The Heroic Age of the Late Qing Dynasty

Chapter 104

By the Ming Dynasty, women no longer had autonomy over their own bodies. Without autonomy, how could there be freedom? Therefore, with women losing their freedom, their social status naturally declined. Why had women been unable to gain autonomy? There are two main reasons. First, oppression by the ruling class—the unscrupulous intellectuals who controlled the discourse and constrained women. Second, the constraints of productivity and production relations. Agricultural societies produced only so much material, and women could not support themselves through their own labor. This meant that women had no voice and had to rely on men for survival.

The most detestable practice was footbinding, which began in the late Northern Song Dynasty and flourished in the Southern Song. It reached its peak during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Footbinding spread to women of all social classes, rich and poor, noble and humble. This practice made women completely dependent on men, truly appealing to the whims of unscrupulous scholars. Their ideals finally became reality: women were confined to their homes, their dreams of a beautiful woman in a mansion, exclusively for their enjoyment, finally fulfilled.

Therefore, the patriarchal system reached its peak in the Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty emperors and representative figures such as the Neo-Confucian philosopher Zhu Xi were extremely patriarchal, discriminating against, oppressing, and denying women. This continued until the Republic of China, when women still had no right to vote or be elected. Song Jiaoren directly deleted the gender equality clause when reorganizing the Kuomintang, and the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China did not mention gender equality either.

It was not until the founding of New China that Ms. Soong Ching Ling was elected as Vice President of the State. The saying of Emperor Taizu, "Women hold up half the sky," swept away all brothels and other bad places, and women actually gained the status they deserved.

Zhang Yinghao returned home and told his mother about his proposal to Xue'er. His mother burst into laughter. I know his mother had been waiting for this day for a long time. Zhang Yinghao had no idea what to do next, so he just followed his mother's instructions. He had his own busy schedule, and in this situation, he couldn't afford to delay it just to get married. After dinner, he went back to class.

Little did Zhang Yinghao know, his proposal was becoming a viral sensation. Though Zhang Yinghao kept a low profile and few knew him, gossip was incredibly powerful, and it quickly became known that it was Zhang Yinghao who had knelt down to propose. In the future, Zhang Yinghao's action would be considered an unusual act for a man of his time, and he would be heralded by lesbians as the most respectful person to women. This proposal, now on screen, has sparked countless marriages.

Zhang Yinghao was currently concerned with three key areas. The first was the army's operations and development. The army was still methodically expanding its territory, engaging in low-intensity combat that hadn't even reached the level of a campaign. Consequently, the military was experiencing a surge in personnel turnover, with Party members and cadres flocking to villages to participate in development efforts.

The second is the issue of land reform. Although Zhang Yinghao has published many articles on the issue,

Zhang Yinghao had already pointed out that landlords must be arrested, and he also pointed out that those who do not engage in labor and rely on collecting rent and exploiting tenants are landlords.

The landlords would examine their crimes. If they caused great public outrage, they would be shot. If they caused little public outrage or had a good reputation, they would be sent to labor reform.

Those who also participate in labor and have a certain number of tenant farmers are rich peasants.

Rich peasants were investigated and executed if they were indeed extremely outrageous to the public. The proportion of individual executions should be relatively small. Other rich peasants were allocated land like other people.

They should be treated equally, but certain restrictions should be placed on the personal freedom of their families.

For poor and lower-middle peasants and tenant farmers, land should be allocated according to the local land quantity, with a mix of good and bad. At the same time, cooperatives should be formed on a voluntary basis, with farm tools used in a centralized manner, so that farmers can work together during the busy farming season.

However, many soldiers who had experienced the massacre of their villages by militias engaged in leftist behavior towards land reform. Landlords were executed if caught, and rich peasants were given no land or were given bad land. This unfair distribution led to numerous counter-revolutionary incidents involving collusion between rich peasants and landlords.

The third is industrial construction, or factory construction. Zhang Yinghao is determined to build factories, whether they use machines or manual workshops, as long as they can be organized.

In the age of firearms, victory was almost decided by a contest of material strength, and the political maneuvers of ancient times became less and less useful. As Napoleon said, "The first requirement for war is money, the second is money, and the third is money." Taizu said, "With food in hand, there is no need to panic." Zhu Yuanzhang initially relied on the Red Turban Army, the poor masses, to conquer his country. However, he soon realized this was not working, so he quickly aligned himself with the landlord class and accumulated grain, which laid the material foundation for his pursuit of the Yuan Dynasty.

Back then, agricultural societies in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties relied heavily on the landlord class. After all, there was no such thing as the Industrial Revolution. But by the late Qing Dynasty, countries like Britain, France, Italy, Russia, and Japan had already completed or were in the midst of the First Industrial Revolution, while Germany and the United States were already experiencing the Second. Industrial production had significantly increased social wealth, far surpassing anything agriculture could ever achieve. The wealth accumulated by a large landowner over a century might not even match the wealth generated by a single factory in a year or two.

Zhang Yinghao knew that he could achieve final victory without relying on the landlord class. The decisive factors were his strong organization and the factories he had built. The material wealth generated by these factories far exceeded the wealth accumulated in a century of agricultural society, and the rate of increase in industrial wealth was far beyond the reach of agriculture.

For example, in an agricultural society, three crops per mu of land in a year is equivalent to three times the amount of wealth produced. Three cycles per year is practically the limit of land. However, in industry, cycles are calculated not in years or the twenty-four solar terms, but in hours, minutes, and seconds. The shorter the cycle, the faster the cycle. If a workshop can produce one bullet, it can also produce countless more, completely free from the immense time and space constraints of agriculture.

This is similar to business: some businesses can be closed for three years, but once they open, they can still make a profit for three years. Other businesses have very low profit margins, but their rapid turnover and high volume of production yield substantial profits. However, agriculture, with its limited production output and production cycles, was limited in its power.

Zhang Yinghao controlled basic prices through unified purchase and sale to maintain stability in the base. The landlord class, in order to obtain higher profits, would inevitably hoard goods, which is why Qin Niu Gu said that landlords had no conscience.

Zhang Yinghao was confident that he could overthrow the Qing Dynasty with just these simple factories, which also provided the material basis for his continued expansion. By plundering the grain and wealth accumulated by the landlords, fully mobilizing the masses to carry out rounds of infrastructure construction such as water conservancy, and cultivating and promoting some outstanding talents, he formed a simple, benign, and low-level internal cycle.

Of course, Zhang Yinghao wouldn't focus solely on material wealth; spiritual development was also essential. Furthermore, in Zhang Yinghao's view, spiritual development was far more difficult and crucial than material development at this stage. It wasn't easy to instill confidence in all soldiers and officers and soldiers to achieve victory. Whether all soldiers and officers and soldiers possessed a fearless spirit, the resolve to plow through the fields and overcome all hardships, these were still difficult to achieve. At this stage, political and cultural education and a grasp of scientific principles were crucial.

Now located inland, the Yangtze River, a golden waterway, could be cut off at any time by the British or the Qing Dynasty, turning Sichuan into an isolated island. Therefore, what Zhang Yinghao wanted most was locomotive manufacturing technology, and then to build two railways within Sichuan. Then, Zhang Yinghao could rest easy.

Those who do not plan for eternity are not qualified to plan for the moment, and those who do not plan for the overall situation are not qualified to plan for a region. Zhang Yinghao is in Sichuan, so he naturally has to consider the future.

Ignore what will happen in a few years or even a dozen years.

From a historical perspective, is Sichuan the place where the foundation was established?

In fact, Sichuan was not a good place to build a career in an agricultural society. Zhuge Liang's plan to divide the country into three parts was actually based on the need to unite with the Eastern Wu.

Moreover, there must be a basic foothold outside Sichuan Province, otherwise the so-called three-way division of the world will be empty talk.

The Sichuan area was independent of the Central Plains cultural circle in the pre-Qin period. Since the Shang Dynasty, it has been an independent kingdom called "Shu Kingdom", and its supreme ruler is called "King of Shu".

Ancient Shu was a wild and untamed land that people from the Central Plains were reluctant to visit. Its mountains were high, its forests dense, and it was teeming with poisonous weeds, insects, and other dangerous plants and animals. If a Central Plains person visited, they were usually exiled for committing a serious crime. Because it had always been isolated from the Central Plains cultural sphere, ancient Shu was often considered an uncivilized and barbaric land.

By the end of the Warring States period, Qin had gradually become the most powerful of the seven major powers.

The Guanzhong region where the Qin State was located was originally independent of the Central Plains cultural circle, so the Qin State was also considered a tiger and wolf country without etiquette.

In 316 BC, King Huiwen of Qin sent Sima Cuo to lead an army to destroy Shu and annex it. From then on, Shu became a county of Qin and a part of Chinese civilization.

Qin occupied Bashu. The "Records of the Grand Historian" records: "Since Shu was annexed by Qin, Qin grew stronger and richer, and looked down upon the other vassal states." From then on, Qin could threaten Chu from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Chu became one of the six eastern states, greatly weakening its position as the dominant power in the south.

The Qin Dynasty's conquest of Sichuan provided the material foundation for its unification. Sima Cuo's conquest of Shu is comparable to Shang Yang's reforms.

During the reign of King Zhao of Qin, the Qin State made Shu County an important base, concerned about flooding along the Minjiang River. Therefore, Li Bing, a master of hydraulic engineering, was dispatched to Shu County. After Li Bing arrived, he began conducting field research on the Minjiang River and the Minjiang River. He served for 97 years and ultimately developed a plan to control the Minjiang River floods. During his tenure, Li Bing designed and oversaw the construction of the world-renowned Duxiao Weir. The completion of the Duxiao Weir completely resolved the Minjiang River's flooding problems, significantly reducing the Chengdu Plain from floods, fires, and droughts. Farmland was irrigated, and the Chengdu Plain became a prosperous grain-producing base.

It was only after the father and son built the Dujiangyan that the city was known as the "Land of Abundance".

Sichuan is a land of abundance, and as a logistics base, it is definitely not a western-style one. However, the Sichuan Basin is not a place for great achievements. The reason is four

Sichuan's geographical location has restricted its development and expansion. Sichuan is a place like this. In terms of rugged mountains and rivers, the Bashu region is the easiest to defend and the most difficult to attack. The Bashu region is a typical

The Sichuan Basin is bordered by the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the west, Daba Mountains to the north, Wushan Mountains to the east, Dalou Mountains to the south, and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau to the southwest. It is surrounded by towering mountains, as the saying goes, "The road to Shu is difficult, harder than climbing to the sky!"

In military terms, there's a term called "seizing and using." Is this a situation where the two sides can support each other internally and fear each other externally? Is this a situation where the two sides are in a state of tension? No.

After Qin unified the country, my country entered the imperial era. In the following two thousand years, the country was divided and united many times, and there were separatist regimes in the land of Bashu during each division.

Liu Bang occupied Guanzhong, owned Shu, and finally unified the world.

At the end of the Xin Dynasty, Gongsun Shu ruled Shu and was eventually destroyed by Liu Xiu.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Yan, Liu Zhang and his son, and Liu Bei successively ruled Shu and were eventually

Destroyed by Cao Wei.

At the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, Li Te established Cheng Han in Shu, but was eventually destroyed by the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

At the end of the Sui Dynasty, Li Yuan quickly occupied Shu and laid the foundation for unifying the country.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Wang Jian and Meng Zhixiang successively split off from Shu and established Former Shu and Later Shu, which were eventually destroyed by Zhao Kuangyin.

The Yuan Dynasty suffered a heavy defeat in Xiangyang, and eventually captured Sichuan and went south to destroy the Song Dynasty.

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Ming Yuzhen established the "Daxia" regime in Sichuan, which was eventually destroyed by Zhu Yuanzhang.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Xianzhong established the "Daxi" regime in Sichuan, which was eventually destroyed by the Qing Dynasty.

From the succession of these dynasties, we can see that the forces based in Sichuan were eventually eliminated, while the forces that used Sichuan as a logistics base eventually achieved rapid development. The Qin Dynasty, the Han Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty that replaced the Wei Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty, and the Yuan Dynasty all unified the world after they took Sichuan.

Chapter 105:

During the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang went to Qishan six times. It can be said that he was unwavering in his determination, right? Then what happened? In the end, he was beaten back one by one. This was because Zhuge Liang had no territory of his own outside. The strategy of adding fuel to the fire eventually turned into giving away lives. In fact, after Guan Yu carelessly lost Jingzhou, Shu Kingdom lost the capital to unify the world. Without a forward base in Sichuan, it was eventually trapped. And the power that dominated Sichuan would quickly fall after the foreign forces controlled several key points.

The Bashu region is known as the "Land of Abundance." The regimes that ruled there were mostly self-sufficient, their comfort insatiable, and apathetic. There's a saying, "One shouldn't visit Sichuan when young," which captures this sentiment: Sichuan is a place of slumber. Sichuan is not a place to sit back and defend. If one were to compete for supremacy in the world, Sichuan would be enough to become a king, or even a hegemon. However, relying on its strategic location to sit back and defend is doomed to failure.

Another issue that must be addressed when sending troops from Sichuan is logistics. In the agricultural era, sending troops from Sichuan would inevitably require a huge expenditure of manpower and material resources, constantly transporting food and supplies to the front lines, ultimately exhausting the troops. It's only in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms that the author, for the sake of readers' enjoyment, created such irrational devices as wooden oxen and flowing horses to provide logistics. This allows readers to focus solely on the battles, ignoring the more important logistics. Is there any need to think about them when you have wooden oxen and flowing horses?

Although Sichuan is known as the "Land of Abundance", it is no longer the "Land of Abundance" where people are subject to floods and droughts and do not know hunger. The explosive population growth has reached its capacity limit, land is over-concentrated, unscrupulous merchants are hoarding goods, and coupled with natural disasters, grain harvests in many places, Sichuan is now full of hunger. Otherwise, there would not be people from other places rushing countless miles just to buy some cheap salt at the base. There would also be no

Now a woman with a child traveled thousands of miles to Guang'an to make a living. At this time, the situation in Sichuan was becoming increasingly serious.

Zhang Yinghao could only solve the people's livelihood problems by organizing them into labor, building factories, and trading with the outside world to solve the material problem. Therefore, Zhang Yinghao had already made up his mind: even if he didn't occupy Chongqing openly, he would secretly make it his own, providing financial support to the base through trade. Whatever the base needed, Chongqing would be used as a window to obtain the necessary assistance.

Zhang Yinghao's original ideal was that he would have a handle on every issue in society, and everyone would be on the same page with him. However, he soon discovered that it was impossible to control everything, and even more impossible to have everyone on the same page with him.

Crowds of people are inevitably divided into at least three categories: the more progressive, those who actively follow the crowd. The indifferent, the middle. And the backward, those who always lag behind. In his previous life, Zhang Yinghao had seen many organizations, experienced many things, and heard many stories. A company always encourages those who are not proactive, and a teacher always focuses most of their attention on students with poor academic performance, hoping they will improve.

This is an absolutely wrong approach. As a leader of a company, a factory, or a school, you should use 80% of your energy to unite those outstanding people. If you do not unite them, but instead use the vast majority of your energy to deal with those not-so-outstanding people, then how do you let these outstanding people deal with themselves? Are you all competing with each other to see who is worse? Moreover, 80 to 90% of the profits of a factory or a company are created by these outstanding employees. If you do not encourage them, isn't this putting the cart before the horse? The remaining 12% of energy should be used to win over the middle elements, and 8% should be used to educate the backward elements. This is the most reasonable allocation.

However, in reality, many phenomena are precisely the opposite. It seems as if people always hope that those lagging behind can catch up with the advanced, and thus devote immense energy to reforming them. However, this common approach is precisely the worst approach. For example, in some cases, a teacher spends a great deal of time and energy to finally change a bad student, seemingly accomplishing something remarkable. Of course, this is indeed a remarkable achievement. However, if they had devoted more energy to the outstanding students, perhaps a few more of them would have achieved key scores. Wouldn't this be more valuable than transforming an individual?

Why does this happen? It's simply people's habits that are at work. Everyone believes that good students and employees are self-motivated and can perform well without encouragement or support. In people's eyes, it's as if they're meant to perform well.

After traveling through time, Zhang Yinghao also put a lot of effort into reforming these backward elements. After such a long period of leadership work, he finally discovered this important problem. If the backward elements cannot be reformed consciously and self-aware, the input and output will be completely disproportionate, or even inversely proportional. The more you want them to change for the better, the more they will resist. So now Zhang Yinghao has completely changed his working methods and pays more attention to the outstanding talents who come to train. Masters are among the people. In China, even in the old society, there has never been a shortage of various talents. Since there are so many outstanding people willing to make progress, why are you still doing thankless things?

Just like Zhang Yinghao's own past life, because he himself came from the lower classes, he understands them better. In the new era, as long as they're willing to work, they'll definitely have enough to eat and wear. But many people don't want to work hard, working one day and resting three days, then crying in front of the media about their lack of opportunities and lying down, waiting to die.

Then countless public intellectuals jumped in, pointing out that the country has a large number of such people, members of the proletariat, who have fallen to such a state. This is a social problem and needs to be reformed. They pointed out that the Communist Party no longer represents the proletariat, and that its representatives lack the people's representation. In their eyes, it seems that these grassroots people are the people, and everyone else is not. It seems that they are the only ones who understand this truth, and everyone else is confused. Then these people launched various rhetoric to intimidate the public, spouting countless empty and false words.

Some people, seeing these empty, pretentious rhetoric—or rather, grandiose, empty talk—seem to be perfectly reasonable. They cite a plethora of examples and statistics, and everyone falls prey to utopian fear, crying out in unison. They feel the world is so dark, the country is so dark, the bureaucracy is so dark, socialism has no hope, the proletariat has no hope. In reality, these people will never save those at the bottom of society; they simply wish there were more of them, so they can achieve success and fame.

Zhang Yinghao usually dismisses these things. They contrast the real world with an ideal world, each one yearning for heaven or the Western Paradise, or perhaps even rushing to a communist society. This principle is already expressed in the 2,000-year-old "Book of Songs, Da Ya, Wen Wang": "Always be content with your fate, and seek your own blessings." This is the common saying: small wealth depends on hard work, while great wealth depends on fate, influence, and ability. In the new era, if you work hard but can't eat, you can blame the state. But if a self-destructive person hopes for a savior, then heaven will abandon him. If you want great wealth and honor, then it truly depends on whether you have the ability and destiny to do so.

Back to the point, Zhang Yinghao saw problems with the talent currently being cultivated at the base, and most of these issues stemmed from limited knowledge or historical limitations. After all, they weren't time travelers, and hadn't witnessed the prosperity and productivity of later societies. Zhang Yinghao's priority now was to lead these people forward as best he could, achieving victory after victory.

Among these, there's a crucial issue: learning. Zhang Yinghao's current training classes primarily focus on basic education and elementary training, and cultural literacy remains paramount. If he were to lecture them on a wealth of theoretical knowledge, Zhang Yinghao would be immediately overwhelmed by their questions.

After returning to his office and reading the documents for a while, Zhang Yinghao began to let himself go again. He felt that it was not enough to carry out the revolution in such a small place now. He must have a place to form a horn with Sichuan. If the Qing Dynasty suddenly had a butterfly effect and a heaven-defying figure because of his appearance, or if the revolution in Sichuan was accidentally extinguished by the Qing Dynasty and the foreign powers in the future, he must leave enough sparks to prevent the revolution from falling into a low ebb.

China is so vast that it is necessary to send some people to other places to establish revolutionary bases. Establishing revolutionary bases abroad can also form a situation of mutual assistance and reliance with our own.

When it came to the question of where to establish a revolutionary base, the only phrase that came to Zhang Yinghao's mind was the one he had learned in Chinese class: Liu Bei and Deng's army advanced thousands of miles into the Dabie Mountains - when two brave men meet on a narrow road, the braver one prevails.

The Dabie Mountains are uniquely situated in East China, close to Nanjing and the Hubei city of Wuhan, giving them a unique strategic position. In previous generations, when Liu and Deng's forces established a base in the Dabie Mountains, they posed a serious threat to Nanjing, the ruling center of the Kuomintang, and Wuhan, a major city in Hubei.

Commanders Liu and Deng led the troops in bloody battles in the Dabie Mountain area. Yingshan established a central county committee three times to govern more than 10 border counties. It is known as the heroic land where "the red flag has not fallen for 30 years" and "the red soil is stained three feet deep with blood."

From the Dabie Mountains, encompassing Hubei, Henan, and Anhui, emerged countless Party leaders, generals, revolutionary martyrs, and patriots. A marshal emerged from Huanggang's Linjia Dawan, while Hong'an County has produced two presidents and six vice premiers. Over 200 of the Republic's generals hail from this heroic land. Such a beautiful land has attracted countless heroes!

This happened in his previous life, but Zhang Yinghao now feels that this place is very suitable for his current development. The current situation is completely different from the situation a few decades later. A few decades later, it is really possible that the country will be destroyed and the race will be extinct. It is necessary to unite everything that can be united. Even if there is no guarantee of victory every time.

But are there any revolutionary parties in the country now? Perhaps there are some abroad, but

Well, at most, there were only a few reformists and radicals. Were there any regular armed forces besides the Qing Dynasty? No! Was there an invasion by foreign imperialism? Yes, but Zhang Yinghao was fully aware that the Eight-Nation Alliance was about to end. Therefore, Zhang Yinghao didn't need to worry about the landlords and gentry. He only needed to unite the people at the bottom, fight the local tyrants, distribute the land, and focus on construction to achieve final victory.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yinghao recalled Taizu's words about war: "You fight yours, I fight mine." This is completely comparable to the sixteen words. And what Zhang Yinghao is thinking now is that no matter how strong the wind and rain are, I will remain unmoved. It really should be like Taizu's poem "Xijiangyue":

Flags are visible at the foot of the mountain, and drums and horns can be heard on the top of the mountain.

The enemy is surrounded by thousands of troops, but I remain unmoved. Our fortifications have already been fortified, and our united will is even stronger. The roar of artillery from Huangyangjie announces the enemy's retreat at night.

Perhaps this is the mindset a leader should have: focusing on oneself, rather than hoping for the opponent's mistakes. Already fortified, the defenses are even stronger, and the united will is even stronger. This is the principle of Sun Tzu's "Art of War": "First make yourself invincible, then wait for the enemy to be defeated." So Zhang Yinghao immediately asked the messenger to summon Comrade Tianqiao, head of the intelligence department, and Comrade Luo Zelin, head of the Organization Department.

"Chairman, do you have any instructions for me?"

"Oh, Comrade Zelin and Comrade Tianqiao are here." Zhang Yinghao pointed to the chair next to him and said, "Sit down and talk."

"Tianqiao, has your intelligence department collected any intelligence from the Dabie Mountains?"

"Chairman, I haven't noticed this. Lately, we've been focusing our efforts on both sides of the Yangtze River, Southeast Asia, and overseas. We don't have accurate intelligence on the Dabie Mountains yet, but I've received information and we've already developed a few comrades there. If you need anything, I can arrange for them to come and speak to you in the next few days, or have them write a report."

Zhang Yinghao also knew that the speed of information transmission was slow now, so he didn't expect to get the necessary information immediately, so Zhang Yinghao waved his hand.

"No need, Zelin, are there any of our current party members from the Dabie Mountains?"

"Yes, but not much." "That's enough."

Chapter 106:

Then Zhang Yinghao described the situation in Sichuan, the form of the revolution, and the possible enemies he might encounter.

After he had spoken once, he said, "I intend to organize a fine team, with Comrade Li Tong as the leader and Comrade Bai Jianyong as the instructor, and then organize the Dabie Mountains' inner core forces to open up a new revolutionary base. This matter should not be publicized.

Your intelligence department will work with the organization department to organize and arrange for them to go to the Dabie Mountains. Well, I know a place called Yingshan, and we can start from Yingshan County."

"Yes, Chairman, we will ensure that the task is completed." Li Tianqiao and Luo Zelin immediately stood up and saluted.

"Sit down, sit down, sit down. Don't be so serious. Dabei, I'll ask Ming Dawen to come over and bring the team to you. Zelin, remember to hand over the work of the comrades over there.

Comrade Li Tong can go first to open up the situation. I heard your group's old PQ is also connected. I haven't been there, so I don't know the specific situation. Many people are struggling to make ends meet. Those landowners are supposed to be farmers, and the struggle there must have always been fierce. Our people should be able to thrive there. So, if we arrange for comrades to go there, there should be great potential.

Haha, by the way, Tianqiao, tell me about the current development of your intelligence department!

"Yes, Chairman, our current situation is as follows. After the Chairman's last speech, we adjusted the focus of our work and are mainly responsible for collecting economic intelligence and military intelligence.

As for Sichuan, we have now thoroughly understood the parking situation in Sichuan. As for other provinces, the main targets of our work are still the two sides of the Yangtze River and the coastal provinces.

The main purpose is to investigate economic intelligence, and at the same time to cooperate with business procurement colleagues to purchase machines

We have comrades in almost every major city along the Yangtze River, with Wuhan, Nanjing, and Shanghai being our top priorities. We have also sent a number of comrades into those mines to recruit comrades.

"Very good. What's the situation in Chongqing now?"

"Well, Chongqing has developed the most smoothly, the fastest, and the best. Our comrades have now set up a training school in Chongqing, and our intelligence comrades have been arranged to study there in rotation. We have also developed some intelligence personnel among the coolies and workers by relying on our business network. However, our intelligence department is currently mainly focusing on connecting with foreigners, and it is not going very smoothly."

"Well, that's great! Thanks to your hard work, our comrades here are no longer completely in the dark. Comrades in our intelligence department must pay attention to secrecy. Even if they are introduced to the Party by other departments and cooperate with us, they must not reveal their identities as intelligence personnel unless necessary. All intelligence personnel are best to maintain single-line communication. You must pay attention to this. For those staff members whose identities are exposed, they must be promptly protected and sent to the base or arranged to work elsewhere."

"Yes, Chairman, we have selected these comrades and provided them with appropriate training."

"I heard about that, too. Zhang Feng even came to me to report you guys for picking out new recruits. Haha!"

"There's nothing I can do, Chairman. Just like you said, high-quality talent is hard to find. People are needed everywhere now. I have no choice but to recruit new soldiers."

"Hahahaha, you, you, I don't mean to blame you. This is our current situation, and I understand it. Not only are we short of talent now, but we will need a massive amount of talent within 30 years. There's nothing we can do about it. The Qing Dynasty owes too much debt, and we need to work hard to make up for it bit by bit. However, in a few decades, our country will be full of college students, and then we won't be short of talent like we are now. At our age, we can definitely see it. By the way, how is the intelligence training school I asked you to set up?"

"Training has already begun. I was planning to report this to the Chairman. We are training next to the new recruits. All personnel must receive relevant military knowledge, such as firearms, combat, and so on. I plan to send the best among them to those elite units for training. This requires your approval, Chairman."

"It's not my approval. Please report it to the relevant personnel of the Military Commission. As long as those personnel pass the political review, I think there will be no problem. Your idea is very good. As long as you uphold a scientific attitude and are good at summarizing experience and lessons, the students you train will become more and more perfect. I won't say more about this. I will also study and exchange ideas with the students when I have time."

"As long as you agree, Chairman, I'll submit a report as soon as I get back."