Recreating the prosperous Tang begins with summoning players

Chapter 68 Prosperity and Crisis

All I saw was a middle-aged monk in cassock standing on the steps, surrounded by a few strong monks and beating the farmer.

"Okay, stop."

The middle-aged monk ordered his monks to stop, took out a copy from his arms and said: "The ten acres of Yongye farmland in your family was donated to the temple by your father's hand-painted bets. How can you say you regret it if you donate things to the Buddhist sect?" Just regret it?"

Hearing the middle-aged monk's words, the howling farmer trembled and said, "My father was blinded by the spells cast by you bald donkeys, and cheated of his ancestral property by you! Before he died, my father took my hand and told me We must ask for the land and acres back!"

The middle-aged monk said with a sneer: "Buddhism is pure, how can you allow unruly people like you to be reckless, next time you come again, it will not be as simple as a beating!"

Putting down the harsh words, the middle-aged monk left with the monk.

Li Daoyuan had an idea, this might also be a "task".

He walked over, helped the farmer up and said, "Brother, how did you offend this monk from Leiyin Temple?"

Seeing that Li Daoyuan was not wearing a monk's robe, the farmer sighed and said, "Last year, my mother was seriously ill, and my father didn't know who stopped bewitching him. He insisted on saying that my mother had run into an evil spirit and wanted to find the monk from Leiyin Temple." Exorcism."

"In order to invite the great monk to exorcise evil spirits, the family donated ten acres of high-quality paddy fields to the temple."

"I didn't expect my mother to leave after performing the ritual of exorcising evil spirits. Only then did my father realize that he had been fooled. He rushed to Leiyin Temple to talk to the monk, but he was beaten up."

"Back home, the more my father thought about it, the more angry he became, and he left with my mother within a week!"

"I came here to Leiyin Temple just to beg for these ten acres of paddy fields."

Li Daoyuan asked suspiciously: "Why didn't you report to the official?"

The farmer sighed and said, "Shazhou worships Buddha everywhere, and this monk from Leiyin Temple is a guest of the dignitaries in the city, so what's the use of reporting to officials?"

Li Daoyuan understood that the Mogao Grottoes were built spontaneously by devout monks in the grottoes.

The folks in the Tang Dynasty have always worshiped Buddhism. In the period of Wu Zetian, in order to suppress Li Tang's official Taoist beliefs, many Buddhist temples were built across the country.

In the Longyou Dao area, worshiping Buddha is very popular. Whether it is a dignitary or an ordinary person, they all enshrine Buddha statues at home, and donate sesame oil money to Buddhist temples when they are resting.

Li Daoyuan looked at the bruised farmer and said, "Why did you come here? The monks in Leiyin Temple eat high-quality polished rice and practice martial arts in the temple every day. Aren't you going to die like this?"

The farmer said stubbornly: "Leiyin Temple won't return my ancestral land. After I recover from my injury, I will continue to go to the main gate to make trouble. How dare they beat me to death in the Buddhist gate!?"

After saying this, the farmer limped to his feet and left the temple dragging his injured body.

Li Daoyuan looked at the back of the farmer, so he sighed and returned to his monk's room.

At this moment, Cui Tao, Cui Ruoyun and Sun Jianguo finally arrived at the gate of Shazhou City.

Sun Jianguo took the businessman's documents from Shazhou and lined up to enter the city.

"Is there still a toll to enter the city?" Cui Tao asked doubtfully.

Sun Jianguo nodded and said, "I heard that the Doulu Army, because they were dissatisfied with the governor of Shazhou who withheld their rewards, took the initiative to occupy the city gates of Shazhou and charged those who entered the city to enter the city."

Cui Tao frowned and said, "Is this Dou Lujun so domineering?"

Sun Jianguo nodded and said, "The Doulu Army not only collects city fees, merchants who enter the city also have to stay in hotels designated by them, buy silk and porcelain, and go to shops designated by them."

"This Dou Lujun is still involved in business? So arrogant?"

Sun Jianguo smiled and said: "This army is doing business, which is also a feature of the Tang Dynasty. The Doulu Army just opened stores to buy and sell by force. I heard that the Shouzhuo Prefectures in the north would sell embargoed weapons and horses to the Uighurs. "

Outrageous, Cui Ruoyun, who had been silent all this time, said: "It seems that this Tang Dynasty is really rotten from top to bottom."

Sun Jianguo also nodded and said, "I didn't expect it to be like this after only ten years of the Kaiyuan prosperity."

Cui Tao sneered and said, "The problems in the state here have already been like this in the prosperous Kaiyuan era."

Cui Ruoyun asked suspiciously: "Is it because the government soldiers were corrupted?"

Cui Tao nodded and said: "The corruption of the government soldiers is a factor. The prosperity of Kaiyuan Tianbao hides many serious problems."

Sun Jianguo also knew many native merchants, and he always heard that they missed the prosperity of the Kaiyuan period. At that time, the whole Shazhou was a huge market, and the merchants from the Western Regions crowded the wine shops in Shazhou.

At that time, relying on Shazhou, Guazhou was extremely prosperous, and there were rich and rich merchants everywhere.

These are people who have personally experienced that era, and have good memories of Kaiyuan's prosperity.

Cui Tao said: "Prosperity is a superficial phenomenon. The prosperity of the Kaiyuan period brought population growth, but the Tang Dynasty had no land to continue to develop. Land mergers and population reproduction made the land granting system unmaintainable. Lots of refugees."

"If it was a normal dynasty, so many refugees would have erupted a peasant uprising long ago. Do you know why Datang didn't?"

Cui Ruoyun knocked Cui Tao on the head and said, "Don't be impatient, speak quickly!"

Cui Tao scratched his head and said: "This is because of the military recruitment system. The government army system was corrupted, and the imperial court began to recruit soldiers from the refugees. This means that the Tang Dynasty used military expenses to provide employment for the refugees, but this brought another problem. The army in the border areas It's getting bigger and bigger."

"Everyone needs money to be a soldier. If you don't fight, you don't have money, and generals can't make meritorious service. Therefore, during the Kaiyuan period, border generals from all over the country were keen to actively create border conflicts. The military expenditure of the Tang Dynasty was increasing."

"It could be maintained during the Kaiyuan period, but it could no longer be maintained during the Tianbao period. In order to get rid of the burden, the imperial court pushed the matter of reward money to the Jiedu envoy of the border town."

"Rewards and punishments are carried out by Jiedu, so the generals only know Jiedushi, not the emperor. This is why the three towns in Hebei gathered to respond to the rebellion in Anlu Mountain."

Sun Jianguo nodded and said, "I didn't expect that there would be such a deep problem under the prosperity of Kaiyuan. Hey, governing the country is too difficult."

Cui Tao also nodded and said, "Actually, there is another problem. Now Guazhou governor and Shazhou governor Jia Sishun have both served as governors for more than ten years."

"If it is the practice of the Tang Dynasty, Jia Sishun, the governor of Shangzhou, should return to the central government to serve as the minister of the central government. However, the court was corrupt during the Xuanzong period, and there is no place for these local officials to return to the court."

"The governor of a state cannot be promoted normally, and the whole system has become rigid. Since there is no way to promote, everyone can only lie down and ask for money."

Cui Tao sighed and said: "Actually, there is another saying in the historian circles that the Anshi Rebellion is equivalent to renewing the life of the Tang Dynasty. If this rebellion did not consume the population and vacate the court, there would be no short-term revival in the Mid-Tang Dynasty."

This topic silenced both Cui Ruoyun and Sun Jianguo, and the three of them lined up and finally entered the city.

(End of this chapter)