The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 518: The Yellow River collapses, and the Yellow Dragon takes the lead! (Please subscribe and vote)

The bronze clock in the Palace of Prince Wu in Tianjing was ticking. Luo Yaoguo's palms gently tapped Maria's bulging belly, making a crisp "pa pa pa" sound. Then he lifted up Maria's silk summer coat and bright red bellyband, put his ear close to it and listened. He seemed to hear something and an expectant smile appeared on his face.

The candlelight shone through the stained glass, casting mottled shadows on the smiling faces of the two people.

"Your Highness," Maria's blue eyes flickered in the dark as Luo Yaoguo's palm stretched upward along her abdomen, "Li Shoucheng is already waiting outside the Chuihua Gate."

Luo Yaoguo did not answer immediately. His eyes fell on the secret letter on the desk. It was sent by Zeng Guohua from Dongchang Prefecture in Shandong Province. Emperor Xianfeng's "begging army" had moved there a few days ago. Zeng Guohua's letter mentioned that the water level of the Yellow River had exceeded the Zhizhuang by 10 feet, and the Tongwaxiang dam could burst at any time.

Luo Yaoguo's fingers drew circles on Maria's belly, and the candlelight illuminated his profile. "Let him wait." His voice was as soft as if he was coaxing a child. "Our child will live in peace in the future. He can't be allowed to hear these fighting and killings."

Maria's blue eyes flashed with a cunning look. She grabbed Luo Yaoguo's restless hand and said, "Your Highness, Li Shoucheng is the leader of your old brothers in Guangxi. This time you will entrust him with an important task." She drew a cross on Luo Yaoguo's palm with her fingertips. "Aren't you afraid that he will get impatient?"

"Afraid?" Luo Yaoguo suddenly laughed. He lifted Maria's bellyband and kissed her bulging belly gently. "I even know when the Yellow River will burst its banks, so why would I be afraid of Li Shoucheng?"

The dripping sound of the copper clock suddenly became rapid. Luo Yaoguo stood up and tidied Maria's clothes. "Let him in." His fingers tapped lightly on the secret letter on the desk. "By the way, call Chen Picheng as well."

The hanging flower gate creaked, and Li Xiucheng's figure was stretched out by the candlelight. There was still dew on his robe, and the soles of his boots were covered with mud. "Your Highness," he bowed, "the 8,000 soldiers of the Fourth Army's advance team are ready to go and can board the ship at any time."

"Got it," Luo Yaoguo interrupted him, turned around and took down a gilded box from the treasure pavilion, "This is for you." He opened the box, and inside was an enamel tobacco box made in Jingdezhen, "There is a secret compartment in the tobacco box, which contains the list of secret agents of the Antang in Liaodong, Liaoxi, and North Korea and the way to contact them. When you occupy Lushunkou, they should have stored food. If the Yellow River collapses, many people will have no food to eat. You must gather and resettle as many people as possible, and let them cultivate the black soil in Liaodong. This matter is more important than entering Shanhaiguan! Do you understand?"

Li Xiucheng took the tobacco box, still a little puzzled: "Your Highness, is there anything more important than entering Shanhaiguan and Beijing? The Eastern King..."

"So what if the East King enters Beijing?" Luo Yaoguo suddenly sneered, "When the Yellow River collapses, there will be millions of victims. Who can feed them and who can hold Beijing firmly? Otherwise, it will be Li Zicheng." His brows tightened again. By next year, there will be another severe drought in the south of the Yangtze River. The wheat and soybeans in Liaodong are the foundation! Besides, do you really think the East King has a great chance to enter Beijing?"

Chen Picheng appeared at the door quietly: "Your Highness, what do you want?"

"Picheng, take the brothers from the Dark Guard Battalion to Beijing. Wanzhen and Weng Tonghe should also go. They are already waiting in Shanghai!" Luo Yaoguo pulled out another enamel tobacco box from his sleeve. "You all take the Jardine Matheson ship to the north, disembark in Tianjin, and then go to Beijing. Someone will meet you in Tianjin." He handed another enamel tobacco box to Chen Yucheng. "By the time you arrive in Tianjin, the Yellow River will have collapsed. Beijing and Tianjin will probably be in chaos. You must protect Wanzhen and Weng Tonghe."

Chen Picheng knew what was in the enamel tobacco box, so he took it with both hands.

At this moment, the dripping sound of the copper leak suddenly stopped. Luo Yaoguo turned and looked out the window: "It's midnight." He tapped his fingers lightly on the desk, "It's time to burst the dam."

The summer rains of the fifth year of Emperor Xianfeng's reign were particularly violent. The self-ringing clock of the Linqing Prefecture Palace suddenly exploded at midnight. The gilded gears splashed on the blue brick floor. Emperor Xianfeng stepped barefoot on the messy ground, and his pale fingers traced the old course of the Yellow River on the map. He could only murmur: "If the Yellow River collapses, the Qing Dynasty will perish. If the Yellow River collapses, the Qing Dynasty will perish."

"Report!" The postman covered in mud pushed open the gate, "The stakes at the Lower North Hall are more than 12 feet high. The Yellow River Dam is in danger!"

Zeng Guofan plucked off three strands of his beard, and the celadon teacup turned dark lines in his palm. Kong Fanhao knocked the enameled tobacco box from Jingdezhen he was playing with on the rosewood table, "Disheng, what exactly does Li Shaoquan mean? Does he really want to fight us?"

Zeng Guofan glanced at this "Confucius" who was suddenly several generations older than him, picked up the celadon teacup and took a sip, and said leisurely: "The collapse of the Yellow River and the demise of the Qing Dynasty are God's will. How can Shaoquan and I go against it?" His tone suddenly became heavy, and his voice was a little hoarse, as if it came from the distant past, "But the Qing Dynasty can perish, but the orthodox teachings must not perish!"

Kong Fanhao tightly grasped the enamel tobacco box: "Yes, the orthodox teachings cannot be destroyed! If they are destroyed, we will not be able to face our ancestors even if we die!"

"Click——"

Thunder roared outside the palace, illuminating Xianfeng's pale face like a ghost. He suddenly grabbed the gold-threaded nanmu box on the desk and threw two secret letters from Luo Xueyan into the candlelight: "The 19th, the 19th. That devil even calculated the time and minute of the rainstorm!" The letter curled into ash in the flames, reflecting the madness in his pupils. "Send an order! All river workers withdraw their defenses immediately! Let Huanglong clear the way for me! Haha, if there is really the Yellow River and a million strong troops, I will be invincible in the world!"

An Dehai stood aside, watching Xianfeng's crazy appearance, two lines of hot tears rolled down. At this moment, Tongwaxiang Dam.

The hat of Henan Governor Ying Gui had been swept away by the flood so far that no one knew where he was. His personal soldiers dragged him to the higher ground to escape: "Zhongcheng! We can't hold on any longer!" The muddy waves crashed into the stone embankment, and a floating corpse wrapped in a straw mat appeared and disappeared in the whirlpool.

"We can't retreat!" Yinggui stamped her feet. "If the Yellow River collapses, the Qing Dynasty will perish! That's the Qing Dynasty."

"Xiangyan, Xiangyan, why don't you retreat?" Yinggui suddenly heard a familiar voice. Turning back, she saw Li Jun, the governor of the Donghe River, holding a sword, wearing a straw hat and a raincoat, coming in the rain under the protection of several Goshaha.

"Zhongheng," Yinggui pointed at Li Jun's nose and asked, "Why are there so few people guarding the dam? Why don't you send more people to guard it strictly?"

Li Jun just shook his head: "It can't be defended. And the emperor has also issued an order!"

As he spoke, he suddenly drew his sword and cut off a rope tied to a canal boat. The canal boat, loaded with earth and rocks, capsized with a loud bang. As Yinggui stared in amazement, Li Jun shouted, "Send a message to the prefectures and counties downstream to withdraw their river defenses. Just say it," his roar was drowned out by the thunder, "Just say that the emperor wants to use the water of the Yellow River to send a million strong troops north!"

Yinggui suddenly pounced on him like a madman, grabbed Li Jun's neck with both hands, and squeezed hard, roaring like a wild beast: "We can't retreat, we can't retreat, we must protect the river defenses, and protect the Qing Dynasty." As he roared, his roar turned into painful crying: "The Qing Dynasty is going to be gone, gone, gone."

At the same time, Tianjin French Concession.

Mathilde's nail-dyed fingers brushed across Li Hongzhang's Adam's apple: "Li, your heart beats faster than the Edo seismograph." The whalebone of the French long skirt supported the yellow jacket bestowed by Li Hongzhang. Ballroom dance music came through the stained glass outside the window. Mathilde tilted her neck and looked at the tall man who was dancing with her arms around her, blinking her blue eyes: "The Qing Dynasty is about to fall, can you become the emperor?"

"How can it be that simple?" Li Hongzhang hugged the plump foreign woman, Her Royal Highness the Princess of the Bonaparte family, and kissed her on the cheek again, "The Emperor of the Tang Dynasty cannot be in Beijing!"

"Where should we do it?" asked Mathilde.

"Chang'an!" Li Hongzhang said, "Of course the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty must go to Chang'an. Marty, Chang'an is in the interior, and it is not as prosperous as Tianjin."

Mathilde looked at Li Hongzhang with a determined look in her eyes: "As long as I can be the queen, I will go anywhere!"

"Okay," Li Hongzhang nodded heavily and said with a smile, "I will definitely make you the Empress Ma of my Tang Dynasty! My Empress Ma, I also want you to help me give birth to a son to inherit my Tang Dynasty."

Mathilde smiled and said, "Okay, it's a deal!"

As he spoke, Li Hongzhang suddenly pressed the back of the foreign woman's neck and said, "The Yellow River should burst today, and the Beiyang Army will set out tomorrow. Tell De Vicine." His Adam's apple rolled as he swallowed the second half of the sentence. His eyes fell on a piece of letter paper on the table - it was the letter paper that Concubine Yi sent Ronglu to bring to him from Beijing. Among the densely packed brush calligraphy, the most eye-catching were the four words "Besiege the Garden and Kill the King"!

On the second day of the eighth month of the Western calendar, late at night, in Luoyang City, at the Heavenly King's Palace.

The bloodshot in Yang Xiuqing's one eye was more glaring than the red flag of the Heavenly Kingdom. He sat in the flower hall of the palace. He had not closed his eyes since the night before. He had been sitting in this flower hall watching the heavy rain outside, muttering to himself: "The Yellow River, the Yellow River should have collapsed now, right? Today is August 2nd in the Western calendar! The news should have come."

Suddenly, there was the sound of horse hooves outside the flower hall, and a messenger riding a horse from the east rolled off the saddle: "My Lord! The Yellow River has collapsed!" The cross in Hong Rengan's hand fell to the ground, but he was completely unaware of it.

Bian Sanniang and Daozi made the sign of the cross on their chests and muttered something.

"Beat the drum! Go to the tent!" Yang Xiuqing suddenly drew out his gilded sword and slashed at the table in front of him. "Order the three armies: set out tomorrow and take Huaiqing Prefecture!" He turned and stared at the trembling Hong Tiangui, and suddenly grinned, "When we reach Beijing, your father will show his power."

(End of this chapter)