Tianjing, on the river near Xiaguan.
A paddle-wheeled gunboat with a hull painted black and emitting black smoke had been moored on the water for some time. A Taiping Heavenly Kingdom division ship quickly approached it. Chen Chengrong, who had just returned from Shanghai, was now Er stood on the deck of this division ship, looking at the huge foreign ship and the Union Jack flag flying on the ship, trying to recall a prophecy Luo Yaoguo told him when he was in Shanghai.
"bite!"
With a soft sound, Chen Cheng's division ship had already docked with the hull of the Hermes, and a rope ladder was thrown down from the tall ship of the Hermes.
Chen Cheng glanced up, and then used his hands and feet to climb up the rope ladder onto the Hermes. Just when he was about to turn over the ship, an old man with red hair, rosacea, and dull eyes appeared. The white man came up to help him and said in blunt Chinese: "Be careful, sir."
After Chen Chengrong stood firm on the deck, he looked at the old white man with red hair and asked, "Can you speak Chinese?"
"You know a little bit, sir." The old white man with red hair said with a smile. "What's your name?" Chen Cheng asked.
"My name is White, Winster. White, you can call me Winster."
It turns out that this person is the dock supervisor that Luo Yaoguo met after boarding the Yihe Matheson pier. Because he can speak fairly fluent Chinese and is a low-class person who is not afraid of embarrassment, he can raise unreasonable claims against the leaders of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. He was asked to act as a sounding board for Wenwei and Weituma during the kneeling ceremony, so he was recommended by Matheson to board the Hermes.
Chen Cheng nodded: "Where is Mr. Wen, Sehaner, and Wengan? Ask him to come out and see me. I am Chen Chengrong, deputy prime minister of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom."
"What?" Winston White was stunned, "You, you are the deputy prime minister of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom?"
Wait, how did you know that Minister Wenxian was on this ship? "Chen Cheng had known for a long time that the foreigner would ask such a question, so he immediately replied: "Someone told me."
"Who? Who told you?" Winston White asked.
Chen Cheng glanced at the red-haired foreigner and replied: "It's His Highness the Holy Angel King Wu!
"Yes, is it the great prophet?" Winston White asked again.
"He is an angel!" Chen Cheng's face was already a little unhappy, "Go and ask Wen Xian to come out and see me!"
"Okay, okay, I'll go right away."
Winston White didn't dare to delay any longer, so he turned around and ran into the cabin.
In the cabin, Minister Wenxian was drinking milk tea with Vice Consul Wetoma and discussing how to use the life-and-death struggle between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty to seek the greatest interests of the British Empire. Suddenly, there was a knock on the cabin door.
Witoma glanced at Wen Xian, saw the latter nodded slightly, and said, "Come in."
Then I saw Winston White pushing the door open and walking in, bowing to the two people sitting inside: "Mr. Minister, Mr. Vice-Consul, please come out quickly. A man from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom came aboard the Hermes." Deputy Prime Minister, I want to see Mr. Minister by name."
"What?" Wen Xian was stunned, "A deputy prime minister is here? And he wants to see me by name? Winston, was it you who told him I was on the ship?"
Winston White shook his head: "No, sir, I did not tell the Deputy Prime Minister of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom that you were on the ship. According to the Deputy Prime Minister himself, it was that Holy Angel, His Highness King Wu, who told him."
"Holy Angel Wu King?" Wen Xian turned around and looked at Witoma.
Weituma frowned: "It's Luo Yaoguo...the legendary demon that fell from the sky!"
"Monster?" Wen Xian frowned and stood up, muttering in a low voice: "I almost suspect that I live in a magical world!" Wetoma also stood up and said, "I have the same thing. Feeling. Bonham sighed and said to Wade: "Thomas, let's go see him together."
Let him.
In the conference room of the Hermes, Wen Xian, Wetoma and Chen Chengrong were already seated as guests and hosts. Three cups of sweet milk tea were placed on a long conference table, exuding the fragrance of milk tea and flavor. A bit unique.
Chen Cheng was a little curious about this strange drink. After a few sips, he still wasn't used to it.
"Mr. Deputy Prime Minister," Witoma said with a frown at this time, "You said His Highness King Wu told you that Mr. Wenxian and I would come to Nanjing on the Hermes?"
"His Royal Highness the King of Wu did not threaten Sir in advance. He only said that the British Minister Sehan Erwenxian would come to Nanjing on a steam sailing ship and asked me to welcome him personally."
Witoma nodded: "When did he tell you that?
"A month ago," Chen Chengdao said, "I was ordered to go to the Holy Angel Army in Zhenjiang to convey to the Heavenly King the true edict of canonizing him as King of Wu. It was at that time that he told me that Minister Wenxian would come to Tianjing to pay homage to the Heavenly King.
So magical?
While muttering in his heart, Witoma conveyed Chen Cheng's words to Wenxian in English.
Wen Xian frowned: "Thomas, ask this man, does he know the purpose of my coming to Nanjing?"
After listening to Witoma's question, Chen Cheng shook his head gently: "King Wu didn't say, no
But he told me that the minister would have a conflict with us over the etiquette issue of meeting the King of Heaven... just like the Macartney mission had a conflict with Qing Yao over whether to kowtow to Qing Yao's Qianlong demon head. .
Guessing this did not require the ability of divination at all, because both Wenxian and Witoma had thought of it. "So how is His Highness King Wu going to solve this problem?" Witoma asked curiously.
Chen Chengrong said: "His Royal Highness King Wu thinks that as long as you realize that the King of Heaven is the second son of the Heavenly Father, Lord, you will worship the King of Heaven."
When Witoma translated these words into English and told Bonham, the British minister was a little dumbfounded, "The second son of God... Thomas, tell him, can we discuss some serious issues? I am not Come to Nanjing to see people pretending to be gods!"
"Mr. Deputy Prime Minister, the minister has no interest in religious issues. Ministers of the British Empire cannot pay homage to any foreign monarch because they represent Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom!"
Chen Chengrong said calmly: "Even Queen Victoria must kneel down and worship the second son of God!"
Witoma felt that the Chinese in front of him was messing around and said in a deep voice: "Mr. Deputy Prime Minister, I hope you can take back what you just said. It is an insult to the British Empire! In addition, all Christians in the world believe that:
There is no second son of God!"
Chen Cheng smiled calmly and said, "What if there is evidence to prove it?" "Evidence? What evidence?"
Chen Chengrong smiled and said: "Of course it is evidence that the holy angels came from heaven! The holy angels were appointed by the Heavenly Brother Ji Du to come down to earth to deliver the healing elixir to the third son of Heavenly Father, His Royal Highness the Nanwang. If the angels descending to earth can prove it, that day
The father, the second son, and the third son can naturally be proved in our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom."
Of course Wenwei didn't believe a word of what Chen Cheng said about angels descending to earth, but he still translated these words into English and told Wenwei that they should not appear in the diplomatic field.
"Then ask the deputy prime minister if we can see the evidence with our own eyes.
Of course, before meeting the King of Heaven."
Wenxian became a little interested. After all, the angel's descent was linked to the Great Prophecy, and the Great Prophecy predicted that Britain would send troops to participate in the Ninth Russo-Turkish War, and the Great Prophecy also predicted this war.
The war would kill half a million people—a lot.
As a confidant of Viscount Palmerston, a famous warmonger in the British Empire, Minister Bonham certainly knew that the British government was ready to abandon the "Vienna System" that had maintained European peace since the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and bring France to the end.
War, a war with its former ally, the Russian Empire.
Although the top British officials have now understood the nature of the Russian Empire, which is strong on the outside and cowardly on the inside, and are confident that it will be completely defeated! But... Emperor Napoleon was equally confident before he invaded Russia. The Russian Empire at that time was also strong on the outside and cowardly on the inside, but the result of the war was different.
It was Emperor Napoleon who destroyed an army of 600,000 in vain.
Today's British Empire, let alone sending away 600,000 troops, even if it only sends away half of this number, the loss of 300,000 troops is enough to ruin Viscount Palmerston's political future.
Once Palmerston is finished, Wenxian will probably have no choice but to retire...
"The evidence of the Holy Angel's descent to earth is stored in Prince Wu's Mansion in Tianjing City. If the envoy wants to see it, I can arrange for the envoy to come to the city to view it after asking the King of Heaven and the King of the East." After hearing Wenxian's request relayed by Wade, Chen Chengrong said,
He immediately patted his chest and said, "If the minister is still unwilling to kneel down and worship the King after reading this, I will immediately send the minister back to such a big ship."
"Ask him again, can I see the angel in Prince Wu's Mansion?"
Wenxian asked another question, and Wade immediately translated it into Chinese.
"His Royal Highness King Wu is not in Tianjing now," Chen Chengrong said. "He is currently preparing to attack Suzhou City in front of the Suzhou Army. However, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has recently held a capital ceremony. He should come to Tianjing. Can you arrange it when he sees it?
You met him last time."
Chapter completed!