Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 369, Burning Down the Zen Temple

"Do it!"

Without further ado, Ma Qi led his men out, first setting fire to the Martial Monks' Academy, then taking advantage of the chaos to kill and seize control of the place.

Originally, Ma Qi saw that Longquan Temple had many monks and was deep in the temple grounds, so he did not intend to provoke them easily. He only asked to borrow some food to continue his journey.

Since the abbot was acting this way, he had no choice but to devise a plan to have the abbot open the temple gate himself, give them a good meal, and let them rest so that it would be easier for him to carry out his plan.

Two teams of two hundred soldiers from Huaiyin were specifically tasked with blocking the martial monks' monastery. With the help of fire and the coordinated military formation, the martial monks in the monastery, though numerous and skilled, could only suffer a bitter defeat.

The other two teams each split into two groups, one on the east and one on the west, and drove all the monks in the temple to one place to make it easier to capture them.

Ma Qi led Xiao Jiu's team straight to the main courtyard of the Zen temple. As the saying goes, to catch a thief, you must first catch the king. The same applies to catching monks. If they capture the abbots and elders first, the remaining monks will be leaderless and powerless to resist.

As I stepped into the main hall, several elder monks wearing bright red and gilded robes came out. The abbot from before was among them, but only at the very back.

The leader was a white-haired man with long, drooping eyebrows. He held a nine-foot-seven-inch gold-ringed Zen staff in his right hand and a gold-flowered sandalwood prayer bead in his left. He was none other than Zen Master Duneng, the abbot of Longquan Temple.

The man on the left, eight feet tall and robust, holding a crescent-shaped magic staff, is Master Dukuan, the junior brother of Zen Master Duneng.

The man on the right, slightly broad-shouldered and very old, with a kind face, is Master Xuyuan, a highly virtuous monk and the senior disciple of Zen Master Du Neng.

Further on, there were a dozen or so monks, mixed in with the abbot.

Ma Qi bumped into these people. Zen Master Du Neng didn't know that the abbot had allowed Ma Qi and his group into the temple, but seeing that Ma Qi and his companions were carrying steel knives and had fierce faces, he immediately shouted angrily:
"Where are you thieves from? You disregard the law and the gods, daring to disturb this pure Buddhist place and rob us without cause. Don't you know the law of cause and effect?"

Ma Qi wanted to refute this, but he was tongue-tied and didn't know how to respond.

Fang Yong's persecution of Buddhism and Taoism was based on a set of theories within the army, arguing that these two schools of thought disregarded the law, misled the people, and hindered the development of a prosperous era.

But Ma Qi was a peasant boy who had risen to his current position through hard work and fighting. Although he had learned a few words in the army, it was difficult for him to argue with this monk.

Knowing he couldn't win an argument with the monk, Ma Qi pulled out his gun and shot the abbot of Longquan Temple, Elder Du Neng, who was in charge of thousands of monks, dead.

Du Kuan, the junior disciple of Zen Master Du Neng, watched this scene in disbelief, his eyes instantly turning red.

He was confident in his martial arts skills, believing that his Great Vajra Subduing Demon Staff could keep more than twenty people at bay. Therefore, he allowed Zen Master Du Neng to negotiate with the other party, thinking that even if the thieves made a move, he could protect Zen Master Du Neng.

Unexpectedly, with just that one bang, the person died.
Master Dukuan was immediately enraged and charged forward with a roar.

The Huaiyin soldiers raised their guns and opened fire.

That Zen Master Du Kuan was indeed formidable. Despite his imposing stature, he was agile. He first used his lightness skill to dodge more than a dozen spears, and then wielded his demon-subduing staff to block seven or eight more. He was truly remarkable.

Unfortunately, there were still dozens of shots left. A dozen or so hit Du Kuan's legs, and Du Kuan immediately knelt on the ground. He had been shot more than twenty times in the chest, and his cassock was stained black and red.

"Thief! Thief!"

Master Watanabe collapsed, unable to move.

The Huaiyin army remained silent, only loading bullets.

Bang bang bang, most of the remaining monks were killed, with only one or two lucky ones escaping.

The abbot had been lying on the ground pretending to be dead when Ma Qi caught him. Ma Qi was going to take back Chu Renfeng's jade pendant and interrogate him about the abbot's position.

The abbot was so frightened that he trembled and obediently handed over the jade pendant, telling the monks everything that had happened at the temple without daring to hide anything.

Ma Qi then realized that the first old monk he had killed was the abbot.

So he ordered someone to cut off the abbot's head and go to break the monks' fighting spirit.

Upon seeing the abbot's head, the monks immediately lost their will to fight; some fled, and others surrendered.

Of course, there were also monks who, upon seeing the abbot's head, flew into a rage and chose to fight the Huaiyin army to the death. (This is a contextual term; don't tell me the monks were bald.)
However, such people are ultimately a minority.

Why do people become monks?

Especially during times of chaos, the number of monks increases dramatically. The fundamental reason is that ordinary people's normal lives are too difficult, and they can no longer survive, so they become monks to eat vegetarian food, chant Buddhist scriptures, and perform rituals to earn money to make a living.

Surely they couldn't have really been influenced by Buddhism?
Now that the abbot is dead and the temple has been burned down, are they going to fight to the death instead of fleeing?
The monks of the temple were quickly suppressed by the Huaiyin army, and some pilgrims and lay disciples living in the temple were also imprisoned by the Huaiyin army.

The fire that had been set on earlier was burning fiercely. It was autumn, the weather was dry, and the autumn wind helped the fire spread very quickly.

Later on, it was the Huaiyin army that directed the monks to put out the fire.

Fang Yong had taught him that monks and Taoists should be killed, but the items were valuable and shouldn't be destroyed in vain.

The abbot was a treacherous opportunist. Seeing that the Huaiyin bandits had occupied the temple, he knew his days were numbered. Therefore, in order to save his own life, he took the initiative to assist the Huaiyin army in suppressing the monks and carried out a large-scale hunt down those who had infiltrated the monks and those who had hidden themselves in the temple.

The Huaiyin army was small in number and overwhelmed by managing so many monks. They also needed the help of a villain like him, so they spared the abbot's life and rewarded him with a considerable amount of money from the temple for his act of putting righteousness before family.

To be honest, this whole thing was started by this person, and now he's shamelessly acting like this again, which is truly hateful.

Unfortunately, such hateful people are often quite happy.

After occupying Longquan Temple, Ma Qi and his men did not choose to leave. Instead, they sent a message to the troops behind them, requesting that they come to their aid.

Longquan Temple is located on Qianshan Mountain. Its walls are thick and easy to defend, making it difficult to attack. If the abbot hadn't opened the gates, they wouldn't have been able to take over such a large temple so easily. Now that they have occupied this place, they can use the natural defenses to resist their pursuers.

The Longquan Temple has stored up countless grains, all of them top-quality millet, sorghum, wheat flour, and corn, as well as countless gold and silver treasures, enough to feed thousands of people for a year, so there is no need to worry at all.

This place is not far from the main force of the Huaiyin Army. If the news is sent back, someone will come to pick them up in a few days, and then they will have completed their mission.

Soon, Ma Qi ordered the surrendered monks to reinforce the temple walls, build gates, and increase defensive fortifications.

Then they felled trees and moved rocks from the back mountain for defensive purposes.

After a day and a half, the Zu family's pursuers caught up with them.

When the pursuers arrived at this place, they naturally asked the townspeople nearby about the whereabouts of Ma Qi and the others. Some townspeople said they didn't know, while others said they seemed to have seen them outside the town.

Several monks ran down from the mountain and, seeing this scene, quickly told them about the occupation of Longquan Temple.

Upon hearing this, the pursuers from the Zu family basically guessed that it was the group they were chasing, so they quickly ordered the monk to lead them up the mountain.

Ma Qi had been waiting for a long time and had laid traps and ambushes at various dangerous locations along the mountain road.

The Zu family pursuers had already traveled a long distance, and their physical strength was not much better than that of the Huaiyin army who had fled here before. Going up the mountain was even more physically demanding, and they were already exhausted halfway up.

At this moment, the Huaiyin army seized the opportunity to attack, pushing down logs and boulders at the dangerous crossroads leading up the mountain. How could the Zu family's pursuing troops stop them?
After several rounds of this, before they even reached the temple gate, dozens of Zu family pursuers had been killed or wounded.

Moreover, the deaths were secondary; the key issue was the severe damage to morale. Finally, after much difficulty, they reached the temple gate, only to find it heavily guarded by Ma Qi. The pursuers tried to attack but couldn't break through, and had no choice but to retreat temporarily.

Two more days passed, and the Zu family's pursuers continued to arrive, their numbers increasing, so they attacked the mountain again.

However, although the Zu family had a large number of members, the Huaiyin army had a defensive advantage, and the Huaiyin army drove the monks to assist in the defense, so the Zu family could not break through in a short time.

As time passed, several days went by, and the number of pursuers from the Zu family increased to four or five thousand, but they still could not break through the temple.

Due to the disparity in numbers, the Huaiyin Army's resistance became somewhat difficult, but their fighting spirit remained undiminished.

Ma Qi ordered his men to take the temple's money and bribe the generals of the Zu family's pursuing troops at night.

Some of those generals were die-hard loyalists of the Zu family and could not be bribed, while others were just ordinary officers.

They fought to the death, with countless brothers dying and being wounded. What was it all for?
After accepting the money, some generals began to shirk their duties.

Ma Qi's pressure has been greatly reduced.

Soon after, reinforcements from the Huaiyin Army arrived.

(End of this chapter)