Quickly wear it and insist on being an old man forever

Chapter 319 The Useless Traveler Wants to Go Home (17)

In the Imperial Palace of Bianjing, the Han Dynasty.

"Where did this Bright Divine Sect come from? Why is it so powerful? Even able to influence the succession of royal power?"

"If I remember correctly, those small Western countries are not very powerful. They are basically the same size as the 36 countries in the Western Regions back then. Some may even be smaller than Dali, but they are not so weak, right?
If you have any details to report, please submit them quickly! "

In recent years, in order to obtain as much gold as possible, countries have been expanding overseas, so they are no longer as ignorant of the overseas situation as before, but they just don't take it too seriously. However, no matter how little they take it, Liu E still needs to understand the situation when such a big thing happens.

For example, among the thirty-six countries in the Western Regions, any single country is not worth mentioning, but if all the thirty-six countries in the Western Regions listened to one force.

No one dares to underestimate it.

This is the case with Tubo. If Tubo had not been divided internally, the various tribes would be difficult to unify today, and they would not be so low-key that they are almost invisible and are called the Tubo tribes by the world.

"Your Majesty, please listen to my report."

Xue Jian, who was in charge of the Imperial City Affairs Office, stepped forward immediately:
“According to the investigation of the Imperial City Bureau, the Bright God Sect should have originated from the Xuannv Sect. It was founded by Zhang Qiang, the law enforcement elder of the Xuannv Sect 20 years ago. He led a group of Xuannv Sect members and three million taels of gold given by the Xuannv Patriarch to leave the Central Plains and go overseas to establish a religious force.

We call it the Bright Divine Sect internally.

However, overseas in the West it is called the Church of Light.

Zhang Qiang is the Pope, her direct disciple Xu Yuhu is the Saint, and there are many elders and deacons. The details are still under investigation, but their strength is extraordinary. There are more than 30 innate strong men and countless acquired warriors. This should be the strongest force overseas.

They preach the faith of the Goddess of Light.

It is basically the same as the White Lotus Mother, but it is mixed with some traditional Western myths. It believes that the Goddess of Light is the Lord of all gods, the mother of mankind, and has the ability to save the world, create humans, open up reincarnation, and lead all living beings to the other shore.

Compete with Western primitive religions for faith and territory."

“Interesting, they combined the achievements of the Holy Mother Nuwa and the compassionate Hou Tu Niangniang, and also mixed in some things from the ancient Lord Haotian and Buddhism.

How could such a hodgepodge work so well?

When Liu E was young, she had not read much and had little education, but when she was with Emperor Zhenzong who had not yet ascended the throne, she obviously had the conditions to study, and she actively seized the opportunity and made progress in her studies.

Otherwise, she would not have had the opportunity to become regent.

Whether it was Wu Zetian or Liu E's initial foundation of power, apart from being favored, the most important thing was undoubtedly that they could indeed help the poorly healthy Emperor Gaozong of Tang Li Zhi and Emperor Zhenzong of Song to handle government affairs. If they knew nothing, wouldn't handling government affairs be just adding to the chaos?

Not to mention trusting someone who knows nothing.

To be the empress dowager who rules the country from behind the scenes.

Therefore, Liu E's abilities and knowledge were absolutely not bad. She immediately understood what mythological stories the Goddess of Light had mixed in and found them ridiculous.

Such a weird thing.

It has developed to this point!
"Your Majesty is wise, it is indeed so!"

The emperor personally interrupted, so how could Xue Jian from the Imperial City Department dare to express dissatisfaction? Not only did he not dare to express dissatisfaction, he had to quickly flatter him with a few words, and then continued:
“I hope Your Majesty will forgive me. Some of the intelligence we collected about the West in the past may be wrong. Most of the people we came into contact with in the early stage were from the Vatican. In their description, the Vatican is the master of the West.

Any king in the West wants to ascend the throne and become emperor.

They all have to accept the coronation of their Pope.

This has led us to mistakenly believe that theocracy in the West is above imperial power, but after detailed investigations over the years, we have found that this is not the case. The actual situation is that they have been fighting each other, and in fact, imperial power should have had the upper hand in recent years, while theocracy is relatively weak.

Seven years earlier, Henry III had deposed the Pope.

Deposed the Pope for simony."

Knowing that Liu E might not understand, Xue Jian did not hesitate to explain further:
"Henry III is the current emperor of the Roman Empire. The sale of priesthood is a bit similar to the sale of official titles here, because Western priests are qualified to govern. It seems that apart from the nobility, only the church officials can govern."

In response to this point, Xue Jian gave a long explanation.

Even took out a map.

After a long time, Liu E finally understood and nodded:

"It's so complicated. The so-called Roman Empire is just the equivalent of the Zhou Dynasty during the Western Zhou Dynasty. It's just a little more majestic than the Zhou Dynasty. There are so many kingdoms and principalities in one empire. It has been broken for several generations, and I don't know how many heirs have changed. How can they still call it Rome? Don't they know how to change their name?
Never mind. I roughly understand. You should tell me in detail how the Bright God Sect achieved its current status.

Logically speaking, although there is a deep grudge between the Third World and the Church, the two have long been intertwined, so how can it be so easy to give up?"

There have been neither external nor internal troubles recently.

The world is at peace, so it's okay to listen to some overseas gossip.

“Well, the Church of Light does have some magical powers.

They seemed to have practiced a very special martial art, which allowed them to create a colorful halo behind their heads, emit white light from their bodies, and even condense white feather wings behind their backs, like winged people. They used this to disguise themselves as the messenger angels of the goddess of light, saving and helping countless serfs.

In the Western world, emperors, nobles, and even the Pope do not necessarily believe in the so-called gods devoutly.

But many ignorant people really believe it!

So the effect of their operation was actually very, very good. The serfs believed whatever they said. For example, if they were told that they would go to heaven after death if they fought for the Goddess of Light, they would be able to unleash their potential several times.

Even many small lords and nobles with relatively devout faith saw the wings behind them.

He also bowed down immediately.

The Holy See had been promoting the holy light and white feathers for thousands of years, making the Holy See of Light invincible among the devout believers. Because the visions they created were perfectly in line with the Holy See's past propaganda, as if they were specially tailored for them.

However, because the Sect of Light had too few people, they were unable to bring too many supplies and craftsmen.

At the same time, he seemed to have pity on the lives of the foreign serfs.

They are not willing to use their lives to pave the way to success.

So after occupying the next piece of land, they temporarily stopped fighting and began to improve the strength of their serfs, such as teaching them more advanced farming techniques, more productive seeds, and also teaching them craftsmanship. I'm not sure about the details, but they lived peacefully for 18 years."

"Because the Western countries were already very wary of this matter, and they were also afraid that the news would spread to their own territories, causing panic and chaos, and even a large number of serfs to flee. At the same time, the Bright Divine Sect itself did not publicize it much, so we didn't know about it for more than ten years.

After that, they accumulated strength for 18 years and directly conquered the Western countries by force.

Those countries seem to be very weak. According to the information we have heard so far, the various weapons used by the Bright Sect are not better than those of our Han army. At most, they may be slightly better in terms of gunpowder. People in the martial arts world still have some advantages in this kind of unconventional magic.

However, it may also be related to the fact that wherever they go, after conquering a city, they continue to show their divine powers, preaching that the Church of Light is the orthodox one, and that the current Church has become corrupt and needs to be destroyed and purified, thus causing a large number of soldiers to defect.

Anyway, that's the end result.

It took the Holy Sect less than a year to successfully destroy the Western countries, including the Roman Empire.

He then took over the Vatican and deposed the king.

Choose a royal woman who is close to them to ascend the throne."

"How can this be called religion? This is clearly the successful Zhang Jue, the legendary Taoist kingdom on earth!"

Hearing this, the Left Prime Minister couldn't help but sigh.

After expressing his feelings, he hurriedly bowed to Liu E and apologized.

“That’s fine, but what the Left Prime Minister said is very true.

The so-called Sect of Light can no longer be simply viewed as a religious force. It is completely different from Buddhism and Taoism, and even different from the original Tubo Dynasty. However, its strength is definitely relatively strong.

She accomplished what Zhang Jue failed to do back then.

The last name is Zhang..."

Before hearing this, Liu E thought that the Bright Sect had only won a victory in terms of divine power, and that they were only in name only. But after hearing this, she realized that the Bright Sect had clearly conquered the world all over again. Although the Western countries today were not unified on paper, they were actually already unified. At least this generation of the Bright Sect could definitely mobilize the power of the entire Western countries.

At least it can be compared with the most prosperous period of the Western Zhou Dynasty.

Even if the distance is far, we still have to be on guard.

At this time, the Right Prime Minister also spoke very actively:

"Your Majesty, the country is in danger! If I remember correctly, the Bright God Sect is just a branch of the Xuannv Sect. It's just a branch that cost three million taels of gold, which is already so terrifying. How terrifying is the Xuannv Sect?"

“Over the years, relying on the Shengsheng Zaohua Pill, the Xuannv Sect has absorbed 90% of the world’s gold. Almost all the major families and forces that went out to mine, including the imperial court, are working for them. The wealth they have accumulated is simply unimaginable.

Even though it costs a lot to build and maintain Xuannv College.

That should be inexhaustible.

Is it possible that the so-called Bright Sect was just a pawn sent out by the Xuannv Sect for experiments? Now that this pawn has achieved brilliant results, if nothing unexpected happens, the next step should be to officially take action.

I hope Your Majesty will be cautious towards the Xuannv Sect.

Even the so-called Xuannv Academy.

If necessary, you may be able to unite with the current Xixia Empress and Liao Empress. After all, the Fairy Academy also has a presence in their territories. Maybe the Xuannv Sect wants to swallow up the entire Central Plains!"

"Your Majesty, you must be on guard, Your Majesty!"

After saying that, the right prime minister even slammed his head on the ground and shouted loudly, his emotions were quite excited, which surprised Liu E and even the left prime minister. Everyone knew that the Xuannv Sect had too much gold in its hands, and they had been wary of it for a long time. But they neither trained soldiers, bought food and people, nor forged weapons and armor. All the money was spent on building the Xuannv Academy and providing food and drink for the students of the Xuannv Academy.

Nowadays, more than 80% of the young women in the world are supported by Xuannv Academy.

Help the people of the world to reduce a lot of burdens.

The population is growing much faster than before.

No matter how you look at it, it doesn't look like a rebellion. After all, we can't expect the women in Xuannv Academy to rebel together. That's not appropriate. Since ancient times, there have been women who usurped the throne, but there have been no women who formed an army to conquer the world.

Therefore, although this matter has been mentioned many times, it was finally dealt with lightly and not pursued further.

Some people even made detailed calculations on the cost of three meals a day, clothing, paper and pens for the women in Xuannv Academy, and felt that the Academy's current income was not enough to cover its expenses, and they were probably already living beyond their means.

Although compared with the behavior of the Guangming Sect, the Xuannv Sect is indeed a bit dangerous, but firstly, after the Guangming Sect left, they did not have much contact with the Xuannv Sect in the twenty years, which can still reduce the impact of the Xuannv Sect threat theory to a certain extent. Secondly, for so many years, the Xuannv Sect has been under the surveillance of the court, except for the fact that it is a big spender and provides free education to all people.

There is nothing out of the ordinary!!!
So in the end, Liu E just said as usual that she would send people to pay more attention to the Xuannv Sect, and then let the matter go.

But the right prime minister was obviously more anxious.

After the court session, he immediately sent people to invite the core figures of several important schools in Bian Jing. Even if they had grudges against each other, it did not affect them and they were all invited.

Then he held a secret meeting with them overnight.

When everyone was seated and even looked at each other with some disapproval, the Right Prime Minister suddenly said shockingly:
"My Confucianism is in danger!"

"???"

There is no doubt that the core figures of various schools present were confused by him. Now, not only did their Confucianism control the promotion channels for scholars throughout the Han Dynasty, but even the Western Xia and the Liao Dynasty had been infiltrated by them.

Except for a small number of royal relatives and nobles, most of the remaining officials did not come from their Confucian school.

If they had no enemies, there would be no need for them to divide themselves into different schools and fight against each other. Isn't it because they are invincible that they can only close the doors and engage in infighting among academic schools?
Now the right prime minister suddenly said this.

If this isn’t alarmist, then what is?
"Right Prime Minister, your words are powerful, but that's not how you should use them. What exactly do you want to discuss today that has gathered so many of us here? Please tell us the truth and don't exaggerate. It's wasting our time."

Zhou Dunru of the Taoist school was immediately dissatisfied with Taoism. He advocated the unity of Confucianism and Taoism, so he was called the Taoist school.

Then, Shao Yong of the mathematics school also echoed:
"Your words are indeed impressive, but if you can't explain and justify them, it will be a joke."

Although these people may not hold high positions or have no official positions, it does not affect their status at all. In Shaolin, those with high official positions are equivalent to martial monks, while those with low official positions but high academic thoughts are equivalent to literary monks. Shaolin literary monks may not be admired by many people outside, but they still have a high status inside.

No monk dared to offend him easily, not even the abbot.

The status of the core figures of these schools in Confucianism is generally the same, and as long as their schools are not completely lost in the future, or are not denounced as evil and heretical and banned, they are destined to be enshrined in the temple of sages.

Therefore, even if he was facing the Right Prime Minister.

They don't have to be respectful.