Hunan Province, Daozhou City, Meihua Town.
This is a small town located on the southern slope of Mount Yangming and by the bank of the Xiao River, serving as a key passageway for entering and exiting Mount Yangming from the south. Owing to the diverse minerals within Mount Yangming, Meihua Town has thrived due to its proximity to these mines.
Before the water transportation of Xiao River was interrupted, thousands of miners lived in makeshift shelters on the town.
Because miners earned money much more easily compared to farmers, and most of them were single men from outside the town without families, spending freely became much more prevalent among miners than farmers.
So there were many shops in the town, which were several times more prosperous than those in Getao!
To the south of Meihua Town lies vast fertile land, with large areas of paddy fields along both banks of the Xiao River. The rice and vegetables produced here can be sold for good prices in Meihua Town.
However, the surrounding villagers of Meihua Town did not become prosperous due to the mines in Mount Yangming and the miners in town. Instead, they became even more impoverished.
The reason for this situation is primarily due to two factors: first, there are bandits in the mountains of Yangming all year round, and Meihua Town is also home to a large number of "people from the underworld" — in fact, both groups come from the same source, such as Jiao Hong, Xu Yuegui, and Xu Xianggui!
These bandits who have taken up residence in the mountains, or operate illegal gambling dens, opium dens, and brothels in Meihua Town, also collect protection fees from local landlords. They not only target small mine owners (who are actually members of the Hongmens) but also venture into surrounding areas to exploit local landowners as prey.
The second reason is that there is no local gentry like Huang Shen Huang Lord around Meihua Town!
Huang Lord has a vast family fortune, and he hasn't reached a point of extreme ruthlessness. Moreover, he wants to follow in the footsteps of other distinguished statesmen like Tuo Shun, Tang Peng, and Wei Yuan. He aims to achieve fame in public office and leave a lasting legacy, so he is able to restrain himself and his family from committing numerous evils.
And the "king" in the mountains of Yangming and the Xun officers in the city of Daozhou are quite wary of Huang Lord's prominence and respect his status as a learned man from a distinguished family. They dare not cause trouble in Huang Lord's territory.
The "small lords" in the Meihua Town area have fewer scruples. They are bullied by the "hall masters and incense masters" in Meihua Town, extorted by the bigwigs in the mountains of Yangming, and blackmailed by the Xun officers from Daozhou City. Each is on the brink of bankruptcy. In their struggle to keep going, who has time or concern for dignity?
So the tenants and poor farmers under them suffered greatly!
For instance, Huang Lord rents his water fields to tenants, collecting a 50% rent, which may seem high but is actually reasonable. The amount of "50%" is determined based on the harvest and has room for fluctuation. If farmers suffer from disasters and fail to produce any crops, then zero divided by two equals zero! If the harvest is decent, farmers can still play on their innocence and underreport or misreport their yields.
The tenants around Meihua Town pay "iron plate rent"! No matter how severe the disaster, the rent is not reduced by a single cent. While there is no increase in rent during good harvests either, Huang Lord has the policy of reducing rent in times of disaster and hiding or underreporting the surplus during abundant harvests.
Moreover, the "iron plate rent" quota in the Meihua Town area is very high, almost the same as the amount paid by Huang Lord's tenants during good years.
For example, Huang Lord's trading houses deal in opium, but he would never force someone to become a prostitute. Otherwise, he wouldn't have refused Wang Xier. If he had accepted Wang Xier and sold her to serve clients in Meihua Town, he could have earned some money from her. So Wang Xier could still die cleanly and unhurt in Getao, but in the areas around Meihua Town, she would only be defiled and tortured before dying!
The local landowners around Meihua Town not only seize and sell the "Xiers" from farmers' homes who owe debts but also do not spare the "Xiaobailaos." They would abduct them and sell them to nearby mines to do hard labor.
Zhu Ba used to be a "Xiaobailao" who was sold, he was from "Zhu Yang Village" next to Meihua Town. His family originally had some assets, which could be considered a medium-sized farmer. However, his father was fierce and aggressive, and together with a few brothers from the same clan went to fight a neighboring village over water sources. Unexpectedly, they were killed in the fight. After that, his mother remained alone, unable to manage anything. His older brother was older but had no interest in farming. He often gambled in Meihua Town and developed a smoking habit. Eventually, he accumulated so much debt that he sold not only his family's land but also owed a large debt to the local big shot Yang Lord that he couldn't repay. So he was sent to work in the mines as collateral for his debt.
Zhu Ba inherited his father's temper, starting to fight with people on the mine at the age of twelve or thirteen, fighting until he bled from head wounds but never giving up or admitting defeat. As a result, he was sent down the mountain by the mine owner and had to go begging in Getao Town.
Eight more years passed, and the young Zhu Ba, who was sold to the mine, returned!
Zhu Ba returned as a preacher of the God-ordained Church, together with Master Wang Yan, leading ten male celestial soldiers and ten female celestial soldiers, singing the song "Welcoming Peace and Harmony."
"Rent is heavy, interest is high, poor folk find it hard to survive these days. Open the doors early to worship for peace, and everyone will be joyful. Kill the evil, overthrow the villains, open the city gates to welcome peace, and when peace comes, distribute the land."
Yang Lord, the third son, was known as Grandfather Yang San and was the patriarch of the Yang family in Zhu Yang Village. He was also a scholar who took the provincial examination sixteen times but failed each time.
Although Grandfather Yang San was not successful in his studies, he managed his family's estate quite well.
Zhu Yang Village was once a prosperous village, with hundreds of acres of paddy fields surrounding it. Half of the land belonged to the Yang family, and the other half was owned by the Zhu family, who were also from the same village.
However, over a decade ago, Zhu Yang Village and the neighboring Li clan, a group of Hakka settlers, fought over water sources. The village was defeated and suffered significant casualties. Additionally, the water fields were converted into dry land, drastically reducing yields!
The villagers who could barely make a living before were forced into bankruptcy one after another.
Yang Lord, in his turn, profited from the situation by first lending money at exorbitant interest rates and then collaborating with the villains in Meihua Town. He forced the debtors to sell their land and used their power to expand his landholdings in Zhu Yang Village. In just a decade, over 80% of the village's land became his property. A few pieces remained with other branches of the Yang family or were held by other villagers with larger populations - these were needed to maintain his control over Zhu Yang Village.
At this moment, Grandfather Yang San had not yet realized how insignificant his power was when the wheels of history mercilessly rolled over him.
Although he had long heard of the Taiping Army distributing land in more than a dozen towns and villages in the areas of Getao, Lingtang, and Shuangpai, that land was all under the control of the wealthy landlord Huang Shenjie.
Huang Shenjie was a learned and wealthy gentleman who had organized a militia, making him a mortal enemy of the Taiping Army. In contrast, Yang San was just a small local landlord. He didn't care whether the world was under the Qing Dynasty or the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom; he only cared about protecting his own land.
If someone comes, he would kneel and worship with his family and villagers!
So now, he is leading a group of his clansmen and poor laborers, kneeling on both sides of the path into the village, with baskets of rice, cloth, and copper coins set before them.
"Yang San, do you know your crime!"
When Yang San believed that the Taiping officials would soon be content with the rice, cloth, and copper coins, just as he was expecting them to take the offerings and leave happily, a voice from Daozhou suddenly shouted out.
He quickly looked up and saw a fierce-looking strongman, holding a simple sword, standing right in front of him. Beside him were twenty or so Taiping soldiers, each armed with weapons.
"You...you are."
"Zhu Ba!" Zhu Ba roared, "Zhu Fangsen is my father and my lineage name is Guan Yan!"
"You, you, you... weren't you sold off to the mountains of Yangming? How come you're a Taiping?" Grandfather Yang San was so startled that he couldn't articulate his words properly.
Zhu Ba's father was once deceived by him into engaging in a fight with people from neighboring villages, which led to his death. In addition to not helping Zhu Ba and his mother, Yang San also seized their land and sold him to work in the mines in the mountains.
"Take him down!"
Zhu Ba shouted out loudly.
"Wait a minute!" Grandfather Yang San called out in a hurry. "Why do you want to arrest me? I don't oppose the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!"
Zhu Ba sneered coldly: "Who cares if you're not opposed to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom? Over the years, how many families in Zhu Yang Village have been destroyed by you? How many farmlands that sustained their livelihoods did you take away? How much illicit wealth did you accumulate? Today, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will stand up for the common people. We will distribute your land and accumulate wealth, burn your debt records, and give the people of Zhu Yang Town a chance to live. Take him down!"
As he finished speaking, a few black, hollow gun muzzles were already pressed against him. Yang San's nephews were quickly controlled by several Guangxi Taiping soldiers brought by Zhu Ba, and cold knives were immediately held to their necks.
However, Zhu Ba did not order anyone to kill anyone. Instead, he looked at the seemingly confused villagers on both sides of the road with sharp eyes and said one word at a time: "Who is willing to be united with me, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom? Now, you can stand up."
