The Heroic Age of the Late Qing Dynasty

Zhang Yinghao's numbers were all very simple, and the comrades could understand them clearly with a simple calculation. Seeing the results, and thinking about the current situation of the Qing Dynasty, the comrades immediately fell silent. Wow, it's really amazing. You don't know until you calculate it, but once you do it, you will be shocked.

Then Zhang Yinghao continued, "Comrades, do you know what investment has the longest return cycle? It's education. Regardless of whether this person is talented or not, can people who have graduated from six years of compulsory primary school education take on the heavy responsibility of China's industrialization? Absolutely not. As for us now, what use can primary school students have? They can only do some simple work. What about people who have graduated from three years of junior high school? Can they take on the responsibility of China's industrialization? Still not. How many teachers do junior high schools need? Therefore, if compulsory education is implemented, the Qing Dynasty has no ability to implement it. It will only take one year for the Qing Dynasty's finances to be dragged down.

Then, comrades, you can understand why, before the 19th century, education in the great powers was primarily the province of a small elite and the wealthy. Yet, now, most European countries have established compulsory education systems. Do all children between the ages of 6 and 12 go to school? Comrades, this isn't the philanthropy of the bourgeoisie in the great powers, but rather the industrial revolution's enormous demand for skilled workers that compelled the great powers to establish lower-level education. Comrades, you all know the enormous gap between those who have attended school and those who have not.

But, comrades, although the great powers established compulsory education, were they willing to allow these people at the bottom of society to change their fate? Of course not. They only provided the minimum level of compulsory education, which meant producing only enough people to meet their needs. And they immediately thought of a solution to help these poor people rise up. Would the great powers allow those at the bottom of society to obtain good educational resources? The answer is no. What was the educational model of the great powers? They divided education into two categories: public education and private education.

First, private education flourished. We might call it aristocratic education. These schools were populated by the children of wealthy families and government officials. They received the best education, cultivating the high-end talent their countries needed. These talented individuals were directly employed in various government departments, those that controlled national economy and people's livelihoods, thereby firmly controlling the entire country and becoming part of its ruling class.

The other type is the public schools of the great powers, which cater to children from the lower classes of society, the scum of society. They don't need to teach much, just enough to learn to read and write. Everyone knows that success requires a solid education, but can children from these lower classes receive such an adequate education? The answer is no. Private schools are prohibitively expensive, making them unaffordable for children from impoverished families. Even if one goes through untold hardships to send their children to a prestigious school, they still receive the same level of education. However, positions in the government are limited, so can one get in without a recommendation or personal connections? Of course not.

Therefore, in the countries of the great powers, the poor will remain poor forever, forever contributing to the profits of the capitalists. The rulers will always be the rulers, they firmly control society's resources. Do these poor people have a chance to rise up? Basically none. Even if there are some who can rise up, they will become propagandists for the great powers, role models, and demonstrate the fairness of the great powers. Therefore, our revolution must be a people's revolution, and these matters are the responsibility of the state alone.

"Chairman, won't the people of the powerful countries rebel?"

Zhang Yinghao laughed after hearing this and said, "We say that there were no peasant uprisings in the era of breech-loading rifles, or that peasant-style uprisings would not succeed. Why? It is because the social resources controlled by the reactionary ruling class can completely defeat the unorganized rebellious peasants. By the same token, in the powerful countries, the lower-class people do not have any social resources at all, and they are not as knowledgeable and cultured as the rulers. A large part of the people are deceived or blinded by the rulers, and coupled with the rulers' instigation, it is impossible for the lower-class people to unite. Even if there are sporadic uprisings, the rulers of the powerful countries have people, money, guns, and cannons. These rebels are no match for them at all. How can bare hands be a match for machine guns and cannons? In the end, they can only be severely suppressed.

Of course, the rulers of the great powers also feared armed struggle against them. So, to prevent escalating conflicts, they created parliaments, the upper and lower houses, and other so-called "masters" to deceive the people. They allowed the lower classes to engage in so-called peaceful struggle within the rulers' rules. Then, they told these lower classes that they, too, had the opportunity to become rulers. The people themselves, seemingly seeing hope in becoming rulers themselves, endured exploitation and oppression and peacefully coexisted with these bourgeois rulers. We all know that the exploiting class speaks its own way, and the proletariat its own way; these are fundamentally incompatible. When the proletariat tries to reason with the exploiting class, that itself becomes a problem.

Zhang Yinghao finished speaking, emphasizing, "Anyone who disagrees with this is not a qualified Party member. Anyone who doesn't understand this will inevitably make political mistakes. Don't the people know whether you are wholeheartedly thinking about the people? The people have sharp eyes."

Zhang Yinghao continued, "Okay, let's skip this for now. We have now gained revolutionary power in three provinces. So what specific policies and measures should we adopt in these three provinces? The Communist Manifesto clearly states that almost all the most advanced countries can adopt the following measures:

1. Confiscate landed property and use the rent for national expenditures. This is what I said last time: the food produced by the land should feed all Chinese people, not be used by the landlord class for profit. Therefore, land reform is necessary. Our landowners only have the right to use it, not the right to own it. Anyone using the land must obtain approval. For example, if someone rents land to build a factory, the rent is used for national expenditures, such as the military and education.

2. Imposing high progressive taxes. This is the job of our tax department. The higher a person's income, the higher the tax he pays.

3. Abolish inheritance rights or impose an estate tax. This means that when a person leaves behind a substantial estate, their descendants will be required to pay a portion of the tax. This is a matter for the National People's Congress to discuss. We are workers, and we recognize the fruits of a person's labor, but we shouldn't let their descendants become parasites.

4. Confiscate the property of all exiles and rebels. This is what we have been doing all along. Counter-revolutionaries are always trying to overthrow our revolutionary regime. To deal with these people, the most painful thing for them is to deprive them of their property and leave them with nothing.

5. Through a state-owned bank with state capital and exclusive monopoly rights, we concentrate credit in the hands of the state. This goes without saying: capital is no longer individually owned, but socially owned, thus losing its class nature. We set a maximum interest rate for loans, and any interest exceeding it will not be recognized by law. In every liberated area we visit, all banks must obtain a banking license, and the central bank is responsible for this.

6. Centralize all transportation in state hands. This means that the railways must be state-owned and serve the national economy and the people's livelihood. Later, when we produce cars and trucks, all drivers must be registered and ready to face state conscription at any time.

7. According to the overall plan, we will increase the number of state-owned factories and production tools, reclaim wasteland, and improve the soil. This goes without saying; we have never stopped building factories, and we are constantly researching and producing new tools. We have also reclaimed considerable wasteland, built water conservancy facilities, and naturally improved the soil. My current fertilizer plant has also begun production.

8. Implement universal labor conscription and establish an industrial army, especially in agriculture. In this regard, we have already established an engineering corps. Of course, my key point here is that if you don't work, you don't eat. Everything we eat is earned through the labor of others, so we should also work to share the fruits of others' labor. Therefore, everyone should participate in labor. If someone can urinate with gold and silver, then they don't need to work.

9. Integrate agriculture and industry to gradually eliminate the urban-rural divide. This is what I previously referred to as the industrial scissors gap and the issue of industry feeding back into agriculture, achieving mutual coordination, mutual promotion, and mutual development.

10. Provide public and free education for all children. Abolish current forms of child factory labor. Integrate education with material production, etc. We cannot provide free education now, but education should be as affordable as possible so that more children can afford it. Even if we are poor, we cannot be poor in education. I won't repeat this, as I have already said it.

Zhang Yinghao concluded by saying, "The above ten points are what we need to do now. Of course, we don't need to do it all at once. We need to proceed in stages and steps..."

Zhang Yinghao was training his comrades in the liberated areas. He viewed it more like a lecture, explaining what needed to be said and letting them learn together. During this intense training session, many comrades had to work overtime to complete their tasks. Fortunately, many areas in Chengdu now have electricity; otherwise, they would have had to spend half a day in class and half a day working.

The morning reveille sounded, and the day began anew. Morning exercises, some marching, and then breakfast. Soon, classes began again. Zhang Yinghao strode quickly to the podium and placed the courseware on the desk.

The squad leader immediately shouted: "Stand up."

"Hello students."

"Hello teacher."

"Please take a seat. Before I start the lecture, I would like to ask you a question. When you go shopping for shoes, do you try them on first? I think everyone does. Like me, I wear size 43 shoes, but I always try them on before I buy them. Why? To see if the shoes fit, right?"

"right."

"Everyone must be familiar with their own feet. After getting a pair of shoes, how can you not understand them after looking at them? If you know both the shoes and your feet well, why do you need to try them on?"

"So we use Marxism as our guiding ideology, just like those shoes, without even looking at them, we just put them on. Is that okay? It's not okay. Given the current situation in our country, we believe Marxism is suitable for us, so we arm ourselves with Marxist thought, simply because Marxism is scientific, and its dialectical materialism and historical materialism can solve the problems we face. So we need it, just like we need shoes."

"But what we need is Marxism. Is it suitable for China's national conditions? Just like whether these shoes fit, you can only know after trying them on. Comrades, it was we who actively chose Marxism, not Marxism that was born in our country or actively chose us. Therefore, Marxism was bound to fail to adapt to the local conditions in China, and mechanically applying it would be a mistake. Marxism is only suitable for China after we have transformed it. This is the new proposition we are facing today: the Sinicization of Marxism."

Zhang Yinghao turned around and wrote the words "Sinicization of Marxism" on the blackboard. Then he turned around and said, "Sinicization of Marxism means combining Marxism with the specific realities of China, seeking truth from facts, and flexibly applying Marxism to guide China's revolution in a way that keeps pace with the times."

"When we buy shoes, we have to try them on first, so we must understand China's national conditions and Marxism. Once we understand both, we can integrate Marxism with China's realities through practical application. Today, we will not talk about Marxism, but about China's history. I think everyone will sing a song I wrote a while ago, called "Chinese."

The first sentence is: Five thousand years of wind and rain have hidden so many dreams. China's recorded history spans nearly five thousand years. Guiguzi said: The great changes of the past were born with the invisible. Look back to observe the past, and verify the future; look back to understand the past, and understand the present; look back to understand the other, and understand this. The principles of movement, stillness, emptiness, and reality do not conform to the present, so look back to the past to seek them. Things can be reversed and then restored; this is the intention of the sages and must be observed. We say there is nothing new under the sun. Everything in the world must have happened somewhere before, but we just don't know it.

So today we will start from the ancient times and absorb the nutrients we need from them. We often say a term called the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. So, do you know who the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors are?

"The Yellow Emperor."

"Emperor Yan."

"Fuxi."

"So, do you know why they are still famous today despite their death? Why do you know them? It's actually very simple, that is, they made huge contributions to their time and greatly developed productivity.

Some people will think I am talking nonsense. How come I don’t know that they have improved productivity?

Then let me talk about Youchao, who invented houses, meaning people no longer had to live in caves. They could build houses outside, which expanded their range of activities and allowed them to obtain more food. Suiren, who invented the method of drilling wood to make fire, was the inventor of artificial fire in ancient times. This ended the history of ancient humans eating raw meat and drinking blood, enabled people to obtain more energy, and enabled people to survive better.

Shennong, after tasting countless herbs, invented Chinese medicine, which could heal illnesses. Fuxi crafted ceramic pots, taught people how to fish and hunt, and invented the Eight Trigrams. And what about Yandi? He invented the plow, cultivated grains, and laid the foundation for agriculture and industry. The inventions of these individuals significantly boosted productivity at the time, making them the true sages of antiquity.

They promoted the progress of society at that time, which meant they promoted the development of productivity. Some might say that Shennong only cured people of their illnesses, so how can that be considered developing productivity? Comrades, remember that in any era, people themselves are part of the productive forces. Being able to keep more people alive greatly enhanced the power held by the people at that time...

Chapter 323:

The comrades attending the lecture all had a solid cultural foundation, having already learned these historical allusions over the past two years. Seeing the expressions of comprehension on their faces, Zhang Yinghao felt deeply grateful for the greatness of China's profound culture. How could a country without a profound cultural heritage possibly understand these things?

"In ancient times, people used slash-and-burn farming, just like the modern-day CCP. Later, with the development of science and technology, various production tools were developed, and we have the agricultural technology we have today..."

Listening to Zhang Yinghao's eloquent talk, all the way from ancient times, in Zhang Yinghao's narration, the comrades vividly sketched out in their minds scenes of ancient ancestors using simple tools, fighting against nature and earth, and working hard.

These comrades were actually deeply moved. Especially those Party members who had participated in infrastructure construction had a deeper understanding of the role of tools in promoting labor.

We say that labor creates man, and that history is created by the working people. This is absolutely true. Everything we have today is accumulated through the labor of generations of people. Labor created everything we have today, including the unique Chinese language, culture, art, and even our uniquely brilliant civilization. Think of our ancestors who braved frost and dew, and cut through thorns to gain a piece of land. They pioneered everything we have today, and it is labor that created man himself.

The glory of our ancestors must not be desecrated. Chinese civilization was ahead of the world for millennia, and it has only fallen behind in the last century. As long as we, the younger generation, find the right path, inherit and carry forward the glory of our ancestors, we can achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Instead of blaming others, feeling sorry for ourselves, and thinking that China lacks a good ancestor, we should be able to achieve this.

After Zhang Yinghao finished speaking, he changed the subject and said, "Back to the topic, the most significant feature of the period from ancient times to the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties was the use of bronze. Once bronze tools were used on a large scale, they greatly improved productivity. Why is it said that the Shang and Zhou dynasties lasted for 800 years? It was because productivity didn't develop significantly, but the ruling class of the Shang and Zhou dynasties went out to open up wasteland and conquer barbarians, shifting internal conflicts to external forces. This is how their rule lasted.

Just like Britain today, as long as it continues to expand, its power will continue to grow, and there will be no possibility of Britain splitting up or perishing. However, once Britain stops expanding, its power will rapidly decline, and that will be the beginning of Britain's splitting up or even its demise. The Qing Dynasty was on a downward slope from the moment it stopped expanding.

Why did the Zhou Dynasty experience hundreds of years of war and chaos during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period? There are many reasons for this, but one important reason is the use of iron tools. You should know that the ritual vessel of the Zhou Li was the tripod, which was made of copper. In the late Zhou Dynasty, large-scale iron smelting began to be possible. Iron had already appeared during the Zhou Dynasty, and iron was able to greatly promote the development of productivity. The Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Seven Hegemons of the Warring States Period. Hundreds of years of war and chaos were because this era was an era of renewal. The alternation of copper and iron in this era led to drastic changes in productivity, and production relations had to change accordingly. Why were there so many reforms during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period?

Qi (Jiang Qi) Guan Zhong's Reforms: Eventually defeated the Rong and Di tribes and made Qi the hegemon.

Duke Mu of Qin reformed the government: within a few years, Qin "added twelve states, expanded the territory by a thousand miles, and became the overlord of the Western Rong", and defeated the State of Jin, becoming one of the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period.

Wu Zixu's Reforms in the State of Wu led to the defeat of the State of Wu in the Battle of Chu and Yue.

Fan Li's reforms in Yue State led to the successful destruction of Wu State.

Li Kui's reforms in Wei State made Wei State strong and won the Battle of Hexi between Qin and Wei.

(Tian Qi) King Wei of Qi carried out reforms, making Qi the most powerful country after Wei.

Shang Yang's reforms in Qin laid the foundation for Qin's unification of the world. Yue Yi's reforms in Yan led Yan to victory in the war against Qi.

Shen Buhai's reforms in Han led to Han becoming a dominant power during the reign of Marquis Zhao of Han. Wu Qi's reforms in Chu led to his tragic death, but the foundation he left behind enabled Chu to successfully conquer Yue.

King Wuling of Zhao's reforms made Zhao a military power in the late Warring States period, second only to Qin in military strength.

These reforms were actually aimed at adapting to the new productive forces and adjusting production relations to make them more adaptable to the development of productive forces. This led to the war lasting for hundreds of years, and it was not until the Qin Dynasty unified the world that it ended.

In fact, just like the world today, productivity is also changing rapidly. Therefore, up to now, the entire world has been in war for hundreds of years. And this chaos will continue. Wars are everywhere. Especially since the British Industrial Revolution, the whole world has been at war for several days, and the days of peace are few and far between.

Why did the Qin Dynasty fall? Did Qin Shi Huang further develop productivity after unifying the country? No. There's a saying: "Gather all the weapons in the world, gather them in Xianyang, melt them into bells, saw twelve golden men, each weighing a thousand stones, and place them in the palace."

The meaning of this sentence is simple: if the people of the world have no iron to make weapons, no one will be able to rebel, and the Qin Dynasty will be able to pass on to future generations. Comrades, is this idea ridiculous? However, Qin Shihuang's actions are understandable. After all, this is the inherent thinking of these feudal rulers.

However, by the Qin Dynasty, the use of iron tools was already an unstoppable trend. After unifying China, the Qin Dynasty went against the grain and attempted to reduce the amount of iron it produced, a move that inevitably led to its downfall. This problem wasn't resolved until the Han Dynasty, when the Han Dynasty established a salt and iron monopoly. While controlling the development of iron tools, it also maintained basic social stability.

Why was the Yuan Dynasty also bound to perish? Comrades, just think about it, in the Yuan Dynasty, kitchen knives had to be shared by several households and you will understand. It was going against the times.

Therefore, the period of great productivity development coincided with the transition from copper to iron, which was the period from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Qin Dynasty. Unfortunately, the Qin Dynasty failed to seize the opportunity to transition from copper to iron, which would have triggered a huge change in productivity. After the Qin and Han dynasties, each dynasty merely improved upon the foundations of the Qin and Han dynasties, without any real breakthroughs in productivity, so it's better not to mention them.

It wasn't until the Industrial Revolution that steel became the backbone of every nation. The great powers transitioned from utilizing steel to utilizing energy, further dramatically expanding productivity. Deserts, glaciers, mountains, and forests would no longer be able to halt humanity's advance. The first Industrial Revolution began with the spinning jenny and the steam engine. I consider the advancement from the steam engine to the internal combustion engine another Industrial Revolution. The transition from chemical energy to electrical energy was also an Industrial Revolution. The combined impact of these two Industrial Revolutions will boost productivity beyond imagination. This presents us with a golden opportunity to overtake others. If we seize the opportunity presented by these two productivity revolutions, it won't take more than thirty years to catch up with or even surpass the great powers.

The development of productivity from copper to iron involved hundreds of years of war. So, comrades, think about how many more years of war will it take to transition from steel to energy?"

"Hundreds of years?"

"Comrades, there's no need to doubt it. War and chaos will inevitably continue for a long time. However, there is one exception: the development of productivity. Humanity will be able to create weapons that can destroy the world. Only when all countries or major powers dare not go to war again can there be peace. Otherwise, war and chaos will continue for hundreds of years until productivity has made little progress. The Industrial Revolution began in the 1760s, or around 1760. It's been almost 150 years now. If we count from the Age of Exploration, it's a long time. Just imagine how many wars there will be next. Isn't it terrifying?

We've discussed this in previous lectures: Has the world ever experienced peace since the Industrial Revolution? Essentially none. We have a saying: There were no righteous wars in the Spring and Autumn Period. Think about these current wars. Are there any righteous wars? No. Was the Opium War a righteous war? No. Was the current Russo-Japanese War a righteous war? Still no. Was the British invasion of Tibet a righteous war? Was the Eight-Nation Alliance's invasion of China a righteous war?

The Americans killed tens of millions of Native Americans, completely replacing the entire North American continent. Was this a just war? No. The British engaged in slavery, killing countless Black people. Was this a just war? No, because there was no standard of justice. The only reason for the war was to wage it for profit.

Since there is no righteous war now, just as there was during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, we must create something called righteous war. What is righteousness? It is fighting for the country and the people.

Why was the Qing Dynasty able to calmly sign so many humiliating and traitorous treaties with the foreign powers? Because the Qing Dynasty had lost its sense of righteousness and could no longer represent the interests of the Chinese nation. Simply put, it had lost its way. For us, fighting against aggression is a just war. Because the imperialist powers violated the interests of the Chinese nation, fighting against aggression is a just war.

Therefore, if we want to create something like a righteous war, we must have a fundamental stance. What do you consider a righteous stance? It's like the gangster saying, "I won't betray my brothers." It's about loyalty. That's why I created the imagined community of the Chinese nation. As long as we fight for the interests of the Chinese nation and for the independence of our country, that's where our righteousness lies. As long as we occupy this moral high ground, we will be invincible.

Therefore, the Industrial Revolution has led to a huge development of productivity. This has reached a time like the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The fighting will be extremely brutal, and countless lives will be sacrificed. However, before, it was only within China and China's struggle in Asia. Now, it is a struggle for the entire world. Moreover, this time coincides with the greatest changes in China in 3,000 years. The rituals and music are collapsing, and foreign enemies are invading on a large scale. Internal and external troubles threaten the country to split, cede territory and pay indemnities, and even be destroyed at any time. China's crisis will reach an unprecedented level. The Chinese nation has reached its most dangerous moment. Now is the time for the nation's survival.

If we don't take the initiative to develop productivity, pursue higher productivity, and adjust our production relations, then we will face endless invasions from enemy countries, just like Qi, Chu, Yan, Zhao, Han, Wei, and other countries. Then, just like the Qing Dynasty is now, we will cede territory and pay compensation, losing our sovereignty and humiliating our country. Even the Qing Dynasty didn't know how many treaties it signed. The amount of compensation it paid was too much for it to count. Even the Qing Dynasty itself began to feel heartbroken over the ceded land. However, will this ever end? It has no end at all. It is just the beginning of greater greed among the Western powers.

What were the consequences of this phenomenon? The "On the Six Kingdoms" already stated: "Besides conquering, Qin also captured small towns and large cities. Compared to what Qin gained through victory, what it gained was actually a hundred times greater; and the losses suffered by the princes were actually a hundred times greater than those suffered through defeat." Therefore, Qin's greatest desire, and the princes' greatest fear, was not war.

Think of your ancestors, who braved frost and dew, cutting through thorns and brambles to gain a sliver of land. Your descendants treat it with indifference, giving it away like discarded grass. Today they cede five cities, tomorrow ten, and then they can sleep peacefully for a night. Then they get up and look around, and the Qin army is approaching again.

However, the territories of the vassal states were limited, while the tyrannical Qin's desires were insatiable. The more tributes they offered, the more aggressive their invasions became. Therefore, the victory or defeat of the strong and the weak was already determined without a fight. As for the overthrow, it was only natural. As the ancients said, "Serving Qin with land is like trying to put out a fire with fuel: if the fuel is not exhausted, the fire will not be extinguished..."

When Zhang Yinghao was giving lectures, he never forgot to instill a sense of crisis in his comrades, telling them the disadvantages of the Qing Dynasty's practices, and letting them understand these principles. He also made these comrades understand how cruel the world they faced was, the law of the jungle, survival of the fittest, and the winner takes all.

Just like how the United States, the most developed country in the world, still has a large number of slums. The American education system is: Do you want to change your fate? Do you want to live a good life? Come on, work hard to make money. As long as you have money, you can have any life you want. So don't be envious, don't be jealous. Who can stop you from making money if you don't work hard?

Is this kind of logic wrong? Zhang Yinghao can only say: "Different worldviews make it impossible to distinguish right from wrong." After all, there are differences between the principles of capitalism and socialism. Different principles, different starting points, how can there be a distinction between right and wrong?

After finishing the content on productivity, the training continued, and one content was followed by another.

"Today we're going to talk about the rise and fall of nations and wars. Before the Xia Dynasty, there was a system of abdication, so we won't discuss that. Records of this began during the Shang Dynasty, which fell to the Zhou Dynasty over 500 years after its founding. During the Shang Dynasty, slavery prevailed, and the feudal system was adopted, which is why there were sieges by 800 feudal lords.

Towards the end of the Zhou Dynasty, the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period emerged, followed by the Seven Hegemons of the Warring States Period, which lasted for five hundred years. After the Qin Dynasty unified China, it collapsed in less than twenty years. Then came the Chu-Han contention, which ultimately unified the world under the Han Dynasty.

Before the Han Dynasty, all rulers were referred to as the Huaxia people. It was after the Han Dynasty that our modern Han ethnic group emerged. After the Han Dynasty, China split into the Three Kingdoms. Of course, after each dynasty, some smaller powers remained, but these are negligible. Then came the Jin Dynasty.

After the fall of the Jin Dynasty, China was divided into the Sixteen Kingdoms. Of these, only four founding emperors were Han Chinese. The others were of other ethnic groups, leading to the famous Five Barbarians' Invasion of China. Then came the Southern and Northern Dynasties. The Southern Dynasty was ruled by Han Chinese, while the Northern Dynasty was ruled by Xianbei people. Finally, the Sui Dynasty unified China.

In other words, from the time the Qin and Han dynasties unified China until their fall, and then to the time of the Sui and Tang dynasties, the country was effectively divided for about five hundred years. Like the Qin, the Sui dynasty fell after two generations, and the Tang dynasty took over. The Tang dynasty's strength is self-evident; the fact that Chinese communities are called Chinatowns speaks volumes.

The late Tang Dynasty saw the rise of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. These periods were characterized by internal divisions, with all rulers being Han Chinese, similar to the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty. The Song Dynasty then unified the south, while the Khitan, Tangut, and Mongolian peoples rose to prominence in the north. Can the Song Dynasty truly be considered a unified empire? No, it was only half the empire, and divisions persisted.

The Yuan Dynasty unified China again until the Song Dynasty fell in 1279. Less than a century later, it was replaced by the Ming Dynasty. From the unification of the Sui and Tang dynasties to their demise, and then to the unification of the Yuan and Ming dynasties, the intervening period was roughly 500 years.

Comrades, according to this law, after the Ming Dynasty's fall, it should have taken several hundred years of war and chaos before the country could be unified again. So why didn't it happen? Or was it just a brief period of division into the Dashun, Southern Ming, Daxi, etc., before the Qing Dynasty unified the country directly?

Everyone listened to Zhang Yinghao's lecture quietly, no one spoke. Zhang Yinghao smiled and said, "Comrades, do you not want to answer or are you afraid to answer? Then I will tell you the answer directly."

“Chairman, it’s killing!”

Zhang Yinghao listened, nodded and said: "That's right, it's killing. The Qing Dynasty was a dynasty that started with killing. Comrades, do you know where our concepts of "Han nationality" and "Han people" came from? The "Han nationality" was not created by the Han Dynasty itself. It was during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, that the Han Dynasty became unprecedentedly powerful. It defeated the Xiongnu in the north and conquered many ethnic minorities in the south. These border areas called the people of the Han Dynasty "Han people." So the Han people and the Han nationality were created in this way.

How did the term "Manchu" come about? It's actually quite simple. Nurhaci rebelled, but the Jurchen people were so few. What could he do? He massacred the prominent families and the educated people in Northeast China. What did the uneducated common people know? They had no concept of nation or ethnicity. So Nurhaci and his men declared everyone Manchu, and thus, these people became Manchus. The Manchu ethnic group was created in just that simple way. Therefore, the majority of Manchu blood is actually Han Chinese.

Let's talk about the issue of the Qing Dynasty's massacre. After the Qing Dynasty rebelled, they massacred all the Ming people in the three northeastern provinces, and then abducted a large number of people from the interior of the country to be slaves outside the country, which is similar to our current slaves. After entering the country, they also massacred people all the way, such as the Ten Days of Yangzhou, the Three Massacres of Jiajing, the Guangzhou Massacre, the Sichuan Massacre, the Chaozhou Massacre, the Zhoushan Massacre, etc. In other words, the Qing Dynasty took over the Ming Dynasty.

The population loss was nearly 100 million, and the dynasty's cycle of rise and fall, hundreds of years of war and death, was skipped, and the transfer of power was completed in one step.

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms begins by saying that the general trend of the world is that after a long period of unity, it will eventually divide, and after a long period of division, it will eventually unite. This statement is wrong. The general trend of the world or the truth of history is struggle, fighting and stopping, not division and uniting.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the population lost more than five million people. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the population lost more than 13.5 million people in less than ten years. From the time Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty to the time Liu Xiu established the Eastern Han Dynasty, the population lost 29 million people.

Zhang Yinghao briefly recounted the population losses of successive dynasties and said, "So, comrades, every time a dynasty changes, China loses at least tens of millions of people. Generally, it loses 70 to 80 percent of the population. The truth of history is so cruel. The fact is that the Qing Dynasty's massacre directly filtered out the population lost during the hundreds of years of war and chaos from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties to the Qin and Han Dynasties, from the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and from the Sui and Tang Dynasties to the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, and directly achieved unification.

Now, the heavy responsibility of history rests in our hands. The Qing dynasty's demise is imminent, but are we, or any other force in China, ready to take over? Will it plunge China into another prolonged period of conflict? Will it cost China tens of millions of people? Or even 70 to 80 percent of its population? That's over 300 million people.

Comrades, you should also know that the Huns attacked Liu Bang, the founder of the Han Dynasty, just after he became emperor.

After the emperor, the Turks made him sign the "Weishui Alliance". Therefore, we must also consider that in the process of unifying the country, we must ensure that China retains sufficient vitality.

Otherwise, once faced with foreign invasion, we will have to swallow our anger again and learn from Liu Bang and Li Shimin to sign a humiliating treaty.

Will China's civil war be exploited by other nations to invade and seize our territory? Will China be divided into several countries again? How can we seize the Qing Dynasty's power without excessive bloodshed? Comrades, you must understand that every time China has been divided, foreign races have taken advantage of the situation to invade. There was the Five Barbarians' invasion of China, the Liao and Western Xia dynasties during the Song Dynasty, and the Yuan and Qing dynasties' rise to power. Today, China is even more caught up in the global tide, participating in the struggle between nations and peoples around the world. The crisis is ten times greater than ever before.

After Zhang Yinghao finished speaking, he hung the current situation map on the gang and then slapped it hard.

Chapter 324:

After listening to Zhang Yinghao's words and looking at the large current situation map, which showed the country in imminent danger of being divided, all the comrades remained silent. Some even looked around in confusion, hoping to find some safe place to rest and not be overwhelmed by the heavy atmosphere.

No one expected Zhang Yinghao to bring up such a heavy topic today. History doesn't lie; everything happened. But because of this, everyone was even more confused and at a loss.

Zhang Yinghao, born from the future, naturally understood that the future would unfold much as he described. Following the fall of the Qing Dynasty, warlords engaged in infighting, leaving the people destitute. This was followed by foreign invasions, the Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese Civil War, and the Korean War. The Sino-Japanese War alone resulted in the loss of over 50 million people. By the time the Qing Dynasty fell and the People's Republic of China was founded, the country would have lost at least 100 million people.

Seeing this situation, Zhang Yinghao smiled and said, "Let me put it another way. After the fall of the Qin Dynasty, the Chu-Han contention for hegemony was launched, meaning that the two major forces were fighting each other fiercely. After the fall of the Han Dynasty, it was divided into the Three Kingdoms, namely Wei, Shu, and Wu. After the brief unification of the Jin Dynasty, it directly experienced the Rebellion of the Eight Kings and the Invasion of the Five Barbarians. After the fall of the Sui Dynasty, the country was divided into as many as seventeen powerful factions, which were eventually unified by the Tang Dynasty.

The late Tang Dynasty was followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, followed by the Song Dynasty's wars with the Mongols, Liao, and Western Xia, during which the Jingkang Incident occurred. By the time the Yuan Dynasty fell, there were forces like Chen Youliang, Zhu Yuanzhang, and Zhang Shichao, while by the Ming Dynasty, there were forces like the Qing, Dashun, and Dashi.