From the Opium War to the Empress Dowager Cixi, the Qing court did not want to work hard and catch up, but the shackles and inertia of thousands of years still pushed this old empire to sink along the downward path. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

In the last 70 years of the late Qing Dynasty, since the dream of the "Heavenly Empire" was ruthlessly shattered by the Western powers, the Qing court was also watching, testing and constantly learning about Western civilization. However, the defeat of the First Sino-Japanese War and the Battle of Gengzi made the empire's only little self-esteem and arrogance seem so pitiful and ridiculous in the booming early twentieth century, just like the Empress Dowager Cixi's frequent tears when she received her ministers in her later years.

In this expedition, the Qing court officially recognized the superiority of Western civilization in the political system. At that time, when the rule of the Qing Dynasty was in jeopardy, this was an important measure for the Qing court to improve its own image and integrate into the advanced civilization. It can be said that the five ministers' overseas investigation was a rare bright spot in the last decade of the late Qing Dynasty, and it once brought infinite hope and reverie to the sinking Chinese people.

In September 1906, the Qing court officially announced its intention to establish a constitution, finally taking the first step in the transformation of the Qing court and even China's history. However, even the Minister of Inquiry, who insisted on the constitution, realized that this step was faltering and difficult, and the future was uncertain.

Chen Wenqiang led some technicians, under the protection of the railway patrol police, from Changsha to the south, along the general route of the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway, the same hard and difficult. It's not that I have suffered a lot of crimes, but when I was on patrol, I also inspected the social situation in the hinterland, and I personally felt the difficulties of people's livelihood.

It is true that Huguang should be a wealthy province, but the burden of reparations has also increased, and these burdens have been almost entirely passed on to the common people.

The vast majority of the Chinese population lives in unimaginable poverty! Chen Wenqiang came to the conclusion that he was deeply touched after he had witnessed it many times.

In cities and towns, he often saw children or women holding three or four copper plates in one hand. Holding a broken porcelain bowl in the other hand, with a solemn expression, he went to buy the necessities of the whole family's diet, sauce, vinegar, oil and salt.

The list of consumers most likely includes: charcoal, a copper plate; rice or flour, two copper plates; cabbage, a copper plate. If you have more money. You may buy another copper plate of cooking oil or soy sauce. In the rare case, or on a major festival, you may spend an extra copper plate, buy about a tablespoon of water wine, warm it up at home, and enjoy it slowly while eating. Cabbage or cabbage boiled in overboiling water is the most common food they eat, and turnips soaked in salted water are a delicacy.

He saw the people living in dilapidated houses made of clods of earth or broken bricks, covered with mud. The family is crammed into one or more of these houses, and the floor is paved with bricks. Or simply dirt soil; The windows are papier-mâché; Many houses do not have chimneys, and there are no fires in the houses in the summer and winter. Make a fire only when it's time to cook; The furniture includes a table, a stool or two, and possibly a cabinet if you can afford it......

He saw a dozen adults and children fighting over a pile of cow dung......

Widespread poverty, pervasive centika, heavy taxes, numb people running for life. If revolution is a prerequisite for changing all these unequal status quo, Chen Wenqiang will probably not deny it. But whoever wants to say that revolution is a panacea, he will surely scoff at it.

And the revolution must be embraced and supported by the people at the bottom. It is useless to shout slogans in the air, there must be real changes, even if it is small, even if it can make the people eat one more bun, and the people can know the benefits of the revolution.

The reason is actually very easy to understand, Chen Wenqiang has come to the present. The reason why more and more people are following, to put it mildly, is the two words "benefits". By following him, you can make money, get promoted, and do a good job in the revolution. You can eat and drink spicy food.

Of course, after more than a month of travel, Chen Wenqiang not only had a deep understanding, but also had a more direct understanding of the construction of the railway. If he wants to achieve his goal and complete it in five years or less, Guangdong Province should also move as soon as possible, especially the Shaoguan section, which will be a difficult road section.

In order to overcome difficulties and speed up progress, we naturally cannot rely solely on the tactics of building roads by the whole people. The ideas from later generations made Chen Wenqiang more superstitious about the power of technology and machinery. As early as the beginning of road construction, he had serious discussions with Chinese and foreign technicians, and ordered several sets of new mountain openers, ventilators, pumping machines and other machinery and equipment from Germany.

Now, the machinery and equipment have arrived, the blasting equipment is also ready, and the technology and the sea of people make it quite certain that the railway will be completed on schedule. And the difficulty, there is only one left - money, as long as the funds can keep up, the difficulty of the project is nothing.

Borrowing foreign debt is one thing, but the support of the Bank is even more important. At this time, Zhongqiao Bank finally showed its financing ability that was incomparable with the ancient inefficiency of traditional ticket numbers, and gave Chen Wenqiang full support.

The pay-off and the payoff are, of course, measured by repeated calculations. It is true that the investment is huge, but the prospect of the Guangdong-Hankou Railway, and the expansion carried out by relying on the railway, has led to the rapid development of Zhongqiao Bank. In Hunan and Hubei provinces, because of Zhang Zhidong's strong order, the banknotes issued by the Bank of China have approached the semi-official currency, and the circulation is basically unhindered; As for Guangdong, the foundation has been laid, and it will not be a problem for Chen Wenqiang to win it in the end.

Calculate how many branches and sub-branches can be set up in the towns along the railway, and how many private deposits can be absorbed with the enhancement of credibility and strength?

Not to mention the injection of German capital, the agreement with Deutsch-Hua Bank, and the cooperation of Zhang Rongxuan's Hyuga Bank, Zhongqiao Bank has already taken the form of an international bank, which can carry out international exchange business on a small scale.

The weekly progress of the Guangdong-Hankou Railway is published in the newspaper. This is Chen Wenqiang's propaganda momentum, which has achieved very good results, and the nationwide fundraising has shown a good momentum of gradual increase.

All this makes China Overseas Chinese Bank happy to support Chen Wenqiang's road construction plan, and it is a relationship that can be seen by anyone with a discerning eye.

By the time Chen Wenqiang and his entourage arrived in Guangzhou and formally took over the Guangdong branch of the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway Company, the construction of the Guangdong section of the railway had already begun, and more than 20 kilometers of the railway from Huangsha Wharf in Guangzhou to Yuantan had already been built.

There are many wealthy businessmen in Guangdong, and they raise the most money, and the railway company is also completely a commercial stock. It's not that there are no messy things, but there are far fewer things than Hubei and Hunan. Moreover, most of the directors and shareholders were more open-minded than the mainland gentry, and they hoped to build the railway as soon as possible, otherwise Zhan Tianyou would not have been elected as prime minister and chief engineer in later history, and the project progressed quite rapidly.

Chen Wenqiang's temper has always been that you are good to me. And I reciprocated with good; If you want to provoke me, I will fight back. The smooth cooperation of the Guangdong branch has saved him less trouble, and in turn, he has given more concessions to the directors and shareholders.

Although there were no waves in taking over the railway company, Chen Wenqiang's arrival and resolute arrangement, the road construction work immediately accelerated in a tense and orderly manner. While surveying, designing, and constructing, Chen Wenqiang wants speed. Meantime. In order to make up for the lack of technical strength, and because Guangdong is relatively open, Chen Wenqiang hired more German engineers than Hunan and Hubei provinces. The construction method also adopts the crowd tactics similar to those of Hunan and Hubei provinces.

Take over the company, arrange the work, arrange personnel, recruit patrol officers...... In addition, he met with the Governor of Liangguang, attended the meeting of the Guangdong Constitutional Comrades Association, and went to Dehua University and Huangpu Shipyard to visit and inspect, and after being busy with these things, Chen Wenqiang, who was like an arrow, finally returned to Yazhou in late September.

It is like an arrow. In addition to missing Caifeng and other relatives, it is also because of the imminent incident in Guangxi. Many important things need to be decided by Chen Wenqiang in the end. The day after returning to Yazhou, Wu Luzhen and others, who had already received the news, arrived and held a secret meeting.

Li Zhun led the fleet to inspect the sea, and just added fresh water and supplies to Yulin Port, and the steamship company sent cargo ships to accompany him as promised. Obviously, he is quite relieved about Qiongzhou. From the point of view of time. After inspecting the South China Sea and Xisha for a month or two, I am afraid that I will not be able to come back. Wan Fuhua first introduced the recent situation, and also added his own judgment, "Seven or eight months. In the form of ant moving, 640 long guns, 210 short guns, as well as ammunition, clothing, medicine, etc., have been delivered to the Vietnamese base, although the number is not as planned, but it is still about ......."

Chen Wenqiang listened while thinking about the documents and materials he got yesterday. It is more detailed, about the production of the base arsenal, and the operation of all industries.

In the past few months, the arsenal has produced a lot of products that he is pleased with. The wooden-handled grenade, a weapon that does not require much technical content, has been successfully developed in February this year, and so far, more than 4,000 have been produced, and if you work overtime, the output can be increased again; The Madsen machine gun was successfully copied in April this year, although it still can't get rid of manual assembly, some parts are not interchangeable and other problems, but on the whole, it can almost be compared with imported products; The production of Mauser rifles and ammunition was also smooth, with a daily output of 50 guns and thousands of bullets.

These productions were kept secret, and the Yazhou Arsenal, which could be openly built and produced under the name of the Hubei Gun Factory Branch, was also operating normally in July. Now Nissan Hanyang has made 40 pieces and more than 3,000 bullets.

Chen Wenqiang not only saw the production capacity, but also the materials that could be immediately put into the uprising. For example, there are more than 30 imitation Madsen light machine guns, more than 4,000 grenades, more than 3,000 rifles, and more than 100,000 rounds of various bullets...... Although it was possible to find ways to make secret additions after the uprising, what Chen Wenqiang wanted was the most certain uprising, that is, in the case of interrupting supplies, the rebellious troops could hold out on their own for a period of time.

"In fact, since mid-July, the smuggling of guns and ammunition has stopped as you directed, and now only the transportation of personnel is maintained." Wan Fuhua glanced at Chen Wenqiang with some puzzlement, and said: "Of course, the guns and ammunition that have been transported in are enough for training, and it is even possible to start an incident. ”

Sensing Wan Fuhua's doubts, Chen Wenqiang slowly explained, "The reason for stopping the smuggling of guns and ammunition is that a small number of times is very dangerous and easy to be intercepted by legal persons or Qing troops, so that the enemy has to be prepared in advance. As for the supply of weapons and ammunition for the uprising team, I think it is possible to carry out a huge amount of material transportation, and it can supply the uprising team for several months at once. ”

"Wen Qiang means that the uprising team wants to occupy a port so that the whole ship can carry guns and ammunition, and replenish it at one time?" Wu Luzhen asked tentatively, but her eyes were habitually looking at the map.

"That's pretty much it." Chen Wenqiang nodded and said with a smile: "Not only materials, but I also want to send thousands of troops to the mainland at once, and together with the people who started the incident, establish a solid base in the border areas of Yunnan, Guangxi, and Vietnam!" ”

"That's a lot bigger than the original plan!" Wu Luzhen pointed to the map with his finger, "That is, on the coast of Guangxi - well, Fangcheng, Qinzhou...... The first step for the rebel forces was to reclaim the land so that the transport ships or flotillas could dock in order to receive supplies and support troops. ”

"I'm obsessed with defending the city." Chen Wenqiang clicked on the name of the place on the map and said: "It's very close to the Vietnamese base, and according to the current intelligence, there are not many Qing troops there, right?" ”

Seeing Chen Wenqiang's inquiring gaze, Wu Luzhen was more familiar with the relevant information, nodded, and said, "A patrol battalion, the rebels are very sure to defeat them." After a pause, he added: "If, as you said, more than 1,000 fine welding troops are invested, all the Qing troops in Guangxi may not be able to resist." ”

The Guangxi New Army had not yet been established, and the strength of the old-style patrol battalion was obviously not valued by Wu Luzhen, and was even looked down upon.

"If the momentum is bigger, it will not only be the Qing army in Guangxi that will have to be dealt with." Chen Wenqiang pondered for a while and said: "Expand while fighting, train while fighting, and rely on the Vietnamese base, you can advance or retreat, and focus on long-term persistence, steady development, and continuous growth." In the southwest region, the strength of the Qing army is insufficient, and from my personal point of view, it is quite certain that the planned goals will be achieved. ”

This kind of operation to transport a large number of people and materials was almost like a landing operation, and it was the first attempt for the commanders and soldiers of the revolutionary army. On the one hand, friendly forces from the Vietnamese base were the first to capture the port and make countermeasures, and the other advantage was the regular cargo ships transporting chromium and manganese ore from Yazhou to Guangxi. Because of Chen Wenqiang, these ships are hardly subject to maritime scrutiny. And the port of Guangxi is Chinese territory, and legal persons have no right to intercept it.

As long as the time can be calculated, as long as the rebel troops can successfully capture the bridgehead and hold it for a day or two, it will not be difficult to transport personnel and materials on a large scale. (To be continued.) )