Chapter 3: Is this Wei Changhui?

  Li Yunzhong left the county government office and called Shang Lin Fengxiang and Lu Xianda back to the inn. On the way, he told them that everything had been settled and that Feng Yunshan would be released soon. The two of them were very excited when they heard this.

  According to the law, convicts who were sent to the border for military service or escorted back to their hometowns were not allowed to be accompanied by relatives or friends. The three of them conspired to ambush and kill the officials halfway, as there were many bandits in the two Guang provinces, and the disappearance of a few small characters would go unnoticed.

  Three people were lurking at the city gate, and soon they saw two officials escorting a man wearing a white long gown with disheveled hair passing by. Li Fengxiang wanted to go forward but was held back by the other two. The three of them quietly followed the officials for about thirty miles before making their move when no one was around, pretending to be passersby and suddenly attacking, catching the two officials off guard and knocking them to the ground.

  Feng Yunshan said, "Hurry up and let go, we are all our own people."

  The government officer who was held down by Li Fengxiang said, "Good fellow, spare my life. We are both followers of Mr. Feng and have just joined the God Worshipping Society. We are our own people."

  Lu Xianba hastily said "It was a misunderstanding, both of you, sorry about that, brothers, quickly let them go."

  Li Yunzhong only then took a closer look at Feng Yunshan, and saw that he was seven feet tall, wearing a white shirt with many stains on it. His hair and beard had been tidied up, and there was a faint bruise on his face. His eyes were bright and alert, and the whole person seemed to have a unique charm.

  "Mr. Feng, I wonder if Lu Liu has also been released?" asked Lu Xian Da.

  Feng Yunshan's face showed a sorrowful expression as he said, "Lu Liu was killed by the government."

  "What, heaven-killing government officials!" Lu Xian shouted loudly with tears streaming down his face.

  "Sooner or later, we must avenge Lu Liu." Li Yunzhong saw that they were all extremely angry and also chimed in from the side to avoid standing out.

  Lu Liu was mentioned, and Li Yunzhong remembered. Lu Liu lived in the southwest of Zijing Mountain in Guiping, Guangxi, and his family was extremely poor. He made a living by burning charcoal on Zijing Mountain. When Feng Yunshan first arrived at Zijing Mountain to preach, he founded the God Worshipping Society, and Lu Liu followed him closely, becoming one of the earliest followers. After Hong Xiuquan arrived, he established the leadership organization of the God Worshipping Society in Lu Liu's home. During the activity of destroying the Gan Wang Temple, Lu Liu made great efforts. The local gentry, Wang Zuoxin and his brother Wang Dazuo, captured Feng Yunshan and planned to send him to the authorities. However, Lu Liu and others gathered their followers and rescued Feng Yunshan. Wang Zuoxin, unwilling to accept defeat, accused Feng Yunshan and others to the Jiangkou Patrol Inspector and Guiping County. The county magistrate, Wang Lie, ordered both parties to appear in court for a confrontation. Feng Yunshan and Lu Liu arrived at the county government office, but Wang Zuoxin and his brother were afraid and dared not show up. Feng Yunshan and Lu Liu were detained in the Guiping County prison. Alas! What a pity! If he hadn't died, Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui would have had to step aside.

  The six of them walked silently, with Li Yunzhong and Feng Yunshan walking at the front. Because they still didn't trust the two bailiffs, they asked Lu Xianda and Lin Fengxiang to "accompany" them and chat.

  "Mr. Feng, many things happened in the Purple Mountain Prayer Meeting on the days you were not here." Li Yunzhong broke the silence between them.

  "Isn't Master Hong still around? Are the brothers in the sect not obedient to discipline?" Feng Yunshan hastily asked, hearing Li Yun's tone was off.

  No wonder, the Temple of God will be Feng Yunshan's lifeblood. For it, a scholar went to collect firewood, pick up cow dung, and burn charcoal with a group of carbon workers, and worked as a laborer in a landlord's house for several years. No wonder what he saw was more important than his own life.

  "It would be better if Mr. Hong were here. Not long after you were caught, Mr. Hong returned to Guangdong. The God-worshipping Society will have internal conflicts, Yang Xiuqing's faction will exclude dissenters, and now he has the power". Li Yunzhong sighed softly

  "What! How can Hong Xiuquan... What about Zeng Yuzhen, Zeng Yunzheng, Zeng Yuqing and Zeng Guanlan?" Feng Yunshan asked angrily.

  "They were all suppressed by Yang Xiuqing and his gang, some died, some scattered, and now they don't care about anything." Li Yunzhong advised again: "Mr. Feng, now the power of Zijin Mountain is in the hands of Yang Xiuqing and others, why not go to Guangdong together and ask Mr. Hong to take charge?"

  "Let's go back to Zijin Mountain first and talk about it later." said Feng Yunshan.

  On this day, everyone rushed to Jintian Town. Feng Yunshan ordered Lin Fengxiang and Lu Xiangdao to return to Zijin Mountain first to report the news. Seeing that it was already late, Li Yunzhong discussed with Feng Yunshan to find a house of a believer in the Lord to spend the night. Unexpectedly, Feng Yunshan directly took Li Yunzhong to the richest household in the village.

  "Wei Fu" Li Yunzhong gazed at the signboard above the gate and whispered.

  "I have a few acquaintances with the young master of their household, Wei Zheng, and I'll be staying here for tonight." said Feng Yunshan.

  "Now, what we lack most in our worship of God is the participation of wealthy families. With money and food, great things can be accomplished." Li Yunzhong sighed, thinking to himself: "Still able to eat meat, these past two days have been a meal of plain rice with water three times a day, my mouth has become tasteless like a bird's."

  "Hmm, I reflected in prison that when we worship God, there are many people but little strength. Everyone is busy making a living and fighting for themselves, rarely gathering together, unable to support each other, which gives them an opportunity to take advantage." said Feng Yunshan.

  "That's right, as long as we have money and food, we can gather together at any time, a thousand people in one place, ten thousand people in ten places. The government will be afraid of us." said Li Yunzhong.

  Li Yunzhong knocked on the door and was welcomed in by Wei's butler. They entered the living room, where tea was served.

  "Haha, is it not delightful to have friends coming from afar? Mr. Feng, long time no see."

  Li Yunzhong saw a young man of twenty-five or six years old walking into the living room towards Feng Yunshan.

  "Lord Wei is kind, today my brother and I have traveled to this place, seeing that the sky is already late, thinking of Lord Wei's hospitality, specially came to borrow a night's stay, please don't be surprised." Feng Yunshan stood up and said.

  Seeing Feng Yunshan stand up, Li Yunzhong also hastily stood up.

  "It's nothing, Mr. Feng can come, I'm delighted and haven't had time to be surprised, please sit down." Wei Zheng invited the two to sit down and also sat beside the tea table.

  "I often hear fellow villagers say that Wei is a man of honor and justice, who loves to do good deeds and is respected by the people in our hometown." Li Yunzhong bragged, anyway bragging doesn't require paying taxes.

  Hahaha

  After laughing, Wei Zheng's face suddenly darkened, and Feng Yunshan hastily asked, "Wei brother, what's troubling you?"

  "I won't hide it from you two, my family is considered a wealthy one in our village, but we're often cheated by the same village officials. It's laughable that a small officer dares to extort over a hundred taels of silver!" Wei Zheng sighed.

  "Wei brothers are unaware that I was also arrested by the government six months ago for treason, but they just wanted to extort money from me." Feng Yunshan said angrily.

  "What! Such a thing has happened, alas! What can we do about it? We can only accept it reluctantly." Wei Zheng stood up and sat down again with a thud.

  Li Yunzhong took the opportunity to say, "Wei Ge, why don't you join my God-worshipping Society? As long as we unite and help each other, if there are any minor officials who come to extort bribes, we'll take care of them."

  Feng Yunshan said: "Yun's words, Wei brothers should consider carefully. If Brother Wei can join, the Heavenly King Society will surely gain great prestige and make Officer Shen dare not look down on us."

  Wei Zheng thought: Joining the Church of the God Worshippers would only cost me money. Not joining, I'd still have to endure their extortion. Since both options require spending money, might as well join the Church and get acquainted with some good people.

  "I'd rather obey than show respect. From now on, Wei Zheng is willing to accept orders from Mr. Feng." Wei Zheng stood up and bowed to Feng Yunshan.

  After dinner, Feng Yunshan baptized Wei Changhui. After the baptism, Wei said "Now I am also a member of the God Worshipping Society".

  Seeing that it was getting late, Wei made arrangements for two rooms for Li Yunzhong and Feng Yunshan to rest.

  Li Yunzhong followed the housekeeper into one of the rooms.

  As the housekeeper was about to leave after introducing the house, Li Yunzhong asked, "Is there a person named Wei Changhui in the Wei family?"

  "The housekeeper said, 'Young master, there is no one named Wei Changhui in our Wei family. You must have misheard.'"

  "Oh, it should be like this, never mind, you can go." Li Yunzhong said.

  Lying in bed, Li Yun thought to himself, it's probably Wei Zhenghui who is actually Wei Changhui. Don't all the people from Tianping Tianguo change their names? I wonder how many other generals have changed their names too! Damn it! This is totally messing with me, how am I supposed to recognize anyone in the future?!

  In the middle of the night, Li Yun got up to urinate and saw that Feng Yunshan's house was still lit, so he thought of going to see if he had fallen asleep.

  Knocked on the door.

  "Still awake in bed? Come inside and talk." Feng Yunshan opened the door.

  "Has Mr. Feng rested?" Li Yunzhong asked.

  "I've written something, take a look." Feng Yunshan handed a stack of papers on the table to Li Yunzhong.

  Li Yunzhong lost interest when he saw that it was all about months and years, so he looked down.

  The army is roughly divided into five armies: front, rear, left, right and middle. The army commander and deputy commander are in charge of one army, which has a vanguard, hundred officials, camp officers...

  Commanded by the military strategist of the five armies. Seeing this, Li Yunzhong thought that the position of "military strategist" should have been set up by Feng Yunshan for himself, but unfortunately it later became four, and Feng Yunshan got a deputy military strategist instead.

  "Mr. Feng, I couldn't understand the year, month and day above. The ones below made sense to me, but I heard that in the army there are military divisions, regiments, brigades and all that, which sounds easy to remember." Li Yunzhong said.

  "Oh, you're talking about the 'Zhou Li' system, where each level of officer is a military commander, division commander, brigade commander, company commander and two deputy commanders. I've thought about this too, but considering our people are too few, we don't even have enough to form an army yet. Let's establish this military system when I pray to God and we become stronger." Feng Yunshan said

  Zhou Li? Big brother, I'm talking about modern military affairs.

  The two men talked late into the night before Li Yunzhong went back to sleep.