Chapter 216: The Emissary Arrives

Through the efforts of the Zhuang family, Zhang Yingchen first “whitewashed” his sect. He himself had an ordination certificate, and the three missionaries who came from Qiongshan all had official Daoist ordination certificates obtained by the Foreign Intelligence Bureau through the Guangzhou station.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, local governments were highly vigilant against monks and Daoists, especially itinerant ones, who were seen as potential criminals and agitators. All prefectures and counties had monastic and Daoist registration offices to manage monks and Daoists. In theory, itinerant monks and Daoists had to have travel documents issued by the local monastic or Daoist registration office to be considered as having an official identity when traveling and staying in other places. To stay in a certain place, they also had to report to the local “relevant departments” for registration.

Although this system was no longer strictly enforced in the late Ming, Zhang Yingchen believed it was best to have the procedures as complete as possible to prevent the government from finding fault.

First, he officially turned the “Yunsheng Temple” into a Daoist temple. With the Zhuang family’s operation and Zhang Yingchen’s generous use of silver, this was quickly accomplished. Subsequently, he also listed the three missionaries from Qiongshan as “official staff.” Zhang Yingchen appointed the most clever and best Mandarin-speaking old Tongsheng as the abbot to handle external affairs.

In this way, he had a legal religious site in Yizhou. Subsequently, Zhang Yingchen invested funds to expand the Daoist temple. In a year of great disaster, labor was extremely cheap. Except for a few skilled workers, most workers would work for a full meal.

Next, the pharmacy he co-founded with the Zhuang family also opened. For a time, the New Taoism flourished in Yizhou, its influence greatly increasing. The number of believers continued to grow. The various branch altars of the Nanwuliang sect in the local area began to disintegrate, and many incense masters and incense attendants began to defect—some because they were awed by the legend of his “magical power,” others because they were financially strapped. In the past two years, floods had been frequent, and the government’s taxes were heavy. Many small landlords and rich peasants who served as incense masters and incense attendants were already overwhelmed. The sect itself also had many “offerings” and “incense money” quotas. Although they could pass them down to the grassroots believers, the ordinary believers were in an even worse situation and could not afford much money at all. After the flood, although the main altar had allocated some relief money and grain, very little of it reached their hands. Instead, the altar master used the pretext of “relieving fellow believers” to extort a lot of money and grain from them.

Zhang Yingchen learned from the defecting incense masters that the current altar master of Yizhou, Ma Sanwei, was a local tyrant—a so-called local tyrant, a hybrid of a landlord and a bandit. With his tough skills and hundreds of thugs, he was very powerful in the local area, and the government did not dare to easily provoke him. Seeing that the Nanwuliang sect was gaining momentum and had many followers, he became interested and joined the sect. As 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, when the original local altar master suddenly died, he naturally became the altar master.

For such a person, the so-called faith was just a tool for amassing wealth. Of course, he was still very respectful to the high-level members of the sect, and even appeared very pious—because although he had no faith, he was very superstitious, and the “magical arts” of the Dharma protectors and inspectors within the sect made him wary. Secondly, he felt that it was more convenient to make money under this guise than before.

Therefore, the believers in the Yizhou area had long been dissatisfied with Ma Weisan as the altar master, but due to his tyrannical power, no one dared to speak out. Some people had once gone to the Jinan main altar to “complain,” but because Ma Weisan was doing a good job in Yizhou and had a large amount of incense offerings every year, the “petitions” came to nothing.

After listening to the reports of several incense masters, Zhang Yingchen sighed: “As the saying goes, life is a jianghu everywhere. In fact, life is also a ‘bureaucracy’ everywhere. Of course, it seems more accurate to say that the bureaucracy is also a jianghu.”

“Does everyone still have food at home?” Zhang Yingchen asked. “I see that there are many refugees here, and people are starving to death everywhere. There are also many refugees fleeing the famine.”

“We have some,” several incense masters said with tears streaming down their faces. “We all share it, and with some tree bark and wild vegetables, we can barely avoid starvation. The old and the young, and those with weak bodies can’t hold on, and it’s their fate to die. But with the flood in the summer, we couldn’t plant anything. We don’t know what to do in the autumn. At that time, we’ll have to leave our homes and beg for food, otherwise we’ll all starve to death!”

Most folk religious sects had a “mutual aid” color. This characteristic had existed since the Taiping Dao and the Five Pecks of Rice Sect. In addition, the main altar had allocated some money and grain, which made the situation of the local believers slightly better than that of other people. Therefore, whenever a major natural disaster occurred, it was the best opportunity for folk religious sects to expand their power.

If it weren’t for Ma Weisan’s excessive selfishness and relentless exploitation, it would have been quite unrealistic for Zhang Yingchen to shake the position of the Nanwuliang sect here.

Zhang Yingchen nodded. “Tomorrow, you can go to the Zhuang family to get grain first. I have already discussed it with the head of their family. For now, we will borrow one hundred shi of grain to relieve everyone. In a few days, someone will send more grain.”

The first batch of emergency rations had already been transported to Jining by the Qiwei Escort Agency via the Grand Canal and was being transferred to Yizhou. Zhang Yingchen was just waiting for this batch of grain to arrive, and then he would use Yizhou as a base to recruit a large number of flood refugees from southern Shandong, including Xuzhou.

As long as there was food, there was the capital to recruit refugees. The starving people would follow wherever there was food, regardless of whether you were taking them to heaven or hell. The large rebel armies of the late Ming were nothing more than a group of desperate people who fought to keep themselves from starving.

While he was flourishing here, Ma Weisan’s incense altar was in a state of panic.

His incense altar was not in that farmhouse. Although the location was secret, he usually received incense masters and guests from other places there, and many people knew the details. Now that many incense masters had defected, it was even less safe.

Ma Weisan directly hid back in his own incense altar. His incense altar was not a secret location, but ordinary people could not easily enter—it was a local earthen-walled compound, also his residence. Ma Weisan had been entrenched here for a long time, engaging in activities that straddled the line between legal and illegal.

The earthen wall was not high, but it was one zhang tall. He didn’t have many men, but at least two hundred were willing to risk their lives for him. Self-protection for a while was not a problem.

What he feared most now was not someone rushing in with open fire and weapons, but those indescribable “magical arts.” After joining the sect and becoming the altar master of the local incense altar, he had witnessed many “powerful” figures from the main altar in Jinan during several “dharma assemblies” held there. He had seen all sorts of things, like the “Five Thunder Art,” “Soul-Capturing Art,” and “Flying Art”… he had seen no less than a dozen of them.

Some he knew were tricks from the “entertainment world,” only meant to deceive ordinary believers—he had learned many of them after joining the sect. But some he could not understand, and therefore believed to be real.

If the main altar thought he was incompetent and wanted to make an example of him, they wouldn’t have to kill their way in. They could probably kill him with the Soul-Capturing Art!

When Ma Weisan first joined the sect, he had been careful. When he set up the incense altar and transmitted the teachings, the birth dates he submitted were all fake, to avoid having his “soul captured” alive one day.

Even if all these magical arts were fake, the main altar also had a group of highly skilled jianghu experts at their disposal. Some of the Dharma protectors or inspectors were jianghu masters themselves.

If the main altar made him afraid, then the mysterious Daoist Priest Zhang made him even more afraid. Even the magical arts of Dharma protector Hu Qi’er and the martial arts of Min Zhanlian could not deal with him! Hu Qi’er went after Min Zhanlian and came back with nothing—she only found the seven bodies of Min Zhanlian’s subordinates on the road, stripped naked and thrown in a ditch. The most terrifying thing was that Hu Qi’er’s face was pale when she returned—because the bodies were in a terrible state, each with large gashes.

Both Hu Qi’er and Ma Weisan were in a state of great fear. The double threat of the main altar’s investigation and Daoist Priest Zhang’s revenge kept them from leaving their homes. They watched as the Yizhou incense altar disintegrated. Daoist Priest Zhang had transported a lot of grain from Jining and other places. Besides relieving the refugees, he also used the grain to recruit defectors on a large scale—the believers were also generally short of food and could not sustain themselves.

Now, half of the dozen or so incense halls in Yizhou had defected, and the other half were wavering. Only a few of his directly controlled incense halls were still firmly under his control.

Ma Weisan fought back desperately. He sent capable men to attack the defecting incense masters and believers to make an example of them. At first, it was quite successful, but after a few times, the several incense halls that were ordered to send out assassins were all subjected to retaliatory massacres, and all the key members were killed. In this way, the entire situation became even more unstable.

The situation had forced the main altar, which had originally not paid much attention to Yizhou, to pay direct attention.

On the official road, more and more strangers appeared—horses from Jining came in an endless stream, which surprised the merchants who often set up stalls by the roadside. In the Ming Dynasty, there were very few people who could ride horses at high speed. The value of a horse could be measured in gold.

In front of the gate tower of the Ma family’s earthen-walled compound, more than a dozen riders arrived.

The leader was an old man.

On the gate tower of the earthen-walled compound was the head of Ma Weisan’s guards and instructors—also a believer. He usually sat here, specifically checking visitors. Recently, because of the tense situation, the Ma family’s compound kept its main gate closed even during the day.

The head of the guards saw that the visitor had an extraordinary air and opened a small door to greet him.

“Gentlemen, may I ask what brings you to this place?”

“Thank you,” the old man returned the courtesy and said with a faint smile, “Is Master Ma at home? I have something to ask of him and would trouble the steward to announce me.” As he spoke, he pointed to the sky, then pointed his hand back down to the ground, and finally placed it on his right chest.

The head of the guards’ body trembled. “So it is the emissary from the main altar…” His language and attitude became even more respectful. “Please show your Dharma body so that this disciple may pay his respects.”

“Xuan De, Dharma protector of the Inner Dharma Hall of the main altar.”

The head of the guards immediately knelt down and kowtowed, his etiquette extremely humble. “This disciple respectfully welcomes the Dharma presence.”

“Get up,” the old man said with a wave of his hand. “Is your Altar Master Ma here?”

“Yes, yes, he is in the residence. This disciple will go and report immediately.”

“No need. Just lead us in directly,” the old man said with an imposing air, his voice carrying a suppressive force.

“Yes, yes,” the head of the guards quickly got up and instructed the guards to open the courtyard gate, leading the group in.