Slaying the Qing: My Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Tianjing City, Heavenly King's Palace.

The battle report that the 2nd Infantry Division of the Taiping Army's Eastern Expeditionary Corps captured Songjiang Prefecture and annihilated the foreign-made rifle team has been delivered to Hong Tian.

Hong Tian was very satisfied with the performance of the 2nd Infantry Division of the Eastern Expeditionary Army.

Although this infantry division has only recently been reorganized, and the soldiers have only just mastered the performance of their weapons and equipment, there is still much to be learned and practiced.

However, relying on its advantages in weaponry and tactics, it was already able to overwhelm the Western-equipped troops trained according to Western army training methods.

"It seems that the foreign-trained troops in this timeline will definitely not cause as much damage to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as they did in another timeline," Hong Tian remarked after reading the battle report.

This is undoubtedly one of the changes that occurred after Hong Tian traveled to this time and space.

"Your Majesty, our army has completely taken control of the entire Songjiang Prefecture. Zhonghai County, including the concessions, has also been entirely occupied by us. We have arrested the consuls general of the British Empire and the Gallic Empire in Songjiang Prefecture, as well as the consulate staff. But we have not made things difficult for the other foreigners," reported General Li Xiucheng, commander of the Eastern Expeditionary Army.

Hong Tian nodded: "Very good! We welcome foreigners who are willing to engage in legal trade with us. The Cabinet can consider establishing the China Customs Service to be fully responsible for collecting customs duties on import and export goods."

I have heard that in Western countries, tariffs are already a very important type of government revenue. For the Heavenly Kingdom to establish a sound fiscal system, tariffs must be controlled by us.

At the same time, the flow of opium and other substances into the Heavenly Kingdom must be strictly prohibited. Any merchant who transports opium to the Heavenly Kingdom, whether foreigner or Chinese, shall be sentenced to death without exception.

All opium dens within the Heavenly Kingdom were closed. Anyone selling opium was to be executed, and all their property confiscated. Anyone who smoked opium was to be sent to forced labor until they were completely free of the addiction!

Hong Tian had always deeply abhorred opium, a substance that poisoned the entire nation.

The foreign devils wanted to seize wealth by importing opium into the Eastern world, but at the same time, they wanted to completely ruin the entire nation. This was something Hong Tian absolutely could not accept.

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

People were also very dissatisfied with foreigners, especially with opium, which they deeply abhorred.

His Majesty the Heavenly King wants to ban opium throughout the entire Heavenly Kingdom, and everyone naturally supports it.

"Your Majesty, the Ministry of Finance will immediately dispatch special personnel to Zhonghai to establish a customs office. However, to investigate tax evasion and smuggling, especially opium smuggling, the customs office will also need a certain amount of armed force," Finance Minister Lai Wenguang reported.

"This is indeed a problem. I hereby authorize the tax bureau and customs under the Ministry of Finance to establish a tax inspection force to investigate tax evasion and combat smuggling. However, the Ministry of Finance must make it clear that it shall not interfere in any other matters."

Furthermore, in combating smuggling, especially in eradicating opium, one can contact the Ministry of the Interior or even the military for support!

Hong Tian reminded him.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Lai Wenguang understood Hong Tian's meaning and quickly replied.

The Ministry of the Interior and the military have also stated that they will fully assist the Ministry of Finance.

This involves the future purse strings of the Kingdom of Heaven, so everyone must do their utmost.

"Your Majesty, when the Heavenly Kingdom captured Songjiang Prefecture, it annihilated the foreign-made riflemen and killed many foreigners. It even arrested the consuls of the British Empire and the Gauls, and directly occupied the concessions."

Not to mention that the Heavenly Kingdom will also establish a customs office and collect tariffs, which will undoubtedly make the foreigners even more dissatisfied with the Heavenly Kingdom.

Especially the British and the Gauls, they will certainly take even more hostile actions towards the Heavenly Kingdom!

Foreign Minister Lee Hong-chang reported this.

After the establishment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Heavenly Kingdom, its main task was to deal with foreigners.

However, for the current Heavenly Kingdom, there are not many places where it interacts with foreigners.

"The British and the Gauls will not give up easily. I have long been prepared for this."

The British and the Gauls were inherently robbers. The more you fear them and tolerate them, the more they will embolden and take advantage of you.

Only by defeating them on the battlefield and inflicting heavy losses will we make them willingly sit down and have a proper talk.

Therefore, we must be prepared to go to war with the British and the Gauls.

And we absolutely must defeat them next!

Hong Tian addressed the crowd.

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

Although Hong Tian is still very young, in the six months since he ascended the throne, he has led the Heavenly Kingdom to become even stronger.

This naturally made everyone more convinced of Hong Tian's abilities.

They would not look down on Hong Tian because of his age.

"The Heavenly King is right. We must not only defeat the Tartars, but also defeat the foreign devils who want to be our enemies and bully us!" said Shi Dakai, the Minister of Military Affairs.

Although, people in Heaven also believe in God.

But the leaders of the Heavenly Kingdom were well aware that this was merely a tactic used by Hong Xiuquan to mobilize the people.

In reality, people don't really consider foreigners as their brothers.

The principle that "those who are not of our kind will surely have different hearts" is something everyone understands quite well.

"On the military side, can you guarantee that we will definitely defeat the foreigners in the upcoming war? This is of utmost importance. If we fail, it will be a huge blow to the Heavenly Kingdom," Prime Minister Hong Rengan asked with a serious expression.

The other cabinet ministers also became serious.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had gained a significant advantage in its war against the Manchus.

In addition, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was developing rapidly.

Before long, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will become even stronger.

In future wars against the Tartars, we will be able to gain a greater advantage.

It was practically a certainty that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would completely defeat the Manchus and overthrow their rule in the future.

However, at this time, going to war with powerful nations like the British Empire and the Gallic Empire undoubtedly added many variables.

"Prime Minister, the war between us and the foreigners was actually inevitable long ago."

This is not something we deliberately did to offend or provoke foreigners.

In reality, the foreigners had long been on the side of the Tartars. Even though the British and the Gauls were now preparing to join forces to rob the Tartars, it was only so that they could extract more benefits from them.

Compared to the Celestial Empire, the foreigners preferred that the corrupt Tartars continue to rule the entire East.

In that case, the entire country and nation will never have a chance to rise up.

Then the foreigners can rest easy.

They can even go further and extort and plunder the wealth of an entire nation and people.

Therefore, war between us and the foreigners is inevitable.

Only by defeating the foreigners on the battlefield and showing them our power can we deter them from easily interfering in the war between the Heavenly Kingdom and the Manchus.

The British and the Gauls were very powerful.

But the Kingdom of Heaven is not to be trifled with either.

While we cannot compare with the British and the Gauls in the navy, we are absolutely superior to them in the army.

Furthermore, the British Empire and the Gallic Empire were very far from the Far East, making it difficult for them to deploy large numbers of troops to the region.

This is undoubtedly the advantage of the Kingdom of Heaven.

By the time the armies of the British and the Gauls arrived in the Far East after a long journey, the Heavenly Kingdom had already completed the reorganization of a large number of its troops.

We will have enough strength to deal with the British and the Gauls.

Defeating them is a piece of cake!

Hong Tian seemed very confident about the upcoming war between the British and the Gauls.

Perhaps, in the short term, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would not be able to compete with the British and the Gauls on the high seas.

However, if it were merely a ground war, and the fighting were taking place on their own territory, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's advantages would undoubtedly be very clear.