Liu Zhixie, a native of Taihe, Anhui Province, was born in the fifth year of Qianlong's reign (1740). He was proficient in writing and could recite poems. He was engaged in cotton trading and cloth business. He wandered around all year round and made many friends in various places.
This person was like a ghost in the history of the White Lotus Sect in the Qing Dynasty. He never came to the front stage and only controlled secretly behind the scenes. Historically, many leaders of the Sichuan-Shaanxi White Lotus Rebellion were his disciples. Many people in the sect had only heard of Liu Zhixie's name, but very few people had met him.
His master was Liu Song from Henan, Liu Song's master was Wang Huaiyu, and Wang Huaiyu's master was Fan Mingde, the founder of Hunyuan Sect. In the 40th year of Qianlong's reign, the Hunyuan Sect's missionary activities in Henan were investigated by the Qing government, and troops were immediately sent to arrest them. The chief leader Fan Mingde was sentenced to death, seven people were executed, more than 80 people were exiled, and his wife and children were sentenced to slavery in the families of heroes.
The government found scriptures such as "Hunyuan Enlightenment" and "Da Da Wen Dao" from Fan Mingde's home. Among them were words such as "Change the universe, change the world, the end of the rebellion", as well as "Bomi Tian" and "Bomi Chu". Wait for the spiritual text. Fan Mingde confessed that it was passed down by a man named Yang Ji, which shows that this Hunyuan sect also has an origin. However, Yang Ji died early and the above origin has not been verified.
This arrest was a heavy blow to the Hunyuan Sect. Liu Song and his son were sent to Longde, Gansu Province to serve as soldiers, but his disciple Liu Zhixie was not taken seriously by the government and escaped safely.
Liu Zhixie secretly went to Gansu to visit his master six times, while Liu Song was unwilling to fail and intended to make a comeback.
In the fifty-third year of Qianlong's reign, after several secret discussions, the master and the disciples considered that few people believed in the "Hunyuan Sect" and had to establish a new sect name, so they changed the "Hunyuan Sect" to "Sanyang Sect", and then "Hunyuan Dianhua" was changed to "Sanyang Liao Dao Jing", and "Ling Wen" was renamed "Kou Jue".
I think Zhao Xin had a whim and raised the banner of "Ming" during the first attack on Ninggu Pagoda. After more than a year, the news gradually spread into the pass. Liu Zhixie also heard about it and told Liu Song.
Then he had an idea and suggested that Liu Song find someone to pretend to be "Niu Ba" and make up the character "Zhu", pretending to be a direct descendant of the former Ming Dynasty. He also referred to Liu Song's son Liu Si as "Maitreya Buddha", and he would protect Niu Ba. .
Because it was difficult for Liu Song and his son to move around in the military distribution station in Gansu, Liu Zhixie was sent to various places to recruit believers. After Liu Zhixie returned to Anhui, he spent 10 taels of silver in Bozhou to buy an 11-year-old boy. He renamed him Wang Shuangxi and called him "Niu Ba".
After the Northern Navy's victory over Tsarist Russia and the capture of Kyaktu, the news that Zhao Xin "claimed himself King of Zhao" continued to spread back to the customs from Outer Mongolia with Shanxi merchants. Although there are rumors among the people, many people don't care because it is too far away.
When Liu Zhixie heard about it, he simply made up the idea that Niu Ba was the biological brother of King Zhao. One of the two brothers was digging a lair in the Qing Dynasty outside the pass, and the other was in close contact with each other inside the pass.
Liu Zhixie was full of enthusiasm for the "preaching cause" and developed a group of capable disciples in Henan and Hubei, including Song Zhiqing who was recruited in Xiangyang. Song Zhiqing was Sun Guiyuan's third disciple. He had been preaching in Hubei and Henan under the name of "Shou Yuan Jiao". After this man converted to the Sanyang Sect, because of his excellent agitation skills, his career and financial resources soon prospered, so Liu Zhixie promoted him to the second disciple.
Because the various sects of the White Lotus Sect have always followed the practice of concealing their missionary methods and opening altars at night to recruit disciples; and Liu Zhixie learned from the lessons of past failures and only promoted Niu Ba's true identity among a few believers, so whether it was Shen Jingdan or not, Well, no one in Xuzhuang knew that Zhao Xin had a "brother."
Last year, because the Northern Navy troops came to Dagukou and were shocked by the shelling, the news spread everywhere through the mouths of merchants returning home from Tianjin to celebrate the New Year. Although the Qing government ordered local governments to ban the rumor, it was impossible to prevent such rumors. Two or three months later, the news spread to Liu Zhixie's ears, and a group of core believers were very excited.
On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month this year, Liu Zhixie asked his eldest disciple Liu Qirong to take people to Shandong, intending to find a ship from there to land in Liaodong, inquire about the news, and wait for an opportunity to contact Beihai Town. He also coveted Shuoyuanjiao for a long time, so he asked Song Zhiqing to search for it in many ways, with the intention of annexing it in the name of Niuba.
Leader Liu Da had no idea at this time that Beihai Town was extremely disgusted with people like them. The usual method was to throw them into the North Senshu Coal Mine in Ezo, and never think about it again in their lifetime.
In late March of the 54th year of Qianlong's reign, Liu Qirong, the chief disciple of the Sanyang Sect, led two of his men all the way north and arrived at Qingjiangpu, north of Huai'an Prefecture. According to the rumors they heard along the way, they learned that the ships from Beihai Town had been in Jiaodong and attacked Wendeng and Rongcheng, so they decided to go to Haizhou and take a boat to Rongcheng to have a look.
They found a flat-bottomed sand boat in Qinggangpo bound for Haeju. When they got on the boat, they saw that the cabin was almost full. The three of them found a place to sit down, thinking that it was just right. They would start as soon as the cabin was full. Boat.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the waterway from Qingjiangpu to Haizhou was the Yanhe River. After arriving in Haizhou, you could change boats and take the sea route from Dapukou. As its name suggests, the Salt River is a river that transports salt and is also a tributary of the Grand Canal. Huai salt, one of the four major salts in the world during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, actually refers to the salt produced in Haizhou.
Liu Qirong was in such a hurry when he boarded the boat that he didn't pay much attention to the other passengers in the cabin. After the boat started moving, he discovered that most of the dozen passengers in the cabin were wearing bamboo hats. It was crowded and stuffy in the cabin, but none of these people took off their hats. Even if sweat flowed down their cheeks, they just wiped it with their sleeves.
When he looked carefully, he noticed more things that were wrong. Apart from the three of them, there were a total of fifteen other passengers in the cabin. Among them, there was only a man with thick eyebrows and thin eyes and a beard wearing a melon skin hat, who was taking a nap against the bulkhead. Next to him was a thin man with handsome features and a small hat. He looked like a footman.
As for the other thirteen people, they are all strong and healthy, and they don't look like ordinary people at first glance. Each of them had a thick cloth bag beside their legs, which they placed against their legs. The contents of the bag seemed to be very heavy. When the ship shook, the people held their hands on it to prevent it from falling.
"Could it be a sword?" Liu Qirong was shocked. Xin said that he was really stupid and got on the boat without taking a closer look. Thinking of this, he winked at his two men.
During the next half-day voyage, Liu Qirong noticed that except for the bearded man wearing a melon cap who sometimes went to the stern of the ship to talk with one of the young men, the others hardly spoke much. Even when they talked, they were in whispers, as if they had something to do. Keep it confidential.
Liu Qirong concluded from this that these people were probably private salt dealers, and they should have gone to Haizhou to set up private salt sales. So he took advantage of the time when he got up and went to the stern of the boat to stretch himself, and told his two men not to mess with these people.
Those who engage in illicit salt trafficking in these days are all outnumbered by their numbers, and the amount of salt sold can range from tens of thousands of kilograms at least to hundreds of thousands kilograms at most. If you encounter officers and soldiers inspecting you on the way, as long as there are not many officers and soldiers, you will draw your knife and chop them directly, killing them and silencing them; because if you are caught, you will be punished with a hundred sticks, and the minimum is three years in prison, and the worst is banishment to the nearby army.
The reason for this is that Qianlong became increasingly tired of politics in his later years, which led to lax officials and corruption. The entire society was immersed in a pathological official system.
As far as the salt industry is concerned, the government's unlimited demand for salt and the extortion of salt merchants by salt officials at all levels have led to an increase in floating fees; as costs rise, salt prices will naturally rise.
Judging from changes in the wholesale price of Huai salt in Hubei and Hunan, Huai salt has risen from 6 taels, 8 cents and 2 cents of silver per citation in the seventh year of Qianlong's reign to 12 taels, 4 cents and 9 cents per citation, more than 40 cents. It has doubled year on year. (During the Qianlong period, the amount of salt consumed in the Huaihe River was 344 kilograms. In June, the salt consumption increased by 15 kilograms, in July by 10 kilograms, and in August by 5 kilograms.)
If you don't take into account the additional consumption, the average price of a kilogram of salt is three cents and six cents of silver. Add in freight, losses, and road taxes, and when it is sold in stores, the money equivalent is almost more than forty yuan per kilogram.
On average, a strong laborer eats five kilograms of salt per year, which costs more than 200 yuan in total. The annual salary is one or two cents, which is less than 1,200 cents, and the expense of salt alone accounts for one-sixth.
Someone said why sell private salt? Can we get more salted fish instead of private salt?
Hey, in ancient times, the government had been on guard against this trick for a long time. They had special fish salt; in order to distinguish the salt used for pickling salted fish from the official salt, the government dyed the salt with lower purity red with olives and then used it as salt. Dry.
At the same time, the government clearly stipulates that all fishermen returning from fishing must truthfully report to the government the number of fish caught and the amount of salt required. The government will send special personnel to verify the situation. After confirming that the situation is true, they will issue vouchers to the fishermen, and the fishermen can also rely on the vouchers to receive fishing salt.
Salted fish basically means one pound of salt and ten pounds of fish. Do you want to impress the court? Still tender.
Liu Qirong didn't know that among the people on the same boat, the guy with a beard and a melon-pipe hat did have something to do with salt. He had also been salting salted fish in Beihai Town for several months.
In the afternoon, following an order from a young, slightly bearded man, those people took off their bamboo hats and wiped the sweat from their heads. Liu Qirong couldn't help but be secretly frightened when he saw the order and prohibition, and he was even more sure that these people were not evil.
When it was time for dinner, when the boatman brought the food, Liu Qirong and the others suddenly lost their appetite. They recruited disciples in Xiangyang City and Jingzhou, and they were very happy all day long. I have been out for more than 20 days, and I have been sleeping in the open air. I have to hurry and hurry. Every day on the boat, it is either green vegetables, tofu or fish. I am tired of eating breakfast.
At this time, I heard the man wearing a melon-skin hat curse: "Why are you eating fish soup again? I almost vomited!"
The boatman saw that the man was well-dressed and spoke rudely, so he accompanied him and said carefully: "Master, we are a small business. There are only vegetables, fish and rice on this boat, and nothing else. I'm really sorry."
"I'm not talking about you. These days, I have either vegetables, tofu or fish soup every day. It tastes really bland." After the man finished speaking, he said to the boy next to him: "Take out the wine and meat from your backpack and share it with everyone."
The boy said "Hmm" crisply, then took out a big bag from under his feet, and then took out a wine gourd and several packages of meat bought in Qingjiangpu.
The man wearing a melon-skin hat said to someone in the cabin: "Beihai, would you like to take a sip?"
The man called "Beihai" shook his head and said: "The wine is waived, I will share the meat."
So the boy quickly handed over two large oil-paper bags for everyone to share. As the oil-paper bags were opened, the aroma of soy sauce suddenly overflowed. It turned out to be a soy sauce chicken and a package of braised pork. Liu Qirong looked at it and The two men swallowed unconsciously.
The man in the melon-skin hat opened two more small paper bags, and he and the boy each took a piece of meat and ate it. Then he opened the wine gourd and took a sip, sighing with satisfaction. The boy was holding the rice bowl and kept putting green vegetables and tofu into his mouth, and from time to time he would take a sip of fish soup.
"Aren't you tired of eating yet?"
"It would be nice to eat some. Brother Xu, when I was in my hometown, I couldn't even eat green vegetables and tofu."
As soon as the words with a Shu accent came out, Liu Qirong and the others were stunned, and then they realized that the boy was actually a woman.
The man in the melon hat shook his head and smiled. He looked up and saw Liu Qirong and the three of them, and said loudly: "How about these brothers having a drink together? It's really boring to drink alone."
When Liu Qirong heard this, he was overjoyed. The alcohol bug in his stomach had already broken out, and he felt itchy. He quickly changed seats with others and got together with the man. After two glasses of wine, I naturally started talking more.
The man named Xu said that his name was Xu Wuyong and he was in the cotton cloth business in Chongqing. This time he planned to take his brothers to Haizhou to buy a batch of soybean oil.
Liu Qirong said, do you need to bring weapons to buy soybean oil? I'm afraid it's still a private business. Of course, he couldn't say that he was from the Sanyang religion, so he said that he was from Xiangyang. Because the government was arresting people everywhere recently, and there was a lot of trouble, he took two fellow villagers and planned to go to Shandong to seek refuge with relatives.
Not to mention that it was okay for the government to arrest people, but Xu Wuyong was also indignant when he mentioned this matter. It is said that the Chongqing government not only arrested the trackers, but also arrested the prisoners in the cells and the beggars in the city, and rushed them out of Sichuan on ships.
At first, Liu Qirong was careful when talking. After finishing half the bottle of wine, Liu Qirong started talking more, and his chat with Xu Wuyong was quite speculative. Xu Wuyong would occasionally curse at the government when he was talking, saying that sooner or later someone would have to deal with these guys, and they would all have to beheaded.
During the conversation, Liu Qirong saw that these people were quite capable. More than a dozen of them looked powerful, so he wanted to recruit them. Those who dared to be private traders these days were all masters who were not afraid of officers and soldiers. He thought that if he could develop these people into Sanyang believers, his master, Master Liu Da, would definitely be very satisfied.
"Brother Xu, have you heard of Niu Ba?"
"Niu Ba?" Xu Wuyong shook his head slightly, indicating that he didn't recognize him.
After another glass of wine, Liu Qirong felt excited and whispered: "Have you ever heard of Maitreya descending to earth?"
"Huh?" Xu Wuyong narrowed his eyes, then opened them wide, and said with a smile: "Then can you trouble Brother Liu to tell me something?"
Liu Qirong did not talk about the Sanyang Sect directly, but picked up those words in the "Hunyuan Enlightenment Sutra" that persuaded people to do good. The man named Xu couldn't help nodding in agreement.
"Let's say that the ancestor Wuji lowered his head and thought for a while. The eldest son came to the world, and the article was alive, and he also had a name. The second son also established the world, and they all share the credit. The third son established a family and waited for a long time to teach his children and grandchildren. Zhi Youyuan floats high, It is rare for me to turn to the true faith after encountering the mortal world. Since I have realized the teachings of the ancient Buddha, I will come to the mortal world with you today to protect me from finding the Yuanren of the Earth."
"Please tell me, Brother Liu, what is a Dadi Yuanren?"
"Brother, you know that in the past when Deng Deng Buddha was in charge of teaching, he had saved 200 million people. Now when Sakyamuni Buddha is in charge, he has saved 200 million people again, and there are still 9.2 billion people who will be taught by him in the future. Those who were saved by Maitreya Buddha will all return to heaven. The Earth Yuan people are the ancestors of Hunyuan and Wusheng Old Mother who are going to save the 9.2 billion Yuan people in addition to the 400 million Yuan people who have been saved during the Qingyang and Hongyang periods. , so that he can escape from the suffering of the world and ascend to his empty hometown forever."
After hearing this, Xu Wuyong couldn't help but slap his thigh and exclaimed: "Oh! What a great supernatural power!"
Liu Qirong suddenly remembered something he heard in Qingjiangpu, and asked, "Brother Xu, have you ever heard of Xuzhuang in Sheyang Lake?"
Xu Wuyong shook his head and said: "My younger brother has been doing business in the south and doesn't have many acquaintances here in northern Jiangsu. Brother Liu, please tell me more..."
In the next two days, Xu Wuyong took Liu Qirong to the stern of the boat and talked in a low voice. The more the two talked, the more they talked, and they seemed to regret meeting each other late. Xu Wuyong would occasionally scold the current emperor and the ministers of the court, saying that he was a bastard and that he would add three pounds, which made Liu Qirong's doubts disappear immediately; if the other party was a soldier of the imperial court, he would never dare to scold the emperor.
On the afternoon of the third day, the ship arrived at Haizhou. When getting off the ship, Xu Wuyong said that he still wanted to listen to Liu Qirong's advice, so he invited the three of them to stay in the same inn, and all the expenses were paid by himself. When he arrived at the inn, he rented a small courtyard for Liu Qirong and the others, then ordered a banquet to be delivered to the room, and invited Liu Qirong's two companions to come and drink together.
The four of them feasted on the food and drank several kilograms of wine. When their eyes were dizzy and their ears were hot, Liu Qirong felt that the other party had fallen into the trap, so he took advantage of his drunkenness to reveal his identity and said that he was a member of the Sanyang Sect. Destined person.
When Xu Wuyong heard this, he quickly went back to his house and took out a hundred taels of silver and presented it to her, saying that he also wanted to join the religion. If Mr. Liu didn't think it was enough, he could also present the concubine he bought in Chongqing.
Liu Qirong and the other three were overjoyed, knowing that this person was definitely a man with a lot of money. Feeling proud, he couldn't hold it back for a moment and told the purpose of the three of them's trip.
Xu Wuyong blinked after hearing this, then suddenly laughed and whispered: "Come in, everyone!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the dozen men who were on the boat with him suddenly pushed the door open and surrounded Liu Qirong and the other three. Liu Qirong was shocked. He lost most of his drunkenness at once and said in a trembling voice: "Brother Xu Xu, what do you mean?"
"Mr. Liu, don't you want to meet the people from Beihai Town? Then come with me!" After Xu Wuyong finished speaking, he raised his hand, and the dozen men immediately rushed towards him like wolves and tigers. When Liu Qirong screamed, the three of them were tied up tightly and even their mouths were gagged.
"I'll tell you the truth! From the moment you said something stupid, I knew you were not good birds! You dare to find someone to pretend to be Prince Zhao's brother, you are so fucking brave!"
Liu Qirong stared at Xu Wuyong with frightened eyes, and made a whining sound in his mouth, which meant who are you.
Xu Wuyong laughed and said: "Aren't you asking about Xuzhuang in Sheyang Lake? I am the owner of Xuzhuang, Xu Dayong!"
