Urban Sims

The passenger ship arrived at the dock of Changsha County. At the invitation of Zhang Jing, the son of Changsha County Governor Zhang Du, Zhou Ming and his party made a short stop in Changsha.

The arrival of Mr. Zihua caused a sensation in the whole city of Changsha. At that time, there were countless visitors. In order not to be disturbed, Zhou Ming and others lived in the Sheriff's Mansion. Mr. Zihua asked for advice on poetry and Fu, and received him very hospitablely.

And in Changsha City, in order to participate in these banquets where Mr. Zihua can be seen, the upper-class celebrities in the city fought desperately for a seat. For a while, even in Changsha County, a dispute over the ranking of celebrities was triggered. The qualification to participate in these banquets has become the only criterion for judging whether a person is a "celebrity".

Seeing that the dispute was getting worse, on March 7th, the 25th year of Tiansheng, according to Zhou Ming's suggestion, Zhang Du, the county magistrate, personally led people to arrange, and invited celebrities from all walks of life in Changsha, as well as literati and scholars from surrounding counties, to come together. Gathered in the White Crane Tower, held a literati event.

Baihe Tower is a famous building in the local area. It has nine floors and is ten feet high. Wooden platforms are built around the building, which can accommodate thousands of people to gather here. Because Baihe Tower is adjacent to the Juzi River, this meeting is also called For the "Orange Island Club".

At this "Juzizhou Meeting", all the celebrities and scholars unanimously recommended Mr. Zihua. For this meeting, Zhou Ming wrote a preface. "Preface", after the literary meeting officially started, he wrote another article and six poems, all of which were excellent works, attracting attendees to copy them and praise them countless times.

…

After the Orange Island meeting, on the eleventh day, Zhou Ming and others set out again, heading west to Shuzhou.

However, there was an episode here. When everyone passed by Jingzhou, although Zhou Ming repeatedly urged and repeated orders, the clan soldier Tian Dayong was still thirsty, so he drank a sip of raw water from the river ditch before the boiling water was finished. Three days later, He began to have fever, diarrhea, and gibbering. All treatments were ineffective. Ten days later, he died of an intestinal infection and was unable to eat.

It has been a year since the tour, and the team that has gone through countless dangers and traveled 20,000 miles has lost its members for the first time because of a mouthful of raw water.

For the first time, the atmosphere in the team was very depressing and heavy.

Zhou Ming was also quite uncomfortable. He and these clan soldiers had a master-servant relationship in name, but after more than a year of getting along inseparably, the relationship between them was more like friends, brothers, and relatives.

Tian Dayong, the clan soldier, is the youngest and most lively of the eight clan soldiers. Sometimes he is neither big nor small, and does not understand the rules, and often provokes criticism from other clan soldiers. But now, seeing the raging fire, that body As the corpse gradually burned to ashes, it could be seen from the expressions of everyone that they were extremely sad and reluctant to leave.

After the body was cremated, the ashes were packed in clay pots. Zhou Ming also called the locals to set up a clothes tomb at the cremation site, and found a stelemaker to carve a tombstone.

The eulogy on the tombstone is "Mourning Dayong Ji" written by him himself. The whole text is more than 1,500 words, and it describes the memorable moments and shining points in this loyal servant's life. After this eulogy, no matter who it was, they all expressed deep emotion and deep condolences for the young deceased in the tomb.

The seven clan soldiers even knelt down in front of the tombstone, tears streaming down their clothes.

"Dayong, you deserved to die! With this eulogy written for you personally by the young master, you will never be forgotten again in this life!"

"Dayong, do you know? I really hope that the person who died was me, not you. You died so enviably that even the Wenqu stars in the sky wrote mourning articles for you."

"The young master often told me that a person, no matter how ordinary and ordinary he is, has many shining points in his body. I don't know which shining points are in me, but if one day I die too, I hope someone If you can write down these shining points of mine and tell others that such a person existed... I will be very grateful to him."

"Rest in peace, Dayong, your family will be taken care of by you. In your next life, let's have a good pregnancy. Even if you don't get a good pregnancy, I hope you can meet a good person like the young master again..."

Hearing the words of the seven clan soldiers, Chu Jingling on the side burst into tears and sobbed from time to time.

…

After Tian Dayong, the clan soldier left, for a long period of time, everyone seldom had a smile on their faces, until they walked out of Hongzhou and entered the winding and rugged mountainous area of ​​Shuzhou, with cliffs hanging on stacks and difficult cableways. Faced with this dangerous path that was full of passes and could be dangerous at any time, everyone had to cheer up, support each other, and walk cautiously on this difficult mountain road.

It took twenty-five days to walk on more than three hundred miles of mountain roads, and there were dozens of moments that almost separated life and death.

For example, on a trail that can only accommodate one foot on the edge of a vertical cliff, a stone suddenly collapsed on the edge of the trail, and someone almost lost his balance and fell off the cliff; another example is that on a ropeway and plank road that has not been repaired for many years, the board under his feet suddenly broke (Li The big mouth broke countless wooden boards), and some people almost fell into the abyss; for example, some unintentional accidents, such as weathered and collapsed rocks on the top of the mountain, suddenly fell from a height of 100 meters. No one could predict these high-speed rockfalls. , Will it hit yourself?

"Ahem, how dangerous it is! The road to Shu is as difficult as climbing to the sky!"

Cancong and yufu, how at a loss was the founding of the country? Erlai is 48,000 years old and does not live in Shangsai. Xidang Taibai has a bird path, which can cross the top of Tianzhu. Dibengshan destroyed the strong men to death, and then the ladders and stone stacks were connected with each other. On the top is the high mark of the six dragons returning to the sun, and on the bottom there is the rushing and turning back to Sichuan. the yellow crane can't fly too fast, and the ape wants to overcome his sorrow and climb for help. What a pan of green mud, a hundred steps and ten folds of lingering rocks. Go to the Lijing well and raise your breath, touch your hands and sit down and sigh!

I asked you when will you return from your journey to the west? Afraid of the unreachable rocks. But I saw the ancient wood of the Mourning Bird, male and female flying around the forest. I also heard that Zigui cried at night, worrying about the empty mountains. The difficulty of the road to Shu is that it is difficult to go to the blue sky, which makes people listen to this withered beauty, and even the peaks go to the sky without a foot...

The difficulty of the road to Shu is that it is difficult to go up to the blue sky, and look sideways to the west for a long time! "

After walking out of the Shu Road and entering a hilly area, Zhou Ming breathed a sigh of relief and immediately wrote an article "The Road to Shu is Difficult" based on the article written by Li Bai in his mind. He basically didn't make any changes, because he found that Li Bai The scene of the Shu Road described was almost exactly the same as the Shu Road he had walked these days, with very little exaggeration. Moreover, he could swear that more than 99% of people would only dare to walk this dangerous Shu Road once in their lives. , will not go for a second time, including himself.

The road to Shu is difficult to travel, but the interior of Shuzhou with its basin terrain has a suitable climate, spring-like weather all year round, fertile water and soil, and a highly developed economy. It is known as the "Land of Abundance".

Precisely because of its superior geographical location, large population, fertile land, abundant resources, and being surrounded by steep mountains, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack, Shuzhou has been the first place for careerists to start troubles for thousands of years. During the changes of dynasties, Shuzhou There is a rule that "Shu will be in chaos before the world is in chaos, and Shu will be in control after the world is under control." Although Shuzhou is a rather closed state in the west, to a certain extent, it is a barometer that reflects the national destiny of the dynasty.

After entering the counties of Shuzhou, Zhou Ming was quite surprised that Mr. Zihua's reputation was very big here.

Part of the reason is due to the influence of "Collected Works of Zihua" after the establishment of Zihua Bookstore; and a considerable part of the reason is due to the fact that the comic book "The Legend of Li Bai, the Sword Immortal of Shushan" was introduced to Shuzhou and caused a stir. This is caused by the nationwide sensation, because this comic is set in Shuzhou. Even though some of the humanities and customs presented in the comic deviate greatly from the reality, the sense of immersion of Shuzhou readers is the same as that of all the people in Shuzhou. The strongest among readers who have read this comic.

Out of a fanatical love for this comic, they love the house and love the author of the comic, and they also admire and admire it very much.

Therefore, Zhou Ming and others who passed through various counties in Shuzhou received an extremely warm welcome, especially because the government here has a strong education, the economy is developed, the literacy rate of the people is very high, and there are very few illiterates in the middle class.

In addition, Shu people are hospitable and Shu merchants are generous. Zhou Ming and others encountered some of the most unimaginable experiences in Shuzhou since they traveled around the world.

When they want to travel, the carriage and coachman at the door are ready. They can get in and go.

They wanted to stay in a high-end hotel, and the innkeeper had already prepared high-quality rooms, hot water and meals for them, and the hotel had already paid for them.

They were going to eat, and all the good wine and food were served. All the restaurants were free of charge because someone had already paid the bill.

There were even more than a dozen wealthy businessmen from Shu with a big belly and a fortune of more than one million, who were waiting on them with their horses and stirrups. Every time, after Zhou Ming picked up his pen and practiced calligraphy, he gave him a piece of paper. , will lead to a frantic rush. A complete poem will be sold at a high price, but no one will sell it.

As for a complete landscape painting and an authentic piece of poetry with more than a thousand words, these wealthy businessmen competed to the point of breaking their minds and shouted out jaw-droppingly high prices.

Seeing this scene, Zhou Ming sighed: "Before I die, my worth has already soared to such an extent. If I die, in another thousand years, how much will the value of these calligraphy treasures increase? These wealthy businessmen, It’s all about investing in advance.”

In addition to wealthy businessmen, the people Zhou Ming dealt with the most were officials and county guards, famous families, and the homes of county magistrates from various counties in Shu. Naturally, the homes where he stayed the most were also the homes of these nobles.

After only being a guest in these noble houses for one day, Zhou Ming understood why people said that Shu people were so hospitable. This was because here, there was a tradition of giving beautiful maids and concubines to their guests to sleep with, and these beautiful maids and pets were Ji, you still have to know all kinds of tricks, and you have to serve the distinguished guests to your satisfaction. Otherwise, you will be severely punished if you do not entertain well and make the distinguished guests unhappy.

Therefore, in the bedroom, Zhou Ming, who couldn't bear to face the delicate crying and begging of the two beautiful maids, could only "smilingly accept" the hospitality.

The more places I travel, the more "good intentions" I receive from Xin Na.

Even in Yizhang County, Pang Caier, the daughter of the local governor Pang Ji, admired Mr. Zihua's appearance and talent, changed into a maid's clothes, and actually replaced the sleeping maid, and presented herself as a pillow mat, and appeared in Zhou Ming's bedroom. middle.

"Miss Cai'er, you are still innocent and cannot do such a thing to ruin your reputation!" After recognizing her, Zhou Ming was surprised and said.

A piece of soft fragrant lips came over, and this beautiful young girl breathed heavily, undressed him and said: "It's a slave's longing but not a blessing to be able to hand over this innocent body to my husband."

So, for a time, the phoenix was turned upside down, the red quilt was turned over by the waves, and the spring night lasted for a while.

…

After that day, Chu Jingling, who could no longer bear all the absurdities, expressed her dissatisfaction. She told Zhou Ming not to stay in Shuzhou for such a long time, but to leave as soon as possible... Zhou Ming understood what she meant. Ming, nodded, and immediately asked people to pack their bags. Early in the morning of the second day, everyone set off and rushed straight to Liangzhou.

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