The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 318: Taiping Sect spreads to Japan, Li Hongzhang learns to dance (seeking subscription, requesting tickets)
Tianjing City, Heavenly King’s Palace.

Time flies. It has been a full month since Hong Xiuquan, the king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, returned to his "little paradise" from Shanghai.

Maybe it was because he had a lot of fun in Shanghai last time, but after returning to Tianjing, Hong Xiuquan went into his Heavenly King's Palace and became a homebody. Every day, apart from studying his "True Covenant", he played with dozens of queens. If he had some free time, he would summon Wei Changhui, Hong Rengan, Chen Chengrong and Meng De'en in the main hall of the Heavenly King's Palace to ask about the military and national affairs of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

The current Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Tianjing court is run by this king and three ministers.

Yang Xiuqing, who was supposed to control the kings, probably knew that he could not control Luo Yaoguo, Xiao Chaogui, and Feng Yunshan, his three living fathers, so he simply stayed in Jiangbei and managed his Northern Expedition base with Yangzhou as the center.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom now has no territory of its own, and even the "living father" can't stand up straight!
Thanks to the support of Yangzhou salt merchants and the French, Yang Xiuqing's Jiangbei strategy went extremely smoothly during this period. Yangzhou Prefecture, Tongzhou Prefecture, and Haimen Hall have all been pacified!

Although King Yang Dong's territory was not large, half of the Lianghuai salt industry now belonged to the Yang family, and Hong Xiuquan in Tianjing City no longer had to worry about having no salt to eat.

Shi Dakai, the Prince of Wings, and Hu Yihuang, the Marquis of Protecting Heaven, teamed up to govern Jiangxi. Because Feng Yunshan, the Prince of the South, sent troops from Chenzhou Prefecture to attack Nan'an Prefecture and Ganzhou Prefecture, and besieged Ganxian, the capital of Ganzhou Prefecture, the Qing army in Jiangxi, which already had limited manpower, was attacked from both sides and the morale of the army was in great chaos.

Therefore, the troops of Shi Dakai and Hu Yihuang who attacked Jiangxi from the north made smooth progress during this period. Just a few days ago, the good news that Shi Dakai captured the Nanchang city was reported back to Tianjing.

During this period, Jiangxi had not yet been reduced to a wasteland by the repeated battles between the Taiping Army and the Hunan Army. Although it was also on the decline, its foundation was still there. It was rich in rice, porcelain, and ironware. Although not as good as Jiangsu, it was not much worse than Zhejiang.

After taking over half of Jiangxi, King Hong in Tianjing City no longer had to worry about having no rice to eat.

While the Jiangxi campaign was progressing smoothly, the Southern Anhui campaign was also going smoothly under the leadership of Qin Rigang, the emperor. Since the cities of Hezhou, Wuweizhou, and Anqing in the north of the Yangtze River were captured during Shi Dakai's Western Expedition, and the surface of the Yangtze River in Anhui was under the control of the Taiping Army, Southern Anhui was almost an enclave. If Qin Rigang had not only two or three thousand old brothers and more than ten thousand new soldiers recruited in Tianjing and Taiping Prefecture, he would have captured the entire Southern Anhui long ago.

As for the southeast of Tianjin, Luo Yaoguo was in charge of the five prefectures and one state of Suzhou, Songshan, Taiyuan, Changzhou, Jiaxing, and Huzhou, so Hong Xiuquan didn't have to worry about it. Zhenjiang Prefecture was occupied by Wei Jun, who was transferred from Hunan. Because there was a Shanghai beach to escape to, the Taiping Army made great progress in this area - who would fight for their lives if they could escape?
Moreover, King Luo Wu was now willing to leave some property to the landlords and gentry in southern Jiangsu. As long as they did not organize militia to resist the Taiping Army, their homes would not be confiscated, their property could be taken away, and each household could also leave some "mulberry gardens".

After the rich land around Taihu Lake was taken over by Luo Yaoguo, Hong Xiuquan naturally had no shortage of silk, cotton cloth and other things.

Therefore, the supply in Tianjing City is now improving at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the "Little Paradise" is finally worthy of its name.

However, Hong Xiuquan, who was "living in a blessed life", was still a little ungrateful. The main reason was that he still felt a little unsatisfied from his last trip to Shanghai. Why didn't he see any beautiful foreign sisters to bring back to be the queen?
Although there were many foreigners who converted to the "True Treaty Sect" in Shanghai, there were few women among them. They were all rough men. Even if there were a few women, they were all elderly aunts. But he didn't dare to tell Luo Yaoguo and Yang Xiuqing about this regret. They were all "living fathers"! Don't turn around and knock the purple gold bowl to summon God down! So he could only tell Hong Xuanjiao about this.

I don’t know if Hong Xuanjiao can help him get this done before returning to Wuchang?

If it doesn't work, I can only ask my fifth sister Victoria for help.
"Your Majesty, Queen Hong Xuanjiao of the West and Prime Minister Hong Rengan of the Winter Palace request to see you."

Just when Hong Xiuquan was thinking of Hong Xuanjiao, a female official suddenly walked in quickly from outside Hong Xiuquan's study to report.

"Oh?" Hong Xiuquan's eyes lit up, "Announce!"

After a while, Hong Xuanjiao, who was still wearing Western clothes, and Hong Xiuquan's cousin, Hong Rengan, who became the prime minister as soon as he took office, walked in one after another.

Hong Xuanjiao wore a tight corset and a puffy skirt to please Hong Xiuquan, so she could not kneel down, so she could only do a Western-style curtsy. Hong Rengan respectfully performed the three bows and nine kowtows, and then did not stand up, but knelt on the ground.

Hong Xiuquan ignored Hong Rengan and asked Hong Xuanjiao with a smile: "Ah Jiao, is this about the foreign sisters?"

"Heavenly King, there is no rush for foreign sisters. There are many foreign brothers in Shanghai, but not many foreign sisters. It seems that we have to go to Southeast Asia to find them," Hong Xuanjiao said with a smile, "and Brother Luo Dagang can only go to Southeast Asia to arrange it for you after the Chinese New Year."

"Oh, then let him hurry up." Hong Xiuquan frowned slightly, "Ah Jiao, Ah Gan, what are you doing in the Heavenly King's Palace today?"

Hearing this, Hong Rengan, who had just "joined" the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, could not help but frown: "Reporting to the Heavenly King, today I received a report from the Suzhou Military Advisory Office that the Japanese country has been repeatedly attacked by British and American gunboats. Next year, it will open up its country and allow the free spread of various religions that worship God. This is a good opportunity to spread the true covenant. Therefore, the Military Advisory Office requests the Heavenly King to allow the spread of the God Worshipping Religion to Japan to save the Japanese people from disaster!" Hong Xiuquan frowned slightly: "The religions in Southeast Asia have not yet been spread, and you are going to start spreading the religions in Japan? Aren't you a little impatient?"

Hong Xuanjiao smiled and said, "Isn't this a rare opportunity? Heavenly King, if you want to spread the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the conditions in the East are much better than those in the South Seas!"

"Oh? What's good about it?" Hong Xiuquan asked.

"Fortunately, Japan has a large population and a small land area, and the contradiction between population and land is several times worse than that in China!" said Hong Xuanjiao.

"What? The land in Japan is so narrow?" Hong Xiuquan's eyes lit up, "Then is the land in Japan fertile?"

Hong Xuanjiao shook her head and said with a smile: "Not fertile, not fertile. East Asia has many mountains and few plains. Only a small plain in Kanto can be cultivated, but it is still much worse than the plains in Guangzhou, let alone Jiangnan?

Moreover, Japanese officials are not much worse than the evil Manchus in the Qing Dynasty in terms of brutality and tyranny. The common people in the country must be longing day and night for a wise leader to come and lead them in uprising.

In addition, there were originally various religions that worshiped God in Japan, but they were strictly prohibited by the shogunate that ruled Japan more than 200 years ago. Now there are no public religions that worship God, only secret religions. They must have been spread beyond recognition. If the True Covenant can be introduced into Japan during the opening of the country, it will surely gain many believers!"

"Is this what the compatriots said in the memorial?" Hong Xiuquan was still a little skeptical.

"Exactly."

Hong Rengan immediately took out a memorial from Wu Wang Luo Yaoguo. Hong Xuanjiao took it and walked to Hong Xiuquan, handed it to him with both hands, and whispered, "Heavenly King, my ninth brother said that these Western sisters cannot come to the Heavenly King's Palace for the time being. You can save some Eastern sisters first."

"Save. We must save them!" Hong Xiuquan raised his eyebrows and asked, "Who do you want to send to Japan?"

"How is Hong Daquan?" Hong Xuanjiao asked in a low voice.

"Him." Hong Xiuquan thought for a moment and laughed, "This liar is not bad, he can even escape being tortured to death. Go there in person and arrange this matter properly! Make sure he can deceive people properly, no, he can preach!"

"Yes!"

Brown's Hotel, London, UK.

"One, two, three, one, two, three, turn around."

Accompanied by the melodious waltz played by the piano, in the dance floor of the Brown Hotel, Li Hongzhang, the "secretary" of the Qing emperor, was dancing with a handsome foreigner in his thirties - a foreigner brother. There was also a short fat man with a big beard and a tall foreigner with a short beard, as well as Wang Libin, Sushun, Bai Siwen and Yuan Bao watching.

Some of the onlookers didn't know what Li Hongzhang was doing and even asked Wang Libin!
"Lan Qing, what is Shao Quan doing?"

"In reply to Lord Su, Shaoquan is going to the palace to dance for the Queen of England."

"Dancing? How can this be allowed?"

"Master Su, we need help now. Purchase arms, rent warships, hire foreign personnel, and purchase machinery and equipment. These contracts are all in the hands of the Empress Wansui! And the military situation in the country is very urgent! Master Li can get those things by dancing, isn't it great?"

(End of this chapter)