Podcasts about Duan

Is it okay to use large language models in the research process? For what task, exactly, and to automate the task or to augment the researcher? In this episode, we try to explore whether and how LLMs could be used in five aspects of the research process - for paper writing, reviewing, data analysis, as a subject of research, or as a surrogate for research subjects. We also discuss whether they should be used at all, and what some long-term consequences could be of such a choice, and we develop a number of heuristic rules to help researcher make decisions about using LLMs for research. Episode reading list Kankanhalli, A. (2024). Peer Review in the Age of Generative AI. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 25(1), 76-84. Yang, Y., Duan, H., Liu, J., & Tam, K. Y. (2024). LLM-Measure: Generating Valid, Consistent, and Reproducible Text-Based Measures for Social Science Research. arXiv preprint, . Li, J., Larsen, K. R. T., & Abbasi, A. (2020). TheoryOn: A Design Framework and System for Unlocking Behavioral Knowledge Through Ontology Learning. MIS Quarterly, 44(4), 1733-1772. Larsen, K. R., Yan, S., & Lukyanenko, R. (2024). LLMs and Psychometrics: Global Construct Validity Integrating LLMs and Psychometrics. 45th International Conference on Information Systems, Bangkok, Thailand. Anthis, J. R., Liu, R., Richardson, S. M., Kozlowski, A. C., Koch, B., Evans, J., Brynjolfsson, E., & Bernstein, M. (2025). LLM Social Simulations Are a Promising Research Method. arXiv preprint, . Abbasi, A., Somanchi, S., & Kelley, K. (2025). The Critical Challenge of using Large-scale Digital Experiment Platforms for Scientific Discovery. MIS Quarterly, 49(1), 1-28.

Special Feature: Onramp & Arch on Bitcoin-Backed Lending with Peter DuanOnramp's New Lending Product

Cáel's second vacation with Aya and friends.Book 3 in 18 parts, By FinalStand. Listen to the ► Podcast at Explicit Novels.Loving your enemy is easy. You know precisely where the two of you standJust in case anyone cares, I do not hate China or the Chinese People. As a Global Power, the PRC is fair game as a great antagonist. Not only do they have, as of 2015, the world's largest economy, largest population and a truly global Diaspora, they also have a rather totalitarian governance system that enables them to devote scary levels of resources to any endeavor they set their minds to.I usually paint all governments to be entities capable of great good (rarely achieved) and great evil (because it makes such enticing fiction). In my stories, it often falls to the people within those institutions to make judgment calls on what is the right thing to do. In my final analysis, there are no 'Evil' governments, just evil people who use the system to get what they want(Right where we left off)"Aya," I spoke to her when she'd finished up by giving Mu a strong dose of a pain killer, "Now go back to the galley and find the nice medic-lady there. She has a bottle filled with some of those kick-ass sedatives. Inject everyone else but me, you, Zhen here and Mu, Mu's had enough drugs for one day.""Okay," she popped up. She turned fearlessly to face her former tormentors and jailors."I had them all swear an oath to Ishara to not kill, harm, or restrain you in any manner, so have fun hunting them down. You've got about thirty minutes.""Is Dot with us right now?" she gave me a bone-tired smile. I nodded. "This is going to be fun," she shouted and off she went.'I'll be by her side', Dot whispered to me. She rose forth from the seat within me and followed Aya out into Seven Pillars Hell. Technically, I believed it was the Diyu of the Fiendish Child. Those malicious bastards suffered every accident, misfortune, and nearly-impossible odds malfunction in the process of being subdued by a 9 year old Amazon.Four of them died in the process of trying to kill her, when stopping her became obviously impossible. Two had their guns blow up when they tried to shoot her, dismembering their hands and wrists. One guy was strangled in his emergency oxygen supply mask. The last guy lunged forward, slipped on a cup and broke his neck when his head was caught in a folded armrest.Twenty-eight nerve wracking minutes later."All done," she gave me an exhausted yet triumphant chirp. "Should I strap Mr. Mu into a chair? He's passed out.""Zhen, buckle your brother into a chair and hurry back. I'll hold us steady until you get back."Remember, I had only the use of my left hand. My right had to stay on the dagger to keep things powered up."Buckle-up after you've gotten Duan Mu secured, Aya. That's his proper name.""I know that. I was trying to keep them irritated so they would act irrationally. You taught me that," Aya bathed me in her sinister ways and means.Finally, it was down to me and Zhen. "Do you think we will succeed, Cáel Wakko Ishara?" "I'm giving it my best shot." "The little girl was right," Zhen groaned. "She told us we'd regret not killing you in New York when we had the chance. I thought she was being an annoying spoiled brat. I was wrong." Pause. "I know you have no reason to answer me truthfully, but when we, the rest of us, die, could you make sure my brother's body is returned to my father so that he can join our ancestors in the family grave?" "Why do you think I would lie to you now that we are alone?" That was a loaded question. I did the majority of my lying when I was alone with a woman. "I, will you give me your Oath, in your Goddess's name?" "Nope. My Goddess has pretty much been exhausted by your boys trying to break their vows to me and Aya. I'll tell you what I will do, " "What?" "Show me your tits and I'll promise to do my best." "What? You want to see me naked?" she grew indignant. "No!" It was her being a vaginal virgin (I knew the type ~ good oral technique and bed play, but no 'go-uppy' the cunt, or ass) and me not being Han Chinese, therefore being a 'Stinky Barbarian'. "Listen, I've never flown a commercial jet before and neither have you. Odds are we are both going to be dead in the next ten minutes. After all the hell you have put me through, can you at least give me some fucking inspiration. No one will ever know. Besides, imagining the perfect swell of your breast and the smooth tautness of your stomach, well, you are so damn perfect it is distracting!" I protested against the World's grand injustice (me not being Han and thus not worthy of seeing her goodies). "Do you really think we are all about to die?" she studied me. "I'm doing my best, but, yes, I believe we are," I stared deep into her dark brown orbs.'You are despicable,' Ishara chortled. 'I promise you, plant your seed and she will bear you a son.' "Very well, hold onto the controls," she said as she released her joystick. She rolled up her padded (high-tech body-weave) shirt carefully. I was a past master of looking while pretending not too look. Still, "Can I look yet?" I hesitantly questioned. Sure, we were about to slam an Airbus-350 into the Pacific Ocean, or a concrete runway, no lights, in a cyclone, but she was 'working it'. For all she knew, this striptease would be her last living memory. "No." A few seconds passed. "Now?" "No." Oh, her top was just cresting her highly aroused nipples, she had tiny, erect nipples. The smallest I had ever seen, but long, almost like tiny awls. Finally she'd played it out as long as possible. "Okay." "No, wait," I begged. "Let me make sure everything is stable. I want to look at you for as long as I can. This will probably be the last happy moment of my life, so I want to make the most of it." That made her happy. I puttered around for five seconds, then pivoted around to take in her full, topless view. I didn't say anything for the longest time. "Aren't you done yet," she grumbled. "We are about to crash." "Oh, sorry," I turned away. She rolled her top down quickly and we returned to trying to keep the people we loved most in life alive. I sensed as sense of disappointment in her nonetheless."Perfect," I whispered. She caught it. "What did you say? Is something wrong?" she worried, studying her crippled command console for any errors she might have missed. "I said 'perfect'. I knew it, your body is perfect," I confessed. Pause. "Oh, " "Now I have something to live for," I declared. "I will never let you see me naked again. This was a one-time thing!" "That's two things I have to live for then," I countered. "Bringing us in alive and seeing me naked once more?" she had to be sure. "I was going to say 'seeing you naked again' and 'living', but I can see that your priorities make more sense," I conceded. "Ah, you are right, that I am right." Pause. "Good luck." "On seeing you naked again, or surviving our landing." "Let's start out by landing the plane. "And then, Duan Zhen?" "We will see, Cáel Ishara."{9 pm, Tuesday, August 16th ~ 23 Days to go}{aka 2 am Wednesday, Aug. 17th ~ 22 Days to go (Havenstone time)}(The following is in Mandarin until I note otherwise)"What are you doing?" I struggled to keep the panic from my voice."Killing all these alarms," Zhen responded. She was grinding her teeth in frustration and fear. "There is nothing we can do to fix those problems.""My, right rudder, its barely responding," I grunted. This was fly-by-wire, not typical manual control, so my concern was entirely mental, not wanting to miss our turn south into the sole runaway on Johnston Atoll. With the steady degradation of the plane's electronics, we wouldn't make the 360 for another pass.Landing from the southern end of the runway would put the cyclone force winds behind us. There would be no way for the plane's two inexperienced pilots to make that miraculous landing happen. No, we had to approach form the north, into the winds and allow nature to slow us down."On it, I'm good," she confirmed that her co-pilot's systems were still doing their job. "Tell me when we are making our final approach." Zhen, my Seven Pillars of Heaven co-pilot (and designated assassin), couldn't see where we were going. Our avionics had perished earlier in this disaster.Goddess Dot Ishara was communicating with Goddess SzélAnya who was frolicking in this maelstrom; the Draconic Storm Divinity was in her element. Dot was 'in' her element as well ~ her last living mortal descendent (me), if you didn't count all those unborn offspring I'd been contributing to in the past few weeks.'Are you thinking about me, Wakko?' she whispered into my mind. I was Wakko Ishara. I was supposed to be Yakko, but that hadn't worked out. As the 'main girl' in the relationship between me, the leader of her Amazon House, and Yakko Ishara ~ my first Ishara ancestor ~ she earned the slot of Dot (see Warner Bros.) Ishara.One of her earliest gifts to me was to make my mind inviolate to ALL supernatural penetration which was the reason she was bothering to ask about my thoughts and intentions.'Yes,' I thought back. 'I'm worried you are expending too much energy on my behalf, Dot.''Opposed to leaving you alone with SzélAnya? I don't trust her around you. She'd make a little Dragon-offspring/avatar with you if I'm not careful.''If you aren't careful? Don't I get a say in all of this?''No. Trust me, she's clingy and you are more active than a whole temple of Babylon's whores. Her mortal avatar would further bond your two legends together and your Legend is already the prop, placed with House Ishara.' Translation: My Goddess was clingy. After all, she'd meant to say my legend was her 'property'."Flaps!" Zhen yelled at me. "Check your flaps. Mine keep shorting out.""On it," I replied. I'd 'zoned out', so she'd screamed at me to get my attention back on task. Altitude, 1200 meters, which meant flaps at, fuck if I knew."What do I set them, Oh Shit!" I realized I'd forgotten something horribly imperiling."What?" Zhen shot me a furious look."Fuel! We've got to start dumping the fuel!" I screamed."Why?""Fireball, Zhen. If we hit hard, this bitch will barbeque us," I spit the words. "Don't you watch any airplane crash movies?" I added."The Airbus 350 has plenty of, safeguards,""You mean like all the other ones that have failed us in the past half hour?""Opening main tanks #1 and #2," she grumbled. "If we are struck by another lightning bolt we could blow up in mid-air.""Won't happen," I feebly jested. "The Storm Goddess loves me.""Does she love my brother and I?""Nah. She wants you and everyone else on this plane dead, but she's humoring me right now.""Flaps," she reminded me. "Why would she care about you?""Having no other useful skills, I am a truly remarkable lover."Zhen spared me a blistering look."You have seized this aircraft from my brother, me and forty of our best Special Operations Strike Warriors. That does not qualify you as 'unskilled'," she lambasted me."Oh no? You should see a 'real' Amazon in action," I teased her. "I'm just an intern who hasn't yet completed his 84 day trial period." I also worked the flaps."Too much," she snapped. "If we drop below 400 kilometers per hour, these winds will slam us into the Pacific."I was adjusting the flaps appropriately as we began our final roll to the left when a cloud-to-cloud bolt of electricity coursed through our craft. We didn't blow up."Thank you, SzélAnya," I whispered."What?" Zhen worried. Fucking up now would be the end of us all.'Your gratitude is overdue, Cáel,' SzélAnya slipped her murmur into the crashing thunder and another lash of raw, natural fury. 'We will talk later.'"I thought you said she loves you.""Umm, did I forget to mention I told her I was going out for pizza and never called her back?""That makes no sense," Zhen glared at me briefly. I was gifted with a visual of our plane in perspective to the runway. Yay, five meter waves were smashing into the atoll. I adjusted our yaw to the right."We are three kilometers out," I advised her."Flaps, spoilers," I went over my limited Alal-knowledge. This stuff worked on a piston driven commercial liner and it was the only flight data I had."Landing gear," Zhen responded. She had to throttle up a little because all that drag was cutting into our speed.'You are being blown too far to the east,' SzélAnya advised. I did the best I could."What are you doing?" Zhen was starting to sweat."Responding to divine intervention.""I, I see it!" Zhen's panic turned to exultation as she could finally make out the pale concrete runway surrounded by the angry sea.Too disasters hit us simultaneously."The left landing gear is not fully deployed," Zhen cautioned me."We are coming in too fast anyway," I dryly noted. The Goddess had brought me in on target, but she knew nothing about aircraft aeronautics.The Airbus came down too hard, too fast and our left landing gear snapped on impact. Sarrat Irkalli's parting gift was decay. Every design weak point gave in. The front fuselage broke apart, my hand on the dagger slipped and the power died. The front 25% of the plane spun off to the west while the remainder shot down the runway and off the southern end of the island.Sadly we went off into the lagoon between the western side and the barrier reef. In a delayed bit of good fortune, our careening section went head to head against a massive storm surge."Go!" I screamed at Zhen.She snatched up her Jian that she had used to pin the undead necromancer Tsu. I was right behind her, though I did stop to retrieve Sarrat Irkalli's dagger and pluck the two bone reliquaries from his neck before following Zhen's tight, athletic buns out of the cockpit and toward Aya. My diminutive better half was still in her seatbelt and clutching the medical bag to her chest.(English) "Cáel, I think we are sinking," she noted with a twinge of concern and more courage than I felt like utilizing. As Zhen was rescuing her brother the enormity of my mistake sunk in. All the Seven Pillars people were unconscious thus unable to save themselves from drowning. Aya's survival came first. I'd worried about my 'would-be executioners' later.I swept up Aya so fast it took me a second to realize she was poking me. She had retrieved the trinkets Felix had given Mu, our phone cards, my Dot-treats and my Amazon blade. I quickly strapped the blade to my arm. The water was rushing in through the severed back section.I turned to see Zhen struggling with her brother. Her look said it all. She expected them both to die. She wouldn't abandon him to save herself and the waves were too rough to make it with him."Get as far as you can," I shouted to her over the typhoon strength winds. "I'll come back for you."Her face expressed how little faith she put in my promise. Zhen had no choice left to her. I cut off two lengths of seat-belt to give Aya a harness to wrap over my shoulder and opposite underarm. I used the second piece to create her harness I linked with my own. {Back to English as the primary language}"He'll come back for you," Aya tried to assure Zhen while I worked."Aya, take a deep breath then expel it," I advised. The second she did I dove into the water. I had never attempted to swim in water this nasty, but I had been dumped into a white water rapids before. That was the best I had.Somehow in the madness, I pointed myself in the right direction. Once more, the storm came to my rescue. Two monster waves picked us up and pushed us toward the edge of the runway.'Go to the north end of the island,' Ishara told me. There is a building there that will shelter you, and Cáel, I must leave now. Don't do it.''I can't not try,' I replied. 'Can you help Aya?' I gave one last appeal. No reply. I twisted southward to locate the next monster wave. My precious cargo pressed tightly to my upper torso, I flipped over so that my feet were facing toward the onrushing runway. I'm not as dumb as I look, or sound.I bent my knees in the same way they instruct you when you go cliff diving. Up we went. I pulled Aya and I as deep into the water as possible, up, up, crest and then down-down-down. My bare right foot hit something jagged and sharp. I'd worry about bleeding later. The momentum of that contact tried to tilt me head-first, but I resisted.My left foot slapped down on a hard, smooth, granular surface, the sea wall. Now I swam backwards with my free arm while I raced to get my right foot back under me. My body ended up surging forward, yet I was in control of my movements once more. I rolled with the impact, taking the brunt to my left shoulder while shielding Aya with my right. Three rolls and I was on my feet again."Aya!" I beseeched my companion."That was fun," she yelled back over the hurricane force winds. "Let's try to do this next year," the rest was lost. I kept staggering forward in about a foot of water that the storm had flooded over the land. I looked behind me.The next wave was unfriendly. The one behind that one appeared to be a lot like what I imagined a Berlin Wall-sized tombstone would look like. I ran. I survived the first wave then gave Aya a cautionary squeeze. I felt her tiny lungs inflate, soak up the salt-water spray and oxygen then flush the air back out.A few more steps then we plunged back sideways into the monster current ~ the wave had already crashed."What did you say?" I shook Aya as we surfaced once more."Next year, much later next year," she grinned up at me."Aya, do you think you can,""Yes. Go find them. You gave her your word," she hugged me."Stay on the runway, head north, Dot says there is a building up there that is still intact. Aya, take this," I handed her the pistol and a spare mag."Do you promise you won't let me die today?" she shouted over the winds. I had to think about that. Aya rammed the pistol and magazine into her medical bag's side pocket. Oaths had their own power and maybe, just maybe, Dot Ishara would help me honor this one."I swear to you, I will not let you die today," I yelled back."Then go and hurry," she hugged me as I cut her loose. "She needs you more than I do. Go!" With that, we separated. Aya slugged forward a few steps, was staggered by another wave then turned and gave me her 'thumbs up'.I turned to the south and the blinding winds and terrible surf. I had to try. Alal kicked in. Jumbo commercial airliners = no help. Shipwrecks = he'd survived a few. I mapped out in my mind the waves, winds and their direction relative to the plane. I could still make out its half-submerged shape.The edge of the runway had a U-shaped seawall which created a peak that channeled the waves. I couldn't see the structure itself due to the high tide, but I could locate the wall by watching the waves break. If I could get to the outside of the eastern peak, I would have an easier time going about this rescue. Also, if Zhen wasn't brought in by the same waves that saved Aya and I, she would be driven to the northwest, parallel to the island.I could intercept them. I'd effective killed everyone else. Maybe, I dove in.'Don't!'“Too late, SzélAnya,” I vaulted off the semi-submerged sea wall, then let the undertow pull me along the broken coral rocks the Navy had put there when they expanded the airfield in the 1960's.I kept my hands on the rocks, rock climbing in reverse. The waves passing overhead tried to pluck me up and return me to the land. I moved as rapidly as I could, until my muscles ached from the water's chill and oxygen starvation. My lungs were on fire. I let the next wave pull me up.Fortune favors the foolish should be my new motto. I broke the surface just after another large wave passed by. I kept my breathing short and steady, despite my burning hunger for air. Gulping air would only earn me a mouthful of salt water. I took the reprieve in the storm's efforts to drown me.The 'foolish' was waiting for me four meters away, slightly behind me and to the East. Zhen was being dragged past the atoll. I kept one eye on her progress and the other on the waves. A monster rolled up, I dove under and thus resurfaced less than two meters away. Zhen had Mu in a classic rescue swim position. He was still likely to suffocate in this downpour.The look in her eyes was, pure confliction. I cut through the last bit of ocean to be at her side. My first action was to point to the next tidal beast heading for us.(Mandarin) "I've got him. Dive beneath the wave," I hollered. Had she resisted, all three of us would have been screwed. She didn't.I took another deep breathe then sort of freaked her out. I clamped my mouth over Mu's and expelled my air into his lungs. My right arm snaked under his left with my hand grabbing the back of his head. I shoved his head tightly against my face, pressing his nose shut, then dove. Zhen was right behind me.After that, we had our routine down. Zhen took Mu every fourth wave. Breathing for both him and me was tough. I'd take him back for the fifth and slowly we made ourselves to the eastern shore. I hit first, fell flat on my face but kept a hold on Mu. I temporarily lost sight of Zhen. One life at a time.I lugged Mu up, staggered his unconscious and my exhausted forms a few feet and then was toppled by yet another wall of water. This time, when I returned to a standing position, I check Mu's breathing. He would make it. I few more steps, another wave. I kept my footing that time. Another, Zhen came careening our way from the North. The waves had swept her passed us.Zhen immediately looped her arm under Mu's right arm. That allowed her, me and our shared burden to slog another meter inland, then the next wave caught up with us. Zhen fell; I stumbled, but righted myself and thus kept Mu from being washed away. Zhen rolled a few feet forward, rebounded up, only to be shoved away when a gust of wind hit us.On her next attempt, she rejoined us. From that point onward, we were far enough away from the land's end so that we were slogging through standing water and could resist the waves that impacted us.(Mandarin) "You came back," she shouted.There were all kinds of romantic, chivalric and very true responses to that. I chose a half-lie. (Mandarin) "I really wanted to see your tits one more time," I yelled. The looks she gave me was priceless. She was convinced I was a lunatic ~ no doubt about it.While she puzzled out her reaction/retort, we chanced upon a Quonset hut. In its lee, we caught a break from the worst of the wind. We also picked up a little Epona who had made the same logical choice (to get out of the wind) as we had. My heart leapt for joy. She was grinning like an impish hellion as she tried to tell me something.I leaned down until her lips were touching my ear."I forgot to pack my swimsuit," she chortled."It's probably sitting at home along with my surfboard," I kissed her on the forehead. "How about we get inside, somewhere?" Aya nodded.(Mandarin) "Let's go," I roared. Zhen nodded briefly. We turned Mu around so we would be dragging him with his back to the winds. The journey to the structure SzélAnya had pointed me at (the J O C building) took over an hour and a half to cover the two kilometers. Along the way, Aya discovered her inner Peter Pan.That was the childish fiction I was going to use to explain what she did when I regaled this episode to her Mother, assuming we made it back. In common parlance, a gust of wind that must have been about 150 kilometers per hour picked her up and off she went. Hell, I'd honored my oath to Zhen. I dropped Mu and raced after my own personal good luck fairy.A freak micro-burst, shot Aya up so high I lost track of her in the rain.'Please'.I saw my tiny human javelin plummeting to earth several meters away. Aya had refused to mitigate her fate by releasing the medical bag. I jumped, caught her and took another hard spill to the ground, Aya on top of me. She said something to me.I made it back to my knees, clutching a standing Aya firmly to my chest."I said 'I've had enough fun for today," she sputtered. "Can we go inside now?"'You now owe me a life, I go,''Thank you'. If she heard me, she didn't acknowledge it. The storm didn't relent its assault, that was for sure.I couldn't risk losing Aya again. I had placed Zhen and Mu on solid ground so she returned to being my top priority. I slogged my way through the typhoon, cyclone, 'what have you', only to find a solid steel door between Aya and safety. I felt volcanic fury building up inside me. Then I remembered I still had a few firearms,The QCW spoke and the door popped opened. I raced around the first interior corner, deposited Aya, ran back to the door, reverse course, raced back to Aya, kissed her cheek then ran back out into the blinding rain and battering winds. Zhen was right where I'd left her. She had relied on me coming back, damn her.(The J S O C Building)Five minutes later, I had the Seven Pillars twins inside and the door wedged shut. We were all temporarily safe. Here and there small puddles of water had formed from leaks above, but otherwise the structure was solid, sound and safe. Zhen and Mu were on the opposite side of the room. After she tended to her brother, she looked my way.I took the medical bag from a wide-eyed and happy Aya."We are down to two of them," she shivered. "Perhaps you should ask her to surrender now, while they still can?" I snorted then chuckled."Do you really think the proud scions of Duan will bow before the Amazons?" I asked her. Aya fatigued mind worked that question over."No, you are right. I don't think they are smart enough to know when they are beat. Cáel, they called me 'Chǒul u de cuüw ', or something like that," Aya kept her eyes on Zhen. "What does that mean?" It took me a second to piece that together. You can tell a great deal about people if you catch them talking about you behind your backs, or when they think you can't understand what they are saying."Ugly Bug," I translated. Aya snorted."That was rude. We can call her 'L s la ninda'," she proclaimed loud enough for Zhen to hear, "and we can call him Amar."I had to applaud her choice of names for our would-be killers.See, L s la ninda roughly translated from Amazon to English as 'cupcake'. Amar was Amazon for 'calf' which was a play on his Mandarin name, 'Mu'."Dumu?" I indicated her. Aya's eyes sparkled. Duma was the diminutive for 'daughter'."Atta," she murmured back. That was 'respectful Father'; a title no Amazon girl had addressed a man with in, well maybe, ever. The term was largely religious and only used in the terms of female divinities referring to divine paternals."Take the gun," I withdrew the QSW-06 from the medical bag. "I'm going to take a look at Mu."I wasn't a surgeon, most of my medical skills were self-taught (I get hurt a great deal), I was personally acquainted with pain and I wasn't easily grossed out. Alal's past granted me beaucoup knowledge to fill in the gaps. Mu was going to be okay.His problems were the bullet hole, blood loss, our mutual damp condition and his complete exhaustion. Zhen knelt close by as I cut open his pants. The bullet was still in him. I was guessing the round had cracked his femur, not broken it. I cleaned out the wound with minimal disturbance to Mu's sleep. The antiseptic came next, followed by the wrapping and finally a syringe of general antibiotic.(Mandarin) "Let's find something to dress ourselves in and then we all need to get out of these wet clothes. If we don't shed these clothes soon, we'll get a chill we don't need," I advised.(Mandarin) "How bad is it?" she asked. She meant her brother's condition.(Mandarin) "He'll be okay. Feel free to try and kill me when you wish. He doesn't need me anymore." That, pretty much confirmed for her what she suspected, I was a lunatic.(Mandarin) "Well, okay. Thank you. I will not kill the child; I have given you my word."(Mandarin) "Are you talking about 'Ugly Bug'?"(Mandarin) "Oh. I thought she didn't know our language either," she blushed then frowned. "She never revealed she understood our words."(Mandarin) "She doesn't. Aya has a phenomenal memory. All Amazons are taught from a very young age to develop a strong eye for detail. This includes remembering words spoken around them, even if they don't know their meaning."That silenced her. The medical kit gifted us with five glow sticks.The women paired up to search the first, second, third and fourth floors; I didn't trust Zhen to find something useful and report it to me. I knew women. She wouldn't kill Aya tonight and Aya would keep her

Dr. Duan Jackson from the California State University Office of the Chancellor discusses the evolution of her role as director of student advising initiatives in which she oversees advising and career services, new student orientation, and learning support. Duan highlights the importance of collaboration among California's higher education institutions, including the University of California, California State University, community colleges, and independent institutions through the CAL-CAAN conference, which focuses on student equity, belonging, AI in education, and transfer initiatives. Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast platform!The X, Instagram, and Facebook handle for the podcast is @AdvisingPodcastAlso, subscribe to our Adventures in Advising YouTube Channel!You can find Matt on Linkedin.

Join CardioNerds co-founder Dr. Daniel Ambinder, episode lead Dr. Nidhi Patel, and expert faculty Dr. Keith Ferdinand as they discuss the BP ROAD trial. The BP ROAD trial randomized 12,821 patients 50 years of age or older with type 2 diabetes, elevated systolic blood pressure, and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease to receive intensive treatment that targeted a systolic blood pressure of less than 120 mm Hg or standard treatment that targeted a systolic blood pressure of less than 140 mm Hg for up to 5 years. Investigators found a significant reduction of major cardiovascular events with intensive blood pressure lowering. This episode dives into the nuances of the data and clinical implications. This episode was planned in collaboration with the American College of Cardiology Section of the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease with mentorship from Section Chair Dr. Eugenia Gianos. CardioNerds Journal Club PageCardioNerds Episode PageCardioNerds AcademyCardionerds Healy Honor Roll CardioNerds Journal ClubSubscribe to The Heartbeat Newsletter!Check out CardioNerds SWAG!Become a CardioNerds Patron! References - BPROAD Trial Bi, Y., Li, M., Liu, Y., Li, T., Lu, J., Duan, P., Xu, F., Dong, Q., Wang, A., Wang, T., Zheng, R., Chen, Y., Xu, M., Wang, X., Zhang, X., Niu, Y., Kang, Z., Lu, C., Wang, J., … Wang, W. (2024). Intensive Blood-Pressure Control in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes. New England Journal of Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2412006

After a week off were back to talk about the Gateway Dirt Nationals. The dome as its often been called, had a record crowd and a repeat winner in Brandon Sheppard. We also talk about recent schedule releases, one of which is the new version of the All Star sprint car series. Duan also gives us an update about what to expect from the AFCS this year.

We explored the challenges and potential solutions for building trust, inclusion, and collaboration in tech-hybrid or remote teams. A focus on how technology supports transparent communication and fosters connections in tech-enabled environments related to socio-technical teams. (Tech-hybrid teams blend humans and robotics, AI, or other modern technology as team members.)  In this Episode: Dr. Emi Baressi, Tom Bradshaw, special guests Keith and Daniel Edwards from the Houston RobotLab, Dr. Matt Lampe, Alexander Abney-King, Nic Krueger, Rich Cruz, Dr. Martha Grajdek    Visit us https://www.seboc.com/ Follow us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/sebocLI Join an open-mic event: https://www.seboc.com/events   References: Arslan, A., Cooper, C., Khan, Z., Golgeci, I., & Ali, I. (2022). Artificial intelligence and human workers interaction at team level: a conceptual assessment of the challenges and potential HRM strategies. International Journal of Manpower, 43(1), 75–88. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-01-2021-0052   Berretta, S., Tausch, A., Ontrup, G., Gilles, B., Peifer, C., & Kluge, A. (2023). Defining human-AI teaming the human-centered way: A scoping review and network analysis. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, 6, 1250725–1250725. https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2023.1250725 Belanger, F., Collins, R. W., & Cheney, P. H. (2001). Technology Requirements and Work Group Communication for Telecommuters. Information Systems Research, 12(2), 155–176. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.12.2.155.9695   Belling, S. (2021). PsychoWorkplacegenerationslogy of Remote Teams: Trust, People, and Connections. In Remotely Possible (pp. 59–73). Apress. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-7008-0_5   Boccoli, G., Gastaldi, L., & Corso, M. (2024). Transformational leadership and work engagement in remote work settings: The moderating role of the supervisor's digital communication skills. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 45(7), 1240–1257. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-09-2023-0490   Brock, J. K.-U., & von Wangenheim, F. (2019). Demystifying AI: What Digital Transformation Leaders Can Teach You about Realistic Artificial Intelligence. California Management Review, 61(4), 110–134. https://doi.org/10.1177/1536504219865226   Chin, J. H., Haring, K. S., & Kim, P. (2023). Understanding the neural mechanisms of empathy toward robots to shape future applications. Frontiers in neurorobotics, 17, 1145989. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbot.2023.1145989   Ezer, N., Bruni, S., Cai, Y., Hepenstal, S. J., Miller, C. A., & Schmorrow, D. D. (2019). Trust Engineering for Human-AI Teams. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 63(1), 322–326. https://doi.org/10.1177/1071181319631264   Flathmann, C., Schelble, B. G., Rosopa, P. J., McNeese, N. J., Mallick, R., & Madathil, K. C. (2023). Examining the impact of varying levels of AI teammate influence on human-AI teams. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 177, 103061-. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2023.103061   Fuchs, A., Passarella, A., & Conti, M. (2024). Optimizing Delegation in Collaborative Human-AI Hybrid Teams. ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems. https://doi.org/10.1145/3687130   Guznov, S., Lyons, J., Pfahler, M., Heironimus, A., Woolley, M., Friedman, J., & Neimeier, A. (2020). Robot Transparency and Team Orientation Effects on Human-Robot Teaming. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 36(7), 650–660. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2019.1676519   Hagemann, V., Rieth, M., Suresh, A., & Kirchner, F. (2023). Human-AI teams—Challenges for a team-centered AI at work. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, 6, 1252897–1252897. https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2023.1252897   Harris-Watson, A. M., Larson, L. E., Lauharatanahirun, N., DeChurch, L. A., & Contractor, N. S. (2023). Social perception in Human-AI teams: Warmth and competence predict receptivity to AI teammates. Computers in Human Behavior, 145, 107765-. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2023.107765   Hauptman, A. I., Schelble, B. G., Duan, W., Flathmann, C., & McNeese, N. J. (2024). Understanding the influence of AI autonomy on AI explainability levels in human-AI teams using a mixed methods approach. Cognition, Technology & Work, 26(3), 435–455. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-024-00765-7   Hauptman, A. I., Schelble, B. G., McNeese, N. J., & Madathil, K. C. (2023). Adapt and overcome: Perceptions of adaptive autonomous agents for human-AI teaming. Computers in Human Behavior, 138, 107451-. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2022.107451   Li, M., Kwon, M., & Sadigh, D. (2021). Influencing leading and following in human–robot teams. Autonomous Robots, 45(7), 959–978. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10514-021-10016-7   Ma, L. M., Ijtsma, M., Feigh, K. M., & Pritchett, A. R. (2022). Metrics for Human-Robot Team Design: A Teamwork Perspective on Evaluation of Human-Robot Teams. ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction, 11(3), 1–36. https://doi.org/10.1145/3522581   Naikar, N., Brady, A., Moy, G., & Kwok, H.-W. (2023). Designing human-AI systems for complex settings: ideas from distributed, joint, and self-organising perspectives of sociotechnical systems and cognitive work analysis. Ergonomics, 66(11), 1669–1694. https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2023.2281898   Traeger, M. L., Sebo, S. S., Jung, M., Scassellati, B., & Christakis, N. A. (2020). Vulnerable robots positively shape human conversational dynamics in a human–robot team. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(12), 6370–6375. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1910402117   You, S., & Robert, L. P. (2022). Team robot identification theory (TRIT): robot attractiveness and team identification on performance and viability in human–robot teams. The Journal of Supercomputing, 78(18), 19684–19706. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11227-022-04645-7

If you deal with menopause brain fog, mild depression or anxiety any time of year, this is for you. It's also for anyone who wants the latest science on exercise and brain health. The evidence around how movement affects mental well-being is growing, and I want to share some of the most impactful insights with you. Almost all types of exercise seem to show benefits on mental well-being. Activities like resistance training, yoga, other mind-body activities, aerobic exercise, and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) can support brain health to some extent. In this episode I'll share which exercise helps most, specifically on menopause brain fog, mood, or anxiety. No matter when you're listening to this episode, it's relevant for multiple reasons and seasons. But as I release it during the holiday season, it can have more impact. Whether you might be facing memories of loved ones you've lost, whether it was this year or in years past, or the traditions, memories, or emotions that come with the season that make this time of year bittersweet. While holidays can be magical and full of warmth, they can also feel heavy, bringing sadness, anxiety, or emotional struggles to the surface. For women with menopause brain fog and memory issues, the holidays can have an even greater impact. Beyond Menopause and Brain Fog Global prevalence of depression in perimenopausal women are at 33.9% and 34.9% in postmenopausal women. Why? This may be due to estrogen and progesterone fluctuations, sleep disturbances and greater susceptibility to negative effects of stress. Most adults with depression don't receive adequate care - due to the stigma or the fact that they don't respond well to antidepressants. And pharmaceuticals don't address the physical comorbidities associated with depression. Exercise is well accepted as an alternative or complement due to accessibility, acceptability and safety. Even physical activity below public health recommendations can yield significant mental health benefits [and is a necessary place to start]. Menopause Brain Fog, It's Not Just You A recent study published in the Biomedical Central Public Health Journal of over 200 randomized controlled trials show exercise interventions may have more potent antidepressant effects than SSRIs. A study examined which of 5 exercise interventions helped reduce depression levels most in postmenopausal women and if certain population characteristics responded differently. The Exercise Interventions: Stretching Exercise Aerobic Exercise Resistance Training Mind-Body Exercise Multi Exercise Mind-Body Exercise had the greatest effect on easing anxiety, followed by Aerobic Exercise. Exercise helps because it creates a controlled stress response, increasing resilience to anxiety. Years ago, I shared a study showing yoga boosts cognitive function more than muscle conditioning. A study published in Menopause: The Journal confirmed that mind-body exercises reduce fatigue, insomnia, depression, and anxiety. Why mindbody? Yoga increases melatonin levels, balances nervous system and improves brain-derived neurotrophic which improves cognition and memory. Best Exercise for Menopause Brain Fog The menopause brain fog experienced by many women may improve most with HIIT, being characterized by periods of “all out” exercise to breathlessness. A study in the Journal of Exercise Nutrition & Biochemistry in 2018 showed a Wingate protocol study on HIIT: Exercise Structure 30 seconds of all-out effort (fast-paced or against resistance) per interval 4 - 6 intervals per session, with 4 minutes of recovery between intervals Total Intense Exercise Time 2 - 3 minutes of intense exercise per session lasting a total of 20 minutes, including rest periods Training Frequency 3 sessions per week (totaling 15 minutes of high-intensity work per week) Results 2 Weeks - Improved skeletal muscle oxidative capacity 6 Weeks - Equivalent to traditional endurance training (40 - 60 minutes, 5 sessions per week) Additional Benefits for Midlife Women: Time - HIIT sessions take 1.5 hours a week, compared to other traditional endurance training 4.5 hours a week Cortisol - Short HIIT sessions avoid the cortisol spike (40 - 60 minutes is the tipping point where cortisol spikes negatively) Most women say they feel more energized, lighter, and more focused after HIIT compared to long endurance sessions. Studies on postmenopausal women with osteoporosis found that high-intensity, high-impact protocols led to positive responses, with low injury rates and high retention. Other Exercises for Menopause Brain Fog Resistance training also proves popular among women with anxiety, potentially due to the fact that the increase in heart rate and intensity is temporary, strength gains are made fairly quickly for a beginner and that carries over to increasing motivation, improved sleep. Walking outdoors with friends combines three sources of serotonin for women, particularly: movement, sunlight, and venting/talking. References: Han, B., Duan, Y., Zhang, P. et al. Effects of exercise on depression and anxiety in postmenopausal women: a pairwise and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. BMC Public Health 24, 1816 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-19348-2 Min Chul L, Sung Ki L, Suk Yool J, Hyung Hoon M. New insight of high-intensity interval training on physiological adaptation with brain functions. J Exerc Nutrition Biochem. 2018 Sep 30;22(3):1-5. doi: 10.20463/jenb.2018.0017. PMID: 30343552; PMCID: PMC6199482. Xu, Hong MM; Liu, Jian MD; Li, Peishan MD; Liang, Yujie MD. Effects of mind-body exercise on perimenopausal and postmenopausal women: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Menopause 31(5):p 457-467, May 2024. | DOI: 10.1097/GME.0000000000002336 Resources: BLISSMAS 12-Day Challenge: https://www.flippingfifty.com/blissmas Other Episodes You Might Like: Heal Your Gut, Save Your Brain: https://www.flippingfifty.com/save-your-brain/ Six Powerful Ways To Keep Your Perimenopause Brain Sharp: https://www.flippingfifty.com/perimenopause-brain/ Exercise Your Way to a Better Mood in Menopause: https://www.flippingfifty.com/better-mood-in-menopause/

This episode of Walk, Don't Run to the Doctor emphasizes the importance of building and maintaining a healthy microbiome for better health outcomes, disease prevention, and overall well-being. The microbiome, a complex population of microorganisms living in the gut, plays a significant role in protecting against cancer, regulating digestion, and supporting various metabolic and immune functions. A home-cooked diet, particularly a whole food omnivorous diet rich in fiber and fermented foods, helps to cultivate a resilient microbiome. Exercise, scant to moderate alcohol consumption (especially wine), and avoiding sugar, refined flours, and artificial sweeteners further enhance gut health. This episode also warns against overuse of antibiotics and reliance on probiotic supplements, advocating instead for a food-based approach through diet and lifestyle changes. Key Takeaways: Microbiome's Role in Health: The microbiome impacts everything from cancer prevention to appetite regulation, insulin sensitivity, immune function, and even brain health. Diet and Gut Health: A Mediterranean-style, omnivorous whole food, diet improves microbiome diversity and overall health, reducing risks for conditions like obesity, diabetes, and cancer. Fermented Foods: Incorporating fermented foods like yogurt, kefir, and kombucha supports a healthy microbiome and reduces cancer risk. Exercise and Lifestyle: Regular exercise promotes gut health and boosts immunity, while avoiding sugar, artificial sweeteners, and unnecessary antibiotics helps maintain microbiome balance. Natural Approach: The podcast recommends focusing on diet and lifestyle over probiotic or prebiotic supplements to build a resilient microbiome. For more insights and advice on reducing dependence on medications through lifestyle changes, make sure to subscribe to Walk, Don't Run to the Doctor. More references can be found at www.GreatMed.org Would you like Dr. Hassell to answer your question on the air?  Contact us! Phone/text: 503-773-0770 e-mail: info@GreatMed.org Write us a letter.  We love to hear from you.  This podcast is sponsored by our generous listeners.  Send questions, comments, and support to: 4804 NW Bethany Blvd., Suite I-2, #273 Portland OR 97229 References:           Zhang, X., et al. (2023). Modulating a prebiotic food source influences inflammation and immune-regulating gut microbes and metabolites: insights form the BE GONE trial. The Lancet, 98:104873. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2023.104873            Diez-Ozaeta, I. & Astiazaran, O. (2021). Fermented foods: An update on evidence-based health benefits and future perspectives. Food Research International, 156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2022.111133            Perler, B., et al. (2023). The role of the gut microbiota in the relationship between diet and human health. Annual Reviews in Physiology, 85:449-68. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-physiol-031522-092054            DeVos, W., et al. (2022). Gut microbiome and health: mechanistic insights. Gut-BMJ, 71:1020-1032. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2021-326789            Kim, J., and Le, H. (2022). Potential role of the gut microbiome in colorectal cancer progression.  Frontiers in Immunology, 12: 807648. doi: 10.3389/immu.2021.807648            Pyo, Y., et al. (2024). Probiotic functions in fermented foods: Anti-viral, Immunomodulatory, and anti-cancer benefits. Foods, 13:2386. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13152386            Zhang, K., et al. (2019) Fermented dairy foods intake and risk of  cancer. International Journal of Cancer, 144: 2099-2108.            Michels, K. B., et al. (2020). Yogurt consumption and colorectal cancer incidence and mortality in the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 112(6), 1566–1575. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqaa244            Shams-White, M., et al. (2022). The 2018 World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research (WCRF/AICR) Score and All-Cause, Cancer, and Cardiovascular Disease Mortality Risk: A Longitudinal Analysis in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study, Current Developments in Nutrition, Volume 6, Issue 6, nzac096,ISSN 2475-2991,https://doi.org/10.1093/cdn/nzac096.            Rad, A., et al. (2021). Postbiotics as promising tools for cancer adjuvant therapy. Advanced Pharmaceutical Bulletin, 11(1), 1-5. https://apb.tbzmed.ac.ir            Sharma, A., et al. Final results of a phase I/II study to investigate efficacy of a high potency multistrain probiotic on chemo induced diarrhea. ESMO, 29(8). Doi:10.1093/annonc/mdy424            Luceron-lucas-Torres, M., et al. Association between wine consumption and cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Nutriition, 10:1197745. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2023.1197745            LeRoy, C., et al. (2020). Red  Wine Consumption  Associated with increased gut microbiota a-diversity in 3 independent cohorts. Gastroenterology, 158:270-272. https://doi.org/10.1053/j.gastro.2019.024            Duan, J., et al. (2021). The mechanisms of wine phenolic compounds for preclinical anticancer therapies. Food and Nutrition Research, 65:6507. http://dx.doi.org/10.29219/fnr:v65.6507            Zhao, L., et al. (2023). Sugar-Sweetened and Artificially Sweetened Beverages and Risk of Liver Cancer and Chronic Liver Disease Mortality. JAMA, 330(6), 537–546. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2023.12618            Debras, C., et al. (2022). Artificial sweeteners and cancer risk: Results from the NutriNet-Santé population-based cohort study. PLoS medicine, 19(3), e1003950. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003950            Zhang, J., et al. (2019). Oral antibiotic use and risk of colorectal cancer in the United Kingdom, 1989-2012: a matched case-control study. Gut.BMJ; 68:1971-1978. doi: 10.1136/gutnl-2019-318593

It's time to sprint yourself into another amazing interview as we chat with Canadian sprinter Duan Asemota about his journey in athletics that took him all the way to his first Olympics in Paris earlier this year! We find out from Duan just how the switch came to sprinting from a basketball background, and how he actually could've been going into space instead of the Olympics. We also get an incredibly detailed look into the analytics of the 100m, and learn just what is the difference between an athlete who is quick and an athlete who is fast. Added to this we learn about his experiences at Ohio State and the success he had there, his rollercoaster of emotions that came from his Olympic experience in Paris and just why you want to be careful playing him online in FIFA. It's an epic chat of epic proportions that you won't want to miss!

As far as research of the non-physical world is concerned, Simon Duan should have quite a bit of credibility. He began his career in a robustly materialist environment. He has a PhD in materials science from Cambridge university and worked for many years with technology commercialisation. Then he had a paranormal experience at a dentist and began exploring what lies behind the material world. Simon has developed a theory known as “Platonic computation”, which unifies consciousness, mind and matter. The theory provides an explanation for how matter is derived from consciousness. According to the theory, this physical world is a finite and malleable simulation, created by consciousness, of which we are aspects, and whose highest form in Simon's terms is metaconsciousness. Various traditions have given it other names: Brahma, Dao, God. Metaconsciousness is the ultimate reality. It is contentless but contains infinite potential. Simon has adopted Plato's term for it: the realm of forms. In the realm of forms, everything is perfect. When a concept is manifested on the physical plane, it becomes a poor copy of the original ideal concept. Thus, in Simon Duan's model, this 3D universe is assumed to be a simulation, rendered by the “Platonic computer” of metaconsciousness outside of time and space. Multiple other realities are also rendered on different levels. Thoughts, feelings and memories are in a database – a modern word for the Akashic records. The brain is a display of thoughts, feelings and memories. It's not the generator. Psychics can “hack” the codes of the simulation. They can activate their higher selves more easily. For instance, if you can switch off the codes for gravity, you levitate. Why has this simulation been created? “Pure creativity wants to experience itself, so it diversifies”, says Simon. Since the pure creativity of metaconsciousness is the highest aspect of ourselves, it is ultimately we who do it. How do we diversify? We create content. But some of us are less aware of what is actually going on in this divine game. “We can choose to be NPCs, non-playable characters, or to be co-creators”, says Simon. In the latter case, we become conscious that we can shape this world as we wish, or update the simulation. The game we (our highest aspect) have created is so elaborate that we even forget our true nature when we arrive here. In order to keep the game interesting, evolution has to happen. The rules sometimes change. “Then we get a change of perception. In science we call it a paradigm shift.” Simon Duan thinks physical reality will shift in ways that will force people to awaken, sometimes through disasters and suffering. “I think this world will become much better, but it will be worse before it gets better”, he says. He emphasizes that he refers to enlightenment in this particular physical world. “On other levels we are already enlightened. There is no work to be done there.” Metacomputics Labs Simon's essay “Stop Asking If the Universe is a Computer Simulation” Simon on X Anders' essay that is mentioned

Send us a textUnravel the exhilarating world of track and field with Canadian Olympians Mariam Abdul-Rashid and Duan Asemota, fresh from their experiences in Paris. They invite us into their lives, sharing the electrifying energy of the Olympic Village, where four years of dreams are packed into a whirlwind week. You'll hear about the unique bond formed among athletes, the thrill of competition, and the occasional culinary mishap. Amidst the triumphs and trials, they open up about the journey that led them to represent Canada on one of the most prestigious stages in the world, offering a raw and honest glimpse into the life of an Olympian. Amidst the laughs, there's a deeper conversation about the logistical and emotional challenges athletes face, especially when racing against the clock or recovering from setbacks. From the absence of personal coaches to the pressure of post-race interviews, we uncover the resilience required to perform at the highest level.Our conversation rounds off with stories of perseverance and humour, highlighting the diverse paths athletes take to achieve their dreams. Whether it's the camaraderie within the track community, the mental grind of marathon training, or the transformative power of a motivational playlist, we celebrate the spirit of sportsmanship. We touch on how multi-sport backgrounds can fortify an athlete's journey, the joy of embracing personal style on the track, and even the playful creation of new monikers like "Big Flo." Join us for an episode filled with inspiration, laughter, and the shared pursuit of greatness that resonates across disciplines.Powered by Perfect Sports Supplements use "AP20" to save 20%!--Want to see more of the AP? Subscribe to the AP YouTube channel.--Check out Mariam's stuff:InstagramTiktok---Check out Duan's stuff:Instagram--Check out Dave's stuff:InstagramTwitterLinkedInTiktok--Try Can-I-Wellness Sleep Product--Get 20% off Caldera Lab Men's Skincare Products--Get your Vivobarefoot Shoes 20% off by using the code: ATHLETESPOD20 Check out our Website | Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram | Tiktok | Spotify | Apple | Google | Youtube

Çfare beni ju kur dikush nuk ju ndjek mbrapsht ne Instagram? I shani nga robt? Gjetem neper zgëqet e internetit nje video te nje djali qe flet per nje shoqen e tij qe shihte legjione demonesh. Legjione demonesh... legjione. nejse. Nje poezi e nje shkrimtari te madh u interpretua nga Profeti, i cili solli dhe historine nga Egjipti i lashte te zotit Osiris the Isis. Por thelibi i ketij podcast ishte tema e femijerise. Ju mendoni qe prinderit bejne dallime mes femijeve? Duan me shume njerin se tjetrin?Ti vetem degjo podcastin dhe na mbeshtet ne Patreon sepse parate shkojne per femijet e lene pas dore nga prinderit duke u gjetur nje prift qe te kujdesej per te.

In this episode of the Award-winning PRS Journal Club Podcast, 2024 Resident Ambassadors to the PRS Editorial Board – Rami Kantar, Yoshi Toyoda, and Amanda Sergesketter- and special guest Valeriy Shubinets, MD, discuss the following articles from the September 2024 issue: “Radial and Ulnar Forearm Free Flaps: A Critical Comparison of Donor-Site Morbidity and Its Impact on Quality of Life” Al-Aroomi, Duan, Al-Worafi, et al. Read the article for FREE: https://bit.ly/RadialUlnarFF Special guest, Dr. Valeriy Shubinets, is a faculty member at The Curtis National Hand Center and MedStar Health. Originally from Ukraine, he obtained his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He was awarded the Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellowship for a research year before he completed his plastic surgery residency at the University of Pennsylvania, followed by an orthopedic hand fellowship at The Curtis National Hand Center and Union Memorial Hospital. Dr. Shubinets has a diverse clinical practice in hand surgery with a focus on reconstruction and microsurgery including very complex replantations, and he also conducts research to better understand vascular anatomy.  READ the articles discussed in this podcast as well as free related content: https://bit.ly/JCSept24Collection

Çdo mëngjes zgjohuni me “Wake Up”, programi i njëkohshëm radio-televiziv i “Top Channel” e “Top Albania Radio”, në thelb ka përcjelljen e informacionit më të nevojshëm për mëngjesin. Në “Wake Up” gjeni leximin e gazetave, analiza të ndryshme, informacione utilitare, këmbimin valuator, parashikimin e motit, biseda me të ftuarit në studio për tema të aktualitetit, nga jeta e përditshme urbane e deri tek arti dhe spektakli si dhe personazhe interesantë. Zgjimi në “Wake Up” është ritmik dhe me buzëqeshje. Gjatë tri orëve të transmetimit, na shoqëron edhe muzika më e mirë, e huaj dhe shqiptare. 

Nous voici de retour après cette pause estivale habituelle pour le 61e épisode de Quantum.Événements - Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting Cet été a démarré avec notre participation à un événement unique au monde. Le Lindau Nobel Laureate meetings qui fait se rencontrer entre 30 et 40 lauréats du prix Nobel de physique et de chimie avec plus de 600 jeunes scientifiques du monde entier triés sur le volet par leurs institutions académiques.Les replayhttps://www.mediatheque.lindau-nobel.org/meetings/2024?_gl=1*1v3z4jd*_ga*NDE2NjYxMDQzLjE3MjUwOTYxOTY.*_ga_WNYNHDJY2L*MTcyNTA5NjE5Ni4xLjEuMTcyNTA5NjIxMC4wLjAuMA.. Blog post d'Olivier Back from Lindau, Juillet 2024. - Q2B TokyoLes vidéos sont disponibles. France CGA-CGM investit dans Pasqal Le leader mondial du transport maritime annonçait en juillet un investissement d'un montant non précisé dans Pasqal ainsi que la création d'un laboratoire de recherche conjoint à Tangram, près de Marseille.  CMA CGM Group and Pasqal join forces to leverage quantum technologies for maritime transport and logistics by Pasqal, July 2024. PioniQ est une nouvelle startup française du quantique issue de l'ESPCI qui planche sur la création d'une technologie disruptive de stockage de l'énergiehttps://www.quantonation.com/2024/07/17/quantonation-invests-in-pioniq-technologies-to-develop-ground-breaking-quantum-materials-for-the-next-generation-energy-storage-technologies/ TWPAI de Silent WavesEn juin, l'équipe de Silent Waves et de l'Institut Néel avec des chercheur de KIT en Allemagne publiaient un papier proposant la creation d'un isolateur qui peut potentiellement remplacer les circulateurs utilisés avec les amplificateurs bas-bruit pour la lecture des qubits supraconducteurs ou silicium. A Traveling Wave Parametric Amplifier Isolator by Arpit Ranadive, Bekim Fazliji, Gwenael Le Gal, Giulio Cappelli, Guilliam Butseraen, Edgar Bonet, Eric Eyraud, Sina Böhling, Luca Planat, A. Metelmann, and Nicolas Roch, arXiv, June 2024 (21 pages). Removes the need for bulky circulators. InternationalRecord dans les ions piégés avec Oxford Ionics Cela fait suite aux records de Quantinuum.  Scalable, high-fidelity all-electronic control of trapped-ion qubits by C. M. Löschnauer, J. Mosca Toba, A. C. Hughes, S. A. King, M. A. Weber, R. Srinivas, R. Matt, R. Nourshargh, D. T. C. Allcock, C. J. Ballance, C. Matthiesen, M. Malinowski, and T. P. Harty, arXiv, July 2024 (12 pages). Universal QuantumEn juillet 2024, Universal Quantum annonçait la création d'un circuit ASIC supportant leur architecture UQCOnnect et le transfert d'ions entre modules avec une fidélité de 99.999993%. Universal Quantum develops key enabler of million-qubit quantum computer, Juillet 2024. HYQ Co, une nouvelle startup sur les ions piégés en ChineCréé en 2022 à Beijing et financée en 2024 à hauteur de $27M, la startup opère un ordinateur quantique à ions piégés dans le cloud, le HYQ-A37 avec 37 ions 171Yb+. A site-resolved two-dimensional quantum simulator with hundreds of trapped ions by S.-A. Guo et al, Nature, November 2023-May 2024 (22 pages in arXiv). Hamiltonian learning for 300 trapped ion qubits with long-range couplings by S.-A. Guo, L.-M. Duan et al, Tsinghua University, Hefei National Laboratory, HYQ Co, New Cornerstone Science Laboratory, arXiv, August 2024 (xx pages). Levée de fonds de PlanQC La startup allemande PlanQC lève 50M€.  https://thequantuminsider.com/2024/07/08/planqc-announces-e50-million-series-a/ Nanofiber QT startup japonaise qui développe une technologie de connectivité photonique entre atomes froids exploitant un réseau de fibres optiques. Scalable Networking of Neutral-Atom Qubits: Nanofiber-Based Approach for Multiprocessor Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computer by Shinichi Sunami, Shiro Tamiya, Ryotaro Inoue, Hayata Yamasaki, and Akihisa Goban, Nanofiber QT, University of Tokyo, University of Oxford, arXiv, July 2024 (22 pages). Infleqtion publiaient aussi un blueprint en août 2024. Ils n'envisagent pas de déplacer les atomes pour réaliser des portes à deux qubits mais plutôt des lasers focalisés précisément sur les atomes, leur permettant d'avoir des portes plus rapides.  IBM Heron r2 Fez Une nouvelle release a été mise en route dans le cloud relativement discrètement à la fin du printemps avec 156 qubits. https://quantum.ibm.com/services/resources?tab=systems&system=ibm_fez IQM annonce avoir obtenu 99,9% de fidélités sur des portes à deux qubits sur plusieurs paires de qubits isolés.  https://www.meetiqm.com/newsroom/press-releases/iqm-achieves-new-technology-milestones Google Grosse nouvelle, la sortie d'un preprint de Google présentant leur premier qubit logique qui est meilleur que les qubits physiques.Quantum error correction below the surface code threshold by Rajeev Acharya, Frank Arute, Michel Devoret, Edward Farhi, Craig Gidney, William D. Oliver, Pedram Roushan et al, Google, arXiv, August 2024 (10 pages).  Cryoelectronics with SQUIDsAu lieu de SFQ, des chercheurs chinois de Tsinghua University et du Hefei National Laboratory proposent d'utiliser des SQUIDs CPW et l'usage de l'effet Casimir. A cryogenic on-chip microwave pulse generator for large-scale superconducting quantum co...

Welcome to The Landlord Diaries! In this episode, we sit down with Allen Duan, a mid-term rental powerhouse with a portfolio of over 26 managed and arbitrage properties in Southern California. Allen shares his incredible journey from short-term rentals (STR) to mid-term rentals (MTR), a strategic pivot driven by local restrictions and market opportunities.Allen's success story is a masterclass in leveraging platforms like Furnished Finder to host thousands of guests and generate substantial booking volumes, ranging from $2k/month for studios to $10k/month for three-bedroom homes. He provides a detailed walkthrough of his process, including the importance of networking, building a strong team, navigating real estate laws, and the nuances of rental management, arbitrage, and co-hosting.In this episode, we cover:0:00 Welcome to The Landlord Diaries2:45 Allen started in STR but shifted to MTR due to local restrictions3:30 What led Allen to real estate & specifically the arbitrage & management model?5:10 The Hospy Homes Team & portfolio6:00 Allen's perspective on rental management, arbitrage & co-hosting7:35 Did state & local laws require Allen to obtain a broker's license?9:30 Evaluating your portfolio in the growth stage10:30 Hospy Homes total booking volume was around $700k in 202311:40 Allen's perspective on short term vs. mid term rentals14:55 Allen's success with around 20 listings on Furnished Finder16:15 About 40-50% of Hospy Homes MTR bookings come from Furnished Finder17:40 Hospy Homes experience with studio to 3 bedroom homes19:25 What Furnished Finder has learned about tenant communication23:35 Hospy Homes takes a damage waiver of $150 rather than a deposit29:50 How Allen scaled to 26 managed & arbitrage mid-term rentals in 5 years31:10 Tips for partnering with arbitrage & management property owners36:20 Allen's complimentary mid-term rental analysis for his potential clients38:20 Furnished Finder's mid-term rental stats tool39:00 Details to include in your management & arbitrage contracts40:15 How Hospy Homes keeps their property owners informed41:15 Building your team & standard operating procedures42:45 Helping your team thrive & find value in their position44:15 Networking is a huge part in expanding your mid-term rental business48:45 How to connect with Allen, Founder of Hospy HomesWebsite Links:https://www.furnishedfinder.com/ https://www.keycheck.com/ https://www.furnishedfinder.com/stats https://www.facebook.com/groups/furnishedfinder.travelnursehousing/ Connect with Allen, Founder of Hospy Homes:https://www.furnishedfinder.com/members/profile?u=allen.duanhttps://hospyhomes.com/ @allenduan120E-Myth Bookhttps://a.co/d/iUOMeT8Text the hosts with questions or comments.The Landlord Diaries is brought to you by Furnished Finder, where you can list your property for one low price and pay zero booking fees.

刚刚过去的 7 月有哪些值得听的新歌？都在这里啦！同时「演出推荐」的板块也回来喽~在歪波速报，我会于每个月月底整理当月新发行的作品来分享，并分为「华语」与「外语」两个部分，希望你能从中遇到喜欢的新鲜有趣的音乐。也欢迎你在评论区分享本月听到最好的新歌，一起查漏补缺，多多益善，不再歌荒！希望你会喜欢 :)

This month, on our LeadSGF episode of "Plugged In," you can join us for a conversation with Duan and Michelle Gavel, co-founders of All Things Diverse SGF! Tune in to hear us talk about their entrepreneurial journey and mission to highlight diverse resources and businesses in our community. Check out All Things Diverse to find diverse businesses, organizations, professionals, and resources.

In this episode, Will sits down with Freda Duan, investor at Altimeter Capital. They explore critical topics such as the energy bottlenecks in AI development, the future of AGI and ways in which we may have already achieved it today, and the future role of AI agents. Freda also discusses the capital expenditure trends among big tech companies and the nuanced competition between open source and closed source models.

Çdo mëngjes zgjohuni me “Wake Up”, programi i njëkohshëm radio-televiziv i “Top Channel” e “Top Albania Radio”, në thelb ka përcjelljen e informacionit më të nevojshëm për mëngjesin. Në “Wake Up” gjeni leximin e gazetave, analiza të ndryshme, informacione utilitare, këmbimin valuator, parashikimin e motit, biseda me të ftuarit në studio për tema të aktualitetit, nga jeta e përditshme urbane e deri tek arti dhe spektakli si dhe personazhe interesantë. Zgjimi në “Wake Up” është ritmik dhe me buzëqeshje. Gjatë tri orëve të transmetimit, na shoqëron edhe muzika më e mirë, e huaj dhe shqiptare.

On this episode of the Kpopcast, we interview Virginia Duan about her book "Illusive" and discuss some other subversive K-pop artists worthy of the spotlight. We also discuss non-spoiler themes covered in the novel. Once you've finished reading the book, return to this episode and catch the tail end as we chat spoiler details and specifics."Illusive" on Amazon: https://a.co/d/fIa9sajJoin the Kpopcast Slack: https://join.slack.com/t/kpopcast/shared_invite/zt-93kzxcv6-YNej2QkyY6vaPnhEQJxk0AChip in for editing: https://ko-fi.com/thekpopcast HIT REPLAYS:비비 (BIBI) - 나쁜년 (BIBI Vengeance) Official M/V https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfIY1r0_tRI PSY - GANGNAM STYLE(강남스타일) M/V https://youtu.be/9bZkp7q19f0?si=KltqT_G1-CKIhXh- Lee Hyori 10 Min https://youtu.be/iKdr44yEBQU?si=YCqt5HTNdSf3FH8Z Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's an old-school episode as David and Tamler dive into some intriguing research on the origins of cultural differences. Two neighboring communities in communist China were assigned to be wheat farmers and rice farmers. Seventy years later, the people in the rice farming communities showed signs of being more collectivist, relational, and holistic than the people in the wheat farming communities. Plus, we have some questions about a new study on censorship and self-censorship among social psychologists. Links: Clark CJ, Fjeldmark M, Lu L, Baumeister RF, Ceci S, Frey K, Miller G, Reilly W, Tice D, von Hippel W, Williams WM, Winegard BM, Tetlock PE. (2024) Taboos and Self-Censorship Among U.S. Psychology Professors. Perspectives on Psychological Science [pubmed] A fascinating theory about the cultural influence of rice farming now has evidence of causality by Eric Dolan [psypost.org] Talhelm, T., & Dong, X. (2024). People quasi-randomly assigned to farm rice are more collectivistic than people assigned to farm wheat. Nature Communications, 15(1), 1782.[nature.com] Talhelm, T., Zhang, X., Oishi, S., Shimin, C., Duan, D., Lan, X., & Kitayama, S. (2014). Large-scale psychological differences within China explained by rice versus wheat agriculture. Science, 344(6184), 603-608. [science.org]

Last time we spoke about the rise of the Spirit Soldier movement. As a result of the hardship brought upon the common people of China during China's Warlord Era a new group known as the Spirit Soldiers rose up. Motivated by grievances against warlord abuses and foreign influences, the Spirit Soldier emerged as a grassroots movement seeking to overthrow the oppressive regime. They believed in summoning divine beings or becoming possessed by them to aid their cause, reminiscent of the Yihetuan. Despite lacking centralized organization and firearms, they managed to seize control of several counties in regions like Hubei and Sichuan. However, they simply were no match for Warlord armies who were better trained, better organized and certainly better armed. While in small groups the Spirit armies managed just fine, but when they assembled 100,000 strong, they were ultimately crushed. Despite this the last Spirit rebellion would occur in 1959.   #101 The Mongolian Revolution of 1921   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. Oh yes we are not done with Mongolia. As a quick refresher, a few episodes back we talked about what is known as the Occupation of Mongolia. Quite a few things were going on all at once in the late 1910's. The Russian Empire collapsed and now was stuck in a civil war with the Reds vs the Whites. The Republic of China likewise collapsed into the Warlord Era. Mongolia stuck between these two former empires, attempted to gain independence, but swiftly fell into conflict with radicals from both. As a result of the Russian white General Grigori Semyonov trying to force a new pan Mongolia state, Duan Qirui exploited the situation to forcibly invade Mongolia. Duan Qirui had been taking a lot of heat for pushing China to declare war on Germany and getting caught taking secret loans from the Empire of Japan. Everyone in China was calling for Duan to reduce or eliminate his Anhui Army, but the situation in Mongolia gave him the perfect excuse to use it, thus in his mind legitimizing its existence. Duan Qirui dispatched General Xu Shuzheng with the “northwest frontier army” to protect Mongolia from a supposed Red army invasion. In the face of overwhelming military forces, the Mongolians submitted to Xu and were absolutely humiliated and subjugated. And thus Mongolia lived happily ever after. No, not at all. Between 1919-1920 a few Mongolian nobles came together to form two groups, the first was called “Konsulyn denj / the Consular Hill” the second “Zuun khuree / the East Urga” groups. The first group was the brainchild of Dogsomyn Bodoo, a prominent Mongolian politician. Bodoo had worked as a Mongolian language teacher at a Russian-Mongolian school for translators. He spoke Mongolian, Tibetan, Mandarin and Manchu. Because of his work he came into contact with Bolshevism through Russian acquaintances. After the occupation of Mongolia by Duan Qirui's forces, he formed the secret Consular Hill group as a means of resistance. Doboo's Consular Hill soon saw Khorloogiin Choibalsan join. Choibalsan also worked at the Russian Mongolian translator school and shared a Yurt with Doboo. Doboo was a mentor to Choibalsan whom worked primarily as a Russian interpreter at the Russian consulate. Because of the nature of his work, Choibalsan spent a lot of time with the Soviets. Not to give too much away, but later on Choibalsan would become known as “the Stalin of Mongolia”. A Russo-Mongolian printing officer typesetter named Mikhail Kucherenko, a Bolshevik in Urga, visited Bodoo and Choibalsan, talking to them about things related to Mongolian independence and actively resisted the Chinese. The East Urga group were founded by Soliin Danzan an official of the Ministry of Finance and Dansranbilegiin Dogsom , an official in the Ministry of the Army. Danzan had once been a horse thief, but managed to climb the ladder towards being a customs officer or the ministry of finance. Dogs had worked as a scribe for district and provincial assemblies before taking a job at the ministry of finance and Army later on. Another founding member was Damdin Sukhbaatar who grew up around Russians and spoke Russian. He joined the New Mongolia Army in 1911 after the independence movement and rose through the ranks seeing deployment on Mongolia's eastern border. After his death he would be referred to as “the Lenin of Mongolia”. The beginning of the East Urga group saw radicals within the lower house of the Mongolian parliament, such as Danzan and Dogsom met secretly trying to figure a way of getting rid of Xu Shuzheng and the Chinese dominance over their nation. The groups formed a plot to seize the mongolian army's arsenal and assassinate Xu Shuzheng, but the arsenal was too well guarded and Xu departed the region before they could pull it off. Within Urga were many Russian refugees, Red and White alike. They established a Municipal Duma, and some of the Bolshevik minded ones learned of the secret Consular Hill and East Urga groups. In March of 1920, the Duma was sending one of their members, Sorokovikov to Irkutsk, but before he did so, they thought it a good idea for him to learn about these secret groups and what they were up to. Sorokovikov met with representatives of both groups before traveling to Irkutsk. When he returned to Urga in June of that year, he met with the representatives again with promises the USSR would provide any assistance needed to the Mongolian workers. He then extended them invitations to send their groups representatives to Russia to discuss matters further.  As you can imagine, both these groups got pretty excited. Until this point the two groups did not brush shoulders much, they were in fact quite different. The Consular Hill group were progressive socialists while the East Urga group were more nationalistic. While they seemed to be at odds, the Soviet invitation had brought them together and in doing so they decided to merge on June 25th to form the Mongolian People's Party. It was then agreed Danzan and Choibalsan would act as the delegates that would go to Russia. Both men arrived in Verkhneudinsk, the new capital of the Pro-Soviet Far Eastern Republic. They met with Boris Shumyatsky, the acting head of the government. Shumyatsky kind of gave them the cold shoulder as they hounded his government for military assistance to fight off the Chinese. Shumyatsky advised them they should go back home, and get members of their party over in Urga to send a coded message with the stamped seal of the Bogd Khan to formally request such a thing. They did just that and now 5 delegates returned to Verkhneudinsk with it, but Shumyatsky told them he had no real authority to make such a decision and that they needed to go to Irkutsk. So yeah it was one of those cases where a guy you thought was a head honcho, was really not haha. The Mongolian delegates then went to Irkutsk in August where they met with the head of what would soon become the Far Eastern Secretariat of the Communist International aka the Comintern. They explained they required military assistance, soon handing over a list of requests. They wanted military instructors, over 10,000 rifles, some artillery pieces, machine guns and of course funding they could use to recruit soldiers. The head told them….to drag a letter and this time to make sure the name of the party was included in it, not in the name of the Bogd Khan. They were also to list their objectives and requests. Now as funny as this all sounds, not to dox myself, but when I got my first big boy job as they say, I had to learn how to write formal letters to the government, funding requests, partnership things, etc etc, and I can feel for these guys in that sense. They all seemed to have little experience in such matters and yes, some officials were clearing just messing with them, sending them left and right, but some guys were trying to show them how to work an existing process, random rant sorry. Once they finished this new letter they were told it might be considered by the Siberian REvolutionary Committee in Omsk, the buck keeps passing. At this point the mongolians divided themselves into three groups: Delegates Danzan, Losol and Dendev went to Omsk to deliver the new letter; Bodoo and Dogsom went back to Urga to grow the party and begin recruiting a army; and Sukhbaater and Choibalsan went to Irkutsk to serve as liaisons there. Before they all departed, the drafted a new revolutionary message. It dictated the Mongolian nobility would be divested of their hereditary powers. The new system of government would be democratic with a limited monarch run by the Bogd Khaan. Several more meeting with the soviets at Omsk occurred only for the Mongolians to be sold yet again they had to go somewhere else, this time it was Moscow. Thus Danzan led a team of delegates to go to Moscow in September. For a month they discussed matters, but something huge was cooking up in the meantime. Here comes a man named Roman von Ungern-Sternberg. He was born in Graz Austria in January of 1886 to a noble family, descending from present day Estonia. Ungern-Sternberg's first language was German, but he also spoke English, French, Russian and Estonian. Within his family tree he had Hungarian roots and he would claim to be a descendant of Batu Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan. Why is it, all of these “great men figures” always have to come up with a “I am descended from x” haha. He moved to Reval, the capital of Estonia. It's said as a child he was a ferocious bully and a psychopath who would torture animals. Apparently at the age of 12 he strangled his cousins owl, now thats messed up. Now Ungern-Sternberg was very proud of his ancient aristocratic background…though whether any of it was real who knows. He wrote extensively things like “for centuries my family never took orders from the working classes and it was outrageous that dirty workers who've never had any servants of their own, but still think they can command! They should have absolutely no say in the ruling of the vast Russian Empire". He was proud of his Germanic origin, but also identified with the Russian empire…and with Ghenghis khan, so yeah. When asked about his family's military history in the Russian empire he would proud boast “72 family members were killed in the wartime!”. He believed many of the fallen monarchies of Europe could be restored with the help of the cavalry peoples of the Steppe, such as the Mongols.  Ungern-Sternberg of course was attracted to military service and during the Russo-Japanese War he joined the fighting. Its unsure whether he made it to Manchuria to see actual fighting, but he was awarded a Russo-Japanese War Medal in 1913. During the first Russian Revolution of 1905, Estonian peasants ravaged the country trying to murder nobles. Ungern-Sternberg recalled "the peasants that worked on my family's land were rough, untutored, wild and constantly angry, hating everybody and everything without understanding why". After the failed revolution he continued his military career and picked up an interest in Buddhism. Later in life while in Mongolia he would become a Buddhist, but never really relinquished his Lutheran faith. While in Mongolia Ungern-Sternberg became obsessed with the idea that he was the in-incarnation of Genghis Khan. When he graduated from a military academy he demanded a station amongst the Cossacks in Asia. He was appointed an officer in Eastern Siberia where he served under the 1st Argunsky and later the 1st Amursky Cossack regiments. From there he fell in love with the lifestyle of the nomadic Mongol peoples. He was a hell of a drunk and loved to pick fights. There were theories he had been hit so many times to the head during fights, it was believed he had brain damage and was insane as a result. In 1913 he asked to be transferred to the reserves, because he wanted time and space to achieve a new goal, he sought to assist the Mongols in their struggle for independence from China. Russian officials heard rumors he sought to do this and they actively thwarted him as best as they could. He went to the town of Khovd in western Mongolia where he served as an unofficial officer in a Gossack guard detachment for the Russian consulate.  When WW1 broke out, Ungern-Sternberg joined the 34th regiment of Cossack troops stationed in the Galicia frontier. He would take part in the first Russian offensive against Prussia and earned a reputation as an extremely brave but also very reckless and mentally unstable officer. Men who came to know him said he looked happiest atop a horse leading a charge, showing no signs of fear with a wicked smile on his face. He received multiple citations such as the st george of the 4th grade; st vladimir of the 4th grade, st anna of the 3rd and 4th grades and st Stanislas of the 3rd grade. These decorations however were offset by the amount of disciplinary actions issued against him and he would eventually be discharged from one of his commands for attacking another officer in a drunken brawl. He went to prison and was court martialed.  After he got out of prison in January of 1917, he transferred over to the Caucasian theater to fight the Ottomans. Then the Russian revolution began, ending the Russian empire and of course ending the Romanov monarchy, quite the bitter blow to the monarchist Ungern-Sternberg. While still in the Caucasus, Ungern-Sternberg ran into a Cossack Captain, an old friend we met a few podcasts ago, Captain Grigory Semyonov. Working with Semyonov the two organized a volunteer Assyrian Christian unit in modern day Iran. The Assyrian genocide had led to thousands of Assyrians fleeing over to the Russians. Semyonov and Ungern-Sternberg Assyrian force was able to win some small victories over Turkish forces, but in the grand scheme of the theater it did not amount to much. The experience of forging such a group however led them to think about doing the same thing with Buryat troops in Siberia.  At the outbreak of the Russian civil war, Semyonov and Ungern-Sternberg declared themselves Romanov loyalists, joing the White Movement. They both vowed the defeat the Red Army and late into 1917, they as part of a combined group of 5 Cossacks managed to disarm 1500 Red soldiers at a Far Eastern Railway station in China near the Russian border. They took up a position there, preparing for a military expedition into the Transbaikal region, recruiting men into a Special Manchrian regiment. The White army managed to defeat the Red Army along the Far Eastern Railway territory. Semyonov eventually appointed Ungern-Sternberg to be the commander of a force at Dauria, a railway station at the strategic point southeast of Lake Baikal. Despite being part of the white movement, Semyonov and Ungern-Sternberg were quite rebellious. Semyonov for example refused to recognize the authority of Admiral Alexander Kolchak, the prominent white leader in Siberia. Semyonov fancied acting on his own and received support from the Japanese. Ungern-Sternberg, a subornidate to Semyonov also acted independently. Ungern-Sternberg also had his own reasons not to comply fully with Kolchak. Kolchak had promised after a White victory, he would reconvene the Consitutional Assembly, disband the Bolsheviks completely and then decide the future for Russia, that being whether it adopts the monarchy back or goes a different path. Ungern-Sternberg believed god had chosen Russia to be run by a monarchy and that its restoration came first.  Ungern-Sternberg performed successful military campains in Dauria and Hailar, earning the rank of Major-General, promtping Semyonov to enturst him with forming his own military unit to fight the communists. Both men gradually recruited Buryats and Mongols for the task, but they also were growing wary of another. Ungern-Sternberg was unhappy with Semyonov who he deemed to be corrupt, he also took issue with the mans love interest in a Jewish cabert singer, he was after all a rampant anti-semite. Ungern-Sternberg founded the volunteer based Asiatic Cavalry Division in Dauria, alongside a fortress. It is said at this fortress he would torture his red enemies and it was full of their bones.  As we mentioned in a previous episode, the Anhui Clique dispatched General Xu Shuzheng to occupy outer mongolia. However after the first Anhui-Zhili war, the Anhui clique was severely reduced and General Xu Shuzheng's forces in Mongolia were as well. This effectively left the Mongolian protectorate without their protectors. Chaos reigned as Chahar Mongols from Inner Mongolia began to fight with Khalkhas Mongols from Outer Mongolia. Seeing the disunity, Ungern-Sternberg saw a grand opportunity and made plans to take control of Mongolia. He began networking and married the Manchurian princess Ji at Harbin. Princess Ji was a relative of Genreal Zhang Kuiwu, the coammander of Chinese troops in the western part of the Chinese Manchurian railway as well as the govenror of Hailar. He also tried to arrange a meeting between Semyonov and Zhang Zuolin, Eventually Kolchak's white army was defeated by the Red Army and subsequently the Japanese pulled their expeditionary forces out of the Transbaikal region. This put Semyonov in a bad situation as he was unable to cope with the brunt of the impending Red forces, thus he planned to pull back into Manchuria. Ungern-Sternberg had a different idea however. He took his Asiatic Cavalry Division, roughly 1500 men at the time, consisting mostly of Russians, but there was also Cossacks, Buryats, Chinese and a few Japanese, with few machine guns and 4 artillery pieces. He broke his ties to Semyonov and took his division into Outer Mongolia in October of 1920. They gradually advanced to Urga where they ran into Chinees occupying forces. Ungern-Sternberg attempted to negotiate with the Chinese, demadning they disarm, but they rejected his terms. In late October and early November, Ungern-Sternbergs forces assaulted Urga, suffering two disasterous defeats. After this they assailed the Setsen-Khan aimag, a district north of the Kherlen River, ruld by Prince Setsen Khan. During his time in Mongolia Ungern-Sternberg befriended some Mongol forces seeking independence from the Chinese occupation, the most influential leader amongst them being Bogd Khan. Bogd Khan secretly made a pact with Unger-Sternberg, seeking his aid to expel the Chinese from Mongolia. Ungern-Sternberg went to work reorganizing his army. Apparently he had taken a liking to a Lt and gave the man full command over the medical division. During a withdrawal, the Lt raped multiple nurses in the medical division, many of whom were married to other officers, ordered settlements they ran by to be looted and ordered all the wounded the be poisoned because they were a nuisance. Ungern-Sternberg had the man flogged and burned at the stake. So yeah.  During the Chinese occupation of Outer Mongolia, they had initiated strict regulations over Buddhist services and imprisoned anyone whom they considered sought independence, including Russians. While Ungern-Sternberg had 1500 well trained troops, the Chinese had roughly 7000 still in Outer Mongolia. The Chinese enjoyed an advantage in more men, more machine guns, more artillery and they already had fortified Urga. On February 2nd, Ungern-Sternberg assaulted the front line of Urga again. His forces led by Captain Rezzukhin managed to capture a front-line fortificaiton near the Small and Big Madachan villages, due southeast of Urga. Ungern-Sternberg's forces also managed to rescue Bogd Khan who was under house arrests, transporting him to the Manjushri Monastery. Ungern-Sternberg then took a page out of Genghis Khan's note book, ordering his troops to light a large number of campfires in the hills surrounding Urga, trying to scare the Chinese into thinking they were more numerous. On February 4th, they attacked Chinese barracks east of Urga, captured them. Ungern-Sternberg then divided his force in two with the first attacking the Chinese trade settlement “Maimaicheng” and the secnd the Consular Settlement. Ungern-Sternbergs men used exlosives and improvised battering rams to blow open the gates to Maimaicheng. Upon storming the settlement, the battle turned into a melee of sabres, seeing both sides hack each other in a slaughter. Ungern-Sternbergs men took Maimaicheng, and soon joined up with the other force to attack the COnsulder Settlement. The Chinese launched a counter attack, forcing Ungern-Sternbergs men northeast somewhat, but then he counter attacked sending them back to Urga. By the night of the 4th, Urga would fall to the invaders. The Chinese civilian and military officials simply fled for their lives in 11 cars, abandoning the soldiers. The Chinese troops followed suite aftwards heading north, massacring all Mongolian civilians they came across, heading over the Russian border. The Red Russians resided in Urga fled alongside them. The Chinese suffered apparently 1500 men, while Ungern-Sternberg recorded only 60 casualties for his force. Ungern-Sternbergs troops were welcomed with open arms as liberators. The populace of Urga hated their tyrannical Chinese overlords and believed the Russians were their salvation. Then the Russian began plundering the Chinese run stores and hunted down Russian Jews still in the city. Ungern-Sternberg personally ordered the execution of all Jews in the city unless they had special notes handed out by him sparing their lives. It is estimated roughly 50 Jews were killed by Ungern-Sternbergs men in Mongolia. Urga's Jewish community was annihilated. After a few days, Ungern-Sternberg had set up a quasi secret police force led by Colonel Leonid Sipalov who hunted Red Russians. Meanwhile Ungern-Sternberg's army seized the Chinese fortified base at Choi due south of Urga. During the attack the Russians number 900, the Chinese garrison roughly 1500. After taking the fort, the Russians returned to Urga as Ungern-Sternberg dispatched expeditionary groups to find Chinese strength. They came across a abandoned Chinese fort at Zamyn-Uud, taking it without resistance. Most of the Chinese troops left in Mongolia withdrew north to Kyakhta where they were trying find a way to get around the Urga region to escape back to China. Ungern-Sternberg and his men assumed they were trying to reorganize to recapture Urga so he dispatched forces to assail them. Chinese forces were advancing through the area of Talyn Ulaaankhad Hill when Ungern-Sternberg initiated a battle. The battle saw nearly 1000 Chinese, 100 Mongols and various amounts of Russians, Buryats and others killed. The Chinese forces routed during the battle, fleeing south until they got over the Chinese border. After this action, the Chinese effectively had departed Outer Mongolia. On February 22nd february of 1921, Ungern-Sternberg, Mongolian prince and Lamas, held a ceremony to restore the Bogd Khan to the throne. To reward their savior, Bogd Khan granted Ungern-Sternberg a high title, that of “darkhan khoshoi chin wang” in the degree of Khan. Once Semyonov heard of what Ungern-Sternberg had achieved, he likewise promoted him to Lt-General. On that same day, Mongolia proclaimed itself independent as a monarchy under the Bogd Khan, now the 8th Bogd Gegen Jebtsundamba Khutuktu. According to the eye witness account of the polish explorer Kamil Gizycki and polish writer Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski, Ungern-Sternberg went to work ordering Urga's streets thoroughly cleaned, promoted religious tolerance, I would imagine for all excluding Jews and attempted some economic reforms.  The writer Ossendowski had previously served in Kolchaks government, but after its fall sought refugee in Mongolia. He became friends with Ungern-Sternberg, probably looking for a good story, I mean this maniac does make for a good story, hell I am covering him after all ahah. Ossendowski would write pieces of his experience in Mongolia in his book “Beasts, Men and Gods”. A soldier within Ungern-Sternbergs army, named Dmitri Alioshin wrote a novel as well of his experience titled Asian Odyssey and here is a passage about his description of Ungern-Sternberg and his closest followers beliefs. “The whole world is rotten. Greed, hatred and cruelty are in the saddle. We intend to organize a new empire; a new civilization. It will be called the Middle Asiatic Buddhist Empire, carved out of Mongolia, Manchuria and Eastern Siberia. Communication has already been established for that purpose with Djan-Zo-Lin, the war lord of Manchuria, and with Hutukhta, the Living Buddha of Mongolia. Here in these historic plains we will organize an army as powerful as that of Genghis Khan. Then we will move, as that great man did, and smash the whole of Europe. The world must die so that a new and better world may come forth, reincarnated on a higher plane.” Within that passage there was mention of Hutukhta, he was the dominant Buddha of Mongolia at the time. Hutukhta did not share Ungern-Sternbergs dream of restoring Monarchies all across the world and he understood the mans army could not hope to defend them from Soviet or Chinese invaders. In April of 1921, Hutukhta wrote to Beijing asking if the Chinese government was interesting in resuming their protectorship.  In the meantime Ungern-Sternberg began looking for funds. He approached several Chinese warlords, such as Zhang Zuolin, but all rejected him. He also continued his tyrannical treatment never against Mongolians, but against Russians within Mongolia. Its estimated his secret police force killed 846 people, with roughly 120 being in Urga. Ungern-Sternbergs men were not at all happy about the brutality he inflicted upon their fellow Russians. Yet Ungern-Sternbergs days of psychopathic fun were soon to come to an end. 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. Poor Mongolia was stuck between two crumbling empires, who both became engulfed in violent civil wars. The spill over from their wars saw Mongolia become a protectorate to the Chinese, nearly a satellite communist state to the USSR and now was independent, but really at the mercy of the White army of Ungern-Sternberg. The psychopath was having a field day, but it was about to come to an end. 

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In her debut novel Illusive, writer, blogger, and author Virginia Duan takes readers behind the scenes in the world of K-pop to explore the paralyzing aftereffects of relational trauma and what can be done to overcome them.

Last time we spoke about Manchu Restoration of Zhang Xun. After the death of  Yuan Shikai, Duan Qirui maneuvered to maintain control amidst the political chaos. After being outed from Premiership for trying to drag China into WW1, General Zhang Xun suddenly marched upon Beijing seizing the capital. Zhang Xun then proclaimed the Qing Dynasty restored with Emperor Puyi back on the throne, shocking the entire nation. Li Yuanhong freaked out, ran for his life and begged Duan Qirui to come back and save the republic. Ironically Duan was already in the process of marching upon the capital, so with a smile he went along with everything making it look like he was a hero. After taking back power, Duan resumed his premiership, but made sure to get rid of any threat to his authority. However, Duan's authoritarian rule and neglect of certain officers led to opposition from figures like Feng Guozhang, who formed the Zhili Clique.    #98 The Invasion of Outer Mongolia & First Anhui/Zhili War   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. During the Xinhai Revolution many provinces and regions declared independence, one of them was Outer Mongolia. In 1910, the Qing Dynasty had appointed the Mongol, Sando to be viceroy over Mongolia, with his base being in the capital city of Urga. Just a month after his arrival conflicts emerged, prompting Sando to ask Jebstundamba Khutuktu, the spiritual leader of the Mongolians to help out but he refused and this led to a campaign to have Sando removed. More conflicts followed and by spring of 1911, prominent Mongolian nobles, such as Prince Tögs-Ochiryn Namnansüren persuaded Jebstundamba Khutukhtu to form a meeting of the nobility to discuss declaring independence. The meeting resulted in a deadlock. 18 nobles wishing to declare independence took matters into their own hands pressuring Jebstundamba Khutukhtu to send a secret delegation to Russia for help. Of course at this time Russia sought Outer Mongolia as a buffer state. The Mongols knew this and offered economic concessions if the Russians helped arm them and brought troops over. Russia did not want to add Outer Mongolia to the empire however, so she offered diplomatic support rather than military support. The Russian minister to Beijing informed the Qing the Mongols had sent a delegation and this prompted the Qing to order Sando to investigate. Yet while all of this was going on, the Wuchang Uprising had sprung up and soon rebellion would hit the entire nation. When the Mongols received news of what was happening to China, they simply joined in and declared independence. By December 1st a provisional government of Khalkha was set up under the theocratic rule of Jebtsundamba Khutuktu who became the Bodg Khaan over the new Bogd Khanate. Fast forward to 1915, the new Republic of China and the Bogd Khanate reached an agreement that Outer Mongolia could be autonomous under Chinese suzerainty, a protectorate basically. Then came the Russian Revolution and with it, the Russian Civil War. This resulted in a rather bizarre movement springing up along the Siberian/Mongolian border. Grigory Semyonov a White movement member in Transbaikal with Japanese backing, took quite an interest in Mongolia. Semyonov spoke Mongolian and Buryat fluently, he was also a soldier who fought in WW1 and then during the civil war. He led an anti-soviet rebellion, but lost after a few months and was forced to flee to Harbin. He moved to Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia and from there setup a base to launch raids into siberia to help the white movement. By the summer of 1918 he managed to captured Chita, setting it up as his own capital as he declared a Great Mongol State. Semyonov fancied unifying the Oirat Mongol lands, parts of Xinjiang, Transbaikal, Inner and Outer Mongolia, Tannu Uriankai, Kobdo Hulunbe'er and even Tibet to form a new Mongolian state.  The situation caused a divide amongst the leadership in Outer Mongolia. Some favored their current protectorate relationship with China and wanted to end the Semyonov threat. Others were dissatisfied with the status quo and saw it as a great opportunity. The Chinese high commissioner in Mongolia, Chen Yi was soon delivered word from some of the Mongolian nobles, Soviet forces were preparing to invade Mongolia. The Cossack consular guards at Urga, Khovd and Uliastai had all fled. The Russian communities in Mongolia were beginning to support a Bolshevik regime. It was under said pretext, Semyonov and his white Russian colleagues came to Mongolia. Chen Yi began frantically sending telegrams to Beijing requesting troops while simultaneously persuading the Bogd Khaan government to agree to allow a Chinese battalion to come over. Chen Yi and Mongol noles came up with a document with 64 points titled "On respecting of Outer Mongolia by the government of China and improvement of her position in future after self-abolishing of autonomy", yes they could have summarized it somewhat, though I imagine the english translation is lacking. The stipulations offered to replace the Mongolian government with Chinese officials; introduce Chinese garrisons and the keeping of feudal titles. However by July of 1918, the Soviet threat seemed to have dissipated. Meanwhile Semyonov had assembled a detachment of Buryats and Inner Mongolian nationalists to fight for his pan-Mongolian cause. They made several attempts to try and persuade the Bogd Khaan's government to join, but the Mongol nobles thought it foolish to throw their lot under a new master they knew nothing about. Gradually Semyonov threatened to invade Mongolia to force their compliance. The Bogd Khaanate was in a bad position. They lacked the strength to repel Semyonov, on the other hand they were not interested in Chinese troops entering their lands.  Now taking a step back, there was another player in the region. When the Manchu Restoration of Zhang Xun broke out, Zhang Zuolin, the warlord of Manchuria sat on the fence in Mukden. Yet a subordinate of his, Feng Tielin had just unsuccessfully plotted against him and was implicated in the Manchu Restoration. This gave Zhang a good excuse to imprison and dismiss the man from his command and better yet he stole the man's troops. In August of 1917, Zhang Zuolin took control over Heilongjiang province after a small rebellion had broken out there. Then in October, the warlord in Jilin province turned out to also be a Manchu Restorationist, or at least Zhang accused him as such, so he used diplomacy to get rid of the man. After this Zhang seized Jilin and thus controlled all of Manchuria, excluding parts under Japanese occupation.  In February of 198, Duan Qirui sent a rather unpopular subordinate named Xu Shucheng to try and persuade Zhang Zuolin to join the Anfu club. The reason was because Duan Qirui distrusted Wu Peifu and the emerging Zhili clique and saw Zhang as a beneficial ally. Xu Shucheng was the founder of the Anfu club, the political arm of the Anhui clique. They recently earned 3/4s of the seats in the national assembly. Xu was also a fixer in many ways, at one point he discovered Lu Jianzhang had tried to persuade his nephew, Feng Yuxiang the Christian warlord, to fight the Anhui CLique. Xu leaked this and had Lu executed. Thus he had a pretty rough reputation. Xu came to Zhang with a bribe from Duan Qirui, it was information that a shipment of Japanese arms worth 30,000 yuan, enough to equip roughly 7 mixed brigades and just come to port in Qinhuangdao. Zhang Zuolin performed a random inspection of the port and confiscated the goods, reminds you of the New York mob. In response to this friendly gesture, Zhang sent 50,000 of his troops southwards to aid Duan Qirui's new campaign that he called “unification of China by force”. For this nice gesture, the Beiyang government gave Zhang Zuolin the title of inspector of the 3 Manchurian provinces. At this point Zhang Zuolin truly became known as the tiger of Manchuria, or the “king of the northeast”. Things were not great, but not bad between Duan and Zhang, then Xu Shucheng received a new command, and things changed dramatically.  Because of the situation in Outer Mongolia, Duan Qirui decided to form a new “Northwestern Frontier Army” and he gave command of it to his right hand man, Xu Shuzheng. Now, allegedly this was also coerced by the Japanese who had their own designs on Outer Mongolia. But Duan Qirui certainly had his motives for such an action. The leaked information about the Nishihara loans alongside other bad press had most of the Chinese public against him. His reputation as a republican patriot had been tarnished, even defeating Zhang Xun had not done a ton to reverse it. Duan Qirui had cultivated a large and strong army during WW1, but now the war was over and all of his political enemies questioned why he kept the army. Of course everyone knew the real reason why, he wanted to defeat his rivals in the south to reunify China. When the Russian began to encroach in Mongolia, it was a perfect excuse to use said army, legitimizing it somewhat. Publicly Duan Qiruir stated the Northwestern Frontier army would go to Outer Mongolia to defend them against Bolshevik encroachment. Their expedition was supposed to commence in July 1919, but their train broke down on them. In October, Xu was forced to lead a spearhead of just 4000 men to storm the capital of Urga. There was no actual battle, the Chinese entered peacefully and began occupying the capital. They were soon followed up with 10,000 additional forces who began to occupy Mongolia. Xu Shuzheng met with Chen Yi and the Mongol nobles and stated the 64 point document needed to be renegotiated. He then submitted a much tougher set of conditions calling for the express declaration of Chinese sovereignty over Mongolia; to increase Mongolia's population via Chinese colonization; to promote commerce, industry and agriculture. If the Mongols resisted these conditions, Xu threatened to deport the Bogd Khaan to China. To make a point Xu then placed troops directly in front of Bogd Khaan's palace. It seems Xu may have also been pressured by Japan to install some pro-Japanese chinese officials in Mongolia to thwart any future Russian encroachment. These demands, titled “the eight articles” were given to the Mongolian Parliament on November 15th and the upper house accepted them, but the lower house did not. Many members publicly called for armed resistance. The most tenacious were the buddhist monks to fight off the Chinese, but the upper house ultimately prevailed. Then a petition to end autonomy signed by the ministers and deputy ministers of the Bogd Khaans government was presented to Xu. Body Khaan refused to give his seal still. Then a new Prime Minister was installed by the orders of Xu Shuzheng, his name and do forgive me was Gonchigjalzangiin Badamdorj. Alongside the conservatives within the Mongolian political scene they forced the acceptance of the Chinese demands. Xu Shuzheng was hailed as a hero in China. Dr Sun Yat-sen even sent a letter of congratulations from the rival Guangzhou government, it was clearly satirical, but those like Duan Qirui paraded it as propaganda. Now Xu Shuzheng then humiliated the Mongolian Council of Khans in a speech and would return in February of 1920 to preside over an extremely humiliating ceremony. During the ceremony the Bogd Khan and other Mongol nobles were forced to kowtow before Xu Shuzheng and the new Five races under one union flag. This ceremony was so insulting, it would mark the beginning of active Mongolian resistance against China. The occupation of Mongolia had aroused frustration from Zhang Zuolin because he regarded Mongolia to be within his sphere of influence. Xu Shuzheng after occupying Mongolia began to set up banks in the northwest, raised public loans and all of this was of course done to increase his own personal power. At this time, since he was the 2nd strongest Anhui Clique leader, he had so many forces under his thumb he was seen to be greater than Zhang Zuolin the “inspector of the three provinces of Manchuria”. Xu Shuzheng's Northwestern Army had troops in Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Xinjiang and Shaanxi. Now while Zhang Zuolin's Fengtian Clique could not hope to defeat the Anhui Clique alone, they were not in fact alone. Zhang Zuolin with his ear to the political ongoings in northern China would find a new ally to thwart Duan and Xu's encroachment into his realm. We need to rewind just a little bit to explain the rather chaotic political situation in north China. After Zhang Xun's Manchu Restoration was defeated, Duan Qirui found himself in a bit of an awkward position. He was now the defender of the republic, he took back his premiership, but his puppet Li Yuanghong had fled his position as president, it was now Feng Guozhang who was president. Now Feng Guozhang was not elected or anything, he was merely filling out the term of Li Yuanghong. Before leaving Nanjing to come over to Beijing, Feng compelled Duan to accept his appointees to offices in the Yangtze area, where his power base was located. Now there was a division of military power, a sort of split within the Beiyang army between the Premier and President. This led to the “Anfu Club” being created of Duan followers and in turn the Zhili Clique of Feng followers. The Anfu Club was far better organized, better funded and was dominated by Duan and Xu. Xu by the way was nicknamed Little Xu, because he was seen as simply Duan lackey as they say. The Anfu Club also had high ranking politicians like Wang Yitang, Zeng Yujun and Liu Enge. Yet the Anfu Club was not really an alliance of military guys, it was more a political force that exerted influence over Parliament and other parts of the civil bureaucracy. There was no war at this point despite the conflict between Duan and Feng growing. Thus the fighting was all within the political realm for awhile, they simply fought to control government institutions and such. Duan and Feng's main objective at this time was simply to dominate Parliament, and Duan was winning. Duan mae Wang Yitang the speaker of the house who made sure Feng could not dissolve parliament. If Feng dissolved parliament it would call for an election that could see Duan lose premiership again. Now a little bit about the Zhili Clique, from 1917-1920 the clique was not really united politically or militarily. They were really a riff raff of pissed off Beiyang officers and politicians whom Duan Qirui had overlooked. Their most influential military commanders in the beginning were Wang Zhanyuan  the warlord of Hubei, Li Chun and Chen Guangyuan the warlords of Jiangsu. The Zhili clique lacked strong leadership and a real source of funding. They did not have much influence over Parliament, thus they were quite hopeless against the Anhui clique who were only getting stronger each day. In October of 1918, the Anfu Club managed to secure a new president, Xu Shichang. Xu Shichang was the former viceroy of Manchuria, considered a safe pick by the Anfu members. Xu lacked a following, he was quite old, a school type, someone they all assumed could be easily manipulated, basically a new Li Yuanghong. By the end of 1918 the Anfu club appeared to be in a position to unify China for the first time since the death of Yuan Shikai. However they depended heavily on Japanese loans and as a result easily fell victim to those who would label them to be in league with Japan. Members of the Zhili clique capitalized on this, spreading accusations left right and center, making public statements accusing the Anfu members of selling China out to Japan. By 1919 the Anfu group still looked sturdy, but then the Treaty of Versailles situation hit. The public outrage to the peace talks led many Anhui clique members of Duan's cabinet to flee to Japan. Then the May Fourth Movement began, prompting the Zhili clique to latch themselves onto the cause of the student protestors.  Duan Qirui realized his stronghold on Beijing was becoming fragile. Any direct attack against another warlord would be dangerous, thus he tried to do things covertly. He began by trying to economically strangle areas of his enemies, he reduced government funds to their provinces. He also tried to set up new appointments in the central provinces to dominate them. He appointed General Zhang Jingyao to be the military governor over Hunan province. Wu Peifu whose powerbase was in Sichuan and western Hunan saw this as a direct threat. Now when this was occuring, Japan was facing economic problems and thus could no longer loan money to the Anhui clique. This led the Anfu club to seek a new source of revenue. Meanwhile, Wu Peifu reacted to the threat to his territory by seeking out support from the Zhili clique, in particular he went to his old mentor Cao Kun. Cao Kun had been an officer in the Beiyang Army, initially he did not side with Feng or Duan. When the Anhui clique began to move into central China, this drove Cao to the Zhili clique. Wu Peifu approached his old mentor with a plan, it was to be a campaign against the Anhui. Cao agreed to the idea, only if Wu could prove they would have enough forces capable of attacking Anhui's powerbase around Beijing. Wu then went to work calling upon the warlords of Sichuan, Shanxi and Hubei who were all not receiving much funding from the central government. Thus they all banded together. In November of 1919 Wu Peifu met with Tang Jiyao and Lu Rongting at Hengyang, where they signed a treaty entitled "Rough Draft of the National Salvation Allied Army" This effectively formed the basis of a true anti-Anhui clique alliance. After this in April of 1920, while visiting a memorial service at Baoding for soldiers who died in Hunan, Cao Kun added more warlords to the new anti-Anhui clique alliance, including the rulers of Hubei, Henan, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Jiangxi and Zhili. The conflict became public as both sides began deploying for the coming war. By May of 1920, Wu Peifu was prepared to launch a campaign to strike into northern China and he began to mobilize his armies up the Tientsin-Pukow railway. Yet before this he also did something else, Wu extended a hand out to an unlikely figure, Zhang Zuolin. He explained his campaign plan to Zhang Zuolin, and advised him, a campaign from the northeast above the Great Wall might be very beneficial to them both, wink wink. Thus in March of 1920, Zhang Zuolin had arranged a feast in Mukden for the warlords of Zhili, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. It was a secret conference to set up a solid 8 province alliance against the Anhui clique. This intense period of scheming saw President Xu Shichang invite Zhang Zuolin over for a meeting in Beijing. American writer Nathaniel Peffer was there and had this to say of Zhang. “Until his triumphal entry into Peking in 1920, Zhang Zuolin had not come down out of his Mukden fastness for years. In those years a legend had grown up round him — a legend of a fierce, uncouth, primitive creature of the wilds. It was with some zest, therefore, that I accepted an invitation of his nearly English-speaking secretary to attend an audience for foreign correspondents. It was with even greater amazement that I found myself bowing to a slender, delicate little person in subdued silks, soft-spoken and with hands as lovely and graceful as I have ever seen on a man. The terror of the north country looked like a precious aesthete. There was nothing of the aesthete in his speech or his demeanour, however. The interview was marked by none of the usual subtle evasion, the nice circumlocution. There was blunt talk on both sides; and it was eloquent that, when our questions verged on the brutally frank, the secretary who interpreted did not translate them as they were put, but softened them until the meaning was transformed. The quailing of the servitors when the tea was a second late also was eloquent. When he recommended the execution of a whole regiment as a proper punishment for mutiny; one was glad the regiment was not in his command”. During the meeting, Zhang told Xu he had no idea what a “zhili group was or what an Anfu group was”. Everyone should just cooperate in general for a northern cause. Then Zhang Zuolin traveled from Beijing to Baoding to meet with the Zhili's defacto leader Cao Kun. As Zhang was on his way, the anti-anfu coalition managed to force President Xu Shichang to dismiss Xu Shuzheng from all of his posts. Allegedly, after this President Xu Shichang sent an invitation to Zhang Zuolin to come back to his residence after his trip to Baoding was done and he planned to kill him. Premier Duan heard of the plan and told the president to not go through with it, because Zhang Zuolin had supported him in the past. Nonetheless Zhang Zuolin high tailed it back to Manchuria under a disguise. Once back in Mukden, Zhang Zuolin sent a telegram to Xu and Duan stating “in the future instead of mediating politically, I will do so militarily”.  In July various Zhili and Fengtian generals such as Cao Kun, Zhang Zuolin, Wang Zhanyuan, Li Shun, Chen Guangyuan, Zhao Ti and Ma Fuxiang all signed a denunciation of the Anhui clique and its political arm, the Anfu Club. This denunciation was circulated through a telegram called Paoting-fu on July 12th. Duan Qirui was outraged by the situation and demanded President Xu Shichang dismiss Cao Kun and Zhang Zuolin from all of their positions. In response to the very obvious threat, Duan formed the National Stabilization army, using 5 divisions and 4 combined brigades with himself as commander in chief and General Xu Shuzheng as his general chief of staff. Duan deployed his forces in 2 fronts, the west covering the regions of Zhouzhou, Gu'an and Laishui and the east covering Hamlet, Beijimiao, Yang and Liang.  Cao Kun gathered their 3rd division and 9 combined brigades to form a Traitor Suppression army, with Wu Peifu as the front line commander-in-chief. The Zhili clique deployed their forces in the region of the Yang hamlet and due west of Gaobei. In the northeast, Zhang Zuolin deployed 3 divisions, roughly 70,00 men at the Machang and Junliangcheng. The battle plan was for the Zhili to strike from the south, converging on Baoding and then Beijing while the Fengtian would advance through the Shanhai pass of the Great Wall to attack the northern territories. Now the Anhui clique basically held dominance over the Beijing area, Anhui and along most of China's coast, however the Zhili clique now was dominating Jiangsu province, thus severing the vital railway that the Anhui depended on to move troops from north to south. While Duan could see the Zhili were mobilizing, the appearance of 3 Fengtian divisions advancing through Shanghaiguan caught his men by complete surprise. Duan in a rather panicked fashion ordered his troops in the capital to converge around Tientsin where he was forced to meet both enemies on a southern and northern front. On July 14th of 1920, the Anhui army made the first move by simultaneously attacking both fronts.  Zhili troops were forced to abandon Gaobei and 2 days later with Japanese assistance the Anhui forces were able to capture the Yang Hamlet, forcing the Zhili to form a second line of defense in the Beicang region. It was at Beicang where the Anhui forces finally lost momentum and were halted. On July 17th, Wu Peifu personally took command of the Zhili western front, where he unleashed a daring maneuver. He outflanked the Anhui forces at Zhouzhou and proceeded to storm the western Anhui army HQ. There Wu Peifu captured the Anhui front line commander-in-chief Qu Tongfeng and many of his officers, including the 1st division commander. After the capture of Zhuozhou, Wu Peifu pursued the retreating Anhui forces towards Beijing.  With the exception of the Anhui 15th division, their western front was all but annihilated.Also on the same day, the Fengtian army crashed into the Anhui eastern front.General Xu Shuzheng received word of the collapse of the western front and promptly fled to Langfang and then Beijing, leaving his forces to surrender to the combined forces of Wu Peifu and Zhang Zuolin. While the majority of the Anhui forces would be taken prisoners, many also managed to escape to Zhejiang and Shanghai, but they were a fraction of what they once were. By July 19th, Duan realized he had lost the war and publicly announced he was resigning from all of his posts. On the 23rd the combined Zhili and Fengtian forces entered Nanyuan and gradually pacified Beijing accepting the surrender of the Anhui clique. In less than a week of battle, the strongest clique was unexpectedly defeated. Zhang Zuolin's military capabilities received a enormous boom from the short battle. His men had captured vast quantities of arms, armaments, ammunition and military vehicles from the Japanese financed frontier defense army of the Anhui clique. It apparently took 100 railway wagons to send all the looted goods back to Mukden, alongside 12 captured aircraft. Zhang Zuolin also suffered pretty much nothing during the battle. The fengtian had merely put a heavy force on the field, they actually sat back quite idly most of the time allowing Wu Peifu to take the lionshare of the actual action against the enemy.  At this junction Zhang Zuolin faced two large decisions. First he could return to his powerbase in the northeast with assurances Beijing would not interfere with the development of his provinces. The Japanese were likewise constantly hassling Zhang to refrain from getting involved in the national political scene, to just develop his own region. Obviously Japan was arguing this while dangling financial aid because they were heavily invested in Manchuria and did not want any threats aimed at it, especially from Beijing. Wang Yongjiang, who would become a brilliant economic administrator to the Fengtian Clique, aiding in a lot of reforms, he believed the northeast provinces could continue to develop while keeping out of anything going on south of the Great Wall. He also added his voice, arguing Zhang should just stay the hell away from Beijing and its chaos. The second choice was of course, diving right into the chaos. After the fall of the Anhui Clique, Zhang Zuolin for the first time had tasted a real victory, especially one over a superior adversary. For the first time he had the opportunity to influence the politics of China, he could stop being just a mere bandit leader. Could someone like Zhang Zuolin be the man to reunify China? This he wondered. Thus his choices were to go back to being the tiger of Manchuria or become the man who would lead all of China. What do you think he would choose?  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 occupation of Mongolia looked like a good idea at the time to Duan Qirui, perhaps its could save his reputation so he could focus on defeating the pesky southern warlords. What a shock it was to find out all of the north rallied together to knock him off his tower. Now the Zhili and Fengtian cliques controlled Beijing, but would they work together, or simply fall into conflict, furthering China's misery.

Whitney Duan, or Duan Weihong, (1966-unknown) is a Chinese real estate billionaire who made her fortune by mixing business with politics. In 2017, she suddenly went missing and has only resurfaced a handful of times since.   For Further Reading: Why the Ex-Husband of a Missing Chinese Billionaire Is Risking All to Tell Their Story Red Roulette: An Insider's Story of Wealth, Power, Corruption, and Vengeance in Today's China The list of high-profile executives in China that have been investigated, face exit bans, or have just gone missing, keeps growing Historically, women have been told to make themselves smaller, to diminish themselves. Some have used that idea to their advantage, disappearing into new identities. For others, a disappearance was the end to their stories, but the beginning of a new chapter in their legacies. This month we're telling the stories of these women: we're talking about disappearing acts. History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn't help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should. Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we'll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures. Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Sara Schleede, Paloma Moreno Jimenez, Luci Jones and Abbey Delk. Special thanks to Shira Atkins. Original theme music composed by Miles Moran. Follow Wonder Media Network: Website Instagram Twitter See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last time we spoke about the Southern Warlords.  Yuan Shikai's abuse of power prompted declarations of independence from several southern regions, leading to the Second Revolution of 1913. Despite initial successes, Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army ultimately crushed the uprisings. Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, after various setbacks and political maneuvers, founded the Chinese Revolutionary Party and later resurrected the Kuomintang. Chiang Kai-Shek emerged as a significant figure within the KMT, navigating through alliances and conflicts. Meanwhile the formation of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) paralleled these events, driven by figures like Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, and later, Mao Zedong. Concurrently, various regional warlord cliques, including the Yunnan, Guangxi, Guangdong, Sichuan, and Hunan cliques, vied for power, often aligning with or against larger political entities like the KMT or the CCP. We have met the warlords now its time to tell their story.   #97 The Manchu Restoration of the Pigtail General   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.   Now where to begin, you sort of have to speak about someone we already have spoken to death about, the father of the warlords, Yuan Shikai. He “helped” with quotation marks usher in the republic of china and had a very heavy hand creating the New Army. He was a man of the 19th century, he had served in the First-Sino Japanese War of 1894-1895, then during the Boxer Rebellion. If you remember, back during the Boxer Rebellion, when Empress Dowager Cixi began frantically calling for an alliance with the Boxers to fight off the foreigners, Yuan Shikai like most governors at the time, put his head down. As the foreigners marched from Tientsin to Beijing, Yuan Shikai spent his time strengthening his position as Viceroy of Shandong. During this time he also received the Viceroy of Zhili and Commissioner for North China Trade. He had very lucrative posts and he used the money to set up military colleges. He hired foreign instructors, procured modern armaments and managed to create a professionally trained military. When the Xinhai revolution broke out, Yuan Shikai was made commander-in-chief and he brought his Beiyang Army to quell the rebels at Wuchang. Yet Yuan Shikai was not a moron and could see where the tides were turning, so he began a plot to take control of the new emerging republic. During his tenure, better said dictatorship, he strengthened his personal rule and suppressed any who could threaten him. Now we have already covered most of his story, during the last year of his life, Yuan Shikai increasingly began relying on the support of his military commanders in the capital and in various provinces. Many of these commanders betrayed him, the first one was General Cai E, the emerging warlord of Yunnan. On January 1st of 1916, Cai E declared independence for Yunnan and indeed Sichuan province thus threatening Yuan Shikai's rule over central China. After this Guangxi and Guangdong declared independence. As Yuan Shikai's subordinates began to betray him one by one, the most significant man amongst them would turn out to be Duan Qirui. Duan Qirui was a very talented young officer in command of the artillery corps of Yuan Shikai's Beiyang army. He distinguished himself during the Boxer Rebellion, helping suppress the Boxers, then in 1911 he was sent against the Wuhan rebels. In 1912 as peace talks were being held between Nanjing and Beijing, Duan was an envoy for Beijing and here he personally declared he was in favor of Emperor Puyi abdicating. This earned him an appointment as Minister for the Army in the northern republican government headed by Yuan Shikai. He soon earned himself governorship over Hubei province. Yuan Shikai increasingly began to isolate himself while in power and he often turned to Duan to help rally support. In April of 1916 Duan was appointed premier over the Beijing government. This was the first real taste of power for Duan, and although he would be quite authoritarian, he was no lover of public office. He had buddhist inclinations, and enjoyed the quiet life. Thus he delegated much of his authority to his subordinates and usually stood by their decisions. One of his primary interests was training soldiers and he made sure to grab the position of Ministry of War alongside his premiership. He managed to convince Yuan Shikai to adopt a cabinet style of government, taking major issues behind closed doors amongst trusted elites. Here was born the fabric of warlord era politics. While Duan was premier had led a cabinet, it was of course at the whim of Yuan Shikai who directed its actions. While Duan could not exact real power in the cabinet, what he did do was perform lesser actions using a smaller cabal of loyal ruling elites, mostly subordinate officers to him. Duan also tried to get Yuan Shikai to give up his title as Grand Marshal and to place all military power in the hands of the War Ministry. That last part is an eye opener to be sure, but Duan never tried to overthrow his master. But while under Yuan Shikai he did transfer a detachment of troops loyal to him to guard against his enemies. Now when Yuan Shikai died he left a sealed box and inside it were three names, Xu Shichang, Li Yuanhong and Duan Qirui. None of the three men were eager to take the Presidency, Duan was the first to suggest Li take the job. Li was not keen about the idea, but it is said Duan coerced him into it. Duan spoke with all his senior military officers, they were not at all pleased with the idea of Li Yuanhong as president, but Duan explained to them, it was better to govern in the shadows. Li would be a very useful puppet, he was a southerner not liked by the other northerners, thus very easy to manipulate. Better yet, blame would be cast upon him, and not those like Duan. Yet Duan was very authoritarian and irritated by having to explain his actions to a state council and to president Li, who himself was not always content to give his rubber stamp of approval. Thus the easy puppet began to not be so easy. Worse, Li began taking an interest in military affairs and in relations with other warlords. Duan once in anger exclaimed 'I ask him to sign things and put his  seal on them, not to sit on my head!' Regardless, there was a fail safe system. The president of the republic was not permitted to put his seal on any measures not already passed by the State Council which Duan dominated. Now the entire sealed box thing was certainly not how a President gets elected. Just because Li had automatically become president did not mean he would not have to soon face an election to continue it. Now before his death Yuan Shikai had suspended the constitution. Prominent members of the Southern factions in Guangzhou, such as Liang Qichao demanded the 1912 constitution be held up accordingly, ie: that Li face an election. On June 15th of 1917, the commander of the first fleet, Admiral Li Tingxin, at that time based in Shanghai, alongside other admirals declared support for the old constitution being restored and threatened to ignore orders from Beijing if it was not reinstated. This snowballed into the formation of a National Protection Army in the Southwest. This was seriously bad news for Duan. While there were three fleets, the 1st Fleet was the dominant one. Despite protest from other northern warlords, Duan capitulated, the old constitution was restored.  This was not the only crisis Duan faced at the time, there were also calls for army reduction nationwide. After years of uprisings, rebellions and regional wars, some many different military groups were established and it no longer made any sense. As you can imagine, many of these so called armies, were in fact Warlords personal armies and any talk of reduction brought Duan directly in confrontation with other warlords. Of course Duan wanted to take the opportunity to weaken his enemies. Duan sought to create a national  army consisting of 40 divisions, roughly 10,000 men each and 20 independent brigade of 5000 men each, thus a force of 500,000 or so. Each province was also to supply their local garrisons with 200 battalions nation-wide, a battalion being roughly 5000 men making a total of 100,000 provisional troops. This of course was based on the old Qing system, have provincial armies that did not stray from their respective provinces and a mobile main force. This would not at all be representative of warlord China. Duans plan to weaken the south did not seem feasible politically, I mean, if you were a southern warlord would you go along with this? Duan quickly realized it would be impossible to disarm his enemies, thus he would have to defeat them on the battlefield. Yet in order to do so he required circumstances, such as provinces refusing to pay taxes to Beijing or claiming independence. Now in 1917, Duan was being pressured by the Entente powers to sever relations with Germany and better yet, declare war. As we saw in the previous episodes, a lot of events unfolded during WW1, Japan invaded Qingdao, then Japan unleashed the 21 demands, and in 1917 Germany resumed unrestricted U-boat warfare. The United States invited China to join her in formal protest over this. On March 10th, Duan addressed parliament urging to sever ties to Germany, but parliament was reluctant. For the Chinese military elite, the idea of declaring war on Germany was very attractive. It could possibly open up foreign subsidies, and perhaps a renegotiation of some unequal treaties with Entente powers. It would turn out this was a very popular stance amongst the civilian population as they overwhelmingly voted for a declaration of war later on. However discussions on the matter were quite chaotic. While Duan Qirui wished to declare war on Germany, Li Yuanhong did not.  After the March 10th declaration a large series of quarrels began. Duan Qirui in fury offered his resignation as Premier, while vice president Feng Guozhang tried desperately to mediate between him and Li Yuanhong. Most of the parliament team including Liang Qichiao worked to alienate Duan Qirui during the process. In a true Yuan Shikai fashion, Duan Qirui attempted to intimate the parliament into declaring war. Then suddenly in May, an English language newspaper in Beijing published details of a large loan Duan Qirui had secretly negotiated with the Japanese, the infamous Nishihara loans. To the public this looked like Yuan Shikai's Reorganization Loan all over again. Li Yuanhong thus got all of parliament on his side and chose to use his new power to dismiss Duan Qirui. This was honestly a huge gamble as Li Yuanhong had no military support of his own. He was betting on the Beiyang commanders to respect the constitutional president and parliament. Duan Qiruir's supporters as expected all declared independence of their respective provinces and followed Duan Qirui to Tientsin where he established a new HQ. Thus Duan Qirui and his loyal military governor left Beijing and set up shop in Tientsin, gathering forces to rebel against Li Yuanhong and retake the capital. Realizing he was screwed, Li Yaunhong looked for another strongman to defend the capital against Duan. Li had few he could turn to in the north, most of the Beiyang Generals were loyal to Duan. Then suddenly out of the blue, General Zhang Xun offered to mediate the conflict between Li and Duan. Zhang Xun was an eccentric general who had served as a military escort for Empress Dowager Cixi during the Boxer Rebellion and afterwards a Beiyang General in Yuan Shikai's army. He fought on the Qing side in 1911, after the Qing dynasty fell he remained loyal to Yuan Shikai. Despite being a general in the new Republic, he refused to cut his Manchu queue, thus he earned the nickname the “pigtailed general”. Why might he still carry this hairstyle you might ask, well he was a die hard Qing loyalist. He had served Yuan Shikai, more or less to get back at the revolutionaries that had taken down the Qing. Zhang Xun supported Yuan Shikai's emperor phase and earned himself a 1st Class Duke title for it. Now when Duan Qirui expressed his desire to sever ties to Germany, Zhang Xun opposed this. Zhang Xun had few allies as one would guess. There was the leader of the royalist party, Kang Youmei who attempted to restore a monarchy politically and there was the Japanese. From the Japanese point of view, they wanted someone like Emperor Puyi to be placed back on the Manchu throne, simply because they believed he would be easy to control. Japanese prime minister Masaki Terauchi appointed Japan's deputy chief of military staff, Tanaka Giichi and even got some Black Dragon members to go over to brush shoulders with those like Zhang Xun to prod them into restoring the monarchy. Thus Zhang Xun had some political help, and Japanese funding. One story has it that Zhang Xun went to Duan in Tientsin first, and offered to support him if Duan restored the Manchu monarchy. Duan allegedly pretended to agree to this. Zhang Xun then discussed matters with Li Yuanhong and pressured him to dissolve parliament on June 13th, stating if he did so he would help defend Beijing and Li agreed to this allowing him to bring his army over.  Thus at midnight on June 30th of 1917, Zhang Xun's army arrived outside Beijing, whereupon Zhang apparently came into the city alone to listen to a play. Zhang Xun then ordered his subordinate officers to invite the temporary garrison commander in chief of Beijing and Tientsin, Wang Shizhen, deputy commanders Jiang Chaozong, Chen Guangyuan and director of the Beijing police department Wu Bingxiang over. He announced to them in a meeting "I am leading the troops to Beijing this time. We are not here to mediate with someone, but to restore the emperor to the throne and restore the Qing Dynasty." He then told them all he planned to enter the palace to ask the emperor if he would retake the throne. He looked at the men and asked what they thought. Wang, Jiang, Chen and Wu were frightened by this sudden statement. Wang Shizhen asked: "Have the provinces and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs contacted each other?" Zhang Xun replied: "The diplomacy is indeed sure. Feng Guozhang and Lu Rongting both expressed their approval and sent messages to urge them. The provincial governors also unanimously supported it." Wang Shizhen and others sat silent and speechless. Zhang Xun added: "I am determined to do it. If you agree, then open the city gate and let my troops in. Otherwise, please go back to your arrangements and fight to the death!" Wang Shizhen and others looked at each other and did not dare to say anything else, to them all he seemed to be insane. Zhang Xun went to the gates and demanded they be opened as his 5000-man army entered Beijing. Then Zhang Xun donned a blue gauze robe with a yellow mandarin jack, a red crown and marched with Kang Youwei, Wang Shizhen, Jiang Chaozong, Chen Guangyuan and Wu Bingxiang amongst other civil and military officials to the palace in the early morning of July 1st. At 3am, 12 year old Puyi met with Zhang Xun and the others. Upon seeing Puyi, Zhang Xun kowtowed 3 times with everyone else following. Zhang then asked him to go ahead with a restoration stating "Five years ago, Empress Dowager Longyu couldn't bear to let the people suffer for the honor of her surname , so she issued an edict to establish a republic. Unexpectedly, the people would not live in peace... A republic is not in line with our national conditions. Only when the emperor is restored can all the people be saved..." Puyi followed Chen Baochen's instructions and said humbly: "I am too young and have no talent or virtue to take on such a big position." Zhang Xun immediately praised: "The emperor is wise and sage, and everyone in the world knows it. In the past, the Holy Ancestor Emperor (referring to Kangxi) also practiced Zuo in his early years." Puyi quickly followed Chen Baochen's instructions and said: "In this case, I will do whatever it takes!" So Zhang Xun, Kang Youwei and others knelt down on the ground and shouted long live the emperor, Wang Shizhen and others had no choice but to kneel down and cheer casually. At 4am Zhang Xun sent Liang Dingen, an old minister in the Qing Dynasty to go to the presidential palace with an edict conferring the title of 1st class Duke for Li Yuanhong alongside a memorial Kang Youwei wrote reading "Li Yuanhong petitioned to return the state affairs" Li Yuanhong was asked to sign it. Li Yuanhong was shocked by all of this. Li Yuanhong would recall thinking “I drove away the wolf Duan Qirui at the front door, but attracted the tiger Zhang Xun at the back door”. Li Yuanhong sternly refused stating "I hold the position of president. I am entrusted by the people and dare not do such a thing. If the restoration issue is proposed by Zhang Xun alone, I am afraid that China and foreign countries may not recognize it. How can I dare to agree to it privately?" Liang Dingfen threatened: "If you don't agree, you may regret it." Li Yuanhong refused again, prompting Liang Dingfen to leave in anger. The next day, Li Yuanhong called Vice President Feng Guozhang, who was in Nanjing, to take over as acting president as he fled to the Japanese Embassy District in Dongjiaomin Lane for refuge. People within the city scrambled at the news. The old Huanglong shop that had been out of business for 5 years at that point returned to business but could not meet the demands of the citizens scrambling for traditional paper dragon flags. All the old princes, nobles and such came out of the woodwork as they say looking to celebrate the restoration in front of the palace waiting to see the emperor. Apparently a ton of people scrambled to find queue wigs and mandarin jackets. For the vast majority of China, the restoration was met with absolute outrage. Dr Sun Yat-Sen at the very moment of hearing the news over in Shanghai, simply got up and declared a rebellion…because of course he did…its what he did for a living honestly. Dr Sun Yat-Sen grabbed his colleagues and they all agreed to rush over to Guangzhou to form a crusade against Zhang Xun. Everyone across china did similar actions, in all the major capitals in the south angry leaders got together to form plans. After Li Yuanhong fled for his life, he sent a telegram to Duan Qirui begging him to save Beijing. Duan Qirui who was already organizing a full blown invasion to seize the capital for himself probably smiled. Duan Qirui quickly got his Anhui army together and marched upon Beijing. Back in Beijing within 48 hours of the restoration, numerous edicts were proclaimed trying to bolster the Manchu restoration. As you can imagine this was all very shocking to the general public. Feng Guozhang in Nanjing publicly opposed the restoration as Duan Qirui swore a public oath to end the Qing dynasty again. On July 5th, Duan's forces stormed the Beijing-Tientsin railway just 40 km's from the capital. That same day, Zhang Xun ordered all those loyal to him to bolster Beijing defenses, however he was very outnumbered. Just about all the Beiyang troops opposed him, and that was kind of a duh moment. Honestly this entire event is typically told in a comedic narrative. Feng Guozhang officially took the office of presidency on July 6th while still in Nanjing and by July 11th, Duan Qirui's army surrounded Beijing. Within the city those like Wang Shizhen begged Zhang Xun to surrender, but he refused. On July 12th, Duan Qirui ordered an aerial bombardment upon the Forbidden City. A French WW1 era Caudron Type D aircraft piloted by Pan Shizhong and bombardier Du Yuyuan launched from Nanyuan Airbase and dropped three bombs over the Forbidden city, killing a single eunuch, but doing little damage whatsoever. There are sources that claim the pilot was actually the principal of the Nanyuan Aviation school, Qin Guoyong, regardless this was the first recorded instance of aerial bombardment deployed by the Republican era Chinese Air Force. Li Yuanhong publicly stated he refused to retake his position as president. The newly restored Manchu Court immediately prepared an edict of abdication for Emperor Puyi, but did not dare proclaim it lest Zhang Xun or his loyalist forces kill them. Officials of this imperial court managed to secretly negotiate with Duan Qirui's besieging forces, begging them not to assault the capital. The imperial court officials even began beginning foreign legations to help. Boy a lot had changed since 1900 haha. With Zhang Xun not budging, the courts negotiations fell apart, prompting Duan to announce a general assault would begin the next day. The assault saw Qing loyalists manning the wall of the Temple of Heaven firing at the invaders, but nearly as soon as guns began to fire, negotiations were resumed. It turned out Zhang Xun had fled to the Dutch embassy, so his men begged Duan for a ceasefire. Duan granted it immediately and peacefully entered Beijing, establishing control over the government and police forces. Zhang Xun hid himself in the Dutch legation and would never participate in politics ever again. Zhang first fled to the German concession in Tientsin, then in March of 1918 the Beiyang government pardoned him. With his freedom in hand, Zhang Xun lived a life of seclusion in an apartment in Tientsin. He tried to run a business until 1923 when he got sick and died at the age of 68. He was posthumously given the title “Zhongwu” and buried in his hometown of Chitian Village, Fengxin county.  Thus ended the 12 day old Manchu restoration and the Manchu Clique. When approached on the subject, Emperor Puyi stated he never wanted the throne in the first place, who knows the truth of said matter. Li Yuanhong had resigned as president, making Feng Guozhang the new president of the Beiyang government, still no election had been held, mind you. Duan Qirui took back his position as Premier, but refused to restore parliament nor the old constitution. Duan Qirui forced the Beiyang government to declare war on the Central Powers and began sending laborers to the Entente powers alongside a token force to Siberia. Now he was free to use the Nishihara loans uninhabited, building up what would become the dominant army in China, the Anhui army. Meanwhile Dr Sun Yat-Sen and countless others began rebellious activity in the south. Duan Qirui flocked many to his banner, creating his power base in Anhui province. His clique would be the first to organize themselves properly and he had a lot of funding behind him. Zhang Xun's failed Manchu restoration was honestly one of the greatest strokes of luck imaginable for Duan Qirui. Yet as he promoted and appointed family and close friends to prestigious positions, he overlooked many. These military officers and civil servants felt slighted by this and many turned to Feng Guozhang. Feng Guozhang had come back to Beijing to assume the presidency, but not before he had made sure to set up his proteges as military commanders in Jiangsu, Hubei and Guangxi. These three provinces formed the basis strength of his new Clique, the Zhili Clique. Thus two players placed their pieces on the board, there were many more to come. Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang both were inspired to unify China in their own image. Wars would be fought against the Southerners, but wars would also be fought in the north. Duan Qirui felt confident he had achieved supremacy and could now act against his enemies, but what if his enemies all banded together to beat him?   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 Qing loyalist, Zhang Xun attempted a Manchu Restoration, and well, he did restore it for roughly 12 days.  However Zhang Xun could have no idea what he really ushered in, for his actions had much more dire consequences. Duan Qirui was given a golden opportunity to seize more and more power, and he did, now his Anhui Clique was king of the hill, but we all know what happens in that game.   

I received something in the mail recently that brought a huge smile to my face, and I think it will do the same for you. You might have surmised that this means another BOOKLOOK and you would be correct. There are very few things that I enjoy more than receiving a surprise package. It's the simple things in life, am I right?  I received a parcel that contained the latest monograph from KAA Architecture, of whom, I am an enormous fan. I love their work, yes but I also consider Grant Kirkpatrick and Duan Tran likeminded, ideological compatriots. Both Grant and Duan have been on the show. I have spent a great deal of time with both and I will share something with you about talent, creativity and the willingness to extend ones comfort zone. KAA Design Group is a firm based on creative adventure. Based on solid fundamental principles of design and a joyful willingness to express new ideas. And you can hear their joy when they speak about what they do.   You now understand why I was giddy with excitement to flip through this weighty tome. Weighty it is and also jammed with both creative expression and fundamental expertise in the field of architectural design. The book is entitled Residing with Nature. It contains an interview with Grant and Duan that is insightful and telling what is to come in the following pages.  They open with one of my absolute favorite KAA Design projects. TREE HOUSE based in La Jolla, CA.  This home is an extraordinary example of masterful site planning. Dimension and topography are exquisite. The vegetation surrounds and infrastructure compliments the entire footprint of the site.  The structure itself, concrete, wood and glass with a stunning Oak planted at the rear of the home also welcomes you upon arrival due to the size, scope and scale of the 300 year old specimen. Side note. As a woodworker, I love turning oak. I love working with oak because it's grain is spectacular, with distinct rings and you can see the uniqueness from the inside, but also from the exterior as each oak tree is distinctly different in the growth pattern, gnarly bark and leaf clusters. This tree obscures some parts of the structure yet opens willingly to others for a high level of interest. this is what exceptional architects see and understand before a single form is built. This residence is exceptional in every way. This book gives the reader a look inside the thought process that led to its creation in image and carefully selected text. I imagine the same care went into every line drawn. Another exceptional example of the true essence of the work lies in the Tower Grove residence. An exceptional example of site management combined with extreme engineering that makes this an absolute masterpiece in architectural design. Both examples noted and throughout this entire book, you will find example after example of the symbiotic relationship explored, detailed and executed in the work of KAA Design. The book is available now, published by Rizzoli. Check the show notes for links to KAA, Rizzoli and to buy this book. I think if you are a fan of architecture, extraordinary design vision and sustainable building, you will love this as much as I do. Grant, Duan, well done. Congratulations. Next up, some house cleaning and scatter shooting. Starting with updates, listen to the podcast for everything you need to know. SOURCE: Internet week of April23 https://www.retaildive.com/news/high-end-appliance-retailer-pirch-chapter-7-liquidation-lawsuits/713981/ https://www.dwell.com/article/chris-pratt-katherine-schwarzenegger-demolished-craig-ellwood-zimmerman-house-and-the-internet-is-furious-176c7c46-093eaa4e https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/westedge-design-fair-brought-la-design-world-santa-monica  

Jim's Remedial Massage is now live and giving away the first 10 franchisees for free except for the start-up pack. Duan talks about the division and the services it can provide. To learn more about this offer call 131 546 or enquire via www.jims.net --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jimsgroup/message

Last time we spoke about the May fourth movement of 1919 . The Xinhai Revolution of 1911 sparked the May Fourth Movement marked by nationalism, anti-imperialism, and a quest for modernization. Disillusioned with traditional values and foreign encroachments, Chinese intellectuals, students, and workers embraced Western ideals, particularly Marxism, to reform Chinese society. The movement led to the emergence of the Chinese Communist Party and a broader alliance against warlordism and Japanese imperialism. Tensions arose between reformist liberalism and revolutionary Marxism, reflecting debates over China's path to progress. Despite setbacks, the May Fourth Movement's legacy persisted, shaping China's political landscape and laying the groundwork for future revolutionary action. Its an understatement to say it was a watershed moment in modern Chinese history. But underneath it lurked a new Era, one that was to be fought and ruled by warlords.   #94 Meet the Northern Warlords   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. How to even begin. I am staring at roughly 10 tabs of books alongside numerous scripts I had written nearly a year ago about China's Warlord Era. I have already written an extensive series, that I also molded into a long form documentary about the Warlord Era, you can find it at the Pacific War Channel on Youtube or in audio form on all podcast platforms. However, I realize now, I really did not dig deep enough, specifically on….who exactly were the warlords? Its true, I covered their numerous battles, made jokes about them, but I did not really go deep into their backgrounds.To be honest their backgrounds are quite fascinating, they were all kooky characters. Thus I thought what better than to start off the Warlord Era by introducing some of the warlords and their cliques. But because there is literally so many warlords, I literally halfway through writing this one had to change it to just the Northern Warlords, next episode we cover the southern ones. After the death of Yuan Shikai China underwent a major shift from being a state-dominated civil bureaucracy overseen by a central authority to military dominated regions. These regions were dominated by the Warlords whom in the words of American political scientist Lucian Pye “were instinctively suspicious, quick to suspect that their interests might be threatened, hard-headed, devoted to the short run and impervious to idealistic abstractions". Most of the Warlords, came from military backgrounds, having gone through the new-style military colleges of the late 19th and early 20th century with foreign instructors. Most of the warlords were extremely brutal to not just their enemies, but civilians and their own troops. They killed without a second thought their own men if they suspected insubordination. They used horrible torture tactics like suspending a victim by the neck in bamboo or wooden cages, breaking knees, slicing limbs, branding and so forth. If railway workers tried to go on strike, a Warlord would often execute a few of them to get them back to work. A British diplomat in Sichuan province witnessed two mutineers being publicly hacked to death with their hearts and livers cut out; another two were burned to death; and others had slits cut into their bodies into which were inserted burning candles before they were hacked to pieces Warlords had to depend on subordinate officers, thus personal loyalty was of vital importance. Many Warlords would be betrayed by their officers who were often bribed by other Warlords. During the Warlord period, there was a balance of power. For those who don't know, the Balance of Power theory suggests states or in this case warlord regions, may secure their own survival by preventing any other state from gaining enough military power to dominate all others. So basically in Europe historically you see this with Britain, France and Spain. Two of the states would always join forces against the largest state to keep everyone in check. During the Warlord Era where there are numerous cliques with their own regional bases, the balance of power becomes quite complicated, but most books or even Youtube videos for that matter focus on 3 big ones, that we will get into soon.  Now the Warlords entire power scheme relied on their military, thus it was a precious thing to conserve. Going to war with another Clique might increase ones sphere of influence, but it might also weaken ones military so much they become vulnerable to attacks from other Cliques. This is further complicated by all the intricacies of the 20th century, this is an age of industry, economic power, trade and so forth. Not all the Warlords held regions with the economic capacity or logistical strength to wage longterm wars, some needed decisive knockout blows. As you can imagine, theres thousands of variables at play, making it nearly impossible for any given Clique to dominate all of China. The Warlord Era played out during a time when railroads were the fastest and cheapest means of transporting troops, thus capturing railroads was of vital importance. This was also an age directly after WW1 where the armored train was king. An armored train full of artillery and machine guns could land troops and perform fire support for them in battle.  Warlord armies consisted of common soldiers and more often than naught bandits. These grunt types had no loyalty to anyone, many joined Warlord armies as a means to an end, everyone has to eat as they say. Often a bandit became a soldier during times of war, then during times of peace they went back to banditry, it was a vicious cycle. Warlord armies were a plague upon the populations they came into contact with. They plundered, raped, took hostages for money, took women into sexual slavery, murder was rampant. Warlords often looted the countryside as a means to pay their troops. Peasants often joined a Warlord army, fought a battle, became captured by the enemy who simply enlisted them. Yes, Warlords often incorporated POW's into their armies, a system that would bite them in the ass often. Since I am the Pacific War Channel, I have to mention, a famous figure of the Pacific War, Vinegar Joseph Stilwell went to China as an attache in the 1920's and got to see Warlordism first hand. In 1926 he inspected a warlord unit and estimated 20% of the men were 4 foot 6, the average age was roughly 14 and many walked barefoot. Warlord armies were composed of infantry, cavalry, artillery, sometimes armor and even airforces for the lucky big guys. They were organized like any modern military with commanding officers over various units. They were composed of regular units, typically the core of a Warlords army. These were professionally trained soldiers, often equipped with modern firearms and artillery, the backbone of the army so to say. Then there were irregular militias, these were the local recruit types. They were less trained, less equipped, but like in any good army they provided numbers and numbers are a strength of its own. They could be used for garrison duties, patrolling, support roles, freeing up the regular army units. They were more prevalent in rural areas where manpower was always needed to keep control. Next there were foreign advisors and foreign mercenaries. Some Warlords hired foreign military advisors and mercenaries to bolster their strength. The advisors came from any of the great powers, but most especially Japan, Britain, France and Germany. The Russian civil war also added a ton of White Russians to the mix, some Warlords took advantage of this hiring full White Russian regiments like Zhang Zongchang. In 1916 China had roughly half a million soldiers, by 1922 this tripled, then it tripled again in 1924. Such manpower cost money, thus Warlords enacted large taxes to keep their armies going. One way of raising funds were specific taxes called lijin, it was a form of internal tariff, placed on the transit of goods being traded between provinces. One example of lijin was seen in Sichuan province were 27 different taxes were placed upon salt and paper going down the Yangtze river to Shanghai. It was taxes 11 different times by various warlords to the sum of 160% of its total value. Warlords also took enormous loans further complicated the economic order. Many Warlords got into the black market, stealing, cultivating and selling opium. Countless Warlords faced insane inflation situations seeing them continuously printing more and more money. As a Canadian under Justin Trudeau I have no idea what that is like, cough cough. Warlords were not all well educated, thus the illiterate Warlord of Manchuria, Zhang Zuolin when facing increasing prices obviously caused by inflation, he assumed it was the result of greedy merchants and began executing them. All of these money problems occurred because men and equipment were needed. Warlords bought their military arms typically from foreign nations. They purchased weapons from all sorts of nations like Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, thus there was a plethora of different weapons. For rifles, many used the domestic manufactured Hanyang 88 and Mauser, while also importing rifles like the German Mauser Gewehr 98, British Lee-Enfield, the French Chauchat rifle and Italian Carcano M1891. For handguns the most popular was the Mauser C96. For Submachine guns apparently the Bergman MP28 was a favorite, but of course the Thompson submachine gun and MP18 also were purchased. For machine guns its was the Maxim, Chauchat, Browning, Vickers, MG08, Lewis gun, Hotchkiss m1909, honestly there are too many to list. Bayonets were bought and forged en masse alongside a variety of swords and sabers, the Chinese preferred the Dao and Jian for cavalry and ceremonies. Armored cars and trucks were bought en masse, armored trains were employed by a few warlords like Zhang Zongchang. Zhang Zuolin managed to buy some Renault FT tanks in the later 1920s. All the big warlords scrambled to get their hands on WW1 tanks and aircraft, though few used these effectively in battle. In the case of aircraft they really served primarily as reconnaissance.  Now lets talk about the Warlords and their Cliques. There were hundreds of warlords, I can't go through them all, but what I will do is name the larger guys, and throughout the series I am sure we will keep adding more. First, the origin of the warlords is of course the father of warlords, Yuan Shikai. Yuan Shikai built up the strongest army in China, the Beiyang Army that outlasted him. Many of Yuan Shikai's officers would become Warlords and their loyal followers made up cliques. Two officers very close to Yuan Shikai were Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang. Both men began their military careers in the Tientsin Military academy a school established by Li Hongzhang ack in 1885. Duan Qirui's grandfather had served in Li Hongzhangs army, thus he was very much a military son. Feng Guozhang came from a family of landowners who had fallen on hard times, he failed to obtain his second civil service degree dashing his hopes to gain a post in the civilian bureaucracy, so he turned to the military. Both Duan and Feng gained good reputations, prompting Yuan Shikai to bring them into his inner circle. Both served him faithfully during the Xinhai Revolution and were rewarded with high office positions in his new government. Duan received military governorship over Hunan and Hubei and Feng received military governorship over Jiangsu. When Yuan Shikai died, Li Yuanghong took the presidency, actually forced by Duan Qirui who became Premier and Feng Guozhang became Vice-President. The Beiyang government henceforth, basically served at the whim to whichever warlord held the strongest army and largest presence within Beijing at any given time. Now leaderless, the Beiyang Army broke apart, its regiments and divisions fell under the control of various warlords in northern China who claimed them for their private armies. The Warlords sought to increase their power by increasing the size of their armies. This also resulted in the creation of major factions, better known as “cliques”. Duan Qirui became the founder of the Anhui clique, it was called this because the majority of its most influential members came from Anhui, including Duan. This clique had close ties to Japan, in previous episodes I mentioned Duan Qirui's secret Nishihara loans, this was done to bolster the cliques army. The Anhui clique organized themselves very early on and were more politically sophisticated than their rivals. The clique had a political wing known as the Anfu Club meaning “peace and happiness club”. Basically this was a group of Beijing politicians who favored Duan and tried to mold the political order his way. There was also a financial wing known as “the new communications clique” led by Cao Rulin who was a rival to Liang Shiyi's “Old Communications clique” part of the Cantonese clique, yes this gets really confusing. The Anhui clique basically became the biggest clique at the offset and would be led by multiple figures over the years.  There were many Beiyang officers who were not allowed into the Anhui clique. In the Beiyang Army as in any army, countless men had been overlooked for promotions by those like Duan Qirui and became bitter. These disgruntled officers who felt Duan Qirui had snubbed them gradually rallied behind Feng Guozhang forming the Zhili Clique. The Zhili Clique had its power base in Jiangsu, Jiangxi and Hubei. The Zhili clique was western oriented relying on western nations for funding and arms. Unlike the Anhui, early on the Zhili lacked strong bonds, thus they were more likely to abandon or betray another. They would be led by multiple figures, but no one would be as popular as Wu Peifu. Now as I very much know after creating my Warlord series on the Pacific War channel, I got a ton of comments about Wu Peifu, he is a fan favorite. Wu Peifu was born in Shandong and he received a traditional confucian education. Most would argue Wu Peifu was a Confucian scholar turned soldier in fact. It seems the Japanese victory over China in 1895 persuaded Wu to join the military. He enrolled in one of the new military academies at the time, the Baoding Military academy in Beijing and graduated in 1903 as a 2nd Lt in the beiyang army. Three years later he was assigned to Cao Kun's 3rd division and this sprang a 20 year relationship between the two men. Cao Kun took Wu under his wing and would become the leader of the Zhili clique after Feng Guozhang. However, Cao Kun was heavily invested in political matters. Because of this he relied heavily on Wu Peifu to manage military affairs and this paid off big time as Wu Peifu became one of modern China's greatest military strategists. Think Lelouche from Code Geass, if you get that reference you are a person of culture haha. Wu Peifu earned the epithet “the Jade Marshal” because of his military and intellectual prowess. He would won many battles and campaigns over rival warlords, often outmaneuvering or outwitting them. He also was very committed to maintaining integrity and order within his military. He emphasized professionalism and adhered to codes of conduct, earning a lot of respect amongst his men and China in general. To many he looked elegant and composed, resembling the qualities of Jade. He would brush shoulders with other famous Zhili clique warlords like Sun Chuanfang and Qi Xieyuan, but honestly the list is very large. Now if you read about the warlord Era, typically they display three large cliques in the north who influence most of the era, the Anhui clique, Zhili clique and of course the Fengtian clique.  They basically form a balance of power in North China. I should also probably note, China is facing a North/South divide during the Warlord Era so you often hear the cliques called Northern faction cliques or SOuthern faction cliques. The Fengtian clique's sphere of influence was Manchuria and thus was heavily backed by Japan. Like Wu Peifu, the founder of the Fengtian clique is also a fan favorite, his name was Zhang Zuolin, the Tiger of Manchuria. Zhang Zuolin was born in Haicheng in southern Fengtian province, modern Liaoning to a poor family. He received very little formal education, but when old enough he ran a stable at an Inn. He was a slender, kind of frail man with a droopy mustache and a soft voice. He enlisted in the military during the first sino-Japanese war learning how to be a soldier and returned to Fengtian were some say he became a Honghuzi. There is a story, most likely made up by Zhang Zuolin mind you that he was on a hunting trip when he came across a wounded Honghuzi on horseback. He killed the man, stole his horse and took his Honghuzi identity for himself. He gradually organized a small militia force to defend the locality and this became the nucleus of his personal army. Scholars are unsure whether Zhang Zuolin was ever a Honghuzi. Some claim he led a honghuzi gang, others state he was accused of being honghuzi because his local militia was not a regular military unit. During the Boxer Rebellion his gang joined the imperial army and afterwards they worked as security escorts for traveling merchants. During the Russo-Japanese war his men worked as mercenaries for the IJA. After the war he reached an arrangement with the military governor of Fengtien to have his forces become a regiment in the regular Qing army. During the Xinhai revolution as many declared independence movements in Manchuria, the pro-Manchu governor used Zhang Zuolins regiment to set up a “Manchurian People's peacekeeping council”. This was simply done to intimidate and threaten the revolutionaries, but for Zhang Zuolin's role he was awarded the Vice Ministry of Military affairs. When Yuan Shikai was trying to seize the presidency from Dr Sun Yat-Sen, Zhang Zuolin supported him and received military provisions for doing so. Zhang Zuolin murdered a number of leading figures in Mukden and was promoted multiple times by the Ailing Qing dynasty. When it became obvious Yuan Shikai was going to takeover, Zhang Zuolin threw his lot in with him. After 1911 Zhang Zuolin helped quell the rebellion earning a rank of Lt-General. Then when Yuan Shikai declared himself emperor, Zhang Zuolin was one of the very few who supported him. For this Yuan Shikai promoted him to Military governor of Fengtian. In 1916 when Yuan Shikai had to put down rebellions in the southern provinces, Zhang Zuolin supported the effort, however when Duan Qirui sent a new military governor to replace him, Zhang Zuolin went to the Kwantung Army for help. With the Japanese help Zhang Zuolin got rid of the many and would retain his authority over Fengtian. When Yuan Shikai died, Zhang Zuolin was in the perfect position to become a warlord in his region. By 1919 he managed to gain the position of inspector general over all 3 provinces of Manchuria and appointed loyal subordinates all over Manchuria to make sure his control was absolute. By 1920 he was the de facto supreme leader of Manchuria and controlled the Fengtian Army. Zhang Zuolin would dominate the Fengtian Clique nearly its entire existence, only to be replaced by his son Zhang Xueliang after his death. The Fengtian clique produced many warlords, the most notorious being of course, the Dogmeat General Zhang Zongchang. I wont get into it here, but I honestly plan on doing an entire episode to cover Zhang Zongchang's life story, its too hilarious and horrifying not to.  The next northern warlord clique was the Shanxi clique of Yan Xishan. Yan Xishan was born in the late 19th century in Wutai county of Xinzhou, Shanxi. His family were mostly bankers and merchants, he himself worked in his fathers bank and pursued a traditional Confucian education. However economic depression in his region, prompting Yan to join a military school in Taiyuan. There he was introduced to western sciences and in 1904 he went to Japan to study at the Tokyo Shimbu Gakko, a military preparatory academy. He enlisted in the Japanese army academy and graduated in 1909. Yan studied in Japan for 5 years and was impressed by Japan's modernization efforts. He observed much of what he could and would later use it to modernize Shanxi. Yan concluded Japan had successfully modernized largely because of its governments abilities to mobilize its populace in support of its policies and the close respectful relationship that existed in its military and civilian populations. In 1910 Yan wrote a pamphlet warning China that it was endanger of being overtaken by Japan unless it developed a form of Bushido. Before going to Japan, Yan had been disgusted with the wide scale corruption of Shanxi officials and believed the Qing dynasty's hostility towards modernization and industrialization led to its downfall. While in Japan Yan met with Dr Sun Yat-Sen and joined his Tongmenghui. When Yan came back to China he was assigned divisional command of the New Army in Shanxi. Despite his post, Yan actually covertly worked to overthrow the Qing. During the Xinhai revolution Yan led a local revolutionary force to drive out the Qing loyalist troops in the province and proclaimed its independence. Yan hoped to join forces with another prominent Shanxi revolutionary named Wu Luzhen, to resist Yuan Shikai's dominance over Northern China. However Wu Luzhen was assassinated just before Yan was elected military governor. Yan tried to resist, but Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army overwhelmed Shanxi. Yan only survived by withdrawing further north forming alliances with the neighboring Shaanxi province. Yan managed to avoid a military confrontation with Yuan Shikai, thus preserving his own base of power. Although Yan was friends with Dr Sun Yat-Sen he did not support his 1913 Second Revolution and instead got closer to Yuan Shikai. Because of this Yuan Shikai allowed him to retake his post as military governor of Shanxi. Yan used this post to build a personal army and by the time of Yuan Shikai's death solidified his control over Shanxi. Now a little bit about Shanxi, it was one of the poorest provinces in China. Yan believed unless he modernized and revived its economy, Shanxi would simply succumb to rival warlords. As Yan watched from the sidelines in 1919, he saw his province simply could not compete with the bigger boys, thus he took up a policy of neutrality. While the warlord Era wars raged on he instead exclusively worked to modernize Shanxi, particularly developing its resource sector. Yan's governance of Shanxi led to him being dubbed the “model governor” by foreigners. In 1918 there was a bubonic plague outbreak in northern Shanxi taking the lives of nearly 3000 people in two months. Yan dealt with this by issuing instructions on modern germ theory and plague management to his provincial officials. He told his populace the plague was caused by germs that were breathed through lungs, that the disease was incurable and the only way to thwart it was social distancing. He ordered his officials to keep infected family and friends, even entire infected communities quarantined, by threat of police if necessary. Yan also sought foreign doctors to help suppress the epidemic. When Yan was in Japan he spent time in a hospital for 3 months where he saw X-rays, microscopes and other medical equipment for the first time and it seems this greatly impressed him. The epidemic prompted Yan to modernize Shanxi's medicine industry, funding the Research Society for advancement of Chinese Medicine in Taiyuan in 1921. The school promoted both western and chinese medicine, teaching courses in German, Japanese and English. While Yan would a isolationist for most of the warlord era, he had a large role in the end of it. The next northern clique is one I don't want to talk too much about because they only come into the scene later on. There is also the fact the leader of this faction happens to be the rival to Zhang Zongchang, and I think I might make the next or in a future episode a comparison of the two because it would be funny. What you should know is the Guominjun were basically a spin off of the Kuomintang. They were more or less a branch of the Kuomintang, but located in the north. The clique was formed by Feng Yuxiang, known as the “christian general”. Again I don't want to say too much, but this guy was funny, he used to check the fingernails of his troops before battle, no joke I've seen footage of it. Feng Yuxiang's Guominjun would end up being based in northwestern Hebei province. The next northern clique was known as the Ma Clique or the “Three Ma's of the northwest”. This clique goes back to our episode on the Dungan revolt. The Ma cliques traces back to the Qing General Dong Fuxiang, the same man who fought during the Dungan revolt and saved Empress Dowager Cixi during the Boxer Rebellion. He commanded Hui armies whose commanders went on to found the Ma Clique such as Ma Anliang and Ma Fuxiang. During the Xinhai revolution, Ma Anliang led 20 Hui battalions to defend the Qing dynasty by attacking Shaanxi where revolutionaries led by Zhang Fenghui sprang up. Ma Anliang failed to capture Shaanxi and when Puyi abdicated Ma agreed to join the new republic. Unlike Ma Anliang, Ma Fuxiang did not fight for the Qing, but rather the revolutionaries. Ma Fuxiang refused to join the invasion of Shaanxi and instead declared independence of Kansu from Qing control. Because of this Ma Fuxiang was rewarded military governor of Ningxia by Yuan Shikai. Ma Anliang was the founder of the Ma CLique, but died in 1918 leaving the mantle of de fact leader of Muslims in northwest China to fall to Ma Fuxiang. The Ma clique controlled Qinghai, Gangsu and Ningxia. Its three most prominent memers were Ma Bufang, Ma Hongkui and Ma Hongbin known as the Xibei San Ma “thee Ma of the northwest”. The clique would fight the Guominjun and later Xinjiang cliques during the warlord era wars. The next northern clique was the Xinjiang clique with their power base in Xinjiang. One thing that is unique to this clique was that some of their leaders were from outside the province. In 1907 Yunnanese Yang Zengxin was assigned governor over Xinjiang. He received support from Ma Yuanzhang, a Sufi Jahriyya Shaykh who enabled him to raise a massive Hui muslim army primarily from Jahriyya communities. Like Ma Anliang, Yang Zengxin was a manchu loyalist, neither trusted the revolutionaries. When the Xinhai revolution broke out, like Ma Anliang, Yang Zengxin fought for the Qing. After Puyi's abdication, Yang Zengxin supported Yuan Shikai becoming emperor, simply because he believed monarchy was the best system for China. Thus Yang Zengxin invited a bunch of anti-yuan leading officials to a banquet and decapitating them. Yuan Shikai rewarded him with a first rank of count during his brief tenure as emperor. After Yuan Shikai's death, Li Yuanhong assigned Fan Yaonan to observe Yang Zengxin to see if he could be replaced. Yang Zengxin was not a idiot, he made sure to recognize which ever faction at any given time controlled the Beiyang government to avoid any troubles. He kept his rule over Xinjiang relatively peaceful, at least in terms of Warlord Era China. When the Russian Civil War broke out he remained luke warm to the new Soviet Union, because the reality was, Xinjiang had always been economically dependent on Russia. Under his leadership Xinjiang formed a lot of deals with the Soviets independent of the Beiyang government. To complicate things, certain Ma's like Ma Fuxiang were also members of the Xinjiang clique and held military positions under Yang Zengxin. Yang Zengxin controlled his province with an iron first, relying heavily on Hui muslims forces to keep conflict at bay. He had absolute power and had a funny habit of keeping the radio station keys on him at all times and read every message that aired on it prior, making sure to get rid of any parts he did not approve of. Because of the geographical location of Xinjiang, the clique did not have as much influence on warlord era china vs others.  The last northern clique, is honestly not one I really consider a real clique, but then again you could say the same thing about many others. This clique would be called the “Manchu Restorationists” kind of like a Qing white lotus in some ways. They were prominent figures who simply wanted to bring back the Qing dynasty after the Xinhai Revolution. I really don't want to tell the story just yet, because its a wild and rather comical one, but if anyone was the so-called leader of this clique it was Zhang Xun, the Pigtailed General. But I guess I have to leave you with a bit of a teaser, Zhang Xun technically overthrew the republic and ushered in a Manchu Restoration….for a few days.  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. I think I covered roughly 60% of the Northern Warlords and their respective cliques. In the next episode I literally decided just now I will tell the tale of two northern warlords, one a angel and one a devil. I hope you are ready for some comedy and a bit of horror, for it will be the rivals Feng Yuxiang and Zhang Zongchang. 

Last time we spoke about the Twenty-One Demands and the rise of the Walrus Emperor, Yuan Shikai. Japan certainly had their work cut out for them during WW1. Seizing upon every possible opportunity Japan occupied Shandong province after the siege of Tsingtao and forced China to accept the unbelievable twenty-one demands. Yuan Shikai tried to stall and negotiate, eventually reaching thirteen demands, but yet again China was served a terrible humiliation that even became a national day henceforth. Then Yuan Shikai completely, organically, not fault of his own because the Hongxian emperor over a new dynasty. The new monarchy of China lasted a solid 83 days, before Yuan Shikai was forced to abdicate lest every single province declare their independence. All of this was occurring during the vacuum of WW1, which was still raging on. Yuan Shikai was back to being president, over a fractured nation.   #91 China & the Treaty of Versailles   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. Yuan Shikai's short-lived monarchy did not end China's national crisis. When he abdicated, you would assume this would have eased tensions a bit, but then the people of China found out Yuan Shikai was going to stay on as president. The people were livid. As you can imagine, the calls for his abdication were followed up by calls for him to step down as president. In early April of 1916 Cai E, speaking on behalf of Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi put forward 6 demands to solve the crisis. 1) Yuan Shikai had to step down and go into exile 2) his stooges, 13 principal monarchist supports were to be executed 3) Yuan Shikai's vast property was to be confiscated 4) Yuan Shikai's descendants were to be stripped of citizenship. Apparently Yuan Shikai ignored these demands off the bat, prompting Cai E to add 5) Yuan Shikai would be charged with treason and punished by law passed by Congress. In April and May of 1916, more provinces declared independence, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shaanxi, Sichuan and Hunan. Their provincial leaders, many of whom were Yuan Shikai loyalists like Chen Yi of Sichuan or Tang Xiangming of Hunan labeled him an illegal leader, condemned him as a villain and severed their ties to him. Talk about choosing your friends wisely eh? Thus by May of 1916 most of southern china was independent, waiting for Yuan Shikai to step down, and most likely it would be Li Yuanhong who would take the presidency. Dr Sun Yat-Sen did not play a significant role in this anti-Yuan Shikai movement. He did make grand speeches, in April of 1916 for example he said “only after the principal culprit Yuan is exterminated could the constitution be restored and the republic be revived. If Yuan continues to rule, the country cannot be preserved. All Chinese  must annihilate the evil thoroughly and never be tolerant towards Yuan, for only after the national thief is wiped out could the republic attain peace.” A barrage of telegrams, letters and personal envoys showed up to Yuan Shikai's offices asking him to step down.  Yuan Shikai's initial reaction was simply to try and suppress his challengers. On April 1st he proposed conditions to Cai E for solving the “crisis”, these were, repealing provincial independence, returning administrative order, disbanding new military units and halting conflicts. Meanwhile Yuan sent secret telegrams to his military commanders at the frontlines ordering the annihilation of the rebels. These men working under him basically had to go with it, his fortune was theirs as they say. But as we have seen, the battles were not going well for him. While he had the best army in China, he could not stand alone against everyone else. Thus he began talking to his closest officials about leaving politics. He also began talking about who would pick up after him. His successor would need to be capable of controlling his northern army, to coordinate his network of military leaders and address the current nations financial issues. Yuan Shikai also began screaming and lashing out at those who were once close to him and betrayed him. Such men Chen Yi in Sichuan, Tang Xiangming in Hunan, but above all, Feng Guozhang made him most bitter. As Yuan Shikai thought over his retirement plans, his enemies did not let up at all. Liang Qichao set up the “Junwuyuan”, Military Affairs Council in Zhaoqing, Guangdong on May 8th, 1916. This was a rival government to the Beiyang republic, who began issuing proclamations and coordinated with rebel provincial leaders. The council supported Li Yuanhong as president and according to Liang Qichao's speeches to the public “the existing national crisis was single-handedly created by Yuan. If Yuan remains in office, the country will confront upheavals and tumult continuously. Once Yuan departs from politics, all military conflicts will immediately vanish.” Yet again China was seeing a north and south governmental divide.  According to Yuan Shikai's daughter, Yuan Jingxue, his health deteriorated in early 1916 and he suffered from major depression. Now Yuan Shikai was certainly not a physically healthy guy, again the Walrus quips hold validity. He often got ill, he rarely left the presidential palace, and kept himself very isolated. I would imagine this was to thwart assassination attempts. Apparently all the men in his family lineage tended to die before 50. Regardless, his overeating probably was the main culprit. Despite all of this, he stubbornly would not step down, even while sick in bed he continued to read official documents at the bedside. By June he was quite bedridden and few came to see him, just his closest friends and colleagues Xu Shichang and Duan Qirui. Yuan Shikai was a strong believer in Chinese medicine and tried to fight off his family who emplored him to seek western medicine until he allowed the French doctor J.A Bussiere to treat him. Dr. Bussiere diagnosed him with uremia and tried to treat him, but it was not working. Anticipated death was at the door, Yuan Shikai called upon Xu Shichang, Duan Qirui and Wang Shizhen to his bedside where he handed over his last will. He told them he bitterly regretted the monarchy move and blamed everyone for misleading him, what a mensch. Now he trusted these 3 men to care for his family and as for his successor, he told them it clearly needed to be Li Yuanhong. He asked them to swear to him that they would submit to Li Yuanhong for the good of the nation. Then he breathed his last breath and was dead by June 6th of 1916. At the age of 56 Yuan Shikai, a colossal figure of modern Chinese history was gone.  Now this was perhaps one of the most pivotal moments in modern Chinese history, for you see Yuan Shikai had ushered in something. Yuan Shikai from the beginning of his rule, did so with the might of his Beiyang Army. He built up this army, he modeled it a lot upon the imperial Japanese army. He had procured, some would simply say embezzled and stolen funds to make this army the best in China. His intentions can be seen as merely to solidify his power, but in the long term it was also to build a modern unified army for China. Like everyone else before him, he was tackling the issue of modernization. His process was a lot like a mafia however. He installed men loyal to him in various positions, by this point I've named countless of them. Many of these men were basically military-governors. They were trained to lead armies and they all had ambitions politically. There were of course those outside the Beiyang Clique as it came to be called, such as Dr Sun Yat-Sen's Kuomintang and the provinces that all declared independence like Sichuan, Guangdong, Hunan, Guangxi, Yunnan, later on the CCP will be a player as well. He had set up this elaborate system, that we will call Warlord control, I literally just made that up. Yuan Shikai's warlords were the baddest of the bunch and with him as the father of Warlords he at least had a firm grasp over China. However when Yuan Shikai decided to play monarch, he royally, pun intended screwed up his own system. This caused what has occurred throughout China's history, a North-South divide. New Warlords were emerging in the south, but even Yuan Shikai's Warlords were slowly breaking off from him. When Yuan Shikai died, while on the surface it looked like China would unify….it most certainly was not.  Its honestly a very complex and confusing situation, known as China's Warlord Era. On the face of it, China had the “Beiyang Government”, who at all times had a president, cabinets etc etc, but it was all a charade. In reality, the Warlords would fight another for dominance over the military forces in China, as that was what really controlled China. The Beiyang Clique would divide into other cliques, and all over China numerous Cliques and associated Warlords would come and go. But, I just wanted to tease you a bit, for coherency sake I'd like to finish China's experience of WW1. After Yuan Shikai's death, Li Yuanhong assumed the presidency on June 7th. Li Yuanhong ordered a state funeral costing half a million dollars, taken from Yuan Shikai's associates such as Xu SHichang and Duan Qirui. In his presidential order Li Yuanhong praised Yuan Shikai for his vital role in the Xinhai revolution and for his industrious spirit, not saying a thing about the monarchy phase. The government flew the Beiyang flag at half mast. With that the anti-Yuan war was over. Liang Qichao dismantled his rival government and the anti-yuan provinces repealed their independence proclamations. All provinces recognized Li Yuanhong as president, a very good start. Now the historical narrative had it, that Li Yuanhong's rise to the presidency was actually at gunpoint. After Yuan Shikai's death, there was a sealed box with the names Xu Shichang, Li Yuanhong and Duan Qirui found in it. None of the men wanted to stick their neck out to seize the presidency. Its said Duan Qirui forced Li Yuanhong to take the job, but Li Yuanhong was very nervous about it. Why was he? The Beiyang military leaders were all northerners, Li of course was a southerner who also had been the enemy. Duan Qirui consulted his senior military colleagues who all hated the idea of Li Yuanhong being president. But Duan Qirui fought to get the unpopular man as president, because he thought he would make for an excellent puppet. Duan Qirui meanwhile maintained his current position, which was premier. For you Americans who might not be familiar with Parliamentary type systems this is how the Beiyang Government quasi worked. The National Assembly aka parliament elects a president and vice president for 5 year terms and a premier who chooses and leads a cabinet. Typically in these types of systems, the Presidency is more of a ceremonial role. Li Yuanhong's vice president was Feng Guozhang, Yuan Shikai was rolling in his grave. Meanwhile with the provisional constitution restore, political parties were allowed back and 3 factions emerged: Dr Sun Yat-Sen's Kuomintang; Liang Qichao's Constitution Research Clique and Tang Hualong's Constitution Discussions Clique. The first order of business for the new government was the creation of a national army. You might be thinking, err what about WW1? Well with southern China armed and dangerous still, there was a looming fear of further rebellions. There was also the enormous fear, some Beiyang general would renegade and overthrow the government. Meanwhile there was of course WW1. Last episode we talked about China sending laborers to work for France, Britain, Russia and later America. 1916 for the most part saw China providing the labor services, while trying to fix their own nation. Then on February 17th of 1917, the French cargo ship SS Athos was sunk by German U-boat U-65. The ship was carrying 900 Chinese workers on their way to France and 543 of them were killed. Premier Duan Qirui and Liang Qichao both wanted to join the war on the Entente side, seeing it as a tool to help China. President Li Yuanhong and Dr. Sun Yat-Sen both opposed the idea. Duan Qirui strong armed the issue, having China break diplomatic ties with Germany. Duan Qirui also was up to something else. In January of 1917, Prime Minister Terauchi of Japan sent a secret envoy who happened to be a private business man named Nishihara Kamezo. Nishihara was given the task of finding out who really controlled the current Beiyang Army, or better said, who controlled the strongest inner clique within it. That man was Duan Qirui. Nishihara had the financial backing of the current minister of finance, Shoda Kazue who also was the former president of the Joseon Bank in Korea. Together they were offering a private loan, done so through private banks to quote “help develop China”. This was absolutely not the case. They negotiated a series of 8 loans totaling 145 million yen to Duan Qirui, to assist him in maintaining his cliques military. You see like everyone else, Duan Qirui feared other northern warlord types would become stronger than his group, can't let that happen now. To receive these loans, Japan was asking for confirmation of its claims over the former German empires concessions, ie : Kiautschou Bay in Shandong; control over the Shandong railways and some additional rights within Manchuria. All of this was to be kept hush hush, but it would not remain so. I can't get into it too much here, it will be covered in another episode, but a Duan Qirui's deal was leaked and it looked to the public that Duan Qirui was trying to take over China using Japanese aid. Li Yuanhong had Duan Qirui removed from his position as Duan Qirui and the majority of the Beiyang Generals ran over to Tianjin forming a sort of base of operations. Then in a rather insane twist, General Zhang Xun offered to mediate the situation between the Government and Duan and by mediate, I mean he showed up to the capital with his army literally besieging it. Yes, boy that escalated quickly, can't get into the insane story here, again it will be told in a future episode, but Zhang Xun with German funds and arms occupied Beijing and tried to dissolve parliament in an attempt to install Puyi as emperor over the rebirthed Qing dynasty.  Needless to say, Li Yuanhong freaked the hell out, reappointed Duan Qirui as premier and begged him to come save Beijing. Duan Qirui defeated the rebels and forced Li Yuanhong to resign as president so Feng Guozhang could take up the role. Duan Qirui then refused to restore parliament which will literally blow the door open to the Warlord wars, but for out story we return to the issue of WW1. Having already broken diplomatic ties to Germany, there was still the issue of whether or not to declare war. An intense debate was ignited involving nearly all the influential figures in China. It constituted an unprecedented movement for China. China had neer before taken an active role in a global event, one being played out very far from her borders. By participating in the war, some hoped to regain sovereign rights to Shandong. Liang Qichao criticized German militarism and said he believed Germany could not win. He also argued in order to improve China's standing, they had to align her with the victors of the war. On the other side, Dr Sun Yat-Sen argued entering the war would alienate China from Germany. Unlike Britain, France and Russia, Germany had not inflicted as much harm to China in the past. He believed Britain and Russia were far more imperialistic and thus bigger threats. He also argued it would be a material gain at the loss of spirit, thus he wanted to see China remain neutral. Duan Qirui was frustrated as Li Yuanhong added his voice to the matter saying he also did not want to enter the war. While this argument was going on, the KMT began establishing a military government in southern China and elected Dr Sun Yat-Sen to be their generalissimo.  Regardless, Duan Qirui took matters into his own hands and declared war on the Central Powers on August 14th. German and Austro-Hungarian concessions in Tientsin and Hankow were quickly seized. Duan Qirui hoped by entering the war, China might gain some international prestige and eliminate some unequal treaties. He alongside many others hoped to get rid of the indemnity payments, like the Boxer Protocol and to regain control over the Shandong Peninsula. Notably China continued to send laborers to help the war effort, but never sent troops. China's actual participation in the Great War remained very minimal. It was constrained to confiscating some German ships along their coast and continuing to support the allies with labor. China tried multiple times to offer naval and military assistance, or even a token combat unit to the western front, but it never came to be. Honestly a lost opportunity. If you check out my episode on southeast asia during ww1 or my Asia during WW1 documentary, you will see nations like Thailand did send forces and profited pretty heavily from the experience.  Germany surrendered on November 11th of 1918, and hopes were so high in China they declared a 3 day national holding. China had achieved her primary goal, being granted a seat at the Paris Peace Conference. She had been given two seats as she had not provided combat troops like other nations who had more seats. For example Japan was given 5 seats since they did provide combat troops. Now because of Dr Sun Yat-Sen's southern government, there basically was two sets of envoys sent to Paris. The Beiyang or Northern government members and Sun Yat-Sen's southern government members. Heading the Beiyang was Lu Zhengxiang who was accompanied by Wellington Koo, Cao Rulin, Hu Weide, Alfred Sze and some other advisors. On behalf of the southern government was Wu Chaoshu and although not an official delegate so was C.T Wang. Overall Lu Zhengxiang was the leader of China's delegation, but Wellington Koo, sort of a master negotiator came to become the main man.  China's demands at the conference were territorial, economic and political. In regards to territory, the “delegation proposed the internationalization of the Manchurian railways and rivers” and for foreign treaty ports and communities to remain short-term in order for China to transition them back into her ownership for a long term strategy. In regards to politics, China wanted “the elimination of all legation guards, removal of all foreign troops stationed in China, and the abolition of extraterritorial rights”. In regards to economics, China sought to regain full sovereignty over her tariffs and railways. All together these demands would be a dramatic improvement of her international standings. It would place her on a much more equal footing with the great powers. Now for those of you less familiar with WW1, this came directly at the time of one of America's worth presidents in my opinion, President Woodrow Wilson's 14 points. Again I will do the boring professor like thing by listing the points, but dont worry its in a summarized form: 1. Open diplomacy without secret treaties 2. Economic free trade on the seas during war and peace 3. Equal trade conditions 4. Decrease armaments among all nations 5. Adjust colonial claims 6. Evacuation of all Central Powers from Russia and allow it to define its own independence 7. Belgium to be evacuated and restored 8. Return of Alsace-Lorraine region and all French territories 9. Readjust Italian borders 10. Austria-Hungary to be provided an opportunity for self-determination 11. Redraw the borders of the Balkan region creating Roumania, Serbia and Montenegro 12. Creation of a Turkish state with guaranteed free trade in the Dardanelles 13. Creation of an independent Polish state 14. Creation of the League of Nations   Given the points, such as the right of self-determination of peoples, the Chinese delegates felt pretty good about their stance. However, what would prove to be the crux between China and her goals were a series of secret agreements and treaties between the Great Powers, China and Japan. Remember Duan Qirui's little loans? Well when China declared war on the Central Powers, this put her in alliance with Japan, as now they were both part of the Entente. Another large event had unfolded in 1917, the October revolution, seeing Russia fall to communism. The Entente declared the communist government a threat. Vice chief of the Imperial Japanese army general staff, Tanaka Giichi sought to form a military pact with China, including a military alliance against the new common enemy. In late January of 1917 Tanaka sent a message to the Japanese military attache in Beijing to form a Sino-Japanese agreement, but to try and get the Chinese to suggest the idea first.  The Chinese obviously would be suspicious of forming any type of agreement with Japan given the Shandong situation and Japan's encroachment into Manchuria. Japanese foreign minister Motono Ichiro offered a military cooperation similar to what the Entente were doing in France, stating if they could operate their military forces in France, why not in Manchuria. The Japanese also hinted as the possibility of just sending troops into Manchuria even if China didn't agree to it. On March 3rd, 1918 the Germans and Soviets signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, leaving some 100,000 German POW's scattered about Siberia and this scared China quite a bit. Thus on March 8th, the Japanese government began forming plans for a Sino-Japanese agreement and informed the Chinese ambassador in Tokyo, Zhang Zongxiang about it. A team led by Major General Saito Suejiro went to Beijing to negotiate the terms of the agreement. On March 25th, Zhang Zongxiang and Minister Motono both agreed enemy forces were spreading rampantly along the Russia border, threatening the far east. Thus they agreed to a joint defense agreement. This got leaked to the public in early April and opposition in China spread dramatically. Japan pretty much made its intents with the Sino-Japanese alliance known. The alliance would allow for free movement of Japanese troops with Chinese territory, that some resources would be commandeered for the military, a bit of domestic politics would probably be interfered with also and they pretty much were going to plant pro-Japanese forces across China. On May 3rd, Tanaka Giichi visited Zhang Zongxiang and demanded an apology from the Chinese side for doubting Japans intentions and failing to ratify things. He stated if China did not agree to the alliance, the Nishihara loans would be withheld. Duan Qirui could not stomach that so negotiations recommenced on May 16th and the agreement was signed.  The Sino-Japanese agreement consisted of 12 major articles: The second article establishes the parties of the agreement were equals,;  the third article specified that the Chinese authorities must "try their best" to cooperate with the Japanese military in the relevant regions and prevent them from "experiencing any obstacles" in their operations. The fourth article specified that Japanese troops would be "entirely withdrawn" from Chinese territory at the termination of the war. The seventh article specified the placement of liaison officers in each party's military to facilitate communication between the two parties and specified that both parties must provide whatever resources are required to facilitate their joint defense. As usual, Japan demanded the negotiations be made secret, but it was leaked immediately.  Now back to Paris, China had thus agreed to grant Japan several things and it contradicted what she sought at the peace talks. For one thing, she sought to reclaim the Shandong Peninsula. Back in 1915 Yuan Shikai's government had signed the thirteen-demands, but Wellington Koo argued that it had been an unequal treaty imposed upon China in a moment of weakness.  Wellington Koo, gave an impassioned speech about the importance of Shandong province to China, describing it as "the cradle of Chinese civilization, a Holy Land for the Chinese. It was the birth land of Confucius and Mencius. If Japan was allowed to continue its lease of the Shandong territory, then it would provide the government of Tokyo with a strategic "gateway" to all of north China”. As for the second Sino-Japanese treaty in which China agreed to allow Japan's occupation of Shandong amongst other things, well the Chinese delegation had no idea about this agreement. Yes the delegation team found out about this agreement at Paris, go figure. So yeah it was a pretty big surprise when the Japanese delegation literally read out the treaties signed with Duan Qirui et al, very embarrassing for the Chinese delegation. Then to make matters even worse the Entente powers, specifically Britain and France also acknowledged they had signed secret agreements with Japan giving her the rights to Shandong since she had entered the war to help them. You could hear the sad violin music beginning to play. The Chinese delegation in absolute desperation looked towards the United States for help, hoping Woodrow Wilson's right to self-determination would bend to their favor. Woodrow said Shandong should be given to Japan, probably hoping to add Japan's favor in forming the League of Nations. The global powers then pretty much ignored the Chinese delegation. Hence forth the Chinese felt Woodrow Wilson had betrayed China, though as much as I hate to say it, it really wasn't his fault. He was simply balancing a number of secret agreements made and there were many promising Japan Shandong.  Thus in article 156 of the Treaty of Versailles the official transfer of the Shandong peninsula was given to the Empire of Japan rather than being returned to China. China denounced this transfer stating Shandong was the birthplace of Confucious, the greatest Chinese philosopher and it would be on par to Christians conceding jerusalem. China demanded Shandong Peninsula be returned to China, an abolition of all the privileges afforded to foreign powers in China such as extraterritoriality and to cancel the thirteen demands with the Japanese government. The Western powers refused all of China's demands and dismissed them. As a result Wellington Koo refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles in protest. Thus China was yet again humiliated. Worse, the ongoing news of what was going on at Versailles had caused probably one of the greatest movements in modern Chinese history to be unleashed back home. 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 absolutely devastated by the treaty of versailles. Their fractured nation had been the victim of double dealings and now the Shandong problem would plague them for some years. However back home, an incredible movement was quicking up fueled by the anger of students and workers. 

Last time we spoke about the Railway Protection Movement and the Wuchang Uprising. Emperor Guangxi and Empress Dowager Cixi were dead leaving regent Zaifeng in charge of the ailing dynasty. Alongside their deaths, the Guangzhou-Hankou and Sichuan-Hankow railway lines would become the trigger to end the Qing dynasty. The people were already angry, but would become furious when news came that the railway lines were going to be nationalized using foreign loans. Some in Sichuan attempted financing their railway line to thwart the foreigners, but in the end they simply were unable. Zaifeng unleashed the brutish General Zhao Erfeng to quell the protesters, but this massively backfired. Revolutionaries within the Hubei army unleashed an uprising in Wuchang. The mutineers formed a military government representing Hubei with Li Yuanhong as their leader. The year is 1911, Wuchang is but the spark that will light the flame of revolution.   #87 The Xinhai Revolution of 1911   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 insurrection that broke out in Wuchang on October 10th of 1911, was not a sheer accident. It was part of a larger event occurring all over China. Revolutionary leaders like Dr. Sun Yat-sen had inspired multiple groups of revolutionaries, many of whom recruited men within the New Armies forming in the provinces. These groups also had links to secret societies. If you pop open wikipedia and look up the Xinhai Revolution or 1911 revolution one of the first things you will notice is the page consists of a long list of uprisings. Uprisings sprang out all over China. Some of these groups were connected, many were not at all. A famous revolutionary leader, Song Jiaron founded the Revolutionary Alliance in 1911. Song Jiaoren and Huang Xing helped Sun Yat-sen start a second uprising in Guangzhou that failed, and this basically ended the Revolutionary Alliance's role as the dominant revolutionary group. When the Wuchang uprising began, all these leaders were taken by surprise. The Hubei revolutionaries had very loose connections to the revolutionary alliance. It was Song Jiaorens intent to use the Revolutionary alliance as a sort of authority over the multiple revolutionary groups. Song Jiaoren advised the Wuchang uprisers to take it slower, but they simply were impatient for action.  As a result of the Wuchang uprising, the Qing court ordered the Minister of War, General Yinchang and General Feng Guozhang to lead the Beiyang Army to quell the rebellion in Hubei. In the last episode I mentioned Admiral Sa Zhenbing was also asked to take the Qing navy to quell the rebellion, but they simply sailed off to Shanghai and got caught up in their own sort of mutiny. Now while this was going on, back in 1909 Yuan Shikai, the man who created the Beiyang Army, had been relieved of all his posts by Zaifeng. Yuan Shikai kept networking with influential figures during his exile. Something particularly important he did was manage his contacts that could help him remain in control of his precious Beiyang army. He married his niece to his adopted son Duan Qirui. Duan Qirui was reported to him regularly the ongoings of the beiyang Army. Now the Qing court knew the only force capable of quelling the rebellion was the Beiyang army, but their loyalty seemed to still be with the exiled Yuan Shikai. The Qing court in a panic had been repeatedly requesting Yuan Shikai return, offering him first Viceroy of Huguang and then Prime Minister of the Imperial Court. But Yuan Shikai kept procrastinating, stating he had a foot ailment and could not take such appointments. The Qing court kept begging and on October 30th, Yuan Shikai finally agreed and became Prime Minister on November 1st. As soon as Yuan Shikai took this position he asked Zaifeng to withdraw from Politics, effectively resigning as regent. After this Yuan Shikai formed a new cabinet, notably Han dominant. Empress Dowager Longyu awarded Yuan Shikai the noble title of Marquis of the 1st rank. Basically the Qing court was bending over backwards to please Yuan Shikai because he literally was holding them hostage because he made it clear the Beiyang army was his to command alone. Meanwhile Yinchang and Feng had traveled to Hankou by rail and attempted to seize control over the city's northern suburbs. By October 18th, 1000 revolutionary soldiers had attacked Liujiamiao train station located at the northern approach to Hankou. The rebels were driven back initially, but later that day they regrouped and with the help of railway workers ambushed a train coming in with Qing soldiers. The train derailed, as Qing soldiers fought the rebels, but many also fled for their lives. 400 Qing soldiers were killed by the revolutionary force who proceeded to capture Liujiaomiao. The revolutionaries were greatly emboldened and grew to a force 5000 strong. On October the 20th, the rebels attacked Wushengguan, but were dealt a defeat and forced to withdraw back to Liujiaomiao. Despite the defeat, the rebels had proven themselves capable and this had an enormous impact. On October the 22nd, Tongmenghui in Hunan province led by Jiao Defeng and Chen Zuoxin declared an uprising at Changsha. They captured the city, killing the local Qing general and announced a new Hunan Military government in opposition to the Qing dynasty. Alongside this on October 22nd, Tongmenghui in Shaanxi led by Jing Dingcheng, Qian Ding and Jing Wumu launched an uprising and captured Xi'an after two days of battle. The Hui muslim community was divided on who to support. Hui of Gangsu supported the Qing dynasty while Hui of Shaanxi supported the revolutionaries. The Hui muslims of Xi'an joined the revolutionaries to slaughter Manchu, but General Ma Anliang led over 20 battalions of Hui Muslims to fight for the Qing against a revolutionary army led by Zhang Fengui. Within the Xi'an area, over 20,000 Manchu would be massacred by revolutionary forces. However Ma Anliang would be very successfully fighting back for the Qing forces, it was only after learning later on that the throne was abdicating that Ma Anliang would change sides. Thus Hunan and Shaanxi had both declared independence from the dynasty. Back in Hubei, the Qing court removed Yinchang from command and handed formal power to Yuan Shikai whose loyal lt's Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang were right and ready for action. Duan and Feng led the 1st and 2nd armies who marched upon Wuhan. By the 26th, the Beiyang Army was advancing by rail and stormed the northern suburbs of Hankou. They began their assault using heavy artillery and machine guns to devastating effect. The revolutionary forces took 500 deaths, under the rather poor leadership of Zhang Jingliang. It was suspected Zhang Jingliang was sitting on the fence, possibly collaborating with the Qing. The revolutionaries would lose control over Liujiamiao and regain it twice. By the 28th Liujiamiao saw house to house fighting between the two sides. On that same day Song Jiaoren and Huang Xing arrived to Hankou from Shanghai. They came to offer their support to the revolutionaries. Huang Xing had brought over 1000 revolutionary troops to help bolster Wuchangs 5000 strong force. With the additional support the revolutionaries were able to hold the Qing forces back, but they lacked heavy artillery and machine guns. The Qing forces were dishing out severe casualties. Facing such tough resistance, Feng Guozhang became enraged and ordered Hankou razed to the ground. A fire would burn throughout the city for over 3 days. By the 1st of November, the Qing had seized control over Hankou, but both sides had suffered casualties in the thousands as a result. On November 3rd, Li Yuanhong handed command of the revolutionary forces to Huang Xing who had proven himself a more capable military leader. New recruits from Hunan began to boost their force and by November the 11th the province declared independence. Around this time, the Qing Navy had effectively defected, multiple warships had gone to assist revolutionaries in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. An uprising broke out in Hangzhou seeing revolutionaries capture a large quantity of military supplies. Here a young Chiang Kai-shek captured some government offices and gradually Hangzhou. The revolutionaries of Zhejiang and Jiangsu raised a siege against Nanjing using Qing warships. The siege was led by Xu Shaozhen, Chen Qimei and other defected generals. Between November 24th to December 1st, the revolutionaries captured Wulongshan, Mufushan, Tianbao, Yuhuatai and countless other Qing strongholds. On December 2nd, Nanjing fell to the revolutionaries, it was a tremendous victory.  Back over in Hubei, the revolutionaries now 13,000 strong at Hanyang, forded the Han river marching to take back Hankou. Yuan Shikai was on the other side of the river leading a force 30,000 strong. While many revolutionary leaders sought to defend Hanyang, it was Huang Xing who seized the initiative. On November 17th the revolutionary forces began an artillery bombardment of Hankou from the Guishan heights, before launching a two-pronged attack. Their artillery was quite inaccurate and as their infantry advanced, Yuan Shikai's artillery quickly pinned down their right flank. This saw the revolutionary left flank managing to ford the river alone, whom ran into Qing defenders who easily repelled them back by the 18th. The revolutionary army suffered 800 casualties in the disastrous attempt. On the 21st of November, Yuan Shikai launched an attack against Hanyang. One force bypassed the revolutionaries' defenses by assaulting Xiaogan further to the west. The two armies gradually converged and fought at Sanyanqiao. The next day another Qing force forded the Han river from Hankou and seized the strategic heights in Hanyang. The revolutionaries sent reinforcements twice from Wuchang to advance across the Yangtze river to Hanyang, but suffered tremendous casualties in the process. Another group of revolutionaries in Wuchang planned to cross the Yangtze to advance to strike Liujiamiao behind the Qing defensive lines, but apparently their commander got too drunk and failed to initiate on time. As a result his force failed to help the general assault which saw the Qing artillery bombardment the revolutionaries as they attempted crossing the Yangtze. Facing such terrible losses, the Hubei revolutionaries began to preserve their strength, causing outrage amongst the Hunan revolutionaries. After a week of brutal house to house combat, Yuan Shikai's forces gradually fought their way to the center of Hanyang. There they captured the munitions factory and revolutionaries artillery position upon Guishan. By November 27th, the revolutionaries were in a full retreat from Hanyang after suffering 3300 deaths trying to defend the city. By the end of November, Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang both submitted plans to Yuan Shikai on how to deliver the killing blow to Wuchang. However despite their victories at Hankou and Hanyang, things overall were not good for the Qing loyalists. During the battle for Hanyang, as Huang Xing became the defacto commander in chief, Song Jiaoren had decided to withdraw south of the Yangtze to create a secondary revolutionary center. This was of course occurring everywhere in China. The fight to dethrone the Manchu empire had created an enormous power vacuum that many were eager to set upon. Within weeks of the Wuchang uprising, as I had mentioned over in Shanghai leaders of the revolutionary alliance began an uprising declaring Shanghai independent. This spread to Zhejiang and Jiangsu, and soon 14 provinces had seceded. With so many provinces declaring independence and so many revolutionary groups vying for power, the need for a central government became a necessity. If the movement was to survive, regional rivalries needed to be overcome, national unity was essential. Wuchang and Shanghai being two of the strongest factions began to clash, but while they did the siege of Nanjing saw the great secondary capital seized by rebels.  Now while all of this was going on, secret talks were being made between the revolutionaries and none other than Yuan Shikai. Unbeknownst to the Qing court as they continuously lavished Yuan Shikai with titles, he was being tossed countless bribes to come to the revolutionary side. On november 3rd the Qing Court under immense pressure had passed the 19 articles, intending to finally reconstitute the Qing government into a constitutional monarchy. 6 days later Huang Xing cabled Yuan Shikai inviting him to join their republic. Yuan Shikai was thus in one of the most advantageous positions possible. For he and he alone could control the strongest army in CHina, the Beiyang army. He could crush the rebels in Wuchang, but he did not do so. In fact he had held his men back the entire time. On December 1st, Yuan Shikai agreed to a 3 day cease-fire and secretly began talks with the revolutionaries in Hankou. The 3 day ceasefire soon turned into another 3 days, then 15 days, and finally it encompassed all of december. On December 2nd Nanjing fell, and the revolutionaries agreed the new provisional government should be set up there. Revolutionary leaders met there and passed an outline on December 3rd on how they would create a republic. A public announcement was made that within a week's time they would elect a provisional government. This all was done within the scramble for power, for example Song Jiaoren and Chen Qimei had stayed in Shanghai attempted to hold their own assembly. On December the 18th, a North-South Conference was held in Shanghai trying to figure out how to solve issues between the north and south. Yuan Shikai sent his subordinate Tang Shaoyi to negotiate with the revolutionaries in Wuhan. Meanwhile the revolutionaries chose Wu Tingfang to speak to the foreign powers of the UK, US, Germany, Russia, France and Japan about helping support their new republic. Thus simultaneously, the Revolutionaries were negotiating with foreign powers to fix future deals with their republic as they negotiated with Yuan Shikai to allow their revolution to succeed. In the end, it was Yuan Shikai who held the keys to the car as we say. You might be asking yourself, ok, but where is Dr. Sun Yat-Sen during all of this? At the offset of the Wuchang uprising Dr Sun Yat-sen was in Denver Colorado. He had been in the US for quite some time fund raising for revolutions. He was shocked to find out about the Wuchang uprising and there was little he could do about everything. Huang Xing was thus his 2nd in command trying to hold the fort down for him. Dr Sun Yat-Sen with his closest foreign advisor and friend, Homer Lea rushed over to Britain trying to secure financing for a future Chinese republic, before sailing back to China by December 21st. He had come back just in the nick of time as the presidential election was held on December 29th. Over 45 representatives from 17 provinces participated and Sun Yat-Sen received 16 out of 17 votes. On January 1st of 1912, Sun Yat-Sen announced the establishment of the republic of China in Nanjing and was inaugurated as the provisional president of the republic. General Li Yunhong was made provisional vice president; Huang Xing became minister of the army; Song Jiaoran became director general of law making and countless other positions were filled. At the same time many leaders sought to establish the new flag of the republic. Wuchang wanted to use their 9 star flag; Lu Hadong wanted to use his Blue Sky with a White sun flag; Huang Xing favored a flag bearing the mythical well field system of village agriculture, but in the end a major compromise was met. The new flag would be the banner of 5 Races under one Union. If you google the flag, you can see its 5 colors; red for Han, yellow for Manchu, blue for Mongols, white for Muslims and black for Tibetans. This was all grand, but there was one problem, Yuan Shikai could obliterate their new republic at any moment. To solve the Yuan Shikai problem, some of the revolutionaries sought to lure him to the south. To do so they began secretly negotiating with him, offering to appoint him president over the new Nanjing government. However if Yuan Shikai were to move to the south, he would lose the power of his northern armies. On January 16th, while returning to his residence, Yuan Shikai was ambushed in a terrorist attack organized by the Tongmenghui. 18 revolutionaries  tried to kill him with a bomb at Donghuamen in Beijing. 10 Qing guards were killed in the process, but Yuan Shikai was not seriously injured. Yuan Shikai sent a message to the revolutionaries the next day pledging his loyalty to their cause and asking them not to try assassinating him again. To make a point, Yuan Shikai secretly ordered his troops to begin looting and burning down parts of Beijing like the Dong'anmen gate. Thousands of people were killed in this type of mutiny. Yuan Shikai was showcasing to the rebels the new government would be in Beijing and that he refused to move to Nanjing where he would not be able to control his military as effectively.  In the meantime there was the pesky issue of…well the Qing dynasty and their emperor still existed! The entire time Yuan Shikai and the revolutionaries were playing game of thrones, Yuan Shikai was also manipulating the Qing court. Yuan Shikai told the Qing court and Empress Dowager Longyu the revolutionaries would butcher them all, unless dramatic concessions were made. Zaifeng stepped down as regent on December 6th, and the Empress Dowager Longyu took over the empire. Yuan Shikai made it clear to her, Puyi had to abdicate the throne, because he would not be able to protect them from the revolutionaries. On February the 12th, Yuan Shikai and Empress Dowager Longyu met, and as recalled in Puyi's autobiography “The Dowager Empress was sitting on a kang [platform] in a side room of the Mind Nature Palace, wiping her eyes with a handkerchief as a fat old man [Yuan] knelt before her on a red cushion, tears streaming down his face. I was sitting to the right of the widow and wondering why both adults were crying. There was no one in the room other than the three of us and everything was very quiet; the fat man snorted as he spoke and I couldn't understand what he was saying... This was the time when Yuan directly raised the question of abdication”. Yuan Shikai pressured Empress Dowager Longyu, by stating the imperial family's lives would not be spared if the emperor did not abdicate. If the revolutionaries reached Beijing before an abdication, the provisional government would not honor and terms between them. On February the 3rd Longyu gave Yuan Shikai full authority to negotiate the abdication terms between the Qing dynasty and the provisional government. Yuan Shikai sneakily drew up his own terms and dispatched it to the revolutionaries. The Imperial edict of abdication of the Qing Emperor would thus end 276 years of Qing rule and imperial rule that has lasted over 2132 years. Nearly 4000 years of monarchy had come to an end. Throughout China's grand history, old dynasties had always been replaced by new dynasties. After 1911, it was the first time a monarchy was completely overthrown and a republic was ushered in.  Puyi would retain his imperial title and be treated as a monarch by the new Republic. Puyi and the royal family could remain in the northern half of the Forbidden city and the Summer palace. The Republic would grant them an annual 4 million taels. The reign of the last Qing emperor Puyi, had thus come to an end. All of this was negotiated through Yuan Shikai with the revolutionaries. He promised the revolutionaries he would get the emperor to abdicate, in return to be made the president of the new provisional government. It was a masterstroke of deception and power grabbing. In many ways you game of thrones fans can think of him as little finger if he actually won the throne…well maybe in the books he might still do so if Martin ever gets his fat ass to finish them.  The revolutionaries really had no choice in the matter. During the battles, Yuan Shikai proved his Beiyang army was overwhelmingly more powerful. The only reason Yuan Shikai did not crush the rebellion was simply because he sought the best outcome for himself. After working most of his life to bring an end to the Qing dynasty, to usher in democracy, Dr Sun Yat-sen had to give up his presidency. It was a bittersweet moment to be sure. Dr Sun Yat-Sen is considered the Father of the Nation by both China and Taiwan. Though Dr Sun Yat-Sen had to step down, he still fought bitterly to keep the new capital as Nanjing rather than Beijing. But Yuan Shikai's powerbase was in Beijing, his Beiyang Army and loyal officers were all there.  On February the 14th the issue came to a vote in the provincial senate, 20-5 in favor of Beijing vs Nanjing, there were two other votes for Wuhan and Tianjin. The senate majority wanted to secure the peace with Yuan Shikai, and there was also the added effect of checking against a Manchu restoration or Mongol secession. Sun Yat-sen and Huang Xing argued for Nanjing to balance against Yuan Shikai's power base in the north. Li Yuanhong presented Wuhan as a compromise, the provincial senate voted again, this time 19 vs 6 for Nanjing. Sun Yat-Sen then dispatched Cai Yuanpei and Wang Jingwei to persuade Yuan Shikai to move to Nanjing. Yuan Shikai welcomed the delegation and agreed to the move, but then suddenly on February 29th riots and fires broke out all over Beijing. It was allegedly orchestrated by Cao Kun a loyal officer under Yuan Shikai. The chaos gave Yuan Shikai pretext to stay in Beijing, lest the unrest continue. Thus Yuan Shikai won the issue, Beijing would be the capital. The battles during the Xinhai revolution had raged on for 41 days and in the end 13 provinces joined the revolution. In October of 1912 Yuan Shikai conferred honors to commanders on both sides of the battles to commemorate the founding of the new republic. It is estimated the battles had taken the lives of 4300 soldiers. Yuan Shikai was air quotes elected provisional president of the republic of China on February 14th and sworn in March 10th. In 1912, the Chinese national assembly elections were held, the first for the new republic. 30,000 electors chose 2000 members of the provincial assemblies and 596 members of the house of representatives and 274 senate members were elected by the provincial assemblies. Adult males over the age of 21 who were educated, owned property, paid taxes or who could prove they resided in China for more than 2 years were allowed to vote. Its estimated 40 million people registered for the election, that's roughly 5% of the population. Now Sun Yat-Sen was not going to allow Yuan Shikai to steal the new republic without a fight. Sun Yat-Sen was no fool and knew he  would have to take a backseat for awhile so he asked Song Jiaoren to lead the political war effort to try and dismantle Yuan Shikai's stranglehold. Song Jiaoren mobilized the Tongmenghui. He offered an alliance to like minded small parties to join the Tongmenghui and thus ushered in the Kuomintang on August 25th of 1912 at the Huguang Guild Hall in Beijing. Song Jiaoren's KMT party won 269 out of 596 seats in the house of representatives and 123 seats out of 274 in the senate. The remaining seats were taken by the 3 other parties; the republicans led by Li Yuanhong; The Unity Party led by Zhang Binglin and the Democratic Party led by Tang Hualong. There were countless other smaller parties, but effectively Song Jiaoren was regarded as the next prime candidate for the position of Prime Minister. The 3 other losing parties all merged into the Progressive Party under the leadership of Liang Qichao and thus they were the opposition.  At this point Yuan Shikai held overwhelming executive power and Song Jiaoren was leading the fight to dismantle that. During his campaigning Song Jiaoren made it abundantly clear he vehemently desired to limit the powers of the president. He also always took the chance to be critical of Yuan Shikai's obvious ambitions. Song Jiaoren from the very beginning began a campaign against Yuan Shikai, accusing him of attempting to restore a monarchical system, most likely to make himself Emperor. Song Jiaoren was learning from Dr Sun Yat-Sen and proved himself a very capable politician, but he also made a ton of enemies, above all else, Yuan Shikai. It looked like Song Jiaoren's first major action would be to push for an election of a future president. On March 20th of 1913, while traveling with a group of colleagues to parliament in Beijing, Song Jiaoran was shot twice at the Shanghai railway station by a lone gunman named Wu Shiying. Wu Shiying had been contracted by Ying Guixin, the leader of the Green Gang an underworld group. Ying Guixin also happened to be the chief of intelligence for Chen Qimei and a close associate of Yuan Shikai. Yuan Shikai had his secretary Zhao Bingjun order the hit. Song Jiaoren died two days later from his wounds. An investigation was made implicating Ying Guixin in the assassination, but Ying Guixin fled for his life and was murdered by two unknown swordsmen. Then Zhao Bingjun was poisoned. Talk about loose ends? Chinese media sources all pointed fingers at Yuan Shikai and indeed the population basically knew it was him. However there was no significant evidence to pin the crime upon Yuan Shikai and thus he was never actually implicated.  Yuan Shikai was busy planning further assassinations of his political enemies and in april he secretly secured a loan of 25 million pounds sterling from Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Japan. This loan was used to bolster his Beiyang Army. In order to secure this loan the Beiyang government had to cede partial control over its national treasury to foreign ownership as leverage. This of course was humiliating and done without parliament causing massive outrage. The ones giving the most voice against Yuan Shikai were of course the KMT, whose leader had just been assassinated. Yuan Shikai began a process of bribing and killing his KMT enemies. Yuan Shikai began dismissing governors who were pro KMT and did whatever he possibly could to collapse them.  Meanwhile as a result of the formation of the republic of China, all the revolutionary armies had been disbanded, but their soldiers were not compensated for toppling the Qing dynasty. This led to wide scale discontent. Yuan Shikai continued to gradually seize control over the government, while increasing his Beiyang Army and diminishing any other military forces that could threaten him. Yuan Shikai had thus greatly angered the revolutionary soldiers and the KMT. His political abuses were rampant, he was using violence to basically dissolve any opposition. The paint was on the wall as they say. Dr Sun Yat-Sen and the KMT would not stand for it any longer, there was to be a second revolution. 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 Wuchang Uprising was a springboard for other uprisings that ushered in the Xinhai revolution. The Qing dynasty had fallen and now a new Republic of China had emerged, but for how long could this experiment last? Yuan Shikai sought to seize ultimate power and it seems he was winning.

In this reality-shifting conversation with Dr. Simon Duan a life-long scientist holding a Ph.D. in a materials physics from the University of Cambridge and a rich history of in-field experience. We explore the idea of life as a vast, multi-dimensional game. Yes, like literally a video game that you are inside. Dr. Duan provides insights into the concept of our reality being a simulation, offering a fresh perspective on consciousness, the human mind, and the nature of our existence. We delve into topics such as 'inter-dimensionality', 'reality code', and the 'platonic computer', discussing the role of AI and our own unique place in the multiverse. The conversation spans from scientific theories to philosophical questions, revealing different facets of our understanding of the world. If you want to talk to us between episodes and unravel the secrets of the Grid with us, consider signing up for our Patreon and get instant access to our Discord server where the storyline unfolds 24/7. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/idiotmystic/message

There are endless opportunities in rural America for entrepreneurs to start and grow successful businesses.  However, not everyone is going to have all the skills and experience necessary to sustain it.  Most of us need support in areas where we might be weak. Many times, entrepreneurs may have a great idea and the drive and determination to see it through but they may not have the resources or expertise to do what it takes to be successful.  They have the passion but they may need help to fill in the gap in their experience, and that brings us to our guests today.  Darline Mabins and Duan Gavel are leaders of the Multicultural Business Association (MBA) of Springfield, Missouri.  MBA's mission is to promote economic development and business opportunities through advocacy, networking, and capacity building for women, minority-owned businesses, and entrepreneurs. Darline is the Executive Director of the organization and Duan is the Second Vice President, in line to one day be President.  Both have a real passion for helping people and MBA does just that.  Listen in and learn about MBA and how they are working with over 100 small businesses and entrepreneurs in southwest Missouri to help them succeed in business and in life, and how they're using a variety of marketing techniques to do it.  

Promising research shows vitamin K provides defense against age-related conditions like osteoporosis, cancer and heart disease. Listen in this week as Dee discusses the role of vitamin K in bone health and beyond.Reference:Xv, F., Chen, J., Duan, L., & Li, S. (2018). Research progress on the anticancer effects of vitamin K2. Oncology letters, 15(6), 8926–8934. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5958717/

We review Stephen Chow's 2013 action comedy, Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, loosely based on the 16th century Chinese literary classic.  The film stars actor Wen Zhang as the famous Buddhist monk Tang Sanzang, Huang Bo as Sun Wukong, and Shu Qi as the love interest Duan.  Timestamps: [00:00] Intro / Discussion- The Brave Fighter of Legend Da-Garn, Turn A Gundam, The Grandmaster [48:48] Review - Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons (2013)

Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe to stay updated with the latest episodes. Thanks for listening!Join our next live event:  https://smartsocial.com/#live-events Join our free newsletter for parents and educators: https://smartsocial.com/newsletter/Register for a free online Parent Night to learn the hidden safety features on popular apps: https://smartsocial.com/social-media-webinar/Become a Smart Social VIP (Very Informed Parents) Member and unlock 30+ workshops (learn online safety and how to Shine Online™): https://learn.smartsocial.com/Download the free Smart Social app: https://smartsocial.com/appLearn the top 150 popular teen apps: https://smartsocial.com/app-guide-parents-teachers/View the top parental control software: https://smartsocial.com/parental-control-software/Learn the latest Teen Slang, Emojis & Hashtags: https://smartsocial.com/teen-slang-emojis-hashtags-list/Get ideas for offline activities for your students: https://smartsocial.com/offline-activities-reduce-screentime/Get Educational Online Activity ideas for your students: https://smartsocial.com/online-activitiesUltimate Guide To Child Sex Trafficking

In this episode of "The Success Blueprint," we dive into the intriguing topic of how the spotlight impacts your personal life. When success and recognition come knocking, it can be a euphoric experience, but it also brings new challenges and potential pitfalls. We explore practical strategies and insights for staying grounded and humble in the face of fame and acclaim. From understanding the "spotlight effect" to focusing on growth over glory and surrounding yourself with the right influences, we provide actionable tips to help you navigate your newfound success while staying true to yourself. Join us as we uncover the secrets to handling the limelight with grace and humility.Key Takeaways:Spotlight Effect: Understand that the "spotlight effect" makes us believe that everyone is scrutinizing our every move when, in reality, most people are focused on themselves. Stay grounded in your values and personal growth.Authenticity: When in the spotlight, be authentic and speak your truth. Choose words that uplift and empower others rather than making you appear superior.Generosity and Goodwill: Stay active in causes you care about through volunteering, mentoring, or charitable work. Help others rise and achieve their dreams, cultivating generosity and goodwill.Staying Humble: Celebrate your wins but remain humble. Focus on continuous self-improvement and surround yourself with truth-tellers who keep your ego in check.Gratitude Over Glory: Instead of seeking praise, express gratitude for the people who supported you. Strengthen real-world connections with friends, family, mentors, and fans.Positive Influences: Surround yourself with people who share your values of humility and service. Be cautious when making new social connections and focus on authenticity and trustworthiness.Character Over Fame: Remember that fame is fleeting, but your character and values endure. Stay focused on what truly matters, avoid getting swept away by success, and use your platform to uplift others.Shoutout and Thank You:A big shoutout and heartfelt thank you to Duan Rossouw, one of our dedicated Facebook friends and listeners, for suggesting this thought-provoking episode topic. Your input is invaluable, and we appreciate your engagement in "The Success Blueprint" community. This episode is dedicated to you, Duan, and to all our listeners who continue to inspire us to explore meaningful subjects that impact our journey to success. Keep those questions and suggestions coming!Contact me for more:daniel@mindsworx.comInstagram:Mindworx_CoachingSupport the Show.Contact me:Daniel@mindsworx.comwww.mindworx.bizInstagram: @Mindworx_Coaching

Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe to stay updated with the latest episodes. Thanks for listening!Join our next live event:  https://smartsocial.com/#live-events Join our free newsletter for parents and educators: https://smartsocial.com/newsletter/Register for a free online Parent Night to learn the hidden safety features on popular apps: https://smartsocial.com/social-media-webinar/Become a Smart Social VIP (Very Informed Parents) Member and unlock 30+ workshops (learn online safety and how to Shine Online™): https://learn.smartsocial.com/Download the free Smart Social app: https://smartsocial.com/appLearn the top 150 popular teen apps: https://smartsocial.com/app-guide-parents-teachers/View the top parental control software: https://smartsocial.com/parental-control-software/Learn the latest Teen Slang, Emojis & Hashtags: https://smartsocial.com/teen-slang-emojis-hashtags-list/Get ideas for offline activities for your students: https://smartsocial.com/offline-activities-reduce-screentime/Get Educational Online Activity ideas for your students: https://smartsocial.com/online-activitiesUltimate Guide To Child Sex Trafficking

信息系列：特别信息 经文：诗 42-43 信息大纲： 一、状况 诗人的感受 绝望的程度 状况的复杂 二、原因 被放逐、被抛弃 仇敌的辱骂和欺压 找不到自身的价值 茶饭不思 无法解释的状况 三、对策 对自己传讲福音 仰望祂 纪念祂 称赞祂 不懈的祷告 更多关于教会的资讯，欢迎拜访我们的脸书： https://www.facebook.com/CrossPointChinese/

信息系列：特别信息 经文：诗 42-43 信息大纲： 一、状况 1. 诗人的感受 2. 绝望的程度 3. 状况的复杂 二、原因 1. 被放逐、被抛弃 2. 仇敌的辱骂和欺压 3. 找不到自身的价值 4. 茶饭不思 5. 无法解释的状况 三、对策 1. 对自己传讲福音 2. 仰望祂 3. 纪念祂 4. 称赞祂 5. 不懈的祷告 更多关于教会的资讯，欢迎拜访我们的脸书： https://www.facebook.com/CrossPointChinese/

Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe to stay updated with the latest episodes. Thanks for listening!Join our next live event:  https://smartsocial.com/#live-events Join our free newsletter for parents and educators: https://smartsocial.com/newsletter/Register for a free online Parent Night to learn the hidden safety features on popular apps: https://smartsocial.com/social-media-webinar/Become a Smart Social VIP (Very Informed Parents) Member and unlock 30+ workshops (learn online safety and how to Shine Online™): https://learn.smartsocial.com/Download the free Smart Social app: https://smartsocial.com/appLearn the top 150 popular teen apps: https://smartsocial.com/app-guide-parents-teachers/View the top parental control software: https://smartsocial.com/parental-control-software/Learn the latest Teen Slang, Emojis & Hashtags: https://smartsocial.com/teen-slang-emojis-hashtags-list/Get ideas for offline activities for your students: https://smartsocial.com/offline-activities-reduce-screentime/Get Educational Online Activity ideas for your students: https://smartsocial.com/online-activitiesUltimate Guide To Child Sex Trafficking

Last time we spoke about the Boxers march upon Beijing. The situation in China escalated until the point of no return. The Boxers began attacked Christians and foreigners, seeing less and less opposition from the Qing government. The Qing court were hard pressed to do anything to suppression the boxers lest they fall into a full blown rebellion. The foreign community in Beijing scrambled to call for help from their navies before the Boxers cut the railways and telegraph lines to the capital. Not only were the Boxers a threat to the foreign community, but the recently arrived Kansu army of General Dong Fuxiang were also causing troubles. The foreign legations held tight waiting to see what would occur and on June 11th of 1900 the violence escalated. Mr. Sugiyama of Japan was murdered by the Kansu army, it seemed all hope for avoiding conflict was now lost.    #62 The Boxer Rebellion part 2: Seymour's 8 Nation expedition   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 death of Mr. Sugiyama drove the tension through the roof. 40 French and Italian marines had detached from the legation main force to defend the Peitang Cathedral. They were led by 23 year old Paul Henry and Italian officer Olivieri who was 22. The two went to work directing a defense of the Cathedral, as Henry's commanding officer sent a message to quickly recall him back over to the legations, the message never arrived. A detachment of US Marines, were also sent to guard the large Methodist Mission half a mile from the American legation. At this point the mission was housing some 1500 refugee's within its walls. Streams of refugees had flooded in when the panic began, as told to us by Frank Gamewell running the mission “The missionaries are coming in from outside districks [sic]; some with only such articles of clothing as they could carry in their arms, as they had to flee for their lives. The situation is getting more serious as the Boxers are gathering and getting more bold every hour; as the Chinese soldiers sent out to guard Foreign property are assisting the Boxers to loot the places.” On June 12th the ministers sent another message to the Zongli Yamen. The Japanese were invited to partake in the message but declined so they could submit another message bearing this. “The Chinese have murdered our Third Secretary of Legation, and Japan can have no more communication with China—except war.” The next day, a Boxer appeared on Legation Street wielding a large carving knife. Baron von Ketteler was so livid at the scene he rushed into the street and began hitting the boxer with a stick. The Boxer leapt out of his cart, running for an alley, whereupon von Ketteler discovered a young boy hiding in the cart and seized him as a hostage at the German legation. Later that afternoon thousands of Boxers stormed the city wielding spears and swords. The Boxers had prepared blacklists and were quote “hunting down all who had been connected with the foreigners, cutting them down, hacking them to pieces, or carrying them off for more terrible torture in a Boxer camp”. Beijing was filled with torches held by Boxers who began destroying all the Missions they could. The East Cathedral, South Cathedral, Nan Tang and Tung Tang were ablaze. Christians caught outside the legation quarters were cut to pieces when caught. A group of US Marines rushed out to save 300 Christians fleeing. Men, women and children lay in heaps, hacked to pieces.  American socialite Polly Condit Smith, who was staying with some relative at the US legation described the scene of seeing refugees fleeing into the legations “Half starved, covered with soot and ashes from the fires, women carrying on their breasts horribly sick and diseased babies, and in one case a woman held a dead baby. One man of about fifty years old carried on his shoulders his old mother. . . . A great many of these people were terribly wounded—great spear-thrusts that made jagged wounds, scalp-cuts and gashes on the throat where the victim had been left for dead.” To house more refugees, the palace belonging to Prince Su was seized.  The Austrian compound isolated on the northeastern part of the Quarter came under attack on June 13th. The Austrians unleashed their Maxim machine gun to lackluster resulted as Captain Francis Garden Poole of the East Yorkshire regiment recalled “The Austrian picket opened fire with their machine gun at what they said was Boxers but they killed none and after that the French, Russians and Italians squibbed at shadows etc. We shall have a lot of trouble with these irresponsible jumpy folk.” It seemed the Austrians aimed too high and hit nothing more than a few Telegraph lines. This reinforced the Boxer belief in their invulnerability spells. On June 16th, the Boxers attacked the richest trading quarter of Beijing, setting ablaze all the shops and foreign goods. 4000 stores, jewelers, furriers, fans, silk, curio shops, goldsmiths, lantern shops all were incinerated along with the Chienmen city gate. Chinese fire teams tried to save what they could and the legation Quarter was only saved because of the city walls, else it would to have gone down in flames. The foreign troops erected barricades across legation street and established their defensive perimeter. The Americans and Russians defended the west barricade, the French and Italians the east. Until now the main legation Quarter was not seriously threatened, that was until June 17th. Von Ketteler ordered some of his men to fire upon some nearby Kansu forces. Australian journalist George Morrisons noted of the event “Ketteler and his merry men have just shot 7 Boxers from the top of the wall. 50 or 100 were drilling at a distance of 200 yards.... The stalking was excellently done.”  The week of violence was followed by the Zongli Yamen sending reassuring messages to the foreign diplomats while the Qing court issued contradictory edicts. On the 16th Empress Dowager Cixi asked the Qing court what should be done with the Boxers. The reformers and conservatives began bickering as usual, but it would be Prince Duan arguing passionately in defense of the Boxers actions. The end result of the meeting was everyone agreeing the Boxers should be pacified, but no one had any real ideas on how that was going to happen. The next day, they Qing court met again and suddenly they were given an ultimatum on behalf of the foreign powers. The ultimatum demanded the foreign minister be given full responsibility for all military matters and raising of revenues and that Emperor Guangxu be restored to the throne. Now the ministers never issued this ultimatum that was in the form of a document. It is theorized to be the work of forgery done secretly by Prince Duan. According to someone present at the court when the document was issued, Empress Dowager Cixi was furious upon hearing its contents and issued an imperial edict calling upon all the provincial governors to send troops to Beijing. Prince Qing in dismay began preparing for hostilities. Two days later, Empress Dowager Cixi was informed the foreign powers were demanding the surrender of the Taku forts which in her mind was tantamount to a declaration of war.  The Qing court sent an ultimatum in neat red envelopes to each minister. It was all in police and precise wording, with a clear deadline. The ultimatum also explained that the Qing government saw the foreign demand to takeover the Taku forts as a declaration of war by all said powers. Their passports were now void and each had 24 hours to depart Beijing. Von Kettler of Germany was convinced if they attempted departing Beijing they would all be killed. Pichon of France and Conger of America argued there was no alternative but to depart. MacDonald of Britain was undecided. All the ministers were moving from one legation to another debating the issue around. Morrison remarked “If the ministers vote to leave Peking the death of every man, woman, and child in this huge unprotected convoy will be on your heads, and your names will go through history and be known for ever as the wickedest, weakest, and most pusillanimous cowards who ever lived.” The ministers told the Zongli Yamen they accepted the demand to leave but argued 24 hours was simply too short a time to make the necessary preparations. They further demanded details on how they were to travel and be protected, they demanded a meeting with Princes Qing and Duan on the matter set for 9am the next day.  At 9:30am the next day no meeting was to be found as all the ministers met at the French legation. They were uncertain as to what they should do next, they felt going as a large body to the Zongli Yamen would lose face. Apparently von Ketteler was livid and announced his intent to go to the Zongli Yamen and wait there until they met with him. Pichon warned his German counterpart that it was a dangerous course of action. Russian minister de Giers proposed going as a collective under an armed escort. Von Ketteler argued it was silly, he had in fact sent a secretary named Heinrich Cordes to the Zongli Yamen a few days prior and he returned unscathed. To this de Giers asked, why not send Heinrich again, to which Von Ketteler agreed. Everything was fine and dandy, until Von Ketteler joined Heinrich in his sedan chair at the last minute. Armed with only a cigar and book, as he expected to be waiting at the Zongli Yamen for some time, Von Ketteler and Heinrich set out. Half an hour later news came back Von Ketteler was dead. As reported in the Times “Mr. Cordes, the German interpreter, desperately wounded, had just been brought through our barricades by some of our students; that he had told that Baron von Ketteler . . . had been shot in the street by an officer of the Chinese imperial army; that he himself had been fired upon and had barely escaped; and having told his tale, exhausted by lack of blood, he sank into unconsciousness. Cordes saw a banner soldier, apparently a Manchu, in full uniform with a mandarin's hat with a button and blue feather, step forward, present his rifle within a yard of the chair window, level it at the Minister's head and fire.”” The story hit several European papers and was telegraphed around the world. The death of Von Ketteler signaled the end to any talks of foreigners leaving the legations. As MacDonald put it  “the Empress Dowager had made up her mind to throw in her lot with the antiforeign party.”  The foreign troops began aiding as many christian Chinese and foreigners they could get safely to the legations. Missionary women and children came first, hundreds of Christian converts began moving. They all went past the barricades set up across legation street. Many went the Fu palace, but the missionary leaders there were in dismay because they knew there was not nearly enough food for everyone.  Over in Peitang, 3000 refugees huddled together, protected by just a dozen French and Italian marines. The Cathedral fort at Peitang had been under attack for a few days and to the despair of Bishop Favier over there, Pichon sent a message indicating no additional help was on the way.  The American legation began issuing out crackers, sardines, scrambled eggs and tea to who they could, the storerooms were being cracked open. The American legation was too close to the city walls to be easily defended and word came they were all to proceed to the British legation. 4000 people from 18 different nations were now in the legations. 473 foreign community civilians with around 400 military personnel, 3000 or more were Chinese christians. Nearly all the foreign women, children and men who were unable to fight crowded the British legation. At 4pm heavy gunfire was heard from the east as some bullets began hitting the tops of trees. The siege had begun. Vice Admiral Seymour had first received word of the legations plight from MacDonald on May 28th when he sent a small dispatch of forces to help guard the legations. Then alarming reports came in on the 31st, prompting him to sail up the coast to join the French, German, Austrian, Italian, Russian, American and Japanese naval forces anchored off the Taku forts. He invited the commanders of each fleet to his ship for a meeting and they all agreed to work in concert. If necessary they would send a combined allied brigade to Beijing. Seymour became the most senior amongst them because he had a great deal of experience with China, ever since the 2nd opium war. He sent a telegram to Britain about the combined actions and dispatched his chief of staff, Captain John Jellicoe to Tiantsin to investigate the situation. On June 9th Jellicoe reported word had come from MacDonald, the situation was dire, communications would be cut at any moment, they needed to land men at once. Seymour wasted no time, at 1am on June 10th he ordered the landing of a British force and personally came over to take a train Tongku to Tientsin. Seymour told the other nations commanders his intentions and they all followed suit. At 7am Seymour arrived to Tientsin and he began arranged train carts to fetch the multinational force, over 2100 men in all. The British numbered 916 and Seymour was careful to choose some men as interpreters as he knew the european languages would be difficult to juggle. Alongside the British were 455 Germans, 326 Russians, 158 French, 112 Americans, 54 Japanese, 41 Italians and 26 Austrians. At 9am they began their march and within hours the telegraph line between Beijing and Tientsin was cut by Prince Duan who had just replaced Prince Qing as president of the Zongli Yamen. Seymour expected a quick train ride to Beijing with an extravagant show of force. Seymour had gambled on the iea the railway line to Beijing was still intact. There was 80 miles to Beijing from Tientsin and all seemed well until they reached Yangtsun, 15 miles away from Tientsin. There some 4000 Qin troops led by General Nie Shicheng were waiting. Nie Shicheng was struggling with conflicting orders coming from General Ronglu. At one moment he was told to suppress the Boxers which he was doing, he had in fact cut the heads of 70 off and sent them in baskets back to the capital. Then he was suddenly ordered not to fire upon them. When Seymours trains came, Seymour and Nie exchanged friendly greetings and the multinational force went on its merry way without incident.  The trains continued and it was not long until Seymour encountered the first signs of Boxer sabotage. Rails near Lofa station, around halfway to Beijing had been torn up and a bridge was damaged. The Boxers were lighting up huge fires beneath the rails to warp them and destroy the wooden sleepers. Seymour halted the trains and ordered hundreds of Chinese laborers he had brought with them just for this type of situation to go to work repairing the railways. Seymour's men would soon find the bodies of 4 dead Chinese railway officials in a passenger shed, they had been horribly mutilated. Their hands and feet were hacked off, one of them had their heart torn out. The workers got their work down and soon the trains were enroute to Langfang and it was here the Boxers made their first attack. According to Captain Lt Paul Schlieper with the Germans of what “The Boxers came with wild gestures swinging their spears, lances, or swords about their heads. . . . We often saw Boxers spring up into the air, execute a sort of war dance, and then drop to the ground . . . but when we got nearer and could see them plainly, they proved only to have been shamming to make us believe they had been killed and so avert our fire.” British diplomat Clive Bigham had this to say “They came on us in a ragged line, advancing at the double.... Not more than a couple of hundred, armed with swords, spears, gingalls [a giant smooth bored two-man blunderbuss usually fired from a wooden tripod], and rifles, many of them being quite boys. To any one who had been some little time in China it was an almost incredible sight, for there was no sign of fear or hesitation, and these were not fanatical ‘braves,' or the trained soldiers of the Empress, but the quiet peace-loving peasantry—the countryside in arms against the foreigner.” It was agonizingly slow work for the laborers and every time the trains stopped to let them work, Boxers began to attack. The Boxers destroyed the water tanks at stations, laborers were forced to water the engines by bucket, a extremely tedious process. The men likewise needed water and were delighted to find a well near Langfang, prompting Seymour to halt the trains to allow men to drink. On June 12th a message arrived from the American legation in Beijing telling them their advance was causing the capital to erupt in further violence. It also warned them that Qing troops were massing south of the city. This was bad news, but what was worse was Seymour figuring out the trains would not be able to go past Langfang very far as his reconnaissance was reporting to him the railway was terribly damaged going forward. They made camp at Langfang for 5 days trying to repair the railway line and were attacked multiple times by Boxers. British Lt Fownes-Luttrell had this to say of fighting the Boxers “They often stopped a few yards off and went through their gesticulations for rendering themselves immune from bullet wounds. Many were shot while kowtowing towards the trains and remained dead in that position. Bowling them over like so many rabbits. . . it has to be done, they are doing such a lot of fearful damage to the country.” Commander Mori with the IJN began inspecting the dead bodies of Boxers and recalled this “They were young and old . . . their costumes were various, and they had red bands tied round their heads and hanging down behind, as well as red aprons.... Their shoes also were tied with red.” June the 14th saw the telegram line to Tientsin cut. The supply train at the rear of the convoy had failed to get past the Yangtsun station because Boxers attacked a bridge between them. General Nie Shicheng's force at Yangtsun did not seem to be doing anything about the situation, simply staying away. On the same day, hundreds of Boxers began to show up, 5 Italian solders were playing cards when they were surprise attacked by Boxers who hacked them to pieces.  Seymour still hoped to make a breakthrough to Beijing and sent a courier to MacDonald stating he hoped to enter the city within days. However by June 16th, Seymour was sending Schlieper with some German troops back down the track to restore communications with Tientsin. The party got just past Lofa when they ran into extremely damaged tracks. Schlieper sent word back to Seymour that he required laborers and reinforcements. Seymour came over to see things for himself and realized the grave situation. “We were now isolated, with no transport or means to advance, and cut off from our base behind.” Seymour was forced to make the decision to repair the line going back to Tientsin, lest they found themselves surrounded. This decision has been criticized heavily ever since. Sir Robert Hart would go on the record to state “had [his force] left the train and marched straight across the country to the Capital it could have been with us on the 13th or 14th and so changed history.” From Langfang to Beijing it was some 30 miles or so, but Clive Bigham who was physically present with Seymour he had a different view of the situation “There was no road, we were absolutely without transport, and directly in front of us lay . . . the camps of the Peking Field Force . . . and in front of the south gate of the Chinese city lay, we knew, most of General Dong Fuxiang's Kansu soldiery.” Seymour prepared the men to withdraw. The commander of the German forces, Captain von Usedom was ordered to hold Langfang and protect their rear while the laborers worked tirelessly to repair tracks going back. The trains managed to get to Yangtsun, but there a bridge had been so heavily damaged it became impassable. The Yangtsun station and its water tanks were destroyed, the situation was dire. Seymour summoned the commanders of each nation for a war council. They all agreed the trains had to be abandoned, they would simply have to trek the rest. Over at Langfang von Usedom was suddenly attacked by a 5000 strong force of Kansu and Boxers. Dong Fuxiang alongside his comrades, Ma Fulu, Ma Fuxiang and Ma Haiyan had secretly departed the Beijing area to attack the western invading army. General Ma Fuxiang and Ma Fulu personally planned and led the attack, employing a pincer maneuver. On June 18th, the Kansu forces who had been stationed at Hunting Park in southern Beijing had marched and attacked multiple points towards Langfang. The 3000 Kansu men were armed with modern rifles and had a ton of cavalry units personally led by Ma Fulu who would go on to cut down western forces with his sword.  The Boxers and Kansu were working together to ambush the western army. The employed human wave attacks. The Boxers showed no fear of death as they charged at the western forces engaging in melee combat with swords and spears. Many also tossed firecrackers to give off the effect of guns. The psychological effect was tremendous on the western soldiers. The western army would suffer the vast majority of their casualties not from the Boxers however, it was the Kansu troops. The mounted Kansu with rifles in hand were tenacious, battle hardened from wars in the northwest. Von Usedom's right flank were on the brink of collapse, until French and British troops further down the track stormed up to help them. The western army was forced to make a fighting withdrawal while under attack the entire way. The trains at Langfang were ridden with bullet holes like swiss cheese. The Germans under Von Usedom fought like lions against wave after wave killing an estimated 400 and wounded 57. Of these the Kansu lost 200, the Boxers 200. Despite their losses to gunfire the Boxers never ceased charging the enemy, unnerving the westerners greatly at such a sight. The British were armed with .303 Lee-Metford rifles, the American M1895 Lee Navy's. At point blank range these men reported it could take 4 bullets to stop a Boxer, single rifle shots was not enough. There are primary accounts from the battle which I would like to read, the first is from Clive Bigham “Early on Sunday morning, 17th June [1900], a week after we had started, the Taku Forts were taken by U the Allied Forces in order to relieve Tientsin. That city was invested by the Boxers who began to bombard it next day. Of this of course we were quite ignorant. But the Court in Peking must have received instant news of the fact, for on the afternoon of the 18th Captain von Usedom, the German officer in command of the troops left at Langfang, was attacked by the Imperial forces belonging to General Tung-fuh-siang's division. Their numbers were estimated at 7,000 and they were well armed _^ with modern rifles which they used with effect, so that we suffered considerable casualties.” The next comes to us from Seymour  “On 17th messages were sent back to Lofa and Langfang to recall Nos. 2, 3, and 4 trains, it being evident that the advance by rail was impossible, and the isolation and separate destruction of the trains a possibility. No. 3 returned on the afternoon of 18th June,, and in the evening Nos. 2 and 4 from Langfang. Captain Von Usedom (His Imperial German Majesty's Navy), the senior officer present with Nos 2 and 4 trains, reported that they had had a severe engagement with the enemy, who unexpectedly attacked them at Langfang about 2.30 p.in. on that day (18th) in great force estimated 'to be-fully 5,000 men (including cavalry), large numbers of whom were armed with -magazine rifles of the latest pattern. The banners captured show them to have belonged to-tho army of General Tung Fu Hsiang, who commands the Chinese troops-in the Hunting Park- outside Peking, and it was thus definitely known for the first time that Imperial Chinese troops were being employed against us. The attack was made in front and on both flanks, the enemy pouring in a heavy fire on the allied forces coming out to engage them ; they were driven off with much loss, but when they saw our forces retiring towards the trains they rallied and made another attack ; a halt was then made and the men were once more beaten off with greater loss than before, and then finally retreated. In this action the Chinese lost over 400 killed, the allied forces 6 killed and 48 wounded.” Seymour concluded from the battle that the Qing government was officially in league with Boxers. They abandoned their trains, but were able to find 4 Chinese war junks along the river that they quickly commandeered for transporting the wounded and essential equipment. On June 19th they marched to Tientsin following the left bank of the Peiho. A lot of non essentials had to be abandoned and thus tossed into the river. As Seymour recalled ““All our trophies of war . . . the large standards, the curious weapons, all the plunder with which our carriages had been hung, all had to be sacrificed.”” The sailors aboard the war junks could see Boxers pouring in from all sides descending upon abandoned train carts which they set on fire. The western army had ablaze to their backs as they marched. To reach Tientsin was some 30 miles and the men were exhausted from combat and marching with little water, some even reportedly took their chances drinking from the Peiho. Going to go ahead and say dysentery came quickly to those boys. The Boxers held most of the small villages along the riverbank, prompting the western army to deploy guns at each. As Schlieper recalled “When one village was cleared a still hotter fire was sure to be opened on us from the next. It was a tough bit of work.” Many of the men had unsuitable clothing as well. The Germans were wearing thick blue clothing, designed for operations in the North Sea for winter time. Seymour had 62 deaths and 228 wounded, as they marched closer to Tientsin, they could hear gunfire. On June 20th, they had marched only 8 miles and had to fight the entire way. Two British soldiers were buried that night, having died from wounds. The men made it to the larger village of Peitsang where they fought a brutal battle. Schlieper took a rifle hit to his left shin, Captain Jellicoe likewise shot in the chest and coughing a lot of blood. Medics tended to him with morphine, but it looked grim so they told him to write out his will. Seymour approached Captain Von Usedom and asked him to act as his chief of staff and if he were to be killed to take over command. You have to take a step back and think about how unprecedented this entire situation was. 8 nations together with different policies, cultures, etc. It's not every day you see a British officer asking such a thing of a German. Seymour had around 200 wounded now and acquired a new war junk on the river for more of them. Seymour knew, anyone left behind would be massacred. The men were down to fewer than 10 rounds a man and all food was gone. On June 22nd the men made camp along the Peiho river bank and at dawn saw hope at last. On the other side of the Peiho river they saw a fortified position with a parapet. This was the Hsi-ku Arsenal, a place where Qing forces kept stored munitions. It held rifles, millions of rounds, rice, medical supplies and other war materials. Now that is lucky. The Arsenal was defended by a tiny force which got up and left upon seeing the western army. Seymour's men took refuge at the arsenal, but nearby General Nie Shicheng were given word of the situation. Nie Shicheng ordered forces to retake the arsenal, but the western army repulsed them. At 3am on June 23rd Qing forces attacked again, but this time they had Boxers helping them. Qing soldiers and Boxers managed to scale some of the walls during the night causing casualties upon the western army. Seymour realized departing the fortified positions was suicide. Seymour deployed his forces as best as he could and told the men to dig in. They could hear gunfire again coming from the direction of Tientsin. Seymour sent a Chinese servant named Chao Yinho with a message to make a run for Tientsin. Chao set out on the 24th with a cipher message, ordered to eat it if caught. Chao was forced to swim many parts of the way through the Peiho, going 8 miles. He was caught by Boxers and Qing soldiers and interrogated. He swallowed the message and convinced his captors he was innocent and they let him go. He made it to Tientsin where he told them the plight of Seymour and his men. A rescue party was formed, but the men of Tientsin were under threat themselves and could only spare so many. 1800 men consisting of 900 Russians, 500 British and others from the other nations departed on June 25th led by Russian Colonel Sherinsky. The rescue party came under Qing sniper fire along the way, forcing them into a single file formation. They reached the arsenal at 10:30am carrying food and cigarettes. Commander Mori of the Japanese shaked the hands of their rescuers. Sherinsky and Seymour got the men together and on way the next day, spiking the artillery pieces and destroying countless munitions they could not carry. The arsenal was ablaze on the 26th as they made their way to Tientsin. 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. Seymour grand 8 nation alliance force set out to rescue the trapped foreign community in the legations at Beijing. However the Qing and Boxers had joined forces and turned the tables of Seymour, for it was he who would end up needing rescue in the end.

Last time we spoke about the road to the Boxer Rebellion. Christians and foreigners were encroaching into China. Boxers and other anti-foreign groups were emerging in places like Shandong and Zhili. Conflicts were growing rapidly as the two forces converged, leaving the Qing government in a terrible situation trying to please both. It seems for a time, they were keeping the hawks of war at bay, but the more incidents flared up the tougher each side became. Then came an evolution to the mayhem, the Yihetuan emerged to the stage, a large scale movement of Boxers seeking to revive the qing and destroy the foreigners. The Qing tried to crack down upon the movement, but it seems all was for nought as they only grew in popularity. Beijing has called upon forces from the northwest to bolster defenses, but can they stop the inevitable clash?    #61 The Boxer Rebellion part 1: The Boxer's March on Beijing   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. After the battle of Senluo Temple Governor of Shandong province, Yuxiang ordered the boxers caught, but not to be killed. The missionaries and foreigners remarked “it was insane orders not to have the soldiers kill any one”. But Yuxiang sought to not drive a wedge between the state and the people. Zhu Hongdeng fled south joining other boxer leaders to discuss what to do next. Major boxer activity halted, as they watched to see what the Qing government would do. THe magistrate of Pingyuan was removed, there did not seem to be any real hunt after them. After awhile Zhu Hongdenf and the other boxers began raiding christians in Yucheng, Changqing, Chiping and Boping. They burnt homes, stole property, performed violence and even killed a few people. Outside Boping, Christians fought back leading to skirmishes and fatalities. Yuxiang's lenient policies were failing, the Christian community felt the Qing government could not protect them. Yuxiang began targeting the boxer leaders, as he had done with the Big Sword Society prior. Tactically it went brilliantly, he managed to arrest and execute the main leaders, but these Boxers were nothing like the Big Swords. Following the elimination of the boxer leaders, boxer movements sprang up in new places all over the region, villages were being attacked all over. Whenever one Boxer leader was arrested or killed, another would generate at a moment's notice, it was like a Boxer Hydra.  Now the Boxers had been targeting small villages with Christian communities, but then on November 15th they attacked the fortified Catholic village of Zhangzhuang. The boxers successfully raided the village and it seems this emboldened them greatly as their next targets became mission stations holding foreigners. As the missionaries and foreign communities felt threatened, they began complaining to remove officials like Yuxiang. On December 5th, the complaints worked, the Qing government replaced Yuxiang with Yuan Shikai. Although Yuan Shikai was convinced Yuxiangs lenient policies led to the Boxer problem and sought to use military force to quell it, prominent Qing officials advised him to not brutalize the Boxers, as they rightly feared it would spark a large-scale rebellion against their government. Thus Yuan Shikai used his forces defensively to try and protect foreigners and Christians, little actually changed. On December 31st of 1899 the British missionary S.M Brooks was murdered in Feicheng by bandits. The Boxers continued to spread and rumors of what they did were heard everywhere. Mission stations were being attacked everywhere in a wild frenzy of panic field by rumors. The Boxers would claim missionaries were poisoning wells. Boxers would target all things foreign such as railways which they said “had iron centipedes or fire carts which desecrated the land and disturbed the graves of their ancestors” Empress Dowager Cixi would love that one. Likewise telegraph lines were feared. Some thought the rusty water dripping from their wires looked like blood of air spirits. Foreign own mines were seen as disturbing the spirits of China's earth. Boxer Manifestos began to state “When we have slaughtered them all, we shall tear up the railways, cut down the telegraphs, and then finish off by burning their steamboats.” When rumors emerged of the new Yihetuan slogan “Revive the Qing, remove the foreign”, those in the Qing court like Prince Duan and Empress Dowager Cixi listened with keen interest. For once it seemed the peasants were on their side! The Empress Dowager was also extremely superstitious and seemed to be transfixed on the tales of Boxers practicing ritual exercises to induce gods to possess them. She was also intrigued by tales of the female Boxer group known as “Hong Deng Zhao / the red lanterns”. Yes, female Boxers of this order practiced rituals and healing techniques to aid the male Boxers. They trained in martial arts and were said to carry red lanterns used to burn down missionary buildings. Rumors had it they had magical powers to fly, honestly the tales run the gambit. Now something that interested Cixi and some conservative Qing the most was the prospect a group of warriors were out there that did not require payment to fight. On the last day of 1899 in Shandong province the Boxers killed an english reverend named Sidney Brooks. Brooks had been helping his sister defender a mission “about twelve miles from Ping Yin he was attacked by a band of about thirty armed ruffians who after struggling with him and wounding him on his head and arms with their swords bound him and led him away towards Ping Yin. It was an intensely cold day and snow was falling. In spite of this they took from him all his outer garments and led him about for some hours. He endeavored to ransom himself with promises of large sums of silver but they were unwilling. . . . It is said that by some means he managed to escape and fled in the direction of Ping Yin. He was quickly pursued by three horsemen who cut him down when only a mile from our little church at Ta Kuang Chuang and there by the roadside the last act in this terrible crime was committed. His head was taken from his body and both were thrown into a gully.” News of Brooks murder reached Beijing on January the 2nd of 1900. American Minister Edwin Conger, a bearded civil war veteran met with Herbert Squiers, the American first secretary. They talked about Brooks murder and two other incidents that had recently occurred. The first was the imperial decree ordering Qing officials in the coastal and Yantze provinces to be on their guard against foreign aggressors. The second was a complaint given in November of 1899 about how foreigners were carving up China and urged the Chinese to defend their land. Conger was unsure how to react to such rhetoric. The US favored an open China policy, but certainly not a xenophobic and aggressive one. Conger decided to alert Washington, but did not go as far as to state the foreign community was outright in danger.  Over in the British legation, Sir Claude MacDonald was also reeling over the recent news. MacDonald had been appointed minister to Beijing in 185 and was a soldier who had fought in Egypt. MacDonald had been complaining for awhile to the Qing government about the conflicts brewing in Shandong, Brooks murder seemed to be the latest and worst of them. He often dealt with the head of the Zongli Yamen, Prince Qing, who was a moderate amongst the Qing court, unlike Prince Duan who was adamantly conservative and quite anti-foreign. The Zongli Yamen immediately promised Brooks murderers would be brought to justice. To the foreign community everything looked like the Qing government favored their protection, but it became gradually apparent to them the Qing were not fully suppressing the Boxers.  On January 27th the Americans, French, Italian and German legations sent a mutual protest demanding the suppression of the Boxers, but they received no reply for over a month. The Qing court was far too busy dealing with the imperial succession since Emperor Guangxu's health was declining, Cixi nominated Pujun, a son of Guangxu's cousin, no other than Prince Duan as the presumptive. Pujun was much alike to his father, extremely anti-foreign. The following weeks saw the foreign ministers scrambling with demands to the Zongli Yamen to increase measures against the Boxers. Telegrams were frantically sent back to home nations in March suggesting an international naval show of force was needed. America, Britain and Italy began sending a handful of warships to anchor outside the Taku forts, while Kaiser Wilhelm sent an entire squadron to Jiaozhou.  On April 16 of 1900, Empress Dowager Cixi persuaded MacDonald into believing the Boxer problem was coming to an end and this saw the British warships Brisk and Hermione withdraw from the Daku Fort area. The foreign community began breathing a bit easier, but the reality was the Qing Court was considering incorporating the Boxers into an official militia group. The Qing court was at war with another. Prince Duan, leading the conservatives had purged many progressives, he was married to Cixi's niece and now his son was the heir apparent. Alike to Prince Duan, Cixi was very anti-foreign, ever since her summer palace was burnt down during the second opium war. She like many of the conservatives blamed the foreigners for all problems facing China, never recognizing the corruption present within. But unlike Duan she was much more cautious, she lent an ear to those around her like Li Hongzhang, Yuan Shikai and Jung Lu, the commander of Beijings local forces. The progressives had prevailed until now, walking a tightrope against fully or partially denouncing the Boxers to please the foreigners.  The missionaries in the more interior parts of China provided the best source of intelligence to the legations. They were sounding the alarm, but there was little anyone could do but place their faith in the Qing government and wait to see what occurred. In early 1900, a British missionary named Frederick Brown was writing out of Tientsin that it was being overrun with Boxers, endangering the Christians there. The foreign diplomats were failing to appreciate such reports, many believed and quite rightly so, the missionaries were the aggressors, bringing conflict upon themselves. There was quite a belief going around that these reports were cases of “crying wolf” as they say. The foreign community in Beijing were failing to notice, thousands of Boxers were venturing out of places like Shandong and Zhili enroute to the capital. Zhili held nearly 100,000 Christians at this point and large foreign populations at Tientsin and Beijing. The 250 foreign missionaries in Beijing were becoming extremely anxious, though they were certainly better off than their colleagues our in the countryside.  By late april the Boxers began placing placards in Beijing. One was dated April 29th stating “Disturbances are to be dreaded from the foreign devils; everywhere they are starting missions, erecting telegraphs, and building railways; they do not believe in the sacred doctrine, and they speak evil of the gods. Their sins are numberless as the hairs of the head. . . . The will of heaven is that the telegraph wires be first cut, then the railways torn up, and then shall the foreign devils be decapitated. In that day shall the hour of their calamities come.” By May 1st, Herbert Hoover, yes that Herbert Hoover happened to be in China at the time, he found the situation too dangerous and recalled his geological expeditions from the interior. Hoover and his wife Lou, stayed put in Tientsin. By mid May, news of Boxer atrocities flooded Beijing. 60 Chinese catholics had been slaughtered in Kaolo a village 90 miles away from Beijing. The bodies had been tossed down a well, the entire village razed. Then just 40 miles outside Beijing a Chinese preacher working for the British was murdered. MacDonald telegraphed Britain and the Zongli Yamen demanding an apology, but was given the usual run around. On May 19th, Bishop Favier sent a letter to the French Minister Stephen Pichon, urging him to send for troops. ““I am well-informed and I do not speak idly. This religious persecution is only a façade; the ultimate aim is the extermination of all Europeans.... The Boxers' accomplices await them in Peking; they mean to attack the churches first, then the legations. For us, in our Cathedral, the date of the attack has actually been fixed.“pour protéger nos personnes et nos biens”—“to protect our persons and our possessions.” The next day the foreign minister met to discuss Bishop Faviers' warning. MacDonald was skeptical, Pichon conceded Favier was a bit of an alarmist, but could be telling the truth. In the end the ministers agreed not to send to Tientsin a demand for further guards, but instead would ask the Qing government to crack down on the Boxers, or else they would summon troops. Well the Qing did not do so, in fact on May 23rd, George Morrison and Australian journalist wrote in his diary “the Boxers had the cognizance and approval of the Government, as shown by them drilling in the grounds of Imperial barracks and royal princes”. Morrison was one of the most knowledge westerners in China at the time and one of the few who could see the very real looming threat the Boxers were. Meanwhile MacDonald and his wife were preparing a major social event, a party to honor Queen Victories 80th birthday. Most of the foreign community took part and there were some of the conversations that emerged were about the rise of the Boxers. Yet still many waved it all off as nonesense that would soon fade away. The next day the foriegn community saw their Chinese gardners, washermen, house workers all begin leaving their work and going into hiding. It had become unsafe for Chinese, whether they be Christians or not to work for foreigners. At the same time Christian refugees began flooding the Beijings churches and gathering centers. Many of them bore wounds such as burn marks from Boxer attacks. On May 28th a refugee hobbled over to Morrison's house reporting to him dire news. The Belgian construction staff building at Changsintien had been attacked by Boxers. The Boxers were destroying the railway line linking Beijing and Hankou. Not only that, they were cutting telegraph lines and the stations at Fengtai were razed to the ground. These were the first reports of concentrated mass action against the foreigners. Morrison was so disturbed by the report he went himself with two friends racing over to Fengtai on horseback and what he saw was “black smoke curling ominously into the sky. It was as if the whole countryside was afoot, streaming towards the station. The engine sheds were on fire . . . and the villagers from all around were shouting. We could do nothing, though we should have shot a Chinaman who threatened us with a sword and swore to cut our throats. It will always be a regret to me that I did not kill this man.” A bit hardcore to be honest.  Herbert Squiers 47 servants, most being Christian Chinese began raising alarm stating “these people are all Boxers, most of them flaunting the red sash, [and] are preparing for a general uprising when the time shall be ripe—an uprising that has for its watchword, ‘Death and destruction to the foreigner and all his works.'” Smoke and flames could be seen rising the locomotive shed that housed Empress Dowager's railway coach, something she naturally never used, mind you. Boxers blew up the foreign built steel bridge over the Peiho river. When trouble began in Fengtai, the Qing forces withdrew. Morrison went to work going out to the foreign villas to warn those there of the incoming Boxers. Herbert Squiers went to his villa accompanied by a Cossack guard lent to him by the Russian minister, de Giers. Russia had maintained a small armed guard in Beijing for quite some time now. The Chinese servants were saved by the party before the Boxers reached them. However the party now had to travel back to Beijing and could face two possible threats, Boxers or the Kansu. It was a 15 mile journey that took 5 hours, but they made it safely without incident. Meanwhile the Belgian engineers 16 miles from Beijing in Chansintien were stuck. Luckily for them the French dispatched a small force to rescue them before the Boxers struck. As the Belgians made their way to Beijing, they could see their residence up in flames in the distance. They also noticed Qing troops sent to aid them were joining the Boxers in looting their former residences. Another group of foreign engineers at Paotingfu were not as lucky as the rest and were attacked as they fled for Beijing. They were attacked at the same time as the railway line, thus they were unable to flee by train. The telegraph lines went soon after cutting their communication as well. Unable to communicate or know where Boxers may be coming from, they fled east to Tientsin using river boats. 30 Belgian, French and Italians with women in children departed Paotingu on May 31st. When they were boarding boats the Boxers attacked, and some of the families fled in the wrong direction and would be murdered. The majority huddled together and took dangerous routes through swamps to avoid further detection. Two men rushed to Tientsin as fast as they could reaching it on june 3rd to raise an alarm. The rest of the survivors showed up, most semi naked, dehydrated and wounded. Hearing news of these incidents, the foreign diplomats in Beijing were now beginning to freak out. On may 28th MacDonald formed a meeting with the ministers and argued they had no option left but to request the foreign fleets anchored outside the Taku forts send forces to the legations. There was a very real danger the rail link from Tientsin to Beijing would be severed, if they did not act quickly enough the foreign fleets would be unable to move troops by train. The French and Russians stated they already made their requests, so MacDonald hastily telegraphed Vice Admiral Sir Edward Seymour, yes the veteran of the second opium war who was now the commander of British naval forces in China. Seymour was currently patrolling the coast with his squadron when he received the telegraph. Meanwhile MacDonald lambasted the Zongli Yamen that they were damn fools or liars, before demanding they inform Prince Qing who was at the summer palace with Cixi “that the troops are coming tomorrow, and if [there is] any obstruction, they will come in ten times greater force.” On May 31st the Zongli Yamen gave official permission for the foreign troops to come to Beijing, but imposed a limit of 30 guards per legation, which all the foreign diplomats ignored. The first contingents departed Tientsin that same day for Beijing. The foreign diplomats knew having troops come over would bolster the Boxers to attack even more, but it seemed to all that the Qing court had no intention of helping. In fact they did not know it, but the Qing court were in a hell of a mess. On May 22nd, the Boxer attack upon Christians in Kaolo had also seen the death of the Manchu commander, Yang Futong. The Qing did not react to this and the Boxers were greatly emboldened, as they quickly went after the railways. An imperial edict was made on May 30th stating “the really guilty must be distinguished from those merely led by the excitement of the moment.” Sir Robert Hart, working as the inspector general of the Qing maritime customs had been closely observing the Qing response to the Boxers and would remark “The government seemed entirely unable to cope with the movement, even when they were willing; and the Government would, or could, do nothing but issue edicts, many of which were so dubiously worded that they might have been taken as equally favorable to the ‘Boxers,' or to Christians and foreigners.” The terrible position the Qing government were in was not lost on the foreigners as Sir Robert Hart told his colleagues  “the Court appears to be in a dilemma: if the Boxers are not suppressed, the legations threaten to take action—if the attempt to suppress them is made, this intensely patriotic organization will be converted into an anti-dynastic movement!” Thus the foreign ministers knew they could not depend on the Qing government. They also knew they had inflamed the situation by calling up troops, but what choice did they have? There were worries the foreign troops would not reach Beijing in time, the ministers began issued protective directives. Women were not to leave the legation compounds, the diplomats and military personnel were to make efforts to investigate the situation at all times. One of the first things they uncovered were placards being places around the legation Quarters giving “helpful tips on how to destroy the foreign buildings”. This prompted MacDonald to telegraph the foreign office in London “The situation is one of extreme gravity, people very excited, troops mutinous; without doubt it is now a question of life and property being in danger here.” Boxers began parading openly in the streets of Beijing. Foreigners if caught walking the streets could expect rocks thrown at them by not just Boxers, but angry locals. French diplomat, Baron D'Anthouard described the scenes as such “handbills, and advocating the massacre of foreigners and the destruction of all religious institutions. They no longer take the trouble to hide, and move about carrying their insignia: a red scarf tied around their heads with the inscription ‘Fu' [Happiness] on the front of it, a kind of red coat of arms on their chest, and red bands around their wrists and ankles. They also carry flags with the inscription, ‘We fight by order of the Emperor and for the salvation of the Dynasty.' Their handbills announce the forthcoming massacre of the ‘Western devils.'” The foreigners in the legations began to plan defenses against possible attacks. I really recommend at this point checking out maps of the legation quarters 1900, there are excellent maps, photo's and renderings. The British legation was quite strong, had high walls, held the Jade river to one side and the Imperial Carriage park on the other, it was by far the strongest position. MacDonald knew it was their greatest stronghold and he immediately offered sanctuary to any and all British residents seeking refuge. There was news, 6000 Kansu soldiers had been deployed to the railway terminus at Machiapu just outside the city walls. The foreigners wondered if they would join in attacks against them. Machiapu also happened to be the railway station the foreign troops would be arriving at, was it going to be a battle when they did? The foreign diplomats bit their nails waiting for the trains to arrive and at long last they did bearing 350 men from Britain, Russia, America, France, Japan and Italy. Another group of Germans and Austrians were coming in the next few days. There were curses and screams thrown at the foreign troops, but no violence as they entered the city gates. The foreign community came rushing out to see the various soldiers march into Beijing. Captain Francis Poole of the East Yorkshire regiment acting as a guard at the British Legation had this to say of the sight “the British fighters were naturally the smartest, that the Americans were “a serviceable-looking lot,” but that the French, Russians, and Italians were “very dirty.” All the guards were ill-equipped for what was going to go down. The admirals who sent them did not anticipate how long they would be stationed there. Most had rifles with a few hundred rounds per man, but there was no reserve ammunition, no heavy weapons, aside from 3 machine guns. The British carried the Nordenfelt .45 which was prone to jamming; the Austrains had a Maxim gun; the Americans carried light Colt 236's. For artillery there was a single one pounder the Italians had brought with 120 shells. The Russians intended to bring a 12 pounder but left it behind at Tientsin because of space issues, though they did bring shells for it. Despite the small size, the diplomats were extremely grateful to see their new guards. MacDonald expressed his relief stating “the Empress Dowager would see the error of her ways. The crisis I think is past as far as Peking is concerned.”   On June 3rd MacDonald sent word to Vice Admiral Seymour stating their situation had calmed down. The remaining German and Austrians arrived turning their guard force of 350 to 435. All seemed quiet at the legations, but outside Christian attacks were becoming more violent and systematic. News began to emerge that the Boxers were now targeting the railway line  and stations to Tientsin. The foreign ministers met to discuss things going forward and it was argued immediately, the Boxers would most likely cut the telegraph lines to Beijing next. This of course met they would be unable to cable their governments to request more aid if it came to that. On June 4th, MacDonald requested the Zongli Yamen to publicly denounce the recent murder of two missionaries, but was ignored. The next day another meeting was made with Prince Qing, leading MacDonald to conclude the Zongli Yamen were powerless to do anything. His conclusion was bolstered by recent imperial edicts that exonerated the Boxers and instead began placing blame on Christians for violence. The atmosphere in Beijing was one of foreboding again.  On June 9th a mob of Boxers burned down the grandstand the Beijing Race Course near the southern city gates. The news drew an excited young student interpreter to gallop over to take a look and he was confronted with a violent crowd. A Chinese civilian was shot during this process, the first to be killed by a foreigner. MacDonald was livid at the news and ordered no other foreigners to ride out of the city again. The ministers yet again met and debated if they should request further troops from the navy outside the Taku forts. MacDonald told everyone he already requested such from Vice Admiral Seymour as they expected the telegraph lines to be cut any day. Emperor Guangxu and Empress Dowager Cixi had also returned that day to the forbidden city from the summer palace. This would have brought relief to everyone if it was not also reported, General Dong Fuxiang and his entire Kansu army had escorted the royal party into the city.  MacDonald sent word again to Seymour that he should send all available troops at once. He received a confirmation of the order on June 10th, help was on the way, just before the telegraph line to Tientsin was cut. The only line left was one running north to the Russians. The Kansu troops began massing around the Machiapu railway station clearly looking for a fight with the incoming relief force. Hours passed with no trains. Meanwhile Prince Qing was replaced as president by Prince Duan. Then the chancellor of the Japanese legation, Mr. Sugiyama, neatly dressed in a tailcoat and bowler hat went to the Muchiapu station to check out the situation. As he got outside the city gate, Kansu troops grabbed him out of his cart and according to Morisson “disemboweled and cut him to pieces. It is said his heart was ripped out and sent as a gift to General Dong Fuxiang”. There was zero attempt to recover his body. The remaining telegraph line to Russia was cut. The normally bustling streets of the legation Quarter were emptied of servants and shopkeepers who vanished. The situation had escalated beyond control now. 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 foreign community in Beijing managed to gain some extra guards for their legations, but what were a few hundred against tens of thousands? Mr. Sugiyama was murdered in cold blood and now the violence would hit the legations.

In this episode we're joined by the analytical and brilliant Duan Uys, CEO and founder of Qubix Data Solutions, to talk about the power of data in business decisions and emerging technologies. We'll delve into how data can be used to augment business decisions and the limitations of technology like AI. Our conversation today also touches on the importance of unbiased data and considering context in data analysis. Duan also shares insights on deploying no-code software programs, integrating AI tools like ChatGPT, and creating scalable data solutions for businesses. Plus, Duan shares how Qubix Data Solutions specializes in creating centralized and future-proof data warehousing services, perfect for growing businesses and entrepreneurs.ABOUT DUANDuan Uys, MS, is the CEO and Founder of Qubix Data Solutions. With a strong background in data analysis and software development, Duan embarked on his data journey during his post-graduate career, where he had the opportunity to work with satellite data. He then transitioned into the O&G industry as an analyst, automating various aspects of his job, including custom ETL pipelines, data warehouses, and building software to predict estimated EBITDA from sales. Duan went on to establish the R&D department at his previous company and gained valuable experience in embedded technologies, writing firmware, and collaborating with electronic engineers.Following the impact of COVID, Duan joined a forward-thinking law firm with tech aspirations and played a pivotal role in developing a powerful SaaS product, architecting their entire backend. Today, he leads Qubix Data Solutions in providing high-quality, scalable data solutions to the market. Holding a Master of Science in Geophysics, Duan has a keen interest in emerging technologies, such as AI tools and quantum computing, and how they can fit into his tech stack.Duan believes in the interconnectedness of the world, embracing the power of pattern recognition to understand the underlying connections among various topics, technologies, and ideas. This unique mindset enables him to strip away complexities and uncover the essence of what makes each technology or concept unique, ultimately giving him a more profound insight into the world.LINKS & RESOURCESQubix Data Solutions' websiteFind Qubix on LinkedInFind Duan on LinkedIn

Chief Clevert, Deputy Fire Chief at Henrico County Division of Fire, and Henrico Firefighter Duan Perez-Means, Fire Recruiter are our guests on this episode. They talked with us about exploring and joining the great and noble profession of a Henrico Firefighter. This episode includes the introduction of our new co-host, Marianne McGhee. My name is Mike Roberts and I love working to bring you the Henrico CTE Now podcast. I would love to hear from you. Send us any questions you would like answered.  Send us an email at ⁠mwroberts@henrico.k12.va.us⁠.  Also, please tell your friends and family about us, and be sure to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE so you get notified when we post our next episode. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/henrico-cte/message

Rocky Duan, CTO of Covariant joins joins Host Pieter Abbeel.Subscribe to the Robot Brains Podcast today | Visit therobotbrains.ai and follow us on YouTube at TheRobotBrainsPodcast and Twitter @therobotbrains. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Inside The ‘Chaos Machine' Of Social Media Despite social media's early promises to build a more just and democratic society, over the past several years, we've seen its propensity to easily spread hate speech, misinformation and disinformation. Online platforms have even played a role in organizing violent acts in the real world, like genocide against the Rohinga people in Myanmar, and the violent attempt to overturn the election at the United States capitol. But how did we get here? Has social media fundamentally changed how we interact with the world? And how did big tech companies accumulate so much unchecked power along the way? Read an excerpt of The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World here.   Taking On Renewables' AC/DC Disconnect In the push to transition society to more renewable energy sources, there are several logistical challenges. One central question involves the best way to connect solar panels and battery storage—which both produce direct current, into an energy grid that primarily provides alternating current at the local level. Dr. Suman Debnath leads a project called the Multiport Autonomous Reconfigurable Solar power plant (MARS) at Oak Ridge National Lab. He and his colleagues have designed a system of advanced power electronics that allow large, utility-scale solar facilities and battery storage projects to feed either AC or DC power, as needed. The approach, Debnath says, will both allow for better integration of those electric resources into the grid, and make it more possible to transport power long distances using more efficient DC transmission lines. Debnath talks with Ira about the MARS project, and ways to modernize the country's power distribution system for greater reliability and efficiency.   Are These Ancient Galaxies Too Big For Their Age? We've all been wowed by the amazing images from the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST. But sometimes, the important data isn't in those amazing galactic swirls or wispy nebula images, but in the images of tiny smudges from far, far away. Astronomers recently described some of those smudges, tiny red dots thought possibly to be ancient, distant galaxies, in the journal Nature. However, if the red dots do in fact represent galaxies, they appear to be too large to fit predictions for how fast galaxies form. The possible galaxies may be about 13 billion years old, forming just 500 to 700 million years after the Big Bang, but appear to contain as many stars as much more mature galaxies. Dr Erica Nelson, an assistant professor of Astrophysics at the University of Colorado, Boulder and one of the authors of that paper, joins Ira to talk about the observation and what could explain the confusing finding.   How These Russian Wasps Could Help Save Ash Trees How do you find an insect the size of your fingertip in a densely packed forest? For Jian Duan, the answer is simple: Follow the dead ash trees. On a rainy day in eastern Connecticut, Duan, a federal research entomologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, walked to a dying ash covered with holes. Peeling back the bark with a drawknife, he revealed a mess of serpentine tunnels. Curled up inside was one of his targets: a larva of emerald ash borer. “Let's collect it,” Duan said, gesturing as his assistant handed him a pair of tweezers tied to a brightly-colored ribbon. (In case you're wondering, the ribbon makes the tweezers easy to spot when they're dropped on the leaf-covered ground.) But today Duan isn't just collecting emerald ash borers. He's also looking for their predator, one released here on purpose in 2019 and 2020: a wasp known as Spathius galinae (pronounced spay-see-us glee-nuh). “It's from the Russian Far East,” Duan said, smiling. “Unfortunately, there are no common names for these parasitic wasps.” To read the rest, visit sciencefriday.com.     Vocal Fry Serves Up Treats For Toothed Whales Toothed whales—species like orcas, bottlenose whales, and dolphins—use echolocation to zero in on prey about a mile deep into the ocean. Until now, scientists couldn't quite figure out how the whales were making these clicking sounds in the deep ocean, where there's little oxygen. A new study published in the journal Science, finds the key to underwater echolocation is vocal fry. Although in whales it might not sound like the creaky voice that some people love to hate, the two sounds are generated in a similar way in the vocal folds. Ira talks with the study's co-author, Dr. Coen Elemans, professor of bioacoustics and animal behavior at the University of Southern Denmark based in Odense, Denmark.   Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.