Slaying the Qing: My Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

"Your Excellency, I've heard that the current emperor of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is a little kid who's not even seven years old? Isn't that a bit too childish?" The Gallic consul, Ai Tang, was very curious about this.

Consul Henry Benson shook his head: "When I saw him last year, he was not yet seven years old. But now, he should be seven."

"My God! Isn't this absurd? A seven-year-old child can become the emperor of a country. And this country has hundreds of thousands of troops. It's a joke!" Ai Tang exclaimed in surprise.

"Your Excellency, you must understand that the country we are currently in is an extremely poor and backward nation. Even though they were once incredibly glorious, they have ultimately declined."

In such a poor, backward country, which is a complete technological wasteland, such a thing, though somewhat unbelievable, is undoubtedly quite normal.

After all, their previous emperor had actually claimed to be the second son of God. He even insisted that he was God's legitimate son and Jesus was an illegitimate one—it was utterly insane.

What's most infuriating is that even those guys in the church couldn't refute their argument.

Consul Henry Benson said.

In their view, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's doctrines were utter nonsense and blasphemy against God.

If the East weren't so far from their homeland that their troops couldn't be deployed that far, they probably would have already sent troops to fight the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Of course, the so-called glory of God is just an excuse.

The real goal, of course, is the wealth and resources of this land.

"Very well, Your Excellency. I admit we are dealing with a crazy country. So, how do we stop them from harming our interests?" Consul Aitang said.

"If the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom could abandon its ambitions for Songjiang Prefecture, that would be for the best. Our safety and interests would then be guaranteed," Consul Henry Benson said.

Consul Ai Tang nodded repeatedly.

But they also knew that it would be extremely difficult to get the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to give up voluntarily.

"Well then, Your Excellency, I will go to Jiangning again to meet with the young emperor of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and hope to persuade him to abandon his invasion of Songjiang Prefecture. If he is willing to give up the invasion of Songjiang Prefecture, we can continue to trade with them. If they refuse, then we will cut off all trade with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom."

Their desire to purchase vital resources like steam engines, steel, copper ingots, and saltpeter would be a pipe dream. This would severely weaken their military strength. I believe that even if the young emperor wanted to act recklessly, his ministers would certainly not allow it.

Perhaps the young emperor was simply a puppet put forward by those ministers.

Consul Henry Benson proposed.

"That's a good idea! If we can stop the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's army from entering Songjiang Prefecture, it will undoubtedly be a victory. Perhaps we can use this to ask the Qing people to lease more land to us. Our concessions can be expanded even further," Ai Tang said.

Consul Henry Benson nodded repeatedly.

If the concession could be expanded further, it could accommodate even more people.

This will further enhance their influence.

For these diplomats, this is a tangible achievement.

"Your Excellency, I believe that in addition to pinning our hopes on the Taiping Army not launching an attack on Songjiang Prefecture, we should also make preparations in other ways. For example, we should strengthen our own defensive capabilities," Consul Henry Benson suggested.

"Your Excellency, this is probably very difficult. Apart from the police station, which has some armed force, there are no other armed forces in the entire concession. We have also not been able to obtain the right to station troops in the concession."

Furthermore, our homeland is too far from the Far East. It would be extremely difficult to send troops from our homeland over such a long distance.

Moreover, Your Excellency should be well aware that our two countries are preparing to join forces to teach the Qing people a lesson, and to take another big bite out of this backward and corrupt nation.

Consul Ai Tang said.

Last October, the British Empire and the Gallic Empire, using the pretexts of the "Arrow Incident" and the "Father Ma Incident" respectively, prepared to take military action against the Qing Dynasty.

However, since the British Empire and the Gallic Empire were thousands of miles away, especially before the Suez Canal was successfully built, it would take a lot of time to send fleets and transport troops from Western Europe to the Far East.

Not to mention, the British and the Gauls also needed to prepare for war. This would undoubtedly require even more time.

It would take about a year before the British Empire and the Gallic Empire were able to launch a real attack on the Qing Dynasty.

The limited resources of the British Empire and the Gallic Empire were all devoted to attacking the Qing Dynasty.

For the time being, they will not have enough troops to station in Songjiang Prefecture to fight against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

"Your Excellency, I am well aware of this. However, besides relying on domestic support, we can consider other methods. For example, we can recruit a group of mercenaries to form an armed force within the concession," Henry Benson continued.

Consul Ai Tang's eyes lit up.

"That's a good idea! If we can establish an armed force in the concession, we will have greater influence and be able to secure more benefits for our country." Consul Aitang clearly agreed with this plan.

"Then, Your Excellency, I will be in charge of negotiating with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in Jiangning. As for the matter of forming the armed forces in the concession, I will entrust it to you!" Consul Henry Benson said.

"Of course, no problem!" Consul Aitang replied.

Subsequently, Minister Henry Benson departed from Zhonghai County and traveled by boat to Tianjing City.

Consul Ai Tang then began recruiting mercenaries within the concession.

Wall, an adventurer from the Land of Light, accepted the invitation to form a predominantly white mercenary force.

This mercenary group was known as the Foreign Gun Corps.

At this moment, the concession was filled with adventurers from Europe and America who came to make a living. They didn't want ordinary jobs; they wanted more exciting and lucrative work.

Accepting employment from the concession authorities to ensure the safety of the concession was undoubtedly very attractive.

This enabled the foreign gun team to quickly recruit more than two hundred people.

Moreover, this number is still increasing.

Ward became the captain of the foreign gun squad. Meanwhile, Farsted and White, also from the United States, became the vice-captains.

The foreign-equipped corps was mainly equipped with the Enfield M1853 muzzle-loading rifled gun, which the British Empire's army was currently replacing.

In addition, it was also equipped with some light artillery.

These mercenaries from Europe and America, spurred by high salaries and bounties, displayed great fighting spirit.

It's just unknown how they will react when they realize that once they're on the battlefield, they'll be outmatched by the Taiping Army in terms of weaponry and equipment.

Take the Enfield M1853 muzzle-loading rifle as an example; its range can reach 500 meters. However, its effective range is less than 100 meters.

At the same time, the rate of fire of a muzzle-loading rifled gun is absolutely incomparable to that of a breech-loading gun.

In addition, the Taiping army's elite troops were also equipped with heavy machine guns, mortars, mountain guns, and field guns.

In terms of weaponry and firepower, the Taiping army's elite troops were fully capable of possessing an overwhelming advantage.

On February 12, 1857, Henry Benson, the British Consul General in Songjiang Prefecture, once again visited Tianjing City.

Hong Tian received Consul Henry Benson at the Heavenly King's Palace.

"Your Majesty, congratulations on your troops' great victory in the recently concluded Southern Jiangsu campaign, where they defeated the Qing army," said Consul Henry Benson.

"Thank you very much. This is all thanks to the soldiers who fought so hard." Hong Tian had a smile on his face.

He was very satisfied with the performance of the Taiping Army soldiers, especially the officers and soldiers of the Imperial Guard.

"However, Your Majesty, your army has already taken control of Suzhou Prefecture. We believe that your army should temporarily halt its advance in Suzhou Prefecture and is not suitable to continue. Otherwise, it may cause unnecessary misunderstandings," Consul Henry Benson continued.