Twentieth Century Chronicle

Page 139

The meeting lasted until 2 a.m., and many committee members still felt that it was not enough. The reason they were so engaged was that the meeting was addressing the question of what the next steps for the Labour Party should focus on.

Previously, everyone's focus was on ensuring the survival of the Wuhan regime, and the party maintained internal unity under this goal. However, with the resolution of the Tibet issue between China and Britain, and the Sino-Russian war demonstrating Russia's defeat, the Wuhan regime finally survived.

It can be said that with the end of the Sino-Russian War, no force was able to destroy the Wuhan regime in the short term. This was not only because the great powers needed to reassess Wuhan's strength, but also because Wuhan had established its domestic prestige through this war, truly overwhelming the Beiyang and other local forces, and becoming the largest military and political force in the country.

Under such circumstances, the Labour Party was divided on how to develop. Although the peace and construction plan was supported by most members, it was not in line with the current situation of rising revolutionary sentiment in the country and was a conservative policy.

The majority of party members chose conservatism for two reasons. First, they disagreed with the radicals' line, believing it was impractical. At least, Wuhan's strength was not yet sufficient to simultaneously eliminate various domestic forces and reclaim privileges from foreign powers. Second, the mentality of being content with small gains also influenced many party members. In the face of such a favorable situation, they were unwilling to continue taking revolutionary risks and wanted to secure their benefits.

This meeting resolved the party members' doubts about the next step, realizing that they could rapidly develop the labor force while maintaining the revolutionary high tide. This would not require taking risks or abandoning the high revolutionary enthusiasm of the people, allowing the party to continue leading the domestic political trend, which was naturally the best option.

After the meeting ended, the summer heat gradually dissipated, and Lin Xinyi slept well that night. He woke up around seven o'clock the next morning, a habit he had picked up in India. Early morning is the coolest time of day in India, and waking up at this time is the most efficient time to think about problems.

However, after Lin Xinyi got up, he suddenly remembered that he was no longer in India and it seemed that there was no official business to attend to. Nevertheless, he still got out of bed and washed up as usual. The place he was staying was actually Tian Junyi's residence. Tian Junyi's family lived on the second floor, while the first floor was where Tian Junyi received guests and worked, and there were also guest rooms.

Tian Junyi let him stay here so that they could have more time to talk. After all, Tian Junyi's workload was very heavy, and he hardly had time to leave this small building. Lin Xinyi could understand, because he had just as much work to do in India. After all, the population under control in Wuhan had actually reached about 100 million, equivalent to a quarter of China's population. This was also the reason why the Party hoped to digest the situation first and slow down the expansion.

Tian Junyi's daily routine was very similar to Lin Xinyi's. When he finished washing up, Tian Junyi had already come downstairs, so the two sat down together to enjoy breakfast. Although Tian Junyi still maintained his habit of not talking while eating, he immediately said after seeing Lin Xinyi put down his chopsticks, "Perfect timing. There are still some things I haven't figured out from last night. Since we have nothing to do now, why don't we talk about them again?"

Lin Xinyi nodded in agreement and followed Tian Junyi into the office, where the two closed the door and began their conversation. After sitting down, Tian Junyi frankly said, "Yesterday you said you wanted to conclude a peace treaty with the Russian people that would not cede territory or pay reparations, and I support that. However, due to time constraints, you didn't elaborate. So, could you tell me now how this treaty should be concluded?"

Faced with Tian Junyi's urgent gaze, Lin Xinyi thought seriously for a moment before speaking: "Actually, the treaty itself is not the problem. The problem lies in whether the treaty can be recognized by all parties, or how to make the treaty we are leading a reality recognized by all parties."

We should now be clear that the pre-war international order in Northeast Asia is obviously no longer possible. Therefore, how to construct a post-war Northeast Asian order is a process of power struggle among various parties. Our proposed peace treaty, which involves no territorial concessions and no reparations, may not necessarily achieve final victory. Without sufficient support, our proposition will remain merely a slogan.

Therefore, to turn our claims into reality, we must understand who the forces currently determining the order in Northeast Asia are, and how they are planning for the post-war Northeast Asian landscape. Only by understanding this intelligence and formulating detailed and comprehensive plans can we realize our claims.

Upon hearing this, Tian Junyi immediately perked up and said, "Since you've already considered these issues, you must already have a preliminary plan, right? I'd like to hear your plan."

Lin Xinyi paused for a moment before saying, "Although I did do some research before the war, it's probably not accurate to say that I have a complete plan. After all, no one could have predicted how the situation would develop. Of course, this is much better than what I imagined before the war."

I am very willing to discuss with you the establishment of a post-war order in Northeast Asia, but how to implement it requires further discussion among Party comrades. Therefore, I can only offer my personal views, which cannot be considered a formal plan or proposal.

Although Lin Xinyi said this, Tian Junyi did not see it that way. He felt that Lin Xinyi was just unwilling to overstep his bounds and take over the practical activities of the Chinese revolution. However, he did not consider Lin Xinyi an outsider. Sometimes he felt that the other party seemed to be too cautious.

In fact, during this era, quite a few Japanese people participated in Chinese politics. Whether it was the support of the Japanese political circles for Liang Qichao and other reformers, or the direct participation of Japanese ronin groups in the revolutionary actions of the Tongmenghui, these have become well-known realities.

However, this situation did not arouse widespread resentment among the people. Instead, it sparked a trend of Asian unity among progressive intellectuals. After all, compared with the Japanese, the Manchus were outsiders to China at that time. Even Han intellectuals who were loyal to the Qing Dynasty did not dare to show too much hostility on this issue, so as not to provoke the dissatisfaction of the Manchus. The reformers even had the idea of ​​inviting Ito Hirobumi to serve as prime minister and preside over the reform.

Therefore, Lin Xinyi's change of name and joining the Chinese Workers' Party did not cause any estrangement for Tian Junyi and other high-ranking party members. On the contrary, in the party's founding and revolutionary practice, most of the theories put forward by Lin Xinyi were proven true, which made most of the party's high-ranking members sincerely convinced of Lin Feng's theories.

If possible, Tian Junyi would prefer Lin Xinyi to carry out revolutionary work in China under the identity of Lin Feng, as this would greatly benefit the Party and the revolutionary cause. However, he was aware that Lin Xinyi's concern for the Chinese revolution was linked to the Asian revolution, because Lin believed that the Chinese revolution could not succeed alone, which was also the source of internationalist thought within the Party.

While Tian Junyi was slightly distracted, Lin Xinyi began to analyze: "Currently, the powers capable of intervening in the Northeast Asian situation are Russia, Japan, and Britain; the powers that cannot directly intervene in the Northeast Asian situation but can exert influence are Germany, the United States, and France; and the European countries such as Italy, which cannot exert influence but are trying to gain some benefits, are the ones that are trying to gain some benefits."

This war proved this point: Japan and Britain directly intervened in the war, while Germany, the United States, and France demonstrated their influence through war bonds, and other powers had almost no influence on the war.

Although Russia was the loser in this war, as an empire spanning Eurasia, it did not disintegrate. Therefore, Russia may slow its expansion into the Far East, but it will certainly not relinquish its influence there.

Although Japan and Britain were the victors, their fundamental positions were different. Britain joined the war to maintain the status quo, opposing Russian expansion and, similarly, Japan's post-war expansion in the region. Japan, on the other hand, joined the war to expand its influence in East Asia and to secure its own sources of raw materials and markets for capitalism.

Germany and France's main focus remained in Europe, and their actions in the war were closely related to their opposing camps in Europe. Germany wanted Russia to concentrate its attention in the Far East, yet it was unwilling to relinquish its own interests there, making its actions in the war quite contradictory.

France's position was clear: it courted Russia but opposed Russia's excessive investment in the Far East. This is why the French banking consortium cut off loans to Russia after the Trans-Siberian Railway was severed.

The situation in the United States is somewhat unique. The US harbors extraordinary ambitions for Eurasia, but with the Atlantic and Indian Oceans controlled by the British Royal Navy, the US can only seek control of the Pacific Ocean. To control the Pacific, it needs a foothold in East Asia. Therefore, the US attempted to cooperate with Japan, using Japanese power to gain a foothold on the East Asian continent.

However, the nature of imperialism dictates that cooperation between Japan and the United States is impossible. Just as the United States is now mediating the war and preventing Japan from gaining greater benefits in this war, Japan will inevitably break its promises to American capitalists after the war and seek to monopolize the interests of the Korean Peninsula and Manchuria.

Therefore, postwar China didn't have many options. The first was to unite with progressive forces of various ethnic groups in Northeast Asia to oppose imperialism and colonialism. This included not only ethnic minorities in Manchuria, but also those in Korea and the areas under Russian control. They were the true allies of the Chinese working class.

So how do we unite these peoples? A peace treaty that promises no territorial concessions and no reparations is clearly insufficient. Crucially, we must recognize national self-determination in the region and establish regional people's governments on that basis. The people's governments of Manchuria should oppose feudal rule and external imperialist invasion; the people's governments of Korea should oppose the Yangban landlord class and Japanese imperialism; and Soviet Russia should replace Tsarist Russia's power in the Far East.

Only when people's governments are established in these regions can true peace among the people be achieved. In this way, the power of Tsarist Russia and Japan in the region will be replaced and restrained, while the Chinese people's government will become a strong backing for Soviet Russia and the Korean people. This will limit the power of Russia and Japan in the region. What we need to consider is how to break the alliance of the great powers and unite some of them against others, thereby seizing the dominant power in establishing the order in Northeast Asia…”

Chapter 497 The Post-War Order in Northeast Asia (Part Two)

Although Lin Xinyi said he would consider how to break the alliance of the great powers and unite some of them against others, he quickly came up with specific measures, indicating that he had been considering this issue for quite some time.

"...The reason for disrupting the alliance of the great powers was that they had different interests. On the one hand, the contradictions between the great powers had led to a confrontation between the two major camps in Europe. In the past, such confrontations usually resulted in a winner-takes-all situation. Therefore, at this time, the European powers' desire to compete for interests in East Asia was a relatively secondary issue; winning the victory of their own camp was the primary issue."

On the other hand, regarding the distribution of interests in East Asia, both Japan and Russia advocated monopolizing them and then gradually digesting them, while other powers wanted to share the benefits equally. After all, apart from Japan and Russia, no other power had the conditions to occupy and rule East Asia. Therefore, uniting with other powers to counter Japan and Russia was a feasible strategy for us.

So what was the material basis for our alliance with the great powers? I believe it was the development and utilization of natural resources in East Asia. Looking at the industrialization of Europe and the United States, at least two basic conditions are needed to develop industry: abundant natural resources and a large population. Only when these two basic conditions are met can external investment of capital and technology stimulate the rapid development of industry in the region.

Although East Asia's natural resources are not as abundant as those of North America, its population far exceeds that of North America, thus providing the basic conditions for industrial development. Regarding industrialization, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie share the same view: the development of productive forces is essential for the growth of both the proletariat and capital. Their conflict lies in the distribution of the fruits of labor after the development of productive forces.

Therefore, in the early stages of industrialization, there is a possibility of alliance between the proletariat and capitalism. Only after the initial industrialization is completed, or after the feudal landlord class is overthrown, will the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie rise to become the principal contradiction in society.

The Russian-occupied Far East and China's Manchuria and Mongolia are, currently, resource-rich but sparsely populated undeveloped or underdeveloped regions, similar to North America before the Civil War. Therefore, by investing immigrants, capital, and modern technology, industrial development in these regions could outpace densely populated areas of East Asia, as they do not face issues of land-population conflicts or land ownership.

Taking all these factors into account, our policy was to unite with the great powers such as Britain, the United States, Germany, and France to develop Manchuria and Eastern Siberia economically, and to recognize the self-determination of the local peoples politically, thereby dispelling the ambitions of the Japanese and Russian imperialists to partition the region…”

Tian Junyi heard Lin Xinyi emphasize national self-determination once again. Although he agreed with this proposition, he did not elevate the principle of national self-determination to such a height as Lin Xinyi. After all, there were ethnic minorities in the Huguang region, but these ethnic minorities were almost all outside the mainstream society. Whether in the Ming Dynasty or the Qing Dynasty, the main pursuit of these ethnic minorities was to maintain their own existence, and they rarely fought with the Han people for social dominance.

Therefore, Tian Junyi's view of ethnic self-determination was to oppose the interfering policies implemented by successive dynasties on these southwestern ethnic minorities, such as the "reform of native chieftains and the replacement of native officials with centrally appointed officials." However, he did not recognize their right to establish an independent state, and he did not consider the unity of these ethnic minorities very important. At least, there were almost no representatives of ethnic minorities in the Southwest Administrative Committee, which was far inferior to the Shannan Military and Political Committee and the Tibet Military and Political Committee.

He quickly understood Lin Xinyi's intention in repeatedly emphasizing the principle of national self-determination. For the mainland, the principle of national self-determination was more like an ideological struggle, involving few interests. However, for the border regions, the principle of national self-determination became a struggle for interests, even over class contradictions.

In regions like Tibet and Shannan, where ethnic minorities are the majority, Han Chinese are seen as outsiders. Without adhering to the principle of national self-determination, it is impossible for Han Chinese to eliminate the reactionary forces among these ethnic minorities. Here, the principle of national self-determination is a manifestation of the common interests of the working class of different ethnic groups.

The Russian Far East, Inner and Outer Mongolia, and Manchuria are multi-ethnic regions and areas where the powers of various countries are intertwined. The Han Chinese cannot hold an overwhelming advantage in this region as they do in the interior. If the strength of the working class of various ethnic groups cannot be united, it will be impossible to establish a stable social order in this region after the war. Under the instigation of the great powers and reactionary forces of various ethnic groups, this region will only become like the south, with the conflict between the host and the guest, and the killings between ethnic groups will be endless. The Workers' Party will then lose control of this region.

Just as Tian Junyi nodded in agreement with Lin Xinyi's views, Lin Xinyi continued, "...Of course, while we should talk about economic cooperation with the great powers such as Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, we must also understand the positions of these great powers to be targeted and not let them achieve a united front of interests."

For example, Britain and France's stance on East Asia is to maintain the old order and obtain excessive returns on investment. However, given the competition they now face from emerging capitalist countries, their investments in East Asia tend to be short-term and quick-return investments rather than long-term projects, because their main interests are not in East Asia. In fact, East Asia is a secondary interest that can be abandoned.

This is why, although Britain wanted to stop Russia's expansion in the Far East, it did not decide to directly intervene in the war. However, in Crimea, Britain took direct action to defend its control of the Mediterranean. France's position was similar, and under pressure from Germany, France was now making concessions on its interests outside of Europe and the Near East. This is why we were able to regain the rights to the Zhengtai Railway and the Yuehan Railway, and why the United States was able to obtain the right to build the Panama Canal.

However, unlike the United States, Germany, as an emerging capitalist power, faced resistance from Britain and France in its colonial activities in Europe, the Americas, Africa, the Near East, and the Middle East. Therefore, East Asia, a region beyond the reach of Britain and France, became the place where they could break through their predicament.

Both Germany and the United States seek economic interests in East Asia, as well as political influence to reshape the Eurasian order. To achieve these goals, they are willing to make long-term investments in East Asia to expand their influence. Of course, American capital, isolated from Europe, is bolder, while German capital, surrounded by Britain, France, and Russia, is more cautious.

Therefore, when Wuhan demonstrated its ability to withstand the pressure exerted by Britain and Russia during this war, German capital increased its investment in Wuhan, while American capital also began to show a friendly attitude. This is because only an East Asian regime capable of independently resisting the pressure from Britain and Russia deserves the support of German and American capital. This is also an instinctive impulse of Germany and the United States to challenge the old order.

Therefore, we must present German and American capital with a prospect that can shake up the old order in order to secure further investment from both countries in East Asian industrialization, thereby accelerating East Asian industrialization.

Upon hearing this, Tian Jun immediately blurted out, "You mean the Eurasian railway line?"

The basis for cooperation between the Workers' Party and Germany is the plan to build a railway line from Qingdao to Berlin, which complements Germany's pursuit of the 3B railway construction.

The 3B railway was a political and economic endeavor by Germany to extend its influence into the Indian Ocean. However, due to obstruction from Britain and Russia, the final section of this railway, from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf, was almost abandoned. Without this final section, the railway could not connect to the Persian Gulf, and the 3B railway lost much of its significance.

Although the outbreak of nationalist movements in India and the Chinese uprising in India later forced Britain to relent and agree to grant Germany the right to build the railway, the lack of pro-German forces in the Persian Gulf region meant that it was still a long way off before Germany could make the railway truly effective.

Therefore, the railway construction plan from Qingdao through Central Asia to the Persian Gulf became very important to Germany, especially after Russia became the loser in the war. Germany further realized that China could become a fulcrum for German capital in the East. If China could reach the power of Italy or Austria-Hungary, then Germany and China would be able to complete the railway, thus establishing a Eurasian railway bridge that did not pass through the European and Russian regions.

Ever since Cai E cut off the Trans-Siberian Railway, securing victory in the war, the Germans' interest in the Longhai Railway had surged, and they visited him multiple times to discuss the construction of the Eurasian Railway. Therefore, when Lin Xinyi mentioned overthrowing the old order, Tian Junyi immediately thought of the Eurasian Railway plan that the Germans were so enthusiastic about.

Lin Xinyi was not surprised by this. If Tian Junyi still couldn't react by now, he wouldn't have been able to lead the Labor Party to this point in the past few years. He nodded in agreement and said, "Yes, it is the Eurasian Railway. The Russians have already built one, but they refuse to allow Germany and the United States to interfere with the Eurasian Railway passing through their own territory."

However, for Germany, the United States, and even Russia, the Eurasian Railway was a crucial weapon against British naval power. Russia's expansion in the Far East was precisely aimed at gaining complete control of this Eurasian Railway, but now that Russia has failed, it will not seek control of the Eurasian Railway again in the short term, as its internal contradictions have outweighed its external ones.

However, for Germany and the United States, the Eurasian Railway would be a breakthrough point to circumvent British control over the world. The decline of Russian power also greatly increased their chances of controlling the Eurasian Railway. However, Germany preferred complete control of the railway, while the United States, being an external power, preferred cooperation with the countries along the route.

For us, the Eurasian railway line will not only bring revolutionary forces to Central Asia, but will also unite the power of East Asia, enabling us to resist oppression from the sea. Railways are the key to land power countering sea power. Only when China completes the construction of its inland railway network can it truly drive the great powers out of the coastal areas. Therefore, the faster the railway construction, the faster China's power will grow.

Russia's defeat in this war was not only due to the loss of control over the Far East, but also because it created a window of opportunity in Manchuria, Outer Mongolia, and the Russian Far East. If we can establish a genuine people's government on this land, then neither Russia, Japan, nor any other great power will be able to occupy this region in the future.

How should we establish a people's government in this region? I believe we should start with economic development, which is the third point I want to make…”

Chapter 498 The Post-War Order in Northeast Asia (Part 3)

"...The so-called people's regime, I believe, can only be called a people's regime when the people occupy a dominant position in politics, economy, and culture. In present-day China, including other parts of Asia, the people have not actually reached a level of general awakening. Their understanding of their own class interests is vague, and their values ​​are still subordinate to the landlord class. Therefore, they feel that selfishness is the only way to maximize their own interests."

For example, some workers believe that the interests of foreign workers are none of their business. They think it's enough for them to take care of themselves, so why should they worry about workers from India, Japan, Russia, Vietnam, and other foreign countries? After all, they themselves are struggling to make ends meet.

This kind of thinking stems from the peasant mentality that arose in the context of a small-scale peasant economy. The mentality of indifference to worldly affairs, coupled with the belief in wealth through hard work, determined that peasants were incapable of leading a revolution. Because when they abandoned foreign laborers, they didn't realize that laborers from other regions or villages could be abandoned in the same way. This selfish and class-limited mentality meant that peasants could only rebel, not revolt. Even if a poor peasant like Zhu Yuanzhang succeeded in rebellion, he only made himself part of the landlord class, rather than liberating the poor.

Therefore, for the Labour Party, the people can only be the proletariat or intellectuals who identify with the proletariat, and not the landlord class, the bourgeoisie, or small private owners. A politics led by the people must be against oppression, an economy led by the people must be against private ownership, and a culture led by the people must be healthy and vibrant.

However, before the people awaken, we need a group of progressive individuals who identify with proletarian values ​​to seize power on behalf of the people, and then use that power to transform society and promote the awakening of the people. This is the significance of the existence of the Labour Party.

Simply put, the Labour Party is not the people, but a part of the people. Its purpose is to promote the awakening of the people. Therefore, how to promote the awakening of the people is the fundamental work of the party. Revolution and seizing power are only a small part of this work. The next task is how to strengthen the power of the people and how to enable the people to participate highly in political, economic and cultural activities. This is the key task of the party.

The economic work in Wuhan is going very well, and the proletariat is growing rapidly. However, compared to the current surge in the revolutionary situation, the people's power is not growing very fast. After the redistribution of land, the number of small private owners is growing the fastest. Compared to the number of small private owners, the number of proletarians is not even a fraction of that.

Because the number of small private owners is so enormous, there are far more people in Wuhan who want to get rich than who want revolution. If this situation cannot be reversed, the political forces representing these small private owners will grow rapidly. They will either infiltrate the Party to change its revolutionary line or establish a powerful petty-bourgeois alliance against the Party outside the Party.

Therefore, reforming small private owners and strengthening the public ownership economy is the material guarantee for the Party to resist the erosion of petty-bourgeois ideology and maintain its progress on the revolutionary path. Reforming small private owners in rural areas cannot rely solely on cooperatives; encouraging cooperatives to develop into collective economies is necessary. However, for an agricultural society, such reform is quite difficult. Before education reached rural areas, farmers found it hard to accept the transformation of privately owned land into collectively owned land.

Therefore, while reforming small private owners, it is necessary to accelerate the growth of the public sector economy. Only when the public sector economy reaches a certain scale can we suppress small private owners and the private sector economy, and bring about a fundamental change in the country's economic pillars. Only through the organizational power of the Party and the material support provided by the public sector economy can the people firmly grasp the state apparatus and suppress domestic reactionary forces.

I believe the key to accelerating the growth of the public sector economy lies in developing Manchuria, Mongolia, and Outer Northeast China. These regions are rich in natural resources and sparsely populated, which means that developing these regions will not provoke resistance from small private owners. At the same time, the new immigrants who are relocated here, having left their original social environment, are also conducive to carrying out collectivist education.

If we can establish a large number of state-run farms, collective farms, state-run ranches, and state-run industrial and mining enterprises in these regions, it means that once these regions are developed, we will have at least tens of millions of proletarians. With this force, not only will the Chinese revolution succeed, but the revolutions in neighboring Korea, Japan, and Russia will also benefit.

Developing this region will also provide a great opportunity for people to participate in political, economic, and cultural activities, and I believe we can learn many valuable lessons from it…”

Tian Junyi felt as if he had returned to that summer in Japan, listening to the other person talk about the world situation and the future of the Chinese revolution. This time, he could still only be a listener, but it was better than last time. This time, he could understand almost everything Lin Xinyi said, unlike the first time when he could only memorize it first.

Lin Xinyi's three points essentially provided a clear analysis of the current domestic and international situation in China. Tian Junyi felt that this was the first time he had seen the current situation so thoroughly. These three points were also interconnected; formulating specific policies based on them would inevitably be mutually reinforcing. If successful, as Lin Xinyi envisioned, Manchuria would not only avoid being separated from the great powers but could also become a source of revolutionary power in Northeast Asia. An industrialized Manchuria would completely eliminate the covetousness of Japan and Russia for the region, and might even export revolution to them.

However, Tian Junyi still asked Lin Xinyi with some concern: "If we adopt this strategy, will the relationship between China and Japan become tense? If a conflict breaks out between China and Japan, can the Asian economic circle centered on China, Japan and India still be established?"

Lin Xinyi nodded in approval of Tian Junyi's question. He also felt that this question was indeed very important. From a rational point of view, establishing an Asian economic circle with China, Japan and India at its core would actually be more beneficial to Japan's economy than occupying Manchuria. Only stubborn farmers would think that seizing a piece of land that is difficult to develop is more important than establishing good neighborly relations and a common economic entity.

However, those currently in power in Japan are almost all like this stubborn peasant; in their minds, it's better to let the land they've seized rot in their hands than to let it rot in their neighbors' hands, because they themselves are at a disadvantage. Russians have this same character, which is why Russia has a vast territory but no friends; every neighbor wants Russia dead.

Without Lenin, Russia would have restored the territory of the Grand Duchy of Moscow in 1917, and Lenin wouldn't have been humiliated and betrayed by Putin. Of course, this Putin was even less capable than Nicholas II, who at least mobilized 500 million Russians to fight for three years. This Putin couldn't even mobilize 100 million Russians, and the Ukrainians eventually became Russia's enemies.

Reasonable persuasion alone is clearly useless when dealing with a group of stubborn farmers. Therefore, Lin Xinyi sincerely replied to Tian Junyi: "The relationship between China and Japan should rely on the progressive forces of both sides, not the stubborn forces on both sides. The temporary antagonism between China and Japan will not change the general trend of the Asian revolution. It is what we need to be wary of that the antagonism between China and Japan is regarded as the antagonism between the Chinese and Japanese people."

Of course, given the current strength of reactionary forces in Japan, progressive forces within Japan are clearly unable to dominate Sino-Japanese relations. Therefore, a progressive China capable of exerting external pressure on Japan becomes extremely important. If China demonstrates its ability to resist imperialist invasion and its progressiveness in liberating Asia, then reactionary forces within Japan will be weakened, and the Japanese people will have an opportunity to awaken.

Especially now, although Japan obtained a huge sum of money from China through the First Sino-Japanese War to develop its capital and military power, it remains essentially an agricultural country. This war has exposed Japan's weaknesses. Although Japan defeated the Russian fleet at sea, none of its capital ships were domestically built, demonstrating the weakness of its heavy industry.

Japan's continuous fundraising for the war in Europe and America demonstrates that it simply could not afford a major industrial-era war, meaning it lacked the capacity to conquer China alone. Therefore, when China proposed an equal peace treaty with no territorial concessions or indemnities, and a call for the unity of the people, it inevitably dealt a blow to Japanese imperialism.

Russia may not abandon its ambitions toward China, but it will certainly agree to an equal treaty that does not involve territorial concessions or reparations, thereby rejecting Japan's postwar attempt to gain control of Northeast Asia. Therefore, even if China does not send representatives to this mediation conference, I believe Japan will find it difficult to gain any benefits from Russia.

The Japanese ruling class has severely depleted the enthusiasm and savings of the people for this war. It is said that domestic tax rates have tripled compared to pre-war levels. Their method of appeasing the people is to promise substantial benefits from Russia to compensate for the war expenditures. This is clearly a blatant lie, and once exposed, the current Japanese government will collapse.

Therefore, conflicts will arise between the Army and the Navy. After all, the mainland policy is the Army's national policy, but the consequences become the responsibility of the Army and the Navy. What we need to do is to make it the Army's responsibility to create Sino-Japanese antagonism, while the Navy's proposition is to develop Asian economic and trade cooperation based on Sino-Japanese-Indian cooperation. In that case, Sino-Japanese confrontation is not necessarily a bad thing.

Hearing this, Tian Junyi breathed a sigh of relief. He finally understood the other party's thinking. However, he quickly realized what was going on and asked Lin Xinyi with slight surprise, "You're still planning to go back to Japan? Given your current situation, are you sure you won't run into any trouble if you go back?"

After thinking for a moment, Lin Xinyi said, "Of course I won't go back unprepared. As long as I choose the right time, there shouldn't be any risks."

Importantly, Japan's social situation is different from that of China and India, making the revolutionary situation in Japan exceptionally complex. However, if we cannot bring Japan onto the path of revolution, we will not be able to control the Asian seas, China and India will be separated, and it will be difficult for Asian revolutions to unite.

Therefore, we need someone to lead the Japanese revolution, at least to separate Japan from the British and American powers as much as possible, to prevent Japan from becoming a force used by the British and American powers to undermine the revolution in Asia. I think, currently, no one is more suitable than me to take charge of the Japanese revolution; at least, if I have nothing to do after I return, I will inevitably enter the Naval General Staff…”

Chapter 499 Huaxing Society

Lingjiao Lake, located northwest of Hankou Park and directly north of Dazhimen Railway Station, was once just a natural pond on the outskirts of Hankou, belonging to the rural area outside the city, just like Hankou Park. However, Lingjiao Lake has now become part of the edge of Hankou city, with a series of streets built around it, including factories, residential areas, and commercial districts. Although it is not as bustling as the area around Hankou Park, it is completely different from the pastoral scene.

Because of its proximity to Hankou Park and the fact that land prices here are much lower than in Jiang'an District, many politicians and members of minor political parties have settled here.

The Wuhan Workers', Peasants', and Soldiers' Committee was not without its internal struggles. The first was a challenge launched by powerful figures in the military against the Workers' Party. Although the Workers' Party firmly controlled the three towns of Wuhan during the mutiny, the troops stationed in areas outside Wuhan that favored revolution were not entirely under their control. Even within the three towns of Wuhan, some officers did not fully agree with the Workers' Party's propositions. However, with the support of the working class and soldiers, the Party ultimately prevailed.

The second challenge came from the gentry, who opposed rent reduction and more radical land reform policies. They attempted to strike at the Labour Party politically and economically, but the gentry were expelled from the committee after the Labour Party used its armed forces.

After these struggles, the Workers' Party gained an overwhelming advantage in the Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Committees. Taking the Wuhan Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Committee as an example, the committee grew from a little over a hundred people at the beginning to four or five hundred people in 1907. However, the proportion of the Workers' Party rose from slightly less than one-third to about two-thirds. With the addition of neutral people who were inclined to support the Workers' Party, the Workers' Party controlled more than 70% of the votes in the committee. This meant that the Workers' Party could pass almost any bill they wanted.

As for the remaining 20-30% of the committee members, although they found it difficult to agree with some of the Labour Party's propositions, such as eliminating the landlord class or carrying out a reform and criticism movement against the old culture, they ultimately abandoned the idea of ​​armed confrontation with the Labour Party and chose to engage in a legal struggle against the Labour Party within the committee.

Most of these committee members belonged to property owners. Their upbringing instilled in them a clear understanding that during this period of dynastic change, gaining political influence was more important than preserving their property. As long as they were not politically defeated, their lost property would eventually return. However, without political protection, they would lose the right to dispose of their property.

Their choice to cooperate with the Labour Party stemmed from the same underlying motives as the gentry and landowners who actively resisted the Labour Party: to protect their property, only their methods differed. This is similar to the situation during the Manchu conquest of China. While some Han Chinese scholar-officials chose to resist the Manchus, many others chose to submit. As long as they weathered the initial period of the Manchu rule, these scholars who yielded were eventually accepted by the new dynasty.

After the Labour Party achieved successive victories on the battlefield, fewer and fewer propertied people attempted to confront the Labour Party by force. Apart from those landlords in remote areas far from Wuhan who believed that Wuhan's power could not reach them, a new social order had truly been established in places closer to Wuhan, especially those with direct railway, highway, and shipping connections to Wuhan.

To gain political influence in this new social order, one naturally had to join it, and there was no more direct and convenient way than joining the Workers', Peasants', and Soldiers' Committee. Just as those propertied people who resolutely refused to compromise with the Workers' Party chose to leave the Wuhan-controlled area after their defeat, those propertied people who chose to cooperate with the Workers' Party moved their homes into the three towns of Wuhan, trying to find their new place at the center of this new political force.

The arrival of these property owners boosted Wuhan's economy and brought in a wealth of human resources. Before education became widespread, knowledge was almost entirely in the hands of these property owners, which was key to their ability to continuously find their place in the new dynasty. The reason the feudal landlord class was able to maintain its rule for so long was precisely because they monopolized knowledge. The landlord class in China generally did not exceed 10%, but they accounted for at least 9% of the intellectuals.

Therefore, even though the Workers' Party advocated the elimination of the landlord class, it still had to make concessions to intellectuals from landlord backgrounds in many positions. Without the participation of these intellectuals, the Workers' Party could not make the Wuhan regime function smoothly. In particular, after the controlled area broke through the Hubei and Hunan regions, the lack of cadres became an even bigger problem.

Therefore, the Party believed that the application process for Party membership should be relaxed for intellectuals to fill the cadre shortage. Meanwhile, the rapid economic development also led some Party members to feel weary of the Party's overemphasis on class struggle, believing that the most demanding task at present was economic construction, and that political work could be put on hold, or that economic construction and political work should be given equal importance.

With such intense ideological struggles within the party, the reorganization of political forces outside the party has become even more volatile. For example, the Huaxing Society, established based on property owners in Hunan and Hubei, has now become the second largest political party after the Labor Party, holding about 10% of the votes in the Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Committee and frequently receiving support from other smaller parties.

Although the leading figures of the Huaxing Society are largely the same as in the other timeline, still revolving around Huang Xing and Song Jiaoren, the difference is that the Huaxing Society can now operate openly, thus having a greater influence in Hunan and Hubei. Moreover, it has not joined the Tongmenghui, and its political ideology has changed from copying the Xingzhonghui to copying the Labor Party, but it opposes the theory of class struggle and the land revolution policy of violently confiscating landlords' land.

As a result, the Huaxing Society gradually became a major political force uniting the propertied class. Song Jiaoren had even greater ambitions for the development of the Huaxing Society. He believed that the Huaxing Society should expand beyond Hunan and Hubei and develop from a local political party into a national political party, thereby restraining the overly radical revolutionary policies of the Labor Party.

Huang Xing, Song Jiaoren, and other high-ranking members of the Huaxing Society were essentially from the same school as the high-ranking members of the Labor Party. They all graduated from universities in Hubei and Hunan provinces and were either classmates or teachers and friends. The reason they formed their own party outside the main party was not because they had any objections to their classmates and friends such as Tian Junyi, but because they could not agree with the Labor Party's position on private ownership. They believed that the European socialist theory adopted by the Labor Party was not suitable for China. In particular, they believed that the opposition to private ownership in socialist theory would only cause social unrest and make it difficult to establish a truly stable country.

The reason why Huang Xing, Song Jiaoren, and others opposed socialist theory was twofold. On the one hand, they regarded public ownership as state ownership. From the perspective of Chinese history, Wang Mang's reforms were similar to converting private ownership into public ownership, but the result of the reforms was only the demise of the Western Han Dynasty. On the other hand, they believed more in the saying "only those with stable property have stable minds." If there were no private property, people would only live a life of immediate gratification, since the accumulated property could not be enjoyed by them anyway.

It was this fundamental disagreement on economic ownership that ultimately led to the separation of former classmates, teachers, friends, and even relatives and brothers. Of course, the Huaxing Society was ultimately just a political club of intellectuals. Due to a lack of understanding of Western party politics, they were never able to establish a tightly organized political party, and even their theories could only be copied from the Labour Party. Therefore, the Huaxing Society posed very little threat to the Labour Party.

Huang Xing, Song Jiaoren, and others also realized this. Their first feeling was that their knowledge was insufficient. The old organizational form of the literati was no longer able to support the political activities of the new political parties. After all, the old literati did not need the support of the people; they only needed the people to obey them.

Huang Xing and Song Jiaoren once wanted to study abroad to increase their understanding of Western law and politics, so as to completely transform the Huaxing Society into a Western-style political party. Otherwise, it would be difficult for them to restrain the Labour Party, because the Labour Party now surpasses other small parties in terms of organizational strength and prestige, and the Huaxing Society is no exception.

However, on September 5th, after seeing the latest issue of the National Daily, Song Jiaoren still felt panicked. He hurriedly took the newspaper to Huang Xing's office and asked Huang Xing, who was talking with party members, "Keqiang, have you read today's National Daily?"