Twentieth Century Chronicle

Page 96

Overwhelmed by the war and state affairs these days, Yuan Shikai couldn't help but ask, "A war of words? Who are they arguing with?"

Ruan Zhongshu said, "It's like Liang Qichao's Political News Agency and Sun Yat-sen's Tongmenghui. Liang moved the Xinmin Congbao to Tianjin, and the Tongmenghui ran the Minbao in the Shanghai International Settlement."

Liang said: The nationalization of land advocated by the Labour Party and the Tongmenghui means the confiscation of the property of the rich; the Tongmenghui said: Their advocacy of land system reform is beneficial to the rich; the Labour Party said: Eliminating the landlord class is the only way for social progress.

Liang also said: "Today, if we want to save China, the only way is to promote nationalism. Other forms of nationalism and socialism should all be subordinate to nationalism." The Tongmenghui avoided the question of social reformism or social revolution, and did not give a direct answer. The Labor Party said: "First, we need to figure out who owns this country. The landlord class should love the country itself, and the working class does not need to love the landlord class's country..."

Ruan Zhongshu spoke with great interest, while Yuan Shikai listened in complete bewilderment, so he interrupted him and asked, "So what did the Beiyang government say?"

Ruan Zhongshu: "..."

Chapter 338: The Battle of Ideas

Although they had a teacher-student relationship with Liang Qichao, the students, represented by Tian Junyi, drifted further and further away from their teacher ideologically after forming the Workers' Party.

The fundamental reason lies in the fact that Liang Qichao remained stagnant and refused to move forward, while his students, including Tian Junyi, had already resolutely embarked on the revolutionary path. All of this stemmed from the failure of the Hundred Days' Reform. Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao originally had the opportunity to proactively lead these young people onto the revolutionary path, but Kang Youwei's stubborn conservatism and Liang Qichao's weakness ultimately led to their separation.

Under the invasion of Tsarist Russia, the imperial court was forced to issue a general amnesty in order to convene a parliament and win back popular support. This was naturally good news for Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao's Protect the Emperor Society. However, Empress Dowager Cixi was unwilling to pardon Kang Youwei, which caused a split within the society. Kang Youwei believed that everyone should stand together and therefore could not accept the court's differential amnesty decree. Others, however, believed that Kang Youwei should first return to China to participate in parliamentary legislation and constitutional reform. They argued that once a constitution was established, Kang Youwei could be pardoned.

Kang Youwei, of course, disagreed with this idea of ​​leaving him out. If he were to wait until the Constitutional Assembly concluded before returning home, wouldn't all his years of wandering and suffering have been for nothing? Therefore, Kang Youwei used the righteous cause of preserving the monarchy to rebuke everyone, advocating that the amnesty decree should not be accepted unless the court returned power to Emperor Guangxu, attempting to prevent everyone from compromising with the court.

But things are different now. The reformers, once considered mortal enemies by the court, have become insignificant in the face of the Wuhan Workers' Party. Even the enlightened gentry who advocate constitutionalism in the area no longer pay attention to the Royalist Party. This is because Kang Youwei raised funds under the guise of rescuing Emperor Guangxu, but ended up spending the money on himself. This was exposed by the revolutionaries, which severely damaged the reputation of the Royalist Party.

The reason why the revolutionaries attacked the Royalist Party on this matter was that the groups they were trying to win over largely overlapped. Both sides needed donations from overseas Chinese to maintain their activities and the support of the propertied class in China to maintain their political prestige. The Royalist Party was inherently more likely to gain the support of overseas Chinese and the propertied class in China than the revolutionaries because it did not advocate violent revolution but only demanded reform, which naturally made it more popular with the propertied class.

For example, when Kang Youwei solicited donations from overseas Chinese under the guise of an imperial edict from Emperor Guangxu, the wealthy were quite generous. However, when revolutionaries like Sun Yat-sen solicited donations from overseas Chinese, they were almost exclusively supported by the lower classes. Strangely, the revolutionaries who received donations from the lower classes of overseas Chinese claimed to be defending the rights of the propertied class.

Because the conflict between the two sides directly involved their own survival, the struggle between the revolutionaries and the monarchists was particularly fierce. Especially after the revolutionaries united to form the Tongmenghui (Revolutionary Alliance), the struggle between the two sides took a turn for the worse.

The Tongmenghui, which united as a group, was essentially a union of progressive intellectuals from various provinces, while the Baohuanghui was merely a collection of down-on-their-luck reformists and failed politicians. The latter had made almost no new theoretical developments except for supporting Guangxu's personal rule. However, after the Boxer Rebellion, the gentry in the country believed that reform could no longer save the Qing Dynasty, even if Guangxu were to rule in his own right.

In this situation, revolution and constitutionalism overshadowed reformism and became the mainstream view among domestic intellectuals. Constitutionalism, in fact, was a bloodless revolution with little to do with reformism. The radical revolutionaries were not yet the Tongmenghui (Revolutionary Alliance), but rather the Workers' Party, which established the Wuhan government. However, the Workers' Party did not need to solicit donations from overseas Chinese and clearly advocated land reform, creating an insurmountable gap between the Workers' Party and the propertied class. As a result, the Tongmenghui and the Royalist Party, vying for the support of the propertied class and overseas Chinese, could not ease their tensions.

With the imperial court lifting the ban on political parties and even pardoning revolutionaries like Sun Yat-sen, the Tongmenghui (Revolutionary Alliance) led by Sun Yat-sen naturally returned to China to promote the Three Principles of the People and expand its influence. After Empress Dowager Cixi issued the edict for the return of the revolutionaries, those who suffered the most were actually the revolutionaries themselves, because the propertied class who supported the revolution either agreed with its ideals or had been driven to desperation by the reactionaries.

The failure of the Hundred Days' Reform and the invasion of Beijing by the Eight-Nation Alliance not only shattered the dreams of many reformists but also ignited nationalist anger. Consequently, after the Boxer Rebellion, a large number of intellectuals chose revolution, believing that without overthrowing the Manchu regime, China had no future. However, the promulgation of the new policies after the Qing government's return to power brought back many supporters, while the establishment of the Wuhan Workers', Peasants', and Soldiers' Committee attracted radical elements to the revolution.

Therefore, before Russia formally declared war on China, the revolutionaries and the monarchists faced equally difficult times. It was precisely because they could no longer endure it that they banded together to form the Tongmenghui (Revolutionary Alliance). Frankly speaking, anyone who still believed their organization had a future would not have merged with other organizations that held different ideologies.

Therefore, upon learning that the imperial court had lifted the ban on political parties, Sun Yat-sen immediately dispatched people to establish propaganda agencies for the Tongmenghui in Shanghai and Guangzhou, attempting to expand the Tongmenghui's influence and win the support of the domestic population. However, the Tongmenghui's actions first displeased the Royalist Party. If the Tongmenghui were to win over the domestic propertied class, how could the Royalist Party survive?

Therefore, with the support of some people, Liang Qichao established the Political News Society and used it to launch attacks on the Tongmenghui. However, Liang Qichao mainly attacked Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People, because the other propositions within the Tongmenghui were just one proposition without any specific content, so there was nothing to criticize. On the other hand, although the Three Principles of the People were full of contradictory statements, at least it was a real theory.

Liang Qichao was the true soul of the Reform Movement. Although the Royalist Party was led by Kang Youwei, some of its main policy ideas originated from Liang Qichao. As one of the leaders of the Petition of the Scholars, his reputation at home and abroad at that time surpassed that of Sun Yat-sen. His attacks on the Three Principles of the People actually promoted the Three Principles of the People, allowing those who were previously completely ignorant of them to understand them through his writings.

On the Tongmenghui side, although Liang Qichao's articles caused headaches for Sun Yat-sen's faction, forcing them to clarify the revolutionary ideas attacked by Liang Qichao, this was not without its benefits.

One reason is that the Three Principles of the People became the ideology of the Tongmenghui in the eyes of outsiders, thus making Sun Yat-sen the true leader of the Tongmenghui. Another reason is that, in clarifying the contradictions of the Three Principles of the People, Sun Yat-sen's followers, led by Zhu Zhixin and Hu Hanmin, patched up the Three Principles of the People, making it gradually mature.

From July 1905 to February 1906, this debate between reformism and revolutionaries ultimately laid the theoretical foundation for the bourgeois revolution and formed a tripartite balance of power in ideology among reformists, bourgeois revolutionaries, and proletarian revolutionaries. Neither the imperial court, Yuan Shikai's Beiyang clique, nor the constitutionalists in various regions had any room to intervene in this debate.

The Labour Party remains the most stable of the three. Having previously put forward various political ideas favorable to the working class, this debate has further solidified its position as the political representative of the working class. While this disappointed many property owners and intellectuals who had high expectations of the Labour Party, it stabilized the party's internal thinking.

With the establishment of the Wuhan Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Committee, coupled with the Russian invasion creating a rare period of development for Wuhan, the Beiyang Army was tied down by Russia and unable to move south. Other provinces simply did not have the ability to deal with the powerful military and political group in Wuhan. This was not a group of peasants who rebelled with farm tools, but a workers' and peasants' group capable of arming themselves with machine guns and cannons. The provincial patrol battalions armed with knives, guns, or outdated gunpowder weapons were no match for the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in Wuhan. Even the great powers tacitly acknowledged Wuhan's control over the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

Therefore, although Wuhan nominally expanded its army significantly, from one division and one brigade before the mutiny to nine divisions with approximately 96,000 men by November 1905, the expansion of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was actually quite moderate compared to the population and area of ​​Hubei, Hunan, southern Sichuan, western Henan, and western Jiangxi, which Wuhan now controlled. The Workers' Party still focused its main efforts on economic construction.

After completing a railway bridge and a highway bridge, the Hankou-Hanyang area has begun construction on a third bridge. A comprehensive public transportation system has been established between the two areas, and the tram system, which previously operated on a limited number of main roads in Hankou, has now extended to Hanyang. The urban population of this region has also exceeded 150 million, and the industrial and commercial sectors in Hankou and the heavy chemical plants in Hanyang are developing rapidly, like bamboo shoots sprouting in spring.

Before 1901, the grain processing rate in the Hubei and Hunan regions was about 5%, but by November 1905, this rate had increased to 37%. In the past, Wuhan rarely imported tropical crops, and the value of its industrial exports was almost zero.

However, in November 1905, a large quantity of copra was transported to Wuhan, where it was pressed for oil and made into soap for export to Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands. 80% of the copra came from German Pacific colonies. In the past, the Germans would ship the copra back to Germany for processing, but now they found it more convenient to ship the copra to China for processing and then sell the soap locally.

Although Nauru and two other nearby phosphate islands are rich in phosphates, the largest mining company there is actually the British company Albert Ellis. This is because the British can export directly to Australia, Canada, India, and other places, while Germany needs to ship them back to Europe to realize their value, thus failing to make full use of these resources.

However, China, as a major agricultural country, needed large quantities of fertilizers and had cheap labor to export. Therefore, exporting phosphates to China and hiring Chinese laborers to develop the Pacific colonies became a lucrative business. Through this close cooperation, various resources in the German Pacific colonies were developed, and Wuhan became an export destination for some primary industrial products.

Because of the booming economy, many members of the Labour Party have begun to shift from revolutionary to construction-oriented thinking. Some even believe that in order to accelerate construction, workers' consumption should be suppressed to increase factory accumulation. This idea at least still contains the element of building first and then distributing the fruits of development.

However, some people went further, believing that capitalism was actually not bad. They argued that cooperation with German capitalists had led to a rapid transformation of Wuhan, and therefore the criticism of capitalism might be excessive. After all, the revolutionary theory of the proletariat requires depriving capitalists of their control over the means of production, but if that were done, who would dare to invest in you?

It was this debate that reorganized the party's thinking and purged some party members who had strayed from laborism.

Chapter 339 Capital

In 1905, the industrial and commercial output of Wuhan had exceeded 4 million taels, which was similar to the agricultural output of Hubei Province. In other words, the resources controlled by the Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Committee had completely suppressed the landlord class in the province. Even private industrialists and merchants began to break away from the landlord class and become a truly independent class.

Under such circumstances, the voice of the landlords naturally declined rapidly in Huguang. Faced with the violent suppression by the Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Committee using the power of the government, the landlord class in Huguang began to show weakness and no longer dared to openly confront the Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Committee as before. This was not the first time the landlord class had done this. When the Manchus entered the pass, the landlords in Jiangnan resisted, but after realizing they couldn't win, they simply gave up and submitted.

Therefore, while the Royalist Party and the Tongmenghui were still trying to win over influential local figures, the ruling power of the Workers' Party had already been truly established in Hubei. Previously, it was a struggle between the gentry and landlords and the Workers' Party for local governance; now it had become a question of who would lead the way between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The debate over cracking down on the landlord class had already been settled.

Over the past four years, industrialists and businessmen have benefited the most from the industrialization path led by the committee. The obstacles that the Qing Dynasty had placed on the development of industry and commerce were all crushed after this industrialization path was opened. In particular, after the Development Committee became part of the Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Committee, the support for industry and commerce became even stronger.

The Workers', Peasants', and Soldiers' Committee's crackdown on the landlord class forced much capital to shift from land to industry and commerce. Buying land at that time was clearly a high-risk investment, so selling off land to avoid confiscation by the Workers', Peasants', and Soldiers' Committee became a means of hedging against risk. As a result, landlords who had already distanced themselves from rural life became even more detached from the countryside, becoming true urban residents.

The Labour Party clearly couldn't fight two enemies at once; it couldn't eliminate the landlord class on one hand and the capitalists on the other. Unable to escape, the landlord class ultimately had no choice but to fight the Labour Party to the bitter end. Now, those landlords willing to leave the countryside, at least temporarily, would not become opponents of the land reform system.

Of course, with the continuous development of industry and commerce in Wuhan, industrialists and businessmen who wanted to find their place in politics also began to take action. While establishing business organizations, they actively sought to join the party, preparing to re-bind themselves with the Workers' Party, just as Han landlords and Manchus were bound together after the Qing Dynasty entered the pass.

Compared to China at that time, these capitalists who diverted capital from the land and invested it in industry and commerce were at least progressive compared to the landlords who exploited the peasants. Moreover, under the control of the Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Committee, these capitalists accepted some legal provisions that were beneficial to the working class, such as the minimum wage law and workers' compensation insurance.

Based on the unified raw material supply and commodity sales market established by the Workers', Peasants', and Soldiers' Committee, capitalist exploitation was controlled to a relatively mild degree, which essentially meant controlling the rate of return on capital. In an uncontrollable market, capital naturally tends to recover its investment as quickly as possible, but in a stable market, capital is not necessarily unwilling to accept a fixed rate of return.

For example, when British capital invests in railways in India, they receive a guarantee from the British Indian government, which guarantees a fixed annual dividend of 5%. Of course, in Europe, a 3% annual interest rate on government bonds is considered good. However, in a less developed agricultural country like China, the return on investment in modern industry can generally reach 16%, and in some cutting-edge industries such as electricity or telecommunications equipment, it can almost reach 30%.

Such high profits, to borrow a phrase from later times, can be described as the exploitation of the industrial-agricultural price scissors. In essence, it is an exchange of industrial products from industrialized countries after the completion of the Industrial Revolution and agricultural products from agricultural countries before the Industrial Revolution was completed. The former's production efficiency naturally far exceeds that of the agricultural countries' handicrafts, which naturally leads to an unequal exchange ratio between industry and agriculture.

However, Chinese compradors and capitalists did not understand the reasons behind this, and even intellectuals within the Workers' Party struggled to grasp the exchange relationship involved. This led to the erroneous view that capital creates wealth, or the belief that capital and human labor create wealth together. Because of this misconception, some party members believed that capitalists could be recruited into the party because they represented advanced productive forces and possessed greater power than the individual proletariat.

Businessmen and industrialists were quite willing to join an organization like the Labour Party to protect their economic interests through its political power. As a result, while the Labour Party debated with the Royalists and the Tongmenghui externally, it also launched an ideological reorganization within the party.

On New Year's Day, 1906, Tian Junyi criticized some comrades in the Party for their erroneous identification with capital. At the Party's Central Committee meeting on New Year's Day, he pointed out: "Some of our Party members have identified with such an erroneous theory in the past six months, that capital is indispensable in the production process, and therefore capital also participates in the creation of social wealth. Therefore, the gains of capital should not be regarded as exploitation."

I strongly oppose such a claim. I have a single silver dollar here; if I put it on this table, who can tell me when it will magically turn into two silver dollars?

The meeting room was completely silent. Tian Jun glanced at everyone before continuing, "As long as this silver dollar is not invested in production and undergoes the added value of human labor, it cannot achieve self-value. In other words, it is still just a silver dollar, not a dollar of capital."

From this, we can clearly see that it's not that human labor cannot exist without capital, but rather that capital cannot exist without human labor. Money that is not linked to labor cannot be called capital.

Therefore, the so-called self-appreciation of capital is essentially the social wealth created by human labor. As long as capitalists do not participate in productive labor, the interest they obtain is undoubtedly an exploitation of the laborers.

Tian Junyi was quiet for a while, listened carefully to everyone remain silent, and then continued: "So why do we say that capital can promote the development of productivity? Because capital is the combination of money and labor. Only by maximizing labor efficiency can we meet the need for capital to continuously increase its value."

This is the biggest difference between capital and landlords. Landlords own land but do not participate in production. In essence, they continuously exploit the labor of tenants through the land, much like a usurious lending model where they earn interest. For landlords, increasing productivity is not important; constantly incurring debt for their tenants is the most important thing. A heavily indebted tenant is less likely to negotiate with them.

So why should we oppose capitalism while simultaneously cooperating with capitalists?

This time, someone finally answered him, "In order to strengthen our power, if we don't develop our own industry, we won't be able to manufacture machine guns and cannons, and the great powers will use force to destroy us..."

This answer resonated with many comrades, clearly indicating that the idea of ​​enriching the country and strengthening its military remained the mainstream within the Party. While thinking this to himself, Tian Junyi said aloud, "What you all say is correct. From the current situation, this is precisely why we must cooperate with capitalists. Because the Chinese proletariat is too weak, we cannot yet eliminate capitalism both domestically and internationally. Therefore, we have no choice but to endure capitalist exploitation and strengthen the power of the Chinese proletariat."

However, I still want to explain the fundamental reasons why we oppose capitalism. Capital is a combination of money and labor, and money is the condensation of past labor.

Simply put, all the wealth in the world today is the result of human labor in the past, but landlords and capitalists have appropriated it all. If we want to overthrow the oppression of the proletariat by landlords and capitalists, we must consider not only the current and future labor income, but also this past accumulation of labor.

In the 100 years since the Industrial Revolution, humanity has created more wealth than in all of human history before. Globally, Europe and the United States account for 80% of global wealth, while the rest of the world accounts for only 20%.

Therefore, even if we liberate China and all the colonies and semi-colonies in Asia, Africa and Latin America, the wealth we create is still less than the social wealth created by the great powers. This does not include what the great powers have gained from their global colonies and their exploitation of their own proletariat over the past century.

This means that if we cannot overthrow all capitalist countries and return the wealth they have stolen to the workers, these capitalists will use the social wealth they possess to attack us. Since we are already in a relatively backward agricultural era, it will be even more difficult for us to resist the attack of this capitalist power.

Some people think that since we are now cooperating with capitalists, we should indulge capital and obey its leadership to strengthen our power. I would say that this idea is completely wrong. Unrestrained capital will only take all the social wealth into its own pocket, leaving not a single thing for the proletariat.

Even if we are now heavily guarding against capital, with the support of foreign capital, domestic capital is growing much faster than our own accumulation. So how can we talk about becoming strong enough to control capital in the future? In addition, capitalism concentrates the wealth of the majority in its own hands, which means that the resources they can use are far greater than the resources that the proletariat receives on average. Given this comparison, how many people can resist the temptation to turn to capitalism?

Finally, while capital can indeed drive productivity growth, this growth is achieved through technological advancements that increase human labor efficiency. Once technology stagnates, and capital cannot cease its self-increasing growth, it will turn to plundering human labor. Just as landlords constantly indebted to laborers to control them, capital will also indebted to laborers to satisfy its own growth needs. At that point, capital will become the biggest obstacle to productivity growth. And will laborers still be able to resist capital then?

Tian Junyi's words resonated with many comrades within the Party, prompting them to begin ideological self-correction. Of course, some persisted in their views and ultimately had to choose to withdraw from the Party. From then on, the Party's ideology began to shift from the simple revolutionary ideal of "land to the tiller" to the theory of class struggle.

Chapter 340 Ideological Changes within the Party

Although ideological unity was gradually forming within the Party, the anti-rightist campaign that began in 1905 also began to see fierce opposition from within the Party. This opposition mainly came from the economic construction sector, which argued that the campaign had expanded from targeting local tyrants and bullies to the entire propertied class, and that the arrests, particularly in cities, were beginning to disrupt normal economic operations.

On the other hand, Xu Xilin and He Hongliang of the Anti-Counter-Revolutionary Committee were also dissatisfied with the fact that the economic construction department kept obstructing their investigations. Xu Xilin said at the meeting, "These local tyrants and evil gentry kill entire families at the drop of a hat in order to intimidate those related to the deceased and to prevent the possibility of revenge. If we do not investigate to the end, how can the peasants trust us?"

They think no one will avenge strangers, but we'll prove them wrong. We, the Labour Party, are determined to avenge our own people, and it won't matter where they run off to…

Did we punish a large number of people? I don't think so at all. According to the population ratio of Hubei, the number of people we punished was only one-tenth of the landlord class. Moreover, more than half of them were not landlords, but only accomplices of local tyrants and evil gentry.

Therefore, the problem isn't that our anti-revolutionary purges are too severe, but rather that they are far from sufficient. If we don't instill a sense of insecurity in those local tyrants and bullies, and let them witness firsthand the consequences of opposing the people, how can they possibly behave? I believe that the anti-revolutionary purges should penetrate into the cities, preventing them from developing any notions of safe zones. Furthermore, we shouldn't focus our efforts solely on Hubei; we should also strengthen our efforts in surrounding areas…”

However, apart from the support of his comrades in the Anti-Counter-Revolutionary Committee, Xu Xilin's proposals were opposed by the vast majority of people. Some people put Xu Xilin in the position of Anti-Counter-Revolutionary Committee member because Xu Xilin himself came from a gentry family in Shaoxing.

Xu Xilin was actually the representative of the Restoration Society sent to Wuhan, but after arriving in Wuhan, he felt that the ideology of the Workers' Party was the way to save the country. The Restoration Society's ideology was "to restore the Han nationality, to reclaim our land, to dedicate ourselves to the country, and to retire after achieving our goals." In other words, they used nationalism as a rallying cry to overthrow the Manchu regime and consider the matter closed. However, the members of the Restoration Society never even considered whether China could be saved.

Within the revolutionary party, Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People were truly a guiding principle. The ideas of others were only slightly better than those of the secret societies advocating for the restoration of the Ming dynasty. However, compared to the scientific socialism advocated by the Workers' Party, the Three Principles of the People were as naive as the Three Character Classic. After all, Sun Yat-sen never had time to calmly and properly contemplate revolutionary theory; he was either on the road to rebellion or on the run.

Xu Xilin quickly applied to join the Labor Party. He was originally to be sent to do education work, but the backlash from the landlord class created a need for a purge. Therefore, some people hoped that someone could suppress the retaliatory mentality of the workers and peasants, so they recommended Xu Xilin to serve as a purge committee member. Everyone thought that Xu Xilin, who was very nearsighted, was just a weak scholar. Even if he talked about overthrowing the Qing regime all day long, he would not do anything excessive to the Han gentry.

But the subsequent actions of the Anti-Corruption Commission proved one thing: if you hand over a violent institution to a serious and meticulous person, then don't expect that institution to operate according to some people's ideas.

Although Xu Xilin was a frail scholar, he was very methodical in his work. Thus, the Anti-Counter-Revolutionary Committee arrested people like a sieve. It did not investigate the cases themselves, but rather conducted a major review of the landlord class based on the degree of land concentration in each county. During the review, many old cases were unearthed, and the landlords felt wronged because these cases were not evidence against the Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Committee.

In the Qing Dynasty, which landlord didn't have one or two lives on his hands? To put it bluntly, if it weren't for the Han Chinese who betrayed their own compatriots when the Manchus entered the Central Plains, would they have become landlords? Serving the Qing Dynasty meant helping the Manchus suppress Han Chinese resistance, right? Therefore, in the Qing Dynasty, no landlord was truly innocent; they were either bandits or descendants of bandits.

Of course, in the eyes of these landlords, they themselves were innocent, because everyone was a traitor, which meant that traitors were the mainstream, and those who weren't traitors were just thieves who harmed the people, like Zhang Xianzhong and Hong Xiuquan. The Confucius family of Shandong, with its two-thousand-year-old tradition, not only knelt before the Yuan and Qing dynasties, but also before the Queen of England and the German Emperor—that's a truly virtuous family.

Therefore, the Anti-Rightist Committee's practice of dredging up old cases was very annoying. These were all cases from the Qing Dynasty, yet they were being brought up and punished now; wasn't this undermining unity? It was only because Tian Junyi had consistently encouraged and supported Xu Xilin that people couldn't bring him down. However, voices advocating that the anti-rightist campaign had already achieved significant results and should come to an end were growing louder.

After discussing with Tang Caichang, Qin Lishan, and others, Tian Junyi finally accepted the call from within the Party. After all, they were currently in the midst of a foreign war, Wuhan itself needed to develop rapidly, and the gentry power in Hubei had suffered a great blow. Some gentry were even afraid to stay in Wuhan and had fled directly to Shanghai. The local Hubei forces that dared to band together against the Workers', Peasants', and Soldiers' Committee had been almost completely dispersed. Next, they could deal with these scattered individuals according to normal laws, which would indeed stabilize morale.

Of course, although the Central Committee of the Workers' Party believed that the large-scale purge could come to an end, the rectification of party discipline and the reform of the bureaucratic style of local governments and state-owned enterprises could not be stopped.

By the end of 1905, the Labor Party had more than 20 members, and its party organizations had spread throughout the country, but Hubei Province still accounted for the majority of its members. However, most of the members did not have a deep understanding of the party's ideology.

Some joined the party out of gratitude; these were people who had been liberated under the party's organization, and their loyalty lay with the party itself, not its ideology. Others joined because they were in line with the times, believing the Labour Party had the best future and that joining it was the only way to succeed in the new era. The party's theory was still far from being integrated with Chinese practice, and the Communist Manifesto became the most widely circulated document within the party, even more deeply ingrained in people's minds than Capital.

Faced with this situation, Tian Junyi also felt quite overwhelmed. He felt that he was not a train driver on the tracks, but a captain helming the ship in the ocean, surrounded by people pointing fingers and making pronouncements. If he was not careful, the ship would just spin in circles.

Compared to political work, he found the arduous economic work more relaxing, because most problems in economic development only resulted in financial losses, while a single political failure could cause the revolution to be greatly delayed.

Tian Junyi wasn't the only one with this idea; Tang Caichang also felt the same way. In the past, he believed that everything would be better once the Manchu autocracy was overthrown. Therefore, he was even willing to accept the establishment of a Han Chinese government in the name of Emperor Guangxu, which he considered the least harmful form of revolution for China.

The idea that the Manchus would voluntarily relinquish power was, of course, unrealistic. His expectation of awakening among the Han Chinese governors and viceroys ultimately failed after the collapse of the Southeast Mutual Protection Agreement. This was also the opportunity for Tang Caichang to turn to scientific socialism, because he had indeed discovered that the revolutionary path he had imagined was not feasible.

Now that the Qing government is willing to convene a parliament to establish a constitution, he has begun to feel conflicted again. It's not that he wants to change his mind and support the constitution, but he is worried that the Qing government will use the convening of a parliament to establish a constitution to bring local forces back to its side, thus creating an unfavorable situation for Wuhan.

Therefore, he discussed this issue with Tian Junyi several times in private meetings, wanting to know Tian Junyi's views on convening a parliament to establish a constitution. He expressed his concerns to Tian Junyi: "...Those constitutionalists have implicitly become leaders of the gentry in various provinces. Especially after we launched the anti-revolutionary purge, the representatives of the Southeast Protection Conference who were originally close to us are now leaning towards people from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, such as Zhang Jian, Tang Shouqian, and Zheng Xiaoxu, and have even established relations with Liang Qichao in the north. I think that if a parliament is really convened, it will actually be detrimental to our Workers' Party."

While the Tongmenghui (Revolutionary Alliance) was inept at revolution, one of their points was quite valid: What China needs today is to tear down the old house and rebuild, not to patch it up. Li Hongzhang spent his entire life trying to repair it, but he couldn't fix the rickety ship that is the Qing Dynasty. Is it really necessary for us to attend parliament and listen to these gentry's attacks on us?

Tian Junyi could understand Tang Caichang's mentality. The past year or so since the mutiny had greatly changed the thinking of some comrades within the Party. In the past, most comrades within the Party believed that the Party's strength was too weak, and the Chinese proletariat was also too weak. It was obviously unrealistic to expect a city like Wuhan to fight against the entire Qing Dynasty. Therefore, the Chinese revolution should unite with enlightened people and work together. This was also the ideological basis for the Development Committee to unite with enlightened gentry to establish cooperatives and enterprises.

However, after more than a year of independent governance, everyone suddenly realized that the Qing Dynasty was actually just a paper house, which could be easily torn open. No one was willing to risk their lives for the Qing Dynasty. The foreign powers were also paper tigers. When it came to bloodshed, they would back down. The gentry seemed powerful, but they were nothing in front of the mobilized workers and peasants.

The Labor Party's political and military victories that year, along with its rapid economic development, quickly boosted the confidence of its members. This was similar to Yuan Shikai's mentality after his military training at Xiaozhan, when he saw the old armies across the country as utterly incompetent. "I'm already so powerful, why should I listen to you weaklings telling me what to do? That's absurd."

It is certainly a good thing that the party members have such confidence, but Tian Junyi still understands the internal and external situation that Wuhan is facing. It is not that the Qing Dynasty has become weak, but that the great powers have split. Because of the split among the great powers, the Qing Dynasty lost the unified support of the great powers and was unable to use its strength to suppress the rebellion in Wuhan. The contradictions among the great powers also prevented them from sending large troops to the Far East to retaliate. This is why Wuhan had the opportunity to survive in the cracks.

Therefore, while Tian Junyi hoped that party members would maintain their belief in the victory of the revolution, he also did not want them to be misled by the current situation.

Chapter 341 Means

After much deliberation, Tian Junyi frankly told Tang Caichang: "Didn't Yuan Shikai send a telegram a few days ago, trying to exchange Sichuan for concessions in the negotiations on the Tibetan border?"

While Yuan Shikai advocated to the Qing court to convene a parliament to save the situation, he also wanted to make a private deal with us. This shows that he did not really have much sincerity towards parliament and constitutionalism.

As a powerful figure in the north, Yuan Shikai's wavering stance on both parliament and constitutionalism begs the question: can his constitutional supporters truly succeed? If parliament cannot restrain the Beiyang clique and the imperial court, how can it possibly control Wuhan?

Tang Caichang thought about it and realized that it was indeed the case. He softened his expression slightly and said, "That's true, but I'm still worried that the public will be misled by those constitutionalists. Even some of us think that if a parliament is convened, then we should obey the resolutions of the parliament, otherwise it's better not to participate to avoid being criticized."

Tian Jun nodded, but then shook his head and said, "Theoretically speaking, if Congress can really speak on behalf of all the people, then of course we must obey the will of the people, otherwise wouldn't we become the enemy of the people?"

However, according to the class theory, it is impossible for the entire nation to be in agreement, because each class has its own class interests. The interests of the ruling class and the ruled class are not the same, so how can they possibly reach an agreement? Either the ruling class suppresses the ruled class, or the ruled class overthrows the ruling class. There will never be a middle ground.

Therefore, the so-called convening of a parliament is essentially a congress by the Qing ruling class to save its own survival. Can we consider ourselves members of the Qing ruling class?

Tang Caichang finally realized his mistake. He clapped his hands and said, "That's right! Our goal is to eliminate the landlord class, so how could we possibly participate in a parliament organized by the landlord class? We should organize another parliament. But, won't proposing this idea now make the people think we're trying to seize power?"

Tian Jun nodded and replied, “Therefore, we should first send someone to attend the National Assembly in Beijing to expose the true colors of these constitutionalists in front of the people of the whole country. They want to save themselves, not China, so they will never agree with those ideas that are truly beneficial to the people, nor will they ever give up the power in their hands. We just need to point this out in front of the people, and then we can withdraw.”

“That makes sense, that makes perfect sense.” Tang Caichang nodded repeatedly in response. He felt a weight lifted off his shoulders and then turned his attention to the Sichuan issue. “So how should we handle the Sichuan matter? I think dividing the border between the two countries along the Himalayas wouldn’t be too much to ask.”

Tian Jun looked up at the distant sky, let out a long breath, and said, "The key issue isn't where the border is drawn, but whether we should withdraw our troops from India. Without the support of the Indian people, we can't hold our ground no matter where it's drawn..."

Lin Xinyi initially did not want to participate in the negotiations between the Indian People's Committee and the British. Partly due to his somewhat awkward position, and partly because he hoped the Labour Party of India would shoulder its responsibilities. In his view, they would eventually leave India anyway, therefore the Indian revolution ultimately had to be undertaken by the Indian people themselves.

However, it is clear that India's revolutionaries were not actually prepared to take over the country's government. Although India has a long history of colonization, it was only in the last two or three decades that India's revolutionaries truly regarded India as a unified country. Before that, Indians were more loyal to their caste and state; the state was their country, and everything outside the state was foreign land, with India merely a place name.

However, under British colonial policies and education, Indians began to identify themselves as Indians, no longer as Marathas, Madras, Gujaratis, Bengalis, Punjabis, etc. At the same time, under British classification, India's various indigenous religions were merged into a single, unified religion—Hinduism.

Why did the British go to such lengths to cultivate Hinduism? Because, in order to rule India, Britain conducted a census every ten years, and Hinduism was initially created on the census forms. In fact, the British once wanted to eliminate India's native religions and castes, because these religions and castes had become tools for landowners to control peasants, which in turn gave landowners the power to resist British colonial rule.

However, after the Indian Revolt of 1857, the British discovered that controlling Indian peasants through landowners was actually a better way to protect their interests on the Indian subcontinent. Therefore, the British tacitly accepted the existence of the caste system. The fact that all indigenous religions were referred to as Hinduism was not only for convenience, but also because the British did not want Muslims to become the dominant religion in India.

Hinduism itself does not have a unified scripture; it is a combination of different branches of the same pantheon and local legends, ultimately forming local religious beliefs. Therefore, if it were not unified under the name of Hinduism, then Islam would undoubtedly become the overwhelming religious belief of Indians. This also coincides with the history of Muslims settling on the Indian subcontinent. If India had a unified cultural consciousness, then it would have been impossible for foreign Muslims to establish so many Muslim states on the Indian subcontinent.

For Britain, the religious ties between Muslims and the Ottoman Sultan were a very troublesome issue. In order to sever the influence of Muslims in West and Central Asia on the Indian subcontinent, Britain needed an independent faith in India that could suppress Muslims, so that the Indian subcontinent would be safe for Britain.