In the Zen room, Zen Master Huiding was reporting the situation of the inner guards to the abbot, Zen Master Huijin.
"They were very polite and did not look evil. They asked us to hand over the relevant account book information to them. It seemed that it was really an order from King Qi. According to reports, internal guards from the Tianwang Temple not far from us came to the door."
The abbot, Zen Master Huijin, remained silent. Another old monk, Zen Master Huinong, whispered: "Brother, could it be that King Qi believes in Taoism and wants to start destroying Buddhas?"
Abbot Huijin slowly shook his head and said: "Destroying the Buddha is not a problem. King Qi never goes to extremes in doing things. This matter should be a continuation of donating iron bells and bronze Buddhas. His war resources are not enough, so he needs people from all over the world to donate.
Most of the excess iron and copper were donated by the common people, but none of them were donated to Chang'an Temple. He became angry and wanted to continue to seize the temple's wealth."
"Then we can just donate a few iron bells and bronze Buddhas, right?"
Abbot Huijin gave a bitter smile and said, "It's no longer possible. He won't give up until he kills us severely."
"Then what do we do now?"
Abbot Huijin pondered for a moment and said to Zen Master Huining: "Don't force it. Give them a part of the account book, about 10%. If they say it's not right, just say that this is the number of accounts you have, and the rest will not be accounted for. You have to deal with real things."
"I see!"
Zen Master Huiding left in a hurry.
Abbot Huijin then said to Zen Master Huinong: "Immediately go to the warehouse and move all the property enshrined by the incense owner to the underground palace. Wait a minute! Leave the bell and the bronze Buddha in the warehouse, and leave another thousand coins."
Huinong took the key to the underground palace and left quickly.
Abbot Huijin then narrowed his eyes and clasped his hands together and said, "Amitabha, how good it is, how good it is!"
Guan Jie slammed the account book in front of Huiding.
"Is this your sincerity? The monastery with three thousand monks only has 2,000 acres of land. You are fooling the devil! The money in the warehouse is only more than 1,000 guan, and the food is less than 100 shi. Are you great monks drinking from the northwest wind?"
Zen Master Huiding clasped his hands and stood in front of him without saying a word. Guan Jie pointed at the main hall angrily and said: "In which of your account books do you have hundreds of acres of buildings in this temple?"
"Amitabha! Temples are places dedicated to the Lord Buddha, not property. We will never record them in our account books!"
Guan Jie stared at Zen Master Huiding with sharp eyes, pointed at the account books on the ground and said coldly: "I'll give you another chance. Are there any account books that haven't been taken out?"
Zen Master Huiding shook his head gently, "No more, that's all!"
"Take the account books and let's go!"
"General, we haven't taken inventory of the warehouse yet!"
"No, you have been transferred by them, let's go!"
The guardsmen picked up the account books and walked away quickly.
Zen Master Huiding watched the hundreds of inner guard soldiers riding away, and then he breathed a long sigh of relief.
At the third watch, a dark figure appeared on the top of the main hall of Xiangji Temple. He opened a dozen tiles, sprinkled a bag of kerosene in, lit two matchsticks with burning sticks, and threw them in. The burning sticks were gunpowder.
Stick, the formula of gunpowder has been modified to make it more suitable for combustion rather than explosion. It is placed in a one-foot-long paper tube and just plugged in a match rope. It will burn for a while after being ignited.
This kind of burning stick has strong flames and lasts for a long time, making it the best arson weapon.
The top of the Main Hall was on fire, and the man in black had disappeared into the darkness.
The main hall burned for a quarter of an hour, and when thick smoke began to billow, it was finally discovered by the monks in the temple. For a while, the monks shouted, 'Dang! Dang! Dang!' The rapid sound of gongs woke up all the sleeping monks.
A fire broke out in the Main Hall, which frightened everyone. They desperately tried to bring water to put out the fire.
Soon they discovered that the raging fire in the Main Hall could not be saved. They could only save the surrounding buildings, but they could not be burned down.
Fortunately, the Main Hall is the main hall and is relatively independent. It is not directly connected to other buildings. With the desperate efforts of three thousand monks, other buildings were not affected, but the Main Hall was completely burned down.
At dawn, the fire in the main hall and the treasure hall was finally put out, but it was reduced to ruins. The entire roof collapsed and was burned to a white ground. Only one of the three walls remained, and the other two also collapsed.
The monks braved the scalding heat to carry out the bronze Buddhas one after another. These were the 108 Arhats enshrined in the main hall. They were all bronze Buddhas. Although they were smoked black, they were basically well preserved.
Abbot Huijin stared blankly at the completely burned-down Main Hall, his eyes showing immense guilt and self-blame. He should have thought, how could the inner guards bypass them?
"Abbott, this must have been done by the inner guards!" Hui Wei said angrily.
"This is just a warning!"
Abbot Huijin said calmly: "If we continue to be ignorant, the entire Xiangji Temple will be burned to the ground by them."
"What should we do?" A group of old monks were scared.
Abbot Huijin sighed and said: "We have no choice. We cannot fight against the powerful. I will go and talk to His Highness King Qi to see what can be left for us."
In the morning, Abbot Huijin came to Qi Palace. He did not see Qi King Li Ye, but he saw Sima Chen Huan.
Chen Huan asked him to sit down and asked someone to serve tea to Abbot Huijin. Abbot Huijin said: "We have some accumulation, but we are monks. We don't understand the ways of the world, and we can't figure out God's intentions. I sincerely ask Chen Sima and King Qi to
Let’s communicate and see if Xiangji Temple can make some contribution to His Highness King Qi.”
Chen Huan said calmly: "This is not a matter of worldliness, but a bottom line issue. Once the temple breaks through this bottom line, no ruler can accept it. His Highness King Qi never does things absolutely, and he will be magnanimous, but the temple must have
Self-knowledge is self-evident.”
"Yes! Yes! Can you please ask Chen Sima to ask His Highness King Qi for instructions?"
"No need to ask for instructions. I know the bottom line of His Highness King Qi. He is not greedy for your money. All he cares about is population and land. I will mention three points. You can check and correct them by yourself. But don't have any luck and don't cherish this.
If you get this chance, Xiangji Temple will not exist next time.”
"I understand, Sima please tell me!"
Chen Huan said slowly: "First, each monk should retain five acres of fertile land, and all the excess land will be confiscated; second, the temple is not allowed to control good people, and all the good people who are controlled will be released and restored to civilian status; third,
, the temple donated half of the bronze Buddha and iron bells.”
A good man is a slave. Many civilians lost their land and sold themselves into slavery. They were controlled by temples and became serfs of the temples. They farmed and weaved for the temples and were exploited by the temples. Guangxiangji Temple controlled 3,000 households of serfs, more than 10,000 people.
The Prince of Qi issued a final ultimatum to Xiangji Temple. Thousands of internal guards gathered outside the temple. Once the time limit was exceeded, the internal guards would take over the temple, recover the monks' ultimatum, send all the monks away, and burn Xiangji Temple to the ground.
Not only Xiangji Temple, but also other major temples and inner guards in Chang'an took the same action to restrict the expansion of temples with an iron fist.