Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 979 The Messenger Arrives

After running around from the Zhuang family, Zhang Yingchen first "whitewashed" his sect.He has his own certificate, and the three missionaries who came from Qiongshan all have official Taoist certificates obtained by the Foreign Intelligence Agency through the Guangzhou station.

Local governments in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were very vigilant against monks and Taoists, especially wandering monks and Taoists, who were simply potential criminals and instigators in the eyes of the government.All prefectures and counties have Sangha Divisions and Daolu Divisions to manage monks and Taoists full-time. In theory, the local Senghui Divisions and Daolu Divisions must issue road citations when monks travel abroad. have official status.If you want to place an order in a certain place, you have to report to the local "relevant department" for the record.

Although this system was not very strict at the end of Ming Dynasty, Zhang Yingchen believed that the procedures should be as complete as possible—so as to avoid the government from using it to pull pigtails.

The first is to officially turn the "Yunsheng Temple" into a Taoist temple - under the operation of the banker and Zhang Yingchen's generous use of money, it was completed quickly. Then, three missionaries from Qiongshan were listed as "official Taoist temples". prepared by".Zhang Yingchen named one of the most clever and best Mandarin old Tongsheng as the host, and he took charge of external work.

In this way, he has a legal religious place in Yizhou.Then Zhang Yingchen invested money and began to expand the Taoist temple. In the year of the catastrophe, labor was extremely cheap. Except for a few skilled workers, most workers only needed to have enough food to eat.

Then, the medical bureau jointly established by him and the banker also opened.For a time, New Taoism was in full swing in Yizhou, and its momentum increased greatly.Believers are increasing.The local branches of Nan Wuliang Sect began to disintegrate, and many incense masters and Si Xiang began to defect - some were frightened by the legend of his "magic power", and some were forced by financial difficulties.In the past two years, floods have been frequent, and the government's taxes have been heavy. Many small landlords and rich peasants who act as incense owners and officials have been overwhelmed, and there are many apportionments for "offering" and "incense rituals" in the church itself-although They can apportion to the grassroots believers, but the situation of ordinary believers is even worse, and they can't give much money at all.After the flood, although relief funds and food were allocated from the main altar, very few of them fell into their hands.Instead, the altar owner extorted a lot of money and food in the name of "relief to fellow practitioners".

Zhang Yingchen knew from the incense masters who turned back: the current Yizhou altar master Ma Sanwei is a local toubob—the so-called toubob is almost a mixture of landlord and bandit.Relying on his hard work and hundreds of thugs under him, he is very powerful in the local area, and the government dare not provoke him easily.He saw that the Nan Wuliang Sect was gaining popularity in the local area, and there were more followers, so he became interested and joined the sect. He was a rich and powerful person in the local area, so he was naturally valued by the sect, so in less than three to five years, The original local altar owner died suddenly, so he became the altar owner logically.

For such a person, the so-called belief is just a tool for him to make money.Of course, he is still very respectful to the higher-ups in the church, and even behaves very piously - because although he has no faith, he is very superstitious, and the "spells" of the guardians and patrols in the church make him fearful. Secondly, He felt that it was more convenient to make money with this skin than in the past.

Therefore, the believers in Yizhou have long been dissatisfied with Ma Weisan, the altar owner, but due to his lustful 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 every year a large sum of incense was enshrined, so the "appeal" had nothing to do with it.

Zhang Yingchen sighed after listening to the reports of several incense masters: The so-called life is full of rivers and lakes, but in fact life is also full of "official circles". Of course, it seems more accurate to say that officialdom is also a rivers and lakes.

"Do you still have food at home?" Zhang Yingchen asked, "I see that there are many victims of disasters here, and there are people starving to death everywhere. There are also many refugees fleeing famine."

"There are some." Several incense owners burst into tears, "Everyone eats evenly, and with some bark and wild vegetables, they can hardly die. They are too young and too weak to survive, and it is their fate to die a few ! It’s just that there’s a lot of water in summer, so there’s nothing to plant, and I don’t know what to do in autumn? Then I have to leave my hometown to beg for food, or I’ll starve to death!”

Most of the folk sects have the color of "mutual aid". This feature has existed since the Taipingdao and Wudou Rice Sects. In addition, the general altar allocated some money and food, which made the local religious people slightly better than other common people.Therefore, whenever a major natural disaster breaks out, it is the best opportunity for the folk sect to expand its strength.

If Ma Weisan hadn't been too selfish and blindly exploited, it would be a bit unrealistic for Zhang Yingchen to shake the position of Nan Wuliang Sect here.

Zhang Yingchen nodded: "Tomorrow, you go to the farmer to get food first - I have already negotiated with the owner of his house, and I will lend a hundred grains to everyone for the time being. In a few days, someone will deliver the grain."

The first batch of emergency rations has been transported from Qiweizhan to Jining via the Grand Canal, and is being transshipped towards Yizhou.Zhang Yingchen only waited for this batch of food to arrive, and then used Yizhou as a base to recruit flood victims from southern Shandong, including Xuzhou, on a large scale.

As long as there is food, there is also the cost of recruiting exiles-whether you want to take him to heaven or hell, as long as there is food, he will follow him.The army of rogues 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.

Here flowers are blooming and oil is being cooked over a blazing fire, but Ma Weisan's incense altar is in a state of panic.

His incense altar is not in that farmhouse—although the location is secret, it is there that he meets the incense master and visitors from outside on weekdays, and there are many people who know the details.Now many incense masters have rebelled, making it even more insecure.

Ma Weisan directly hid in his incense altar, his incense altar is not a secret place, but ordinary people can't get in - it is a local earthen enclosure, which is also where he lives.Ma Weisan has been entrenched here, doing some activities that wander in black and white.

The soil fence is not high, and there are only a few feet. There are not many people, and there are at least 200 people who dare to work hard.Self-protection will not be a problem for a while.

What he is most afraid of now is not someone rushing in with open fire, but those inexplicable "spells".After he joined the sect and became the altar master of the local incense altar, he met a lot of "magic power" figures in the altar at several "fa conferences" held in the Jinan altar, such as the "five thunders", "Inspiritualism", "flying into the air"... There are no less than a dozen of them.

Some of them he knew were from the "Colorful Gate" and could only deceive ordinary believers—he also learned a lot after joining the religion.But there are some things that he can't understand, so he thinks they are true.

If the general altar thinks that he is not good at doing things, and wants to use him to stand out, there is no need to kill him, I am afraid that he can be killed with a soul-stirring technique!
When Ma Weisan first joined the religion, he was very careful, and when he opened the incense altar, he submitted his birth date, which was all fake, so as not to be "soul-absorbed" alive one day earlier.

Even if these spells are all fake, there are still a group of quacks with extremely high martial arts in the main altar for them to drive - some apostles or inspectors are themselves masters of quacks.

If he was afraid of the general altar, then Taoist Zhang who appeared out of nowhere made him even more afraid: even Hu Qier's spells and Min Zhanlian's martial arts couldn't deal with him!Hu Qi'er went after Min Zhanlian, but found nothing - only saw the corpses of seven of Min Zhanlian's subordinates on the road, stripped naked and thrown in the ditch.The most frightening thing was that when Hu Qi'er came back, her complexion was pale - because these people died in terrible conditions, and all of them had big gashs on their bodies.

Both Hu Qi'er and Ma Weisan fell into great fear: the dual threat of prosecution from the general altar and Taoist Zhang's revenge, the two of them stayed at home.Sit and watch the Yizhou incense altar fall apart.Taoist Zhang brought a lot of food from Jining and other places. In addition to providing relief to refugees, he also used the food to recruit surrenders and rebels-the believers were generally short of food and could not survive.

Now, half of the dozens of incense halls in Yizhou have rebelled, and the other half are also in the two ends of the first mouse. Only a few incense halls directly under his jurisdiction are still firmly controlled by him.

Ma Weisan tried his best to counterattack and sent his capable men to attack the traitorous incense masters and believers in order to kill people and establish their prestige. At first it was quite successful, but after going there a few times, the several incense halls where he was ordered to send killers were all met with retaliatory attacks Massacre, the backbone all died unexpectedly.As a result, the whole situation became more and more unstable.

The situation has forced the General Forum, which hadn't paid much attention to Yizhou, to pay attention directly.

On the official road, more strangers appeared—horses from Jining came in an endless stream, which surprised the vendors who often set up stalls—in Daming, there were very few people who could gallop on horses.The value of horses can be measured in gold.

In front of the gatehouse of Majia Tuweizi, more than ten knights came.

The leader is an old man.

On the gate tower of Tuweizi is the head teacher of Ma Weisan's nursing home - also a believer.On weekdays, he sits in this town to check on visitors.Recently, due to the tension of the wind, the gate of Majiaweizi is closed even during the day.

Seeing the extraordinary bearing of the visitor, the teacher of the nursing home opened the small door and came out to greet him.

"These masters, why did you visit this place?"

"Thank you." The old man saluted back, and smiled faintly: "Is Uncle Ma at home? I have something to see, please inform the manager." He pointed to the sky, then pointed to the ground with his backhand, and finally put it on his right chest.

The teacher of the nursing home was startled: "It turns out that the envoy from the main altar has arrived..." His language and attitude became more respectful, "Please show me the dharma body so that the disciples can pay homage."

"Xuande, the Dharma protector of the Neifa Hall under the General Altar."

The teacher of the nursing home immediately knelt down and bowed, performing the salute with extreme humility: "Disciple welcomes Dharma."

"Get up." The old man waved and said, "Is your horse altar master here?"

"Yes, yes, I'm in the house, the disciple will report now."

"No, you just lead us in." The old man was majestic, and there was a sense of oppression in his voice.

"Yes, yes." The nursing home teacher hurriedly got up and told the nursing home to open the gate and lead the crowd in.

(End of this chapter)