Chapter 72: The First Month in Yizhou

It was the first month of the lunar year. From the first day to the thirtieth, almost every day was the birthday or descent day of some god or Buddha. In the fifth year of Chongzhen, the southern part of Shandong and the northern part of Jiangsu were constantly flooded. Especially the great flood from June to August, almost the entire southern part of Shandong was hit by disasters, and Yizhou was particularly severely affected. More than half of the common people had fled to escape the famine. Even so, there were still quite a few believers who came to Yunsheng Temple on the first day to pray for blessings. Especially some of the newly converted large households took this opportunity to express their piety.

As a result, the already cramped main hall of the Taoist temple could not accommodate so many pilgrims. Zhang Yingchen had to act according to the circumstances and borrowed a bluestone trough from the banker to serve as an incense burner and placed it outside the main hall. But even so, the choking smell of inferior incense still made his head spin.

“The five offerings of incense, lamps, water, flowers, and fruits are really troublesome to implement, and they are also a waste of people and money. They should be changed.” While smiling professionally and nodding to every pilgrim and believer who greeted him, he instructed Mingqing:

“Take a few junior brothers and go persuade the believers outside not to burn paper money and tin ingots randomly, so as not to cause a fire.”

Whether it was to remember the ancestors or to offer sacrifices to the gods, burning tin ingots and paper money was a deep-rooted tradition. Even Zhang Yingchen, who had become a living immortal in the mouths of the believers, was powerless to go against this tradition. This was not Lingao or the counties of Hainan, where some bad habits could be completely banned with the big stick of the “Municipal Management Measures” and the labor camp. Zhang Yingchen had to make a compromise. In the newly drafted “Rules for Believers,” it was stipulated that burning paper money for offerings and sacrifices must be done in designated burning furnaces, and after burning, the embers must be extinguished with water.

However, according to the feedback from the study group, the residents of Dadian Village and the nearby several natural villages did not have any particular resistance to this. After all, for the Ming people who generally lived in earth and wood structures, fire was always the biggest threat to their personal and property safety. The situation in the countryside was better. In the densely populated towns, how many rich households became beggars every year because their shops and houses were burned down by fire? When it came to matters that directly concerned their own interests, the masses were always the most astute. This was a new understanding of Zhang Daochang, who had been doing “grassroots mass work” since D-Day.

However, compared to grassroots mass work, the work of the bankers was undoubtedly more difficult.

No matter how much they admired Zhang Daochang’s medical skills and Taoist practice, the Confucian scholars’ contempt for Taoism was deep-rooted. Zhuang Qian might regard Zhang Yingchen, who had saved his life, as an immortal on earth, but for those gentry who had heard rumors about him, Zhang Yingchen was nothing more than a Taoist with strange skills. When they needed Zhang Daochang’s help, these gentry masters were also willing to put down their faces as members of the famous religion and flatter him with “immortal master” on the left and “true person” on the right. However, in their hearts, their attitude was nothing more than a rural version of the Jiajing Emperor and Tao Zhongwen model. Every time he interacted with these gentry, Zhang Yingchen could not help but think of the old and uncultivated evil gentry who was enjoying the morphine he had purified by his own method in Hangzhou and was on the verge of ecstasy.

This opposition between technical intellectuals and Confucian intellectuals could be said to have reached its peak in the Ming Dynasty. Having seen too much of the deep-rooted arrogance of the Ming gentry, Zhang Yingchen often had to agree that the radical slogan of “washing all the backward gentry and then throwing them into Southeast Asia to improve the human race” shouted in the “Red Flag,” the official publication of the Spartacus Group, had its rationality. However, the work of the united front must also be done. Even if we can’t cultivate traitors, it is also beneficial to the future continental strategy to influence some enlightened gentry.

In contrast, the wives and concubines of the gentry were more devout to the new Taoism. It seemed that women’s work must be constantly grasped.

In these days, he traveled around, treating the gentry and large households without charging any money. He only asked them to “donate according to their fate,” asking them to donate grain, bricks and tiles, firewood and charcoal, cloth, and Chinese medicinal materials. All the donations received were used to relieve the refugees, and he did not use a single penny for himself. Besides expanding the scale of refugee reception, the main thing was to quickly paint himself with a “moral and noble” halo of a “true person.”

Relying on the “donations according to fate” of the local gentry in Yizhou—mainly from the Zhuang family, plus the “generous donations” of Ma Sanwei—he used the refugees as labor to expand the “Ciji Tang” refugee camp in a work-for-relief manner. He built a second earthen wall and rebuilt the original adobe and thatched houses, building brick-and-tile warehouses, offices, and clinics. Of course, the toilets and bathrooms, which the Senate had never spared any expense on, were also indispensable—the believers thus knew that the Daoist priest attached great importance to personal cleanliness.

He also added brick-built corner towers and gate towers to the refugee camp wall, increasing the defense level. With the support of the Zhuang family, he “organized a group” and pulled up a militia of more than a hundred people. It was not enough to fight a war, but it was no problem to stand guard and resist small groups of bandits.

Although the “Ciji Tang” was jointly established by the Zhuang family and a group of gentry, and these gentry all held the title of “good directors,” they did not specifically manage the affairs. The Zhuang family only sent a manager—this manager was also his believer, so the work of receiving and rescuing refugees went very smoothly.

Throughout 1632, his work of transporting refugees in Yizhou was quite smooth. In 1632, Yizhou suffered another flood after the flood of 1631. The disaster was very serious, and the number of refugees increased sharply. Because the Ciji Tang had the support of the Zhuang family and other local gentry, the local disaster relief and reception work went very smoothly.

Although the route that had been opened, going north along the Yi River, then taking a short land route to the Juyang River to Laizhou Bay, and finally to Qimu Island, was temporarily closed due to the Dengzhou rebellion, the Engine Command still opened a second route, allowing the refugees to travel from Dadian Village in Yizhou by land in the mode of refugees fleeing the famine to Lanshantou, and then be picked up by ships at Lanshantou and transported to Jeju Island.

Lanshan Tou was the An Dong Wei of the Ming Dynasty. However, at this time, the Ming army’s garrisons were in disrepair. Moreover, the southern part of Shandong and the northern part of Jiangsu were full of disasters. The government troops were already overwhelmed. They basically adopted a non-interference attitude towards the large-scale transit of refugees. As long as there was no riot locally, they could go wherever they wanted. The Daoist priest was only suffering from a shortage of manpower. Although he had the assistance of Wang Ruixiang, he still could not devote all his efforts to the transportation of people. Therefore, after the route to Longkou was closed, only more than 10,000 people were sent away in 1632.

This performance could not satisfy him in any way.

At present, the entire southern Shandong region was full of refugees, and there were groups of refugees fleeing everywhere. It was just that he did not have enough manpower and material resources, and could only watch helplessly as the refugees were displaced and a large number of them died on the road of escape.

No matter how capable he was, he could only barely help the people of Yinan County. He was already powerless when it came to the whole prefecture.

However, he had recently received good news: the operation in Dengzhou had been declared victorious, and the transportation line to Longkou would soon be restored. From the news, Lu Wenyan and his men had become a powerful force in Dengzhou, and they also had the semi-official status of the head of the Aftermath Bureau. They were quite “covered” locally, and this route should be safer and more convenient than before.

We must seize this opportunity and transport a large number of people!

“Xiao Min.”

“Daoist priest,” Min Zhanlian replied. He was dressed in a green tight-fitting suit, looking very capable. He was carrying a sword and was now the Daoist priest’s militia instructor. After he was captured, he thought he would surely die, but under the Daoist priest’s “teaching,” he had converted to his new Taoism. The Senate was very interested in what method the Daoist priest had used to make this former jianghu killer submit, but the Daoist priest had always remained silent about it.

“How is Ma Sanwei doing?”

“He’s being very honest. He’s been hiding in the stockade and hasn’t come out.”

“Very good. You keep a close eye on him.” The Daoist priest was very worried about Ma Sanwei. However, it was now the New Year. Even if Ma Sanwei wanted to do something, he would have to wait until after the fifteenth of the first month.

Speaking of which, the fourth day of the new year was the birthday of the Medicine King, the Heavenly Physician, Sun Simiao. It was also time to gather the study group leaders and the Daoist students for a study session.

He thought for a moment, then called Liu Sanchu over and personally wrote an invitation, saying that on the seventh day, the day when the Heavenly Master Zhang Daoling achieved the Dao, Yunsheng Temple would set up a scripture altar to preach the scriptures and set up a large number of vegetarian altars. He asked him to invite the masters of the Zhuang family to come and participate in the ceremony on the seventh day.

Liu Sanchu was a “probationary historian” he had newly recruited. He was originally an old student—the kind who ran a private school, had a few acres of land at home, and was neither full nor hungry.

He joined the Namo Liang Jiao for no other reason than to take advantage of the benefits of being a censer. Of course, he was not very bold. Although he was also a scholar, he did not have the style of the Shaoxing scholars who were known for their ragged shoes. And as a student who had not yet entered the school, he could not be said to have mixed into the circle of scholars. As for the struggle between Zhang Zhenren and the Namo Liang Jiao, he did not know the inside story either. However, since everyone said that Zhang Daochang’s magic power was high, and many of the leaders of the Namo Liang Jiao were killed on the spot, he had to follow the crowd.

Zhang Daochang exempted the believers from the donations to the Namo Liang Jiao, and Liu Sanchu lost the opportunity to skim off the top. However, Zhang Daochang selected some of the censers who knew a little about writing to be the leaders of the study group, and then selected a few “activists” from these study group leaders to be probationary historians. At least they could enjoy a subsidy of two catties of mixed noodles per month. With this kind of employment method, I don’t know if Zhang Daochang was hiring assistants or picking leaders.

Today was the fourth day of the first lunar month. In Dadian Village, and even in the jianghu, under the maneuvering of the somewhat capable Zhang Daochang, the local area had finally calmed down. Although many people had starved to death, at least there was no major epidemic. Everyone said that this was due to the god-like medical skills and profound Taoist power of the living Medicine King and the peerless Chunyang, Zhang Daochang. Therefore, there were not a few people who came to Yunsheng Temple to burn incense and fulfill their vows. Even those refugees who had not been sent away came in groups to the temple to kowtow and thank the immortals for their protection.