Chapter 49: Buddha's Footprints

Just after leaving Laoshan, the story of the old monkey pricking his blood to write Buddhist scriptures has spread throughout the convoy. Ding Dayou, who originally ignored the old monkey, heard about it and specially invited him over when he was drinking in the evening. Old monkey.

The old monkey has a wide range of knowledge, and wherever he goes, he can describe the local customs and customs in a lively, interesting and fascinating way.

"More than forty miles to the north of this place, next to the mountains and separated by a river, there are two Jialan, with the same name as Zhaochuli, and the east and west are commensurate. The decorations of the Buddha statues are almost artificial.

The monks are pure and diligent. There is a jade in the Dongzhao Chuli Buddhist Hall, which is more than two feet wide, yellow and white in color, and shaped like a sea clam.

There are traces of the Buddha's feet on it, eight inches long and six inches wide. Or on fasting days, light candles. "

Ding Dayou, who was drinking, stopped his glass. He couldn't quite understand what Old Monkey Wen said, and he seemed to have heard something extraordinary, so he turned to Yun Chu.

Yun Chu put down the leg of lamb in his hand, wiped his hands with a handkerchief, frowned and cleaned up Naha, whose face was full of oil. Then he said to Ding Dayou: "Mr. Shi said, this place is forty miles to the north." There are two temples in Yuli. The two temples are on both sides of the river. The temple on the east side has a huge piece of white and yellow jade, which is more than two feet wide and narrow on the surface and looks like a sea clam.

There is also a footprint left by the Buddha on the jade, which is one foot eight inches long and six inches wide. It will shine brightly every time the Buddha is born.

It is a rare treasure! "

Ding Dayou immediately turned around and asked the old monkey: "Is this true?"

The old monkey nodded and said: "This thing is a treasure of our Western Region. As long as this thing remains in the Western Region, the prosperity of Buddhism in the Western Region will be just around the corner."

I heard that the emperor of the Tang Dynasty built the Da Ci'en Temple to pray for his mother. Unfortunately, there was no such jade. No matter how well the Da Ci'en Temple was built, it was not enough for the emperor to recite his mother's voice and reach the sky. "

Ding Dayou turned his head and looked at Yun Chu and said, "Isn't it right that the whole world is the king's land, and the shore of the land is the king's ministers?"

Yun Chu frowned and said, "Your Majesty will be very happy if he hears the captain talking like this."

Ding Dayou poured the last glass of wine into his mouth and sighed: "The best, the most beautiful, and the most glorious will all belong to my emperor."

Yun Chu nodded and said: "This is true. As His Majesty's ministers, we will naturally work hard for Your Majesty."

Ding Dayou smiled and said: "You go, or should I go, or send a brigade commander?"

Yun Chu shook his head and said: "Zhe Chong Mansion is His Majesty's hawk and dog, and cannot do such dirty things. Dirty work naturally needs dirty people to do it."

"Dirty person?"

"That's right, aren't there some bad guys in our team who specialize in doing dirty work? They all call themselves bad guys. If they don't do this work, who will?"

Ding Dayou said: "Actually, there is no need to be so secretive. Our Majesty is the most partial. As long as we are dedicated to the Tang Dynasty and do some scandalous things in this wilderness, His Majesty will naturally help us cover it up." "

"Then you can't let His Majesty get angry every time to help cover up his ministers, right? You are a good person, who can withstand getting angry eight times a day?"

"Well, then let the bad guy take the people there." After saying that, he looked at the old monkey and said, "It's the temple to the east, right?"

The old monkey nodded and said: "It's in the Jialan Hall in the middle. There's a white jade lotus seat underneath. That thing is pretty good too. Be sure to bring it back together."

Ding Dayou said with a smile: "I just like Hu people like you. If all the Hu people in the world were like you, how could there be so many Beijings in the world?"

Yun Chu was convinced, and the old monkey looked calm and unashamed.

While Ding Dayou was busy arranging the robbery, Yun Chu smiled and said to the old monkey: "Did you really kill the seventy-six monks in the Horse Ti Temple in Ganzhou?"

The old monkey shook his head and said: "We are all Buddhists, so we won't be so heartless."

"So, the person who killed the monks in Matei Temple was Qinglang?"

"No, Qing Lang has had a hard time hiding in Tibet these years to avoid the pursuit of Huihe Khan. Besides, he is not qualified to enter Yumen Pass, let alone Ganzhou."

"Since you didn't do it, why did you bother those bad guys?" "I just wanted to get those people to move. Didn't they say that I killed the monks from the Matisi Temple? Now, they want to kill Mr. Zhao too. It’s a monk from Lidai Temple, maybe we can get some clues from it.”

Yun Chu looked at the old monkey and said, "Those monks are too innocent."

The old monkey laughed and said: "You know, the Buddha said that the Age of Ending Dharma is coming. It is a dark era. In that era, the Buddha will not save the monks in danger, but will only let them enter Nirvana this morning. , waiting for the dawn of Dharma’s prosperity in reincarnation.”

Yun Chu asked in confusion: "Could it be said that by killing the monk now, we are saving the monk?"

The old monkey said: "If you don't understand, don't talk nonsense."

After saying that, he looked at Naha who was dozing off with a smile and said, "Would you like to play with a stick with me?"

When she heard that she was about to play with the stick, Naha suddenly stopped feeling sleepy. She stood up from behind Yun Chu and followed the old monkey in a bounding motion.

Yunchu took the opportunity to check his hidden wealth and felt that everything was safe, so he immediately went to bed. He felt that as long as he fell asleep, many of the evil things in the world had nothing to do with him.

The next day, Yun Chu saw no bad guys in the team, and some of the Tiaodang soldiers among the soldiers were also missing.

There are generally not too many jumping soldiers in the army, but each of them is a sharp soldier, whether they can walk or ride. They are mainly used to break the enemy's formation and clear the way for the following army.

It is a pity for such a group of people to become horse thieves.

However, Ding Dayou did not seem to care, so Yunchu pretended not to know about it.

Anyway, Yunchu was not qualified to see the emperor. After returning to Chang'an, a fifth-rank general like Ding Dayou might stand outside the Taiji Palace and take a look at the emperor from afar. It seems that this guy is ready to present the magical jade to the emperor.

Li Zhi has been the emperor for more than a year. After reading the documents over the past year, Yunchu came to a conclusion that Li Zhi was extremely unfriendly to senior military officers, but he was very fond of middle-level military officers like Ding Dayou.

Even when it was time to liquidate some senior military generals, military officers at the level of Zhechongfu were never touched, and rewards were even issued to comfort their frightened hearts.

It was because of this that Ding Dayou and his group of middle-level military generals also respected his emperor. Whenever there was something good, they would never forget their emperor.

The river that separated the two Zhaohuli Temples was called Dongchuanshui. Because the snow on the Tianshan Mountains melted quickly this year, even though there had not been a drop of rain in the Qiuci area since the summer, the water in the river was still abundant, almost isolating the exchanges between the two sides.

Fortunately, when Liang Jianfang came, he built a wooden bridge on the open ground downstream of the Dongchuanshui River, allowing Yunchu's camel team to cross the river smoothly.

Ding Da did not let the team camp by the Dongchuanshui River, but continued to walk forward for 20 miles before setting up camp in a place full of poplars.

Yunchu named this place Huyangli.

The Hu people who escaped from the two war-torn areas of Qiuci and Yutian basically settled here temporarily.

So much so that a poplar forest created a brand new town.

The old monkey took Naha to pick and choose among the girls. Sometimes he would look at the girls' teeth, sometimes he would look at the girls' calves, and more often, he would pinch the girls' bodies with his monkey-like hands.

These girls were very young, and they often had a straw rope tied around their necks. They leaned against the roots of the old poplar trees as docilely as lambs, waiting for someone to come and pick them away.

The old monkey was a mature slave trader. When he was selecting slaves, many Hu people surrounded him and recommended their own children to him.

The old monkey was not in a hurry, and he was kind to any child. Until Yunchu saw that he exchanged a little girl with a stack of naan bread, he took Naha away.

Because Naha always asked the old monkey if she could exchange for two stacks of naan bread. After getting the old monkey's definite answer, the silly child laughed and told Yunchu that she was more valuable.

Yunchu thought that this child had a problem with his brain!

Yun Chu had no intention to visit the boys' market or the girls' market.

So, he exchanged gold sand for a lot of pigments and white cloth unique to the Western Regions.

Pigments and white cloth are not on the tax list of Yumen Pass.

It's a pity that there are not many goods here, otherwise, I would like to exchange all the gold on hand and the goods that need to be taxed for non-taxable goods.

Gold is undoubtedly the most dangerous, but as long as it can be brought into the Tang Dynasty, it can be exchanged for more good things. Even if the Tang Dynasty government prohibits gold and silver from being traded as currency, its value remains unchanged, especially loved by the nobles.

Ding Dayou is also doing what Yun Chu did, but because he has a lot of gold, Yun Chu's acquisition plan has been greatly affected.

It was hot during the day, so Ding Dayou did not order to set up tents. Everyone slept on the sand with a sheepskin or wolfskin.

In order to prevent Naha from being affected by the ghost calls of the barracks, Yunchu took Naha to tie a hammock on the poplar tree, and the two siblings whispered in the hammock.

"Are they beating those women?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Why are they beating those women?"

"Because those women took their naan bread."

"Will you eat naan bread after being beaten?"

"Yes, you should learn to be frugal and store food in the future, so that you don't have to be beaten to exchange for food."

"I think we can still rob if we don't have food to eat in the future!"

"This makes a lot of sense, my sister is really smart, but how are you playing with the stick with the old monkey?"

"I can beat the sheep away, the old monkey said, and I will be considered to have some skills if I can kill the wolf in the future. I think I will be able to kill a wolf soon."

"Well, play the stick well, and you will not only be able to kill wolves in the future, but also people."