There has never been a shortage of bloody people in Chinese history, but at the end of the Qing Dynasty, servility permeated the country like poisonous gas. Although there were occasionally a few capable people with lofty ideals who wanted to save the nation, they never got to the root of it. In 1840, after the gates of China were blasted open by foreign powers with guns and artillery, the Qing government, in order to maintain its rule, signed unequal land cessation and indemnity treaties with a weak, evasive and compromised attitude. The land was divided and resources were destroyed. Looting and massacre of the people, the once ancient civilization has become devastated after years of defeat, and this has also allowed Japan, which has always been eyeing China, to find an opportunity.
In 1894, Japan brazenly launched a war of aggression against China. Because 1894 was the year of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894, it was also called the " Sino-Japanese War of 1894". However, the guns and artillery of the Japanese invaders did not affect the elegance of Cixi in her birthday. , everyone knows the outcome, China was defeated again. But during the war, a ruthless man named Song Yuren was plotting a shocking plan for the country, forming a fleet to invade Japan, disrupt its domestic situation and force Japan to withdraw its troops. Although Song Yuren's plan seemed crazy, he was not Not a madman, but a scholar eager to save the country.
In 1857, Song Yuren was born in the land of Bashu with a long history. His parents died young and he studied with his uncle since he was a child. Zhang Zhidong opened a Sutra-Respecting College in Sichuan to select talents, and selected 100 students from 30,000 students, and Song Yuren was one of them. Not only that, Song Yuren is also among the best in Zunjing Academy. He and three other talents are known as the "Four Elites in Zunjing". Starting from Zunjing Academy, Song Yuren began to step into the outside world.
In 1886, the 29-year-old Song Yuren went to Beijing to take the exam. Not only did he get into high school, but he was also elected to the Hanlin Academy as a scholar because of his outstanding performance in the imperial examination. After that, Song Yuren wrote many articles, expounding the pros and cons of current affairs. Although his articles were The central point seems to be nothing more than resisting foreign aggression, developing national capitalism, and implementing constitutional monarchy. But at the time, these remarks were definitely the vane of new trends of thought.
In 1894, the 37-year-old Song Yuren was on the road again. He was recommended as a counselor to Europe. Everything in Europe made him feel novel. Whether it was political education or building B&Bs, he was almost greedy to absorb everything he knew. , and it was at this time that Japan's long-planned war against China began.
In 1868, through the Meiji Restoration "departure from Asia and into Europe", Japan embarked on the path of capitalism, and its national power became increasingly stronger. After two industrial revolutions, Japan's industrial revolution reached its climax in 1888, so There is an urgent need for the export of goods and capital to the outside world. However, as an island country, Japan itself has a lack of domestic resources, a small market, strong domestic feudal residual forces, and various conflicts in the social transformation zone. Therefore, the Japanese ruling group headed by the emperor is eager to Find a way out through external expansion. At a glance, the countries that best meet Japan's requirements are naturally its neighbors China and North Korea. In 1894, the Donghak Party Uprising broke out in North Korea, which was still a satellite of China at the time. The North Korean government troops were unable to respond and were forced to the Qing Dynasty origin. The Qing government sent troops to North Korea to successfully suppress the peasant uprising, while Japan took the responsibility of protecting the embassy and overseas residents. Under the pretext, they also took the opportunity to send troops into Seoul, the capital of North Korea.
Then in July 1894, the Japanese army provoked a dispute and looked for an excuse to detonate the Sino-Japanese War . The unsuspecting Qing army was defeated by the Japanese in Korea. After that, the Qing government sent the Beiyang Navy to Yellow Sea faced Japan, but the most powerful Beiyang Navy could not avoid defeat. The patriotic general Deng Shichang died for his country, and Japan was approaching the Qing Dynasty. The situation was very critical. After learning the news of the Sino-Japanese War of 1898-1894, Song Yuren in London, England, was naturally very sad and angry. Out of the conscience of an intellectual, Song Yuren, who was thousands of miles away, was the minister of the Qing Dynasty. Ting pointed out the problems on the Japanese side. In his opinion, during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894, "the Japanese soldiers were few and poor, and they would be trapped for a long time."After learning the news that the Qing Dynasty navy had been wiped out, Song Yuren was so anxious that he came up with a shocking plan. Once this plan was successfully implemented, Japan would definitely suffer heavy losses because his target was Tokyo. Song Yuren believed that Japan's land area was small. It is short of resources. If it can attack its homeland, most of its forces will be withdrawn, thus freeing the Qing army from difficulties.
His plan was to buy five warships and ten torpedo boats from the United Kingdom to Argentina and Chile in his own name, and then sail the ships to Australia to recruit two thousand sailors and attach them to them. In the name of protecting the caravan, the Australian business group went north from the Philippines to attack Nagasaki and Tokyo in Japan. From the perspective of hindsight, Song Yuren's plan may seem fanciful, but it is also quite feasible. At that time, China and Japan were at war, and Australia was the closest to Nanyang, so it was also the most affected.
Western chambers of commerce have the right to recruit their own navy to protect caravans, so it is normal for a fleet to accompany them, and Australia was still a British territory at the time. Song Yuren planned to have this navy disguised as Australia The business group could therefore fly the British flag. At that time, Britain and Japan had no offense and had commercial exchanges, so Japan would definitely not be wary of ships flying the British flag. After confirming the plan to eliminate Japan, Song Yuren and others applied for the imperial court's approval on the one hand, and on the other hand, they contacted the Qing Dynasty's frontier officials Liu Kunyi and Zhang Zhidong to obtain their support. At the same time, Song Yuren and Greenmill, the manager of the British Condicator Bank, agreed that the Qing Dynasty would enter into a contract with Condicator Bank to borrow two million pounds and another one million pounds in war funds to pay for the purchase of military rights. After a series of efforts, Song Yuren has formed a combat-effective navy.
Of course, professional things should be done by professionals. Song Yuren was going to hand over this division to the leadership of former Beiyang Navy Admiral Lang Langweili. At this time, Song Yuren was very excited, because things were moving towards him. The expected development, but reality finally gave Song Yuren a blow. Song Yuren's preliminary preparation work was very thorough, so the "guns and weapons were assembled" and ready to go. However, this move was vetoed by the upper echelons of the Qing court headed by Cixi, because the Qing court was determined to make peace with Japan. Cixi believed that Song Yuren was "unwanted trouble" to cause trouble for the court, and immediately issued an order to cancel all matters such as sending ships and recruiting troops, and at the same time called Song Yuren to return home as soon as possible. Song Yuren recruited naval forces overseas, but his plan to launch a surprise attack on Japan was aborted.
The two sides began peace talks in March 1895, and on April 17, Li Hongzhang signed the "Treaty of Shimonoseki" with Japan on behalf of the Qing government, which was humiliating and humiliating the country, ceding territory and paying indemnities for an unknown amount of money. After this war, Japan was stronger and China was weaker. On the way back to China, Song Yuren had long lost the enthusiasm he had when he went to Europe. On the way, he wrote the plan hatched in a foreign country as "Borrowing Notes", describing the incident in detail to express his feelings. The feeling of unrequited ambition.
After returning to China, he was demoted by Cixi and was never reused. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, he lived in seclusion in the "Dongshan Thatched Cottage" on Lion Mountain in the eastern suburbs of Chengdu, Sichuan, focusing on writing books and not caring about worldly affairs until his death in 1931. As time went by, As time goes by, Song Yuren's conspiracy looks more and more like an absurd dream, but is it Song Yuren who is absurd? No, what was absurd was that era. Song Yuren just dreamed up a seemingly unrealistic dream of revival for the millions of people who still had blood.
