Liaozhai Great Sage

Chapter 160 Writing a Sacrifice
The guards around Li Xiuyuan were naturally loyal, even the imperial guards stopped him without hesitation.

In the eyes of the guards, they were only loyal to the Li family, even if the court wanted to arrest someone, they would not allow it.

This kind of diehard loyalty that only existed in ancient times would be difficult for people of later generations to understand.

"We are ordered by the magistrate Feng to call all the scholars in the city. This young master of yours is also a scholar. Naturally, we have to call them together and advise you not to resist, otherwise the consequences are not something you two guards can bear." The guard was stern. scolded.

With the order of the magistrate, coupled with the identity of the imperial court servants, they are confident.

The guard glared at them; "Try if you dare to move and see if I will cut off your arms."

After speaking, he wanted to pull out his waist knife.

The servants were startled immediately, and couldn't help but take a few steps back.

I didn't expect these guards to be so fierce, and they would draw their swords at each other if they didn't agree with each other.

"You all step back first, don't draw your sword here."

Li Xiuyuan came back to his senses at this moment, waved his hand, and motioned to the two guards around him.

It was not a wise choice to have a conflict with the court servants in the city, but he did not blame the guards, on the contrary, he was quite touched by the loyal guards.

"Yes, young master."

The guard responded and retracted the half-drawn waist knife, then took a few steps back.

"It's still this young master who is sensible and worthy of being a scholar. However, the young one was ordered by the magistrate to summon all the scholars in the city. The magistrate has an order. If the scholars in the city cooperate with us, they will not be violent. If they do not cooperate, we will It is Yongqiang who wants to call all the scholars together, I hope this young master understands and cooperates with us."

The guard also talked to people, and when he saw Li Xiuyuan's tall and straight figure, his appearance was dignified, he was also a scholar, and he was surrounded by guards to protect him, so his tone was much more polite.

"I see, I'll just walk with you." Li Xiuyuan said.

"Young master, be careful, these servants don't know what to do." The guard reminded.

"No problem, so many scholars are here, nothing will happen." Li Xiuyuan was not worried at all.

The guard didn't say any more.

"Young master, please go to the thatched shed in front, the magistrate is already waiting inside." The guard pointed to the thatched shed in front.

Li Xiuyuan nodded, ordered the guards to wait here and followed the guards.

At this time, other scholars in the city were also brought into the huts one after another by the guards from all directions.

When he first entered the hut, he saw that the body of the old Jijiu was carried in by the guards and placed beside him, surrounded by soldiers guarding him.

When Li Xiuyuan entered the hut and passed by the corpse of the old Jijiu, he stopped, then bowed his hands, bowed in salute, and bowed three times to the corpse of the old Jijiu.

"Unlucky, why is there still a dead body here?"

At this time, a passing scholar was startled by seeing this, and hurriedly dodged away.

"Crack~!"

The scholar had just finished speaking when a lump of sticky matter was thrown away from somewhere outside the thatched shed, and landed on his face with a bang.

The scholar wiped his face, trembled all over with anger, and shouted: "I am a local scholar, I am a man of fame, and I don't have to kneel when I see an official. Who is it, who is throwing cow dung at me."

"This scholar, the person who died here was the capital Jijiu, not to mention your fame, even if you won the first prize in the exam and won the gold list, you will inevitably salute to Mr. Jijiu, and Mr. Jijiu is nearly a year old. Gu Xi, who was in charge of the Dragon King's sacrifice this time, lost his life in order to appease the Dragon King's anger. The magistrate ordered me to wait here to guard. You must not talk nonsense here, otherwise the people nearby will not only throw you with cow dung. "

A squad leader with a knife said seriously in a low voice.

The scholar trembled when he heard the words, immediately covered his face with his sleeves, and hurriedly left in shame.

Li Xiuyuan glanced at the scholar, didn't say much, after giving the gift, he sighed and turned to leave.

At this moment, the thatched shed is full of scholars, and the number is still increasing.

It seems that the magistrate is going to order something again.

"Hey, it's you, Mr. Li, are you here too?"

At this time, a scholar among the crowd raised his hand, waved and shouted.

"Guorong?" Li Xiuyuan froze when he saw that familiar face.

Ning Caichen came over and said, "Mr. Li, you slipped your tongue again. Xiaosheng is not called Guorong, but Xiaosheng's name is Caichen."

"Sorry, I couldn't help shouting out, by the way, Guorong, were you brought here by the guards?" Li Xiuyuan said.

"."

Ning Caichen said with a strange look: "Exactly, I didn't expect to meet Mr. Li here by such a coincidence, so Xiaosheng came to say hello."

"Mr. Li, I'm afraid something will happen in the city today. The Lord Jijiu who is in charge of the Dragon King's sacrifice is dead. I'm afraid that the Wujiang Dragon King's matter will not be calmed down so easily. I don't know that the magistrate called us this time. What are these scholars doing? Could it be that we need to work together to fight that Wujiang Dragon King?"

Li Xiuyuan's eyelids twitched: "Where do you have the courage to fight Wujiang Dragon King? All the scholars here together can't even catch a dog, let alone a dragon."

"Hehe, I'm just talking." Ning Caichen scratched his head shyly and smiled.

"Quiet, quiet, all quiet, the magistrate has something to say."

At this time, the guard came striding over and shouted loudly, motioning for everyone to quiet down, refrain from whispering and making noise.

Hearing that the magistrate was going to speak, all the scholars immediately quieted down and stopped talking with each other.

The chubby magistrate stood on a chair supported by the servants beside him, then gestured and said: "I am the magistrate of Guo Beicheng, I invite you here for one thing today, then It is to continue this sacrifice to the Dragon King, to appease the anger of the Dragon King, and to end the [-]-day torrential rain ahead of time, have you seen the body of the old Lord Jijiu over there?"

"Master Jijiu is nearly seventy years old, and unfortunately died because of this sacrifice, but Mr. Jijiu said before his death that there is only one last way to appease the anger of the Dragon King this time, and that is to invite someone with a very high fate. The scholar, write the sacrificial oration, climb up to the nearby treasure temple, burn the sacrificial oration, and pray for the forgiveness of the Dragon King, so that the rainstorm will stop."

The magistrate gasped for breath after finishing speaking and said again: "However, I have said before that there is a certain danger in going up to the temple to worship, and you need to think about it in your heart, but what I want to say is that you They are all people who have read the books of sages and sages. Now that the people are in trouble, I don’t want to see you all timid, self-protecting, and completely disregarding the life and death of the people. Therefore, I implore you with the safety of the people in the city, don’t be stingy with yourself. "

The words are moved with emotion and righteousness, which is quite provocative.

Regardless of his virtue, the official who can sit in the prefect position will at least not be a mediocre person.

No matter how corrupt the imperial court is, the official must at least pass the examination step by step, and to be an official, he must at least pass the examination.

How can it be too bad for a person who stands out from countless scholars to become a child, a scholar, a person who raises people and then becomes an official.

Sure enough, after the magistrate's words were finished, these scholars were ignited with enthusiasm one by one, and they volunteered one by one.

"Pleading for the common people is my lifelong wish. Even if the magistrate doesn't say it, I am still willing to write a sacrificial text, go to the treasure temple to worship, and appease the dragon king's wrath."

"That's right. I've read the books of sages and sages. Now that the people are in trouble, why not stand up and ask the magistrate to give me the pen and ink. I'll write a sacrificial oration and go to the treasure temple to burn incense and worship."

"Late births are also willing."

These scholars shouted loudly one by one, for fear of falling behind.

Li Xiuyuan is a mature person and will not be so easily incited. He pondered for a moment and thought that he should not be the person with the highest fate that the old Jijiu lord said.

Even though the ghosts and gods know the identity of my natural saint, only the ghosts and gods with high status know a little bit, little ghosts and demons don't know it, and ordinary people can't know it even if they have Taoism.

"If the old Jijiu doesn't refer to himself, then are there other people with extremely high lives? Or maybe the old Jijiu doesn't know whose life is expensive, just throwing fish in a big net, let's give it a try?"

Li Xiuyuan thought for a while, and felt that the latter was more likely.

If Lao Jijiu knew who had a very high fate, he would call his name, and he would not let the magistrate gather all the famous scholars in the city.

As for why he was looking for someone with a high life, Li Xiuyuan also knew a thing or two.

Because a person with a noble fate is a person with profound merit, and this type of person is secretly protected, and the Dragon King of Wujiang will still have scruples.

With scruples, there is the possibility of conversation.

If it is sincere, there may be a chance to appease the Dragon King of Wujiang.

This may be what the old Jijiu thought.

But Li Xiuyuan felt that if things were really as he guessed, then the chance of success was not great.

This Wujiang Dragon King is too domineering, so domineering to the point of being unreasonable, if he can communicate, the old Jijiu will not die here.

For a while, Li Xiuyuan fell into deep thought.

At this time, the magistrate patted his palm again and said: "Okay, I am very pleased to have the heart of the people from the younger generations. Come on, get your pen, ink, paper and inkstone ready. Please write a sacrificial article and present it to me." Hand it over to the official for review, when the time comes, the official will select the best few sacrificial texts, and you will go up to the temple and burn them to worship, and hope that someone can appease the Dragon King’s wrath with a single sacrificial text.”

Soon, the guards brought more than a dozen wooden tables into the hut, arranged them neatly, prepared pens, inks, papers and inkstones, and waited for all the scholars to start their hands.

"I come."

A scholar volunteered, rolled up his Tibetan show, strode to a wooden table, twirled his brush and dyed ink, and immediately wrote a sacrificial oration after thinking about it.

"Such a major event for the country and the people, how could I be missing."

And Tong Sheng's enthusiasm remained undiminished, and he squeezed out of the crowd to take up the next seat to write sacrificial texts.

Ning Caichen next to Li Xiuyuan also seemed to be infected, he squeezed forward, picked up a pen and splashed ink, and wrote a sacrificial text without thinking.

Ning Caichen's literary talent is definitely one of the best among this group of scholars. I don't know if it has something to do with his frequent copying of books for others.

"Don't worry, don't worry, every scholar here needs to leave a sacrificial note, there is no need to fight for it, come and add more ink." The prefect said.

The guard responded and left quickly. After a while, he moved a table from nowhere and added a place to the scholar's door.

"Since you're here, let's try it."

Li Xiuyuan thought to himself, walked casually to a wooden table, pondered for a while, and began to write sacrificial texts.

For a moment, there was only the sound of brush and ink splashing in the thatched shed.

But just after Li Xiuyuan wrote the sacrificial text, a scholar came over angrily, tore away the unfinished sacrificial text, and said, "What kind of sacrificial text are you writing, the Dragon King is angry and rains heavily, The sacrificial rites should be moved with emotion and reason, but your sacrificial rites are full of killing and threats. If this piece of rites is seen by the Dragon King, you will definitely be even more furious. Just get out of the way and stand aside. Watch, watch how I write the sacrificial oration."

After finishing speaking, the scholar grabbed the ink brush again, fetched a piece of rice paper and spread it on the table, and began to write on his own.

"Ok?"

Li Xiuyuan frowned, what is this?Grab a seat?

Looking at the scholar again, he seemed to be the scholar who was thrown with cow dung, but now his face was covered with rain, as if he had found a place to wash off the cow dung.

　Chapter 2 will be later.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)