Zhutian: Starting from the Space-Time Merchant

Chapter 607 Earthquake Shakes High Hills, A Scene of Timeless Beauty of Streams and Mountains~
Dark clouds rolled in the sky, threatening to press down.

The drizzling rain fell down the brick wall, dripping into puddles on the blue bricks and creating ripples.

In the humid air, a figure wearing a traditional Chinese jacket jogged briskly.

A middle-aged man with a braid trailing behind his head jogged to the front of the study.

Outside the door, a servant boy holding a lantern bowed.

The dim yellow light from the lantern formed a blurry patch of light in the rain and mist.

"Master~"

The middle-aged man standing at the door shouted, and a short while later, a response came from inside the room.

"Come in."

The middle-aged man entered, closed the door, and stepped forward to greet him.

"Speak," the old man, dressed in a wide-sleeved robe, wearing a straw hat and cloth shoes, put down the book in his hand. "Where did those peasants get so many chickens?"

"Replying to your question, sir."

The middle-aged man lowered his head and cautiously replied, "This servant went to several villages to inquire."

"Those chickens were all obtained from the God Worshippers."

"The God Worshipping Society?" The pale-faced, slightly plump old man with a goatee frowned slightly. "I've heard of it. They've been causing quite a stir in Guiping. A few years ago, they even arrested the bandit leader and sent him back to his hometown."

"But they're all a bunch of poor bastards who rely on smashing idols to gather manpower. Where did they get so many chickens?"

Lin Dao's proposal to offer free chickens upon joining the association acted as a booster for the development of the God Worshipping Society.

In many places in Guiping County, a large number of believers have emerged.

When they received the chickens, few people ate them immediately; instead, they sold them for money.

Such a large influx of chickens into the market naturally attracted the attention of some interested parties.

After all, there are just too many chickens. Even if all the hens in the county laid eggs at the same time, there wouldn't be this many.

"Master~"

The middle-aged man continued, “This servant impersonated someone else to join the God Worshipping Society, received a few chicken eggs, and behaved very actively.”

"Yesterday I went with the people who were handing out chickens to help with the unloading."

At this point, the middle-aged man took out a cardboard box and respectfully handed it over, saying, "These are all from Jintian Village, thirty chickens in a box."

“Yesterday alone, I saw at least fifty boxes being moved to various villages.”

I took the cardboard box and examined it carefully.

The old man still frowned. "I've never seen this box before."

After putting down the box, the old man pondered, "Jintian Village in Jintian Town?"

"Yes."

How many chickens are there in the village?

"Jintian Village is very big and has a lot of people, but there are only a couple hundred hens at most."

"Hey~"

The old man stroked his beard with a smile. "Interesting, very interesting."

"He San, make another trip and make sure you find out where these chickens came from."

"I obey your orders!"

He San was a servant born into the He family, and the He family was a well-known local gentry in Guiping County.

His family not only owned more than 2,000 mu of farmland, but he had also passed the imperial examination at the county level.

I know several officials from government offices.

In Guiping County, a single document submitted to the government office can resolve almost any issue.

He San was shrewd and intelligent. He pretended to be proactive and was eager to get closer to the God Worshippers Society. He was quickly accepted as an activist.

He finally met Lin Dao.

And there it was, in the courtyard where Lin Dao was staying, there were piles of boxes filled with chickens!
I've come to understand even more that the God Worshippers are plotting a rebellion!

He rushed back to the He family and reported the matter to his master.

Upon hearing this news, Master He hurriedly planned to report it to the authorities.

The problem now is that the Guiping County government office has been almost completely wiped out, leaving only the clerk and the patrol inspector.

The Ministry of Personnel will need time to re-select officials, and the clerks and inspectors are only concerned with making money and don't care about anything else.

Left with no other option, Master He could only send someone to the provincial capital to report the matter.

In fact, before him, some local gentry had already sent people to the provincial capital.

The reason is also very simple.

The God Worshipping Society had already begun operating in Guiping County and its surrounding areas several years ago.

It was the local gentry who reported the incident, which led to Feng Yunshan's arrest, Hong Xiuquan's escape, and Shi Dakai's wanted status.

Whether it was the God Worshipping Society or the Heaven and Earth Society, they were naturally opposed to these local gentry.

Those who sent people to the provincial capital to file a complaint were Xie Qifa, a big landlord from Jintian Village, Master Lan from the neighboring Jiedong Village, and Master Liu from Wangmo Village across the river, among others.

the reason is simple.

Lin Dao was staying at the home of Wei Changhui, a landlord in Jintian Village.

Wei Changhui came from a landlord family and owned 260 mu of land.

But his family was actually nouveau riche, and they had a very bad relationship with the local gentry in the same village and even the neighboring villages.

After all, these local gentry were local bullies, nouveau riche who had no connections and easily amassed wealth; their gains were bound to be far greater than those of the peasants.

When Feng Yunshan came to preach, Wei Changhui, who had been oppressed and even falsely imprisoned by local gentry, quickly joined the ranks of the rebels.

Now that Lin Dao is distributing chickens on a large scale to recruit people, the local gentry are naturally on high alert, and it is only natural that they send someone to the government office to deliver a message.

The response from the prefectural city was slow, not because they didn't want to send people to arrest them, but because they were too busy to extricate themselves.

In recent years, natural disasters and man-made calamities have been frequent, especially man-made calamities.

The rampant gentry's constant extortion and plundering led to an increasingly severe land annexation phenomenon.

The government's exploitation intensified, its officials indulged in debauchery and cruelty, corruption became rampant, and exorbitant taxes left the people with no way to survive.

The temples and their patrons, along with the rampant interest payments and pawnbroking, led to the bankruptcy of many self-sufficient and semi-self-sufficient farmers, who were reduced to tenant farmers or vagrants, living a life worse than death.

In addition, there was the extremely intense conflict between the locals and the Hakka.

Furthermore, long-term, large-scale over-cultivation has led to the continuous deterioration of the ecological environment, a sharp reduction in forest area in mountainous areas, increased soil erosion, and a weakened ability to resist natural disasters. Consequently, disasters occur frequently, almost year after year.

The various circumstances that left the people with no way to survive led the Heaven and Earth Society to launch a large-scale uprising.

The officials of the prefectural city are already overwhelmed with problems in order to suppress the Heaven and Earth Society uprising.

There was simply no energy left to deal with a small God Worshipping Society that hadn't yet caused any harm.

After all, this is not something that can be solved by simply sending out a team of yamen runners.

We need to mobilize troops!
However, Guangxi already had few troops stationed there, and they were mostly focused on dealing with the Heaven and Earth Society.

It can only be postponed.

Lin Dao had already noticed something.

However, he didn't take it to heart.

That's just how things were in this era; all that mattered was gathering enough impoverished people who couldn't survive.

"Wait a minute, pressing on the wound will keep you from dying for now."

"This one's beyond saving, take him out."

"Save this one first!"

"Support the IV drip!"

Lin Dao was very busy, leading a group of burly apprentices in the urgent treatment of the wounded.

These wounded soldiers were transported from the neighboring Wuzhou Prefecture, overcoming numerous obstacles along the way.

They were all members of the Heaven and Earth Society who attacked Wuzhou.

His reputation as a miracle doctor has now even spread to Wuzhou.

Desperate, the Heaven and Earth Society transported the wounded, who had connections, by boat from the Xunjiang River all the way here.

Lin Dao showed no resentment and did his best to provide free treatment.

After all, they were all heroes who fought against the Qing dynasty.

However, the members of the Heaven and Earth Society witnessed Lin Dao's miraculous medical skills and even had the idea of ​​'inviting' him to Wuzhou.

Later, seeing that the God Worshippers Society had a large and powerful following, he had no choice but to give up the idea.

"Keep your hands steady."

Lin Dao instructed the apprentices he had selected to "sew up their wounds like sewing clothes with a needle."

He couldn't possibly handle everything by himself, so expanding the technical staff became a necessity.

Although these apprentices were quite clumsy, they had no choice but to undergo training first.

After all the wounded had been treated, the leader of the Heaven and Earth Society who was leading the group stepped forward to greet Lin Dao.

"We brothers will never forget the great kindness of the divine doctor!"

"Here's a small token of my appreciation." The leader handed over a package. "Please accept it."

The package contained gold and silver items, which were seized by the Heaven and Earth Society during their raid on the home of a local gentry.

"You are all righteous men who oppose the Qing Dynasty."

Lin Dao raised his hand and pushed the package back, saying solemnly, "I deeply respect you!"

"I saved you because we are all on the same path, not for money!"

The leader was extremely grateful and immediately bowed down.

"What a great favor the doctor has done!"

"As Chief Chen said, if the Divine Physician needs anything, just say the word, and the entire Heaven and Earth Society will go through fire and water without hesitation!"

The Heaven and Earth Society is the same as the Hongmen.

It has many branches.

Organizations such as the Grand Canal Gang, the Gelaohui, the Paogehui, the Triads, the Anqinhui, and the Zhigongtang were anti-Qing and pro-Ming organizations.

Although they have many branches, they all refer to themselves as the Heaven and Earth Society to outsiders and the Hongmen to insiders.

Each branch leader is a Grand Master, and under them are Hall Masters.

Of course, because the personnel were diverse and of varying quality, there were staunch anti-Qing heroes as well as traitors.

Several years ago, the Heaven and Earth Society in Guangxi had already launched several uprisings.

There were boat troops from the Xijiang River basin, Zhang Jiaxiang's army from the Zuojiang and Youjiang areas, and Lei Zaihao and Li Yuanfa's army from the Hunan-Guangxi border.

Among them, Lei Zaihao and Li Yuanfa resisted the Qing to the end, but were ultimately defeated and killed two years ago.

Zhang Zhao and Tian Fang, leaders of the submarine force, surrendered to the Qing dynasty.

As for Zhang Jiaxiang, as the leader of the Heaven and Earth Society, he accepted the Qing dynasty's offer of amnesty.

Historically, he even pursued the Taiping Army all the way to the Jiangnan Grand Camp, eventually rising to the rank of Jiangnan Admiral.

As for the Heaven and Earth Society members in front of Lin Dao, they came from the boat army on the Xunjiang River, and their leader was Chen Yagui.

Two years ago, when the boatmen revolted, Zhang Zhao, Tian Fang and others surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. Chen Yagui then led his brothers who were unwilling to surrender to the Qing Dynasty to continue the anti-Qing movement.

Now, they have even begun to besiege major cities.

There was no other way; there were simply too many people who couldn't survive, making it very easy to replenish the ranks.

It's important to know that in today's world of mite eradication, the average arable land per person is only about 1.7 mu (approximately 0.16 acres).

The situation is even worse in Guangxi, where the average person has only about one mu (approximately 0.16 acres) of arable land.

This is per capita; most of the farmland was concentrated in the hands of Qing dynasty nobles and local gentry and landlords.

In addition, the land was barren and yields were low, and rent had to be paid to the landlords.

When faced with floods and droughts, tenant farmers toiled for a year but still couldn't earn enough to feed themselves, leading to widespread bankruptcy and displacement.

In addition, during the Opium War, the Guangxi government recruited a large number of local militia to fight.

After the war, all of them were laid off, and these people suddenly lost their livelihoods and joined the ranks of refugees, providing ample manpower for the uprising.

Lin Dao instructed Wei Changhui to prepare the meal, while he himself warmly invited all the members of the Heaven and Earth Society to eat.

After taking his seat, he asked the middle-aged leader in front of him, "Brother, what is your name?"

"So that the divine physician may know."

The leader clasped his hands in response.

"My name is Luo Dagang!"

(End of this chapter)