Chapter 254: Screening Daoist Citizens

Xu Jia knew exactly what kind of people those "heroes" of his were; some were fair-weather friends who had gathered only because of his power.

Some ran martial arts schools. Others were wandering scouts and thief-catchers.

Still others were "play-helpers." He often went to Cuichun Pavilion to amuse himself and had some peculiar habits. When he ate well, drank well, and played well, some opportunistic people would flock to him to help him spend money and help him collect these things for eating, drinking, and playing.

These people could hardly be considered heroes. After he abandoned his official post and left, wanting to recruit two hundred heroes was simply a pipe dream.

Moreover, those so-called heroes did not meet Xu Jia's standards.

Xu Jia said, "I have no use for your people. What I want are the sons of poor families, teenagers aged ten to twenty-four."

"Even ten years old? What kind of soldiers can a ten-year-old train to be?" Chen Gongming found it hard to understand. "To train soldiers, it is naturally best to have strong, able-bodied men."

"That is natural, but we are not raising this force under the pretext of training soldiers. Otherwise, if I were to raise several hundred people like that, would I be writing 'rebellion' on my face?"

Xu Jia said, "Have you ever heard the saying: 'Build high walls, store grain widely, and claim the throne slowly'? Besides, this poor Daoist is a cultivator. I am building a Daoist temple on the mountaintop, not a mountain stronghold. The mountains cannot support so many strong men."

"So that's how it is. Then there is a way. We only need to say that the temple is accepting disciples, state the age requirements, and provide food and lodging, and a large number of people will want to come up the mountain. The Daoists will teach them to read, teach them martial arts, and provide food. Even if they cannot stay in the future and go down the mountain after two or three years, that is still a good deal. If Master wants to select Dao Soldier Seeds, he can just select them there."

"Those craftsmen who are helping us build the Daoist palace would surely want to send their own sons to the temple."

Xu Jia stroked his chin. "That is a good idea. As for these teenagers we take in, if nothing else, they can still do some work while the temple is being built."

Xu Jia immediately finalized the matter. "You go handle this. If you lack money, find the Golden Toad."

"Then Master, how many people should we recruit?"

"Recruit as many as you can. Even if they cannot become Daoists, or cannot be Daoists, they can still be Daoist acolytes or handymen. After they go down the mountain, they will still think well of us. Once they start families and establish careers, their whole families will also be our believers."

Xu Jia did not intend to rely entirely on those witches and shamans to grasp faith. They were too scattered, and the Demon Immortal Lineage was divided into factions; it was not the grand, orthodox path.

If Xu Jia wanted to open a sect and establish a lineage, he had to display the style of the Mysterious Gate Orthodox Sect.

"Then we can recruit a lot. There are at least seven or eight thousand poor teenagers between ten and twenty-something. Can we afford to support them?"

"We can afford it. Money is certainly not an issue."

Xu Jia truly was not short on money. To say nothing else, just regarding Ao Jin of the Water Mansion, if he said he would help dredge gold sand from the riverbed, then there would be no shortage of money.

Moreover, there was also the Golden Toad, who was greedily expanding his assets, buying, buying, and buying everywhere. What he bought the most was land.

It was just that on his land, he hired farmers to till it, a kind of contract system. Compared to the exploitation by landlords, it seemed less cruel, but it was still not the "virtuous wealth" Xu Jia wanted. However, in this era of comparing who is less rotten, it already seemed very progressive. At the very least, the employment relationship and the contract relationship were relatively more equal than the tenant-farming system.

Added to this was the wasteland developed in Xianzhi Valley, which was developed by that ox demon Kui Qing together with the lazybones and gamblers possessed by debt-collecting ghosts under the Golden Toad's command. There was also much more...

Calculating this way, Xu Jia was not short of grain, nor was he short of money. What he lacked was simply people.

A thousand people might seem like a lot, but after screening, it was estimated that not one would be able to cultivate the Dao or have the aptitude of an Earth Immortal.

If he could pick out ten with the aptitude of a Human Immortal, that would be enough to break even.

As for those with the aptitude for being Dao Soldiers, there might not even be a hundred.

After all, not everyone is suited for martial arts. Ordinary people can be forced to practice, but it requires massive resources and consumes a great deal of time. What Xu Jia would do is give them a portion of the preliminary cultivation techniques and provide them with the same resources. Within one month, whoever's progress met the standard could become an Outer Disciple.

This could already be considered a fair selection.

Those who did not pass could stay on the mountain as handymen. After completing a full year of cultivation, those who entered the Dao could continue to stay and become Lay Disciples. Those who did not pass could only go down the mountain.

If they could not learn anything in a year, had no Dao root, and no Dao affinity, then they should not delay others. They should go down the mountain and learn a trade early.

One year was enough to build up their bodies and enough to learn some characters.

What Xu Jia wanted to cultivate were disciples and Dao Soldiers, not compulsory education.

But such elite education was clearly somewhat detached from the masses. And just screening like this cost too much. Therefore, Xu Jia began to wonder in his heart: could there be a way that allowed everyone to cultivate the Dao while spending less money?

After thinking it over, there was only one type of Register method originating from the Celestial Master Dao, and that was the "Daoist Citizen Register."

Proper, conferred-Register Daoists actually belonged to the "Daoist Official" class, and the Registers had ranks.

Then what about a Register without a rank?

It did not need to have any extremely powerful functions, as long as it could provide the most basic ability to train Dao Soldiers or cast minor spells.

Only then would it fit Xu Jia's original intention of establishing a Dao Kingdom: everyone learns the Dao. Why learn the Dao? Because one can obtain benefits from within the "Dao Gate."

Just like why scholars study: it is because scholars have privileges and can take exams for official titles.

That is why these people would break down the threshold to learn the Dao.

Based on this method, Xu Jia suddenly had an idea. Perhaps he shouldn't spend so much effort finding disciples and luring them up the mountain. Instead, he should start from the underlying logic, let these disciples work hard themselves, come up the mountain themselves, and all he had to do was "paint a pie"—that is, what is called propaganda.

What slogan did Li Zicheng shout when he rebelled? "The Chuang King is here, no grain tax." The common people followed him, but did he really not collect grain tax? He still did.

Xu Jia thought and said, "Let's do this: release the news that on the Winter Solstice, we will open the mountain gates wide and recruit disciples on a large scale. Release the standards in advance and inform them of the benefits for those who enter the gate. At the same time, give tasks to those shamans and witches to select qualified teenagers and recommend them to come up the mountain."

"What are the standards then?" Chen Gongming asked curiously. He realized that Xu Jia's method was brilliant and saved a lot of trouble.

"Those who can stand in a horse stance for half an hour show they have the aptitude for martial arts."

"Those who can recite the first three chapters of the Tao Te Ching show they have a heart toward the Dao and have Dao affinity."

Standing in a horse stance for half an hour, which is one hour, was already a great test for people.

Although the first three chapters of the Tao Te Ching only had a hundred or so characters, few people knew how to read, but this was the threshold.

Chen Gongming only needed to hire those heroes to go to every village to promote it and teach them how to stand in a horse stance. Xu Jia could also spend money to have people teach and explain it for free on the streets.

This was not hard to inquire about; if one wanted to, one could listen in.

This was also promoting Daoism and could be considered a work of infinite Merit. It also saved a large amount of early-stage screening and cultivation costs.

(End of chapter)