Twentieth Century Chronicle

Page 117

After a moment's hesitation, he said to Cai E, "The 7th Division is willing to take on the vanguard role; however, we need horses and wagons. The biggest difficulty in this operation lies in logistics..."

On November 3, Yuan Shikai, the newly appointed chairman of the National Assembly, issued the titles of principal officials to the 15 reorganized central departments, abolishing the old titles of minister and vice minister, and replacing them with ministers and vice ministers, modeled after Japan and Britain, with departments, bureaus, and sections under them.

In this reform of the central system, the Eight Banners naturally suffered the greatest losses. Nominally, all Manchu and Han ministers were dismissed, but in reality, the position of Manchu minister was abolished. None of the high-ranking Manchu and Mongol Eight Banner officials remained in the central government; they were all rendered idle. Locally, there was little opposition to this proclamation, because the purpose of supporting constitutionalism was to counter the Manchu-dominated politics. Those incompetent Manchu and Mongol Eight Banner officials occupying high positions were practically useless except for soliciting bribes. Since the rise of Han power during the Tongzhi reign, this was the most objectionable aspect of the reform.

In the past, the imperial court could rely on the Eight Banners in the capital and the military force on the frontier to suppress the discontent of the Han people. But now, Manchuria and Outer Mongolia are mostly occupied by the Russians, Xinjiang is directly under the threat of the Russians, Inner Mongolia has not yet recovered from the Jindandao uprising, and a large number of Han troops are stationed in the area from Zhangjiakou to Guihua. Which Mongol prince would dare to speak out against it?

The next group to suffer were the royalists. After Emperor Guangxu left the palace, he pardoned Kang Youwei on Liang Qichao's advice, and a group of royalists rushed to the capital from the south. Previously, the royalists and the Beiyang clique were considered allies, since before the emperor regained his freedom, the two sides had no fundamental conflict of interest, but rather shared a common enemy and opponent.

But things are different now. Although Emperor Guangxu did not regard Yuan Shikai as a key member of the Empress Dowager's faction, the fact that Yuan Shikai was a thorn in his side would not change. In the eyes of the royalists, although Yuan Shikai and the people in Wuhan were both major enemies, the order of precedence still had to be clearly distinguished.

First, even if they defeated the people of Wuhan, the military and political forces in Wuhan would not side with the emperor, because they themselves were traitors who advocated overthrowing the Manchus. On the contrary, once Yuan Shikai fell, the Beiyang Army could be logically taken over by the emperor, since the Beiyang Army was the imperial army.

Secondly, Yuan Shikai also blocked Kang Youwei's path to advancement. Kang Youwei believed that his tireless efforts in training and maneuvering were precisely to help Emperor Guangxu regain power, and therefore he was the primary contributor to Guangxu's return to the throne. He also believed that the royalists gathered around him only to secure rewards and recognition after Guangxu's return to power. Now that Kang Youwei couldn't even obtain a ministerial position, what would become of his subordinates?

Therefore, the Beiyang clique led by Yuan Shikai and the royalist faction led by Kang Youwei competed for many positions. At this time, Wuhan had no conflict of interest with either side, because Wuhan did not care about the name of the central government. They regarded the central government as a transitional phase. What was really important was the ranking within the party and the tasks assigned by the Wuhan Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Committee.

Therefore, as soon as the list of central departments was published, Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao began to criticize Yuan Shikai in the newspapers, believing that Yuan Shikai was forming cliques and monopolizing power in various central departments during the reorganization, which was treating Emperor Guangxu as Emperor Xian of Han.

Although Yuan Shikai appeared aggrieved in front of outsiders, he privately refused to compensate Kang Youwei. He told those around him, "Kang Youwei is always more trouble than he's worth. No matter what position I give him, he'll never be satisfied. He'll make a mess of things and then tell outsiders that I'm sabotaging him behind his back. How am I supposed to defend myself then? It's better to just stick to this. Everyone will only say I'm abusing my power, but at least I won't have to take the blame for him..."

Yuan Shikai was actually willing to give Liang Qichao a position, but Liang Qichao was unwilling to be scolded by his teacher and rejected Yuan Shikai's offer. As a result, the royalists were like people who came to the market but ended up buying nothing.

The biggest beneficiaries were the group of students sent to the United States, represented by the young Chinese students sent abroad. Both the Beiyang government and the Wuhan government elevated these students to high positions. In a sense, the purpose of the Qing Dynasty sending these children to America to study had finally become a reality. These young students had finally reached the helm of the great ship of China.

Chapter 414 The Progress of the Japanese Army

When Beijing re-established its central government, Japan and Russia clashed in their first major battle near Shuangchengzi. Prior to 1895, Vladivostok was insignificant on the map of the Russian Empire. Although it was an ice-free port for Russia to access the Pacific Ocean, its distance from the heart of Europe made its position extremely insignificant.

However, China's defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War led Li Hongzhang to invite the Russians to build the Chinese Eastern Railway, which made Vladivostok valuable. Through the Trans-Siberian Railway, Vladivostok was finally connected to the heart of Europe. Therefore, in 1895, Russia finally decided to arm Vladivostok and make it a Russian naval port in the Far East.

However, plans often go awry. In 1898, Russia acquired the Kwantung Leased Territory, and the geographically superior cities of Dalian and Port Arthur not only met Russia's military needs but also its commercial demands. As a result, the fortification of Port Arthur was put back on the agenda, and a large amount of capital flowed to Port Arthur and Dalian.

Although Russia's economy developed extremely rapidly in the last decade of the 19th century, there were simply too many places where Russia needed to spend money. It needed to develop the Baltic Fleet, the Black Sea Fleet, and the Pacific Fleet. In order to support the Pacific Fleet, it also had to build the Trans-Siberian Railway, which required a huge investment.

Therefore, the process of fortifying Vladivostok had to be slowed down. Moreover, the fortification of Vladivostok was more about defending the sea than defending the land, because Vladivostok was backed by Russian territory. The Russians believed that no enemy could easily get behind them, which was different from the Kwantung Leased Territory, which was completely surrounded by Chinese.

The fall of Shuangchengzi dealt a heavy blow to the Vladivostok garrison, who were deeply worried that the Japanese would launch an attack once they had amassed their forces. Due to the continuous withdrawal of troops southward, the defensive strength of Vladivostok and the southern Ussuri region had returned to what it was 10 years ago, with only 21 infantry battalions, of which 7.5 battalions were stationed in Vladivostok.

The Japanese army advanced from Qingjin all the way to Shuangchengzi, defeating at least 4 to 5 infantry battalions, 3 to 4 cavalry companies, and 12 artillery pieces in the southern Ussuri region. The current garrison force centered on Vladivostok is about 12 battalions, plus the navy sailors, totaling less than 1.8 men. The population of Vladivostok, excluding the military, is only 4, of which a quarter are Chinese and Koreans.

Surrounding Shuangchengzi, the Russian forces, excluding those defending Vladivostok and southern Ussuri, consisted of approximately 20 battalions of infantry in the Amur Military District to the north. However, the Amur Military District is a long and narrow region running east to west, and the Russian forces stationed around Khabarovsk numbered only about 4 to 5 battalions. On the other hand, there were more than 2 Russian troops stationed on both sides of the Chinese Eastern Railway, half of whom were in Harbin.

Therefore, the situation became quite clear for the defenders of Vladivostok. If the Japanese troops in Shuangchengzi were allowed to continue their advance and occupy Suifenhe and other places, it would be tantamount to cutting off the passage for reinforcements, leaving Vladivostok as an isolated port. Unlike Lushun and Dalian, which were located in the densely populated southern Manchuria region and had relatively abundant resources, Vladivostok was not a self-sufficient city.

Russian immigrants only began developing the Heilongjiang region in 1857. By 1892, the permanent population of the Amur Oblast and Primorsky Krai in Russia reached 182602 (excluding military personnel), and the Russian population was about twice that of other ethnic groups. At that time, the total population of the Russian Far East, including the Transbaikal region, was only 560,000, with the Transbaikal region accounting for more than half of that.

Although the opening of the Trans-Siberian Railway accelerated the migration of Russian farmers to the Amur Oblast and Primorsky Krai, at least half of these migrants remained in towns along the railway line rather than actually developing wasteland as farmers. As a result, a major consequence of the opening of the Chinese Eastern Railway was a significant increase in grain exports from Manchuria to the three Russian Far East provinces, and a continuous rise in the number of Chinese migrating to northern Manchuria to cultivate the land.

Now that the Japanese army has cut off the Trans-Siberian Railway, the Amur region can still transport grain from Manchuria back to the region by water. However, the Russians in southern Ussuriysky and Vladivostok are in trouble. They have lost their grain import routes, and the grain reserves in Vladivostok are not enough to support the long-term food supply for the Russian soldiers and civilians who have retreated to Vladivostok.

Therefore, the Vladivostok garrison decided almost immediately to launch a counterattack against the Japanese forces at Shuangchengzi, aiming to re-establish communication between Vladivostok and Manchuria and the Amur Oblast. This wasn't just the view of the Vladivostok garrison; the Russian forces in Harbin and Khabarovsk shared this idea, as did the Commander-in-Chief of the Far East Army, Kuropatkin.

However, the Russian army was divided into three groups by the Japanese army, and communication between the three groups was inconvenient. Therefore, a unified combat command system was not established. The three groups of Russian troops launched separate attacks on the Japanese troops stationed in Shuangchengzi. The Russian army that moved south from Khabarovsk was the fastest, but it also mobilized the fewest troops, with only three infantry battalions and one militia battalion, about 3000 men, carrying four artillery pieces.

On October 3, the Russian troops advancing south from Khabarovsk clashed with the 1st Regiment of the Japanese 1st Division at Lesozavodsk, and the two sides immediately engaged in open battle. More than half of the Russian troops in Khabarovsk were reservists over 30 years old, making them weaker in organization than the Japanese troops. In terms of firepower, they were no match for the Japanese 1st Regiment, which carried 12 cannons and 4 Maxim machine guns. The Russian troops only had an advantage in the number of cavalry.

Therefore, after fierce fighting on the 4th, the Russian army began to retreat the next day. On the 7th, the Japanese army drove the Russian army north of Tamga. The Russian army retreated all the way to Bikin. The Russians along the Ussuri Railway quickly fled to Khabarovsk. The Russian army in Khabarovsk then turned to defense and did not launch another attack until the end of the war.

General Sakharov, the chief of staff of the Trans-Amur Military District, assembled a brigade and launched an attack on Suifenhe from Harbin, attempting to recapture the city from Japanese occupation. However, the Japanese then reinforced their troops in Suifenhe, and Kuropatkin sent General Sakharov an additional brigade and two artillery battalions. Thus, starting on October 24, the Russian army launched a fierce offensive against Suifenhe.

On November 1, General Okubo Kōsei personally led the main force of the 4th Division to reinforce Suifenhe, giving them a numerical advantage over the Russian army. By November 4, the Russian army was running out of steam, while the Japanese army launched a counter-encirclement operation from both flanks. Sakharov had no choice but to admit defeat and withdraw his troops to the west of Mudanjiang.

While Sakharov launched his offensive on Suifenhe, Rozanov also directed the Vladivostok garrison to launch a counterattack against Shuangchengzi. He not only launched the counterattack along the railway line but also mobilized militia forces to attack the Korean branch line. Tamura was forced to use the 3rd Division to protect the supply line and then ordered the 2nd Brigade to engage the Russian forces attacking from Vladivostok.

Generally speaking, the morale of the Russian troops in Vladivostok was high, and they were considered a formidable opponent by the Japanese. The 2nd Brigade, led by Nakamura Satoru, was initially suppressed by the Russians. However, after General Oku Yasuyuki repelled the Russian troops invading Suifenhe, the morale of the Japanese troops soared, and the 1st Brigade also dispatched troops south to provide support. As a result, a major battle took place between the Japanese and Russian troops 15 kilometers south of Shuangchengzi.

On the afternoon of November 12, after six hours of fierce fighting, Colonel Kijuro Watanabe broke through the Russian left flank, causing its collapse and ultimately shaking the entire Russian front. Rozanov was forced to order the Russian army to retreat to Vladivostok and switch to defensive operations.

This series of battles constituted the first major engagement since the Russo-Japanese War began, with the Russian army suffering over 4000 casualties and the Japanese army around 3000. The biggest achievement of this engagement was that the Japanese army gained a foothold in Shuangchengzi, cutting off Vladivostok's external support from the land.

In the south, the Japanese army also achieved considerable success. After Baron Kuroki's First Army captured Phoenix City, it began to occupy the mountain passes of the Thousand Mountains and set its sights on Liaoyang City. Meanwhile, Nogi's Third Army defeated the slow-moving Russian southward detachment at Deli Temple, pursued them northward, and captured Xiong Yue and Gaiping, posing a threat to Yingkou and Dashiqiao.

Compared to the army's activity, the Japanese navy was in a slump. On the one hand, the Russian Vladivostok fleet was using protected cruisers as commerce raiders, which left the Uemura Detachment speechless. The Japanese navy had not considered that the Russian military would use cruisers for commerce raiding, which was a complete waste of resources. As a result, the Japanese escort warships were unable to stop the Russian Vladivostok fleet's commerce raiding operations.

On the other hand, although the Japanese Navy achieved good results in the early stages against the Russian Port Arthur Fleet, the Russian Port Arthur Fleet lost two battleships and four cruisers in the process of fighting against China and Japan, thus reducing its capital ships to five battleships and two cruisers. Before the war, the Japanese Navy had upgraded from the Six-Six Fleet to the Eight-Eight Fleet. Although the Germans seized the Kawachi, the Japanese Navy still purchased two battleships and two armored cruisers from Britain and Italy respectively in the past two years.

Therefore, the Japanese navy had completely suppressed the Russian Far East navy at this time, and after Makarov's death, the Russian Port Arthur fleet also adopted a strategy of avoiding battle, hiding in Port Arthur port and refusing to engage in combat. Japanese spies in St. Petersburg reported back that the Tsar intended to send the European fleet to the Far East to relieve the Far East fleet and seize naval power in East Asia.

This was clearly bad news. The navy believed that although the Russian Port Arthur fleet had been severely damaged, it had not completely lost its combat capability. Once the Russian European fleet arrived in East Asia, the combined forces of the two sides would overwhelm the Combined Fleet. Therefore, it was necessary to eliminate the Russian Port Arthur fleet before the Russian European fleet arrived in East Asia so that the Combined Fleet could focus on dealing with the Russian European fleet that had come from afar.

However, the navy was at a loss when faced with the coastal batteries of Port Arthur, so they came up with the idea of ​​a blockade operation, attempting to break the Russian army's will to resist by bombarding Port Arthur with battleships. As a result, both blockade operations failed, and the navy was too careless in its routine bombardment of Port Arthur. The navy assumed that there could be no mines 10 nautical miles away from Port Arthur, but some members of the Russian fleet took it upon themselves to lay mines far away from Port Arthur. The battleships Hatsuse and Yashima were caught off guard and sank after hitting the mines.

Having lost two expensive capital ships at once, the navy didn't even dare to report the news to the homeland. Minister Yamamoto believed that there was no other way at this point and that the army should be requested to attack Port Arthur. The navy itself could no longer attack such fortified naval ports, whether it was Port Arthur or Vladivostok.

Chapter 415 The Course of the War

When Nagaoka Gaishi received the official document from the Navy, he initially dismissed it, saying to Chief of the General Staff Yamagata Aritomo, "Is the Navy shirking its responsibilities? The Army already has enough to do; how could it possibly have the resources to help the Navy capture Port Arthur..."

Yamagata knew that Nagaoka was telling the truth. Since the start of the war, the army had been winning one victory after another, and the situation seemed very favorable. Although they had not yet achieved the feat of encircling and annihilating one or two Russian divisions like the Chinese had, the army's confidence in defeating the Russian army had greatly increased.

Before the outbreak of war, the Japanese army still harbored some fear of the Russian army's fighting capabilities. Therefore, even until the very last moment of the war, some politicians were still calling for reconciliation with Russia as true patriotism. These people were certainly not against war with Russia for the sake of the country, but rather worried that the war would destroy everything Japan currently possessed, after all, Russia was an undisputed white supremacist power.

Before the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan, which learned from Europe and the United States, could be said to be a complete imitator of Europe. Just as Japan became the most thorough imitator of the Tang Dynasty after its defeat at Baekgang. This unreserved imitation of the strong was an instinct that enabled Japan to survive.

Rokumeikan represented the Japanese upper class's pursuit of a Westernized lifestyle, to the point that both foreign and domestic intellectuals satirized and criticized its ball culture. It wasn't until after the First Sino-Japanese War, when Japan defeated a continental power it had once revered, that Chinese people, who had previously looked down on Japanese culture, began to come to Japan to study, finally prompting the Japanese to begin to appreciate the unique characteristics of Japanese culture.

However, this emphasis on Japanese culture does not mean that the Japanese upper class has begun to abandon European culture. Whether the war against Russia could be won was always just a risky move by some people in the military, and did not mean that the Japanese upper class had reached a consensus that Japan could defeat a white great power.

The reason these military figures dared to propose war against Russia wasn't because they wanted to defeat Russia on their own; rather, it was under constant British influence that they felt there was a possibility of victory by going to war with Britain's backing. Of course, the weakness Russia displayed in its war against China also surprised Japan, revealing a side of Russia they hadn't previously witnessed.

After joining the war between Russia and China, Japan gained an advantage on the battlefield, but it was quite difficult for Japan to convert this advantage into victory. For example, after nearly four months of war, the army realized that it had spread itself too thin. Although the army had gained certain advantages on each battlefield, it lacked the ability to completely defeat the Russian army on any one battlefield.

The army's total strength before the war reached 375,000, but only 250,000 of them were available for operations outside the Japanese archipelago. Baron Kuroki's First Army had 45,000 troops, General Okuyasu's Second Army had 36,000 troops, General Nogi Maresuke's Third Army had 60,000 troops, and General Nozu Michikatsu's Fourth Army had 26,000 troops. These four army groups constituted the main force of the army that had landed on the mainland, and the army was approaching its limit.

However, the Russian army, divided across various battlefields by the ground forces, has not shown signs of complete annihilation anywhere. Although the situation appears quite unfavorable, the Russian army is still far from true defeat. If the ground forces want to completely eliminate one or two main Russian army units and further damage their will to fight, they would need to at least double the number of troops currently stationed on the continent.

However, if the army were to deploy over 300,000 troops on the mainland, it would need to mobilize at least twice the number of reserve forces as combat troops and increase logistical support. Furthermore, the reserve forces mobilized would inevitably be less reliable than the active-duty troops, meaning that even if the army's forces on the mainland increased to over 300,000, it might not be enough.

At this point, the army was already feeling the pinch of its own insufficient strength; where would it find the extra resources to clean up the mess left by the navy? Of course, the army's current predicament was also due to the fact that Japan had entered the battlefield too early. The Russian army had not exhausted most of its morale by fighting the Chinese; on the contrary, the Japanese surprise attack had restored some of its morale, thus preventing the army from delivering a decisive blow that would force Russia to surrender in the Far East.

However, the Japanese couldn't understand the Russians' thinking. In war, anything goes; why bother with undeclared war if victory is the only goal? Since Russia was clearly at a disadvantage, it should have simply surrendered. Instead, Russia, despite being on the losing end, refused to propose peace negotiations for a favorable agreement, insisting on continuing the war and witnessing its own defeat. This barbaric approach, treating Russian soldiers like dirt, left the army helpless.

After much deliberation, Yamagata decided to consult with the Commander-in-Chief of the Manchurian Army, Oyama Iwao, and the Chief of Staff of the Manchurian Army, Kodama Gentaro, before making a decision. Kodama, who was engrossed in planning the Battle of Liaoyang, received a telegram from Tokyo and immediately said anxiously to Oyama Iwao, "How can we possibly divide our forces to attack Lushun at this time?"

As Tamura said, capturing Lushun was only a partial victory; the complete victory lay in encircling and annihilating the Russian Manchurian army. Previously, we weren't confident of achieving a complete victory, so we opted for a partial victory as a second-best option. But now, the possibility of a complete victory is within reach; who would still seek a partial victory?

The most urgent task is to urge the Chinese to intensify their counterattack on Jinzhou, thus tying down the Russian West Manchuria Detachment and preventing it from moving. Then, we need to get Tamura to capture Vladivostok as quickly as possible, allowing us to focus our forces on the Harbin direction. Once Harbin is captured, the hundreds of thousands of Russian troops in southern Manchuria will have no choice but to surrender.

While Oyama Iwao agreed with Kodama's assessment, he also harbored concerns about the arrival of the Russian European fleet. He asked worriedly, "But if we cannot capture Harbin before the Russian European fleet arrives in East Asia, we will not only lose control of the sea, but we will also be unable to guarantee the safety of our homeland. Capturing Lushun first would at least allow our navy to confidently confront the Russian fleet that has come from afar."

Kodama, however, retorted dismissively: "Even if we take Port Arthur, will our navy be able to deal with the Russian European fleet? I think it's the right thing to do is to let our British allies stop the Russian European fleet from leaving Europe. We're fighting for the British, so does that mean we'll end up fighting Russia alone?"

This war is a gamble with the nation's fate. If we win the final victory, our homeland will be safe. If we lose here, what security can our homeland possibly have? The sooner we end this war against Russia, the safer our homeland will be. The key to ending the war now lies not in Port Arthur, but in Harbin. Therefore, we should concentrate our forces along the Vladivostok line, not in Port Arthur…”

Kodama persuaded Oyama Iwao, and the two signed a joint telegram to the Imperial General Headquarters, strongly urging that troops be deployed to Vladivostok instead of Port Arthur, and requesting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to continue to pressure China to increase its troop strength for the war against Russia.

Kodama clearly pointed out, "Since the Chinese army captured Chengde, it has not launched any further attacks on the Russian army in Chaoyang and other places. Are they out of strength? According to the intelligence from Beijing, this is obviously not the case."

In order to overthrow the Later Party and the Manchus, the Wuhan and Beiyang armies stationed their troops around Beijing without moving. According to Chinese history, this was a case of a vassal state using force to pressure the central government. The fact that our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the military attachés dispatched by the army failed to realize this beforehand is a dereliction of duty.

"We are now fighting fiercely against the Russian army on the battlefield in Manchuria, while the Chinese are just standing on the shore watching from the sidelines. If this situation continues, the biggest beneficiary of this war will be the Chinese, and both we and the Russians will be losers..."

As Kodama grew increasingly worried about the future of the war, St. Petersburg was already mired in an atmosphere of defeat. Kuropatkin and Makarov's journey to the Far East not only failed to reverse the unfavorable situation, but even Makarov was killed in action.

When news of Makarov's death reached St. Petersburg, the city's leadership largely concluded that the Far East Fleet could no longer rely on its own strength to confront the Japanese Navy. Therefore, St. Petersburg faced a crucial choice: should it send the European Fleet to support the Far East Fleet? And how much force would be needed to save it?

Upon learning of Makarov's death, the Russian Navy immediately drafted a plan to move the main warships of the Baltic Fleet to the Far East. The Navy submitted a memorandum to the Tsar stating the following:

As the backbone of our naval victories, the Baltic Fleet had to overwhelm the enemy in terms of strength. Among these factors, the most important was not their initial formation, but rather the timing of their arrival and the battlefield situation at that time. In other words, their arrival before or after the fall of Port Arthur would have had a world of difference in impact on the battle.

The sooner the decisive battle begins, the more advantageous the situation will be for us, especially in gaining control of the sea. With control of the sea, we will win the entire naval campaign and use the resulting advantage to fully support the army. Due to the poor road conditions in Manchuria, the army will encounter various difficulties in its operations, but the navy will provide invaluable assistance to their victory.

However, prior to this, Russia had already dispatched the Black Sea Fleet's "Smolensk" and "Petersburg" through the Dardanelles Strait. Russia told the Turks that these two ships were merely transport vessels intending to deliver military supplies and personnel to Vladivostok. In reality, after entering the Red Sea, these two Russian warships began intercepting Japanese merchant ships and merchant ships transporting contraband to Japan and China.

The Russian actions not only alarmed the Japanese government but also provoked protests from Britain and Germany. While the Germans maintained some restraint, the British government directly submitted a protest to Russia, warning that if the Russian government continued to act unilaterally, they would have no choice but to take any necessary countermeasures.

Communication between the Russian Navy and Foreign Ministry, and between London and St. Petersburg, was fraught with problems, misunderstandings began to fester, and the situation became increasingly tense. St. Petersburg was also deeply concerned that the British government might use this as an excuse to declare war, and was forced to order two cruisers to leave the Red Sea. However, the British move to redeploy the Star-Strauss battleships from Asia back to the mainland still made St. Petersburg uneasy; if the British were to return these warships to the Straits, it would be questionable whether the Baltic Fleet could still pass through the Straits.

Nicholas II faced a choice: if he didn't send the Baltic Fleet to the Far East before the British redeployed their battleships back to the mainland, the Far East Fleet risked being blockaded in the Baltic Sea by the British Grand Fleet, leaving it without support from home. Clearly, naval power in the Pacific was far more important to the Russian Navy than in the Baltic.

Chapter 416 Morley's Decision

John Morley, hailed as the last gentleman of the Victorian era, witnessed the peace, prosperity, and progress of the British Isles throughout his life. He found it hard to imagine that India under the British Empire would be so poor and backward.

This wasn't because John Morley knew nothing about India, but rather because he had never understood what another part of India was like. In his view, the British brought modern civilization to India, and the white and black areas of Calcutta represented the achievements of modern technology displayed by the civilized world on this continent. When the black areas inhabited by Indians became white areas, India would enter the civilized era.

This surge in the Indian nationalist movement finally forced John Morley to confront the living conditions of Indians in India. After arriving in India, he investigated the lives of the local inhabitants and was forced to admit that the prosperity of the white areas came at the cost of poverty in the black areas. The fact that Indians were starving was, in another sense, precisely what allowed the British to live an upper-class life in India.

Even so, he rejected any idea of ​​Indian autonomy, believing that the Irish and South African principles were inapplicable to the vast Indian subcontinent. He told the Earl of Minto: “Withdrawing from the Indian subcontinent is not a rational decision, but the beginning of the British Empire’s complete loss of India, because India’s chaotic religious and regional cultures will regain the upper hand after we leave, the continent will be fragmented and fall back into anarchy, war and massacre will cause chaos on the continent, and the British Empire will lose the moral principles that guide the world forward.”

The Earl of Minto was pessimistic about India's future. If, before taking office, he advocated continuing the strict control policies against people of color that he had adopted in Canada to maintain social order, then after arriving in India, he realized that the Canadian policies were not applicable to the Indian subcontinent because there were simply too few white people there.

Even without the Chinese causing trouble, the British's past overbearing management of Indians would have been difficult to sustain. The British viewed their rule over India as the education of children by adults. Because children lacked the ability to live independently, they needed to be taught by adults how to accept the constraints of social order, thus becoming well-behaved and preventing them from becoming degenerate adults.

In the Victorian era, children's education was inseparable from corporal punishment, even in private schools of the upper class. The British seemed to have never doubted that violence could reform human nature, so they never saw anything wrong with the use of violence in India, South Africa, or other parts of the world. In their view, violence was the best way to teach barbarians.

However, after entering the 20th century, the British opponents were no longer people of color outside of Europe, but rather countries belonging to the same white European class. At this point, the unbridled use of violence could no longer convince the British people and Europeans with the ethics of civilization conquering barbarity. This is the root cause of the enormous reputational damage that the Boer War brought to Britain.

The methods Britain used in the Boer War were no more despicable than those used in other colonial wars, but they still provoked protests from Europeans and discontent among its own people. This was not because these people suddenly became more conscientious, but because the British used the same methods they used against people of color against white people, which aroused fear among Europeans.

The Liberal Party elites who came to power naturally understood that an era was gradually passing by for Britain, and that the most important task for the British Empire at present was not to continue expanding its borders, but to maintain its leadership over the world. Maintaining world leadership depends not on military force, but on moral principles; an empire targeted by everyone cannot survive.

Therefore, John Morley and the Earl of Minto, after deliberation, concluded that the Indians should be granted some power in exchange for their loyalty to the British Empire. The corporal punishment employed by Lord Curzon was clearly insufficient to tame the Indians again. Only by resolving the Indian problem could they approach the Chinese problem from a more advantageous position.

John Morley and the Earl of Minto agreed that the Chinese were a problem for India not because of their influence over India, but because of the growing alienation between Indians and the British Empire, which prevented the British Empire from gaining support in India to deal with the Chinese. They believed that once Indians regained their loyalty to the British Empire, the Chinese would no longer be a problem.

John Morley and the Earl of Minto reached a correct conclusion, but they were unable to achieve a satisfactory result on how to restore the loyalty of the Indians to the British Empire. Even before Morley arrived in India, the Earl of Minto had considered courting Indian Muslims to counterbalance Hindus and Chinese.

This tactic was one of the most common diplomatic methods used by Britain during the colonial era. If Indian Muslims had any memory, they would remember that when they ruled India, the British relied on supporting Hindus to fight against Muslim rule. As a result, by the second half of the 19th century, Muslims, who had once occupied the upper class in India, had fallen to the lower class, while Hindus had become the core mainstream of the Indian nation.

However, the Muslim upper class was still lured by the promises of the British. For the sake of separate suffrage and a majority of votes, they sided with the British. Without the Chinese, the Indian national identity would have been disrupted, and the struggle between Muslims and Hindus would have overshadowed the Indian resistance against the British Empire.

However, the land reform movement initiated by the Chinese in Bengal not only impacted Muslim landowners but also Hindu landowners, leading Indian peasants to set aside religious and regional differences and unite on the common interest of land reform. Consequently, the British Indian government suddenly realized that while suppressing the Indian national movement, they were simultaneously fueling a surge in the Indian peasant movement, which posed a greater threat to their rule in India.

So after John Morley arrived in India, he quickly reached a new understanding with the Earl of Minto: it was clearly not feasible to use the differences between Muslims and Hindus to bring down the Indian national movement. Although Indian nationalism threatened the rule of British India, it also suppressed the land movement of Indian peasants. Once Indian nationalism collapsed, Indians would turn to the land movement of Indian peasants, and it would be impossible for them to reach a compromise with the Indian peasants, because they could not offer enough land to bribe them.

John Morley then extended an offer to the Hindu people represented by the Congress Party, suggesting that one or two more Indian councilors could be added to the executive council, thus allowing Indians to participate in the governance of India. He stated, "We can achieve the goal of Indians governing India themselves in a gentle, gradual way, but this will take time because India is not yet capable of self-governance."

Through the appeasement of both Muslim and Hindu elites and compromises on the partition plan for Bengal, the British Indian government finally achieved a rapprochement with the Indian elite, thus severing their support for the People's Committee of India, and calls for reconciliation began to emerge.

Inside the Governor's residence in Calcutta, John Morley and Earl Minto listened to Charles Bell's conversation with the Chinese representatives. After hearing Bell's report, Earl Minto rubbed his forehead and said, "Can't they just leave India quietly? Do they think that if they stay in India, it will become Chinese territory? How can those Indians who side with the Chinese think that the Chinese have no ambitions toward India?"

Charles Bell could only remain silent; this was not a question he could answer. John Morley, on the other hand, appeared more composed. He did not rush to comment on the Chinese response but instead asked Bell, "How did Lin respond to our invitation?"

Bell carefully sized up the other man before cautiously saying, "Lin said he's heard the story of Edward Longlegs, so he won't put his safety on the promises of the English. He also said that if you really want to talk to him, you should go to Burnia yourself; his assurances will be more reliable than ours."

Count Minto couldn't help but turn his gaze to Morley, wanting to see the gentleman's expression, but Morley's behavior clearly disappointed him. He politely thanked Bell and asked him to leave to do his own thing.

After Bell left, Morley finally said to Count Minto, "I think I should go and see this Lin."

Morley's words stunned Count Minto for a moment. After recovering from his confusion, he said, "You want to see him in person? Isn't that too unbecoming of your status? He's not even a formally appointed government official. If something were to happen to you in Burnia, it would be a great loss to our country. I don't recommend that you take such action."

Morley could tell that Count Minto's refusal was not so firm. Clearly, the other party did not think that negotiations with the Chinese should not be carried out, but rather that he was worried about taking on some additional responsibilities.

He calmly asked Earl Minto, "Although we have temporarily won over the upper echelons of India, their promises are unreliable. Once the situation in India changes, these people will surely betray us again. So, is the British Indian government capable of forcing the People's Committee of India to abandon its claims?"

After a moment's hesitation, Earl Minto said, "Without the support of the Empire, I'm afraid we won't be able to force the People's Committee of India to make concessions on our own, relying solely on the British Indian government."

Morley nodded and said, “London’s bottom line is to cancel £1200 million of East India Company bonds. We cannot cancel £8000 to £9000 million of Indian bonds and nationalize assets such as Indian Railways as demanded by the People’s Committee of India. They are essentially asking us to give up everything we have gained in India.”

However, the current situation in Europe is not conducive to the Empire using force against India. In fact, the longer the conflict drags on, the more advantageous it is for the Indian People's Committee, because India is like a ticking time bomb, preventing us from focusing our energy on other matters and ultimately causing irreparable damage to the Empire…”

Chapter 417 Class

"...Don't think that by redistributing the land, we can gain the peasants' support forever. The redistribution of land may indeed gain the peasants' trust in us, but this trust and support is only temporary. As soon as the peasants are convinced that the old landlord class can no longer take the land from them, they will begin to seek to become the new landlords themselves. At this point, the Labour Party will become a thorn in the side of these peasants who are trying to become the new landlords."

Why does this happen? Because the ultimate goal of a small-scale peasant economy is to become a landlord class. This is an objective law of the material world, which cannot be changed by morality or any noble aspirations. Therefore, we become the biggest obstacle preventing small peasants from becoming landlords, and naturally, we become the targets they want to overthrow or defeat.

Therefore, eliminating the landlord class requires more than just land reform; it also necessitates completely severing the upward mobility path from peasant to landlord. In other words, we must eliminate small landowners to prevent the resurgence of the landlord class; otherwise, we will inevitably face defeat and besiege by small landowners…”

In a classroom, Lin Xinyi spoke to dozens of training cadres about the current problems and development direction of rural work. The cadres listened attentively, and apart from a translator correcting some of his sentences, they could hardly hear anyone else speaking. Outside the window were lush banana trees, lawns, and a huge banyan tree. A gentle breeze made the room very well-ventilated, which was indeed the best season in Bangladesh.

For Lin Xinyi, this period was also the most comfortable time in the past two years. His main task was to give lectures to cadres and correct the mistakes and omissions in the Party's organization and politics. The specific administrative work was being assigned to local Indian cadres.

Because Lin Xinyi focused his attention on cadre training and rural work, the Asian Democratic Revolutionary Alliance's reputation actually improved in the Labour Party of India and in rural Bangladesh. Nationalism and religious belief are indeed ideologies that require less investment but have higher appeal, but whether ethnic or religious, they represent the common interests of a group, and it is by upholding these common interests that a group's shared consciousness is formed.

However, a major flaw exists in a shared consciousness based on nationality or religious belief: the interests of a small group are necessarily higher than those of the larger community. For example, the interests of Britannia are necessarily higher than those of the British Empire, the interests of the British Isles are necessarily higher than those of Ireland and overseas colonies, and the interests of Anglicans are necessarily higher than those of followers of other religions.

Therefore, once Indian national consciousness emerged, it was natural to feel dissatisfied with the Anglo-Saxon colonization of India. Similarly, Indian Muslims, in turn, felt resentful of Hindus who attempted to represent the Indian nation. This constant division into smaller groups provided the British with the ideological foundation for shaping the British Empire. As long as the Anglo-Saxons strengthened their collective consciousness and diluted the collective consciousness of other groups within the empire, they could continue to lead the empire forward.

Instead of vying for leadership of the Indian nation within the People's Committee of India, the Asian Democratic Revolutionary Alliance focused its efforts on cultivating a consensus among Indian farmers, thus gaining their maximum approval.

During the course of their revolution, Indian peasants realized that neither Hinduism, Islam, nor Indian nationalism actually had the power or the will to protect the land they had acquired. Instead, they wanted Indian peasants to protect their interests, and these interests, when traced back, would ultimately point in one direction: protecting the interests of the landowners.

The conflict between Hindus and Muslims was essentially a struggle between Hindu and Muslim landowners; regardless of who won, no land would be distributed to the peasants. Similarly, the resistance of Indian nationalists against the British Indian government was not about distributing British-owned land to peasants, but rather about opposing the increased exploitation of the landowning class by the British. They wanted the British to preserve the wealth held by the landowning class in the country, rather than treating them as peasants to be exploited.

The Congress Party's statements at its annual conference and in the newspapers clearly demonstrated this: their resentment towards the British stemmed from the fact that the British treated them as third-class passengers when they should have been seated in first and second class alongside the British. They were not complaining on behalf of the commoners in third class, but rather felt it was unfair that they were being treated the same as them.