"Just, I partially agree with you that it is the right choice for Zhu Ming to rule the richest areas in China."

After a long period of silence, Bashali finally put down the small coffee cup in his hand and said, "But we should not forget the prophecy of the French emperor. The sleeping lion in China has awakened!

As far as I know, since 1847, China, especially the Ming Dynasty controlled by King Zhu Jishi, began to import a large number of European machinery and equipment! The currency and financial reforms of the Ming Kingdom also achieved great success. The HSBC controlled by Zhu Jishi became more and more like the Bank of England. Moreover, Zhu Ming also began to imitate Europe and let the bourgeoisie participate in the management and policy formulation of the country. They had a constitutional parliament and a local public bureau, and were also formulating a "Constitution" and began to formulate the "Civil Code" not long ago. In addition, the scale of Jishi University and Jishi Academy continued to expand in 1848. Not only did they build school buildings in Guangzhou, but they also purchased land in the Shanghai Concession and prepared to open a Shanghai branch.

All of this, sir, don't you think it's familiar? Zhu Jishi is imitating European powers and introducing our systems, laws, education, science and machines. Given China's population and resources, we cannot regard Zhu Jishi as Ali Pasha, he is... Peter the Great!

If we do not take any measures to curb Zhu Ming's development, China will soon be unified. At most ten years, China will restore its prestige and status in the Eastern world. Is this in the interests of the British Empire?"

Listening to Baxiali's talk, Wen Xian had to admit that the other party's analysis was still very reasonable. Once China was unified with Zhu Ming, it would inevitably be a powerful empire. But the problem is that as soon as the Qing Dynasty fell, the Chinese gentry class fell to Zhu Ming one after another. Now Zhu Ming's Jiangnan strategy can only be described with no blood. Lin Zexu, the largest powerful figure in the Jiangnan region, also reached an agreement with Zhu Ming to hand over Jiangnan peace to Zhu Ming, and then led his troops to "go north to serve the king". In Wen Xian's view, this was just the strange and hypocritical thinking of Asians being blamed, and Lin Zexu had actually surrendered to Zhu Ming!

The entire Chinese elite and wealth have been controlled by Zhu Ming. What capital does the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom have to compete with Zhu Ming for China's rule? Isn't it too stupid to support a regime that is doomed to fail and offend a great empire that will definitely become the overlord of the East?

"No, no, I don't think we need to get into Zhu Ming in order to support the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. At least... this will not happen at the moment." Aliguo put down his coffee cup and waved his hands. He had just returned from the north and had a good understanding of the situation there.

"From the current situation, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom army has very strong combat power. They are composed of religious tyrants who firmly believe in... God. Although their God is obviously not the same as ours. Religious beliefs do give them extraordinary courage and combat power! If they can still get excellent weapons and guidance from European professional officers, Zhu Ming will not be so easy to defeat them.

Moreover, as far as I know, Beijing has become the capital of China for hundreds of years, and the gains and losses of this city have special significance in the minds of the Chinese! Once the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom mastered Beijing, they will at least be regarded as orthodox by the northern Chinese people - the people of this country have different ideas about orthodoxism than we Europeans, because in China's long history, dynasties have changed very widely. Therefore, at present, what we need to do is just to help the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom obtain Beijing as soon as possible. We can even achieve this goal without expressing our silence. Jardinet Foreign Company just transported a batch of ammonium explosives and shellfish rifles from the UK not long ago, which were originally to be sold to the Qing court..."

Before he finished speaking, he saw the door of the study being pushed open. A British captain came in. He was the head of the embassy guard: "Mr. Minister, Mr. Consul, the big thing is not good. The Chinese army has entered the concession! There are thousands of people, and the guard cannot resist it!"

...

Just as the three British guys were discussing that they wanted Yang Xiuqing's career to add icing on the cake, Zhu Jishi had already arrived in Hangzhou City. In a mansion beside the West Lake, he was blushing with Li Hongzhang, Shen Baozhen, Lin Congyi, and a few so-called talented men from Jiangnan who were drinking and talking loudly.

Everyone here is already a minister of the Ming Dynasty. They had long thrown away the Qing Dynasty's official robe and put on the black hat of the Ming Dynasty's red official uniform. Of course, the biggest official title was Li Hongzhang. The father and son of the Li family came to Anhui and had a position of duke and marquis in any dynasty. Emperor Zhu's style has always been quite good in this regard. In fact, the title of the Ming Dynasty was not very valuable, and there was no fiefdom; secondly, there was no privilege, and it was not even exempted from personal income tax. The income was nothing but land and houses given together with the title and an annuity that was not too much or too little. Now Li Hongzhang has been granted Duke of Lujiang County and Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Shen Baozhen gave the title of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, but he did not have a title. Although the title of the Ming Dynasty was not very valuable, it still needed merits besides inheritance and a few exceptions. The father and son of the Li family had the merit of surrendering the territory, but Shen Baozhen was talented but not in a very inch of merit. However, the official of the Minister of Foreign Affairs was really big enough. If it weren't for the qualified civil servants in the court of Zhu Ming, he would not have given such a high-ranking official as soon as he met. Of course, Shen Baozhen's name, Zhu Jishi, had heard of him in later generations that he was an important official in the Westernization School, Fujian Naval Academy and Fuzhou Naval Bureau. In 1848, it was indeed a rare talent in China.

Several talented men also gave them to the Secretary of the Imperial Study Room. The Imperial Study Room is a newly established institution, which is actually Zhu Jishi's Secretariat. Luo Zenan also served as the Minister of the Imperial Study Room, and there were a bunch of secretaries under the ministers. Those talented men in Jiangnan might not be able to do other things, but they can draw an edict and copy a book, etc. are all very good at it.

Moreover, these talented men are also talented, such as Weng Tonghe from the Weng family in Changshu, Yu Wenbao from the Yu family in Doumen, Pan Zuyin from the Pan family in Suzhou, Zhao Liewen from Yanghu, and Wang Tao from Changzhou County, all of them are young talents. Now they are smiling like flowers, and all the stars surround Zhu Jishi like moons. The literary slander is endless. The one named Weng Tonghe also wrote a poem to praise King Zhu and make him sing his merits.

Zhu Jishi also smiled lightly, but he frowned slightly in his heart when he looked at the talents. Before the start of the Battle of Jiangnan, the series of plans formulated by the General Staff also included suppressing the local resistance forces in Jiangnan. After all, the literary style in the Jiangnan area was prosperous, and many important Qing officials' hometowns were in Jiangnan, such as the Cao family in Yangzhou, the Pan family in Suzhou, and the Yu family in Doumen were all famous families who received the favor of the Qing emperors. Now we should repay the kindness of the king, right? Why are we competing with each other now? Is that Weng Tonghe not the teacher of Emperor Guangxu and a loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty? His brother Weng Tongshu seems to be still in Beijing, so why did he come to Hangzhou to surrender to the Ming Dynasty?

"Military advisor, now Jiangnan's talented men are thrusting their heads to come to surrender to the Ming Dynasty... Will the gentry in Zhili also go to Yang Xiuqing?" After the banquet dispersed, Zhu Jishi suddenly asked Luo Zenan beside him about such questions.

"Yes, when Huang Chao entered Chang'an and broke into Beijing, all gentry officials participated in it." Luo Zenan was holding a memorial before Miao Peilin sent someone to Zhu Jishi's army, which was to inform the situation in the north. He handed the memorial to Zhu Jishi with both hands and said with a smile: "I don't know the current situation in Zhili, but the people in Henan and northern Anhui have already risen. It turns out that many gentry dependent on Miao Peilin are secretly contacting the Nian bandits and want to turn to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom."

"Is this happening?" Zhu Jishi took the memorial and looked at it. It was indeed written on it! Not only did the gentry on Miao Peilin's territory begin to shake, but also many fence-bearing grass appeared on the territory of the Kong family in Shandong, and many officials from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom emerged!

"This is not Beijing yet! If you really want to have Beijing, Hong Xiuquan, Yang Xiuqing still doesn't know what to be like..." Zhu Jishi shook his head and threw the memorial on the desk.

"If you get Beijing, you might die." Luo Zenan picked up the memorial and put it away, and smiled and said, "Your Majesty, it has been a good thing to achieve success since ancient times. If the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had a difficult battle, it might have become a climate, but their rise is too fast and their success is too easy, and the foundation is unstable. I am afraid that Beijing City is the hero tomb that buried Hong Yang!" As he said that, he suddenly paused and turned his head to look at Zhu Jishi: "By the way, you, the Hong Kong Jishi University has just come here. Monk Trigo set off north to Tianjin half a month ago!" (To be continued. Please search for Astronomy, the novel is better and faster!)
Chapter completed!