Chapter 107 The Crown Prince Should Not Compete with the People for Merit
She turned around and saw more than a dozen people coming outside the government office. Qingshan stopped the horse, Chu Xiwang jumped off, saluted the prince and Zhou Shaoyu.
"Miss Xie, are you okay on the journey?"
"Very good, thank you, Brother Chu."
Yu Shanhe pointed at Chu Xiwang and said to the prince, "This is Mr. Chu, the shopkeeper of the Chang'an branch of Sihai Pavilion. He has promised to donate 100,000 dan of rice to the people in the disaster-stricken counties in Lingxi."
Xie Yanyan: Aren’t you the behind-the-scenes manager of Sihai Pavilion?
100,000 shi, a huge sum, this is the annual profit of Sihai Pavilion, right?
The prince was very moved and stepped forward to hold Chu Xiwang's hand. Chu Xiwang took a step back and said respectfully: "It is my wish to save the people affected by the disaster."
Seemingly respectful, but actually distant.
The prince said generously: "On behalf of the people of Chang'an County, I would like to thank Manager Chu for his righteousness."
The locust plague was urgent, so there was no more small talk. The prince looked at Yu Shanhe and said, "Now that everyone is here, Lord Yu will tell everyone about the plan."
Yushanhe first reported the areas where the locust plague had passed. Currently, the swarms cover counties and cities including Pingliang, Pengyuan, Huating, Jingchuan, Changwu, Zhenyuan County, Ganyang County, and Lingtai County.
He then went on to talk about the separate locust control, but King Xi interrupted him and said, "Everyone wants to share your worries, and talented people have come from a long distance to gather here. I think that Your Highness should not compete with the people for credit, and the locust control should be left to them first."
The prince was secretly angry. "You are so good, Fu Rui. We were supposed to govern together, but you asked to govern separately. And now you say I am trying to steal the credit? Where do you think the lives of the people are concerned?"
"According to King Xi, let the heroes govern first, and I will take care of the bottom?"
"I think this is very good."
The prince was angry, but he didn't want to be the one "stealing credit", so he turned to Xie Yanyan and said, "Miss Xie, what do you think?"
Xie Yanyan: "Tell them to treat it first. If they can't treat it after two days, I will treat it."
"Two days? What a joke!" King Xi said, "Miss Xie, you are too narrow-minded. Even if you are worried that others will cure the disaster and you will return empty-handed, you should not embarrass others like this."
Xie Yanyan: "I can cure it in one day instead of two days."
"Haha, you boast like that, aren't you afraid that the sky will break?"
"The sky broke, and it just happened to rain to relieve the drought."
Zhou Shaoyu sneered and said, "You still want ten days or half a month? The insect swarm is only 600 miles away from Chang'an. It will reach Chang'an in two days!"
No one had anything to say.
"Prince Xi and the Zhenyang Sect, you can treat the plague first. If you can treat the plague, it will be a great achievement for generations to come. If you can't treat it, don't waste time."
After the prince finished speaking, King Xi laughed secretly.
[They are incompetent, yet they travel thousands of miles to grab capital]
[I'm telling you not to even have a chance to attack]
Xie Yanyan: If you can do it, go ahead, it’ll only take two days!
Liu Guangming, a disciple of the Lotus Sect master of the Zhenyang Sect, swung his whisk and said modestly, "Please choose first, King Xi."
King Xi was also modest and said, "Please let Taoist Liu choose first."
Why are you still arguing? The prince said, "Master Liu, please go first!"
Taoist Priest Liu responded with a "yes" in an expert manner, but he sneered in his heart.
[Control locusts? Who has controlled them since ancient times?]
[What do you mean the Crown Prince is modest, the King of Xi is modest? It's just that they have no other choice, so they just push me to be a shield.]
[That little girl can cure locusts? Only a royal fool would believe these liars]
Xie Yanyan: Well, you are not a liar, you are a charlatan.
Taoist Priest Liu’s method is to “cast magic”.
They chose the Dragon King Temple in Jingchuan County as the location for this spellcasting.
The offerings, incense, candles, sacrificial utensils and ritual instruments are all ready and the purification ceremony begins.
After the purification ceremony, incense and candles are lit, and the brothers and sisters who came with them chant scriptures and mantras to guide the arrival of the gods and protect the ritual site.
Then Taoist Priest Liu welcomed the gods. He chanted something, inviting the gods to come, and offered sacrifices to them.
They prayed and chanted for a while, praying to the gods and asking them to quickly eradicate the locust plague.
Xie Yanyan watched them set up the incense table and perform rituals in an orderly manner. It was obvious that everything was prepared in advance. Only the prince was really stupid enough to rush over at the last minute to help.
The spell-casting process was very complicated, starting from the afternoon until the evening of the next day. Lanterns and candles were hung in front of the Dragon King, illuminating the entire temple inside and out.
The common people, who were anxious about their crops, couldn't sleep and all lay on the wall to watch Taoist Liu perform the spell.
Taoist Priest Liu’s spellcasting has a strong sense of ritual.
Suddenly, a voice came from the crowd of people nearby, and she was stunned for a moment.
[Fortunately, I arrived in time]
[The Taoist priest is just chanting sutras and pretending to be a ghost]
[Fortunately, Wang Zhen told the prince how to cure locusts early on]
[According to Wang Zhen's method, killing the locusts with poison will be the time when the prince will become famous throughout the world]
[By now, the prince should be arriving in Kyoto soon, right? ]
Xie Yanyan was shocked. King Xi went to Kyoto?
Then this one must be a fake, no wonder she always felt weird about it.
They came over mountains and across rivers, but Xie Xiangxiang probably came by carriage? She was only two days later than them, so how could she run day and night on this road?
If I remember correctly, Xie Xiangxiang had a wound on her neck and fell into the water.
It seems that Xie Xiangxiang is not doing very well.
Just as she was listening to Xie Xiangxiang's thoughts and thinking about it, the Taoist priest's performance caused waves of exclamations.
Taoist Priest Liu shouted loudly, and struck out with his shining sword, and actually reached out and grabbed a three-foot-tall "insect-repelling ghost" with a black body, red hair and blue face!
"Hey, evil spirit, you must leave with the swarm of insects as soon as possible, or I will not stop until I kill the evil spirit with my three-foot-long sword in hand."
The evil little ghost struggled and whimpered in fear, but Taoist Liu showed no mercy and stabbed his neck with his sword.
In a flash, Xie Yanyan said to Zhou Shaoyu and Xie Anfeng who were sitting outside the carriage: "Quick, save that little ghost."
Xie Anfeng didn't react at once. Zhou Shaoyu picked up a stone without hesitation and threw it at Liu Guangming's wrist.
The sword in Liu Guangming's hand fell to the ground with a thud.
He was greatly surprised and shouted, "This little devil has great magical power and actually wants to retaliate against me."
"stop!"
Zhou Shaoyu rushed over and picked up the "little ghost".
Taoist Priest Liu was furious: "Prince Zhou, no matter how high your status is, you cannot interrupt my spell. This will ruin the locust control plan. What is your intention in destroying your majesty's plan to control locusts?"
Liu Guangming was anxious and panicked, and shouted: "Protect the Dharma, protect the Dharma."
The Taoists around him attacked Zhou Shaoyu with swords in hand, shouting to hand the evil spirit over to Taoist Liu to be killed.
Zhou Shaoyu stood up angrily, holding the little ghost in one hand and the sword in the other, and the Taoist priest set up a formation.
Xie Anfeng hurriedly asked Xie Yanyan: "Yan'er, what's going on?"
"That's not a ghost, it's a child, and they painted it." Xie Yanyan said, "Father, go and help the prince quickly, save the child, and expose the Taoist's behavior."
Xie Anfeng looked at Zhou Shaoyu and said to Xie Yanyan, "Dad doesn't need to go. He can handle it himself."
Sure enough, in just a moment, Zhou Shaoyu broke the sword formation and Liu Guangming was stepped on by him.
The confused people around shouted, "How can you hit a Taoist priest? He is a demon, how can you protect him?"
"Beat him, he is in league with the evil spirits."
Bricks and clods of earth fell towards Zhou Shaoyu.
(End of this chapter)
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