"Do you suspect that Buddhists are those people? This is impossible." Lao Zhu said it was impossible, but his eyes were fixed on Han Du.
Han Du smiled inwardly, this is Lao Zhu, the founding emperor of the country. Suspicion is his instinct. He will not trust anyone, let alone a monk. As for trust, it is a luxury item, and it is best for ministers not to expect it.
"Weichen didn't think about Buddhism at first and thought it was impossible." Han Du nodded and followed Lao Zhu's words. If Han Du immediately rebutted, it might make Lao Zhu trust Zong Lai even more. Now he nodded in agreement, but it made Lao Zhu's doubts greatly increase.
Lao Zhu looked at Han Du with a sullen face without saying a word. After coming here for a long time, he tapped his fingers in front of his face and asked, "What's the reason? Tell me."
"Your Majesty is aware of this, but I am just guessing."
The more Han Du said that he was not sure enough and repeatedly emphasized that he was just guessing, which not only left him enough room, but also made Lao Zhu more suspicious.
People are so strange. When two people are close to each other, they will think nothing of the other person. Even if others say bad things about the other person, they will not only not listen to it, but will even automatically make up for the other person's thoughts. But as long as there is a little suspicion between the two, everything will be over, and no matter what the other party does, it will become a problem in the eyes.
Now Lao Zhu is suspicious of Zong Rong, but Han Du is already in an invincible position. Moreover, when Tianjie Temple poured dirty water on him, he didn't see them being polite to him. If that's the case, then you don't have to worry about anything.
It's just that the dirty water Tianjie Temple poured on him back then was just to make him sick. But the water he is splashing now is not dirty water, it is sulfuric acid water, which is fatal!
"There are three reasons. The first is of course money. Other Weichen don't know, but Weichen knows that those people must be very rich."
Having money is the first original sin. Others don't know how quickly the money comes from printing treasure banknotes, but Lao Zhu knows it all. Those who secretly print treasure money are very rich, that's for sure. If it weren't for money, how could those people risk annihilating the nine tribes and print treasure banknotes privately?
"Is Tianjie Temple very rich?" Lao Zhu asked noncommittally.
Han Du smiled and corrected: "Your Majesty, it's not that Tianjie Temple is rich, but that all Buddhists in the world are rich. There is a saying that if I wear a piece of cloth, I am the richest in the world, and that's what I'm talking about. "
Wearing a piece of cloth, I am the richest in the world!
Wearing a piece of cloth, Lao Zhu can understand, isn't it the monk's cassock mentioned?
"How come I haven't heard of this sentence?" Lao Zhu couldn't help but frown and asked.
Well!
Of course you haven't heard of it, because I just made this up to discredit those monks.
Facing Lao Zhu's question, Han Du did not panic at all and continued to explain: "Your Majesty, Buddhism is really rich. In an ordinary temple, erecting a golden Buddha statue can consume hundreds of thousands of kilograms of copper. . The Buddha statue, which is more than ten feet tall, is actually made entirely of copper, and it is also solid."
"As for temples like Tianjie Temple, they are even richer. I heard that the gold bodies they molded for the Buddha statues were not made of copper or gold powder, but gold foil pasted on the Buddha statues."
The so-called gold foil is not as thin as a layer of paper, but a layer three or four fingernails thick. The gold used to make one golden Buddha statue is more than enough to make ten bronze Buddha statues.
As expected by Han Du, Lao Zhu's eyes immediately turned red when he heard this. Lao Zhu is so poor now that he sees a stone and wonders if oil can be squeezed out of it. Where can he hear these words?
"Is everything you said true?" Lao Zhu asked impatiently.
Of course, Han Du would not admit it outright, so he said: "I heard it from hearsay, but such news is widely circulated among the people, so I guess it is not groundless."
Lao Zhu's eyes were red and he didn't know what he was thinking. He urged Han Du, "Say, keep talking."
"The second reason is that the temple has too many temple properties." Han Du showed a confident look and said decisively.
When Lao Zhu heard this, he was stunned. He looked up at Han Du and asked dissatisfiedly: "What's your reason?"
The temple property, apart from the temple itself, is the land belonging to the temple. Take Tianjie Temple as an example, it has a lot of fields. Some of these fields were rewarded by Lao Zhu when he was happy, and some were purchased by the temples themselves with their own money. These are normal ways to obtain fields, but there are also fields that the common people entrusted to the temples.
Since the temple's fields did not have to pay taxes to the court at all, some people, in order to avoid taxes, entrusted their fields to the name of the temple through some roundabout ways, and only handed over a part of the rice grain to the temple. A lot of taxes can be exempted.
This situation is even more common in the Zhili area. Because the taxes here are obviously much higher than in other places, the tax-free profits are the largest, so it is also the most common for people to entrust heaven and earth to temples.
Of course, in addition to being entrusted to the monasteries, scholars, scholars, and Jinshi who are exempt from tax are also the objects of the common people's entrustment. Of course, these are things for later and will not be mentioned here for the time being.
But no matter what kind of disadvantages this temple property has, this temple property is just fields. What does this have to do with privately printing treasure banknotes? This is also what makes Lao Zhu confused.
"Your Majesty, if those people want to turn the treasure banknotes privately printed into money, they have to participate in private transactions. And they print so many treasure banknotes in such a large volume that it is impossible for them to pass through a single transaction They can convert treasure banknotes into silver coins through a few transactions. They can only convert treasure banknotes into silver coins in the shortest time through bulk commodity transactions."
"And the commodities that can be called bulk commodities in Ming Dynasty are nothing more than grain, cloth, salt, iron... these are the few. In the view of Wei Chen, they dare not get involved in iron, because the imperial court Although private iron smelting is allowed, iron is an important resource after all, and the court keeps a close eye on it. If they attack iron, it will be easy for them to reveal their flaws."
Lao Zhu also agreed with Han Du. From the current point of view, Tie Ziran will not be the choice of those people, at least not the best choice.
"Then do you think they will interfere?" Lao Zhu couldn't help asking.
Han Du paused, then shook his head and said: "This Wei Chen doesn't know. In Wei Chen's opinion, food, cloth, and salt are all possible. Even if they are involved in all of them, it is not impossible."
