The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 215 The Great Book of Prophecy (end of the month, please give me a monthly ticket)
"What's the interesting story?" Wu Jianzhang said with a smile, "Can you tell me about it?"

"Sure!" Luo Yaoguo nodded, "But this is not the place to talk, and it's not appropriate to put Lord Zhang's 500 elite soldiers and the 500,000 taels of silver that I brought on the street. I wonder if Lord Wu can arrange a good place for me? It would be best if we could arrange it in the British Concession, so that it would be convenient for transactions and the hundreds of thousands of taels of silver would be easy to keep."

Wu Jianzhang thought about it for a while, then nodded and said, "Okay. Let me discuss it with Mr. Aliguo."

Luo Yaoguo smiled and cupped his hands: "Then I'll leave it to you, Lord Wu."

Three hours later.

Inside the British Consulate in Shanghai, in the living room, a large group of people were finally seated there. They were all leading figures from China and Britain in Shanghai.

On the British side, there were not only the British Empire's number one and number two in Shanghai - Consul Alcock and Vice-Consul Wade, but also Matheson, the boss of Jardine Matheson.

On the Chinese side, it was headed by Wu Jianzhang, the governor of Susongtai and the supervisor of the Jianghai Customs, and Wang Kuiyi, the prefect of Hengzhou Prefecture in Hunan, as well as Luo Xueyan, the "Westernization advisor" of Hunan Governor Luo Bingzhang, and Wu Ruxiao, the advisor of Zuo Zongtang, the leader of the Hunan Army.

As for Zhang Sanxiang, Wang Dalong, Xu Yuegui, the five hundred "most elite infantrymen of the Qing Dynasty" and the five hundred thousand taels of silver, they were all arranged in Tongshun Building, less than three miles away from the British Consulate. This was the head office of Wu Jianzhang's own business, which occupied a large piece of land at the junction of the British Concession and the Chinese Concession, and built many houses, collectively known as Tongshun Building. In addition to the houses used by Tongshun, there were also some houses that were prepared for subletting, but they had not yet found a buyer, so they were all empty.

Wu Jianzhang discussed it with Aliguo, and after obtaining the latter's consent, he lent all the empty houses in Tongshun Building to Luo Xueyan and others.

However, it took more than two hours to settle Luo Xueyan and others. It was not until the afternoon of that day, when Aliguo and Wade and Matheson, who were called by him, were drinking milk tea one cup after another in the living room of the consulate and were about to vomit, that Luo Xueyan, Wu Jianzhang, Wang Kuiyi, Wu Ruxiao and others finally arrived.

But better late than never!
Aliguo and the others were all well-educated British gentlemen or charlatans. Even though they were a little annoyed by waiting for them, they could only smile and be polite, chatting and laughing with Luo Xueyan in fluent Chinese and Oxford-accented English, saying some meaningless clichés.

After asking for about half an hour, Aliguo didn't get much valuable information, so he stopped asking and just started asking directly: "Mr. Luo, Mr. Wu just told me that when you were fighting the Taiping Army with Governor Luo in Hunan, you heard some very interesting things. Was it about the demon that fell from the sky?"

"Yes, that's what I said." Luo Yaoguo took another sip of the original British milk tea, which had a strong milk and tea aroma, and replied with a smile, "It is indeed very interesting."

"Would you like to tell me about it?" Aliguo asked.

"Of course," Luo Yaoguo said with a smile, "Mr. Consul, you know about the Battle of Minoyiferry and the Devil's Descent from the Sky, right?"

Aliguo nodded, then pointed at Wu Jianzhang and said, "Mr. Wu also sent me a Secret Report on the Discovery of Demons in China today. It was written by a Russian priest who is the high priest of the Eastern Orthodox Church in Beijing. He once participated in the Battle of Changsha and is said to have fought against demons. The opening chapter is about the Battle of Suoyifal and the Descendants from the Sky."

"That's what the imperial court said," Luo Yaoguo said with a smile, "The Taiping rebels don't admit that it was a demon that fell from the sky. They say it was an angel that fell from the sky!"

"Angel?" Aliguo shrugged. "Mr. Luo, is this the interesting thing you are talking about?"

"Of course not, Mr. Consul, look at this." Luo Yaoguo put down the cup of milk tea, then took out a handwritten thread-bound book from the sleeve of his official robe and placed it on the coffee table.

Alcock's deputy, Wade, was an expert on China. He had been in China for more than ten years and was fluent in Chinese. He glanced at the words on the cover of the thread-bound book and said to Alcock in English, "Rutherford, the name of this book is The Great Prophecy!"

"The Great Book of Prophecy? What does it predict?"

"It predicted a lot of things," Luo Yaoguo said. "For example, Mr. Louis Bonaparte, the President of the French Republic, will become the Emperor of the French Empire in December 1852!"

Aliguo did not comment.

It is now late February of the year 1853 in the Gregorian calendar.

Napoleon III's enthronement was not a prophecy.

"And in October 1853, the Ninth Russo-Turkish War broke out!"

"Oh?" Aliguo did not show much interest. After all, it was the Russo-Turkish War!
"Both Britain and France will be drawn into this war!"

"what?"

"This"

The three British people present were all stunned.

Luo Yaoguo went on to say: "This war will last for two to three years and will cause the deaths of more than half a million people!"

"How can this be!"

"This kind of thing can never happen!"

"This is the most vicious curse!"

The three British guys could no longer sit still. They knew that there were conflicts between Britain, France and Russia, and a fight was understandable, but what scale would it be like if more than 500,000 people were killed in a war?

Luo Yaoguo shrugged. “The Great Book of Prophecy not only predicts the outbreak, duration and huge losses of the Ninth Russo-Turkish War, but also predicts some events before the outbreak of the Ninth Russo-Turkish War. For example, this month, a Russian prince will go to the capital of Turkey and ask the Turkish government to recognize that the Russian emperor has special protection rights over the Orthodox subjects under the rule of the Sultan. And ask the Turkish army to withdraw from Montenegro - this is one of the triggers for the outbreak of the Ninth Russo-Turkish War! The British and French governments will support Turkey in this crisis.

Therefore, the Turkish government will reject Russia's ultimatum in May this year and allow the British and French fleet to enter the Dardanelles. Well, many similar events have been predicted, and they are all recorded in this "Great Book of Prophecies"! "

The three foreign gentlemen looked at each other with an expression of disbelief - although they all claimed to be believers in God and seemed to be quite interested in the fact that "the devil appeared in China", they were actually quite "materialistic" and naturally did not believe that the devil had fallen from the sky.

But they don’t know what to say about this “Great Book of Prophecy” because the things predicted in this book that will happen in February and May can be verified soon!

Moreover, no matter what a Chinese person studies, it is unlikely that he can accurately grasp the current complex relationship between "Britain, France, Russia and Turkey" to the extent that he can deduce and calculate it, right?
British Vice Consul Wade frowned and said, "So, does this "Great Book of Prophecies" predict what will happen in the East?"

"Yes." Luo Yaoguo nodded. "On July 7th of this year, the 'Black Ship Attack' incident occurred in Japan."

"What does 'Black Ship Attack' mean?" Aliguo was a little confused.

"It was an American fleet from the New World that broke into Edo Bay and used force to force Japan to open its country!" Luo Yaoguo said, "It's a bit like what you British did to our country between 1840 and 1842!"

That's a bit unpleasant to say!

However, the British gentleman did not quarrel with Luo Xueyan. Consul Aliguo just said with a fake smile: "I wonder if there is any prophecy about the Qing Dynasty in this "Great Book of Prophecies"?"

"No!" Luo Yaoguo answered straightforwardly, and then he pushed the book towards Aliguo, "Mr. Consul, this book is for you, just consider it as a token of my appreciation."

"Oh, thank you then." Aliguo glanced at his deputy Wade.

This China expert picked up the "Great Book of Prophecies" which still smelled of ink, opened the first page, and after taking a look, he couldn't help but frowned.

"What? What's written on it?" asked Aliguo.

"There's some poetry written on it," said Wade.

"It's a prophetic poem," Luo Yaoguo said with a smile, "As far as poetry is concerned, it's all very poorly written. Mr. Vice Consul, please take your time to read it. Can we talk about some business now?"

(End of this chapter)