Chapter 213: The Shocking Soul of the Mountain Temple

Baolin Temple was built during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. It was at its peak. There were more than 2,000 monks. The three huge iron pots showed the glory of the temple. There are more than 300 monks who are now supported by the twenty acres of temple fields at the foot of the mountain. The drought since the beginning of the year has also affected the temple. The harvest was hopeless. Tenants went to the city to seek life, and the monks had to go everywhere to beg for alms to survive. At present, there are only more than 30 elderly monks left in the huge temple, relying on the remaining surplus grain of the temple to live.

Due to the large number of monks, Li Qing'an's 300 guards had enough accommodation. Everyone brought dry food. A spring on the mountainside had not completely dried up. Several guards ran to fetch water under the guidance of a monk.

In the monk's room, Li Qing'an stood in front of a small sand table and stared at him for a long time. The sand table was a map of the west of the mountain. It was made of clay and was usually dismantled into eight pieces and put together in a box.

Although Beiting and Suiye were far away from him, his roots were still there. His relatives, his tribes, and his unfinished careers were all in Beiting, which was his hometown that he had been dreaming of.

When he left Xiangyang, he received a letter written to him by Li Linfu. Gao Xianzhi was ready to attack Tucharo and was approved by the court. In the letter, Li Linfu asked him what the outcome of this battle would be?

Li Qing'an has been considering this issue in the past two days. According to historical records, Gao Xianzhi should have met Ningyuan envoy on his way back after the victory of the Imperial Kingdom. Ningyuan Kingdom informed that Shiguo had colluded with a big food to seize the broken leaves, which caused Gao Xianzhi to be furious. Gao Xianzhi turned to Shiguo, massacred and plundered the capital of Shiguo, and then returned to Chang'an to report his duties.

Then the Anxi Army attacked Saiye, attempting to restore Saiye Army Town, but it triggered the Dashi Army to advance eastward, and eventually the Battle of Talas broke out.

But history has been changed, and he has taken the shattered leaves, so in order to compete with him, Gao Xianzhi chose to sweep Tochar. Tochar is also the northern area of ​​Afghanistan in later generations. The northwest direction is the countries in the river. The west of Tochar is the Wuhu River, which is the Amu River in later generations. Crossing the Wuhu River is the old nest of the black-clothed food. Li Huichun brought him the information that Abbas had heavy troops stationed there. The question is, it is now the ninth year of Tianbao, and in the year 750 AD, was the civil war of the Dashi ended?

Li Qingan was not very clear about this, but if Gao Xianzhi swept Tocharo once the civil war of Great Food ended, it would inevitably trigger a counterattack from the Great Food. This would not be changed by Li Qingan's time travel. This is an inevitable collision between the two empires of the East and West to compete for Central Asia. So what will the consequences of this Tocharo battle?

Li Qing'an gently tapped the sand table with a small wooden stick. If he was Gao Xianzhi, he would first transfer Beiting Chongjun to Shuye to prevent the big fish from being killed in Shuye. Beiting Anxi two armies guarded Shuye and fought Tochar. If he had this condition, he also served as the governor of Beiting.

The key is how high Gao Xianzhi is about this battle. Will he only consider Tubo and not Dashi like Yang Guozhong? Has he sent someone to Dashi to spy on information? Are he ready to fight on both sides?

All of these made Li Qingan very worried. Gao Xianzhi was defeated by the Great Cannibal in history, largely because of his lack of understanding of Great Cannibal. Will history repeat this scene? Li Qingan was very conflicted in his heart. He hoped that the Tang army could win this battle, but also hoped that Gao Xianzhi would be defeated by the Great Cannibal again.

Just as Li Qingan was in deep thought, suddenly, "Assassin!" A scream came from a distance, which was particularly clear in the quiet night. Li Qingan was shocked suddenly. When he turned his head, he heard a sound of breaking through the air. His body instinctively turned to the left slightly. This was his tempering and forming a conditioned reflex in countless battles. It erupted at the moment of life and death. "Swoosh!" A black shadow instantly brushed past his face. This was a powerful arrow, nailed straight to the wall.

If we slow down the camera, just as Li Qing'an heard the breaking air, his right script could point a little, and his body tilted to the left with the force, and the window paper broke at this moment. A blue poisonous arrow penetrated the window paper and shot straight towards his head. His face was just two inches away from the left, and the poisonous arrow wiped his face and shot it. All this happened, only half a second.

Li Qingan rolled on the ground and dodged another arrow. At this time, the roar of his personal guards came outside the house, followed by swords and swords. More than one assassin seemed to have arrived.

Li Qingan grabbed the bow and arrow on the head of the bed, and quickly ran to the outer room, carried the quiver on the back, pulled out an arrow and put it on the bow and stringed it, hid in a dark corner, and from his perspective, through a broken window, it was a pity that he could clearly see the situation in the yard.

The courtyard where Li Qing'an lived is the largest monastery in Baolin Temple. It can accommodate more than 500 people. There are two groups of people fighting in the courtyard, both in black. The only difference is that the other party has white cloth wrapped around his arms and masked. There are about 40 assassins, all of whom are very skilled in martial arts. Although his personal soldiers are several times more than the other party, they still cannot take advantage of them. They are far from being the opponent of the assassin, but they have rich battlefield experience and tacit cooperation, as if a wall of iron blocks the assassin from attacking the inner room.

Li Qingan was furious. He narrowed his eyes and opened his bow and shot an arrow. The arrow shot at the most fierce man like lightning. Two brothers had already fallen under his sword.

This is a thin man with sharp sword skills, as flexible as a monkey. He jumped up in the air and was about to climb over the human wall formed by Li Qing'an's personal guards. At this moment, an extremely powerful iron arrow roared, and an arrow shot from the top of his head and penetrated into his neck.

The man screamed and fell from the air and died. At this moment, Li Qing'an's second arrow arrived again, and one arrow shot into the forehead of a female assassin, nailing her to the ground; the third arrow, an assassin just jumped off the wall and was nailed to death on the wall, and an iron arrow shot into his mouth; the fourth arrow, a tall assassin pierced his heart; the fifth arrow, a shrill scream came from the top of the wall.

Li Qing'an's iron arrows were one after another, and the arrows were extremely fierce. The arrows were killing people's lives. His arrows were so fast that no one could escape. In just a moment, twenty-eight assassins had died under his arrows. The other assassins were so scared that they turned to escape. However, Li Qing'an's three hundred personal guards had surrounded them from the front and back, and a burst of arrows shot through them. The last dozen assassins all fell in a pool of blood.

A quarter of an hour later, a sudden assassination ended. The guards were busy cleaning up the bodies and searching everywhere. The guards' captain Jiang Xiaonian was reporting the final battle to Li Qing'an.

"Report to the envoy, the assassin was killed in total forty-five people, and two others were not dead."

"How many deaths and injuries are our brothers?"

"Two people died, Chen Biao and Lou Balang seriously injured three people and fourteen people slightly injured."

Li Qing'an nodded and sighed: "According to the old rules, send the ashes home after cremation, and give good care of their family."

At this time, another personal guard ran over and said, "Report to the envoy, the two men have recruited them. There were 50 people in total, and five people did not come in. They all came from Prince Qing of Luoyang."

"King Qing?"

Li Qingan couldn't help but sneer. Needless to say, he could guess that it was sent by King Qing. They wanted to get rid of themselves, the surviving princeling, and prevent Li Heng from restoring the reign.

"What did these two people do?"

"They were all big thieves in Jiangyang and were imprisoned in Chang'an prison. Later, they were bought out by King Qing for a large sum of money and kept in Luoyang."

At this time, Zhao Yansi, the deputy lieutenant of the personal military camp who was taking people to search, came back. He bowed and reported: "Empress, we have discovered something very strange."

"What strange thing?"

"We have checked all the people. The earliest call of an assassin was not ours, nor the monks in the temple. What's even more incredible is that we found five corpses in the woods, which should be the five assassins who did not come in. We found this on one of the assassins."

Zhao Yansi handed Li Qing'an a folded note. Li Qing'an unfolded the note and saw two words written on it: "King Qing".

Li Qingan slowly crumpled the notes into a ball. This note that was a bit extravagant made him suddenly feel suspicious, "Are these assassins really sent by King Qing?"

The forest wants to be quiet but the wind does not stop. It seems that this trip to Henan Dao will not be that simple.

"Empress, what should I do if those two living people are killed? Kill them?"

"No! Heal their injuries and send them to the Chang'an Gaolishi Mansion, and send them to the fifty assassin's heads together."

Li Qingan snorted coldly, who spent a lot of money to buy them out of prison, you can find out once you check it.

Kaifeng County covers a large area, with a circumference of more than 60 miles and a population of more than 200,000. Of which 30% of the population live on canal transport. However, the drought of several months has brought the water of the Bian River to a minimum and it is no longer possible to sail. The canal transport has stopped for four months, which has brought great impact to the lives of people in Bianzhou.

In addition to the county yamen, prefecture yamen and transshipment yamen, there are also Henan Road interviewing the government office. The number of people interviewing the government office is not large, with more than 20 yamen runners, one judge and four interview yamen.

That morning, Li Qing'an arrived in Kaifeng County, but he was greeted not by civil and military officials from Henan Road, but by a large-scale sit-in protest by more than 20,000 canal transport coolies along the Bian River.

The main road in Kaifeng County is called Baishui Street. At this moment, the streets are densely filled with canal transport coolies. Everyone has white towels on their heads, naked on their upper body, dark and shiny skin. Everyone's eyes are full of anger and stubbornness. They are not entirely the canal transport coolies in Bianzhou, but also from Songzhou, Bozhou, and even from Xuzhou.

At the gate of the city, Li Qing'an met Liu Sisong, the judge of the yamen who came to greet him. This was a very smart and capable black and thin man, about thirty years old. He had been here for six years and was very familiar with the local situation.

"I don't know who has revealed the news of your coming to office. These canal transport coolies came from all directions a few days ago. Are you blocking the city and putting pressure on you!"

"Press pressure on me?" Li Qing'an couldn't help but feel a little surprised, and then smiled and said, "What pressure on me? I'm not the Dragon Prince."

Judge Liu Sisong smiled bitterly and said, "Henan Road is dry, and the canal transport in the capital is changed to the Yangtze River, and then to the Han River north. The coolies are worried that the canal transport will be changed and their lives will be inseparable, so they united to put pressure on the envoy to prevent the court from redirecting the canal transport."

"I see!"

Li Qing'an looked around and there was no official except for the few yamen runners brought by Liu Sisong. He asked, "Why are the prefect and the county magistrate, why don't you see me?"

"Eunuch Li, I'm here!"

I saw more than a dozen officials running from afar, all of whom were sweating profusely. The leader was a middle-aged man in his fifties, who was Wu Qing, the prefect of Bianzhou.

He stepped forward and bowed and smiled, "Wu Qing, the prefect of Bianzhou, welcome the envoy Li to Bianzhou."

There is no tone of superiors and subordinates in his tone. It is no wonder that Li Qing'an's Duke of the Court is just a title, only a certain identity, not an official position, and the champion general is just a scattered official. If there is no corresponding real power and official matching, there is no meaning.

Li Qing'an's current official position is the Censor, with a third-rank rank, and he does not have the real power of the Censor-General, and it is just a false position. Bianzhou is Shangzhou, and the prefect also has the third-rank rank. In terms of official rank, the two are at the same level, but the prefect has more real power.

The administrative levels of the Tang Dynasty were county, prefecture and province. The province refers to the Central Secretariat Province. The road was not an administrative level, and the observer was not the immediate superior of the prefect. He was just an imperial envoy. He cleaned up criminal prisons and inspectors, had the right to impeach, recommended, and disposal of criminal prisons, but could not interfere in local political affairs.

It is precisely because of this that Wu Qing was disrespectful to him. He sighed and smiled bitterly: "These grain workers came from all directions and pointed out that they wanted to see the envoy. We dare not force them to drive them away, for fear of causing riots. When the envoy comes, they face such a difficult thing. I am really sorry.

Although he was dissatisfied with his words, an undetectable pride flashed in his eyes. Li Qingan also smiled and replied: "I am a soldier and have no experience in local affairs. The emperor asked me to minimize the losses of drought. He also hopes that the prefect Wu will cooperate more."

"Sure! Sure!"

Wu Qing smiled extremely sincerely and said quickly: "You may as well enter the city from the East City Gate. There are no canal workers blocking the road there."

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Qing'an's three hundred personal guards suddenly activated. Their war horses rushed forward, their swords were unsheathed, and their bows and arrows were sterned, and they shouted loudly: "Who dares to turn forward if you don't want to die!"

Only then did Li Qing'an find that the canal workers were all coming up. I don't know who told them that the observation was done, and they all stepped forward to complain.

"We want to see the observer! We want to see the envoy Li!"

The canal workers were densely packed, and they could not see the edge at first sight. The crowd was infuriated, roared like thunder, and they rushed forward desperately. The three hundred personal guards could not stop them, and the war horses could not stop them.

Li Qing'an glanced at Wu Qing and saw him step back without saying a word. These canal workers came to find Li Qing'an and had nothing to do with him.

Li Qingan couldn't help but sneer, what a warning!

"Listen to me!" Li Qing'an shouted twice, but his voice was immediately drowned by the tsunami-like shouts. At this moment, the voices of tens of thousands of canal workers became louder and louder, their emotions became more and more excited, and they were roaring. You pushed me and rushed, and began to stir up. Tens of thousands of canal workers were in a slight out of control. Now, no matter whether the yamen runners shouted or the leader of the canal workers could not control the situation. If they were not quieted down, something would happen.

Wu Qing didn't expect that the tens of thousands of people would be so horrible. Sweat flowed down his forehead. He was a little helpless. All the officials looked at him in panic. What should we do now?

At this moment, Li Qing'an winked at the deputy guard Zhao Yansi, and made a gesture. A personal soldier with long arms ignited a small gunpowder bag. He threw his feet into the air, throwing his feet twenty feet high.

The small gunpowder pack suddenly exploded in the air, like a thunderclap on the ground, and a thick smoke rose up. Tens of thousands of canal workers suddenly became quiet, and everyone was stunned.

Just in the quiet moment, Li Qing'an shouted loudly: "I am the observer Li Qing'an, everyone listens to me!"

He rode on the horse, full of energy, and his voice was heard far away. More than 20,000 canal workers were shocked. Everyone looked at him blankly. Even the prefect Wu Qing was shocked and could not say a word for a long time.

"I will definitely keep the Bian River canal transportation for everyone. The emperor gave me the will to ensure that everyone can survive the drought safely. I, Li Qing'an, promised everyone that I will not let a person starve to death, and that you will not leave your hometown and leave your home. Please believe me!"

I don’t know who applauded first, followed by dozens, hundreds, and thousands. Finally, the applause was like thunder and cheers resounded throughout the sky.

A forthcoming riot in the canal was temporarily calmed down, but the matter did not end. Tens of thousands of canal workers were still gathered at the Bianzhou canal transport terminal. Li Qing'an's promise could only calm their momentary anger, but the pressure of supporting their families made these men who worked in the canal transport for many years anxious and wait for the food to survive.

In the office, the judge Liu Sisong and several yamen runners were reporting the people's sentiments under the drought to Li Qing'an. The rice price in Kaifeng County had risen to 700 cents per bucket, and was rising at a price of 50 cents a day. The rush to buy was repeatedly banned. Due to the rivers, the grain from the Jianghuai River could not be transported, and there were thieves on the land. Many merchants who went to the Jianghuai River to transport rice died halfway, and all their property was lost. The government had few rice warehouses, so there was a possibility of stopping disaster relief at any time.

Now governments in various places are waiting for the arrangements of the court, and the arrangements of the court are to send him Li Qing'an to Henan Road to investigate the situation.

Thousands of things came together, and everything was imminent, but what Li Qing'an was most worried about was the 20,000 canal workers gathered at the canal transport terminal. Once they caused trouble again, it was very likely that the turmoil in Bianzhou would lead to turmoil.
Chapter completed!