The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 671 How can we possibly prevent Chinese expulsion when we’re with a bunch of bugs like you?

The ninth year of Tianli, early summer.

The sound of a whistle was heard at Wusongkou, the chimney of the Oriental Queen was emitting long smoke, and the deck was full of soldiers returning in triumph. Shi Dakai's blue-grey woolen uniform was rustling in the river breeze, and the Victoria Cross and Legion of Honor on his chest kept swaying with the ribbon.

"Look!" Queen Jhansi suddenly pointed at the river bank. Twelve balls of fire suddenly exploded beside the dock of Wusong Military Port, and the roar of steel cannons was like thunder. Bai Siwen's monocle almost slipped off: "Armstrong breech-loading gun. Is this a replica of Heaven?"

When the "Queen of the East" approached the dock, three battalion-level blue-gray square formations raised their Tianli three-year rifles in unison, and the bayonets shone coldly in the sun. Shi Dakai noticed that each soldier had a round bronze medal on his chest - this was the Crimean Victory Medal, which only the veterans who conquered Sevastopol had.

As soon as the gangway was lowered, the military music of "The Great Wall Will Never Fall" mixed with the sound of the river water lapping against the shore came. Luo Yaoguo stood at the front in his gray-blue military uniform. Feng Yunshan's bright yellow dragon robe fluttered in the river breeze. Hong Xuanjiao didn't wear a crown, and her black braids were coiled on top of her head, looking like an ordinary Jiangnan woman.

"Myna!" Luo Yaoguo saw Shi Dakai walking down the gangway and clasped his hands to him from a distance. Wei Changhui, who was also wearing a new military uniform, followed behind him and suddenly coughed. Fu Shanxiang, the secretary of the Prime Minister's Office, quickly brought up a red lacquer tray - inside were two glittering golden five-pointed stars and two golden epaulettes.

Luo Yaoguo pointed at the two gold stars and said with a smile: "My dear brother, these are your marshal's shoulder straps and gold stars! Let me put them on for you now."

Shi Dakai glanced at the shoulders of Luo Yaoguo and Wei Changhui, and found that they both had the rank of marshal!

However, Shi Dakai was not in a hurry to take the title of marshal, but instead glanced at the cavalry camp behind Luo Yaoguo. Those war horses were of the Don River breed, and Cossack-style curved sabers were hung on the saddles, which were obviously spoils of war in Crimea. He suddenly raised his hand and pointed at the cavalry: "King Wu, these soldiers."

"They are all yours!" Luo Yaoguo smiled and pointed at the infantry and cavalry lined up beside the naval port dock. "They are all good men who followed you on the expedition to Crimea. They were sent back after being injured on the front line. Now they have recovered and are good men of my kingdom of heaven again!"

As he spoke, Luo Yaoguo waved his arms towards the infantry and cavalry, and then cheers of "Welcome the triumphant return of the 5,000-year-old King Ji" rang out like a raging wave.

The Bund Boulevard.

There were still traces of watering on the asphalt road. Citizens in silk clothes were separated on both sides by rattan shields used by the Taiping Army. Among them were quite a few blond-haired and blue-eyed foreigners, all of whom were holding small red flags and waving them desperately at the approaching convoy and horse team.

The carriage that King Yi was riding in was pulled by eight red Indian folded-ear horses, and the windows were inlaid with transparent flat glass. As soon as Shi Dakai sat down, he knocked on the glass window with his fingers. Feng Yunshan smiled and said, "It's made by the Shanghai Flat Glass Factory! It's not worse than the British ones, right? Eighth brother, our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's industry has made great progress in recent years, and we can make more and more things."

Shi Dakai thought of the twelve salute cannons: "Are those twelve Armstrong cannons too?"

"Tianli Ninth Year Style," Luo Yaoguo said with a smile, "The barrel was processed using a large steam hydraulic press at the Xuzhou Steel Plant."

When the convoy was crossing the outer ferry bridge, firecrackers suddenly sounded on the south bank of Suzhou River. A lion dance team emerged from the smoke, and the copper bells adorned on the lion heads rang loudly. Cheers came from both sides of the Bund Road.

"What position does Brother B want to take?" Luo Yaoguo suddenly asked.

"Lead the troops." Shi Dakai lifted the curtain of the carriage and waved to the cheering citizens outside. "There is also a Zeng demon in the northwest."

The wheels left the asphalt road of the Bund and entered the county town of Shanghai. As they rolled over the bumpy stone road, the sound suddenly became louder. Luo Yaoguo calculated, "The Longhai Line has been built to Kaifeng, and it will reach Luoyang in a year at most. By then, the grain from India will have arrived." He leaned closer and said, "How about you be the deputy general when King Xiaoxi becomes the commander-in-chief of the Western Expedition?"

Shi Dakai squinted his eyes and looked out the window at the bustling streets of Shanghai County. “Why do we have to wait for the Longhai Railway to be built to Luoyang and for the grain from India to be shipped? Can’t 30,000 Taiping troops conquer Shaanxi?”

Luo Yaoguo laughed: "Myna is indeed a warrior in heaven, and the war can't be hidden from you!" He lowered his voice, "This move is called driving the tiger to swallow the wolf!"

"Drive away the tiger?" Shi Dakai was puzzled. "Who is the tiger? Zeng Guofan?"

Just as Luo Yaoguo was about to explain, the carriage had already stopped steadily inside the Yu Garden headquarters where the meeting of kings was held.

Yu Garden, Dianchun Hall.

Shi Dakai had changed into casual clothes and sat on a chair, fanning himself with a paper fan as he watched Wei Changhui draw on a map of the northwest with a red pen. The arrow pointed from Lanzhou to Yili, and a dotted line branched out to the Central Asian steppes. "Drive the tiger to devour the wolf?" Shi Dakai pointed to the northern foothills of the Tianshan Mountains with his folding fan. "Li Yaotou's Huai Army is the tiger, and the Khanate in Central Asia is the wolf?"

Luo Yaoguo picked up the blue and white covered bowl and blew away the foam: "Although the Northwest is vast, it is arid and barren land. It can't support 30 million fierce people. Those people are a problem for Zeng and Li Yaotou, and also a big problem for us. If we are not careful, chaos will arise in the Northwest, and refugees will roam everywhere. I know you are sharp and quick, and you can just kill a few million of him, but Li Yaotou has already intended to go west to Central Asia to become the Protector General of the Western Regions and Beiting. Let him go! Even if he can only take away 2 or 3 million, those 2 or 3 million are the most difficult to deal with."

Maria added: "Li Yaotou's French wife, Princess Mathilde, is also very good at networking. She married a Russian husband in her early years and had a good relationship with the Tsar's family. Therefore, she connected with Alexander II and helped Li Yaotou get Russian aid. Every month, 50,000 rubles of supplies were sent to the Ili River Valley through the Kazakh steppe. Li Yaotou has already built a city called Suiye in the west of the Ili River Valley."

"So that's why my ninth brother deliberately left the northwest unconquered," Shi Dakai finally understood a little, "Do you want to let the Russian rubles feed Li Hongzhang, this hungry tiger, and then let the Huai Army's blades clear the grassland for us?"

Luo Yaoguo nodded and said, "Myna, you have traveled around the world. You know that most places in the world are empty now. Only East Asia has experienced a population explosion. China, Japan, and North Korea together have nearly 5 million people, accounting for 40% of the world's population. They also account for 40% of the land! We are all earthlings, so why should we only get such a small piece of land? Will Heavenly Father God agree to this?"

"No!" Shi Dakai shook his head.

"Absolutely not!" Feng Yunshan also felt that Heavenly Father God could not be so unfair.

Wei Changhui was a more down-to-earth person. He smiled and said, "We won't take too much. We'll stop when we get 40%."

"That's right!" Luo Yaoguo pointed at Central Asia, "That area belonged to China during the Tang Dynasty. Li Hongzhang happens to have the last name Li, so he might be a descendant of Li Shimin. Let him take Central Asia!" He then said to Shi Dakai, "My dear, why don't you serve as the Chief of Staff for a while and follow the example of the Prussian General Staff to set up a General Staff that can assist the Council of Kings and the Prime Minister's Office in leading the Taiping Army's navy and army!"

Under the dome of the State Capitol in Sacramento, California Governor John Weller's cowhide boots thumped on the pine floor.

"Gentlemen!" Weller slammed his fist on the podium, causing a few drops of ink to splash out of the ink bottle. "I propose a special tax of 20 cents per ounce of gold and 10 cents per acre of land - this is to defend the white civilization of California!"

Bigler, who was sitting in the back row, suddenly frowned, and his walrus beard stood up in anger, because he saw a state congressman sitting in the front with a copy of The True Covenant with Hong Xiuquan's image printed on the cover in front of him. The True Covenant members were sitting in the parliament discussing how to exclude Chinese people.
"I don't agree with anti-Chinese sentiment!" A farmer council member from Santa Barbara suddenly stood up. "White farmers in California either hire Chinese workers or rent their land to Chinese operators. If the Chinese are driven away, California's agriculture will collapse and everyone will have to eat expensive food shipped from the East Coast! Eggs will even go up to one dollar each!"

Tony, the representative from San Francisco, also jumped up. He was also a True Testament believer and shouted on the spot: "Oppose! Oppose the fact that the license tax paid by the Chinese accounted for 40% of the city's revenue last year!" He waved a gold-plated fountain pen and said, "Anti-Chinese? Ask the accountant at City Hall first!"

Former Governor John Bigler's brows were getting more and more furrowed. After the last midterm elections, the number of true-Convention members in the California State Assembly seemed to have increased a lot!

"Silence!" The Speaker raised his gavel and banged it hard.

"Gentlemen," Weller said in a tone like coaxing a child, "the Chinese Exclusion Bureau only needs $3000 to start up." He glanced at the mining district councillors meaningfully, "enough to add militiamen."

"I object!" a congressman from Los Angeles shouted, "If you want to exclude the Chinese, just do it now. What's the point of collecting taxes? Damn it, you want to collect taxes just to exclude the Chinese. Then will you have to ask California for money to free the black slaves in the future?"

"That's right! We support anti-Chinese sentiment, but raising taxes is absolutely not acceptable!"

“The Chinese Exclusion Act is a federal law. Why should California pay for it?”

"So what if they want to discriminate against the Chinese? Why do they want to increase taxes? Aren't they trying to increase taxes in the name of discriminatory behavior?"

"Humph, I don't think the state government has the guts to discriminate against the Chinese. They only have the guts to make money in the name of discriminatory behavior."

The congressmen were all opposed to it. They were either against anti-Chinese sentiment or against tax increases - but how could they be anti-Chinese without money?

Bigler clenched his fists, his face livid, and muttered in a low voice: "How can I possibly prevent Chinese expulsion when I'm with a bunch of bugs like you? No, I have to find another way..."

(End of this chapter)