What Hongyi suddenly understood was why John Tang wanted to vigorously promote Wei Yijie, who is now in the fifth grade, and he must do the errand of the Shaoqing of Taichang Temple and the fourth translation hall - the deep meaning of this should be to repay a "kindness" that is not deep and shallow last year!

It turned out that Wei Yijie's remarks last year about "taking Shu first, then western Guangdong, and then breaking Yunnan and Guizhou" really took care of the missionary situation in the southwest! In this situation, the congregation in Sichuan has reached a certain size, and it needs to be brought under the unified management of the central government as soon as possible, so that it can continue to be "carried forward"!

The founding of the Catholic Church in Sichuan began with Lysis. This man entered Sichuan in 1640 and, with the help of Liu Yuliang[1], a secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and Sichuan provincial officials, founded the Chengdu Missionary District, where he set up "a church and a hospital". In 1640, 30 people were baptized by the Ming Dynasty, including one member of the Ming Dynasty royal family, whose Christian name was "Peter", and the whole family joined the church, which became the cornerstone of the diocese of Chengdu, Sichuan. In August 1642, Anwensi came to Chengdu to fully assist Richards in his missionary work, and the two of them went to Baoning, Chongqing and other places to start teaching, "in the above two cities, there are prayer halls, for the faithful to receive sacraments and chant scriptures", and "and set up a number of primary schools in nearby towns." Through the joint efforts of An and Li, the local teaching affairs have become prosperous.

However, Sichuan is a relatively conservative and closed inland province in China, and coupled with the traditional Chinese culture that has lasted for thousands of years, the invasion of the heterogeneous civilization of Catholicism and the gradual prosperity in the heart of Sichuan have turned into a flood in an instant. In addition, the customs and rituals advocated by the Catholic Church were contrary to Chinese traditions, especially in serious conflict with the local Buddhist and Taoist culture, and a movement to exclude religion initiated by the monks and Taoists and some officials also surged. This platoon of teaching cases lasted for three months, and finally under the protection and defense of Yan Duomo, the military attache of Fengjiao, and Wu Jishan, a friend of Tang Ruowang and Wu Jishan [2], the two of them wrote a defense for the Catholic Church, and distributed propaganda on the defense of the Catholic Church completed by Xu Ge Lao (Guangqi) and Yang Hanlin (Tingyun) in the early years of the capital. However, this brief lull was soon shattered.

September 1644. Zhang Xianzhong entered Chengdu and became the king of Daxi. Under the recommendation of Wu Jishan, the magistrate of Chengdu. Zhang Xianzhong "forcibly awarded two priests (An Wensi and Li Zhisi) with official positions, clothes, and money". Since then, An and Li have provided various services to Zhang Xianzhong while carrying out missionary activities in Sichuan. But they were often attacked by religious haters, sometimes even at risk. However. Even in this case. Ricci and Anwensi have never been relaxed in teaching affairs. They take advantage of any opportunity they can take advantage of. Conduct missions. The two took advantage of the opportunity to meet Zhang Xianzhong's father-in-law and brother-in-law to preach to him, and the father and son were moved. Soon after, he offered to be baptized. After the two were baptized. They will be able to "keep the rules of the church, do their duty well, not only be good to the faithful, but also set a good example." In addition, on the way to march with Zhang Xianzhong, Ann and Li also rescued Catholics and some infidels on many occasions.

Therefore, Sichuan's missionary achievements can be described as remarkable: "The two priests who were surprised by this great chaos in Chengdu were still able to preach and save people, and baptized as many as 150 people. There was a certain member of the family, thirty-two people, and they were baptized on the same day. However, because their missionary work in Sichuan was groundbreaking, the missionary work in Sichuan during this period was in a primitive stage in terms of scale and structure, and if it did not receive the protection of the Qing court, which had already acquiesced in the development of Catholicism on its own, for a long time, and fell into the hands of the so-called "thieves" for a long time, its "good situation" would inevitably suffer a heavy blow!

It is precisely based on this consideration, coupled with the fact that Wei Yijie's strategy of using troops is indeed in line with the reality at that time, the so-called "two good and one good", which will so echo Tang Ruowang's wishes.

So, after careful analysis, Hongyi no longer pretended to be stupid, but went straight to the core, but still said with a smile:

"Hehe, Tang Lao Mafa, Wei Yijie's words, it seems that you were entrusted by Li Si and An Wensi, right?"

"Master...... Lao Chen's thoughts, it is true that he should not hide from you, the saint! Tang Ruowang couldn't hide it, but relaxed and admitted it. But the following words were very unexpected by Hongyi:

"It's a pity that the old minister's hard work may not be able to get the understanding of the two brothers in the same club!"

"Oh? Why? Although Hongyi came through time, he did not come into contact with this "knowledge point" in his professional study that year, so he could only honestly "be willing to hear about it".

"I don't know anything, but it's really a long story......

Encouraged by Hongyi's eager eyes and strong desire for knowledge, John Tang seemed to have finally found the news, and said a secret that "has never been an outsider", and also allowed Hongyi, who was "omniscient" in his eyes, to understand a history that was gradually obliterated in later generations-

It turned out that since the fifth year of Shunzhi (1648), after Rickins and An Wensi entered Beijing, a storm against John Tang blew in the small Jesuit Society in the capital. What is shown, first, that Tang Ruowang once accused Li and An that they should not be officials under Zhang Xianzhong; The second is that An Wensi and others believe that John Tang did not do his best to rescue the two of them in Beijing.

With regard to the first point, John Tong himself admitted that when he first learned that Rickins and An Wensi had served as officials in Zhang Xianzhong's regime, he reported these facts to Fu Fanji, a priest who arrived in China at the same time as him and was the president of the Northern Mission Society of the Chinese Mission Diocese.

John Tong was blunt, saying that he had expressed his views clearly and frankly, that is, the actions of Lixis and Anwensi were "stupid". Because once they fall into the hands of the so-called "tyrants", they should rather die than accept the official position of "puppet government". Because this will have an unavoidable negative impact and loss on the missionary cause of the entire Holy See in the East! The actions of Avens and Richard would be seen as "bandits" and "rebels" in the eyes of the Central Dynasty, and such people would usually be put to death.

But on this point, Tang Ruowang also relayed the "defense" of Li and An, especially An Wensi, who said that they accepted Zhang Xianzhong's official position. Out of desperation, they had no choice at the time. According to Avens himself, his two years under Zhang Xianzhong's regime were "like a nightmare."

As a result, Hongyi can clearly make his own judgment - An Wensi, who is suffering in a state of extreme pain, certainly can't stand the frank criticism of John Tong. In addition, he saw that John Tang received all kinds of special treatment from Emperor Shunzhi, and although he had the right to move freely in Beijing, he was still nominally a prisoner and served as a slave of the Manchurian aristocracy. The psychological imbalance caused by this disparity in status, coupled with the criticism of John Tong's bluntness and lack of consideration of the actual situation, will inevitably trigger a backlash from Avens's attitude towards John Tong.

Sure enough, this judgment was quickly confirmed from John Tang's mouth, and An Wensi insisted on attacking John Tang's service in the Qing court for a long time.

"Avens hated the accusations I made against them. He even thinks. He served Zhang Xianzhong when he was forced. There is no difference between me and me serving the imperial court in Beijing! O Virgin Mary, my saint, my little master, do you say that he has lost his mind? How can you say such a rebellious argument? John Tong said of grief and indignation. I almost burst into tears!

"Poor old Marfa ......"

Hongyi didn't know how to comfort John Tang, who was almost in tears. Because in Hongyi's opinion, this grievance will not make the vicissitudes of life so moved by the vicissitudes of Tang Ruowang!

"Thank you, gracious young man, for your comfort...... But. What Richards and Anwens did to the old ministers, this is only a small part of it. What made the old ministers feel cold the most was that they said that it was not good for me to rescue them in Beijing......"

Sure enough, Tang Ruowang looked at Xiao Xuanye gratefully and continued to talk about the rest of the matter......

(Chapter to be continued)

"A limerick poem. Hidden Head

Reading literature and reading history is only a long breath

I was saying that there was an opportunity back then

The layout is a long-cherished wish

It's hard to come and go

Get up and spend a hundred years

Point out the suffering and diseases of the world

The edge of the town was razed to the sea

Wen'an Wuding tears of joy

[1] Liu Yuliang, a native of Mianzhu County, Chengdu Prefecture (now Mianzhu County, Sichuan Province), was the first assistant of the Ming Dynasty cabinet, and was born as a Jinshi. In the forty-eighth year of Wanli (1620), he ascended to Jinshi, awarded Shu Jishi, and changed it to the Hanlin Academy for review. In the second year of the Apocalypse (1622), he participated in the revision of the "Records of Ming Xi Zong", and later awarded Nanjing Guanglu Temple, Zuo Chunfang Zanshan, and Right Chunfang Right Yude. During the Chongzhen period, he also served as a waiter in the Hanlin Academy, a young Zhan in the Zhan Mansion, a doctor in Jiayi, and a bachelor's student. Later, he was promoted to the left waiter of the Ministry of Officials. In the tenth year of Chongzhen (1637), he served as the secretary of the Ministry of Rites and a scholar of Dongge University. In the following year, he was changed to a scholar of Wenyuange University and supervised the reinforcements of various towns. Later, he also served as the secretary of the military department. When he was a scholar of the Ministry of Rites and a scholar of Dongge University in Beijing, under the influence of Xu Guangqi, he accepted Western science, culture and faith, and invited the Italian missionary Riche and the Portuguese missionary An Wensi to preach in the "Tianguanfu", and took the lead in leading the baptism into the Church, becoming the first person in Mianzhu to preach. Mianzhu has also become the mother church of Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces.

[2] Wu Jishan (1606-1644), whose first surname was Xu, was a native of Taicang (now Taicang, Jiangsu). In the tenth year of Chongzhen (1637), he was awarded the knowledge of Cixi County, Zhejiang, and the knowledge of Chengdu County. Gong poetry, painting landscape Huang Gongwang, involved in the pen is beautiful, and there is a yuan style. Later, he was killed by Zhang Xianzhong. Wu Jishan is the brother of the famous poet and historian Wu Weiye (Meicun), who wrote "Yuanyuanqu" and "Suiguan Jiluo". Wu Jishan was ordered to say goodbye to Tang Ruowang before making a county order in Chengdu, and Tang asked Wu to bring a letter to Li Zhisi. After Wu went to Chengdu to receive the Indian view, he went to the holy church to pay homage to Li Xiansi, and "talked freely, but they got along" and became friends. In 1643, the Central Plains was boiling, and Li Zicheng was about to go north to take Beijing; Zhang Xianzhong, who has been called the king of the west in Wuhan, is also ready to go west to take Chengdu. Wu Jishan was so worried that he wrote to the king of Shu many times to be diligent and love the people, open the treasury, take out gold and silver, and train troops to guard the pass to resist thieves. The vassal king refused to admonish, indulged in wine, and the prince of Wu County was depressed, and as soon as the Great Western Army entered the city, he led some of the upper-class people to surrender. There is another important reason for Wu Zhi's return to Shun and loyalty, that is, there were four regimes in the land of Shenzhou at that time - the Manchu Dynasty in Beijing; Li Zicheng, who retreated to Xi'an, became the Great Shun Dynasty; the Hongguang Dynasty, founded in Nanjing; Chengdu's newly built Great Western Dynasty. There must be a big war in the great split, Wu Jishan and others wanted to borrow Zhang Xianzhong's military strength to defend Sichuan, and even wanted Zhang Xianzhong to unite with the Southern Ming Dynasty to resist the Qing army. (To be continued......)