“The Governor General is right, history is written by the victors. As long as we can achieve victory on the battlefield. As long as we can overthrow the Qing dynasty. Then, even if the whole world condemns us, it's no big deal.
Even those scholars will be the first to change their stance, praising the Beiyang Army for confiscating the Kong family's property.
It's even possible that, without us having to lift a finger, a large number of scholars will come forward to accuse the Kong family of being corrupt and tarnishing the reputation of Confucius!”
Zhang Yao, the Governor of Shandong Province, said.
The other high-ranking officials of Beiyang all nodded in agreement.
Everyone came from a scholarly background, and they were naturally very familiar with the nature, or rather, the shamelessness of scholars.
Therefore, the biggest issue for Beiyang was to defeat the Qing army on the battlefield, so that they could then destroy the Qing dynasty.
Regarding the military strength of the Beiyang Army, everyone was quite confident about this.
Soon, Li Jingyuan also arrived to attend the meeting.
“Father, gentlemen, I'm sorry I'm late. I was busy organizing the data.” Li Jingyuan apologized.
“Old Three, we confiscated the Kong family's property, causing the entire Beiyang to be condemned and cursed by all the scholars in the world. The Qing court also took this opportunity to criticize us and gain the support of those scholars.
We believe that everything ultimately boils down to military operations.
As long as we can achieve victory on the battlefield. Then, everything will be in our favor.”
Li Hongzhang said.
Li Jingyuan nodded repeatedly: “Don't worry too much. The Beiyang Army is determined to defeat the Qing army in terms of military strength. Those scholars, even if they shout that they will never compromise with us, once we succeed, they will probably be the first to change their stance and serve us.”
The others also agreed.
“This time, we have confiscated the property of the Kong family and other families who colluded with the Qing dynasty. From this operation, we have confiscated a large amount of their property. The gold and silver alone are worth over 100 million taels. This is not including other jewels, precious stones, houses, and land. If we include these, the total gains will be a huge number!” Li Jingyuan said.
“This much?” Li Hongzhang was stunned.
He had been an official for his entire life and had only accumulated a few tens of millions of taels of silver in wealth.
The other high-ranking officials of Beiyang also widened their eyes.
After all, the annual fiscal revenue of the Qing dynasty was only about 70 or 80 million taels of silver.
“A large portion of it was obtained from the Kong family. The other families didn't have much. I plan to invest all of this money into military expenditure to ensure that we can decisively defeat the Qing dynasty in the upcoming war!” Li Jingyuan said.
Li Hongzhang and the others had no objections to this.
Everyone knew that, for them, the most important thing was for the Beiyang Army to defeat the Qing dynasty and overthrow the Qing government in the upcoming battles.
“In addition, we confiscated a large amount of land from these families. Preliminary calculations suggest that it is over four million mu. I plan to give each Beiyang soldier ten mu of land for free.
This way, our upcoming large-scale recruitment should be very successful!
At the same time, with their own land, these soldiers will be more motivated to fight in the upcoming battles.
If we fail, the land they have finally obtained will inevitably be taken back by the Qing court.
Then, they will no longer be fighting for us, but for themselves!”
Li Jingyuan continued.
Li Hongzhang's eyes lit up immediately.
“Old Three, this is a good idea. Once the soldiers are given land, they will definitely fight with all their might. The Qing army will find it even harder to defeat us!” Li Hongzhang praised sincerely.
The other high-ranking officials of Beiyang also echoed his sentiment.
Everyone knew how much the Chinese people cherished land.
It could be said that it was ingrained in everyone's bones.
With land, a family would have the means to survive, they would have a place to stand.
After the Beiyang Army allocated land to its soldiers, it was conceivable how hard they would fight on the battlefield.
“Furthermore, the Qing court is trying to win over scholars and gain public support. We need to find ways to compete with the Qing court for public opinion. Those scholars may not be that influential. But the common people of the whole country are the most important.
I hope that we can implement a land redistribution policy in the entire Shandong province.
The land we confiscated is already owned by the government, and we will also confiscate the land of officials and families who served the Qing dynasty, the land of princes and nobles, and then redistribute it to farmers without land or with little land.
This will surely gain the support of the vast majority of farmers.
Then, the nearly 40 million people in Shandong will definitely support us wholeheartedly.
The Qing court will find it even harder to defeat us.
Once we conquer other provinces, we will implement the same policy.
Then, most of the common people in the whole country will stand on our side.
How will the Qing court compete with us for public opinion then?”
Li Jingyuan revealed his other plan.