The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 689

Late September 1859.

The cold wind from the New York Harbor once again blew on Xianfeng's frown. He squinted his eyes and saw a pine board hanging on the dock with the words "New York State Law: Chinese are not allowed to enter" painted in red. Under the board stood a short and fat official in uniform.

"Bishop Zhao, it seems that the anti-Chinese sentiment in New York has not yet passed," Leland Stanford leaned close to Emperor Xianfeng's ear, "Why don't you and your wife go back to the ship and rest for a while, and I will contact Senator O'Connor."

"No need!" Xianfeng smiled indifferently, stuffed the rattan box into the arms of little Leland Stanford, held Chiyoko's arm with his right hand, grabbed Stanford's silver-plated cane with his left hand, and then limped towards the short and fat official. When he got closer, Xianfeng could see clearly that the fat man's badge read "Patrick Murphy" - he was of Irish descent.

"Stop! This is the VIP channel," Murphy shouted at Xianfeng with a stern face, "and Chinese are not welcome in New York!"

Xianfeng stopped and glanced at the fat Irishman with a condescending look. With just this one glance, the fat Irishman felt as if he had returned to England in a dream and saw the master again - if he was not a noble master from generation to generation, he would never have the aura of "ignoring the little people with cold eyes"!
Xianfeng pulled out a dark blue leather certificate from his inner pocket with an expressionless face. The golden embossing of the fleur-de-lis emblem was dazzling in the sun, and the signature of Napoleon III was written across the title page in a flamboyant manner. This was a special pass issued by the Second French Empire, with the words "diplomatic immunity" in gold French on the edge.

"Nicholas Zhao Si," he said in Oxford English, the name on the diplomatic passport, "Knight of the French Legion of Honor, and theological advisor to Marshal Prince Napoleon."

Murphy's knuckles trembled on the document. On the inside of the document was a silver-plate photo of Xianfeng - in the photo, Xianfeng was wearing a French Army officer's dress uniform. What made him even more suffocated was the note on the attached page: "The holder of the certificate enjoys the same treatment as a count of the French Empire."

This diplomatic passport is of course real. It was obtained by Rinko from Prince Napoleon. It might be unbelievable for ordinary people, but for the Countess of the Temple Mount, she can have as many as she wants.
She handed the "real treaty" to a woman from the Bonaparte family, and her eighth uncle was Prince Shi Dakai who conquered Sevastopol!

The last time she left Europe, she asked Prince Napoleon for five blank special passes signed by Napoleon III, one of which she gave to her "brother-in-law" Zhao Si, also known as Emperor Xianfeng.

"Sir..." Murphy checked the diplomatic passport issued by Napoleon III, and then looked at the young Leland Stanford who was carrying a bag behind him. This young man looked like a rich young man. Such a person could only carry a bag behind him.
"Zhao Si!" A rough shout interrupted Murphy's thoughts. Jimmy O'Connor's carriage rolled over the wet cobblestone road. The bloated body of the red-haired senator squeezed through the door and laughed heartily when he saw Xianfeng. "You're here! Hahahaha, New York State is discriminating against the Chinese. No one is making things difficult for you, right?"

Of course Murphy knew O'Connor - he was an Irish-American federal senator and the pride of the New York Irish gang!
It seems that this Nicholas Zhao Si is really a big shot!

Thinking of this, Murphy quickly bowed to Xianfeng and gave up the VIP passage.

In the carriage, O'Connor's cigar ash fell on the leather seat: "The idiots in Washington are brewing a new Naturalization Act, changing 'free white people' to 'European blood'."

"So what do they think of the by-election in California?" Xianfeng asked, "Is the federal government planning to intervene?"

O'Connor said in a serious tone: "Important members of both parties in the Senate and the House of Representatives, the president, the vice president, and most of the cabinet members all agree that there is serious fraud in the California by-election." He then changed the subject, "But state elections are state rights, and the federal government should not interfere. The federal government had previously wrestled with the issue of fraud in Kansas elections. Although it resulted in the failure of the Kansas Constitution to be passed, the federal government did not interfere with Kansas referendums and parliamentary elections. Besides, there have always been fraudulent local elections in the United States!"

Xianfeng burst into laughter: "This is indeed very American!" After laughing a few times, he asked again: "What does Lincoln think about the California issue?"

"Lincoln." O'Connor took a puff of his cigar. "He advocated anti-Chinese sentiment! Radical anti-Chinese sentiment!"

In a brownstone building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, the oak paneling cracked slightly from the fireplace. William Seward's gold-rimmed glasses slid down to the tip of his nose, and he twisted a copy of the New York Tribune between his fingers: "Abel, are you really going to use anti-Chinese sentiment as a campaign slogan?"

Lincoln rested his long legs on the walnut desk, and while smoking his pipe, he answered: "William, have you ever seen the cotton fields in Mississippi? A black slave picks 300 pounds of cotton a day, and the Chinese in California can dig several tons of ore containing gold sand."

Sherman snorted, "They're looking at their arms with a magnifying glass in Sacramento! The next thing to do is to select white people by taking a math test. I say we should drive all the Chinese off the Pacific coast into the sea!"

Seward frowned and said, "But those people in the church always say 'Everyone is equal before God'..."

"God never said that yellow people should be white!" Lincoln suddenly stood up, his shadow covering the yellowed copy of the Declaration of Independence on the wall. "The West is the promised land for European workers - not for yellow-skinned Orientals!"

Sherman pulled out a stack of photos from his briefcase: Children in a Chinese school in San Francisco were doing math problems; Chinese workers on the San Francisco docks were operating steam cranes; Chinese workers in the docks of the San Francisco Port were building steamships... "Did you see that?" Sherman dug his fingernails into the smiling face of Emperor Xianfeng in the photo, "They are learning from us! They learn faster than the Irish!"

Lincoln's finger traced the Missouri Compromise line on the map: "So I propose - to set the slaves free moderately and to drive the Chinese out of the United States radically. We can first unite the plantation owners in the South, and after the Chinese exclusion is successful, we can use the confiscated Chinese assets to compensate the plantation owners who freed the slaves."

"That's all?" Seward was still a little dissatisfied - although he was also a moderate abolitionist, Lincoln's attitude towards abolition seemed a little too mild.

"That's all," Lincoln said. "That's enough to win the election!"

"Enough to win?"

"Yes!" Lincoln nodded. "Radical anti-Chinese sentiment and moderate abolition of slavery are enough for us to win the election. That's the most important thing!" He looked at Seward. "William, please support me!"

A spark flew from the fireplace, and Seward wrote on the memorandum of cooperation between the two parties: "Republican Platform for 1860: Article , Restrict the Expansion of Slavery; Article , Revise the Naturalization Act."

Late November of the ninth year of Tianli.

Outside Pyongyang, undercurrents surged beneath the ice of the Taedong River. Yang Xiuqing's mink coat swept over the coal slag, and British miner Hudson's lantern illuminated the rock wall of the mine: "Your Highness, this coal seam is very thick, enough to be mined for 30 years."

Moore looked at the stone wall of the mine cave and said to Yang Xiuqing in fluent Chinese: "A steel mill must be close to coal, close to iron, or have a deep-water port. Seoul has none of these three. Building a steel mill there will definitely lose money, and a steel mill that loses money cannot bring any progress to North Korea. North Korea cannot compete with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in textiles, porcelain, pharmaceuticals, shipbuilding, etc. You need a factory that can compete with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as a guiding force for North Korea's industrialization!"

Moore only said half of what he said. The other half, of course, is that only factories that have mastered advanced productive forces can produce an advanced working class!
Friedrich kicked away the frozen horse manure: "Xuzhou Steel Plant is near coal, iron, seaports, canals and railways. So its economic and social benefits are the best. I suggest that Pyongyang Steel Plant learn from Xuzhou Steel Plant and build an industrialized model factory."

Moore said, "With the loan from the UK, there is no need to worry about the funds. Now that the coal mine has been solved, the next step is to find a suitable iron ore to mine - there should be quite a lot in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula, right?"

"King of the East!" Kusumoto Inako's voice suddenly came, her clogs crushing ice, the hem of her kimono stained with coal dust, "Maria's convoy has crossed the Taedong River and will arrive in Pyongyang soon. Do you want to arrange a meeting with him?"

"Do you know why she came?" Yang Xiuqing asked.

"It might be because of what happened in the United States," Daozi said. "There's been a big uproar in California recently!"

The Kingdom of Korea also has shares on the west coast of North America! Hong Renzheng and Hong Renke are members of the Hong family, and Hong Tiangui and Hong Rengan are their superiors.

Yang Xiuqing snorted, "Let the King of Gan meet her first and hear what she has to say. Daozi, you also go and meet Maria with the King of Gan. Find out what she is up to and then report to me."

"Yes!" Daozi nodded.

Yang Xiuqing was no longer in the mood to continue inspecting the coal mine, so he said, "Daozi, I will go back to Pyongyang with you!"

After seeing Yang Xiuqing and the rice off, Moore, Friedrich and Hudson returned to the mine's general office building. Hudson did some calculations in the account book and said to Moore, "Mr. Minister, if the Pyongyang coal mine is really mined on a large scale, the annual output can reach one million tons, which is equivalent to half of Birmingham." He looked at Yang Xiuqing's back as he walked away, and suddenly muttered to Moore, "Have you heard? The Chinese in California are using magnifying glasses to look at their skin to prove that they are white."

Moore rolled up the coal mine plan into a tube: "They have actually proved it with weapons. The proof of weapons is more reliable than any other proof." He turned around and looked at the miner. "And the prince in London realized earlier than the Americans that the Chinese are qualified to sit at the table. That's why we came to North Korea!"

(End of this chapter)