Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 486: Sacrificing Oneself to Tongtai Temple

When Wang Sengbian saw the sky full of flames in Baidi City, he already had a premonition that something was wrong.

He immediately sent infantry and cavalry out of Baidi City to provide support, but Hou Jing was faster, and infantry and cavalry from Shu had already appeared on the edge of Baidi City.

At this time, Wang Sengbian became cowardly again.

During these days, Hou Jing has studied Wang Sengbian thoroughly.

Wang Sengbian had no problem leading troops in battle, otherwise he would not have been entrusted with such an important task by Xiao Yi, and the soldiers also supported him.

However, the biggest characteristic of this person is that he makes many plans but lacks decisiveness. He tends to hesitate at critical moments and finds it difficult to make up his mind.

In other words, they always have a lucky mentality and dare not step forward when it is time to fight hard, always wanting to be fully prepared before taking action.

Hou Jing was quite disdainful of this. War itself was a matter of gamble with one's life.

As the saying goes, one must fight to the death in order to survive. In every battle, you must treat it as if you are putting yourself in danger. Only in this way can you fight for a way to survive.

Wang Sengbian's style of fighting might be fine if he met an ordinary general, but if he met an opponent like Hou Jing who was ruthless and aggressive, it would be easy for him to fall into a passive position step by step.

Especially since Hou Jing had the entire Shu area behind him and the full support of Guanzhong, he was much stronger than Wang Sengbian who couldn't even get reinforcements from Jingzhou.

To put it bluntly, Hou Jing's tactics today are to use force to overwhelm others.

If you want a big ship, just give it away, as long as it can be exchanged with the navy of your Baidi City.

Anyway, I have more navy than you, and they are still being built in the rear, so I don’t care about this little loss!
The same goes for the troops going out of the city to fight, and the defenders of your Baidi City. I have the entire Shu land to reinforce my troops in the rear, while you, Wang Sengbian, are just an isolated city.

Hou Jing was also gambling, and his bet was that Wang Sengbian would not dare to fight to the death.

Facts have proved that famous generals are good at finding the enemy's weaknesses.

After hearing that Hou Jing's infantry and cavalry appeared outside the city, Wang Sengbian became cowardly again. He ordered the infantry and cavalry to withdraw, abandoned the support for the fleet on the river, and ordered the soldiers to hold Baidi City, which was tantamount to giving up the navy.

The two fleets on the river fought desperately for a day. In the end, only two large ships of the Baidi City navy escaped back to Baidi City. The entire Nanliang navy was almost wiped out!

However, Hou Jing's navy also suffered heavy losses. Two of the three remaining large ships were severely damaged and could not be used in the short term.

Hou Jing was also a little scared. After all his calculations, he still underestimated the elite level of the Southern Liang navy.

Under such unfavorable circumstances, the combat performance of the Southern Liang Navy was still remarkable.

If Wang Sengbian had not backed down so quickly and dared not go out of the city to provide support, it would be hard to say who would win or lose in the end!
Fortunately, they won the battle in the end. Hou Jing looked towards Baidi City. Now that the navy had been lost, the morale in Baidi City must have been even lower. It seemed that the day of the city being captured was just around the corner.

Things went even more smoothly than Hou Jing had imagined. On the third day after he destroyed the navy of Baidi City, he received news from the rear that his general Yang Jia had attacked Nanping Mountain. Chen Baxian, a surrendered general of Southern Liang who had surrendered to Nanping Liao, suddenly started an uprising, kidnapped Kexian, the cave master of Nanping Liao, and opened the Liao camp to surrender.

After confirming that Chen Baxian had truly surrendered, Yang Jia decisively led his troops into Liaozhai and captured Kexian.

The Nanping Liao was the most fierce group in resistance against Hou Jing among the Liao people in Ba County, and was also the leader of the local Liao people.

After capturing Kexian, Yang Jia, with the momentum of a great victory, quickly wiped out the rebellious Liao villages around Ba County.

Yang Jia quickly escorted Kexian to Hou Jing's army and handed him over to Hou Jing for punishment.

After getting Kexian, Hou Jing was even more delighted. The Liao people in Ba County had always been a major concern of his and the target of Wang Sengbian's long-term contact and winover. Now that the Nanping Liao were destroyed, Wang Sengbian had no guide, and the morale in the city would drop a lot.

Hou Jing always fought a war while the iron was hot and never gave the enemy a chance to breathe. He immediately ordered his men to go to the foot of Baidi City and announce the news of the demise of Nanping Liao to people in the city day and night.

At this point, Wang Sengbian realized that it was impossible to counterattack Shu. He could only continue to appease the morale of the people. At the same time, he wrote an earnest letter for help and ordered his men to send it to Jingzhou, asking Xiao Yi for rescue.

But Wang Sengbian didn't know that while he was struggling in Baidi City, Xiao Yi was busy with an important matter.

At the dock, Xiao Yi looked at the boxes of Shu brocade and smiled with satisfaction.

What made Xiao Yi most satisfied was the brocade in front of him.

The most wonderful thing about this piece of brocade is that the entire text of the Diamond Sutra is woven on the fabric through superb brocade weaving technology.

It is said that this is the Shu brocade woven by Princess Nanyang of the Northern Wei Dynasty who arrived in Chengdu. This Princess Nanyang was known as the Weaver Girl, and her brocade weaving skills were unparalleled in the world.

After she entered Shu, she quickly absorbed the Shu brocade technique and formed her own brocade style.

Such a piece of brocade will surely satisfy my father.

After Xiao Yi personally checked it to make sure it was correct, the brocade was placed in a golden nanmu box and then transported to the ship.

These ships were all sent to Jiankang. It only took ten days for these ships to enter Jiankang from Jingzhou. Half a month later, it was the day when the Bodhisattva Emperor gave his second sermon at Tongtai Temple. Xiao Yi's gifts were all gifts for his father.

As for how Shu brocade entered Jingzhou, it was sold by merchants from Yizhou. As for who the seller was, Xiao Yi was not prepared to delve into it. He only knew that Shu brocade was his father's favorite fabric, and this piece of Shu brocade with the Diamond Sutra inscribed on it would surely please his father.

In order to prepare the gift for Xiao Yan's lecture, Xiao Yi did everything he could in Jingzhou, emptied out the entire Jingzhou Governor's Office.

Wang Sengbian's repeated requests for help were thrown onto the table by Xiao Yi.

For a prince like him, no matter how good Jingzhou is, it cannot compare to Jiankang.

Now that the crown prince is in poor health, new possibilities have emerged for the originally certain crown prince position, so Xiao Yi is naturally ready to make a move.

Not only Xiao Yi, all the princes from other towns tried their best to collect rare treasures and send them to Jiankang before the Wuzhe Conference.
-
April 8th is Buddha's Birthday.

Xiao Yan, who had been fasting for ten days, set out from the Jiankang Palace, surrounded by his ministers, and headed for Tongtai Temple.

For most officials, it was a happy thing for His Majesty the Emperor to hold the Unobstructed Assembly.

Since the iron coin reform, the salaries of Jiankang officials have also begun to be converted into iron coins.

Originally the officials were very happy. The treatment of officials in Southern Liang was not bad. When they were given rice as salary in the past, they had to exchange the leftovers for money at the market. Now they were given iron coins directly, and they could just go to the market to buy whatever they wanted.

But soon, the lower-level officials could no longer laugh.

The rate at which iron coins depreciated far exceeded their imagination, and the price of grain was rising so fast that these officials had to have someone send their salaries back home immediately after receiving them in the morning so that they could quickly buy grain, otherwise they would have to buy less grain in the afternoon.

In the one year since the iron coins were issued, they have depreciated by more than half, and as the court continues to issue iron coins indiscriminately, the rate of depreciation is accelerating.

Officials with a little bit of connections all tried to find ways to leave Jiankang and go to other places to make money, so that they wouldn't starve to death there.

The officials who remained in Jiankang had to use their power so as not to let their families starve to death.

However, there were always some government offices with little power, where officials had little power and could only live on the rewards from Emperor Xiao Yan.

The only thing to be thankful for is that Xiao Yan still gave a lot of rewards.

Take the last time Chen Qingzhi returned, for example. Xiao Yan held a grand welcoming ceremony and rewarded all the officials who attended with a piece of silk and a thousand iron coins. Although the iron coins were not valuable, the silk could be exchanged for food!
According to the convention of the last Four Divisions of the Unobstructed Assembly, after the lecture was over, the Bodhisattva Emperor would also reward all officials, so this month could finally be passed.

Just as all the officials were looking forward to it and surrounding their Bodhisattva with great anticipation, Bian Ji in the crowd glanced at Zhu Yi and Chen Qingzhi who were responsible for leading the way in front.

Xiao Yan was indeed good to Chen Qingzhi, and promoted him to General of the Right Guard, Marquis of Yongxing, and granted him a fief of 1,500 households.

Being granted the title of marquis was the highest level of reward for a military general in the Southern Dynasties. After the Battle of Zhongli, Wei Rui was only granted the title of Marquis of Yongchang, with a fiefdom of only one thousand households.

Chen Qingzhi also became the top military officer in Xiao Yan's dynasty.

Bian Ji looked at Zhu Yi again. This time, the lecture at Tongtai Temple consumed much more energy than the last time. Zhu Yi once again used his "financial magic" to gather all the money Xiao Yan needed.

But Bian Ji already knew what these magic arts meant. He looked at the fanatical people and officials accompanying him, and could not help but sigh in his heart.

Obviously these people don't know what this lecture means.

Just like the last time, this time when Xiao Yan was preaching, auspicious signs occurred frequently and golden lotuses emerged from the ground.

Xiao Yan's talent was indeed extraordinary. In Bian Ji's opinion, his understanding of Buddhism was no less than that of the top monks of the time. He was even able to integrate Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and quote extensively. It was indeed a pleasure to listen to him preach.

If it ends like this, this lecture can also be regarded as a large-scale team-building activity for the emperor, his subjects and the people to enjoy together.

However, after the lecture, Xiao Yan did not come down from the platform, but announced a shocking news to the believers and ministers present.

"I have decided to sacrifice myself in Tongtai Temple to pray for Daliang."

After saying this, Xiao Yan actually took off his dragon robe on the spot and put on a monk's robe.

Now all the ministers were dumbfounded!

Giving up one's life as a slave in a Buddhist temple is what believers in both the north and the south do nowadays.

In fact, the so-called self-sacrifice was originally just believers staying in the temple for a few days to experience Buddhist practice, which is similar to the meditation classes in later generations.

But gradually things changed. Many believers would announce to their children that they would give their lives to the temple and practice austerity in the temple. They would be talked about as unfilial by the neighbors and other relatives. In order to "redeem" their parents from the temple, they had to make up for the merits, that is, donate a large sum of money to the temple.

High-ranking officials would often stage such dramas to express their devotion to Buddha, and then donate large sums of money to show off their financial strength.

But the emperor sacrificed himself? How to redeem him?
(End of this chapter)