The Heavens: A Qing, the Yue Girl at the beginning

Ye Celeng stood in the shadow of the eaves of the Liling Palace, watching two gray-clothed servants stuff the old beggar into the green-curtained carriage. As the sound of the shaft rolling over the bluestone slabs faded away, she tapped the glazed tiles with her toes, and her black official boots turned into a wisp of light smoke, floating towards the east of the city along the signs of the shops on Suzaku Street.

The red lacquer door of the Jici Hall was inlaid with a gilded lion head, and the plaque "A Family of Good Deeds" hung on the lintel was written by Emperor Yuanwu. It was three quarters past noon when Ye Ce Leng landed. The creaking sound of the sandalwood door hinges wafted the fragrance of agarwood, mixing with the morning dew that fell from the copper bells on the eaves.

This should have been the season for frost to form, but these luxurious courtyards rely on the heat from the floor heating to keep the eaves and tiles warm. Fine drops of water roll down the backs of the auspicious beasts, like the misty rain of spring.

The moment you walk around the vermilion lacquered screen wall, the emptiness of the entire courtyard hits you in the face: twelve green jade screens stretch across the front yard like the spine of a giant beast, each jade plate is half a foot thick, and the entire screen is engraved with the entire text of the "Da Qin Pension Order" in relief.

The strokes of the seal characters were filled with gold powder, and when the copper bells on the eaves rang gently, the words "the elderly are well cared for" and "the widows and the widowers are well off" began to glow, making the brocade banners on the wall even more gorgeous.
The inscriptions on the back, "The unfilial shall be crucified" and "Widows over the age of sixty shall be given two shi of millet per month", have traces of dark brown paste.

Ye Celeng's fingertips stroked the base of the screen and felt the unique biting chill of the North Sea's black ice - this luxurious method of preserving spiritual jade was enough to support a hundred elderly and lonely families for three years.

"Please look at the Forest of Merit Steles, sir."

The old steward who led the way was all smiles, his face, like dry tree bark, wrinkled like a chrysanthemum, and the wooden plaque with the word "Ci" hanging from the jade buckle on his waist jingled with every step.

Passing through the moon-shaped gate, you will see 360 ​​obsidian steles arranged in the shape of the Big Dipper. A gilded Pixiu sits on top of each stele, with a luminous pearl in its mouth illuminating every detail of the inscription.

The name of Lord Liling was hung on the first stele, followed by the amount of money and grain donated: 100,000 dan of millet, 5,000 pieces of silk, and 30,000 baht of gold.

Ye Celeng stopped in front of the seventh stone tablet. Moss climbed up the tablet along the donation record of "Li Houfu", dyeing the words "3,000 strings of cash for each household" dark green.

She recalled the secret files she had seen at the Ministry of Revenue last month. The actual tax paid by Marquis Li's mansion this year was no more than 2,000 strings of cash. According to the rule in the "Donations and Taxes Chapter", members of the royal family and marquises could pay 70% of the tax. The numbers on these steles of merit were probably 99% inflated.

The sound of stringed instruments came from the east wing. Sixty-four copper crane lamps hung on the dome, reflecting the "Qin Law of Kindness and Care" on the eighteen ebony screens like flowing red gold.

More than 20 old men in brocade clothes sat on red sandalwood armchairs, with rhino horn cups on the low tables in front of them. The amber liquid in the cups gave off wisps of green smoke. Ye Celeng recognized a few faces: the uncle who was demoted in the family of Li Sile Zhengshi, and the eldest brother who was stripped of his title in the mansion of Wuyuan General.

The corners of the silver bills sticking out of their sleeves were all stamped with the word "decent" in cinnabar - the retirement money given to abandoned children by various powerful families was transferred several times under the name of "bloodline foster care contract", which became the evidence of "philanthropy" in the account books of Keats Hall.

"Today's charity record: Li Lingjun Mansion donated 20 boxes of Anshen Powder and 5 pieces of Panax Notoginseng Teng, and Xiao Changshi's family donated 100 pieces of plain silk..."

In the corridor, a servant in blue clothes was holding a gilded book and reading aloud, while his wolf-hair brush was drawing lotus patterns on the "Record of Good Deeds".

Ye Celeng glanced at the slightly curled page at the corner of the book and saw that the record of "300 bowls of porridge distributed at Li Shilang's residence" the day before was still stained with rice paste, while the rice bags piled up in the veranda were printed with the black bird wax unique to official warehouses.

The most piercing sound was the wailing coming from the northwest corner.

Thirty women in plain clothes sat around a futon, their white hair swaying in unison as the teaching nanny raised and lowered the cane. "When you cry, think about your own dead child!" The nanny knocked the silver ruler on the blue brick, splashing a few drops of incense ash: "Your forehead should be flat on the ground, and your voice should be inflected three times!"

Ye Celeng saw the golden bracelets sticking out from their sleeves - these were the mourners specially trained to accompany the nobles in sacrificial ceremonies. Their collars were already covered with makeup powder before they even shed their tears.

After walking around the winding corridor, she stopped in front of the accounting office.

The sound of a sandalwood abacus mixed with the sound of copper coins seeped out from the carved window pane. The old accountant wearing crystal glasses was pushing two booklets to the man in fancy clothes opposite him: "The rules for fictitious donations and arbitrage are that 30% is paid in cash, and 70% can be exchanged for salt vouchers..."

The words were cut off by the cold light of the black jade seal on Ye Celeng's waist. The land deeds in the man's arms fell to the ground. The red seal of "Li Ling Villa" on the deeds was as bright as blood.

She reached out and took the account book on the desk, and her fingertips ran over the entry "Donation of one string of money is equivalent to half a string of taxes."

The amount of fictitious donations handled by the Jici Hall each month was no less than 100,000 strings of cash. If 50% of the taxes were offset, the tax silver lost from the national treasury each year would be enough to rebuild half of an ordinary county town. As for the royal family members who offset 70% of the taxes, they were probably too lazy to even bring in the corn for show, and only carved a fictitious number on the merit tablet before leaving.

When the morning light penetrated the clouds and shone on the new decree "All People Practice, Benefit the World" that had just been hung high on the Rongyang Terrace, Ye Celeng was already standing in the Guanshan Pavilion, the highest point in the Keats Hall, listening to the edict made of black iron clanging in the wind below:
"【Emperor Yuanwu's Decree】I have heard that the elderly are the root of the country, so I have specially ordered the Zhengwu Division to send lieutenants and commanders to the Jici Halls in each county to teach three chapters of the "Health Preservation and Body Training Secrets" every month..."

"…From the beginning of the first month of winter this year, all those over fifty years old must practice the nine-turn breathing technique every day; widows, widowers, disabled people, and the disabled should be given three qian of deer antler and five liang of astragalus. Officials should store the miraculous medicine in black ice from the North Sea, and the county magistrate should inspect and seal the box. Anyone who fails to do so within three days will be caned 80 times."

The cinnabar annotation at the end of the order still has a fishy smell: "Anyone who practices this secret and dies suddenly will be asked to have his meridians checked by the prison warden. If the elixir is inferior, the person in charge will be tattooed on his face and exiled 3,000 miles away. If the method is wrong, the person who teaches the secret will be beheaded in the market and his head will be exposed for nine days as a warning to others."

Looking down from the iron-painted and silver-hooked edict at this moment, the shadow of the forest of steles of merit and virtue just covered the skinny figure huddled at the foot of the north wall, and the old people who were practicing the crying sacrifice were being pulled away by servants with silk ribbons, like puppets.

She took a last look at the century-old ginkgo tree in the atrium that was hung with wishing boards. On the red silk hanging between the branches were inscribed "May Lord Liling have many children and a long life" - the signature was from the coffin shop in the south of the city, and "May the grace of Saint Yuanwu be bestowed upon all people" - on the back were painted three turtles stacked on top of each other.

When the first rotten leaf fell on her shoulder, Ye Celeng had already turned around. Her plain skirt swept across half of the dried and hardened salted fish on the threshold, removing the fishy smell from the excessive pickling. Then, she quickly walked towards the direction of the prison warden.

……

"The 'Keats Hall' opened in the east of the city is just a face-saving project controlled by the rich and powerful, but it at least provides warmth for the poor and lonely old people, allowing them to survive this long winter...Even if only 90% of the two dan of corn distributed each month is actually distributed to make up for the loss of the granary, it has helped thousands of people after all..."

When Zhao Qing stepped into the threshold of the wine shop, the sunlight was shining through the broken roof, illuminating the broken pottery pieces on the ground in every detail. With a wave of her hand, the torn and charred wine flag decomposed into its composing strands of silk, and then instantly reconstructed, woven and stitched, turning it into a new piece that was a little thinner.

"And if we estimate the cost of a luxurious mansion like the Liling Lord's Mansion, considering the more than a thousand guests living in it, the scale of more than seven miles in circumference, the frequent use of glazed bricks and tiles, nanmu beams and pillars, ingenious carvings, as well as facilities such as floor heating and spirit gathering talisman formations, the cost should be around eight million strings of cash..."

"The economic scale of the Great Qin Dynasty is about 2.3 trillion coins, of which agriculture accounts for only 18%, handicrafts account for 11%, the military talisman industry accounts for as high as 29%, and the purchase and circulation of spiritual minerals also accounts for as much as 23%. The annual expenditure on the military fluctuates around 6 million coins..."

"The wine shop opened by Ding Ning seems to be located in this dilapidated Wutong Lane. It can rely on the name of Changsun Qianxue to attract customers. The sour and inferior wine at 20 cents a pot and the salted peanuts at 5 cents a plate are always hot-selling. Even if the business is closed on rainy and snowy days, the annual income is already over 1,000 yuan."

"So, his savings over the years should be around five or six million yuan, which is quite impressive in the context of the Qin Dynasty. If there were no premium, it would be enough to buy seven or eight standard rune chariots and tens of thousands of stones of fresh corn. Even the children of the noble and powerful families might not be able to match that."

"But at the same time, skilled craftsmen in Changling only earn two or three strings of cash a month, and farmers outside the city only earn 20 strings of cash a year... In general, the wealth structure is seriously unbalanced... It's not easy to eliminate these problems."

After thinking about this for a while, Zhao Qing had already found Ding Ning, who was sitting on a bench eating breakfast noodles in the still intact backyard of the wine shop.

Her heart moved slightly. Changsun Qianxue, who was covered with gauze not far away and turned a blind eye to the mess outside, blocked the flow of smells due to her mysophobia, but did not urge Ding Ning to clean up, roughly understood the plans of these two people.

Simply put, the main reason why Ding Ning stayed in Changling, which was full of dangers, under the eyes of his enemies, pretending to be a wine shop owner, was naturally to plan to get into the Minshan Sword Sect through the Minshan Sword Conference and use the Xutian Divine Art to make up for the hidden dangers of the Nine Death Silkworm.

Secondly, he recently learned from the deceased Song Shenshu that Lin Zhujiu was still alive but was imprisoned in the Dafu Water Prison. He then thought about how to jailbreak the other party and get him out of the prison - this matter was too difficult and he needed to gradually seize the opportunity while observing his life in Changling.

In addition, for a similar reason, if Ding Ning always maintained the persona of an ordinary citizen, when Bashan traitors like Liang Lian were killed, it would be unlikely that the investigation would lead to him.

However, considering that she had solved what Ding Ning called "Yang hyperactivity is difficult to reverse", the continuation of Tianshen Jue and Minshan Sword Meeting were no longer necessary. In addition, the prison break was illusory after all, and it had to rely on strong cultivation support. However, the unimaginable speed of cultivation would easily attract attention in Changling. On the whole, taking advantage of the destruction of the wine shop, and fearing that the Liling Junfu would continue to retaliate, she moved from her original residence to Baiyang Cave or a more remote place, spent money to buy a small courtyard, and lived in seclusion and developed secretly, which was the most appropriate solution at the moment.

But, having said that, Ye Celeng observed Ding Ning and Changsun Qianxue closely this time. There was no need to worry about the former's disguise level, even though it was quite shocking that she used talismans to kill one person in the fifth realm and two people in the fourth realm. However, the latter, after all, was cold and arrogant and rarely concealed herself, so she was afraid that it would arouse some suspicion.

In the eyes of both of them, Ye Celeng's true attitude is still a mystery, and no one knows which side he is on. Therefore, taking advantage of this rare opportunity to move to a safer place where they can definitely break through the siege is the truly rational choice.

However, what Zhao Qing had not expected was that Ding Ning, who could clearly rely on the Nine-Death Silkworm to completely control his body and emotions, could not help but have many rational and even crazy thoughts. In his mind, he was thinking about the piece of paper he had picked up by chance last night and the meaningful message from Ye Celeng not long ago.

……

That's right, after managing to instigate Zhao Qianliang, a foreign faction in the Jiantian Division who was transferred from the Zhengwu Division and was not under his direct jurisdiction, to cause trouble in front of the Liling Jun Mansion, Ye Celeng seemed to have left the wine shop, but in fact he quickly turned back and slipped into the darkness of the wine shop.

At that time, her eyes swept across the mess and finally fell on a broken jar with some residual wine left.

Ye Celeng raised his hand and scooped up a spoonful, brought it to his lips and tasted it, then frowned and spat it out: "This wine is really hard to drink, like the sour water used to wash rice, with rust mixed with salty tears."

During the years of investigating cases in Changling, she had seen too many things that looked shiny and bright on the surface but were rotten inside, and had read thousands and tens of thousands of cold and ruthless supervisory case files. She was deeply touched by Zhao Qing's remarks in that "letter of advice", and truly gained a kind of enlightenment that cleared the clouds and saw the sun.

Although in the impression of many people in Changling, the head of the Sky and Night Supervisor is a stunning woman who holds great power, is decisive in killing, likes to wear white dresses, and is as changeable as water. She has a different temperament than those young ladies from powerful families, giving people a sense of being out of this world.

But the real situation was that she was originally just the daughter of a concubine of an ordinary merchant. Because she had seen Wang Jingmeng dueling with swordsmen on the banks of the Wei River and defeating his enemy with one sword, she had the urge to practice swordsmanship, so she ran away from home and found the military camp where the other party was, and actually received instruction in swordsmanship.

Wang Jingmeng's words "Every Qin person should hold a sword" were indeed not a lie, and there was no difference at all due to the difference in status.

Even when faced with a skinny, helpless commoner from the lower class, he was still able to humble himself, respect the self-improvement perseverance and determination of every Qin person, and provide them with help.

Ye Celeng was born from the bottom of society. She lived a life of hunger and thirst when she was young. She had experienced the cold eyes and humiliation of others. But when those words that pointed out the truth jumped into her eyes and lingered in her heart, she suddenly remembered that snowy night 24 years ago.

When she was only ten years old, she curled up under the bridge of the Dead Man's River, holding a clay pot filled with rotten rice in her arms. This was the only food she brought with her when she left home. Even though it gave off a sour and disgusting smell, it was her hope of survival on that snowy night when she was hungry and cold.

The surface of the frozen river was filled with the smell of rotten grass and fish, and the wind that leaked through the cracks in the bridge was filled with the stench of corpses from the mass grave upstream.

The warm light from the wine shop at the bridgehead pierced through the snow curtain. A few drunken noblemen were picking roasted deer tongue with silver chopsticks. The sound of jade cups clinking together caused them to sneer: "I heard that Wang Jingmeng is teaching swordsmanship in the army again. Even the untouchables can learn it?"

"Isn't it?" The young man in the sable cloak poured the wine on the snow, watching the ice crystals refract a colorful halo. "A horse slave escaped from my house the other day. He dared to say that he was going to join the army to learn swordsmanship - haha, is such an inferior person worthy of holding a sword? Is he worthy of practicing?"

Ye Celeng still remembers how he dug his frozen fingers into the cracks between the bricks and climbed to the top of the back wall of the tavern as if possessed by a ghost. When the young man from the noble family was laughing with his head back and was completely defenseless, he suddenly poured the rotten rice water in the jar all over his face.

Then, without taking another look, she turned around and ran desperately towards the garrison of the Bingmasi on the south bank of the river. Amid the curses of the pursuers, she suddenly remembered the last few grains of yellow rice on the inner wall of the pottery jar - they should have been kept until New Year's Eve, but now they were stuck to the man's hair and fermented.

But he didn't run far before he was caught up by those young men from noble families.

Ice-cold fists and wanton insults rained down on her. She half-knelt in the snow, protecting her head with both hands. Snow mixed with blood soaked her clothes. When the golden shoes of the aristocratic family rolled over her fingers, it was Wang Jingmeng, who had just returned from patrolling the camp, who used the scabbard of his sword to pry open the man's throat.

In the blood flowers blooming on the snow, the swordsman in green picked a suitable ironwood sword and put it into her palm. His voice was as warm as charcoal: "The sword is straight, and the human heart should be straight too."

But when she really held the sword in the army, she found that the world was as crooked as a snake on a mountain road.

The elixirs for the monks accompanying the army were always provided to the children of the noble families first, and the pensions for the fallen soldiers had to be deducted by seven government offices. Last winter, she secretly executed the embezzlers, and the people kneeling at the execution ground actually cheered "Your Majesty is wise" - they were used to picking up food scraps from between their fingers.

Tasting the sour taste of the inferior wine, Ye Celeng suddenly raised his head, his eyes penetrating the newly broken holes in the rammed earth wall beside him. The frost flowers reflected the shadow of Changling City in the morning light:
Porters hurried to work with dry and hard cakes in their arms, and their monthly wage was only two strings of cash; the bloodstained fingers of the weaver girl in the south of the city shuttled between the dragon silks, and she earned half a string of copper coins in exchange for her midnight lamplight; and the glazed tiles of the Liling Palace refracted the sunlight into rainbows, each of which was worth half a year's food rations for the poor people in the alley.

"Where should a truly good sword strike?"

Before leaving, she suddenly chuckled and pointed her finger as a sword. The teardrop-like water carved deep grooves on the wall: "That person once said, 'If the Qin people are bullied, every Qin person can take up a sword and stand up. Who in the world dares to bully us Qin people?' I have remembered this sentence for many years."

"But he never realized until his death that what really weighed on the Qin people was this heavy yoke called 'Qin System'!"

……

Recalling the lingering sound that echoed repeatedly in the shop when the white-robed chief was leaving half an hour ago, Ding Ning broke out in a cold sweat on his forehead. He suddenly realized that every patch on the wine flag represented the scars of people's livelihood.

The idle chatter of the drunkards that I heard when I was "drunk" now formed a chain of frightening memories in my mind:

Farmers’ ankles were tied with iron shackles of “household tax”, craftsmen’s necks were tied with copper shackles of “market tax”, porters’ shoulder poles were pressed with stone tablets of “labor tax”, weavers’ shuttles were pulled with bloody threads of “market rent”, and even the maltose in children’s pockets was stained with “sugar candy” green mango…

Countless Qin people worked with bent backs, their shadows entangled by the iron chains of taxes, which were eventually pulled out and merged into the black hole above the imperial city, and turned into capital for the luxurious life of the powerful. However, ordinary people struggled under this heavy oppression.

When an apprentice at the East Market Silk Shop went blind from overwork, the silk book donated by the boss to pay taxes read "helping a hundred blind people"; when an apprentice at the Arms Supervisor lost three fingers due to a furnace explosion, the supervisor was mixing the fragments of black iron into the next batch of arrowheads - it was self-evident where the real "Qin bully" was hiding!

"It suddenly occurred to me that there was something I could do."

Ding Ning put down his bowl and chopsticks, and stood up straight like a sword. His firm and persistent voice seemed to overlap with Wang Jingmeng's in the past: "Tell all the Qin people in the world, who holds the sword in your hand."

"It's good to have such an idea, but you need to have the right strength to match it." Zhao Qing was also thinking about something in his heart, and noticed the change in the other party's thoughts: "I just created the "Taixu Planting Jade Art", Ding Ning, come and take a look."

After saying this, she glanced indifferently at the broken pottery pieces on the ground that had not yet been picked up. Some of them immediately leaped up and flew away. Those with inconsistent edges and seams were all naturally worn away, and were re-fired into the original shape of a wine jar in a faintly visible furnace and stood on the counter.

Ding Ning narrowed his eyes slightly. He recognized that this period was mixed with the Grinding Stone Sword Technique, the Water Separation Technique, the Heaven and Earth Furnace and other moves with extremely special meanings. It seems that his guess was not too wrong. The major events that happened yesterday were indeed related to the other party.

If we look closely at the tacit cooperation between Ye Celeng and Zhao Qing, and the reproduction of the Moshi Sword Technique and that person's famous quote, we can deduce more thrilling conclusions.

"What is the 'Taixu Jade Planting Technique'?"

...(End of chapter)