The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 863 This is our little paradise, the little paradise that Angel Luo built for us

On the evening of the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month in the 23rd year of the Tianli calendar, the Hanjiang passenger ship plowed through the turbid waves of the Yangtze River and slowly approached the Xiaguan Wharf in Tianjing. The deck was crowded with Dongdian people wrapped in red turbans. Huang Wentong held the cold iron railing, his mouth wide open, his Adam's apple rolling up and down. Behind him, Zhang Chaojue carried his five-year-old son on his shoulders, and the lame Wang Agui held his bundle tightly, three pairs of eyes staring at the lights that were getting closer and closer.

"Dad, is that the Jade Emperor's Lingxiao Palace?" The doll on Zhang Chaojue's shoulder pointed at the river bank.

On the river bank, the five-story Customs Building was covered with glazed tiles, its granite base piercing the river, and the copper needle of the large clock on the rooftop was pointing to the 3rd quarter of the evening. Further away, a long steel dragon was winding along the city wall, with no horses pulling it and no steam rising - it was the elevated track of the "psychic flying car" around the city. Every half a mile, there was a red lantern-shaped glass ball hanging on the iron rod, and the bamboo filament bulb inside burned brightly, illuminating the bricks of the city wall with a green hue.

"Twenty years..." Huang Wentong muttered. He remembered that in the third year of the Tianli period, half of the wall of Tianjing collapsed, and the battlements were filled with broken flags of the Qing Dynasty. But in front of him, an elevated railway had been built next to the wall, and steamboats spewing coal smoke were coming and going on the river.

On the dock, the crane boom rose and fell like a giant's arm. Bundles and bags of goods slid from the ocean liner into the warehouse, and porters in blue work clothes shouted and pushed the rail cars. Zhang Chaojue suddenly poked Wang Agui: "See? The lame man who supervises the workers at the dock has a 'merit medal' on his chest!" The lame man's right leg was hanging empty, but there was a shiny tin lunch box on the leather belt around his waist.

Hong Xuanjiao strode across the deck. She took the copper trumpet from her personal guard and shouted at the top of her lungs, "Look, my old brothers - this is the little paradise on earth that Luo Tianshi created for the people of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!"

The crowd was silent for a moment, and then exploded.

"Bullshit!" Wang Agui suddenly yelled, "We followed the Heavenly King and the Eastern King to conquer this little paradise of Jinling!" He raised his hand and pointed at the bright lights and revelry outside the Yifeng Gate, "That's where I followed everyone into Tianjing City. At that time, Tianshi Luo had already led his troops to Shanghai."

Hong Xuanjiao laughed loudly, "Wang Agui! You only know how to fight and kill, but fighting and killing can only take down a city of Nanjing with mountains of corpses and seas of blood. It is all the credit of King Luo Wu that the city of Nanjing with mountains of corpses and seas of blood has been turned into what it is now!" She slapped the iron hull of the ship with her backhand, "Without him leading us to build railways, ships, and power plants, where would the canned beef you ate in North Korea come from? Where would the three-story building I promised you come from?"

As soon as the gangplank was set up, a group of clerks from the Ministry of Works wearing wide-brimmed hats were already waiting on the dock with a list of names in their hands. Huang Wentong stared at the silver pocket watch chain on the clerk's chest, and suddenly a hard object was stuffed into it.

"This is your Meritorious National Citizen card!" The clerk slapped the enamel card on his palm. "With this card, you can take your family to the Army Guest House to rest first. After the house is repaired in a few months, you can move into the new home!"

Hong Xuanjiao smiled and said, "In addition to the new house, the Heavenly Kingdom will also arrange jobs for you - it doesn't matter if you don't know how to do it, there will be a special school to teach you. If you really can't learn it, you can also get 100 to 500 acres of black land in the northeast, and you can have a farm and have no worries about food and drink."

Zhang Chaojue grabbed Hong Xuanjiao's cloak and said, "Madam Queen of the West, can that iron train really start? It doesn't even emit smoke!" He was referring to the electric train sliding on the elevated track. The front of the train was inlaid with a gilded dragon emblem, the twelve carriages were lit with bamboo lamps, and behind the glass windows were swaying foreigners' top hats and Chinese people's red headscarves.

"This is called a psychic flying car, it uses electricity instead of coal!" Hong Xuanjiao dragged everyone to Xiaguan Station, "Tianshi Luo said that in the future, it will be built from Tianjing to Beijing! I will take you to take a ride first, and then walk around Tianjing City, so that you can look down and have a good look at our little paradise. After you have seen the little paradise, I will take you to the Army Guest House to settle down."

As the train began to move along the tracks level with the city wall, gasps were heard throughout the carriage.

Wang Agui held onto the window with one hand, stretching his neck to look out. Inside the city wall were old streets with green tiles, and an old man carrying wontons on his shoulder looked up at the train; outside the city wall stood a four-story red brick building, with the neon sign of "Taiping Bank" on the roof emitting flames. Further away, six chimneys of an unknown factory were spewing white smoke, and large wooden poles with electric wires were lined up on both sides of the road like soldiers standing guard.

"Xi Wangniang, over there!" Zhang Chaojue suddenly pointed to a patch of lights in the north of the Yangtze River. Dozens of factories stretched from the Yangtze River to the north, with chimneys pointing to the sky and spewing black smoke.

"Oh, that's the Pukou Iron and Steel Plant," said Hong Xuanjiao. "It just started production this year. It has five 5-ton Martin furnaces and three two-roller rolling mills. When the production capacity reaches the target, it can produce 50 tons of ship plates every year to supply the Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai!"

"6 tons of shipboard?" Zhang Chaojue took a breath, "The steel output is twice as much as that of the Pyongyang Iron and Steel Plant."

Hong Xuanjiao laughed: "The Pyongyang Iron and Steel Works cannot be compared. It is just a factory that produces rails and steel bars."

Huang Wentong's tears hit the car window frame. He saw Gongyuan Street by the Qinhuai River, where the East Palace Shangshu Yamen was located in the past, where he worked. Now the former Shangshu Yamen has become a university, and a statue of the Heavenly King holding a sword stands inside the gate of the school. Someone hummed Hong Tianwang's "Sword Chant" in a hoarse voice: "Holding three feet in hand, I can control the mountains and rivers..."

First, Wang Agui sang along in Cantonese, and then Zhang Chaojue slapped his knees to keep the beat. When they sang "Tigers roar and dragons roar, shining the world", the red-turbaned women in the carriage roared, and even the Hakka big-footed ladies (formerly female soldiers) in their forties and fifties roared.

Hong Xuanjiao punched the carriage wall, "Why are you crying? This country belongs to us! Luo Tianshi said it long ago - those who shed blood for the Kingdom of Heaven will not suffer any loss in Heaven!" She pulled open the curtains and pointed to a scaffolding on the shore of Xuanwu Lake, "See? Three hundred Western-style buildings are specially built for the old brothers in the East Palace to live in! They have running water pipes, bamboo-filament electric lights, and children can go to school for free!"

As the car passed the Drum Tower, the dome of the Capitol Hill came into view. Dozens of flagpoles protruded from under the granite dome, with the red flag of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the center, and the national flags of Korea, Japan, Java, and Inca like stars surrounding the moon. Zhang Chaojue's son suddenly screamed, "Dad! There's a man on the rooftop looking at us with a telescope!"

On the terrace of Capitol Hill, Luo Yaoguo put down his brass telescope. In the telescope, the electric train was sliding towards Xuanwu Lake and gradually disappearing into the distance.

"Why did father indulge Yang Dongwang?" A handsome young man wearing the uniform of a Taiping Heavenly Kingdom naval cadet, with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, tightly grasped the railing, "He has many followers and controls the Korean Heavenly Kingdom and the Japanese Heavenly Kingdom. Even if he loses the election, he is still a disaster!"

Luo Yaoguo didn't look back. He looked at a ship of several thousand tons on the river, a bulk carrier carrying grain from North America: "Xinhua, you think you are fighting for the throne of Tianjing for your father?
He suddenly turned around and looked at the brightly lit Tianjing City: "Do you think the current Tianjing City is only the Tianjing City in these twenty or so provinces in China?"

Luo Yaoguo pointed in the direction of the Yangtze River estuary, "From the plantations in Java to the gold rush in California, from the guano islands in Peru to the fishing ports in Alaska - there are at least 200,000 red turbans scattered around the world. Which one is not the fire of heaven?"

He turned around and held his son's shoulder: "If Yang Xiuqing wants to vote, let him vote. If the old brothers in the East Palace want to come back, give them land and houses. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is not for 600 million people, but for the oppressed people in the world! If we can't even tolerate our own brothers, what's the point of talking about universal peace? We must have such a pattern and talk about morality to all Chinese people. Of course, in the future, another 600 million, or even hundreds of millions of people will become Chinese people!"

At this time, snowflakes were flying under the bamboo lamps, and the roar of steamships at Xiaguan Wharf could be heard in the distance. Luo Xinhua suddenly realized that his father was not staring at the lights of Tianjing City, but at the more distant other side of the Pacific Ocean.

Luo Yaoguo went on to say: "The reason why I want to do this is that the struggle between us and white imperialism is inevitable, and it is difficult to win with the power of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom alone. Even if we win, how can we reap the fruits of victory? We still need to establish a series of small heavens. Now there are the Korean Heavenly Kingdom, the Japanese Heavenly Kingdom, the Javan Heavenly Kingdom, the Luzon Heavenly Kingdom, and the Inca Heavenly Kingdom. There will be more heavens in the future! In some areas, there is no heaven yet, but our people have taken root and taken power there. If we take action now against the people of the Eastern King, will the people in those places still regard the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as their own country? Can they still be close to us?"

"Xinhua." Luo Yaoguo's voice suddenly became gentle. "When you arrive in San Francisco and the American West, and see the vastness and prosperity there, and see the amazing achievements made by our fellow countrymen there, and see the Young Heavenly King, you will understand why your father did this!"

At the same time, in the lobby of the Army Guesthouse, Huang Wentong was holding a cup of hot tea in a daze. The marble floor was so shiny that one could see through it, and the crystal chandelier above his head dazzled him. An army captain handed him a registration book and asked, "What position do you hold in North Korea?"

"I'm here to announce it in front of the palace." Huang Wentong stammered.

"That's the salary of a sixth-rank official!" The captain flipped open the booklet. "According to the rules, you can get four bedrooms and two living rooms, with a small garden, and a monthly salary of 20 yuan. How many people are there in your family?"

Zhang Chaojue squeezed over and said, "I'm the captain of the Right Fifth Army of the East Palace!"

"It's also the sixth rank!" The captain nodded, "By the way, can one of the sons of the sixth rank meritorious citizen be admitted to the Army Children's School?"

Wang Agui was already grinning from ear to ear: "Damn it! Tianjing is still the best! I was a sixth-rank official in North Korea, and I only made 20 yuan a year!"

Amid the laughter in the room, Hong Xuanjiao's voice came from the second floor: "Dinner is ready! Plenty of beef."

(End of this chapter)