Insufficient balance

  The news of the successful uprising of the New Army in Wuchang spread by telegraph throughout the country, causing widespread excitement among the people. Revolutionaries became even more daring and active everywhere, trying to turn the Wuchang Uprising into a prairie fire that would ignite uprisings all over the country.

  To say that the success of the Wuchang Uprising was not accidental but inevitable.

  After the defeat of the Jiawu War, the Qing government suffered another national humiliation in the Gengzi Year, which made the Qing court determined to start a new policy. They established new schools, built railways, encouraged industry and commerce, trained new troops, and sent many students abroad for further study. The successes achieved over the past decade were quite impressive, with industry and commerce developing rapidly. However, this also sowed the seeds of disaster. Those young students who went abroad came into contact with foreign countries, broadened their horizons, and understood what freedom was, naturally becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the domestic situation under Qing rule. The outcome of any highly centralized government that opens up people's minds is always tragic, and the Qing dynasty was no exception.

  After encouraging industry and commerce, while industry and commerce developed rapidly, capitalists were no longer satisfied with light industry and began to focus on heavy industries such as railways in pursuit of greater profits. At the same time, profit-seeking capitalists naturally resented the imperial court for yielding to foreign powers, selling many road rights and mines, and tariffs being controlled by foreigners. More importantly, after the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion, the imperial court implemented a likin system to make up for its financial deficiencies, resulting in numerous likin checkpoints across the country. This had little impact on commodity circulation, but the key point was that the likin treated domestic and foreign goods differently, making it difficult for domestic goods to compete. All these factors led to serious dissatisfaction among industrial and commercial circles towards the imperial court.

  At the same time, to establish a new army and start a new policy requires a lot of money, but what did the imperial court do? The answer is to issue copper coins indiscriminately, increase the lijin tax, and increase the land tax. These measures temporarily covered up the severe financial problems at the end of the Qing dynasty, but ordinary people suffered from increasingly high inflation and a sharp decline in living standards. This triggered great public discontent.

  When there was a revolutionary party pursuing ideals, capitalists pursuing profits, and ordinary people with grievances. The combination of these three directly led to the outbreak of the Wuchang Uprising. Even if the Wuchang Uprising failed, it wouldn't be long before the Nanjing Uprising and Taiyuan Uprising would occur. In short, revolution was inevitable. Therefore, after the success of the Wuchang Uprising on October 20th, the Hanyang New Army responded to the uprising, quickly controlling Hanyang and then marching towards Hankou.

  If the Manchu nobles had known that the outcome of the new policy would be like this, they would not have implemented it even if Empress Dowager Cixi had been killed! It can be said that for the Manchu nobles, the reform after 1900 was the biggest mistake in their more than 200 years of ruling China. If they hadn't reformed and continued to maintain the ignorant system, they might have been able to barely hold on for a few more decades until they were annexed or colonized by foreign powers. But as soon as they reformed, they were overthrown by the new generation of intellectuals they had cultivated in just a few years. Therefore, from the perspective of the ruling class, it is better for those being ruled to be more ignorant. The Qing dynasty and the Jin dynasty are the most obvious examples of success and failure.

  Of course, Chen Jingyun, who was still in a dream, did not know that the three towns of Wuchang had almost been occupied by the people's army. This didn't matter to him anyway. After all, he knew that the revolution would ultimately be successful and that uprisings would soon erupt one after another across the country. And he himself would also be among them.

  He slept lightly in the first half of the night, fearing that something might happen in the military camp. It wasn't until the second half of the night that he fell into a daze and fell asleep. When he got up in the morning, it was already a bit late.

  After washing and dressing, Chen Jingyun inspected the military camp again. Then, around 11 o'clock in the morning, he reiterated his order to close the camp tightly and strictly forbid any disturbances before returning home with a few trusted soldiers. His deputy, Lin Chengkun, had left early that morning, and without asking, Chen knew he had gone to look for revolutionaries.

  Halfway through the journey, he suddenly remembered the Osmanthus cake that Sun Daoren had mentioned yesterday, and immediately sent a personal soldier to Yang's in North City.

  After returning home, he was called over by Yu Shi shortly after entering the door. Although Chen Jingyun was no longer the same as before, but with the fusion of memories, he still had great respect for Yu Shi as a mother. After all, it's not easy for a woman to raise three children to adulthood in this era.

  Yu carefully looked at Chen Jingyun and asked a few questions about why he didn't return home last night. Chen Jingyun naturally replied respectfully that it was due to being busy with official duties, and since Chen Jingyun often stayed in the military camp before, Yu didn't say much. However, when she heard that Chen Jingyun would be attending a banquet at Sun Daoren's residence later, a hint of joy appeared on Yu's lips.

  "Good! Since my son has invited you to a feast, let's set off early and not keep Lord Sun waiting. After all, he is our elder!" Madam Yu's tone was gentle, but her words seemed to carry a hint of joy.

  Chen Jingyun didn't say much either, and after excusing himself, he went out the door, immediately changing into a tailored military uniform before heading out.

  Then a group of people rushed to the Sun Mansion, and after arriving at the Sun Mansion, they knocked on the door with their guns. Naturally, there were people from the Sun Mansion who came to greet them. The butler personally led Chen Jingyun forward, while the guards who followed Chen Jingyun were led to a side room to have tea and eat.

  However, as they walked in, Chen Jingyun found that Sun's butler did not lead him to the main hall, but instead headed towards the backyard. This made him somewhat curious, after all, although the social atmosphere had become more open than it was decades ago, official families still adhered to strict etiquette, and outsiders were not easily allowed into the backyard.

  Chen Jingyun had doubts, and Sun Guanjia was also a thoughtful person. Without Chen Jingyun asking, he spoke up on his own: "Earlier, the old master said that today's meal is just a casual family dinner, so you're not considered to be here on official business, let's eat in the backyard!"

  "Oh!" Chen Jingyun responded casually, but in his heart he had already guessed that Sun Dao Ren was trying to get at something, and there was no need for him to lead himself into the backyard.

  Sun Daoren's house is a typical Jiangnan three-entry courtyard, with intricate carvings visible everywhere in the corridors and doors. These carvings all reveal the elegance of Jiangnan, which is completely different from the open and spacious style of northern houses. The backyard even has a pond dug out, with running water introduced, and a fake mountain by the pool, on top of which is a pavilion. There are many rare flowers and grasses planted around the pool, and it's clear that they have just been watered, as the sunlight filters through the leaves and flowers, casting a crystal-like glow.

  After passing through the garden and turning several corridors, Chen Jingyun was led by Sun Guanjia into a flower hall. He had just sat down for a short while when he heard Sun Daoren's voice coming from the doorway: "Zi Hua has arrived!"

  Chen Jingyun hastily stood up: "Your subordinate has seen Lord Sun!"

  Sun Daoren walked in, stretching out his hand: "Zi Hua, no need to be too polite! This is not a military camp, and you didn't come here today on official business! Are you looking down on me, Sun?"

  He was still pretending to be angry while talking!

  Chen Jingyun could only smile wryly and say, "If you insist on not being polite, I won't be polite either. Is it that I, Subei, have been remiss? Forgive me, Lord Sun!"

  Sun Dao Ren smiled and nodded, picking up his tea cup as he said: "Actually, I wanted to invite you over a few days ago, but then I heard that you had caught a cold. My wife has been nagging me nonstop, saying she's worried and insisting on sending someone over to check on you!"

  Chen Jingyun casually replied: "Fortunately, thanks to the few hundred-year-old ginseng sent by Mrs. Sun, my body was able to recover so quickly!"

  "It's all right if the body is fine!" Sun Daoren took a sip of tea and continued: "Alas, now is a busy autumn, with many things to do, no good body can't handle so many things! I still hope you can help me take on more responsibilities!"

  "Understood!" Chen Jingyun replied respectfully as usual.

  After all this, Sun Daoren couldn't help but sigh about the current state of affairs: "These days, everything is in chaos everywhere. Last night, Xu Jingqing led the patrol camp to march for a whole night, and it's said that they caught many rebels!"

  Xu Jingqing, who was in Sun Daoren's mouth, was an old military commander within Fuzhou, with thousands of men under his command. Chen Jingyun didn't have much information about this person in her memory, which showed that they were not very familiar with each other normally. As for why Xu Jingqing would catch the rebels last night, Chen Jingyun had also guessed some of it.

  "Isn't it because of what happened on the Wuchang side?" Chen Jingyun said his own speculation.

  "Hmm!" Sun Daoren said: "The disturbance on the Wuchang side is too big, I just received news that last night Hanyang also rioted!"

  Chen Jingyun was also stunned after hearing this, it seems that the actions of the revolutionary party are still very swift. At this rate, Wuchang, Hanyang and Hankou will fall into the hands of the revolutionaries in just a few days. It seems that our side needs to speed up its actions too, we can't let the revolutionaries start an uprising before us, that's not a good thing!

  "Now, at this point, Sun Daoren paused slightly and looked at Chen Jingyun: "The current situation is tense, I also know that many revolutionaries have infiltrated the 10th town. I'm afraid they'll take advantage of the situation to cause trouble. If a military uprising were to occur, the hundreds of thousands of civilians in Fuzhou would suffer! Our lives and safety would also be at risk!"

  Judging from Chen Jingyun's attitude towards the revolutionaries in the past, Sun Daoren's words were indeed not spoken. However, the current Chen Jingyun is no longer the original Chen Jingyun. If the previous Chen Jingyun was someone who only did his job and practiced martial arts with all his heart, then the current Chen Jingyun is a person who is full of rebellious thoughts. At this time, Chen Jingyun naturally knew what attitude to take: "Don't worry, sir, I have my troops under control, and this Fuzhou city will not be chaotic! If someone wants to make trouble, they must see if the 38th battalion will agree or not!"

  "Good!" Sun Daoren saw Chen Jingyun's attitude, naturally with a smile on his face. It was precisely because of Chen Jingyun's attitude that he would entrust the 30th marker to Chen Jingyun. Also, it was precisely because of Chen Jingyun's attitude that Sun Daoren invited Chen Jingyun to have this meal together.

  The two of them chatted for a while longer and gradually shifted their conversation from official business to trivial private matters.

  "If I remember correctly, Zihua, you should be twenty-three this year, right?" Sun Daoren asked while stroking his beard.

  Chen Jingyun was slightly stunned, and suddenly he couldn't remember his own age either. It wasn't until he silently calculated it in his heart that he figured out the age of this body: "The adult remembers correctly!"

  Sun Dao Ren continued stroking his beard and said, "As the saying goes, 'establish a family and start a business', this 'establishing a family' is indeed placed before 'starting a business'. This lifelong major event, Zi Hua must seize it tightly!"