Chapter 409 A Few Small Things

In fact, there were many interesting things in 1843. For example, there was a farmer in the United States named William Miller, who claimed to be a scholar who "spent his life studying the Bible" and came to a terrible conclusion.

"God will choose a time to destroy the world."

He claimed that the world would "disappear" at some point between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844. Almost no one believed this nonsense at first, but with the arrival of late potato blight and flooding, many people believed his words.

Even the infamous "Doomsday Ark Society" found him and tried to join forces with him to "save" the world.

William Miller received the support of some booksellers and insurance companies, published his remarks in books and distributed them everywhere. In just a few months, he developed tens of thousands of believers.

These people believed that the end of the world was around the corner, so they began to spend their money wantonly.

Franz naturally would not let go of this opportunity. He sent people to "take over" these properties and promised those who wanted to get their property back one day, they would only need to pay an additional 20% handling fee.

Other businessmen who were preparing to take over the property of these believers resented the people sent by Franz, and they even planned to hire gangsters to snatch back the "property that belonged to them".

However, these unscrupulous businessmen obviously underestimated their opponents. The dozens of gunmen they found were easily defeated, and even they themselves were quickly found.

After some "friendly" exchanges, the businessmen admitted that the so-called "doomsday" was nothing more than a hoax. William Miller is just a scapegoat. He does believe in his theory, but his influence is not great. The reason for today's situation is of course the result of businessmen adding fuel to the flames.

Franz did not continue to make things difficult for those businessmen. After asking for a hush money, he watched the farce continue.

Without the help of those businessmen, William Miller could not handle the believers at all, and the people sent by Franz kept irritating him with words such as "liar".

In the end, the prophet predicted that the world would be destroyed on April 23, 1843. However, on that day, the world was still running as usual. The sober believers found that they had become paupers with nothing. The angry crowd cut the false prophet into pieces. After the block, I hugged my head and cried.

At this time, the man sent by Franz appeared again, saying that the contract was still valid. But these people had believed in the prophecies of the end of the world before and had not thought about the future at all. Naturally, it was impossible for them to get the money now.

Franz actually didn't want to make things difficult for these poor people, but they had to pay the price for their mistakes. Franz would lease their properties to them, then require them to repay certain fees periodically, eventually redeeming those properties.

Of course, Franz would not let these properties be buried in the United States. While renting them to them, he would also mortgage these properties to banks in exchange for loans.

Those who made mistakes are atoning for their sins, the bank clerks have gained their achievements, William Miller has achieved his "doomsday", and the Austrian Empire has made money. Only Franz hides his merits and fame.

1836, Guangzhou.

A child student who failed in many trials accidentally got a copy of "The Palm of the Tathagata", oh no, it was "Good Words to Encourage the World", which seemed like nothing at the time.

After all, it is just a popular book that the Catholic Church hired someone to write in order to open up the "market."

In 1843, Hong Renkun, who was already in his thirties, failed the imperial examination again. He decided to bid farewell to the imperial examination and follow a path of combining Chinese and Western medicine.

At that time, China was in turmoil, with foreign powers outside and bandits inside.

Since the Jiaxu Year of Jiaqing, peasant uprisings have never stopped. A good year brings little peace, but a poor year brings prosperity.

However, Hong Renkun felt passionate. He knew that times make heroes. At that time when the world was still in chaos, Hong Renkun read this "Good Words to Encourage the World". He wondered if this was God's will, just like when the great teacher Zhang Jiao accidentally picked up "The Art of Peace" while collecting herbs in the mountains. ?

Then Hong Renkun began his "missionary" journey.

Master Hong first invented the three major precepts, namely not to worship evil gods, not to do evil things, and to abide by the laws of heaven. Another prayer was invented, "Wash away sins, put away the old, and make a new one." Later, it evolved into a simpler and more direct version, "Kill the demons and go to heaven."

With Hong Renkun's unremitting efforts, everyone in his village finally thought he was crazy.

However, Master Hong eventually developed two of his followers, one named Hong Rengan and the other Feng Yunshan, who later became the "mainstay" of the Daping Heavenly Kingdom.

In 1842, the first fifty volumes of "Hai Guo Tu Zhi" were published. The author Wei Yuan loudly declared that "those who want to control foreign barbarians must first understand the feelings of barbarians. Those who want to know the feelings of barbarians must first establish translators and translate barbarian books.", and proposed. "Learn from the barbarians and develop skills to control the barbarians."

However, this book did not have much impact in the Qing Dynasty. Instead, after traveling across the ocean to Japan, it was immediately regarded as a guide by local sinologists.

Even one of the main purposes of Takasugi Shinsuke's eastward journey was to find the "one piece", ah no, the complete "Haiguo Tuzhi", which in his own words was called "for the purpose of rejuvenating the country."

"The barbarians have three special skills. The first is battleships, the second is firearms, and the third is how to raise and train troops." His thoughts influenced Japan for nearly a hundred years.

However, it would still be eight years before the "Hai Guo Tu Zhi" was transmitted, and history had already changed.

Japan, Nagasaki.

The Japanese are indeed very good at learning and imitating, but this time they chose the wrong target. Politicians who advocated "Japanese spirit and Chinese talent" chose the Qing Dynasty, so Japan also began to close itself off.

After more than 200 years of isolation, Nagasaki was Japan's only window to the outside world, and the only countries it had exchanges with were the Netherlands and the Qing Dynasty.

Of course, like the Aisin-Gioro family, the Tokugawa shogunate was not completely blind and deaf, at least the top leaders knew a lot about the world.

In fact, isolation was just part of the policy of keeping the people ignorant, with the aim of eliminating the domestic people's will to resist.

The shogunate stipulated that merchants entering the port from Nagasaki must report overseas news to the Nagasaki Bugyo who managed foreign trade affairs.

(Bugyo was an official position in Japan at that time, such as Mushi Bugyo, Temple and Shrine Bugyo, Kanjo Bugyo, Town Bugyo, and Distant Country Bugyo. This position could be large or small and was a temporary position.)

Depending on the source of the news, it is divided into Tangfeng storytelling and Lanfeng storytelling. In addition, there are "Biefeng storytelling" edited by translators based on the oral accounts of foreign merchants or excerpts from foreign newspapers.

Two wars broke out in Asia and Europe successively. The wind storytelling about these two wars fell like raindrops, which shocked the shogunate authorities.

Mizuno Tadakuni, the elder of the Tokugawa shogunate, immediately convened an inter-shogunate meeting to discuss the way for Japan's survival.

(The elder was the highest official of the shogunate at that time. He was an official directly under the Shogun and was responsible for leading the national affairs)

At the same time, Japan also received two letters, one from Russia and one from Britain, with only one purpose, asking the shogunate to open trade.