Chapter 238 Buddha, I'm here to protect the Dharma
Udabandapura, the capital of the Shahi Dynasty, is a thousand-year-old city.
Later it was called Rawalpindi, and it once served as the temporary capital of Pakistan. It is about ten kilometers away from the current capital of Pakistan, the Fort.
However, compared to the strong defenses of Peshawar on the Khyber Pass, Udabandhapura can actually be said to be undefended.
Not only is the circumference more than twenty miles, but most places are just two or three meters of earthen walls.
Merchants traveling from north to south and local residents from nearby areas came to do business, forming a large and prosperous commercial place in the outer city.
They made large and small hidden holes in the city wall, making the already low city wall completely useless.
Therefore, this is a city that is basically undefendable. The only city with some defensive capabilities is the inner city where the palace is located, which still looks like a fortress.
After Zhang Zhao left his kite to guard Peshawar, he brought over everyone including Madapala, Karmaha and the general of Peshawar.
Of course, this group of people only included the Kshatriyas in Modapala's 30,000-strong army, as well as the Kshatriyas near the city of Peshawar.
Zhang Zhao suddenly changed his mind about how to treat Kal Maha, an old gangster. Now he wanted to keep Kal Maha. King Zhang wanted him to appreciate how his son Bach Maha killed King Maha.
Dablo's.
Of course, Zhang Zhao did not want to provoke Kal Maha, but to let Bach Maha know that if he dared to be dishonest, his father would be released.
There is no place in the world for a son to kill his father, but if a father kills his bastard son, it seems that it can be called a righteous killing of relatives, right?
Bach Maha glanced at Zhang Zhao from a distance and couldn't help but shudder. He knew that he had no choice but to go to the dark side.
"Honorable Great Khan! I am the representative of the tax collector in the outer city of Uda Bandarapu. If the Great Khan can restrain the warriors, we are willing to pay a ransom of 80,000 rupees!"
The literal meaning of rupee is actually a silver coin. In later years, the official currency units of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and other countries in South Asia were also called rupees.
However, the silver coins of the king holding a spear cast by the Shahi Dynasty contained too little silver and were not very valuable. Eighty thousand rupees was only equivalent to close to twenty thousand saman dinars.
How about playing beggar?
Zhang Zhao snorted coldly and glanced at the translator next to him.
"Tell them to raise the price to 150,000 rupees, otherwise the warriors will have to get it themselves!"
After listening to the translator's words, the tax collector's face showed a look of pain, but he was not too surprised.
After thinking about it for a while, he pretended to be hesitant and nodded, obviously wanting Zhang Zhao to think that it was very difficult for them to come up with the 150,000 rupees.
Zhang Zhao didn't believe it at all. There are hundreds of thousands of people in Udabandapura city, and it is surrounded by a rich plain with abundant water vapor. The population is very dense. In addition, it is a country with a population of more than five million.
Empire.
All the businessmen in such a place can make out a million or even two million rupees even if they scrape together hundreds of thousands of rupees.
However, this would also greatly impact local commerce, which was inconsistent with Zhang Zhao's original intention of establishing a small trade circuit, so Zhang Zhao did not have a big mouth at all.
However, King Zhang turned around, smiled lightly, and tapped the tax collector on the shoulder with his riding crop.
"But I only need 50,000 rupees. I hope the remaining one hundred thousand rupees can be converted into gold, whether it is gold utensils or gold coins."
The tax collector's face suddenly fell. One hundred and fifty thousand rupees was nothing, but gold worth one hundred thousand rupees was too heartbreaking.
Because rupees can be looted from small and medium-sized merchants, but ordinary small merchants don't have gold items at all, and the big ones can only be obtained by rich merchants and tax collectors like them.
The sound of the trumpet came, and another messenger arrived holding a white flag. This was the third group of messengers coming out of the royal city of Udabandapura.
Zhang Zhao waved his hand indifferently, and Bai Congxin, who was beside him, gently pinched the belly of the horse and rushed out of the formation. The hard bow in his hand was shot out at the same time as the horse sprinted.
There was a soft whooshing sound, and the messenger suddenly leaned back, and then fell heavily from the horse.
"Stupid! I led an army of 20,000 people here, and I actually thought that I, like those businessmen, could avoid disaster by paying some money.
This is not as good as King Zhongyun Sanpoba, at least he knows that after enjoying the wealth and honor of Wuding Food, he must have the consciousness of cooking with Five Cauldrons!"
Zhang Zhao snorted coldly. This envoy was sent by the Xia Xi royal family in the royal city. They were trying to make peace with Zhang Zhao and were willing to give up their treasures in exchange for Zhang Zhao's withdrawal.
But how could Zhang Zhao agree? This territory is his to manage, and the Xia Xi royal family must be eliminated.
"That's right! Your Majesty has been extremely kind. As long as they offer the city, they can avoid death, but they still want to keep their wealth!"
Qiongre Duojin held a long spear and said beside him, he had 10,000 contempt for those nobles who couldn't understand their situation, just like Ge Du back then.
"Just wait for two more days. I think they will continue to recruit people secretly, and will also encourage Kshatriyas from all over the country to come to the king. Let's wait and deal with them all at once under the city of Udabandapura!"
This is the reason why Zhang Zhao didn't move his troops. He was too lazy to kill them one by one. He simply attracted the last force of the entire Xia Xi Dynasty and solved them all at once.
.....
In the middle and lower reaches of the Ganges River, the city of Rajgir is a rare historical city even in a place with a long history like India.
It already existed as the capital of the dynasty during the Magadha Kingdom, 1,500 years ago.
The famous Nalanda Temple is located near the city of Rajagaha. The bamboo forest monastery where Sakyamuni often lived and the Vulture Mountain where he preached are also located here. It has always been a holy place in the hearts of Buddhists.
Although due to the need for expansion hundreds of years ago, Rajagaha gradually became unsuitable as a national capital, and the political and economic center had long been moved to Fahrenheit City dozens of kilometers away.
However, as the place where the Buddha lived and lectured, the religious atmosphere of Rajgir became even stronger after it lost its role as a capital.
A large number of Chinese monks have lived here throughout history, including the most well-known Tang Sanzang.
and Master Yijing, who wrote "The Biography of Eminent Monks Who Seeked Dharma in the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty".
Master Hui Fa is the author of "The Biography of Master Tripitaka of Daci'en Temple".
Even just a few decades ago, the eminent monks from Haedong and the monk Huiye from Silla came here.
At this time, the city of Rajgir belonged to the territory of the Pala dynasty, the last Buddhist dynasty in India.
Even after the royal city of Qunu was lost more than 40 years ago, the status of Rajgir in the Pala Dynasty was equal to that of the capital.
Because since the death of Devapala, the protector king, the national destiny of the entire Pala dynasty began to take a sharp turn.
In the past eighty years, the Pala dynasty, which had almost unified all of India, was defeated by the Balihar dynasty one after another and lost a large area of ​​territory including the capital of Qunu.
Now it has shrunk to the lower reaches of the Ganges River, and the only richer territory in its hands is the Bengal region.
In the city of Rajgir, the king of the Pala Dynasty, Rajaraja, was restless.
He is not a very wise monarch. In fact, it is difficult for him to maintain the current situation.
The only achievement of Rajyapura was probably to force the large and small Buddhist temples and monks in the territory to have no way out.
Because before this, several generations of kings of the Polo Dynasty also led this ancient dynasty to decline, but they still struggled a few times, but their level was really not good enough.
But Rajyapura was different. After struggling for a few years, he immediately fell flat.
This made the monks in the Pala dynasty extremely anxious. The Pala dynasty was the last Buddhist dynasty in Tianzhu. If the Pala dynasty disappeared, the Hindu Brahmins could only be qualified by men. There would be no bald ones like them.
Location.
So in the last seven or eight years, the Pala dynasty retreated to Rajgir City, and after Rajyapala began to lie down and die, the monks in the territory were all numb.
The temples that were reluctant to part with them accumulated treasures and hauled them out one by one. The monks and soldiers who guarded the temples also donated money to expand the army. Even the tenants controlled by the major temples were armed.
Finally, last year, in the two battles in Fahrenheit City, although the Polo Dynasty suffered a lot of losses, it finally stabilized the situation.
But looking at it this way, Rajyaprata actually still has two brushes. Although his lying down allowed many monks to enter the top ranks of the country, he also succeeded in making the monks bleed, thereby stabilizing the country.
"Master Baotongzi, didn't you say that Ju'er Khan's envoy has entered the city? Why haven't they come yet?"
After waiting restlessly for a quarter of an hour, Rajayapala, who was a little irritable, simply stood up.
Master Baotongzi is an old monk with a high nose, deep eyes and long beard. He is the first Tripitaka master of Nalanda Temple in this generation.
After being frightened by the death of Rajyapala, he has actually assumed the position of prime minister of the Pala dynasty.
The political system of the Polo Dynasty was very peculiar. This dynasty was a truly feudal dynasty. Most of the land in the country was awarded to the following groups by the king himself.
After a group receives a reward from the king, it only needs to pay a certain tribute every year, and the taxation, justice and administration in the fief belong to the group.
The reason why we use groups instead of individuals is because the objects of the king's awards are basically religious groups headed by monasteries, rather than other individuals.
At the same time, major monasteries gave the name of the Buddhist Protector King to the king, and the king mobilized the power of the temples in the name of the dharma king. Together with the power of the king and a small number of big nobles, they formed the defense backbone of the Polo Dynasty.
This is actually a good thing. The monastery uses religious power to manage the local area, and it can actually mobilize the power of the grassroots better than the nobles.
The king also saves trouble. He only needs to deal with the relationship with the head of the temple and he can successfully govern the country.
But the key point is that since the death of King Solopolo in 854, the temple has not given the status of protector king to any king of the Pala Dynasty for eighty years.
title.
This resulted in the kings of the Polo Dynasty being unable to mobilize the power of the temples at all.
As a result, Rajyapala changed his ways and became the latest generation of lying kings.
You don't contribute much, right? You don't want to part with money, right? Sorry! Then I can rest easy.
However, as a king, Rajyapala had no choice but to lie down. If he had a choice, he would never want to lie down.
So after hearing that a terrifying Juer Khan who believed in Buddha appeared in the north, and that Juer Khan sent envoys to the Pala dynasty, Rajyapala keenly felt that this might be a good idea to revive the Pala dynasty.
Chance.
Master Baotongzi looked like an old god, but in fact he was very impatient in his heart.
For hundreds of years, there have been between a hundred and eighty eminent monks from the Eastern Tang Dynasty, but they have always come to seek scriptures and study, but I have never seen anyone come with an army!
Could it be that, as the believer and business traveler said, Ju'er Khan heard that the Buddha's Dharma was not spread in India and came specifically to protect it?
