The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 369 Who is the next Zhu Yuanzhang? (Please subscribe and vote)
The Golden Dragon City of Tianjing was shrouded in silence under the night. The imperial road leading to the Sun Gate was pitch black. Suddenly, a horse-drawn carriage turned from the corner, and the horse lantern emitted a faint yellow glow in the night.

The car was a broken one and the horse was a poor one, but they could still move freely in the inner city of Tianjing which was under curfew.

The carriage drove to the dismounting stone outside the Sun Gate and stopped. A man in a black robe got off. He was about thirty or forty years old, with a rough face, thick eyebrows and a beard. It was Hong Daquan.

Although it was Hong Daquan's first time to enter Tianjing, and he had not been a core figure in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's power before, a female official holding a lantern outside the Sun Gate recognized him and said, "The Heavenly King has ordered that Guozong follow me into the city."

Hong Daquan took a look at the female official. She had snow-white skin and three-dimensional features. It was none other than Daozi.

"Guo Zong." Hong Daquan muttered, then nodded to Daozi: "Lead the way!"

Daozi clasped her fist towards Hong Daquan, turned around and walked into Jinlong City through a half-open side door. Hong Daquan walked five feet behind her. They entered Jinlong City one after the other. The Taiping soldiers guarding the gate stood still, as if they did not see the two of them.

After entering the city, Daozi did not take Hong Daquan to the Sun Palace, but walked along the city wall for a while until they came to a top corner of the Sun City. With the help of the moonlight, Hong Daquan saw that there was indeed a corner tower standing on the top of the city wall, and there were lights flickering inside the tower.

Daozi climbed the wall here and went up the stairs. Hong Daquan followed him. When they reached the wall, he saw that Daozi had opened the door of the corner tower. The light was on inside, and a man wearing a hood was sitting at the table, tapping the table with his fingertips.

Although he had not seen him for two or three years, Hong Daquan recognized him at a glance. This was the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan.

Hong Daquan thought to himself, "This Golden Dragon City belongs to Hong Xiuquan, but he wants to meet me in the corner tower in the middle of the night. It seems that he still has little real power, just like when he was in Yongan."

Hong Daquan gathered his thoughts, quickly stepped forward, knelt down and saluted: "Greetings, Heavenly King!"

"Daozi, close the door."

Hong Xiuquan ordered Daozi to close the door of the corner tower, and he stood up and took two steps: "I am very satisfied with Daozi! Tell me, what position do you want?"

"I am now the Archbishop of the Japanese Diocese of the Church of the Worshipping God. I have developed many believers in Japan and I am considered to be in a high position of power. I do not want to be another official for the time being."

Hong Daquan left Japan quietly this time. Luo Yaoguo simply threw him into Japan, gave him a large sum of funds and 100,000 copies of "The True Contract" printed in Shanghai, and let him make trouble in Japan, and then he didn't pay much attention to him.

Therefore, he had a high degree of freedom and no one cared about him when he moved around Japan - he was engaged in missionary work and instigating civil war, so of course he couldn't clock in for work every day, and secret activities were inevitable.

Moreover, he had achieved his KPI well. He had helped Luo Yaoguo contact Shimazu Nariakira and Iwakura Tomomi, and even went to Kyoto to secretly meet Emperor Tonin. Although the latter did not admit that Hong Xiuquan was his elder, he did not deny it either, and even accepted the gifts from "Hong Zuzong" - including "True Covenant" and a large sum of gold (actually taken from the indemnity paid by the shogunate).

Reporting this result to Luo Yaoguo is enough of an explanation.

Hong Xiuquan paused and said softly, "Really? Then what do you want?"

"I only hope to do my best for the King of Heaven and the Kingdom of Heaven. I ask for nothing more." Hong Daquan said respectfully.

"Well, what do you think of the current situation of me and the Heavenly Kingdom?" Hong Xiuquan asked, "Where can your limited strength be used?"

Hong Daquan immediately said: "The Heavenly Kingdom is comparable to Han and Song before the three northern expeditions! And your Majesty is comparable to Liu Futong and the Little Ming King! My humble efforts may help the Heavenly Kingdom become the Great Ming, and help your Majesty become the Ming Taizu."

Hong Xiuquan looked at Hong Daquan, as if waiting for him to continue.

Hong Daquan said slowly: "Before the three northern expeditions, Liu Futong and Han Liner had already established their capital in Bianliang, nominally occupying most of Henan, the whole of Shandong, most of Anhui and half of Jiangsu, which is not much worse than the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom today. And Mao Gui, Guan Xiansheng, Po Tou Pan, Li Wu, Cui De, Zhu Yuanzhang and others are not much worse than the kings of the Heavenly Kingdom today. But Liu Futong made a mistake and blindly launched the three northern expeditions without integrating the internal affairs.

Liu Futong may have wanted to use the victory of the Northern Expedition to unite the internal forces and become the common ruler of the world, but because of internal disunity, the power could not be used together, and finally he was defeated. Both Liu and Han became stepping stones for Zhu Yuanzhang!

The Heavenly King's past experience is a lesson for future events! "

Hong Xiuquan frowned slightly.

His current wishful thinking is actually to conquer the north first, then integrate. As long as he can succeed in the northern expedition, overthrow the Qing Dynasty, take Beijing, unify the country, and become the founder, his prestige will be extremely high. Yang Xiuqing, Xiao Chaogui, Luo Yaoguo, and Feng Yunshan will have to bow down to him. At that time, it will be a great favor from heaven to seize their power and keep them in captivity. "I am the son of God!" Hong Xiuquan said loudly, "How can Liu Futong and Han Lin'er be compared?"

Hong Daquan bowed his head and said, "The King of the East, the King of the South, the King of the North, and the King of the Wing are also sons of Heavenly Father. The King of Wu is Heavenly Father's adopted son, and the King of the West is Heavenly Father's son-in-law. The next Zhu Yuanzhang may be among them!"

Hong Xiuquan's expression changed, showing suspicion, reluctance, and uneasiness.

He asked Hong Daquan, "According to your opinion, should I get rid of them first?"

Hong Daquan shook his head and said slowly, "No! If Liu Futong gets rid of Mao Gui, Guan Xiansheng, Po Tou Pan, Zhu Yuanzhang and others, who will compete with Richard Khan and Bolo Timur? Liu Futong should turn Mao Gui, Guan Xiansheng, Po Tou Pan, Zhu Yuanzhang and others into Xu Da, Chang Yuchun and Hu Dahai. He should control them firmly and use them for his own purposes, so that he can sweep the world!"

"That's easy to say!" Hong Xiuquan said with a wry smile, "What should I do to turn them all into my Xu Da, Chang Yuchun, and Hu Dahai?"

How can someone who has been Zhu Yuanzhang be willing to be Xu Da, Chang Yuchun or Hu Dahai?

"It's not difficult, actually," Hong Daquan said, "You are not without strength now, Heavenly King. You still have the Yulin Army, the Northern King's Right Army is still with you, and the Wing King's Left Army is not completely out of your control. The Eastern King, the Western King, the Southern King, and the Wu King don't intend to break up with you either. As long as you are smart, it won't be difficult to subdue them one by one."

"Oh? What should I do?" Hong Xiuquan asked.

In fact, what this king lacks most is clever means!
In this regard, he is not only inferior to Zhu Yuanzhang, but also to Liu Futong.

After all, among Mao Gui, Mr. Guan, Pan Potou, and Zhu Yuanzhang, only Zhu Yuanzhang replaced Han Song after his death, and the others were all loyal to Han Song.

However, Hong Xiuquan ruined his own destiny by causing the Tianjing Incident, and then forced Shi Dakai to leave, causing serious damage to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

"Heavenly King," Hong Daquan said, "you should pull one faction together, suppress another, stabilize another, and attack another."

"Tell me more specifically," Hong Xiuquan asked, "Who should I pull in?"

"King of the South!" Hong Daquan said, "King of the South is the most loyal to the Heavenly King. Moreover, he does not have the ability to speak for the Heavenly Father, the Heavenly Brother, or to contact the Heavenly Brother. He poses no threat to you."

Hong Xiuquan nodded: "The mountain people are indeed loyal. But he is now interested in Guangdong and Guangxi and has no intention of going north."

Hong Daquan smiled and said, "He is aiming for Guangdong and Guangxi, but he has not been able to get it. I think it would be better to invite him to Tianjing to assist in the administration, and let the King of Wings take Guangdong and Guangxi. In this way, the King of the South can be used by the King of Heaven, and the King of Wings will also have a place to make achievements. Isn't it the best of both worlds?"

Feng Yunshan's fighting skills were indeed poor, and the landlords and gentry in Guangdong bought a lot of foreign guns after the Taiping Rebellion. In addition, armed fighting was rampant in northern Guangdong, and the common people lived in castle-like towers and lived in clans, making them very difficult to deal with.

Feng Yunshan was hiding in the mountainous area of ​​Hunan. Although his territory was not small, it was difficult for him to obtain foreign guns. His troops were poorly equipped and he himself was not very good at fighting. So after two years of hard work, he failed to take over Guangdong and Guangxi. Instead, he cooperated with Shi Dakai to take over some prefectures in Jiangxi.

"But King Yi wants to set up a government office now!" Hong Xiuquan said unhappily.

"Let him open it," Hong Daquan said, "Let him open a government in Guangzhou!"

Hong Xiuquan stroked his beard and was silent for a while: "Who to suppress?"

"Pressure King Wu!" Hong Daquan said, "King Wu is suspected of colluding with demons. It's a good opportunity to let King Nan come forward to suppress him, and let him stay in Suzhou and Shanghai honestly, and don't get involved in the affairs of Tianjing. If he doesn't come, no one can summon Zhen Jidu to the mortal world! This way, King Xi can be stable."

Hong Xiuquan laughed and said, "If we are going to attack one faction, it must be the Dong Wang faction?"

Hong Daquan said solemnly: "The King of the East has great talent, but he also has great ambitions. Only by fighting can he be used by the King of Heaven!"

(End of this chapter)