Chapter Twelve: Li Yunzhong is arrested and thrown into a large prison

  Daoguang 29th year, March.

  Pingnan County Government

  County Magistrate Ni Tao and the teacher were discussing the official document from Xunzhou Prefecture, which mentioned: The Church of God is deceiving people's minds within the borders of Xunzhou Prefecture. Each county should strictly control it, and if any conspiracy is discovered, eliminate it immediately.

  The master couldn't help but sigh in his heart: It's really a troublesome autumn, with no rain for several months, Guangxi is experiencing a severe drought, and now there's this foreign religion incident.

  County Magistrate Ni Tao complained to the teacher: "I regret letting the foreign religion grow, now all over the place there are people who believe in the foreign religion, even in the city of Fu they have heard that they are restless. I also heard that they always go to the big mountains in groups, and one trip takes four or five days. This is not just a plot, it's simply preparing for rebellion! Originally, I was going to be promoted to Jiangnan next month, and didn't want to bother with the foreign religion affair, leaving it to the next county magistrate. Who knew that now I received this official letter. Teacher, what do you think we should do?"

  The master stroked his three-inch beard on his chin, his eyes rolling around, and for a moment, he couldn't think of any good ideas. He secretly complained: When you accepted the foreigner's silver, why didn't you call me? Now that something has happened, I'm afraid it's going to be my fault, we're in this together after all, you can't harm me like this!

  As an aide, he couldn't avoid answering, so the teacher could only perfunctorily say "Then let's consider that we didn't receive the official letter, and everything will remain as usual."

  The county magistrate shook his head and said, "No, what if the foreign religion rebels in the future? Wouldn't I be implicated?"

  "Wouldn't it be better to set up a Hongmen banquet, invite the leaders of the foreign religion to gather at the county government office, and say that you, the magistrate, are thanking them for educating the people. During the banquet, prepare poisonous wine and capture them all at once?"

  The county magistrate shook his head and said, "Don't mention whether they dare to come or not. What if they really bring them here and kill them? If other religious people come to demand their release, won't Pingnan County be thrown into chaos? At that time, our heads will be in danger. It's better to temporarily arrest some people and stall for a month."

  "Sir, it's best if we don't take action ourselves. Lately, the local landlords have been coming to report that the foreigners are always against them. Let's let them make the move and arrest someone. Once they do, we'll immediately throw them in jail, delay the proceedings, and negotiate with the foreigners. By then, you will have already been promoted, so whether to kill or spare them can be decided by your successor. This way, we can collect the silver and avoid trouble - isn't that a perfect solution?"

  The county magistrate smiled and nodded, hastily promising "I'll do as you say, Master. If everything goes smoothly, I won't forget your share of the silver."

  Hu Yihuang's home village is Huazushan Village.

  Li Yunzhong is almost worried to death, the plan can't keep up with the changes, Guangxi and Hunan have started a severe drought again, this year's harvest is definitely gone. The common people are not willing to wait for death at home, they are heading towards the southern part of Guangxi where the drought is relatively lighter. Refugees heard that by joining the Church of God, they can get food, and families with children joined in droves. Seeing the grain in the church getting less and less, it won't last a few more days. Hurriedly stop recruiting people. Li Yunzhong never thought that one day he would encounter such a thing, where followers who came on their own initiative were not wanted.

  The rebellion is not yet prepared, the weapons have only been forged to less than a thousand pieces, and the main force of the uprising has only trained more than three thousand people. They can't even eat now, every day they can only let them march in formation.

  Hu Yihuang said: "I went to Bazhai to persuade my elder brother and asked him for some food."

  Everyone knows that Hu Yihuang and the Hu family have a bad relationship. Hu Yihuang's father is named Hu Chen, who occupies a large amount of mountain land and fields, and has an annual income of 480,000 kilograms of grain rent. People describe Hu Chen's usury income as: "Every day when he opens his door, at least one hundred and several tens of taels of silver come in." Hu Chen also personally built several blue-brick houses, which were inherited by his three young sons. At that time, Hu Yihuang was not yet ten years old. Later, when the family divided their property, his older brother bullied Hu Yihuang because he was young and gave him the least inheritance. In a fit of anger, Hu Yihuang ran to live in a remote mountain village, indicating that he would no longer have contact with the Hu family.

  Zhang Sui advised Hu Yi to "That's just a drop in the bucket, on my way here I saw a group of refugees surrounding some wealthy households asking for food, we can also think of ways from these landlords' homes, they must have a lot of stored grain."

  It has been decided after discussion that they will go their separate ways.

  Hu Yihuang insisted on asking his elder brother for grain and left first.

  Li Yunzhong, Meng Shangsheng and Zhang Sui each led a group of people to intimidate the wealthy households into handing over their grain.

  Zhang Weikun and Lin Dajie stayed behind to deal with miscellaneous matters.

  Li Yunzhong led thirty people to Anhuai Town, north of the county town. The hungry refugees on the road heard that they were going to ask for grain from the wealthy households and followed them. When they arrived in Anhuai Town, the number of people increased to four or five hundred. Under Li Yunzhong's leadership, a large crowd surrounded the wealthy households in the town, one by one, and each household threw out several bags of grain from the wall, except for the Zhu family in the town, which did not give anything. Li Yunzhong threatened outside for a long time, but there was no response inside.

  Inside Zhu's residence.

  An old man over sixty years old, wearing silk clothes and holding a dragon-headed cane, stood in the house with several men and women of all ages standing beside him. The old man was furious, his right hand fiercely striking the ground with his cane, saying loudly: "Grain is not falling from the sky, give it to them once and they will rely on it, don't give a single grain to those poor devils." After finishing speaking, he turned around and looked at a young man in his twenties, asking: "When can your brother-in-law's soldiers arrive? The county magistrate has already said that these people who lead the trouble will be arrested and thrown into prison."

  "That young man replied, 'There are too many refugees outside, can your brother-in-law's troops really hold them off?'"

  The old master closed his eyes, thought for a moment, and said to the steward standing outside, "You go tell the leader of the refugees outside that I invite them in to discuss how much grain to give. As long as no one among the refugees is stirring up trouble, nothing will happen."

  At this time, a servant came in to report: The young master has brought the government soldiers to the back door.

  In the outer courtyard, Li Yun heard that he was invited to discuss the grain in the inner courtyard, and he didn't suspect anything else. He had done this kind of thing several times, just bargaining over prices.

  As soon as Li Yunzhong entered the Zhu family's courtyard, he saw that it was filled with government soldiers. He thought to himself that he was in trouble and just as he was about to turn around, a knife was placed on his neck and he was tied up.

  A middle-aged man wearing official attire asked someone next to him, "Is he really the leader of the Boxer Rebellion?"

  That man took a closer look at Li Yunzhong and confirmed "It's him"

  Li Yunzhong sighed: Why is it that in every era there are traitors.

  The man in the official uniform was actually Zhang Fugui, the son-in-law of Old Lady Zhu, a bandit with the nickname "Big Headed Sheep". He had been pardoned by the government and given the job of leading a militia team to oppress Hakka people on behalf of local landlords and officials. Sometimes he also participated in suppressing the Huizhou uprising with the Green Standard Army. This time, he originally only brought troops to rescue his family, but unexpectedly caught Li Yunzhong, a big fish.

  Zhu Fugui thought to himself: The county has just decided to arrest a few leaders of the God-worshipping Society, and I'll be the one to send them over. Won't that bring me great rewards!

  He didn't want to waste any more time, so he ordered his subordinates to forcibly disperse the refugees outside the gate and took Li Yunzhong towards the county town. The county government

  The county magistrate, Nie Tao, waved his hand to stop the two bailiffs who were trying to force Li Yunzhong to kneel down. Looking at Li Yunzhong, who refused to kneel, he asked in a gentle and soft tone, "Where are you from, and why are you spreading foreign teachings under my jurisdiction?"

  Li Yunzhong was nervous for a long time, afraid that he would be killed with one knife. Just as he was thinking of a way to escape, the county magistrate mentioned the foreign religion, which made Li Yunzhong recall that the officials of the Qing dynasty seemed to be very afraid of foreigners.

  With a bit of confidence, he started learning Wei Xiaobao's life-saving trick and burst out laughing loudly.

  The county magistrate's face gradually turned ugly "How dare you, a rebellious commoner, shout in the court? Come on, take him down and give him thirty heavy slaps."

  "Wait, you're in big trouble now!" Li Yunzhong heard that he was going to be spanked and suddenly remembered that officials were afraid of foreigners, not themselves, so he quickly shouted first.

  "Hum... you rebellious commoner, tell me why I've encountered great disaster. If you can't answer, you'll be beaten with eighty heavy slaps again."

  "Sir, since you know I believe in the foreign religion, you should understand that I have the support of foreigners behind me. To be honest with you, every half month a foreigner comes to meet with me and listen to my report. Now if you lock me up, the foreigner won't be able to find me, and they'll go make trouble at either the Guangdong or Guangxi Governor's office, or even Beijing. Won't that bring disaster upon your head?" Li Yunzhong started fabricating wildly in order to intimidate the county magistrate.

  "Hmph, the foreigners will make a big fuss for you, Second Master." The county magistrate asked with a lack of confidence. He suddenly remembered that the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi had indeed issued an order allowing foreigners to preach freely and local officials were not allowed to interfere. What if there really are foreigners who go to make trouble...

  Li Yunzhong suddenly blurted out a few sentences in English, leaving everyone on stage bewildered.

  The teacher next to the county magistrate suddenly said, "This is what foreigners say."

  Li Yunzhong glanced at Shi Ye and said, "I didn't expect you to understand the foreign language. What I just said was taught by the foreigner."

  The teacher nodded to the county magistrate, who whispered, "Even if he really has foreign backing, if I let him go, wouldn't it spread the word that I'm afraid of foreigners?"

  In fact, before the Second Opium War, Qing officials were not afraid of foreigners, but rather did not want to deal with them. Getting along well with foreigners was called "tong yang", and handling things poorly would offend them, like Lin Zexu, who not only lost his official position but also got exiled. At that time, in the official circles, there was a way of dealing with foreigners: seeing without seeing, hearing without hearing.

  The teacher thought for a moment and said, "Why don't we temporarily arrest him and hand him over to the governor of Zhenzhou Prefecture tomorrow?"

  The county magistrate nodded in agreement, estimating that the imperial edict had already been issued by the Ministry of Justice, and he was no longer afraid of offending his superiors. When the foreigners arrived to demand the person, he would simply push the responsibility onto the prefect's head and be done with it.

  "Bring the prisoner, lock him in the big prison, and behead him on Gulao Island tomorrow." The county magistrate steeled himself to prevent rumors of his fear of foreigners from spreading, 'replacing' the prefect with a decision, as for whether the prefect would 'behead' or 'not behead' him, he didn't care.

  Li Yunzhong was frightened by the two words "beheaded" and before he could recover, he was taken to the large prison on the right side of the county government office.

  Li Yunzhong foolishly asked the prison guard standing at the gate: "Brother, what does 'beheading' mean?"

  "Beheaded, haha beheading is of course decapitation." The prison guard locked the cell door, pulled it tight and left.

  "No way, I just crossed over and suffered so much. My good fortune hasn't even arrived yet and now I'm going to be beheaded?" Li Yunzhong muttered to himself in a daze.

  "Sir, you've also been caught." At this time, a man in his fifties next to him looked at Li Yunzhong and asked.

  "Who are you? Aren't you those two little beggars from Siwang Town?" Li Yunzhong didn't recognize him, until he recognized the two thirteen or fourteen-year-old kids locked up with him, who spent their days wandering around behind the old beggar Qian Duo.

  The man replied: "My name is Zeng Shuiyuan, from Siwang Town. It was the master who let me be the company commander."

  "Not bad, it's you, the one with great strength." Li Yunzhong saw that his arm was thicker than his own thigh, and his bronze-colored muscles seemed to be bursting out of his skin.

  "I'm Gold," "I'm Silver" said the two little kids one after another.

  "Vulgar, who gave you this name." Li Yunzhong laughed.

  "Grandpa chose it." The two children didn't understand how such a nice name could become so vulgar.

  "If you say this outside, people will laugh at you. I think that when you grow up, you should be both literary and martial. You can be called Huang Jinwen, and you can be called Bai Yinwu." Li Yunzhong said to the two children.

  Thinking that he would be beheaded tomorrow, how could he still think of a name for himself, and yet he was not afraid of being beheaded at all. He shook his head, lay down on the ground, and closed his eyes.

  Everyone saw Li Yunzhong lying on the ground resting and didn't dare disturb him, so they continued to stare blankly.