On this day, Wei Xuan and others bid farewell to their fellow villagers and continued to set off towards Xiangling County, occasionally stopping to rest when passing by a valley. Guo Ye and the others tied their horses to the edge of the woods, leaving two people to watch, and followed Wei Xuan into the woods, wanting to find some game to improve their food.

Just walked a short distance, and found that many people gathered in a hidden valley, Guo Ye quietly lay on top of a big tree and looked inside for a while, and then returned to Wei Xuan's side and said: "Someone has a yellow scarf wrapped around his head, it seems that Taiping Dao is preaching, there are a lot of people." ”

Wei Xuan was stunned for a while before he remembered that there was a resurgence of Taiping Avenue here, Zhang Jiao had been dead for several years, but the situation in the Han Dynasty had not improved, the land annexation was important, the people at the bottom were ignorant, they had no food, they had no money to see a doctor when they were sick, and there would never be a shortage of believers in Taiping Dao to cure the disease, but looking at this scene, there were at least seventy or eighty people, men, women and children. Wei Xuan was curious about what these people were going to do when they were gathering in such a secluded valley?

So a few people quietly approached, and it was obvious that these Taiping Dao believers were not very vigilant, and several people came to their meeting place a hundred steps away, but still no one noticed.

Wei Xuanju looked at it, there seemed to be a simple platform about two feet high in the valley, there were three people on the platform, and there were four strong men standing around the platform, all with yellow scarves wrapped around their heads, and the believers in the audience were all looking at the platform with a reverent face.

Wei Xuan fixed his eyes on the stage, and a middle-aged man, Pu Toufa, stood in the center. Wearing a Taoist robe, there is a big Taoist character on his chest, and there is a girl in a white skirt standing next to her, the reason why she is a girl, although the veil covers her face, she is only thirteen or fourteen years old.

The middle-aged man stood in front of the right man in another man's position, but he looked more like a ceremonial host, and he shouted to the believers in the audience: "Please ask the holy woman to communicate with the gods and bless everyone!" ”

Wei Xuan could hear it clearly from such a distance, and he almost couldn't hold back his laughter, it was obvious that the woman next to the middle-aged man with his hair was the so-called saint.

Without waiting for Wei Xuan to understand, the seventy or eighty people in the audience knelt down one after another, chanting words in their mouths, but they didn't know what they were saying. Then the woman in the stands walked to the center of the stage, looked up at the sky, and then began to dance, trembling as she danced. Wei Xuan admired that she was able to maintain her balance and look very coordinated, which she had obviously practiced.

The woman jumped in the center of the stage for a while, and retreated to the side, perhaps tired, and the believers in the audience got up one after another. Then the master of ceremonies began to speak again: "I have asked the messenger of the gods to give you talisman water, and all the believers in need should start donating merit now!" After donating merit, you will receive a talisman paper. ”

When Wei Xuan heard this, he thought to himself, I am afraid that the high-level organization of Taiping Dao is relying on believers to donate merit to live. The two men in the stands, although they were plainly dressed but sturdy and focused, were obviously not ordinary poor people who could play them.

Without the need for people to organize, the master of ceremonies said, the believers began to line up to pass in front of the platform, each holding some copper coins in their hands, throwing the money in the basin that had been prepared long ago, and then the five fingers of the divine messenger with the cloak spread the five fingers of his right hand and sprinkled water on the heads of the believers, and handed him a talisman. The people behind were very happy to get the rune paper, but the people behind were a little worried and looked ahead for fear that the rune paper of the god messenger would not be enough.

There are also a few believers who didn't line up in the audience, looking a little embarrassed, maybe they were shy and couldn't donate merit, so they could only look at the stage with their eyes, and they couldn't hide the envy in their eyes when they saw that others got the rune paper.

Luckily, the messenger of the gods had enough rune paper. All the devotees in need were given the talisman paper they coveted. Just when everyone thought that this gathering of unity and victory was a great gathering, a large group of people suddenly appeared from several other directions in the valley, and these people rushed towards the valley quickly with weapons in their hands. There were more than thirty people, and four or five of them were armed with short bows.

In the face of the sudden appearance of the officials, several people on the stage were obviously a little panicked, and the four strong men around the stage who were originally as motionless as a mountain finally moved, ripped off the yellow scarves on their heads and jumped onto the stage, pulling the three of them to quickly hide in the crowd.

The believers in the audience obviously didn't know that there would be a government official suddenly, and the scene was chaotic all of a sudden. However, Wei Xuan could see clearly that the believers who had no money to donate merit seemed to be very decisive, and quickly ran to the messenger of the gods and the holy woman to protect them.

One of the leading officials sneered and walked up to the crowd and said, "All of them squat down for Lao Tzu, and those who dare to move will be killed!" ”

Seeing this, Wei Xuan's impression of Xiangling was much better. It seems that the officials of the Xiangling County Government still have something to do. For such a blatant deception of the people's money, Taiping Dao naturally had to be cleaned up as soon as possible. This valley is still twenty or thirty miles away from the county seat of Xiangling, and it is really good that these officials can get the news as soon as possible and arrive in time to get all the stolen goods.

It was only that the quiet situation was soon broken, and it turned out that some believers actually tried to break through the blockade of the officials, and the protectors of the gods and spirits and the holy women left. As soon as they looked at the scene, several archers immediately released their arrows, and several screams immediately came out of the dense crowd. The archers did not stop, and the other servants also slashed at the crowd with their swords, and after a random slash, the crowd fell silent again.

In this sudden attack, there were a large number of casualties among the unarmed devotees, especially several of the messengers of the gods and the holy woman, among whom a dozen devotees fell to the ground motionless, and more than a dozen seemed to have been wounded by bows and arrows and were wailing. Two of the seven Taiping Dao Divine Spirit Messengers were also injured, and one was very seriously injured.

At this time, I saw the divine messenger pushing away the crowd and clasping his fists at the leading officials: "This official, the little ones have nothing to say when they are caught by you, but please don't hurt these innocent people!" ”

The leading servant was in his early thirties, snorted coldly, glanced at the crowd and said to the middle-aged man, "You Yellow Turban remnants were targeted by us as soon as you entered Xiangling. I didn't expect you to stay in Xiangling for a few months and refuse to leave, but you didn't want to honor the old men of the yamen. These people's money has been cheated away by you, what do we eat? ”

The divine messenger was a little embarrassed, then looked around at the basin that contained the money and said, "Lord, those are considered to be filial to you." We really don't have any money, so we don't rely on the resources of believers to donate merit to live. You also know that the people of Xiangling are not rich......"

The leading official snorted coldly: "Don't give me sloppy eyes, and don't intercede for them, this time I am in a good mood, as long as they keep all the money on their bodies, I will let them go once." Otherwise, they will all be arrested and imprisoned according to the Yellow Turban Chaos Party! ”

When seven or eight believers heard that they were going to prison, they immediately became in an uproar. Immediately several archers began to bend their bows and arrows again!

The leading official obviously had seen the world and shouted loudly: "What to do, what to do, all for Lao Tzu to line up, leave all the previous things on his body, and he will be searched later, and the crime of daring to hide will be added to the first." ”

The believers are all honest people, and in the face of more than 30 real swords and guns, the old man naturally did not dare to make a mistake, and obediently lined up to throw his valuable things into the basin as if he had donated merit before.

Seeing this, Wei Xuan smiled bitterly in his heart, it seems that the people of the six doors are almost the same no matter which dynasty, black and white take all.

These officials seemed to be quite principled, although a few people came forward to search their bodies, but if they really didn't have anything before, they let them go. At most, when I occasionally saw one or two younger women, I took the opportunity to touch my body and laugh in the eyes of the other party who dared to be angry and dare not speak.

Of course, the very cherished talisman paper that the believers held in their hands did not take it back. Obviously, these repressions also know that they cannot touch the bottom line of these believers.

Soon seventy or eighty believers were gone, and only a few bold or devout believers were still standing around the messenger of the gods, thinking that they wanted to defend the messenger of the gods and refused to leave. More than a dozen people who were injured earlier were also helped to leave. Only the bodies of a dozen people who were hacked on the spot remained at the scene.

The divine messenger was also relieved to see that most of the believers had left safely, and just as he wanted to speak, the leading official spoke: "Don't say that the master won't give you a chance, you tell us where your Taiping Dao hides money, leave this little girl and I'll let you go." ”

When the messenger of the gods and the remaining believers heard this, they immediately understood what these people were trying to do, and immediately surrounded the holy woman in the middle.

The divine messenger from before bowed down again and said, "Official, we are some members of the branch, and we live by donating merit from believers on weekdays. As for the Holy Maiden, she will never go with you, she is our Holy Maiden, and she communicates with the gods! Without her, we wouldn't be able to explain to the believers. ”

"Don't toast, don't eat, eat and drink! You have been targeted by us since the first day you entered Xiangling, and the reason why we have not arrested you for a long time is to see how much money you can cheat. Now tell me that you don't hide the money, it seems that you don't want your own life.

And this woman is clearly our Xiangling native, but they were exterminated by the county lord a few months ago. Now she is the remnant of the rebellious party, staying and serving our brother may be able to spare her sins, you all get out of the way! As he spoke, several officials rushed forward to pull the woman out of the crowd.

A few Taiping Dao people and a few faithful believers naturally couldn't let them take the holy woman away, so they clenched their fists one by one to protect the holy woman.