Qing Yao

Chapter 209 Theoretical Guidance for Rebellion

Ai?
Old Ding is a typical right-wing opportunist.

They took too big a step.

How did this turn into talking about overthrowing the Qing dynasty and restoring the Ming dynasty?

Zhao Ande should calm down Lao Ding and prevent him from becoming too fanatical. Essentially, we are still owing money and not paying it back. We want to make the old man's credit card balance zero, thereby achieving the ownership swap of the Qing Company and a backdoor listing. It has little to do with the anti-Qing restoration movement.

The Zhu family didn't contribute anything, so how can they be allowed to be the legal representative? Is it simply because their ancestors had experience running a company?
This is a complete joke.

"Overthrow the Qing and restore the Ming" is just a slogan. It's fine to fool others, but you can't fool yourself.

This slogan is actually a manifestation of the orthodox Chinese historical view that "those who are not of our race must have different hearts," and has nothing to do with the two dynastic names, Qing and Ming.

Both the White Lotus Rebellion and the Taiping Rebellion proved that this slogan no longer had the effect of inspiring people and could only be used as a supplementary propaganda material, such as in proclamations against the Manchus.

Little did they know that Old Ding truly thought that way.

Because his grandson-in-law was making unrealistic promises.

This stirred up the dream hidden deep in Old Ding's heart as a traditional scholar-official—"Expel the Manchus and restore China!"

These eight characters, like "May you live a long and prosperous life, and receive the mandate of Heaven," represent an enduring dream for every Han Chinese man.

Destroy the barbarians or become emperor—choose one, or both.

There was no opportunity before, but now it seems there is.

If the White Lotus Rebellion were to truly rise up and gain momentum as quickly as the grandson-in-law's report and analysis suggested, sweeping across several provinces and even the entire country, wouldn't this be another instance of the chaotic late Ming Dynasty?
It could also be described as another "Revolt of the Three Feudatories".

History gave the Han people many opportunities to restore their nation, but history also played a cruel joke on them. Whether it was the late Ming Dynasty or the Three Feudatories period, the Qing court did not defeat the Han people's "restoration army" in a fair and square manner. Rather, it was various unexpected events within the Han people's restoration army that made the Qing court the ultimate victor.

The internal strife between Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo, Zheng Chenggong's unexpected defeat in Nanjing, and Wu Sangui's early death in Hengyang.
It can be described as a series of regrets.

What about this time?
By preparing for several years in advance and secretly accumulating strength, taking advantage of the opportunity to quell the rebellion for the Qing court to strengthen itself, and by controlling an elite army and local power as a base, it was fully capable of competing with the Qing court. Given the current state of the Green Standard Army and the Eight Banners, it was not impossible for them to win in a war.

They could even join forces with the White Lotus Rebellion, thus creating an even larger anti-Qing wave.

Back in the Southern Ming era, the Ming Dynasty's regular army merged with Li Zicheng's Shun Camp and Zhang Xianzhong's Western Camp. The result of this merger was obvious: they almost completely overwhelmed the Qing Dynasty.

However, perhaps influenced by the anti-Qing and restorationist sentiments that have persisted for over a century, and the fact that this trend has never been eradicated in his hometown of Zhejiang, Old Ding really wanted to restore the Ming Dynasty.

Compared to his grandson-in-law, whose mind is full of ideas like "anyone can be emperor" and "I'm willing to risk my life to bring down the emperor," he is undoubtedly a typical "retro" type.

Or perhaps Lao Ding was a conservative who believed that only by rallying support for the Ming Dynasty could the Manchu Qing regime, which had usurped China, be overthrown.

But this conservative retro party was quite radical for Zhao An.

Even Lao Song, who was so radical that he had already begun to embody the role of a "powerful local official," was stunned: "There's no trace of this at all, and Your Excellency is already going to fight the imperial court?"

"We can talk about overthrowing the Qing and restoring the Ming later. The most important thing right now is to accumulate strength in preparation for a major upheaval. Without strength, everything is just a castle in the air."

Zhao An used "pragmatism" to pull Lao Ding's overly radical thinking back.

In other words, "Grandpa, we are currently penniless and destitute. You shouldn't even think about defeating American imperialism. Let's focus on production and saving ourselves first."

"Our titles and honors were all bestowed by the imperial court. Even if the court has a thousand faults, we should not harbor any rebellious intentions." Old Song meant that overthrowing the Qing and restoring the Ming was unacceptable. We should not forget those who dug the well when we drink the water. Your Excellency, please take it easy. The Qing Dynasty is not friendly to the common people, but it is relatively good to us officials. Don't get carried away. Whether you are loyal to the Qing Dynasty or not, please think it over carefully.

After glancing at Old Song, the flush on Old Ding's face slowly faded, and his gaze fell on his grandson-in-law's face: "Go on."

Zhao An, of course, had to say that he proposed a "three-stage" strategy.

This is equivalent to providing specific military and political guidance outside of the general outline, helping loan shark gangs reach the pinnacle of their lives.

"Lord Zhao, what are the three stages? And what is each stage?"

As the county education bureau chief, Lao Song increasingly felt that his vocabulary was insufficient, and he could never immediately understand what Lord Zhao was saying.

Zhao An asked, "Do you have a map?"

"Have!"

Old Ding produced a map of Yangzhou Prefecture; there was no map of Jiangsu, let alone a map of the whole country.

Regardless of the dynasty, maps were important strategic resources. Apart from the central government, local authorities were not allowed to privately possess maps of the entire country.

At the prefecture, state, and county level, local maps could be preserved due to river channels, river works, and local chronicles. However, these were not the detailed maps of later generations, but rather abstract maps of mountains, rivers, and cities, with no way to calculate their scale.

These maps are classified information. There's no other way; most of the rebellious peasants are only familiar with their hometowns. Once they are far from home and without the cooperation of the locals, they can't even distinguish between east, west, south, and north. How would they know which road leads to a strategic location or which road is a necessary route for the government troops to besiege them?

Therefore, the first step in rebellion is to find a map; sometimes an accurate map is more useful than ten thousand soldiers.

Asking Zhao An to talk at length about an abstract landscape painting is like trying to explain the Battle of Berlin while looking at a map of Nanjing—it's completely irrelevant.

Moreover, it looks really incongruous.

He attached great importance to this three-person meeting because he felt that it was very likely to leave a significant mark on history books.

Its significance is no less than that of Liu Bei's Longzhong Dialogue.

So he simply took a blank sheet of Xuan paper from Lao Ding's desk, picked up a brush, and quickly drew a map of the Qing Dynasty.

The map of China with crabapple leaves is clearly marked with lines for each province.

There's nothing to be proud of in this; any junior high school student could draw it.

Old Ding and Old Song were dumbfounded, especially after Zhao An used a brush to draw a circle on the riverbank and write the two characters for Yangzhou. The two looked at Zhao An with astonishment.

"This is a map of our Great Qing Dynasty. I dare not say it is completely accurate, but it is roughly like this."

Putting down his brush, Zhao An blew on the still-wet ink while admiring his masterpiece. If it weren't for the fact that Lao Ding and Lao Song were not aware of the cognitive abilities of the characters, he would definitely have added the locations of France, America, and England.

"How did you obtain this map, sir?"

Old Song raised a question, and Old Ding was also puzzled. As far as they knew, Zhao An had never studied at the Ministry of War, so how did he know the map of the Qing Dynasty?

Could this person's ancestors have been Ming loyalists?
Otherwise, how could one know such a secret?

(End of this chapter)