All the heavens begin with the love in the courtyard.

After the First Sino-Japanese War, in which the Japanese slapped the Qing Dynasty hard, other foreign powers completely stopped taking the Qing government seriously.

In 1897, the great powers had become increasingly unscrupulous. In January, Britain demanded that the Qing government recognize the British Empire's control over Burma.

From now on, you'll be my underling. What's yours is mine, what's mine is mine, and what's mine is still mine. Your underling's territory is mine too. From now on, this place will be British Burma.

Britain's domineering behavior prompted Germany to retaliate by sending warships to occupy Jiaozhou Bay and forcibly signing a 99-year lease agreement. Germany shamelessly claimed that the two countries had a solid foundation of friendship and that they were only leasing the bay for 99 years, leaving one year for the other as a favor. Although it was called a lease, there was not a single word about rent in the entire contract. You want to talk to me about rent?

I'm talking to you about friendship, and you're talking to me about rent? Do you even have any dignity left?

In fact, the reason Germany wanted to lease Jiaozhou Bay was because it was a place where raw materials such as cotton, coal, and iron ore from the production areas of North China could be directly transported by rail to the sea and supplied to Germany.

Moreover, Jiaozhou Bay is one of the few natural deep-water ports in China, where large warships can dock. If troops need to be transported to China in the future, this will be the best landing point. This is why the Japanese later directly seized Jiaozhou Bay from Germany. They are all bad guys.

Germany's occupation of Jiaozhou Bay did indeed arouse the indignation of the Chinese people. Kang Youwei wrote to Emperor Guangxu for the fifth time, which led to the Hundred Days' Reform. Unfortunately, the Qing Dynasty was already a broken-down regime, and with an old witch causing trouble behind the scenes, the Qing court was truly beyond saving.

In contrast to the decay of the Qing Dynasty, Bai Jingqi's Bai's Pharmaceutical Company developed rapidly. After Bai Jingqi took over the Bai family in 1895, Bai's Pharmaceutical was established in 1896 with three pharmaceutical production bases in Jilin and Taiyuan, respectively.

With a large-scale production base, all kinds of medicines can be produced in large quantities, and the cost will decrease accordingly. Bai family medicines have always been guaranteed in quality, effective and inexpensive. In the past, some folk remedies cost several hundred taels of silver per treatment and required doctors to come to the door every day for consultation. Now, with the instruction manual, it is easy and convenient to prescribe the right medicine for the right symptoms.

Previously, all medicines from Baicaoting were produced and sold directly by the pharmacy itself, and could only be purchased from Baicaoting. Now, however, they are mainly sold through wholesale. Pharmacies across the country can directly purchase bulk medicines produced by Bai's Pharmaceutical from sales points in various provinces by paying money. This modern sales model appeared for the first time in the Qing Dynasty.

Of course, traveling around in this era was not easy. In order to set up these sales points, Bai Jingqi also established a large number of branches of the Guardian Escort Agency. The elite of the Black Family Army also began to enter the Guardian Escort Agency in batches. Fortunately, in recent years, the Qing government has become more and more corrupt. Otherwise, if someone really wanted to investigate, they would still be able to find Bai Jingqi.

Moreover, Bai Jingqi has been keeping a low profile these past two years, aiming to develop rapidly and accumulate sufficient capital.

In 1897 alone, Bai's Pharmaceutical sold a total of over 1.4 million taels of silver worth of various medicines, with a gross profit of over 600,000 taels. This far exceeded the amount sold when Bai's eldest son controlled the Bai family, and even surpassed the amount sold when Bai's father was in power.

However, last year's expenses were even greater, including building a production base, recruiting and training personnel, and most importantly, importing and purchasing various equipment for the research institute, acquiring various prescriptions, and so on. The total expenditure even exceeded one million taels of silver. However, Bai Jingqi believed that all of this would be worthwhile in the future because he was currently making arrangements for everything.

In the same year, a Bai's Pharmaceutical Technology School was established in the suburbs of Beijing. The name was quite strange. The school did not recruit students from outside the area; all the students were from poor families, including a large number of orphans and beggars, aged between seven and twelve.

Before enrollment, students undergo a three-month screening process, which includes tests on intelligence, physical fitness, and even reaction ability. After three months, those who pass the screening will directly enter the school for study. The school adopts a fully enclosed teaching system, and Baishi Pharmaceutical provides for all aspects of students' lives, including food, clothing, and accommodation.

The school adopts a five-year education system. During these five years, students will learn to recognize characters, then identify drugs, and finally study drugs. Of course, physical training is also included. However, this is not the training ground for the Black Army. The physical training here is much easier. But some students with physical talent will be secretly sent to other places to study. That is the real Black Army training camp.

The school is presented to the public as a training institution for pharmaceutical workers and apprentices at Baishi Pharmaceutical. It is claimed that over 90% of these individuals will eventually work in the pharmaceutical industry, with Baishi Pharmaceutical handling everything from learning to employment.

These children were originally beggars and starving poor children, which reduced the burden on society. The government naturally had no objection. Besides, if there were any problems, they could be easily dealt with with money.

Bai Jingqi founded this school with the real purpose of cultivating talent for Bai's Pharmaceutical in the future. In addition to pharmaceutical manufacturing, it will also train doctors. This is the true talent training base for Bai's Pharmaceutical.

Even the Bai family's children will study at this school from now on, treated equally. Of course, they are born into a good family because they are surnamed Bai. If they achieve excellent results in the future, they will naturally receive special care. After all, Bai Jingqi's Bai's Pharmaceutical is only a family business for the time being.

In short, over the past few years, Bai Jingqi has been gradually making arrangements, and the training of the Black Family Army has not been neglected. As the Black Family Army has grown in size, it now has its own underground arms factory, purchasing a large number of the most advanced guns and artillery of the era for disassembly and imitation. Bai Jingqi has also spent a lot of time compiling a teaching material.

This textbook doesn't teach how to manufacture guns, but rather explains the history of guns and future development plans, including the subdivision of guns. Bai Jingqi is giving them a general idea.

He wasn't a weapons manufacturing expert; he could only draw up a blueprint for them. Whether they could create the guns of the future based on their own imagination depended on their own wisdom.

The Black Family Army has no shortage of funds. In the twilight of the dynasty, the Black Family Army has amassed a large amount of money by robbing the rich to help the poor. If they really need money, they can slaughter a few fat sheep at any time.

They now have a list of over a hundred potential victims, and they know everything about each person's family situation, even where their money is hidden. Most of these people are high-ranking officials and nobles of the Qing court, as well as some powerful eunuchs.

The list even included the locations of several money shops' vaults. These would be available to the Black Army when necessary. With chaos looming, it was better to leave them to Bai Jingqi for his greater cause than to let the foreign devils profit from them.

After twelve years of development, the Black Family Army has long since become a regular secret military organization with several departments, ranging from assassination teams to intelligence tracking groups, undercover agents, and even arms manufacturing.

Back then, Bai Jingqi used the number after "Black One" as the title. However, he eventually stopped issuing this title when it came to "Black Seventy-Seven". In Bai Jingqi's view, this method was somewhat foolish. Wasn't it just telling others that the Black Family Army had seventy-seven people?

Later, a member of the Black Family Army suggested using the Chinese zodiac to divide the organization: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. Each zodiac animal could be used as a code name for a certain department.

For example, the snake represents the assassination department, the ox represents the guards who join the Guardian Escort Agency, the rat represents the undercover agent, the horse represents the intelligence transmission department, and the pig represents the department that manages the organization's finances. Other departments also correspond to a zodiac animal. Only the dragon represents only one person, namely the organization's leader, Black Seven.

This zodiac-based title has been used for seven years now. The Black Family Army has grown to more than 1,100 members, especially in the last few years, with rapid growth. As Bai's Pharmaceuticals expanded rapidly, the Black Family Army organization also expanded and developed rapidly.

The current number two figure in the Black Family Army is Zhang Li, one of the first members of the Black Family Army. The boy has now grown into a wise commander, managing this secret military organization of more than a thousand people in an orderly manner.

In fact, the members of the Black Family Army from the first to the fourth batch have all come of age and are gradually becoming core members. When Bai Jingqi selects commanders for the Black Family Army, ability is secondary and loyalty is the primary consideration. He must keep this organization firmly under his control.

He didn't need any unrealistic leaders in the Black Family Army; he only needed followers, because no one knew the future situation better than him. They just needed to follow his own plans and strategies and develop the business properly.

In 1898, Bai Jingqi finally came of age. That year, the situation in the capital was already becoming somewhat chaotic. The higher-ups realized that if the Qing Dynasty continued like this, it might not last more than a few years. So, under the deliberate cultivation of the Qing court, local militias gradually began to gain momentum.

Since Germany seized Jiaozhou Bay last year, France followed suit this year by seizing Guangzhou Bay. All the major powers have set their sights on this part of China. If they are late to act, they will suffer the consequences.

Bai Jingqi also accelerated his own expansion. Now, the Bai family's assets in the capital are mostly light assets. Even the production base of Bai's Pharmaceutical has been moved to the Hebei area. Now, Baicaotang is only responsible for selling medicine. Weishi Escort Agency has also developed rapidly in recent years. Now it has a scale of 1,700 people and has basically become Bai's Pharmaceutical's private security company.

The Black Family Army has grown by 300 people this year, reaching a total of over 1,500. These are Bai Jingqi's true trump card, meaning that Bai Jingqi now has an armed organization of over 3,000 people.

In public, there's the Guardian Escort Agency; in private, there's the Black Family Army. In reality, besides these two groups, Bai Jingqi possesses far more power that he can control.

Since 1885, the number of trainees eliminated each year has been ten times that of the current Black Family Army. These tens of thousands of people are now scattered throughout all corners of China, including more than a thousand in the capital. These more than a thousand people control several beggar gangs in the capital. These more than a thousand people in the capital are considered to be the peripheral organization of the Black Family Army, because a large number of new trainees are needed every year.

As for the other members scattered throughout other parts of China, apart from a few gangs of all walks of life who still occasionally keep in touch, most of the teenagers who came out of the training camp have gone to other industries and have completely lost contact. The Black Family Army never forces the trainees who are eliminated from the training camp to do anything; they are perfectly free to find a better life.

These people learned basic writing and literacy in the training camp, which alone would be enough to find a job in this day and age. Moreover, they also have some basic skills that will be the best foundation in all walks of life.

These people didn't know back then that they were among those who were eliminated in the selection process for the Black Family Army. But over the years, the legend of the Black Family Army during the First Sino-Japanese War has made many people suddenly realize that they might have been candidates for the Black Family Army back then, only to be eliminated in the end.

Because they were originally beggars and vagrants, a mysterious team provided them with food and drink, and after two years of training, gave them a job to make a living. Although the mysterious team rarely contacted them afterward, how could they forget the kindness they had shown them?

Moreover, when they were released after two years of training, the mysterious team told them that they would be contacted again if needed. From today onwards, they can rely on what they have learned in the past two years to work hard and create a future with their own abilities. Everyone who left the training camp heard this.

Those two years of training changed the lives of many of them. Many learned to read and write and acquired some basic skills. After leaving the training camp, many did not stay in the various social circles for long. Many went to other industries, such as joining the army, participating in various anti-Qing organizations in different places, or even becoming revolutionaries.

These will all become Bai Jingqi's future connections. Sooner or later, Bai Jingqi's identity as the "Black Seventh Master" will be exposed. At that time, these people may already be elites in various industries, and they may give Bai Jingqi some face.

However, there is another possibility: the trainees who were eliminated back then, ten or twenty years later, became big shots in their own right. When they encountered Bai Jingqi again, the thing they wanted to do most was to kill Bai Jingqi, because only they knew the true danger Bai Jingqi posed.

Bai Jingqi certainly didn't want that day to come, so he had to continue to expand his strength.

In 1898, Bai's Pharmaceutical's sales exceeded three million taels of silver. It had established five production bases throughout the country, and its medicines had sales outlets in more than a dozen provinces in China. Even many foreign powers were buying Bai's Pharmaceutical's medicines.

That year, Bai's Pharmaceutical Research Institute finally made some breakthroughs. The extract of artemisinin ether was discovered, which is the famous artemisinin of later generations. Although the experiment was completed under the guidance and advice of Bai Jingqi, it marked a new height for Bai's Pharmaceutical.

After three years of adjustment, the older generation of pharmaceutical masters, including the old man who was cheap, have finally accepted some of the concepts of Western medicine. Currently, the Bai's Pharmaceutical Research Institute has more than sixty members.

Among them were more than twenty experienced masters, including Bai Yingyuan, the father of Bai's father, and another forty or so young people, some as young as thirteen or fourteen. Most of them were outstanding students at Bai's Pharmaceutical Technology School. They were currently studying at the school while working as assistants and apprentices in the research institute. In the future, these people would be the foundation of Bai's Pharmaceutical Research Institute.

Bai's Pharmaceutical Research Institute has only just begun, and Bai Jingqi is not in a hurry; he will give them time to grow.

The history of using artemisia juice to treat malaria in traditional Chinese medicine dates back thousands of years, but it almost disappeared into the annals of history because, like other traditional Chinese medicine remedies, it was just an ancient prescription, and no one knew why artemisia could treat malaria. The discovery of artemisinin can be said to be the most perfect combination of Western and traditional Chinese medicine, using Western medical methods to purify and crystallize it.

Bai Jingqi's goal is to break down the barriers of traditional Chinese medicine and use Western medical experimental methods to figure out why a prescription can treat a disease, rather than simply dismissing it as a mysterious ancestral formula.

Traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes decocting and boiling, extracting the essence of medicinal herbs into a soup, and even consuming the dregs. In reality, they don't know why these herbs work when combined; they only know that this is how traditional Chinese medicine has been done for thousands of years, relying on experience.

Western medicine is much clearer. It directly studies which component in the medicinal material has a therapeutic effect on the disease, then extracts it, and finally chemically synthesizes it into a purer synthetic drug. In fact, this is the real reason why Western medicine can dominate the world, because it is simple and clear, and it tells you exactly what chemical molecules are involved.

Bai Wenshi had been eagerly anticipating Bai Jingqi's coming-of-age ceremony and immediately began preparing to find him a wife. Upon learning this, Bai Jingqi brought Huang Chun back to the Bai family and, in front of Bai Wenshi, declared that she was his future wife.

Bai Wenshi thought Huang Chun looked alright, but her only dissatisfaction was that Huang Chun was an orphan. However, since Bai Jingqi liked him, she let him be.

In the original novel, Huang Chun's identity was immediately exposed by Master Bai, and Bai Wenshi naturally did not want Bai Jingqi to marry the daughter of an enemy.

However, Huang Chun's identity was not exposed in this world because Master Bai dared not. Moreover, although the Zhan Prince's Mansion and the Bai family were still enemies, they kept to themselves and did not seem to have such deep hatred in Bai Wenshi's eyes.

After experiencing the terrifying fire that year, Master Bai realized that Bai Jingqi was a ruthless and taciturn scoundrel, and he dared not oppose Bai Jingqi anymore. In the past two years, Bai Jingqi sent him to Tianjin, where he was supported by several hundred taels of silver every month. Master Bai gradually forgot the fear of that year and just lived a peaceful life, walking his birds and visiting brothels every day, enjoying himself to the fullest.

Ever since Bai Jingqi met Huang Chun at a family gathering that year, he had taken a liking to the girl. After they became acquainted, Bai Jingqi paid for and provided servants to take care of her every month. He raised her as a child bride since she was little. As she grew up, her mother pressured her, so he simply made their relationship public.

Many people and events in this world seem to have returned to the original plot, but many things and people have long since changed beyond recognition. The eighteen-year-old Bai Jingqi in the original work was a fair-skinned young man, while the Bai Jingqi in this world is a burly man with a broad face and a height of 1.83 meters. Although his appearance is still somewhat similar to that in the original work, they are actually two people with different personalities.

The year finally arrived in 1900. So many things would happen that year. Bai Jingqi's brow furrowed with worry. He knew that many people would die that year. The foreign powers were preparing to slaughter the sheep for meat, and Bai Jingqi had the same plan.

Bai Wenshi urged Bai Jingqi to return to the capital quickly to hold the wedding, but Bai Jingqi was in no mood for marriage. Right after the New Year, he moved the entire Bai family from the capital.

The Qing Dynasty is now in a state of irreversible collapse. The warships of various foreign powers are already conducting exercises in the Bohai Sea, preparing to fleece the Qing Dynasty, which is as thin as a sheep. The Qing court has a premonition that its days are numbered, and for this reason, it has summoned the Boxers to Beijing to prepare for a decisive battle with the foreigners!

Bai Jingqi's Black Army, after so many years of preparation, has long since opened its bloodthirsty maw in the capital. Whether foreigners or nobles, they will all have an unforgettable memory. Let's wait and see!

Chapter 18: The Fall of the Capital

In 1900, the Year of the Rat, the Qing Dynasty was actually on the verge of collapse.

Having been treated as an ATM by various powers for decades, it is now almost completely drained of its last drop of profit.

After decades of exploitation, the people under the Qing Dynasty had long been utterly disillusioned with the Qing government. The Qing government exploited the people, and the foreign powers exploited the Qing government. After decades of exploitation, only dregs remained.

In reality, the foreign powers never intended to overthrow the Qing Dynasty's rule. China was such a vast country, it would be too troublesome to manage. It would be much better to collect rent every year and occasionally take a bite out of the country. Was there any government that was easier to control than the Qing Dynasty?

The foreign powers always thought that Emperor Guangxu was a very good emperor because he was weak-willed and willing to give money and territory even when bullied. Every year, when there were so many anti-Japanese incidents across the country, the Qing court would always seek peace and pay reparations to settle the matter. What a good and obedient emperor he was.

However, Empress Dowager Cixi was capricious. Seeing that the foreign powers were burning, killing, and looting, which affected her quality of life, she began to condone the Boxers burning down churches and confronting the foreigners in recent years. This behavior displeased the foreign powers.

By mid-March, warships from various foreign powers had arrived in the Bohai Sea and begun drills. In fact, by this time, the foreign powers were already preparing to take action against the Qing Dynasty.

The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 deeply shocked many of the great powers, who never imagined that the Qing Dynasty was so weak.

After all, the Self-Strengthening Movement lasted for nearly thirty years, and the Qing Dynasty's warships and weapons were not particularly backward. However, they never expected that the Qing Dynasty would be so easily defeated by the Japanese and surrender so readily.

Moreover, they did not expect the Qing government to be so weak, even demanding 200 million taels of silver from a small country like Japan, and even willing to provide military expenses.

So this is how it can be done! Fighting a war can not only bring hundreds of millions in compensation, but also allow you to seize various ports. I can't fall behind on such a good opportunity.

So in the past few years, a series of territorial concessions and forced rents have left the Qing Dynasty vulnerable in many ways. At this point, it is necessary to give the Qing court another big blow, preferably by spending several hundred million taels of silver to completely turn China into a colony. Then, support a Qing prince to ascend the throne. What a wonderful job!

At this point, these powers gathered together to discuss how to divide their interests. The Japanese were the most enthusiastic, because as fellow Asians with similar cultural heritage, the Japanese had coveted the land of China from the very beginning.

As an island nation, Japan's country was inherently somewhat deformed, while neighboring China, with its vast resources and abundant land, presented a golden opportunity for Japan amidst the Qing Dynasty's decay.

Controlling one or two provinces in China would be enough for them. However, the Japanese at that time had only just begun to work hard and had gained a little strength. Although they had defeated the Qing Dynasty in the First Sino-Japanese War, in the eyes of the great powers, the Japanese were still like little brothers. Therefore, if the Japanese wanted to occupy China's territory in the future, they had to proceed slowly and cautiously.

Historically, the Japanese did just that. They started by supporting ambitious figures within China, such as a certain "Father of the Nation," who, after the First Sino-Japanese War, actively invited outstanding young people from China to study in Japan.

At the same time, he made many "friends" in the political and business circles of China. Before the Japanese invasion of China, his "friends" were spread throughout the political and business circles of China. Even many warlords had studied in Japan, which provided a good foundation for the Japanese invasion of China later.

If the First Sino-Japanese War made the Japanese feel that they had stood up, then the Russo-Japanese War a few years later completely boosted their confidence. They thought that even an old power like Russia was no match for them, which meant that it was destiny for them to occupy China and rule all of Asia!

Before planning their attack on the Qing Dynasty, the foreign powers made many plans. For example, they assured certain southern provinces that they would only target the Forbidden City in Beijing and that they would only teach that old witch Cixi a lesson. They would not launch a full-scale invasion of China, and the foreign powers could rest assured and watch the show.

As a result, the foreign powers signed a non-aggression pact with the southern regions, leading to the Southeast Mutual Protection Treaty. This treaty involved several provincial leaders simultaneously declaring that they would not participate in the disputes between the Qing government and the foreigners, nor would they send troops to help the Qing government. By this time, the Qing government was actually on the verge of collapse.

Meanwhile, in the north, the new army led by Yuan Shikai, a modern force that had been trained at great expense by the Qing government, was ready to sit back and watch the show. Many secretly hoped that the Qing government would be overthrown by foreigners, so that the south could become independent, a new power structure could be formed in China, and the power could be reshuffled and redistributed once again.

Faced with the aggressive advances of the foreign powers, the Qing court was essentially powerless and could only submit to being slaughtered. However, Empress Dowager Cixi was still somewhat unwilling to accept this situation. The provincial officials were unreliable, and the new army she had trained was also unreliable. What else could she do at this point? Wait to die?

So she began to condone the Boxers' resistance against foreigners in various places. Some pro-war factions also seized the opportunity to boast to her how powerful and awesome the Boxers were, how invulnerable they were, how each one of them could take on a hundred men, how loyal they were to the emperor and the Empress Dowager, and how absolutely trustworthy they were.

Thus began the momentous Boxer Rebellion.

In mid-April, a large number of Boxer Rebellion altars and posters appeared in Beijing, especially in the lower and middle-class areas of the southern and northern city.

Everywhere on the streets, one could hear people discussing the contents of the posters from the Boxers, saying things like "divine assistance," "the Boxers," "only because the Japanese devils are causing trouble in the Central Plains," "to persuade them to convert to Christianity," "they are tyrannical," "disrespectful to gods and Buddhas," and "forgetting their ancestors."

Men are immoral, women are chaste; the Japanese devils are not born of humans. If you don't believe me, look closely, their eyes are all blue. No rain, the ground is dry, all the churches are blocking out the sky!