Although Guo Xin is not a Buddhist, he has never been interested in Buddhism and the like, but he is very sensitive to crises.

Buddhism has a history of hundreds of years in the Western Regions, and its influence is extremely far-reaching, and the people regard it as the foundation of their education. Moreover, Buddhism is good, which has a great auxiliary role in consolidating the management of the Tang Dynasty in the Western Regions.

As for the Sacred Fire Shinrikyo, they preach wealth, power, and promise that believers will ascend to heaven after death, with endless wine to drink and countless beautiful women. Moreover, they encouraged their followers to lie and deceive, and used all kinds of cunning means to attack and exterminate pagan believers, and even regarded the killing of pagan believers as a sacred mission.

It's a very evil, bloody sect.

If such a religion takes root and grows in the Western Regions, it will be very detrimental to the Tang Dynasty's domination in the Western Regions.

Therefore, Guo Xin sent people to investigate the situation of several destroyed Buddhist temples, and found that the Buddhist temples that the Holy Fire Cultists deliberately destroyed were all ancient temples built when Buddhism first entered the Western Regions, and those ancient temples all had the relics of some famous monks in the Western Regions.

Believers in Buddhism in the Western Regions have great respect for those relics and respect them like gods. The destruction of the relics of the high monks made them very sad and angry, and they were lost.

Guo Hua felt that the Holy Fire Cultists destroyed the Buddhist temple, destroyed the relics of the high monks, and had another conspiracy, but he couldn't think of a reason for it for a while.

Three days later, Guo Yu and the three of them followed Guo Xin to Broken Leaf City.

For the magpie, Broken Leaf City is suddenly like a dream, plausible. She only remembered that after the master rescued her, he helped her bury the bones of her parents and brother in a poplar forest by the Broken Leaf River.

She found a poplar forest, which had become a mass grave, and it was impossible to tell whose grave it was.

Maybe that's what it's called creation.

Guo Hua went to the three destroyed Buddhist temples to check, the Buddha statues were destroyed, the monks were all killed, and the last fire burned the temple.

As for the Flame Cultists who made trouble, although they were arrested, they refused to confess the truth.

These people are very extreme, and they regard the tasks assigned by the elders as more important than their own lives, and they have completed the task by destroying the Buddhist temple. After being arrested, they bit their tongues and committed suicide.

Therefore, there is no way to know their real intention of destroying the temple and destroying the relics of the monks.

Yang Shuzheng, the general of Broken Leaves, is also a delicate and sensitive person, and he also found the difference between these Flame Cultists and Buddhism.

In addition to the differences in the doctrine of the trade-off between good and evil, the Flame cultists in particular are very tightly organized.

Believers in Buddhism and Taoism, except for those monks who are officially ordained and live in temples and Taoist temples, who live together and have a certain organization, the rest of the lay people are often loose and uninhibited, and when they are at home, they are farmers or merchants, or pastors or scholars, which are no different from ordinary people.

And those Flame Truth Cultists are as tightly organized and managed as the army. Among them, the priests and elders in the church not only teach doctrines and laws, but also have great administrative power, and can also judge crimes and cases, and preside over disputes and conflicts among believers.

Even, those priests and elders still have a lot of military power, and they can dispatch the congregation to attack and invade other tribes and people.

"Where are they believers, they are clearly an army, everyone practices martial arts, riding and archery, and often bullies men and women in private, harassing and plundering, but there is nothing they can do but arrest those who defy the law and punish them with criminal law, which cannot be eradicated. ”

Yang Shuzheng's indignation revealed deep helplessness, and then said.

"There are still more than a thousand Flame Cultists in the city, and they know that sooner or later they will be a scourge, but they can only be disgusted. ”

Even in the border areas of the Western Regions, the complete household registration system established since the Qin and Han dynasties has been implemented very well.

There is a detailed format for the name, gender, occupation, place of origin, Chinese name, native name, family home, other business, appearance characteristics, etc.

Even the merchants, their names, their origins, their reasons, their comings and goings, their stays, their hotels, etc., are all recorded.

There are still 283 households in the city, 1,245 Flame Cultists settled, and more than 200 Flame Cultists live in the Sacred Fire Temple and their homes.

"Each of them has long knives, spears, and even armor and other weapons in their homes, but they are tightly controlled internally, and they are very difficult to search. Yang Shuzheng introduced.

Ordinary people were allowed to wear swords and weapons, but there were strict rules on their shape and length. Spears, knives, and especially armor and vests are forbidden to be privately possessed by the people.

Private possession of ordnance by the private sector is tantamount to rebellion. As long as they find evidence of their illegal possession of weapons, they can be completely exterminated.

Guo Xin continued to advance in the northwest direction, and Yan Jie followed.

Guo Yu and the three stayed behind, hoping to help annihilate the remnants of the Holy Fire Sect in one fell swoop.

The three of them dressed up as Sogdians, first, to hide people's eyes, and secondly, to experience alien customs.

Magpies call themselves "hometown people", and keep saying that they want to express the friendship of the landlord, but when they really go to the market, they find that they are not familiar with everything here.

Her cold face added a bit of loneliness.

For nearly two decades, the city has not been what it was remembered, and perhaps I never really remembered it.

At that time, it was still too small, and no matter how much I looked for it in my mind, it was only the color of the rolling yellow sand and the whistling sound of the wind blowing away.

Even the appearance of Grandpa and Auntie and brother has become blurred.

The magpie closed its eyes, but saw that the kite that had been floating in its dreams had broken its string and flew farther and farther.

The three of them ate some wine, meat, and hemp cakes in a small restaurant.

The magpie drank a pot of wine, threw herself into Dugu Huan's arms and cried bitterly.

She is not the kind of woman who will cry, but this suppressed low sobbing is even more endearing.

Not only did she lose her relatives early, but now, even her hometown is gone.

She became a complete orphan.

Even Dugu Huan's piece of wood took pity on it, hugged her tightly and held her in his arms.

The three of them came out of the liquor store, and it was past noon.

A few children at the door were squatting on the ground, playing with the things in their hands with great interest.

Guo Yu was taken aback.

A small boy can manipulate a cloud of black powder. I saw him pull with his fingers, and the black powder on a piece of wood followed his fingertips, swimming like a snake.

The magpie snorted and laughed. He could see that Guo Hua was shocked by the boy's "weird" methods.

"What's the matter?," the magpie teased him.

"What's that?" Guo realized that the boy and the powder weren't anything dangerous, otherwise the magpie wouldn't have been joking.

"Magnetic particles. ”

"Magnetic pink?"

"Hey, you won't even see Sinan, right?"

"Si Nan has seen it—you mean, these powders are the powder left over from grinding Si Nan?" Guo Hua suddenly realized.

"Almost, there's a mine here that produces that kind of magnet, and there's a river down the mountain, and there's a lot of this kind of black magnetic powder in the fine sand in the river, and you can absorb a lot of it with iron, and I used to play with this when I was a kid. ”

Guo Hua looked over carefully, and the boy's "magical" finger did have an iron ring on it.

"Hehe, it turns out that magnetic powder can still play like this. Guo Yu rubbed his hands, looking eager to try.

"Hey, it's all gadgets for children from poor families, where can they compare to you boys, you are so rich and noble. ”

Guo Yu suddenly thought of the Holy Fire Sect's ordnance hiding.

Entrances and exits are strictly checked, and there is little chance of hiding inside the city.

There are several oases outside the city, which are also inhabited by members of the Holy Fire Cult. It would be much easier to hide there, and you would not have to worry about the search of the officers and soldiers.

A large number of ordnance iron tools are stacked together, which will have a great impact on the magnetic particles, and the magnetic particles can be used to find those ordnances.

The three of them used their respective blades to row back and forth in the fine sand on the riverbank, and soon attracted a small half bowl of magnetic powder.

They each took a small plate, spread the magnetic powder thinly and evenly on the plate, and searched for it in the oases and poplar forests.

Although there was a feeling of looking for a needle in a haystack, the three of them were still full of interest and worked very energetically.

In an oasis ten miles away from Broken Leaf City, there were people from various groups living together, and there were five families with the Holy Fire Cult flag erected at the door of their homes.

Their house was made of rammed sand and was built around a small temple of sacred fire.

When they quietly came to the vicinity of the Holy Fire Temple, the magnetic powder in the plate suddenly condensed into the shape of thin bamboo shoots, which stood diagonally and pointed to the side.

Walking around the Holy Fire Temple, the magnetic powder is all pointing in the direction of the Holy Fire Temple.

The three of them were overjoyed, and when they looked at the door, there was only one elder in the temple, who was sitting cross-legged under a statue of a god, reading a thin scripture.

It was the first time they had seen the Holy Fire Temple, and they didn't know how to greet them.

If it is a temple or Taoist temple, you can ask for a bowl of water to drink, or ask for a place to stay and rest at dusk, which is a very common thing, and those monks are willing to help.

Guo Hao mustered up his courage and shouted at the elder.

"Elder, this elder, can you ask for a bowl of water to drink?"

The elder, who was obviously not a good man, glanced at them angrily, waved his hand impatiently, and motioned for them to leave.

Guo Hua cheeked up and shouted again: "Elder, a few of us came out to play, forgot the hour for a while, the water was all drunk, and we were very thirsty, so I begged the elder to give us a bowl of water to drink." ”

"There's no water here, let's go, walk away. The elder finally spoke, and Tang Yu said very bluntly.

"Elder—"

"This is the Holy Fire Temple, you don't release water, if you want to drink water, you can ask for other things. The elder shouted angrily.

Oh - don't you put water in the Holy Fire Temple? Yes, water can overcome fire, so there is such a rule.

The three of them touched their noses, and their method of begging for water and drinking failed, so they had to leave in a huff. Wait for your time.

The three of them rode away, thinking that they would find a forest to tie up their horses before they came to watch.

Before I had gone far, I saw a small camel caravan coming from the west, a dozen camels, four or five large carts, in the dazzling afternoon sun, raising billowing dust.

Looking at the direction they were coming, they didn't pass through the Broken Leaf City Pass.

"Hey, there are only a dozen families in this place, how can there be such a camel team?" Guo said happily.

"It does look like it's coming this way. Dugu Huan echoed.

The three of them hurriedly dismounted, led the horses and hid nearby. Closely watched the caravan movements.