3. He Er Zhong Besieged The Church Of Da Wan On A Large Scale.

Some classmates who came from Zhao Tong had told me the story of He Er Zhong when I was just twelve years old, but I had almost forgotten it.  During my travel to Da Wan I found two old men, Zhang Cai Fu and Zhang Kai Rong who retold me this story once more.

Before I tell you the story, we must know a little about the church of Da Wan.  It is said by Mr. Dai Qi Xue, that the church of Da Wan was built in the seventh year of Tong Zhi, Emperor of the Qing Dynasty (1868 AD).  That would give it about 120 years of history.  However, someone else said that it was built earlier and had almost 200 years of history.  The church was also said to have been built by a French missionary, Mr. Lai from Paris.  His original French name would need to be verified.

Considering that there were many thieves in the district at the time and for the sake of the church, Mr. Lai built the church as a small castle.  The scope of the church covered 4,000 meters and was enclosed by a surrounding wall.  The bottom half of the enclosing wall was built in cream-red brickwork.  The average height was about three meters high and the thickness was about 0.7 meters.  On the stone wall there was also a soil wall with crenel which was about two meters high.  So, the enclosing wall was very firm.  The worship hall was leaned against the enclosing wall and it was made of brickwork with stones placed all over.  In front of the worship hall there were pillboxes which ran 15 meters high, both magnificent and very firm.  The priest's confession room was close to the worship hall.  To the northwest of the confession room were the stable, kitchen, etc.  Then, after you went northwest opposite of the worship hall, there was a little square made with flag stone.  This was where the nuns lived and where the school was located.  Now, only the worship hall and one of the pillboxes on the right side of the worship hall remain.  The others were completely destroyed after the Liberation.  The enclosing wall was almost completely destroyed while building the road from Yi Liang to Hua Qiao just after Liberation.  Now all that remains of the wall is a small portion of the southeast corner and the gate.  The school which exists today near the mountain was rebuilt by the Swiss priest, Sun Zhi Xin, in the late 1930's.

Around 1900, there were so many movements against religion all over China.  Many churches were attacked by people and many religious friends lost their lives.  The enemies who attacked the church of Da Wan were neither the local people nor the Yi He Yuan (a movement of anti-imperialism waged by northern Chinese peasants and workers in 1900).  They were people from the An Guan family of the Yi nationality.  The members of this family were bandits and knew no discipline.  The local people called them the "terrible bandits."

The team of He Er Niu heard that many churches in other districts had been attacked, so they thought that this was there chance to attack at Da Wan.  They imagined that this church was the richest, so they formed a group of many valiant men (over 200 people) and went to rob it.  They were also armed with the best guns at the time.

When the religious friends heard the news, they fled into the church.  Some of the young men were perched in the pillboxes while others patrolled around the church within the enclosing wall.  Women, children, and elder people hid in the worship hall and prayed one after another.  They asked God to bless them but the equipment of the religious friends was rather bad.  They had no foreign guns or cannons, but rather had a pair of simple guns which had been constructed by the local people.  The longest gun was about two meters in length and the range was further than the short gun.  The short gun was only one meter long.  Aside from these, they also had four powder guns.  The guns were handled by four people and the others resorted to big knives and long spears.

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE  That's enough of this one.  If you want more, you can read the Chinese version.

4. The Rain Likely Knows Everything.

On that day the clouds were so thick and the air was humid.  It looked as if it would rain and I was worried, so I asked Mr. Cheng who walked ahead of me if he thought it would rain today.  He responded, "No, it won't rain today.  The weather here is always like this.  The clouds are always thick, it always looks as if it will rain, but it doesn't happen."  Drought is very common there.  Fortunately, God always blesses us religious friends.  Elderly people quite frequently tell us that there once was a priest who lived there.  A serious drought had occured and so the religious friends collected money and gave it to the priest.  Then the miracles happened many times.  After the priest prayed, the clouds became very thick and it rained.  More strangely than that, the rain seemed as if it had eyes.  The rain only fell on the religious friends' fields.  As for the non-believers, they didn't receive any rain.  The non-religious friends noticed this and felt so strange.  Due to this, they also began to attend church.  Some of them even said they were willing to give money to the priest and asked him to pray for them.

(Told by Cheng Lan Zhong of Da Wan, Yi Liang.)  (next page)