The Villain's Counterattack

At the top of Emperor Peak, Fan Qinghui, the abbot of Cihang Jingzhai, stood with his hands behind his back, gazing into the distance. The sun was warm and the breeze was gentle, but he felt inexplicably restless in his heart.

Ever since the former Crown Prince Yang Yong was defeated by Prince of Jin Yang Guang, he felt that everything was going wrong. The Demon Sect won this round, but the Demon Sect is just the Demon Sect after all. Even if Cihang Jingzhai lost a round, as long as the Buddhist Sect is powerful and allies with the Taoist Sect, it will still be the leader of the righteous path.

After Yang Guang came to power, he did not suppress Buddhism. He just suppressed Cihang Jingzhai and Jingnian Zen Temple, either openly or secretly. He spent money like water to promote other Buddhist forces. He seemed to have great respect for Buddhism, but he actively employed people close to the demon sect.

If Buddhism hadn't been truly powerful, with the support of Grandmaster Ning Daoqi, the Wandering Master, even if it hadn't been completely torn apart, it would have been gradually eroded by the Demonic Sect, and its situation would have been far worse than before. Even so, the influence of Cihang Jingzhai was slowly fading. The Four Great Sages had previously joined forces to promote a Buddhist disciple, and even had two of them escort the disciple to India to seek the so-called true scriptures, without consulting Cihang Jingzhai or Jingnian Zen Monastery in advance.

This seemed incredible to Fan Qinghui. Cihang Jingzhai and Jingnian Zen Temple were both Buddhist holy places, yet such an earth-shaking Buddhist event had nothing to do with them. How could Fan Qinghui accept this? He became even more determined to defeat Yang Guang and do his utmost to promote the new emperor of Cihang Jingzhai.

It is impossible for the martial arts world to be completely separated from the imperial court. The rise of Cihang Jingzhai is inseparable from the imperial court. Once it loses the support of the imperial court, especially the favor of the powerful emperor, its influence will plummet.

Yang Guang was indeed powerful and extremely smart. He never openly suppressed Buddhism. On the surface, he highly praised Buddhism. However, he was more inclined to support new Buddhist forces and build his own Buddhist power, which was unacceptable to Fan Qinghui.

It is impossible for a king to always focus on one force in the martial arts world. His biggest rival is not Cihang Jingzhai, but the aristocratic families in the world. Many people cannot see this, but how could Fan Qinghui not see it?

Precisely because she saw it clearly, she was cautious yet focused on keeping an eye on Yang Guang's every move, watching him build a canal, watching him conquer Linyi in the south, suppress Ryukyu in the east, suppress Tuyuhun in the west, and marry the Turks.

Yang Guang's prestige grew day by day, and Fan Qinghui's mood became increasingly depressed, until the extremely inflated Yang Guang began to attack the Grand Master Fu Cailin, and planned to kill all the aristocratic families at the same time, which gave Fan Qinghui an opportunity.

During the first expedition to Goguryeo, Fan Qinghui saw through Yang Guang's little thoughts. Yang Guang did not suffer a great defeat in this battle, but he did not win a great victory either. He dealt a heavy blow to Goguryeo and took Liaodong. The weakening of the aristocratic families was not serious, but the consumption of wealth was quite large, which was somewhat unacceptable to the accompanying aristocratic families, and also gave Fan Qinghui an opportunity.

The second expedition to Goguryeo, she knew from the beginning that this was her last chance. Yang Guang's army of one million on land and sea and two dozen masters were giving their all. Goguryeo had no power to resist. Unless they joined forces with Turkic Bi Xuan and combined the strength of the two great masters, they would be unable to compete with the million-strong army of the Sui Dynasty.

A strong city is most easily conquered from within. Fan Qinghui, who had been well prepared, joined forces with Jingnian Zen Temple and used the powerful connections of Cihang Jingzhai to easily push out Duke of Chu Yang Xuangan.

Did Yang Xuangan’s rebellion have a big impact on Yang Guang?

Under normal circumstances, Yang Guang could have suppressed him by sending any general, but Yang Guang was a king who could not sit still. He spent most of his time on the road after he ascended the throne. This time he even went abroad, which was when he was both the strongest and the weakest.

The most conservative and safest way for Yang Xuangan to rebel was to capture Chang'an through Yang Gong's treasury, just like the Li family in the past and the Li Tang in the present, using Guanzhong as a base to slowly conquer the world.

But when Yang Guang went on the second expedition to Goguryeo, he was still the Holy Emperor who was feared by the world. The so-called righteous army secretly raised by the aristocratic families was not worthy of being on the stage and was easily suppressed by the Sui Dynasty army. The world was still in chaos. Even if Yang Xuangan had captured Chang'an and occupied Guanzhong, he would have been crushed into dust by Yang Guang's million-strong army in the middle of the night.

The most risky yet most effective approach was to block Yang Guang's retreat back to the Sui Dynasty from Zhuo County. A monarch, a monarch, if absent from home for a long time, who would recognize him as the ruler? There was no need to defeat a million-strong army; simply hold the city and block Yang Guang's retreat. Once food supplies were depleted and the weather turned cold, they could then join forces with Goguryeo to attack Yang Guang from both sides and defeat him.

At that time, the King of Goguryeo would definitely not refuse, and would even be more proactive than Yang Xuangan.

However, could the tens of thousands of ruffians hastily gathered by Duke Yang Xuangan of Chu stop Yang Guang's million-strong army?

It's impossible even if you think about it. These two strategies seem very clever, but in fact the possibility of success is almost zero. If you want to be undefeated, the best way is to contribute Luoyang as quickly as possible, and then recruit troops before Yang Guang returns, take Chang'an through the secret passage of Yang Gong's treasury, and finally connect the West Capital and the East Capital to support each other to resist Yang Guang.

There are only two capitals in the entire Sui Dynasty. If both capitals can be taken, Yang Xuangan's prestige will surely soar to the point where he can compete with Yang Guang.

He received almost "explicit" support from Buddhism and knew the true strength of Luoyang Jingnian Zen Temple, so he dared to rebel and raised a considerable army with the wealth of Buddhism.

Fan Qinghui thought that this move was very clever. As the mastermind behind the scenes, she instigated the internal strife between Yang Xuangan and Yang Guang, and she would not suffer any loss.

If Yang Guang did not withdraw his troops, she would instigate a nationwide rebellion by the aristocratic families, thus undermining Yang Guang's foundation. If Yang Guang returned slowly and in an orderly manner, she would support Yang Xuangan in taking Chang'an, secretly supporting him in continuing to fight against Yang Guang. Although she knew it would be impossible to succeed, she could take advantage of the situation to bring the Buddhist forces supported by Yang Guang in Chang'an under her command.

If Yang Guang turned back quickly without caring about the consequences, Yang Xuangan might have to be sacrificed.

However, this move was somewhat detrimental to both himself and others. It suppressed Yang Guang, but he himself would not benefit from it.

However, in Fan Qinghui's opinion, it was worth it to be able to make a breakthrough in the invincible golden body of Emperor Yang Guang, even if it consumed a lot of Buddhist wealth for Yang Xuangan to recruit soldiers, even if it exposed many hidden chess pieces of Buddhism, and finally had to abandon Yang Xuangan, the chess piece they had fooled. It was still worth it.

Just as Fan Qinghui expected, although Yang Guang saw the key points and pros and cons of Yang Xuangan's rebellion during the second expedition to Goguryeo, the army quickly turned around and easily suppressed Yang Xuangan, forcing her to mobilize the Buddhist forces to eliminate the leaders and tails, but it also caused the aristocratic families to truly become alienated from Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty, and they almost semi-publicly tore their faces apart.

The three expeditions to Goguryeo were not because the Sui army was united and unstoppable, but because the two previous wars had exhausted the tiny country of Goguryeo too much. In addition, the former Marquis of Liaodong, now the Duke of Liao, severely injured the Grand Master Fu Cailin with a sword formation, which forced the King of Goguryeo to pretend to surrender and become a vassal.

Yang Guang saw that the army's morale was unstable and the wealthy families were disunited. If he continued to attack, there might be unexpected consequences. So he took advantage of the situation and returned to the Sui Dynasty triumphantly.

Cihang Jingzhai made another tentative move at this time and found that the relationship between the aristocratic families and Yang Guang was getting worse and worse, so it actively prepared and joined forces with the aristocratic families in Hebei to promote the Turkic entry into Yanmen Pass the following year.