A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 795 A blessing in disguise
"Such a sacred mountain, it's a pity that it's been turned into a mess by these thieving bald men."

Shaoshi Mountain, also known as Jiuding Lianhua Mountain, is the western peak of Songshan Mountain.

Li Yi ascended to Liantian Peak, the main peak of Shaoshi Mountain, also known as Zhaixing Tower, which is the highest peak of Songshan Mountain. Standing on this peak, all thirty-six peaks of Shaoshi Mountain can be seen in one go.

The magnificent Lingshan Mountain boasts thirty-six peaks with steep and precipitous cliffs and unique landscapes.

"That's the Monkey Watching the Sea of ​​Clouds, that's the Roaring Tiger on the Cloud Peak, over there are the Three Immortal Stones, and there's also the Heavenly Pool!"

"The Shaolin Temple is located in the dense forest in the heart of the area."

"Next to Shaolin Temple is Tea Fairy Valley, where there is Tea Fairy Spring. Immortals once lived and planted tea here."

To climb Shaoshi Mountain, one must ascend and descend along a narrow crevices in the cliff face, using vine ladders. The ancient path along the precipice makes one feel as if they are walking in the air.

Reaching the summit and looking around, the view suddenly opens up, revealing a vast expanse of forest and ethereal clouds, like being in a fairyland.

Countless beautiful sights are breathtaking.

Shaolin Temple is located at the foot of Wuru Peak in Songshan Mountain. The ancient temple is hidden deep in the mountains, and the clear stream locks Shaolin.

After the snowstorm,

The scenery is exceptionally beautiful.

"The Shaolin South Temple on the south bank of the Shaoxi River in the shade of Shaoshi Mountain doesn't need to be demolished. Instead, it can be converted into a Confucius Temple and a school so that children from nearby villages can study there."

The South Courtyard is the training ground for the five hundred Shaolin monks. It faces the Shaolin Temple across the stream and also houses a medicinal herb workshop.

The neighboring Tea Fairy Valley not only grows tea, but also a large number of medicinal herbs.

"I've heard that the medicine for sprains and bruises made by Shaolin is very effective."

"Then these workshops, herb gardens, and pharmacies will be preserved, and the original pharmacists, herb workers, and herb farmers will continue to be employed, with their wages and salaries increased."

Li Yi had no intention of taking over Shaolin Temple's assets.

Whether it was the more than 200,000 mu of land, the several thousand mu of medicinal herb gardens, or their pawnshops, pharmacies, and other businesses, Li Yi had no objections. He handled everything strictly by official procedures, and after the confiscation, everything was turned over to the public.

He knew that the officers and soldiers of the Imperial Guard and the local militia were actually quite greedy for such a large piece of fat meat and wanted to take a bite.

Li Yi directly issued an order to record the merits of the soldiers who accompanied the operation and to reward them. The money and silk were drawn from the property confiscated from Shaolin Temple.
But these are all paid through official accounts.

He wouldn't wrong his hardworking soldiers, but public and private matters are separate issues.

He will be rewarded handsomely.

However, he explicitly told generals like Li Cunyi and Liu Heizi that they were not allowed to take advantage of others in private, and that they should keep a close eye on themselves and their subordinates.

The temple had thousands of tenant farmers. This time, Li Yi made the decision directly: every able-bodied man of average means would be allocated 100 mu of land, regardless of whether the village was narrow or wide.
In any case, the more than 200,000 mu of land confiscated by the temple will be allocated to the original tenant farmers first. The land they cultivated will be distributed to them first.

One adult male is allocated one hundred mu, and another middle-aged male is allocated one hundred mu. The old, young, and women are not allocated any land.

But just this one point,
This also led the thousands of tenant farmers to clamor that Prime Minister Li was an upright and just official.

In the past, they suffered all kinds of exploitation, and many people even had to sacrifice their wives and daughters if they wanted to cultivate better land.

They were subjected to all sorts of exploitation and became temple slaves.

Who doesn't dream of owning their own land and escaping the oppression and exploitation of the temple?

Now, the mountain that had been weighing on their heads has collapsed.

The villagers from the surrounding area heard the call and came to help dismantle the temple's unauthorized halls and other structures, and also to help them repair the village school and the Confucius Temple.
Almost everyone came.
The whole family, young and old, came.
Everyone wanted to see for themselves whether the mountain had truly been smashed to pieces by Prime Minister Li.
If that's true, they want to come and remove some of the bricks and tiles themselves.

Although the reconstruction of Shaolin Temple was built with countless hours of their labor and blood, they are now willing to demolish it.

They demolished it with great enthusiasm.
Watching brick by brick being torn down by their own hands, watching those high-ranking monks, many of whom were convicted, shackled, and sent to Luoyang prison.

They finally believed that things had really changed here.

He finally believed that the one or two hundred acres of land allocated to his family were truly his own.

The temple has over 200,000 mu of land.
Li Yi distributed almost all of it to the original tenants of the temple.

Some had only a hundred mu of land, while others had two or three hundred mu.

Many families who had rented land from the temple for generations for over a hundred years have now truly become landlords.

Li Yi also gave them some food rations, so they had more food to get through the winter, and the wheat in the fields was still theirs.

The cold wind howls,

Although it's cold
But everyone's hearts were exceptionally warm.

Regarding the matter of dividing the land...

Many of his subordinates thought that allocating fifty mu to each tenant was already quite good.

But in the end, Li Yi insisted on allocating 100 mu of land to each adult male, which instantly transformed the tenant farmers into self-cultivating farmers and even small landowners.
The debt has been forgiven.
Suddenly, their lives became better than those of the surrounding residents.

However, Li Yi believed that they had suffered more oppression in the past, and now that Shaolin's land had been confiscated, they should be compensated first.

If a single person or even a single household were allocated fifty mu of land, the tenant farmers would likely be deeply grateful. The extra land could be used to establish public offices, designated as official land, school land, or other similar programs. Some of this land could also be distributed to landless people.

But in the end, he still chose to give the tenants more land.
Two hundred thousand mu of land were distributed to those few thousand tenant households, and that wasn't even enough. Li Yi also gave them some extra wasteland and woodland to make up for the promise of one or two hundred mu.

"These thousands of tenant farmers have now all registered and settled down, becoming state-registered citizens and law-abiding households."

It turns out that not a single grain of millet from those 200,000 mu of land was ever handed over to the state each year.

Now, if these lands are distributed to these people, the annual rent from the tax collectors will be more than 6,000 shi (a unit of dry measure), and the grain from the public granary will be more than 4,000 shi. These two items alone will amount to 10,000 shi of millet.

There are still more than 3,000 households with money.
"That's several thousand men serving in the annual corvée labor."

“These registered households, especially the self-cultivating farmers, are the true cornerstone of the country.”

"The money, silk, and grain confiscated from the temple can also increase the national granary and increase the treasury."

A tenant farmer is only given fifty acres of land. Given the current level of agricultural production, they will most likely still struggle to make ends meet.

It would be better to distribute more so that they can be self-sufficient, even have enough to eat and wear.
Only then can they afford the national taxes and labor services.

“From the confiscated temple property, we will set aside a sum of money specifically for building schools. We will build a community school for every hundred tenant farmers, and help them hire teachers, with each school serving a hundred households and a village serving five li.”

Li Yi believes that it is very necessary to develop basic education.

The tenants of Baiguwu were mostly illiterate, so for over a hundred years they had been tenants of the temple, almost reduced to temple slaves, suffering all kinds of bullying and exploitation, yet none of them dared to resist.

They even became numb, letting the bald thieves sleep with their newlywed wives first, and even letting them have their daughters taken over when they grew up.

Li Yi believes this is largely due to their ignorance.

Ignorance breeds foolishness and makes one easily brainwashed and controlled.

Setting up a rural primary school doesn't actually cost much. With a hundred households per village, you can build a village school and hire one or two teachers. For these three thousand-plus tenant households, thirty or so teaching points are sufficient.

Allocate some money, designate a plot of farmland for the school to provide food for the teachers, and allocate some more money each year, and it will be able to operate.

The children can study for three or five years to broaden their horizons. If there are any promising talents, the Li family can provide scholarships to study at Wuji Academy or recommend them to government schools or other pathways.

Li Cunli sighed and said, "These thousands of tenant farmers used to be temple slaves, but now they have turned misfortune into blessing. It is truly a blessing they have accumulated over several lifetimes to meet Minister Situ."

Cunyi then asked, "Why keep this temple here? Why go through all the trouble of bringing thirty monks from Chang'an and Luoyang? Wouldn't it be better to just destroy it?"

Li Yi said, "We are only cracking down on illegal activities and punishing evildoers, not trying to destroy Buddhism. Shaolin Temple is a large temple with more than a hundred years of history and has produced so many eminent monks. We cannot easily abandon it."

"But how can Situ be sure that these newly transferred monks won't turn out to be the same as the original group of bald monks?"

After all, all crows are black, so shouldn't all monks be the same?

"Now that the 'Buddhist Rules of Conduct' have been promulgated, the thirty monks to be selected this time will be monks who have passed the examination, obtained their ordination certificates, and are accomplished in their practice and uphold the precepts."
The imperial court and local officials will also supervise, and if any illegal activities are found, they will naturally be dealt with immediately.

Don't go to extremes when doing things.

Just as Li Yi ultimately sent the Venerable Shanhu and the other seven eminent translators to Chang'an under escort by carriages and soldiers,
If we really investigate, even those virtuous people like Shan Hu would not escape blame.

However, some face must be given to Buddhism. Ultimately, what is being done here must also safeguard the overall interests of the imperial court. The overall interests are that at this stage, the focus is only on rectifying illegal activities by monks, not on eradicating Buddhism.

Therefore, one should leave room for maneuver when doing things.

It was the same at the White Horse Temple last time, and it's the same at Shaolin this time.

"Shaolin Temple needs to choose a good abbot, otherwise the scriptures will be misinterpreted again."

"Yes, I plan to select a highly virtuous monk from the White Horse Temple to serve as abbot, and for the east and west branches, I will select two eminent monks from other major temples." Although Li Yi did not leave the name Shaolin, he used an old name from before.
They also reserved thirty monks' places.
They even went so far as to select a highly respected monk from the White Horse Temple to serve as its abbot.

It is also to preserve the reputation of the Buddhist community and maintain the heritage of this famous temple that has been around for over a hundred years.

"These bald monks aren't good at chanting scriptures, but they're really good at making money. Not only do they have many ways to exploit tenant farmers, but they're also very good at lending money."

Moreover, their medicines and wines are very famous, and even their pressed oil is extremely popular.

"These guys should be businessmen, not monks," Li Cunli said admiringly.

Li Yi smiled and said, "Those who are really in charge of these businesses are not the monks who have shaved their heads, but those who use the banner of 'pure monks' and are the so-called lay Buddhists and lay disciples who are running them."

“Cunli, go and have a good talk with the people who were originally in charge. Those workshops and shops will be state-run from now on. They can continue to stay and work. As long as they manage them well, their treatment will definitely be better than before.”

"Let's go down the mountain."

Originally, after leaving the White Horse Temple and coming to Shaolin, I thought I would give them a warning and borrow some money and food, but unexpectedly, this happened. However, the result was still good.

The country now has several thousand more registered self-cultivating farmers.

He also collected so much money, silk, and grain at once; this trip was definitely a great success.

“Situ, these monks really know how to hoard money and grain, even better than field mice in winter. In years of famine, we would dig up field mouse burrows, and if we were lucky, we could find several pounds of grain in one burrow.” Li Cunli chuckled twice. “Why don’t we raid a few more of their temples and make a fortune!”

"Let's go back to Luoyang first." Li Yi looked at the gloomy sky; the emperor should be arriving in Luoyang soon.

(End of this chapter)