At the same time that Takeda Katsuyori was storming Kuragano Castle, in Echichu Castle, Li Xiao issued a sword hunting order to the villagers of various villages near the castle.

The so-called sword hunting order, in the history of the Warring States period, the first person to use it was Shibata Katsuie.

At that time, Shibata Katsuie, as the general of the Oda family's northern army regiment, sat in Echizen. After the Asakura family was exterminated by the Oda family, Echizen had become the hardest hit area of the Ichijo clan, so in order to prevent the occurrence of the Ichiko, the Shibata Katsuya issued a sword hunting order to confiscate civilian weapons.

With the exception of Shibata Katsuie, the real large-scale implementation of the sword hunting order in history was issued by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a man of the world, in the 16th year of Tensho (1588 AD).

Speaking of the sword hunting order, we have to mention the separation of soldiers and peasants.

Although it is said that Toyotomi Hideyoshi's direct jurisdiction is not high, because he controls most of the ports and mines in the country, he has a lot of money in his hands, which can afford to raise a standing army on the scale of the organization.

In this way, the Toyotomi family broke away from the Warring States Daimyo in the past, and mobilized peasants and soldiers from the countryside like that, and fought in a way that combined samurai + peasants.

By separating the soldiers and peasants, the peasants could farm with peace of mind without being drafted, and the war would be left to a more professional standing army.

Although the benefits of separating the peasants from the army were obvious, maintaining the military required a large amount of money, and for the daimyo who relied mainly on the agricultural economy, the income was very unstable, either in a disaster or a good year.

If there is a large-scale failure of harvest in the territory, the daimyo and his retainers will not be able to eat enough on their stomachs, and they will still maintain a standing army, it will be a self-defeating death.

The separation of soldiers and peasants, during the Warring States period, only Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who controlled most of the country's mines and commercial trade, could afford to play.

Although the standing army was a burden, the standing army, like the samurai, lived in the castle town en masse, so it also stimulated the development of the castle town.

It was also one of the reasons why the population gathered from the countryside to the city in the late Warring States period, and the business of the castle town gradually flourished.

Just like in the Edo period, the reason why Edo Castle was able to become one of the few large cities in the world with a population of one million at that time was because of the attendance system, and the daimyo of each domain had to live in Edo for half a year, and at the same time, the daimyo had to follow the retainers, and the main reason was because of the Tokugawa family flag? The royal family, the samurai, this part of the population was stationed in Edo Castle.

It was only because of the concentration of the population, the arrival of craftsmen and merchants in various fields, that commerce developed greatly, and the increase in population density became a major factor in the prosperity of Edo Castle, and the birth of Edo culture in the future.

The realization of the separation of soldiers and peasants means that peasants and soldiers can be called up to fight.

Continuing to allow the peasants to hold weapons is likely to lead to unrest and instability in the region.

In addition, the implementation of the sword hunting order also had the advantage of greatly weakening the power of low-level vested interests such as the countrymen and the local servants, and allowing the daimyo to increase their control over the local area.

Historically, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's sword hunting order was promulgated after the separation of soldiers and peasants.

At that time, the purpose was to prevent the occurrence of a whim, and to ensure the income of the annual tribute, and at the same time to stabilize the law and order.

Later, Toyotomi Hideyoshi confiscated the iron tools from the sword hunting order and cast Buddha statues and door nails for Hokoji Temple in Kyoto. I don't know if this move is to imitate Qin Shi Huang to cast twelve bronze figures.

Li Xiao dared to play the separation of soldiers and peasants because he had the support of Shengang Yinshan and a standing army in his hands, and he was out of the scope of mobilizing peasants and soldiers to fight.

In addition, the security in the territory is relatively stable, so each village does not have to bring its own weapons to defend against the looting of bandits.

In order to prevent the local residents from rebelling against the promulgation of the sword hunting order, Li Xiaocai deliberately used the killing of Xuanli to add fuel to the fire, so he transferred out the group of disciples of the Yizong sect.

These people are very difficult to convince by the traditional sect, and if they resist, it is easy to cause murder and provoke even greater public anger. And other villages that fight against taxes can also take action against Li Xiao together under the condition that the sect has always taken the lead.

What worries Li Xiao the most is that Honganji Temple officially intervened in this matter under the pretext that the believers were killed, in case any of the fang officials were angry and called on the believers to launch a constant attack on Li Xiao, it would be really bad.

Not to mention that Li Xiao was besieged by the followers of the sect from all directions, and the deterioration of relations with Honganji Temple was also intolerable to Takeda Shingen.

At that time, the biggest possibility for Takeda Shingen is to take back Li Xiao's blockade of Chengsheng City in a fit of anger.

Therefore, Li Xiao plans to separate the believers of the sect and deal with them in another way.

And the reason why the remaining villages resist taxes is that some of them are controlled by the remnants of the Saito family, while others can't pay the annual tribute, and more are to follow the trend and wait and see if someone is taking advantage of it.

If the last year's tribute can be waived, it will be a great joy for most people.

Therefore, for these non-stubborn elements, Li Xiao believes that the threat of force is a big stick, and then the tax reduction is imposed on the villages that actively cooperate with the sword hunting order, and under such warm persuasion, it is still very fruitful to deal with this gang of Diao people.

Moreover, Xuan Li was killed, and these villages that hurriedly formed a 'teaching' festival were leaderless. And there is no Xiang Zong to pick this head, Li Xiao wants to see who is so not afraid of death, to try the taste of the iron cannon in his hand.

Before sending troops, in order to issue the sword hunting order, Li Xiao also bothered to think of two justifiable reasons.

The first reason, in the first two days, was that the people of two villages fought over the use of water sources in the upper and lower reaches of the Shentong River, and more than 20 people were killed and injured on both sides.

Li Xiao seized this matter and decided to intervene in this matter as a pretext for the implementation of the sword hunting order.

The second reason is that in view of the Honganji Temple, the official of the Xuanli Fang was hung in the Li Xiaoling this major evil surname case.

On the one hand, Li Xiao sent someone to Honganji Temple to express that Master Xuanli had been killed in his territory, and felt regret, self-blame, guilt, and remorse, on the other hand, he expressed his painful experience and decided to confiscate the weapons of the villagers in each village, so that the same similar incident would not happen again, and let the Honganji temple officials preach in the territory safely and would not hang up.

After doing this superficial work, it was three days after the people of the Yizong Sect went to Shengxing Temple collectively and asked not to break the door.

Li Xiao dispatched all the 500 standing units in his city, one village after another, and urged them to carry out the sword hunting order by force.

The first thing to do is the village where the remnants of the Saito family are hidden.

Prior to this, Li Xiao had already done a good job of intelligence gathering and investigated the villages where the Saito family's remnants were hidden, so this operation was very purposeful.

Li Xiao's 500 standing reserves took only one day to subdue the two villages in one go.

The process is that Li Xiao first asked the iron artillery team to face the gate of the opponent's village, and several rounds of iron cannon salvos, and then the people in the village were already frightened and immediately sent people to subdue.

For these non-religious factors, the anti-tax believers are not stubborn in their will to resist.

Obeying the lord's arrangement, paying the annual tribute was the rule of this era, and the strongest Saito clan in the region was defeated, and they had no reason to rebel against such a powerful Takeda clan.

After breaking up the resistance into the village, Li Xiao took control of all the villagers, and then searched the whole village to collect weapons, and then carried out measures similar to the household registration of all the villagers, and at the same time screened the Saito family that had infiltrated the village.

As soon as the remnants of the Saito family were discovered, they were immediately executed and their bodies hung up for public display in order to deter the villagers from other villages.

Li Xiao was convinced that although this was a little cruel, only by using such a resolute and resolute method could the process of implementing the knife hunting order on each village be avoided, the opponent's resistance would be reduced to the minimum, and finally there would be fewer deaths.

Otherwise, because of a moment of mercy, this knife hunting order cannot be cut through the mess quickly, and more people will die so innocently.

The sword hunting order went very smoothly, and in just five days, Li Xiao completed the implementation of the sword hunting order in each village under his collar.

Although there was a temporary small resistance in the process, it did not cause much conflict, and Li Xiao's standing and the villagers in the collar suffered few casualties.

A total of 380 weapons, 170 katanas, more than 300 bows and arrows, more than 600 spears, and 230 naginatas were confiscated as a result of the sword hunting order.

Li Xiao looked at these confiscated weapons, and was dumbfounded, although most of these weapons were inferior, but after eliminating some of them, many of them could still be used, which was enough for him to equip his small half of the new standing stock of five hundred people.

Therefore, for Li Xiao, the money on standing equipment can save most of it.

After the implementation of the sword hunting order was completed, the villages were like plucked roosters, with no strength to resist, and immediately handed over this year's annual tribute.

For the villages that took the initiative to cooperate with the sword hunting order, Li Xiao returned part of their annual tribute this year, firstly, to keep their promises, and secondly, it can also be used to win people's hearts.

After the annual tribute was collected, Li Xiao heard the news from the Shengxing Temple.

After the believers gather in front of the town of Katsukoji Temple.

Xuanzong, the abbot of Shengxing Temple, personally clarified the rumors to the believers, saying that he would not break down the believers because of the death of the fang official Xuanli.

Hearing the news, those believers immediately burst into tears at Xuanzong's eyes, and they knelt down one after another, reciting the six-character Buddha number of 'Nan Wu Amitabha' together, in order to thank the Dharma Lord and the abbot for their kindness.

So Xuanli went to the altar to preach the scriptures and preached to the gathered believers.

After the sermon was completed, Xuan Li personally took up the pen and wrote the name of the law on the plaque: 'Returning to the fate of immeasurable longevity, such as coming to the south without incredible light'.

This passage comes from the first head of Honganji Temple, the chief praise of the main letter of the book.

After the metaphor is written, the officials sprinkle the plaque with the name of the Dharma directly on it, and then have the believers recite the name of the Dharma together.

The reason why it is sprinkled with soil reflects the meaning of the Pure Land in the Pure Land True Sect.

In the past, the 'Imperial Text' written by the Lord of Honganji Temple was printed on the plaque, and then the official took it to each 'speaker' to recite and explain the meaning.

But then again, this shop is for collecting money from the believers.

Therefore, the followers of the sect have seen the metaphysics up and down, and personally wrote the 'Dharma name', and all of a sudden they all entered the crazy piety of faith, and they have spent a lot of money, and they are not stingy at all.

Compared with Li Xiao's violent taxation, the method of charging fees of the Sect was more able to make them pay willingly after bewitching the believers.

In this way, after staying at the temple for several days, most of the believers of the Shokoji sect set out on their way back to Josei Castle, except for some who planned to stay in the temple's monmae town and serve for the rest of their lives.

So how to face these believers has always become a difficult problem for Li Xiao, of course, if it is possible, Li Xiao is eager for him to stay in Shengxing Temple and not come back.

(To be continued)