The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 595 Moore: I Saw Two Taiping Heavenly Kingdoms

Inside the gate of Phoenix City, Moore, who had just got off a carriage, looked at the troops stretching for miles outside the city - militiamen carrying smoothbore muskets led mules carrying grain, Taiping soldiers carrying Tianli Year 3 rifled muskets led nimble war horses, with sabers and heavy bags of dry food hanging next to the saddles. Teams of them marched northward, and loud singing could be heard from time to time in the team. They were all military songs of the Taiping Army, either "A Man Should Be Self-reliant" or "The Great Wall Will Never Fall."

"Hehe, it turns out that the Later Jin rebelled." Hong Rengan, who had just read the Tangbao, pointed with his wooden stick at the artillery cart at the end of a team - the artillery cart was towing a 6-jin cast iron cannon, and the casting process was quite sophisticated. "That woman of the Nara clan dragged her son Zaichun to the throne in Xi'an and declared that she wanted to rebuild the Qing Dynasty and fight against our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. She was really bold! The governor of Heilongjiang and Jilin of the Later Jin, Senggelinqin, assembled Mongolian and Heilongjiang cavalry in Jilin City, and it is said that he also received support from Russia. So King Luowu ordered Li Shoucheng to go to Shenyang to be the governor of the three eastern provinces, and he was going to deal with Senggelinqin severely!"

Bai Siwen suddenly sneered: "The Later Jin dares to rebel? I'm afraid they were forced to rebel by King Luo Wu?"

Hong Rengan put away the newspaper and said with a smile: "Forcing a rebellion is also a rebellion. The reason why we keep the dead bones of the Later Jin in the grave is because our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom cannot spare the energy to eat the rotten land in the northwest. This year, the harvests in Jiangnan, Huguang, Central Plains, and Liaodong are all good. The King of Wu has surplus grain in his hands, so naturally he wants to eat more land. But they are not happy about it. They are really courting death!"

Bai Siwen was sad, but he pretended not to care. "The Later Jin didn't have many good lands, Sichuan was the only one with some money. The King of Wu is going to cut off Sichuan with this strike. This is killing people!"

Hong Rengan laughed and said, "Why is it only Sichuan? After taking Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou must not be left out! There are such good places in Heilongjiang and Jilin in the Northeast. How can we let Senggelinqin continue to ruin them?"

The Qing Dynasty is really going to be finished!

Although Bai Siwen became a "Runren", he still loved the Qing Dynasty in his heart - he did not take the initiative to run, but went abroad as an ambassador, and while he was there his country was gone, so he became a "Runren".

Now hearing that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is finally going to raise the butcher knife against the remnants of the Qing Dynasty, my heart bleeds!
"Hei and Ji are not easy to defeat!" Bai Siwen tried to pretend that it had nothing to do with him. "I'm afraid it will take a few years to defeat them, right?"

"Just a few years!" Hong Rengan said with a smile.

"All the farmers have been taken away to fight in the war. Who will till the black soil?"

"There are immigrants from Shandong and Zhili," Hong Rengan said. "Last year, 300,000 households moved here, and this spring another 200,000 people moved here. There are plenty!"

Friedrich, who had just finished writing his notes, was attracted by the conversation outside the carriage. He turned his head and looked out the window, only to see two wooden signs with black characters on a white background hanging outside the gate of a government office, which read "Taiping Datonghui Liaoning Province Fenghuangcheng County Branch" and "Liaoning Province Fenghuangcheng County Farmers' Association". The outer wall of the government office was also painted with slogans such as "Divide the Land", "Land to the Tiller" and "Great Harmony in the World"
Friedrich wrote in his notebook in both German and Chinese: "What is 'Tianxia Datong'?"

Friedrich suddenly remembered something, so he added another sentence in his notebook: "Where is the True Testament Cathedral? Since crossing the Yalu River, I don't think I have seen a True Testament church again!"

Just as he finished writing the last word, he heard a voice with a Hunan accent shouting, "Master Shuai is here!"

Then came the loud Guangxi Mandarin: "I, General Li Yongzhong, pay my respects to His Majesty the Prince of Gan!"

This was the second day after Moore and his party arrived in Phoenix.

In the south market of Phoenix City, Bai Siwen, the Runren, was squatting in front of a wonton stall, knocking a few copper coins on the chopping board, "Father, why can't we see any True Covenant churches in this city?"

The old man selling wontons lifted up his cotton hat, revealing his missing half ear: "What's the deal?"

Bai Siwen had no choice but to move forward: "True Protestant faction! True Protestant faction that is in charge of dividing the land!"

The old man shook his head and said: "We are the Datong Society that divides the land."

He scooped a spoonful of brine and poured it on the cake. "When the East King's army broke into the city two years ago, the bondservants of the Zhuang Wang Mansion all ran away with the monk king. Then the people of the Datong Society took over the Wangzhuang and the Eight Banners official village, and later established the Farmers' Association. I have never heard of the Zhenyue faction."

Moore interrupted in stiff Chinese: "How many acres did your family get?"

"Five people and ten acres of dry land, all black soil." The old man took the wontons with pork filling out of the water pot and divided them into three bowls with chopped green onions, sesame oil, and bone soup, while he said happily, "The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is still good. It gave us poor people land. Besides, the wages in Liaodong are also high. My two sons can go to work for Li Shishuai's farm after planting their own fields. I can also set up a wonton stall and make dozens of silver dollars a year."

The old man spoke with a strong accent, but fortunately with Bai Siwen acting as an interpreter, Moore and Friedrich finally understood.

Bai Siwen then asked, "Is there a temple with a cross erected on it in Phoenix City?"

He was afraid that the old man didn't understand, so he gestured.

"Yes, there is a temple!" The old man raised his hand and pointed in a direction.

Bai Siwen and the others turned their heads and saw that there were four temples "opened" side by side. One of them had a cross on it, one had a huge "Buddha" character written on the screen wall outside, another had a plaque with the words "Teacher of All Ages", and the last one was a Taoist temple called "Wuzhuang Temple".

"This..." Bai Siwen was a little confused, "How can the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom still burn incense and worship Buddha and Confucius?"

The old man placed three bowls of wontons in front of Moore, Friedrich, and Bai Siwen: "Is this your first time in China? Hasn't China been worshipping all kinds of gods since ancient times?" It seems to be so, but Bai Siwen thought about it and it was not right. In Korea under Yang Xiuqing's rule, it seemed that the True Yue faction was the only one in power!

The sound of a gong suddenly interrupted the conversation. Three young men wearing red armbands walked through the market carrying a wooden sign. The ink on the sign was not yet dry: "Divide the land and serve as militiamen": "Divide the land and serve as militiamen. Anyone who settles in Phoenix City can get two acres of good land! For those who are willing to serve as militiamen, the Farmers' Association can give them an interest-free loan of 20 silver dollars to help them settle down."

The crowd gathered around, and a few ragged Shandong men squeezed in the front with excited looks on their faces.

In the lobby of the yamen with the two signs of "Datong Association" and "Farmers' Association" hanging on it, there are several bookshelves with bundles of yellowed land deeds on the shelves.

The young clerk in a gray gown pushed up his round-framed glasses and handed Hong Rengan a copy of the Land Allocation Book: "Phoenix City has 276,400 acres under its jurisdiction, 43,000 acres of which have been distributed to refugees, 128,000 acres to military settlements, and the rest are public land."

His words were translated by Bai Siwen.

"Why keep so much public land?" Friedrich asked, pointing to the account book.

"Leave it for those who come after you!" Hong Rengan flipped through the books casually. "Besides, if too much is given to the people from Shandong and Zhili, there will be no one left to work for Guorenzhuang."

Moore nodded slightly and wrote in his notebook: "The nature of the so-called Guorenzhuang is similar to the Junker Manor in Prussia. They are all lands linked to military service. At the same time, they also have the obvious characteristics of capitalist farms, and generally employ hired workers for production."

Suddenly, hurried footsteps were heard, and a middle-aged man in a red robe pushed the door open and came in. He bowed to Hong Rengan and said, "I am Chen Siji, the leader of the Datong Association branch in Phoenix City. I am here to explain the rules of the Datong Association to Brother Yang."

Hong Rengan nodded: "Go ahead!"

Master Chen cleared his throat and spoke in a rhythmic manner like a private school teacher: "The Book of Rites says: When the great way is practiced, the world is for all."

Moore and Friedrich did not understand classical Chinese, so they turned to look at Bai Siwen, who smiled and said, "It's just one sentence, which you two are very familiar with: the abolition of private property!"

The expressions on Moore and Friedrich's faces suddenly became interesting.

Moore asked: "Swenson, are you saying that the ancient Chinese already wanted it?"

Friedrich also felt incredible: "It's not surprising that the ancients had such simple ideas, but how could the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom have such ideas now?"

Hong Rengan smiled and said, "Master Karl, it is said that the road data of the Datong Association was brought by Angel Luo from the sky! It is said that the production power in the sky is extremely developed, and the materials are extremely abundant. The production has long exceeded the demand, and it can be distributed according to demand."

Moore shook his head: "Impossible, this is impossible!"

What he meant was that "people from heaven" and "the productivity in heaven is extremely developed" were all nonsense - where is heaven? This is too superstitious!
But Hong Rengan misunderstood what he meant and actually nodded and said, "Master Karl is right! Angel Luo said the same thing."

"What did he say?" asked Friedrich.

"The angel said," Hong Rengan said, "Although the resources in heaven are extremely abundant, it is still impossible to distribute them according to needs."

Moore and Friedrich were speechless for a moment.

"What is the relationship between the True Covenant Sect and the Datong Society?" Bai Siwen suddenly asked.

Hong Rengan said: "The True Covenant sect preached overseas, and the Great Tung Society distributed land in the Central Plains. They are all disciples of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother."

That evening, Friedrich opened his notebook:

Observation Log - Phoenix

1. The True Covenant sect is almost extinct here, replaced by the Great Harmony Society, which combines traditional Chinese egalitarianism
2. Land distribution is dualistic:-
On the surface: imitate the equal land system of "Zhou Li" (refugees get 2 mu) -
Essence: Military aristocrats controlled most of the fertile land (Guorenzhuang accounted for 70% of the allocated land)

In another room, Bai Siwen handed Moore the freshly brewed coffee: "Karl, what did you see?"

"I saw the coexistence of two Taiping Heavenly Kingdoms." Moore took a sip of coffee, "One held the cross and walked towards the ocean, and the other held China's "Book of Rites" and plowed the black soil."

(End of this chapter)