"Li Sanlang, Yu Qian, was sent to Shangrao to escort the military supplies and supplies to save the livelihood of tens of thousands of people in the city.
I don't want to be attacked in the middle of the day today. There are many civilian casualties. There are forty or fifty wounded who need rescue at the venue. I would like to use your palace.
Or if you can provide salt water or herbs, it would be greatly appreciated! Someone can leave some grain, beans, and noodles to give to the disciples of the Buddha as alms.
It's just..., it was quite unexpected to see your temple empty when I came in! "
The monk was not annoyed after hearing this. He smiled slightly and bowed and said, "Little donor, can you come to the abbot for a cup of tea?"
This was an invitation. Li Dan raised his hand: "Okay, I'd like to host it!"
After speaking, he told Song Xiaoniu to ask the governors to pay attention to the group not to harass them when entering the village or temple, and then led Mao Zaidi to follow the monk and move forward.
Monk Tongzhi introduced it as he walked, and Li Dan knew that this place had been practicing Buddhism since the late Tang Dynasty. However, the place was too remote and could not build a temple.
Fortunately, in the early years of this dynasty, a wandering Jiashan master came. Before leaving, he left a few taels of silver that he had obtained through alms, so that the archway and the mountain gate could be built.
The former host Yutong made a wish to build the three main halls in his lifetime.
Unexpectedly, he led the whole temple to live frugally, open up wasteland and cultivate land, as well as go around begging and raising funds. The hundred taels of gold that he managed to save were unexpectedly stolen by a few robbers who broke into the temple on a stormy night.
As a result, Yutong fell ill and soon passed away. His eldest disciple gathered the monks and distributed the remaining scattered silver coins, grains, and ultimatums to everyone, and asked everyone to find their own way to survive.
Nowadays, there are only three and a half monks and one novice monk left in the temple. They only have one meal a day, and their life is extremely miserable.
"There are only a few of them, no wonder they don't light any incense!" Mao Zaidi said after tying up Zao Liu and Da Qing and catching up.
"Little Junye, it's not that there are few people and no incense, it's that this place is weird and not a good place to build a temple!" Tongzhi smiled bitterly.
"Are you saying that this place is not suitable for building a temple?" Li Dan said, standing in front of a cliff and froze.
This is a huge square mountain with red cliffs that go almost straight up and down.
But below the foot of the mountain, the erosion of millions of years of rain has created miracles, forming arched halls and recessed courtyards on the red cliffs.
These monks borrowed the terrain to build outer walls and part of the roof paved with cattails, which extended along the cliff.
The tall one is the main hall, and the low one is the monk's room, kitchen, and scripture storage room.
"So, this is your temple?" Li Dan asked in surprise.
"I have no choice. I can't build the main hall, so I have to make do with it. From generation to generation, I don't know how many years we have been making do!" Tongzhi sighed.
"You actually live in a cave?" Mao Zaidi couldn't believe it: "If you become a monk here, you have to live in a cave for the rest of your life?"
"This is not a cave," Li Dan told him: "This is called Danxia landform. It was formed by the accumulation of sediment from a large lake or sea 10,000 years ago.
At that time, the water level was much higher than it is now. The top of the mountain might have been underwater, or it might have been a small island above the water.
Later, the water gradually decreased and the flow speed increased, and these caves and alcoves were carved out of the cliff walls.
Later, even the water was gone, and all of it was exposed to the outside, and it became what we saw. "
"Oh, I'm talking about defense! The water must have been drained away by Dayu, right?" Mao Zaidi seemed to understand better and looked at Li Dan with admiration.
"Amitabha." Tongzhi clasped his hands together: "It's really rare for a donor to be able to understand the past and the present. The young monk has also been taught!"
"Looking at the past and present? This is a good word!" Li Dan laughed: "But Master just said that this place is not suitable for building a temple. I cannot agree with him."
"Oh? Don't the donor think that the place here is cramped and the restricted terrain makes it difficult to perform?"
"It is difficult for humans to change the topography. We can only adapt to local conditions. You borrowing cliff caves to build houses is an example." Li Dan walked into a main hall and continued to say while looking up at the Buddha statue:
"In ancient times, temples were built based on Feng Shui, especially famous temples, such as Qingliang Temple and Jing'an Temple in Jinling today, Daxingshan Temple, Daci'en Temple, Jianfu Temple, and Qinglong Temple in Chang'an during the Tang Dynasty, and the Golden Pavilion Temple in Wutai Mountain in the late Tang Dynasty, Luoyang The White Horse Temple, Guanghua Temple, etc. are all like this."
"Young master, are you familiar with my Buddhism?" Tongzhi raised his head in surprise. Only then did Li Dan realize that he was only about forty years old, but his long years of hard training had made his beard and hair gray.
"The purpose of building a temple is nothing more than two things: promotion and meditation. Either one, or both.
For promotion reasons, temples should indeed be built in open, convenient, and densely populated areas.
But if you are just meditating, you don’t have to do this. Just choose a place where you can live and breathe, and the causes and conditions will naturally create a pure place.
Master Tongzhi took me to see this place. It has mountains, rivers and fields, which is perfect for Qing Dynasty! "Li Dan came out and walked to the gap in the courtyard wall, pointing at the scenery outside and shouting.
"Can……."
"I know what Master means by 'but'. You still can't let go of the idea of promoting Buddhism, right? Master has forgotten that Buddha taught us to learn to 'equate' and let everything happen.
Since this place is not suitable for promotion, how can we force it? It is better to choose one of the two, which is more natural. Furthermore, if you want both at the same time, it will cost a lot.
Instead of doing this now, it is better to give up one thing and realize one thing. Isn't it also a contribution and merit to Buddhism to provide a good place for monks and believers to practice? "
"Of course." Tongzhi opened his mouth wide, closed it for a while, and then said these two words.
Li Dan smiled and came back and said: "You Tang Mi Na, you always want to make it grand. It seems that if you don't do this, it will be difficult to show the freedom of the heavens outside the world, the respect of the Buddha's Dharma, and the majesty of the Vajra.
Don’t you know that when Sakyamuni was practicing, he only had a futon, so how could he have any tiles to cover himself? You have been in the world for a long time, and you think that you must live in a monastery and wear cassocks to practice. In fact, you are wrong! "
The monk was dumbfounded by what he said, and after a long while he asked: "How do you know that our temple is a secret inheritance of the Tang Dynasty?"
Li Dan glanced at him with a half-smile but not a smile: "How could I not see that Mahakala standing there with his hands open and staring?" Seeing Tongzhi blushing, he laughed and said:
"Your master has found a good place. No one else can destroy the Buddha here. If the master wants to build the temple into a magnificent place, it goes against his original intention!"
When Na Tongzhi heard this, his face was full of shame and he bowed and said, "Your Majesty, your words will wake up the dreamer.
To be honest with you, all the previous abbots of our temple did not understand the reason why our ancestors stayed here. They did not want to be seen through by the adults. This is really embarrassing for this young monk! In this case, the main hall is indeed not repaired! "
"Hey——, I asked you not to cultivate to be magnificent, but I didn't tell you not to cultivate!" Li Dan waved his hand and said:
"But master, we can discuss other matters slowly. The bandits are coming, and I would like to ask the master to come forward and persuade the villagers to avoid the temple. I am surrounded by a train formation here and have hundreds of sharp guards.
There is no room for delay in this matter, and we ask Master to come forward and help! There are dozens of injured people who need housing, and we also ask everyone to make arrangements. "
"Monks are compassionate, that's all easy to say. You can send the injured here, I have a junior brother here who is very skilled in medicine.
As for the villagers, they are originally tenants of our temple. I will just send people to collect them. "
"That's it, thank you very much, Master!"
Tong Zhilian said "I don't dare take it", turned around and called two monks with good looks to give them instructions.
Li Dan noticed it, and while walking out, he asked Mao Zaidi to bring thirty kilograms of rice noodles and five kilograms of beans to the temple to help him.
As soon as he stepped out of the temple wall, he saw Song Xiaoniu striding towards him. He hurriedly walked to the side to call him over and asked, "Have everything been arranged, but do you have anything else?"
"Sanlang, the governor has made arrangements. My uncle asked me to tell you that the sentinel sent out did not find the robbers."
"Didn't find it?" Li Dan wondered, scratched his head and said, "Impossible. Sheng Ba always said it was a prisoner who confessed. He couldn't have heard wrong. Could it be that when they heard that the forwards were all wiped out, they got scared and turned around and ran away?"
"Hey, that's good, there's no need to fight this battle!"
Song Xiaoniu reached out and patted the edge of Mao Zaidi's bamboo hat, and then said softly: "My uncle said, don't slack off until you are sure of the enemy's whereabouts. Who knows what evil they are hiding!"
"That makes sense." Li Dan wanted to ask: "Before Shanda left, he said that he still kept the captured thief leader. Where is he?"
"Down below, my uncle's people were watching and didn't care about him."
"Bring it here and I'll interrogate it again." Li Dan looked back at the Heavenly King's Palace: "It's right here, hurry up!"
Maverick ran away to pick up the prisoner. Li Dan looked at the carriage and driver rumbling by in front of him, and waved to Zhao Jingzi:
"Go up to the west mountain and find a high place to draw a picture of the surrounding area. I will use it when I hold a meeting to set up defenses!" Then he looked at the wall that the civilians had pushed and widened, and called a messenger:
"Please ask Zuoying to make a wooden fence. It won't work if it is left open like this. Also, make some horse-proofing ones. Send some to the entrance of the archway and the mountain gate below. Hurry!"
There is a place called Kwun Tong, separated by two ridges, to the southwest of Lingyan Temple. It is a small village of about twenty households.
The whole family of the only wealthy family in the village is now lying in the mud by the pond. The surviving villagers are either cooking, delivering meals, or doing some starching and washing work.
A few strong laborers were moving things from the rich family's house. The mule cart at the door was already filled with boxes, cages and brocade quilts. Someone turned around and put them in the sedan pulled by the little donkey.
The soldier carrying a spear and a red cloth on his head stood behind the car with his hands on his hips and stared attentively.
Beside the red clay wall about ten steps away from him, two people were talking quietly.
The guy with thick eyebrows, a mustache, a leather belt with a double bow and a quiver hanging from the back, and a fish-skin sheathed Yanling knife in his waist, was saying to the dark-skinned man with a short beard opposite:
"General, that group of people hid in the temple because they were obviously cowardly. What if he knew we were behind?
I think we should catch up with them while they are feeling guilty, surround them all, kill them all first, and then take revenge and then take away the food. You can't wait for them to catch their breath. It will be too much effort to hit them again! "
"A beating must be fought, and revenge must be avenged." The thin lips of the dark-faced man opposite moved gently:
"I just feel that something is wrong. If the officers and soldiers abandoned them and ran away, it stands to reason that a group of civilians should have dispersed long ago. There is no reason to retreat into the temple.
But if this were not the case, what would it be? Hey, who is leading the team this time? Interesting! "
"I'm waiting for you, General, can you not mention that useless thing! You mean, do they have any other back-ups or strategies?"
"It's hard to tell!" Thin lips spat on the ground:
"Feng Laosan ran back and said that the opponent was caught off guard at first, but immediately someone took out a bamboo gun to resist, and there were officers and soldiers wearing civilian clothes outside to help stabilize the situation, and then a young general in Tsing Yi riding a red horse led people from Charge from the side and force them to retreat.
The people who came out to meet him in the woods to the west were all in Qingyi, and they seemed to be in the same group as this young general. Then someone shouted that the army was coming and was surrounded, causing the front to be defeated and Li Youna was killed.
It doesn't sound to me like Li You ambushed the grain transport team, but it sounds like someone set a trap to trap this kid. "After he finished speaking, he punched the wall with his fist, causing fine soil to fall down.
"Tell Feng Laosan to come see me. Damn it, this kid abandoned his brother on the battlefield as a deserter, and now he has to make up for it! My subordinates, You Sanjiang, don't accept waste!"
It turns out that this person is You Sanjiang who was mentioned by Han Shoubei earlier and defeated Lin Baihu on the river to steal military supplies!
The mustache started to leave, but he stopped him again: "Go to the village and ask if there is any other way to Lingyan Temple? I don't believe it. Is there really no crack in this bastard's shell?" ?”
After saying that, he slowly walked into the yard of the wealthy family with his hands behind his back. He looked up at the main house with black tiles and overhanging eaves. He walked in and pulled up a chair to sit in the sun. He called the soldiers:
"Where are his maids and slaves? Find one to serve me.
I have killed the rich and given to the poor for them, and done justice for heaven. Is it okay to enjoy what the gentlemen have enjoyed?
You have made it so boring that there is no one to serve tea and water! "
The soldiers quickly went to Guan Ren's woodshed and brought two or three to boil water and serve tea, and also picked a good-looking one to beat his shoulders.
