Chapter 195 Insufficient people
There are still some sporadic battles in the temple, but the situation has basically been brought under control.
The entrances and exits of the temple and some strategically important places within it were all occupied. The monks were divided into various parts of the temple. There were very few who dared to resist.
Li Tai and Liu Min met in the storage area of the temple casting workshop and opened several warehouse doors, revealing the goods piled inside. In one of the warehouses, there were stored many Buddha statues that were banned as obscene sacrifices, which were obviously part of the previously looted materials.
The story of how the temple robbed officials and soldiers was also interrogated. First, several wealthy families involved in the incident coveted such a huge amount of supplies, and then sent people to the temple to discuss it. The two parties hit it off immediately.
The temple dispatched a group of monks and soldiers in the name of patrolling and promoting Buddhism, and then joined forces with the local tycoon tribe to catch up with the officers and soldiers escorting the supplies, and cooperated with each other inside and outside to deal with Liu Min's tribe.
The servants who accompanied the team to escort the supplies did not dare to resist under the triple pressure from officers, powerful men and the temple, and they obeyed and cooperated to transport the supplies to Hongfa Temple.
The grain, silk and other items among the supplies have been divided among the parties involved, but the materials related to Buddhist rituals are still stored in the temple, ready to be melted down and recast to continue dividing the loot next year. The Maitreya statue ordered by Li Tai used many of these materials.
In addition to the missing materials, Liu Min is more concerned about the safety of his missing parts. Several prisoners from the temple were picked out as guides and led to the burial places of the tribes.
Liu Min dug up the newly covered mounds with her own hands and held a torch to carefully look through and identify the corpses. Her eyes could not help but burst into tears: "Dog thief An Gan, dog thief... I want you to pay with your blood!" "
Liu Min drew his sword and killed the monks who had led the way here, but he was still angry. He ordered some of his troops to stay here to collect the corpses of his companions for relocation, and he led the others back to the temple. , anyone who saw wearing a monk's robe would be chopped down with one knife.
Li Tai rushed over after hearing the news and saw that Liu Min was already looking like a madman, his whole body was bloody, and his eyes were blood red.
He could understand Liu Min's mood. Although he and his subordinates were called masters and servants, they had a deep relationship of life and death on the battlefield. He thought it was just a harmless escort, but he didn't want hundreds of subordinates to suffer the consequences. Massacre, if it were Li Tai himself, he would probably retaliate even more crazily.
But even though the temple has been captured, the matter is not over yet. This temple is still a place outside the law that the government has no control over, but there are still local tycoons who are accomplices in the crime and live separately in the local area. If they are allowed to mobilize their tribes to incite popular uprising, it will undoubtedly cause serious harm to the local area.
So he stepped forward, raised his hand and held down Liu Min, who was still wielding the knife, and said in a deep voice: "Mr. Liu, please bear with your sadness for a moment. The evidence of the crime is now conclusive, and everyone involved in the case will never escape the law. But the most important thing right now is not to let this disaster spread to the local area. The remaining bandits are scattered in the countryside. Once they sense a crisis, they will be in a hurry to save themselves. It is best to inform the counties and counties to take precautions and not to be taken advantage of by thieves!"
Liu Min also regained some composure at this time. She raised her hand to wipe the tears on her face, but her face was covered with plasma again.
He was not in the mood to care about these details, but said with a slight hesitation: "These thieves are entrenched in the countryside, and they have many forces to reach out to the government. If they sue, will it cause more drastic changes?"
His thoughts were obviously still a little confused at this moment, so Li Tai continued: "It is natural for us to enter the country to recover the stolen goods, and it is within our responsibilities to govern the county. Even if the local thieves can threaten the government, it is the crime of being a superior. , We are not responsible! But if the pursuit of stolen goods and killing of thieves triggers civil unrest, even if we have the mission of chasing thieves, we will not be exempted from the responsibility of disturbing the place!"
Liu Min also woke up after hearing this, nodded and said: "Bo Shan, you are right. The mission is full of twists and turns now, and we really can't cause trouble again. Even if there is an adulterer in the county, it is not our fault." I will immediately send people to inform the nearby officials, we just need to hold on to this side!"
After understanding this, he didn't bother to kill the monks to vent his anger, and immediately went into the hall to write urgent letters and send people to send them out.
Li Tai was a helper, so he didn't have to worry about how to deal with the aftermath. Instead, he returned to the temple storage area and quickly took inventory of the harvest.
Strictly speaking, the treasures in this temple are stolen goods and should be transported to the Ba Mansion.
However, he did not come here to suppress the bandits under the formal orders of the Bafu, but because of Liu Min's personal relationship. He participated as a volunteer. Of course, he was not obliged to report to the Bafu how much materials he had seized.
Bafu is not responsible for the expenses and consumption of his march, so all supplies must be raised by himself without violating the laws and orders. Each of his troops is a gold-eating beast, and every expedition consumes a large amount of supplies. This is also something that can't be helped.
The main business of Hongfa Temple is to cast Buddha statues, so there are a lot of related materials in the temple, including various finished products, and there are several large warehouses.
It was difficult to conduct a detailed inventory and weighing for a while. It was not until the tribe found several deacons and monks who managed the warehouse among the prisoners and obtained the relevant books from them that they finally had an approximation of the captured persons.
After finding these important accounting books, Li Tai turned around and ordered his subordinates to burn down the room where the documents were stored. While he was holding the accounting books and looking through them, Li Tai frowned sadly.
Sometimes it can be annoying to gain too much. Many physical objects were seized, but it was not like a string of numbers in later generations that could be washed clean by going around a few times. Although enriching one's own pockets is a basic operation, it should not be done too blatantly.
After pondering for a while, Li Tai summoned several surviving monks in charge of the temple, including the old monk who received him before, who was still slightly drunk with hazy eyes.
"Two choices, one is to bow down immediately and become my slave, the other is to transcend to death now. One, two..."
Before Li Tai could count to ten, several monks were already kneeling down and calling Master Lang for mercy.
After forcing several people to surrender, Li Tai immediately assigned them a task and ordered them to come forward to organize the surviving monks in the temple, especially the workshop craftsmen who had made Li Tai envious before. He did not intend to let any of them go. They all have to be taken in as their own slaves.
When Liu Min came back, Li Tai had already worked out a preliminary distribution plan.
Except for a few monks who were taken in by him to organize and manage the captives, all other monks in the temple must be classified as criminal prisoners. Li Tai wanted to include the thousands of craftsmen and their families in the workshop as a tribe. He also wanted to keep half of the various materials seized in the temple.
None of these people and things will be submitted to the report. As for other gains, Li Tai didn't care. They can't take away the temples, temple grounds, and monks and households, and the local government will definitely not let them take them away.
As for the other personnel in the temple, Li Tai didn't care whether Liu Min wanted to keep one floor, or whether he wanted to gather them all and send them to the Bafu.
Liu Min is not as poor as Li Tai. As a shareholder of Hedong Yanchi, he is still a local tycoon with many assets. In this matter, he had neglected his duties first. There is a high probability that he would not be as ugly as Li Tai. He should have sent the personnel to the Tai government and would not have dared to intercept them.
However, in line with the principle of being complicit and not doing all the dirty work by himself, Li Tai put forward an idea, it is better to build a Sakon Buddhist temple and use the harvest as supplies for this trip. In this way, Liu Min would not need to pay him another sum of money.
No matter how wealthy a family is, money does not come from strong winds. It is also a business strategy to increase revenue and reduce expenditure.
Moreover, Liu Min was still deeply hating the monks for brutally killing him for hundreds of years. He hated the ascetics deeply. After hearing this, he nodded and said bitterly: "The reason why we successfully recovered the stolen goods during this trip is that we all admire Boshan." We have been working hard for many days, and it is extremely dangerous to go deep into the thieves' nest. Boshan, you can lead your troops here to rest, and I will lead my troops to search for supplies tomorrow morning!"
After the two decided on this plan, they discussed and selected a target. In addition to the Hongfa Temple in Chentou Mountain, there are several other temples, which are not as grand as this one, but they are also worshiped by some believers.
It is still unclear how the county and county officials will react. In order to avoid further disturbing the nostalgia, they chose a temple dozens of miles away with the least reputation.
It is said that this temple was built by outsiders who donated money to the temple, and they are not keen on recruiting local believers and expanding their influence. Although the name of the temple is not loud, it is very generous. In recent years, it has been digging caves on a large scale. It has also ordered Buddhist statues from Hongfa Temple many times. It must be that there is some unknown source of wealth behind the scenes.
This temple had little connection with the village, and it seemed so treacherous, so it was naturally a very suitable target.
At dawn, Li Tai led his troops to stay here and continue to clean up and organize things in the temple, while Liu Min led his troops to attack northward.
In the morning, some villagers approached the temple to peep and test, but they were driven away by Li Tai's troops. The envoys who went to the counties to report the emergency had not yet returned.
In the afternoon, Liu Min, who was out, sent someone back to report that the attack on the temple was met with resistance. Although the temple was not as large and popular as Hongfa Temple, the monks and soldiers were extremely brave and defended the temple, repelling several attacks.
After Li Tai learned about this situation, he felt something bad in his heart. Could it be that the temple was a white glove used by some ruthless bandits to contact the outside world and sell stolen goods?
He was still thinking about what to do. At this time, the northern county government had sent personnel and envoys to report, and the county was already gathering township groups to prepare to suppress the riots in the countryside. With this guarantee, Li Taicai sent Zhang Shinu and 300 troops to reinforce Liu Min.
In the evening, Liu Min led the crowd back, but his expression was very ugly. When he saw Li Tai, he said solemnly: "Boshan, we must have been in trouble. Do you know who the temple belongs to? After we invaded the temple, I The lotus tablets of the late King Shangdang and the ancestors of his clan were found in the temple. If there are no accidents, this temple should be the Changsun family temple..."