The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 407 Whose Taiping Heavenly Kingdom? (Please subscribe and vote)
These two men with droopy eyebrows, triangular eyes, high cheekbones and big beards are the brothers Zeng Jia Guofan and Zeng Guohua!
One of them was a descendant of the Eight Banners, a slave of the Qing emperor, and the other was a third-class citizen of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Zeng Guohua came to Tianjing as a representative of the Chinese people nominated by the Shanghai Advisory Council.

Zeng Guofan left his seat in Jining Prefecture, Shandong, under the pretext of inspecting the defense of the canal and the Huai River, and secretly went to Haizhou. In Haizhou, he boarded a ship of the British firm of Butterfield & Sullivan, first to Shanghai, and then changed to a ship of the Flagship Company to go to Tianjing to investigate the true situation of the National People's Congress.

The current system of separating men and women in Tianjing has been abolished, and the previously closed northern part of the inner city is now open. Since the people living in this area are all male and female holy soldiers with national identity, many of them also hold official positions and can receive monthly food and salary, they have a good income and naturally have money to spend. The market in the northern part of the inner city of Tianjing quickly became prosperous.

It was not surprising that Zeng Guofan and his party, disguised as merchants and bringing with them a lot of Shandong specialties, came to Tianjing to make a fortune. So they did not encounter any troubles, and they just paid taxes at Longjiang Customs and entered Tianjing City smoothly.

Moreover, the tax supervision office of Longjiang Customs is very efficient!

After finding out that there was no opium among the goods carried by Zeng Guofan and his entourage, they were taxed by weight according to the standard of "high-priced groceries".

The tax rate is not high, and the process of weighing and paying taxes is very transparent. If merchants are dissatisfied with the weighing results, they can also complain to the Longjiang Customs Supervisor.

In addition, the tax was not paid directly to the tax collector, but the merchant took the receipt issued by the tax collector to the Shanghai HSBC Bank outside Yifeng Gate to pay the money. After receiving the receipt from HSBC Bank, the merchant had completed the tax payment and could take the receipt to pass through the customs and enter the city.

This time, Zeng Guofan brought a total of two thousand taels of Chinese medicine and furs, and entered the city of Tianjing after paying less than twenty taels of silver in taxes, without even giving a penny in bribes.

The integrity and efficiency of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom’s customs really opened Zeng Guofan’s eyes, but also made him worried!

Could this be the legendary founding atmosphere?

"Fellow Chinese brothers and sisters"

Zeng Guofan suddenly heard a Hunan accent speaking Mandarin outside the restaurant. He looked in the direction of the sound and saw a huge notice board erected on the street. A young Taiping Army soldier in a red scarf and yellow robe, who was only about 17 or 18 years old, was standing next to the notice board and shouting at the top of his lungs.

"This is the notice board! If you didn't get a chance to go to the Capitol Hill to listen to the National People's Congress, you can wait for news in front of the notice board. Everything discussed on the Capitol Hill will be posted on the notice board. It doesn't matter if you can't read. Someone will read it to you.
Don't push, there are more than one notice board. His Royal Highness the Northern King has ordered people to put up 100 notice boards inside Yifeng Gate today! All of us brothers and sisters can know what is being discussed on Capitol Hill in a timely manner.

If anyone wants to petition our representatives and kings on Capitol Hill, just go to the sign and let me and the lecturers know."

When Zeng Guofan heard the word "lecturer", he turned his head and whispered to Zeng Guohua: "Wenfu, I often hear people say that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has an official called 'lecturer', who is very important. I wonder what exactly is the importance of this lecturer?

Besides, why should these lecturers promptly inform the people down below the Capitol about the politics being discussed on Capitol Hill? What is so important to these people?"

Zeng Guohua said: "Brother, you don't know that the position of lecturer was created after His Royal Highness King Wu descended from heaven. King Wu's first official position in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was the chief lecturer, and he is still the chief lecturer of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom today. All the lecturers and lecturers of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom are considered his disciples. Among them, the lecturers and lecturers of the six divisions of the upper army, the six prefectures in the southeast, and the two prefectures of Changsha, Hunan, and Yuanzhou, Jiangxi, are directly or indirectly governed by the lecturer group personally controlled by King Luo Wu.

The lecturer has three main responsibilities: first, to educate people and spread the doctrine of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom; second, to manage the internal laws and regulations of the Taiping Army and Taiping Heavenly Kingdom officials; third, to participate in personnel appointments and dismissals and distinguish between loyalty and treachery! "

Zeng Guofan frowned and said, "So lecturers do these things. I originally thought they were responsible for preaching."

Zeng Guohua said: "They were supposed to be responsible for preaching, but later on, for some reason, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's lecturers mainly taught the Anti-Scripture and the Celestial Kingdom's Land System, and rarely taught the True Testament. And since last year, the God Worshipping Society has separated from the God Worshipping Society and started to send bishops to Shanghai, Japan, and Southeast Asia."

He paused and continued, "As for those Chinese people, that's very important! According to King Luo Wu, this Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is not the kingdom of the Heavenly King, but the kingdom of the Chinese people!"

"So that's how it is, I understand!" Zeng Guofan narrowed his triangular eyes, a sneer appeared on the corners of his mouth, and whispered, "It seems that King Luo Wu regards the lecturers as his own party members and confidants, and wants to rely on this group of disciples to form a party and seize power! I think this National People's Congress will probably be full of turmoil! Wen Fu, you have to be careful, if the signs are not right, it is best to run away!" Zeng Guohua was stunned for a moment, then nodded, "Brother, you have to be careful too. Now the five kings of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Tian, ​​Dong, Xi, Nan, and Wu, all have troops in Tianjing. There is also a steam gunboat of King Wu on the Yangtze River. If this National People's Congress is really disrupted, there may be a fight!"

Zeng Guofan smiled coldly: "If there is a real war, then God bless the Qing Dynasty!"

"Boom boom boom boom boom boom"

Suddenly, the sound of gongs and drums came from the east.

Zeng Guofan wanted to turn his head to look, but Zeng Guohua smiled and said to him, "It must be one of the kings! Among the kings of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, only King Wu was the most plain and simple. The others all liked to put on airs. Wherever they went, they were carried in a sedan chair by dozens of people, with gongs and drums and dragon dances leading the way, just like a big opera at a temple fair in the countryside."

Zeng Guofan sneered again, then became serious again: "But the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom still has a King Luo Wu!"

"The King of the East is nine thousand years old!"

"Greetings to the King of the East."

Coming along Beizushi'an Street towards Yifengmennei Street with the sound of gongs and drums were the troops of Yang Xiuqing, the Eastern King. The once high and mighty Eastern King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was today acting approachable and down-to-earth. Although he also came with gongs and drums and was surrounded by people, he did not ride in his large sedan chair carried by thirty-two people. Instead, he rode a tall and handsome horse and walked slowly along, welcomed by the people and the common people on both sides of the street.

Yang Xiuqing rode forward with a fake smile on his face, calling on the people who were kneeling and bowing to him to stand up: "Stand up, all of you. You are all citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, brothers and sisters of me, Yang Xiuqing. Now you are not on duty, so there is no need to perform such a great ceremony!"

He suddenly saw an old man in his fifties, with wrinkles all over his face and a limp, trying to get up from the ground. He quickly dismounted, strode forward, and helped the man up in front of everyone: "Old man, what's your surname? What's your name? Are you Chinese?"

"Your Highness the King of the East, I am honored. My surname is Wang, and I am the sixth of my generation. I am a native of Zijing Mountain. I have been in the army since the Jintian Uprising!"

Yang Xiuqing held the calloused hand of the old Taiping Army soldier and nodded repeatedly: "Okay, you are the hero of my Heavenly Kingdom! Today's National People's Congress is for heroes like you, Old Wang, you are not a representative of the people, right?"

"No, no, I can't read!" Old man Wang shook his head, looking flattered.

Yang Xiuqing continued his performance, pulling Old Man Wang and saying, "Come on, I'll take you to Capitol Hill to discuss state affairs together!"

As he spoke, he did not allow the old man to refuse, and he dragged Old Man Wang with him to the lofty Capitol Hill amid the cheers of the crowd. As they walked, he asked Old Man Wang, "Who else is at home? Is your wife still alive?"

Old man Wang Liu smiled bitterly and said, "Your Highness, the Eastern King, my family is poor, so how can I marry a woman? I have a younger brother who joined the Taiping Army with me, but unfortunately he died in the battle of Suoyiferry."

Yang Xiuqing patted the old man on the back kindly and said, "Don't be sad. You are a Chinese citizen now. You can get a house in Tianjing and receive a fixed amount of money and food. Are you worried that you can't get married? Don't forget that you are a meritorious Chinese citizen. Your status can be passed on to your descendants. Oh, your brother died in the war. His contributions cannot be forgotten. You should receive them! Today, I will propose to the National People's Congress with you to erect a monument to commemorate the heroes who died, and to provide pensions and preferential treatment to the relatives of the heroes!"

Receiving such concern from the King of East, Old Man Wang could not help but burst into tears: "King of East, you still care about us veterans from Guangxi!"

Yang Xiuqing smiled and said, "Of course, you are all my fellow countrymen from Guangxi!"

(End of this chapter)