Nu Yalang of Tang Dynasty

Half a month later, the imperial court issued an imperial edict, ordering a thorough investigation of Buddhist temples across the country to crack down on "false Buddhas".

The imperial edict stated that Tubo Tantric Buddhism was designated as a "false Buddha" and committed treason against the enemy. It was a heinous crime and should be eradicated.

Most of the Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty was exoteric Buddhism, so most Buddhists did not care about cleaning up Tantric Buddhism at first.

As for other religions, such as Taoism, Buddhist scriptures, etc., they are all applauded.

Speaking of which, why did this imperial edict come about?

The Tubo general Sang Chiruo led 3,000 cavalry and captured Ziting Town and Shounan County of the Tang Dynasty overnight, and then even almost captured the city of Dunhuang, the capital of Shazhou County. Looking at the history of the Tang Dynasty, this incident can be said to be one of the greatest

Unparalleled, the impact is extremely bad.

After Zhou Jun put down the Shazhou rebellion, he ordered Dunhuang County to thoroughly investigate the rebellion at that time.

After entering the Western Regions, Zhou Jun ordered the four towns in Anxi to investigate the power of Buddhism in the territory.

As a result, both sides investigated together and found that Tubo Tantric Buddhism was linked to the nine surnames of Zhaowu and had penetrated into the local religious life. Even some Buddhist temples had unclear connections with Tantric Buddhism. Moreover, this force relied on the

Through preaching, borrowing, preaching, and donating food, a large number of people were developed and became fanatical believers.

Zhou Jun summarized all the evidence and compiled it into a memorial, which he quickly sent to Chang'an.

Li Longji, a devout believer in Taoism, was furious when he saw the memorial. He spoke specifically about the matter to his superiors and ordered a thorough investigation of Buddhist temples across the country to crack down on the rebels who were causing harm to the country and the people.

After the imperial edict reached the Anxi Protectorate, Zhou Jun specially summoned the officials in the government together, and wrote a government order in the name of deposing the envoy, asking the officials of the various prefectures in Longyou Province to investigate the situation of Tubo Tantric Sect in their territory.

As a result, the entire Longyou Road, including Anxi, Beiting, Shazhou, Xizhou, Yizhou, etc., began to take action.

The fastest mover was Dunhuang City, the capital of Shazhou County.

In the war between Tang and Tibet, Shazhou suffered the most heavy losses, and Dunhuang City was almost captured.

The Tang people in the city hated the Tubo Tantric Sect with deep hatred.

Ever since Liu Zai promised Zhou Jun to guard Dunhuang, he has been secretly investigating the rebels in the city.

As soon as the imperial decree arrived in Dunhuang, Liu Zai contacted the Doulu military envoy Chang Huiwu and mobilized a thousand partial troops, plus hundreds of palace guards. After the sun set, he surrounded a place in the city that had close ties with the Tubo Tantric Sect.

Buddhist temple.

First, they knocked on the door of the Buddhist temple in the name of pilgrims staying overnight, and then the soldiers rushed into the hall and controlled the monks in the house.

After everything settled down, Liu Zai led the soldiers and palace guards to search for evidence in the temple.

Behind the Buddha statue in the main hall, a soldier knocked on the wall panel with a wooden stick and found that it was hollow inside.

Liu Zai ordered the wall to be demolished, cleared away the rubble, and discovered a secret passage leading below.

Following the secret passage, they came to the underground of the Buddhist temple. At the end of the passage, the soldiers discovered a hidden vault.

He used a heavy object to break the door of the warehouse, and what appeared inside made everyone present take a breath.

The hundreds of square meters of underground storage are filled with all kinds of rare treasures, silk, gold and silver. Even a rough estimate puts them in the tens of millions.

There is a hidden door inside the first storehouse. When you open the hidden door, you find another secret room, which contains Tantric instruments, books, etc.

With the physical evidence in hand, Liu Zai took away all the monks in the Buddhist temple and tortured them severely, and finally obtained evidence that the Tantric believers were colluding with Tibet.

And in another place, Yanqi Town.

Zhou Jun ordered a thorough investigation of the Buddhist temple's decree and arrived at the Yanqi Council.

The Council organized a thousand-man army composed of the Dashi Cult, the Yinmen disciples, the military guards of the garrison, and the Twelve Dragons, and rushed to the Luo Shi Temple, demanding that the temple be opened for search.

Unlike the smooth operation in Dunhuang City, this operation in Yanqi Town may have been caused by leaks of information or incorrect deployment, which put Luo Shi Temple on guard.

Hundreds of people, including monks and believers, were all distributed with weapons and used the outer walls and attics of the Roshi Temple to defend themselves.

With the sound of gongs, bows and crossbows were fired in the temple. The Yanqi defenders outside the temple were not well prepared and dozens of people were shot to death.

As a result, the original attempt to persuade them to surrender turned into a violent attack.

Although the monks and believers of Luoshi Temple were at a disadvantage in terms of numbers, they took advantage of the favorable location and were not afraid of death, causing considerable trouble to the Yanqi defenders.

The Yanqi garrison was composed of four different forces, and Hua Yue, who was usually in charge of the command, was not in the city, so they fought independently, and their combat effectiveness was greatly reduced.

The battle lasted for less than half an hour. Seeing that the losses from the force attack were too great, the Yanqi Council discussed before the battle and decided to use fire attack to completely destroy Luoshi Temple.

As the fire ignited, Luoshi Temple fell into a sea of ​​flames.

As the fire grew stronger and thicker smoke filled the air, a small number of monks and believers could not withstand the fire and came out to surrender. The rest were all buried in the sea of ​​flames.

After the war, a protocol was written and sent to the Anxi Protectorate.

After Zhou Jun read Yanqi's proposal, he was shocked and angry.

They were shocked that Luoshi Temple actually dared to rebel with weapons, and they were angry at the four Yanqi factions. Their performance in the battle could be described as disorganized.

Regarding the battle of Luoshi Temple in Yanqi Town, Zhou Jun ordered the council:

1. Thoroughly investigate the Buddhist temples and temples in the whole town. Anyone who has the slightest connection with the rebel party will be dealt with severely; anyone who dares to resist arrest or protest will be punished for conspiracy and killed on the spot.

Second, the military affairs of Yanqi Town were reorganized. The four major factions each transferred soldiers to form partial armies and established ministries and departments. The military headquarters existed independently of the council. All military affairs were directly requested from the Anxi Protectorate.

At the end of May, the thirteenth year of Tianbao.

Lasting for nearly half a year, the Tang Dynasty's nationwide campaign against "false Buddhas" was compiled by the Ministry of Household Affairs, and a preliminary report was prepared and submitted to the emperor.

Five hundred and seventy-six monasteries have been demolished in the world, 21,900 monks and nuns have returned to lay life, more than 4 million hectares of farmland have been harvested, and more than 14,000 slaves and maidservants have been collected as tax households.

Among them, the power of Buddhism in Longyou Road, especially Anxi, was greatly weakened.

Although Li Longji's imperial edict targeted Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, the Buddhist temples owned countless fertile lands and were rich in wealth. How could state officials, powerful families, and local tycoons not take this opportunity to plunder the temples when they were attacking them?

Therefore, it is unknown how many of the 576 demolished temples were related to Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, and how many were innocent Sutra Buddhists.

The Xianzong Buddhist School of the Tang Dynasty, which had been observing from the sidelines, was also aware of this problem, and several major Buddhist temples jointly signed a letter requesting Li Longji to stop the investigation.

But once the imperial edict is issued, how easy is it to take it back?

Besides, the high profits brought by attacking Buddhist temples are not something that prominent families can easily let go.

Although Li Longji later issued an imperial edict, requiring various places to fight against false Buddhas, they must distinguish what is good and not exceed it.

However, in the following two years, the Buddhist forces in the Tang Dynasty were constantly under attack.

In many state capitals, Buddhists gradually converted to other religions in order to avoid persecution.

The religious forces of the Tang Dynasty completed an extremely covert reshuffle on the pretext of cleaning up the Tubo Esoteric Sect.

In the history books of later generations, this two-year campaign against false Buddhism, which started at the end of the twelfth year of Tianbao's reign, was recorded as "Tianbao Destroyed the Buddha." Because this purge began in Dunhuang, Shazhou, it was also called "Tianbao Destroyed the Buddha."

Dunhuang Dharma Difficulty".