[Volume 2 New World] Chapter 216 The Messenger Arrives
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Chapter 216 The Envoy Arrives
After the bankers' efforts, Zhang Yingchen first "whitewashed" his sect. [Read the latest chapter] He himself has an ultimatum, and the three missionaries who came from Qiongshan all have official Taoist ultimatums obtained by the Foreign Intelligence Service through the Guangzhou Station.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, local officials were very vigilant towards monks, especially wandering monks, who in the eyes of the government were potential criminals and instigators. All prefectures and counties have Senghui and Daolu bureaus dedicated to the management of monks and monks. In theory, monks and monks traveling abroad must have the local Senghui and Daolu department issue a road citation document. Only in this way can they register for travel. Have a formal identity. If you want to place orders in a certain place, you must also report to the local "relevant departments" for registration.
Although this system was no longer very strict at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Yingchen believed that the procedures should be as complete as possible to prevent the government from using it to pull people's hair.
The first was to officially turn "Yunsheng Temple" into a Taoist temple. Under the operation of the banker and Zhang Yingchen's generous use of money, it was quickly completed. Later, the three missionaries from Qiongshan were listed as "official prepared by". Zhang Yingchen named one of the most clever and well-spoken old boys as the host, and he was in charge of external affairs.
In this way, he has a legal religious place in Yizhou. Zhang Yingchen then invested money to expand the Taoist temple - in the year of the disaster, labor was extremely cheap. Except for a few skilled workers, most of the workers only needed to have enough food to eat.
Then, the medical bureau co-founded by him and the banker also opened. For a time, New Taoism was in full swing in Yizhou and its momentum increased greatly. The number of believers continues to increase. Various local branches of the Nanwuliang Sect began to disintegrate, and many incense owners and ministers began to defect - some were frightened by the legend of his "magic power", and some were forced by financial constraints. Floods have been frequent in the past two years, and the government's taxes have been heavy. Many small landowners and rich farmers who serve as incense owners and incense makers have been overwhelmed, and the church itself has many "offerings" and "incense rituals" distributed - although They can distribute money to grassroots believers, but ordinary believers are in even worse condition and cannot give out much money at all. After the flood, although relief money and food were allocated from the main altar, very little fell into their hands. Instead, the altar owner extorted a lot of money and food in the name of "relieving comrades."
Zhang Yingchen learned from the incense owners who defected that the current leader of the Yizhou altar, Ma Sanwei, was afraid of a local toba - the so-called toba, which is almost a mixture of landlords and bandits. With his hard skills and hundreds of thugs under his command, he was very powerful in the local area, and the government did not dare to provoke him easily. He saw that the Nanwuliang Sect was gaining momentum in the local area and had many followers, so he became interested and joined the sect. Since he was a wealthy and powerful person in the local area, the sect naturally valued him very much, so in less than three to five years, he became a member of the sect. The original local altar leader suddenly died, so he naturally became the altar leader.
For such a person, the so-called faith is just a tool for him to make money. Of course, he is still very respectful to the higher-ups in the sect, and even behaves very devoutly - because although he has no faith, he is very superstitious, and the "spells" of the protectors and patrols in the sect make him afraid. Secondly, He feels that it is more convenient to make money wearing this skin than in the past.
Therefore, the believers in Yizhou have long been dissatisfied with Ma Weisan, the altar leader, but due to his power, no one dared to speak out. Some people once went to the Jinan General Forum to "complain", but because Ma Weisan did a great job in Yizhou and made large sums of incense offerings every year, there was nothing further to "petition".
After listening to the reports of several incense owners, Zhang Yingchen sighed: It is said that life is full of rivers and lakes, but in fact life is also full of "officialdom." Of course, it seems more accurate to say that officialdom is also a river and lake.
"Do you have anything to eat at home now?" Zhang Yingchen asked: "I see there are many victims here. People are starving to death everywhere. There are also many refugees fleeing the famine."
"Yes, there are some." Several incense owners burst into tears. "Everyone eats them evenly, and with some bark and wild vegetables, they can barely survive. They are too old and too young, and their bodies are too weak to bear it. If a few of them die, it is their fate." ! It’s just that there are floods in the summer and I can’t plant anything. I don’t know what to do in the fall? I’ll have to leave my hometown and beg for food, otherwise I’ll starve to death!”
Most folk religious sects have the color of "mutual aid", starting from Taiping Dao and Wu Dou Rice Cult. This feature, coupled with the amount of money and food allocated by the general altar, makes the situation of the local religious people slightly better than that of other ordinary people. Therefore, every time a major natural disaster breaks out, it is the best opportunity for folk religions to expand their strength.
If Ma Weisan hadn't been too selfish and blindly exploited, it would have been unrealistic for him, Zhang Yingchen, to shake the status of Nan Buliang Sect here.
Zhang Yingchen nodded: "Tomorrow you go to the banker's house to get food first - the head of his family and I have already made an agreement to temporarily lend a hundred grains to everyone for relief. In a few days, someone will send food."
The first batch of emergency rations has been transported from Qiweizhan to Jining through the Grand Canal and is being transferred to Yizhou. Zhang Yingchen just waited for this batch of food to arrive, and then used Yizhou as his base to recruit flood victims on a large scale from southern Shandong, including Xuzhou and other places.
As long as there is food, there is also the capital to recruit exiles - no matter you want to take him to heaven or hell, he will follow wherever there is food. The army of rogue bandits in the late Ming Dynasty was nothing more than a group of desperate people who relied on fighting to keep themselves from starving to death.
There are flowers and brocades here, and the fire is cooking oil, but Ma Weisan's incense altar is in a panic.
His incense altar is not in that farmhouse - although the location is hidden, it is there where the incense owners and visitors from outside are usually received, and many people know the details. Now many incense owners have rebelled, making it even more unsafe.
Ma Weisan hid directly back in his incense altar. His incense altar was not a secret place, but it was not accessible to ordinary people. It was a local earthen fence that was also his home. Ma Weisan has always been entrenched here, doing some activities that wander between black and white.
The earthen fence is not high, only one foot, and there are not many people. There are at least more than 200 people who dare to work hard. Self-protection won't be a problem for a while.
What he fears most now is not that someone rushes in with open fire, but those inexplicable "spells". After he joined the sect and became the owner of the local incense altar, he met many "powerful" figures in the main altar at several "Dharma meetings" held in the Jinan main altar, such as the "Five Thunder Method", "Soul-taking", "Flying"... there are no less than a dozen kinds that I have seen.
Some of them he knew were from the "Colorful Gate" and could only be deceived by ordinary believers - he also learned a lot after joining the religion. But some things he really couldn't understand, so he thought they were true.
If the General Forum thinks that he is not doing things well and wants to use him to establish his power, he doesn't have to fight in. I'm afraid he can die violently by using the soul-obsessing technique!
Ma Weisan had been cautious when he first joined the religion. When he opened the incense altar, he submitted his birthday and horoscopes to avoid being "ingested of the soul" alive.
Even if these spells are all fake, the main altar still has a group of martial artists with extremely high martial arts for them to control - some of the guardians or patrols are masters of martial arts themselves.
If the general altar scares him, then Taoist Zhang who appears out of nowhere scares him even more: not even the spells of the guardian Hu Qi'er nor the martial arts of Min Zhanlian can deal with him! Hu Qi'er went after Min Zhanlian, but found nothing - only saw the corpses of seven Min Zhanlian's men on the road, stripped naked and thrown into a ditch. The most frightening thing was that Hu Qier's face was pale when she came back - because these people died in such miserable conditions, and all of them had big wounds on their bodies.
Both Hu Qier and Ma Weisan fell into great fear: the dual threats of Zongtan's investigation and Zhang Taoist's revenge made them unable to leave their homes. Sitting back and watching the Yizhou Incense Altar fall apart. Taoist Zhang transported a lot of food from Jining and other places. In addition to relieving refugees, he also used the food to recruit rebels - the believers were also generally short of food and found it difficult to survive.
Now, half of the more than a dozen incense halls in Yizhou have rebelled, and the other half are also in the first and second parties. Only a few of the incense halls under his direct jurisdiction are still firmly controlled by him.
Ma Weisan tried his best to counterattack and sent his capable men to attack the rebellious incense owners and believers in order to kill people and establish their authority. It was quite successful at first. However, after going there a few times, the several incense halls where killers were sent were all attacked in retaliation. Massacre, the backbone of all died. As a result, the whole situation became increasingly unstable.
The situation has forced the general forum, which originally paid little attention to Yizhou, to pay direct attention.
On the official road, more strangers appeared - horses came from Jining in an endless stream, which surprised the vendors who often set up stalls on the roadside - in the Ming Dynasty, there were very few people who could ride horses and gallop. The value of horses can be measured in gold.
In front of the gatehouse of Majiatuweizi, more than a dozen knights came.
The leader is an old man.
On the gate tower of Tuweizi is Ma Weisan's head nursing teacher, who is also a believer. He usually sits here this time to check on visitors. Recently, due to the tense situation, the door of Majiaweizi is closed even during the day.
Seeing the visitor's extraordinary bearing, the nursing home teacher opened the small door and came out to greet him.
"Why are these gentlemen visiting this place?"
"Thank you." The old man returned the gift and smiled faintly: "Is Uncle Ma at home? I have something to ask for, please let the manager know." He pointed to the sky, then pointed to the ground with his backhand, and finally put it on his right chest.
The nursing teacher was shocked: "It turns out that the envoy from the main altar has arrived..." His language and attitude became more respectful, "Please give me the Dharmakaya so that my disciples can pay homage."
"The Dharma Protector of the Nei Dharma Hall under the General Altar is proclaimed."
The teacher at the nursing home immediately knelt down and paid homage. He said with great humility, "Disciple, I respectfully welcome the Dharma Master."
"Get up." The old man waved and said, "Is your horse altar master here?"
"I'm, I'm, I'm in the house, disciple, I'm going to report it right now."
"No need, just lead us in." The old man was majestic and his momentum was overwhelming.
"Yes, yes." The nursing home teacher quickly got up and asked the nursing homes to open the door and introduce everyone.
…
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