Chapter 84: Li Jianguo's Words

Huh? Chen Yaozu was left somewhat bewildered by this Ruen Person Uncle's words.

"Teacher Li, what do you mean by that?"

That's right!

This is another one with a teacher background, but he teaches philosophy and history, and even holds a professor title.

Domestically he's solidly middle-class, even a high-level intellectual, and his name carries a very distinct era flavor.

This Ruen Person Uncle is named Li Jianguo; he's a few years from retirement, and if he hadn't impulsively run off to America, he'd absolutely be living a comfortable life back home.

Li Jianguo seemed to have a fishbone stuck in his throat, unable to rest until he spat it out:

"Mr. Chen, you still plan to use your own miraculous power plus these twenty-odd legal gunmen to protect the incoming supplies.

How to put this...

It's like the Principal of Qingbei leading students to brawl with street punks.

Leaving aside how this doesn't match your status, just look at your men — if any get hurt or killed in combat.

Even if it's only one or two deaths, that's a major loss. After all, those coming after you next might not be ordinary disaster victims with guns.

Moreover, those few incidents that happened earlier should have alerted you — this approach does your preaching no good at all!

Am I right?"

Chen Yaozu is quite miraculous; previously they had visited quite a few towns, cities, and counties, burying corpses, clearing roads, treating the sick, and distributing grain to those without food.

But grain is limited; after all, Chen Yaozu only won a bit over 14 million in Las Vegas, and though the supplies bought were plentiful, they are ultimately finite.

There are also helicopter and vehicle expenses, personnel wages — these Ruen people get two to three hundred dollars a day in wages, 500 people is no small sum! So, aside from guaranteeing the consumption of these 500 people in the disaster area, the grain and some supplies that can actually be distributed aren't that much.

At the last town, because grain and supplies weren't abundant, they didn't distribute any more.

As a result, that very night someone rallied twenty-odd people, surrounded them with guns, and forced the rescue team to hand over the remaining grain and supplies they had kept for themselves.

This was the first time Li Jianguo witnessed this Mr. Chen's miraculous ability; he had originally thought this Mr. Chen and his disciples registered a religious sect merely to make it convenient for nine people to enter the disaster area.

He never expected there truly existed mysterious, unfathomable abilities in this world.

At the time, the troublemaker ringleader was giving an impassioned speech to his temporarily assembled gang, insisting these Eastern tycoons hand over supplies, money, grain, and job positions.

After all, they'd heard these so-called disaster relief volunteers each earned two to three hundred a day.

While they, the disaster victims, were given a mere 720 dollars a year in loans from the federal government.

Moreover, these loans had to be repaid after a year.

If they couldn't repay, their land and houses would be auctioned off, and at low prices.

Yet these Easterners could get two to three hundred dollars a day — two or three days' wages already exceeded a year's disaster victim subsidy loan from the government.

So they believed it was these Eastern Ruen volunteers who stole their job positions.

They needed grain, supplies, and jobs, and shamelessly demanded these Eastern Ruen people give the jobs back to them.

Otherwise they wouldn't mind a gunfight with these Eastern tycoons, using their weapons to seize the supplies and money they deserved.

The ringleader was speaking passionately when, before his voice fell, his hunting rifle suddenly inexplicably blew away his nearest henchman — if it happened once it could be called an accidental discharge.

But after dropping the first man, this ringleader swiftly swung his muzzle toward another person.

This frightened the originally stunned troublemakers into immediate retaliation, directly shooting that man dead.

It didn't end there; after he fell, another person continued the same inexplicable attack, instantly wounding countless people.

Most of these people were militia, yet they inexplicably slaughtered each other right before these Ruen volunteers.

There was also a night of incessant gunfire; after the Ruen people at the camp were startled awake, they discovered over a dozen armed bandits milling around outside their camp like headless flies.

Then they also blindly shot at each other, killing themselves off in mutual slaughter.

None of these incidents could be pinned on the rescue team; moreover, wherever they went, they habitually installed surveillance outside the camp.

These several incidents made the accompanying Ruen people, who originally thought these Daoists were just medical charlatans, suddenly realize there truly are mysterious, unfathomable abilities in this world.

But these inexplicable events made it impossible for the whole rescue team to stay locally; often they'd finish treating patients and have to move to another place.

"Mr. Chen, if you only had the medical skill to save others, I could understand it as a doctor's benevolence.

But clearly you are cultivation practitioners with mysterious, unfathomable abilities, and this time you entered the disaster area to rescue these victims.

It's even very likely you came to preach and cultivate!

Yet along the way, your methods make me feel like headless flies — no purpose, no plan.

How can this be done well!

Instead, because you don't do it well enough, you incur jealousy and hatred; clearly doing good deeds, yet ending up resented — that feeling isn't pleasant!"

As Li Jianguo spoke, he couldn't help but complain inwardly: this is the shortcoming of these Daoist sects — they don't know how to operate, lack a systematic understanding of what preaching is.

If you swapped in the Buddhist sect, with the Buddhist Daoist Lineage so flourishing under heaven, they have the ability to promote their ideology — that is, to preach.

Chen Yaozu felt he had a point; although he didn't come to preach, he just single-mindedly did good deeds to accumulate merit, letting himself, the Forty-Nine Dharma Protectors Disciples, the Brazil female ghost, and Ghost Mirror Hu Ying all obtain merit in the process.

But this feeling of doing good and helping people, only to end up with a bad reputation — it really feels awful.

This Old Head Li guessed not entirely correctly, but what he said makes sense.

"Teacher Li, I'm listening, continue!"

Seeing Chen Yaozu take it in, Li Jianguo let out a breath of relief; someone who can recognize their own shortcomings and accept advice.

The most feared are those with a bit of ability who think they know everything and have nothing left to learn — those are rotten wood.

Even if such people have some ability, they won't last long.

This Mr. Chen before him could listen to his counsel, which warmed his heart a few degrees.

"Actually, we are outsiders; no matter how many good deeds we do, once we clash with locals, we'll harvest ill will.

This is an unchangeable reality! But as the saying goes, poor mountains and evil waters produce treacherous people; after experiencing such great calamity, order collapses, and illegal crimes like theft, robbery, fraud, and kidnapping more easily appear.

We have no more than 30 people with guns, yet the vehicles carry so many supplies — no different from fat sheep.

So we constantly draw the covetous gazes of bandits; since someone has designs on us, yet we can't easily confront them.

Moreover, this time, it's the richest man sending supplies — naturally they won't be few. Most importantly, there's the Starlink signal communication device. Would no one want to destroy this thing? Impossible! What if someone incites the masses to come snatch supplies and sabotage equipment? That would be comparatively more dangerous!

Put that way, it really makes quite a bit of sense. Ma Kaiyuan's delivery definitely won't be small. Most importantly, the Starlink signal device — someone will definitely want to come destroy this thing.

And it's very likely, it would be perfectly legitimate.

The National Guard and such wouldn't even need to incite the masses as Li Jianguo described. They can directly use the pretext of obstructing safety to take away the supplies and signal devices. Even if they can't touch your person, or don't want to touch your person, the supplies and signal device equipment definitely can be taken away.

They've got guns, cannons, tanks, planes in their hands — you think you can resist?

So he signaled the old man to continue speaking.

Receiving the signal, Li Jianguo quickly continued:

"The intent to harm others must not exist; the intent to guard against others must not be absent!

Even, impossible to guard against completely.

Since that's the case, we need to switch to a different line of thinking.

The Great Mentor once said in April 1945: The people, only the people, are the motive force creating world history.

In '41 he also said, the masses are the true heroes, while we ourselves are often childish and ridiculous.

In '55 he further said, the people and masses have boundless creativity. They can organize themselves, and advance toward every place and department where they can exert their strength..."

Hiss—

Listening to the old man's words, Chen Yaozu sucked in a cold breath. He seemed to have understood.

"Teacher Li means, we've come to the disaster area to do good deeds, so these disaster victims are the people and masses.

We need to mobilize the people and masses, make them stand on our side?"

"Exactly!"

Li Jianguo nodded. Sometimes talking with a smart person, you don't need to beat around too big a bush.

"Then what should we do?"

Not ashamed to ask — the Great Man once said, if you don't understand, you must learn from those who do. Treat them as teachers, study earnestly — this is nothing shameful.

Chen Yaozu deeply agreed. The old man before him had some substance.

Seeing he had gained recognition, Li Jianguo's eyes flickered with threads of excitement: "Mr. Chen, can you first tell me — everywhere you go, you set up an altar table and enshrine it. What's this mirror for? Let me guess first — this mirror is usually placed in occasions for treating the sick. It helps with curing illness and saving lives, right?"

Indeed his eye was sharp. Chen Yaozu nodded: "Correct. This mirror can absorb the ghost qi, death qi, hostile qi, and epidemic qi produced by great disasters.

Preventing these places from experiencing major epidemics again."

The more Chen Yaozu spoke, the brighter Li Jianguo's eyes grew.

"Aiya!

I said it, sir — you lot are too rough!"

He paced back and forth excitedly: "With such a good thing, you shouldn't just quietly set it here like this.

Instead you should make a big show of it, hold grand rituals. Even if you can't stage a Luo Tian Grand Offering, you should at least perform a grand exorcism before everyone.

Let all places we pass through know — the reason their epidemics no longer recur isn't because they did so well post-disaster, but because we held rituals to expel epidemics in those places.

This isn't falsely claiming credit — it rightfully belongs to us!"

No wonder the Daoist gates have declined — they can't even think of this kind of thing. If Buddhists were doing it, they'd hold a Water and Land Dharma Assembly lasting days and nights! And what does such a Water and Land Dharma Assembly ritual highlight? Ritual sense! Then take the opportunity to publicize one's own merits among the masses, and gain support.

Saving people and curing illness shouldn't be done so silently either. At minimum, during treatment, mention the difficulty of the cure, show your own merit.

Wouldn't supporters come then?

With more supporters, would those wanting to act, or wanting to be incited to act, still have supporters?

You must know this is Red State — almost everyone here has guns. With supporters, would you still fear your supplies being snatched, your equipment being snatched? Mr. Chen is still too young!

He fundamentally doesn't know what kind of assistance ritual sense provides for conquering hearts!

"Mr. Chen, here's what you do.

After supplies arrive, first let the disaster victims know — what religious sect is distributing supplies to them, and who you are.

Then, publicize our doctrine and ideology.

Only then treat illness and save people. Treating illness and saving people cannot be done straightforwardly.

There must be ritual — complex yet elegant ritual procedure. This is mandatory.

Finally save people! After saving them, hold a Water and Land Dharma Assembly grand gathering. Tell all disaster victims — the calamity here has been driven away by us.

Only this way can you win hearts! Moreover, among our 500 Eastern People, many actually aren't wholeheartedly devoted.

Should be survival of the fittest. Those who work wholeheartedly get rewards; those who don't, send them back to Ding Fatzi Plaza.

Then we can recruit believers locally!

These believers all carry guns. With these believers in hand, even if the National Guard comes, wanting to confiscate our supplies and equipment, they'd have to think twice.

This is what our disaster relief trip should actually do!"

Actually, in the haste, Li Jianguo wasn't extremely clear.

But he spoke as thoughts came, the key point being: there absolutely must be ritual sense.

A religion wanting to recruit believers, wanting to preach — you must have your own ritual procedure.

With nothing at all, you think you're the Zen Sect? Chen Yaozu listened a bit in a fog, but could still understand: "Is it a bit too complicated?"

Li Jianguo shook his head: "Not complicated. Complex yet elegant ritual procedure, plus our doctrine and ideology, plus the ability to cure patients — can win hearts.

Our Eastern People undergo survival of the fittest to further unite hearts. Recruit local believers, make our armed force stronger.

With armed force, there's self-preservation capability!

Locals against locals — more advantageous than us outsiders acting. This is the most important!"

Very reasonable!

Chen Yaozu's head was a bit dumbfounded. He couldn't fully think through the reasoning at once, but he knew these words were correct.

That afternoon, the helicopter arrived.

Brought many supplies and equipment.

These supplies and equipment were seen by the local disaster victims, and also seen by the local National Guard.

What does Mountain Rain Wind Full Tower mean? It is exactly now; Chen Yaozu knew Old Head Li was right, but it was too late to lay out the Layout now.

Still had to rely on his own Ghost Mirror!

Ghost Wall!

(Chapter End)