Chapter 293 King Hong Tian: Are you all going to Shanghai? I’m going too! (Please book, please vote)
Yangzhou, Geyuan, Dongwangfu, Baoshan Tower.
Yang Xiuqing, the current lord of Yangzhou and the Eastern King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was leaning on the railing of this long building, looking at the small lake, rockery, and autumn colors in the garden below. A woman with a red coat, a long skirt, a slim figure, and a beautiful appearance was standing there. Sitting in the house, playing the pipa in his hand, he sang something like "Yellow flowers in the alley, red leaves in the low windows, and the desolate sound of autumn."
However, Yang Xiuqing was not very interested in the "Yangzhou thin horse" given to him by Huang Xiqing, the general manager of the Lianghuai salt merchants. He only kept it by his side to listen to the music to appease a group of Yangzhou salt merchants. In fact, he could not understand it. What is this woman singing? It's not festive at all, but a bit sad. If Hong Xiuquan heard this tune, he would be beaten, but Yang Xiuqing didn't care. It doesn't matter what you sing, just listen to it and that's it.
There was a sound of footsteps suddenly, and Yang Xiucong was seen leading the Prime Minister Meng Deen hurriedly up the stairs.
"See the Nine Thousand Years Old King of the East."
When Meng De'en was five steps away from Yang Xiuqing, he lifted his robe and bowed before His Highness the East King.
"De'en, what's going on?"
Yang Xiuqing didn't look back at Meng De'en, nor did she tell the "skinny horse" to shut up. She just asked softly amid the melodious pipa and singing.
"Reporting to the King of the East, the King of Heaven sent me to Yangzhou to ask you when will you return?"
Meng De'en came to Yangzhou to urge Yang Xiuqing to return to govern.
Ever since Yang Xiuqing, the Eastern King, crossed the river and sent troops, Hong Xiuquan had to take care of the affairs of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Hong Xiuquan was quite happy at first. After being the king for so long, he had never been in charge of any government affairs. He only spent time with the Queen and his wife. We were playing around making up "True Promise". Finally, when the "four great dads" were all gone, it was time for him to take care of his own affairs.
You have the power! You can do whatever you want, it makes you happy just thinking about it!
But who would have thought that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's direct jurisdiction was not large, but it had a lot of troubles!
Now Shi Dakai is using troops in Anhui and Jiangxi, and Yang Xiuqing is fighting in northern Jiangsu. The military resources of these two armies have to be raised by Tianjing.
Luo Yaoguo, Xiao Chaogui, and Feng Yunshan, the three "living fathers", all occupy a large territory, but they do not pay taxes to Tianjing. They only send some grain or munitions to Tianjing from time to time, but the quantity is not large and cannot support Shi Dakai. The consumption of Yang Xiuqing's two armies.
At the same time, the Tianjing court also manages the logistics of various battlefields around Tianjing, Zhenjiang Prefecture and Wannan - some of these places are basically controlled by the Taiping Army, some only allow the Taiping Army to capture a few strongholds, and there are many The land needs to be level!
In addition, the expenses of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were also huge!
This is because Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing held hundreds of thousands of people hostage in Changsha, plus the troops who joined the army along the way from Hunan to Tianjing. When Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing led their troops into Tianjing, not counting the troops. In terms of the personnel of the front army and the rear army, the number of male and female holy soldiers that need to be borne by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom alone for each army exceeds 300,000!
Even if Yang Xiuqing and Shi Dakai took away 60,000 to 70,000 people, and there were still 20,000 to 30,000 people stationed or fighting in other places outside Tianjing City, there would still be more than 200,000 people living in Tianjing to make ends meet!
Although these more than 200,000 men were separated into separate camps for men and women, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did not need to pay them military salaries, their food, clothing, housing, and transportation had to be provided by the Heavenly Kingdom. In fact, the cost was no more economical than paying them.
In short, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's current income is very small, and its expenditure is too large, and it is simply unable to make ends meet.
As for Tianjing, the only big city under Hong Xiuquan's rule, due to King Hong's poor governance and excessive allocations, as well as various rumors about the implementation of "separate camps for men and women" in Tianjing, the population emigrated and all industries were depressed.
, there was even a problem with the supply of rice, grains, salt and vegetables, and prices immediately rose sharply.
Hong Xiuquan, who had only been taking care of things for less than a month, was already having a headache and began to miss all of his "live dads".
But none of the "living dads" want to go to Tianjing to clean up the mess now, including "God Yang". "God Yang"'s current intention is to eat up Yangzhou Prefecture, Huai'an Prefecture, Nantong Prefecture, and Haimen Hall - this way
You can take over the Lianghuai Salt Industry!
Everyone in the world must eat salt!
As long as the Huaiyan salt is in hand, Yang Xiuqing will not worry about running out of money.
With money, he can develop Guazhou Port into a "little Shanghai", and then he can buy foreign guns and cannons to redress his direct line of the Chinese Army of the Kingdom of Heaven.
In addition, as long as Yang Xiuqing captured Huai'an Prefecture, he would open the way to the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains.
The Northern Expedition was definitely the greatest political correctness of the Taiping Rebellion!
As long as he uses Yangzhou and Huai'an as his base and continues the Northern Expedition, he can become the "No. 1 Dad" among the "Four Living Fathers" and can also obtain gifts from Luo Yaoguo in Shanghai, Xiao Chaogui in Wuchang and Feng Yunshan in Hunan.
Money, food and muskets.
When everything is ready, Hong Xiuquan will be invited from Tianjing to the Huaiyang army, and they will go on the Northern Expedition to attack Beijing. As long as he wins, he will be the number one in the Kingdom of Heaven!
"return?"
Yang Xiuqing said calmly: "De'en, you go back and tell the King of Heaven that I will go back when I finish my work in Yangzhou."
"His Royal Highness Dongwang, the King of Heaven hopes that you can return to Tianjing as soon as possible."
Yang Xiuqing didn't wait for Meng De'en to finish speaking, then turned her head and glanced at him.
Meng De'en shivered, and quickly put his forehead against the ground, his voice was low, and he spoke hesitantly: "There are a lot of affairs in the Tianjing court now. Among the kings, there is only one Northern King left at the side of the King of Heaven. It is really difficult to cope with it."
"Oh," Yang Xiuqing responded lightly, "De'en, you go back and tell the King of Heaven that the battle in Yangzhou is not over yet. There are six counties and two prefectures in Yangzhou Prefecture. I have only taken three counties and one prefecture now. And
Dongtai, Baoying, Xinghua and Gaoyouzhou are not captured, so we have to capture them all, right?
In addition, Nantong Prefecture still has one prefecture, two counties, and a Haimen Hall. Once these sites are taken over, I will also go to Shanghai incognito. After going to Shanghai, I will go back to Tianjing."
"Go to Shanghai," Meng De'en said in a low voice.
Yang Xiuqing sneered and said: "You just tell the king: I want to go to Shanghai to broaden my horizons, meet the foreign brothers there, and buy a batch of foreign guns and cannons. The battle of Yangzhou went so smoothly this time because of the gift sent by King Wu." Many foreign guns and artillery came, and many foreign generals and soldiers who believed in the True Covenant came to help."
After saying that, Yang Xiuqing waved her sleeves, and Meng Deen had no choice but to kowtow repeatedly, roll up her robe and go down.
Tianjing.
The north wind is howling, autumn is in full swing, but the construction sites of Golden Dragon City and Sun Palace are in full swing.
Hong Xiuquan rarely left his temporary Heavenly Palace and stood on the tower of Chaoyang Gate, quietly looking at the construction site below. A young man wearing a bright red Western-style low-cut corset and a bell-shaped expanded skirt. The mature and beautiful woman stood next to King Hong Tian, ​​holding a Western-style package of "The True Testament of the Bible" in her hand. She was Hong Xuanjiao, the "Seven Daughters of God".
Hong Xuanjiao's dress was ordered by Luo Yaoguo from Shanghai and sent to Tianjing for her - the last time Luo Yaoguo returned to Tianjing, she and Luo Yaoguo asked about what kind of beautiful clothes foreign women in Shanghai wear. So Luo Yaoguo He measured the size for her, and after returning to Shanghai, he ordered Xu Yuegui to go to a Western clothing store to have her dress custom-made, and sent it to Tianjing together with the "True Testament of the Bible" printed and bound in Shanghai.
And Hong Xuanjiao really dared to wear it, and even wore it to see Hong Xiuquan, but the latter could not criticize her because she said, "The fifth sister Victoria Wei also wore it like this." They are all daughters of God. Victoria can wear it, but Hong Xuanjiao can't?
But not to mention, Hong Xuanjiao looks really good in this outfit.
Hong Xiuquan glanced at Hong Xuanjiao, then turned his gaze to Meng De'en, who was kneeling beside him. Meng De'en did not dare to look at Hong Xuanjiao, who was wearing a dress. He just put his forehead to the ground, respectfully.
"Do you want to go to Shanghai to visit Qingbao?"
It turned out that Meng De'en had just returned from Yangzhou and had already reported to Hong Xiuquan that Yang Xiuqing planned to go to Shanghai for a private visit incognito.
"The King of the East said that he would go to Shanghai after conquering Yangzhou, Tongzhou, and Haimen."
Mondern repeated what he had just said.
"Is Shanghai so good? In order to get it, the compatriots did not hesitate to deceive and kidnap. The Qing compatriots even did not even return to Tianjing, they only wanted to go to Shanghai."
Hong Xiuquan turned to look at Hong Xuanjiao: "Xuanjiao, what do you think?"
Hong Xuanjiao smiled brightly: "How smart are fourth brother and ninth brother? They all attach so much importance to Shanghai, which shows that it is really important there."
Because of the addition of Victoria, the rankings of Wei Changhui, Hong Xuanjiao, Shi Dakai, and Luo Yaoguo of God’s Family have all dropped one place.
"When you say that, I also want to go to Shanghai." Hong Xiuquan suddenly chuckled and said, "Xuanjiao, do you want to go together?"
Hong Xuanjiao blinked: "King of Heaven, what about the government affairs in Beijing that day?"
Hong Xiuquan smiled and said: "Leave it to the compatriots for the time being, and let him have a big headache. You can work hard and send a message to the compatriots, asking him to arrange a private visit to Shanghai for me and Xuanjiao in disguise!"
Chapter completed!