A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 338: List of Taoist Records, “Turtle Tactics”

In the northern suburbs of Chaoge, Haoling Temple
With green bricks and black tiles, smoke lingering, and believers coming in and out, they all look very respectful. This is the Taoist temple with the largest area in the Bai Kingdom, Haoling Temple.

It has existed since the Han Dynasty, hundreds of years ago. After many expansions and repairs in the past dynasties, it has once again formed a small township centered on Haolingguan, named Haolingli.

Haoling Temple is divided into many courtyards, but it is roughly divided into two parts, the front hall and the back hall. The front hall is mainly where street believers burn incense and where the images of the gods and tablets are located.

The back hall is mainly where Taoist priests live and practice their martial arts. Ordinary people are not allowed to enter easily. However, few people know that there is a Taoist temple in the backyard of Haolingguan, a courtyard reserved for the nobles of Chaoge City.

Witnessed by Haoling Guanguan advocate Taining, highly accomplished Yu Taihe and Liu Qingsong, Zhang Jiao officially became a disciple of Bai Taibin and was listed in the Taoist book with the Taoist name Qingjiao. He was Taoist Zhang Qingjiao.

Because Zhang Qingjiao was talented and intelligent, Bai Taibin not only told him about the Taoism of the Tianshi Mansion, but also taught him many Taoisms along the way, so that he could not show timidity in front of his three uncles or senior brothers.

"Qingjiao, since you have entered my Taoist sect today and worshiped my heavenly master, you should respect Taoism, be virtuous, keep quiet and eliminate desires, be noble and keep the center, know your heart and nature, be sincere and sincere, and cultivate your body with a righteous mind.

Adhere to the Taoist heart and abide by the rules of our sect, and must not commit murder or bully the weak. Otherwise, if your master doesn't kill you, the Tianshi Mansion and the Taoist sect won't spare you.

Remember! "

Zhang Taining, who was sitting at the main seat, warned Zhang Qingjiao, who was kneeling respectfully and holding three sticks of incense in his hand.

"Disciple Zhang Qingjiao will definitely remember my uncle's teachings, will devote himself to etiquette, cultivate himself, and pray for all living beings."

Zhang Taining nodded with satisfaction, and then motioned to Zhang Qingjiao to offer incense to the heavenly masters of the past dynasties and the Taoist ancestors of the Sanqing Dynasty.

Zhang Qingjiao held three sticks of incense with the special gesture of Tianshi Mansion. He first bowed three times to the Sanqing tablet at the top, then bowed three times to the row of Tianshi Masters below, and finally put the incense stick in his hand. , inserted firmly into the incense burner in front of the altar.

After doing all this, Zhang Qingjiao returned to the futon and bowed three times.

Seeing that Zhang Qingjiao had finished offering incense, the Taoist priest who was in charge of singing the ceremony held a piece of papyrus in his hand and looked at the words on it to the Taoist priests and boys outside the door.
The blue sky outside the door sang loudly:

"Now there is Zhang Jiao, a man from Beilin, Ren County, Julu County, who has become a disciple of Bai Taibin, a high-ranking master in the Tianshi Mansion. He is the tutor of Zhang Taining, the guardian of the school is Yu Taihe, and the acting teacher of Liu Qingsong. I would like to learn from him on behalf of the founder of the Three Qing Dynasties and give him the Taoist title. Qingjiao, recorded in the Taoist book, sent all the heavenly gods and ancestors to hear it, and completed the ceremony."

Then he handed the prayer to the heaven in his hand to the little Taoist boy beside him, and burned it in a large bronze furnace at the door. The green smoke flew straight to the sky.

After this set of tedious etiquette was completed, Zhang Qingjiao officially became a Taoist priest.

However, not all Taoist apprenticeships are so cumbersome. It is only because Zhang Qingjiao has this condition at Haoling Temple that it is so cumbersome.

If some Taoist temples have few people and insufficient conditions, you can also just invite the brothers from neighboring Taoist temples to come as the third master. Then, in the presence of the founder of the Sanqing Dynasty, they will kowtow incense, burn prayers, and then send someone to deliver the list. You can also become a certified Taoist priest by going to Bai De Mountain.

It is precisely because of the cumbersome nature of Tianshi Tao and the strict requirements for accepting disciples that the belief in Tianshi Tao spread throughout Jizhou and Bingzhou over hundreds of years of development.

It is far inferior to just becoming a Taoist for decades and spreading the belief in the land of Yizhou. You only need to pay five buckets of rice to enter the Tao. Therefore, it spreads very quickly.

In just a few decades, it has spread in Hanzhong County, and everyone knows that out of ten common people, five or six are believers in the Ghost and God Way, and one is a follower of the Ghost and God Way.

After the apprenticeship ceremony was held, Zhang Qingjiao's life gradually calmed down. Every day he chanted sutras and worshiped gods, listened to Taoist monks' explanations of sutras, and then traveled with his master.

However, unlike other high practitioners, Zhang Qingjiao found that his master spent much more time traveling outside than meditating in Taoist temples.

In recent years, Zhang Qingjiao rarely stayed in the Taoist temple for more than three months. Because of this, Zhang Qingjiao followed his master to almost all the states and counties in the Han Dynasty.

He even followed his master to the land of Bashu to visit the ghost and god Taoist brother in Zhendu Mountain. Zhang Qingjiao also followed the Taoist brothers of the Ghost and God Tao and learned some Taoist methods unique to the Ghost and God Tao that could not be learned at Haoling Temple.

The second year of Yanxi
At this time, twelve years have passed since Zhang Jiao worshiped the Heavenly Master.

In the past twelve years, the situation in the central government has undergone great changes. First, in December of the first year of Jianhe, King Liu Suan of Qinghe was always dissatisfied with Liu Zhi replacing him as emperor. Instigated by Liu Wen from Ganling and Liu Kun from Weijun, Liu Suan prepared to rebel and seize the throne.

However, because the matter was not kept secret, the court discovered it and was killed.

General Liang Ji took the opportunity to falsely accuse Li Gu, Du Qiao and others who had always had political disagreements with him. He was dissatisfied with his dismissal and intended to kill Liu Wen and others as accomplices. Their bodies were exposed in Luoyang City for three days. No one dared to collect the bodies.

In the end, Yuzhenfang couldn't stand it and sent his disciples to collect their bodies and bury them in the outskirts of Luoyang. The spiritual tablets were placed in Daci Temple in the north of the city and allowed to be worshiped by monks on their behalf. Liang Ji originally wanted to use Li Gu and others' accomplices to give him the opportunity to collect the corpses, so as to expand the results of the battle. It would be best if he could get involved with Taiwei Yuan Ke and bring him down at once.

Unexpectedly, Yuan Ke and others were not fooled, and finally caught a fish called Yuzhenfang. He also understood that small baits could not catch big whales. The original false accusation may have some lethal effect on Yuan Ke and others, but it is really of no use to Yuzhenfang.

Liu Zhi is not a fool. If he really confiscates Yuzhenfang's family and exterminates his family for such ridiculous reasons, not only will the Bai Kingdom follow suit, but the entire world will not agree.

Moreover, without Yuzhenfang, Liang Ji would be completely single-family-dominated, and Liu Zhi and Empress Dowager Liang would not be able to defeat him. By then he will no longer be the arrogant and domineering person he is today. Instead, they wantonly abolished and established things, and even replaced them.

Therefore, Liu Zhi did not touch Yuzhenfang. He just wanted to protect himself and obeyed Liang Ji's wishes. He dismissed Bai Liu, the head of Yuzhenfang, to slightly weaken his power tentacles, but did not dare to directly imprison Bai Liu.

Even the reason for forcing Bai Liu to resign was old age and infirm, not groundless, just like the removal of San Gong in the picture.

Not only that, but also the new young generation launched by Yuzhenfang, Taichang Baiya with a salary of 400 shi, should be promoted to the magistrate of Luoyang County with a salary of 600 shi. Promoted the former Situ Yuanke to Taiwei.

This is not only compensation for Yuzhenfang, but also to suppress Liang Ji's power. Don't look at Liu Zhi now facing Liang Jiyu to ask for permission. This is all because he is young and the power is in the hands of Liang Ji and the Queen Mother Liang.

Not to mention, there was Empress Liang, and the entire inner palace and outer court belonged to the Liang family, so he naturally had to be more careful.

The second year of Jianhe
When Liu Zhi turned sixteen, he was officially crowned and served in Yuan Dynasty. It means that you can take charge of the government.

Even so, he still did not have great power. The talisman for deploying troops and tigers was in the hands of Liang Ji, the royal seal was kept by the Empress Dowager Liang, and the Empress Dowager Liang was responsible for everything in the inner palace.

Jianhe three years
The Baima Qiang united with the Hu people in Huangzhong to rebel and become bandits. They invaded the Guanghan vassal state and killed the chief officials. The imperial court sent an army to attack, but Liang Ji secretly tripped him up, and the army returned defeated.

The news reached Luoyang, and General Liang Ji wrote a letter to impeach Taiwei Yuan Ke. As the head of the hundred officials, the chief official of the imperial court allowed the Western Qiang to attack the counties and lost the land of his ancestors. This was a great dereliction of duty.

Two-thirds of the officials who followed Liang Ji in the letter were Liu Zhi who did not want to remove Yuan Ke from his post, but after being summoned by the Empress Dowager Liang to do some housekeeping, he immediately ordered the removal of Taiwei Yuan Ke.

However, the ministers recommended by Liang Ji were not appointed as Taiwei. Instead, Situ Yuan Tang was appointed as Taiwei, and Da Sinong Zhang Xin was appointed as Situ.

Although Liang Ji did not let any of his own people ascend to the position of Taiwei, he dealt a heavy blow to the Qingliu forces headed by Yuan Ke, causing Qingliu's forces to shrink repeatedly.

And Liu Zhi also made Yuan Tang, who had been moving closer to him, one of the hundred officials, so that Liu Zhi finally had his own power in the court.

The first year of peace (the fourth year of Jianhe)
The Empress Dowager Liang was seriously ill and on her deathbed, she issued an edict to return Liu Zhi to power.

Although Liu Zhi was extremely excited, he still tried his best to suppress himself under the advice of Yuan Tang, an old official in the officialdom. Because there is Queen Liang in the inner palace, Liang Ji still has deep influence in the palace, so he should act carefully.

So after receiving the imperial seal, the first edict issued by Liu Zhi was to increase the title of Liang Ji to 10,000 households, so that Liang Ji alone had a total of 30,000 households, far more than 30,000 households. The limits of all the marquises and fiefdoms in the Han dynasty were almost equal to half of the vassal states.

There are only a few feudal lords who are the founding heroes of the country, such as the 15,000 households of Deng Yu, the Marquis of Gaomi, and the 11,000 households of Bai Qi, the Marquis of Wencheng.

The first year of Yuanjia (the first year of peace)
Liang Ji brought his sword into the palace, but Shangshu Zhang Ling scolded him and asked the imperial army to take away Liang Ji's sword.

This was the first time that Liu Zhi raised his voice to Liang Ji. After more than a year of immersion, he had the full support of Yuan Tang and others, as well as the assistance of the suppressed Yuzhenfang faction.

Liu Zhi already had quite a voice in the court. At least half of his inner court ministers had turned to him.

Liang Ji was originally very angry, but under the persuasion of his confidants and Empress Liang, he knelt down to apologize to Liu Zhi at the court meeting the next day.

However, this time Liu Zhi was a test, so he did not embarrass him too much. He only issued an edict to fine Liang Ji one year's salary.

Then, in order to appease him, he was given many privileges such as being able to enter the court without any hesitation, going to the palace with swords and shoes, and not having to use his name when in audience. You must know that in the history of the Han Dynasty, only Huo Guang had such privileges.

Even Wang Mang, before usurping the Han Dynasty, did not accept this privilege in order to show the world his respect for the Han Dynasty.

Not only that, he also ordered Liang Ji to enter the palace once every ten days to help the emperor handle and review the affairs reported by the minister. This was a move to share power with Liang Ji.

This series of actions directly made Liang Ji feel happy. He forgot about the previous unhappiness and felt that Liu Zhi was still very aware of current affairs and was very satisfied.

(End of this chapter)