Chapter 0787 The terrifyingly rich Daxiangguo Temple
Three days later.
Kou Ji personally led three thousand soldiers and horses to the Daxiangguo Temple.
The street where Daxiangguo Temple is located is surrounded by water.
The door of Daxiangguo Temple is closed.
Kou Ji sent people to use siege tools to break open the gate of Daxiangguo Temple.
The huge red lacquered wooden door was chiseled into pieces.
People rushed to the street where the Daxiangguo Temple is located to watch.
Koji sent people to drive them away from this place.
After the door of Daxiangguo Temple was broken open, Kou Ji personally led his troops and rushed in.
From the entrance of the temple to the entrance of the Main Hall, there was not a single soul along the way.
It wasn't until we arrived at the entrance of the Main Hall that we saw the figure of a great monk.
Kou Ji rode up the stone steps at the entrance of the Main Hall, reined in his horse and stopped in front of the great monk.
After Koji Lema, the great monk bowed and saluted and pronounced the Buddha's name.
"Amitabha, are you alright, the donor?"
"Eat well and sleep soundly. Master Liaochen has been in Daxiangguo Temple for less than a month. Master should not interfere in the affairs of Daxiangguo Temple."
Kou Ji jumped off the horse and walked up to the great monk.
The great monk bowed to Kou Ji again with a benevolent look on his face, "How can you sacrifice yourself for other things when you are living in this world?"
"So, the master is planning to intervene in the affairs of Daxiangguo Temple?"
Kou Ji stared at the great monk and asked.
The great monk nodded slowly.
Kou Ji nodded and said: "Very good, then please ask the master to hand over all the accounts of the Daxiangguo Temple, land deeds, real estate deeds, and the list of monks."
The great monk stared at Kou Ji and said: "The Daxiangguo Temple is a national temple, but a place outside the country."
"The national temple was in the past, but it is not now. A place outside the country? It is self-proclaimed, right? I have only heard that the whole world is not the royal land. The Grand Prime Minister's National Temple is within the royal land, so it must be subject to the laws of the imperial court.
Legally bound.”
Kou Ji said coldly.
The great monk frowned, "The monks of the Great Xiangguo Temple have not violated the law..."
"Whether it's a violation or not, you have to investigate to find out."
Kou Ji said coldly and waved his hand to the soldiers and horses behind him.
The soldiers and horses behind Kou Ji immediately prepared to break into the main hall with swords, guns, swords and halberds.
The great monk's expression changed, he stopped in front of the soldiers and horses, and said solemnly to Kou Ji: "How is this behavior of the donor different from that of a robber?"
Kou Ji snorted coldly: "Do you think I came here with my soldiers and horses to reason with your Daxiangguo Temple?"
Seeing that Kou Ji insisted on breaking into the Mahavira Palace, the great monk took something out of his arms.
"This is Emperor Taizong's decree to confer Daxiangguo Temple as a national temple. As a minister of the Song Dynasty, Lord Kou dares to disobey Emperor Taizong's decree?"
The imperial edict looked a little old, but it was very winking.
Kou Ji stared at the imperial edict and narrowed his eyes.
"Does Daxiangguo Temple want to rely on Emperor Taizong's will to transcend the secular world?"
Seeing that Kou Ji was frightened by the imperial edict, the great monk immediately said: "Daxiangguo Temple is a place outside the secular world."
Kou Ji said coldly: "Since it is a place outside the secular world, we should not keep those adu objects. If the Daxiangguo Temple hands over those adu objects, I can ask the officials to really make the Daxiangguo Temple transcend.
Beyond the world."
The great monk stared at Kou Ji and said in a deep voice: "The Great Xiangguo Temple has not done any evil, so why should the benefactor of Kou have to press hard?"
Kou Ji coldly snorted: "Whether he has done anything wrong or not, we will find out after checking."
The great monk held up the imperial edict and said, "Emperor Taizong's edict is here, how do you check it?"
Kou Ji smiled coldly, "Do you think that just by showing Emperor Taizong's will, you can defeat me?"
The great monk was speechless, but he held the imperial edict high.
Kou Ji turned around and said to the hundreds of soldiers and horses behind him: "Remove armor!"
Hundreds of soldiers and horses disarmed in unison.
After Kou Ji waited for hundreds of soldiers and horses to take off their armor, he said coldly: "From the moment you take off your armor, you are no longer our soldiers and horses of the Song Dynasty. You can be rogues or bandits. Later, the court will
We will issue arrest warrants to arrest you.
You can flee south or north."
As soon as these words came out, there was no change in the expressions on the faces of hundreds of soldiers and horses.
On the contrary, the great monk's face became very ugly.
The great monk stared at Kou Ji and said angrily: "Kou almsgiver's deception, how can he hide it from the world?"
Kou Ji sneered and said: "We have millions of troops in the Song Dynasty. There are imperial troops and local troops. It is inevitable that there will be some good and bad among them. It is normal for some rebels to emerge.
So what if the world believes it or not?
Have they shaken my position, or can they take their lives?"
Having said this, Kou Ji was too lazy to continue chatting with the monk, and he slowly raised his hand.
When the great monk saw this, his eyes widened in shock.
"Amitabha!"
A chant of the Buddha rang out in the Mahavira Hall, and an old monk slowly walked out.
When he saw Kou Ji, he asked, "Does Privy Kou intend to commit murder in our pure Buddhist land?"
Kou Ji knew the old monk. The old monk was the abbot of the Daxiangguo Temple and the real person in charge of the affairs of the Daxiangguo Temple.
Kou Ji stared at the old monk and said, "I don't want to kill anyone, but some people are ignorant, so I can only send them to death."
The old monk narrowed his eyes slightly and said, "Did Privy Kou plan to kill the benefactor who stayed in the Daxiangguo Temple together with him?"
Kou Ji raised his eyebrows, "Are you threatening me?!"
The old monk slowly shook his head, "How dare the poor monk threaten Privy Kou? The poor monk just wants Privy Kou to let go of those innocent donors."
Kou Ji chuckled, "You threatened me with their lives, and now you beg me to let them go. It's really a good plan."
The old monk pronounced the Buddha's name without saying anything.
Kou Ji didn't say anything, but a few cold gleams suddenly flashed in his eyes, and he slowly raised his hand.
The pupils of the old monk and the great monk both shrank.
"Please invite Privy Kou to enter the Great Hall!"
The old monk shouted hurriedly.
Kou Ji snorted coldly, "You have to force me to do it harshly! This year, the number of monks recruited by Daxiangguo Temple will be reduced by half."
The old monk and the great monk thought they could use hostages and Emperor Taizong's imperial edict to force Kou Ji to stop.
But he didn't expect that Kou Ji was not threatened at all.
If you say you want to take action, be ready to take action. There is no ambiguity at all.
In the end, they succumbed to Koji's force.
Although there are many warrior monks in Daxiangguo Temple, they are nothing compared to the five thousand elite soldiers brought by Kou Ji.
If you really want to take action, the nature will be completely different.
No one can say whether there will be anyone alive in the Daxiangguo Temple by then.
"He's from Tobe! He's out to work!"
Kou Ji did not accept the invitation to enter the Mahavira Hall.
Instead, he shouted to the Ministry of Household Officials who were following behind him.
Officials from the Ministry of Revenue came out and entered the main hall under the protection of soldiers and horses.
After the Ministry of Revenue officials entered the Main Hall, Kou Ji waved to the armored soldiers and horses behind him.
Soldiers and horses wearing armor immediately rushed to all parts of the Daxiangguo Temple and launched a search of the Daxiangguo Temple.
The old monk watched the officials from the Ministry of Revenue and soldiers and horses rushing into the Daxiangguo Temple. He closed his eyes in pain and kept chanting the name of the Buddha.
Kou Ji was waiting at the entrance of the Main Hall.
Not long after, officials from the Ministry of Revenue appeared outside the Main Hall holding stacks of accounts.
Kou Ji ordered the officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs to count the items on the spot.
Not long passed again.
The soldiers who went to search returned and presented a stack of accounts to Kou Ji.
The old monk's face turned sallow after seeing the stack of accounts.
Seeing this, Kou Ji stepped forward and looked through it.
Then he raised one of the accounts and sarcastically said to the old monk: "The Daxiangguo Temple is really a foreign place, and it actually has usury money. The amount is not small."
The old monk said nothing, but slowly closed his eyes and pronounced the Buddha's name.
Kou Ji ordered the accounts to be sent to the officials of the Ministry of Household Affairs, who counted them.
Just as the officials from the Ministry of Revenue were counting the accounts quickly, another soldier came over to report.
"Privacy Kou, Bei Shi and others discovered two granaries and a money storehouse in the Daxiangguo Temple."
"Move out all the things inside! At the same time, invite all the eminent monks in the Daxiangguo Temple to come out."
"Here..."
In accordance with Kou Ji's order, the soldiers moved out the grain from the granary of Daxiangguo Temple and the money from the money bank.
Thousands of people moved for three hours before the contents were emptied.
The moved things were piled up into two hills in the open space at the entrance of the Main Hall.
Kou Ji took a quick look and saw that the amount of food exceeded one million dan.
Most of the money was gold, silver and jewelry, and no copper coins were seen.
Seeing this, Kou Ji walked up to the officials of the Ministry of Household Affairs and asked, "Check what name the Daxiangguo Temple used to save money in Zizijiaozipu."
At present, copper coins are the mainstream currency. Not many copper coins were found in Daxiangguo Temple, which means that Daxiangguo Temple hid the copper coins elsewhere.
Daxiangguo Temple has a usury business, so it is impossible for them to bury the money underground. The most likely possibility is to store it in Yizijiaozipu.
Officials from the Ministry of Revenue rummaged through the account books according to Kou Ji's instructions, and finally found a total of sixteen names where money was deposited.
Sixteen people who have no reputation in Bianjing City have huge amounts of money under their names.
Kou Ji wrote a handwritten letter on the spot and ordered someone to send it to Zhao Zhen, who ordered Zhao Zhen to hand it over to Zipu and send all the money in the names of these sixteen people to the Daxiangguo Temple.
The old monk saw Kou Ji's behavior and said with a sad face: "Privy Minister Kou, our Daxiangguo Temple has no grudges with Privy Kou. Why did Privy Kou drive all my Daxiangguo Temple to death?"
Kou Ji heard what the old monk said and said calmly: "I didn't kill anyone in your Daxiangguo Temple, so how can I kill them all? Besides, you keep saying that Buddhism is a pure place, so why are you afraid of others looking at it?"
The old monk gritted his teeth and said: "The Queen Mother is also a pilgrim in my Daxiangguo Temple! The poor monk has already sent someone to invite the Queen Mother."
Kou Ji's face turned cold, "You're using the Queen Mother to suppress me?!"
The old monk said solemnly: "I don't dare. I just ask Privy Councilor Kou to save some face for our Daxiangguo Temple. All the money in the Daxiangguo Temple can be dedicated to the imperial court."
Kou Jileng snorted: "Then you go and invite the Queen Mother, and see if the Queen Mother will stand up for you at the Xiangguo Temple."
When the old monk saw that Kou Ji had a tough attitude and refused to let him in, he could only grit his teeth and keep silent.
Daxiangguo Temple has always claimed to be a pure place for Buddhism.
But whether it is a pure place or not, the old monk knows clearly.
At present, Kou Ji used force to subdue the Daxiangguo Temple and thoroughly investigated the Daxiangguo Temple's properties.
The wealth accumulated by Daxiangguo Temple for decades will be exposed to everyone.
If we follow the money investigation, whatever evil deeds the Daxiangguo Temple has done will be found out.
By then, the reputation of Daxiangguo Temple will be completely ruined.
The old monk wanted to resist, but under the force of Koji's oppression, all his resistance was almost useless.
The only one I can rely on now is the Queen Mother.
The old monk now just asks the Queen Mother to get there faster.
Kou Ji saw the old monk's thoughts, but he had no words.
Because Kou Ji knew very well that it was impossible for Queen Mother Li to appear in Daxiangguo Temple.
The old monk had no way to deliver the message to the Empress Dowager Li directly. He could only send the message to the Empress Dowager Li through some pilgrims in the mansions of powerful people, as well as eunuchs in the palace and pilgrims in the palace concubines.
And these people have already been closely watched by the people from Wude Division sent by Zhao Zhen.
Empress Dowager Li herself was also invited by Zhao Zhen to go on a cruise in Jinmingchi.
No one will deliver the message to Daxiangguo Temple, and it is impossible for Queen Mother Li to appear at Daxiangguo Temple.
By the time Empress Dowager Li knew that something had happened to the Daxiangguo Temple, Kou Ji had already dealt with it.
Use the power of the imperial court to deal with a temple, and the temple will have no power left to resist except lying down and being beaten.
After several hours of calculation.
Officials from the Ministry of Revenue have clearly counted the money and accounts of Daxiangguo Temple.
After checking the accounts, all the account officials responsible for checking the accounts looked shocked.
"I report to Privy Councilor Kou that the Daxiangguo Temple has 2.3 million shi of food in its account. One million shi is stored in the Daxiangguo Temple, and the remaining 1.3 million shi is stored in the farm outside the Daxiangguo Temple outside Bianjing City.
.
Daxiangguo Temple has 3,541 acres of fertile land in the north of the city, and 1,867 acres of fertile land in the south of the city... In addition, in the counties under the jurisdiction of Kaifeng Prefecture, there are also fields owned by Daxiangguo Temple...
The total farm property of Daxiangguo Temple is 67,362 acres.
…
Daxiangguo Temple has thirty-two shops, eighteen residences, and six villas in Bianjing City.
…
The Daxiangguo Temple has been loan sharking for many years and has accumulated tens of millions of money. Some of the money was used to buy land, some of the money was left in the Daxiangguo Temple, and some of the money was stored in Yizijiaozipu.
…
According to overall planning, all the properties and money of Daxiangguo Temple are totaled 26.53 million guan, of which 3.67 million guan are IOUs. The money has been put into private hands by Daxiangguo Temple.
.
…”
There was no reason why the officials of the Ministry of Household Affairs were not shocked.
It's just a temple, but its assets actually reach 26.53 million yuan.
This amounted to one-fifth of the current annual tax revenue of the Song Dynasty.
Such shocking figures were enough to shock everyone in the Song Dynasty.
Zhang Zhibai went to the government to report that there were many cancers in temples all over the world, and some temples made a lot of money.
Some people in the court felt that Zhang Zhibai's words were a bit exaggerated.
Now that they have seen the astonishing wealth of Daxiangguo Temple, the officials of the Ministry of Revenue feel that what Zhang Zhibai said in the court was not an exaggeration at all. Not only is it not an exaggeration, it is even very implicit.
"Twenty-six million five hundred and thirty thousand yuan?!"
Kou Ji was also shocked when he heard this number.
He had long known that Daxiangguo Temple had amassed huge amounts of money and was extremely rich, but when he heard the total assets of Daxiangguo Temple, his heart still twitched.
Daxiangguo Temple is just a temple, and the amount of money it has amassed is a bit scary.
Not only was it beyond the cognition of all Song people, it was also beyond the cognition of Kou Ji.
Kou Ji was speechless. He walked to the pile of accounts that had been checked and read through them carefully.
Kou Ji spent an hour looking through the accounts before he figured out why Daxiangguo Temple could collect so much money.
The Daxiangguo Temple is like a Pixiu, which can only be entered but not exited.
The food used on daily basis is produced in the fields of Daxiangguo Temple.
People from Daxiangguo Temple don’t need to go out to buy things like firewood, rice, oil, and salt.
Pilgrims from the powerful families in Bianjing City would offer these things at all times.
The number of monks in Daxiangguo Temple is limited, so most of the food produced in Daxiangguo Temple, as well as the firewood, rice, oil and salt given by pilgrims, are sold by them.
None of the shops of Daxiangguo Temple in Bianjing City are rented out.
They are all run by people from the Daxiangguo Temple, and they sell food, firewood, rice, oil and salt from the Daxiangguo Temple.
Sometimes pilgrims sell things at the food store run by Daxiangguo Temple and send them to Daxiangguo Temple. Then they sell them in Daxiangguo Temple. This goes back and forth three or five times. When the things are a little stale, Daxiangguo Temple will sell them at a low price.
To the people.
Repeating this process several times, Daxiangguo Temple used the same thing and made money several times.
Those grain stores alone contribute a large amount of money to the Daxiangguo Temple every year.
In addition, the prices of the incense and vegetarian dishes that Daxiangguo Temple provides to pilgrims are very high. A bowl of plain noodles often costs hundreds of dollars. Every year, Daxiangguo Temple can earn a large amount of income.
When the pilgrims from the powerful families in Bianjing added money for scented oil and brought gifts to the Daxiangguo Temple, they scattered them without hesitation.
Ask for another Buddha statue and have it consecrated or something.
Even more money is spent in Daxiangguo Temple.
The combined income earned the Daxiangguo Temple a large sum of money.
The most profitable thing for Daxiangguo Temple is loan sharking.
If you spend millions of dollars rolling around outside, you can get 30 to 50 percent more money.
Therefore, the total income of Daxiangguo Temple every year is already a huge sum of money.
It has been more than fifty years since the Song Dynasty came to dominate the world.
Daxiangguo Temple also made more than fifty years of money.
After more than fifty years of accumulation, it has naturally become a huge number.
After looking at the accounts, Kou Ji walked up to the old monk and said, "I have always known that your temple is wealthy, but I didn't expect that your temple would be so wealthy."
The old monk's face was as cold as frost and he said nothing.
Kou Ji did not let him go just because the old monk said nothing. He stared at the old monk and said, "You did a lot of evil when you were collecting loan sharks, right? There are many headless people in Kaifeng Mansion who forced people to pay off their debts and caused deaths.
A public case, we should be able to find the culprit."
The old monk's expression turned extremely gloomy for a moment.
Kou Ji ignored him, but ordered the people behind him: "Go to Kaifeng Mansion and ask the prefect Quan of Kaifeng Mansion to bring someone over to investigate this matter. By the way, send someone to urge the people in Zipu to ask them to
Send the money from Daxiangguo Temple as soon as possible.
After the people from Yizijiaozipu have delivered the money from Daxiangguo Temple, they will open the mountain gate of Daxiangguo Temple and let the common people in, so that they can take a good look at whether this pure place of Buddhism is pure or not."
"Kou Ji! This poor monk has already donated all his money to the court, what else do you want?"
The old monk finally couldn't help shouting.
Kou Ji snorted coldly, "You want me to save face for your Daxiangguo Temple and cover up the scandals you have done? You think so! When you sent people to smear Zhang Zhibai's reputation, did you hold back?
You didn't even hold back when dealing with an upright and honest person.
Why should I hold back against you dirty people?"
The old monk opened his mouth to argue, but he heard Kou Ji sneer: "Don't tell me, what happened in Zhang Zhibai's house has nothing to do with your Daxiangguo Temple. Your Daxiangguo Temple can make so much money in Bianjing City, and the people below are helping you.
, I am afraid it has already exceeded a thousand people.
If there is any disturbance in other temples in Bianjing City, you should know it clearly.
Therefore, even if you, Daxiangguo Temple, did not do anything about the Zhang Mansion, you, Daxiangguo Temple, are also one of the insiders."
The old monk was speechless after listening to Kou Ji's words.
The old monk is also a eloquent person.
But standing in front of that massive amount of money, he couldn't say a word.
Kou Ji saw that the old monk had stopped talking, so he didn't speak again.
He waited until the people from Yizijiaozipu had delivered the money from Daxiangguo Temple, then ordered people to pile the money in one place and sent heavy troops to guard it.
Then he ordered the officials of the Ministry of Revenue to make a list of all the money and property of Daxiangguo Temple and posted it at the gate of Daxiangguo Temple.
Later, Kou Ji ordered people to open the door of Daxiangguo Temple, so that people in Bianjing City who wanted to enter Daxiangguo Temple could enter Daxiangguo Temple anytime and anywhere.
When Kou Ji led his soldiers and horses to the Daxiangguo Temple, the people gathered at the street entrances on both sides of the Daxiangguo Temple to watch.
But Kou Ji sent soldiers and horses to block the entire street, so they couldn't enter the street.
Now Koji has lifted the blockade of the street.
People on both sides of the street naturally rushed to the Daxiangguo Temple.
Most of them came with the intention of fighting injustice for the Daxiangguo Temple.
But when they saw the list of properties and money posted at the door of the Daxiangguo Temple, and the mountains of food and money piled inside the Daxiangguo Temple, each of them looked shocked and couldn't say a word to express their condolences to the Daxiangguo Temple.
If the fight is unfair.
With the continuous influx of people.
The news that the property of Daxiangguo Temple had been converted into money, amounting to more than 20 million yuan, spread like a gust of wind.
There was a complete sensation in Bianjing City.
The people rushed to the Daxiangguo Temple crazily.
The dignitaries and civil and military ministers in Bianjing City also rushed to the Daxiangguo Temple in sedan chairs.
Zhao Zhen, who was sitting on the dragon boat in Jinming Pool, was accompanying Concubine Li and Empress Cao on a lake tour.
When Chen Lin reported that the property of Daxiangguo Temple was converted into money, it amounted to more than 20 million yuan, and she crushed a railing on the dragon boat.
"Gaba..."
"Official!"
Hearing the sound of gaba, Concubine Li and Empress Cao, who were watching the scenery on both sides of Jinming Pool, turned around one after another.
Seeing Zhao Zhen crushing the railing, the two of them had a look of shock on their faces and shouted in unison.