Chapter 138: Complexity

Paititi, the legendary city of gold.

Just like Kunlun, Kunlun in a narrow sense is naturally the vast mountain range west of Kunlun Pass, and Kunlun in a broad sense also includes Kunlun Cave Heaven.

The same is true for Paititi. Paititi in a broad sense includes the legendary holy city, the forgotten city, and the golden city. Paititi in a narrow sense is the new capital of Tawantin today. In order to distinguish between the two, Xidaomen and Tawantin called the new capital that replaced Cusco the New Paititi, and the golden city the Old Paititi.

Qi Xuansu once got a map from Wang Jiaohe and a key from the baron, both of which were related to the Old Paititi.

The key is how to enter the Old Paititi.

However, this matter can be put aside for the time being, don't worry, the key is the New Paititi.

The high-level traitor of Tawantin is in the New Paititi.

New Paititi cannot be compared with Imperial Capital, Jade Capital, or even Saint York. The situation here is the most complicated.

Jade Capital is a Taoist city, the absolute core of Taoism. Although it is jointly controlled by the three Daos and has a lineage of the Grand Master, in general, there are only Taoist forces in Yujing City.

Imperial Capital is the absolute core of the Great Xuan Court. Although there are Taoist forces here, the Imperial Capital Daofu ranks last among many Daofu. In essence, it is still dominated by the forces of the Great Xuan Court. The last battle of the Five Elements Mountain was not only the power of the Imperial Capital Daofu, but also the great master Jiang came to sit in person.

Saint York is weaker than Imperial Capital, but there are only two major forces, Steam Gospel and City Council, with Steam Gospel as the main force and City Council as the auxiliary force. However, the power of the City Council is stronger than that of the Imperial Capital Daofu and has greater independence.

New Paititi has four forces: the royal family, the military, the priests, and the Western Daomen.

Maybe someone will say that Yujing also has four forces, but they are completely different. In any case, the three sects of Taoism have many consensuses, such as recognizing that the Supreme Taoist Ancestor is the founder of Taoism and recognizing that Xuansheng is the ancestor of the revival of Taoism. However, the forces of the new Paititi are difficult to gather even such consensus, because Tawanting is essentially a combination of three empires.

The three empires failed in different ways.

The Western Dao Sect combined the three together based on the principle of uniting all available forces. Under the promotion of the Western Dao Sect, Emperor Tawanting married the fallen princess of Nahuatl, obtained the loyalty of most of the Nahuatl army, and converted to the sun god Kukulkan of Nohepeten and accepted the priest power of Nohepeten.

Generally speaking, the main god Pachaka of Tawanting is the image of a fishman, while the main god Kukulkan of Nohepeten is the image of a feathered serpent god. The two are obviously not in the same pantheon. It was only because Pachaka had fallen that the royal family of Tawanting easily converted.

As for the main god of Nahuatl, it is not Kukulkan, but Huizillopotelli. However, among the gods of Nahuatl, there is also a feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl, who is a god with human nature. After careful "research" by Xidaomen, it is believed that Quetzalcoatl is Kukulkan, and Huizillopotelli has fallen, so most people in Nahuatl have converted to Kukulkan.

This is actually a deal reached between Xidaomen and Kukulkan. Xidaomen expands the faith for Kukulkan, and the ancient gods headed by Kukulkan have to share the pressure for Xidaomen and be responsible for fighting against the apostles of the Holy See. However, Xidaomen is not without reservation. Most of the upper class of the royal family accept the protection of Kukulkan, but the lower-level army, Xidaomen vigorously promotes the Central Plains, and there are many people who worship Taoism.

Among the three giants of the Western Dao Sect, Gongfu's faction has the closest relationship with Nahuatl and has great influence in the army; Tantai Zhenxiao's faction has close relations with the priests of Nohepeteng and is on good terms with the ancient gods behind them; the Huangfu family has close contacts with the Tawanting royal family. Huangfu Zhao is the teacher of the prince. The Tawanting royal family converted to Kukulkan while accepting the ideas of Taoism, believing that there is an invisible "Tao" in the world, and learning the classic articles of Confucianism.

This is the complex situation of Tawanting, which is far more complicated than the three major Taoist sects. At least the three major Taoist sects have no differences in faith. Everyone recognizes the Supreme Taoist Ancestor and Xuansheng, but there are differences in power. In other words, there is no doubt about who the ancestor is, and there is no doubt about the inheritance of the legal system. There are only differences in who is the headmaster.

On the other hand, Tawanting's ancestor is not the same ancestor, and the inheritance of the legal system is all forced by the Western Dao Sect, which is simply a mess. It is better to start all over again and simply convert to Taoism, which is clean.

This is also the proposition of the three generations of the Li family. The West Daomen replaced the ancient gods such as Kukulkan, and the West Daomen returned to the Daomen, and Tawanting was included in the Daomen system, just like the Awa State and the Dayu State. Even considering the size and geographical location of Tawanting, it can be exempted from the tribute system of the Great Xuan Court.

But in this way, the Daomen will lose its reputation of morality and justice. It has not done the things of the Holy Court, but has the reality of the Holy Court, but it is better to eat than the Holy Court. Therefore, many people in the Daomen also opposed it, believing that they should only cooperate and develop harmoniously, and should not conquer, which would sow disasters for the future.

The reason of this faction is also very realistic. The key is that Tawanting is too far away. It is separated by thousands of miles of ocean, and the difficulty of governance has risen sharply. Even if they surrender to the Taoist sect, it will not be a big deal when the Taoist sect is at its peak, but once the Taoist sect declines, they cannot share the hardships. The emperor is far away, and they will inevitably break away from the Taoist system and set up their own sects. Instead, they will become the role model of Borneo and Fenglinzhou, setting a bad example, which is a disaster.

On this point, the two factions have clashed many times.

The faction headed by the Li family believes that the vast territory of the Central Plains is not innate, but has been expanded little by little by our ancestors. We are just repeating the cause of our ancestors. If we don’t take what God gives us, we will suffer the consequences. If we can take over the South Continent, then in another two hundred years, the Taoist sect will be in its heyday. Two hundred years is enough to establish a sense of belonging and identity. We are not the barbarians of the Holy Court who only know how to kill people. We should educate and guide them, and be sages inside and kings outside.

The opposing faction believes that the size of the territory is closely related to the governance capacity and transportation level, and there is an upper limit.

At the beginning of the dynasty, the government was clean and honest, and no one was not attentive to anything and no one was not working hard, just because it was difficult and hard at that time, and they could only find a life from a thousand deaths. Then, as things gradually improved, they gradually became lazy, and the minority became the majority, and then laziness became a trend. Even with great efforts, it could not be reversed, and it was difficult to remedy. Driven by the desire for achievements, the party united to attack the dissidents, and when the talents gradually became exhausted and difficult to cope with, the situation became complicated.

This is an objective fact. If you just make a big pie and ignore the internal problems, the bigger pie will only accelerate corruption and degeneration. What about the Golden Horde back then? Didn't it fall apart in the end? This is a lesson from the past. The Taoism of 200 years, at the beginning of the clear and bright progress, was still unable to completely and thoroughly assimilate Fenglinzhou, which had been learning from the Central Plains since the Daqi era. How can we dare to say what the Taoism will be like 200 years later?

In the end, no one could convince the other. Because of the enemy, the internal strife of the Holy Court was not far away, so it was not good to fight internally first, so this issue was shelved. The consensus within the Dao Sect was that it would not be too late to discuss this issue after the Holy Court was driven away or the Western Dao Sect truly returned to the Dao Sect.

Of course, if Tawanting took the initiative to ask to enter the Dao Sect system, it would not harm the moral righteousness and leave no hidden dangers for the future. The Dao Sect would not refuse, and Kukulkan could be conferred a True Lord, enjoy incense, and be a Taoist deity, which would be good for everyone.

However, the attitude of the Dao Sect towards Tawanting further aggravated the complex situation within Tawanting.

Because of the attitude of the Dao Sect, two schools of thought emerged within Tawanting and the Western Dao Sect.

One school advocated fully embracing the Dao Sect and becoming a part of the Dao Sect system, and the Western Dao Sect showed its willingness to return to the Dao Sect. The other school advocated maintaining autonomy and independence, and only having a friendship with the Dao Sect, and the Western Dao Sect showed its unwillingness to completely return to the Dao Sect and maintain the status quo.

The composition of these two schools of thought is not easy to distinguish by simply belonging to the empire or family. Take the Gong family and the Tan Tai family for example. The two sides have a clear division of power, but in some opinions and ideas, there may be no family boundaries. Some members of the Gong family and some members of the Tan Tai family believe that they should return to the Taoist sect, while other members of the Gong family and another part of the Tan Tai family believe that they should maintain the status quo.

This is the real you in me, I in you.

The key is that the Taoist sect has not yet made a clear attitude.

Facing such a complicated situation, it is not difficult for Qi Xuansu to mediate.