If you don't give up, I'd like to be your adoptive father.

Chapter 11: As if I were here in person, commanding the gods and ghosts

"Besides forging iron, what else did Sha Manyu do?" Qingsong Daotong looked at the old barbarian deeply, "You are a smart person, you must understand what I am asking."

The old barbarian knelt on the ground and murmured, "She dug a salt well in the west. The bitter water flowing out from the cracks in the rocks can be boiled into white salt.

She also asked the chief to take in the nearby wild sand barbarians, saying that "there is strength in numbers" and "more people, stronger leaders".

Ten years ago, there were only about 500 people in the dunes, but now, last year, there are so many barbarians that I can’t even count them.”

"How do we feed so many people?" asked General Guan.

The Liusha River stretches for thousands of miles, and there are many sand barbarian tribes on both sides of the river.

There are many tribes but they are all small, because in such a wild area, it is impossible to support too many people by fishing, hunting and gathering.

The old barbarian said: "You have the eyes of an immortal, didn't you notice the paddy fields by the river? Yu Yatou led hundreds of warriors to search everywhere in the surrounding sand dunes and earth pits, selecting dozens of herbs and fruit trees, and finally picked out the most drought-resistant sand apples and wood vegetables.

Even though they are drought-tolerant, they cannot be grown on a large scale.

Xiao Yu then persuaded the chief and led everyone to dig hundreds of deep trenches along the Liusha River to divert the weak water into them.

Weak water floats up, while rain water sinks down.

The scorching sun shines on the weak water in the upper layer, and rainwater can be stored in the lower layer.

The "paddy fields" were cultivated between the deep water-storage ditches. When water was needed, it could be pumped out from the wooden pipes at the bottom of the water-storage ditches.

That water is definitely not drinkable by humans and animals, but it can be used to irrigate crops.

Sand apples are a bit bitter and not very tasty. After drying them, they can be stewed with meat. The thick soup tastes extremely sweet. Adults can try it.

There is also wood vegetable, which is dug out from the ground in lumps. It is very hard and tastes bland, like chewing wood. It can be crushed into paste and dried into powder for making steamed buns or making wine.

The output is still very high.

With Mu Cai, no one has ever starved to death.

By the way, the Mucai wine was also made by Yuya."

Qingsong Taoist's expression became solemn. Tasting hundreds of herbs and selecting grain seeds is almost an achievement catching up with the ancient Emperor Shennong!

If she had not been born in the Sand Barbarian Tribe and had been born in the Central Plains millions of years earlier, there might be an extra female emperor in the Fire Cloud Cave today.

"Yu girl is a bit of a jerk, she says weird things and does weird things almost every day.

After brewing the wood vegetable wine, she persuaded the chief not to brew the wine, and took out the wood vegetables to distribute to the wild Shaman in the nearby tribe, but was scolded away by the chief. She also asked the male and female barbarians to kneel down and worship the moon and the sun. After worshiping, they could not find other men and women, but were scolded away by the servants again. Another time, Yu Yatou had the tenth or eleventh "father". The servant can't remember clearly, anyway, it was the warrior Sha Jing, who was killed by a tiger. Yu Yatou cut a wooden sign for him and asked the chief to dig a hole in the earth to store the wooden sign and urn of the dead warrior.

General Guan frowned and said, "There is more than one father, how can there be a tenth and eleventh?"

The old barbarian said, "After Yu's father died, she found another father. She called him 'old father' after the old one died. She wanted to collect 'old father's' bones, cut a wooden tablet for him, and draw his portrait on the wooden tablet - but in fact, he doesn't look like Sha Jing at all. I can't recognize him at all, and no one else can recognize him either."

With Guan Laoya's character, he felt warmed by these words and nodded in praise, "She is a filial daughter."

The old barbarian shook his head and said, "She is a brain-damaged woman! The only purpose of dragging the body back with great effort is to eat it! And burn it to ashes and put it in a jar. Although Yu girl made a lot of jars with mud, there are not enough jars."

General Guan said with a dull face: "Did you scold her and drive her away again?"

"She did scold me, but she didn't run away that time. She dragged the sandthorn back after she shot the tiger to death, she picked up the firewood herself, and she made the jar. She has a lot of them." said the old barbarian.

"What a filial daughter! What a filial daughter!" General Guan was really moved.

"No wonder, no wonder."

As the old barbarian spoke more and more, Qingsong Taoist seemed to understand something, with realization and emotion on his face.

"No wonder?" General Guan asked puzzledly.

"No wonder after Marquis Lieyang destroyed the Alliance of Thirty-Six Nations, the dragon energy of the Dune Kingdom has not decreased but increased." The Taoist boy Qingsong stared at the hills under his feet, his eyes seemed to penetrate the soil and see the landscape of another dimension.

“Among the thirty-six allied nations, all of them have suffered severe damage to their dragon energy, or even completely declined. Only the Dune Nation, which appears weak and silent on the surface, actually has a vibrant vitality within.

If Marquis Lieyang had not left the western territory, and if Great Qin had not given up its attention to the western countries, the dragon energy would have given up hiding and burst out directly. "

"I don't quite understand." General Guan murmured.

Old Shaman also looked up and stared at Qingsong Taoist Boy.

"Hehe, what's so confusing? The King of Dune is dead, that's a good thing. Five thousand Dune warriors are dead, that's an even better thing! If these 'old guys' who hold power and authority don't die, how can an eleven-year-old girl like Sha Manyu have the final say in the Dune Kingdom and completely let go of her shackles to show her skills?

If Xiaodao is not mistaken, in the next few years, Shamanyu will truly establish a system for the Shaman tribe and reshape the culture.

It's not a superficial system like prime minister or general, but a ritual and morality that unites people. These are things she wanted to do in the past but was scolded for being stupid. "

"Etiquette!!" General Guan was truly shocked.

"The King of Dune has always been a barbarian, but Shamanyu is a saint among the barbarians. As long as the King of Dune is alive, it will be difficult to follow the path of sainthood." Qingsong Taoist child sighed.

"Now I want to meet her even more. Is she born with wisdom? Or is she the reincarnation of some powerful being who has awakened her past life memories early?"

After muttering a few words, the Taoist boy Qingsong waved his hand, signaling General Guan to ride his horse and go with him.

"If it is the reincarnation of a great man, he must have cultivated great supernatural powers, right?" said General Guan.

Qingsong Daotong walked slowly, but each step was two or three feet long. He shook his head and said, "She doesn't have any magical powers. She doesn't even know the most basic martial arts."

“So that’s a natural born saint?”

“Haha, they are not saints, but barbarians are still barbarians after all,” said the Taoist Qingsong with a chuckle.

General Guan felt uncomfortable. If you Chinese people accomplish the same thing, you would be born saints, but if it happens outside of China, then barbarians will always be barbarians, right?

If the Shu cavalry called the Shamanzi barbarians, he would not be so sensitive at all and would even agree with them in his heart.

But the little Taoist boy Qingsong came from the great country of China. Even though this envoy from the great country had always behaved modestly and politely, General Guan knew that he and others were also classified as barbarians.

As the Taoist boy Qingsong strode forward, he glanced at General Guan on the red smoke horse and said meaningfully, "A true natural saint not only has wisdom, but more importantly, he complies with the will of heaven and is favored by heaven. What does it mean to be favored by heaven?

When you encounter danger, there will always be someone to help you.

Before you become successful, you will definitely encounter powerful enemies that are difficult to defeat.

All hardships are whetstones, and all enemies are stepping stones.

Sha Manyu is smart and spiritual, but her luck is terrible and she has no luck at all."

General Guan was stunned for a moment, then he suddenly realized and nodded repeatedly.

If she had been blessed by heaven, they would not have come here...especially the little Taoist Qingsong. With him here, she would definitely not be able to escape.

"Alas, she actually has quite a bit of favor from the gods. If the Taoist priest hadn't arrived in time, I would have been a hundred miles away from the sand dunes by now."

Taoist Qingsong disagreed.

Not to mention leaving the sand dunes for a hundred miles, even if the Iron Cavalry Battalion has returned to Shu, I have to say that you still have to make another trip.

I will not be stingy with my saliva for a command, since I am not the one who is going through all the trouble anyway.

Since the prophecy "The one who will destroy Qin is a Hu" appeared fifty years ago, it has been doomed that from now on, all "foreign saints" and "foreign holy dynasties" will end up aborted halfway.

The Qin Dynasty will not and cannot perish!

Imprisoning hidden dragons and severing dragon veins are the sacred duties of Taoists like us. I swear to repay the country's kindness, even at the cost of my life!
With his belief strengthened in his heart, a fierce murderous aura flashed in Qingsong Taoist's clear eyes.

It was not directed at Sha Manyu. His eyes looked forward, and his murderous intent was suppressed before it was revealed.

——Someone who eats Qin’s salary betrayed the Emperor of Man!
"This seems to be a temple. What is the Taoist priest doing here?" asked General Guan.

He had the Red Smoke Horse, and the Taoist boy Qingsong was proficient in the Five Elements Escape Technique. In half a cup of tea, the two men and the horse had run more than ten miles along the hills where the Shaman lived, and finally stopped outside a dark earthen kiln.

If the surface of the Liusha River is taken as the baseline, the sand dunes where the Shaman live are 500 meters above sea level. It is the tallest hill among the hills that stretch for hundreds of miles, but it is not the only one.

The altitude here is about 200 meters, which is lower than the sand dunes where the Shaman live. It is bare and there are not many trees. A hole was dug in a valley, like a cave, but not deep. There are several two-meter-high and half-meter-wide wooden plaques and a stone statue that looks like Buddha.

Previously, General Guan used his clairvoyance to scan the area and noticed this place and saw the Buddha statue, so he called it a "temple."

The Shaman must have a "shrine" dedicated to the gods here, as there are traces of smoke and fire on the earthen walls.

The mess of animal bones still remained in the extinguished fire pit.

"Alas, the most important affairs of a country are sacrifice and warfare, and a small Shaman has them all."

The Taoist boy Qingsong sighed, adjusted his hair and robe, and bowed three times respectfully towards the wooden sign and stone statue in the cave.

After the worship, Qingsong Taoist child saw General Guan still sitting high on the saddle with a puzzled look on his face, and said calmly: "Do you know who is enshrined in the cave?"

"It should be Buddha?" General Guan thought for a moment and said, "The old barbarian said before that this place was dug by Sha Manyu, and she personally carved the Tathagata Buddha.

Perhaps she also realized that her carving skills were really bad, so she didn’t carve the Jade Emperor and the Three Pure Ones, and only cut a few wooden plaques to represent the shrines of the Three Pure Ones and the Jade Emperor.

At this point, he immediately came to his senses, jumped off his horse, and bowed three times inside, imitating Qingsong Taoist Boy.

Ignorance is not a fault, but knowing what they represent and still being arrogant and rude is a serious sin.

General Guan was not worried that the Buddha, the Jade Emperor, or the Three Pure Ones would notice this. He truly felt that Sha Manyu was a blind man lighting a lamp. The temples in their Great Shu Kingdom were more magnificent, and the believers were more devout, but when had the Buddhas and immortals ever appeared?

Take Sha Manyu for example. A barbarian also knew how to worship the Taoist Patriarch, the Jade Emperor, and the Buddha. It was so rare, but what was the result? His people were still annihilated, his land was lost, and he himself would not have a good ending.

But now that Qingsong Taoist Boy is by his side, he only regrets that he doesn't have more opportunities to perform, and he will never go on stage to perform if he ever encounters a stage.

"Sha Manyu is very intelligent!" After General Guan finished his greetings, Qingsong Daotong began to sigh again, "When the Shaqiu Barbarians had only a few hundred people, they were only threatened by wild beasts.

If a tribe has hundreds of thousands or millions of people and truly becomes a kingdom, it will inevitably attract attention from nearby demon kings.

After decades of hard work and development, the entire city’s citizens ended up becoming food for the evil king. It’s so frustrating and pitiful.

Worshiping gods may not necessarily bring them favor, but where there are temples, the goblins will be wary of them."

General Guan complained in his heart: Why did the State of Lu rebel? Didn't the counties and villages in the State of Lu, which became empty cities overnight and whose people were captured by the demon king, have temples and shrines?
Gods and Buddhas are definitely real, but is it useful to worship them? Even the time spent thinking about this question is a waste. It is better to use the time to practice martial arts and develop military strength. Only when you become strong yourself can you be truly strong.

"Taiyi Dao Zhengyang Palace, disciple Qingsong, comes here to hold the order of the Emperor of Man. Left is the altar and right is the millet, all the spirits of the land, come out to see me, Yuanheng Lizhen, command~~~"

Qingsong Dao Tong recited the mantra, made hand seals, and pointed to the ground, "Bang~~~"

A cloud of gray smoke suddenly emerged from the dirt ground, and in the smoke there was the aroma of charcoal fire and dishes, like the smell of cooking in the kitchen.

But the smoke soon dissipated and the ground was empty.

General Guan curled his lips, and there seemed to be a smile at the corner of his mouth.

Qingsong Taoist boy's cute chubby face was frosty, and the murderous intent hidden in his eyes reappeared.

"By order of the Emperor, the former Minister of Personnel of East Shu, the third-class scholar of the Great Qin Wenhui Academy, and the current landowner of Xisha'Xinmohao', Zou Qing, come out and see me!"

In addition to his impolite tone and harsher attitude, Qingsong Taoist also took out a purple-gold token.

The token was almost as big as Qingsong's face, and no one knew where it had been hidden before.

There are only four cloud seals on the front: As if I were here in person

On the back is a huge character "Qin".

When General Guan, who had nothing to do with the matter, saw the token, he was frightened and immediately fell to the ground, prostrating himself.

The idea that a general is in armor and it is inconvenient to salute is totally untrue.

Not only did he prostrate himself, his forehead was also sweaty, and his eyes were filled with fear: Damn it, how come Qingsong Dao Tong even has this thing? What is he going to do? Why did he bring me here? What is he going to do next?
He panicked.

(End of this chapter)