Cyber ​​Daming

Chapter 700 What to do
"Right now this city is full of Shi Qing's Hong Hu and Zhan Shun's Huang Liang Gui. We don't have much time, so let's make it short."

Zhang Siyuan did not exchange many pleasantries with Yang Bai Ze. After looking the embarrassed Shang Lu up and down, he asked directly about the causes and consequences of the rebellion in the city.

"After the various clans sent people to settle in the coastal prefectures, the Honghu that had infiltrated the country disappeared for a while. It seems that the previous disturbances were just the Zhu family testing the bottom line of the Prime Minister, and they did not really have the courage to tear their faces with us."

Yang Bai Ze showed a bitter smile on his face: "But just twelve hours ago, all the ways of communication with the outside world through the 'Huangliang' in the city were suddenly cut off, and then there were a large number of incidents of Huangliang ghosts taking over the bodies of ordinary people."

"These yellow millet ghosts gathered together and began to attack the government office by self-detonating. The Confucian clans that were originally responsible for the garrison ignored Lord Li's orders and fled the city. The hidden Honghu took advantage of the opportunity to enter, burning, killing, looting, and slaughtering people everywhere."

Zhang Siyuan frowned, "Lord Li is the third Confucian scholar of the Imperial Art. Even if he can't suppress the riot, he won't be killed so easily, right?"

"The people in charge of protecting Lord Li, Faxu, rebelled, and the people in Bingxu and Liutao colluded with them from within."

This time it was not Yang Bai Ze who answered, but Shang Lu.

Shang Lu said hoarsely, "Under the siege, Lord Li was attacked and seriously injured, and then he was killed by Zhu Pingxu."

"call"

Zhang Siyuan let out a long sigh. The development of the situation was not complicated. The cause of the rebellion was obviously because the Zhu family and Zhan Shun reached a consensus and the two sides joined forces to launch it.

"So, Lord Li's body is now in the government office?"

As he spoke, Zhang Siyuan turned around and started walking.

It's obvious what he wants to do.

"Even if it is there, it is a trap deliberately set by Honghu, waiting for you to fall into it."

Yang Bai Ze looked at the back and shouted hurriedly: "Lord Li is dead. I saw it with my own eyes. You shouldn't risk your life for this! The most urgent task now should be..."

"The situation has become so bad, what urgent matter is there?" Zhang Siyuan said without turning his head.

"Then at least you shouldn't go and die in vain like this!"

But in just one day, Yang Baize had a thick layer of dark blue stubble on his lips, making it hard to guess his real age. His clothes were stained with blood, and although his left arm was empty, the light in his eyes had never dimmed.

"Your life is very important to those of us who are still willing to follow the Prime Minister."

"What's my life? Just because I'm Zhang Fengyue's son, is my life so precious that I can't afford to lose it? Yang Baize, you're wrong."

Zhang Siyuan paused and spoke slowly, "Liu Jinxun can die, Gao Sheng can die, Li Bufeng can die, so many Confucian scholars can die, why can't the Zhang family die?"

Zhang Siyuan turned around, his handsome face full of carefree smiles: "Let me tell you straight, I came here on purpose to die."

Yang Bai Ze's body trembled, as if he didn't dare to look at Zhang Siyuan's calm and peaceful eyes. He lowered his head and stared at the Wei Wuzu sword held tightly in his right hand.

"In fact, you don't need to prove it with your life. We all believe that everything the Prime Minister did was not for himself."

"It's not enough for you to understand. I want everyone to understand. An old man who is about to die is obviously not doing this for himself, but he still has to be stabbed in the back by others. He can tolerate it, but I, as his son, can't tolerate it."

Zhang Siyuan turned around and looked at Yang Bai Ze who was silent with his head down.

"Although we don't interact much, Uncle Pei has mentioned you many times in front of me. He has nagged me so much that my ears are almost callused."

Zhang Siyuan warned him in a gentle voice, "He is a man with a cold face but a warm heart. I can see that you are his most proud student, so you can't die. If you die, his pride will be gone."

"You just kept saying that anyone can die, but you can't die with me. What's the logic? Could it be that I, a low-ranking Confucian scholar from a poor family, am more valuable than you, the most dissolute young man in the Ming Empire?"

"Of course it's worth more than me."

Zhang Siyuan nodded solemnly: "There are six arts in Confucianism. I learned archery, which is good enough for killing people. I have no other skills. You are different. What the world will be like in the future depends on you who learn 'ritual arts'."

"You are the merchant's business killer, right?"

Before Yang Bai Ze could speak again, Zhang Siyuan turned to look at the blood-stained man standing beside him.

"I understand that you and the Faxu are betting on both sides. The Ruxu have done this kind of thing a lot, and everyone is guilty. You don't have to feel guilty. But since you didn't kill Yang Baize, it means you still remember the old man's kindness, so I'm asking you for a favor now."

"Shang Lu will do his best."

"Go west. I killed all the Honghu and Huanglianggui in that direction when I entered the city. We should be able to leave smoothly by following the fleeing crowd."

Zhang Siyuan said in a deep voice: "Help me get this kid out of the city safely."

Shang Lu lowered his eyebrows and closed his eyes: "Yes."

"Okay, then don't delay, otherwise the hyenas will smell the scent and follow us, which will be troublesome."

Zhang Siyuan strode away, but after taking a few steps, he suddenly stopped.

"Damn it, I still have to get it off my chest."

Zhang Siyuan muttered something, turned around and looked at Yang Baize and said, "There is something I still want to ask you."

"Ok?"

"Don't you think that the old man sent Uncle Li here on purpose to let him die? Just like Gao Sheng, if he hadn't been left in Beizhili, under Zhu Yiyan's nose, maybe he wouldn't have died at all."

Zhang Siyuan had a complicated expression: "I don't understand what the old man's purpose is. If he is sure that the Zhu family will not take action, why would he bother to make these arrangements? But if he knew that the Zhu family would tear their relationship apart sooner or later, wouldn't he just ignore Li Bufeng and Gao Sheng?"

"I don't understand either, but."

Yang Bai Ze was silent for a moment, then slowly said: "But I believe you can see it, and these adults can see it too. Even though they knew they would die, they still did it without hesitation. Maybe just like you, in their eyes, dying is more important than living."

"It sounds reasonable, but I still don't understand. We are all Confucian scholars, and we usually say that a gentleman should not stand under a dangerous wall, but when it comes to this moment, everyone seems to be afraid that they will live longer than others?"

"If I had a son, I would make sure he took the martial arts path. Can a good death be better than a strong life?"

Zhang Siyuan did not stop talking to himself, and his figure flashed and disappeared.

The whole city was filled with smoke and the air was filled with a pungent smell of gunpowder.

Yang Baize looked around and saw devastation everywhere, with bodies lying on the roadside everywhere.

However, just as Zhang Siyuan said, all the Honghu and Huanglianggui in the entire Xicheng District seemed to have been cleared out by him, and the dilapidated streets were particularly quiet.

Along the way, Yang Bai Ze and Shang Lu did not encounter any enemies, nor did they meet any fleeing civilians. It seemed that the entire city had been slaughtered.

"If you encounter any accidents later, don't hesitate, run as fast as you can. I will try my best to buy you some time."

Shang Lu did not relax his vigilance because of this. He squinted his eyes and looked around, occasionally raising his hand to wipe the scarlet blood dripping from the tip of his nose.

"Life and death are destiny, wealth is in heaven."

Unlike Shang Lu who was very cautious, Yang Bai Ze seemed very relaxed at the moment. He said with a smile, "If we can get out, we will be lucky. If we can't get out, it's no big deal. We can take as many people as we can with us."

"No, I promised Lord Zhang that I would get you out of the city safely." Faced with Shang Lu's stubborn attitude, Yang Bai Ze could only smile helplessly.

"Brother Lu, we are now friends for life, and I have a few questions that I can't figure out."

"You said."

Yang Bai Ze looked at the back of the person leading the way in front of him and asked, "Where have you been in these years?"

"The vast majority were sent to various criminal areas far away from the empire. Only a small number of people were unwilling to leave and stayed to serve in the Jinyiwei. However, they were all in some prefectures that were not the core base of the Confucian Order."

Yang Bai Ze suddenly realized that only in this way could the weak legal order avoid being persecuted by the Confucian order.

Otherwise, given the thousands of years of accumulated grudges between the two sequences, even with Zhang Fengyue's protection, it would be difficult to prevent the powerful families from finding excuses to provoke trouble.

“What is your relationship with Shang Sigu?
"He is my uncle, and the source of the current legal order. Over the years, he has always been by the Prime Minister's side, secretly protecting his safety."

As if he wanted to explain something, Shang Lu emphasized, "He is not a bad guy. On the contrary, he has always respected and appreciated him. It's just that he doesn't agree with the idea of ​​breaking the connection between heaven and earth, and he doesn't think that Prime Minister Zhang can finally achieve this goal, so he chose to betray."

Shang Lu said in a deep voice: "But he is not doing this for himself either, but for the entire legal order."

Yang Bai Ze sighed secretly. He did not feel any disdain or contempt for Shang Lu's words, nor did he think that it was just an excuse to keep the elders secret.

Because once upon a time, he had experienced the same thing himself.

"I don't know if you know my origins, Brother Lu. In fact, I hate Confucianism from the bottom of my heart, because my family was killed by the aristocratic families."

"It's not because my family has any great treasures hidden. It's just a slice of brain tissue that has been stored for who knows how many years. Is it valuable?"

Yang Bai Ze shook his head and said, "If I look at it now, it's actually worthless. Even if someone handed it to me, I'm afraid I would still disdain it."

"But at that time, my grandfather and uncle deliberately pretended to fall out in order to preserve even a tiny slice of the pie. They each joined their own side. One of them led his family members to fight to the death. The other was willing to endure all the insults and kneel on the ground to lead the way for those bandits."

"I didn't understand why they did this before, but now that I've experienced it more, I gradually understand."

Yang Bai Ze sighed, "As the old saying goes, fame and fortune are the two most important things in life. In this life, we either die in pursuit of fame or live in a dream driven by profit. But where is there so much fame and fortune for everyone to fight for? Just like you said, the weak have no choice but to gamble their lives for a chance of survival."

"Below the sequence, we are all nothing but ants"

"Ants."

Shang Lu repeated the two words in a low voice, with a complicated expression on his face as he turned his back to Yang Bai Ze.

There were a myriad of emotions surging in those flickering eyes.

In recent years, the legal system seems to be staying away from disputes and accumulating strength for revival. In fact, it is just hiding from here and there and struggling to survive.

Aren't they just a group of slightly larger ants?

"So I believe that Prime Minister Zhang is willing to give up this position."

Shang Lu's voice stopped abruptly, and the ruler in his hand trembled slightly.

Yang Baize looked in the direction of his gesture and discovered two small figures curled up in a dark corner of the ruins.

"Brother, it hurts."

"It hurts, just bear it! If you don't take this thing off, you will become a ghost sooner or later!"

In the dim night, sweat was pouring down the boy's forehead, but even when the sweat slid into his eyes, he did not dare to raise his hand to wipe it off. He held a dagger in his hand and carefully cut the skin on the back of the girl's neck.

Yang Baize could see clearly that the boy was using a knife to dig out the brain cavity behind the girl's neck.

The clumsy knife cut open the flesh, and the intense pain made the girl's face turn pale in an instant. Tears rolled down her eyes, but she bit her lips tightly and dared not make any sound.

The finger-sized spiritual orifice was gently picked out by the tip of the knife. Until this moment, the boy's tense expression relaxed a little, and his held breath finally let go.

But just a deep breath to calm the intense heartbeat inexplicably brought out a faint cry tone, and countless grievances seemed to burst out of the boy's eyes.

As if to vent his anger, he grabbed the blood-stained spirit and was about to throw it out, but the arm he just raised was tightly grasped by a trembling little hand.

"Brother, you can't throw it away. Dad spent a lot of money to buy it. Dad said it is more important than his life."

"Don't talk nonsense, Dad has already..."

The boy's mouth twitched, but he couldn't say anything. In the end, he could only put down his arms and hug the girl.

"Brother, we are all human beings, why did we become ghosts?"

The girl buried her face in the boy's arms, and scarlet blood flowed down her neck.

"What is Hong Hu? Why did Dad want to kill Mom?"

"Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid."

How could the boy know how to answer? He could only stroke the girl's hair gently with his side face.

But the next moment, the boy noticed two figures standing in the distance.

"Get out of here! I told you to get out of here!"

The young man suddenly jumped up from the ground, holding the dagger in both hands, and blocked the girl behind him like an angry tiger cub.

Unaware of this, a dark shadow quietly emerged behind him.

"Guilty criminals, surrender!"

The ruler of the law fell on his head, and the boundless fear crushed the boy's courage to resist.

But even though he dropped the knife and collapsed, he did not forget to cover the girl with his body.

"elder brother!!"

Pfft!

The ruler cut off the cervical vertebrae, and a head flew into the sky.

As blood was splattered, Shang Lu looked around and heard footsteps surging like a tide.

"Shang Lu, hand over the things. Huangliang Law Realm belongs to the entire legal order, not your private property!"

"A bunch of bastards!"

Shang Lu stared at a few familiar faces hidden among the many Huangliang ghosts, his eyes bloodshot.

(End of this chapter)