Chapter 574: Reincarnating in the Central Plains in the Next Life

Lin Fucheng and Li Zhi had completely underestimated the difficulties of this journey.

If not for the two hundred Embroidered Uniform Guards dispatched by Young Master Huang, their study tour of fifty-two people would have been intercepted and captured the moment they left the border, dying in some nameless mountain stronghold.

There was no possibility of a ransom, because these horse bandits were targets for annihilation by the Great Ming official army; demanding a ransom would expose their own location.

"This is the unsettling reality, which is why the people of the grasslands seek a false shore. Even if they know this shore is fake, they just want to find some sustenance so they don't have to live in constant, daily terror." Lin Fucheng looked at the captives, who were tied up like zongzi, and said this sincerely.

These captives would be sent to Wang Rulong at Kaiping Guard. Wang Rulong would interrogate them; although their lair was already empty, having clues about the horse bandits would make suppressing them much easier. These captives had only one fate: to have their bells removed and be sent to the mines to perform hard labor until death. There was no second path.

"Welcome to the grasslands." Chen Mo dismounted and said to everyone with a beaming smile, "Once you are here, you will surely understand the question of whether human nature is inherently evil or inherently good."

Chen Mo firmly believed that human nature was inherently evil. Human nature without any constraints or bonds was the source of all evil in the world. Only by placing the shackles of law and public order upon human nature would people refrain from doing evil.

Humans themselves were also animals; the results of dissections at the Dissection Institute showed that humans and rabbits had extremely similar physical characteristics.

"On the grasslands, there is greed, lewdness, and disaster; there is much killing and much strife. The people of the grasslands say it is a place of fierce tongues and a sea of right and wrong." Chen Mo spoke of the current state of the grasslands. This was a sea of right and wrong, and the greatest conflict for the people here was the threat to their survival.

A place of fierce tongues—a single disagreement led to drawing blades, a life-or-death struggle.

Setting up camp at sunset and departing at sunrise, the study tour group of fifty-two set off once more. After walking for about half a day, the gale still roared, carrying flying sand and moving stones. They couldn't even see the road, let alone distinguish directions. At this time, Chen Mo, with his rich experience as a beacon tower scout, made arrangements and found a sheltered spot to hide.

After a yellow wind day, there was generally heavy snow following the gale.

"This wind won't stop until tomorrow. We might as well stop; otherwise, if we get lost, it will take over ten days to find the road, and that's assuming we still have plenty of supplies. Tomorrow morning, as soon as the wind stops, we will depart immediately." Chen Mo had people set up camp in the sheltered area, arranged sentries, and explained to Lin Fucheng why they had to stop.

Under the yellow winds of the grasslands in winter, running around blindly would only lead to getting more lost. Getting lost was the lifelong enemy of the Flying General Li Guang; it was very easy to get lost on the grasslands. Moreover, after a gale, there was often heavy snow. The people of the grasslands called snow disasters "white-haired winds"—the wind blew the snow, making it impossible to distinguish east from west, and one could even lose track of up and down.

The time Lin Fucheng had chosen was the most difficult period for them, as the people of the grasslands were all "hiding for the winter," but it was also the most suitable time, because only in winter could one see the true face of the grasslands.

"Then if we didn't bring enough water and food, what would we eat? Back then, when Battalion Commander Chen was fighting alone, how did you solve the problem of water and food?" Lin Fucheng was curious about Chen Mo's life as a beacon tower scout.

"Rats." Chen Mo smiled and said, "Digging out rat holes, drinking rat blood—it was good enough if we could even eat rats. Sometimes we would gnaw on tree bark. If a person is hungry enough, they can eat anything."

"Chen Mo, you say you're formidable; I didn't believe it at first, but now I do." Lin Fucheng praised him sincerely. The highest tribute to a man was nothing more than saying "you are formidable," and Lin Fucheng, a man of letters, said this sincerely to a warrior.

"Lin Dashi, there is a situation that requires you to take a look." Yao Guangming walked over and said with a troubled expression.

Lin Fucheng walked over and saw a dirty little girl, her cheeks frozen bright red. A woman, also wearing a sheepskin robe, seemed frightened by the sight of so many people and stood frozen in place. Before they even got close, Lin Fucheng smelled a very thick, gamey mutton odor. The little girl shrank behind the woman, curiously sizing up the strangers, while the woman had a face full of anxiety, jabbering something. The wind was very strong, making the words even harder to distinguish.

Lin Fucheng could not understand.

"She is asking who we are and where we are going. Can we take them for a ride to Kaiping Guard? She says her husband is dead, and she is taking her daughter to seek refuge with her father, but they encountered the yellow wind on the road and could only hide here. They are very afraid of jackals, tigers, leopards, and horse bandits." Chen Mo translated the woman's words with an expressionless face.

After many years of life as a beacon tower scout, Chen Mo had long since become hard-hearted. Once entering the grasslands, everyone was an enemy. He was somewhat ruthless; facing women and children, Chen Mo actually had no gentleness at all, his eyes filled with vigilance and indifference.

Chen Mo had suffered losses. Lin Fucheng was curious about the scar on his back that ran through his torso. Chen Mo rarely talked about it to others; that scar was caused by his kindness on the grasslands. Just like now, a pitiful little girl and a woman who seemed to have reached a dead end were asking for his help. He had helped, and he had almost died.

In a world of complete disorder, kindness was a superfluous and useless thing.

"What should we do?" Lin Fucheng frowned. He had heard the story of the Three Attacks on the White Bone Spirit. He was somewhat troubled: should they help or not?

Chen Mo shook his head and said, "Young Master Huang instructed that he is only responsible for your safety. This is a study tour; whatever decision you make is for you to determine yourselves."

"Li Zhi, what do you think?" Lin Fucheng looked at Li Zhi, asking for his opinion.

Li Zhi thought for a moment and said, "Take them along."

Li Zhi could not bear to see such misery. Seeing this little girl reminded him of his own second and third daughters who had starved to death. Even knowing it might bring some trouble, he still made the decision.

The final decision was to take the mother and daughter along.

The reason Li Zhi took the mother and daughter along was his recognition of Chen Mo's strength. These were the Son of Heaven's personal guards, the Embroidered Uniform Guards who protected His Majesty. Two hundred Embroidered Uniform Guards were more than enough to flatten a tribe of a thousand people.

The yellow wind raged until the early morning of the next day, just as Chen Mo had said. Chen Mo looked at the sky and told everyone to advance quickly; they had to reach Kaiping Guard within the day, otherwise, the white-haired wind would come.

Blizzards were the number one natural disaster on the grasslands, freezing countless people to death every year. Especially in these places without post roads, the protection of city walls was needed even more.

On the morning of the second day, when the study tour group stepped into Kaiping Guard, snowflakes began to drift in the sky, soon turning into heavy, goose-feather snow. Under the gale, the snowflakes could not fall; under the action of the wind, the snow filled the space between heaven and earth. Everywhere the eye could see was a vast expanse of white.

Wang Rulong had long known that this group of people was coming to Kaiping Guard. After they arrived, he did not give any extra preferential treatment. Kaiping Guard was poor as a church mouse and had nothing good to entertain them with. Wang Rulong, as the Regional Commander of Yingchang, personally hunted two deer to entertain them.

Although the conditions were arduous, before setting off, the study tour group knew that this long journey was not a park stroll, so there were no complaints.

Yao Guangming did not complain that the conditions were crude; these were already the best entertainment conditions Kaiping Guard could offer. The mattresses were all new wool, and the coal burning in the stove was glowing red, all of which made Yao Guangming feel warm.

After arriving at Kaiping Guard, Yao Guangming and his party still enjoyed excellent treatment, much better than those border people.

After everyone had settled in, Wang Rulong found Chen Mo and said with a furrowed brow, "The mother and daughter you brought do not have a father living in Kaiping Guard. Perhaps you traveled too fast, and they couldn't pass the news out in time; perhaps they saw the Embroidered Uniform Guards' firearms and didn't dare to notify their accomplices; perhaps they saw you and knew the opportunity to get rid of the horse bandits had arrived, so they just followed you blindly."

"This mother and daughter were 'water' released by the horse bandits, just to scout your situation. Battalion Commander Chen is also an old night scout; how could you let such characters join the team?"

"I have never trusted them; I only trust the gear in my hands." Chen Mo patted his cavalry musket and smiled, "The flintlock muskets made by General Qi are quite easy to use; otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to capture the leader of that Black Root Stronghold."

Not letting oneself fall into danger was the first principle of the Embroidered Uniform Guards.

Chen Mo did not stop them because of his confidence in their strength. The Embroidered Uniform Guards were well-trained and well-equipped. Let alone horse bandits, even if the Khan Andan were resurrected from the dead and came with ghost soldiers, he would be no match for the Embroidered Uniform Guards.

Any horse bandit nest with more than a thousand people had been wiped out by Wang Rulong. Wang Rulong had not been eating the imperial court's salary for nothing during his time at Kaiping Guard.

"In the past, I was always fighting alone. It was truly bitter, like being in this white-haired wind, not knowing how far the road ahead was." Chen Mo felt somewhat emotional. Everyone knew the bitterness of being a beacon tower scout in the past, but no one did anything to change it, and there was no support.

Now, standing behind the beacon tower scouts was His Majesty. Likewise, only with His Majesty standing behind the beacon tower scouts could he protect himself well and not be assassinated by petty people. This was a process of mutual achievement.

Zhu Yijun had to rely on the protection of the beacon tower scouts and night scouts, and the night scouts also needed the support of the Emperor.

"But it might disappoint these 'opinionated baskets'; Kaiping Guard has no temples for them to look at." Wang Rulong said with a troubled expression, "I hope they can talk less nonsense."

"Aren't there twenty-seven temples from Kaiping Guard to Yingchang?" Chen Mo was stunned and said with some surprise. The gazette in September had also reported these twenty-seven temples; how could there be no temples to see?

Wang Rulong said with some embarrassment, "I wiped them out. They gathered monk soldiers and pilgrims to cause trouble and sheltered horse bandits and mountain thieves, so I took advantage of the time before winter to pull these twenty-seven temples up by the roots."

Chen Mo said indifferently, "Then it's fine to go to the temples and take a look. Anyway, this is just a forward station; the main thing is to go to Guihua City, where there are many temples."

These "opinionated baskets" had nothing better to do, so why organize a study tour? These Lama temples were no better than the "Unity of Knowledge and Action" group. These opinionated baskets had dissected the nature of this religion so clearly and thoroughly; did they still need to run to the grasslands to see it for themselves? They were all pigs and dogs—did they still need to look?

Wang Rulong shook his head and said, "You can't see them."

"Can't see them?"

"Yeah, they were all burned by me..." Wang Rulong said with a complex expression, "If they had come three months earlier, they could have seen them. Now they are all ruins."

"Haha." Chen Mo was somewhat stunned and said with a smile, "Wouldn't Lin Fucheng and the others have made a wasted trip?"

On the morning of the next day, under Wang Rulong's arrangement, the "Limited Liberal" study tour group headed to the Lama temple closest to Kaiping Guard, Da'an Temple.

Kaiping Guard was the location of the Yuan Dynasty's Upper Capital during the Hu Yuan period. After Li Wenzhong broke through this place, Kaiping Prefecture was established in the second year of Hongwu. In the third month of the ninth year of Xuande, Kaiping Guard was abandoned and moved to Dushi Fortress. After Kaiping Guard was abandoned, it became a gathering place for the Northern Barbarians.

After a hundred years of vicissitudes, the Yuan Upper Capital, designed and planned by Guo Shoujing and Liu Bingzhong, had lost its prosperity and become a wasteland. Without the maintenance of skilled craftsmen, the brick city walls turned into adobe, palace buildings collapsed, the moat was silted up and buried by wind and sand, and the surrounding fertile fields turned into grasslands. Right in this wasteland, less than twenty miles east of the city, there were eighteen Lama temples.

Among these eighteen Lama temples, the largest one was Da'an Temple. At its peak, it had over 1,500 Lamas.

When the Yuan Upper Capital was at its most prosperous, it had 110,000 households and nearly 500,000 people. But in the eleventh year of Wanli, Kaiping Guard had only over 40,000 people.

It was these 40,000 people who supported these eighteen Lama temples. The locals called this place "Zhao Naiman Su Mu," which meant a place where temples gathered. It was a holy land for Lamas and a nightmare for poor people and laborers. If they had any other way, they wouldn't come here to make a living.

Lin Fucheng and the others could not be considered to have made a wasted trip, because they saw the ruins of Da'an Temple. They were indeed ruins, with broken walls everywhere. One look and one could see they had suffered bombardment from Great Ming artillery, as well as traces of being burned by a great fire.

If it had been the "base scholars," they would surely have said that Wang Rulong had taken a fancy to the wealth accumulated in the temple, which was why he had so violently broken through the temple and burned it to destroy the evidence. But the base scholars couldn't reach Kaiping Guard, so no one attacked Wang Rulong.

Wang Rulong was much more ruthless than Li Rusong. Li Rusong used intimidation, while Wang Rulong beheaded all 3,400 Lamas who had gathered to rebel and displayed their heads to the public.

Of course, no one cared. Even in the Veritable Records, it was just one sentence: "Lamas gathered to rebel again; Regional Commander of Yingchang, Wang Rulong, led troops to pacify them."

"Judging only from the ruins, one can still imagine the former splendor. This stuff is all the fat and blood of the people. Such a huge Buddha statue, and it's gilded—how many craftsmen must it have taken, doing nothing else but carving Buddha statues?" Lin Fucheng stood before the ruins of the Great Buddha, sighing endlessly.

What he saw was not a Buddha statue, but the fat and blood of the people.

"Many Buddhist implements need to be covered with gold leaf, and the gold leaf has to be from Yingtian Prefecture. How expensive that stuff is—I think the two masters know better than a warrior like me." Chen Mo pointed to some golden areas remaining on the Buddha's body and said. With Chen Mo's treatment, he wouldn't go to purchase them, and it wasn't that he couldn't afford them, but they were truly useless.

A golden Buddha, a golden Buddha—if it wasn't gold, how could one show sincerity and move the Buddha?

Chen Mo agreed with Lin Fucheng's point of view: it was all the fat and blood of the people, all condensed from the blood and sweat of the border people.

"Where do you come from?" An old Lama holding a broom saw the people arriving and asked with suspicion.

"From the Great Ming Capital." Lin Fucheng frowned as he looked at the Lama and said, "Your Han language is very good."

The old Lama put down the broom in his hand, which looked homemade, pressed his palms together, bowed his head, and said, "I was originally a Lama at this Da'an Temple. Later, a group of strongmen occupied this place, so I fled. I heard that the Great Ming army had broken through Kaiping Guard, so I returned here from the north, but it was already full of decay."

"Sigh, fortune plays with people."

Lin Fucheng wanted to walk forward, but Chen Mo pulled Lin Fucheng back and whispered, "It's better to stay further away."

Chen Mo did not want Lin Fucheng to die at the hands of a Lama who looked like he had no ability to fight; otherwise, Chen Mo would have no way to report back to the Emperor when he returned to the capital.

Lin Fucheng stayed ten paces away from the Lama and began to chat.

As early as when Kaiping Guard was still the Yuan Upper Capital, temples began to be built here, and Buddhist studies had already flourished. Da'an Temple was originally built by imperial decree of Kublai Khan. By the time the dynasty changed, it was destroyed in a great fire. This fire was not set by Li Wenzhong; it was because news of Li Wenzhong breaking through the Yuan Upper Capital reached the temple, and the Lamas had an internal conflict to fight over the various wealth in the temple, and the great fire completely burned down the original Da'an Temple.

The Great Heroic Treasure Hall of Da'an Temple was originally a giant Buddhist pagoda with four bright stories and seven dark stories, twenty-one zhang high and eighteen zhang wide. Its scale was approximately equal to the size of two Imperial Pole Halls. The grasslands were vast, and it could be seen from dozens of miles away.

In order to fight over wealth, the Lamas in the temple had an internal conflict, eventually burning Da'an Temple to the ground. Later, after the Great Ming Kaiping Guard moved inland, the Lamas scattered in all directions returned here and built a new Da'an Temple.

The old Lama did not mind the vigilance of the Great Ming people. He sat on a blue stone, hugging his broom, his face showing yearning as he said, "Twenty years ago, Da'an Temple was just a small hermitage with seven rooms in total, housing fourteen monks. Six of them were Han people. They cultivated 120 mu of land in total, and plus herding, they used livestock to exchange for salt, iron pots, and other things, so they could also live. At that time, although they were poor, it could be considered peaceful."

"Until this place was occupied by strongmen, this place changed from a pure land of Buddhism into a place of hiding filth and harboring dirt. The temples here changed from one to eighteen, and the incense was incomparably prosperous, while we old monks could only flee."

"As for the Han language, it was all taught by Han people."

The old Lama sat on the blue stone, seemingly very nostalgic for the days of green lamps and ancient Buddhas, but those days had passed and would never return.

"In the past, the people here who were inclined toward goodness read scriptures and chanted Buddha's name, actually hoping in their hearts to be reincarnated in your Central Plains in the next life." The look in the old Lama's eyes when he looked at Lin Fucheng and Li Zhi was one of envy. Being reincarnated in the Central Plains was the utilitarian desire of these Lamas who were inclined toward goodness.

Being a Great Ming person in the next life was the pursuit of worshipping Buddha and the wish made to the Buddha.

Li Zhi only felt that this kind of statement was exceptionally novel. He raised an eyebrow and asked with a smile, "Why do you want to be reincarnated in the territory of our dynasty? Is the grassland not good? Or is the Buddha not good?"

The old Lama looked at Li Zhi, sized him up, swayed his body, and said leisurely, "No, the grassland is very good, and the Buddha is very good. But once I reach the Celestial Empire, once I reach the Central Plains, I can stop believing in Buddha."

"How is this to be understood?" When Lin Fucheng heard this, he thought that these Lamas liked to play word games the most, making people confused—it was just pretending to be profound! But Lin Fucheng himself was also a master of pretending to be profound, and he was always the last one to appear.

Lin Fucheng thought of a person, Li Yashi. Once he reached the Great Ming, this guy betrayed his oath, got married, and had two sons. It was said that his "Universal Beauty" was pregnant again, and it was estimated that she would continue to give birth.

The West was very good, but once you reached the Great Ming, you could stop believing in religion. This land of the Central Plains was not governed by gods, but by people.

"Becoming a monk is also a way with no other choice." The old Lama spoke of the past, why he became a monk—because he could only be a monk; only by being a monk could he live. Only by avoiding the world could he escape the suffering and disturbances of the human world and obtain a moment of tranquility and liberation.

"It is very difficult for Central Plains people to understand. It is that everything you do is wrong. It is possible that it is not that you are wrong, but that this world is wrong. This kind of feeling is rare in the Central Plains." The old Lama felt that Central Plains people might not understand this feeling that everything one did was wrong, so he immediately explained it.

Having no occupation and being displaced was the portrayal of the life of the grassland people.

Lin Fucheng and Li Zhi looked at each other, understanding their own theories a step deeper. The grassland was indeed a good place. Just arriving at Kaiping Guard, they had a rich harvest. The lack of material abundance and the instability of life were the reasons for the rampant spread of religion.

The old Lama smiled and said, "Can't understand? For example, me—even being a Lama is wrong. Being a good Lama will lead to being occupied by strongmen; being a bad Lama will lead to being wiped out by the imperial court."

"Are there any other Lama temples nearby?" Lin Fucheng asked about the problem he cared about. The famous Lama temples in Kaiping Guard had all been destroyed by Wang Rulong. He needed to find a Lama temple to complete this study tour. Kaiping Guard belonged to the Left Wing of the Suzerain Khan, while Guihua City belonged to the Right Wing of the Khan Andan. The Lama temples of the left and right wings were different.

"Where are there any Lama temples on this grassland? They are all just thieves' nests and devil caves. Where are the Buddhas? They are all just devils." The old Lama picked up the broom and continued to sweep the ground, as if this ruin was not a ruin, but the former splendid Buddha hall. He swept toward the distance, as if the square inch under his feet was his whole world.

Li Zhi asked loudly, "The white-haired wind has already come. Old man, why don't you find a place to hide?"

"There is a cave on the hillside behind; I'll just go hide there." The old Lama waved his hand and continued sweeping, gradually moving further away.

The rise and fall of Da'an Temple and the old Lama's persistence made the group sigh endlessly.

Li Zhi frowned and said, "They are all thieves' nests! This statement is very good! It is precisely because of the establishment of the relationship of personal dependence on strongmen that the Buddha hall turned into a thieves' nest and devil cave!"

The trip to Da'an Temple seemed to have no harvest, but in fact, the harvest was full. The appearance of the old Lama made everyone think about the process of religion alienating people.

The road back was not smooth. It was not horse bandits or wolves, but accumulated snow blocking the road. The twenty-mile road was walked for two full hours before they got back. This was still with the situation of having carriages.

"Was it in this kind of weather that Battalion Commander Chen used to go deep into the barbarian camp to investigate the enemy situation?" When Lin Fucheng saw the gate of Kaiping Guard again, even his eye sockets were moist. He had never thought that one day, even walking would be so difficult.

It was too bitter; he would never come again.

Chen Mo shook his head and said, "That's not it. In winter, the Northern Barbarians also have to spend the winter. Generally, they won't leave the border. I am a person; in this ghost weather, no one is good at it."

"Eh, that's not right! It seems we are trapped in Kaiping Guard!" Li Zhi suddenly said with horror, "We originally planned to stay in Kaiping Guard for half a month before heading to Guihua City. Now we can't go! Will the accumulated snow on the grasslands melt?"

"It won't melt until long after the beginning of spring." Chen Mo said with a face that wanted to laugh but was holding it back.

When formulating the travel plan, Chen Mo had suggested that Lin Fucheng go to Guihua City first and wait until next spring or summer to go to Kaiping Guard. The grasslands were not like inside the pass; once it snowed, it was a whole winter, vast and white. Lin Fucheng thought that a little snow could delay the itinerary? Could it be that merchant caravans didn't do business in winter?

Lin Fucheng had greatly overestimated the population of the grasslands. Human activity could not keep the roads unobstructed.

His Majesty the Emperor had delegated Chen Mo, an experienced person, to help Lin Fucheng complete his study tour. Lin Fucheng had been stubborn, and now he was dizzy from his own boomerang.

"Actually, we can walk." Chen Mo looked at Lin Fucheng and said with a smile.

"How to walk? Sleds?" Lin Fucheng had heard of dog sleds and asked eagerly.

"Walk over, use two legs. Unfortunately, none of you are elite soldiers of the Capital Camp." After Chen Mo finished speaking, he finally laughed out loud. The meaning of these words was actually that "of all things, scholars are the most useless." When these scholars faced this situation, they were just blind.

When there was no cavalry camp, the Great Ming army's expeditions outside the border had to wait until the first snow fell to depart. This was because of insufficient mobility, putting the enemy and their own mobility on the same level. The expedition against the Khan Andan was the only time the Great Ming fought outside the border in spring and summer, catching the Khan Andan off guard.

"One sled pulls one person, and it needs 6 to 12 dogs. In one day, it can only run ten miles. These dogs also need to eat, drink, and poop. Lin Dashi, are you sure you want to go to Guihua City at this time?" Chen Mo explained why sleds were not used. Dogs were for guarding the house and were not suitable for dragging. One person needed 6 to 12 dogs; how much baggage would that need to bring?

Li Zhi spread his hands and said with a chuckle, "We are trapped here."

One could do academic work anywhere. The conditions in Kaiping Guard were limited, but one wouldn't starve or freeze, which was completely enough. This small city of Kaiping Guard, which was fourteen miles in circumference, housed 37,000 people. Among them were returned Lamas, former believers, and ordinary border people, all of whom were objects that could be visited and asked. Investigating the alienation of people by religion did not have to be done in a Lama temple.

Li Zhi touched the official waist tag on his body. After drifting for most of his life, he could finally do academic work with peace of mind.

Less than five days later, news came that the Lama of Da'an Temple had passed away. On the very day he met the study tour group, the old Lama passed away in the cave on the back mountain. Falling leaves return to their roots; he had drifted outside for twenty years, but in the end, he returned to the last pure land in his heart, returned home.

No one remembered the old Lama's name anymore. The border people didn't even have any impression of the old Da'an Temple.

A notebook filled with travel records was the old Lama's only legacy.

"Perhaps, at the last moment of his life, the old Lama found his shore." Li Zhi said to Lin Fucheng with great certainty. ===== CHAPTER 575 =====