Chapter 644: A Revolutionary Party Emerges in Japan! (Requesting Subscription and Vote)

Tingyu Pavilion at the end of the Nine-Curve Bridge is surrounded by water on three sides, and the copper bells on the eaves jingle in the autumn wind.

When Luo Yaoguo pushed open the carved wooden door, Rinko was already kneeling on the Persian carpet, the hem of her thin pink kimono spread out in a fan shape, revealing a snow-white neck with golden wheat ears and a golden cross tattooed on the back. This somewhat superstitious woman was respectful and pious, as if she was on a pilgrimage, with her eyes downcast, not daring to look directly into Luo Yaoguo’s eyes.

“Speak!” Luo Yaoguo lifted up his bright yellow dragon robe, sat on a royal chair, and picked up a ruler that someone had left on the coffee table and started playing with it. “How much do you know about Zhao Si?”

“I first met him about three years ago, at the Osaka Port.” Rinko’s forehead was pressed against the carpet, and her voice was like a taut guitar string. “Bishop Hong arranged for me to take a steam paddle steamer to the United States, and asked me to obey Lei Lao Hu. Zhao Si was Lei Lao Hu’s subordinate at the time. He was very seasick, so Lei Lao Hu asked me to take care of him.”

Luo Yaoguo narrowed his eyes and tapped his palm with the ruler in his hand. He walked to Rinzi, squatted down, and then lifted her chin with the ruler and raised her head. The red sandalwood ruler held up Rinzi’s pitiful and extremely delicate face: “Where is he from? Did Lei Laohu mention where he met Zhao Si?”

Rinko’s eyelashes trembled, and her voice remained calm: “Zhao Si seems to be from Beijing.” Her eyes flickered slightly, as if she was recalling the scene at that time, “Zhao Si was still a nobody at that time, but he had a deep understanding of the teachings of the True Covenant Sect, and Lei Lao Hu thought highly of him. According to Lei Lao Hu, Zhao Si joined the Taiping Army when Beijing was captured, and he also donated a piece of yellow stone, which was obtained by Hong Rengan and carved into a statue of the Heavenly King.”

Luo Yaoguo did not respond immediately, but turned to the window and pushed open the carved window. The moonlight reflected on the surface of the pond, the autumn wind blew in with a little coolness, rolling up a few pages of documents on the desk. He suddenly turned around, his eyes as sharp as a knife: “Don’t tell these words to anyone else, including your godfather, King Feng Nan.”

Rinko’s body stiffened slightly, but she quickly regained her composure: “Yes! I will keep my mouth shut!”

“Have you heard of Sakuma Zozan?” Luo Yaoguo suddenly changed the subject.

“I’ve heard of him!” Rinko replied, “He is a famous figure in Japan with many disciples. When I was working for Hong Daquan, I even organized an assassination attempt on him!”

Luo Yaoguo raised his mouth slightly, revealing a hint of sneer: “Sakuma Shozan recently formed a Japanese revolutionary party! He advocates mobilizing lower-class samurai and civilians to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate and local feudal clans, and then divide the land equally to establish a new Japan where all four classes are equal.” He walked up to Rinko and tapped her shoulder lightly with the ruler in his hand. “What do you think of his proposal?”

Rinko raised her head, her eyes full of doubt: “This idea is somewhat similar to Heaven, and it seems to have absorbed the ideas of those red ghosts in Europe.”

“The Red Ghost of Europe?” Luo Yaoguo asked, “You have seen two of them, right?”

“More than that.” Rinko shook her head, “Three!”

“Three?” Luo Yaoguo asked, “Who are they?”

“Master Karl, Master Friedrich, and a Russian named Mikhail Bakunin!”

“Mikhail Alexander Bakunin.” Luo Yaoguo casually read out Bakunin’s full name. “Interesting. He went to the United States?”

“Yes, and he became a subordinate of Grand Duchess Natalia.” Rinko replied.

Luo Yaoguo was silent for a moment, then turned his back to Rinko and said in a low voice: “The day after tomorrow, I will take the American ship ‘Sea Dragon’ to Nagasaki. As a representative of the American Federation of Japanese Overseas Chinese, I will donate some money to the Japanese Revolutionary Party, and then ask the Japanese Revolutionary Party to do something big in Nagasaki!”

Rinko took two steps on her knees and said, “I wonder what Your Highness wants the Japanese Revolutionary Party to do?”

Luo Yaoguo turned around and looked down at her: “Rice riot! Recently, the price of rice in Japan has skyrocketed to as high as ten kan per stone. This is because wealthy merchants and feudal lords sold Japanese rice to foreign merchants at high prices. Now the warehouses of foreign merchants in Nagasaki, Japan are full of white rice!”

Rinko nodded respectfully: “I understand.”

The night watch bell had just struck twice at midnight. When Wanzhen pushed open the study door with a cup of coffee, she saw a rosewood ruler on Luo Yaoguo’s desk. Wanzhen suddenly thought of something, put down her coffee, and knelt down to Luo Yaoguo.

“Master Zhao Si, the way he looks at me,” Wanzhen said with a trembling voice, “is 70% similar to Xianfeng, with his pockmarked face, his triangular eyes, and the way he walks with a limp.”

Luo Yaoguo was writing a letter to Hong Daquan in Japan. When he heard Wanzhen’s words, he put down his brush and said, “I already know. I have communicated with the king of heaven using the Tongtian mirror.” He suddenly picked up the ruler and knocked on Wanzhen’s hair. “Xianfeng escaped from the prison in heaven and sneaked back to the underworld.”

“Ah,” Wanzhen said in a panic, “He, he, could he be a spirit?”

“What’s so scary about a spirit?” Luo Yaoguo snorted coldly, “Besides, he is just a mortal.”

“How can a mortal being descend to the lower world?”

“Snapped!”

The ruler suddenly hit her shoulder, and Luo Yaoguo’s voice sounded very scary: “This is a secret. Is it your place to ask?” His fingertips suddenly brushed across Wanzhen’s neck. Wanzhen’s body trembled even more violently, and tears slid down her cheeks: “I dare not. I will never reveal a single word”

Luo Yaoguo put away the ruler and looked at her coldly: “Remember this, Zhao Si’s matter ends here. He is God’s pawn, it is not something you can interfere with. You are not allowed to tell anyone, including your sister!”

Wanzhen nodded repeatedly, and the cold sweat on her forehead mixed with tears dripped onto the floor. Luo Yaoguo waved his hand, signaling her to leave.

Wanzhen felt as if she had been pardoned. She stood up hurriedly and staggered out of the study.

At the same time, Xianfeng was wearing a white middle-length coat and sitting in a guest room in Feng Yunshan’s official residence in Shanghai. At his feet was Chiyoko, who was kneeling with her upper body naked.

“Chiyoko,” Xianfeng suddenly asked, “Do you know who I am?”

“Hai,” Chiyoko said softly, “you are Zhao Si, the master of this servant!”

“No! I am not Zhao Si!” Xianfeng demanded, “Tell me, who am I?”

“You… you are Zhao Si!” Chiyoko suddenly raised her head, her round face full of worry, “Master, what’s wrong with you? Are you still my master?”

Xianfeng finally believed Chiyoko and said with a sigh: “I am still him, and I am still your master. Remember, I am Zhao Si!”

“Hai!” Chiyoko breathed a sigh of relief and bowed again, “Master, it’s getting late. Let me take you to bed!”

On November 1858, 11, the steam engine of the Beijing-Shanghai line train spewed out white mist. Xianfeng leaned on the window to see Lehman Brothers and JP Morgan seeing him off on the platform – the two were temporarily assigned to the Shanghai Stock Exchange as traders of the Prophecy Fund and could not go north with Xianfeng this time.

Chiyoko followed Xianfeng closely and suddenly said in an inaudible voice: “This morning, Sister Rinko brought me two Japanese maids. They are only sixteen or seventeen years old. Their arms and legs are very strong. They are probably trained by the Female Warrior Bureau!”

Xianfeng was startled, then forced a smile: “I see.”

The coal smoke from the locomotive swept across the fields outside Shanghai. Chiyoko stared at the rolling waves of rice outside the window in a daze.

Xianfeng’s lame leg hurt so much from the leather chair in the box, but he remained motionless, as if he was in a trance.

Ever since Chiyoko reported to him when the train started that Rinko had sent him a maid from the Women’s Warrior Bureau, he knew that he was under surveillance by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom’s secret hall…

“Is Zhao Si from Beijing?” Luo Yaoguo, who was sitting opposite Emperor Xianfeng, suddenly put down the latest edition of Datong Daily and asked, “Is he a bannerman?”

Xianfeng’s heart skipped a beat: “Uncle Jiu, I am Han Chinese, my family has been Han Chinese for generations.”

“So what do you think of Demon Xian?” Luo Yaoguo asked, “Is he the most incompetent emperor in the Qing Dynasty?”

The air in the box suddenly froze. Chiyoko clutched the sleeves of her kimono and heard the clanging sound of the wheels rolling over the seams of the rails.

“No, Xianfeng was not the most incompetent emperor in the Qing Dynasty.” Xianfeng shook his head – he had worked so hard, how could he be the most incompetent emperor? He inherited a mess!

“Then who is the most incompetent emperor in the Qing Dynasty?” Luo Yaoguo asked.

“Needless to say? Of course it was Kangxi who was blind and ignorant of the times!” Xianfeng was really heartbroken. “When Kangxi defeated the Three Feudatories, his red cannons were not much worse than those of the foreigners. If he had lifted the maritime ban earlier, he would have known that the earth was round and that there was a new continent on the other side of the ocean! He could have easily sent some people out to encircle a large piece of land. Why are we still suffering so much now? He was so stupid and sorry for his descendants! If he had robbed more at that time, his descendants wouldn’t have suffered so much.”

Feng Yunshan laughed out loud, “You, a cripple, are the emperor, and you know better than Kangxi, the so-called saint!”

The “Wuxi” station sign flashed outside the train window, and a Taiping Heavenly Kingdom soldier was helping an old farmer carry a bag of grain onto the train. Xianfeng sighed – the Taiping Army’s current behavior was better than the Heavenly Army at the founding of the Qing Dynasty.

The reason we lost to them was really because of Emperor Xianfeng’s stupidity!
“Go on.” Luo Yaoguo stroked the “Tongtian Mirror”, “If you were to sit on the Dragon Throne and face our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, how would you plan to turn the tables?”

“Me? I will definitely cut the banner salary and move the capital to Shengjing.” Xianfeng’s lame leg twitched unconsciously. “Use 10 to 20 years to cultivate the three northeastern provinces into a granary, then let Zeng Guofan lead the Hunan Army to the south to conquer Vietnam, and then use foreign ships to transport Vietnamese rice to the north to supply the troops in Shengjing.” He suddenly caught a glimpse of the sneer on Luo Yaoguo’s mouth and hurriedly changed his words, “Of course, even if we do this, it will only prolong our survival and there is absolutely no way we can turn the situation around. We can only hold on for a few more years.”

(End of this chapter)