Twentieth Century Chronicle

Page 98

Although this cavalry force, which opened a second front, encountered fierce resistance in places such as Rehe, Dushikou, and Zhangjiakou, Major General Mishinko still managed to take advantage of the Chinese army's rush to Zhangjiakou to bypass the Great Wall and reach the city of Datong. The soldiers outside the north gate of Datong fled at the sight of the enemy, and the merchants and civilians inside the city opened the gates to welcome the Russian army into the city.

After the Manchus massacred Datong and demolished its city walls in the early Qing Dynasty, the city was not restored until the twelfth year of the Shunzhi Emperor's reign, but its scale was far smaller than before. Later, the Manchus used commerce to control Inner and Outer Mongolia, and Shanxi merchants flourished. As a result, Datong transformed from a military stronghold in the Ming Dynasty into a commercial center in the Qing Dynasty.

The city walls here were already in ruins, and shops and warehouses were everywhere inside and outside the city. Shops could be seen in all 136 streets and alleys in the city. Why would the merchants and residents here be willing to fight to the death with the Russian army? In order to prevent the Russian army from entering the city to kill and rob, these merchants and residents naturally opened their doors and surrendered obediently.

The fact that they were able to so easily capture the central city of this region—there are only about ten towns in the entire Yanbei region, the three largest commercial cities being Datong, Youyu Shahu Pass, and Daizhou—is remarkable. Datong is the center of the Yanbei region, and taking it is equivalent to having a base for advancing into the Chinese interior. Therefore, Major General Misinko accepted the Chinese surrender.

He also assured the Chinese that the Tsar was benevolent and that they were there to punish the Manchu court for breaking the agreement, not to cause trouble for ordinary people. Major General Misinko also warned his men: "We must abide by the agreement with these Chinese so that we can use them to gather intelligence and provide the army with the necessary supplies. Otherwise, we will not be able to continue our advance."

Major General Mishinko relayed intelligence to the rear, requesting that infantry be sent to support him as soon as possible, because Cossacks should not be used for city defense, as this would diminish the Cossack cavalry's greatest deterrent effect. According to the marching route Mishinko had scouted, the Russian army should march north from Jinzhou to Chaoyang Prefecture, then turn west to Chengde, and then advance towards Zhangjiakou. He would coordinate with the follow-up troops to seize this passage to Beijing.

In the letter, Major General Mishinko argued that after their surprise attack on Datong, the Chinese were in complete panic, only worried that they would continue to advance southward. As a result, the defense of Zhangjiakou was not as tight as before. Under such circumstances, a pincer attack on Zhangjiakou would easily capture this important commercial city, and the Russian army would have a large amount of supplies to attack Beijing.

Upon receiving this news, Far East Governor Alekseev immediately approved Major General Mishinko's plan. He ordered General Starklberg to form a special detachment, with the 9th Infantry Division of Eastern Siberia in Jinzhou as its backbone, to attack Zhangjiakou in order to complete Major General Mishinko's plan and open a passage to Beijing on the second front.

Meanwhile, Beijing was shocked by the fall of Datong. At that time, the governor of Shanxi was Zhang Renjun. He sought help from Beijing while organizing the Shanxi New Army and local militia to guard Yanmen Pass to prevent the Russian army from suddenly attacking Taiyuan from the south. However, although the Shanxi New Army had a brigade structure, it was actually only a regiment and lacked new weapons and officers. It was in complete chaos when facing the Russian army.

Even Zhang Renjun himself was not confident that he could hold Taiyuan. He could only tell the court that he "received the emperor's bounty and should repay the emperor's kindness." However, he still wrote a private letter to his sworn brother Yuan Shikai, hoping that he could send troops to rescue Shanxi.

Yuan Shikai had only just managed to stabilize the situation in Hebei, so where would he find the troops to rescue Shanxi? As Wang Shizhen and Duan Qirui had told him, sending too few troops would be of no use, while sending too many would allow the Russians to intensify their attack on the Shanhaiguan route. Compared to the Shanxi route, Shanhaiguan was the main route for the Russian army's major offensive.

Of course, both Wang Shizhen and Duan Qirui believed that Shanxi could not be left unrestrained. If the Russians were to break through Shanxi, then Hebei would be threatened from the flank. However, the two disagreed on how to rescue Shanxi. Duan Qirui believed that reinforcements should be requested from Wuhan. At present, only Wuhan had the spare capacity to send troops. Even if other provinces sent troops, they would only be able to send patrol battalions that were not capable of fighting. By the time they arrived in Shanxi, it would be too late.

Wang Shizhen advocated requesting weapons support from Wuhan, then recruiting new troops in Shandong and Hebei to replace the defenses of Dushikou and Zhangjiakou with the Beiyang Army, and sending the Yi Army to retake Datong. He told Yuan Shikai, "Shanxi is a strategically important region, a vital passage between Zhili and the Northwest. Once it is occupied by people from Hubei, will they leave easily? Therefore, we cannot give them the opportunity to enter Shanxi."

Duan Qirui dismissed Wang Shizhen's concerns, retorting, "If the Russian army disrupts Shanxi, even Beijing will be in danger. At this point, why worry about the people of Wuhan refusing to leave Shanxi? What we should be worried about is where we should retreat to if the Russian army breaks through Shanxi. Wuhan has already assembled nine divisions; are we just going to let them stand by and watch? If we fight the Russians to the death, wouldn't we be letting them reap the benefits?"

Yuan Shikai was also quite troubled by this. His greatest hope was that the Yi Army could independently repel the Russian army in Datong, so that he wouldn't have to worry about this problem. However, the Yi Army was also in dire straits. Their defensive line stretched from Dushikou all the way to Guihua City, a length of over 300 kilometers, but they only had 20 battalions of troops available. Under such circumstances, asking them to recapture Datong was no different from forcing the Yi Army to commit suicide.

Therefore, with Ma Yukun's tacit approval, He Zongxun sent a letter to Beijing requesting the return of the eight battalions of the Yi Army guarding Shanhaiguan, so that they could still try to fight. However, apart from the court being unaware, Yuan Shikai was quite clear that these eight battalions were not the Yi Army at all, but rather troops from Wuhan. He neither wanted to let them go, nor could he.

The Wuhan New Army not only guaranteed morale on the front lines, but also greatly relieved the Beiyang Army's logistical burden. While others relied on the Beiyang Army for supplies, the Wuhan New Army was responsible for transporting its own provisions. Aside from fresh food, which needed to be supplied by the Beiyang Army, all other ammunition and weaponry were self-sufficient. As long as this force remained under his control, ammunition from Wuhan would flow in continuously. How could Yuan Shikai possibly agree to relinquish it?

However, He Zongxun did not place all his hopes on this matter. His second suggestion was to obtain permission from the court to recruit soldiers in Henan to supplement the insufficient troops at the front. However, He Zongxun's suggestion only deceived the Manchus. Yuan Shikai, for example, knew very well that He Zongxun actually intended to request reinforcements from Wuhan, which meant that the Yi Army would completely side with Wuhan.

If given a choice, Yuan Shikai would certainly not have agreed to this request. In fact, he had always considered the Yi Army as a branch of the Beiyang Army, given their shared origins in the Huai Army clique. Now that Li Hongzhang was gone and Ma Yukun was old, incorporating this army into the Beiyang Army was a logical step. This is why Yuan Shikai could silently watch as Empress Dowager Cixi supported the Yi Army. Although he understood Cixi's intentions, he believed he could control the Yi Army after Ma Yukun's departure, so why should he worry about the Yi Army expanding its power?

But no one expected that a dark horse would appear out of nowhere. Ma Yukun led the Yi Army south and fought a battle with Wuhan. The Yi Army failed to defeat the enemy, but Wuhan generously released prisoners and even returned their weapons, which created a subtle connection between the Yi Army and Wuhan. This connection deepened further with the outbreak of the Sino-Russian War. Wuhan exchanged a batch of old German weapons for a batch of standardized weapons from the Yi Army, which greatly enhanced the Yi Army's strength.

Yuan Shikai admitted that although these were old weapons discarded by the Germans, they were not rubbish. If he had kept such a batch of weapons, he would obviously not have been willing to give them to the Yi Army unless they accepted the reorganization of the Beiyang Army. However, Wuhan gave them to the Yi Army without asking for anything in return. From that moment on, Yuan Shikai knew that the Yi Army was probably going to change sides.

He simply hadn't expected this opportunity to come so quickly. However, he couldn't deny that the Yi Army was now in a desperate situation. They either had to withdraw, or they simply couldn't withstand a surprise attack from such a powerful Russian cavalry force. Unless the Beiyang Army were to support the Yi Army and help them eliminate the Russian forces occupying Datong, thus removing this threat from their rear, the Yi Army wouldn't need to make a choice now.

However, Yuan Shikai could not use the Beiyang Army to shield the Yi Army from disaster. If he could mobilize the First Division of the Beiyang Army, he would not care. But the First Division would never obey his orders to leave Beijing. It was the lifeblood of the Manchus and the last force used to protect the palace. How could he risk his life for it?

After much deliberation, Yuan Shikai decided he couldn't be the villain. If he refused the Yi Army's request, they wouldn't hate Wuhan, but only him, which would damage his image among his former subordinates in the Huai Army clique. And would Wuhan truly be willing to send troops? That was another very delicate question. While sending troops to rescue the Yi Army would have benefits, these benefits could only be realized after defeating the Russian army. Facing a large Russian cavalry force in open battle seemed very risky to Yuan Shikai.

Since it was such a thorny problem, the best approach was naturally to go with the flow. So Yuan Shikai, being a good Samaritan, even helped the Yi Army send a telegram to Wuhan, requesting that Wuhan go north to help the Yi Army recapture Datong, but only under the Yi Army's banner.

Chapter 346 Li Yuanhong

When news of Datong's occupation by the Russian army came, Wuhan was not surprised. Although the troops sent by Wuhan went to the Shanhaiguan front, the support for the Yi Army never stopped.

While re-equipping the Yi Army, Wuhan also investigated the Yi Army's defenses and the local situation. From the beginning, they believed that the Yi Army's defenses everywhere, apart from dispersing its own forces, could not play a role in resisting the Russian army.

Unless the Russian army only sends one or two thousand troops, and they are also fighting the Yi army for control of this defensive line, and are unwilling to cross it to attack their rear, the current actions of the Russian army have just confirmed the views of the Wuhan Army General Staff.

There were differing opinions within the Wuhan Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Committee regarding the telegram requesting aid from the Yi Army. The non-Party members almost unanimously supported sending troops to provide support, arguing that this was, after all, a national war, and they should not be concerned with conflicts with the Manchus, but rather prioritize defending national interests.

Within the party, two opinions also diverged: one side supported sending troops, but believed that we should take the lead and not be at the mercy of the court. For example, the troops along the Shanhaiguan line had become the main force blocking the Russian army's attack for the Beiyang Army, which made many committee members feel dissatisfied; the other side advocated that we should not send troops now, but should let the Russian army conquer most of Shanxi before taking action, so that Shanxi could be brought under control in the same way as Henan.

After discussing the matter, Tian Junyi, Tang Caichang, and other Central Committee members believed that they should first consult the military's opinion. After all, the purpose of sending troops there was to fight, and if the military believed that they could not fight, then their argument would be meaningless.

Several military commissioners, including Li Yuanhong, Cai Hanqing, and Sun Wu, who were stationed on the outskirts of Wuhan, were recalled to Wuhan for consultation on the issue of sending troops. When Li Yuanhong received the telegram, he was inspecting the commencement of the Nanchang-Jiujiang Railway. After Jiujiang was captured by Wuhan, Wuhan did not rush to send officials to Jiujiang. Instead, it stabilized the local social order and cooperated with some enlightened local gentry to carry out urban construction in Jiujiang.

Although the subsequent land reform and anti-rightist campaigns also affected the area, Jiujiang remained relatively stable overall. After all, the Jiangxi New Army had not yet begun to be built, and the province's main military force consisted of five regular armies. The backbone of these regular armies was actually the Hunan Army, but for the New Army, the Hunan Army was truly outdated. This is why Tie Liang dared to take action against Wei Guangtao when he marched south, because the Hunan Army was no longer effective.

If it weren't for the Wuhan incident, Wei Guangtao would have been removed from his position as Governor-General of Liangjiang. However, the court was now powerless to reorganize the southern governors, and the Beiyang Army was also constrained by the Russian army. Therefore, Wei Guangtao recruited back the subordinates who had been dismissed by Tie Liang. Wei Guangtao knew very well that for the Xiang Army to survive, it either needed to reorganize into a new army or gain a strong ally.

Tie Liang dared to attack the Xiang Army because he was backed by Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army. After all, the two rivers were the source of the nation's wealth. If the Beiyang New Army wanted to continue training, it would naturally want to get its hands on Jiangsu, this money bag. Meanwhile, the Manchus wanted to use the benefits of the Xiang Army to appease the Beiyang New Army and take back the power of the local governors. It was a perfect match.

Wei Guangtao was getting old, and he felt he couldn't maintain the situation with the Xiang Army. After all, he wasn't Liu Kunyi and couldn't get the support of the entire Xiang clique, so he made concessions to the Manchus for a time. But since Wuhan had taken the initiative to attack the court and actually held out, Wei Guangtao naturally wouldn't make concessions to the Manchus anymore.

Since the Beiyang clique and the Manchus had such close ties, Wei Guangtao could only extend a friendly gesture to Wuhan, as the Hunan clique's home base was still under Wuhan's control. Therefore, Wei Guangtao not only tolerated Wuhan's move to Jiujiang but also reached a private peace agreement with Wuhan. Without Nanjing's support, Jiangxi was even less able to resist Wuhan's military and political power.

As a result, Wuhan not only quickly took control of the Jiujiang area, but also resumed the construction of the Nanchang-Xunyi Railway. Jiangxi had wanted to build this railway for a long time, but it had been unable to raise the necessary funds. However, the preliminary surveys and designs were almost complete. After Wuhan took control of Jiujiang, it began to promote the construction of the Jiujiang oil refining base and believed that a railway should be built to Nanchang. So, the railway project was put into operation.

In January of this year, the Nanxun Railway officially started construction, and Li Yuanhong even moved his headquarters to Jiujiang. He did this so that he could be further away from Huangshi. Although the Eastern Hubei Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Committee stationed in Huangshi was nominally on the same level as him, he only had one vote at meetings while others had seven or eight. He realized that he was just there to raise his hand and had no real influence over the local situation, so he simply focused his attention on military work.

Li Yuanhong also admitted that the efficiency of the Wuhan Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Committee was many times higher than that of the former Huguang Governor's Office. In the past, if the Huguang Governor's Office wanted to get something done, it would be impossible to get it done without allowing relevant or unrelated personnel to enrich themselves. As a result, officials at all levels spent most of their time socializing and cultivating interpersonal relationships. People who did not understand interpersonal relationships could not get anything done.

However, the current Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Committee is a completely different story. Not only are most of its members young people around 30 years old, but it is also rare to see people over 40. Those so-called respected elders at most hold the title of advisor and cannot integrate into the group at all.

Moreover, these young people were full of energy and rarely appeared in social gatherings. Their favorite places were factories or villages, where they would conduct investigations, organize peasant and labor movements, and promote local development and rural education. Seeing the enthusiasm of these young people, Li Yuanhong understood that the imperial court was unlikely to return.

Li Yuanhong admired these young people; they only cared about whether they had work to do, not whether their treatment was reasonable. Of course, the Labor Party did a good job in logistics, doing its best to allocate resources to frontline workers within its capabilities. Those working in offices in Wuhan didn't necessarily have better treatment than those working in rural areas; they mostly enjoyed the conveniences of city life.

However, he was also afraid of these young people because they were too radical and seemed to have the idea of ​​smashing everything old. Within the current Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Committee, "old" had become a derogatory term. For example, young members of the Labor Party liked to refer to the Tongmenghui as a group of old revolutionaries, implying that they did not understand what a new revolution was.

From the Labour Party's perspective, the old revolutions were simply about overthrowing the Manchu regime and that was it. However, such revolutions failed to point out a new path for China's future, ultimately resulting in Han emperors being replaced by Manchu emperors, and could not change China's fate of decline. To change China's fate of decline, a new revolutionary path was necessary.

Judging from the fact that the Workers' Party has managed to stabilize the situation, Li Yuanhong believes that the opposing revolutionary ideology seems to be sound, but this path is quite unfriendly to the propertied class, and it attempts to make every party member a saint. Although the Workers' Party has brought a new atmosphere to the army—officials who used to enjoy drinking and visiting brothels are now starting to emphasize personal morality—for these veteran soldiers, this new military discipline feels like an invisible shackle, making them feel somewhat suffocated.

Since Zeng Guofan created the Xiang Army, hometown ties and personal friendships within the army have become the key to maintaining unity. Even in the Beiyang New Army, the internal history was based on the connection with Yuan Shikai during the Xiaozhan training period. If someone was not a newcomer who joined during the Xiaozhan training period, they could hardly be considered Yuan Shikai's direct subordinate. The soul of this army was Yuan Shikai, and everyone's position in the army was determined by their closeness to Yuan Shikai.

The same principle applies to the Hubei New Army. However, Zhang Zhidong was not knowledgeable in military affairs and was unwilling to get involved in training troops, so he pushed Zhang Biao to the forefront. As a result, the internal power structure of the Hubei New Army was relatively chaotic. Both Zhang Biao and Li Yuanhong had their own groups of followers. The only difference was that Zhang Biao had more power due to Zhang Zhidong's support, but he was unable to dismantle Li Yuanhong's clique.

Li Yuanhong used to think that this structure in the army was unlikely to change, with various factions checking and balancing each other, which allowed the court to trust the army. But now that the Workers' Party had reorganized the army and was governing it through party control, there was no room for these old factions to exist. If you weren't in the party, you couldn't establish a faction. Even if you were in the party, the army was subordinate to politics, not the other way around. The old army had been effectively ended by the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army.

Although Li Yuanhong really wanted to join the party, it was much more difficult for older people like him than for younger people. Even Tian Junyi personally advised him that he should first study the theories of the Labour Party to make sure that he genuinely agreed with them before considering joining.

However, this was actually a polite refusal, and Li Yuanhong was now somewhat regretful. If he hadn't stood by and watched that night, he wouldn't be in this awkward situation now. But the idea of ​​abandoning everything to join the imperial court was something he was unwilling to do.

Based on his personal experience over the past year, he believed that the Qing Dynasty was destined to be replaced by the Workers', Peasants', and Soldiers' Committee. The biggest obstacle to the Committee's potential conquest was not the imperial court or the Beiyang government, but rather the intervention of the foreign powers. However, judging from the two recent foreign wars—whether against Russia at Shanhaiguan or against Britain in India—the foreign powers had not demonstrated overwhelming strength, which increased the Committee's chances of success.

Therefore, upon receiving the telegram from Wuhan, Li Yuanhong immediately handed over his work and excitedly boarded the warship "Worker" to head to Hankou. Li Yuanhong was still the commander of the Yangtze River Fleet. A year ago, the fleet only had one gunboat, the "Worker," but now two gunboats of that class had been launched, and four high-speed torpedo boats powered by diesel engines had joined the fleet.

This is also proof that Li Yuanhong believed the Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Committee had a bright future, because these ships were all built in Wuhan itself. Although the technology was transferred from Germany, it was still a considerable improvement compared to the Jiangnan Arsenal. After all, most of the shipbuilding steel used by the Jiangnan Arsenal had to be imported from abroad, and even the shipyard was controlled by the British.

In 1885, the Jiangnan Arsenal completely ceased its shipbuilding and repair operations. It wasn't until 1905, when the Jiangnan Arsenal separated its shipyard and hired the Englishman Markham as its chief inspector and chief engineer, that its shipbuilding business was revived. But what does this have to do with the Chinese?

Although the Hanyang Shipyard incorporated German technology, it was not under German control. In this respect, it represented hope for China's shipbuilding industry. Moreover, the Workers', Peasants', and Soldiers' Committee's ambitions extended beyond building small boats. They were currently negotiating with the Germans to invest in and expand the German-owned shipyard in Qingdao, transforming it into a Sino-German joint venture to lay the foundation for China's ocean shipping industry. This plan had also received support from the German industrial sector.

Chapter 347 Germany's Changing Strategy in China

Although Germany acquired Jiaozhou Bay in Shandong and incorporated Shandong into its sphere of influence, it quickly realized, through comparison with Wuhan, that the two places were vastly different in terms of development.

To transport Shandong's resources out of the country, it was necessary to build railways and ports. This was a basic infrastructure project that the great powers had to invest in in any colony, and the cost of this infrastructure project naturally had to be plundered from the colony.

Germany initially invested 5400 million marks in the Shandong Railway Company, but the numerous rivers it traversed caused costs to soar, and by 1904, nearly 5300 million marks had already been invested in its construction. The Germans had high hopes for this railway, hoping it would drive rapid development in Qingdao.

However, the Germans viewed Shandong as a colony, leading to conflicts between Germans and the local people. Furthermore, Yuan Shikai's opening of Zhoucun as a treaty port diverted cargo from Qingdao. Consequently, the Germans invested heavily in Shandong, but recouped their infrastructure costs very slowly. In 1905, the Jiaoji Railway's surplus was only 16.7 silver dollars, equivalent to over 30 marks, which severely dampened German merchants' confidence in the development of Qingdao.

In contrast, Germany's investment in Wuhan was significantly reduced because the Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Committee undertook all the infrastructure investment. German capital could not only obtain capital outflows through loans from the committee for infrastructure projects, but also greatly reduced the investment required to set up factories in Wuhan.

German businessmen believed that, apart from Shanghai, no other region in China was more suitable for foreign investment than Wuhan, because the committee had replaced the functions of the Shanghai Municipal Council of the International Settlement and had much greater power, as they could also solve problems such as the sourcing, transportation, and sales of raw materials for factories.

The Shanghai Municipal Council of the International Settlement was only responsible for affairs within the settlement itself. Outside the settlement, it could only influence local officials through diplomatic negotiations, but it was equally powerless to address China's poor infrastructure. This lack of infrastructure is a fundamental difference between industrial and agricultural countries, preventing the latter from fully utilizing its cheap labor due to high transportation costs.

However, the Shanghai International Settlement was ultimately a place where the British held sway. Of the nine-member board of directors of the Municipal Council, only one was German, while seven were British. The French Concession's Municipal Council was entirely French-dominated, and the Shanghai Club was a symbol of British power. Although Germans such as von Durring, Lemos, and Lonte initiated the establishment of the German Club in 1902, the Germans still felt they had been treated unfairly by the British and French in Shanghai.

Although Qingdao is a place where the Germans have the final say, it's now just a small, rural town and can't affect China's economic situation at all. Wuhan, on the other hand, is different. It not only has a huge economic hinterland comparable to Shanghai, but Germany can also use Chinese resources to marginalize Britain and France.

Therefore, at the end of 1905, some German businessmen in the Sino-German Chamber of Commerce believed that Qingdao should be returned to the Chinese. This way, Germany would not have to bear the nationalist sentiments of the Chinese and the huge investment in Shandong's infrastructure. Instead, Germany could follow the Wuhan model and exert economic control over China, which would be more beneficial to German industry, commerce, and banking.

Of course, according to Mr. Krupp, "We are too far from China, and the Chinese seem to be more warlike than the Ottomans. Obviously, the Manchus had restrained the fighting instincts of the Chinese in the past, and when this restraint was lifted, the Chinese unleashed an amazing energy that allowed them to hold off the Russians' attack in the Shanhaiguan area and teach the British a lesson in India."

Although I firmly believe that the German army can still deal with more than three times the size of the Chinese army because we have better artillery, the country has 4 million people. They just lack the organizational capacity to mobilize. If they could reach the level of Tsarist Russia, they could easily organize tens of millions of troops. We cannot send millions of German troops to the Far East.

Therefore, let's leave this trouble to the Russians and British. Germany doesn't need to be enemies with the Chinese; what we need is to gain the greatest benefit from China's construction process, which will solve many problems in German society…”

Krupp not only said this, but also did it. He not only sent a letter to the German Emperor explaining his views, but also became more stringent in commercial agreements with the Chinese, because he did not want to give the Chinese an unfair excuse to break these commercial contracts. As it stands, the Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Committee does have this capability.

The occupation of Qingdao was actually insisted upon by the German Admiralty. Qingdao was initially planned as a German naval base in the Far East, as the German Pacific islands lacked the manpower and resources to build naval bases. However, the German Admiralty did not anticipate that it would actually engage in combat with the British Royal Navy when it occupied Qingdao.

When rumors circulated within the Royal Navy about a surprise attack on German ports to destroy the German Grand Fleet, the German Admiralty immediately realized that a naval conflict between Germany and Britain was not merely a concept, but a potential reality. If this war were to break out, Germany's overseas bases would be virtually entirely isolated by the Royal Navy fleet.

The German Navy's substantial investment in Qingdao became a sunk cost, making the German business community's proposal to cooperate with the Chinese in returning the Jiaozhou Bay leased territory not an impossible option.

Tirpitz said to Wilhelm II, "If the Chinese can guarantee neutrality during the war and allow German warships to enter Qingdao port for repairs and docking, then it is not impossible to consider returning the Jiaozhou Bay leased territory. Of course, the best option is to make the whole of China a base for the German navy in the Far East when Wuhan controls the whole of China, then there will be no problem in returning the Jiaozhou Bay leased territory."

The German shipyard in Qingdao was originally intended to serve the German Navy. Due to a lack of connections with the Chinese business community, it relied almost entirely on funding from Germany. German businessmen preferred to invest in new shipyards in Shanghai rather than come to Qingdao, because Qingdao lacked everything, even Chinese workers, while Shandong was one of China's most populous provinces.

Faced with this predicament, the German concession authorities in Jiaozhou Bay finally conceived of reforms. On the one hand, they sought to ease relations with the locals and cease applying German colonial laws; on the other hand, they sought Chinese people to handle various interactions with the locals. One such policy was to jointly operate the Qingdao shipyard with Wuhan.

In the eyes of people like Li Yuanhong, the Workers', Peasants', and Soldiers' Committee was constantly extending its reach outwards and beginning to assume responsibilities that the imperial court should have borne but was unwilling to. Reclaiming Jiaozhou was clearly not Wuhan's responsibility. However, in the eyes of the Workers' Party's leadership, the situation in Europe had become so tense that even Germany was beginning to withdraw its overseas influence, which meant that the British lacked the confidence to take a hard line on the Tibet issue.

Under these circumstances, the Central Committee of the Workers' Party believed that it was necessary to further borrow from the great powers to develop the country's industry, so as to avoid the difficulty in obtaining the funds needed for industrial development and infrastructure construction when war broke out in Europe. At that time, the opportunity of war in Europe could also be used to repay part of the loans with industrial products.

In addition, Wuhan needs to pay over 8000 million taels of silver in principal and interest on outstanding loans and 1600 million US dollars in principal and interest on new loans by the end of this year. Therefore, the Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Committee plans to borrow another 5000 million US dollars from German and American banks to repay old debts. Such a huge loan naturally caused concern among some members of the Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Committee, but German and American bankers showed considerable interest because Wuhan's financial situation was quite good last year.

According to estimates by Deutsche Bank, Wuhan currently has a population of approximately 6000 million, with an average annual wealth creation of 16.34 taels per person and a total annual wealth output of 9.8 million taels. The ratio of agricultural output to industrial output is approximately 2.3 to 1. Last year, Wuhan's fiscal revenue accounted for more than 16% of its total wealth, or 1.6 million taels, which was on par with its fiscal expenditure.

Judging from Wuhan's current development, this is just the beginning. If industrial capacity is fully operational, it will be at least more than double the current industrial output value. Therefore, Wuhan is currently in a period of rapid industrial expansion, and there is absolutely no need to worry about its ability to repay the loan. In fact, even if the other party cannot repay, the value of Wuhan itself far exceeds the loan amount.

From the perspective of Wuhan's residents, the city is becoming increasingly enormous and unrecognizable. If Hankou and Hanyang during Zhang Zhidong's era were an amazing microcosm of modern industry and European civilization, then the interior of the Hanyang Ironworks and the area outside the Hankou concessions were still part of China. However, the Hankou and Hanyang of today no longer resemble Chinese cities.

It's not that the city's population has changed, but rather that the entire way of life has been transformed. Even the Germans themselves don't consider it a complete replica of a German city. Siemens certainly instilled its philosophy into the construction of Hankou, but the Chinese haven't become stereotypical Germans. While the Chinese have indeed begun to recognize the necessity of public facilities and public morality, they don't believe that the law can change everything. They prefer to use education and friendly assistance to change the lifestyle of the city's residents.

Even Siemens engineers admitted that the "serving the people" philosophy advocated by the Workers, Peasants and Soldiers' Committee harmoniously integrated technology and people's lives, a phenomenon rarely seen in Germany. Germany values ​​authoritarianism and the rule of law; the public is expected to obey authority and the law. They don't need to understand what technology can actually do; they simply need to use it according to the law or instructions.

The service philosophy of the Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Committee meant that although the urban expansion of Hankou and Hanyang was rapid, it did not lead to the emergence of large slums, a very common phenomenon in Shanghai. Many people from other provinces who served the concessions could only live in vacant lots outside the concessions, building makeshift shacks out of bamboo, wood, and straw, and even these shacks still required rent payments to the concessions.

These slums were not only prone to outbreaks of disease, but also hotspots for gangsters, making them some of the most dangerous places in Shanghai. However, these slums also provided Shanghai with a large pool of cheap labor, serving as a source of wealth for the development of the concessions, even though the utilization rate of this labor force was extremely low.

In Wuhan, the large influx of laborers was promptly resettled and utilized, resulting in highly efficient labor utilization and rapid development in the city's suburbs. Most seasonal rural workers lived in the suburbs and then took public transportation into the city. Without an efficient organization to manage all of this, such a miracle would not have been possible; even Berlin could not eliminate slums.

When Li Yuanhong disembarked at Hankou Wharf, he found himself somewhat unfamiliar with the city, even though he had only been away for a little over half a year. Not only had many warehouses been built around the wharf, but even the means of transportation to pick him up had changed from a horse-drawn carriage to a small bus—a six-wheeled bus that could carry seven people and used a Daimler gasoline engine.

Chapter 348 The Impact of Industrial Standardization

On the bus, Li Yuanhong could see people riding bicycles on the street from time to time. These bicycles were as rare as the car he was sitting in. Apart from foreigners and compradors, no one would spend a lot of money to buy a bicycle from abroad, because they were not sold in China. Mature and reliable bicycles had only appeared in Europe ten years ago.

It wasn't until a bicycle race was held in the Shanghai International Settlement in 1897 that bicycles became available for sale in Shanghai. However, there were still no dedicated bicycle shops in Hankou. At that time, the price difference between a bicycle and a rickshaw was not significant. However, according to Chinese custom, families who could afford to take a rickshaw generally would not buy a bicycle for transportation, as it was considered undignified.

After Tian Junyi joined Zhang Zhidong's shogunate, he consistently attempted to establish bicycle manufacturing factories, believing that bicycles could change workers' work schedules, conserve their energy, and expand the city's boundaries. At that time, factories in Wuhan and even China were still in the early stages of the Industrial Revolution, meaning that residential areas were built around factories so that workers could commute to get off work nearby.

No one sees anything wrong with this layout, after all, Europe hasn't yet completed its second industrial revolution. Only after the electrical and internal combustion engine revolutions did urban planning, which separated worker housing from factories and distinguished different urban functions, truly become popular. This division of urban functional zones will further improve the utilization rate of infrastructure, as the infrastructure requirements for factory areas, residential areas, and commercial areas are clearly different.

However, since Europeans themselves were still figuring things out, no one would tell the Chinese about this. But Tian Junyi did get guidance from Lin Xinyi on the future direction of industrial development. Standardization would be extended from industry to all aspects of people's lives, thereby improving the efficiency of the entire society.

Therefore, when Zhang Zhidong accepted Tian Junyi's suggestion and established a development committee to plan urban construction and organize the achievements of his Self-Strengthening Movement, Tian Junyi began a series of efforts to standardize the city. Developing public transportation is the foundation of an industrialized city, and besides ships, trains, trams, and cars, bicycles are still the most convenient mode of personal transportation within the city.

Thus, this mode of transportation, once used for entertainment by foreigners and wealthy young men, naturally became a basic necessity in the eyes of the Development Committee. However, the industrial city construction advocated by the Development Committee was clearly unacceptable to officials, because their travel required clearing the streets; without dozens of people clearing the way and a sedan chair carried by a dozen or so men, how could an official demonstrate their status?

Britain was able to develop industrial cities because cities were inhabited by ordinary people, while the royal family and nobility lived in the countryside and rarely entered the cities to disturb the common people. Paris, on the other hand, was able to develop because repeated riots made the rulers realize that only wide, straight avenues made it easier for the army to enter the city. Berlin, however, was a new city that emerged after the Industrial Revolution.

Even after removing these three countries, the industrialization process of other European countries was also hampered by their own feudal systems. As for the feudal dynasties in the East, it goes without saying that they couldn't even accept steam engines. If they hadn't been defeated by warships and cannons, they wouldn't have introduced these machines, and naturally, they wouldn't have changed their lifestyles for these machines.

While Zhang Zhidong was undoubtedly one of the few enlightened officials in the Qing Dynasty, what he wanted was a machine to maintain the Chinese social order and traditions, not for these machines to change China. Therefore, he couldn't fully support the Development Committee's new urban planning. As for Duanfang, who succeeded Zhang Zhidong in managing Huguang, he was even less suited to this role, prioritizing the preservation of Manchu rule.

Only after the mutiny, when the Workers', Peasants', and Soldiers' Committee seized power, were the hierarchical system and so-called folk customs that the landlord class had tried to maintain truly discarded into the dustbin of history. Only then did Wuhan's industrialization truly embark on a rapid development path. Hankou and Hanyang are now being transformed according to Tian Junyi's original vision, with the city's functional areas divided and transportation and public services vigorously developed, thus making the city serve industrial production.

Urban planning and construction that had previously been obstructed by Qing officials are now springing up like mushrooms after rain in this city, and bicycles are indeed becoming popular. In the past, such a bicycle would cost at least 10 pounds in Europe, and after being shipped to China, it would generally cost around 15 pounds, which is more than 120 taels of silver.

Two years ago, a bicycle assembly plant was built in Hankou, and last year the price of bicycles dropped to 120 silver dollars. These bicycles were mainly purchased by the government for use in post offices and government departments. Even the army ordered 1000 28-inch steel-framed bicycles, each weighing 25 kilograms and designed to carry a load of over 200 kilograms. Including people and goods, each bicycle could easily carry 700 kilograms, to replace a portion of the cavalry.

Others might not understand why Tian Junyi valued the bicycle factory so much, but Li Yuanhong did understand. The bicycle factory was a benchmark for Sino-German industrial cooperation, and its construction broadened the scope of Sino-German industrial cooperation. For example, Continental Rubber invested in and built a tire factory in Hankou with a daily production capacity of 1500 tires, which was larger than its existing factory in Germany.

The reason why Continental Rubber Factory in Germany was willing to cooperate with the committee to set up such a large factory was because of two things: proximity to rubber-producing areas and the vastness of the Chinese bicycle market. The Germans believed that Chinese bicycle factories could fully absorb these rubber tires in the future, so there would be no competition with their local factories.

To meet the production needs of such a rubber tire factory, the committee had already begun cultivating rubber tree species on Hainan Island and the Leizhou Peninsula. With the support of German botanists, a Brazilian rubber tree species suitable for Hainan Island and the Leizhou Peninsula was selected and its cultivation began. At the same time, rubber plantations in Southeast Asia, driven by the British, also began to show some results, and the price of rubber began to fall from over 6 shillings per pound to below 6 shillings.

Before 1900, 90% of the world's rubber production came from wild rubber plantations in Brazil. However, the British introduced rubber plantations in Southeast Asia, which reduced costs by nearly two-thirds compared to Brazilian rubber. Therefore, when these Southeast Asian rubber plantations began to produce rubber, international rubber prices started to fall. This was actually good news for China, as Wuhan obtained high-quality and inexpensive rubber raw materials through the overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia.

The successful cooperation in the bicycle industry has also brought about the possibility of cooperation between China and Germany in the automobile and tractor industries. At present, the Jiang'an District, east of Wuchang opposite Hankou, is undergoing a major construction project to build another industrial zone, which is intended for automobile and tractor factories.

It is said that Americans are trying to get a foothold in the tractor industry. For a large agricultural country like China, the number of agricultural machines is far from sufficient. In the past year, the sales volume of agricultural machinery in Wuhan has risen from less than 3000 million yuan to more than 6000 million yuan, which has made Americans see the potential of the Chinese agricultural machinery market.

In fact, Americans had always tried to transform China's agricultural production model, adapting it to their own. Therefore, they spared no effort in introducing American cotton seeds and new agricultural tools to China. However, China's small-scale peasant economy made it difficult for them to accept the American concept of industrialized agriculture. This was also a reason for American dissatisfaction with Russia's occupation of Manchuria, as Manchuria was the most suitable region for establishing the American farm system.

Only when Chinese agriculture became Americanized would American agricultural tools gain market access. What the Americans didn't anticipate was that while the agricultural transformation they desired in China did occur, the Germans were the ones who benefited. This made it impossible for American bankers and industrialists to remain patient. Their previous wait-and-see approach was based on the fact that the Wuhan Workers', Peasants', and Soldiers' Committee couldn't withstand British pressure, which is why they chose to follow Britain's strategy.

However, Britain has not only failed to subdue Wuhan, but has also destabilized its most important region, India, with the Chinese. Meanwhile, the Chinese have not suffered a complete defeat in their fight against the Russians in the north. Therefore, the Americans believe that Wuhan is worth investing in. If they do not invest in Wuhan, then if Wuhan were to unify China in the future, it would lean towards Germany, which is clearly not in the interests of the United States.

What the United States is most worried about is that China and Germany are unifying their standards, which is squeezing out all countries using imperial units from the Wuhan market. The United States is an industrialized nation where weights and measures have not yet been standardized; imperial and metric units are used interchangeably, ultimately leading to the unique U.S. system of units. This is related to the United States' status as a nation of immigrants, and also to its history of technology being brought by immigrants from various European countries.

In today's chaotic world, the lack of standardization isn't a major issue, as different countries have their own units of measurement, and for most agricultural nations, the concept of precision simply doesn't exist. Europe's ability to establish a unified metric system is thanks to the French Revolution and Emperor Napoleon.

But China is different. Since the Qin Dynasty, China has unified weights and measures. In other words, weights and measures have special significance in China. Once a regime controls China, the weights and measures it promotes will naturally become the standard in China. This is unimaginable in other agricultural countries because they do not have this sense of unification.

Therefore, while the British were still unaware of the drawbacks of China adopting the metric system, American businessmen had already noticed something amiss. For example, American-made electrical equipment was being rejected by Wuhan because it was incompatible with German equipment, while technical workers trained in Germany were increasingly accepting German standards, leading to a continuous decrease in the maintenance costs of German equipment.

France benefited from this standardization movement because France and Germany use the same metric system, so the Chinese could easily standardize their equipment. However, the equipment from Britain and the United States could only be maintained by their own engineers. This was not a problem in the past because China did not have the technical capability to do so, but now it has become a real problem.

Americans believe that if this situation continues, even if American machines are cheaper than German machines, the Chinese will definitely choose German machines first, because the investment in subsequent maintenance and upgrades for German machines is obviously lower. This is a trade barrier set up using the standardization system.

To maintain this standardization, the Germans are increasing their support for industrial education in China, not only establishing and co-operating industrial schools in Wuhan but also sending a large number of Chinese workers to Germany for training. This has led to a shift in the American attitude towards Wuhan, with a desire to correct Wuhan's misconceptions about the United States.