Infinite Brilliant Scroll

Chapter 215
The "red sand glue" mine in Yizhou City is located in Cangshan Mountain, ninety miles east of the state.

According to the records of mountains and rivers, Cangshan Mountain in Yizhou overlooks the East China Sea. There is the tomb of King Dou in the front, the pillar of King Qin in the back, and the stone chamber in the middle.

In fact, ordinary people don't know where Dou Wang's tomb and Qin Wangzhu are. This Cangshan Mountain is composed of [-] peaks from north to south. Living here, accompanied by green mountains and green waters, is quite comfortable.

In recent years, officers and soldiers have explored several mineral deposits here and ordered mining, and the appearance of Cangshan Mountain has changed immediately.

When Guan Luoyang and the others came to the outskirts of Cangshan Mountain, they looked into the distance from a cliff. In the blue sky and daylight, between the peaks in the distance, there were more than a dozen streams of black smoke billowing straight up to the sky. In addition to the smell of green grass and leaves, there is also a faint smell of burnt smoke.

"Is there such a big movement in mining?" Guan Luoyang was a little puzzled.

Gongsun Sheng explained next to him: "The mines here include one large, two small, three cinnabar mines, several iron mines, and a red crystal mine."

"When mining cinnabar mines, the cliffs and mountains are covered with firewood, and the fire is burned. After the mountain walls are hot, cold water is poured on them to make the rocks crack and peel off by themselves, and then the ore is selected and transported."

"After those iron ores were mined, they had to be forged into iron blocks on the spot, and the impurities in them had to be removed. The furnace was opened day and night, and the fire did not go out, and the smoke naturally did not go out."

"The last crystal mine is the most troublesome. After mining a large piece of crystal, it transports high-quality cinnabar and smelts it in a furnace. It can smelt a kind of purple gas sand that is very beneficial to immortals and magicians. When you are doing exercises, put some purple qi sand in the incense burner or drink it, it can transform into a stream of purple qi, eliminate illusions and illusions, stop impatience, and make your body and mind peaceful and comfortable.”

Gongsun Sheng swept the dust whisk in his hand, as if he wanted to sweep away the more and more obvious smoke smell in the wind, and said, "But once this purple qi god sand is smelted, it will take a long time, and it will take a long time to practice. I don't know if it will be scrapped." No matter how many fires you go to, the smoke will not fade all day long, and it is not surprising."

Dai Zong had also inquired a lot about the Cangshan mine before, and he took over the conversation and said: "The Taoist officials in Bianliang City specially built several treasure furnaces for the Ziqi Shensha, and placed them here. We also sent Baoxu Supreme Master Ren Sen to lead a group of Taoist officials and mages to watch over the fire. Yizhou City also sent a general, Shi Wengong, to recruit the brave and strong Zeng's children to supervise the mines here."

Gongsun Sheng nodded slightly: "Just Ren Sen alone is quite difficult. Since Shi Wengong is called a general, he must have practiced a clever magic method. From the point of view of the poor, we should be more cautious if we want to take mercury. , so as not to cause more trouble."

Lin Lingsu snorted beside him and said, "The Heavenly Gang Five Thunder Dharma of Erxian Mountain is also the best of the Thunder Dharma. If you have practiced it well, open the altar and do it, what's the difficulty in killing a Ren Sen? I Seeing that your mana is also a bit mixed, I'm afraid you were a Taoist official a few months ago, so it has nothing to do with the fate of the court, and you can't practice the true transmission of immortality."

Gongsun Sheng bowed his head and said: "Master taught me in the early years, but I didn't care about it. When I repented, I regretted that I didn't work hard in the past. Recently, I am working hard every night. I will definitely not insult the prestige of Master."

Guan Luoyang walked with them all the way, seeing that Lin Lingsu had difficulty walking by himself, and insisted on being sharp-tongued, and seemed to have a somewhat sarcastic tone of begging for everything he said, and he really admired Gongsun Sheng's good temper.

After all, [-]% of his words were aimed at Gongsun Sheng.

It's just that Guan Luoyang has heard a lot, and he can hear something. Sometimes Lin Lingsu scolds Gongsun Sheng for his appearance, but it seems to be scolding his former self. After all, when talking about Taoist priests who have been entangled with the Song court , it seems that there are few who can compare with him, Mr. Yuan Miao, the Kinmen feather guest and Mr. Yuan Miao.

Fortunately, Lin Lingsu has the advantage of being erudite besides his bad-mouthed and aggressive tone. If someone gives him an introduction, he can tell a long paragraph by himself.

Guan Luoyang didn't need much insinuation during this time, so he asked a lot about the cultivation situation in this world from Lin Lingsu.

There are thousands of schools of cultivation ways in the world today, and countless different people have formed their own schools throughout the ages, but generally speaking, they can still be divided into three major categories, the way of immortality, the way of magic, and heresy.

The Tao of Immortals is said to have originated from Huangdi Laozhuang, while the Tao of Demons originated from Chiyou Jiangshang.

In the name of the latter, although the word "magic" was added, Chi You was later called one of the three ancestors. Jiang Shang was also the first ancestor of the military family and a sage. The orthodox method of man.

The source of immortal cultivation is adhering to the concept of "wood is better than flesh, stone is better than wood, and gold is better than stone", collecting longevity energy from longevity things, so that mortal bodies can gradually transform.

And the so-called longevity things, there is another generalization, which is "gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, lead, mercury, oil, and carbon." The last rare word covers the widest variety, referring to all kinds of rare jade crystals, rare stones, etc. Medicine fossil.

To practice immortality, you must first practice the nine orifices. The nine orifices of a human being connect the inside and the outside. The nine orifices of ordinary people are weak, not to mention swallowing gold and chewing iron, biting lead and drinking mercury, even if they suddenly eat too much meat, it may cause various diseases. People who can't excrete after eating naturally have no way to step into the threshold of cultivation.

Therefore, we must first start with the milder wood and stone anthers, and refine the nine orifices. After a certain level, we can improve step by step from swallowing stone powder and cinnabar, and reach the point where we can eat gold raw and drink copper as leisurely. Refining the purest strand of vitality from the material, turning it into personal use, waiting until the vitality in the body is full, turning it into jade liquid, and the jade liquid has nine turns, and you can practice an indestructible golden elixir.

The biggest difference between the way of magic and the way of immortality is that the way of magic doesn't care whether the essence is pure or not. After cultivating the nine orifices, people who practice the way of magic start with the most common coal and eat whatever they have, and let the miscellaneous gas fill the limbs and bones .

When the physical body is heavy and turbid, and the spirit is stubborn, it is difficult to gather the turbid air into a golden core, so it can only be allowed to melt into all parts of the body, and finally cast into a battle body that looks like a god and a demon.

The training method of the magic way saves a lot of purification steps, and the difficulty of cultivation is much lower than that of the immortal way, so it was once widely spread among soldiers and generals. It was passed down from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties to the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. They are the most people in the world.

Unfortunately, after the disputes of the Warring States period, the Qin Dynasty was not long after the unification, and fell into war again, and then Chu and Han fought for hegemony, and the early Han suppressed the rebellion, and the world was constantly fighting. When Han Gaozu was in his later years, many old mines in the world were almost exhausted. At that time, he lacked merit and food, so that he was bullied by foreigners. After going through wise monarchs like Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing, it was difficult to restore the old view.

So in the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the immortal way was lonely, the magic way declined, and the prosperity of heresy...has come!

Heretics, originated from witchcraft, are deeply entangled with the customs of various places. They are not like the fairy way of seeking truth, and unlike the magic way of being pragmatic. Heretics practice illusory power. They start with fraudulent tricks at the beginning, collect people's emotions, desires, and spiritual thoughts, and gradually Refining fakes into real ones has the power to influence the real ones.

This kind of cultivation method, indulging in the sea of ​​desire, makes it easy for people to lose themselves, and once the prestige is hit, people's hearts will be scattered, and mana may even regress, so it has always been despised by immortals and demons.

However, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty reused Dong Zhongshu, Dongfang Shuo, Zhufu Yan and other people to change customs and respect Confucianism alone, so that the princes and states and thousands of people in the world have a common understanding.

Then, using this common cognition as a medium, the heresy was pushed to the extreme, forming the art of imperial luck.

Ordinary heresy warlocks are just fooling a village and a town, but Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty unified the people of the world in terms of reason, and the pattern is more than a hundred times bigger.

Wei Qinghuo Qubing is a talented man, he is victorious in every battle, the higher his reputation, the stronger his combat power, he swept away the haze of foreign races that shrouded the Han border, and created the confidence of one Han to be the five Hu. It embodies the characteristics of the imperial luck technique.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty made arbitrary decisions and made government orders, so he dared not to follow them. He also used this technique of luck.

The law in the imperial court is strict, and the power brought by the imperial luck technique is inseparable from the official position. Once the emperor deposes a person from the official position, this power will be deprived immediately. It is easier to control than the fairy way and the magic way. The emperor authority reached unprecedented heights.

No one of the subsequent emperors could escape the temptation of such power. Therefore, since the Han Dynasty, Wei Jin, Sui and Tang Dynasties, until now, the art of imperial luck has been maintained.

After the founding of the Song Dynasty and the succession of Emperor Taizong, the maintenance of the luck of the dynasty became a top priority, and the respect for Confucianism was far greater than before.

However, too much respect for Confucian scholars and civil servants naturally inevitably belittled generals and neglected generals. Many people had to be tattooed when they joined the army. They were no different from criminals, and even the common people were ashamed.

If the people's hearts are not in the soldiers, the soldiers will be able to gain less and less power from the luck of the dynasty. Even if there is a famous general for a while, they will not be able to resist such a declining trend.

When Lin Lingsu talked about this, Gongsun Sheng mentioned the current emperor again.

After today's Emperor Ming succeeded to the throne, regardless of the obstruction of the officials, he insisted on going his own way, and vigorously promoted the magic way in the army. He didn't know where to get the secret method of prospecting for mineral veins, and sent people to tour the country to explore the odds. In the past ten years, it can be said that the way of magic...or, the era of revival of the way of war.

In today's Great Song Army, everyone has practiced some military skills.

There are [-] elite soldiers led by Shi Wengong stationed in the Cangshan mine, which is much more dangerous than Ren Sen's Taoist officials. It is no wonder that Gongsun Shengxian declared that he must proceed with caution.

"Pindao will go to the smaller cinnabar mine first to have a look. Maybe there are some stocks, so we can steal them directly."

Gongsun Sheng watched for a while, pointed in one direction, and said, "Brother Dai Zong, you are here to take care of Mr. Yuan Miao, Brother Guan Dao, do you stay here, or go with Pindao to take a look?"

It wasn't a long time together, but Gongsun Sheng already knew that Guan Luoyang was curious about everything, so he asked this question.

Guan Luoyang really said, "I'll go and have a look too."

The two of them set off immediately, passed through the valley depression, and when they approached the place where the black smoke rose, they saw tree stumps all over the mountains.

The Nineteen Peaks of Cangshan Mountain should be full of woodlands, but the closer they are to the mines, the more bare they become. The grass and trees have been cut down and burned as firewood. The top is drained and the stones are mottled.

Guan Luoyang thought to himself: No wonder the smoke was so thick. Apart from the fact that there were so many things burned, it might also be because the firewood was too late to dry, and it was all wet wood, so it was thrown into the fire.

"Cross the hillside in front of you, and you will arrive at a guarded place."

Gongsun Sheng reminded in a low voice, and then squeezed the invisibility formula, his body turned into a transparent piece and disappeared.

The subtle electric light on Guan Luoyang's body flickered for a while, and he just walked over in such a generous way.

Gongsun Sheng, who was maintaining his invisibility, was about to say something when he suddenly forgot where Guan Luoyang was in the blink of an eye. After he calmed down and looked again, Guan Luoyang was clearly still walking slowly there.

"This..." Gongsun Sheng scratched his head, but couldn't think of any family whose spells were so strange.

Guan Luoyang's mental magnetic field permeated the outside, moistening things and affecting other people's brains silently. Even if they saw him, they thought he didn't exist at all.

Even people with Gongsun Sheng's cultivation level cannot completely avoid this influence. As long as they blink their eyelids, they will lose sight of Guan Luoyang for a short time, and it will take a while to "see" again. Naturally, the guarding young men couldn't resist.

Guan Luoyang walked across the hillside in front of them.

As far as the eye could see, it was a huge valley, piled with gravel everywhere, many people squatted on the pile of stones to pick and choose, picked out the cinnabar ore and put them in the baskets.

They carried the rough stones with bare hands, stepped on the gravel wearing straw sandals, picked up the full baskets, and walked to the path on the left side of the mine.

On the right is the vermilion mountain wall. Someone is strenuously spreading grass clippings and wood on the mountain wall, waiting for the next fire.

Next to each part of the miners, there are one or two middle-aged folk men holding sticks and staring at each other.

Different from those poorly dressed miners with old wounds and bruises all over their bodies, these peasants carrying sticks are just like those young men in charge of guards. Oily, wearing thick-soled cloth shoes or boots.

This group of people is neither soldiers nor miners, they should be the children of the Zeng family that Gongsun Sheng and the others mentioned, recruited by Shi Wengong to assist in the management.

Many of them had a yellow talisman on their chests.

The invisible Gongsun Sheng came to Guan Luoyang and said, "The left side of the mine should be the place leading to the storage."

Guan Luoyang raised his chin: "What's the purpose of the talismans on those people's chests?"

Gongsun Sheng looked at it carefully and said: "It seems to be a spell to ward off dust and eliminate evil spirits. It also has the effect of calming the nerves. It mainly prevents unconsciousness and sudden madness. Strange, do people here often suffer from madness?"

Guan Luoyang remained silent and looked at the miners again.

They rummaged through the cinnabar ore, dust was everywhere around them, and they would cough twice from time to time. Some people were panting and couldn't cough, so they beat their chests hard, and the clenched fists were still stained with vermilion marks.

It seemed to be caused by the powder of the ore, but if they washed their hands, they would find that the color had soaked deep into the skin.

However, in contrast to the red spots on their palms, most of their faces are blue and white, bloodless, and their eyeballs are covered with bloodshot eyes. Sometimes they stare at a certain place for a long time, their eyes are dull and rigid, and they cannot return to their senses. After being beaten with a stick, he was as frightened as he was panting and continued to work.

Guan Luoyang closed his eyes, he could hear all the miners in this mine panting, coughing accompanied their steps, sometimes so intense and dense that they could overwhelm everyone's steps.

Cinnabar can be used as medicine, but cinnabar is also poisonous. All the miners here have been deeply poisoned.

Gongsun Sheng has sneaked into the warehouse to steal mercury.

Guan Luoyang left here and walked to other mines where the black smoke rose. The physical condition of the people working in the iron mines was no better than that of the people in the cinnabar mines.

Gongsun Sheng stole more than a hundred catties of mercury, all of which were packed in bamboo tubes, sealed with plugs, wrapped around many bamboo tubes with whisks and hung on his back, and walked out of the cinnabar mine.

Guan Luoyang appeared next to him again, and said, "Didn't it mean that the barriers to entry for magic arts are extremely low, and you can also practice with the help of mineral powder? Has no one passed it on to these miners, so that it would be easier for them to do their jobs?"

Gongsun Sheng was stunned: "They are not members of the army, how can they learn magic arts, and how can anyone have the patience to teach them?"

Guan Luoyang said, "Who are these miners?"

"It stands to reason that the prisoners should be the first priority. Prisoners, big and small, in Yizhou should all have died during mining in the past few years. Few of the people in the mine have survived three years."

Gongsun Sheng also looked back at the miners, and said, "These people should be laborers recruited from nearby. After about two years, they can't work. According to the rules I inquired about before, they will be sent back home with their wages."

He added, "Since the revival of the Demon Dao, there have been too many mines in various places, and the manpower is really insufficient. I heard that in some places, the magistrates and prefects have extended the two-year period to three or four years to barely mine all mines. The ore meets the requirements of the imperial court."

"What about the miners when they go home?"

Before Gongsun Sheng could answer, Guan Luoyang had already shook his head, as if he had asked something stupid.

Just go home, no one cares about the life of these miners in the future, those who can bring their wages home are already extremely lucky.

Gongsun Sheng hesitated and said, "Brother Guan Dao..."

Guan Luoyang waved his hand and said, "Go and meet up with Lin Lingsu and the others first, and I'll walk around later."

"Shi Wengong, I've heard of this name before, so I'm curious."

Guan Luoyang laughed and walked away on his own.

(End of this chapter)