The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 404: National People's Congress, no fighting, just shaman dance? (Happy 2025, please vote!)
"Brother Tian invites the Heavenly Father?"

Xiao Chaogui immediately sensed something wrong in Yang Xiuqing's words. He squinted his eyes and looked at this "God Yang" who seemed to be of the same mind as him. He shook his head slowly and said, "But, if this Heavenly Brother was invited down by my ninth brother after he rang the purple gold bowl, then I don't know anything!"

Haven't tried it out yet.
Yang Xiuqing was a little disappointed. What he had just said to Xiao Chaogui was a trap. If Xiao Chaogui agreed to join him in the trap, it would mean that Xiao Chaogui's "real Ji Du possession" was also fake.

But Xiao Chaogui was not fooled, or rather, his "Zhen Ji Du possession" was real!
Yang Xiuqing doesn’t know what the situation is now!

"Then, dear brother-in-law, don't wait for my ninth brother to knock on the purple gold bowl, invite Brother Tian down first!" Yang Xiuqing had to first pretend that the "Zhen Ji Du possession" was real, "and then let Brother Tian invite the Father Tian. In this way, the Father Tian and Brother Tian will endorse each other and persuade the King of Heaven and my ninth brother together. Then, we can kick my ninth brother out of the center and send him to Shanghai, and we will work together to control the center!"

"Just pray to a god?"

Xiao Chaogui did not immediately agree to Yang Xiuqing's question, but asked a question in return.

"Ah," Yang Xiuqing seemed stunned, "Besides praying to the gods, what else can we pray for?"

Of course it is to "ask for troops"!

However, Xiao Chaogui did not really want to "ask for troops", he was just testing Yang Xiuqing.

Because "asking for troops" was against the rules, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had not yet resorted to actual military action in its internal struggles!

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom may seem to be very wild, but since its founding, the best way for them to deal with internal conflicts has been the seemingly unorthodox shaman dance.

How could the practice of shaman dance be better than resorting to violence and killing one's own people? First, shaman dance will not harm one's own strength; second, it will not tear each other apart; third, shaman dance, in the final analysis, is still based on the "belief" of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's male and female holy soldiers.

In the original history, Yang Xiuqing relied on magic tricks to gain the trust of the Taiping soldiers and maintained a high level of cohesion within the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom until Hong Xiuquan broke the rules by causing the Tianjing Incident.
Although the method of gaining trust by performing shaman acts is essentially "cheating", isn't it also cheating if you don't tell the truth when giving a speech?

The current situation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was such that even Hong Xiuquan did not dare to "ask for troops", let alone Yang Xiuqing?
Hearing Yang Xiuqing's answer, Xiao Chaogui laughed and said, "It seems that there is nothing we can ask for. Fourth brother, let's make it a deal and join forces at the National People's Congress!"

Yang Xiuqing smiled and nodded: "Okay! From now on, our two families will join forces to protect each other!"

He added the word "mutual protection" to his words!
If they failed in their fight for central power, they would withdraw from Tianjing and return to their respective territories to become "Taiping Princes" who would obey orders but not decrees. They would also join forces to protect each other and jointly withstand the pressure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's central government to reduce its power.

Xiao Chaogui also nodded and said with a smile: "Yes, if it really doesn't work, we can just retreat and protect each other!"

Early in the morning, Prince Wu's Palace welcomed distinguished guests from afar.

The Southern King Feng Yunshan, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's consul in the Straits Settlements and Archbishop of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Nanyang Diocese Luo Dagang, the Prime Minister of the Lan Fang Republic Luo Zhonghua, and a dozen overseas Chinese leaders in the Straits Settlements and Borneo.

Luo Yaoguo's schedule was very full these days. Every day, a large group of disciples from the lecture class came to visit the palace. Most of these disciples were officials from the God Worshipping Society and Farmers' Association of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom who brought representatives of the country to Tianjing for a meeting.

Today, the organizational system of the God Worshipping Society, the local farmers' association system of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the training system for God Worshipping Society and farmers' association cadres were all created by Luo Yaoguo.

He is the ancestor of these people!

Although Luo Yaoguo had no direct jurisdiction over the God Worshipping Society and the Farmers' Association system in the Heavenly Kingdom territory except the six prefectures under the jurisdiction of the Prince of Wu's Palace and the two prefectures of Changsha and Yuanzhou under the jurisdiction of the Hunan-Jiangxi Border Headquarters of the God Worshipping Society, the cadres of the God Worshipping Society and the Farmers' Association in various places all came from the system he founded.

It cannot be said that all of these people were his people, but they must have read his "Anti-Scriptures", entered the lecturer training system he founded, and entered the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom officialdom in accordance with the method of dividing land he pioneered.

Even most of them were selected from activists who were actively involved in the land distribution according to the selection criteria for preparatory lecturers issued by Luo Yaoguo in the name of the chief lecturer. In addition, the teachers of the lecture classes in various provinces, prefectures and states under the rule of the present country were all sent by the lecturer group controlled by Luo Yaoguo, and the teaching materials and textbooks they used were also given by the lecturer group for free - the other kings did not have the spare time and extra financial resources to train teachers for the lecture classes, let alone spend money to print teaching materials and textbooks for others to use "for free".

To these visitors, Luo Yaoguo, the ancestor, was also very approachable. As long as there were a large number of visitors, he would welcome them in person at the gate of the palace, and would not let them kowtow. If he met people from poor places, he would give them silver notes, which were all earned from his "selling fortunes"!
Before leaving, he asked his staff to write down the mailing addresses of these people so that he could send them the "Guo Ren Daily" and give them "holiday allowances" in the name of the "Lecturer Group". Of course, the money was not much, but the friendship was definitely established.

And since the Southern King was one of the visitors today, Luo Yaoguo would not neglect him and went out to greet him directly: "Third brother, what brings you two here?"

Feng Yunshan said with a smile: "Da Gang is my old subordinate. This time he brought his brothers from Nanyang to the court and stayed in my palace. They are coming to pay you a visit today, so I naturally have to lead them!"

"Your humble servant pays respect to His Majesty the King of Wu!"

After Luo Yaoguo and Feng Yunshan exchanged greetings, Luo Dagang stepped forward and was about to bow, but was held back by Luo Yaoguo: "Brother Luo, we don't allow kowtow in my house, you can just bow. Besides, Brother Luo, you have worked hard in Nanyang these days, and have made great contributions to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. You will be awarded a title of nobility soon, so you don't have to kneel to me."

Of course, there was a reason why Luo Yaoguo asked Feng Yunshan for a brave general like Luo Dagang to be sent to Southeast Asia in 1853.

Because 1853 and 1854 were a key turning point in the history of the Lan Fang Republic!

The war between the Dutch Indies and the Lan Fang Republic began in 1850. In 1852, they built a fort in Bau, Sarawak, in preparation for a large-scale invasion of Lan Fang. Liu Sheng, then the Grand Commander of Lan Fang, attempted to sell off some of Lan Fang's interests and various Chinese companies in Borneo in exchange for the Dutch Indies slowing down the pace of annexation of Lan Fang.

The years 1853 and 1854 were the years when the Dutch Indonesian authorities launched a massive attack on Chinese companies in Borneo. Under the superior military force of the Dutch colonists, all Chinese companies except Lan Fang, which had already been affiliated with the Dutch Indonesian authorities, were destroyed.

After that, it was only a matter of time before the isolated Lan Fang Republic would be destroyed.

So in the second half of 1853, when Luo Dagang, as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's consul for the Straits Settlements, arrived in Lan Fang with hundreds of his core members and hundreds of brown bess and miniature guns, the situation on the island of Borneo where the Dutch were strong and the Chinese were weak was instantly reversed!

The backbones that Luo Dagang brought with him were all experienced veterans of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, numbering several hundred people. This number was not a big deal in China, but it was a big deal in Borneo. After all, the Dutch and local soldiers who invaded Borneo were not many, and they were not equipped with Minié rifles or the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's unique "hundred-step bullets". So after several battles, the Dutch-Indonesian authorities could not hold on and were beaten back step by step.

The Dutch East Indies were forced to sign a peace treaty with the Chinese coalition in Borneo in early 1854, recognizing that these Chinese companies, including Lan Fang, were "independent territories" and did not belong to the Dutch East Indies authorities.

When Luo Dagang went to Southeast Asia, he also brought the God Worshipping Society with him. Luo Dagang himself served as the bishop of the Southeast Asian Diocese. While leading the Hakka people on the island of Borneo to fight against the Dutch, he also developed several thousand believers.

Relying on this group of believers and the army in his hands, after defeating the Dutch-Indonesian army, Luo Dagang simply exiled Liu Sheng, the former Grand General who had defected to the Netherlands, and appointed Luo Zhonghua, a descendant of Luo Fangbo, as the new Grand General. He also led Luo Zhonghua and some heads of Chinese companies in Borneo to board the newly opened Qichang Foreign Company's liner to Nanjing to attend the National People's Congress.

"Your humble servant, Luo Zhonghua, the chief of Lan Fang, pays respect to His Majesty the King of Wu."

A young man with sharp eyebrows, bright eyes, dark skin, and about the same age as Luo Yaoguo, had walked up to Luo Yaoguo, bowed respectfully, and addressed himself as "your humble official."

Luo Yaoguo helped the young man up and said, "General Manager Luo, you are too polite. You are also the leader of a country!" He smiled and said to Feng Yunshan, "Third brother, our National People's Congress has just started, but Lan Fang's publicly elected general manager has been passed down for fourteen terms!
We must ask Mr. Luo how Lan Fang has survived these past few decades. "

Feng Yunshan smiled and nodded: "Yes, I also want to consult with General Luo! Fourteen generations of Yao and Shun have succeeded each other, it is not easy!"

"I dare not, I dare not." Upon hearing this, Luo Zhonghua waved his hands hastily, "Lan Fang is just a small country, the so-called general commander is actually no different from the gang leader."

"Director Luo is too modest!"

Luo Yaoguo smiled and took Luo Zhonghua's hand, then smiled and said to Feng Yunshan and Luo Dagang, "Third brother, Bishop Luo, and Director Luo, please come in!"

(End of this chapter)