The punishment and massacre of the Heluo gentry caused greater turmoil among the gentry and the court than this natural disaster of floods.
However, the most widely circulated story among the common people is the story of General Ningyuan and the eldest master of the Zheng family praying for blessings in Xingyang and it working.
Firstly, such stories, which are full of mystery and are like manifestations of divine intervention, have a natural appeal to the general public. From an eighty-year-old man to a five-year-old child, from a woman living in the inner chamber to a beggar knocking on a bowl on the street, anyone can talk about them. There is no barrier to entry.
Furthermore, in comparison, it is too dangerous to talk about the political struggles of those aristocratic families. Today, due to the turmoil in various places and the continuous wars, the court has not hesitated to use cruel officials to suppress the rumors and statements that are unfavorable to the saint. The slightest carelessness in words and deeds will bring disaster.
Those great noble families were too far away from the common people like them, so they could just listen to them for excitement. If they really wanted to have fun, they would have to pray for something that would work, and first of all, they would have to keep their heads stable.
Moreover, a successful prayer, in a certain sense, represents the approval of heaven, and those who successfully pray have always been regarded as the embodiment of auspiciousness.
The natural disaster turned into auspicious sign, just like a holy totem representing hope emerging from the mud. For a time, the prayers in Xingyang were talked about everywhere and quickly became the first choice of storytellers in major teahouses.
"... before the culprit was sacrificed in front of the people, General Ningyuan and Zheng Dalang knelt on the altar for three days and three nights without eating a single drop of rice..."
"On the third day, when the Yellow River was about to flood, the city of Xingyang was filled with cries of grief. It was so miserable..."
"General Ningyuan wanted to evacuate the people first and leave this place, but the people of Xingyang City refused to leave and vowed to live and die with General Ningyuan and Xingyang!"
"The people of the city were so grateful that they worked so hard to sew two umbrellas for the people as a gift... Guess what?"
Facing those expectant gazes, the storyteller slapped the wooden stick with great energy and said in a rhythmic voice: "Once the umbrella of the people is opened, the dark clouds will disperse, the sky will be filled with golden light, and the rain will stop immediately!"
The audience in the hall were suddenly in an uproar, with countless exclamations of surprise.
But the storyteller clapped his hands again, suddenly stood up, and said in an even more powerful voice: "But this is not the most bizarre thing!"
"It is said that a giant dragon suddenly appeared on the bank of the overflowing Yellow River, roaring like a dragon. The dragon opened its mouth wide and sucked the overflowing flood into its belly, then turned into clouds and disappeared!"
The hall was in an uproar, everyone looked shocked and surprised, some even rolled their eyes, thinking that the storyteller was making up stories, who on earth would believe in such a brainless book!
The cheers from all around gave him the answer - good fellow, everyone believed it except him! The eye rolls from a few people were not enough to affect the atmosphere from becoming boiling.
"...No wonder even my wife said that General Ning Yuan was the reincarnation of a star general. I didn't believe it before!" The man who spoke slapped his thigh with a serious expression and fell into a deadly reflection.
It's not his fault that he was not firm in his position. Think about it, a little girl of only sixteen or seventeen years old could kill the bandit Xu in one battle and rule the world, and pray for the rain to stop in the Central Plains. How could she be an ordinary person? Another person asked the storyteller with a longing look what the dragon looked like. The storyteller described it vividly, as if he was squatting in the muddy sand beside the Yellow River at that time and saw it with his own eyes.
When telling stories, one must use half-truths and exaggerations to attract people's attention.
Moreover, this book was brought to him by a girl yesterday through her maid, and it is said that it also contains real evidence for reference.
"Well said, reward!"
From the second floor, a young girl's cheerful voice came down, and several silver ingots were quickly delivered to the table in front of the storyteller.
The storyteller kept bowing and expressing his gratitude, and more and more silver and copper coins were thrown at him.
"...Sister Wu's notebook is so well written!" Sitting in the private room next to the fence on the second floor, Yao Xia lowered his voice and said excitedly.
The other girls chimed in, and the audience's enthusiastic response lasted for a long time.
Wu Chunbai looked downstairs and smiled, "It's not that my script is well written, it's that this incident should have caused such a sensation."
"It's all good! The deeds are good, and the book is good too!"
"By the way, A-Xia, please continue to tell us what your distant relative said about Madam Chang in the letter..."
A group of girls were chattering here. In a private seat not far away, Yao Yi, dressed in casual clothes, was sitting alone. In front of him was a pot of tea, two plates of snacks, and a plate of pine nuts.
Yao Tingwei was peeling pine nuts slowly in his hands, glancing in the direction of his niece from time to time.
His niece couldn't hide the truth. He had long known that the storytelling scripts that were very popular in the capital these days were all written by the girl from the Wu family.
Do these girls know what they are doing? It should be noted that not everyone has books to read nowadays, so to be honest, among the people, turning something into a play script or a nursery rhyme is the most extensive, fastest and easiest way to spread it to people's hearts.
And her deeds, one after another, with the help of these girls, were about to become legends.
If her deeds became a legend, she would no longer be a "person" in the ordinary sense, but would become the embodiment of a legend.
Do these girls know what this means? Does she know it herself?
How could she not know? She herself had previously claimed that she had received guidance from the savior immortal!
Thinking of her "cousin" who had said something shocking when they parted at Dayun Temple last year, Yao Yi felt like sitting on pins and needles, his heart was in ups and downs, and a dangerous idea crawled in his mind.
Listening to the voices about her in the hall, Yao Yi felt his body alternately cold and boiling, and every pore in his body was expanding and contracting. A voice in his mind was asking - is there really such a thing as God's will? He also whispered to himself.
"Master, what did you say?" Amid the commotion all around, the servant bent down and asked.
"Check out." Yao Yi slapped the pine nuts in his hand on the table and stood up nervously: "Go home."
The servant agreed and took out a few silver coins and put them on the table. Seeing that his master was peeling a bunch of pine nuts but didn't eat any of them, the servant stuffed them all into his own mouth and followed him with satisfaction.
The storytelling content in this teahouse spread quickly.
The people spread the news by word of mouth, and the storytellers in the street teahouses suddenly felt a sense of crisis. In just one day, a dragon appeared!
Okay, okay, that’s how we play it, wait!
Someone picked up a pen and wrote frantically: "...In a flash, the umbrellas of the people opened, hundreds of birds circled above the altar, and the dark clouds suddenly turned into colorful auspicious clouds. From a distance, the cloud actually looked like an immortal..."
Driven by a sense of crisis, the storytelling industry in Beijing produced countless bizarre but extremely attractive versions of the story.
Speaking of a sense of crisis, Wei Miaoqing has had some recently.
A month ago, Yao Xia found out that a distant relative showed up out of nowhere and said that he worked under General Ning Yuan. Therefore, he would often write to Yao Xia to tell her about Chang Suining's recent situation.
At first Wei Miaoqing still had some doubts, but after reading a few letters, he realized that there was indeed such a person.
As a result, Yao Xia's status among them rose rapidly and she became extremely popular. This made Wei Miaoqing, who was used to being the center of attention since childhood, quite jealous. She began to frequently recall the wonderful feeling of being surrounded by her sisters when her brother was ordered to go to Jiangnan to quell Li Yi's rebellion.
Driven by vanity, Wei Miaoqing, who once relied on her brother for support, once again set her sights on her brother.
"…The Central Plains has suffered a severe disaster this time. The Saint will surely send an imperial envoy to provide disaster relief and comfort the victims, right? Brother, why don't you offer to go yourself?"
Seeing that her brother had been burning incense twice a day to pray for Madam Chang who was on the march, Wei Miaoqing was sure that her brother had already fallen deeply in love with her, so she lowered her voice and said, "In this way, her brother can also meet Madam Chang."
"..." Hearing this, Wei Shuyi felt a little nervous for no reason.
Looking at her brother who was particularly handsome, Wei Miaoqing suddenly thought: "Mrs. Chang is out there fighting wars, providing disaster relief and praying for blessings. She is so tired. It would be nice for her to see my handsome brother and relax for a while..."
"..." Wei Shuyi looked at his sister with a smile on his face: "You don't have to tell me everything in your heart."
Wei Miaoqing suddenly covered her mouth. She was not a fool and did not intend to tell him the truth, but she somehow blurted it out.
Looking at his sister who looks exactly like his own mother, Wei Shuyi feels even more melancholy about the possibility that his sister might become the Crown Princess in the future.
At this time, his melancholy sister suddenly felt distressed: "No, that great governor Cui is in Xingyang. With him around, my brother can no longer be compared to me in terms of beauty."
Wei Shuyi felt like an arrow had hit his heart. Seeing that his sister was unable to produce ivory, he stood up with a respectable and gentle smile, untied the sash around his waist, and handed it to his sister: "The affairs of the court are not a joke as you say. You don't have to worry about this matter."
Wei Miaoqing subconsciously took the purse and opened it. There were dozens of golden beans inside. He couldn't help but ask, "Brother, why did you give me this?"
Wei Shuyi had already turned around and left, without even looking back, he said, "When you have time, you can go to Huichun Pavilion and get some medicine for your condition."
“……!” Wei Miaoqing gritted his teeth and stomped his feet.
…
Just as Wei Shuyi said, disaster relief is no joke. Moreover, since this disaster occurred at the same time as the incident involving the Heluo nobles, there is no room for error.
At the court session the next morning, many officials felt as if a huge stone had fallen from their hearts when they heard the disaster situation reported by Heluo and the preliminary amounts of money and grain needed for disaster relief proposed by officials from various departments.
Zhongyuan was the location of Dasheng's granary, but the disaster this time was so severe that this year's summer harvest is doomed to fail. In addition, the court will need to provide additional money and grain for disaster relief. The loss is double and huge.
Nowadays, wars are frequent everywhere, and a large amount of money and food are needed to support the wars. The national treasury is already empty, and it is simply unable to come up with such a large amount of disaster relief money at this moment.
But it is impossible not to provide relief for this disaster. Luoyang in the Central Plains is different from other places. We will never allow the victims to riot or rebel.
"Fortunately" there are still ways to fill the national treasury in the future... The total assets of those Central Plains gentry are a big piece of fat meat, especially the Zheng family.
Speaking of this, there are now many vacant positions among the officials in this hall. Those are the positions of officials from the Central Plains gentry. When the Central Plains gentry were liquidated, the descendants of the gentry who served as officials in the court were also purged. Most of them are now in prison awaiting final punishment.
Now that the "evidence of guilt" is conclusive and everything has settled, it is time for the emperor to give the final punishment.
Although the officials did not say anything on the surface, most of them knew in their hearts that the severity of the punishment was bound to be different because of Zheng's "special response".
As the head of the Central Plains aristocratic family, the Zheng family first killed the culprit, Zheng Ji, and then voluntarily offered all their property and books without any resistance in order to save the lives of innocent members of the family. Such a humble attitude was not at all like the behavior of an aristocratic family.
Moreover, the former head of the family, Zheng Chao, who killed Zheng Ji, had meritorious service in praying for blessings and controlling floods, and was given the Ten Thousand People Umbrella by the people of Xingyang...
The effectiveness of prayers represents God's will, and the Umbrella of Ten Thousand People represents the will of the people... With the two coexisting, the handling of this person and the Zheng family requires careful consideration.
In addition, some scholars and candidates with meritorious service in the Central Plains even submitted a joint letter to the capital to express their gratitude to Zheng Chao for his noble character and his equal treatment of scholars and common people, and requested the emperor to show mercy.
The person who presented this joint letter was the newly crowned top scholar chosen by the sage, Song Xian.
Song Xianben was also from the Central Plains. He claimed that by chance he had received instruction from Zheng Chao, who lived in the thatched cottage, so he was half a teacher. The teacher was in trouble, and as a student he could not remain silent and watched, so he also pleaded for Zheng Chao in his words.
The top scholar who came from a poor family and a group of students and literati pleaded for Zheng Chao, who came from a scholarly family. It can be said that they put aside the prejudice of the poor, which is really rare.
Another official stated the matter in the hall. When Taifu Chu heard it, he felt relieved. He thought that the opportunity for the prosperity of the world's literature and art might be opened from this.
Moreover, he felt that Zheng Chao's various efforts to save himself in Xingyang... were probably more or less the work of his annoying student.
In addition, some people submitted several memorials impeaching Li Xian. Zheng Chao brought about a series of effects and influences. Some people were very dissatisfied with Li Xian's massacre and humiliation of the gentry in Luoyang, torture and killing, and even the use of innocent scholars as sacrifices to heaven.
The Holy Ce Emperor listened to the impeachment with angry words, and finally said: "Li Xian's behavior this time was indeed inappropriate."
If she could kill all of these nobles in one fell swoop, she would be done. However, Zheng Chao's incident had changed the direction of public opinion on this matter. Under such pressure, her attitude had to change accordingly. She already had a plan for what to do next.
However, her goal had been achieved. This change only caused the Central Plains gentry to go from decline to decline, thus saving some lives. Their book collections were donated, their properties were confiscated, and they became commoners. From then on, there were no more gentry in the Central Plains... In this way, it did not really disrupt her chess game.
She thought that the person who was fanning the flames behind Zheng Chao had also thought of this. The other party was very smart and clear-headed and knew where her bottom line was... She meant, her A Shang.
Ah Shang, you are still too kind.
At the end of the month, I will shamelessly ask for monthly tickets. Please have mercy on me and give me alms ()
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