Chapter 1, On the Way Home

  The Strait of Malacca was passed three days ago. The "White Buckingham" tanker is now sailing in the waters of the Nansha Islands.

  The sweltering weather near the equator is gradually improving, with warm and comfortable sea breezes blowing from the north in early spring.

  Although the long voyage was nearing its end and the air was pleasant, a young man in his early twenties stood at the rail of the second-class deck of the "Buckingham" with a worried expression.

  His name was Wu Shaoping, and he had graduated from the Munich Army Officer Academy just a year ago. He then interned with the Macedonian Group Army for half a year, until two months ago when he boarded this mail boat returning to his homeland from Britain.

  Wu Shaotong never believed in the existence of time travel, as a 21st-century special forces member, he rarely browsed this type of online content, let alone expecting such an incredible thing to happen to himself.

  He only remembered that four months ago, he was hit in the chest by a stray bullet during a live ammunition exercise. This wasn't a big deal, as he was wearing a twelve-pound steel plate bulletproof vest on his body. However, when he woke up, he found himself in a barracks dormitory in Munich, with his soul attached to someone with the same name and surname.

  What's even more astonishing is that there's a rather ridiculous braid wrapped around his own head.

  That's right, Wu Shaotong has traveled through time and space to the late Qing dynasty. The current date is March 3rd, 1908.

  It's been four months since then, and he has naturally adapted to this identity. In the last internship assessment in Germany, he even achieved extremely excellent results with his 21st-century military quality. At this time, there was still a Browning M1904 pistol awarded by Lieutenant Colonel Philip in the cabin luggage box.

  He is now worried about China in 1908 and his own future prospects.

  Anyone who has read a little history knows that the thrilling Xinhai Revolution and the prolonged warlord wars of more than 20 years are about to unfold on China's land. What can a traveler do before the chaos arrives?

  Wu Shaotong gazed out at the desolate sunset on the sea's surface and couldn't help but let out a sigh. Suddenly, a phrase popped into his mind, and he muttered it out loud: "The Tartars have not yet been expelled, comrades must still strive! Alas!"

  Just then, a sudden question emerged from behind: "Friend, aren't you afraid that this remark will bring about fatal consequences?" The speaker's tone was thick with a Cantonese accent.

  Wu Shaotong was slightly startled, and hastily turned his head to look back, only to see a young man standing behind him, wearing a long shirt and a pair of black-rimmed glasses, with a very thin build, about thirty years old, and he had no idea when this person appeared.

  The young man had a faint, inexplicable smile at the corner of his mouth, staring straight at Wu Shaotong in front of him.

  Wu Shaotong glanced at the other party and smiled calmly, saying: "If my previous words had a fatal flaw, then you, sir, would have cut off your queue as well. Wouldn't that be equally disastrous?"

  The young man did not refute, but instead burst out laughing and said: "What makes me wonder is that this gentleman, who keeps talking about driving out the Tartars, still has the remnants of the Tartars on his head. Isn't this a contradiction?"

  Wu Shaotong sighed, collected his emotions and said with a worried tone: "I've long wanted to cut it off. What's the point of keeping this thing that has been corrupted by the Tartars and has ruined the spirit of our great Han men? Unfortunately, I have my own difficulties, unlike you students who have studied abroad and are so open-minded. Otherwise, I wouldn't have kept it until today."

  Since the failure of the Wuxu Reform, many young intellectuals in China have begun to privately cut off their queues, especially in the southern provinces where the Qing government's whip was out of reach. In addition to students, even soldiers of the new army established by the Manchu government secretly cut off their troublesome queues for the convenience of wearing new-style military caps.

  Although the Qing government had a strict order of "keeping the queue but not the head", however, after the indemnity of the Sino-Japanese War and the Boxer Rebellion, the corrupt central imperial power became increasingly powerless. Local forces and foreign concessions in China became a hotbed for resisting this order. Almost all students who went abroad to study would cut off their queues.

  In 1907, the Qing government was worried about this increasingly serious problem and once again issued a strict order to prohibit privately cutting off queues. However, this severe order was like an empty check, which was noisy for a while and then disappeared silently.

  "Oh? So, young master, you're no longer a student abroad?" The youth asked curiously.

  Although I have just returned from studying abroad, the only difference is that I have just graduated from the Munich Army Officer Academy. Wu Shaotong explained.

  "So that's how it is." The young man nodded suddenly.

  At the end of the Qing dynasty, many Chinese people went abroad to explore ways to enrich the country and strengthen its people. In addition to regular academic universities, military academies were also very popular for further study. However, unlike academic universities which had both government-funded and self-funded students, military academies only had government-funded students.

  It's easy to understand that military science is not trivial. If you master it but can't serve the country, what's the point of keeping you?

  In addition, students returning from studying abroad at academic universities do not necessarily need to report to the government office, so these students cut off their braids and returned home without major consequences. However, for those who graduated from military academies and returned, they were all assigned positions by the government, and if they cut off their braids, even if there was no danger of being killed, it would affect their official career.

  The young man pondered for a moment and smiled: "Judging from your accent, you seem to be from Guangdong too?"

  Wu Shaozhong replied: "I was born in Anhui, moved to Jiangxi with my parents, and later took the entrance exam for Guangzhou Army Primary School. I lived alone in Guangzhou for several years. Later, thanks to the recommendation of my uncle Wu Changqing's old subordinate, I went to Germany for further study."

  These words are not fabricated by Wu Shaotong, but come entirely from the memories of this body.

  At first, he was surprised to know that he had a blood relationship with Wu Changqing, and secretly thanked God for not being stingy with him, and still managed to get an identity as a famous general. However, later on, he gradually realized that this identity only helped him in one way, which was to recommend himself to study in Germany at public expense, and nothing else.

  The young man was somewhat surprised and sighed: "It turns out that you are a descendant of Wu Lao Yingxiong! I apologize for the disrespect."

  Wu Shaotong smiled self-deprecatingly and said, "A hero after being a non-hero, I am not the kind of person who seeks fame and fortune. Alas, in this era, it is indeed necessary to come and rescue the situation!"

  The young man heard this and gradually had a good impression in his heart, and couldn't help but say: "Does Mr. Wu really have great ambitions?"

  Wu Shao-t'ung sighed and said, "Since the Opium War, our great nation has been plagued by internal troubles and external threats. Which of us seven-foot men does not want to seek a way out and strengthen ourselves to save the country? If we do not strive harder, we will eventually become slaves of a lost nation. It is precisely for this reason that I just now had the sigh 'the revolution has not yet succeeded'."

  The young man nodded thoughtfully and after a moment of silence, said: "Mr. Wu's words are extremely right, the great responsibility of revitalizing China is something we cannot shirk! Unfortunately, there are too few heroes among us, apart from Mr. Sun Yat-sen of the Tongmenghui, it's hard to find another person like him in the world!"

  "I beg your pardon for being presumptuous," Wu Shaozhong said suddenly, "but I think Mr. Sun should not be considered a hero."

  He respected Sun Yat-sen very much, but did not think that Sun Yat-sen was a heroic figure.

  Sun Yat-sen spent his whole life in revolution, but he also spent his whole life in failure. Even though the Xinhai Revolution was successful, strictly speaking, it was not Sun's first achievement. At the time of the Xinhai Revolution, Sun Yat-sen was still abroad and did not know about the uprising at home. His only contribution was that set of revolutionary theories that had penetrated deep into people's hearts, which facilitated this revolution.

  The young man's face changed color and said in a cold voice: "If Sun Yat-sen is not considered a hero, then I really don't know who can be called a hero under the sky!"

  Wu Shaotang did not react angrily to the young people, he deeply understood that Sun Yat-sen was great in the hearts of these young intellectuals at this time, just like a lighthouse in the dark and a guide for life beliefs.

  "Sir, in my opinion, Sun Yat-sen can be called a great man of this era. Great men and heroes are sometimes mentioned together, but there is also a distinction between the two." He smiled calmly and said, "To speak frankly, I am willing to regard Sun Yat-sen as a pioneer of revolution, follow his ideology and spirit, and take his ideology and spirit as the standard for struggle."

  "Oh? Is that so?" The young man's face immediately cleared up, but he knew that Wu Shaotong still had something to say, so he didn't rush to express his own opinion.

  "But, however, I didn't dare to flatter Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary actions. When I was in Germany, I kept an eye on domestic news, the Ping-Liu-Li uprising two years ago, last year's Huanggang Uprising, Huizhou Uprising and Qinzhou-Lianzhou Defense Uprising." Wu Shaozhong rattled off all the uprisings of the Tongmenghui before 1908 that he knew.

  Of course, these uprisings were not all personally planned and organized by Sun Yat-sen himself, but rather referred to the revolutionary forces led by him.

  He paused, then added: "Just three days ago, when this ship was docked in Malaya (before the formation of Malaysia), the dockworkers were still talking about how Mr. Sun had personally led a rebellion at the Zhen Nan Guan last year-end. So many rebellions, for so long, what's the outcome?"

  Needless to say, all these uprisings ended in failure. The failures of the Ping-Liu-Li Uprising and the Huizhou Uprising led to even greater losses for the revolutionaries, with many elite members of the Tongmenghui sacrificing their lives.

  The young man listened to Wu Shaotong's words and his expression fell into solemnity again. He slowly let out a sigh.

  "But, Master Wu, you must understand that revolution is a difficult and painful exploration. No one knows how long this road will be or how long it will take to walk it. But we can't stop because of these things. As you said, Master Wu, in the past few years, our party has risen up many times and failed many times, but I believe that each failure is a kind of accumulation." He persisted in saying this, but his tone was not one of argumentation, rather it was one of helplessness.

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