Killing Monks

He paused, picked up the bowl of herbal tea, and took a sip. The tea was bitter, but the herbal tea was even more bitter. He swallowed, his brow furrowing slightly before relaxing.

"I can't let my descendants be unable to go to school either."

This is such a simple statement, as simple as a stone thrown on the ground, making a dent.

The official stood at the edge of the pit, looking at it, unsure what to say. He could have said, "This is acting on emotion," or "Governing a country cannot be based on emotion," or "I understand your feelings, Lord Su, but reality is reality."

But he didn't say it. Not because he was afraid, but because he couldn't bring himself to say it.

Su Er looked at him with eyes that held no anger or accusation, but were simply looking at him.

It's as if it's saying: I don't understand those numbers you're talking about; I don't understand those difficulties you're describing. All I know is that when I was a child, I wanted to go to school, but I couldn't afford it. I can't let my children experience what I did as a child.

The room remained quiet for a long time.

Nan San sat in the corner, remaining silent.

He liked to sit in the corner, leaning against the wall, where he could see everyone's faces, but no one could see his. When the silence had settled sufficiently, he finally spoke. His voice wasn't loud, but every word carried a chilling aura, as if it had been pulled from an ice cellar.

"How will you know it's unrealistic if you don't try?"

The official turned his head and looked at him.

Nan San's face was hidden in the shadows of the candlelight, only his outline could be seen, his expression was not visible. But his voice carried more weight than his expression.

"You think I don't know?" Nan San said. "You just don't want to do it. It's not that you can't do it, it's that you don't want to. There's no benefit in doing it, and no harm in not doing it, so why do it? Laziness. Just laziness. No profit to be made. Just no profit to be made."

He said "that's right" twice in one breath, as if he was letting out a breath he had been holding for a long time.

This meeting has now revealed a contradiction that everyone can see but no one has spoken about.

The Twelve Earthly Fiends sat at one end of the long table, while the Tang officials sat at the other end.

The tables are the same tables, the chairs are the same chairs, but the people sitting on them are different.

The people who sat there had different things on their minds. The officials joined the Heaven and Earth Society later.

At that time, the Buddha's power was still very great. The temple's land occupied half of the Tang Dynasty. When the monks rode through the streets on tall horses, the common people had to kneel by the roadside and dare not raise their heads.

Some officials worked in county offices, some as clerks in prefectural offices, and some as vice ministers in the capital. They were oppressed by the Buddha, bullied by the monks, and suffocated by those bald heads, robes, wooden fish, and prayer beads.

They hated. They hated to the bone. They hated so much they couldn't sleep. They hated so much that when they woke up in the middle of the night and heard the distant temple bells, they would grit their teeth and curse.

So they joined the Heaven and Earth Society. When the Heaven and Earth Society attacked Buddha, they joined in. When the Heaven and Earth Society burned down temples, they joined in.

When the Heaven and Earth Society killed monks, they followed suit and killed them too.

They thought that with the Buddha gone, dawn would break. With the Buddha gone, they could return to the past—to the time when they sat in the hall and the common people knelt below.

Let's go back to the old days when they were in charge and everyone else listened.

Go back to the past when they ate well, dressed well, lived well, did nothing, and received their monthly salary on time.

But after the Buddha fell, things didn't turn out the way they used to.

The Twelve Earthly Fiends have arrived. It's Su Er, it's Nan San, those who have crawled out of the martial world.

Those people have never been officials, never sat in court, and never been made to kneel.

They don't know what "official authority" is, what "decency" is, or what "hierarchy" means.

They only know one thing: If Buddha can bully people, can you? Buddha shit on your heads, and you can't stand it, so you rebelled with us.

After you've rebelled, you want to shit on other people's heads? What's the difference between you and Buddha?

The officials felt wronged. Not just any kind of wrongedness, but the kind of wrongedness that comes from "I followed you through thick and thin, and in the end you treat me like a thief."

They talked about it when they got together, while drinking, while eating, in private, and in public.

In short, it all boils down to this: before, it was the Buddha who shit on our heads; now it's the gangsters who shit on our heads.

Damn it, wasn't joining the Heaven and Earth Society for nothing?

This is the new conflict in the Tang Dynasty: the Jianghu faction versus the imperial court faction.

The Jianghu faction consists of the Twelve Earthly Fiends, people who have survived life-threatening situations. They distrust officials, clerks, and those who are literate, literate, and speak fluent classical Chinese.

They believed in themselves, in the sword, in their fists, and in the brothers who had risked their lives for them. The court faction consisted of the old officials, those who had sat in the halls of power during the Buddha's time and still wanted to sit there now.

They believed in rules, hierarchy, and the traditional order of "ruler-subject, father-son".

They believe that everything in the world should have a hierarchy of importance and social status. Who is superior and who is inferior, who is noble and who is base, can be discussed. But the hierarchy of importance and social status itself cannot be absent.

Unfortunately, the organizational structure of the Heaven and Earth Society made the people from the imperial court very uncomfortable.

Those structures were determined by Guangyuan, and when they were determined, there was no intention to put anyone in a superior position.

Village schools must be established so that poor children can receive an education. Only through education can they stand up. Once they stand up, they will never kneel again.

Guangyuan had spoken of this principle by the campfire, on horseback, in a dilapidated temple, in the wilderness, and even when he was being chased all over the mountains.

He said it a hundred times, a thousand times, ten thousand times. Su Er listened, Nan San listened, and Xu Laoda listened.

Those old officials didn't listen. It wasn't that they didn't want to listen, it was that they couldn't listen.

Their ears were blocked by other things, by the words "official," by the words "salary," and by the days when they sat in the hall and were knelt down and called "Your Honor."

It was completely blocked; nothing could get in.

The issue of village schools became a point of contention for the imperial court faction.

They didn't really think the village school couldn't be established; they felt that the very idea of ​​"doing whatever you want without asking us a single question" was wrong.

That's not how it works. There's no such rule in the world.

You江湖人 (jianghu people), what do you know about governing a country? You've killed people, set fires, and rebelled; what do you know about "civilization"?

What is a "shepherd"? What is "all under heaven"?

But their strength was too small.

So small that they are almost nowhere to be found in the organizational structure of the Twelve Earthly Fiends.

The Twelve Earthly Fiends are thirteen people – Xu Laoda plus the twelve Earthly Fiends, making exactly thirteen.

When voting, each person gets one vote, no more and no less.

Officials have no voting rights. They can only offer suggestions, provide explanations, and lay out the ledgers, the figures, and the "unrealistic" reasons one by one.

After the arrangement was completed, the Twelve Earthly Fiends were viewed and listened to, and then the vote was taken.