The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 306: Shanghai's Status, Luo Xueyan's Suggestions (Please vote, please subscribe)
In Shanghai, things seemed to be quite peaceful after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom fought with the Catholic Church and the London Missionary Society. The subsequent court battles did not cause any major disturbances, and there was not even much verbal abuse. Except for Zhao Fangji, who was "reincarnated in Jerusalem", the verdict was relatively satisfactory to all parties.

In fact, it is difficult to distinguish right from wrong in sectarian conflicts. How can we distinguish right from wrong when two groups of people are fighting each other? Unless the rulers want to end the conflict, they will try to keep things quiet. In the end, whoever has the bigger fist, the more people, and the louder voice will gain the upper hand.

Of course, this large number of people refers to the number of people who can stand up, not the number of people who remain silent!
In this Shanghai Incident, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had many people, was good at fighting, and had a loud voice! They really convinced people with reason. Whether it was reason or physics, Hong Xiuquan could convince people.

The Cao Gang thugs hired by the North Missionary Society in London and their own church members fled when they saw dozens of Taiping soldiers fighting their way out of a sea of ​​blood and corpses. Then, many of them were sent by the Red Gang thugs sent by Xu Yuegui to the Huangpu River to plant lotus flowers, and at the same time, they swept through the Cao Gang forces in Shanghai.

In this situation, even if Luo Yaoguo was not in charge of the Shanghai government, as long as he replaced him with an official who did not want to get too deeply involved, he would take a conciliatory attitude to settle the matter. Therefore, the London Missionary Society and the Catholic Church, which suffered losses in the sectarian conflict, had no choice but to admit defeat.

Moreover, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was also labeled as a "foreign religion". If we look closely, we will find that people from the True Testament sect of Christianity beat up people from the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Church. Even if an honest Qing official was involved, it seems that they could only let the matter go.

What does the internal strife among your "foreign religions" have to do with the Qing Dynasty?
As for Zhao Fangji, whose embassies were stabbed in Britain, France and the United States, he was Italian after all. Oh, and his nationality was the Austrian Empire, the country ruled by Princess Sissi's husband.

There is no reason for Britain, France and the United States to stand up for the Austrian Empire!

Moreover, Wenxian, Bulbourn and Marsali all knew why Zhao Fangji died and who killed him.

This matter cannot be checked, cannot be discussed, can only be settled.

Luo Xueyan's series of measures, which took advantage of this incident to secure his position as the commander-in-chief of one district, six counties and one department in Shanghai, were also supported or at least tacitly approved by the three imperialist interests of Britain, France and the United States in China.

After all, the performance of the God Worshipping Society in the Shanghai Incident also made them realize that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was really difficult to deal with - that was the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom blessed by the "prophet of mass destruction"!

While this "prophet of mass destruction" was unlikely to help the Taiping defeat a superpower like the British Empire, he could help France, the United States, and Russia defeat the British Empire.

With this factor, the principle of "unity among the great powers" no longer exists.
Since the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is not easy to deal with, let Luo Xueyan deal with it! As long as he can maintain Shanghai's current "free market" status and allow merchants from Britain, France, and the United States to feel at ease and bold in doing business with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty, that will be enough.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom seemed to have the same idea.

Before the Shanghai Church Incident occurred, news spread in Shanghai that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was going to appoint Luo Xueyan as the governor of Shanghai!

After the Shanghai Church Incident, the Shanghai Military Governor's Office published a notice in the Shanghai Times, announcing that Shanghai Military Governor Luo Xueyan would also serve as the Shanghai Military Governor of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom from that day on!
This is a case of one person working two jobs (actually three), being both the Shanghai Governor of the Qing Dynasty and the Shanghai Governor of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

The announcement also stated that from now on, the territories of the former Shanghai County, Jiading County, Nanhui County, Fengxian County, Chongming County, Baoshan County and Chuansha Hall will all be under the jurisdiction of the Shanghai Military Governor's Office!

In addition, Luo Xueyan announced at the first Shanghai Advisory Council, which was composed of advisory representatives recommended by the gentry of one district, six counties and one hall under its jurisdiction, that a "city wall tax" would be levied immediately. The tax would be levied on land and real estate within the jurisdiction of the Governor-General's Office to build two inner and outer city walls to protect the peace of Shanghai.

The outer wall is a "wooden wall" built against a natural river, that is, a wooden fence. Small bastions will also be built at key intersections, bridgeheads, and river mouths to strengthen defense.

The inner wall is a "big triangle" city wall built along the Suzhou River and the Huangpu River. Along the Suzhou River and the Huangpu River are embankments and dock gates that can be closed at any time. On the other side is a sixteen-mile brick wall that extends northwest from Caohejing Town to the intersection of the Suzhou River and the Xinjing River.

At the same time, apart from a portion of the Shanghai Customs tax revenue being paid to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Tianjing court and paying for the expenses of the Governor's Office and the Minister's Office of Trade in the Five Ports, the rest was earmarked for setting up new troops and the navy!

The Shanghai New Army will be expanded to a division, and the number of soldiers will increase to 12,500!

In addition, each county and department under the jurisdiction of the Military Governor's Office would set up a militia. The number of people would be determined according to the situation of each county and department, ranging from three thousand to two thousand.

The Shanghai Navy will initially "quickly" rent ships and hire sailors from Britain, the United States, and France, and then try to build its own ships or raise funds to purchase them in the future. At the same time, it will also open a naval academy to train naval officers and soldiers.

In short, a separatist situation that was more than capable of self-preservation but less aggressive than that emerged in Shanghai.

But everyone knows that Shanghai's current status is only a stopgap measure and cannot be maintained forever.
At a ship dock on the Huangpu River, a paddle-wheeled fast sailing ship flying the Union Jack was humming. It looked like the boiler had been heated up and it would soon weigh anchor and set sail. Outside the dock, the security was tight, with soldiers of the new army wearing blue-gray uniforms, holding rifles with bayonets, and looking like they didn't allow strangers to enter.

On the pier, there were few people.

Luo Xueyan, the warlord of Shanghai, rarely wore the official uniform of the second rank of the Qing Dynasty. He had a hat on his forehead, but the braid behind his head was gone. He was holding the hand of Prince Gong Yixin and talking in a low voice.

The two men's entourages stood apart from each other, and most of them looked at each other with strange eyes. Only Xu Yuegui and a bearded Taoist priest on Prince Gong's side were flirting with each other.
Prince Gong's face was not looking good. Although he had made contributions in selling out the country, he still had to bear the blame for the great defeats in Jiangnan and Jiangbei. He had originally wanted to be a great general, but he was frightened by a hot air balloon and fled. After he ran to Shanghai, he had already asked the foreigners and learned that the red ball flying in the sky of northern Jiangsu was a hot air balloon invented by foreigners and was used for reconnaissance on the battlefield.

He guessed that the demon from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom might have also descended from the sky in a hot air balloon.
When he thought that he, a grown-up prince, was frightened by a balloon, and might be ridiculed after returning to the capital, he felt a little envious of Luo Xueyan.

After all, they have an army and territory!

Judging from this, he will not lose his title of marquis in the future!
At this time, the whistle of the British paddle steamer sounded again and again, and the gangway was lowered. The time had come for Prince Gong to board the ship and leave.

"Xueyan," Prince Gong looked at the young man who was going to be successful in his career and said with a bitter smile, "How are you going to explain this to the Emperor? The Emperor has treated you very well!"

Luo Xueyan smiled slightly, took out a yellow paper box containing a memorial, and handed it to Prince Gong with both hands: "Your Highness, I have no choice but to submit to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. This way, I can at least control Shanghai for the future. This is the memorial I wrote to the Emperor. Please take it to His Majesty!"
In addition, I have a suggestion for the foreign affairs that Your Majesty is handling. I wonder if Your Majesty would like to hear it?"

"What suggestions?" asked Prince Gong.

Luo Xueyan asked, "Didn't the prince promise the British to open the northern ports?"

"What do you think?" Prince Gong asked, "Do you object?"

"No, I don't object." Luo Xueyan said, "If I'm not mistaken, Tianjin must be among the ones to be developed, right?"

Prince Gong nodded: "That's for sure."

"Are there any other ports?" Luo Xueyan asked.

“It’s not decided yet!”

"Then may I suggest opening two ports?"

"Where do you want to open up?" Prince Gong asked cautiously.

"One is Busan, and the other is Vladivostok." Luo Xueyan said, "Your Highness, these are the only two. No matter where the British want, just add these two ports. You can't go wrong."

"Busan? North Korea?" Prince Gong was stunned.

"Yes!" Luo Xueyan nodded.

“Vladivostok is.”

"It's in Ningguta," Luo Xueyan said, "It's under the jurisdiction of the Ningguta Vice Governor, right next to the Sea of ​​Japan, and it's the best port in Outer Northeast!"

(End of this chapter)