Yang Yuanqing was slightly stunned and immediately sat upright. He did not expect that the Maitreya Cult was actually related to the Tang Dynasty.

He stared at Zhou Yu for a while and tried to make his tone gentler, "As long as you are willing to sacrifice your merits, I will not only not kill you, but also give you a chance to return to the wrong path. Of course, the premise is that you have to spit out everything you shouldn't get."

Yang Yuanqing had realized that this Zhou Yu was the key figure in his destruction of this rebel storm. He might as well give him a chance to make contributions and atone for his sins.

Zhou Yu suddenly became excited. When the King of Chu first appeared, he thought he would die. Now the King of Chu promised to give him another chance to survive.

"Your Highness, you are guilty of humble duty, and you dare not hide it... everything is said."

"Tell me! I'll listen."

Zhou Yu quickly sorted out his thoughts and said, "Your Highness, the initiator of the Maitreya Sect is Cui Luxing. He is the son-in-law of Prefect Qu, and now the person who is called Fotai is him."

Yang Yuanqing nodded, "As you say this, the Maitreya Cult is actually the work of the prefect Qu Ling, is that true?"

"Your Highness, that's exactly what it is!"

"But why did he betray me?" Yang Yuanqing could no longer stop the anger in his heart.

This Qu Ling was Dou Jiande's narration, and he was very famous. He accepted his surrender with tolerance and appointed him as the prefect of Pingyuan County. He actually dared to start a cult and intend to rebel.

Zhou Zhi said hurriedly: "Your Highness, before this Qu Ling surrendered to Dou Jiande, he actually surrendered to the Tang Dynasty. He was in-laws with Liu Wenjing, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty. Dou Jiande formed an alliance with the Tang Dynasty, which was his line. This time, the rise of Maitreya Buddhism was also Liu Wenjing's idea. Qu Ling had an aide named Wang Shou. It is said that he came from Chang'an, and Bei Zhi suspected that he was sent by Liu Wenjing."

Yang Yuanqing stood up, walked a few steps with his hands behind his back, and then turned around and asked him: "When will they decide to rebel?"

"It should be the beginning of next month, after welcoming the Buddha 9981 days, sending the Buddha back, and large-scale believers will gather together. That is the time to rebel."

“How many believers are there now?”

"Report to Your Highness, there are more than 40,000 people now, not only Pingyuan County, but also Qinghe County, Bohai County, Xindu County and Hejian County have believers."

Yang Yuanqing pondered for a moment and looked at Zhou Yu again. He was a little suspicious. Qu Leng would never tell outsiders easily about this important secret. How did Zhou Yu learn about it? There was only one explanation. Zhou Yu was Qu Leng's confidant.

"Then why did you want to join the church and rebel with Qu Leng?"

Zhou Yu said with shame: "Because some of the handles fell into Qu Leng's hands."

"What's the handle?" Yang Yuanqing asked relentlessly.

"In the ten years of Daye, I sold a lot of official grains in private, about a thousand stones. In fact, officials from Pingyuan County have more or less handles in the hands of Qu Leng, so they were threatened. In addition, it is profitable to join the church, so...."

Zhou Yu didn't say anything more, but Yang Yuanqing knew in his heart that what handle was secondary and profit was the real reason. Zhou Yu must have followed Qu Leng wholeheartedly and became his confidant. Now seeing the danger comes, he immediately betrayed Qu Leng. Although he guessed it vaguely, Yang Yuanqing didn't want to point it out, as long as Zhou Yu was willing to work hard for him. The other grudges between them were no longer important.

Now that things are clear, how to resolve this crisis is the key. Although Zhou Yu said that there is still one month left to rebel, Yang Yuanqing believes that once the other party knows that the intention has been discovered by him, they will definitely rebel in advance, so they cannot alarm the enemy. Then, using thunder means to defeat the other party in one fell swoop is the key to victory.

Thinking of this, Yang Yuanqing looked at Zhou Yu again and had to start from this person.

"The following is the time for you to make meritorious service and atone for your sins."

...........

The prefect of Pingyuan, Qu Ling, is about fifty years old this year. He has been in his official career for thirty years and is already a veteran in the political arena.

Almost all officials have their own career paths, and there are also some paths that can understand and connect officials together. Among all the paths, marriage is undoubtedly an extremely important path.

This is particularly prominent for Qu Leng. Qu Leng's second son Qu Minggui married Liu Wenjing's third daughter. It was Liu Wenjing, the in-laws who changed Qu Leng's fate.

When Li Yuan raised an army in Taiyuan, Qu Leng, then the prefect of Xindu County, received a letter from his in-law Liu Wenjing and immediately announced his surrender to Li Yuan, but soon he surrendered to Dou Jiande.

Perhaps because he found that Dou Jiande had no future, Qu Ling turned to surrender to the Tang Dynasty secretly. After Dou Jiande's defeat, Qu Ling, who was the Nayan at the time, led dozens of civil officials to surrender to the Sui Dynasty. He was named the prefect of Pingyuan County by Yang Yuanqing.

This appointment made Qu Leng extremely disappointed. He wanted to become an official in the central government of the Sui Dynasty, but could not be the prime minister, or at least be the head of the ministry. Unexpectedly, he only received the position of prefect of Pingyuan County, but the Tang Dynasty promised him to be the Minister of Rites.

One light and one heavy, one high and one low, Qu Leng made a major decision, his name belonged to the Sui Dynasty and secretly returned to the Tang Dynasty. In order to gain the trust of the Tang Dynasty, he did not hesitate to submit a letter of loyalty to Li Yuan.

In the room, Qu Ling was paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, and there were several people standing next to him, one was his son Qu Minggui, one was his son-in-law Cui Luxing, and the other was his aide Wang Shou.

The son Qu Minggui and son-in-law Cui Luxing are both the main leaders of the Maitreya Sect. Cui Luxing is called Fotai, which is the reincarnation of Maitreya. Qu Minggui is the head of the Nine Buddhas, who has a thousand soldiers in his hands, but whether they are son-in-law or son, they are all puppets, and Qu Ling is the real leader.

The aide Wang Shou was the military advisor. He was actually Li Jiancheng's aide and was sent by Li Jiancheng to Hebei to implement the civil strife.

It was Liu Wenjing's idea to use Maitreya to start an uprising. When the Hebei War ended and the people were determined, it was difficult for them to rebel. Only by using the beliefs of Maitreya can these foolish men and stupid women follow and rebel.

"I heard a message."

Qu Ling said worriedly: "The army of Hejian County has begun to gather. Now that the Liaodong Battle has ended, why did the Hejian army gather? But at this critical moment, I have an ominous premonition!"

Qu Minggui frowned. He was responsible for security and was particularly sensitive to mobilizations such as the army.

"Did my father say that the army of Hejian County is coming to deal with us?"

Cui Luxing, next to him, smiled and said, "Didn't my father-in-law have a little bit of a vegetation? The mobilization of the Hejian County army may be a normal training. Didn't my father-in-law say that each county should start organizing militia training? Perhaps this matter has nothing to do with Maitreya Cult."

Qu Leng knew that his son-in-law was okay to pretend to be a ghost, and he would definitely not have any idea to talk about his business with him. He ignored Cui Luxing, but looked at Wang Shou, his eyes full of expectations. Wang Shou was resourceful and very smart. The establishment of the Maitreya Cult was completely planned by him. His concerns about Hejian County were actually what Wang Shou said.

Wang Shou is from Guanzhong. He is about 35 or 36 years old. He is short, has a flat nose and nostrils facing the sky. He has a thick lips and a ugly face. However, he is one of the worshipers of the East Palace Literature Museum and is deeply trusted by Prince Li Jiancheng.

This person didn't talk much and seemed very low-key, but in fact, he was the one who held the power of the Maitreya Cult. He came to Pingyuan County on behalf of the Crown Prince Li Jiancheng. On major issues, if he had not nodded, Qu Leng would not dare to make a decision.

Wang Shou said lightly: "No matter what, you must always be careful. During this period, Maitreya will be collected first, so that the Buddhas of each county will come to talk and calm their emotions."

He remembered something again and asked Qu Ling: "I remember a few days ago, didn't the prefect say that Yang Yuanqing might be in Hebei? Now there is news about him."

Qu Ling hesitated and said, "This is not certain. At that time, he found that five hundred cavalry crossed the border from Hejian County and went south. At that time, he was only suspected that it was Yang Yuanqing's personal guards. Now there is no news about Yang Yuanqing in the nearby county governments. It may not be Yang Yuanqing. Even if it was Yang Yuanqing, he might have gone south to Wei County. Qin Qiong led tens of thousands of troops to station in the Wei County area."

Wang Shou pondered for a moment and said slowly: "I think it's better not to be careless about this matter. Yang Yuanqing's traces appeared, and news of a large-scale military transfer came from Hejian County. It is a warning no matter what. I suggest revising the plan and taking the time for the reprisal to advance the reprisal, and officially launching ten days later."

Although Wang Shou kept saying that he was just a suggestion, his suggestion was a decision and could not be negotiated.

...........

At dusk three days later, Zhou Yu, the magistrate of Pingyuan County, came to Ande County by carriage, and maintained more than 20 tall and strong "yamen runners" around the carriage. They wore red and black robes, tied leather belts, veil hats, and dressed as yamen runners. There was also an image of Maitreya Buddha embroidered on the hem of the robe, which also implied their other identity.

Of course, they have a third identity, that is, Yang Yuanqing's personal soldiers. Among these entourages, Yang Yuanqing also changed his clothes and dressed in a yamen runner-up dress.

Unless a very familiar person sees him, no one will think that the powerful King of Chu would pretend to be a yamen runner.

Even the county magistrates who had seen Yang Yuanqing would not believe it. At most, they thought that the yamen runner looked a bit like Yang Yuanqing.

As soon as he entered the city gate, he met Qu Minggui and rushed to him with more than a dozen followers and cavalrymen. He saw more than twenty tall and burly yamen runners' entourage at first sight, and his eyes lit up. He had never seen such a majestic man before, and there were more than twenty.

Indeed, Yang Yuanqing's personal soldiers were all elite soldiers selected from more than 100,000 troops, and they were among the elite soldiers. The twenty guards who followed him were all over six feet and five, with big arms and round waists and high martial arts skills. Not to mention that Qu Minggui had never seen him, even Dou Jiande might not have such elite soldiers.

Qu Minggui then saw the war horses under the crotch of the "yamen runners". He could no longer walk. He stared at the war horses without blinking, and his eyes showed a look of greed. These war horses were all BMWs with strong physiques, long limbs, and one in a thousand.

"Who are you?" Qu Minggui waved his whip and blocked everyone's way, but happened to stop Yang Yuanqing.
Chapter completed!