In the seventh century A.D., Buddhism has gradually declined, in fact, it cannot be said that it has declined, because although Tianzhu is the birthplace of Buddhism, except for the time of Ashoka B.C., it was once flourished by Brahmanism, and even absorbed some teachings by Brahmanism and became a part of later Hinduism.

Speaking of Brahmanism, this religion is older than Buddhism, is the real ruler of the religion of the Tianzhu Continent, the entire Tianzhu Continent is influenced by Brahmanism both in spiritual life and material life, and later Hinduism is also called Neo-Brahmanism, because it is on the basis of Brahmanism, absorbing various doctrines into a new religion, but in the era of Li Su, Brahmanism weakened, and Hinduism has not yet been formed, it can be said that it is in the alternating stage of the old and new religions.

Brahmins are a polytheistic religion with more than 30 million gods, but most believers believe in only one god. Moreover, the teachings within the religion are complex, and some of them contradict each other, but these are not important, the important thing is that Brahmanism has made an important norm for the social structure of Tianzhu, that is, the caste system.

The caste system originated very early, almost at the same time as Brahmanism, which divided all Brahmans into four types, namely Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras, with Brahmins being sacrificial nobles, Kshatriyas being military and administrative nobles, Vaishyas being farmers and merchants, and finally Shudras being slaves.

The four hierarchies have strict rules on status, rights, occupations, obligations, etc., and they are passed down from father to son, and generally only people of the same rank can intermarry, especially prohibiting low-ranking men from marrying high-ranking women. On the contrary, there is no problem, and the lowest Shudras are not allowed to participate in religious life. It can only serve the first two classes for life, and has no legal rights. It can be said that the caste system is the most typical and rigid hierarchy in the world.

In contrast, although Li Su also divided the different races into four classes, but this is mainly to promote the implementation of sinicization, and each level is not fixed, generally as long as you work hard, you can gradually improve your rank, and finally until you are completely integrated into the Han people, so this is fundamentally different from the caste system.

After Li Zhen and Li Yun landed on the Tianzhu Continent and defeated a small kingdom called Jola. In front of them, it was such a social structure that was strictly divided by the caste system, and what they defeated at the beginning was actually only the Kshatriya of the four ranks, and with their entry, the Brahmanism of the Chora Kingdom actually contacted them, hoping that Li Zhen and Li Yun could believe in Brahmanism, and then the sect would make them the new Kshatriya nobles to help them rule the land.

Li Zhen and Li Yun before coming to Tianzhu. Naturally, they knew something about Brahmanism, and they knew very well about the four caste systems, and they knew it, doctrinally. The status of the Brahmins is more noble than that of the Kshatriyas, and as the princes of the Tang Dynasty, the Brahmins actually let them be relegated to the second Kshatriya. It's just an insult, so I don't even pay attention to this kind of proposal. If they hadn't even known that the Brahmins had a huge influence among the people, they might have destroyed the Brahmin temples in the kingdom of Chora.

However, after ignoring the brahmin's proposal. Li Zhen and Li Yun soon discovered that although they could conquer the kingdom of Chora by force, if they wanted to truly rule the kingdom, they had to rely on the power of Brahmanism, because after thousands of years of development, the influence of Brahmanism had penetrated into all aspects of the Tianzhu people, and all of them were influenced by Brahmanical teachings in their thoughts and actions.

Faced with this situation, Li Zhen and Li Yun thought of three ways, the first of which was to implement high-pressure rule, no matter what the influence of Brahmanism was, all of them would be solved by violence. However, there will certainly be resistance from the local people, and they may be driven out one day. The second was to accept the advice of the Brahmins to replace the original Kshatriya nobility and recognize the transcendent status of the Brahmins.

However, the above two methods were not what Li Zhen and Li Yun wanted to see, so after they gathered everyone, everyone thought hard for a long time, and even wrote to Li Yu for advice, and finally with the joint efforts of everyone, they finally made a great decision, that is, to reform Brahmanism, so that it would be more conducive to their rule in Tianzhu without touching the interests of most of the believers.

This is not a decision made by Li Zhen and Li Yun at will, but according to the information provided by Li Yu before, coupled with the collection after they landed in Tianzhu, they found that now the Brahmanism in the Tianzhu continent has fallen into a period of decline, such as taking the most powerful Jieri Dynasty in the north as an example, although Jieri believes in the Brahmanical god Shiva, but for the needs of rule, he also has a supportive attitude towards other religions, especially in the past few years, he has increased his support for Buddhism, and built thousands of stupas on both sides of the Ganges River, As a result of this behavior, Buddhism in decline showed signs of revival for a time.

The Jieri Dynasty was only one of the representatives, and in other parts of Tianzhu, Brahmanism also encountered the same situation, and its influence was much less than before. If this situation had not been allowed to persist without the intervention of Li Zhen and Li Yun, then in a few decades, Brahmanism would have absorbed the teachings of Buddhism and other religions, giving rise to Neo-Brahmanism, which later became Hinduism.

Although Li Su, Li Zhen and Li Yun are not aware of the religious changes in Tianzhu, they are sensitive to the fact that Brahmanism is not willing to let its influence decline, and many Brahmins are looking for a new religious outlet, and this undoubtedly gives Li Zhen and Li Yun an opportunity, as long as they can promote the improved Brahmanism and enhance the influence of the new Brahmanism, then a considerable number of Brahmins will definitely welcome their arrival, and with the support of these Brahmins, In the future, they will be able to go further in Tianzhu.

It is also based on the above ideas, so Li Zhen and Li Yun first used money to buy off some local Brahmin nobles, which is actually a very simple matter, because the local Brahmin nobles live a depraved life, advocate pleasure, and there is a threat of force, soon a group of Brahmin nobles were controlled by Li Zhen and Li Yun, and then according to their needs, the current Brahmin doctrine was improved.

However, after hearing about this very 'interesting' incident, Li Su personally wrote a letter to Li Zhen and Li Yun, reminding them that the new Brahmins must refer to the newly rising cannibalistic Islam and the Romans' Catholicism and other religious models, and strive to achieve the unity of Islam in politics and state, only in this way can they truly override religion and not be bound by religion.

For Li Su's solemn suggestion, Li Zhen and Li Yun naturally attached great importance to it, Da Shi is not far from Tianzhu, and there are often Da Shi and Roman merchants who come to Tianzhu by boat, so they can easily find some merchants who believe in Islam and Catholicism, and then learn about Da Shi and the religious situation in Rome through them, and then provide it to those Brahmin nobles, as a result, a new religion with Brahmins as the main body and reference to Islam and Catholicism appeared.

In order to win the support of the Brahmins, this new religion named the religion the name of the new Brahmin, and also believed in the three main gods of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and also supported the caste system, but on this basis, the new Brahmin advertised Li Yun as the reincarnation of Vishnu, the god of protection, and Li Zhen as the reincarnation of Shiva, the god of destruction, and jointly served as the pope of the new Brahmanism, only one was the emperor of protection, and the other was the emperor of destruction.

After determining the religious status of Li Zhen and Li Yun, the new Brahmin publicized the papal mission that had traveled from afar: because they sensed the weakness of Brahmanism in various parts of Tianzhu, the two main gods were reincarnated in the East, and then led the divine army to Tianzhu, in order to cleanse those pagans who did not believe in Brahmins, so that the glory of God could shine on the land of Tianzhu again.

Of course, in order to cooperate with the propaganda of the new Brahmanism, and in order to increase the divinity of the two popes, Li Zhen and Li Yun, the new Brahmin nobles who took refuge in them made up many myths and legends about them, such as what two people appeared in the sky when they appeared, and the gods entrusted their dreams to their father Li Shimin, cutting snakes at the age of seven and slaying dragons at the age of eight, etc., anyway, these things are ready-made, just borrow them from the Central Plains mythology and use them.

In addition, in order to make this theocratic regime more stable, Li Zhen and Li Yun also modified the political system of their opponents, dividing all officials into two categories, namely military and political officials and religious officials, of which the first category has nothing to say, referring to the administrative structure of the Tang Dynasty and Taiwan, but the details have been modified. As for the establishment of religious officials, it was a major reform, because he represented the final supremacy of secular power over religion, and it was only through the appointment of Li Zhen and Li Yun that the Brahmin nobility had legitimate missionary power.

After the establishment of the new Brahmanism, Li Zhen and Li Yun immediately began to proselytize in the ruling area, starting with the Brahmins, mainly those Brahmin nobles who had been bought, supplemented by the threat of force, to control all the Brahmin temples as quickly as possible, and then centered on these temples, they began to spread new teachings, as well as publicize the deeds of the two popes, Li Zhen and Li Yun, and increase the number of believers.

This top-down reform was fast, and it didn't change much for the faithful, except for the addition of two popes who were reincarnated by the main gods. Moreover, in the Brahmin religion, the main god is often reincarnated into other gods, people, and even beasts to complete some missions, so there is nothing unacceptable about the appearance of the two main gods, Li Zhen and Li Yun, who are reincarnated.

It's just that everyone, including Li Zhen and Li Yun, the two initiators, didn't expect what kind of changes this new religion would bring to the Tianzhu Continent, which was still very weak? (To be continued......)