After finalizing the deal, Li Tai took advantage of the situation and asked to visit the temple.
The old monk did not refuse, and thoughtfully arranged for several monks who were good at talking to serve as guides and explain along the way.
This temple is very large and can be roughly divided into areas for preaching scriptures, enshrining Buddhist objects, monks' life, and storage and production. Apart from some private areas that are not open to the public, the hall where Buddhist objects are enshrined is the most grand, with several
The monks are also trying their best to recommend and introduce their signature industry display area to Li Tai.
"Although there are many virtuous and eminent monks with profound Buddhist teachings in Beijing, when it comes to worshiping the Buddha's Dharma, the temple also has its own unique features. The Thousand Buddhas Hall here offers so many Dharma and images that many other places are inferior!"
Li Tai listened to the monk's attentive introduction and stepped into a tall and magnificent palace.
But from the outside, this palace is no less impressive than the imperial palace in Chang'an City, but the inside is even more unique. Looking around, there are large and small Buddha statues everywhere, each with unique and exquisite shapes and using the same materials.
not exactly.
When Li Tai saw this scene, he was also amazed. He turned to several monks and asked: "If you want to pay homage to the Dharma here, how much charity will you need to give?"
Facing this rare and wealthy customer, several monks did not mince words and went straight to introduce the prices of materials of different sizes for various Buddha statues.
After listening to this, Li Tai felt that this business was really good. There might not be as many as a thousand Buddha statues enshrined here, but if they were all sold at the price introduced by the monks, it would definitely be an eye-watering sum.
of huge sums of money.
"There are many statues in the temple. Where can I get these gold and bronze materials?"
When Li Tai saw some of the monks showing signs of wariness, he smiled again and said, "My farm produces quite a lot of copper materials, but I haven't been able to get enough money in the pass for a long time. I saw that there are a lot of materials used in the temple, so I have a question."
The monks' expressions softened slightly when they heard this, but they did not ask further questions. They were obviously not very interested in this.
Seeing their expressions like this, Li Tai stopped continuing the topic. Although he had not found any conclusive evidence since entering the temple, he was basically certain that there must be some crime involved in the temple.
Such a large temple should be a popular place for believers to visit frequently. However, Li Tai and the others did not see many believers coming to worship along the way, and the temple had a feeling of being heavily guarded, as if there was something secretly going on.
"The Romance of Fairy Wood"
Since his main business is casting Buddha statues, he is very shy about the source of the raw materials and refuses to talk in depth. Li Tai took the initiative to talk about it, and they were not curious to ask. The required materials cannot be produced out of thin air.
Although it cannot be ruled out that Li Tai's preconceptions and far-fetched inferences are the reason, it is here to stay, and we will wait for a shot to see if there are any jujubes.
Li Tai was led by the monks to enjoy the tour again. In the evening, a loud and powerful bell rang in the temple. The monk explained to Li Tai that the bell was to summon the monks in the temple to gather for evening classes and sing Sanskrit, and invited Li Tai to join them.
Past.
Li Tai also wanted to see how many people were in the temple, so he followed them to the square in front of the temple hall. When they arrived, many monks had gathered here, and it was dark at first glance.
Nowadays, it is not fashionable for monks to have haircuts with no hair left behind, and there is no picture of a large shiny head.
As a distinguished guest in the temple, Li Tai was arranged in a row of seats next to the lecture platform. In addition to him, there were also some male and female believers sitting here, who looked like they must be wealthy and powerful people nearby.
After Li Tai sat down, he noticed that several people among them were quite wary of their group and kept looking at them. However, he still acted like a arrogant and dandy, imitating Li Ya's unruly appearance and ignored them.
The evening class Sanskrit singing had been going on for half an hour. Li Tai looked at the number of monks and believers in the square. There were about two thousand people, and the novice monks in their prime alone accounted for more than half. This did not include the craftsmen slaves in the workshops and the monks at the foot of the mountain.
If you add them all up, this temple alone will probably have thousands of people.
Seeing the state of the temple's population, Li Tai couldn't help but secretly sigh. A temple is like this. It can be inferred how powerful the entire Kansai Samana force is. The most important thing is that if he directly leads troops to attack, in a short time
Maybe it’s really impossible to capture this temple.
No wonder the Western Wei government was so short of money that it waited until the reign of Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty to start attacking Samananas.
Without the support of a strong national power and a relatively stable external environment, the comprehensive implementation of the policy of exterminating Buddhism will not only cause great turmoil to the world, but the temple itself is not an easy bone to chew. Although Yu Wentai fought vigorously with Gao Huan,
I only dare to beat the autumn wind like slicing sausages.
After the evening class, Li Tai and his entourage were led back to the guesthouse.
The old monk from before then walked in and told him that the bronze statue had been moved down the mountain as required. After the money and goods transaction was completed tomorrow, it could be shipped to Chang'an immediately.
The old monk also brought a lot of wine, meat and food. Nowadays, ascetics do not have strict dietary rules, so the food is quite rich.
But Li Tai was still worried that the temple was playing tricks on him, so he took the old monk to have a drink at the same table, and he would only eat the food that the other monk had eaten.
The old monk at the table also hinted that he wanted to take stock of the goods that Li Tai had brought. Naturally, Li Tai would not comply with his wish. He changed the topic with a haha, and after a while, he simply pretended to be drunk and started having fun.
.
The old monk saw that he was already drunk and was a bit dissolute, and he was gradually losing his strength from alcohol, so he could only get up and leave first, but he still left more than two hundred monk soldiers guarding outside the courtyard.
When the old monk left, Li Tai's eyes suddenly returned to clarity. While ordering Zhang Shinu and others to go into their respective houses and put on their armor, he also summoned the monks and soldiers outside the courtyard. Gold and silver were scattered in the courtyard, and he ordered the monks and soldiers to fight and fight over wine.
No one could refuse such an entertainment activity, not to mention that these monk soldiers were not well-trained and disciplined elite soldiers. They quickly joined in and competed without drinking. The whole yard was filled with joyful smiles.
Voice.
Seeing that the atmosphere was almost over, Li Tai also took the opportunity to get up and leave the table. He went in and put on his armor and stomach. When he came out with a knife, his style was completely different from before.
Several monk soldiers noticed something strange, and the smiles on their faces subsided. Just as they were about to shout to ask what happened, the door of the nearby guesthouse opened together, and the troops who had been well-armed surrounded the monk soldiers. Some people were just waiting to shout a warning, and they came face to face.
It's an arrow through the throat!
Immediately, the monks and soldiers started running and shouting, and the scene was chaotic for a while, but from the outside, it sounded not much different from the previous playfulness.
Li Tai's knife killed several monk soldiers who were attacking with his staff. The bloody scene made all nearby viewers tremble in silence.
"The Buddha is merciful and helps the poor, so he came here today to borrow some materials. If you don't want to die quickly, you should quickly abandon your weapons and go into the house, otherwise you will be saved by the sword today!"
Li Tai slashed with his sword and decapitated another monk soldier, and then shouted loudly.
After hearing this, some frightened monk soldiers hurriedly dropped their weapons and staffs and ran straight to the guest houses. However, there were also some who were still determined to fight and wanted to protect the Dharma with their lives. Naturally, when faced with the siege of heavily armed armored soldiers, they could only
Seek benevolence and get benevolence.
Soon, the two hundred monk soldiers in the courtyard died or surrendered, and the situation was brought under control.
Li Tai first led Zhang Shinu and thirty armored men to capture the bell tower that had been clearly seen during the day. Li Tai raised his knife and pulled out several monk prisoners. He put the knife on his neck and shouted: "Ten days ago, did you monks go to Sanyuan?"
Go? Where are those officers and soldiers’ materials now?”
After hearing this, the expressions of several prisoners suddenly changed, and only then did they understand the true purpose of Li Tai and his party.
"No, I didn't go...I don't know!"
One of the monk soldiers denied it, but as soon as he spoke, his head rolled to the ground, and the blood spurted from his chest hit his companion next to him on the head and face. The man was so frightened that he collapsed into a puddle of mud, and said in a trembling voice: "The materials are all there.
Behind the temple, the officers and soldiers were buried in the East Valley..."
When Li Tai heard this, his expression became condensed again, and he ordered an attendant to continue the interrogation in detail. He led fifty people and rushed out of the courtyard. Many monks could already be seen running around in panic in the temple. Anyone who saw the formation of monk soldiers was immediately
Then he led the crowd to charge forward and defeated several teams in succession. The commotion had spread to the entire temple.
Many monks who were awakened from their sleep had no idea what was going on and rushed to the Lecture Platform Square in a hurry. Some high-ranking monks also came here and shouted loudly to restrain the crowd.
When Li Tai led the crowd to the foot of the bell tower, hundreds of monk soldiers had gathered here, and they were attacking desperately with swords and guns. Zhang Shinu and others had a hard time resisting, and there were already piles of corpses in front of them and at their feet.
Li Tai was waiting to lead his troops to attack, but the walls on both sides were flooded with water. Hundreds of monk soldiers were on both sides, drawing their bows and shooting randomly, making it difficult for them to move forward, so they had no choice but to withdraw.
"Master, let's attack the key points elsewhere. The servants will stay here and the noise of thieves will never be heard!"
In the firelight, Zhang Shinu saw that Li Tai and his men were repelled several times in their attacks, so he shouted loudly and cut with all his strength with the big sword in his hand, until he cut the two monk soldiers into two pieces.
When Li Tai saw monks armed with swords and guns coming from behind and shouting, he no longer wanted to fight. He led the crowd directly into the scattered crowd of monks, cut a bloody path with his sword, and followed the memory of the day towards the temple warehouse.
Kill at the location.
"Hurry up, hurry up, take back the bell tower! Send people on horseback to tell the villagers, and ask the villagers to come to the rescue quickly!"
Several old monks, who usually have a graceful posture, now looked frightened and issued various emergency instructions.
At this time, the mountain road was already thundering with the sound of horse hooves. Liu Min took the lead, constantly urging the soldiers to speed up. On the way, when he saw monks fleeing in a hurry or reporting news, he directly drew his bow and shot them, charging all the way into the temple.
He should meet up with the few people lurking here and follow the instructions to kill inside the temple.
It is true that this temple has a large number of people, but it has rarely encountered such a sudden change. It does not have a flexible and effective command and dispatch. Although there are many beautiful buildings everywhere, it cannot effectively deploy defenses. When these thousands of strong soldiers entered the temple
In the middle of the day, the situation suddenly became more chaotic.