Beiyang Dream

Chapter 11 War and Peace, Russia and Japan

Indian Ocean, Dongfang.

As soon as it was light, cabin A-07 of the second class on the Dongfang was packed with people.

Chang Desheng found a small blackboard—actually a piece of wood painted black—and hung it on the bulkhead with a rope. He stood in front of the blackboard, a piece of chalk stub in his hand. Three people sat below: Shang Dequan, Kong Qingtang, and Wu Dingyuan. All three had sour faces, and in front of them lay mimeographed booklets issued by Reiner, the edges of the pages almost twisted into a pretzel.

"Today is the tenth day," Chang Desheng began, tapping the blackboard with chalk. "Instructor Rui made us memorize ten words and four sentences a day. The first few days were okay, but the more we memorized them, the harder it became; we kept forgetting what we had just learned—am I right?"

The three below nodded in unison, as if they had planned it beforehand.

Shang Dequan adjusted his glasses: "Brother Zhenbang, we're really at our wits' end. Your German is improving so fast; you chat with foreigners every day, and you speak words and sentences like they're nothing. You have to teach us."

Chang Desheng thought to himself: I've been waiting for this sentence for several days.

Last night, Shang Dequan approached him, saying he wanted to bring Kong, Wu, and Duan along to learn from him. Chang Desheng immediately thought: He absolutely had to teach them!

Shang Dequan, Kong Qingtang, and Wu Dingyuan are all genuinely qualified to study abroad. Among the two or three hundred students at the Beiyang Military Academy, they are definitely top performers! If we put in some effort to help them now, they will become the core of our own direct clique in the future!

As for Duan Qirui… that guy is too arrogant and refuses to come. Fine, if he doesn't want to come, then so be it, we won't include him.

"Sure," Chang Desheng agreed immediately. "Tomorrow morning, A-07, I'll give you a special treat."

Looking at his three brothers below, who were all frowning, he cleared his throat and said, "Instructor Rui's method is the German method of childhood kung fu, which is not suitable for us. We have to use our own method."

He wrote two words on the blackboard: Wasser (water) and Wassermelone (watermelon).

"See that? Wasser means water, and Melone means melon. Put the two words together, and you get Wassermelone—water melon. Watermelons are juicy, aren't they?" Chang Desheng broke down the word with chalk. "German word formation is like building blocks for us. Water plus melon, put them together, and a new thing comes out. This is called the root and etymological decomposition method."

Kong Qingtang's eyes lit up: "It's like building a house, where bricks are bricks and beams are beams?"

"That's the idea!" Chang Desheng laughed. "When we learn German, we can't just memorize each word one by one. We have to recognize all the 'standard components' like roots, prefixes, and suffixes before we can put them together."

He turned around and began writing quickly on the blackboard:

Schlacht (fighting) + Feld (field) = Schlachtfeld (battlefield)

Beweg (to move) + -ung (noun suffix) = Bewegung (to be transported)

"See that?" Chang Desheng pointed to the blackboard. "Memorize three basic components, and you can generate six or seven new terms. Isn't that a good deal?"

The three people below stared wide-eyed.

Wu Dingyuan scratched his head: "Brother Zhenbang, how did you come up with this method?"

Chang Desheng thought to himself: This is how my teacher taught me German as my second foreign language when I was preparing for graduate school in my past life. But he couldn't say that, so he smiled and said, "I copied it from those two English-German translation books that the professors at Han University gave me."

He then introduced the second strategy: thematic scene classification and high-frequency word attack method.

He went through the five hundred words and two hundred sentences that Renell required him to master again. "We can't memorize them in alphabetical order, that won't work. We have to do them in the order of 'what we need to use most often'."

He drew a table on the blackboard:

The first batch (two hundred words): survival words – that is, words related to eating, drinking, defecating, and excretion, plus commonly used verbs.

The second batch (150 words): Words for living in military school - as the name suggests, once you learn them, you can at least chat with people in military school.

The third batch (150 words): Professional terms - German professional terms are much simpler than English terms, but you still have to memorize them one by one.

"Our skills and brainpower are our capital," Chang Desheng said, tapping the blackboard. "We must use our best resources wisely. First, ensure we don't starve and can ask for directions; then, ensure we understand the lessons; and finally, master our major. If we follow this path, we'll definitely be able to make it in forty-one days."

Shang Dequan scribbled notes down, muttering to himself, "That makes sense, absolutely makes sense..."

Kong Qingtang and Wu Dingyuan exchanged a glance, both seeing the same message in each other's eyes: We're convinced, you're our boss!

Chang Desheng saw this and thought to himself: This deal is "straight"—straight in the sense of being a direct relative!

……

Outside the hatch.

Duan Qirui leaned against the wall, holding a small notebook in his hand, his ear pressed against the crack in the door.

He heard every single word spoken inside.

He didn't want to come in the first place—why should Duan Qirui, the famous scholar, ask Chang Desheng for advice? It would be beneath him! Besides, he was more diligent than Shang, Kong, and Wu, and had a better foundation. He memorized twelve words and five sentences a day, and even mumbled German in his dreams.

But he just couldn't resist wanting to hear it.

As he listened, his fingers clenched.

Word root analysis... Scene classification...

This method... it's fucking effective.

Duan Qirui was arrogant, but he wasn't stupid. He could tell that Chang Desheng's explanation wasn't nonsense; there was a method to it. The explanations of "word roots" and "prefixes and suffixes," and the three-part division of "survival-military academy-profession," were clear and practical, like untangling a tangled mess of yarn.

He felt a little resentful, but he couldn't quite bring himself to say it.

"Quite a few tricks up his sleeve..." he muttered to himself, his fingers unconsciously jotting down a few key words in his notebook: roots, prefixes, suffixes...

He made up his mind. He would use Chang Desheng's methods. He would use them secretly, to overpower Chang Desheng. This was called "learning from Chang's strengths to defeat him!"

Just as I was thinking this, the hatch creaked open.

Chang Desheng came out from inside, still holding the piece of chalk in his hand.

The two bumped into each other in the narrow passageway.

Duan Qirui's hand trembled, and the small notebook almost fell to the ground. He quickly gripped it tightly, tucked it behind his back, and his face became as taut as a door panel.

Chang Desheng spoke first, his tone as casual as a greeting: "Brother Duan, back from your walk?"

Duan Qirui grunted an "Mmm" through his nose and stepped aside to make way.

Chang Desheng didn't say much, just nodded and walked past. After taking a few steps, a smile curved his lips, and he thought to himself:

Old Duan, you've taken quite a few notes. Too bad, it seems you, the future leader of the Anhui clique, can't beat the direct line led by me, Chang.

Duan Qirui stared at his back until he disappeared around the corner.

Then he muttered to himself, "What a pity... he's not willing to put in the hard work."

He gripped his notebook tightly, turned, and walked in another direction. He needed to find a secluded spot to carefully review what he had just overheard.

……

10:00 AM, Oriental Library.

This is a quiet and bright place.

Chang Desheng sat at a table by the window, with a thick book open in front of him.

The German version of "War and Peace".

He read slowly, his fingers tracing the finely printed Gothic letters line by line. He wasn't really there to read the novel—he'd read both the Chinese and English versions in his previous life and knew the plot inside and out. He was there to wait for someone.

The page turned to the section about Kutuzov burning Moscow. Chang Desheng thought to himself: trading territory for time, scorched earth warfare... such a familiar tactic, but the Manchu Qing Dynasty can't use it!

Just then, the chair opposite me was pulled away.

A person sat down, moving very quietly.

Chang Desheng raised his eyes.

The visitor was Hideaki Tojo.

He was still wearing that dark blue military uniform, and he was holding a book in his hands—a thick yearbook.

"Mr. Chang," Tojo said in German, "is anyone here?"

Chang Desheng closed the book and smiled, "Ah, it's Major Tojo. Please sit down, there's no one here."

This spot was reserved for Tojo, so of course no one else could take it.

Tojo nodded and placed the book on the table. His gaze swept over the book beside Chang Desheng's hand, and he paused for a moment.

"War and Peace," he read the title, glancing up at Chang Desheng, "a Russian novel. Mr. Chang, are you interested in Russian literature?"

"I wouldn't say I'm particularly interested," Chang Desheng picked up the book, weighed it in his hand—it was quite heavy—"but I still have to read some of it."

Why?

Chang Desheng deliberately remained silent for a few seconds before giving a bitter smile:

"Because I need to figure out our country's number one hypothetical enemy."

Tojo's eyebrows twitched slightly: "Oh? Your Qing Dynasty's hypothetical enemy is... Russia?"

"Mr. Tojo, don't you know," Chang Desheng leaned forward slightly, lowering his voice, "that the Russians want to build a railway? A railway that runs across the entire Siberia, from St. Petersburg all the way to Vladivostok."

Tojo nodded: "I've heard of it vaguely... but this railway won't be finished in less than ten years, will it?"

"Ten years will pass very quickly," Chang Desheng shook his head. "If we don't work hard now, we'll be in big trouble in ten years."

He paused, then spoke again, his tone now heavy:

"Right now, Russia has a limited number of troops in the Far East, and supplies are a struggle. But once this railway is completed, things will be different! Thousands upon thousands of Russian troops will be able to continuously march to the Far East!"

Hideaki Tojo remained silent, his gaze fixed on Chang Desheng's face, as if trying to discern the truth.

Chang Desheng met his gaze and continued:

"That's why Li Hongzhang insisted on sending us to Germany. We not only need to learn German, military engineering, and staff skills... we also need to learn from the Germans and their methods of dealing with the Russians! Russia and Germany have been good neighbors for so many years."

Hideaki Tojo stared at the young man from Qing China. The worry on his face didn't seem fake, and his remarks about the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Russian threat sounded quite reasonable.

It turned out to be the case.

Tojo was making plans in his mind.

It seems that the elite soldiers of the Beiyang Army went to Germany to study mainly to deal with the Russian bear to the north.

In other words, in the next few years they will try to build a specialized new army specifically for fighting in the deep snow in winter. Even if it is not large, they will still have to make a concerted effort.

Furthermore, what was Japan's position in the eyes of the Beiyang government?

This must be the second hypothetical enemy, right?

"Mr. Chang," Tojo stood up and nodded slightly, "then I wish you success in your resistance against Russia... This will also benefit our country, because Russia poses a considerable threat to Japan as well!"

Chang Desheng also stood up and returned the greeting.

"Who knows, we might meet on the battlefield one day!"

Upon hearing this, Tojo's expression changed. Then, Chang Desheng added, "On the battlefield against Russia!"

Tojo then resumed his fake smile, nodded, picked up the yearbook, and turned to leave.

Chang Desheng sat back down and reopened "War and Peace".

While reading, I mentally went over the conversation I had just had.

His words weren't entirely a lie—even if they were complete fabrications, Tojo wouldn't believe them. How could the top student in the first year of Riku University be so easily fooled?

In fact, he really intended to put in the effort to build up a small new army that could fight against the Japanese in the icy and snowy Korean peninsula during the "Winter of the First Sino-Japanese War"—if he remembered correctly, the First Sino-Japanese War started in the summer, and by winter, the Japanese army had swept into Northeast China with unstoppable momentum.

If there were a force, or if the Japanese military could be convinced that such a force truly existed and could cause them significant trouble in the icy winter, then they might not launch a large-scale attack on northern Korea during the winter.

By the spring of 1895, it was just a few months of respite.

In just a few months, I've been able to get quite a few things done!

Chang Desheng tugged at the heavy braid, cursed under his breath, and couldn't help but start calculating:

Forty days until we reach Germany. I need to get Shang, Kong, and Wu's German up to par, keep in touch with the Schneider couple, keep fooling Tojo, prepare for the Prussian War College exam... Oh, and that letter to Emperor Wilhelm.

There's so much to do!