Datang: Hiding private money, exposed by Xiao Sizi

What kind of repairs are we talking about? What kind of venue is this for the Buddhist and Taoist debates...

It’s gone, nothing is left.

Buddhism no longer has the venue for debates between Buddhism and Taoism, so how can we talk about victory?

This year, it can be predicted that in the debate between Buddhism and Taoism... Buddhism will lose!

This is almost like taking out the biggest obsession in Dezhi's heart, cutting it into pieces, and then chopping it up and feeding it to the dogs.

The blows came one after another without a break... Dezhi vomited blood and fainted, but maybe it was a good thing.

If he wakes up, it will only be more painful.

Really, at this moment Shen Lian felt that there might be no one in the world more miserable than Dezhi.

He suffered blows one after another in one day, and it was not easy for him to hold on until now.

It's really pitiful!

What a pitiful monk!

The Buddhist community in the Tang Dynasty was in such a miserable state!
At this moment, Shen Lian suddenly became certain that this was all what Beichen said. Then Beichen definitely had an inseparable relationship with Taoism.

Maybe even a Taoist!

Because this series of events were clearly leading to the destruction of Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty.

The dispute between the Buddhist and Taoist orthodoxies, in a mysterious sense, is about the great principles; in a down-to-earth sense, it is about the number of believers and direct interests. Therefore, it is completely reasonable to spend some effort to kill Buddhism for the prosperity of Taoism.

So……

Shen Lian narrowed his eyes. If all this was really done by No. 1, then the scope of Beichen's identity could be roughly determined.

Even if you are not a Taoist priest, you must have a deep connection with Taoism!
At least, towards Buddhism, it is completely opposed.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to trap these people in Huasheng Temple so miserably and to death.

However, if the person behind the scenes is a Taoist, then why would he know the secret passage that even the abbot doesn’t know?
Shen Lian couldn't figure this out for a while.

However, this is not the time to think about these things. He has more important things to do. After finishing all these, Shen Lian needs to quietly summarize what he has gained this time.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to trap these people in Huasheng Temple so miserably and to the point of death.

However, if the person behind the scenes is a Taoist, then why would he know the secret passage that even the abbot doesn’t know?
Shen Lian couldn't figure this out for a while.

However, this is not the time to think about these things. He has more important things to do. After finishing all these, Shen Lian needs to quietly summarize what he has gained this time.

This time, he obtained quite a few clues and reasonable speculations. Perhaps, if they were integrated together, he would be able to make more surprising discoveries.

but now……

There was a flash of coldness in Shen Lian's eyes; he still had some revenge to take.

Shen Lian is not the kind of person who would just accept things passively. This is the first time in more than ten years that he has been almost buried alive. He must avenge himself.

Moreover, he doesn't like to wait until the next day to take revenge. If he has a grudge, he wants to take it now!
Otherwise, he couldn't stand it!
He shoots birds all day long and today he was almost pecked in the eye by a bird. This was a provocation to him!

Shen Lian looked towards the road going up the mountain and could see some figures there.

Although the distance was a bit far, Shen Lian's vision was much better than that of ordinary people after being enhanced by the system, so it was not a problem for him to see the situation of those people.

From Shen Lian's perspective, he discovered that those people were dressed very roughly. In other words, they were dressed like bandits.

Each of these bandits was very big and burly, holding a machete in their hands, and they looked extremely vicious.

But how come Shen Lian didn’t know that there was such an arrogant and powerful bandit force near Chang’an City?

He thought for a moment, looked at Di Renjie, and said, "Renjie, you have been observing the area around Chang'an City recently. Tell me, are there any powerful bandit forces near Chang'an City?"

Di Renjie was stunned and said, "Master, you mean... the person who did all this is a bandit who is not worthy of being on the stage?"

"This is impossible! Can a bandit have such a brain? Can he have such ability?"

Di Renjie really looked down on those bandits.

Although to ordinary people, bandits are scary.

But in Di Renjie's eyes, this is really nothing.

When they were in Bingzhou, they were just some criminals who had escaped and had not been caught yet. But as long as the army was dispatched, even if they could not be killed, they would be chased away and become dogs that had lost their homes.

Therefore, Di Renjie looked down on these bandits from the bottom of his heart.

So when he heard the question from his mentor Shen Lian, he was very unwilling to believe that the enemies who almost killed him were those crude and brainless bandits.

Shen Lian knew what Di Renjie was thinking, and he said, "Renjie, judging from their behavior and the fierce aura they displayed, they are definitely not regular soldiers pretending to be soldiers, so... they are real bandits, but there are quite a lot of them. I'm not sure if they sneaked in from somewhere else, or if they were originally near Chang'an."

Di Renjie had no doubt about the judgment of his mentor Shen Lian, so even though he didn't want to believe it in his heart, he still looked at the guard beside him.

The guard said, "Lord Di, there is absolutely no banditry within a hundred miles of Chang'an City! Chang'an is the capital. If there are bandits, they will directly threaten the safety of Your Majesty. We cannot allow them to exist."

"There is a sweep almost every six months, so these bandits definitely cannot be from the area near Chang'an."

Shen Lian nodded.

So they came here secretly from other places."

"But, this doesn't make sense either."

Shen Lian frowned slightly.

Xu Gou was puzzled and asked, "Master, why is it unreasonable?"

Shen Lian said, "Think about it. There are at least 500 bandits. With so many bandits, their lair may be in a very remote place. If they want to get to Chang'an, they may have to pass through many places on the way."

"They have a lot of blood on their hands. Each of them is extremely vicious. Even if they are pretending to be ordinary people, their temperament will attract extra attention. With so many people showing up at the same time, I believe any official who encounters them will definitely pay attention."

"But they were able to do something like this here today, which means that no government officials noticed it, and even the spies outside Chang'an didn't find out. Don't you think this is... particularly wrong?"

The guard thought about it and his expression became serious.

He said, "Lord Shen is right. In order to ensure the safety of Chang'an, we have spies secretly monitoring the roads and counties outside Chang'an. However, those spies did not give any warning. This matter... is indeed problematic."

"More importantly, where did they get these weapons? Although the Tang Dynasty does not ban weapons, this kind of machete is strictly prohibited. None of this makes sense."

"That doesn't make sense."

Shen Lian suddenly sneered: "There are only two possibilities."

Everyone looked at him.

Shen Lian said calmly: "Or, there is an insider in Chang'an, and that insider's position is not high enough, and he can help them accomplish this."

"Either, they have legitimate identities that require them to carry weapons, so no one would think there is anything wrong with them."

Everyone looked at each other, and their hearts sank. Li Shimin also looked at Shen Lian and asked, "Shen Lian, which possibility do you think is higher?"

Everyone looked at Shen Lian.

Shen Lian narrowed his eyes, pondered for a moment, and said, "The second type is having a reasonable identity."

"First, Chang'an City is experiencing a locust swarm. So many people are implicated, and many officials are worried. Under such circumstances, any unreasonable little thing done by anyone may be magnified infinitely, so I don't think anyone would dare to do such a thing at this juncture."

"Not to mention that the person who can do this must be very powerful, and this kind of person is currently receiving more attention, so this possibility exists, but the probability is very low!"

"And the second..."

Shen Lian looked at Li Shimin and said, "Your Majesty, these bandits cooperated well and were not on guard against each other. It is obvious that they belong to a single force."

"But the Tang Dynasty has always been working hard to eliminate bandits. Once the number of bandits exceeds 200, the army will be dispatched directly. So it is impossible that such a large force has not been surrounded and suppressed before."

"When I occasionally had the opportunity to drink tea with General Li Jing before, he told me that he had never heard the Ministry of War send a large army to encircle and suppress the bandits. So this means that the existence of these bandits is unknown to us."

"With so many bandits, if they want to survive, they will definitely commit crimes. The local government will definitely know about it, but we don't know... I think Your Majesty should be able to guess what this means."

Li Shimin took a deep breath, his eyes were cold, and he gritted his teeth and said, "The officials and bandits colluded and deliberately shielded them!"

"what?"

"Collusion between officials and bandits?"

Xu Gou and others were shocked when they heard this.

Shen Lian's expression didn't change much. After all, he had guessed this a long time ago.

He said: "Yes, it is collusion between officials and bandits. I even suspect that the bandits have controlled the local government. And because of their official status and the government's support, as long as there is a reasonable reason, it is completely reasonable for them to bring weapons to Chang'an."

Although the invasion was all his speculation.

But everyone knows that the real fact is absolutely like this.

After all, Shen Lian has never missed anything.

His inferences are also well-connected and reasonable!
Li Shimin took a deep breath, suppressed his anger, and asked, "Shen Lian, do you know which government office this is from?"

Shen Lian shook his head: "I don't know yet, but... I will know soon."

The corners of Shen Lian's mouth slightly lifted up: "I have fought with many cunning officials, but I have never fought with such a pure bandit."

"Then today, I will have fun with you guys."

Shen Lian narrowed his eyes slightly. He felt that if Beichen was behind all this, with Beichen's intelligence, he should not trust these bandits.

At least, if Shen Lian has something important to do, he will never let some greedy and cruel guys do it.

They cannot stand the test and have no loyalty at all.

But now, these bandits are here...

Does this mean that these bandits cannot be trusted, but the people who lead them are trustworthy?
Does this mean that these bandits may be related to the Big Dipper organization?

Yuheng, Tianji and Tianquan are dead.

Beichen is mysterious.

So, maybe today, I will meet the other Big Dipper stars?
Yaoguang, Tianshu? Or Kaiyang?
Shen Lian didn’t know, but he felt that the probability was definitely not low.

After all, this was a three-pronged strategy set up by the North to kill Buddhism, kill themselves, and kill Li Shimin.

The person who is to carry out the execution must be someone Beichen trusts.

Apart from the Beichen Organization, Shen Lian couldn't think of anyone else who had such ability.

and so……

Shen Lian let out a breath. Is this finally the first large-scale head-on confrontation?

Beidou Organization!

…………

Shen Lian had a rough guess about the enemy he was about to face, and a way to deal with these bandits quickly appeared in his mind.

Almost instantly, hundreds of methods appeared.

Then we will eliminate those with low success probability, those with heavy casualties, and those that might give these thieves a chance to escape...

Finally, a complete plan quickly took shape in Shen Lian's mind.

Shen Lian took a deep breath, turned around and looked at Li Shimin, and said, "Your Majesty, it is safe here for the time being, so Your Majesty, please rest here for a while."

"The thieves are trying to murder your majesty. If your majesty returns to Chang'an City rashly, it may be dangerous. So it's not too late to wait until dawn to discuss everything."

Li Shimin nodded slightly. He naturally understood these principles.

He looked at Shen Lian and said, "Are you going to deal with these bandits?"

Shen Lian smiled and said, "Sure enough, nothing can be hidden from Your Majesty."

Li Shimin sighed: "Be careful."

He looked at Shen Lian and said in a deep voice: "Be careful. If you can't do anything, just wait until dawn. I guarantee that none of these thieves will escape."

Shen Lian shook his head: "Your Majesty, please rest assured. I am not a brave and aggressive person. I will not do anything rashly because of some impulse, but since I did it, there must be a necessary reason."

Shen Lian wants to take action now, of course, to seek revenge.

But more importantly, they were worried that the bandits would discover that there was actually no one in Huasheng Temple and would quickly flee.

This mountain is not small. They hid themselves deliberately and fled. Even if Li Shimin later mobilized a large army, he might not be able to catch them all.

Shen Lian finally got the chance to contact new people in the Beidou organization, so how could he let it go?

Even if the probability of them escaping is one in ten thousand, the invaders are unwilling to give them this opportunity.

Smart people always wear other people's shoes, block other people's paths, and leave others with nowhere to go!

Seeing that Shen Lian had made his decision, Li Shimin stopped trying to persuade him. He just said seriously, "Make sure you keep yourself safe."

Shen Lian smiled and said, "Your Majesty, just wait and see."

He looked at everyone, thought for a moment, pointed out ten guards, and said, "You stay here to protect His Majesty's safety."

Shen Lian smiled and said, "Your Majesty, just wait and see."

He looked at everyone, thought for a moment, pointed out ten guards, and said, "You stay here to protect His Majesty's safety."

(End of this chapter)