Chapter 224: Reforming the Organization
At the grand ceremony, Ma Weisan presented ten thousand taels of silver—this was originally intended for the main altar and himself, but Zhang Yingchen accepted it without hesitation. Opening up the situation in southern Shandong required a large amount of money, and sheltering refugees also needed silver. Besides, he needed some “consolation” for the fear and anxiety he had endured over the past two months.
Next, he obtained the most important part: the registers of all the incense halls of the Namo Amitabha Sect in the Yizhou region and their related account books. This wealth excited Zhang Yingchen more than the ten thousand taels of silver. The entire Yizhou sub-altar had over forty incense halls, with more than thirty thousand registered followers who contributed incense money. Although the vast majority were lower-class people, the annual incense money contributed to the main altar alone was 4,800 taels, so there must have been a considerable amount of sect property.
Needless to say, most of this sect property had certainly become Ma Weisan’s “private property,” but Zhang Yingchen was not prepared to argue with Ma Weisan about this. Since he was going to eliminate him anyway, all these things would eventually be his. Now was the time to stabilize the situation, and putting his mind at ease was the top priority.
Therefore, he was quite polite to Ma Weisan. Besides praising him for “abandoning the darkness and turning to the light,” he also hinted that Ma Weisan had a share of the credit for the excellent situation in Yizhou and that he would be heavily relied upon in the future. Ma Weisan, being an old hand in the martial world, was naturally skeptical, but he was now scared to death of the Daoist. He didn’t care about being relied upon or not; he just wanted to keep his life and property.
He had betrayed the sect, and the sect would likely come to settle accounts with him. Never mind taking on heavy responsibilities; how to save his own life was the most important thing. Therefore, Ma Weisan repeatedly requested that the Daoist “move his holy presence” to the Ma Family Village.
Zhang Yingchen refused Ma Weisan’s request to move his “holy presence” to the Ma Family Village. The Ma Family Village was certainly nice, but he had already decided to make Dadian Village the main base for the New Daoism’s activities in Yizhou. Moreover, he intended to draw a clear line with Ma Weisan in the future, and it was inappropriate to get too close to a future “traitor.”
However, he did offer some comfort for Ma Weisan’s fear, assuring him that he would not let him suffer any losses. Even if he wasn’t in the Ma Family Village, he could still ensure his safety. Of course, if he were to leave the Ma Family Village and run around, that would be a different story.
Zhang Yingchen did not want Ma Weisan to continue to exert his influence. Using fear to confine him to the Ma Family Village was the most suitable approach. To put his mind at ease, Zhang Yingchen even privately drew a few talismans after the banquet and gave them to Ma Weisan, telling him to post them in his home. The reason it was done privately was that Zhang Yingchen himself did not want to continue with this kind of talisman business; he was just using it temporarily.
To break the sect’s mystique, he also made a great show of leading the Incense Masters to uncover the mechanisms. With the terrified emissaries from the main altar in hand, nothing was a secret anymore. They soon uncovered the “spells” personally arranged by Xuan De and Luo Saichun.
The five trigger bricks were slightly newer in color and could be identified with a little attention. Under each brick was a set of ignition mechanisms. This mechanism was very ingenious, not using traditional delayed fuses like “smoldering incense,” but a foot-pedal-operated steel wheel and flint. Under the brick was a pedal, with a thin wooden strip serving as a safety support. It required a great deal of force to trigger, to avoid accidental activation during normal walking.
Zhang Yingchen was startled at first glance. This was practically a flintlock. It seemed that many practical technologies were not absent in China, but had not been popularized.
The ignition mechanism was connected to fuses placed in bamboo tubes, each controlling a separate mechanism, for a total of five sets. Each set was very cleverly designed. Although in principle, the entire set of magical mechanisms was nothing more than a combination of landmines and fireworks, to achieve this level with such rudimentary technology was enough to make Zhang Yingchen marvel.
One of the sets was installed under the eight-immortal table where Zhang Yingchen was seated. This gave Zhang Yingchen a cold sweat—if the opponent hadn’t been so obsessed with the magical effect, he would have probably been blown up directly.
This on-the-spot debunking had a great psychological impact on the still-wavering followers. Especially with the capture of the main altar’s emissaries and the Inner Law Hall’s Saintess, whom they regarded as demigods, their admiration for this “True Man Zhang” grew even stronger. They all prostrated themselves before him.
With the defection of Ma Weisan and others, the sect’s entire power in Yizhou collapsed instantly. Of the more than forty incense halls, except for a small number that disbanded on their own, all the others were taken over by Zhang Yingchen. He then reformed the organizational structure according to his own ideas, changing the title of Incense Master to Group Leader. In addition, he reduced the size of the larger incense halls and established one hundred and thirty-eight study groups to replace the original forty-five incense halls. Each group had a leader and a deputy leader to replace the original Incense Master and Incense Attendant.
The old scriptures were abolished and replaced with three booklets personally written by Zhang Yingchen and printed in Hangzhou: “Introduction to the Daoist Canon,” “Questions and Answers on the Canon,” and “Collection of Essential Scriptures.” These were three easy-to-understand New Daoist booklets written by the Daoist in the style of Christian missionaries, covering the basic knowledge needs of ordinary believers and missionaries.
All the leaders and deputy leaders of the study groups were gathered in batches at the Yunsheng Temple to attend a three-day crash course.
The main administrative body of the New Daoism in Yizhou was established in the Yunsheng Temple, with dedicated financial personnel to manage income, expenses, and sect property. To show his unwavering loyalty, Ma Weisan handed over more than three hundred mu of land as “sect property.”
As a new image for the New Daoism, Zhang Yingchen abolished the fixed incense money contribution from each incense hall, a heavy burden. Although this measure would cause him a great financial loss, he knew that the Council of Elders was very sensitive to any “organized” religion, so he decided it was better not to collect this money. Moreover, the economic situation of the followers in Yizhou was currently very poor, and they urgently needed to recuperate.
The floods in southern Shandong would not reach their peak until 1632. Before that, Zhang Yingchen had to work hard to turn Yizhou into his stable base.
However, the matter of exporting population could be started now.
He used the silver contributed by Ma Weisan and also received great support from the Zhuang family. Historically, the Zhuang family of Dadian Village had been very active in the floods and other natural disasters in southern Shandong, organizing many relief efforts throughout the Yizhou region. In this timeline, they were equally charitable. At Zhang Yingchen’s suggestion, the Zhuang family took the lead, contacted a group of local gentry, and established a “Ciji Hall” (Hall of Mercy). The head of the hall was naturally the master of the Zhuang family. The famous Daoist Zhang, known for his superb medical skills, also enthusiastically became a major director of the charity hall.
Zhang Yingchen didn’t care who controlled the Ciji Hall. He mainly used its name to get things done. If he could get some financial support from it, that would be even better.
Lu Wenyuan from Qimu Island had already sent him a message. The construction on the island had a certain foundation. If they were to transfer population, Qimu Island’s current capacity was one thousand people for the short term and three hundred for the long term.
“Qimu Island Fort and the Taiwan base are in urgent need of labor. If there is suitable labor, please send it to Qimu Island as soon as possible.” Lu Wenyuan needed labor now. Due to the landing in Taiwan, the first batch of one thousand refugees recruited from Huang County, Dengzhou, and Laizhou, who had gathered on Qimu Island, had already departed for Taiwan.
Recruiting labor in the three eastern prefectures was not difficult in itself—the area was very poor, and whether in a good year or a bad year, the common people were always half-starved, and many fled from famine. But with the upcoming campaign for Jeju Island, the Qimu Island base would also have to transfer population to Jeju Island, and transporting a large number of people from the three eastern prefectures would attract a lot of attention. After all, this was still Sun Yuanhua’s territory, and both sides needed to be considerate of each other.
“Hmph, population. Why am I risking my life under the scorching sun in this place? Isn’t it for labor?” Zhang Yingchen muttered. He had already started the work of sheltering refugees. He now had a complete organizational structure and sufficient manpower, so he no longer needed to do everything himself.
The first batch of buildings had been completed on Qimu Island. Lu Wenyuan had now become the veritable “island master.” After Zhao Yingong returned to Zhejiang, he quickly recruited over a hundred impoverished local households as long-term laborers and tenants, settling them on the island as the basic labor force for building the farmstead. There was originally a fishing village with a dozen fishing households on the island, and Lu Wenyuan also incorporated them, counting them as his long-term laborers.
He didn’t think much of the fishermen’s small fishing boats—compared to the fishing boats seen along the coast of the South China Sea and Zhejiang, the sea-going fishing boats in the Dengzhou-Laizhou region were too small, with a displacement of only ten or twenty tons at most, basically only active in the waters near Longkou Bay. However, having a dozen boats was at least some coastal mobile force.
Lu Wenyuan also organized a hundred-man militia, based on the standard of one man per household. In a place where security basically depended on oneself, one couldn’t sleep soundly without a fully armed militia.
After hearing about this from people in the church, Sun Yuanhua, to show his concern, specially sent some swords and spears. Of course, he couldn’t openly allocate firearms and gunpowder. But the messenger privately indicated that as long as Lu Wenyuan wanted them, he could get matchlocks, three-eyed guns, and small cannons for a small price. Gunpowder and ammunition were also readily available.
Remembering Zhao Yingong’s instructions to maintain good relations with the local officials, Lu Wenyuan spent a few dozen taels of silver to buy some three-eyed guns and two small cannons, and also got some gunpowder and ammunition. He made Huang Ande the instructor and started training the troops.
According to the plan, Lu Wenyuan had originally intended to dig a 2-meter-deep trench on the sandbar of Qimu Island, fill it with seawater, and cut off the land connection with the mainland. But considering that the Bohai Bay was likely to freeze in winter, making it easy for enemies to cross from the bay, it seemed pointless to spend a lot of effort digging a trench.