If a person is not stressed and does not be proactive in doing things, he is likely to become a salted fish.

The same is true for a court.

If many officials of the court did not agree with the matter of monks, nuns and Taoist priests returning to secular orders and licensings before, most of them would not think so anymore.

Why?

Because the heavy snow started in the end of November, it continued to fall for ten days and ten nights, and there was no sign of stopping.

Let's say so.

If it weren't for the hundreds of thousands of disaster victims' labor force this year, the entire Gyeonggi area has been completely divided into small pieces by heavy snow, and there is no way to connect with each other.

Even in the Imperial City, the roads are covered with ice and snow, making it difficult for people to travel, let alone carriages and donkeys to transport goods.

If you rely solely on your shoulders and backs, many essential supplies in the Imperial Palace will be short of, causing difficulties in daily life for the people.

At the beginning, many censors impeached Miao Yan and Xiong Wenqing, saying that they asked these workers to clean up the snow and clean up the roads was a waste of money and food in the court.

After all, everyone's wages of 200 million yuan a day were raised by the imperial court, the Governor's Office or the Imperial Government Office. How much does such a hundred thousand people have to pay every day?

Even if it is a mountain of gold and silver, I can't help but give it to you all day long.

But now we see heavy snow continue to spread. The efforts of these workers make everyone's lives convenient, at least daily travel and life can be guaranteed at the lowest level, and even they themselves have benefited a lot, so the censors gradually stopped yelling.

However, the number of workers on the roads in the Imperial Palace and Gyeonggi area has decreased significantly in the past few days.

A large number of them were concentrated on the official roads leading to Shanxi, desperately clearing the snow in the direction of Shanxi.

There is not such heavy snow in Shanxi now, so you can take the official road there, but if you arrive in the Gyeonggi area, if the roads are not cleaned, the vehicles transporting coal will not be able to pass.

If it weren't for winter, you could take a detour, but now it is not possible. You can only rely on a large number of horse and donkey carriages to transport them.

It is necessary to ensure the smooth flow of this official road so that the Gyeonggi area will not be short of coal and the people will not be frozen to death.

Therefore, there is no gossip about so many people going to ensure the smooth flow of the official road.

But as the project becomes more and more difficult, and the main urban area is getting farther and farther away, the food needs to be consumed. The Miaoyan is so anxious that she gets angry in winter. - Working in the snow and ice consumes more energy and makes her hungry more likely. If you don’t provide three meals, their wages may not even be enough for meals, and of course they won’t be able to work.

He gave memorials to the emperor for three consecutive days, hoping to increase the subsidy.

Otherwise, the wages would not be paid, and the hard-working workers would have to return to the disaster-stricken areas to stay.

A big dog owner like Miao Yan who searched for one or two million taels of silver could no longer hold on, and this also shows the speed of money and food consumption.

At this time, Emperor Jinghe no longer had the patience.

He issued two decrees to Wenyuan Pavilion in a row, asking the prime ministers and the six ministers to find a way to solve the problem of monks, nuns and Taoists as soon as possible.

After all, only in this way can we get money as quickly as possible.

For a time, the court put unprecedented pressure on the temples and Taoist temples.

Even Abbot Haiwu, who was in Daxiangguo Temple, felt it very clearly.

Daxiangguo Temple is actually the Empress Dowager’s favorite temple and often comes to worship.

The heads of other temples and Taoist temples all hope that Abbot Haiwu would take the opportunity to tell the Queen Mother, hoping that it would be exempted or reduced.

But Abbot Haiwu has not done this yet.

He knew very well that this was a major event at the national level and the Queen Mother might not be able to take care of it.

Even if the Empress Dowager is in charge of her due to affection, the affection he has accumulated over the years will dissipate.

Now is not the most critical time for Daxiangguo Temple. Why did Abbot Haiwu use his trump card?

After hearing two imperial edicts in a row, Abbot Haiwu, who had been hesitating for a long time, finally couldn't help it and invited four old friends.

They are the abbot of Baoen Temple, Master Zishan, the other two major temples in the Imperial Palace, Master Deping, the abbot of Puji Temple, and the two Taoist Taoist temples, the Yuhuang Temple Xuanyang Zhenren, and the Chongdao Zhenren from Laojun Temple.

Adding Shanghai Wu Abbot, these five people can basically influence half of the temples and Taoist temples in the entire Gyeonggi area.

Compared with the last meeting, the five people all looked solemn this time.

Although some medium and large temples are still stubborn and think that they should continue to fight, they have already noticed that the situation is not good.

"The snow this year is getting worse and worse." The oldest abbot Deping looked out the window and sighed, "I have only seen such snow three times in my life, without exception, which has brought great disasters."

"Who said no? In the heavy snow more than 20 years ago, almost 30,000 people died in the entire Jingji area. That was so miserable!" Abbot Haiwu said, "I was still young at that time. I went to do rituals with my master. I couldn't help but cry all the way."

"What you two mean is... Will this winter be difficult?" Laojun Guan Chongdao asked with a frown.

"Isn't this nonsense?" His old friend, Jade Emperor Guan Xuanyang, snorted softly, "Now we meet more and more people every day when we donate porridge. The porridge that we used to do in the afternoon was gone at noon. Doesn't this mean that the situation is getting worse and worse?"

"right."

Master Koshiko of the Tonji said, "So I decided to add one-third of the bran and rice to try to help more people."

Abbot Haiwu smiled with relief, "Senior Brother Zishan, if you do this, if you are seen by Senior Brother Zhenhui, you will say that you are thankless."

Master Zishan shook his head helplessly: "His vision is too shallow. Our Buddhists focus on life saving. If we don't help us to save our lives if we starve to death, can believe in the power of the Buddha in the future?"

"What the master said is reasonable." Xuanyang Zhenren said, "Then we will follow up."

The remaining masters also expressed their intention to follow up.

They are not saying that they can gain fame, but that at this point they can already distinguish many things and know when to do what, not all for fame, fortune and reputation.

"Then let's discuss more important things!"

Seeing that everyone reached an agreement, Abbot Haiwu was not embarrassed. "Abbot Haiwu was not embarrassed about asking monks, nuns and Taoists to return to secular life and purchasing certificates, Daxiangguo Temple was preparing to report to the emperor that we were willing to obey the emperor's instructions and purchase a thousand certificates of certificates."

After he said this, the masters around him were a little dumbfounded.

Daxiangguo Temple wants to return to secular life to more than 2,000 monks. This may not be so damaging to their size as close to 6,000 people.

But a thousand certificates are a bit scary.

The price given by the imperial court is 1,000 taels of silver, and one thousand pieces is 1 million taels of silver.

A temple took out one million taels of silver to buy a certificate. No matter how you hear it, it feels like showing off your wealth.

Master Chongdao had this question: "Abbot Haiwu, I know that Daxiangguo Temple is very rich, but if you buy too many of it at once, will the court feel that all the temples are very rich? Therefore, whenever you lack money in the future, you will come to us and treat us as the imperial court's silver treasury?"

The questions asked by Chongdao Zhenren happened to be the concerns of most abbots.

There was really nothing at one time. Which temple didn’t have any inventory?

But if one time I tasted the sweetness and came to ask for money frequently, which one could withstand such tossing?

Abbot Haiwu smiled bitterly, "You really don't know that Prince Yu has already calculated all the assets of our Daxiangguo Temple as a bill, and it is one of the standards for dismissal according to this ratio.

According to his algorithm, our annual income of Daxiangguo Temple can reach 600,000 taels of silver. Can we make the court feel at ease if we don’t take out one million taels of silver? They think we are too stingy, but instead use the money to buy it and dislike it!"

"Captain Yu was a child who was a child, and it was not counted." Speaking of this, Abbot Koko-seong was also a little troubled, "We are also one of the standards. If we follow this standard, we have to buy at least five hundred certificates of tribute."

"Which of the five here is not one of the standards?" Xuanyang Zhenren also smiled bitterly.

Abbot Haiwu said in harmony, "In fact, what is important is not how Prince Yu calculates it, but the court and the emperor believe in his data, so even if we make excuses, they will not listen.

Instead of doing this, we might as well give it directly according to this data, so that we can finally leave a mercy for each other, so as not to make trouble and trouble in the future.”

True Man Xuanyang nodded carefully: "What Brother Haiwu said makes sense, but you still have no way to guarantee that after this time, they will not ask for money like this."

"Actually, they have left us a way out," Abbot Deping said lightly, "In the next five years, only 5,000 certificates will be issued every year. Doesn't this mean that the temples and Taoist temples in the country will be at most 5 million taels of silver? Should we have to buy them all at that time?"

Abbot Zishan followed the words, "That means that we don't have to worry about this problem anymore for at least five years. We will talk about anything in five years."

"Yes, I understand this way." Abbot Haiwu said, "And there is another point, there are so many temples in the world, and we have responded positively this time, so next time they shouldn't point at us to ask for money. We can get at least five years.

If you give money like this, it will become once every ten years, I don’t think it will be unacceptable. After all, the court is the biggest, and we have no reason or ability to fight them head-on, right?"

Abbot Haiwu is worthy of being the head of the world's largest temple.

His simple and direct analysis directly made everyone feel that it makes sense and slowly accepted his ideas.

"That's all."

Everyone was silent for a while, but the oldest Abbot Deping spoke, "I hope the court and the emperor can abide by their trust and will not make things difficult for us again! Our Puji Temple is willing to advance and retreat with Daxiangguo Temple."

After sighing, Master Xuanyang also said, "The Jade Emperor Temple and the two masters advance and retreat together."

All three of them spoke, and the rest of Abbot Zishan, Zhenren Chongdao, was not the kind of desperate tough guy, so they could only agree.

The five largest temples and Taoist temples advance and retreat together. This method of joining together to keep warm is itself a kind of protection for themselves.

...

In the winter of the 30th year of Emperor Jinghe, there were continuous snowfalls in the sky, and hundreds of thousands of poor people were limited to difficulties.

Abbot Haiwu of Daxiangguo Temple, Master Zishan of Baoen Temple, Master Deping of Puji Temple, Master Xuanyang of Yuhuang Temple, and Master Chongdao of Laojun Temple, with compassion, he took the initiative to donate 2.7 million taels of silver by voluntarily purchasing certificates.

Subsequently, the temples and temples in the Gyeonggi area followed one after another, and they colluded with good deeds, and donated 4.5 million taels of silver in the same way, totaling 7.2 million taels of silver.
Chapter completed!