The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 491 Luo Yaoguo: Salty demon, why don't you learn from Hong Tianwang! (Please subscribe, please vote)

Jining city, where Emperor Xianfeng resided.

Having just fought a battle to capture a city, Emperor Xianfeng should have been in high spirits, but he could not be happy at all. He sat in the residence arranged for him by Zeng Jia Guofan, looking at Shengbao who was brought up in a heavy tying, his pockmarked face as black as the bottom of a pot, his brows tightly knitted into the shape of the Chinese character "川".

Although Shengbao was defeated and captured, he was still as brave as a dead pig. Even when he was brought before Emperor Xianfeng, he was still cursing: "Xianfeng, you are really blinded by greed. You actually rebelled! The emperor has made your son the Prince of Fu, with an annual salary of 100,000 taels. Are you afraid that you don't have the money to spend if you come back to Beijing with me? You don't want to be a good prince, but you have to rebel. How can you be worthy of the ancestors of the Qing Dynasty? If you don't rebel, the Qing Dynasty can still be saved. If you rebel, the situation will be over. The situation of the Qing Dynasty is over... You won't have a good ending either!"

"Bold Shengbao, you still don't know how to live or die at this time!" Zeng Jia Linshu, the great hero of today's battle to capture Jining City, glared at Shengbao when he saw that he was still being stubborn, and with a clang he pulled out half of his sword, looking as if he was about to chop someone down.

Xianfeng coughed lightly and said, "Linshu, let him speak! I want to hear it. Why can't I restore order and rebuild the Qing Dynasty?"

"Rebuild the Qing Dynasty? You? Hahaha..." Shengbao laughed so hard that his face became distorted, as if he had heard the most ridiculous joke in the world. "Look at who are the people helping you rebel now? The feudal lords, the soldiers, the refugees... Humph, these people can't be controlled by the founding emperor? Are you the founding emperor? Who can you control? Look at the people around you, who are they? Do they look like loyal subjects? Do they look like slaves?"

Xianfeng looked left and right, and it seemed to be true. Zeng Jia Guofan had a sinister look on his face, Zeng Jia Linshu had a face full of fat, and looked arrogant, Huang Shijie looked like a treacherous minister, Luo Zenan was short and fat, but his face was full of fat, Zhang Guoliang was a soldier, Li Xubin and Li Xuyi also looked arrogant, and even the Duke of Yansheng Kong Fanhao smiled with ill intentions.

Wait, Xianfeng just realized, these "loyal ministers and good slaves" of the Qing Dynasty, why are they sitting in a big carriage today, who let them sit? When did the slaves and ministers of the Qing Dynasty become equal to the emperor? Why do they look like masters?

Shengbao kept talking, "Look at the world. There are people starving to death everywhere. There are refugees everywhere. Shandong and Henan have a large population and a small land area. Every year there are either droughts or floods. Without you messing around here, there have been constant civil unrest... and you are still leading the rebellion! All right, just wait to be carried away by these poor people who can't make a living. I'm watching from heaven to see how far you, the rebellious tyrant, can go! By the way, Zeng Guofan, tell Xianfeng, how much food is left in Jining City? How many days can these defeated soldiers and refugees in the city eat white rice porridge?

Xianfeng, what will you do when the food is gone? I think you will soon become the leader of bandits! Hahaha, you should just enjoy your life as a prince and learn from Li Zicheng to become a bandit..."

After hearing Shengbao say that Jining Prefecture's grain reserves were running out, Xianfeng could no longer sit still. He quickly turned his head and looked at Zeng Jia Guofan, his eyes full of anxiety: "Guofan, is what Shengbao said true? How much grain do we have left in Jining Prefecture?"

Zeng Guofan had a helpless smile on his face, bowed and said: "Your Majesty, Jining Prefecture was originally the general grain station for the various armies on the front line of Lianghuai. But since Your Majesty personally led the army to Huai'an, most of the grain reserves in Jining Prefecture have been moved to Huai'an Prefecture, and now they have all been taken away by the Taiping rebels! Although there is still a little left in Jining Prefecture, this little bit of food has to cope with tens of thousands of defeated troops and the huge number of refugees who eat porridge every day. It's really a pity."

"How long can it last?" Emperor Xianfeng had no patience to listen to Zeng Guofan's long-winded words, and interrupted him directly, "Guofan, tell me a date! How long can we last if we drink porridge to our heart's content? If we eat sparingly, how long can we last?"

Zeng Guofan frowned slightly, thought for a while, then bowed and said: "Your Majesty, if the people below eat rice, flour and porridge as much as they want, the existing food in Jining Prefecture will only be enough to last for one month. If we save a little, it can only last for about 20 days at most."

Before he could finish his words, Shengbao started laughing like crazy, "Hahahahaha", "Xianfeng, oh Xianfeng, I told you, you had a good life as a prince, but you had to make trouble. Now you want to be a bandit, like Li Zicheng! Humph, I think you are not as good as Li Zicheng. Li Zicheng could at least enter Beijing, but you don't have the ability to do that!"

After hearing this, Emperor Xianfeng snorted coldly, with a look of disdain on his face: "I have 100,000 people under my command. How many people does Gong Laoliu have? What can he use to stop me?"

Shengbao laughed again, his laughter full of mockery. He stiffened his neck and said loudly: "It's okay to tell you. Emperor Tongde has already received support from the French. The Bank of the Orient in France is willing to lend 10 million taels of silver to help the emperor and Li Hongzhang of Beiyang expand the Beiyang Army to six regiments!" As he spoke, he glared with bloodshot eyes and gnashed his teeth and cursed: "You are a tyrant who has misled the country, the people and my Eight Banners. You are dead!"

How could Emperor Xianfeng bear this? His face darkened and he said in a cold voice: "Linshu, drag this traitor out and execute him!"

"Yes!" Zeng Jia Linshu responded, stood up suddenly, walked forward with big strides, picked up Shengbao like a chicken, and dragged him out of the lobby. Not long after, the people in the lobby heard a shrill scream from outside.

In the hall, Xianfeng, who had just ordered the killing, frowned and started to discuss with the group of "ministers" who were on equal footing with him: "Everyone, tell me, how should we raise food and silver to fight the bandits and quell the rebellion?"

When they heard that Emperor Xianfeng wanted money and grain, the faces of the loyal officials of the Qing Dynasty, who were all in high spirits just now, showed an expression of extreme, no, one hundred, one thousand, and extremely difficult difficulties, as if they were asked to borrow money from a poor relative. Haizhou City, King Wu's headquarters.

"Your Highness, Prince Wu, if you want Emperor Xianfeng and Emperor Tongde to fight to the death, just give them some more money, food and ammunition. As long as you give them another 200,000 dan of rice and flour, one million taels of military expenses, 20,000 foreign guns, and 100 foreign cannons, Emperor Xianfeng will definitely fight to the death with Emperor Tongde! I guarantee that they will both suffer losses, and in the end, your sister-in-law, Concubine Yi, will get the upper hand."

The one who was talking eloquently in front of Luo Yaoguo was Ronglu, who had made great contributions to Emperor Xianfeng in keeping Zeng Jia and Guofan from joining the pirate ship. He has now been appointed as the first-class guard and serves in front of the emperor. It is a very high position, but his job is to "beg for food by imperial order." Now he has run to Haizhou to beg for food from Luo Yaoguo who has just arrived here.

But Luo Yaoguo didn't care about him. Now Luo Yaoguo has taken Haizhou and Xuzhou without bloodshed, and the first goal of going north has been basically achieved - before Zhu Yuanzhang swept north, he also took Xuzhou and Haizhou first.

In history, any southern regime that could hold Xuzhou would be on the offensive and could march north to the Central Plains if they got the chance. Once the northern regime took Xuzhou, it would close the eastern gate for the southern regime to march north to the Central Plains, and it would not be so easy for the southern regime to march north.

Of course, Luo Yaoguo did not come to Xuzhou just to take a stronghold for the Northern Expedition. Xuzhou is also a very important coal and iron producing area. There are high-quality iron and coal mines in Xuzhou, and it is also along the canal. The coal and iron produced in Xuzhou can be easily transported to Shanghai!

There are more and more steam engines in Shanghai now, and more and more coal and iron are needed, and there will be even more in the future - coal and iron are the blood and food of industrialization.

In addition, the Yellow River will change its course this year. The route of the Yellow River flowing into the sea from the Huai River, which has continued since the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, will be changed back to the route of flowing eastward and entering the sea from Shandong. This is a great thing for Xuzhou, Haizhou, Huai'an, Fengyang, Sizhou and other areas on both sides of the Huai River.

The two sides of the Huaihe River were originally prosperous areas, but the endless silt brought by the Yellow River raised the riverbeds of the Huaihe River, the Yellow River and the Grand Canal, causing the Huaihe River to flood year after year. The canal north of the Huaihe River is often silted up, and people's lives on the north bank of the Huaihe River are becoming increasingly difficult.

Now that "Father Heavenly God" has finally decided to change the course of the Yellow River to flow into the sea through Shandong, Luo Yaoguo, as the angel master and the only representative of Father Heavenly God on earth, must come north to personally announce this good news to the elders and folks in Huaibei. This is his second purpose of going north.

His third purpose of going north was to meet Yang Xiuqing, who had been avoiding him recently!
The Dark Hall controlled by Luo Yaoguo had not contacted the spies in the female camp directly under Hong Xiuquan for almost a month, and the reason why the Dark Hall could not contact them has now been figured out, that is, "Hong Xiuquan" led the female camp to Fengyang and entered Fengyang City and never came out. At present, the entry and exit of Fengyang City is strictly controlled, and the people who originally lived in the city have also been moved out.

In addition, the An Tang had collected a lot of details about Hong Xiuquan being hit by a cannon and injured on the battlefield of Baoying in the past month. Now Luo Yaoguo was 70% to 80% sure that something bad had happened to Hong Xiuquan, either he had passed away or was seriously injured and could not afford it.

Therefore, he now ordered Su Sanniang and Maria to lead their troops to cross the river from Tianjing to Puzikou in the north, while he personally stayed in Haizhou, which was adjacent to Huai'an, and sent people to Fengyang to invite Yang Xiuqing to Haizhou to discuss the Northern Expedition plan.

He was now in Haizhou waiting for Yang Xiuqing to come north, but he didn't expect that Yang Xiuqing didn't come, but a beggar Ronglu came first.

How to get rid of Ronglu? Luo Yaoguo's eyes turned and a plan came to his mind. He showed a meaningful smile on his face and said to Ronglu: "How about this... You go back and tell Xianfeng to learn from Hong Tianwang, and he will definitely be rich."

"Learn from Hong Tianwang?" Ronglu looked confused and couldn't help but blurt out, "Learn to dance with the gods?"

"No," Luo Yaoguo smiled and shook his head, "Learn to draw cakes, learn to share cakes, learn to cheat like Hong Tianwang, oh, mobilize those wealthy believers to use their property to invest!"

"What kind of shares should I invest in?" Ronglu was still confused and asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"Of course, we should invest in Confucianism!" Luo Yaoguo laughed. "Confucianism was founded by the Kong family. Shouldn't the Duke of Yansheng learn from the Northern King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and donate all his property to help with military expenses?"

(End of this chapter)