Chapter 4: Try it and you will know!
As soon as these words were spoken, thunder suddenly sounded in the clear sky outside the house.
Zhang Bao was shocked: "Brother, are we going to do something big?"
"It should have been done long ago!" Zhang Liang was very excited. He said viciously, "There have been natural disasters for years, and the streets are full of starving people. But those corrupt officials only care about their own enjoyment, embezzling the relief money from the court, and when it is distributed to the lower levels, there is not a grain of rice left!"
Su Che shook his head: "It's still a long way to go before we start a rebellion. We can't be so hasty to start a rebellion. We have no money, no people, nothing. How can we start a rebellion?"
"What does big brother mean?" Zhang Bao asked.
"Don't bother with the officials." Su Che said.
"But officials and gentry are one and the same, and one move can affect the whole body. As long as we touch those landlords and gentry, someone will definitely report to the authorities immediately. This matter will be difficult to conceal." Zhang Bao frowned and said.
"So, we have to divide it up." Su Che said seriously: "After taking down the landlords and gentry, we will divide their assets into three parts."
"Part of it is land. The land belongs to the Taiping Dao, and then it is distributed to the believers so that they can farm and fight!"
"Part of it is food. The food can be temporarily provided to our followers to alleviate the urgent need. If there is any excess, it can be stored."
"The last part is gold, silver and copper coins. We will split it 70% with the officials."
Zhang Liang was stunned: "Why is it only 70%?"
Su Che glanced at him and said, "70% belongs to them, and 30% is ours. Otherwise, why would they turn a blind eye to us? For us, these money and treasures are just external possessions. We can give them up for now."
"Shall we leave now ?" Zhang Bao asked.
"Not now. If the name is not right, then the words will not flow. Let's first ask the believers whether they have any grievances, such as whether their wives and children were sold to landlords and gentry, or whether they were beaten to death. If there is any such case, we can take action." Su Che patted Zhang Liang's shoulder and said, "Call all your dozen or so small leaders here."
Su Che glanced at Zhang Bao and said, "You go too!"
"yes!"
Soon, more than twenty small leaders of the Taiping Dao gathered together.
Su Che repeated the story of the house confiscation to them.
After hearing this, the small masters looked at each other with different expressions.
Some were extremely excited, some were impatient, some were calm, and some were terrified.
Su Che looked carefully at the expressions of these little masters and took note of them one by one.
After waiting for a while, Su Che continued, "You must remember one thing. Once this happens, there is absolutely no turning back, so be mentally prepared."
“From now on, we must first ask if there is a grievance before taking action.”
"If they are a kind family, loving to do good and giving, and have never had any grievances, then you should not do it. If you do it, it is against the rules of the church, and no matter who it is, you will be severely punished!"
"But once there is injustice, when we take action, we will use this as an excuse to repay blood with blood, and make those landlords and evil gentry pay the price for it! This is the purpose of our Taiping Dao!"
"But you must remember one thing. We are here to confiscate the house, not to kill people. We must give orders to those believers to know that even if they see the enemy who killed their daughter, they must not act rashly. The Taiping Dao will deal with them fairly, and those who disobey orders will be executed!"
"In a nutshell, there must be rules for everything, and you must obey orders. You must never act privately or cause trouble!"
"I will tell you one last thing, and you tell everyone else, we in the Taiping Dao are all good people, and you must never kill an official without my order!"
"Do you understand everything?"
All the small party owners responded quickly.
After the small leaders left, they began to ask the believers below whether they had any grievances.
You don’t know until you ask. You’ll be shocked when you ask.
Basically, one out of every few believers has suffered countless grievances, and most of these grievances are related to village bullies, local hooligans, and court officials.
With just a little questioning, these poor farmers told all the stories like spilling beans.
Su Che took a nearby unjust case, in Taiping Township, Sunjiazhuang, where the landlord Sun family beat to death a bought maid.
Let’s start with the Sun family!
The earliest group of Taiping followers who had received training gathered together . These people were the future Taiping Army. At this moment, they picked up their weapons and marched towards Sunjiazhuang!
…
Inside Sunjiazhuang.
"Master, something bad has happened! Master! Something terrible has happened!"
The servant Sun Yong shouted as he ran towards Master Sun's residence. When he reached the door, he knocked on it and shouted.
Master Sun, who had just opened his eyes in the soft fragrance of his concubine, frowned, quickly put on his clothes, opened the door and slapped Sun Yong in the face, angrily scolding: "What's the matter? Why are you so flustered? How disgraceful!"
Sun Yong was slapped and fell to the ground. He didn't dare to get angry. He covered his face and cried, " Master , the Taoist priest from the Taiping Dao brought a group of believers to our Sunjia Village and said they wanted to seek justice for Leng Cuimei's death!"
"Leng Cuimei is...? Is she that slave girl? I think that's her name, but what kind of justice does he want? Leng Cuimei is a servant that my Sun family bought with money and food. She signed a contract to sell herself. Whether she lives or dies is up to my Sun family! I gave him face for the Taiping Dao and sent him some money and food a few days ago. Now he is ungrateful and even dares to cause trouble for me. Does he really think that there is no one in my Sun family?" Master Sun's eyes widened: "Did you really feed the money and food I sent to the dogs? How heartless! You know these arrogant Taoist priests are not human beings!"
"Quickly call all the soldiers over, put on their wooden armor, and grab their weapons. Don't be afraid of their numbers. They are just a bunch of hungry peasants. What abilities can they have? Do they dare to rebel?!"
Soon, all of the Sun family's troops were mobilized, numbering several hundred people!
The so-called buqu are the private armed forces of the landlords and powerful people, commonly known as family soldiers.
The main source of household soldiers was slaves, followers and guests.
The Book of the Later Han Dynasty - Biography of Zhong Changtong said: "The wealthy have hundreds of houses connected together, fertile fields all over the fields, thousands of slaves and servants, and tens of thousands of followers"; The Records of the Three Kingdoms also recorded that Liu Bei's brother-in-law Mi Zhu had "tens of thousands of servants" at home.
These tens of millions of slaves were all dependent on the families of powerful landlords, providing them with favorable selection conditions for organizing family soldiers.
The "troops" composed of slaves and vassals were the cheapest source of military force at that time.
Outside Sunjiazhuang, more than 2,000 Taiping Dao followers barely maintained their formation and moved forward step by step.
It is not easy to train more than two thousand hungry farmers to this level in a short period of time.
This group of people were ragged and skinny, like beggars, but each of them had a determined look in their eyes and held tightly in their hands a sharpened bamboo. The branches of the bamboo had not been trimmed and there were many forks, which was the prototype of the wolf-whip.
Not far away, the soldiers of Sunjiazhuang had already lined up. They were all wearing wooden armor and holding iron spears in their hands. Their equipment completely crushed the Taiping Dao followers.
Although the formation of the Sunjiazhuang troops was extremely disorganized and they had obviously not received much training, they were still fully physically fit and in high spirits. At the moment, they looked at the beggar army not far away with contempt, and many of them even licked their lips excitedly, looking forward to the next massacre!
"Master Zhang, I have no grudge against you. Why are you attacking me today?" The master of the Sun family stared at the young man in Taoist robes not far away and asked loudly.
"Leng Cuimei, the daughter of the cultist Leng Gao, was killed by you. I come here to seek justice!" Seeing that Sunjiazhuang didn't even have a fortress, Su Che knew that the battle was under his control.
"What justice do you want?" asked Mr. Sun.
"Killing someone means paying with one's life. It's only right!" Su Che said.
"Then there's no room for negotiation?" Master Sun looked grim. "Do you really think you can defeat my troops with a bunch of peasants?"
"You'll know after trying it!" Su Che swung out the peach wood sword: "Kill!"
