Chapter 702 Typical Betrayal
Xiao Linzi said: It’s different. During the Dali Kingdom period, our Duan family worked for so long but we were not as rich and powerful as we are now.
Zhao Sihan nodded in agreement and told him: This is because we have merged into the New Song Dynasty, and the scope of our business has suddenly become wider. The court has also waived a large amount of our loans, and I don't know if it will take ten or twenty years to pay them back.
As for Shenglong, my third brother assigned Shenglong Prefecture to Yunnan Road, but we got a lot of tax money just from the maritime trade last year. Zhao Sihan was in a very good mood, with a smile on his face.
The couple supported each other as they walked into the cabin and began to plan carefully, planning for the future of Yunnan in accordance with the court's requirement of a five-year plan.
Duolin Temple on Henan Road welcomed a visit today from a group of eminent monks led by the abbot of Tianlong Temple.
The abbot of Tianlong Temple took the opportunity of Duan Xiaolin's visit to Beijing to report on his work and receive training to travel around the roads and states of Xin Song to beg for alms, in order to see what other roads and states are like.
Duan Xiaolin immediately corrected the master, saying that it was to travel around the motherland to beg for alms.
The abbot came to his senses immediately.
This is because the old monk has become dull and pedantic because he stays in the temple every day. Dali has been changed to Yunnan Road and merged into an inseparable part of the new Song Dynasty. He is not going out of the country, but circling in his own country.
The abbot laughed and said that he was confused and just wanted to go out for a walk to see the new look of our New Song Dynasty.
Tianlong Temple was a place where successive emperors of Dali retreated to practice Buddhism, so Duan Xiaolin would definitely support it. His father was there, as was his father's father, and his father's father's father, all of whom were high-ranking monks with nine Shangpa elders on their heads, so he must make proper arrangements.
After these eminent monks travel around and see clearly how powerful and prosperous the New Song Dynasty is, they will definitely support his reforms and get the Yunnan Road thing done when they come back.
Soon, the government office of Yunnan Road arranged special carriages and allocated the best official ships to send this group of monks to Duolin Temple in Henan.
The abbot and his fellow disciples did not need to beg for alms at all. They came to Duolin Temple very comfortably, enjoying the entire reception arrangement of the court.
This was something that was unthinkable during the Dali Kingdom era. Not to mention the dangerous and difficult roads, even applying for customs clearance documents along the way was a huge hassle.
If one or two ruthless people come out and ask to compete with each other in martial arts and challenge the unique skills of Tianlong Temple, the abbot will have to burn his brain cells. If he fights, he may kill someone and go to jail. If he doesn't fight, the prestige of Tianlong Temple will be lost.
During this trip, Lu Zhi's deacon was specially responsible for liaison. They stayed at either the post station or the high-end inn. The conditions there were definitely not comparable to those of ordinary monks begging for alms with a broken bowl in their hands. If it weren't for the fact that they were wearing cassocks and had bald heads, the deacon would take them to the theater to watch the performances of the popular young ladies, eat Xuzhou's firewood chicken, and taste the beggar chicken that the King of Zhennan had run.
The monks were so surprised when they saw the long green train that they could not close their mouths. They thought it was a divine object, as they had never seen such a huge train before. The monks were sitting in the carriage looking around to see what was going on. The train suddenly accelerated and they leaned back in surprise because they could not hold on to the armrests of the chairs. They all looked at the roof and felt that the train was flying. Fearing for safety, they all used their real kung fu to fight for the handrails.
The passengers around couldn't help laughing when they saw the white-bearded monks acting like this.
At night, the deacon specially invited the monks to go to the streets to look at the street lights in Xinshi. The bright street lights made the whole city of Xinshi look as if it was surrounded by a large yellow halo, making the monks feel that they were living in the place where gods lived. They kept asking the deacon: What kind of oil does the magic lamp burn?
Tung oil or rapeseed oil?
How much lamp oil would be burned by so many lamps in one night?
Someone reminded: It is to light a lamp. Then someone asked: Electricity, what is electricity?
Can my Tianlong Temple use the magic lamp?
The deacon knew very little about electric lights, and told them without knowing anything : This is the electric light invented by our king, and it is only available in Xinshi. I have never heard of electric lights being turned on in other places.
What the monks saw along the way were all surprises, and they deeply realized that "a day in heaven is a thousand years on earth." The changes are too great.
To practice, one still has to travel around and beg for alms like their ancestors did in order to attain enlightenment.
That night, after settling the monks in Duolin Temple to rest, the abbot invited the abbot of the Duan family of Tianlong Temple to his own courtyard for a debate.
The abbot of the Duan family asked: It is said that your temple is the largest temple in the Central Plains. Looking at the wall separating it, I feel that there are other temples close to it?
The abbot of Duolin Temple said modestly: This is because the court has regulations that temples are not allowed to have independent martial monks to guard the temple. Duolin Temple hung a plaque in the Arhat Hall as a martial arts school to recruit disciples and accept the supervision of the Shenwei Army. The disciples who have completed their studies either sign up to join the army or serve as local garrison officers. They are no longer under the jurisdiction of the temple.
The abbot of the Duan family nodded.
It turned out that a group of people from the Arhat Hall of Duolin Temple hung up two signs and were working for the court.
The abbot continued: The Shenwei Army contributed money to repair the mountain road, the imperial court funded the renovation of the temple and did not allow the temple to own land after charging admission. Duolin Temple handed over the land it had bought in the past to the government, leaving only a small piece of land for the monks to work and for their daily vegetable needs. Now there is one less piece of land here.
The Duan family's abbot nodded, finally solving the mystery in his heart.
The abbot said: Since the road to the mountain was repaired and opened to the public, the ticket revenue has been growing steadily. A large number of pilgrims from the surrounding areas have come to the mountain to pray for blessings. The ticket revenue of the Duolin Temple far exceeds the land rent and land rent in the past. There is also a large amount of money in the merit box, so the temple is not short of money.
The abbot of the Duan family smiled and nodded.
He was very clear about this. As the national temple of Dali, Tianlong Temple was opened to the public after Zhao Sihan had it carefully repaired. It immediately attracted countless pilgrims and there was no need to worry about having no money to spend.
The abbot told him: Our New Song Kingdom spans 100,000 miles from east to west and 90,000 miles from north to south. The monks are no longer limited to wandering nearby. They want to follow the immortal path of their ancestor Xuan Zhuang and go to India to beg for alms, preach the Dharma and debate the scriptures.
The abbot of the Duan family felt the same way and nodded.
This time, he had only walked a few roads in Xin Song before he saw the different changes in the Nine Heavens. Now that he had returned from the Western Regions, he could go to India along the road that the divine monk Xuan Zhuang had taken in his lifetime. This was definitely the highest level of spiritual practice and alms-begging.
The two chatted so happily that they even forgot the time.
As the sky grew brighter in the east, the two men agreed to report to the Ministry of Rites and Religious Affairs together: they would organize eminent monks from the two temples to go to the Western Regions to preach, promote Chinese Buddhism, and teach believers to love their country and religion.
In Chengdu, Zhao Yulin certainly didn't expect that the two monasteries' eminent monks would be so interested in planning the new Song Buddhism. At this moment, he was meeting the young emperor of Goryeo.
After hearing the court officials and his son describe the tremendous changes in Liaoyang Road, he was very surprised and came up with the idea of coming to Xinsong to check it out in person.
Over the years, in order to resist the devastating blow of the Mongolian army and fight against the invading army of the island country of Japan, the Goryeo Kingdom has bled itself dry and still owes the New Song Kingdom a large sum of money.
In order to sell more goods to the New Song Dynasty and earn a trade surplus to repay its debts, the Goryeo court repeatedly raised the tax rate on New Song goods imported into Goryeo, resulting in a series of tax increases at the ports of the two countries.
This makes it difficult to do business between the two countries.
Goryeo did not have many products to show off, but the New Song Dynasty had a wide variety of goods. With the support of advanced technology, the products made by the New Song Dynasty became more and more exquisite and popular, and the cost was not high. Even if Goryeo increased taxes, wealthy families still rushed to buy them.
As a result, the New Song Dynasty made a fortune, while the finances of Goryeo were becoming increasingly depleted. Feng Guiqi sent an official letter demanding the payment of the debt, which made the young emperor feel troubled.
If he didn't want to pay, the New Song Kingdom had stationed heavy troops in Lishui, Busan and other places. What if Feng Guiqi got angry and the two countries went to war? He had to pay back the money, but his treasury was empty. If he risked his life to pay back the debt, the officials would not receive their salaries, and many people would starve to death.
This guy is so anxious that he has no idea what to do.
Prince Wang Dian of the Peninsula believes that it is wrong for the emperor to impose heavy taxes at the ports. The Ministry of Revenue has made statistics and found that because of the tax increases by the two countries, the prices of our goods are terrifyingly high. Without competitive advantages, they cannot be sold at all. Many domestic workshops have closed down because they cannot sell their goods.
On the contrary, the exquisite glassware of Xin Song and the fine wine like Wu Gu Feng were snapped up by the rich families of Goryeo. They made money just as well.
At the same time, because the taxes at the checkpoints were too high, the common people saw that they could make money through smuggling, so they actually took shortcuts and used other means to smuggle contraband, which in turn encouraged the proliferation of criminals and the collusion between officials and businessmen to evade taxes.
Right now we can only make money by exporting people.
The Minister of Revenue reported to the young emperor: This year, many women who knew how to make kimchi fled to New Song and became chefs in inns and wealthy families in Hebei, Henan and even farther away from New Song, specializing in making our Goryeo-style kimchi.
These women were very frugal. They would mail the wages paid by their employers back through the post stations. The accumulated amount at the port was not a small sum.
The little emperor was amazed. How could a small portion of kimchi be so popular among the people of the New Song Dynasty?
Wang Dian reported to him that Miss Jinzhu, whom we sent to New Song at that time, was a god-level royal chef for palace kimchi. Now she is the wife of the third son of the third young master, Chen Liu. The upper class people in the capital of New Song are proud to eat authentic Korean kimchi.
So that's what it is, the little emperor suddenly realized.
Wang Dian continued to report to him: The new Song Dynasty was peaceful, and all places were devoted to construction and trying to find money for the people. There was a scene of construction everywhere, and there was a shortage of manpower everywhere.
General Li said: That's right, that's right, we accepted the Japanese captives, and the new Song Dynasty was short of people for construction, so the Ministry of Revenue sent 30,000 young men and women over to work as laborers.
When these laborers arrived in Shenzhou, they were assigned to work in various places. Marshal Feng also paid them wages and gave them working clothes, shoes and hats. None of them wanted to come back as they had food and shelter. Many women wanted to start a family with the soldiers and become the daughters-in-law of the new Song Dynasty.
The little emperor immediately looked displeased. These people were obviously ungrateful and betraying their poor family.
