From a Zhengyi Taoist Child to a Master of All Laws

Chapter 401: Enlighten the Fossil Bull, Hehai Feast

The entrance to the fifth floor of the Imperial Edict Pavilion is locked with a copper lock by the local Cultural Relics Protection and Management Bureau. It houses the county chronicles of Xuzhou and the Huanghuai region over thousands of years, as well as various precious ancient books.

With a squeeze of his hands, the rusty copper lock deformed and crackled into pieces of copper that fell to the ground.

When I pushed open the door, I saw darkness. When I turned on the lights, I saw neatly arranged bookshelves in front of me. The bookshelves were filled with various ancient books according to their categories. All of them had been specially treated for corrosion. The air was filled with the special smell of book pages.

The display of the books here seemed to be modeled after the style of Tianyi Pavilion, divided into 36 categories including imperial books, various classics, four books, history, records, chronicles... characters, surnames, biographies, etc. Li Yang searched through them quickly and finally stopped in front of the bookshelf of state chronicles.

Thinking of the large pond in front of the Imperial Edict Pavilion, Li Yang nodded slightly: "It seems that what Taoist Miaocheng said is true. This Jade Emperor Temple is indeed related to Longhu Mountain. No wonder the Taoist temple was chosen as the disaster relief site here."

The pool was called "Tianyi Pool". When Li Yang entered the pavilion, the pool was full and covered with green moss. It was where water was drawn into the pool to store water for fire prevention.

This is based on the saying "Heaven gives birth to water". Fire is the biggest disaster for this kind of library, and "Heaven gives birth to water" can overcome fire with water. In folk history, the largest private library was named "Tianyi Pavilion".

The saying "Heaven gives birth to water" comes from the Tianyi Pond stone carving in Longhu Mountain, on which is engraved the words "Heaven gives birth to water and earth completes it".

Suppressing his thoughts, Li Yang stopped to look through the Xuzhou Prefecture Annals of the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Perhaps because this was Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown, the prefecture and county annals of the Ming and Qing dynasties occupied a large part of the pages.
"It turns out that Zhu Yuanzhang was also unable to deal with the floods and droughts in this area. During the Ming Dynasty, the Yellow River carried mud and sand to block the Huai River and then ran away, leaving behind the Hongze Lake that flooded Zhu Yuanzhang's ancestral tomb and Sizhou City..."

"It seems that it is really just the bad geographical environment, not some kind of supernatural power?"

Li Yang frowned slightly and continued to read the materials according to the dynasties.
The further back in time you go, the fewer ancient books there are on the bookshelves because of their age.
The Huanghuai region has been prone to floods since ancient times, causing headaches for successive dynasties. However, these floods were only seasonal, and never lasted for such a long period of time.
Searching by dynasty, Li Yang's sights finally settled on the "Peiguo Zhibu" of the Eastern Han Dynasty, which is also the earliest state chronicle recorded in the Imperial Book Pavilion.

The so-called Pei State in the Eastern Han Dynasty was probably located in today's Jiangsu Province.

This state annals was copied by later generations, not the original one, but the pages are also yellowed, so it should have been copied during the Ming and Qing dynasties.
However, Li Yang soon discovered something wrong. "Peiguo Zhibu" records that during the Qin Dynasty and even the Eastern Han Dynasty, floods in Peiguo were particularly severe, covering almost the entire state's basin throughout the year, which is very different from the seasonal controllable floods recorded in later dynasties.

"Eastern Han Dynasty? Pei State?"

Li Yang frowned. The description of floods during this period coincided with the current floods in the Huanghuai area.

However, there is no record in this state annals as to why the floods became smaller in later generations. It only describes in great detail the tragic scenes of the people of the Eastern Han Dynasty under the floods.
Having gained nothing, Li Yang put back the Supplement to the Records of Peiguo, frowned slightly,

Just as he was about to leave the room, Li Yang's eyes focused on the innermost row of the bookshelf, which contained biographies of people living in this land of thousands of miles.

Walking to the bookshelf, Li Yang began to look through the records of people from the Eastern Han Dynasty and before.

There were many characters and it took Li Yang several hours to finish reading the book even though he had a very good eye.
At that time, the sky outside was already dark and the night was shrouded, but the lights in the study were still bright.

"Knock, knock, knock!" There was a knock on the door. After Li Yang signaled, Zhang Miaocheng hunched his back and stuck his head out.

"Master, it's time for dinner. I have asked my disciples to prepare a vegetarian feast for you," Zhang Miaocheng said after hesitating for a while.

"Zhang Daoyuan from the Baodao Tianshi Dao just came back from a disaster relief mission today. They asked me to tell Zhenjun that they will host a banquet for Zhenjun at the Qinghe Tower tomorrow morning to apologize for what happened today."

"Okay, I understand. I'll come to your place later."

Li Yang held a yellowed book in his hand and raised his head after a moment: "Has anyone come into this library recently?"

"The ancient books stored in the fifth-floor library are extremely precious. Generally, no outsiders are allowed to enter. Recently, only a few Taoist priests and Brother Miaofa have come in."

Li Yang nodded, then frowned slightly: "In that case, take a look at this."

After saying that, Li Yang threw the ancient book in his hand to Zhang Miaocheng.

After Zhang Miaocheng received it, he looked at it carefully. It turned out to be a local biography about Zhang Daoling, the founder of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

"Zhang Daoling, the founder of the Heavenly Master, was originally named Ling and later Daoling, with the courtesy name Fuhan. He was the eighth-generation grandson of Zhang Liang (Zifang) and a native of Feng County, Pei State, during the Later Han Dynasty. He was originally a student at the Imperial College. He was studious by nature, and he read the Five Classics extensively, and was well versed in the Huang-Lao doctrine. At the age of seven, he was able to understand the Daodejing and the Heluo Tuhui book..."

Ancient books record a few anecdotes about the life of Zhang Daoling, the founder of the Heavenly Master, including his retreat to the northern Mang Mountain to practice Taoism, and later in the Wanshan Stone Chamber, he found a secret book and a technique to control the gods of the mountains. He also heard that the people of Shu were simple and honest, easy to teach, and that there were many famous mountains, so he brought his disciples to Shu and lived in seclusion in Heming Mountain to practice Taoism, etc.
At the end of the ancient book, it is said that after Zhang Daoling, the founder of Taoism, achieved success in his practice, he returned to Feng County of Pei State for a period of time, and traveled in and out of mountains and rivers with his disciples.

However, this part of the record about entering and leaving the Peiguo River Basin only has a beginning, and the following content suddenly stops, with only the last seven ancient seal characters "Tianshi returns, Hehai banquet".

It's not that the records were not copied, but that a few pages in the middle of the book were torn up.

Li Yang carefully observed Zhang Miaocheng's expression and said calmly, "The tear marks are very recent. Someone tore them off intentionally in the last few months."

"If I'm not mistaken, has our Taoist Master Zhang Miaofa found the cause of the flood in the Yellow River and Huai River other than natural factors?"
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The thin Taoist said goodbye to Zhang Daoyuan and went up the Huai River alone.

The Huaihe River flows through Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong and other provinces. As the Yellow River is sandy and easily silted up, it changes course frequently and frequently enters the sea, disrupting the Huaihe River system. At this time, mountain torrents broke out and a large number of plains and mountain villages were submerged, leaving only mountains standing in the water like isolated islands.

The road was filled with water and sand, and many places were still experiencing heavy rain. The floods were carrying a large amount of mud, trees, and gravel, rumbling down.

(End of this chapter)