Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 499: Laozi Huahu Jing

The puppet emperor Yuan Ziyou met Xi Yi in the Xuanguang Hall.

Because Erzhu Rong had many spies in the palace, Xi Yi basically met Yuan Ziyou in public.

The two parties do not need to communicate directly, but being able to meet each other is a signal.

Gao Aocao mixed in with the musicians. He was a child of aristocratic family and had a basic understanding of music theory.

In order to take revenge, Gao Aocao shaved his beard to show his determination, and soon he reached the level of a musician. Now he is responsible for the bell and chime parts of the entire piece of music.

Next to Gao Aocao was also a young man shaving, and this man was Yang Zhong.

At that time, Yang Zhong served as the General of the False Emperor and was responsible for guarding the imperial palace.

After the city was broken, Erzhu Rong appreciated his loyalty and did not execute Yang Zhong, but imprisoned him.

But a lot of things happened afterwards. Erzhu Rong led his troops to defeat Chen Qianzhi, attacked Yubi City a year later, and now rushed back to Jinyang to rescue him, completely forgetting about Yang Zhong.

This was also a very unfair thing for Erzhu Rong to do. You should either kill Yang Zhong, release him, or force him to surrender. What's the point of locking Yang Zhong up in jail for several months?
Finally, Yuan Ziyou found out about this matter, found a way to inform Xi Yi, and got Yang Zhong out of prison.

Now Yang Zhong is also a musician, and Xi Yi promises that as long as Yang Zhong works for him for half a year, he will send him back to the Southern Dynasty.

In order to be reunited with his wife, Yang Zhong shaved off his long beard, mixed into the court orchestra, and was responsible for playing the sheng.

Xi Yi was very careful. After arriving at the Xuanguang Hall, he just stood under the jade steps and led the musicians to play "The Music of General Tianzhu Breaking the Formation".

The author of the music, Wu Guinian, was now appointed as the Grand Master of Music, responsible for the music of the entire palace. Under his command, all the palace people present were intoxicated by the magnificent music. Only the Emperor Yuan Ziyou, with an intoxicated expression, carefully observed every member of the band.

The musicians were all selected by Yuan Ziyou, who then found a way to notify Xi Yi and then forged their identities and sent them to the orchestra.

Yuan Ziyou looked at Gao Aocao, and then at Yang Zhong who was sitting on the ground playing the sheng. His wide robes covered their muscular bodies. Yuan Ziyou also knew how brave the two men were. As long as they could go in and out of the palace more often in the future, he would have the opportunity to recruit them.

Yuan Ziyou, who had experienced many palace coups, was very patient. He tried his best to be a puppet emperor and only hoped that Erzhu Rong could give him more time.
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Compared with the rapid rise in the status of military men in the north, the situation in Southern Liang was completely different.

In May, the climate in Jiankang gradually became hotter, but there was still a pleasant spring breeze outside the city, so every time it was time for a day off, officials would take their families out of the city for an outing.

I have to say that it was quite comfortable to be an official under Xiao Yan.

At that time, the north had three days of rest a month, which was the last day of the first, middle and last week. This was the day for officials to take a rest. The government offices were closed on this day and the officials could go home to rest.

The three-day rest per month was not implemented until Emperor Xiaowen implemented the salary system. In other words, officials in the Northern Wei Dynasty did not work 996, but 007.

Since officials don't receive salaries, they naturally don't have vacations. This is reasonable.

But when serving as an official in the Southern Dynasties, there were more holidays.

In addition to the normal Wanshou Festival (Emperor's birthday), Spring Festival, etc., Xiao Yan also gave holidays on various Buddhist and Taoist festivals. Buddhists have the custom of burning incense on the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month, and Xiao Yan also announced holidays on these two days. On average, the officials of Southern Liang had ten days of holidays per month.

Today was a day off, so Chen Qianzhi left the palace and returned to his farm outside the city to relax.

Wei Rui's grandson, Wei Can, who had once strongly advocated support for Luoyang in the court, was also sitting in Chen Qianzhi's carriage.

Chen Qingzhi liked this newcomer very much. After returning to the court, he started to interact with Wei Can. They also went out of the city for a party today.

However, the ox cart that Chen Qingzhi was riding was moving too slowly. He could not help but open the curtain and said to Wei Can:

"Is there really no one riding in a carriage in Jiankang City now?"

Wei Can smiled bitterly and said, "It is said that Laozi attained enlightenment riding a green ox, and that oxen can communicate with spirits, so now the officials all ride on ox carts."

Chen Qingzhi was speechless. He felt that this reason might just be an excuse, and it was more likely that the officials of Southern Liang were afraid of horses.

Chen Qingzhi had personally seen the sons of noble families who served as military officers on the parade grounds, unable to even ride a horse. In fact, the officers would be so scared that they would run away as soon as the horse neighed.

Even messengers delivering battle reports from the front lines are now not allowed to ride horses into the city. If they want to enter the city to report military intelligence, they have to change to docile donkeys.

Perhaps it was because these nobles were afraid of horses that they rode ox carts instead of horse-drawn carriages.

"Didn't His Majesty list that book as a banned book?"

The book that Chen Qingzhi was talking about was a book that was circulated from Guanzhong, and its name was "Laozi Huahu Jing".

In fact, this scripture probably existed as early as the Western Jin Dynasty. It was a legend put forward by Taoism during the debate between Buddhism and Taoism. It said that Laozi rode a green bull out of Hangu Pass in order to enlighten the Hu people to practice cultivation, and that the Buddha was enlightened by Laozi.

Religious debates are like this: when doctrines, scriptures, and principles are unable to refute the other side, all you can do is play ethical jokes like a crosstalk performer.

This set of Taoist tactics really hits the nail on the head. The phrase "I am your father" has left many Buddhist monks speechless. The "Laozi Huahu Jing" in Guanzhong is even more outrageous than the original scripture by Wang Fu of the Western Jin Dynasty. First of all, this scripture has fully verified the story of Laozi's conversion to Buddhism, and after citing scriptures and classics, it makes people wonder where to start the refutation.

That’s right. When someone says he is your father, it is difficult for you to provide evidence to prove that he is not your father.

If it were just that, it would at most be popular in Buddhism and Taoism, but the second half of this book is outrageous.

The second half is similar to a strange story novel, telling a story about Laozi's conversion to Buddhism. The struggle between Buddhism and Taoism in this story is extremely exciting, and introduces several characters such as Hongjun, Sanqing, and Buddha. It also ranks saints, Daluo Jinxian, Taiyi Zhenxian, etc. according to their fighting power. It mixes various legends from In Search of the Supernatural to the present, and constructs a universe of gods and Buddhas in which Buddha is originally Tao.

It even starts from King Wu's conquest of King Zhou and leads to a behind-the-scenes story of the struggle between Buddhism and Taoism.

Because the story was so wonderful, the book was repeatedly told by storytellers in teahouses and taverns, and its influence grew. Even children in Jiankang tied red things on bamboo to COS Nezha.

After reading this book, Xiao Yan, who was a devout Buddhist, became unusually angry. He ordered that "Laozi Huahu Jing" be listed as a banned book, and anyone who was found to have this book in their home would be exiled to Lingnan.

However, the imperial court now had greater control over the people, and listing the book as a banned book was tantamount to promoting it. In addition, the woodblock printing that came from the north accelerated the spread of the book. This book became popular not only in Jiankang, but also in all major cities in Southern Liang.

Also because of the saying that Laozi rode a green ox, the price of a green ox in Jiankang City was driven up to 100,000 strings of iron coins, and the nobles considered it a honor to ride in a carriage pulled by a green ox.

Wei Can smiled bitterly. With the court in such a state, no officials wanted to do their job properly. They all wanted to make money while in office. What policies could continue?

"stop."

Chen Qianzhi suddenly ordered the driver to stop, got off the cart, went to the fields beside the road, and called two farmers who were working in the fields to his front.

Wei Can also got off the car. When he saw the clothes the two farmers were wearing, his expression changed.

It turned out that these farmers were all wearing the uniforms of the Northern Ya Imperial Guards.

Xiao Yan set up twelve guards in Jiankang, which were led by the emperor himself. Because the command posts of these twelve guards were all in Beiya, north of the imperial palace, they were also called Beiya Forbidden Army.

As the imperial guards of Jiankang, the Beiya Imperial Guards were naturally very important. In theory, Chen Qingzhi, the General of the Right Guard, also managed the Beiya Imperial Guards.

Seeing Chen Qingzhi's ox cart, the farmers working on the roadside knelt down one after another. Chen Qingzhi asked:

"Why are you wearing the uniforms of the Imperial Guard?"

Wearing the clothes of the imperial guards without permission was a serious crime. The two peasants knew this too, and they quickly said:
"Please spare my life, sir. Please spare my life. We are really the Imperial Guards."

Wei Can immediately scolded him, "How dare you! Why are the imperial guards stationed in the fields instead of in the city?"

The two men continued to kowtow, and one of them took out his badge and said:
"Sir, this is our military badge! We are truly the Imperial Guards, not people wearing military uniforms privately!"

Chen Qianzhi's men went to check the badge, and it was indeed the badge of the imperial guards.

Now Chen Qingzhi's face became even uglier. Like the imperial guards of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Northern Yamen imperial guards of the Southern Dynasty were also full-time.

They live and eat in the military camp, and even on holiday they are not supposed to go out of the city to farm.

Chen Qingzhi's tone softened a bit, and he asked, "Since you are the imperial guards, why are you working in the fields?"

The two imperial guards looked at each other, and the honest imperial guard who had been silent said:

"My Lord, it was the military commander who sold us here to farm."

"Tell me more about it."

After the two men finished speaking, Chen Qingzhi finally understood the whole story.

The Southern Dynasty's imperial guards had a low status, and now they valued military power over civil service. In addition, the grassroots officers could not get enough food after the excessive issuance of iron coins. So the leader of the two soldiers rented them to the owner of the land as slaves for a long time.

Chen Qingzhi asked and found out that this kind of thing was very common in the imperial guards. There were even officers who bought land themselves and forced their soldiers to farm for them.

Chen Qingzhi's face turned pale, and Wei Can's face also looked ugly. These were the imperial guards who protected the emperor, but now they were being treated like slaves. It was hard to imagine that if the rebels really reached Jiankang, these soldiers would still risk their lives to protect the emperor.

Because Xiao Yan attached great importance to civil governance, the status of military men was low, but no one expected it to be so low.

Chen Qianzhi looked at the ragged people in the fields and the skinny imperial guards, but he didn't know who to settle the score with.

The army chief that the soldiers were talking about? He was just a low-level officer. This was a common phenomenon in Jiankang. Chen Qingzhi, a dignified general of the Right Guard, could not possibly cause trouble for a small army chief.

All we can say is that this is the crux of the entire era, and it cannot be changed by punishing one or two people.

The disease is incurable and there is no cure.

(End of this chapter)