Chapter 463 Pushing Mountain Hand Shilong (Happy New Year)
In the fourth year of Renshou, the northern court was turbulent, but the southern lands were still calm.
Of course, the overall situation is stable, but various secret battles and conflicts of interests are essential, especially the disputes in the world.
The Iron Sect is expanding rapidly throughout the south, and the only force that can compete with them is the Southern Buddhism family.
It is a pity that the southern Buddhists are not focused on the disputes in the rivers and lakes at this time. All the eyes of the senior officials are on the north where the situation is delicate, waiting for the new situation after the change of power in the Sui Dynasty.
Buddhism is very passive this time!
The prince they supported, Yang Yong, fell, and the royal family lost its spokesperson, or collaborator.
On the contrary, Prince Yang Guang, who is supported by the Yinkui sect, has a great chance of winning. Once he comes to power, whether he will take action to suppress Buddhism is a question that the top Buddhist sect must consider.
If Yang Jian hadn't left such a solid foundation, with Buddhism's usual style of doing things, in such an embarrassing situation, he would probably have made a move to overturn the table.
Unfortunately, the Sui Dynasty's national power was quite strong, and the military power and the group of masters at its command were not something that Buddhism could challenge.
When Emperor Yang Jian of the Sui Dynasty was seriously ill, all Buddhism's attention was focused on the situation in the north. How could it be interested in getting involved in the disputes in the south?
Even if they were determined, they wouldn't be able to fight through the Iron Gate.
Buddhism is still shameless. It is impossible for them to send their elite monks to participate in Jianghu disputes like ordinary Jianghu sects. What they like to do most is to act as a referee from a high position, rather than directly going into battle with bare arms.
Besides, iron gates are not easy to deal with either.
With the secret support of Wuhou Leihu, the world's best master, and the backing of Wuhou Ling, the splendid and prosperous place in the south, Tiemen has plenty of resources and many masters. Unless Southern Buddhism mobilizes a group of first-class masters to suppress the situation, there is basically nothing they can do.
Suppressing the expansion of Iron Gate is too powerful.
The key is that the expansion of Tiemen is driven by the powerful economic power of Wuhou Ling. Once Tiemen succeeds in opening up new territories in other places, Wuhou Ling's economic power will follow the trend and directly annex the country by relying on its abundant commodity resources.
The business resources here are unmatched by Buddhism.
Not to mention, Wu Hou is a member of the Holy Sect. Regardless of whether he will take action, Wu Hou alone leads a group of top-notch experts from the Holy Sect, and they are not the ones the southern Buddhist sect is willing to provoke.
There are also an unimaginable number of horizontally trained masters in the army under the command of Wu Hou, and none of them are the ones the southern Buddhists are willing to fight head-on at this time.
If it weren't for the fact that the southern Buddhist sect had no intention of fighting, I'm afraid that Old Taoist Qingxu, a newly promoted Taoist sect in the later stage of Xiantian, would have been sitting in the Qixia Temple in Qixia Mountain, holding the old monk Jiaxiang of the Sanlun Sect tightly and not daring to leave.
What makes the southern Buddhists even more afraid is that because of the economic radiation of the Wu Marquis, many commercial forces in Jiankang have become vassals. If the Buddhists show their chariots and horses against the iron gate, they may be attacked by Jiankang's part.
If the commercial power is abandoned, the incense, money and food lost every year will definitely make the senior Buddhists vomit blood.
There are more than 700 Buddhist temples concentrated in Jiankang alone. No matter how big or small, with the power of one place to support so many Buddhist temples, one can imagine how great the pressure for survival is.
This was all due to Emperor Wu of Liang, who was starved to death. This man worshiped Buddhism to the point of madness. In addition to building Buddhist temples and replacing Taoist temples with Buddhist temples, he also allocated a large amount of land to Buddhist temples as temple fields.
It's almost crazy to be so caring.
As a result, the power of Buddhism in the south expanded greatly. No matter how the situation in the south changed, no force was willing to easily provoke Buddhism.
Unfortunately, Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty made great efforts to strengthen Buddhism in the south. As a result, when he was starved to death during Hou Jingzhi's rebellion, the Buddhists looked on with cold eyes and did not lend a helping hand. It is not known whether he regretted it before his death.
Originally, life in Jiankang Buddhism was quite prosperous. Whether it was the Liang Kingdom or the Chen Kingdom, the Buddhist temples here could not only receive incense offerings and property from the rich and powerful, but they could also live a good life even in the most chaotic times.
However, when Wu Houling developed, the life of Jiankang Yigan Buddhist Temple became difficult.
Not to mention that the number of incense offerings began to decrease due to commercial reasons. Everyone knew that Wu Hou was from a Taoist sect. If you wanted to curry favor with Wu Hou, you must at least express your support for the Taoist sect.
Furthermore, Wu Houling’s land-dividing policy in order to win over the people was too cruel. Landless people in Jiankang fled to Wu Houling one after another, and most of them belonged to wealthy families and monasteries.
tenant.
Without tenants to help cultivate the land and exploit the land, major Buddhist temples had to let monks cultivate the land themselves. This made the monks who were accustomed to enjoying themselves very dissatisfied. As a result, there were even small-scale cases of returning to secular life, which can affect the senior officials of Jiankang Buddhist temples.
Very depressed.
Faced with Iron Gate's aggressive posture, Southern Buddhism decisively chose to ignore it.
Fortunately, the top management of Tiemen got the advice from Lei Hu not to push too hard, but to occupy the territory first before talking about anything else.
The Iron Gate runs along the Yangtze River and reaches directly into the city of Yangzhou on the other side.
Yangzhou is also a prosperous city along the Yangtze River. Because Prince Yang Guang was previously in charge here, the Jianghu forces here in Yangzhou were severely suppressed.
Gangs such as the famous Haisha Gang in the south did not dare to reach out, fearing that they might accidentally offend Yang Guang, the then King of Jin, and bring disaster to their own gang.
As it turned out, the person who dominated the city of Yangzhou turned out to be only the master of the martial arts hall, Shi Long, who was known as the "Top Pusher".
Although this person's internal and external skills have reached the first-class level, he is still not as good as the innate master. In Yangzhou City, he is the so-called 'first master'.
The Shilong Martial Arts School he founded has a lot of momentum, but its strength is a little bit.
But in the entire southern martial arts world, Shilong and Shilong Martial Arts Hall are nothing.
If the Jianghu forces in the south were not afraid of Prince Yang Guang and did not dare to act recklessly in Yangzhou to expand their power, Yangzhou would not have had the turn of a mere Shilong to become the boss of the Jianghu.
No, when Tiemen drove the tiller to Yangzhou City, he became the veritable number one political force in Yangzhou City without even making any moves.
Although the helmsman of the Iron Gate Yangzhou branch is only a second-rate martial artist, and there are only three second-rate martial artists in charge of the entire branch, he is still the veritable number one martial arts force in Yangzhou City.
At this time, it was no different than when Yang Guang failed in his third expedition to Goguryeo. The majesty of the Sui Dynasty court and the government was quite high, and it seemed that the Zhuhua Gang that Shuanglong later joined was still there.
The core of Tiemen are all military lieutenant generals, and thanks to the ideological education manual compiled by Lei Hu, they have a very kind attitude towards the people. At least they will not exploit the weak groups at the bottom like ordinary Jianghu forces, and create
There were many murders.
Because of his origin, Tiemen's purpose is order. Everywhere he controls the territory, it is in order and there is not much mess. Even if the money he earns is not very clean, he does not go too far.
Because of this, since Tiemen Branch settled in Yangzhou, the order of the entire Yangzhou world has quickly improved. It is unlikely that things like Shuanglong and Mr. Yan will happen. Once it is discovered that Mr. Yan cannot escape, he will be sent to Wu.
The fate of the marquis in the labor camp.
It is said that all the beggars in Yangzhou city were collected by iron gates and packed up and sent to the leader of Wu Hou, which made the streets of Yangzhou much cleaner and peaceful, but of course it also made the people in the city a little unclear.
In the past few days, an explosive news suddenly came out in Yangzhou city. Shi Long, the ‘Tui Shanshou’, was going to retreat outside the city for unknown reasons. The huge Taoist temple in the city was managed by a few close disciples.
The others didn't think much of anything, but the Iron Gate sub-rudder had been watching Shi Long's every move for a long time, and he immediately took action after hearing the news.
There is a small hidden courtyard outside the city, which is the secluded place of Shilong who pushed the mountain hand.
This guy is extremely careful in his actions. Except for a few close disciples who deliver meals, no one else knows that he is living in seclusion here. Anyone who is not a fool knows that there is something weird in it.
Dong dong dong...
On this day, the tranquility of Shilong's secluded courtyard was broken by a knock on the door.
Shi Long, who was pondering something in the yard, was suddenly startled and put away a book. He waited quietly for a moment and saw constant knocking on the door, then he slowly walked over and opened the courtyard door.
"I haven't seen Master Shi for a few days, and even his temperament has changed a lot!"
The iron gate helmsman said with a smile, without seeing any outsiders: "Why don't you invite a few of us to come in and sit down?"
Seeing the visitor, Shi Long's expression changed slightly, and he quickly returned to normal and stretched out his hand to invite: "Guys, please!"
"Haha, people don't talk secretly between themselves!"
After sitting down at the stone table in the yard and talking some nonsense, the Iron Gate Branch Helmsman suddenly got straight to the point: "Master Shi is lucky enough to have obtained the Taoist sect's unique skills. If he wants to participate in the research alone, I'm afraid it will be difficult."
It’s quite difficult!”
Shi Long's face changed drastically. He was no longer the person who had already been in the city for more than ten years. A sharp light flashed in his eyes, and he snorted coldly with murderous intention in his heart: "Your Excellency is well-informed!"
"Brother Shi, please don't mess around!"
Feeling the murderous aura on Shi Long's body, the Iron Gate Yangzhou helmsman waved his hands and said with a smile: "Not to mention that Brother Shi can't kill a few of us in an instant, but even if he can, so what? Could it be that Brother Shi plans to flee to the end of the world?"
"Why, didn't you make the decision on this operation without authorization?"
Shi Long's heart sank and he sneered: "I really can't afford to offend Mr. Shi, who is powerful in the Iron Gate, but Mr. Shi is also a first-rate player. If I take the initiative to defect to a powerful family in the north, I think Iron Gate will have no choice but to do anything!"
"Brother Shi is wrong!"
The leader of the Yangzhou branch of the Iron Gate said solemnly: "I actually don't know why Brother Shi is doing this. The one who wants us to keep an eye on Brother Shi is the senior management of the Iron Gate!"
After saying this, he paused for a moment, letting Shi Long digest the sudden information, and said leisurely: "Even Marquis Wu noticed Brother Shi!"
"What, Wu Hou also knows about it?"
Shi Long was really shocked now, his face instantly turned pale, and the luck in his heart disappeared.