Chang Feng and others followed Zhu Youtang and were about to enter the temple.
Ji Xiao stopped him and pointed at Huzi: "Dogs are not allowed to enter the temple, otherwise it will be blasphemy against the Buddha."
Chang Feng said: "National Master, Buddhism has the virtue of living a good life. Dogs are also spiritual. How can you blaspheme the Buddha by entering a temple?"
Zhu Youtang didn't know the importance of Huzi in finding the secret room of the dark cellar. He said casually: "Since Great Yongchang Temple has this rule, let's just do as the Romans do when we go to the countryside."
Zhu Youtang spoke. Chang Feng had no choice but to comply. The tiger was handed over to the custody of a regiment soldier.
Everyone entered the temple.
Chang Feng saw a sign erected in front of the Main Hall.
There are a few lines written on the sign: "This temple prohibits bringing your own incense and candles. Bringing your own incense and candles does not show the sincerity of offering offerings to the Three Jewels; it has no merit; no blessings; and no blessing from the Buddha."
Chang Feng was amused: only the incense candles bought at a high price from the temple would be recognized by the Buddha.
Everyone believes that the most profitable business in the Ming Dynasty was the salt industry.
In fact, this is not the case. The most profitable "business" in Ming Dynasty was temples.
Lord Hongwu was a wandering monk and believed in Buddhism. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there was no tax on temples.
The temple, on the one hand, has large donations from pilgrims.
On the one hand, because there is no need to pay taxes, the temple does a lot of business. Use the donations from good men and women to make wanton usury.
While amassing huge amounts of money through lending, they also acquired large amounts of land.
The temple's wealth grew.
After Xuanzong came to the throne, he once lamented: There will no longer be restrictions on temples. In one hundred and eighty years, people in this world may no longer have the surname "Buddha" but "Zhu".
Therefore, starting from Xuanzong, several subsequent emperors implemented the policy of taxing temples and inhibiting the expansion of temple power.
However, once an organization has mastered huge wealth, it will spend a lot of money to pave the way and find its agents in the court.
The great temples in the world all have intertwined interests with important officials of the imperial court.
In this dynasty, Emperor Chenghua believed deeply in Buddhism and Taoism. The power of the temple further increased.
Becoming a monk became an iron rice bowl. The temple became a big business.
Apart from anything else, the Great Yongchang Temple strictly prohibits pilgrims from bringing incense and candles.
A bundle of ninety-nine incense costs twenty cents from the temple. They are sold in the temple for one tael of silver. There are dozens of times the huge profits.
Not to mention other businesses such as lending money, opening tooth shops, rice shops, and annexing land.
Everyone entered the Mahavira Hall.
Xiao Jing, the steward of the East Palace, said: "Chang Feng. The safety of His Highness is related to the country. You should immediately lead people to patrol around to prevent assassins from hiding."
Chang Feng cupped his hands and said, "Yes, Eunuch Xiao."
Ji Xiao cursed in his heart: It seems I guessed it right! The prince is here to cause trouble today! It's strange, did he know that more than 60 women were hiding in Dayongchang Temple so quickly?
Huh, luckily my secret room is well hidden and he can't find any evidence.
The wind often comes out of the Mahavira Palace. Fatty Xu and others were already waiting for him to find the missing woman.
Chang Feng saw that the more than 500 temple-protecting monks in the temple were intensively guarded by soldiers from the 12th Regiment Battalion.
The man who commanded these three thousand soldiers was Ye Guang, a confidant of the prince and the commander-in-chief of the rear army, Ye Guang.
Ye Guang was afraid that the monks protecting the temple would be harmful to the prince. I simply found a reason: "Please monks pray for the fallen soldiers at the border."
Chang Feng lowered his voice and said to Fatty Xu: "Let's work!"
The layout of the great temples in the Ming Dynasty is basically the same. Entering the temple gate, there are bell towers and drum towers on the left and right.
On the front is the Palace of Heavenly Kings. Behind the Tianwang Hall is the Main Hall, and further to the south is the Changsheng Treasury.
On the left and right sides of the Changsheng Treasury are the monk's room and the dining hall.
Behind the Changsheng Treasury is the pagoda.
Chang Feng decided to start the investigation from the monk's room.
He ordered fifty of his men to go into each monk's room separately to look for clues.
He himself followed Fatty Xu into Jixiao's monk's room.
As soon as he entered the monk's room, Chang Feng sighed: "This is not a monk's room. It is clearly a small palace!"
The Babu bed in the monk's room was twice as big as the one copied from Cai Zhong's mansion. The furnishings are nothing short of luxurious.
Changfeng came in a hurry and didn't bring the treasure-gathering ring and silver-seeking stirrup. But compared to Hu Zi's failure to enter the temple, these are nothing.
Chang Feng came to Babu bed first. He turned over the quilt carefully and suddenly found a winding hair.
Chang Feng judged that the monk had no hair on his upper head, so the winding hair naturally came from his lower head.
He frowned: "Unlucky."
He was still a boy and didn't know the mystery.
But Fatty Xu took a breath of cold air: "Oh my God. Could it be that among those women, Ji Xiao has already ruined their virginity?"
Chang Feng asked: "Why do you say this?"
Fatty Xu said: "You don't understand this. The hair on a woman's thing is different in thickness from a man's hair. But it's just as winding and winding."
"This one is so thin, it doesn't look like a man's hair. It looks more like a maidservant..."
Chang Feng's expression changed.
Fatty Xu quickly comforted him: "It's just a night's work. Men's energy is limited, and there are at most six men in Yihong Mansion in one night. Even if you get one...more than sixty women at a time!"
"There is at most a 10% chance that your Xiaoyan will be damaged by Ji Xiao."
Fatty Xu's ability to comfort people is really not that good.
Beads of sweat broke out on Chang Feng's forehead.
Fatty Xu gave himself a gentle slap: "Look at my rotten mouth, what can I say? Don't care."
When I was looking for the letter box that autumn night last year, I had a four-hour deadline.
The search for the missing woman has no deadline. Chang Feng was equally anxious.
He doesn't care about so-called chastity. What he cared about was that Liu Xiaoyan suffered an unforgettable injury.
He directly used his middle finger knuckle as a treasure ring, knocked on the floor, and searched the walls, looking for a secret cellar that could lock people in.
After a moment, the search for Jixiao's monk's room was completed. Nothing was found.
Other subordinates also reported one after another, but no secret cellar was found.
Chang Feng said: "No. Dayongchang Temple is too big. It would be too time-consuming to search like this! We still have to bring in the tiger."
Anyway, Jixiao was "praying" with Zhu Youtang in the Main Hall. Chang Feng came to the temple gate and secretly brought Hu Zi in.
The next step is to search the dining hall. That is where the monks cook and eat.
Changfeng brought Huzi into the dining hall and let Huzi sniff Liu Xiaoyan's bellyband.
The tiger raised his tail and sniffed left and right in the dining hall.
Suddenly, he was barking in front of the kitchen stove! The tail is also raised.
Chang Feng and Fatty Xu were overjoyed and came over.
I saw a wooden door panel on the floor of the kitchen stove, and a copper ring hung on the panel.
Chang Feng frowned: "Is it the entrance to a secret passage? Built here so blatantly? Without any cover-up?"
Fatty Xu answered: "Yes, at least it needs to be covered with some firewood or something to cover it up."
Chang Feng took a deep breath and pulled open the copper ring.
It turned out to be...
There is indeed a dark cellar under the wooden door. But this dark cellar is only two feet deep.
The person hiding in the secret cellar was not a woman. But...three or four fans of mutton.
When Huzi was in Fusi, Beizhen, he ate lamb wrapped in silver foil all day long. Not only did he remember the taste of silver, but he also remembered the smell of mutton!
So when he smelled the smell of mutton, he kept barking.
Fatty Xu said: "Amitabha. These eminent monks who are pure-hearted and celibate are really good at eating."
Chang Feng said: "Well, the mutton on the kitchen stove is too eye-catching. So they dug a small dark cellar to store the mutton."
Chang Feng wasted two moments and searched the dining hall but found nothing unusual.
At this time, Xiao Jing, the steward, walked in.
Xiao Jing said: "Chang Baihu. The prince said that he will stay at Dayongchang Temple for one night at most. He will have to return to Fengtianmen before dawn tomorrow to preside over the imperial hearing."
"With him gone, you have no reason to stay in the temple and search around."
"In other words, you still have half an afternoon and a whole night to find the missing woman."
