Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 45 Lighting Incense
Fights among villagers were a problem that had basically never stopped from the pre-Qin period to the 21st century B.C., and the frequency and intensity increased as time went by. If we called fights between dozens of people wars like the fights between dozens of people on the small island in the east, then wars were basically going on in this place all the time.

Fighting for water sources, farmland, hilltops, even two young people falling in love or a chicken running to the wrong place can lead to a bloody conflict between two villages or two clans.

Just like today, these villages gathered hundreds of people to come to Xialin and tell them that they couldn't light the incense in their ancestral hall, so they came to demolish Xialin's wharf. Is this reasonable? Of course it is not reasonable.

What feng shui? To put it bluntly, the original Xinping Township was not as good as them. Now that they have suddenly made money, they are not happy. During the Chinese New Year, those villages probably have the same ancestor so they get together to worship the ancestor. When they talked about Xinping Township, they heard that this brother who once suffered the most has now become successful.

Hearing that their brothers had become rich was more painful than killing them. The resentment in their hearts accumulated, but they didn't understand anything about market economy. It just so happened that the incense in the ancestral hall and temple could no longer be lit.

At that time, they were thinking, why can't they light it up this year if they could light it up last year? The problem must not be with them. Since it's not with them, they have to find some reason, right? Everyone sat there and discussed, saying that it's no wonder that Xinping Township has made a fortune this year. It turns out that they have intercepted the feng shui luck of their downstream and given it to themselves. How can this be possible? Find it!
Yes, go find it!
So this group of people walked from the afternoon to the evening, holding torches and coming to ask for an explanation. On the way they were still discussing what the feng shui of Xinping Township was like. Someone in the team who knew the matter said with certainty that it must be that pier that displeased the river god!

Well, since it is the wharf that has displeased the river god, then we should demolish the wharf in Xinping Township.

So this group of people came over aggressively to demolish the wharf, but when they came over, they saw more than a thousand young and strong people standing there, each holding a weapon and looking ferocious. Looking back at their side, they saw either boys of fourteen or fifteen years old, or skinny and weak men, and a bunch of old men in their forties or fifties.

This fighting force is not equal...

"You...what are you going to do? I want to see your village chief! I want him to give us an explanation!"

The leaders in Leping Township pointed at Xia Lin and said, "Don't talk, young boy."

"I'm the village chief." Xia Lin crossed his legs and tilted his head, saying, "If you have anything to say, talk to me. It's New Year's Day and I'm just so angry. Just tell me, whether you want to talk or fight, I'm willing to do it."

He had not been hanging around in the village for so long for nothing, and he knew there was an unspoken rule here that there would be a fight, but the prerequisite was that both sides were equal in strength. It was a matter of five hundred against one thousand, or the old, weak, sick and disabled against the young and strong, so there was no way they could fight at all. In the age of cold weapons, what mattered was a strong physique. The young men in his Xinping Village were all as strong as bulls, and no decent person could fight against them.

"We... we are here just to ask for an explanation. It's not the right time to resort to violence during the New Year. Your dock is blocking the feng shui of the downstream and has sucked away all our money. What should we do about this?"

When they heard this, the people from the surrounding villages echoed it one after another, and the scene became chaotic for a while.

"What are you arguing about!" Xia Lin pointed at the loudest shouter in the team with the hooked iron pole on his body and said, "If you shout one more, I'll see."

The guy was originally very arrogant, but when he was suddenly called out, he immediately felt like “Big brother, just call me Mimi.”

"Who told you that it was my dock that blocked your feng shui?" Xia Lin took out some melon seeds from his pocket and started to crack them: "Stand out and let me see."

As he was cracking melon seeds, the scene became extremely quiet. Finally, the leader said, "It was the ancestral temple that said that we couldn't light the incense. Isn't it because you blocked the feng shui and the ancestors were angry?"

"Okay." Xia Lin spat, "I'm a scholar. Hey, harmony brings wealth, and virtue wins people over."

When he talked about winning people over with virtue, the group of strong young men behind him all poked the tools in their hands to the ground. More than a thousand people doing the same thing at the same time was a huge movement. Even the ground could be felt shaking. It was quite exciting.

"You said your ancestors told you, so just invite them over and I'll burn some incense and ask them in person. We are all civilized people, right? If your ancestors really think that this dock is a nuisance, they should move it to another place immediately. But if not... hehe, don't blame me for demolishing your ancestral hall."

"Bang bang" there were two more pounding sounds, just like a war drum, quite exciting. The village elder of Leping Township, who was leading the group, had lost his temper. A decent person would be afraid. With more than a thousand young men here, who would be comfortable watching their butts? So he was also a smart man, who could take advantage of the situation. After Xia Lin finished speaking, he immediately mustered up the courage to say, "Since you don't believe it, just follow us to the ancestral hall and you'll know."

"Okay, let's go!" Xia Lin spat on the ground: "I'm going to reason with you today! Come on, lead the way."

The villagers who had originally come here to cause trouble were now walking in front with shamefaced faces, leading the way, followed by a group of dusty young laborers. Those who knew that this was an armed fight between two villages thought that the local militia were spontaneously going to Zhoushan to fight the Japanese pirates.

In the late night, they arrived at the clan's ancestral hall. Xia Lin yawned and pointed at the hall and asked, "What is the process? How do we go about it? Let's go through it again."

The village elder had no choice but to start the sacrificial ceremony, burning paper, carrying a pig's head and setting off firecrackers, which woke up the people around who had already gone to bed. Soon more people came to watch the fun, and now they were ready to light incense.

"Wait a minute!" Xia Lin raised his hand: "I'll do it."

He walked forward, took the incense from the hands of the village elder, bowed three times towards the ancestral hall, and then said in a loud voice: "You are all elders, and elders should be sensible. You know whether your village can't make money because of my wharf, so I ask you one question here, do you really want to make a fuss about this? If you do, then let me set fire to it three times without smoke. If not, then you know what to do, right? It's New Year's Day, it's better to have less trouble than more. You have a lot of grandchildren here, and you don't want them to come down to see you early."

Look at what he said. Does it sound like something a scholar would say? Even the leaders of those scoundrels in the city wouldn't say anything like this.

But they dare not speak out despite being angry, because everyone knows how many bodyguards the other party has brought.

Then Xia Lin took a torch and handed the incense over. The first time the incense was burned black but still did not light up. Xia Lin sneered, raised his eyes and glanced at the ancestral hall in front of him, and then started the second time.

The people who were most nervous at that time were not the people of Xinping Township but the people of Leping Township. They were really worried that if this happened for the third time, these barbarians would demolish their own ancestral hall.

Should we fight or not? If we fight, we will definitely not be able to win. Even if the whole village joins in, it will be too much. If we don’t fight… the ancestral hall will be demolished. If we don’t fight, how can we face our ancestors?

"I have warned you." Xia Lin sniffed and took out three more incense sticks: "If you really have the ability, then do some good deeds for your children and grandchildren down there, and don't make things difficult for them here."

The incense still didn't light up the second time. Xia Lin sneered, threw the incense in his hand to the ground, and took out three more incense sticks: "Okay, you don't want to give me face, right? Since you don't give me face, then I don't want this face either."

These words made the surrounding villagers tremble in their hearts. Looking at the situation, a fierce fight was inevitable today. They tightened the weapons in their hands, but when they looked at the opposite side, they felt their legs go weak and their hearts pounding.

"This is the last time. I won't waste my words. If you don't give me face, you are not giving Xinping Township face. If you don't give Xinping Township face, you are not giving face to my brothers. My brothers are young and hot-tempered. If we offend them, please forgive us."

After he finished speaking, the warriors of Xinping Township took a step forward in unison. Although they had no training, to cut off someone's financial resources was like killing their parents. At this moment, their will to unite against a common enemy was as solid as a rock.

Xia Lin stopped talking nonsense and walked forward to put the last three incense sticks on the fire. This time the incense was lit. The appearance of the faint green smoke made all the people in Leping Township breathe a sigh of relief.

Inserting the incense into the incense burner, Xia Lin turned his head and looked at the more than 1,000 people outside the ancestral hall: "The fortune teller said that I was a general who achieved success at the cost of thousands of lives, but I disagree. I think success depends on people, and poverty or humbleness is up to oneself. If you want to get rich, I can help you get rich. If you want to continue to live with your ancestors, I don't object. Which road you want to take in Leping Township, then you can choose it yourself. If you are willing to listen to me, after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, let your township manager come to me. If you don't want to, your ancestors have said that everything is fine, so you won't have any problems, right?"

(End of this chapter)