Building Dreams of the Qing Dynasty

He learned blacksmithing from his father when he was eleven years old, helping with hammers and burning stoves in the shop. At the age of fourteen, he was sent to the Zhan Family North and South Merchant Trading Company in Hangzhou Prefecture as an apprentice, where he studied and became literate under the ruler of the shopkeeper. At the age of eighteen, he went to Nanyang with his master to do business. Three months ago, he took a merchant ship back to the Qing Dynasty. At this time, the world's great powers had fully entered the age of steam engines, railways, transoceanic telegraphs, muskets, ships... The Western powers relied on the strength of their ships and artillery to easily knock on the door of the 340,000 Qing people. They all seemed to have gone crazy... The world is changing, rapidly and hugely... Europe and the United States are thriving! At this time, the Qing Dynasty was showing signs of exhaustion after the signing of the "Humen Treaty"... In front of the Western powers, the imperial court stripped down to nothing but its treasury, covering the left and right, and it was so sad that the word "sorrow" appeared! The Taiping Rebellion lasted for a year. The long-haired bandits actually broke through the Qing army's encirclement and suppression, and spread like wildfire, affecting southern Hunan and Hubei, shaking the Qing Dynasty... This novel and its characters are purely fictitious. Any similarity is purely coincidental and should not be imitated.