Chapter 404: The Promise 3 Years Ago
Chapter 404 The Promise Made Thirteen Years Ago
After crossing the Ju River Bridge, the Xuanyuan Temple is in front of him. Shao Quanzhong stopped and looked back to the west at the central county town not far away.
Well, this place is now called "Zhongbu County" and is under the jurisdiction of Fuzhou. It will be renamed "Huangling County" in the future.
Ping'er looked around and saw that even Ruilin, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, who was not from the Shao faction, was following behind. Was there any other big shot who had not arrived yet and was worthy of the prince's eager waiting?
I saw a wedding sedan coming on the east-west Xuanyuan Avenue with music and fanfare. Whose family was getting married?
As the sedan came closer, Ping'er's mouth immediately opened wide.
The Qing Dynasty had very strict management of sedan chairs. Ordinary people could only use two people to carry a sedan chair, and only wedding sedan chairs were allowed to be carried by eight people.
But this wedding sedan was carried by sixteen people, with a silver top, yellow canopy and red curtains, and it was a specification that only Heshuo princes were allowed to ride in.
Among the people present, only Shao Quanzhong was qualified to ride in a sedan chair of this level, but in fact, Shao Quanzhong never rode in a sedan chair, and the palace did not even have that thing.
The horse that Shao Quanzhong rode was a higher grade Arabian horse, more valuable than any sedan chair.
To Ping'er, who was well versed in royal etiquette, this sedan chair was completely out of place, but she was immediately shocked.
It would be normal for such inappropriate things to happen only to Shao Quanzhong. He is almost the person who broke the most rules of the Qing royal family.
Everyone was silent, not knowing what was going on.
Even if Shao Quanzhong suddenly wanted to take a concubine, Liu Niang, Ping'er, Maria and Isabel were all carried into the mansion through the side door in a sedan chair. This could include a grand duchess and the current queen of Spain - which concubine was qualified to ride in a sedan chair carried by sixteen people?
Could it be that one of the four beauties in the harem served Shao Quanzhong well, and Shao Quanzhong wanted to give her a title? It is understandable that the concubine of the previous emperor enjoyed this treatment.
The sedan chair was carried to Shao Quanzhong, and it turned out to be from the Prince Rui's mansion. Aunt Qiao, the housekeeper of the mansion, was waiting outside the sedan chair in person, and helped a covered bride out of the sedan chair.
In front of everyone, Shao Quanzhong and his new bride kowtowed to heaven and earth, then to the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor, and finally to each other, which turned out to be the rule for marrying a legitimate wife.
Ping'er suddenly had a ridiculous thought: could this bride with a veil on her head be the Empress Dowager or even Empress Dowager Cixi? It's not impossible.
Without entering the bridal chamber, Shao Quanzhong directly lifted the bride's veil.
Ping'er felt it was even more absurd than seeing Ci'an or Cixi. Wasn't this Ronghui? Wasn't she in London? Why did she come to Huangling so quickly? Did she fly here? And why did she have to marry her again?
Ping'er entered the Shao family late and had no idea that Shao Quanzhong had offered Jiangshan as a betrothal gift. She also didn't know that Ronghui had only received the dragon and phoenix invitation from Shao Quanzhong and had never been married.
Only Bo Zai, Song Lao San and Shao Hengzhong, the three earliest brothers who followed Long, knew the reason and they all sighed and shook their heads.
At the beginning, the commander was just a militia leader, but he dared to promise the country as a betrothal gift and married Rong Hui in front of the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum. Thirteen years passed in a daze, Rong Hui was already the mother of three children, and everyone had forgotten about this matter.
Who knew that Shao Quanzhong had not forgotten. Although Shao Quanzhong did not become emperor, he was in power and had indeed managed to rule the country.
No wonder Shao Quanzhong was dawdling all the way. It turned out that walking slowly, waiting for the little emperor to react and admit defeat was secondary, waiting for the Shao family's confidants to come to cheer him on was also secondary, and waiting for Rong Hui who was in London to arrive was the main reason.
The sea route from London to China is 30,000 kilometers if you go along the Cape of Good Hope. It would take a year for a traditional sailing ship and more than 90 days for a clipper ship.
Now that we have the Suez Canal, the distance has been reduced by 10,000 kilometers, but there are still 20,000 kilometers. Even if we rent a clipper ship, it should take two months, which is the maximum speed in the eyes of ordinary people.
But who is Shao Quanzhong? Is he an ordinary person? Can he be patient enough to wait that long?
What seems like an insurmountable obstacle to ordinary people is nothing in the eyes of those in power.
Shao Quanzhong directly borrowed the light cruiser "Impermanence" from the British Royal Navy as a member of the Windsor royal family.
Designed by Sir Edward Reid, Director of Shipbuilding for the Royal Navy, it was completed in 1869, weighing 5782 tons and costing 21.3 pounds, equivalent to 68 taels of silver.
The maximum speed is 16.2 knots, the cruising speed is 13.5 knots, 25 kilometers per hour, and it is easy to sail kilometers a day. This is still a normal cruising speed that is not risking life.
Who among ordinary people can ride this thing for no reason? So in the concept of ordinary people, it is impossible for Rong Hui to go to Huangling now.
Only Shao Quanzhong's legal wife would have the honor to use the most advanced cruiser of the world's most powerful country as a travel tool.
Therefore, it took Rong Hui only more than 40 days to rush from London to the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor, without having to go through the bumpy and rough seas of a clipper ship - this was basically the maximum speed of that era.
Maria arranged for Rong Hui to come. Including this sedan chair, it was all the work of Maria, the only concubine who stayed behind in Qiao Garden. Ping'er, who was with Shao Quanzhong, didn't know. Shao Quanzhong and Rong Hui held hands, "Hui'er, I did it. Now China is undergoing full industrialization, and its industrial capacity has entered the top five in the world, catching up with France. What I promised you back then has finally come true."
Rong Hui smiled, "Actually, there are more than that."
Shao Quanzhong reported the total amount, but if we count the number of industrial products, China is almost tied with the United States for first place, Germany is third, France is fourth, and the United Kingdom is fifth.
But British industrial products are all high-tech, high-value-added products. The British Empire's fleet that crisscrosses the world is the main source of output, and with the output of many overseas territories such as India, western Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and even South Africa, the total volume is still far ahead.
The technological content of American products is also very high, so the same amount is more than twice the value of Chinese products.
As for China, apart from arms shipbuilding and the unexpectedly rising telecommunications industry, the rest are at the low end of the industrial chain.
The advanced military industry uses machine tools imported from the United States, Britain, France and Germany. China's own machine tools are not precise enough and are only suitable for civilian use.
This is the situation. In short, although China ranks last among the top five in the field of high technology, it has finally entered the top five and is already leading in terms of quantity. This has far exceeded the expectations that Yung Wing and his daughter had for Shao Quanzhong.
Rong Hui took off her wedding dress and wore the student uniform designed by Shao Quanzhong underneath. Of course, she had asked a master tailor to change it several times.
Rong Hui used to be the president of Hailing University, and even after she resigned, Hailing University still reserved this position for her.
Nowadays, girls in universities across the country have all followed suit and started wearing Ronghui-style student uniforms, and this outfit is no longer so conspicuous.
In a blink of an eye, Rong Hui is already 29 years old. But she is innocent by nature, pure in heart, and has top living conditions, so she still maintains the appearance of a girl.
Holding Shao Quanzhong's hand and smiling sweetly, she was just like the schoolgirl in Shanghai. Shao Quanzhong's heart was still shaken involuntarily.
This was the only woman he had actively pursued. Shao Quanzhong turned around and said, "Let's go and report our achievements to our ancestors!"
The worship and sacrificial ceremony began with Le Xiucai coming on stage and reading a flowery sacrificial text. Then, Shao Quanzhong and Rong Hui took the lead and bowed three times and kowtowed nine times.
Shao Quanzhong murmured to himself, "Old Ancestor, your descendants were unworthy and were bullied by foreigners. Now your descendants have caught up with the world's top powers. I will report this news to you temporarily so that you can rest assured."
"When China becomes the most powerful country in the world, I will come to report to you formally. You can watch from heaven as I overthrow the great powers one by one. Your descendants will not let you down."
Rong Hui didn't say anything, her face was already in tears.
Yung Wing and his daughter were different from Shao Quanzhong. Shao Quanzhong balanced public and private interests, having his own ambitions while also serving the country.
The ideal of the Rong family father and daughter is simply to make China stronger. They are rare pure people in the world and deserve respect from future generations.
"Marshal, it's bad, Madam Ping'er has fainted."
Aunt Qiao rushed over to take a look, and quickly pinched Ping'er's Ren Zhong point to wake her up. It seemed that maybe she was too excited because it was her first time to participate in such a large-scale event as the worship ceremony.
Ping'er woke up slowly, speechless.
Seeing the memorial ceremony coming to an end, the scholars of the Li Dynasty were eager to try and had arranged everything.
But the only thing he didn't expect was that he ended up making a wedding dress for Rong Hui.
Li Shiyu coughed and seemed to be moving forward. Ping'er was about to close her eyes in despair when she suddenly heard the sound of hurried horse hooves in the distance.
A fast horse came flying from the western road, carrying a cloud of dust, and the rider did not dismount until he reached Shao Quanzhong.
The knight turned out to be a skilled and brave eunuch in a yellow jacket. When he saw Shao Quanzhong, he flicked his sleeves left and right, kowtowed on one leg, and held a piece of information above his head, "Urgent report from the Second Chief Eunuch Haiqing!"
Shao Quanzhong took the information, looked at it for a long time, and his expression changed several times.
Suddenly he waved his hand and said, "The visit is over, everyone go back and rest."
(End of this chapter)