Chapter 302 I Taught My Uncle
In response to this question, Cui Jing looked at Chang Suining for a moment and whispered, "Your Highness, thank you very much."
Facing that gaze, he said: "I am a member of the conspiracy. Those who are about to be slaughtered are relatives of my late mother—"
Therefore, if he said he wanted to do something, even if it was not entirely selfish, there must be some selfish motive.
But she is different. One must know that ever since the existence of the gentry, the world has been divided into aristocratic families and poor families. Whether she stands on the side of the poor families or the Li royal family, she can and should regard the gentry as an opposing existence.
But at this moment she does not belong to any side. She just wants to protect the cultural river that has been passed down on this land for thousands of years and consider the long-term inheritance for future generations.
No matter what the world is like, she truly cherishes every inch of rivers and land under her feet.
Looking at the girl standing in the chaotic night, dressed in wet and muddy clothes, a voice appeared in Cui Jing's mind, his spirit fell into the quagmire, but his light was not concealed.
At this moment, he heard her say: "Because you are in the game, you know more clearly what the nobles own and control. It would be a pity to burn what they own and control. Besides, even if you have selfish motives, it is human nature."
"Which conflict in this world is not caused by selfishness? The emperor and the nobles are fighting out of selfishness on both sides. The emperor's use of this method to 'test' you is also out of selfishness--" She said indifferently: "Since everyone has selfishness, why do you have to be a selfless fool?"
She finally said to him: "The right and wrong in this world are mostly limited to a certain time and situation. After many years, the positions will be reversed, and wrong may become right, and right may become wrong. We just need to have a clear conscience at this moment."
Cui Jing looked at her deeply and nodded: "Yes, that's right."
"I wonder how Your Highness would like to try it?"
Chang Suining did not answer but asked: "What about you? Now that you have come back, what do you think?"
Cui Jing: "In my opinion, the Central Plains gentry cannot be saved from this disaster by external forces."
Even if we put aside the right and wrong, he led the Xuan Ce army to forcibly protect the various clans headed by the Zheng family, but the clan members outside Luoyang and Xingyang would not be able to escape the fate of being punished. Even this disaster would quickly affect more aristocratic families, including the Cui family, which would only make the situation worse.
The decline of the Central Plains gentry was inevitable when they decided to join forces with Xu Zhengye, and they also needed to pay the price for what they had done.
"Since external forces cannot save us, we can only save ourselves." Chang Suining said, "If we want to find a way to save ourselves, we can only save others, and we can no longer save the nobles."
"Yes." Cui Jing said, "The only way now is to survive in the face of death."
When the two looked at each other, they already understood each other's thoughts.
"Since we are saving ourselves, we need someone of some importance among them to discuss countermeasures." Chang Suining said, "The Zheng family of Xingyang is the leader of the noble families in the Central Plains. Time is running out. How about you secretly send someone to Xingyang to capture some influential Zheng family members and bring them here?"
"No need to kidnap them." Cui Jing turned his head and looked to the side, saying, "This gentleman's surname is Zheng, his given name is Chao, and his courtesy name is Guancang."
"Zheng Chao..." Chang Suining asked, feeling quite surprised: "Is he your biological uncle?"
Cui Jing nodded. This was his mother's only brother.
"My uncle is different from the ordinary Zheng family members. His story is a long one."
Chang Suining had heard a little about Zheng Chao's affairs. He was the eldest son of the eldest branch of the Zheng family's direct lineage. His father died early and he inherited the position of the head of the Zheng family. But after only a few years, he was dismissed from the position by Zheng's clan members on the grounds that he was "weak and sickly, and unable to bear the heavy responsibility of being the head of the family."
The change of power of the head of a noble family is a big event. A suspicious person like Chang Suining, who had heard about this matter in his early years, smelled the smell of conspiracy. Now that he was in close contact with this matter, he couldn't help but ask: "...It is rumored that your uncle is ill, is it true or false?"
"Half true, half false." Cui Jing said: "My uncle is indeed ill, but he claimed that he suffered from a brain disease."
"What kind of brain disease?"
Can the rejuvenation center cure it?
Cui Jing: "I don't agree with the stubborn illness of the aristocratic family's way of dealing with the world."
"..."Chang Suining subconsciously looked at his head.
She never thought that this disease had a family history.
Cui Jing then told her about the many rebellious actions her uncle Zheng Chao had taken when he was young. For example, he had tried to change the system of the aristocracy. He proposed to share literature with the poor people in the world, to open more schools, and to share Zheng's collection of books with the world so that students all over the world would have books to read.
He was full of enthusiasm and his eyes were shining, as if he had finally waited for the time to realize his wish. This stunned the Zheng family members, and for a moment they could not tell whether the head of the Xinren family was stupid or crazy. They could not help but look back at the family tree, wanting to know which bloodline had such a huge mistake. They also asked experts to look at the feng shui and perform rituals to exorcise evil spirits, but all were ineffective.
After several years, looking at the still crazy young head of the family, everyone gradually reached a consensus that whoever wanted to take this broken head of the family could do so, but they couldn't keep him anyway.
Hence, there is the saying “a person with many illnesses is unable to shoulder heavy responsibilities”.
After hearing this, Chang Suining had even more respect for Mr. Zheng, and suddenly realized that he was the originator of the rebelliousness of the aristocracy.
Soon, she and Cui Jing went to meet the founder.
Yuan Miao still insisted on kneeling there. Seeing Chang Suining and the other two coming over, she wiped her tears and tried to leave.
But Chang Suining said, "Stay and listen."
Yuan Miao paused and subconsciously looked at Chang Suining.
"Mr. Zheng." Chang Suining raised his hand and saluted Zheng Chao.
Upon hearing this, Zheng Chao looked at his nephew and said "tsk".
It hasn't been such a long time and he has already revealed his secrets.
Meeting his uncle's strange gaze, Cui Jing pretended not to notice.
"I wonder what Mr. Zheng has planned for the future?" Chang Suining asked directly.
Zheng Chao nodded confidently: "Yes, I have planned it all."
Chang Suining's eyes showed anticipation.
Cui Jing wanted to persuade her not to expect anything, because according to his understanding of his uncle...
"Tomorrow I will return to Xingyang, eat and drink my fill, bathe and change my clothes, and wait at home for the imperial envoy Li Xian to come and kill me."
Chang Suining: “…”
Yuan Miao: “…”
Cui Jing was used to it and had no reaction.
"Mr. Zheng has made great contributions to flood control this time, and I have just heard from Commander Cui that Mr. Zheng was not aware of the Zheng family's collusion with Xu Zhengye." Chang Suining said.
"Of course I don't know. I have never had the right to discuss matters in the Zheng family." Zheng Chao said indifferently: "But whether you know or not, what does it matter? Those people who died unjustly in Luoyang City, even those women and children, do they all know about it? They don't know, but they still have to die."
"So, this matter is wrong and should not be done this way." Chang Suining looked at him and said, "If this matter is allowed to go on like this, once it becomes an irreversible trend, more innocent people will die in vain, so we need you to come forward and stop this."
"…Who?" Zheng Chao was stunned for a moment: "Me?"
He seemed to have heard a joke, laughed, and said, "Zheng has also heard about General Ning Yuan's deeds. The general has the ability to save people, but I don't."
"No, this is something that only you can do, sir."
Facing those determined eyes, Zheng Chao was silent for a moment, then looked at Cui Jing with a smile: "Ling An, the lobbyist you found is much better at speaking than you."
As he spoke, he stood up from the millstone. His feet were numb from sitting cross-legged for too long. He straightened his clothes and sighed self-deprecatingly: "Okay, I'll find a place to sleep. I have to rush back to Xingyang tomorrow."
As he said this, he dragged his numb feet and was about to leave, taking one deep step and one shallow step.
"Mr. Zheng tried to save the Zheng family once many years ago, why not try again now?"
The voice coming from behind made Zheng Chao pause.
Cui Jing looked at the back and said, "Uncle is not afraid of death, so why should he be afraid of a try?"
After a moment, Zheng Chao slowly turned around and looked at the two people who were talking. He raised his finger and pointed over there: "Who is giving you the idea now?"
He suddenly felt that this girl did not seem like a lobbyist hired by his nephew.
"It's her." Cui Jing turned to look at Chang Suining: "Uncle, you should believe her."
Zheng Chao then looked Chang Suining squarely in the eye: "General Ning Yuan, why do you want to help the Zheng family?"
Chang Suining shook his head: "I am not trying to help the Zheng family. Like Mr. Zheng, I want the knowledge of the world's nobles to be taught to the world, rather than disappearing."
After being stunned for a moment, Zheng Chao looked at his nephew. Was this kid really going to tell everything to others?
He laughed at himself: "When I was young, I said this, and everyone regarded me as a madman... Of course, it is still the same now. I am a well-known madman in the Zheng family."
Chang Suining smiled at him and said, "This is a good thing. Only crazy people are good at doing things."
Zheng Chao looked at her, somewhat curiously, somewhat tentatively: "How should I, a madman, act?"
Chang Suining: "Will Mr. Zheng kill someone?"
Zheng Chao: "Who did you kill?"
Kill Li Xian? If they were to talk like this, he would really go to sleep.
"Kill the nobles and protect the Zheng family." Chang Suining said.
Zheng Chao was stunned: "How to kill?"
"Of course, I'll kill him with a knife."
Zheng Chao was shocked: "Did he really kill someone?"
Isn't this a metaphor? He waved his hands quickly: "...That won't work, I've never killed anyone!"
He added: "I have never killed a chicken!"
Cui Jing said in time: "I will teach you, uncle. This is not difficult to learn."
Zheng Chao's lips trembled. Looking at his caring nephew, he couldn't say no.
If his sister knew that her son was going to teach his uncle to kill people, how would she react? ...
During the next two days, not to mention other places, the people inside and outside Xingyang City were short of rice and almost wanted to riot, but were suppressed by the government.
The magistrate of Xingyang County was so anxious that his hair fell out in clumps. When he was unable to hold on, a savior suddenly showed up.
The savior was extremely generous and donated 10,000 dan of rice, but he said he had a condition.
The magistrate of Xingyang County thanked him repeatedly. He would be willing to offer ten or a hundred conditions, or even to sell his soul, because that was ten thousand shi of grain! The conditions proposed by the other party were not difficult to meet. He only had to open the altar in the city to pray for the rain to stop.
Upon hearing this condition, the magistrate of Xingyang County almost burst into tears. Where did this living Bodhisattva come from?
On that day, many porridge stalls were set up inside and outside Xingyang City. The Xingyang County Magistrate announced the truth that all the rice was donated by the Zheng family to help the victims.
The victims who had experienced hunger were grateful for the Zheng family's generosity.
Zheng Ji, the head of the Zheng family, was furious. He had been busy arranging important matters these days and had no idea about the donation of rice. After questioning, he found out that it was Zheng Chao who did it.
"This madman." Zheng Ji sneered, "Does he think that as long as he donates some rice and wins some people's hearts, he can escape this disaster?"
What's the point of relying on those lowly common people who are about to starve to death to save the Zheng family? After so many years, his cousin is still so naive and stupid, and has wild ideas.
As the person who succeeded Zheng Chao as the head of the Zheng family and planned the cooperation with Xu Zhengye, Zheng Ji has always been ruthless. He immediately ordered people to find out the clan members and servants who participated in the grain donation and punished them severely. When he sent people to look for Zheng Chao, he heard that Zheng Chao was offering sacrifices to the heavens in the city and personally went to the altar to pray for blessings.
Zheng Ji sneered again: "The Zheng family's reputation has really been ruined by him!"
Now is a critical moment, and he didn't want to pay attention to Zheng Chao's crazy behavior, but he soon learned that Zheng Chao's prayer this time was far crazier than he imagined.
Taking advantage of the fact that the rain had subsided a little, many people who had received help from the Zheng family spontaneously went to the place where Zheng Chao prayed to express their gratitude.
On the high altar, Zheng Chao, who was sitting cross-legged and chanting scriptures with a dozen monks, slowly stood up as he watched more and more people coming here.
Under the gaze of the crowd, he walked to the front of the altar and said loudly: "You may not know me, but I am the eldest son of the Zheng family in Xingyang, and the previous head of the Zheng family, Zheng Chao, Zheng Guancang. Today, I am praying here to express my gratitude for the sins of the Zheng family and to seek forgiveness from the gods and Buddhas in heaven!"
The people around immediately became noisy upon hearing this, and no one understood what he meant.
"The natural disaster that hit the Heluo area of the Central Plains this time is all the fault of the Zheng family!" The figure's eyes were red, and his body was already soaked: "The Zheng family has committed a serious crime, colluding with the thief Xu, angering the heavens, and their crimes are unforgivable!"
When these words fell to the ground, the people were in an uproar.
The former head of the Zheng family...actually pleaded guilty on behalf of the Zheng family in public? !
The news of the Luoyang nobles had already spread, and some people secretly said that the next one would be the Zheng family of Xingyang. However, the Zheng family was the leader of the nobles in the Central Plains, and they had deep roots. No one could predict what the outcome would be...
But at this moment, the eldest master of the Zheng family confessed his guilt in public!
The whole place was in an uproar, the news spread quickly, and more and more people flocked to the altar.
Zheng Chao's crazy behavior also reached the ears of Zheng Ji and others.
Zheng Chao had been living in a muddle-headed state these years and had become like a useless person. Suddenly, such a scene happened and everyone in the Zheng family was caught off guard.
Hearing that Zheng Chao actually pleaded guilty on behalf of the Zheng family in public, the clan members all turned pale: "...Why don't you bring him back to the clan as soon as possible!"
But then he heard the servants say in panic that there were people secretly guarding the altar, and each of them was very skilled, so they couldn't go forward to bring Zheng Chao back.
"It seems that my cousin has really gone completely crazy." Zheng Ji stood up and said, "I will go and bring him back personally."
At this time, it is up to him, the head of the family, to step in and try to save the situation.
As for the rest——
He had just received news that Li Xian had led his troops to Xingyang, and should have passed the Xingyang city gate by now.
"Uncles, please stay and follow the plan."
…
Good night everyone~ Today's thoughts on current events, enjoy life while you can, and try to do what you like, friends (end of this chapter)
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