C8

Chapter 8 - The Mr. Xiao's Instruction of the Rivers and Mountains

"Kneel down …" gray beard behind him fiercely kicked, this time with enough strength, Great Xiao Letian directly knelt onto the ground.

"Stinky brat, you've killed so many of our brothers. Just cutting off your head is already enough to make you our king … "Our leader has a Bodhisattva's heart. Remember this kid, you have to hide from me in your next life too." After that, he raised the steel blade that had killed countless people up high, and in the next second, it was Xiao Letian's doomsday.

"You'll regret it if you kill me, because I am the only one who knows the reason for your Heavenly Kingdom's failure, and I am the only one who knows how to overthrow the Qing Dynasty …" At this time, Xiao Letian threw caution to the wind, because he knew that if he did not use this trump card, he would definitely die.

"If you kill me, no one will be able to answer your questions, and the questions in your heart will never be answered …"

"Stop!" Shi Dakai had already been overwhelmed by Xiao Letian's aura, he never thought that this young man would be so arrogant. If millions of capable people in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom could not find out the reason for the failure, how could you understand it with just a second ghost? Wait, Second Demon? This mountain rock could be used to fight for jade. Who knew if he might really have some dry goods in his stomach.

When the news of the fall of Tianjing spread, Shi Dakai also sank into a deep state of confusion. He did not know where the Heavenly Kingdom was wrong? Was it wrong to overthrow the power of the Qing Dynasty's Tattoo? Was it wrong to overturn the slave owners who were riding on the necks of the Chinese in the whole world? Is it unpopular to abrogate unequal treaties with foreigners?

Yes, Shi Dakai also knew that the internal strife and internal strife in the Sky Nation was extremely serious. But to push all the sins of failure onto the inside? Shi Dakai felt that this reason was not enough, but what was it that was missing? He couldn't figure it out.

Countless of nights had passed since Shi Dakai sat there watching a dried up lamp for an entire night. He racked his brain to recall the eleven years of history that had sprung up in the Kingdom of Heaven until it was destroyed, but he could not find the answer to the key question that he was looking for. Sometimes he looked through the history books and the books left behind by the saints, trying to find the crux of the problem from the subtleties, but the saints of thousands of years ago seemed helpless against this world of confusion.

Seek, fail, seek again, fail again... Shi Dakai's mood had already reached the brink of collapse. Until just now, this young man who called herself Alone overseas said that he knew the answer to the question?

Shi Dakai grabbed Xiao Letian's collar: "Young man, I advise you not to play with fire. If you can't say anything, just wanting to stall for time, then what's waiting for you isn't to chop your head off.

Xiao Letian took a few deep breaths fiercely. He knew that he had grasped the rhythm of the negotiations and he had cut a wound in Shi Dakai's heart that was sealed tightly. Xiao Letian did not care if the wound was bloody, he only wanted to save the lives of the hundred people in Mountain Temple.

Xiao Letian said fiercely, "Release the people from the Mountain Temple, they are not your enemies, if not I will not reveal even half a word to you …"

"Hehe, if you want the lives of those people, it will depend on whether the answer you gave me is worth it or not. "Don't worry, I, Shi Dakai, am a man of indomitable spirit. I, Shi Dakai, have not been called a free man. I can't lie to you …"

Xiao Letian rubbed his wrists that were tied up in pain, and said coldly: "I will believe you this one time, time is of the essence, I don't have the effort to circle around you guys. With your knowledge, prince, you already know that overthrowing Qing Dynasty is an extremely difficult mission, if I just casually said that I can give you two tactics that can overthrow Qing Dynasty, even you wouldn't believe me …"

"How about this, I can only discuss this from an area that you are not familiar with. Although it is just the tip of the iceberg, it can still help you open up your mind …"

Xiao Letian thought for a long time, then carefully organized his words. He picked up a tree branch and started to draw on the sand. "This is Britain, France, and this is the continental Europe. There is also Africa, and India, all the way to China …"

Xiao Letian began to talk about the Second Opium War, from the Yarrow incident, the incident with Priest Ma all the way to the battle with the oculi bridge and even setting the Yuan Ming Yuan on fire. Here, Xiao Letian was not simply reviewing the entire matter, but he had also analyzed all the interests of the Western powers behind the war.

"In the First Opium War, after Lin Zexu's war, the British gave up Hong Kong island and forced the Qing dynasty to open up. Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, Shanghai, these five ports were officially filled with foreigners, but this is still far from enough."

Initially, when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was at its worst, the foreign citizens wanted to get more rights to negotiate from Tianjing City. However, they never expected that Hong Xiuquan and the others were even more hostile towards the foreign delegates, and actually unilaterally declared that the Qing dynasty's treaty with the foreign citizens was null and void. It also provoked chaos in the Shanghai Knife Club.

From that moment onwards, the foreigners had completely given up on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and were trying to support it. But unfortunately, although the Qing Dynasty had lost to the First Opium War, they did not seem to be hurt. They still stubbornly believed themselves to be from the Empire of Heaven.

Since the Qing Dynasty was not enlightened, then she could only use military power. Thus, although the war seemed to be coincidental, it was definitely inevitable.

From that day onwards, the gates of China were completely opened. The Western powers had started to invade the interior of the Qing Government, and their goods were to follow the long coastline and countless other inland waterways and infiltrate further inside. Their country can sell cheap industrial goods at a sky-high price in China, which will continue to weaken as the west grows stronger.

"That is what they want, and it is what they have done. Furthermore, to put it in an unpleasant way, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, in a certain sense, had actually stimulated the business adventures of the westerner … King Yi, don't you like it. If China was previously a fat person, then China, which had experienced 11 years of civil war, was a dead fatty who had more than just lost his vitality … "

"I understand your feelings, your highness. The Purging Demons is bad, and the foreigners who bully China are bad as well. Everyone wants to make China strong and rich in a good mood, but you are in the wrong because you know nothing about the outside world. "Maybe there's a possibility. I'm talking about the hypothesis that if you had opened your eyes and looked at the world, maybe none of this would have happened …"

Yes, opening your eyes and looking at the world is a kind of mentality. This is also the mentality that weak people must have if they want to be rich and strong. On this point, the island nation of Japan at sea was much stronger than the Great Qing Dynasty.

In the eyes of the leaders of the Qing Government and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the westerner were all a type of demon.

They did not know that the English and French had once fought in the Hundred Year War. They did not know that the Prussian Germany was currently ambitious to establish a brand-new empire, nor that the Russia and the Crimean War were being fought by the English and French. Furthermore, they did not know that the Russian to the north had turned their gazes to the east because they had lost in Crimea.

Xiao Letian was now like a teacher who had enlightened his primary school students. From Earth's general appearance, the composition of the Western Powers, and whatever grudges they had against each other, would be slowly instilled into Shi Dakai and the gray beard.

Speaking of which, even the rude gray beard started slapping her thigh. "Aiya, so there are so many twists and turns inside the foreigners? They are even more ruthless than us? "

At that time, the established capitalist countries such as the English and French had yet to complete their plans for global colonization, while the emerging capitalist countries were desperately fighting for the remaining leftovers.

According to Xiao Letian's explanation, the time and degree of industrialization in the western countries were different. There were only a few countries that could cross over half of the Earth and put in troops. Britain, France, and the United States. As for other countries, they could only send out merchant ships to do small business, so it was impossible to hope to start a war with the Qing.

The star nations of the The Age of Great Navigation, including the Netherlands, Spain and the Portugal, had all fallen at that time, guarding a limited number of colonies.

"Now do you understand? Back then, if the Kingdom of Heaven could take the initiative to establish ties with other countries, especially the United States and Prussian Kingdom, including the declining Spain, the Portugal, and the Netherlands … "First, establish a trading relationship with them. If possible, establish a relationship with each other. Only by trying to make things difficult for us can we …"

Shi Dakai looked at Xiao Letian, who was continuously talking about everything else, and suddenly had an illusion. It was as if the young man in front of him was a god that knew everything.

Xiao Letian was very confident about himself, because at that time, other than a group of translators with two daggers in their hands, there were no one else in the Kingdom of Qing who could research Western politics, economy, culture, etc. To put it bluntly, the people of Qing looked at the Western Powers at that time, just like the people of Earth looked at the aliens in their imaginations.

Genius! This was a true genius! Shi Dakai could tell from Xiao Letian's confident tone that this young man was not lying. He was actually a genius who was well versed in western knowledge. The identity of the Alone overseas was actually real, and with his vast knowledge, he definitely could be considered a scholar overseas.

Shi Dakai was not an ordinary bandit king, he was a genuine high level intellectual, he was well-versed in the traditional Chinese Confucianism, and in the years of rebellion, he had also studied the western world carefully, but there was no one who could lecture as thoroughly as Xiao Letian, nor was there a book that could lecture as Xiao Letian's system.

Shi Dakai suddenly laughed, his laugh was extremely sinister, Xiao Letian never thought that this historical revolutionary who was highly respected could actually laugh in such a sinister manner, he suddenly interrupted Xiao Letian's words.

"Mister is truly talented, I am already in awe of you to the point of prostrating myself in front of me. Let them go, that's for sure, I can let all the people in the Mountain Temple go, and I can also say that I won't take revenge for my brothers who died last night, these 110,000 silver is our dead brother's pension … "

Xiao Letian licked his dry lips, then bowed to Shi Dakai and said, "Thank you King Yi, I, on behalf of all the people of Mountain Temple, thank you, Your Highness. I will tell them the good news now." After Xiao Letian finished speaking, he turned around and was about to leave.

"Stop!" Shi Dakai suddenly opened his mouth, and laughed mischievously as he stared at Xiao Letian: "I'm not done speaking, you can let him go, I have my conditions …. I still lack a strategist. I think you deserve it. "Men, bring mister back to the village …"

Ah? Xiao Letian was dumbfounded, who in the world would want to be an emissary? No, I still want to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the motherland that has not been industrially developed. I still want to go to Beijing and take a walk. I still want to marry some pretty wives.

"Your Royal Highness, you can't. You can't force others to make things difficult and make things difficult for them …" "Prince, your highness …" Unfortunately, no matter how hard Xiao Letian shouted, it was all in vain.