The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 864: King Dong, times have changed!
On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month in the twenty-fourth year of the Tianli calendar, the morning mist on the shore of Xuanwu Lake had not yet dissipated. A thin layer of frost formed on the glass window of Room 42, Building 502 of the Army Guest House, and Huang Wentong was gently pushed awake by his wife, Li Shunji.

"Master, it's time to express gratitude early."

The woman had already put on the new silk dress that Huang Wentong bought with the New Year's money issued by the Ministry of the Army, but her voice was filled with unquestionable piety to King Yangdong. Her father was originally a prostitute-born son of the Jeonju Lee clan. Although he and the king of the Joseon Dynasty were of the same clan (they had the same ancestor 500 years ago), according to the class system of the Joseon Dynasty, the son of a prostitute was equivalent to a pariah, and the daughter of a pariah was also a pariah. If nothing unexpected happened, she would never be able to turn over. But the accident wrapped in a red headscarf suddenly happened!
Although this accident overthrew the Lee Dynasty that had ruled Korea for 500 years, for Lee Sun-hee and her father, who had no benefit at all and had to be pariahs for generations, it was really the King of the East's kindness that was not enough!
On the wall by the window hung a picture of the Heavenly King - in the picture Yang Xiuqing was wearing a bright yellow dragon robe, with solemn eyes. On the altar in front of the picture were three apples, a can of beef, and a few pieces of chocolate wrapped in oil paper, all of which were New Year gifts from the Army Department. In the incense burner, three incense sticks were half-burned, and the smoke was rising straight up.

Huang Wentong stared at the portrait, a bitter smile appeared on his lips: "We have already arrived in Tianjing, why are you still doing this to express your gratitude early? Whether to thank him or not... he doesn't know!"

Li Shunji was startled, and the color suddenly disappeared from her face: "Nonsense, His Majesty the East King knows everything! How dare you..."

"He knows everything?" Huang Wentong suddenly threw back the quilt and stepped barefoot on the cold cement floor. "If he knew what Tianjing City looks like now, he wouldn't let us return home!"

The woman's lips trembled, and she wanted to argue, but her husband waved her hand and interrupted: "Take the children to the restaurant for dinner."

Li Shunji lowered her head and twisted the corner of her clothes. Finally, she bowed deeply to the portrait, her movements respectful, as if the King of the East was really sitting on it. Then she led the two sleepy children out through the door. When she closed the door, she heard her husband muttering behind her: "Children in Tianjing can go to school and learn to read at the age of six... We can't even afford a book in Korea."

Huang Wentong walked to the window and ripped open the curtains. The morning light burst into the house, illuminating the clean and tidy little room with a bright and warm glow. He grabbed a rag and wiped off the moisture on the glass. The scene outside the window suddenly became clear: hundreds of small red brick buildings were rising from the ground on the construction site beside Xuanwu Lake. The scaffolding was as dense as a spider web, and the craftsmen in work clothes had already started working early, busying up and down like ants. Further away, the neon lights on a four-story building owned by HSBC Bank had been turned off, but the iron sign "Day and Night Exchange" was still swaying in the morning breeze.

"Three ups and three downs, with electricity and running water..." he muttered to himself. The "Sixth Rank Official Residence" in Seoul, North Korea was just a low house made of adobe, which was windy in winter and leaky in summer. But here - he touched the cold glass window - even the windows were made of transparent Western glass, no, glass made in Shanghai!
He suddenly rushed to the desk, grabbed a pen and dipped it in ink, and wrote quickly on the lined letter paper printed by the Ministry of War:

His Majesty the Eastern King: We have arrived in Tianjing. The building here is a hundred feet high, and the lights are on all night. Prime Minister Luo said that all the soldiers of the Heavenly Kingdom can be divided into land and houses...

The tip of the pen suddenly stopped, and the ink dripped onto the word "宅". He stared at the letter for a long while, and suddenly tore it into pieces, and the scraps of paper fell into the bamboo wastebasket like snowflakes.

"Forget it," he sighed at the empty room, "Let the King of the East... come and see it with his own eyes."

The restaurant of the Army Guest House was bustling with people. Zhang Chaojue scooped up a spoonful of hot porridge and blew on it, then smiled at Wang Agui at the table, "My second and third children are worried about not being able to go to school, now it's good - the new school run by the Army Department even gives away textbooks for free!"

Wang Agui stuffed half a pancake into his chubby son's hand, turned around and patted his disabled leg: "With my current appearance, I don't want to occupy an official position in the court. I will take 300 acres of black land and take my eldest son to the border to grow soybeans!" He bowed to Zhang Chaojue and pointed at his youngest son, "I'll trouble you to take care of my kid..."

"What are you talking about!" Zhang Chaojue hit his shoulder. "What is our relationship? We are friends for life! From now on, your son will live in my house and go to school with my son! By the way, I applied for a job as a gatekeeper. It's right here in Tianjing, at the gate of the Navy Department, and I'm a sixth-rank gatekeeper!"

Amid the laughter at the table, a one-armed old man at the next table interrupted, "Be content! I was a sergeant in Korea, and I only made 20 silver dollars a year, and half of that was discounted. Yesterday, the Navy Department assigned me a job in the shipyard security department, with a monthly salary of 20 yuan!" He counted on his fingers, "Wait until the house by Xuanwu Lake is distributed, and bring a wife over to enjoy the good life - flush toilet! I've never seen one in Seoul, let alone heard of one!"

The laughter startled the sparrows on the locust tree outside the window. The sunlight shone through the glass window, making the fragrant scrambled eggs in the middle of the dining table shiny.

At the same time, Taiping University Pier.

The 6500-ton Flying Fish ironclad ship was moored on the shore like a gray giant, with thin white steam coming out of its chimney. Luo Yaoguo stuffed a cowhide briefcase into his son's hands: "The consuls and counselors of the San Francisco Consulate are all our own people. The distribution map of California's oil fields is in the blue folder, remember to hand it over to the Young Heavenly King and Archbishop Hong in person."

The 22-year-old Luo Xinhua was wearing a dark blue navy uniform. The gold thread of the second lieutenant's shoulder straps shone slightly in the morning light. "Don't worry, father. The young king wants to build a warship..."

"Approved." Luo Yaoguo interrupted, "Tell the young king that the blueprints of the newly launched 'Sea Crab' class destroyer from Jiangnan Shipyard will be sent to San Francisco on a merchant ship next month."

With the launch of the three-level military verification ships of "Hailong", "Haiying" and "Flying Fish", the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Navy's ships are now divided into five levels: "battleship", "armored ship", "cruiser", "destroyer" and "frigate". Among them, "Hailong" is a battleship, "Haiying" is an armored ship - in the future, armored ships will develop into battle cruisers, "Flying Fish" is a cruiser, and "Haixie" class is a verification ship for destroyers. The route is small tonnage, no armor, fast, light guns, and heavy torpedoes. The standard displacement is less than 2000 tons. In fact, it is a follow-up ship of the "Wuxian" class. With a standard displacement of 1600 tons, it can reach a maximum speed of 24 knots without high-pressure ventilation. Although it is only equipped with 2*2 120mm rapid-fire guns, it is equipped with 3*2 356mm torpedo tubes. Of course, these names of "dragon", "bird", "fish", "crab" and "shrimp" are used for verification ships. The warships officially included in the navy will be named after place names. Battleships and armored ships will be named after "provinces", cruisers will be named after "state capitals", destroyers will be named after "counties", and frigates will be named after "townships, towns, and villages".

Luo Yaoguo suddenly lowered his voice, "But you have to keep an eye on one thing - the U.S. oil-related industries, including boilers and machines that produce, store, transport, refine and use oil products. These are the lifeblood of the future of the Navy!"

Su Sanniang put a woolen coat on her son's shoulders and said, "The weather at sea is damp and cold, don't wear thin clothes just to keep cool." Her fingertips brushed across the copper button of the sea anchor on her son's cuffs, and she couldn't help but tear up.

When the whistle sounded, Luo Xinhua stood at attention and saluted. The sailor on the bridge pulled the flag rope, and the red-bottomed golden dragon flag of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom rose to the top of the mast. Luo Yaoguo looked at the white waves of the river plowed by the warship, and suddenly whispered to his wife: "When Xinhua and the Young Heavenly King come back together, the struggle between Yang Xiuqing and I should be over... The Eastern King should understand that this world is no longer a world of swords and guns and gods."

In the spring of 1874, the sea breeze was howling at Sasebo Naval Port.

Yang Xiuqing held the cold bow guard plate of the Fuso, followed by the chief priest of the Shinyo Shrine, Inako Kusunoki, the armaments director Nabeshima Naohiro, the naval director Shimazu Tadayoshi and others. Prince Chengtian Yang Chengtian bowed and handed over the list: "Mr. Ingles, an expert from the British Armstrong Factory, is responsible for the supervision of the construction. The standard displacement is 3800 tons. The main armor belt is 230 mm thick, and there are four 240 mm Krupp main guns..."

"Speed?" Yang Xiuqing interrupted him.

"The sea trials haven't started yet, but Mr. Ingalls said it can at least run... twelve knots." Naoki Naoto said in a weak voice.

Yang Xiuqing frowned: "The merchant ships built by Luo Yaoguo's Jiangnan Factory can run at twelve knots."

Everyone was silent. Zheng Yongning tried to smooth things over: "The armor of this ship is so thick that it can withstand the artillery fire of the Zhenyuan-class ironclad ship (the second generation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's "Three Far-reaching Ships")!"

Yang Xiuqing did not comment, but turned to ask Nanmu Daozi: "How is the Tianen rice sent to Japan?"

The woman's forehead was covered with sweat. "We have already harvested 30,000 tons... The remaining 120,000 tons must be collected before autumn."

She didn't dare to say that 100,000 tons of it would depend on the Shinyo Shinto Temple to spend its savings to purchase grain from California grain merchants in the United States.
The sea breeze blew up Yang Xiuqing's bright yellow cape. He stared at the rising sun dragon flag hanging high on the bridge and suddenly sneered: "When 600,000 tons of disaster relief grain are collected... I will take the Fuso to Tianjing City."

The shadow of the ironclad ship was cast on the dock, like a stranded giant beast.

This night, in Room 502 of the Army Guesthouse.

Huang Wentong bent over the desk and spread out the letter paper again. But as he started writing, the scene he saw in the Army Department of Meritorious Nationalists during the day appeared in front of his eyes.
"Mr. Huang," an army captain pointed at the sand table model, "the house you are assigned is at No. 7, North District, Xuanwu Lake. Here is the key." The man lowered his voice again, "Premier Luo specifically instructed that the house of the old brother in the East Palace... be decorated according to the standard of the guest room of the Army Guest House, and you don't have to pay a penny."

He dipped the brush in ink and held it in mid-air, and finally wrote: Your Highness, the Eastern King: The natural beauty of Tianjing is beyond the reach of my pen and ink to describe even a fraction of it. I beg you to come in person…

After writing and sealing the letter, he stuffed it into the bottom of the drawer.

Outside the window, the gas lamps on the construction site illuminated the night sky. Amid the roar of the pile driver, Huang Wentong took out the "Meritorious National Citizen Certificate" issued by the Ministry of the Army and gently stroked the gilded dragon-shaped national emblem.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is his motherland!

(End of this chapter)