Time soon came to the spring of the fourth year of the New Year (764).
Guo Ziyi led the West Route Army and the Middle Route Army and had a stalemate with Nan Tang Laiyi in Jiangcheng. The two armies launched a protracted battle around a city.
Li Guangbi led the Eastern Route Army, with Pugu Huai'en as the forward, and fought against his old rival Shi Siming in Xunyang City.
Since Xunyang City was surrounded by natural dangers of the Yangtze River, and Shi Siming's army also had firearms, although Li Guangbi was able to gain a combat advantage, he was still unable to capture Xunyang in a short period of time.
Just when the war in the south was in full swing, an inconspicuous court prison in Liangcheng in the Northern Tang Dynasty was newly built and began to operate.
This court prison is the religious prison.
Unlike the Xuanwen Supervisor, who was in charge of Wenle, and the State and Municipal Supervisors, who were in charge of money in the Tang Dynasty and were similar to the central bank of the country, the establishment of the Religious Supervisors was very low-key.
The main function of the religious supervisor is to coordinate and unify domestic religious affairs.
However, since religion is often linked to ethnicity, religious supervisors also have another function, which is to handle disputes between ethnic groups.
The first religious supervisory conference of the Tang Dynasty was held in the Imperial City of Liangcheng.
Religious figures from Anxi, Beiting, Shuofang, Hebei, Gyeonggi, Hexi and other places gathered in the capital.
Among them, there are not only Buddhism and Taoism, but also Zoroastrianism, Nestorianism, Dashi Cult and ancient religion, etc.
Of course, the emerging Yinglong Sect is also among them.
Before coming, participants from many sects were worried.
Because the Northern Tang Dynasty was merciless to religious sects involved in corruption, fraud, and exploitation of the people.
As long as it is a sect that commits crimes, it is almost uprooted. The believers in the sect are subject to hard labor at the least and execution at the worst. There is no mercy at all.
Moreover, the current emperor had served in Anxi in his early years, and his support for the Yinglong Sect was well known to everyone.
Therefore, under this situation, many sect leaders originally did not want to participate in this conference, but they were forcibly "sent" to the capital by the guards of various prefectures and counties.
Once entering the imperial city, no matter who it was, whether it was the abbot of a Buddhist temple or the master of a Taoist temple, they would all feel fear and uneasiness when they saw the imperial guards standing on both sides of the official road, and the guards in brocade uniforms checking the doorsteps.
Xu Fanghai, the head of the Religious Supervision Bureau, stood in the courtyard of the official office with a group of clerical officials. Next to him stood Ban Weizheng from Beizhen Fusi, who was responsible for the reception of the religious conference.
Looking at the various religious figures in the courtyard, Xu Fanghai nodded and ordered his men to open the prison door and let the participants in.
Some participants, seeing the depth of the courtyard and not knowing what kind of dragon's pool and tiger's den it was, thought that there was no way to survive this trip, so they actually cried in the courtyard while praying to the gods.
Ban Weizheng on the side was a little impatient when he saw this and waved his hand directly.
A guard in Jinyi walked into the court, directly picked up those who didn't want to enter the hospital, and dragged them all the way to the gate.
Listening to the miserable cries of others, the Buddhist abbot silently recited Amitabha, and the Taoist monks repeatedly called the Infinite Heavenly Lord, but in the end they had no choice but to bite the bullet and enter the compound of the religious prison.
Passing through the gate of the prison, walking through a vestibule, and finally arriving at the main hall of the religious prison.
Contrary to the imagination of the participants, there are no scalp-numbing torture instruments, nor is there a solemn courtroom. There are just neatly arranged case benches and wooden signs with different names written on them.
The participants, who felt at ease, found their seats according to the name tags on the desk and sat down.
A minor prison officer brought tea to each participant and distributed fruits, snacks, meals and other items.
Seeing this scene, the participants understood that the court might really want to hold a meeting instead of killing them all, so they all breathed a sigh of relief.
Yis, the young eunuch of the religious prison, walked into the hall with a group of civil servants holding books. He first bowed his hands and performed a four-way salute, and then said: "Please come to the meeting despite your busy schedule. The schedule may be abrupt.
Some, please forgive me."
At this time, some Nestorian believers recognized Yisi and couldn't help but let out a small exclamation.
Iss didn't take it seriously and continued: "The purpose of the imperial court's establishment of the religious prison was to rectify the chaos of religion in the Tang Dynasty. Maybe I won't tell you, but everyone here has heard about it. There are many religions, in the name of religious belief.
, lending usury, annexing land, recruiting temple slaves privately, cheating and abducting, and even dared to set up a sex room in the church and start a flesh-and-blood business."
Hearing this, some representatives attending the meeting couldn't help but nodded secretly.
The various religions of the Tang Dynasty, relying on the influence of the audience of believers, have formed a privileged class in the country. For a period of time, even the court officials had to show courtesy to them.
Iss: "The Holy One heard that people were being harmed by religion. On the one hand, he was deeply disgusted with those black sheep in religion. On the other hand, he also felt that it was necessary to establish a unified management mechanism nationwide to coordinate various religious affairs."
These words made sense, and the situation was stronger than the person. All the participants present, whether sincerely or hypocritically, all loudly agreed.
Iss: "Before the official meeting begins, I would like to ask everyone present to introduce themselves and the sect to which they belong."
Xu Fanghai, who was on the side, took the list from the clerk and began to sing the names of the participants.
The people whose names were called were all representatives of various sects. When they spoke in the official residence of the imperial court, they were a little cautious at first. Later, when they saw that nothing serious happened, they relaxed.
There were sect representatives who couldn't help but introduce themselves and the roots, development and scope of their sect.
Of course, what is most often heard in the conversation is, "The so-and-so temple where I am, and the so-and-so sect, are not like some people who are just trying to gain fame, but are authentically famous and upright sects, built by such-and-such masters."
, has been passed down to this day and passed down as orthodoxy for hundreds, even thousands of years.”
As soon as this statement came out, representatives of other factions were unhappy.
What do you mean by inheriting orthodoxy?
Is it possible that other sects are all half-way monastics?
As a result, the conflict intensified instantly.
Different sects, without bothering to offend the imperial court, had a fierce quarrel directly in the palace over the origin of the sect, the analysis of doctrines and the inheritance of history.
This kind of quarrel initially stopped at the debate over the origin of the sect, but soon the scolding escalated, and both the scolder and the scolded began to take advantage of each other. They no longer cared about their appearance, and reported the other sect's tangerine peel and rotten millet.
, they all brought it to the table and talked about it.
The abbot of a certain temple likes to eat meat and drink alcohol, and in the name of "consecration", he goes around molesting women, with hundreds of victims.
A real person from a so-and-so temple sold elixirs to the people and poisoned all the people in the village to muteness. Later, he was worried that the people would report him to the official, so he actually hid.
There are also believers of a certain sect and a certain sect. In order to compete for missionary territory, they often fight in groups, engage in assassinations, and form gangs. The sect has an arsenal, including swords, guns, swords, and halberds. They are all childish, even armor, crossbows, etc.
Contraband items are also readily available.
Faced with the chaos in front of them, Young Prisoner Yis and the Jinyi Guardsmen Wei Zheng listened quietly and did not stop them.
Yisi frowned and Ban Weizheng kept laughing.
Only Xu Fanghai, who was in charge, kept his duties in mind, holding a booklet and taking notes seriously.
