Twentieth Century Chronicle

Page 84

Although Germany is also a populous country, its population is only smaller than Russia's in Europe. However, it often feels powerless in the face of competition from such new technologies. Almost every country has capital that is optimistic about the electrical and communications industries, but in reality, only the United States, Britain, and Germany are truly capable of competing in these sectors; France has already fallen out of the top tier.

The United States relied on its domestic market, Britain on its global colonies and the hegemony of the pound sterling, while Germany could only rely on its advantages as a latecomer. However, this advantage was difficult to maintain, as Britain began to squeeze German exports globally, and Russia, with French support, launched a trade war against Germany. Although German products had technological advantages, they lacked the market to recoup costs, thus slowing down the pace of developing new technologies.

However, Siemens now encountered a China attempting to overtake it through a shortcut. Although Wuhan also focused on heavy chemical industries, its support for the electrical and communications industries was second to none. With the Chinese actively providing markets, raw materials, and infrastructure investment, Siemens' production costs were greatly reduced. A light bulb produced in Germany in 1901 sold for 6.5 marks, while a light bulb of the same specifications produced in Wuhan in 1904 sold for only 3.5 marks.

By 1904, Siemens' industrial output in Wuhan exceeded 1 million marks, with one-third of it exported to other parts of Asia and South America. This year, exports even began to Germany. The cost of transporting copper from Japan and South America, and timber and rubber from Southeast Asia to Wuhan for production was one-third lower than the cost of shipping them back to Germany.

In this situation, Siemens could generate profits by exporting finished products even without obtaining gold from China. Karl, of course, felt that cooperation with China should be more equitable, because Siemens had moved beyond the stage of relying on force to obtain excessive profits. For Siemens today, China had become a crucial production link, ensuring its dominant position in the global market.

While somewhat disdainful of Karl's profit-driven values, Krupp also sought to turn China into a production base, only the slower return on investment in the steel industry caused him concern about the rise of Chinese nationalism. Judging from the Chinese reaction to American policies discriminating against Chinese people, sooner or later, the Chinese will oppose any imperialists who treat them as second-class citizens; Germany clearly needs to make some adjustments to its foreign policy.

But at this moment, Karl raised a new topic with Krupp: "How long do you think it will take the British to expel the Chinese from India? Many people think it will be done before the end of the rainy season, but the British are confident that they will capture Champavat before July. I've put down 100 marks and think the Chinese can hold out until September."

Krupp took a puff of his cigar and sneered at Karl, "Your imagination is so limited. I think since that Champawatt was able to storm the Indian plains, he can at least hold out until the end of the year..."

Chapter 294 The Vanishing Chinese

Lieutenant Colonel Charles Townsend had a much more imaginative mind than Krupp. As soon as the order came down, he rushed to Gettihar and then drew up all the troops from Siliguri, Islampur, Syrsi, Dalcora, Lekonatpur, and Dalgram, which were the towns along the railway line from Siliguri to Gettihar.

Adding to the troops previously requested for protection from various locations, Gettihar now boasts a force of nearly 3000 infantrymen in seven battalions, while the towns along the railway are left with only police. Lieutenant Colonel Charles Townsend, without even waiting for his superior, General Robert Cunliffe Lowe, to arrive in Gettihar, launched an attack on Burnia with two companies of cavalry and five battalions of infantry.

The lieutenant colonel felt that speed was of the essence and that the Chinese should not be allowed to build more complete fortifications in Burnia. However, others believed that the lieutenant colonel wanted to achieve his own honor. After all, by defeating and capturing Champavat independently, the lieutenant colonel would at least not have to share such honor with others.

Lieutenant Colonel Charles Townsend was not entirely reckless. After learning about Major Leibusch's failed experience, he ordered the cavalry and infantry to advance towards Burnia simultaneously. The infantry rode on the train, while the cavalry provided protection and reconnaissance along the railway line. This way, if an attack occurred, the infantry on the train could disembark in time to prepare for battle.

The lieutenant colonel was very lucky; just one day later, he announced the recapture of Burnia, while General Robert Cunliffe Lowe was still waiting for a ferry to take him across the Ganges. Upon hearing this news, his cavalry officers were indignant on his behalf, believing that the lieutenant colonel's actions were tantamount to disrespecting his superior.

However, General Lo, whose hair had already turned white, did not mind. He even persuaded his men, "The monsoon has reached Calcutta and will soon reach the north bank of the Ganges. It is actually a good thing for us to be able to deal with this Champawat before the rainy season officially arrives, so that we will not have to search for the enemy in the rain and mud."

While many of his subordinates agreed with General Luo's assessment, some expressed doubt: "However, the lieutenant colonel didn't mention capturing Champavat, and he even glossed over how he captured Burnia, as if he entered the city without any fighting. Did he really fight the Chinese...?"

The truth, of course, was no. When Lieutenant Colonel Townsend arrived in Brunia on the afternoon of June 4th, there wasn't a single Chinese person in the city. He didn't even see any barricades or signs of looting, which was quite disappointing for his men. It wasn't just that they had lost the honor of defeating the Chinese, but also that they had lost the opportunity to seize wealth from them.

The lieutenant colonel, of course, wouldn't report to General Loehr that the Chinese had fled without a fight. Instead, he said the Chinese had fled upon hearing news of his army's advance. He then questioned the officials and wounded soldiers of Burnia. They said the Chinese had released them before leaving, and according to their unanimous accounts, the Chinese had gone west along the railway. However, Major Leibusch believed the Chinese might be hiding in the western forests and would attack the city again after the lieutenant colonel left.

Although Lieutenant Colonel Townsend dismissed Major Leibusch's advice—he felt that hiding in the forest with the rainy season approaching was tantamount to playing with one's life, as this was a malaria-ridden area—he still thanked the major for his suggestion and left a battalion of troops to defend Burnia.

As Lieutenant Colonel Townsend prepared to continue westward along the railway line to pursue the Chinese, some local landowners reported to him that, incited by the Chinese, surrounding villages had begun refusing to pay land taxes, and therefore hoped the colonel would send troops to the countryside to maintain order. The colonel, of course, would not accept such an absurd suggestion; he was there to exterminate the Chinese, not to collect taxes—that was the job of the local police.

After the towns of Sersi, Mumenji, Murligenj, Madpura, and Sehrsa were all recaptured, the lieutenant colonel still couldn't find any trace of the Chinese. The Gosi River was to the west of Sehrsa, making it unlikely that the Chinese would have swum across in large numbers there. Subau, to the north, and Thiarpur, to the south, both reported that no Chinese had come to the area.

Just as Lieutenant Colonel Townsend was trying to search high and low for any trace of the Chinese, General Lowe sent him a telegram informing him that the Chinese had just captured Dalcora and were now advancing along the railway line toward Siliguri. Because he had drawn all his troops from the railway line, he now had to go there personally to save Siliguri. Therefore, he ordered Lieutenant Colonel Townsend to move his troops over as soon as possible. Once the cavalry caught up with the Chinese, the infantry should completely encircle them to prevent them from escaping.

Lieutenant Colonel Townsend then realized he had been tricked by the Chinese, and he stormed back with his men. As he left Seherza, local officials advised him to leave some troops behind, as the countryside was in turmoil and the farmers, incited by the Chinese, were beginning to oppose paying rent according to the old system.

Lieutenant Colonel Townsend then asked the local officials, "So how do they intend to pay?"

Local officials told him, "According to the new method devised by the Chinese, 25% of the planting costs will be deducted first at harvest time, and then the tenants and landlords will split it 50/50."

After listening, Lieutenant Colonel Townsend found no problem. He said to the official, "I remember we collected land rent directly from the farmers in Madras, which was one-third. Now the farmers are willing to pay 37.5%, aren't they? At least the government's land tax is guaranteed. Besides, who has time to help the landlords collect rent at this time?"

Lieutenant Colonel Townsend completely ignored the requests of local officials and landowners. May was the harvest season for winter crops and the time for paying taxes. Most local farmers planted rice in the winter and cash crops and miscellaneous grains in the spring. In fact, due to the heavy land rent, police and some troops had to be deployed to the countryside to maintain order almost every harvest season.

The land north of the Ganges is less fertile than the south bank, and the annual flood season brings several disasters from the Himalayas, so the people here are known for their fierce nature, and tax resistance incidents are many times more frequent than on the south bank. Even without the Chinese involvement, Lieutenant Colonel Townsend would not want to get involved in such trouble.

However, Lieutenant Colonel Townsend was unaware that the Chinese man he was looking for was actually in a village about eight or nine kilometers from Sehersha. According to Indian religious rules, lower castes must stay away from cities; for the lowest-caste Dalits, even stepping into the shadow of a higher-caste person was considered a sin. Not only would the British not come to such a village, but even high-caste Indians wouldn't come here; only tax collectors would.

Lin Xinyi, however, felt that the Dalits were much cleaner than the higher-caste Indians, even though they were poor, truly destitute, with the poorest families having only an extra mud hut compared to the homeless. He was happy to communicate with these Dalits because they were willing to listen to reason and rarely clung to their religious beliefs, since their faith couldn't save them.

When Jadin brought him news of the British evacuation, he was helping the village repair roofs with his soldiers, mainly replacing the thatch. If it wasn't replaced before the rainy season, the houses would soon become mud pits, which, for the poor who had no beds, meant not only no sleep at night but also the risk of the foundations collapsing due to water damage.

Looking at Lin Xinyi working on the roof, Jadin felt a little ashamed. As a nationalist who shouted for the freedom of the Indian people all day long, he had never thought of helping these Dalits, let alone helping them with things like repairing roofs.

However, after spending the past two weeks with Lin Xinyi, he gradually began to understand the other's revolutionary methods. He recalled that when he first led Zhu Ganda's comrades to Burnia, he originally thought he was going to participate in a fierce defense battle like the Paris Commune. Almost every comrade came with the determination to die, and some even wrote their wills.

However, Lin Xinyi, who welcomed them, paid no attention to the arrival of the British army, believing that the most important task at hand was to protect the fruits of the farmers' labor. This was because May and June were harvest and tax seasons, a time when farmers were forced to sell their grain to pay loan interest.

Lin Xinyi explained to them, “If we cannot protect the fruits of the farmers’ labor, then after this harvest season, there will be many more child prostitutes in the brothels, because their families will have to sell them to pay rent and loan interest. Therefore, our most important task at present is to help the farmers protect their fruits of labor; as for the British encirclement and suppression, that is not a big deal…”

Jadin and his companions found it hard to understand why the British army, which they considered powerful and brave, was so insignificant in Lin Xinyi's eyes. Even if Lin Xinyi truly wanted to help the farmers, he shouldn't have been so arrogant and complacent, because the British were not so easy to deal with—a lesson learned in blood from India's more than a century of conflict with Britain.

But Jardine soon discovered that the British weren't actually that clever. They were so focused on the Chinese that they were searching everywhere for real-life Chinese people based on the images of them in magazines. The magazines the British had were mostly caricatures of the Chinese, depicting them in baggy, ill-fitting clothes, with ugly queues and mustaches—just like how British cartoons portrayed Indians as either Arab-style clowns or turbaned servants.

Using such cartoons to identify real-life Chinese people is a joke, isn't it? Moreover, Lin Xinyi's men were mostly Sikhs and Gurkhas, as well as locals. The British soldiers even asked these people where the Chinese were, because they simply couldn't imagine that the people drying grain in the fields were the Chinese they were looking for. Therefore, in Lieutenant Colonel Townsend's eyes, the Chinese suddenly vanished.

Chapter 295 Essential Questions

When Lin Xinyi came down from the roof, an old woman brought him a bowl of water. Lin Xinyi drank it all in one gulp and thanked the old woman. The old woman happily took the earthenware bowl and went to pour water for others. In her mind, as long as Lin Xinyi was willing to drink the water she gave him, then she could pour water for others as well.

Jia Ding was quite moved by this scene. Lin Xinyi had only stayed here for less than a week, but the villagers no longer treated him like an outsider. They dared not approach outsiders like him, because they were all considered masters. They couldn't even offer the most humble courtesy in front of him, and could only prostrate themselves by the roadside waiting for him to pass.

But now, no one considers them untouchable outcasts anymore, because under Lin Xinyi's leadership, no one regards religion and the caste system as important beliefs. Such people cannot stay. However, precisely because of this, those who stay are generally reliable and will not easily betray the revolution, because they have at least made one choice to rebel against tradition.

After a few seconds of silence, Jia Ding stepped forward and asked the old lady, "Could you pour me a bowl of water?"

The old lady looked at Lin Xinyi, who was wiping his sweat, somewhat at a loss. He smiled and said to her, "This comrade must be thirsty after running such a long way. Auntie, why don't you pour him a bowl?"

Jadin finally drank the water the old lady handed him. He didn't find it unpleasant; the water in the earthenware jar was very sweet, even better than the tap water in Calcutta.

He had never realized this before; he always felt that people of lower castes were unclean and therefore could not eat the food they offered. But now it seemed that this was not a physiological reaction, but purely a psychological one. After putting down the earthenware bowl and thanking the old woman, Jadin accompanied Lin Xinyi to the side to talk.

After hearing the news from Jia Ding, Lin Xinyi thought for a moment and then said, "In that case, we need to gather everyone together for a meeting to discuss the next steps..."

For safety reasons, as well as the need to promote and protect the fruits of the farmers' labor, Lin Xinyi dispersed the key personnel to various villages. Apart from a company that marched eastward, the remaining personnel were scattered in platoons and squads along the railway from Sehersa to Burnia to promote the new tax law and establish grassroots farmers' organizations.

Two days later, Harry Singh, Kumar, Pakash, and others gathered in Lin Xinyi's village. Soon, the guards set up a perimeter around the village, ensuring the safety of the meeting. The meeting was held under a thatched hut in a courtyard. The morning air was quite cool, a benefit of the plains near the river.

At the start of the meeting, Jadin first reported the latest news to everyone. Upon hearing that the British army had been tricked into pursuing the eastward-bound troops, everyone was eager to take advantage of the situation and fight their way back to Burnia along the railway to teach the British a lesson.

After listening to everyone's remarks, Lin Xinyi did not immediately express his opinion, but said, "Well then, I would like to report to everyone first on the achievements we have made in the past two months, and then we can discuss what to do next."

Everyone immediately fell silent. They could only vaguely recall what they had done in the past two months, but they weren't really clear about the achievements. In any case, everyone felt that they had done a great job in the past two months and that the British couldn't do anything to them.

The statistics provided by Lin Xinyi also demonstrate their achievements over the past two months, feats that the Indian people have never accomplished since 1858, while the cost they paid was negligible, and they even expanded in number. When they descended the mountain, they had only two battalions, and when they attacked Burnia, they had less than one battalion, but after two months, they had more than two companies just around Sehersa.

This rate of expansion is unimaginable for many people here, because in their memory, the forces resisting the British will only become weaker and weaker, because the British have advanced weapons and a lot of money. They are good at using money to buy off traitors, thus making the forces resisting the British constantly weaken.

The British tactics that had been so effective in South Asia failed against Lin Xinyi. It wasn't that no one wanted to betray them, but the number of people on their side was increasing day by day. Those traitors who tried to betray the British couldn't even get to see them, or by the time they did, the news had already reached them. They always managed to escape before the British arrived.

Just as everyone was filled with excitement, Lin Xinyi changed the subject, saying, "Although these summarized data look very good and show the ebb and flow of power between the enemy and ourselves, they cannot reveal anything essential. Therefore, I want to remind all comrades not to be arrogant or complacent."

Jadin couldn't hold back any longer and blurted out, "Isn't this result good enough? The British army in India has at most 60,000 or 70,000, and even with the British police, it won't exceed 80,000. If we eliminate a few today and a few more tomorrow, we can eventually eliminate them all, right?"

Lin Xinyi glanced at Jading and then said, "That's right, if we eliminate a few today and a few more tomorrow, we can indeed keep the British armed forces bleeding. But that's not what I really mean."

To put it simply, India is an agricultural country, and even today, more than 80% of its population still engages in agriculture, much like China. Therefore, any discussion of India's future inevitably involves agriculture, rural areas, and farmers.

So what is the current situation of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers in India? Let's take the region we are in as an example. Even according to our proposed distribution of the fruits of labor, after deducting 25% of the planting costs and splitting it equally between tenants and landlords, what is the 37.5% that the tenants receive? It is actually their wages, while the 37.5% that the landlords take is the agricultural surplus.

Think about it: we only focus on how many British people we've eliminated, but we don't pay attention to how the agricultural surplus is distributed. Will this agricultural surplus ever return to the people? If we can't ensure that the agricultural surplus returns to the people, then the landowners will reap all the benefits.

Yes, we defeated the British, but we didn't reclaim the agricultural surplus they had seized. This means the peasants' resistance ultimately only enriched the landowners, making them even wealthier. Given this situation, would the peasants still risk their lives to follow us? That's the fundamental question, in my opinion.

Jadin fell silent. Although he came from a landlord family, he now agreed with Lin Xinyi. If the peasants shed blood and sacrificed themselves to drive out the British, it would only result in the landlords gaining all the benefits. What motivation would the peasants have to continue the revolution? The others felt this even more deeply. Many of them came from self-sufficient farming families and naturally did not want the landlords to possess all the fruits of victory.

So everyone asked Lin Xinyi for a solution, how to get the landlord to give up some of the profits. Lin Xinyi said directly: "First, we need to analyze the 37.5% of the labor results taken by the landlord, according to local data."

Of the total tax revenue, 2.5% belonged to the village headmen, who were responsible for collecting village taxes, allocating land to tenants, and managing village affairs, similar to land managers for landlords. Farmers generally disliked these village headmen because they almost always overcharged on taxes, used various oppressive methods, and were also major operators of usury on behalf of landlords. 10-15% was paid as land tax to the British Indian government, while the remaining 15-20% went to permanent tenants, secondary landowners, and tax farmers.

Our primary task at present is to ensure that farmers receive 62.5% of the fruits of their labor. This is a fundamental task. Only after we have accomplished this fundamental task will the farmers trust us and support us in competing with the British Indian government and the landowners for the remaining 37.5%.

So how should we seize this 37.5%? First, we must eliminate the village headman class. Keeping this class around only allows landlords to control the countryside, which is of no benefit to us. By eliminating this class, the landlords will not only lose control of the countryside, but also lose their eyes and ears. We, on the other hand, will gain control of the countryside and gain the eyes and ears of the people.

So how do we eliminate the "village headmen"? I believe the only way is to establish a village collective, with the collective electing several representatives to manage village affairs. At the same time, we need to increase the retention rate from 2.5% to 7.5%. With this accumulation, the village collective can at least handle some public affairs and organize a militia to protect the village's security.

Secondly, it was a struggle with the British Indian government for control of land taxes. A regime cannot function without financial support, and the most important source of revenue is taxation. Since we were going to fight against the British Indian government, we had to establish a people's government and a people's financial department. Therefore, fighting for land taxes was the primary task of the people's government.

Under the current circumstances, we certainly cannot openly demand that local landlords hand over their tax revenue to us. We must first establish village collectives in various villages, and then build grassroots township organizations on top of these village collectives, before moving on to local governments and the central government. The most important military struggle of the people's armed forces is to seize tax revenue from the British colonial regime and protect the fruits of the people's labor.

Having discussed these two points, the next issue is the struggle over the fruits of labor appropriated by the current tax-farming landlords, second-tier landlords, and perpetual tenants. From the perspective of proletarian legal principles, no one should appropriate the fruits of another's labor without compensation; this is a fundamental value of the working class. However, the landlord class is a legacy of history, so we must gradually reform them and not attempt to eliminate this class in one step.

How to reform the landlord class? First, we must eliminate the die-hards and reactionaries who resolutely refuse to work. Second, we should provide landlords who genuinely lack the ability to work with a certain amount of time to learn labor skills so that they can learn how to support themselves through labor…

Everyone listened attentively, which is probably why they were willing to fight alongside Lin Hsin-yi. Lin Hsin-yi always explained clearly what he wanted to do, instead of just encouraging everyone to fight desperately.

Chapter 296 Robert Nathan's Investigation Report (Part 1)

May is typically the hottest month in the Bihar region, but temperatures drop rapidly in June with the arrival of rain. On June 16th, the Burnia region experienced its first thunderstorm of the year, ending the dry season. After a thorough rain, temperatures dropped by at least five degrees Celsius from around 40 degrees, making everyone feel refreshed and even the air felt fresher.

However, for Robert Nathan and Harold Stewart, who were on a business trip, it was still a terrible season, as they should have been vacationing in the summer capital at this time of year. They didn't complain too much, though, since the massive earthquake in the northwest region in April had completely destroyed Dharamshala, forcing all government offices to relocate to the even more inconvenient city of Shimla.

However, Shimla still requires renovation and expansion, so summer life in the capital this year is unlikely to be as pleasant. With half a century of expansion, the British Indian government employs over 100,000 people, requiring the relocation of 15,000 to the capital each summer to maintain the operation of this large central government.

The cities of Shimla and Dharamshala accommodate these short-term summer migrants, but for now they have to work together in cramped conditions, and their living conditions are certainly not very comfortable. After all, the railway to Shimla will not be completed until at least next year, and before that, it will obviously be quite difficult to expand the city of Shimla on a large scale.

As heads of a special branch of the Kolkata police force, Robert Nathan and Harold Stewart are grateful that their new assignments spare them the trouble of finding accommodation in Shimla after the earthquake, but they are also quite troubled by their new tasks.

The Calcutta Police Special Branch was initially established to deal with the extremists among Indian nationalists, particularly the young nationalists who advocated for the violent expulsion of the British from India. To prevent a repeat of the tragedy of Earl Mayo, the sixth Earl of Mayo, who served as Governor-General of India from 1869 to 1872, was the only Governor-General of India to be killed in an attack by Indians.

The death of Earl Mayo validated the pessimistic predictions of generals like Charles Napier: "This system cannot last fifty years. The moment these brave and capable natives learn to unite, they will all pounce on us at once, and we will be finished."

Realizing that the British system it had promoted had led to a surge in Indian nationalism, the British government began to ease relations with indigenous princes and confront the caste system within the Indian army, aiming to solidify rather than further destroy India's landowning class. However, with the return of Indian elites who had studied abroad, who reintroduced European culture to India, the British government realized it could no longer use the Indian landowning class as a bulwark against the tide of Indian nationalism.

However, the social culture of the British in India was irrevocably altered. Although the number of British people in India was increasing, they no longer chose to integrate into Indian society or attempt to transform it. The death of the Earl of Mayo made the British realize that rulers and the ruled could never be one family, so they further isolated the lives of the British in India from the locals. They lived only in the white-dominated areas they had created in India and interacted with their own people there.

After 1872, the British who came to India came with only one purpose—to make money. Therefore, they didn't stroll through markets, watch Indian dance performances, or frolic with marigold garlands during major festivals. For the British, life in India was no longer vibrant; it was reduced to clubs, polo fields, and evening prayers.

The British believed there was no real life in India; they simply wanted to make enough money quickly to return to the English countryside and live a leisurely life as country gentry. Only in England could they find true life. Therefore, the British generally didn't care about the lives of Indians; they were only concerned with extracting more wealth from them. All of India's railway and water conservancy projects were aimed at acquiring more wealth, not at improving the lives of the Indian people.

While these construction projects objectively improved Indian agriculture, leading to some population growth, the British's rampant exploitation of India's wealth offset these benefits. The near-total population growth in India during the last decade of the 19th century was a sign that British rule was nearing its end.

When a people lose even the desire to reproduce, they either disappear quietly, like the Native Americans, or they rise up in a desperate struggle, like Ran Min's "Kill the Barbarians" order during the Five Barbarian Invasions.

The British were not unaware of this threat. In fact, as early as the time of the Earl of Mayo's death, London's political elites began considering options for evacuation from the Indian subcontinent, including a forced withdrawal and a more amicable transfer of power. However, Britain, at the height of the Victorian era, quickly forgot about the hidden dangers on the Indian subcontinent. British imperialists believed that Britain had sufficient power to suppress the Indian nationalist movement.

Although the question of whether to grant India more autonomy became a new point of contention in London after the Boer War, this remained a debate among British political elites and had nothing to do with the Indian people. This resulted in a system of division between the upper and lower classes in the Indian subcontinent. The partition plan for Bengal was an idealistic proposal put forward by the upper echelons of the British government, who completely failed to understand the psychology of the lower and middle classes of Indian elites.

Unless an external force breaks the network of violent repression built up over the Indian subcontinent by nearly 15 troops and 15 police, no matter how passionately Indian nationalists call on the people to oppose the partition plan for Bangladesh, they will be unable to confront this old but still powerful machine of violence.

But when external forces broke even a small part of this violent machine, the British began to feel that it was malfunctioning. This was because the British had designed the machine primarily for internal control and had never considered that it would face attacks from both inside and outside.

For example, after the Chinese launched attacks in Burnia, the police system collapsed from Burnia to Sehersa on the Gosi River to the west. With the disintegration of the police system in this region, the local government lost control of the villages, and tax-resistant villages increased day by day, spreading from areas farther from the railway to areas near the railway line.

The British tax collectors and regional police chiefs were helpless in the face of this situation, as they normally relied mainly on local police and the army to suppress tax-resistant villages, with landowners providing them with information and guidance. However, with the army's attention diverted to the Chinese and the local police organization undermined, these British officials, who knew nothing about rural India, lost the objective conditions to violently suppress tax-resistant farmers.

Robert Nathan and Harold Stewart arrived in Burnia on June 14th and within a week had a basic understanding of the reasons for the increasing number of tax resistance incidents. However, dealing with these tax-resistant farmers soon proved to be an insurmountable task, as the newly recruited police refused to go to the countryside to suppress the tax-resistant farmers, arguing that they were unarmed and unable to confront armed farmers, and that the army should be left to carry out such a task.

What the police said wasn't wrong. After the Chinese confiscated the weapons of the police and army in this area, they handed over a considerable portion of the weapons and ammunition to the farmers. In other words, when these police went to the countryside, they were not facing unarmed farmers, but armed farmers with modern rifles.

Although there weren't many armed peasants with rifles who dared to confront the police, the problem was that the local landowners had lost their eyes and ears in the countryside. The village clerks they had previously stationed in the countryside had either been driven out, sided with the peasants, or even been hanged by them. These urban landowners, like the British, knew little about the countryside. In fact, the urban landowners had long since severed ties with the countryside and begun to Anglicize themselves; their contact with the countryside was now only through stewards and village clerks.

Once farmers began to manage their own production and lives, they lost their influence over the countryside. In the past, these landlords mainly controlled the countryside through two means: land leasing and caste and religious beliefs. The latter two were used to spiritually tame the farmers, making them accept that their suffering was ordained by God, while the former was used to suppress those who tried to challenge the landlords' authority. Farmers who refused to be tamed would lose their land and their whole family would be driven out of the village, which almost meant the whole family would starve to death.

The notion that Indian farmers are so devout in their adherence to caste and religious beliefs—that some would rather starve than break their caste or abandon their faith—ultimately boils down to land ownership. They chose the former: the death of themselves versus the death of their entire family. Once they achieve liberation over land, Indian farmers will naturally be willing to break their caste and religious beliefs for the sake of their land.

Now that these farmers have seized the land, they are naturally unwilling to submit to the landlords anymore. At this point, the so-called caste and religious beliefs are a joke. In order to resist the Hindu landlords, Muslim and Hindu tenants have united. In order to suppress the tenants' resistance, Muslim landlords and Hindu landlords have also united. They have even reached a religious alliance that the opposition to the partition plan of Bengal could not achieve.

However, Robert Nathan and Harold Stewart soon discovered that the local landowning class was not as influential as they had imagined, and that their methods of controlling the peasants were very limited, consisting of nothing more than violent suppression, caste abolition, and expulsion from the village. But with the help of the peasant alliance, the expelled peasants quickly returned to the village and drove away the landowners' representatives.

The Farmers' Union, this new organization, wasn't even discovered by the local landowners, but rather by the newly recruited Indian police in Calcutta. Harold Stewart greatly admired the quality of these newly recruited Indian policemen, repeatedly telling Robert Nathan, "I think we should also adjust our recruitment of local police. We can't always use them as a force for repression; we also need some intelligent Indians to assist us."

While Robert Nathan agreed with Harold Stewart's point of view, he was also puzzled by the large number of young Indian elites joining the Indian police force. From the perspective of Indian religious beliefs, being a police officer is not considered a high-status job; it's only considered middle-class. Therefore, high-caste Hindus almost always choose law, medicine, or engineering. Only those from lower-caste backgrounds see joining the police or military as a path to upward mobility, or Sikhs who don't adhere to caste distinctions, would choose this path.

Therefore, it wasn't that the Indian police didn't recruit India's elite in the past, but rather that the recruits didn't value them. However, Robert Nathan quickly put this doubt aside because the intelligence these young men gathered from their local investigations was of very high quality, clearly indicating that they were genuine Indian elites loyal to the British Empire. In particular, one of the Indian policemen, Jadin Banerjee, not only discovered the existence of the Peasants' League but also proposed methods to deal with it, prompting Nathan to urgently summon Banerjee and listen to his report.

Chapter 297 Robert Nathan's Investigation Report Part Two

Like other city centers, government offices were always concentrated in white residential areas and had a distinctly British feel. The same was true of Burnia's police station, a three-story red brick building nestled in a garden, which looked more like a quiet hospital than the seat of a violent institution.

Of course, Burnia was in the regional center, and its police station was mainly used by the British, which is why it was so ornately built. Police stations in smaller towns without British staff would never have such a working environment. When Jadin Banerjee entered the police station, he once again felt the enormous inequality between the British and Indians, but he quickly adjusted his mindset.

Physically, he was much thinner than Jadin, but he had an advantage that Jadin did not: his daily words and actions were not outrageous. Even within the Samiti organization, he remained relatively low-key, which was why the organization sent him to join the Indian police.

However, he hadn't expected to be received by the British so quickly. He had originally thought he would have to wait a long time to infiltrate the upper echelons of the police organization. From this perspective, Lin's reaction to the British was absolutely correct. If it weren't for the issue of his identity, he estimated that Lin himself would have been more convincing in explaining his plan to the British.

Ironically, the plan so highly valued by the British was Lin's idea. Of course, if he hadn't known it was Lin's idea, he would have thought it was simply consolidating British rule. He still saw it that way, but he believed Lin wouldn't help the British eliminate him.

With this mix of anxiety and uncertainty, Jadin Banerjee entered Robert Nathan's office, where his direct superior, Harold Stewart, was also present. He bowed meticulously to both of them.

Robert Nathan put down the documents in his hand and said to him, "Mr. Banerjee, I have seen your resume. You are a promising young man who has studied in London. But may I ask why you returned to India without completing your university education?"

“Of course, it’s because I couldn’t tolerate the bullying of students of color by British students,” Jadin Banerjee thought to himself, but said the answer the organization had prepared for him: “I felt that my education was sufficient for use in India, and continuing to study would be a waste of time, so I returned to India.”

This answer is neither good nor bad, but it perfectly aligns with the imperialists' needs for Indian intellectuals. They wanted Indian elites to embrace British culture and values, but they didn't want them to learn too well and behave exactly like the British. Therefore, overly outstanding Indian elites found it difficult to obtain good positions in the British Indian government.

Moreover, Jadin Banerjee's answer also revealed a utilitarian mindset. People with such a mindset naturally wouldn't have nationalist ideals. Robert Nathan resolved one of his doubts and became even more satisfied with Jadin Banerjee. So he asked the second question, "Given your qualifications, becoming a lawyer wouldn't be difficult. Why did you choose to be a policeman?"

Jadin Banerjee pondered for a moment, then abandoned the answer the organization had given him, opting instead for Lin's. He replied enthusiastically, "Of course, it's for Mr. Holmes. I believe there is no greater author in the world than Mr. Arthur Conan Doyle. I sincerely hope to meet Mr. Conan Doyle, but I cannot go empty-handed. I think if I can accumulate enough material during my police career, perhaps Mr. Conan Doyle would be willing to sit down and have a chat with me..."

"You like Sherlock Holmes stories too? Which one do you like?" Harold Stewart suddenly interrupted Jadin Banerjee, who replied without hesitation, "The Red-Headed League, of course..."

Harold Stewart frowned immediately and said, "Why the Red-Headed League? Isn't The Hound of the Baskervilles more interesting? Or maybe you just couldn't buy this one; perhaps it's harder to find in India..."

Robert Nathan listened to the two men discuss the Sherlock Holmes stories for a long time, and only after confirming that the Indian man in front of him was not just boasting, but genuinely had a deep affection for the Sherlock Holmes stories, did he interrupt their conversation, saying, "Let's leave the small talk here. Mr. Banerjee, could you please tell us about your investigation report? Could you elaborate on your investigation of the Farmers' Union?"

Jadin Banerjee coughed and began to recall and recount the investigation into the Farmers' Alliance. Finally, he said, "Based on this intelligence, I believe that the Farmers' Alliance was clearly not formed spontaneously, but it was also definitely not an organization controlled by the Chinese. However, I believe that the Farmers' Alliance's rapid development must have some connection with the Chinese."

Therefore, I boldly speculate that the Chinese did not completely evacuate this area; they likely left behind a portion of their forces, which is quite dangerous for us. If the tax resistance continues to escalate, the Chinese might seize the opportunity to return to the region and lead the peasant alliance in an attack on the city, turning it into an even larger riot…