Inheriting a Taoist temple, the story begins with Wu Zetian offering incense.

Chapter 100 Li Shimin's System of Enfeoffment! [Seeking Monthly Tickets]

For a leisurely prince like Li Ke, opening up the borders was almost impossible.

Last year, Li Chengqian rebelled, and he thought he saw hope. Unfortunately, the old ministers, including Changsun Wuji, firmly opposed it and instead supported Li Zhi, who usually appeared weak and introverted, to ascend to the throne.

Everyone knew that Changsun Wuji supported Li Zhi's ascension to the throne not out of consideration for his talent or virtue, but simply because he thought Li Zhi was easy to control.

But after all, he was Li Shimin's son. Beneath Li Zhi's weak exterior lay a rebellious heart. Changsun Wuji thought he could control his nephew, but in reality, he had long been on his nephew's death list.

In the tenth year of Li Zhi's reign, which was ten years after the death of Emperor Taizong Li Shimin, Changsun Wuji was exiled to Qianzhou by Li Zhi on charges of treason. He was later forced to commit suicide, and his three clans were demoted to slavery in Lingnan.

When Changsun Wuji was forced to hang himself in Qianzhou, I wonder if he regretted choosing to support his "cowardly" nephew to the throne... Li Shimin's son can be crazy and unrestrained, but no matter what, he will never be associated with the word "cowardly".

Upon hearing that he was to lead an expedition to the frontier, Li Ke's first thought was to test the waters. He glanced at Crown Prince Li Zhi, who was nine years younger than him, and cupped his hands in a gesture of respect, saying:
"Your Majesty, I wish to build a manor in the Zhongnan Mountains to house rare birds and animals from all over the world. I fear I will have no time to attend to matters of border expansion..."

Before he could finish speaking, his father kicked him.
"Go when we tell you to. You only get one chance. If you don't seize it, you'll regret it."

These past few days, Li Shimin has been studying the area and data of the Mekong River Plain. He discovered that although the plain may not seem large, it has hundreds of millions of acres of arable land, and all of it is high-quality paddy fields. Once cultivated, it can continuously supply grain to the Tang Dynasty.

If one does not occupy such a blessed place, one will not find peace even in the afterlife.

Seeing that Li Shimin wasn't joking, Li Ke immediately became serious:
"How many soldiers can I bring?"

"One thousand cavalry and three thousand infantrymen. These troops are not allowed to return to the Tang Dynasty without permission. They are only allowed to operate in the Jiaozhi area. If you can wipe out the local bandits within a year, I will allow you to relocate ten thousand households to cultivate the wasteland."

These words made Li Ke feel as if he had been hit on the back of the head with happiness:

"Is this true?"

Li Shimin couldn't help but kick the guy again:
"Bring fifty doctors, teachers, musicians, actors, etc. as well. As for the rest of the unrelated people, you can decide for yourself. Submit a list to me within ten days, or you will be out of luck!"

Li Ke knew his father was serious, so he dropped his playful demeanor and bowed respectfully.
"My son, I obey!"

"get out!"

After Li Ke left, Li Shimin looked at Li Zhi and asked:

"What does Zhinu have to say?"

Li Zhi initially wanted to suggest giving his elder brother troops, which would put the Crown Prince in a very difficult position, but then he remembered his father's recent frequent study of world maps and tentatively asked:

"Is Father imitating the Zhou emperor's enfeoffment system?"

Back then, the Great Zhou Dynasty only controlled a small area in the Central Plains, but the brilliance of it was that the Zhou emperor implemented a large-scale enfeoffment system, basically sending people away by pointing in one direction.

In order to survive, the feudal lords had no choice but to actively expand their borders, increasing the territory of the Zhou Dynasty several times over.

During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, the feudal lords attacked each other, and the Zhou emperor could only advise them, not command them. The reason was that the feudal lords had created their own territories and had the confidence to contend for hegemony.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, the various warlords fought each other until the First Emperor unified the country, at which point the land area of ​​China exceeded one million square kilometers for the first time.

During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, the Han Dynasty launched a vigorous campaign to expand its borders. Liu Che (Emperor Wu) led an expedition to Korea in the east, conquered Nanyue and Minyue in the south, pacified the southwest, and seized the northwest, expanding the territory of China to six million square kilometers.

Looking at history books alone, it's clear that every dynasty struggled against foreign tribes on the borders; it was truly tragic.

But from the perspective of the foreign race, we've been fleeing generation after generation, and the borders of China have been expanding outwards in circles. It's just too damn unfair!

Now Li Shimin plans to reinstate the enfeoffment system, and will first let Li Ke set an example, while also giving the boy a chance to demonstrate his abilities, so that he won't spend his whole life hunting and playing without doing anything productive.

Li Zhi asked worriedly:
"My uncle's side..."

Li Shimin waved his hand:
"If your uncle asks, just blame it on the Immortal Master. Meiniang said that the Immortal Master once praised the expansion of territory as a great merit, so he probably won't blame you."

Upon hearing this, Li Zhi felt that after ascending to the throne, he could also pin the blame on the immortal for dealing with his uncle.

How could I dare disobey the decree of the gods? I can only ask my uncle to suffer for now!

After admiring the night view of the imperial city under the searchlights, Li Shimin pressed a button on the remote control in his hand, and the searchlights above his head went out, and darkness enveloped him once again.

"Zhi Nu, take down the searchlights and have them sent to the Yiyuan Hall. We'll put them back up during the Lantern Festival so that everyone in the city can celebrate together."

After saying this, Li Shimin strolled away from the Chengtian Gate tower and went back to the Wude Hall to rest.

In Sanlizhuang, Xiuchuan County, the gate of the local earth god temple had been chopped into pieces like firewood by Zhou Yi. Du Chunyi and several villagers who were watching were about to approach when Zhou Yi stopped them:

"Don't come any closer, something's not right here."

Although the streets of Sanlizhuang are messy, the lighting project is quite good. Whether it is the main street or the alley, there are streetlights to illuminate the area, and the whole village is brightly lit after nightfall.

But when Zhou Yi broke through the temple gate, he discovered that the streetlights could not shine through the gate of the earth god temple.

It was as bright as day outside, but inside the door it was still pitch black, and you couldn't see anything.

This unusual occurrence made Zhou Yi more cautious.

He pulled a talisman from his bag, flicked it with his fingers, and the talisman flew inside, then suddenly lit up, illuminating the entire interior. A young villager watched in astonishment:

"Taoist priest, are you using A1 high-level flash when you're performing a ritual?"

Zhou Yi said with a smile:

"It's just a little trick, nothing special."

In that brief moment of light, he had already seen the layout inside. Unlike the common local temples, there was no local earth god, only a female deity statue that looked like the earth goddess.

This temple only worships the Earth Goddess, not the Earth God; that's a bit strange.

He stepped inside, casually pulled the money sword from the crack in the door and placed it on the statue. Then he took out a seal from his cloth bag, tossed it casually, and it landed right on the statue's head.

After doing all this, he shouted to Du Chunyi outside:
"Director Du, come and take a look at this statue, what's going on?"

Du Chunyi walked in and shone a flashlight around, only to discover that the temple had no electric lights.

"What kind of nonsense is this Stone Fairy up to? She doesn't even install electric lights... Is she really... the Stone Fairy?"

He shone his flashlight on the statue and couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

Several villagers at the entrance looked in the direction of the flashlight beam and began calling out the name of the Stone Fairy.

Zhou Yi stared at the statue for a couple of seconds, recalling the last time he saw the Stone Fairy, and felt that there was a resemblance.

No way, did Shi Xiangu secretly build a shrine for herself in her own village?
Zhou Yi, with his long-standing rant, doesn't even know where to begin. He builds a shrine for himself and has people worship him on the first and fifteenth of each lunar month—is he tired of living? Or is he using his own body to nurture evil spirits?

It seems this fortune teller has learned a wide range of knowledge.

They didn't learn anything useful or practical, but instead made great strides in unorthodox and unorthodox methods.

Fortunately, she was burned to death in the fire this time; otherwise, if she had continued to worship like that, she might have turned into a zombie or a similar monster.

Zhou Yi said to Du Chunyi:

“This temple has to be demolished, and the statues have to be smashed. If the people in your village don’t dare to do it, give me 30,000 yuan and I’ll do it.”

Destroying mountains and temples to uphold the orthodoxy of Taoism is a meritorious act, and such a good thing should not be missed.

Du Chunyi hesitated:
“This temple is registered with the Religious Affairs Bureau, so it might not be appropriate to demolish it rashly… How about this, Master Zhou, you can help our village demolish it and build a new land temple for us. The village can raise funds for the temple construction, but we'll have to trouble you with the statues and such.”

Before calling Zhou Yi, Du Chunyi conducted an investigation at the Religious Affairs Bureau. Zhou Yi was the only Taoist priest in Xiuchuan County with an ordination certificate, an officially recognized status.

After Shi Xiangu's commotion, Du Chunyi no longer believed in those sorcerers and fortune tellers.

Thinking of the unusual occurrences in the village that could potentially give rise to evil spirits, Zhou Yi readily agreed:
“Repairing the temple is fine, but if your area is demolished, the land temple will have to be rebuilt. It can’t just be demolished and forgotten. You can talk to the developer and ask them to pay for it.”

Du Chunyi's eyes lit up, and he wrote these words down on his phone.

It was almost midnight, and the temple demolition could only be carried out tomorrow. However, Zhou Yi had no intention of being idle. He took out all the evil-repelling items from his cloth bag and suppressed the evil spirits in the temple so they couldn't go anywhere.

After doing all that, he called Zhao Wei again:
Are you still working on a highway construction site, moving earth and debris?

Zhao Wei said:

"That job was pretty simple, I handed it over to the driver I hired. Xiao Yi, is there anything I can help you with?"

"Drive your handcart and bring your small excavator to Sanlizhuang in the southwest corner of the county tomorrow morning. Help me demolish a temple. There's a pile of rubble in the village that might need your help to clear. Are you free?"

Ever since he hung a sign on his excavator that said "No Taboos," Zhao Wei considered himself an industry insider.
"No problem, I'll be there first thing tomorrow morning. Do you need me to call a dump truck?"

"We'll talk about it when we get here. This temple is at the entrance of the alley, and the main bus station doesn't have a drop-off point. We'll have to choose the right bus depending on the location."

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Yi closed the temple door, which was now only half open, nailed the wooden planks that had been split open back in, and then pasted two Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams talismans on the door.

The Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams symbol has the function of concealment and hiding; when pasted on a door, it will make the entire building inconspicuous.

After finishing these tasks, he and Du Chunyi agreed on a time to dismantle the temple the next day. He then drove back to Hunyuan Palace and began searching for the statue of the Earth God in Uncle Ming's shop.

But after looking around, he couldn't find anything suitable. The statues in Uncle Ming's shop were mostly wood carvings or bronze castings, neither of which were suitable for the Earth God.

The best way to depict the Earth God is with a clay sculpture or a stone carving, as this aligns with the characteristics of the "earth" element.

If we make a reservation, it seems like there won't be enough time. The stone statues at Uncle Ming's place will take a month to complete, while the small temple in Sanlizhuang can be finished in two or three days. We're a bit short on time.

The next morning, after washing up, he took the ritual implements he needed and drove with Zhao Wei to Sanlizhuang, one after the other.

Let's put the carving of the statues aside for now. Today's task is to cut down mountains, destroy temples, smash licentious shrines, and restore the orthodox light of Taoism!

(End of this chapter)