High-ranking official Ximen from the south of Fushun City died of illness last night.
Early in the morning, the loud and ear-piercing suona sounded the funeral music. More than a dozen filial sons and grandsons knelt in the hall and wailed loudly. The surrounding neighbors all raised their heads at the door to watch, and many people were whispering.
"Master Ximen is going now?"
"That bastard fell sick the day before yesterday. I heard his house crying last night. He really died fast."
"I heard it was a plague. When the doctor from Huichun Hall came, he shook his head and said to quickly prepare for the funeral. "
"Are they planning to hold the funeral today? Wouldn't he cry for three days? "
"Who would dare to leave a corpse that died of plague in their house? I heard that the dog thief Ximen had pissed and excreted all over his body before he died. It was so smelly. His descendants didn't dare to bury him in the Ximen clan's graveyard. They wanted to send him to the 'Leaky Garden' and burn him. "
Official Ximen was a bailiff of the southern part of the city. He had been in this position for more than 30 years and had considerable influence in the local area. However, he was old, and his body would collapse as soon as he got sick. When the doctor came, he took a look and said that there was no hope. He said that it was a typhoid attack and that they should quickly deal with the aftermath, otherwise more people would die.
The filial sons and grandsons in the hall spent the whole night arguing about how to divide the family property. During the day, the mourning lasted no more than half an hour before it ended hastily. The corpse was placed in the coffin and sealed with a long nail. The coolies who were carrying the coffins had already paid enough money to do this unlucky thing. The group of people walked out of the gate in a grandiose manner and hurriedly ran towards the graveyard in the Leaky Garden outside the city.
Rich families treated funerals as joyous occasions. In order to make the scene look more lively, the people of Ximen clan also distributed some cakes, biscuits, mixed grains and so on along the way, attracting some poor people to follow them all the way. This made it seem like their master was respected by people and had the meaning of being followed by tens of thousands of people.
The coolies who were carrying the coffin had to take a break every now and then. The people of Ximen clan had to give them some food and drink as well as some broken silver to coax these people to quickly carry the coffin away. Along the way, they walked and stopped, unable to speed up. When they reached the west of the city, they found that there was a funeral procession moving even slower in front of them.
There were more than ten people in the Ximen clan, which was not a small number. In addition, they had attracted forty or fifty poor idlers to join in the fun. The procession filled up half the street, and the suona musicians made the funeral music known to everyone, attracting onlookers along the way.
But compared with the team that came out from the west of the city, the team of the Ximen Clan paled in comparison. There were more than two hundred people on the opposite side, and their formation was quite neat. The coffin in the lead was made of thin wood. It couldn't be compared to High Official Ximen's cypress coffin, but the people carrying the coffin weren't laborers in ragged clothes. Instead, they were several tall and sturdy men in well-ironed clothes.
Just this alone was enough to make people click their tongues in wonder.
The procession behind the coffin was also different from the rest. More than two hundred people were silent. Although they were dressed differently, they all wore white flowers on their chests. No one threw paper money, no one raised banners, and no one even cried. However, the procession was orderly, and their pace was the same. More than two hundred people slowly moved forward, naturally accompanied by a solemn and respectful atmosphere.
The funeral procession of the Ximen Clan had specially found a few mourners to wail loudly in the procession. But when the two funeral processions moved forward side by side, no matter how hard the mourners shouted, they couldn't create a more sorrowful atmosphere than the silent procession next to them. They didn't make a sound, and just relied on their orderly and slow pace and heavy expressions to make people feel that they were truly grieving.
After wailing for a while, the mourners themselves felt that it was boring. They and the people of the Ximen Clan stood on tiptoe to watch, trying to figure out what was going on with the other funeral procession.
Because the atmosphere of grief was too strong, the street became completely silent after a long time. Many passersby were shocked by the momentum of the slow procession, and people kept whispering to each other. Everyone felt that this procession was really like a funeral procession.
"Look at them, it really looks like they lost their souls on the road to the Yellow Springs."
"They are walking step by step, and the pressure is making people panic."
"In the past, I always felt that the ones who cried miserably were the filial sons and grandsons, but now I feel that the ones who don't cry are more pitiful than the ones who cry."
"By the way, which family's master has passed away? Judging by the number of people attending the funeral, could it be that our Lord Li's father has died? "
The two processions continued to move forward, and they walked out of the city gate one after another, heading towards the cemetery of the 'Leak Garden'. Because the silent procession was too strange, without any greeting, many people followed behind to watch the show. These people were most curious about who had died.
The cemetery of the 'Leak Garden' was originally a mass grave outside the city, and it was specially used to bury ownerless corpses. Usually, funeral processions would rarely come here, and it would usually be people hired by the government to move the nameless corpses collected in the city and throw them here. But today, there were two groups of them.
When the funeral procession of the Ximen Clan arrived at the location, they immediately set up the mourning hall. Because their master had died of the plague, the group of descendants couldn't wait to hide far away, deeply afraid that they would be infected if they got too close.
As for the other funeral procession, it was much simpler. The coffin was placed on two benches, and a few wreaths with the words' Inextinguishable Heroic Spirit 'and' Everlasting Noble Spirit 'were placed on both sides of the coffin. A sketch was placed on the coffin, and the name of the deceased could finally be seen on the memorial tablet in front of the coffin — Brother Zhao Gouer.
Some of the people who were watching the show were literate, and when they saw the memorial tablet, they were all shocked. One after another, they said, "This is really strange, I thought that the deceased was the master of some big family, but I didn't expect that the deceased person actually didn't have a name, and it sounds like the name of a lowly servant. Why are there so many people attending the funeral of such a person? "
Among the people carrying the coffin, a youngster came out. He waited for the funeral procession to form a horizontal line, then stood in front of the coffin and said in a deep voice, "Today, we are here to bid farewell to Brother Zhao Gouer. I know that many people aren't familiar with him, and some only know his name today. Let me tell you about Brother Gouer's life. "
Hearing that the youngster was about to tell a story, the surrounding people also curiously moved closer. However, the funeral procession of the Ximen family was not happy. The crowd of onlookers had all run away, making them seem especially deserted. The eldest grandson of the Ximen family ordered the mourners to cry louder and the suona to play harder.
But this didn't affect the youngster next to him. He said in a balanced tone, "Zhao Gouer was born poor. He had two older brothers and four younger siblings. Because his parents couldn't support so many children, they decided to draw lots to let the two children go out to make a living. To put it bluntly, they didn't care. Brother Gouer was very unfortunate, he drew one of the lots, and was forced to leave home at the age of 12.
Brother Gouer once told me that he didn't hate his parents for being cruel, but that his family was really too poor to live on, and that he might be able to survive if he went out to make a living. So he went out with one of his older brothers. "
The funeral procession in front of the youngster was originally silent, but not everyone understood why they were here to mourn a stranger who had nothing to do with them. But when the youngster talked about the family of the deceased, some people's eyes quickly became hot, and tears rolled down their cheeks — because many people in the procession had similar experiences.
The youngster continued, "After Brother Gouer and his older brother left home, they relied on begging, picking wild fruits in the mountains, and stealing people's money bags for a living. He was bitten by the landlord's dogs, beaten by the bailiffs, and chased away by the merchants. According to his own words, he really lived like a dog.
Until one day, Gouer couldn't go on anymore, and the two brothers had no choice but to sell themselves. In the end, he and his older brother were sold all the way to the faraway Herkulen. Life as a servant for the master's family wasn't easy.
The master only cared if Brother Gouer finished his work, but he didn't care if he had enough to eat. After only two months, Brother Gouer's older brother was beaten to death by the master in order to steal a biscuit to satisfy his hunger. And he could only watch, watch … "
The youngster's voice was low and clear, and everyone present could hear it clearly. Sobbing sounds came from the funeral procession. Those were the companions who had escaped from Herkulen. The youngster's description made them recall their own past. Those were truly nightmarish days.
Not only did the funeral procession hear this, but the surrounding people who were watching also became focused. No one had ever held such a special funeral. No one had ever described a lowly slave's life with such deep emotion. No one had ever described the suffering so simply and directly. There were no high and mighty people present. Even the idlers who came to watch the show felt their hearts ache.
"Brother Gouer lived like a pig and a dog in Herkulen for a few years. He worked non-stop, was beaten non-stop, and suffered non-stop. Although he was still alive, his heart was dead. Until one day, he became my subordinate, my brother. When I first talked to him, I still remember what he said to me while crying — I haven't had a full meal in a long time.
Brother Gouer was like everyone else from then on, following me. He learned diligently and worked hard. He knew five hundred words and could write more than a hundred of them. He learned how to make pottery and build iron furnaces. With his dexterous hands, he wanted to learn how to forge iron from blacksmiths. He felt that he had a goal in life, and he lived like a human being. "
The youngster's voice rose and fell, and the story was simple and vivid. The people present were very immersed in the story. "Brother Gouer didn't leave me in Herkulen. He didn't leave me in Liuhe Village. He didn't leave me on the way back to Daming. Because he was so loyal, I used my heart to repay him. When we arrived in Fushun, I made him a superior.
Brother Gouer also made mistakes. When he arrived in Fushun, he felt that he would be carefree for the rest of his life and that he should live a good life. He was greedy and took bribes from others.
I scolded him for this, scolded him severely. I told him that greedy for enjoyment would kill him. I told him that there were many people who wanted our lives. I told him that if he worked with me, he would have to plan for the long term and have a greater ambition. I told him that if he wanted to live a more comfortable life, he should not work with me. Because what I wanted to do was destined to be difficult.
After all, we were brothers who had gone through life and death together. Zhao Gouer cried and apologized to me. He promised that he would never take other people's money again and that he would work with me for the rest of his life. I was very happy about this and thought that I had a lifelong brother.
But unfortunately, someone really did want our lives. Someone slit Zhao Gouer's neck with a knife on a snowy night, causing us to lose a brother we could rely on. "
At this point, the more than twenty people who had come out of Herkulen were all sobbing. Even those who were not familiar with Zhao Gouer were wiping their tears. Even the crowd of onlookers felt a little sad. Many of them had nothing to do with the funeral, but they were made to cry by the youth's few words.
The Ximen Clan's suona sounded even louder, adding to the sorrow.
"Why did I come to this funeral? Why did I have to drag everyone to the funeral? " The youth's voice suddenly rose. "Some people said that it was just the death of a slave. It was just a lowly life, a nobody. If he died, then he died.
That assassin must have thought so. He looked down on our strength, mocked our unity, and despised our efforts. He felt that he was more powerful than all of us combined. He thought that he could kill us at will without paying a price.
Yes, I know that many people must have thought so.
Those high and mighty people.
Those who wielded great power.
Those who bullied the kind.
Even the people in front of me, there are many people who think so.
I don't care about others, but I just want to say to my brothers and sisters, if you look down on yourselves, how can you let others look up to you? If you want to be able to stand tall in the world, you must hold your head high today. I want you to know that no one is born lowly. In my eyes, men and women, rich and poor, noble and lowly, everyone is born equal.
Some people are high and mighty, and some people are as lowly as mud. Is this forever? No …! This can be changed.
Come … Today, I'll send Gouer and his brother off. Tomorrow, I'll bring everyone to have food to eat, clothes to wear, and a bright future. "
The suona sounded even louder, desperately trying to drown out the youth's voice. But a Crouching Tiger Cannon borrowed from a soldier of the Thousand Households was pulled out, and some gunpowder was stuffed into it.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
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