I dare not

The small temple was already overcrowded, Gu Qiao refused Huang Qi's arrangement of a big bed for [-] people, and asked for an extra bed in the Buddhist hall.

Huang Qi asked him to roll up his own bedding and go wherever he fell in love, so Gu Qiao lived in the Buddhist hall with peace of mind.

"What is the guy surnamed Gu doing?" When Huang Qi reported back to Du Gong, Du Gong asked him while stroking his goatee.

"He's cleaning the Buddhist temple. It looks like he's preparing for a long stay."

"Why did he suddenly join us?"

Huang Qi replied respectfully: "Of course I was touched by Duke Du's authority and had to surrender to you."

Du Gong was very satisfied with this answer, and ordered: "Ask a few more people to watch over Gu Qiao, and don't let him play tricks."

"Yes."

Gu Qiao could move freely in the temple now, but he knew that several pairs of eyes were staring at him, even more closely than when he was locked in the Buddhist temple.

In the evening, he mixed with the crowd listening to the evening class, deliberately pretending that he did not know the laws and regulations.

"Hey, who is that preacher?" He asked the person next to him.

An old man next to him answered him, "That's Master Fazhang, an eminent monk of Chen Jinshan Daci'en Temple."

"Oh?" Gu Qiao signaled him to continue.

"Are you new here?" the old man asked him, Gu Qiao nodded, and the old man said: "Master Fazhang is a great kind person, he not only treated us for free, but also asked his disciples to bring us food from outside. Let's not go out and do all that burglary business."

"But some of you still want to go out and rob the passers-by on the mountain," Gu Qiao pointed to herself, "I was robbed."

The old man looked him up and down, lowered his voice and said: "Then you have met 'those people', they don't eat monk's food."

"Then why don't you go home?" Gu Qiao asked deliberately.

"Hey," the old man sighed, "Where is there a home to go back to? The land has long been sold to the landlord at a low price. I can't pay the rent, and even the house has been taken away by the landlord. Otherwise, I will come to this mountain to work when I am old. What?"

"Why sell the land to the landlord? Wouldn't it be better to grow it yourself?" Gu Qiao looked puzzled.

"Oh, little brother, who wants to sell the land if it's not going to be hard?" The old man said this, full of grievances, like pouring beans.

In the 17th year of Qing'an, the Chenjinshan Gold Mine was proved to have a huge reserve of gold. The people of Lianzhou were finally elated. The decades-long poverty-stricken state was about to live a better life.

Unexpectedly, the day the mine started construction was the beginning of Lianzhou's bad luck.

As the carts and carts of gold were transported to the capital, today Longyan Joy, Chen Jinshan Gold Mine was directly taken over by the Shaofu Supervisor.

Now, the Lianzhou government not only cannot collect the mining tax, but also has to pay for the labor of the mine.So the state government ordered each household to select a strong man to serve in the mine. Originally, each worker was paid one or two taels of silver per month, but now those who could not find a strong man had to pay one or two taels of silver per month instead.

The family of farmers who are honest in farming can only earn more than 12 taels of silver a year in the middle of the field. After paying the land tax and head tax, there are only a dozen taels of silver left for the whole family to live on. Now they have to hand over [-] taels of labor Taxes, the whole family has worked hard all year round and still can't afford to eat.

When the land is sold to the landlord, there is no need to pay the head tax, land tax, and labor tax by yourself, and the rest of the land rent can at least be able to feed the family.

Over time, most of the farmers sold their fields and became tenants.

The government and the landlords also reached a tacit understanding. The landlords managed their own fields, and the government saved a large amount of livelihood expenses for building water conservancy, recuperating farmland, and rectifying infrastructure.

The landlord paid the monthly payment on time, and the government was happy to pay the tax easily and save a lot of trouble.

The unlucky ones are the common people.

The first few years were fairly smooth, and this farming method did not reveal its shortcomings until a severe drought in the 23rd year of Qing'an.

The farmers had no harvest that year, and the landlord offered to lend them grain, and the next year they raised interest rates to pay back the grain.This interest rate is quite high, but the peasants don't understand the hidden trap-the interest rate increases year after year, and many people become slaves to the landlord's family.

When he was in Beijing, the teacher had analyzed the situation in Lianzhou with Gu Qiao, and he was actually very clear about the whole story.

Now that he really came to the land of Lianzhou, hearing the past from the farmers in Lianzhou, Gu Qiao, who is an official, had to feel ashamed.

The situation of collusion between the government and the local big family is not broken, and the people of Lianzhou cannot be peaceful for a day.

The entanglement of interests is not so easy to cut off.

These people who have nowhere to live are desperate and hide in the mountains. They live in the bandit's nest and do not want to join the bandit, and rely on the relief of the monks to survive.

"It's not that we don't want to go home, it's that we have no home to go back to!" The old man's eyes were full of tears. He was just an honest farmer, and he didn't know why he was homeless after working so hard for most of his life.

"What about your family?"

The old man wiped his face, "My old lady died when the famine started. There is a son and a daughter in the family. The son went to the gold mine five years ago and never came back. The daughter...can't pay the debt to the landlord's family. gone."

After speaking, the old man sobbed softly, and most of the people around him were ordinary people who had experienced similar experiences, and many of them also wiped their tears.

At this time, Fazhang was talking about: "All Buddhas and Tathagatas have emerged in the world, and they want to teach all living beings to enlighten them into the Buddha's knowledge and views." Glancing at Gu Qiao, he changed the subject: "Buddhism is the law of the heart, and the heart is from the heart. And hair, has nothing to do with external things, so you can do what is difficult, endure what is difficult, and let go of what is difficult, this is the foundation of Buddhism."

"The benefactor," Fazhang pointed to Gu Qiao, "do you know where the suffering in this world comes from?"

Gu Qiao stood up, cleared her throat, and said, "Buddhism holds that suffering is the desire in people's hearts, and it is the karmic result of greed, anger, and obsession."

Fazhang nodded in satisfaction, and then heard Gu Qiao say, "But I don't think so."

Everyone turned to look at him, waiting for what this young man with a foreign accent would say.

"For example, droughts and floods, which one is caused by the human heart? If it is caused by the human heart, why did the Buddha bring this suffering to the innocent people? The ultimate goal of Buddhism teaches us to be liberated from the mundane world and reach the world of bliss. So what does the Land of Ultimate Bliss look like? Has anyone seen it?"

Chang Huan, the second disciple who was sitting next to Fazhang, couldn't sit still for a while, and was about to stand up and argue.Fazhang held him down, shook his head slightly, and signaled him to let Gu Qiao continue.

"Many years ago, I lived with my father in Lianzhou for a period of time. Lianzhou in my mind is a place with simple folk customs and beautiful mountains and rivers. When it comes to summer harvest, the golden wheat in the fields can't be seen at a glance, and every household has fields and houses. , live and work in peace and contentment. Today's Lianzhou is full of hunger and the people are in dire straits. For us now, Lianzhou at that time was the Paradise of Paradise.

Blessed by the Buddha, today we can have a bite to eat, a place to sleep, and gather here to listen to the master's lectures.For those who died in this catastrophe, our place is also the paradise. "

After hearing this, everyone started whispering, now that everyone is suffering so much, and they still say it's the world of bliss, this young man is full of nonsense.

Someone yelled, "We can't go back home, and we have a mouthful of food. That's all thanks to Master Fazhang's relief. But how long can Master Fazhang save us? It's not like living a day, what is the Paradise of Ultimate Bliss!" "

Gu Qiao smiled, and asked him back, "Follow the big boss and the second boss to rob houses and have meat to eat and money to take. Why don't you go?"

"How can you do that kind of thing? At the beginning, if you don't go, you will be beaten. Later, Master Fazhang gave all his belongings to those people, just so that we can choose not to go. If we still go, are we still human?"

"Knowing that if you do bad things, you will have meat to eat and money to take, just to repay Master Fazhang's kindness, you choose to endure hunger and starvation. You already have Bodhi in your heart." Gu Qiao looked around, "If you have Bodhi in your heart, you can become a Buddha. , with bodhi in your heart, this is bliss.”

Fazhang nodded lovingly, "If you have Bodhi in your heart, you can become a Buddha, and what the little benefactor said makes sense."

"Since we have become Buddhas and this place is bliss, why do we still feel pain?" Someone asked.

Gu Qiao changed into an impassioned tone, and said loudly: "The Buddha is ourselves. If the Buddha doesn't let me go, I will do it myself! This place is not bliss, so we will look for it by ourselves, and if we can't find it, we will create it ourselves. !"

These dutiful peasants plant the land when they have the land, pay the rent when they are asked to pay rent, and hide in the mountains when they can't survive. No one has ever told them to find and create by themselves, and they all stared blankly. Looking at Gu Qiao.

Gu Qiao continued: "70 years ago, Emperor Taizu conquered the world, rescued us from the cruel rule of the barbarians, and established Dahao. 70 years later, in the prosperous age of the empire, we experienced the destruction of our families and the separation of our wives and children. , a precarious disaster. Lianzhou may be located on the border of Dahao, but I absolutely do not believe that the people of Lianzhou should be inferior and not worthy of enjoying the prosperity of this prosperous Dahao!"

Everyone's blood boiled when they heard this. Gu Qiao saw that everyone's emotions were almost brewing, so she sent a signal to Chang Ling with her eyes, and then raised her fist and shouted: "If the Buddha doesn't let me go, I will do it myself! Save me, and I will save myself!"

Chang Ling and several people around her raised their fists at the right time and shouted, "Help yourself! Help yourself!"

After listening to Gu Qiao's words, everyone was already a little emotional. At this time, under the leadership of Chang Ling and others, shouts came and went, and the crowd was passionate.