Emperor of the Tang Dynasty

Li You sneered and said: "…Is this king serious? I don't think so! These monks don't pay taxes, don't serve, they don't serve their parents, they don't loyal to the king, they don't have children, they don't even farm. Weaving and labor, in addition to reciting scriptures and worshipping Buddha, is simply to sit back and enjoy it!”

"However, these people who are completely useless to society have the money to build a large number of temples, build countless golden and bronze statues, and continue to absorb the money of the people, and in turn use the sesame oil money of these believers to borrow money to buy Land! What does this make other ordinary people think?"

Seeing that the ministers who spoke at the beginning stopped talking, Li You's sneer was even stronger.

"That's right, people all over the world will think when they see this, it turns out that being a monk is such a good way to make a living, you don't need to do anything every day, and you don't need to work hard, you can make a lot of money and live a nourishing life! In comparison, isn’t it the next best thing to buy and sell farmland?”

"Then what will happen next?" Li You's eyes circled around the entire Tai Chi Palace, and glanced around, "It is foreseeable that in order to live a better life more easily, people will actively go to monkhood to become a monk. Hate!"

"In this way, there will be fewer and fewer people in Datang going to engage in agriculture, and fewer and fewer people marrying wives and having children! The economic development of the entire Datang has stagnated, and the population has begun to decrease, which eventually led to the decline of Datang. Weak, a huge hole has been wormed out from the inside, and the country's subjugation is imminent!"

Chapter 716 The ancestor who manipulated public opinion! (fifth more)

Li You's words made everyone pale and realized the seriousness of the problem.

In fact, even if Buddhism is temporarily ignored, according to history, it will not be so serious, but these ministers and officials do not know, as long as Li You can arouse their suspicions enough.

Just like in history, there are many powerful ministers who hold great power or even military power. Maybe the emperor ignores them and can be peaceful in the end, but can there really be an emperor who can ignore such a powerful minister with such a big threat?

Absolutely not!

They only need to be suspicious of this and have a huge sense of crisis. That's enough. Li You makes all the officials and officials feel the threat, so they will naturally magnify the threat to the worst in their hearts!

"but……"

A minister spoke in a low voice, as if he wanted to say something.

After thinking about it for a long time, he said: "After all, Buddhism has a large number of believers in the people. It can be said that it can affect the whole body. If you rashly attack Buddhism, no one knows what the consequences will be!"

Speaking of which, he seemed to become more and more confident and his voice became louder.

"After all, Buddhism also represents the gods and Buddhas in the sky. If you do it at will, then maybe it will be interpreted as the court going against the sky. Wouldn't it be even more damaging to the court's interests?"

The minister had just finished speaking when he saw Li You's cold eyes staring at him, and subconsciously shrank his neck.

"That's wrong too!"

Li You snorted immediately, if he hadn't looked at the people who had spoken before, and the questions raised were really for the sake of the court, he would have already started attacking people.

"Dare to ask Your Highness, where did the lower official go wrong?"

The minister was a little unconvinced when he heard it. It wasn't just that he was angry with Li You, but he really felt that what he said was very reasonable.

Because it wasn't just him, but many other officials showed their approval.

Up to now, they are very aware of the importance of public opinion, and Buddhism, which is a very wide range of believers, has become a huge hidden danger that cannot be avoided no matter what, and there is no way to solve it!

After all, there is no way you can forcefully change other people's minds, right?

"The first is the problem of the believers. You don't need to worry about this at all. This king has his own proper way to solve it."

Li You said lightly, but was questioned by more people.

"His Royal Highness the King of Chu, after all, this matter is of great importance. You can't just say that it can be solved in empty words. We believe you can solve it, right?"

"Otherwise?" Li You asked directly, "In terms of handling public opinion, if you don't trust this king, who else can you trust?"

When Li You asked this directly, everyone was stunned!

Wait a minute... At first glance, the words of His Royal Highness the King of Chu are simply nonsense. Answering questions with questions not only did not say anything practical, but was full of arrogance, pride and complacency.

But if you think about it carefully, they can't refute it!

If it was someone else who said this, then the civil and military of the Manchu Dynasty would have already started spraying, but the person who said this was Li You, and they couldn't even say a word.

Because of what?

Because the civil and military officials are aware of the importance of public opinion, it is because of Li You's past manipulation of public opinion and a series of salacious operations!

Whether it's hammering Li Yuan or beating five surnames and seven Wang, although there is no evidence that Li You did it, anyone with a discerning eye can guess it, because it's too obvious.

In addition, Datang Daily, the Storytellers Association, and celebrity artists... All these measures are closely related to controlling public opinion, all of which are the first to be done by Li You, and they are also the biggest and most successful.

In other words, Li You is the ancestor of manipulating public opinion!

At least in the entire Tang Dynasty, when it comes to handling public opinion issues, no one can be more powerful than His Royal Highness the King of Chu.

Then, what His Royal Highness the King of Chu said is quite right. Regarding issues of public opinion, if you don't trust him as a professional expert, who else can you trust?

Seeing that the officials were speechless, Li You calmly continued to talk about the second point.

"As for this is likely to be more detrimental to the court, that is even more nonsense."

He said slowly: "Anyone who knows the history books will know that it is precisely because of the extinction of the Buddha that the Northern Zhou Dynasty can greatly increase its national strength and finally eliminate Qi. Does this still not explain the problem?"

"On the contrary, there are many emperors in history who worship Buddha, such as Emperor Wu of Nanliang. He even became a monk, and he asked the ministers to pay a lot of money to redeem him from the Buddhist temple to the court, and then he came again not long after that, and Large-scale investment in the construction of Buddhist temples..."

"However, he will never destroy the Buddha, and instead he is friendly to Nanliang of Buddhism. What will happen?" Li You sneered.

His smile is very cold, cold to the heart!

"That's right, just after leaving the verses like 'The Four Hundred and Eighty Temples of the Southern Dynasty', Nanliang soon fell to the ground! This is a practical example of what this king just said, isn't it enough to serve as a lesson for the future!? "

Every word of Li You shocked the court and echoed clearly in the Tai Chi Palace!

In the face of this extremely powerful evidence, even though many people are dissatisfied, thinking that the hidden dangers of this huge number of believers will always be difficult to solve, and there will inevitably be major problems, but they can't refute it at all, because they have nothing to say!

"Actually, for the imperial court, it is not a bad thing for the common people to believe in Buddhism, because it is conducive to increasing social stability. And monks recite sutras and worship Buddha, worship idols, this is not a bad thing, at least it is better than going to be bandits and bandits. better."