Podcasts about dalien

Ranger Lanoree Brock searches for a madman who threatens to destroy the ancient Je'daii homeworld of Tython. Can she stop Dalien... the brother she thought had died years ago?

In today's episode, Brandon decides to jump into his time machine and share an episode from 2016.  In it, Brandon shares a parable about two monks and uses it to explore the idea that we can simply do our best in any moment, without being bogged down by past mistakes. Dalien also shares a report of an experimental stem cell therapy that could potentially cure MS.   Care to play a game with the youniverse? Ask the universe the episode you would most benefit from hearing next and click positivehead.com/game.  Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD

In today's episode, Brandon decides to jump into his time machine and share an episode from 2016. In it, Brandon and Dalien discuss the concept of humans as eternal beings that carry all of our growth and lessons from this life forward. Dalien also shares a popular recent story about the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland and an apparent vortex that was filmed over it.   Care to play a game with the youniverse? Ask the universe the episode you would most benefit from hearing next and click positivehead.com/game.  Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD

Last time we spoke about the legendary battle of Tsushima. Admiral Rozhdestvenski traveled across the globe to bring the Baltic fleet to the Pacific to give a climactic fight to Admiral Togo's combined fleet. Yet during the journey, Port Arthur fell leaving the only destination to be Vladivostok and they would have to take a perilous journey through the Tsushima strait to get to her. Rozhdestvenski's grand journey meant his ships were ill maintained and the crews had no time for training. The Japanese meanwhile had trained vigorously and brought new technological advantages into the mix that would significantly tip the scale. The Russian baltic fleet was absolutely annihilated at a minimal lose for the IJN. The battle of Tsushima became one of the most famous naval battles in history and its decisive nature would become indoctrinated in the IJN until the end of WW2.    #84 The Russo-Japanese War part 11: The Portsmouth Treaty    Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. I have to start this podcast by repeating a funny little bit from this week. One of my bosses over at Kings and Generals suddenly messages me on discord and says “hey what's going on with the China Podcast, are we doing a series on the Russo-Japanese War now?” And to this I laughed, because he had a good point, I am sure there are a lot of you who were wondering….well why are we spending so much time on this, if the Fall and Rise of China podcast is ..well about China. The Russo-Japanese War would have a profound effect on China and global history. Something many forget, this entire war occurred within China, a nation not officially taking part in the conflict! Having a war break out between two other empires within your borders was an absolutely humiliating situation. China had just lost a war against the Russians in Manchuria. When the war broke out, China declared neutrality and asked both sides to not violate her territory, which both did without a care in the world. The Chinese did help the Japanese, especially the Honghuzi. Now the 1st Sino-Japanese War had left quite a foul taste in the mouth of the Chinese, but during the Russo-Japanese War some Pan-Asianim did develop. The Chinese public gradually began supporting the Japanese, there were quite a lot of youth in China demanding the Qing government allow them to enlist and help fight off the Russians. Countless Chinese helped with labor, working in a vast spy network and sold both sides provisions. When the Russians lost the battle of Tsushima and Mukden, there were many influential and future influential figures that celebrated this. Notably Mahatma Gandhi, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sun Yat-Sen were deeply influenced by the Japanese victory. Why were they so influenced, because it was the first time a non-white nation had defeated a white one, and not just that, one of the great powers. The Russian Empire was in the public's mind, defeated handily by a small asiatic nation, it was a david and goliath story come true. Ironically, the Yellow Peril which Kaiser Wilhelm had utilized to usher in the war was turned up to 100 when the Japanese won.Now all that is fine and dandy, but there was another dramatic effect this war would hold over Japan and China. We technically have not spoken about “the end” of the Russo-Japanese War, there is actually another battle and the peace negotiations to discuss. It is here things will occur that will actually lay the groundwork for WW2. So now we are heading back into the story. The Japanese had won at Mukden and now at Tsushima, so that was that, they had won the war right? The Russians had taken up a new defensive position in northern Manchuria and were still being reinforced, 2 corps were enroute. In the war of attrition, the Russians would eventually win, despite having no naval ability, they would simply overwhelm the Japanese with numbers. Both nations faced bankruptcy, but the Russians were able to take larger loans from France and Germany, thus the situation was from a financial point of view more perilous for Japan. 53% of Japan's annual revenue had been devoted to the war effort. For Russia, the humiliation and financial ruin was accompanied by a full blown revolution. Thus both nations really needed the war to end and fast. Now comes in my favorite US president, Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt was one of the few at the offset of the war to place his bet on a Japanese victory. He also attempted to resolve the disputes between the two empires before the war broke out, often citing the Kaiser's Yellow Peril propaganda as being a main culprit to the hostilities. Roosevelt wrote to the British diplomat, Cecil Spring Rice that he believed Wilhelm should bear partial responsibility for the war "as he has done all he could to bring it about". Roosevelt is a fascinating figure. He was of course a product of his time, a 19th century man, he had views of white superiority, but demonstrated a certain tolerance towards nonwhites. This extended itself a lot towards the Japanese, there was a lot about the Japanese he admired. After the battle of Tsushima Roosevelt wrote “even the battle of Trafalgar could not match this. I grew so excited that I myself became almost like a Japanese, and I could not attend to official duties.” Roosevelt famously practiced judo with Japanese opponents and avidly read Nitobe Inazo's “Bushido”. Roosevelt was sent many books from his friend at Harvard, Kaneko Kentaro and wrote in appreciation “Perhaps I was most impressed by this little volume on Bushido. …It seems to me, my dear Baron, that Japan has much to teach to the nations of the Occident, just as she has something to learn from them. I have long felt that Japan's entrance into the circle of the great civilized powers was of good omen for all of the world.Certainly I myself, hope that I have learned not a little from what I have read of the fine Samurai spirit, and from the way in which that spirit has been and is being transformed to meet the needs of modern life.” In some ways perhaps you could call Roosevelt a Japanophile, but I would stress, like any white elites of the 19th century, he still had ingrained in him a sense that whites, notably white anglo saxons were the most civilized in the world.  It should come to no surprise, Roosevelt who publicly spoke well of the Japanese during the war, found the Japanese coming to him to help mediate the peace. Now as much as Roosevelt had openly favored the Japanese during the conflict, now there was a looming issue on the American president's mind. The Japanese were aggressively expanding in Asia and the Pacific, this was not something Roosevelt liked very much. After the fall of Port Arthur, Roosevelt wrote “if Japan tries to gain from her victory in the Russo-Japanese War more than she ought to have, she will array against her all the great powers, and however determined she may be she cannot successfully face an allied world”. Roosevelt was greatly troubled by the potential threat Japan posed against America's own increasing strength and influence in the asia-pacific. He would dispatch one General Arthur MacArthur, for you Pacific War week by week podcast listeners, yes I managed to bring MacArthur into this one. Arthur MacArthur was sent on a tour of the far east in 1905 and he was of course accompanied by his wife and a young Lt Douglas MacArthur who would go on to write ‘The purpose of our observations was to measure the strength of the Japanese Army and its method of warfare … But I had the uneasy feeling that the haughty, feudalistic samurai who were their leaders, were, through their victories, planting the seed of eventual Japanese conquest of the Orient.' No worries I am not going to turn this into a MacArthur rant. Roosevelt's agreed to act as a mediator before the battle of Tsushima. After the Tsushima victory, the Japanese expected they would receive large benefits from peace talks. They had good reason to believe so, Russia had lost on the land and sea, revolution was burning within the empire. Anarchists attacked the Tsar's uncle and brother in law, Grand Duke Serge Alexandroitich, the governor general of Moscow. Riots and anti-war demonstrations were widespread, violence was found in major Russian cities. From the Russian point of view, the Japanese had committed all her available manpower in the field, thus only mediation could save Japan from incoming disaster. In many ways it was a kind of race, who would run out of men first? Japan because she literally had a much smaller population, or would the Russian people simply overthrow the Tsar regime? Both regimes also were verging bankruptcy, whose dollar would run out first? Russia had not lost any of “her” territory, something Roosevelt was quick to point out to the Japanese. Thus Roosevelt was sort of winking at the Japanese that they should secure Russian territory so they had more bargaining power at the peace table, so the Japanese went to work. Japan and Russian had signed a treaty in 1875, the Treaty of Saint Petersburg that saw Japan ceding part of Sakhalin island to Russia in exchange for the Kuril islands. Now by the time of the Russo-Japanese war the population of Sakhalin was roughly 30,000 including 4000 Ainu. The island held a large prison and was used as a place for those Russia sought to exile. Overall it was not a very significant territory to the Russians. Its climate as you can imagine, was quite harsh, even by Russian standards. The Russians had a garrison of 7280 men on the island, the majority were conscripted farmers, hunters and prisoners with little in terms of training or equipment. They were led by General Mikhail Nikolaevich Lyapunov, who had been appointed military governor of Sakhalin in 1898. He had joined the military academy at the age of 16, but quickly found a talent in law, so he became a lawyer, while continuing his military career on the side. Thus the man was not particularly experienced in terms of war.  After the battle of Tsushima, the Japanese quickly wrangled together a force of 14,000 men for the brand new 13th IJA division led by General Haraguchi Kensai. Admiral Kataoka Shichiro assembled a naval force at Aomori Bay of 8 armored cruisers, 9 destroyers, 4 coastal defense ships and 12 torpedo boats to transport the division for an invasion of Sakhalin. The naval force departed on July 5th and landed in Aniwa Bay and near the port of Korsakov. They faced little opposition, a second group landed closer to Korsakov where they destroyed a battery of field artillery and defeated a small Russian force. The Japanese quickly advanced against Korsakov the next day, but the garrison of 2000 Russians led by Colonel Josef Arciszweski there had burned it to the ground. On July 8th the IJN force cleared Chitose Bay and on the 10th occupied Kindo Cape. Meanwhile the 13th division advanced north, taking the village of Vladimirovka. Colonel Arciszweski had dug to resist the Japanese, but his force was quickly outflanked and they withdrew into mountains within the interior of the island. By July 16th, Arciszweski surrendered his forces. Around 200 Russians were captured, the Japanese had suffered 18 deaths and 58 wounded. On the 17th 1905 General Lyapunov, through a representative, sent a message to General Kensai "Your Excellency! The lack of medicines and dressings and, as a result, the lack of the possibility of rendering assistance to the wounded, forced me to propose to Your Excellency to cease hostilities for purely humane reasons." General Haraguchi responded by demanding that General Lyapunov surrender all weapons and all movable and immovable state property that were intact, as well as the surrender of all maps, documents, papers related to the military department and administration. On the 19th General Lyapunov at his headquarters in the village of Onor gave the order: "The lack of food and firearms, as well as entrenching tools, the lack of sanitary facilities, the enormous numerical superiority of the Japanese army and the absence of a prepared path of retreat put us in such a situation when which further resistance would be useless bloodshed. In view of this, having received an offer from the commander of the Japanese army, which landed on the island, to surrender, I convened a military council, at which, to discuss the general situation...". On the 24th the Japanese landed in northern Sakhalin near Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky. The Russians had 5000 troops under the direct control of General Lyapunov. Lyapunov chose to flee the city with his forces and later surrendered seeing the Japanese capture 3200 men, 79 officers and General Lyapunov. He was the only Russian governor to surrender during the war. The Japanese would also capture another 1260 soldiers around Onor with a large stockpile of weapons, ammunition and food. After all was said and done, the battle for Sakhalin saw the Russians suffer 181 deaths, thousands taken prisoner. With that done with, the Japanese now had officially seized Russian territory. Alongside this the Japanese re-signed the Anglo-Japanese alliance for another 10 years and entered talks with the US regarding their positions over Korea and the Philippines. The Taft-Katsura agreement between William Howard Taft and Count Katsura Taro saw the US agree Japan should seek a protectorate over Korea, and Japan agreed the Philippines should be left under the good governance of the US. It should be noted this was all “a agreement” nothing was signed. In many ways it was a betrayal of Korea by the US, as the Americans and Koreans had signed an amity and commerce treaty in 1882, which the Koreans assumed was a mutual defense treaty. Regardless, the Japanese were securing their poker hand before heading into the negotiations. The peace negotiations were held at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The Russian peace team was led by Sergius Witte who quickly stressed Russia had not been beaten and the war was very much still on. He also began privately complaining to all that it was his view the Japanese sought to gain as much loot from an agreement as possible. He was 100% correct in that assumption. Witte also made it clear, the Tsar's position in regards to Korea had not changed and that Russia would never pay a rouble in war indemnities. The Japanese were lead by Baron Komura, a harvard graduate. He came into the negotiations immediately demanding Korea was in the sphere of Japanese influence, that the Russians should depart Manchuria, the cession of Sakhalin, the granting of new fishing rights along the Russian coast, the spoils of war to be agreed upon and of course a fat sum of war indemnities. The teams had arrived on August 8th of 1905, and would stay at the Hotel Wentworth in New Castle. The actual negotiations took place at the General Stores Building, furnished with Mahogany furniture from the Cabinet Room of the White House. The conference was arranged so the most difficult parts would come last, namely, indemnities and Sakhalin. There were 12 sessions held between August 9th to the 30th. During the first 8 sessions, both sides reached an agreement on 8 points.  There should be an immediate ceasefire. The Russians would recognize  Japanese claims over Korea. The Russian forces would evacuate Manchuria.  Russia would cede its leases over Port Arthur and Dalien, the South Manchuria Railway and some mining concession, and Russia would retain the Chinese Eastern Railway in northern Manchuria. The next 4 points were much trickery.  On August the 15th the two vexed subjects were brought forth, Sakhalin and indemnity payments. It seemed the American public opinion over these issues had swung to the Russians. Witte, briefed by the Tsar stated there would be no payments for the return of Sakhalin and no indemnities, and stressed the Russians remained resolved to continue fighting. The Russians were very aware of Japan's financial distress and concluded that a demand for indemnity would be their most pressing concern. During the talks Roosevelt would later write ‘This (the indemnity) would never have been entertained by him, and he had calculated that the Peace Conference would break down on this point, and the struggle be continued until Japan could raise no more money.'On the issue Roosevelt intervened and advised the Japanese that if she did not abandon her claims for an indemnity, the world would come to believe the war had been fought for financial gain. Roosevelt on the 18th proposed dividing Sakhalin. Witte countered this on the 23rrd proposing Japan keep Sakhalin and drop her claims of indemnities. Komura rejected this proposal prompting Witte to warn him he was instructed to cease negotiations and resume the war. This ultimatum was met by 4 new Russian divisions arriving to Manchuria and Witte made a public display of literally showing everyone himself packing his bags preparing to leave. The Russians were convinced the Japanese could not afford to resume the war and were making a grand display to the Americans and Japanese that Russia would never agree to paying a single rouble. Komura was not in a good position and caved into the demands. The Japanese agreed in exchange for the southern half of Sakhalin they would drop their claims for indemnities. On September 5th, the treaty was signed, and ratified on the 10th of October in Japan, and the 14th for Russia. A random little side note, during the war Montenegro had declared war on Japan, but everyone kind of forgot about this and no mention of Montenegro was made in the treaty so technically Japan and Montenegro were at war until 2006 when Japan officially ended the war. Witte wrote to the New York Times about the treaty “The judgement of all observers here, whether pro-Japanese or pro-Russian, is that the victory is as astonishing a thing as ever was seen in diplomatic history. A nation hopelessly beaten in every battle of the war, one army captured and the other overwhelmingly routed, with a navy swept from the seas, dictated her own terms to the victory”. His rather bombastic claims were well warranted as the treaty signing had a profound effect on Japan. The Japanese public exploded. The over taxation for the war effort, the loss of so many sons and fathers had prompted the Japanese public to believe they were owed a lot. From the point of view of the Japanese public, the only news they received was endless victories over the lands and seas, they had no idea of the financial plight of their nation. When they heard the terms of the treaty, riots exploded. The most famous riots occurred in Hibiya Park in central Tokyo where activities and protesters assembled some 30,000 people strong. They marched upon the Imperial Palace grounds and rampaged the city for over 2 days. They especially targeted government buildings, the police, Russian property, but notably that of the US. From the publics view, Roosevelt and America had backstabbed them. Russian and American missionary churches were vandalized, martial law was erected. Over 350 buildings were damaged, 17 people were killed, 450 policemen, 48 firemen and civilians were injured. Prime Minister Katsura Taro's cabinet collapsed. While Roosevelt earned a nobel peace prize for his efforts, Japan's extremely positive view of America had dramatically soured. Its hard to picture it given the history of WW1 and WW2, but until this point America was kind of seen as a good big brother to Japan all things considered. The Japanese felt cheated of their rightful claims as victors of the war. Take this into consideration. During the 1st sino-Japanese War, Japan was denied her spoils by the triple intervention of France, Germany and Russia. During the Boxer Rebellion, the Russians used the situation to encroach into Manchuria, which Japan saw as a direct threat. Japan from her perspective won the Russo-Japanese War and now the US was stealing her spoils from her. From the Japanese perspective she deserved recognition as a great power and furthermore recognition as being racially equal. I wont delve to deeply into it, but after WW1, Japan would receive another similar and egregious wound when President Woodrow Wilson denied Japan's request to be recognized as racially equal to the other great powers. That would become the last straw, that drove Japan away from the west and towards WW2. But this is not a Japanese podcast haha, I apologize if I sometimes go in that direction its what I specialized in.  The Russo-Japanese War saw the Japanese suffer 58,000 to 86,000 deaths, for the Russians it was between 43,000 and 120,000. Of the casualties, the Japanese had lost perhaps 59,000 from combat, 27,000 from disease. For the Russians 34-53,000 died from combat and 9-19,000 from disease with another 75,000 captured. And let us not forget the Chinese who would see 20,000 civilian deaths and a financial loss of over 69 million taels. While the Japanese treated the tens of thousands of Russian prisoners extremely well considering what POW treatment would look like during WW1 and WW2, the treatment of Chinese was abysmal. The war between Russia and Japan occurred on Chinese soil, but China was powerless to prevent it and suffered human and financial loss. This added to the Chinese public's sense of humiliation. Alongside this, the treaty of Portsmouth basically started an annexation process of Korea to Japan, but it also handed a ton of privileges and extraterritorial rule over to Japan. Now Japan had her feet firmly set in Manchuria, weakening Qing rule. If you were part of the elites in the Qing dynasty and your responsibility was to improve the empire, it seems investigating how Japan beat Russia should be on top of your list of “to do's”.  Indeed, as we spoke a lot about during the 1st sino japanese war, Japan and China took different paths to modernization in the face of western imperialism. Japan did not defeat Russia solely because of the modernization of her army, Japan had thoroughly organized and prepared her populace for modern politics, military, economic, social and culture….while China struggled behind. China needed to emulate certain aspects, like Japan had to strengthen herself. When Japan and Russia signed the treaty of Portsmouth they were exchanging benefits and many of these were not theirs to take or give, but rather Chinas! Imagine you were a subject of the Qing dynasty living in Manchuria where your home may have been destroyed, perhaps you lost loved ones to the conflict, what did your government do? Nothing. It was a watershed moment for the common people of China, their government did absolutely nothing in the face of all of it. The intellectual class of China was enraged and invigorated by it all. There was this tremendous sense they as a people needed to improve in terms of politics, military, societal, economic, education and culture, China needed to actually modernize. The Qing dynasty was being seen by many as decrepit, too old and stuck in its ways.   In the historical context China was entering the “late Qing reforms” or “new policies” period. This actually began in 1901, but I believed it was very important to get the Russo-Japanese War story into the mix before I dabbled into this very complex part of modern Chinese history. The Qing dynasty is soon coming to its end. Stating all of that I thought it would be a cool time to do a bit of housekeeping. You Mr or Mrs listener, I'd love to hear from you. As you likely know I write and narrate the two podcast Pacific War week by week and the Fall and Rise of China Podcast's for Kings and Generals. However, I also happen to be a Youtuber, and Podcaster on the side. I have the Pacific War Channel where you can find content about the history of Asia from the 1830's until the end of the Pacific war in 1945, in many ways its like this podcast. I also awkwardly have a podcast platform called “the pacific war channel”, and as you can imagine its a bit directionless since …well lets be honest its redundant given these two podcasts I do. I have been trying to think about how to change that podcast around and I would love to hear from you guys. Best way to give feedback, toss comments on my Youtube channel, or join my Pacific War Channel discord, found on my Youtube channel page. I have a few idea's myself, perhaps doing a more general history focused podcast where I tell stories just like the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, but my god in much short series haha, let's say in 3 parters and such. Or I could do an entire other podcast series on The Rise and Fall of Japan, see what I did there with the titles? Yeah that ones been in the back on my mind for awhile. I could also take on a co-pilot for the podcasts so its not only single narration, similar to Tom Holland's “the rest is history”. There's a ton of directions I can go in, but one thing is for sure, the “Pacific War Channel Podcast” needs a new direction, probably a new name as well.  Also and I know its annoying, but a big thank you to all of you who check out the Pacific War channel on Youtube and my Patreon where I make monthly patreon exclusive podcasts. I would love to go full time one day, but alas the Youtube game is a hard one. If you get the chance please check out my Youtube channel, I am now as we speak unleashing a multiple part series on the Japanese invasion of Manchuria 1931-1932, something barely anyone covers. Most historians give it about a few paragraphs, but it was quite a complicated event. I am trying to tackle the 15 year war between Japan and China from 1931-1945 in a chronological order, event by event and such. Stating all of that I love all you guys, and here comes the same outro I do every single time haha. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. One Empire has Risen like a bright Sun as another, tumbles down like a large bear. Asia henceforth will completely change, now the Japanese dominate the landscape. Yet what of China? How will the common Chinese take to this latest round of humiliation? The Qing dynasty is hanging by a thread and that thread is about to be cut. 

In today's episode, Brandon decides to jump into his time machine and shares an episode from 2016. In it, Brandon and Dalien take a crack at answering a question from the audience about parallel realities and also share a clip of Bashar talking about this fascinating subject matter.   Care to play a game with the youniverse? Ask the universe the episode you would most benefit from hearing next and click positivehead.com/game.  Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD

In today's episode, Brandon decides to jump into his time machine and shares an episode from 2016. In it, Brandon and Dalien discuss a quote and audio clip from Adyashanti that talks about enlightenment as our natural, unaltered state of perception and being, once we dissolve the ego. Also, Dalien shares a story about a fairly advanced but little-known ancient civilization from South America.   Care to play a game with the youniverse? Ask the universe the episode you would most benefit from hearing next and click positivehead.com/game.  Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD

In today's episode, Brandon decides to jump into his time machine and share an episode from 2016. In it, Brandon and Dalien tell stories about the numerology-related eleven-eleven number, including a listener's magical encounter with a child, and they answer a listener's question about having “the best of both worlds” and staying connected to the higher self while indulging in things like processed foods or alcohol.   Care to play a game with the youniverse? Ask the universe the episode you would most benefit from hearing next and click positivehead.com/game.  Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD

In today's episode, Brandon decides to jump into his time machine and share an episode from 2016. In it, Brandon expounds on a quote by Emerson about how our greatest pain is tied to our deepest longing, and Dalien talks about recent reports that we are likely living inside an advanced simulation.   Check out our newly updated page instagram.com/positive_head   Care to play a game with the youniverse? Ask the universe the episode you would most benefit from hearing next and click positivehead.com/game.    Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD   Text Brandon to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750  

Last time we spoke about Admiral Togo's struggle to destroy or firmly blockade the Russian fleet at Port Arthur and the bloody battle along the Yalu river. Togo had a tough time getting the Russians to come out to play with him. Ultimately Admiral Makarov had been a gleaming hope for the Russian navy, but his death spelt utter doom to them as well. Now that the Russian navy was effectively bottled up in Port Arthur and unwilling to come out again, the land campaigns of the war could begin. As the 2nd IJA were landing along the Liaodong Peninsula the 1st IJA of General Kuroki were going to have their first great battle of the war, at the Yalu river. Kuropatkin did not want to defend so south near Korea, but Alexeiev forced the issue and thus the Russians made a doomed defense at Yalu. Utterly defeated the Russians now had to flee north.    #76 The Russo-Japanese War part 3: the battle of Nanshan   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The Russians collapsed at Yalu and now were fleeing northwards towards Liaoyang. It was shocking. An oriental army had beaten a european one. The Japanese confidence exploded and the Russian morale imploded. As the Russians fled they chose not to set up intermediate defensive positions in the mountains overlooking the road to Fenghuangcheng nor the Great Wall due south of the town. Instead they bypassed it all to head for Liaoyang as quickly as possible. Thus the strategically important town of Fenghuangcheng was wide open to the Japanese who would bypass it as well and kept a even pace also heading for Liaoyang. The reason for this was simple, the 1st IJA's job was to cut off the retreating Russian force from Port Arthur as their comrades in the 2nd IJA landed on the Liaodong peninsula to hit port arthur. The victory at Yalu had removed any threats upon Korea. Russia had demonstrated her inability to go on the offensive both at sea and on the land. Desperate times called for desperate measures. With the Russian pacific fleet stuck in Port Arthur, attempts began to be made for their rescue. The first idea put forward was to release the Russian Black Sea fleet, but this was problematic. Russia had recently fought a war with the Ottomans in 1877. They approached the Sultan about the issue as treaties had been made to keep the Russian fleet north of the Dardanelles forts. 12 warships would have to depart the Black Sea, and take a trip via the Suez Canal to get over to the Indian and then Pacific Oceans. It would take at least 63 days and over 65,000 tons of coal. It was an incredible gamble. If the fleet made it to the Pacific too late they may find Port Arthur captured and Vladivostok blockaded spelling catastrophe. Despite the naval losses and the loss at Yalu, Russia was still strong and could manage a defensive campaign. It was hoped if the Japanese extended further into the Kwantung peninsula and Liaoyang the Russians could recoil a bit, grab their immense reserves and launch counter attacks. But such maneuvers would require Russia to abandon Manchuria and then launch large scale counter offensives, something they were unwilling to do. On the other side, the fact the Russian fleet was not destroyed within Port Arthur was a thorn in their side. Rumors spread that the Baltic fleet would come over. Together the two fleets could overwhelm the Japanese. The Japanese had to seize Port Arthur strategically, and emotionally it was of the utmost importance to take revenge for the slighting she received during the Triple Intervention. On May 5th the 2nd IJA began to unload near Pitzuwo which lies between the Tasha and Lilan rivers. The Japanese newspress began to write of the landing and how the Japanese would next strike Nanshan. The Russians reading all the news trying to figure out the Japanese strategy began to believe they would strike anywhere but Nanshan. Meanwhile Admiral Alexeiev was ordered by the Tsar to take a train from Port Arthur for Mukden. This left General Stoessel in command of the Kwantung Peninsula, General Smirnov in command of Port Arthur's fortress and Admiral Witgeft to lead the trapped naval forces. On May 6th Alexeiev gave firm advice to Witgeft that performing attacks upon the Japanese transports currently unloading freely upon the Liaodong peninsula just some 60 miles east of him, would be “desirable”. He did not give him a direct order to do so however, so Witgeft got his war council together to discuss the matter. No senior naval officer was willing to take initiative on their name. As you can imagine it was a case where no one wanted to give the order fearing repercussions, including Alexeiev. Thus Witgeft calculated the safest decision was to do nothing and await the baltic fleet. The naval officers watched as most of their high caliber guns were removed from the ships and added to the land defenses of port arthur.  General Oku's 2nd IJA consisted of the 1st, 3rd and 4th division. Their first order of business was to seize Dalny so it could be used a landing and base of operations. To get to Dalny they would have to pass over Nanshan. It was a risky endeavor as the Russians could potentially received reinforcements from the north, thus Oku began his campaign by requesting reinforcements in the form of the 5th division and 1st cavalry brigade, though he would start his campaign before they could arrive. Oku ordered the 3rd and 4th divisions to block the potential threat from the north while the 1st division advanced southwards to Chinchou. Oku's intelligence indicated the 2nd brigade of the 4th siberian rifle division led by major General Nadyein had recently been reinforce to roughly divisional strength from Port Arthur. At around 12:30pm Oku's 1st division and the Nadyeins force ran into another and after losing 150 men Nadyein pulled back to Nanshan. Oku's small victory here managed to sever rail communications of the Kwantung peninsula from the north. For those of you without a map on hand, the Liaodong peninsula and Kwantung peninsula are connected by an isthmus around 4000 yards wide. On both sides are muddy foreshore which at lower tides adds another 4000 yards of width. To the east is Dalien, to the west Chinchou bay. Southwest some 35 miles is Port Arthur with various large hill controlling its land approach. The most forward of these is Nanshan, a feature to the sea with large guns, that had to be overcome to get to Port Arthur. The position overlooked 4 miles to the east where there was the 2200 foot tall Mount Sampson and to the southwest was Nankuangling. The defense of Nanshan fell technically upon the commander of the 4th East Siberian rifle division, Lt General Fok, but in reality it would really fall upon Colonel Tretyakov of the 5th east siberian rifle regiement. General Fok was what was commonly referred to as a “police general”, a general produced during peace times. Like so many of these type of men, he rose through the ranks as a military trainer, as an administrator or just brushing the right shoulders. He was extremely suscepitable of other commanders ideas and this would really mess things up. Kuropatkin wanted to avoid another Yalu debacle so he cautioned Fok against against fighting the enemy too long at the cost of a proper withdrawal. Kuropatkin did not mean to imply Fok should withdraw at all, just that he must not allow his forces to be obliterated. Now General Stoessel also advised Fok. He told him to hold at Nanshin and go on the offensive as soon as the Japanese approached. These two contradicting pieces of advice would greatly confuse the battle for Nanshan.  Two miles behind Nanshan was a small town called Maoyitui where the 13th east siberian rifle regiment and another two miles behind them was the 15th east siberian rifle regiment. South east of them was the village of Lower Nankuanling where the 14th east siberian rifle regiment were stationed. Upon the narrow point of Dalienwan was a battery of heavy guns looking over Hand Bay where the gunship Bobr was also patrolling. Bobr was sealed in by minefields hoping to lure in some IJN warships. Colonel Tretyakov had 8 companies in his front line, one and half companies in local reserve, two companies of the 13th east siberian rifle regiment in general reserve and some scout forces of the 13th and 14th east siberian rifle regiment. In all he had roughly 2700 riflemen. North of him lay 3 IJA divisions of the 2nd IJA, the 3rd IJA division was just released from her holding position as the 5th IJA division just arrived to the scene.  On the 19th of May, the 10th IJA division landed at Takushan completely unmolested. The landing was done to confuse the Russians and offer flank protection. The 4th IJA division advanced from the direction of CHinchou taking the right flank, the 1st took the middle and the 3rd the left flank. The 2nd IJA had a total strength of around 38,500, 31,000 or so were riflement. The Russians had a potential 17,000 men to toss at the incoming Japanese but ultimately only 3000 would participate in the battle for Nanshan. Colonel Tretyakov had personally aided in the fortification of Nanshan during the Boxer Rebellion and war in Manchuria. At its height Nanshan was equipped to be garrisoned by two battalions and 90 guns, but its maintenance had really fallen apart. When the war broke out with Japan the Russians sought to repair and refortify Nanshan and hired 5000 Chinese coolies for the work, amongst them in disguise was Colonel Doi of the IJA. The eastern face of Nanshan held minefields and barbed wire fences over which Russians held excellent fields of fire. The western side was also defended by barbed wire fences laid across ravines, but the Russians found it unlikely the Japanese would advance from there. A continuous line of shelter trenches ran around the top of the hills providing a depth of four lines of alternative trenches. The Russians had learnt their lesson at Yalu and now dug their artillery in and connected them to telephone. Despite the excellent state of its defenses, Tretyakov was not fully happy. He recognized his western flank was a bit weak and his prospects for counter attacks or a withdrawal were unfavourable. What Tretyakov wanted and pleaded for was to release more men so he could close up his southern face and add more options to the battle, but General Fok rejected this and said to him “less heroism is required to defend this position than to retreat from it”. The 2nd IJA had 198 field and mountain artillery at their disposal, ut none of the enormous 4.72 inch howitzers at this time. The Russians had 48 quick firing field guns out of a total of 114 artillery pieces of various calibers between 3.4 to 6 inches. The Russians would enjoy the advantage of cover but only had around 150 shells per gun. This time it would be the Japanese obliged to expose their artillery when firing. Oku chose the 24th of May to begin the attack. A signal was sent to the IJN who dispatched the Akagi, Chokai, Heiyen Tsukushi to bombard the Russian positions over the next 2 days. The main assault would kick off on the 25th after naval and land artillery and softened up the Russian positions and the 4th IJA division had seized Chinchou, garrisoned by no more than 400 men. Terrible weather prevented the IJN forces from performing their naval bombardment on time, thus Oku postponed the main attack until the 26th.  Up on his HQ lookout, Tretyakov watched as the torrential rain tore at the mud, uncovering countless mines. There was no time to rebury them, the rain would continue to pour until the night of the 25th. Meanwhile the 4th IJA division was trying to break through the north gate of Chinchou and failing at the task. Because of the holdup, the 1st IJA division lent two battalions who hit Chnchou's eastern gate and at 5:20am sapper blew in the gate as the Japanese stormed the city. The Russian defenders fled through the south gate, only to be cut down by the 4th IJA divisions fire. Around half a company would manage to survive and reach Nanshan's trenches. The main attack finally kicked off at 4:30am with a 3 hour artillery duel. The Japanese focused their artillery upon the exposed minefield. The IJN flotilla arrived to Chinchou bay at 6am and began adding their cannons. The gunfire was so thunderous, the 3rd IJA landing at Pitzuwo could hear it. The 4th IJA division advanced from Chinchou along the beach. The Russians took notice to the threat to their left flank and began withdrawing two batteries from hills on Nanshan to the southwest to better hit the 4th division. The IJN flotilla saw this and mistakenly believed a retreat was in progress so they moved further south intending to bombard the Russians fleeing. This left the 4th IJA division without proper artillery support and they were torn to pieces by the batteries that had been moved. Signals were frantically tossed at the IJN who moved back to their original position by 10am and resumed their bombardment. The warships would remain there until 2pm, when the tide changes forced them to pull out. The Japanese had a terrible time advancing three divisions in a narrow front. Military advice of the day would have been something along the lines as “Algerian Tactics”, a colloquial term for the type of frontal attacks the French had made during their campaign in north africa. It was basically like a Prussian advancing phalanx, but these types of tactics had become useless with the advent of trench warfare. Oku preferred a three pronged simultaneous advance. By midday, the Japanese believed the Russians were shell shocked by the artillery and IJN fire, so two battalions were sent forward to seize the first row of trenches. A correspondent for the time had this to say “At first the straggling walls of Mauchiaying give them some cover, under which they have a moment's breathing space. Then the gallant little infantry press on again up the breast of the slopes of the Russian position. It is an almost impossible task. As yet the defenders are not sufficiently shaken. An avalanche of concentrated fire from the infantry in the trenches, the machine guns in the Russian works, and the quick firing field artillery supporting the defences strike the Japanese to the full. They melt away from the glacis like solder before the flame of a blow pipe. A few who seem to have charmed lives struggle on till they reach the wire entanglements. It is a vain, if heroic, effort. Wasted within fifteen minutes, these two battalions cease to exist except as a trail of mutilated bodies at the foot of the Russian glacis.” The 1st IJA division was now halted 300 yards from the Russian trenches. Two out of the three battalions in the reserve were moved forward. The 3rd division was under enfiladed fire coming out of the southern shore. The 3rd division received the last reserve battalion to keep up their advance. The Japanese tossed over 9 charges at Nanshan throughout the day, but by 6pm the battle had reached a stalemate. Both sides had exhausted the majority of their artillery munitions. Tretyakov tossed his local reserve to his right flank and had held off the 3 Japanese divisions quite well. To his rear, General Fok held the reserve 13th, 14th and 15th east siberian regiments. Tretyakov had requested two companies, and although Fok promised to hand them over they had not come. Fok refused to hand over the forces because he was convinced the Japanese were going to land behind Tretyakov. Tretyakov's right and center were holding well, but the constant shelling was taking a toll upon his left flank. The 5th and 9th companies were down to half their numbers under the intense artillery fire and the 4th IJA division was beginning to drive them out along the coastal area. The 4th division had waded through deep water and mud under fire against the Russians. Tretyakov had asked for his expected two companies from Fok to reinforce the left flank, but only arrived at the last minute and were useless. A dispatch from Reuters said of the collapse of the left flank “when the Russians finally retreated, the water was literally crimson”. Upon breaking the left flank, the Japanese turned inland to pursue them as they fled through ravines. General Fok was at his forward flank and saw this and immediately ordered his companies to withdraw, but he failed to pass this knowledge over to Tretyakov who was trying to salvage the situation. As the Japanese advanced up the feature, their comrades in the other flank and center surged forward causing an onslaught. The Russians were tossed into confusing seeing some of their forces in the failed flank withdraw. Some began to withdraw to the next line of trenches without orders, some stood their ground. Tretyakov toured the front to assess the situation and saw a munition dump at the railway station of Tafangshen suddenly explode killing nearly 20 men. He was enraged to find out Fok ordered the dump destroyed fearing it would fall to the Japanese. He also found out for the first time, forces he had requested from Fok, around 3 regiments who were to man defenses in the south had never been committed. He had planned to use such a force in the south to swing a counter attack against the Japanese.  Panic was overcoming the defenders, men began to rout, many fleeing south. Many Japanese began to bivouac on captured hills. Tretyakov attempted to restore order and managed to pull his forces together to make a more orderly withdrawal. His men had fought very well, losing 450 during the proper combat, but when the routing began he had lost 650, he was enraged and threw scorn at Fok. At 7:20pm the rising sun flag was raised over the heights of Nanshan, by 8pm the Japanese were eating their dinner upon their prize. The Japanese had 739 deaths and 5459 wounded. Amongst the dead was the 26 year old Katsusuke, the eldest son of General Nogi, a veteran of the battle for Port Arthur in 1894. He died of his wounds on May 30th of 1904. When Nogi received news of this he was about to travel over to take command of the 3rd IJA. He said this “There is to be no funeral ceremony, no mourning until the end of this war. When my surviving son and myself will be among the mourners or the mourned.'  The Japanese counted their munitions, they had expended 174 rounds per gun. Thus they had expended more rounds in a single battle than what was used during the entire Sino-Japanese war. At Nanshan 34,000 shells had been tossed alongside 2.2 million rounds of small arm munitions. Such news shocked Tokyo, but it was lessons the world would soon face in 1914. To give you an idea, at the third battle of Ypres in 1917, the British would expend 4,283,550 shells within two weeks. Basically war had evolved. The Japanese had to wait for their munition columns to reach them, which would occur by May 27th and then they resume their advance to Nankuanling junction and Dalienwan.  Dalny lying 8 miles away from the Nankuanling junction remained a well fortified position that could serve perhaps superior to that of Nanshan. Tretyakov's men withdrawal was in the direction of Dalny as they abandoned 82 pieces of artillery and 10 machine guns in the process. They expected to take a rest and eat at Dalny, but General Fok ordered the entire echelon to make for Port Arthur with haste. The residents of Dalny found out Nanshan had fallen when the soldiers arrived, panic broke. Over 600 Russian civilian began to flee southwards as Dalny's facilities were destroyed. General Stoessel made an official report that it had always been his intent to abandon Nanshan and dismissed the rumors of so much abandoned equipment as “old pieces of Chinese equipment from 1900”. When Tretyakov's men arrived to Port Arthur on May 30th, Stoessel shouted at them “You are a wretched undisciplined corps of traitors, cowards and blackguards. I will try the lot of you by court martial. How did you dare leave Chinchou? Don't dare to show yourself in Port Arthur, lest by your presence you infect the whole garrison with your cowardice.' Stoessel than with reluctance handed out the Cross of St George to the wounded because it was the Tsar's orders to do so. Tretyakov would later write in his memoirs ‘These were the sole recipients of rewards for the Nanshan battle, those slightly wounded receiving nothing for their bravery.' It should be noted there were three unwounded men who received the Cross of St George for their bravery and one was General Fok. On May 3th, the 3rd IJA division entered Dalny uncontested, finding the town had been ransacked heavily by local Chinese. Much of the food provisions had been dispersed, but the dockyards, 290 railway wagons, workshops were all fully intact. The great port of Dalny was now in the 2nd IJA's hands. The Japanese 1st and 11th division advanced through the 2nd IJA enroute to the 3rd IJA of General Nogi. Nogi was given the daunting task of bringing Port Arthur to her knees. Now the Russians had fallen back to a 15 mile long line of defence that ran from Shiapingtao on the east coast all the way to Anshishan on the west coast. Shiapingtao was roughly 18 miles south west of Dalny and Anshishan was around 18 miles away from Port Arthur. The first line of Russian defense was around the 800 foot high Waitoushan and 1000 foot high Prominent Peak. Prominent Peak which would later be named Sword Hill or “Kenshan” by General Nohi was vital to the security of Port Arther as it held an observation point that could see the movement of ships and overlooked Dalny. So it was one of the first major objectives required to be taken before a proper siege could be erected against the city.  On June 26th, Nogi had his men fight through the passes who easily dislodged the Russian defenders upon Waitoushan, but found Kenshan a much tougher nut to crack. A Russian naval force appeared around Shiapingtao, caused a delay to the seizure of Kenshan. The Russians launched 5 counter attacks to try and retake Waitoushan and secure Kenshan but they failed. When the cause seemed hopeless, Stoessel ordered the men to fall back 4 miles to the Green Hills to prepare the next line of defense. Meanwhile General Nogi was biding his time, awaiting reinforcements and further supplies to be brought over to Dalny. By mid July he would receive the 9th division to add to his 1st and 11th. Along with this he would get two independent reserve brigades, a naval brigade and an independent mixed artillery brigade. The 3rd IJA were soon 60,000 men strong.  On July 26th the 3rd IJA began an advance against the Russian defenses along the Green Hills. They would be formidable if it was not for their length and proximity to the railway offering the Japanese excellent outflanking options. It took three days to break the Russian lines. The Russians had fought very well suffering around 1000 casualties for the 4000 the Japanese incurred. Nogi ordered the men to advance quickly to not give the Russians a breath. The Russians pulled back to Fenghuangshan known also as the Wolf Hills. Tretyakov had this to say “I learnt that our men on Fenghuangshan had hurriedly retreated into the fortress without offering any serious resistance to the enemy. This was extremely unwelcome news, for now we should have to come into direct touch with the enemy round the fortress itself. “ General Nogi's men were only receiving the first appetizer of the horror to come. The hill filled path to Port Arthur enacted devastating casualties upon the 3rd IJA, but when they would face the real defensive lines of Port Arthur, such as the Orphan hills and 203 meter hill, the Japanese would learn what 20th century warfare truly had become.  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. General Nogi lost countless men and even his eldest son taking the formidable position of Nanshan. The Japanese were bleeding themselves in a new era of warfare to take back what they felt was theirs, the formidable Port Arthur. What more would it could the Japanese, and that of Nogi? 

Last time we spoke about the Red Bearded Honghuzi Bandits. Yes Manchuria and many parts of China proper have had a bandit problem going back to ancient times. The borderlands between the Russian Empire and Qing Dynasty proved to be the perfect grounds for bandits to evolve. The Honghuzi were getting larger, more organized and certain leaders amongst them would have long lasting impacts on the history of China. Such names that come to mind are Zhang Zuolin and the Dogmeat General Zhang Zongchang. Such forces were incorporated officially into the Qing military to thwart other bandit groups and eventually to harass the Russians or Japanese in conflict looming on the horizon. Everything seems to be hot in Manchuria, Russian has full on invaded her and is reluctant to drag her troops out. There are those unhappy with this circumstance and they will soon make themselves heard loud and clear.    #73 The Yellow Peril and a War in the East   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The Boxer Rebellion is over. The Russo-Chinese War in Manchuria is over. Order had been restored to Beijing and in Manchuria things were significantly quieted down. Now the other nations of the 8 nation alliance had their hands full dealing with the expedition against Beijing and they sort of turned a blind eye to what was a side conflict in Manchuria. But when things were settling down and 177,000 Russian forces had more or less invaded and were occupying Manchuria, well a lot of eyeballs bulged. Britain and Japan sought common cause, both had significant investments in the Asia-Pacific. For example Britain had Weihaiwei and was literally staring down at the Russians over in Port Arthur and Dalien. Japan had been slighted by the triple intervention by Russia, Germany and France, losing her acquisitions of Port Arthur and Dalien to the Russians. Manchuria was always seen as a buffer zone to the Japanese, she now hand a toehold in Korea and such large Russian activity in Manchuria was very threatening. Let us not forget the entire war between the Qing dynasty and Japan over Korea, to a lesser extent also had Russian as a 4th party. Russia did meddle in Korea and continuously antagonized Japan. Thus with common cause Japan and Britain formed an alliance on January 30th of 1902. In response Russia and France formed their own on March 16th of 1902. The alliances basically worked to thwart any other great powers from getting involved in a potential war between Japan and Russia.  Now Russia also agreed to the rest of the great powers that she would gradually withdraw her forces from Manchuria. It was to be rolled out in 3 periods of 6 months. The first phase saw southwest Manchuria evacuated and returned to China, but when it came to the second phase, suddenly Russia was making demands for concessions to the Qing dynasty.  Britain, Japan and the US protested the demands and this bolstered China to reject them. Now turned back the clock a bit there was another sticky situation. When chaos was erupting in Korea, King Gojong ran to the Russians for protection for over two years. This turned the nations favor towards the Russians over the Chinese and Japanese. Russia seized this opportunity to strengthen her forces in defense of her legation in Korea, and this action was met with actions taken up by Japan. Japanese and Russian officials met and this was the result verbatim: A further agreement between Russia and Japan had been signed in Tokyo on 25 April 1898. The agreement contained three understandings: The independence of Korea was assured; neither country would interfere in Korea's domestic affairs. There would be no appointment of military or civil advisers without discussion with the interested parties. Russia agreed not to hinder Japan's development of trade with Korea.  Aside from this the Russians of course wanted to seize as much as they could. A Russian-Korean bank was formed in 1897, and a timber cutting contract was given to Russian industrialists in the Yalu river area. In 1901, Tsar Nicholas II told Prince Henry of Prussia, "I do not want to seize Korea but under no circumstances can I allow Japan to become firmly established there. That will be a “casus belli." The contract only came into effect when the Manchurian railway projects were kicking off and when able bodies were around, which came about during the occupation of Manchuria. In april of 1903 Russians acquired some land and established a fort at Yongampo near the mouth of the Yalu river. America and Japan received similar concessions in the region. The Japanese began receiving reports, indicating Port Arthur was being heavily stocked with supplies and a large body of Russian troops were advancing across the Liaodong Peninsula towards Korea. Thus from the Japanese point of view it looked clear Russia was not honoring her agreements. On July 28th of 1903, the Japanese ambassador at St Petersburg was instructed to make it known to the Russians, the 7 demands they made to China was not seen as a “relaxation of her hold on Manchuria but rather a consolidation” Two days later, Russian Admiral Alexeiev was appointed Viceroy of the Far East. Alexeiev would hold supreme power to exercises diplomacy between Russian East Asia and her neighbors as well as command the Russian military and naval forces in the east. From the Japanese point of view, a permanent Russian occupation of Manchuria would be prejudicial over her own security and interests. It would also threaten Korea, which was her sphere of interest, one she was not looking to share. Russia agreed to consider drawing up a new treaty. On August 12th of 1903 a draft was presented at St Petersburg, but in the meantime Russia was strengthening her position in the far east. This tense situation kept going, until January 13th of 1904 when Japan offered to recognize Manchuria as being outside her sphere of interest, if Russia would agree Korea was Japan's sphere of interest. It was to be blunt a very fair deal. Japan requested an early reply to the proposal, but by February 4th of 1904 no reply was forthcoming. Two days later the Japanese ambassador, Mr. Kurino called upon the Russian foreign minister, Count Lamsdorf to take his leave. Kurino explained to Lamsdorf that the Japanese government had decided to adopt some “independent action” deeming it necessary to defend its established rights and legitimate interests. Basically Japan's patience had come to an end. The Russian ambassador to Tokyo, Baron Rosen, had continuously sent warnings to his superiors in St Petersburg that if they continued to corner Japan, she would most certainly fight them. Such sentiment was shared by War Minister General Kuroptkin who resigned in a state of exasperation some months earlier. Tsar Nicholas II did not want a war, but he was continuously assured by his advisers, Japan was not strong enough to fight them. When Mr. Kurino took his leave, the immediate signal was made to Admiral Alexeiev, who was in Tokyo at the time. The new viceroy saw with his own eyes evidence of Japanese mobilization and he advised St Petersburg accordingly. The Japanese foreign ministry confirmed their government had run out of patience. However all of this was taken to be a bluff. It has been theorized Alexeiev was simply not averse to a war with a country he certainly deemed inferior to his own. It is also theorized Tsar Nicholas II probably believed if a war would to break out it would be a short and victorious one, and perhaps such an event could distract the tide of revolution hitting his nation, the people of Russia were not happy anymore about the Romanov rule. Funny enough, all of these talks, deceptions and plans were to take shape in China. The Chinese were literally never even thought of or spoken to, and soon a war would literally occur within their borders against their will. How did this all come about? It might sound a bit funny, but a large reason the Russo-Japanese War would occur would simply be a result of, pardon my french, shit talking by one Kaiser Wilhelm II. When Kaiser Wilhelm I died on March 9th of 1888, Germany fell to Frederick III who died of throat cancer only 99 days after taking the reins. On June 15th, a 29 year old Kaiser Wilhelm II took the throne. Now for those of you who don't know, Otto von Bismarck, the man who unified Germany was during the late 19th century one of the greatest political players in the world. Bismarck had an incredible understanding of the balance of power theory and studied all the most powerful nations national interests. He brokered international deals using his knowledge to increase Germany's standing in global politics and he also in many ways designed a system of international alliances to thwart a global war….which ironically would in many ways cause ww1. If you want to know more specifically about this by the way, check out Kings and Generals alliances that caused WW1, I wrote that script and its a fascinating story. Dan Carlin famously referred to Bismarcks work as creating a giant hand grenade, that if the pin got pulled out, only Bismarck understood how to put it back in. While Bismarck was in power things were pretty good, but he was such a colossal figure, that when the young Kaiser came into power, many of his advisers suggested he was being overshadowed by Bismarck. Kaiser Wilhelm II listening to his advisers, sought to stop Bismarck from taking the quote en quote “day to day” administration. Conflicts began to arise between the two men. Wilhelm did not understand the complexities of Bismarcks international relations and saw him as far too peaceful. Wilhelm gradually fell under the influence of his military leaders to the dismay of Bismarck who thought the Kaiser would lead them swiftly into a war with a nation like Russia. In 1890 Bismarck resigned under pressure from Wilhelm II and other German leaders, and as Dan Carlin would say, now the grenade he created was set to go off. Now when the new Kaiser venturing into international relations, he was deeply influenced by a ideological concept that he would use as a tool to coerce international players to act out. The concept is known as the “yellow peril” “le Peril Jaune” as coined by Russian sociologist Jacques Novikow in the late 19th century. In essence the yellow peril was a racist ideology that held asians to be subhuman, like apes and monkeys, but also that as a racial group should they unite, they would threaten what was thought to be the superior race of the day, whites. Basically the idea was that if all the nations of asia were to unite, they could retaliate against the White nations who were at the time colonizing or forcing unequal treaties upon them. There was also a religious element to it, that Christianity was under threat from the hoards of the east.  Now back to Wilhelm II, one of his advisers was the diplomat Max von Brandt who advised him that Imperial Germany had major colonial interests in China. The Triple Intervention that Germany endorsed was justified by the Kaiser under the guise it was to thwart what he began calling “die Gelbe Gefahr / the yellow peril”. The Kaiser began a propaganda campaign using the famous allegorical lithograph “Peoples of Europe, Guard your Most Sacred Possessions” created in 1895 by Hermann Knackfuss. You can google the image. The lithograph portrays the European monarchs with Germany as the leader of Europe personified by a “prehistoric warrior-goddesses being led by the Archangel Michael against the yellow peril from the east. The east is seen as a dark cloud of smoke which rests eerily upon a calm Buddha, wreathed in flame”. The imagery is very apparent, white and christianity is under threat from asian and their eastern religions. This type of ideology goes all the way back to Ancient Greece and Persia, its the age old west vs east stuff. Today you would call this sort of talk, a race war. Now you are probably asking, ok this leader of Germany is just a racist dude, how does this cause a war between Russia and Japan? This story is rather hilarious and hard to believe, but in summary, the Kaiser used the ideology to trick his cousin into war.  For those unaware, Kaiser Wilhelm II was first cousins with King Geoerge V of Britain,  to Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, to Queens Marie of Romania, Maud of Norway, Victoria Eugene of Spain, and even the woman he would eventually marry, the Empress of Russia. Now the Germany presented to Wilhelm was involved in some alliances. I mentioned Britain and Japan had an alliance and France and Russian had an alliance. Wilhelm and his advisers sought to increase Germany's stature. Wilhelm believed that if Russia went to war with Japan, it would break up the Franco-Russian alliance and with no one else to turn to, Russia would seek an alliance with Germany. Wilhelms reasoning was that France was not supporting of Russians expansion into asia and such aggressive actions like going to war with Japan would be highly disapproved by France. The French Premier Maurice Rouvier publicly declared that the Franco-Russian alliance applied only in Europe and not Asia and that if Japan and Russia went to war, France would remain neutral. Such rhetoric seemed to prove Wilhelms beliefs. Germany meanwhile felt threatened by Britain and had embarked on what was known as the Tirpitz Plan in the late 1890s. The Tirpitz plan was Germany's plan to achieve world power status through naval power, but the world's greatest navy of course was Britain at the time. What essentially happened was Germany challenging Britain to an arms race in the form of naval warship building programs. Everything the Kaiser pursued during the late 19th century was what was called “Weltpolitik / world politics” which essentially was just Germany's imperialistic foreign policy to become a global power. Wilhelm and his advisers were playing world politics to weaken rivals and strengthen Germany plain and simple.  So Wilhelm believes he can break the French-Russian alliance and squeeze himself in Frances place if he can get the Russians to go to war with Japan who just happened to be allied to Germany's main rival, Britain. Some real game of thrones stuff here. Wilhelm also believed if Germany could pull this off, France would be compelled to join them, forming a triple alliance against Britain and Japan so they could all pursue their expansionist policies in places like Asia. There was also the belief pulling this off would pull Russia away from the Balkans which was a huge source of tension with Germany's main ally Austro-Hungary. Thats all fine and dandy, but how does Wilhelm get his cousin Tsar Nicholas to go to war with the Japanese, here comes the yellow peril.  Starting in 1895, Kaiser Wilhelm began using the Yellow Peril ideology to portray Germany as the great defender of the west against the barbarism of the east. But then all of a sudden Wilhelm began sending personal letters to his cousin Nicholas praising him as the quote “savior of the white races” and began urging him to take a more hardened approach to Asia. The letters between the two have been referred to as the “willy-nicky” letters, consisting of 75 messages sent back and forth between 1895-1914. I wont list them all of course but lets take a peak at how Wilhelm wrote to his cousin. In 1895 Wilhelm wrote this from Kaltenbronn Schwarzwald. I will paraphrase of course there's a ton of fluff. Dearest Nicky, I thank you sincerely for the excellent way in which you initiated the combined action of Europe[27] for the sake of its interests against Japan. It was high time that energetic steps were taken, and will make an excellent impression in Japan as elsewhere. It shows to evidence how necessary it is that we should hold together, and also that there is existent a base of common interests upon which all European nations may work in joint action for the welfare of all as is shown by the adherence of France to us two. May the conviction that this can be done without touching a nations honour, take root more and more firmly, then no doubt the fear of war in Europe will dissipate more and more. The kind and most valuable messages which you sent me through Osten Sacken[28] by Count Eulenburgs transmission in Vienna have given me a signal proof of your loyalty and openness towards me. I shall certainly do all in my power to keep Europe quiet and also guard the rear or Russia so that nobody shall hamper your action towards the Far East! For that is clearly the great task of the future for Russia to cultivate the Asian Continent and to defend Europe from the inroads of the Great Yellow race. In this you will always find me on your side ready to help you as best I can. You have well understood that call of Providence and have quickly grasped the moment; it is of immense political and historical value and much good will come of it. I shall with interest await the further development of our action and hope that, just as I will gladly help you to settle the question of eventual annexations[29] of portions of territory for Russia, you will kindly see that Germany may also be able to acquire a Port somewhere were it does not "gêne" you. You can see how Wilhelm is egging on his cousin about how Germany will have his back if he were to be bolder in Asia. Also the cute end bit about Germany acquiring some ports.  In 1898 for a New Years letter Wilhelm sent this Dearest Niky May this New Year be a happy one for you dear Allx and the whole of your house and country. May the plans, which you mature be fullfilled for the wellfare of your people. Henry's mission^ is one of the steps I have taken for the help and countenance of your lofty Ideals—without which no sovereign can exist—in promoting civilisation I. e. Christianity in [41] the Far East! Will you kindly accept a drawing I have sketched for you, showing the Symbolising figures of Russia and Germany as sentinels at the Yellow Sea for the proclaiming of the Gospel of Truth and Light in the East. I drew the sketch in the Xmas week under the blaze of the lights of theXmas trees!  Here Wilhelm is pressing upon the religious aspect and is basically flattering Nicholas. Again in 1898 Wilhelm wrote Dearest Nicky I must congratulate you most heartily at the successful issue of your action at Port Arthur ; we two will make a good pair of sentinels at the entrance of the gulf of Petchili, who will be duly respected especially by the Yellow Ones ! I think the way you managed to soothe the feelings of the "fretful Japs"by the masterly arrangement at Korea a remarkably fine piece of diplomacy and a great show of foresight; which Is apt to show what a boon it was that by your great journey,^ you were able to study the Question of the Far East locally and are now morally speaking the Master of Peking! Fretful Japs indeed In 1902 we get probably the most important letter involving the yellow peril Dear Nicky This is the more necessary as/certain symptoms in the East seems to show that Japan is becoming a rather restless customer and that the situation necessitates all coolness and decision of the Peace Powers. The news of the attachment of the Japanese General Yamai^—former leader of the Jap. troops in China—to the Legation at Peking in order to take in hand the reorganisation of the Chinese Army—i.e. for the unavowed object of driving every other foreigner out of China—is very serious. 20 to 30 Million of trained Chinese helped by half a dozen Jap. Divisions and led by fine, undaunted Christian hating Jap. Officers, is a future to be con- templated not without anxiety; and not impossible. In fact it is the coming into reality of the *'Yellow Peril" which I depicted some years ago, and for which engraving I was laughed at by the greater mass of the People for my graphic depiction of it ... Your devoted friend and cousin, Willy, Admiral of the Atlantic".  And there it is, an army of millions of Chinese led by Japanese officers, the yellow peril. So for years Wilhelm egged on his cousin, making him believe he was this savior of the white race, holding the yellow hoard back from sweeping over Europe. Wilhelm also made sure to leave ambiguous ideas that Germany had Russians back, that if war came and let's say a nation like Britain jumped into the mix, Germany would jump in too. Arguable if there was any reality behind these claims. Now back to the situation in the far east, King Gojong found his nation stuck between two tigers again, this time it was Japan and Russia. He believed the key to the issue was Manchuria and sought for Korea to remain as neutral as possible so she could hope to preserve her independence, I would saw independence with finger quotes. Meanwhile the Chinese ambassador to St Petersburg, Hu Weide was receiving reports from Beijing on whether Russia or Japan were likely to win such a war and how it would favor China. It was argued it was in China's interest for Japan to win, because a Japanese victory would likely breakdown Russians stronghold on Manchuria and perhaps China could wrestle it all back in. China decided in December of 1903 to remain neutral if war came, because while she knew Japan was the only one in the far east capable of pushing Russia out, she also did not know what Japan's ambitions might be in Manchuria.  In early 1904 negotiations continued between Russia and Japan, but like I mentioned earlier Japan gradually figured out Russia was not being serious. This was more than likely due to an infamous message sent by Wilhelm to Nicholas in December of 1903.  Since 97—Kiaochow—we have never left Russia in any doubt that we would cover her back in Europe, in case she decided to pursue a bigger policy in the Far East that might lead to military complications (with the aim of relieving our eastern border from the fearful pressure and threat of the massive Russian army!). Whereupon, Russia took Port Arthur and trusting us, took her fleet out of the Baltic, thereby making herself vulnerable to us by sea. In Danzig 01 and Reval 02, the same assurance was given again, with result that entire Russian divisions from Poland and European Russia were and are being sent to the Far East. This would not had happened if our governments had not been in agreement! Nicholas for his part was prepared to compromise with Japan, but the incessant letters from Wilhelm egging him on as a coward for thinking about compromising gradually broke the Tsar. The Kaiser wrote this: undertaking the protection and defence of the White Race, and with it, Christian civilization, against the Yellow Race. And whatever the Japs are determined to ensure the domination of the Yellow Race in East Asia, to put themselves at its head and organise and lead it into battle against the White Race. That is the kernel of the situation, and therefore there can be very little doubt about where the sympathies of all half-way intelligent Europeans should lie. England betrayed Europe's interests to America in a cowardly and shameful way over the Panama Canal question, so as to be left in 'peace' by the Yankees. Will the 'Tsar' likewise betray the interests of the White Race to the Yellow as to be 'left in peace' and not embarrass the Hague tribunal too much?. Nicholas replied he still sought peace, and Wilhelm replied in telegram “oh you innocent angel, this is the language of an innocent angel. But not that of a White Tsar!” Regardless of the Tsar's feelings, Japan was firmly under the belief Russia was not serious about seeking a peaceful solution to their dispute over Manchuria and Korea. When Japan proposed recognizing Manchuria was Russia's sphere of influence if Russia would respect their sphere of influence over Korea, the Russia counter proposal was basically, no, Russia would retain Manchuria and Korea would be open game.  Potential diplomatic resolutions between the two nations had thus failed. Historians generally argue it was the fault of Nicholas II who pushed his administration to give no ground. Why he acted this way though has two major arguments, one I have highlighted, the egging on by the Kaiser, but there was another element at play. The Russian people were frankly fed up with the royal family, the people were looking for change. To start a war and rile up patriotism could have been an attempt to quell the Russian people from revolutionary actions and in retrospect it certainly seems the case. The Tsar's advisers despite being hawkish did not seek a war with Japan, they simply wanted to bully what they thought was a weaker nation into submission. Because the reality was, Manchuria was far, the trans siberian railway was not complete, moving troops and provisions such a distance was a colossal task.  Japan performed a large scale study of the Russian power in Manchuria. The Japanese had been secretly surveying and mapping as far as east of Lake Baikal. In 1904 the Japanese had 380,000 active and reserve army forces, 200,000 in the 2nd reserve, another 50,000 in conscription reserve and 220,000 trained men of the national army, thus they could in theory toss 850,000 men into a conflict and by conscripting perhaps 4,250,000 who would all have to be trained taking time and money. Japan's effective strength was 257,000 infantry, 11,000 cavalry and 894 artillery pieces. They held 12 infantry divisions each containing 11,400 infantry, 430 cavalry and 36 guns a piece. Their troops received 12 months training, once the war started this would be cut to 6 months. Their artillery battalions held 3 batteries with both field and mountain guns ranging in caliber of 2.95 inches to 4.72 inches. Their infantry were equipped with a modern 1900 .256 inch magazine rifle that could fire 2000 yards but was effective at 300. Each soldier carried a knapsack, greatcoat and shelter tent. In their sacks were two days rations and entrenching tools. For machine guns they would receive Hotchkiss guns. The logistical system for the Japanese would be much better than the Russians. They had a series of lines of support. The soldiers carried two days rations, with echelons of transports that carried provisions behind them. Each division had its own transport battalion, including an ambulance train to deal with casualties. Chinese carts, Chinese and Korean coolies would all be paid premium prices for logistical aid. The Japanese would buy local foodstuff from the Koreans and Chinese at premium prices to earn the local populaces support over the Russians. For the Russians their army stood roughly at 4.5 million, but only 6 of the 25 European army corps would play an active role in the far east. By February of 1904 the Russians had roughly 60,000 troops, 3000 cavalry and 164 guns posted at Vladivostok, Harbin and Port Arthur. By Mid february this would be increased to 95,000; with 45,000 at Vladivostok, 8000 at Harbin, 9000 in Haicheng; 11,000 near the Yalu and 22,000 around Port Arthur. The Russian had the European 1st, 4th, 8th, 10th, 16th and 17th army corps each numbering 28,000 rifles and 112 guns. Alongside these were 7 Siberian corps. While the Russians held the advantage in numbers, the trans siberian was not complete and the route going around Lake Baikal formed a massive delay. Lake Baikal is basically the size of Switzerland, around 386 miles long. Thus the forces in Manchuria would be at the mercy of local foodstuffs for provisions, which meant they were competing with the Japanese to purchase them, while the Japanese had their own nations foodstuffs coming via sea transport, from Korea and of course within China. The Russian troops were armed with a .299 caliber rifles, but their training was lackluster and required all men to fire at short range on orders from superior officers. The upcoming war would catch the Russian gunners in the midst of a  re-equipment programme. A third of their guns were a new 3 inch quick firing gun with a range of 6000 yards, capable of battering the Japanese artillery. However the gunners training period was quite literally on the job. Thus many of the gunners were coming into the conflict with a new technology they had not even fired yet. Japan's population was then 46.5 million, Russia's 130 million. The Russian military opinion saw the Japanese “as little people who lived in paper houses…and wasted hours on flower arrangement and tea ceremonies”. However, Minister of War Kuropatkin visited Japan in 1903 and was impressed by their infantry and artillery, stating that they were equal to any European army, and advocated avoiding war with them. Russia's navy was much larger, but divided between the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea and the Pacific, whereas Japan's was concentrated in her home waters. By 1902, Russia began strengthening her Pacific squadron and, by the end of 1903, had 7 battleships, 7 cruisers, 25 destroyers and 27 smaller ships. The IJN (the Japanese Navy) consisted of 6 battleships, 10 cruisers, 40 destroyers and 40 smaller vessels. The Russian ships were a hotchpotch of differing types, armaments and speeds, with a varied amount of armor protection. The Japanese ships were nearly all British built, uniform and faster. Alcohol excess amongst Russian crews was a serious problem. Baltic crews spent the 6 months of winter ashore because the gulf of Finland froze and because of bureaucratic demand for uniformity. So did the crews of the Black Sea fleet. Thus, Russian sailors spent less time at sea and less time training. The Japanese navy under British instruction spent more time at sea, and trained intensively. Japanese sailors were literate, while most Russian sailors were not. These variables would come out to play when dealing with steam-driven warships, the most technologically advanced weapons of the day. At the outbreak of the conflict the Russian Far East fleet would have 7 battleships, 6 cruisers and 13 destroyers at Port Arthur. At Vladivostok were 4 first class cruisers, with a number of torpedo boats. At Chemulpo in Korea were the protected cruisers Varya and gunboat Koreyetz. A crucial component of the conflict would be commanding the sea ways. Both nations recognized this fact all too well. The Russian far east fleet was constrained from year the round training by being icebound in Vladivostok for 3 months of the year. Her fleet was also a ragtag bunch with different armaments, speed, armor and flexibility. Russia was dependent on foreign built ships, though she was fully capable of building her own. Russia had ships built from Britain, Germany, France and the US. The Russian navy was based on conscription at 7 years with 3 years of reserve.  The IJN combined fleet was led by Vice-Admiral Heihachiro Togo. The two divided squadrons of the Russian Pacific Fleet were commanded overall by Admiral Oskar Ludvig Stark. The Main Russian squadron was in Port Arthur and the other cruiser squadron was at Vladivostok under the command of Admiral Nikolai Skrydlov. Port Arthur offered some shore artillery battery defense, though it was underfunded due to divestments for the development of Dalny, and its dry dock capabilities were quite limited compared to that of Sasebo. The Russians were bluffing the Japanese while continuing the strengthen their position in the far east. But the Japanese would not wait for them to do so.   I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Kaiser Wilhelm II had egged his cousin Tsar Nicholas II into facing against the Empire of Japan. Little did the Russian Tsar know, but he was about to send his nation to their doom, for the Japanese had done their homework and were determined to rid Manchuria of the Russian menace

In today's episode, Brandon decides to hop into his time machine and share an episode from 2015.  In it, Brandon and Dalien discuss the so-called “happiest man in the world” and how meditation dramatically changed his brain physiology. They also share some simple meditation techniques by Deepak Chopra and answer a question about decision-making from a listener.   Check out our newly updated page instagram.com/positive_head   Care to play a game with the youniverse? Ask the universe the episode you would most benefit from hearing next and click positivehead.com/game.    Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD   Text Brandon to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750  

Hier kommen Rehe zu Besuch und Mäuse auch, die Maulwürfe bleiben draußen auf den Wiesen... Dalien und Maggikraut, Bohnen und Zucchini und mittendrin Hofhund Lotte. Im Bauerngarten von Elke Lenschow aus Grieben bei Schönberg... Gemeinsam mit Reporter Thomas Lenz geht es von Strauch zu Baum zu Beet und am Ende klären die beiden noch, was zu machen ist aus den Dingen, die übers Jahr im Bauerngarten wachsen.

Last time we spoke about the 8 nation alliances occupation of Beijing, the flight of the royal family and the Boxer Protocol. You would think after taking the city, everything was won and done, but not necessarily. Empress Dowager Cixi with her faithful guardian Dong Fuxiang fled to the northwest of China. Meanwhile Peitang waited longer than most for their rescue, enduring an unbelievable amount of hardship during their siege. Poor Li Hongzhang was forced to endure another humiliation on behalf of the Qing Dynasty, negotiating peace with the western powers. The indemnity payments would last until world war two for China. Empress Dowager Cixi escaped any punishment, while other officials literally lost their heads. In a grandeur fashion, the empress returned to Beijing, performing a large spectacle. It was intentional and brilliant PR work. Things were going to dramatically change for China.   #68 The Russo-Chinese War Part 1: Manchuria rises up   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. As we have seen, as of June 1900 the eyes of the world were focused on Beijing. The foreign diplomats of numerous nations were under siege by the fanatical Boxers and Qing forces such as the Kansu army. The Boxer Rebellion as a whole is captured by this focus, go find any book on it, there are many. What you often come across, is the mention of Russian forces somewhat to the distance in Manchuria. Typically if anything is said at all, you get a few paragraphs stating when the escalations began, the Russians invaded Manchuria. Invaded Manchuria, that sounds like a hell of a story no? Its simply overshadowed by the events that played out around Beijing, but an entire other war really sprang up in Manchuria. The event is virtually unknown to the west. When the Boxers sprang up and expeditions emerged, the two closest powers were Japan and Russia and as we have seen when it came to the march upon Beijing, the Japanese sort of took the lionshare. Yet Russia was the most capable to rush troops to the scene, given her work on the Manchurian railways.  The Boxer Rebellion was a bit awkward for Russia. Yes Russia took up the side of the western forces and joined the 8 nation alliance. However, her views on what exactly the Boxer Rebellion was, differed from the rest. Russia felt the Boxer movement was not directed against her, but rather at the Manchu dynasty. Russia in many ways intervened to save the Manchu dynasty from a full blown revolution. She saw the symptoms of the revolutionaries as a result of western economic and missionary encroachment in China. The Chinese often referred to westerners as “ocean devils”. The Russians did not come from the sea, they shared a vast border with the Chinese. Russia and China had a special relationship unlike the rest, one that had been going on for centuries. Russia typically acted with greater restraint and often spoke of Russo-Chinese friendship. But don't get me wrong. Like Britain, Germany, France, Japan, etc, Russian was most definitely taking advantage of a weakened Qing dynasty, she certainly encroached, specifically in Manchuria. Their border was one of the longest frontiers in the world. Siberia was underpopulated and exposed to Chinese infiltration. A buffer zone existed in Manchuria and Mongolia.  The trans-siberian railway's construction began in 1891 for strategic and economic reasons. It was to be the worlds longest railroad, initially thought to wind along the Amur River up to Khabarovsk then south to Vladivostok. But the terrain proved hellish, the route too circuitous, thus a shortcut through Manchuria was strongly advised. In 1896 Russia obtained concessions from the Qing to begin construction of a station on the Trans Baikal section of the Siberian railway. Following her lease of Part Arthur and Dalien, Russian then sought to connect a new railway line to the main line of what would be called the Manchurian railway. Construction began from both ends simultaneously at a pace of 1.75 miles per day. Vladivostok and Port Arthur were linked up by July of 1900. It would not be too long until the Trans-Siberian railway and the Chinese eastern railway would bridge the land mass from the Baltic sea to the Pacific Ocean, giving the Russian empire an unbelievable toehold in the Asia-Pacific.  The line passing through Manchuria was under the control of a private corporation, the Chinese eastern railway company. The majority stakeholder was Russian, but there were also Qing investments. Now the protection of the railway, its workers and other infrastructure was not going to be defended by standard Russian troops. Instead the company hired special military forces. The engineers were nearly all Russian, the laborers, 100,000 or so, were Chinese coolies. The project was done in collaboration between the two empires, it heavily depended on China. If the Qing were to, let's say, pull back the laborers, the construction efforts would stop dead. Worse, what if the Chinese began sabotaging the construction? Well both of these things began in 1900.  A railway guard named Konstantin Kushakov had been in southern Manchuria for two and a half years. He witnessed the shooting of a Russian captain and two Cossacks by Qing soldiers in April 1900. In May at the small city of Hsiungyuehcheng, placards were erected stating the local populace should help exterminate the foreigners. The Boxer movement was hitting Manchuria. Locals told Konstantin not to be alarmed and the Qing commanders stated the placards were just the work of youthful pranksters. Then one evening, Konstantin saw Chinese wearing yellow sashes and headbands speaking through interpreters to Russian commanders. When Konstantin approached for a closer look the Chinese had their lips, cheeks and eyebrows painted, one of them was doing bizarre gymnastic exercises and shouting furiously. A nearby Cossack remarked “that has to be a Boxer”. One of the interpreters stated that was not true, there were no Boxers in this part of China. The next morning, more Boxer youths emerged doing gymnastics in the open, then the local merchants began to quickly sell whatever arms they had in stock and blacksmiths began forging knives, swords and spears. Sabotage work began to occur. Russian telegraph lines were being repeatedly cut, attempts were made to derail trains by lifting up rails or pilling up stuff on tracks. It seemed to all the Russian-Chinese cooperation was falling apart. Countless interpreters, servants, laborers quit their jobs. Russian supervisors and foremen who were notoriously cruel to their Chinese workers, no longer lashed out at them, instead they walked around armed to the teeth. The Russians also noticed an increased in Qing soldiers, many of whom were not recognized from the area. But the Russian commanders believed the Chinese were a submissive and inoffensive people, so they took all these signs with a grain of salt. The situation became worse, more railway guards were needed, but as you can imagine, Manchuria is an enormous place. Konstantin had roughly 240 men to guard a sector of around 172 miles. Thus to strengthen one post would weaken another. There were troops in the Kwantung region on the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula guarding Port Arthur and Dalien. Colonel Mishchenko, commander of the railway guards along the Port Arthur Line requested further troops from Vice Admiral Evgenii Alekseev the commander in chief of the Russian land forces in the Kwantung region and naval forces for the far east. He was denied, because Chief Engineer Iugovich stated on July 2nd that the Chinese were peaceful and wanted to continue the joint project. There was also the belief, if they sent more troops the Qing would be more inclined to the Boxer cause. On May 23rd, a mob attacked 3 Cossacks that Konstantin had sent to purchase supplies for a kitchen, the men escaped having to saber down a few Chinese. The populace was in an uproar, the Qing commander at Hsiungyeuhcheng demanded Russian troops be barred from the city. In June Boxers were out in the open screaming for violence against the foreigners. Many Qing officials refused to collaborate with the Boxers and were run out of towns. Boxers were taking control over large areas and recruiting a militia. The Boxers began to assemble around Mukden. On July 2nd, Mishchenko telegraphed Konstantin that the northern outposts were in serious danger and ordered him to rush over to Liaoyang with all the guards that could be spared from southern outposts. A detachment of 56 soldiers and 20 cavalrymen was raised. Konstantin tried to use a locomotive, but the Qing switchman sabotage it. Soon Konstantin heard word Qing detachments and Boxers were sabotaging multiple railway stations, outposts were under attack. Konstantin ordered all construction efforts to cease and for all Russians to prepare themselves at posts for attacks. He promised the men reinforcements would soon arrive from the south, many replied they didn't need the help to face off against “Boxer riff-raff, whom we would soon teach how to fight”. Konstantin worried not for the outposts with 15-20 men, but some only had a handful of guards. He recalled “I kept thinking, what will they die for? It is too dear a sacrifice to the stubbornness of 3, 4 high railway agents. To die for the Tsar, to die for the glory of the fatherland, that is an enviable death; but to let honorable and selfless soldiers perish for the sake of stubbornness or mistake would be regrettable indeed”. He ordered the smallest outposts to be abandoned, and for the men to rush to the nearest larger outpost.  The Russians saw multiple villages emptied of women and children, railway lines likewise were abandoned. Konstantin arrived to Liaoyang with 76 men on July 3rd, he quickly made way to the nearby village of Baitouzi where the 2nd company headquarters and Mishchenko were. Konstantin was informed hostilities had begun in the region. On June 27th, a railroad bridge and barracks near Liaoyang were razed to the ground, the men there chased off by gunfire from local Qing forces. Two Cossacks and their horses were killed, the telegraph lines were being damaged constantly, coal mines were attacked, Mishchenko bitterly complained that Port Arthur refused to send reinforcements and instead berated them for their lack of cooperation with the Qing. Suddenly a Cossack messenger arrived to the HQ reporting 400 Qing soldiers with 100 cavalrymen and mountain guns were engaging a forces of 50 Cossacks, casualties were already mounting. Mishchenko immediately took 56 railway guards of the 6th company under Konstantin and 25 men of the 2nd company led by Shchekin to go save the force.  They arrived at the scene of a battle, the Qing were moving around the Russian's eastern side trying to cut them off from Liaoyang. The Qing were trying to push the Russians towards their main force, over 3000 men strong who were advancing upon Mukden. Konstantin jumped off the train with his men to hit the right flank of the enemy, but the Qing diverted over to a local village to better prepare defenses against them. The Russian lines advanced quickly and once they were 300 paces from the enemy, Shchekin and his men took the train directly to the village, leapt off and charged with bayonets fixed. The men screamed “ura!” as they stormed the Qing who fell into a rout quickly galloping towards Mukden. Many Chinese were killed in hand to hand combat, volleys also took lives as they fled. The Russians reported 200 dead while receiving 4 deaths and 5 wounded in return. The victorious Russians returned by train to Liaoyang, reflecting on how the situation had changed. A force of nearly 3000 regular Qing soldiers were most definitely in league with the Boxers. They had even brought artillery, they would most likely hit Mukden soon where they could join possibly 10 newly formed Qing battalions. What were the Russians to do in the face of such numbers? On the way back to Liaoyang, Boxers were seen burning bridges over the Sha river, 12 miles south of the city. Russians rushed over to put out the fires and sent patrols to hunt down Boxers, but found none. As they approached Liaoyang station, the Chinese switchmen sabotaged the rails and fled. Engineer Girschman, the chief of railway construction for the southern section that passed through Liaoyang was ordered by Mishchenko to inform Port Arthur of the recent clashes and to again request reinforcements. Girschman still thought there was no cause for alarm, he asserted over 5000 taels had been given to the local Manchu General in charge of Liaoyang who promised they were safe to work. Thus Girschman ordered railway employees back to work. Girshman's train was to be the last train from Liaoyong as on July 6th the bridge south of the station was destroyed. Liaoyang was cut off. Girshman was left behind with 104 civilian employees and their families. The Qing offered Mishchenko free passage for all Russians, but he refused to leave Liaoyang. Instead he ordered Shtabs-kapitan Sakharov with the 3rd Sotnia to join up with him and demand of Port Arthur more reinforcements. He dispatched Cossacks to the various northern posts to spread word of what was going on and if they could run to him, or Harbin.  Mishchenko decided to fortify a wooden, iron roofed isolated barracks near Baitouzi. His men numbered 204, exhausted from endless patrolling of a vast region. They were enclosed by a 7 foot earth wall, which the Russians with Chinese labor help, added breastworks. Their shelter was an ice house, where the families were taking cover. Meanwhile the Qing forces were digging their own trenches on nearby hills to the north, east and south. The Russians could see them working, multiple Qing scouts came over to look at what the Russian were doing. Chinese were torching all buildings the Russians had previously utilized in the villages around Liaoyang. Any Russians caught at isolated posts were tortured, many beheaded. Barracks, stations, railway lines, coal mines all were burnt down. Mishchenko was livid that Port Arthur was not sending more men. He was unable to hold on indefinitely and could not hope to cut his way through, he had nowhere to turn. His Cossack scouts reported on July 6th, in all directions Qing forces were seen erecting barricades, moving artillery and fortifying. From Liaoyang the Chinese began taking potshots at the Russians, but they were too far away to hit anything. The Chinese were not advancing, too busy plundering what was left behind at Baitouzi. Firecrackers and celebrations could be heard, as Qing troops arrived from Mukden. Konstantin was talking to an interpreter on July 6th who told him he heard rumors the Chinese would attack the next morning. The next morning began with an artillery bombardment. Mishchenko watched using binoculars from a breastwork and proclaimed ‘they have begun their advance. Forbid the men to shoot needlessly. Instead, begin to fire platoon volleys at those cannons there. They have already adjusted their fire well, and must be silenced”. Suddenly grenades were lobbed into the inner courtyard, one ripped open the stomach of a horse and wounded some men. Rifle fire was cracking from Baitouzi and nearby hills. Konstantin was commanding the southern defenses, Shchekin and Sotnik Mamonov the east, Denisov the north, Mishchenko held overall command. The Russians remained calm, taking orders for targets. Mishchenko walked the perimeter encouraging men, he never was killed twice by rifle fire and grenades. Konstantin directed guns at the Qing artillery. It took a dozen or so volleys to get the Qing to move their positions. Suddenly a private yelled ‘Sir! The Chinese are crawling already from the railway embankment nearby!”. The Chinese were nearly 400 paces, Mishchenko ordered volleys and the well-aimed rapid fire drove them back. At 10am, the Chinese were advancing on foot and upon horse using large carts to cover themselves from fire. The Qing hit the Russian right flank hard, killing a few, wounding many. The Qing artillery was performing something akin to a creeping barrage, and soon the Qing riflemen were crawling towards the Russian lines. When the Chinese appeared, the Russians opened fire. The defensive lines were small, around 350 square feet. Blood, corpses and body parts littered the area.  The Qing launched several consecutive attacks, but the Russians gutted their offensives. Suffering heavy casualties the Qing were cautious in their approaches until they withdrew from Baitouzi to Liaoyang. They had no idea the Russians were on the brink of collapse. Russian munitions had shrunk to 20 cartridges per a man, the men were exhausted, men were literally falling asleep as the battles began. The Russian positions at Baitouzi was critical, they could not survive another attack, there was zero indication Port Arthur was sending help, thus Mishchenko called for a meeting of all commanders. They decided their only hope was to fight their way south towards the Kuan Cossack Sotnia of Shtabs-Kapitan Strakhov, who at that time was battling their way towards them. That night they buried 9 men before abandoning countless costly railway equipment, a ton of silver taels which were dumped into a local well and other personal belongings.  Upon seeing the activity the Qing began another attack. The Russians threw up volleys dangerously as they had only so much ammunition left. Their bayonets were fixed at all times. Instead of waiting for a Chinese wave to close in on them, Mishchenko ordered a feint attack. The 2nd company of Malinov and Shchekin charged screaming hurrahs at the Chinese. This was a brilliant move for it saved them all. The Qing fled back to Liaoyang to defend the city allowing the Russians to quickly move south. Konstantin led the vanguard, the civilians were in a panic, countless Cossacks got off their horses and gave them to women, children and wounded. It was a grueling trek as they marched 2 miles west of the railroad trying to avoid detection. Only twice were shots made upon them, but they did not respond and simply carried on quicker. On July 8th they reached the Sha River to see its bridge, the Russian barracks and other buildings over at Shahotzu had been burned down. There were Chinese corpses and expelled shell casings indicated a battle had occurred. It would turn out to be the work of a local guard post of 12 Russians, they were besieged by roughly 200 Chinese. They locked themselves in their stone walled barracks, kept the enemy at bay until their ammunition ran out. Then Boxers came and began burning the doors and windows. Miraculously a train came nearby and began firing upon the position shrilling its whistle. The Russians stormed out with bayonets, attacked the Chinese and fled for the train to escape to Anshanchan. Back over at the Sha River area, the Russians saw Strakhov with 70 Kuban Cossacks of his 3rd Sotnia alongside 40 infantry of the 2nd company coming forward. They had fought their way from Yingkou to Liaoyang station only to find Mishchenko's party gone. They had missed each other en route because Strakhov had followed the railroad tracks. Strakhov reported seeing the Qing plundering the Russian barracks, some local christian Chinese told Strakhov that Mishchenko and the rest fled south, so he came looking for them. Their numbers were thus bolstered to 307 railway guards and 102 civilians, some of whom were armed and would have to fight. Mishchenko's force continued along the railway to Anshanchan to find its bridge and pump house had been destroyed. However the telegraph line and railway to Port Arthur was still intact from Anshanchan. He dispatched an officer to Port Arthur to give a detailed report of the situation and to purchase more ammunition. Meanwhile the wounded and civilians were escorted to Tashishciao where Colonel Dombrovskii had a detachment of men. On July 11th, another 100 men from the southern railway posts led by Poruchiks Gulevich and Rozhalin joined Mishchenko to bolster him to 450 men. Now Mishchenko was prepared to play the role of a forward detachment and execute army orders. However Port Arthur  was not recognize Mishcheckno's detachment as a regular army force, and thus would not supply him with artillery or additional troops for any offensive actions. Instead Port Arthur ordered him to withdraw to Tashishciao within army protection. The next day native Chinese sympathizers reported to Mishchenko that 200 Qing troops were approaching, they were a patrol for a much larger army. Soon Russian scouts were reporting that several hundred Chinese were approaching. The Russians had no provisions, nor tents, thus a siege was not going to favor them. They soon found out from the chief of Haicheng station that over 2000 Qing soldiers had threatened his station and the railway line there. It seemed senseless to hold out at Anshanchan, better to rush over to Haicheng to save it from the fate befalling other stations. At 7pm when they were just about to depart, Cossack scouts rode up reporting that a large Qing detachment with artillery were near the eastern heights and had engaged some of their patrols. Mischchenko dispatched Rozhalin with a half sotnia to the eastern heights to distract the enemy attention away from their departure.  Dawn the next day the Russians made it to Haicheng station. Friendly locals urged Mishchenk to avoid Haicheng because a large Qing force was present, but he was confident in his force after their string of victories. Mishchenko requested aid from the 7th company of the 7th east siberian rifle regiment led by Dombrovskii. Dombrovskii sent them via train from Tashihciao and they arrived an hour after Mishchenko. The western heights near Haicheng was occupied the Qing troops who had to be cleared out if the trains were to come closer to Haicheng. The Russians took cover behind the railway embankment and began advancing up the height shooting from ridges as they did. The Russians eventually began to charge hitting the Qing right flank, sending them scattering. Cossack cavalry ran many down before being called back to protect against a possible assault from the city. The Russians placed 4 artillery pieces on the height and dug in, they now held a good overlooking view of the city. At 9am on the 14th, Dombrovskii came over with an additional company of his regiment and a half battery. The company was led by Captain Ivanov, the artillery by Shtabs Kapitan Petrenko and COlonel Nikolai Desenko held overall command of the whole detachment. Mishchenko sent word to the civilians in Haicheng to warn them a battle was soon to take place. But before the Russians could launch their assault, Qing forces stormed out of the city to hit their flanks. The 7th company, 7th regiment stayed to defend the artillery while company of the 11th regiment took the right flank, the 2nd and 6th companies took the left. Russian volleys and artillery rained hell on the incoming Qing. Petrenko led an excellent bombardment, spraying shrapnel across the Qing formations. Soon the artillery began to bombard Haicheng as the Qing rushed out of its east gate heading for nearby hills. Haicheng fell to the Russians mercy quickly, but Dombrovskii gave strict orders not to go on the offensive, the Russians did not press into the city.  The half battery and company of the 11th regiment departed via train back to Tashihciao, half an hour later the company of the 7th regiment began loading upon another train. When the Qing troops saw this they began swooping down the hills, and set fire to the train station buildings, the pump house and railway bridge. The Qing cavalry even attempted attacking the locomotive carts, but Russian volleys kept them away. Slowly the trains moved south, with Cossacks patrolling their flanks. When they were around 6 miles from Tashihciao, Chinese militia forces and Boxers with antiquated rifles attacked the trains. Russians leapt off the carts and took cover while returning fire. Rozhalin led his Kuban Cossack squadron to run down the enemy killing many. By 8pm Mishchenko and his men reached Tashihciao. At Tashihciao was the south Manchurian detachment consisting of a regiment, a company, a Cossack sotnia and field battery there; there was also another unit from Hsiungyuehcheng consisting of 3 rifle regiments with some stronger batteries from Port Arthur, 86 fortress guns at Jinzhou and some men of a Cossack regiment were patrolling the railway line. This was all of course welcomed, but Mishchenko was still livid to learn no additional troops nor ammunition had departed Port Arthur to help them. 170 miles of railroad north of Tashihciao was in the hands of the Qing, who continuously argued there was no conflict and no destruction of railways was taking place. Konstantin estimated property damage incurred by Russia at this point amounted to some 18 million rubles on the southern line alone. Mishchenko had lost 62 men dead, 53 wounded, 12 missing in action.  Over in province of Fentien, was a Manchu General who was very much against the Boxer cause. He was well educated, and realized China did not at the time wield the necessary power to drive out the foreigners and the Boxer's and their supporters were adding to China's plight. He was zealous persecuting the Boxers in his province, many were arrested, many executed. He then decided he was going to expose their professed invulnerability spells in front of his people. He gathered 400 arrested Boxers and proclaimed a large execution would take place. The Boxers would be killed by firing squad, obviously to showcase how their spell would not work against the bullets. He entrusted the execution operation to a General in the army, unbeknownst to him, there were many Boxers within his army and the General was one of them. The General secretly removed the bullets from the cartridges for the firing squad weapons. Thus at the appointed time the crowds gathered alongside the military governor to watch several volleys fail to kill the Boxers. The Manchu General in fury ever ran up, grabbed a rifle and fired 6 times doing no harm to the boxers. The Boxers stood and bowed politely to the crowd. People began to cheer them on. The Manchu General kept up his anti-boxer campaigns, but the public was dissatisfied with them and his own military was becoming quite insubordinate. The Manchu General reported to Beijing his plight before handing over control to local forces, walking away from his duty.  The railway station located about 10 miles from Mukden was guarded by the 2nd Transcaspian rifle battalion of Poruchik Valevskii. Valevskii received a report on July 5th, the Qing forces were gathering artillery and digging in near his station. He ordered neighboring outposts to join hi mat once and the next day the Qing unleashed an artillery bombardment upon his barracks. The Russians estimated the Qing had 3000 infantry and 5000 cavalry. The Russians trapped in the barracks watched as they fired on the enemy as they cut the telegraph lines and burned bridges and buildings around them. At 1am 14 Russians from a neighboring outpost came rushing in from the north fighting their way to the barracks. The Russians received word from Chinese christians that all the outposts were under attack. Valevskii gathered all the troops and civilians and made a dash over to the Mukden station to find Qing forces plundering it. From there they fled south to the station of Su-chia-tun only to find it burned down, with Russian corpses littering the area. Next Valevskii led them to Yentai station where they ran into Qing forces coming over from Liaoyang. They defeated the Qing forces in two engagements and made their way to Liaoyang.  By this point, Valevskii was trying to reconnoiter the enemy positions and find Colonel Mishchenko who had given out orders for all forces in the region to come to him. From a captured Qing soldiers they learnt Mishchenko's detachment had fled the area and was being pursued. The railway lines appeared to be destroyed, there was no aid coming from Port Arthur. Valevskii announced they would turn eastward to try to get to Yingkou where perhaps Russian ships could get them to somewhere safe. They traveled east along the Taitzu river, running into small Qing forces along the way. Valevskii was hit with a rifle bullet to the chest. Pilipenko took over command and announced they would proceed to Korea for safety. It was a long and arduous journey, they lost many civilians and soldiers. Their story was to be one of many, Manchuria was falling into chaos.  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Boxer Rebellion had spread to Manchuria. Railway station, barracks, anything foreign was being destroyed, countless isolated Russian pockets were now under threat, not just by the Boxers, but by a angry and vengeful Manchu populace. 

On today's episode, Brandon decides to jump into his time machine and share an episode from 2018. In it, Brandon references a two-day break that the podcast took pertaining to show editor and original co-host Dalien being caught up in some turbulence, and addressing this indirectly and by proxy, he hopes to offer relief to any listeners that are going through similar rough patches during these year's end festivities.   For more information on The Great Mother's products, check out TheGreat.Mother on Instagram   Check out our newly updated page instagram.com/positive_head   Care to play a game with the youniverse? Ask the universe the episode you would most benefit from hearing next and click positivehead.com/game.    Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD   Text Brandon to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750  

On today's episode, Brandon decides to jump into his time machine and share an episode from 2016.  In it, Brandon and Dalien answer a listener's question related to singing and comment on ideas of success and passion, expectations, and agendas. Dalien also reports on research that suggests telepathy is real.   Check out our newly updated page instagram.com/positive_head   Care to play a game with the youniverse? Ask the universe the episode you would most benefit from hearing next and click positivehead.com/game.    Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD   Text Brandon to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750  

Last time we spoke about the origins of the Big Sword Society and the invulnerability technique known as the Armor of the Golden Bell. China was certainly no stranger to sects and martial art groups. The Big Sword Society rose up to counteract the rebels and bandits that plagued parts of China like good old Shandong province. However when Christian missionaries began to get involved in the mix things got ugly quick. Bandits would exploit the conversion to christianity to protect themselves from justice. The Big Sword Society had been largely successful combating bandits, but when it came to matters involving the church they were powerless. Finally enough was enough and now the Big Swords were tussling with the Christians, truly raising hell. Yet for now the Big Swords averted fatalities and limited their attacks to property, but what would happen if they turned up the heat?    #58 The Juye Incident & Scramble for China   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The story of Pang Sangjie and the minor skirmish between the Big Sword Society and Church was quite minor. French Jesuits reported two main mission residence at Daitaolou and Houjiazhuang were attacked alongside Christian homes in over 16 villages. The church settled the losses with local Qing officials for only 2000 strings of cash on June 26th, before the final battle had occurred. The Germans in Shandong submitted their report which amounted to petty vandalism to chapels in 17 villages and the burning of 119 rooms in Xue-Jonglou. For this they received 12,020 strings of cash. There were no Christian casualties during the entire conflict either Chinese or foreign. The Big Swords got rowdy, targeted the property of the Christians, but made sure not to take lives. If they had wanted to take lives, they easily could have as they demonstrated. The Qing authorities were too busy with another ongoings, there was a large Muslim rebellion raging in Gangsu and Shaanxi seeing General Dong Fuxiang with numerous forces going into the northwest. Thus the trouble of the Big Swords was pretty small in comparison.  But what if the Big Swords began killing Chinese christians, or some foreign missionaries? How would the church react, how would foreign nations react? We talked a lot about French Catholic missionaries, some protestant British and Americans, but another large group came from Germany. There were three missionaries working on behalf of the “Societas Verbi Divini” Society of the divine word. This was a catholic society founded in Steyl, Netherlands in 1875, which drew mostly German priests into its ranks. When Otto von Bismarck came into power, there was a conflict known as die Kulturkampf, basically the church wanted clerical control over education and ecclesiastical appointment. Otto von Bismarck and other enlightenment minded leaders sought a separation of church and state and this led to countless priests fleeing places like Germany. In 1882 the Society began sending missionaries to Shandong province. Three German missionaries working on behalf of the society of the divine wind, George Stenz, Richard Henle and Francis Xavier Nies were at a missionary residence in Zhangjiazhuang in Juye county. This was the mission station of Stenz, it was around 25km west of Jining. The two other men had come to visit. Henle was quite discouraged because his work was going very slow, thus Stenz urged him to take a break. The three men did their best to raise their spirits on the evening of November 1st, 1897, the night of all saints day. They sang songs from their childhood as Stenz played his zither. They practiced the requiem for the following day. When they retired for the evening, Stenz gave up his own room to his two guests and moved over to the servants quarters. It was around 11pm, when suddenly shots rang out into the night, the courtyard was full of torches. A band of 20-30 armed men raced towards the missionary quarters. They charged the door to Stenz quarters which were unlocked as the priest had no reason to believe anything like an attack would occur. The mob grabbed Henle and Nies and hacked them to death. Apparently they realized neither were the local missionary, as the mob continued to ransack the building searching for Stenz. They checked the church, the missionary quarters and such, but they never checked the servants quarters. The christian villagers became aroused by the mob and raised their own mob to combat them, driving the assailants out. It was not certain who committed the murders, but people generally assumed it was the work of the Big Swords Society. So why the hell did all of this happen? Nine men were rounded up by Qing officials, these men were vagrants, the usual suspect types. Two of men of the nine were executed for the crime, but no one really believed they were guilty. Stenz certainly did not believe them to be the assailants, everything was done in haste, with little to no actual investigation. The governor Yuxian claimed that it was the work of a band of robbers, but there was no evidence of robbery, except for a few pieces of clothing being stolen from Stenz's room. Regardless, if it was a simple case of robbery, they would certainly have not resorted to murder, especially against foreign missionaries. It was certain, particularly to Stenz that this was a deliberate attack on German missionaries. Why might Stenz believe so, he had good reason to believe the residents of Juye would wish harm upon him and his colleagues.  Local villagers told Stenz, that Henle's failed work in the southern town of Yuncheng was the actual target of the attack. Henle had been interfering in lawsuits and made a few enemies. He apparently was a very difficult man to get along with, so much so, even his own christian congregations had revolted against him. However despite Henle's reputation, its more than likely Stenz that was the target of the attack. He was the resident missionary and the mob literally targeted his room. According to Stenz, he heard them screaming his name as they searched for him. Stenz was not very popular. He was a particularly militant member of the society of divine word. In his autobiography the very first line reads "On September 29, 1893, I received at Steyl the mission cross which was to be at once weapon and banner in my fight for the Kingdom of God." He was also a racist, and I do not mean by today's standards. When he first arrived to China, in Shanghai, he wrote a description of the people, it is as follows. “An entirely new world now opened before us. Crowds of slit-eyed Chinese swarmed about the harbor—prominent merchants in their rustling silks and poor coolies in ragged clothes that did not hide their filthy bodies. Confidence was not our first impression on reaching this gate of the Celestial Empire. Cunning, pride, and scorn flashed from the eyes that met our inquiring looks”. He often wrote about how lazy and procrastinating the Qing officials were and that the food was unpalatable in the nation. He was mortified when forced “to use two short pieces of stick” to eat. Its easy to say Stenz had a rough time adapting to life in China. His experience as a missionary in China was that of suffering and homesickness. He was trained prior to coming to China, but this training was designed to steel himself into a martyr. Indeed he alongside countless other missionaries were taught their deaths in the service of god were a sign of grace. Father Xavier while in China had written back home "More than once I have prayed to God for the grace of martyrdom, but most likely it will not be granted to me. My blood is not deemed red enough by God, and is still mingled with the dust of this earth." The oral history of the event, passed down by local villagers had Stenz and other missionaries interfering in lawsuits. In the case of Stenz he was also accused of raping 10 local women, and participating in christian theft. Though these claims could easily be false, it at least tells us what the locals thought of such a man. Stenz also gave his own oral account of the incident. In Stenz account he talks about how a few members of the White Lotus sect enrolled in his church from the village of Caojiazhuang. He refused the admission of the headman from that village, because he was accused of stealing and killing an ox from a neighboring village. This refusal lead to a lot of villagers becoming upset. Stenz recent converts were from some of the wealthiest families in that village and they began refusing to make normal contributions to village festivals such as paying for food for feasts. This led the other villagers to try and force the christians to pay, and they went to local Qing authorities to complain. Stenz became convinced it was all the work of the headman he refused and he believed that man joined the Big Swords to lead the attack on his mission. Given the previous instances of conflict between the church and Big Swords, such a explanation has merit. Perhaps the villagers sought revenge on the missionaries and went to the Big Swords for help or, perhaps they simply pretended to be members of the Big Swords. Regardless it seems clear, bandits were in their ranks. A story often told of this incident includes a former bandit named Liu Derun who apparently was seeking revenge against the Juye magistrate who had arrested and tortured his wife or daughter. To attack a missionary could bring about the end to the magistrates career. Regardless of why it all happened, it seemed certain to the church that they were indanger. The anti-christian conflicts that had occurred in the previous years were well known, and the involvement of the Big Sword Society also. All of this was seen as a godsend to the missionaries and the new German government. In 1897 Germany was an infant nation looking to flex her muscles on the world stage. Her economy was the largest in continental europe, she was emerging as Britain's rival in the world of trade. German's new position in China reflected her competition with Britain and she was becoming a force to be reckoned with. In 1890 the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank became the first non-British foreign bank in China. However, while German trade was thriving, her military capacity to expand her foreign markets were lackluster. This was also coming upon the time Alfred Mahan's “the influence of sea power upon history” had come out in 1890 which proscribed naked force to be employed to protect one's market in the age of imperialism. The German navy was the 5th largest in the world, far below her ranking in economics. Her navy was being developed by the legendary Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz backed by Kaiser Wilhelm II. A late 19th century navy required coaling stations, and for Tirpitz he desired one in China. Germany requested a lease for a naval base in China in October of 1895, and the following year Tirpitz scouted potential ports, and thought Jiaozhou Bay on the Shandong peninsula to be an excellent location. Jiaozhou held a deep water port, and was surrounded by mineral resources. Alongside this, German missionaries of the society of the divine word were operating in the region which was a large bonus. By November of 1896 Germany was determined to acquire Jiozhou and Heyking in Beijing, looking for any means necessary to grab them. When news came to Berlin on november 6th of 1897 of the murdered missionaries, Wilhelm was delighted “that a splendid opportunity had at last arrived”. The next day Wilhelm met with advisors and argued "It is the last chance for Germany to get a possession anywhere in Asia and to firm up our prestige which has dropped.... [N]o matter what it costs, we must not under any circumstances give up Kiaochow. It has a future for economic development as well as industry, a future which will be greater and more meaningful than Shanghai is today." Meanwhile back in China the Qing officials were as incompetent as usual. As was becoming typical of any incidents involving missionaries, the Zongli Yamen received news of the missionaries murders on November 7th from the German ambassador, before any local officials ever reported it. The Qing court immediately understood the dangerous situation, the Emperor realized Germany would use the situation to seize a harbor. The Emperor ordered governor of Shandong, Li Bingheng to be reprimanded for his incompetence, but on November 14th, German warships arrived at Jiaozhou bay. The local Qing garrison withdrew from the area, without firing a shot. Li Bingheng immediately reported the potential invasion to the Qing court urging them to fight the invaders ''Since they started the feud, we have no alternative but to resist.' He proposed they raise 5 additional companies of soldiers in Caozhou to drive the Germans out. However the Qing court rejected his proposal stating such recruits would be worthless in battle. The Qing court responded with this to Li "although the enemy has certainly acted arbitrarily, the court will definitely not mobilize its troops. The foreigners' actions rely entirely on power. If our power cannot assure victory, we will absorb a great loss." They were not wrong in this regard, do remember they literally just lost a war against Japan. The Qing navy was shattered, the imperial treasury was on the verge of bankruptcy already paying indemnities to Japan, how could China resist Germany at this time? One thing the Qing court understood was the balance of power theory. Europe was divided and all competing in China. When Japan claimed the Liaodong peninsula, the triple intervention of Russia, France and Germany had occurred. The Qing court expected Russia to yet again intervene against the Germans now, hell Russia had also shown desires for Jiaozhou bay. However the Qing did not know Wilhelm had been talking to Tsar Nicholas, convincing him to take Port Arthur and Dalien, while Germany could seize Jiaozhou. You have probably heard of the great scramble for Africa during the late 19th century. This involved multiple world powers literally scrambling to seize colonies in Africa, well this situation was also occurring in China. You may have seen a famous painting by the Artist H. Meyer, depicting China as a pie being carved up by the leaders of the great powers. There is a description of the painting which helps greatly for a audio podcast haha “En Chine: Le gâteau des Rois et... des Empereurs” Le Petit Journal Supplément Illustré, January 16, 1898 Artist: H. Meyer “In this French rendering, Queen Victoria glares at the German Kaiser, while the Russian, French, and Japanese figures look pensively at China. The Kaiser stabs his knife into the German-leased territory Jiaozhou (Kiao-Tcheou) in Shandong, acquired in 1898, while the Russian Tsar puts his fists on Port Arthur (the Chinese port of Lüshun, leased in 1897). The caption reads: “China: The cake of Kings and Emperors.” The Germans had long been seeking a port on the Chinese coast, and the Juye incident was a perfect pretext to grab Jiaozhou. On November 6th Kaiser Wilhem sent a telegram to the Tsar stating “sending a German squadron to Jiaozhou, as it is the only port available to operate from as a base against marauders. I am under obligation to Catholic party in Germany to show that their missions are really safe under my protection”. For quite a while, the great powers had engaged in a sort of gunboat diplomacy with China, to compel her government to bring persecutors of Christianity to justice. However now Germany was taking things into her own hands to suppress anti christian activity on Chinese soil. This was quite a novel departure from what the great powers had been doing. Germany had been strong arming China for awhile now, back in October of 1895 the German minister threatened China after some disturbances in Yanzhou. The Qing had failed to act effectively to protect some Christians prompting the minister to say  "my government will have no alternative but to devise methods to protect them ourselves." This was the type of threat the Germans would continue to make and after the Juye incident the Germans demanded a guarantee. However the Qing as much as they wanted to avoid conflict could not guarantee anything, they replied areas like Caozhou were unruly in nature and impossible to guarantee 100% protection. Thus the minister now sent this message "Since China cannot guarantee that in the future such incidents will not recur, our warships are in Jiaozhou and can help you handle the matter." The Qing responded with this "this concerns the internal affairs of China, you need not interfere in it." On December 16th, Wilhelm made a speech and sent his brother in command of an additional squadron to China “Make it clear to every European there, to the German merchant, and, above all things, to the foreigner in whose country we are or with whom we have to deal, that the German Michael has set his shield, decorated with the imperial eagle, firmly upon the ground. Whoever asks him for protection will always receive it.... But if any one should undertake to insult us in our rights or wish to harm us, then drive in with the mailed fist and, as God wills, bind about your young brow the laurels which no one in the entire German Empire will begrudge you. “ So yeah, the kaiser meant business. The Germans pushed extremely hard upon the Qing forcing them to do some pretty extraordinary things. The Qing agreed to construct new cathedrals in Jining and Caozhou where the missionaries were killed and the funds would be coming from their pockets. They were forced to put inscriptions over the doors of the new cathedrals reading "Catholic church constructed by imperial order." On top of this they were forced to build new residences for missionaries in Yutai, Cao, Chengwu, Shan, Yuncheng, Heze and Juye. Five magistrates from those countries were dismissed, one was impeached, a daotai was transferred, and a army commander was also dismissed. Governor Li Bingheng was supposed to be receiving a promotion, viceroyship over Sichuan, but instead he was stripped of his promotion and demoted two grades down. Li Binghengs punishment was largely a result of his anti christian behaviors. The Germans pointed out that in the wake of the Big Sword Society causing troubles in 1896, Li Bingheng had made statements like "Ever since the Western religion came to China, its converts have all been unemployed rascals [xiu-min, lit.: weed people]. They use the foreign religion as protection to bring suits for others and oppress their villages. They use the Church to avoid prosecution, and gradually the local officials, to avoid trouble, bend the law in their favor. After a while the people's long-suppressed anger becomes unbearable. They feel the officials cannot be relied upon, and that they must vent their spleen in private disputes. Thus they gather crowds and seek quarrels, burning and destroying churches." Li Bingheng proposed prohibiting missionary interference in lawsuits, so that local Qing officials could do their job. This all obviously angered the Germans, who complained to Beijing about him.  Now for the common people of Shandong, Li Bingheng was quite loved. Li Bingheng was seen as an honest man and rather good at administrating economic affairs. He managed yellow river works that saved over a million taels in 1895, raised money for the board of revenue about 100,000 per year. While he was seen as anti christian, he also was seen as an uncorrupt official, something quite rare in the late Qing dynasty. The German move was met with exhilaration by other great powers. Sir Claude McDonald, the minister to Beijing from Great Britain said "The effect on the security of our own people will be of the best. It seems hopeless to expect the Chinese to do their duty in protecting missionaries and discouraging anti-foreign movements unless they are forced thereto by some measure as the Germans have taken." An American missionary working in northwestern Shandong named Henry Porter said "the German Government deserve the admiration of all right-minded men, the world over. A great sense of relief was felt by the foreign residents of China. .. . The immediate effect throughout Shantung province is to strengthen every form of mission work.. .. We welcome the German vigor and the German advance." And of course such people were ecstatic about Germany flexing its arms in China, the Big Sword Society had ruffled many feathers. Getting rid of Li Bingheng was seen as a major play to increase conversions in Shandong. Indeed there was a dramatic change with Li Bingheng gone and a German squadron present. A missionary working in Qingzhou reported the proclamations made by the new governor, Zhang Ru-mei to be "much more favorable to the missionary than anything we have been accustomed to in times past." Another missionary working in Wei county reported "The most marked effect we see is the prestige [the Jiaozhou seizure] gives to the foreigners, a prestige that is pitiful to see. The officials seem for the time being to stand in abject fear of any complications with foreigners."  The Germans were pushing the envelope, after the Juye incident, German missionaries got into the habit of placing blame on the Big Sword Society for any difficulties that came about. It was clear to all what they were doing, Governor Zhang Ru-mei remarked "They wish to stir up trouble in this way and let the German troops enter the interior." Local Qing officials began bending over backwards to Christians and lawsuits got worse and worse. Zhang Ru-mei gave an example of one bad situation that arose in the village of Wenshang. There was a dispute over the rights to a village temple, and a Christian had been assaulted. A German missionary sent a message to the magistrate stating the Christian had been killed, prompting the magistrate to rush to the scene to find the man had only light injuries. Nonetheless the magistrate prepared a list of 20 people guilty of the crime and they were forced to kneel and beg for forgiveness before converting to christianity. The German missionary praised the 20 chinese who he called good people, then he stated none of them should be prosecuted as he pulled out his own list with 5 other guilty chinese villagers. The 5 were forced to pay a sum of around 170 strings of cash. Then the same missionary demanded the village as a whole be fined 900 strings of cash. The magistrate anxious to be rid of the situation, increased the sum and added a banquet to be made for the missionary.  So as you can see the church was really abusing this situation. The protestant missionaries in the region were quite jealous, one of their missionaries went on to say "The influence of the Catholic persuasion is felt in nearly all parts of the field. Multitudes are flocking to them for the sake of 'help' in various forms, chiefly for the 'power' that is supposed to reside in them more than in the Protestant." The Kaiser famously was quoted to say “hundreds of thousands of Chinese would feel the iron first of Germany heavy on their necks”. Indeed Germany humiliated China and received a lease of Jiaozhou bay from 1898 that would last until 1920. 50 kms of the Jiaozhou bay area was proclaimed a neutral zone in which Chinese sovereignty was limited in favor of the Germans. Germany did not stop there, they immediately went to work grabbing mining and railway concessions within Shandong province. The scramble for concessions was on. Germany seized influence over Shandong; Russia seized influence over Northern Manchuria, Mongolia and Xinjiang; France seized Yunnan, most of Guangxi and Guangdong; Japan seized Fujian; Britain seized influence over the whole of the Yangtze river valley and Italy requested Zhejiang province and was rejected by the Qing government haha. I always loved that aspect of this, despite China literally being torn apart, Italy was still seen to be too small to grab a piece, get rekt.  The Kaiser's actions had reinforced China's fears about missionaries, or as many of the locals called them “devils”. In common Chinese believed the missionaries were working on behalf of their respective governments as a pretext for seizing territory in China. To the common Chinese things looked like things were getting wildly out of hand. The Christian converts were becoming not only more numerous, but had extravagant demands. In one famous case a Christian agricultural worker forced his non christian employer to serve him a feast. Over in Beijing, Empress Dowager Cixi bitterly resented hearing these reports and would go on to say “These Chinese Christians are the worst people in China. They rob the poor country people of their land and property, and the missionaries, of course, always protect them, in order to get a share themselves.” It was truly a problem, it was breaking the social fabric of village life. Chinese christians were barred from traditional ceremonies and festivals in their own villages and more crucially they no longer had to share the costs of them. They were not allowed to practice ancestor worship which was a fundamental aspect of Chinese society. As one Qing scholar using the pen name Wen Ching put it “As soon as a man becomes a Christian he really ceases to be a Chinaman”. It was commonly believed many only converted because they were too poor to afford food and were disparagingly referred to as “rice Christians”.  Empress Dowager Cixi asked a foreign diplomat at one point “Why don't these missionaries stay in their own country and be useful to their own people?” At the time she made this remark there was over 700,00 Catholic converts ministered by more than 850 nuns and priests, mostly from France. Another 85,000 protestant Chinese were under the guidance of 2800 missionaries, mostly from Britain and America. As Ron Burgundy once said “boy that escalated quickly”. China was being carved up, her social fabric was being torn apart, foreign powers were bearing their boots down upon her, who could come to her rescue?  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. China was literally being carved up by the great powers of the globe. The Kaiser had ushered in a scramble, and now China braced itself for further humiliation. Was there anyone who could save China for the foreign menace? 

In today's episode, Brandon decides to jump into his time machine and share an episode from 2016.  In it, Brandon explores the idea that consciously allowing ourselves to be vulnerable is actually an act of courage that can help us connect to our fellow human beings, and Dalien reports on a thirteen-year-old who invented a free energy device. Check out our newly updated page instagram.com/positive_head Care to play a game with the youniverse? Ask the universe the episode you would most benefit from hearing next and click positivehead.com/game.  Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD Text Brandon to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750  

Last time we spoke about about the first large land battles of the First Sino-Japanese War: the battles of Seonghwan and Pyongyang. The Qing's plan to perform a pincer attack from the north and south of Korea was smashed when they lost Asan. However not all was lost, they still held the extremely formidable defensive position at Pyongyang with some of their best units and best equipment. The Japanese 1st Army deceived the Qing defenders and made an incredible victory at Pyongyang sending the remaining survivors fleeing towards the Yalu River. It was a tremendous blow to the Chinese despite their home press proclaiming every event to be a victory. Now the Qing have their backs against the wall along the Yalu, if the Japanese were to take it they could march right into Manchuria. While the Qing be able to rally themselves and hold the Japanese within Korea, or will this war see action within their borders?    #51 The First Sino-Japanese War of 1898-1895 Part 3: The battle of the Yalu River   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Literally a day after the battle of Pyongyang, the second major battle of the entire war took place. The IJN had been trying to engage a very reluctant Qing navy who were under orders not to cross the Yalu-Weihaiwei line. Well the Japanese crossed it for them. The Beiyang fleet had difficulties operating in the open sea, where the IJN warships held an advantage in speed and better maintenance. The Beiyang fleet thus operated more so along the coastlines, with her two colossal German built battleships the Dungyuan and Zhenyuan only capable of hitting 15-16 knots speed. To give a comparison, the IJN ships had a rough average speed of 20 knots. Now in early September, Li Hongzhang decided to reinforce the Qing forces at Pyongyang and he had his Beiyang fleet escort their transports to the mouth of the Taedong River. On September 12th around 4500 Qing troops left Dagu aboard 5 transports heading for Dalian where they joined 2000 more troops. Admiral Ding Rucheng, initially wanted to send the transports with only a light escort, keeping the bulk of the Beiyang fleet in a safer position incase the IJN combined fleet offered battle. However reports of sightings of the Japanese cruisers Yoshino and Naniwa who were performing reconnaissance near Weihaiwei led to disaster for the Qing. The Beiyang Fleet commanders took these reports to indicate the IJN combined fleet were all around Weihaiwei, it just so happened the entire Beiyang Fleet was to head to Weihaiwei on the 13th. The Qing hunted down the cruisers for an entire day, but found no sight of them, so Admiral Ding turned back for Dalien arriving on the 15th.  The Japanese victory at Pyongyang meant the Qing land forces were concentrating at the Yalu River. Reports began to reach Admiral Ding about the supposed grand victory, but he read between the lines the truth of the matter when the reports also stated the transport of further troops to the mouth of the Taedong river was no longer necessary. Admiral Ding surmised correctly that the Qing line of defense would now be established on the Yalu River, so he decided to bring the troops there. At around 1:00am on the 16th the Beiyang fleet and the 5 transports departed Dalian Bay. The Beiyang fleet consisted of the 2 ironclad battleships, the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan, a smaller coastal defense battleship called the Pingyuan, the cruisers Laiyuan, Jiyuan, Jingyuen, Jingyuan and Zhiyuen, smaller cruisers Chaoyong, Kwan Chia, Yangwei and the gunboats Guangbing, Zhennan, Zhenzhong, Fulong and Zuo 1. Now I really need to take a moment here to explain a lot about the two opposing naval forces. These Qing ships I just listed, most of them were built before 1887, for the Japanese the majority would be built after 1890. About 10 significant ships from each side would take part in the upcoming battle; for the Qing the two battleships which each holding ⅓ more displacement than the largest Japanese warship. The Qing warships could only go as fast as their slowest, and the two battleships only pulled 15 or so knots, meaning the IJN would enjoy a massive advantage in speed.  The armaments of the Beiyang fleet were created mostly at the Jiangnan and Fuzhou Shipyards and they were by far and large superior to that of the Japanese. They had foreign expertise overlook the developments, but because of the nature of the Qing navy this did not extend to the maintenance for the ships. Qing regional leaders were skeptical of Li Hongzhang and the naval board, and refused to pay anything more than the bare minimum required for the basic maintenance of the navy. Many of these regional leaders were not happy about the naval board having its director being the Manch Prince Chu'un, and his successor Manchu Prince Qing. Why were they not happy you might ask, well other than the regular ethnic rivalries. Neither Manchu director could administer funds properly nor prevent Empress Dowager Cixi for allegedly diverting funds for other purpose, now hold on a minute for those who might be screaming “thats a myth” I will get to it. A lot of rumors sprang up that the Empress Dowager had embezzled funds from the navy to restore the old summer palace, this is infamous to anyone who learns 19th century Chinese history. In fact, as the story goes Cixi had rebuilt the expensive Marble Boat in the palace garden with funds that were earmarked for modernizing the navy. It is alleged Cixi devoted 100 million taels to the purpose of rebuilding the summer palace and the Qing navy would not see additional funding after the year 1889. Some estimate the summer palace renovations took 11 million from the naval funds, enough to buy around 6-7 warships. To be honest I am a huge fan of a podcast called “Our Fake History” and I hope he tackles this myth one day. But it seems Empress Dowager Cixi was not wholly at fault for the decline of the Qing navy. No it seems Emperor Guangxu's quote “lack of interest” in developing and maintaining the military was to blame. Grand Tutor Weng Tonghe advised Guangxu to cut all funding to the navy and army, because he did not see Japan as a true threat, and during the 1890's large natural disasters occurred which seemed a much more pressing issue to allocate funds to. After the Taiping Rebellion could you blame the emperor? Regardless its just to say its not black and white, there were numerous variables when it came to the funding scandals. But as a Chinese friend of mine put it once, “everyone learns about Cixi embezzling for the palace at the cost of the navy”, it certainly is the prevailing idea.  Li Hongzhang's ordnance supply officer for the Beiyang fleet was his son in law Zhang Peilun who was referred to by Professor Wiliam Lockwood as a quote “champion swindler”. He described the man to so corrupt, sailors would often find shells filled with sand and quote “when the shooting began, the Chinese fleet found that its total supply of ammunition amounted to fourteen shells per gun. Two 7000 ton ironclads had only 3 shells in all for their 10 inch guns”. There is zero question on the issue of corruption when it came to the Qing navy in the late 19th century. They were hampered with shortages of ammunition, there are even reports some shells were filled with cement rather than explosives. Not only would the Qing sailors find little shells to fire during the battle of Yalu, imagine the lack of practice as a result of never having ammo? Poor accuracy and seriously questionable naval orders during battle would plague the Beiyang fleet. Alongside the lack of ammo it is also alleged the Qing warships had half their crews, because of salary embezzlement. So the Beiyang fleet would come into the battle undermanned, undertrained and underequipped, the recipe for disaster. Now as for the Japanese, the IJN combined fleet consisted of 2 formations: the flying squadron composed of the 4 fast cruisers: Yoshino, Takachiho, Akitsushima and Naniwa led by Admiral Tsuboi Kozo. And the main fleet consisting of the cruiser and flagship Matsushima followed by Chiyoda, Itsukushima, Hashidate and the ironclads Fuso and Hiei led by Admiral Ito Sukeyuki. There were also two dispatch vessels, the Saikyo Maru led by the Swedish born captain John Wilson and the Gunboat Akagi. Unlike the Beiyang fleet which was 1 of the 4 non cooperating fleets that made up the Qing navy, the IJN combined fleet were consolidated under a single command, always unified, trained extensively together as a single fighting force. Although many of the Qing ships had more armor, they were slower and the Japanese specifically trained using the Jeune d'ecole strategy, emphasizing speed and quick firing guns to overcome larger opponents. The Japanese would be coming into this battle with adequate ammunition, better training and the specialization in fighting larger battleship class ships by outmaneuvering and outfiring them. I always found it easier using gamer terms, the Japanese adopted a glass cannon strategy, relying on speed over defense, but alongside that their enemy greatly lacked proper firing capabilities making the Japanese a charmander to the chinese bulbasaur. The Qing's ironclads had short barrels as main armaments, meaning their shells had low muzzle velocity, resulting in poor penetration and terrible accuracy, especially at long range which they never should be firing at anyways. Although the Qing sailors were well drilled, they had practically no gunnery practice as a result of having no ammunition to work with. The lack of training in gunnery in combination to not having shells to fight with, or having the wrong caliber shells on certain ships and literally finding out some shells might be filled with cement or porcelain would lead to disaster. Aboard the Jingyuan was US naval advisor Philo McGiffin who went on the record saying “many of the gunpowder charges were thirteen years old and condemned”. Sadly Li Hongzhang had tried to delay a naval battle against the Japanese specifically to give his fleet more time to equip their ships with additional ammunition, but the Qing imperial court deemed this cowardice and forced his hand to press on. In the end, the Qing fleet was bigger and armed with bigger guns, but the Japanese would be faster, and capable of firing their smaller guns more so and more accurately.  Admiral Ding's Beiyang Fleet reached the mouth of the Yalu River at around 2pm. The transports escorted by 5 warships: the Zhennan, Zhenzhong, Guangbing, Pingyuan and a torpedo boat landed the troops until the morning of the 17th. Meanwhile the other Beiyang ships anchored in some shallow waters around 8 nautical miles south west of the mouth of the Yalu river. At 9:20am on the 17th the fleet conducted a training exercise lasting for about an hour and a half, before returning to their anchorage, but soon after at 11:28am, observers aboard the Qing warships began to spot smoke coming from the south-west.  Admiral Ding attempted to form his fleet into a southward facing line abreast using his two battleships in the center. In the line going left to right were the Guangjia, Jingyuan, Jiyuan, Zhiyuan, Laiyuan, Jingyuen, Yangwei and Chaoyong. Another group of four ships led by the slow Pingyuan were escorting the transports upriver and were forced to try and catch up which they would around 2:30. Late in the morning the two fleet began approaching another in very different formations. The Qing were trying to uphold their line abreast, but there was enormous confusion in signals, no doubt to the fact all of their signal books were written in english and very few of the officers could speak or were familiar with english. Added to this was the differing speeds of the various ships, thus they ended up in a asymmetricalwedge formation with the two battleships at the fore and the other vessels trailing behind on two flanks. According to various accounts, there was a consensus that the formation was done in great disorder. In fact it may not have been a deliberate formation, but rather the order in which the warships simply foundselves in as they tried to form a line abreast. For the IJN combined fleet they approached in a single column formation with the flying squadron in the front, followed by the main squadron. The order of ships in line for the Japanese was first the fasted protected cruisers, Yoshino, Naniwa Takachiho and Akitsushima. Then came the flagship Matsushima alongside her two sisters, followed by Chiyoda, Fuso, Hiei, Akagi, and the Saikyo Maru. With the Beiyang fleet in sight, Admiral Sukeyeki gave orders for the flying squadron to attack the Chinese right flank, hoping to annihilate their weaker boats at the end of the formation. Upon seeing the flying squadrons maneuvers, Admiral Ding ordered his ships to change course in such a way that it would have exposed his flagship, the Dingyuan, but put the rest of the squadron in a good position to fire upon the Japanese. However, Admiral Ding's Captain aboard the Dingyuan ignored the order allegedly out of cowardice, instead he ordered the Dingyuan to fire its main guns well before the Japanese were even within range. The order to fire apparently caused great confusion amongst the other ships, seeing the Chinese right flank firing into a maelstrom against the IJN warships, but the CHinese left flank basically was left out of the action. Now Admiral Ding aboard his flagship Dingyuan, alongside her sister Zhenyuan went straight forward against the IJN's center hoping to tussle the most while the rest of the Beiyang fleet maneuvered around to avoid hits. In one source I was reading, they tell a tale that the initial firing of Dingyuans main battery was aimed directly forward and thus literally destroyed her own flying bridge and quote “thereby demolishing the temporary flying bridge on which Admiral Ding was standing. Ding's leg was crushed so he could not stand, let alone walk, during the hositilities. This made it impossible for him to repeat his order in time. The wounds would also make it fiddicult for him to follow the battle”. However as pointing out by Pilo McGiffen in his memoris “Ding was merely catapulted by the shockwave of the guns going off”. Historians have come to a consensus today that the flying bridge was hit by the Japanese and Admiral Ding's poor legs were crushed as result of their gunfire to it, alongside countless officers who were killed and injured.  The Dingyuna opened fire at 5000 meters, which was ridiculously too far to cause damage to the Japanese ships. As soon as the Dingyuan opened fire, the rest of the Qing warships followed suit, wasting countless precious shells firing from too far a range to possibly hit the Japanese vessels. According to Vice Admiral G.A Ballard of the British navy, the Qing formation doomed her from the beginning, as the line abreast strategy required the strongest ships, not the weakest to be on the wings in order to prevent the weaker ships from being picked off, which the Japanese would do. The Qing also failed to change course in such a way as to prevent the Japanese from going around their wing allowing their vessels to deliver full broadside gunfire at close range. The Japanese held their fire for a full 20 minutes as they simply headed diagonally across the Beiyang fleet going twice their speed. On the signal of Admiral Ito the Japanese squadrons divided with the flying squadron led by Tsuboi ramping from 8knots to 14knots heading for the center of the Qing formation. The Qing were confused by this sudden bullrush towards them, but then Tsuboi's formation turned slightly to port, moving around the right flank of the Chinese formation as they began to open fire on the weakest units from the effective range of 3000 meters or less. The Japanese gunfire first battered the Chaoyong and Yangwei, as Tsuboi steered his squadron northward to engage the Qing reinforcements coming from the Yali River, this was the Pingyuan group.  Meanwhile the IJN main squadron followed the same course direction as the flying, but to the Chinese left flank, making a full turn around them to circle behind and hit their rear. However their slowest ships, the Fuso and Hiei came instead came into a shorter range and boldly steered right between the two Qing battleships, passing through their line receiving and returning fire as they did. They would join their main squadron coming out on the opposite side. Unfortunately for the Akagi, she broke through the Chinese line towards the left its center and came across 3 Qing warships to her stern, just within 800 meters. Akagi was hit with a shell to her bridge which killed her Captain and several others; her forward magazine was destroyed and she tried to speed up to avoid more hits. Over in the flying squadron, the Yoshino could see the peril of the Hiei and Akagi, so instead of leading down the enemy's rear, she changed course more to starboard to come to their rescue, wedging herself between the enemy and the Akagi. As Yoshino did this she poured shells from her broadsides upon the enemy and now the Chinese right wing was enveloped between two fires. The flying squadron was now turning with starboard helm, passing a second time entirely around the Chinese right flank. The Hiei and Akagi signaled their damage and and received permission to retire out of action. Three Qing warships the Laiyuen, Zhiyuen and Kwang-ki tried to pursue the Hiei and Akagi, but despite their damage they managed to outpace them and returned fire from a distance. The Zhiyuen returned to the battle, the Laiyuen received too much damage had was taken out of the action and the Kwang-ki fled. In the center and right of Admiral Ding's fleet the gun battle was raging. The admiral had been wounded 20 minutes into the fight and because of his injured Commodore Liu Tai Tsan had to take command of the fleet. All four of Zhenyuans heavy guns were knocked out by IJN quick firing guns early into the fight, thus she was reduced to using her 6 inch guns. The Yangwei and Chaoyong who were stuck on the very outside of the right flank received the initial hellstorm from the Japanese as they passed by. Both ships were battered early and unable to fire back. The Chaoyong was ablaze and ran aground over a large rock while the Yangwei also ablaze beached to save herself. The Chaoyong was last seeing settling after, before sinking with her upper mast remaining above the surface. The Zhiyuen was forced to retire early as all 3 of her gun carriages were hit by IJN quick firing guns. The Beiyang fleet as a whole was caught between the two IJN squadrons who were unleashing their broadsides upon them to devastating effect. The Qing were evidently tossed into a state of chaos with some ships fleeing, others dueling, some sinking already. The Japanese kept up their column formation, making circles around their enemy, they would make 3 full circles during the battle. After some time the DIngyuan attempted to close in on her enemy, to the Japanese it looked like she was trying to ram one of them. She broke the formation with 3 other ships charging at full speed. Admiral Ito reported in his action report “that at half past 2 the Jingyuan steamed past the front of hi squadron, but she received such a storm of projectiles that her crew seemed to fall into a state of the greatest confusion, and presently she took fire” The Jingyuan was battered too badly that she adopted to try and flee at the last moment, but the Japanese flying squadron chased her down battered her until she sank. It is said her gunners kept returning fire until she was under the waves. At 3:20 the severely damaged and burning Zhiyuan had returned to the fight after chasing the Akagi and attempted to ram the Naniwa or Yoshino depending on the source, but she would be shot upon until she sank in the process taking with her Captain Deng Shichang. Captain Shichang was one of their greatest commanders and spent some time overseas evaluating foreign fleets, his loss was a grave one. At 3:30 the two flagships were in close range and the Matsushima's main turret was hit by a 12 inch shell. There was not great damage, but fires began over the deck. Another shell hit Matsushima's forward 4.7 inch rapid fire gun killing some men and hurtled the turret across the ship violently. The Japanese flagship had been the target of many of the Qing warships from the offset of battle and received numerous hits. Her commander and first Lt were killed alongside 120 men. Admiral Ito was forced to transfer his flag to the Hashidate. Also at 3:30 firing ceased on both sides as many were putting out massive fires. It took around an hour for the gun duels to really pick up again. 5 IJN warships of the main squadron were fighting back and forth with the 2 Qing battleships until around 6pm. The Dingyuan and Zhenyuan were able to resist the punishment because of their heavy armor, but all the sailors on deck were decimated by shells and fragments going everywhere. When the Qing opened fire upon the Japanese as they passed from port to starboard, they failed to score any significant hits using their 12 inch and 8.2 inch guns. The two IJN squadrons had made full circles of the Beiyang fleet, using their quick firing guns, smashing the Qing warships superstructures and swept their deck's with carnage.  During the melee, quite a few of the IJN warships received devastating hits as well. The Yoshino, Akagi and Saikyo Maru were put out of action from sustained hits. The Hiei who was a much slower ship than the rest, received severe damage and it did not help her captain had decided not to follow the flying squadrons sweep maneuver, but instead pass directly through the Qing line. This poor decision made the Hiei a very easy target as she ran a gauntlet. By late afternoon the Beiyang fleet was tipping to the point of collapse, many warships had literally fled for their lives or had been sunk. The Dingyuan and Zhenyuan were nearly out of ammunition. Aboard the Dingyuan, Admiral Ding was pretty much out of commission and their foremast was destroyed making it impossible to signal to the rest of the fleet. The rest of the Qing ships began forming up into pairs of 3 to mutually support another in the duels.  When the Japanese had begun firing, the Jiyuan turned to flee from the offset, and upon seeing this the Guangjia joined. Jiyuan was hit only once, as for Guangjia, she quickly became lost and ran aground, forced to be scuttled by her crew later. There are also claims, the Jiyuan may have collided with the Yangwei causing her to sink during this process. The Saikyo Maru tried to finish off the Yangwei which managed to beach itself. The Saikyo Maru got roughly handled from the beginning of the fight. She had first opened fire from a long range, but then got close to the Qing ironclads. After an hour of combat, her steering gear got damaged sending her sailing off uncoordinated. Upon seeing her in distress the Pingyuan tried to hunt her with some torpedo boats. Torpedoes were fired at the Saikyo Maru, they all missed with some getting within 40-50 yards of her. The Saikyo Maru fled for her life and would escape. The better trained, better maintained IJN rapid firing guns simply out performed the Chinese, who had limited ammunition, ill maintained equipment, less gunnery training and well when you find out some of your shells have cement or porcelain in them, I would say demoralized as well. While the Japanese were certainly scoring better and more significant hits, this did not mean the Qing were not fighting for their lives however. The Qing warships continued to fire everything they had. The Laiyuan, despite being a burning wreck continued to fire upon the enemy to the bitter end. The primary armaments of the Qing battleships fired 197 rounds, scoring around 10 hits. While this is extremely low, when they did hit they knocked out the Japanese flagship from the battle, but unfortunately for the Chinese they were unable to deliver killing blows. Overall the Beiyang fleet scored about 10 percent of their hits. The Japanese scored roughly 15 percent, but take into consideration the Japanese were firing at a rate 3 times to that of the Chinese.  When night was coming upon them, Admiral Ding gathered the remnants of his Beiyang fleet and steered towards Lushunkou. The Japanese had 4 ships severely damaged, with some light damage to two. The Japanese had around 180 deaths, 200 wounded. The flagship Matsushima suffered the worst amount of casualties at around 100, after receiving a 12 inch shell. Hiei would have to be retired from combat because of her injuries; Akagi lost many men and required repairs; the Saikyo Maru which was not really a warship, she was actually a converted liner that lacked offensive armament, but came into the fray nonetheless was hit by 4 12 inch shells which knocked out her steering sending her wandering for quite some time. The Qing had lost the Zhiyuen, Yangwei, Kwang-ki, Chaoyong and Jingyuan, with 850 deaths and 500 wounded. The Dingyuan was reported to have been hit with no less than 200 hits, but her thick armor protected her from serious damage. The deepest dents were around 3 inches. Her upper deck was completely destroyed by fire; two secondary battery guns were disabled, all of her signal halliards were shot away, but her engines were in perfect working order. The Zhenyuen was hit approximately 120 times, but her injuries proved worse than her sister. Her main battery was crippled and when she made it to anchorage she was nearly sinking. The Laiyuen suffered most from fire damage, she had to be gutted fore and after with the deck and bulkheads about her magazines being found red hot. The Pingyuan according to Admiral Ito's report suffered horribly from fires, but she took little part in the fighting. Of the entire fleet only 3 escaped without serious injury, the Jingyuen, Jiyuan and Guangbing. The Yantai correspondent of the Shanghai based newspaper, the China Gazette had this to say after the battle "There is no doubt the Chinese fought bravely, but they were no match for the Japanese whose tactics were admirable throughout the fight...The unfortunate Chinese gunners lost their heads and fired wildly, their officers left their ships at the mercy of the enemy by their clumsy seamanship while, on the other hand, almost every shot of the Japanese told." A reporter for The Japan Weekly Mail said this "The Japanese men-of-war preserved their battle array intact from first to last, but the Chinese were soon compelled to fight without any tactical order." The New York Times ran the headlines, "China's Waterloo in Corea. Japan's Great Naval Victory." After the battle the Japanese discovered to their intense interest that some of the Chinese shells were filled with cement instead of explosives. They also reported finding some ammunition filled with porcelain, others being the wrong caliber for the guns on the ships. It seemed to the Japanese military leadership they had grossly underestimated the degree of corruption and incompetence within the Qing dynasty. Admiral Ito chose not to pursue the fleeing Beiyang fleet because he knew his fleet lacked weapons capable of sinking the two ironclad battleships. Unbeknownst to him the Beiyang fleet had basically fired all of their ammunition and the two battleships were sitting ducks. According to Sir Robert Hart, the inspector general of the Qing maritime customs, on the eve of the battle of the Yalu quote “the Chinese had no shells for their Krupp artillery and no powder for their Armstrong guns, these were some of the main offensive weapons of their fleet”. The IJN would be criticized for not pursuing the Qing later on, but the admirals were making decisions based on the knowledge they held at the time and that knowledge was that they could not take down the two battleships.  The loss at Pyongyang on land and at Yalu upon the sea were devastating to the Qing and absolutely dazzled foreign presses. It was recognized that after the battle of the Yalu, it was Japan who controlled the sea. Meanwhile the official battle report handed back to the Qing imperial court was this “the Chinese fleet had defeated a numerically superior fleet of the Woren...sinking three of the enemy's ships and severely injuring the rest, but losing four of our own in the battle." The Japanese would actually find an official dispatch to Li Hongzhang later on in Port Arthur that said this concerning the battle of Yalu "more terrible than any to be found in the Naval records even of Western countries. The ships of both sides were considerably damaged, especially those of the enemy. The enemy retired first, so that victory may more or less be said to have rested with us. Had not our rear become disordered, the entire victory would have been ours." The dispatch also went on to recommend rewards for those who fought bravely at Yalu. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. While the Qing had the bigger ships, bigger guns and more armor, the Japanese managed to defeat them because of better training, better maintenance and well, having ammunition seemed an important variable also.  

In today's episode, Brandon decides to jump into his time machine and share an episode from 2016.  In it, Brandon and Dalien discuss a powerful and insightful talk given by Matt Kahn regarding the three states of energy and how it is always circulating, stagnating or being integrated. Dalien also shares a story about giant humanoid skeletons that were recently discovered. Care to play a game with the youniverse? Ask the universe the episode you would most benefit from hearing next and click positivehead.com/game.  Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD Text Brandon to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750  

In today's episode, Brandon decides to jump into his time machine and share an episode from 2016. In it, Brandon and Dalien discuss attaining liberation from the need to think with a little help from an Eckhart Tolle talk. They also discuss a few techniques to help achieve and maintain a state of thoughtless awareness. Care to play a game with the youniverse? Ask the universe the episode you would most benefit from hearing next and click positivehead.com/game.  Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD Text Brandon to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750  

On today's episode, Brandon decides to jump into his time machine and share an episode from 2016.  In it, Brandon and Dalien talk about a listener's question on how to tell our true desires apart from things we have picked up from others, and they play an Abraham-Hicks discussion on how to gain clarity about our desires. Care to play a game with the youniverse? Ask the universe the episode you would most benefit from hearing next and click positivehead.com/game.  Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD Text Brandon to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750  

In today's episode, Brandon decides to jump into his time machine and share an episode from 2016.  In it, Brandon and Dalien address a listener's question concerning problems with their meditation practice, and they discuss an audio clip about the subtle difference between the states of acceptance and surrender. Care to play a game with the youniverse? Ask the universe the episode you would most benefit from hearing next and click positivehead.com/game.  Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD Text Brandon to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750  

On today's episode, Brandon decides to hop into his time machine and share an episode from 2016. In it, Brandon receives inspiration to discuss truthfulness and honesty, discussing a quote and playing an Abraham-Hicks clip related to the topic, and Dalien reports on a recent article regarding the theory that humanity is the ancestor species of the alien life forms our species seeks to make contact with. Care to play a game with the youniverse? Ask the universe the episode you would most benefit from hearing next and click positivehead.com/game.  Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD Follow Brandon on Instagram and text him to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750 Check out the Stories of Impact podcast wherever you tune in to your pods!

On today's episode, Brandon decides to hop into his time machine and share an episode from 2016. In it, Brandon and Dalien discuss a talk from Osho about life having no purpose, how adults play games but children only play, and how you already are what you're seeking to be, you need only to realize it. Care to play a game with the youniverse? Ask the universe the episode you would most benefit from hearing next and click positivehead.com/game.  Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD Follow Brandon on Instagram and text him to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750 Check out the Stories of Impact podcast wherever you tune in to your pods!

On today's episode, Brandon decides to hop into his time machine and share an episode from 2016. In it, Brandon and Dalien discuss the concept of evil and how bringing awareness to it can help transmute it. Dalien also shares a story of mutant-type powers that some people have that allows them to see many more colors than the average person. Check out the Stories of Impact podcast wherever you tune in to your pods!  Care to play a game with the youniverse? Now you can let the youniverse choose the episode you are meant to hear next by clicking here! Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD Follow Brandon on Instagram, Twitter and text him to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750

In today's episode, Brandon hops into his time machine and shares an episode from 2016. For today's episode, Brandon brings a positive reminder to those who may be feeling down or struggling to see their own light, and he plays a timely Abraham-Hicks clip that ties into this. Also, Dalien reports on a floating “skyscraper” that can clean up our oceans and produce energy in the process. Check out the Stories of Impact podcast wherever you tune in to your pods!  Care to play a game with the youniverse? Now you can let the youniverse choose the episode you are meant to hear next by clicking here! Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD Follow Brandon on Instagram, Twitter and text him to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750

On today's episode, Brandon decides to hop into his time machine and share an episode from 2015. Brandon and Dalien discuss Jim Carrey's highly inspiring recent graduation speech and share excerpts from the speech. They also cover recent news where a professor suggests that Moses might have actually been under the influence of the infamous spirit molecule, DMT. Care to play a game with the youniverse? Now you can let the youniverse choose the episode you are meant to hear next by clicking here! Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD Follow Brandon on Instagram, Twitter and text him to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750

On today's episode, Brandon decides to hop into his time machine and share an episode from 2016. In it, he expands on a quote and clip by Bashar that explains how we're always here by choice and we don't reincarnate so much as coexist with our other simultaneous selves and lives, and Dalien reports on a new technology that allows users to holographically teleport to digital environments such as whole other planets. Care to play a game with the youniverse? Now you can let the youniverse choose the episode you are meant to hear next by clicking here! Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD Follow Brandon on Instagram, Twitter and text him to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750

Took this sit down with my Guy Dalien, Jeffco resident, Festus Alum, and founder of 34 Hoops. D does a bunch of different things from training young and upcoming athletes, to helping one's start new careers outside of sports. We talk from basketball, music, all the way to life. Really hope y'all enjoy this one. Catch Dalien back on closer to basketball season!Season 4 is in ActionSwerve_O: InstagramDarryl Buckhanan: FacebookOpen to any and all guests!

On today's episode, Brandon decides to hop into his time machine and share an episode from 2016.  In it, Brandon and Dalien discuss the power of being authentic with yourself and others. They also share a clip from Tony Robbins that goes into greater detail about the science behind your beliefs and how to consciously create new patterns in your life. Care to play a game with the youniverse? Now you can let the youniverse choose the episode you are meant to hear next by clicking here! Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD Follow Brandon on Instagram, Twitter and text him to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750

On today's episode, Brandon decides to hop into his time machine and share an episode from 2016.  In it, Brandon and Dalien address a listener's question and play a Tony Robbins clip about motivation and the power to act, and discuss how we can shed our past and use tools like writing to achieve our life goals. Care to play a game with the youniverse? Now you can let the youniverse choose the episode you are meant to hear next by clicking here! Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD Follow Brandon on Instagram, Twitter and text him to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750

On today's episode, Brandon decides to hop into his time machine and share an episode from 2016. In it, Brandon brings us a timely reminder that we are always born anew in the present, never truly defined by our past, and Dalien reports on a sighting of a mysterious “burning” falling object filmed in Arizona. Get the special deal for Positive Head listeners at athleticgreens.com/positivehead Care to play a game with the youniverse? Now you can let the youniverse choose the episode you are meant to hear next by clicking here! Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD Follow Brandon on Instagram, Twitter and text him to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750

On today's episode, Brandon decides to hop into his time machine and share an episode from 2016. In it, Brandon expounds on a question by a listener and a talk by Alan Watts about integrating mystical experiences with everyday consciousness for our well-being. Dalien also reports on a new technology that potentially reverses aging at the genetic level. Care to play a game with the youniverse? Now you can let the youniverse choose the episode you are meant to hear next by clicking here! Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD Follow Brandon on Twitter, Instagram and text him to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750

On today's episode, Brandon decides to hop into his time machine and re-share an episode from 2016. Brandon speaks with Sue Krebs about not taking things personally, based on one of don Miguel Ruiz's Four Agreements, and Dalien discusses an article on the neurotransmitter anandamide and its effect on our biology. Care to play a game with the youniverse? Now you can let the youniverse choose the episode you are meant to hear next by clicking here! Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD Follow Brandon on Twitter, Instagram and text him to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750

On today's episode, Brandon decides to jump into the time machine and re-share an episode from 2016. In this episode, Brandon and Dalien take a question from the audience regarding psychic abilities such as psychometry. Anna also joins the show to discuss the concept that we are all perfectly imperfect and getting in tune with our authentic selves. Care to play a game with the youniverse? Now you can let the youniverse choose the episode you are meant to hear next by clicking here! Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD Follow Brandon on Twitter, Instagram and text him to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750

On today's episode, Brandon decides to jump into the time machine and re-share an episode from 2016.  Brandon and Dalien discuss the Triple Filter Test devised by ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, and how it promotes disciplined, constructive use of our words and our attention. Also, Dalien reports on activist Rob Greenfield's heartwarming international trek, based on the simple idea that people are inherently good. Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD Care to play a game with the youniverse? positivehead.com/youniverse Text Brandon to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750

On today's episode, Brandon decides to jump into the time machine and re-share an episode from 20176. In it, Brandon plays an Alan Watts clip and ponders on a quote by Carl Jung, all based on the latter's ideas about the “shadow self,” the part of us that needs healing most. Also, Dalien reports on accounts of individuals who have lived fairly normal lives with large portions of their brains missing. Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD Care to play a game with the youniverse? positivehead.com/youniverse Text Brandon to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750

On today's episode, Brandon decides to jump into the time machine and re-share an episode from 2017. In it, Brandon and Dalien discuss the concept that our authentic power actually resides in our heart, not our head, and share part of a TEDx talk discussing the science that backs up this idea. Dalien also shares a story about the “Great Attractor” at the center of our local galactic supercluster. Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD Care to play a game with the youniverse? positivehead.com/youniverse Text Brandon to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750

On today's episode Brandon decides to jump into the time machine and reshare an episode from 2015. In it, Brandon and Dalien discuss the concept that the journey is the goal, share a rampage of appreciation from Abraham-Hicks and discuss how, within a couple of decades, 3D printing technology could be printing entire cities in a day. Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD Care to play a game with the youniverse? positivehead.com/youniverse Text Brandon to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750

On today's episode, Brandon decides to jump into the time machine and reshare an episode from 2016. In it, Brandon and Dalien talk about manifesting the ideal romantic partnership, and how our relationship to self determines what kind of romantic relationship we will ultimately attract. Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD Care to play a game with the youniverse? positivehead.com/youniverse Text Brandon to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750

Is the Raiders season now over? / A Stunned in a DAlien's backyard? / Did Klutch mismanage the Simmons holdout? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The crew reviews Space Jam 2 / DAlien & voiceover artist Stephen Murray boards the Mothership / Did the Knicks improve with all the signings? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We premiere a track from French native Dublin based DJ and producer TYRÄXX, as she contributes her track 'Flash' to the new Dublin label, Vision, as part of their debut VISIONARIES 001 Various Artist release. Initially starting life as a party, the Dublin based collective Vision hosted techno nights in clubs such as 39/40, Button Factory, The Wiley Fox and The South William, welcoming international talents, as well as doing their part to push the local scene and resident DJs. Today, however, while the clubs still remain closed, the collective have taken their next step into dance music, as they announce their brand new Vision Record label. Launching on June 1st, the 4 track 'VISIONARIES: 001' EP features producers Libra, Jaelbird, Vision Cofounder, DALIEN, plus TYRAXX, whose track we premiere on our SoundCloud today. TYRÄXX takes inspirations from labels such as MOTZ, HATE, and Concrete Berlin in her productions and mixes, gravitating towards the heavier side of techno and hard dance. Her tracks and consistently offer big tough energy, ensuring a dark and heavy and relentless journey from kick off. You can check out TYRÄXX's premiere via our SoundCloud, plus pick the whole EP for free from @vision-dublin on June 1st. TYRÄXX --------------------------- SC: @tyra_xxx Vision Records --------------------------- SC: @vision-dublin FB: www.facebook.com/VisionDublin Four Four Magazine --------------------------- FB: www.facebook.com/FOURFOURDANCE/ IG: www.instagram.com/fourfourmagazine/ Web: www.fourfourmag.com/

In honor of the fifth year anniversary of the podcast, Brandon decides to jump into the time machine and reshare an episode from 2016. In it, Brandon addresses a question from a listener regarding the power of the subconscious and plays a clip from Dr. Bruce Lipton pertaining to this topic. Dalien also shares a story on ancient cave art that may depict extraterrestrial beings. Download The Golden Key audio or e-book at GoldenKey.Gift with the Code: POSITIVEHEAD Follow Brandon on the Clubhouse app to be notified when he goes live: www.joinclubhouse.com/@0ptimystic  Care to play a game with the youniverse? positivehead.com/youniverse Text Brandon to receive regular golden nuggets of wisdom at 310.564.0750

In honor of the fifth year anniversary of the podcast, Brandon decides to jump into the time machine and reshare an episode from 2016. In this episode, Brandon answers a listener’s question on the topic of ascension. Dalien also reports on a Lockheed executive’s bold claims regarding advanced technology and interstellar travel. Download the audio or ebook of The Golden Key for free at goldenkey.gift with the (Golden) Key Code: POSITIVEHEAD Sign up for your trial of the habit changing solution NOOM at noom.com/positivehead today.

In honor of the fifth year anniversary of the podcast, Brandon decides to jump into the time machine and reshare an episode from 2016. In it, Brandon and Dalien lean on a famous quote and an audio clip to comment on contrasting ideas of simplicity and complexity, especially how the latter can clutter our lives and how simple pleasures are the essence of happiness. Sign up to receive your free copy of Brandon’s forthcoming book The Golden Key on Jan 18th at: goldenkey.gift  Care to play a game with the YoUniverse? positivehead.com/youniverse

In honor of the fifth year anniversary of the podcast and Brandon’s forthcoming book The Golden Key, Brandon decides to jump into the time machine and reshare an episode from 2016. In the episode, Brandon and Dalien discuss the concept that abundance is more a vibrational frequency that we can tune into with our thoughts and feelings, rather than the outcome of actions and external conditions. Sign up to receive your free copy of Brandon’s forthcoming book The Golden Key on Jan 18th at: goldenkey.gift  Care to play a game with the YoUniverse? positivehead.com/youniverse  Learn why Brandon takes Purium superfood products every day at postivehead.com/transformation and get 25% off with code POSITIVEHEAD.

In honor of the fifth year anniversary of the podcast, Brandon decides to jump into the time machine and reshare an episode from 2016 with his former co-host Dalien, and his friend Sue Krebs. In it, they answer a question from a listener and discuss how challenging experiences and negative impulses can actually help us move closer to what we want in life. Sign up to receive your free copy of Brandon’s forthcoming book The Golden Key on Jan 5th at: goldenkey.gift  Get 50% off your first month’s subscription of NuCalm at: positivenucalm.com  Care to play a game with the YoUniverse? positivehead.com/youniverse

Ross and Dalien cover a lot of ground on a variety of subjects. It was a really enjoyable conversation that I learned a lot from! Dalien's Music on Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/dalien8 Some of the quotes of the Poet Pablo Neruda Dalien mentions http://www.azquotes.com/author/10743-Pablo_Neruda Listen to Dalien on some of the Early episodes of The Postive Head Podcast or here his audio editing skills https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/positive-head-podcast-its-daily-conscious-effort-to/id992207609?mt=2 https://spiritualphoenixstudios.com https://oracleatmushin.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/spiritual-phoenix-podcast/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/spiritual-phoenix-podcast/support

You Are What You Leave Behind, with Dalien a.k.a. 13 Hand 13 HANDS, aka DALIEN, is a Grammy nominated artist, Yoga Professor, health educator, PTSD specialist and sound healer.  13 HANDS is not a band, its more like “50 Cent”, but completely different.  DALIEN is a nickname, a play on his real name Daniel…kind of has a “Bono” kind of edge.  He goes by both titles with 13 HANDS being used for music related events and DALIEN, aka 13 HANDS for yoga, health and music related and combined events.  There are musicians that do perform with him depending upon the event, but that is case by case… When you don't have the overhead financing of Justin Beiber, its' a bit more grass roots…:)  At his web site http://13hands.com/  you can read about 13 HANDS / NOMADYOGA, the company that integrates everything he does.     On the 13 HANDS and DALIEN menu options under the ABOUT section, you can read a little more about his music and yoga background.