The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 899 Your Majesty, there are no more witches in Britain. They have all been wiped out!
Buckingham Palace, the Blue Drawing Room.

Queen Victoria sat gracefully in a velvet armchair, radiant and full of life. Her husband, Prince Albert, however, was curled up in a high-backed chair next door, wrapped in a thick blanket, his face ashen, his eyes sunken, and he coughed incessantly—looking as if he had been drained of all his energy.
The last rays of the setting sun streamed through the high windows, casting long shadows on the Persian carpet in the Queen's drawing room. These shadows were cast by Prime Minister Gladstone, Foreign Secretary Lord Granville, First Lord of the Admiralty Lord Northbrook, and the elderly Duke II of Wellington, Chairman of the Magic Council.

Nearly fifty years old, Robert Hurd, who had served as an advisor to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's customs for twenty years, stood in the corner—he was now an advisor on Eastern mysticism to the Magic Council, specializing in how the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had developed so mysteriously. It was simply not scientific!

“Your Majesty,” the Foreign Minister’s Adam’s apple bobbed, “according to precise information provided by the Japanese Sasebo government that we have supported… the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom assigned a type of combat personnel called ‘Naval Priestesses’ to the US-Spanish Allied Fleet.”

"Witches?!" The Queen's voice suddenly rose. "You mean, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is using witches in their wars?!"

“Yes,” the British Foreign Secretary nodded stiffly, “It is incredible, but they seem to be able to influence the battlefield through some kind of mysterious ritual.”

First Lord of the Admiralty, Earl of Northbrook, quickly added: "Your Majesty, according to the report of Royal Navy Captain Montagu, who observed the Battle of Oahu firsthand: during the Battle of Oahu, the armored cruisers and battleships of the US West Coast Minuteman Navy possessed significantly higher firing accuracy than the US East Coast Navy ships, thus gaining a tremendous advantage. There was even a miraculous instance where two US West Coast armored cruisers overpowered four US East Coast battleships! Moreover... it was observed that the enemy ships always seemed to be able to obtain favorable winds, thus gaining a slight acceleration."

"Cough cough...cough cough cough..." The prince suddenly coughed violently, his withered fingers gripping the edge of the blanket tightly. "Is this...is this true? Are there really witches serving the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom?"

His health had been deteriorating for some unspoken reason, and last year he fell seriously ill, remaining bedridden ever since. If it weren't for the "major magical problem," he wouldn't have appeared at the Imperial Council at all. After all, as a man nearing his end, he'd certainly be interested in things like "magic," "heaven," and "God the Father"! His wife is the reincarnation of Jesus' sister; could he use her recommendation to go to heaven?
The Queen's gaze swept over her husband's hunched back, she sighed softly, and then turned her gaze to the corner: "Svensson, you were a Manchu nobleman in the Qing Dynasty, and you know more about the Taiping Rebellion than anyone else. Is this 'witch' for the navy really real?"

Bai Siwen knew nothing. But he was now holding the titles of advisor to the Magic Council and royal advisor, so he couldn't be completely ignorant! How could he be an advisor if he didn't know anything? Besides, Prince Albert had treated him well; his successful business dealings between England and Red France over the years were all thanks to his connections on both sides.

However, he couldn't just spout nonsense; he had to be logical: "Your Majesty, I'm not entirely sure whether the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had witches. But I know all too well how decadent and decadent the Qing Dynasty was thirty-two years ago. Why don't you first let me tell you what China was like in 1850?"

He took a deep breath, as if recalling a nightmare. "In the thirtieth year of the Daoguang Emperor's reign, the Qing Empire was already riddled with holes."

"Corruption is rampant throughout the court. Local officials exploit the people at every level, and the people are starving everywhere. In the fertile lands of Jiangnan, starving people are even exchanging their own children to eat; in the north, droughts have plagued the land for years, leaving it barren and the dead piled up like mountains. Hundreds of millions of people cannot cultivate even a hundred million acres of land, which is simply not enough to feed them!"

"The army? Ha, the Eight Banners soldiers are already corrupt and the Green Standard Army is practically useless. Their muskets are antiques from the Kangxi era, and the cannons on the forts were even cast during the Jiajing era of the Ming Dynasty. They are rusty and the chance of a shot exploding is higher than a hit."

"In those years, opium was rampant, silver flowed out of the country, and all industries were in decline. The imperial court's annual revenue was tens of millions of taels, but the wages of ordinary soldiers were not enough to feed their families. When the British expeditionary force came, the defending troops in various places had little will to fight and often collapsed at the first contact!"
As for industry, it's practically nonexistent; even traditional handicrafts are barely surviving.

"And the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom rose up in this despair."

He paused, a look of disbelief flashing in his eyes.

"But what about now? In just thirty-two years, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has built its own ironclad fleet. The two major shipyards in Jiangnan and Liaodong alone can launch more than a dozen 10,000-ton warships a year. The total length of railways has long surpassed that of Great Britain and is second only to the United States. Its output of steel, electricity, and coal is the highest in the world! In just thirty-two years, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has become a first-class industrial country in the world!"

"Your Majesty, do you think this is reasonable?"

At this moment, Robert Hart stepped forward, bowed to the Queen, and his grey-blue eyes swept over everyone present. As an Englishman who had worked in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's customs for twenty years, a true "Kingdom expert," he knew better than anyone how incredible the rise of this empire was.

"Let me add some data." He opened his notebook, his voice calm and precise.

"In 1850, when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom first rose up, they didn't even have a decent cannon."

"But today, their industrial output is growing at an average annual rate of 19.8%, which is 4.3 times that of the British Empire."

"In 1850, China's illiteracy rate was at least 90%, while today China's literacy rate is certainly over 90%, and 95% of school-age children nationwide can receive compulsory education. The coverage rate of seven-year compulsory education has almost caught up with that of Germany!"

"What's even more incredible is that their ironclads, despite having inferior propulsion compared to ours, are able to achieve much higher speeds."

He closed his notebook, his eyes filled with doubt. "Your Majesty, do you think this can be explained by 'science'?"

"No, this is a miracle."

“Since miracles exist, then priestesses… must also exist.”

White and Hart's analysis is actually quite reasonable! It seems that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom really did militarize witches, which is outrageous! How can witches participate in human wars? The ministers and members of the Magic Committee in the Blue Hall are starting to worry.

“They’re just witches,” Victoria said casually, fiddling with her lace cuffs as if ordering afternoon tea. “Bring a thousand! My Great British Empire is the empire on which the sun never sets, how could we not have witches?”

“Your Majesty!” Bishop Benson of Truro hurriedly stepped forward, his face full of apology, “Witches… England has long since ceased to exist!”

Royal Society President Huxley shook his head repeatedly: "Witches are nonsense, of course they don't exist!"

“No,” the bishop said, a martyr’s compassion rising on his face, “witches did exist, but they were wiped out!”

The hall was deathly silent. Everyone knew how the witches of England disappeared, except for Queen Victoria, that muddle-headed and incompetent ruler.

“…annihilated?” Victoria slowly raised her head. “Who annihilated them? How did they annihilate them?”

She now believes she is the reincarnation of Mary, Jesus' sister, and even uses the New Testament version—naturally, she's not an ordinary person, and can be considered somewhat similar to magical beings like witches! Destroying witches and destroying her seem to be indirectly connected, right?
“By the Church and the Royal Family,” Prince Albert said in a hoarse voice.

“In the darkness of medieval ignorance,” Bishop Benson continued, picking up where the Prince left off, “any literate woman, any old woman who knew herbalism, any reclusive widow, unless of noble birth… was considered a spokesperson for the devil. They were burned at the stake by the Church, hanged by royal decrees! In England, at least three thousand innocent people perished.” He made the sign of the cross. “The Anglican Church would never commit such a sin again, but the tradition of witchcraft… has long been severed.”

Huxley's sneer ripped through the silence: "Your Majesty, those weren't witch exterminations, they were the end of superstition! They were nothing more than epileptics and ergot poisoning victims..."

“What about Luo Yaoguo’s ‘Great Prophecy’?” Robert Hurd suddenly spoke from the corner, his voice as calm as a customs ledger. “And his ‘Theory of Heaven’. The Empire found gold mines in South Africa with the guidance of the Great Prophecy! And the visions described in ‘Theory of Heaven’ have now become a reality on earth!”

Huxley took a deep breath and swallowed the word "coincidence".

Queen Victoria slammed her hand on the table and rose abruptly. "Absurd!" Her voice was unusually authoritative. "If the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom could train naval sorceresses, why can't my Great British Empire?"

She strode towards the wall displaying the world map, her jewel-encrusted scepter slamming heavily onto the Eurasian continent. "The Duke of Wellington!"

The elderly duke quickly stepped forward, leaning on his cane: "Your Majesty..."

"Immediately assemble a royal witch recruitment team," the Queen declared, her scepter sweeping from Western Europe to Eastern Europe. "France, Germany, Italy, Russia—every court must send an envoy!" The scepter then slammed down on the Ottoman Empire. "Tell the Sultan that we are willing to exchange their psychics for the blueprints of modern heavy artillery and ironclad warships!"

Prince Albert suddenly coughed violently: "India. Don't forget India."

“Yes! And India!” Victoria remembered she was now the Queen of India. “Have the Governor-General of India go find them! Sir Hart—”

Hart immediately stepped forward: "Your Majesty."

“Go to Japan yourself,” the Queen said, her blue eyes gleaming with anticipation. “There are three Japans now, and Luo Yaoguo only controls one. Go to the other two and see if you can find out more about the professional naval witches!”

(End of this chapter)