In addition to the Catholic Fuji Church, there is a separate courtyard next to the welfare home.

The courtyard was not big, with only about a dozen houses, but hundreds of parishioners lived there. It was called the "religion camp" by people at the time. There were four parishioner guards standing at the gate, two with knives and two with guns.

The leader of the parishioners, Wang Dabiao, lives in this courtyard. On the one hand, foreigners are worried that the parishioners will cause trouble and do not allow those parishioners who misbehave to live in the church. On the other hand, Wang Dabiao and others also prefer to live outside to get rid of the missionaries.

constraints.

Ordinary people who want to join the church must first go through Wang Dabiao and pay Wang Dabiao's "entrance fee". The foreigners distribute welfare fees to the church residents, and the church residents secretly also share the profits with Wang Dabiao as "public expenses for the church people."

”.

The foreigners knew this very well, but Wang Dabiao was able to organize the religious people well and was willing to stand out in everything, so the foreigners turned a blind eye.

Recently, there have been frequent conflicts between religious people and militia groups in the city. The foreigners specifically told Wang Dabiao to put his tail between his legs and avoid causing trouble again. Wang Dabiao drank and ate well every day and stayed in the courtyard doing nothing.

On this day, he was enjoying a massage from a servant. His subordinates came to report that three people had come to join the church. Not only did they pay the full admission fee, but they also sent three shining golden crosses.

Wang Dabiao had nothing to do, so he suddenly became interested. While adjusting his clothes, he asked his subordinates: "What are the backgrounds of these three people? They are not spies sent by the militia, are they?"

The three people who came to apply for membership were Yang Xuan, Yang Tian and Liu Minhu.

Wang Dabiao was brave and careful. He had killed the militiamen in front of him, and he was worried that the militia would come to take revenge, so he was very wary.

The subordinates benefited from Yang Xuan and said quickly:

"Don't worry, brother, we have searched you carefully. None of these three people have weapons on them. Judging from their clothes and temperament, they seem to come from the gentry's family. According to them, they opened a pharmacy in the city because they were under the influence of the militia."

He was bullied and went to a religion to seek protection."

Wang Dabiao relaxed his guard and went to the living room as usual, arranging his men to decorate the venue so as to give the new believers a show of strength.

However, Yang Xuan and the others waited outside the courtyard for a while, and then were led into the living room by the parishioners. On the big mahogany chair above, Wang Dabiao sat, with a crucifix hanging behind him.

Two religious leaders stood on both sides of Wang Dabiao, one holding a gun and the other holding a knife. On the four wooden chairs on both sides of the living room, sat the four leaders of the religious people, who were the "Eight Great Vajras" under Wang Dabiao.

At the door of the reception room, there were also two parishioners standing there, one holding a gun and the other holding a knife.

Yang Xuan and others carried three crosses, one large and two small. After entering the living room, Yang Xuan was in the middle, put the big cross aside, and stood proudly without saying anything, just bowing his hands.

Wang Dabiao was quite dissatisfied and said: "There are rules in our religion. Anyone who sees me has to kneel down. You don't even know this etiquette, what kind of religion do you want to join?"

Yang Tian was the first to answer and said: "I have heard about foreigners preaching in the past. Foreigners said that if you want to become a believer, you only need to go to the church and find a priest.

"The three of us wanted to enter the church, present these three crosses to the priest, and join the church. Unexpectedly, we were stopped by the parishioners at the door, who insisted that we come over to visit Brother Wang."

And this episode? Why didn’t my subordinates talk about it?

Wang Dabiao looked at his subordinates with some displeasure.

The subordinate suddenly felt frightened and lowered his head involuntarily. He didn't understand, what was the point of mentioning this matter if he didn't open any pot in Yangtian?

Wang Dabiao snorted coldly, looked at Yang Xuan and the others carefully, and stayed on Liu Minhu for a few seconds. He seemed to have seen Liu Minhu somewhere, but he couldn't remember it at all. He said:

"There are always rules. Mr. Yang is very busy, how can he have time to meet you personally? Besides, Mr. Yang doesn't know whether you are good or bad. Therefore, Mr. Yang has asked me to carefully screen the people who join the religion.

"If you are a good person, you can join the religion. If you are a bad person, you can never join the religion. I think your attitude is very disrespectful. You must not want to sincerely join the religion, but only want to seek the protection of the church."

Yang Xuan pretended to be angry, scolded Yang Tian, ​​and then turned to Wang Dabiao and said:

"Brother Wang, please calm down. My brother is from Hunan. He just came to Guangzhou not long ago. I don't know the rules of Guangzhou. Please forgive me. These three crosses are made of fine copper. I give them to Brother Wang this time. Please

Big brother accepted us as parishioners."

As soon as Wang Dabiao heard that it was fine copper, he immediately forgot his unhappiness and his eyes glowed with greed.

He hurriedly ordered his men to take the big cross from Yang Xuan's hand, held it in his hand and weighed it. He immediately smiled and said: "Brother, this cross weighs twenty kilograms. If it were made of pure copper, it would probably be worth four or five pounds."

Silver, right?”

In the old days, copper was a precious metal that could be directly cast into copper coins. According to the "Chinese Copper Yuan Pu", one tael of silver could buy about five pounds of red copper. If sold to the black market and cast into private money, the profit would be even greater.

Silver was the hard currency of the Qing Dynasty and had a strong purchasing power. The military pay for green camp soldiers in the Qing Dynasty was: warriors with horses had two taels of silver per month, soldiers without horses had one tael and five taels of silver per month, and guardsmen had one tael of silver per month.

This big cross is equivalent to several months of military pay for the Green Camp soldiers.

Yang Xuan smiled and said: "Brother Wang has a good eye. This cross is indeed made of copper, but there is a part of it empty in the middle. There are mechanical brackets on the outside, you can open it to check the inside. If it is fine copper inside, just open it and take a look

Just know it.”

Wang Dabiao was very satisfied and waved his hand quickly: "I took the trouble to send you the bronze cross. It will definitely not be fake."

At this time, everyone in the room was staring at the cross curiously. When Wang Dabiao saw this, he said: "Forget it, please demonstrate it now so that everyone can see it fresh."

So, the cross returned to Yang Xuan's hand again, and everyone gathered around.

Yang Xuan placed the cross on the ground. After Wang Dabiao came over, he flicked the mechanism with his fingers, and a hole popped up at the top of the cross.

He asked two parishioners to lift the cross, and he held the hole at the top of the cross with his right hand. Then he stood the cross on its side and waited for Wang Dabiao to get closer.

Wang Dabiao came closer. Yang Xuan's fingers hooked on the hilt of the sword, and his heart jumped.

It was too late but not too late, Yang Xuan suddenly turned the cross upside down and a dagger slipped into his hand.

He picked up the dagger, and Wang Dabiao was caught off guard, and his throat was cut by Yang Xuan's sword.

Yang Tian and Liu Minhu also opened the cross and got the dagger inside.

The Eight King Kongs were defenseless and fled desperately. The three of them were armed with sharp knives and killed each one they caught.

One of the parishioners' guards was quite clever and picked up a musket. This musket was a flintlock rifle donated by foreigners and could be loaded and fired directly. While he was loading in a hurry, Yang Tian had quick eyes and quick hands and flew up the dagger in his hand.

It hit the guard between the eyebrows.

The other three sword-wielding guards did not dare to resist. The one inside the room was so frightened that he knelt down and begged for mercy, while the two outside the room ran away with their heads in their hands.

Liu Tian picked up a big knife and set fire to the living room.

The Tiandihui's masters had already been ambushed outside the hospital. A rapid whistle sounded from inside the hospital, which was the signal to take action.

The Heaven and Earth Society masters subdued the religious guards at the gate and helped Yang Xuan and others escape.

Although there were many parishioners in the courtyard, they were unsure of the situation. They were leaderless and hid in the house and did not dare to come out.

Yang Xuan and others retreated, changed their clothes as they walked, and rushed towards the city gate. A militia group happened to be leaving the city that day, and the three of them had already bribed the militia group, mixed into the militia team, and successfully left the city.

Looking back at the city, thick smoke was already rising from the Fuji Hall, and the faint sound of golden gongs could be heard.

Yang Xuan's great revenge was avenged, and he couldn't help but feel sad even though he was happy: killing Wang Dabiao and making a big fuss in the private camp could be regarded as avenging his father. What's the next step?

As a descendant of Yang Yuchun, not only did he not have the chance to advance to the imperial level, but he was also plotted against by the Manchus. There was no hope for him to take the right path.
Chapter completed!