Insufficient balance
Beginning in late July 1905, with Chen Tianhua's joining as a starting point, the party organization personnel expanded greatly.
The next day, He Zuodao appeared with a look of shame on his face. He had recovered and came over to thank Chen Ke for saving his life. Chen Ke understood the significance of "saving one's life" in this era, especially being rescued from syphilis, which saved not only one's life but also from the terrible suffering of "organ rot". During the illness, patients would suffer from unbearable pain, which was perhaps even more terrifying than death itself.
He was half grateful and half ashamed. Seeing Chen Ke, the lifesaver who had treated him personally, he became incoherent. He stuttered out words of gratitude, his face alternating between red and white.
Chen Ke smiled and asked: "Fu Dao, when can you come back to work?"
"Mr. Wenqing, you...you want me to come back to work?" He Zuodao didn't expect Chen Ke's first sentence to be like this.
"Didn't you say last time that once you recovered from your illness, you would come back to work? What's wrong, haven't you fully recovered yet?"
He Futou was so moved by Chen Ke's words that he almost cried. Since his birth, no one had been as kind to him as Chen Ke, except for his parents. When he got sick, Chen Ke treated his illness and after he recovered, he let him continue working. In this era, once you contracted a venereal disease, no decent place would dare to hire you again. Hearing Chen Ke's words, He Futou felt as if he only had a common cold.
"Mr. Wenqing, I'm all better now. I'll be back at work right away." He Qubu said with a sob.
"It's great that you can come back to work. So, I'll tell you the truth, the illness is contagious and you got it from your brother. Now that you're better, if you decide to come back, you can't live with your brother again. You'll have to put up with some hardship and consider working for me as a long-term worker, move in here and live with me. As long as I'm still in Shanghai, you'll have a place to stay, food to eat, and a salary to earn."
Comrades all looked at He Zuodao, as the saying goes "distance makes the heart grow fonder". Chen Ke's words were exactly that, but no one felt it was abnormal. Chen Ke had already made his position clear, and if He Zuodao wanted to come back, he absolutely couldn't drag down the comrades. This was consideration for everyone's interests. No one thought Chen Ke's handling of the situation was improper; if Chen Ke hadn't handled it this way and let He Zuodao come back, even if they didn't openly express their opposition, in their hearts they would still feel very uncomfortable.
"Mr. Wenqing, I'm moving in today." He Zuodao said with a mixture of tears and determination.
Chen Ke walked up and patted He Zuodao's shoulder, "After you fell ill, you were so anxious that you wanted to die. You wanted us to think of a way to save you. Your sister Yuexia didn't sleep for several days in the lab to find a cure for you. All your other friends did their best, buying hundreds of rabbits for experiments and running around Shanghai several times. Since you've decided to come back, hurry up and move over."
After hearing Chen Ke's words, He Zuodao was no longer just choking back tears, but burst out crying loudly. He knelt down on the ground, "Mr. Wen Qing, my brothers, I would be eternally grateful and even if I were to die and be torn to pieces, I wouldn't be able to repay your great kindness."
Chen Ke and Qi Hui quickly pulled He Zuodao up. Qi Hui handed a handkerchief to He Zuodao, "Zuodao, we're all friends, look at what I'm saying. When you're in trouble, can't we lend a helping hand? We can't just stand by and do nothing, can we? So hurry up and move over, don't make Mr. Wen difficult."
"Yes, I'll go now." He Fu Dao wiped away his tears with one hand while being pulled away by Qi Hui Deep.
Chen Tianhua silently watched these, and glanced at Chen Ke. Chen Ke's special medicine, Chen Tianhua already knew. Chen Ke seemed to be generous in letting He Zuodao return to work, providing food and shelter, this approach was clearly recruiting "dead soldiers". He Zuodao could be rescued by Chen Ke, at least this loyalty was not something ordinary people could compare with. Chen Tianhua did not object to this. Revolutionaries need loyalty. Compared to the kind of verbal loyalty to the revolution, He Zuodao's loyalty was more precious.
He Zuodao moved in that afternoon and attended the party meeting at night. Not only was it He Zuodao's first time attending a party meeting, but also Chen Tianhua's first time. The secretary for this meeting happened to be He Zuodao. Qi Hui recommended He Zuodao strongly because of his extremely fast handwriting with a steel pen. Chen Ke provided a fountain pen, and indeed, as Qi Hui said, He Zuodao wrote very quickly. After Qi Hui taught He Zuodao the shorthand method he discussed with Chen Ke, his recording speed became incredibly fast. The meeting was interrupted much less often due to recording delays.
"We must now pay attention to the distinction between inside and outside the party. My suggestion is that since the discussion of revolutionary lines within the party has reached this point, it is a question of whether to take the road of people's revolution or the road of capitalist revolution. Although at present both revolutionary lines advocate overthrowing the Qing dynasty and driving out imperialist invaders, in reality these two are fundamentally different. It is a matter of establishing a new China where the people live in peace and happiness, or establishing a new world where capitalists can do as they please. In the future, even when the revolution has reached a certain stage, contradictions will arise between these two lines, confrontation will occur, and even war will break out. Therefore, we must go to launch the revolution, to lead the revolution, but cannot not be fully prepared for this."
Comrades were silent, for Chen Ke, such understanding was merely the knowledge that must be possessed as a communist and a believer in Mao Zedong's thought. However, the views of revolutionary youths on this bloody and stormy future prospect were vastly different.
The young people of today are more loyal to Chen Ke than to the revolution, or rather, they are more loyal to the "industrial and educational development" that the revolution has brought about. The only new comrade, Chen Tianhua, looked at the other comrades quietly listening to Chen Ke's words, looking at Chen Ke talking eloquently about the cruel future, he was truly overwhelmed with emotions.
On January 4, 1903, Huang Xing, under the pretext of celebrating his 30th birthday, invited Liu Kuiyi (from Changsha Prefecture's Xiangtan County, who had studied at Changsha's Yuelu Academy in his early years), Chen Tianhua, Zhang Shizhao and others, a total of 12 people, to gather at Peng Yuanrui's home in Baojia Bureau Alley, Changsha, to discuss the establishment of a revolutionary organization. At the meeting, it was decided to establish the Hua Xing Society, which would be known externally as the "Hua Xing Company", with the name "mining industry" as its cover, and members would be referred to as "shareholders". The "stock certificates" were actually membership cards, and the slogan "same heart, same mind; settle accounts face to face" was used, which implied "overthrow the Qing dynasty".
February 15, 1904 (New Year's Eve), the Huaxinghui took advantage of the New Year's Eve banquet to hold its founding meeting at Longjiang's Xiyuan residence. In addition to the 12 founders, more than a hundred people from inside and outside the province attended. At the meeting, Huang Xing was elected as the president, Song Jiaoren and Liu Kuanyi as vice-presidents, and determined the strategic guideline of "occupying one province and rising up in various provinces", with the slogan of "driving out the Tartars and reviving China".
On September 24, 1904, the Mid-Autumn Festival of the lunar calendar, the cattle and horse trading fair in Liling was bustling. Liu Kuaiyi, entrusted by Huang Xing, presided over a solemn ceremony to officially confer Ma Fuyi as a lieutenant general and granted him 20 long guns, 40 handguns, and 40 horses for his troops. At that time, the audience was like a tide, everyone's emotions were extremely excited, and it was decided that as soon as a large batch of military equipment arrived in Shanghai, they would rise up in advance.
However, the authorities had already sensed the rumors of the uprising. After Liu Zuokai (who had served as a secretary for Ma Fuyi) secretly informed Wang Xianqian about the situation in Puzi City, the authorities began to investigate and arrest members of the Huaxinghui. Suddenly, cavalrymen were dispatched throughout Changsha, creating an atmosphere of terror. On October 24th, the Hunan Governor ordered the arrest of Huang Xing, and soldiers and police immediately surrounded his residence. At that time, Huang Xing was out and had not returned home, so the police rushed to the Dongwen Lecture Hall. However, Huang Xing had already received news of the situation and quickly escaped through a back door, hiding in the secret chamber of the West Garden in the home of the enlightened gentleman Long Weirui. Two days later, under the protection of the pastor of the Changsha Christian Church, Huang Xing moved to the rear building of the church, where he hid for nearly a week. After taking a series of measures to protect his fellow revolutionaries, he disguised himself and traveled secretly to Shanghai in early November, then sailed with a large group of Huaxinghui members to Japan. Ma Fuyi fled to western Hunan, but was captured the following year while attempting to launch another uprising. He died heroically on April 20th, 1905, at the age of 40, outside the Xiangyang Gate in Changsha. With this, the Huaxinghui's activities within China basically came to an end.
In Japan, Chen Tianhua actively promoted the formation of the Alliance Society. After meeting with Qiu Jin, Qiu gave Chen a manuscript written by Chen Kuisheng to read. The writing style of this manuscript was very cold and different from the passionate works of other revolutionaries of that era. However, Chen Tianhua couldn't put it down once he started reading. No revolutionary had ever looked at problems from such a height and pointed out practical methods for saving the country. Moreover, the author intentionally hid his true thoughts in many places, not explicitly stating his real ideas.
Tanaka asked who the author of this work was, and Qiu Jin introduced Chen Ku to Tanaka. She also introduced Chen Ku's ideal of "revolution for 400 million Chinese people". Although Tanaka had a lot of work to do before the establishment of the Tongmenghui, he couldn't help but return home and meet with Chen Ku. This person named Chen Ku, who had not yet put forward revolutionary theories, had captured Tanaka's heart so much. Despite his busy schedule, Qiu Jin suggested that Tanaka hurry back to Shanghai to meet with Chen Ku. Qiu Jin said that Chen Ku was a talented and proud man. If he were not allowed to join the Tongmenghui, it would be a waste. But if they forced him to come, he would certainly refuse. Therefore, Qiu Jin suggested that Tanaka first get along with Chen Ku for a while. Chen Ku would certainly attach great importance to Tanaka. Chen Ku was not an unfeeling person, and at that time, Tanaka would persuade Chen Ku, and Chen Ku would certainly come to join the Tongmenghui.
Yesterday, Chen Ke and I had a long conversation throughout the night. Today, during the day, I read Chen Ke's manuscript as well as all the meeting records of this small political party. Chen Tianhua was quite shocked. "People's Revolution" is a revolutionary slogan that no other revolutionary party has ever proposed. Other revolutionary parties either incite the propertied class to revolt or shout slogans like "People's Uprising". Chen Tianhua has participated in both types of revolutionary parties, and the result was miserable failure. Not only that, as soon as interests conflicted, the revolutionary parties immediately turned against each other internally, with no one able to persuade anyone else. As a result, traitors emerged endlessly within the party. The vigilance towards fellow comrades far exceeded that towards enemies.
As a seasoned revolutionary, Chen Tianhua had no understanding of the "people's revolution". In his view, people actually did not want to revolt. After such simple contact with Chen Ke's proposed "people's revolution", Chen Tianhua already understood that people do not want to revolt because they have no reason to sacrifice for the "current revolutionaries". If a people's revolution were to begin, the first thing the people would do is "overthrow the current batch of revolutionaries".
This is Chen Ke's revolutionary idea. Chen Tianhua knew that this was not the "people's uprising" that those revolutionaries had shouted about before. Chen Tianhua felt a little regretful, wondering if he shouldn't have come back. Every time Chen Ke talked about revolution, it was like tearing off the fake masks that had been painted on the world, revealing the bloody truth to Chen Tianhua.
Chen Ke always talks about interests, always mentions class struggle, but never mentions what is right. Chen Tianhua was born in poverty, which is a big difference between him and other revolutionaries. Therefore, Chen Tianhua cannot bring himself to oppose what Chen Ke said, because it is true that the current revolutionaries are fighting for their own interests. Before they gain power, they do not think about the people, and if they succeed, they will not think about the people either.
Now Chen Tianhua wants to understand only one thing, whether the revolution of the "capital owners" mentioned by Chen Ke can succeed. Chen Tianhua has not been able to determine which side he wants to join. Or rather, he still hopes that the current "capital owner" revolution will be successful. This is not because Chen Tianhua cannot understand the revolution described by Chen Ke, but precisely because of his poor background, Chen Tianhua can understand the suffering of the people at the bottom, knows the hardships they have suffered, and knows the anger, resentment, and hatred they have accumulated. Chen Tianhua can imagine that when such people stand up to revolt, what kind of storm will be stirred up.
Chen Tianhua felt a sense of fear towards such a stormy weather.
Listening to Chen Ke's narrative, Chen Tianhua knew that Chen Ke was very clear about the meaning of different revolutions. From a brief contact of just one day, it could be seen that Chen Ke must have come from a prestigious family, with generations of high-ranking officials and great wealth. Therefore, Chen Ke was extremely clear about the meaning of what he said, and he could express what he wanted to say. However, Chen Ke, who came from a wealthy and aristocratic background, temporarily couldn't make his fellow comrades, who also had good backgrounds, fully understand his intentions. This was because Chen Ke looked at problems from the perspective of the entire nation. Many things obviously had considerations. These considerations were why Chen Ke couldn't be certain that some things would develop completely as he predicted. This was also the reason why those comrades couldn't understand what Chen Ke said.
But Chen Tianhua was able to understand. At Chen Ke's age, having such a profound view of the world is already shocking. Moreover, although Chen Ke himself has some shortcomings, he also knows where his shortcomings lie and how to solve them. This is why Chen Ke chose to take on the role of Minister of Propaganda for this political party.
Originally, according to Qiu Jin and Chen Tianhua's plan, they were going to ask Chen Tianhua to persuade Chen Ke to join the Tongmenghui. Now it seems that Chen Ke will not join. Chen Tianhua suddenly wants to leave this political party.
"Are you so sure that those with property will refuse to join the people's revolution?" Qiu Hui asked deeply.
"Let's take a simple example, running education. Everyone is bustling about for profit, everyone is rushing to and fro for gain. Why run education? To get educated students. Who wants these students? Factories, banks, what should still be called money houses, government departments, the military also needs educated students. But how many people do these departments need? What proportion of the population? It's definitely not possible for everyone to receive an education. Moreover, now that rich people who have read books have enough children of their own, it's no problem if poor people don't read books either. The country will still operate as usual. So investing in education is for future profits, since future profits can already be circumscribed, what's the point of investing more money? In the eyes of those who invest in education, isn't this just a waste? Therefore, it's fundamentally impossible for everyone to read books."
"Is it necessarily so?" Huaxiong Mao said with a frown.
"First, China is so vast, with a population of 400 million, and even if we only consider the primary schools that must be attended under compulsory education, there would be 60 million children in school. With 50 students per class, let's calculate at the lowest possible number, assuming each teacher can teach all subjects from first to fifth grade. This would require 12 million teachers. What is the annual salary for these 12 million teachers? At a rate of 100 taels of silver per year per teacher, that would be 1.2 billion taels of silver. How much money was allocated in the Boxer Protocol? The principal amount was 450 million taels of silver. This amount of silver is not even enough to cover four years' salary for so many primary school teachers."
"Ah!" All the young people couldn't help but take a cold breath. Everyone was shocked by this number. Chen Ke saw that everyone was calculating, so he simply listed these calculations on the blackboard. After careful examination, it turned out to be correct.
Throwing down the chalk, Chen Ke asked, "Who can afford to spend this kind of money? Who can invest in education with such a large sum of money? How many wealthy people would have to go bankrupt and pool their resources together just to be able to afford it?"
Comrades fell silent.
Chen Ke said mercilessly: "Let me imitate a bad guy. If I were a bad guy, if I were in charge of this thing, what would I do?"
Chen Ke had always been talking about revolution from a positive perspective, but suddenly he said that he wanted to be a "bad guy" for once. Everyone's interest was piqued at once. Everyone's eyes simultaneously focused on Chen Ke's face.
"I will require all government officials and the children of wealthy individuals to attend school. Of course, these people are naturally the reason for this. I will establish schools, and specifically establish two types of schools: private schools and public schools. One type is funded by wealthy individuals, and the other is funded by the state. The difference between these two types of schools is that private schools rely on recommendations for admission - if you're a wealthy person with connections, I'll let you in; if you don't have money or connections, forget about it. Private schools provide excellent education, cultivating students who are rich in knowledge and comprehensive in skills. Public schools, on the other hand, are for those without means, where anyone can attend and just learn to recognize a few characters. If there are students who study extremely hard, that's okay too. When it comes to university admissions, private universities will prioritize qualified graduates from private schools before considering public school graduates. Most importantly, when government departments recruit personnel, they must be from private schools and have the backing of officials or wealthy patrons. This achieves multiple goals: first, the wealthy class receives the best education; second, those from poor backgrounds also have a glimmer of hope; third, I've promoted education - if you don't study hard, it's not my fault." With that, Chen Ke spread his hands wide.
Everyone couldn't help but shake their heads and sigh after hearing this. Chen Ke was indeed a bad guy with some skill.
"In this way, those poor people are uneducated and ignorant. They will definitely remain poor for generations to come. Even if someone manages to 'jump the dragon gate' (i.e., achieve success through hard work), that's good, they've changed their own status. And they can serve as a model. But such people are few in number. By only recruiting from certain departments with unwritten rules and only hiring graduates of private schools, it's enough to plug up the loopholes. The people may be dissatisfied, but there's nothing they can do about it. Even if the people rise up in revolt, as I said before, they are uneducated and ignorant, so they cannot organize themselves. Although my numbers are small, compared to those scattered rebels among the people, I have a large following, and suppressing them is easy. On one hand, I provide opportunities for a few poor people; on the other hand, I severely suppress those who dare to rebel, showing no mercy. And I have money, people, and organization. What am I afraid of? Even if it's just a matter of reasoning, all my people are highly educated, so deceiving some uneducated commoners is also easy."
Everyone's face changed upon hearing this. They reflected on Chen Ke's words, which were sufficiently ruthless and overbearing, but somehow made sense and was a completely feasible method.
"So, my revolution must be a people's revolution." Chen Ke summed up his own words.
