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

Chapter 650 Recovery
During the month of May 4th, the domestic struggle and diplomacy were quite successful.

Gu Weijun's decision not to sign was very spiritual.

Nobuyuki Makino of the Japanese delegation expressed concern at the time: "The world does not pay attention and thinks that the Chinese representatives in Paris are driven by flesh and blood and inspired by fame, leading to such actions. But my observation is not the case, and I am convinced that this is not the case. This sentiment has long been infiltrated among ordinary Chinese people and has been brewing for several years. It is about to explode. The Paris Peace Conference did not have the opportunity to express it... It is unknown whether our country will fall into unexpected difficulties due to the China issue. "

This little devil is somewhat self-aware.

There is no need to elaborate too much on the great role of the May Fourth Movement. Just one movement from modern times to the modern era is enough to demonstrate its status.

Of course, this is from God's perspective. If we look at the current situation, the most realistic manifestation may be to accelerate the fission within Beiyang, especially the split between the Anhui clique and the Zhili clique.

It can be said that the May Fourth Movement directly triggered the subsequent Zhijiang-Anhui War, and the pro-Japanese Duan Qirui faction gradually declined.

Duan Qirui was probably quite speechless about this. After becoming a "hero of the Republic", he declared war on Germany and became a victorious country. Just after World War I last year, before the peace conference was held, Duan Qirui proudly reviewed the army as commander-in-chief and accepted inspections from the masses and envoys from various countries. The crowd shouted the slogan "Long live Duan Qirui".

But as soon as he sat up in the sky, before he could recover, he fell to the ground again.

What is meant by water that can carry a boat but also capsize it? Lao Duan now really understands it in his mind.

He was also very angry that President Xu Shichang had to remove Cao Rulin, Zhang Zongxiang, and Lu Zongyu under pressure.

Duan Qirui went to comfort Cao Rulin and said angrily: "Runtian (Cao Rulin's word), I didn't expect the president to be so irresponsible! You risked the world's disapproval for me and borrowed the Japanese debt. You should be a great hero." Xu If the president burns bridges, will anyone be willing to help him in the future?”

Cao Rulin said: "The secret agreement has been reported, and there is nothing you and I can do."

Duan Qirui said: "This movement of students and workers is simply like a conspiracy with ulterior motives. Those students also said that China is going to die? Just kidding! Now we are a victorious country, no matter what, it is better than Japan's 'Second World War' proposed by Japan in the fourth year of the Republic of China. 11. It’s time to be good! You simply don’t know right from wrong!”

Cao Rulin has already accepted his fate: "Now all walks of life no longer trust us. The situation will be uncontrollable if we are not careful. Prime Minister, please be more careful in the future."

Duan Qirui said: "Fortunately, the Soviet Union in the north issued a statement to abolish the unequal treaties signed in the past."

Cao Rulin was surprised: "Abolish them all?"

Russia occupies the largest amount of our territory. If we take it back from them, Duan Qirui's contribution will probably be much greater than that of the "four republics".

Duan Qirui continued: "The leader named Lenin said many years ago, '400 million backward Chinese people have won freedom, awakened, and participated in political life. A quarter of the population on the earth Our party has awakened from a deep sleep and moved towards light, movement and struggle. Our party advocates that the unequal treaty with China must be abolished and the territory occupied by the tsar must be returned to China as soon as possible after the revolution succeeds! '"

Cao Rulin felt incredible: "They are in a difficult situation now. Isn't it a blank check? Their treaty with Germany has been voided."

Duan Qirui said: "Now they are facing interventionist forces from various countries and cannot protect themselves. This is an opportunity for us. It would be a pity not to fight for it."

Cao Rulin had worked in diplomacy, so he asked: "Are there any written documents?"

Duan Qirui said: "A Soviet official named Karakhan, who was responsible for the Soviet diplomacy in East Asia, issued a Soviet declaration. The declaration stated that it would "abolish all secret treaties signed by Imperial Russia with China, Japan, and the Allied Powers, and abandon its previous attempts to seize China." All land and all Russian concessions in China; and everything that the Tsarist Russian government and the Russian capitalist class seized from China will be returned to China permanently and free of charge, the consular jurisdiction and concessions of Imperial Russia in China will be abolished, and the Russian portion of the Gengzi Indemnity will be renounced. , giving up all imperial Russia’s privileges in the Middle East Railway.’”

"Such generous terms!" Cao Rulin was shocked, but he still asked cautiously, "Is it really an unequal treaty?"

Duan Qirui said: "This is what is written in the declaration."

Cao Rulin raised his fingers and calculated: "The Treaty of Aihun in 1858, the Treaty of Beijing in 1860, and the Treaty of Yili in 1881, a large area of ​​land was cut off. If it can be recovered, what is the trivial matter now?"

Duan Qirui nodded and said: "So you and I have to cheer up. Even if we lose just a small amount of Jiaodong, we can get back a land far larger than Jiaodong. Not only will our merits outweigh our faults, it will be like expanding our territory."

Cao Rulin was also shocked when he heard this: "I hope they won't break their promise, so that we can stand up!"

Of course, the two of them were still dreaming about spring and autumn.

Soviet Russia just drew an unrealistic pie.

Soviet Russia later issued two more declarations. In the second declaration, compared with the first, it changed the terms on the free return of the China Eastern Railway to a willingness to start negotiations.

The third declaration deleted a paragraph from the first declaration to China in 1919 that stated that the China Eastern Railway and its ancillary industries would be returned free of charge, and a note was sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Beiyang government, requesting the Beiyang government to refer to the revised text.

而且他们还解释了解释，所谓要废除的条约，是1896年以后沙俄与中国签署的不平等条约，其中包括侵占的大约为1400平方公里土地。主要是1896年条约、1901年北京协议及1907年至1916年与日本签订的一切协定。

But the treaties before 1896 were the largest, accounting for more than 100 million square kilometers!

By the time of the third declaration, Soviet Russia had basically eliminated the White Army, won the civil war, and gained a firm foothold.

At that time, haha, everyone after 1896 directly regretted it.

Everything before was just a delaying strategy.

This is international politics anyway.

They did not abrogate any of the treaties that were beneficial to Soviet Russia; treaties that were detrimental to Soviet Russia, such as the large amount of loans with France and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany, were all nullified.

But at this time, the Anhui clique must seize every possible life-saving straw.

Cao Rulin added: "Li Yu has a strong influence in academia and business circles. The Prime Minister can send a confidant to him to find out more about him."

Duan Qirui nodded and said, "That's true."

-

Dongchang Hutong.

Xu Shuzheng knocked on the door of Li Yu's house.

"Why is General Xu wearing casual clothes?" Li Yu asked.

Xu Shuzheng laughed and said: "Wearing a military uniform is too ostentatious."

Li Yu asked Uncle Wang to serve tea, and then asked: "What is General Xu here for?"

Xu Shuzheng said: "I'm not good at beating around the bush. Today, Premier Duan asked me to ask whether students and the business community have any... dissatisfaction."

Li Yu smiled and said: "I can't represent the students and the business community."

Xu Shuzheng said: "But with Mr. Academician's influence, you can answer hundreds of calls, and the academic and industrial and commercial circles will definitely sell you face." "That's hard to say," Li Yu paused, "It's hard to go against God's will."

Xu Shuzheng immediately said: "Mr. Academician, do you really want to watch the situation deteriorate?"

Li Yu didn't want to care whether they would fall, but he just said casually: "Don't you still have a trump card?"

"What trump card?" Xu Shuzheng asked.

"Outer Mongolia," Li Yu said, "you have organized and trained 40,000 troops to participate in the war. Now all parties ask you to disband. Since you don't want to disband, you should find a place to vent your anger first. The current Outer Mongolia, let alone the 40,000 troops, Even if there are only four thousand, they can't stop it."

Xu Shuzheng thought for a moment and said, "Outer Mongolia... we have to wait for an opportunity."

Li Yu said in a leisurely manner: "It will be here soon."

Xu Shuzheng asked: "Why is Mr. Academician so sure?"

Li Yu said with a smile: "Even the Associated Press has news. They are very concerned about Soviet Russia now, and they will find out every scrap of news."

"Is this true?" Xu Shuzheng confirmed again.

"I never brag. If you don't believe it, just contact the American embassy for verification." Li Yu said.

Xu Shuzheng stood up immediately: "I will go back to the Prime Minister now!"

Li Yu cupped his hands and said, "I wish General Xu immediate success."

Xu Shuzheng's recovery of Outer Mongolia was a commendable victory for the Republic of China.

The process was actually quite smooth. A few months later, some high-level officials from Outer Mongolia took the initiative to express their goodwill to the Beiyang government, saying that they had had enough of Russia's bullying and were very envious of the various preferential treatment received by Inner Mongolia; if the Beiyang government could take over their debts, and Pay salaries to princes and lamas and they will be willing to give up their independence.

Of course the Beiyang government agreed, but it would only be one million silver dollars a year.

However, the Outer Mongolia Parliament later rejected the bill, and the Beiyang government immediately ordered Xu Shuzheng to march north.

This group of participating troops was well trained and strong, and the Mongolian checkpoints along the way basically did not dare to resist. The only thing that stood in the way was the White Russian army led by the former Russian advisor in Mongolia, but they could not stop the advance of Xu Shuzheng's army. After all, Russia was in a state of civil strife at this time and had no time to react. It could only sit back and watch as the Chinese army occupied key points in Outer Mongolia.

The return of Outer Mongolia brought the territory of the Republic of China to its largest size since the Revolution of 1911. As for leaving again later, that's another matter.

-

After seeing off Xu Shuzheng, Li Yu came to Peking University. It happened that Lu Xun came over to ask for submissions for "New Youth", and the two chatted casually.

Lu Xun said: "When the May Fourth movement was first launched, I was studying at home. I didn't expect things to develop to this point. Fortunately, the students actually saved the country."

Li Yu said: "Students are also scholars. Although many students are a little conceited and clamor every day to 'lead the masses to save China,' there have been plots of scholars saving the country since ancient times. It is understandable."

Lu Xun lamented: "Scholars save the country? Think about the deposed Cao, Lu, and Zhang, who were also the comrades who stayed in Japan together. What happened to these influential figures in the past? Why do reformers often become reformers again later? The target of today’s traitors, aren’t they the hot-blooded young people in Tokyo yesterday?”

Li Yu said: "Because the revolution is not over yet, anything can happen."

"Yeah, it's not over yet," Lu Xun sighed, "I feel like before the revolution, I was a slave; not long after the revolution, I was deceived by the slaves and became their slave.

“The first revolution was to fully mobilize the people, which was easy to achieve. The second reform was to ask the people to reform their bad nature, so they refused. Therefore, the most important thing from now on is to reform the national character. Otherwise, whether it is autocracy, republic, or What the heck, even though the signboard has been changed, the goods are still the same, it’s not good at all.”

Li Yu agreed: "What is more urgent in the future is ideological revolution. We must rely on Mr. De and Mr. Sai. There is no other way."

Hu Shi and Jiang Menglin suddenly came over and said eagerly to Li Yu: "Oh no! Principal Cai resigned and left!"

"Gone?" Li Yu asked in surprise, "Why?"

"We don't know either," Jiang Menglin said. "The principal only left one sentence."

"What?" Li Yu asked.

Jiang Menglin took out the newspaper and pointed to a sentence written by Cai Yuanpei on it: "I'm tired! The one who kills the king and the horse is on the roadside. The people are also tired, and the cars can take a rest."

Li Yu was confused: "What do you mean?"

Jiang Menglin and Hu Shi shook their heads and said, "We don't understand either."

Li Yu asked Lu Xun: "Mr. Zhou, do you know how to explain it?"

Lu Xun took a look and then shook his head: "Principal Cai was a former Jinshi of the Qing Dynasty, and his knowledge is much better than mine. I don't know where this sentence comes from."

"I'm just saying you still don't understand!" Gu Hongming walked over with a stick of civilization and said with a snort, "New culture, hum, new culture! You can't even understand the things of your ancestors, why are you still talking about new culture here? "

Hu Shi didn't bother to talk back to him, and asked in a pleading tone: "Mr. Gu, Professor Gu, do you know what Principal Cai means?"

Gu Hongming sat down proudly, picked up the newspaper and said: "Listen carefully, this sentence 'The person who kills the king's horse is on the roadside' comes from "Customs and Customs" written by Ying Shao, the prefect of Mount Tai in the Eastern Han Dynasty, which means a good horse. Encouraged by the constant cheers of the people around him, he ran faster and faster, unable to control himself, and eventually died of exhaustion on the roadside. As for "People are tired, cars can take a break" is taken from "Mao Shi·Daya·Minlao" Judging from this, Principal Cai wants to express that he is that horse. Although he has won countless applause, he is physically and mentally exhausted and is about to die. "

"I see," Hu Shi suddenly realized, "Professor Gu deserves to be knowledgeable about both ancient and modern times."

Gu Hongming said with satisfaction: "You must remember that old culture is also culture."

Jiang Menglin said: "Is it possible that Principal Cai feels overwhelmed because of what happened over a month ago?"

Li Yu said: "Principal Cai has always supported the student movement. Perhaps he felt that the situation was out of control. In any case, we quickly united with the teachers and sent a telegram to invite him back."

Cai Yuanpei did feel a little helpless.

After the victory of the May Fourth Movement, many students overextended their demands and demanded the right to decide to hire or fire teachers. Once their demands were not met, they often threatened to go on strike and cause trouble. If teachers were stricter in discipline or examinations, they would be immediately subject to a strike. be opposed to.

Strikes seem to have become a magic weapon used by students to threaten schools and teachers. The motivations became more and more complex, and a series of extremely excessive demands were immediately made, such as requiring the school to provide spring break allowances to subsidize travel expenses, requiring the school to subsidize student activity funds, and giving free handouts, etc.

When "street politics" becomes popular and passion increasingly replaces rationality, democratic methods and the framework of the rule of law are left behind.

Without Cai Yuanpei, it would be really difficult to discipline him. He must be brought back to restrain him.