First Minister of Ming Dynasty

Obviously not possible.

Only by comprehending Zhang Xiang's proposition, understanding his true meaning, and acting on it, can one succeed in proving the Tao!

Chu Qi gradually regained her composure, with a contented smile on her face, "I thank Mr. Zhang for your guidance, I know what to do next!"

Chu Qi bid farewell to Zhang Ximeng. He first found a bathhouse, washed it from the inside out, shaved his beard, and returned to the appearance of a white-faced scholar. As for the half-inch short hair on his head, Chu Qi didn't care anymore. , he is going to grow his hair.

Getting a scarf to put on, Chu Qi swaggered and went to the yamen, ready to take the exam.

This time he was not taking the monk exam, but the imperial exam.

That's right, due to the establishment of the chief envoy and the inspector's yamen, there are a lot of officials needed, and there will be an examination every once in a while.

Chu Qi ended with a smile. A god who can pass Yao Guangxiao's exam, facing this kind of exam, is simply a piece of cake, not worth mentioning.

Three days later, without incident, Chu Qi got No.1.

"There are vacancies everywhere, where are you going?" Yao Guangxiao asked.

"To deal with the property of the temple."

Yao Guangxiao was very surprised, "You, did you come out of the temple?"

Chu Qi smiled and said: "It is precisely because of this that I need to get rid of Mo Wei Dao. Please rest assured that Chu Qi will not be lenient."

Yao Guangxiao was dumbfounded, why is this guy even more rebellious than himself?

He pondered for a long time, but he had no choice but to agree. He really wanted to see what Chu Qi was going to do.

After getting the permission, Chu Qi took the order, led two hundred soldiers, and directly surrounded his former temple, and then he broke in with a big smile.

"You, what are you going to do?"

The former senior brothers and sisters were all dumbfounded in the face of the menacing Chu Qi.

"Don't be afraid, I brought you out of the demon realm and led you to the right path. You should thank me, otherwise you will only sink deeper and deeper."

After Chu Qi finished speaking, she turned to the soldiers and said, "Take them all down!"

The soldiers took down these monks without any explanation... Soon, Chu Qi's master and other elders all rushed out.Facing this most outstanding disciple, they couldn't imagine, "You, you traitor, aren't you afraid of going to hell?"

"Hell? I've just come out of a hell that sucks the bones and sucks the marrow and devours the people's fat and people's ointment. I'm heading towards the great light. Master, my disciples still know how much property you have. Our temple relies on the power of the government to enclose more than 5 land. Mu, in your hands, there are eighteen golden Buddhas alone... Take them all out! Put them down, and you will be liberated!"

4 Chapter Forty

Chu Qi put a seal on the gate of the temple with his own hands, looked back and saw that more than 500 monks, big and small, were all smiling.

"Brothers and brothers, you have been liberated. All your sins are on me, and you can continue to practice...Come here, send them to a prisoner-of-war camp for hard labor!"

"what?"

This group of monks doubted their own ears. Didn't this guy have lost his mind?Either it was possessed by a demon, or it really couldn't be explained.

Not long ago, Senior Brother Chu Qi, who was still gentle, smiling, and unwilling to speak loudly, would seal up the monastery with his own hands and force them to do hard labor. This person must have let the devil steal his mind!

"Chu Qi, you were born in a temple and grew up before our eyes. You are ungrateful. Aren't you afraid of going to the eighteenth level of hell?"

"Hell?" Chu Qi said with a smile: "It is indeed hell, but this world of the Yuan Dynasty is the hell of all the common people... The emperors of the Yuan Dynasty in all dynasties were all sycophants and worshipers of Buddhism and Taoism. There are 28 and 310 temples, and the total number of monks and nuns is 21. If you include those who have been shaved privately outside the government, it may be several times more. If you count all the tenant farmers and servants under the monasteries, you will have to More than ten times!"

"The 480 temples of the Southern Dynasty, the temples of the Yuan Dynasty, are much more powerful than those of the Southern Dynasty!"

Chu Qi said unceremoniously: "The Lord of the Yuan Dynasty stipulated that each monastery should have 300 or 120 people, and he would reward the monks with a lot of land..." In the early years of the central government, Qingshou and Haiyun temples were given 12 hectares of land.In the fifth year of Dade, he gave 3000 hectares of land to Xingjiao Temple, [-] hectares to Qianyuan Temple in Shangdu, [-] hectares to Wan'an Temple, and [-] hectares to Nansi Temple.In the early days of Huangqing, [-] mu of farmland was given to Da Puqing Temple, [-] hectares of land in Henan to Chongfu Temple, [-] hectares of land in Jiangsu and Zhejiang to Kaiyuan Temple in Shangdu, and [-] hectares of land in Yidu in Shandong Province to Puqing Temple.In the [-]th year of Zhengzheng, the Qinghe Dashou Yuanzhongguo Temple was built, and the fields of the abandoned temples in Jiangsu and Zhejiang were returned... Roughly estimated, the land granted to various temples by the Yuan court alone is more than [-] million mu, and the privately occupied land is not counted. number!Ask yourself, do you deserve all these lands?After enjoying these lands, you eat until you feel fat and fat, but you don't know that there are bones lying on the ground outside the temple, and you are starving to death.Changing children to eat, everyone killing each other, it is a hundred times better than hell! "

"If you sincerely cultivate, you will naturally hand over your land to help the people. You still have a conscience and can be forgiven... If you still stick to your land and refuse to hand it over, then you are a man-eating demon who aided the Yuan Dynasty in its oppression. Youxie... Chu Qi is not talented, and he won the emperor with a murderous knife, and he will slaughter all the demons, and he will show no mercy!"

"Send them to hard labor! Ordinary prisoners of war five years, they serve ten years! Toil their muscles and bones, starve their bodies, and wait until the fat is gone and their hands and feet are covered with calluses before they can return to their hometowns. Be a peaceful and happy citizen of the prosperous Ming Dynasty!"

"Go!"

When the monks heard this, they were angry and anxious, ashamed and angry. Some cursed, some cried and begged, but no matter what they did, it didn't work.

He could only be dragged down by the soldiers and serve hard labor honestly.

As for Chu Qi, he just closed his eyes slightly, pondered for a while, and said, "Go, go to the next house!"

Good guy!

With this knowledgeable person rushing forward, no temple can be spared... Those that should be seized, those that should be confiscated, and those that should be dealt with, will naturally not be polite...

Why were monks in the Yuan Dynasty so rampant?

Naturally, this matter is not without reason... Once there were monks in Shangdu, Yuan Dynasty, who forcibly bought firewood from the people. The wall was beaten.

Do you think it is absurd for anyone in the hall to sue this official?

What's even more absurd is that the master Qingtian in your eyes is just a fart in my eyes!

And the crazier thing is still to come. After Li Bi was beaten, he sued the monk to Dadu. As a result, the emperor of Yuan Dynasty just arrested the monk and released him within two days.

It's nothing to stay behind at the top, not even a toe of an eminent monk.

The scary thing is that this kind of thing is not an isolated case. There are also monks arguing with the princess on the street... According to common sense, any monk should be in awe of dignitaries and dignitaries, and take the initiative to let go, but this monk named Gong Ke didn't care. His subordinates dragged the princess out and beat her up in the street.

The princess was furious and wanted to file a complaint, but after inquiring, she was frightened to death.Because Emperor Wuzong of the Yuan Dynasty was just about to announce a decree that beating a monk should cut off his hand, and cursing a monk should cut off his tongue.

Although the matter is exaggerated, it is not difficult to understand. After the Mongolian iron cavalry has laid down an unprecedented territory, they also need to establish a stable order and a set of ideas to appease the people.

And those who can form a system to help the Mongols govern are nothing more than the three schools of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.

Confucianism is the essence of the Central Plains. Although it can be used, its status is definitely not as good as that of the Zhao and Song Dynasties.

Taoism is too out of this world, only these Buddhism are the most suitable.Gu Feng

Widely build temples, generously reward land, monks do evil, and don't hold them accountable... Under such circumstances, only the good people will become bad, and the bad people will only become worse. Purified is what it is.

To be ironic, Chu Qi has outstanding talent, reads a lot, and is proficient in asking questions. The elders want to train him to be an eminent monk, so that he can make friends with dignitaries in the future, talk about big things, and win face for them.

If he could be appreciated by Emperor Dayuan, wouldn't it be a step up to the sky.

It's just that they didn't think that the smarter the person, the more people he knows, the more things he knows, there will often be unexpected results... For example, ordinary monks are unlikely to know how many temples there are in the world, and how many lands are rewarded by the imperial court.

But Chu Qi knew it all, but the more she knew about it, the more she understood the value of Zhang Ximeng's idea of ​​equalizing the land.What do you want to do in the afterlife?Why not work hard to cultivate in this life?

Equalizing the land to enrich the people allows the people to live and work in peace and contentment, Confucianism talks about the world of great harmony, and Zhang Xiang advocates the people-oriented, so how can I not do my best to make the world a peaceful and peaceful place where there is no hunger or cold!

Obviously, Chu Qi has been logically consistent, and what's more terrible is that he has also found a group of monks.Present your ideas to them.

These people had debated scriptures with Chu Qi before, they were pretty good at asking questions, and they understood some truths. Under Chu Qi's instigation, almost a dozen monks defected.

Now the fun is great, the temples in Huguang and other places, even Jiangxi, and even Yingtian, have all been shaken... For the first time, people face up to the huge temple property, and each temple manor. The performance was very outstanding. Li Shanchang convened various ministers, quickly adopted Yao Guangxiao's proposition, and launched an examination for all monks. In the most severe examination, monks who did not have a formal certificate will be expelled!

The news of Yingtian spread to Wuchang again, Zhang Ximeng was not surprised at all, since the introduction of Buddhism, there has been a fierce confrontation with Confucianism and Taoism in the Central Plains.

Behind the extermination of Buddhism by the Three Wus and One School, in addition to the fight against the land and personnel, it naturally also includes Confucianism and Taoism, dissatisfaction with Buddhism... It's just that the struggles of the past dynasties, the three parties have come and gone, and the result turned out that no one can eliminate the other. It became the end of the Three Teachings and one family.

If it can't be eliminated, let's make do with it!

But no one thought that Zhang Ximeng overthrew the relationship between heaven and man and advocated people-oriented. Confucianism can only be regarded as injured, and he can even eliminate reason and deny Dong Zhongshu's Han Confucian views. Let Confucianism flourish.

Anyway, for thousands of years, don't underestimate the newborn ability of Confucianism.

But when the problem falls to Buddhism, the matter is serious. After all, the sense of human beings is gone in the day. Whether the gods exist or not is not the point, but to care about the people's livelihood and the actual basic necessities of life.

These things, without exception, are impacting the foundation of Buddhism.

"Our Ming Dynasty did not destroy Buddha, but it was more thorough than any other dynasty! From now on, no monks or Taoists are allowed to interfere in the government affairs of the court. This is our rule, and no one is allowed to change it!"

Lao Zhu spoke loudly to the civil and military officials.

All the ministers present were very happy, like Zhu Sheng and others, they were even more happy and quite happy.

"Superior, since the end of the Han Dynasty, Buddhist temples have prospered, monks have enslaved the land, enslaved the people, do not do production, do not pay taxes... parasitic on the dynasties, bewitching people's hearts, and corrupting the world. In the Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, many countries have perished because of the monks. , Even the Yuan court is the same. If it weren’t for Chu Qi, the veterans would not know that the land rewarded by the Yuan court to temples in the past few decades was more than 300 million mu! This is almost half of the province’s land. Moreover, what the Yuan court rewarded must be rich and fertile soil, which is far better than ordinary farmland. If you count the land privately occupied by monks, the land of the Central Plains, among these few provinces, there is actually a province that is used to support monks... This, this It's just ridiculous!"

At this point in the matter, everyone has already seen it clearly, and it is impossible not to deal with it.

But I'm afraid it's not that simple, Luo Furen bowed and said: "Your Majesty, I dare to say that people everywhere, especially New Year's sacrifices and funerals, still cannot do without temples... The imperial court is now strictly examining and controlling the number of monks and nuns. That's right. But if there are too few, it is inevitable that some local people will take the opportunity to replace them. If these temples are closed, if the demons of the White Lotus Sect take advantage of the situation, there will be even more troubles."

Zhu Yuanzhang sullenly snorted coldly, "Luo Furen, your words are all right, but we don't like to hear them. Do you know why?"

Luo Furen was startled, and hurriedly said: "Chen, I know, I'm not just worried, I have other considerations."

"!"

"The minister thought that while immigrating to Huguang, each village would build a church, house a few veterans, set up a bow and arrow club, and replace the old monks and nuns with churches and veterans. Only in this way can we truly achieve long-term peace and stability!"

After Luo Furen finished, Zhang Ximeng, who had been sitting next to him, raised his eyelids and smiled... Very good, these people finally know how to compete for merit, and they are all rolled up, very good!

Chapter 441 Dividing China Evenly

Get moving!

This is the common feeling of Zhang Ximeng and Zhu Yuanzhang... Luo Furen presided over the immigration affairs, Yao Guangxiao began to eradicate the big households and suppress the powerful, Chu Qi and others seized the temple property, confiscated gold and silver, and released the servants. Even Li Shanchang of Yingtian launched the Zhongshu Ministry, From top to bottom, it handles tens of millions of acres of temple land under its control.

The people below were all busy, and had something to do, and accordingly, Zhu Yuanzhang was free, but he couldn't be idle, so he took Zhang Ximeng to discuss the situation in front of him.

"A lot of internal affairs have been arranged. If we continue to struggle, this group of people will not be able to do well, and they may even fool us." It is rare that Zhu Yuanzhang finally knows how to be considerate of the people below. It is like the sun coming out from the west .

But this is not surprising, a letter came from Empress Tianma a few days ago, which mentioned that in order to calculate the situation in Jiangxi and Huguang, Jiang Nan personally led the team to Jiangzhou. He was busy every day and could sleep for two hours. It's time to burn incense.

It's really tiring, not everyone will give you the same, it's a donkey.

That is, Empress Ma can scold Lao Zhu without hesitation.

However, Lao Zhu didn't have the slightest temper, so he could only listen obediently.

He thought about giving the following some time, a year and a half is considered fast, and after Huguang has been digested, the next thing will be easy to handle.

"Sir, Liu Futong has a hundred faults. He is still fighting Yuan Ting to the death, and he is considered a hero. We don't plan to turn against him. You see, after we take Huguang, we can go north to Nanyang, and then attack Luoyang from Nanyang, enter the Guanzhong, and then the Northern Expedition to destroy Yuan!"

Lao Zhu sketched out a route to advance, and Zhang Ximeng passed it in his head. Not to mention, Nanyang and other places were still in the hands of the Yuan court, and Luoyang and Guanzhong were all taken away by Chahan Timur.

If the Northern Expedition follows this road, it is indeed possible to avoid the Han and Song Dynasties, and even form a situation where the east and the west are advancing side by side, and the destruction of the Great Yuan is indeed close at hand.

"My lord, the only problem right now is that we didn't gain a firm foothold in Huguang. We rashly entered Nanyang, and then captured Guanzhong. The distance is too far, and it is difficult to transport the logistics. After entering Nanyang, there is Liu Futong in the east and Ming Yuzhen in Bashu in the west. , there is still a heavy army from the Yuan court on the back. The lone army goes deep, surrounded by powerful enemies on three sides, even if Xu Da leads the army, I am afraid it will not be easy."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded slightly. He knew these accounts better than Zhang Ximeng, but Lao Zhu had another idea.

"Sir, please think about it. If you can persuade Ming Yuzhen to send troops to Guanzhong to support us, then make an agreement with Liu Futong that the three parties will join forces in the Northern Expedition. No matter what, the Yuan court will be destroyed first. Will this plan succeed?"

Zhang Ximeng pondered for a moment. To be honest, when he heard that the three parties joined forces and went on the Northern Expedition together, he immediately thought of the unbreakable Sun-Liu alliance.

It is too difficult to integrate smart people who have their own confidantes.

It stands to reason that Zhu Yuanzhang shouldn't have such unrealistic fantasies. This is not in line with Lao Zhu's calm personality... Zhang Ximeng pondered slightly, and he had a plan in mind.

During this period of time, Zhu Yuanzhang has really gone too smoothly.

Hukou defeated Chen Youliang, Yashan priests clarified the orthodoxy, proclaimed the emperor in response to heaven, and conquered Chen Han... Although the whole process was impassioned, it was smooth sailing and there were no major surprises.

Old Zhu is gone!

It's starting to get unrealistic.

After realizing this, Zhang Ximeng didn't try to persuade him immediately, on the contrary, he wanted to laugh a little bit.Zhu Chongba, Zhu Chongba, do you still have the face to say that you will not forget your original intention?

I admit it, Zhu Ying's [-] guan, I'm tempted.

Now Zhu Yuanzhang also started dreaming because he successfully conquered Chen Han.

In this case... it is natural to increase the intensity!

Zhang Ximeng smiled and said, "My lord, we are all focused on the Northern Expedition and want to destroy the Yuan court. If the other two are like us, that would be the best. I suggest that we should send envoys, especially to contact Ming Yuzhen."

"Why?"

"It's very simple. Now that Chahan Timur's army is coming, Han Song is in danger. No matter how many schemes Liu Futong has, he will not wait to fight us. He doesn't have the confidence. On the contrary, it is Ming Yuzhen, who owns Bashu. The location is favorable, and there is sufficient food and grass, so it is easy to defend and difficult to attack. If he can sincerely form an alliance, it will naturally be unimpeded and success is expected."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded happily. He actually ignored the mystery in Zhang Ximeng's words, and was only thinking about the Northern Expedition to the Yuan Court.

Send someone, send someone now!

The matter of contacting Liu Futong should still be handed over to Wang Guangyang... Zhu Yuanzhang wrote a long letter with sincerity, which probably means that we have long wanted to attack the Yuan court in the north and expel the Hulu.In the past, the roads were inconvenient, but now Huguang has been occupied, and Xiangyang and Luoyang have been collected, and then together with his brother, he will go to the Northern Expedition and restore the Chinese world. In the middle, worshiping the Yellow Emperor and proclaiming success.

Wang Guangyang accepted the task, and before leaving, he went to meet Zhang Ximeng. The two chatted for a while before Wang Guangyang went to Kaifeng with Zhu Yuanzhang's personal letter.

After Wang Guangyang left, Lao Zhu was thinking about how to negotiate with Ming Yuzhen, but before he had made up his mind, Ming Yuzhen sent three envoys.

The first is Jiang Yan. As an old acquaintance, he is the second entry into the palace. In addition, there are two important ministers, one named Dai Shou and the other named Xiang Daheng.

"Foreign ministers pay respects to the Son of Heaven."

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and asked them to stand up.

"You have contributed a lot to the extermination of Chen Youliang this time. Both of them have the intention of restoring the country of China, and they must cooperate with each other and communicate more."