Infinite war begins with Cao thief.

Chapter 429: Buddhism Spreads Eastward
Jinyong City was besieged and the Eastern Capital was shocked three times in one day.

Fang Ru, the Shaoqing of Guanglu who stayed in the Eastern Capital, was as anxious as an ant on hot pan.

The previous defeat of Liu Changgong and others almost wiped out all of Dongdu’s elite troops. Now he wanted to defend the city, but he was powerless.

Those war agents near Luoyang had no intention of defending the city, because they knew very well that Luoyang, without the barriers of Hulao and Sishui, was like a toothless tiger and could not be defended.

After leaving a small number of people to hide in case of trouble in the future, they retreated to Chang'an with most of their elite troops, intending to instigate the Sui army to defend Tongguan to the death.

As long as we hold the natural barrier of Tongguan, everything will be possible.

After fighting with Dayu for so long, these war agents have gradually discovered that if they want to defeat Dayu's elite, they can only use heavy armor-piercing weapons. The armor-piercing war hammers commonly used on the battlefield at this stage, which have a fist-sized hammer head and a hammer shaft three or four feet long, may not be effective.

This means that they not only need to re-forge a large number of axe and hammer weapons that are more suitable for breaking through the defense of Dayu armor, but also need to select stronger warriors who can wield these weapons and wear several layers of heavy armor.

The strength here does not only refer to the physical shape, but also requires the soldiers' combat effectiveness to be at least at the peak of the third level of mythology. Otherwise, the internal force and the internal energy cannot offset the bonus of Dayu's military formation, and they will not be able to swing these hammers and axes multiple times, let alone break armor.

Such a requirement is somewhat difficult for war agents at this stage.

Firstly, the number of elite soldiers under the War Agents is not enough. Most of those who can meet this requirement are only a small number of the most elite troops with centurions or above. They are the backbone of the backbone that the War Agents can use to raise a strong army. The loss of one of them would be painful, and the War Agents are reluctant to do so.

Secondly, many of the bases released by the war agents before have been occupied by the Dayu army. If they want to build these weapons and armor, they have to rely on the industrial system of the Sui Dynasty.

War agents are also difficult.

The retreat of the war agents made the people of Luoyang even more panic-stricken. Cheng Yu captured Jinyong and Luoyang without much effort, and then captured Hongnong and approached Tongguan.

At this time, the last elite soldiers and generals of the Sui Dynasty gathered in Tongguan.

General Huangfu Wuyi of the Right Guard took the lead and led half of the remaining brave troops guarding Chang'an, and the descendants of more than 40 famous ministers and generals, including Li Jiancheng, son of Li Yuan, Yuwen Chengdu, son of Yu Wenhuaji, Han Shigao, son of Han Qinhu, Yang Gongdao, son of Guande Prince Yang Xiong, Yu Zirou, Yu Shiji, Lai Yuan, son of Lai Hu, Pei Shuang, son of Pei Yun, Zheng Yan, son of Dali Qing, and Zhou Zhong, son of Zhou Luomian, and their elite servants, to defend Tongguan.

Huangfu Wuyi ruthlessly closed the gate of Tongguan and prohibited the war agents from passing through as a whole. Instead, he planned to reorganize them in the name of preventing spies, and annexed all the elite war agents who retreated from Luoyang.

The ugly way of eating made the top leaders of the war agents speechless, but those who dared to raise opinions were all killed by Huangfu Wuyi under the pretext of being "deserters".

The Sui army was also aware of the suggestion of using heavy weapons to penetrate armor and began to implement it.

Cheng Yu sent Qin Qiong, Luo Shixin, Pei Renji and other troops to attack several times, but the generals defending the city were very well prepared. Unless they launched a forceful attack regardless of the losses, there was no other way.

It just so happened that Cheng Yu, who had occupied a large area of ​​territory that needed to be digested urgently, was not in a hurry and simply displayed the flag of Dayu.

At almost the same time, the female army in the south that captured Jiangling also raised the flag of Dayu.

The configuration of the women's army is not low. They have almost all the arms of Dayu, and they also have the southern barbarian arms that Dayu has accumulated since the Three Kingdoms world. They are good at mountain warfare and have independent elephant soldiers and cavalry. They were invincible all the way. With the assistance of Zhou Tai, the commander-in-chief of the navy who returned from the South China Sea, they easily captured Jiangling.

According to the topographic map of Blue Star, Dayu has already occupied the entire third-level terrace and part of the second-level terrace.

At this time, the areas controlled by the Sui Dynasty were only Guanzhong, Longxi, Sichuan and other places, as well as the Western Regions, Lingnan, Yunnan and Guizhou which were out of reach.

The situation of the Sui Dynasty is dangerous!
Cheng Yu and his ladies all raised the flag of Dayu, which was a fatal blow to the Sui Dynasty.

Dayu already controls two-thirds of the world, has a strong army and is on the offensive. To the natives, this is definitely a sign of "the destiny of Yu is in its hands, and the dynasty is about to change." Many of them inevitably have their own ideas.

The people of the Sui Dynasty were in panic, and for a time there was even talk of moving the capital to Chengdu and retreating to Sichuan.

Empress Dowager Xiao, who didn't know what to do, was not too opposed to fleeing to Sichuan.

Sichuan has been a place suitable for separatism since ancient times. The terrain of Sichuan determines that even the heavily armored legion of Dayu can hardly cross the mountains and ridges to enter Sichuan easily, and it is absolutely impossible to break through Jiange head-on!
The war agents also thought this was a good idea, because by retreating to Sichuan, they could also fight against alien races and complete their mission.

From Sichuan to the south, there are countries such as Nanzhao. Further southwest and southeast, there are also a large number of foreign countries. Moreover, the foreign races in these places are often at least one level weaker than the Central Plains dynasties.

The war agents were willing to give their full support to this idea.

Anyway, surrendering to Dong Huang is impossible. In this case, it is better to find another way and fight to the southwest, and maybe even reach India.

As for the monsters and ghosts, they have hardly seen many monsters and ghosts in this world, let alone encountered any powerful monsters and ghosts, so they don't take it seriously at all.

However, the Sui Dynasty's plan to move its capital was still blocked.

Qu Tutong and others explained the pros and cons, and those officials with some insight also realized that if the capital was moved, it would be tantamount to giving up the entire Guanlong area, which would undermine the foundation of the Guanlong Group. By then, I am afraid that a large part of the people in the Guanlong Group would surrender.

Anyway, for these military group members, the most important thing is to protect their own interests.

What's more, throughout history, the only one who was able to fight his way out of Sichuan was Liu Bang, and the rest all became separatist groups, none of which lasted more than a hundred years, or even more than fifty years.

The Guanlong nobles, that is, the military nobles of the Sui Dynasty, decided to give it another try.

All the last resources of the Sui Dynasty were used to organize troops and establish a heavy armored corps;
Although the war agents wanted to escape to Sichuan, most of them had made preparations for both situations and were looking forward to the huge reward they would receive after defeating Dayu. So although most of the war agents went to Sichuan, they still left a number of elite troops in Guanlong to fight to the death.

The unity of the two sides greatly increased the power of the Sui Dynasty. The strange abilities of the war agent's generals were an excellent supplement to the military power of the Sui Dynasty.

This made Qu Tutong feel that the Sui Dynasty had the strength to fight again.

After several major battles, Qu Tutong felt that Dayu's greatest advantage was actually its armor, and they were not invincible in other aspects.

As long as the equipment upgrade is completed, the Sui Dynasty will still be able to fight.

Qu Tutong even planned to first destroy Cheng Yu's troops in the direction of Wagang Luoyang, so as to cut off the connection between the north and the south of the Dayu army, then recover the south of the Yangtze River, and finally go north for a decisive battle.

While Qu Tutong was training troops for the future of the Sui Dynasty, new good news continued to arrive.

The monk Xiang Haiming from Fufeng claimed that he was the reincarnation of Maitreya. Anyone who was devoted to him would have auspicious dreams. From then on, people from the three prefectures worshipped him unanimously.

He declared that Yang You was the son of Buddha destined by heaven, and that Empress Dowager Xiao was the reincarnation of the Mother of No Birth. He called on Buddhists to protect the son of Buddha and the Mother and to kill the evil cult leader Dayu together.

Those who died in battle with Dayu could go to the Western Paradise after death. Those who helped the devil to commit atrocities would go to the eighteen levels of hell after death.

In history, Xiang Haiming actually claimed to be the reincarnation of Maitreya in the past two years, attracted a group of ignorant people, and then rebelled in the Sanfu area. He proclaimed himself emperor and changed the era name to Baiwu. As a result, the Sui Dynasty, which was mainly engaged in the conquest of Goryeo, sent a small number of troops to the Chang'an camp to defeat him. In this time and space, he has become the defender of the Sui Dynasty.

However, this is not his fault, because he is just a puppet of Maitreya Buddha!

The influence of Maitreya Buddha in the East is still very strong. At least those who believe in other Buddhas are not like those who believe in Maitreya Buddha. In just seven or eight years, they have staged three rebellions.

In addition to the believers of Maitreya Buddha, other Buddhist forces within the Sui Dynasty also took action.

Liaokong, the four great monks and others came forward to endorse Xiang Haiming's statement, calling on Buddhists to fully support the Sui Dynasty and jointly resist the Yu Dynasty.

Even Cihang Jingzhai received a Buddhist command to give the imperial seal to Yang You and announce to the world that Yang You was the son of destiny. The imperial seal of this world was obtained by Cihang Jingzhai, the Taoist sect left behind by Guanyin during the turbulent times.

It's just that due to the destiny, the imperial seal cannot leave the Jiuzhou area, and Guanyin also has her own little tricks, so she has been holding on to the imperial seal.

But today, it is obviously not the time to hide it.

With such strong support from Buddhism and the temptation of the imperial seal, Empress Dowager Xiao and others finally agreed to make Buddhism the state religion of the Sui Dynasty, and announced that they would wait until the Buddha's birthday to officially anoint Buddhism as the state religion.

However, there was a huge conflict among Buddhists over who should be canonized as the Dharma Protector and the First True Buddha.

Xiang Haiming is considered to be the quasi-incarnation of Maitreya Buddha, so naturally he wants Maitreya Buddha to become the main Buddha worshipped by the Sui Dynasty. In this way, the fortune of Maitreya Buddha will be connected with the Sui Dynasty, and the strength and status of Maitreya Buddha will also rise, and he can even get the blessing of the fortune of the Sui Dynasty!

If one day, the Sui Dynasty re-unifies the Nine Provinces, the power of Maitreya Buddha will definitely surpass that of the Buddha. Then, Maitreya Buddha, the future Buddha, will become the new Buddha.

In direct opposition to Maitreya Buddha are Cihang Jingzhai and Guanyin behind him.

Cihang Jingzhai is very powerful and practices both Buddhism and Taoism. It has not been affected by the two anti-Buddhist campaigns. Guanyin also has strong control over Cihang Jingzhai. The head of the sect, Fan Qinghui, is powerful and has the imperial seal in his hand, so he is very competitive.

They worked hard to promote Guanyin to become the main deity worshipped in the Sui Dynasty.

Liaokong and the Four Great Holy Monks are more inclined towards the Buddha, but they have fewer people and do not have much status.

Then, on a rainy night, they all passed away and turned into beautiful relics.

Today, Buddhism has once again become a situation where two strong powers are competing against each other.

However, considering that they were facing a powerful enemy, both sides could no longer fight among themselves, so they finally decided to take a step back and let the Sui Dynasty worship Maitreya and Guanyin together, and let Xiang Haiming become the national teacher.

Because Maitreya is a Buddha and Guanyin is just a Bodhisattva, the status of the Bodhisattva is often inherently weaker, and Xiang Haiming also became the national teacher, so as compensation, Fan Qinghui became the deputy national teacher, and Fan Qinghui's beautiful apprentice Shi Feixuan became the empress of Emperor Yang You of the Sui Dynasty.

However, Yang You was only seven or eight years old at that time, and he was the kind of person who would be useless even if given a chance, so there was no need to worry about what he could do to Shi Feixuan.

But this has already made Shi Feixuan extremely dissatisfied.

Shi Feixuan had been trained as the heir to the righteous path, and the only love she accepted was spiritual love, let alone marriage. What's more, not only did she have to marry a child as a child bride, but she also had to give birth to a child!

I can't bear it!

"Master~"

Shi Feixuan couldn't help but protest to her master.

"This is all for the common people of the world!"

At this moment, Fan Qinghui felt compassion for the world, and an incomparably holy light flashed in his eyes.

What a great sentiment it is to sacrifice one's own interests and achieve redemption for the sake of all people in the world.

Shi Feixuan was struck by the holy light, and her eyes also shone with an incomparably holy light: "For the sake of the people of the world, if I don't go to hell, who will?"

Shi Feixuan had already decided to marry the little emperor and became his child bride.

The wedding was extremely grand. Shi Feixuan disguised herself as a fairy from heaven and descended from the sky with the imperial seal in her hand. The Buddhists also performed various magic tricks to create a scene in Chang'an where a fairy from heaven descended to earth and the power of the emperor was bestowed by Buddha.

The common people in Chang'an, and even many dignitaries, could not help but kneel down in devotion after seeing this scene.

To be honest, the Buddhist power in the Sui Dynasty was actually just like that. Even with Cihang Jingzhai, they could not gather 50,000 elite soldiers. However, the scenes of the imperial seal and fairies descending to the earth, which brought the legitimacy bonus and the effect of fooling the people, greatly saved the military morale of the Sui Dynasty.

Yuwen Chengdu, who was fortunate enough to return from the front line, saw this scene and secretly vowed that if he could get this woman, he would never let his men line up.

Li Erfeng, who had never left the front line and was thirteen or fourteen years old and was just beginning to fall in love, finally found a new object of admiration after his admiration for his sister-in-law.

【He can take his place! 】

Li Shimin looked at the confused Yang You and couldn't help but think.

At this moment, apart from those devout fools, the ambitious and knowledgeable people could not help but come up with their own ideas.

"Evil spirits have entered the Nine Provinces, and wolves have entered the house. Those who forget their ancestors will surely bring about their own destruction!"

In the Imperial Observatory, an official with a celestial appearance took off his official robe, touched the little Taoist boy's head, and said, "Chunfeng, let's go!"

"Master, where are we going?"

Li Chunfeng looked at his teacher curiously.

His teacher was named Yuan Tiangang, a man of extraordinary learning.

"Go find the Emperor, drive out the Tartars, and restore China!"

Yuan Tiangang held Li Chunfeng's hand and disappeared after a few steps.

(End of this chapter)