Chapter 70

  In Mr. Lu Xun's works, there is a story about a family who had a baby and held a grand banquet on the full moon day. Friends gave various blessings to the child, but one person said something true: "This child will die." This sentence can be said to be a truth, an absolute prophecy that will inevitably come true. And it's absolutely depressing.

  Chen Ke originally knew that there would definitely be a problem, he just wanted to take advantage of the failure. After hearing Shang Yuan say this, unlike Qin Tongren's subtle depression, Chen Ke became vigilant. At this moment, Shang Yuan's sharp eyes scanned Chen Ke's face, and Chen Ke felt that something was wrong. From Shang Yuan's seemingly knowing expression, it could be seen that he had already understood many things.

  He continued to talk about "why it can't be done". At this time, he was completely persuading Qin Tongren and didn't care about Chen Ke anymore.

  The focus of the previous discussion is the "Bao E" system. The "Bao E" system mainly refers to enterprises that must provide money unconditionally to the Qing government. Enterprises that need to provide Bao E to the Qing government include industries such as transportation, mining, telecommunications, textiles, banking, and steel, etc. In fact, at that time, any industry that had some success or was considered profitable by the Qing government had to provide Bao E, and the prescribed amount of Bao E was quite large.

  Since the Westernization Movement, the Qing government has indeed established many modern enterprises. Due to the lack of a modern business system, the initial enterprises were state-run rather than privately operated. Before 1895, the Qing government's revenue and expenditure could still be balanced, but after 1895, due to the heavy burden of war indemnities and increasingly difficult financial situation, coupled with the emergence of many new-style enterprises, private enterprises began to rise. And requiring enterprises to make contributions and forming a system became one of the ways for the Qing government to alleviate its financial burdens.

  "Can Tong Ren know how great this achievement is? In 1889, when the Mohe Gold Mine was founded, the government provided a capital of 200,000 taels. By now, in six years, the Mohe Gold Mine has yielded an income of 600,000 taels. Last time you and I talked about this beehive coal factory, I thought it would definitely make a lot of money, but you are in the imperial city under the emperor's feet, this achievement is absolutely not something you can afford."

  Shang Yuan spoke clearly and understandably, Chen Ke nodded slightly. Since he had such insight, Shang Yuan was probably not an ordinary scholar.

  Qin Tongren didn't care much about it, "It's just a case of swindling with empty hands, I don't care about money."

  "You're really something!" Shang Yuan angrily said, "Even if you don't care about money, you think it's easy to swindle people with empty promises. But with this project together, you should be able to imagine how many people would love to eat your flesh. They will definitely try to sabotage your factory. Do you think they'll just stop at ruining your factory? Moreover, they'll go all out to splash dirty water on you, making it impossible for you to turn things around."

  "Wang Shan, this statement is somewhat alarming." Qin Tongren was slightly puzzled.

  "Is this a warning? I know something about Mr. Chen's affairs. He developed a new medicine for syphilis in Shanghai, and the effect is miraculous - as soon as you take the medicine, the disease is cured. Then he immediately made the formula of the new medicine public. What do you think Mr. Chen did this for? Is it not because of his benevolent heart to save the world?" Shang Yuan said with a cold smile.

  "Wen Qing, is this really the case?" Qin Tongren was quite surprised.

  Chen Ke calmly admitted, "Shang Ge said nothing wrong, indeed there was such a thing. And I publicly disclosed the new medicine formula just to protect myself. If I were the only one who knew the formula, I don't know how many people would want me dead. I dare not offend those people."

  Seeing Chen Ke's calm admission, Qin Tong suddenly felt that something was not quite right. However, looking at the current project, it didn't seem so exaggerated. He said in confusion: "Honeycomb coal isn't some kind of technical secret, is it?"

  "It's not confidential? Just because it doesn't look like a secret, you guys can make the most money. Those people will never let you go." Shang Yuan saw that Qin Tongren still didn't understand and was even more angry. "This Mr. Chen is no ordinary person, I know you're invested in your work, Tongren, but have you even read Mr. Chen's book?"

  "Yes, indeed." Qin Tongren nodded in response.

  "This Mr. Chen is highly knowledgeable and has a broad vision. If you, Tong Ren, are too book-smart to understand, that's one thing, but for Mr. Chen not to see clearly? I absolutely don't believe it. What he's doing in the capital, I don't know, but you shouldn't follow him around and cause trouble."

  This remark was too severe, and Qin Tongren couldn't understand it. "What did the literary youth do? What was written in that book? Brother Shang, I don't understand what you're saying."

  After hearing this, a complex expression appeared on Shangyuan's face. He knew that Qin Tongren must not have had time to read it, because the book was currently in his home. If Qin Tongren had read the book, with its profound understanding of industrialization, he might really have defected to Chen Ke's side. However, given Qin Tongren's personality, since he knew the book was unusual, he would definitely want to study it carefully. He had misspoken in a moment of anger. Thinking this, Shangyuan glared at Chen Ke and pondered what to say next.

  Seeing this, Qin Tongren was even more confused. "Wang Shan brother, Wen Qing, what's going on?"

  Chen Ke felt that he had to explain himself, "I wrote a book, which elaborates on the development of industrialization. It seems that Shang Xiong doesn't quite agree with my views in this book."

  "Not very agreeable? Haha." Shang Yuan sneered, "Mr. Chen is too polite, I don't disagree at all, I'm quite in agreement. After reading that book, I have a lot of admiration for Mr. Chen. But with such great talent, you're actually running this factory like this, I think Mr. Chen has ulterior motives."

  Qin Tongren has already seen some clues, and Shangyuan is not advising himself not to get involved with this factory at all, but rather wants him to completely break off relations with Chen Ke. It seems that Chen Ke must have something extraordinary about him, so much so that even Shangyuan doesn't dare to advise him privately. Thinking of this, Qin Tongren asked seriously: "Wangshan brother, what's going on?"

  Looking at things from afar, he bluntly said: "This Mr. Chen is a revolutionary party." At this point, what he said still couldn't reflect the severity of the problem, so he added emphasis and said: "He's not just the kind who advocates for constitutional revolution, but a genuine revolutionary party."

  "Huh! Is Wén Qīng a revolutionary party? Ha, ha, ha." Upon hearing this, Qin Tongren actually burst out laughing, "If Wén Qīng is a revolutionary party, then I think this revolution isn't such a bad thing after all."

  After Ting Shang-yun revealed his true identity, Chen Ke didn't have much of a reaction. In this era, being a revolutionary was a fashionable thing, and under the Qing government's actual control, which was declining day by day, as long as you didn't start a rebellion or make overly radical speeches to overthrow the government, even if you called yourself a revolutionary, the authorities wouldn't come after you. The Qing had first lost to Japan in the First Sino-Japanese War and then experienced the Boxer Rebellion, making too many unforgivable mistakes. The imperial court itself was also very aware that its reputation had fallen to an unprecedented low. One defeat after another had led to a huge questioning of the legitimacy of the Qing dynasty. In this situation, the Qing government dared not use high-pressure tactics against intellectuals.

  As for Chen Ke's own book, tens of thousands of words are about revolution. Even if it is used as evidence, it will not have any effect. Articles that are dozens of times more intense than Chen Ke's book can still circulate freely in the world.

  What interested Chen Ke was Shangyuan's attitude, his approach was so intense that it didn't seem right. Since Shangyuan had called him out, Chen Ke felt he had to respond.

  "Second brother, I've heard about Qin's situation, fighting with foreigners and defending the Tianjin Machinery Bureau. I have great respect for Qin's character. If you say I'm going to harm Qin, that's absolutely impossible. In fact, just two days ago, I mentioned to Qin that this business is not easy to do. If you don't believe me, you can ask Qin."

  Qin Tongren still remembered Chen Ke's words, but after listening to Shang Yuan's remarks, he was also somewhat puzzled by Chen Ke. Shang Yuan and Qin Tongren were good friends, he knew that Shang Yuan was not a person who boasted, since he evaluated Chen Ke like this, Chen Ke must have some surprising aspects. At this time, he was indeed confused.

  "If you want to deceive Tong Ren, a man of such noble character, I will not forgive you." Shang Yuan didn't take the hint and instead asked, "Since Mr. Chen said he has his own plans, I'd like to ask, why does Mr. Chen want to set up this factory in the capital?"

  "I want to gather some talent in the capital, next year I will go to Anhui to do something. If there was no such factory, how would I know what level of talent the people I gathered are?"

  "Anhui?" Shangyuan and Qin Tongren asked almost simultaneously.

  "Where is Anhui?" Shang Yuan asked again.

  "It's probably around Huainan area. It hasn't been confirmed yet." Chen Ke felt that the attitudes of these two people were a bit strange.

  "Hmph! That's interesting." Shang Yuan coldly laughed.

  Chen Ke looked at Shang Yuan with a puzzled expression, but saw that Shang Yuan was unwilling to explain. He then turned his gaze to Qin Tongren. "Wang Shan is about to take office in Huainan soon." He paused for a moment before continuing, "Actually, Wang Shan had approached me and wanted me to go to Huainan with him to do some things."

  "This is also too coincidental, right? Chen Ke thought that these two people wouldn't be in cahoots with each other to cheat him. But looking at them carefully, it didn't seem like it either. He could only laugh and say: "It's really a coincidence. Fate."

  "Mr. Chen doesn't need to say this, I'm asking you, since you're leaving next year, why are you still doing this beehive coal business this year? If you succeed, will you just abandon the industry in Beijing?" Shang Yuan was relentless.

  "Whether it works or not, I'm going to withdraw anyway." Since the other party was a sensible person, Chen Ke simply told the truth, "My original intention was to find some capable and cooperative brothers. I didn't expect to meet someone as talented as Brother Qin. If you're worried that I'll cheat Brother Qin, then I might as well be straightforward. Brother Qin, I'm actually a revolutionary party member."

  Qin Tongren listened to Chen Ke's words and saw that Chen Ke had no intention of deceiving him, so he believed what Chen Ke said was true. However, Chen Ke's next words made Qin Tongren even more surprised.

  "Brother Shang, I can see it too, you are also a revolutionary."

  Qin Tongren stared at Chen Ke in shock and then looked at Shang Yuan, who had a gloomy face but did not deny Chen Ke's words.

  "A bright person doesn't speak in riddles. You can see from my book that the revolution is coming, and we are the revolutionary party." Chen Ke concluded with an unreservedly boastful tone.

  For Beijingers, the days after entering winter are quite boring. However, in the early winter of 1905, a new type of coal ball suddenly appeared on the market, called honeycomb coal. The initial promotion of honeycomb coal was done by some Bannermen. According to the rules of the Imperial Clan Court, Bannermen were not allowed to engage in commerce. But the Bannermen relied on that little bit of "iron-rice bowl" and their lives were not very good. Moreover, Bannermen loved to show off, even if they had no money, they would still pretend to be rich. Anyway, the Eight Banners had not fought for hundreds of years, neither the imperial court nor other armies had any illusions about the young men of the Eight Banners, so it was already a minority for Bannermen to join the army. Among most Beijing Bannermen, those who were lazy spent their days idling away in tea houses, giving birth to a batch of boring tea house culture.

  However, for the relatively diligent Bannermen, as the saying goes, "above there are policies and below there are countermeasures". Although Bannermen cannot engage in business, driving a carriage is not doing business or long-term work. Employing Bannermen is actually very convenient. They spend their days wandering around Beijing, familiar with the city's nooks and crannies. Driving carriages everywhere, employing Bannermen is indeed very convenient. These diligent Bannermen who are willing to put in effort spend their days traveling all over the capital, becoming even more familiar with Beijing, knowing clearly which areas have what kind of consumption power.

  Someone was willing to pay them to promote beehive coal, and this group of relatively hardworking flag people quickly made money.

  As expected by Chen Ke, the first batch of honeycomb coal buyers were indeed the Banner people. The Banner people had a fixed income and many places to spend money, so they calculated very clearly even for small expenses like burning coal. Honeycomb coal was cheap and burned fully, and compared to coal balls, its advantages became apparent immediately after trial. Therefore, among the lower-level Banner people, honeycomb coal spread at an astonishing speed.

  There was a story in the Tang Dynasty, when Bai Juyi first arrived in Chang'an, someone said "The rice in the capital is expensive, and it's not easy for white residents." It wasn't just the Tang Dynasty, officials from any dynasty had a hard time making ends meet. They didn't have high incomes, and even if they did make money in the capital, it wouldn't be enough to cover their expenses. However, as officials, they still had to maintain their dignity, so they were more frugal with their daily expenses. If not for this, Chen Ke wouldn't have been able to rent a house in the official district of the capital.

  Since the flag people are in charge of promoting beehive coal, these low-level officials are their key promotion objects, and the promotion effect is quite good. This can be seen from the busy time of the comrades in charge of external kilns at the beehive coal yard every day.

  Chen Ke and Qin Tongren took the lead in person. In the first few days, comrades were divided into four groups, with one group sent out to work every day. After seven or eight days, it was already a group staying in the factory responsible for production, while three groups went out to build stoves. Moreover, this was still based on Qin Tongren mobilizing his own strength and inviting more than 30 old colleagues from Tianjin Mechanical Bureau.

  At a Beijing party small group meeting, Qin Tongren felt that such a situation was quite unimaginable.

  That day, Chen Ke came to the door and saw that things had already been clarified, so he simply stated his own "revolutionary path". The central government can effectively manage the village-level people, the hierarchical education system, the unified government civil service selection system, and the state-led economic system. That day, Chen Ke's description of future China left Shangyuan and Qin Tongren speechless at the time.

  Before leaving, he left a message, "Tomorrow I will come over and see what kind of revolutionary Chen is." The next day he really came. He also brought the book entrusted by Qin Tongren to Shangyuan. Chen Ke also opened up and began to build a new Beijing party group. On the one hand, work on the other hand, lectures.

  Qin Tongren had heard of the republican system propagated by Sun Yat-sen and his revolutionary party, and he evaluated this system as - big words. The reason for opposing the "republican system" was not that Qin Tongren was loyal to the Qing dynasty, but after the Boxer Rebellion, Qin Tongren had lost all hope in the imperial court after narrowly escaping death on the battlefield. He didn't want to overthrow the imperial court now only because he believed that rebellion would plunge China into complete division. In today's situation where foreign enemies are lurking around, civil war would give foreigners ample opportunity to intervene in Chinese affairs. In Qin Tongren's view, industrialization was the only way to strengthen the country. The republican system itself was just a means for local gentry to rise up. Qin Tongren had an unusually keen and accurate understanding of Sun Yat-sen and his revolutionary party. He firmly believed that once the revolution started according to Sun Yat-sen's "democratic republic" theory, it would only lead to the rise of warlords and China's division into four or five parts.

  The more distant political views are even more interesting, Shangyuan himself is from a large landlord family in Shangqiu, and his views on landlords and gentry are so profound that Chen Ke feels somewhat embarrassed. He explicitly points out that the current gentry have no enthusiasm for industrialization itself. The reason they want to promote constitutionalism is to seize power from the imperial court. Then they can rely on their land to bully and tyrannize in local areas. Therefore, whether it's anti-foreign religion or anti-foreign goods, it's all a natural reaction of landlords after industrialization struck traditional handicrafts. Even if constitutionalism were really implemented, it would not solve the deep contradictions between industrialization and traditional handicrafts.

  In this regard, Shangyuan and Qin Tongren's attitudes are completely consistent. An unprecedentedly strong government is needed to promote industrialization. At present, the Qing dynasty is at least seemingly the strongest. This is also why the two men have extremely little interest in "democratic revolution".

  The political views of these two men represented the attitude of a considerable number of enlightened people in this era. The reason why they opposed republicanism throughout history was not entirely due to their deep-seated hatred for the republican system itself, but because they believed that the republican system advocated by Sun Yat-sen and his followers could not achieve the purpose of saving the country and its people in practice.

  Shangyuan and Qin Tongren, one is a political "centralist", the other is a hardliner who insists on "national overall dominance" from the perspective of "large industry" and "complete industrial structure". Chen Ke's book has pointed out a feasible way for Shangyuan and Qin Tongren, those guys who were called "die-hard reactionaries" in history.

  The size of the party group is expanding day by day, and Shang Far and Qin Tongren are constantly introducing various people to participate. This time, there were 13 attendees at the small group meeting, and the agenda was a complete theoretical connection with practice - looking at the development of honeycomb coal from the living standards of Beijing people.

  However, the topic is just that. Qin Tongren has always been engaged in military industry and has no experience in civilian products. He looked at the data on the report and felt completely unbelievable. After the power of industrialization was demonstrated, handicrafts had no chance to resist. Since the sale of honeycomb coal, many people have tried to imitate it. However, just punching holes in honeycomb coal is a very "high-tech" job. The honeycomb coal factory uses machines, and the efficiency is not something that individuals can match. Imitators spent so much effort, but they couldn't make a few usable coals in a day. Even if they were made, the labor cost could not be recovered. As a result, the expected handicraft competitors did not appear, and the sales of honeycomb coal continued to rise.

  "Wen Qing, when do you think this peak will appear?" Qin Tongren couldn't help but ask. He hoped that the curve, which seemed to be going straight up into the clouds, could keep running forever and never stop.

  This time's meeting secretary is Su Wuming, Chen Ke brought him over. He raised his head to look at the report on the blackboard and asked: "Do we need to draw this in too?" Su Wuming had never learned about coordinates, and thought that this thing looked wrong no matter how he looked at it.

  There were also several students from the Imperial University of Peking who came with Su Wu-ming. It is said that when Yu-yan ascended to the throne, an old city in Xi'an circulated a folk song: "No need to pinch, no need to calculate, Xuantong will not last more than two and a half years." Two and a half years have passed, and this Qing dynasty really fell down without any hesitation. In today's society, even those who support the Manchu are doing so out of their own interests rather than loyalty to the Manchu. Even students from the Imperial University of Peking began to support the revolution, and the downfall of the Manchu started in people's minds. Now it has reached an irreversible point.

  "Wu Ming, I've made several copies of that, just put them directly into the file," Chen Ke replied.

  The 70th