"Are you really going to Lotus Mountain?" He Xiaomi was still a little worried, "Today's Taer Temple...... It's likely that it won't be too peaceful, so why don't you let your subordinates go down? ”

"It is precisely because Ta'er Monastery may not be peaceful that I must go," Li Zicheng had just gone to the training ground for a few laps, and was washing his face with hot water, he said while wiping his face: "If I don't dare to go, how can you make Tenzin Gyatso confident?" ”

"My lord......" He Xiaomi saw that Li Zicheng had made up his mind, and knew that it would be useless to persuade him, so he said: "Then bring more soldiers, in case there are any moths, so as to protect your lordship." ”

"Not only to protect me, but also to protect Tenzin Gyatso," Li Zicheng had already wiped his face and threw away the cotton towel, "I have already arranged, Yunshui's 200 cavalry will set off with me, and in addition, Li Jibu, who is stationed in Nanchuan County, will also take action." ”

He Xiaomi nodded silently, he prayed silently, Tibetans must not make trouble.

…………………………………………………………

Xining is located on the southern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and is the watershed between farming and nomadism, since the Han Dynasty established a military city here, has been the focus of contention between the Han people and the nomadic people of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

When the Tang Dynasty was strong, it used to use the Sun Moon Mountain west of Xining as the boundary with Tubo, which was established on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, but this situation did not last long.

With the decline of the Tang Dynasty, the entire Xining region fell into the hands of Tibet.

After the rise of the Mongols in the north, peace appeared in Xining for the first time - both the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the core farming of the Han nation became the sphere of influence of the Mongols, and the Han people lost Xining, and the Tibetans on the plateau lost the opportunity to establish a state forever.

At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Hongwu inherited the rule of Meng Yuan in Xining, and formally established Xining Wei, the place of governance is Xining City, at this time, the Tibetan living area, was divided by the imperial court into Wusi Tibetan Division and Duogandu Division, subject to the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty, and was managed by the local government of the local government of Muzhu and the three major kings.

However, the Tibetans have never stopped infiltrating the Xining area, and their means of infiltration have changed from the original military to religion, and in the name of promoting Buddhism, they have continuously built temples in the Xining area and encouraged Tibetans to move eastward.

According to Li Zicheng's incomplete statistics, there are at least 20 Buddhist temples established by Tibetans in Xiningwei, among which the Ta'er Temple on Lotus Mountain is the largest, the highest status, and the greatest influence.

After Li Zicheng took charge of Xining, he considered curbing the expansion of Tibetans into Xining.

There are two main ways to contain them, the first is to use force to attack the Tibetans by military means, either to eliminate them, or to make them move westward and return to Uszang and Dogan.

But Li Zicheng quickly rejected this strategy.

Behind the Tibetans in Xining are Uszang and Duogan, whether it is the Wusi-Tibetan regime or the religious forces, they all encourage Tibetans to move out, and once they are contained, they will inevitably meet each other.

Li Zicheng had to face not only the Tibetans, but also the Heshute tribe of Warat Mongolia after the "Mongolian and Tibetan confluence".

Strictly speaking, the Warat people are not Mongols, when Genghis Khan unified the Mongolian steppe, they still lived in the forests of the northern land, and were called "forest people" by later generations, but they were the first marginal tribes to be naturalized by the Mongols, and they were basically Mongolized.

However, after the Mongol Yuan Empire was destroyed by the Ming general Lan Yu in Yuerhai, the remnants of the Mongols declined sharply, and the Warat people took the opportunity to break away from the Mongols, occupy the east and west of the Jinshan (Altai Mountains), and gradually develop their power to fight against the Mongols on the steppe.

They often referred to themselves as Mongols, but the Mongols of the Golden Family, unwilling to join them, called themselves "Tatars" to distinguish themselves from "Warat".

The Warats were unable to achieve legitimacy in the steppe, and even though their power had expanded considerably, they were never able to unify the Mongolian steppe.

The Warat people, who lacked a core inheritance, finally split, and the most powerful of them, the "Dzungar Division", was still entrenched in the core area of Warat north of the Tianshan Mountains and east and west of the Jinshan Mountains, and waged war against the rest of the tribes.

Due to the lack of strength, Dulbert was forced to go north to the Irtysh River, and the Heshute tribe went south to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and gradually completed the merger with the Tibetans, and the Turghut tribe, under the leadership of the leader and Orlek, moved west to the Ezil River (Volga) with part of the Dulbert and Heshute people.

If he were to use force, Li Zicheng would face not only hundreds of thousands of Tibetans, but also the Hoshute people, as well as the Dzungar tribe of Warat Mongolia, with which they are inextricably linked, and even Tatar Mongolia.

On the surface, when maintaining relations with the Ming court, he was reluctant to make a big move, and the use of military means obviously did not work.

Li Zicheng turned to a mild approach, allowing the Tibetans who had infiltrated Xining to blend into the Han Chinese, just as raindrops flow into a river and rivers eventually flow into the sea.

However, during the critical period of change of local government in Uszambi, after the Zangpa Khan regime replaced the Fearmu Zhu regime, the successive Zangpa Khans believed in the Kagyu school (White Religion), so they were very hostile to the rapidly rising Gelug sect (Yellow Sect).

Not only did they destroy the churches and temples of the Gelug sect, but even controlled the Gelug monks, and in the most serious case, they forcibly refused to allow the Da Lai Lama to be reincarnated, hoping to weaken or even eventually eliminate the Gelug sect and restore the Kagyu sect to its former glory.

Li Zicheng naturally had no control over the internal struggle in Uszang, he only knew that since there was a fierce internal struggle going on in Uszang, his attention to the outside would certainly decline, and if Xining adopted a gradual approach, it was very likely that the assimilation of the Tibetans in Xining would be completed without attracting the attention of the local government in Wusizang, which would be even more convenient than expelling the Tibetans from Xining.

The biggest problem is that the Tibetans believe in Buddhism, and they are religious and quite religious.

The first thing Li Zicheng had to deal with was Tibetan Buddhism, and he originally brought John Tang to Xining to preach Catholicism among the people, in order to increase the cohesion of the Han nation, and to naturalize the surrounding foreign races in the future, which is now coming in handy.

March 20 in the third year of Chongzhen (1630 AD), for all Han people, this is an ordinary day, they even forget the existence of this day, but according to the Western calendar that John Tang once revised for the Ming court, this day is April 14, which happens to be the Catholic Easter.

For the Tibetans in Xining, this day is extremely extraordinary, the three most famous Buddhist temples in Xining, Ta'er Temple, Guolong Temple, and Hongjue Temple, convene a general meeting of believers on the same day, and all believers in the vicinity can participate.

Ta'er Monastery has the greatest influence, and the largest number of believers gather in front of the temple, mainly Tibetans, but also a very small number of Han Chinese.

However, Ta'er Monastery did not announce the content of the meeting, and waited for the believers to arrive, and then announced the content of the meeting in due course.

The believers gathered in the Lotus Mountain talked a lot, to be able to participate in the assembly of the Taer Temple, is their greatest honor, these ordinary believers, were invited by the temple to participate in the conference, this is the first time, although there is no special invitation document, the monks in the temple do not know anything about them at all, but what does it matter, to participate in this kind of grand event, itself is an honor.

At the foot of the Lotus Mountain outside the temple gate, thousands of believers have gathered, standing or sitting, full of anticipation for the upcoming conference.

A few familiar believers lay on the slope in front of the mountain, hugging each other, lazily chewing on the unknown grass and wild vines with their teeth, while dreaming of what might happen next.

"In previous years, there has never been a conference today, so what is this going to do this year?"

"Who knows, if you come, you can come, after today, I'm afraid you won't have a chance to participate!"

"That is, maybe the Buddha will appear today, and everyone who attends the conference will be rewarded with ten sheep, as well as ...... It is best to have a yak, which can eat meat and cultivate barley. ”

"If only there was more rain, the barley harvest would be higher!" The old man stroked his gray beard, his eyes squinted, and he looked like a tall man.

"I only hope that the Buddha can give me a beautiful girl!"

A young man with one hand on his chest, but his heart is thinking of the neighbor's Zhuoma, her singing voice is clearer than a lark, softer than a yellow bird, her bright smiling face is like a red cockscomb, the lips of the red flower, like a trumpet flower, two bright eyes, like dew drops hanging on the leaves of the mountains, crystal clear, as long as he hears her footsteps, his heart will tremble with excitement, and he can't help but want to say a few words of mountain songs, but Zhuoma just smiled at him, and refused to say more.

"Ah Zai, the Buddha hopes that you will have a pure heart and few desires, and listen to the scriptures with peace of mind, but you only think about the girl, how can the Buddha bless you if you go on like this?"

Ah Tsai was not convinced, "Pure heart and few desires are the business of the monks in the temple, if they don't marry wives and have children, then who will inherit the incense in the future?" And who will light a long incense to the Buddha? ”

……

When Li Zicheng rushed to the Taer Temple, it was almost time, he first walked around the flowers, detoured to the back mountain, saw that Li Ji's soldiers had been prepared, and waved his hand in the direction of the mountainside, and then slowly came to the temple gate in front of the mountain.

The gate of Ta'er Monastery was slowly opening, and after a while, the temple owner, Tenzin Gyatso, dressed in a big red robe, accompanied by several disciples, strode out of the temple gate with his head held high, and his eyes swept towards the believers in front.

Outside the temple gate, it suddenly quieted down like a hole in the air, leaving only believers standing like tree stumps, chaotic and comfortable.

Tenzin Gyatso cleared his throat and looked embarrassed, but finally opened his mouth in his thick voice, "Disciples of the Buddha, I let you come to Taer Monastery today because the two living Buddhas of this monastery, Aga and Chozang, have contracted an incurable disease...... Aka and Chozang have been in a coma for several days and have never woken up, so today's conference is to pray for the two living Buddhas, maybe the Buddha can bring the two living Buddhas back to the world for the sake of many disciples......"

"Ah......" The believers were shocked, although the living Buddha was reincarnated, but the two living Buddhas were only in their early thirties, just in the prime of life, why did they suddenly ...... Since they can't even help Gyatso, what can they do as ordinary believers?

Tenzin Gyatso waved his hand, and there were disciples in the temple carrying two stretchers, and the disciples put the stretchers on the gentle slope outside the temple gate, so that the two living Buddhas could go on their heads and feet.

The believers at the front can see that the two living Buddhas, their faces are like ashes, their eyes are closed, their heads are softly tilted to one side, and they are not at all angry, and if it were not for the slight undulation of the sheets covering their bodies, no one would believe that the two living Buddhas have not been reincarnated.

Although extremely surprised, the believers, under the leadership of Tenzin Gyatso, collectively prayed for the blessing of the two living Buddhas.