King Liu Xun of Yu is the grandson of Taizu, and his father is the younger brother of Emperor Taizong.
In the second year of Taiping and Xingguo's reign, Emperor Taizong sent his younger brother to Kaifeng, Henan, and granted him the title of King of Yu. He also granted a personal guard of three guards totaling 50,000 to guard Henan.
In the last years of Emperor Taizong's reign, the late king strongly advocated Liu Ji's succession to the throne. In order to show his merits, the Supreme Emperor issued three decrees and conferments in the eighth year, eleventh year, and thirteenth year of Zhaowu. The royal family and the Wu Palace that guarded Jinling were the two largest royal families. A loving home.
In the 22nd year of Zhaowu, the first king of Yu passed away, and a decree was passed in the palace to Kaifeng, ordering his eldest son Liu Xun to ascend the throne. The remaining sons were all granted imperial titles or became princes of the clan.
He also gave his descendants the third title of nobility without being demoted. It can be said that the palace's kindness and kindness to Prince Yu's palace are definitely top-notch in the clan.
Moreover, Prince Yu's palace has not disappointed the palace in recent years. Whether it is taking the initiative to request orders to hand over the soldiers and horses under his command, or what he does in the fiefdom, he can be regarded as a model for the clan.
But this time the Buddhist incident surprised the emperor.
Not only is the Palace of Prince Yu not clear about the Shaolin Temple, the leader of the Buddhist sect, but it has also been involved with the national master Wu Zang when he first arrived in the capital. Could it be that his performance in these years is all fake?
Originally, the princes Liu Hong and Jia Cong came to inquire about the situation, but Liu Xun, who was enthusiastic and calm, took them to the wine table and confessed everything in one go.
"Great nephew and great uncle, I was in such a difficult position. I was almost tricked to death in the Kaifeng fiefdom by that gang of Buddhists!"
This person is also an interesting person. He is quite old, and he does not feel embarrassed at all in front of his grandnephews and juniors.
In Jia Cong's stunned eyes, he grabbed the sauced pig's trotters and gnawed them with one hand, and held Liu Hong's arm tightly with the other hand. He howled miserably after taking a bite of the meat.
Liu Hong also had the same expression as Jia Cong. He wanted to break free from King Yu's hand, but unfortunately he tried several times and failed.
In the end, I had no choice but to accept my fate and direct the topic to Kaifeng.
"Uncle King Yu, please tell me what is going on? Do people from the Buddhist sect still dare to embarrass you?"
After hearing the prince's inquiry, Liu Xun finally became serious.
He skillfully wiped off the oil on his hands with his royal robe, and said with great solemnity: "Uncle, I have always been fond of Buddha. The prince should know this, right?"
Um, um~
Both Liu Hong and Jia Cong are clear about this.
Liu Xun was frail and sickly in his early years, and the imperial doctor who was best at paediatrics in the palace was helpless and even concluded that the successor of Prince Yu's palace would never live past the age of eight.
It wasn't until a Buddhist master came to Kaifeng City that he adopted the method of praying for Buddha's body as a substitute, and supplemented it with magical medicine, so that Liu Xun could grow up smoothly.
This incident not only made Prince Yu's palace very grateful to the Buddhist master, but also made Liu Xun, who had been through hell for a while, turn his heart to Buddhism. He had recited Buddhist scriptures since he was a child, and as a lay disciple, he went to Shaolin to practice Buddhism and became the most respected Buddhist. The royal prince.
As the clan guarding Kaifeng, the crown prince of Prince Yu's palace was saved by Yao Shi but was brought back from the brink of death by Buddhism. This incident soon spread throughout Henan.
The influence of Buddhism in Henan can be said to have increased exponentially. For a time, the temples in various capitals in Henan were so prosperous that it was rare.
Later, Liu Xun carved steles and inscriptions for famous ancient temples such as Shaolin and Baima many times, donated food and money, and everyone knew his devotion to the Buddha.
If it had always been like this, it would be a good story, but Liu Xun gradually noticed something was wrong.
In the eighth year of Yuanyou, the imperial court began to intend to investigate the ownership of the world's land and reorganize taxes.
As a province with a large output, Henan was naturally one of the places that the imperial court paid the most attention to.
Although Prince Yu's Mansion had handed over military power early, as the governor of Henan, Liu Xun had the responsibility of supervising the local area on behalf of the emperor, so he temporarily put aside his thoughts of worshiping Buddha and focused on the serious matter of checking local property taxes.
This investigation almost scared him to death. In Dengfeng County at the foot of Songshan Mountain alone, nearly 20% of the fertile land was owned by Shaolin Temple, the leader of Buddhism.
This does not count the large and small temples in other prefectures in Henan. The White Horse Temple in Luoyang also has no less than Shaolin land under its name.
You must know that according to the rules of the country, Buddhist and Taoist temples are not required to pay land taxes, and they are not required to perform corvee labor.
If we add in the tax-free share of officials and gentry, Henan's current tax bank is less than half of the tax bank paid to the capital at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Liu Xun can understand Buddhist scriptures and Sanskrit, so he is certainly not an ignorant person.
On the contrary, this man was extremely smart. He went to the Qianhu Office of Longjing Guard in Kaifeng and obtained data on the changes in land tax in Henan from the first year of Zhaowu to the present. He could see the mystery at a glance.
"I didn't expect that I would become an accomplice of Buddhism. After my illness was cured, Buddhism spread Buddhism throughout Henan and cured my incurable disease..."
To put it simply, Buddhism relied on Liu Xun to be cured by a monk from a disease that even the imperial doctors were unable to cure, which brought the people of Henan's awe and belief in Buddhism to a peak.
Immediately afterwards, various temples in the prefectures and counties vigorously promoted the supreme power of Buddhism and the Buddha's great wish to save all sentient beings, making the people more loyal to Buddhism.
In addition, in the past few years, the Yellow River often overflowed like a dragon's tail, causing frequent floods. The temple took this opportunity to annex people's fields.
If it were just these, it would be fine. In times of disaster, buying land from the common people at cabbage prices was basically done by officials, merchants and gentry.
But what Buddhism did in Henan is more like the devil.
They took away the people's fields at extremely low prices, then pretended to be Bodhisattva, gave up a bowl of gruel, gathered the people, and asked them to work as tenants for the Buddhists to continue cultivating the land that originally belonged to the people.
Moreover, the sharecropping was so heavy that even the local tyrants and evil gentry had to kneel down and call them “dad.”
Buddhist leaders like Shaolin also raised a large number of warrior monks. These monks have been trained and indoctrinated since childhood, making their loyalty to Buddhism comparable to that of dead warriors.
What sent shivers down Liu Xun's spine was that most of these monks came from Shaolin tenants who they often suppressed with sticks.
Yes, these monks are basically the children of these tenant farmers. Every time there is a natural or man-made disaster, Shaolin will exchange a bag of millet and a bag of chaff for each of the young children.
When Liu Xun recognized the true face of Buddhism, there was an extra letter in the study of Prince Yu's Mansion.
The signature of the letter made Liu Xun's hair stand on end, White Lotus Sect.
If it were anyone else, I'm afraid he would believe it to be true. But Liu Xun's sixth sense told him that this so-called White Lotus Sect probably worshiped Sakyamuni.
The content of the letter put Liu Xun in a dilemma...
"I brought the letter, you can take a look first."
The old eunuch who was waiting on the side took a wooden box and took out a letter.
Liu Hong and Jia Cong crowded around and read it quickly. The content was quite simple. It was a list of property ownership throughout Henan.
Almost all the owners of these properties are the stewards of Prince Yu's Mansion in various states.
"Great nephew, you have to believe me. I really don't know these things, and I have never had contact with anyone from the White Lotus Sect."
At this time, Liu Xun was both nervous and bitter. He was a prince of the clan, and his status was extremely sensitive. In addition, he was not familiar with the White Lotus Sect, so anyone sitting on the throne would be suspicious.
But he really doesn't know these things. The managers on the list were all promoted by him.
Now I find out that these stewards are all members of the White Lotus Sect. If I say I don’t know, who will believe me?
Originally, he didn't want to take out this letter, but if he didn't take it out, he would have to obey the orders of the White Lotus Sect...
As the prince of the clan and a descendant of the old Liu family, Liu Xun was threatened to poach his own family. To be honest, he was really holding back an anger that was difficult to suppress.
Although taking it out may arouse suspicion in the palace, he no longer has to worry about being threatened.
And whether it was Buddhism or the White Lotus Sect, Liu Xun firmly believed that they would not be able to survive a round when facing the imperial army if they engaged in such shady activities.
After much thought, Liu Xun decided to take a risk, and that's how King Yu came to Beijing to pay an audience.
As for the encounter with Uszang master Dalima Bala at Ashoka Temple, it was really purely an accidental encounter.
When Dali Mabala said the word "dragon energy", Liu Xun immediately understood that this was another trap.
He learned a lesson from the experience, and instead of getting angry on the spot, Liu Xun instead of being conceited, quietly observed the expression of the Uszang Lama, hoping to find out something about it, which he could use to express his loyalty to the emperor to the court.
It's a pity that Tarimama Bala has a very strict tone of voice. He endured nausea and chatted for a whole day, and even said many illegal and disrespectful words, but he couldn't get anything useful from Tarima Bala's mouth.
In the end, two Dragon Guard warriors suddenly appeared, interrupting the conversation between the two, and revealing a flaw in Dali Mabala.
"Let's not talk about the incident in Henan. The two strong men of the Dragon Guard seemed to be looking for something. They mistakenly entered the guest house where Dali Mabala lived and saw two mysterious people. These two people were hiding from Us. Say, it must be very important..."
Liu Hong asked curiously: "Why did uncle Wang Yu say that?"
"Dali Mabala ignored my presence and strictly ordered the guards to kill the two strong men of the Dragon Guard... Great nephew, tell me, he, a monk, shouted to kill in front of me, the prince of the country, 豼Do you think it’s normal?”
I saw Liu Xun slapping his thigh, with regret on his face: "It's a pity that I don't have enough manpower, and my methods are not smart enough. I still haven't figured out who the person in the guest house is..."
Jia Cong looked at Cao Jiugong, who was sitting aside and had been pouring himself a drink. He grinned and said, "Leave this to me...Leave it to Cao Dudu. As long as we are in the capital, there is no one that the Dragon Guards can't detect."
Long Jinwei wants to check someone in the capital. Even if he goes to the latrine several times a day and can make a detailed list, it depends on whether he is willing to take it seriously.
Cao Jiugong still didn't say much, he just cupped his fists and said hello.
The three people skipped this topic and continued to talk about Henan.
Jia Cong looked at the letter in his hand and thought carefully about the local official documents he had seen in the cabinet before.
He suddenly had a very bold and absurd idea...
"Fourth brother, His Royal Highness Prince Yu, do you think there is a possibility that the White Lotus Sect will cause trouble in Henan every few years? Every time banditry occurs, Buddhism will gain large tracts of fertile land. Could it be that those White Lotus Sect, that is, They Buddhists must be pretending."
Monthly ticket recommendation ticket
Starting from today, there will be two updates of 6,000 words per day. This is the first update. I will continue to update after I finish my chores today.
It’s the end of the month. Dear readers, if you have monthly tickets, I hope you can give them to me. I’d like to give a shout-out to all readers in advance.
Dong dong dong~
PS: Religion and Uszang (xz) seem to have crossed a line here. It is a bit sensitive, and some parts were deleted after review. I will make it up later.
(End of chapter)
