The two Western priests settled in Xianyang, and with a grant from the Holy See, they soon built a simple wooden monastery on their own. Not to mention what kind of evil intentions are hidden in the world of Catholic preaching, the diligence of these two people alone is very admirable.

They took advantage of the training time of the Zhu soldiers in the morning to actively preach the teachings to the poor people, and in the afternoon it was the time for the Zhu soldiers to teach mathematics, physics, astronomy, geography, and other subjects.

Sadly, the two clergymen did not know what kind of country they were in. The Celestial Empire has been a country full of egoistic spirit since ancient times, and faith is too luxurious for the people of the Celestial Empire.

Whether it is Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism, or any such and such religion, what is conveyed to the followers is often the spirit of sacrificing oneself, but the people of the Celestial Empire pay more attention to how to obtain benefits from praying to God and worshiping Buddha. For example, the people of the Celestial Empire gave incense to the gods and Buddhas, and gave incense money, in fact, not to calm their hearts, nor to save the noble goal of all mankind. This is an exchange of value, I will give you incense and offer to you, you have to fulfill my wish, otherwise I will not believe you. And this spirit is far from the Buddhist cutting meat to feed the eagle, or the selfless devotion of Catholicism.

When Ricci and Anwens first started their mission, they were hindered by the fact that they were preaching to a poor man, who would ask him, "What good will it do me to become a Catholic?" Will Jesus bless me with many sons? Our send-off Guanyin has this ability. ”

Lysis and Awenen Khan. Catholicism adheres to the monogamous system, and the custom of Chinese concubinage is one of the "Ten Precepts" in Catholicism, and it is absolutely uncompromising. However, in order to "have more children and more blessings", the Chinese pay attention to having more children in the concubine room. It's really a conflict.

Later, under the guidance of Zhu Yuanzhang, the two missionaries no longer used direct methods to preach, but turned the monastery into a free hospital, and they hid the medicine in "holy water" and fed it to the poor who were sick to drink. They even used "holy water" to deal with locust plagues. After a successful plague of locusts, a few people were finally baptized. (Note: There is a record in the "Records of the Holy Religion Entering Sichuan" about sprinkling holy water to control the locust plague, and it should be that the Westerners used some strange medicine to make locust repellent medicine, but the historical records are unknown.) ）

The leaders felt strange about Zhu Yuanzhang's deceptive method of teaching Westerners, and Zhu Yuanzhang just smiled and said, "Trick them into opening a free hospital to help the poor treat their diseases." It can even help us drive away locusts, what's so bad? ”

The leaders suddenly realized that their territory had suddenly expanded from three counties to half of Shaanxi, and they were unable to take care of it in many aspects, so it was indeed a very affordable way to trick Westerners into opening a free hospital and helping the people do some practical things.

Of course, the most important role of these two people is to hook Zhu Yuanzhang with the intelligence system of Western Europeans. After that, every once in a while, he would be able to get a hand of information from Lysis and Anwensi, although it was several months late when this information was transferred to Shaanxi through the Holy See's not-so-sophisticated intelligence network, but something was better than nothing, and it was better to broaden his horizons. Looking at the whole world has a positive effect.

Time flickered, and the summer of Chongzhen's eighth year came.

At this time, it is time to harvest potatoes early, and the whole southern Shaanxi is immersed in a jubilant atmosphere. Just as the people of Baishui harvested potatoes for the first time, the people of southern Shaanxi were shocked by this new crop. With large baskets of potatoes on their shoulders and carrying large baskets of potatoes from the fields to their homes, many people who have been tormented by hunger and poverty for decades feel for the first time that they do not have to worry about going hungry this year.

Needless to say, in Baishui, Chengcheng, and Dali, the prestige of Zhu Jun rose sharply in the newly occupied Luochuan, Yichuan, Pucheng, Huaxian, Xianyang, and other places. The squires and the common people were originally forced to plant potatoes, and they did not have resentment and dissatisfaction with Zhu Jun in their hearts, but they didn't dare to show it, and when the potatoes ushered in a bumper harvest and thousands of catties of grain per mu were collected, the dissatisfaction in their hearts was suddenly swept away, and turned into admiration and support for Zhu Jun.

The common people are so simple, they don't recognize who is the emperor and who is the courtier, they only recognize who is good to themselves and who is bad to themselves. Zhu Jun's forcible promotion of potatoes once proved that their policy was only good for the people, not harmful, and naturally won the support it deserved.

Many squires relaxed their vigilance against Zhu Jun, and a few of the township warriors who had been active in the secret and planned to fight with Zhu Jun at any time actually took the initiative to go to the open and expressed their willingness to accept Zhu Jun's jurisdiction.

Zhu Jun then announced the adjustment of taxes, changing the spring and autumn taxes originally scheduled in the Ming Dynasty to summer and autumn taxes, that is, adjusting the time of the two tax collections to the harvest season of early potatoes and autumn potatoes respectively.

Naturally, the people have no objection to this, anyway, they have received thousands of catties of grain per acre of land, and even if they pay taxes at the rate of ten taxes and three, they can still eat enough, dress warmly, and live a much better life than before.

Li Panlong's land has also been harvested, his family has a thousand acres of land, a few years ago because of the drought, almost confiscated anything, but this year is different, one or two thousand catties of potatoes are harvested per acre, how much do you have to harvest a thousand acres of land? He couldn't figure out the account, he only knew that the old housekeeper who was in charge of his own account was dancing with his eyebrows, jumping up and down, a posture that he could walk around without eating. Back at home, not to mention the cellar, even the wings, guest rooms, and firewood rooms are full of potatoes.

One of Li Panlong's concubines went to the kitchen to cook porridge for him one day, and opened the door of the firewood room by mistake in a daze, and the potatoes inside fell like a landslide, burying the concubine with only one head outside, screaming for help, and at this time, Xu Renjie's wife and concubine were guests at Li Panlong's house, and the women of the two families were cowardly, and when they heard the sound of help, they thought that robbers were coming, and as a result, the Li family and the Xu family ran all over the house with knives, making the chickens and dogs jump for an hour before stopping.

Because of the bumper potato harvest, I don't know how many jokes have been made, and Li Panlong also knew that his bet was a complete failure this time, so he had to admit defeat to Xu Renjie and obediently took over the post of Luochuan County Commander. The 1,500 township warriors under his command were naturally transformed into the garrison of Luochuan.

After Xu Renjie informed Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Yuanzhang sent veterans of the Zhu Army to train this Xiangyong, hoping to train them into a real army as soon as possible.

The news of Li Panlong's entry into the gang soon spread throughout several county seats, and the leaders of the two township warrior armies in Pucheng and Huaxian also joined Zhu Jun one after another and took over the post of county order, and the form of southern Shaanxi became better day by day.

On this day, Xu Renjie and Li Panlong drank tea in the Luochuan Yamen, Xu Renjie put on a suit of armor, but Li Panlong wore the clothes of the county order. Li Panlong sighed: "Xu Yuanwai, I am on the thief ship, if you lose to the court in the future, I will be finished." ”

Xu Renjie said with a smile: "Don't worry, with Bugling Zhu here, you can't be defeated." By the way, you should also take a nickname, I think...... You can name it a dragon. ”

"Whew!" Li Panlong was furious: "Don't put this nameless name on my head." ”

The two of them were staring at each other, when they suddenly heard a report from the soldiers: "Generalissimo Big Brother, Li County Order, the general Pangolin under the command of 100,000 people is here again, and he is waiting outside to see you." ”

"What's this thing for?" Xu Renjie is surprised.

The soldier covered his mouth and smiled: "It seems to ...... I'm here to ask for food. ”

"Asking for food?" Xu Renjie and Li Panlong were surprised, Li Panlong felt embarrassed, and retreated behind the screen, leaving only Xu Renjie in the hall, and after a while, the pangolin walked in. As soon as this person came in, he said straight to the point: "Brother Generalissimo, I came this time on the orders of the 100,000 eldest brother to ask for assistance from Eighth Brother Zhu. ”

Xu Renjie asked, "Aid?" ”

The pangolin's old face was slightly red, and he said, "Well...... Well...... Our...... This one...... In terms of military rations...... It's a bit of a bad ......."

It turned out that since the mixed 100,000 and others were stationed in northern Shaanxi, they had not been wandering around anymore. They can't run if they want to, because of the division of troops in the Xingyang Conference, now every piece of territory has been allocated to the corresponding rebel army, and there will be friction similar to the last time if they cross the border casually.

Since the 100,000 people can't wander, they can't go around robbing, and they don't do anything about production, they only know how to destroy. In the case of not being able to run around, they can no longer obtain materials after grabbing the existing territory, which is really difficult for them, and after half a year of hard work, they can no longer hold on. At this time, they heard that the Zhu army in the south had a bumper grain harvest, so they ran to ask for help, saying that it was not impossible to ask for food.

Xu Renjie understood what was going on as soon as he heard it, so he said in a weird manner: "Your military food is not good, what do you care about us?" ”

The pangolin knew that he was still angry about the last time he crossed the line, so he said with a bitter face: "Brother Generalissimo, you villain doesn't care about adults......

Yes, the title has changed from brother to big brother, and your word has also become you.

"After all, we belong to the same line of the righteous army, and we are all working side by side against the imperial court, how can you bear to watch us starve?" The pangolin said with a smiling face: "Just a little ...... Cough...... A little bit of food is fine. ”

"No, no!" Xu Renjie waved his hand like a fly: "The landlord's family has no surplus grain." (To be continued.) )