The next night, Zhao Kuo summoned Zhu Qingzheng to meet him. Zhu Qingzheng was nervous along the way, not knowing whether it was a blessing or a disaster. Because Zhao Kuo, a general, was not like others, and had a little bit of joy and anger, it was difficult for his subordinates to find out his thoughts (Zhu Qingzheng didn't know that Zhao Kuo hated this era so much that he wanted to die. He thought about how to escape and surrender every day, but he would die if he was taken out!). Before he came, his old buddies could not guess what he was doing to meet him.

Worried Zhu Qingzheng finally arrived at the mansion where Zhao Kuo lived. He was led in by his personal guard Xiao Dingzi and saw that Zhao Kuozheng was having dinner.

It's true that I like to eat it in the rumor.

There was a table full of dishes with a scent of fragrance. When Zhu Qingzheng came in, Zhao Kuozheng turned his head and told the attendant: "This chef is really good at craftsmanship. He deserves to be a famous chef in Chenzhou. I will give him another 20 taels of silver as a bounty."

"The commander of the soldiers, Zhu Qingzheng, has seen the general!" Zhao Kuo turned his head and Zhu Qingzheng immediately knelt on one knee to report.

"Get up." Zhao Kuo poured a glass of wine. Originally, the Taiping Army could not drink alcohol, but this was the privilege of their upper class: "I have found out that what you said yesterday is true. We know your friends in the Heaven and Earth Association. We are indeed here to send Wang Xin to Wang Xin. King Xindong has already read it. He also admitted to encourage you to go back to Guangdong with him to kill the Qing demon."

"Original King, General Shengming!" Zhu Qingzheng let out a long sigh, but immediately bowed and said, "I didn't expect that General Lao would go to investigate such a small matter."

A wide finger is the chair next to it.

Seeing Zhu Qingzheng refuse, Zhao Kuo smiled and said, "If you want to sit down, just sit down."

Zhu Qingzheng no longer refused and sat down openly, knowing in his heart that the general had something to ask himself.

"Does the general want to ask me about the murder of Qing demons in the Guangdong Uprising?" Zhu Qingzheng asked: "I see that the army has been in Panheng, Chenzhou for a long time. Are you all the princes ready to go south to Guangdong?"

"I'm still thinking about it, there's this measure." Zhao Kuo glanced at Zhu Qingzheng with a squinted look, put an empty cup in front of him, and immediately the servant filled the wine glass.

"Subordinates dare not drink!" Zhu Qingzheng said quickly. It's okay for the King of Heaven to marry dozens of wives and concubines. It's okay for the King of East to serve him. It's okay for generals like Zhao Kuo to drink, but he couldn't do it if he was caught and was punished and beaten.

"You are allowed to drink." Zhao Kuo smiled and added: "I didn't expect that before you entered the Heavenly Soldier, you were the white fan of the Foshan Hall of the Heavenly Soldiers, and your status was second only to the Master of Incense. I am really disrespectful. When you voted for the Heavenly Soldiers, you will be an ordinary member of the Heavenly Soldiers."

"The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is the common ruler of the world. What is the white fan of the heaven and earth? Compared to all the princes and generals, the younger one is just an ordinary member of the gang." Zhu Qingzheng was not panicked at all and told the reason quietly.

"I heard you still read? I didn't hear you say you could write in the Heavenly Army." Zhao Kuo continued to ask, "No matter what army, in this country with a illiteracy rate of 90%, literacy and writing are talents, especially the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which attaches great importance to propaganda and missionary, will never be treated unfairly.

"You also know that my father was a master of the spirit writing, but I am just a doctor, and I am just a good writer. I am not much better than illiterate in front of a sage like you who understand the Bible."

"You can still see a doctor after a long time. It's so hidden, you boy!" Zhao Kuo sneered, but he didn't dare to look down on Zhu Qingzheng in his heart. You know, people in any group are divided into levels, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is no exception. If you come, you will not suffer any losses if you join the army. At least you won't eat salt and brown rice served on wooden boards like soldiers. Therefore, there are many things that gang members have to falsely report their identity. Those who come with three or four people, they dare to say that they are the master of the hall who cares about hundreds of people, and they will get a sergeant when they come in; and when Zhu Qingzheng comes, he brought ten people, but they all reported to ordinary gang members.

Seeing this guy playing like this, Zhao Kuo inevitably thought of someone - himself.

Why do you deceive Hong Xiuquan and his own name is "Kuo" and "Ziwei"?

It makes people feel humble, "Compared with you, the sons-in-law, etc., I am a mortal, insignificant."

It is completely a strategy of "struggling to stay in the tiger's den for a temporary stay".

Zhu Qingzheng's various strategies are similar to him, but he definitely did not come from the future and would not think about immigrating overseas. So what do he want to do?

Before joining the Tianjun, it was nothing to be able to be promoted if he had a high status. Anyway, he might not be able to be promoted except for you holding a mobile phone that no one had seen before. But it would be interesting if he didn't say he read the word himself.

Because there are too few people who know how to read, if such people come, they will generally be held responsible for studying, preaching the edicts of the Heavenly King, and the Bible. If you are not fanatical enough, or even actually do not believe in God, this kind of work will easily be exposed.

For Zhao Kuo, because the knowledge of the Bible in his era was also common sense, he was also deceitful and cautious in his heart, so he was naturally not afraid. But for this era, there were no big savages except Confucianism and various demons and heretics. It was easy to recognize whether they believed in God or not, and whether they understood God. Many soldiers actually just worship Hong Xiuquan as a fucking thing like "Maitreya descended to the earth". Of course, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom belief and these feudal superstitious cults are essentially the same type of goods.

Zhu Qingzheng wisely hid his attitude. As a soldier, he listened to the preaching every day without pulling a machine, kowtowed on weekdays, and shouted long live the king of heaven.

"This man is secretly observing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom." Zhao Kuo's face twitched for a moment and suddenly asked, "Do you believe in God?"

Zhu Qingzheng was stunned, then hesitated again, and immediately laughed: "Of course I believe it."

It is normal to be stunned for a moment. This problem is common sense of the Taiping Army, but Zhu Qingzheng hesitated for the second time, and there is something wrong with it.

You should know that Christianity in the Taiping Army is a nonsense local religion, not authentic Christianity at all.

Therefore, every warrior in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom actually regards Hong Xiuquan and God as one. Only with Hong Xiuquan can there be God, and only with God can there be Hong Xiuquan. He simply relies on this deception to inspire soldiers. Hong Xiuquan is the high priest and chairman of the God Church, while Yang Xiuqing is the general manager. The former is the divine power and the cornerstone of the religion, while the latter is half of the divine traditions.

Zhao Kuo asked Zhu Qingzheng this question, which seemed to be a matter of faith, but in essence it was his view of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Since you have questions about God, it is equivalent to having questions about Hong Xiuquan. "No wonder you want to leave the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, you can't trust these people at all." Zhao Kuo sneered.

"Brothers and I admire the general very much." Zhu Qingzheng suddenly said.

"Reason?" Zhao Kuo asked a concise question, he never talked nonsense.

"You don't like money, you are probably the simplest general..."

Zhao Kuo smiled and said, "I don't know how you can explain the word "most". I don't like empty talk!"

Zhu Qingzheng was stunned for a moment and said, "The other generals wear gold and silver. Their favorites are tailors and jewelers. They are extremely gorgeous in carrying sedan chairs. They both need a thousand gold medals for horses and saddles, but you don't care about it."

Those country bumpkins, who have never seen Italian suits, don’t know if there are Rolls-Royce, BMW and other things, gold, silver and jewelry, and big heads of gold, silver and jewelry, and some rings, which will not help me escape. I’m just making so many cheesy things? ——Zhao Kuo thought about it and was indeed a very simple general among these country bumpkins. Only the speculators who were planning to defect at this moment have maintained their true nature as a peasant uprising army.

Zhu Qingzheng continued: "What makes your subordinates admire most is that with your status and age, it is time to get married, but you turn a blind eye to the female camp and have never married. No one can compare to you."

Zhao Kuo almost fell to the ground with a glass of wine: Female sex? Do you think I don’t want it? But does there be female sex in this era? Not to mention that Zhao Kuo was a romantic nobleman in his previous life, and he had countless beauties. He was just an evil otaku. You can also see beauties from all over the world on the Internet. Everyone’s aesthetic cuteness is unimaginable to people in this era.

In this era, the ladies of the family were wrapped in disabled feet and wore Confucian shackles in their thoughts. If they didn’t leave the door for two, they wouldn’t be able to see outsiders. If you accidentally saw it, either someone committed suicide or you were beaten to death by the woman’s family.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Women's Camp did improve feminism in terms of labor, and men and women worked equally, but a group of peasant women with big feet carried baggage no worse than men. They traveled through mountains and rivers like walking on flat ground. There were even several times when they attacked the Qing soldiers' city with muskets and spears. They were just a group of muscular female warriors! How could any delicate beauties appear?

Zhao Kuo estimated that the poor young men of this era were definitely poor people who had not seen young women of the right age for more than ten years, and they could not see the woman even when they talked about marriage. If they secretly saw a slightly square one, they would not immediately explode and their souls would be scattered.

But even if it is a beauty of this era, Zhao Kuo, a modern person, can only shout to death by thunder!

The top ten famous prostitutes in Shanghai in the late Qing Dynasty had photos, and famous things on the Internet represented the aesthetic view of that era. However, if this kind of "beauty" came to modern times, when going on a blind date, the man would probably say the other way around: You are very 'cute', do you have a house and a car?

Thinking of this, Zhao Kuo lamented in his heart: "I have snatched the beauty long ago. I have someone in my hand with a gun! But where is it?"

"Why is the family still there before the Qing demon was destroyed?" Zhao Kuo took out the excuse he had been talking about, and even sighed deliberately, without blushing.

"I admire you very much." Zhu Qingzheng said sincerely, but immediately asked: "I don't know if our heavenly soldiers are heading south to Guangdong."

Zhao Kuo waved his hand and asked several servants in the house to go out, leaving only him and Zhu Qingzheng, who immediately sweated and knew that he was going to talk about serious matters.

"It's still being discussed, but I advocate going south to Guangdong." Zhao Kuo came to Zhu Qingzheng to talk to him about the situation in Guangdong, so he did not hide his own privately: "I personally think that if the kingdom of heaven opens up the ocean, there will be great benefits."

Zhu Qingzheng, who was already full of people, equipment, and sphere of influence in various places, did not expect that Zhao Kuo was actually looking at this point - Ocean?

"Ocean?" Zhu Qingzheng stared at his somewhat confused eyes and said, "I am stupid, please help me solve my doubts."

"You are from Guangdong. Don't you know that foreign guns and cannons are sharp?" Zhao Kuo said with a smile.

"Of course I've seen it, but what's that? We have a lot of things. When foreigners come in, they are like a drop of ink dropping into the river. No matter how powerful his foreign gun is, we hit him one hundred and one thousand, and we will even kill them." Zhu Qingzheng sneered.

Zhao Kuo smiled bitterly. This understanding is the understanding of everyone in this era, including Hong Xiuquan, Xianfeng, Lin Zexu, etc.

Unfortunately, this era is precisely the era of the outbreak of military technology under the support of industrial civilization: rifles and artillery with increasingly far-range firing speeds are constantly emerging, rear-mounted rifles with rapidly increasing loading speeds are being installed side by side, military organization system is rapidly developing towards modern army, armored steam turbines are beginning to dominate the ocean, railways allow the mobilization speed of troops to be a thousand miles a day, telegrams make all parts of the huge army like arms and fingers...

The military ideology and theory of this era is completely to make war subordinate to scientific and technological development, and every new technological innovation makes the enemy pay the price of bloodshed.

Unfortunately, the Qing Dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which were still using bird guns as sharp weapons and were equipped with hot and cold weapons almost 1 to 1, were just a group of ignorant barbarians in terms of war and military understanding.

The most troublesome thing is that not only is it behind, China's Confucian civilization has been ahead of the world in 2000 years, but also the radiation source of Far Eastern civilization. The national pride left over for thousands of years has hindered the rapid recognition of the status quo and the learning of the "barbarians" in their eyes.

Even though they themselves have become barbarians, who is the barbarian?

Japan, a lucky bastard, had a tradition of learning in the 2,000-year history of Chinese civilization. Before the Meiji Restoration, Japan was just a closed inland country.

Not bad, it is an inland country! Although they are facing the sea, they are definitely not a maritime country!

Because the shogunate was in seclusion, it was strictly prohibited to trade marine and make ships with sampan specifications and locals. As a result, after the founding of cannons, this small country surrounded by the ocean found that it could not even build large ships that its ancestors could build.

But they studied Western learning crazily for 30 years, only 30 years! They first defeated Greater China, and then wiped out the Russian Ocean Fleet in the Tsushima Strait, becoming the first nation in the East to defeat white people and the first country to gain national independence and status as a great power.

It seems that this also inspired the national independence movement in anti-colonial areas such as India.

But what about the Qing Dynasty? Unlike the Ming Dynasty, they were the leaders of world civilization for most of the time, they were always a group of barbarians.

Under more than 200 years of rule, these barbarians successfully assimilated Chinese culture into their ignorant serf culture by eliminating culture, castrating Confucianism, and carrying forward spiritual slavery such as terrifying literary inquisition.

This is probably the first time that China has been enslaved by culture, and the Yuan Dynasty did not have this trick.

The only thing left to China is probably the longing for the previous dynasty and "pride". "Pride" made the "anti-Qing and restoring the Ming Dynasty" call it for 300 years, but forgot that "pride" is also one of the manifestations of ignorance in the Qing culture.

However, in the process of judging the current civilization flashed through his mind, Zhao Kuo did not feel sad. A future successful person stood above the ups and downs of the past, and he did not know or admire Chen Jinnan. This generation gap in civilization made him feel the crisis and difficulties.

It is so difficult to let monkeys learn to write Shakespeare's classic works.

Zhao Kuo had no choice but to explain: "Okay, let me give you an example. You are also a veteran who has been through the battlefield for a long time. Do you know that firearms are powerful?"

"Naturally. If the opponent is well-trained and neatly formed, the first round of firearms must lie down, otherwise there will be heavy casualties. Then continue to rush forward while the intervals." Zhu Qingzheng talked about his military experience.

"Okay, our ordinary muskets, the kind made by the best masters, are also the best when filling gunpowder and iron sand, and press them the most solidly. This is the best situation. Shoot 200 steps (100 meters), and you can shoot 2-3 times in a minute..."

"One minute? Yes?" Zhu Qingzheng was a little dizzy.

Zhao Kuo gasped. Is this the fucking white fan that is so knowledgeable about the world, and it’s just this level?

In desperation, he took out a piece of the absolute luxury item from his arms - a pocket watch, and threw it on the table.

"The thinnest needle can walk around for a minute."

"Oh, Western watches. This is a good thing." Zhu Qingzheng absolutely knew the pocket watch and carefully picked up the watch, as if the expression of a girl from Zhao Kuo's era when she saw the diamond ring.

When the Qing Dynasty did not open trade with the West and only did tribute trade. If the foreigners came, they thought you were here to pay tribute. They stayed on a small street outside Guangzhou City. The transactions were carried out by the "national import and export company" of the Qing government. At that time, foreigners spent a lot of money to buy things and bribe Qing officials. The "luxury goods" that the Qing Dynasty liked were: clocks, Western mechanical toys (music boxes, etc.) and other fucking things.

"You have figured out the time? Our ordinary muskets, the ones made by the best masters, are also the best when filling gunpowder and iron sand, and are pressed the most solid. This is the best situation. 200 steps can be shot 2-3 times a minute; while Western guns can be shot more than 400 steps, with a rate of fire of 5-6 times a minute. If the two armies face each other and use these two weapons, what do you think will happen? Can you rush up?"

"That's impossible!" When talking about the serious matter, Zhu Qingzheng looked at the reluctance of his pocket watch and immediately disappeared. He opened his hand and gestured, "Please see, the bird gun must be filled with gunpowder first, compacted with a barrier rod, then put in iron sand and other ammunition, and then compacted to ignite it. No matter he is eight-armed Nezha, he cannot shoot 5 or 6 guns so quickly. And as far as I know, foreign muskets are too restricted. During the Pierce Navy (The First Opium War), the British also loaded the front bores, and in Sanyuanli, it was impossible to fire the firearms, and my people killed the corpses everywhere."

Zhao Kuo curled his lips disdainfully and said, "Since the king gave him the title of Xixian, I naturally understand Western knowledge. 12 years ago (1840), a Western country, Prussia, had first used the Delai Village rear gun to load a gun, that is, ammunition was loaded from the back of the barrel and fired a fire with a firing needle. (Because this gun was invented by the German Dreyse (1787-1867), it was called the Delais needle firing gun.) According to historical records, during the Prussian War, this gun showed its power, causing the Prussian army to defeat the Austrian army and fled. The quality and combat effectiveness of the troops of these countries are not much different from that of the British."

Zhu Qingzheng naturally did not understand the principles, so Zhao Kuo patiently explained to him the principles and use of bullet case and striker.

"Then what you said is naturally possible. But now we can kill Qing Yao and escape when we hear the wind. Why bother to look for these weapons?"

Zhao Kuo smiled in his stomach, but he didn't expect that you are also pragmatic.
To be continued...