Slaying the Qing: My Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

The transfer of power in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was completed in a surprisingly smooth manner.

This also relieved Hong Tian.

Having become the Heavenly King, he was undoubtedly the one who least wanted the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to experience turmoil.

This would severely weaken the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and allow the Manchus to gain a huge advantage for nothing.

Hong Tian's first decree after ascending to the throne was to appoint Hong Rengan as the Prime Minister of the Heavenly Kingdom, granting him full authority over the affairs of the Heavenly Kingdom and making him accountable only to the Heavenly King.

However, unlike Hong Xiuquan in another timeline, Hong Tian did not bestow the title of Gan Wang upon Hong Rengan.

Hong Tian was extremely disgusted by the practice of bestowing titles of kings so readily.

He set a rule for himself: he would not be granted the title of king unless he made a great contribution.

We absolutely cannot be like Hong Xiuquan in another timeline, who lavishly bestowed titles of kings, resulting in over three thousand princes throughout the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, making princes practically worthless!

Doing so would only greatly diminish the prestige of the prince.

Hong Tian also revealed this information to other high-ranking officials of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

This made everyone very satisfied.

Especially Shi Dakai and Qin Rigang, who are now the only two remaining of the eight kings who started the uprising.

The rule that no one could be granted a title of king without making great contributions undoubtedly guaranteed their status.

Hong Tian certainly won't be bestowing any more titles of kings in the short term.

Even Hong Rengan, who became the Prime Minister of the Heavenly Kingdom, expressed his understanding.

He has only just joined the Kingdom of Heaven and is already in a high position. If he were to be crowned king, it would inevitably cause even more dissatisfaction among the higher-ups.

Once he has truly established himself and rendered meritorious service to the world, he will be granted the title of king, and everything will fall into place naturally.

On September 11, Hong Tian officially announced in the name of the Heavenly King that he would marry Shi Junzhao, the only daughter of Wing King Shi Dakai, when he turned sixteen, and make her the Heavenly Queen of the Heavenly Kingdom!

This was a name that Hong Tian specifically chose.

Previously, all of Hong Xiuquan's concubines were called "Wangniang" (Queen's Consort), which Hong Tian found very awkward.

This greatly pleased Shi Dakai, and Hong Tian formally promised to marry his daughter. Wouldn't that make him the Heavenly King's father-in-law? In the entire Heavenly Kingdom, he would be second only to the Heavenly King, above all others!

This undoubtedly greatly satisfied Shi Dakai's sense of self-esteem.

The next day, Hong Tian summoned a group of high-ranking officials of the Heavenly Kingdom to discuss the current situation of the Heavenly Kingdom, the crisis it faced, and its future development direction.

When Hong Xiuquan was the Heavenly King, he was only interested in pleasure and indulged in sensual pleasures, and didn't care about these things at all.

It must be acknowledged that Yang Xiuqing, the Eastern King, played a crucial role in enabling the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to achieve its current strength.

But this also fueled Yang Xiuqing's ambition to grow further, as he wanted to replace Hong Xiuquan and become the new Heavenly King.

Ultimately, this aroused Hong Xiuquan's murderous intent.

"My lords, I am very pleased that the Kingdom of Heaven is able to maintain stability, thanks to the efforts of everyone. I hope that in the future, we can all unite and work together in harmony."

After all, the Heavenly Kingdom and the Manchus were at war. As long as the Qing dynasty wasn't overthrown and the Manchus weren't expelled, the Heavenly Kingdom couldn't be considered truly safe!

Hong Tian addressed the crowd.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" all the high-ranking officials of the Heavenly Kingdom replied.

"In my view, although the Heavenly Kingdom currently possesses hundreds of thousands of troops and controls vast territories, it is actually fraught with danger. The main reason is that much of the territory currently controlled by the Heavenly Kingdom is not truly under its control, but merely nominally so."

I have looked at the map. Although the Heavenly Kingdom currently controls southern Jiangsu, northern Jiangxi, southern Anhui, and parts of Hubei.

However, the Kingdom of Heaven did not actually have true control over these areas.

Especially in rural areas, the region was almost entirely under the control of the gentry. And those gentry had historically opposed the Heavenly Kingdom and favored the Manchus.

This meant that once the Tartars attacked, these gentry immediately sided with them.

They even responded to the call of the Tartars, organized local militias, and attacked the Heavenly Kingdom's soldiers.

It was extremely difficult for the Kingdom of Heaven to conscript soldiers and pay taxes from these occupied territories.

These problems must be solved from now on.

The Land System, as the guiding principle of the Kingdom of Heaven, must be vigorously promoted.

Only in this way can the Kingdom of Heaven gain more support and recognition from the working masses, making its rule more stable and deeply rooted in people's hearts!

Hong Tian spoke to everyone with a serious expression.

However, because Hong Tian was too young, the whole scene consisted of a group of adults being lectured by a little kid, which looked somewhat comical.

But none of the high-ranking officials of the Heavenly Kingdom present thought so.

It's unclear whether it's because Hong Tian has officially succeeded to the throne as Heavenly King, but everyone feels that although Hong Tian is young, he is increasingly displaying the aura of a Heavenly King.

No one would look down on him because of his age.

In Hong Tian's view, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was now in a state of great prosperity, as if it had reached its peak.

But in reality, there are many problems.

In another timeline, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom suffered a severe blow due to the Tianjing Incident.

Although it managed to hold on for a few more years, it ultimately could not escape destruction.

Furthermore, the high-ranking officials of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, from Hong Tianguifu to a group of princes and even ordinary soldiers, all met extremely tragic ends.

Almost all the high-ranking officials were executed by slow slicing.

Hong Tianguifu was stabbed the most.

The ordinary soldiers were almost all beheaded as well.

The female soldiers and women, in particular, suffered humiliation at the hands of the Qing army before being killed.

Even the entire city of Tianjing was completely wiped out by the massacre.

After all, for the Tartars, massacring entire cities was a common occurrence.

Even though it was the Hunan Army that took action, the Hunan Army of this era had become the lackeys of the Manchus.

As for Zeng shaving his head, there was nothing that could be stopped, nor would it be.

As early as when he captured Anqing, he had made it clear that the Xiang Army could plunder for three days and three nights.

It can be said that Zeng Guofan's head-shaving was entirely achieved by using the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in Nanjing and the blood of millions of soldiers in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to dye his head red.

In this timeline, Hong Tian naturally had to do everything in his power to prevent such a situation from happening again.

This was not only to change his own fate, but also to change the fate of millions of soldiers and civilians in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, in name, ruled over a considerable area. However, in reality, it only controlled a few cities.

This is mainly because after capturing a city, one can obtain food and recruit soldiers from it.

Meanwhile, the Taiping army was constantly fighting the Manchus, and most of the time they were being chased around, unable to stay in one place for long. They would often capture a city, loot it, and then run away.

This is also why the Taiping Army was called a band of outlaws by the Manchus.

This situation only changed after the capital was established in Tianjing.

However, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at that time did not realize the importance of winning the support of the lowest-level people. Even the core idea of ​​"land to the tiller" and the land system and other programs could not be implemented. Instead, their attitude towards the gentry changed, and they tried to win over and rely on them.

As a result, it was impossible to fully mobilize the grassroots population.

This prevented the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom from establishing a stable foundation.

Once a country suffers a severe military blow, there is no possibility of ever recovering its strength.

Being quickly defeated by the Tartars was inevitable.

"Gentlemen, His Majesty is right. I have studied many of the Heavenly Kingdom's previous systems and policies, and they were all very chaotic. If the Heavenly Kingdom wants to develop into a stronger nation, it must fundamentally change this chaotic situation."

At the same time, we must mobilize more people from the grassroots level and get them to join our ranks.

Throughout the country, the vast majority of the lower classes lived in extreme poverty. They were not only oppressed by the Tartars, but also exploited by landlords and gentry.

If they could join us, the strength of Heaven would be greatly enhanced.

Soon, we will be able to have our final battle with the Tartars.

Defeating the Tartars is a piece of cake!

Hong Rengan, who became the Prime Minister of the Heavenly Kingdom, said.

The other senior executives also nodded in agreement.

The main reason for the chaos in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was that after Hong Xiuquan established his capital in Nanjing, he indulged in pleasure and became complacent. Furthermore, once power was in the hands of Yang Xiuqing, the Eastern King, he ruthlessly eliminated dissidents.

This inevitably led to chaos in the entire Taiping Heavenly Kingdom system and its various policies.