Chapter 357 The predators in the network

Chapter 357 The predators in the network

This month of May is very unsettling for the people of Qinzhou. First of all, Li Tai, who stayed behind in the state capital, joined forces with the monks of Guangming Temple to create momentum. Everyone knew that a Buddhist ceremony was going to be held, and the people were looking forward to it. .

Finally, good news came from Liangzhou in mid-May, finally drawing people's attention back to serious matters.

But before the news even had time to spread widely, another even more exciting thing immediately attracted everyone's attention, that is, Guangming Temple, the largest and most famous temple in the territory, was looted by bandits!

For a while, people's leisure time after dinner was completely occupied by this topic. Even if they didn't have time, the farmers working hard in the fields had to say a few words. Who on earth dared to desecrate the important place of Buddhism like this?

Ordinary people may be very angry, but they still stop at gossiping, and their actual lives are not greatly affected by this. However, some powerful people with a little local influence and temples that also have many believers have much more complicated feelings about this.

Guangming Temple is the leading enterprise among the monasteries in the county. The owner of the temple, Master Tan Jing, is the county capital Wei Na and the leader of the monks in the county. Li Tai is the most prominent official among the left-behind people in the state capital. It is said that he can represent the entire county. Qinzhou officials cannot exaggerate.

Therefore, the group of bandits who robbed Guangming Temple can be said to have offended the two most powerful forces, the monks and the government, on their own. Therefore, the wealthy people and monks are also full of curiosity. Who is so bold?

But apart from being curious, they could not help but feel secretly anxious, worrying whether the two parties would do something drastic because of this. After all, they each possess considerable energy. Once they lose control and run wild, they will definitely cause very serious damage to the order within the territory.

Therefore, after many people learned about this incident, they paid close attention to it and did not dare to lose focus for a moment.

But the so-called close attention of these people still lags behind Li Tai's actions. When they learned the news, Li Tai had already completed the takeover and control of Guangming Temple as soon as possible, and had already begun to take stock of the wealth that Master Tanjing had accumulated for more than ten years.

The scene last night was too chaotic, and it was hard to judge how much damage was done to the temple. However, the robbers came and went in a hurry and did not have time to cause widespread harm to the entire temple. The losses were mainly concentrated on the materials prepared for the Buddhist ceremony in recent days. Other areas were affected. The damage was relatively light.

This also provided Li Tai with a reason to use the topic to target other forces within the territory. The bandits were specifically trying to rob Buddhist ritual supplies. This was clearly targeting the upcoming Buddhist ritual, or they were jealous of or had no hope for Guangming Temple. This temple is perfect for holding a grand Buddhist ceremony, or maybe they have a problem with Li Tai and don't want him to find his father in this way.

In short, every one of you guys is a suspect. Clean yourself and squat down, waiting for me to investigate one by one! Who dares to glare at me? The Western Expeditionary Army that has just put down the rebellion in Liangzhou and will be triumphant in the near future will not spare you. You will die as Yuwen Zhonghe will die!

Of course, these are all follow-up operations. The most important thing now is to accept and digest the big meat bun of Guangming Temple.

Master Tanjing was also savvy, and could think from various signs such as Li Tai's aggressive attitude and the mysterious swapping of his belongings that Li Tai might be directing and acting on his own, but it was too late. Even more, with Li Tai's support and connivance, he was too unruly and carried away, so that he made many enemies and had a lot of grudges, so he could only be at the mercy of Li Tai.

The other monks were unable to realize this, but their internal organization had long been completely destroyed by the state army brought by Li Tai, and without the leader Master Tan Jing to give orders, they could only stand by and watch the situation develop further.

The assets of Guangming Temple were sorted out one after another, and every piece of data made Li Tai marvel at the wealth of Longyou Temple. The various pastoral industries alone cover four to five thousand hectares, and most of them are high-quality farmland close to the Wei River and easy to irrigate!

This number is really astonishing. Naturally, Longyou is not as rich in arable land resources as Guanzhong. The total number of registered farmlands, equalized fields and other types of arable land in Qinzhou is only tens of thousands of hectares. The pastoral area owned by a temple in Guangming Temple actually amounts to nearly one-tenth of the total cultivated land in Qinzhou!

Such a large amount of land was obviously not cultivated inch by inch by the monks. Its biggest source came from various forms of donations.

For example, the Tianshui Yan family suffered the consequences, and there were also many self-cultivated households in the country who took the initiative to donate their lives to temples in order to avoid heavy corvee labor. What is more important is that the big households should pay back the money in full, and the common people should divide the money between 30 and 70. But as Master Tanjing's reputation grew and he became a monk official, he took over all of them, and the assets of Guangming Temple naturally expanded rapidly.

To obtain land, you also need a population. There are more than 3,200 registered monk households in Guangming Temple, which exceeds the number of registered civilian households in most counties under Qinzhou.

As for the supporting households, the number has reached an astonishing more than 11,000 households. Of course, Master Tanjing took advantage of his position to transfer all the supporting households from some small temples in the area to Guangming Temple, and collected the supporting funds uniformly. After the goods are delivered, they will be distributed according to proportion.

Through this method, the old monk took the fate of many temples in the area into his own hands.

If Li Tai hadn't first pretended to paralyze him, and then played a dirty trick behind his back to confront him head-on, Qinzhou's left-behind strength alone would be no match for him. Even if he overthrew the old monk, the entire Qinzhou would have been defeated. Chaos.

After all, the number of registered households in the entire Tianshui County is just over 20,000, which is already the largest number of registered households in Longyou. Guangming Temple accounts for half of the households that support it, plus some other believers who are not under the control of his monks. It can be imagined that at least two-thirds of Tianshui are believers!

Human and land resources are already so rich. Putting aside other miscellaneous industries, Guangming Temple's savings of various materials are naturally extremely amazing.

There are twenty or thirty granaries under his name alone, distributed throughout the county and even other prefectures and counties, and the accumulated grain amounts to hundreds of thousands of stones. And this is because a lot of loans were given out for spring plowing two years ago and now. When the harvest is harvested after autumn, this number will more than double!

What was even more exaggerated was that Li Tai discovered that not only the wealthy and powerful people in the country but also ordinary people had borrowed property from Guangming Temple, even the names of some county officials were prominently listed.

Especially on the eve of the Western Expedition, all counties and counties had to send war supplies to Qinzhou. Some counties that had always been poor and had empty treasury simply borrowed money from Guangming Temple. This is not a temple, it is simply a large-scale comprehensive financial company, it is fucking capital!

Li Tai has been living in Kansai for the past few years and has made a lot of windfalls. He has experienced the amount of gold, silver and jewelry carried in cars, but this time he couldn't help but feel a little overwhelmed.

The old monk is not an eminent monk, he is simply a financial tycoon!

In just ten years, he had accumulated such a huge fortune in Longyou, a city full of powerful people. However, when he first met him, he used a handful of millet to talk about it. For him, making money from starting a business has already surpassed basic survival. Demand has simply become a belief!

Of course, it is not an easy task to fully digest such a huge asset. Moreover, it is difficult for the old monk alone to control such a huge industry, and many wealthy families in Longyou also participate in it.

Victims such as the Tianshui Yan family were manipulated by Guangming Temple because they themselves were gradually marginalized in the nostalgic order and eclipsed both official and local status. However, other wealthy families who have strong rural power and support Guangming Temple are also indispensable for annual rebates and dividends.

If Li Tai wants to take over all the assets of Guangming Temple, he must coordinate the interests with these powerful families, otherwise there will inevitably be troubles and disputes, at least the old business of Guangming Temple will be greatly affected.

It would be best if the Guangming Temple business could continue. But Li Tai's current task is to drain the Guangming Temple's cash savings as much as possible.

If his dozens of boxes of sand and flax are not exchanged for gold, silver, money and silk and sent back, this is really unacceptable. It doesn't matter if those powerful investors don't admit their mistakes, as long as the old monk does. First pay off the debt you owe me, and then we can discuss how to divide and distribute it next.

Although a considerable part of Guangming Temple's savings flowed into the market due to preparations for Buddhist ceremonies, Li Tai did not feel regretful about this.

The flow of these goods into the market does not mean that they will disappear. Instead, it will allow more people to have sufficient capital to participate in the subsequent Silk Road trade. Li Tai is not a hoarder. He does not need all the money to go into his own pocket. What is most important is that the general environment meets his expectations.

After Li Tai sealed off the temple, the first batch of people who came after hearing the news were powerful people and temples with close interests in Guangming Temple.

Li Tai did not show a good look when meeting these people, and ordered them to produce a detailed list of the family members and recent developments as soon as possible for the state government to review and eliminate suspicion.

These people are innocent to begin with, and they are worried about their own interests being damaged, and they are anxious. However, they are treated as suspects, and even asked to reveal their family background. Naturally, they are even more unhappy, and they are about to make a noise. .

Li Tai deliberately waited until the Liangzhou battle report came back before taking action, just to prevent this situation. Before, I was worried that it would affect the stability of the situation, but now I am worried that you guys won’t dance enough. The more you dance, the more I can eat!

So he ordered several representatives who were noisy and fierce to be imprisoned in the temple, and also ordered other powerful people in the country who had friendly relations with the government to send their troops to this place to stand by. For example, the eldest grandson Li Yunxin, etc., bring your troops and see whoever I point out to kill!

As for the other powerful men and temples who have not been summoned, what if they stay at home and wait for investigation to clear their suspicions? What if they are allowed to roam around in the countryside and discover the men I have hidden?