1905: Beer Hall Speaker

Page 54

After the first phase of the Korean War ended, the world was in an uproar in early July. Chinese bonds surged by several percentage points and began to be sold at prices higher than face value, and were very popular in the market.

Putting aside other factors, the Chinese army has at least advanced to the Daejeon front, and reinforcements are continuously entering North Korea to fight. Countries around the world have witnessed the Chinese army's line-filling tactics and highly recognize the Chinese army's defensive capabilities.

There is no doubt that the Korean Peninsula will remain in a state of stalemate and attrition for a long time. As long as it does not suffer a crushing defeat and lose everything, the value of Chinese bonds will be guaranteed.

Domestically, a large number of people from all walks of life have begun to enthusiastically purchase Chinese bonds. Before the war, no one knew the true strength of their own army, but now they have achieved such a remarkable start.

The wealthy gentry and patriotic ordinary people in the domestic market are naturally happy to donate generously.

People at the grassroots level were filled with pride in the country's victory, and after the first phase of the battle ended, victory parades began to take place all over the country.

This country was so thirsty for victory that everyone had lost their desire for it at the beginning, and they just hoped that they wouldn't lose too badly. They had been terrified of being beaten by foreigners for decades.

But the unexpected good news rekindled everyone's desire for victory. They realized that they also had the power to win, and that the Chinese people could also go all out.

The most intense reaction was seen in the Jiangnan market, where wealthy landowners abandoned their wait-and-see attitude and began buying large quantities of government bonds.

The Yangtze River Delta region absorbed a staggering 300 million yuan of national debt in one go, almost draining their working capital.

These people are doing this for no other reason than to beg the big boss to let them go!

Before the good news arrived, the general attitude in the country was pessimistic, and no one thought they would win. But after the good news came, they were surprised to find that Zhao Yan might win this battle! Even if he didn't win, Zhao Yan wouldn't lose too badly.

If Zhao Yan manages to hold out until the war ends and he has time to spare, what will become of those who are just watching and waiting?

In such a national war, not helping someone doesn't make you neutral; it makes you an outright adversary!

Furthermore, Wu Zifu, who is known as the head of the Five Tigers of the Revival Party, has become the Southern Committee member and governs the entire province south of the Yangtze River, controlling both the military and political circles. If we do not express our support at this time, it will be too late!

Wu Zifu's appointment as a Southern Commissioner was so powerful that it was tantamount to a crown prince overseeing the country, holding the authority of a general, commander-in-chief of military affairs both inside and outside the capital, and holding absolute power over the entire military and political affairs of the South. His power was terrifying.

In the month since Wu Zifu seized power, he has not listened to Zhao Yan's orders to stay obediently in Changsha. Instead, he has been running around everywhere and has used the power without any scruples as soon as he got it.

In the south, Wu Zifu, as a party elder, vigorously developed party organizations, and the party representative system was implemented in every prefecture and city. He also boldly implemented his own ideas and reforms in government affairs.

Despite opposition from many, Wu Zifu insisted on implementing the new tax system in the southern region, which was a disguised form of land reform. The exorbitant progressive tax on fixed assets drove many wealthy gentry to their deaths.

This disguised land reform was Wu Zifu's final compromise. Zhao Yan heard about it on the front lines, but he couldn't spare the time to intervene and could only let Wu Zifu do as he pleased.

Wu Zifu also took a slight step back, not launching a thorough proletarian revolution, but instead using government taxation as a means to force the landlord class to abandon their tools of exploitation.

Playing this game is bound to cause chaos and riots in various places, but Wu Zifu is not afraid of riots; what he fears is that you remain quiet and inactive.

Wu Zifu, this god of slaughter, inherited Zhao Yan's fine tradition of confiscating property and exterminating clans at every turn. He began to use these methods in the south as well. There had been many uprisings in various parts of Jiangnan, but they were all suppressed by the Second Division.

Now that Zhao Yan has sent back news of victory from the front lines, all those wealthy landowners and gentry were dumbfounded. They dared not be mischievous anymore and obediently sold their land to exchange for national bonds. They would keep as much as they could, which was better than having their homes ransacked by these killing gods.

In order to raise funds for Zhao Yan's army, Wu Zifu went to great lengths, even persecuting local gentry and landlords as if they were Japanese.

Fortunately, China at that time still had considerable resources and a solid foundation, which could withstand Wu Zifu's antics.

In mid-July, the Korean Peninsula frontline defense forces amassed 450,000 troops to engage in a stalemate with 200,000 British and Japanese troops, with both sides fighting a war of attrition along a winding front of more than 300 kilometers from Daejeon to North Gyeongsang Province.

The Nationalist army had no intention of pushing forward, and the Anglo-Japanese Allied Forces were also unable to advance. The two sides were locked in a stalemate on the peninsula.

The Republican Prime Minister, despite his skill, was powerless to stop the war effort. The costs at the front were too high, and military funds were running low. Zhang Mingqi, having no other choice, began to send troops to the north to implement Wu Zifu's methods of extorting money from the people and levying heavy taxes to sustain the war.

Across China, both the north and south, there was rampant exploitation targeting the vested interests of the country. Landlords and gentry were among those targeted, and when the government ran out of money, they would come knocking on their door to extort it.

A large amount of wealth has been borrowed by the government to fight the war. There's no other way. If this war is lost, all the officials of the Republic will have to perish with Zhao Yan. Since this path has been chosen, there is no turning back.

The rich aren't spared, and neither are the poor. If you have money, show your support financially. If you don't have money, you want to watch the show? No way! If you don't have money, at least you have people. If you have people, then show your support!

More than three million laborers were conscripted from various provinces to aid the Northeast and perform unpaid corvée labor to support the logistical supply lines to the Korean Peninsula. Now, the army's logistics cannot rely solely on the meager railway transport capacity; manpower must also be increased!

The Republic's two pillars, Zhang Mingqi in the north and Wu Zifu in the south, seized power and began to frantically bleed the nation dry to maintain the war, targeting both the rich and the poor.

But no one dared to resist, because the Republican government held high the banner of national righteousness and national dignity. Anyone who dared to rebel against the government would be convicted of treason, their entire family would be exiled, and all their property, down to the last needle and thread, would be confiscated.

The government's brutality rivals that of the Qin and Han emperors, but the more domineering and exploitative the higher-ups are, the more obedient the people below become, because the higher-ups have the power and authority to be domineering.

The Republic's continuous draining of funds to sustain the war, completely disregarding the future, is like a madman throwing every penny into the war, but the international community loves this kind of madness.

Germany, France, and the United States began frantically supplying China with various military equipment, industrial supplies, and raw materials. Other countries that wanted to profit from the war also joined in, trying to make money off the war.

The three major industrial zones planned by Zhao Yan in Central China, South China and East China have all entered a stage of rapid development, frantically importing all kinds of equipment and technology, building factories and starting production at the same time.

The Wuhan Industrial Zone in Central China, with its best foundation, has built the Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant No. 2, and the Hanyang Arsenal has also achieved self-production of explosives and smokeless powder. Ordnance production capacity is climbing to a new level every day.

Construction of the Hanguang Railway has begun, the Beijing-Hankou Railway has started double-tracking and expansion, and the Longhai Railway has been put on the agenda for planning and construction.

The Republican government's fiscal expenditure reached a staggering 520 million taels of silver in the first half of 1907. This amount of money was certainly not enough to cover all the wars, and the bulk of it was poured into infrastructure and industrial development.

One-third of the Republic's military expenditure is used for purchases from abroad, while the remaining two-thirds are spent on the domestic market.

Spurred by this, they encountered a government that was spending money like crazy. The wealthy at the bottom of society experienced both pain and pleasure, and the landlord class was also forced by the outrageous land fixed asset tax to invest their funds in the industrialization process.

These people certainly didn't have the capability to build cannons and warships, but they could still supply military provisions, food, medicine, clothing, and other supplies. The government funded and led the development of heavy industry, and local landlords and gentry also spontaneously invested in the development of light industry.

With so much money spent, if you don't profit, someone else will.

A bizarre scene unfolded across China: the government recklessly borrowed money, levied exorbitant taxes, and overdrawn everything to sustain the war.

The public, however, flocked to the wave of industrialization, hoping to earn back the money that had been swept away.

Overall, it surprisingly presents a scene of bloodshed and fighting on the front lines while frantically building in the rear. It's hard to understand how they could carry out construction while fighting a war.

Changes were taking place within China, but the adversaries were not idle either. The British quickly made their move, and it was a swift and decisive strike!

Chapter 99 Countering Moves

On July 11, 1907, a British diplomatic envoy rushed to St. Petersburg to meet with the Russian Tsar.

The Englishman played a bomb hidden on the table, but the hand didn't have time to take effect immediately.

The first move the British made was to detonate the hidden bomb in Kwantung Province, a bomb that had been lying in wait behind Zhao Yan's army for a long time.

On July 15, two British capital ships led a fleet to approach the Bohai Strait, joining forces with the Japanese Combined Fleet in a posture that indicated their intention to force their way into the Bohai Sea.

Zhang Mingqi urgently ordered the Northern Fleet to intercept them. The Northern Fleet, led by Sa Zhenbing, was so weak that it was not even as large as the enemy fleet in terms of displacement, so it could only choose to intercept them in the Bohai Bay.

The Northern Fleet did everything in its power to stop the British and Japanese fleets from clearing mines and obstacles. Before the war, the Northern Fleet had already paid a huge price to block the Bohai Strait. The Northern Fleet also retreated into the Bohai Sea to cooperate with the army in recovering the Tianjin concessions. Then it remained stationed in Tianjin Port to protect the capital.

Faced with the overwhelming force of the British and Japanese fleets, the Northern Fleet had no choice but to bite the bullet and engage in battle. Zhao Yan had no intention of maintaining any fleet; as long as they were alive and able to move, they had to charge into battle.

After the British and Japanese fleets attempted to break into the Bohai Bay, the entire top leadership of the Republic was terrified. Zhang Mingqi urgently notified Zhao Yan to come up with a solution.

The British made their move, and they went straight for the vital point. If the British and Japanese fleets were to break into the Bohai Sea, then there would be no point in fighting at all.

The Anglo-Japanese Allied Forces didn't even need to land and march directly to the capital. They only needed to bombard the Shanhaiguan Railway along the coastline to completely sever the connection between the inside and outside of the region, turning Zhao Yan's expeditionary force to Korea into an isolated army!

After receiving the news, Zhao Yan made only three preparations. The first preparation was also the worst-case scenario: that the British and Japanese fleets would indeed break into the Bohai Bay and the Shanhaiguan Railway would be cut off.

Zhao Yan ordered Zhang Mingqi to deploy a million laborers to open up and widen the roads leading into Northeast China from Zhangjiakou and Rehe in Inner Mongolia, and to open up new logistical supply lines. Even if Shanhaiguan fell, the army's retreat route and the most basic logistical supplies had to be guaranteed.

The second plan was to order Sa Zhenbing to block the Anglo-Japanese Allied Fleet even if the Northern Fleet was completely annihilated. Zhao Yan did not allow Sa Zhenbing to launch any surprise attack or take the initiative.

The direct and straightforward order was for Sa Zhenbing to implement the "Sea Wasp" tactic: all gunboats and cruisers were to remain in port and not move, while all submarines and torpedo boats were to be deployed.

Zhao Yan's instructions to Sa Zhenbing were simple: "The motherland needs the fearlessness of every naval soldier!"

Hold them off for a year, at least a year! Even if the navy is wiped out, we must do it; if we do, we will win!

If this is achieved, even if the entire navy is wiped out, there will be a chance to rebuild after the war. But if it is not achieved, even if the navy does not lose a single ship, it will completely lose any hope of rising again.

The Northern Fleet is equipped with a total of 27 torpedo boats and 5 submarines, most of which are imported and cutting-edge.

Zhao Yan thought that even though Iran was so weak in the future, it could still prevent US aircraft carriers from entering the Strait of Hormuz by using missile boats. Your Northern Fleet is still the old Beiyang Fleet with so many torpedo boats and submarines. It can't be any weaker than the Persians when it guards the Bohai Strait, right?

Finally, Zhao Yan's last preparation was to personally take charge, but instead of returning to Beijing, he led the 3rd, 10th, 11th and 27th elite divisions, which had been fully rested, northward back to Liaodong, north of the Yalu River.

Zhao Yan secretly blocked intelligence about the British and Japanese fleets approaching the Bohai Sea, preventing the troops on the Korean front from knowing.

On July 19, Zhao Yan led 7 men from four divisions out of Seoul and headed north back to China.

The British Empire's ultimate move could not possibly be merely approaching the Bohai Bay; in fact, neither the British nor the Japanese had any intention of entering the Bohai Bay at all.

You don't even need to look for nautical charts or naval officers. Just find any army officer, look at the most ordinary map of China, and ask him: If you had a fleet and were fighting the Chinese, would you enter the Bohai Bay?

What are you doing here? Are you going to surrender to the Chinese navy and defect?

A quick glance at a map will tell you that unless it's your own territory, it's easy to get in the Bohai Bay but extremely difficult to get out.

This kind of terrain makes it very easy to be trapped. No matter how bad the Chinese navy is, it is still one of the world's top ten navies that fought in the Sino-Japanese War. It can't beat you in a head-on battle, but if you insist on courting death by entering this narrow sea area, then don't blame others for taking advantage of you.

Torpedo boats and submarines naturally have a home-field advantage in this environment. They can easily hide in shallow waters, and your fleet's main force won't even dare to approach.

Zhao Yan's previous actions were merely preventative preparations. He did not believe that the precious fleets of Britain and Japan would venture into the Bohai Bay. The British, with their vast wealth, might be willing to do so, but the Japanese would absolutely not send their national treasure, the combined fleet, into the Bohai Bay. They dared not do such a thing during the First Sino-Japanese War, and it was even more impossible now.

The real killing blow from Britain and Japan wasn't in the Bohai Bay, but in Liaodong! In the so-called "Kwantung Leased Territory" occupied by Japan!

Zhao Yan had no aircraft for aerial reconnaissance, let alone any ships approaching Lushun for reconnaissance, but he could guess with his toes that a large number of enemy troops had definitely landed at Lushun Port, ready to launch an attack on Liaodong and stab the main force of the Korean Peninsula's defense forces in the rear.

Zhang Mingqi's concerns about the Shanhaiguan Railway being cut off were completely unfounded. The real killer move wouldn't be a mere bombing of the railway. A coordinated land and sea attack, directly targeting your rear, would be the real killer move.

The allied forces launching an attack from the Liaodong Peninsula only need to occupy Andong (Dandong) to immediately cause the hundreds of thousands of national defense troops on the front line to collapse. This is the real killer move.

Andong is currently the core of the logistical supply line for the expeditionary force to Korea. Zhao Yan has deployed heavy troops to defend it and has also built a dense minefield and anti-landing fortifications in the port. The Anglo-Japanese Allied Forces must also know this, so they will not land directly in Andong. It is located at the mouth of the Yalu River and is an alluvial seabed, which is not suitable for amphibious operations.

However, if they landed in Lushun and Dalian to form a large army and launch an attack from the "Kwantung State", that would be perfect. Logistics would be in place and supplies would be no problem. As long as they acted quickly enough, they could easily cripple Zhao Yan's entire operation in one fell swoop.

When Zhao Yan heard that the two countries' fleets were approaching the Bohai Bay, he understood that the so-called attack on the Bohai Sea and landing in Tianjin was all a ruse; the real killing move was in the "Kwantung Leased Territory".

On July 25, Zhao Yan led his troops back to Liaodong and the army was stationed along the Dayang River. Zhao Yan also received military intelligence from the front that the main force of three Japanese divisions, together with a British division and troops from other countries, totaling more than 7 men, were launching an attack from the "Kwantung Leased Territory".

A militia division responsible for monitoring the Kwantung region suffered heavy losses, with more than 4,000 dead and wounded. After two days of resistance in the Wafangdian area, it was ultimately defeated and forced to retreat.

Zhao Yan was not surprised by this. The militia division's combat strength could only be described as armed force at best. It was only equipped with light weapons and had very few heavy machine guns. It was already quite good that one division could hold off nearly five enemy divisions, fight hard for two days, and finally retreat.

Zhao Yan ordered that the militia division be commended, incorporated into the Class B military unit, and sent to Andong for rest and recuperation.

On the 27th, the main force of the Allied forces encountered a heavy blow from the main force personally led by Zhao Yan in the Dayang River Basin.

Zhao Yan had set up a hidden ambush in advance, creating traces of the militia division's rout along the way to lure the enemy into pursuit.

The allied forces had no idea that Zhao Yan had personally led his troops to fight them; they thought there were only those retreating armed militiamen in front of them.

The British 19th Infantry Division, along with its allied forces from the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain, charged the most aggressively, without even conducting the most basic reconnaissance, and directly ran into the ambush zone of the 3rd Division.

Zhao Yan didn't dare to order the firing at first, fearing it was an enemy trap. But after observing for a while, he realized that the British were truly unprepared and had no idea that the National Defense Army was lying in ambush around them.

After observing for a long time, Zhao Yan finally made up his mind to attack and ordered the battle to begin.

It wasn't that Zhao Yan hesitated, but rather that the intelligence he received was too outrageous. The main force of the Japanese army was still more than 30 kilometers behind, and the British army and a group of European auxiliary troops were leading the charge so fast? Wasn't this equivalent to the Imperial Army going first and the puppet army going last, turning the tables on the imperial forces?

After the ambush on the Dayang River began, the British witnessed the difference between the Nationalist Army and the Qing army. In the field, the British army did not even have a chance to deploy artillery positions before the Nationalist Army's bayonet attacks were already at their noses.

The British pursuit formation was cut into several segments after encountering the Wehrmacht's attack formation.

The National Defense Army rained down mortar shells, which were cheap cast iron shells filled with black powder. They weren't very powerful, but they were still real shells, and most importantly, there were plenty of them.

The infantry tactics of the National Defense Army revolve around the squad's light machine gun. The machine gunner holds the machine gun and provides core support, while the riflemen surround the machine gunner to provide fire. They fire at a distance, and within 100 meters, they simply shout "Long live the Führer" and charge with bayonets.

At this moment, the essence of Zhao's mobile warfare was demonstrated: the assault team took the lead in breaking through the enemy's formation, and then the main force followed up and broke in, while mortars and heavy machine guns were responsible for blocking the enemy's range of movement.

After the cutting and tearing are complete, the next step is to defeat the enemy piecemeal and slowly whittle them down.

Zhao Yan didn't have any tanks, but he could use his assault team as tanks. The assault team, which was faster and had more firepower, was the tank of this era.

After four hours of fierce fighting, night fell on the battlefield. Night fighting is even more brutal. The British 19th Infantry Division, which had held out for so long, finally couldn't hold on any longer. Its morale collapsed, and after losing more than half of its troops, it began to flee in disarray. The multinational allied forces that came with them were in for a terrible time.

After the nighttime collapse and retreat, the British, in order to make their own retreat, fired flares over the heads of their friendly forces. The Wehrmacht only saw the unfortunate men who were illuminated rushing towards them, while the British themselves ran away without looking back!

Chapter 100 Zhao Yan's Scheme

The Battle of the Ocean River was a decisive victory for the British army and its European allies, resulting in the annihilation of over 6,000 European troops and the capture of more than 2,400 prisoners.

Zhao Yan even personally interrogated the prisoners. He was very puzzled as to whether these were really British troops. European troops couldn't possibly be this incompetent, could they? It was just a mere ambush. He had only committed one of his four divisions as the main force, and kept three divisions as reserves to be ready to put out fires at any time. How could they have inexplicably defeated the enemy in one battle?

The prisoners dared not hide anything, revealing everything they knew and didn't know, what they should and shouldn't say. After listening, Zhao Yan felt a sense of unease. If this battle made the enemy back down and dare not continue the attack, then it would be a real problem.

In fact, the Anglo-Japanese Allied Forces were unprepared for Zhao Yan's decisive return to the front. The high command of the British and Japanese generally analyzed that Zhao Yan himself should be commanding the operation on the Korean front.

After all, the National Defense Army's defensive line stretching for hundreds of kilometers along the Daejeon line was a typical example of Zhao's line-filling tactics, which the Allied forces were almost depressed about, unable to break through it no matter what they did.

It was generally believed that no one else besides Zhao Yan had such skill in filling the lane, but it was Wang Chongshan, who had always been inconspicuous, who was exceptionally fond of the lane-filling tactic and used it skillfully.

The Allied forces acted so quickly to organize an army to land, intending to launch a surprise attack on Zhao Yan's rear. Everyone believed that Zhao Yan must not have anticipated such a rear attack, and this battle would definitely catch the enemy off guard.

However, upon hearing the news that the British and Japanese fleets were approaching the Bohai Bay, Zhao Yan decisively withdrew four elite divisions from the front lines and headed straight for the Liaodong Peninsula, arriving at the perfect time.

After the ambush at Dayang River, Zhao Yan decisively ordered the army to retreat to the east of Dayang River, deliberately showing weakness and continuing to conceal the main force, presenting the appearance of a weak force of only one division, in order to continue to lure the Allied forces eastward.

At the same time, the second batch of reinforcements drawn from the capital and trained by the four militia divisions that had completed their training in Shenyang, Northeast China, along with an army of more than 120,000 men, were also rushing over.

Zhao Yan learned through interrogating prisoners of war that the allied forces attacking the country numbered only about 70,000 to 80,000. With the troops and equipment at his disposal, he was certain of victory.

Zhao Yan was thinking about how to win. From the moment the British detonated this hidden bomb, Zhao Yan was not thinking about how to suppress it, but how to defused it.