The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 343: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Divides into Japan (Request for subscription and ticket)

The setting sun was blood-red and flames shot up into the sky.

The densely packed wooden houses around Shinagawa Port are extremely flammable. Since yesterday evening, the Shikoku Joint Fleet on the sea outside Shinagawa Port has been firing red-hot incendiary bombs at the wooden houses there! In fact, they are some solid bullets that are placed on a stove and burned red, and then put into the gun barrel and fired out after being padded with a piece of wood. This kind of shell is originally used to bombard wooden ships. The wood used to build ships and the canvas and ropes everywhere on the ship are flammable. Wherever the red-hot metal ball falls, there will be fire!
The densely packed Japanese-style board houses in the towns around Shinagawa Port were even more appealing to these red-hot metal balls than the wooden ships on the water! These wooden board houses were very thin and could not withstand the high-speed falling solid shells. They would make a big hole with each hit. The hot shells smashed directly into the houses and rolled everywhere. There were flammable objects inside! Wooden furniture, textiles, paper, and thick tatami made of straw were all ignitable.

Moreover, the town area around Shinagawa Port is large, and the houses are extremely dense. Even the narrow streets are full of flammable debris. The shells fired from the sea can set off a fire wherever they land.

Sometimes these shells would land on the hard ground and bounce up, then fly hundreds or even thousands of meters in a random direction, smashing several thin wooden walls along the way, and sometimes even rubbing against and knocking on the running townspeople! It would be a bloodbath in no time!

How could a flesh-and-blood body resist such a red-hot iron ball weighing dozens of kilograms? Even if it just "lightly" brushed past, it could still take away a piece of flesh and blood, and beat a person to a bloody mess, and he would fall to the ground screaming and wailing!
The incendiary bombing lasted less than an hour, and the area around Shinagawa Port was already a raging fire that could not be extinguished at all! The fire, driven by the wind, spread towards the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle.

Shouts, screams, curses, and the occasional roar of artillery fire swept through the already chaotic Edo castle town and reached an attic in the Satsuma domain residence outside the Sakura Gate.

"This is hell. Is this the power that took the lives of Komatsu-kun and five hundred Satsuma samurai?"

In the attic stood a man in his fifties with short eyebrows, big eyes and a rectangular face. He was wearing a black haori with a round cross pattern embroidered on it. This man was none other than Shimazu Nariakira, the lord of Satsuma Domain and head of the Shimazu clan.

Next to Shimazu Nariakira stood a sturdy and tall man with a thick beard, wearing a Taiping Heavenly Kingdom dragon robe, a red pointed hood on his head, a golden cross on his chest, holding a copy of The True Covenant in his left hand, and his right hand on the hilt of a sword. This man was Hong Daquan!

This Hong Daquan is really an expert in fooling people. I don't know how he got in touch with the lord of Satsuma domain, Shimazu Nariakira. He seemed to have become a guest of Nariakira and was brought to the Satsuma domain residence in Edo by him.

"My Lord, am I right? Even the elite soldiers of the shogunate cannot defeat the foreigners and the Qing monsters! Now the only one who can help the Shimazu family and Japan is my Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!"

Hong Daquan didn't understand what Shimazu Qibin was mumbling, but he could guess roughly. And what he said to Shimazu Qibin now, the latter also didn't understand a word.

However, this did not prevent them from communicating privately one-on-one, because they could also communicate in writing, after all, both parties knew Chinese characters.

Shimazu Nariakira turned around, nodded slightly at Hong Daquan, and pointed to a small square table in the attic.

There were pens, ink, papers and an oil lamp on the square table, with a cushion on each side.

Shimazu Nariakira wrote: What is their purpose in doing this?
Hong Daquan wrote: Japan is the golden country in the legends of foreigners!
Shimazu Nariakira was stunned for a moment, then picked up his pen and wrote: So what does the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom want to get from Japan?
Hong Daquan wrote: The Emperor of Japan is a descendant of God, right?

Shimazu Nariakira was stunned, but still wrote: Yes, Amaterasu sent her grandson to rule Japan and founded the Yamato Dynasty. He was the father of the first emperor, Emperor Jimmu.

Hong Daquan also wrote: Then the father of Tiansun is the son of Amaterasu?

Shimazu Nariakira didn't know what Hong Daquan meant, but he still wrote: Yes! The father of the Amaterasu was named Amennin Homi-no-Mikoto, and Amaterasu was his mother. Hong Daquan wrote: Then who was the father of Amennin Homi-no-Mikoto?
what?
Shimazu Nariakira was stunned. What kind of problem was this?

But he still picked up the brush and wrote: Amaterasu Omikami has no husband, and Amenohana Honoka has no father.

Hong Daquan wrote: So, Amaterasu was born of a virgin?

Virgin birth?

Shimazu Nariakira certainly knew that the Virgin Mary was also a virgin giving birth to a child
Shimazu Nariakira quickly picked up the brush and wrote: You don't think Amaterasu is the Virgin Mary, do you?
Hong Daquan wrote: No, she is not. But she may be the woman of Heavenly Father Haotian Emperor God, no, a goddess.

ah.
Shimazu Nariakira was completely dumbfounded.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom found a man for Amaterasu, no, a male god, or God!
Have they asked the Catholic Church?
Seeing Shimazu Nariakira's stunned look, Hong Daquan picked up his pen and said: Satsuma, do you now understand why the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom wants to help you? Our Heavenly King is also the Son of Heavenly Father!
Well, Hong Xiuquan has become the elder of Emperor Tonin, more than a hundred generations older than him. He has to call Amaterasu his aunt.
Shimazu Nariakira quickly picked up his brush and wrote: This is impossible! You are talking nonsense!

Hong Daquan calmly wrote: Satsuma-kun, you are not the emperor, how do you know I am talking nonsense? We in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom support the emperor! Satsuma-kun, I think the Tokugawa Shogun will have to sign a humiliating treaty. After selling out the country, can the Tokugawa shogunate still hold on to the Japanese world? Will Japan usher in a new Warring States period like China?
Warring States Period?

It sounds very exciting!
For the Tokugawa shogunate and the Tokugawa family's close and hereditary fiefdoms, the new Warring States period meant endless disasters.

But for a powerful clan like Satsuma, a new Warring States era means an opportunity to reshuffle the cards. This is the dream of generations of Satsuma lords and samurai!

Shimazu Nariakira narrowed his eyes, his face changed slightly, then he picked up the brush and wrote: Maybe you are right!

At the same time, British Minister to China John Bowring, French East India Army Commander Charles Darwin, and Qing Dynasty's Nanyang Minister Luo Xueyan had all climbed up to the Shinagawa Fifth Battery where the flag "The Great Wall Will Never Fall" was flying.

This was the largest of the seven artillery batteries, but it could not withstand the fierce attack of the Nanyang Army officers and soldiers. Although the Japanese warriors guarding here fought desperately, they were backward in weapons and tactics and far outnumbered by their opponents. Their resistance only caused 20 to 30 casualties to the attacking side. Not only could it not bring them victory, it couldn't even win them respect.

In the eyes of Wenxian and Laer, the Qing army was very weak, and even the Nanyang New Army was not that strong. And the Japanese samurai were beaten by the Qing army. Well, they were on the waiting list for national destruction.

Since the Qing Dynasty's Nanyang Army could defeat the Japanese Army, if Britain and France were to support a general agent in East Asia, it would naturally be the Qing Dynasty!
It can't be that they first spend a lot of money to help Japan defeat the Qing Dynasty, and then let Japan fight against Russia?

It’s too troublesome! The investment is too high!

Therefore, Wen Xian and Laer planned to talk to Luo Xueyan together to see if he was willing to send troops to help Britain and France to attack Russia.
"Oh, you want to deal with Russia? Of course, this is negotiable!" Luo Xueyan has been waiting for this opportunity for a long time, but he did not agree immediately. This requires negotiation! He is willing to take action only if the price is right.
(End of this chapter)