Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-26
CHAPTER x11-continued.

Yen How's scheme was nothing less than
this: That every Chnaman should be a
soldier.
Conscription in China Z" +"
Here was a lesson learned from Europe
But when we say soldier" we mean
something different from what Is under
stood by the word among us. We do not
mean man-eQuipped with smokeless pow
der. ard magazine rifles, with Lee-Met-
fords, and Martins, and Snlders. We mean
| only a man having some sort OF arms-a
club. or dart or matchbox or poker
anything which would give him the idea
I that he had to fight, and which would per-
haps delay his death a moment while myr-
lads OF others swept over those who had
killed him. The Chinese host was to re-
semble flight of locusts, covering the en-
tire sky from horizon to horizon, each
member OF which was armed with some
implement not so much for the purpose or
killing as for the purpose of protracting
his own death, while the rest OF the most
pressed forward, plightng as they went.
His duty was hardly to fight, but to oc-
cupy time in dying. For this service none
were too old, few too young-and women
were good as men. Yen Hows army
would consist OF the 4UOUUV,OUO which
formed the population of China.
The organization OF this war host he
planned principally on the French model.
He divided the whole OF China into 240
army corps regions. each containing about
two million Inhabitants. This arrangement
included Thibet, Mongolia, Manchuria and
Korea, the heads CT winch countries he
had long since brought into line with his
plans.
In each region he quartered the principal
elements of the field army corps with the
necessary staff setting up in each region
a large number of recruiting depots, and
depots of artillery, transport, supplies OF
food and forage, with clothing and camp
equipment.
The whole of the troops and organization
for this purpose put under the COM
mand of the general OF that particular
army corps and its region And this gen
eral was in every case a Japanese.
Each region was divided into two hun
dred subdivisions, each of the subdivisions
furnishing one regiment or infantry OF the
line, twenty SUBDIVISIONS forming an IN
fantry brigade command, and forty sub
divisions infantry divisional command
Divisional commands were also intrusted
exclusively to Japanese; brigade and regl-
mental commands to the most trustworthy
of the Chinese officers of the regular army
Each corps was furnished with vast
corps cavalry brigade. the horses-to use
an Irishism-befng mules, and the weapon
the long spear
Each regiment was subdivided into three
battalions, each battalion into four COM
| panies, and each company into twelve
squads.
Each squad contained from sixty 10
sixty-three persons who were known by
numbers from No. l to No. G3.
They contained children over the age of
nine, women Except the wives and daugh-
tiers OF mandarins and other upper classes)
and old men, tottering on the verge of the
grave. The priest and pundit classes were
exempted also.
The nation was organized into an army.
This one method which Yen How
employed to kick and prick it into wake
fulness.
Each army corps contained, besides its
n f.
teries OF artillery, six sections of artificers
six artillery parks, thirty companies OF
pontooners, six telegraph sections ana
forty field batteries.
But there were field hospitals or hos
pital orderlies, no ambulances, no medical
provisions. Yen How could afford men.
One important feature of the army corps
was the provision OF armored carts. They
were to serve not only for transport but
for defense in battle. and their shape was
contrived with this view, being long and
low, with small wheels, and rather pom
derous. One had been made, or to be
made for each ''peloton."
All this was now in rapid and intense
progress. And the world knew nothing
of it!
China, north of Tonquin, had telegra phi
| cally isolated herself.
! In Japan the manufacture Of guns,
swords, spears and small arms was going
forward with agonzed activity; and these
were coming over to China. China's chief
me- nufa cturihg energies were directed to the
making of armored carts and tents.
But the drilling of China was only one
half of Yen How's method of rousing 1t.
He knew that it was necessary to drive the
| nation further still. He did this by tax
ing 1t.
Let It not be supposed that any part of
his motive was a need of money for all
this war preparation. The loan raised in
the previous year, which should have been
spent by China in paying Japan's war in
| demnity, still. except for one INSTALL
ment, In the pockets of China.
The loan had not been necessary to China
| at all! She could have raised sufficient to
pay Japan by an issue of treasury bonds,
the purchase of which may be made COM
pulsory in China, If not subscribed to vol
unfairly.
Or she could have called upon the viceroys
to wiring enough out of the mercantile and
agricultural classes.
But neither loan, nor bonds, nor viceroy
| extortion had been necessary! Japans mere
credit was good for the building of the
vessels she needed; and the money paid
over to Japan, would simply have lain In
the Bank OF England to Japan's credit AS
matter of fact. In the secret treaty be-
tween the Marquis Ito and Yen How the
payment of the indemnity was RENTED
From this source alone China was for
the present. rich; but under the guidance
How's she was vastly richer still from quite
other sources.
China, in reality. was never a poor coun-
try: on the contrary, she was potentially
about the richest In the world. Manchuria
was an FL Dorado of gold. The mineral
mines of Kwang-tung, Heilung-Chiang and
the Kirin provinces had been the envy OF
the nations But the curse Of China had
been her official class. The heavy likin
| charges, which went, nearly all Of it, into
the pockets OF it's collectors. stified many
an industry. The government income was
estimated at two hundred and ten million
taels but only seventy million of this-one-
third-was accounted for. On the remain
der the mandarins Wallowed in fairness.
Ven HOw'S screwed into q smile, ana
he said: NO more of that, my sons!
The substance of what he said and what
he did was this: you are to extort, you
are to squeeze. and plumber, and grind the
people ten times-a hundred times-more
| than ever before-till they perish like sheep
of it, But this time you are going to do 1t
not for your own benefit, but for my bene-
At, and for the benefit of China. I, Yen
How have said it, and will see to IT,.
Within two months from his attainment
of the supreme power he had created
board formed on the lines Of the Imperial
| Maritime Customs Board, for clean-hand-
| ed collection of the internal revenues. 1t
| contained some Chinese officials, but more
| japanese.
The immediate effect of this change was
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