Painter

Chapter 162 Eleven: Returning the Grain

"Ghost soldiers!"

"The ghost soldiers are coming again!"

Seeing a group of ghost soldiers marching at the end of Lunti Street, the common people exclaimed in unison, even ignoring the ox carts loaded with grain, they hid in the alley.There are many taboos in Dayong Kingdom, wandering gods running at night, locust gods crossing the border, five plagues traveling, ghost soldiers crossing the border... Regardless of righteous gods or wild ghosts, once ordinary people collide with them, they will get seriously ill at least, or lose their lives at worst. life.

Jiaoyu hid in the crowded yellow mud alley, leaned against the wall, carefully poked out half of his face, looked at the approaching fog, and said in disbelief, "There really are ghost soldiers?"

The horror on the county lieutenant's face did not fade, but a look of joy appeared again, "Since there are really ghost soldiers, then what is Zheng Ming's... Zheng Ming's crime?"

Jiaoyu was stunned, the county lieutenant's words were really fucking reasonable, but he couldn't be as thoughtless as the county lieutenant, he just murmured: "Qingling county has been so ruined, can it still stand looting?"

While speaking, the ghost soldiers approached and walked through the market.

In the mist, those horrific monsters with swords and armor dragged collapsed carts that were about ten feet long.The cloth bags in the car are piled up extremely high.A single bull can only pull two thousand catties at most, and the grain piled up on top of these collapsed carts seems to be over ten thousand catties per cart.The iron and wood wheels rolled over the rammed loess street, printing a series of conspicuous ruts.

There are hundreds of ghost soldiers crossing the county, and hundreds of chariots collapsed.

This group of ghost soldiers started from Jiang's Yizhuang in the east of the county, first robbed the Zhang family's granary at the foot of Niu Shou Mountain, and then marched westward. It took most of the night to loot the five big families in the county.It's absurd to say that the famine in Qingling County has been raging for several months, and starvation can be seen everywhere along the roadside, but the ghost soldiers only robbed five houses, and easily grabbed [-] shi of grain.

The ghost soldiers gradually approached the Eight Wax Temple on the east side of the street. Lingzhu, whose cassocks were messy in the temple, hurriedly went to the god to make offerings.The eight wax gods have ancient origins. One is the ancient sage who is in charge of vegetation, the last two are agricultural officials under the rule of the ancestors, the fourth is the god of the fields, and the third is the birds, beasts, land, and locusts.

Although there is a god tablet of the Eight Wax God in the temple, the believers' incense and vows enshrine a statue of the god.The statue is set off by a canopy brocade silk, wearing a red robe, holding a jade wat in the left hand, a golden mace in the right, a straight nose and a wide mouth, and an eight-faced magic crown on the head.The book was burnt out, and sparks floated up, as if they also ignited the eyes of the god statue.The golden gong on the altar shook, and the green sandalwood smoke lingering in the three-legged tripod flew up.

The cold moon is in the sky.

Kissing and swallowing the ridge, above the glazed tiled temple roof, green smoke condenses into the shape of a god, holding a wat and lifting a sword.

The god's face was blurred, and he looked down at the ghost soldiers in the street from a high position. Smoke billowed from his lips, and he made a bell-like voice: "Who is here?"

"Eight Wax God!"

"The Eight Wax God has manifested!"

The people hiding in the streets and alleys, and the people who opened the doors and windows in the houses, secretly looked at the situation in the street, and cheered softly when they saw the gods condensed with sandalwood smoke on the temple.

The ghost riding the beast will look up and look at the god.

The magic power of the gods depends on the strength of the incense. The Eight Wax God of Qingling County ranks seventh in the Shinto, and its magic power is slightly stronger than that of ordinary practitioners.And Li Chan's way of seeing sentient beings, after traveling all the way west from Taodu Mountain and crossing the experiences of various countries in the Western Regions, he was not only instructed by the mysterious Shijun who guarded Daqinglian on Fuyu Mountain, but also got the advice of the nine Shi Jianjie's peerless sword celestial Lu Zu gave 24 mirrors to him. Although he has been cultivating Taoism for a short time, he cannot be treated as an ordinary cultivator of Taoism.

The gods failed to see the depth of the ghost general, but were shocked by the sapphire-like ghost pupils, and the surging sandalwood smoke suddenly froze.

The eyes of the ghost general and the god are closed immediately, and they drive their mounts to move on.

Behind, the red-faced Yaksha nearly two feet high carried a large flag like a horse, and said in a low voice, "Marquis Wuwei is here, and anyone who blocks the way will die!"

As soon as the word Wuweihou came out, the sandalwood smoke on the god's face surged violently.Although this deity is known as the Eight Wax God, in essence it has nothing to do with the ancient sages among the Eight Wax Gods.But Marquis Wuwei is actually a ghost master who is the incarnation of a famous ancient general.

The ghost soldiers passed in front of the Bawa Temple, and the sandalwood smoke suddenly scattered from the temple. The god had just appeared, and then hid in the temple again, no longer showing his face.

The people's whispers of anticipation stopped abruptly before they stopped, leaving only the sound of armor rubbing and wheels grinding the ground in Lunhe Street.

The Jiaoyu in the alley looked palely at the ghost soldiers walking through Lunti Street, and then across the county government to the north, with some doubts in his eyes.The so-called bandits pass like a comb, and soldiers pass like a grate.Since ancient times, once wartime soldiers and horses entered the city, there would always be looting of civilians and rape of prostitutes.Human beings are still like this, demons and monsters should be more brutal.But these ghost soldiers walked through the street in an orderly manner and did not hurt anyone.

But seeing the whereabouts of the ghost soldiers, Jiaoyu put these thoughts behind him.

"They're going to the granary."

The county lieutenant looked at the distant mirage in horror, "How much grain is there in the warehouse?"

"It's less than four hundred stones." Jiaoyu showed a desperate expression, "If even these grains are taken away..." He gritted his teeth and chased after the ghost soldiers in the direction they left.

The county lieutenant gave a feed from behind, but the teacher didn't look back.

……

The granary in Qingling County is built on the north side of the county government. On the side of the granary is the Tisha Bridge connected by a stone road. Not far to the west of the bridge is the water and land wharf facing the Jing River.

The dogs barked everywhere, and the soldiers guarding the barn held the lanterns and held on to the dogs. Facing this sudden yin and yin master, they didn't dare to have the slightest thought of resistance.

When the ghost soldiers approached the granary, all the soldiers guarding the granary had run away, and the hundred collapsed chariots drove into the granary under the cover of mirage.

There are ten grain cellars in the county warehouse.Each grain cellar has a radius of three feet and a depth of about two feet, which can hold nearly four thousand stones of grain.The walls of the dried cellars were lined with black ash, hay, planks, mats, and chaff, and a layer of straw mats was laid on top.

Of the ten grain cellars at this time, only one was filled with a shallow layer of grain.

The cart collapsed to the side of the cellar, and the monster threw down bags of grain, filling one, two, and even five cellars.

……

Dawn is about to break, and the ghost fog is heading north, and it has reached the head of Tisha Bridge.

A call came from the south: "Marquis Wuwei! Marquis Wuwei stay!"

Jiaoyu stopped panting, and saw those terrifying ghost soldiers only a few feet away. He couldn't help being terrified, but he summoned up his courage and shouted: "The general is strict in governing the army. Although he has become a ghost, he is still a man of benevolence and righteousness." Master! Now that the people in Qingling County are suffering, I have the courage to ask the general not to take away the grain stored in the warehouse again!"

Jiaoyu lowered his head after shouting, not daring to look at the ghost soldier in the mist again.

There was a chuckle in the mist, the laughter was extremely short, but quite clear, like a girl's voice.

Immediately afterwards, the voice said again: "The Marquis of Wuwei borrowed [-] stones of grain from Qingling County last time, but this time he came to pay back the grain."

Jiaoyu couldn't help raising his head, and saw a girl in red looming in the mist surrounded by ghost soldiers, pointing to the granary, "You might as well go and have a look."

After saying this, the mist drifted again, and all the ghosts became very blurred as soon as they got on the bridge, and all of them disappeared after crossing the bridge, leaving only an empty embankment.The autumn water reflects the dawn light, washes the embankment, and the sound of the tide is looming.

Jiaoyu was stunned for a while, then ran to the granary, and as soon as he came to the grain cellar, he saw the cellar full of grain bags.He rushed up in disbelief, cut open a bag of grain with a dagger, and carefully picked up the flowing corn, his hands trembling.Immediately afterwards, another bag of food was cut open.

After inspecting the five grain cellars in this way, Jiaoyu's feet went limp, he fell to his knees, buried his head in the rice bag, and wailed loudly.

"Food, there's food..."

……

The news that the ghost soldiers returned the food was like pouring cold water into boiling oil, boiling the entire Qingling County.Just after dawn, the people in the county and the disaster victims outside the city flocked to the granary north of the county government.The crowd was surging, some people shouted for food, some people shouted to see Zheng Mingfu, it was chaotic.

The chaos intensified, but Qingling County has no leader.

In Zheng's residence, Mrs. Zheng cheered up, took the steward out, and with the assistance of the chief bookkeeper, educational decree, county lieutenant, etc., comforted the people, and finally no tragic incident of trampling on others occurred.

However, the grain in the warehouse was piled up high, and the county magistrate was not there, so no one could make up his mind.Just a moment after the cock crowed, Chen Haochu, the captain of Shenzhasi, led a few demon hunters and rushed to the Mingsha official post on horseback.

On horseback, Chen Haochu was still a little dazed. It took him a lot of effort to find out the truth about the ghost soldiers crossing the border, but after only one night, the situation changed drastically.

Not only Chen Haochu, but this morning, the county officials, gentry, Shinto spirits, common people... the whole Qingling County were talking about the ghost soldiers crossing the border, talking about the Changping ghost master who returned the food.

There was chaos at the granary, but Zheng's house was exceptionally quiet.

No one knew that after the "ghost master" led a hundred ghosts to disturb Qingling County, he returned to Zheng's guest house.He poured half a bag of soybeans into the stone trough, mixed them with hay, fed them to the black donkey, went into the house and put the scroll on the table, kicked his shoes, lay down on the bed, stretched his arms and yawned tiredly, and fell asleep past.

(End of this chapter)