Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons

The next day, Li Shimin cheered up, dressed majestically, sat on the throne, gathered civil and military officials, explained what he had seen and heard in the underworld, and then issued several decrees.

First, a general amnesty was declared and more than 400 death row prisoners were released and allowed to return home, reuniting with their families for a year before being sent back to the execution ground to answer for their crimes.

Second, the maids in the palace were released and allowed to marry on their own. Most of the maids in the Tang palace were selected to enter the palace at the end of the Sui Dynasty. The previous emperor Li Yuan had many concubines during his reign, and he selected a large number of good girls to serve in the palace. At one time, there were as many as 8,000 people. After Li Shimin ascended the throne, he released them twice, but there were still many people. This time, he simply conducted a thorough investigation and released another 3,000 people.

Third, he issued an imperial edict, explaining the principles of cause and effect, and accumulating good deeds and cultivating virtue, and ordered it to be copied throughout the world.

Fourthly, a notice was issued to recruit monks, requiring officials from all regions to recommend local eminent monks. After they arrived in Beijing, the most virtuous monk would be selected as the host, who would lead the eminent monks from all regions to hold a water and land assembly to liberate the lonely souls in the underworld.

Fifth, a notice was issued to recruit Taoists. The process was the same as above. A grand Luotian Grand Ceremony was held to pray for the country. However, the host had been appointed by the emperor, and it was none other than the Lei Feng Zhenren who forced the Dragon King of Jinghe River to retreat. Oh, by the way, you can’t call her Lei Feng Zhenren now. The emperor’s edict clearly stated that this Zhenren was the daughter of the old Duke of Yun, Yin Kaishan, and the sister of the current young Duke of Yun, Yin Yuan. She was personally named Master Jingrong by the emperor, and the Xuantian Temple was built for her to live in. So you can call her Master Yin, or Master Jingrong.

The above are the decrees issued in the court. Privately, Li Shimin ordered Empress Zhangsun to assist his sister Princess Yuying in doing great good deeds; he issued a list of recruiting virtuous people, recruiting people to go to the underworld to present the pumpkin he promised to the Ten Kings of Hell; he sent people to Kaifeng Prefecture in Henan Province to look for Xiang Liang, and return the gold and silver he had secretly borrowed from the underworld; he ordered Yao Jian, the prefect of Junzhou and the governor of Wudang Army, to go to the Zixiao Palace on Wudang Mountain to offer sacrifices, and conferred the title of "Yousheng Xuanwu Lingying Zhenjun" on the Heavenly Lord of Subduing Demons.

First, Princess Yuying heard that the emperor had heard that her life span was short and that she could only live by doing good deeds. How could she dare to neglect it? She hurriedly sent people to open porridge shops to distribute porridge. If there were no hungry people in the rich capital, she would open porridge shops in distant places. In short, she must do her best to make sure that the hungry people can fill their stomachs. When she heard that the roads in a certain place were rugged and narrow, or the bridges in a certain place were unstable, she hurriedly paid for repairs. She also went to various places to look for lonely elderly people, sent people to deliver medical treatment and medicine, and visited them three times a month to bring warmth. She also specially sponsored famous monks and Taoists in the capital, and ordered them to chant sutras and pray for her.

In short, if merit had a progress bar, then Princess Yuying’s progress bar would definitely increase very quickly!

The second thing is to send fruit to the underworld, which means one must die. It is not enough to have a loyal heart and the courage to put life and death aside, but also to have a decadent desire to not want to live. After all, people with the first two qualities are usually ambitious. They are too busy trying to stabilize the country, so how can they be willing to die for a few pumpkins? Therefore, the notice spread all over the nine states, and it was not until it reached Junzhou that a warrior who was determined to die was found. It turned out that this man was Liu Quan, who had an argument with his wife Li Cuilian, which led to Li Cuilian's suicide in anger, and he himself did not want to live. Seeing that the promise of a large sum of money on the recruitment list was just right for settling his children, he happily took the notice.

The third story is that Xiangliang was originally a poor old man. Because he believed in Buddhism, he would buy some gold and silver paper ingots to burn from time to time, and he saved up a huge fortune in the underworld. It was also a way of accumulating good deeds and cultivating virtues, so Li Shimin ordered this strange story to be spread throughout the world.

Fourth, Yao Jian went to Wudang Mountain and never came back. When he was offering sacrifices, he noticed that there were five Confucian scholars with extraordinary appearance under the altar. When he finished reading the sacrificial text, the five Confucian scholars suddenly turned into dragons, roaring into the sky and scattering a sweet rain. Yao Jian then realized that they were the Five Qi Dragon Kings under the seat of the Demon-Subduing Heavenly Venerable. Yao Jian was so shocked to see the appearance of the real immortals that he developed the desire to practice Taoism. He resigned and went to Wudang Mountain to practice with his family.

Li Shimin:...

Li Shimin calmly ordered the construction of the Five Dragons Temple on Mount Wudang. After returning to the palace, he hugged Empress Changsun and cried, "I have lost a great general. My heart is in pain, my heart is in pain!"

Empress Changsun comforted him, saying, "This is his destiny, and Your Majesty should be happy for him. Moreover, Your Majesty has already respected Master Jingrong, who was a disciple of the Heavenly Lord of Demon-Subduing, and built the Xuantian Temple to worship the Heavenly Lord. Now Yao Jian has volunteered to join the Heavenly Lord of Demon-Subduing. Isn't this exactly what Your Majesty wants?"

One month later, Liu Quan entered the capital. At this time, because Xuantian Temple was not completed, Wen Jiao had temporarily returned to the Duke of Yun's mansion. After learning about this, she hurriedly requested to enter the palace to accompany Princess Yuying. Empress Zhangsun knew the inside story and naturally agreed. Not only that, she was worried about the safety of her sister-in-law, so she came to accompany her in person.

The shadow of death loomed over her every day. Princess Yuying had been unable to eat or sleep for a while, and she had become a dried-up version of a beautiful woman who looked like a flower. She stood up to greet him with a pair of dark circles under her eyes that could not be covered by makeup: "Master Jingrong is here."

After saying this, he smiled bitterly: "I have been feeling upset recently. I am afraid that Master Jingrong will come to see me, but I am also afraid that the Master will not come to see me at all."

As a party involved, Princess Yuying has learned all the inside story, and she is also aware of Wen Jiao's suggestion. She knows that if Wen Jiao does not come to see her, her short life is still a foregone conclusion, and she will have to do her best to do the project of accumulating virtue, and she does not know what the result will be. If Wen Jiao comes to see her, it means that all her efforts in the past few days have come to the moment of being revealed, and life or death depends on this revelation.

The former is alive but still in torment for a long time. The latter is a quick death but there is a 50% chance of death. It is really unbearable.

Therefore, when Princess Yuying heard that Wen Jiao was going to come to the palace to accompany her, one can imagine the surprise and shock in her heart.

She grabbed Wen Jiao's sleeve, shook it twice, and asked fearfully, "Will my life span be known after today?"

Wen Jiao nodded.

In the original novel, after receiving the pumpkin presented by Liu Quan, the King of Hell was delighted and ordered to check the Book of Life and Death. He found that Liu Quan and his wife both had the life span of immortality, so he ordered them to return to the world. To put it bluntly, in order to repay Liu Quan for giving his life to the pumpkin, he spared the lives of the couple.

However, Li Cuilian had been dead for a long time, and her body had decayed, so her soul could not possess her body. So the Ten Kings of Hell took over Princess Yuying's body and detained her soul. In other words, even in the original novel, if there was no Li Cuilian incident, Princess Yuying, who was determined to have a short life, still lived for many more days. In this way, it depends on whether Princess Yuying has escaped the disaster, but it depends on how the Ten Kings of Hell want to deal with the Li Cuilian incident.

Wen Jiao was 90% sure that the Ten Kings of Hell would let Princess Yuying go, and the remaining 10% was that they were crazy and had to risk losing the favor of Li Shimin, whom they had worked so hard to win over, and falling out with Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, and killing an insignificant mortal princess out of path dependence. Then Wen Jiao would have to fight a few moves with the ghost who came to collect her soul.

She came to the palace today for this very reason.