The Heroic Age of the Late Qing Dynasty

Heaven responds to man's needs, transforming the barbarians into Chinese. Using Chinese principles and practicing Chinese laws, respecting the teachings of Zhang (Zhang) and Zhu (Xi), integrating all peoples, and being benevolent and lenient to the world—this is China's blessing! What do you, a traitor, know about the great defense against barbarians? How can you possibly understand the wisdom of the Great Emperor?

"Perhaps, to be realistic, they entered the Central Plains, and we can certainly recognize their ruling status and are willing to acknowledge that they are one of China's dynasties. We in the Progressive Party still have this mindset. However,

You Confucian scholars! Haha!

Aunt Wang, you see, Confucius has the Four Books, Five Classics, and Six Arts. These six arts are ritual, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics. What do you think they inherited?

One is driving, the other is shooting, which means riding a horse, driving a carriage, and shooting an arrow. Look at these sour scholars nowadays, how could they understand this? They talk about it all the time.

I don't understand what you're saying. Confucius' goal was to govern the army on horseback and the people on foot. Speaking of governing the people, statistics and surveys are definitely necessary. Just look at this number, do these Confucian scholars understand? They don't understand this, and they've lost that. Do you expect them to be true disciples of Confucius? They're just idiots."

"Yinghao, that's too harsh."

"Auntie Wang, it's not serious at all. Since the abolition of all schools of thought and the promotion of Confucianism, Confucianism has become a tool for Confucian scholars to obtain official titles. From the moment Confucianism became a tool, it was no longer Confucius's knowledge. Confucius' knowledge

These so-called Confucian scholars only studied Confucianism, and used this knowledge to seek wealth and honor, and social status.

It has been more than two thousand years since then. But has the world changed?

This group of people does not produce anything; they eat and wear what the common people wear. What is the result? What has changed in the world over the past two thousand years? In the Tang Dynasty, there were people hoeing their fields at noon, their sweat dripping down to the ground. There was no idle land in the world, and farmers were starving to death. The rich feasted and drank, while the poor froze to death on the streets. Poor people, wearing only a few clothes, worried about the low price of coal and wishing for colder weather. In the Song Dynasty, there were people dressed in silk and satin, but they were not silkworm farmers. The soil in front of the door was used up, and there was not a single tile on the roof. Ten fingers were not stained with mud, and they lived in tall buildings. When the Yuan Dynasty rose, the people suffered; when it fell, the people suffered too.

You say that if such a group of people were allowed to hold office, how could they possibly offer any solutions other than whining? While these individuals are limited by historical limitations and lack sufficient understanding, this very fact also demonstrates that these Confucian scholars are no longer capable of resolving the nation's current problems. If they were allowed to solve them, according to historical experience, it would be like another dynastic change, with them simply changing masters.

"If Confucianism flourishes and recruits scholars, will it perish?"

"Haha, Aunt Wang summed it up well. Confucius cultivated himself through the Four Books and Five Classics. He advocated self-cultivation, managing the family, governing the state, and pacifying the world. But Confucian scholars sought wealth and honor through the Four Books and Five Classics. As for managing the family, governing the state, and pacifying the world, they were nowhere near as important as becoming an official. The difference here cannot be rationalized. It's completely a shackle of thought. Otherwise, why would Wang Yangming be looking at bamboo? What bamboo? He completely failed to inherit and promote Confucius' teachings. Otherwise, how could the "Book of Music" have been lost? He only deceived the people, kept going around in circles, and produced useless things."

It has been a few days since the debate with Wu Gouzei ended. Wu Gouzei's remarks really irritated Zhang Yinghao.

Zhang Yinghao didn't think much of it when someone said that starving to death was a small matter, but when he saw a woman say that, this sentence could ruin a woman.

The rest of her life, she will bear a heavy burden on her mind, which is not what Zhang Yinghao wants to see. So Zhang Yinghao is naturally to Wu Xizhu.

Zhang Yinghao would feel uncomfortable if he didn't scold him harshly. Even if he was scolded harshly, Zhang Yinghao would still feel depressed for two days.

God, the world is like this, and we have a long way to go.

It is understandable that Zhang Fuhao is in a depressed mood, but other work will not stop because of Zhang Yinghao's mood. After a period of election,

The grassroots government has finally been established. As for the ability and quality of these grassroots

Zhang Yinghao was not sure whether the i problem could play the role it should play. Zhang Yinghao could not expect the enemy to come in and test the combat effectiveness of these people.

So after thinking about this problem, Zhang Yinghao felt that he could not just rely on education to expect the next generation to succeed.

After all, there are many experts among the people! So a grassroots staff training class was organized to provide concentrated short-term training for these elected village and town personnel.

Anyone who is elected as a village chief must at least have good prestige and ability.

Zhang Yinghao was pleasantly surprised to discover that among these selected grassroots organization members, there were indeed quite a few untapped talents. Many were naturally gifted with strong organizational skills and eloquence. These individuals would be excellent candidates for training as instructors to explore new areas; they were natural salespeople. Therefore, Zhang Yinghao suggested that the Organization Department conduct an assessment of these comrades who passed the assessment. If they showed sufficient ability, they should not be buried, but should be promoted to take on more work.

After the election, many troops were freed up, so he began to slowly and systematically expand again. Zhang Yinghao discovered that if he didn't focus on construction, he could indeed conquer a large area in a very short period of time. However, when construction was also underway, personnel could not be centralized and had to be dispatched to various locations to perform grassroots work, thus dispersing his strength. There were pros and cons to both.

Zhang Yinghao understood the principle that a weak foundation would lead to a shaky foundation. Therefore, he immediately ordered a temporary halt to expansion, only to resume when necessary or when conflicts reached a certain level. Cultivating internal energy and consolidating the base, self-generation is often much more reliable than relying on external blood transfusions.

Spring plowing and planting were approaching. Where reservoirs, ponds, and canals had been built, enthusiasm for farming was high. After halting military operations, Zhang Yinghao delivered a timely speech urging all Party members to take the lead and comrades in the army to go to the fields.

Zhang Yinghao said: "We are the people's soldiers: we are serving the people. We are now having difficulty in eating and wearing clothes, so we should take

We hold the barrel of a gun in one hand and the barrel of a hoe in the other. When the enemy comes to attack our fellow countrymen and seize our land, we use the barrel of a gun to protect them.

The people are hungry, so we use hoes to help them plant. We want to plant 10,000 mu of potatoes on this land. We want to plant 10,000 mu of potatoes on this land.

Cotton, so that we will never suffer from hunger and cold again. What we pay today in return is the smiling faces of our fellow villagers.

We and the people are as close as fish and water. The people are the water, and we are the fish. Only when there is more water and it is deeper can we, the fish, grow stronger and bigger. But once we become separated from the people, like fish out of water, we will become food on the chopping block. Therefore, we cannot live without water for even a moment. We cannot leave water.

Therefore, I call on all comrades in the army and Party members to go to the countryside, except for those who are necessary, to help the farmers with farm work and spring plowing and planting. All leading cadres should take the lead in going to the fields to do farm work.

Most of Zhang Yinghao's comrades were farmers who had just put down their hoes, so there was no problem at all getting them to pick up their hoes and do farm work. Of course, if Zhang Yinghao discovered that someone had a problem, then they would have a real problem.

Zhang Yinghao knows that our Chinese nation is the most grateful nation, because in the Chinese civilization there are the ways of filial piety and brotherhood, "a drop of water should be repaid with a spring of water", "kneeling to suckle a child", "repaying the parents with kindness", etc., all of which demonstrate the advanced nature of Chinese civilization and reflect the humanistic care contained therein.

Where in China would a book advocate murder and arson? But what about the Western Bible? What a magnificent book! But what does it teach? God, Jehovah, kills and destroys the world at will, while the heroes in the Bible often engage in genocide. To demonstrate their absolute faith in God, they sacrifice their own children at will. What kind of people will ultimately become after being taught by such a book?

For example, the United States has always been willing to assume the worst of this country, especially after looking back at past events.

Take Thanksgiving for example. Behind Thanksgiving is a story so "simple" that few people mention it. It all started with the Mayflower.

In September 1620, the Puritans in England were persecuted. 102 of them boarded the Mayflower and arrived in Plymouth, America, on December 26th, ready to start a new life. However, the immigrants struggled to adapt to the local environment, and after their first winter, only 50 survived.

It was winter, and they were in a strange place, lacking food and clothing. The harsh environment was threatening their lives. In this critical moment, the local Indians sent them food, daily necessities and production tools, taught them how to farm the land, and helped them build their new home.

That autumn, the immigrants had a great harvest. At the end of November, they invited the Indians to share a meal of corn, pumpkin, turkey, and other delicacies to thank them for their help and thank God for the great harvest. Since then, Thanksgiving has become a fixed holiday in the United States.

The arrival of European colonists in the Americas after the 16th century brought devastating disasters to the local Indian population. According to statistics, during the colonial period, 13 million Indians were killed in Spanish territories, approximately 10 million in Brazil, and approximately another million during the westward expansion of the United States. Large numbers of Indians were enslaved or even massacred.

After the United States gained independence in 1783, the massacre and abuse of Native Americans did not abate in the slightest. With the rapid development of capitalism, the US government expelled Native Americans from their ancestral homelands in order to expand its territory.

In 1830, the U.S. government passed the Indian Removal Act, which mandated the relocation of all Eastern Indians to designated reservations west of the Mississippi River, implementing racial segregation and persecution. Most of these "Indian reservations" were located in remote, barren mountainous or desert areas. (This information is also compiled from online sources.)

For years, merciless slaughter, driven by profit, raged. As civilized warhorses galloped across the vast, magnificent plains, as civilized guns roared, it became a carnival of fireworks, and desperate blood was spilled on the fertile land. The outcome of this undeniable conflict was predictable from the outset. Crushed by "advanced productivity," the Indians went from being masters of the land to being slaves. It's a shame they didn't read the story of "The Farmer and the Snake" sooner.

The Native Americans could only watch in despair as the white people rampaged across the land they once depended on, powerless to fight back. While the white people celebrated with their families on the land they had seized, the tragically bereaved Native Americans were forced to leave their homes, driven to the most barren lands, and struggle to survive, continuing their enslavement. The Western mindset of predators was simple, crude, yet effective.

Zhang Yinghao's Quotes: When you start discussing whether God exists, you are a blasphemer!

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Westerners pride themselves on being civilized, often spouting off freedom, equality, and fraternity. But there's an old saying, "Listen to their words and watch their actions." This means we should look at what they actually do, not just the universal banner of justice, freedom, and democracy while engaging in despicable, dirty, and vile acts. They might commit murder and arson, then go to church to repent, and God forgives them. But then they go back to murder and arson... Western and Chinese values ​​are completely different.

In Western history, morality has no place. In Western eyes, there is no concept of sin, or rather, humans have no right to judge the sins of others. Because the power to judge guilt lies not in the human world but in the hands of God, Westerners are unfazed by the slave trade, the triangular trade, colonialism, and genocide.

In their minds, as long as they can make a lot of money, they can show God's glory and gain God's forgiveness. After all, in their eyes, all people are ignorant, descendants of Adam and Eve, and all have original sin. As long as they can show God's glory, why should they care about the lives of others?

For Westerners, who had only solved the problem of urinating and bathing in public a few hundred years ago, after the Industrial Revolution, they transformed themselves into civilized people. On the surface, they do look a bit civilized, but in fact, they do not live up to their handsome suits.

After completing the primitive accumulation of capital, the breakthrough of scientific and technological development took place first in the West, which brought huge social wealth to Western countries.

Therefore, the ideology has swept the Western lifestyle around the world.

However, it is still difficult to change the underlying things, that is, pirate culture and bandit logic. This is the case with Britain, and its descendants, the United States and Australia. In fact, this is just a disguised "Hua Yi distinction", except that "Hua" becomes foreigners and "Yi" becomes the Qing people with pig tails.

To put it simply, the Chinese in the 21st century imagine how ignorant and backward Africans are, just as the Europeans of this era

This is how I imagine China.

However, the Chinese nation has been civilized for thousands of years, and the depth of Chinese civilization is not comparable to that of the West, which has only been civilized for a few hundred years. Zhang Yinghao is full of confidence in educating the Chinese. Of course, Zhang Yinghao must also adapt to this.

The value of this era is that the bigger the battleships and cannons, the more civilized the people are. And it is a fact that the bigger the fleet, the more material wealth it has.

When the granaries are full, people will know what honor and disgrace are, which definitely means they are more civilized.

Of course, Zhang Yinghao holds these comrades to a demanding standard, requiring them to transcend material foundations when discussing morality and civility. Zhang Yinghao demands that Party members possess a far higher level of morality than the average person, and this is especially true for those in the military. Even if their cultural level falls short, propaganda work must never cease. If you aim for the highest, you'll achieve something in the middle. If you aim for the middle, you'll achieve something below; if you aim for the lowest, you'll achieve nothing.

Why do we need to set big ambitions? Because big ambitions cannot be realized, and even if small ambitions are achieved, it is not something that ordinary people can achieve.

When the volunteers went to the countryside to work, our art workers appeared at the right time and we heard them singing:

Mud covered my trouser legs and sweat soaked my back.

I don't know who you are, but I know who you are working for. For whom, for the harvest in autumn, for the return of wild geese in spring.

I sing with passion about my youth without regrets, and look into the distance, wondering when my comrades will return.

Who are you, and for whom, my comrade, when will you return? Who are you, and for whom, my brothers and sisters, do not shed tears. Who is the most beautiful, who is the most tired, my fellow countrymen, my comrades. My brothers and sisters, my sisters.

These simple peasants were initially extremely uncomfortable with the comrades who came to help them. Their past experience taught them that there is no such thing as a free lunch, and that those who offer unsolicited favors are either treacherous or thieves. However, after seeing the soldiers and cadres roll up their sleeves and trouser legs, genuinely helping them work in the fields, the peasants quickly joined in the work.

Of course, there are also discordant voices, especially those who have read a few books and know a few words. These people inherited the old school.

Some intellectuals have high aspirations but low skills, look down on workers, despise labor, and say strange things. They have played a very bad role and have even influenced some working comrades to a certain extent.

Zhang Yinghao, together with the National Safety Committee for Eliminating Counter-Revolutionaries and Slowdowns, carried out a major purge of those who were self-righteous and did not work, and dealt with some people severely. These new masters were driven out of the team. After all, this is what bureaucracy is like. Some cadres feel that they are

Once they are in power and different from others, they start to shake the rice, that is, they are more reluctant to work hard every year. They fantasize about the old masters.

He became the new master.

Zhang Yinghao has no mercy on this kind of people. Our city needs civil servants who can handle affairs rather than a group of bigwigs. The Zhang Yang family will never allow a single rat to spoil the whole pot of soup.

As for shit, we can only deal with it one by one as we find it, and all of it must be reported so that all comrades can learn from it.

Of course, while Zhang Yinghao was dealing with rat droppings, he also had to find the rats themselves. This was Zhang Yinghao's most important task. If the rats weren't dug out, the rat droppings would never be cleaned up. Therefore, Zhang Yinghao also had to lead his comrades in analyzing the root cause of this incident and eliminate such incidents from the source. Therefore, whenever these rats that were causing bad behavior were found, they were dealt with accordingly.

However, there is one advantage of bureaucracy, that is, bureaucrats are only responsible to their superiors, not to their subordinates or the people.

They must do the work assigned by their superiors, so once the higher authorities have made up their minds, these bureaucrats will become motivated and complete the work as much as possible.

After Zhang Yinghao and his team dealt with some people and received the notice, some people immediately understood and knew what they should do. When the song "For Whom" began to be sung, their enthusiasm for work became even higher.

Zhang Yinghao wasn't just putting on a show when it came to working the fields; he was actually working. The revolutionary army had siphoned off a significant amount of rural labor, and after the land was distributed, many families lacked large livestock, making tilling the land a major challenge. There were also many families with limited labor who were allocated land. If the revolutionary government didn't help, much of their land might have gone to waste, and Zhang Yinghao didn't want that to happen.

The military and Party cadres were divided into groups, and with a group of enthusiastic young people from rural areas working together, the work was done very quickly. There were also distinctions made regarding the people being helped, such as military families, elderly people living alone, and so on, who were given priority for assistance.

Working together quickly fosters trust. It's easy to discern whether Party members, soldiers, and cadres are genuinely helping others or seeking personal gain. The villagers' initial distrust has transformed into a warm welcome, with no fear of their own troops.

The instructors, political commissars, and propaganda officials seized the opportunity to promote the concepts of the Party leading everyone to a good life, the people's army, and the close bond between them. These people readily accepted these concepts. Many farmers envied the revolutionary soldiers helping their neighbors. Of course, these neighbors knew the reason: someone in their neighbor's family was a revolutionary soldier.

So when working on the farm, many people asked when the next recruitment for the revolutionary army would be. They also planned to send their children to join the revolutionary army. This would not only reduce taxes, but also reduce the family's food rations. During the busy farming season, the revolutionary soldiers would go to the fields to help them work. When the people calculated, they would not delay anything. Moreover, the revolutionary soldiers would learn for free in the barracks, receive subsidies, and be arranged for jobs after they were released. Where in the world could you find such a good thing? As for the deaths in the war, people died everywhere in this era. Every year, people died. You can often hear about children drowning. In this era, human life is worthless.

Besides the comrades working in the fields, there was another group that stood out: a large group of doctors. Military doctors, with access to a vast supply of cadavers, possessed the highest medical skills in the base area. They also began going down to the countryside to serve the villagers, meeting more patients and improving their medical skills.

For ordinary people, seeing a doctor when sick is extremely difficult these days. They only go when they can no longer bear it. And those patients don't see Western doctors, but traditional Chinese medicine. In Sichuan, perhaps only Chengdu and Chongqing have more established Western medicine hospitals; rural residents simply don't have access. Zhang Yinghao's father died from severe stomach pain. If it was appendicitis, how could traditional Chinese medicine treat it? Western medicine would just be a minor surgery.

The TV drama of seeing a family member lying in bed with a cold and fever being rushed to the hospital by car only happened among the wealthy in major cities like Shanghai, and in China, such a situation wouldn't have existed until at least World War I. Rural areas now lack formal Western medicine, hospitals, or medications. All they have are a couple of local doctors and some local herbal remedies.

The medical conditions in rural areas are poor, not just extremely poor, but rural areas are also in great need of medical services. The medical services provided by the revolutionary army doctors in rural areas are just a drop in the bucket. It was not until Zhang Yinghao went to the countryside to inspect that he discovered this problem. Zhang Yinghao immediately found Comrade Liu Qingen, who was in charge of the Health Bureau.

Liu Qing'en was named Liu Qing'en because he was an orphan who attended a missionary school. Foreigners gave him this name, and he studied Western medicine there. In 1895, he was implicated in the Chengdu Incident and was forced to leave his homeland and move to Chongqing. However, he was concerned about the lack of medical services in rural areas and came to Guang'an to practice medicine, where he was hired by Zhang Yinghao.

“Chairman, you’re looking for me?”

"Yeah, what are you busy with lately?"

"Oh, according to the previous plan, I'm writing a book called 'Prevention and Treatment of Everyday Diseases' to be used in my lectures."

"Comrade Qing'en, when I went to the countryside today, I saw our doctors treating the people. What's going on?"

"Chairman, doctors can only improve their medical skills through contact with patients and repeated practice. It would be a waste of talent to have them till the fields. It's not good to plant rice with the hand that holds the scalpel."

"The one who holds a scalpel shouldn't hold a butcher's knife! I know that!"

"Oh, so someone who holds a scalpel shouldn't hold a butcher's knife? Yeah, that's the truth."

"Are there many Western doctors in Sichuan now?" "Yes, but not many."

"What do you mean?"

"Chairman, you know, when modern Western medicine and science were introduced to Sichuan,

According to records, as early as the 1th year of the Chongzhen reign of the Ming Dynasty (1640), the Catholic missionaries Li Lisi (Portuguese) and An Wensi (Italian) entered Sichuan through Jianmen Pass and preached in Chengdu. They used drugs such as quinine to treat believers, thus creating a history of using Western medicine in Sichuan.

In the Qing Dynasty, the first group of Christian (Protestant) missionaries arrived in 1877.

In the last 25 years of the 19th century, batches of missionaries flocked to Sichuan, including the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Baptist Church in the United States, the Friends and Anglican Church in the United Kingdom, and the Anglo-American Mission in Canada.

They all trekked to Sichuan. For a time, Sichuan was filled with churches and crosses.

Among them, Cameron (British) and JH McCartney (American) of the China Inland Mission opened clinics and prescribed medicine in Langzhong.

Fang is the starting point of Christian medical work in Sichuan.

In 1888, Dr. Fan Lide, sent by the London Missionary Society, was stationed in Mupai, Chongqing.

The town purchased about 4 mu of land and converted the old houses into a clinic of more than 500 square meters.

Officially open for business.

On October 12, 1892, Wilder and Stevenson opened the earliest evangelical clinic at 12 North Sishengci Street. Jenny Fowler, who had just married Wilder, died of cholera about two months after they arrived in Chengdu.

Zhang Yinghao's Quotes: No one can control people's hearts, only their interests and the general trend!

Chapter 55

Upon hearing about doctors who died from infections while treating patients, Zhang Yinghao immediately recalled the article "In Memory of Norman Bethune." While most missionaries came to China with impure motives, Zhang Yinghao didn't deny that some came with truly noble intentions, coming to help the Chinese escape ignorance and backwardness. Just like some doctors, they came to treat illnesses and save lives, possessing an internationalist spirit.

"Oh, my wife died of the infection in Sichuan! Comrade Qing'en, please introduce me to Dr. Qi'erde. Didn't you work under Dr. Qi'erde?"

"Yes, Mr. Chairman, the development of modern medicine in Chengdu was initiated by Dr. Kilborn (OL Kilborn, Canada), who opened the first Western medicine clinic on Sishengci Street. In 1892, Dr. Kilborn's hospital was built on Sishengci Street at the east gate of Chengdu and named "Gospel Hospital." In the early days of the hospital, Dr. Kilborn served as the hospital director, as well as serving as a doctor, nurse, and caregiver. However, even so, the work within the hospital was far from busy. Because we Sichuanese have little knowledge of Western medicine and not many people come to see him, Dr. Kilborn's work focused on expanding his influence beyond the hospital, so that people would understand and accept Western medicine.

Gospel Hospital was the first Western-style hospital in Sichuan. Over time, a small number of Chinese Christians began seeking treatment there, witnessing the miraculous effects of Western medicine. Word of mouth spread, and Dr. Qi Erde also welcomed another companion in his life: Dr. Qi Xixian.

Qi Xixian was a Canadian doctor who earned degrees in medicine, surgery, and chemistry. In 1893, she came to Sichuan as a member of the Medical Brothers Volunteer Corps to establish a women's association and a maternity and children's hospital. Their shared beliefs led them to marry in Chengdu.