Chapter 221 Rebellion in the Northwest

In the spring of 1900, January 14.

Hu Chuyuan's patience has indeed reached its limit. Since 1893, Shaanxi, Ganning and Xinjiang provinces, which have been suppressed for many years, have become restless, and new military disturbances continue to emerge.

Huocheng, Ili, Korla and Kashgar are all eventful places. Since 1893, separatist riots have been breaking out. In the past few years when the Sino-British alliance gradually took shape, the Russians also suddenly increased their support for the separatist forces in Xinjiang.

Dong Fuxiang of the Gan army was exhausted between Korla and Ili. He killed tens of thousands of rebels and lost a lot of military pay, but he has not received real results. Recently, he has suffered heavy losses one after another, losing the whole Ili, Aksu and Wusu regions, causing the rebels to re-establish a new Yeerqiang Khanate.

As a last resort, Hu Chuyuan decided to go to Xinjiang Province in person.

I just want to see what the problem is.

By the train, Hu Chuyuan went all the way to the west and has been watching the scenery around the railway.

The data can show that China is becoming more powerful, but when you leave the eastern part of the coast and enter Shanxi, Ningxia, Gansu, Shaanxi... Even in the old city of Yanjing, you will find that China has not changed. It is still the backward, ignorant, conservative, rigid, old and rotten feudal dynasty, and it is a slave. The feudal dynasty.

Hundreds of millions of Han people still have braids that make the world's powers laugh as "pig's tails". They are dirty, uneducated and illiterate. Women are still wrapped around their perverted and ugly little feet. Most people still wear shabby clothes, dig the ground in the fields, and even grow smoke.

Along the street, you can see the tobacco shop everywhere.

People are thin, with no hope in their eyes. They are ignorant and ignorant. They neither know where the future is or what China is, and even forget what the Han people are.

Hundreds of years later, they still regard themselves as slaves trampled on the soles of the feet by the Manchus and slaughtered by others.

They don't know that the Manchu forces have already basically withdrawn from Yanjing City and most places in China. Only in the three eastern provinces under the control of Ronglu can they find their former status.

China is changing, but the speed is still too slow. It is not the economy, but people's thoughts.

Taking the train through the inland and northwest provinces, Hu Chuyuan became more and more aware of this. In the six provinces of the south of the Yangtze River, which has been developed for 20 years, people's rich families use porcelain bowls and dishes, aluminum pots, tin pots, copper pots, enamel pots, wear worsted cloth to make clothes, and use Shanghai soap, toothpaste and soap. It's peanut oil from Shandong, soybean oil from Northeast China, and refined sugar from Liangguang. They all live in buildings.

Twenty years of educational support has nurtured more than a million intellectual youth and tens of thousands of international students. In the coastal areas, they are affecting everything and changing everything. However, only when you see the mainland can you understand that China has not changed.

Perhaps this is also the reason why the world does not regard China's recovery as a major event.

It is said that I, the Russians and the French all believe that China will split into several countries sooner or later. Jiangnan and other regions are always incompatible. Xinjiang, Mongolia, Northeast China, Tibet, Yunnan and Guangxi do not belong to the Han people. After all, they will be divided. They will definitely be divided. Even if they are not divided in front of them, they will also There are ways to speed up this division.

Hu Chuyuan thought, you can fantasize slowly.

Hu Chuyuan works on the train. When he arrives at a station, if he stays for a little more than half an hour, new reports will be immediately transmitted through the telegraph network. Zhang Jing and Sun Zongyuan, the commander of the Privy Council, serve as the temporary general secretary, responsible for the collection and analysis of these reports and administrative documents.

Among the Bingxu Ke Jinshi in 1886, Hu Chuyuan was most optimistic about Xie Yuanqi, Yang Shiqi, Sun Zongyuan, Li Xiling, Ding Bingqian, Chen Kuilong, Song Yuren and Xu Shichang, and also attached the cultivation of them the most.

Of course, these people are also the Hu party and the confidants of the Hu party.

After stopping at Lanzhou Station for a while, Sun Zongyuan submitted all the new reports, some from the General Administration of Confidentiality, some from the Army Department, some from Xinjiang Province, and some from the House of the Prime Minister's Office.

Sun Zongyuan has many good habits. He always puts the most important documents on the top. According to Hu Chuyuan's special advice, he will also bring his own opinions in the report.

This is a reference for Hu Chuyuan, and it is also an exercise for Sun Zongyuan.

Know people, teach people, manage people, and employ people.

This is the most valuable wealth left by Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang to Hu Chuyuan. He is always cultivating talents, accumulating talents, teaching talents, and training talents.

As long as he is his people, the people he can manage, he will cultivate them, requiring everyone to study and exercise continuously, arrange them to study abroad, serve as ambassadors and consuls for one or two years outside, and come into contact with the European and American world.

According to everyone's characteristics, he will arrange these people to start with the prefectures and magistrates at the grass-roots level, some from Zhangjing, secretary and Zuoshen in the capital, some to specific bureau affairs, starting from practical things, and some even send them to places such as Jiangnan Manufacturing Administration and Tianjin Manufacturing General Administration.

Sun Zongyuan has been a magistrate for two years, a counselor in the UK for two years, and a Taoist platform in Quanzhou for five years. His political achievements were excellent. Only then did he be transferred back to the capital to serve as the commander of Zhangjing, plus the second rank.

In less than two or three years, Hu Chuyuan planned to send him to the local government as a governor of a province.

Now I just continue to observe him, beat him, temper him, and sharpen him.

The General Administration of Secrets gave a secret telegram summarizing the activities of Japanese businessmen in Central Asia, and selected six people from them. It is estimated that these are all spies deployed near Ili.

Among the rebels in Ili, there must be a number of staff officers sent by the Japanese army, but the number is more Russian officers.

It's true.

Hu Chuyuan was not surprised.

The contradiction between China and China is really too big, not only the problem of regional hegemony, but also the whole economic system, both sides are in the initial period of industrial climbing, with the production of cheap industrial products as the main means of export exchange.

There is no future for not to defeat China, not to divide China, and not to let China's current industrial system collapse rapidly.

In the case of difficult coastal activities, Japan chose to take a detour, infiltrate the Xinjiang region through the Central Asian region controlled by Tsarist Russia, and support the [***] movement, and allocate a large amount of funds every year.

Of course, the real source of funding is the French political axe. Basically, the French are responsible for paying the money, Russia and Japan are responsible for contributing, and the three families support [***] together.

Sun Zongyuan wrote a suggestion in this report that the Sino-Russian war is imminent, or in a few years, it may be a strategy to attack the east in the west. The northwest should be determined quickly, and the northeast should step up preparations.

After reading the report and Sun Zongyuan's suggestions, Hu Chuyuan thought carefully for a moment.

Then he took a piece of paper again and wrote: France and Japan have no interests in Central Asia, so they spare no effort to support Yili's reading power. The reason is more complicated. In addition to dragging our country into the Northwest War for a long time, it also intended to make Britain feel afraid and not to conclude a closer military alliance with China, which is convenient for France and Russia. The Triple Alliance launched a joint attack and aggression against China in East Asia, making it easier for the three countries to dismember China.

The report of the Army Department is about the whole report of the Pand War in the northwest. It re-evaluates the forces of the two sides. With the support of the Allies Organization of France and Russia, the total number of Ili rebels is about 60,000, and the infantry and cavalry occupy the absolute number. The artillery force has about two brigades and more than 300 artillery.

These rebels are mainly composed of the Kazakh national armed forces and the "volunteer" forces of the Khanate of the Khanate, the Braha Khanate and the Siva Khanate. To put it bluntly, it is a Central Asian coalition organized by Russia, with the goal of occupying Xinjiang and rebuilding the Yerqiang Khanate.

In addition, the Russian army has hoarded more than 20,000 heavy troops in the Ayagus area, mainly cavalry, who may enter the Ala Pass at any time.

Because two important military fortresses, Alashankou and Wusu, have been lost, there is no natural barrier for the Russian army to enter Xinjiang.

Hu Chuyuan quietly evaluated in his heart, because there was no sign of military mobilization in Japan and Russia at present, but there were some gathering movements of the Russian troops stationed in Central Asia. He thought that the French-Russian alliance was unlikely to go to China in an all-round way.

Of course, he is not afraid of going to war.

After the big loss of Japan's sudden war, Hu Chuyuan has been carefully preparing for the war over the years, so that he will not be caught off guard. Especially in the past few years, he has prepared a lot of secret weapons.

However, he admitted that he had neglected the preparation of the cavalry, especially the breeding of war horses. Although he had been doing it and constantly introduced good horses from the United States and North Africa to improve the local horse breeds, he still could not keep up with the progress, not to mention that he took some detours in the middle.

The second is the problem of carbines. The improved cavalry carbines based on the New Jiangnan rifle (Auckland M1894 rifle) have a very stable surname capacity, but the inventory is less than 30,000. Compared with the total inventory of 600,000 new Jiangnan rifles, it is too small and needs to be accelerated in domestic production.

In the final analysis, China has too many shortcomings in the construction of cavalry and has not paid enough attention to it, which is the main reason for the large-scale loss in the Ili region.

For these problems, Hu Chuyuan gave approval one by one, allowing the Prime Minister's Office and the Army Department to fully mobilize and give priority to ensuring the supply and distribution of the Northwest Army.

Considering the long-term, he specially proposed another thing, allowing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to quickly negotiate with the United States, introduce more excellent stallion horses from the United States, and carry out larger-scale war horse cultivation in Hetao Ranch.

The report submitted by the House of the Interior of the Prime Minister's Office is about the "kaihua movement". Although after nearly 20 years of training and education and support, China has a new generation of young people, they are the foundation of the "kaihua movement". Even so, the "kaihua movement" has been opposed by many people.

In addition, Zhang Zhidong specifically mentioned "Kang Youwei" in the official text. He was very dissatisfied with the Holy Religion's theory of establishing the country publicly and wanted to find this person.

These are not important things, and they will gradually become the sand under the wheel of history. Hu Chuyuan did not care too much, but only replied - "Respect personal freedom of speech and safeguard the fairness and authority of the interim constitution."

I don't know how big China is when I go to Xinjiang.

The train keeps driving in the vast Gobi Desert, endless grasslands and desolate deserts, never stopping.

Many times, for a whole day, Hu Chuyuan did not see any smoke around the train, which was desolate to the point where people lived.

In this vast world, you can feel the size of heaven and earth and the smallness of people.

After arriving at Hami, the railway extends in the valley between the Tianshan Mountains, driving along the oasis and shuttling. You can easily see the desolate Gobi and the majestic Tianshan Mountains in the distance.

Tianshan is so vast, and the world is so big.

When you get to Hami, you will always think of Hami melon.

At Hami Station, Hu Chuyuan received a new telegram. Ye Erqiang Khan's army had captured Dihua (Urumqi). More than 30,000 people of Dong Fuxiang's Gan army fled in confusion. Fortunately, Li Kaiye's troops arrived in Shanshan ahead of time, temporarily stabilized their positions and saved Turpan.

Li Kaiye personally sent power to Hu Chuyuan and asked Hu Chuyuan to stay in Hami and dispatch the Shaanxi-Ganning New Army to garrison north.

The message is very simple, but Hu Chuyuan can feel Li Kaiye's nervousness.

Hu Chuyuan is no longer allowed to contact Li Kaiye, and he is not allowed to take the train to Turpan. Ye Erqiang Khan's army has blown up the railway and cable lines and surrounded Shanshan County.

(to be continued)