He was a middle-aged man in his early forties, his navy blue gown was stained with mud, he had a regular appearance, but there seemed to be a melancholy look between his eyebrows, his beard, which had not been groomed for some time, looked a little messy, adding to his sense of decadence and depression.
At first glance, he looks like a typical middle-aged intellectual who is frustrated and unhappy.
"This time it was this gentleman who accompanied me to inspect the Yellow River dike and temporarily clear the important roads." Cui Jing introduced him, but it seemed as if he had not introduced anything at all.
He did not mention the other person's name or identity at all, only calling him "Mr."
But Cui Jing clearly explained the contribution of this gentleman: "The Yellow River has been blocked for many years and the dikes have been in disrepair. If it were not for the guidance of the gentleman, the Yellow River would have overflowed by now."
Cui Jing never deliberately exaggerates when speaking. Chang Suining was filled with respect. He raised his hand and bowed deeply to him, saying sincerely, "Sir, you are so kind."
This is by no means a compliment.
Since the flood disaster began, thousands of houses have collapsed in nearby states. She has witnessed too many casualties and the tragic scene of farmland becoming a vast ocean.
If the Yellow River bursts its banks again, the situation will only get worse, and they may not even have the chance to build a shelter.
Looking at that man, She Cai also had respect in her eyes, and couldn't help but say: "Sir, this great deed has saved countless lives, and you should be commended to the court!"
The man smiled bitterly and said, "I have done my best. The Yellow River embankment has been in bad condition for a long time, and the problem has been delayed until now. Ling An and I have only forcibly dredged and reinforced it. We have done everything we can now. If the rain doesn't stop, those who deserve to die will die within five days."
These discouraging words made She Cai not know how to respond for a moment.
"Well, life is nothing but death sooner or later." The man turned around, waded through the water that was over his ankles, and walked to higher ground, muttering, "Rise and fall have their own destiny and cause and effect. If God wants us to die, what can we mortals do?"
Shepherd's Purse opened his mouth and said, "This gentleman is really depressed. If he goes into the enemy camp, one person may bring down the morale of the entire army. We will all drop our swords and guns and cry together."
The news of Cui Jing's arrival did not alarm the disaster victims. The county officials only thought that someone had come to support General Ningyuan, and they did not know that the visitor was the great commander Cui.
Chang Suining and Cui Jing walked to a slightly higher place, sat down on a rock and talked. Adian was about to follow them, but Yuanxiang pulled him aside and said, "... General Adian, why is there another person next to Madam Chang?"
This was purely a conversation starter to divert Ah Dian's attention. Ah Dian lowered his voice and said mysteriously and proudly: "I picked it up!"
Then he whispered, "But you have to stay away from her, she bites!"
Yuanxiang was surprised and continued asking questions, successfully arresting Adian.
"You should have known everything about Luoyang." Chang Suining sat on a huge rock, stretched out his tired legs, looked at the lights in front of him where the disaster victims gathered, and said, "You came back at this time, aren't you asking for trouble?"
It was inevitable that Emperor Shengce wanted to use this incident to wipe out the Luoyang gentry, and he specifically ordered Cui Jing to lead the Xuan Ce army to stay and suppress the rebellion, obviously as a "test" in his intention.
Because the target of the Emperor of the Holy Ce is not just the Luoyang gentry, the knife will soon fall on the head of the Zheng family of Xingyang, and the Zheng family is the maternal family of Cui Jing's biological mother Zheng.
There was a system in Dasheng that relatives should protect each other, so there was an unwritten rule that relatives should avoid suspicion when handling cases. For example, in the previous Pei case, Emperor Shengce ordered Yao Yi, the Minister of the Dali Temple, to temporarily avoid it.
This is also a reflection of the emperor's love for his subjects.
But this time, the emperor specially ordered Cui Jing to stay and suppress the gentry who shared the same roots with Cui Jing. If the Zheng family was involved in the future, Cui Jing could certainly avoid suspicion and not show up, but talking about avoiding suspicion at that time would be tantamount to watching coldly. Such an attitude would undoubtedly be equivalent to asking Cui Jing to betray the gentry and draw a clear line with them.
A country has its own laws, a clan has its own rules, and the clan laws of many large clans are, in a certain sense, even above the external laws of the country. Cui Jing would therefore bring infamy and be despised by the gentry of the world and even people outside the gentry.
And if Cui Jing dared to disobey the imperial order and protect the Zheng family, he would be regarded as a accomplice if he was not careful.
The move of the Emperor of the Holy Ce was to force Cui Jing to make the final choice. At this time, the imperial power was precarious, and the emperor no longer needed a son of the Cui family to control the military power of the Xuan Ce Army. Even if she wanted to take back the sword, she also needed a reasonable reason to buffer the turmoil brought about by the act of seizing the sword.
But this flood was beyond everyone's expectations. Because Cui Jing went to the Yellow River to repair the dam, he was able to temporarily stay away from the center of the vortex, thus avoiding the breeding of some criticisms and cutting off the opportunity for some people to take advantage of the situation.
"You didn't have to rush back so quickly." Chang Suining said.
"Yes." Cui Jing also looked at the sparse firelight with her and said slowly: "I know."
But he decided to come back.
The middle-aged man in scholar's clothes sat alone on a piece of graphite, looking far away in the direction of Xingyang. As time passed, the depressed expression on his face gradually became numb.
At this moment, a thin figure came over and knelt down in front of him in the darkness.
"Uncle Zheng!"
The man was a little surprised: "You are..."
The girl kneeling beside him raised her head and said, "I am the eldest daughter of the Yuan family, Yuan Miao. I met Uncle Zheng with my grandfather two years ago."
"It's you." The man sighed almost imperceptibly: "I heard that your grandfather committed suicide in Luoyang Prison, and your father also..."
Tears welled up in the eyes of the fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl: "That's why I came to Xingyang to ask the Zheng family for help to rescue my brother!"
But the man shook his head weakly.
The girl knelt down and took a step forward, bowing her head: "Although I am young, I know right from wrong. I know that the Yuan family did collude with the rebels. The Yuan family has done something wrong and should bear the consequences, but this mistake should not bring disaster to the lives of my brother and other ignorant children!"
"Li Xian was brutal and cruel. He would torture and kill people for no reason. He even surrounded the houses of his unaware relatives and did not allow them to enter or leave. Those who resisted were killed. Those who did not dare to resist were trapped to death, starved to death, or drowned in more than ten days! Many of them were innocent women and children. Even according to the law, they should not be killed!"
"They also killed the famous people of each tribe and offered sacrifices to the heaven in Luoyang City... Those who refused to surrender were even dragged and humiliated on the long streets... Even ordinary people and scholars could not bear to see it, and they knew that scholars could be killed but not humiliated!"
Tears of grief and anger welled up in the girl's eyes, and her voice was filled with hatred: "They are acting like this, clearly just wanting to vent their anger. It's not enough to just kill us all, they also want to smash the backbones of the scholars in the world!"
The man closed his eyes, his eyelashes trembling slightly, and said nothing.
"Not only that, they also took advantage of the flood to extort money from innocent people in the name of hunting down fugitives. They..."
"No need to say more. The current situation has made it so. Even if I know how many mistakes they have made, it will be useless." The man interrupted her and said, "This matter is not my business. I am no longer the head of the Zheng family. I am just a useless person and cannot help you at all... Since you are lucky enough to save your life, you should leave as soon as possible. The farther away the better."
"Uncle Zheng..."
The man looked towards Xingyang, his eyes dead silent: "The Zheng family can't escape this disaster either."
This will be a devastating disaster for the entire Central Plains gentry, and no one can escape.
Or rather, he had long anticipated that this day would come. Everything that rises must fall, and the decline of the aristocratic families was already inevitable.
But he had never imagined that the way it would wither would be such a cruel and brutal massacre... Although it had existed, it also had the basis for its existence. Would a thousand-year-old foundation be destroyed in an instant?
The man clenched his cold fingers, suppressing the helpless reluctance.
The girl still knelt there and refused to get up, tears streaming down her face.
In the dim light, Chang Suining looked at the figure kneeling on the ground and said, "That is the girl from Luoyang Yuan's family."
The girl from aristocratic family had no experience in escaping, and there was the Yuan family emblem on her dagger.
Cui Jing asked: "Why did you help?"
"She asked me to save her." Chang Suining supported himself with his hands at his sides. "I asked her if she needed help. She nodded, so I saved her."
Cui Jing raised the corner of his mouth slightly and said in a low voice: "Your Highness really responds to every request."
Chang Suining also smiled, but her smile did not reach her eyes. She looked around and said, "I have never thought of intervening in the dispute between the nobles and the imperial power. I do not have the ability or position to intervene. I think that whether it was the Pei family or the Changsun family, they have already lost. The winner is the king and the loser is the bandit. It is understandable that they are willing to accept defeat."
"I have never thought of intervening in the disaster of the Luoyang nobles. In fact, if you think about it, their disaster was also caused by me. I killed Xu Zhengye, and Xu Zhengye's defeat came first, and then they suffered the disaster they are facing now."
"And the next one is the Zheng family of Xingyang. The Zheng family is also among the four great families, and they are your maternal family." While Chang Suining was speaking, he turned his head and looked at Cui Jing who was standing beside him: "Cui Jing, do you blame me?"
Cui Jing also looked at her: "If I say it's strange——"
"That's strange." Chang Suining said without hesitation: "But even if it happens again, a hundred times, I will definitely kill Xu Zhengye."
Looking at her like this, Cui Jing's voice became even softer: "I know."
He said, "If it were me, I would do the same."
Therefore, he could not blame her. He was not a three-year-old child who was incapable of distinguishing true cause and effect. Even if she had not killed Xu Zhengye, the disaster of the world's gentry had already been written.
Since the previous dynasty, the imperial power has wanted to get rid of the control of the gentry. Suppressing the gentry has been a concern for many emperors and is also the wish of the common people all over the world.
The king of the time proclaimed himself emperor as a woman, and the conflict of political interests further intensified the contradiction between imperial power and the gentry, which has now become a life-and-death situation that is inevitable.
Following the question of "strange or not strange", Chang Suining asked Cui Jing: "Do you recognize the existence of the system of aristocratic families?"
Cui Jing looked ahead and said in a low voice: "What do you think, Your Highness?"
Chang Suining looked at the young man beside him who was covered in mud and had just returned from dredging sand from the Yellow River.
He left home at a young age and joined the army at the age of twelve under a false name. Over the years, he has endured countless insults from the gentry.
"The existence of the aristocracy is indeed unfair. Putting aside the suppression of the imperial power, this injustice is even more unfair to the poor scholars in the world." Cui Jing said: "Its tyranny and mistakes are known to everyone except it."
"Many times, whether something is fair or not depends on the position of each person. It is difficult for the beneficiaries to realize, or they will not easily admit the injustice." Chang Suining said: "You are in it, and you can detect the abnormality very early with your own consciousness. It is actually a very rare thing."
So, in the final analysis, this is the root cause of Cui Jing’s “rebellion”.
What he wanted in his heart was completely contrary to the interests of his family. He could not agree with the way of survival of the aristocratic families such as the Cui family, so he took a path that was not recognized by his clansmen.
"I was naive when I was young, and I tried to persuade my grandfather. He was not a rigid and inflexible patriarch of the aristocratic family, but the tradition passed down from generation to generation is like sailing. The helmsman alone cannot easily change the direction of the ship." Cui Jing said: "But I have always believed that everything depends on human efforts, and there is not only a dead end ahead."
Chang Suining: "Can I assume that when you chose to join the army, you were actually trying to make another plan for the Cui family?"
"Yes." Cui Jing answered seriously: "But not all."
Chang Suining couldn't help but look at him and said sincerely: "You are a very good general and a very good member of the Cui family."
He woke up very early, but was destined not to be understood.
Chang Suining did not ask Cui Jing's opinion again, nor did she insist on discussing the merits and demerits of the nobles. She looked into the distance and said, "This is the Central Plains, the heart of China. It has always been said that whoever controls the Central Plains controls the world. This place is not only a place where military strategists fought, but also because it has been accumulated for thousands of years, it has formed a brilliant and profound Heluo culture."
Unfortunately, the foundation of Heluo culture is still in the hands of these noble families, and most of it is still passed down from generation to generation by them.
"These things that have been passed down for a long time have given the people etiquette to follow and the country laws to govern. If they were to collapse completely overnight and burn down, it would take who knows how long it would take to recreate them."
These etiquettes and laws are related to political stability.
If these cultures are cut off, the consequences will not only be immediate, but will last for generations to come.
Just like the bright stars, if they become a hidden danger or threat when connected together, they can be scattered and made dim temporarily, but if they are crushed completely, would that be too much?
Moreover, the situation this time is particularly special. Man-made disasters collide with natural disasters. The two happening simultaneously are enough to destroy all seemingly solid foundations.
"There is no right or wrong in political struggles, but I don't agree with Li Xian's act of killing everyone." Chang Suining said bluntly: "These cultural foundations that have been passed down for thousands of years should not be destroyed by slaughter."
This time, as usual, she didn't want to discuss right or wrong, she just wanted to do what she wanted to do.
So, she wanted to intervene and try to find a "compromise".
Chang Suining stood up and looked at Cui Jing: "Do you want to try it together?"
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