"The Lord says he loves the world, and he will teach us to be kind..." In the dark country hut, Father Garcia, dressed in a coal miner, was preaching. He was wearing a dirty miner's uniform, and it seemed that he had just gotten off work and had not had time to clean it. However, his spirit was extremely excited, and his nose was slightly red due to tension and excitement.

This is a rural hut on the east coast. Seventeen or eighteen people rushed into the bedrooms of about twenty square meters. They looked at Father Garcia with pious and loving eyes, with a fanatical expression that seemed like a martyr. But their faces were also a little pale at this moment, which was caused by fear. Recently, those night watchmen have been active very frequently, and many colleagues in the mainland have been arrested and imprisoned. Some of them have turned against the government, while some of them have been executed secretly. The atmosphere of white terror began to permeate the country.

Everyone was in panic all day long. On the one hand, they wanted to continue to stick to their beliefs and were unwilling to pray to Father Oleg, who was willing to be a government lackey. On the other hand, they were tortured by this dangerous and exciting underground behavior. Recently, a believer in the Jishu Township ran to the government for a mental breakdown, which led to Father Sanchez being arrested by the night watchman. There was no news afterwards. According to a vague news, Father Sanchez seemed to have been buried alive by the night watchman.

"Father, how has my fellow countryman Harman been doing recently? Is he happy in Asuncion?" A young miner asked softly during the break. He was still surrounded by his wife and children, and he seemed to be the owner of the house.

"Harman?" Father Garcia recalled the name that seemed familiar. After a while, he finally remembered it. The young man fled to Asuncion with the help of the Jesuits in order to pursue his freedom of faith and life. Unfortunately, he was discovered by the gendarmerie of the East Coast when he was secretly crossing the border. His calf was bitten by a wolfdog. He ran away not far away and was arrested by the gendarmerie of the East Coast. Later, according to the inside line of the gendarmerie of the Jesuits in the gendarmerie of the gendarmerie, the young man confessed to several accomplices who helped him after being severely tortured. Later, these people were arrested secretly and executed without trial.

Such a harsh situation made everyone here be careful, but they did not intend to give up their faith. Father Oleg, a government lackey, only talks about law-abiding and caring for the world every day, and he heard that his appointment was not legal. In fact, including Bishop Pedero appointed by the East Coast, they were only appointed by an institution called the Religious Affairs Office of the government, and had no connection with the Roman Catholic Church. How could this convince these devout believers?

Although the living standards on the east coast are far higher than those on the old continent, the imprisonment and control of religion are also deeply rooted. The village chiefs, militia directors, accountants (and tax officials), patrol officers and other grassroots managers in each village are almost all military backgrounds. Influenced by the upper-level officers of the east coast, many of them have betrayed their beliefs; or at least their beliefs are not firm, because they often go to the clergy appointed by the east coast to carry out various religious activities.

Under the management of these people, the religious atmosphere in the East Coast can be imagined, not to mention the impact of the Eastern religions that were condoned and funded by the government. The beliefs of ordinary people at the bottom are just the same. If there is no good religious atmosphere around and there are many temptations (such as converting to trust money), these people will sooner or later fall into the arms of pagans. Moreover, those people only care about what they eat today and how much money they can make tomorrow, and have no spiritual pursuits - if sending children to schools of East Coast people in exchange for rewards. Therefore, they rarely respond to the Lord's call, or simply turn a deaf ear to them. Some people who have completely fallen even seek bounty from the East Coast people and choose to betray the people of the Lord.

All of this made the devout believers in front of them extremely angry and sad, but they also strengthened their determination to escape from this hell. Although the life here is rich, the public security is excellent, there is no exploitation and wanton humiliation from nobles, no unjust wars, no bloodline is only talented, and the government fairly gives everyone the opportunity to learn in Europe, they still feel the strong atmosphere of repression here. Yes, freedom is suppressed here! In a small village, there are several officials from the East Coast, not to mention the large and small towns full of police, spies, military police and army.

The vulgar Livornians, Cossacks, Tatars and Ming people in the army were loyal dogs of the East Coast government. These pagans who believed in Eastern religions cruelly suppressed every cult they believed without any mercy. This broke the last illusion of many people. Therefore, some of them fled to the neighboring St. Paul, Parana, and the missionary areas set up in the Negro River Basin in pursuit of faith and personal freedom. Of course, this process is also extremely dangerous and bloody. The East Coast government declared that these people were "non-nationals". Once they were captured, they were shot and sentenced to hard labor, which made people scared of talk.

"Harman lived happily in Asuncion," said Father Garcia gently, with a faint smile on his face, and looked extremely holy under the candlelight. "Harman was recruited by a noble nobleman as a entourage and received four riyals every day. He even gained the recognition of his kind, upright, noble and elegant master because of his outstanding work, so he specifically promised that Haman and his descendants could serve his family for generations, which is the supreme glory."

"Yes... But the people of the East Coast said that those nobles were vampires. They did not give the lower class the opportunity to receive education, nor did they give ordinary people with ability but no background the opportunity to stand out. The descendants of slaves were just slaves for generations. They could not complain, and they could not even question them. They were all gray animals..." A young voice suddenly sounded in the crowd. People turned their heads and found that it was a 16 or 17-year-old boy.

"Stop, Giovani!" Father Garcia's face pulled down and scolded unhappily: "You have been going to the East Coast school too frequently! You don't have to go to that machine tool vocational school anymore. After you go back, you will write down everything you have learned these days and hand it over to me. From tomorrow on, you will stay at home, ready to wait for the opportunity to return to Asuncion. Your mind is full of those dangerous thoughts, not far from depravity."

The boy's face was a little pale. He stumbled for a long time before saying, "If I suddenly don't go to school, I will be asked by the village chief, and I can't explain it. Moreover, I really like to learn machine tool knowledge..." At the end of the day, the boy's eyes were filled with tears.

Father Garcia's face became even more ugly. Just as he was about to continue to rebuke the young man Giovani with righteousness, the dog outside the door suddenly started to yell in a heart-wrenching manner, which seemed so harsh on the quiet night. Moreover, among the barking of dogs, there seemed to be a vague sound of footsteps.

"Not good! Gendarmerie!" Father Garcia was shocked and angry, and his face was ashamed.

With a "bang", the unsolid wooden door was violently knocked open by several big men from outside the door. A large group of soldiers rushing in with bright bayonets, shouting loudly, asking them to squat on the ground with their heads in their arms. Just as several tall and strong men were about to resist, one of them was shot and killed by an officer who rushed into the house. The remaining two were stabbed into their chests and lower abdomen by several bayonets, and fell to the ground weakly.

Outside the door, Mao Desheng, who was riding on a tall war horse, looked at the hut surrounded by soldiers, frowned and said, "You asked me to lead the team here in the middle of the night to do this? This kind of small scene capture is the specialty of your military police. Why did we let our army do this dirty work?"

"I just received the information and rushed over. Before I could go to the village to mobilize the military police, there were too many people here." Bao Chen'an, the leader of the newly formed military police in China, rubbed his meticulous hair and said helplessly. In fact, although the military police, a unit that transitioned from the former police, has caused all kinds of hostile elements to be scared in many places, its organization is not large. There are only a few hundred people in the country, and there may be more than a dozen or twenty people in a certain town. Therefore, when they dispatched to arrest prisoners, they often need the cooperation of local garrisons and patrol officers.

While the two were chatting, a group of prisoners with a grim face and anger slowly walked out under the coercion of soldiers' bayonets. Except for one woman and two children, the rest of the people's hands were tied up. Although they had a firm belief, they still seemed a little frightened at this time. Some people cried in a low voice, some people closed their lips and said nothing, and some people glared at the soldiers around them.

Bao Chen'an walked back and forth in front of these people with his hands on his back. The military boots made of cooked cowhide rustled on the ground, which also made these people suffer from torture.

"A good news, a bad news." Bao Chen'an suddenly stopped himself and turned to them and said, "The good news is that the policy has changed. You don't have to be executed, the price is to be exiled to Gushan Port and Jinshan Port. The bad news is that the leader is not included in the pardon."

While talking, Bao Chen'an loaded his 1633 flintlock pistol. When he finished speaking, he suddenly pulled the hammer back, then pressed the barrel on Father Garcia's temple and whispered: "Father Garcia, your student Sanchez said hello to you."

"Don't...please don't kill me." Father Garcia's body was sloughing on the ground like mud. He was crying and snot everywhere, but he still seized the opportunity to say to Bao Chen'an: "I still have a use. I can help you trap the Spaniards who assisted them in absconding, and I can also provide the traitors lurking in your gendarmerie..." (To be continued, please search for astronomy, the novel is better and faster!
Chapter completed!