broke up with Yuan Shidun, Song Xiaofei and Wang Shizhen rushed back to Kaifeng non-stop. When I arrived at the mansion, it was already noon, and Li Henian, the governor of Henan, came to Song Xiaofei worriedly: "My lord, something is wrong, the British Baptist missionary Timothy Li took a group of foreign missionaries to Kaifeng for disaster relief, and had a conflict with Xie Jiafu and other squires, and was sent to the mansion. ”

When Song Xiaofei heard it, this foreign priest came to help the disaster, a good thing, why did he get into trouble with the squires? Hurriedly asked, Timothy Lee, where are they now?

Li Henian said: "Xie Jiafu and others were very emotional and demanded that the missionaries must leave Henan immediately, otherwise the lives of the foreign missionaries would be in danger. Timothy Li and the others were also very stubborn and insisted on refusing to leave Henan, and I was afraid that they would be in danger outside, so I temporarily invited them to the prison for protection. ”

When Song Xiaofei heard this, he was taken aback and said, "Please go to the prison?" Is there such protection? Foreign priests kindly came to disaster relief, but you put them in prison, this will be spread, what will foreigners think of the Chinese? It will cause a major diplomatic accident! There have been too many lesson plans before, which has made the adults in the middle hall anxious! ”

Li Henian said: "Xie Jiafu and more than 100 other squires made a lot of trouble, and the officials had no choice but to make this decision. ”

Song Xiaofei said: "Hurry up and take this official to the prison to pick them up, so as to show our sincerity." ”

Entering the gloomy and gray prison, Song Xiaofei saw more than a hundred ragged peasants with yellow faces and thin muscles, who were locked up in a foul-smelling cell, wearing heavy shackles and anklets, so he asked by the way: "Why are there so many prisoners?" ”

Li Henian explained: "These people all went to large households to grab grain, and in the year of the disaster, they had to be severely punished to maintain law and order. ”

They walked all the way to a clean cell in the innermost part of the prison, Song Xiaofei saw Timothy Li and other foreign priests, Timothy Li stood in the prison, not wearing a priest's black robe, but wearing a gray robe most commonly worn by Confucian scholars, with a fake braid dragging behind his head, he hung a silver cross on his chest, put his hands on his chest, and was praying, Song Xiaofei raised his hand to signal Li Henian and the others to stop, quiet down, and wait for Timothy Li to finish praying before going in.

There are some people in this world who really live by faith. At that time, many missionaries came to China with the guns of the great powers to seek opportunities to get rich, but there were also many missionaries who, with no self-interested motives, traveled thousands of miles to China as messengers of God, spreading the gospel of God with their persistent spirit and touching the Chinese with benevolent and good deeds, Timothy Lee was such a respectable pastor, in 1869, at the age of 25, he boarded a ship bound for China.

There is no doubt that both the Qing court and the common people at that time were incomprehensible and unwelcoming to such real missionaries. There is one doctrine of Christianity that is enough for the Chinese to keep all missionaries out: at that time, both Catholics and Protestants were unscrupulous in attacking China's ancestor worship, believing that there can only be one "heavenly Father" of Jesus, but the Chinese' ancestor worship is a tradition integrated into everyone's blood, a bond that maintains family relationships, and cannot be changed by any culture. Forgetting one's ancestors is unfilial piety and will be spurned by all Chinese! The poor peasants in China, who were close to the clergy, just wanted to get some medicine and material help from the clergy. The Confucian beliefs of some landlords and squires were even more deep-rooted, and they regarded foreign priests as "devils" who had "no king and no father", which was the fundamental reason for the conflict between Xie Jiafu and others and Timothy Lee.

After Song Xiaofei entered the prison, he explained to Timothy Li in English that this was a misunderstanding, and it was entirely for the sake of their safety. Timothy Lee was surprised to see that Song Xiaofei could speak English, and he made a suggestion to Song Xiaofei in stiff Chinese: "Move the people from the disaster area to Manchuria, where grain is cheap, and the price is only one-tenth of that of Henan." ”

Song Xiaofei shook his head, thinking to himself that Manchuria was the land of the Manchus, and it was impossible for the Qing court to move a large number of Han people there. However, Timothy Lee's suggestion reminded Song Xiaofei that a bold idea arose in Song Xiaofei's mind: to relocate millions of disaster victims to North Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Ryukyu and other places to clear the wasteland, so that there are more Chinese people and can better control these places, and he is ready to find an opportunity to tell Li Hongzhang about this proposal and win his support.

This time he went to visit Timothy Li in prison, and the two had an in-depth chat, which was very speculative, and Song Xiaofei promised to persuade Xie Jiafu and others to let the missionaries continue to stay in Henan for disaster relief.

But Song Xiaofei didn't expect that Xie Jiafu and more than 100 other squires did not buy his account as a special envoy, Xie Jiafu flicked the sleeves of his robe, and said righteously: "The victims of the disaster in Shandong have received relief from foreigners for more than three months, and almost only know that there are foreigners, but they don't know that there are China." Adults are all right, but children are lured away by Catholicism, and it is a big deal, but those who have flesh and blood can have no cone of heart and liver, erect hair, and urgently try to remedy it! I came out for disaster relief this time, the main purpose is to resist the Yi people, pay attention to the righteousness, for this reason I went to the soup to fight the fire, ten thousand deaths, the adults want my head on the neck, let the foreign priests in Henan disaster relief, I will not allow! ”

Xie Jiafu's statement was warmly supported by the squires present, and a septuagenarian Cheng Zhu said: "Zhu Zi said that although he was born without self-reliance, it is better to die than to be safe." Those who received the church's relief will inevitably convert to foreign religion and will no longer be Chinese people. The most pitiful thing is that those children have not yet been enlightened, how can they know this, and how can they bear to see them fall into the church? If there are missionaries entering the disaster area, please be gentle and try to dissuade them, otherwise we will fight for our lives and let these foreign devils leave Henan. ”

Xie Jiafu and these squires later posted confessions in the countryside: "I would rather eat Yi meat than eat Yi millet", there are really many poor victims, starving to death behind closed doors and not accepting the food sent by the missionaries, some radical Confucian students in the academy actually went on strike, looking for missionaries everywhere desperately, Song Xiaofei realized that the power of the local squires could not be underestimated, he saw the energy of the giant beast of nationalism for the first time, and had to persuade Timothy Li and other missionaries to leave Henan.

Song Xiaofei finished the major event of disaster relief in Henan and rushed back to Tianjin by steamer from the waterway. When he arrived in Tianjin, Li Hongzhang had already begun to mobilize the whole country for grain relief, and at this time, the Qing Dynasty's [***] system showed a great superiority in concentrating on major affairs, Sheng Xuanhuai's China Merchants Bureau put all the country's steamships into transporting grain, and Song Xiaofei allocated 15 warships of the Beiyang Naval Division to transport grain.

In the second year, this huge disaster was still spreading, affecting more than 100 million people in the north, the most serious Shanxi Province, almost a third of them died of starvation, such a large-scale famine made Li Hongzhang also tired to deal with, fell into a pessimistic mood, he said to Song Xiaofei: "The court prayed for things, but the gods did not lift, and the clouds could not be raised." If there is still no rain before and after Qingming next year, there will be a few provinces of living beings, and there will be a legacy, and my generation will die together, and I will also die!"

Song Xiaofei gave Li Hongzhang five suggestions: accept donations from Taixi charities and churches in China to stimulate the squires in Jiangnan to go out for disaster relief; Let Sheng Xuanhuai's China Merchants Bureau actively attract foreign investment, hire disaster victims to overhaul railways, and encourage private businessmen to open more factories such as raw silk factories to hire disaster victims; Within three years, 2 million victims were relocated to Korea, 2 million to Taiwan, 2 million to Vietnam, and 500,000 to the Ryukyus and other places. involving students from the Beiyang Military Academy in disaster relief; We should intensify the "donation" and publicly auction off some fictitious official positions that do not actually hold administrative power.

This famine is rare in the world, so Li Hongzhang adopted all these suggestions, and, as the minister of the Imperial Mission, mobilized the resources and strength of the whole country to do these things. In order to avoid a rebellion by hundreds of millions of victims, the Qing court had no choice but to compromise.

The first suggestion worked, and under the encouragement of non-governmental media such as "Qiangguo Bao" and "Declaration", overseas Chinese in Nanyang, Yueben, and the United States donated money and grain, and the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, who had always been waiting for the victims to come to their doors, took the initiative to go deep into the hinterland of the disaster-stricken areas in North China to provide assistance, and the relief of North China became a spontaneous action of the Chinese people.

The second suggestion led to the blossoming of factories everywhere in China, the vigorous development of national industry and commerce, and the emergence of railways, telegraphs, coal mines, raw silk factories, ceramic factories, and so on.

The third proposal greatly strengthened China's control over Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, and the Ryukyus, and provided a reserve for the Huai troops stationed there.

The fourth suggestion made the national consciousness of the students of the Beiyang Military Academy begin to sprout, and they gradually began to understand what Rong Hong and Song Xiaofei meant by telling them about the "army of the common people", and also made them understand that patriotism is not the same as loving the Manchu court, and the life and death of the common people is a big matter!

The fifth suggestion provoked the most fierce attack from Weng Tongyi and other Qing factions, who "settled accounts after the autumn" and accused Li Hongzhang of selling official titles one after another, demanding that Emperor Guangxu deal with Li Hongzhang strictly, and incidentally impeaching Song Xiaofei and demanding that they be dismissed from their posts and sent to prison.

The power struggle between Weng Tongrong and Li Hongzhang escalated, and Song Xiaofei understood that this time, he and Li Hongzhang had to fight back with all their strength and get rid of Weng Tonggong!;