Heavenly Father...... Emperor God!

Hearing this term, everyone looked at each other, they also knew the people, it is said that it turned out to be a Cao Bang Xiangtang master (hall master) in Shandong, named Wang Wuben, who is very famous on the Grand Canal. I don't know what stimulated Lu Dao to convert to Christianity. He came to Xuzhou from the chaotic Shandong to open a church to spread the gospel of the Lord to the Cao Gang disciples in Xuzhou, and also received the support of many Cao Gang bigwigs on the ground in Xuzhou.

The church to which Pastor Wang belongs has some financial resources, and from time to time he gives rice and grain to help the Cao Gang disciples who are living in difficulty. It's just that the name of God in the mouth of this pastor Wang is a little strange, "God the Father Emperor", and the sermons he uses are also a bit strange. There is no Bible, only bizarre missionary materials such as "Good Words for Advice to the World", "Song of the Salvation of the Original Dao", "Awakening of the Primordial Dao", "Precept of the Awakening of the Primordial Dao", "Hundred Righteous Songs" and so on. However, Xuzhou is relatively closed here, compared to Jiangnan, Fujian and Guangdong, and the common people have never seen what authentic Christian scriptures look like, so they regard this Pastor Wang as an authentic Christian pastor.

"Believe in Heavenly Father, get rice! Believe in Heavenly Father, get rice! ”

While preaching in a Shandong accent, Pastor Wang handed a pamphlet to the Cao Gang disciples in the teahouse. "All of you come to my church to listen to the reason, after listening to it, each person can get three catties of rice, this is the gift of God the Father Emperor......"

"Okay, let's all go and listen to it," the master of the Cao Gang in the teahouse spoke, "Anyway, it's idle, just listen to Pastor Wang's reasoning, maybe you can find some way to live, no matter how bad it is, there are three catties of rice." ”

In the past, three catties of rice were not taken into account by the Cao Gang disciples who were used to eating at all. But now I can let the family live one more day! As for the relief of the Zhu Ming court. These Cao Gang disciples can't be counted on at all. In this era, there is no country in the world that will issue "unemployment benefits". Of course, the Ming court did not have this spare money - in fact, the Ming court could not figure out who was employed and who was unemployed.

"Okay, I'll listen."

"I'm going to ...... too"

"As long as there is rice to eat, if you believe in religion, you can believe in religion."

As the old man spoke, the disciples and grandchildren below had no worries, and one by one they took the pamphlets and went to the small church in the west gate of Xuzhou. The same scene is being repeated in other places in Xuzhou, as well as in cities such as Suqian, Huai'an, and Yangzhou along the canal.

The spread of the Worship of God along the canal, of course, could not be concealed from the spies of the Jinyi Wei Investigation Factory, and the report about it was soon reported to the desk of Zhu Datianzi in the Forbidden City.

"Yang Xiuqing's hand is really long enough. Not only did he hook up with the Cao Gang, but he also preached in our territory, and it seems that the day of the decisive battle between the north and the south is not far away. ”

In the Ying Emperor's Palace, in the palace that had just completed the renovation work, the military advisor Luo Zenan frowned, and his tone was calm.

"This Yang Xiuqing, can't you let the lonely king stop for a while? The lonely king has just returned from inspecting the disaster area! Zhu Jishi returned to Jiangnan from the northeast in early October of the Gregorian calendar, but he did not stay in the palace of Emperor Ying for a few days, so he took a boat to the west and went along the Yangtze River to inspect the disaster area. Historically, in 1849, the Yangtze River flooded. This plane is certainly no exception. Although due to the early diversion of the Yellow River, the disaster situation in the Jianghuai region has been reduced. However, the provinces of Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui and Nanzhili in the Yangtze River basin are still in serious condition. And this catastrophe also made Zhu Ming's court's idea of achieving a fiscal balance in the second year of recovery come to naught. The plan for the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains was also postponed until after next spring because the army was busy with disaster relief and the people's situation in the Liangjiang area was unstable.

In addition to Luo Zenan, there are also Zuo Zongtang, Luo Bingzhang, and Pan Zengshou. In addition to providing official interpretations of the Confucian classics, the Hongconfucianism Academy was also responsible for some of the work of the Ministry of Rites in the past, and Zhu Jishi's enthronement ceremony was also in charge of the Hongru Academy. Today, Pan Zengshou came to the palace to report on the preparations for the enthronement ceremony.

Although Beijing has not yet been recovered, the mission of expelling the Tatars has been theoretically completed, and the Qing Dynasty will be overtaken with the surrender of Emperor Tiande. Therefore, even if Zhu Ming recovers China for the second time, Zhu Jishi can also ascend to the emperor's throne.

"Your Majesty, now the root cause of the instability of the two rivers is still in Caoyun, the king might as well tell the world that after the success of the Northern Expedition, the capital will be returned to Beijing, and the transportation of grain to the north will be resumed at that time."

Pan Zengshou also rarely gave Zhu Jishi an idea, but this idea sounded completely nonsense to Zuo Zongtang.

Minister Zuo waved his hand: "Even if the capital is moved to Beijing, the method of transporting grain to the north can no longer be carried out, the cost of grain is too high, resulting in the exhaustion of the people in the two rivers and lakes, and the gains really outweigh the losses." As for the small rebellion in the Liangjiang area, send troops to exterminate it! Your Majesty and His Majesty suggested that the spread of God-worshipping religion should be strictly prohibited, the management of Christian churches should be strengthened, and the worship of God should be strictly prevented from pretending to be Christianity and deceiving the people. ”

"The prohibition of Christianity should not be mentioned again." Zhu Jishi looked at Zuo Zongtang with a calm face, "There are more and more foreigners coming to China, not only for business, but also for the use of the imperial court, all of whom believe in Christianity. He paused, "But the worship of God must be strictly forbidden!" Anyone who spreads the cult of worship without permission, no matter who, must be immediately arrested and punished for the crime of spreading a cult!

As for Cao Yun, King Gu agrees with the Prime Minister's opinion that it cannot be restored. However, the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal cannot be completely wasted, this canal is actually the artery of the north and south of the traffic, and it still has its value......"

Zhu Jishi knew that the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in later generations is still playing a role, and even now, the southern section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and the northern section of the Jiangbei River also have a certain amount of transportation, but it is far from being compared with before.

"Your Majesty, it is only a little difficult to convict the priests of the God Worship Society for spreading the crime of cults." Luo Bingzhang, the chief university priest, suddenly reminded, "According to Jinyiwei's secret report, these missionaries do not claim to be God-worshipping priests, but to claim to be Christian priests. Moreover, they did not accumulate wealth, second, they did not spread heresies such as God's possession, and third, they did not control the behavior of believers...... It's just that the teachings preached are slightly similar to the worship of God. I am afraid that it will be difficult for the local courts to designate them as spreading cults, unless the king directly intervenes, and then there is a suspicion of violating the Constitution. ”

Zuo Zongtang shook his head when he heard this: "Ruzhai, why are you doing such pedantic arguments? We and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom are fighting for the world, we should do everything we can, how can we be tied hand and foot by a "Constitution"? ”

Zhu Jishi frowned, and it was indeed inappropriate to characterize the God Worship Society as a cult in this way -- it was not that they were not evil enough, but that it was unconstitutional to refer to a religion as a cult without going through any judicial procedure. Moreover, these missionaries are only "suspected" missionaries who have not claimed to be in the worship of God, and it is even more useless to arrest them for the crime of spreading cults.

This constitutionalism is really not conducive to struggle, Zhu Jishi thought to himself, but listening to the words of Luo Bingzhang and Pan Zengshou, it seems that they still take the "Constitution" seriously, only Zuo Zongtang has nothing to do, if he supports Zuo Zongtang at this time, the authority of the "Constitution" will probably be greatly reduced.

Luo Zenan saw Zhu Jishi's embarrassed expression on his face, and reminded: "Your Majesty, then don't be charged with a cult, the worship of God is a political tool of Hong Xiuquan, which poses a threat to our Ming country, and can be used as a reason to strictly prohibit its spread." Those priests were spies of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the Jinyi Guards should collect ironclad evidence of their contact with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in order to convict them. ”

"Or the military advisor was thoughtful, so he used this reason to strictly prohibit the worship of God, and first issued an edict by King Lone, which was discussed by the Constituent Assembly within 30 days." Zhu Jishi nodded. According to Article 7 of Chapter 1 of the Constitution of the King James Dynasty, Zhu Datianzi did have such power. "In addition, the lone king also issued an edict in accordance with Article 13 of the Constitution, declaring martial law in Huaibei, Nanzhili, Jiangbei, Anhui, Hubei, and other places."

As soon as martial law was issued, these areas entered an extraordinary state, and not only did they impose curfews, but all civil gatherings, including religious gatherings, were banned, effectively putting the north of the Yangtze River into a quasi-war state. (To be continued......)