The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 472: King of Heaven, be strong and keep pretending to live! (Please subscribe and vote)

"King of Heaven, you must hold on!" The voice was tearful, as if soaked in sadness.

"Wow." Another cry trembled in the air, like fallen leaves shivering in the cold wind.

Hong Xiuquan was in a daze, feeling like he was in a nightmare from which he couldn't wake up. He could vaguely hear a woman's miserable cry. Suddenly, a chill hit him, as if he had fallen into an ice cave, and he shivered with cold. Then, pain came like a tide, and his whole body felt like it was being bitten by countless ants, especially his right shoulder. It was a severe pain as if his skin and flesh were torn apart and penetrated, and the pain made him gasp for air. He turned his eyes with great effort and looked at his right shoulder. He saw a glaring red color, and a broken wooden stick as thick as a child's arm that came out of nowhere and stuck straight into his right shoulder. The scene would make anyone's scalp numb.

Seeing the miserable state of his right shoulder, Hong Xiuquan's heart skipped a beat, and despair enveloped him like a dark cloud. He thought, that day when he stabbed "Xiao Ji Du"'s right shoulder with the Spear of Langnuski, it was about this position, right? Now the situation has changed, and his right shoulder has also been pierced through by this hateful wooden stick. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became, and he couldn't help cursing in his heart, it must be that petty-minded Ji Du in the sky who was behind it, otherwise how could it be such a coincidence! Thinking of this, Hong Xiuquan squeezed out a few words from his dry throat: "Yes, it was Ji Du who harmed me!" His tone was full of unwillingness and anger.

Looking around, the "armored sedan" that Hong Xiuquan was standing on had been blown to pieces by seven or eight shells, like a pile of scrap copper and iron. The wooden stick stuck in his right shoulder was originally part of the sedan. When Hong Xiuquan fell from a height, the wooden stick seemed to have eyes, and it just penetrated his right shoulder and stabbed out from his front shoulder. His body was now lying on a pile of sedan debris, surrounded by a circle of loyal female soldiers, all of whom were in tears.

The battle was still going on fiercely. The Qing army seemed to have launched a counterattack. The shouts of "Confucius bless us, we are invulnerable to swords and guns" became louder and louder, as if to break the sky. The rumbling of cannons was like the angry thunder god in the sky; the crackling of gunfire was very much like the sound of frying beans during the New Year. Occasionally, the sound of horse hooves like rolling thunder could be heard, and the entire battlefield was filled with smoke and chaos. Daozi's face was covered with tears, and she knelt beside Hong Xiuquan like a helpless child. She heard Hong Xiuquan mutter something, and hurriedly wiped away her tears, her eyes full of worry and despair. She stared at Hong Xiuquan lying in a pool of blood, and uttered two words with difficulty: "Heavenly King!"

Inako was a doctor. Although she was a gynecologist, in Japan at that time, doctors were all versatile and could treat trauma. She suppressed her grief and carefully examined Hong Xiuquan's injuries. This examination scared her. Hong Xiuquan's injuries were much more serious than Xiao Chaogui's that day. The penetrating wound on his right shoulder was only the most conspicuous one. There were multiple fractures and abrasions in other places, and there was a cannon wound on his back caused by a cannonball. The blood kept flowing, and it flowed too much, which made Hong Xiuquan's face "bleed" away, as white as a piece of paper, which was heartbreaking to look at.

What's even more terrible is that Daozi has checked the wounds on Hong Xiuquan's body and tried his best to stop the bleeding, but the blood on the face of the Heavenly King is disappearing quickly like sand in an hourglass. Daozi knows exactly what this means. Hong Xiuquan has suffered serious internal injuries and is bleeding heavily somewhere in his body. This is an extremely dangerous signal. If the bleeding cannot be stopped, Hong Xiuquan's life will be counted down.

"I, I'm afraid I'm going back to heaven." Hong Xiuquan weakly raised his cold palm, as if it weighed a thousand pounds. Daozi was quick to grab it and put it in her arms, wanting to warm him with her body temperature. Her lips moved, wanting to say something comforting, but when the words came to her lips, they were blocked by sadness and she couldn't say anything.

Hong Xiuquan was probably unable to bear the cold, and suddenly shivered, then smiled bitterly, looked at the rice and said: "I was thinking of taking you and Sanniang to Beijing to visit the Old Summer Palace and experience the grandeur of the royal garden." As he said this, he suddenly gritted his teeth, his face full of unwillingness: "What a pity, that Ji Du in heaven still refuses to let me go, and has to trip me up at this time!"

"Heavenly King, please stop saying that. You will definitely get better!" Daozi tried to comfort Hong Xiuquan with tears in her eyes and a sobbing voice. But she herself did not believe what she said. She just gave herself and Hong Xiuquan some false hope in this desperate moment.

Hong Xiuquan shook his head with difficulty and said with a wry smile: "Brother Tian's magic power has been restored. He wants me to die. How can I survive? But don't be too sad. I am going back to heaven this time, not to hell. When I get to heaven, I will have magic power. Then I will have a good fight with Ji Du and let him know that I am not easy to bully!"

The rice nodded and said piously, "Rice is willing to follow you to heaven!" It looked as if it was saying something extremely sacred.

When Hong Xiuquan heard this, he shook his head again and said, "Daozi, don't talk nonsense! God hates people committing suicide the most. Suicide will lead to hell! Besides, I want you, Sanniang and Rengan to assist Tiangui together. By the way, where is Sanniang? Where did she go?" At this time, Hong Xiuquan realized that Bian Sanniang was not by his side.

Daozi replied, "She went to invite His Royal Highness the King of the East."

"Oh," Hong Xiuquan smiled bitterly, "Then, then I will wait a little longer, and let Ji Du wait a little longer too!"

After a while, the sounds of gunfire, artillery fire, and fighting seemed to fade away. Then, the sound of horse hooves came from far away. Then, Hong Xiuquan, who was in a daze, heard Yang Xiuqing's hoarse voice: "Heavenly King, Heavenly King!"

Yang Xiuqing finally heard the news and rushed over. He appeared in front of Hong Xiuquan. He saw that the Eastern King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had a panicked look on his face. He rushed to Hong Xiuquan and knelt down, kowtowing heavily: "Heavenly King, Heavenly King, it is all my fault for not protecting you well."

Hong Xiuquan waved his hand, and then waved to Bian Sanniang who came with Yang Xiuqing, and Yang Xiuqing's master Ye Zhifa, and called them to his side. Then he said to them very seriously: "The one who harmed me today is Ji Du in heaven. I injured him before on Capitol Hill. Now his magic power has been restored, and he can finally cast spells to retaliate against me. But it doesn't matter, I will go back to heaven and fight him! When I go back to heaven, I am not afraid of him!"

He said it as if it were true, and he probably believed it without a doubt. Daozi and Bian Sanniang believed it absolutely, and they were nodding their heads while shedding tears, while Yang Xiuqing was skeptical - it was not that he did not believe in the relationship between Hong Xiuquan and Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother, but that he did not believe that Hong Xiuquan could defeat Heavenly Brother Ji Du. To be honest, Hong Xiuquan was really incompetent at everything. If he had not had a good father, he would never have been the leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!

Now, he was killed by Ji Du in the sky with a little trick, and he didn't know how he was killed? The spear he threw on Capitol Hill that day gave Ji Du an excuse to do it!

He has no idea who he can deal with and who he can't touch!

He stabbed Luo Yaoguo with his spear, and sent him away. He was just God's adopted son, so what! But Ji Du was the eldest prince! He used the spear of Langnuski to stab the eldest prince. Moreover, he didn't stab the real body, but a flesh body that came down to earth to possess. Even if he stabbed Xiao Chaogui to death, what harm would it do to Ji Du's real body? He couldn't figure this out, and he probably couldn't beat big brother Ji Du if he went up!
When Yang Xiuqing was thinking about whether to change his allegiance and go to Ji Du, Hong Xiuquan's hoarse voice sounded again: "Qing brother, after I die, Tiangui will ask you to assist the rice with the Gan brother and the Shan brother. Sanniang, you are all my female officials. After I return to heaven, you must assist Tiangui wholeheartedly with Qing brother. Don't let me down in heaven!"

Yang Xiuqing kowtowed quickly and said, "Don't worry, my Lord. I will do my best to assist the young master!"

Daozi and Bian Sanniang also bowed to Hong Xiuquan and swore allegiance to Hong Xiuquan's eldest son Hong Tiangui.

Hong Xiuquan suddenly widened his eyes and stared fiercely at the dark sky, as if some unforgivable demon was hiding there. Then he shouted, "Ji Du, I'm here!" After shouting, he kicked his legs and became motionless.

Daozi stretched out his right hand tremblingly and probed under Hong Xiuquan's nose. When he found that he was dead, he burst into tears and cried loudly. Bian Sanniang was about to burst into tears when Yang Xiuqing shouted at her: "Don't cry!"

Daozi and Bian Sanniang both looked at Yang Xiuqing, only to see that the Eastern King's face was livid, with one eye bloodshot, like an angry lion: "Now is not the time, the battle is not over yet! Heavenly King, you can't die yet!"

"But the Heavenly King has already..." Bian Sanniang looked at Yang Xiuqing.

Yang Xiuqing gritted his teeth and said, "The Heavenly King must pretend to be alive. He must pretend to be alive! Only if the Heavenly King pretends to be alive can we stabilize the morale of the army and have hope of winning this battle!"

"But so many people saw the king's sedan chair being hit by a cannonball."

Yang Xiuqing shook his head: "It doesn't matter, I just saw the sedan chair being hit, but I didn't see the Heavenly King being hit!"

He looked around and saw that there were actually quite a few people who had witnessed the death of the Heavenly King. After Hong Xiuquan was hit by the cannon, Daozi and Bian Sanniang immediately mobilized two battalions of female soldiers to form a human wall to isolate the inside and outside. But these female soldiers were all witnesses to Hong Xiuquan's death! Yang Xiuqing immediately said to Bian Sanniang: "Sanniang, you must immediately stabilize the female soldiers around, and never let them spread the news that the Heavenly King has passed away! In addition, you have to find someone to pretend to be the Heavenly King!"

Who should they look for? Yang Xiuqing himself was definitely not the right person, as he was much smaller than Hong Xiuquan in stature, and more people in the Taiping Army knew him than Hong Xiuquan, the "homebody king".

"Zhifa!" He pointed at Ye Zhifa who came with him, "Come here, Daozi, go get a Heavenly King's robe and a hat for Ye Zhifa to wear!"

Ye Zhifa was stunned and looked at Yang Xiuqing: "Dong Wang, I, I'm afraid I can't do it!"

Yang Xiuqing glared at him fiercely and said, "What do you mean by ok or not? From now on, you will just pretend to be alive for the Heavenly King and get through this hurdle first! This is my order for you!"

(End of this chapter)