Weird Three Kingdoms

Chapter 3581 Immortal guides the way

Changan.

In the Five Directions Dojo.

Zuo Ci felt that his time was running out.

Before a person dies, the body always shows some signs.

The brain will issue the final rescue instructions to each organ. When it finds that some serious errors are irreversible and can no longer function, it will activate the last bit of energy and hormone reserves...

At this time, the pain will be relieved and the spirit will become better, commonly known as the last breath of life.

Zuo Ci is younger than he looks, but he is now over the age of 50.

Zuo Ci looked at the dying candle on the desk and suddenly recalled the farce that changed his fate at Yingchuan Academy forty years ago...

The white hair reflected in the bronze mirror showed that the young man in the past was exactly the same as the dying old man in front of him.

In a trance, he felt the dislocation of time. He smiled a little, and the young man in the bronze mirror seemed to be smiling as well...

"Master, it's time to use the medicine..." The servant A'Luo walked in holding a ceramic bowl.

Zuo Ci sighed, "I'm not some immortal..."

The servant A'Luo was stunned for a moment, "Master..."

Zuo Ci smiled and said, "If he is really an immortal, how could he get sick and die?"

The servant girl, A'Luo, was speechless and could not answer. She just stood there stupidly, holding the medicine.

"The medicine is over there..." Zuo Ci said, and then pointed to the brazier beside him, "Help me get some braziers over here first."

"Okay, Immortal." The servant A'Luo was very obedient. She put down the medicine and went to pull the brazier according to Zuo Ci's instructions.

"Be careful not to get burned... wrap your hands with cloth..." Zuo Ci looked at the clumsy servant girl A'luo and a smile appeared on his face.

In the early years, he liked smart disciples who could draw inferences from one example, but in recent years, Zuo Ci began to like disciples like the somewhat clumsy A Luo...

Stupid, but smart.

In this world, there are too many smart people and too few stupid people. They are too precious.

The servant girl A'luo grunted and moved the brazier to Zuo Ci's side.

Zuo Ci closed his eyes slightly and felt the warmth brought by the brazier.

It was already March, but Zuo Ci still felt cold, especially his legs and feet.

"Go and pry open the third blue brick under the eaves. There is something I want to give you inside." Zuo Ci rested for a while, then slowly raised his hand and pointed to a place outside the door.

"Is this the place, Immortal?" Ah Luo walked to the place Zuo Ci pointed and asked.

Zuo Ci nodded, "It's over there, count down three... the piece where you're standing, pry it open..."

Upon hearing this, the servant girl A'Luo climbed down and dug out the blue bricks.

Zuo Ci sighed and shook his head, "Don't stand on that brick... move to the side... find a tool, don't use your hands, just use the fire tongs on the brazier..."

The servant girl A'luo clumsily pried open the blue bricks, then found a lacquer box from underneath the bricks, and handed it to Zuo Ci.

Zuo Ci smiled, took the lacquer box, opened it, took out the items wrapped in oil paper in the lacquer box, untied the hemp rope tied to the oil paper package, and found a thin silk book on the top of the paper package.

There are a lot of words written on the silk book, densely packed and complex like human hearts.

Zuo Ci looked at it and was silent for a while. Then he picked up the silk book and threw it into the brazier.

"This is the Taiping Qingling Letter..." Zuo Ci whispered to the servant A Luo, "Giving it to you means giving you disaster..."

In the flickering flames, the silk book with "Taiping Qingling Book" written on it was quickly devoured by the flames and curled up into ashes, just like the yellow turbans that fell on the top of Guangzong City in the first year of Zhongping.

"Back then, Master Zhang also burned this book in the same way..."

In the dim light of the fire, Zuo Ci's gaze seemed to penetrate the ashes and see the flowing blood.

……

……

In the first year of Jianning, at Yingchuan Academy, the eighteen-year-old Zuo Ci curled up in the corner of the attic.

Zuo Ci was born in Lujiang. He was smart and studious since childhood.

He had heard that Yingchuan Academy had the most extensive collection of books in the world and great scholars who were tireless in teaching others, so he had been looking forward to coming here since he was young, with the same piety as if he were worshipping a god.

He came here, traveling thousands of miles, leaving his warm home, wanting to study here and learn the true teachings of the great scholar.

In the end he was disappointed.

Zuo Ci was only from Lujiang, not from a rich family or a wealthy person. He spent almost all of his family's property to study in Yingchuan, and even went into debt to study...

The smarter Zuo Ci was, the more his family felt that they could not treat the child unfairly. However, the harder they tried to help Zuo Ci acquire knowledge, the poorer their family became.

Coming to Yingchuan was Zuo Ci's last attempt, and it was also the last bit of strength his family used to send him to the stone of Yingchuan Academy.

But after Zuo Ci arrived, he discovered that the great scholar was indeed a great scholar, but the true scriptures would not be passed on easily.

The great Confucian scholars were well aware of the barriers to knowledge, but there was only one Confucius in the world, and his 72 disciples had no successors. Setting barriers to knowledge, distorting the cognitive chain of knowledge, and increasing the difficulty of enlightenment were all done by these Confucian disciples, even though they knew that doing so was contrary to Confucius' morality.

Perhaps because he was young and worried too much, or perhaps because he did not take good care of his body in order to study, Zuo Ci had white hair at a young age. Unexpectedly, this white hair became the object of ridicule by the children of the Yingchuan gentry. The young Zuo Ci did not know that the reason he became the object of ridicule was not just because his hair turned white.

Outside the window, the sons of the noble families gathered in groups of two or three, sneering and laughing as they entered the window, "Look at that old man with white hair, he must be a rat that stole the lamp oil and turned into a demon!"

The children of the noble families would never say that a person from such a poor family actually wants to obtain the true teachings and read the true scriptures.

They just seized on the one point that Zuo Ci could not change and kept attacking.

Just by putting on a long gown, do you really think you can ascend to heaven?

The teacher of the academy smiled and said, "Can't you hinder other students..."

Zuo Ci clutched the copied "Zhou Bi Suanjing" in his arms, his snow-white hair hanging down on the yellowed bamboo slips, like a mouse hiding in the dim attic.

It's not that he doesn't want to go home, but that he has no way to retreat.

I have spent all my money on studying, but if I fail to learn, I will be ashamed of my parents and ancestors!

The moldy books became his entire world, until one day, when the spring thunder sounded, there was a sudden commotion outside the academy, countless voices shouted, and dazzling torches pierced the darkness.

The wooden door of the courtyard suddenly opened.

Zuo Ci looked at the refugees who broke in with horror. Their skinny hands were holding sticks, bamboos, and dung forks, and their twisted faces were filled with anger and despair.

Those refugees were about to destroy the classics that he had copied with great difficulty and were hanging out to dry.

"stop!"

In a hurry, Zuo Ci ignored his own safety, stuck his head out of the attic and shouted.

The firelight shone on his face, showing his white hair but youthful appearance.

The refugees looked at each other, and then someone fell to his knees, "Fairy boy, calm down! Fairy boy, spare my life!"

Zuo Ci looked at the kneeling refugees and touched the mask handed to him by fate for the first time.

He put it on, and from being a "fairy boy" he became an "immortal", and he never took it off for the rest of his life...

……

……

In the first year of Zhongping, on the top of Guangzong City, gunpowder smoke carrying the ashes of talisman paper swirled in the air.

Zuo Ci stepped on the broken Yellow Turban flags all over the ground, entered the city wall, and saw Zhang Jue burning the last few volumes of "Taiping Jing".

"You win." Zhang Jue saw Zuo Ci and took out a silk book from his sleeve, "This "Taiping Qingling Book" is yours..."

Zuo Ci took it, smiled bitterly, and shook his head, "I hope I lose..."

"Oh, the world..." Zhang Jue stood up and looked up. "Oh, the heavens... I want to change the sky, but I find that no matter how high the altar or the city wall is, I can't touch it..."

Zuo Ci sighed, "So you hope the emperor can help you? Ha, he can't even protect himself, how can he protect you?"

"... " Zhang Jue was silent for a long time, "He is the Son of Heaven..."

Zuo Ci pointed to the distance, "So he is sending troops now... He is here to help you, to help you die! If you win, he will make you a Heavenly Master, and you can wipe out these noble families without any effort! If you can't win, he can also use your power to consume these local tyrants! He wins both ways! But who died? Who is it? Look down, who is it?"

"..." Zhang Jue remained silent. "You are the Great Sage Master... They, they followed you all the way, just like seeing a ray of light in the dark night..." Zuo Ci kicked away the bloody nine-section staff at his feet, "Hundreds of thousands of believers... Great Sage Master, you did have the power to change the world... But what did you do? You taught them to swallow talismans to cure diseases, but not to stop bleeding or bandage; you taught them to pray for rain with the Yu Bu, but not to dig canals to store water! "

Zhang Jue's face twitched a few times, then he turned his head away, not looking at Zuo Ci, his cloudy pupils reflecting the firelight, "The people are as foolish as children, only oracles can gather people's hearts."

"So you think you can use the Thirty-Six Direction Commanders to replace those county officials? Use "Heaven is Dead" to replace "Salt and Iron Treatise"? " Zuo Ci kicked the brazier, and the ashes and broken pages in the brazier suddenly flew up in the wind, as if there were dead souls whistling and circling. "The agricultural and sericulture techniques that you deleted from this scripture are kept in full in Yingchuan Library! For the sake of the appearance of this Heavenly Master, you pushed them to the underworld! Damn you! Great and Sage Master!"

Smoke and dust rose in the distance, and the common people and refugees wearing yellow scarves ran towards Guangzong City in panic.

"You should leave now!"

Zhang Jue suddenly burst into laughter, and then threw all the books around him into the fire, "Let's see whether your Taoism will spread throughout the world first, or my raging fire will burn this corrupt world first!"

……

……

In Chang'an City, the young general's eyes sparkled with wisdom. "Zuo Yuanfang? I've heard of you..."

Zuo Ci smiled slightly, pretending to be nonchalant, "It's just a common name, why should I mention it?"

The general asked someone to bring some water and wine, saying, "It is an honor to meet the Immortal today. I offer this wine to the Immortal. Please do not think it is too coarse."

Zuo Ci's face twitched, "I have successfully practiced fasting, so I only need to drink wind and dew. I don't need these drinks..."

The young general laughed, "Master... if you don't accept this toast, do you want to drink a penalty drink?"

……

……

Qingyangsi in Sichuan.

Zuo Ci listened to Fei Qian and said, "If you talk about the way of immortals, I don't know. But when it comes to the way of civil administration, in my opinion, the way is the lamb..."

Liu Bei standing aside also looked like a sheep, probably just pretending.

"The skin of a lamb is made of five threads of white silk; it is a snake-like thing. The leather of a lamb is made of five threads of white silk; it is a snake-like thing. It ...

Liu Bei was still playing dumb.

Fei Qian directly exposed Liu Bei's pretense, just like he exposed Zuo Ci's disguise, "All the people are lambs, so there is a shepherd. Thousands of officials are lambs, so there is a duke. Hundreds of officials are lambs, so there is a king...Xuan De has lofty ambitions and his heart is for the people of the world. I wonder if he can be a shepherd, a duke, or a king?"

……

……

The oil lamp flickered.

"I have traveled all over the world, from north to south, from east to west," Zuo Ci stroked the scroll wrapped in oil paper and sighed, "I have met countless people in my life, but I have never seen anyone like the cavalry... Sometimes I think, I am not an immortal... maybe he is not a real person either... ahem... come, I will leave this scroll to you..."

The servant girl A'Luo took it and saw a small piece of faded yellow silk on the scroll, with the words "Skills can be borrowed, but the truth cannot be deceived" written on it in cinnabar.

Zuo Ci seemed a little tired. He leaned back against the headboard, his eyes fixed on the Big Dipper outside the window. "Back then... some people prayed for thousands of people to kneel down and worship them, some prayed for eternal generations, and some prayed for immortality... But I don't know what they were praying for. Maybe they were praying for nothing... This is the most powerful thing... cough, cough, cough..."

Zuo Ci coughed a few times and waved his hand to refuse the medicine handed to him by the servant Ah Luo, "No more... the time is up... everyone thinks that I... ahem, am best at... magic... haha, ahem, but few people know... that in my life... ahem, what I am most proud of... is magic..."

"Great and virtuous teacher... the heavens and the earth... are not as good as today... you, remember to leave as soon as possible..."

The cold wind swept away the unfinished words, and the servant girl A'luo suddenly saw Zuo Ci's skinny arm raised, as if pointing at someone, and then lowered.

……

……

Spring swallows flit across the scorched fields.

Fei Qian led his troops and left Gucheng and headed for Chang'an.

Fei Qian didn't tell Zao Zhi the whole reason.

The Hundred Medical Clinics reported that Zuo Ci was dying.

Although birth, aging, illness and death are the norm in life, the problem is that Zuo Ci had always appeared in front of ordinary people as an "immortal", so now that Zuo Ci has died, many problems have arisen...

Not to mention who the position of the head of the Five Directions God Sect will be passed to, will the Pope of the Five Directions God Sect be questioned, or even make ordinary believers feel deceived and then disgusted with it?

The Five Directions Gods Sect originated from Taoism, but it is different from traditional Taoism.

Apart from Fei Qian himself, Zuo Ci also had only a vague understanding of why this sect was established.

So Fei Qian had to go back...

Religion is originally for good.

The same is true of Taoism.

Moreover, in the early days of China, religion also shouldered the important task of popularizing some knowledge to the common people.

For example, herbs.

Otherwise, why would Zhang Zhongjing be recorded in history books?

In most remote rural areas, people would seek help from religions when they fell ill, especially in the early feudal period when Buddhism was not yet prosperous. Most of them would ask the Taoist priests for some herbal medicine, which might really have some effect, or perhaps it was a psychological placebo, but it was definitely better than going to the hospital in later generations and being mentally prepared to fall back into poverty after getting sick, right?

Fei Qian established the Five Directions Gods Religion not only to rebuild a more reasonable structure for China's religious system, but also to hope that religion could take on the responsibility of spreading knowledge that was originally left by Taoism.

It is like the educational and entertaining teaching in later generations.

It's just that the United States later changed one of the words and it became "enjoyment through entertainment", allowing the people to get drunk and die in entertainment...

The more knowledge the people have, the more difficult it is to manage them, which forces the ruling class to do better.

Otherwise, when people slam the table and ask if your local regulations are more important than the Constitution, you won’t even know how to respond. How embarrassing is that?

Fei Qian's actions should have created history...

This is what Fei Qian thinks.

He wants to enlighten the people, not replace a new batch of "contractors".

In most feudal dynasty wars, occupying cities, accepting the kneeling of gentry, and then transferring the empire's taxation rights to these local contractors seems to have become a tradition starting from the Han Dynasty and lasting thousands of years later.

In China, it is called...

Those abroad are generally called compradors or assistants.

So, will Fei Qian continue along this path?

What should a conqueror leave as a mark?

The three palaces and six courtyards sow the seeds just like King Jing of Zhongshan, and then let people of a certain era in the future claim to be the sons of Fei Dai, the orthodox royal relatives?

Fortunately, Qin Shi Huang gave China's emperors a good start, even though he did not have a good ending.

So what does Fei Qian want to leave for this big man?

As a person from later generations, Fei Qianxian had to try a new path.

This is Fei Qian’s way of ruling the world.

A brand new system, a brand new class, a brand new war, a brand new technology, and...

A completely new political system.

The first thing to be solved is knowledge, especially historical knowledge.

Some people say that history is the religion of the Chinese.

Fei Qian felt that this statement did make sense.

Mysterious, profound, and hard to tell true from false.

It was mostly the shortcomings brought about by Confucius that were then further developed by Sima Qian.

For most people, history is obviously daunting and they stay away from it. Regardless of how difficult the language used is and how boring the narrative style is, just the numerous and voluminous classics are enough to make people retreat and be amazed.

Unless you invest a lot of time and energy, it is difficult to enter the room. Even if you occasionally enter, it is like entering a huge maze that is long, dark and tortuous.

So, to be precise, this thing is not something that ordinary people can get a glimpse of. It is also because of this that "Confucius completed the Spring and Autumn Annals and the rebellious ministers were afraid", rather than "the common people were happy".

This gave the "intellectual" class of the feudal dynasty room to maneuver.

In the feudal dynasties of the past, the ruling groups and powerful classes were keen on possessing and interpreting history in order to control thoughts, ensnare the world, and create a set of values ​​that were conducive to their rule, so that the people would judge right and wrong based on what they saw as right and wrong, and good and evil based on what they saw as good and evil. The so-called "Spring and Autumn style" and "subtle words with great meaning" actually meant that history served or succumbed to political authority, and under the drive of some subjective purpose or the will of power, historical facts were deleted, edited, modified, smeared, and even tampered with and fabricated.

For ordinary people, this historical knowledge is definitely boring, but after being repackaged by religion, it becomes something that people like and will remember deeply...

Yanhuang, Shennong, Nuwa...

The Jade Emperor, Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie...

Perhaps when people are young, they cannot fully understand the profound meaning of these names, but this will become a part of Chinese culture and a gene flowing in the blood of the Chinese nation.