The fairy father

Emperor Xin led his army on the way back to Chaoge City and camped in the main tent behind the camp.

Li Pingan saw clearly what happened here.

They were discussing how to deal with the captives brought by the Dongyi tribe.

Di Xin felt a little headache after listening to the reports of these ministers.

Shang Rong said: "Your Majesty, if the captives here want to be brought back to Chaoge City, the amount of food and grass alone will be an incalculable amount. It is better to dispose of them on the spot."

Several military ministers each advised:

"Your Majesty, if you don't want to shed a river of blood and show your tender heart, you can also reward the captives to various princes along the way, reward the weak princes and support them to grow stronger. You can slowly plan for them and restrain Fang Bo."

"The various princes are already a close enemy of my Chaoge, so why should I reward them with slaves?"

"Your Majesty! I think that with our great victory this time, we will frighten the princes from all walks of life, so why not confiscate the princes' grain and grass in various places! If they dare not to pay the grain, they are disobedient to the king. We can attack them on the spot to set an example. !”

"Yes, Your Majesty! That Dongbohou is really hateful. He refused to send troops for several years before. Now you are personally conquering Dongyi, and they are coming back and forth. You even deliberately left a gap in the battle formation to allow the main force of Dongyi to escape! "

Emperor Xin muttered for a few times: "Dong Bohou is the leader of the eight hundred princes, but he is the current trouble for me. If I attack him hard, I may provoke chaos among the two hundred princes in the east."

"Your Majesty, why don't the Dongyi tribe attack Dongbohou's land? This matter is really strange."

"Your Majesty, a large number of generals from various tribes have been captured by us. I will go and interrogate him immediately. If I can find evidence that Dong Bohou deliberately led the Dongyi tribe's coalition forces to invade our great merchant, he will be severely punished!"

Di Xin waved his hand: "Then let's interrogate him quickly!"

"Your Majesty, please make your decision early on whether these prisoners of war will be killed, released, or brought back to Chaoge City."

"As I said just now, I will order the princes from all walks of life to contribute food and grass."

Di Xin said calmly:

“My ancestors all demonstrated their military exploits by the number of prisoners of war.

"This is my first expedition. You should let me, the merchant, see. In my hands, the foundation of the great business will become more solid, so that my people don't have to worry."

After hearing this, several ministers did not dare to persuade him any more. They bowed their heads and bowed before retreating.

Di Xin swept his sleeves and sat in a chair, constantly thinking about the next steps.

A name popped up in front of his eyes.

Ji Dan.

But when Di Xin thought about it, the name Ji Dan became very vague again. He remembered that his father once recruited Ji Dan to Chaoge City, and he was very familiar with him.

It's just that everything seems to be covered with a thin layer of fog.

In recent years, whenever Di Xin encounters some problems, he will subconsciously think of this name. It seems that as long as he finds this guy, everything can be easily solved.

'But he is the fourth son of the Xibohou Mansion and the son of Ji Chang. How can he be used by my great merchant? ’

'What's more, it is said that he went to the place of the gods in the heaven. Although this is not true or false, Ji Dan has disappeared now, and I can't even think of bringing him back to Chaoge City. ’

‘My father-in-law...heh. ’

Di Xin sneered and sat there with his eyes closed to relax.

Li Ping'an stared at this place with some thoughts in his eyes. The vision he had seen in Heaven seemed to originate from here...

Just when Li Ping'an was having some doubts, he wanted to make calculations directly through the way of heaven. This would save time and effort and would lead to less insights.

Outside the big tent, two ministers left and came back. After entering the big tent, they knelt down and saluted.

"Your Majesty!"

"Huh? I don't want to take a rest, but what's the important thing?"

"Your Majesty, this time you achieved a complete victory in the Eastern Campaign. All the tribes of Dongyi were defeated, the world was shaken, and the princes surrendered. You should report this victory to the heavens and ask all the ancestors to read it!"

"oh?"

Di Xin raised his eyebrows slightly and smiled slightly:

"What do you mean, dear?"

"Your Majesty, before you killed priests and animal-killing officials, there were actually some criticisms from various places. Your great victory this time, why not restore the ancient system, warn the heaven and earth, and let the gods in the heaven know your bravery, my king."

Di Xin leaned back slightly.

Just as he was about to nod, some thoughts came to his mind.

Sacrifice of human beings is too cruel.

But such thoughts soon faded away. Di Xin thought about how he was sitting in the carriage, leading the soldiers to charge into the battle and kill the Dongyi Allied Army, which was defeated, and he really wanted to laugh a few times.

"Then restore it! Now there is no shortage of sacrificial uses."

"Your Majesty is wise!"

The two ministers were ordered to retire and began to arrange for people to go to Chaoge City to make preparations in advance. They would hold a sacrificial ceremony when the king returned to Chaoge City.

Li Pingan watched this scene, closed his eyes and sighed.

His shadow quietly dissipated, and when he opened his eyes again, he was already in the apse of the Notre Dame Palace filled with golden light.

Mother Nuwa opened her eyes and looked at Li Pingan, and said warmly: "Have you seen it?"

"A matter of human sacrifice."

Li Pingan sighed:

"When Donghuang Taiyi left, he cut the knot quickly, but he never thought that now Emperor Xin has restored this tradition.

"I'm tired, let's destroy it, and just take care of Nanzhou."

Nuwa couldn't help but frown.

"I'm joking," Li Ping'an smiled bitterly, "The turmoil in the Shang Kingdom is right in front of us. I won't take action randomly. I also want to take advantage of this opportunity to learn more about the great truth."

Nuwa asked: "Ping An, what do you think caused the collapse of the Great Chamber of Commerce?"

"The chaos among the princes is obvious."

Li Pingan said:

"In the final analysis, the population in various places continues to grow, the princes are getting stronger and stronger, and the merchants have become relatively strong from the original absolute strength.

"The Shang royal family also became more and more bloated. Many royal families had their own private lands, but they were unwilling to submit court songs.

"There are too many loopholes in the taxation law. What the princes contribute is not much different from what it was many years ago. However, there are more and more merchants and they are becoming more and more extravagant. There are many drunkards among the merchants. Where does this wine come from? Just In exchange for grain for wine making, merchants will have a large amount of wealth flowing into the princes everywhere every year.

"This means that the social system must be reformed. The Shang Kingdom's system is no longer applicable."

Nuwa sighed: "Although we are ordinary people, when the war breaks out, all lives will be destroyed."

"War is just a means of the process of civilization and a way for conflicts among all strata of society to erupt."

Li Pingan sighed:

"There is no other way. I just hope that after this battle is over, there will be peace for eighteen hundred years."

Nuwa asked: "Can't Heaven set restrictions on every living being to avoid disputes?"

"The way of heaven will lead to death."

"Um?"

Li Ping'an said sternly: "Ping'an has actually deduced what the Holy Mother said a long time ago, which is to instill the thoughts of peace and non-dispute in everyone, and then deduce the world... that was originally controlled by the Western religion and refined Taoist weapons. Those small worlds are essentially the same.”

Nuwa nodded slowly.

Li Ping'an smiled and said: "The freedom of living beings actually lies in this. The essence of freedom is to reduce restrictions on living beings. How to balance restrictions and freedom itself is the balance that Heavenly Dao needs to constantly explore."

"You are looking more and more like a Taoist master."

"this……"

Li Ping'an shrugged: "We must complete the goal of opening up the world of stars, and we can't break our promises."

Nuwa said: "The Transcendent One should have made arrangements. You don't have to make yourself so tired."

"His arrangements are his arrangements, and my efforts are my efforts."

Li Pingan said calmly:

“This way I can accept it a little bit better.

"Recently, I have also discovered that as I continue to understand the Great Dao, the closer I am to the Dao, the farther I am from living beings, and gradually my heart has become a little unsettled.

“I see life and death as beings like flowers picked up in the morning and evening.

"There is only one thing that I cannot help but care about, and that is... everything I have now is a gift from that father.

"I can look at the world with cold eyes, but I can't look at myself with cold eyes, otherwise I will become numb and degenerate. I obviously have the opportunity to make up for the regrets that this old man has caused countless living beings, but in the end I just muddle along.

"I don't want that.

"So, his arrangement is just the last option for me. On this basis, I still have to do a lot of things."

Nuwa smiled softly: "Actually, you are also a victim. After all, he did so many things without your permission."

"I am the beneficiary. Being alive is the best reward. How can I be said to be a victim?"

Li Pingan’s shadow gradually dissipated:

"Your Majesty, you can always call me if you need anything. Now most of my soul is immersed in the sea of ​​Taoism, leaving support outside."

"good."

Nuwa gently raised her hand, and a willow leaf followed Li Ping'an's shadow.

The willow leaves turned into a Yao Qin song, which gave Li Ping'an a moment of relief.

He returned to Ji Dan's place and continued to read, deduce the sixty-four hexagrams, and listen to the voices of all sentient beings. He did not interfere in the affairs of Chaoge City.

As he said;

Just give him the cold shoulder.

The most important thing now is to liberate ordinary thoughts, and this is what Ji Dan can do.

…

The years are like fallen leaves outside the dungeon, dangling on the ground, and then being cleaned over and over again by the servants of the Xibohou Mansion.

News from Chaoge City and other places continued to reach the low table in front of Li Pingan through the strange beasts galloping on the ground and the birds soaring in the sky.

Ji Fa would come to the dungeon every now and then, and would persuade Ji Dan to go outside for activities if nothing happened.

Li Ping'an kept refusing.

It's nice to have him down there.

Emperor Xin's great victory in the Eastern Expedition rekindled the princes' awe for the great merchants.

It's not much, but it's still there.

Chaoge City once again started the sacrificial ceremony. The streets were packed with people and businessmen were stationed to watch. As the heads fell one after another, human and animal corpses were sacrificed, as if the national fortune of the great merchants was once again prosperous.

I don’t know which deity passed by, and deliberately thundered and rained during this sacrifice.

Li Ping'an didn't delve into this.

In addition to the sacrificial ceremony in Chaoge City, there are many small things here.

During Emperor Xin's Eastern Expedition, the merchant army collected grain and grass from everywhere on the way back. It was originally to feed the prisoners of war, but in the end it turned into collecting tolls. ——It means passing by and going to collect a fee.

Dozens of princes in the east presented many treasures and even took out many young slaves as rewards for the army, and all of them complained about this.

The Jiang family of Dongbo was reprimanded by Emperor Xin, but they gained further trust and support from the princes in the east.

This is really hard to comment on.

At the first court meeting when Emperor Xin returned to Chaoge City, Xibohou, Beibohou, and Nanbohou jointly presented a memorial, saying that the Jiang family of Dongbo had a disobedient heart, deliberately neglected the military situation, and refused to carry out the king's orders.

Then the officials became angry and denounced Dong Bohou.

Although Jiang Huanchu, the Marquis of Dongbo, was seriously ill, he struggled to get up from the bed, drove straight to Chaoge, and came to apologize.

When Jiang Huanchu arrived at Chaoge City, he presented dozens of carts of gifts, knelt in front of Emperor Xin and cried until he coughed up blood, and then he calmed down the anger of the ministers.

——This is actually a political drama within the Shang Dynasty.

The situation of the Shang Dynasty is now very clear.

For the Shang people, the 200 princes in the east and the Dongyi tribes are already the current major concerns. There are also cases of refusing the king's orders among the eastern passes.

Emperor Xin and his ministers will focus on this in the future.

Although the three Fangbos headed by Ji Chang are among the three dukes, they are basically honorary titles. They do not participate in the political affairs of the Shang people, and they have become important "bargaining chips" to contain the Dongbohou.

This actually won a valuable development opportunity for Xiqi.

Otherwise, they are always being watched by Emperor Xin and the Shang people. If the Xibohou Mansion expands its armaments a little, it may bring disaster.

Just as Li Pingan was watching this drama with great interest, wondering if there would be any "black swan" to break the fragile balance between the central and local governments of Shang, there was a blast from the east.

There was a problem at Chentang Pass.

Just two and a half years after Huo Zha was born, Chentang Pass became unusually lively.

The reason was the heavy rain caused by Taiyi Zhenren, which caused a group of shrimp monsters and fish monsters in the sea around Chentang Pass. Fishermen continued to suffer disasters, and Li Jing was exhausted to deal with them.

And these shrimp monsters and fish monsters gradually had a little "linkage" with the soldiers and horses trained by the Dragon Palace of the East China Sea.

This led to a tension in the relationship between Li Jing and the Dragon Palace of the East China Sea.

This incident was actually good for Li Jing.

Li Jing had an idea and sent someone to send the corpse of the ten-foot-long giant shrimp to Chaoge City to explain why he had not responded to the king's order in time and sent troops to attack the Dongyi tribe.

This move caused a huge shock in Chaoge City.

Merchants were not used to eating shrimps at this time, but they were shocked when they saw the monster corpses that were so fierce and threatening, but were actually just empty shells.

Emperor Xin was also very happy. He directly sent many rewards to Li Jing and encouraged Li Jing to continue to guard the eastern coastal gateway for the Shang Dynasty.

This was equivalent to tacitly approving the separatist regime of Li Jing, the "anti-monster general", against Chentangguan.

On this day, two groups of guests came to the dungeon of Ji Dan, the clone of Li Ping'an.

The first to arrive here were Taiyi Zhenren and Huanglong Zhenren. The two obviously had something to do, but they were too shy to speak and each shirked a few words.

Before Taiyi Zhenren could sigh and brew his feelings, thunder rumbled over Xiqi City.

A dark cloud floated from the east, and the city was windy, with lightning and thunder everywhere.

Then an old dragon wrapped in a sleight of hand rushed down, transformed into the appearance of Ao Guang, the Dragon King of the East China Sea, and appeared in the dungeon.

Taiyi Zhenren and Huanglong Zhenren had already dodged and hid.

Li Pingan held the carving knife and tilted his head to look at the old Dragon King. Seeing the other party's face full of grief and anger, he couldn't help asking:

"My dear, is there something wrong?"

"Your Majesty! You have to make the decision for this old minister!"