The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 587: The King of the East’s Favor Is Not Over Yet
1857 6 Month 10 Day.

When the whistle of the Albatross sounded in Busan Harbor, Moore's pocket watch pointed to a quarter past eight. He leaned on the wooden side of the ship and looked toward the Busan Port. What he saw was clearly a new industrial and commercial city with a mixture of Eastern and Western elements.

At the dock, three brand-new steam cranes were unloading cargo, their steel booms gleaming green in the morning sun. The short, stocky Korean dock workers, with their hair tied in a bun and wearing sturdy, wear-resistant linen clothes, were shuttling back and forth, carrying small pieces of cargo.

Near the port, there are warehouses with goods everywhere, and ships from various countries are moored everywhere on the sea. There are all kinds of ships, including the latest steam sailing ships, clipper ships that are very suitable for transoceanic cargo transportation, and Guangzhou ships, Fuzhou ships, and bird ships from the coast of China. The busiest level is much higher than the neighboring Nagasaki Port in Japan.

The shipyard for repairing and building ships stands grimly in a corner of the port area, with black smoke billowing from the tall chimneys. In the newly built dock, a wooden hull with iron ribs and several dozen meters long has taken shape - this is the "Jianghai-class" armed merchant ship imitated by the North Korean Heavenly Kingdom Shipyard.

Near the shipyard, there are three chimneys spewing black smoke - that is the newly built Busan Cotton Mill. This is a new factory that introduced British spinning machines and steam engines and hired British engineers and skilled workers!

"Oh my God, this is simply a growing Liverpool of the East!" Moore nodded, "The Industrial Revolution really appeared in East Asia!"

Sir Sutton tapped the wooden side of the ship with his silver pipe. "This is all thanks to King Yang Dong. He distributed land to more than 10 million poor Korean farmers, improved their economic situation, and expanded the domestic market. Last year, the Kingdom of Korea abolished all extraterritoriality, and even goods from the British Empire had to pay a high tariff of 30% to 60%. Now there is a domestic market in Korea, but cheap foreign goods cannot enter, so there is a little industry in Korea."

Friedrich's pen rustled on his notebook. "So, King Yangdong brought a revolution to Korea that cleansed the domestic feudal forces and eliminated the foreign powers, but he himself seemed to be an outsider!"

"Actually, he is not! Korea has been a vassal state of China since ancient times. Yang Xiuqing is to Korea what Ali Pasha is to Egypt." Bai Siwen explained as he took out an exquisitely crafted wooden comb and started playing with it in his hands - this was a token given to him by Aju, a Japanese girl whom he had hooked with a Suruga judge in Nagasaki.

While the few people were talking, the Albatross had already docked. After a while, a tax collector in a white round-necked robe came on deck, holding a token of "Busan Customs Inspection Office" in his hand, and behind him were two Korean Heavenly Kingdom soldiers wearing goose feather swords.

"Where is your captain? Can anyone among you speak Chinese?" The Korean tax collector spoke in stiff Chinese and his eyes swept over Bai Siwen, who had a Chinese face.

"Excuse me, sir, what is your name?" Bai Siwen suddenly took a half step forward and clasped his fist.

"My surname is Li." The tax collector raised his hand to straighten his black hat and returned the greeting. "What's your surname?"

"Master Li, my last name is Bai." Bai Siwen said with a smile, "Master Li, judging from your accent, you must be Korean, right? You must have passed the high school entrance examination in Korea last year and became an official, right?"

When the Korean Lord Li heard Bai Siwen ask him about the imperial examination, he immediately perked up and said with a smile: "Thanks to the King of the East, the Koreans no longer have the Yangban Mountain on their heads. The people have all been allocated land, and the imperial examination is open to everyone. It doesn't matter what your background is, only your knowledge is considered."

As he spoke, he took out a copper waist plaque with the regular script characters "Juren in Mathematics in the Fifth Year of Tianli" on it rubbed until they shone.

"I heard that Yang Xiuqing led his troops into Seoul?" Friedrich asked suddenly, and the British and Dutch consuls present all held their breath.

But Lord Li straightened his back, with the patches on the hem of his official robe fluttering in the sea breeze: "Korea has been the land of the Ming Dynasty since ancient times! When the Qing invaders occupied the Central Plains, the people of the Three Kingdoms waited day and night for the royal army. On the day when the East Palace army crossed the Yalu River, the Korean people were fed and drank."

Bai Siwen translated his words into English, and Friedrich quickly recorded them in his notebook, not forgetting to add his own comments at the end: "The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's cleansing of the old feudal forces in East Asia was more thorough than Napoleon's cleansing of the old forces in Europe. If they can complete the cleansing of the old Japanese forces that are like a feudal fortress, East Asia is likely to usher in a brand new era!"

"Now it's time to calculate taxes!" Lord Li suddenly regained his official expression and took out an abacus for calculating accounts. A holy soldier of the Korean Heavenly Kingdom behind him took out a wooden ruler for measuring the hull.

"Master Li," Bai Siwen said with a smile, "there is no cargo on board. This is a special ship for diplomatic envoys."

"Diplomatic envoy?" Lord Li was stunned. "Which country's envoy?"

Bai Siwen pointed at Bonham and said, "British envoy Bonham." Then he pointed at the British and Dutch consuls, "Sir Sutton, the British consul in Nagasaki, and Mr. Styron, the Dutch consul in Nagasaki."

The scorching sun at noon scorched the pier slabs. Wen Xian and his party followed the porters to the pier and were suddenly attracted by bursts of laughter. Under the shade of the sycamore trees, dozens of short-sleeved men sat in a circle, holding coarse porcelain bowls and feasting. The aroma of stew was mixed with the smell of hot sauce, and some people even held large bowls to play rock-paper-scissors with the red-turbaned soldiers. "They actually have broth to drink?" Bai Siwen looked at the workers' bowls of broth mixed with rice and a piece of greasy braised pork in surprise. In Nagasaki, dock coolies even mixed braised rice with bran.

Mr. Li followed Bai Siwen carefully, and when he heard what he said, he smiled and replied, "The dock workers in Busan earn a lot of money, and now there are no two-shift masters exploiting them, so of course they can afford to eat meat."

But what Moore cared about was not the meat in the dock workers' bowls, but their mingling with the Taiping soldiers - in Japan, samurai could chop off coolies' arms at will! In Korea, the Taiping and dock workers seemed to be equal.

"Is the rice they eat all produced in North Korea?" Friedrich asked in Chinese, pointing to a "big rice bucket" next to the workers.

"It's all Korean rice!" Lord Li's pride was evident in his words. "My family was also allocated ten acres of paddy fields. Everyone got some land and was very motivated. Last year, the weather was good and everyone was able to eat their fill. This is all thanks to the great kindness of the King of the East!"

On the sea, the whistle sounded again, and a cruiser of more than 32 tons flying the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's "The Great Wall Will Never Fall" flag was slowly entering the port. The sailors on the deck were wiping several -pound rifled cannons! The thick gun barrels seemed to be demonstrating to a certain Dutch consul.

Consul Van Linburg Styron's breathing was a little rapid, and his voice was trembling: "This is... a steam-sailed cruiser of the Kogan class belonging to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom?" He turned around and looked at Bonham, "Did you sell it to the Chinese?"

Bonham was stunned for a moment when he looked at this cruiser with a displacement of 1200 tons and equipped with more than 20 32-pound front-loading guns. He had not heard of this deal when he left Europe! He thought about it and murmured, "It should be a second-hand ship purchased after the signing of the Sino-British Friendship Treaty, right?" He then smiled and said, "But don't worry, the Netherlands is also a friend of Britain and can buy newer and better warships from the British Empire! Not only can the Netherlands buy British warships, but the Kingdom of Korea and Japan can buy them too!"

Moore then took out his notebook and wrote the following: "The industrialization of 5 million people has just begun, and the 'friends' from the West have begun to build a cage for them - by selling arms to China, North Korea and Japan."

Tianjing City, Prince Wu’s Palace.

When the imitation Western chime clock made by the Shanghai Watch Factory struck eleven, Luo Yaoguo was examining the map of Java with an ivory-handled magnifying glass also made in Shanghai.

Maria, wearing a white lace dress, sat nearby holding an enamel coffee cup.

"Wei Jun wants to build a Javanese paradise." Luo Yaoguo suddenly threw the magnifying glass on the desk. "Does he think the Dutch's century-old navy is made of paper?"

Liu Lichuan, who had just returned from Java, sat on a throne and seemed quite optimistic: "King Wu, Batavia, Surabaya, and Semarang have all been taken, and the Dutch East India Fleet has also been defeated by the armed merchant ships of the Nanyang Company."

"Your Highness, the Netherlands is not ready either." Maria stirred the sugar cube with a teaspoon. "This country has been lax in its military for a long time. The Dutch navy has only a few more steam ships than we do, and they don't have picric acid shells. In addition, the British will definitely come out to mediate - Berlin is still negotiating with the Russians, and the Indians are revolting. The British are already in a state of panic, so they should try their best to postpone the time for us to go to war with the Dutch so that we still have time to prepare!"

Wang Yan, the Minister of the Navy, walked in quickly from outside the door. He spread a blueprint of an ironclad ship that he had just taken from the Navy's ship research room on the table: "This is the blueprint of the Glorious-class ironclad ship that Rinzi got from Napoleon III." His eyes lit up as he looked at Luo Yaoguo, "Director Xu of the Jiangnan Bureau and several foreign engineers have studied it. If they are given two years, they may be able to build a Glorious-class ship!"

This is an ironclad ship weighing more than 5,000 tons!
Luo Yaoguo didn't dare to believe the high price asked by Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau. According to his idea, if he could complete a Glory-class ship within five years, it would be a great success for the industrialization of Heavenly Kingdom.

"Where are the blueprints of the Kokang-class?" Luo Yaoguo looked at his eldest disciple, who had no choice but to take out another blueprint of the British Kokang-class cruiser.

Although this is only a 1200-ton ship, it is a real warship, and the so-called "Three Fars" ship is actually the basis of a large armed merchant ship.

"First, learn the Kokang class thoroughly. In the seventh year of the Tianli era," Luo Yaoguo tapped the blueprint, "I want three new Kokang class ships. In the eighth year of the Tianli era, I want six more!" At this point, he suddenly asked Maria, "Maria, has the Wenxian Mission arrived in Korea?"

Maria nodded: "We arrived in Busan two days ago and should be heading to Seoul now."

Luo Yaoguo thought for a moment and said, "Maria, go to Seoul for me!" He pointed at the bold-class blueprint and said, "Take a copy of the bold-class blueprint with you!"

(End of this chapter)