Chapter 415: Buddhism, Come Out to Drop Gold Coins!

"Sir, this act of destroying Buddhism may arouse the anger of the Buddha." Guo Rong had not yet spoken, and an official behind him could not help but say.

"This is wrong. The Buddha said: Save all living beings. There is also the act of cutting flesh to feed the eagle. How could the Buddha care about these gold and silver? If it can help the people, he will support the guest's actions." Richard did not give him a chance to continue speaking and interrupted directly.

"If you are making excuses, you are definitely not a true Buddhist. You are the incarnation of Poxun who sneaked into Buddhism and ruined the reputation of Buddhism!"

Richard's words were directly blocked in the middle. This person is the prime minister Wang Pu. This person is the prime minister of Tang Zhaozong. Many people in the Taiyuan Wang family believe in Buddhism, and there are also family temples for worship. They are very dissatisfied with Richard's act of destroying Buddhism.

"Don't worry, Wang Qing, this is a move to save the people, and the Buddha will also support it." Guo Rong said directly.

"You go out first."

The surrounding entourage and ministers had to leave.

"Dear guest, do you know how many temples there are in the world now? How many monks and nuns are there? How much Buddhist land those monks occupy?" Richard looked at Guo Rong and said.

"I used to travel around the world for business. Wherever I went, there were more than ten Buddhist temples, dozens of small ones, hundreds of monks and nuns, and thousands of acres of land. If you ask about the world today, it should be a hundred times more." Guo Rong said.

"It's less!" Richard sneered.

"Is this still less?" Guo Rong has tried his best to improve, but he didn't expect that what he said was still less.

"Not to mention the world, just in the Great Zhou, there are more than 50,000 Buddhist temples of all sizes, more than 100,000 monks and nuns, and hundreds of thousands of acres of land. If it is extended to the world, this number will be more than three times more."

Hearing this, Guo Rong was stunned. He knew that the people believed in Buddhism, but he didn't expect it to have reached such a serious level. Tens of thousands of Buddhist temples, more than 100,000 monks, and so much land, such a wealth is richer than his treasury.

Now the country is in a difficult situation, and the Khitan in the north is eyeing it covetously. If he wants to realize his ambition, this Buddha must be destroyed.

Richard is very unhappy with these Buddhists. There are not many monks who really practice pure cultivation, but there are countless monks who harbor filth. Richard can't stand these people, and this time he naturally wants to clean them up.

After Guo Rong and Richard exchanged some ideas, he felt suddenly enlightened, and the money and grain problem that had been bothering him for a while was solved. He immediately invited: "Sir, you are a great talent. I wonder if you are willing to serve the country. I am willing to invite you as the prime minister."

"You don't have to do this, my guest. I have no intention of pursuing a career in politics, but if you have any confusion, you can come to me." Richard waved his hand and said.

In the end, Guo Rong still didn't invite Richard to be the prime minister, and could only leave with regret.

Richard continued to practice medicine and give lectures. When he gave lectures, he also accepted disciples. These disciples were officials he prepared for the world. At this time, Zhou State was short of talents and needed a large number of officials, and many times local tyrants had already controlled the power in the local area.

In order to solve these problems, Richard could only cultivate talents himself.

Fortunately, he not only had various books for them to study, but also various methods for them to quickly master knowledge.

In the past, those noble families relied on the monopoly of knowledge to obtain official positions. Although the noble families are gone now, there are still people who learn from the methods of the noble families. Since Richard has already planned to intervene, he will naturally not give them this opportunity.

These people are the talents he prepared for Guo Rong. Of course, in addition to these people, there are also papermaking and printing. Only when the price of books is low enough can a large number of talents be cultivated for use.

Richard has begun to prepare various workshops, including papermaking workshops and printing houses. Although he has decided to support Longting, he does not intend to do it with magic. Richard knows very well that magic can only solve temporary problems. Once he leaves, the original problems will still not be solved, so he plans to use normal methods to solve them.

Unless there are other people who do not follow the rules and want to use magic to destroy the Chinese world.

Another reason is that the less Fu Longting uses magic, the less entanglement of luck in the end, and the more benefits he gets.

Another advantage of this method is that all the knowledge, books, workshops, etc. he teaches will be left behind. If he uses magic, nothing will be left after he leaves. And Da Zhou will still return to its original old path in the end.

Lv Dongbin was amazed by Richard's actions.

"Daoyou is really a scholar. He knows so many things. No wonder he dares to help Longting." Lv Dongbin said in surprise.

According to Richard's current practice, his probability of success is extremely high, and there is almost no future trouble.

"It looks good now, but we still need to be careful to guard against others." Richard said with a smile.

"Humph, if those people dare to stretch out their claws, the old Taoist's sword just lacks a few sword sacrifices!" The sword energy on Lv Dongbin's body flashed.

Lv Dongbin is not a good man. As the most famous sword fairy in the world, he has killed many evil demons and heretics with his sword.

"Haha, then I'll thank you for your help." Richard said with a smile.

"You're too polite." Lu Dongbin said, "Although I don't have the ability to support Long Ting, I can still deal with those dead bones in the tomb."

Lu Dongbin obviously knew the morals of those people. For example, when Richard said that he wanted to destroy Buddhism, there would definitely be Buddhist monks who would come out and fight him. It is not even ruled out that these people would join forces with others to act together.

Not everyone wants to unify the world, and not everyone wants the prosperity of Chinese people. After all, if Chinese people prosper, the countries around China will have a hard time.

Let's not talk about other things. The Khitans also believe in Buddhism, and the Khitan royal family believes in Buddhism. In addition, Shi Jingtang became the puppet emperor of the Khitans and gave the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun to the Khitans. Now the Khitans are eyeing the Central Plains covetously.

Although the last attempt to go south to the Central Plains failed, the Khitans will not give up, and the monks who support the Khitan Kingdom will not give up either. After all, the luck of these people is connected with the Khitans, and they will prosper and suffer together.

Many people sit in the Khitan and enter the Central Plains, becoming the master of China, so that they can get the feedback and ascend in one fell swoop.

Richard is now supporting Longting to block their path to enlightenment, and they will naturally have a fight at that time. If you want to use my Chinese people as a wedding dress, you have to see if your teeth are good!

After getting the solution from Richard, Guo Rong was very happy. After returning to the palace, he immediately sent someone to sit. Richard gave him the salt drying method, and he immediately arranged for his confidants to go to the Qidi Salt Field and Huainan to try the salt drying method.

At the same time, Guo Rong also sent people to investigate the number of Buddhist and Taoist temples in the surrounding counties and the number of acres of land they occupied.

The temples of this era did not pay taxes or perform labor service. Although several emperors in the Tang Dynasty issued orders, they could only have some effect in a short time. After a few years, or after the emperor's death, these decrees would be abolished and no one would take them seriously.

It is precisely because of this that so many ministers and emperors throughout the dynasties wanted to destroy Buddhism. It is really that Buddhism is rich.

In addition to the various money and materials donated by believers, Buddhism is also responsible for usury. Because they have a lot of money in their hands, it would be a waste if the money was left alone, so the monks began to use this money to lend money to the people.

The development of temple lending is very fast. In addition, many believers in Buddhism dare not owe money and not pay it back. As a result, temple lending is very smooth.

After seeing this situation, the nobles and powerful people in various places lent money to the temples, and then let the temples lend money. With the help of the nobles and powerful people in the local area, the monks' lending business has become the most profitable business.

Even those wealthy families who originally lent money have borrowed money in the name of the temple. After all, usury and loan sharking have a bad reputation. With the Buddhist sect as a white glove, they can stand behind and make money.

There are even some nobles and powerful families who use their own temples to lend money. With the support of these people, the temple's lending business has become the most profitable business of the temple.

And the temple can easily make a lot of money without even using its own money, so it is naturally very happy.

When the people sent by Guo Rong to investigate came back, they saw the results of the investigation and found that the situation of Buddhism was more serious than what Richard told him. Guo Rong, who couldn't sit still, rushed to Richard again to ask for advice.

"Sir, I want to destroy Buddhism. Please teach me." Guo Rong asked directly when he saw Richard.

"Have you made up your mind?" Richard asked.

"I have made up my mind!"

Richard nodded and said, "In that case, let's talk about how to start."

"Destroying Buddhism is not good. We can change the name and rectify Buddhism! Anyway, the Buddhist Pure Land is basically occupied by those guys with big brains and big intestines now."

"Your Excellency can test those monks in the form of examinations. If they do not meet the standards, they will be forced to return to secular life. In the future, the number of certificates issued will also be limited. As for the land, all temples are only allowed to retain no more than 200 acres of Buddhist land. All other land will be taken back by the state and distributed to the landless people."

"But that Some temples will definitely not give up. You can directly distribute these lands to soldiers as rewards. "

"Buddhism has clear rules and regulations. According to the rules, the temples will be audited and all those that do not meet the requirements will be banned. All temples with less than 50 qualified monks will be banned, and then these monks will be sent to other large temples. "

"Some temples harbor filth, shelter criminals, cheat, and deceive. They should also be banned and held accountable."

Richard formulated a complete set of various means to rectify Buddhism for Guo Rong, and predicted various resistances that Buddhism would carry out, and provided solutions.

It can be said that the executors only need to follow this rectification manual.

"Destroying Buddhism is inhumane. We change the name to rectification. The purpose is to rectify the monks in the temples who do not abide by the national laws and clear rules and regulations."

"Your Excellency is the king of a country. Even if you want to destroy Buddhism, you must occupy the righteousness, use the power to pressure people, and force them to do it. "

The word "destroying Buddhism" sounds bad and can be easily used by others. During this period, due to the wars in the world, the people were displaced. Not only the people, but also many noble families and powerful people felt that their future was in danger.

So these people began to put their hopes on gods and Buddhas. Some ordinary people also had the same idea, while others wanted to pray for wealth in their next life.

Therefore, there were many Buddhists in the world. If they were used by others, it would likely cause some chaos, so the strategy given by Richard was very important.

Soon, Guo Rong ordered that because a large number of monks in monasteries violated the rules and precepts, did not practice Buddhist scriptures, preyed on the common people, and polluted the quiet place of Buddhism, a strict review of temples and Taoist temples across the country was carried out, and all monks who did not meet the requirements were ordered to return to secular life. Surplus acres of land were granted to homeless people and common people who had little land.

He also took the opportunity to compile households and people and draw up a yellow book. The method given by Richard was able to control the powerful and Buddhist temples in the area. They even dispatched some personnel to go to rural areas and county towns to preach in large numbers about some monks' violations of laws and disciplines and their failure to abide by the rules. This quickly aroused the common people at the bottom to share the same hatred and hatred, leaving the local powerful with no power to resist.

Once this set is complete, it will directly give Zhou State millions of acres of fertile land and more than 100,000 more laborers.

In addition, the confiscated temple property and Buddhist statues were transported to Kaifeng. After obtaining a large number of copper coins and bronze Buddha and bronze vessels, Guo Rong ordered that these copper coins and bronze vessels be recast into new coins.

Guo Rong imitated the Kaiyuan Tongbao of the former Tang Dynasty and cast the copper coins of Zhou Yuan Tongbao. Then it was opened to the common people to exchange coins, and all goods sold by officials were used by Zhou Yuan Tongbao.

Because a large number of bronze statues were confiscated this time, the ancient bronze statues were cast using high-quality copper, so the first batch of coins were of excellent quality. The next copper coins were mixed with lead, zinc, tin and other metals, and a large number of Zhou Yuan Tongbao was minted.

It's not that Guo Rong doesn't want to cast better quality coins, but if the coins are cast too well, those wealthy families will spend their bad money and hoard the well-cast good money.

As a result, the minted coins will not be circulated at all, and will all be put into the cellars of those aristocratic families, powerful people, and wealthy households, which completely violates the original meaning of coins. Therefore, coins cannot be minted too well.

Guo Rong minted coins this time because he wanted coins to circulate and the economy to prosper. This time, the wealth collected from Buddhist temples was minted into millions of copper coins.

Because of their good material, these Zhou Yuan Tongbao were welcomed by the people as soon as they were released. After all, this era experienced many wars and many privately minted coins, and in order to reduce costs, a large number of inferior coins were minted. The people were miserable.

Therefore, the appearance of Zhou Yuan Tongbao immediately became popular. Kaifeng's commercial activities have become prosperous to the naked eye.

And because the number of coins has increased significantly, the exploitation of the people at the bottom has been reduced a lot. In the past, due to the shortage of money, the common people did not have many copper coins in their hands. In many cases, when bartering or purchasing some necessary supplies, they had to borrow from aristocratic families, powerful people, and wealthy families, who could easily manipulate them.