Chapter 776: One thousand three hundred years, all is past!
Horses neigh as the day goes on, the setting sun is like blood, but not as red as real blood, nor as hot as red blood. The horses under his crotch keep kicking their hooves, raising clouds of dust. Dozens of brave warriors stand in a circle, holding their lances tightly, and several of them are wearing armor. Hundreds of majestic and ferocious Hu people also ride their horses around and confront the brave warriors. They all have physiques forged from fishing and hunting, and they also have sharp weapons in their hands. The Liaodong Hu people are powerful, and the sophisticated weapons in their hands are a factor that cannot be ignored. In the 150 years of development of the Yan State, those large Hu tribes in Liaodong even had armored soldiers, but now they have become powerful enemies of the brave warriors.
The leader of the dozens of brave warriors was Luo Xiang. He was also the leader of this trip. Facing the Hu people who were ten times his number, he was not afraid at all. After taking a deep breath, he roared like a tiger, "Wait five years, you will know the name of our Luo family. Those who block our way back will die, and those who leave with a sharp blade will live. Dare to test my words with a sharp blade!"
After the Yan State withdrew from Liaodong, the Hu people naturally took advantage of the situation to occupy the former territory of the Yan State. After several years of thorough preparation, Luo Xiang, under the order of Luo Chen, led a group of brave warriors back to Zhaocheng in the south and began to migrate the people of Zhaocheng. As expected, they were blocked by the Hu people in Liaodong. However, the brave warriors were so powerful that even with only dozens of people, they were able to break through the Hu people's blockades and return to Zhaocheng smoothly.
In the Hebei area, the closed Zhao Kingdom was somewhat desolate. With the issuance of the order to close Zhaocheng, the scholars and common people who had been coming and going for two hundred years could no longer come to the country. Only the caravans carrying supplies were allowed to enter, so that there were even some weeds on the main roads leading to all directions from Zhaocheng.
On this day, dozens of knights stepped into the territory of Duke Zhao. Their faces were all weathered, and there was even dried blood on their clothes and the exposed skin under their clothes. Most of their clothes were torn and could only slightly cover their bodies. In the gaps of their clothes, criss-crossing scars could be seen on their chests, backs, and arms. Some of them even had scabs that had formed not long ago, with blood oozing out of them. They were extremely ferocious and miserable.
This group of people were naturally the brave warriors returning from the south of Winter City. Faced with a number of Hu people that was ten times their number, the brave warriors killed dozens of them and successfully broke through. Once they entered the sphere of influence of the Yan State, the Hu people did not dare to chase and kill them at will, for fear of encountering the Yan State's cavalry.
The gate of Zhaocheng was wide open, and dozens of riders rushed out. Luo You, the son of Luo Chen, rode in front. When he saw Luo Xiang and the brave warriors, he felt a pang in his heart and said, "Ah Xiang, I haven't seen you for many years. You have lost a lot of weight. All the clansmen have worked hard. I feel guilty for sitting in Zhaocheng."
Luo Xiang and other brave warriors who returned all smiled heartily. Compared with their deceased clansmen, being able to see Zhaocheng again alive was already a blessing from heaven. All the doors of Luo Palace were opened and the bells rang, calling on the respected people of Zhaocheng clan to come and gather. The brave warriors went to reunite with their families, heal their wounds, and bring letters home for the other brave warriors who had not returned.
Soon, the Luo Palace was filled with noise and everyone looked at Luo Xiang. From the long scar on Luo Xiang's forehead, everyone knew how difficult this journey was.
Luo You raised his glass and sighed, "Ah Xiang, the people of our tribe have been away from Liaodong for five years, and the hearts of the people of Zhaocheng have also gone with them. We were worried and concerned. On the snowy day in Zhaocheng, the people of our tribe all prayed to the Su Wang Emperor. I wonder if you are hungry, cold, poorly clothed, or in hardship. Seeing this today, I can no longer bear to ask you. I will drink this wine to the full, in honor of you.
Time is like water. Once Zhaocheng was closed, the people were excited. After a long time, all the excitement has dissipated. The countries are preparing for war and intend to fight again. The people are exhausted. The tribe has everything ready, waiting to migrate. I want to ask how Liaodong is now. My father is old, is he in good health? "
Luo Xiang drank the wine, but felt it was not spicy enough. During the five years in Liaodong, Luo Chen had been in the coldest winter. He extended his protection to all the brave warriors, but still felt the bone-chilling cold. Strong liquor was his usual drink. He wiped his mouth and said loudly: "Don't worry, brother. Uncle is fine. He is in charge of the Winter City in the Far North White Mountains and Black Waters.
My uncle said: "The journey from Zhaocheng to the extreme north of Liaodong is difficult and arduous. We encountered a lot on the way there. Hundreds of brave soldiers were injured, not to mention the old, young, women and children in the city. If we don't change this, it will definitely be a tragedy."
When we returned south, there were 82 brave warriors among us. But within a month, we encountered 13 tribes of Hu people in Liaodong. Some retreated, some fought. When we arrived at the city of Zhao, only 62 people were left. The rest are buried in a foreign land. It is a pity.
My uncle said: "Moving to Liaodong is to cut off the tail and survive, to live in death, rather than to exile yourself and destroy yourself."
Brother, you should be very careful when you move your people. We have been waiting in Liaodong for five years, paving the way for this, building a city in the cold winter, marking the roads along the way. Everywhere, there are men who sacrificed for this. When you go there, if you see green mountains with pine and cypress swaying, and big rivers flowing, it means that the men are protecting the people. "
There was no repression in Luo Xiang's voice, but Luo You could hear the sadness and forced joy in it, and immediately said in a sad voice: "The green mountains and pines and cypresses bury the heroic souls, and the great rivers and streams praise the divine deeds. The mountains and rivers have spirits, and their spirits are our relatives. If our clan can still prosper in Liaodong after the great disaster, we should honor our ancestors and show our respect to the spirits of the mountains and rivers to comfort their souls."
Luo Xiang was startled when he heard this, and then he just clasped his fists and bowed without saying a word. Everyone in the hall felt sad.
Luo Xiang and others returned with accurate news from Liaodong. A city was being built in Liaodong and houses had been prepared. The Luo family, who had been well prepared, began a real great migration. The migration of the Luo family was like an army, with a huge force. The real treasures of the family had been placed in the ring and taken away. Now, all they took were food, cotton clothes, brocade furs and other things that the ring could not carry in large quantities.
The young and strong are naturally not afraid of long journeys, and these young and strong are organized as guards. The Luo family is naturally worry-free in the territory of the Xia Dynasty, but after entering Liaodong, such a large team, countless baggage, and not looking particularly strong, must be a meal in the eyes of the Hu people. It should be known that even if there are brave warriors who go out, there will be intercepted and killed by the Hu people. This is the case of people dying for money and birds dying for food. Especially since the Luo family's team is filled with a large number of women and children with poor physical fitness, the Hu people will certainly not let them go.
The plan made by the Luo family was to travel in batches. The first batch would still be composed of young and strong people. These people set out first. One is to pave the way for the subsequent tribesmen. The other is that after entering Winter City, they would be the labor force for building the city and lay a solid foundation for the subsequent tribesmen. In the end, the first batch of migrants consisted of more than 10,000 young and strong people, thousands of women and children, and 2,000 brave warriors who were fully armed to accompany and protect them. After sending these people to Winter City, the brave warriors would return to Zhao City.
If it weren't for Luo's trip, neither the Han nor the Yan would have allowed such a large-scale population migration. When Luo Xiang passed the border between Han and Yan again, he could even smell the tense atmosphere. He knew that a brutal war might be about to begin again.
Spring goes and autumn comes, cold drops and heat rises, the four seasons cycle, year after year, the traces of people in Zhaocheng are getting scarcer and scarcer. In five years, eighty to ninety thousand people have all moved away. Not to mention the inner city, even the outer city has not seen many people. At the corners, there are mostly old people gathered together to laugh. Luo You walked from the outer city with his hands behind his back, as if he wanted to engrave Zhaocheng in his mind. When he saw a few old people, he bowed and said, "My fellow clan elders, why don't you follow the migration with the big group? We can talk someday when we enter Liaodong."
The old man smiled and said, "When Luoguo was destroyed, many of our elders were buried with the city. We wanted to die with the city this time, but the head of the family issued a strict order not to die with the city. We can't refuse, so we will leave last and take one more look. Let's take a few more looks."
Luo You's eyes were somewhat dim and lost when he heard this, and he comforted him, "People are born and die in this world, and things are born and die in this world, too. Flowers will bloom again, and cities will be rebuilt. King Zhaosheng was able to rebuild Zhaocheng on the ruins, and it will be the same thousands of years later. Zhaocheng is in the hearts of the tribesmen, and where the tribesmen are. In the cold wind of the far north with white mountains and black waters, the harsh winter is just like Zhaocheng."
Those old men looked at Luo You and smiled, but there was sadness in their smiles. Luo You no longer wandered around Zhaocheng, nor did he go back to Luo Palace, but returned to the ancestral temple. Only the ancestral temple was the eternal sacred place for the Luo family. Now in Zhaocheng, he was the only direct descendant here, and the candles in the Luo family ancestral temple never went out. He knelt in the place where he used to pray and sing. Even if the Su King disappeared, the respect for the ancestors would never stop, and this had been engraved in the bones and blood of the Luo family.
Luo You was singing loudly in the ancestral temple where candlelight flickered, but outside the temple, dark clouds covered the city. It was pitch black, and the howling wind was blowing, leaving only the sound of wind and thunder. Soon, heavy rain came down, and the whole Zhaocheng was shrouded in the hazy rain. The sky, the earth, and people were not visible. Luo You seemed to be unaware of it. He sang the whole poem step by step, and then stood up and walked to the gate of the ancestral temple.
The rain blown by the strong wind wet the hem of his brocade clothes, and the damp water vapor kept hitting his face. A few strands of hair were already wet and stuck to his side face. He seemed to be unaware of it, and just stared expressionlessly at the pouring rain. The sky was turned upside down, and the big raindrops dripped on the bluestone slabs, and then gathered into streams. The drainage system of Zhaocheng, which had been in operation for thousands of years, still maintained good operation under such heavy rain, and discharged the water into the river outside the city.
The last few thousand people in Zhaocheng were all wearing straw raincoats and straw hats. They were all old men with white hair. They stood hunched in the heavy rain, swaying in the wind. They looked from afar at the fertile fields around Zhaocheng that had been washed away. A large amount of silt was swept away, and the heavy rain in the sky continued without stopping. Although Zhaocheng was majestic and grand, it was just a small boat in the ocean.
An old man had already thrown away his staff and knelt down facing the direction of Zhaocheng, wailing with tears on his face, "Since the founding of the country in Zhaodi by the Suwang Emperor, 1,300 years have passed. Even with the disaster during the Qin Dynasty, only houses were destroyed and walls were broken. The Zhaosheng King was able to prosper, but now it has been turned directly into a swamp and no longer exists. The 1,300-year-old city has become a thing of the past. Heaven, why do you blame our Luo family so harshly? Our Luo family obeys the will of heaven, why do we have to endure so much suffering!"
Luo You recalled what his grandfather had said before he died, that Zhaocheng would turn into a swamp. So this is how it turned into a swamp. He knew that this was not the work of his family. The cost of summoning a flood that could destroy Zhaocheng was something that the current family could not afford.
The Su Wang disappeared, and the family heritage was reduced by a bit. This heavy rain must have been sent by heaven. Is this the will of heaven? The Luo family was also in the will of heaven. Without the ancestor Su Wang, facing the will of heaven, one careless move would lead to destruction.
Looking at the elders who were still kneeling on the ground, Luo You sighed softly. For 1,300 years, the Luo family had hardly ever obeyed the will of heaven, leading to the current situation where man was fighting against heaven. If they won, they would win a small victory, but if they lost, they would be destroyed.
There was a heavy rain in Zhaocheng, the Luo family had no one left, the Yellow River flooded, and Zhaocheng was submerged in the mist and rain. This was a shocking event that was no less than the Luo family's decision to move to Liaodong. Not to mention the Han Dynasty, even the Wei Emperor Cao Rui, who was dying in Chang'an, secretly sent people to investigate. When they saw that Zhaocheng had indeed turned into a swamp, they were all shocked and unable to express in words.
In the hearts of the people of the world, Zhaocheng is as important as Chang'an and Luoyang, and even its rise and fall are more important than those of the two capitals. When people in Han and Wei heard that Zhaocheng was destroyed, they all sighed and said, "The sun is shining brightly, and the holy light is ever bright. Even Zhaocheng will fall, let alone humans. This is a sign of its demise, a sign of its demise."
Luo You naturally didn't know that the Zhaocheng Huaze would cause Cao Rui to collapse, nor did he know that the Han Kingdom would lose three of its leaders in one day. He had already taken off his straw raincoat and hat, and walked to the border of Yan State, where he met Murong Chengguang, the general and prime minister of Yan State.
Murong Chengguang stood side by side with Luo You in front of the Putuo River with his hands behind his back, and laughed loudly: "My lord, ten years ago in front of this river, I sent Lord Zhao to Liaodong. Ten years later, I sent you to Liaodong again in front of this river. Since then, there is no Luo family in the Central Plains, but there are Luo people in Liaodong. Hundreds of thousands of years later, it is recorded in history that Yan and Luo both originated from Liaodong. We Yan people are so lucky."
Although Zhaocheng was previously conferred, he was not ignorant of worldly affairs. Murong Chengguang monopolized the affairs of Yan State, and the Gongsun clan was killed. Only a few of them fled to the grassland and Han State. It was only a matter of time for them to usurp the throne. Such a tyrant was friendly to the Luo clan alone, so he must be extraordinary. Luo You said softly: "Liaodong is important, and the Donghu are more and more fierce and difficult to rule. They can help you."
Murong Chengguang smiled and raised his hand, saying, "Sir, the Luo clan moved north, and I cannot go to congratulate them in person. This is a gift, please pass it to Lord Zhao, and don't forget the friendship between Yan and Luo."
Luo You ordered his men to accept it and set off quickly. The road to Winter City had been walked by the warriors many times before, but it was still rugged and difficult to travel. Almost all of the people on this trip were elderly, and even with good horses, they were exhausted. Whenever they took a break, they would sing songs to mock themselves. Luo You smiled when he saw this. There was no other reason. Those who sang songs to mock themselves were mostly doing nothing, and those who kept silent were mostly dying.
When a large group of brave warriors suddenly emerged from the forest, Luo You knew he had arrived. He spurred his horse forward quickly, stood on a high rock, and looked at the still somewhat simple city from afar. That was the Winter City that had been mentioned countless times. Ever since he led the last people of Zhaocheng here, the Luo family of Zhaocheng had completely disappeared.
The past is gone, only the living are left to relive it!
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I looked at Luoze once, and the flowers and grass were all sparse. I looked at Luoze again, and the water waves were winding. I looked at Luoze a third time, and the trees were shrouded in mist. How majestic! When all the elegance was gone, the palace would be nothing more than a pile of dust. - "Miscellaneous Words in Pen Talks"
A little more chapter 2
(End of this chapter)
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