The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 568: Emperor Xianfeng's deception, Napoleon's struggle (Request for subscription, request for votes)
"Your Majesty, do you also want to follow the example of Hong Ni and set up a Qingtian sect in the United States?"

"By the way, Your Majesty, since you can't escape from heaven and came down from heaven, then aren't you also an angel like Luo Ni? Do you have a Tongtian Mirror?"

Hearing the questions raised by Sushun and Linshu, Xianfeng waved his hands hastily: "Worshiping the Qingtian Sect is too blatant. We still have to hang the banner of the True Contract Sect." He took out from his sleeve a statue of Hong Xiuquan carved from Tianhuang stone - the statue had a long iron face, phoenix eyes and big ears, a straight nose and a mustache, showing the majesty of a king, and it was clearly the same as the portrait of Nurhaci hanging in the Imperial Ancestral Temple of the Qing Dynasty.

Sushun took the statue and looked at it carefully: "Is this the appearance of Emperor Taizu?"

"Yes!" Xianfeng nodded, "Turn the statue upside down and take a look."

Sushun quickly turned the statue over and took a look at the base, and there it was in Manchu: "May the Emperor Taizu bless you!"
Lin Shu also came over and looked at the statue in Sushun's hand: "This craftsmanship is good!"

"I asked a Japanese craftsman to carve it." Xianfeng took out a gold-plated cross with "Heaven Bless You" engraved on the back in Manchu. "There are many Japanese craftsmen in San Francisco who can make statues. They don't know Manchu, and they don't know what Hong Xiuquan and our Emperor Taizu look like. As long as you give them enough dollars, they can carve anything. As long as everyone worships this kind of statue carved in the image of Emperor Taizu and hangs a cross engraved with "Heaven Bless You", the power of their faith will be absorbed by the ancestors in heaven."

Of course, Xianfeng was fooling people. He had no such idea at all. He just wanted to develop some confidants in the True Covenant sect on the west coast of North America, and then become a county bishop. It happened that Sushun and Linshu came to the west coast with their families, so he fooled them.

He has been a charlatan for a year now, and his ability to deceive people has been honed!
As for the holy image and the cross, he simply asked a Japanese craftsman to carve them privately as a souvenir.

"But how can the emperor get more people to worship this holy image and hang this cross?" Sushun was serious.

Xianfeng rolled his eyes and said, "Let's take it step by step. First, find a county bishop."

As he spoke, he took out a map of California and spread it on the coffee table.

"Your Majesty wants to appoint a county bishop?" Sushun drew a map of California on the low table with his fingertips. "Is it Marin County where we are?"

"Marin County is just the beginning!" Xianfeng's fingers gently ran across the narrow strip of California, "One day, I will become the Archbishop of California!"

Suddenly, there were hurried footsteps outside the paper door, and De Ling's voice was panting: "Master Zhao! Bishop Lei is calling you urgently!" He opened the door and the ballot statistics in his arms fell to the ground - the double-gun emblem of the California Republican Party covered the entire map of California.

Xianfeng deftly stuffed the Manchu cross into his sleeve: "What do you mean?"

"Our people won!" De Ling wiped his sweat, "Sherman was elected governor, Smith was elected mayor of San Francisco, and the mayors of 16 other counties are ours. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives of the state are Republicans. Archbishop Hong will hold a celebration party in the San Francisco Cathedral, and Bishop Lei asked you to go and claim the reward immediately!"

Sushun and Linshu had never seen an election and looked at Xianfeng with confusion.

Xianfeng smiled and said, "Local officials here in the United States are not appointed by the court, but elected by local citizens."

"Ah? Ordinary people choose officials?" Lin Shu was shocked.

"Is this possible?" Su Shun asked, "Then can the emperor choose a local official?"

"That won't work," Xianfeng said with a wry smile, "Local officials in the United States, and even the president of the imperial court, are all elected by citizens, but to be an American citizen, you must be white!"

"White people? There is still such a rule?" Sushun looked at Xianfeng - not very white.

"Yuting, you're quite fair!" Linshu pointed at Sushun and asked, "Do you think he can be chosen?"

"No!" Xianfeng shook his head, "For this white man, we don't necessarily look at the skin color."

"Are you looking at my hair?" Sushun touched his short hair - his braids were long gone, and he shaved his head when he left Tianjin. Now his hair has grown a little and has become short.

"Not really," said De Ling at the side. "White skin means that people must be of this race to have the right to vote and be elected. If you are of the wrong race, it doesn't matter how white your skin is."

"Is it possible?" Sushun scratched his head. "Will people like us never get ahead in the United States?" Xianfeng shook his head gently. "If there were no True Contractualists, we would never get ahead. Now that we have True Contractualists, it's hard to say! Didn't the Republican Party supported by our True Contractualists win California this time? Most of those who were elected as county governors and congressmen are married to Japanese wives - Japanese and Chinese are the same here! So those county governors and congressmen are our own people."

The more Sushun listened, the more he felt something was wrong - what did "we are the true members of the Yue faction" mean, and what did "we are all family members" mean?
Can the Emperor and the True Covenant Faction be “the same people”?
In the town of Fontainebleau, in a mansion that had just changed hands, Prince Napoleon pushed open the oak door of his study, threw the bulging cowhide file bag on the mahogany desk, and the cross-sectional drawing of a 2500-horsepower steam engine slipped out of the bag.

"This is France's maritime power for the next five to ten years." The prince took a deep breath and glanced at Rinko who was getting up from behind the desk. "Now it's yours."

The fingertips of Wang Yan, the Minister of the Navy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, trembled as he looked at the blueprint. It was estimated that the foreign engineers hired at high prices by the Jiangnan Shipyard would never be able to draw such a sophisticated transmission device.

Rinko suddenly put her arms around Napoleon's neck from behind and placed a burning kiss on his earlobe with her red lips: "France will be rewarded tenfold, I promise."

When Wang Yan left with the blueprints, Rinko suddenly unbuttoned the brass buttons of the prince's uniform: "Do you know what kind of steel is needed for the locking mechanism of the breech-loading gun?" Her nails scratched the prince's collarbone, leaving a bloody mark. "Alloy steel containing 8% chromium, currently only Krupp Laboratory can make it."

The prince grabbed her wrist and said, "What did you say? Where did you get the secret of the locking mechanism of the breech-loading gun?"

Rinko smiled and said, "This is your reward! I said that France will get ten times the reward. The Holy Blood Family always keeps their word!"

Prince Napoleon suddenly realized something and looked at Rinko with a fiery gaze: "My dear, what do you mean?"

"The breech-loading gun and the breech-loading rifle are the key to Prussia's rise!" Rinko whispered in Prince Napoleon's ear, "If you want to become the great Napoleon IV, you must go all out in the technology of breech-loading guns and breech-loading rifles. As far as I know, Prussia is now equipped with the world's most advanced 1841 Dreyse rifle, while you in France only have the Minié muzzle-loading rifle.

In addition, in the development of breech-loading guns, Prussia's Krupp company was also at the forefront, and France had fallen behind!

By the time of the final battle between France and Prussia, the Prussians must have obtained explosives that are comparable to picric acid. At that time, infantrymen armed with breech-loading rifles, supported by the firepower of breech-loading guns, will dominate the battlefield. As for Moltke's military genius, it is not the key at all. Even if he is assassinated, there will be other Prussian generals leading powerful and advanced Prussian troops to crush your empire. My dear, you have to work hard! "

In fact, Prince Napoleon was just a "spare tire", and forming an alliance with Prussia was Luo Yaoguo's first choice. However, Rinzi easily hooked Prince Napoleon, so naturally she couldn't let go of this "highest-level undercover".

Anyway, Prussia is still some years away from truly rising. And Prince Napoleon's "efforts" may change the future. Anyway, the future has already changed!

At the same time, under the dome of the Palais de l'Industry in Paris, 118 bronze columns formed a radial square array.

Feng Yunshan stood behind the curtain of the second-floor box, looking at the crowd below. He had specially changed into a silk gown produced by the Jiangnan Textile Factory in Shanghai, and the golden dragon on his chest was faintly visible under the gas lamp.

"Let's get started." He nodded to the French translator who was accompanying him.

In the center of the hall, Faraday's white hair fluttered in the wind. He adjusted the copper knob of the improved spectroscope, with the tube facing the cloud-thunder pattern on the 55th bronze column: "Gentlemen, pay attention to the th dark line. This is definitely not the spectrum of a known element!"

The young German scholar Bunsen pushed through the crowd, and the quartz prism in his hand refracted the sunlight into seven colors: "The wavelength exceeds that of potassium by 38.7%. I bet this is a new element!" His assistant Kirchhoff had already written "crimson element" on the notebook, and the tip of the pen almost scratched the paper.

Faraday opened the velvet-lined wooden box, and the hexagonal ore glowed with a light golden luster: "This is lithium mica found in the Saxony mine. It has been electrolyzed for 300 times." He deliberately glanced at the box on the second floor, "It uses a DC generator improved under the guidance of King Luo Wu."

When the pea-sized piece of metal fell into the water, a strange purple flame rose two feet high. Mendeleev, who came to Paris in the name of a Prussian scholar, suddenly pushed through the crowd and scribbled on his notebook the "periodic table of elements" from 118 columns: "The atomic weight is. It should be ranked below potassium!"

"That's right!" Faraday held up the test tube, and the purple-red metal dissolved in the alcohol. "His Royal Highness King Luo Wu predicted the existence of this element on the 118 Pillars of Heaven." He pointed to the inscription on the bronze pillar.

In the private room on the second floor, Feng Yunshan picked up the Jingdezhen porcelain cup and took a sip of Longjing tea.

Although he didn't know what secrets Luo Yaoguo's 118 Heavenly Dao Pillars held, one thing was certain: after Faraday made his discovery public, many European scientists or magicians would be willing to go to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Taiping University to conduct research. Their participation would greatly speed up the process of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom cultivating local talents and acquiring the world's most advanced technology. Perhaps, the progress of the entire world would also be accelerated!

(End of this chapter)