The Golden Roll appeared once again.
When you became a county magistrate, you didn't say anything. Just when the rooster crowed, you left the capital with your horse and old servants. The capital was too far away from the county. It was a cold day and no one sent you off.
On the ancient road, dust and smoke rose everywhere, the north wind mixed with cold rain and snow, you never complained, just silently moved forward, eating and sleeping all the way, spring passed and autumn came, when you took office, it was already the next year
The small county was very run-down. After seeing the prosperity of the capital, you could see the desolation here. On the old and damaged city wall, there were two hunched old soldiers who only grinned at you. Under the city wall, there was a teenager in thin clothes who was trembling and carrying water in the cold winter.
The people here were extremely poor. Apart from taxes, they could only eat one meal of porridge on a daily basis. You wore a starched and slightly faded official uniform. When you saw a six-year-old child holding a hoe, he went to the fields. He said that he still had to fetch water in the afternoon. As he spoke, he looked enviously at the big house in the west of the city. It was the home of a noble. It was very luxurious with carved beams and painted buildings.
You decided to make the lives of the commoners better, so you wanted to build bridges, pave roads, and irrigate them. However, you reported it to the court time and time again, but the news finally sank into the sea. When you collected money from those noble families, no one paid any attention to it, and the government orders could not be issued. You decided to uproot a part of the aristocratic families that occupied a large area of land. That year, you were forty-seven years old.
After all, you are an official. You threatened the biggest local gentry and made them take the lead to pay for the construction of the academy. Those children will have a chance to study. When you came to the academy, you saw that six-year-old child sitting in the bright academy without a hoe today, learning rudimentary knowledge.
All these years, the imperial court has ignored your requests for money and grain. You began to train your troops and found excuses to eradicate the three biggest aristocratic families in the surrounding area who repeatedly occupied farmland, forced purchases and sales, and bullied the people. The gold and silver you found gave this small county a new lease of life. You began to build roads for this county.
After the roads were cleared, this small county town seemed to gradually come alive. In the heavy snow, you could see that the people were wearing much thicker clothes. During the New Year, they could actually eat some meat.
In the middle of the night, you were coughing a little, and your hair was a little gray. You didn't look like the top scholar from many years ago, but you didn't care. You just took out the whetstone that was newly changed this year. The long sword at the bedside clanged, and it was as bright as ever. You silently sharpened the sword, meticulous, and serious, just like you used to sharpen the sword every day for twenty-three years without stopping.
This year, when you were 57 years old, there were many more reservoirs beside the farmland of the small county. A few waterwheels were installed, and the fields were connected by paths. It was much more convenient to irrigate them. The common people could eat two meals of thick rice porridge a day, so they smiled contentedly.
You are sixty years old this year. You lowered your head to sharpen your sword, calm and serious. However, you always felt that your back was a little hunched. Tonight's sword was especially bright, like water reflecting light. You borrowed the sword shadow to see the gray hair and the dense patterns on your forehead. Only then did you realize that you were actually old.
In the middle of the night, someone was running and shouting outside the window. They were in a panic. You held your sword and asked, and your expression changed. The mountains and rivers were broken, the enemy was coming from the north, and it was like a hot knife through butter. The great country was defeated, and everyone was terrified. This year, you are sixty years old.
On the golden list, blurry images followed the words and slowly appeared.
In Chang 'an, Li Shimin was shocked.
A high-spirited top scholar was now old and frail, with gray hair at his temples.
He closed his eyes and asked Wei Zheng in a low voice as if he was sighing.
"Xuancheng, does our Great Tang have such a person?”
Wei Zheng was stunned, his expression complicated.
A person who should have lived a brilliant life, but in such a dark world, he was confined to a corner and lived an ordinary life.
He did not know.
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At this moment.
The words continued on the golden roll.
He wasn't in a hurry, but he was describing the life of this figure in a grand and mighty manner.
This year, you are sixty-one years old, but you, who have resigned and retired, have been slandered by treacherous officials, looking down on the Orthodoxy. Your eyes are already covered with a layer of darkness, but there is still a hint of sharpness in them, like a sword that has never been cut off in all these years.
When the enemy came, the weather was a little hot and humid. Dark clouds piled up as if it was going to rain heavily. At the age of 62, you were pardoned and reactivated. You sat in your mansion at the southwest border and read the battle reports from the front line. City after city, battle after battle. Many cities were broken and many lands were lost. The vast mountains and rivers were about to be torn apart.
The imperial court had lost, lost again, and the lost land had almost reached the capital. In the court, when the Emperor asked who dared to go to the front line to fight, the civil officials and generals standing at the side did not even dare to look at each other. They only lowered their heads and remained silent. On this day, the flames of war had already burned half of the rivers and mountains.
The Imperial Censor recommended you to return to the capital because you were willing to go to the Imperial Court for an official who dared to go to the front lines when no one else dared to. Thus, you finally became a high official in your lifetime. What's laughable is that those treacherous officials who didn't allow you to go to the palace in the past are also standing in the hall with anticipation in their eyes.
Late at night, the sixty-six-year-old you lowered your head and listened to the heavy rain outside the window without saying a word. There was only that sword in your eyes. You silently sharpened this sword that had followed you for decades, meticulously. In your mind, you thought of the words of the officials and ministers in the imperial court. They called you back to the capital to negotiate peace with the enemy.
It was not that there were no people who went to the enemy camp to negotiate peace, but they were either detained or unable to survive. You thought for a long time, and your sword was sharpened to the point of being ear-piercing. However, disdain grew in your heart. To negotiate peace, you retreated again and again.
March, you raised your head and looked at the dark clouds and torrential rain outside the window. There was a chill in the wind. You coughed a few times and walked to the front of the hall step by step. The eyes of the officials and ministers in the court fell on you. You bowed and said loudly, If you go, you'll die! You saw the hesitation in the Emperor's eyes, and you also saw the worries of the civil and military officials who watched coldly from both sides of the court.
Someone advised you to be gentle when negotiating peace, and it didn't matter if you suffered a loss, but you only said disdainfully," It's true that the enemy can repent and withdraw their troops. Otherwise, how can they submit to the Norland and humiliate the emperor? You don't know that your determination has frightened them. The treacherous officials think that you are not suitable to go to the enemy camp. The emperor is afraid that you will affect the peace negotiations, so you are sent to the border, a city that has just been plundered by the enemy.
There was no shortage of officials in this city, but every official who received a salary chose not to take up their post. You know, they were afraid, afraid that the enemy would return. You looked deeply at the monarch and his subjects in the court and fell silent for a long time. What officials should be afraid of, even the emperor was afraid.
In the middle of the night, when you have tidied up your official robes, the lights are dim, and the sound of sharpening swords is heard in the room.
You raised this longsword that had been sharpened for thirty-three years, flicked it with your finger, and let out a long cry. You stood up and said calmly, How can I take refuge when I'm eating? I should guard the mountains and rivers.
You raised your head and looked at the treacherous officials. For the first time, you said disdainfully, You don't dare, but I do.
At this moment, you no longer sharpen your sword. You calmly raise your sword. Your old back is like a long spear, sharp enough to break the sky.
A blurry image appeared on the Golden Roll.
The Great Tang.
In the market, Li Bai looked at this shocking scene, his heart surging.
Thirty-three years of sharpening the sword, he had thought that this person's life was wasted.
Today, no one dared to guard the mountains and rivers.
The old scholar drew his sword and went to the battlefield alone!
"What boldness!"
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