Podcasts about shandong province

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In this episode, we delve into the controversy surrounding Shuntian Chemical Group, a company based in Shandong Province, China. The company mandated that all single employees aged 28 to 58 must marry by September 30th or face termination. This policy drew widespread criticism for infringing on personal freedoms and was subsequently withdrawn following government intervention.​For more details, check out this articlem.economictimes.com+1hrkatha.com+1This Week's Featured Hashtag#ModernizeAFairyTaleMore information on MortuusequusphobiaWhat it's like living with a fear of ketchupSend a text to The Ebone Zone! Support the showIf you have questions or comments email ebonezonepodcast@yahoo.com Follow the Ebone Zone on Twitter: https://twitter.com/OfficialEBZLike the Ebone Zone on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ebonezoneofficial/Visit www.ebonezone.com for more content!

Welcome to China Compass on the Fight Laugh Feast Network! I'm your China travel guide, Missionary Ben. Follow me on X (@chinaadventures) where I post daily reminders to pray for China (PrayforChina.us). Check out all of the other things we are involved in @ PrayGiveGo.us. I begin by recommending a relatively unknown ministry (richardwurmbrandfoundation.com/) that I respect and support (0:44). Then we talk about the pros and cons of deporting all Chinese students in the US (9:33). Next, I talk about how I learned Mandarin (21:08), beginning 22 years ago this week, followed by an overview of the unique Chinese places to pray for this week (34:36). Finally, I tell a few more stories, beginning with the fun (also 22 years ago this week) of being surrounded by police in Shunde (43:01). We end with a couple of letters from William Borden (BordenofYale.com) dating back 120 and 112 years, respectively, as he shares (51:20) about the heathenism he witnessed and why he dressed like an Arab in Cairo. Help for Refugees: The Richard Wurmbrand Foundation https://richardwurmbrandfoundation.com/ Cancel All Chinese Student Visas? https://www.newsweek.com/congressman-stop-chinas-exploitation-our-student-visa-program-opinion-2029415 How To Teach Yourself Mandarin https://chinacall.substack.com/p/how-i-taught-myself-mandarin Don’t forget to Pray for China this week (Feb 15-22! (PrayforChina.us) Feb 15 (Sat) - Pray for Yushu in far southern Qinghai, just north of Tibet. We lived in this Tibetan region back in 2004, and visited off and on over the years. Qinghai (“Cheeng-high”) is paired with southern CO, west TX, and NM for prayer: https://prayforchina.us/states/colorado.html https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/the-pub/podcasts/30293/episodes/3 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yushu_City,_Qinghai https://www.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/qinghai Feb 16 (Sun) - Pray for Xingping City in Xianyang Prefecture, home to the largest airport in NW China (where I was deported). Shaanxi is paired with Kansas for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us https://open.spotify.com/episode/4s6GcIAfDjfcH5a5RNjAe8 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xingping https://www.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/shaanxi Feb 17 - Pray for Binzhou (“Bean-joe”) Prefecture in Shandong Province. Shandong ("Mountain East"), on China's east coast, is paired with Virginia for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/the-pub/podcasts/30293/episodes/49 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binzhou https://www.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/shandong/1900-protestant-martyrs-in-shandong Feb 18 - Pray for Xiaodian District in Taiyuan City, the capital of north China's Shanxi Province. Shanxi (“west of the mountains”) is paired up with Nebraska for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/30293/episodes/27 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaodian,_Taiyuan https://www.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/shanxi Feb 19 - Pray for hilly Leshan (“Luh-shan”), a three-million-strong city in south-central Sichuan Province. Home of the panda and many unreached Tibetans, Sichuan is matched with Texas for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/the-pub/podcasts/30293/episodes/10 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leshan https://www.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/sichuan Feb 20 - Pray for mountainous Dehong Prefecture in western Yunnan Province, home to a number of diverse ethnicities on the porous border with Myanmar. Home to huge mountains and diverse minorities, Yunnan is paired with Arkansas/Louisiana for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/30293/episodes/28 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dehong_Dai_and_Jingpo_Autonomous_Prefecture https://www.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/yunnan Feb 21 - Pray for Xiaoshan District, the most populated within Zhejiang’s capital, Hangzhou. Hangzhou was Hudson Taylor's first field of service and where he met his first wife, Maria. Zhejiang (“Juh-jiang”) is paired with North Carolina for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/30293/episodes/24 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaoshan,_Hangzhou https://www.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/zhejiang Feb 22 (Sat) - Pray for crowded Zhongshan City in southern Guangdong Province, right between Guangzhou and Macau. We've passed through here countless times. Tropical and populous Guangdong is paired up with Florida for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/30293/episodes/15 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhongshan https://www.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/guangdong Borden of Yale: No Reserve, No Retreat, No Regrets (BordenofYale.com): You Have Not Seen Heathenism: https://chinacall.substack.com/p/you-have-not-seen-heathenism Borden Goes Native: https://chinacall.substack.com/p/borden-of-yale-goes-native-a-la-hudson If you enjoy this podcast, follow or subscribe on Spotify or Apple or right here on PubTV. You can also email any questions or comments to contact @ PrayforChina dot us. And don’t forget to check out everything we are involved in at PrayGiveGo.us. Luke 10:2!

Welcome to China Compass on the Fight Laugh Feast Network! I'm your China travel guide, Missionary Ben. Follow me on X (@chinaadventures) where I post daily reminders to pray for China (PrayforChina.us). Check out all of the other things we are involved in @ PrayGiveGo.us. I begin by recommending a relatively unknown ministry (richardwurmbrandfoundation.com/) that I respect and support (0:44). Then we talk about the pros and cons of deporting all Chinese students in the US (9:33). Next, I talk about how I learned Mandarin (21:08), beginning 22 years ago this week, followed by an overview of the unique Chinese places to pray for this week (34:36). Finally, I tell a few more stories, beginning with the fun (also 22 years ago this week) of being surrounded by police in Shunde (43:01). We end with a couple of letters from William Borden (BordenofYale.com) dating back 120 and 112 years, respectively, as he shares (51:20) about the heathenism he witnessed and why he dressed like an Arab in Cairo. Help for Refugees: The Richard Wurmbrand Foundation https://richardwurmbrandfoundation.com/ Cancel All Chinese Student Visas? https://www.newsweek.com/congressman-stop-chinas-exploitation-our-student-visa-program-opinion-2029415 How To Teach Yourself Mandarin https://chinacall.substack.com/p/how-i-taught-myself-mandarin Don’t forget to Pray for China this week (Feb 15-22! (PrayforChina.us) Feb 15 (Sat) - Pray for Yushu in far southern Qinghai, just north of Tibet. We lived in this Tibetan region back in 2004, and visited off and on over the years. Qinghai (“Cheeng-high”) is paired with southern CO, west TX, and NM for prayer: https://prayforchina.us/states/colorado.html https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/the-pub/podcasts/30293/episodes/3 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yushu_City,_Qinghai https://www.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/qinghai Feb 16 (Sun) - Pray for Xingping City in Xianyang Prefecture, home to the largest airport in NW China (where I was deported). Shaanxi is paired with Kansas for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us https://open.spotify.com/episode/4s6GcIAfDjfcH5a5RNjAe8 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xingping https://www.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/shaanxi Feb 17 - Pray for Binzhou (“Bean-joe”) Prefecture in Shandong Province. Shandong ("Mountain East"), on China's east coast, is paired with Virginia for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/the-pub/podcasts/30293/episodes/49 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binzhou https://www.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/shandong/1900-protestant-martyrs-in-shandong Feb 18 - Pray for Xiaodian District in Taiyuan City, the capital of north China's Shanxi Province. Shanxi (“west of the mountains”) is paired up with Nebraska for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/30293/episodes/27 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaodian,_Taiyuan https://www.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/shanxi Feb 19 - Pray for hilly Leshan (“Luh-shan”), a three-million-strong city in south-central Sichuan Province. Home of the panda and many unreached Tibetans, Sichuan is matched with Texas for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/the-pub/podcasts/30293/episodes/10 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leshan https://www.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/sichuan Feb 20 - Pray for mountainous Dehong Prefecture in western Yunnan Province, home to a number of diverse ethnicities on the porous border with Myanmar. Home to huge mountains and diverse minorities, Yunnan is paired with Arkansas/Louisiana for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/30293/episodes/28 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dehong_Dai_and_Jingpo_Autonomous_Prefecture https://www.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/yunnan Feb 21 - Pray for Xiaoshan District, the most populated within Zhejiang’s capital, Hangzhou. Hangzhou was Hudson Taylor's first field of service and where he met his first wife, Maria. Zhejiang (“Juh-jiang”) is paired with North Carolina for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/30293/episodes/24 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaoshan,_Hangzhou https://www.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/zhejiang Feb 22 (Sat) - Pray for crowded Zhongshan City in southern Guangdong Province, right between Guangzhou and Macau. We've passed through here countless times. Tropical and populous Guangdong is paired up with Florida for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us https://pubtv.flfnetwork.com/tabs/audio/podcasts/30293/episodes/15 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhongshan https://www.asiaharvest.org/china-resources/guangdong Borden of Yale: No Reserve, No Retreat, No Regrets (BordenofYale.com): You Have Not Seen Heathenism: https://chinacall.substack.com/p/you-have-not-seen-heathenism Borden Goes Native: https://chinacall.substack.com/p/borden-of-yale-goes-native-a-la-hudson If you enjoy this podcast, follow or subscribe on Spotify or Apple or right here on PubTV. You can also email any questions or comments to contact @ PrayforChina dot us. And don’t forget to check out everything we are involved in at PrayGiveGo.us. Luke 10:2!

DeepSeek and other new AI models promise the same performance for one order of magnitude less power consumption - does this really change forecasts for load on the grid? China's battery exports are up 17.1% year-on-year in December by volume - but the dollar value was stuck at $60 billion for 2024, the same as previous years, as prices decline and volume expands. Shandong Province provides some statistics about the interaction between EV ownership, Virtual Power Plant expansion, and EV charging power demand.

Sandor Nagy, a former Hungarian footballer, has been residing in China for nearly two decades. After his retirement, he embarked on a new chapter by founding a football club in the coastal city of Qingdao, located in Shandong Province in eastern China. His club has since become a beacon for many young football enthusiasts in the region.If you enjoy feature stories like this one, be sure to check out "Footprints" on your favorite podcast platform!

Last time we spoke about the Chiang-Gui War. China was reunified, but not was all well in Camelot. Chiang Kai-Shek initially popular, faced opposition from various factions, including Northern warlords and rival generals. The KMT decided to relocate the capital from Beijing to Nanking, which sparked resistance from those attached to Beijing's rich history. The KMT then struggled with demobilizing the massive National Revolutionary Army, which had over 2 million troops. Chiang Kai-Shek aimed to reduce this number significantly but faced challenges, including discontent among warlords like Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan. Tensions escalated into the Chiang-Gui War, where Chiang defeated the Guangxi Clique led by Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi. This victory, however, did not end the turmoil as Feng and Yan formed an anti-Chiang coalition with Wang Jingwei. The struggle led to a dramatic showdown, culminating in the Taiyuan Conference where Yan Xishan was promoted to commander-in-chief, setting the stage for further conflict.   #123 The Central Plains 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. We last left off with basically every other big dog in China getting ready to gang up on Chiang Kai-Shek. Yan Xishan was now the commander in chief of an anti-chiang coalition with his deputy commanders being Feng Yuxiang, Li Zongren and Zhang Xueliang….however Zhang Xueliang was nowhere to be found. During what has been referred to as the “telegram war” period, the Young Marshal had actually spent the entire time in Mukden frantically telegraming all the significant North Chinese warlords and generals to not join the anti-chiang movement.  To take a small sidestep. In the last episode I explained why Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi and their Guangxi clique turned against Chiang Kai-Shek, but what motivations did someone like Feng Yuxiang and his Guominjun have to do so? A severe famine hit the Guanzhong region of Shaanxi, where Feng Yuxiang held power. This famine, which occurred in the 18th year of the Republic of China, is also referred to as the "Famine of the 18th Year of the Republic of China." Within Shaanxi, a year without any harvest is called a famine year, two consecutive years of poor harvest are also labeled famine years, and three consecutive years are considered a severe famine. During the 18th year of the Republic of China, the region faced an extreme famine with virtually no harvest for six consecutive seasons over three years. Some considered it a once-in-a-century event, while others claimed it was a disaster seen once in 300 years. According to modern historical records and newspaper reports, Shaanxi experienced drought in 1928, which caused poor summer wheat yields, while autumn and winter crops could not be planted due to a lack of rain. By 1929, the drought worsened. No rain fell from spring through autumn, drying up wells and rivers like the Jing, Wei, Han, and Bao. Most trees withered, and crops failed—summer harvests only amounted to 20%, and autumn yields were nonexistent. The famine was so severe that grass roots and tree bark became scarce, with the roads littered with corpses and countless people fleeing the area. According to a report by the Shaanxi Disaster Relief Committee on September 5 of that year, 91 of the province's 92 counties were affected by the drought. Except for a few counties along the Wei River that had some green crops, the rest were barren. Among the 91 counties, 24 were extremely severely affected, 27 severely affected, 15 moderately affected, and 25 slightly affected. The most severely hit areas included Chang'an, Wugong, Fengxiang, Fufeng, Qianxian, Qishan, Meixian, Xingping, Xianyang, Lintong, Weinan, Zhouzhi, and others. Out of a total population of over 9.4 million, 2.5 million people died of starvation, approximately 400,000 fled, and over 200,000 women were sold to other regions such as Henan, Shanxi, Beiping, Tianjin, and Shandong. Back in 1927, Chiang Kai-shek established the KMT's new government in Nanking. By June, Chiang and Feng Yuxiang succeeded in uniting the two Kuomintang warlord factions during the Xuzhou Conference. In February 1928, Chiang and Feng solidified their alliance by becoming sworn brothers. Before the launch of the "Second Northern Expedition," Chiang Kai-shek had control over the central KMT government and occupied affluent areas like Shanghai, Nanjing, and Hangzhou. Feng Yuxiang, on the other hand, controlled the impoverished and remote northwest, where transportation was difficult. He saw the Northern Expedition as an opportunity to expand his own influence, particularly eyeing Beijing and Tianjin for their wealth and strategic transportation routes. After the expedition, Chiang Kai-shek, concerned about Feng's growing power, exploited tensions between Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang. He ceded control of Hebei, Beijing, and Tianjin to Yan Xishan, appointing him commander of the Beijing-Tianjin garrison and allowing his 3rd Army to enter Beijing. Feng's 2nd Army, however, was restricted to Nanyuan and denied entry into the city, which greatly displeased Feng. In response, he ordered his troops to retreat to Shandong and Henan, and feigned illness in Xinxiang, Henan, refusing to travel to Beijing. In the political realm Feng Yuxiang advocated for "civilian politics" and stood against dictatorship. Within the Kuomintang, he opposed Chiang Kai-shek's views, calling for the establishment of a clean government, promoting joint industrial development, providing aid to disaster victims, and fighting corruption. He also opposed salary increases for central government officials, argued for distributing leadership roles based on the strength of different factions, and rejected Chiang Kai-shek's dominance over party matters and the Nanjing government. These positions sharply conflicted with Chiang Kai-shek's ideas. After the success of the "Northern Expedition," Chiang Kai-shek proposed a reorganization of the army. This initiative sparked intense conflict between Chiang and Feng Yuxiang. On July 6, 1928, Chiang invited Feng, Yan Xishan, Li Zongren, and Bai Chongxi to a symposium in Beiping. However, Feng and other faction leaders strongly opposed Chiang's plan to reduce the army, leading to an unsatisfactory end to the meeting. On August 8, 1928, Chiang presided over the Fifth Plenary Session of the Kuomintang's Second Central Committee in Nanjing, where he sought to force the various factions to comply with his military reduction plan. Supported by the Guangdong-born members of the Central Committee, the proposal was passed, and the army reduction plan became part of the Kuomintang's official resolution. Feeling threatened by this plan, Feng traveled along the Longhai Railway, inspecting the Northwest Army, and held a commemorative military parade marking the second anniversary of the Northwest Army's Wuyuan Oath-taking Ceremony. In October 1928, after the reorganization of the Nanjing National Government, Chiang appointed Feng as Vice President of the Executive Yuan and Minister of Military Affairs, asking him to report to Nanjing immediately. Feng, however, refused, citing various excuses. Under increasing public pressure, Feng and other faction leaders were eventually forced to attend the demobilization meeting in Nanjing. On December 26, 1928, Chiang chaired a preparatory meeting for the demobilization conference, using factional politics to manipulate and divide his rivals. Feng proposed a "three haves and three demobilizations" plan, which was initially opposed by Yan Xishan and Li Zongren. Secretly, Chiang won over Yan, encouraging him to submit a proposal that would counter Feng's influence. When the National Demobilization Meeting convened on January 1, 1929, most attendees supported Yan's proposal over Feng's. The "Outline of the Procedure for the Demobilization Committee of the National Army" was passed, favoring Chiang's position. Eventually, Feng, Yan, and Li shifted from opposing each other to uniting against the demobilization process. In March 1929, as we saw in last episode, the Chiang-Gui War broke out. In order to concentrate military forces and eliminate the Guangxi clique, Chiang Kai-shek sent Shao Lizi and others to Huashan to win over Feng Yuxiang. They offered Feng the chance to continue cooperating with Chiang and send troops to help Chiang defeat Guangxi in exchange for the premiership of the Executive Yuan and the territory of Hubei and Hunan provinces. Feng agreed to Chiang's request on the surface. He then frequently deployed troops on the border between Henan and Hubei, hoping to seize the opportunity to send troops to occupy Wuhan when Chiang and Guangxi were both defeated. However, Chiang soon defeated the Guangxi clique, which increased Chiang Kai-shek's resentment and made the contradiction between Chiang and Feng irreconcilable. Now that pretty much covers Feng Yuxiang's motivations, but what about Yan Xishan? In January 1930, after Yan Xishan returned to Taiyuan from Zhengzhou, central Henan began to experience increasing turmoil. On February 10, Yan sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek, urging a spirit of courtesy for the country's sake that they "share the burden" to resolve party conflicts. Chiang responded on February 12 with a telegram stating, "Revolution to save the country is an obligation, not a right. The country is in dire straits, and it is not the time for us to be arrogant." By February 21, Li Zongren, Huang Shaohong, Bai Chongxi, Zhang Fakui, and Hu Zongduo all stated supported Yan Xishan to be the commander-in-chief of the anti-chiang national army, navy, and air force. In many ways the issue was simply thrust onto him. Meanwhile Yan Xishan's army went to Peiping, current day Beijing, disarming the KMT forces there and setting up a HQ. With perhaps a stronger backing, Chiang Kai-Shek would have gone to war against the anti-chiang cabal much earlier, but was reluctant to do so now. The terrain was the difficulty, he would have to fight his way into Shandong, where the local sympathy rested on Feng Yuxiang. So for now he battled them through the use of diplomacy. Within the chaos, the CCP also managed to cut their own piece of the pie by capturing Changsha in late July. They would only hold the city for a few days however, before burning it down and fleeing. Early into the conflict Chiang Kai-Shek's attention was drawn to Manchuria. The Young Marshal had not made a move in either direction and he was sitting upon an army 200,000 plus strong. Where did his sympathies truly lie, everyone was waiting to see. Chiang Kai-Shek believed chances were slim the Young Marshal would rebel against him, he was not very much like his tiger of a father. Zhang Xueliang was a thinker, an idealistic and most importantly he had been an opium addict for a long time. Such a life conditioned the young man to be a lot more passive. Zhang Xueliang seemed to be looking to pledge himself to a real leader who could deliver salvation to China. But who was the better choice for him? Chiang Kai-Shek or Wang Jingwei? Chiang Kai-Shek did not wait for an official answer to this question he hastily announced that Zhang Xueliang was his new deputy commander in chief. Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan followed this up by offering Zhang Xueliang a place in the Peiping state council, yet Zhang Xueliang remained quiet until the middle of September. It was a real nail bitter for both sides, Zhang Xueliang had a large, decently trained and pretty well armed army, he would tip the tides for either side. The waiting game had Yan Xishan thinking strongly about pulling out of the coalition. In the meantime the war truly began to heat up in May when Chiang Kai-Shek swore a public oath to attack Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang. On May 11th, both sides began engaged another along a north and south front. The main battlefield in the north was centered around Henan with a secondary front in Shandong fought mainly along the Pinghan, Longhai and Jinpu railways. In the southern theater the fighting was fought mainly in the Yuezhou, Changsha and Xiangjiang river areas. To be more specific the anti-Chiang Kai-shek army organized a total of 8 war front areas: the Guangxi clique army was the 1st front, led by Li Zongren, going north from Hunan and heading towards Wuhan; the Northwest Army was the 2nd front, led by Feng Yuxiang, with Lu Zhonglin being responsible for the Longhai and Pinghan lines in Henan; the Shanxi Army was the 3rd front, led by Yan Xishan, with Xu Yongchang responsible for the Jinpu and Jiaoji lines and the eastern section of the Longhai line in Shandong; Shi Yousan's troops were the 4th front; the Northeast Army, which was designated by Zhang Xueliang, was the 5th front though whether he took up the post or not was yet to be seen; Liu Wenhui's troops were the 6th front; He Jian's troops were the 7th front, and Fan Zhongxiu's troops were the 8th front. The Northwest Army and the Shanxi Army, as the main forces, had been fully mobilized and marched to the Longhai, Pinghan, and Jinpu lines. Yan also appointed Shi Yousan as the chairman of Shandong Province, leading his troops to attack Shandong from Henan, and appointed Sun Dianying as the chairman of Anhui Province, attacking the Bozhou area of ​​Anhui. Altogether the Anti-Chiang forces were about 260,000 men strong The fighting kicked off in mid May. The strategy of the anti-Chiang army was for the first front army, the Guangxi army led by Li Zongren to march into Hunan and advance towards Wuhan; the second front army, the Northwestern Army of Feng Yuxiang, was responsible for the Longhai and Pinghan routes in Henan Province, and would attack Xuzhou and Wuhan respectively; the third front army, the Shanxi Army of Yan Xishan was responsible for the operations along the Jinpu and Jiaoji routes in Shandong Province. It would join Feng Yuxiang to attack Xuzhou, then advance southward along the Jinpu Line and attack Nanking; Shi Yousan was in charge of the Fourth Front Army, which would use its main forces to attack Jining and Yanzhou, and would use part of its forces to join the Third Front Army in the attack on Jinan; Zhang Xueliang's Northeast Army was designated as the Fifth Front Army, and efforts were made to jointly fight against Chiang Kai-shek, but again his status was still unknown; Liu Wenhui of Sichuan was appointed as the Sixth Front Army, and He Jian of Hunan was appointed as the Seventh Front Army. In order to encourage generals of non-directly affiliated units, Shi Yousan was appointed as the chairman of Shandong Province, Wan Xuancai as the chairman of Henan Province, and Sun Dianying as the chairman of Anhui Province. After this, Fan Zhongxiu was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Eighth Front Army. Chiang Kai-Shek deployed the NRA 2nd Corps led by Liu Zhi along the Longhai railway line; the 3rd Crops of H Chengjun was deployed on the Pinhan line; the 1st Corps of Han Fuju was deployed along the Jinpu line and Chiang Kai-Shek set up his HQ in Xuzhou to personally command forces. On May 11th, Chiang Kai-Shek issued his general attack orders, with the 2nd corps attacking Guide from Xuzhou. The two sides began clashing, with the KMT gaining the upper hand rather quickly as they held an advantage in air power. A NRA division led by Chen Jicheng occupied Mamuji due east of Guide. Then Liu Maoen defected to Chiang Kai-Shek handing his forces over at Ningling while also luring Colonel Wan Xuancai into a trap. This left Guide to be easily captured by Chiang's forces as the only other enemy division was that of Sun Dianying who withdrew to Bozhou. Although Chiang Kai-Shek had won technically the first major battle, his situation was not at all enviable.  After losing Guide, Yan Xishan urgently reinforced the Longhai Railway line area with divisions led by Yang Yaofang, Sun Laingcheng and Ji Hongchang. This saw Chiang Kai-Sheks forces suffer extremely heavy losses over the course of 10 days of fighting. Chiang Kai-Sheks forces were reeling from the fierce fighting and forced to retreat into the southwestern portion of Shandong. Along the Pinghan railway, Chiang Kai-Shek ordered He Chengjun's 3rd Corps to depart the Yancheng area and attack northwards. The 3rd Corps quickly found themselves fighting the northwest Army in the Linying and Xuchang areas. The 3rd Corps were trying to contain and isolate the northwest army who were currently receiving reinforcements along the Longhai line.  On May 25th, He Jians forces began occupying Linying and by Juny 7th Xuchang. At this time the Guangxi army invaded Hunan and by the 28th of May had taken Yongzhou, Qiyang, Hangzhou and Baoqing. On June 8th they took Changsha and Yueyang, with their vanguard entering Hubei. Feng Yuxiang took advantage of the situation to launch a full scale attack along the Pingham line. After two days of fighting, Chiang Kai-Sheks men were retreating south to Luohe. However, Feng Yuxiang made an error. His subordinates urged him to link up with the Guangxi army and attack Wuhan. Instead he ordered his forces to advance into eastern Henan where he might annihilate a large portion of Chiang Kai-Sheks army. Meanwhile Chiang Kai-Shek had suffered major defeats across the Longhai and Pingham lines and lost the key city of Changsha, his men were demoralized. By mid June Feng Yuxiang adjusted his battle plan and launched another offensive along the Longhai line as Chiang Kai-Shek came to Liuhe to supervise the battle. Chiang Kai-Shek tossed some of his elite divisions equipped with heavy artillery to attack Feng Yuxiang from Qixian to Taikang, hoping to seize Kaifeng and Chenliu. Yet he fell directly into a pocket-sized encirclement and his forces were battered. Over on the Jinpu line front, Yan Xishan had organized 6 divisions and 3 artillery regiments to perform an offensive against Jinan. They advanced south along the Jinpu line and formed two pincers against the city. Han Fuju knew he would lose considerable forces in a defense of the city and ended up simply pulling out to conserve his strength, handing Jinan over.  July brought significant change to the war. Over in Hunan, Chiang Kai-Shek organized 3 armies to counterattack Changsha; a naval fleet under Chen Skaokuan would assist them and he ordered the 8th route army under Jiang Hauangnai and Cai Tingkai to retake Hengyang. The Guangxi army could not focus on two fronts, so they abandoned Yueyang and Changsha to meet the enemy at Hengyang. The two sides fought bitterly in southern Hunan, but by July 4th the Guangxi army was forced to retreat to the province of Guangxi. Afterwards Chiang Kai-Shek's forces took Bozhou within the Longhai/Jinpu triangle area, effectively trapping forces led by Sun Dianying. On July 8th Chiang Kai-Shek diverted a bunch of divisions from the Longhai line to the Jinpu Line. By the end of the month Chiang Kai-Shek unleashed a general offensive along the Jinpu line. Feng Yuxiang retaliated by launching an offensive over the Longhai line trying to seize Xuzhou. Feng Yuxiang hoped by doing so he could unite the Jinpu and Longhai lines for a combined assault of Xuzhou. Chiang Kai-Sheks Longhai forces were quickly pushed back to an area south of Guide, but mother nature tossed a curveball. Colossal amounts of rain caused river floodings, forcing Feng Yuxiangs men to advance through mud greatly diminishing his supply lines. It was enough to give Chiang Kai-Shek time to stabilize the front as his offensive on the Jinpu line successfully recaptured Jinan by August 15th.  On August 21st Chiang Kai-Shek convened a meeting in Jinan where it was decided they would divert forces from the Jinpu line to the Longhai and Pinghan lines. They would focus the most on the Pinghan line while forces on the Longhai line would try to cut off the retreat of Feng Yuxiang's army. Chiang Kai-Shek even offered 200,00 yuan for the first unit to take Gongxian and 1 million yuan for the occupation of Luoyang and Zhengzhou. On September 6th, Chiang Kai-Shek unleashed another general offensive. Feng Yuxiang believed he had the numbers to win, so he deployed his forces pretty evenly over the Pinghan, Longhai and Zhengzhou fronts. He did urge Yan Xishan to try and help him out if his fronts could afford to spare units. Yet Yan Xishan sought to preserve his strength, and moved his Longhai forces to pull back north of the Yellow River. This action made linking up with Feng Yuxiang pretty much impossible. By the 17th Chiang Kai-Shek captured Longmen very close to Luoyang, effectively cutting off Feng Yuxiang's line of retreat heading west. Thus Feng Yuxiang had no choice but to retreat into northern Henan. Taking another sidestep, you may have noticed one of the largest players remains unmentioned, what about the Young Marshal? Back in March, Zhang Xueliang issued a telegram expressing his neutrality. This of course prompted Chiang Kai-Shek to personally call him, whence negotiations began. On June 10th, Li Shi and Zhang Xueliang discussed the conditions for him to send troops to help the NRA out. The first condition was 2 million yuan to cover the cost of deployment. On June 21st the KMT officially appointed Zhang Xueliang as deputy commander. The next day Zhang Xueliang telegramed everyone suggesting that both sides agree to a cease-fire and establish a buffer zone. In August Li Shi came to meet with Zhang Xueliang again, where the Young Marshal then demanded 5 million yuan for military use and a loan of 10 million yuan to stabilize the northeast economy. Chiang Kai-Shek agreed to the terms on the spot. Then Zhang Xueliang said if Chiang Kai-Shek could capture Jinan, he would send troops. As mentioned this occurred on August 15th. Thus Zhang Xueliang began speaking with his generals. Meanwhile on the other side, the Anti-Chiang leadership began establishing a competing government in Peiping in July whereupon they appointed many Fengtian clique members to be the heads of certain departments. Yet on September 2nd, Zhang Xueliang told Fu Zuoyi, a anti-Chiang representative that he did not support their Peiping government. Then Zhang Xueliang recalled all the Fengtian members they had appointed as officials.  Then on September 18th, Zhang Xueliang issued a telegram urging "all parties to stop fighting immediately to relieve the people's suffering and wait for Nanking to take action." At the same time, he dispatched Yu Xuzhong and Wang Shuchang with the 1st and 2nd armies of the Northeast Frontier Defense army to enter the pass. On October 9th, he officially took up office as the deputy commander for the NRA. Yan Xishan soon received word from forces in Tangshan that Zhang Xuliang was advancing, so he called for a meeting to figure out countermeasures. Zhang Xueliang then sent word to Yan Xishan that he should withdraw from occupied areas. Yan Xishan did indeed comply as Zhang Xueliang quickly occupied Ping and Tianjin without firing a shot. To maintain cordial relations with Yan Xishan, Zhang Xueliang had his army only advance into Hubei and Chahar, but left Shanxi alone. This prompted Yan Xishans forces to cross the Yellow River and retreat back into Shanxi using two routes.  Meanwhile a wave of defections to Chiang Kai-Shek began in late September, severely crippling the Pinghan line for Feng Yuxiang. Along the Longhai line, Chiang Kai-Shek's forces took Kaifeng on October 3rd and were advancing towards Zhangzhou. The KMT government then began announcing amnesty for all Generals if they would stand down. The next days many of Feng Yuxiang's subordinates called upon him to issue a ceasefire. Feng Yuxiang was basically screwed, Chiang and Zhang were surrounding him slowly as his own Generals defected or abandoned the cause. On the 5th Feng Yuxiangs deputy commander withdrew to Xinxiang, due north of the Yellow River. The next day Zhengzhou fell to the NRA 11th division of Chen Cheng. On the 5th Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang and Wang Jingwei jointly telegrammed Zhang Xueliang expressing their desire for a ceasefire and to open up negotiations.  By the 15th Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang stepped down together as commanders in chief. Yan Xishan handed command to Xu Yongchang and Feng Yuxiang to Lu Zhonglin. Both men then stated they would go temporarily abroad, though neither truly did. In truth Yan Xishan fled to Dalian under the protection of the Japanese and Feng Yuxiang hid in Yudaohe in Shanxi. That same day Lu Zhonglin telegramed to the Northwest army "withdraw defense immediately upon order inform all injured units to stop fighting and rest the people." On November 4th, Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang telegramed the dissolution of the anti-chiang movement, ending the war. The Central Plains War lasted roughly seven months, with both sides mobilizing more than 1.1 million troops, spending 500 million yuan, and suffering 300,000 casualties. At least half of them were young and middle-aged men from Hebei, Shandong, Henan and other provinces. It was the largest civil war in China after the Northern Expedition to unify China. The war spread to Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi, Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi and other provinces. Most of the national troops originally prepared to suppress the Communists were mobilized, allowing the Chinese Communist Party to breathe and develop. Warlords imposed additional donations and taxes on the common people and issued paper money indiscriminately. As usual the ones to suffer the most were of course the common people. Within the Central Plains, 27 counties including Luoyang in Henan Province were severely affected, with agricultural losses amounting to 160.2% of the annual output value; farmers in more than a dozen counties including lost an average of 0.22 heads of livestock and 0.07 carts per household. Within Henan Province, it was said “over 120,000 people died in the war, over 19,500 were injured, over 1,185,000 fled, and over 1,297,700 were forced into exile by the army, of which over 30,000 died in combat, not including soldiers. The total property losses, including the destruction and burning of houses, amounted to over 651,469,000 yuan. It is estimated that it will take 10 years to recover all the losses.” Source in Zhengzhou stated “Since the beginning of the war, planes have been arriving every day, dropping bombs. … Every time a bomb is dropped, five or six people are killed and several buildings are destroyed. This situation is not limited to Zhengzhou. It is the same everywhere in the battlefield cities, the counties and villages near the Longhai and Pinghan railways, even in broad daylight.”  Industry declined and agriculture went bankrupt. The war caused great damage to industrial and agricultural production, seriously hindering the development of the social economy. “The national finances and social economy were both exhausted.” For railway transportation alone saw  “capital losses amounted to 22,165,504 yuan; withdrawals from garrison troops amounted to 4,206,155 yuan; military transport losses amounted to 29,958,042 yuan; and operating losses amounted to 17,018,271 yuan. The total was more than 73 million yuan.Among agricultural products, tobacco leaves were harvested in the three provinces of Henan, Shandong and Anhui, and the war was at its most intense. The losses were between 20 and 30 million yuan. The losses were twice as much as the war expenses.”  Chiang Kai-Shek had won the war, utterly breaking his opponents. Feng Yuxiangs northwest disintegrated into four factions. Yan Xishans Shanxi army took heavy losses that they would not recover from. Zhang Xueliang profited the most, his northeast army gained further territory in North China. He would gradually incorporate a large part of the forces in Shanxi and Suiyuan and would emerge the second largest military faction in China. However, when Zhang Xueliang depleted the northeast of her military forces, this left the borders weak. Zhang Xueliang soon became focused on governing North China, taking his eyes off his powerbase of Manchuria, which Japanese eyes looked upon enviously.  Overall the Central plains war weakened the NRA, the KMT, depleted China of her overall strength and lessened efforts against the CCP. Within the background of the warlord-NRA conflict, the CCP would benefit greatly. The CCP had spread to 11 provinces, including Jiangxi, Hubei, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Henan, Sichuan, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang. Their Red Army formed a total of 14 armies with a total of about 100,000 people. But with the Central Plains War ended, now Chiang Kai-Shek could redirect his efforts against the Red Menace.  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. Chiang Kai-Shek had certainly faced a formidable enemy in the former of his past comrades in arms, Feng Yuxiang, Yan Xishan, Li Zongren and many others. At the last minute the Young Marshal saved the day, allowing the Generalissimo to retain control over the new Republic, yet in the background lurked enemies everywhere still.

Are you ready to embark on a journey through time, culture, while soaking in wisdom? Step into the heartland of ancient China by visiting Qufu, the birthplace of Confucius. This historic city, nestled in east China's Shandong Province, offers an unparalleled glimpse into the life and legacy of one of the world's greatest philosophers.

The tenth Nishan Forum on World Civilizations kicks off in Qufu, the hometown of Confucius in East China's Shandong Province. And it comes at the right time: Chinese classics, poetry, sci-fi novels have made quite a splash abroad in recent years thanks to dedicated translators. How can Chinese literature further help East-West communication? How do the literary works reflect the evolving social fabric and its ever-increasing role on the global stage?

Daughters of Shandong (Berkley Books, 2024), the author's first and based on the life of her grandmother, follows the fortunes of a mother and three daughters abandoned by their wealthy family in soon-to-be Communist China. It is 1948, and Chairman Mao's forces have moved into Shandong Province, driving the Nationalist Army into retreat. Although the town of Zhucheng is small and rural, the Ang family owns a palatial estate, built by generations of government officials and scholars. Even before the war turns against them, the family has little use for its eldest daughter-in-law, Chiang-Yue, who has produced three daughters but no sons. The family lives by the ancient Chinese proverb “Value men and belittle women,” so even though its second son does have a male heir, that child's existence cannot redeem Chiang-Yue in her in-laws' eyes. When the Communists approach, the other family members, including the girls' father, flee. The narrator, Li-Hai, stays behind with her mother and sisters—ostensibly to keep either the People's Army or impoverished local farmers from confiscating the Angs' palatial home. Of course, this doesn't work. Soldiers take over the estate the first day. They haul Li-Hai, only thirteen, before an impromptu tribunal as a stand-in for her missing male relatives. She barely escapes with her life. Only Chiang-Yue's history of treating the villagers kindly saves her and her daughters—first from execution, then from starvation. Despite the family's cruel treatment, Chiang-Yue insists that duty requires her to rejoin her husband. Thus begins their trek across China, from Zhucheng to the local hub of Qingdao, then south to Guangzhou (Hong Kong), and eventually across the strait to Taiwan. Hiding in the bushes, scrounging homeless in the streets, surviving a refugee camp—the Ang women and girls are, in their own stubborn way, relentless. And I swear, you will root for them every step of the way. Eve J. Chung is a Taiwanese American lawyer and women's human rights specialist. She has worked on a range of issues, including torture, sexual violence, contemporary forms of slavery, and discriminatory legislation. Her writing is inspired by social justice movements and the continued struggle for equality and fundamental freedoms worldwide. She currently lives in New York with her husband, two children, and two dogs. Daughters of Shandong is her debut novel. C. P. Lesley is the author of two historical fiction series set during the childhood of Ivan the Terrible and four other novels, including The Merchant's Tale, cowritten with P.K. Adams. Her next novel, Song of the Steadfast, is due early in 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Daughters of Shandong (Berkley Books, 2024), the author's first and based on the life of her grandmother, follows the fortunes of a mother and three daughters abandoned by their wealthy family in soon-to-be Communist China. It is 1948, and Chairman Mao's forces have moved into Shandong Province, driving the Nationalist Army into retreat. Although the town of Zhucheng is small and rural, the Ang family owns a palatial estate, built by generations of government officials and scholars. Even before the war turns against them, the family has little use for its eldest daughter-in-law, Chiang-Yue, who has produced three daughters but no sons. The family lives by the ancient Chinese proverb “Value men and belittle women,” so even though its second son does have a male heir, that child's existence cannot redeem Chiang-Yue in her in-laws' eyes. When the Communists approach, the other family members, including the girls' father, flee. The narrator, Li-Hai, stays behind with her mother and sisters—ostensibly to keep either the People's Army or impoverished local farmers from confiscating the Angs' palatial home. Of course, this doesn't work. Soldiers take over the estate the first day. They haul Li-Hai, only thirteen, before an impromptu tribunal as a stand-in for her missing male relatives. She barely escapes with her life. Only Chiang-Yue's history of treating the villagers kindly saves her and her daughters—first from execution, then from starvation. Despite the family's cruel treatment, Chiang-Yue insists that duty requires her to rejoin her husband. Thus begins their trek across China, from Zhucheng to the local hub of Qingdao, then south to Guangzhou (Hong Kong), and eventually across the strait to Taiwan. Hiding in the bushes, scrounging homeless in the streets, surviving a refugee camp—the Ang women and girls are, in their own stubborn way, relentless. And I swear, you will root for them every step of the way. Eve J. Chung is a Taiwanese American lawyer and women's human rights specialist. She has worked on a range of issues, including torture, sexual violence, contemporary forms of slavery, and discriminatory legislation. Her writing is inspired by social justice movements and the continued struggle for equality and fundamental freedoms worldwide. She currently lives in New York with her husband, two children, and two dogs. Daughters of Shandong is her debut novel. C. P. Lesley is the author of two historical fiction series set during the childhood of Ivan the Terrible and four other novels, including The Merchant's Tale, cowritten with P.K. Adams. Her next novel, Song of the Steadfast, is due early in 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

Daughters of Shandong (Berkley Books, 2024), the author's first and based on the life of her grandmother, follows the fortunes of a mother and three daughters abandoned by their wealthy family in soon-to-be Communist China. It is 1948, and Chairman Mao's forces have moved into Shandong Province, driving the Nationalist Army into retreat. Although the town of Zhucheng is small and rural, the Ang family owns a palatial estate, built by generations of government officials and scholars. Even before the war turns against them, the family has little use for its eldest daughter-in-law, Chiang-Yue, who has produced three daughters but no sons. The family lives by the ancient Chinese proverb “Value men and belittle women,” so even though its second son does have a male heir, that child's existence cannot redeem Chiang-Yue in her in-laws' eyes. When the Communists approach, the other family members, including the girls' father, flee. The narrator, Li-Hai, stays behind with her mother and sisters—ostensibly to keep either the People's Army or impoverished local farmers from confiscating the Angs' palatial home. Of course, this doesn't work. Soldiers take over the estate the first day. They haul Li-Hai, only thirteen, before an impromptu tribunal as a stand-in for her missing male relatives. She barely escapes with her life. Only Chiang-Yue's history of treating the villagers kindly saves her and her daughters—first from execution, then from starvation. Despite the family's cruel treatment, Chiang-Yue insists that duty requires her to rejoin her husband. Thus begins their trek across China, from Zhucheng to the local hub of Qingdao, then south to Guangzhou (Hong Kong), and eventually across the strait to Taiwan. Hiding in the bushes, scrounging homeless in the streets, surviving a refugee camp—the Ang women and girls are, in their own stubborn way, relentless. And I swear, you will root for them every step of the way. Eve J. Chung is a Taiwanese American lawyer and women's human rights specialist. She has worked on a range of issues, including torture, sexual violence, contemporary forms of slavery, and discriminatory legislation. Her writing is inspired by social justice movements and the continued struggle for equality and fundamental freedoms worldwide. She currently lives in New York with her husband, two children, and two dogs. Daughters of Shandong is her debut novel. C. P. Lesley is the author of two historical fiction series set during the childhood of Ivan the Terrible and four other novels, including The Merchant's Tale, cowritten with P.K. Adams. Her next novel, Song of the Steadfast, is due early in 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/historical-fiction

Shandong Province in east China is taking an early lead in the country's solar energy development, but it now faces challenges that will be met by other regions sooner or later. China is ramping up to install clean energy to meet the urgency of cutting its greenhouse gas emissions. The country wants one-fifth of its power to come from renewables by 2025, and it's offered a wide range of subsidies to local governments and businesses. Wang Xingyong installs and maintains rooftop solar panels for clients ranging from villagers to factories. His business has doubled every year since 2016. Wang said the concept was a hard sell at first, with few people believing the government would pay them for generating electricity. “As people's understanding of solar power deepens, our business has grown. This trend is reflected in our company's operation. We have an annual business growth of 100% to 200%,” said Wang. Shi Mei and her husband earn a decent living by growing corn and millet on their small farm near Jinan, the capital city of Shandong Province. In 2021, they diversified by investing in solar energy—signing a contract to mount some 40 panels on their roof to feed energy to the grid. Now, the couple gets paid for every watt of electricity they generate, harvesting an extra 10,000 Chinese yuan (about $1,300) per year that Shi can track through an app on her phone. “When the sun comes out, you make money,” said Shi. But now, the grid has more power than it can handle. Shi was fortunate to get in early; some cities across Shandong province, including her village, are halting new rooftop solar installations. It's the leading province for renewable energy capacity, but that also means it's the first to encounter the difficulties of rapid growth. Wang is optimistic about his prospects despite the halt to new projects. “We would like to use some of our costs to invest in transformers to increase their capacity so we can solve the problem of capacity constraints. Everyone wants to be part of the effort,” said Wang. This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Sandor Nagy, a former Hungarian football player, has been living in China for nearly two decades. Following his retirement, he embarked on a new chapter, founding a football club in the coastal city of Qingdao, Shandong Province in east China. His club has since become a beacon for many young football enthusiasts in the region. In this episode of Makin' It in China series, Sandor talks about his football career and his deep connection with his second home in China.

Last time we spoke about the Northern Warlords and their respective factions. We covered the three big names, Duan Qirui and his Anhui clique; Wu Peifu and his Zhili cliques and Zhang Zuolin and his Fengtian clique. We also went into the smaller ones like Yan Xishan's Shanxi clique, Feng Yuxiang's Guominjun clique, the Ma clique of the three Ma's, Ma Bufang, Ma Hongkui and Ma Hongbin known as the Xibei San Ma “thee Ma of the northwest”; the Xinjiang clique of Yang Zengxin and we barely scratched the surface of the Manchu Resotrationist clique of Zhang Xun. There was over 100 warlords, its really difficult to pick and choose who to delve into the most. However, there were two warlords who were bitter rivals, in a comedic fashion might I add. One was hailed as the good Christian warlord, the other a devilish monster. Today we are going to tell the tales of these two figures.   #95 Feng Yuxiang, Zhang Zongchang: the Angel and Devil   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. Feng Yuxiang was born in Zhili province, today Hebei in 1882. His parents were poor, his father joined the Qing army to make ends meet. At the age of only 10 he joined the Huai Army alongside his father. He earned a uniform and food but no salary as his rank was “Fu Bing”, deputy soldier. By the age of 16 he proved himself capable and became a regular. Unlike his colleagues who gambled their money away, Feng saved his money and even used portions of it to help out soldiers in need, particularly Fu Bing's. Because of this he became quite popular amongst his comrades. He did not gamble nor drink alcohol. In 1902 he joined Yuan Shikai's guard units and rose through the ranks becoming a company commander. From there he was transferred to the 3rd division, a crack one of Yuan Shikai's soon to be Beiyang Army.  During the Xinhai Revolution Feng Yuxiang joined the Luanzhou uprising against the Qing, supporting the revolutionaries in the South. The uprising was suppressed by the Beiyang army and Feng was imprisoned by Yuan Shikai. Once Yuan Shikai stole the presidency of the Republic, Feng was released and he took back his military position while supporting Yuan Shikai's regime. By 1914 he became a brigade commander and helped supress uprisings in Henan and Shaanxi. It was also during this year Feng Yuxiang developed a curiosity about Christianity. He converted to Christianity, being baptiszed into the Methodist Episcopal Church. When Yuan Shikai declared himself emperor, this ushered in the Anti-Yuan resistance. Feng Yuxiang helped supress anti-yuan forces of General Cai E in Sichuan, but in the process, began secrely negotiating with Cai E. He formed an agreement to “put on a show” rather than actually fight. After Yuan Shikai's death, Feng Yuxiang was deprived command of the 16th Mixed Brigade, something he had come to see as his personal property. He managed to stay in touch with its officers who remained loyal to him personally. Now it gives away further episodes to dvevle deep into the following years, but what I will say, Feng Yuxiang played important roles in critical moments of the wars during China's warlord Era. To be blunt, Feng Yuxiang was a real game of thrones little finger kind of guy if you get the reference. He always looked where the wind was blowing and was quick to switch sides turning the sides of one clique against another. He would found the Guominjun Clique, a sort of little borther to the Kuomintang, but its powerbase was located in the north rather than the south. Feng Yuxiang's career as a warlord began right after Yuan Shikai's death, but he certainly set himself apart from other warlords. Feng Yuxiang would receive a lot of western press for his rather, very different methodology compared to the other warlords. In a lot of ways, he was similar to a public school headmaster in England. He forbade his men from smoking tobacco or opium, from drinking alcohol and he forced them all to study the bible. He forbade prostitution, gambling and selling drugs. He quickly earned the nickname “the Christian General”. He had a reputation of baptizing his troops with fire hoses, though this has been highly contested. Indeed he was a hardcore Christian and actively promoting Christianity while showing no tolerance for other religions in China. For exmaple in 1927 when entering Henan Province he launched a cmapaign to supress Buddhism by expelling over 300,000 monastic members and confisciating hundreds of Buddhist monasteries for military purposes. In 1923 a British Protestant Missionary, Marshall Broomhall said this of him “The contrast between Cromwell's Ironsides and Charles's Cavaliers is not more striking than that which exists in China to-day between the godly and well-disciplined troops of General Feng and the normal type of man who in that land goes by the name of soldier ... While it is too much to say that there are no good soldiers in China outside of General Feng's army, it is none the less true that the people generally are as fearful of the presence of troops as of brigand bands”. Feng Yuxiang required his troops to take part in sports, gymastics and hardcore marches. Any illiterates were forced to learn to read and write, many were also trained in trades so they would not simply leave the army and become bandits. Feng looked at Christianity as a means of providing morale and disciplin for his army, he often told foreign missionaries  'Remember that your chief work is not to try to convert the rank and file of my army, but to use your strength in trying to get all my officers filled with the Spirit of God, for as soon as that takes place, the lowest private in the army will feel the effects of it”. Feng Yuxiangs was closely intouch with his troops often stopping to chat with them about their living conditions. He reduced corporal punishments, encouraged singing patriotic songs. One of the oddest things that I came across when I was making my Warlord Era content on the Pacific War Channel was video's of Feng Yuxiang personally checking the fingernails of his troops. He was pretty hardcore about cleanliness, I guess “cleanliness is next to godliness”. Alright that is a lot of information about the good toe shoes Christian General Feng Yuxiang, now let me talk about Zhang Zongchang, the Dogmeat General. Zhang Zongchang was born in 1881 in Yi county, present day Laizhou in Shandong. He grew up in an impoverished village, his father was a trumpeter, a headshaver and a rampant alcoholic. His mother exorcized evil spirits. . . Yeah she was basically a witch, oh and she left Zhang and his dad chasing another man. The family moved to Manchuria when Zhang was in his teens and he immediately got involved in petty crime around Harbin. Zhang would work as a pickpocket, bouncer, prospector and bandit throughout his life. He ended up doing some work as a laborer in Siberia amongst the Russians, picking up some Russian in the process, something that would really help his career out later. He then became a Honghuzi bandit roaming the Manchurian countryside when the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905 hit. During the war he served as a Imperial Russian Army auxiliary, interestingly enough his future boss who was also a Honghuzi did the same for the Japanese. After the war he went back to his Honghuzi lifestyle, becoming the leader of a local bandit gang.   During the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, Zhang was leading his Honghuzi as a sort of revolutionary desperados gang. He then went to Jiangsu and joined the Green Standard Army where he impressed his commander officer Cheng Dechuan so much so he made Zhang his successor…or Zhang threatened the guy who knows. Thus for a little while Zhang was leading a small cavalry detachment under the Division commander Leng Yuqin, battling Honghuzi groups. During the second revolution of 1913, Zhang became the divisional commander when Leng died. There was an issue with his division, the revolutionary General Feng Guozhang did not like them, probably because they were criminals, so he reduced their role in the revolution to being a symbolic unit. Zhang responded to this by murdering the revolutionary Chen Qimei in Shanghai in 1916, proving his loyalty and reliability to Feng Guozhang. Feng Guozhang later became vice president of the new Republic, appointing Zhang as the commander of his personal guard. As China's Warlord Era began in 1918, Zhang like every other big guy, looked for the best strongman to follow. In 1922 he turned his attention to a new rising star, the tiger of manchuria, Zhang Zuolin.   There is a famous story, that Zhang Zuolin was celebrating his birthday in 1922, seeing countless people showering him with gifts trying to earn his favor. Zhang Zongchang apparently sent him two empty coolie baskets and did not show up in person. Zhang Zuolin was baffled by this at first, until he realized the empty baskets implied Zhang Zongchang was a man willing to shoulder any heavy responsibilities that Zhang Zuolin would entrust to him. This apparently worked like a charm as Zhang Zongchang was rewarded a position within his army.   Zhang Zongchang's time in Siberia and work under the Russians during the Russo-Japanese war paid off as he managed to secure White Russian Mercenaries. These were refugee veterans of the Russian Civil War who had been straddling the Manchurian/Soviet borders. Zhang hired thousands of them, organizing them into units, including Cossack bodyguards. He even recruited woman on a large scale, the first Chinese general to do so. The women mostly served as nurses and one regiment was exclusively white Russian women. The white russians trained their Chinese counterparts resulting in excellent medical, a significant boost for morale and combat capability. The white russians were crucial to Zhang Zongchang's rise as they knew how to build and operate armored trains giving the warlord a huge edge.    Now just like with Feng Yuxiang, I don't wanna give away future parts of the warlord era story, just know Zhang Zongchang greatly impressed Zhang Zuolin and would be rewarded military governorship over Shandong Province. As the Military governor of Shandong, this is where you hear about him being a monster. For those who don't know, Shandong has a long spanning history of being where trouble starts in China. Zhang's mismanagement of Shandong was legendary, to call it one of Shandong's darkest times is an understatement. For example it is said one of his favorite hobbies was “to split melons”, that was bashing in the skulls of people with rifle butts. He also liked to hang people and their severed heads from telephone poles. He would reign over Shandong until 1928 and it was 3 very hard years for the people there. Basically he did what all corrupt officials had done historically in China, he fleeced the population of his province. He implemented excessive taxes and starved public institutions of funds. The provincial education system collapsed in 1927 and the provincial economy was stagnant as all hell, save for the black market. To fight the economic collapse he printed money as fast as it could be printed and became nearly valueless, reminds me a lot of my nation's leader today.   Now any criticism of Zhang Zonghcang or the Fengtian governance would lead to imprisonment and resistance led to more split melons, seeing severed heads hung everywhere. For example if a newspaper criticized his regime, Zhang literally had the editors shot. Things got so bad for the peasants of Shandong,  they formed a group called the Red Spear Militia, branding red-tasseled spears, but not too many firearms. These men and women were completely outgunned trying desperately to resist Zhang Zongchangs tyranny, and tyrannical it was.    He imposed an incredible amount of taxes on the people, taxes on rice, tobacco, firewood, dogs, rickshaws, livestock, brothels, military pensions, opium pipe lighters, honestly anything that could be taxed he taxed. He once forcefully collected donations for a shrine; that shrine was a bronze statue of himself. He extorted money from banks, misappropriated his troops wages, because he was paying them in worthless printed money and gave a monopoly to the opium dealers. In fact he was the personal benefactor for drug lords and arms dealers, the black market was his chocolate factory.   Shandong was so bad, a very young Vinegar Joseph Stilwell visited the area when he was serving as a young military attache at the US legation in Peking. He said the dead and dying littered the streets and the only thing the citizens of Shandong had to eat were crushed soya-bean cakes usually fed to pigs. There were abandoned children everywhere, carts of animals seized by warlord troops and houses literally torn down for the troops firewood. Poverty and famine was rampant.   Now the devastation of Shandong was far removed from Zhang Zongchang however as he kept his quarters in the capital of Jinan (Capital in eastern Shandong). His HQ was described to be more like a medieval court full of extravagant entertainment. He had elaborate feasts, secured French champaign, scotch and his favorite Cuban cigars. He entertained artists, writers, entertainers, arms dealers, drug kingpins, western journalists and such. He loved to play poker with other minor warlords and they were high stakes games, sometimes he would walk away losing 30-50 thousands at a sitting. The poker games were always played with silver dollars and not the useless money he printed for his troops and the citizens of Shandong.    One of his more famous recurring guests was Madame Wellington Koo, this was the wife of one of the most famous Chinese politicians of the age, Wellington Koo was the frontrunner at the Paris Peace conference for China. Now Mr. Wellington Koo's wife had this to say about Zhang “Zhang Zongchang was so delightfully outrageous that he was disarming. There were many stories about him. He was called “old eighty-sin” some said he was the height of a pile of 86 dollars, other said that figure represented the length of a certain portion of his anatomy. When I visited him my Pao Pei and Chow Chow would come with me and Zhang would roar at the servants “never mind what you give Madame Koo to eat. But be sure her dogs get the very best or you'll suffer for it”.   Now why this guy is so famous today is of course because of his nicknames and infamous lifestyle. His most famous nickname was the “Dogmeat General”, and its said to be based on his fascination with the domino game Pai Jiu. Others say his favorite brand of tonic was known as dogmeat. And of course there was the rumor he ate a meal of black chow chow dog every day, as it was popularly believed at the time that this boosted a man's vitality. But if you noticed the quote from Madame Wellington Koo, I think he may have been a dog lover. But the part about the man's vitality fits this guy to the core.    He was of course known by the populace of Shandong as “Monster”, but there was also  nicknames like “the lanky general or general with three long legs” were certainly something he publicized heavily. His nickname “old 86” referred to the length of his penis being 86 mexican silver dollars, there was also a nickname “72-cannon Zhang” referring to that length. I mean the man was 6 foot 6, people described him quote “with the physique of an elephant, the brain of a pig and the temperament of a tiger”.    Alongside his penis propaganda, he was a legendary womanizer. Take his other nickname for example “the general of three don't-knows”: he did not know how many women, how many troops, or how much money he had. I think that nickname fits him better than the nickname he gave himself “the Great General of Justice and Might”.    He had a ton of concubines. The exact number of concubines he had has variously been reported between 30-50, but historians have a hard time trying to fix the numbers as Zhang himself allegedly did not know. Allegedly his concubines were from 26 different nationalities, each with her own washbowl marked with the flag of her nation. He was also said to give his concubines numbers since he could not remember their names nor speak their various languages. Many of these women he married, he was a polygamist after all. There was known to be Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Mongolians and at least one American amongst Zhang's women.   Zhang was semi-literate, whenever people asked where he was educated he would say “the college of the green forest” a euphemism for banditry. Despite being semi-literate Zhang Zongchang is famously known for his poetry, most notably his Poem on Bastards:   You tell me to do this, He tells me to do that. You're all bastards, Go fuck your mother. Untitled They ask me how many women I have. To be honest, I don't know either. Yesterday, a boy called me dad. I don't know who his mother was.     Praying or Rain   The sky god is also named Zhang Why does he make life hard for me If it doesn't rain in three days I'll demolish your temple Then I'll have cannons bombard your mom     It should be noted a lot of the poetry attributed to Zhang Zongchang may have been fabricated by a political opponent named Han Fuju who took over Shandong Province after him.  Zhang Zongchang despite being a brutal tyrant by all means, did reward his inner circle well, he had a lot of very loyal officers around him. Zhang Zongchang traveled with a teakwood coffin planted atop a car during his campaigns. He had this done to signify his willingness to die in combat, the old “I win or come back on a shield” idea. During of his failed campaigns, Zhang Zongchang paraded himself sitting in the coffin while smoking a cuban cigar.    So as you can imagine, Feng Yuxiang and Zhang Zuolin were quite different characters to say the least. Yet both these men were born under very similar conditions. Both were born into poverty, both joined the military and were raised through the ranks with the help of patrons. Both became warlords leading cliques that allied themselves to larger cliques. Both men avoided silver bullets, the term silver bullet was used during this era to refer to being assassinated by a subordinate who was bribed by a rival warlord. To avoid such a fate, one had to make sure to conserve the loyalty of their officers, which both men did by very different means. Feng used Christianity like a glue to bind his soldiers together. He provided missionaries to encourage conversion. If christianity did not work, he employed nationalism. In the mid 1920's he became very hostile to the unequal treaties that Europe and Japan plagued China with. He began indoctrinating his men with anti-imperialistic literature and ironically began brushing shoulders with the anti-religious Soviet Union. The USSR would become his main benefactor, earning him a second nickname “the red general”. Zhang Zongzhang was much more akin to other warlords at keeping silver bullets at bay. He paid his inner circle in silver, he made sure the pockets of his best men were always full. He allowed every evil corrupt thing imaginable to occur under his subordinates hands. Zhang Zongchang was a ruthless tyrannical monster who focused on his own power above all.   Both warlords had to navigate the extremely complex alliance and rivalry system amongst the warlords. Feng Yuxiang aligned himself with the Yuan Shikai, then against Yuan Shikai, then again for Yuan Shiaki, with the Zhili clique, the Kuomintung, Communists and basically whoever looked to be winning at the time. Chiang Kai-shek said of him “the so-called Christian General was a master in the art of deception”. This was extremely true, Feng Yuxiang was a hell of a backstabber, his career actually was propelled by it. Zhang Zongchang tossed his lot in with Banditz, then Russians, then with the Fengtian Clique out of necessity, brushing shoulders with the Japanese by proxy. Zhang Zongchang really did not have any large ideology, he went with the flow as long as it benefited him. In many ways both men sort of just did what they did to empower their positions.    The people living under their rule could not have had a more different experience. Under Feng Yuxiang, Christian beliefs were enforced, a more progressive outlook was present. He did a lot to improve the living conditions of ordinary people under his control. He promoted education heavily, healthcare, infrastructure development. He was insane about discipline and thwarting corruption. He stopped gambling, smoking, drug trafficking, prostitution, he really was a man of law and order. Zhang Zongchang was the complete opposite, it was as if he was trying to outdo the devil himself. Zhang Zongchang, ruled with an iron fist, extracting resources from the population through taxation, extortion, and forced labor, while enriching himself and his inner circle. Under Zhang the common people starved, they were pillaged, raped, abused in all manners. Zhang took away funds from education, infrastructure (unless it was a statue of himself), from anything that would benefit the people. Zhang loved to smoke cigars, drank excessively, had 50 concubines, and was literally bestfriends with the black market of China.   Inevitably given their spheres of influence both warlords would run into each other in the 1920s. Feng Yuxiang's powerbase was around Shanxi and Hebei while Zhang Zongchang was firmly in Shandong. These territories border another, producing frequent clashes over strategic resources, trade routes and territorial disputes. While Feng Yuxiang betrayed many cliques, he more or less stuck to the Kuomintang. At one point Feng Yuxiang even joined the Fengtian clique to only betray them. Zhang Zongchang remained loyal to the Fengtian clique, pretty much until his death. By the way his death would be at the hands of an officer who served Feng Yuxiang, so I guess Feng won in the end haha.    Most warlords were ostentatious in their dress and lifestyle, but Feng Yuxiang was quite an exception to this. Numerous photographs show warlords sporting glittering uniforms copied from other nations. For example, Zhang Zuolin wore a large gold braid, numerous decorations, giant gleaming buckles, shoulder pads and white gloves. He had a small peaked cap suggesting he was modeling himself on a Russian Tsar. Chiang Kai-Shek favored an american style officers uniform with a high peaked cap. Many warlords liked French-styled kepis, British ww1 uniforms with sam Brown belts or helmets with enormous plumes. Pull up a picture of Zhang Zongchang and its absolutely ridiculous. He has giant shoulder pads, large medal star decorations, a giant belt, a large ribbon cross over, double golden braids, white gloves, basically he looks like hes trying to out do Zhang Zuolin. But Feng Yuxiang while a warlord wore the same plain dress as his soldiers.    If you read contemporary or older books on the warlords, you immediately notice the authors favor Feng Yuxiang and talk about him positively, while strongly villianizing Zhang Zongchang. Put simply the propaganda wars that were going on during China's Warlord Era were exactly that, Feng Yuxiang made sure he was presented as a good Christian General, while Zhang Zongchang really seemed to bask in being the bad boy or base General. Hell Zhang Zongchang publicized most of what was said about him himself! In the end they were two cogs in a very large machine and they played their parts. During for however long this warlord era lasts on the podcast, we will come to learn about as many of the warlords as I possibly can cover. They are colorful characters who had a profound effect on the formation of Nationalist China and the People's republic of China.  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. Thus were the tales of the good Christian General Feng Yuxiang and the basest warlord, Zhang Zongchang. We will further tell the tales of their ventures in the battles of China's Warlord Era, but in the next episode we are going to meet the Southern faction Warlords!

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A 75 year old practitioner from Shandong Province recounts the early days of her cultivation, starting in 1996. Working as a manager at a food production company, she incorporated the principles of Falun Dafa, and did her best to take care of employees, and set a good example of thinking of others first, providing a […]

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Angolan President João Lourenço kicked off a three-day visit to China this week that will take him to Beijing and Shandong Province. The timing of Lourenço's trip comes as the Chinese economy is facing enormous challenges amid a plunge in FDI, surging youth unemployment and much slower growth. The easy Chinese money for African leaders is no longer there and that may not be a bad thing, says Gyude Moore from the Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C. Gyude wrote a column this month that said a slowing Chinese economy could force a lot of African governments to initiate badly-needed reforms. Gyude joins Eric & Geraud to discuss his somewhat contrarian view on the rapidly changing China-Africa relationship. SHOW NOTES: Center for Global Development: Is There a Silver Lining for Africa in China's Slowdown? by W. Gyude Moore: https://tinyurl.com/2yu4vka8 The CGD Podcast: Lagos to Mombasa: https://tinyurl.com/2c8oxz82 JOIN THE DISCUSSION: X: @ChinaGSProject | @stadenesque | @eric_olander | @pnantulya I @LelandLazarus  Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProject YouTube: www.youtube.com/@ChinaGlobalSouth FOLLOW CAP IN FRENCH AND ARABIC: Français: www.projetafriquechine.com | @AfrikChine Arabic: عربي: www.alsin-alsharqalawsat.com | @SinSharqAwsat JOIN US ON PATREON! Become a CAP Patreon member and get all sorts of cool stuff, including our Week in Review report, an invitation to join monthly Zoom calls with Eric & Cobus, and even an awesome new CAP Podcast mug! www.patreon.com/chinaglobalsouth  

Last time we spoke about Chinese laborers during the Great War. Although China took upa stance of neutrality at the offset of WW1, there was still this enormous desire to join the Entente side. The new Republic of China wanted to get a seat at the peace table to hopefully undue some of the terrible unequal treaties. To procure that seat, China approached France, Britain, Russia and by the end of the war America to send their workers to help the war effort. On the western and eastern fronts, chinese laborers made a colossal contribution that tipped the scale of the war towards an Entente victory. On the Eastern front some Chinese fought in irregular units and under emergency circumstances even on the western front some saw combat. When the laborers came back home they brought with them new ideas that would dramatically change China. The people of China demanded change, but how would China fare by the end of the Great War?   #90 Twenty-One Demands & the Walrus Emperor   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. Taking a look back at China at the outbreak of WW1. Yuan Shikai certainly had a lot on his plate. When European nations began declaring war in late July, it brought military conflict to China. Yuan Shikai and his advisors thought over all the options laid bare before them and decided to proclaim neutrality on August 6th of 1914. As we have seen the other great powers, particularly Japan did not care. Japan besieged Tsingtao, despite China tossing protests. Yuan Shikai had little choice but to permit the Japanese military actions against Qingdao. The fighting that broke out in the Kiautschou area would constitute the only acts of war on Chinese soil during the first world war. Unfortunately the Japanese were not going to settle with just defeating the Germans. Japan had already gained a enormous sphere of influence in Manchuria after her victories in the 1st Sino-Japanese war and Russo-Japanese War. When China underwent its Xinhai revolution it became fragile, quite vulnerable and thus opened a floodgate.  With WW1 raging on in Europe, the global powers were all too preoccupied to contest any actions in Asia, giving Japan an enormous opportunity. Japan sought to expand her commercial interests in Manchuria, but also elsewhere. After seizing Qingdao, Prime Minister Okuma Shigenobu and Foreign Minister Kato Takaai drafted the infamous Twenty-One Demands. From the Japanese perspective, Yuan Shikai's government looked rogue, untrustworthy, they had no idea how long the thing would stand up, it might crumble at a moments notice. Their leases in south Manchuria were going to run out soon, thus they needed to extend them. Then there was the situation of Shandong province. Its always Shandong as they say. Japan was technically occupying it, having taken it from the Germans who previously held a concession over it. Being a concession, it was known Shandong would be returned to China, but now then when was an unknown variable. Japan also had some economic trade with China that made her somewhat dependent upon her. For example Yawata, Japan's first iron and steel complex that had been financed with Chinese indemnity payments ironically, was also dependent on Chinese raw materials that had been streaming into Japan since 1901. Japan industrialists needed to firm up their commercial relations with places like the Hanyehping works in Hankou. They hoped to establish joint sino-japanese control over strategic resources. Japan also strongly sought to be the dominate power in Asia, she wanted the western powers to back off. With these things in mind, the twenty-one demands were born. And by demands they were technically more “requests”, nevertheless they amounted to substantial infractions upon Chinese sovereignty. On January 18th of 1915, Japanese ambassador Hioki Eki delivered the twenty-one demands to Yuan Shikai in a private audience. They were delivered with a warning of dire consequences if the Beiyang government were to reject them. I know it might be quite boring and rather a University professor thing to do, but I will read the demands out. Now the Twenty-One Demands were divided into 5 groups Group 1 (four demands) confirmed Japan's recent seizure of German ports and operations in Shandong Province, and expanded Japan's sphere of influence over the railways, coasts and major cities of the province. Group 2 (seven demands) pertained to Japan's South Manchuria Railway Zone, extending the leasehold over the territory for 99 years, and expanding Japan's sphere of influence in southern Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia, to include rights of settlement and extraterritoriality, appointment of financial and administrative officials to the government and priority for Japanese investments in those areas. Japan demanded access to Inner Mongolia for raw materials, as a manufacturing site, and as a strategic buffer against Russian encroachment in Korea. Group 3 (two demands) gave Japan control of the Han-Ye-Ping (Hanyang, Daye, and Pingxiang) mining and metallurgical complex in central China; it was deep in debt to Japan. Group 4 (one demand) barred China from giving any further coastal or island concessions to foreign powers. Group 5 (seven demands) was the most aggressive. China was to hire Japanese advisors who could take effective control of China's finance and police. Japan would be empowered to build three major railways, and also Buddhist temples and schools. Japan would gain effective control of Fujian, across the Taiwan Strait from Taiwan, which had been ceded to Japan in 1895. Now Japan knew what they were asking for, particularly in group 5 were basically like asking China to become a full colony under Japanese rule. Traditional history holds the narrative that Japan simply was taking advantage of the first world war to press China for imperial gains and Yuan Shikai accepted the demands in exchange for funding and support of his future monarchical project. Yuan Shikai ever since has been vilified as a sort of traitor who negotiated a dirty deal with the Japanese. Its a bit more complicated than that however as you can imagine. Yuan Shikai was outraged when the Japanese minister came over with the demands, it was a heavy blow against him and his new government. Accordinging to US minister Paul Reinsch “Yuan was stunned, unable to speak for a long time”. When the Chinese were trying to smooth talk Yuan and his advisors they made flowery speeches about how Japan would shoulder the modernizing of China, that the demands were in the spirit of Amity, friendship and peace. Yuan Shikai remarked to this “our country would no longer be a country and our people would be slaves.” Yuan Shikai understood full well what Japan sought, but he was powerless to stop them. What he did do to try and curb some of the damage was delay the response by replacing his foreign minister Sun Baoqi with Lu Zhengxiang, whose slow and overly polite manner, greatly frustrated and pissed off the Japanese. The classic Chinese approach to diplomacy, stall stall stall. It is said Lu often spent an hour or more in courtesies like tea-drinking before getting down to business. Over 24 meetings would be held over the demands. Now the Japanese wanted all of this to be kept secret as it would hurt both nations reputations on the world stage. Yuan Shikai did not play by their rules. Instead he leaked the demands to foreign diplomats and representatives, and in turn this got leaked to the media and caused nationwide protests. Yuan Shikai hoped the protests would push the Japanese to back off. Yuan Shikai also tried to persuade foreign intervention. First he sent his Japanese adviser Argia Nagao back to Japan to prod the Genro. Then he began speaking to the Americans who were very focused on maintaining their Open Door Policy and the British who were very suspicious of Japan's intentions. Neither nation wanted to see China simply falling into Japan's orbit. And of course Yuan Shikai tried to negotiate the demands themselves, particularly the group 5 demands which he pointed out “these items interfere with China's internal politics and infringe on our national sovereignty. It is hard to agree.” Towards the economic demands he remarked “these demands are too broad and cannot be enforced.” Regarding Japan's demands that China not lease islands or coastal regions to “Taguo /a third country”, Yuan Shikai wanted to change the words “Taguo” to “waiguo / foreign countries”. That change altered China's national interests for it meant China would not allow any country, including Japan to lease or rent Chinese islands or coastal regions.  Overall though, Yuan Shikai was very careful not to be overly aggressive for he knew full well, no one was able to help China at that moment if Japan decided to start another war. He also was playing with fire massively, for he unleashed Chinese nationalism, something that could and would get out of hand. The Chinese stalled for as long as they could, but the Japanese patience would run out on May 7th. Japanese ambassador Hioki Eki issued an ultimatum, but this time with only thirteen demands. Yuan Shikai's government had only 2 days to accept. After months of tenacious diplomacy, the final version of the demands was quite different. The 5th group had been dropped and more other items were less harsh. Yuan Shikai was powerless he was going to have to accept the demands and he knew full well this was yet another humiliation against China and her people. The supreme state council met on the 8th, where Yuan Shikai told his officials it was a shameful and heartbreaking agony to accept the demons, but they had no choice, lest war ravage them all again. He looked at his council and stated bluntly, China needed to catch up to Japan within a decade to remedy the situation. Yuan Shikai would issue secretly on May 14th, a notice to high ranking officials throughout the country, telling them to expose Japan's ambitions and China's debility. He urged them to bear in mind the extreme pain of this humiliation and advised them to work hard to create a bright future to avoid the collapse of the state and the extinction of the nation. The demands were reluctantly accepted on May 9th, and henceforth May 9th was declared “a day of national humiliation” commemorated annually.  The consequence of accepting the thirteen demands, became colloquially known as “the Shandong problem”, again its always Shandong province haha. Now at the beginning of the war China supported the Entente under certain conditions. One of those conditions was that Kiautschou Bay, the leased territory of the Shandong peninsula belonging to the Germans, would be returned to China. Something that occurred very very often during WW1, particularly on the part of Britain, was the issue of double promising. I literally made up a term I think. Britain during WW1 in an effort to secure allies or certain objectives would promise two different states or non-state actors the exact same thing after the war was done. A lot of the problems facing the middle-east today can be attributed to this. In the case of the Shandong problem, when Japan entered the war on behalf of the Entente, Britain basically promised they could keep their holdings, this of course included Shandong. We will come back to the Shandong problem as its a surprisingly long lasting one, but now I want to take quite a silly detour. Yuan Shikai is quite a character to say the least. He was viewed very differently at given times.Take for example the public perception of him after the Xinhai Revolution took place. Many honestly saw him as a sort of Napoleon Bonaparte like figure. Many also questioned what Yuan Shikai truly sought, did he believe in things like democracy? One author I have used during these recent podcasts, who in my opinion is a hilarious Yuan Shikai apologist tried to argue the case “Yuan Shikai did not understand what democracy was, thus that is why he did the things he did”. Now beginning around 1913, there were rumors Yuan Shikai simply sought to make himself an emperor over a new dynasty. This of course came at a time everyone was vying for power over the Republic, China was supposed to be a Republic after all, I think we all know however this was not ever a reality. Yuan Shikai certainly tried to make the case he was a Republican, that he believed in the republicanism espoused by just about all the leading figures. He also would make statements publicly espousing “I will never proclaim myself to be a monarch”. Yet as we have seen he certainly sent the wheels into motion to create a dictatorship. Yet for public appearances he kept the charade he was doing his absolute best as president and that he unwaveringly supported republicanism.  Thus there were two major hurdles in the way, if lets say he did want to become an emperor: 1) he kept making pledges he would not do so and 2) the republican system obviously did not allow for this, there had been a revolution to stop the monarchy after all! There was little to no options if someone wanted to make themselves emperor over China…unless they made it seem like thats what the people wanted. In 1915, Yuan Shikai quasi stomped all political rivals, I say quasi because there actually were rivals literally everywhere, but for the most part he had concentrated power into his own hands. Now, the apologist author had this to say about Yuan Shikai's sudden change of heart for the monarchy “His belief in superstition was perhaps another factor, for geomancers had told him that by establishing a monarchy he would smash his family curse, which held that men in the Yuan family would rarely live beyond their fifties. The suggestion here was that he would live long if he founded a monarchy. Also, fengshui masters had told him that his ancestral tombs had shown a blessed sign favouring imperial rule” The author then finishes by stating, its a difficult question and further inquiry should be made. That is the classic end of any scholar article, where they know full well they can't justify what they are writing haha. According to the high ranking official Zhu Qiqian who was close to Yuan Shikai “Yuan's monarchical movement started with Kaiser Wilhelm II telling the Chinese that monarchy would be more suitable for China”. British minister Jordan had a meeting with Yuan Shikai on OCtober 2nd of 1915, and on the topic of him becoming emperor, he simply stated “this is China's internal affairs which should not be interfered with by any others.” American minister Reinsch basically said the same thing when asked. News outlets began spreading rumors Yuan Shikai was going to declare himself emperor. In June of 1915, Japanese media reported as such, but Yuan Shikai responded “nothing is more foolish than a man becoming emperor. For national salvation, I have already sacrificed myself, and I would rather not sacrifice my descendants.” Well despite this, a monarchical movement began, orchestrated by many people such as Yuan Shikai's son Yuan Keding. Our friend from the last podcast, Liang Shiyi, now minister of communications, raised funds and organized popular petitions for Yuan to form a monarchy. Soon numerous petition groups “organically” with quotation marks, sprang up all over Beijing all claiming republicanism held too many weaknesses and that China was in a dire strait needing a strong monarchy. Petition groups sprang up in provinces urging the same thing. Beijing was filled with noisy parades, procession, petitioners ran around rampantly.  Then the United Association of National Petition was founded on September 19th, 1915 in Beijing to champion monarchism. Supporters gathered in Beijing, producing this “organic” impression everyone wanted the monarchy back.  Facing so many petitioners, Yuan Shikai decided to let the people determine the future of the national political system and by the people, I mean him. On October 8th, 1915 he approved the order that a “Canzhengyuan”, political participation council organize a “ Guomindaibiaodahui”, a national representative assembly. They would form a final ruling on the issue. The order required all the representatives had to be elected, each county had to choose one, and various ethnic groups, civil societies and overseas Chinese organizations also needed to select representatives. Yuan Shikai hoped such an arrangement would dispel any perceptions he was just appointing himself Emperor. Each county representative went to his provincial capital to cast a ballot. The political participation council in Beijing collected the ballots and announced the results. The representatives were selected and each received 500$ for travel expenses. Yuan Shikai dispatched Zhu Qiqian to secretly telegram all provincial officials to regulate the “election” air quotes. Yuan Shikai had all of his confidents working for this election. High ranking officials, family members, friends and so forth. On December 11, 1915 the Political Participation Council announced the results, all 1993 ballots endorsed a constitutional monarchy with Yuan Shikai as emperor. So yeah, every ballot, hrmmmm. On behalf of the representatives, the council begged Yuan Shikai to assume the throne immediately, claiming it was the will of the people. Yuan Shikai declined, arguing he had pledged to support the republic, that as the guardian of republicanism he would lose trust if he became emperor. He asked the council to find another candidate. What proceeded as you can imagine was simple theatrics. That afternoon, the council held a special meeting and decided to present a second imperial advocacy. In the advocacy were things proving Yuan Shikai was an indispensable ruler, qualified for taking the throne. His 6 great accomplishments were suppressing the Boxer Rebellion, enforcing progressive reforms, achieving a post-revolutionary conciliation, crushing the second revolution and conducting intense diplomacy with neighbors like Japan. To absolve Yuan Shikai of the guilt of violating his republican pledges the document stated “the pledge to the republic was effective only if the peoples' will supported republicanism. If the people have switched to constitutional monarchy, the previous pledge was automatically relinquished. As the presidency does not exist anymore, the former presidential pledges naturally disappear”. And thus Yuan Shikai reluctantly, under extreme pressure issued a public order declaring his acceptance on December 13th, 1915. Thus Yuan Shikai became the Hongxian Emperor and began to implement imperial orders. To woo over the national elites, he created a system of noble ranks and bestowed 130 prominent individuals titles as princes, dukes, marquis, earls, viscounts and barons. His closest friends were given special appellations and exempted from imperial duties. Xu Shichang, Li Jingxi, Zhang Jian and Zhao Erxun, his closest 4 friends became the Songshansiyou “four friends of Mount Song”. Yet just as he was getting down to the work as they say, an anti-yuan movement swept the country, go figure. High ranking Beiyang generals and politicians were amongst Yuan Shikai's, lets call them, reluctant collaborators, and some were even opponents. His monarchy turned them hostile. Many had supported him for decades and their very careers were beholden to his patronage. But the monarchy was simple incompatible with the times. Li Yuanhong, a leading figure in the Beiyang Clique who was linked to Yuan Shikai through marriage, strongly resisted the monarchy. He was the first to have the title prince bestowed upon him, but he refused and threatened to commit suicide if coerced to take it. Xu Shichang, simply resigned. Feng Guozhang, a military commander in Nanjing was very angry about the situation. Feng Guozhang came to Beijing to try and persuade Yuan Shikai to not become emperor, and Yuan Shikai promised him for months it was only rumors, he'd never do it, not Yuan come on man! Once he became emperor, Feng Guozhang felt betrayed and became quite an obstacle to Yuan Shikai. Then there was Duan Qirui another Yuan Shikai loyalist, but he concealed his anti-monarchy stance. He simply told Yuan Shikai that if he tried to become emperor, he would become a villain in chinese history. Duan Qirui was the only high ranking general not to be given a noble title rank. Instead he was given a personal chef by Yuan Shikai, and Duan Qirui made sure never to eat any food prepared by the man. All these names by the way are important figures of the Beiyang clique, cliques will become a dominating feature when we get into the warlord era. Basically the leader of the Beiyang clique, Yuan Shikai had greatly pissed off all of his followers.  Of course Dr. Sun Yat-sen responded immediately to Yuan Shikai becoming emperor, calling for another revolution. In his words “the future of our motherland has suddenly became more darkened. The republic built by our martyrs has unexpectedly turned out to be the private possession of the Yuan family. Four hundred million compatriots wept profusely ... and see the third revolution as the best remedy for national salvation.” Dr Sun Yat-Sen portrayed Yuan Shikai as a “minzei” national thief and now the Chinese people lived in bondage. He called upon the people to fight to save the republic. Soon KMT revolutionaries began to seize county seats, first in Shandong led by Ju Zheng, then they occupied parts in Guangdong and attacked the provincial capital there. However Dr Sun Yat-Sen was not the only player in town anymore. There was the new Nation Army led by Cai E in Yunnan province and Liang Qichao. Liang Qichao was one of the first big voices against Yuan Shikai's monarchial movement when they were emerging as rumors. He was also something of a sensei to Cai E, pushing him to coordinate military commanders in the southwest. Liang Qichao left northern China for Shanghai after Yuan Shikai proclaimed himself emperor and then made his way to Hong Kong, before traveling to Vietnam. From there he gradually traveled to join up with the Nation Army in March of 1916. And there he created a rival government. Then there were the liberal types, many intellectuals who had traveled abroad like Chen Duxiu. Chen Duxiu published in the New Youth an article stating “the nomenclatures of emperors and kings should have already perished after the Qing abdication edict, but unfortunately the Prepare for Peace Society led to the problem of the national political system.” Many pro-Yuan Shikai intellectuals suddenly turned against him, such as Li Dazhao. Born in Zhili, Li Dazhao had benefited from Yuan Shikai's reforms and supported him for quite some time, but the monarchism enraged him. As Li Dazhao joined the anti-Yuan movement he declared “All those who dare to rekindle the tyrannical cinders, or reignite the monarchical flames, whether the followers of the Prepare for Peace Society or the adherents of dynastic restoration, should be regarded as traitors of the state and public enemies of citizens. Their organization should be exterminated, their books burned, their backers eradicated, and their roots removed. Their sprouts should be destroyed so that they could not grow and proliferate. Then, there will be a hope of great prospect for our country”. Japan, never one to let an opportunity slip by them, began communicating with Cai E, Sun Yat-sen, Liang Qichao and Beiyang generals like Feng Guozhang and Duan Qirui. Japan began training and arming them. Soon military commanders in Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan working in league with Liang Qichao declared war against Yuan Shikai. Zhang Xun in Xuzhou of Jiangxi province refused to fly the Beiyang republic flag and made sure his men grew long queues, expressing their loyalty to the Qing dynasty. Liang Qichao dispatched Cai E to Kunming where he met with Tang Jiyao, a local military commander to begin a rebellion. On December 24th, Yuan Shikai received a telegram from Cai E urging him to return China into a Republic and he had one day to do so, or else. Yuan Shikai rejected the order and on the 25th of December, Yunnan province declared independence, uh oh. The Nation Army consisted of 3 main forces, Cai E's first army who marched upon Sichuan; Li Liejun's 2nd army who marched upon Guangxi and Hunan and Tang Jiyao's 3rd army who were held in reserve. Their goal was to occupy southern China so a Northern expedition could be launched to overthrow Yuan Shikai.  On January 1st, 1916 they issued an proclamation, claiming Yuan Shikai had performed 20 egregious crimes and must go into exile and let China be a republic again. Within days their armies marched upon Sichuan and Guizhou. By February Guizhou declared independence. Yuan Shikai immediately went to work stripping the rebels of their official titles and ordered Cao Kun to lead a military expedition against Yunnan. Under Cao Kun was Ma Jizeng who took an army through Hunan to attack Guizhou and Yunnan. A second force was led by Zhang Jingyao through Sichuan then Yunnan. A third force led by Long Jiguang went through Guangxi and then Yunnan. There were fierce battles, one particularly rough one at Xuzhou, where Cai E's armies seized the city in January, but lost it by March. The war was dubbed “the strange war,” because it really became  “a war of tongues,”. Each side kept through accusations in telegrams, newspapers and pamphlets. Now Yuan Shikai's Beiyang forces were superior in terms of numbers, weaponry and such, but the southerners were using terrain against them. All of the Beiyang forces were northern chinese, not used to southern climate and it proved difficult for them to acclimate. They were also not in the greatest state of morale, having to fight for the tin pot emperor as it were.  As a result the Beiyang forces did not seize the quick victory they thought they would. Though one major triumph was when Feng Yuxiang took Xuzhou on March 2nd, 1916 earning himself the title of baron. For those who don't know, Feng Yuxiang would famously become known as the Christian warlord. Meanwhile, Guangxi declared independence on March 15th led by Lu Rongting. Looking at a brutal stalemate of a war, Feng Guozhang began secretly telegraming Yuan Shikai to give up the monarchy, not a good sign. By early 1916, all the war fronts were seeing disasters. On March 21st, Yuan Shikai convened a special meeting with his high ranking officials. He proposed abolishing the monarchy and only one diehard loyalist general, Ni Sichong said he shouldn't, the rest all said yes. The following day Yuan announced his decision to step down from being an emperor. On March 23rd, 1916 the Hongxian dynasty ended, yes he was emperor for 83 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 bet some of you are wondering why I titled this the Walrus Emperor. I could not help myself, he honestly is such a goofy character and the propaganda outlets of his day drew him as this fat walrus, seriously give it a google “Yuan Shikai Walrus”. You wont be disappointed

This week on Sinica, the winners of the 2023 Schwarzman Capstone Showcase. Two individuals and one team were selected as the best research projects after review of their projects and presentation of their findings. Their work is first-rate — and if you don't factor in the very young age of the Schwarzman Scholars in competition. You'll meet Shawn Haq, who won for his work on U.S. and Chinese expert perspectives on Taiwan; Corbin Duncan, who looked at the impact of the One Child Policy on the economic and social circumstances of only children in China; and the duo of Kelly Wu and Manthan Shah, part of a larger team that studied decarbonization efforts in Shandong province in steel, aluminum, chemical, and cement production. All three of these research efforts yielded fascinating insights.2:15 – Introducing the Schwarzman Capstone Showcase: topics, judges, and process4:41 – Self-introductions from Shawn Haq, Corbin Duncan, Kelly Wu, and Manthan Shah15:07 – Shawn Haq: U.S.-China Expert Perspectives on Cross-Straits Relations29:09 – Corbin Duncan: Only Children and Contemporary China48:12 – Kelly Wu and Manthan Shah: Decarbonization of Shandong Province's Materials SectorSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In Harbin, north-eastern China, the winter tourism economy is thriving thanks to its winter events and activities. Thousands of tourists have flocked to the city to enjoy its ice and snow festival and cultural offerings. Harbin, known for its ice and snow festival, has become one of China's most sought-after tourist destinations this winter, giving the country a welcome post-pandemic economic boost. Here, an area of 140,000 square meters on the frozen Songhua River has been turned into an ice and snow park, where visitors can enjoy activities from ice skating and sledging, to snowmobile and sleigh rides. According to the local authorities, Harbin, the capital city of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, has welcomed nearly 3.05 million visitors during the 3-day New Year holiday, many drawn by the grand and intricate ice sculptures of its annual Ice and Snow Festival. Both the number of tourists and the amount of tourism revenue surpassed the figures for 2019, marking a historical peak. Data from the city's commerce department shows a significant growth of 129.4 percent in the accommodation and catering sectors during the period. Many of the tourists here are from southern China, where it rarely snows. “We have experienced the customs and geographical appearances which are very different from where we live,” says Zhu Yandi, a tourist from the country's capital city of Beijing. “Harbin is like a world of ice and snow, and its temperature is the most attractive to us,” says Gao Yuqing from the east Shandong Province. Various topics related to Harbin have dominated the trending list across different social media platforms too. The city's tourism department attributed the growth to Harbin's increasing popularity on social media. The city's rich Russian-style buildings and the beautiful snow sceneries are two important factors in its appeal. Harbin boasts a great number of Russian, Baroque, and Byzantine-style buildings due to its special history and geographical location. Business is booming in Harbin, with millions of visitors continuing to flock in. This article was provided by The Associated Press.

A practitioner in Shandong Province recalls her cultivation experiences dating back to 1997, and how she steadfastly clarified the truth to her employers after the persecution began in 1999. Through calmly validating her experiences cultivating in Dafa, her employers respected her right to practice and no longer questioned her. This and other stories from the […]

It seems Chinese cities are taking turns grabbing public attention over the internet. Beginning with the city of Zibo in east China's Shandong Province, more and more cities have become internet sensations as people share tips and reflections about how best to enjoy a nice city tour. Today on Round Table, we discuss what makes a city sensational. On the show: Laiming, Niu Honglin & Brandon Yates

A practitioner from Shandong Province tells the epic story of how he walked 435 miles from his village to Beijing to appeal for the rights of Falun Dafa. With only the clothes on his back and through harsh weather, with little food and no support, he managed to walk the entire distance and demonstrate his […]

Last time we spoke about the conquest of southern Manchuria. The Russians had consolidated their hold over northern Manchuria and now had the necessary amount of forces to quell the chaos in the south. The two last major strongholds held by the Qing and their Boxer allies were Liaoyang and Mukden. The Russians consolidated their forces while the Qing spread themselves out far too thinly. Each engagement saw Russian victories, despite the fact the Qing had the necessary numbers and weaponry necessary to serve decisive defeats to the Russians, if only they consolidated and coordinated properly their forces. Liaoyang fell easily, and with its fall the Qing commanders began to loot and abandon their infantry. Leaderless the infantry gradually scattered into the countryside leaving Mukden pretty much open for the taking. Manchuria was in chaos, and within that chaos the same type of people always emerged to take advantage,  bandits. But who were these people really?   #72 The Red Bearded Honghuzi    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. Manchuria has been called by many names. An English study in 1932 by Hubert Hessell Tiltman referred to Manchuria as “the cockpit of Asia, where drama never dies”. It has also been called by Yu Juemin in 1929 “the balkans in east asia”, which I think fits it nicely. So you heard me in length talk about Shandong and Manchuria. You heard my entire series on the Boxer Rebellion. Often you hear me refer to the “bandits”, in Shandong we saw the precursors to the Boxers rise up primarily to combat bandits. China proper and Manchuria had bandits since ancient times. But who exactly were the bandits? I would like to take us back to Manchuria to talk about a specific group or phenomenon of banditry. The major reason I am taking the time to do an episode on this, because to be honest we are about to jump into the Russo-Japanese War, is because the banditry problem and specific bandits will have an incredible amount of influence on China, Russia and Japan for the first half of the 20th century. For those of you who have not seen my personal channel, the pacific war channel you might already know where this is going. I created an extremely long series and reformed it into a single documentary on China's warlord era. Its a fascinating part of the history of modern China and one I will tackle in this podcast series, god knows how long it will be. Some of the warlords started out as bandits, two in particular were extremely influential, I am of course talking about Zhang Zuolin and the Dogmeat General Zhang Zongchang. By the way if you want to hear more about the king of memes, Zhang Zongchang, check out my episode on him on my youtube channel, its a must see I guarantee it, funny as hell and…well pretty dark too. The word Honghuzi translates as “red bearded”. They were armed Chinese bandits who operated in northeast China, particular in the areas of the eastern Russia-China borderlands during the second half of the 19th century and first half of the 20th. The term Honghuzi is believed to originate back in the 1600s referring to Russians by Chinese who had red beards. These would be the indigenous peoples around the Amur region. Chinese bandits later would use fake red beards as a disguise. Honghuzi gangs grabbed new members from those seeking easy money. It could be peasants, those down on their luck, Qing army deserters, recent immigrants. Just about anyone who preferred robbing over working lumber mills or in mines as you can imagine. A Vladivostok newspaper wrote an article in 1896 referring to the phenomenon “Here he is, dirty, in rags, half-starved, laboring every day, in the rain, in clay sticky soil ... what joys in life does he have? ... No wonder he prefers joining the Honghuzi and a life full of adventures.” A honghuzi gang could be just two guys, or it could be several hundred strong. You can imagine large groups in the hundreds could perform large scale operations, bigger the gang, bigger the payoff. When Honghuzi groups came together to perform large scale operations it could threaten entire cities. Now I bet most of you have an image in your mind, a skinny, unwashed hooligan, probably wearing worn down rags, and obviously this could fit the description of many Honghuzi, but on average not really. Many of them were well dressed and extremely well armed. They typically performed crimes in spring and summer when it was easier to hide in the forest filled countryside or in the mountains. When I was speaking about Shandong I often mentioned these type of criminal seasons, highway robbery literally was seasonal work. In the autumn and winter times the Honghuzi typically hit the major cities and spent their booty on the usual stuff, alcohol, women and drugs, in this case opium. Many also held employment, like I said it was seasonal work, most were farmers.  Manchuria was ideal for this type of criminal activity. The Qing government based in Beijing had little control over their sparsely populated homeland and the local officials in Manchuria did not have sufficient resources to quell the Honghuzi. The Honghuzi also did not stop at local activity, they often crossed over to plunder Russian territory, such as the Ussuri Krai. The Honghuzi had quite an easy time hitting the borderlands as the Russians and Qin could not focus much resources to protect them. As you can imagine such border issues resulted in larger scale conflicts. When Honghuzi raided Russian territory they often stole anything you can imagine like cattle, were smuggling opium and even illegally performed gold mining. Illegal gold mining led to a clash between the Hongzhui and Russian forces. In 1867 when gold was discovered on the small island of Askold, some 50 kms away from Vladivostok, Manchurian began to come over to try their luck at gold mining, as did the Honghuzi. A Russian schooner, the Aleut on several occasion scattered illegal gold miners, but they just kept returning. 3 Russian sailors were killed in an armed clash and the Honghuzi's chopped up their bodies in full view of the remaining Russian crew who fled in horror. The Russian government attempted to thwart the illegal gold mining and this led to what was called the Manzi War, Manzi is another name for Manchu. In 1868 Manchu and Honghuzi coordinated attacks upon Russian military posts and plundered and burned several towns, massacring settlers. In retaliation, Russian troops burnt down Manchu settlement known to shelter Honghuzi. By mid July the Honghuzi were gradually tossed back across the border into Manchuria. The Russians were not done, their forces pursued the Honghuzi as they fled back to Manchuria. Reportedly a Cossack sotnia penetrated Manchuria some several hundreds km's pursuing Honghuzi. In 1879 Russian forces crossed the border and burned down a well known fortified Honghuzi fortress near Lake Khanka. Major Nozhin leading a detachment during this time ran into Qing troops and a small battle occurred. It was an embarrassing episode for the Russians who apologized for the incident. The Qing court was not pleased with the border crossings, but knew the nature of the Honghuzi menace and actually asked the Russians to continue pursuing the Honghuzi within their borders. Now I would like to talk about the stories of some famous Honghuzi. In 1875, Zhang Zuolin was born the third son of an impoverished family in Haicheng of Fengtian, modern day Liaoning province. His family had been rooted in Manchuria for a long time, but his father was unable to sustain the family after dividing the estate with Zhang's uncle. Zhang only received two years of traditional education before leaving school following his fathers death. Nicknamed the “pimple”, Zhang was a thin and short boy. Zhang spent his early youth, fishing, gambling and brawling. When he first tried to make some money he worked as a waiter at an Inn where he came across tales of the Honghuzi. The only useful education he ever received was a bit of veterinary science, he underwent a brief period of veterinarian training, but ultimately he abandoned the career to pursue something else.  When the First Sino-Japanese War broke out, Zhang joined the Yi Army commanded by General Song Qing in 1894 to fight against the invading Japanese in Manchuria. However when the war ended and the Yi Army re-deployed, Zhang at the age of 21 departed them to take a job under his father in law to protect his village as the head of an armed band. There is a legend, most likely perpetuated by Zhang himself, that during a hunting trip he spotted a wounded Honghuzi on horseback and killed the man before stealing his horse to become a Honghuzi himself. Zhang led the group of bandits and earned this sort of Robinhood like mythos. Because he was illiterate he often referred to his experience as a bandit leader as “experience of the Green Forest” something his contemporary Zhang Zongchang would enthusiastically also state.  During the anarchic period between the first sino-japanese war and Russo-Japanese war, Honghuzi were both bandits plundering but also militiamen protecting towns. It was a complex situation and one that Zhang would become an expert in. Soon after Zhang had established his bandit group, it was dispersed by a larger group sponsored by the Russians. Zhang and the survivors joined another honghuzi group, run by Zhang Jinghui. Zhang would gradually become its leader, and Zhang Jinghui would later become a Lt under Zhang during the warlord era. When the Boxer rebellion broke out, Zhang's gang joined the Qing army in their doomed resistance against the foreigners. Unlike the Boxers who ceased fighting when the war was over, the bandits kept on banditing.  As Zhang's bandit group grew in size, he sought amnesty from the Qing government and became a militia commander in 1902. This would prove to be the first of a series of choices he made that would propel him to nearly become the leader of China. He was soon joined by Tang Yulin and Zhang Zuoxiang who would in their own right become Fengtian leaders. It seems Zhang's willingness to form alliances was the key to his success. Now I don't want to go too deep into it, but Zhang's militia was ordered by the Qing government to fight against Russian sponsored Honghuzi during the Russo-Japanese war. His bandit force worked to escort traveling merchants within Manchuria during the war. Fighting as mercenaries, Zhangs group become recognized as a regular regiment within the Qing military and they began patrolling the borderlands of Manchuria, suppressing other bandit groups. An American Major - surgeon named Louis Livingston Seaman was working or the 1st regiment US volunteer engineers during the russo japanese war. His regiment was working with the 2nd IJA army in Manchuria and he personally met Zhang Zuolin who he described in some length to the Nation magazine.  "He had some amusing and exciting experiences with the Hung-hutzes (Chun-chuzes), ex-bandits, now nominally Chinese soldiery, many of whom were operating as guerrillas on the Russian flank and communications under Japanese officers, as is charged. The Japanese had in their employ Zhang Zuolin a famous Honghuzi leader who led his men against the Russians”.  Dr Seaman wrote a lengthy report of his story with the Honghuzi and Zhang Zuolin and I think it gives some flavor and a feeling of what the banditry types were like at their highest point. Dr. Seaman stated a Russian position had been swarmed by over 500 Honghuzi, the Russians took over 20 casualties before the Honghuzi hoard were finally driven off. The Qing troops seemed to let the Honghuzi roam around freely, most likely because "They can not be caught, the plain truth being that the best of fellowship exists between them and the imperial troops, their old comrades of yore." Seaman noticed the Honghuzi had a special hatred reserved for the Russians. There was much talk of past grievances, particularly that of the Blagovestchensk massacre when it was said 8000 unarmed men, women and children were driven at the point of a bayonet into the raging Amur river. Seaman met one Chin-wang-Tao who said a Russian officers who participated in the brutal massacre told him in 1900 ‘'the execution of my orders made me almost sick, for it seemed as though I could have walked across the river on the bodies of the floating dead.” Only 40 or so Chinese escaped the horror, many of them were employed by a leading foreign merchant who ransomed their lives at a thousand rubles a piece. Such atrocities were well remembered by the local Chinese who sought revenge. When Japan began to look for those sympathetic to their cause, willing to pay for it none the less, it was not hard to find enthusiastic Chinese. It was believed 10,000 or more Honghuzi divided into companies of around 200-300 each led by Japanese officers no less were in force during the conflict. Zhang Zuolin commanded a large army of Honghuzi allied to the Japanese and Dr. Seaman met him and his army while venturing near Newchwang.  There had been reports of raids by Honghuzi, also called the “red beards” though none of them had red beards, nor any kind of beard. Dr. Seaman's companion, Captain Boyd became determined to meet them. The two men hoped to see for themselves the characteristics of these so called 10,000 strong guerrilla fighters that fight on the western border area of Manchuria. They were said to be hitting the rear and right flank of the Russian army, compelling it to quadruple its Cossack guards in the region to protect supply trains and refugees trying to flee from Port Arthur to Mukden. Both men had Chinese passports and received official credentials from Minister Conger to meet with General Ma who had assembled his forces on the borderland. General Ma was the commander in chief of the Qing forces in the region and also the de facto commander of 10,000 Honghuzi now wearing Qing uniforms. Many of the Honghuzi were great horsemen, having Manchu backgrounds they lived a mounted life and for centuries had defied the Qing authorities, roaming at will, levying tribute and performing numerous crimes. The leader of these marauders was Zhang Zuolin, who now held the rank of Colonel in the Qing army. Within two years Zhangs band had obtained mastery over the entire border region of Manchuria going some hundred miles. The Qing government ceased opposing them and simply made terms to adopt them into the army. Now they stood as troops in good standing, with highway robbery semi officially recognized as one of their perquisites. The adoption of Honghuzi into the army had not changed their habits of murder and robbing. When they were not plundering Russian refugees en route to Siberia or Russian supply trains they often took their plundering gaze on Chinese towns. Practically every peasant in the region at some time became a Honghuzi. It seemed to be at the time the crops were nearly full grown, when the broom corn was 12 to 15 feet high when peasants were most likely to turn to the life of outlaw. The staple crop of kaoliang affords the perfect cover for troops or honghuzi. The 8 nation alliance troops realized this the hard way when they marched from Taku to Beijing. With the tall kaoliang to hide their movements the peasants abandoned their legitimate work and took up weapons either alone or in groups to plunder the highways or rob smaller villages near where they lived. Sometimes people banded together to fight off the honghuzi. The Americans said it was a very similar situation in the philippines during their little war. The filipinos would call them amigos, then don on the clothes of the banditry class and try to rob them. Newchwang was visited by large organized robbers, many from Kaopangtzi. Dr.Seaman had the chance to take a photograph of Li Hongzhang and himself taken in the palace of the old Viceroy in Beijing, shortly before his death, it was the last picture of the old statesman, whom he knew very well by that point, he had made several visits to him in Beijing. Dr. Seaman stopped at Chinese Inn, and came across a merchant from Hsinmintung who was suffering from an affliction which he was able to relieve in some measure. The merchant heard we were traveling north and sought to meet the Honghuzi, he advised us to go at once to Hsinmingtung, where Zhang Zuolin was commanding forces. He even gave them a letter of introduction, the man turned out to be one of Zhang's merchants. The letter proved very useful as when they traveled further, people in towns gave them better accommodations, they were greeted like friends. Hsinmingtung was the terminus of the railroad that connected Kaopangtzi with the main line from Tientsin. They were in the process of building the main line further to junction at Mukden. They arrived to Hsinmingtung and received special rooms from the merchants friends. There were Cossacks patrol north and east and Japanese southeast. Qing soldiers under General Ma were patrolling west and northwest and the Honghuzi were all around. The two men bought fireworks and had a small party with the locals establishing a standing within their community. The men then called upon the Chi Fu, prefect of the place whose name was Tsung Zao Ku and he received them cordially. Then they were finally presented to the great ex-bandit of all Manchuria, the leader of the Honghuzi,  Zhang Zuolin who at that point was a colonel in the Qing army. Zhang Zuolin was a handsome fellow, graceful and mild mannered. He made them feel at home in his luxurious yamen, and brewed them excellent tea in fine porcelain cups. Then he offered them a good bottle of wine, an old Madeira. The men took photos of Zhang Zuolin and his forces. Zhang told them they were now his guests and he had to attend to matters, they were at liberty to travel through the country at will, but to make sure they never traveled unattended or unarmed. In the meantime the men spoke with a guest of the Chi Fu named Chang Lin Lung from Mukden. He spoke about Zhang, saying years ago he ruled all the territory around with an iron fist, as a bandit, doing as he pleased west of the Liao river. When China absorbed him and his men into its army, he obtained an allowance to pay his men well, the government supplied them also. The two men learned what they had suspected, these honghuzi were now really officered by the Japanese. There were around 300 with Zhang Zuolin as his personal guard. There were 8 Japanese officers directing the operations of another band the two men visited. It was said Zhang paid handsomely for all of this. Some of the Japanese officers were disguised as Chinese and doing covert work. Their guerilla operations were embarrassing Kuropatkin's army, robbing their supply trains forcing the Russians to double guards on lines of communication and adding more units to the right flank and rear. Two days before the two men arrived, a party of Russians were attacked by 200 Honghuzi, 7 miles from Hsinmintung. 5 were killed, 4 decapitated, their heads placed on pike poles. The same group of bandits whipped out a Cossack escort that was moving 1000 cattle and ponies to the Russian troops, the entire herd was stolen. Over 1000 Cossacks began revenge raids in the region in retaliation. At the offset of meeting Zhang, he showed an unusual amount of attention. Trumpets summoned his entire guards of 300 men, there was a great commotion and soon the whole outfit of his forces began lining up for inspection and kodak designs. Zhang gave 20 special guards for the two mens disposal and the next morning they went on an expedition of sightseeing. The plan was to visit neighboring bands, but when they reached 5 miles northeast, several Cossack scouts forced them away. They spent the night in Kowpangtze with 5 Japanese officers supported by a large number of Honghuzi. They took a railway train in the end to part ways. This was a glimpse at the future warlord of Manchuria as he ascended being a small-time bandit, to being the leader of the strongest bandit group in Manchuria and eventually found himself a role in the Qing military.  Another infamous warlord who started out as a Bandit was Zhang Zongchang. Certainly the most notorious of China's warlord, Zhang Zongchang was in all essence a monster. Google or Youtube search his name and you will see meme videos everywhere, though might I add, I made a video talking about the funny parts of his life, but also the cold hard horror show that it also was, check out Zhang Zongchang the monster behind the meme.    Zhang Zongchang was born in 1881 in Yi county, present day Laizhou in Shandong. He grew up in an impoverished village. His father worked as a head shaver and trumpeter, a rampant alcoholic. His mother was basically what you would call a practicing witch, she performed exorcisms. The family moved to Manchuria when Zhang was in his teens and the parents separated. Zhang stayed with his mother who took on a new lover. Zhang quickly took to a life of crime in and around Harbin. He took up work as a pickpocket, a prospector, worked as a bouncer and found himself working as a laborer in Siberia. He picked up a lot of Russian, which would pay off big time down the road. He described himself as a graduate of “the school of forestry”. He became a hell of a big guy at 6 foot 6 and would be the tallest of the warlords, that was not all that was tall, if you know the meme you know the meme.    When the Russo-Japanese war broke out, while Zhang Zuolin helped the Japanese, Zhang Zongchang helped the Russians. He served as a auxiliary for the Imperial Russian Army, it was basically the same situation of Zuolin, he was a honghuzi gang leader. However his real fame came after the war. During the war he showed himself a very capable warrior and leader. He was known for “splitting melons” ie: bashing the skulls of his enemies with rifle butts. Zhang made a ton of friends amongst the Russian military, he got along very well with them. He acquired an enormous taste for fine things, particularly cigars, champagne and whiskey. Google him and you will probably see a cigar in his mouth. Now unlike Zuolin, Zongchang really only starts to do famous deeds after the Russo-Japanese War, I don't want to go to far into the future, but I will give you a taste. For one thing why was he notoriously known as the “dogmeat general” you might ask?   The nickname “Dogmeat General”, was said to be based on his fascination with the domino game Pai Jiu. Others say his favorite brand of tonic was known as dogmeat. And of course there was the rumor he ate a meal of black chow chow dog every day, as it was popularly believed at the time that this boosted a man's vitality.    Nicknames like “the lanky general or general with three long legs” were certainly something he publicized heavily. There was indeed the rumor old 86 referred to the length of his penis being 86 mexican silver dollars, there was also a nickname “72-cannon Zhang” referring to that length. I mean the man was 6 foot 6, people described him quote “with the physique of an elephant, the brain of a pig and the temperament of a tiger”.    Alongside his penis propaganda, he was a legendary womanizer. Take his other nickname for example “the general of three don't-knows”: he did not know how many women, how many troops, or how much money he had. I think that nickname fits him better than the nickname he gave himself “the Great General of Justice and Might”.    He had a ton of concubines. The exact number of concubines he had has variously been reported between 30-50, but historians have a hard time trying to fix the numbers as Zhang himself allegedly did not know. Allegedly his concubines were from 26 different nationalities, each with her own washbowl marked with the flag of her nation. He was also said to give his concubines numbers since he could not remember their names nor speak their various languages. Many of these women he married, he was a polygamist after all. There was known to be Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Mongolians and at least one American amongst Zhang's women.   Zhang was semi-literate, whenever people asked where he was educated he would say “the college of the green forest” a euphemism for banditry. Despite being semi-literate Zhang Zongchang is famously known for his poetry, most notably his Poem on Bastards:   You tell me to do this, He tells me to do that. You're all bastards, Go fuck your mother.   It should be noted a lot of the poetry attributed to Zhang Zongchang may have been fabricated by a political opponent named Han Fuju who took over Shandong Province after him. Now that's enough about the two Zhang's, trust me we are going to dig much deeper into these guys later on in the series, because I love the warlord era, its absolute insanity and very unknown to the west.    So the Honghuzi who are often called just bandits, had a lot of influence in Manchuria, they are just another piece of the larger puzzle as they say. Now the enormous amount of bandits in Manchuria alongside the Boxer movement is what drove Russia to invade Manchuria. The Russians sent over 177,000 troops in Manchuria, under the guise it was merely to protect their railway construction efforts. This raised a lot of eyebrows as they say. By 1902 order had been restored in Beijing, the armed forces were thinning out. Britain and Japan were wary of Russia's increasing influence in the far east. Britain and Japan entered into an alliance on January 30th of 1902. The terms dictated if either nation was to go to war to protect its regional interests against a third power, the unaffected party would not only remain neutral but would try to prevent the conflict from widening. If an additional power, like France or Germany joined the war, either Japan or Britain would help the other. The alliance worked to Japan's favor allowing her to consolidate her recent acquisition of Korea and bolster her interest in Manchuria. Russia countered this by declaring a similar alliance on March 16th of 1902 with France.    Now everyone expected Russia to withdraw her enormous troops from Manchuria, and on April 8th of 1902, during the Manchurian Convention, Russia confirmed her ultimate aim to evacuate Manchuria on the condition the railway and Russian citizens were protected by the Chinese. It was agreed the Russian withdrawal would be done in three phases. Over three periods, each 6 months. After the first 6 months, the first assigned territory, southwest of Mukden was evacuated and returned to China. The anticipated second phase of the withdrawal from the remainder of the province of Mukden and Kirin did not occur however. When the Qing ambassador in St Petersburg enquired what the delay was, he was waved off. Then 20 days after the withdrawal had begun, Beijing was presented with demands for concessions in Manchuria.   None of the returned territory was in any way to be given to another power.  Mongolia's system of government was not to be altered.  No new ports or towns were to be developed or opened in Manchuria without informing Russia. Foreigners serving in the Chinese government were not to exercise authority in northern Manchuria.  The telegraph line connecting the Liaotung Peninsula with Peking was to be assured. On Newchwang being returned to China, the Customs' dues were to continue to be paid into the Russo-Chinese Bank.  The rights acquired by Russian interests or Russian people were to be continue   On April 29th encouraged by the protests and support of Britain, the US and Japan, China rejected the 7 demands. Japan was greatly threatened by all of this and little by little, the same situation we saw unfold prior to the first sino-japanese war, was occurring all over again in Manchuria.   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 Honghuzi were a unique type of banditry that had an enormous role in the history of Manchuria. Those like Zhang Zuolin and Zhang Zongchang would join their ranks and earn great fame. With so many bandits in Manchuria however, conflict would soon arise.

A man in Shandong Province began practicing Falun Dafa in 1997, and struggled for many years with addiction to smoking, had trouble holding on to employment, and wandered in and out of cultivation, at times staying out late drinking, and felt lost and without direction. When he started helping to produce truth clarifying DVD's he […]

After living a life filled with years of family tensions, health issues, and a feeling of hopelessness; a woman in Shandong Province takes up the practice of Falun Dafa and is immediately relieved of her physical pains, and strives to improve relations with her in-laws. With the help of Master and the teachings of Dafa, […]

Last time we spoke about the escalating situation in China involving foreigners and the emerging Yihequan Boxers. The incident in Liyuantun had reached a boiling point between the Yihequan and Christian's backed by foreign actors. As hard as the Qing government tried to intermediate, they simply could not stop the boxer movement from growing. Boxers were gathering en masse in Shandong and Zhili trying to fight back against what they saw as a foreign enemy. Fight they did, but in the end the Qing government was forced to stamp down upon the ring leaders behind the multiple boxing groups until a peace was finally restored in troublesome Shandong. Yet while the Boxers went home as they say, were they truly done? The scramble for China had created a new type of enemy, one not so easily controlled and soon would make themselves heard loud and clear.    #60 Spirit Boxers & the battle at Senluo Temple   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. And so the struggle over the temple at Liyuantun had finally come to an end, peace was restored, or was it? China was still being carved up by the great powers, the christians and missionaries were still running amok and in 1898 Emperor Guangxu began his “one hundred days of reform”. A rising star within the Qing court named Kang Youwei had begun pushing progressive reforms upon the emperor. The self strengthening movement we talked about a long time ago had focused on military matters, but laced governmental and societal reforms. These limitations were showcased horribly with China's defeat during the First Sino-Japanese War when China was forced yet again to abide by unequal treaties and now the other great powers were literally tearing her apart. The abysmal situation led to the perfect grounds for individuals like Kang Youwei and the Qing politician Liang Qichao to advocate for some rather drastic reforms, many of which the Emperor agreed to. Kang Youwei sought a blend of New Text Confucianism and western inspired modernization, in some ways it was like a Meiji restoration. It should be no surprise Kang Youwei sought such a thing, as he studied in Japan and was an avid reader of western literature. Kang Youwei wrote to the emperor “China is confronted with the gravest danger in her history” and his reply was an unprecedented two and a half audience with the Emperor. According to an eyewitness, a scholar present, the Emperor complained to Kang Youwei that the conservatives in the Qing court were ruining China with inaction. To this Kang Youwei agreed and kept pressuring the emperor the need for radical change. “You, the Emperor, I would ask you to remove yourself from the seclusion in which you live. COme boldly forward”. Well that is just what Emperor Guangxu did. A stream of imperial edicts called for changes to the examination system to stress practical studies; to reorganize and modernize the military; to establish a bureau for agriculture, industry, commerce; to translate and print more western books; to build a modern education system; to change the absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy, the list could go on and on, but I think you get the picture, think more modern. Between June and September of 1898 he had issued some 40 imperial edicts. This all resulted in a great divide within the Qing court between the reformers and conservatives. To the conservatives, it was simply heresy to overthrow China's traditional laws and customs, for some they believed it was all some sort of evil plot concocted by foreign powers as a means of carving up China further. Such was the thinking of Prince Duan, he was basically the leader of the conservatives in the Qing Court and very loyal to Empress Dowager Cixi. He suspected the reforms were a plot designed by foreign advisors like Timothy Richards and Ito Hirobumi.  The speed and radical nature of the ideas scared the hell out of the conservatives. Empress Dowager Cixi at first appearance to acquiesce towards her nephews reform program, he had turned 27 and was officially in charge, wink wink as they say. Cixi had temporarily retreated to the Summer palace under the guise she was retiring. However as Guangxu's reforms began to touch on some lets say, more sensitive topics like the abolition of sinecures, that being positions within the Qing dynasty that provided little work but good salaries, well she did not like that.  At this point there are two stories about plots between Guangxu and Cixi. One has it Guangxu acted first, the other has it being Cixi, regardless both did plot against another. Cixi thought the reforms were too drastic so she plotted to restore her regency via a coup d'etat. Now either Guangxu just assumed she was going to do this, or someone leaked the plot to him, but he acted swiftly against her. He asked his two greatest reformer allies, Kang Youmei and Tan Sitong to devise a plan to thwart Cixi. The plan called for arrested Cixi, basically forcing her into house arrest, pretty typical Qing royal family stuff. However the agent of these plans was terribly chosen. Yuan Shikai, someone boy oh boy I have written a lot about on my personal channel, the pacific war channel cough cough check out my warlord series, well he seems to have been working for both sides or was legitimately loyal to Cixi.  Guangxu planned to use Yuan Shikai not just to arrest Cixi, but perhaps also to kill the Manchu General Ronglu who was currently spearheading the coup d'etat for Cixi. Instead of going over to stop or kill him, Yuan Shikai literally just told Ronglu everything about Guangxu's plot. It's alleged Yuan Shikai took a train on September 20th of 1898, arriving to Tianjin where he spoke to Ronglu, thus exposing the plot. Ronglu acted swiftly by taking an army into the Forbidden city at dawn on september 21st and placed Emperor Guangxu under house arrest. Eunuchs literally burst into the Emperor's room and he was imprisoned on an island known as the Ocean Terrace in a lake near the west wall of the Forbidden city. Yuan Shikai was appointed Governor of Shandong Province and went on his merry way. Kang Youwei fled into exile leaving behind some of his closest disciples and allies in Beijing who would become known as “the 6 martyrs or also known as the 6 gentlemen of Wuxu”. These being Tan Sitong, Kang Guangren, Lin Xu, Yang Shenxiu, Yang Rui and Liu Guangdi. Why were they called martyrs you may ask, well Cixi had them beheaded on September 28th at Caishikou in Beijing. It is alleged, she did this primarily because a few of them were planning to infiltrate her residence and assassinate her. They also happened to be the most prominent reformers apart from their leader Kang Youwei who had managed to flee to Japan. An imperial proclamation was made stating “the Emperor being ill, the empress dowager has resumed the regency”. Rumors began to spread that Guangxu had been murdered or was going to be executed. Sir Claude MacDonald even warned the Qing government that the foreign powers would view Guangxu's execution “with extreme disfavor” and followed this up by sending a French doctor to see if Guangxu was alive and well. Things looked horrible in Beijing, but it was getting even worse in places like Shandong. Shandong had been facing fiscal crisis after fiscal crisis, but with the foreign powers carving up China, things really took a turn for the worse at end of the 1890s. The Yellow River was flooding, the second sino-japanese war had hit her hard and the foreigners, particularly Germany were carving chunks out of her and exploiting them. The Qing government was increasing taxes to pay for all the problems and the commoners were being hit hard. In the year of 1898, it looked like Shandong was going to face a prolonged famine. A salt smuggler named Tong Zhenqing began leading a band of 400 bandits carrying small red flags around the border area of Shandong and Jaingsu. They stole grain and cattle, not something out of the norm for the area, but their flags carried slogans stating “smash western learning”. It is alleged the group sought to find the Big Sword Society, but before they did the Qing forces managed to surround them, killing a few and arresting others. Tong's little insurgency fell, but then in the closeby village of Dangshan another similar force rose up with flags bearing the slogan “couplet about destroying the catholics”. The Qing yet again sent military units to quell the insurrection quickly. Though these little rebel groups were quelled quickly, it seemed such bandits were only getting bolder and bolder.  Empress Dowager Cixi appointed General Ronglu as the new minister of War. He was also in charge of reforming the metropolitan armies to keep the peace and quickly formed the new “Wuwei Corps”. Their official job was to protect Beijing and they were western trained and equipped with modern western weaponry. They would consist of 5 divisions led by some of China's present and future heavy hitters, Ronglu, Nie Shicheng, Song Qing, Yuan Shikai and Dong Fuxiang. Dong Fuxiang alongside Ma Anliang, Ma Haiyan, Ma Fulu and Ma Fuxiang had been brought over from the northwest leading a force around 10,000 strong. The muslim troops were nicknamed the “kansu braves”. In July of 1898 as they made their way to the capital, Dong Fuxiangs men attacked some churches in Baoding. Indeed Dong Fuxiang unlike his other colleagues was publicly hostile towards foreigners. Westerners would go on to describe his force as the “10,000 islamic rabble. A disorderly rabble of 10,000 men, most of whom were mohammedans. 10,000 mohammedan cutthroats feared by even the chinese”.  Antiforeign riots sprang up, particularly in Beijing around the foreign legation quarter. The situation became so serious, foreign diplomats began summoning forces from nearby foreign fleets to help defend the foreign community in Beijing. This only increased the tension bringing about further incidents in late september and early october of 1898. Soldiers from the brand new United States marine corps were called over to help the foreign community in Beijing. By late october rumors began to circulate the kansu army were going to kill all the foreigners in Beijing! On October 23rd it was said “troops are to act tomorrow when all foreigners in Peking are to be wiped out and the olden age return for China”. Dong Fuxiang's men were causing such chaos, Empress Dowager Cixi ordered the Kansu army to be transferred over to Nanyuan. Dong Fuxiang forces went over there only to cause violence towards railway workers near the Marco Polo Bridge nearly killing two british engineer. As described to us by Minister MacDonald's cable to London on October 28th of 1898 "A serious menace to the safety of Europeans is the presence of some 10,000 soldiers, who have come from the Province of Kansu, and are to be quartered in the hunting park, two miles south of Peking. A party of these soldiers made a savage assault on four Europeans, who were last Sunday visiting the railway line at Lukou Chiao. The foreign Ministers will meet this morning to protest against these outrages. I shall see the Yamcm to-day, and propose to demand that the force of soldiers shall be removed to another province, and that the offenders shall be rigorously dealt with." On the 29th he telegraphed again: "The Foreign Representatives met yesterday, and drafted a note to the Yamfin demanding that the Kansu troops should be withdrawn at once. The troops in question have not been paid for some months, and are in a semi-mutinous state. They have declared their intention to drive all Europeans out of the north of China, and have cut the telegraph wires and destroyed portions of the railway line between Lukouchiao and Paoting Fu. Some disturbances have been caused by them on the railway to Tien-tsin, but the line has not been touched, and traffic has not been interrupted. In the city here all is quiet. The presence of these troops in the immediate vicinity of Peking undoubtedly constitutes a serious danger to all Europeans. The Yamfin gave me a promise that the force should be removed, but have not yet carried it into effect." The great powers had enough of the Kansu issue and demanded Dong Fuxiang's force be removed from the Beijing area completely, and the Qing acquiesced. Then in early 1899 the violence shifted from the Beijing area to the foreign concessions. In February, Russian troops killed 47 and injured 51 Chinese over a tax dispute in the Liaodong peninsula. The following month, the Germans launched a punitive expedition into southeastern shandong. In april the British killed several Chinese during some disputes around Hong Kong. And Italy again trying to join the scramble for China, began demanding rights to Sanmenwan island off the coast of Zhejiang. Italy went as far as to dispatch some warships to threaten the Qing, but Shandong troops put up a defense of the islands, haha Italy get rekt again. On May 28th, Robert Hart wrote back to London from Beijing “I have been worried—I can't tell you how much!—by the troubles of China. British doings at Kowloon have been very aggravating: Russian demand for Peking-railway has been a thunderbolt: German action and military movements in Shantung have outraged the people: and everywhere there is a feeling of uneasiness spreading.... [There are lots of rowdies among every thousand men and the proof that their own Govt, is weak, as shown by the inroads of foreigners, will encourage their natural rowdyism, while, instead of seeing superior civilization in the foreigner, they will regard him as simply another rowdy and chip in for their share of what disorder can wring from weakness. Some Chinese say that revolt and disorder are fast coming on—that the rioters will wipe out every foreigner they come across—that, regardless of consequences every province will follow suit and such anarchy and bloodshed follow that for years and years industry and commerce will all disappear: how will that suit the west?” After the Juye incident, the number of churches and converts in Shandong increased and with it more conflicts flared up. In late 1898 to early 1899 anti-christian incidents spread like wildfire from east to western shandong. Our old friend George Stenz got embroiled in a new incident in the market town of Jietouzhuang in november of 1898. Stenz had allegedly called in German troops to stop some charges placed upon his converts and this led to a mob rising up against him. Simultaneously in the nearby villages along the Rizhao-Juzhou border, American Presbyterians were attacked. Apparently both incidents may have been linked to an emerging rumor that the Empress Dowager was calling for an expulsion of the foreigners and their christian converts. This rumor was false, in fact she had made edicts to protect missionaries. But such rumors simply represented the feelings of the time and attacks upon Christians increased in places like Juzhou, Yishui and Lanshan throughout November and december.  George Stenz was kidnapped by a mob and the German forces hurried to his rescue, demanding reparations for his kidnapping. Another incident occurred prompting Berlin to order two units to dispatch from Qingdao who went on a punitive expedition seeing 39 houses burnt down in Lanshan. Another unit was led personally by Stenz to the city of Rizhao where the Germans demanded a payment settlement for all the incidents before they all returned to Qingdao in late may. All of these actions were quite an escalation. While the foreign powers definitely were using gunboat diplomacy in the 1890's, typically when they tried to influence anything they would do so indirectly, through the Qing for example. But now more and more they were physically barging into the country and using force themselves. On April 11th of 1899, Yuxian received the governorship of Shandong and his immediate problem to fix was controlling the foreigners and their christian allies. Yuxian has often been perceived to be conservative and anti-foreign. He was a Manchu of the yellow banner and we spoke about how he quelled the Big Sword Society years prior. He had a reputation as being tough and efficient. When he took the job he immediately went to work trying to please the Germans so they would back off, but instead they kept using brute force to quell more and more incidents. Some anti foreign protests broke out in early July and the Germans sent troops who killed 13 and injured 8 Chinese. Simultaneously the Germans began practicing amphibious assaults near Dengzhou, prompting Yuxian to believe they intended to seize more territory. Yuxian tried to protest in his own ways, he began demanding the Germans show evidence of incidents and take responsibility for damage they did. Yuxian sent word to the Zongli Yamen demanded he instruct the Chinese minister in Berlin to ask the German commanders in Qingdao be replaced. Now while Yuxian was battling it out with the Germans, a series of anti-christian incidents heated up around Rizhao. The cause of these as told to us by Yuxian “the gentry and people everywhere are outraged at the German's unprovoked murder and arson”. News of foreign encroachment and rumors spread from town to town across shandong. Then in Jining and incident took place as a result of Christians abusing locals by taxing and fining banquets and such. This led to the rise of a new group of boxers who fought back. The Daotai of southern shandong Peng Yu-sun wrote this of the incident.  “These [factors] are the source of the rise of the Red Boxers (Hong-quan) and other boxing groups. The Big Sword Society has long existed in Caozhou. Because they disliked the name as infelicitous, they changed it to Red Boxer, United in Righteousness [here written with the characters Ho'], Charm Boxing (Jue-zi) or Red School (Hong-men). The names multiplied, and they studied [boxing] techniques. Their methods include promising the gods not to covet children or wealth. They swallow charms and chant spells to be able to resist guns and swords. The main charms with which they dazzle people are very common, wild, and heterodox. They say they are protecting themselves and their families, but secretly they certainly seek to feud with the Christians. They spread the practices everywhere, the same in every village. Because it is simple and easy to learn, it can rouse the common people as surely as beating a drum.” Two boxer leaders emerged, Shao Shixuan and Chen Zhaoju. Shao Shixuan was from Feng county of Jiangsu and had ties to the Big Swords. Chen Zhaoju was a discharged soldier from of all places Juye, a man simply looking to make a living and down on his luck as it were. Now the incident actually began with groups calling themselves the Big Sword Society counter harassing the Christians in Jining. The German missionaries began to send word to Beijing and Yuxian's attention was demanded. Yuxian began to demand evidence of the ongoings in Jining and even pointed out the CHristians had been abusing the local population. But then by July, the Red Boxers emerged under Shao and Chen and they were countered by Qing militias. Yuxian personally toured the area and reported back to Beijing his belief that the Christians had forced the boxers to defend themselves. To Yuxiang, as long as the boxers confined themselves to self defense, acting to only counterweight the Christians abuses, he was fully willing to tolerate them. He wrote this to a colleague in September “"In my area we have already checked accurately.All peaceful [boxing] for self-defense we do not prohibit. But if they kidnap for ransom and loot, then we send troops to seek them out and arrest them." And so he reported back to Beijing that he had arrested some wrong doers, executed the Red Boxer leader Chen Zhaoju and such. Thus when the boxers got out of hand Yuxiang seemed willing to put down the hammer so to speak. However Yuxiang was between a rock and a hard place. He was trying to keep the foreigners accountable for their actions while simultaneously doing the same with the boxers, but this was obviously impossible in practice. As the boxers got more and more bold, Yuxiang urged them to disperse, advised them to instead join militia's, to just keep out of severe trouble. The Big Swords even reemerged around Caozhou harassing Christians along the border with Zhili, Yuxiang was quite lenient against them. Now Yuxiang at this point was dealing with the Red Boxers predominately found in southern shandong, but another group known as the “spirit boxers”emerged in the northwest. They were operating outside the German sphere of influence, this was the realm of the French, Italian and some American missionaries. The Spirit Boxers were significantly different from their southern comrades, as they had distinct invulnerability rituals involving being possessed by gods. By early 1899 they were taking on a anti-christian nature and then they suddenly adopted the name “Boxers united in righteousness, the Yihequan. They recruited and trained openly in villages and extremely visible organization. Their rituals and gods derived from popular literature and opera, they became extremely popular and fast. These were the “true” boxers that would become known to the world. The Spirit Boxers began with no anti-christian dimension, their original slogan for example was “Xiao-jing fu-mu, he-mu jia-xiang / respect your parents, live in harmony with your neighbors”. They were interested in helping local communities, often providing healing services. They were distinct in the fact they did everything out in the open, unlike other groups like the Big Swords who kept their invulnerability techniques secretive. They did not take fees, unlike the Big Swords, thus they often are seen as the “poor cousins” to the Big Swords. Their form of invulnerability involved spirit possession, which is a large reason they came into conflict with Christians. Henry Porter noted this about them in the Chiping area "they added a new element which has caused the rapid spreading of the assemblies. The emissaries who went about to stir up the interest of people pretended to be possessed of a demon. They add a kind of spiritism to their gymnastics. They suppose that their trainer is a medicine [man]. The fellows, mostly young men, practice under him and fancy themselves under the influence of a spirit. In this condition they pretend that nothing can harm or injure them." Now at some point in late 1898, the Spirit Boxers transformers. The Christian abuse in their area led them to join forces with the Big Sword Society. They began to spread throughout the region, people all over sought to learn from the Yihequan. This of course coincided with poverty, natural disasters, famine, all the usual suspects, people needed food and hope. A boxer leader emerged named Zhu Hongdeng. He was born in southern Shandong to a poor landless family. He sold peanuts and often was forced to beg to make ends meet. He learnt spirit boxing in Changqing and went from village to village teaching it. He was one of the main leaders who influenced the spirit boxers early on to take on invulnerability techniques. Now in 1899 Yuxiang was still acting as a moderate between the foreigners and boxers. As long as the boxers did not go too overboard he turned a blind eye. His policy towards the Christian-Boxer conflict was to stay as even handed as possible. But in the late spring of 1899 the magistrate of Chiping seemed to be openly supporting the Boxers, according to one account ‘Magistrate Yu even went to watch the opera and praised the Spirit Boxers! At that time the spirit boxers were at their height. They went to every village. Magistrate Yu even gave awards to the Spirit Boxers!”. In the Chiping area it looked like Qing officials were beginning to tilt against the Christians and were becoming more and more ineffective at quelling violence. As the Boxers spread through Shandong and across the border into Zhili, more and more conflicts with Christians flared up. In May of 1899 the county of Pingyuan began to see complaints from Christians about the Boxers. A local boxer leader named Zhang Ze from the village of Beidi was quite a hot head as they say. He ruled his village with an iron first and he was openly harassing the Christians. Now Yuxiang at this point did not see much of a difference between the Red Boxers of the south and the Spirit Boxers of the northwest, so when reports came to him of incidents he thought it was easily solvable stuff. The Christians pressed their missionary allies who complained to the Zongli Yamen, but no real efforts came about to quell the problems. Then a Christian Chinese leader in Pingyuan county was robbed by some boxers including Zhang Ze. The man died apparently of frustration and stress, and his son accused the boxers of killing him. The local magistrate investigated the situation, but found no wounds on the 80 year old man, so he took no real action other than asking Zhang Ze and the other boxers to return the stolen property. The Zongli Yamen began harassing Yuxiang, who proceeded to harass the local magistrate, but the conflict was not thoroughly looked at. In fact the local magistrate was down playing the entire thing and failing to even mention the boxer element to it all. The conflict got bigger, the Christians kept complaining, but nothing was being done. In Gangzi Lizhuang a southern part of Pingyuan county a boxer leader named Li Changshui who was quarreling with a Christian leader named Li Jinbang. They had a minor land dispute and Li Changshui began looting Li Jinbang with some boxer allies. The local magistrate ordered Qing forces to crack down who stormed the area arresting some boxers, but Li Changshui fled. The magistrate reported to Yuxiang and others all was well again. However Li Changshui had fled to Chiping where he asked for help from Zhu Hongdeng. Both men returned to Gangzi Lizhuang with a force of hundreds of boxers. The Boxers forced the local christians to feed them, took some hostage for ransom to get some arrested boxers out of jail. The magistrate came to investigate to find Zhu Hongdeng dressed in red pants, a red cap, with red flags carrying the slogan “Tian-xia Yihetuan, xing qing mie-yang / Under heaven, the boxers united in righteousness; revive the Qing and destroy the foreign”. The magistrate's soldiers charged into the village, and the Boxers attacked their flag bearers. Upon seeing this, rumor has it the magistrate said to his chief runner “which is faster, a horse or sedan chair?” Before fleeing the scene. The Boxers had thus defeated a rather tiny Qing force, literally less than 20 guys.  Everyone began harassing the magistrate to summon a adequate force before Zhu Hongdeng got emboldened enough to start a rebellion. On October 12th the magistrate requested forces and by the 16th they arrived led by the prefect of Jinan Lu Changyi and officer Yuan Shidun, a cousin of Yuan Shikai. Lu Changyi quickly seized command and went to Gangzi Lizhuang only to find out Zhu Hongdeng and the boxers had left. They had fled northwest to the Senluo Temple which was on the eastern bank of the Majia river. The temple was built over a dike and had a commanding view with its high walls. On the morning of October 18th, around 1500 boxers had gathered around the temple. Yuan Shidun dispatched 500 infantry with 20 cavalry towards them. His scouts went ahead and reported back that the Boxers had these large red flags reading “revive the Qing, destroy the foreign”. A boxer messenger came to greet the scouts, and apparently a miscommunication led to some gunfire from the Qing. The Boxers were armed with swords, spears, a handful of primitive hunting rifles and some antique cannons and they erupted against the Qing. The Qing forces carried only single short rifles and after firing their first volley, could not reload quickly enough as the Boxers charged upon them. A few Qing soldiers were killed, more wounded as they fled for their lives. The Qing soldiers were shocked by the ferocity of the Boxers, they charged without fear of death or pain. The Qing rallied for a counter attack and this time caused casualties upon the boxers, roughly 27 killed. Zhu Hongdeng and the boxers fled as the Qing arrested and executed many. While this could appear to the naked eye a minor skirmish, it was a watershed moment for the Boxer movement. The boxers had been brought to the forefront of Qing attention, they received a ton of publicity. Zhu Hongdeng, though defeated in the end, paraded around Chiping stating they had won a great victory. The slogan “Revive the Qing, destroy the foreign” was an incredible new development, why? Because the one thing the boxers always lacked was good leadership, they were pretty much directionless this entire time. Zhu Hongdeng would be arrested like countless other Boxer leaders, but a slogan “revive the Qing, destroy the foreign”, this was something people could rally to and it was a sense of direction. The slogan spread like wildfire amongst many differing boxer groups. Also they were using the term yihetuan instead of Yihequan, tuan meaning militia, Quan referred to boxers. They were now “the militia united in righteousness”  they had evolved into a more legitimate force. As Dan Carlin once said in his podcast about the events leading up to WW1, the pin had been taken out of the hand grenade. 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 Yihequan had become the Yihetuan. The conflicts against the foreigners reached its zenith and now the Boxers were going to lead a violent movement that would yet again bring China into a war, not with one or two nations, but 8.   

At least 21 people have been injured in a 5.5-magnitude earthquake hitting east China's Shandong Province.

The Chinese had high hopes for the negotiations in Versailles after the end of the First World War. Wellington Koo argued the Chinese case ably. China wanted to retake control of its Shandong Province, but instead Japan continued to control it because of agreements signed during the war. Then it became clear that Duan Qirui and his Anhui Clique had benefited from Japanese funds in exchange for signing away Shandong to Japan.The May Fourth Movement saw an eruption of student anger, supported by intellectuals, businesses and workers. There was even a general strike in Shanghai. The seeds of Chinese Communism were being planted two years before the founding of the Chinese Communist Party.Behind the scenes, provincial warlords and officials supported the May Fourth Movement as a way of undermining Duan Qirui and his Anhui Clique. They could genuinely use patriotism to criticize Duan's betrayal of China to Japan.These tensions among warlords would soon reach a boil.Please fill out the listener survey here .Image: "File:Vi Kyuin Wellington Koo Chinees-Taiwanees politicus, diplomaat en rechter. Mede, Bestanddeelnr 900-8984.jpg" by Anefo is marked with CC0 1.0. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last time we spoke about the situation after the disastrous losses at Pyongyang and the Yalu River as well as the battle for Port Arthur. Coming off their tremendous success at Pyongyang and the battle of Yalu, the Japanese performed an offensive fording the Yalu and easily defeating the Qing forces at Jiuliancheng. After this the Japanese began to advance into the Liaodong Peninsula. One by one, each town saw Qing forces fleeing while giving little battle. Eventually the Japanese seized Jinzhou and Dalian. With bases of operations in hand they then could attack the formidable fortress of Port Arthur. As the Japanese advanced into the Port Arthur region, they came across mutilated corpses of their comrades driving a fiery need for vengeance into their hearts. The Japanese would take Port Arthur with absolute ease as the Qing yet again fled the scene, but this time the victory was met with a disastrous massacre.   #53 The First Sino-Japanese War of 1898-1895 Part 5: The Battle of Weihaiwei   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 massacre at Port Arthur was disastrous for Japan's public image. Thomas Cowan of the London Times went to Hiroshima on his way home after witnessing the massacre and met with Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu to tell him what he saw personally. Upon hearing the story, Mutsu told him “that an investigation would be made and that he showed no disposition to interfere with the correspondents duty and the reports were telegraphed on December 1st”. On December 16th the Japanese foreign ministry issued a formal statement to the foreign press on the matter  "The Japanese Government desires no concealment of the events at Port Arthur. On the contrary, it is investigating rigidly for the purpose of fixing the exact responsibility and is taking measures essential to the reputation of the empire. Japanese troops transported with rage at the mutilation of their comrades by the enemy, broke through all restraints and exasperated by the wholesale attempts [by Chinese soldiers] at escape disguised at citizens, they inflicted vengeance without discrimination. While the Japanese government "deplores" the excessive violence, it protested "exaggerations" in the press reports and insisted that "the victims, almost without exception, were soldiers wearing the stolen clothes of citizens." Three days later the London Times reported “that most foreign reporters agree that the excesses were committed, but say that they were excusable, and that they have had their parallels in the best European armies. The Japanese military promised they would also launch an inquiry into the matter, but no one ended up being punished. Luckily for Japan the west would later on become obsessed over the peace terms and their attention was less focused on the Port Arthur Massacre.  Meanwhile the Qing government was trying to deny there even was a defeat at Port Arthur, let alone a massacre. The Shanghai China Gazette had this to say "The most strenuous efforts have been made by the Chinese officials to conceal the fact that the great stronghold has passed out of their hands, and is now a de facto Japanese naval yard. Telegraphic notices have been sent...all over the empire by the officials saying that a wicked report has been set on foot by the enemy that they have captured Port Arthur, but it was utterly untrue, the place being garrisoned by 30,000 brave Chinese soldiers who would never give it up to the Japanese. Official telegrams to this effect were published to-day in all the native papers, and thousands of Chinese will thereby be kept in blissful ignorance of the terrible position in which China stands to-day. Ostrich-like, most of the Chinese prefer not to believe the unpleasant truth and rather listen to the barefaced mendacity of their wretched rulers. But the stupidity of the latter gentry, who have brought the country to its present desperate plight, is only emphasized by this false manoeuvre." A month later the same China Gazette asserted this "By many it is not yet known or admitted that Port Arthur has been taken and is held by the Japanese - even of the 'well-informed' officials. The same is said to be true in Peking." Of course the Qing court had good reason to try and conceal the defeat at Port Arthur. The mandate of heaven was under attack, the Japanese were pouring into the Manchu homelands of Manchuria. Internal rebellions could spring up at any moment, everything seemed to be hanging from a thread. After the defeats at Pyongyang and Yalu, Emperor Guangxu demanded to take personal control over the prosecution of war in Korea. He even wanted to leave the throne under Empress Dowager Cixi so he could concentrate on the frontlines, but his advisers pretty much put their foot down on that one. The Manchu leadership needed to maintain their control over national security….and luckily for them and unluckily for Li Hongzhang they had a scapegoat for the disasters.  In October of 1894, just before losing at Port Arthur, Prince Gong had been reinstated. A decade earlier he had been demoted because of the disastrous losses during the Sino-French War, but in reality Cixi just considered him a rival. He was appointed high commissioner of the Peking Field forces, co-president with Prince Qing of the Admiralty, the Zongli Yamen and of War Operations. Yes the age old tradition of tossing a ton of titles on a single person. The Qing government even created for him a small general headquarters. Prince Gong was the 6th song of the Daoguang Emperor, uncle in law of Cixi and alongside Li Hongzhang, one of China's top experts on foreign affairs. The foreign community respected him ever since the second opium war. Prince Qing had been the head of the Zongli Yamen since 1887. Thus two Manchu princes, Gong and Qing were in control of the capital's defense. Gong and Li Hongzhang were sharing responsibilities for the war, but Gong was specifically only responsible for the defense of the capital while Li Hongzhang retained responsibility for prosecuting the war against Japan.  After the fall of Port Arthur, Li Hongzhang went to the Qing court seeking punishment and within 24 hours he was deprived of all his titles, honours and office, ompf. And when all was said and done…he remained at his post. As the New York Times headlines stated at the time "Viceroy Li Hung Chang Has Lost the Rest of His Wardrobe." The foreign press had learnt much about China's practice of degrading and punishing officials, while simultaneously not actually implementing any policy change. Li Hongzhang would retain his post throughout the war, regardless of the titles and honours, he really was a scapegoat. And its not like he was not aware of this, upon receiving his punishments he began to toss mud at the Qing officials, blaming them for resisting railroad construction plans as now they were direly needed to deploy troops. He would also go on the record to complain naval funds had not been so forthcoming. Basically it was a big old Li Hongzhang “I told you so moment”. Colonel Maurice of the British Royal Artillery was very blunt when stating “Li Hongzhang is being treated as a scapegoat. He is the only man in China who has advocated European methods, and he is now being punished on account of the failure of the old Conservatives who refused to follow his advice." Back to the frontlines, upon taking Port Arthur, the Japanese did not rest long to continue their sweep towards Beijing. But the next important target was the naval base at Weihaiwei. There was also suggestions amongst the Japanese military leadership to perform a winter campaign in Manchuria as a diversion. The thought process being, to hit the Manchu homeland to divert many of their land forces away from the shores of Bohai and Shandong. The Qing had divided their forces in Manchuria into three armies forming a line between the coastline at Gaiping all the way to Liaoyang. The northmost army was stationed at Liaoyang. They were to defend the road to Mukden from the east via the Motian Pass and the south via Haicheng. If you pull up a map, you will notice the Motian Pass forms this bottleneck between Fenhuangcheng and Liaoyang. The second army took up a position at the port city of Niuzhuang and walled city of Haicheng. Lastly the third army commanded by General Song Qing was positioned at Gaiping. Now back at the end of October, Marshal Yamagata was pursuing Qing forces and his 5th division seized Fenghuangcheng unopposed. Their next objective was Haicheng, taking this would enable the 1st IJA in eastern Manchuria and 2nd IJA advancing up the Liaodong Peninsula to link up communications. It would also cut off the Qing in 3 directions, leaving them only a westward retreat. After Fenghuangcheng fell, General Song ordered 10,000 of his forces to advance to the Motian Pass threatening the rear lines of the Japanese marching upon Haicheng. This prompted General Nozu Michitsura to move his 10th brigade to Motian pass to prevent the Qing from concentrating there. He was successful at repelling the Qing forces gathering there and by late november the Qing were routing. From there the Japanese were forced to pull back to Fenghuangcheng to resupply, but in that time period the Qing began to reconcentrate at the Motian Pass. Then the Qing launched an offensive at Fenghuangcheng, but were served two terrible defeats on December 9th and 14th. While this was going on the 5th brigade under General Katsura Taro was pursuing a Qing Army led by General Ma, around 6000 men strong who looked like they were going to attack Port Arthur. Katsura pursued Ma's forces to Haicheng where he not only defeated them, he also seized the city by December 13th.  The seizure of Haicheng had ruined General Song's plans, now the Qing line of defense was cut in two by a Japanese army. General Song was forced to re-establish a new defensive line. On the 18th of december he ordered 10,000 of his forces to storm the town of Niuzhuang, but they were intercepted along the way by the IJA 5th brigade. They were forced to withdraw, suffering 500 casualties vs 440 for the Japanese. The next day, the Japanese attacked the retreating Qing forces around Ganwangzhai a town just southwest of Haicheng. The Qing put up a stiff resistance, but were forced to give ground. This prevented General Song's army from reaching the road to Liaoyang to connect with the other Qing armies to the north. The Qing would try four times to retake Haicheng during January and February to no avail. Then on January 10th, the 2nd IJA launched a three-pronged attack upon the walled city of Gaiping. The cities 5000 strong garrison fought for their lives, they had prepared for the attack by causing the water in the nearby streamers next to the city to freeze on an incline, making it difficult for the Japanese to cross. While this tactic would have been high effective centuries ago, with modern artillery it was undercut gravely. The Qing would have 1200 casualties defending Gaiping while inflicting 307 upon the Japanese. 10,000 Qing reinforcements were arriving at the scene from Yingkou whereupon they found the retreating garrison and this tossed everything into a panic. But to the relief of General Song, the Japanese temporarily halted their advance, due to overstretching their logistical lines. Now the Japanese had an enormous supply route going all the way from Jiuliancheng to Haicheng and Gaiping.  General Song Qing would not give up and launched a major counteroffensive to retake Gaiping and Haicheng. 20,000 Qing forces stormed into the region and were beaten back mostly by the 5th Brigade. General Song's men received 300 casualties for their efforts while inflicting only 41 upon the Japanese. Undeterred, General Song tossed two more offensives between January 17th to the 21st of February. The offensives greatly strained his men and just when their logistical supply lines were beginning to suffer, General Nozu prepared his counter offensive. On the 16th of February as 15,000 Qing soldiers attacked Haicheng in 3 columns led by Generals Zhang Xun, I K'o T'ang and Xu, they would also be aided by bandit forces the next day. On the 21st the Qing bombarded Haicheng with artillery, while they received reinforcements in the form of 10,000 men under Governor Wu Dacheng from Shanhaiguan. Meanwhile the Japanese were also reinforced by elements of the 1st division. On the 21st, the 1st division led by General Yamaji assaulted a large hill named Taping-shan being defended by forces led by General Ma Yukun. By the 24th General Yamaji seized the hill forcing the Qing to take up new positions in nearby villages, and soon Yamaji unleashed artillery from the hilltop upon them. The Qing had to withdraw from the area after receiving 800 casualties. The fighting was extremely rough for the hill, not to mention the winter conditions costing the Japanese 250 casualties from combat and another 1500 cases of frostbite.  On the 28th, General Nozu Michitsure unleashed his counterattack aimed at Niuzhuang and Liaoyang. He began with a large artillery bombardment, then sent his forces in a wide front offensive. The Qing defenders were driven into a rout, many retreating north towards Jinzhou, offering only rear guard actions as they did. Lt General Katsura Taro pursued some of the retreating Qing all the way to the walls of Liaoyang, reaching it by March 3rd while the main bulk, the 3rd and 5th divisions under General Nozu advanced upon Niuzhuang and Liaoyang eventually by the 4th of March. During the rout the Qing had taken another 400 casualties, while inflicting 124 upon the Japanese. General Song then tosses 2500 men led by General Xu at Haicheng yet again only to be repelled by the IJA 1st division.  On March 3rd, the 3rd and 5th IJA divisions began their assault of Niuzhuang by first softening the city up with an artillery barrage for 2 hours. The artillery barrage did more than soften up the city, all the Qing defenders abandon their wall positions and move into the interior. The Japanese 5th division enters the city with zero resistance to find 2000 of the 5000 Huai army troops defending Niuzhuang are fleeing. Those who stay fight fiercely against the 6000 men of the 5th IJA division, but in the end they are forced to abandon Niuzhuang after 1900 deaths. 633 Qing defenders are taken prisoner. The Japanese were forced to destroy nearly all the buildings in the city using artillery to smoke out Qing defenders and this goes on well into the night. By 11pm, the Qing have all departed the city. While the battle over Niuzhuang was occurring, the 1st and 3rd divisions began an attack against Yingkou. General Song under threat of encirclement was forced to withdraw from Yingkou over to Tianzhuangtai. By March 7th, the battle for Yingkou becomes nothing more than sporadic resistance, but the port city falls with relative ease. At port in Yingkou the Japanese seized the gunboat Mei Yuan and two transports that were icebound. General Song rallied around 11,000 men at Tianzhuangtai to continue launching counter offensives, but General Nozu kept up the pace to hinder the Qing from recuperating. The 5th Brigade was left to garrison Niuzhuang and Yingkou as the rest of the Japanese advanced upon Tianzhuangtai. The Qing were taken off balance by this and tried to put up a defense, but were utterly defeated resulting in 2000 casualties and lost their entire artillery force which was captured by the Japanese. The Japanese loses were reported to be unbelievably low at 16 deaths and 144 wounded. As a result of this last defeat, General Song's army ceased to exist as a real force. Full scale combat in Manchuria pretty much ended with the seizure of Tianzhuangtai, though minor skirmishes would occur in hill areas with pockets of Qing resistance. The victory over Yingkou gave the Japanese complete control over the southeastern portion of Manchuria, and when April came around, Yingkou's harbor would be ice free allowing for further supply lines via the sea. The Japanese had thus acquired a base of operations to perform offensives within Zhili and thus the road to Beijing was open. The offensive against Beijing would see the 1st and 3rd divisions of the 1st IJA marching towards Shanhaiguan, while the 5th division would garrison parts of Manchuria and the 2nd and 6th divisions would be held in reserve around Dalian. At this point Emperor Guangxu began shuffling officials. Li Hongzhang was relieved of his command in the field, and this was handed over to a 6 man strong committee of defense headed by Prince Chun. Alongside this, Li Hongzhangs viceroyship over Zhili, something he had held for quarter of a century, was handed over to Liu Kunyi. Liu Kunyi tried to pretend he was too ill to take the appointment and would remain in Beijing through January of 1895, continuously trying to weasel out of the new post. Rumors began to emerge that Liu Kunyi was an opium addict, which was not unheard of, Generals like Ye Zhichao and Wei Rugui were known opium addicts. Despite his attempts to thwart it, Liu Kunyi now commanded the Xiang Army, composed of large numbers of Hunanese and Hubei forces. By December 28th, Liu Kunyi was made commander in chief of the imperial armies within and without the Great Wall, including the territories of Zhili, Shandong and Manchuria. The defense committee had organized 50,000 men for the defense of Zhili, stationing them around Shanhaiguan, with another 55,000 around Beijing. This meant Liu Kunyi had a whopping 105,000 men under his commander with 80,000 of the provincial forces within the theater of operations. General Song Qing meanwhile still held command over 35,000 men in Manchuria alongside another General who was commanded 10,000 at Liaoyang.  As all of the shuffling was going on for the Qing, the Japanese did not simply lay idle. Their primary objective remained Weihaiwei and in January of 1895 as their forces were marching through Manchuria slowly towards Beijing, they split up the 2nd IJA. In the third week of January the entire 2nd division and most of the 6th were handed over to Marshal Oyama who redeployed them across the Yellow Sea to Shandong Province in preparation for an assault upon Weihaiwei. Now when the Japanese attacked Port Arthur, they did so intended to take her naval facilities intact so they could use them, but for Weihaiwei the goal would be much different. The Japanese intended to destroy the Beiyang fleet within her port, so that the seaways would no longer be under any threat, thus allowing Japan to move troops at will, though by this point they had basically already achieved this.  The advance upon Weihaiwei began with a diversionary bombardment of the outlying town of Dengzhou on January 18th. Dengzhou was roughly 100 miles west of Weihaiwei and its defense consisted of four 210mm guns and six 150mm guns. The purpose of the diversionary attack was to turn the Qing attention westward, while the Japanese landed forces 30 miles east of Weihaiwei at the easternmost tip of the Shandong Peninsula known as Rongcheng. Japanese forces departed Dalian on January 19th and 22nd, landing between the 20-23rd. Dengzhou was bombarded by the cruisers Naniwa, Akitsushima and Yoshino as the 2nd IJA forces led by General Oyama Iwao landed at Rongcheng. His 2nd IJA consisted of the 6th division under General Kuroki Tamemoto and the 2nd division under Lt General Sakuma Samata. The 2nd IJA divided into two columns marching west towards Weihaiwei, one over a coastal rode, the other around 4 miles further inland. The Japanese ushered in the Chinese New Year by timing the invasion of Weihaiwei on January 29th. It was the most important holiday to the Chinese and perhaps the Japanese chose it specifically to not only surprise the Chinese but also hammer in a message “that the old days were finished: Wake up and Modernize or suffer dire consequences” Once in the vicinity of Weihaiwei the Japanese performed a three-pronged attack upon the landward fortifications south and east of the town. Weihaiwei had three categories of defenses; those on two harbor islands, those on the mainland overlooking the northwestern entrance to the harbor and those on the mainland overlooking the southeastern entrance to the harbor. These fortifications were equipped with the best artillery available: a total of 161 guns, between 7-24cms worth, mostly of Krupp and Armstrong design; the northern forts had 43 guns; Liugongdao island had 61 guns; Ridao island had 8 guns; the southern forts had 49 guns and the harbor itself held 15 Beiyang warships, 13 torpedo boats and 248 sea mines and booms. Nearly 11,000 Qing defended the city, with another 4000 or so on their way from Tianjin, but they would not make it in time. The troops were led by Admiral Ding Ruchang and Commander of the Dingyuan Liu Buchan. The two Beiyang commanders had little faith in the Qing soldiers under their disposal, and only really trusted the sailors of the Beiyang fleet. The IJN combined fleet had dispatched a naval patrol outside Weihaiwei's harbor threatening any ships that tried to escape with torpedo attacks, leaving the entire Beiyang fleet bottled up. The weather conditions hit as low as -6, with severe blizzards, thus terrible for the incoming Japanese, but a typical summer for Canadians, haha. The most outlying forts were hit first by Japanese artillery. This resulted in a 9 hour long fight until the Qing defenders abandoned the forts, leaving them all nearly intact. During the storming of the outlying forts, Major General Odera Yasuzumi leading the 11th infantry regiment, was hit by shrapnel from a shell fired from the Jiyuan. Odera would die from his wounds and became the only Japanese general to die in combat during the war and the highest ranking Japanese death of the war. He would be posthumously promoted to 3rd Court Rank and his son was ennobled with the title of “Danshaku / Baron”. With the outlying forts seized, the Japanese began turning them upon Weihaiwei itself battering it before the men stormed Weihaiwei on February 2nd.  To probably no surprise of any of you listeners by now, the Japanese entered the city to find the garrison had fled the night before. It turned out when the siege began, the Chinese hospital staff were the first to flee, leaving some foreigners to try and take over medical services. Admiral Ding Ruchang only succeeded in having a few of the forts surrounding the harbor destroyed before the Japanese simply grabbed them. Now the very guns that were meant to protect the Beiyang fleet trapped within the harbor were unleashed upon them. To make matters worse on the night of February the 3rd the Japanese tried to remove the booms blocking the entrance to the harbor but were unable to. The following night they tried again and this time were successful allowing two squadrons of torpedo boats to enter the harbor. Two IJN torpedo boats began opened fire to cause a distraction as others snuck in to try and torpedo the Dingyuan. The Dingyuan received crippling damage as 3 other Qing warships were sunk. The following night a squadron of IJN torpedo boats made repeated attacks upon the largest Qing warships at anchor, disabling two and a transport. By February the 7th the IJA and IJN were launching combined bombardment attacks upon the Beiyang Fleet. In response the Qing torpedo boats not already disabled tried to make a break for it, unsuccessfully running into a IJN blockade. Out of 13 ships, 6 were destroyed and 7 were captured intact by the Japanese. As defeat was certain, Admiral Ito Sukeyuki tried to make an appeal to Admiral Ding Ruchang, who happened to be his personal friend. He wrote a letter urging his old friend to come back with him to Japan. He advised ding to prevent any further loss of life by capitulating and to accept political asylum in Japan until the war's end and that he assured him, he would return to his native land and could secure China's future by setting new policies. "It is not the fault of one man that has brought China into the position she now occupies. The blame rests with the errors of the Government that has long administered her affairs. She selects her servants by competitive examination, and literary attainments are the test" In the modern age China owes her preservation and her integrity to-day wholly to the fact that she then [thirty years ago] broke away from the old and attached herself to the new." Now Ding despite being the Admiral of the Beiyang Fleet, in a typical Qing fashion was greatly out of his element. He had formerly been a cavalry officers, he actually held little naval training at all, he was not even very popular amongst the sailors. He was a man of Anhui province, but most naval officers hailed from Fujian. As was typical, the Qing dynasty favored loyalties rather than military experience, thus led Ding to where he was. He resisted capitulation until the very end and had actually tried to die in action multiple times by standing on deck when bombardments were occurring. According to a foreign advisor "Ding declared at first that capitulation was impossible; but later he said he could arrange it by committing suicide, and so save the lives of many." Depending on the sources you read, he chose to kill himself, or his sailors actually proded him with knives to do so. Admiral Ding Ruchang killed himself via opium overdose, followed by Admiral Liu Buchan and Captain Yang Yonglin who shot himself as the Japanese boarded the Dingyuan. Ding had no choice but to kill himself as Emperor Guangxu had already degraded him the prior summer for not preventing the IJN from entering Bohai. After the fall of Port Arthur the emperor degraded him again and tried to bring him to the Board of Punishment where he would have been beheaded, had it not been for Li Hongzhang intervening on his behalf. Before killing himself Ding wrote back to Ito "I am thankful for the admiral's friendship, but I cannot forsake my duties to the state. The only thing now remaining for me to do is to die." Liu Buchan before doing the same had ordered the scuttling of as many of the Beiyang warships as possible with explosives. Command of the Beiyang fleet fell onto the Scottish born Vice Admiral John McClure who wrote a letter of surrender in Admiral Ding's name on the morning of February 12th. Per the terms of the letter; the remaining ships, forts and stores were surrendered to the Japanese at the request all the Qing troops, civilians and foreign advisors would be allowed to depart unmolested.  Dings suicide wiped away the stain of defeat and made him a tragic war hero to both China and Japan. The Japanese admired his final act since it fit within their bushido code. Admiral Ding alongside the other commanders who committed suicide were honored by the Japanese. They accorded them full military honors and granted their men extraordinary leniency. An American professor who taught English in Japan shortly after the war wrote of the event, explaining its significance to western audiences. "What would have been the feelings of the North for Robert E. Lee if, at Appomattox [when the South capitulated to the North at the end of the American Civil War], rather than share the fate of the gallant men he had surrendered, he had committed suicide from a sense of devoted patriotism? Instead of admiring him for the unsullied hero and knightly character that he was, North and South alike would have despised him. And yet nine out often of my Japanese schoolboys wrote of the suicide of Admiral Ting [Ding] as the noblest thing of which they had ever heard." The letter of capitulation would be the first one handed over to the Japanese without the use of the term Woren. Later on when the war was officially over, the Qing soldiers and officers signed promises not to take further part in the war and were set free by the Japanese. The officers were provided safe passage aboard the gunboat Kangji, which carried the bodies of Ding Ruchang and the other dead captains. The IJN went out of their way to fly flags at half mast and the flagship fired a long salute as the boat bearing Ding's body left port. The fall of Port Arthur had been Empress Dowager's birthday present from Japan. Li Hongzhangs had come on Februray 12th, with the fall of Weihaiwei and 3 days short of his 72nd birthday. Back in Beijing, upon hearing the news of Weihaiwei's fall, Emperor Guangxu in a fit of rage authorized the governor of Shandong province to behead all fugitives without requiring to report back to the capital. The New York Times said of the event "Emulating Alice's Wonderland Queen, China's Emperor Says of Wei-Hai-Wei Defenders, 'Off with Their Heads.'" Some of the Qing leadership began advising the court they should hire foreign mercenaries or even engage Chinese fishermen to attack the Japanese home islands. For men like these, the modern era had still not dawned. In reality, China should have offered peace negotiations after losing Port Arthur, but for many members of the Qing elite this was unthinkable. As allegedly murmured by some “Dwarves could not possibly bring China to her knees”.  On the eve of the offensive against Weihaiwei, Governor Wu Dacheng who now held the titles of assistant imperial commissioner of defense; president of the board of war; vice president of the court of congress; governor of Hunan and officer of the premier button made an official proclamation to the Japanese. It was he, who offered surrender. In his own words "I of a charitable state of mind, and so could not bear to see Japanese troops going to destruction before my fresh battalions in this severe cold." Meanwhile the Japanese publicly reported their objectives of war not yet attained and that the diet was prepared to grant whatever amounts were necessary for military expenses required to finish them. 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 Japanese had defeated countless Qing armies in Manchuria and now had neutralized China's last great naval port of Weihaiwei. Would the Qing court bend the knee to the Japanese, or continue the fight?  

‘The final cut – the coup de grace – entered Qian's heart, from which black blood the colour and consistency of melted malt sugar slid down the knife blade'In the eighty fifth episode of the Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are experiencing the lacerating pains of Sandalwood Death, as dealt to us by Nobel literature prizewinner Mo Yan. It's time to rip Shandong Province apart in a rebellion for the songbooks. Weapon in hand, the Sun Wukong to my Yue Fei is translator Stefan Rusinov. We laugh, we brood, we hallucinate, and we shake our fists at the craven villain Yuan Shikai, all the while pondering: is torture an artform?-// NEWS ITEMS //A Record of My Battle with the Virus by Han Song, translated by Michael BerryXi Xi: Can We Say // a special issue on the recently late writerGu Long's Blood Parrot, translated by DeathbladeSCMP takes a look at the new prequel to The Wandering Earth-// WORD OF THE DAY //(喵 – miāo – meow)-// MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE //Gao Xingjian - another Han nobel lit prize winnerMo Yan's Life and Death Are Wearing Me OutJiaozhou, Imperial Germany's Shandong colonyStefan's previous TrChFic appearance, discussing Can Xue-// Handy TrChFic Links //Help Support TrChFic // Episode TranscriptsINSTAGRAM

Shandong Province, China: A practitioner of more than 20 years shares touching stories of letting go of ego, and working well with others to come forward with strong righteous thoughts to help rescue those persecuted by the police. Original Article from Minghui.org: "China Fahui | Working Well as One Body to Rescue Fellow Practitioners Arrested for Their Faith”

Headquarteredin Zibo, Shandong Province, China, Sunrise New Energy Co.,Ltd., through its joint venture, is engaged in the manufacturing and sale ofgraphite anode material for lithium-ion batteries. The Company's joint ventureis constructing a 138,000 ㎡ manufacturing plant in Guizhou Province, China. The plant runs oninexpensive electricity from renewable sources, which helps to make Sunrise NewEnergy a low-cost and low–environmental-impact producer of graphite anodematerial. Mr. Haiping Hu, the founder and CEO of the Company, is a majorpioneer for the graphite anode industry in China starting from 1999. TheCompany's management team is also composed of experts with cumulative decadesof experiences and strong track-records of success in the graphite anodeindustry.

This week DNC hosts Rachel and Nathan grab a deck of "Our Moments" conversation cards and ask each other about fictional characters they would take to tea, awards they've won, perfect road trip snacks, and the time Nathan studied martial arts in Shandong Province for 3 months. Conversation cards have become a great icebreaker tool for people to connect with their partners or friends. They offer a framework to embrace vulnerability, develop better conversation habits, and also just have fun. This is not a sponsored ad, but we really enjoyed the questions and where the conversation lead, so we recommend giving "Our Moments" cards a try with your partner or friends! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/datenightchina/message

The Baotu Spring in Shandong Province has seen its water table exceeding 30 meters to the highest level during the same period since it started gushing again in 2003.

Authorities say China's progress in new infrastructure has facilitated the country's social and economic development over the past decade (1:02). A group of artists in Shandong Province have helped their village become a key tourist attraction (10:51). A report by China's central bank shows that yuan-denominated assets are increasingly popular among overseas investors (39:13).

The 42nd fleet of the Chinese Navy has set out from a military port in Shandong Province for an escort mission in the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia.

主播：翩翩 | 以宁 歌曲 ： We'll Be the Stars建议学习方式：边听音频，边做笔记。正文开始之前，先来思考一下，同样是“在车里”，为什么小汽车是“in the car”，公交车却是“on the bus”？今天的节目里，翩翩和以宁将为大家解答这一困惑。想要解答这一问题，我们要先了解一下3个方位介词in，on，at的基础用法。1. 地点表达：at & inAt is used with a very exact place, some place that is small. at主要是用于小地方，比如：at the door/ hospital/ the table / the university/ school/ the bus stop/ my studio/ home /a restauran/ the cafe/ASeat（一席）但要注意的是，“在大学里”是at the university，但是“在校园里”却是“on campus”。In is used with a very exact place, something that is bigger. in主要用于比较大的地方。Specifically, we used in with parts of towns, cities, states, provinces, parts of countries, countries, continents. 城镇、城市、州、省、国家的一部分、国家、大洲这些都用介词in。比如：Parts of towns: I live in Longshan Zhen（龙山镇）.Cities: I live in Qingdao.Provinces: I live in Shandong Province. States: I live in Texas（德克萨斯州）.Parts of countries: I live in the northeast of China（中国东北）.Countries: I live in China.Continents: I live in Asia（亚洲）.2. 街道表达：on & at On is used with streets and avenues. on表示地址，用于街道和大道，比如：We are on Changning Road（常宁路〔青岛街名〕）.We are on Qushuiting Street（曲水亭街〔济南街名〕）/ Lulubazi Street（辘轳把子街〔济南街名〕）.At is used when we have an address with a number. 具体到门牌号的时候，用at，比如：We are at 13 Changning Road（常宁路13号）.3. in & on的基本用法（1）表达方位We use in to talk about enclosed spaces. in用于比较封闭的空间，表示“在……里面”，比如：in a car/ in a box/ in a building/ in the kitchenThe cat is in the boot. 猫在靴子里。We use on with words that represent a surface. on表示“在……的上面”，比如：on the floor/ on a table/ on the wall（2）揭秘：为什么是“in the car”“on the bus”？in+交通工具：用于那些不能站的交通工具，如：in a car/ in a taxion+交通工具：用于那些能站立的交通工具，如：on a bus/ on a train总结一下，交通工具前，用in还是on，要看你在里面是否能站起来。现在，大家应该能明白，同样是“在车里”，为什么用的介词不同了。再来举一个例子：同样是“在飞机上”，airplane就要用on，on the airplane，helicopter则用in，in the helicopter。最后，再给大家补充一个有趣的例子，“in a hospital”和“at a hospital”意思大不同。In a hospital表示生病住院了，而at a hospital表达的是人在医院里（可能只是去做核酸）。欢迎大家留言告诉我们：你还知道哪些有趣的介词短语？评论区期待你的分享。

Paul and Kelaeni, an expat couple in China, have been waiting for 3 years to get married – and were finally able to do so at the British Consulate in Beijing in July 2022! They share more about meeting in a small city in Shandong Province, trying to plan multiple weddings during the pandemic, and what their wedding day at the consulate was like. And in a fun twist of events, DNC hosts Nathan and Rachel actually attended this wedding as the witnesses and share their experience of the day. Interested in sharing your story for a video or the podcast? Fill out our media interview form: http://dncsurveys.mikecrm.com/zwpDxYL --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/datenightchina/message

'New crisis': China faces wave of mortgage strikes Video: Communist China Deploys Tanks To Protect Banks From Angry Citizens Seeking To Withdraw Savings China is facing a “new crisis” as citizens are now refusing to pay their home loans. “Mortgage holders have taken out their anger online and have vented their frustrations in public,” Mr Greenwood said. “But the Chinese answer to all this is to send in teams of censors to erase all social media of any mention of loan suspensions simply to stop the run, to stop the behaviour. But in further escalation shocking video has emerged in what is believed to be Rizhao in Shandong Province shows a line of tanks surrounding a local bank branch to prevent disgruntled citizens from withdrawing their money, which the government is now classifying as “investment products,”. Remember, the way toward a Great Reset is to crash the system already in place. We've seen Sri Lanka grappling with it's debt and Pakistan is close behind. And I believe we are seeing signs that China is not the economic powerhouse they claim to be and the days of economic growth are far behind them. This is just my opinion. J Fallon Apple Music J Fallon Spotify J Fallon YouTube The Slippery Slope Apple Podcasts The Slippery Slope YouTube The Slippery Slope Stitcher --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/jason-fallon/message

The May 4, 1919, demonstrations (or revolution, as it is referred to sometimes) opened a public discourse in China over the nation's past and future direction.  It was partially precipitated by the betrayal China received from the Paris Peace Conference.  The Chinese nationalist and communist movements, so prevalent in the next decade, can probably trace their roots to the iconic May 4th event. The multi-national Washington (D.C.) Naval Conference in late 1921 and early 1922, tried to address the Chinese frustrations as well as the Pacific-Asia hegemony issues and balance.  Several key treaties and understandings came out of the conference.  Among those were the return of Shandong Province to China.  Also, the geo-political concept of internationalism became a central focus.  Naval armament quotas and limits in the region were another focus.  

After Yuan Shikai's death in 1916, the next twelve years pitted regional warlords against each other for control of the national government.  This period of time is known as the Beiyang Warlord Era.  China only had limited involvement in World War I.  Japan used the war's distraction to strengthen and gain her foothold in China.  The Treaty of Versailles in 1919, ended the fighting in Europe.  During the negotiations China had discovered it had been betrayed by the western nations, Japan, and her own leaders.

Another good one from The Zhuangzi, the Second Book of the Dao. This idiom concerns a craftsman in Lu (southern Shandong Province) who was particularly masterful at carving these wooden stands that held ceremonial bells. So great was his workmanship, people who beheld his handiwork declared it was Shén Gōng Gǔi Fǔ 神工鬼斧. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-chinese-sayings-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

“Clarifying the Facts and Saving People by Filing Lawsuits,” by a practitioner in Shandong Province, China. An experience sharing article from the Eighteenth China Fahui on the Minghui website.

“Those Around Me Benefit from My Practicing Falun Dafa,” by a Falun Dafa practitioner in Shandong Province, China. An experience sharing article from the Eighteenth China Fahui on the Minghui website.

If Wuhan was the place in China that received most attention in 2020, Henan Province has certainly captured its share of attention this year. Henan in history is repeatedly referred to as the “zhongyuan,” or “central plain.” It is the thousands of years of its history as the “zhongyuan” that has created and shaped the land as the symbol of the most glorious – and the most painful memories of China.  So where and what is the “zhongyuan?” Geographically, “zhongyuan” in a broad sense includes today's Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces in China's northwest, central China's Henan and the east coast Shandong Province, all in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. “Zhongyuan” in a narrow sense refers to the part of Henan today that's south of the Yellow River, mainly from Luoyang to Shangqiu, about 350 kilometers west of Luoyang. Henan has four ancient capitals, including Luoyang, Kaifeng, Zhengzhou and Anyang, more than any other Chinese province. Among the four, only Anyang is to the north of the Yellow River. We can see central China's Henan is the zhongyuan in both the narrow and broad sense. But it is important to note that “zhongyuan” is much more a cultural concept than a geographic location on a map. It played a central role in the history of Chinese civilization and in shaping the core of Chinese culture. 

You may have noticed that over the last couple of years, China has become a more frequent topic in the news and on BreakPoint commentaries. The reason is simple: its increasingly horrible treatment of Christians and other religious minorities. While other countries rank higher on Open Doors' recently released “World Watch List,” China's economic might, global clout, and sheer population size makes its contempt for religious freedom and treatment of religious minorities an enormous concern.  In fact, the news from there in this regard is virtually all bad these days, and only getting worse. In light of the devolving conditions for our brothers and sisters in Christ in China, this year's Wilberforce Award winner is particularly fitting. Pastor Bob Fu is founder and president of ChinaAid, a Christian “human rights organization committed to promoting religious freedom and the rule of law in China.” It does so by exposing the systematic persecution, harassment, torture, and imprisonment of Chinese Christians and human rights lawyers in China. ChinaAid also “financially supports Chinese Christians and their families who have experienced persecution by the Chinese government,” and “provides leadership and rule of law training for Christians and church leaders in China to defend their rights.” Now, if the biblical phrase “for such a time as this” comes to your mind too, it should. Bob Fu never intended this would be his life. Born in Shandong Province to a disabled father and beggar mother, he enrolled in university, fully intending to join the Communist Party and become a government official. God, however, had other plans. An American professor gave him a biography of a Chinese intellectual who converted to Christianity. As Fu told the Wall Street Journal, “that book changed my life.” After graduation, Fu taught English at a Communist Party School in Beijing while he and his wife, Heidi, became active in the house church movement. They even established a Bible school, which used chairs he borrowed from the Communist Party's school. The Communist Party didn't quite share Fu's sense of irony. He and his wife were jailed. About a year after their release from jail, Heidi became pregnant. It was their second child. Because the “One-Child Policy” was still being vigorously enforced in China, they emigrated to Hong Kong which, at the time, was still under British rule. Fu was granted political asylum by the Clinton Administration in 1997. Just as the persecution of the Church has, at times throughout history, led to the unintended spreading of the Gospel, Pastor Fu's forced emigration has only increased his impact. From his base of operations in west Texas, he operates what the Wall Street Journal has called “the most influential network of human-rights activists, underground Christians and freedom fighters in China.” Some of what Fu and China Aid have accomplished is the stuff of movies: In 2009, Fu and his allies in China helped smuggle the wife and children of Christian human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, whom Amnesty International has called “the bravest lawyer in China,” out of the country. More recently, Fu worked closely with another human rights lawyer, Chen Guangcheng, a.k.a., “the barefoot lawyer,” whose harrowing escape from China was the topic of a BreakPoint commentary a few years ago. All of this has earned Fu a fitting nickname: “the Pastor of China's underground railroad.” For all these reasons and more, the Colson Center for Christian Worldview is pleased to announce that the 2020 William Wilberforce Award will be given to Pastor Bob Fu, a man who truly lives out his faith without fear—in truth and in love. Join us this May 14-17, just across the river from Washington, D. C., for this year's Wilberforce Weekend. We'll honor Dr. Bob Fu and hear from other Christian thought leaders like Os Guinness, Lee Strobel, Andy Crouch, Obianuju Ekeocha, Max McLean, and more.