Weird Three Kingdoms

Chapter 3601 Xiezhi Quejin asks Lu Xin

Under the Vermillion Bird Gate, the aroma of burnt human flesh wafted through the dying embers of kerosene.

Xu Xinli's Xiezhi crown was tilted and collapsed.

No one is born good, and no one lives to do evil all his life.

Good and evil are relative, and in between is the ass.

Xu Xinli's butt was not crooked from birth, but the environment he grew up in, the knowledge system he learned, and the political environment he was in determined that his butt would definitely not be the same as that of ordinary civilian soldiers.

No matter how painful Xu Xili's childhood, youth, and school years were, and how much torture he experienced, he still did not think that these were the ruling class's problems, but his own problems.

The chaotic speech and biased cognition were not there from the beginning, nor were they born that way, but were the result of the influence of his environment and the people around him.

If a person grows up in a fair environment, has smooth promotion channels, and does not suffer from exploitation, then his poverty is most likely due to laziness and lack of effort. But what if it is the opposite? What if all the arguments around him are three-tenths true and seven-tenths false, or even only one-tenth true? The more he is immersed in such an environment, the more he becomes like the color of this environment.

Xu Xili remembered his mentor's last words to him...

"My boy, understand this: the rules and regulations are the silk that embellishes the wrong."

That was the epiphany his mentor had before he died.

Only the powerful and wealthy have the right to interpret the law, and the Spring and Autumn Annals gave them sufficient authority to adjudicate cases.

His mentor insisted on arguing about right and wrong, and in the end his head was chopped off.

Then, seeing his mentor's head bouncing on the ground, Xu Xili also "understood".

He began to understand that the laws of the Han Dynasty were actually worthless.

He started collecting money.

The first payment, Xu Xianli remembered, was for the "Yingchuan Xun family murder of servant case". The cuffs of the hemp cloth robe he was wearing at the time had frayed edges. He took the wooden box pushed over by the Xun family's steward, and then he changed "the master drowned the servant" to "the servant fell and drowned"...

The horseshoe gold in the wooden box warmed his heart.

From that time on, he was no longer poor.

Gorgeous clothes and exquisite dishes were no longer a problem for him.

It was also from that time that Xu Xili began to like hiding money and gold in scriptures and legal volumes.

It became his habit to wrap stolen goods in the writings of sages.

He began to make random judgments.

What he follows is no longer the law, but a call from someone or a hint from an official.

Every time he understood someone's intention, he would get the corresponding reward. It was also from that time that he began to frequent high-end brothels, eat fine food, and pursue health, quality, and enjoyment in everything, and he laughed at those still poor officials as being stupid.

And now, when the smell of blood and burnt meat seeped in from the cracks in the palace door, Xu Xinli's heart began to beat wildly, and he was enlightened again...

If you follow Man Chong, you will definitely be doomed!
There was no sign of the reinforcements promised by Man Chong, but the swords and spears of the hussars were already within reach.

Xu Xinli followed Man Chong, bending over and sticking out his butt every day. Was it really to realize Man Chong's ideal and fight for the Han Dynasty all his life?
Obviously impossible.

Whether it was the education Xu Tingli received, the environment he grew up in, or the people and things he came into contact with after entering the officialdom, they were all teaching him, changing him, and making him adapt to the needs of the Great Han Shandong and become the image of the Great Han Shandong. So if something happened suddenly and Xu Tingli had no time to consider anything, he might have instinctively followed Man Chong, but once he had free time, Xu Tingli began to have different ideas in his mind.

He wanted everyone to believe that he was coerced by Man Chong...

He is innocent!
He found a reason, or an excuse!

"The Vinaya says, 'Being forced and being followed are different!'"

……

……

Man Chong’s Xiezhi crown has disappeared.

He walked on the bluestone slabs on the palace wall, running around like a fireman.

At this moment, he even didn't know why he was persisting...

For the emperor?

Or is it for the Prime Minister?

Or is it because of the beliefs inherent in his heart?
Or is it simply because his sunk costs are too great, so he doesn't want to and can't start over again?
But one thing is certain, Man Chong was definitely not fighting for the common people and ordinary soldiers against the Hussars.

He had just led his men to repel a group of cavalry soldiers, and the sword in his hand was still dripping with the blood of the sergeant who had deserted his post, when he suddenly heard a warning from the direction of the West Que Gate!
That was the direction Xu Xili was defending.

"My Lord! The envoys opened the gate! The thieves have surrendered!"

"What?!" Man Chong was shocked and turned around hastily to look, "How dare you?!"

When the palace gate burst open, Man Chong suddenly laughed wildly, "I should have expected this! You are a poor pig dog, no matter how many bamboo slips you feed it, it will never stop eating shit!"

His hair was disheveled, revealing the arrow scar from the attack on Yuan's fortress in Runan.

Xu Xianli used this wound as an excuse to frame those members of the Yuan family, confiscate their properties and behead them.

When there is meat to eat, Xu Xili is a good and obedient dog.

But now, not only is there no meat to eat, but the dog is about to die, and it is unwilling to accompany Man Chong to the afterlife...

Man Chong saw Xu Xinli running to Zhang Liao's horse's hoof, and kneeling down respectfully like he had before, sticking his butt out, and seemed to be crying about something...

The buttocks that were raised high were trembling.

The posture was exactly the same as when he knelt before him back then.

"No! No! It's not my fault!"

Man Chong roared, "It's because you guys didn't fight well! It's because the Hussars spread lies to confuse the people! It's... "

Man Chong shouted, and then quickly stopped, because he saw his own madness and incompetence, as well as deep despair in the eyes of all the soldiers around him.

……

……

Outside the palace gate.

Zhang Liao frowned and stared at Xu Tingli. He didn't like, and even hated, people like Xu Tingli.

If surrendered soldiers like Wang Yun could still get some understanding and care from Zhang Liao, then guys like Xu Lili made Zhang Liao feel physically uncomfortable...

"Get away from me!"

Zhang Liao shouted.

"Yes, yes, yes..."

Xu Xinli responded repeatedly, then moved away skillfully.

Zhang Liao waved his hand, and his soldiers rushed into the inner city.

Zhang Liao's original plan was to bring in artillery from outside the city, but he didn't expect that before the artillery arrived, Xu Xinli had organized people and secretly opened the palace gate!
The inner city of the imperial palace in Luoyang City, whether it is the palace gate or the palace wall, is obviously not comparable to the outer city wall. The accuracy of artillery at a long distance is a bit poor, but if it gets close, it is simply a demolition weapon.

result……

Zhang Liao watched his soldiers rush into the inner city.

The remaining Cao army soldiers in the inner city obviously realized that the situation was hopeless, and most of them lost the will to resist. Even if there were a few resistances, they were quickly suppressed.

Basically, it can be said that at this point, after Luoyang City and its surroundings fell into the hands of the Cavalry Army, the war in the Heluo area was basically over. However, Zhang Liao felt as disgusted as if he had eaten a fly when facing Xu Xianli in front of him.

It’s not that Zhang Liao had any mental obsession. On the contrary, Zhang Liao generally had a good attitude towards the surrendered soldiers of Cao's army. He did not think that the surrendered soldiers of Cao's army were inferior just because those soldiers originally belonged to the hostile camp.

But what Xu Xili did...

This forced Zhang Liao to differentiate between different levels of surrender.

In a sense, Xu Tingli did make a move that was beneficial to the Hussars. He surrendered and opened the palace gates, so that the Hussars no longer needed to use artillery or consume manpower and could directly attack the inner city. But at the same time, Xu Tingli only did this.

Of course, if Zhang Liao could find an excuse to kill Xu Tingli now, it would seem like an easy thing to do. However, after thinking about it, Zhang Liao suppressed his disgust for Xu Tingli and did not kill him. He just asked people to take Xu Tingli and other surrendered Cao soldiers aside.

Now if Zhang Liao can kill others according to his personal preferences, even if the reasons are sufficient, what about in the future?
Will there ever be a time when we find some reason to kill again?

The official reports from the Chang'an Military Academy brought new perspectives and new ways of thinking to Zhang Liao and others. Therefore, Zhang Liao now thinks more and considers further than when he first came to Luoyang City.

After all, if the war continued to the Central Plains of Shandong, there would be more and more people like Xu Xili. Kill them all?
Obviously unrealistic.

So what should be done?
Zhang Liao thought for a moment but couldn't come up with any good solution, so he simply gave up thinking about it and ignored it for the time being, waiting to take action after his lord arrived.

……

……

There is the Weiyang Palace in Chang'an and the Chongde Hall in Luoyang.

After the palace fell, Man Chong did not continue to resist, but led his men into the palace.

At first, his soldiers thought that Man Chong had left some secret escape route in the palace, but as they walked along, they realized something was wrong, so they naturally took advantage of the chaos to slip away. By the time Man Chong arrived at Chongde Hall, there were only a few people left around him...

Man Chong staggered into the Chongde Hall.

Chongde Hall was originally the highest meeting place of the Han Dynasty. Later, it also witnessed the death of Emperor Ling of Han and the experience of Emperor Shao being torn off the throne by the vicious soldiers from Xiliang.

Later, war burned here.

After the Yang family took over Luoyang City, they tried to rebuild the imperial palace, but unfortunately, the beams of the Chongde Hall were not available whenever they wanted, and the Yang family had no way to restore and renovate the entire Luoyang Imperial Palace on their own. They could only repair the walls and external facilities of the palace to make it look decent from a distance. As for the Chongde Hall and other palaces inside, they were only simply tidied up and were not completely repaired.

Next to the Chongde Hall, there are some wood and artifacts, perhaps the remaining materials from the previous renovation left by the Yang family.

Man Chong ignored the calls of the soldiers and guards around him and staggered into the ruins of Chongde Hall.

In his eyes, Chongde Hall gradually recovered from its former glory from being devastated...

Twelve gilded pillars glow with rosy clouds, and coiled dragon patterns appear lifelike on the red lacquer.

The bluestone and jade steps contrast with the gorgeous light.

And on the jade steps, there was actually a man standing there wearing the crimson gauze official robe of the Imperial Censor.

When the man slowly turned his head, Man Chong actually found that it was his own appearance...

Gold seal, purple ribbon.

He saw that he seemed to be narrating something, and where his fingertips were pointing was the bamboo slips of "Land Measurement Order".

The pearl curtain hanging from the caisson dinged suddenly, and the light of each pearl reflected his heroic deeds of punishing the tyrants...

The thousands of hectares of private land returned by the Xun family of Yingchuan turned into wheat waves.

The protected households released by Gao family in Bohai are now building a new canal.

The unscrupulous merchants who hoarded goods in the market were arrested and brought to justice.

The corrupt and unjust slave was beheaded at the execution ground...

Man Chong smiled.

When he held onto the huge red pillar, the dragon pattern circling on the pillar suddenly spoke in human language: "Do you remember the poor family in Qiao County in the first year of Taixing..."

Man Chong's expression suddenly changed.

He saw flames burning on the huge red pillar and blood flowing out, and this flame and blood were just like the blood that flowed from the petition of the poor family and the leader of the crowd that he had burned and beheaded.

For this reason, Cao Cao personally put a Xiezhi crown on him...

Man Chong reached out his hand and wanted to touch the Xiezhi crown on his head, but found that it was covered with termites. The face of one of the termites was exactly that of the damn Xu Xili, who was constantly gnawing at his Xiezhi crown!
On the body of the termite with the face of Xu Xili, the words "Promoted to Xili Youjian" were branded in Man Chong's own handwriting.

Man Chong shouted and tried to throw away the Xiezhi crown on his head, but he could not catch the Xiezhi crown and could not throw it down!

He was spinning, and countless sounds were heard around him, and countless human figures were swaying.

There was a man who, at the age of twenty, wore cloth clothes and studied hard.

There was also him who had just put on the Xiezhi crown and slightly raised his head towards the rising sun.

There was also someone kneeling under the Dan steps with his fingers tightly clenched in his palms.

The image swayed, and finally stopped at him, with his scorched robes scattered all over his body...

In every fragment and every figure, it seemed that someone was reading something. Upon careful listening, it was actually he who was reading different verdicts to himself.

"Gao's illegal salt case, he was perverting the law for personal gain, he should be executed!"

"In the case of Xiahou of Yingchuan molesting a commoner woman, he evaded the serious issue and should be tattooed!"

Every sentence in the verdict is a reflection of his repeated mistakes and evil deeds.

Numerous voices collided between the halls, causing the originally magnificent floor tiles in the Chongde Hall to suddenly shatter, revealing charred lines, just like the densely packed lists of prisoners and execution files placed on his desk.

Man Chong staggered back and found that every brick and stone in the hall seemed to be engraved with the names of those he had executed.

Some of those names are grinning, some are wailing, some are praying, and some are roaring...

"I'm not wrong! I'm not wrong!" Man Chong yelled, "You guys forced me to do this! It's all your fault!"

In the Shandong officialdom, one must learn to compromise, right?
If you want to get promoted, you have to learn how to trade, right?

National laws are national laws, but don’t we still have to rely on human feelings outside the law?
Man Chong knew clearly that some things were wrong, but he evaded, distorted, and even falsified the facts. But didn’t others do the same?
Suddenly, the surroundings showed a scene of hussars breaking through Luoyang City and rushing into the inner city of the imperial palace. Man Chong roared and tried to swing the blood-stained sword in his hand to chop at these scenes, but the moment the sword cut through the scene, Man Chong also saw the beams and pillars of Chongde Hall begin to fade, the gilded skylight turned into pus and blood flowing, and the jade steps under his feet crumbled inch by inch.

On the collapsed Dan steps, shadows flowed, and it seemed that the lamentations that had been heard since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were heard, "A harsh government is more ferocious than a tiger..."

"No, no, no! No!"

Man Chong roared, then burst into laughter. He dragged his sword and his feet step by step, climbing up to the heights of Chongde Hall, walking through the rubble and debris. Even though his hands and feet were cut and scratched and bleeding in the rubble, he was still unaware.

When he climbed to the top of the collapsed rubble of Chongde Hall, he stretched out his hand as if to touch the golden throne in the void, or in his imagination, then closed his eyes and shouted to the sky:

"The flaming spirit fell from the palace, the black armor split the sky, the Xiezhi's crown tilted, is it my fault?"

"The officials were so foolish that they lost their plans for salt and iron, and the soldiers were so scared of the arrows that they fled like smoke!"

"The support flag is stuck at the Hangu Pass, not because I didn't make enough plans! History will tell you clearly, so why should I fear a prairie fire?"

"Hahahaha... eventually the historian will record it..."

"Han Ji was loyal and died for his country, Man Gong burned the palace to emulate Bi Gan!"

"Come here, come here! Bring the wood in front of the temple. I will burn myself here to show my loyalty and filial piety!"

"Someone come here!"

Man Chong shouted.

But no one responded.

He slowly opened his eyes and shook his head, only then he realized that there was no one else around him.

Even those personal guards who had followed him through Runan, to Pei State, and protected him all the way from Guanzhong to Luoyang, disappeared without a trace...

They can follow a defeated general, but they will not follow a mad official.

Man Chong slowly sat down on the rubble.

This is the ruined Chongde Hall of the Han Dynasty, and he is a madman who was defeated...

It seems like a perfect match.

Man Chong smiled, stood up again, straightened his clothes, and smoothed out his messy hair.

No crown, no scarf.

Man Chong thought about it, picked up his sword, cut a piece of cloth from his sleeve, and tied his hair up.

He suddenly discovered that tying his hair with a piece of blood-stained, muddy cloth seemed to be more comfortable than wearing the Xiezhi crown. At least it didn't pull his scalp so hard and cause pain.

Not far away, the soldiers of the Cavalry Army followed Man Chong's footsteps and pointed towards the Chongde Hall.

"well……"

Man Chong shook his head and sighed.

"Guo Fengxiao, Guo Fengxiao... you really got it right... people like us... people like me..."

Man Chong raised his sword, looked at the sky for the last time, then put the sword on his neck, sighed again, and slashed hard with his hand.