and prayed as usual, and left a page of paper.

Later, the story spread, and the paper was sold for 20,000 coins. A wealthy family bought it and took it back to worship. The family's life became much better. They knew that they had met Chanzhi.

Chanzhi visited again a day later, hoping to take a piece of wood from their roof.

The family had just made 20,000 coins, so they naturally would not refuse and offered it to him immediately.

Chanzhi accepted the wood and continued to beg for alms every day, once a day, sometimes to rich families, sometimes to poor families, never picking people, and not restraining his diet, eating whatever was given.

According to him, begging for alms was caused by fate, and he was just trying to resolve this fate in his previous life. The people he visited were all those who had a fate with him in his previous life.

But after this appearance, he would beg the other party to give him a piece of wood every time. If someone gave him a piece of wood, he would accept it and thank him devoutly. If someone didn't give him a piece of wood, he wouldn't say anything and would leave after eating.

For several years, he actually built a temple on a barren mountain with the wood boards he collected from thousands of families.

That temple was called Tianning Temple.