Chapter 232 Wu Wang Luo Yaoguo, Daotai Luo Xueyan (Request for subscription, request for votes)
“King Wu?”

Luo Yaoguo looked at Chen Chengrong with surprise and joy: “Jinling City was conquered by the Heavenly King?”

“That’s right!” Chen Chengyong nodded. “It was broken four days ago. The city wall near Yifeng Gate was blown down by the underground blasting method, and a hole several dozen feet wide was blown out. The commanders of the First Army, Yang Fuqing and Huang Wenjin, commanded the soldiers to use grenades to clear the way and blasted their way into the city! The Qing demon Liangjiang Governor Lu Jianying, who was watching the battle on Lion Mountain, was unable to escape and was killed by the Holy Soldiers. The Qing demon Jiangning General Houxiang fled into Mancheng and held on. When I left Jinling, the Nine Thousand Years Old King of the East was personally supervising the army to attack Mancheng!”

Chen Chengrong raised his voice and gave a brief account of the Taiping Army’s invasion of Jinling City. Everyone in the Jade Emperor Hall heard it clearly, and an atmosphere of joy immediately filled the entire hall.

“Great!”

In fact, Luo Yaoguo had known for a long time that Jinling City would be captured, but he still couldn’t help but shout loudly, then took Chen Chengrong’s hand, laughed and walked into his command room. As soon as he entered the door, he heard cheers of “Long live” from outside.

Luo Yaoguo quickly winked at the Chief of Staff Xiang Xun who came in with him, and the latter immediately turned around and left to appease the group of ecstatic officers outside – the officers in the five departments of the headquarters were all from the Shangjun Training Brigade, the God Worshipping Society Secret Hall, and Luo Yaoguo’s guards, and they were all the most loyal God Worshipping Society fighters, but the new recruits who were receiving military pay outside the Jade Emperor Hall did not know that they were actually Taiping Army fighters. Moreover, their new recruit training had not yet been completed, and now was not the time to take over Shanghai, so they still had to cover it up.

Seeing Xiang Xun closing the door and walking out, Luo Yaoguo smiled and said to Chen Chengrong: “Chen Jiandian, please sit down. You don’t need to be so polite here.”

Chen Chengrong did not sit down, but took out a yellow satin scroll and said to Luo Yaoguo with a smile: “Angel, the King of Heaven has issued an order! He is to make you the King of Wu for five thousand years and order you to take over Suzhou, Songjiang, Taicang, Huzhou, Jiaxing and other places. It is not convenient for you to be here, so I will not read it.”

“Okay, then I’ll take your order.”

Luo Yaoguo stood up in a hurry and respectfully took the yellow satin scroll from Chen Chengrong’s hand. He unfolded it and saw a doggerel on it. Luo Yaoguo silently recited in his heart: Angel Luo Yaoguo, whose foster father is the Heavenly Father, was ordered to come down to earth to assist the True Holy Lord. He has repeatedly made meritorious services and is ranked fourth in the Heavenly Kingdom. He deserves to be granted the title of King. After reporting to the Heavenly Father, he was named the King of Wu and was called five thousand years old, and he was also a holy angel.
What a great poem! Because of this doggerel, Luo Yaoguo’s official title is now “Chief Lecturer of the God Worshipping Society, Commander of the Upper Army, Holy Angel, and King Wu of Five Thousand Years Old”!

“Chen Jiandian,” Luo Yaoguo smiled and said to him after reading Hong Xiuquan’s imperial edict, “Please report back to the Heavenly King and tell him that everything is going well in Shanghai! I have bought thousands of foreign guns and dozens of cannons from the consuls and foreign companies of England, France and the United States, and recruited 5,000 new soldiers in the name of training the Shanghai army. Now we just need Sanniang, Tianyang, Shoucheng and others to lead the main force of the upper army to the east, so that we can cooperate internally and externally to capture Songjiang Prefecture.”

Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing certainly knew about what Luo Yaoguo was doing in Shanghai. They also understood the importance of Shanghai as a port. If they took Shanghai, wouldn’t the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom be able to contact their foreign brothers? If they contacted their foreign brothers, wouldn’t they be able to buy a large number of foreign guns and cannons? With a large number of foreign guns and cannons, wouldn’t it be a matter of time before the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was unified?
Therefore, Chen Chengrong also came to Shanghai by sea with the mission of contacting foreigners. He smiled and said to Luo Yaoguo: “Your Highness, the 20,000 elite troops led by Deputy Chief Su, General Zeng, and General Li are probably advancing towards Zhenjiang now!

The Qing demons have few troops in Jiangnan, so they probably won’t dare to take the initiative to intercept the Shangjun troops. However, the Heavenly King and the Eastern King ordered Deputy General Manager Su to take Dantu, the capital of Zhenjiang Prefecture, to cut off the Qing demons’ transportation, and then go east to Shanghai. In this way, you will be able to see Deputy General Manager Su in a month at most!”

The distance between Nanjing and Shanghai is not short, more than 500 miles in a straight line, with dense rivers and numerous towns. Moreover, since Nanjing and Shanghai have been the richest places in the world for hundreds of years, the local financial resources are not weak, so it is not a problem to organize militia and build city walls.

Therefore, most of the towns in southern Jiangsu are protected by brick and stone walls, and these towns are built along rivers. Although there are no natural barriers, it is very troublesome to gnaw them one by one. If you want to gnaw at the towns one by one, it may not be possible to finish gnaw with only 20,000 troops in the upper army in a few months.

However, the biggest obstacle for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to seize the wealthy land in southern Jiangsu was the foreigners in Shanghai. As long as they continued to provide foreign guns to the landlord militia in southern Jiangsu, the Taiping Army’s old brothers would not be able to withstand the consumption.

Therefore, the plan that Luo Yaoguo submitted to Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing to take over southern Jiangsu was “quickly attack Shanghai and close the door to fight the dog”!
According to the plan, the main force of the army led by Su Sanniang should have headed straight for Shanghai after breaking through the outer city of Nanjing!

However, Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing changed their plans temporarily. They obviously wanted to use the army under Su Sanniang to defeat Dantu, the capital of Zhenjiang, which might become an important base for the Qing demons to counterattack Nanjing. This was also Yang Xiuqing’s layout in history. First Nanjing, then Zhenjiang, and then Yangzhou, relying on the limited forces of the Taiping Army to arrange an “iron triangle” defense. This layout would have no problem in the era when imperialism had not broken through the pass, but unfortunately the times have changed.
“Okay, one month is enough!” Although Luo Yaoguo was a little dissatisfied with Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing for changing the battle plan that had been drawn up long ago, he was doing well in the Qing Dynasty now, so it would be fine to meet up with Su Sanniang later. He nodded and said, “Be honest, I’m now a leader of the Qing demon militia, which makes it quite convenient for me to cheat in Shanghai. During this period of time, I have cheated hundreds of thousands of silver dollars and 4,000 foreign guns from Wu Jianzhang. If Sanniang takes Zhenjiang, I think I can cheat even more!”

“Hey, how can it be called cheating when the King of Wu asks for some silver and foreign guns from the Wu Yaotou?” Chen Chengrong said with a smile, “You are giving him a chance to atone for his sins.”

“Hahaha,” Luo Yaoguo laughed, “That’s right, this Wu Yaotou is quite nice. He gave me so many good things. I would be embarrassed to kill him if I catch him later.”

“Then let’s keep him alive for now. Didn’t God say that a demon cannot choose his origin, but can choose his path?”

Chen Chengyong understood the meaning of Luo Yaoguo’s words, so he repeated what Luo Yaoguo said when he recruited Yu Wanqing in Etang, which made Luo Yaoguo laugh again.

Seeing that Luo Yaoguo was in a good mood, he took out a small yellow cloth scroll and handed it over: “King Wu, this is the order given to me by the King of the East. The King of the East ordered me to contact the foreign brothers in Shanghai. However, I have never seen a foreigner in my life, and I can’t speak foreign languages. I wonder if this Wu Yaotou can help me?”

Luo Yaoguo took over Yang Xiuqing’s order, opened it and saw that it was a doggerel poem with a similar meaning to what Chen Chengyong said.

“Okay then,” Luo Yaoguo nodded, “I’m going to Tongshunhang in the Shanghai Concession today to collect a batch of new army uniforms. You can come with me, meet Wu Jianzhang first, and then meet the foreigners together if there’s a chance.”

“Okay, King Wu, you can make the arrangements.”

“Don’t call me King Wu here. Call me Lord Luo.”

“Yes, Mr. Luo.”

“Lord Luo, you came at the right time. There is good news!”

In the British Concession in Shanghai, outside the gate of Tongshunxing, Luo Yaoguo had just stepped out of the carriage when he ran into Wu Jianzhang, who was smiling and coming out to greet him. Wu Jianzhang even said he had some “good news”, which surprised Luo Yaoguo.

The fall of Nanjing can’t be considered good news for Wu Jianzhang, right?
Seeing Luo Yaoguo in a daze, Wu Jianzhang hurriedly explained with a smile: “The emperor just received an imperial decree to promote you!”

“Promoted again?” Luo Yaoguo asked happily, “What promotion?”

“Jiangnan Salt Administration and Jiangning Prefect!” Wu Jianzhang said with a smile, “It’s a lucrative position of the fourth rank!”

“Ah” Luo Yaoguo didn’t know what to say when he heard about this official position. It turned out that the city of Jiangning Prefecture where he was in charge was just conquered by Hong Xiuquan!
(End of this chapter)