Chapter 10: The Time for Seizing Territory Has Arrived

  "Haha! It's lively now." Jiang Yu handed the newspaper to Jiang Fangzhen, "Baili brother, take a look at this."

  "Mass petition?" Jiang Fangzhen took the newspaper and looked at it, shaking his head: "The Qing court's behavior is really too ugly, this time it's likely to cause a civil unrest."

  "If the people of Sichuan cannot maintain their legitimate interests through non-violent means, they will inevitably turn to violent resistance. At that time, the Qing government will necessarily deploy a large army from Hubei to suppress it, and when the time comes, they will be busy with one thing and neglect another, and the revolution in Hubei will inevitably erupt. This rubber stock has drained the last bit of energy from the Qing government, and the Manchu rulers cannot come up with much money to suppress it, and moreover, the merchants are already complaining loudly, and it is no longer possible for them to support the Manchu government, and the downfall of the Manchu dynasty is imminent."

  Jiang Yu was certain that Jiang Fangzhen would analyze, but Jiang Fangzhen was not too suspicious of Jiang Yu's words. Over the past few years, he had discovered that Jiang Yu always had a kind of precognitive grasp of things, just like last time when the rubber stock had drained the Qing dynasty's vitality, and then all the money had gone into Jiang Yu's pocket.

  Under the circumstances of "one side weakens and the other gains strength", with the current strength of Jiangsu and Sichuan, even if they were to rebel against the Qing immediately, there would still be a great chance of success.

  "What should we do then? Should we rise up and voice our support?" Jiang Fangzhen asked somewhat impatiently. Jiang Yu shook his head, "As the saying goes, 'the bird that sticks its head out gets shot.' If we show our hand too openly, we will inevitably be suppressed by the Beiyang Army and the foreign powers. Moreover, our military strength is not enough to control a large territory. Even if we successfully overthrow the Qing dynasty, we will have to pay a heavy price. As long as we wait and observe, the fall of the Qing dynasty is just a matter of time. When that happens, China will be plunged into a state of warlordism. What we need to do is to continuously strengthen ourselves while developing our national industry, so that it won't be disrupted by the war. Then, we can slowly plan our next move."

  Chiang Fangzhen nodded in agreement, he also understood the importance of national industrial development. Without one's own national industry, it is impossible to defeat the foreigners.

  Through contact with Jiang Yu, Chiang Fangzhen also realized that whether it is a republic or not is unimportant. For politics, there is no such thing as justice and evil. The only standard of measurement is whether the nation can survive better. Any means are just a process.

  As long as it makes China strong, as long as it defeats the oppression of the powerful, then it is just, and the process does not matter.

  So when Jiang Yu spoke with a strong militarist tone and talked about spheres of influence, Chiang Fangzhen didn't feel any mental resistance.

  "Then let's wait and see!" Jiang Fangzhen agreed, he had reason to believe that in the future, Jiang Yu would be able to dominate China, because his financial resources were the most enormous.

  Moreover, Jiang and Yu were well-versed in business operations and industrial development. With the support of Germany's great rear, they also had many achievements in military affairs, making it not too difficult to defeat those warlords.

  "But we can also be more open in our business scope now, making more money is always a good thing." Jiang Yu smiled.

  ……

  The Railway Protection Movement erupted as it had historically, and the whole of Sichuan was plunged into a massive armed movement to protect the railway. In order to suppress the Sichuan Railway Protection Movement, the Qing government deployed the Wuchang New Army to Sichuan, resulting in a vacuum within the city of Wuchang.

  In Jiangyu, far away in Huaiyin, the action became even bigger.

  In the past, artillery training was somewhat secretive, but now artillery is openly taken out for training, and even large-caliber heavy artillery is taken out for training.

  In business, Jiang Yu increased private salt smuggling.

  Huaiyin's large quantities of private salt were transported by armed escort at extremely low prices along the Yangtze, Huai and Yellow rivers to various provinces.

  The price of salt dropped temporarily, and official salt was almost unsalable. Jiang Yu's income increased, and in just one month, he made a pure profit of 5 million yuan by selling private salt. He even forged salt tickets to an unscrupulous extent.

  Since last year, Jiang Yu's income from salt has exceeded 20 million yuan in just one year, and refined salt is also sold to Japan, Nanyang and other places.

  After Huai Salt went public, it touched the interests of salt tyrants and foreign salt merchants. They spread rumors that Huai East Refining Salt could kill people.

  At that time, rumors were flying everywhere in the market. Jiang Yu also organized a "water army" to spread rumors in the market, saying that foreign salt was deadly and framing Huadong Salt for it.

  At the same time, Huadong Salt was heavily advertised in newspapers, and some big shots were found to put Huadong Salt on their dining tables. As a result, rumors collapsed by themselves, and Jiangyu also ruined the reputation of imported salt. Now people only recognize 'Huadong Salt' when buying salt.

  Cheng Dequan had also questioned Jiang Yu about the large amount of private salt on the market, but Jiang Yu refused to admit it even if he was beaten to death.

  Cheng Dequan has now discovered that Jiang Yu is openly training troops in Huaiyin, and has hired many German instructors, with a large amount of advanced military equipment. Therefore, he can't do anything about Jiang Yu either. His own private salt business isn't a big deal, so he just turns a blind eye, pretending not to see it, to avoid stirring up trouble. If the Jiangbei Patrol Battalion were to cause chaos, then all of Jiangbei would be thrown into chaos.

  Under this compromise, Jiang Yu gained greater benefits.

  It wasn't until September that Sichuan erupted in the Chengdu Blood Case, where more than 30 petitioning civilians were killed or injured. This was followed by an armed uprising, and the size of the Railway Protection Army grew rapidly to 200,000 people.

  The Qing court was frightened and hastily assembled the New Army of Hubei to enter Sichuan to suppress it, and the Xinhai Revolution was about to break out.

  In September 1911, the industry under the Huadong Group had a certain scale, and the ordnance factory was built in Wuhu. With the recruitment of a large number of German technicians, the ordnance factory quickly got started, but many raw materials had to be imported, mainly steel.

  The steel mill has been under construction for a year and a half and is almost complete.

  Jiang Yu built a 3,000 cubic meter blast furnace in Wuhu, producing up to 1.5 million tons of iron per year, and also built a converter with an annual output of 100,000 tons of steel.

  The converter steelmaking appeared relatively early, but because of the quality is not as good as open-hearth furnace, so currently the mainstream technology for steelmaking in the world is still open-hearth furnace steelmaking.

  However, the converter steelmaking technology built by Jiang Yu through top-blown oxygen has made the quality of the steel produced by the converter comparable to that of the open-hearth furnace, and the efficiency has been increased by about three times.

  The top-blowing method is a common technique in later generations, apart from this, there is also the bottom-blowing method, and even more advanced methods that combine top-blowing and bottom-blowing, known as compound blowing. However, Jiang Yu's experimental team has not yet researched it.

  However, top blowing is already sufficient in this era, and with the top blowing method, the cost of steelmaking can be greatly reduced.

  The matching coking plant, iron ore and coal mine have also been completed. On September 15, 1911, Wuhu Steel Plant successfully smelted the first blast furnace iron, and two days later, it successfully smelted the first converter steel.

  The steel plant's production, combined with the completion of construction of machinery manufacturing plants, machine tool manufacturing plants, electric motor manufacturing plants, engine manufacturing plants, tractor manufacturing plants, aircraft manufacturing plants, shipbuilding yards, munitions factories and oil refineries, enabled Jiangsu to establish its own industrial system in China. At the same time, the completion of synthetic ammonia plants, explosives plants and alkali plants gave it its own chemical industry system.

  Although it is still heavily dependent on German engineers and technicians at present, at least there are already some, and its own talents have also begun to be cultivated.

  For the construction of these factories, Jiang Yu invested nearly 300 million silver dollars.

  However, at this time Jiang Yu still had strong financial resources, so he provided funding guarantees for the start-up of these factories. It's not that having a factory can start work, but also need production funds, otherwise how to pay wages, how to buy raw materials, and how to transport?

  The Xinhai Revolution is about to break out, and Jiangsu and Sichuan have already begun their final preparations.

  The essence of action is three words - seize territory!

  Jiang Yu began to expand his forces again from the beginning of the year, and after several months, he had more than 10,000 soldiers under his command, which was twenty times the normal strength of the Jiangbei Patrol Camp.

  As the Xinhai Revolution approached, Jiang Yu raised the banner of "Fuxing Army", Fuxing Army set up a division, Jiang Yu was the commander, and Jiang Fangzhen was the deputy commander and also served as the chief of staff. The commander of the 1st Brigade was Yang Hongfei, and the commander of the 2nd Brigade was Li Shoujing.

  The troops stationed in Huaiyin, The troops stationed in Wuhu.

  At the same time, there was also a Shanghai reinforcement camp, with Zhang Qingyun as the commander, responsible for external publicity and escorting merchant teams, stationed in Shanghai.

  There is also a reconnaissance battalion and a special operations battalion.

  Scouting Regiment Commander Zhao Xueming, Special Operations Regiment Commander Wang Chenghai.

  The current Xiang Army is absolutely powerful. Jiangsu Governor Cheng Dequan and Anhui Governor Zhu Jiabao both sensed the movement of Jiang Yu.

  However, Jiang Yu claimed that they were factory militiamen, and since Jiang Yu had indeed set up many factories, Cheng Dequan and Zhu Jiabao did not think that Jiang Yu was going to rebel, but only thought that he was training these soldiers and horses to protect his own factories, so they were not on guard.

  "Reporting to you, sir, the tunnels you requested to be dug have all been completed as of yesterday." Wang Chenghai came forward to report to Jiang Yu on this day, September 25.

  "Alright, let's keep these tunnels under wraps, don't expose them." Jiang Yu clapped his hands and saw that the map had marked out a tunnel through the major cities in Jiangbei and Jiangnan.

  At the end of Qing Dynasty, there were many buildings in both urban and rural areas, which became excellent hiding units for Jiang Yu people to dig tunnels.

  The tunnel allowed troops to enter the city very easily, and once they entered the city, the morale of the defending soldiers basically collapsed.

  "Yes." Wang Chenghai bowed and retreated. At this time, a tall and slender man standing quietly beside Jiang Yu asked him, "Younger martial brother, do you plan to take action now?"

  "Hmm! The timing is about right." Jiang Yu nodded, and this person was his senior brother Han Muxia, who was also his bodyguard.

  Although Jiang Yu's martial arts skills are not weak, having bodyguards is still necessary.

  Han Muxia was on good terms with him, and his martial arts were among the best in Jiangyu, making him a natural choice as a bodyguard. Han Muxia also led an elite guard unit, consisting of crack troops.

  "It seems that this time the Manchu is going to be finished, nearly three hundred years of slavery are finally coming to an end." Han Muxia sighed, not doubting this little brother's abilities at all. From the time Jiang Yu was six years old and entered Zhang Zhan Kui's school, Han Muxia felt that he was not simple. Many times, when Han Muxia taught Jiang Yu martial arts, Jiang Yu would teach Han Muxia about human nature.

  ……

  On the night of October 10, 1911, a gunshot in Wuchang, Hubei Province marked the beginning of the Xinhai Revolution. That same night, at midnight, Huaiyin received a wireless telegram from Wuchang, and the command center was lit up brightly as the telegram was quickly translated.

  "Report to the superior, according to the telegram from the Chamber of Commerce, a revolution has broken out in Wuchang..." The telegraph operator read out the contents of the telegram hastily, and Jiang Yu suddenly stood up, with a wolf-like glint in his eyes.

  The revolution has finally arrived, it's time to seize the land!

  ————

  Do you guys have tickets?