Chapter 5 Life and Death (Part 1

On the night in the distant Luodu, I checked the weather for a while. The streets in the huge city were already quiet, and it looked particularly gloomy and desolate, just like a black swallowing beast.

At important street entrances, soldiers were standing, checking the pedestrians passing by occasionally. Red or white paper lanterns were hung outside the gates of every household, and the lights were dim and swaying under the eaves.

Under the faint light, you can see large martial law notices printed with woodblocks on the walls of the streets. In the narrow and long streets and alleys, there are often merchants carrying small lanterns, beating broken gongs or clappers. The shrunk shadows appear and disappear into the darkness. The slow, listless gongs or clappers are gradually fading away in the wind.

Although there were constant cries and noises in the east city and the south bank of Luoshui, firelight flowed, and soldiers patrolled in the city and nightmares were prohibited, a few deep-seated courtyards still lived a life of devotion and devotion.

No matter which era, even in the end of the world, there is always a shortage of these people who burn houses and drink hard, and who are just singing.

Although in these palaces near Da Nei, in order to avoid being heard in the forbidden area, there is no need for gongs or drums or even silk and bamboo when singing and dancing, the singing girl only needs to light her eyes with red sandalwood or ivory clapping boards and sing softly. Sometimes the singing is as delicate as a trace of hair, as if there is, and it is constantly lingering, hovering on the exquisitely painted roof beams, and then flying towards the mysterious space.

The host and the guests stopped the cup in their hands, lit their toes on the ground, listening attentively, and almost stopped breathing. As soon as the singing stopped, they nodded frequently and praised the wine and gave them food, and happily urged them to drink and make a fist. Few of them paid attention to the movement outside the city, and no one thought about what to do for this declining court to end the chaos as soon as possible.

However, the few shabby cranes that lived in the affiliation of Taimiao and the Emperor Tianhou Tu Temple were the last auspicious things. They were shocked by the sounds in the city and flew up from time to time, hovering over the Jiacheng between Danei and Dongcheng, making some desolate screams.

But compared to these wealthy families who were terrified and enjoyed their lives, Dongcheng and Nancheng were a different scene.

Due to the past changes, there were already many victims and beggars in the city. In the past two days, more than 100,000 people fled from Heyang and Mangshan, and there was no place to shelter them. Many people slept under the eaves on both sides of the street, and squeezed into a bunch of them in order to avoid being frozen to death.

They were trembling, moaning, complaining, and sighing in the biting cold wind that was coming into winter. The women whispered to the old man and wept. The children shrank in their mother's arms, cried and shouted coldly and hungry, and tore the hearts of the adults.

But when the patrol soldiers sent by Luodu Mansion and Jinwu Street envoy approached, they temporarily endured and did not dare to say anything, for fear of causing unhappiness from these tigers and wolves.

Since the martial law was opened in the city on the 24th of last month, hundreds of refugees have died every day, and most of them have reached 200 to 300. Although there are porridge factories in 11 cities in Luodu to provide relief, the mortality rate is getting higher and higher, especially the elderly and children with poor physical strength die the most.

Tonight, the northeast wind with snow began to blow, which was extremely cold. Who knows how many corpses of all sizes will be carried to the mass grave at the foot of the Mangshan tomorrow morning?

The sprinkling snow particles also swayed over the black imperial city, and finally a layer of yellow frost and white were spread out in a few thin lights.

As the oldest and qualified official in the home of the Great Nei Zhong Envoy, Wei Yue, the general servant of Zhi Nei, was slowly swallowing a mouthful of strong tea that could no longer taste, suppressing the itchyness of coughing.

He looked at the cold wind that leaked from the roof, wrapped the mottled old fur on his body tightly. This was the one who followed a certain emperor to reward him for his loyalty to his duties and personally took off his body and gave him this slave. That year he was still a young man with black hair and tears of gratitude.

From the three years since Baoying was wearing a crown and walking in his work, to the year when he retired with white hair and beard

He has served six emperors, including children who learn to speak, hunchbacked middle-aged people who have grown white hair due to transitional sorrow, and even young people who died prematurely with excessive alcohol and sex. Of course, there are also some deposed emperors who have tried to work hard to revive the court, but they cannot bear it and become a madman by reality.

Watching the vast atmosphere, the vast and vast interior, the withering and decaying little by little, the rats and birds are rampant, and the spider webs are woven and the palace is in full swing.

With the weakening of the imperial power, only these rootless people were left, and they used their only heartfelt heart to maintain the insignificant decency and pomp of the emperor.

Under the rule of the powerful ministers of the foreign dynasty, as the buffer and link for the communication between the emperor and the foreign dynasty, the Chinese envoys who were originally arrogant and called the noble and respectful of the noble and noble were beginning to become a high-risk profession. As a gap between the power between the internal and external dynasty, they were based on imperial power and backers, and they were always easily scapegoats for the changes in the palace again and again, or martyrs of the new and old.

Either they become the eyes and ears of the regency of the foreign dynasty, or they die in a dark corner in an unknown way, or they are found to be illegal or not, and they die in prison in humiliation and sadness.

Of course, these few internal officials who surveillance and overthrow the emperor can easily be used to calm the emperor's emotions in political compromise, but it is like killing a dog.

Wei Yue's predecessors naturally also had unwilling to bear it. They fought each other and then led their troops proudly, confiscating the homes and wives of those in power, and stood in high spirits in the court, overlooking the foreign ministers who were standing with their heads down.

But these are often just flash-of-the-pan glory, and disappear without a trace like bubbles under the scorching sun. The meager force and unreliable human hearts have to introduce the same mistakes as foreign aid, and then they are crushed to pieces with the emperor they support in the invasion of foreign troops.

More than ten years ago, his last adopted son was charged with stealing offerings in front of the gods when he was on duty in Taimiao. As an official who used to pretend to be a powerful and acted as a mighty official, he once fell to stealing the leftovers of the royal family's ancestor worship.

His most promising son, who was once a member of the Privy Councilor, was walking in the two palaces, but in the end he was executed was the stolen and sold the emperor's artifacts. But he clearly remembered that the so-called jade ring of the emperor who was captured by both people was actually given by His Majesty of the Contemporary Emperor himself.

He saw it with his own eyes, but under the begging eyes of the emperor, he fiercely defied his conscience and loudly scolded the scum of the inner officials who were randomly accusing him of being slandered. Then, amid his crying confession, he watched as he was beaten into a ball of rotten flesh.

The past was like a stirred wine, and little bits of sediment floated on the surface of memory, but he could no longer shed tears. It was when he was tied up by someone who served, and he was tied up and stuffed his mouth with medicine. He was already crying in the painful fluid that was so painful that he had already been crying.

Some history that is called retribution is just a repetition, and sometimes he even had this idea. If the crazy rebellious emperor was not in the Yiwei period, he would have defeated the ruling Liang family and killed all his followers one by one, the authority of the emperor and the decency of the court would have been ruined and destroyed.

At least when the Liang family was in power, they were domineering and domineering, and they were still polite and respectful to the Supreme Emperor, but they were incomparable to these people who were ceremonial and military power later. Under the Liang family's dictatorship, even if the emperor was so stupid and mediocre, the world began to be exposed to frequent internal troubles, but overall the Tang Dynasty's national power was still powerful and powerful, and the four barbarians and nine sides were competing for the first to pay tribute.

The so-called ultimate glory of being confused by the upper part and being clear by the lower part is that because the king and his ministers who are determined to win back the major policies are naively believed that they can solve all problems and accumulated problems, and they will completely collapse.

Unfortunately, the time when Wei Yue was born was just the beginning of this final sign. Once upon a time, the emperor could rely on less and less, and in the end, only these weak and incomplete people were left.

Nowadays, the best result of being a civil servant is to spend money to bribe the foreign court, then ask yourself to go out to the vassal states, and then use the last bit of the emperor's envoy to please and rely on the vassal states to write some memorials that praise the deeds and show their positions, and obtain corresponding preferential treatment and offerings.

The titles such as the military appearance and military appearance, which were once majestic and awesome, are now only the only function of comforting and pacifying domineering ministers, and when necessary, act as the last scapegoat.

If you are lucky enough, you can make some pension money or die in office. It is considered as God's blessing. Of course, it is not without being killed by dissatisfied vassal states as targets for venting anger, but it is better than staying in Luodu, who is in danger of being in danger.

The sudden movement disrupted his memories of being addicted to the past. He raised his head full of white hair tremblingly, but found that the fire was so dazzling that it made people unable to see the other person's face clearly.

I could only hear a voice that was also from an eunuch, a duck-like voice.

"Honey Wei, you've committed a crime..."

He narrowed his eyes and looked at the bright firelight, and realized in his heart that it seemed that he could not die of old age in the trouble this time.

Please slow down so that my old bones can be more decent, he murmured, and without any resistance, let these people drag themselves to the square in front of Yinguang Gate outside the imperial city, where there was already a crowd of black people.

He began to read out his crimes loudly, which was nothing more than a castration and chaotic country, a slander of the emperor, a chaotic party outside, and arbitrary loyal ministers.

Could it be that they could not find a decent scapegoat among the eunuchs beside the emperor, and they had to drag out the old thing they had retired for several years to make up for the numbers?

He suddenly had some insights. Perhaps the adopted sons and adopted sons were beheaded and executed, and they were in a similar mood. It is said that as long as the knife was cut fast enough, they would not feel any pain.

However, after a while, the butcher's knife did not fall on his head immediately.

Then some young faces were dragged out like dead dogs. They were said to be the initiator of the incident, a group of students from the Privy Council teaching team and the capital. Their eyes and tongues were all dug out, and their bodies were covered in blood and disheveled hair curled up on the ground. Even if their heads were cut off, they would just struggle like dolls to make the blood spray farther.

As these heads piled up, Wei Yue's mind was full of chaos as if it had been uncovered. He seemed to have encountered these young people in Da Nei. As the number of guards in Da Nei was insufficient, the martial arts students who came to make up the numbers looked grateful in front of the emperor, leaving some memories for him, the old senior in the palace who pulled them out to make up the numbers.
Chapter completed!