Chapter 31 Chapter Eight Reform Movement of 1898

In July of the 20th year of Guangxu (Jiawu Year of the Lunar Calendar, 1894 A.D.), the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 broke out.The war lasted for three months. The navy and army of the Qing Dynasty were defeated, and the entire Beiyang Navy was wiped out.The Japanese army successively invaded and occupied Jiulian City, Andong (now Dandong, Liaoning), Dalian, Lushun, Weihai, Shandong and other places in the northeast of my country.On April 17 of the following year, Li Hongzhang, the "first class plenipotentiary minister" of the Qing government, signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki with Japanese Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito in Shimonoseki.There are 11 clauses in the treaty, the main contents are: (1) China recognizes North Korea's complete "independence"; (2) cedes the southern part of Fengtian Province (that is, the Liaodong Peninsula), the entire island of Taiwan and all affiliated islands and the Penghu Islands to Japan; (3) Compensation for Japanese military expenses of 20 million taels; (4) Four treaty ports in Kaisha, Chongqing, Suzhou, and Hangzhou; (5) Allowing Japan to open factories in China's treaty ports, and the products are sold in the mainland of China, and only taxed as imported goods; (6) Give Japan one-sided most-favored-nation status.

After the news of the signing of the "Treaty of Shimonoseki" came out, the ruling and opposition parties were in an uproar, and a wave of opposition to the cession of land and surrender was immediately set off across the country.In Beijing, calls to reject the peace talks and to abolish the traitorous treaty resounded through the sky.Some officials of the Qing court were also extremely dissatisfied with this agreement. Some even went to Shu Guangxu Emperor to plead for Li Hongzhang to be killed in order to calm the anger of the people all over the world.The people of Liaodong voluntarily formed the Volunteer Army of the Republic of China with more than 100,000 people, ready to fight to the death with the Japanese invaders.The people of Taiwan strongly protested against the cession of the island, expressing that they would rather be "righteous citizens" than "surrender captives".

After the Sino-Japanese War, the three imperialist countries, Russia, France, and Germany, took advantage of the fire and looted them. In order to achieve their own goals, they joined forces to interfere in Japan's return of Liaodong.In June of the 22nd year of Guangxu (AD 1896), Russia took advantage of the opportunity of Li Hongzhang to go to Russia to celebrate the coronation of the Tsar, and signed the Sino-Russian "Treaty of Mutual Assistance and Assistance against the Enemy" with him, that is, the "Sino-Russian Secret Treaty".Under the signboard of "common defense against Japan", Tsarist Russia extended its claws into the northeast.They built a Middle East Railway across Heilongjiang, Jilin and Vladivostok, controlled the so-called "China Eastern Provincial Railway Company" jointly established by China and Russia, and opened factories and mines along the railway, mining coal mines, and brought most of the Northeast into its influence within range.What followed were powers from various countries occupying China's ports one after another, competing for the right to build railways and dividing spheres of influence.France is aiming at Yunnan, Guangxi, and Guangdong, Germany is focusing on Jiaozhou Bay in Shandong, Britain is trying to expand the boundaries of Hong Kong, and the United States, Italy and other countries are also stepping into China to find their own territories. China is facing a serious situation of being completely divided by imperialist powers.

The "Treaty of Shimonoseki" stipulated that China should pay indemnities to Japan on schedule and in accordance with the amount.However, for the Qing government, whose annual income is only more than 80 million taels, it is simply unable to repay.In order to prepare huge reparations, they had to borrow foreign debts from the big powers of various countries, and the big powers wanted to use the loans to strengthen their control over China.Therefore, Russia, Britain, Germany and other countries competed with each other around the loan issue.These loans have high interest rates and harsh conditions. They are aggressive political loans of imperialist financial capital. They are mortgaged by China's customs tax, lijin, and salt tax. The disaster is getting worse.The Qing government was eager to raise funds, and the Ministry of Household Affairs made "overall plans" to find ways to raise funds.For example, the old methods of "donating and losing" (that is, selling officials), "paying service" (that is, ordering business and industry to donate money) and other old methods were moved out; the salaries of officials and the money for supporting honesty were deducted; the green battalion and other soldiers were eliminated to save military expenses; Withholding and deduction of loan balance, that is, when disbursing funds and salaries, "Kuping one tael, and internal deduction of six cents, which is Jingping one tael".In addition, they cleverly set up a name to search for the common people.For example, in the Zhili area of ​​the capital, there are many methods of Lepai. Some donate according to cattle and horses, some donate according to license plate households, and some donate according to villages. It is clearly called a car, but in fact the whole bank discounts it, one horse and one cow Hundreds of strings of money, and dozens of strings; one brand and one household donate tens of strings, and there is a difference between seven or eight strings; large villages with more than 300 households donate 2,000 strings and 1,000 strings; small villages with less than 300 households donate seven or eight strings Hundreds of strings, and a small village with more than a dozen households also donated three to four hundred strings.The government servants are everywhere, calling for payment within a time limit, and if they are not satisfied, they will be arrested and imprisoned.This is the case all over the country, and the people of Li are miserable.

The imperialist powers exported capital in China, borrowed a lot from the Qing government, built railways across the country, exploited mineral deposits, plundered raw materials, set up various factories, and dumped commodities, which greatly hindered the development of Chinese national capitalism and accelerated the development of urban and rural handicrafts. bankruptcy.In this unprecedented critical situation of national survival, some intellectuals who reflected the wishes and requirements of the national bourgeoisie were worried about the severe situation of the country, deeply felt the decay of feudal autocratic rule, and realized that the Westernization Movement had no power to recover.They put forward the ideas of "reform" and "reform", attacked the outdated feudal concept of "observing the precepts of the ancestors", and cleaned up the muddy water of feudal society for thousands of years.The roar of reform that had been bred for many years was like a spring thunder, bringing vitality to the dull ideological circles. More and more patriotic intellectuals gathered under this banner, and the patriotic national salvation movement spread rapidly.