The cruiser "Halmis" of the British Far East Fleet is a large ship with a steam engine and sail double-powered wooden-hulled three-masted ship, with a length of 76 meters, and the hull is made of double-layer oak planks, each layer is up to 42 centimeters thick, and to build such a large ship, it is necessary to use at least 600 huge thousand-year-old oaks, its sail area is 1,120 square meters, the steam engine power is 360 horsepower, the bow has a solid angle of attack, the displacement is 1,300 tons, and the ship is equipped with 34 rear-loading rifled guns and 116 crew members.

A wooden ship of thousands of tons like this may not be anything in the eyes of Xiao Yungui and Hong Yun'er, and in later generations, they have seen 10,000-ton ships or even hundreds of thousands of tons of steel ships. But in the eyes of Zuo Zongtang, Wang Minyun and Shuiying Luo Xuan, this ship is really big. Although Zuo Zongtang read in the book that there was such a large ship in China when the Three Treasure Eunuchs went to the West, it was later lost, and the largest ship of the Taiping Army in front of him was only a merchant ship of several hundred tons.

After boarding the ship, Midile led the officials of the West Temple around, but Lord Wenhan invited the King of the West and the Queen of the West to sit in his reception room.

When they came to Lord Wenhan's reception room, Xiao Yungui and Hong Yun'er felt as if they were separated from each other, and they once again enjoyed the soft sofa and strong coffee.

Lord Wen Han was afraid that the two of them would not drink coffee, so he explained: "This is pure Arabic coffee, there is no alcohol content, it is similar to the tea you drink, you two can give it a try." ”

Xiao Yungui and Hong Yun'er looked at each other and smiled, and each took a sip, feeling really good.

Wen Han smiled and sat down and said, "Listen to Midile, the teachings of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom are a bit similar to Christianity? But it doesn't seem like Christianity, and we wonder if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would establish a theocratic state if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom took power in the future. ”

Xiao Yungui took a sip of coffee, he could only understand a rough idea, after listening to Hong Yun'er's more accurate translation, he said slowly: "Lord Wenhan, about our doctrine, my wife will explain to you, as for the future political system, we can't tell you for the time being, I personally hope for the separation of church and state, but I will also follow the will of the people of the heavenly kingdom, if they like the unity of church and state, I will also fully support it, now I can only say so much." Xiao Yungui was very cunning and handed over this very difficult question to the will of the people, but to Wen Han, an Englishman who respected civil rights very much, it was extremely pleasing to the ear.

Wen Han nodded, turned his head to look at Hong Yun'er, the beautiful Mrs. Xiwang in front of him surprised Wen Han, after all, she was the first woman Wen Han met in this country who could speak English.

Hong Yun'er smiled and said: "There is nothing wrong with the fact that the doctrine of our worship of God originated from Christianity, but there is a difference, after Christianity spread to the East, we have a new understanding of this doctrine here, and our heavenly king Hong Xiuquan has made some changes to Christianity to meet the needs of our people's faith." Lord Wenham should not find it strange that there are many branches of Christianity, such as Orthodox, Protestant, Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed and so on. ”

Wen Han somewhat understood that he was a devout Christian believer, while his mother was an Orthodox Christian, and he knew the difference between the two branch sects, but every time a new branch of Christianity appeared, it was always regarded as heretical by the orthodox sect, and even religious wars broke out. Wen Han frowned and pondered for a moment before saying, "I'm sorry, Your Excellency King Xi, regarding the matter of doctrine, I have to report to the country truthfully, I am worried that the difference between the worship of God and Christianity will make your doctrine regarded as a heretical doctrine, is it possible to let the orthodox Christian doctrine correct your doctrine?" We would also like to see the East emerge as an enlightened and Christian nation. ”

After listening to the translation, Xiao Yungui became silent, he turned his head to look at Hong Yun'er, and asked, "Yun'er, what will be the consequences if we change the doctrine?" ”

Hong Yun'er sighed and said: "The faith of the old brothers will collapse, unless we are ready to implement the separation of church and state, dilute the influence of the doctrine on the military and politics, replace the doctrine of heaven with something else, and let people have new beliefs and fight for the great cause of heaven, otherwise we have no way out." ”

Xiao Yungui was silent for a while, it is a terrible thing for people to have no faith, in the later liberation wars, the older generation of revolutionaries had Marx beliefs, so they were fearless and finally succeeded. And if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom abandons its current teachings, what faith can it replace? But Xiao Yungui felt that it would never be Christianity.

Wen Han didn't know what the King of the West was thinking, but he muttered for a long time before he said: "Lord Wen Han, I can guarantee that Christianity will be protected in the treaty port, but now is not the time to change their faith, as for what the West thinks of our teachings, I hope they can be more rational, after all, the way of thinking of Easterners is very different from that of Westerners, but our teachings are also good for good, which is no different from Christianity." ”

Wen Han nodded and said: "I understand this, I also respect your beliefs, just like I respect my mother's beliefs, I think everyone has the right to choose their own beliefs, I found that the temples, Taoist temples, and even mosques in Nanjing City are well preserved, I know that Xiwang You are also a person who respects the beliefs of others, and I will do my best to explain the situation here to the country." ”

Xiao Yungui laughed, his efforts to protect the other sects had finally gained some results, but he didn't think that other foreigners would think like Wen Han, he knew that the teachings of the Taiping Army would definitely cause trouble, and for now he could only hope that the Great Powers could quickly occupy Shanghai without knowing about the Taiping Army, and then use enough attractive benefits to make those greedy powers not interfere in China's civil war for the time being.

After drinking a cup of coffee, Xiao Yungui got up and took a turn, he saw a beautiful rifle in the display case in the reception room, this rifle was slender, and what was very special was that it was neither a flintlock pistol nor an arquebus, it had an obvious hammer. Xiao Yungui's interest in the past, like most boys, was fond of firearms, he had collected some atlases of firearms, and knew some ancient firearms, this gun was a shooting gun.

In 1807, the British priest A.J. Forsyth invented the ignition device using thunder mercury firing charge, and later someone invented the fire cap. The fire cap is put on the anvil with a fire door, and the gunpowder in the chamber can be ignited by striking the fire cap, which is the firing machine, and the gun with this firing machine is called a firing gun.

"What kind of gun is this?" Xiao Yungui asked knowingly.

Lord Wenhan sighed and said with a smile: "This is an Enfield Arsenal Shiyan rifle, it is not fully formed yet. ”

Xiao Yungui rolled his eyes and said with a smile: "Can you give it to me?" ”

Lord Wen Han frowned slightly, this king of the West is not at all like the traditional Chinese, he is really thick-skinned and openly asks for gifts, unlike other subtle Chinese, who hide their desires.

"Or I'll trade this fine snuffbox with you." Just when Lord Wenhan was surprised and hesitated, King Xi took out a sheep fat jade snuffbox from his arms and said, "Lord Wenhan, this is an exchange of gifts between friends, not a trade in arms. ”

Wen Han likes Chinese jade very much, and the mutton fat jade snuff bottle in front of him is small and exquisite, as white as mutton fat, and the paintings on it are lifelike, which makes him very excited. Seeing that Wen Han was a little moved, Xiao Yungui didn't wait for him to answer, and stuffed the snuffbox into Wen Han's hand and said: "That's it, let's make a deal, Lord Wen Han, you should be decisive, it's not a shameful thing to give gifts to each other, not to mention that we are old friends." ”

Wen Han opened his mouth wide, only to see this old friend who had known him for a day turn around with a big grin, open the small window of the display case, take the rifle in his hand and play with it.

Hong Yun'er blushed, she felt that Xiao Yungui was like a child who had not grown up, and the thickness of her face was about to catch up with the city wall of Nanjing, and translating for him made her want to find a crack to drill.

Wenham apparently accepted the fact that the rifle was a new Mingne-type front-loading rifle made by the Enfield Arsenal, which had not yet been installed in the British army, and was a gift from a friend of the Admiralty who wanted Wenham to work on a mass assembly of the gun. Wen Han didn't like the rifle very much, but he still put it in the display case, but he didn't expect it to be forcibly exchanged as a gift. Wen Han coughed lightly and laughed, "Since His Excellency the King of the West likes it so much, then let's exchange gifts." ”

Xiao Yungui laughed, walked to Wen Han's side, and said in a low voice: "Old Wen, I know that you have a lot of cannons, muskets and gunpowder on your ship, and my subordinates also like these things, or we exchange some more, this is not an arms deal, but a meeting between our friends to exchange gifts, what do you think?" Anyway, you and I have exchanged a rifle, and we don't care about changing more, but if I walk out with this rifle on my back later, what will your men think of you? ”

Wen Han was taken aback when he heard this, this King of the West was not only thick-skinned, but also very treacherous, he hurriedly said: "This, this is not good, Your Excellency the King of the West ......"

Without waiting for Hong Yun'er to translate, Xiao Yungui also heard his refusal, and immediately rushed to say: "Lord Wenhan, don't worry, I will give you enough silver taels, this money is enough for you to replenish the arms sold to us in Shanghai, and then every soldier on the ship will get a gift from us, no one will say it, you just exchanged some gifts." ”

Xiao Yungui is like a treacherous fox, constantly coaxing, his methods are sweet and full of temptation, Hong Yun'er reacted quickly, and immediately translated the past, so that Wen Han had almost no chance to speak, and it could be seen that the cooperation between the two was becoming more and more clever.

Wen Han hesitated for a long time, and Zuihou agreed to discuss with Midile and He Bo, and Xiao Yungui agreed with a smile.

As a result, when Wen Han summoned Midile and Colonel Hobo, he found that the two of them had made a friendly exchange with the generals of the West Hall with the Suifa short guns they had brought with them as gifts, and they had several exquisite gold objects in their pockets.

The three of them knew that almost no one objected to this exchange, and in this way half of the guns, half of the muskets, and half of the gunpowder on the Hamils were carried off the ship by the rebels with great swagger, and several chests full of silver and gifts were carried onto the ship. The British sailors cheered, they liked the rebels who believed in God, and there was even a squad of British soldiers who taught the rebels how to use these weapons, and both sides were immersed in their own joy.