The villain only needs to achieve his goal, while Li Chang'an, as a virtuous gentleman, has to consider many other things.
"Your Highness, it's not really your fault. Even if the dragon vein hadn't died, and had been taken away by those Buddhist monks, the land in Jiangnan would still have been turned upside down."
Zhang Xianzong sat in a chair and began to comfort him.
Li Chang'an glanced at him, but didn't say anything. Instead, he continued to scribble on the paper.
Zhang Xianzong arrived the day after the earth dragon turned over, while the rest of the army was ordered by Li Chang'an to rescue people around Jingshan.
The area most severely affected by this disaster is the Jingshan area.
Within a hundred miles of Jingshan, there have been dozens of tremors, large and small, in the past few days, disrupting transportation in various places.
Fortunately, Li Chang'an could fly; otherwise, even if the army had rescued the people, there would have been no way to feed them.
"Oh, Mr. Zhang, you seem to have a lot of free time today."
Zhang Sanfeng pushed open the door and walked in, made a joke to Zhang Xianzong, then plopped down in a chair, picked up the teapot on the table, and drank directly from the spout.
"Can't you just use a cup?"
Seeing how he drank it, Zhang Xianzong couldn't help but say, "It's such a waste that you've drunk such a fine pot of tea like this."
Zhang Sanfeng finished the teapot and then laughed, "What's the difference between good tea and bad tea? As long as it quenches your thirst, it's the best tea in the world."
"You might as well just lie down at the well and drink the water; why waste my tea by coming here?"
"Haha, I also wanted to just lie down downstairs and drink water from the well, but I came here to report something to the Prince."
After drinking his fill of water, Zhang Sanfeng said to Li Chang'an, "Your Highness, the Yin-Yang School and the Buddhist sect have all been arrested. Would you like to go and see them?"
These days, the army is in charge of disaster relief, while Zhang Sanfeng, along with his disciples, is working with Chen Da's 10,000-strong army to deal with the Buddhist and Yin-Yang sects.
He took Chen Da with him and arrested people along the way, using torture to extract confessions. Before long, they had arrested all the Buddhist and Yin-Yang practitioners who had been stationed in Jiangnan.
"Okay, then I'll go check on these people."
Li Chang'an put down his pen and stretched: "I'd like to see what these people are thinking. What makes them think that they can achieve immortality and longevity just by relying on a broken dragon vein?"
He had been studying the dragon corpse for days, but after searching for a long time, he still couldn't find the so-called secret to immortality.
He searched the cave below Jingshan Mountain several times, but found nothing related to immortality.
When asked, the bald monks in the Buddhist community couldn't give a clear answer either. They simply wanted to use this dragon vein to establish a nation, turn Jiangnan into a Buddhist country, and make everyone believe in Buddhism.
Those who truly understand this dragon vein are the Yin-Yang School.
Li Chang'an now regrets it. Why did he kill Donghuang Taiyi with one punch? He could have found out the truth first and then killed him.
Chen Da sat at the entrance of the dungeon, looking somewhat tired. The interrogation of those martial arts figures these past few days had exhausted him.
Now that he had finished his work, he sat down at the entrance of the dungeon to rest for a while.
He had barely sat down when he saw Li Chang'an approaching. He quickly stood up and bowed, saying, "This humble general greets Your Highness!"
"Your dark circles are really bad. How long has it been since you've had a proper rest?"
Chen Da chuckled, scratched the back of his head, and didn't say anything.
Zhang Zhiwei was somewhat surprised to see him like this; it was the first time he had ever seen General Chen with such a simple and honest smile.
When in front of the master and his apprentice, Chen Da had a gloomy face and remained silent.
In front of those江湖人士 (jianghu figures), he is cruel and perverted, laughing with a mocking laugh.
No matter how you look at it, he doesn't seem like a good person.
"Alright, go back and rest for a while. I'll have Cheng Hu cook you something nice tonight to help you recover."
Li Chang'an patted Chen Da on the shoulder: "There are plenty of bad people in Jiangnan. You need to take care of your health. If you fall down, who will torture these scumbags for me?"
"Yes, Your Highness."
"Open the door, I want to go in and see those Buddhist people."
Chen Da cupped his hands in greeting, opened the dungeon door, and then followed him inside.
"Wow, so many people?"
As soon as Li Chang'an entered the dungeon, he was stunned by the scene before him. The huge dungeon was packed with prisoners.
These prisoners are confined in cells and can only huddle up, standing or squatting. If they want to lie down, they have to pile on top of each other.
"How many people have been arrested?"
"Your Highness, a total of 15,000 people were arrested. Some of the most heinous criminals were beheaded on the way, and the rest, whose crimes were serious, had their collarbones pierced and were sent out to help with disaster relief."
"There are only about eight thousand people locked up here. These are all martial arts practitioners whose crimes are not serious. I will lock them up for a few days to temper their tempers. After a few days, I will send them out to do disaster relief and atone for their sins."
Chen Da cupped his hands in greeting and began to report. He knew the prisoners in the dungeon like the back of his hand.
The Ming Dynasty had many people who used torture to extract confessions, but his position remained as stable as Mount Tai. There were people who wanted to take his place, but no one could shake his position.
Besides Li Chang'an's nostalgia, the more important reason is that Chen Da himself is also intelligent.
He has a good sense of propriety and knows what he should do, what he shouldn't do, and what he needs to do.
Instead of simply following orders.
"Are all these people members of the Yin-Yang School and Buddhism?"
Li Chang'an looked at the martial arts masters in the dungeon and asked.
Not entirely.
Chen Da pointed at the prisoners in the dungeon and said, "Some of them are villains who want to take advantage of the disaster to rob others, while others are so-called righteous sects."
“They think we are the imperial court and are unwilling to hand over the Buddhist and Yin-Yang school people. They even attacked us and injured the soldiers we sent. They felt that it was somewhat undignified to submit to the imperial court.”
"Seeing that they wanted to be treated with dignity, I granted their wish and, along with my brothers, gave them the respect they deserved."
"If they don't want to back down, then let them taste the knives of us brothers and see if they're tough enough."
Upon hearing this, Li Chang'an burst into laughter: "That's great, that's great, let's give the brothers a credit."
“These are the soldiers I, Li Chang’an, have trained. What kind of so-called prestigious sects are they? I think they just need to be taught a lesson.”
"Where are the Buddhist and Yin-Yang masters imprisoned?"
“They’re in the water dungeon.” Chen Da pointed to the deepest part of the cell: “Those Buddhists talk about compassion, but behind the scenes they do things worse than animals. I think their sins are grave, so I’ve locked them up in the water dungeon to reflect on their actions.”
Upon hearing this, Li Chang'an praised, "Well done. In this world, besides Zhao Hu, you, Chen Da, are the one I trust the most in getting things done."
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