Zhou Mansion.

Zhou Hexuan brought less than ten servants from Tianjin in total, and the rest were recruited locally in Chongqing. These servants are contacted by intermediary companies, and each has more than two good citizens as their guarantors, and their credibility and loyalty are much higher than those of later generations.

This has been the case in China since ancient times, and even sometimes apprentices need to be guarantor. As soon as Zhou Hexuan passed through that time to rent a house, he was asked by the landlord to provide a guarantor, and it was okay to have no guarantor, but he had to pay a certain amount of deposit.

Kong Yaohua is 52 years old this year, a native of Dazhu County, Sichuan, and his family had more than 10 acres of thin fields when he was a child. When he was 28 years old, he was hit by a military disaster, a crooked shell landed at home, and his parents, wife, children, and younger brothers and sisters-in-law were all killed in the explosion. Kong Yaohua happened to go out at that time and did not return, so he was spared.

The days that followed were hard, and the amount of taxes and miscellaneous taxes was too many to count, and he could not afford to cultivate more than ten acres of land alone, and he had no money to hire long-term and short-term workers to help. In addition, he was seriously ill, and finally had to sell his family property to beg for food.

Kong Yaohua served as a soldier, a beggar, and a short-term worker, and finally settled down in Chongqing two years ago, and was invited by a landlord in Jiangbei to do long-term labor.

Who would have expected that the landlord would soon die of illness, and several young masters would be all losers. The old lady struggled to hold on to the family, and the sons ate, drank, prostituted, gambled, and tossed hard, and one of them actually stole the family's land deed to pay off the gambling debt.

The illustrious and wealthy family of the local gentry fell apart in this way, and Kong Yaohua also lost his long-term work, so he could only come to Chongqing to work for people to make a living.

Last year, I heard that the master of the big businessman Zhang Mouzhi built a mansion for his son-in-law on the edge of the Yangtze River, and was recruiting honest and responsible servants. Kong Yaohua immediately exhausted all his savings, sent money to the matchmaker (intermediary) to help operate, and became a gardener in Zhoufu as he wished.

Kong Yaohua's daily work is to water and irrigate flowers and trees, and prune and take care of branches every once in a while. He felt that this kind of life was too happy, although it was also very tiring, but it was much easier than doing long-term and short-term work before, and the owner was kind-hearted, not only giving him a salary of three oceans a month, but also food and lodging, and occasionally seeing meat.

Recently, Kong Yaohua blamed himself very much, and more than a dozen of the newly planted trees in the Zhou Mansion last year actually died in his hands. Although he draws water from the Yangtze River every day to irrigate, the summer sun is too hot, and these small trees are sunburned alive.

Kong Yaohua felt that he had done a big mistake, the master was so good to him, why did he kill the little tree? It's simply ungrateful!

Early morning.

Kong Yaohua got up early and prepared to go to the river to fetch water. He smelled the fragrance coming from the kitchen, and couldn't help but turn his head and sniff it a few times, and his heart suddenly rejoiced: I'm baking cakes again today, and it's just a good thing!

There are two kitchens in the Zhou Mansion, one for the master's family and the other for the servants of the house.

Normally, the maid's breakfast is gruel and pickles, but every weekend you can eat oil cakes or noodles. In Kong Yaohua's opinion, this is an extremely luxurious treatment, the Zhou family's oil cakes are very oily, and there are some minced meat in the noodles, which is simply the top delicacy in the world.

"Lao Kong, it's early!" The porter greeted the old man.

Kong Yaohua hurriedly greeted: "Master He, morning!" ”

There are also two gatehouses of the Zhou Mansion, one facing the mountain and the other facing the river. The He gatekeeper in front of him came from Tianjin with the master's family, and belonged to the "elders" among the servants, Kong Yaohua never dared to offend.

Out of the big iron gate, Kong Yaohua came to the river with a wooden barrel, but saw several fishing boats docked on the wharf.

Due to the generosity and kindness of the owner of the Zhou family, people in the vicinity often came to sell their local products, and fishermen often came to sell their catches.

Those catches are also divided into two types, the most delicious saury, yellow catfish, etc., which are specially provided to the old lady and the young lady. The fishermen sold some of the remaining small fish and shrimp, and the Zhou family was also willing to spend money to buy them as meat and fish for the servants to eat.

Kong Yaohua was already very familiar with those fishermen, and joked while hitting the water: "Mei Laokan, if you don't go fishing and cast nets, what kind of empty dragon gate array do you come to Zhoujia Wharf?" ”

"Don't worry about it, we're talking about business." Mei Laokan didn't have a good airway.

"What's the matter?" Kong Yaohua asked casually.

A fisherman nicknamed Windmill said: "The end of the Red Sun is coming, and people all over the world will die, and only by joining the 'Confucius and Mencius Dao' can we keep safe." A few of our brothers are discussing when to worship the 'Confucius and Mencius Dao'. ”

"Lao Tzu doesn't believe in the ghost of Confucius and Mengdao," said another fisherman with a nickname of fake and sophisticated, "Liu Shenxian is just a melon critic, and he only joined his sect when his brain was broken." ”

Windmill Che immediately retorted: "Yes, Liu Shenxian is a melon critic, and you are a smart person if you are fake and sophisticated." Now many people are going to join the church, so if you fake and experienced, you won't be able to kill you when the end of the red sun comes! ”

Mei Laokan suddenly asked Kong Yaohua: "Old Kong, has Mr. Zhou entered the religion?" ”

"I've never heard of it." Kong Yaohua said with a smile.

Windmill Chele said: "Mr. Zhou is also an immortal, I heard that he is still the uncle of Liu Shenxian, and his old man does not need to join the religion at all." ”

Kong Yaohua became more and more curious, and asked in detail: "What are you talking about?" I don't even understand. ”

The fishermen immediately began to tell the story, word by word, and soon told the whole story.

It turned out that since Liu Congyun returned to Chongqing, a saying quickly spread in the city: from birth to destruction, the universe has gone through three tribulations of Qingyang, Hongyang and Baiyang. The troubled times of the Republic of China are at the end of the Red Sun Tribulation, that is, the "Second End Tribulation", which is the largest catastrophe in human history. At that time, except for the followers of "Confucius and Mencius", the rest of the mortals will be destroyed along with the old world. Sichuan's successive years of war and famine, as well as this year's great drought, are the embodiment of the "end of the red sun", if there is no master's action, the drought will last for at least a hundred years, and the affected areas will spread from Sichuan to the whole of China, and even the world.

Typical cult eschatology!

This is the trick played by Liu Congyun, since he fell out with Liu Xiang, many of his branches in Sichuan have collapsed, and it is difficult for believers to get together again. In order to make a comeback, Liu Congyun borrowed the theory of a certain sect in North China, vigorously propagated eschatology, and intimidated and lured the people of Sichuan to join the Church.

However, those who want to join the church should contribute money and goods according to their own situation. If you really don't have money, if you have a skill, such as fighting, writing, stealing, etc., you can also use it.

The bare-rod warlord Luo Zezhou was the first to respond, donating millions of family properties in a high-profile manner, and seeking a "life protection talisman" from Liu Congyun. I heard that this talisman can save the lives of the family, including the servants in the family, and they can survive the end of the red sun safely.

Luo Zezhou regards money as his life, so naturally it is impossible to donate so much money, which is all discussed between him and Liu Congyun. To paraphrase a line in "Let the Bullets Fly": "The money of the gentry is returned in full, and the people's money is divided into three or seven!" ”

By intimidating and deceiving through eschatology, Liu Congyun was not only able to amass money, but also quickly restore the strength of his sect.

The more troubled the times, the more superstitious people are, and the more they can't stand the fear.

When Liu Xiang had Liu Shenxian in his army, Liu Wenhui invited a god immortal, and the two warlords fought in full swing, and the fighting methods of the two gods were also very exciting.

A warlord like Yang Sen, who is not afraid of ghosts and gods, was forced to kowtow to Liu Congyun and bluntly said that he had suffered a shame that he had never suffered in his life. But in fact, because of a joke from the boy, Yang Sen sent someone to kill all the dogs in the territory - Yang Sen's word Zihui, that is, Yang Zihui, he originally liked to raise dogs.

Sheep are called sheep in the Sichuan dialect, and one day he heard a child pointing to a flock of sheep being chased by dogs and saying, "Yang Zihui (Yang Zihui) was bitten to death by dogs." Yang Sen felt very unfortunate and faintly uneasy, so he started the cause of slaughtering dogs.

The warlords are like this, not to mention the small people?

At this moment, Kong Yaohua listened to the fishermen's talk about the end of the world, and he was also frightened, and said to himself: "It is said that Mr. Zhou is also a god, can he protect me when the end comes?" ”

"Surely," said the windmill enviously, "Mr. Zhou is a master, you who are servants will be blessed, and you will not die if Sichuan dies." ”

"That's good, that's good." Kong Yaohua still has lingering palpitations.

Mei Laokan suddenly had a new idea, he said: "Mr. Zhou is very powerful, more fierce than Liu Shenxian, why don't we go to him and ask for a life protection talisman!" ”

"If you want it, you have to get this way," the windmill car was suddenly overjoyed, "Mr. Zhou is kind-hearted, and his life talisman definitely doesn't need money." Let's go, let's go, let's go and find Mr. Zhou together. ”

Early in the morning, Zhou Hexuan, who had just gotten up, looked confused in the face of the fishermen who came to ask for charms.

What the heck?