The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

"Flag out!"

"Bang the drum!"

"Dong dong dong dong dong dong..."

Accompanied by the sound of loud drums, the believers of the Trinity Church were lining up in a neat queue, walking forward step by step with weapons such as regiment cards, machetes and spears in their hands.

Because Xiamen Island is located at the mouth of the Jiulong River and has convenient inland and overseas transportation, it has always been a major port for smuggling trade. Although the construction of Xiamen City is not very prosperous, the port facilities here have a lot of foundations. There have been more than one ports that can access the sea.

The Trinity Church's ships have been arranged to gather at the port. However, in the past few days, according to the observations of veteran sailors in the Church who are good at navigation, there should be strong waves on the sea, so the date of sailing has been repeatedly postponed.

The main missionary targets of the Trinity Church are small landowners and small businessmen. There are various professions here, and it is easy to form a pioneering group. The ordinary peasant believers are organized into some camp soldiers who were originally trained to fight against Japanese pirates. Responsible for education.

The military education of the Trinity Church is far from being as simple as imagined. The key is to understand the military flag, and also learn to listen to different golden drums, advance and retreat, and disperse and gather.

"Dangdangdang..."

There was a sound of gold, but the organized believers did not move back. Instead, they divided into two wings and spread out according to the training requirements. Then someone pushed small cars out of the gaps in the team.

Some farmers looked at the French cannon on the car in surprise and started talking about it.

They don’t know how they obtained this French cannon. The structure is simpler than the ones used in the army. There is no fast-turning turntable and the casting is rough. But it is still a weapon. Even Wang Wenlong can see it. 's stunned.

"Prepare!"

Several gunners skillfully loaded the sub-cannon into the breech of the main cannon of the Fran cannon, and then began to adjust the firing angle.

"This is the artillery of our Trinity Church!"

The believers were also excited. It was rare to see the cannon drill performance at close range, and some people couldn't help but gather around.

The senior brother who managed and trained the believers was furious when he saw it, and shouted loudly: "Don't mess up the team! Get back to your original position quickly!"

But this Furlong machine gun is too attractive, and the trained believers are just a group of farmers and low-level traders. When they see everyone else going, they subconsciously follow and form a group, standing next to the Furlong machine gun to look at the novelty. .

"Saodu Grandma!" The angry senior brother yelled in Putian dialect, and then asked his men to use canes to beat people.

"Ouch, stop fighting, stop fighting."

A group of believers were driven back noisily and returned to their original positions.

The senior brother, who was obviously an officer, put his hands on his waist and said loudly: "Go back to your original position and stand on duty. If anyone dares to move or joke, he will not be allowed to eat tonight!"

Some believers were scared, but there were still some people who had their hands and feet bruised and bruised. They just spat some saliva on it and talked and laughed shamelessly.

The senior brother rushed up and grabbed a few of them: "You! You, and you! It's time to go to the senior staff in one round! You don't need to practice now, go back and tell your wives and children."

In an instant, everyone was scared. They had been practicing on the island for so long just to be able to get to the big officials and allocate fields as soon as possible. This was another round of pressure. I didn’t know when I would be able to cross the strait.

The senior brother put his hands on his hips and said, "Listen to me, now I'm training you to save your life. If you get to the island and encounter natives who come to rob the village and behead people, if you don't practice well, the whole family will be affected." Woe to you! If anyone continues to disobey military orders, I will make it impossible for him to cross the strait for the rest of his life!"

Wang Wenlong looked at the training situation and said, "Brother Lu, are you trying to train the army?"

Their training was even more stringent than the current guard soldiers. This meant that the weapons in their hands were inferior, otherwise the court would not be able to tolerate this group of elite soldiers.

The problem of weapons is also easy to solve. On the island of Taiwan, the Trinity believers are already equipped with iron swords and spears.

Lu Wenhui shook his head and said: "After they arrived on the island, they could only be scattered on small pieces of land. They could not see each other for several months. If they did not have any means of self-protection, they would probably not be able to survive on the island, and the family would not be able to survive." Children, young and old will also be implicated."

Wang Wenlong only understood after hearing this.

Although the development of Taiwan Island is still in its infancy, various forces have already mixed in. The small villages along the island's coast have to face not only natives, but also Japanese pirates, pirates, and spying foreigners. They do need some means. To survive.

……

Ships in this era took at least three to four days to cross the Taiwan Strait. This was the best case scenario. If they encountered wind and waves, they would have to drift at sea for more than ten days.

Sailing boats in Fujian in this era were common, and they were still hard sailing boats. They could not sail against the wind, and it was very difficult to catch the waves when encountering strong winds and waves. Therefore, if a big typhoon occurred within ten days, there was basically no return, even if you were lucky enough to survive. I don’t know where it went. Therefore, the ships traveling to and from Fujian at this time often never returned. When we found them, it was several years later and we found out after questioning that they had encountered strong winds and had blown them all the way to the Shandong Peninsula, and even to Southeast Asia.

Changes in the weather have such a great impact on navigation, and humans have no ability to influence nature at all. People along the coast can only worship Mazu, the Dragon King and other immortals and Buddhas for protection and safety. The prevalence of coastal religious customs is also related to this.

Wang Wenlong stayed in Xiamen for five days before finally waiting for the sea conditions to calm down. At this time, Jin Xuezeng, the governor of Fujian, also came to Xiamen City and simply went to watch the Trinity Church go to sea.

It was a sunny morning, and all five to six hundred Trinity members gathered on a pier.

After all, Jin Xuezeng was the governor of Fujian, so it was not easy for him to speak on stage to support the Trinity Church.

In the second half of this year, his health became worse and worse, and the imperial court had approved his resignation. If not, Jin Xuezeng would not have even come to the Trinity Church to go overseas today.

Lu Wenhui walked up to everyone first and spoke loudly to everyone:

"Fellow brothers, our Trinity Sect has spent more than 200,000 taels of silver this year to cultivate new members, but the sect does not feel it was wasted. Why? This is the grand purpose of Everbright Sect!"

"My master Lin Longjiang once made a great wish during his lifetime to spread the teachings of the Three Religions to all generations. This heart is so virtuous. Master Lin created the Trinity Religion with the purpose of spreading education widely. Nowadays, there are so many native people in Da Yuan Island overseas in Fujian. , it is a good place for Trinity Church to carry out enlightenment. For this great cause, even though I have spent all my teaching assets, I have no regrets!"

"Today we are about to cross the sea to the east, and we will have a narrow escape from death. We must remember our great ambition to cross the sea. Everyone recites the oath of joining the religion with me:

From now on, you may act unrighteously, act contrary to reason, use evil as your power, tolerate harm, betray good people, secretly insult your king and relatives, slander saints, violate morality, show disrespect to your husband... such crimes , if you have this, you are not human..."

In the original history of the late Ming Dynasty, Trinity Religion was only a religion for ordinary handicrafts and small property owners. It was not until the Qing Dynasty that it gradually penetrated into the bottom class and had a certain bottom-level thinking. However, in this time and space, in order to cross the sea to preach, Trinity The church has attracted many refugees into the church, and the entire missionary group has undergone qualitative changes.

Many refugees have been training on Xiamen Island for several months. Food is provided by the Trinity Church, and everyone stays together day and night. This collective life has given them a great sense of belonging to the Trinity Church.

At this time, when they heard the oath to join the religion, these poor people's noble sense of faith was instantly aroused, and their blood boiled with Lu Wenhui's words. They recited this oath repeatedly every day for a month, so everyone followed Lu Wenhui with different accents. Shout:

"From now on, I dare not to suffer, but to be vigilant, to inflict punishment on my own, and this is a solemn statement. I am extremely horrified!"

The shouts were so loud that Jin Xuezeng on the side couldn't help but be surprised that the influence of the Trinity Church was so strong.

Fortunately, the content of this oath is still Confucianism, otherwise Jin Xuezeng would probably be afraid.

Lu Wenhui was very satisfied with everyone's united efforts. After signaling everyone to be quiet, he pointed to Wang Wenlong next to him and said: "Today, the famous Wang Jianyang from Fujian is also here to see everyone off to sea, so he asked Duke Jianyang to say a few words for everyone."

Wang Wenlong nodded and walked onto the stage. Before he could say anything, everyone in the audience cheered enthusiastically. The Trinity believers cheered Wang Wenlong as much as they did Lu Wenhui.

"Mr. Jianyang, please say a few words!"

"Is Duke Jianyang also a member of the sect?"

"Who is this person?"

"Even Duke Jianyang doesn't know if your family has ever grown sweet potatoes and pumpkins? Even if we have the opportunity to go to sea today, we still have to rely on Duke Jianyang to travel up and down."

"Mr. Jianyang, let's talk about Tianyan Lun!"

Many people know that the Trinity Church's disaster relief bank and the development of Dayuan Island were implemented under Wang Wenlong's initiative. Many people who are going to sea today know that they have received Wang Wenlong's kindness and like him very much.

"woo woo woo woo……"

Just when Wang Wenlong was about to speak, a series of horn sounds suddenly came from the pier behind him. It turned out that several ships used by sea owners to immigrate had raised their sails, and the young men who boarded the ship took their wives and children to the other side. Relatives, old and young, waved their hands as they bid farewell, and many old people chased them into the sea water. They said goodbye to each other in tears. I don’t know when they will see their parents again.

As everyone watched this scene, Wang Wenlong suddenly said to everyone with a serious face: "Now the world is in turmoil. Japanese pirates and Koreans have come to our shores in Fujian, and Europeans have come across the sea for thousands of years, asking for nothing more than land and wealth. Is it true that we in China Don’t people want land and wealth? We can’t just let others grab it, we must also develop it ourselves.”

"Senior Brother Lu is right. You, the senior officials, are reclaiming land to protect your family. In China, you are passing on Chinese customs and etiquette, and opening up the sea for our Chinese characters. This achievement is comparable to that of Zhang Qian and Ban Chao."

Wang Wenlong pointed at the ships that were gradually disappearing on the sea: "The immigrants on the ships, including all of you who went to sea to open up Da Yuan Island, are all heroes!"

Wang Wenlong spoke clearly and in a halting tone. With the scene of the ship sailing far away, every word struck the hearts of everyone present.

(End of this chapter)