The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 1518: Capitol Hill Brawl
The British magazine Punch, the French magazine Folly, and Le Figaro all reported the accident.

"Axe, Saw and Fool", "Revenge of the Tricolor Flag! French fishermen successfully sank the crystallization of British technology", "Surprise! An axe worth 25 pounds", "Amazing! French fishermen cut off the tentacles of the Kraken and returned triumphantly!", "From Waterloo to the deep sea, France successfully avenged England!".
Louis Napoleon was almost irritated by these headlines; they were simply rubbing salt into his wounds.

So Emperor Napoleon III personally wrote a letter to the editor-in-chief of Le Figaro to express his strong dissatisfaction and condemned Le Figaro as a French newspaper for not adding insult to injury in this critical moment.

The editor-in-chief of Le Figaro published his reply directly in the newspaper:
"Dear Majesty Napoleon III, if criticism is not free, praise is meaningless."

Newspapers in Germany naturally would not miss this opportunity, but many of them had obvious political tendencies, which made Franz feel that they lacked some spiciness.

Compared to Louis Napoleon's gaffe, the British reaction was much more muted.

Although the laying of the submarine cable this time is led by the British and the cost is mainly borne by the UK, for the UK itself this is just a casual move, and its commercial value may even be greater than its political value.

On the other hand, for the whole of Britain, this blow is really not worth mentioning. It is just a mere 250,000 pounds. At this time, the UK’s predicament is worth at least hundreds of millions of pounds.

In addition, the British government and royal family focused their attention on the World Industrial Exposition, hoping to make a comeback through it.

In fact, the final analysis is that France, as an ally, has a very low priority in Britain's diplomatic strategy. At this time, France lost Alsace-Lorraine, North Africa, and many of its colonies, and its power was severely damaged.

The conflicts between the two sides overseas also annoyed the British, but the British are definitely not the kind of country that cannot seek the skin of a tiger, and they will not give up the opportunity for cooperation because of a trivial dispute.

The essence is that France is too weak now, and the enemy, the Holy Alliance, is too strong.

The group of Austria and Russia had no rivals on the European continent at that time. Of course, Britain could use its navy to attack first and defeat the Austrian Empire.

This is not impossible for the UK to do, but it will definitely come at a certain price.

If Britain's only enemy was Austria, they would never hesitate and would definitely defeat the Austrian Empire completely at the first opportunity and at all costs.

But unfortunately, Britain’s enemy at this time was not only the Austrian Empire, and even the Austrian Empire itself was not Britain’s top priority.

Russia is Britain's number one enemy at this time. If Britain and Austria go to war, Russia will definitely not sit idle and will definitely take the opportunity to attack the Middle East. Austria cannot compete with Britain at sea, but its hundreds of thousands of army are not just for show and will definitely help attack the Ottoman Empire.

The result was that after paying a huge price to defeat the Austrian Empire, Britain discovered that Russia had already swallowed up most of the Near East, and the Ottoman Empire was no longer able to stop the Russians and had even been annexed by them.

By then, even a weak Austria would be unable to stop Russia's westward advance, and the British would be unable to stop Russia from becoming the world hegemon.

The British did not believe that the Russians would be as nice as Nicholas I said and just want to retake Constantinople.

In fact, even at this time, Russia was threatening the Persian Gulf region, India, the Far East, and even Canada.

The threat from the Russians is not about competing with you about whose products are cheaper or whose cultural influence is stronger. The threats from the Russians are all real.

For example, Nicholas I's move to support Franz's troop increase in Alaska made the British wary, and they rarely sent two regiments of troops to the western border of Canada.

Britain's move to increase its troops directly scared the United States. After all, the Americans have been poaching Britain's talents.

The new President of the United States, Daniel Webster, was very troubled by this. All the problems left by Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore fell on him, and he really didn't want to be the president at all.

Daniel Webster wanted to stop the infiltration into the northwest, but members of Congress were unwilling to do so.

The result of the parliamentary debate was to send more troops to the northwest to prevent Britain from provoking a war.

As a result, Russia, Britain and the United States formed an iron triangle here, and the three parties were wary of each other and had their own ulterior motives.

If Britain continues to turn a blind eye to Russia, the situation in the future will only get worse, and what happened in Canada will be repeated all over the world.

It was not just the border issue that gave Daniel Webster a headache. The Cuban Crisis had just ended and the North and the South had started a new round of struggle in Congress.

John Caldwell Calhoun spoke loudly, holding a copy of the United States Constitution high above his head.

"Article 1787, Section of the Constitution of the United States states in black and white: 'Fugitive slaves shall be returned.' At the Constitutional Convention in , our Southern forefathers made great political concessions in exchange for this fugitive slave clause, and now you are denying it with the so-called state rights!

I would like to ask you, where are the states' rights in the South?"

Congressman Lincoln immediately stood up and retorted.

"This is wrong. The states' rights of the South are naturally valid in the South, but in the North, the states' rights of the North naturally take precedence."

There was an immediate uproar in Congress, with Northern congressmen praising Lincoln's quick thinking and Southern congressmen cursing him.

"You are wrong! Senator Lincoln, you deliberately overlooked two important points.

First, our legal property in the South was illegally sent to the North. Second, we are all Americans, and when we have conflicts we should abide by the federal constitution, not state law.

If the swindlers from your north flee to our south, will we also protect them?"

Jefferson Hamilton Davis was not to be outdone, and Lincoln immediately responded.

"If you have a provision in your Southern laws to protect liars, then I respect it."

"aweason!"

There was another commotion in Congress.

Lincoln also took out a copy of the Constitution and turned to the preamble.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Please ask me, when a free man is deprived of his rights simply because of the color of his skin, when a judge's reward depends on who the outcome of the judgment is in favor of.

What kind of justice is this?"

Lincoln's momentum was so overwhelming that the northern congressmen were deeply moved and cheered for him.

However, both Calhoun and Davis were experienced men at this time, so how could they be frightened by Lincoln's momentum?

"Senator Lincoln, you are confusing the concepts. When did those slaves become free people? What evidence do you have that the judge's pay is related to the outcome of the verdict?" As soon as these words were spoken, the Southern congressmen were immediately outraged. They immediately remembered the humiliation that Vanderbilt had brought upon them before.

"That's right! You are a lackey of the Vanderbilt family. How dare you frame others?"

"Get off!"

“Being a lawyer is a dirty thing!”

Before Lincoln could counterattack, Calhoun came up to finish him off.

"Mr. Lincoln, why won't you support the Labor Protection Act? Aren't those white compatriots free people?

What kind of justice do you think those poor people in the northern factories are living in indifference?"

This was simply Lincoln's Achilles' heel. He really couldn't refute it, let alone make any promises. After all, he couldn't betray the interests of the class he represented.

Seeing that Lincoln remained silent, some young and energetic Northern congressmen became restless.

"We paid them! They work, we pay them, it's fair!"

The southern congressmen could no longer hold back.

"Didn't we pay?"

“The workers are all volunteers!”

"The slaves volunteered, too!"

"Damn slave owners!"

"Evil capitalist!"

The Constitution and the Declaration of the Rights of Man flew all over the Capitol. Benches and ink bottles became weapons. After a brief trial, the two sides finally entered the melee stage.
On the other side of the world, it is hard to imagine that Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing, Xiao Chaogui, Feng Yunshan and others who would conquer the world in the future were being forced into a desperate situation by a small local militia.

This militia leader felt ashamed because Hong Xiuquan and others had smashed the Ganwang Temple, so he reported the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to the government.

It was just that the local officials did not want to get involved in such infighting among the gentry, and only reluctantly put him in jail until the militia leader personally went to the headquarters of the God Worshipping Society to arrest people.

Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing, Xiao Chaogui and others immediately raised funds to save people. They gave moral advice to the wealthy believers, but were more humble to those powerful believers, usually only daring to pretend that it was "Mr. Gao" who did it.

In the early days of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, "Gao Lao" was used to refer to God.

However, Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing were not so polite to ordinary believers. They directly issued so-called teachings, saying that those who dared not pay would suffer so-called retribution.

However, in the end, Hong Xiucai still failed. The government only took money but did not do anything. The militia leader not only killed several core members of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in prison, but also planned to use the same trick again.

At this time, the fledgling Shi Dakai proposed to kill this demon, but was collectively opposed by the top leaders of the God Worshipping Society. After all, they were not ready yet.

The militia leader's attitude was arrogant, and his threatening words kept lingering in Hong Xiuquan's ears, giving him nightmares.

During this period, the Yellow River in the Qing Dynasty was suffering from drought, the Yangtze River was flooding, refugees were everywhere, and bandits were rampant.
The situation in Guangdong and Guangxi was not much better. In the seven years from the 23rd to the 30th year of the reign of Emperor Daoguang alone, more than 20 disasters of varying sizes occurred, and the land was filled with starving people.

Compared with natural disasters, man-made disasters are more terrible. The refugees who can't survive join the rebellion under the coercion of the secret society, but most of these people have no goals, so they are very easy to be bribed by the government.

The local Qing officials were also willing to do so, so there would often be fights between two groups of refugees on the battlefield. These refugees were not fools, most of them were just trying to make a living, and would not really fight to the death.

But not daring to fight on the battlefield does not mean that they will not fight when plundering the people. The government troops composed of these refugees are much more ruthless than those composed of local thugs on weekdays.
In addition, the officials of the Qing Dynasty were not human beings. They did not want to solve the problem, but just wanted to find someone to take the blame. In order to divert the conflict and also to make a profit from it, they chose to stir up infighting among the grassroots.

Although the Qing government was corrupt at that time, it still had some credibility in remote rural areas. The most direct result was a large-scale armed conflict between the local Hakka and native peoples.
However, for Hong Xiuquan, the timing, location and people were all right. Finally, Hong Xiuquan issued the order to set up the "Tuanying" in Jintian on October 1st of the 30th year of Daoguang.

At this time, Hong Xiuquan had only 20,000 troops, 10,000 of whom were old and weak and unable to fight. His strength was not the best among the refugees, and it was hard to imagine that he would shake the foundation of the entire Qing Dynasty in the near future.

This is mainly due to the four innovations of the Taiping Army. The first is the "Taiping Regulations" which now seems extremely reactionary. Although there are many dross in it, it did indeed stipulate the military discipline of the Taiping Army and gave them faith.

Although faith is something that cannot be seen or touched, it is very important to soldiers and the army.

The second is the public treasury system. Although it has also been criticized, such as supporting idlers and lazy people, but at that most difficult time, it made the most of the Taiping Army's existing resources.

Since the public treasury system theoretically did not allow individuals to own private property, it created a sense of equality among everyone in the early days, uniting soldiers and officers while avoiding class differentiation, reducing massacres and looting, and in turn strengthening their beliefs.

The people also saw a different rebel army. After all, there was not much difference between the rebel army and the Qing army before, which laid the foundation for the rapid expansion of the Taiping Army.

Third, men and women were separated into different camps, which increased the labor force and combat effectiveness to a certain extent.

Fourth, grow your hair and change your clothes.

As disgusted as people were with shaving their heads and changing their clothes in the early Qing Dynasty, they were just as enthusiastic about growing their hair and changing their clothes at this time.

What Hong Xiuquan didn't know was that his unintentional decision actually strengthened the psychological identity within the Taiping Army. People wearing the same clothing and having the same hairstyle could easily be mistaken for one of their own, and even reduced the possibility of Qing spies infiltrating to a certain extent.

However, the Taiping Army did not have a peaceful life. As soon as Hong Xiuquan gathered his troops in Jintian, they were surrounded and attacked by the Qing army. Some of their troops were even separated.

However, the Qing army once again missed the best opportunity to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The Qing army, which underestimated the enemy and blamed each other, encountered the Taiping Army who was fighting a desperate battle. The outcome was obvious.

The militia and captains who tried their best to stop the Taiping Army suffered heavy losses, while the Taiping Army built up confidence after a series of great victories.

On January 1851, 1, Hong Xiuquan announced the official establishment of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the first year of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was officially declared.

At this time, Pope Pius IX, who was in Kowloon Peninsula, was watching the Italian version of "Original Song of the Salvation", but he soon couldn't help but burst into cursing.

"Nonsense! You are just spreading rumors to confuse the public!"

Pius IX had no interest in this kind of mixed religion and wanted to return to Rome. But a moment later, Pius IX picked up the booklet and read it carefully.