"Yan Huaide, the lowly Pingquan County Commander, meet the envoy."

A middle-aged man of medium stature and lack of special appearance walked into the straight hall under the leadership of the state official, and bowed to Li Tai, who was sitting in the hall.

"Yan County's order doesn't need to be polite, I invite you to see you today because I have something to inquire about."

Li Tai raised his hand to signal this Yan Huaide to sit down, and then picked up the file placed on the head of the eucalyptus and signaled the officials to pass it over, and said straight to the point: "A few days ago, the county government accepted a lawsuit and tried the things recorded in its file. ”

Yan Huaide, the commander of Pingquan County, suddenly stiffened when he heard this, and after a while, he shook his head and said, "No, I don't know, I really don't know how to sue the clansmen......

So, what is said in the dossier is slander, not true? Yan Ling also seals the people, so what punishment should be given for false litigation and slander? ”

Li Tai's face suddenly sank when he heard this, and he shouted angrily.

"The king asks for anger, please calm his anger, the matter is true, but the lowly position is real, and I really don't know that the clansmen will sue the county government for this......"

Yan Huaide's face was faintly sweaty, and he was busy and bowed again: "The clansmen don't know that the county affairs are busy, and they have the courage to harass the offenders, and they will be severely reprimanded after returning from their humble duties, and order them to withdraw the lawsuit immediately!" ”

Li Tai was surprised when he heard this, this Yan Huaide obviously misunderstood what he meant, but what kind of powerful person actually made this county magistrate dare not complain about grievances, so he could only swallow his voice and endure it?

"Nonsense, the gathering of grievances among the people and the unrelieved are the sins of those who guard the people. Yan Ling, you are an official appointed by the imperial court to supervise and educate the civil and moral customs, if you don't even dare to speak out for the hardships and injustices you have suffered, where should the other villagers in the governance seek justice? How can the people in this realm be grateful for the court's grace and education? ”

He snorted coldly again, directly reprimanded Yan Huaide's idea of settling the matter, and then said in a deep voice: "Since it is true, then you will tell the truth of this matter in detail, and you must not conceal it or show favoritism!" ”

Yan Huaide, as a subordinate official of Qinzhou, has often been in and out of the state capital recently, and he has heard a lot about Li Tai's temperament and style, and he didn't dare to say anything more after hearing it, so he honestly told the cause of the incident, although his expression was still a little apprehensive, but he also faintly had some expectations.

This matter can be traced back to more than ten years ago, when Luoyang, the capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty, successively had the Heyin Rebellion and the Northern Expedition of Chen Qing of the Southern Liang Dynasty, and the order in the Heluo area was greatly disrupted.

The arrival of these people will inevitably have a great impact on the nostalgic order and religious environment here. Many Longyou Shi who have been away from their hometowns for many years have become quite weak in their influence in the township, and if they want to regain their foothold, they must compete for limited local resources.

But those who stayed in the township are not good at stubble, if they fight by force, those scholars who fled back in a hurry are obviously not opponents, and the political resources such as official positions that they were proud of in the past and feel superior to others have also become dark with the chaos and weakness of the Northern Wei court, and it is difficult to deter the township heroes.

As a result, these returning scholars chose another relatively stable way, that is, to participate in the competition for local resources through religious means.

They first raised funds to build several large-scale monasteries and strengthened the influence of the temples through various Buddhist worship activities.

The monks from Luoyang go in and out of the mansion on weekdays, and they can play too much, and their own research on Buddhism and doctrine is indeed higher than the average level of Longyou Shamen, so the influence of these temples and monks on this side is also rising, and the limelight soon overpowered the local Shamen forces.

As the fame of the monks of these temples grew, the number of believers who came to worship the Buddha also increased. With this mass base, the monks of these new monasteries began to serve as the disciples and teachers of the people in Longyou Township.

The so-called disciple master is a monk or several families who are jointly supported, and is responsible for the monks' living expenses such as food and clothing, while the monks are responsible for various Buddhist activities such as praying for blessings and disasters, preaching sutras and discernment.

The status of the Yi master is much higher than that of the door master, and he is responsible for the Buddha worship activities of the entire Yiyi. In the current world, there are many people who believe in Buddhism and worship Buddha, so it is usually the government or the people who spontaneously demarcate an area, and only a certain number of monks are allowed to spread the Dharma and accept worship in the area, and this kind of diocese is called Yiyi.

When these new monasteries are widely used as disciples and masters, it is equivalent to mastering the important population resources of the township, and they can obtain a steady stream of offerings from these believers, who provide not only money, but also land and other local resources. The temple then transfers these acquired resources to the initial group of donors, i.e., the returning scholars, so that a win-win situation can be achieved.

But in this mode of cooperation, it is clear that the monks have more initiative. Although they initially received the support and momentum of those returnees, when they had a certain social influence, they could develop independently, and the initial support brought to them was very limited, and the constraints they could cause were even more minimal.

Therefore, whether these monks are still willing to fulfill their previous agreement to give back to the original people can only depend on their own character and morality. And these Shamen monks in the Northern and Southern Dynasties cannot be said to be all bad guys, but the good ones are indeed limited.

The case filed by Tianshui Yan is a typical case of overturning.

In the old years, a part of the people of his clan who traveled to Heluo returned to the village, and in order to celebrate the rest of their lives after the catastrophe, they raised funds to build a family temple, called Guangming Temple, and enshrined several monks who knew and had contacts in Heluo before.

The owner of this temple is also a senior monk from Luoyang, named Venerable Tan Jing, who has shone and attracted attention in several Buddhist rituals in the township because of his profound Buddhist teachings.

With such a blessing, the monks of Guangming Temple are naturally no longer satisfied with only being the disciples of the Yan family, but there are various requirements for becoming a local master, including the number of monks and supporting households in the temple. Because although the euphora was elected by the people, they were responsible to the local magistrate, Duvina, so the more households they had, the easier it was to be elected.

The Yan clan also felt that they had a deep relationship with the Guangming Temple, and were happy to see that this temple had greater influence, so they mobilized the clan, and the clan was recorded as a monk's household, and the clan relatives were used as donors, and finally won a place for the Guangming Temple.

Later, the development of Guangming Temple also lived up to expectations, and even far exceeded the expectations of the Yan clan, Master Tanjing successfully presided over several grand ceremonial projects such as digging caves and statues in a short time after serving as the Yi master, and even became the monk of Tianshui County Du Wei Na a few years later, and the monks and followers of Shamen in a county were under his management.

Of course, the Guangming Temple has also risen with the tide, and now it has become a large temple in the entire Tianshui County, second only to Maijiya Ten Thousand Buddha Hall and Wudu Nunnery.

Ten Thousand Buddha Hall is the famous temple of Longyou that began to exist in the Maijiya cave Yin Shi, and Wudu Nunnery is the nunnery of the former queen Yi Fushi who sent her servants and servants to leave the house after her death, and the Guangming Temple has obtained the scale and status comparable to the two in just ten years, which is really remarkable.

However, Tianshui Yan, as the original sponsor of the Guangming Temple, did not ascend to heaven because of this, but the situation became worse.

The temple books that were compiled in order to support the development of the temple have now become a heavy shackle tied to them, and most of the tribes have been encroached upon by the temple, not to mention, and even some of the Yan clan people who can't afford to repay the interest on the loan are simply accepted as temple slaves by the temple.

When listening to Yan Huaide's story, Li Tai's mind kept flashing fables such as "Mr. Dongguo and the Wolf, the Farmer and the Snake", and when he saw Yan Huaide's sad face, he couldn't help but want to laugh, this is really a living example of raising tigers for trouble!

At this time, he also understood why Yan Huaide was so nervous when he heard the clansmen's complaint at the beginning, and even wanted to withdraw the lawsuit altogether, because this matter was really not something that he could afford as a county order. Even if it's Li Tai, if you want to start, you have to consider whether it's worth it.

If this Guangming Temple is just a famous temple in the region, but its temple owner is also serving as the monk Cao Duwei of Tianshui County, this is a bit tricky.

The county of Duvina is not just a religious leader, he may even have more power than Li Tai, the Tianshui county guard.

This is by no means alarmist, the number of residents in Tianshui County is estimated to be far less than the number of believer households in the hands of Shangdu Weina, which means that the manpower and materials that the county government can control and mobilize are not as good as the monk Du Weina.

When Qinzhou's war materials were sent to Weizhou, Li Tai remembered that Huangfu Mu had visited the county capital of Weina, hoping to organize a group of temple slave laborers to help transport the supplies.

After understanding the inside story of this matter, Li Tai couldn't help beating the drum in his heart, and a slight retreat sprouted.

He is not an iron-headed baby, and he must cause trouble and tricky targets to enjoy it, not to mention that the current situation in Longyou is delicate, and it is not suitable for any big goals and big moves. Although this temple is not a well-armed separatist army, it is also related to the beliefs of the people in a place.

What's more, if this matter is discussed deeply, Tianshui Yan is really unreasonable, who is a normal person who takes the initiative to put a rope around his neck and swing? Stealing chickens does not make rice, and it is really pitiful for poor people.

Li Tai thought so in his heart, and was going to put the matter on hold, but when he looked at Yan Huaide, he suddenly asked, "Yan Ling is also returning from Heluo?" I don't know if you recognize a wise man named Yan Xin? This Yan Ming Mansion served as the Xingyang Commander during the Wutai period, and he also looked at Tianshui. ”

When Yan Huaide heard this, he bowed down with some doubts and said: "What the envoy is talking about is the uncle of the same clan, who abandoned his post and returned to his hometown because of the old year of the island Yibei offense, and died of illness in the township a few years ago, I don't know why the envoy asked this?" ”

"It's a pity, it's a pity, such a virtuous person can't live long, it's a pity that I can't see it......"

When Li Tai heard this, he sighed and told a little about the relationship between his family and this Yan Xin.

When the Heyin Revolution occurred, he was lucky not to die, and led the children of his clan to escape, but met this Yan Xin on the way and was rescued and funded by him, so he successfully escaped to Qinghe County, and this Yan Xin was a life-saving grace for their family.

Li Tai also learned about this in the memory of his predecessor, and when he talked about it in his old hometown, he was almost bald, so he was deeply impressed. Although this favor was not directly borne by Li Tai, he had to admit that if it weren't for this Yan Xin to fund him Lao Tzu, he wouldn't even have a chance to come to this world.

Yan Huaide was also quite surprised for a while after learning that there was such a relationship between them, and after a while, he hurriedly grabbed the ground with his head and said to Li Tai in a sad voice: "I know that my uncle has made the monarch righteous in the middle of the family, and I dare to beg you to follow this old relationship and save my uncle's remaining heirs!"

The people of Guangming Temple are ungrateful, do not push the previous covenant, and ask for too much from my family, so there is no shortage of people who have lost their wealth, and my uncle's family belongs to this category, only Sun Xi is not in the temple, and has been a slave for several years......"

Li Tai couldn't help frowning when he heard this, he didn't expect to ask a trouble that couldn't be excused after asking a lot of questions, but the irritability in his heart was not born because of this, and he was more fortunate that he just asked more, and there was just an opportunity to repay the past life-saving grace.

In the future, if you are lucky enough to see his Lao Tzu and other family members, you can also face it calmly, I have repaid a great favor for your family, and you don't blame me for occupying the magpie's nest in this body. It's also thanks to me, I changed the little middle two stunned in my predecessor, and I still repay a fart!

After a little silence, he said to Yan Huaide again: "And tell me in detail about your uncle and grandson's life history, I have heard about this matter, and I can't excuse it with reason." As long as he is alive, I will definitely search for him and return him safely.

As for the dispute between your clan and the Guangming Temple, it is already a long time ago, and if you want to start from the beginning and distinguish between right and wrong, you naturally can't listen to one side's claims. Don't announce it to the public for the time being, I will visit the envoy to inquire about the personnel of the year, and if there is indeed justice and need to be declared, I will do my best. ”

Yan Huaide couldn't help but be a little disappointed when he heard that Li Tai was only ensuring the personal safety of his uncle's descendants, but he still had a balance about the exploitation of their entire family, but he also knew that he was unwilling to force it, and his willingness to make such a promise was far more noble than the ungrateful monks of Guangming Temple.

After learning from Yan Huaide that Yan Xin's family had passed away after returning to their hometown, and that the family business had been lost due to perennial offerings to the Buddha, Li Tai couldn't help but sigh.

After retiring Yan Huaide, Li Tai summoned Huangfu Mu and instructed: "The staff informs Master Tan Jing, the head of Guangming Temple, if he has time in the near future, I would like to visit him on a later day." ”

When Huangfu Mu heard this, his face couldn't help but change, and he hurriedly asked, "Changshi must go to visit?" But now that the army is fighting outside, the stability of the house is especially important! Venerable Tan Jing has been preaching Buddhism for many years, and has been widely supported and respected by the masses, and has not seriously lost his morality, and he has also been more respectful to the orders of the state government, so if he rashly admonishes and punishes him, I am afraid that he will ......."

When Li Tai heard this warning, his face couldn't help but turn dark, Lao Tzu was bored and went out to play? Could it be that I am causing trouble when I go out, why can't I maintain stability?

He couldn't tell for a while whether Huangfu Mu looked down on him or looked down on him too much, the old monk had been here for at least ten years, and he could still pout people when he went to the people's territory?

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