Volume IV 1860 Rise of the Celestial Dynasty Chapter 94 Unequal Treaties

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Those Taiping troops who were still waving their flags and shouting just now, full of joy on their faces, were caught off guard by this sudden attack, and they didn't know why this army with a black flag suddenly opened fire on them, let alone why the strength of this team was so strong!

Jiangning City, which the Hunan army has been unable to conquer for a long time, is simply vulnerable in front of the True God Sect, and the thermite agent easily burned through the half-foot-thick city gate, and the black firearms in the hands of the divine soldiers spit out tongues of fire repeatedly, and every time they vomit, a Taiping army will fall, and it is really a bullet.

The battle only lasted more than four hours, and Jiangning City, which was garrisoned by 60,000 or 70,000 Taiping troops, that is, Tianjing, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was captured by 8,000 soldiers of the True God Sect! At the same time, the forces of the True God Cult in Quanzhou also launched a final sweep into Guangdong and Guangxi.

The remnants of the Taiping army and the wandering Twist army don't even know the news of the fall of Tianjing, let alone where this strong army came from!

The True God Cult didn't give them a chance to think at all, and it regained several southern provinces like a storm.

The army of corpse guards is not like an army composed of ordinary people, they need catharsis, they need to kill to boost morale and increase blood, on the contrary, they can't feel those complicated feelings, in their minds, there is only unconditional obedience, so every time they conquer a city, they will not commit any crimes, let alone act recklessly, and be traitors.

The image of an army also represents the good and evil positioning of this force in the hearts of the people, whether it is the Qing army, the Taiping army or the Hunan army, they have all indiscriminately killed innocents, and even slaughtered the city's brutal crimes, which left an indelible shadow in the hearts of the local people, and naturally they will not surrender willingly.

In contrast, the people naturally turned the true god religion into the righteous side, and the believers became more and more, and soon, the true god religion sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, taking root in the land of the whole country, replacing Taoism and Buddhism, and becoming the only religion that everyone in the country believes.

A rainstorm of war that washed over the whole country came to an end in just three months, and the True God Cult defeated the other remaining military forces in the country with a thunderbolt, and established a new empire in the entire vast land of China.

This name not only combines the character of heaven in Zhang Yuntian's name, but also means that the True God Cult is the destiny of heaven and is protected by the gods.

After its establishment, Zhang Yuntian announced a series of measures to strengthen the country, the most important of which was the reform of the imperial examination system, which changed from the original examination of only eight strands of literature and one subject to imprisoning thoughts, to three subjects, namely political science, engineering and military science.

Candidates are required to have sufficient life experience, and be able to identify the disadvantages of the times and put forward policy proposals for strengthening the country and benefiting the people.

Engineering gives craftsmen who have not been looked down upon in society a chance to rise, as long as they have achievements in physics, chemistry, invention and innovation, military industry, architecture, etc., they can become celebrities.

The military department is a martial arts test, in addition to testing the candidates' martial arts, but also to test strategy and tactics, logistics support and so on.

In order to ensure that science and technology can keep up with the pace of development, Zhang Yuntian deliberately introduced some modern practical teaching materials and technologies that are more than 100 years ahead of this era.

Although at the beginning, many people expressed a strong fear and strangeness of these magical things, just like many superstitious people mistakenly thought that cameras could capture people's souls, but with the arrival of more and more novel and practical new technologies and new products, people gradually turned from the initial rejection to amazement, and finally became curious, the wave of national science and technology began to rise, more and more young people joined the ranks of invention and creation, and the technological fault brought by the original cross-era technology was also being repaired little by little.

Spring goes to autumn, unconsciously, another year has passed, the whole has undergone earth-shaking changes, trains, steam locomotives, electric lights, telephones, coal mines, iron mines, power plants, etc., and even some people are exploring oil fields, once oil is used, this widely used new fuel, will surely push the entire Chinese nation forward a big step!

When the foreign envoys came again and walked on the bustling streets of Tianjin, the whole people were stunned, they couldn't believe their eyes, the prosperity and high-tech application here was even decades ahead of London, but this country didn't even know what a steam engine was three years ago, and if they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, they wouldn't have believed that this qiē was real.

One of the most surprising to them was the electric light and telephone, which only needed a thin wire to connect it, and it was so amazing that he could even talk to people from afar, and he was dazzled by countless novelties, and for the first time in his heart he was in awe of this magical country!

Since the Second Duck Slice War, the Western powers forced Xianfeng to set up an embassy in Beijing, but here did not let the foreigners enjoy a few days of stable life, they were beaten in by the True God Cult, the ambassadors were afraid of harming the pond fish, all fled to Tianjin, and returned to their respective countries by boat, and now I heard that the war in China has subsided, and a new dynasty has been established, so these ambassadors rushed back again, wanting to re-establish contact, and by the way see what is there to take advantage of.

On the Jinluan Palace, Zhang Yuntian sat on the dragon chair with a solemn face, more than a dozen civil and military officials stood on both sides, and in the center of the hall stood the envoys of Britain, France, Russia and the United States, they bowed slightly, saluted and greeted: "The emperor I have seen!" ”

"Correct!" Qian Jiang said on the side: "This is not the emperor, but the guardian of the true god, when you see the true god, you should kneel and bow!" ”

France and Britain had suffered a great loss from the True God Cult, especially France, which had fought with the army twice, and knew the huge gap in strength between the two sides, so the two envoys were quite apprehensive in their hearts, and they were thinking about whether they should kneel or not.

The Russian ambassador was very arrogant, they were powerful in the northeast, and all they encountered were the remnants of the vulnerable Qing army, the local armed forces and the peasant people, almost invincible, so they didn't put this self-proclaimed true god in their eyes at all, he snorted coldly and said: "Hmph, what, what a true god, there is no god in this world at all, you Chinese people like to pretend to be gods and ghosts, it's okay to fool your stupid subjects, you want to fool us, haha, you are really a little too self-righteous!" ”

The US ambassador glanced at the Russian envoy and said nothing, saying in his heart that this is someone's territory, and there are troops outside, so he thought it was when the soldiers were coming to the city? How dare you speak out against their supreme ruler in the great hall, isn't that the rhythm of death? He quietly took a few steps to the side, and distanced himself from the Russian envoy, so as not to splash his own blood for a while.

The French envoy and the British envoy were also in the same mentality, and quietly took a few steps to both sides.

The Russian envoy was probably used to being arrogant in the northeast, and he didn't notice the small movements of the envoys of the other three countries around him, and continued: "What's more, even if you are a true god? You are not my God, so why should I bow down to you? And we signed an agreement before, envoys from various countries came to visit the Qing Dynasty, oh, by the way, now it's called, you don't need to kneel to the emperor, you just need to bow, you are not even the emperor, and there is no reason for me to kneel! ”

After he finished speaking, he looked around proudly, only to find that the envoys of the other three countries were hiding far away from him, and they all lowered their heads, and they almost wanted to draw a line with themselves.

"What? Why don't you three speak? You were all there when the agreement was signed, were you right about what I said? ”

The envoys of several other countries were afraid of being implicated, so they pretended to be deaf and dumb one by one, but they just lowered their heads and did not speak.

Qian Jiang's face changed, and he said sharply: "The bold Russian envoy dared to speak wildly in the main hall, and was rude to the true god, come on, take him down!" ”

As soon as the words fell, two heavily armed corpse guards rushed in from outside the hall, one twisted an arm, and pressed the Russian envoy to his knees on the ground, making the latter grin in pain, he didn't expect that the new ruler of this Hua country would really dare to take him down, and his courage and courage exceeded the original ruler of the Qing Dynasty I don't know how many levels, and his heart was timid, and his tone was a little less tough, and a little more begging for mercy: "I'm just talking about things, I didn't make a mistake, you claim to be a country of etiquette, is this how you treat guests?" ”

When the envoys of the other three countries saw that the Russian envoy was captured, they were so frightened that their faces turned like dirt, and they hurriedly weakened their knees, fell to the ground one after another, and bowed their heads and said, "Meet the true God!" ”

When the Russian envoy saw that the envoys of these three countries were so unpleasant, he relented, and he was so angry that he scolded him.

The fellow translator was embarrassed, how dare he translate these foul words, he could only bow his head silently and kneel behind him, without saying a word, only praying that no one here could hear Russian, otherwise he would offend four countries at once, this is not a joke, his status is low, and such a felony can never afford it.

Zhang Yuntian saw that the Russian envoy was getting angrier and angrier, although he couldn't understand it, but he also knew that it was definitely not a good word, so he gave the corpse guard a look, and the latter used both hands to break the Russian envoy's arm back, reaching the limit of joint rotation, as long as he used a little more force, his arms would have to be dislocated.

The great pain in his arms succeeded in closing his mouth, and at this time his face was flushed, and beads of sweat the size of beans flowed down his cheeks, falling to the ground drop by drop, and a few words were squeezed out from between his teeth: "I will tell the noblest tsar, the untouchables of China, of your brutality, and be prepared to bear the wrath of the Russian Empire!" ”

Zhang Yuntian snorted coldly and said, "If you want war, I will do what you want!" He looked at the generals present and said lightly: "Order the Shenji battalion and tank troops on the border to prepare, and as soon as the Russian envoy crosses the border, they will immediately launch an attack, targeting St. Petersburg!" ”

His mind moved, and the corpse guards on both sides suddenly let go at the same time, and took two steps back.

"We have an old saying that the two countries will not fight each other, and since you have officially declared war, then I will send someone to escort you back to Russia safely, so that you can see with your own eyes the huge price that Russia will have to pay because of your arrogance and rudeness!"

The Russian envoy glanced at Zhang Yuntian with disdain, spat on the ground fiercely, and said, "The price? I will lead the valiant warriors of the Russian Empire to break through the Forbidden City and stain its walls red with blood! After saying that, he swaggered out.

Zhang Yuntian didn't pay attention to it, he had long had the ambition to expand to the periphery, and now there are 300 laser tanks in the future plane as the main force in the country, and there are army units composed of mortars and well-armed corpse guard regiments, high-yield crops provide a steady supply of food, to deal with a rudimentary Russian Empire, it is not a problem at all, and now the Russian envoy has just given himself a reason to go to war, it is time to declare the power to the world.

He turned his head and motioned to the kneeling envoys of the Three Kingdoms to stand up, and then said slowly: "The agreement signed with the Qing Dynasty before is invalid, from now on, we will do it all over again!" ”

The envoys of the three kingdoms were nervous, although they were not very satisfied with Zhang Yuntian's approach, but they did not dare to oppose rashly without knowing the details of the other party, fortunately, the Qing Dynasty had already paid the compensation, otherwise I am afraid that this trip would have to return empty-handed.

Qian Jiang understood, took out a silk book from his sleeve, and read aloud: "From now on, embassies will be set up in the capitals of various countries, and embassies will also be allowed to set up embassies in the areas designated by the Beijing Division, so as to exchange friendship!" Secondly, the envoys of various countries must be proficient in Chinese, and must not be accompanied by an interpreter, otherwise they will not be accepted! Thirdly, when the envoys of various countries come to the Emperor to meet the true God, they must bow and bow! Finally, in order to strengthen the goodwill with friendly countries, 35 coastal ports have been opened, and 16 new wharves have been built. ”

The above four articles, except for the first one is what is already being done, and the fourth is what the foreigners have always expected, the middle two articles are completely unreasonable, but the envoys of these three countries are much more sleek than the Russian envoys, and they have temporarily dragged this matter down on the grounds of their limited authority.

They all have the same little calculation in their hearts: it is no longer what it used to be, which can be seen from the high-tech products that can be seen everywhere, but the military strength is a question mark!

Whoever has a hard fist, whoever speaks has confidence, this is an eternal truth, so they are now waiting and watching, looking at this war with Tsarist Russia, if the former wins, this agreement will naturally be signed well, after all, there are too many things that their own country does not have, just take out the same, you can return to China and sell it at a good price, profitable, why not?

If Tsarist Russia wins, it will be simpler, and the benefits agreed upon before will be directly applied to the Qing Dynasty, but if he makes compensation and land cession to any country, then other countries will unconditionally receive the corresponding compensation and benefits in accordance with this clause!

In any case, they did not suffer a loss, but in private, they still hoped for defeat, and after all, it was much easier to pay war reparations than to profit from normal trade.