Infinite Terror: This Middle Continent is Rebellious

Chapter 308: Patriots of the Southern Song Dynasty
Cook No. 1 continued, "This incident is also recorded in both Buddhism and Taoism. Buddhism says: The wise Yishuhe, descending from the Brahma realm, annihilated demons and monsters, soaring into the sky like a dove, his flames creating flowing waves. His supernatural powers were proven, and he was a saint without fault in the Fulin Kingdom. He manifested countless manifestations of the Ganges River's sands, encompassing heaven, earth, and the universe, and brought the realm of forbearance and salvation to the Tanpo. I now bow my head in obeisance, and pay homage to Mashiha. Show mercy, forgive us, and eliminate our sins and monsters. May this night bring peace and prosperity.

This passage talks about how the old Emperor Xuanhua Jiangdi created an incarnation, named Yishuhe, to go to the mortal world to exorcise demons, eliminate disasters, and purify sins.

When Cook No. 1 was explaining the scriptures, the refugees around him followed suit and recited silently.

The refugees who had read and learned to read even used stones to write down scriptures on the soil. Although they did not know the identities of many characters, they could use homophones.

Cook No. 2 continued, "Taoism also knew of Wujue Konghuang's achievements, so they wrote a scripture called 'The Greatest Commandment to Perform the Mantras for Saving the World from Disaster and Proving the Way.' Om, Shana, Lilamoo Dochi, Ma Soha! Om, Ma Lido, Dudu Lapan, Yi Soha! Om, Limoo, Sulido, Tuo, Mi Soha! Om, Gaopantuo, Sulido, Ma, Ji Soha!"

"How come the sutras compiled by Taoist priests are even more difficult to understand than Buddhist scriptures?"

“Sounds like Buddhist scriptures.”

Unlike the Yi numbers and Buddhist praises that are like tongue twisters, the "Tai Shang Chi Yan Jiu Jie Zheng Dao Jing Zhu" is too difficult to pronounce, which caused complaints from the refugees.

In the distance, inside the carriage, Chu Xuan and others stayed out of the situation and observed how the situation developed.

Wang Xia frowned: "Chu Xuan, if I'm not mistaken, are you preaching?"

What happened in the cafeteria was clearly directed by Chu Xuan.

Wang Xia asked dissatisfiedly, "Have you forgotten who we are? Why are you trying to fool the people like this? We have better ideas to teach them."

Chu Xuan said indifferently: "That kind of thinking can easily attract sanctions from outside the box."

Wang Xia was stunned: "What? Outside the box? Sanctions?"

Chu Xuan said nonchalantly, "It's nothing. It's just not suitable for this era. Productivity, production relations, and public wisdom... The late Southern Song Dynasty lacked the soil for such ideas to take root and germinate. The people couldn't understand or accept such advanced ideas... More importantly, it was too slow."

Zhang Jie frowned and asked Chu Xuan, "What do you mean by 'too slow'? Stop saying things that don't make any sense."

Chu Xuan said indifferently, "It's too inefficient. Idols and myths can more easily gain the public's trust, or rather, blind faith."

Zhang Jie, Wang Xia, Cheng Xiao and others looked at each other with strange expressions on their faces.

They were more or less resistant to Chu Xuan's statement.

"What do you think you're here for? We're not saviors, but reincarnations. We're even villains to this world. We must conquer the evil forces of Xiangyang City in the future. Don't think that just because you saved some refugees, you're the kindhearted people they'll call you."

Chu Xuan's eyes swept across everyone's faces, and the words he spoke were very harsh, making Zhang Jie and the others look a little embarrassed.

"For us, and for the refugees, creating an idol, gathering the people who can't make a living, providing them with food, clothing, shelter, and transportation, and calling on them to form an uprising army, overthrow the Southern Song Dynasty, and defeat the Mongols, this is the most beneficial thing."

Everyone was unable to refute Chu Xuan's words, and they also understood that Chu Xuan's plan was not wrong at all.

However, they could not accept that a colonel like Chu Xuan would use such mysterious and mysterious methods to deceive the people.

Outside the cafeteria, after being persuaded by the chefs, most of the refugees accepted the ideas that Chu Xuan wanted to instill in them.

The good people are messengers from the Heavenly Emperor sent by the Great Lord Aloha. The Great Lord Aloha has never accepted incense from the people of the Central Plains. He only came down to earth out of pity for the common people and sent angels to help them.

After successfully instilling this idea, the cooks began to provide porridge to the refugees.

After the refugees had finished their breakfast, Chu Xuan and others came out to accept their gratitude.

Zhang Jie, Cheng Xiao, Zhu Wen and others all looked a little uncomfortable, but Chu Xuan remained calm and arranged the work of building houses for the refugees.

"Those who do not work shall not eat. Everyone, except the elderly, children, and pregnant women, must work. From today on, your job is to restore this abandoned village to a habitable state and to reclaim the abandoned fields."

An old man said to Chu Xuan with a bitter face, "Angel, the soil here is difficult to cultivate. Even if it is cultivated, there is no river nearby, so it is impossible to farm."

Chu Xuan said calmly: "It doesn't matter, we will open a river channel when the time comes."

"Okay, okay! Don't worry, Angel, we will definitely reclaim this land!"

The old man was smiling happily. As a farmer who had worked in the soil all his life, in his eyes, gold, silver and jewelry were not as important as a piece of land for growing crops.

In fact, having a piece of land where crops can be grown is enough for ordinary people to live a peaceful life.

It’s a pity that the Southern Song Dynasty, such a poor place, didn’t even give the common people this opportunity.

The next day, Chu Xuan went to Shaoxing City. He spent several days buying the village's land and the mountain range behind it through formal procedures and the use of force to avoid being picked on by the government during the development stage.

Zhang Jie went to Xiangyang and asked Wen Lie for the gourmet tablecloth.

Food is the most important thing for people. Unlimited food is the greatest miracle.

Zhu Wen also left the village. Under Chu Xuan's arrangement, she went to Lin'an Prefecture, dressed up as a Taoist nun, bought a shop, and started a fortune-telling business. Cheng Xiao acted as her bodyguard and went to Lin'an Prefecture together.

Only Wang Xia, Ba Wang, Miao Ruoling and Li Shi stayed in a small village named Jiangdi Village.

As the days passed, Jiangdi Village gradually became Jiangdi Zhuang.

On both sides of the crisscrossing roads, more than 5,000 simple but complete houses are neatly arranged. Adult villagers are reclaiming the abandoned fields, and women and the elderly are taking care of the young children in the village. There is an orderly and peaceful atmosphere.

But, from the outside, it looks different.

The outskirts of Jiangdi Manor are actually walls, which are thirty meters high and ten meters thick. They are built from the foot of the mountain and surround the manor.

Militiamen armed with spears stood guard on the city wall. They wore light iron armor, had solemn expressions, and stared intently at the mountain road outside.

"How can this be called a village? It's clearly a city."

A young man in his twenties was leading a horse, standing on the dirt road outside Jiangdi Manor, looking up at the city wall that was second only to Shaoxing City, and was so shocked that he was almost speechless.

"It's here, it's finally here, it's finally here!"

Unlike this young man, the hundreds of poor people who were walking with him were dancing with excitement when they saw the city wall in front of them.

The hundreds of poor people included men and women, young and old, with thin bodies, dark skin, and chapped lips. Although they were wearing simple paper fur coats, the low temperature of winter was not so easy to withstand, and everyone was shivering.

But their eyes were bright when they looked at the city wall, as if they saw the light of hope.

I saw ten large iron pots in the city gate passage in the center of the city wall. Under the large iron pots, flames were blazing, emitting scorching heat.

"Hey! Come here and have some meat porridge to warm yourself up."

Several men were sitting by the wall. When they saw the poor people appearing from a distance, they quickly stood up, waved their hands and shouted loudly.

The fleeing people were overjoyed. They supported each other and hurried towards the city wall.

Only the young man leading the horse remained lost in thought. However, he was different from the other poor people. He wore a cotton robe and a sword at his waist, looking like a warrior. Even the severe winter cold could not chill him.

After the others walked away, he hurriedly followed.

He walked quickly to the city gate and looked into the ten large iron pots. Inside were porridge made from millet. The rice porridge was thick and mixed with a lot of minced meat.

Not only that, there were more than a dozen large wooden barrels filled with rice and meat placed against the wall.

"Come, come, come, now that we are in our Jiangdi Village, you don't have to worry about being hungry. We have food given by the Great A Luohe Heavenly Venerable in our Jiangdi Village, which can feed everyone."

The man distributing porridge shouted and scooped spoonfuls of meat porridge from the iron pot and put them into the bowls brought out by the fleeing people.

"Thank you, Great Lord."

"Great Heavenly Venerable, please save those in need!"

"The Great Celestial Lord is the only true God."

……

People took the meat porridge, and with gratitude on their faces, they hurriedly poured it into their mouths.

Thanks to the fact that the fire was not too big, the porridge was not very hot. Otherwise, if they had eaten it in that way, they would have definitely burned themselves.

The young man stood aside, looking dazed.

He was from Chengmen, Linhai County, Zhejiang Province. He came from a wealthy family. He was smart and studious since childhood. He read ancient and modern historical books, and was also good at boxing and shooting. He had mastered martial arts. He was also generous and caring for his fellow villagers, and was quite famous in the local area.

In recent months, I heard that a group of kind-hearted people came to East Zhejiang Road, bought land, and built a village. They claimed that they believed in the Great Heavenly Venerable Arhat, the Great Sage Living Buddha Yishuhe Buddha, the Mysterious Craftsman Emperor, and the Incomprehensible Emperor of Emptiness, and that they were following the will of the Heavenly Venerable to save all living beings. As long as the poor people went there, they would provide them with food, clothing, shelter and transportation.

He thought it was just an evil heretic who was pretending to be a ghost and deceiving the world, so he planned to be a hero and expose the evil's true face. On the way, he met poor people who were going to Jiangdi Village for refuge.

However, after arriving there, he found out that he didn't know whether Jiangdi Zhuang was a heresy, but he knew that Jiangdi Zhuang was very rich.

How could so much rice and meat be distributed to the refugees so easily? He hadn't heard of any wealthy families nearby being robbed of their wealth to help the poor.

Jiangdi Village is unusual.

The young man temporarily put aside his thoughts of slaying demons and monsters, leading his horse and walking straight into the village.

The environment in the manor was more orderly than the young man had imagined, with houses, walkways, fields, a large canteen, a stonemason's shop, a blacksmith's shop, a tailor's shop, a bathhouse, a clinic...Except for restaurants and shops, most of the buildings that can be seen in the city can be seen in Jiangdi Manor.

In the house, there are old people and women taking care of children.

Militiamen were patrolling the aisles.

Young and strong people are cultivating the fields.

In the big cafeteria, there were cooks preparing food and women clearing the tables and chairs.

In the stonemason's shop, a man is polishing stone bricks.

In the blacksmith shop, a strong man is forging iron tools.

In the tailor shop, a woman was sewing cotton-padded clothes and quilts.

……

The young man's expression became more and more solemn. Apart from the lack of officials to supervise, is this place any different from a regular city?
Walking along the maze of dirt roads and turning the corner, the young man was stunned again by the scene in front of him.

In the broad square close to the mountain, five hundred men were training.

"One two one! One two one! One two one!"

A group of people were running around the square, along a circle drawn on the road, shouting incomprehensible slogans as they ran.

Some of them sat cross-legged, seemingly breathing.

Some of them struck strange poses and stretched their limbs, which seemed to be some kind of external skills different from those in the Central Plains.

Some of them held strange sticks and pointed at targets a hundred meters away. With muffled sounds, copper-colored steel balls shot out from the front of the sticks and hit the targets.

The young man couldn't help but be shocked. How could he not see the deep meaning in the scene before him?

This is clearly military training!

Moreover, who would believe that they were not rebelling if they were using food to absorb the homeless poor people?
At this moment, a voice came from behind.

"My name is Wang Xia. I wonder where you are from? What brings you to Jiangdi Manor?"

The young man turned around hurriedly and saw a strong man behind him. The man had a decent face and did not look like a bad person at first glance.

The young man, however, did not judge a person by appearance. He gripped the hilt of his sword with his right hand and asked cautiously, "My name is Zhang Zhezhai. Are you the owner of this Jiangdi Manor? The demon who deceived the people?"

"Zhang Zhezhai... Zhang Hesun?"

Wang Xia felt that the name sounded familiar. After thinking for a moment, he called out another name.

"How do you know my name, you demon?"

Zhang Zhezhai was shocked and drew his sword without hesitation.

"I've been to Linhai County and heard of your name."

Wang Xia answered simply.

In fact, of course, this is not the case. He heard this name from Chu Xuan. Chu Xuan had already given them popular science about the anti-Yuan heroes, treacherous officials, loyal ministers and generals in the Southern Song Dynasty.

This Zhang Zhezhai was a hero who fought against the Yuan Dynasty. There are statues of Wen Tianxiang and the Four Heroes in the Dazhong Temple of Wenxing Guogong in Xianyan Cave, one of whom is him.

"Brother Zhang, how can you call me a monster? I consider myself a righteous person, following the orders of the leader of the martial arts world. I have never... never harmed the people of the Central Plains, and I have always done good deeds. I don't deserve the title of monster."

Facing Zhang Zhezhai's sword, Wang Xia remained calm and showed no hostility. However, when he said that he had never done evil, his eyes twitched and he changed his words.

Zhang Zhezhai looked into Wang Xia's eyes with a piercing gaze and said righteously, "Using the names of gods and Buddhas to deceive the people, recruit followers, and plot rebellion, how can you not be a demon? Do you think you can deceive me?"

Wang Xia said calmly, "Brother Zhang, you've misunderstood. We're not using the names of gods or Buddhas, nor are we trying to deceive the people into recruiting followers. There's no accusation of treason. We simply feel sorry for these people who have left their homes and are left alone, so we're trying to provide them with a livelihood so they can survive."

(End of this chapter)