Chapter 46: The Gentry Donate Money for Self-Protection

  Among several brothers, Hu Yihuang specially came back from Anhui, Ling Shiba was still directing the battle in Changzhou, Meng Shangsheng, Zhang Weikun and Lin Daji were already sitting on the chairs beside them, smiling and saying something. On the high hall above sat Li Yunzhong, two elder clansmen.

  "Kowtowing to heaven and earth"

  Li Yunzhong and three brides bowed towards the outside sky.

  "Bowing twice in front of the ancestral hall"

  Turning around, he bowed down again to the two elders.

  Husband and wife worship together

  Li Yunzhong walked up to the three beauties and bowed to them.

  "The ceremony is completed, and they are sent into the bridal chamber."

  Li Yunzhong suppressed a smile, pulling the three brides towards the new house in the back, thinking to himself as he walked: Today, will it be one fly, two flies, or three flies? Heh heh...

  Things didn't go as Li Yunzhong had wished, he had just entered his new home and hadn't even had time to lift the red veils off the heads of several women when a group of brothers pulled him out, saying that the elders in the city were going to ask Han Wang for a cup of celebratory wine to drink.

  Li Yunzhong closed his eyes and thought: These brothers are all intentional. One by one, they drank with the gentry in the city, but saw that each of them was wearing clothes that were not consistent, including Han, Tang, and Ming costumes, the only thing in common was that they still had braids on their heads. When the Great Han army entered the city, it did not force the people to do anything, but appointed a few surrendered officials and officers as county magistrates around Nanjing, and assigned some old brothers from Guangxi to work in the counties, everything else remained the same.

  Li Yunzhong was slightly drunk and looked at their braids, sneering: "Your pigtail should be cut off too, it's really ugly."

  A group of gentry looked at each other in dismay, with many people subconsciously touching the braids on the back of their heads, smiling wryly. Li Yunzhong patted one of the elderly men who was over sixty years old and said boldly: "I'm just joking with you, we Han people are free and won't force civilians to do things they don't want to do! You are all people of status in Nanjing, you wouldn't want Nanjing to be occupied by the Qing army again, would you? Those Green Camp soldiers have no discipline, not as good as us. If that happens again, there will be another massacre like the one forty days ago, haha..."

  "It is... we... will definitely support Han Wang."

  "Supporting the Han King? It's not just about verbal support, you need some actual action to make it credible."

  "I am willing to donate 20,000 dan of grain and 10,000 taels of silver." The old man who was afraid of being beaten by Li Yunzhong quickly tried to please him.

  "I am also willing to donate 5,000 dan of grain." The man beside him, dressed in Ming dynasty attire, also shouted out.

  "I also donated 10,000 dan"

  "I donated 30,000 taels of white silver"

  ………

  ………

  Li Da Ji recorded it on the side, and after everyone had donated, he walked to Li Yun Zhong's front and whispered: "The total amount of grain is 800,000 dan, silver is 12 million liang, and gold is 30,000 liang."

  Li Yunzhong didn't expect that by just scaring them a bit, these local tyrants would actually cough up so much wealth. The wine suddenly sobered him up halfway, and with a turn of his eyes, he gave them another set: "Thank you, esteemed elders and fellow villagers, for your generous support. I am deeply grateful. I will order someone to write down your noble deeds on the bulletin board, so that the entire Great Han can... learn from you. To drive out the Tartars and restore China, even if it means bankrupting ourselves, it is worth it." After finishing speaking, he even took the lead in applauding.

  The scholars saw the King of Han go to toast the generals and sat down one by one with a sigh. The old man who donated grain first said to the man in plain clothes, "Lin, I heard that your property is mostly in Suzhou, why are you still following us to donate grain and money?"

  Lin Yuan said with a fearful look, "Old Zhou, you don't understand, I have a relative who escaped from Sichuan and he said that when the Longhairs invaded Sichuan, they killed people everywhere, especially those of us who have some money. It was terrible! Our property was looted, our homes were burned down, and if there were any pretty women, they were taken away to be offered to their leader. Ah, it's a disaster!"

  Someone nearby interrupted: "I heard that Zhang's army is besieging Chongqing, I wonder how many more people will be affected."

  Everyone looked at Lin Yuanwai. Someone couldn't help but ask, "Lin family brothers, do you think this Han Wang will also confiscate our property like the Longhairs?"

  Lin Yuan shook his head and guessed, "I don't think it's possible. Logically speaking, if they were going to confiscate property, they would have done so when we entered the city. It's already been over a month now, and King Han hasn't issued any orders similar to those of the Longhairs."

  Zhou Yuan said with a calm expression: "So to speak, the King of Han is a man with great ambitions. He won't only not copy our family's methods but will also win us over."

  A group of people all nodded, the solemn atmosphere gradually dispersed, a scholar grabbed the queue behind him and said: "Spread the word about our donation of grain, it seems that His Highness the King of Han wants us to cut off our queues, so we can break off from the Qing dynasty once and for all."

  Lin Yuan sighed and said: "What a pity, such a good braid, for the sake of everyone's life, it's better to cut it off, fortunately many people in the city have already cut theirs."

  Zhou Yuan looked around and saw no outsiders, saying: "We can put away our queues for now. If the Qing dynasty ever recovers Nanjing one day, we'll stick them back on."

  The scholars all praised in unison: "Wonderful! Wonderful!"

  Li Yunzhong was dazed and stumbled towards the new house, like a top that wouldn't fall, finally touched the door, kicked it open with one foot, and was completely knocked out by the door frame, failing to achieve his long-awaited three flights.

  At noon, Li Yunzhong was woken up by the "chirping" sound, and no matter how he turned over, he couldn't get rid of this sound. He reluctantly opened his eyes to find that everything in sight was red, and only then did he realize that he had already gotten married. Turning his head, he indeed saw three brides chatting idly around the table.

  Xu Yuexiang had been paying attention to Li Yunzhong since dawn, and when she saw him sit up, she hastily told Su San Niang and the others: "Husband is awake!"

  Three women got up and walked to Li Yunzhong's bedside, bent down, served Li Yunzhong to get up, saw Li Yunzhong pointing to the water on the table, Hong Xuanjiao hurriedly came forward with her own tea and put it to his mouth. Li Yunzhong held Hong Xuanjiao's hand and poured all the tea into his mouth in one go, took a breath and said: "What did I do yesterday? How come I can't remember?"

  Su San Niang said with a bad temper: "You fell down as soon as you entered the door, and no matter how we called, you couldn't wake up. Sometimes vomiting, sometimes wanting to drink water, you tortured us for a whole night."

  Li Yunzhong said with a bitter face: "So, last night's wedding chamber, every moment was precious, I didn't do anything! What a huge loss."

  Xu Yuexiang dazedly said: "What's the big loss? You're still fine, and you haven't lost anything either?"

  Hong Xuanjiao hugged Xu Yuxiang and said, "Your husband didn't flirt with you last night, he felt a big loss. Do you want to compensate him?"

  Xu Yuexiang blushed and said: "Sister Hong, you're still the same, so don't you want to make it up to your husband?"

  Li Yunzhong hugged them all onto the bed, pounced on them, and laughed loudly: "Let me, your husband, make it up to you properly! Ah, Third Wife, don't run away, we're old husband and wife, what's there to be shy about!" Li Yunzhong pulled Su San Niang back into the bed just as she was about to climb down.

  Hong Xuanjiao panted and said with a red face: "Husband, don't make trouble, there are still people waiting outside!"