Beiyang Dream

Chapter 10 What? Are the students of the Beiyang Military Academy really that powerful?

I can't remember exactly what day of the fifth month it was in the fifteenth year of the Guangxu Emperor's reign, but we were in the South China Sea.

In cabin A-07 of the second class on the Oriental cruise ship, the flickering flame of an oil lamp danced on the bulkhead. Five people sat around a small, fixed table—Chang Desheng, Duan Qirui, Shang Dequan, Wu Dingyuan, and Kong Qingtang. Reiner stood alone, holding four mimeographed booklets.

"Fifty days until we get to Germany," Reiner said, his Chinese fluent. "You four..." He gestured with his finger over Duan Qirui, Shang Dequan, Wu Dingyuan, and Kong Qingtang. "Make the most of every minute to learn German. Memorize ten words and four sentences a day. In fifty days, if you can remember five hundred words and two hundred sentences, that should be just about enough."

Chang Desheng listened from the side, his mind racing with calculations.

Fourteen a day, seven hundred in fifty days. People always forget some; remembering four hundred is already pretty good. This method is clumsy, but it works—it's better than starving, after all.

Shang Dequan adjusted his glasses and asked in a low voice, "Where's Zhenbang? Isn't he studying?"

Duan Qirui's ears twitched, but he didn't look up.

Reiner glanced at Chang Desheng and switched to Chinese: "He doesn't need to, it's too easy for him. What he needs to practice now is his ears and mouth—to talk to real Germans."

The way Shang Dequan and Kong Qingtang looked at Chang Desheng changed instantly.

That was the look in his eyes when he looked at his older brother.

Duan Qirui's finger stopped. He stared at the German text on the booklet cover—Guten Tag, Good Day—and was incredibly anxious. Was his previous poor academic performance just an act? It must have been an act! Damn it, so cunning!

Wu Dingyuan glanced furtively at Duan Qirui, then at Chang Desheng. His resolve began to waver—was it too late to change leaders now?

Reiner had switched back to German and said to Chang Desheng, "Chang, your learning method is different from theirs. You learned German through English, so naturally you learned it quickly. But you still need to practice your speaking and listening skills. Remember, try to use German as much as possible, rather than English, when speaking with foreigners..."

As Renell spoke, she was also having some doubts.

This kid is improving too fast, it's unbelievable.

He could spell out military engineering terms like "breechblock locking mechanism," "rifling twist rate," and "armor-piercing projectile" after just one glance. Even more impressively, he knew quite a few corresponding English words related to civil engineering—those were incredibly difficult terms, mostly borrowed from Latin, and most British people who weren't construction professionals wouldn't recognize them.

Little did Reiner know that Chang Desheng wasn't "studying," but rather "recalling."

Having studied German as a second foreign language for his postgraduate entrance exam in his previous life, and having also studied German standards at a design institute, those word roots were already ingrained in his bones. Moreover, German word formation is like building blocks—"armor-piercing projectile" is simply "penetrate" plus "armor" plus "projectile body," very straightforward. Many military terms are variations of engineering terms, and for him, it's like retrieving standard parts from a CAD library and rearranging them—how could he not be fast?

Reiner continued, "Starting today, every afternoon at two o'clock, go to the first-class café, and I will introduce you to a German traveler to chat for an hour. Today it's Mr. Carl von Schneider, he's from Krupp."

Chang Desheng thought to himself: Krupp Company!

Reiner himself transitioned from selling arms at Krupp to becoming an instructor. He's basically treating me like a future favorite of Li Hongzhang, paving the way for Schneider.

He nodded, indicating that he would definitely speak German properly.

The two got up, spoke in German, and walked out.

The hatch closed.

Duan Qirui gripped the mimeographed booklet so tightly that his fingers turned white. He stared at the first word on the first page, "Guten Tag," his triangular eyes seeming to have two awls, as if he wanted to chisel through, chew up, and swallow this line of foreign text.

He took a breath.

You must memorize it all.

They must not be inferior to those surnamed Chang.

.........

Chang Desheng and Reiner entered the coffee shop.

This first-class café is truly exceptional. Floor-to-ceiling windows, white tablecloths, silver cutlery. A pianist plays a gentle melody in the corner. The air is filled with the aroma of coffee, cigars, and a subtle scent of perfume.

That was so dignified!

Chang Desheng glanced at it.

There were quite a few people, mostly white, with several turbaned Indian waiters walking around. Then he saw—in a corner, Tojo Hideaki and three other Japanese officers were sitting, each holding a cup of coffee, their backs ramrod straight, as if they were holding a military meeting.

Reiner gestured with her chin towards the window seat.

A German couple. The man, in his forties, wore a gray striped suit, his blond hair neatly combed, his face somewhat square, and his chin broad. The woman also had blond hair, styled in a bun, and wore a dark green long dress with a string of pearls around her neck; she sat very elegantly.

Those were the von Schneider couple.

"Go," Renell whispered.

Chang Desheng straightened his silk robe—which his mother had insisted on giving him before he left home, saying that "you can't dress too shabbily when you meet foreigners"—and strode into the coffee shop. His cloth shoes with their multi-layered soles made almost no sound as they stepped on the carpet.

He walked straight to the couple's table, stopped three steps away, and bowed slightly.

Then he spoke, in clear, composed, and slightly bookish Oxford English:

"Good afternoon. Please excuse my intrusion. May I ask if you are Mr. Schneider from Krupp? I am Chang Desheng, a student of Mr. Reiner."

The Schneiders looked up at the same time.

A flicker of surprise crossed Von Schneider's eyes. He had met Asians who spoke English—Shanghai compradors, Hong Kong businessmen, Japanese diplomats. But their English was either broken pidgin or had a rural American accent.

The young man in front of me spoke with a perfect Oxford accent and in Union Jack English.

This isn't something that can be taught in just any school; in England, only upper-class gentlemen could speak it fluently.

This Chang Desheng must be either rich or noble.

Mrs. Schneider's eyes lit up, and she put down her teacup and nodded slightly.

"Yes, I am Schneider," von Schneider replied in English, standing up and extending his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Chang. Reiner mentioned you—he said you were a special student."

The two shook hands.

"Please have a seat," Mrs. Schneider said in German, gesturing to the waiter, "and a cup of coffee for this gentleman."

Chang Desheng thanked him and sat down. The waiter brought coffee, and he picked up the cup, smelled it—hmm, it smells really good, much better than the instant coffee I used to stay awake in later generations.

Then he switched languages ​​again, speaking in standard Hanoverian German:

"Thank you very much, madam. A cup of coffee will help ease the discomfort caused by seasickness."

The Schneiders exchanged a glance.

If the Oxford English they just heard impressed them, this German spoken with standard Norwegian pronunciation now commands their utmost respect.

This wasn't the harsh accent of Prussian soldiers, nor the mixed accent of Berlin citizens, but rather standard Hanoverian pronunciation—an accent that only well-educated upper-class elites in Germany could speak fluently.

Oxford English plus Hanover Standard German.

This statement makes it very clear: this young man must have received top-notch, systematic, and extremely expensive elite education!

Let alone in the East, even in Germany itself, those who can speak both of these "tools of the upper class" are at least high-ranking bureaucrats, big capitalists, engineers, and above them, probably high-ranking nobles.

Mrs. Schneider's smile became more genuine. She asked in German, "Mr. Chang, did you learn German in Hanover?"

"My German teacher was from there," Chang Desheng smiled. "He told me that German spoken in Hanover is as precise as mathematics—I guess that's probably the standard in the Krupp factory too."

Von Schneider smiled; those words had really struck a chord with him.

.........

in the corner.

Hideki Tojo put down his coffee cup.

He has sharp ears; he heard everything.

He heard it the moment Chang Desheng opened his mouth to speak English. His English was good—as the top student in the first class of the Army University, he was required to speak English, read the British Army Manual, and read The Times. But his English was "Japanese English," with each consonant pronounced forcefully, like he was shouting commands.

And that Qing Dynasty student spoke English... fluently and naturally, better than those navy guys who took pride in speaking English.

Then he heard German.

They were much better than when they were talking at the Shanghai docks ten days ago.

This progress is too fast!

Tojo's hands clenched tightly under the table.

He said in a low voice in Japanese, "Gentlemen, did you hear that?"

Sitting opposite them were Shogo Iguchi, Keizo Yamaguchi, and Shigeta Fujii, three first-year students from the Army War College, who all nodded in unison. Their brows were furrowed.

They had long regarded the Qing Dynasty as a hypothetical enemy. In their view, the Qing Dynasty's Huai Army was strong—in the 1884 coup, Yuan Shikai led the Huai Army to defeat the Japanese army in Seoul, a disgrace to the Imperial Army. But the Huai Army's strength lay in its bravery, its numbers, and Yuan Shikai's resolute decisiveness.

Generally speaking, the Qing army was backward and conservative, and its officers were mostly old-fashioned military men or intellectuals who did not understand the latest military technology, so it was no match for the Japanese army at that time.

But now, they saw and heard with their own eyes and ears: the chief of the Beiyang Military Academy could speak fluent English and very good German.

What was the Beiyang Military Academy? It was the cradle of the Qing Dynasty's new-style military officers.

However, intelligence reports say that it was a "crash course" with a very short curriculum, teaching basic drills, simple surveying, and rudimentary Western military tactics.

Logically speaking, the Beiyang Army should not have produced such people.

Was the intelligence wrong?

"The students of the Beiyang Army..." Yamaguchi Keizo said in a low voice, "Are they all this capable? Are they going to learn two foreign languages?"

"Isn't this just an officer training school?" Fujii Shigeta muttered.

Shogo Iguchi stared at Chang Desheng's retreating figure, his eyes deep and thoughtful: "Perhaps the Qing army is reforming faster than we thought. Perhaps the Huai Army has more than just one Yuan Shikai."

Hideki Tojo remained silent for a few seconds.

His eyes were fixed on Chang Desheng, watching the young Qing man calmly talk to the Germans, and seeing the admiring look on the Schneiders' faces.

Then he spoke again, his voice low:

"We need to keep a close eye on this person."

"We must find out the true nature of the Beiyang Military Academy."

"All information, including where their classes, teachers, and students went, and how far their cooperation with the Germans had progressed, had to be written into reports and sent back to Germany through the embassy."

The three officers straightened their backs and responded in low voices:

"Hi!"

.........

At the same time, Chang Desheng and the Schneider couple continued their oral English practice.

Von Schneider leaned forward slightly: "So, Mr. Chang, Reiner said you're going to Germany to study military affairs. Is there anything you particularly want to know about Krupp's products?"

Chang Desheng picked up his coffee but didn't answer immediately, as if he'd forgotten the word. After two seconds, he put down his cup and asked in German, his voice slightly higher than before, making sure it would reach the ears of the few Japanese people nearby:

"Mr. Schneider, has Krupp ever researched... a particularly light cannon that could be pulled by a horse-drawn sled in deep snow?"

Von Schneider raised an eyebrow.

In the corner, Hideaki Tojo had just swallowed his cold coffee, the bitter taste still lingering in his mouth. The three officers opposite him had just finished their "high" and hadn't even relaxed their posture when they heard this sentence.

All four people and eight ears perked up immediately.

"Please continue," Schneider leaned forward.

"I was thinking," Chang Desheng gestured, drawing a high arc in the air, "that our current field artillery is good, but in knee-deep snow, it's just a lump of iron, impossible to move. I was wondering if there's a type of artillery that has a shorter range but a higher trajectory, capable of crossing ridges to hit fortifications behind them. Most importantly, it needs to be lightweight, disassembled into several large pieces so that infantry can carry them themselves across the snow, or drag them by horse-drawn sleds. The simpler the structure, the better, so it won't easily break in the harsh winter conditions."

He paused, then added, as if explaining:

"Li Zhongtang and several generals often said that the northern border was too long and the winters were too long. Simply holding the outposts wouldn't work; we needed something that could move around and fight effectively in the snow to hold the line."

.........

in the corner.

Shogo Iguchi, Keizo Yamaguchi, and Shigeta Fujii all looked at their "leader," Tojo.

Hideaki Tojo squinted, as if deep in thought.

Snow...lightweight...high ballistics...disassembly and retraction...Northern Frontier...

These words went through his mind several times, and soon he had the answer.

It's Russia.

It is quite possible that the Qing Dynasty regarded Russia as its main hypothetical enemy—which is understandable, as they viewed Japan as a tiny country and Russia as a greedy polar bear.

Therefore, in the coming years, the Qing army will focus on strengthening its operations against Russia and winter warfare... Of course, he cannot make a judgment based solely on a conversation between the chief of the Beiyang Army and his friend; he still needs to continue to observe...

If this piece of information, obtained by chance, is confirmed, then winter warfare should be avoided as much as possible in the future Sino-Japanese War.