Chapter 179 Looking back, the sky and the high ground are bright and bright
The moon in the sky gradually moves towards the west, and from time to time there are dark clouds that obscure the moonlight.
The torches on the city wall were blown by the wind, and the flames roared.
The defenders holding spears stood next to the torches, half of them standing on the outside of the city wall, facing outside the city, and the other half facing inside.
The defenders facing outside the city are naturally on guard against foreign enemies, needless to say.
The defenders facing the city are used to observe whether there are fires in the city, whether there are mass gatherings to fight, whether there are gang riots, housebreaking and looting, etc. If so, they can pass by flags during the day and wave torches at night. , commanding the soldiers and officers patrolling the city to go and deal with it.
Old Ding is in his thirties and is responsible for monitoring the situation in the city.
He has been a soldier for twenty years. He once discovered bandits disguised as caravans operating at night. He also discovered signs of fire in the city three times and reported them promptly.
So although he has never fought in a battle and his martial arts is not particularly outstanding, he has been promoted to the position of centurion with these achievements.
This makes Lao Ding's life much more comfortable than that of ordinary soldiers. Even if he is standing here blowing the cold wind, he still has two warm bamboo tubes around his waist, both of which are filled with boiling rice soup. Cooked with sweetened millet, it is fragrant and sweet.
When you are feeling a little uncomfortable due to the wind, it is so refreshing to take a sip.
"Boss, give me a bite!"
"It's late at night, you guys can take it for yourselves and give me a share."
People in the army They all practiced the concept of meditation, and their physiques were extraordinary, but the cold wind blew too much, and they were a bit lazy and couldn't get energetic.
After taking this mouthful of thick, sweet and hot soup, everyone became much more energetic. They no longer stared blankly at the city. Instead, they chatted and laughed for a while, and began to scan the city.
It was at this time that the group of people near Lao Ding discovered something unusual in the city.
Those famous wealthy families, there seemed to be signs of carriages and horses coming out of the mansions in the middle of the night.
A while ago, several officials came to Chang'an City and issued repeated orders, demanding that the recent curfew in the city be enforced more strictly.
Going out in the middle of the night and wandering on the street is definitely not allowed. If you are seen by a watchman, a yamen servant, etc., you will most likely be scolded and taken to the yamen to squat for a day or two.
It is even more illegal to drive in the middle of the night. Logically speaking, the penalty will be more severe than for someone walking on the street.
But this is not the case. Those who are qualified to travel by horse and cart have an unusual status. They are not only wealthy, but also must have connections in the government. When the patrolling yamen saw them, they would at most say a few greetings and persuade the people in the car to go home early. .
Therefore, for such a wealthy family, traveling in the middle of the night is still forbidden.
Lao Ding didn’t care at first.
But after nearly an hour, he felt something strange.
Those carriages and horses come and go too frequently, and the number is still increasing.
Besides, when the carriages and horses of these wealthy families went out at night, they always went to the homes of the same wealthy people, or simply to the homes of some officials.
Tonight, they walked around on the road, but they went to civilian neighborhoods.
Thinking about some recent rumors in the city, Lao Ding couldn't help but have some random thoughts.
But when he saw the brothers under his command looking at each other in shock and confusion, Old Ding came to his senses.
“You guys look inside the city, I’ll report it to the envoy!”
There are many female officials in the cities of Chang'an, but the group that recently came to the city are particularly different.
Because they were trained by Princess Yuanzhen, they have been with the princess since they were young, and they can be regarded as disciples of the palace.
Old Ding would think of reporting to a female official instead of going to the city to report to the city's guard general and deputy general.
Part of the reason is that when the Chang'an officials came to the city, they summoned all the smarter and more famous people in the army like Lao Ding and gave them special instructions.
But the more important reason is that compared to the residence of the general and lieutenant, there is a female official who lives downstairs at the city gate recently. She is closer!
The middle-aged woman with a scar at the corner of her eyebrow was wearing a black robe with narrow sleeves and a waist. She was sleeping in her clothes. Almost as soon as she heard the footsteps of Old Ding, the lights in the hut turned on and she opened the door. And out.
"What's going on?"
As soon as Old Ding said this, the female official's face changed slightly. She stepped on the city wall and ran up the city. She turned around at the top of the city and looked back at the city with a look on her face. He became more solemn and his eyes were cloudy and uncertain.
"Why did it start so quickly? It's different from the wind direction we heard before..."
The female official returned to the city and took out the carrier pigeon and let it fly. Then she took out a few tokens and let them fly. Lao Ding and a few others went to inform the city lord's mansion and the guard's mansion.
The entire atmosphere of Bonan City soon changed even more drastically.
The dispatch of the soldiers, the carriages and horses that were moving secretly, and the incited people seemed to have confirmed something, and they packed their bags more eagerly and rushed out of the house.
Many people no longer consider the issue of concealment, standing on the carriages and horses, shouting loudly, and there are responses everywhere, more and more torches, or candles directly held in their hands, All lit up.
"Run, run, run out of the city to survive!"
"Dad, don't think about the few acres of land at home. Mr. Zhao and the Li family The master has run away, all the well-informed big shots have run away, it must be true, run, run!”
"Yes, I saw with my own eyes that the young master of the Chen family passed by the street in front of our house. It was over there. I followed him and ran away. That's right!!"
The construction of a city wall does not mean a city wall. The city only relied on the four outermost high walls to form a square grid, surrounding the residences inside.
In fact, the layout of the city walls in cities that have truly experienced the test of war is quite complicated.
What is more common is that at each city gate, an additional circle of urns will be built.
With the section of wall where the real city gate is located as the inner wall of the barbican city, even if the enemy breaks through the outer wall gate of the barbican city, there will still be a tall and solid real city gate in front of them as an obstacle.
Moreover, after entering the Wengcheng, the defenders on the four walls can shoot arrows at the enemy forces in this small city. It is said that the king is led into the urn and the turtle is caught in the urn. The reason why Wengcheng is called Wengcheng contains this meaning.
In addition, if a city wants to expand outward, it is of course impossible to tear down the original city wall.
Those who preside over the expansion will only pile up new wall bricks on both sides of the original city wall, and continue to cast new walls outwards to include more areas.
So the shape of a city that has been expanded many times on the map is often irregular. Even within the city, there are many walls that separate different areas.
Coincidentally, almost all the cities in Chang'an are such war cities that have been expanded many times.
After the three northwestmost cities fell, some people were able to escape. This city layout also played a major role.
But now, when such a city layout is faced with a huge storm from within, it seems a little at a loss.
The soldiers wanted to close the city gate and block the way of the carriages and people on the opposite side, but behind the soldiers, there were also large groups of carriages and people surging.
There was even a man who appeared to be wearing civilian attire, but was powerful and shiny. He dared to directly step forward to hug the soldiers and kick off the wooden stakes holding up the city gate.
The officials from Chang'an City and the local officials and soldiers shouted at the top of their lungs everywhere, but it was of no use.
Because there is indeed an army of zombies attacking on the western battlefield, it is true that the situation is not optimistic.
After so many days, everyone can feel that the large number of elite soldiers in the city have moved westward to support them, and the food and grass have followed them.
Now they believe that the only way to survive is to escape from the city. Even if the officials in Chang'an tell them again, what serious consequences will there be if they all escape from the city now? If they cannot escape the Yellow River, they may be killed alive. The corpse catches up with Yun Yun.
Under the influence of preconceptions, they will only think that these officials have evil intentions.
“Reverse! Reverse!!”
The city guard stamped his feet on the city wall, furious, and shouted, "These unruly people, wait until I go down and unleash my fists, knocking out thousands of people, and see if they dare to attack the city gate!"
The female official with broken eyebrows grabbed him and said coldly: "If there are only a few thousand people below now, then your method may be able to postpone the situation."
"But look, the city is now How many people were trapped inside? Being coerced, you unleashed your fists and picked up knives and guns, which will only make their already tense minds become even more panicked and completely frantic."
"You really want to push everyone. Are you becoming a troublemaker or a mob? "
The guard on the city wall looked at the endless scene, as if the whole city was agitated. His heart was shaken, and he couldn't help but take a half step back, and was speechless for a moment.
The female official was also very angry.
These people would rather trust those "masters" than have any trust in the local officials. This shows how neglectful these guys are at ordinary times.
After the officials from Chang'an City arrived in the city, they originally thought that the situation could be stabilized as long as they mobilized local officials to curb the rumors.
As a result, when they actually mobilized the government officials, they found that it had a huge counter-effect, and they finally woke up.
The government encouraged wealthy merchants to operate and provided convenience. Then, in many matters, the wealthy merchants provided support to the government, and even replaced the government agencies in some cases to deal with the problems of the people in advance.
This was a situation that Du Wentong had single-handedly brought about, and he was quite proud of it. He felt that he had a well-organized and harmonious government, and that his actions were effective.
In just a few decades, the cities of Chang'an became prosperous again, with prosperous commerce and military strength, which is a clear proof of his clever methods.
Now, the officials of Chang'an City are finally going to suffer.
Since the most active and influential people in the hearts of local people are these wealthy businessmen, then when these wealthy businessmen unite and have different opinions from the government, why should the people believe the words of your government? ?
Whether those wealthy businessmen are good or bad, at least the common people are familiar with them, but the adults in the government... are too far away.
The female official was so angry that her teeth were itching with hatred as she looked at the rich and powerful slaves who mingled in the crowd, pretending to be ordinary people, but rushing through the city gate again and again.
These bastards are going to lead everyone to death!
She looked at the carriages and horses of the wealthy families, feeling such deep hatred in her heart, but she did not dare to act rashly. Looking at the people who had been deceived and followed the carriages and horses of the wealthy families, her chest was filled with an indescribable feeling of powerlessness.
The homing pigeons have been released, but even if the princess comes, can she really persuade these people to return to the city?
Time passes moment by moment.
When the sky turned pale, the efforts of all the officials and soldiers in the city were finally overwhelmed.
The easternmost gate of the city was completely opened, carriages rushed out, and people swarmed.
The female official with broken eyebrows was sitting on the top of the city, her throat was sore and she was looking at this scene somewhat blankly.
Not far outside the city, there is a small river.
Suddenly, among the trees on the river bank, a red flag embroidered with a golden phoenix was erected.
Hundreds of soldiers in red clothes and armor slowly appeared in the jungle. Their bright clothes were as eye-catching as the fire, blocking the road ahead.
The female official with broken eyebrows perked up and recognized the leader of the riders, with phoenix eyebrows on her temples and a flag gun in hand, who was none other than Princess Yuanzhen.
By the way, the moment when the people can really leave the city, the tense minds relax slightly.
If you seize this opportunity, things may turn around.
“Everyone!!”
Du Yuanzhen's flag gun tilted forward slightly, and the sound came from far away. The people who had just poured out of the city gate didn't think it was anything.
But the first few carriages that rushed out suddenly trembled and stopped one after another.
The people inside the carriage felt that their internal organs were inexplicably dropped. They covered their chests with their hands and were sweating coldly.
A hundred feet away, the spiritual energy was condensed and undisturbed, without affecting outsiders. It directly controlled the spirits of the horses, and then pressed them tightly on the leaders.
“You are coming to see me, why do you need to leave the city with such fanfare?”
There was a hint of smile in Du Yuanzhen's voice, "The elders, who have billions of dollars in wealth, want to come to my military camp to reward the soldiers, so I will naturally welcome them. There are tens of thousands of men in the camp, and they are also preparing to set up camp and greet them along the way. ”
“But the people in the city, After all, there are no carriages and horses to travel, and it is too tiring to travel back and forth along the way. I, the princess, understand this intention on behalf of my battalion sergeant. You don’t have to go."
Her words came into effect. All the spirit is spread out and strives to spread higher and farther.
In addition to these people outside the city, there were also those people who had entered the eastern Wengcheng. They all heard it and felt a little confused, and the noisy voices were muted.
What's going on? Don't you want to escape from the city and find a way out? Why are these gentlemen going to reward the soldiers?
It turns out that there are government soldiers and horses camped in the east of the city? These people have indeed heard a lot of rumors on weekdays. After being incited tonight, they will inevitably panic.
But there are only so many wealthy businessmen in total, and it is impossible for them to shout to the people in every household where they are going.
Many people were actually mobilized by the shouts of their neighbors on the street.
There were many people who didn't know that they were trying to escape first. They just saw people running wildly on the street and thought that the living corpses had arrived in the city, so they followed them and ran away.
The methods planned by Chen Fan and others were extremely insidious. Even without Zen Master Haha's suggestion to act in advance, they were originally planning to launch the plan on a certain night.
People in the middle of the night are awakened unexpectedly and lack enough energy, so they are particularly prone to falling into chaos. After dawn, everyone has already left the city, and because of the hard work of running around at night, they have no time to think too much, so it is difficult to recover.
But as long as you are stopped and have recovered, everyone is not a fool and can always detect something is wrong. It will be difficult to deceive so many people afterwards.
The gentlemen in the carriage have already thought of this, their eyes are spinning, and they are panicking and anxious.
However, as the carriages that rushed to the front and attracted the most attention from the people, no one came out to reply.
Because Du Yuanzhen's aura pressed against them revealed a clear threat.
As long as they act rashly again, even if Du Yuanzhen can't stop so many people, it will be enough to smash these people to pieces.
If it is the momentum of the defenders in the city that threatens them, all the wealthy merchants will have the confidence to contend.
But this is Du Yuanzhen, which really makes people dare not act rashly for a while.
But at this moment, among the people who could not hear Du Yuanzhen's shout clearly, and among the people who were still stranded in the city, Zen Master Haha clasped his hands together and smiled softly.
There were two to three thousand people in the crowded crowd around. They all felt dazed for a moment, as if they had seen the horrific sight of blood flowing across the face, broken limbs, bones, and broken heads.
The hallucination disappeared in a flash, but they were all strongly stimulated, and they rushed forward, shouting wildly.
"Dead people! Dead people!"
The scene in the hallucination made them shout like this, and those who were not stimulated by the hallucination heard such shouts and felt The squeezing from behind was thought to be someone dead behind, so he rushed forward in a hurry.
Du Yuanzhen's intimidation lasted only a few breaths before being broken. People who had hoped to calm down were frightened by the crowded situation at the rear and ran forward.
"Don't..."
Du Yuanzhen wanted to try harder, but suddenly his pupils shrank and he felt a terrible threat coming from the crowd, but for the moment he couldn't tell where this threat came from.
Haha Zen Master walked slowly among the crowd, passed through the city gates one after another, and came to the outside of the city.
His eyes briefly glanced at Du Yuanzhen and others, and then looked further away.
Upstream of the small river outside the city, less than ten miles away, there were two figures floating on the water, approaching quickly.
Su Hanshan stepped on the large piece of ice floe he had created, which was about the size of a bamboo mat and half a foot thick. Using his skills, the ice cube rode the wind and waves, carrying him and Yang Baifa away at high speed.
"We are late."
Yang Baifa spoke seriously and looked at the city, "It seems that the residents in the city have been lured out of the city."
Su Hanshan also looked at it In that direction, he said: "It's not surprising that inciting everyone to leave the city at this time, behind the scenes There is probably a shadow of the corpse demon, and the corpse demon can feel my position, and if it detects my approach, it is possible to plan in advance."
"Maybe there is a corpse demon hanging in there now. Among the crowd, the masters who were preparing to attack Chang'an even plotted against me."
This is a logical conjecture.
Although Yang Baifa was angry at the time, he soon realized that what Dewey said must be caused by someone secretly causing trouble.
"But..."
Yang Baifa was worried and sighed, "The hateful thing about many conspiracies is that we know it is a conspiracy, so we can only join in."
"Being in the game does not mean that you have to cater to the enemy's rhythm. Human wisdom is a rare treasure in the human body. Using such a treasure exclusively for deception and taking advantage of innocent people is nothing but a waste of natural resources."
Su Hanshan glanced at the people at the city gate, lowered his eyes to the flowing water, and said, "The purpose of wisdom should be to explore the principles of heaven and earth and prove them so that people can use them to do things beyond human power."< br>
“Even if you want to make a profit, how can the power obtained by defrauding innocent people compare with using the truth?”
When Yang Baifa was surprised, he saw Su Hanshan’s arms spread out. He opened it, leaned forward, and threw himself into the river with a smile.
The ice floe under their feet was advancing rapidly.
Su Hanshan fell forward seemingly casually and gently. After entering the water, he moved away much faster than the ice floe, almost just a silent afterimage under the water.
But on the water, a wave also surged simultaneously.
Outside the chaotic city gate, tens of thousands of people have already left the city one after another, following the carriages and horses of the wealthy families to flee, while inside the city, more people are pouring out.
The wave, when it reached the bend of the river, had reached a height of nearly two feet.
The carriage of the wealthy family was originally escaping along the river bank, but the wave hit the road ahead.
Boom! ! !
There was a loud bang and the waves came down, but it didn't just wet the ground.
Instead, a gully four to five feet long opened up on the shore. The river water poured in crazily, and the white waves mixed with the turbid current of the soil.
The coachman looked shocked, tightened the reins urgently, and turned the horse around.
Haha Zen Master watched everything and naturally knew the origin of the wave, but he remained calm.
It is impossible to stop today's chaos with intimidation.
How far can the water break the waves? How large an area can one individual block?
General threats will only stimulate these people and make them flee faster and more chaotically. No one can stop all the people from taking random, winding roads.
And if they were to spread out and escape into the wild, their chance of survival would be even slimmer than the current method of gathering together and fleeing.
Not to mention there are so many people in the city, just the tens of thousands of people who have left the city. If you want to completely defeat their common sense and frighten them so much that they don’t even dare to run away, you must be able to stun them in one fell swoop. Tens of thousands of people.
It is impossible for any person to do this kind of thing with his fist intention.
Ha, if the target guided by the source of the corpse transformation is really soft-hearted and naive to the point of being ridiculous, and wants to try his best, then it will give Zen Master Haha the chance to kill.
If the opponent chooses to focus on raiding those wealthy families after weighing it, in the chaotic situation, Master Haha, with the dispatchable corpse demons and living masters under his command, will...
Boom! boom! boom! boom! ! !
A series of water pillars exploded in the river again, interrupting Zen Master Haha's thoughts. The water pillars continued in an endless stream.
As expected, the people became more panicked, hurried, and wanted to take a detour.
But among the water droplets and mist flying in the sky, a majestic body slowly rose from the turbulent river.
The top of her head is like a conch, her face is as pure as the moon, her eyes are kind and slightly closed, there seems to be a smile at the corner of her mouth, and her ears are wide and drooping on her shoulders.
The head alone is larger than the entire carriage being turned around.
When the head of the Tathagata Buddha statue completely rose from the water and began to reveal its broad shoulders, a very small number of the panicked people stopped in their tracks.
The speed at which the Buddha statue emerges from the water seems to be slow. If anyone sees the underwater scene, they will find that the Buddha statue is not actually surfacing, but is rapidly drawing a large amount of river water and condensing it into ice. , constantly replenishing the parts below the water surface of the Buddha statue, and then lifting it upward.
When the entire Buddha statue came out of the water and stood on the ground, it was already more than ten feet tall.
Ten feet does not sound like much, but ordinary people’s houses are not even one foot high.
The big Buddha statue, which is more than ten feet high, is ten times taller than their house. It is similar to the human body and gives them a sense of shock that is different from viewing a tall building.
The tens of thousands of people leaving the city at this time, and all the defenders and officials on the city wall, could all see the existence of this Buddha statue, and they all slowed down their breathing involuntarily.
But more people in the city are still running away, so people outside the city can't stop, at most they just slow down a little.
"There are many monsters and cold disasters on the road ahead, making it impassable. There is a way to survive only when you return to the city!!"
There seems to be a vague Zen sound resounding between heaven and earth.
The towering Ice Tathagata Buddha holds Dharma seals with his hands, looks down at the world with kind eyebrows and narrowed eyes, with layers of light emitting from his body.
Su Hanshan's figure flashed out of the water and appeared on the back of the ice Buddha. He pressed one hand on the ice, his eyes were focused, he used all his skills and continued to speak.
“The sea of suffering is boundless, but when we turn around, we will finally reach the shore!”
When he made this ice Buddha, he used the principle of pure Yang water method and chose the internal structure that could best amplify the volume.
At the same time, he also considered the secret sounds in the "Three Loss and Three Destruction Mahamudra" in the Southern Song Dynasty, which explained some secrets that ordinary people can use the tones to affect the minds of others.
The entire Buddha is actually a huge loudspeaker, which can perfectly convey the special tone of the maker.
When Su Hanshan spit out those eight words, the real energy vibrated synchronously, passing through the orifice on the back of the Buddha statue he had reserved, reaching the whole body of the Ice Buddha, and then released forward.
"Bitter! Sea! No! Edge!!!"
"Back! Head! Yes! Shore!!!"
The majestic sound was released from a high place. In an instant, the heaven and earth, rivers and cities were all covered by this huge Buddha's sound.
The sea of suffering is boundless, but you can finally turn around! !
Return to the shore! ! It's safe to turn around! ! It's safe to turn around! ! !
Not just the tens of thousands of people outside the city, but the entire city, all the people crowded to the east, all heard this sentence.
The grand sound of Zen singing echoed on the city walls, on the ground, and among the houses and streets for a long time.
When those wealthy businessmen saw the Buddha statue before, they were secretly cursing it in their hearts.
Chen Fan, Bai Zhongtuo and others are even more determined to smash the Buddha statue.
But before they could take action, the all-pervasive Zen sound covering from the nine heavens had filled all their senses and covered every inch of space around them.
For the instigators like them, at this time, they can't get rid of the sound that keeps echoing in their minds.
It's safe to turn around! It's safe to turn around! It's safe to turn around! !
Zen Master Haha’s eyes became extremely deep, and he saw everyone around him retreating.
The people in the city were not too affected by this tone and just became quiet, while the people outside the city all retreated after hearing the voice.
The same way they came out, they went back. Every step they took was where they had stepped before.
If it is said that overflowing water cannot be recovered, these tens of thousands of people were originally like a torrent rushing out from the city gate, but now, this flood is flowing backwards.
The large water mist behind the Ice Tathagata Buddha statue turned into a bright seven-color rainbow bridge under the influence of this violent sound wave.
In the early morning, the naturally born mist also dissipated a moment early during this magnificent Zen singing.
The rising sun in the east jumps out of the sea of clouds, on the Rainbow Bridge, behind the Buddha's head, illuminating this city and the mountains and rivers.
Some people retreated and unconsciously turned their heads to look at their hometown.
The sky is high and the sky is high, the universe is clear.
Su Hanshan was far from able to achieve such a miracle with his spirit alone. In addition to the Buddha's amplification, he also relied on the tones of the Three Secrets and the method of enlightening the heart with the heart.
You must use your sincerity to integrate into the tone, let these deceived people understand the pros and cons, and let them know where is the place where they are more likely to survive the disaster and live on. .
Only the heaven and earth are bright, may people’s hearts not be deceived!
(End of this chapter)