Chapter 361

The look in Li Dequan's eyes as he looked at Lu Zhishen was full of envy, wishing he could take his place.

To be bestowed a title by the Son of Heaven—what an honor!

The Son of Heaven's words carry the law of heaven and can canonize gods with a single word; it is only because Lu Zhishen is still alive now,

otherwise, this single reward alone would be enough for him to have a place in the entire Buddhist mythological system.

For eunuchs like them, there is no hope for things during their lifetime,

and now, besides corruption and expanding their power, what they pursue is nothing more than a name after death,

so that they won't be pointed at by others after they die and won't be able to enter their ancestral graves.

"Your Majesty's grace is like heaven; this subject could not repay even a ten-thousandth part even if I died ten thousand times!"

Knowing that Zhang Jie's move was to take all the responsibility for the previous incident upon himself, Lu Zhishen was moved to tears and knocked his head against the ground.

"To bear the disgrace of the country is to be the master of the state. To bear the misfortune of the country is to be the king of the world.

As the master of the Great Gan, I naturally should not shirk my responsibility!"

Zhang Jie smiled freely and frankly.

Just as talking about toxicity without talking about dosage is playing the hooligan, talking about rights without talking about responsibility is also playing the hooligan.

An emperor seems to possess supreme power and owns the four seas,

the world belongs to him, and he can take any beauty in the world into his harem if he wants,

he can satisfy his appetite with any delicacy in the world if he wants to eat it, and he can chop off anyone's dog head if he wants to kill them;

but accompanying power is huge responsibility. If someone starves to death in the world, it is the emperor's responsibility;

if someone is displaced and homeless, it is also the emperor's responsibility;

if there is a foreign invasion and the people are robbed and killed, it is still the emperor's responsibility;

if there are treacherous officials in the court, the political situation is foul, and politics is difficult to clear, it is still the emperor's responsibility.

To borrow a line from Yang Jiaozhu Xing in "Flirting Scholar".

At that time, Su Can defeated the rebellious White Lotus Sect leader Zhao Wuji with the supreme martial art of the Beggar Sect, the "Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms",

and with hundreds of thousands of followers under his command, his momentum was truly unparalleled for a time.

Such a large force of the Beggar Sect naturally aroused the vigilance of the imperial court,

and the little emperor, who was small in stature but not small in heart, immediately summoned Su Can, the leader of the Beggar Sect.

Little Emperor: Su Can, your Beggar Sect has too many people and too much power; I can't even sleep at night.

Su Can: Your Majesty, what do you want me to do?

Little Emperor: I want you to disband the Beggar Sect in the name of the Beggar Sect leader.

Su Can laughed upon hearing this: Your Majesty, how many beggars there are in the world,

depends not on me, the Beggar Sect leader, but on you, the Son of Heaven.

If you can strive for strength and govern diligently, letting the people of the world live and work in peace, who would come to be a beggar?

In that case, wouldn't the power of my Beggar Sect naturally diminish?

Little Emperor:...

He was immediately speechless.

Just as Su Can said, except for a few people with ulterior motives,

as long as the vast majority of people have a mouthful of food and are not truly at a dead end,

who would be willing to be a beggar who is looked down upon and even wantonly bullied?

There are too many beggars in the world simply because he governs the world too poorly,

leaving too many people with no other way to survive than to be a beggar and beg for food.

"Brother Lu, do you have a place to go afterwards?"

Withdrawing his thoughts, Zhang Jie asked Lu Zhishen.

"This..."

Lu Zhishen touched his bald head somewhat awkwardly.

His resignation was partly because he really didn't want to do these killing things anymore,

and partly because he was somewhat influenced by this incident, just wanting to resign directly,

taking all the blame upon himself, so he hadn't really considered where he would go afterwards.

He thought for a while before saying: "I used to make a living guarding the vegetable garden at the Great Xiangguo Temple,

I think I'll just continue to guard the vegetable garden afterwards."

"Uh..."

Lu Zhishen's words left Li Dequan, who was listening on the side, speechless.

If the Great Gan's former Western Expedition General, Western Army Commander,

Dragon-Elephant Army Commander, and Five Armies Governor's Office Rear Army Grand Commander went to guard a vegetable garden,

then who would be qualified to eat the vegetables grown in this garden?

Is it the various ministers in the Secretariat, the several Grand Commanders in the Five Armies Governor's Office,

or the Emperor whom he serves?

A high-ranking official who could rank in the top ten in the Great Gan became a menial monk guarding a vegetable garden,

where would this leave the face of the Great Gan?

Could it be to guard the vegetable garden for the Tathagata Buddha?

This is simply the biggest joke in the world!

"Brother Lu is joking. Although whether it is guarding a vegetable garden,

or leading troops in battle, both are fulfilling one's duties, and there is no distinction between high and low,

but I cannot do without your assistance, and here is a suitable job for you."

Zhang Jie was also choked by Lu Zhishen's frank words and said quickly.

"Please issue an imperial decree, Your Majesty."

Lu Zhishen, who did not reject continuing to serve the Great Gan, bowed slightly.

Zhang Jie's mouth curled slightly: "Brother Lu, since you were staying at the Great Xiangguo Temple before,

why not stay at the Great Xiangguo Temple temporarily this time.

But not as a menial elder guarding the vegetable garden, but as the Law Enforcement Elder managing the temple's laws."

How should one describe the Buddhist sect?

It seems that they exist in every world with an Eastern cultural background.

But at the same time, their image is not very good, just like the Bright Church, the eternal villain in Western fantasy,

the Buddhist sect often appears as the mastermind or even the big boss.

But who makes these bald donkeys, who nominally eat vegetarian food and chant Buddha's name and are compassionate, always do things that are not human?

Anyway, in the current Water Margin world, the Buddhist sect's land annexation, usury,

fooling believers, and flattering high officials are all things they have done plenty of.

Moreover, the Buddhist sect has been known for being rich and powerful since ancient times. After all,

there have only ever been good men and women donating incense oil and incense money to monks,

but have you ever seen monks spend a penny or an ounce of effort for the country or the people?

Although it wouldn't go so far as to support that group of nuns with impure roots in "Twin of Brothers" to support the Great Tang,

playing the trick of 'choosing the emperor on behalf of heaven', their wealth and power are extremely great.

"Four hundred and eighty temples in the Southern Dynasty, how many towers in the misty rain" is very beautiful and shocking, but Gul'dan, what is the price?

Although the Song Dynasty, from the Ancestor Zhao Kuangyin to the Southern Song's last emperor Zhao Bing, always revered Daoism as the state religion.

After Song Huizong Zhao Ji ascended the throne, under the fooling of those bull-nosed Daoist priests, he also claimed to be the "Daoist Sect Leader Emperor" like a certain "Longevity Emperor" and

"Flying Yuan True Monarch" and "Loyal and Filial Emperor" of the Great Ming, considering himself the leader of the Daoist sect.

If not for Zhang Jie's sudden rise, which directly interrupted the national fortune of the Great Song,

a few years later, even the Daoist priest Lin Lingsu of the Daoist Shenxiao Sect would have advised after gaining Zhao Ji's favor,

saying, "The Buddhist sect harms the Dao; although it cannot be destroyed now, it should be corrected,

changing Buddhist temples into Daoist temples, Shakyamuni into Heavenly Venerable, Bodhisattvas into Great Scholars,

Arhats into Venerables, and monks into Virtuous Scholars, all keeping their hair and wearing crowns and holding tablets."

Zhao Ji, who had already been fooled by him, followed the advice and issued an edict in the first month of the first year of Xuanhe (1119),

changing Buddha to Great Awakening Golden Immortal, changing clothing, and claiming surnames;

the Left and Right Street Daoist Records Offices were changed to Morality Institutes, and the Monk Records Division was changed to Virtuous Scholar Division, subordinate to the Morality Institute.

Soon after, female Daoist crowns were changed to female Daoists, and nuns to female virtuous ones.

It can be said that although Lin Lingsu's move was not as bloody as the physical destruction of Buddhism by the Three Wus and One Zong,

it was pulling the firewood from under the cauldron, directly cutting off one-third of the Buddhist sect's foundation.

Take the Great Compassionate Guanyin Bodhisattva, the head of the four great Bodhisattvas of the Buddhist sect,

the title of Guanyin Great Scholar still continues even after a thousand years.