1905: Beer Hall Speaker

Page 25

Under the watchful eyes of the officials, Zhao Yan immediately began a live mukbang. The officials didn't even touch the meatballs in their hands, all watching Zhao Yan wolf down his food.

Good heavens! The meatballs and soup weighed almost five pounds, and Zhao Yan devoured them all without leaving a single drop of soup!

"Phew, that feels good!" Zhao Yan let out a long sigh, patted his stomach, and asked with a serious expression, pointing to the empty bowl, "Who bought this bowl of glutinous rice balls?"

"Your Majesty, it's from the former Governor-General's Office's kitchen!"

Zhao Yan angrily rebuked, "This is too extravagant and wasteful! How can the government departments waste public funds like this?"

"Remove all of them, fire them all!"

"Huh?" Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. They had just finished eating, and the head of state was already cursing the cook as soon as he put down his bowl. This head of state's character wasn't so great either.

Zhao Yan added, "The people who resigned were all transferred to the Office of Attendants in the Head of State's Palace. This is outrageous! The country is so poor, yet the food is so extravagant. It's too much."

"Transfer them to my side, so I can personally influence them with revolutionary spirit!"

"Oh!" Everyone suddenly realized, "So that's how it can be done! No wonder they were able to achieve such great things!"

Zhao Yan looked at the Hubei officials present, noticing that they hadn't touched the glutinous rice balls in their hands, and said directly, "It seems you all came here full, so let's not waste any more. Guards! Take away the glutinous rice balls and pastries from the officials and give them to the head of state's guards for a snack!"

The guards immediately took away all the glutinous rice balls from the officials' hands, as well as the fruits and snacks on the tea table beside them. The soldiers of the presidential palace guard didn't mind, since they hadn't touched them yet.

Li Lanqing, the governor of Hubei, quickly took a few sips of soup and a big bite of glutinous rice ball during a break, but in the end he couldn't resist the fierce guards and they took the bowl and spoon away.

The officials were completely dumbfounded. They had never seen such an impolite superior. Not only did he occupy their government office, but he also transferred their cooks and kitchen staff. In the end, he couldn't even part with a bowl of glutinous rice balls and insisted on taking them away.

Before meeting their superiors, especially when they didn't know how long the meeting would last, Qing Dynasty officials would usually go on an empty stomach, for fear that they would need to defecate or urinate during the conversation.

Everyone was hungry, but you, Zhao Yan, didn't say anything and just ate by yourself, so no one dared to touch your mouth. But after you finished eating, you said we weren't hungry. What do you mean by that?

"Alright, now that everyone's here, let's get down to business!" Zhao Yan wiped his mouth, savoring the moment.

The officials, who were starving, were completely oblivious. "It's the middle of the night, and you've called us all over here for business?"

Seeing the officials' bewildered expressions, Zhao Yan explained, "You all have to work during the day, so we can't take up your work time to talk about work. What's wrong with working overtime at night? Does anyone have a problem with that?"

Zhao Yan put down his teacup, and the soldiers who had been squatting in the hall, happily devouring the officials' pastries and dumplings, immediately put down their bowls, stood up one by one, and looked at the officials with unfriendly expressions.

Hubei Governor Li Lanqing quickly stood up: "What the leader says is true. For the revolution and for the country, we are just working overtime. It's no big deal!"

"Yes, sit down!" Zhao Yan nodded and got straight to the point: "I will be leading the army to continue the Northern Expedition the day after tomorrow, and there are some things I need to talk about now."

"Lord Zhang Zhidong has already spoken to you in front of me. Now we're all on the same side, so I won't stand on ceremony."

"In short, you can continue to serve as officials under my new revolutionary government system, no problem! But the rules of the revolution must be made clear. I won't bring up your old, trivial matters."

"But from now on, all of you put your claws away, focus on your work, do your best, and be dedicated to your duties! The new government will implement the principle of promoting the capable and demoting the incompetent!"

"How do we judge whether you are a capable person or an incompetent person? We don't look at reputation or recommendations; we only look at the data. Do you understand the data?"

"This year is crucial for the Northern Expedition and also the core year for the new republican government to overthrow the corrupt Qing Dynasty. Therefore, industry, especially the military industry, should be given priority!"

"Yesterday I looked at the production capacity data of the Hanyang Arsenal, and it was simply appalling. It couldn't even compare to the small workshops of the great powers, and it was completely unworthy of the title of China's number one arsenal."

I am very disappointed, and the consequences will be severe!

"A daily production of 44 rifles, a monthly production of 12 cannons, 110 million rounds of ammunition, and 9 artillery shells—what good is that? It's barely enough to arm an infantry regiment in a month!"

"And then there's the Hanyang Ironworks, which produces over 100,000 tons of steel annually, most of which is pig iron. What exactly have you officials accomplished during the Self-Strengthening Movement all these years?"

"Does this mean that running around the foreigners' negotiating table is all it takes to constitute the Self-Strengthening Movement?"

"No matter what, the Hanyang Arsenal's production capacity must triple this year, and the Hanyang Ironworks' production capacity must increase fivefold!"

Upon hearing Zhao Yan's request, the officials present were in an uproar. One prefect even stood up angrily and said, "Your Majesty, is this how you treat us officials?"

"Such an unrealistic demand, and you expect us to do it? I think the revolutionary government is just trying to find a reason to get rid of us."

The other officials, seeing the brave prefect, all expressed their support with silence. They were all officials, how could they engage in such lowly crafts? Among the social classes of scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants, the status of artisans was even lower than that of farmers!

Zhao Yan laughed: "If I insist on doing it this way, what are you going to do about it?"

The prefect angrily removed his official hat: "It's nothing more than resigning; I don't want this position anymore!"

Zhao Yan laughed even harder: "Who else wants to resign? Step forward!"

Soon, more than a dozen officials stepped forward, but most of them were below the fourth rank. They all took off their official hats and resigned.

After all, there were still some officials in Hubei who resisted the revolution and remained loyal to the Qing government deep down; they were only forced to join the rebels due to the prevailing circumstances.

However, after Zhang Zhidong met with Zhao Yan and the revolutionaries publicly stated that they would accept and treat officials well, they were no longer afraid. They thought, "At worst, I won't become an official anymore; past mistakes will be forgiven."

In a year or two, when the Qing army returns, I'll be seen as a loyal subject who refused to submit to the enemy. Not only will I be reinstated, but I might even get promoted a few ranks.

Zhao Yan looked at the dozen or so officials who had stood up and removed their official hats, picked up his teacup and took a sip: "So, you're not officials anymore?"

"Guards! Seize these troublemakers who are roaring in court! Send them all to the reformatory for rigorous interrogation and get to the bottom of this!"

The prefect leading the group was immediately alarmed and pointed at Zhao Yan: "Zhao Yan, how dare you go back on your word? Aren't you afraid of losing the trust of the people?"

"You even dared to use your fingers as a weapon to commit murder, attempting to assassinate a revolutionary leader! Your crime is compounded!" Zhao Yan added insult to injury.

Soon, the soldiers, as fierce as wolves, swung their rifle butts and knocked down the unruly commoners who had removed their official hats. The soldiers were extremely ruthless. The first blow was to smash their mouths so they couldn't speak. The second blow was to stab their legs so they couldn't run away. The last blow was to stab their stomachs so they couldn't resist. Finally, they dragged them out of the hall like dead dogs.

Zhao Yan then added insult to injury: "Investigate everything! Find out how much silver, land, fixed assets, cash assets, antiques, and all the other valuables in the family. Don't let anything slip by. Send the women to the army to be wives for the soldiers, and send the men to the reformatory to work!"

Governor Li Lanqing stepped forward and pleaded, "Your Excellency, you did promise Governor Zhang!"

Zhao Yan waved his hand and said, "I did promise Zhang Zhidong that I would accept and treat the officials from Huguang well, but they resigned on their own. They are no longer officials, so why should I treat them well!"

"A bunch of troublemakers, daring to attempt to assassinate me with their fingers? Are they even fit to be kept around for the New Year?"

"I, the head of state, have not broken any agreements or gone back on my word. They resigned of their own accord. Don't you all agree?"

Li Lanqing was speechless, and the others were shocked. They thought, "You can play word games like this? This is even more outrageous than the literary inquisitions of the Qing Dynasty!"

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, social classes were clearly defined: scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants. Officials were officials, and even if they resigned and returned to their hometowns, they still belonged to the scholar class.

But who the hell could have imagined that Zhao Yan would be branded a troublemaker if he resigned from his post! Losing his official position would mean certain death!

Zhao Yan remained calm and composed: "Does anyone else have any objections? If so, please speak them out on the spot. I, Zhao Yan, will humbly accept all advice!"

All officials:

Zhao Yan nodded: "Since no one is speaking, that means you agree. Okay, let's do as I say."

"This year, Hubei's tax revenue will not need to be handed over to the central government. All localities in Hubei must give their full support to the capacity growth plan of the arsenal and steel plant. If the data meets the target, you can all have a worry-free New Year. If the data exceeds the target, you will all be promoted and make a fortune during the New Year. If the data does not meet the target, the revolutionary army will use you to celebrate the New Year!"

"I don't care about the specifics of how to do it or how to do it. I only look at the final data. Everything is based on data. Don't try to fool me. If you don't get any solid stuff to the front lines in the end, then you can go to the battlefield and fill the gaps!"

These officials are truly despicable. If you don't push them, they'll always be lazy and incompetent. But when a gun is pointed at their heads, they're smarter and more capable than anyone else.

Don't think these Han officials know nothing. You'll believe them if they say they don't know anything about industry. They can even master the Eight-Legged Essay. What else can't they understand?

The eight-legged essay is often called feudal dross, but anyone who can write it properly is definitely not an idiot. The eight-legged essay is almost the crown jewel of liberal arts writing.

To put it bluntly, it's fortunate that the imperial examinations in feudal China didn't test mathematics, otherwise these people would have been able to write out proofs of Goldbach's Conjecture in the examination hall.

They're not stupid, they just haven't put their minds to the right things. The smarter a person is, the lazier they tend to be, especially after they become officials.

Zhao Yan is now forcing them to work harder by using force; otherwise, it would be useless for Zhao Yan alone to shout about revitalizing national industry.

A thousand kind words are not worth as much as a single bullet!

These officials thought they could rest easy after Zhao Yan made a few public promises. They were even more naive than Cao Shuang. You actually believed what a politician said? You've wasted your time as an official!

Chapter 45 Continue the Northern Expedition

On the Lantern Festival, after the revolutionary army ransacked the homes of more than a dozen "troublemakers" in the three towns of Wuhan, the entire officialdom in Hubei was put to a standstill, and the industrial revitalization order issued by the head of state was immediately and obediently implemented by all prefectures and counties.

The next day, Li Lanqing convened several meetings in succession and took officials to the arsenal and steel plant for on-site work. He said that whatever difficulties the arsenal and steel plant had or what they needed, they could tell him. He said that he would get everything except the stars and the moon from the sky.

The people at the Hanyang Arsenal and Hanyang Ironworks were completely stunned by this windfall, not knowing what had happened.

The Hanyang Arsenal underwent a radical reform, starting with the replacement of its director, Wang Shouchang. This guy was neglecting his duties; the arsenal's production capacity was alarmingly low, so what was he doing? He spent all his time translating foreign novels.

Once the Hubei officialdom truly mobilized to save its own life, pooling the entire Hubei fiscal and tax resources, the production capacity of the Hanyang Arsenal immediately surged by 50% that very day.

Zhao Yan saw this, but instead of praising or rewarding them, he angrily cursed these scoundrels, saying they would only work seriously when a knife was held to their throats.

It would have been so much better if we had done it this way earlier. Everyone would have been happy. I had to tear things apart and kill a few of them before the rest would behave and work diligently.

The development of industry is not much different between the late Qing Dynasty and the new China a century later; the core strength still depends on the government, especially in the field of heavy industry.

Zhao Yan never expected that private forces could develop a Chinese Krupp and Ruhr region; this matter had to be handled by the government.

This is also the fundamental reason why Zhao Yan didn't bother to visit the Hanyang Arsenal and Hanyang Ironworks, but instead directly pressured government officials.

Because going to the factory for inspection is pointless. The reasons you get are always the same few, and Zhao Yan knows them without even going: insufficient funds, inadequate equipment, inefficient systems, or corruption within the factory.

Even if there were ten Zhao Yans watching you around the clock, let alone one Zhao Yan, you wouldn't be able to change much.

However, putting direct pressure on top-level officials in the region would have a bloody effect. It's like saying, "I'm tying industrial capacity to your life and fortune. If you meet the targets, you can stay in office. If you do well, you'll be promoted. If you don't, your property will be confiscated, and you'll have to go to a reformatory!"

In an authoritarian country like China, if you want something done as quickly as possible, then designate it as a political project, just like the GDP-centric approach—it's bound to be correct.

Although playing this game has side effects, it doesn't matter. Given the current situation in China, those minor side effects won't even cause a ripple.

After keeping an eye on the Hubei officialdom for two days, Zhao Yan didn't have time to keep an eye on it anymore; all that was left was to look at the data at the end of the year.

Zhao Yan had more important things to do. He had to continue leading the Northern Expeditionary Army forward. The hundreds of thousands of troops had been eating and drinking in Hubei for so long, it was time to move around and visit other provinces. If they kept eating Hubei like this, they would easily impoverish the region.

Now, after the Northern Expeditionary Army has undergone this round of division and reorganization in Hubei, the revolutionary army has formed a structure of one division and eleven brigades, namely the absolute main force of the revolutionary army's First Division, and the provisional brigades 2 to 12.

The Fourth and Fifth Brigades advanced westward into the Sichuan Basin, the Sixth Brigade moved south to Guangdong and Guangxi, and the remaining 150,000 troops gathered in Hubei.

Zhao Yanxin's strategic plan was simple, and also exceptionally brutal and direct: launch a full-scale attack and advance along the Beijing-Hankou Railway!

When a large army of hundreds of thousands launches a northern expedition, combat effectiveness and equipment are secondary factors. The primary factor is logistics. Only when logistics are in place can your army fight effectively, and even retreat.

In this day and age, what could be more logistically efficient than an attack along a railway line? The Revolutionary Army headquarters had discussed several Northern Expedition plans, and no one had even considered such a brutal tactic as concentrating troops in one place and launching a direct assault.

Several plans within the command were more scientific than this. Some suggested taking Nanjing first by going down the Yangtze River, while others proposed launching a multi-pronged attack from Xiangyang, Nanjing, and Xuzhou.

However, Zhao Yan rejected all of these plans. The strength of both sides was obvious. Both sides were composed of the main forces of the former Qing army, and everyone knew the other's strength.

The total strength of the six Beiyang divisions of the Qing Dynasty was over 70,000 men. Even with the auxiliary troops that were continuously transferred, the total strength was only around 100,000. The enemy definitely had the advantage in cavalry, as well as in firepower, equipment, and the quality of its soldiers.

In this situation, splitting up the troops and advancing simultaneously would only lead to a repeat of the Battle of Sarhu. Zhao Yan knew the fighting capabilities of his troops very well. In individual combat, even if the First Division of the Revolutionary Army were deployed, its 30,000 men might not be able to defeat the fully equipped First Division of the Beiyang Army.

At this point, we must concentrate our forces to fight large-scale battles and mobile warfare. We must not divide the battlefield. Trying to do everything will ultimately result in getting nothing.

As for the idea of ​​heading straight down the Yangtze River to Nanjing, Zhao Yan did not agree with it. Nanjing was too strange a place. Apart from Zhu Yuanzhang's success in starting his dynasty there, the Southern Ming, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Chiang Kai-shek all ended in failure. Zhao Yan did not want to plunge headlong into it.

It's obvious that the decisive battle is about to begin. We should just fight for control of the Central Plains. Whoever wins will take all. Why waste this precious strategic window of opportunity by going to Nanjing?

The Central Plains region is the key to victory. Changsha in the rear is still sending troops and soldiers to the front lines to fight to the death. As long as Zhao Yan can hold out in the Central Plains region and avoid a rout, even if he can't win and the war becomes a stalemate, the revolutionary army can still be considered a success.

As long as the entire army is not wiped out, the revolution has the confidence to make a comeback. After all, there are always Han Chinese who want to get rich, and a large number of people are still converging on Changsha. The arsenal and steel mill are in the rear, and it is not a problem to send a reinforced regiment of 5,000 men to the front line every month.

As long as they can hold out in the Central Plains war for a couple of months, the situation in Jiangnan will be settled with a simple proclamation. The capitalists there are already waiting for Zhao Yan to fulfill the promises he made in his speech.

The Qing dynasty was definitely not in a position to afford to drag things out. If they couldn't defeat the revolutionary army in one fell swoop, they would have no future, because the tide of history was no longer on their side.

The Qing dynasty had to completely annihilate the revolutionary army in the Central Plains in one battle, and then take advantage of the momentum to sweep across the south. Only in this way could they have a glimmer of hope.

But such a situation is impossible unless Zhao Yan dies suddenly. Zhao Yan has brought enough barbed wire, shovels, and picks, and all the troops have been practicing earthwork for half a month.

Back in the Changsha training period, the most rigorous training program for the revolutionary army was earthwork. It didn't matter if you couldn't shoot accurately, but you had to be quick, accurate and ruthless when digging pits and ditches.

Zhao Yan also ordered a large quantity of barbed wire from Europe, and also purchased quite a few heavy machine guns.

The Northern Expeditionary Army couldn't even muster enough rifles for every soldier, but the amount of barbed wire and heavy machine guns they carried was terrifying. Soldiers without guns didn't even need to bring spears or sabers; they were all given shovels and hoes instead.

Zhao Yan's strategy was that simple: advance along the railway line, first secure his own logistics and retreat route, and then use the most brutal trench warfare to deal with the Beiyang Army.

No matter how many routes you come from, I will only go one way. Unless your Beiyang Army can build an armored division to break through my defenses, I will wear you down.

Time is on the side of the revolutionaries. The longer it drags on, the stronger the revolutionaries will become, and the weaker the Qing government will become.

Zhao Yan's plan was too audacious and too bizarre. No one had ever seen such a Northern Expedition before, and even Wang Chongshan had many objections.

A hundred thousand troops marching north like this is child's play. This is not a war, it is a brawl. Even when a few hundred people are fighting, they know to divide into several groups. This is a northern expeditionary army of hundreds of thousands. This is a northern expeditionary operation, not a spring outing to the north!

Many generals advised Zhao Yan that this was not how war was fought. Throughout history, there have been many Northern Expeditions, but if you look through the history books, who has ever done it this way?

Zhao Yan directly refuted this, saying that if winning battles could be achieved simply by flipping through history books, then the best generals would be historians, not soldiers!

There were no railways in ancient times, but we have them now! Look how good the Qing government was! They built a railway all the way from Hankou to Beijing, clearly telling you that once you reach Beijing, you've won the war. Why bother with all that other nonsense?

Divide the troops? Which general has the confidence to lead his army to defeat the Beiyang Army head-on? If so, please step forward!

Once Zhao Yan spoke, no one dared to utter a sound. The Beiyang Six Divisions were far superior to them in terms of seniority, equipment, and training.

Only one-third of Zhao Yan's revolutionary army consisted of new recruits with military experience; the rest were either new soldiers who had been in the army for less than three months or farmers who had just enlisted.

To put it bluntly, if you can manage to keep such a rabble from scattering, that's already a success. Expecting them to use tactics like surprise attacks, infiltrations, flanking maneuvers, or encirclements and annihilations is just pure ridiculous.