Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

The current situation in Yedu is indeed dangerous and tense. Prior to this, due to Qi Zhu Gaoyan's deliberate weakening and suppression, both the personnel structure and garrison strength of Yedu were greatly reduced.

Gao Zhan himself is not a person who is good at governance. In recent years, he has mainly been acting arrogant when he stayed in Ye, and various personnel management has become increasingly chaotic. Even if there is chaos in normal times, now that a powerful enemy has invaded and is about to approach Yedu, the city will naturally become even more chaotic.

Gao Zhan did not have effective control over the personnel in the city at all. Since the Wei army attacked Shangdang, various rumors have spread around the city. Even when Fukou had been blocked by his troops, the news that Gao Guiyan had abandoned Shangdang and evacuated to the east quickly spread to the city, which shows the weakness of Gao Zhan's control.

His so-called control is only based on bullying by power and intimidation by force. But now with the approach of foreign enemies, the so-called oppression by power is not as reliable as before. After all, if the Wei army invades, the power system of Northern Qi will immediately collapse.

As for the deterrence of force, its power has also been reduced sharply. After sending Shedi Fulian and his troops out to guard Fukou, although Gao Zhan ordered Ye Nan to dispatch a group of troops back to Yedu to garrison, the garrison in the city is now far less than 20,000. . Such troops are naturally not enough to cope with major changes. Not to mention that the Wei army actually attacks the city. Even if someone in the city takes the opportunity to cause chaos, it will be very difficult to suppress it.

Therefore, directly arresting those people from the Kanto family who are naturally close to Li Boshan and temporarily nipping such personnel risks in the bud has become one of the few methods Gao Zhan can use to increase his control over the city.

However, people from all walks of life went straight into the village to arrest people without any legitimate reasons, which also caused great commotion in the city.

The relationship between these Guandong aristocratic families is complicated. What Gao Zhan wants to do is not just to target individual personnel like the previous coup to kill Yang Min, but to carry out widespread arrests. Even if he succeeds smoothly at first, as the number of people arrested increases, The number of people increased, and others realized that King Changguang had become so frantic during this critical time.

At present, they certainly do not have enough strength to compete with Gao Zhan in the city, and it is difficult to mobilize the people in the village to initiate any riots. The only way to save themselves is to flee Yedu with their family and cronies.

Although decades had passed since the Heyin Incident, a series of chaos broke out in the region after the Liang people's Northern Expedition, Xiaowu's march to the west, etc. Therefore, these Guandong aristocratic families were also prepared for danger in times of peace, and they always kept cattle, horses and various kinds of things at home. Evacuation-like supplies.

It was originally intended to be used to avoid military disasters when the Wei army attacked Yedu. After all, even if Li Boshan was close to the Guandong clan, it was difficult to take care of all aspects of his hometown amid the chaos of the war during the war. It was better to return home to temporarily avoid military disasters and wait until the situation stabilized. Then come out and take refuge with your relatives.

But now facing Gao Zhan's arrest across the city, they could only use these methods in advance and escape from the city. And as these Shiliu people were either captured or fled, the atmosphere of panic in the entire city suddenly became more intense.

But not everyone has this attitude of going their separate ways when disaster strikes. The Gao family has ruled Hebei for more than 20 years, and has still accumulated some public support.

Just when Gao Zhan was still worried about the lack of strength in his hands, suddenly government officials came in and people from all sides gathered and poured into the city. The organizers were mostly monks from surrounding temples.

"Those ascetics, don't you think there is not enough chaos in the city right now, and they still want to go into the city to preach the Dharma at this critical time?"

After Gao Zhan heard this, he immediately frowned and snorted with an unhappy expression.

"No, no! The Prime Minister has misunderstood. These monks are not here to preach the Dharma, but to gather believers to help defend the city!"

After hearing this, the government officials quickly waved their hands and explained: "Li Boshan in Guanxi was hypocritical and righteous, but he abused ascetics. Many of the monks in Guanxi fled to the country, so that the monks in our country also knew Li Boshan's cruelty and cruelty. Because he was afraid that after Li Boshan entered the country, To harm the Buddha and destroy the Dharma, these ascetics gathered their followers to resist the enemy and save themselves!"

"Is this serious?"

Gao Zhan did not expect that things would turn out like this. When he left Shangshu Province in a hurry, he walked onto the street and asked people to summon the monks who had entered the city from all directions to come to him. After further questioning, he found that the answers of these monks were similar. , when Li Boshan's reputation was mentioned, he was filled with indignation and fear. He repeatedly begged King Changguang to keep Li Boshan, the evil demon from Guanxi, away, and they, the ascetics, would also do their best to help.

"Haha, this is really a blessing! Li Boshan is arrogant and cruel, and refuses to be considerate and respectful to ascetics. As a result, there will be such evil retribution today. Isn't this the prosperity of Buddhism?"

Gao Zhan was overjoyed to suddenly receive such an unexpected boost. For a moment, he felt that Li Boshan was no longer so scary. And when he sent someone to sort out the personnel strength of these monks in detail, he became even more overjoyed.

During the Tianbao period, the Northern Qi Dynasty destroyed Taoism and exterminated Buddhism. As a result, ascetics became more and more prosperous, and the practice of practicing Buddhism from top to bottom became more popular, even compared to that of Nanliang. Just around Yedu, there are countless Buddhist temples, large and small, with tens of thousands of monks, and the number of monks and believers controlled by the temples is even more impressive.

Compared with the Northern Qi Dynasty's preferential treatment and respect for the ascetics, the Western Wei Dynasty was in a completely opposite situation. There were various restrictions on the ascetics and monks, and there were many exploitations. This also made the monks particularly yearn for the Buddhist kingdom of Northern Qi. When Northern Qi was weak and many people fled westward, many monks from the west fled into Northern Qi. Of course, the abuse of monks in the Western Wei Dynasty was also reported. spread the word.

Therefore, for these Yedu monks, the current situation is not only a national crisis, but also a catastrophe for their ascetics! Once those Wei troops who do not respect gods and Buddhas attack, Northern Qi will not only destroy the country and family, they will even destroy Buddhism!

This was naturally what they did not want to see, so when they learned that the situation on the front line was critical, the people of Jinei were panicked. Only the monks were determined to gather strength, protect the country and the law, and never allow the Wei army to be destroyed. This is the pure land of Buddhism!

Of course, not all monks have such ardent ambition and courage, but because the scale and size of the monks inside and outside Yedu are so large, even if only a small part of them have this awareness, the gathering is very impressive. .

Suddenly, there were tens of thousands of monks and male and female believers who were willing to help defend the city and resist the enemy. Although the organization and combat effectiveness of these people were relatively worrying, the scene of united efforts and unity was touching.

When Gao Zhan was still thinking about how to bring out the power of these ascetics as much as possible, his confidant He Shikai also joined in and said: "Prince Xiang has great blessings, so he is blessed by gods and Buddhas! Even these ascetics from outside the country Everyone gathers together and is willing to sacrifice their lives to help the Prime Minister. If we are united as one, we have nothing to fear from powerful enemies!"

"You still can't underestimate the enemy! Although people's hearts can be used now, Li Boshan must not be underestimated. He has defeated all the heroes in the world, and competing with him on the battlefield is just a trick. I just hope that he can keep calm and see that my heart is like this, and he can understand the difficulties. And retreat!"

Although He Shikai's compliments made Gao Zhan quite happy, he did not forget about it and said with expectation.

After He Shikai heard the words, he nodded again and again, then lowered his head and said: "Although the Wei army is strong, it is still in Shangdang. It is still unclear whether it can break through Fukou. Besides, the King of Pingyuan will soon go south. Come on, even if you don't defend, of course you can defend! In short, the enemy's threat is still far away, but the people in Yedu are just in front of them. It’s a rare situation, and I’m afraid it won’t be possible to see him again after this crisis passes!”

"What's your plan? Just tell me!"

Gao Zhan had been hanging out with He Shikai for a long time, and he naturally knew him quite well. After hearing what he said, he could naturally tell that there was still something unfinished in his words.

"The ascetics are not only powerful in numbers, but also rich in wealth. They collect offerings from the world, and the grains in the warehouse are piled up like mountains. That's why they are exploited and squeezed by Li Boshan! In the past, they were protected by Buddhism and naturally did not dare to be rude. Now in order to resist Li Boshan They are willing to pay any price to destroy the Buddha and the demon. The Prime Minister collects these grains and silk materials, which can not only enrich the private residence, but also reward the soldiers in the future..."

At this point in He Shikai's talk, the meaning is very obvious: "Now the Prime Minister is guarding the home and country, and he has worked hard and made great achievements. These monks and Buddhas are also protected by this, and they should make some contributions!"

After hearing this, Gao Zhan's eyes suddenly lit up. Yes, these monks were repeatedly oppressed in Kansai, but they lived a very comfortable life in Hebei. In previous years, it was not easy to attack Samana directly, but now there is not much scruple. In order to avoid the persecution of the Western Wei Dynasty, these monks could only rely on their own protection. If they did not exploit them while they were in panic, this rare opportunity would be wasted!

So Gao Zhan immediately ordered that all the monks and believers sent to the city to help defend the city must turn over the grain and grass to be distributed fairly by the province. Those inside and outside Yedu who are unwilling to cooperate with the defense must hand over a certain amount of money and grain, otherwise they will not wait until the Wei army If we attack, we will not be protected by the army and so on.

More than a dozen orders were issued in succession against the monks, the core of which was two words: make money!

Gao Zhan was not worried that doing so would force these ascetics to rebel. After all, Li Boshan's harshness and cruelty towards ascetics was an inherent impression formed over many years, otherwise those ascetics would not be so frightened and panicked. It was just a harmless thing for him to take advantage of the chaos to generate income. If these monks refused to comply, when the Wei army came to kill them, what awaited them would be a loss of both men and money!

However, Gao Zhan's great cause of exploiting monks had not yet been launched on a large scale, and the situation in Fukou changed dramatically.