Chapter 416: Monks Join Forces

Guo Rong's anti-Buddhist movement was in full swing. A large number of fake monks failed the assessment and were directly eliminated, while the monks who passed were issued certificates of ordination.

In the future, monks without certificates of ordination will be arrested and sentenced to corvee labor if they are found.

The content of the assessment is very simple. It requires reciting several Buddhist scriptures. A scripture is not too long, only tens of thousands of words. The second is to explain the scriptures briefly. The third is to screen according to the Buddhist rules and regulations. All monks who violate the rules and regulations will be dismissed.

In this era, being a monk is a good career. There is no need to perform corvee labor, pay taxes, and eat well every day. Therefore, many people go to be monks, but there are not many monks who can really meet these assessment requirements.

After three months of assessment, only 2,000 monks in Zhou State can pass the assessment, more than 150,000 monks return to secular life, and thousands of bandits are arrested.

In the end, the remaining temples in Zhou State were reduced from tens of thousands to hundreds. Many temples were converted into workshops or distributed to ordinary people for housing.

Guo Rong obtained a large amount of money, food, land and population by destroying Buddhism.

This also allowed the Zhou Kingdom, which was originally in financial difficulties, to immediately restore its finances and fill its treasury. At the same time, the people Guo Rong sent to experiment with the salt drying method also sent back news that the salt drying method was a great success.

The income from salt production in the salt field increased by more than ten times. Hearing that so much salt was obtained, Guo Rong immediately began to reform the salt law. All salt fields were nationalized, and salt merchants from all over the country needed salt permits to buy salt from salt fields.

To obtain salt permits, you need to help the government transport food to the front line. For a time, many salt merchants began to organize people to transport food. The logistical transportation pressure at the border of the court was greatly reduced.

Next, Guo Rong began to use salt to exchange war horses from Dangxiang and Tubo.

With money and food supplies and war horses, the strength of the Zhou army began to increase rapidly. Seeing this scene, Guo Rong finally began to prepare for another northern expedition.

Guo Rong has been on the throne for six years. After defeating Hou Shu and Nan Tang, he finally had time to prepare to retake the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.

The Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun are too important to the Central Plains Dynasty. With the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, the Central Plains agricultural civilization has the initiative on the grassland. The Yanshan Mountains block the northern nomadic peoples.

This is the barrier of the Central Plains Dynasty.

If the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun are lost, the northern nomadic peoples will be able to march straight from Youzhou. The vast North China Plain will be unobstructed and will allow the Hu cavalry to come and go.

It is completely possible for others to come and go as they please.

And after obtaining the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, the Khitans obtained a large number of craftsmen, Jizhou produced iron, Youzhou produced grain, and the north produced horses. With this combination, the strength of the Khitans can be said to have increased linearly.

Originally, although there were many Khitans, most of them were without armor, so they could only harass the Jiedushi in various places and their strength was very poor. Now the situation is almost reversed.

After preparing a large amount of money and food supplies, and carefully selecting the imperial army, Guo Rong once again prepared to start the Northern Expedition.

Guo Rong's Buddhist rectification behavior has seriously damaged the vitality of the once prosperous Buddhism. For those true Buddhists and Buddhist monks, the current Buddhism is the Pure Land of Buddhism. The previous Buddhism was full of filth and was not Buddhism at all.

However, there are still a large number of Buddhists who hate this. In their view, Guo Rong is harvesting the wealth of Buddhism under the banner of rectifying Buddhism, and is an enemy of Buddhism.

"Master Chenghui, the emperor of Zhou is destroying the foundation of our Buddhism. We must not admit defeat and must resist!"

"Yes, we must resist! This man is the enemy of Buddhism!"

"When the Three Wu Emperors destroyed Buddhism, Buddhism still flourished. Guo Rong is just a local lord, but he dared to destroy our followers!"

"We must punish him, otherwise how can we show the boundless Buddha Dharma?"

Several monks said one after another. Sitting in the middle of the crowd was a monk with a solemn appearance. This man had a full forehead, ears hanging down to his shoulders, and a solemn appearance, which made people feel the urge to worship him.

"My fellow disciples, please wait." Master Chenghui, who was sitting in the first seat, said.

"Now that the emperor of Zhou is in a prosperous period, we can only avoid the sharp edge temporarily. Fighting hard now is just sending ourselves to death! If we are not careful, a hundred years of merit will go down the drain"

"But if we don't fight back, how can we get ahead?" One of the monks said.

"Let's observe his whereabouts first. I think the Emperor of Zhou has great ambitions. He is definitely not someone who wants to live in peace in a corner. He must want to unify the world!"

"You must know that the battlefield changes rapidly. As long as you seize the opportunity, even if he is lucky, there are ways to deal with him!" Cheng Hui said lightly.

"Brother, do you mean that we should unite with the Khitans to deal with the Emperor of Zhou?" A monk next to him said.

The monks around him thought that this plan was feasible.

"This plan is feasible, and the Khitan royal family believes in Buddhism. When the time comes, we will help the Khitan royal family to establish a kingdom in the Central Plains, and then we will naturally benefit!"

"If we can help Long Ting, we also have the hope of achieving the status of Arhat and Bodhisattva and ascending to the Western Paradise!"

The more they talked, the more they felt that the plan was feasible. They became excited and quickly assigned tasks. Some people went to contact the Khitans in the north, others went south to contact Southern Tang and Wuyue, and some went to Kaifeng to keep an eye on the Zhou Kingdom.

After assigning their respective tasks, the monks began to proceed according to the plan. Cheng Hui, the strongest among them, took action at the critical moment.

Richard didn't know what these monks were planning, but he knew very well that someone must be trying to stop them this time.

You know, in history, Guo Rong died of illness very soon. At that time, Guo Rong led the army to the north, won victory after victory, and had recovered three states. Guo Rong wanted to seize Youzhou. As long as he occupied Youzhou, the Khitans would have to retreat to the north of Yanshan Mountain.

As a result, at this critical moment, Guo Rong suddenly fell ill and was very ill. The army had to stop the northern expedition and return to Kaifeng overnight. After returning to Kaifeng, he died of illness in just half a month.

You know, Guo Rong was only 39 years old at the time, energetic and strong, and was in his prime. As a result, he died of an illness, and the famous doctors in Kaifeng were helpless.

In this world with immortals and Buddhas, it is normal for Richard to fall ill for no reason.

So from the beginning, Richard was ready to fight with these people. And where is the best opportunity for these people to take action? It's very simple, that is, when they lead the army to go to war.

Although there was a large army guarding him at this time, after leaving the capital, the Dragon of Luck could not completely protect him. In addition, the battlefield was extremely dangerous and there were too many opportunities to attack.

Those people wanted to take action only after the army went out. Therefore, Richard decided to go with him.

After hearing that Guo Rong was going to lead the army to the expedition, Richard met with Guo Rong and expressed his willingness to go to the Northern Expedition with him. Guo Rong was very happy to hear that Richard was willing to go with the army to the Northern Expedition.

In his opinion, Richard was a great talent of the time. With him, this Northern Expedition would be foolproof.

The army went north, and food and military equipment were also transported to the front line because of the opening of the Central Law. Guo Rong personally led the army to the North.

After hearing the news of the Zhou Kingdom's Northern Expedition, the Khitan people immediately mobilized. At this time, the Khitan could be said to be in its heyday. There were no less than 300,000 soldiers in control of the strings. Not only did they occupy the Sixteen States of Yanyun, but they also received a child emperor, the Northern Han. It can be said that they were strong in both army and horse.

Although Guo Rong had lost some soldiers in a northern expedition a few years ago, he did not suffer any major losses, so he was not afraid of Guo Rong's northern expedition.

At the same time, several monks quietly came to the Khitan Shangjing City. Soon these monks were invited to Fengguo Temple.

"Meet Master Benyuan." Several monks bowed respectfully.

"My fellow monks, what are you doing in Fengguo Temple?" Benyuan said lightly.

The leading monk Chengfei looked around and said, "Please ask the others to leave!"

Benyuan glanced at Monk Chengfei, then waved his hand and said, "You take off first!"

The monks around him bowed and bowed, then left the room. Soon, only Monk Chengfei and Master Benyuan were left in the room.

After seeing that there was no one else, Monk Chengfei spoke up: "Brother Benyuan, I am here on behalf of my brother Chenghui to discuss important matters with you."

"Important matters? Why can't you stay in the Central Plains anymore and want to come to the grassland?" Monk Benyuan said indifferently.

"That's not the case!" Monk Chengfei shook his head and said: "Brother, now our Buddhist sect has reached a critical moment of life and death. If we can't unite, I'm afraid that the Buddhist sect in the Central Plains today will be you tomorrow!"

"Haha, you are just talking nonsense!" Monk Benyuan said with a sneer.

"Although Zhou has a wise leader, Khitan is also strong in military power. It is not easy for Zhou to unify the world!"

"What's more, Khitan has the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun in its hands. It can attack or defend. Zhou can only run around. Khitan has a higher chance of unifying the world!"

Benyuan was not moved by Chengfei's threats. He now saw clearly that Khitan was now in a state of great power and was not afraid of the Central Plains. At this time, the Central Plains was still in war and strife. As long as they were given the opportunity, the army would go south and settle in the Central Plains.

"Brother, you are wrong!" Cheng Fei shook his head and said, "The last time the Khitan Emperor Yelu Deguang marched south and occupied the Central Plains, what was the result?"

"But in just half a year, he had to retreat in a panic, and even he himself died of illness halfway through, and was made into an emperor's parasite!"

At that time, Yelu Deguang was full of vigor and vitality. He supported the chaos of the Later Jin Dynasty and marched south to the Central Plains. He destroyed the Later Jin Dynasty in one fell swoop and captured Kaifeng City. He was about to unify the Central Plains, and then march south across the river to unify the world.

As a result, Yelu Deguang himself could not control the army below. The Khitans burned, killed and looted, which directly caused the people of Kaifeng to rebel. Then the Jiedushi of various places also attacked one after another. Yelu Deguang's army could not resist and had to retreat in a panic.

On the way of retreating, Yelu Deguang died of illness and was made into a mummy and taken back to the grassland.

It can be said that this incident was the pain point of Khitan. It was also the time when Khitan was closest to unifying the world, but it ended up in a mess. At that time, Master Benyuan was planning to use Fulongting to achieve enlightenment, achieve the status of Bodhisattva, and ascend to the Western Paradise.

As a result, he was kicked back when he was about to succeed. Not only did he fail, but he was backfired by the luck of the Central Plains and vomited blood. If it weren't for his profound skills, he would probably have died on the spot.

Now hearing Chengfei say this, even Benyuan, who has a lot of skills in nourishing qi, couldn't help but take action.

Seeing that Benyuan was angry, Master Chengfei knew that the time had come and hurriedly said: "Brother Benyuan, we are here to help you enter the Central Plains again!"

Hearing this, Benyuan's original anger disappeared instantly, and his eyes moved slightly, and he instantly understood what they meant.

Immediately chanted a Buddhist name.

"Amitabha, I almost got angry, thank you for your enlightenment!"

"Brother, you have great merits and virtues, and you will be blessed by the Buddha!" ​​Monk Chengfei flattered.

"What do you want to talk about, Monk Chenghui?" Benyuan said calmly.

Cheng Fei continued, "This time the Zhou emperor is going north, this is our chance. We have sent people to contact Southern Tang. When the Zhou goes north, Southern Tang will take the opportunity to attack Huainan and take back the land of Huainan in one fell swoop."

"And the Khitan army needs to fight with the Zhou army. If Zhou receives the Huainan war report, it will certainly withdraw its troops. At this time, we will ask the Khitan army to go out."

"There will inevitably be some chaos when the Zhou army withdraws. We take the opportunity to attack the Zhou emperor!"

"If we attack the lord of a vassal state, none of us will survive the backlash of luck!" Monk Benyuan said coldly.

"Hehe, of course we won't do it!" Monk Chengfei said with a smile.

"We can use spells to infect some Khitan soldiers with diseases, and take this opportunity to get close to the Zhou emperor. When the Zhou emperor dies of the disease, what does it have to do with us?"

"What do you want?" Benyuan thought in his heart that this plan is very feasible and worth a try.

"After the success, Khitan will move into the Central Plains. We will also get the support of the Khitan royal family and obtain luck for cultivation!" said Monk Chengfei.

"Yes!" Benyuan agreed directly.

Then the two sides began to discuss the specific plan of action and the distribution of benefits after success.

It took more than an hour before the argument ended and the two sides reached a result that satisfied both sides.

Chengfei and the other two were sent to the guest house to live. After everyone else left, a small door behind the screen opened and another big monk in a cassock came out.

"Brother, do you really want to agree to them? Share luck with them?"

"Haha, how is that possible!" Benyuan chuckled.

"We have been working here for hundreds of years, what right do they have?"

"Now we are just borrowing their power. When the Zhou emperor dies, there will be no leader, and the army will march south to establish the Central Plains, then we will have the final say?"

"Monk Chenghui wants to rely on luck to practice, but it is a daydream!"

"If they know when to advance and retreat, give them a state to develop. If they don't know how to do it, let them learn from my Buddhist teachings!"

"Brother, I heard that Monk Chenghui has extraordinary means, why don't we give them some benefits?"

"Extraordinary means? When the army enters the Central Plains, I can advance to the Bodhisattva level, how can he fight with me!"