Walking along the long luxurious corridor to the end is the HSBC Bank's guest salon.
Completely different from the Western style outside, this room is completely furnished with an oriental flavor - at least in the eyes of Sir Thomas Humphrey: Oriental mahogany shelves display gorgeous colored porcelain and jadeite. There is a snuff bottle and an ivory Guanyin statue. In front of the soft sofa, there is a small exquisite bamboo screen. On the tall table with elegant appearance, a simple bronze incense burner is emitting elegant and precious incense. There are several ancient and strange oriental calligraphy and paintings hanging on the wall. The flying lines are as powerful as knife carvings, and the mottled ink marks seem to have experienced vicissitudes of life.
A courteous Chinese servant welcomed them into the door, while another tall, fair-skinned and good-looking maid served them coffee and soda on a large tray. Sir Humphrey skillfully placed the white hat on the tray at the door, then leisurely admired the furnishings, calligraphy and paintings in the house with his hands behind his back, and waited patiently for the owner. Kong Xiangxi, on the other hand, looked very nervous, even restless.
¡ª¡ªNo way, the people Minister Kong Xiangxi will negotiate with next are not only agents of HSBC, but also representatives of the Hong Kong banking community. In a sense, they are also the masterminds behind China in this era!
After a while, several Chinese and white men wearing fashionable suits and gold-rimmed glasses walked in with smiling faces and extended their right hands to Kong Xiang in a friendly manner - they were managers of major banks in Hong Kong, or rather One of the representatives of major American and British consortiums in China.
Next, these foreigners and "higher Chinese" will represent their respective masters. Under the guidance of British diplomat Sir Humphrey, he discussed with Minister Kong Xiangxi the provision of military loans for the Chiang Kai-shek regime in order to curb the rapid expansion of red armed forces in southern China. Restore "normal order" in the Eastern worldwhile deepening control over Chiang Kai-shek's regime and making profits from it
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A century later, many people dreamed of becoming warlords during the Republic of China. All they had to do was find a way to assemble a capable team, occupy a relatively profitable territory, and then cling to the thighs of one or a few major powers. , get technology and funds from them. Asking them to help you cultivate talents and eventually build your own industrial system can save the nation and country In the true cold history. This childish idea is really ridiculous - how could it be so easy to be a warlord in the Republic of China era? How can it be so easy for imperialist powers to act as agents in China? If the path of warlordship can really save the country, then why did outstanding figures of this generation such as Zhang Zuolin, Duan Qirui, and Wu Peifu fail to succeed?
Not to mention the chaotic times of the Republic of China, which were set ablaze with war. Even after World War II when the international environment was relatively peaceful. Among the rulers who were completely supported by the imperialist powers, from Iran's Shah Pahlavi, South Korea's Syngman Rhee, to Afghanistan's Karzai, which one has completed the great cause of rejuvenating the country and saving the nation? On the contrary, those opponents who worked hard to defeat them did, to a certain extent, better than they did.
The key reason why people of later generations have the above-mentioned delusions about the Republic of China era is that their ideological pattern is not broad enough. The eyes are not sharp enough to see through the seemingly dazzling political strife and military struggles. Let¡¯s see through the nature of the troubled times of the Republic of China.
Here is a relatively recent modern example - the civil war in Libya after the death of Gaddafi. On the surface, it seemed to be a brutal melee between various tribes, and was even interpreted by some as the restoration of Gaddafi's remnants. In fact, it is a desperate battle between the comprador government and tribal armed forces around Libya's largest financial source - oil. Many tribes that opposed Gaddafi in the past, seeing that today's days are not as good as in the past, also regretted it, and at this time, they successively joined the war against the new government.
In the face of the turbulent nationwide uprising, in order to maintain the crumbling comprador government, NATO not only invested a large number of mercenaries and special forces, but also sent fighter planes to bomb the Libyan rebels. It seemed that they were very loyal to their own henchmen. But the problem is, if Western countries hadn't swallowed up a large amount of Libya's oil revenue in an extremely ugly manner after the fall of Gaddafi, making it difficult for the new Libyan government to provide benefits, appease the people, and bribe all the separatist forces, how could they have done so? Let an oil-rich country, which has been doing well, get to the point where it is now surrounded by wars and the people are living in dire straits?
By the same token, imperialism supports agents in China just to squeeze out the Chinese people and keep shearing sheep every year. How can you be allowed to accumulate enough wealth to build an armed force capable of resisting imperialism? In the late 20th century, Japan, South Korea and the Four Little Dragons of Southeast Asia all regarded the United States as their father. They were still being slaughtered by Wall Street tycoons and their lives were miserable.Self-care?
What's more, since you can "take advantage of foreign countries to gain self-respect," of course your subordinates can do the same. Those guys you sent out to learn advanced technology may have become brainwashed time bombs when they come back, ready to overthrow your rule under the orders of foreign masters - for example, after Chiang Kai-shek's defeat. After escaping to Taiwan, with such a strong alliance between the Americans and Chiang Kai-shek, the United States still tried every means to support Sun Liren and overthrow Chiang Kai-shek's rule of Taiwan from the inside, so that it could more easily shear the wool of the Taiwanese people!
¡ª¡ªThe long history of maritime colonization all over the world for hundreds of years has long trained the European and American powers into experienced animal trainers. As long as you covet a bite of food they take out and obediently enter their cage, then think about the next step. It is extremely difficult to get rid of the shackles.
Of course, there are not absolutely no examples of easy escape from constraints. For example, after World War II, Egypt relatively easily abrogated the unequal treaties and took back the Suez Canal¡ªbut this was because the United States and the Soviet Union put their guns on the foreheads of Britain and France. , forcing these two down-and-out animal trainers to dismantle the cages themselves, otherwise they would shoot their heads off And then Egypt finally fell into the American cage again
Closer to home, if it were during the Taiping War and the years when the Western powers were still very weak in the Far East, this revolutionary strategy of "relying on foreign countries for self-respect" and armed separatism would still be feasible - at that time Under technical conditions, the long geographical distance and the lag in information dissemination make it extremely difficult for European and American countries to intervene on a large scale in the Far East. The strategy of "relying on foreigners to oppose foreigners" still has room for maneuver.
However, by the time of the Republic of China, when imperialist influence in China had penetrated deeply, such "curves to save the country" were a dead end.
In fact, at least by the time of the Boxer Rebellion, the Western powers already knew that because the long distance limited their ability to deploy troops against China, it was impossible to turn the entire China into a colony with just strong ships, cannons and the industrial revolution. of. And simply ceding territory for compensation and opening up treaty ports cannot stifle China's economic potential. However, silent financial infiltration is far more powerful than a naval fleet with strong ships and powerful guns.
Therefore, after the Eight-Nation Allied Forces entered Beijing, after careful consideration, the Western powers believed that the cost of directly carving up and destroying China was too high and might lead to uncontrollable consequences. Therefore, they finally decided to support a subservient puppet regime and continue to replace China. They "host" China and maintain a stable semi-colonial zone in the Far East as their optimal strategy, using this to continuously extract wealth from the Chinese people.
The situation in China after that was completely controlled by the Western powers, or to be precise, the international financial forces using the Western powers as the carrier.
Although the destruction of the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the overthrow of Yuan Shikai deprived imperialism of a handy tool that could stably exploit all of China, the endless warlord separatism and separatist civil war that followed further worsened the domestic political environment, leading to the decline of people's livelihood. The economy collapsed, and private wealth began to flow into foreign banks in the concessions, eventually being transferred to the hands of international financiers. No matter who finally unifies the country, all they will get is a China that is completely impoverished. Without any precious metals such as gold and silver to serve as currency reserves, a financial order cannot be established, and government finances will inevitably be difficult to support, and they will eventually become a puppet. , every move completely depends on the breath of foreigners.
This is why in modern history in China, except for our party, almost no politician has not sold out to the country - because they really have no choice but to sell out. Their regime was born in the ruins of war. Without sufficient sources of funds for a while, they could only borrow from foreign banks using national equity as collateral in order to maintain the operation of the regime. But the borrowing will not last long, and it will also make China an economic vassal of Western powers, ultimately ruining the destiny of the country and the nation, and will never recover. And if it's a default it means war!
During this period, it is not that no one thought about fighting, but limited by their vision and knowledge, most people could not see the overall situation of the world clearly. Instead, they wandered around in dead ends countless times, and in the end they could only fail. end.
Finally, China, a giant in the Far East that had been glorious for thousands of years, was emptied of its wealth and had its backbone broken. The remaining rotten and depraved body is still full of financial vultures from the Western powers. They may sometimes fight with each other, but more often they peck at the dried carrion, while using cold and vigilant eyes, Look around for potential threats and be ready to nip any Chinese resistance at the bud.
But they never dreamed that they would suddenly become prey and be swallowed up by some Chinese people who had used cheats! (To be continued)