Chapter 7 External forces, warlords and revolution

(April 10, 1923) Can the unification of China be realized? Except Zhang Shaozeng[1] and other fools, everyone knows that it will not be possible in the near future.Because the various factions in the country are unable to unify them now.Of course, unification is not mixing, so the current "provincial conferences", "state councils", down to sending representatives to consult with leaders of various factions are nothing more than empty talk.Analyzing the various factions in the country, there are no more than three factions: the revolutionary democrats, the non-revolutionary democrats, and the reactionaries.The main body of the revolutionary democrats is of course the Kuomintang, and the emerging communists are cooperating with the Kuomintang.The non-revolutionary democrats used to be the Progressive Party[2], but the Progressive Party disbanded, and the current faction is only the research department[3].Emerging intellectuals such as Hu Shi and Huang Yanpei[4] and emerging businessmen such as Nie Yuntai and Mu Ochu[5] also belonged to this faction.The reactionaries have the widest range, including the Zhi, Feng, and Wan factions[6] (although Feng and Wan are currently cooperating with the Kuomintang, this cannot last long, and they will always be the most reactionary).Among the three factions, the first two factions will cooperate in a later period, because the reactionary forces are too strong, and the research departments, intellectuals, and businessmen will temporarily abandon their non-revolutionary ideas and go to the revolutionary Kuomintang. Cooperation is like the Communist Party temporarily abandoning their most radical ideas and cooperating with the more radical Kuomintang.Therefore, the political situation in China in the future will be as follows: on one side, the most radical communist faction and the slow-moving research faction, intellectuals, and businessmen faction all cooperate with the Kuomintang to overthrow the common enemy and become a big democrat faction; on the other side is the reactionary warlord faction .The outcome of Chinese politics is that the democrats will defeat the warlords, but at present and in the near future, China will still be dominated by warlords: the politics will become darker, the finances will be more disordered, the army will increase, and industrial education will stagnate even more. The methods of oppressing the people are even more severe.To put it bluntly: the face of democracy has been scratched even more, and the reactionary feudal politics will be completely implemented. This kind of period may last for ten or eight years.

How do you know that this must be the case? You see how reactionary the political situation of international capitalist imperialism is! They are now coordinating their steps to invade China.Their steps were uncoordinated at first, but they were coordinated after some discussions at the Washington Conference[7].Although their coordination will eventually be destroyed, at present and in the near future, in order to make up for the losses of the previous war and conserve energy for the next war, they will definitely adopt coordinationism.The fact that the United States' open-door doctrine[8] can actually pass through Britain, France, and Japan, which have spheres of influence in China, is obvious evidence.The division of China is not good for the aggression of international capitalist imperialism; but the unification of China by democrats is more harmful to international capitalist imperialism than the chaos of democrats and warlords; only the complete occupation of China by reactionary politics will be beneficial to them. most profitable.This is the number one reason why China will continue to be ruled by reactionary warlords at present and in the near future.Judging from China's social and economic phenomena, China is now the most convenient for warlord rule.White wolves and old foreigners[9] can gather tens of thousands of people in the Henan area to disrupt several provinces; more than 90% of the people are uneducated; except for the slightly pitiful industries and commerce along the river, coast and railway, all belong to agricultural economic life; People's organizations, except those along the rivers, coasts, and railways that are a little weak according to their economic conditions, such as industrial and commercial, teaching staff, student groups, etc., are almost all self-sufficient organizations of family and rural handicraft industries; Mongolia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Tibet There is not a single inch of railway in Shaanxi, Gansu, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Guangxi; there is not a single political party in the country with 300,000 actual members; and China as a whole has a population of 400 million and a land area of ​​over 30 million square miles: in this social and economic situation, if the warlords do not come to rule, who else can rule? This is China at present and in the near future. The second reason why it must still be the world of warlords.

From the internal and external political and economic situation, we can conclude that China, at present and in the near future, will inevitably be dominated by reactionary warlords.During this period, external forces and warlords colluded to do evil, and an extremely reactionary and chaotic politics was bound to succeed.But the more reactionary and chaotic the politics, the more revolutionary ideas will be aroused in the people of the whole country, and the organizational ability of the people will be improved day by day.On the one hand, the southwestern provinces cannot be united by the north in the end, and although they are inevitably some small warlords, they are still places where revolutionaries hide after all.During this period, the number of democrats increased day by day, and the organization became stronger day by day.The result was that the democrats defeated the warlords, and China's democratic and independent politics was completed during this period.

We only know that this is an era of chaos, not an era of peaceful reunification, and politics is only more reactionary and chaotic; but this is the source of peaceful reunification, the birth mother of revolution, and the holy medicine of democracy and independence. Everyone must know it. According to the April 10, 1923 issue of the first issue of "New Era" published. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] Zhang Shaozeng (1879-1928), a native of Dacheng, Hebei.At that time, he was the prime minister of the Beiyang warlord government and once advocated welcoming Sun Yat-sen to Beijing to negotiate the reunification of the North and the South.

[2] The Progressive Party, formed by the merger of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party in May 1913, supports Yuan Shikai and opposes the Kuomintang, which holds the majority of seats in Congress.In September 1913, Xiong Xiling of the party became the prime minister of the cabinet.In 1913 and 1914, Yuan Shikai successively announced the dissolution of the Kuomintang and the National Congress, and then the party disintegrated on its own. [3] After Yuan Shikai's death in 1916, Li Yuanhong succeeded as president and restored the National Assembly.The former leaders of the Progressive Party, Liang Qichao and Tang Hualong, organized a constitutional research society, which was called the research department in order to study the constitution.Shanghai "Current Affairs News" and Beijing "Morning News" were its official newspapers at that time.

[4] Hu Shi (1891-1962), born in Jixi, Anhui.He was a professor at Peking University at the time.In 1922, he proposed a "good man government", advocating the organization of a "constitutional government" and the implementation of "planned politics".Huang Yanpei (1878-1965) was born in Chuansha, Jiangsu (now part of Shanghai).In 1905, he joined the Chinese League.In 1917, he founded the China Vocational Education Society in Shanghai and served as the director of the office. He advocated "making the proletarians have jobs and making the possessors happy", advocated the use of both hands and brains, and paid attention to practice.

[5] Nie Yuntai (1880-1953), born in Hengshan, Hunan.At the end of the Qing Dynasty, he inherited his father Nie Jiju's career and served as the manager of Futai Company and the prime minister of Hengfeng Textile New Bureau.After the end of the First World War, he founded Wusong Dazhonghua Spinning Mill and served as the chairman and general manager.In 1920, he served as the chairman of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce and the vice-chairman of the National Spinning Mills Federation.Mu Ouchu (1876-1943), a native of Shanghai.He successively founded Shanghai Deda Yarn Mill, Housheng Yarn Factory, Zhengzhou Yufeng Yarn Factory, and Zhonghua Quangong Bank, and served as manager or general manager.In 1922, he went to Honolulu to attend the Pacific Business Conference and served as the chief representative.He later served as the deputy minister of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of the Kuomintang government.

[6] Zhi, Feng, and Wan are the three major factions of the Beiyang warlords.The direct line was headed successively by Feng Guozhang, Cao Kun, and Wu Peifu, and was supported by Britain and the United States.The Feng Faction is the Fengtian Province (now Liaoning Province) warlord group represented by Zhang Zuolin. With the support of Japan in 1919, it controlled the entire Northeast.The Anhui faction is a warlord group from Anhui province represented by Duan Qirui and Xu Shuzheng, and they took refuge in Japan. [7] The Washington Conference refers to the meeting held in Washington, USA from November 12, 1921 to February 6, 1921, by representatives of nine countries including the United States, Britain, Japan, France, Italy, China, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Portugal. At the meeting, the meeting signed the "Nine Nations Pact", which stipulated the principles of "China's door is open" and "equal opportunities" for the interests of the big powers in China to jointly invade China.

[8] In September 1899, U.S. Secretary of State John Hay proposed for the first time in his notes to Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Russia that the U.S. recognizes the “spheres of influence” of the big powers in China; Obtain freedom of trade in all "spheres of influence", enjoy low tax rates and all privileged benefits.On July 3, 1900, John Hay sent another note to the governments of the six countries, advocating the application of the open-door policy to "all parts of China" in order to share the interests of aggression and turn China into a semi-colony shared by imperialism.Later, the United States used "open door" and "equal opportunities" as its diplomatic means to crowd out other imperialist forces and dominate China.

[9] White Wolf, that is, Bai Lang, a person's name.In 1912, people gathered in western Henan to oppose Yuan Shikai's rule.In the summer of 1913, in response to Sun Yat-sen's "Second Revolution", marched into the border of Henan, Hubei and Anhui, and was renamed "Citizens Fighting Thieves Army" in 1914.The old foreigner, one said Li Mingsheng, another said Zhang Qing, also known as Zhang Guoxin.On October 27, 1922, the old foreigners led more than 10,000 people and united with some of Zhao Ti's old troops to revolt in western Henan, calling the Jianguo Army to aid the Henan Army.