Chapter 183 No One Escaped
Zhao Yulin waved his hand and told his brothers to go in and search thoroughly.
Li Sanqiang immediately led his troops to rush in.
Later, the soldiers brought out boxes of swords, bows and crossbows. Yangjin asked the monk standing there in a stern voice what he wanted to explain.
Then, some soldiers brought out boxes of gold and silver. Yangjin asked them what they were. Didn't they say that the temple couldn't collect half a pound of barley? Where did all this gold and silver come from?
Later, under the guidance of a young monk, the soldiers rescued five little girls from the dark room in the backyard. Yang Jin asked them carefully and found out that the oldest one was less than ten years old and the youngest one was less than six years old. They were all harmed by these beasts and had dull eyes, pale faces and thin bodies, which made Zhao Yulin very angry.
He asked Yangjin to lead them to identify and catch all the pests. Among dozens of people, only five were not beasts. He asked the soldiers to cover the little girl's eyes and behead those who were worse than beasts.
After a round of pleading and screaming, only five monks were left.
Zhao Yulin told the remaining five monks that he hoped they would truly calm down and comprehend the Dharma, spread the Dharma, and wholeheartedly become Buddhists.
After tidying up the Xinjing Temple, they continued to walk to the prefecture. Two days later, Zhao Yulin sat under the grape trellis in Yangjin's yard and enjoyed the sunshine.
When his father-in-law Tuwapengcuo learned that his daughter and son-in-law were surrounded in Hongyuan, he was furious and led the guards to search the nests of several kings at the foot of Partridge Mountain. They have not returned yet.
Yangjin leaned on Zhao Yulin and dozed lazily. After the battle of Hongyuan, even the iron-clad Zhao Yulin felt exhausted. It was tiring to walk on the plateau, not to mention hacking and killing like a machine.
Zhao Yulin's back still ached slightly, and he touched the wound on his forehead. Although it had healed, the hard scar was still there. He was somewhat amazed at his luck.
Just when they encountered a riot, Li Sanqiang happened to save him. His hands were giving Yangjin a refreshing massage when Changji Nima rushed in, excitedly shouting "brother-in-law".
Changji told him that the homes of the rebellious Zamp were all seized and confiscated, and not a single one escaped.
Zhao Yulin asked him, where are the people?
All beheaded?
Changji Lian said yes, yes, and then said that those who had not committed any crime were being detained and nothing had been done.
He nodded and said that the Shenwei Army would not harm innocent people, and that the family members who had not committed any crime were ordinary people and their own relatives.
Changji nodded as if he understood, and told him that a large amount of gold and silver had been confiscated, more than three times the tax revenue collected by the government treasury last year.
Captain Li is leading his brothers to search the temples. All the temples must be searched.
Yangjin told her brother to demolish those small temples that incited rebellion and assign the law-abiding monks to other large temples.
Zhao Yulin felt that this method worked. Having temples everywhere would be a waste of resources and would inevitably become a haven for filth and corruption.
He suggested to Yangjin that he should call together the Buddhist masters to discuss that in principle, one or two temples should be enough in a county, and the merit boxes in the temples should also be supervised and opened and cleared regularly. In addition to guaranteeing the daily expenses of the temples, the excess should be handed over to the government to be used for the people's livelihood needs, such as seeing a doctor, taking medicine, repairing bridges and roads, and helping the poor, etc., and must not go into the pockets of the masters.
Yangjin looked up at him and said, this requires careful planning.
Yes, these places are full of temples, which used to be equivalent to the first-level local government offices. Now that they have lost their supreme power, they must be unhappy. Now the third young master has to manage the merit box, which is equivalent to installing a valve on their pipelines that flow gold and silver.
To cut off someone's source of income is equivalent to killing his parents.
However, Zhao Yulin didn't care about that and just did it.
The next day, Baoning Prefecture convened a meeting of the abbots of temples from all over the country and announced a comprehensive cleanup of the temples' personnel and assets, setting a salary level for the abbots, unifying the management of the income and expenditure of the merit boxes, and taking back the temples' excess grassland and land to distribute to the landless people for farming and grazing.
The expressions on the hosts' faces immediately became complicated.
Zhao Yulin told them that he did not understand the true Buddhist scriptures, but he knew that money was like dirt, and that true practitioners did not sit in temples and chant sutras for money. Buddhism is a pure place, and people who only think about money will never chant sutras well, and will only defile the holy temple and bring shame to the Buddha.
Those eminent monks and great virtues immediately fell silent in the face of justice.
His father-in-law Tuwa Pengcuo immediately announced a plan to regulate the temples, closing illegal and small temples, approving the number of monks, and establishing a temple management committee with five members for large temples and three for small temples to negotiate and manage the temples. The state government uniformly made donation boxes to manage finances and was not allowed to ask for offerings from believers.
Zhao Yulin told them: There is no rush, everything can be discussed, and asked them to speak freely about the terms proposed by the state government and discuss them carefully.
As soon as these people came to Baoning Prefecture to hold a meeting, Li Sanqiang and his men went to meet them and cut off their retreat. They searched every temple one by one, and information was constantly sent back to the government office that many temples were secretly storing weapons, which was not allowed by any court.
He was not in a hurry. He slowly collected all the evidence against these people and then dealt with them.
Two days later, the kings from all over the country also arrived at the state. They asked Yangjin to follow suit and proposed to fully recover the pastures and lands owned by each family, and to confiscate their houses and shops in the towns and give them to the government for public use.
These people immediately became furious and made a big fuss in the meeting hall, arguing that the rebellion of a few kings had nothing to do with them. They did not participate, so why should their property be deprived?
Zhao Yulin didn't care and let them argue and discuss.
At this time, Li Sanqiang came back and collected the facts of the crimes committed by temples in various places. Zhao Yulin no longer showed up. Yangjin, Sanqiang and Changji Nima led the soldiers into the venue. After announcing the crimes one by one, they immediately dragged the criminals out and beheaded them outside the venue. Only then did these people realize that they had fallen into Zhao Qier's trap to lure the tiger away from the mountain.
By the time the rebellion was dealt with, the number of people in the hall had been reduced by one third, and when the new temple rules , the remaining people all agreed with both hands, and there was no need for any discussion at all.
After clearing out the bad apples in the temple, it would be much easier to discipline the Zamp. First, those who participated in the rebellion would be dug out and executed on the spot.
Next, Zhao Yulin found a Zanpu from Shanqian County, Shanhou County and Tonggui County, and asked them to talk about their income after surrendering to the Song Dynasty.
After he counted their accounts one by one, he found that their income had increased.
He then asked these people, has the life of the people improved or deteriorated?
All of these people said that things had definitely gotten better. Many serfs and lowly people had been given horses, cattle and sheep, and they rode past them in a show of force, whipping their horses.
Haha, these people haven't changed their mindset yet and can't stand the jubilant look of the emancipated serfs.
Zhao Yulin told them with a smile that this showed that we were on the right path.
Only when the people have money in their pockets will they spend it on shopping, and only when your business is thriving can you earn more money. In the past, you squeezed the people dry, but you still only had so little income, right?
Changji Nima reasoned with them, saying that when a small river has water, the big river will be full. If we don't let the people live, the people will not let us live either.
Right, brother-in-law?
Changji was very proud to have his brother-in-law and always took every opportunity to show off.
Zhao Yulin smiled but said nothing. Then Yang Jin spoke.
She said that no matter how you count, the wealth in everyone's hands is the hard-earned money of everyone who used to own their land. The mountains, forests, land, and grassland belong to the court. This time, the state government will not make a one-size-fits-all decision. Everyone should go back and think carefully before making their own decisions.
This is what Zhao Yulin told Yangjin. He believes that the affairs in these Tibetan areas cannot be rushed, and stability overrides everything. For now, the temple issue should be dealt with first.
Tuwapengcuo immediately stated that his family had handed over most of the land and pasture last time, and this time all the remaining land and pasture would be handed over to the state government and distributed to the people for farming and grazing.
Then, the old man added that his official village would also be handed over to be used as the academy of Baoning Prefecture, and Yangjin was asked to move all the children who had been summoned to study to the official village.
Zhao Yulin immediately applauded his father-in-law. He looked at the complicated expressions of the Zamps in the hall and understood the feelings of these vested interests. This was a great cleansing of everyone's thoughts.
After coughing twice, he said he would say a few words as well.
First, everyone has lived a better life in the past two years, which is obvious to all. The grassland has truly become a family. At least, everyone can move freely in the state capital from their own territories in the past, and even go to Hanzhong and Chengdu at will, which was not the case in the past. They have truly become the masters of this grassland.
These people thought every word he said was the truth and kept nodding in communication.
Second, the state government wants everyone to hand over their land and pastures to the landless for farming and grazing, and hopes that more people will have food to eat and become rich. The cost of land is low to begin with, and you are collecting rent from the people for the land you hold, how much will the people have left after paying you?
He asked: You all have the heart of a bodhisattva, why are you reluctant to let go?
This question hit them in the heart.
Yes, which one of these people does not have a scripture hall at home? They have all been receiving the Buddha’s compassionate education since their mothers’ wombs.
Third, the children of each family who accept Chinese language, have more Chinese culture, and are familiar with the situation in the Han area can go to the Han area to serve, learn the advanced experience of the local area, and come back to build their hometown. If they are willing to stay, they can serve as officials in the Han area. They are all citizens of the Song Dynasty.
This is a very good idea. Each family can train their own children to work in the Han area, which is a significant progress.
Fourth, Zhao Yulin told them that all the temples in the state had been thoroughly cleaned up in the past few days, and a lot of gold and silver had been seized, but the Shenwei Army did not want a penny.
He suggested that the state should keep part of the money to provide compensation to the soldiers and civilians who died in the battle , and to rebuild the Hongyuan county seat as well as county seats and passes in various places.
The excess was used to build roads all the way to Chengdu, so that people could take a horse-drawn carriage to visit the big city of Chengdu.
