★ Continued Huangliang
Zeng Xiaolian from Fujian Province, after passing the examination, went to the suburbs of the city with two or three upstart Chinese dignitaries. Occasionally, I heard that there was a fortune teller living in Kunlu Temple, so we rode together to ask for divination. After entering the door, he saluted and sat down. Seeing his triumphant expression, the fortune teller flattered him a little. Zeng Xiaolian waved his fan and asked with a smile: "Is there any blessing to wear the python robe and jade belt?" The fortune teller solemnly promised him that he would be the Prime Minister of Taiping for twenty years. Zeng Xiaolian was very happy and even more arrogant. It happened that it was raining non-stop, so I went to the monk's house with my playmate to take shelter from the rain. There was an old monk in the room, with sunken eyes and a high nose, sitting on a futon, arrogantly ignoring them. All the upstarts raised their hands slightly, and got on the bed to chat, and everyone congratulated him on his upcoming appointment as prime minister. Zeng Xiaolian was high-spirited, pointing to the upstarts traveling with him, he said: "When I was prime minister, I recommended brother Zhang Nian to be the governor of Tianfu, my cousins were generals and guerrillas, and my old servants were also generals and generals. Your wish will be fulfilled." Yi Yi laughed.
After a while, he heard the rain outside the door getting heavier and heavier, Zeng Xiaolian lay down on the bed tiredly and took a nap. Suddenly, two envoys sent by the palace, holding the emperor's own edict, invited Grand Master Zeng to discuss state affairs. Complacently, Zeng rushed to court. The emperor listened attentively to his discourse, moved forward unconsciously, and talked with him for a long time in a pleasant manner. He also ordered officials below the third rank to decide whether to promote or demote. Give him python robes, jade belts, and famous horses. He once came out of the palace wearing a python robe and a jade belt, kowtowed and prayed. When I returned home, it was no longer the mansion I lived in, but painted buildings and carved trees, very poor and rich. I don't understand why I came to this place all of a sudden. But when he yelled softly with his beard in his hand, the answer was like thunder. After a while, the ministers sent all kinds of seafood, and there was an endless stream of flatterers coming in and out. When the six ministers came, they hurried forward to greet them; when the servants and the like came, they made a bow and talked; The governor of Shanxi sent ten singing girls, all of whom were coquettish and beautiful. Among them, the most beautiful are Jujuan and Xianxian, who are especially loved by him. He lives idle all day long, indulging in sensuality. One day, I thought that when I was humble, I was helped by the local squire Wang Ziliang. Now that I am a high-ranking official, he still has no ambitions in his official career. Why not promote him? With the approval of the emperor, he took office immediately. I also thought that Guo Taipu had offended me, so I heard about Lu Gejian, Shiyu Chen Chang and others, and told them my heart. his duties. The grievances and grievances are clear, and my heart is very happy. One day when he went out for an outing occasionally, a drunk happened to collide with his ceremonial staff. He immediately sent someone to tie up the drunk and hand them over to Jing Zhaoyin. The drunk was immediately beaten to death with a stick. Those families whose houses and fields are connected to him are afraid of his power, and they donate good land and beautiful houses to him one after another. From then on, he became rich beyond compare. Not long after, Niaoyao and Xianxian died one after another. He thought about it day and night, but couldn't help himself. One day, I suddenly remembered that I had seen a very beautiful daughter from the east neighbor's house in the past. I often wanted to buy her as a concubine, but I couldn't fulfill my wish because of lack of money. Today, I was lucky enough to be able to fulfill my wish. So he sent several capable servants to forcefully send the bride price to her family. After a while, she was carried into the door in a sedan chair, and she was more beautiful than ever before. Looking back on my life, I think that all my wishes have been fulfilled.
After another year, officials in the court and the central government discussed in secret, as if there were people who didn't say anything but opposed him in their hearts. However, none of them dared to criticize publicly. Zeng was still domineering and didn't take these arguments to heart. Soon, Bao Mou, a scholar of Longtuge, impeached him. The text roughly said: "I thought that Zeng was originally a scoundrel who loved drinking and gambling, and a villain in the market. Fortunately, he said something that catered to the holy will. The emperor favors him, his father wears purple clothes, and his son wears Zhu clothes. He loves him to the extreme. But he doesn't want to repay the emperor's favor by smashing his body into pieces. He counted them all! The court officials and nobles, he regards them as rare goods that can make huge profits, and openly mark the price to buy and sell according to the amount of income from the official position. Therefore, the officials and soldiers are all running under his door, and it is estimated that buying official vacancies can make profits, so Open up the joints and make money, just like a merchant. There are countless people who look up to him and pay homage to him. If some outstanding people and ministers refuse to flatter him, the light ones will be assigned to be idlers. Officials, those who are important, will be dismissed for the people. Even if there is a little place that does not protect him, he will offend him, a treacherous official who refers to a deer as a horse; if he is offended by a word, he will be banished to a desolate and remote area and cannot survive. Court officials He felt chilling because of him, and the emperor was isolated because of this. Moreover, he wantonly embezzled the good land and beautiful houses of the people, and the yin and yang judge Wang Ziliang , a woman from a good family, forced him to marry a concubine. Full of hatred and injustice, the trouble was dark! His As soon as the servant arrived, the prefect and county magistrate would look up at him; as soon as his letter was handed over, the governor, governor and other local officials would have to follow the law.
Even if it is his adopted son or distant relatives, they will ride in the carriages and horses of the post station when they go out, like the wind and thunder. If the local government is a little slow in offering, it will be whipped immediately. He poisoned the people, enslaved the government, and looted wherever the entourage went, and the people couldn't even pick wild vegetables. But Zeng ignored the sufferings of the people and relied on the emperor's grace to continue to commit crimes, with arrogance. Whenever the emperor summoned him to the court to ask questions, he took the opportunity to slander and frame Zhongliang; he had just returned home triumphantly from the official office, and immediately entertained himself with singing, music and dancing. Indulging in sensual pleasures day and night, disregarding the prosperity of the country and the livelihood of the people. How can there be such a prime minister in the world! There is a stir inside and outside the court, and the hearts of the society are disturbed. If you don't kill them quickly, it will inevitably lead to disasters like Cao Cao and Wang Mang usurping the throne. The minister was full of fear day and night, did not dare to live in peace, risked the death penalty, and listed some kinds of crimes, which he heard from the emperor. Please cut off the head of the treacherous official, confiscate his embezzled family property, dispel the wrath of God at the top, and make people happy at the bottom. If the minister's performance is false and inaccurate, he is willing to be severely punished by knife and saw. "And so on and so on. After the memorial was sent, Zeng was shocked, as if drinking ice water, and trembled all over. Fortunately, the emperor was tolerant and left the memorial without wholesale. Immediately afterwards, all the courtiers of Ke, Dao, and Jiuqing came out. The above table impeachment, even the people who used to go to the sect as disciples and dry children turned against each other. As a result, they were ordered to ransack their homes and exile them in Yunnan. As the son of Pingyang prefect, the court also sent officials to arrest and interrogate them. He heard the imperial decree When he was terrified, dozens of warriors with swords and spears rushed into the inner room, stripped off his coat and hat, and tied up his wife together.
After a while, I saw many folks moving his family's property into the yard. There were millions of gold and silver bills, hundreds of pearls and emeralds and other precious jewels, thousands of curtains, curtains, etc., and children's clothes. , The women's shoes and socks fell all over the floor. Wang Ziliang, the judge of yin and yang who once saw it clearly, couldn't help feeling sad and glaring. After a while, I saw a man dragging his beautiful concubine out of the room. The beautiful concubine had disheveled hair and was crying tenderly. Although she was beautiful, no one loved her. I was once heartbroken with grief, but dared to be angry and dare not speak out. After a while, the pavilions and warehouses were all sealed. The warriors then drove Zeng Waiting out. The detainees dragged them out of the door with a rope. The couple swallowed their anger and went on the road, asking for a broken carriage as a means of transportation, but they didn't get it. After walking ten miles, his wife's legs became weak and she almost fell down. Zeng had to help her with one hand on the way. After walking for more than ten miles, he was also exhausted. Suddenly saw a high mountain, straight into Yunhan, worried that he would not be able to climb it, and often cried with his wife arm in arm. But the prisoner glared at him, not allowing him to breathe. Seeing that the sun had set and there was nowhere to stay, I had no choice but to crawl forward and one behind. When he reached the mountainside, his wife was exhausted and sat on the side of the road crying. Zeng also sat down to rest and let the detainees scold him. Suddenly, I heard a lot of people clamoring loudly. It turned out that it was a group of thieves jumping forward with sharp knives in their hands. The detainees were shocked and ran away one after another. Zeng knelt down and begged: "I was demoted to a remote place alone, and there was nothing valuable in my pocket." Begging for forgiveness. The group of thieves stared at him and said: "We are all suffering people who were killed by you. We only want the head of the traitor and nothing else." How dare these bandits do anything to me!" The bandit was also very angry, and raised his big ax to strike at his neck. Zeng also heard the sound of his head falling to the ground.
Zeng's soul was still in shock, and immediately two ghosts came over, tied his hands behind their backs, and drove him forward. After walking for a quarter of an hour, I came to a city. After a while, I saw a palace, on which sat an ugly king of Hades, who judged people's crimes and blessings based on several cases. He knelt down and begged for mercy. Hades opened the file and only read a few lines before he said angrily, "This is a crime of deceiving the emperor and the country, and it should be fried!" All the ghosts echoed in unison, their voices like thunder. Then a big ghost dragged him down the steps. I saw that the tripod was more than seven feet high, the surrounding charcoal was burning hot, and the legs of the tripod were all red. Once trembling and weeping, there was no way to escape. The ghost grabbed his hair with his left hand and his ankle with his right, and threw him into the cauldron. I once felt that I was alone, rolling up and down with the oil waves, the skin was scorched and the flesh was rotten, the heart and lungs were painful, the hot oil was poured into the mouth, and the internal organs were fried. I want to die quickly, but I can't die just by trying my best. After about one meal, the ghost took Zeng out of the tripod with a big fork and made him lie down again. Hades looked through the case file again, and said angrily, "If you bully others, you should go to the mountain of swords!" The ghost dragged him out again. I saw a mountain, not very wide, but steep and towering, with sharp blades criss-crossing and criss-crossing, like densely packed bamboo shoots. A few people in front had their intestines hung on the knife, their stomachs were pierced by the knife, and the sound of howling was very miserable. The ghost reminded Zeng to go up the knife mountain, and Zeng wept loudly and flinched back. The ghost stabbed him in the head again with a poisonous cone, begging for mercy. Furious, the ghost grabbed Zeng and threw it into the air. Zeng only felt that his body was like being above the clouds, and he fell down suddenly dizzily, and the blades stabbed into his chest staggeredly, the pain was indescribable. After another period of time, the body fell down again, the knife hole became wider and wider, and suddenly fell down, with the limbs curled up into a ball. The ghost caught up with him again to meet Hades. The King of Hades asked him to calculate how much money he had earned in his life by selling officials, corrupting the law, and seizing property. Immediately, a man with a curly beard counted chips and said: "The total is 3.21 million taels." The King of Hades said: "Since he has accumulated it, let him drink it!" After a while, he brought money. Heaped on the steps, as high as a hill. Then put it into an iron pot little by little and melt it with a strong fire. Several ghosts took turns pouring spoons into Zeng's mouth. The molten liquid flowed to the top of the cheeks, and the skin immediately became scorched and smelly. When it entered the throat, the internal organs immediately boiled. Before Zeng was alive, he was afraid that this thing was too little, but now he was afraid that it was too much. After pouring for a long time, I just finished pouring.
The King of Hades ordered Zeng to be escorted to Ganzhou to be reborn as a woman. After walking a few steps, I saw an iron beam on the shelf, several feet thick, with a fire wheel on it, with a circumference of thousands of miles, colorful and shining in the sky. The ghost whipped him to board the steamer. As soon as he closed his eyes and jumped on it, the fire wheel started to rotate with his feet. After a while, he felt as if he had fallen to the ground, and his whole body was cold. When I opened my eyes, I saw that I had become a baby, and it was still a woman. Look at my parents, they are wearing tattered clothes. In the earth house, there are only begging gourds and wooden sticks. He knew in his heart that he had become the child of a beggar. Just like this, I followed beggars to beg around with broken bowls every day, and my stomach was often so hungry that I couldn't get a full meal. Wear a piece of ragged clothes, the cold wind is like a cone. At the age of fourteen, she was sold to Gu Xiucai as a concubine, and she was able to live comfortably in food and clothing. However, Xiucai's first wife was very fierce. She was beaten with a whip every day, and her breasts were branded with a red-hot iron every now and then. Fortunately, my husband still loves me very much, so I can get some relief. There was a bad boy in the east neighbor who suddenly jumped over the wall to force her to commit adultery. She thought that she had committed too many crimes in her previous life and had already been punished by Hades, so how could she continue to do evil now? So she shouted loudly, her husband and eldest wife got up, and the bad boy ran away. Not long after, Xiucai was sleeping in her room, and she was chattering on the pillow about her grievances, when suddenly there was a loud noise, the door opened wide, and two robbers came in with knives, and cut off Xiucai's body. head, looting all the clothes. She curled up in a ball under the quilt, not daring to make a sound anymore. After a while the robbers left, she ran into the eldest wife's room screaming. The eldest wife was shocked. Weeping and inspecting the corpse with her, it is suspected that she conspired with the adulterer to kill her husband. So he wrote a pleading and appealed to the governor. The governor interrogated her severely, and forced her to confess the crime by torture, and sentenced her to death in a hurry according to the law. When she was tied to the execution ground, her mind was full of grievances, she stomped her feet and cried out her grievances, feeling that the eighteen levels of hell in the underworld were not so dark.
While weeping and weeping, he suddenly heard his playmate call him, "Did you have a nightmare?" He woke up suddenly, and saw the old monk sitting cross-legged on the futon. His companions scrambled to him and said, "It's getting late and you're hungry. Why did you sleep for so long?" Zeng stood up with a dismal expression. The monk smiled and said: "Has the prime minister's divination come true?" Zeng was even more amazed, and hurriedly bowed down to ask for advice. The monk said: "If you accumulate virtue and do good deeds, you can be rescued by gods and Buddhas even in the fire pit." What do I, a monk in the mountains, know?" Zeng came here in high spirits, but returned in despair. The extravagant hope of being a prime minister has since faded. Later, he went to the mountains to practice Taoism, but he didn't know what the result would be.
Yishi said: "Blessings are given to those who do good, and disasters are given to those who are evil. This is the unchanging principle of heaven. People who are very happy when they hear that they will be prime ministers will definitely not be willing to devote themselves to the country. People can be imagined. At that time, there should be everything in the palace, wives and concubines. However, dreams are false, and fantasies are not real. Because he has evil deeds in his dreams, ghosts and gods are in his dreams When people do not understand that life is short, dreams like this are inevitable, so this story should be regarded as a sequel to "Handan Ji".