Chapter 507: Imperialism and Feudalism Unite! (Requesting subscription and votes)

The dome of the Oriental Pavilion of the British Museum casts amber light and shadows, and the twelve stained glass windows cut the sunset into warm spots. Prince Albert’s fingers tap unconsciously on a teak desk. A cup of milk tea made with Chinese black tea and British milk exudes a sweet smell. The gray-blue pupils behind the crystal lenses stare intently at the second-rank Qing official opposite him, wearing a full hat and feathers.

“Your Highness,” Bai Siwen said to the British consort in front of him in Oxford English, “I think you should have read the book “Revolutionary Book Collection”? Your spy should have reported to you about this collection and the huge waves caused by the recent magic fever in London, right?” His blue satin sleeves brushed against the Persian carpet, and a bright yellow folded book slipped out of his sleeves. “This is a handwritten letter from our country’s Emperor Tongde to you. He just came to power at the end of last year. The first thing he did after taking office was to write to you and Napoleon III to inform you of the predicament facing the Qing Dynasty and seek help. In this letter, Emperor Tongde carefully described the actions of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It’s terrible!”

The prince took the handwritten letter from Yi Xin and opened it. It was written in both Chinese and English, with neat official script and beautiful English cursive characters. Unlike what Prince Albert had expected, the new Qing emperor did not describe the atrocities of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in his letter. Instead, he spent a lot of space to write about how they divided the land, built special zones, and developed industry.

“Compared to what they did in China, I think what the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, or the True Covenant Sect, did overseas is more worthy of your attention.” Bai Siwen then pulled out an English version of The True Covenant with a portrait of Hong Xiuquan on the cover from his sleeve and placed it in front of Prince Albert. “This was given to me by my American friend Mr. Buchanan last week. It was brought from New York by a secretary who had just arrived at the American Embassy.”

The American friend Buchanan he mentioned is the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom James Buchanan. They are all foreign envoys to the United Kingdom, so it is not surprising that they have some friendship with each other.

“James said that the God Worshipping Society was initially spread among Chinese miners on the West Coast. It was said that believing in the God Worshipping Society made it easier to dig for gold. Later, some Irish people who were panning for gold on the West Coast also became fascinated by the God Worshipping Society.”

“Irish?” Prince Albert’s heart skipped a beat.

When it comes to the Great Irish Famine, he and Queen Victoria behaved quite “inhumanly”!

Bai Siwen nodded and said with a wry smile, “The God Worshipping Church not only has the True Covenant, but also the Theory of Heaven and the Celestial Land System. Just imagine how attractive that would be to the poor Irish who fled to the United States from the island of Ireland! If I have not been misled, now almost all of Ireland’s land is owned by the noble landlords of England, no, it should be the Norman noble landlords! Those Norman noble landlords are much more ruthless than our Eight Banner nobles. Aren’t you prepared for the Irish to rebel?”

Bai Siwen’s one and a half years in the British Museum Library were not in vain – just look at the people who talked with him, and he was so eager to learn, so how could he not learn a lot? Of course, he knew what the background of the so-called United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was!

This country, in the final analysis, is owned by the Norman conquerors! Not only does the land of Ireland belong to the descendants of the Norman nobles who fought over from England, but even the land in England is almost all controlled by the descendants of the Norman nobles.

However, the descendants of the Norman nobles in England have disguised themselves as English, but they cannot pretend to be English in Ireland. They can’t pretend to be both English and Irish, right? Moreover, the Norman nobles who went to Ireland to bully others are all believers of the Anglican Church, and the Anglican Church discriminates against Catholics. They even discriminate against Catholics in England, let alone Catholics in Ireland?

So Ireland, to some extent, is a bomb buried in the body of the British Empire! Ethnic, religious, class, all kinds of contradictions come together. If it explodes, how can the British Empire maintain its world hegemony?

In addition, European rebels in those days were particularly fond of assassinations, and they especially loved to kill people at the level of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert!

The “inhumane” behavior of the British government during the Irish Famine is full of conspiracy theories about the attempt to exterminate the Irish. Given the great power of the British Empire, could it not have provided food relief to Irish tenants?
Unfortunately, these “Norman masters” in England forgot that the Irish still had America to lure them. After a large number of people were lured out, the food shortage in Ireland was alleviated, so the number of Irish people who starved to death was not enough, and the Irish who ran to the United States to work as coolies hated the “Norman masters” in England. Now they have obtained the True Testament sect from the United States, a Christian heresy with an excessive amount of rebellious spirit and rebellious theory!
What if the potential starving people in Ireland absorbed the truth of the True Contractarians and rose up against the British Empire? Prince Albert’s fingers suddenly stopped on the teak table!
“Minister Bai, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is no longer something that the Qing Dynasty can suppress!” Prince Albert narrowed his blue eyes and said carefully, “Besides, we still need the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom now!”

This also concerns his own life span. As a British prince consort, the remaining six years are really too short!
Bai Siwen gently placed another copy of the booklet on the cover of the English version of The True Covenant, covering the portrait of Hong Xiuquan. “This is the only condition that Emperor Tongde can offer. There is really no more! If you don’t want the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to unify China and then export its population and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom with all its strength, then please support the Qing Dynasty! Although supporting the Qing Dynasty is not a profitable business, once the Qing Dynasty is gone, the money you spend on guarding against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will be an astronomical figure, and it may not be effective!”

Prince Albert picked up Bai Siwen’s folded book and started reading it.
Bai Siwen’s voice lingered in his ears: “Your Highness, you must make a decision quickly. If you are late, the Qing Dynasty may be gone!”

The floating ice in Vladivostok Harbor only began to melt at the end of March, and there is still unmelted snow in the corners of the log houses of the Hunan Army camp. Zuo Zongtang took off his earmuffs and listened to the footsteps and commands of the infantry outside the tent as they drilled in formation. The Hunan Army under his command and the Nanyang New Army under Yu Wanqing’s command were probably the most well-trained new troops in the whole of China. They received strict training from British and French instructors in Ningbo and Shanghai. After they moved to Vladivostok, the officers of the British and French Expeditionary Forces spent more than half a year training more than 10,000 Chinese troops. By now, their infantry has mastered the most advanced skirmish line tactics in the West, and their artillery has reached the level of their British and French counterparts. They have even trained a cavalry battalion with 500 cavalrymen, who also practiced the French “cavalry foreign drills”, and have also learned the tactics of mixed coordination of infantry, artillery, and cavalry.

That’s really a real skill I learned!

Han Yulin, the commander of the personal guards who once studied the Anti-Classic and Western military tactics under Luo Yaoguo, pushed the door open, bringing in a cold wind with a fishy smell, and holding a wooden box with the seal torn off in his hand.

“General, an urgent message from Jiangnan.” Han Yulin lowered his voice, “Hong Tianwang has passed away, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has kept the news secret, the three giants Luo Wuwang, Feng Nanwang, and Xiao Xiwang are jointly in charge of the affairs. King Wu asks you to change your flag in Vladivostok and join the Taiping!”

Zuo Zongtang was shocked and quickly took the letter. He unfolded it under the sheep-horn lantern and saw Luo Yaoguo’s handwriting clearly on the paper. In addition to asking him to start an uprising in Vladivostok, he also promised him the title of Governor-General of the Northeast and Marquis of Zuotian, and promised to give him an annual subsidy of 2 million taels of silver.

“Marshal,” Han Yulin saw that Zuo Zongtang seemed to be still hesitating, and took another step forward and whispered, “Everything has been arranged properly. I will make sure it won’t be difficult for you, Marshal. As long as you nod, you will be a founding hero of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!”

Zuo Zongtang knew that his team had been infiltrated by Luo Yaoguo’s Dark Hall, Datong Society and the True Yue sect Japanese diocese controlled by Hong Daquan. Even if he wanted to be a loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty now, he was afraid that his subordinates would not agree.

Besides, there was really no one in the Qing Dynasty who was loyal to them, so he just let the two brothers Xianfeng and Tongde fight against the two masters and apprentices Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang. Zuo Zongtang would not play along.

Thinking of this, Zuo Zongtang took a deep breath and nodded heavily: “I have already made an agreement with the King of Wu, just go ahead and do it!”

“Understood sir!” Han Yulin bowed and turned to leave.

There was a sudden commotion outside the tent, and more than a dozen deputy generals and lieutenant generals rushed in without notification. Zhou Fengshan, a fierce general from the Hunan Fu Biao, slammed his gold-studded sword on the table and said, “The court wants to negotiate peace with the Russian Empire and withdraw from the war against Russia. The northeastern border must be bounded by the Heilongjiang River, and all the land north of the river must be ceded to the Russian Empire. They also want to transfer us to Shandong to fight Xianfeng and Marshal Zeng!”

Deputy General Liu Songshan then waved his fist and shouted: “The court only knows how to fight among themselves. They have long lost the world and us in their hearts. We have all received favors from Emperor Xianfeng and General Zeng. How can we turn our swords against each other? We might as well rebel!”

Wang Kaihua, who was in charge of the camp affairs, stroked his beard and said with a serious face: “It is said that the Xianfeng in Shandong is a fake. I heard that the real Xianfeng has surrendered to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom! It seems that the world must belong to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Marshal, change the flag!”

The charcoal pot in the log house was crackling. Zuo Zongtang picked up a yellow booklet and threw it into the fire, watching it being engulfed by the flames: “This is a secret decree from Emperor Tongde. Not only do we need to be transferred to Shandong, but we also need to give the port of Vladivostok that we worked so hard to build to the French as payment! And our military pay will also be stopped. We don’t want a court like this!”

The lieutenants stared at the unburned “secret order” in the ashes, and the breathing in the tent suddenly became heavy. Zhou Fengshan suddenly drew his sword and cut his palm, and blood fell into the bowl of liquor that had been prepared long ago: “General, I, Zhou Fengshan, only listen to you!”

“That’s right, we only listen to the Marshal!”

Everyone shouted in unison, and fifteen swords were unsheathed one after another, and drops of blood dyed the liquor red. Zuo Zongtang dipped his blood and wrote the first few characters “Zuo Zongtang, a Chu man” on a “Plea to Suppress the Enemies”. Han Yulin immediately took out Luo Yaoguo’s decree – the yellow silk read “Together to Suppress the Enemies and Build Peace Together”!
(End of this chapter)