Ergitai sent his men again and personally raided the stronghold where several bandits were entrenched. As expected, not a single bandit was seen.
Ergitai couldn't help but be overjoyed. Then he looked at the clay Buddha statue and felt sacred.
Do these monks really have magical powers?
In the past, Ergitai would not have believed it, but as he got older, he became interested in the affairs of these strange gods.
Ergitai knew that there were mysterious alchemists in the Tang Dynasty who could refine golden elixirs that could prolong life.
He also knew that there were masters in Tianzhu who lived for hundreds of years, and they knew a breathing method that could extend life.
Ergitai once felt that these things had nothing to do with him, a castle owner in the Tubo region.
But today he really met a monk with "magic power".
Ergitai quickly and respectfully invited Monk Yuantong into his main hall.
He said to Monk Yuantong: "Master's Dharma is boundless. Ergitai will make a golden body for the Buddha statue right now!"
Then Ergitai said: "I wonder where these thieves have gone? I sent people to search Kuarima Township, but no trace of these thieves was found."
Monk Yuantong had already prepared his words. He clasped his hands and said, "If the poor monk could eliminate the thieves out of thin air, he would have followed the great talk and sent troops to Hexi."
Ergitai nodded. This was exactly what he was confused about. If Buddhism had such great ability, then the battle of Da Lun would not be so difficult.
Monk Yuantong said: "The poor monk just dispersed the spirit of war in your territory. These bandits saw the Buddha's light blessing this place and withdrew from your territory overnight."
Ergitai suddenly realized that it turned out that he did not directly disappear the bandits, but drove them away.
Ergitai was even more satisfied after hearing this result. This result actually made Yuantong's Dharma more credible.
But new worries arose in Ergitai, and he quickly asked: "Master, will these bandits return? If the surrounding castle owners are all pious believers in Buddhism, then who will the bandits attack?"
Monk Yuantong looked at Ergitai and saw that the castle owner was not stupid and could ask such a question.
However, these were all part of Monk Yuantong’s plan before setting off. He clasped his hands and said:
"If everyone can practice Buddhism and devote themselves to worshiping Buddha, then these bandits will be influenced by the hearts of the castle owners and manor owners and put down their weapons and surrender."
Monk Yuantong said: "Buddhism is boundless, Amitabha."
Ergitai immediately said: "Master, please stay in my castle for a few more days. If bandits come again, please do something to disperse them."
Monk Yuantong nodded and agreed to Ergitai's request.
In the next few days, Ergitai heard bamboo slips from several nearby castle owners asking for help. Banditry broke out in their territory, which has intensified recently, and many manor houses were robbed.
Only then did Ergitai completely believe what Yuantong said.
The progress of molding the gold body of the clay Buddha statue was greatly accelerated. Ergitai summoned all the Han craftsmen in the territory to beat the gold into thin gold foil and carefully attached it to the Buddha statue.
Monk Yuantong was not idle in Ergitai's castle. He first saved Ergitai's young son who was infected with miasma, and then relieved an old Bon priest from having a headache.
Behind the scenes, Yuantong is secretly manipulating the bandit army to shuttle between the territories of various castle owners through the player's communicator, constantly intruding on their periphery.
In this way, such a strange phenomenon occurred in the Tubo East Road area west of the natural chasm.
The bandits precisely wandered around the areas where various castle owners met, plundering caravans wantonly, and from time to time they rushed to the manor to rob.
However, castle owners everywhere felt that everything was safe and the banditry had subsided.
For example, two celebration banquets have been held in the castle of Ergitai. In the eyes of all the castle owners, these bandits seemed to no longer exist.
Even Yuantong lamented that the governance techniques of these Tubo people were too crude.
The system of the Great Theory-castle owner-manor owner seems to have a clear relationship between the king and his vassals, and it is a fairly close ruling group.
But every castle owner is Shang Qixin'er's personal minister, and they have a parallel relationship with each other.
In order to compete for land resources, the relationship between these castle owners is often not harmonious.
As a qualified ruler, Shang Qixin'er also deliberately provoked the relationship between the castle owners and made them less harmonious.
If all the vassals under his command are united, then the one they have to worry about is Shang Qi Xin'er's boss.
Shang Qixin'er could still reconcile this unharmonious relationship when she was in Tianqian City.
But now Shang Qixin'er is stationed in Qilian Mountain and has no energy to deal with these general affairs.
Then the relationship between these castle owners became subtle.
The gangsters who wandered among the castle owners had a keen eye on the mentality of these castle owners.
Everyone hates bandits, but if the bandits go to other castle owners' territory to cause trouble, then naturally they won't hate it.
When the caravan was attacked, the castle owners did not dare to retaliate, fearing that they would really anger the bandits and take revenge on their own territory.
This attitude of being a dead Taoist friend rather than a poor Taoist gave Yuantong, who had been studying how to make trouble in the Tubo territory, an opportunity.
There is no doubt that this bandit army was brought together by Yuantong.
In the name of spreading the Dharma, Yuantong started from Bawu's manor and traveled continuously to the western part of the Tubo East Road, where he met many oppressed slaves and free people who were dissatisfied with the oppression of the manor owners.
It has to be said that Tubo was not only backward in governance technology, but also had no new ideas in taxation and was simple and crude.
The first is the land tax. Tubo adopted a tax rate of one in ten, which naturally sounds low, but the lords at each level collected taxes according to the tax rate.
For example, Shang Qixin'er is a master of Tubo theory. He will calculate this year's tax based on last year's harvest, and then distribute it to his tax collectors.
Shang Qi doesn't even care how to collect these tax collectors. Anyway, as long as his share is put into his pocket.
The method of collecting tax collectors is also simple and crude. They only need to apportion tax to various castle owners.
In addition to the castle owner having to pay one-tenth of the tax to Shang Qixin'er's tax collectors, they themselves also have the right to collect one-tenth of the tax.
They would also send tax collectors to their manor owners to collect taxes in the same way.
The same goes for the owners of the manor, there are layers of nobles, plus tax collectors who enrich themselves.
Even low-level manor owners like Bawu sometimes cannot collect the tax money, and sometimes they even have to pawn their belongings to pay taxes.
Not to mention those free people who did not have noble status.
In addition to the crude land tax, Tubo also had a cow leg tax and a mutton leg tax.
When each animal is slaughtered, a leg must be paid as a tax.
The flexibility of this tax is that even livestock that have not been slaughtered can still be taxed on this basis every year.
This tax also oppressed the herdsmen and made them miserable. During the decades of Tubo rule, Xianbei or Qiang people continued to abandon their ancestral pastures and fled to the wilderness to become bandits.
Finally, there is the "Animal Collection".
Tubo had a military system where all the people were soldiers. Every time there was a war, aniseeds would be lit up.
During this expedition, Shang Qixin'er set up an aniseed collection in Tianqian City.
The so-called large-scale gathering means ordering officers and soldiers to bring their weapons and equipment, as well as the food and grass they carry with them, to arrive at a designated place to assemble.
During this period, officers and soldiers need to prepare weapons, armor, rations, food and grass by themselves.
If a noble was drafted into the army, he would also need to bring a certain number of slaves with him to serve as laborers and coolies in the war.
In the past, when Tubo East Road ordered aniseed materials and gathered them into Koulongyou, you could always get some loot.
The samurai at that time were proud to participate in the Northern Expedition and always signed up to join the army.
However, when the defeat at Jinshan Pass interrupted Tubo's flourishing momentum, the Tubo nobles, including Shang Qixin'er, discovered that wars may not necessarily make money, and wars may also be a loss-making business.
When Jinshan Pass was defeated, many Tubo soldiers died and a large amount of food, grass and baggage were lost.
No one made any merit, the army wasted no time on expeditions, the farming season was missed, and in the end not even any benefit was gained.
This time out of the Qilian Mountains, Shang Qixin'er once again set up an aniseed collection, which in turn allowed all levels of Tibetan nobles to intensify their exploitation of the territory.
The oppression is severe, and the resistance is naturally strong.
Monk Yuantong accelerated his development even more after waiting for the support of more inner-guard players who defected to Longyou.
In several areas, including Kuarima Township, Monk Yuantong established resistance branches.
It can be said that the bandit chaos that swept through the western part of the Tubo East Road was caused by Yuantong and these internal defenders.
However, the nobles in Tianqian City were not affected by this banditry chaos at all.
Longyou's goods can still be sold to Tianqian City, and they seem to be cheaper than before, but the merchant who sells the goods seems to have changed.
Occasionally, there would be some blood stains on some pieces of dyed cloth and silk, and these merchants would come up with new cloths to exchange for goods, and they would also be able to give a bigger discount for the next transaction.
After these merchants sold their goods, they only bought some salt from Tianqian City, and then bought some kitchen knives and kitchen utensils.
The nobles of Tianqian City don't care what these merchants buy.
And the castle owners who were divided by bandits seemed to have no idea of tying up bailouts and calling for help.
Anyway, the caravan that the bandits robbed is not mine. What does the loss of those merchants have to do with us?
The castle owner also tacitly understood that he could buy cheaper goods from the bandits who sold the stolen goods.
Ergitai also asked his men to recover the wooden slips asking for help from Tianqian City. Now that the western part of the Tubo East Road is "peaceful", it's time to go on an expedition, so don't cause trouble for the nobles in Tianqian City!
In this way, a grand Buddhist ceremony was held in the renovated Buddhist hall in Ergitai.
In the smoke, the monk Yuantong in bright cassocks stood out.
Amidst the floating incense, Ergitai walked into the Buddhist hall devoutly.