Chapter 226: How to punish those who pretend to be relatives of God in the UK? (Please subscribe and vote)

Shengbao’s assistant office was also on Shuyuan Lane, just across from the governor’s office, and borrowed a house from Ziyang Academy. When Yiliang and Yuanbao came over, he and Bai Siwen were entertaining Wade and Wu Jianzhang and they were having a great time!
Although Shengbao came to Suzhou in the name of “assisting military affairs”, his actual mission was to contact the foreign devils entrenched in the Shanghai Concession to discuss borrowing troops to help suppress the rebellion. However, he felt that as a minister of the Qing Dynasty and a senior official of the second rank, he could not lose face. It was really shameless to condescend to visit the foreign devils in Shanghai. If he could get reinforcements, it would be fine. If not, it would be a disgrace to England, France, and America.

So after he arrived in Suzhou, he settled down at Ziyang Academy, which was across from the Jiangsu Governor’s Office. He only asked Yiliang to send a letter card and a “Secret Report on the Discovery of the Devil in China” to Wu Jianzhang in Shanghai. Or should Wu Jianzhang contact the consuls of Britain, France and the United States first to see how they reacted to the appearance of the “devil”?
If the foreigners really cared about the devil, they would have come to Suzhou to discuss with Lord Sheng how to subdue the devil!

If you don’t care, then there is reason to suspect that the foreign devils and the Taiping rebels are in collusion. That “Bull Demon” might be sent by their Roman Catholic Church to help God’s relatives fight against the Qing Dynasty.

Fortunately, the foreigners seemed to take the demon seriously. Not long after getting the “secret report” that anyone could see, British Vice Consul Wade came to Suzhou with Wu Jianzhang.

“.It turns out that God’s family does not have the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, sixth daughter, sixth son-in-law, seventh, and eighth sons. He only has one son! So, the children and sons-in-law of God on the other side of the long-haired side are all fake?

Sir Wei, you all believe in God in England, right? What do you say about this kind of behavior of pretending to be God’s children or sons-in-law? Is it legal? Should we arrest and punish them?”

The person who asked this question was Lord Sheng Baosheng, who was quite “legal” and asked Wade whether it was legal for him to pretend to be a relative of God in England.

This question really stumped Wade!
The British Parliament does not seem to have passed any law to convict people who pretend to be God’s relatives. This matter should be handled by the church, how can the Parliament handle it? And even if the Parliament passed the law, it would be difficult for the court to hear the case!
The so-called innocent until proven guilty means whoever sues must provide evidence.

If someone is pretending to be a relative of God, then evidence must be produced to prove that this person is not a relative of God, but is pretending to be one. Where can British police officers find evidence?

Taking God’s household registration as physical evidence? Where to go? To heaven?
Invite Jesus to be a witness? How to invite him? Do you want to possess Jesus? Perform a shaman act in court?

It can’t be!

But Wade couldn’t say that no one in Britain cares about this matter. This shows that Britain has no spirit of the rule of law. If someone pretends to be a relative of God and you don’t care, is that a country ruled by law?
He thought about it and finally came up with an explanation.

“Master Sheng, such a serious blasphemy has not occurred in Europe for many years! If anyone dared to do this back then, he would have been sentenced to death by the Inquisition under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church!”

“Oh, burning at the stake, that’s what he deserves!” Sheng Bao nodded, “Then can the Roman Catholic Church deal with the demons?”

The problem is becoming more and more magical.
Wade had no choice but to nod!
He cannot say that there is no devil in the world, because this shows that he does not believe in God.

He also cannot say that no one in the West can deal with the devil, as this would make the West appear very backward. They have already had the Industrial Revolution, so how could they not be able to deal with the devil?
“Yes!” Wade gritted his teeth and said, “The Exorcist Department under the Inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church has the most powerful exorcist in the world!”

“That’s great!” Shengbao clapped his hands. “Then we have to invite them quickly. By the way, how do we invite them?”

“You have to ask for it through the Nanjing Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church.”

“Nanjing?” Shengbao shook his head. “No, Nanjing is surrounded by Taimao. There’s no way to go!”

Wu Jianzhang, who was standing next to Wade, quickly explained, “Master Sheng, the cathedral of the Nanjing Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church is not in Nanjing, but in Shanghai.”

“In Shanghai? That’s easy!” Sheng Bao said with a smile, “Lord Wu, could you please ask what procedures are required to ask the Vatican to help subdue the demon? How much does it cost?” When Wade heard this, he immediately saw an opportunity and said, “Lord Sheng, it’s not easy to ask the Vatican to help subdue the demon. In order to show solemnity, it would be best to send an imperial envoy to Rome and have him visit France and England on the way to discuss treaty revision and military cooperation.”

In fact, the three superpowers of Britain, France and the United States have always found it difficult to communicate with the Qing court. They wanted to send people to Beijing to negotiate directly with Emperor Xianfeng. However, Emperor Xianfeng did not agree to allow foreign envoys to enter the capital. They wanted the Qing Dynasty to send someone who could make the decision to negotiate in Europe, but the Qing Dynasty also refused.

The only two people who could negotiate with the three powers were Ye Mingchen, the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, and Wu Jianzhang, the Governor of Suzhou, Songjiang and Taizhou and Supervisor of the Jianghai Customs. However, the authority of these two people seemed to be not great enough, as they were both local officials.

This is equivalent to asking the British envoy to compete with a senior French official.
Therefore, if the Qing Dynasty could send an imperial envoy to visit Europe, the great powers would at least be able to find someone with whom they could negotiate.

As long as you find the opponent, you can force or trick him into signing an unequal treaty.

“Send an imperial envoy to invite him.” Shengbao was just wondering whether this was feasible when a call of name was suddenly heard outside. The Governor of Jiangsu, Yi Liang, had arrived.

Shengbao, Wade-Giles, Wu Jianzhang, and Bai Siwen quickly stood up to greet the governor of Yida.

The governor was invited in, and after he sat down at the head of the table, Shengbao asked him whether it was possible to send an imperial envoy to Rome to invite the “master”.

Yiliang originally did not agree to send senior officials to Europe to invite Western magicians, but now the top priority of the Qing Dynasty is to subdue demons and monsters. If the Roman magicians really have that ability, the emperor should agree to send someone to invite them. Since the emperor agrees, it will be difficult for him, a servant, to object.

“It’s not impossible,” Yiliang stroked his beard, nodded slightly, and said to Shengbao, “Kezhai, just submit a memorial to the emperor.”

“Okay,” Shengbao nodded and said with a smile, “I’ll write a memorial to the emperor later.”

Yiliang asked again, “Master Wei, Tao Tai Wu, I heard that you helped a military advisor of Luo Ruzhai to recruit and train a new army in Shanghai?”

Wu Jianzhang hurriedly bowed and said, “Your Excellency, I came here to report this matter to you.”

He then reported again in a “focused” manner on Luo Xueyan’s various deeds in Shanghai and the foreigners’ hope to protect Shanghai by supporting Luo Xueyan in setting up a new army. Of course, he had to highlight his own contribution in this matter.

As soon as he finished speaking, Wade added, “Your Excellency, Consul Aliguo thinks that our support for Lord Luo in establishing a new army is a model worth promoting. It will not undermine our neutrality and will help the Qing Dynasty maintain stability. It’s a pity that there is only one Lord Luo now. If there are a few more Lord Luos, the Qing Dynasty can be expected to have stability.”

“How many more Luos?” Yiliang looked at Wade and said proudly, “There are many talented people in our Qing Dynasty. There are many young and promising officials like Luo Xueyan!”

Wade smiled and said, “That would be great. The governor may be able to recommend several such officials to organize a new army. We are also willing to cooperate with them without violating our neutrality.”

Yiliang shook his head and said with a smile: “It was not recommended by me, but sent by the court! In fact, the court has already selected capable officials to train the army. As long as we can get through this difficult time, suppressing the rebellion will be a piece of cake!

“Sir Wei, I also know that your English guns and cannons are useful. If my Great Qing wants to train troops to suppress the Taiping Rebellion, we have to rely on your guns, cannons and ammunition. And my Great Qing will not treat you foreign friends who sincerely help us unfairly. My Great Qing has plenty of money!”

(End of this chapter)