Slaying the Qing: My Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

Just as Hong Tian put down his bowl, a young man of about seventeen or eighteen years old rushed in.

However, unlike the other children in the orphanage, he did not shave his head or have a buzz cut, but instead, like the others in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he kept his hair long.

"Your Highness, Prince Yi has returned to the capital," the young man reported.

"Okay, we'll go right away! Yufeng, you stay for dinner. Yucheng, you have dinner with Yufeng!" Hong Tian instructed.

The young man who brought the news was named Zhou Yufeng, and he was also from an orphanage. Originally a beggar, he was taken in by Hong Tian after the Taiping Army captured Nanjing and was given the name Yufeng.

Zhou Yufeng grew up among beggars and made acquaintances with all sorts of people.

Hong Tian provided him with money and effort, enabling him to establish an intelligence network within Tianjing City, which helped Hong Tian control every move within the city.

"Yes, Your Highness!" Zhou Yufeng and Chen Yucheng were also familiar with each other, so they did not refuse.

"Yujie, His Highness's safety is in your hands. Things are not going to be peaceful in Tianjing City these days!" Chen Yucheng reminded him.

"Don't worry, anyone who wants to harm His Highness will have to step over my dead body first!" A burly young man, as strong as a calf, replied with a determined look.

His name is Zhang Yujie, and he is Hong Tian's bodyguard captain.

That's right, all of Hong Tian's trusted men belong to the "Yu" generation, including Chen Yucheng, Niu Yusheng, Zhou Yufeng, and Zhang Yujie, among others.

The future Taiping Heavenly Kingdom may well be in the hands of these young people of the "Yu" generation.

Hong Tian didn't even have time to eat. He got into the carriage and headed straight for the Prince Yi's residence.

The reason for his urgency was that Hong Tian wanted to win over Wing King Shi Dakai.

Shi Dakai was one of the eight founding kings of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Especially after the deaths of the Western King Xiao Chaogui and the Southern King Feng Yunshan, and the death of the Yu King Hu Yihuang, only five of the eight founding kings remained.

This includes Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan, Eastern King Yang Xiuqing, Northern King Wei Changhui, Wing King Shi Dakai, and Yan King Qin Rigang.

In the ensuing Tianjing Incident, Yang Xiuqing was destined for ruin.

In another timeline, after the Tianjing Incident, Hong Xiuquan ordered the execution of Wei Changhui and Qin Rigang, leaving only two of the original eight kings alive.

However, this also led Hong Xiuquan to become suspicious of Shi Dakai, and he began to support his brothers to counterbalance him.

Among them, Prince Gan, Hong Renxuan, was relatively capable. However, Prince An, Hong Renfa, and Prince Fu, Hong Renda, were utterly useless. They only knew how to fight for power and indulge in pleasure.

Ultimately, this forced Shi Dakai to leave, leading to the decline of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom from its initial victory.

In this timeline, Hong Tian wanted to avoid such a situation from happening as much as possible.

Shi Dakai enjoyed extremely high prestige and great influence within the Taiping Army and even throughout the entire Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

This can be seen from the fact that he was able to take more than 100,000 elite troops with him when he left.

If this had been avoided, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom might not have been able to change its ultimate fate. However, it could at least have held out for longer.

Hong Tian hoped to keep Shi Dakai calm.

If Shi Dakai could clearly stand on his side after he suppressed the Tianjing Incident, that would be even better.

The entire Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was able to stabilize quickly, and the adverse effects of the Tianjing Incident were minimized.

Hong Tian tried countless methods to solve this problem.

Ultimately, only one approach seemed feasible.

That was to propose to Shi Dakai's only daughter, Shi Junzhao.

In this way, Shi Dakai became Hong Tian's father-in-law, and the relationship between the two families naturally became even closer.

After Hong Tian suppresses the Tianjing Incident, he can rely on Shi Dakai to control the elite troops.

The Imperial Guard and Orphanage system under Hong Tian's control could also grow into another pillar of the Taiping Army, and a force to check and balance Shi Dakai and other high-ranking officials of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

At the Prince Yi's residence, Shi Dakai had just returned home, and the family was enjoying a rare reunion.

Shi Dakai's two wives, Consort Li and Consort Liu, are arranging lunch.

Shi Dakai currently has only one son and one daughter, namely his son Shi Dingzhong and daughter Shi Junzhao.

As for his other son, Shi Yonghuo, he has not yet been born.

This was also Shi Dakai's only surviving son.

In another time and space, he was adopted by his aunt, renamed Hu Yonghuo, and continued Shi Dakai's bloodline.

When Shi Dakai was defeated at the Dadu River, Shi Dingzhong and his newborn son Shi Dingji were both executed by the Tartars.

Just as the Shi family was preparing their meal, a servant announced that the Young Heavenly King had arrived.

"Please come quickly!" Shi Dakai hurriedly left the table.

Although the Young Heavenly King is young, as the heir to the Heavenly King title, his status is noble. Even though Shi Dakai is one of the eight kings who initiated the uprising, he should still be given sufficient respect!

Furthermore, over the past two years, the Young Heavenly King has taken in a large number of orphans and raised the children of fallen Taiping soldiers, which has given him extremely high prestige within the Taiping Army.

The rest of the Shi family followed Shi Dakai outside.

"Your Highness, Young Heavenly King!" Shi Dakai and the others bowed respectfully.

But Hong Tian quickly stepped forward and bowed down first.

"This humble nephew greets Uncle Shi and his two aunts!"

"Young Heavenly King, you're too kind!" Shi Dakai quickly helped Hong Tian up.

"Brother Dingzhong, Sister Yunzhao." Hong Tian also greeted Shi Dingzhong and Shi Yunzhao.

At the same time, he was also secretly observing Shi Junzhao.

Shi Junzhao was two years older than Hong Tian. Although she was still young, she was just a little girl.

However, Shi Dakai was handsome, while Consort Li, though not young, was dignified and beautiful.

Having inherited the genes of both of them, Shi Junzhao would never grow up to be a deformed person, right?

Although this was destined to be a legitimate marriage, wouldn't every man hope that his wife is a beautiful woman?

"Uncle Shi, I heard you were back in Beijing, so I came to see you. I'm so sorry to have disturbed your family reunion," Hong Tian said, expressing his apologies first.

"Young Heavenly King, you flatter us. It is truly an honor for the entire Shi family that Your Highness has graced the Shi residence with your presence. We are just about to have lunch, and we would like to invite Your Highness to join us," Shi Dakai said, extending a friendly invitation.

Hong Tian was thinking of getting closer to Shi Dakai, so naturally he wouldn't refuse.

Within Tianjing City, resources were scarce. Even though Shi Dakai was the Prince of Yi, his meals consisted of only two meat dishes.

Compared to the other kings of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Shi Dakai was quite frugal.

When Hong Tian arrived from the orphanage, he hadn't even had lunch and was already starving.

They enjoyed the meal very much.

This unpretentious behavior pleased Shi Dakai greatly.

After lunch, Shi Dakai invited Hong Tian into his study.

Shi Dakai was no fool to become the Wing King and one of the core leaders of the Taiping Army.

He knew very well that although Hong Tian was young, he wouldn't make a special trip to have lunch.

Besides, based on what he knew, this young superstar was quite unconventional.

They not only created orphanages, but also trained their own troops.

Even in the eyes of other high-ranking members of the Taiping Army, the child soldiers in the orphanage had no fighting power whatsoever and were nothing more than children's tricks.

However, the fact that Hong Tian was able to do this is already quite remarkable.

This is absolutely unique among the second generation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Shi Dakai would not treat Hong Tian as a child either.

"Your Highness, may I ask what brings you to my humble abode?" Shi Dakai cut to the chase without beating around the bush.

"Uncle Shi, I like Sister Yunzhao. Please agree to let Sister Yunzhao marry me!" Hong Tian's words were truly shocking.

"Pfft!"

Shi Dakai was drinking tea when he heard this and immediately spat out the tea.

"Your Highness, what did you say?" Shi Dakai asked in astonishment.

He instinctively thought he had misheard.

After all, the young Heavenly King in front of them was not even seven years old. And his daughter, Shi Junzhao, had just turned nine.

"Uncle Shi, I humbly beg you to marry Sister Yunzhao to me!" After saying this, Hong Tian bowed deeply to Shi Dakai.

"Your Highness, this..." Shi Dakai didn't know what to say.

My daughter is only nine years old, and someone already wants to marry her?

If it were anyone else, they would have been beaten black and blue by now.

But the person before him was the Young Heavenly King, the heir to the Heavenly Kingdom, which left Shi Dakai at a loss for what to do.