In a blink of an eye, it is the Double Ninth Festival.
On this day, the people of Taicang had no time to admire the chrysanthemums or wear dogwood. Instead, they all got up early, took cars or sedan chairs, and rushed to the mouth of the Yangtze River, carrying the elderly and children.
Because this day is the sacred day when Tan Yangzi holds a ceremony to ascend to heaven.
Who wouldn't want to see the rare spectacle of a person ascending to heaven in broad daylight? Who wouldn't want to see the immortal master ascend to heaven in person? Many people from nearby Suzhou, Wujiang, Shanghai, and Huating also rushed to Taicang a day in advance.
The Yangtze River was also crowded with boats. They were curious people who had come from Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Nantong and even Nanjing to watch the ceremony after hearing the news.
Near noon, with the altar at the mouth of the Yangtze River as the center, stretching for more than ten miles around, hundreds of thousands of people gathered, and no one knew what they could see.
In fact, many believers really can't see anything, but they can set up an incense table, place offerings, and bow to the immortal master, and they will be satisfied.
On the altar, which was covered with flowers and filled with fragrant mist, there was a shrine with garlands dangling from it. Around the shrine, there were flags representing the twenty-eight constellations. Under the altar, there were eight hundred small flags, representing the eight hundred earthly immortals who had received the mandate from heaven and worshipped under Tan Yangzi.
Disciples such as Wang Xijue, Wang Shizhen, Wang Baigu, Zhao Yongxian, Qu Ruji, Feng Mengzhen, Shen Maoxue, Wang Daokun, and Chen Jiru each stood under their own banner.
Xu Wei and others who were in Beijing or other places and did not have time to return also sent flower baskets to the Immortal Master as a tribute.
When the Immortal Master appeared on the altar, the atmosphere became even more heated. The people shouted her Dharma name like crazy, slamming their heads on the ground, and the entire Yangtze River Estuary was plunged into a frenzy.
"It's really scary." On a seemingly ordinary large sand barge at the mouth of the Yangtze River, Chen Huaixiu and Zhao Hao stood side by side, looking at the crazy scene of the crowd on the shore, and couldn't help but sigh: "If she is given a little more time, maybe she will really become a big deal."
"That's not the case." Zhao Hao shook his head and laughed, "She's using a quick method. This kind of bragging is too fierce at the beginning, and the fulfillment period is too short. Of course, it's easy to attract popularity, but when the time comes, the bragging will be exposed. Otherwise, she wouldn't be forced to commit suicide."
"But someone is kind and sympathetic to women, so he helped her through this." Chen Huaixiu rolled her eyes at him, and her every frown and smile was full of the charm of a mature woman.
"That's right, helping others is the basis of happiness." Zhao Hao laughed.
"I think you just want her body." Chen Huaixiu snorted, "One saint girl is not enough, and you bring another fairy to your territory."
"It doesn't matter what you say about me, but you can't tarnish my niece's innocence!" Zhao Hao turned his head and said righteously. Chen Huaixiu thought he was angry. The next moment, this guy raised her chin and said frivolously: "Besides, you know whose body I want..."
"Let go quickly, there are so many people watching us..." Chen Huaixiu turned her head away with a red face. Although Secretary Ma was in Kunshan with her son, there were still many guards around, including her subordinates.
"Just look, they are all worried about us." Zhao Hao shamelessly took her waist and said, "Look, Xiao Teng has grown up..."
"So what? Is there any place for me to get involved with you?" Chen Huaixiu tried to break free, but Zhao Hao refused to let go. She also said angrily, "I heard that you also accepted General Lin, so I won't cause trouble for you."
"Don't talk nonsense. Lin Feng's situation is different. I had no choice but to agree to her at that time." Zhao Hao couldn't help but feel embarrassed. He was just Lin Feng's sperm donor. The child would have the surname Lin, and she had no intention of having any relationship with the Zhao family.
"Meinan is even more special. What kind of relationship can we have?" He said with a wry smile: "But if not, how can she make the Zheng family give up their rebellious intentions? And the indigenous people of Taiwan and Luzon also need her to communicate... Alas, this kind of thing, to put it bluntly, is meaningless."
"What about me?" Chen Huaixiu said quietly, "Now that the Sand Ship Gang has been completely absorbed by the group, I am of no value anymore..."
"That's different, I just love you." Zhao Hao hugged her with a shameless face, and Chen Huaixiu's resistance became powerless, and she was obviously satisfied with his answer. She struggled to get away, and her body became limp, and she could only lean on him shyly... Look, I was forced.
At this time, Tan Yangzi on the altar began to preach. Although the distance was too far to hear clearly, the noisy scene suddenly became silent. This scene itself was very shocking.
"Do you really believe that she was the one who did all this?" Chen Huaixiu asked softly in Zhao Hao's ear.
"Just take it as it is." Zhao Hao smiled faintly and said, "If you are not deaf or dumb, you won't be a patriarch."
It was as if the person who bullied the little girl in Tanyang Temple a few days ago was not him.
~~
It’s three quarters past the hour of Chen, the auspicious time has arrived.
After the immortal master finished his sermon, he took the spirit snake, made a seal and held the sword, and held the whisk in his right hand, then he climbed up to the shrine and sat down.
Hundreds of thousands of people present held their breath and watched the moment when Tan Yangzi ascended to heaven.
Then, amid the melodious sound of immortal music, a dense immortal air emerged from the niche and gradually filled the entire altar. Soon, a red light shot up into the sky and petals fluttered. Everyone saw a glittering figure flying into the sky and then disappearing.
When people woke up from their shock, they hurried to look at the shrine and found that it was indeed empty.
Only tens of thousands of yellow butterflies were circling and flying around the shrine, and the original wooden shrine also became golden and dazzling under the sun.
"The immortal master has ascended to heaven!" Wang Shizhen shouted at the top of his lungs amid the deafening sound of suona. Immediately, some people looked up to the sky and worshipped, some knelt on the ground and kowtowed, some cried and called for the master, and some chanted Amitabha. There were too many of them to count.
At the mouth of the Yangtze River, Zhao Hao also breathed a sigh of relief. He was really afraid that the human-shaped hydrogen balloon made of pig bladders would suddenly explode and turn Tan Yangzi into a blood gourd on the spot. That would be really funny...
Fortunately, the Immortal Master was lucky and nothing happened. As for how Tan Yangzi disappeared, it was just a trick of making someone alive with smoke, which was not worth mentioning.
Zhao Hao was no longer interested in watching the rest of the performance. If he had the free time, he would rather go to the cabin and talk frankly with Sister Huai Xiu, and discuss the philosophy of life with her.
When he got tired of talking, he came out of the cabin, rubbing his waist, and saw that the bright moon was shining on the river outside.
Then he saw that the man had brought Tan Yangzi, who was dressed as a guard, onto the boat.
"Master." Tan Yangzi bowed politely. Zhao Hao had already accepted her as his disciple and planned to teach her the religious studies of social science in the future.
She will study and practice in Nanyang. After completing her studies, she will form Zhao Hao's troika with Mei Nan and Xue Lang, shouldering the important task of driving the Muslim religion and Hinduism out of Nanyang!
Of course, Nanyang is the territory of Jiangnan Group, and more than 80% of its administrative staff are Jiangnan people trained by Jiangnan Education. It is very likely that someone would recognize Tan Yangzi and report the news that she is still alive back to Jiangnan.
By then, the Second King and his fellow disciples will naturally understand the truth of the matter.
But this is exactly the effect Zhao Hao wanted. This is an unspoken warning. With their wisdom, they will definitely understand that if there is a next time, the young master will take away more than just the immortal master they created.
After weighing the pros and cons, 'Tan Yang Zi Shi Jian' could only deal with it this way.
Because the so-called Jiangnan Gang is not a strict political organization, but a relatively loose interest group. Wang Xijue, Wang Shizhen, Tu Long and others have high social status, and they did not rely on the Jiangnan Group to get it, so they are friends instead of superiors and subordinates. Zhao Hao has no right to order them to do something.
Their behavior can only be corrected in a gentle and gentle way without hurting their reputation. If you interfere with their actions rudely, you will only push your allies to the opposite side of yourself.
The elders taught us that in the struggle we must distinguish between the main contradiction and the secondary contradiction, as well as the main aspect and the secondary aspect of the contradiction. It is a taboo not to distinguish between the main and the secondary.
But this obviously affects the combat effectiveness, and in the long run it will be difficult to guarantee that the group will not be infiltrated.
On the way south, Zhao Hao, in addition to teaching Tan Yangzi about the social structure of religion, the theoretical structure of religion, and the practice model of religion, also discussed with Sister Huai Xiu how to solve the cohesion problem with people outside the group and how to improve the cohesion within the group.
The answer is actually obvious: forming a party.
Forming an organized party society with ideals and using the power of the party to regulate, unite and mobilize its members will not only solve this problem but will also surely unleash a powerful force.
But the problem is, this is Ming Dynasty...
It's not that the soil of the Ming Dynasty is not suitable for forming political parties. On the contrary, there has never been a more suitable place for forming political parties than the Ming Dynasty. The Donglin Party is already on the way, and there are more than a dozen political societies such as the Fushe Society. What if I let these guys learn the ways of the regular political parties?
Of course, this was a matter of time. Because in Zhao Hao's view, no matter what, using a party to gather a group of like-minded people to inherit his unfinished business was much better than the father-son succession model.
The examples of Donglin and Fushe illustrate this point precisely, rather than providing a counterexample.
The problem is that the operating principle of a powerful weapon like a political party is not very profound. For the bureaucratic landlord class and the emerging industrial and commercial class of the Ming Dynasty, understanding how a political party operates is definitely much simpler than understanding why the earth revolves around the sun.
What's more, the Ming Dynasty itself has the fertile soil for factional formation, so once he opens this Pandora's box, I'm afraid the subsequent development will be beyond his control.
Moreover, Zhao Hao sadly discovered that it was difficult for him to find true like-minded people among the bureaucratic landlord class. Currently, there were only two and a half people who could truly be called his comrades.
This is normal because this is the level of the bureaucrats and landlords.
As for the future bourgeoisie? Zhao Hao did not have any expectations for these guys. Their dream was always to climb up, become bureaucrats and landlords, and trample the working people under their feet. This doomed them to be weak. In fact, these guys had never really accomplished anything on their own. They would only exploit the vast majority of the lower classes again and again, and then shamelessly pick the fruits that the workers and peasants had exchanged for with their blood and lives.
The so-called most thoroughgoing bourgeois revolution is no exception.
Zhao Hao does not want ordinary people in this era to be used as tools, repeatedly used, repeatedly sacrificed, and repeatedly abandoned. He hopes that their bloodshed and sacrifice can at least bring them some tangible benefits.
He hopes that from now on in Chinese history, there will no longer be only emperors, generals, young men and beautiful ladies, but also the fact that one general's success is the result of the sacrifices of thousands of men!
He hopes that someone can speak up for Wan Gu and for the masses who created everything!
He spent so much effort to promote literacy and improve the quality of the people just for this purpose.
He hoped that after shouting "Are there any kings, princes, generals, or ministers who are of the same species?", he would know what to do to keep his fruits and not have them taken away by others.
He knew that this was difficult. For millions of years, the poor had been treated like oxen and horses. How could oxen and horses make their own voices?
But he still hopes to wait and see whether his efforts can bring about some different changes, and it will not be too late to open the Pandora's box of political parties.
ps.Thank you everyone, I love you. No more tonight...