Yuan Chun wrapped the red thread around the needle a few times, then pulled the needle out, so that she had made a pretty good knot. But it was the only one that worked, and when she unfolded the embroidery, Yuan Chun reluctantly admitted that it looked more like two ugly ducklings fighting than "mandarin ducks sleeping with their necks", thanks to the three taels of gold thread she had used.
If that poisonous national army found out, they would probably laugh at her hands like cow hooves. What's wrong with a cow's hoof? Cow's hooves are also cow's hooves that he himself gave birth to!
The Poisonous Kingdom King was his old man, and she was the princess of the Jindu Kingdom, who was thirteen years old this year.
He had started to embroider this mandarin duck pillowcase on his thirteenth birthday, after the biggest thing she had ever embroidered was a handkerchief.
As a birthday gift, he her maid secretly brought her a step from the palace outside the talent novel "flower interpretation of the language", the beginning of the joyful, the end is miserable. Ten years later the young man returned from the appointment, saw only the girl's grave, waiting for him in the ten years the young girl died, thinking of death. Original pure do not quite understand the logic of this tenderness, in her mind is to wait to see that young man one day gold armor Tenglong steed back to marry her, he will eat well every day earlier exercise to ensure that they married off radiant.
If the result of thinking about a person is to think about death, instead of calling the two people separated by life and death, and ultimately that young man while remembering his tenderness while marrying a girl from another family, then she absolutely do not want to. Who couldn't live without who?
But she still ghostly moved the maiden heart, dreaming that she is the maiden whose thoughts have become dry bones. Ten years later, the young girl took his new wife's hand to her grave to pay homage, said softly, pure I came back to see you, I finally got married and have a wife, and now life is very calm and affluent, I still often think of you, in this life we can not grow old together, in the next life, if you can be in the same boat for a time will ask you to still hairpin a branch of peach blossom as a proof of the reunion ... original pure Inside the coffin, he tossed and turned viciously, kicking and beating the coffin boards, cursing and saying, "Who wants to be reunited with you? Who wants to be on the same boat with you? Who said he would not marry you? But you married a handful of monsters and brought them to me! Who wants to pin a peach blossom for you? She looks like a village girl!
When she woke up her face was full of aggrieved tears, frightening the maid's hands and feet. She was too embarrassed to say that she was having a love dream, so she had to say that she was dreaming of her mother. I'm sure her mother in the afterlife would allow her to say that, and it would be a shame to talk about such a stifling love dream.
But this dream haunted her for a long time, she is thirteen years old, the noble family thirteen-year-old girl should already be prepared for the matter of betrothal. For men, it was not a big deal; anyway, they could have concubines after they married, and there was more than one woman in their lives. For girls, it is a gamble, a roll of the dice to bet on singles and doubles, a hand of life as a bet.
A bet on a lifetime, a bet on a lifetime.
Hara pure want to be a boy. Once my father drank too much wine at the birthday banquet, in front of the guests of all the countries holding a lance in the Cherry Orchard long chanting, saying that although my life is full of many ups and downs through all the difficulties, but from a hemp merchant on the throne of the state of the Jindu, after all, no regrets. The world's men, a life lived, is not "no complaints" four words? The applause of the guests was like a tidal wave, and the father turned to his children and asked them what they were not satisfied with in their lives.
Eleven-year-old Hara Chun, wearing a dress of blue flowers on a white ground and a red ankle corset, sat under the cherry tree at its peak and stretched out a white paper fan to catch a slice of moonlight and snow from the flying cherry trees.
She said slowly, "I have three dissatisfactions. Not being born as a boy, not having been born into chaos ..."
Father asked with interest, "What about the third one?"
Hara Jun blew all the cherry blossoms from one side of the fan in her father's face, jumped up and shouted at him, "I can't believe it's still your daughter!" The entire Sakura Garden fell silent, and the guests from all the kingdoms looked at each other, not knowing how to end it. Instead, the father thought about it and clapped his hands seriously and said, "My daughter is extraordinary after all."
In fact, the original pure is not want in front of the guests of all countries to refute the father's face, she really is not satisfied with their own life. If she had been a boy from an ordinary family, born in the chaotic times of the rise of the greats, she would have been confident that she could have achieved even greater feats than her father. But she was born in the most peaceful era, the eastern countries with the powerful Yin country as the leader, the western countries are dependent on the wings of the pope country, quietly test against each other, no one is sure to completely destroy each other, so no one is willing to lightly stand end.
There were no major wars for many years, and even Jindu, a strategic location between the East and the West, had been recuperating for decades.
As the princess of Jindu, Hara Jun's life was basically set. She would marry the son of one of Jindu's most important political allies, and would enjoy the highest status among his wives. He might like her looks and sleep with her often during the first few years of their marriage, but after she gave birth to a child she was bound to lose some of her color, and he would slowly grow distant from her. But if she was lucky enough to have a boy, she would be fine. With her family's position, her son would be very strong in the race for the heir apparent, and the son might even let his beautiful concubine stay in his room once in a while in order to take care of her working mother's mood, but he would also come to have a symbolic conjugal life with her as the main wife. ...
Thinking about this future Hara Chun wanted to burn down the house of the eunuch's family!
But she couldn't resist.
She read "Flower Interpretation", flooded with young girl's heart, stitch by stitch to repair this pillowcase, thinking about her future will be with the fate of the husband on such a pillowcase skin to skin, some face hot heart jump, but full of sadness. No wonder so many women write poems about embroidery, because this is the life of women. They are locked up in the boudoir, slowly green silk into white head, can only be so many emotions kneaded in the brocade long silk thread woven into the pillowcase purse, euphemistically offered to the only man in life, their own body and honorable words are also offered to go.
Thinking so made her want to burn down the gentleman's house even more! She didn't know who the male was yet, but the more she thought about it, the more she realized he wasn't a good guy!
She threw a pillowcase over her face, and lay down on her back on the seat, making a vulgar "big" sign. Through the pillowcase the roof of the glazed lamp is red, like the wedding room called people thrilling color, but also want to be bright blood.
She thought about her future and wanted to shout out for no reason.
"The king of the country has come to visit Her Highness, and is already at the main gate!" The maid ran in, carrying her skirt and yelling.
Yuan Chun sat up violently, frowning her long, diaphanous eyebrows, and said in a bad mood, "What's all the yelling about? If he came, then he came, it's not like I'm harboring any wild men here!" Saying this, he slapped his hand on the seat.
"Aigoo!" She yelled louder than the maid.
The embroidery needle that she had casually thrown on the seat, with the tip of the needle just facing upwards, had stabbed halfway into her palm. A red bean-like bright bead of blood jumped out in the jade-colored hand.
"Slave servant damned! Slave servant damned!" The maid's face turned green in fear.
"Alright, alright, isn't it just a needle? I'm not dead," Yuan Chun said in an evil voice, gritting her teeth and pulling out the needle and sticking it on the small table next to her, sucking on her palm with her mouth and waving her hand in disgust for the maid to go down.
Although it wasn't a major injury, the palm of her hand really hurt, if it were normal she would probably roll around on the mat in pain and ask the maid to get an ice pack. However, Father Guojun was just a few steps away, so she didn't want to act like a little girl in front of him. She wanted to frown in disgust and indifference, and tell her father that even a king would not be welcomed if he barged into someone else's palace in the middle of the night without being informed!
Black shadows swirled with the wind and came striding in, and in a flash of light, State Sovereign Yuan Cheng had already sat down across from Yuan Chun with a big grin, he was never like this, he didn't want to be notified wherever he went, he was just like a lance stabbing out at full force, charging straight in. Another time he actually so crashed a meeting of ministers plotting to collude with foreign countries, so he first came out of the gun, dryly gave each rebellious minister a shot in the heart, then sat down in the pile of corpses and drank a cup of wine, patted his robe and went back to the palace; on another occasion he crashed a minister with a reputation of purity who had been intimate with prostitutes in an official court, and this minister kowtowed his head as if he were pummeling garlic to ask for forgiveness, but the original Cheng did not pay the least attention to him, and was happy to put his arms around
With that beautiful prostitute's waist, this intimate behavior than the minister to be a lot of old and spicy, the next day the original Cheng small rewarded the minister, praised him for his taste in women, and transferred the minister to his side of the post.
"Outside to maintain the name of a gentleman, in the house to keep a beautiful slave, the political affairs have not fallen, this kind of three sides of the sword to swim with ease of talent, I'm here in need of ah!" Harakiri explained his motives this way.
Father and daughter meet each other both sides did not have the intention to greet each other, both have a look of disgust. Yuan Cheng stared at the red pillowcase in his daughter's hand and frowned.
Yuan Chun knew that her old man was going to count his women's red again. Father and daughter had a tacit understanding that whenever they met they would tacitly put on this look of disdain for each other, then coldly poke each other twice, and then they would part on bad terms.
"I'm my own daughter," Yuan Chun once told an outsider about her daughter, "and that look of disgust is exactly like mine."
When she was eight or nine years old, Yuan Chun became famous in the Eastern countries, not only for her beauty, but also for her reputation as a "bad girl". In the birthday banquet to let the original Cheng embarrassment is nothing, Yin country is the whole East are in awe of the great country, but in front of the visiting Yin country envoys, she can also and old man quarrel. Frightened two brothers lying on the seat again and again with the envoy to apologize, said father and sister usually talk like this, do not mean to offend your country. And the king's father and daughter look to have completely forgotten that this is an important diplomatic occasions, also ignore the sons of the bowing like garlic over there to apologize, a foot on the low table, pointing at each other's noses and cursing and can not extricate themselves.
Through the pillowcase the roof of the glazed lamp is red, like the wedding room called people thrilling color, but also want to be bright blood.
She thought about her future and wanted to shout out for no reason.
"The king of the country has come to visit Her Highness, and is already at the main gate!" The maid ran in, carrying her skirt and yelling. Yuan Chun sat up violently, frowning her long, diaphanous eyebrows, and said in a bad mood, "What's all the yelling about? If he came, then he came, it's not like I'm harboring any wild men here!" Saying this, he slapped his hand on the seat. "Aigoo!" She yelled louder than the maid. The embroidery needle that she had casually thrown on the seat, with the tip of the needle just facing upwards, had stabbed halfway into her palm. A red bean-like bright bead of blood jumped out in the jade-colored hand. "Slave servant damned!
From time to time, the noble youths of the many small countries next to Jindu joked about Yuan Chun, such as, "Your brother is not young, and has not yet taken a wife, is he waiting for that tiger-like little princess of the Jindu country to grow up?"
"No, no, I've thought about it, it's safer to become a monk."
The rumor spread, and eventually everyone thought that to marry Hara-chun was the work of a brave man who had given up his life to feed a tiger. Last year, the original pure entrusted people to try, want to let his daughter and Yin country king's brother marriage, the prince is young in the Yin country has been a person under ten thousand people, is to turn the hand for the clouds for the rain of the big man, there is a "Yin of the dragon" reputation. But the marriage certificate was respectfully returned, the Prince returned a politely worded letter said, there is such a quality as pearl jade beauty favor in the next, the heart does not win under the change, but still feel that their own blessings can not be consumed.
Yin country's dragon are afraid to harness the woman, really do not know the world and which dare to accept her.
"Pining for spring?"
Yuan Cheng asked with the corner of his eye hanging.
The commission was not a good start to a father-daughter conversation, but it was very much in line with Yuan Cheng's character.
"Embroidering a mandarin duck pillowcase is considered thinking of spring?" Yuan Chun laughed coldly, "Wasn't it you who instructed me to practice embroidery? Saying something like, 'But you are just a middle-aged person, but you are ridiculously tall, without a bit of delicate flavor, and still with such a foul temper, who would dare to marry a woman like you if you don't properly practice your skills as a wife?'"
The nickname "Princess Tiger" always makes people misunderstand that Yuan Chun looks gorgeous and powerful, but in fact she is a real lady just by looking at her appearance. Tonight she wore a maple leaf patterned girdle skirt, red silk girdle, red, black and gold, elegant and restrained, spread down to the calf of the long hair up, with a mahogany hairpin fixed, black as raw lacquer, against the back of the white neck, the hairline is clearly separated. Two bunches of long sideburns hung straight down from the ears to the chest.
As for the tallness that Harakuren always talked about it was true. Yuan Chun is a head taller than girls of the same age, and in a few years the gap will widen, because the legs are very long, do down will not be obvious, but once you get up and men of the same age can only be and her eye level. But the Oriental men like to birdie wife, hope that his wife is light enough to dance in the palm of the hand, like a snow-white cat on their knees.
Every time a new house was built in the palace, Makoto Haramoto instructed the craftsmen in front of his daughter, "Remember to build it three feet high! I have daughters in my family who can stand up to the sky!" Then he laughed and scowled at Hara-chun.
If it weren't for the cool look on that smug face, Harakure probably would have suspected that he wasn't born to his old man.
"Is this your handiwork? Embroidery like this is taken out for people to see, and even little girls practicing six or seven year olds would laugh and say that our pure princess of Jindu's hands are as dumb as ..."
"Cow hooves." Yuan Chun said coldly.
"Right! Cow's hooves!" Yuan Cheng was quite convinced of her daughter's ability to formulate sentences, "It won't be possible for you to marry a prince of any country with this look, the other parent will take one look at your embroidery and say that my Yuan Clan has no family education, and will probably repudiate you and kick you out of the house."
Just as Yuan Chun thought, the bad opening line was followed by a chilling cold knife. It was said that Hara Chun was a cunning and vicious person, but sometimes he was really a character who walked a line with a long gun and didn't know how to change in the slightest, such as in the case of belittling his daughter. "If I'm repudiated, father won't let me into the house either?"
"My daughter has been expelled from her in-laws' home, so I've lost face as a father and have no choice but to close the door and think about my life. If I open the door at this time and let my daughter come home in tears, it will only look like I have a worse family upbringing."
"No wonder there are people out there who say that the Jindu Kingdom King is a man as untrustworthy as an animal." Yuan Chun raised his good-looking eyebrows, "Alright, don't argue and waste your breath, what's the intention of coming so late?"
"There is nothing to think about at night, and suddenly I'm a bit worried about your lifelong affairs, so I ran here to discuss with you. You are thirteen years old, with the status of the princess, already have to consider the lifelong affairs. A girl reaches maturity at fifteen, and if you haven't found someone to take you in by then, how many people will mock our Yuan Clan under the fill!" Yuan Cheng looks worried "last year and Yin country marriage, but was rejected by others, make me as a father's face is very dishonorable"
"The face is dishonorable or something, because want to report the Yin country thigh did not hold into it?" Original pure cold snort "this time again want to hold whose thigh, father your majesty?"
"What an unfilial daughter's words!
Father is considering your lifelong happiness!" Harakuren took out a flat steel wine jar from his robe sleeve, swirled it open and took a sip, placed the jar on the low table in front of Harakuren and gave Harakuren a meaningful look. It was a beautifully imported piece of artifacts, and only craftsmen from the Pope's side of the country would be able to carve such a beautifully intricate pattern on steel. A bird-man with six wings stretched out, holding a burning Excalibur, trampled over the devil's head.
It was an angel, a blazing angel of the highest rank, not so much a messenger of God as a soldier around the throne of God, the mortal enemy of the devil. Yuan Chun was very familiar with these things, she had studied the classics of various western religions since she was a child and spoke fluent Hebrew. Last year, Yuan Cheng had even hired a teacher to teach her the etiquette and dances of the Western court. She also had a couple of tailored western dress skirts and high heels to go with them. The dresses were made to be worn only after the waist had been thinned with flexible whalebone, with the shoulders and half of the breasts exposed. Hara pure initially began to learn these times are not yet developed, do not care about "breasts" such things, boredom father also happy to take two steamed white steamed buns to her, said can be stuffed in the corset to feel a little ...
It was purgatory, the strict etiquette teacher hit her calves with a thin leather whip so she had to walk in a straight line, the whalebone skirt was so tight she could hardly breathe, and underneath her feet were three-inch-high high heels, which rubbed blood blisters all over her toes.
"Straighten your chest straighten your chest straighten your chest! Straighten the backs you Orientals always use to grovel! You have to endure the pain like a snake swimming through a red-hot iron plate, or your soul will remain just a small-footed woman!" The paranoid liturgy teacher was from Filippo, the capital of the Papal States. He was a wayward painter in Fei Leng Cui who had wandered into the Jindu Kingdom after being abandoned by his patron, and in his eyes Yuan Chun seemed to be a plaster mold too ugly to be transformed into a fine human sculpture no matter how much polishing he did.
Harakuren said nothing as blood blisters frayed and blood flowed silently into her shoes, forming scabs that cracked again. She held out her chest and head high, gritted her teeth, crooked duck to learn to walk.
Half a year later, on the night of a full moon, the ceremonial teacher received a summons from the king of the country to go to the palace of Harakuren to take orders. The drop-painter stepped into the chambers of the original pure, but found the deep palace silent and empty, and floating in the huge celadon tank was a celadon saucer, in which was a red candle. Waves of water reflected the candlelight upwards. The black roof was filled with faintly shining water ripples, making it seem as if one was in a dream. At this moment, someone struck the Jade Exhaustion, the verdant stone floor sunk slightly, a pool of clear water slowly rose, the young girl stepped through this pool of clear water and came, each step was a ripple, her waist was slender, the skin on her chest was glistening white, slightly lifting the long skirt, revealing the crystal encrusted silver heels underneath her feet, the four-inch heels lined up with her swan-like elegance.
They stepped on the lapis lazuli hidden under the pool and danced in each other's arms, Harajune twirling, her long skirt opening like a peacock's tail feathers. They danced all the way outside the palace, the palace's huge square their dance floor, the moonlight flowing under their feet like mercury. At last they looked at each other by the pool, and the teacher stroked her hair and said, "Am I dreaming? Am I back in Filippo?"
She laughed like a lover, "No, it's a small-footed woman from the East!"
Then she kicked the artistic bigot into the pool, jumped on the bank and made faces at him, declaring triumphantly, "Go away! You're not needed anymore! I'm outta here!"
Hara Chun also came out of the shadows in a swarm with a couple of eunuchs and stood on the bank to poke at the painter's feathered hat with his lance, laughing at the fact that he was actually defeated at the hands of his own twelve year old daughter, one of the few times that Pop had ever been on the same side of the fence as her.
The next day Pure Hara received a letter of resignation from her teacher, which contained no complaints, but simply said, "Dear student, you are already the snake that has swum through the red-hot iron plate, shedding its old skin and standing up from the depths of its soul to turn the world upside down. Congratulations. I have nothing more to teach you, and if there is still more beauty in art to be learned, you should go to Filippo once in your lifetime and take your beauty as a weapon. I would like to say to you in conclusion that the first sight of you was like seeing an angel descending from the sun."
Looking at the fine wine jar, Hara Chun heard a clear heartbeat in her chest as she guessed her father's intention for his sudden visit this evening.
"On reflection, the Papal States would be a good place for you.
Their men are taller than ours here, they stick together with you quite well, they don't require women to follow the three virtues, not being able to embroider is nothing over there, and being stubborn might even be considered to have character." Yuan Cheng said slowly, "Looking at you like this, more and more I feel that you should marry there, everything about you is made for there. Would you like to?"
Harakuren took a deep breath, "Did you have this step in mind when you started me on western etiquette a year ago?"
"A courtier advised that with a small country like Jindu, it was not a good idea to always ride the wall by either embracing the Yin Kingdom's thighs or the Papal States' thighs. The original words are a bit more elegant and tame, but the meaning is almost the same. That's why I thought of marrying you to the Yin country, but I didn't want to touch a nose. Turning to the Pope's country is also quite understandable, isn't it?"
As Yuan Cheng said this, he intentionally glanced behind him. Behind him, in the shadow of the light sat a tall, thin black shadow on his knees. The dark shadow kept his head lowered and did not say anything, and could easily be overlooked as an errand boy eunuch.
"It's Mr. Ye Suminun, isn't it?" Yuan Chun glanced at the black shadow and laughed coldly, "How can you say that you are also a famous minister honored by my father, what is the point of pretending to be a eunuch?"
The black shadow ambled over to Yuan Chun and gave a big salute, smiling, his two ratty beards twitching, "Having only met once, the princess remembers the old man's appearance, you're really sharp and intelligent!"
"Because you are so ugly." Yuan Chun said.
The famous minister of Jindu, Ye Sumeng, touched his skinny bone-skinny face, and he was speechless. He was originally a hermit who was not only famous for his knowledge of ruling the country, but was also so proficient in divination that the rulers of all the eastern countries wanted to invite him to serve. His family lived in a small town in the water countryside, and every morning when he got up in front of the door on the small river, the crow's nest boat head and tail, rowed out a few miles of road, are the kings of the countries sent to visit his envoys and people who admire him. He was famous for his seclusion, but also dragged down by this reputation, daily life of the chicken and dog. Really can not stand it, he ran to the mountains, became a monk, the results of the mountain gate in front of the incense queue has been lined up to the bottom of the mountain, the original inconspicuous small temple steeply into the world-famous giant temple, the kitchen monks from the spoon to change to wield a shovel frying, into the mountains to admire the elegance of Mr. Ye Sumineng incense still have to line up and wait for food. Ye Su Mung want to die someday, will also be the temple monks made into a flesh Buddha something like sticking gold leaf, every day or be visited, everyone recites his thin. The only way to change this tragic life is to go out, as long as he is no longer a hermit, the world will no longer have a reason to recite him. So he traveled through various countries, secretly choosing the people he wanted to serve. At last he came to the country of Jindu, where Yuan Cheng invited him to drink, and said, with a brazen face, "Why don't you, Mr. Ye, go out to serve us in Jindu?"
Ye Sumin said, "All the way here, seven countries want to worship me as the superior minister, I have not agreed, I do not know what conditions you, the state ruler, will offer?"
Yuan Cheng said, "Mr. Being a gentleman all his life, he has never had the chance to try a real villain, right? Isn't it a pity? I was the one who killed the previous ruler to take the throne, and the world has spread my bad reputation, but in the country of the villain, sometimes there is more true nature than in the country of the gentleman."
Ye Su-meng stroked his palm and laughed, saying, "In that case, I will have to take orders."
The news of Ye Su-meng's departure from Jindu shook the East, and Yuan Cheng began to rise to prominence from then on. As Ye Su Mian had predicted, the righteous scholars of the world despised his character and were ashamed to speak his name.
He was busy with his daily official duties, but it was rare for his door to be quiet.
This way at least he could still have a cup of tea in the afternoon and take a small break, stealing time to feel the life of a hermit.
"I've heard that Mr. Ye Sumineng is rich in learning and is known as the number one in the world in terms of strategy. What? The first minister of the Jindu Kingdom came up with a strategy and sent me to make peace?" Yuan Chun coldly and proudly raised his head, "If I look like a night fork without salt and die, won't this strategy not work?"
"If I go out to a land ruled by a self-appointed villain, I will be a villain. A gentleman's strategy is calm and neutral, a villain's strategy is all-encompassing, the Princess' color pours out of the country and is a rare treasure for our Jindu Kingdom, it is impossible for my strategy to not include the Princess." Ye Su Mian said blandly.
"I wish to hear about it." Yuan Chun lazily leaned on the armrest, her charming eyes fluttering with divine splendor. Ye Su Mian praised her for her "colorful country", she still loved to hear it.
"Actually, I just returned to Jindu today, and for the three years before that, I had been traveling in the Pope's country. I'm confident that I've fully understood which country before I dared to bet on the princess's life's work." Ye Su Mian said, "But all this is a long story and will disturb the confidences between the king and the princess."
"Let my father wait. Since you want to exchange your daughter's happiness and body for political benefits, shouldn't you pay a little patience? Merchants are like that, able to be more composed than monks in meditation before a sale that is absolutely traveled to them."
Hara Makoto grunted through his nose and rolled his head to the side, indicating that such sharp-toothed words could not hurt his pride at all.
"The Papal States is a giant dragon." Ye Su Union began thusly.
"This is something that the whole world knows, the Pope Kingdom and the Yin Kingdom are the great dragons of the East and West, each stretching out a sharp claw against the other, and the land that is clamped between the claws is Jindu."
"But dragons also die, the more gigantic the dragon, the closer it is to death." Ye Su Union said faintly.
Yuan Chun froze for a moment and clapped his hands, "Indeed, Mr. Ye! Two words and you've piqued my interest!"
"There is no country that does not perish, big countries are often able to suppress hidden dangers within, but the bigger the country, the more hidden dangers there are, and when all the hidden dangers explode out in a concentrated manner, that is the day of the fall of the country." Ye Sumineng waved his folding fan and spoke eloquently. Talking about the rise and fall of the world's big picture, the old man suddenly changed, the whole body are surging out of the harsh and suave "potential" to the corner of the eye and even the folds of the robe are now rigid lines. He talked about the world, as if in front of him is a chess pad, each piece is in his reach position, and those pieces are the pope country, is the Yin country, is the Jin Du ...
Like the Dragon Prince, the chess set the world.
"The Papal State is a country of monks, founded on religion. It was a powerful tool that allowed him to rise quickly, and the monks preached that everyone is born guilty of sins, such as greed, such as gluttony, such as lust, in a time of civil unrest. One must continually atone for one's sins throughout one's life, and eventually one will be saved by the gods and ascend to heaven."
Harakuren nodded, "These teachers taught that it is the so-called 'original sin'."
"Through such cunning, the monks formed churches in every town. The monks taught the hearts to love one another, and since every man's life is a life of atonement, to extinguish greed and not to struggle. By faith, the people got through the hardest times and slowly grew rich and strong. If two towns are the same, if one is in civil strife and the other is united, naturally the latter will be stronger, and this is how the towns controlled by monks surpassed the towns controlled by secular monarchs. The earliest Papal States were countries in which these small towns coalesced, a country with no real rulers, all behavior bound by the rules of the Church, calm, harmonious, but unusually united in times of foreign invasion."
"That's what the gentlemen always say, 'Existing Heavenly Reason and Extinguishing Human Desires', isn't it?" Yuan Cheng said slowly, "But can human desires be extinguished?"
"The Papal States was completely out of touch with the world in the first few decades, and it was transported in all directions like poetry, and the teachings were taken to every corner of the world by traveling monks. The number of believers in God grew, and even some secular monarchs claimed to have become believers in order to consolidate their rule. The monarchs made offerings to the pope, and the pope baptized them and performed the coronation of the consciousness. It was a mutually beneficial endeavor at first, but the power of religion grew far more than the secular monarchs could have anticipated. Soon, where there was a concentration of believers, doctrine was respected more than law, and when doctrine and law clashed, doctrine always won. This was the beginning of the disaster."
Hara Pure nodded, "Doctrine is the law that the monks got, and the monks' law is above the monarchs' law now."
"The princess hit the nail on the head. The monarchs were certainly not willing to lose their power, so several wars broke out between the church and the monarchs. There were some monarchs who sided with the church during the wars and tried to win over more expansive lands, but in the end it was the church that barred power firmly in my hands. The Papal States did not expand, but the neighboring countries became de facto dependencies, and the monarchs of these countries would not be recognized without a papal coronation. In these countries the Church was like another magistracy, and the Church even enriched itself by printing 'ransom notes' and kept its own standing army, so that it was the Pope and his monks who really ruled the West."
"As an example, rape is in the Church style extremely evil loudmouth, and could also be punishable by death under the law. In order to atone for your sins, you can buy five gold coins from the Church to atone for your sins. The gold coins are offered to God, and when God receives the gold coins he will forgive your sins, and the magistrate can no longer punish you." Ye SuMeng said quietly, "If you rape is your own sister, then the sin is doubled and you have to pay ten gold coins"
"This kind of money-making good deal!" Yuan Cheng slapped his thigh.
"This evil law is really disgusting to the point that even a god would vomit, isn't it?" After a long silence, Hara Chun said softly.
This father and daughter always looked at the same thing from different angles.
"Yes, when monks hold onto power, they fall faster than others." Ye Su-Meng simply ignored Harakiri and looked straight into Harakure's eyes.
"Father was right in that sentence, the doctrine is to preserve heavenly justice and destroy human desires, but human desires can't be killed after all. After the monks suppressed human desires and established their own country, the devil of desire finally caught up with them. And once the devil rebounds, it will be even more ferocious than usual." Harakuren said.
Harakuren didn't say a word. He snapped his fingers and frowned down in deep thought, not knowing what he was pondering.
"Not bad, just think that when the poor get rich, they will be more greedy than the rich kids. After ascetic monks taste the beauty of desire, they are hungrier than others. They piled up the money they earned in the churches for their own enjoyment, they made love with prostitutes in the sacred chapels, they showed up frequently at the social receptions and salons of the nobles, and these gatherings of the upper classes were sometimes more f**ked up than the brothels, and the monks fornicated with the wives and daughters of the nobles, and the nobles sometimes even indulged in such things. But at the same time, the number of peasants who have lost their land is increasing, and they are reduced to being vagabonds and craftsmen... Imagine a country where there is no land for the cultivators, and no homes for the people... what will be the result of this?"
"The people will revolt, and ambitious men like my father will come out of nowhere."
"Yes. That's why I say, the dragon may be huge, but it's going to die. Its immensity will crush itself, and no one will be able to hold it up when it falls."
"Can faith hold it up?"
"One cannot live by faith alone. The monks squeeze the people until they can't live, and at the same time indoctrinate them with doctrine. It's like giving seawater to people who are dying of thirst, and the faith won't last long."
"What about the army? With the might of the Crusader Guard, the monks were able to quell the rebellion, and I know that every knight in that army is armed with advanced muskets."
"Armies are meant to kill, they are devils boiled in blood, and those who lead them should be extremely vicious and ferocious. But in the Papal States, monks command the armies, serving God by day and women's flesh by night, never going to war, and with such people commanding the armies, even if they are all equipped with muskets, what can they do?"
Hara Pure pondered for a long time and nodded, "In that case, the omen of the fall of the country has already come."
"So you are going to marry me off to the Pope's country?" Harakure turned his head and looked at his father as if provoking.
Hara Chun raised his head and slapped his palm, "Put it this way, in a town of ten thousand households, if one out of every ten young men commits rape. The church would be able to earn five thousand gold coins a year from that alone! Roughly speaking, if all the sins could be solved with atonement coupons, these bastards could sell 150,000 gold coins a year! They're the biggest assholes of all! How many carts of twine do I have to peddle to make that kind of money?"
Yuan Chun and Ye Su Union looked at each other in dismay. They finally realized why the king of the country was so silent just now, it is said that a person's teenage years determine his or her entire life, Yuan Cheng usurped the country and ascended the throne, replacing the wide-sleeved and high-crowned crown of the king of the country, but in his bones, he was still a hemp peddler.
"What's wrong? Calculate the in-laws' family fortune, want to marry the daughter's old father do so what is wrong?" Hara Makoto ignored the blank stares of his daughter and the minister, "Since they are destined to die, someone has to receive the family fortune, shouldn't the wife be the natural candidate to receive her husband's family fortune?"
"To you I am a tool to receive the family fortune? As a father shouldn't you care more about your daughter's happiness?" Hara Jun sneered.
"Pure, you've grown up and it's time for you to figure out what you expect your life to be." Hara Makoto copied his hands in his arms and shrugged.
"Anyway, it's not sitting in the deep palace embroidering, it's too boring." Yuan Chun unfolded the pillowcase in her hands and showed Yuan Cheng the pair of duckling-like mandarin ducks. Yuan Cheng had always urged her to learn embroidery well so that she wouldn't lose face to him, the monarch of a small country, when she left the palace in the future; in fact, Yuan Chun had tried hard, but unfortunately, she was always bad at it.
Yuan Chun has not been clear about her father's expectations of their own in the end, sometimes she felt that her father is too much for their own but good behavior, he wanted to be the kind of pearl jade like a little princess, but unfortunately their own only get the shape of not its God; but also once Yuan Cheng was drunk, gently stroked her head and said: "pure, why are you not a boy? You're so much like me ..."
"You still thinking about Marcus?" Hara Makoto's brow peaked, and a sharpness like a gun shot out of her pupils.
Harakuren's hand squeezing the pillowcase trembled slightly, feeling as if he had been pierced by that invisible gun. Marcus was the name of the fallen artist, her etiquette teacher.
Despite saying such hurtful words, Harakure didn't think Marcus would actually leave. She just didn't want to admit defeat. The more she cared about someone, the less she wanted to admit defeat in front of them. It was probably the same with her father. The first time she'd seen Marcus was in the abandoned palace, the sunlight slanting down through the broken window, dust flying in the columns of light. There was an easel in the dust, and Marcus was sitting on a wooden stool painting a large picture, the cuffs of his lace shirt mottled with ink. The drawing was of the Virgin fallen to hell, bound tightly by the demon's jagged tailbone as if she were a sacrifice to the darkness, but without a look of horror and with a soft kiss on the side of the demon's beautiful face as if it were lit by sunlight.
Marcus's ink pen stalled in mid-air, resting on the Virgin's eyes, a drop of ink about to fall low at the tip. But he didn't move a muscle, as if he had forgotten about time. Hara Pure had forgotten time too, and she had mistakenly thought that time in this ruined palace was eternal, along with Marcus's thin, pale face, and so much, so much love in his pupils.
Marcus suddenly turned around and saw the little princess, who had come alone in the sunlight, with her eyebrows raised at the tips like long knives hardened in icy water by an oriental craftsman.
Marcus dropped his pen, and the saintly maiden had long brows as sharp as knives, so that she was no longer vulnerable beside the hideous demon, and as gallant as a warrior woman.
"Why did she kiss the devil?" Pure Hara later asked Marcus.
"Because she wants to redeem the devil, and in a hell where the holy light doesn't even shine, the only thing she can use to redeem the devil is love." Marcus said softly, "That's why she's going to grow eyebrows like that, that's her courage."
He took the little princess's hand and looked up at his work with admiration and sadness written in his eyes. Hara Pure, however, felt that he was looking at another woman, a woman far away in Filippo, whose shadow was etched like a brand on Marcus's heart, dripping with blood. From that moment on she began to fantasize about the city called Filippo, and to be secretly jealous of a woman she might never meet.
The painting was later framed and hung in Hara Makoto's study to emphasize the king's taste for "learning from the East and the West". Hara Makoto was very happy to explain to the ministers that it was called a "Western painting of a woman", and that it was in the same vein as the "Evening in the Spring Boudoir," which was hung side by side.
"It's normal for a girl to be pregnant when she's young, so even though my father knew it in his heart, he never confronted you about it." Yuan Cheng said gently, : But you are not suitable to spend your life with a man who only draws eyebrows for women. You are my daughter ah, my daughter letting that kind of white and tender little man put his arms around her, it would probably be hard for father to hold back from killing him! Whether it's Marcus or one of those public ministers' sons! "Makoto Hara grabbed the scissors from his seat and played with them in his hand.
He suddenly looked up and raised his eyebrows, the gun-like chi in his eyes sharpening once more. He gripped the scissors tightly and stabbed at Yuan Chun's heart!
Heart Character Shot.
This was the gun technique that Yuan Chun had become famous for, and everyone in the world knew that the Jindu Kingdom Lord's famous shot was a straight stab to the heart, but no one who had been killed remotely had been able to block this unchanged shot. This time, Yuan Cheng actually used it against his daughter. He gazed down at the edge of the blade, which was reddened by the candle flame, with sincerity and concentration.
With the change in the blink of an eye, Yuan Chun had no time to react. All she had in her hand was the pillowcase, which she hastily unfolded to fend off. The scissors bit into the pillowcase, and the silk made a sharp, silky sound as it snapped. Scissors go momentum does not reduce, a line of sharp light, as if to cut the candle flame also cut!
Pillowcase fell to the ground, mandarin ducks two halves. "On the side of the mandarin ducks, there was a hidden "M", Marcus' initials, embroidered on the pillowcase.
The tip of the scissors stopped in front of Yuan Chun's chest. Makoto looked up silently at her daughter, and Jun stared back at her father, her right hand reaching under the seat. She gripped the hilt of the knife, and the short blade was half-sheathed.
"What? You're going to kill me if I don't want to marry into the Papal States?" Harakure frowned.
"No, it's just that I don't think you're suited for embroidery, so I'm helping you destroy it." Yuan Cheng said indifferently, "Don't waste time, you were born with a pair of hands that hold a sword."
Yuan Cheng raised his hand and cut off Yuan Chun's two long sideburns in two clicks, the sharp cuts were like the chopping marks of a blade. Yuan Cheng got up and walked outside, "Pure, you've grown up, don't keep this little girl's swearing anymore. Put your hair up in a bun and marry into the Papal States, you look very much like a virtuous wife that way."
"Do I look like a mom this way?" As his figure was about to be swallowed by the darkness, Harakuren suddenly asked slyly.
Harakuren's figure suddenly stalled. But he finally did not say anything else and took a big step out.
Jesus Mon ran out of the princess's chambers after the national army, and a team of horse-drawn carriages was parked outside the door. The two monarchs and ministers stepped onto the carriage, and Haramaki leaned back against the seat and let out a long sigh of relief.
"When father and daughter meet, I, an onlooker, feel like a king at the city." Ye Sumeng said lightly.
"She knows that she looks like her mother, I won't really do anything to her, and blatantly disregards my majesty as a father." Yuan Cheng said resentfully, "But that's what makes her like my daughter, isn't it?"
"The marriage alliance, is that settled?"
"I knew that Pure would agree, she is my daughter after all," Yuan Cheng smiled proudly, "and will not spend her life embroidering in a deep palace. The blood that runs through her body is the same as her cruel and vile father's."
"Then I will visit the Pope's country tomorrow to propose marriage for Princess Pure. I heard that the Pope has three sons, all handsome young men."
"Choose carefully! Pure is my only daughter, such a beautiful jewel, if it is sent to a pig's mouth to hold, I will kill you!" A cold light shone in Haramaki's eyes.
"Choosing a son-in-law is a father's responsibility, the state ruler himself does not go, and said that he will kill me if he chooses the wrong one, fortunately the state ruler only has one daughter, if there are more, my head will not be enough to chop it off." Ye Sumeng smiled bitterly, "What are the criteria?"
Yuan Cheng froze, this question he really didn't think about it in detail, before he had used his mind on fighting with his daughter. He scratched his chin and pondered for a long time, "Choose a handsome one ... In addition, the standard has not been thought out, you look at it!" Yuan Cheng suddenly stared earnestly at Ye Sumeng.
"What?" The old minister involuntarily touched his face.
"It's really like what Pure said, you look ugly!" Haramaki nodded.
In the fall of the 23rd year of the St. Gregory's Calendar, an envoy from the Eastern Jindu Kingdom arrived in Filippo.
The servant of God, the great Pope St. Gregory II, greeted the envoys at his summer palace.
Rumor has it that this small country intends to break away from the eastern kingdoms and throw itself into God's embrace.