The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 617: The ghost of 1848 is wandering in Guanzhong! (Please subscribe and vote)

On January 1858, 1, the northwest wind blew up the snow particles and swept across the official road leading to the city of Xi'an.

Moore was huddled in a corner of the carriage, wrapped in a British-made woolen coat and a sheepskin hat from northern Shaanxi, chatting with a French engineer named Henry. He was very interested in this French engineer and his real boss, Mathilde. What was the purpose of these French people supporting Li Hongzhang?
Wenxian was dozing off in the carriage wrapped in a mink coat. The British knight originally wanted to see the Qing Dynasty for the last time, but now he felt that the Qing Dynasty was dead and that the only one alive was a monster with the name of the Qing Dynasty. Even if this monster could defeat the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, it would only be another Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and no longer the Qing Dynasty that was quiet and did not cause trouble.

Friedrich used a pencil to sketch a group of Beiyang soldiers outside the car window in his notebook. They arrived in Weinan three days ago to escort a batch of arms and the British envoy to Xi'an. Suddenly, Friedrich said, "There are a total of 47 ammunition trucks... Are they preparing for the upcoming revolution?"

Bai Siwen was wearing a fur coat and a fur hat with earmuffs, revealing a section of his shiny braid. He looked out the window and muttered, "When Beijing was freezing cold, there weren't so many corpses on the official road outside the city..." Before he finished speaking, the wheels ran over a frozen corpse, the carriage trembled violently, and the people inside staggered.

"At 3:15 pm, we encountered the twelfth body lying dead on the roadside today. No left ear." Friedrich scribbled it down and looked up to ask the driver, "Why are all the left ears missing?" The driver didn't dare to look back and said in a muffled voice, "To answer the foreign master, these people were chased out because they refused to pay rent or loan sharks and had their left ears cut off."

There was silence in the car again.
After a while, Henry lifted the curtain with his pipe in his mouth, and snowflakes flew in: "After passing Baqiao, it is the East Gate of Xi'an. Princess Mathilde's Foreign Legion Guard will meet at Changle Gate." Moore squinted at the towering ancient city in the wind and snow in the distance, and suddenly pulled Friedrich's sleeve: "Look at those coal carriers!"

A group of hunched black figures were carrying wicker baskets and moving towards Xi'an. The coal in the baskets fell out, leaving a winding black trail on the snow. Henry whispered, "How come they dropped coal as they walked? It's strange that they didn't arrange anyone to pick it up!"

Moore said calmly: "What's so strange about this? It's the eve of the great revolution."

Mathilde's Foreign Legion cavalry, holding the "Beiyang" flag, formed a strict formation in the snow. All of them carried Minié rifles on their backs, holding the reins with one hand and the handle of their sabers with the other, as if facing a powerful enemy.

The French princess, wearing a tweed military uniform, with her spurs clicking on the bricks of the city gate, smiled and said in German when she saw Moore getting off the carriage: "You must be Karl? I heard that you are the reincarnation of the soul of John the Baptist?"

Moore glanced at Napoleon III's cousin, smiled, took off his hat and bowed: "Nice to meet you, ma'am. But I don't remember much about things that happened more than a thousand years ago. That's too long ago, and I like to look forward and see what will happen in the future?"

Mathilde chuckled: "So, Master Karl, what do you think my future will be like?"

"You?" Moore stared at Mathilde for a while, and had already taken in the woman's expectant expression and smug look. "You may become a queen!"

"Queen." Mathilde was about to laugh when Li Hongzhang's voice came from the doorway: "Sir Bai, I never thought we could meet here. It's been several years since we last met in Paris!"

Bai Siwen sighed: "Several years. I feel like it's been several decades!"

Li Hongzhang also sighed: "Then we should have a few drinks."

In the main hall of the Duke of Tang's mansion, three elm wood tables were put together to form a long Western-style table. French-style paper-wrapped roasted Weihe carp was placed on a blue and white porcelain plate, and French-style meat sandwiches were placed on a silver plate. Wen Xian used a soup spoon to scoop himself a large bowl of Corsican mutton, sipped the soup first, then used a fork to pick up a piece of mutton and swallowed it, then looked at Li Hongzhang and asked, "There have been many emperors with the surname Li in Chinese history, right? Lord Li is now the Duke of Tang, are you a descendant of the Li Tang?"

Li Hongzhang smiled but said nothing.

Mathilde raised her glass and said, "Then let us toast to Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty first!"

Moore and Friedrich looked at each other, smiled knowingly, and raised their glasses: "Cheers to Emperor Taizong of Tang!"

Wen Xian also raised his glass: "Cheers to Emperor Taizong of Tang!"

After three rounds of drinks, the French princess suddenly knocked on the goblet: "The Tsar has allowed Duke Tang and I to march into Central Asia, as long as Britain recognizes Central Asia as a neutral zone..."

Bonham asked: "What does the neutral zone mean?"

The French princess said: "Russia won't go in, Britain won't go in, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom won't go in either! In this way, Britain's India, Russia's Western Siberia, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Western Regions can all remain stable."

Wenxian did not comment, but Moore interrupted: "What about those countries in Central Asia? They..."

Mathilde shrugged and spread her hands. Li Hongzhang said, "It has been the territory of the Tang Dynasty since ancient times!"

At the same time, in the flower hall of the residence of Huang Shijie, a general of the Hunan Army and the governor of Henan, a manuscript of the "Anti-Qing Manifesto" had been circulated among several people. Luo Zenan used a fire tong to fiddle with the charcoal basin, and sparks splashed on the paper of the "Anti-Qing Manifesto" in Guo Songtao's hand, burning a black spot: "Is General Di (Zeng Guofan) still unwilling to wear the yellow robe?"

"He said he wanted to follow Wen Tianxiang's example!" Zeng Guoquan punched a map of Gansu and Shaanxi spread out on the table! Kong Fanhao dipped his tea in the water and wrote the three words "Really?" on the table: "Why not find an opportunity to put the yellow robe on him?"

Guo Songtao shook his head: "I'm afraid it won't work. He is very stubborn and can't be forced."

Du Han slammed the table and said, "If he doesn't become the emperor of this famous religion, who else can? Holy Lord, why don't you come?"

Kong Fanhao waved his hands repeatedly: "No, no, Jiushuai, come on, your brother can't take the position, so you should take it!"

Zeng Guoquan pondered for a moment, and seemed to be somewhat tempted, but Huang Shijie said: "Let's give the teacher a yellow robe. The Taiping Army will definitely attack Guanzhong in the spring. We must introduce a new leader who can appeal to the people. The teacher is the most suitable!"

"Yes!" Jiang Zhongyuan nodded heavily: "We can't let him do this. If he doesn't become the emperor, it will be difficult for our orthodox religion to unite as one!"

Zeng Guoquan also knew that he, Li Hongzhang, Huang Shijie, Jiang Zhongyuan and Du Han did not have that kind of hope, and Kong Fanhao was too weak. After much thought, he felt that his eldest brother was the most suitable.

"Then give him a yellow robe!" Zeng Guoquan made the final decision.

In the backyard of the Catholic Church in Sanyuan County, Weibei, twelve coffins were arranged in a cross. Bai Yanhu, who represented the Thirteen Monasteries Alliance in Weibei, opened the lid of one of the coffins and found a brown bass flintlock rifle that had been tinkered with for who knows how many times.

Chen Decai took off his black Catholic robe to reveal the red robe of the True Covenant Archbishop: "The five thousand soldiers of the King of Wu have arrived in Dengzhou!" He pointed to the foreign guns in the coffin, "These are for us to use when we start an uprising in Guanzhong!"

Ma Xinyi kicked the coffin: "Lord Li said that he would deal with the emperor and the queen mother. After the matter is done, he will be the Protector General of the Western Regions and Beiting! He will be the one to take over the remnants of the orthodox teachings!"

As he spoke, he glanced at the leader of the Gansu Tianfang Sect who had just conquered Pingliang not long ago. Ma Chaoqing quickly chanted in the tune of chanting scriptures: "Only Heavenly Father, Heavenly Brother, Heavenly King..."

There was no other way. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was so powerful and the orthodox religion was so sharp that the leaders of the Tianfang religion in Gansu and Shaanxi had to temporarily worship the Heavenly Father and the Emperor - they were all the same anyway. As for the Heavenly Brother and the Heavenly King.
Chen Decai took the Heavenly King Sword from the statue of Hong Xiuquan and raised it high: "Three days later, I want to see the Taiping flag raised on the north gate of Xi'an!"

Ma Xinyi bowed his head and promised: "Please tell King Wu that Lord Li and Princess Mathilde will definitely do what they promised him!"

The next morning, Moore wrapped himself in a blanket and climbed up to the watchtower in the Duke of Tang's mansion.

Friedrich used a fountain pen to sketch the fireworks all over the city: the black smoke column rising from the Huai Army artillery factory at Dongcangmen, the firewood pile burning at the Hunan Army camp at Nanyuanmen, and the smoke rising from the fur shop run by the Tianfangjiao believers on West Street.
Wen Xian lit a cigar and said, "This is a really good location! There are Mathilde's foreign legion and Lord Li's elite Huai Army guarding it, and the walls of the house are also very strong. Let's just watch from here!"

Bai Siwen clenched his fists, his eyes red: "Look, I have to find my son. My son still has to go to Harrow School and Eton College!"

"Nine Lifetimes of Revenge..." Moore murmured the words he had been hearing for some time.

Friedrich dug out a copy of the account book of Wang Laoliu, a tenant farmer in Weinan: "A family of four only has such little income a year. This is the true nine generations of hatred!"

Late at night on the third day, Moore was sorting out his notes in a three-story attic in the Tang Guogong Mansion. Friedrich opened the window and let in a wisp of cold wind: "I've calculated that according to the grain price in Xi'an, a soldier's monthly salary is only enough to buy 20 kilograms of wheat."

"So they have to keep fighting and plundering." Moore dipped his finger in the ink of Jieyang. "Involutionary production breeds military expansion... just like British factory owners have to look for new markets."

Bonham flashed into the room like a ghost, shaking a bottle of brandy in his hand: "Do you think Mathilde's 'Central Asian Paradise' can succeed?" Friedrich sneered: "Using the bayonets of Moral soldiers to force nomads to grow wheat and cotton... can it be better than what the British did in India?"

Suddenly, the sound of horse hooves could be heard outside the courtyard. The three rushed to the window and saw a group of cavalrymen stepping on the snow out of the Duke of Tang's mansion and heading towards the palace. The leader was a blonde woman.

"Is it about to begin?" Moore whispered.

In the camp of the Hunan Army in the city, the sound of drums could be heard. Friedrich wrote heavily in his notebook: "The ghost of 1848 is wandering in Guanzhong!"

(End of this chapter)