Chapter 191: Master and Disciple

Even with Master Shi, he could justify his actions. He knew very well what Master Shi was thinking. Attacking the Phoenix Villa, burning the filature, and smashing the residences were all a sham. Master Shi had even explicitly told Cao Guangjiu that a symbolic destruction of the filature would suffice; it should not be burned to the ground. As for the residences on the mountain, they should also be left as undamaged as possible. On the other hand, the Cihuitang, which everyone thought was unimportant, was the real target of the attack. Master Shi’s goal was to cause maximum bloodshed, which was why he had also planned to burn down the Cihuitang.

As long as many people died, for whatever reason, the gentry would immediately distance themselves from him. No matter how powerful his backers were, they would not stand up for him. Zhao Yigong would then be unable to maintain his foothold in Hangzhou. This was the master plan of Master Shi’s master.

After the event, whether he, Hao Yuan, could continue to “serve” Master Shi was a very uncertain matter. Hao Yuan had a clear understanding of these gentry and wealthy families.

During the Spanish massacre in Manila, his father was in Manila as a merchant’s agent. At that time, there were already rumors that the Spanish were about to turn against the Chinese. When his father returned to China to settle accounts, he informed his master and wanted to end the business in Manila, but he was sternly refused and had to return to Manila. As a result, his entire family was killed in the 1603 Manila massacre, their bodies never found.

Hao Yuan was still in swaddling clothes at the time. In the chaos, he was taken to a Dominican church for refuge by his native nanny and escaped death. He was later adopted by the church and raised to adulthood.

Although raised and educated by European missionaries, and having been baptized and received many years of religious and theological education, Hao Yuan did not become a devout believer like other orphans raised by the church. The Dominican priests, hoping to one day return to China to preach, hired a Chinese scholar who taught him his mother tongue in addition to Spanish.

Through his native nanny, he learned of his own life story. He had witnessed much of the Spanish cruelty and arrogance in the Philippines, which led him to have great doubts about the justice of the church for the first time.

Since the King of Spain was recognized by the Pope as the “Catholic King” who ruled half the earth, how could their cruel and greedy actions befit the qualities of a true Christian?

These Spaniards who had come from afar from Castile not only lacked the awareness to “save the lost sheep” but instead took slavery, exploitation, and plunder for granted. Were such people worthy of being “believers of the Lord”?

Hao Yuan, who had become a Dominican novice, found the seeds of doubt growing uncontrollably behind his devout clerical life. He needed more knowledge to answer his questions. The church’s library could no longer satisfy his needs. He even risked being excommunicated and sent to the Inquisition, which even the Spanish feared, to sneak into the church’s library of scriptures, eagerly reading the “heretical” books confiscated from captured English and Dutch ships and from “heretics” who had attempted to sneak into the Spanish colonies to preach.

The “scriptures” opened his eyes and destroyed his faith. Hao Yuan became even more “pious.” This was a desperate attempt to cover up his inner fear. No one suspected that this pious Chinese novice had become the biggest heretic in Manila.

Eventually, even the scriptures could no longer satisfy him. The colonial church’s library was limited. Although his status allowed him easy access to the residences of Manila’s high officials, wealthy merchants, and powerful families, these people had come here risking their lives to make a fortune and naturally would not have brought large collections of books across the ocean. So, he began to look for other sources of books.

Manila already had a workshop that used the “German style” of printing, but this workshop mainly served the governor, printing various orders, announcements, and legal documents. Even the books it printed were popular readings like the Bible and navigation guides. He could not find the books he needed.

With the help of the church and his status as a novice, he could move freely in the Chinese and native residential areas. He began to enter the Parian under the guise of preaching, secretly collecting books and bringing them back to his cell to read. These books reacquainted him with Chinese society and culture. He was full of curiosity and longing for this land of his parents, which he had never seen. In the mouths of the missionaries and his native nanny, China was an ideal country full of sunshine and gold.

However, his activities in the Chinese district of the Parian soon shattered this illusion. From the Chinese living in Manila, he learned that this land of his parents, called “the Great Ming,” was not the “utopia” he had imagined. He had already secretly read a book about it in the church’s library, confiscated from an English merchant. Although the Chinese district of the Parian had been bombarded, burned, and massacred in 1603, with twenty thousand people killed and the “river turned red,” it had quickly prospered again. A steady stream of Chinese immigrants had returned to this unfriendly place, and the population of the Parian was even larger than before the massacre. He soon discovered that not many of them had come here to make a fortune. Many were forced to go abroad to make a living. The work they did in Manila was humble and arduous, earning them just enough to survive.

“We can’t survive if we don’t go to the South Seas.” This was a sentence he heard all the time.

Although Hao Yuan had long known that rulers were never benevolent to the common people, for so many people to leave their homes and cross the ocean to live under a regime that only knew how to exploit them, was full of hostility, and constantly aimed its cannons at their residential area, enduring discrimination and injustice just to eke out a living—was this Great Ming still the “golden country” the missionaries spoke of?

He learned many things about the Great Ming from the new immigrants: the change of dynasties, the shifts in court factions, the frequent disasters, the harsh taxes and corvee labor, the cruel officials…

“We can’t live anymore,” the common people said.

“The court is getting more chaotic by the day,” the merchants said. “The officials are all black-hearted!”

Hao Yuan had always wanted to inquire about his father. One day, he met an old acquaintance of his father in a merchant house in the Parian. This old acquaintance told him his life story and everything about his father.

“Your father was practically forced to return to Manila to his death just to make money for Master Zhao,” the old man said with tears in his eyes.

This incident was a great shock to Hao Yuan. What he had heard before were “other people’s stories,” but now he realized he was also a victim. His father had died at the hands of a profit-driven gentry. From this, the first flame of hatred for the Great Ming was ignited in him.

Neither Manila, nor the suzerain state of Spain, nor his unseen motherland was a “golden country.” This world was a cannibalistic land where demons danced wildly.

How could an ordinary person, a “pure and poor person,” live happily in this world?

The “Utopia” and “City of Christ” in the books were just illusions. Hao Yuan fell into deep despair. He found that no book could answer his questions, and there was no one he could ask these heretical questions.

This confusion and predicament plagued him until he met his mentor a few years ago. This man was like a beacon in the fog, illuminating Hao Yuan’s path. All his questions were answered.

After a few conversations, Hao Yuan did not hesitate to become his disciple, his first. He eagerly learned the “forbidden knowledge.” The more he learned, the more he felt the greatness of his mentor. No, not just greatness; his mentor was also mysterious. He seemed to know everything and possessed much knowledge unknown to the world. With this knowledge, he quickly became a magnate in Manila, gained the trust of the governor, and entered high society. But Hao Yuan knew that his mentor was not one of them. Although he had the demeanor of a great nobleman on the surface, he was essentially like an ascetic, with powerful self-control.

He followed his mentor in his activities throughout the Philippines. One day, his mentor summoned him and asked him to go to the Great Ming.

“The devil’s minions have already entered China. If we don’t do something, they will sooner or later take this country into their hands,” his mentor said, wearing a black robe like a monk, his face hidden by a hood. “Go, and do your best to stop their evil deeds.”

“Yes, Master. Where should I go?”

“Go to Hangzhou.” Although he had never been to China, he had learned enough about the local customs and traditions from books and conversations with the Chinese. “They have already arrived.”

“Yes, Master.”

“You must act carefully, secretly build up your own strength, and then find an opportunity to subdue them. At the same time, you must protect yourself.” His mentor’s voice came from under the deep hood. “You will be alone when you arrive in China. I can no longer give you any help. You can write to me at this address. Of course, it will take a long time to hear from each other. So you must make long-term plans for your activities in China.”

“Yes, Master.”

“I’m afraid this is the last time you will see me. You must take on disciples in China and pass on the torch of light to them. You must remember: you are just a ray of light, shining into a boundless darkness. Neither you nor I will burn for long. As long as someone can inherit our ideas, this spark will eventually start a prairie fire.”

Hao Yuan’s application to go to the Great Ming to preach was quickly approved by the church. He was now a Dominican priest. As a missionary to China, his bloodline and language gave him an advantage over European missionaries.

Hao Yuan arrived in Macau on a church ship. He then stayed in Macau for a while, grew out his hair, and tied it in a topknot. Finally, he changed into the clothes of the common people of the Great Ming and secretly entered Guangdong, making his way to Hangzhou.