The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 512: The Promised Land of Hong Tianwang (Request for subscription and votes)

At dawn, on the southern slope of Tuofeng Mountain.

Zuo Zongtang walked across the battlefield littered with corpses, stepping on the dark red mud. Smoke was still coming out of the barrels of several 32-pound heavy muzzle-loading smoothbore cannons.

Yu Wanqing rode a tall, dark red horse with its lower body covered in mud, and led a team of cavalry escorting prisoners: "We have captured more than 370 alive, do you want them?" He made a killing gesture, but his face was full of a gentle smile.

"How many have run back?" Zuo Zongtang asked softly, looking at the more than one hundred Russian soldiers who were covered in mud and looked like they had rolled out of a quagmire.

"Less than a thousand," Yu Wanqing said happily, "What a great victory! From Tuofeng Mountain to Xinhao Mountain, the muddy ground along the way is full of corpses of the old Russians. I'm afraid there are no less than three thousand!"

"Send them all back to Muravyov," Zuo Zongtang pointed at the group of Russian soldiers who looked like mud monkeys. "I have a letter written by King Luo Wu. Find an official among them to take it to Muravyov."

As he spoke, he took out a wax-covered envelope from his sleeve and handed it to Han Yulin, who had appeared beside him at some point.

Han Yulin took the envelope and spoke in stiff French: "Is there anyone who can understand French? Come out, here is the prophecy of His Majesty the Angel, and I want to give it to your Governor Muravyov!"

"I, I can speak French." A pale young officer, barefoot, limped out from the crowd.

"Name, rank?" Han Yulin asked in French.

"Vladimir Chernetsov, second lieutenant of cavalry." The young officer answered in a hoarse voice.

Han Yulin took a few steps forward and handed the envelope to the Russian cavalry lieutenant named Chernetsov. He then said to him in stiff French, "Lieutenant, your future is in the New World. The future of all of you is in the New World!"

"New, new world?" Vladimir Chernetsov took the envelope and looked at Han Yulin in confusion, "Why?"

Han Yulin just smiled without answering, then he took out a French version of The True Covenant and handed it to the young officer, then patted him on the shoulder and said, "Go back, go back to Muravyov, and let him take you to the New World!"

Muravyov stood in a daze on the watchtower of the Signal Hill Fortress, the smell of blood, gunpowder and the burning sensation of vodka rushing straight to his head. He could no longer remember how he escaped from the pursuit of the Taiping Army, and he was not even sure whether he really escaped. A group of defeated Russian soldiers struggling in the mud appeared in his sight, each of them leaning on a wooden stick, taking one deep step and one shallow step, and struggling to move towards the Signal Hill Fortress.

"Some more children have returned," Muravyov said in a hoarse voice to the guards and staff officers around him, "Send someone to bring them back!"

A group of Cossack cavalrymen galloped out, and soon a young cavalry lieutenant was supported in front of the governor, "Your Excellency, this is..." The young cavalry lieutenant hesitated for a moment, "This is a handwritten letter from the Chinese angel to you!"

"Angel. A handwritten letter to me?" Muravyov knew who the "Chinese Angel" was referring to. How could that person in faraway Jiangnan, China, write a letter to him, and how could this letter be delivered to him at this critical moment?
Thinking of this, he immediately took the envelope, took out a dagger, broke the wax, took out the letter inside, and then saw a few lines of beautiful English cursive: Dear Governor Muravyov, if you see my letter, it means that you have been in trouble in the Petropavlovsk Fortress. But even if you are not in trouble in the Petropavlovsk Fortress, your fighting in the Far East battlefield cannot change the predicament Russia faces in the Crimea battlefield.

Because defense alone cannot win a war, and the gains and losses of the Petropavlovsk Fortress on the Kamchatka Peninsula are irrelevant to the British. The Kamchatka Peninsula does not belong to the British, and they have no intentions there. Instead of doing nothing in the Petropavlovsk Fortress or being trapped in the dangerous city, you and your men should think about what Emperor Napoleon I and Marshal Suvorov would do if they were in your current position? Should they be trapped, or take the opportunity to break through to the New World by sea before the encirclement is closed, and bring the war to the empty British colonies?
Seeing this, Muravyov's hand holding the letter paper unconsciously clenched into a fist, and the fire of hope was burning again in his heart.

At the same time, in a brothel frequented by gold diggers in Fort Victoria, North America, Popov suddenly woke up from a nightmare and shouted, waking up a red-haired Irish prostitute next to him. He was gasping for breath and found that he was not soaking in the cold sea water, but lying limp on the soft bed. He looked up and saw the very familiar statue of Hong Xiuquan.

The statue was placed on an altar, with an oriental-style incense burner in front of it, filled with incense ash.

"Who is he, who is he?" Popov asked loudly in English.

"Son of God, brother of Christ!" the prostitute answered in a voice of great piety.

"No!" Popov shouted, "God has no such son, Christ has no such brother"

The Irish prostitute stared at the ruler of Fort Victoria with wide eyes, just making the sign of the cross on her chest and muttering to herself.

There was a rapid knock on the door, and a quick Russian voice came from outside: "Captain, something's happened to the captain, come and have a look!"

This is one of Popov's men, and he has the same name as the current Tsar, both of them are called Alexander.

Popov quickly jumped out of bed, grabbed his clothes and pants and put them on casually, then took out a small piece of gold that he had robbed when he attacked Fort Victoria two days ago and threw it to the prostitute who was superstitious about Hong Xiuquan, then pushed the door open and walked out without looking back.

A pale Cossack, about 17 or 18 years old, wearing a woolen coat stolen from someone, carrying a musket on his back, stood outside the door with a panicked look on his face. When he saw Popov, he shouted, "They are coming! They are coming!"

"Who? Who's here?" Popov asked.

"Chinese! Taiping Army!" Alexander shouted.

Popov was not surprised. How could he not know that the Chinese had deliberately let him leave Chichagof Island? And the purpose of these cunning oriental demons must be to use them to seize the rich and empty Victoria area of ​​the British. This area has fertile plains and the temperature is quite pleasant. It can be maintained above freezing in the coldest winter! The summer is even warmer, which is very suitable for crop growth. It is much better than the icy Alaska!
"Go! Go and see!"

Popov roared, and ran towards the town's watchtower with Alexander.

On the Strait of Georgia, eight modified whaling ships flying the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's dragon flag were sailing with their sails spread, breaking through the blue water and heading towards the depths of the strait, with no intention of paying any attention to Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island.

Popov on the watchtower put down the telescope, exhaled a breath, and then turned to Alexander beside him and said: "Sasha, the Chinese's target is not us, they actually need us! Our existence is their excuse to station troops in the Strait of Georgia! These cunning Chinese, they are all believers of the devil!"

"Commander-in-Chief, that's Fort Victoria, with the Russian double-headed eagle flag hanging on it. Popov must be there!"

Wang Tieniu put down the telescope, raised his hand and pointed at Fort Victoria in the north of the Strait of Georgia, and yelled at Yu Dabao who was taking a nap in the cabin.

"Let them be! We don't want his Fort Victoria. We have better fertile land deep in the Strait of Georgia, which is the promised land of the king."

Yu Dabao narrowed his eyes and said what he heard from Luo Yaoguo before he left Shanghai. Now they were still far from the destination, so he didn't even have the interest to go out of the cabin to take a look. Instead, the Aliu-shou girl who was once wrapped in the military flag rushed out of the cabin happily, stood beside Wang Tieniu, took Wang Tieniu's arm, raised her hand and pointed to the vast land in the south, and shouted in Russian: "Gold, gold, there is gold! The Cossacks like it the most, Unara doesn't like it, if you find it, give it to Master Tieniu"

Unara is the name of this Aleutian girl. She can speak Russian and is half Russian. She seems to be very attached to Wang Tieniu and followed him all the way here from Chichagof Island.

Wang Tieniu also knew some Russian. He learned it in Vladivostok from several Shanxi merchants who did business with the Russians. Zuo Zongtang asked them to give lessons to his young officers, teaching them a little Russian and Russian customs and habits, so that he could know both himself and the enemy.

So Wang Tieniu and Unala, two people who should have nothing to do with each other, can now talk to each other.

"How do you know there is gold there? Have you been here?" Wang Tieniu asked.

"I have been here before," Ulana said. "I went there with Master Popov a year ago to do business with the masters there. There are many people like Tieniu there."

She was Popov's serf. When Popov went out to do business, he naturally had to bring some serfs with him. One time, he took her with him.

"People like me?" Wang Tieniu laughed and asked Ulana, "Are those Chinese the masters there?"

Ulana shook her head and said with a smile: "The masters there are all white. People like Popov and Tieniu are all serfs of the white masters, mining and farming for them!"

"Serfs? Haha," Wang Tieniu laughed and muttered in Chinese, "These people are not doing well! It seems that in this world, the gun still has the final say!"

(End of this chapter)