The wharf at Huangjiacun is adjacent to the old residence of Master Huang, which is indeed a land of good feng shui!
Master Huang's ancestors walked out from here and started their business in Guangdong, eventually becoming the wealthiest family in Daozhou.
Although the Huang family prospered and moved the entire family to E Tang Town, the old residence in Huangjiacun is still well-maintained, with the Huang Family Shrine outside, housing a tablet of Huang Lao Zu Huang Gai of Lingling Zero, and a Yue Shih Jia Xiu.
Between the old residence, the ancestral hall, the family school, and the wharf, there is a large open space. On the first and fifteenth days of each month, villagers from ten or more nearby villages come here for a market. Otherwise, this open space is where people of the Huang surname from Huangjiacun gather.
Today is not market day, but there are still over two hundred people of the Huang family gathered here. They all seem to be poor and are dressed in ragged clothes. Their faces are pale, their bodies thin and weak. The men have long, thin braids behind their heads - cutting off the braids is an important project for distributing land and property.
First, cut off the braids and then distribute land, after that, everyone will live in peace!
Under the kind and benevolent persuasion of the "kind-eyed and benevolent Taiping Army," more than half of the rural areas around E Tang Town have already cut off their queues, distributed land, and even divided up movable property. In each village, there are some young and middle-aged people with sharp minds who do not want to suffer and live in poverty for their entire lives. They have joined the Taiping Army or worshiped God.
Among those who joined the Taiping Army, many are now training in E Tang Town and will soon become pillars of the Celestial Kingdom.
And those who joined the God Worship Society became "supplementary preachers." They either went to E Tang Town for training or intensively advanced the "distribute land and property" within their own villages - they would become the pillars of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at the grassroots level.
However, the feudal forces in Huangjiacun are evidently somewhat inflexible. Under the leadership of a few elderly members of the Huang family in several generations, no one in the Huang family has cut their queue yet.
It's really a stubborn and smelly mess. King Yin, who brought in dozens of Taiping troops, didn't know what to do.
He couldn't really use military force to massacre the village, could he?
They are all from the same town of E Tang, and during his early days when he was a beggar, King Yin had eaten Huang Lao Zu's soup!
So, he doesn't want Huangjiacun to bear the brunt of the Taiping Army's attack either. King Yin thought it over and over again, and decided to use a strategy of division and disintegration. He planned to find a breakthrough point in Huangjiacun from some poor and lazy scholars who were unable to do farm work, almost starving to death.
For the past two days, he has been spending time with several members of the "Shi" (world) or "Shou" (guard) generations, known as "exposed coffins," enjoying food and drink together. He has also promised them some benefits. Now, it remains to be seen if they dare to step forward and expose Huang Shi Jie's crimes!
Standing outside the old residence of Huang family on an eight-person table, looking down at a group of Huang family members who have actually fallen into extreme poverty but still believe they are from a middle-class family, King Yin couldn't help but burst into laughter.
"Ha ha ha..."
Hearing King Yan's laughter, the other Huang family members were all startled, and someone immediately answered, "What's so funny, Wang Yan?"
King Yin glanced at that person, an old man with gray hair and beard, wrinkled face, wearing a long coat.
This man is named Huang Shi Cheng, a poor scholar who has failed the imperial examination his whole life, so poor that he has nothing but four walls in his home. He has a son named Huang Shou Ren, who is also an underachieving student and has not passed the exam even after many attempts. He is over thirty and still hasn't married a wife.
Huang Shi Jie saw them in such a pitiful state and hired them as teachers in the Huang family school.
But now that Huang Shi Jie has fled, no one is going to pay them their salaries anymore. Facing the prospect of starvation, they still refuse to remove their long coats or cut their braids.
"Old sir, may I ask your surname?" King Yan narrowed his eyes and asked intentionally.
"The old man is of no importance. He surnames Huang!" Huang old man said with a thin chest puffed up.
"What? You surname Huang?" said Wang Yan with a look of disdain, "Where are you from, Huang? Can't be like Huang Shi Jie, both from Lingling Huang, can you?"
"What do you mean?" Huang old man narrowed his eyes, "I am certainly from Lingling Huang! Our Huang family is a famous family in Yongzhou."
"I spit!" said Wang Yan, "What kind of name door? You old fart is almost starving to death! How old is your son this year? Over thirty, right? Has he ever touched a woman? Can he marry a wife now? He shouldn't die of starvation still a virgin, right? He will have no face to see Huang Gai Huang Guo Fuguo in the underworld!"
"You, you, you..." Huang the old man was so angry that he could barely speak.
"What I said?" Wang Yan smiled, "I Wang Yan was almost starving to death a month ago. I also can't get married, and I want to sell my sister to Huang Shi Jie, but he doesn't want it!"
But now I have flipped over! I am a good man of the Taiping Army, and I have joined the God Worship Society. My sister and I have together received ten mu of water arable land! Ten mu! All are water arable land. People coming to say matchmaking almost broke the threshold of my house!"
He patted his chest, which had become more muscular: "I haven't gone hungry this month! Every day, I eat fried rice with lard and eggs, it's delicious!"
He pointed to Huang Shi Ren: "Huang Shi Ren, how many days have you gone without eating? Your family can't afford to cook food anymore? You're still pretending? You like this, really deserve to be a Huang!"
"I, I"
King Yan gestured to him: "Come over, come over, join the Taiping Army. We'll be brothers from now on, and we'll eat together, wear together, and till the land together! Even if Huang Shi Jie is rich, he won't give you a piece of land. Not only won't he give you anything, but he'll also consume all your family's ancestral property clean!"
"Shut up! You're lying!"
The old man Huang Shi Cheng was stabbed in the heart by King Yin's words and immediately got angry.
"Dad, he's not lying!" Huang Shou Ren suddenly screamed, "Dad, our family's little bit of ancestral property has long been pawned to my fourteen uncle. Our family has been impoverished for a long time!"
Huang Shi Jie was the eldest son in his household, and in terms of inheritance from Lingling Huang, he was the fourteenth, known as Huang Shiyu.
"Son, what are you saying?" The old man Huang was even more upset when his son said this, "We still have fifteen mu of water arable land. The only thing that has been pawned is the land skin. The land bone is still there, and the land skin can be redeemed at any time!"
"Redeem it with what?" Huang Shou Ren shouted, "Dad, wake up! The land skin has been pawned. The remaining land bone is in our hands and can't be leased out to collect rent. If we want to cultivate the land, we have to rent the land skin from my fourteen uncle. Although it can be rented without a deposit, we still have to pay rent and pay off the usury with interest. Can we afford it? Can we even make the payments?"
He became more and more excited as he spoke, and by the end, he turned around and addressed the entire village's family members loudly: "Brothers and sisters, think about it carefully. Who among us can redeem their land skin? Who among us is not getting deeper into debt? Instead of being in this situation, wouldn't it be better to sell the land together with the bones? At least we can get a little more money, and eat a few more full meals. Now in this situation, we have pawned our land skin, but no one wants our bones. Even if we give them to my fourteen uncle, he won't take them either. It's as if my fourteen uncle has bought our property for only 60% of its value! Can you say he has any conscience? Is he human?"
"Shut up! Shut up! We are all literati. As long as we can pass the imperial examination, we don't have to worry about redeeming these ancestral properties!" The old man grew more and more angry, but he didn't know how to refute his son's words. After all, what his son said were all truths. So he had no choice but to change the subject.
"Elder?" Huang Shou Ren suddenly spoke with fervor, "Dad, you've been taking the imperial examination your whole life and can't even pass to become a scholar. How do you expect to pass the imperial examination? Passing the imperial examination is not that easy. Unless..."
"What are you talking about?" The old man Huang was so angry, "How could the Taiping rebels open an imperial examination? They worship the foreign god and don't read sacred books. What kind of examination do they even open?"
"I don't care!" Huang Shou Ren clenched his fists and tears streamed down his cheeks. "I want to eat, I want a wife and a father, I'm hungry! As long as I can eat and have a wife to pass on the lineage, I can also worship God!"
"Well, well, well" King Yan exclaimed in quick succession, "Huang Shou Ren, I think you have a natural talent for teaching. Why not join the lecturer class? As long as you study the principles of the God Worship Society for a few months, you can participate in the examination. If you do well, you can also become an imperial scholar and serve high officials in the Southern Palace and Angel Palace!"
Huang Shou Ren immediately raised his arm and shouted: "I want to eat, I want to be an official, I want to worship God!"
Before his shout had faded, the old man Huang bellowed out, "Wait a minute!"
Everyone looked at this old man, and they saw that he was holding a knife that had been sharpened to a mirror-like shine on his hand!
"You, what are you trying to do?" Wang Yan looked at him nervously, "You can't kill your own son!"
"I'm not going to kill any son!" The old man Huang picked up his queue with one hand and then made a cut with the knife, slicing it off, "I also want to eat! I also want to worship God! I also want to be an official. I've dreamed of being an official all my life. Whomever gives me an official position is the master of Huang Shi Cheng!"
