But this mechanism of tax increase and dividends based on shares.
For many gentry and wealthy people, it is a very good thing.
They can calculate the accounts clearly and clearly.
Think about it, the farmers in the province contribute 3% to the railway company for nothing every year. They don’t need to be given shareholder status or receive dividends. This money is equivalent to taking it for free. When the time comes, they will use it to make other investments, and they will lose money. Farmers from all over the province are shouldering the burden, and profits are shared by the major shareholders. Isn’t this a sure-profit business?
Therefore, Sichuan Railway Company suddenly changed from "cold steamed buns" to "hot cakes".
Under this circumstance, the gentry at that time used the funds of the railway company to invest in other areas, which resulted in the final laying of the railways being extremely slow, and many railways even stopped laying at a certain length.
When the time came to 1911, the Qing government at that time naturally could not allow this situation to continue.
At the same time, there was also the intervention of foreign forces. In addition, the arrears to foreigners signed in the "Treaty of Shimonoseki" and "Treaty of Xinchou" at that time expired, and the Qing government was no longer able to repay it.
In this way, the Qing government began to engage in troublesome operations.
They first announced that the railways would be taken back to state ownership, and then all the money invested by the gentry would not be returned, but would continue to be held as shares in the state-owned railway companies.
At the same time, railways were used to sign new loan contracts with foreigners.
According to the loan contract, the British, American, French, German and other imperialists not only took control of the railway rights, but also used the salt tax fees of Hunan and Hubei provinces as collateral. Therefore, the so-called "state-owned" railways not only deprived the Chinese people of their own rights The sovereignty of the railways was completely auctioned to imperialism.
As a result, a vigorous road protection movement began to break out.
The broad masses of the people suffered a lot during the preparation period for the two railways. When they saw the Qing government openly selling off road rights, they became even more angry. Many gentry and businessmen were also very dissatisfied because the state-owned railways had harmed their interests.
The gentry created a lot of public opinion among them, saying that the imperial court was unreasonable. Although the capital was 20 million taels, the imperial court only recognized 8 million taels. This was because they wanted to swallow up all the people's hard-earned money of 12 million taels!
Of course they are not for the benefit of ordinary people, but for their own benefit.
But in this case, so-called patriotism became the last refuge for these scoundrels.
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The Qing government at that time, under the supervision of Sheng Xuanhuai and Duan Fang, wanted to transfer the railway company's money to the Qing government.
This completely angered all the people in Sichuan.
So there was the Road Protection Comrades Association.
Also called Comrade Baolu Army.
Following the uprising of Comrade Baolu's army, the Qing government was furious and urgently mobilized Duan Fang to lead the Hubei army into Sichuan to suppress the uprising.
Because of the social environment at the time, many people no longer believed in the Qing government amid the panic of the uprising.
Duanfang used various means to appease the army.
When Duan Fang and his younger brother Duan Jin arrived in Sichuan, they gave speeches with thirsty speeches, hoping to put down the uprising and riot as soon as possible.
When some soldiers were sick, they would personally visit the soldiers' homes and so on.
In order to appease the morale of the army, Duan Fang promised that the army's military salary would be issued as soon as possible, and he had also sent someone to borrow 40,000 taels of military salary from the Chengdu Bank.
"Brother, we have no control over the place at all now. It's hard to calm down our anger during this trip!"
"No matter what, we must take back those millions of taels of silver from the railway company!"
At this time, Duan Fang and his younger brother Duan Jin were sitting in the camp discussing the next action.
"The people from Chengdu haven't come back yet? If they don't come back, I think these soldiers will rebel!"
As soon as Duan Jin finished speaking, he heard a burst of chaos outside.
"Governor, no good, the people below have rebelled!"
I saw a Duanfang soldier running in quickly and shouting loudly.
What?
Rebellion?
Duan Fang looked unbelieving.
Didn’t you already say that they should be given military pay?
At this time, the sound of whirring outside reached his ears.
"He lied to us for how many days. He said he would give us military pay, but he still hasn't paid it yet!"
"You can't live anymore, brothers, rebel!"
"The imperial court no longer treats us as human beings, it's the opposite!"
On November 27, 1911, the Duanfang brothers were killed by soldiers in Zizhou.
The funny thing is, the military pay was delivered the next day.
During this period, another big thing happened.
That is, in order to suppress the road protection movement in Sichuan, many troops were recruited from Hubei, which directly led to the lack of defense in Wuchang.
In 1911, the Wuchang Uprising broke out.
After that, it’s history that everyone knows.
After Duan Fang's death, his family declined rapidly.
In 1924, the Duanfang family at that time had begun to make a living by selling the antiques left by Duanfang.
The forbidden artifacts were dug out by a farmer in Baoji County, Fengxiang Prefecture, Shaanxi Province in 1901 while plowing the fields.
Finally, 14 pieces were purchased by Duan Fang, who was the chief envoy of the Shaanxi vassal at that time.
In 1924, the Duanfang family sold this set of bronzes for 200,000 taels of silver.
The American businessman Fu Kaisen then sold it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, reportedly for US$300,000-350,000.
The US$300,000 in 1924 is estimated to be many times higher now. It can be seen that the cultural relics collected by Duan Fang at that time still had a lot of value.
2023,
Metropolitan Museum of America.
Everyone knows that the British Museum collects many Chinese cultural relics, mainly because of the spread of the Internet, including short videos such as "Escape from the British Museum" that became popular on the Internet, which made everyone aware of this matter.
In fact, according to public data, the Chinese cultural relics collected by the British Museum only rank among the top three museums in the world.
The British Museum has a total collection of 26,000 Chinese cultural relics.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in the United States has a collection of 35,000 Chinese cultural relics, nearly 10,000 more than the British Museum. The second largest collection is the Louvre Museum in France, which has a total collection of 30,000 cultural relics from China. .
It's heartbreaking to think about these numbers.
This does not include other large and small museums. The total number of Chinese cultural relics lost is estimated to be dozens or millions.
Now, they have no way to go home and can only bear the attention of others in a foreign country.
Inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Compared to the British Museum, their security measures are countless times better.
At this time, the forbidden utensils from China were placed in a more conspicuous position for everyone to appreciate.
A group of Americans were talking and laughing, saying that this thing was purchased from China.
There is contempt for China in his face.
Some Chinese tourists heard this and wanted to come forward to argue, but in the end they were stopped by their companions.
Just when many people were visiting, suddenly,
Everyone felt that their eyes were filled with flowers.
When everyone blinked, in the display cabinet where the forbidden utensils were originally placed,
But it turned into a pile of plastic wine glasses.
