Twentieth Century Chronicle

Page 251

The current Asian alliance is actually dominated by Japan because the current situation in Asia is determined by sea power rather than land power. Although Germany's naval power is greater than Japan's, Germany cannot bring its home navy to Asia, so it can only become Japan's deputy navy. China's navy is still in the recovery period and cannot compete with Japan for leadership. In addition, Hayashi Shinichi has politically suppressed the various parties in the alliance, thus establishing the Japanese navy's leadership position in the alliance.

Therefore, what threatens the Japanese Navy's leadership of the Asian alliance is not the challenge from the alliance members, but rather the Army's continental policy's negation of the Navy's political line within the Asian alliance. If the Navy's political credibility is not recognized by the parties, China will naturally assume leadership of the alliance. Although China lacks naval power, as the natural land power leader in East Asia, it is not difficult for China to gain leadership of the alliance, provided that Japan loses its political credibility.

And what you fear most is what happens. Just as the Allied Fleet Staff was discussing how to deal with the Indochinese national democratic movement, news that made Japanese naval officers anxious also came from Japan: the Katsura Taro cabinet formally proposed a plan to increase the number of troops and advocated cutting Japan's spending on the Asian Alliance.

In May 1913, in order to gain Yamagata Aritomo's support for the compromise between the Saionji Cabinet and the US government on the issue of Japanese immigration, Ito Hirobumi accepted Yamagata's proposal. The Saionji Cabinet announced its resignation, and Katsura Taro formed a new cabinet but recognized the validity of the US-Japan agreement.

Hirobumi Ito made this concession because he believed that the Japan-US relationship could not break down amidst the tensions in Europe, and that a conflict at this time would make it difficult for Japan to choose a favorable position in the subsequent changes in Europe. Ito's position was also determined by the British government, which had made it clear that it would not support Japan on the immigration issue and demanded that Japan take responsibility for its decision.

Hirobumi Ito was more aware than other Japanese of the power disparity between Japan and the United States. While the Anglo-Japanese Alliance appeared to be aimed at countering Russia, it actually drew Japan into the confrontation between Britain and the United States. This was why Ito had previously opposed the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, because he knew that the United States was far more powerful than Japan. An Anglo-Japanese Alliance would cause the United States to focus its attention on Japan, which would be a loss for Japan.

However, the diplomatic elites who had returned from studying abroad blindly believed in Britain's spirit of contract and the power of the British Empire. As a result, they bypassed Itoh and completed all the work on the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, only informing him when it was almost time to sign, forcing Itoh to accept the Anglo-Japanese Alliance.

Britain has now abandoned Japan and compromised with the United States, while the United States' wariness of Japan has not diminished. This can be seen as a disastrous consequence of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. The army is now using the immigration issue to escalate tensions in US-Japan relations, clearly gambling with Japan's national destiny. The navy is unwilling to break ties with the United States, but the army keeps acting recklessly. Ito has no choice but to appease the army.

However, even if Kinmochi Saionji announces his resignation, the army cannot form a cabinet because it cannot obtain more than half of the votes from the elders. The navy and the business community do not want the army to come to power; they all want to continue to maintain the current national policy of focusing on economic development. Hirobumi Ito only promised not to obstruct the army from forming a cabinet, but did not indicate that he would support the army.

So Yamagata and Katsura Taro caused trouble. Katsura Taro directly asked the Emperor for a decree to form a cabinet, thus undermining the Emperor's political neutrality. Ito Hirobumi was also very angry, but Yamagata Aritomo said that Ito had done this in the past, and there was no reason why the army couldn't do it.

In order to maintain political stability, Emperor Taisho's intellectual problems had already caused the people to doubt the sanctity of the imperial system. Ito could not further erode the emperor's authority and could only recognize the edict as valid.

However, the legitimacy of the Katsura Taro cabinet was seriously lacking, so Katsura Taro became more dependent on the army after forming the cabinet. He had to accept the army's request to increase the number of troops. Tamura opposed the plan to increase the number of troops, believing that before a way out was found in the continental policy, blindly expanding the army would make the army a target of criticism from all sectors of society. Tamura therefore resigned from his position as Minister of the Army.

In May 1914, the Katsura Taro cabinet formally proposed a plan to increase the number of troops, foreshadowing a major shift in national policy. This was clearly not good news for the Japanese naval personnel within the alliance.

Chapter 787

1914 was indeed a turbulent year. The Moroccan crisis, the Italo-Turkish War, and the Balkan Wars—a series of conflicts in Europe—propelled the great powers from alliances to confrontation, leading them to begin expanding their military and preparing for war. Before 1912, there were discussions in European countries about how to avoid war, but after 1913, public opinion began to discuss when war would begin.

Regional confrontations fueled a surge in nationalist sentiment, causing social democratic parties in various countries to waver between imperialist wars and patriotic wars of national defense. This led to a split within the French and German proletariat, with each accusing the other of attempting to invade their respective countries. French Socialist leaders, striving to defend peace, were labeled "German proxies" by French patriots.

The conflict between German soldiers and civilians that broke out in Alsace in 1913 further intensified the confrontation between the German and French people. The French people believed that this was an oppression of the French people by the German occupying forces, while German newspapers claimed that a small group of French spies were undermining Germany's legitimate rule over Alsace.

At the end of 1913, Lenin returned to Europe. After resolving the issue of unifying the consciousness of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, he believed it was time to return to Europe to continue the fight. However, in Lin Xinyi's view, this war might not break out as expected in his historical timeline, because neither Britain nor Russia was prepared for war.

The British had not yet completed the political reorganization of India. In 1911, the British Indian government announced the relocation of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi. Although this move was met with resistance from Bengal, the British resolutely implemented the relocation plan.

The British moved the capital to Delhi because Calcutta had become a center for Indian nationalists. The long-term direct British rule in Calcutta had made the capital region very British, with a large number of old Indian landowners being eliminated and the petty bourgeoisie becoming the mainstream of Calcutta's citizens.

When the Chinese crossed the Himalayas from Tibet into the Indian plains, the Indian nationalists in Calcutta did not side with the British but instead became supporters of the Chinese. This turned Bengal into a pioneer of the Indian independence movement. Under the organization of the Chinese, Indian peasants and petty bourgeoisie united and defeated the greatest force that the British Indian government could muster.

Although the British Empire could still mobilize even greater forces, London feared it would trigger a major shift in the European landscape and ultimately chose to compromise, recognizing the southern part of the country as belonging to China, the independence of the Kingdom of Nepal, and the autonomy of the three northeastern states. While peace was achieved, the British also began to believe that Calcutta was no longer suitable as the capital of India.

The British moved the capital for two reasons. First, they wanted to diminish the status of Bengal in India. Delhi was the capital of ancient India, while Bengal was merely a peripheral region. Moving the capital to Delhi would imply that the North Indian plains were the center of India, not Bengal. Therefore, the Bengal independence movement could not represent the Indian nation.

On the other hand, moving the capital would significantly reduce the proportion of petty-bourgeois intellectuals in the government. Most of the low-level officials and clerks in the central government would have to be recruited locally, and with the capital in Calcutta, the population would inevitably be predominantly Calcutta residents. Although Delhi was the capital of ancient India, it had never developed, so the region was mainly a gathering place for the landowning class and Muslims. The good relationship between Muslims and Hindus in Bengal did not mean that religious conflicts in other regions were not intense, and the landowning class was naturally inclined to be close to British rulers.

The British attempted to use the dominant landowning class in the North Indian plains and religious tensions to curb the spread of Indian national independence consciousness within the government. As long as the British Indian government functioned properly, the British believed their rule over India could continue for at least another 30 to 50 years. In other words, the British recognized that their rule over India could not last forever, and all their current measures were merely attempts to delay being driven out of India by the Indians.

It should be said that the wisdom of the British upper class did indeed deal a great blow to the spread of Indian nationalism. Unlike the petty bourgeoisie in Calcutta, who disapproved of the land revolution but could understand it, the landowning class in the North Indian plains firmly opposed the land revolution policy of the three northeastern states. Moreover, the rulers of the princely states in North India opposed the notion of Indian nationality. They considered themselves Muslims, not Hindus, and therefore strongly opposed any association between Hinduism and Indians, viewing Indian nationalism as an enemy that undermined their ruling power.

The British plan to relocate the capital did indeed achieve good results. The anti-British wave that swept across India in the first decade of the 20th century began to recede. After the British relinquished some political rights, the princely kings, landowners, Muslims, and some members of the bourgeoisie began to defend British colonial rule, arguing that British rule over India was not only painful but also brought civilization and law to India.

Thus, on the political map, India was divided into three regions. The Bengal region was controlled by the BJP and the left wing of the Congress Party, which advocated for the restoration of Indian independence but accepted a peaceful transfer of power; the South India region was controlled by the right wing of the Congress Party, which, while considering Indian independence glorious, opposed replacing British rule with a revolution that would destroy Indian traditions; and the North India region was dominated by Indian conservative forces and British civilian politics, who advocated maintaining the status quo and supported the British Empire.

The emergence of the BJP greatly strengthened the left wing of the Congress Party, forcing the right wing to respect the position of Indian nationalists and abandon its past political maneuvering of begging the British for freedom.

The BJP firmly opposed the invasion of other countries for the sake of the British Empire and supported the British Empire's aggression against other nations. This position gained the support of Indian farmers and the proletariat, forcing the Congress Party to abandon the excuse that India was also part of the British Empire and that loyalty to the British Empire would enhance the status of the Indian nation within the British Empire.

The British encountered political resistance when they wanted to recruit soldiers in India. In order to prevent the BJP in Bengal from using anti-war sentiment to start a national liberation war, the British had to obtain the support of the Indian National Congress. This greatly affected Britain's preparations for war in India. After all, the London Parliament had not yet made a firm decision to go to war with Germany. Therefore, the British government's preparations for war were illegal.

Meanwhile, in Russia, the delays caused by the Far East war delayed Stolypin's rise to power, which in turn postponed the expulsion of Pan-Slavists from the political center of St. Petersburg. Historically, it was precisely the failure of Pan-Slavists in the political struggle in St. Petersburg that spurred them to focus on fostering a unified Yugoslav consciousness, attempting to regain their political power through a Slavic national war.

Although Stolypin came to power by upholding the Tsarist system, he didn't really have much in common with Pan-Slavism. Although he used these Pan-Slavists to launch the June 3rd coup, he quickly ousted them because they were backed by Britain and France.

According to Stolypin, the biggest problem of the Russian Empire was not the failure of foreign wars, but that foreign wars could no longer resolve the internal contradictions of the Russian Empire. Therefore, only a large-scale political and economic reform could revitalize the Russian Empire.

However, Pan-Slavists do not see it that way. They believe that Russia's current series of domestic problems are caused by the failure of Russia's external expansion. The defeat in the Crimean War caused Russia to lose the opportunity to seize the Balkan Peninsula, and the Far East War caused Russia to lose its ice-free ports for access to the Pacific Ocean. These defeats in external wars have caused the Russian people to lose their ambition, thus starting internal struggles.

The best way to quell domestic revolution was to awaken the Russian national pride, for example, by incorporating the Slavs of the Balkans into the empire, thereby opening a passage to the Mediterranean. This Pan-Slavism gained the support of France and Britain. Although Britain and France were the main forces preventing Russia from seizing the Balkans in the Crimean War, in the 20th century, they realized that Germany and Austria-Hungary were rapidly expanding their influence in the Balkans and that they were no longer able to defend the independence of the Balkans. Therefore, Britain and France began to court Russia in the Balkans to counter Germany and Austria-Hungary.

The Kingdom of Serbia served as a bridgehead for the Russian Empire against the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires and was the heart of the so-called South Slavs. In 1903, King Alexander I and his family, who had attempted political neutrality, were assassinated, and the pro-Russian Peter I ascended to the throne, at which point Slavophiles began to control the country.

The Bosnian crisis brought Serbia and Austria-Hungary into direct confrontation. During the First Balkan War, due to the protection of the Ottoman Empire by Germany and Austria-Hungary, Serbia lost its ports of entry into the Mediterranean, which further fueled the discontent of Pan-Slavists.

The Second Balkan War was an internal conflict among the Slavs caused by unequal distribution of spoils within the Balkan League, which also proved that the so-called Pan-Slavism was a lie. When Serbia joined forces with Greece to attack Bulgaria, there was no sign of Slavic camaraderie. As a result, although Serbia established the core position of the South Slavs after the war, it also led Bulgaria to join the German-Austrian alliance.

Stolypin was assassinated before the outbreak of the Second Balkan War. When the First Balkan War broke out, Stolypin severely criticized the Pan-Slavists, arguing that they were not defending the Russian Empire but destroying it.

Stolypin had already offended the poor peasants in the village communes during the rural land reform, and his decentralization of the power of death penalty also made the proletariat hate him. Then, on the issue of foreign expansion, he offended the Pan-Slavists, and on international relations, he believed that Russia should maintain peace rather than go to war, which annoyed the British and French governments.

So Stolypin encountered various assassination attempts starting in 1909, but in this timeline he was luckier than his counterpart in another timeline, surviving until the spring of 1913.

Stolypin's death deprived the German government of the possibility of political negotiations with the Russian government. Although Stolypin had borrowed a large amount of British and French loans to develop Russia's industry and infrastructure, he also tried to maintain trade ties with Germany to balance Russia's position between Germany and Britain and France, and to prevent Germany from viewing Russia as a war adversary rather than a negotiating partner.

During his lifetime, Stolypin strengthened the centralization of the imperial government through a series of measures, a centralization that even suppressed the Tsar's autocratic power. However, after his death, no imperial bureaucrat was able to maintain this centralization of power; instead, the Tsar's autocratic power expanded greatly because the political opposition had been defeated by Stolypin, and no official within the government dared to disobey the Tsar's orders.

Prime Minister Kokovtsov first encountered challenges from Army Minister Sukhomlinov and Foreign Minister Sazonov, two Tsarist officials who, with the Tsar's support, began to reverse the peaceful foreign policy of the Stolypin era and shift to a "power-based" strategy, in which diplomacy was achieved through the threat of force.

The loan issue raised by Army Minister Sukhomlinov regarding the increased military budget in 1914 forced Prime Minister Kokovtsov to submit the letter to Nicholas II for a decision, thus establishing the unspoken rule that the Prime Minister had no right to veto proposals put forward by the Foreign Minister and the Army Minister and supported behind the scenes by the Tsar.

In fact, although Prime Minister Kokovtsov was weak, he was still trying his best to implement the reform system left by Stolypin. However, the warlike tendencies of the Minister of War, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Tsar himself on the Balkan issue were causing the Russian Empire to be constantly at odds with Germany and Austria-Hungary in diplomacy, which was damaging the mutual trust between Germany and Russia.

It's important to understand that during the Far Eastern War, although public opinion in Germany supported China, the German Emperor facilitated the Russian fleet's expeditions to the East through private diplomacy with the Russian Emperor, and at one point, they almost formed a German-Russian alliance. It can be said that after the Far Eastern War, German-Russian relations were primarily maintained through the personal relationship between the two emperors rather than through official diplomatic relations.

However, Nicholas II's constant wavering on the Balkan issue not only displeased the German military but also caused the Kaiser to distrust the Tsar. At this time, however, Russian Pan-Slavists had not yet fully seized the power to wage war, so no assassination attempt to trigger a war occurred in 1914. Nevertheless, Russia did accelerate its war preparations.

Compared to Europe on the eve of a storm, China was instead gripped by internal conflict. In June 1914, the Chinese Revolutionary Party, reorganized from the Guangdong Tongmenghui, launched the Expulsion of Cen Chunxuan and Zhang Mingqi, arguing that their compromise with France regarding the persecution of overseas Chinese in Vietnam was detrimental to national dignity.

Cen Chunxuan was the former Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi during the Qing Dynasty, and later became the Military Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi after the establishment of the Republic of China. Zhang Mingqi was the Governor of Guangxi, and later became the Chairman of Guangxi Province. Cen Chunxuan, Zhang Mingqi, and Zhao Erxun, the Governor-General of Yunnan and Guizhou, originally formed a close-knit group. After Emperor Guangxu abdicated, the three focused on maintaining local order. However, Cen Chunxuan realized that the Qing Dynasty could not be revived, so he joined forces with the Tongmenghui (Revolutionary Alliance) led by Sun Yat-sen, transferring some government official positions to the Tongmenghui to eliminate the revolutionary crisis in Guangdong.

Both Zhang Mingqi and Zhao Erxun were staunch counter-revolutionaries. However, unlike Zhao Erxun, Zhang Mingqi lacked a strong family background and therefore did not need to explicitly oppose the revolution. While expressing support for Cen Chunxuan's policies, he continued to implement local policies that excluded the revolution in Guangxi. Zhao Erxun, on the other hand, could not remain ambiguous. After all, the Labor Party was not like the Tongmenghui, which could be easily appeased by a few flattering words and the surrender of a few official positions. After stating their political stance, the Labor Party inevitably demanded land reform in Yunnan, which was also the practice implemented after the Guizhou governor announced his support for Wuhan.

Therefore, after three years of resistance against the Wuhan Workers' Party, taking advantage of Yunnan's isolated geography, Zhao Erxun finally resigned. This was because the Yunnan New Army was no longer loyal to the Qing Dynasty, and both local and progressive forces in Yunnan felt Zhao Erxun should step down, given the Qing Dynasty's demise. After Zhao Erxun left Yunnan, a military-led government emerged, with Luo Peijin and Tang Jiyao holding sway over their respective regions, while Li Genyuan, representing the Workers' Party, oversaw some government work.

In 1912, in view of the disorganization of the Tongmenghui (Revolutionary Alliance), Sun Yat-sen and Zhu Zhixin promoted the reorganization of the political party, which became the Chinese Revolutionary Party. The Chinese Revolutionary Party formulated a clear program: it stipulated that the party's purpose was to implement the two principles of democracy and people's livelihood, and its goal was to eliminate autocratic rule and build a complete republic.

However, the main supporters of the Chinese Revolutionary Party were actually overseas Chinese. The French suppression of the Chinese economy in French Indochina naturally provoked widespread discontent within the Chinese Revolutionary Party. Therefore, the Party consistently attempted to negotiate with the French, demanding that they cease their persecution of overseas Chinese. Sun Yat-sen even proposed the recapture of Guangzhou Bay as a gesture of breaking with France.

Sun Yat-sen's proposal was opposed by Cen Chunxuan, Zhang Mingqi, and Long Jiguang. On the one hand, they argued that this was a foreign affairs matter for the central government; on the other hand, they maintained that Sun Yat-sen was merely an ordinary member of the Guangdong Assembly and should not arbitrarily interfere in the government's actions.

The crux of the matter was that the Chinese Revolutionary Party was no longer satisfied with its alliance with enlightened bureaucrats representing the upper echelons of the old Qing Dynasty, but wanted to completely seize control of the Guangdong and Guangxi regions as its base of development. In particular, Zhang Mingqi and Long Jiguang not only opposed the expansion of the revolutionary party's organization in Guangxi, but also attempted to seize military command in Guangdong, which greatly alarmed the revolutionary party.

Zhang Mingqi and Long Jiguang made such moves because of the opening of the Yuehan Railway, which allowed Wuhan's influence to enter Guangdong. In order to prevent Guangdong from being controlled by Wuhan and Guangxi from becoming an isolated island, they planned to complete the integration of military and political affairs in the two Guangdong regions to resist Wuhan's invasion. This also received the support of the Beiyang group.

Chapter 788

However, Zhang Mingqi and Long Jiguang's attempts to control Guangdong not only aroused dissatisfaction among the Chinese revolutionaries but also among the Guangdong New Army. Although the Guangdong New Army was established by Cen Chunxuan, most of its officers came from the Guangdong Military Academy, which was later renamed the Liangguang Army Middle School, founded by Cen Chunxuan.

It was precisely because the military academy was established first, and then the Guangdong New Army was trained, that the number of officers and soldiers in the Guangdong New Army who accepted revolutionary ideas was no less than that in the Wuhan New Army. This is also why the Guangdong New Army was the first to express its support for the republic when the Qing emperor abdicated, and it also forced the Manchus in Guangzhou to lay down their arms and surrender.

Although Cen Chunxuan was known as a member of the Qingliu faction, he was essentially an enlightened gentry. Although he created the Guangdong New Army, he did not gain the support of the army. This was because although he taught Western learning in the army, he still tried to make the officers and soldiers worship Confucius and uphold the great principles of Confucianism. This made it difficult for the revolutionary officers and soldiers of the New Army to accept Cen Chunxuan's ideas of reforming the Qing Dynasty.

In particular, a large number of students from the second class of the Guangdong Military Academy joined the Tongmenghui (Revolutionary Alliance), such as Yao Yuping, Li Ji, and Shen, who joined almost immediately after graduation in an attempt to overthrow the Qing Dynasty. They were also fortunate; shortly after joining the Tongmenghui, Emperor Guangxu abdicated. Faced with the revolutionary fervor in Guangdong, Cen Chunxuan ultimately chose to cooperate with the Tongmenghui to prevent a civil war from breaking out in the province.

In this context, the Tongmenghui (Revolutionary Alliance) strengthened its control over the Guangdong New Army. In other words, the rapid rise of the Labor Party led to the swift disintegration of the Tongmenghui. The Tongmenghui itself was not a party with a unified political ideology; they only agreed on the goal of an anti-Manchu revolution. Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People were not actually endorsed by all Tongmenghui members; they only needed Sun Yat-sen, as the leading figure in the anti-Qing movement, to lead the call for a nationwide anti-Manchu movement.

Therefore, when the Wuhan Workers' Party established a local power base and confronted the Qing government, radical nationalists chose to cooperate with the Workers' Party. After all, the Tongmenghui (Revolutionary Alliance) had no foothold on the mainland and had almost no hope of independently overthrowing the Qing government except for begging for donations from overseas Chinese and requesting support from the Japanese and British. So, nationalists who wanted to overthrow the Qing government naturally tended to favor the more powerful Workers' Party.

Conservatives who opposed the Manchus but not feudal traditions expressed dissatisfaction with the Labor Party's laws, arguing that although the Labor Party claimed to be a republic, it was still using foreign ideas to disrupt China and was no different from the Manchus. They believed that both the Labor Party and the Manchus were using foreign ideas to disrupt China, so they opposed both the Manchus and the Labor Party.

The Guangdong branch of the Tongmenghui, led by Sun Yat-sen, was in a rather awkward situation. After Emperor Guangxu abdicated, they lost their status as the vanguard of the revolution. Their land policies were not as radical as those of the Workers' Party, and their reformism could not gain the approval of the conservatives. As a result, the Tongmenghui branches in various provinces began to fight their own battles.

Under these circumstances, Sun Yat-sen and his associates quickly realized that the main reason their power had declined after the establishment of the Republic of China was that they lacked their own territory. At that time, the only forces capable of unifying the country were the Beiyang and Wuhan warlords, both of whom had their own territories to collect taxes and train troops, while other local forces were almost entirely fragmented.

For example, in Guangdong, although the Chinese Revolutionary Party gained more support among the people, the business community and gentry in Guangdong preferred the old Qing bureaucrats. Even the British and French expressed their support for Cen Chunxuan in order to prevent Wuhan's influence from entering the Guangdong and Guangxi regions.

Zhu Zhixin, Hu Hanmin, Liao Zhongkai, Chen Jiongming and other key members of the revolutionary party believed that unifying the military and political affairs of Guangdong was a prerequisite for the development of the revolutionary party. In particular, Cen Chunxuan's use of Guangdong's finances to support the army in Guangxi aroused dissatisfaction among the Guangdong New Army.

Although the Guangxi New Army absorbed a number of graduates from the Army Primary School, the main body was still the Ji Army under Long Jiguang. This new army, which was expanded from the patrol battalion, was extremely conservative in its ideology. Even after Emperor Guangxu announced his abdication, he refused to cut off his queue and change into the new military uniform. Later, he joined Yuan Shikai.

Cen Chunxuan's use of Guangdong's finances to support the Guangxi army was essentially a sign of distrust towards the Guangdong New Army, which had a large number of revolutionaries. Previously, due to their own organizational chaos, the revolutionaries were unable to offer a unified opinion on the political situation in Guangdong, thus creating a balance between the old and new forces.

However, with the completion of the reorganization of the Chinese Revolutionary Party and the opening of the Yuehan Railway, the revolutionary forces in Guangdong, backed by Wuhan, gained much more confidence. The leadership of the revolutionary party was no longer satisfied with peaceful coexistence with the old forces. Their idea was to overthrow Cen, then Zhang and Long, unify the military and political affairs of Guangdong and Guangxi, and thus make the Chinese Revolutionary Party the third force in the country.

On this issue, Wuhan did not actually agree with the revolutionaries' position. After all, Cen Chunxuan had not violated the republican system at this time, and the revolutionaries' attempt to overthrow Cen was more about seizing power and profit than about the revolution itself. Therefore, Wuhan advocated prioritizing land reform and eliminating the conservative gentry who opposed it, rather than wasting energy on enlightened forces willing to cooperate with the revolution.

However, although the Chinese Revolutionary Party claimed that its revolutionary line was close to that of the Labor Party, they actually opposed the land reform line. Sun Yat-sen repeatedly emphasized that he advocated equal land ownership, not the confiscation of landlords' land, and that he advocated learning from the American republican system rather than the socialist public ownership system, which had no successful precedent.

Another goal of the revolutionaries in overthrowing Cen was to prevent Wuhan from forcibly implementing land reform in Guangdong. They planned to implement the decree of equal land ownership after unifying the military and political power of Guangdong, thereby stopping the Workers' Party's radical land revolution policy.

Zhu Zhixin launched an attack at the Guangdong Provincial Assembly, accusing Cen Chunxuan of betraying the overseas Chinese in the issue of French persecution. Hu Hanmin and Liao Zhongkai, as officials of the Guangdong Provincial Government, also led a group of officials to demand that Cen Chunxuan explain the issue of French persecution of overseas Chinese. Chen Jiongming and other officers of the New Army also submitted a letter of protest to Cen Chunxuan.

The general public in Guangzhou tended to favor the revolutionaries and had little affection for Cen Chunxuan, a former high-ranking official of the Qing Dynasty. Moreover, many people from Guangdong had gone to Southeast Asia, and Cen Chunxuan's conservative stance on the issue of overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia made them even more disappointed with him. As a result, citizens held demonstrations demanding that Cen Chunxuan resign.

Unable to withstand the immense political pressure, Cen Chunxuan left Guangzhou for Hong Kong at the end of June. Subsequently, people from all walks of life in Guangdong elected Sun Yat-sen as the Chairman of Guangdong Province. However, this move displeased Yuan Shikai, who refused to accept the coup attempt by the Chinese Revolutionary Party and ordered Zhang Mingqi to be transferred to the position of Governor of Guangdong Province.

After the establishment of the Republic of China, three types of government gradually emerged at the local level. One type was the regional government headed by a provincial governor appointed by the central government, such as the governor-general and governor of the former Qing Dynasty. Another type was the committee system in Wuhan, with the chief member serving as the chairman. The third type retained the system from the former Qing Dynasty, mostly in the border regions.

Yuan Shikai's refusal to accept the nominations from various sectors in Guangdong meant he refused to recognize the transformation of the Guangdong and Guangxi regions from centrally administered areas to local autonomous governments. Although Cen Chunxuan's political views clashed with those of the Beiyang clique, he still advocated for obedience to the central government. However, if Sun Yat-sen were to gain control of Guangdong Province in this manner, it would be tantamount to Fujian, Guangdong, and Guangxi all breaking away from the central government. Since these three regions were all under Guangdong's leadership, once Guangdong became a local autonomous region, Fujian and Guangxi would no longer be able to maintain their loyalty to the central government due to financial constraints.

Zhang Mingqi was naturally willing to take over as governor of Guangdong Province, but he dared not go to the post alone. Therefore, he had Long Jiguang escort him into Guangdong. The entry of Guangxi troops into Guangdong naturally triggered a conflict between the two provinces' armies. The Labor Party, which had originally advocated a peaceful resolution to the incident, changed its stance and ordered the Guangxi troops to retreat to Guangxi, otherwise it would be tantamount to provoking a civil war.

The Wuhan Workers' Party's public stance on the Guangdong-Guangxi Incident further fueled discontent within the Beiyang clique. The Shandong issue had already instilled anxiety in the Beiyang group towards Wuhan, who viewed it as a means to encroach upon their territory before delivering a decisive blow. Although the Beiyang faction believed Wuhan's strength surpassed their own, they were unwilling to accept defeat without a fight, as Wuhan's attempt to simply annex their territory and bring about their downfall was futile.

Moreover, the Beiyang generals believed that the advantage of starting the war now lay with them, because although both Beiyang and Wuhan agreed not to exceed six divisions, Beiyang's territory had been squeezed into the Bohai Rim region, the Liaodong Peninsula, the Shandong Peninsula and the North China Plain, while Wuhan's troops were distributed in a vast area from Heilongjiang to Guizhou.

Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang advocated that the main force of the Beiyang Army should advance directly into the Central Plains, attacking Wuhan along the Beijing-Hankou Railway, while a secondary force should attack Shandong, Jiangsu, and Anhui along the Tianjin-Pukou Railway, eventually capturing Nanjing. Then, they would join forces with the southeastern forces to attack Wuhan along the Yangtze River, thus launching a pincer attack that would prevent Wuhan from defending itself, and thus determine the outcome of the battle in one fell swoop.

Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang had such a strong desire to go to war because, with the support of Britain and Japan, the Beiyang Army had already reorganized three additional divisions. In wartime, they could immediately expand their forces by another three divisions, bringing their forces on paper to more than double the size of those in Wuhan. Both the Japanese Army and the British Minister, Sir John Jordan, expressed their support for the Beiyang Army's decision to go to war with Wuhan. The Katsura Taro cabinet stated that if the Beiyang Army went to war, Japan would provide a batch of arms and help the Beiyang Army obtain international loans.

The support from the British and the Japanese army convinced the Beiyang generals that if they didn't fight Wuhan now, they would never have another chance to fight to the death. After all, Wuhan's territory was becoming increasingly stable. Once Wuhan had absorbed the Northwest and northern Manchuria, what would be the point of the Beiyang forces fighting?

Yuan Shikai was initially hesitant because he knew very well that this was a huge gamble, and if he lost, he would have nothing left. However, the incident of Cen Chunxuan being ousted from power in Guangdong spurred him on. He realized that he was simply incapable of resisting the revolutionary wave of worker-peasant-soldier-student alliance stirred up by the Workers' Party and the Revolutionary Party, because the Beiyang group had no political ideology to attract young people.

Sun Yat-sen could still use the Three Principles of the People to compete with the Workers' Party for public support, while the Beiyang clique, under the Social Progressive Movement promoted by the Workers' Party, could only keep retreating and eventually hand over all power.

Coupled with the instigation from the British and the Japanese army within the Beiyang clique, Yuan Shikai realized that if he didn't respond to the Beiyang clique's desperate mentality, morale would truly collapse. Since even Yuan Shikai, as their leader, didn't want to continue the confrontation with Wuhan, shouldn't everyone hurry up and find a way out?

Left with no other option, Yuan Shikai proposed an exorbitant loan plan to Britain and Japan, demanding a loan of £60 million before he could afford to fight a decisive battle in Wuhan. Yuan believed that once the war broke out, military expenditures would be at least £2 million per month, and if expenses for stabilizing local areas were added, the total would easily reach £30 million per year. He felt that it would take at least two years to raise the funds for the war before it could begin.

The British and Japanese armies certainly couldn't satisfy Yuan Shikai's enormous appetite, but they also acknowledged that Wuhan was not a weak and easily bullied local force. Without the Beiyang Army risking their lives, it would be difficult to win the battle. What they wanted was to completely break the momentum of Wuhan's unification of China, not to send the Beiyang Army to their deaths. Therefore, they had to consider Yuan Shikai's reasonable needs.

Although the British themselves were preparing for war with Germany and scaling back their overseas investments, London was even more worried about what kind of trouble the Asian alliance might cause in the Far East if war broke out in Europe. Even the French offered to lend money to Yuan Shikai to curb Wuhan's development momentum. Sun Yat-sen's strong statements on the issue of overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia made the French feel threatened. They were very concerned that if Wuhan completely controlled China, it would turn on Indochina, and France, embroiled in the European war, would be powerless to stop it.

Therefore, the contact between the two sides went very smoothly. Britain, Japan, France, and Russia indicated that they could lend Yuan Shikai £40 million, but Yuan Shikai had to launch the war against Wuhan before September. The loan would be disbursed in five installments: £5 million in August, £10 million after the start of the war, and subsequent disbursements according to the progress of the war.

The United States was originally a member of the loan banking consortium, but the Americans refused to participate. Although the United States did not have a good impression of the Wuhan Workers' Party, the Americans were more wary of Japan's movements. The relationship between Japan and the Beiyang government was too close, so the Americans naturally refused to support the Beiyang government and even passed this information on to the Germans.

The close relationship between the Germans and Wuhan made it impossible for them to support other Chinese forces. Therefore, the Germans leaked the information to Wuhan in mid-August. It was at this time that Lin Xinyi realized why Katsura Taro dared to insist on the plan to increase the number of troops. If a civil war broke out in China, then the so-called peace in East Asia would no longer exist, and Japan's expansion of its military would be a matter of course.

The army was very wary of the navy in this matter, but the navy still managed to get information from the Germans. They sent a telegram back to Tokyo ordering the cultural department to investigate the movements of the various Japanese financial groups. They did find traces of the Japanese financial groups secretly lending money to the Beiyang Army. They even found that the army had transferred the equipment of a division from China to Korea, which was obviously intended to urgently arm the Beiyang Army.

By the end of August, Katsura Taro had formally conveyed a message to the navy, indicating that a civil war might break out in China soon, and that Japan would take necessary measures to protect its citizens and nationals in China. He stated that the navy should work with the British and French navies to maintain the safety of the Yangtze River. This essentially meant requesting the navy to ensure the safe passage of the Beiyang Army from the Yangtze River towards Wuhan.

Although there are forts such as the Jiangyin Fortress on the Yangtze River, these fortresses are designed to defend against warships on the Yangtze. If the army were to launch an attack on these fortresses, their defensive capabilities would be greatly weakened.

While sending telegrams to the domestic authorities, Lin Hsin-yi stated that neutrality was the best option for maintaining the Asian alliance in the Chinese civil war; at the same time, under the pretext of surveying the defense capabilities along the Yangtze River, he took a boat to Wuhan to discuss countermeasures for dealing with the war with the central committee members of the Workers' Party.

On the evening of September 3, Lin Xinyi arrived in Hankou and discussed countermeasures with Tian Junyi and other members of the Party's Central Committee. Tian Junyi, Cai E, and other members had already reached a preliminary conclusion that they would not compromise with the Beiyang Army's military actions. The disagreement among the members lay in whether or not to maintain the republican system after defeating the Beiyang Army.

If the republican system is not upheld, then the Workers' Party will have to wage a war to unify the country after this war. Upholding the republican system will mean losing the opportunity to unify the country's military and political power after the war, and the next time it wants to unify the country's military and political power, it may not have such a good opportunity.

Lin Xinyi expressed his opinion on this matter: "Although I personally believe that the Labour Party is not actually well prepared to unify the country, because in terms of talent and resources, the party is not yet able to bring China into a true socialist system. At most, we can only complete a part of the democratic task."

However, the current domestic and international environment necessitates a unified China, even if it's an incomplete democratic state, rather than a chaotic one where each faction governs its own way. While the current national system is nominally called a republic, can we truly call it a republican system? Aside from parts of the city and countryside under Wuhan's rule, in many places, let alone capitalism, even the feudal landlord system hasn't been destroyed.

The current republican system is merely a facade; in reality, it remains a dictatorship ruled by officials and local gentry. A republic dominated by officials and landlords is not worth defending by the proletariat…”

End of this chapter

Chapter 789

At the meeting of the Central Committee and the Political Bureau, Lin Xinyi supported the strategic goal of unifying the country. However, he also raised a different opinion, believing that although the opponents in this war were only the Beiyang government and a few local reactionary forces, the real opponents in Wuhan were the foreign powers who were watching from the sidelines. As long as the war reached a stalemate, the foreign powers would definitely intervene.

He bluntly told the Central Committee members: "Although the Germans' support for Wuhan has exceeded their support for the Ottoman reformists, the Germans' goal is not to make the Ottoman Empire and China into a truly modern country, but to find allies to contain Britain and France in future wars. Therefore, if Britain and France participate in the war to unify China, it is something the Germans would like to see, at least Germany will have a few more years of peaceful development."

For Japan, while some believe that an Asian alliance would be of great benefit to Japan and an opportunity to break the restrictions imposed on Japan by Western powers, others believe that swallowing up weaker neighbors and confronting Western powers as a Greater Japanese Empire rather than an alliance would be more advantageous for Japan.

Therefore, if the war for China's unification reaches a stalemate, the desire within Japan to send troops will rapidly increase. Based on the diplomatic strategies of Britain and Japan, we can deduce that when considering the strength of our adversaries, we cannot simply calculate the strength of the Beiyang Army and local reactionary forces; we must also take into account the possibility of British and Japanese intervention.

To force Britain and Japan to abandon the possibility of participating in the war, we must demonstrate a crushing victory over the Beiyang Army. Only when the British and Japanese governments realize that they cannot rely on the Beiyang Army or local reactionary forces to resist on the front lines, but need to directly mobilize their own basic armed forces to invade China, will this war transform from a war of unification of China into a total war between nations. Only then can we curb Britain and Japan's desire to participate in the war.

Therefore, I advocate a complete shift to a wartime system in industry and the economy, and a people's war model in social management, unleashing the full war potential that the proletariat can mobilize to achieve the goal of national unification.

The people's war model that Lin Xinyi mentioned is actually the total mobilization system of European countries. Although the Germans have not yet summarized the theory of total war, the industrialized countries of Europe have been continuously improving their national mobilization and combat systems since the Napoleonic Wars. In particular, after the Industrial Revolution, the industrialized countries have actually established the material and organizational foundation to implement total national mobilization, but they lack a complete theory to summarize it.

From the very first day of its establishment, the Wuhan regime had to devote all the resources at its disposal to the war effort. The military mobilization system of the Wuhan Workers' Party was modeled after the national mobilization system of Europe. Lin Xinyi, as the creator of this mobilization system, named it the People's War Model.

Of course, at the beginning, Wuhan's military mobilization system was only similar to that of industrialized countries in terms of organization. In terms of material resources, it mainly relied on the manpower and material resources liberated by the land revolution to support the war. This is different from industrialized countries relying on industrial production sectors to support total war. However, it was already quite close to the Red Army's combat system in another time and space.

After the Wuhan regime stabilized, the cooperation between the Workers' Party and German capital began to revise the basis of land revolution as a means of replenishing manpower and materials for the war. The essence of land revolution was the redistribution of interests, which could not increase productivity. Therefore, when the benefits distributed by land revolution ended, this war mobilization system could not be maintained.

This is also why, historically, only China was able to complete the New Democratic Revolution by relying on a land revolution program. Other countries did not have China's scale and could not rely solely on the redistribution of benefits from a land revolution to complete the foundational work for a democratic revolution across the entire country. India actually had an opportunity, but the British used the partition plan to dismantle the unity of the Indian proletariat and peasantry. Ultimately, after independence, India only stipulated in its constitution that it was a socialist country.

Why is the people's war model more suitable for industrialized countries? Because, in essence, the mobilization model of people's war doesn't instantly turn ordinary people into soldiers, but rather, through a series of work assignments, it integrates ordinary people into the war machine. A later film profoundly depicted this model of warfare, although it didn't show any actual battle scenes—this was the Wannsee Conference.