January 1849 of the Western calendar has come in a blink of an eye, and it has been almost 7 years since Zhu Datianzi came to this era.

In Shanghai, New Year's Day has just passed. The Zhu family's son of heaven is here, and in the original Manchu Dynasty foreign affairs yamen, a large family of people has finally gathered lively-Zhu Jishi will certainly not be in Shanghai, Jiangning and Wuchang are the emperor's homes. If Beijing can't get it for the time being, the east and west capitals of the Ming Dynasty are these two cities.

And Jiangning, that is, Yingtianfu in the original Ming Dynasty, was the capital of the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Yuanzhang once built the capital here. There is also a large-scale imperial palace in the city of Yingtianfu. However, this palace was quite dilapidated at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and after the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, it was changed to the Mancheng garrisoned by the Eight Banners. By 1684, the Kangxi Emperor made his first southern tour, and when he arrived in Jiangning, the Ming Imperial Palace was already dilapidated. After passing through its city, Lu Yan Xiangmo has not changed the old view, and there is no survivor of the palace...... "Before Sai Shang'a led Jiangning to garrison the Eight Banners to retreat north, he set fire to Jiangning Mancheng, basically leaving only a piece of ruins for the Ming Dynasty."

Fortunately, after the Jiangnan was collected, the financial difficulties of the Zhu Ming Dynasty had been greatly alleviated, and Zhu Da Tianzi was finally able to take out a large sum of silver to repair the Ming Palace of Yingtianfu. In fact, it is not necessary to restore the whole to the grand occasion of Zhu Yuanzhang at that time, Zhu Jishi's palace is small in scale and does not need a large palace covering an area of 1 million square meters. However, some of them must be renovated so that they can be used as the residence of the Ming Palace, the Generalissimo's Palace, the Cabinet, the Constituent Assembly, and other institutions. Fortunately, the cost is not much - Zhu Jishi does not have an internal affairs office here, and the palace renovation project is ready to be awarded to private builders by public bidding. The entire project is estimated to cost millions of silver dollars, all of which are paid for by Zhu Jishi himself. He really doesn't cost the people a penny. It's a loss-making business!

The renovation project of the Ming Imperial Palace has been contracted. It wasn't fixed that quickly, though. Before this, Zhu Jishi simply regarded the Shanghai Ocean Affairs Yamen, which Lin Zexu and Bai Siwen built with the silver of the Manchu Dynasty, as a station. Luo Xiangju, Mrs. Duran, Hong Xuanjiao, Tokugawa Akiko, three sons and a daughter, and all the female officials in the palace in Guangzhou were brought to Shanghai.

"Your Majesty, this is the Queen and Maria. Letter from Clementina from Europe. ”

That morning, Madame Duran, the head of the palace, stood behind Zhu Jishi in a French-style court dress and handed over two wax-sealed letters to Zhu Jishi, who was having breakfast.

The dining table is a Western-style long dining table, although Zhu Jishi enjoys the marriage system of feudalism with Chinese characteristics, but the rules of the harem are not big. All the concubines sat down with him to dine. It's also happy, I don't know how Queen Luo Xiangmero will feel when she sees the rules of the harem after she returns from Europe? But now, Luo Xiangju, who replaces her in the harem, is also a concubine, so naturally she will not take this aspect too seriously. She sat next to Zhu Jishi and watched her husband open Maria first. Clementina's letters.

In the letter, Maria said that he had told Guojie (the eldest son of Zhu Jishi, the son of the Grand Duke of Lanfang) and Yiren (Zhu Yiren, the eldest daughter of Zhu Jishi), who were the princesses of England and the nobles of France (the illegitimate son of Napoleon III). is also about the same age as Guojie and Yiren. In addition, Guojie and Yiren will also go to England and France to receive education after the age of 8. ”

Maria. Clementina's diplomatic skills are indeed superb, and she skillfully exploits the contradictions and mistrust between Britain, France and Russia. Explained to Zhu Guoxiong, the prince of Zhu Ming-this is actually what Luo Xiangmei meant, she doesn't want her son to marry a Western princess and grow up in a Western country. As for Zhu Guojie, as long as he marries a British princess, he will have no chance with the Ming throne at all. At most, be a nominal duke with a generous annuity to take and a huge amount of property.

Luo Xiangmei told Victoria that once Zhu Guojie married a British princess, he could get 40% of the shares of Jishixing! The remaining 35% of the shares of Jishixing will be inherited by Zhu Yiren...... In short, the marriage with Zhu Ming can give the British and French royal families a large amount of property.

Luo Xiangju frowned her delicate brows unknowingly, thinking of her two cute "little people". Although she is only 21 years old, she will definitely have more children, but it is still very reluctant to let any of them leave her away from her at a young age.

Just as Zhu Jishi wanted to say a few words to comfort his side concubine, he saw a secretary from the imperial study hurriedly appear at the door, and Madame Duran hurriedly walked over. The secretary said something to her in a low voice, she nodded, walked quickly to Zhu Jishi's side, and whispered in fluent Cantonese: "Li Hongzhang, the secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has sent someone to report that Hong Renji, the official and prime minister of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, has arrived in Shanghai, and he is the special envoy of Hong Xiuquan, the king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. ”

"Brother Renji is here, can I see him?"

Before Zhu Jishi could speak, Hong Xuanjiao, who was eating, screamed first, and then felt that he had lost his manners and playfully stuck out his tongue. The little beauty is now a mother and gave birth to a daughter named Yichen to Zhu Jishi. Although he is not a son, his reputation as a favorite concubine has not weakened at all.

"Okay, let's meet together." Zhu Jishi smiled and nodded at Hong Xuanjiao, "Renji and we are not outsiders, he is your mother's family, what can't you see?" ”

……

At this moment, there seems to be a landslide near Yongding Gate in the outer city of Beijing, no, it is not a landslide, but a city collapse! After a loud bang, the city wall on the left side of Yongding Gate suddenly opened a big opening, which was ten zhang wide!

"Good! Collapsed! ”

Yang Xiuqing, who was supervising the battle in the rear, immediately shouted when he saw this! After Xiao Chaogui was killed, the Taiping army suspended the siege and began to dig tunnels and play the trick of attacking the city in the cave. Tunneling is actually a very old siege method, which has been around in China for at least 3,000 years. But in the past, tunnels were dug directly into the city and used to pass through the army. Blowing up the city wall by digging tunnels to bury gunpowder was invented by the Taiping army in China! In addition, trench warfare first appeared in China, probably also by the Taiping Army, and the historical Taiping Northern Expeditionary Army used this method to fight against the superior firepower of the Seng Lingqin Division. However, in this time and space, the army of Seng Lingqin has been crushed, and all the artillery of the 6 banners of the artillery team has been captured by the Taiping army and used to bombard the city wall of Beijing.

Yang Xiuqing waved his hand violently: "The artillery team fires!" ”

First, six 32-pounder cannons operated by British mercenaries around him began to roar, and one after another, heavy solid iron bullets slammed into the wall near the collapse gap under the huge thrust of the black powder explosion, knocking down more masonry and rammed earth. With the firing of these 6 heavy guns that had just been purchased from the British battleship Willisley. The artillery of the Taiping army on the entire front was fired, and the cannonballs swept over the city wall where the Qing army was entrenched like hail, causing the bricks and stones to splash indiscriminately, the smoke and dust were chaotic, and the masonry at the head of the city fell straight down. The Qing troops guarding the city were suppressed for a while, hiding behind the battlements and not even lifting their heads.

"Avenge the King of the West! Kill the demons! Go to heaven......"

The shouts of killing sounded, and several large flags appeared on the battlefield, leading tens of thousands of Taiping soldiers wrapped in red cloth to rush forward like a tide. However, these soldiers are not "old brothers" who fought all the way from Guangxi and Hunan, but "new brothers" who were coerced in Zhili and Henan. The armament is also relatively rudimentary, there are no foreign guns, only spears and knives.

Yang Xiuqing's current idea is to fight a war of attrition, use the "new brothers" to consume the strength of the Qing army defending the city, wait until they are exhausted, and then invest the elite to break the city in one fell swoop.

Seeing that the soldiers who rushed to the front had already poured into the gap in the city wall that had just been broken, Yang Xiuqing loudly ordered to the left and right: "After breaking Beijing, the Qing Demon Banner people in the city, regardless of men, women, old and young, will not be left!" Kill them all and avenge the king of the west! (To be continued......)