The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 262 Thirty-six Books of the Prophets (Request for subscription and ticket)
In the early summer of the third year of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the city of Jinling, which had just become the capital of the kingdom and a little paradise, was a time when everything was flourishing and full of vitality.

Unlike the original situation in history where the Qing army's Jiangnan Camp was settled outside the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum in Nanjing, the Qing troops that now constituted the Jiangnan Camp had long been defeated in Hunan. Therefore, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's actual control area in the Nanjing area was much larger than in history.

First of all, the entire territories of Jiangning and Shangyuan counties, including Xiaolingwei, Dashengguan, Yanziji, Longtan Town, Jiangning Town, Moling Town, Yuhuatai, Fangshan, Mufushan, etc., were all under the control of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and there were Taiping Heavenly Kingdom troops stationed in every dangerous place.

Secondly, the counties of Jiangpu, Jurong, Dantu, Dangtu, and Lishui, which are located further out, are also under the control of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. These five counties are forming a ring around Tianjing, which is closely guarding the city of Jinling. Although there are still many territories in these five counties in the hands of local militias loyal to the Qing Dynasty, these militias were hastily formed, their combat effectiveness is not strong, and they are not able to protect themselves, so don't expect them to threaten the city of Tianjing.

Furthermore, Wu Wang Luo Yaoguo's Upper 1st and Upper 2nd Armies have already conquered a lot of territory in Suzhou Prefecture, Changzhou Prefecture, Taicang Prefecture, and Songjiang Prefecture, and posed a serious threat to Suzhou Prefecture, the ruling center of the Qing Dynasty in Jiangnan. Yiliang is struggling to protect himself now, and it is simply a daydream to threaten Jiangning.

Finally, Xiao Chaogui in Huguang has also been developing well recently. He has already taken over the entire Wuchang Prefecture and most of Hanyang Prefecture, and has even threatened to launch a northern expedition to Xiangyang Prefecture!
To the north of Xiangyang is Nanyang Prefecture in Henan Province!
Faced with the threat from Xiao Chaogui, the Qing court had to focus its military efforts on Huguang and Henan. In the east, it could only rely on General Luo Xueyan and set up the Jiangbei Camp in Yangzhou.

But neither Luo Xueyan nor Qishan, the imperial commissioner of the Jiangbei camp, had the ambition to attack Tianjing.

Therefore, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom that Bonham and Wade saw now was still a very prosperous and bustling metropolis, even more prosperous than the thriving future Far East metropolis of Shanghai.

The streets were filled with steaming fried stinky tofu, fried sugar-coated rice cakes, fragrant rice noodles in soup, and various greasy ducks. The charming shouts of customers could be heard one after another. Freight trucks rolled through the streets, distributing the goods brought in by large and small sand ships from the villages outside Jinling City, or from Huguang upstream and Shanghai downstream, to shops throughout Jinling City.

Obviously, commercial activities in Jinling City were not frozen by the arrival of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

This is very different from the original Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The original Taiping Heavenly Kingdom implemented the "everything belongs to the Lord" policy based on the old version of "The Land System of the Heavenly Kingdom". Also, because Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing still wanted to force the people of Nanjing to march north to Beijing, they promoted the system of separating men and women into camps in Nanjing after entering the city, making commercial activities in Nanjing almost impossible to carry out.

The focus of the current "Luo version" of "The Land System of the Heavenly Kingdom" is to divide the land in the countryside and fight against the local tyrants. Although it will also hit business and finance, for a metropolitan city like Nanjing, that little hit is completely bearable. In fact, because Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing also brought hundreds of thousands of Hunanese and tens of thousands of Guangxi and Guangdong people, Nanjing became more prosperous than before.

A line of carriages and horses entered the Yifeng Gate in the northwest corner of Tianjing, and this line of carriages and horses attracted a lot of people's attention. Because there were many foreigners in the entourage who looked and dressed very differently from the Chinese, and there was also someone in front of the team holding a Union Jack!

From time to time, a rugged foreigner's head would pop out of the car, looking at everything around him with a pair of blue-gray eyes.

This foreigner was none other than the British Minister to China, Sir John Bowring. He was using this rare opportunity to assess how much benefit the new Taiping Heavenly Kingdom regime could bring to the British Empire.
The carriage headed south and soon entered the most prosperous Qinhuai River area. However, when Wen Xian saw the densely packed shops and the crowds of pedestrians, he retracted his head into the carriage and sighed softly.

"What's the matter? Mr. Minister, what did you see?" Wade, who was sitting in the carriage, was a little curious.

"You should ask me what I didn't see?" Wen Xian looked solemn.

"Oh, what didn't you see?"

"Opium den!" Wen Xian frowned, "I haven't seen any opium den since I entered this huge city!"

"Oh," Wade said, "the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom prohibits opium." He made a beheading gesture, "Anyone who dares to sell or smoke opium will be beheaded!"

Wen Xian said coldly: "This is obviously a violation of the Treaty of Nanjing!"

Wade was stunned. He did not remember such a provision in the Treaty of Nanjing.

Wen Xian frowned and said: "According to the Treaty of Nanjing, opium is a commodity that can be legally traded freely, so the Qing government must compensate for all the losses caused by burning the British merchants' opium!" He then said worriedly: "It seems that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's anti-smoking policy is more severe and effective than the Qing Dynasty! If the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom further occupies China's richest territory, the sales market for opium in China will shrink greatly!
Once opium is no longer popular in China, Britain will become the party that suffers losses in Sino-British trade. The achievements of the last war will be completely lost! "When Wade heard this question, his brows furrowed: "Mr. Minister, in fact, the amount of goods we import into China has declined in recent years. Moreover, the population of this country is far greater than that of India, while the market for British goods in China is much smaller than that in India."

"This is caused by unfair trade policies!" Wenxian complained, "The Chinese have never seriously implemented the Treaty of Nanjing. They have not really opened their market to us!
It's still a bit better in Shanghai, but our merchants in Guangzhou can't even enter Guangzhou City. They are really a bunch of barbarians without a sense of contract!"

Guangzhou was a trading port, and Guangzhou merchants boycotting British merchants and not allowing them to enter was definitely a violation of the Treaty of Nanjing! For Westerners who value the spirit of contract, this was of course unacceptable!
While the two British men were discussing how to make the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Qing Empire realize the importance of abiding by the contract, their carriage had stopped in front of a unique and elegant Jiangnan garden.

"Mr. Wenxian, we have arrived at the Prince Wu's Mansion. Please get off the car."

Chen Chengrong's voice came from outside the carriage, and then the curtain of the carriage was lifted. Wenxian and Wade came out of the carriage one after another and found themselves standing outside a gate that was not very grand and even a bit shabby.

There were several guards carrying brown bass rifles standing at the door. A young Taiping Heavenly Kingdom official with bright eyes was standing inside the gate. When he saw Wenxian and Wade, he smiled and stepped forward and clasped his fists, saying, "Welcome, two distinguished guests. I am Wang Yan, the Minister of Rites of the Prince of Wu's Palace. Please follow me!"

Wang Yan, who was originally in charge of the God Worshipping Society on the border of Hunan and Jiangxi, was transferred to the army when Su Sanniang set out from Wuchang. He first served as a lecturer in the previous army. After the siege of Jinling City, he served as the future "general manager" of the Wu Palace. He stayed in Xiaoling Guard with the "Meituan Sacred Relic" and the "Flying Car". After Luo Yaoguo was officially named King of Wu, he entered Jinling City and was responsible for the development of the Wu Palace.

The Prince of Wu's Palace was located in the "Wu Family Garden" in the city of Jinling, which was later called "Yu Garden". This garden was already very dilapidated when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom entered the city. Wang Yan knew that Luo Yaoguo did not intend to live in the Prince of Wu's Palace for a long time, so he did not spend much effort to renovate it. He only opened up an "Angel Miracle Hall" in the palace, which was an exhibition hall, and displayed some objects that Luo Yaoguo brought from "heaven" there for people to admire.

These holy objects are "flying car", "Meituan storage box", "Tianyin tube", "Meituan clothes", "double-ear Meituan hat", "sneakers", "moon cake box", "empty medicine bottle", "plastic film", "plastic storage bag", "packaging bag" and so on.

Of course, the "Mirror of Heaven" which is a treasure that can connect heaven and earth is not on display in the "Hall of Angels and Miracles", but a booth has been reserved for it. A "famous painting" is also hung on the reserved booth - Su Sanniang making a phone call. There are instructions in both Chinese and English in the blank space of the painting. At the end of the instructions, it is written in English, "Welcome, Honorable Minister Sergey George Bonham".

You can tell at first glance that this painting was not just painted and framed. It must have taken at least ten days or half a month to paint!
In other words, Luo Yaoguo had indeed predicted that they would come to Nanjing.
Standing in front of this meticulous painting, both Bonham and Wade felt as if their worldviews were about to be overturned.

Although they were surprised when they saw the "flying car", "storage box" and other "angel treasures" before, they were not shocked to the point of their worldview being unstable.

After all, although those "treasures" have strange shapes, and no one knows what materials the other things before the "mooncake box" are made of, they are dead objects without any magic. Although mysterious, they do not have the power to awe them.

But when they saw the detailed painting that predicted their arrival in Nanjing, the same thought emerged in both of their minds: the Great Book of Prophecy!
"Sir Wang," Wade asked, "are you aware of a book called The Great Book of Prophecies?"

"The Great Book of Prophecies?" Wang Yan thought for a moment, then showed a look of sudden realization, "Oh, you mean the Book of Prophets?"

“The Prophets?” Wade asked in astonishment. “Is there really a Prophets?”

"Not one, but thirty-six!"

"Thirty-six?" Wade's eyes widened. "So many?"

"One book predicts major events in one year, and thirty-six books can predict major events in thirty-six years. From 1853 to 1888!" Wang Yan said with a smile, "Come, I will take you to see the library where the Book of the Prophets is stored."

(End of this chapter)