"...Across Ganzhou, fields lie abandoned in many places; the villagers build temples and chant scriptures, never resting from their devotions. Several county magistrates have submitted memorials reporting that the populace is harmonious and joyous, robbery and banditry have vanished, doors need not be locked at night, and this is hailed as a fine state of affairs..."
Within the Splendor of the Many Realms, Wei Yuan looked through report after report, their contents nearly identical. The Pure Land's Buddhist sect, which was spreading through Ganzhou, placed great emphasis on precepts, asceticism, suffering, chanting scriptures, and cultivating the afterlife. Among these, suffering, asceticism, chanting scriptures, building temples, and expanding the Buddhist realm were all regarded as vital components of cultivating the next life.
Consequently, in the converted lands, people divided their time between constructing temples and chanting sutras, but no one farmed or engaged in production. If the authorities tried to arrest them, not only was there no clear pretext, but it actually made them believe they were undergoing holy suffering, leaving them thoroughly exhilarated.
Wei Yuan sifted out another batch of reports. Their contents were likewise broadly similar: memorials from magistrates in various regions requesting extra allocations of grain and rice to relieve the crisis of starvation and freezing. Yet none of them could clearly explain where the starvation and freezing had come from, and many were downright evasive.
In the past, Qingming had placed considerable trust in the officials it dispatched down to the local level. Funds and provisions requested in the name of disaster relief were approved very quickly, largely because Qingming possessed vast grain reserves.
Secondly, Wei Yuan had an extremely low tolerance for famine and disaster, and punished derelict officials with extreme severity—dismissal from office was the lightest penalty. As a result, when unexpected natural disasters struck, many magistrates and yamen runners would rather let their own households go hungry than allow a mortal to starve to death.
Now, however, when viewed against the broader situation, these reports revealed an underlying problem. Furthermore, since Wei Yuan had sent out an avatar to conduct undercover inquiries, he already knew that they were using Qingming's grain to finance their own faith.
Wei Yuan let out a cold sneer. Did they truly think he was someone easily pushed around?
Even so, Wei Yuan made no drastic moves. He merely accelerated the construction of the floating roads while large formations of Qingming soldiers advanced steadily along the extending thoroughfares, gradually encroaching upon the territories surrounding Qingming.
Wei Yuan anticipated that the Pure Land would not rely solely on these meager tricks; more was bound to follow. Converting tens of millions of people in one breath was an extraordinary feat that even the Pure Land could rarely manage. Having paid such a steep price, it would make little sense if they did not push harder and try to crush Wei Yuan once and for all.
Thus, Wei Yuan waited patiently for the Pure Land to play its trump card. Up to this point in the game, Wei Yuan had suffered minor losses, but had by no means been severely wounded. As long as the Pure Land showed its hand first, Wei Yuan could strike back in response and settle the conflict in a single battle.
After thorough deliberation, Wei Yuan issued only a single directive: local officials were to guarantee agricultural production and allow no large-scale abandonment of farmland. At the same time, Qingming dispatched a large number of military officers and colonels to patrol all directions, inspecting the converted regions county by county. Wei Yuan's order demanded that they set foot in every single township.
That way, unless the officials had been driven completely foolish by conversion, they would have to put on a show of having people work the fields, even if it were merely going through the motions. In doing so, the summer grain harvest could be preserved.
As for those who continued to resist stubbornly, the Qingming Army was hardly just for show.
Over the following month, as autumn arrived, Wei Yuan had sent out thousands of colonels who traversed every township in Ganzhou. Meanwhile, several elite units remained on standby aboard floating vessels. Wherever disobedience arose, the floating vessels would take to the skies, bringing the army there within half a day.
There were dozens of minor, scattered disturbances, but only one major rebellion: Lanyang County. This happened to be the very county Wei Yuan's avatar had visited, yet the colonel dispatched there to conduct inspections was actually ambushed and killed in a village! Not a single one of the dozens of soldiers accompanying him survived.
Immediately afterward, the magistrate of Lanyang County posted a notice declaring Wei Yuan's order an unlawful decree that Lanyang County would not obey. Soon, believers across the entire county gathered, with prominent local clans contributing manpower and grain to amass a crowd tens of thousands strong demanding autonomy.
When the matter was reported to Wei Yuan, he issued an immediate command: "Suppress and exterminate them!"
When several hundred-zhang floating vessels appeared in the skies above Lanyang County, barely half a day had passed since the magistrate published his proclamation. Then the army marched into the city in battle formation, while the streets were already jammed with fanatical believers.
This time, Qingming deployed its world-renowned heavy armored infantry. Carrying heavy shields, they pushed forward rank by rank. When the two sides were several dozen paces apart, the believers let out a roar and charged first.
The Qingming heavy infantry gave a stern shout, their military qi surging as the front rank raised their shields and slammed forward, crashing violently into the incoming mob! Amid thunderous booms, countless believers were knocked flying through the air!
The heavily armored shieldbearers continued their thrust. A single charge with their bodies knocked down a wide swathe, and another sweep of their shields sent down another crowd.
Fanatical and daring though the believers were, the Buddha Land of their afterlife could grant them no combat strength in the present.
In the blink of an eye, the long avenue was carpeted with moaning believers rolling on the ground. The ironclad soldiers following behind kicked the fallen to both sides of the thoroughfare; otherwise, as the army marched past, they would inevitably be trampled into mincemeat.
The suppression was brutal yet bloodless. The Qingming Army struck with shields, leaving countless injured but very few dead. Before long, the army had cut completely through the county seat and breached the yamen.
Sword in hand, the magistrate stood guard at the inner hall gate, surrounded by a dozen-odd loyal retainers and bald Masters. Several dozen Qingming armored warriors immediately leaped forward, brandishing giant shields and heavy warhammers—every single one was a Dao Foundation cultivator.
Outnumbered fifty to three, the magistrate and the two Dao Foundation Masters fell almost instantly. The two Masters entered nirvana on the spot, while the magistrate refused to surrender even in death, spewing non-stop curses at Wei Yuan and enumerating Wei Yuan's seventy grave sins.
The leading Golden Pellet dharma idol took matters into his own hands and knocked out all the man's teeth, but the magistrate still spat muffled curses until he was slain on the spot.
With that, the rebellion in Lanyang County was put down. The pacification took just four hours, while the entire disturbance had lasted twenty hours. At that moment, Qingming had over two hundred floating vessels standing by in the air and on the ground.
A report on the disturbance reached Wei Yuan's desk an hour after the operation concluded. When he finished reading it, his gaze paused on the figures of two hundred dead and over six thousand injured. He frowned. "Still a bit too high."
After a moment's thought, he pulled up another dossier and examined it carefully. This file was filled with new weapons designed specifically against targets that were fanatical yet low in combat strength—bizarre, varied, and ingenious.
For example, there was a kind of toxic smoke that caused mortals who breathed it to weep uncontrollably, their eyes turning red and swollen until they could not see. Yet after a few days of rest, they would gradually recover.
In addition to the toxic mist, Wei Yuan selected a weapon called the Kuishui Thunder Whip. One and a half zhang long, it generated a subtle lightning force that knocked mortals down upon contact, leaving them unable to get up for half a day, yet did not take their lives.
The template Dao Foundation cultivator who designed the whip had attached a note specifically stating that if salt water was sprayed onto the enemy before using the whip, the effect was superb: a single strike could bring down dozens of mortals.
Wei Yuan selected five thousand third-line troops and equipped them with the thunder whips, designating them specifically for suppressing unrest among the believers.
With this as a starting point, Wei Yuan began distributing large batches of tasks to study the behavior of the Buddhist believers and devise counter-strategies.
* * *
Deep within the Pure Land, inside a world of radiant lapis lazuli, several colossal golden bodies manifested, then strode up the mountain ranges on either flank, standing motionless. Compared to these golden bodies, even the towering peaks seemed less imposing. Wherever the golden bodies stood, lotus pedestals grew forth of their own accord.
Once all the golden bodies assembled, a great sun rose slowly from the edge of the mountains. This sun touched both earth and sky, its radiance dominating half the heavens! Only when it had risen fully could one discern that it was actually a Buddha's head.
This world could no longer contain its entire golden body, allowing only the Buddha's head to manifest.
A Golden-Bodied Arhat spoke: "Our gathering today is to address Wei Yuan's roots. Recently, the two disciples Jingru and Jinghai sacrificed their bodies to feed the demon and converted tens of millions in Western Jin, an act of immeasurable merit. However..."
He hesitated, but another golden body took up the thread: "There is nothing that cannot be said. Jingru possessed great wisdom roots. By sacrificing himself to convert the masses, all seven northern commanderies of Ganzhou should, by rights, have turned into a Buddha Land, where every person walking the earth would be a believer. Yet as of now, barely thirty percent have been converted.
"Looking with my Eye of Wisdom, most people across Ganzhou's commanderies are entangled in demonic qi, their wisdom roots defiled. Converting them further will prove exceedingly difficult."
"Whence does the demon come?" another golden body asked.
"Wei Yuan teaches the people in his domain to read and write, then fills their heads with twisted theories and heresy. Over time, their wisdom roots become polluted and their affinities with the Buddha are severed. In the future, when disciples of our Pure Land expound the marvelous Dharma, ordinary mortals would listen with joy and reverence. But these demon-befuddled people will invariably ask 'why,' and after a few questions, that devout heart directed toward the Buddha vanishes without a trace."
A golden body holding an alms bowl said slowly, "Today Qingming possesses a vast population, yet our Pure Land has few believers there. That must be the reason. The path Wei Yuan walks is specious and fraught with falsehood. If left unchecked, it will eventually become a great disaster."
Another four-armed golden body holding a dharma instrument in each hand said, "It seems necessary to sacrifice a few precious treasures to drive him onto a dead-end path."
The golden bodies pressed their palms together and chimed in unison, "Most excellent!"
From beginning to end, the Buddha head suspended in the sky like the sun showed not the slightest stir.
Chapter 1208