The time was late summer 1938.

Many years after the fall of the three eastern provinces, the extremely arrogant Japanese soldiers invaded China on a large scale. In less than a year, they had occupied large areas of great rivers and mountains in North and East China.

The new rain in the empty mountains washes away the mountains and forests.

Songshan Kongming Temple.

Continuous mountains, lush green forests, green lanterns, ancient Buddhas, and a few pestles and sparse bells are all the life of the monks for thousands of years.

This is a place that is isolated from the rest of the world.

Just because of the war, Kongming Temple, a Buddhist holy land, is no longer a paradise.

At least for Monk Zhenyong, his state of mind is no longer as calm as usual.

Zhenyong's lay name is Wei Dayong.

He was born in 1921, and his hometown is in a small village below Dengfeng County. He is now 17 years old, at the age when a newborn calf is not afraid of tigers.

Speaking of which, Wei Dayong entered the temple when he was 7 years old and became a disciple of Master Jingyun in the West Campus. He practiced literature and martial arts for 10 years.

At that time, many families in Dengfeng and even surrounding counties and cities were willing to send their sons to temples to hone their skills at a young age.

Firstly, because there are many children and the family is poor, sending one or two children to the temple can reduce the family burden.

Secondly, if the children learn some skills in the mountains, they might be able to make a difference one day after coming down from the mountains, and get rid of the fate of foraging in the dirt for generations.

Of course, there are also wealthy families who send their naughty children to temples for training, in the hope that they will be able to take on more responsibility when they grow up, or at least have a calmer personality.

After these children go up the mountain, not all of them will become monks.

Some people just become lay disciples in the temple, practice kungfu for three to five years, and then go down the mountain to marry and have children, pass on the family business, or go out to travel and make their own fortunes.

There are also many people who have become novice monks.

Some of these novice novices saw through the world of mortals when they reached adulthood, and resolutely chose to be formally tonsured, burn incense, take ordination, and completely convert to Buddhism.

Others will choose to take off their monk robes, grow their hair and return to secular life.

The monks of Wei Dayong's generation all belong to the "true" generation.

After entering the mountain gate, Master gave him the Buddhist title "Zhen Yong" based on the homophony of his name.

When Wei Dayong was a child, he was talented but stubborn by nature. He was not enthusiastic about worshiping Buddha and chanting sutras. He only wanted to know the words used in daily life, so as not to become blind.

If he encounters even slightly uncommon words in Buddhist scriptures, he will go crazy.

However, in terms of martial arts training, Wei Dayong showed extraordinary understanding.

When the same master teaches martial arts, he can often memorize the entire set of boxing or sword techniques indistinguishably before the brothers have even started.

Time passed quietly between the fingers.

10 years in a blink of an eye.

Wei Dayong also transformed from a thin little novice monk into a strong young man.

Today's Wei Dayong has a very tough appearance, with a shiny bald head, a Chinese-character face, sword-shaped eyebrows and tiger eyes, two thick lips, and a pair of piercing eyes. All traces of childishness on his face have not faded away, but his words and deeds are obviously better than those of Wei Dayong.

Peers of the same age are more mature.

Having practiced martial arts all year round, he has strong muscles and a very well-proportioned figure. He looks clean and neat, making people feel very comfortable.

After 10 years as a monk, Wei Dayong has developed a body of steel and iron, and his skills are unfathomable.

In the past 10 years, he has only concentrated on one thing -

Practice martial arts.

He has high talent, strong understanding, and is willing to endure hardships. Therefore, his improvement in martial arts can be described as "making rapid progress".

Among all the monks in the temple, Wei Dayong's martial arts is definitely outstanding.

Not to mention in the temple, even a well-known Lianjiazi in the world could not get close to him.

Wei Dayong has another ability.

That is because he has a very good look in his eyes since he was little, and he is famous in the village.

When he shoots birds with his slingshot, he does not need to aim at all. No matter whether the bird is standing on a tree or flying in the sky, as long as it falls in his eyes, it will suffer disaster.

Sometimes, he didn't have a slingshot with him, so he would throw stones with his bare hands. Often he would raise his hand casually, and the pebbles would shoot out with a "whoosh", and then the bird would land with a sound.

With this unique skill, I think he was the king of children back then, with a group of followers always surrounding him.

When he arrived at the temple, Wei Dayong, who was naturally active, remained playful. He often took advantage of his afternoon martial arts breaks to go to the woods at the back of the mountain to hunt birds and hares, and his eyes and techniques became more and more sophisticated.

Since he had already killed the animal, Wei Dayong did not show any pretense and simply roasted the prey secretly and sacrificed it to his five internal organs temple.

Wine and meat passed through the intestines, and the Buddha's heart sat...

Several senior fellow apprentices who were relatively familiar with him also often benefited from him.

Among them was a man who was half a year younger than Wei Dayong, whose name was "Zhen Yuan". He got along best with him and was almost inseparable.

Zhenyuan admires Wei Dayong very much and thinks that this senior brother who is half a year older than him has high martial arts skills, a good mind, and is very straightforward in talking and doing things. He is a person worthy of close friendship.

Their master, Master Jingyun, regarded Wei Dayong as his favorite student and taught him all his skills without reservation.

Wei Dayong is also very ambitious, and he has mastered all the martial arts taught by his master to a high level, and he has a tendency of being better than his master.

In the afternoon of this day, on the training ground of the West Campus.

A group of monks under Master Jingyun are practicing stick techniques.

But seeing that they were advancing and retreating well, the eyebrow-level sticks in their hands were dancing vigorously, and they hit the wooden stakes from time to time, making a "pah, pah, pah" sound.

Due to the strong force, the deep wooden stakes were driven to the point where they showed signs of loosening.

Just when the monks were practicing vigorously, they saw a figure running towards them in a hurry, but it was Monk Zhenyuan.

Before anyone arrived, he was already shouting: "Senior brother, senior brother Zhenyong!"

It wasn't until he got closer that he saw clearly that Wei Dayong was not here.

A practicing monk stopped and asked with a smile: "Zhenyuan, why are you in such a hurry to find Zhenyong?"

Zhenyuan glared: "Of course it's urgent! Where has he gone?"

The monk replied: "Where else can he go? But the martial arts competition is coming soon, and the master asked him to go to the backyard to start a small stove!"

Of course Zhenyuan knew about the martial arts tournament, so he turned around and hurried towards the backyard.

Jogging all the way to the corner door of the backyard, Zhenyuan was afraid that his master would find him and blame him for neglecting to practice martial arts, so he slowed down his steps and walked to the wall step by step.

Peering in through the latticework of the wall, he couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief. He saw that the master was not in the courtyard. He must have left for something.

Looking at Wei Dayong again, he did not continue to practice boxing after his master left. Instead, he sat alone under the eaves of a corridor and seemed to be thinking about something.

For Wei Dayong, who loves martial arts as much as his life, this is a very rare thing.

Wei Dayong is indeed worried.

According to the news from down the mountain, the Japanese invasion of China has spread to the eastern part of Henan Province.

Wei Dayong was very worried about his parents' safety.

There are four people in his family, including his parents and a brother who is 5 years older than him.

In those days, it was common for children to die in infancy. Many children were often born and only two or three were left.

Wei Dayong's elder brother is named Wei Dazhuang. He joined the army a few years ago and joined a certain unit of the Shanxi-Sui Army. Because he attended a private school for several years and was literate in Chinese characters, he was highly appreciated by his superiors. He has now been promoted to company commander and can be considered as a member of the army.

Make a name for yourself.

Originally, the Wei family's hometown was in the countryside of Dengfeng, but just three years ago, the two elders of the Wei family moved to eastern Henan.

At that time, the old Wei family had a well-off distant relative who lived in Yaojia Town, Zhongmou County. Their family was going to the south to do business, and they leased more than 30 acres of their own land to the Wei family at a low price.

Wei Dayong's parents thought it was profitable, so they moved there and have been living there ever since.

Hearing that the Japanese had entered eastern Henan and that the provincial capital Kaifeng had fallen, Wei Dayong sent a letter to urge the two elders to return to the countryside of Dengfeng to temporarily avoid the enemy.

However, his parents soon sent someone to deliver a message, saying that the wheat in the fields was about to mature, and the harvest would have to be delayed for a few days.

After the summer harvest is over, they will go back to their hometown to avoid the limelight, and then they will also go up the mountain to visit Wei Dayong.

Wei Dayong also knew that his parents would be reluctant to leave behind the harvest in the fields.

Fortunately, he heard that a large army had gathered in Yu Province, vowing to take back the provincial capital.

Wei Dayong said that since there were so many troops, it didn't matter whether they could recapture the provincial capital. In any case, they could sustain it for a while, at least until after the summer harvest.
Chapter completed!