Chapter 2: Ransom

  After returning, Li Yunzhong carefully recalled Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui, did they know each other? The situation he understood made him extremely surprised.

  Yang Xiuqing was from Xin Village, Zijin Mountain District, Guiping County, only eight miles away from Da Chong Village where Feng Yunshan taught. Yang Xiuqing came from a poor family, lost his father at the age of five and his mother at nine, and grew up in loneliness, relying on his uncle Yang Qingshan to raise him. He made a living by farming and burning charcoal. Although he was illiterate, he was very clever and had a talent for leading people, and was good at making friends with heroes from all over the world. In the crowd, he had the power of calling, and was the spiritual leader of the mountain people in Zijin Mountain. Moreover, the first batch of converts to the God Worshipping Society, such as Lu's family and Zeng's family, were his relatives. Now he has borrowed the Heavenly Father's descent, and when Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan are not around, he is indeed the number one person in the God Worshipping Society. Even if Feng Yunshan comes back, he can't do anything to him.

  Xiao Chaogui grew up with his adoptive father since childhood, and his family was very poor. He struggled to make a living by farming, burning charcoal, and other odd jobs in the mountainous areas of Guiping City's Zijing Mountain. His parents had four sons, and Xiao Chaogui was the third child. Due to poverty, he did not have the opportunity to attend school and was illiterate. To make a living, Xiao Chaogui left home at a young age to work as a laborer and even worked as a shop assistant for a while. Later, he followed his parents to leave their hometown and migrate to Xiaguang Mountain in Guiping City, where they settled down and made a living by burning charcoal and farming. At that time, Xiao Chaogui was only in his early 20s.

  Under the invitation of Feng Yunshan, Xiao Chaogui and his good friend Yang Xiuqing became members of the God Worshipping Society earlier. They went to various ethnic groups such as Zhuang, Han, Yao and others to spread the teachings and benefits of the God Worshipping Society, actively mobilizing people from all ethnic groups to join the God Worshipping Society. Especially Xiao Chaogui, because he had good martial arts skills, often helped those who were bullied in the name of the God Worshipping Society, so Xiao Chaogui still had great prestige in the God Worshipping Society.

  Li Yunzhong has become more determined that he cannot work with the two of them, and now it's estimated that even Hong Xiuquan can't do anything to them. Moreover, Feng Yunshan is still so powerful. After completing the task of rescuing Feng Yunshan, Li Yunzhong will have fulfilled his original wish and return to Teng County to make new plans.

  Due to the continuous uprisings of the Heaven and Earth Society in various parts of Guangxi and Hunan, Shen Hui-ping and Su Yi-xing led a rebellion in Xuanhua, calling themselves "Wan Hu Hou". This soon spread throughout the province. During the Daoguang period, there were anti-Qing activities by the Heaven and Earth Society in counties such as Guanyang, Gongcheng, Hezhou, Yangshuo, Sien, Yishan, Yulin, Liupu, and Xianglin. Hundreds of leaders of the society were captured, killed or exiled to Xinjiang. After the First Opium War, social upheaval intensified, and anti-Qing uprisings became more radicalized. Firstly, Lei Zai-hao and Li Shi-de rebelled in northern Guangxi, followed by Chen Ya-gui in Wuxuan, Zhang Jia-xiang and Su San-xiang in Guixian and Hengzhou, and Zhu Hong-ying and Hu You-lu on the Hunan-Guangxi border.

  Although they all failed, there were still many scattered soldiers and heroes who formed gangs of three or two to occupy the mountains as kings. With no money and no food, they could only make a living by robbing merchants.

  The next day, Li Yunzhong took the eighty taels of silver that several thousand people had burned charcoal for six months and decided to take the water route to the county town, fearing that he would encounter bandits who didn't know how to behave. Before leaving, Yang Xiuqing also let Lu Xianba and Lin Fengxiang serve as his guards.

  Li Yunzhong, although he was in high school for 4 years studying science, so his understanding of the late Qing dynasty history all came from TV and books. He knew some things about Dong Wang Yang Xiuqing, Nan Wang Feng Yunshan, Tian Wang Hong Xiuquan, Bei Wang Wei Changhui, Yi Wang Shi Dakai, Zhong Wang Li Xiucheng, Ying Wang Chen Yucheng, but for the rest like Lin Fengxiang, Li Kaifang, Qin Rigang, Hu Yihuang, Lai Hanjing and others he only knew their names. Lin Fengxiang, this name Li Yunzhong had heard of when he was in middle school, finally died as a martyr during the Northern Expedition.

  As for Lu Xianpai being Yang Xiuqing's relative, Li Yunzhong suspected that they were both sent by Yang Xiuqing to spy on him.

  The three of them hurried along with their heads down, and before long they arrived at the ferry crossing on the Xun River. The three of them hired a small boat, telling the boatman to take them to the county town, after which the small boat went downstream smoothly.

  It was the height of summer, and on the river there were sailboats coming and going, with cargo ships carrying coal and salt, as well as bamboo-covered boats belonging to fishermen who used cormorants to catch fish. A large two-masted cargo ship was speeding northward, strangely enough with soldiers guarding it, and a dog-toothed flag bearing the inscription "Grand Canal Patrol" flying from the masthead. Quick-witted boatmen hastily got out of the way, but every now and then some who couldn't avoid being rammed were overturned into the river, their occupants jumping in ahead of time; each time a small boat was overturned, peals of laughter came from the big ship.

  Looking at the tragic scene before him, Li Yunzhong angrily said, "Is there no king's law? Are officials and soldiers allowed to tyrannize as they please?"

  "That group is Wang Ji's people from the Patrol Office. They are used to bullying on the river, and those who make a living on the river are all poor families, just hoping to have enough food to eat, and when bullied, they can only swallow their anger!"

  The boatman carefully rowed the boat towards the riverbank, avoiding that big ship. Seeing the big ship go far away, the boatman wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "They must be going to transport opium again, that harmful thing. Every now and then, they have to transport a full load of it from Guangzhou."

  "With such officials and soldiers, how are we ordinary people supposed to live?" Lu Xian sighed.

  Li Yunzhong thought to himself, no wonder Hong Xiuquan could dominate China with just a few thousand strong men and several tens of thousands of women and children. If it weren't for the high-ranking leaders being unambitious and corrupt, wouldn't they have succeeded? I should also go and start a rebellion, if successful, become a high official, if not, grab enough silver to enjoy life abroad, isn't that faster than working hard to earn money?

  After what had just happened, the atmosphere on the boat became even more depressing. Fortunately, it wasn't long before they arrived at the Guiping County ferry terminal. The three of them paid their fare and disembarked.

  Had lunch inside the inn. Li Yunzhong found a silver shop to exchange all the copper coins and fragmented silver into small ingots of 10 taels each, totaling six, wrapped them in cloth with some remaining fragmented silver and put them in his bosom.

  After they were ready, the three of them headed towards the county government office together.

  Li Yunzhong finally figured out the current year and month on the road. He remembered that the First Opium War broke out in 1840, and he had just asked Lu Xianba that the Daoguang Emperor ended the Sino-British war in the 20th year of his reign. Eight years have passed since then. So now it is June 11, 1848.

  Li Yunzhong's first visit to the ancient county town, after the initial freshness, was a disappointment. The simple and shabby streets, the short and ugly houses and shops on both sides, the numb shopkeepers occasionally shouting a few times, and the beggars sitting listlessly by the wall waiting for passersby to give them alms, all made him feel extremely disappointed with what he saw before his eyes.

  The three of them arrived at the entrance to the county government office, where two stone lions sat on either side of the gate, their surfaces pockmarked from years of wind and rain.

  Two bailiffs stood beside him, one of whom stepped forward and shouted, "This is a serious place in the county government office, gazing at the official's face is prohibited."

  Li Yunzhong prepared several tens of taels and stepped forward, saying: "A humble villager from Zijing Town has come to appeal to the Honorable Magistrate, would you kindly report this for me? It's just a small token, not worth mentioning."

  The yamen runner took the money and weighed it in his hand, saying "Magistrate sir is busy with official duties, how can he have time to see you lowly people? Since you know your place, wait here, I'll go inform the teacher."

  Before long, he saw him bring a middle-aged man from the county government office. The bailiff spoke to the middle-aged man while pointing at Li Yun and several others.

  Li Yunzhong secretly thought that he was indeed the teacher, and in order not to be called a humble person, he prepared several taels of silver and went forward saying "Student Li Yunzhong specially came to plead for his teacher Feng Yunshan to the magistrate."

  The teacher took the silver and put it in his sleeve, looked at Li Yunzhong a few times. He thought to himself that he didn't expect to make some small fortune today, and with a pleasant mood, he said to Li Yunzhong and Yan Yuese "Since you have grievances to report, follow me to see County Master." And then to Lin Fengxiang and Lu Xianba "You two wait here."

  Li Yunzhong followed the teacher around the main hall and walked towards the backyard, only to see that the backyard was a small quadrangle courtyard. The two of them entered a room on the left side.

  An old man, about sixty years old, with a yellow complexion and thin skin, his eyes dull, leaned against the table smoking a water pipe. Next to him was a young Si servant who occasionally helped him light the pipe and handed over the mouthpiece. The old man closed his eyes in enjoyment every time he took a puff.

  Li Yunzhong's life experience: The first time he saw someone smoking opium, he didn't expect it to be a county magistrate. He secretly sighed: No wonder the Qing dynasty collapsed after sixty years.

  The teacher coughed heavily and the county magistrate finally looked up and said weakly, "The teacher has arrived."

  The teacher said to Li Yunzhong, "Don't you pay respects to County Magistrate?"

  Li Yun put down the silver in his arms on the table, knelt on the ground and bowed to the county magistrate, saying: "The student has come to appeal to the county magistrate, a man from Huaxian, Guangdong Province, Feng Yunshan, who taught people to read books in Zijing Town and Jintian Town, established the Church of God and exhorted people to do good. Unexpectedly, he was arrested by Tuanlian Wang Zuoxin for no reason. Please, county magistrate, take charge of this matter for us."

  Jia Zhu, the magistrate of Zhi County, was blinded by the silver in front of him. He had not been a magistrate for long and was still acting as one. He had never seen so much silver before. Usually, he spent all his money on opium. The poor and remote county of Gui Ping didn't have any lucrative business, and he was always thinking about how to make more money. Unexpectedly, someone brought such a large sum of silver to him.

  "Feng Yunshan is who, what crime was committed and caught." The county magistrate called over the teacher's assistant and asked in a low voice.

  "Report to the master, Feng Yunshan was captured by Wang Zuoxin, who organized the militia, at the beginning of the year. It is said that he will be charged with treason, but they do not dare to confront him directly. Moreover, the county magistrate also disagrees with charging him with treason. The former county magistrate wanted to release him after receiving some money, but no one came to offer it, so he has been detained in prison all along." The teacher hastily reported the situation in detail.

  The county magistrate was overjoyed after understanding the situation, thinking that it wasn't a big case and someone had sent so much silver to him. He immediately told his clerk, "Yunshan teaches people to respect heaven, which means advising people to be good, there's no evidence of him being a bandit or committing any illegal acts. Order people to release Yunshan immediately... wait, instead have him deported back to his hometown and handed over to the local officials for control."

  "Thank you, sir," Li Yunzhong said with great joy and bowed again to the county magistrate.