Chapter 530 - All Sides Mobilize (Part 3)

"Lingao will have substantial rigid demand for land in the future," Wu Shimang patiently counseled the priest. "Land will become very tight."

"Tight?" Lu Ruohua shook his head. "Dean Wu, there is plenty of uncultivated land in Lingao."

"It will become scarce in time. Don't you wish to secure more Church property?"

Under Wu Shimang's persistent coaxing, Lu Ruohua bought another parcel next to the Bairen Monastery.

"Foreigners just don't understand the power of a commodity economy," Wu Shimang thought, recalling the effort it had taken to persuade him. Lingao's land prices would certainly rise. Whether sold or developed for the Church's own use, the property would bring substantial returns. Wu Shimang had no interest whatsoever in religious matters, but he was very professional: having chosen religion as his vocation in this timeline, he had to manage Church assets well to demonstrate his value.

Wu Shimang returned to the monastery. At the entrance, a nun sweeping up hurried over to kiss his hand. Watching this elderly woman with dark, wrinkled skin kiss his ring, the Dean could not help fantasizing about how nice it would be if she were a lovely young sister instead. Alas, all dozen-plus nuns in the convent were grandmother-aged.

"Father Bai has returned. He is waiting in your office," the nun reported respectfully.

"Oh, he's back too." Wu Shimang nodded. Bai Duolu had spent the past several months accompanying Lu Ruohua, proselytizing among the Li people who came to Nanbao to trade. The results, he heard, were quite good.

Wu Shimang passed through the gate. The Bairen Monastery was modest in scale, without imposing edifices—merely a mixed Sino-Western compound of three courtyards. The first was the monastery's administrative offices. Owing to spartan conditions, the monastery had no chapel of its own and shared the Bairen Church. The rear two courtyards held dormitories, classrooms, and a handicraft workshop, housing the nuns and forcibly interned "bandit dependents"—mostly relatives of petty bandits, deemed low-risk. After a period of religious indoctrination and a passing assessment by Political Security, they could be given normal settlement; those who failed went to labor camps.

He entered his office. Bai Duolu was already waiting. Once pale-skinned, Bai Duolu's face was now dark—evidently he too had been roughing it, traveling and eating outdoors in Nanbao. His expression was dejected. He had heard about the Maid Revolution in Nanbao, but his identity as a priest made it awkward to agitate openly over women. Inwardly, however, he yearned.

Would there be a share of the maid distribution for him? Surely Xiao Zishan would not literally treat him as a monk and leave him out? Bai Duolu wondered how he might tactfully remind the General Affairs Office Director not to forget that benefit.

Fortunately, he had resolutely resisted Director Wen's demand that he take formal holy orders; he had joined the Church only in a secular capacity. Otherwise, his lower half/body's happiness in this lifetime would have been ruined. His faith was not exactly rock-solid, but he could not bring himself to treat religion as sheer instrumentality the way Wu Shimang did.

The sight of this counterfeit monastery dean, rosy-cheeked and evidently thriving, told Bai Duolu that Wu Shimang was doing very well for himself in Bairen Fortress. Each time Bai Duolu returned to report, the church and monastery had either expanded or upgraded facilities. The former training manager clearly still had strong operational skills—under his stewardship, the Church was beginning to take shape.

"Xiao Bai, how are you? You look well. Spreading the faith successfully, are you?" Wu Shimang plopped into a chair.

"Call me Bai Duolu, please," Bai Duolu said with some pain. "And it's 'spreading the Gospel,' not 'the faith.' You can't use such a neutral term."

At Bai Duolu's insistence, Wu Shimang had secretly received baptism—Bai Duolu simply could not accept an unbaptized man running the Church. After the baptism, Bai Duolu also gave him a few lessons in basic religious knowledge and assigned him a handful of introductory catechism books, lest he make a fool of himself in Church matters. It seemed the gentleman had made little progress in this regard.

"Fine—the believers, er, no… the flock has grown considerably?"

"The results are significant," Bai Duolu said briefly. "But never mind that. You had me rush back before the Assembly—what's this about?"

"I thought of you precisely because you're one of us—so you could get a good rest. Nanbao's conditions aren't as good as here. Besides, accompanying that priest must be dull." Wu Shimang poured him a cup of tea from a vacuum flask. "There's also the question of our Church's future direction."

Bai Duolu thought: this man has really grown into the role of dean—now earnestly pondering the Church's future. He knew that Director Wen and the Executive Committee grandees had no religious sensibility whatsoever; they were naked pragmatists. In their hands, the Church would inevitably be a mere tool. What Wu Shimang called "the Church's future direction" was simply about making the Church a better tool for the transmigrated collective—and extracting greater personal advantage in the process.

Bai Duolu himself had no interest in the clerical profession. His background was printing; he had some knowledge of surveying and field exploration, and now held a concurrent post with the long-range reconnaissance team, doing surveying work when out "proselytizing" and occasionally conducting social surveys for the Social Work Office. Either pursuit struck him as more interesting than tagging along behind the priest as an attendant to spread the faith.

"How the Church develops is up to the Executive Committee," Bai Duolu said indifferently. "Wasn't this Church set up on the Executive Committee's instructions in the first place?"

"Xiao Bai—ah—" Wu Shimang started to speak, saw Bai Duolu's displeased look, and quickly corrected himself. "Old Bai, your thinking is too old-fashioned. The leadership has so much on its plate—how can they possibly think of everything for us? This is exactly where we should exercise initiative. They don't handle day-to-day operations; they don't understand grassroots conditions the way we do." He rose and began pacing around the office. "At this Second General Assembly, our Church should present a comprehensive, sound development proposal for the incoming leadership to consider."

"That's possible, but what new tricks can religious activity really offer?" Bai Duolu mused. The usual tools were education and charity. Even in Nanbao, where Lu Ruohua could not run schools, he had started with simple acts of kindness.

"This isn't about tricks," Wu Shimang shook his head. "Our Church should vie for the important task of ideological work among the masses. Right now, brainwashing of the indigenous population is inadequate, and no dedicated institution is doing it—it's a blank space." This conclusion was not baseless. Though Dean Wu had shown no interest in studying doctrine, he had read extensively on church history in his spare time and had developed considerable insight. He also frequently discussed ideas with parishioners and kept copious notes on ideological trends.

Wu Shimang believed that the spiritual life of Lingao's indigenous population was utterly barren—they did not even have the religious life typical of traditional societies. Limited by economic circumstances, though the county had a few temples, most were in a half-dead state; seldom did any temple have a resident monk or Taoist. All manner of folk superstition flourished, with non-professional witches and shamans widespread.

"Propaganda directed at the indigenous population is still very inadequate. Beyond a few broad slogans, attention is focused on those within the system; those outside are seriously neglected. Systemic brainwashing has not been carried out. Right now, the problem isn't visible, but in the future it will be enormous!" Wu Shimang spoke gravely, his manner utterly serious.

"The Church should seize this opportunity. Exploiting the vacuum in local beliefs and the prevalence of superstition, it should advance into every aspect of social life—not just do a bit of charity and call it a day."

Bai Duolu was astonished. He had not expected this former HR and training manager to be so ambitious. Evidently, he was positioning the Church at the level of a "state church." Now that Wu Shimang laid it out, Bai Duolu also felt that the transmigrated collective was too deficient in the superstructure domain, too fixated on climbing the tech tree and developing productive forces.

"What do you have in mind?" Despite himself, Bai Duolu was drawn in by the grand scheme.

"Since you're one of us, I'll tell you," Wu Shimang said. "I want to start with weddings, funerals, and celebrations."

Bai Duolu was puzzled for a few minutes before it dawned on him.

"That's highly unlikely. The force of custom is very strong!" Bai Duolu knew that folkways were stubborn; without major changes in the social environment, they scarcely shifted.

"Customs can change—but only if a powerful force impacts society," Wu Shimang said, full of confidence. "Right now, the transmigrated collective is impacting this traditional society. If we want to change social customs, this is the ideal moment!"

Starting with the customs of daily life would habituate the populace to the Church's presence. So-called "faith" among the masses mostly manifested as superstition. According to Malinowski's "social functionalist" theory, superstition and religion were society's way of releasing internal pressure and stabilizing its structure. If pressure did not disappear, superstition could not be eradicated; new superstitions would spring up endlessly—unless society itself was destroyed.

The future empire would certainly not be an earthly paradise. Since social pressure would persist, offering the masses "spiritual opium"—guaranteeing their afterlife—would be an effective approach.

"Rather than let superstition—including those highly dangerous cults—fill the void, let us provide a faith for them," Wu Shimang had clearly thought this through. "Extend the Church's influence into every stratum of society, ensuring that the future empire maintains a high degree of unity in the ideological domain!"

(End of Chapter)