The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 614 Zeng Guofan, the nine generations of hatred can still be avenged! (Request subscription, request votes)
On December 1857, 12 in the Gregorian calendar, the boundaries of Neixiang County, Nanyang Prefecture, Henan Province.

The surface of the Tuan River had frozen into a solid block of ice. In the shadow of the Zhaojiabao city wall, 137 tenant farmers knelt in a row with their foreheads against the ice, blocking the procession of Governor Huang Shijie who was about to cross the river.

"Master Huang, please understand!" The leader, Li Laosan, suddenly tore open his patched cotton coat, revealing his bony chest. "The rent for this winter has increased by another 30%. We are really going to starve to death in this twelfth month!"

Li Laosan knelt down and took two steps. The soldiers of the Yingzi Battalion of the Hunan Army who were protecting Huang Shijie's sedan chair drew their swords. The silk ribbons stained dark brown by human blood fluttered in the cold wind.

Wanzhen clutched the sable-wrapped hand warmer tightly in the carriage, looking at the child who was freezing purple outside the gap in the curtain - the child was drawing a farm map on the snow with a stick, and the crooked lines actually matched the "well-field equal division method" in "The Land System of the Celestial Empire".

"You unruly people!" Huang Shijie cursed in Hunan Mandarin while sitting upright in the sedan chair. One of his Goshaha knew that he had something to say, so he immediately opened the curtain for him, revealing his tired, gloomy face without a trace of smile.

When Li Laosan saw the face of "Huang Baopi", he shuddered and quickly closed his cotton coat, as if he was afraid that the other party would skin him alive - the nickname "Huang Baopi" was not given because he was too cruel in collecting rent, but because he really ordered the skinning of many people when he suppressed the civil unrest in Gansu and Shaanxi, and they were skinned alive!

Huang Shijie saw that the three "foreign gentlemen" Moore, Friedrich, and Wenxian had all gotten off their sedan chairs to watch the fun, so he sneered and said, "If you don't want to farm, just leave. After crossing the turbulent river and walking another ten miles, you will reach the long-haired Zhangcun Town. Why don't you leave?"

"I" Li Laosan shivered again, and cold sweat dripped down his forehead.

Huang Shijie snorted coldly: "Because you have already joined the Farmers' Association, you want to be Changmao's internal supporter!"

"I, I didn't," Li Laosan quickly denied.

The two peasants kneeling beside him quietly moved to the side - joining the Datong Society and the Farmers' Association was a capital crime in the Qing Dynasty today!

"This guy must be from the Farmers' Association!" A middle-aged man in a silk robe, with his left forearm cut off and bandaged with bloody gauze, came over with the help of several gentry in long gowns and melon-shaped hats. He pointed at Li Laosan with his right hand and said, "This guy's cousin secretly kept the land distribution book and has been burned to ashes and mixed into the incense burner in the Zhao family ancestral hall!"

Wanzhen, who was sitting in the carriage, shuddered when she heard this - what happened to the Qing Dynasty? How did it become so cruel? They actually burned people to ashes and mixed them into the incense burner in the ancestral hall? This, this, this.
Sir Bonham was so shocked that his silver pipe fell to the ground: "How can this Qing Dynasty... The Qing Dynasty is not like this!"

Bai Siwen's face also changed. He realized that there was something wrong with those gentry. They all carried swords and knives and did not look like serious scholars!

"Catch him and interrogate him!" Huang Shijie pointed at Li Laosan and gave the order. Then he waved his hand and signaled his Gosha to lower the curtain of the sedan chair.

"It's unfair!" Li Laosan's screams were heard.

Huang Shijie gently closed his eyelids and chanted in a low voice: "It's good that Duke Xiang of Qi exterminated Ji to avenge his ninth ancestor. It's very good!"

Seeing Li Laosan, who was blocking the sedan chair and crying out for justice, being captured by Huang Shijie's Goshha, and the rest of the tenants being driven away with whips, Moore, who was standing by, whispered in German: "I now understand the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom a little bit."

Wen Xian shook his head: "No, no, the original Qing Dynasty was not like this!"

"That's not right. That's not right." Bai Siwen's face turned even paler, and he murmured, "The Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty is probably gone!"

"No, no more?" Wen Xian turned his head and looked at Bai Siwen.

Bai Siwen said in an inaudible voice: "How could the Bannermen suppress such brutal Han gentry?"

The gate of Zhaojiabao, which stands on a high ground on the west bank of the Tuanhe River, slowly opened, and a smell of pig manure mixed with the aroma of wine and meat hit us. A dozen fat pigs strolled leisurely on the stone road, and the grain stacks were so high that they almost touched the city wall. Chickens and ducks pecked at the scattered grains under the grain stacks.

A middle-aged man with a bandaged left arm led the way, with a mean smile on his face: "Master Huang, Master Yang, please come in! These beasts don't know the rules, please don't be offended."

Another tall man in a blue robe with a sword at his waist followed behind him. His robe was still stained with blood. He said to Huang Shijie as if to show off his achievements: "Yesterday, several hundred tenants resisted the rent payment and ambushed Wang Jijiu who went to reason with them. He broke his arm. Now they have been suppressed. I killed more than a dozen of them and captured more than 200. I cut off one ear of all of them. Now they are repairing the Confucius Temple to atone for their sins!"

It turned out that the man whose forearm was chopped off was the chief priest of the famous Neixiang Xiaofang, surnamed Wang, named Xiaowen, and had passed the imperial examination. The man in the blue robe was Wang's student, the patriarch of Zhaojiabao, Zhao Chengsi.

Moore, who followed Huang Shijie and others into the fort, noticed that there were two sacks piled next to the grain stack inside the fort, with frozen ears exposed at the mouth of the sacks.
Friedrich whispered in German: "This grain is enough to feed the tenants in the entire Neixiang County!"

Huang Shijie turned his gaze to Wang Jijiu and said, "Your arms were chopped off by the tenants, why didn't you just chop off their heads?"

Mr. Wang gnashed his teeth and said, "It's too easy for them to be beheaded! I'm going to make them build the Confucius Temple and work themselves to death!"

"The hatred for one's father cannot be shared with others; the hatred for one's brother cannot be retaliation; the hatred for one's friends cannot be from the same country." The sound of the young men chanting in unison reached the ears of Moore, Friedrich, Wenxian, and Bai Siwen. They hurriedly looked in the direction where the scholar was reading, and saw that in a private school classroom, dozens of young men were kneeling on mats, chanting with their heads shaking. There was a sword on the floor next to the mats!

Zhao Chengsi said to Huang Shijie with great pride: "According to your instructions, these children in Zhaojiabao have been practicing swords since they were young. They will all be the pillars of the famous sect in the future!"

"It's not enough to just practice sword skills," Huang Shijie said, "We have to practice with foreign rifles! We can't wait until the future. They have to become the pillars of our religion right away!"

"Right away?" Zhao Chengsi nodded heavily, "Okay, they will become pillars right away!"

Sir Bonham turned pale and whispered to Bai Swen: "Why is the Qing Dynasty also talking about 'great revenge'? This is not the Confucian morality."

Huang Shijie suddenly interrupted: "You foreign lord, you don't know that today's orthodox teachings emphasize 'fighting violence with violence'. Didn't the long-haired bandits of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom want to divide the land? Let's use swords to teach them what 'moral principles' are! Lord Bai, don't you think this makes sense?"

"Yes, yes," Bai Siwen nodded repeatedly.

Suddenly, the young men who were chanting the sutras shouted together, "Nine generations of hatred can still be avenged!"

Bai Siwen's legs trembled, and he almost fell to the ground. Huang Shijie beside him gently helped him up: "Master Bai, stand firm!"

"Nine, how many years are nine generations?" Bai Siwen murmured.

"About two hundred years..." said Huang Shijie.

At this time, a young man from the Zhao family ran to Zhao Chengsi with a piece of paper in his hand: "Third Grandpa, this is what we found from Li Laosan's house. There are not just one piece, but thousands of pieces!"

Zhao Chengsi took the paper and read in a low voice: "On the second day of the second month, the dragon raises its head, the heavenly soldiers arrive, and the land is divided."

On the bluestone road of Changlefang in Xi'an, several old women of the Banner were hunched over, picking up coal cores in the snow with their cracked hands. A group of Hunan cavalrymen galloped past, splashing snow and mud on them. One of the old women lost her balance and fell to the ground, then burst into tears.

"Damn it, bad luck!" The leading Hunan Army general pulled the reins, spat, and pointed his whip at the banner girl huddled in the corner, "The silver hairpin on this girl's head is really bright!"

The girl covered her hair in fear, but a soldier who had dismounted pulled off her hairpin. A baby cried in the depths of the alley, and the banner woman in a patched cotton jacket hurriedly picked up the child and fled deeper into the alley.

Outside the Hunan Army camp at the south gate, three horses rushed in one after another. The scouts on horseback had purple lips from the cold, but they were so anxious about the military reports in their arms that they were about to catch fire. The most urgent one was stamped with the seal of Li Hongzhang, the General of Pingxi and the Protector of Anxi, which read, "Ma's rebel Chao Qing's troops have captured Pingliang, Hexi is shaken, and there may be a sudden change in Guanzhong."

When Zeng Guofan's confidant Guo Songtao received the military report, he glanced at the last page and saw the words: "Nine generations of hatred can still be avenged. Teacher, are you interested?"

He sighed, knowing that Zeng Dizhang was going to smash the teacup again.

Sure enough, after a while, a "clang" sound came from the signing room, followed by Zeng Guofan's scolding: "Li Shaoquan, you are so good. Instead of focusing on suppressing bandits in Gansu and the Western Regions, you are doing these things. What do you want to do?"

At the same time, in the main hall of the former Xi'an General's Mansion, the charcoal basin was crackling. Cixi was holding a string of jade Buddhist beads, her nails almost digging into her palms.

From outside the warm room came Zaichun's childish voice reciting: "Nine generations of hatred can still be avenged." Her heart twitched with every word he read.

"Enough!" Cixi shouted angrily, and suddenly came out of the curtain. Luo Zenan, the chief master of the upper study, put down the Gongyang Zhuan in his hand and stood up. The five-year-old emperor Zaichun sat on the futon in a daze, and the hem of his apricot-yellow dragon robe was wet - he was scared to pee.

There was silence in the hall. Suddenly, the clock struck, and Cixi turned her head to look at the tablet of Emperor Xianfeng, then she lifted her skirt and knelt down: "Emperor, please open your eyes and see, someone in the court wants to avenge the nine generations of vengeance."

In the Hunan Army camp, Zeng Guofan threw Li Hongzhang's military report into the fire basin and watched the words "Nine generations of revenge can still be avenged" turn into ashes. From the window came the shouts of the Jizi Camp: "Nine generations of revenge can still be avenged!"

He suddenly smiled bitterly at Guo Songtao, who had become the Grand Councilor, and said, "You say... is this sutra of 'Nine Generations of Revenge' meant for the Taiping rebels or for us?"

Before Guo Songtao could reply, a personal soldier reported urgently: "General! Henan Governor Huang led the five British battalions to escort the empress dowager's sister and British envoys Wenxian, Moore, and Frederick to Xi'an!"

Zeng Guofan narrowed his triangular eyes and said, "Okay, the Yingzi Fifth Battalion has 3,000 elite soldiers. What does he want to do?"

(End of this chapter)