Chapter 234 The Great Prophecy has come true! Is there really a devil? (Please subscribe and vote)

Luo Yaoguo’s real purpose in coming to Wu Jianzhang was not to deceive him, nor to give Wu Jianzhang a chance to atone for his sins, but to get his clothes.

His several thousand new soldiers needed uniforms, they couldn’t always wear the short coats of dock workers, which made them look like the coolies of the Cao Gang. Although many of the recruits were originally working on the docks, they were now “wearing Lord Luo’s clothes”, so they had to dress more elegantly, right?
If you want to dress more dignified, of course you can’t wear the clothes of the Qing soldiers. Those clothes are too ugly, and there is a “circle” on the chest – is this to make it easier for the enemy to aim?

So Luo Yaoguo designed a military uniform for himself. The upper body was a blue-gray Chinese-style double-breasted short jacket or single garment, the lower body was blue-gray tube pants, a blue-gray headscarf on the head, leggings on the calves, a pair of cloth shoes with thousand-layer soles on the feet, a cloth belt around the waist, and a cloth bag carried on the shoulder.

The material used for this military uniform was mainly the most common blue-gray cotton cloth, and the style was also a familiar one among the people. Wu Jianzhang’s Tongshunhang put out the order, and the people’s homes in Shanghai, Huating, Qingpu, Jiading, Baoshan and other counties took it up. Thousands of housewives worked together to sew the uniforms, and only then were the quantities gathered in such a short time.

The next day, when Luo Yaoguo and Wu Jianzhang took a carriage to the newly opened restaurant called Lao Dexiji in the concession to have a western meal with the consuls of Britain, the United States and France, a group of new army soldiers who shouted “wear Luo’s clothes” every day finally put on the new uniforms prepared for them by Luo and followed their Luo into the British Concession in Shanghai.

All of them were dressed in simple blue-gray uniforms, carrying brown bass rifles, with bayonets hanging on their belts. They formed two columns in front and behind the carriage, and advanced while shouting commands of “one, two, one” and “left, right, left”. They really looked like a Western army.

“Xueyan, you really know how to train soldiers! It’s only been a few days, but you’re already in good shape! I don’t think you need foreign generals and soldiers anymore, otherwise you can just use those foreign generals and soldiers.”

In the carriage, Wu Jianzhang saw through the window a group of capable-looking recruits in front of him, and somehow the subject turned to the foreign generals and soldiers.

These days, Luo Yaoguo and Wu Jianzhang, with the help of the consuls of Britain, the United States and France, have already negotiated the contracts of more than 200 foreign officers, soldiers and sailors. However, these foreign officers and soldiers have not yet officially taken up their posts.

Unlike the Chinese soldiers recruited by Wu Ruxiao, Wang Kuiyi and Cheng Fupei, they could immediately enter the barracks after receiving the resettlement allowance and signing the contract. These foreigners in Shanghai had to quit their jobs. Some of them had to handle the handover of positions in the British and French garrisons, or at least arrange for an agent before they could take up their posts under Luo Yaoguo. Some people even had to relax for a few days after quitting their original jobs.

It’s so slow and not neat at all!

So many foreigners signed up, but less than 30 people actually entered the Luodian camp. Moreover, these people did not join the army, but received short-term Chinese language training from Wu Chaoyue.

“That won’t do,” Luo Yaoguo immediately shook his head when he heard Wu Jianzhang’s intention to “dismiss” the foreigners who had not yet started work. “The contract has been signed, how can you break it?”

“Only more than a hundred people have signed, and there are more than a hundred who haven’t signed yet!” Wu Jianzhang said with a smile, “In fact, I don’t want to save that money, but I want to recommend these people to Lord Su.”

“Lord Su?” Luo Yaoguo immediately became alert, “Su Shun? He is also going to train a new European-style army?”

Wu Jianzhang nodded, as if it was a matter of course: “Xueyan, you relied on a few hundred new troops to be promoted from a small seventh-rank candidate county to a fourth-rank Jiangnan Salt Administration and Jiangning Prefecture in a short period of time. Isn’t this a promotion that attracts attention from all over the world? Of course, many people want to learn from you.”

“But Sushun is a royal relative!” Luo Yaoguo frowned, “He still needs to train his troops to get promoted.”

“That’s not necessary,” Wu Jianzhang shook his head, “but he is going to lead the team abroad.”

“Going abroad? Sushun is going abroad?” Luo Yaoguo was shocked and thought, “What’s going on? Is the Westernization Movement going to be advanced? Why is it moving forward so fast? Where are the diehards? Why don’t they stand up and stop it?”

“Lord Wu, where did you get this information? Is it reliable?” Luo Yaoguo still couldn’t believe it.

“Of course it’s reliable!” Wu Jianzhang took out a thick stack of documents from his sleeve pocket and handed them to Luo Yaoguo, “Brother Xueyan, take a look for yourself. This is the report that was just delivered today.”

“Palace newspaper? Oh. Let me take a look.”

Luo Yaoguo then remembered that ancient China had long had “Dibao”, a kind of news document specially used to convey the court’s information on state affairs and political intelligence – which of course was also a loophole for leaks!
The previously established God Worshipping Society secret hall had long regarded the collection of the Qing court’s “Di Bao” as an important way to obtain intelligence. But now that he was a fourth-rank Daotai of the Qing Dynasty, he could obtain Di Bao openly, but he forgot about it. But even if he remembered this, Luo Yaoguo himself could not obtain Di Bao. Because he has not even established a formal government office yet! He had never thought of confronting the Holy Angel Wu Wang Luo Yaoguo in Shanghai, so he did not plan to open a government office.

Now that we are going to set up the “Shanghai Special Economic Zone”, we need an office to connect with the Qing imperial court.

Luo Yaoguo was multitasking. On one hand, he was thinking about how to open a government office, and on the other hand, he had unfolded an 18-page court bulletin and flipped through the pages. He soon found the news about “Sushun, Yuanbao, Bai Siwen, and Li Hongzhang going abroad.”

“And Li Hongzhang?” Luo Yaoguo muttered, and then asked in surprise: “Are they going to… to Rome to ask the monks of the Vatican’s Demon-Subduing Hall to subdue the demons?”

Wu Jianzhang nodded and said with a smile, “I heard from Wade, who is in charge of this matter, that inviting the monks of the Church to the Qing Dynasty to exorcise demons is only one of the purposes of this trip. Another purpose is to ask foreign generals and soldiers to help train troops, and then purchase a large number of foreign guns and cannons to deal with the Taiping rebels. So if we don’t need those one or two hundred foreign generals and soldiers, we can transfer them to Lord Su, and he will make proper arrangements for them.”

“We can use them!” Luo Yaoguo quickly rejected Wu Jianzhang’s proposal, “How can we not use them? We are just getting started with the Western-style army, and we have a lot to learn! Sir Wu, let’s urge Aliguo, Aitong, and Ma Hui today and ask them to quickly arrange for those professional officers we signed to take up their posts!”

“Okay, I’ll urge you again!”

Lao Dexiji Restaurant near the British Consulate was the first Western restaurant to open in Shanghai. It was located in a three-story British-style building on the Bund, close to the Huangpu River. It was an important place for prominent foreigners in Shanghai to dine and socialize.

At this moment, in a private room on the third floor of this western-style building, Alcock, Wade, Aitong, Ma Hui, and an old man wearing a French Army uniform, with a long scar on his right cheek and fierce eyes, were reading a copy of the “Hong Kong Banknote” that had just been delivered from Hong Kong. Next to the Hong Kong Banknote was a bilingual Chinese and English “Great Prophecy Book”.

The atmosphere in the box was very solemn. Aitong and the old French officer kept making the sign of the cross on their chests and muttering something. Wade shook his head and muttered, “This is impossible, absolutely impossible. Napoleon III actually married this Eugenie. Even the wedding date is the same as what is written in the Great Prophecy!”

Ma Hui, the redneck consul of the United States, said excitedly: “I knew the devil existed! I have long known that there are many legends about the devil in the United States, and some people even believe in the devil!”

“Major!” the old French officer interrupted the American consul in stiff English, “Why the devil? Maybe an angel?”

“It can’t be an angel,” the French Consul Ai Tong immediately shook his head and said, “Charles, if the information in the Great Prophecy Book comes from angels, then what are those children and sons-in-law of God in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom?”

The American Ma Hui took over the question from the French consul and shrugged, saying, “God may have more than one child, Jesus. Adam and Eve also seem to be children of God.”

“Major, you are blaspheming!” said the French consul seriously.

Ma Hui snorted: “What do you mean by blasphemy? This is freedom of belief! Our United States is a country of freedom, unlike some European countries that always waver between freedom and monarchy!”

“Major,” the old French officer was immediately furious, “without our French monarch, you would still be a second-class citizen in a British colony!”

“Stop arguing! The diplomatic missions of our three countries in China must be united!” British Consul Alcock saw that “the United States” and “France” were about to fight over the issue of how many children God has, and quickly spoke to mediate.

But Major Ma Hui and the old French officer were still glaring at each other. Just when the situation was about to get out of control, an Indian servant from the British Consulate quickly walked upstairs, walked up to Aliguo, bowed, and said in a flattering tone: “Sir, the Chinese guests have arrived.”

Aliguo glanced at the French and the American and said in a deep voice: “Don’t show in front of the Chinese that there is no principled disagreement between us. Besides, the question of God is not something that we secular people can discuss clearly!”

(End of this chapter)