A Man of Science and Engineering in Troubled Times Wandering in the Late Qing Dynasty

Chapter 423 Big Boss Controversy
When it came to Japan at this time, Li Yu had to see it, and even participated in a big debate in Japan:

The reformist faction represented by Liang Qichao VS the revolutionary faction represented by Zhang Taiyan, Hu Hanmin, Wang Zhaoming and other bigwigs.

Liang Qichao's position was his "Xin Min Cong Bao", while the revolutionary faction's position was the newly established "Min Bao".

It happened that the victory of the Russo-Japanese War also greatly shocked all the students studying in Japan and the Chinese living in Japan, and everyone started a great debate around the future of China.

To be honest, in terms of popularity, although the revolutionaries are also very powerful, their combined popularity is not as good as Liang Qichao's at present, so a debate with Liang Qichao can actually increase the popularity of the revolutionaries.

Li Yu guessed that they must have such an idea, wishing to have a pen battle with Liang Qichao.It doesn't matter if you can't beat it, anyway, you can spread your revolutionary ideas.

"Min Bao" just published the Three Principles of the People, and then put forward six policies for running the newspaper: overthrowing the Qing government; establishing a republic; confiscating land into the state; maintaining world peace; cause.

In fact, these six articles are still deepening the Three People's Principles.

As for Liang Qichao, he had some revolutionary ideas, but after he went to the United States and was scolded by Kang Youwei, he could only follow his teacher's order and continue to improve.
Earlier this year, Liang Qichao published two long articles, "On Enlightened Despotism" and "On the Gains and Losses of Racial Revolution and Political Revolution", which were later combined into one, "The Great Question of China's Survival and Death".

Tens of thousands of copies of this article were printed and widely distributed in Japan.The gist is to try our best to oppose the revolution, but to implement "enlightened autocracy" first, and then implement a constitutional monarchy.

After welcoming back the "No. [-] troller of the Republic of China", the revolutionaries finally had the strength to face Liang Qichao head-on after they trotted Cixi, Sun Wen, and Chiang Kai-shek in the future.

There are many people who can come out from the revolutionaries; although there are also many people from the reformists, the rest can only be responsible for guarding the house, and Liang Qichao guards the three roads alone.

The "Minbao" article was concise and to the point, and hit the soul directly: first, to revolutionize and overthrow the Qing Dynasty; second, to implement a republic; third, to abolish feudal land ownership.

Seeing the menacing approach of "Min Bao", Liang Qichao did not dare to neglect, and personally wrote an article to fight back:
"I don't think revolution is necessary. Because there is no ethnic discrimination and oppression in China; the people of the whole country are already equal in law. Emperor Guangxu is the Holy Lord. As long as the constitution is implemented, China's situation can be changed and the country will gradually become prosperous and strong.

"Since the Constitution is enacted, Manchu and Han can be equal, so there is no need for revolution. Moreover, the Chinese people have not yet developed their wisdom, and rashly agitating for revolution will only cause mob riots, kill people, and even lead to the intervention of imperial powers, which will lead to the destruction of the country!
"..."

In a tavern, Zhang Taiyan asked Li Yu for a drink.

Li Yu just finished a speech at Tokyo Imperial University, which won the praise of many teachers and students. All the major newspapers in Japan were promoting the fact that Li Yu won the Nobel Prize.

Even newspapers put forward arguments such as "Japan defeated the whites militarily, while Li Yu defeated the whites in the way of science" and so on.

In short, Li Yu is also very popular in Japan now.

Europe and the United States did not satisfy Japan's treaty after defeating Russia. Japan felt that it was still isolated by Europe and the United States internationally.

Now Li Yu's popularity can be said to be as good as that of Liang Qichao, but they are in different fields.

Of course Zhang Taiyan knew what Li Yu was capable of, so he pulled him over.

Also present in the tavern were Hu Hanmin, Wang Zhaoming, Song Jiaoren, Tao Chengzhang, etc.

Seeing this, Li Yu smiled and said, "If you have a meeting, I'll come back another day."

Zhang Taiyan quickly pulled him over and sat down: "You can't leave, such a good wine, without you, it will lose half of its flavor."

Li Yu said: "All of you here are members of the Tongmenghui. I'm an outsider, and I'm afraid it will be inconvenient for you."

"How could it be inconvenient?" Zhang Taiyan pointed to the people present and asked, "Is it inconvenient for you?"

Hu Hanmin and others immediately said: "Convenience, convenience!"

"Look!" Zhang Taiyan said, "They are all convenient! And we just hope to have someone like you who is both enlightened and outsider to consult as a consultant, not to let you join the club."

Song Jiaoren said: "Mr. Zhongshan said that when you were in the United States, you had already become a brother with Situ Meitang, a Hong Kong tycoon in New York. We will not make things difficult for you, sir."

Li Yu said, "Okay, I'll just sit here and drink some fine wine and listen to your chats."

Zhang Taiyan smiled and said: "That's right! Try it quickly, I brought it from Shanghai specially, it's much stronger than Japanese sake!"

Zhang Taiyan took out Liang Qichao's article after drinking for a while, and said, "Mr. Liang's pen is still as sharp as ever. Although his theory is full of loopholes, it seems that it is not so easy to refute. How do you think to fight back?" ?”

Song Jiaoren said: "Simple, we can cite too many arguments. Let's say that the Manchu and Qing courts he supported. Looking back over the past 200 years, there is only a history of mutual slaughter between Manchu and Han, but no trace of friendship. How can there be any race?" Equality? Even if we want to live in peace, we cannot allow the Manchus to continue to be superior, this is a deformed system.”

Wang Zhaoming said: "I agree with what the fisherman said. The Manchus are not a member of our nation at all. It is the bounden duty of the Han people to fight against the Manchus!"

"I also agree," Hu Hanmin said, "but I need to add that if we want to make a revolution, we must pay attention to the interference of Western powers that Mr. Liang is worried about. Therefore, the revolution needs to be restrained, so that it can be an orderly revolution, not like a revolution. Back then Boxer Boxers were generally barbaric and xenophobic. We must abide by international law and not be xenophobic. Only in this way can the foreign powers remain neutral and will not interfere in the revolution.”

"Han people have supplemented it very well!" Zhang Taiyan said, "If we want to achieve the goal of neutralizing foreigners, we must be civilized enough, and all the treaties and debts made by the Qing court and the big powers can be borne in accordance with international law."

Everyone replied unanimously: "What Mr. Taiyan said is very true."

Li Yu took a sip of hot tea and thought that there was nothing wrong with their overall thinking, but it was difficult to deal with the details, after all, these people had no power at all.

Zhang Taiyan added: "Also, how can we refute the point raised by Mr. Liang about bloodshed in the revolution?"

Wang Zhaoming said confidently: "Revolutions will naturally shed blood. Even the so-called 'peaceful revolution' countries of England and Japan will inevitably have bloodshed."

Since they are called revolutionaries, everyone has already reached a consensus on this point. Song Jiaoren said: "Even if there is no revolution, the number of compatriots killed by the Manchu rulers every year is more than a million? What does Liang Qichao say?"

Zhang Taiyan nodded: "That's a good argument, and the number of people who died due to exorbitant taxes is even more numerous."

Zhang Taiyan was the best among these people. He wrote on the paper: "Revolution is inevitable and bloodshed is inevitable, but without revolution, bloodshed can be avoided?"

Only then did Zhang Taiyan ask Li Yu: "Brother Shucai, do you think there is something wrong with what we said?"

Li Yu put down his teacup: "I'm not talented, so I don't dare to talk too much. But there is also a small question, how do you carry out the revolution? Where do the soldiers come from, and where will they find them?"

Zhang Taiyan said: "This is indeed a key issue, but what we think is that we should clarify our concepts before we can continue to consider actions in the future."

Li Yu sighed: "I hope we don't repeat the mistakes of the Reform Movement of [-]."

The next day, after the article was published, Liang Qichao published an article about a more appropriate constitutional monarchy in the "Xinmin Congbao" before everyone could breathe a sigh of relief.

Liang Qichao wrote:
“China’s national conditions make it impossible to implement a republican form of government, because the Chinese people are still ignorant and do not have the qualifications to be citizens of a republic, let alone the conditions for implementing a democratic republic.

"And if you want to open up the wisdom of the people, you need the Qing government to implement education measures now.

"If China implements a republic, it will inevitably cause class competition and chaos in the world. The final result will be that the people will have to hand over all power to one person.

“Therefore, revolution will never lead to a republic, but will lead to autocracy!

"It is better to have a constitutional monarchy than a republic; it is better to be enlightened and autocratic than a constitutional monarchy!"

On this point, Zhang Taiyan and others responded quickly and very directly:

"To develop the wisdom of the people, you can revolutionize and enlighten the wisdom. Only in this way can you be thorough. If you pin your hopes on the Qing government, you can only hope for fish, and you will get nothing! Because everything the Qing government did was to fool the people. As for what Mr. Liang said Concentrating power in one person is a wrong extension, because this is not the road of revolution, but the road of autocracy."

The two sides are tit for tat.

It can be seen that there are many people on Zhang Taiyan's side, and his arguments are more comprehensive and impeccable.

And Liang Qichao could only rely on himself, but his brain turned fast enough, and as soon as the pen was erected, he continued to refute:
"If you want to change the feudal land system, have you ever thought about the resistance you will encounter in the process? This will not only come from the Qing court, but also from local tyrants and landlords. If you incite land to be nationalized, you will incite countless hooligans, gamblers, Singles, thieves, thieves, beggars and other people are all poisoning one party.

"Thus, those who dare to say that the social revolution and the political revolution go hand in hand are the rebellious sons of the Yellow Emperor and the sinners of China, who can be punished by [-] million people!
"Since the Qin Dynasty, the aristocrats have been eliminated in China. In this dynasty, the roots have become more and more clean. Because of this, there is no class in the whole country!"

Liang Qichao meant that he wanted to distinguish the social revolution of the land revolution from the political revolution of the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty.

But people with a discerning eye can see that Liang Qichao's arguments are somewhat inconsistent at this time.

But Liang Qichao was Liang Qichao, and he wrote thousands of words eloquently, citing scriptures and classics, mixing Chinese and Western, including what he saw and heard during his trip to Europe and America, in short, almost all of them came back.

Not to be outdone, Zhang Taiyan and the others continued to fight back:

"The reason for the social revolution is that the social and economic organization is not complete; although China is not like Europe and the United States, there is still a divide between the rich and the poor, and there is still a hidden line of the second revolution.

"In order to save China from the catastrophe of the second revolution in the future, social revolution should go hand in hand with political revolution, so as to prevent mob revolutions like the Paris Commune in France.

"And the social revolution is mainly about the equalization of land rights and state ownership of land!
"In the future society that realizes people's livelihood, the rich will get richer and the poor will get richer! There will be no class without inequality!..."

Li Yu has been reading newspapers for the past few days, and the two sides are having a great time arguing.

But in fact, many of the arguments of the revolutionaries are too optimistic, at least at this time, and a bit idealistic.

But of course Li Yu knew that revolutionaries had to be idealistic enough, otherwise they would not be revolutionaries, and this was their greatness.

Many of the arguments of people like Zhang Taiyan have many points of overlap with the textbooks of later generations. It is not easy to see the dawn of the future in the dark society of the late Qing Dynasty.

Discussing this level between the two sides, the revolutionaries have gradually gained the upper hand.

However, Liang Qichao did not admit defeat, he was still insisting, but it was visible to the naked eye that more and more people supported the revolutionaries.

Feeling helpless, Liang Qichao sent a telegram to Kang Youwei who was far away abroad, reporting the situation here, and at the same time seeking guidance from Teacher Kang.

At this time, Kang Youwei was in Sweden. After he heard that Li Yu had bought an island in Stockholm, he blew his beard and bought an island as well.

He even boarded Li Yu's island to have a look, and immediately he was very contemptuous: "As expected of a yellow-haired boy, he didn't follow the essence of architecture at all. He used sand and stone to build a foreigner's building, which has no sentimentality, no sentimentality! It's a pity that Nice view of the island."

Kang Youwei spent [-] Swedish francs to build a Chinese garden on the island he bought.

However, where in Sweden can one find someone who understands Chinese gardens, Kang Youwei can only personally participate in the design and construction.

Fortunately, the scenery here in Sweden is pleasant, and it is not difficult to find all kinds of vegetation and strange rocks.

Kang Youwei directed several workers in English: "NO! NO! NO! Put it here! Yeah!"

His daughter Kang Tongbi came over and said, "Father, there is a telegram."

Kang Youwei didn't look back, and said, "The latest donation form from the Royal Society? They acted quite quickly."

Kang Tongbi said, "It's not from America, it's from Liang Qichao."

"Liang Qichao?" Kang Youwei stopped his directing work, turned around and picked up the telegram, "What's the matter with him?"

Kang Tongbi said: "It seems to be besieged by a group of Japanese revolutionaries. It is said that Sun Wen and Huang Xing in Nanyang have joined the debate. Mr. Liang is quite struggling. He sent a telegram to ask his father for countermeasures."

Kang Youwei read the telegram and learned about the situation in Japan.But he has been studying how to make money and enjoy life in the past few years, so he has no time to take care of these "little things".

Kang Youwei was silent for a moment, and said to Kang Tongbi: "Return the telegram to Qichao, and say that when you are in trouble, think more about the clothes and belts, think about the kindness of Emperor Guangxu to us, and then it will naturally flow like a spring. What a mere revolutionary. Toothless!"

Kang Tongbi wanted to ask if he had anything more specific to say, but Kang Youwei waved his hand directly: "Just send it... Hey! NO, You are wrong! Look me!"

Kang Youwei continued to immerse himself in the construction of his new manor.

(End of this chapter)