"It's mainly because of Your Highness's excellent teaching."

Chen Da flattered him and opened the door to the water dungeon.

This prison was specially designed by some eminent Buddhist monks. It contains all sorts of tortures. These Buddhist disciples would come here from time to time to torture those people who resisted them, just for their amusement.

The Buddhist disciples always felt that the prison was not well designed, and some of the punishments were not cruel enough, so they could not experience the pleasure of torturing others.

These Buddhist disciples now feel that the prison is too well designed, and the punishments inside are too cruel. In particular, the designer of this water prison is now filled with regret.

A typical water dungeon is a pit dug in the ground, filled with water, and then a cage is built on top. People are tied to the cage, with half of them submerged in the water and the other half exposed.

Then the prisoners could only stand in the cages and couldn't lie down. Being soaked in the dirty water of the water dungeon for a long time would also cause their skin to ulcerate.

After seeing this, the Buddhist disciples felt that the water dungeon was not deterrent enough, so they made improvements to it.

They replaced the water with salt water and added it to the neck area. Then they laid sharp-edged gravel at the bottom of the water dungeon and tied thorns all over the wooden sticks of the cage.

The prisoners were locked in the water dungeon. They could only breathe by stepping on the bottom of the water and lifting their heads up. This action not only caused their feet to touch the gravel below, but also caused their faces to be pricked by the thorns on the cage.

The combination of a wound and dirty saline solution creates a persistent pain that can be enough to drive a person to the brink of collapse.

In the past, Buddhist disciples loved watching prisoners in the water dungeon wail and beg for mercy.

They never imagined that one day they would be imprisoned in the water dungeon they had meticulously designed.

As soon as Li Chang'an walked in, the monks began to beg for mercy one after another.

"Your Highness, I'm innocent! I really don't know anything about dragon veins."

"We are just the lowest-ranking disciples, we really don't know anything about the Dragon Vein."

Li Chang'an looked at the people struggling in the water dungeon, his face expressionless.

The things these bald monks of Buddhism did in Jiangnan, even if they died a hundred or a thousand times, would still not appease the resentment of the people of Jiangnan.

The reason why those martial arts practitioners in Jiangnan live such carefree lives is that it is the common people at the bottom of society who sacrifice themselves.

The Jiangnan region, known as the land of fish and rice, was the place with the highest grain production in the Ming Dynasty. The rice here not only had a high yield, but could also be harvested twice a year.

With high yields and abundant resources, the people of Jiangnan should have been well-fed and clothed.

However, the people here not only did not have enough to eat and wear, but their lives were even worse than those of the people in Lingnan, at least most of the people in Lingnan still had their own land and fields.

The people of Jiangnan basically did not own any land; most of the land they cultivated belonged to landlords.

The biggest landlords in Jiangnan are those bald monks from the Buddhist sect. A large portion of the arable land in Jiangnan is under the Buddhist sect's control.

Other prominent families and martial arts sects also followed the Buddhist teachings, learning from each other.

Land annexation became the biggest problem in Jiangnan.

The farmland in the entire Jiangnan region was basically in the hands of powerful and influential people.

They either seized the land by trickery or through collusion between officials and businessmen. No matter how they used either soft or hard tactics, they wanted to take over the land from the people. Only in this way could they manipulate the people of Jiangnan at will.

Ordinary people had no land of their own and could only become employees of those noble families, cultivating the land that had been taken from them, and then splitting it 30/70 with the noble families.

Even with that 30%, the common people still had to be mindful of the powerful families' attitudes to get their hands on it. If they displeased the powerful families, they might not even get their 30%.

Sometimes, when there is a natural disaster or a poor harvest, not only do they not receive their 30% of the grain, but they also end up owing the landlords 70%.

After all, those high and mighty lords don't care about natural disasters or man-made calamities. All they know is that once this land is handed over to you, you have to hand over enough grain.

If you can't deliver, it means you didn't cultivate your land well, you were lazy, and you weren't diligent enough.

Otherwise, why can others pay, but you can't?

Many ordinary people toiled hard all year, only to end up with a mountain of debt. In the end, they were forced to sell their children to landlords as slaves.

This is the life of ordinary people in Jiangnan. They work themselves to the bone to grow white rice, weave beautiful silks and satins, and give birth to healthy boys and beautiful girls.

In the end, it was the prestigious families and landlords who enjoyed the benefits.

They ate rice, wore silk, ordered around servants, and then embraced the girls, enjoying the fruits of the people's labor while lamenting the suffering of the common people. They then cursed the farmers under their command for their lack of gratitude.

We gave them the land to cultivate, yet they still want 30% of the grain. They're just insatiable scoundrels.

When Li Chang'an first heard these words, he wished he could kill them all in one breath.

But after thinking about it, it would be too much of a waste to kill them all.

They should experience firsthand the lives of these so-called "troublemakers."

"Master Yuanzhen, it's been a long time."

Li Chang'an greeted the abbot of Shaolin Temple with a bright, sunny smile.

He would feel happy every time he saw the abbot of Shaolin Temple on the verge of death.

Yuanzhen, bound to a wooden stake, struggled to lift his head, his eyes filled with resentment: "You lackey of the imperial court, you will be punished. Buddha will not let you go; he will punish you."

After saying this, he seemed to have used up all his strength, and he lowered his head weakly, letting out a painful groan.

His lower body was reduced to bones, with half a bamboo stick protruding from the middle of the bones—this was the cause of his suffering.

"Buddha? What is Buddha? Does he even deserve to punish me?"

Looking at his expression, Li Chang'an teased, "Even if there really is a Buddha, he wouldn't be a good person if he tolerated you doing something like this. In the end, it's uncertain whether he will punish me or I will punish him."

Yuanzhen didn't speak; the pain had overwhelmed him.

Looking at his appearance, Chen Da sneered and said, "Your Highness, why don't you sit for a while and I'll make some more arrangements? I'd like to see just how stubborn this abbot can be."

"There's no need for that. I don't bother with the dead. If Master Yuanzhen wants to curse, let him. Once he's inside the lamp, let's see if he's still hard."

Li Chang'an waved his hand, then took out a chair from his backpack, looked at the people in the water dungeon, and asked, "Don't say I didn't give you a chance. If any of you know the connection between the dragon vein and immortality, I will spare your lives."