The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 261 Wenxian, we knew you were coming! (Please subscribe, please vote)

Tianjing, the river surface near Xiaguan.

A paddle-wheeled gunboat with a black hull and black smoke had already moored on the water. A Taiping Heavenly Kingdom division ship soon approached. Chen Chengrong, who had just returned from Shanghai, stood on the deck of the division ship, looking at the huge foreign ship and the Union Jack flying on it, trying to recall a prophecy that Luo Yaoguo had told him in Shanghai.
"Oh!"

With a slight sound, the division ship where Chen Chengyong was located had already approached the hull of the Hermes, and a rope ladder was thrown down from the tall side of the Hermes.

Chen Chengrong looked up, then used his hands and feet to climb up the rope ladder to the Hermes. Just as he was about to climb over the side of the ship, an old white man with red hair, rosacea, and dull eyes came up to help him up and said in stiff Chinese: "Be careful, sir."

After Chen Chengrong stood firmly on the deck, he looked at the old white man with red hair and asked, "Can you speak Chinese?"

"A little, sir." The red-haired old white man smiled.

"What's your name?" Chen Chengrong asked.

"My name is White, Winster White. You can call me Winster."

It turned out that this man was the dock supervisor that Luo Yaoguo met after he boarded the Jardine Matheson dock. He was recommended by Matheson to the Hermes because he could speak fairly fluent Chinese and was a low-ranking person who was not afraid of losing face. He could act as a mouthpiece for Bonham and Wade when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom leaders made unreasonable demands, such as performing the kneeling ceremony.

Chen Chengrong nodded: "Winster, where is Mr. Sergeant Bonham? Ask him to come out and see me. I am Chen Chengrong, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom."

"What?" Winston White was stunned. "You, you are the deputy prime minister of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom? Wait, how do you know that Minister Bonham is on this ship?"

Chen Chengrong had known that this foreigner would ask such a question, and he immediately replied, "Someone told me."

"Who? Who told you?" asked Winston White.

Chen Chengrong glanced at the red-haired foreigner and replied, "It's His Royal Highness the Holy Angel King Wu!"

"Yes, is it the great prophet?" Winston White asked again.

"He is an angel!" Chen Chengrong's face was already a little unhappy, "Go and ask Wen Xian to come out to see me!"

"Okay, okay, I'll go right away."

Winster White didn't dare to delay any longer and turned around and ran into the cabin.

In the cabin, Minister Bonham was drinking milk tea with Vice Consul Wade while discussing how to use the life-and-death struggle between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty to seek the greatest benefit for the British Empire. Suddenly, there was a knock on the cabin door.

Wade glanced at Bonham, and when he saw him nod slightly, he said, "Come in."

Then, Winster White pushed the door open and walked in. He bowed to the two people sitting inside and said, "Mr. Minister, Mr. Vice Consul, please come out for a moment. The Deputy Prime Minister of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has come on the Hermes and specifically wants to see the Minister."

"What?" Wen Xian was stunned. "A deputy prime minister came? And he specifically asked to see me? Winster, did you tell him that I was on the ship?"

Winster White shook his head: "No, sir, I did not tell the Deputy Prime Minister of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom that you were on the ship. According to the Deputy Prime Minister himself, it was the Holy Angel, His Royal Highness the King of Wu, who told him."

"Holy Angel King Wu?" Wenxian turned around and looked at Wade.

Wade frowned and said, "It's Luo Yaoguo. The legendary demon that fell from the sky!"

"Demon?" Wen Xian stood up with a frown and muttered, "I almost suspect that I live in a magical world!"

Wade also stood up and shrugged, saying, "I feel the same way."

Bonham sighed and said to Wade, "Thomas, let's go see him together."

In the conference room of the Hermes, Bonham, Wade and Chen Cheng-yong had already taken their seats as host and guest. Three cups of sweet milk tea were placed on a long conference table, exuding a unique milky tea aroma.

Chen Chengrong was a little curious about this strange drink. After taking a few sips, he still wasn't used to it. "Mr. Deputy Prime Minister," Wade frowned and said, "You said that His Royal Highness the Prince of Wu told you that Mr. Bonham and I would come to Nanjing on the Hermes?"

"His Royal Highness the Prince of Wu did not mention Mr. Qian Wei. He only said that the British Minister, Celestial Bonham, would come to Nanjing on a steamboat, and asked me to meet him in person."

Wade nodded. "When did he tell you that?"

"A month ago," Chen Chengrong said, "I was ordered to go to the Holy Angel Army in Zhenjiang to convey the true imperial decree of the Heavenly King to confer him the title of King of Wu. It was at that time that he told me that Minister Wenxian would come to Tianjing to pay homage to the Heavenly King."

So magical?

While muttering to himself, Wade conveyed Chen Chengrong's words to Wenxian in English.

Wen Xian frowned and said, "Thomas, ask this person if he knows why I came to Nanjing."

After listening to Wade's question, Chen Chengyong shook his head slightly: "King Wu didn't say it, but he told me that the minister would conflict with us because of the etiquette of meeting the Heavenly King. It's just like the Macartney Mission that clashed with the Qing demons because of whether to kowtow to the demon head of Emperor Qianlong."

It did not require any foresight to guess this, because both Bonham and Wade had thought of it.

"So how does Your Highness the Prince of Wu plan to solve this problem?" Wade asked curiously.

Chen Chengyong said: "Your Highness King Wu believes that as long as you realize that the Heavenly King is the second son of the Heavenly Father, you will kowtow to the Heavenly King."

When Wade translated these words into English and told Bonham, the British envoy was a little amused and said, "Thomas, the second son of God, can you talk to him and discuss some serious issues? I didn't come to Nanjing to watch people play tricks on me!"

"Mr. Deputy Prime Minister, the envoy has no interest in religious issues. The British Empire's envoys cannot kowtow to any foreign monarch because they represent Her Majesty the Queen of England!"

Chen Chengrong said calmly: "Even Queen Victoria must kneel down and worship God's second son!"

Wade felt that the Chinese man in front of him was making trouble, so he said in a deep voice: "Mr. Deputy Prime Minister, I hope you can take back what you just said. It is a humiliation to the British Empire! In addition, all Christians in the world believe that there is no such thing as the second son of God!"

Chen Chengrong smiled calmly and said, "What if there is evidence to prove it?"

"Evidence? What evidence?"

Chen Chengyong smiled and said, "Of course it is evidence that the Holy Angel came from heaven! The Holy Angel was sent down to earth by Heavenly Brother Ji Du to deliver the healing elixir to Heavenly Father's third son, His Royal Highness the Southern King. If the angel's descent to earth can be verified, then the second and third sons of Heavenly Father in my Taiping Heavenly Kingdom can also be verified."

Of course, Wade did not believe a word of what Chen Chengrong said about angels descending to earth, but he still translated these words, which really should not appear in the diplomatic field, into English and told them to Wenxian.

"Then ask the Deputy Prime Minister if we can see the evidence with our own eyes. Of course, before we meet the King of Heaven."

Wen Xian became a little interested. After all, the angel's descent to earth was linked to the Great Prophecy, and the Great Prophecy predicted that Britain would send troops to participate in the Ninth Russo-Turkish War. The Great Prophecy also predicted that this war would cause the deaths of 500,000 people - this number was really a bit too much.

As a confidant of Viscount Palmerston, a famous warmongerer in the British Empire, Minister Bonham certainly knew that the British government was ready to abandon the "Vienna System" that had maintained peace in Europe since the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and drag France into the Ninth Russo-Turkish War to fight a major battle with its former ally, the Russian Empire.

Although the British top brass have now recognized the essence of the Russian Empire, which is strong on the outside but weak on the inside, and are confident that they can defeat it completely! But Emperor Napoleon was also full of confidence before invading Russia. The Russian Empire at that time was also strong on the outside but weak on the inside, but the result of the war was that Emperor Napoleon lost 600,000 troops in vain.

The British Empire today, let alone sending away 600,000 troops, even if it only sent away half of this number, the loss of 300,000 troops, would be enough to ruin Viscount Palmerston's political future.

Once Palmerston is gone, Bonham will probably have to retire and enjoy his old age.
"The evidence of the angel's descent is stored in the Wu Wang Mansion in Tianjing City. If the envoy wants to see it, I can arrange for the envoy to enter the city to watch it after asking the Heavenly King and the Eastern King for permission." After hearing Wen Xian's request relayed by Wade, Chen Chengrong immediately patted his chest and said, "If the envoy is still unwilling to kneel before the Heavenly King after seeing it, I will immediately send the envoy back to this ship."

"Ask him again if I can see the angel in King Wu's palace?"

Wenxian asked another question, and Wade immediately translated it into Chinese.

"His Royal Highness the Prince of Wu is not in Tianjing now," Chen Chengrong said, "He is currently in front of the Suzhou army preparing to attack Suzhou City. However, my Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is also holding a capital ceremony recently, so he should come to Tianjing. I'll see if I can arrange for you to meet him at that time."

(End of this chapter)