A Love Never Lost Episode 34 Recap
> A Love Never Lost Recap
Prince Regent Zai Feng was dining with Duke Ayakura and his wife, along with Hirata Ichiro. Liang Xiang was also present. Regarding the stock market crash, Zai Feng sought the Duke’s opinion. Ayakura responded that there was no good solution, only preventative measures. Hirata Ichiro saw that the crash had accelerated the collapse of the Qing economy, and the country was becoming increasingly unstable. The Qing government had completely lost credibility.
Ayakura instructed Hirata never to forget: Japan must not lose a single bit of its interest in Manchuria. Liang Xiang accompanied the Duke on a boat tour of Kunming Lake in the Summer Palace. When asked whether a revolution might erupt in China, the Duke did not answer directly. His silence only confirmed Liang Xiang’s suspicions. For China, a revolution might be inevitable—it was only waiting for the right moment to ignite.
Xie Shuhong’s account had suddenly received a remittance of 70,000 taels, identified as a donation from the Chinese Educational Association from Nanyang. Song Baoquan then explained that someone wanted to use her account to transfer the money to Guangzhou. He instructed Xie Shuhong to have the money withdrawn, converted into small-denomination notes, and urgently delivered to a man named Huang Xing. Duanfang believed that the gradual reform policies of the past decade might have actually led to revolution.
The new, more relaxed policies had drawn students, scholars, gentry, merchants, and lower-level officers of the New Army to the cities, where they were now better positioned than ever to take collective action against the court. A single spark could ignite a prairie fire. Duanfang felt they could no longer afford to sleep on this pile of firewood and asked Liang Xiang to relay these words to Zai Feng. The situation in Guangzhou had recently become volatile.
Revolutionaries had infiltrated the city and planned to seize all government offices. On the tenth day of the third month in the third year of Xuantong’s reign, during an aviation performance by Belgians outside Guangzhou’s East Gate, a revolutionary named Wen Shengtai attempted to assassinate the Navy Admiral Li Zhun. Unexpectedly, it was General Fu Qi of the Guangzhou garrison who was killed.
On the 29th of March, revolutionary Huang Xing led a suicide squad in a direct assault on the Governor's Office of Liangguang, launching the Tenth Armed Uprising of the Tongmenghui. Governor Zhang Mingqi fled in panic. Navy Admiral Li Zhun’s forces clashed with the revolutionaries at the East Gate. Outnumbered, the uprising failed and became known in history as the "Huanghuagang Uprising.
" After reading the interrogation records, Zai Feng couldn’t understand why the rebels were all young students returned from overseas. These were people full of vigor and with promising futures. Why would they sacrifice themselves for the revolution? Liang Xiang, who had also studied in Japan, was asked for his opinion. He admitted that none of the current cabinet members could compare to the revolutionaries in terms of idealism and noble spirit.
However, Zai Feng found it very difficult to make personnel decisions. The chaos in Guangzhou might inspire similar actions across the country. Zai Feng instructed Liang Xiang to have the main Beiyang Army draft a plan and hold a military review in Yongping soon to demonstrate the court’s strength and resolve. Li Renjun had commanded the Twelfth Detachment for over three months.
When Yang Kaizhi accused him of falsifying accounts, Li Renjun defended himself, claiming that this was standard practice across the entire Beiyang Army. Seeing that they couldn’t agree, Yang Kaizhi stopped arguing. Li Renjun, in turn, lectured him that as a regional commander, he needed to be more tolerant. Yang Kaizhi then understood why Li Renjun had been sent to the Twelfth Detachment.
Li Renjun himself was well aware—Master Yuan feared that the Sixth Town would fall completely under revolutionary control, hence he dispatched Li Renjun. As his closest buddy, Li Renjun worried that one day he and Yang Kaizhi might go their separate ways—or even come to blows. That day would eventually come; he just didn’t know when.
