Twentieth Century Chronicle

Page 255

However, Akashi Genjiro still subtly expressed his concerns. This case could only affect the old Satsuma faction, such as Yamamoto and Saito. He still had no clue about the Kawahara and Togo faction, who were using the art foundation for illicit gains. Yamagata did not respond, so Akashi had no choice but to leave.

End of this chapter

Chapter 797

Before the Beiyang War, three railways formed the main north-south and east-west transportation arteries in the Central Plains region: the Beijing-Hankou Railway, the Longhai Railway, and the Tianjin-Pukou Railway. The Beiyang Army's first objective in its southward advance was to capture Xuzhou and Zhengzhou, thereby gaining control of the Longhai Railway section between them. Then, using Xuzhou and Zhengzhou as fulcrums, they planned to seize Anhui, Jiangsu, and Henan provinces to the south, ultimately launching a combined attack on Wuhan.

The Beiyang Army briefly achieved part of this first-stage objective, namely occupying Xuzhou and Zhengzhou, but failed to connect the Longhai Railway section. With the rapid fall of Zhengzhou, Feng Guozhang had to abandon his attempt to connect the Longhai Railway and retreated to Xuzhou, but was soon pressed by the Wuhan Army.

After the fall of Suzhou, Feng Guozhang abandoned Xuzhou and retreated to Zaozhuang and Jining. At this time, only two weeks had passed since the Third Army lost Zhengzhou. Thus, by mid-November, the Beiyang Army's southward plan had completely failed. Except for the First Army, which was besieged in the Pukou and Yangzhou areas, the Second and Third Armies had retreated back to the original Beiyang territory.

While Yuan Shikai was frantically setting up defensive lines and trying to find a middleman to negotiate peace with Wuhan, the Shaji Massacre in Guangzhou finally gave the Beiyang clique led by Yuan Shikai a chance to catch their breath.

While Yuan Shikai told the foreign powers that the Guangzhou incident should be resolved peacefully through diplomatic means, he also accused the Wuhan army of forcibly occupying Guangzhou, which caused a diplomatic dispute. He claimed that Wuhan must immediately stop all military operations and that if it triggered foreign intervention, then it would be entirely Wuhan's responsibility.

Yuan Shikai was actually hoping for direct intervention from the foreign powers and to intimidate the intellectuals who supported Wuhan by telling the story of the Eight-Nation Alliance. It should be said that Yuan Shikai was quite familiar with the temperament of those intellectuals, after all, he himself was an intellectual, but he turned to the army because he had no hope of passing the imperial examinations and inherited his uncle's legacy in the army.

Tien Chun-yi and other high-ranking members of the Workers' Party did feel political pressure. Ordinary party members and the masses expressed their desire to fully reclaim national sovereignty and expel the foreign powers' troops stationed in China. However, some high-ranking party members and friends outside the party argued that the party should not divert its efforts. They believed that the party's main goal at present was to unify the country, not to go to war with the foreign powers. They argued that targeting the foreign powers would greatly hinder the unification cause.

Even the main members of the Military Commission, Cai E and Wu Luzhen, hesitated in the face of this incident. Although they advocated to take back national sovereignty, they still believed that one should take things one step at a time and that unifying the country was the top priority. The plan to take back national sovereignty should be made after unification.

For the first time, Tien Chun-yi felt what political pressure was. In the past, the choices he faced had given him almost no pressure, because right and wrong were extremely obvious; as long as the right path was chosen, everything was fine. And how was this right and wrong distinguished? Naturally, it was distinguished by the path of proletarian revolution, which was precisely the most powerful weapon that Lin Hsin-yi had brought to the Workers' Party.

It was precisely because the Workers' Party possessed this powerful weapon that it was able to survive and thrive amidst the encirclement and suppression by the great powers, the Manchu Qing dynasty, and the landlord militias. In contrast, the reformers and revolutionaries consistently failed to develop a unified standard for distinguishing right from wrong, ultimately declaring the bankruptcy of their own ideologies in their choices.

The reformers attempted to use the Chinese nation to eliminate the history of oppression of various ethnic groups by the Manchus, and to alleviate the continued oppression of peasants by the landlord class. They wanted to get various ethnic groups and peasants to fight for the interests of the Manchu dynasty and the landlord class and the foreign powers. This lie was not even accepted by the Manchus, and the death of the Six Gentlemen ultimately declared the bankruptcy of the reform ideology.

Although the revolutionaries put forward the anti-Manchu revolution and the Three Principles of the People, apart from the anti-Manchu revolution being able to stimulate anti-national oppression sentiments among various ethnic groups, after Yuan Shikai came to power, people of all ethnic groups quickly realized that there was actually no difference between the Manchu emperor and the Han landlords. If the Manchus were overthrown but the landlords were not, their oppressed situation remained unchanged.

Therefore, even after the Tongmenghui reorganized into the Chinese Revolutionary Party, it still lacked appeal. The slogan "Down with the Manchus!" was replaced by "Down with the Beiyang Government." Could this solve the land problem? Could it resolve the unequal distribution of wealth, where the proletariat toiled without reward while the propertied class reaped without labor? The people weren't fools. The fact that the gentry remained gentry even after the Manchus fell told them that while the revolutionaries' slogans were appealing, they were ultimately just a group of new gentry trying to replace the old ones. Their oppressive order could not be overthrown.

This is similar to how the Qing Dynasty constantly proclaimed its intention to clean up corruption, only to replace it with wave after wave of corrupt officials. The so-called "honest officials," in their essence, continued the Manchus' plunder of the lower classes, pocketing their share of the spoils. Their "honesty" was directed at the emperor, not the people. Therefore, it was foolish for feudal dynasties to particularly promote honest officials, and for laborers to worship them. It's like helping wolves prey on tigers without first feeding themselves; they let the tigers eat their share first. That's what an "honest official" is.

Only the proletarian revolutionary path chosen by the Labour Party, which remained consistent in its opposition to the old order of man oppressing man, could gain the support of the vast majority of workers and peasants. Although some peasants accused the Labour Party of going back on its word by attempting to reclaim land ownership after the land distribution, this was precisely a manifestation of the Labour Party's adherence to the ideals of proletarian revolution. Not eliminating private ownership but attempting to maintain its rule by utilizing the support of small farmers—wasn't this a restoration of the landlord class?

Therefore, although there were disagreements and struggles among the upper echelons of the Party, ordinary Party members and the masses outside the Party always supported the Party's fundamental ideals. This made it impossible for senior Party members who tried to suppress the revolutionary will of workers and peasants with their achievements to change the Party's main line. Those who resigned in anger and the so-called celebrities of the Party also quickly lost their political reputation after leaving the Party organization.

What makes Tian Junyi's choice difficult is that neither of the two options he faces seems to deviate from the proletarian revolutionary line. However, the line supported by the masses is more radical, while the line advocated by some party cadres is slightly more conservative.

So after the Longhai Railway was opened, he ordered Qin Lishan, who was in charge of political work in Zhengzhou, to go to Qingdao to meet with Lin Xinyi and ask for clearer opinions on the two lines within the party. Lin Xinyi had previously replied, but this time his reply was very simple: he obeyed the party's decision.

Tian Junyi also realized that Lin Xinyi might be reluctant to comment on the Shaki massacre because of his Japanese identity, but he still believed that it was necessary to have a clearer understanding of Lin Xinyi's complete thoughts on the matter. After all, the incident had indeed caused conflict between the Japanese and Chinese proletariat, and Lin Xinyi's thoughts could serve as a reference for the ideology of the Social Democratic Party of Japan.

The Asian League is not only the Asian National Liberation League that Lin Xinyi has high hopes for, but also the primary league of the Asian Proletarian Grand League that the Workers' Party expects. Only after the independence of various Asian nations is completed can it guide various regions of Asia into the stage of proletarian revolution. And the victory of the Asian proletarian revolution is the foundation for the formal establishment of the Chinese proletarian regime.

Following the Second International's Eastern Conference in Wuhan, numerous debates among Lenin, Trotsky, and European socialists greatly impacted the Workers' Party's ideology. Communism was no longer a mere illusion, but rather began to take shape.

This is why Tian Junyi understood why Lin Xinyi strongly advocated inviting the Second International to Wuhan for a meeting. Although European socialists were focusing their efforts on establishing socialism in Europe at the time and did not pay much attention to regions outside Europe, according to the mainstream European socialist view, Europe was the center of the world. As long as socialism was established in Europe, the whole world would be affected and turn to socialism.

For socialists outside of Europe, this argument still retains the style of Eurocentrism and imperialist expansionism. Lin Xinyi once privately complained, "Trotsky and some European socialists regarded socialist countries as red empires. They regarded socialism as the manifest destiny of the red empires and tried to expel feudalism and capitalism from the frontiers of socialism, just as the Americans expelled the Native Americans."

Only at this time did Tian Junyi and others understand why Lin Xinyi advocated inviting Lenin to Wuhan. Trotsky's socialist theory was not actually a personal viewpoint, but a system accumulated over a century of European socialist research. Only Lenin, who was familiar with this system, could easily suppress his opponents in theory and refute those self-contradictory theories.

No socialist outside of Europe could force a figure like Trotsky to admit his mistakes; such an act would only escalate into a confrontation between the Eastern and Western proletariat, which is clearly detrimental to proletarian unity. Why do the proletariat need to unite? Because capitalist production has evolved into a globalized era. If the proletariat cannot unite, it will become a form of oppression of isolated regional proletarians by globalized capitalism.

Although European socialists retained many imperialist and civilization-centristic ideas, they were right about one thing: Europe produced half of the world's social wealth, and if the proletarian revolution in Europe could not succeed, then proletarian revolutions in other regions would be even less likely to succeed.

This Eastern Conference of the Workers' International and the debates between European socialists greatly broadened the horizons of Eastern socialists and gave the Workers' Party a basic understanding of capitalism. Ironically, although the Wuhan Workers' Party advocated the socialist road and opposed capitalism, most members knew almost nothing about capitalism or socialism. In many cases, grassroots party organizations were using capitalist modes of production to oppose the modes of production of landlords and small peasants.

What are the consequences of this problem? It turns socialism, which was based on eliminating private ownership, into a capitalist value system that pursues personal wealth. Many grassroots Party organizations eliminate small farmers and landlords with the goal of getting rich, but they disdain eliminating private ownership, believing that this is eating from the same pot and fostering laziness.

This international workers' conference and great debate finally made some party members truly understand the difference between capitalism and socialism, and no longer regard communism as an inexplicable ideal. Instead, they could only shout that the people should follow the party without thinking, because the party represents the direction of communism.

Tian Junyi had a deeper understanding of socialism than others because when he first met Lin Xinyi, the latter introduced him to the capitalist mode of production. At that time, he did not understand what the disadvantages of this mode of production were.

However, after these years of revolutionary journeys and this debate among European socialists, he finally began to understand why Lin Xinyi had always insisted on the idea of ​​the unity of the Asian proletariat and the world proletariat. Under the trend of globalization of capitalist production, world capitalism has begun to unite. This confrontation in Europe is just an attempt by various capitalist countries to resolve their rivals by force, rather than to divide the world. This is different from the colonial wars of the last century.

Under this trend of capitalist integration, attempts to establish a proletarian regime in a region or country to counter globalized capitalism are clearly doomed to failure. This is because globalized capitalism means that they can use the power of the proletariat in other regions to counter local proletarian regimes, and ultimately use the power of the proletariat to defeat the proletariat. This is similar to the British colonial process of occupying India.

Qin Lishan arrived in Qingdao on November 27. By then, Li Chun's troops had retreated to Suzhou and Shanghai. The area between the Longhai Railway and the Yangtze River had been liberated by Wuhan. At this time, the Wuhan army had 10 divisions, and another four divisions were being formed. In other words, Wuhan had officially entered a state of full mobilization.

Based on the current mobilization efficiency, Wuhan will have an armed force of 20 divisions by March next year, and this is not the limit of Wuhan's mobilization capacity. According to the Military Commission's calculations, Wuhan can mobilize an additional 10 divisions of reinforcements; any more would disrupt social production and order.

Given the military strength mobilized in Wuhan, unless Japan also undertook a full mobilization, it would be impossible to suppress Wuhan's military forces on the mainland. At that time, there were only three local military forces within China comparable to the Beiyang Division. (The Beiyang Division refers to...)

The standard for the six Beiyang garrisons was not the later expansion of the garrison divisions.

The standard for the six divisions of the Beiyang Army was 54 cannons. However, in reality, the Beiyang's own expanded divisions were considered adequate with 36 cannons. These cannons should at least be Japanese-made, not just domestically produced cannons from the Qing Dynasty. Twelve 75mm mountain guns, purchased from abroad, cost 170,000 taels of silver—and that was the price during peacetime. During wartime, the price would increase by at least 50%. Besides the Beiyang Army and the Wuhan Garrison, what local power could afford that?

Beiyang relied on loans from foreign powers, while Wuhan relied on its own production. However, Wuhan did not produce many field guns and mountain guns, but it did produce a large number of cheap mortars. Although their power was not as great as the 75mm mountain guns and field guns, their cheapness made them able to suppress troops that could only use Maxim guns as their main firepower.

The reason why the Beiyang Army lost so quickly this time was that it was completely suppressed by the Southern Army in terms of firepower at the battalion and regimental level. The divisional artillery could only be used when the battle line was deployed. As a result, the Beiyang artillery units were captured by the Southern Army with almost no use. Even if artillery positions were established, the Beiyang Army was still in a situation of being beaten when faced with the Southern Army's divisional artillery units that followed up.

Therefore, Wuhan was worried that intervention by foreign powers would cause the loss of the opportunity for a rapid unification of China, because in a state of non-intervention, the Red Army had no real rivals domestically. Leaving aside tactical and organizational issues, Wuhan completely suppressed all other sides in terms of military equipment and economic strength alone.

Lin Xinyi did not hesitate to address the questions raised by Qin Lishan. He told Qin Lishan, "The ultimate goal of the proletarian revolution is actually to eliminate the contradictions between states and between ethnic groups, and ultimately to eliminate class contradictions. But we must first acknowledge that the state and the nation are real entities, not abstract and nonexistent concepts."

The reason I sent a telegram to the Central Committee to express my obedience to its resolution was not because there was anything wrong with saying it, but because, as a member of the proletariat, I advocated obeying the needs of the proletarian revolution.

The essence of the Shaqi massacre was imperialist interference in the Chinese proletarian revolution. We should oppose imperialist interference, but we must distinguish between the different positions of imperialism and the proletariat of various countries. We cannot regard the nation and the people as an integrated entity. Otherwise, the antagonism between the nation and the people will lead to concrete confrontation, and the proletariat of various countries and nations will be torn apart, with the capitalist and landlord classes of their own country and nation opposing the proletariat of other countries and nations.

The current situation in Europe is a direct result of the division and antagonism of the European proletariat by nations and ethnicities. If the proletariat fails to recognize this, then war in Europe will be unavoidable. The Shaki massacre is, in essence, nothing more than a replay of the confrontational situation in Europe.

As for what choice the proletariat should make, I believe that uniting the proletariat against imperialism is always the only correct way. And I believe the Party is capable of making such a decision, therefore I obey the Party's resolution…”

End of this chapter

Chapter 798

After listening to Lin Xinyi's opinion, Qin Lishan raised two concerns that Tian Junyi had raised: "Committee Member Tian has another concern: could the Shaqi massacre be a probing act by the great powers to directly intervene in China? If so, even if we make temporary concessions, it will only provoke the ambitions of Britain and France."

After pondering this question for a while, Lin Xinyi said, "In my opinion, the Shaqi massacre may just be a common practice of imperialism, rather than a state-led act. However, Committee Member Tian's concerns are not unfounded. Judging from Britain's performance in the process of global colonization, most colonial wars started as individual actions by lower-ranking officers, and were then escalated by the British government. The British government's criterion for whether to escalate a war was whether it could obtain greater benefits at a smaller cost."

British overseas troops and diplomats have a rich imperialist tradition, accustomed to using the threat of force and diplomatic deception to gain benefits, thereby accumulating wealth and advancement for themselves. Therefore, if the Chinese government appears weak and easily bullied, imperialism will certainly not relinquish the opportunity to escalate the conflict for its own gain.

In fact, as the Wuhan Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' regime expanded from the region to the whole country, it meant that the Workers' Party would become the ruling party of the country. The proletarian nature of the Workers' Party itself and the class nature inherent in the state apparatus would strengthen the party's power, but at the same time, it would separate the party from the proletariat.

Standing on the proletarian side and standing on the national side are not always consistent. In the past, we could attribute problems to the Beiyang clique, but in the future, the Party will have to fight against its own bureaucratic style and petty-bourgeois consciousness.

In my personal view, using the Shaqi massacre to clarify the Party's class nature and its primary goal of holding state power is not a bad thing. With the support of the people, all imperialism is nothing but a paper tiger. As long as we correctly distinguish the relationship between imperialism and the proletariat, and avoid personifying the state and extending imperialism to the entire nation, then the Chinese proletariat is only dealing with a portion of the ruling class among the various powers, not the union of all the powers…”

Qin Lishan meticulously recorded Lin Xinyi's statements on imperialism. As one of the earliest members of the Workers' Party to come into contact with Lin Xinyi, he always believed that Lin Xinyi always had a way to deal with the difficulties on the revolutionary path, and that the solutions were effective. Naturally, he also tended to favor the solutions offered by Lin Xinyi.

Of course, Lin Xinyi did not just talk about solutions. He analyzed for Qin Lishan, "In fact, there is no possibility of reconciliation in the current confrontational situation in Europe. A war is the best way to resolve the conflict between the two major camps in Europe, because Europe's productivity has exceeded the consumption capacity of the world's consumer market, and the old colonial system can hardly maintain the current international trade system."

Although German capital reduced trade conflicts with old colonial empires like Britain and France through China's industrialization, Germany could not be self-sufficient in industrial raw materials. Now, Britain and France were trying to limit the scale of German industry to prevent German industrial power from disrupting the balance of power among European countries, making it difficult for Germany to reach an agreement with Britain and France.

Similarly, American capital needs a war among industrialized nations to deplete global industrial capacity, thereby clearing obstacles to foreign trade for American industrial development. Therefore, the Americans will not prevent a war in Europe. With internal desires for war in Europe coupled with a lack of external pressure to stop it, a war is inevitable.

In this situation, Britain and France were not actually capable of taking large-scale intervention actions in the Far East. They could not even provide financial support to Japan and China as they had in the previous Far East wars, because Britain and France needed to concentrate their resources on countering the war risk from Germany.

Therefore, we should seek support from the Germans, mainly in the transfer of science and technology and industrial technology. The Germans would not agree to this in peacetime, but given the possibility of war between China and Britain and France, Germany should now be willing to do whatever it takes to encourage China to provoke Britain and France, thereby delaying the outbreak of war in Europe.

After all, every day the war is postponed strengthens Germany. Of course, we could also begin stockpiling military supplies in Europe and sell them to Germany before the war breaks out, to offset German investments in China…”

The results of Lin Xinyi and Qin Lishan's conversation were quickly sent back to Wuhan in the form of a telegram. After discussing it with the members of the Politburo, Tian Junyi decided to take Lin Xinyi's suggestion and seek support from Germany while negotiating with various countries about the Shaqi massacre.

Following Lin Xinyi's suggestion, the Workers' Party's primary technology transfer request to Germany was ammonia synthesis technology. In 1909, German physicist and chemical engineer Haper successfully produced 90 grams of synthetic ammonia in his laboratory, greatly shocking the scientific community. However, at this time, governments around the world had not yet realized the importance of synthetic ammonia; only chemical giants attempted to monopolize the technology.

In September 1913, Germany had completed the industrial production of synthetic ammonia, but this news was kept secret because the German military finally realized that synthetic ammonia was essential for Germany's production of explosives should war break out, and this technology could not be expanded to other countries.

The Workers' Party proposed synthetic ammonia technology to the Germans, for reasons similar to those of the German military. The raw materials used in the production of explosives worldwide all came from nitrate mines in South America, and Chile's nitrate production was almost entirely controlled by British capital. This meant that if war broke out with Britain and France, China would not be able to obtain imported nitrates. Therefore, before Germany transferred synthetic ammonia technology, China could not make up its mind to retaliate against the provocations of Britain and France.

Although the German military was hesitant about the Workers' Party's request, it did not reject it outright, because Russia had already begun war preparations. Russia had started expanding railway stations throughout Europe, and this expansion only meant one thing: Russia was improving its troops' rapid deployment capabilities.

As the country with the most advanced railway construction in Europe, the Germans are well aware that the purpose of expanding railway platforms is for military purposes, because only the movement of large armies requires longer platforms. Can we really believe the Russians' sweet talk about Russo-German friendship while they are preparing for war?

To prevent Austria-Hungary from hesitating, the German military began encouraging the empire to further control the Balkans, in order to prevent Russia and Britain and France from cooperating to cut off Germany's railway lines to West Asia. The German military did not want to engage in a war of attrition with Russia; after all, the French had already proven in the Napoleonic Wars that attempting to conquer a vast empire would only drain one's last drop of blood.

The German military hoped to curb Russia's desire to wage war and defeat the main French forces before Russia could launch an attack. From the German perspective, the core of this Allied encirclement of Germany was actually the French. While the British were powerful, they didn't have much real animosity towards Germany. The conflict between Russia and Germany was merely a trade dispute. The real conflict lay between Germany and France, stemming not only from historical hatred but also from the question of who was the dominant power in Europe.

The industrial competition between France and Germany was fierce. Even though France was labeled a usurious imperialist power, it still entered the Industrial Revolution earlier than Germany. However, the French industrial system was supported by its vast North African colonies, so it lacked the ambition of German industry, which led to its defeat by Germany in the Franco-Prussian War.

One of the major consequences of the Franco-Prussian War was that the French lost Alsace and Lorraine, two important steel-producing regions, which allowed western Germany's industrial areas to develop rapidly and surpass the eastern industrial areas of the former Prussian era. This was quite fatal for France's industrial development.

Germany cannot reconcile with France over the Alsace-Lorraine issue because these two regions are crucial to the integrity of Germany's western industrial region. The core conflict between Germany and France lies in whoever wins will control the industrial center of Western Europe. If Alsace-Lorraine falls to France, then the industrial region of northeastern France, combined with its steel resources, could overwhelm Germany's western industrial region, thus giving France an industrial advantage in western Germany.

Of course, Germany and France did not realize at this time that the steel age was coming to an end and the information age and oil age were about to arrive. Therefore, the value of Alsace and Lorraine, which the two sides were vying for, would continue to decline, while the value of the Middle East would continue to rise.

Because the Germans were unaware of this, they believed that the Franco-German conflict was irreconcilable. Therefore, given the inevitable outbreak of war, involving China in the conflict would clearly be advantageous for Germany. After careful consideration, the German military decided to sell the synthetic ammonia plant to the Workers' Party, but did not intend to transfer the technology.

At that time, the industrial scale of synthetic ammonia was not large. A single synthetic ammonia plant could only produce 1000-1500 tons per year. However, for an agricultural country like China, this technology was indeed high-end, because it meant that China's agricultural output would gain new growth points through the development of industrial technology, rather than simply relying on land reclamation to expand the area and increase production.

In mid-December, as the Wuhan troops entered Suzhou, the Zhejiang government sent representatives to Wuhan to express its obedience to the orders of the new National Assembly and its refusal to accept orders from Beijing. Zhejiang had been inclined towards revolution since the fall of the Qing Dynasty, but the existence of considerable conservative forces within the province meant that the province had been wavering between revolution and counter-revolution.

However, after the Wuhan army nearly conquered all of Jiangsu, the revolutionaries in Zhejiang finally gained the upper hand. Through their connections with Datong Academy, the enlightened gentry of Zhejiang once again sided with the revolutionaries to prevent the war from spreading into the province. After the Taiping Rebellion, Zhejiang, with its significantly reduced population, had little interest in fighting within the province, especially the merchants and gentry of Hangzhou, who resolutely opposed turning Hangzhou into a battlefield and would support whoever was stronger to rule Hangzhou.

After Wuhan's troops appeared on the outskirts of Shanghai, the Wuhan regime's position on the Shamian Massacre began to become clear. First, the Labor Party believed that the entire responsibility for the Shamian Massacre lay with the foreign powers, not the protesting masses. Therefore, the foreign powers needed to apologize for the massacre, compensate the victims, and demand the return of the Shamian Concession, the revocation of all extraterritorial rights, and the revision of the treaty.

After the establishment of the Wuhan regime, it virtually abolished the privileges of foreigners within its controlled areas, but this was not explicitly confirmed in writing. In other words, the privileges of the great powers in China were still protected by treaties, a fact acknowledged by Beijing. After the establishment of the Republic of China, the State Council led by Yuan Shikai adopted almost entirely the agreements reached between the Qing Dynasty and other foreign powers during the treaty exchange.

This time, Tian Junyi and other high-ranking members of the Workers' Party have decided to no longer accept the unequal treaties reached between the foreign powers and the Qing Dynasty, and pointed out that the Beiyang clique represented by Yuan Shikai betrayed the Chinese people by taking the stance on the Shaji Massacre.

The Wuhan Workers' Party's hardline stance in diplomacy was causing the great powers to lose their ability to interfere in China's affairs. The great powers' interference in China mainly consisted of two types: direct military threats and diplomatic intervention. The former was used most frequently before the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China, but after the Eight-Nation Alliance withdrew from China, the great powers were less willing to use direct force because the cost was too high.

The premise for the great powers' preference for military intervention, as exemplified by the recent Shaqi massacre, is the use of advanced weaponry to slaughter unarmed civilians. With such overwhelming military superiority, they can achieve unexpected gains with minimal cost, making military intervention a natural choice for any great power. However, while the Eight-Nation Alliance achieved victory in its invasion of North China, the spontaneous resistance from the local population prevented them from gaining the expected benefits, thus discouraging military intervention.

As Lin Xinyi commented, the Shaqi massacre was not an action led by the governments of the great powers, but rather a habitual act of their overseas personnel. In the past, they had always been accustomed to using such superior force to resolve resistance issues in the colonies, and naturally did not consider whether the Chinese would be able to retaliate afterward.

However, the British and French governments were well aware that they were not capable of waging war against China in the Far East. Even though the Labour Party had not yet become the ruling party in China, Britain and France did not have the strength to confront the Labour Party, which could organize dozens of divisions, in the East. They could only use Japan's military force as a threat and then seek a diplomatic solution.

Of course, the diplomatic solution that the British and French governments wanted was not to yield to the Labour Party, but to demand that the Labour Party, as the new regime in China, accept the Far Eastern order established by Britain and France, so that they could not pursue the Chinese for violating the treaty and clashing with the concessions.

Britain and France's efforts to win over the Japanese government and threaten war in Wuhan were a shot in the arm for Beijing. After all, in the eyes of the Beiyang generals, the great powers' refusal to compromise on diplomacy and Wuhan would inevitably lead to their intervention in the Chinese civil war. This was a history they had repeatedly experienced in the Qing Dynasty. Foreigners were never afraid of threats and would only use force to crush them.

However, the Shaqi Massacre and the Beiyang Army's pro-foreign stance angered some progressive youths within the Beiyang Army. On December 20th, the officers and soldiers of the 20th Division, marching to Dezhou, declared neutrality, refusing to accept orders from Beijing and engage the Southern Army. The 20th Division sent a telegram to the entire nation demanding an end to the civil war, the return of foreign rights and interests, and opposition to foreign interference in China's internal affairs.

The Dezhou Mutiny further shattered the confidence of the Beiyang Army and the Southern Army in fighting each other. Feng Guozhang quickly sent a telegram to Beijing, stating that the officers and soldiers at the front requested a ceasefire and opposed the intervention of the foreign powers. He said that the war could not continue and that if the Beiyang Army tried to cooperate with the foreign powers to fight against the Southern Army, it would likely lead to a complete chaos in the army.

Yuan Shikai certainly couldn't give up cooperation with the foreign powers and contact with the Wuhan authorities. The conditions proposed by the Workers' Party were unacceptable to him. The Workers' Party not only demanded his resignation but also wanted a complete reorganization of the Beiyang government. What was the difference between that and surrender? Therefore, the foreign powers were the last straw for the Beiyang government, and he could not possibly agree to negotiate peace according to the Workers' Party's demands.

While sending people to persuade the officers and soldiers of the 20th Division to cancel the mutiny, Yuan Shikai also mobilized part of the 5th Division to quell the rebellion of the 20th Division. However, the 5th Division stopped in Yangxin after crossing the Yellow River and issued a telegram expressing its support for the demands of the officers and soldiers of the 20th Division and withdrawing from the civil war.

Although Jin Yunpeng did not trust Zheng Shiqi, Zheng Shiqi had great prestige among the officers and soldiers of the Fifth Division. In suppressing the internal struggle of the 20th Division mutiny, Zheng Shiqi was obviously more capable of organizing the officers and soldiers of the Fifth Division to side with the officers and soldiers of the 20th Division. Therefore, he also arranged for his confidant Zhang Shuyuan to be included in the punitive expedition.

However, with the Beiyang Army suffering repeated defeats at the front, how could Zhang Shuyuan dare to continue opposing officers and soldiers who did not want to continue fighting? The 20th Division launched a mutiny in Dezhou because it did not want to go south to participate in the war; otherwise, it would not have marched to Dezhou before announcing the mutiny. The officers and soldiers of the 5th Division also had no hope of winning this war, feeling that continuing to fight was nothing but suicide, and that it would be better to withdraw from the war and declare neutrality like the 20th Division.

Moreover, as the commander of the Fifth Division, Jin Yunpeng benefited only from the support of his cronies. He used military pay to lend money at exorbitant interest rates, enriching his own family, but what benefit did the officers and soldiers of the Fifth Division receive? Jin Yunpeng went from a poor peddler to a large landowner in his hometown, and his younger brother also became an officer. He had indeed made a name for himself, but this success was achieved by exploiting the soldiers. Why would the officers and soldiers of the Fifth Division be willing to die for Jin Yunpeng's family?

Jin Yunpeng was not an exception. It was common for Beiyang division commanders to use military funds to lend money at high interest rates and then default on military payments. Almost everyone made their fortunes this way. Even Duan Qirui, who was known for his integrity, had a money shop called Chunhuamao in Beijing and a business called Chunzhimao in Tianjin. The capital for these businesses also came from military funds.

These problems were not issues when the Beiyang Army was winning on the battlefield, but since they were losing on the battlefield, they could not expect their subordinates to risk their lives for their division commanders.

End of this chapter

Chapter 799

After the Dezhou Mutiny of the 20th Division, Duan Qirui dared not continue to abandon the situation. He knew very well that if he really followed Wuhan's demands, the Beiyang government as a political group would cease to exist, because Wuhan's demands fundamentally undermined the warlord system maintained by the Beiyang government, which meant that the Beiyang government had lost its foundation for existence.

The Southern Kuomintang could still use political slogans like democracy and science to engage in political maneuvering with the Labor Party, but the Beiyang government was a group sustained by military power. Once it lost its military strength, what could it use to bargain with the Labor Party? For the survival of the Beiyang group, the upper echelons finally set aside their differences and united in an attempt to hinder the Southern army's advance on Beijing.

However, the Beiyang leadership in Beijing could still call out to the front-line troops, urging them to fight to the bitter end for the interests of the Beiyang group, at least to hold off the Southern army's offensive on the battlefield, before they could negotiate with Wuhan.

By this time, Yuan Shikai had lost interest in a North-South division. He telegraphed Wuhan, stating that he was willing to relinquish the position of Chairman of the State Council, but implored that the Beiyang government's organizational structure be preserved. Yuan Shikai attempted to lure Tian Junyi into negotiations by offering him the high position, thereby preserving the Beiyang government's territory and preventing it from being swept away by the new government.

However, Tian Junyi had no interest in the conditions offered by Yuan Shikai. Not to mention that the goal of the Workers' Party was not just to unify the country, even from a pragmatic point of view, the Beiyang group at this time was not qualified to bargain with Wuhan, because the Beiyang had not only suffered military defeats, but had also completely lost the support of the people politically.

From the moment the Beiyang government attempted to unite with foreign powers to attack Wuhan, it had effectively lost its value in united front work, transforming itself into a vassal state similar to the Qing government before Emperor Guangxu's abdication. Before the war, Wuhan still offered the Beiyang government a chance for self-reform: to abandon its efforts to protect the interests of the landlord class, hand over its troops, and await reform. To avoid unnecessary sacrifices, the Workers' Party naturally accepted the Beiyang government's attempt to reform.

However, after the Beiyang government accepted funding from foreign powers to wage war against Wuhan, the Workers' Party could no longer compromise with the Beiyang clique. Compromise would mean Wuhan would have to acknowledge a series of unequal treaties signed between the Beiyang government and the foreign powers, which the Workers' Party could not tolerate. They couldn't very well expect Wuhan to repay the principal and interest on the loans the Beiyang government had used to launch the civil war, could they?

Moreover, the military and civilians of Wuhan, who have been fully mobilized, cannot arbitrarily interrupt the current mobilization system. The difference between industrial and agricultural societies is that once a machine is running, stopping its operation will cause enormous losses, and restarting it will require even more resources. Agricultural societies do not have this problem because they are always in a state of resource shortage. They fight as many battles as they have resources, and if they don't fight, they can save some resources.

Wuhan's mobilization system was close to Japan's level, and even more efficient than Japan's in the Wuhan area, because Wuhan was fully organized. In the city, there were the Labor Party, the Communist Youth League, the Women's Association, the Young Pioneers, the Trade Union, and the Chamber of Commerce, while in the countryside there were cooperatives and militia systems. Almost everyone was assigned to one or more organizations, and the orders of the Party and the Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Committees could be quickly transmitted to individuals.

At this time, Japan mainly relied on the police and household heads to control the grassroots of society, mainly through strict control of rural areas. In terms of mobilization capacity and effectiveness, Japan's conscription system was not as efficient as the mobilization system in Wuhan. After all, Japan's conscription system could only ensure that the army could obtain additional manpower, but could not maintain social production and the distribution of wartime materials.

Of course, the problem with Wuhan's mobilization system lay in its unevenness. Being far removed from the industrial city of Wuhan, the strength of its organizations weakened, since these organizations were built upon industry and their daily operations were designed to facilitate the smooth functioning of an industrial society. Overall, Japan's conscription system, having covered the entire country, was generally more effective than the system implemented in all areas under Wuhan's jurisdiction.

However, the Beiyang Army's recruitment system was still at the level of the late Qing Dynasty's Self-Strengthening Movement. It was fine for dealing with small-scale wars, since it could train a Beiyang Army through elite training methods like Xiaozhan. But it was not qualified for a full-scale war. The Beiyang Army was ultimately the armed force of the landlord class. Yuan Shikai could neither instill nationalism in them nor promote class consciousness. As for defending the country, the Qing Dynasty was sold out by the Beiyang Army. After the expansion of the army, most of the soldiers became landless peasants with no home to protect.

Therefore, everyone in the Beiyang Army understood that their military force was solely for personal advancement, for promotions and wealth, like Cao Kun and Jin Yunpeng who climbed the ranks through military merit. This military merit, of course, did not refer to fighting against foreigners, but rather to fighting against revolutionaries and peasant armed forces, all in order to protect the interests of the landlords.

When facing poorly equipped revolutionary and peasant armies, the Beiyang Army could naturally display considerable bravery, as modern military training and equipment instilled in them immense courage. However, when facing the Russian army, armed with imperialist forces, the Beiyang Army could not withstand them. They knew that the Russian Tsar could continuously mobilize troops to annihilate them, and if they died in battle, what promotions or wealth would they gain?

Now the Beiyang Army is facing the same problem as the Southern Army. Unlike the revolutionary armed forces that fight solely based on revolutionary ideals, the Red Army led by Wuhan is also a military group supported by an industrial system. The officers and soldiers of the Red Army are very clear about why they are fighting and what changes they can bring to China after eliminating the Beiyang Army. Therefore, the initiative of the Red Army in fighting is much higher than that of the Beiyang Army.

The continuous influx of manpower and supplies from behind the Red Army fueled the despair of the Beiyang Army at the front. They constantly felt the Southern Army's numbers increasing while their own reinforcements dwindled—not only in manpower but also in supplies. At this point, the Beiyang leadership in Beijing's call for their officers and soldiers to fight the Red Army with a vengeance was utterly ridiculous. When the Southern Army forced the Manchus to abdicate, Yuan Shikai hadn't been inspired to act with any conscience either.

Therefore, the resistance orders issued by Yuan Shikai, Duan Qirui, and other generals to the Beiyang Army at the front lines only fueled their despair. They felt that Beijing had no more support to send, and thus could only send telegrams ordering them to fight the Red Army to the death. As a result, large numbers of deserters and organized surrenders began to occur within the Beiyang Army at the front lines.

The commander of the First Army, who had retreated to Shanghai, announced his resignation on New Year's Day, 1915, abandoning his remaining troops and hiding in the foreign concessions. Li Chun's resignation was also out of necessity, because after the Shakira Massacre, the British and French governments realized that the risk of direct conflict in the Far East had increased, and the weakness of the Beiyang Army on the battlefield had disrupted their expected north-south confrontation. This led Britain and France to declare neutrality in the Chinese Civil War and refuse to provide military support to the Beiyang Army.

Without the support of the great powers, the remnants of the First Army would not have been able to hold Shanghai. Moreover, the merchants and people of Shanghai did not want the Beiyang Army and the Red Army to fight in Shanghai. Even if those comprador merchants supported the Beiyang Army and the Red Army to fight, they would not agree to the two armies fighting on their doorstep. Therefore, the merchants and people of Shanghai persuaded Li Chun to hand over command of the army. They were willing to pay him a sum of money to go abroad for inspection.

The lack of support from the great powers meant that the remnants of the First Army lost their supplies and even had no hope of retreating to the north. The Japanese Navy refused to provide ships for the First Army's retreat, and other great powers were unwilling to continue investing in the Beiyang Fleet. The First Army became an isolated force with no way to retreat in Shanghai. Li Chun dared not surrender to Wuhan because his looting of civilians during the First Army's southward march had angered Wuhan. So, in the end, he chose to resign with money.

Li Chun announced his resignation, and the seven or eight thousand Beiyang Army troops that retreated to Shanghai quickly surrendered their weapons to the pursuing Wuhan troops. The powers such as Britain, France, and the United States began to negotiate directly with the Wuhan authorities, demanding protection of Shanghai's security and that the concession areas not be violated.