The Great Seminary

Chapter 54 The war is about to begin
According to Chinese New Year customs, restaurants usually open on the eighth day of the first lunar month.

The ones that opened early were not the big restaurants that catered to the needs of the nobles to entertain friends and have fun;
It's just a small restaurant run by a poor family to make some extra money.

The wine sign had changed color from the smoke.

The land in the store is bumpy.

The Chen family shop, where the wooden tables and stools are so old that they are peeling, is undoubtedly the latter.

After entering the restaurant, Zhang Gui and his friends found a low table against the wall and sat down.

I poured a jar of sour plum wine, ordered a bowl of hot braised lamb's trotters, and started chatting and bragging.

First, Zhang Gui recounted his experiences in the later period of his stay in Heimu Town in a half-truthful and exaggerated manner.

The focus is on how charming the servant girl brought by the Third Master is, dressed as a man.

Zhang Jiujiang was shocked after hearing this.

Then Zhang Jiujiang also talked about his experiences after returning home from Giant Snake Head Island.

Although many of these things are not confidential, they are not something that ordinary people can know.

It turns out that the Yuanshan Empire, whose border borders the northern Ming and Song dynasties, produced a great leader a few years ago.

Even though they were attacking Xia Qing, which was also a strong cavalry force in the west, and taking Xiangfan, which was hot all year round in the east, they did not forget to harass the large plateau country Bonpo Tubo all day long.

A few days ago, I don’t know what went wrong with him. He actually sent envoys to extort one million pieces of cotton cloth from Ming and Song.

Given the foundation of the Song and Ming dynasties, although chaos was gradually emerging, they could still afford this little bit of cotton cloth.

Moreover, the southern provinces, which had enjoyed peace for a long time, were rich in fish and rice, and had the advantage of being connected to the sea, were willing to provide these cotton cloths without hesitation.

He was the crown prince for twenty-nine years and ascended the throne at the age of fifty-one.

The new emperor 'He Zheng', who had refused to obey anyone except his father in the first half of his life, was stubborn as usual at this time.

It is believed that although Mu Tielang Khan of Yuanshan was a hero of the time, Emperor Hezheng was no less powerful.

He used a left kick to tear up the letter from Emperor Yuanshan and kill his envoy.

However, those provinces in the north of the Song and Ming dynasties, where the people were fierce and land annexation was serious, riots were rampant, and life was miserable and chaotic, were not afraid of turning internal conflicts into foreign wars.

No matter whether we can defeat Yuanshan or not, life will be difficult anyway. We should first occupy the moral high ground and make a name for ourselves in history.

So, led by the governors of Longjin and Zhenchuan provinces, the six northern provinces wrote a letter to denounce Yuanshan's tyranny, immorality, greed and lack of moral character, and demanded that they "fight him to the death."

The five provinces in southern Xinjiang were dumbfounded. Although they couldn't oppose it openly, they secretly did public relations.

Although Zhang Jiuqing's nobleman, Hexiang Gong, was from the south, he had been an official since the time of Emperor Gengyuan, and his status as a "royalist" who had served in three dynasties overwhelmed everything.

Political inclinations shifted towards the North.

So I didn't think about asking my future grandson-in-law to be "humble and hopeful".

He ordered Zhang Jiuqing to pass the imperial examination immediately, become a Jinshi, and return home to serve as an official.

Be a small nail in the officialdom of the Southern Kingdom.

In terms of usefulness, even if you pass the third place, you will only be a sixth-rank official at the beginning.

Instead of staying in the Hanlin Academy, he returned to his hometown to disgust people. He was promoted one level from a Beijing official to a local official, that is, the fifth rank. He is not even qualified to be a qualified troublemaker.

Although he can't be a troublemaker, he can be a weather vane that shows loyalty.

Moreover, this weather vane is very important to He Xianggong, who is from the south, and his followers who are also from the south.

The smile on Zhang Gui's face gradually disappeared when he heard the news. He was silent for a while and whispered:
"Then there might be a war."

Zhang Jiujiang spat out four words, "It's about to happen!"

"Hiss..." Zhang Gui grabbed a few sheep's hooves as if he had a toothache, and remained silent for a long time.

Zhang Jiujiang was getting tired of waiting and reached out to poke his friend, "What do you think? Tell me now."

"What does this national event have to do with a ragtag boy like me?

The lamb's trotters are cold and greasy, can't you tell?" Zhang Gui put down the lamb's trotters and said to Lao Chen:
"Uncle Chen, please heat up the lamb trotters, and serve a plate of hot mixed lamb head meat, a bowl of lamb offal soup, and ten flatbreads."

A restaurant owner wouldn't be afraid of a big belly. The fat and greasy chef Chen responded with a smile.

"Okay. Warm up the lamb's trotters and a bowl of hot mixed lamb's head meat. They'll be right here."

Zhang Jiujiang looked at the countless sheep hoof bones on the table and on the ground and suddenly said:

"This national affair may indeed have something to do with you.

Dagui, tell me the truth, did you become a Taoist by relying on the Zongheng Gongfa that old thief Zhang Yan spread?

Zhang Gui was not surprised by his friend's observation. He sighed and said:
"You can tell from my appetite.

But I've never heard that becoming a monk would turn you into a big glutton.

But these days I do eat more and more differently from ordinary people.

Moreover, the more he eats, the faster he runs, and Zongheng Feiqiushi makes great progress.

But with my status, I can’t find anyone to ask whether I have entered the Tao or not.

I can only practice temporarily.

Anyway, my shrimp paste business is big, and I don’t like delicacies, so wide noodles mixed with fish stew will do.

You can eat more and not be hungry."

"That's right." Zhang Jiujiang suddenly became excited, "I found it strange that you suddenly fainted this time.

It feels a lot like what is described in a book called <Random Talks>, the Drunken Way.

That is to say, if one has made some progress in practicing Qi and blood-related exercises and has natural talent, he will eat more and more.

This is a great benefit that ordinary people cannot enjoy.

The more you eat, the more qi and blood are converted, and the more vigorously they circulate.

At this time, if there is no master or an elder who has achieved success in cultivation to help regulate the body, it is easy for people to pass out as if they are drunk.

You are just drunk!

From now on, if you want to improve, you can’t just eat lasagna anymore. You’d better eat ‘Jingliang Pills’…”

Jingliang pills are the cheapest type of pills.

The word "liang" in it is the same as "liang".

It is a pill obtained by refining grain using a method similar to alchemy.

A thumb-sized 'fine pill' is equivalent to 30 kilograms of grain, has no impurities and is easy to digest.

And on top of that there is the 'Liangfu Pills'.

The pills are made from a mixture of grains and good quality meat with half fat and half lean meat.

Eating one is equivalent to eating thirty kilograms of grain and thirty kilograms of meat, which is even rarer.

There is also 'pure dried meat balls'.

Made purely from top-quality meat, one pill is equivalent to a hundred kilograms of meat.

Zhang Gui's "Heavenly Creations" was built on top of underground fire, that is, volcanic magma.

After one year is up and the entire 'hanging city', or county town, is built, the metal house transformed from the strange object will be able to ignite the earth's fire and automatically transform into the simplest alchemy room.

The 108 metal craftsmen created by 'Heavenly Craftsmanship' can be transformed into mechanical alchemists, producing 'food pills' day and night.

And this is the most valuable thing about this rare item.

Although the value of the 'Shadow Water Spirit Bi' far exceeds that of a cheap alchemy room, there are only a few of them in the world, while there are many volcanic terrains...

Zhang Gui vaguely realized that if he wanted to improve his strength in the future, he would have to rely on bloodline tracing.

For example, the Kuafu bloodline must learn to swallow fire and drink from the river like the ancient god Kuafu;
The Chiyou bloodline must learn to transform the essence of hundreds of herbs, metals and stones;
The Tai Sui Shen Cong transforms the original spirit into reality, assimilates the corpses of all spirits, and squeezes out and disperses the souls.

If you want to rely on eating grain and meat, even if you eat up an entire granary or pasture in a day and eat for 18,000 years, you will never be able to transform into an ancient demon god.

But that’s a later stage.

Now Zhang Gui is just a lowly Ding-rank cultivator, so food supplements still have a certain effect.

(End of this chapter)