1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:11,040 Speaker 1: Hi Hi, Hi America podcast Robert Evans The Bastards. Yeah, 2 00:00:11,039 --> 00:00:13,840 Speaker 1: we're um, we're coming in this. This one's been rough. 3 00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:15,920 Speaker 1: There's been a lot of disasters behind the start of 4 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:18,279 Speaker 1: this episode behind the Bastards podcast, where we talking about 5 00:00:18,280 --> 00:00:21,959 Speaker 1: the worst people in all history. First off, Um, I 6 00:00:22,079 --> 00:00:25,160 Speaker 1: got the time wrong. Our our our guest today, we're 7 00:00:25,160 --> 00:00:27,560 Speaker 1: doing reverse Bastards where someone reads me a story about 8 00:00:27,560 --> 00:00:29,800 Speaker 1: a terrible person. It's another coup. We have a lot 9 00:00:29,840 --> 00:00:33,920 Speaker 1: of coups, were like Guatemala, most of Latin America throughout 10 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:38,000 Speaker 1: like the sixties to present day. Actually, um, we're a 11 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:41,040 Speaker 1: lot like all that. Um. And and my coup guest 12 00:00:41,159 --> 00:00:45,200 Speaker 1: today is our our friend Christopher from Worst Year Ever. 13 00:00:45,280 --> 00:00:49,800 Speaker 1: You know him on Twitter as Ice must be Destroyed? Guy. Ums, 14 00:00:49,880 --> 00:00:53,000 Speaker 1: how's it going Christopher? It's it's it's going pretty good. 15 00:00:53,080 --> 00:00:55,440 Speaker 1: I have I have successfully come out, come out in 16 00:00:55,520 --> 00:00:59,840 Speaker 1: charge of this this warlord struggle. Yeah, successfully successfully taking 17 00:00:59,840 --> 00:01:03,120 Speaker 1: a roll of Beijing for about two hours, which is 18 00:01:03,160 --> 00:01:05,800 Speaker 1: about the average time that people hold Beijing in this period. 19 00:01:07,240 --> 00:01:09,600 Speaker 1: Very excited. Well, you've given us a little bit of 20 00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:11,800 Speaker 1: a hint about the episode for today. I want to 21 00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:15,000 Speaker 1: start this by noting that you are in Chicago, UM, 22 00:01:15,080 --> 00:01:17,360 Speaker 1: which I thought meant you were in the Eastern Standard 23 00:01:17,400 --> 00:01:21,080 Speaker 1: time because I assume everything east of Arizona exists in 24 00:01:21,120 --> 00:01:23,800 Speaker 1: the same time zone unless it's Texas, and that is 25 00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:28,240 Speaker 1: apparently not the case, which in Texas at the same 26 00:01:28,280 --> 00:01:33,920 Speaker 1: time zone, which makes rel You know, I haven't spent 27 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:36,880 Speaker 1: much time in in southern in southern Illinois, but you know, 28 00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:39,160 Speaker 1: I think I think if you broke off a bunch 29 00:01:40,040 --> 00:01:42,560 Speaker 1: there for a little while, yeah, I me either or 30 00:01:42,600 --> 00:01:44,800 Speaker 1: not like that. I just want to let the listeners 31 00:01:44,920 --> 00:01:49,160 Speaker 1: know that. As we were testing our levels for this recording, 32 00:01:49,160 --> 00:01:51,600 Speaker 1: I went, whose airplane is there? Somebody? Is there an 33 00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:55,480 Speaker 1: airplane flying over somebody's house right now? And it was 34 00:01:55,560 --> 00:01:58,640 Speaker 1: just Robert's foot massage or I thought he could use 35 00:01:58,680 --> 00:02:01,720 Speaker 1: while we recorded. The thought gust and it was worth 36 00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:05,920 Speaker 1: the shot, so f it was worth a try. Look, 37 00:02:06,600 --> 00:02:13,560 Speaker 1: you know, it's impressive, horrifying. It wouldn't be the first time. 38 00:02:13,600 --> 00:02:16,160 Speaker 1: I keep doing things that create odd noises, Like a 39 00:02:16,160 --> 00:02:17,800 Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago, he had an episode where there 40 00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:19,880 Speaker 1: was like a clinking sound the whole episode and people 41 00:02:19,960 --> 00:02:22,040 Speaker 1: kept being what is it? It was a moon clip 42 00:02:22,160 --> 00:02:25,520 Speaker 1: of forty four plus p ammunition for my gigantic Revolver 43 00:02:25,639 --> 00:02:27,880 Speaker 1: that I was playing with as a desk toy. Um, 44 00:02:27,919 --> 00:02:30,160 Speaker 1: I removed that and then I got the foot machine. 45 00:02:30,320 --> 00:02:34,440 Speaker 1: So it's just just a disaster over here at all times. 46 00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:37,480 Speaker 1: You're a professional, but you know I'm a professional. This 47 00:02:37,560 --> 00:02:39,840 Speaker 1: is literally the only thing I do for money. Now. 48 00:02:39,960 --> 00:02:42,359 Speaker 1: They you are not our host, you are I'm not 49 00:02:42,600 --> 00:02:44,760 Speaker 1: so Christopher. Do you want to tell us what we're 50 00:02:44,760 --> 00:02:48,120 Speaker 1: talking about? Want to want to get started here? Yeah? Yeah, Robert, 51 00:02:48,160 --> 00:02:49,920 Speaker 1: I want to ask you something. How do you feel 52 00:02:49,919 --> 00:02:54,200 Speaker 1: about warlords? Oh? I'm very pro Um. I hope to 53 00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:56,600 Speaker 1: be one someday. The healthcare seems to be shipped, but 54 00:02:56,680 --> 00:03:00,000 Speaker 1: usually don't live long enough for that to really matter. Um. 55 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:03,000 Speaker 1: I already own a Mauser C nineties six, which a 56 00:03:03,040 --> 00:03:06,680 Speaker 1: lot of my favorite warlords were during the Chinese Civil Wars, 57 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:08,880 Speaker 1: and that was a popular gun there. So I feel 58 00:03:08,880 --> 00:03:14,280 Speaker 1: like I'm already halfway to being a proper warlord. Um. Yeah, 59 00:03:14,360 --> 00:03:17,400 Speaker 1: it seems like a good time. Um, I don't I 60 00:03:17,400 --> 00:03:20,880 Speaker 1: don't really know any downsides to being a war lord. Well, 61 00:03:20,919 --> 00:03:23,679 Speaker 1: sometimes sometimes you get assassinated about the Japanese because it 62 00:03:23,919 --> 00:03:26,440 Speaker 1: seems seems to be the biggest one. I'm already very 63 00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:29,200 Speaker 1: worried about that. So yeah, it's like it's a it's 64 00:03:29,200 --> 00:03:34,920 Speaker 1: a constant problem in the field. All right, So this 65 00:03:34,720 --> 00:03:39,320 Speaker 1: this week we're doing Chong Zung Chung. Who is you know, 66 00:03:39,440 --> 00:03:43,680 Speaker 1: he's probably trying his most famous worlord, but he's the 67 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:45,920 Speaker 1: warlord who was having the most fun in this period. 68 00:03:46,280 --> 00:03:49,560 Speaker 1: Oh how yeah, that's the guy I like. Then. Yeah, yeah, 69 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:52,040 Speaker 1: he's he's he's having a ball. He's gonna make history 70 00:03:52,080 --> 00:03:56,600 Speaker 1: work for you, you know. Yeah, what was that name again, 71 00:03:57,360 --> 00:04:02,440 Speaker 1: Chong Zong Chong Chung Zung Chung Jong Jong? Yeah, okay, 72 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:06,320 Speaker 1: going John Will we'll work there. And I'm pretty good 73 00:04:06,320 --> 00:04:08,880 Speaker 1: on Jong. Okay, yeah I can. We can do this. Yeah, 74 00:04:08,920 --> 00:04:11,080 Speaker 1: And he's he's also known as the dog meat Warlord, 75 00:04:11,720 --> 00:04:14,440 Speaker 1: which I don't know. I don't know if I like 76 00:04:14,560 --> 00:04:16,560 Speaker 1: that part with three dogs in the room with me 77 00:04:16,680 --> 00:04:19,279 Speaker 1: right now, but yeah, okay, so we we we will 78 00:04:19,279 --> 00:04:21,040 Speaker 1: get to this. But it's not he doesn't eat dogs. 79 00:04:21,480 --> 00:04:24,679 Speaker 1: This is this is entirely unrelated to the consumption of dogs, 80 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:27,200 Speaker 1: which is again pre incredible because doing that, he's called 81 00:04:27,279 --> 00:04:32,520 Speaker 1: the dog meat Yeah, gal, some eating dog meat, probably 82 00:04:32,960 --> 00:04:36,440 Speaker 1: not from the eating dog meat. Yeah, okay, okay, well, yeah, 83 00:04:36,520 --> 00:04:40,159 Speaker 1: let's let's get into this alright. John was born on 84 00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:43,960 Speaker 1: February eighty one in a rural village in shang Dung Province. 85 00:04:44,480 --> 00:04:47,200 Speaker 1: His family was incredibly poor. Later in life, Jong will 86 00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:49,760 Speaker 1: claim not to have known what a pillow was growing up. 87 00:04:49,839 --> 00:04:53,080 Speaker 1: And Jesus, yeah, you know, I mean, John is a 88 00:04:53,160 --> 00:04:57,920 Speaker 1: character where there's there's approximately ten billion sort of myths 89 00:04:57,920 --> 00:04:59,920 Speaker 1: floating around about him, but I actually believe this one. 90 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:03,440 Speaker 1: Like his his family is poor by the standards world China, 91 00:05:04,120 --> 00:05:05,760 Speaker 1: which is, you know, not a great place media in 92 00:05:05,760 --> 00:05:09,320 Speaker 1: the beginning, that's a whole new benchmark for poverty is like, 93 00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:19,120 Speaker 1: what is a pillow? Yeah, well, I'm okay, Jesus, all right. 94 00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:23,600 Speaker 1: His father, his father played trumpet at funerals and worked 95 00:05:23,640 --> 00:05:25,600 Speaker 1: as sort of a barber who shaves people's heads for 96 00:05:25,640 --> 00:05:29,440 Speaker 1: religious ceremonies, and he was poor. Yeah well yeah, and 97 00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:31,800 Speaker 1: you know, and his mom does like small time ritual 98 00:05:31,880 --> 00:05:35,839 Speaker 1: magic for money. Yeah, and you know, as you can 99 00:05:35,880 --> 00:05:38,760 Speaker 1: pick up on work, is incredibly unstable and in freakent 100 00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:42,680 Speaker 1: for both of them. Now, now, this is the error 101 00:05:42,680 --> 00:05:46,359 Speaker 1: of child labor. And I mean, okay, it's still the 102 00:05:46,440 --> 00:05:48,479 Speaker 1: era of child labor, but it was really the era 103 00:05:48,520 --> 00:05:51,080 Speaker 1: of child labor back then. And this means that John 104 00:05:51,120 --> 00:05:53,440 Speaker 1: started his first job when he was either twelve or thirteen, 105 00:05:54,240 --> 00:05:56,560 Speaker 1: and he is his first job is It's kind of 106 00:05:56,600 --> 00:05:59,240 Speaker 1: cute he would accompany when when his dad would played 107 00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:01,880 Speaker 1: trumpet at funeral, he would go along with him and 108 00:06:01,880 --> 00:06:06,640 Speaker 1: play symbols Okay, okay, getting in the family business, which 109 00:06:06,680 --> 00:06:11,800 Speaker 1: is ship, get into the terrible family business. He does 110 00:06:11,839 --> 00:06:17,640 Speaker 1: not pay enough for pillows. Good call Nope, good call mm. 111 00:06:19,080 --> 00:06:21,599 Speaker 1: Other other than the sort of whole crushing poverty part, 112 00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:24,039 Speaker 1: we don't know a huge amount about his family life, 113 00:06:24,040 --> 00:06:27,040 Speaker 1: other than that he absolutely adores his mother, which seems 114 00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:29,800 Speaker 1: to be why when his mother left his father to 115 00:06:29,880 --> 00:06:34,160 Speaker 1: move to Manchuria, John goes with his mother. And it's 116 00:06:34,160 --> 00:06:38,960 Speaker 1: sort of unclear why this happens, but what's most likely 117 00:06:39,080 --> 00:06:40,840 Speaker 1: seems to happen is that the family just wasn't making 118 00:06:40,920 --> 00:06:43,400 Speaker 1: enough money a support to three of them, so John's 119 00:06:43,440 --> 00:06:45,400 Speaker 1: mother took him to the provincial capital to look for 120 00:06:45,400 --> 00:06:48,679 Speaker 1: work there. This is the first similarity between this Chinese 121 00:06:48,680 --> 00:06:51,320 Speaker 1: warlord and Dr Phil and I'm curious as to whether 122 00:06:51,400 --> 00:06:54,400 Speaker 1: or not it will be the last. Yeah, I you know, 123 00:06:54,560 --> 00:06:56,680 Speaker 1: I was thinking about what about that when I was 124 00:06:56,680 --> 00:07:01,240 Speaker 1: writing this, and I don't know, there's there there, There's 125 00:07:01,279 --> 00:07:03,120 Speaker 1: there's a little bit there. There's a little bit there, 126 00:07:03,160 --> 00:07:08,000 Speaker 1: except I don't know different. Dr Phil doesn't end up 127 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:10,320 Speaker 1: in the army, And I think that's the big difference here. 128 00:07:10,360 --> 00:07:12,240 Speaker 1: I mean, I can imagine him as a bandit, but 129 00:07:13,440 --> 00:07:15,720 Speaker 1: I can imagine Dr Phil has a bandit for sure. 130 00:07:16,880 --> 00:07:19,360 Speaker 1: He is a kind of bandit, a spiritual kind. Though. 131 00:07:19,400 --> 00:07:20,840 Speaker 1: I think this guy is actually going to work out 132 00:07:20,840 --> 00:07:24,000 Speaker 1: to be much more ethical than Dr Phil. Well, well, 133 00:07:24,160 --> 00:07:27,880 Speaker 1: we'll see, we'll see about that, okay, all right, So 134 00:07:27,920 --> 00:07:31,440 Speaker 1: he moves with his mom to man Sharia. Yeah, and 135 00:07:31,640 --> 00:07:34,760 Speaker 1: while he's there, Uh, he's about fifteen at this point. 136 00:07:34,800 --> 00:07:37,040 Speaker 1: He starts working as a servant in a gambling house, 137 00:07:37,240 --> 00:07:39,800 Speaker 1: which he gives him his first exposure to this this 138 00:07:39,840 --> 00:07:42,480 Speaker 1: class of petty criminal that's most of his youth is 139 00:07:42,480 --> 00:07:45,400 Speaker 1: going to be spent avorting with these people. And this 140 00:07:45,440 --> 00:07:49,560 Speaker 1: pisces off the local gentry and they just expel him 141 00:07:49,600 --> 00:07:53,560 Speaker 1: from the city. Him specifically, not the criminals he's like 142 00:07:53,600 --> 00:07:58,200 Speaker 1: hanging out with. Why don't more than these other people? Yeah, my, my, 143 00:07:58,200 --> 00:08:01,120 Speaker 1: my guest on that is that so actual local criminals 144 00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:03,200 Speaker 1: probably have some kind of political power and he just doesn't. 145 00:08:03,560 --> 00:08:05,160 Speaker 1: So I can't really do anything to them. But they're 146 00:08:05,160 --> 00:08:06,760 Speaker 1: just like, yeah, well we'll kick we'll kick you out 147 00:08:06,800 --> 00:08:12,400 Speaker 1: of town. Okay, okay, so so and so once once 148 00:08:12,480 --> 00:08:14,720 Speaker 1: they're he does the thing that most young men do 149 00:08:14,760 --> 00:08:16,800 Speaker 1: when they have no jobs on throwing into the countryside. 150 00:08:17,240 --> 00:08:21,120 Speaker 1: He becomes a bandit. Hell yeah, alright, so this this 151 00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:23,280 Speaker 1: guy's this guy's moving up in the world. He's doing 152 00:08:23,280 --> 00:08:28,280 Speaker 1: better than his dad already. Yeah, now we for for 153 00:08:28,320 --> 00:08:30,560 Speaker 1: someone all of these reasons. We know very little about 154 00:08:30,600 --> 00:08:33,640 Speaker 1: what he was doing as a bandit um, but we 155 00:08:33,679 --> 00:08:35,960 Speaker 1: do know that his mother, who's now who's now completely 156 00:08:35,960 --> 00:08:37,720 Speaker 1: on her own, started it, starts to sort of data 157 00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:41,360 Speaker 1: series of men for the financial support, and eventually a 158 00:08:41,360 --> 00:08:44,120 Speaker 1: guy she was dating murderous her previous X and the 159 00:08:44,120 --> 00:08:47,920 Speaker 1: guy get sent to prison. But because this is and 160 00:08:47,960 --> 00:08:50,360 Speaker 1: I kind of emphasize this enough, an incredibly fucked up 161 00:08:50,360 --> 00:08:53,280 Speaker 1: patriarchal society, she also gets exiled from the city for 162 00:08:53,320 --> 00:08:56,079 Speaker 1: the murder, even though she had no golden in it. 163 00:08:57,160 --> 00:09:01,840 Speaker 1: Leaders just yeah, we're exceling you two. Yeah, your boyfriend 164 00:09:01,920 --> 00:09:03,840 Speaker 1: murdered somebody. You gotta get the funk out of here, 165 00:09:04,440 --> 00:09:09,280 Speaker 1: all right. So that's the kind of society. Okay, don't worry, 166 00:09:09,440 --> 00:09:12,520 Speaker 1: it gets worse. That was basically the whole world at 167 00:09:12,559 --> 00:09:17,000 Speaker 1: this point. So yeah, okay, and so yeah, So so 168 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:18,760 Speaker 1: when she's kicked out, she she dates like she's able 169 00:09:18,800 --> 00:09:20,640 Speaker 1: to date one more guy, and she scrapes off enough 170 00:09:20,720 --> 00:09:23,280 Speaker 1: money to go back to John's father. But when she 171 00:09:23,320 --> 00:09:26,120 Speaker 1: gets back to him, he's flat broke and sells her 172 00:09:26,160 --> 00:09:28,680 Speaker 1: to a grain merchant for some millet, which is apparently 173 00:09:28,720 --> 00:09:31,160 Speaker 1: a thing you could do at this time. You can 174 00:09:31,200 --> 00:09:33,199 Speaker 1: you can just sell your wife to a grain r 175 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:38,280 Speaker 1: I would condemn him for this, but this is the 176 00:09:39,120 --> 00:09:42,040 Speaker 1: This is the best financial investment he's made in his life, 177 00:09:42,160 --> 00:09:47,319 Speaker 1: is it. It was a wholesale merchant, So maybe you 178 00:09:47,400 --> 00:09:53,600 Speaker 1: got a good deal needed that fucking millet. Yeah, okay, 179 00:09:53,720 --> 00:09:56,439 Speaker 1: I shouldn't be laughing. This is horrible, but like, well, okay, 180 00:09:57,120 --> 00:10:02,199 Speaker 1: so this is just like such a bleak story. Well okay, 181 00:10:02,240 --> 00:10:04,719 Speaker 1: so at this point, John's mom just disappears in the 182 00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:07,120 Speaker 1: storic record for twenty years. But but don't worry about her. 183 00:10:07,200 --> 00:10:08,959 Speaker 1: She is the only person in the story. He was 184 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:12,160 Speaker 1: getting a happy ending, and like frankly, after all of 185 00:10:12,200 --> 00:10:14,240 Speaker 1: these ships, she's like one of the people who deserves 186 00:10:14,240 --> 00:10:21,439 Speaker 1: it the most. Yeah. So yeah, John's mother will return later. Um. 187 00:10:21,480 --> 00:10:25,600 Speaker 1: Now John is banditing for about two years um, but 188 00:10:25,640 --> 00:10:28,359 Speaker 1: eventually he's able to get a relatively stable job in Manchuria. 189 00:10:28,440 --> 00:10:32,280 Speaker 1: In and because Manchuria is gonna play a pretty big 190 00:10:32,360 --> 00:10:33,719 Speaker 1: role in this story, I'm gonna give it a sort 191 00:10:33,720 --> 00:10:37,679 Speaker 1: of brief introduction to it. Manchuria is geographically, it's it's 192 00:10:37,720 --> 00:10:39,800 Speaker 1: in the very far northeast part of China. Like it's 193 00:10:39,840 --> 00:10:42,079 Speaker 1: kind of like it's China's version of New England, except 194 00:10:42,400 --> 00:10:45,120 Speaker 1: imagine if instead of border in Canada, it bordered like 195 00:10:45,240 --> 00:10:49,280 Speaker 1: Russia Korea and was five minutes away from Japan. Mhm, 196 00:10:49,280 --> 00:10:52,000 Speaker 1: So you know. And and when being in the middle 197 00:10:52,120 --> 00:10:57,319 Speaker 1: of China, Korea, Russia, and Japan means that's just basically 198 00:10:57,360 --> 00:11:00,080 Speaker 1: every empire is constantly fighting for control over it. And 199 00:11:00,160 --> 00:11:02,000 Speaker 1: this also means that that all of the empires wind 200 00:11:02,080 --> 00:11:05,320 Speaker 1: up putting just an enormous amount of capital into Macharia 201 00:11:05,400 --> 00:11:11,560 Speaker 1: sort of manufacturing belts and railway systems. And Jong Chung 202 00:11:11,679 --> 00:11:13,960 Speaker 1: is never able to get one of like the really 203 00:11:14,040 --> 00:11:18,160 Speaker 1: highly paid stable jobs in in uh materious arsenal, which 204 00:11:18,200 --> 00:11:20,319 Speaker 1: is one of the largest sort of weapons manufacturers in China. 205 00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:22,199 Speaker 1: But what are he is able to get is a 206 00:11:22,320 --> 00:11:26,120 Speaker 1: job on the Chinese Eastern Railway. Now the Chinese the 207 00:11:26,200 --> 00:11:29,120 Speaker 1: Chinese Eastern Railway is a Russian concession. It's it's one 208 00:11:29,120 --> 00:11:32,400 Speaker 1: of the concessions that sort of the Ching dynasty has 209 00:11:32,400 --> 00:11:34,480 Speaker 1: been giving out to the various empires that it loses 210 00:11:34,520 --> 00:11:37,959 Speaker 1: wars to in the sort of ninete twentie centuries. And 211 00:11:38,440 --> 00:11:40,600 Speaker 1: the way these things work is that like, okay, so 212 00:11:40,679 --> 00:11:42,960 Speaker 1: wh when you neive a possession to a country, you 213 00:11:43,040 --> 00:11:45,440 Speaker 1: get like if you're if you're like say like Britain, 214 00:11:45,480 --> 00:11:47,000 Speaker 1: you get you get a chunk of lands and you 215 00:11:47,040 --> 00:11:49,160 Speaker 1: just control that like that product China, like it's just 216 00:11:49,240 --> 00:11:51,360 Speaker 1: under your control. You get your own you can impose 217 00:11:51,400 --> 00:11:53,360 Speaker 1: your own legal system. They have their own police force, 218 00:11:53,520 --> 00:11:57,960 Speaker 1: and to one of their ports cities. Yeah yeah, yeah. 219 00:11:58,040 --> 00:12:00,000 Speaker 1: And there this happens all over the country, and there's 220 00:12:00,080 --> 00:12:04,000 Speaker 1: there's there's a there's a really big and famous like 221 00:12:04,040 --> 00:12:07,920 Speaker 1: French concession that's just like a third of Shanghai. Um. 222 00:12:07,960 --> 00:12:10,319 Speaker 1: This this is all gonna become important later when the 223 00:12:10,440 --> 00:12:13,160 Speaker 1: sort of just absolutely horrific treatment Chinese workers, and these 224 00:12:13,160 --> 00:12:17,120 Speaker 1: concessions boils over into just a full scale conflict. But 225 00:12:17,320 --> 00:12:19,440 Speaker 1: for right now, the most important thing about Chung's job 226 00:12:19,440 --> 00:12:21,120 Speaker 1: on the concession is that it gives him gives him 227 00:12:21,160 --> 00:12:26,679 Speaker 1: his first real contact with Russia. Now for for all 228 00:12:26,840 --> 00:12:29,480 Speaker 1: sort of like lack of education and it's it's really 229 00:12:29,559 --> 00:12:34,440 Speaker 1: questionable whether Jung really ever got more than like two 230 00:12:34,520 --> 00:12:40,000 Speaker 1: years of schooling. He's extremely good at learning languages, and 231 00:12:40,280 --> 00:12:43,160 Speaker 1: he like almost immediately able to learn Russian and is 232 00:12:43,200 --> 00:12:45,520 Speaker 1: able to very quickly leverage this job, wants to sort 233 00:12:45,520 --> 00:12:48,640 Speaker 1: of railway work, drives up to become a chief foreman 234 00:12:48,679 --> 00:12:51,280 Speaker 1: and a gold mine in Siberia, which was basically because 235 00:12:51,320 --> 00:12:53,000 Speaker 1: he was the only Chinese working with his big Russian 236 00:12:54,160 --> 00:12:56,480 Speaker 1: and the Russians trusted him enough to give him a gun, 237 00:12:56,520 --> 00:12:58,000 Speaker 1: which would turn out to be great for John and 238 00:12:58,040 --> 00:13:01,160 Speaker 1: an absolute fiasco for literally the other human being in China. 239 00:13:02,800 --> 00:13:06,160 Speaker 1: But it goes great for him. I mean, that's that 240 00:13:06,280 --> 00:13:08,880 Speaker 1: is a story you see a lot in this colonial period. 241 00:13:09,080 --> 00:13:11,760 Speaker 1: Is like the folks who make bank and are really 242 00:13:11,800 --> 00:13:14,600 Speaker 1: successful and often wind up basically owning huge chunks of 243 00:13:14,640 --> 00:13:17,640 Speaker 1: the world are usually polyglots. And it's the same with 244 00:13:17,679 --> 00:13:20,680 Speaker 1: the imperial powers to like all of these British colonizers, 245 00:13:20,720 --> 00:13:23,200 Speaker 1: like the dudes who are actually doing the colonizing tend 246 00:13:23,200 --> 00:13:25,600 Speaker 1: to be people who just like pick up language because 247 00:13:25,600 --> 00:13:28,640 Speaker 1: it's like your number one asset in this period of time, 248 00:13:28,640 --> 00:13:33,439 Speaker 1: other than shamelessness and sociopathy um is being able to 249 00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:37,000 Speaker 1: talk to everybody that makes sense. Yeah, and it's you know, 250 00:13:37,080 --> 00:13:39,120 Speaker 1: and it's really like, if you're trying to work in 251 00:13:39,160 --> 00:13:41,720 Speaker 1: this perier, this is like one of this or being 252 00:13:41,760 --> 00:13:45,520 Speaker 1: a really good Bandit are basically like the only two 253 00:13:45,559 --> 00:13:47,560 Speaker 1: real ways you can even sort of work yourself up 254 00:13:47,559 --> 00:13:50,800 Speaker 1: in the world. And you know, John said, John is 255 00:13:50,840 --> 00:13:53,760 Speaker 1: doing pretty well from self here. He yes, but but 256 00:13:53,800 --> 00:13:55,839 Speaker 1: you know, one one day he's working at this mining 257 00:13:55,840 --> 00:13:58,840 Speaker 1: camp and they can't because attacked by a bear. And Okay, 258 00:13:59,200 --> 00:14:01,200 Speaker 1: I don't know if you know about this, Robert. I'm 259 00:14:01,280 --> 00:14:03,640 Speaker 1: just psyched that a bear attack is coming into this story. 260 00:14:03,720 --> 00:14:06,120 Speaker 1: This is everything that I want in his stories so far, 261 00:14:06,200 --> 00:14:08,920 Speaker 1: so please, I don't don't know if you know this, Robert. 262 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:13,760 Speaker 1: Bears they're really big. Yeah, they're pretty pretty sizeable. Yeah, 263 00:14:13,760 --> 00:14:16,040 Speaker 1: They're they're extremely strong, and and their mass means that 264 00:14:16,120 --> 00:14:18,480 Speaker 1: unless you have a very very large gun. You're not 265 00:14:18,480 --> 00:14:20,520 Speaker 1: going to bring it down with one shot. Yeah. I 266 00:14:20,560 --> 00:14:23,040 Speaker 1: have a bear gun and it weighs like four and 267 00:14:23,080 --> 00:14:29,280 Speaker 1: a half pounds. It's a handgun. Yeah, what just you 268 00:14:29,360 --> 00:14:32,040 Speaker 1: might need to shoot a bear, Sophie. Do you want 269 00:14:32,040 --> 00:14:33,560 Speaker 1: me to not be able to shoot a bear? If 270 00:14:33,560 --> 00:14:40,160 Speaker 1: a bear attacks Christopher Barrett? Look, Barrett, bears can tip 271 00:14:40,200 --> 00:14:44,080 Speaker 1: over seven hundred pounds steel like dumpsters, and there's not 272 00:14:44,080 --> 00:14:45,840 Speaker 1: even that much effort for them that can promise it 273 00:14:45,920 --> 00:14:49,720 Speaker 1: is only like seven hundred pounds. Sophie. I'm still scarred 274 00:14:49,760 --> 00:14:52,800 Speaker 1: from the guy who's running in the recollection in California 275 00:14:52,840 --> 00:14:55,520 Speaker 1: who's been using a bear as a prop and his ads. 276 00:14:56,200 --> 00:15:00,320 Speaker 1: So I'm triggered, that's all I'm saying. Okay, so bear 277 00:15:00,400 --> 00:15:03,800 Speaker 1: comes into camp. Yeah, and and John Jong Okay, he 278 00:15:03,840 --> 00:15:07,960 Speaker 1: has this incredibly dinky eight rifle and she just easily 279 00:15:08,080 --> 00:15:12,600 Speaker 1: kills this bear. He's got nailed it through the heart 280 00:15:12,720 --> 00:15:15,440 Speaker 1: or the eye or something which I couldn't find a 281 00:15:15,440 --> 00:15:18,280 Speaker 1: description of it, which is sort of wild. It's probably 282 00:15:18,320 --> 00:15:20,840 Speaker 1: if it's a midnight eighteen hundreds gun, I'm certain like 283 00:15:20,920 --> 00:15:22,920 Speaker 1: the best it could be is probably something like a 284 00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:26,280 Speaker 1: drice needle gun. Um, which is kind of an early 285 00:15:26,800 --> 00:15:30,280 Speaker 1: pre cartridge bolt action rifle. If it is a cartridge rifle, 286 00:15:30,680 --> 00:15:32,320 Speaker 1: I mean, if it is a cartridge rifle, the good 287 00:15:32,320 --> 00:15:34,920 Speaker 1: news is that it's probably a fairly large round because 288 00:15:34,960 --> 00:15:36,640 Speaker 1: most of the it was usually like kind of like 289 00:15:36,840 --> 00:15:40,600 Speaker 1: thirty at six or somewhere in that ballpark. Um, but 290 00:15:40,680 --> 00:15:42,320 Speaker 1: I'm going to guess the fact that this is the 291 00:15:42,440 --> 00:15:45,480 Speaker 1: late eighteen hundreds in China means that he's not using 292 00:15:45,560 --> 00:15:48,200 Speaker 1: like there's a decent chance it's a black powder anyway. Yeah, 293 00:15:48,400 --> 00:15:49,880 Speaker 1: that that that's a heck of a thing to be 294 00:15:49,920 --> 00:15:52,040 Speaker 1: able to do with the kind of weapon he probably 295 00:15:52,400 --> 00:15:56,440 Speaker 1: was packing. Yeah, and this, you know this, this has 296 00:15:56,760 --> 00:16:00,120 Speaker 1: a fairly cretable reaction everyone else there and she she 297 00:16:00,200 --> 00:16:03,120 Speaker 1: just immediately gets this like cult following among the workers 298 00:16:03,120 --> 00:16:07,280 Speaker 1: because he just you know, murdered this bear like extremely easily. 299 00:16:08,280 --> 00:16:10,120 Speaker 1: And you know this, this is sort of a point 300 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:12,400 Speaker 1: where you start to see the things that are gonna 301 00:16:12,400 --> 00:16:15,200 Speaker 1: make him a really good soldier, because he's he's remarkably 302 00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:19,080 Speaker 1: calm under pressure. He's an incredibly good shot, and he's 303 00:16:19,120 --> 00:16:21,960 Speaker 1: also incredibly charismatic, which is important for a guy who 304 00:16:22,080 --> 00:16:25,040 Speaker 1: is an estimates very Here this dude is somewhere between 305 00:16:25,160 --> 00:16:28,360 Speaker 1: six ft six and seven ft tall. Holy shit, he's 306 00:16:28,400 --> 00:16:32,600 Speaker 1: told as and he's tall. He's that tall growing up 307 00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:38,880 Speaker 1: impoverished in rural China in the eighteen hundreds, which is wild. Yeah, 308 00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:43,280 Speaker 1: it's unbelievable. That's huge for people who grow up in 309 00:16:43,320 --> 00:16:45,800 Speaker 1: the United States with access to all of the protein 310 00:16:45,840 --> 00:16:50,640 Speaker 1: they could possibly want. That is Oh god, he's an 311 00:16:50,680 --> 00:16:54,520 Speaker 1: absolute monster. And yeah, you know, like like at this point, 312 00:16:54,600 --> 00:16:56,520 Speaker 1: like it's kind of hard enough to be sympathetic to him. 313 00:16:56,520 --> 00:16:59,720 Speaker 1: I mean, this is she bears. He's a giant. He's 314 00:16:59,720 --> 00:17:03,280 Speaker 1: a bear shooting giant bandit polyglott he's pretty rad. Yeah, 315 00:17:03,480 --> 00:17:05,720 Speaker 1: he loves his mom like it's great. And you know, 316 00:17:05,960 --> 00:17:07,720 Speaker 1: because this is behind the bastard. This is where everything 317 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:10,879 Speaker 1: immediately starts to go to ship. Yeah, yeah, this is 318 00:17:10,920 --> 00:17:14,000 Speaker 1: this is like the moment where Saddam is robbing his 319 00:17:14,160 --> 00:17:17,560 Speaker 1: or is threatening his high school principle. At gunpoint of core, 320 00:17:17,600 --> 00:17:19,680 Speaker 1: Saddam turns bad. This is it. This is the part 321 00:17:19,680 --> 00:17:23,400 Speaker 1: where you're like, tell miss something bad. Yeah, let's go. 322 00:17:25,560 --> 00:17:28,560 Speaker 1: So in nineteen eleven, a revolution toppled the ruling ching 323 00:17:28,640 --> 00:17:31,639 Speaker 1: Daiste and replaced it with a republic led by grun Chikai, 324 00:17:31,800 --> 00:17:34,560 Speaker 1: a man whose sole qualification for this job is that 325 00:17:34,600 --> 00:17:37,120 Speaker 1: he has the largest army in China when the fighting stops. 326 00:17:37,800 --> 00:17:43,240 Speaker 1: I mean, what other qualifications would there be for this job? Well, 327 00:17:43,280 --> 00:17:46,560 Speaker 1: you know, for for for exactly one day, Sen yet 328 00:17:46,560 --> 00:17:50,080 Speaker 1: send a man with actual, real political qualifications was in charge. 329 00:17:50,080 --> 00:17:52,880 Speaker 1: And then he was like, this guy is the only 330 00:17:52,920 --> 00:17:54,800 Speaker 1: person with an army large enough to hold the country together, 331 00:17:54,840 --> 00:17:57,000 Speaker 1: so we're's going to give it to him. H And 332 00:17:57,040 --> 00:18:00,199 Speaker 1: so yeah, John wins up running this country and he 333 00:18:02,680 --> 00:18:05,320 Speaker 1: it's a it's a disaster. He you know, he starts 334 00:18:05,320 --> 00:18:08,400 Speaker 1: a nice and eleven. He's basically lurching from crisis to crisis. 335 00:18:08,400 --> 00:18:11,240 Speaker 1: There's moustable rebellions against him, until in late nineteen fifteen, 336 00:18:11,680 --> 00:18:16,000 Speaker 1: he makes one of the most baffling disaster's decisions anyone 337 00:18:16,040 --> 00:18:20,240 Speaker 1: has ever made in human history. He convenes an assembly 338 00:18:20,320 --> 00:18:25,080 Speaker 1: to declare himself emperor. Now, again, this is a guy 339 00:18:25,200 --> 00:18:28,159 Speaker 1: who was in power. Literally the only reason he's in 340 00:18:28,200 --> 00:18:30,119 Speaker 1: power is because of a revolution, the sole point of 341 00:18:30,160 --> 00:18:33,720 Speaker 1: which was getting rid of the monarchy. And Jaron looks 342 00:18:33,760 --> 00:18:36,439 Speaker 1: around the country's collapsing around him and he goes, I 343 00:18:36,520 --> 00:18:43,080 Speaker 1: know what will unite the nation behind me, declaring myself emperor. Yeah, complete, 344 00:18:43,960 --> 00:18:46,040 Speaker 1: no flaws with this plan. Are you going to tell 345 00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:49,400 Speaker 1: me this doesn't go well? Now? To his credit, Joon 346 00:18:49,560 --> 00:18:53,199 Speaker 1: did briefly unite the entire country because basically all of 347 00:18:53,200 --> 00:18:56,800 Speaker 1: it immediately goes into revolt to drive him out. And 348 00:18:56,840 --> 00:18:59,480 Speaker 1: you know, he kind of remarkably holds on for about 349 00:18:59,520 --> 00:19:01,320 Speaker 1: three months sefore deciding and he wasn't going to be 350 00:19:01,320 --> 00:19:03,879 Speaker 1: emperor after all. I'm politely asking everyone to please stop 351 00:19:03,920 --> 00:19:05,480 Speaker 1: revolting so we could go back to the business of 352 00:19:05,520 --> 00:19:10,080 Speaker 1: running the country, and you know, kind of said that. 353 00:19:10,119 --> 00:19:11,840 Speaker 1: We don't know whether this would have worked or not, 354 00:19:11,960 --> 00:19:14,639 Speaker 1: because three months after he abdicates, he dies of an 355 00:19:14,720 --> 00:19:20,639 Speaker 1: armia Okay, and with his death in nineties begins what 356 00:19:20,760 --> 00:19:25,119 Speaker 1: is known in Chinese history as the Warlord period. Yeah, 357 00:19:25,160 --> 00:19:27,399 Speaker 1: this is what that game, um where you stab a 358 00:19:27,400 --> 00:19:31,080 Speaker 1: bunch of people to death was about, right that? No, 359 00:19:31,280 --> 00:19:33,320 Speaker 1: that's that's that's the Warring States period. Oh, that's the 360 00:19:33,359 --> 00:19:36,960 Speaker 1: Warring States period Blue Boo Bier, right, because nobody had guns. 361 00:19:36,960 --> 00:19:40,080 Speaker 1: Everybody was stabbing each other. Okay, this is this is that, 362 00:19:40,240 --> 00:19:46,840 Speaker 1: but significantly that's the name. Yeah, this is this is 363 00:19:47,160 --> 00:19:51,720 Speaker 1: this this is the Kaiser right special. Yeah, okay, that's yeah, 364 00:19:51,800 --> 00:19:54,160 Speaker 1: that that makes sense. Yeah. This is, by the way, 365 00:19:54,600 --> 00:19:56,879 Speaker 1: why we're bringing you on and will be increasingly have 366 00:19:57,040 --> 00:19:59,960 Speaker 1: you on is because I attempted to do several stories 367 00:20:00,080 --> 00:20:03,159 Speaker 1: is about China and other parts of Southeast Asia, and 368 00:20:03,280 --> 00:20:06,760 Speaker 1: very quickly realized that, like when I'm doing like Europe, 369 00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:09,240 Speaker 1: you know, or or or the United States or even 370 00:20:09,280 --> 00:20:12,280 Speaker 1: parts of Latin America, just because it's a place I'm 371 00:20:12,320 --> 00:20:14,040 Speaker 1: closer to and have spent more time and I have 372 00:20:14,119 --> 00:20:16,879 Speaker 1: like a certain base of historical understanding that I can 373 00:20:16,920 --> 00:20:20,000 Speaker 1: build on and I don't know anything about this. Um 374 00:20:20,080 --> 00:20:23,359 Speaker 1: So I'm I'm I'm fascinated and grateful to you for 375 00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:28,520 Speaker 1: studying this part of the world for years and years. Yeah. Well, okay, 376 00:20:28,560 --> 00:20:30,960 Speaker 1: you know here, let me let me, let me let 377 00:20:31,160 --> 00:20:34,760 Speaker 1: me resuscitate your reputation, because there is something that you do, 378 00:20:34,840 --> 00:20:37,879 Speaker 1: in fact, no significantly more about than I have. You 379 00:20:37,920 --> 00:20:41,000 Speaker 1: have been in way more civil wars than I. I 380 00:20:41,040 --> 00:20:44,160 Speaker 1: have been in a couple of civil wars. Yeah, so 381 00:20:44,880 --> 00:20:47,080 Speaker 1: I'm gonna run my my simple model of the two 382 00:20:47,160 --> 00:20:49,080 Speaker 1: kinds of civil wars past you, and well we'll see 383 00:20:49,119 --> 00:20:51,520 Speaker 1: what you think about it. Okay, okay. So on the 384 00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:53,520 Speaker 1: one hand, you have one kind of civil war where 385 00:20:53,520 --> 00:20:55,320 Speaker 1: half the country starts fighting the other half. This is 386 00:20:55,359 --> 00:20:57,439 Speaker 1: like the American Civil War. You very rarely see this. 387 00:20:57,880 --> 00:20:59,800 Speaker 1: And the other hand, you have civil wars were of 388 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:02,240 Speaker 1: a whole country fragments into a million pieces and every 389 00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:04,480 Speaker 1: single one of them starts fighting each other. Yeah. We 390 00:21:04,560 --> 00:21:07,920 Speaker 1: call that du in Assyria, yeah yeah, or Yemen or 391 00:21:08,080 --> 00:21:10,560 Speaker 1: Yemen or a lot of places. It's kind of the 392 00:21:10,600 --> 00:21:13,719 Speaker 1: modern way of doing something. Yeah, yeah, And it's it's 393 00:21:13,720 --> 00:21:15,960 Speaker 1: also it's also what's going to happen in this period 394 00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:20,720 Speaker 1: except this war. Like I, you know, when when I 395 00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:22,640 Speaker 1: was looking at when I first looked at the control map, 396 00:21:23,240 --> 00:21:27,399 Speaker 1: I my brain shattered and I've never recovered since. And 397 00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:31,880 Speaker 1: like I I've never I've never longed for the simplicity 398 00:21:31,880 --> 00:21:36,080 Speaker 1: of the Mani Civil War before. But this war, there 399 00:21:36,080 --> 00:21:40,200 Speaker 1: are over a thousand warlords. Yeah, in the period between 400 00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:45,920 Speaker 1: nineteen six they fight seven hundred different wars. That's that's 401 00:21:45,960 --> 00:21:48,919 Speaker 1: too many different wars, Like you gotta if I was 402 00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:51,080 Speaker 1: in there, what I would say is like we can 403 00:21:51,119 --> 00:21:53,520 Speaker 1: cut that down to two hundred three hund oh at 404 00:21:53,520 --> 00:21:57,159 Speaker 1: the most. Like I feel like I feel like I 405 00:21:57,200 --> 00:22:01,080 Speaker 1: could have helped like consolidate the war. What they needed 406 00:22:01,240 --> 00:22:03,960 Speaker 1: was a consultant, a guy to be like, look, you 407 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:06,520 Speaker 1: guys are fighting the same war that these guys are fighting. 408 00:22:06,600 --> 00:22:09,560 Speaker 1: Let's bundle that into one big war and then we 409 00:22:09,680 --> 00:22:13,919 Speaker 1: got less wars to deal with. My pitch, that's my 410 00:22:13,960 --> 00:22:18,080 Speaker 1: pitch to China a hundred and fifty years ago. I mean, look, 411 00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:21,359 Speaker 1: I'm all for it because it makes the history. It 412 00:22:21,359 --> 00:22:24,280 Speaker 1: would make, It would have made the history like incomprehensibly easier. 413 00:22:25,080 --> 00:22:27,760 Speaker 1: Like there are there are twenty pages of this script 414 00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:31,639 Speaker 1: that's just me trying to explain two different factions taking 415 00:22:31,720 --> 00:22:35,520 Speaker 1: losing control of Beijing, that that there's not here anymore, 416 00:22:35,560 --> 00:22:38,560 Speaker 1: because it's yeah, this is this is. This is maybe 417 00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:41,399 Speaker 1: the messiest conflict I've ever encountered, and we're about to 418 00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:45,800 Speaker 1: dive into it. First, it's time for products and services. 419 00:22:46,240 --> 00:22:51,959 Speaker 1: You know what won't fragment China into hundreds of different 420 00:22:52,560 --> 00:23:00,679 Speaker 1: warring quasi state militia things these ads questions, They will not, 421 00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:03,520 Speaker 1: They will not. I feel I feel confident saying none 422 00:23:03,520 --> 00:23:05,359 Speaker 1: of the people who advertise on our show have the 423 00:23:05,440 --> 00:23:09,320 Speaker 1: kind of like flex to to destroy the Chinese state 424 00:23:09,440 --> 00:23:13,399 Speaker 1: and launch a new civil war. Fair enough, Yeah, I 425 00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:15,879 Speaker 1: I just I don't think the dick pill guys have 426 00:23:16,080 --> 00:23:31,040 Speaker 1: that much weight to throw around. I really, God God, Okay, 427 00:23:35,040 --> 00:23:41,200 Speaker 1: we're back. All right, let's get going. Okay, So before 428 00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:44,320 Speaker 1: before we fully launch into this reference purposes, we need 429 00:23:44,359 --> 00:23:48,000 Speaker 1: to stop and do the briefest, most basic, and most 430 00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:51,400 Speaker 1: half assed Chinese geography lesson in human history, because this 431 00:23:51,480 --> 00:23:55,040 Speaker 1: is the point where Chinese geography becomes very important in 432 00:23:55,040 --> 00:23:57,959 Speaker 1: the story. So we're gonna we're look, we're We're only 433 00:23:57,960 --> 00:24:01,800 Speaker 1: gonna give you two cities. So I think we could 434 00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:04,520 Speaker 1: do this. So at the very south of China, there 435 00:24:04,560 --> 00:24:08,320 Speaker 1: is Hong Kong. Um, it's it's it's control, Hong Kong's 436 00:24:08,359 --> 00:24:11,640 Speaker 1: control by the British at this point, it's it's it's 437 00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:14,439 Speaker 1: separated basically from the province of guang Show, which is 438 00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:18,240 Speaker 1: very south to China. Shanghai is kind of in the 439 00:24:18,280 --> 00:24:20,560 Speaker 1: middle of China north south wise on the east coast, 440 00:24:21,200 --> 00:24:23,280 Speaker 1: and then Beijing is further north of that, and then 441 00:24:23,320 --> 00:24:28,200 Speaker 1: the very far north along the border with Korea's bench area. Um, 442 00:24:28,280 --> 00:24:30,600 Speaker 1: and there's you know, all of the different sort of 443 00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:34,359 Speaker 1: Willard clicks in this period because this this this whole 444 00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:36,440 Speaker 1: thing is the greatest proof I've ever encountered. The high 445 00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:40,359 Speaker 1: school never ends. Hey, it's all clicks, be all the 446 00:24:40,359 --> 00:24:43,359 Speaker 1: clicks form for just incredibly petty reasons. Like one of 447 00:24:43,359 --> 00:24:45,840 Speaker 1: one of the most powerful clicks, a click that like 448 00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:48,280 Speaker 1: takes Beijing and rules most of China for four years, 449 00:24:48,760 --> 00:24:51,480 Speaker 1: happened because one click of officers thought the other click 450 00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:54,840 Speaker 1: wasn't promoting them fast enough. And and to make it worse, 451 00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:57,320 Speaker 1: all of these people are classmates because they all they 452 00:24:57,320 --> 00:24:59,240 Speaker 1: all either went to sort of a military a couple 453 00:24:59,240 --> 00:25:02,199 Speaker 1: of military academy, either in China or Japan. This is like, 454 00:25:02,280 --> 00:25:03,600 Speaker 1: I mean, this is the same as a lot of 455 00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:08,000 Speaker 1: European history, to be honest. Yeah, yeah, it's just it's 456 00:25:08,040 --> 00:25:11,280 Speaker 1: just it's high school with more guns, which is fairly 457 00:25:11,280 --> 00:25:14,639 Speaker 1: impressive considering how many guns than an American high school, 458 00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:19,120 Speaker 1: to be you know, these people have a lot of guns. 459 00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:22,840 Speaker 1: Like it's it's it's pretty impressive. I was taking a 460 00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:28,439 Speaker 1: cheap shot. Please continue. So it's sort of unclear what 461 00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:31,040 Speaker 1: John was doing during the sort of revolutionary upheaval in 462 00:25:31,119 --> 00:25:35,000 Speaker 1: nineteen eleven. Oh, this is an every thing with John. 463 00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:37,680 Speaker 1: Every account basically conflicts on what he was doing. But 464 00:25:37,800 --> 00:25:40,240 Speaker 1: we know for sure is that by nineteen he ended 465 00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:44,000 Speaker 1: up as a division commander in the army station near Shanghai. 466 00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:48,240 Speaker 1: But in nineteen thirteen, the Nationalists, who are known in 467 00:25:48,280 --> 00:25:50,200 Speaker 1: the U S the k MP for reasons that pissed 468 00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:51,480 Speaker 1: me off to no end. But I will not get 469 00:25:51,520 --> 00:25:57,600 Speaker 1: in here, uh stage stage of disasters revolt And after 470 00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:00,280 Speaker 1: that revolt fails in sort of late nineteen thirteen, John 471 00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:03,920 Speaker 1: gets politically sidelined and tell the foremost start of the 472 00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:08,399 Speaker 1: Warlord period. Now, another person sidelined after the failed nineteen 473 00:26:08,840 --> 00:26:12,080 Speaker 1: revolution was the famous Nationalist general and this guy, like 474 00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:14,840 Speaker 1: my mom had heard of this guy and who had 475 00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:16,760 Speaker 1: not heard of basically anyone else in this story except 476 00:26:16,800 --> 00:26:18,879 Speaker 1: for the main character. So he's he's you know, he's 477 00:26:18,960 --> 00:26:21,800 Speaker 1: he's an important figure in in in the CAMT in 478 00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:25,840 Speaker 1: the sort of the Nationalist party. He's also an extremely 479 00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:30,119 Speaker 1: important organized crime guy. And we will get into in 480 00:26:30,119 --> 00:26:32,359 Speaker 1: the next episode why he's both a Camty general and 481 00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:37,320 Speaker 1: a crime boss. Um. This man's name, yeah, it's it's 482 00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:40,840 Speaker 1: it's a it's a wild story, but yeah, for for now, 483 00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:43,760 Speaker 1: this guy's name is Chen she may Um When when 484 00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:46,159 Speaker 1: when the Nationalist revolt fails. Chen does something that I 485 00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:49,760 Speaker 1: think Basstar's listeners would recognize immediately. He flees to the 486 00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:52,760 Speaker 1: early nineteen hundred China's version of Mexico, which is Japan. 487 00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:59,600 Speaker 1: Hell yeah, good, great, yeah, all right, yeah did you 488 00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:02,120 Speaker 1: pend to and just it's Japan is it's it's literally 489 00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:04,920 Speaker 1: just Mexico. Now, um, you know when we just grew 490 00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:06,520 Speaker 1: up in China. The army comes after you fleed in 491 00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:08,680 Speaker 1: Mexico and you flee feed Mexico or now you fleed 492 00:27:08,720 --> 00:27:11,520 Speaker 1: to Japan, and you know, while you're in Japan, you 493 00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:13,160 Speaker 1: have two choices. You can either sort of live out 494 00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:15,600 Speaker 1: your life clients quietly, or you can plant your triumphant 495 00:27:15,600 --> 00:27:18,560 Speaker 1: return to China. And the second thing is what China 496 00:27:18,640 --> 00:27:21,879 Speaker 1: ends up doing. In nineteen sixteen, Chan Saw saw his 497 00:27:21,960 --> 00:27:25,119 Speaker 1: opportunity and returns from Japan to Shanghaiis are another revolution 498 00:27:25,160 --> 00:27:28,080 Speaker 1: against the government. And this is where John takes his 499 00:27:28,160 --> 00:27:31,040 Speaker 1: first real action of the brave new world of World Artism. 500 00:27:31,160 --> 00:27:35,160 Speaker 1: He has Chinn assassinated. Which this this has a number 501 00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:38,240 Speaker 1: of sort of effects. One, the nationalists at this point 502 00:27:38,280 --> 00:27:41,000 Speaker 1: just sort of crumple and they're not going to be 503 00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:43,600 Speaker 1: a real political force for a while. In China. The 504 00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:46,880 Speaker 1: second important thing is that this is how John gets 505 00:27:47,080 --> 00:27:51,320 Speaker 1: in with a couple of very very powerful political patrons. 506 00:27:52,440 --> 00:27:55,560 Speaker 1: The most important person here is this dude named Wupefu 507 00:27:55,760 --> 00:27:57,720 Speaker 1: who is also known as the Jade Marshall who is 508 00:27:57,880 --> 00:28:01,480 Speaker 1: he is universally regarded as a Worldard period's greatest strategist, 509 00:28:01,480 --> 00:28:05,520 Speaker 1: and he he runs one of the Worldard clicks, and 510 00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:08,960 Speaker 1: you know, he he rewards John for his loyalty and 511 00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:12,720 Speaker 1: having his national skuy assassinated, and John that moves up 512 00:28:12,720 --> 00:28:15,040 Speaker 1: in the world really quickly. He briefly becomes the Vice 513 00:28:15,080 --> 00:28:22,080 Speaker 1: president's personal bodyguard, and then eventually he's he's given a 514 00:28:22,119 --> 00:28:26,640 Speaker 1: new command in the army of his own. Yeah, it's 515 00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:32,639 Speaker 1: this whole period's politics. It's really weird because basically all 516 00:28:32,720 --> 00:28:35,840 Speaker 1: career advancement has to do with like which click you're 517 00:28:36,040 --> 00:28:37,600 Speaker 1: able to please, and so you know, if you do 518 00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:39,120 Speaker 1: something for one click, they'll give you something, and if 519 00:28:39,160 --> 00:28:42,560 Speaker 1: you fail, then they kick you out. It's it's yeah, 520 00:28:42,600 --> 00:28:45,880 Speaker 1: it's high school, except a bunch of people are dying 521 00:28:46,800 --> 00:28:52,560 Speaker 1: or more people are dying, like American high school. Like yeah, yeah, 522 00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:55,560 Speaker 1: you said, we're we're looking, we're gonna here. We're all 523 00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:58,600 Speaker 1: familiar with this. We all we all understand the source 524 00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:04,120 Speaker 1: material here. Yeah, you know, Unfortunately, these people are incurribly fickle, 525 00:29:04,360 --> 00:29:09,000 Speaker 1: and Cheng managed to lose his entire army in an 526 00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:12,240 Speaker 1: incredibly minor sort of border dispute war, and this gets 527 00:29:12,320 --> 00:29:14,640 Speaker 1: him just kicked back into the political wilderness. Do they 528 00:29:14,680 --> 00:29:16,440 Speaker 1: get killed or do they just kind of like piece 529 00:29:16,520 --> 00:29:19,719 Speaker 1: out from him? Uh, it's unclear that this is one 530 00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:23,400 Speaker 1: of those things where we're talking about their seven hundred wars, right, 531 00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:26,280 Speaker 1: so most of them, this war I can literally the 532 00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:28,720 Speaker 1: only reference I can find to its existence is that 533 00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:31,080 Speaker 1: Jong like lost his army in it. But it's really 534 00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:38,120 Speaker 1: unclear what happened. And so there's two stories of it. 535 00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:41,120 Speaker 1: One of them is that like they all died, and 536 00:29:41,160 --> 00:29:43,440 Speaker 1: then he goes back to Beijing and tries to bribe 537 00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:45,240 Speaker 1: one of them for his allies with just a bunch 538 00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:48,320 Speaker 1: of these tiny golden lions to get the un assigned 539 00:29:48,320 --> 00:29:50,560 Speaker 1: to him. But who finds out about this and kicks 540 00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:53,520 Speaker 1: him out of the army. And you know, okay, bribing 541 00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:56,120 Speaker 1: a superior officer with a bunch of tiny golden lions 542 00:29:56,240 --> 00:29:57,719 Speaker 1: is like exactly the kind of thing he would do. 543 00:29:57,800 --> 00:30:01,800 Speaker 1: But like the sourcings. Now good, because again, this this 544 00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:06,760 Speaker 1: man's life is just this incredible haze of stories. There 545 00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:10,200 Speaker 1: there's some other sources that say that so she loses 546 00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:12,160 Speaker 1: his war, and then his army is absorbed to another 547 00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:15,360 Speaker 1: warlord army, and then that warldlord also subsequently loses a 548 00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:19,000 Speaker 1: war and collapses. But either way, what we know is 549 00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:22,520 Speaker 1: that he fleets sort of broken, completely alone, back to 550 00:30:22,600 --> 00:30:29,560 Speaker 1: Manchuri in Okay, and okay, this is this is this 551 00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:32,360 Speaker 1: is the point where we have to make another brief announcement, 552 00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:34,440 Speaker 1: which is that there are two completely unrelated dudes in 553 00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:38,120 Speaker 1: the story named jong Um. This is largely because one 554 00:30:38,120 --> 00:30:40,360 Speaker 1: of the early Chinese dynostes essentially got Piste off. The 555 00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:42,520 Speaker 1: people in villages didn't like that they were trying to 556 00:30:42,680 --> 00:30:44,920 Speaker 1: tax didn't have last names, and so they just came 557 00:30:44,960 --> 00:30:48,760 Speaker 1: in and gave everyone last names. And yes, and they 558 00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:50,160 Speaker 1: have like a hundred of these names. These are gonna 559 00:30:50,160 --> 00:30:51,600 Speaker 1: called like the old one hun names. And they do 560 00:30:51,680 --> 00:30:54,920 Speaker 1: this they can get tax records, get better tax records. 561 00:30:54,960 --> 00:30:56,720 Speaker 1: Now every like everyone in China has the same last 562 00:30:56,760 --> 00:31:01,240 Speaker 1: name because they just slaves on people. Yeah, okay, done. 563 00:31:01,280 --> 00:31:04,239 Speaker 1: Two of the main characters in this in this are 564 00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:06,959 Speaker 1: have the same name as what you're telling. Yeah. So 565 00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:09,720 Speaker 1: so there's two big Jongs. If I just say Jong, 566 00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:12,320 Speaker 1: I'm talking about our hero Jong Jong Chong, who is 567 00:31:12,440 --> 00:31:16,360 Speaker 1: the dog meat warlord. The second Jong is the guy 568 00:31:16,400 --> 00:31:19,320 Speaker 1: we're going to meet now, whose name is John Druling Um. 569 00:31:19,320 --> 00:31:21,440 Speaker 1: She's the warlord of Manchuria. If I talked about him, 570 00:31:21,440 --> 00:31:23,760 Speaker 1: I'll say his full name, or I'll just say his 571 00:31:23,840 --> 00:31:27,640 Speaker 1: last name, so it's no confusion. Um. Unfortunately for all 572 00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:30,040 Speaker 1: of history and for us trying to get through the 573 00:31:30,080 --> 00:31:33,480 Speaker 1: story the like, basically, the moment a geins to Manchuria, 574 00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:37,600 Speaker 1: Jong decides to try to join dru Ling's army. And 575 00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:39,960 Speaker 1: this is another one of those things that there's a 576 00:31:40,040 --> 00:31:45,040 Speaker 1: very weird story here, which is so his attempt to 577 00:31:45,080 --> 00:31:48,160 Speaker 1: get into the army seems to be that Ruling throws 578 00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:51,040 Speaker 1: this massive birthday party for himself because you know, okay, 579 00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:53,480 Speaker 1: so if you're a warlord, right, like, yeah, you're gonna 580 00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:56,240 Speaker 1: have some pretty wild ass birthday parties for sure. Yeah, yeah, 581 00:31:56,320 --> 00:31:58,600 Speaker 1: this is what what is else is the point of 582 00:31:58,640 --> 00:32:03,640 Speaker 1: being a warlord? If you don't that doesn't even require explanation. Absolutely. Yeah. Now, 583 00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:05,800 Speaker 1: now the weird part about this, so everyone else shows 584 00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:08,080 Speaker 1: up to it. It okay, so we're we're meeting the warlord, right, 585 00:32:08,080 --> 00:32:10,320 Speaker 1: you show up to birthday party with incredibly expensive gifts. 586 00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:13,880 Speaker 1: John just doesn't show up at all. What he does 587 00:32:13,880 --> 00:32:16,720 Speaker 1: instead is he sends these two empty coolie baskets, which 588 00:32:16,720 --> 00:32:18,800 Speaker 1: are those like you know those baskets that, yeah, that 589 00:32:18,840 --> 00:32:21,200 Speaker 1: are being like a coolie is like what the British 590 00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:23,520 Speaker 1: called dudes in India they would pay to carry ship 591 00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:26,720 Speaker 1: for him, and yeah, baskets people carry ship in Yeah, 592 00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:28,160 Speaker 1: they have like there's like a pole that you hang 593 00:32:28,200 --> 00:32:30,440 Speaker 1: them off of there there. There's a lot of people 594 00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:33,200 Speaker 1: use him in China. So John just like gives him 595 00:32:33,240 --> 00:32:38,000 Speaker 1: these two empty baskets, and true lying is extremely confused 596 00:32:38,040 --> 00:32:41,600 Speaker 1: by this because you know, okay, this guy doesn't show 597 00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:45,400 Speaker 1: up to my birthday party and then just gives two baskets. Yeah, 598 00:32:45,520 --> 00:32:48,320 Speaker 1: kind of a weird flex for the warlord. Whose arm 599 00:32:48,360 --> 00:32:51,440 Speaker 1: do you want to be in? Yeah? Yeah, you know. Apparently, 600 00:32:51,640 --> 00:32:54,280 Speaker 1: so what what Jong appears to have been implying and 601 00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:57,840 Speaker 1: what druling like somehow figures out through the powers of 602 00:32:57,880 --> 00:33:00,520 Speaker 1: deductive reasoning that I don't have and I don't understand. 603 00:33:01,080 --> 00:33:03,440 Speaker 1: But apparently what John is saying is that the baskets 604 00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:06,360 Speaker 1: are empty to represent that he would shoulder any burden 605 00:33:06,400 --> 00:33:10,960 Speaker 1: that Joe Ling would give him, which is weird, but 606 00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:14,000 Speaker 1: this actually works. That's but that's like a weird like 607 00:33:14,040 --> 00:33:17,800 Speaker 1: he's doing symbolism shit. Okay, yeah, but you know this works. 608 00:33:17,840 --> 00:33:20,800 Speaker 1: And John is given a minor post in the army, 609 00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:24,680 Speaker 1: which you know will wild. We'll take it um and 610 00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:28,120 Speaker 1: really fortunately for John. A few months later, there's there's 611 00:33:28,200 --> 00:33:30,680 Speaker 1: there's a revolt in Manchuria and Jong is the person 612 00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:34,680 Speaker 1: who puts it down and for that he's given a 613 00:33:34,760 --> 00:33:38,440 Speaker 1: much like a I don't know, I don't know if 614 00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:40,680 Speaker 1: field grades like the right term for this, but he's 615 00:33:40,720 --> 00:33:43,800 Speaker 1: given like a fairly superposition. Yeah, he gets a huge promotion. 616 00:33:44,400 --> 00:33:47,880 Speaker 1: And this, this one decision is going to turn Jong 617 00:33:47,960 --> 00:33:50,360 Speaker 1: from a minor military commander into the most feared and 618 00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:53,440 Speaker 1: despised warlord and all of China. That makes sense. Yeah, 619 00:33:53,480 --> 00:33:56,080 Speaker 1: and you know this, this sucks for the rest of China, 620 00:33:56,680 --> 00:33:59,760 Speaker 1: but for Drew Ling, this is this promotion troults being 621 00:33:59,800 --> 00:34:04,440 Speaker 1: in dably good idea. Um in two Dueling brings John 622 00:34:04,560 --> 00:34:06,960 Speaker 1: with him to negotiate with a group of Russian emigrates 623 00:34:06,960 --> 00:34:09,080 Speaker 1: who become trapped in Mongolia when the country had gained 624 00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:12,080 Speaker 1: a dependence from China and we're trying to get out 625 00:34:12,120 --> 00:34:16,120 Speaker 1: because Mongolia just aligned itself with the USSR. And these 626 00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:19,239 Speaker 1: Russians were former members of the pro Zarus White Army, 627 00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:23,240 Speaker 1: which as as as as as we know from the show, 628 00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:25,960 Speaker 1: had been defeated by the combined efforts of Great Hero 629 00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:29,400 Speaker 1: pod Alum Nestor mock Nos anarchist Black Army, and the 630 00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:31,359 Speaker 1: Bolshevik Red Army in the Russian Civil War. So there's 631 00:34:31,560 --> 00:34:34,040 Speaker 1: a bunch of these Russian dudes in Mongolia, and because 632 00:34:34,120 --> 00:34:36,839 Speaker 1: John's incredibly fluent in Russian, she's able to just sort 633 00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:39,120 Speaker 1: of extract them and convince, convince these people that work 634 00:34:39,160 --> 00:34:43,680 Speaker 1: for him. And this is where John starts building up 635 00:34:43,680 --> 00:34:47,080 Speaker 1: the core of what's going to be a very dangerous 636 00:34:47,200 --> 00:34:50,960 Speaker 1: and incredibly formidable army. Um he's he gains about is 637 00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:53,520 Speaker 1: like three thousand Russian infantry infantrymen who are you know 638 00:34:53,560 --> 00:34:55,040 Speaker 1: that they're well trained, but you know they're just sort 639 00:34:55,040 --> 00:34:57,680 Speaker 1: of infantrymen. The big deal here is that he gets 640 00:34:57,719 --> 00:35:02,160 Speaker 1: one thousand Russian cavalrymen who aren't with lances, your favorite 641 00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:06,040 Speaker 1: Mauser pistols and he's just enormous funk off swords become 642 00:35:06,080 --> 00:35:09,600 Speaker 1: basically just the backbone of Drung's new army. Yeah, and 643 00:35:09,640 --> 00:35:12,919 Speaker 1: these guys are Cossacks basically, right. I don't I don't 644 00:35:12,960 --> 00:35:17,360 Speaker 1: actually think they're Cossacks. I think they're just yeah, I 645 00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:19,440 Speaker 1: think I think of just regular Russian coffrey, which is 646 00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:23,440 Speaker 1: you know, still just absolutely neverifying, like yeah, like these 647 00:35:23,480 --> 00:35:25,480 Speaker 1: people have just fought through the Russian Civil War, which 648 00:35:25,520 --> 00:35:29,680 Speaker 1: is like one of the worst wars in history. Yeah, yeah, 649 00:35:29,760 --> 00:35:32,000 Speaker 1: and they're just yeah, they're just a bunch of like broken, 650 00:35:32,280 --> 00:35:36,359 Speaker 1: dangerous monsters and every everyone, everyone in Chinese terrified of them, 651 00:35:36,360 --> 00:35:38,279 Speaker 1: and only accounts are like kind of racist about it. 652 00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:41,120 Speaker 1: But it's like, yeah, like Okay, if you were confronted 653 00:35:41,160 --> 00:35:43,560 Speaker 1: with a group of people who like have been killing 654 00:35:43,600 --> 00:35:47,800 Speaker 1: continuously for like ten years now, and like who probably 655 00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:50,840 Speaker 1: read the protocols the elder Zion to their children's bedtime stories, 656 00:35:50,920 --> 00:35:57,080 Speaker 1: like I too would be afraid. Yeah, yeah, that they 657 00:35:57,120 --> 00:36:01,760 Speaker 1: sound terrifying. They were, Um, they probably have a couple 658 00:36:01,800 --> 00:36:06,799 Speaker 1: of ethnic cleansings under their belt to get to China. Now, 659 00:36:06,920 --> 00:36:09,640 Speaker 1: the white Russians also importantly bring another piece of technology 660 00:36:09,640 --> 00:36:15,600 Speaker 1: from the Russian Civil war armored trains. Yeah, there's a 661 00:36:15,600 --> 00:36:18,120 Speaker 1: good train stuff here. There is not a goddamn thing 662 00:36:18,120 --> 00:36:19,760 Speaker 1: I love more in the world than a good armored 663 00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:23,319 Speaker 1: train story. Yeah, there's there's some Sadly I can't get 664 00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:26,719 Speaker 1: into full thingre but there's one of these trains is 665 00:36:26,920 --> 00:36:29,200 Speaker 1: absolutely wild. Like one of these trains was like a 666 00:36:29,200 --> 00:36:32,920 Speaker 1: train that the Czech Ilesion had taken to like flee, 667 00:36:33,120 --> 00:36:35,280 Speaker 1: so they they'd like taken it across half of Russia 668 00:36:35,360 --> 00:36:36,680 Speaker 1: to like flee and ends up in the hands of 669 00:36:36,719 --> 00:36:39,400 Speaker 1: the Japanese and then John gets ahold of it here 670 00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:42,680 Speaker 1: and then he starts to corporate into his army. And 671 00:36:42,960 --> 00:36:46,080 Speaker 1: this is also great because so the Chinese Worlder period, 672 00:36:46,120 --> 00:36:48,880 Speaker 1: this is like the other great armored train war O 673 00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:52,800 Speaker 1: in the Russian Civil War. Now, these trains, these trains 674 00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:55,919 Speaker 1: are and they performed extremely well in this war, which 675 00:36:55,960 --> 00:36:57,640 Speaker 1: is sort of weird because normally they don't perform that 676 00:36:57,680 --> 00:37:00,799 Speaker 1: great because they have this problem where like, okay, so 677 00:37:00,800 --> 00:37:04,120 Speaker 1: if you just cut the tracks in front of them, 678 00:37:04,160 --> 00:37:08,080 Speaker 1: they're kind of useless. But that is the downside of trains. Yeah, 679 00:37:08,120 --> 00:37:09,560 Speaker 1: but you know when when they don't do this, you 680 00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:12,360 Speaker 1: get essentially is a troop transport of tank and an 681 00:37:12,440 --> 00:37:17,600 Speaker 1: artillery battery roll up into one, and this combined with 682 00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:21,919 Speaker 1: the Russian cavalry, makes Jong's army incredibly fast, and this 683 00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:25,759 Speaker 1: speed gives them like a really deadly edge against the 684 00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:27,799 Speaker 1: sort of slower and worst trained Worlord armies that are 685 00:37:27,800 --> 00:37:32,600 Speaker 1: going to sort of serve John Well in the upcoming war. Now, okay, 686 00:37:32,600 --> 00:37:35,120 Speaker 1: we've talked about the right Russian cavalry, We've talked about 687 00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:38,160 Speaker 1: the armored trains, so I think it's time we induced 688 00:37:38,400 --> 00:37:44,680 Speaker 1: we introduced Jong's third secret weapon, the baby squads. Okay, 689 00:37:44,719 --> 00:37:48,399 Speaker 1: all right, I'm I'm I'm excited to hear about this. Ya. 690 00:37:48,480 --> 00:37:51,520 Speaker 1: So the baby Squads are Jong's special army of child 691 00:37:51,600 --> 00:37:56,480 Speaker 1: soldiers who are commanded by his son, who is also 692 00:37:56,600 --> 00:38:00,560 Speaker 1: a child. Now, when we say child, are we talking 693 00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:04,320 Speaker 1: like Garrison child or are we talking like child asked child? 694 00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:08,080 Speaker 1: You know? So the estimates vary on this. They seem 695 00:38:08,160 --> 00:38:16,720 Speaker 1: to have been in their early teens, okay, like like eleven. Okay, yeah, 696 00:38:16,760 --> 00:38:20,759 Speaker 1: it's it's you know, but you yeah, I mean some 697 00:38:20,800 --> 00:38:22,440 Speaker 1: of them are child child, some of them are like 698 00:38:22,520 --> 00:38:28,000 Speaker 1: older tweens. Yeah, And you know what's interesting about them 699 00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:31,279 Speaker 1: those so they get their own like incredibly fancy uniforms 700 00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:35,440 Speaker 1: and they get trained with these. John has custom made 701 00:38:35,600 --> 00:38:39,080 Speaker 1: German rifles that can be handled by children, like imported, 702 00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:43,560 Speaker 1: Like he breaks a weapons in Bargo. Do you get 703 00:38:43,600 --> 00:38:47,440 Speaker 1: these custom made German rifles that children can use? I mean, 704 00:38:47,440 --> 00:38:49,799 Speaker 1: you know what I always say, if you're going to 705 00:38:49,960 --> 00:38:55,120 Speaker 1: arm children, you gotta go with German guns. Nobody knows 706 00:38:55,239 --> 00:38:58,200 Speaker 1: arming small children and sending them into war like the Germans. 707 00:38:58,239 --> 00:39:02,000 Speaker 1: You know, that's just that's just historical fact. Yeah. Yeah, 708 00:39:02,640 --> 00:39:06,120 Speaker 1: you have historical experience combined with quality craftsmanship. I mean, 709 00:39:06,400 --> 00:39:09,239 Speaker 1: they just got through a war that with where they 710 00:39:09,239 --> 00:39:12,120 Speaker 1: participated in a battle called the Slaughter of the Innocence 711 00:39:12,160 --> 00:39:15,239 Speaker 1: because they sent so many children off to die. You know, 712 00:39:15,640 --> 00:39:18,040 Speaker 1: I I They're the right people to go to for 713 00:39:18,160 --> 00:39:20,960 Speaker 1: child rifles, is what I'm saying. Yeah, you know, it's 714 00:39:20,960 --> 00:39:24,359 Speaker 1: a good choice. And you know, I okay, so interestingly, 715 00:39:25,440 --> 00:39:27,520 Speaker 1: so as bes as I can tell, the Baby squadeous 716 00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:29,360 Speaker 1: sort of like a pet project that John gives to 717 00:39:29,400 --> 00:39:33,000 Speaker 1: his like teenage son. But there you know, but all accounts, 718 00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:35,480 Speaker 1: they're extremely well paid and well fed, which makes him 719 00:39:35,520 --> 00:39:37,960 Speaker 1: one of like three units and Jong's entire army that 720 00:39:38,080 --> 00:39:41,759 Speaker 1: is like paid on time and fed, so you know, 721 00:39:41,840 --> 00:39:44,840 Speaker 1: like to be fed or strong. Also, every like literally 722 00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:47,520 Speaker 1: every faction in this war is also using child soldiers. 723 00:39:48,920 --> 00:39:52,680 Speaker 1: And it's notable that Jong spends like a huge amount 724 00:39:52,680 --> 00:39:54,719 Speaker 1: of effort trying to like kick people out of his 725 00:39:54,840 --> 00:39:57,520 Speaker 1: army who doesn't think you're fit to fight, So like 726 00:39:58,719 --> 00:40:00,680 Speaker 1: he kicks like three tho and troops out of his 727 00:40:00,760 --> 00:40:03,799 Speaker 1: army for either being bandit's bad soldiers just like being 728 00:40:03,880 --> 00:40:07,640 Speaker 1: too old or too young. Yeah, that is um, that's 729 00:40:07,640 --> 00:40:10,880 Speaker 1: a lot of that's that's okay. Yeah, why And this 730 00:40:10,920 --> 00:40:14,000 Speaker 1: is another thing. These armies, the world armies are massive, 731 00:40:14,960 --> 00:40:16,960 Speaker 1: like and and you know they and they they kind 732 00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:19,759 Speaker 1: of swell dream when battles are happening as sort of 733 00:40:19,760 --> 00:40:22,600 Speaker 1: this mass conscription, they like recruit bandit groups. But like, 734 00:40:22,760 --> 00:40:25,000 Speaker 1: I mean, there are battles in this war where there's 735 00:40:25,040 --> 00:40:28,719 Speaker 1: there's there are single battles with four thousand troops like 736 00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:34,320 Speaker 1: this is yeah yeah, but you know, but somehow the 737 00:40:34,320 --> 00:40:36,759 Speaker 1: baby squads never get cut up and it's downsizing and 738 00:40:36,800 --> 00:40:38,640 Speaker 1: so they seem to have been there until the end 739 00:40:38,640 --> 00:40:42,919 Speaker 1: of the war, which you know, all in all, it's 740 00:40:42,960 --> 00:40:45,520 Speaker 1: not the worst use of child soldiers I've ever seen, 741 00:40:45,640 --> 00:40:50,279 Speaker 1: but it's also not the best so Jong Sung Chong 742 00:40:50,680 --> 00:40:54,399 Speaker 1: mid level child soldier users. Yeah, okay, that seems good. 743 00:40:54,440 --> 00:40:57,200 Speaker 1: I mean, you know, look, look, it's we've always said 744 00:40:57,239 --> 00:41:01,080 Speaker 1: on this show, using children to fight wars for you 745 00:41:01,239 --> 00:41:03,600 Speaker 1: is as much an art as it is a science, 746 00:41:03,800 --> 00:41:05,960 Speaker 1: you know, And it sounds like he was pretty good 747 00:41:05,960 --> 00:41:07,520 Speaker 1: at the science part, but maybe he could have been 748 00:41:07,560 --> 00:41:10,120 Speaker 1: a little bit more artful in his use of miners 749 00:41:10,239 --> 00:41:15,040 Speaker 1: as as death troopers for sure. Yeah, nobody's per poty's neerfect, 750 00:41:15,120 --> 00:41:17,680 Speaker 1: you know, you know, it's it's meeting of that though, right, 751 00:41:17,719 --> 00:41:20,759 Speaker 1: Like we're we're gonna get here's something, all right, I'm 752 00:41:20,760 --> 00:41:24,640 Speaker 1: gonna attempt to redeem Jong after his child soldier army. 753 00:41:24,719 --> 00:41:26,200 Speaker 1: So this is also the point in the story when 754 00:41:26,239 --> 00:41:30,480 Speaker 1: John's mother reappears, and it's not clear if they'd like 755 00:41:30,600 --> 00:41:35,480 Speaker 1: found each other sometime in between like when when when 756 00:41:35,480 --> 00:41:37,279 Speaker 1: she was sold off for grain and when he joined 757 00:41:37,320 --> 00:41:41,279 Speaker 1: the army, but by they've reunited and Jong just like 758 00:41:42,520 --> 00:41:47,680 Speaker 1: he he like loves his mom, like they literally travel 759 00:41:47,719 --> 00:41:49,920 Speaker 1: everywhere together, like every time he goes out to the field, 760 00:41:49,920 --> 00:41:52,880 Speaker 1: she's on the train. She just like lavishes her with 761 00:41:52,920 --> 00:41:56,120 Speaker 1: gifts and meals, and attention, and you know, and she 762 00:41:56,120 --> 00:41:57,760 Speaker 1: she loves out the rest of her life and luxury, 763 00:41:57,800 --> 00:42:00,680 Speaker 1: so you know, good for her. She deserves. It's take 764 00:42:00,719 --> 00:42:02,759 Speaker 1: care of your mama for sure. Yeah. Yeah, it's just 765 00:42:02,840 --> 00:42:06,800 Speaker 1: kind of a shame how her son turned out, question Mark. 766 00:42:08,560 --> 00:42:10,880 Speaker 1: I mean, look, you know you you don't. You don't 767 00:42:10,920 --> 00:42:13,839 Speaker 1: make a happy mom omelet without breaking a couple of 768 00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:19,200 Speaker 1: other people's children eggs. Yeah, and and really, what are 769 00:42:19,280 --> 00:42:22,560 Speaker 1: other people's children but fodder for the baby squads. Well, 770 00:42:22,560 --> 00:42:25,400 Speaker 1: I mean, the benefit of using children as your soldiers 771 00:42:25,520 --> 00:42:29,120 Speaker 1: is that it's very easy to make more children. People 772 00:42:29,200 --> 00:42:31,879 Speaker 1: have been doing it for forever. Yeah, it's it's it's 773 00:42:31,880 --> 00:42:34,640 Speaker 1: like cutting down trees when they're when they're young. There, 774 00:42:34,680 --> 00:42:37,319 Speaker 1: just plant more trees. Yeah, that's why we have so 775 00:42:37,360 --> 00:42:43,800 Speaker 1: many trees. Yea. So so in a war starts between 776 00:42:43,920 --> 00:42:46,160 Speaker 1: Upe food and his Click, which is based out of Beijing, 777 00:42:46,360 --> 00:42:49,480 Speaker 1: and junk Shillings Click, which is based out of Venturia. 778 00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:55,080 Speaker 1: And this begins a massive series of seppies battles on 779 00:42:55,200 --> 00:42:57,600 Speaker 1: what is the greatest set piece on earth, the Great 780 00:42:57,600 --> 00:43:01,400 Speaker 1: Wall of China, And this whole war is fought along 781 00:43:01,800 --> 00:43:03,480 Speaker 1: like this is the famous part of the Great Wall 782 00:43:03,640 --> 00:43:04,759 Speaker 1: like this is this is this is the part you've 783 00:43:04,800 --> 00:43:07,000 Speaker 1: all seen pictures of it. It's the part that was 784 00:43:07,040 --> 00:43:09,480 Speaker 1: built by the Being dynasty to keep Demand Choose contained 785 00:43:09,480 --> 00:43:12,480 Speaker 1: to Manchuria. Um, you know. And and this means that 786 00:43:12,520 --> 00:43:15,319 Speaker 1: in order to get from Beijing to Manchuria, and Jong 787 00:43:15,400 --> 00:43:19,239 Speaker 1: zong Chong is in Manchuria attempting to invade Beijing, you 788 00:43:19,280 --> 00:43:21,680 Speaker 1: have to go through one of these very small number 789 00:43:21,719 --> 00:43:24,759 Speaker 1: of heavily guarded passes. And it's these passes that the 790 00:43:24,760 --> 00:43:28,120 Speaker 1: Great Wall of China was built the fortify. So each 791 00:43:28,160 --> 00:43:30,239 Speaker 1: of their armies sort of mass and their respective side 792 00:43:30,239 --> 00:43:31,960 Speaker 1: of the Great Wall, and they try, they try to 793 00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:34,120 Speaker 1: prepare a force away to fight the four sort of 794 00:43:34,160 --> 00:43:36,520 Speaker 1: forced away through the passes. Now while everyone else is 795 00:43:36,560 --> 00:43:39,440 Speaker 1: fighting this just like incredibly bloody, pointless stalemate. At one 796 00:43:39,440 --> 00:43:42,560 Speaker 1: of the largest passes, Jong moves up to attack another 797 00:43:42,719 --> 00:43:45,920 Speaker 1: smaller pass, hoping to sort of flank Whoope Foo's army, 798 00:43:46,560 --> 00:43:50,360 Speaker 1: and Cheong immediately realizes that the passes way under defended 799 00:43:50,440 --> 00:43:53,560 Speaker 1: and just storms his way through it. But realizing that 800 00:43:53,600 --> 00:43:55,719 Speaker 1: he was just sort of alone on whoope food side 801 00:43:55,719 --> 00:43:57,319 Speaker 1: of the mountain, he said, he he sits in the 802 00:43:57,400 --> 00:44:00,560 Speaker 1: entrance and he waits for his chance to strike, and 803 00:44:00,880 --> 00:44:03,799 Speaker 1: that chance is going to come after what I can 804 00:44:04,080 --> 00:44:07,920 Speaker 1: I can only describe as absolute clown ship from one 805 00:44:07,920 --> 00:44:13,680 Speaker 1: of whopefoo subordinates cost him everything. So another very crucial 806 00:44:13,760 --> 00:44:19,239 Speaker 1: mountain pass is held by the worst commander in upe 807 00:44:19,280 --> 00:44:21,839 Speaker 1: foo his army. This is a guy, is the guy 808 00:44:21,880 --> 00:44:23,560 Speaker 1: who he's a general, but he's been given a general 809 00:44:23,680 --> 00:44:29,040 Speaker 1: just like because his brother is the president. Now, who's 810 00:44:29,080 --> 00:44:32,480 Speaker 1: assumption is that this past it is literally impossible to 811 00:44:32,560 --> 00:44:35,000 Speaker 1: group defending defending it because it's narrow and there's an 812 00:44:35,040 --> 00:44:37,960 Speaker 1: artillery unit, and so we'll put the chiller unit there 813 00:44:38,120 --> 00:44:39,759 Speaker 1: assuming that. Okay, if anyone comes to the past, she's 814 00:44:39,760 --> 00:44:44,360 Speaker 1: both with our chillery and who's who looks at this 815 00:44:44,360 --> 00:44:46,440 Speaker 1: guy is like, okay, so we need to keep him 816 00:44:46,440 --> 00:44:48,200 Speaker 1: out of the fighting, because you put him anywhere where 817 00:44:48,239 --> 00:44:50,319 Speaker 1: he can command troops, he's going to screw everything up. 818 00:44:50,680 --> 00:44:52,600 Speaker 1: So we're gonna put him in this pass. It'll be fine. 819 00:44:52,640 --> 00:44:56,759 Speaker 1: You can't possibly not not hold it. This would becomes 820 00:44:56,760 --> 00:45:01,600 Speaker 1: the single greatest mistake of Whoopefoo's entire career. His quote 821 00:45:01,680 --> 00:45:04,800 Speaker 1: unquote general and I'm using this term incredibly loosely develops 822 00:45:04,840 --> 00:45:07,960 Speaker 1: this like incredibly elaborate scheme where he's gonna send his 823 00:45:08,040 --> 00:45:11,200 Speaker 1: troops through the past to learn the enemy army back 824 00:45:11,280 --> 00:45:13,600 Speaker 1: through it so that he can shell the enemy army 825 00:45:13,640 --> 00:45:15,920 Speaker 1: after learning the minute. You know, if this is like, 826 00:45:16,080 --> 00:45:18,640 Speaker 1: if you study any military history at all, it's like, Okay, 827 00:45:18,640 --> 00:45:21,480 Speaker 1: this plan is increasingly incredibly convoluted. There's no way it's 828 00:45:21,480 --> 00:45:28,080 Speaker 1: gonna work. What happens instead is that his general's troops. Okay, 829 00:45:28,080 --> 00:45:30,160 Speaker 1: so they go out and they retreat back into the past. 830 00:45:30,760 --> 00:45:33,000 Speaker 1: But this guy mistakes his troops for the enemy and 831 00:45:33,040 --> 00:45:37,560 Speaker 1: kills them all with his own artillery. Excellent general, Yeah, 832 00:45:37,760 --> 00:45:39,919 Speaker 1: that's great, great stuff. And the guy on the other 833 00:45:40,080 --> 00:45:41,880 Speaker 1: on the other side of the past, the commander on 834 00:45:41,880 --> 00:45:43,680 Speaker 1: their side of the past, this guy named Han, and 835 00:45:43,880 --> 00:45:47,239 Speaker 1: Han watches his opponent blows up, blowing up his entire army, 836 00:45:47,800 --> 00:45:51,480 Speaker 1: rips his shirt off, and just like charges into the past, 837 00:45:51,520 --> 00:45:56,680 Speaker 1: barre chested into the past is minefield. Now between four 838 00:45:56,719 --> 00:45:59,600 Speaker 1: and five thousands of Hans troops die in this attack, 839 00:45:59,760 --> 00:46:02,600 Speaker 1: but by by what I can only describe as just 840 00:46:02,880 --> 00:46:06,080 Speaker 1: an actual act of God, Han just like survives this. 841 00:46:07,800 --> 00:46:11,680 Speaker 1: And you know this is he disappears into the fabric history, 842 00:46:11,719 --> 00:46:13,840 Speaker 1: having won a war by just doing a parody of 843 00:46:13,920 --> 00:46:17,480 Speaker 1: Dudes Rock by charging Shirt Loves into a mine field. Yeah, 844 00:46:17,520 --> 00:46:22,080 Speaker 1: he just fucking Leroy Jenkins to victory. Absolutely incredible. And 845 00:46:22,160 --> 00:46:25,319 Speaker 1: what happens next, So so Whoope Foo hears about this 846 00:46:25,480 --> 00:46:27,879 Speaker 1: charge and it's like, okay, this morons charging through the past. 847 00:46:27,920 --> 00:46:30,000 Speaker 1: It's fine, we have the artillery unit there. What he 848 00:46:30,040 --> 00:46:31,920 Speaker 1: doesn't know is that the artillery has used all of 849 00:46:31,960 --> 00:46:35,279 Speaker 1: their ammo showing their own troops. So Hans troops take 850 00:46:35,320 --> 00:46:37,680 Speaker 1: the pass, and the rest of Jong Jo Ding's army 851 00:46:37,719 --> 00:46:41,160 Speaker 1: just fledged through the great Wall. And it's at this 852 00:46:41,239 --> 00:46:43,960 Speaker 1: moment where Whoopey Foo is betrayed by one of his 853 00:46:44,000 --> 00:46:47,600 Speaker 1: subordinates and everything falls apart, and so Whoope Food makes 854 00:46:47,600 --> 00:46:50,440 Speaker 1: he makes one last desperate attempt to sort of like regroup, 855 00:46:50,480 --> 00:46:53,239 Speaker 1: and for for a very brief moment, it looks like 856 00:46:53,239 --> 00:46:56,399 Speaker 1: this is gonna work. But unfortunately for him, Jong Jung 857 00:46:56,480 --> 00:46:58,960 Speaker 1: Chong sees his sees his chance. He's been he's been 858 00:46:58,960 --> 00:47:00,560 Speaker 1: sitting on their side of his past the whole battle. 859 00:47:00,600 --> 00:47:04,000 Speaker 1: He sees his chance, and he makes it. He launches 860 00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:06,400 Speaker 1: an attack that splits Uope Foo's remaining army in half 861 00:47:06,480 --> 00:47:09,840 Speaker 1: and with just a single attack end zoope Food's career 862 00:47:10,640 --> 00:47:13,279 Speaker 1: or you know, Okay, so this is what you would 863 00:47:13,360 --> 00:47:15,719 Speaker 1: think would happen in a normal war when you lose 864 00:47:15,760 --> 00:47:17,799 Speaker 1: your entire army, all of your territory, and all of 865 00:47:17,800 --> 00:47:22,440 Speaker 1: your political support collapses. However, welcome to the Woolard period, 866 00:47:22,480 --> 00:47:24,279 Speaker 1: where the rules are made up, the points don't matter, 867 00:47:24,400 --> 00:47:27,279 Speaker 1: and whoope foods. Somehow, after literally losing everything, we'll be 868 00:47:27,320 --> 00:47:33,319 Speaker 1: back in part two. God, this whole war, why not? 869 00:47:35,400 --> 00:47:38,719 Speaker 1: I I don't believe in this cancel culture bullshit. So 870 00:47:38,840 --> 00:47:42,200 Speaker 1: look if I I feel like, as a warlord, you're 871 00:47:42,200 --> 00:47:45,640 Speaker 1: not really getting good until you've lost two or three armies, right, 872 00:47:45,920 --> 00:47:50,320 Speaker 1: just you gotta you gotta, you gotta Yeah, it's it's 873 00:47:50,360 --> 00:47:53,600 Speaker 1: it's um, it's like riding a bike. Right, You're gonna 874 00:47:53,600 --> 00:47:55,960 Speaker 1: fall a couple of times, you're gonna lose a couple 875 00:47:56,000 --> 00:47:59,000 Speaker 1: of armies. You're gonna get tens of thousands of people killed. 876 00:47:59,400 --> 00:48:03,520 Speaker 1: Like that's just you know, there's no avoiding it. Yeah, 877 00:48:03,600 --> 00:48:05,920 Speaker 1: And you know the product of this is that if 878 00:48:06,160 --> 00:48:08,640 Speaker 1: you look at the full history of this period, like 879 00:48:08,880 --> 00:48:12,920 Speaker 1: it's basically a comic book plot, Like there there are 880 00:48:13,480 --> 00:48:16,239 Speaker 1: dozens of characters who lose everything and then reappear and 881 00:48:16,280 --> 00:48:18,680 Speaker 1: lose everything because just no one, no one ever dies 882 00:48:18,760 --> 00:48:23,000 Speaker 1: until you see a body, and even then it's like 883 00:48:23,040 --> 00:48:29,360 Speaker 1: a Marvel movie. Yeah yeah, it's incredible, except it's somehow 884 00:48:29,480 --> 00:48:35,160 Speaker 1: less coherent. Yeah yeah, I mean it's one of those things. 885 00:48:35,239 --> 00:48:37,680 Speaker 1: The lesson here about all these guys who lose everything 886 00:48:37,719 --> 00:48:40,640 Speaker 1: repeatedly and keep coming back to lose more things and 887 00:48:40,680 --> 00:48:44,840 Speaker 1: then some cases eventually win, is that what determines winners 888 00:48:44,840 --> 00:48:48,560 Speaker 1: and losers in history is that the the winners lose 889 00:48:48,680 --> 00:48:50,719 Speaker 1: just as often as the losers, but they have no 890 00:48:50,840 --> 00:48:54,080 Speaker 1: shame about it. It's true, and you've got to keep 891 00:48:54,120 --> 00:48:57,160 Speaker 1: that in mind. So never ask about how your actions 892 00:48:57,200 --> 00:49:01,720 Speaker 1: affect other people. Um use them as tools and walk 893 00:49:01,840 --> 00:49:04,880 Speaker 1: into the pages of history like this guy. Yeah, and 894 00:49:04,880 --> 00:49:08,279 Speaker 1: the other really important thing here, betray your allies at 895 00:49:08,280 --> 00:49:10,960 Speaker 1: the first opportunity. Oh yeah, that goes all the people. 896 00:49:11,040 --> 00:49:13,360 Speaker 1: All the people who do well on this war immediately 897 00:49:13,360 --> 00:49:17,920 Speaker 1: betray all of their friends, and they get portray their friends. 898 00:49:18,160 --> 00:49:21,760 Speaker 1: I don't, I actually cannot. I mean I absolutely will, Sophie, 899 00:49:21,880 --> 00:49:24,120 Speaker 1: because as soon as the dogs in your house bark, 900 00:49:24,320 --> 00:49:27,719 Speaker 1: I threw you under the bus. You know, that's mean, 901 00:49:28,719 --> 00:49:31,880 Speaker 1: that's why I'm successful, Sophie throwing my friends under the bus. 902 00:49:32,200 --> 00:49:34,000 Speaker 1: But you know who I won't throw under the bus 903 00:49:35,520 --> 00:49:38,319 Speaker 1: the products and services that support this podcast until they 904 00:49:38,320 --> 00:49:41,160 Speaker 1: stopped supporting this podcast, at which point they're dead to me. 905 00:49:47,200 --> 00:49:51,319 Speaker 1: We're back, all right, What else we got now? Joan 906 00:49:51,680 --> 00:49:55,680 Speaker 1: makes it like a bandit from this warm So he 907 00:49:55,840 --> 00:49:58,360 Speaker 1: is a bandit? Oh yeah, I mean she He is 908 00:49:58,400 --> 00:50:01,239 Speaker 1: now the supreme bandit, which is really what being a 909 00:50:01,239 --> 00:50:04,640 Speaker 1: warlord is. You know. He tries to take Shanghai in 910 00:50:04,680 --> 00:50:07,640 Speaker 1: sort of late nine, but another warlord gets there first 911 00:50:07,800 --> 00:50:09,960 Speaker 1: and they do this really awkward dance or both of 912 00:50:09,960 --> 00:50:12,000 Speaker 1: them occupy parts of the city, and everyone in Shanghai 913 00:50:12,040 --> 00:50:13,919 Speaker 1: is like, oh God, they're going to fight a battle here. 914 00:50:13,960 --> 00:50:16,960 Speaker 1: Please go fight somewhere else, don't destroy the prestis city. 915 00:50:17,200 --> 00:50:20,719 Speaker 1: And so eventually, like this winds up involving a bunch 916 00:50:20,719 --> 00:50:24,160 Speaker 1: of foreign governments and there's this huge set in negotiations 917 00:50:24,160 --> 00:50:28,160 Speaker 1: and eventually the two warlords workout in agreement where they're 918 00:50:28,160 --> 00:50:30,960 Speaker 1: both gonna pull out of the city. Now, the other 919 00:50:31,040 --> 00:50:34,439 Speaker 1: warlord abides by the agreement, pulls his army out. Jong 920 00:50:34,719 --> 00:50:39,600 Speaker 1: just doesn't leave. He just stays there. And occupies the city. 921 00:50:40,920 --> 00:50:43,680 Speaker 1: And you know, it says several months in the n 922 00:50:44,840 --> 00:50:48,279 Speaker 1: he finally gets in order to leave Shanghai, but he's 923 00:50:48,280 --> 00:50:51,720 Speaker 1: only he's only sort of convinced to leave the city 924 00:50:51,760 --> 00:50:54,640 Speaker 1: after he's given full control of his home problem with 925 00:50:54,640 --> 00:50:59,160 Speaker 1: to Shendong, as well as the really frankly delightful title 926 00:50:59,200 --> 00:51:06,200 Speaker 1: that we should bring act banded extermination Commander. Yeah, yeah, 927 00:51:06,360 --> 00:51:08,120 Speaker 1: he gets at for like a couple of other provinces, 928 00:51:08,160 --> 00:51:10,160 Speaker 1: and and it's it's in this moment as he as 929 00:51:10,160 --> 00:51:12,239 Speaker 1: he sort of takes Shanghai and it's given control of 930 00:51:12,239 --> 00:51:16,279 Speaker 1: his own province of Shandong, that he really becomes the 931 00:51:16,320 --> 00:51:21,200 Speaker 1: dog meat general. Now, Chong was never like the best dude, 932 00:51:21,280 --> 00:51:23,720 Speaker 1: even before he was given absolute power over an entire 933 00:51:23,719 --> 00:51:26,640 Speaker 1: province and an enormous funk off army. I mean, you know, 934 00:51:27,120 --> 00:51:30,480 Speaker 1: to reproprise the old Antie Nixon song power Corrups. We 935 00:51:30,520 --> 00:51:32,520 Speaker 1: know that by heart, but you have to admit Jong 936 00:51:32,560 --> 00:51:40,000 Speaker 1: had a head start, and just just the moment she 937 00:51:40,080 --> 00:51:44,719 Speaker 1: takes real power, she goes wild. And one of the 938 00:51:44,760 --> 00:51:47,879 Speaker 1: immediate products of this is he just starts collecting just 939 00:51:47,960 --> 00:51:53,160 Speaker 1: this unbelievable pile of nicknames. His most famous is Ko 940 00:51:53,560 --> 00:51:55,920 Speaker 1: joan Jing, or the dog Meat General, a title he 941 00:51:55,960 --> 00:51:59,800 Speaker 1: gains because of his reputation for playing a Chinese gambling 942 00:52:00,000 --> 00:52:03,800 Speaker 1: aim once like Domino based, and for some indescribable reason, 943 00:52:04,400 --> 00:52:08,279 Speaker 1: people of Manchuria called this game eating dog meat. I 944 00:52:08,280 --> 00:52:11,120 Speaker 1: don't know why this is. Like, the best I can 945 00:52:11,160 --> 00:52:13,560 Speaker 1: come up with is that one of the words kind 946 00:52:13,560 --> 00:52:17,680 Speaker 1: of sounds like dog who knows now now Confusingly, I've 947 00:52:17,719 --> 00:52:20,680 Speaker 1: also seen claims that he did actually eat dog meat 948 00:52:20,680 --> 00:52:25,640 Speaker 1: because he thought it would make it more virile. But sure, yeah, 949 00:52:25,840 --> 00:52:28,120 Speaker 1: but you know, the sourcing on this is not great 950 00:52:28,200 --> 00:52:30,680 Speaker 1: and and it's it has no relation to why he's 951 00:52:30,719 --> 00:52:32,840 Speaker 1: called the dog Meat General. So I just to make 952 00:52:32,880 --> 00:52:34,520 Speaker 1: it clear, He's called the dog Meat General because this 953 00:52:34,600 --> 00:52:38,160 Speaker 1: dude he spends so much time gambling. Like half the 954 00:52:38,200 --> 00:52:41,919 Speaker 1: descriptions of him that you read are just like from 955 00:52:41,960 --> 00:52:44,320 Speaker 1: some diplomat or from like some high society person just 956 00:52:44,400 --> 00:52:47,600 Speaker 1: ran into him at a gambling den. Now I'm just 957 00:52:47,600 --> 00:52:50,840 Speaker 1: gonna read out his list of the rest of his nicknames, 958 00:52:50,880 --> 00:52:54,000 Speaker 1: because like lordal Money, this dude has more nicknames than 959 00:52:54,040 --> 00:52:57,440 Speaker 1: any other person I've ever heard of. Okay, his nicknames 960 00:52:57,640 --> 00:53:03,120 Speaker 1: the tiger, big Tongue, blue Sky, the Dragon. We we 961 00:53:03,160 --> 00:53:07,080 Speaker 1: gotta have to take a second here. Why why half 962 00:53:07,080 --> 00:53:10,440 Speaker 1: of these? I have no idea, Like it's really weird. 963 00:53:10,600 --> 00:53:13,680 Speaker 1: He just every every source has like a different thing 964 00:53:13,719 --> 00:53:18,600 Speaker 1: of nicknames. Um, yeah, well we'll, we'll, we'll explain some 965 00:53:18,680 --> 00:53:22,000 Speaker 1: of them. He's yeah, he has the Dragon. I think 966 00:53:22,040 --> 00:53:25,480 Speaker 1: the Dragon is because he has this like the the 967 00:53:26,280 --> 00:53:27,799 Speaker 1: I don't know he he has he has some sort 968 00:53:27,800 --> 00:53:31,400 Speaker 1: of complicated relationship to the Dragon Emperor that we're who's 969 00:53:31,440 --> 00:53:34,560 Speaker 1: a mythological figure. We're gonna get you in a little bit. Um, 970 00:53:34,600 --> 00:53:38,560 Speaker 1: he's called the start start that list again, the Tiger, 971 00:53:38,719 --> 00:53:43,320 Speaker 1: big Tongue, Blue Sky, the Dragon, the red bearded Bandits, 972 00:53:43,520 --> 00:53:47,279 Speaker 1: the Monster, the Linky, the lanky General, the three doesn't knows, 973 00:53:47,320 --> 00:53:51,200 Speaker 1: war Lord seventy two, cannon Jong, the general with three 974 00:53:51,239 --> 00:53:55,640 Speaker 1: long legs, old and the long leg General. Yeah, okay, 975 00:53:55,640 --> 00:53:57,400 Speaker 1: we're gonna get that part in the second. But so 976 00:53:57,560 --> 00:54:04,960 Speaker 1: his his second moments from those nickname Yeah, okay, you know, well, 977 00:54:04,800 --> 00:54:08,160 Speaker 1: well we'll we'll, we'll, we'll do this, okay, so old 978 00:54:08,200 --> 00:54:14,480 Speaker 1: eighties six that one. Yeah, so as you've gathered three 979 00:54:14,480 --> 00:54:15,800 Speaker 1: of these are the last three these ones are just 980 00:54:15,840 --> 00:54:18,200 Speaker 1: about his dick. Um old eighties six is the most 981 00:54:18,200 --> 00:54:20,879 Speaker 1: interesting one because supposedly it's because this dick is as 982 00:54:20,880 --> 00:54:23,759 Speaker 1: long as a stack of eighties six Mexican silver pastos. 983 00:54:24,719 --> 00:54:28,120 Speaker 1: That's amazing. Now that that just in brings up so 984 00:54:28,160 --> 00:54:31,239 Speaker 1: many questions because we're again in China, So, okay, is 985 00:54:31,280 --> 00:54:33,600 Speaker 1: the paso anyone's go to for the size of the 986 00:54:33,640 --> 00:54:36,719 Speaker 1: sky still so so. Mexican silver pasos have long been 987 00:54:36,840 --> 00:54:39,680 Speaker 1: used in hard currency in China, dating back to the hundreds, 988 00:54:40,000 --> 00:54:43,520 Speaker 1: when the Ming's instatable demand for silver formed the base 989 00:54:43,560 --> 00:54:47,000 Speaker 1: of the Being currency system. That results in them importing 990 00:54:47,040 --> 00:54:49,400 Speaker 1: a huge amount of the silver that that's that's removed 991 00:54:49,440 --> 00:54:52,200 Speaker 1: from Spanish control of minds in Latin America. So yeah, 992 00:54:52,280 --> 00:54:55,200 Speaker 1: Being dynasty. Uh, they do great things for quality of life, 993 00:54:55,239 --> 00:54:57,520 Speaker 1: are also kind of responsible for all of the genocides 994 00:54:57,520 --> 00:55:02,120 Speaker 1: in Latin America. Not great, Yeah, well yeah, I mean 995 00:55:02,800 --> 00:55:04,440 Speaker 1: it should to be fair, they didn't know where it 996 00:55:04,480 --> 00:55:08,080 Speaker 1: was coming from, but yeah, they just needed to measure 997 00:55:08,080 --> 00:55:11,040 Speaker 1: people's dicks. Yeah yeah, And you know, as sort of 998 00:55:11,120 --> 00:55:14,240 Speaker 1: various currencies collapsing the Warlord period, people keep using Mexican 999 00:55:14,280 --> 00:55:17,000 Speaker 1: silver like pasos as coins are just worth their weight 1000 00:55:17,040 --> 00:55:21,400 Speaker 1: in silver. I'm I'm just I'm still I'm still working 1001 00:55:21,400 --> 00:55:23,680 Speaker 1: through in my head the Wow, the boss has a 1002 00:55:23,760 --> 00:55:26,359 Speaker 1: huge dick. Hey, get some of that silver. I want 1003 00:55:26,480 --> 00:55:29,239 Speaker 1: I want to I want to figure out exactly how 1004 00:55:29,360 --> 00:55:32,480 Speaker 1: this dick shakes out in Paso so So. One of 1005 00:55:32,600 --> 00:55:35,400 Speaker 1: my one of my friends, who has experienced with Mexican 1006 00:55:35,440 --> 00:55:38,759 Speaker 1: coins from this period, calculated that a six Paso stack 1007 00:55:38,800 --> 00:55:40,399 Speaker 1: on top of each other means that this dude's dick 1008 00:55:40,520 --> 00:55:45,360 Speaker 1: is eight point eight inches long. Yeah, and you know, 1009 00:55:45,440 --> 00:55:46,839 Speaker 1: this is this is the kind of thing that like 1010 00:55:46,880 --> 00:55:48,600 Speaker 1: you'd expect Okay, this is like the kind of myth 1011 00:55:48,640 --> 00:55:52,799 Speaker 1: making you'd expect to get from warlords. But like stunning Lee, 1012 00:55:53,239 --> 00:55:56,359 Speaker 1: this like seems to be true. Yeah, I mean eight 1013 00:55:56,400 --> 00:55:58,560 Speaker 1: eight point six inches. If we're if he was like, yeah, 1014 00:55:58,560 --> 00:56:00,920 Speaker 1: he's got like a fourteen fifteen inch dick, I'd be like, Okay, 1015 00:56:00,960 --> 00:56:03,920 Speaker 1: well this sounds like some some raspute and nonsense. But 1016 00:56:04,000 --> 00:56:07,080 Speaker 1: eight point six is like, yeah, it's pretty good sized dick. 1017 00:56:07,160 --> 00:56:09,080 Speaker 1: But that's not like we're not talking outside of the 1018 00:56:09,080 --> 00:56:11,640 Speaker 1: realm of possibility here, especially for a dude as big 1019 00:56:11,680 --> 00:56:14,080 Speaker 1: as this. Eight point six inches for a near seven 1020 00:56:14,120 --> 00:56:17,400 Speaker 1: feet is just kind of like, yeah, that sounds like 1021 00:56:17,440 --> 00:56:20,239 Speaker 1: it sounds about right. Yeah, and he you know, as 1022 00:56:20,280 --> 00:56:23,239 Speaker 1: as as as you guess this dude just fox all 1023 00:56:23,239 --> 00:56:27,640 Speaker 1: the time. Yes, I I had gathered that from his nicknames. 1024 00:56:27,840 --> 00:56:31,040 Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure the tongue one is about fucking two. Yeah, 1025 00:56:31,120 --> 00:56:35,800 Speaker 1: I think so. Um there's another one that's like famous, 1026 00:56:35,800 --> 00:56:40,839 Speaker 1: which is about the three doesn't know his general, which 1027 00:56:40,880 --> 00:56:43,560 Speaker 1: is because so his his most famous quote is that 1028 00:56:43,600 --> 00:56:45,759 Speaker 1: he doesn't know how many he doesn't know how many 1029 00:56:45,760 --> 00:56:47,319 Speaker 1: troops he has, he doesn't know how much money he has, 1030 00:56:47,320 --> 00:56:48,839 Speaker 1: and he doesn't know how many women is having sex 1031 00:56:48,880 --> 00:56:55,279 Speaker 1: with it any given moments. It's the most warlord ship ever. 1032 00:56:57,200 --> 00:57:00,400 Speaker 1: I mean, you're not making being a warlords sound like 1033 00:57:00,440 --> 00:57:03,640 Speaker 1: a bad gig. Yeah, you know. And this this, this 1034 00:57:03,680 --> 00:57:05,440 Speaker 1: seems like as good a time as any to mention 1035 00:57:05,600 --> 00:57:08,040 Speaker 1: that this is the period where John starts traveling around 1036 00:57:08,120 --> 00:57:11,120 Speaker 1: with special train cars for his forty two concubines, the 1037 00:57:11,200 --> 00:57:13,440 Speaker 1: names of which he just didn't know and thus her 1038 00:57:13,440 --> 00:57:18,120 Speaker 1: for Yeah, yeah, you're a war lord. I don't expect 1039 00:57:18,120 --> 00:57:22,400 Speaker 1: you to know anyone's name. Yeah, you know, you know 1040 00:57:22,520 --> 00:57:26,360 Speaker 1: so So, contrary to Young, I spent a pretty good 1041 00:57:26,400 --> 00:57:28,600 Speaker 1: amount of time trying to figure out who these women were, 1042 00:57:29,840 --> 00:57:33,280 Speaker 1: and there's just there's just like a really depressing lack 1043 00:57:33,320 --> 00:57:35,160 Speaker 1: of interest in his women's lives, just like across the 1044 00:57:35,160 --> 00:57:38,160 Speaker 1: whole academic literature. What I was able to find out 1045 00:57:38,160 --> 00:57:40,880 Speaker 1: about them was that half of them are Russians who 1046 00:57:40,960 --> 00:57:43,720 Speaker 1: came with the White Army, and the rest of them 1047 00:57:43,760 --> 00:57:46,280 Speaker 1: are either sort of Chinese, Japanese, are American, but we 1048 00:57:46,360 --> 00:57:50,560 Speaker 1: don't really know how John got his hands on them. 1049 00:57:50,920 --> 00:57:54,720 Speaker 1: These are a foreign yeah yeah, and that that's like 1050 00:57:54,760 --> 00:57:56,360 Speaker 1: one of the big things that all of the sort 1051 00:57:56,360 --> 00:57:58,520 Speaker 1: of like media people pick up on and it's like, wow, 1052 00:57:58,560 --> 00:58:02,040 Speaker 1: he has like white prostitute and it's like okay, oh yeah, 1053 00:58:02,080 --> 00:58:04,160 Speaker 1: I'm sure that makes the news back in New York. 1054 00:58:04,440 --> 00:58:09,479 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. Now, it's possible that some of these people 1055 00:58:09,520 --> 00:58:13,560 Speaker 1: have been sex workers in Shanghai, but it's also possible 1056 00:58:13,680 --> 00:58:17,480 Speaker 1: that Jong's troops and the white Russians do this literally 1057 00:58:17,520 --> 00:58:20,840 Speaker 1: all the time, just literally grabbed them off the street 1058 00:58:20,880 --> 00:58:24,480 Speaker 1: at random. Because you know, if if there's this, we're 1059 00:58:24,480 --> 00:58:26,200 Speaker 1: starting to get at the downside of the boiler period, 1060 00:58:26,240 --> 00:58:29,080 Speaker 1: which is that like, yeah, so if you're like a woman, 1061 00:58:29,360 --> 00:58:30,960 Speaker 1: like a woman in the street of China, someone can 1062 00:58:31,000 --> 00:58:34,160 Speaker 1: just like grab you off the street and you're concubine now. 1063 00:58:34,840 --> 00:58:37,520 Speaker 1: But you know, and what I think is really depressing 1064 00:58:37,520 --> 00:58:40,760 Speaker 1: about this, this is like like we don't know what 1065 00:58:40,800 --> 00:58:44,040 Speaker 1: the relationship to him was. Um, all of the sources 1066 00:58:44,640 --> 00:58:48,000 Speaker 1: they don't even agree as to like like half of 1067 00:58:48,040 --> 00:58:49,840 Speaker 1: the sources called them concubines and half of them call 1068 00:58:49,920 --> 00:58:52,560 Speaker 1: them wives, and like we don't know if they they're 1069 00:58:52,560 --> 00:58:54,520 Speaker 1: against their will, we don't know if they're getting paid. 1070 00:58:54,800 --> 00:58:56,880 Speaker 1: We just we don't know anything about them. And it's 1071 00:58:56,920 --> 00:59:00,880 Speaker 1: extremely frustrating, especially because chong Hers have had kids with 1072 00:59:00,920 --> 00:59:02,400 Speaker 1: some of these women, but we don't know what happened 1073 00:59:02,400 --> 00:59:03,840 Speaker 1: to them. We don't know what happened to the women. 1074 00:59:03,880 --> 00:59:07,360 Speaker 1: We don't have to the kids, and you know, and 1075 00:59:07,640 --> 00:59:11,240 Speaker 1: there's a lot of other very weird stuff here. I 1076 00:59:11,760 --> 00:59:14,800 Speaker 1: saw some evidence that some of the dudes that John 1077 00:59:14,920 --> 00:59:17,160 Speaker 1: was sleeping with for men, which implies it like he's 1078 00:59:17,200 --> 00:59:19,600 Speaker 1: by But again, this is one of those I mean, 1079 00:59:19,600 --> 00:59:23,720 Speaker 1: they're also when you're that kind of powerful person, it's 1080 00:59:23,760 --> 00:59:27,760 Speaker 1: almost less about sexuality and more about just like power, 1081 00:59:27,960 --> 00:59:30,760 Speaker 1: like you just fun people because they can't not fuck 1082 00:59:30,840 --> 00:59:33,680 Speaker 1: you because you're the warlord. I think that is some 1083 00:59:33,760 --> 00:59:37,480 Speaker 1: of these dudes like it's almost not worth kind of 1084 00:59:37,520 --> 00:59:40,840 Speaker 1: trying to box them into a sexual category. It's kind 1085 00:59:40,840 --> 00:59:43,160 Speaker 1: of like how rape is less about sex than about 1086 00:59:43,160 --> 00:59:45,840 Speaker 1: power for this kind of person who power is everything 1087 00:59:45,920 --> 00:59:49,640 Speaker 1: for it's just like he can he just sucks. Yeah, 1088 00:59:49,680 --> 00:59:52,240 Speaker 1: And and there's a sort of interesting consequence of this, 1089 00:59:52,320 --> 00:59:55,320 Speaker 1: which is that like if you look at like John's life, 1090 00:59:55,520 --> 00:59:58,360 Speaker 1: he kind of just turns into this just like like 1091 00:59:58,440 --> 01:00:01,440 Speaker 1: physical embodiment of structural of forces. It's like, okay, so 1092 01:00:01,480 --> 01:00:03,160 Speaker 1: like what is the patriarchy? Right, It's like, well, here 1093 01:00:03,240 --> 01:00:05,000 Speaker 1: is this dude whose whole thing is that he like 1094 01:00:05,080 --> 01:00:08,920 Speaker 1: he literally physically reduces women to numbers. And you get 1095 01:00:08,960 --> 01:00:11,120 Speaker 1: this with sort of in various different ways, with like 1096 01:00:11,160 --> 01:00:13,800 Speaker 1: state violence, like the banking system, where like a lot 1097 01:00:13,800 --> 01:00:15,720 Speaker 1: of what Jong sort of reveals is that it's just 1098 01:00:16,400 --> 01:00:18,120 Speaker 1: all of these systems are just a dude with a 1099 01:00:18,120 --> 01:00:21,160 Speaker 1: lot of guns. And if you yeah, you know, if 1100 01:00:21,160 --> 01:00:25,480 Speaker 1: you just give, we're watching ship go down in Gaza 1101 01:00:25,600 --> 01:00:28,520 Speaker 1: right now. All of the systems today are still just 1102 01:00:28,680 --> 01:00:33,680 Speaker 1: dudes with guns and dress it up more and less. Yeah. Well, really, 1103 01:00:33,720 --> 01:00:35,520 Speaker 1: the only difference between it is is the amount of 1104 01:00:35,560 --> 01:00:41,640 Speaker 1: legitimacy you have mm hm And yeah, you know, this 1105 01:00:41,720 --> 01:00:43,520 Speaker 1: legitimacy problem is like, this is a big thing for 1106 01:00:43,560 --> 01:00:46,680 Speaker 1: all the warlords, and Jong just doesn't try to solve it, 1107 01:00:47,360 --> 01:00:49,360 Speaker 1: which is what makes the unique. Everyone else is doing 1108 01:00:49,400 --> 01:00:52,000 Speaker 1: this like oh I do I plant gardens, I I 1109 01:00:52,080 --> 01:00:55,720 Speaker 1: do public works, and John is just like nah, I'm 1110 01:00:55,800 --> 01:01:01,080 Speaker 1: just gonna have fun. Ok. Yeah. You know the consequence 1111 01:01:01,080 --> 01:01:03,160 Speaker 1: of this, though, is while while John's like jet sitting 1112 01:01:03,200 --> 01:01:05,880 Speaker 1: around with a train full of like maybe sex slaves, 1113 01:01:06,440 --> 01:01:08,560 Speaker 1: what's happening in Shendong the provinces just been hand to 1114 01:01:08,600 --> 01:01:13,400 Speaker 1: control over is oh boy? Um, so some of it 1115 01:01:13,480 --> 01:01:17,720 Speaker 1: is pretty funny, Like so when when he leaves his 1116 01:01:17,800 --> 01:01:21,200 Speaker 1: office every day when he's in Shendong, he he has 1117 01:01:21,240 --> 01:01:22,760 Speaker 1: like all the streets cleared, and then he has a 1118 01:01:22,800 --> 01:01:25,360 Speaker 1: bunch of people like sprinkle clean water on the road 1119 01:01:25,400 --> 01:01:28,160 Speaker 1: to prepare prepare, like prepared for him to walk on, 1120 01:01:28,680 --> 01:01:30,800 Speaker 1: which is just like this is some great petty dictator 1121 01:01:30,840 --> 01:01:35,240 Speaker 1: ship like this. And he also, you know, he does 1122 01:01:35,240 --> 01:01:36,720 Speaker 1: the thing a lot of your getters do, which is 1123 01:01:36,720 --> 01:01:39,560 Speaker 1: he starts issuing his own paper currency. Hell yeah, hell 1124 01:01:39,640 --> 01:01:42,160 Speaker 1: he has his face on it. Well, so this is 1125 01:01:42,160 --> 01:01:44,760 Speaker 1: why I couldn't find much about it because and the 1126 01:01:44,800 --> 01:01:46,920 Speaker 1: reason is for this is she just gets bored of 1127 01:01:46,920 --> 01:01:50,960 Speaker 1: it and stops printing it, and then after that she 1128 01:01:51,000 --> 01:01:55,000 Speaker 1: starts making everyone's military staffs his money. Oh man, I 1129 01:01:55,200 --> 01:01:58,720 Speaker 1: you know, I'm on board with of this guy everything, 1130 01:01:58,760 --> 01:02:02,160 Speaker 1: but the probable rape, Like yeah, you know, and I 1131 01:02:02,160 --> 01:02:03,920 Speaker 1: think this is this is this is what puts him 1132 01:02:03,960 --> 01:02:05,680 Speaker 1: like the fact that he's not using his own currency, 1133 01:02:05,720 --> 01:02:07,760 Speaker 1: that he's using military stamps. This is like what puts 1134 01:02:07,840 --> 01:02:09,840 Speaker 1: him like a tier above the rest of the world lords, 1135 01:02:09,880 --> 01:02:12,640 Speaker 1: because the rest of the warlords just like whatever, I'll 1136 01:02:12,680 --> 01:02:15,960 Speaker 1: print my own money. But John's like, okay, so these 1137 01:02:16,000 --> 01:02:18,560 Speaker 1: stamps are made in Manchuria, which means I don't have 1138 01:02:18,600 --> 01:02:21,280 Speaker 1: to pay for them, I just get set them. So 1139 01:02:21,280 --> 01:02:23,280 Speaker 1: so if if I use these stamps his money, I 1140 01:02:23,280 --> 01:02:26,240 Speaker 1: don't have to like spend the money to like make 1141 01:02:26,320 --> 01:02:31,280 Speaker 1: your own fake paper currency. Hey look, you don't. You 1142 01:02:31,320 --> 01:02:34,080 Speaker 1: don't get an army, lose an army and then get 1143 01:02:34,120 --> 01:02:36,880 Speaker 1: another army, and then lose another army and then get 1144 01:02:36,920 --> 01:02:41,400 Speaker 1: another army unless you're pragmatic. And you know, we can 1145 01:02:41,480 --> 01:02:43,560 Speaker 1: we can see some examples as pragmatism. So there's a 1146 01:02:43,600 --> 01:02:45,480 Speaker 1: there's a famous story of like, at one point a merchant. 1147 01:02:45,480 --> 01:02:47,840 Speaker 1: It's just like these are stamps. This is not money. 1148 01:02:47,960 --> 01:02:49,960 Speaker 1: So John has a dude taken out of his shop, 1149 01:02:50,440 --> 01:02:53,440 Speaker 1: beaten and shot, which, you know, funnily enough, this is 1150 01:02:53,480 --> 01:02:57,400 Speaker 1: how states forced originally forced people to use money, and 1151 01:02:57,440 --> 01:03:01,920 Speaker 1: it like worked because yeah, it's like money is the 1152 01:03:01,960 --> 01:03:04,480 Speaker 1: thing that like when when the state asked you for it, 1153 01:03:04,520 --> 01:03:08,200 Speaker 1: you have to give them give it to them. Yeah. Yeah, 1154 01:03:08,200 --> 01:03:09,720 Speaker 1: and he also so the other one thing he starts 1155 01:03:09,760 --> 01:03:13,800 Speaker 1: doing in this period is he starts going to banks 1156 01:03:13,920 --> 01:03:15,800 Speaker 1: and just like pulling out guns and telling them to 1157 01:03:15,800 --> 01:03:22,320 Speaker 1: give him loans, which yeah, that's I mean, look, I 1158 01:03:22,320 --> 01:03:25,240 Speaker 1: am currently in the process of wanting to buy a house, 1159 01:03:25,560 --> 01:03:29,680 Speaker 1: but a lifetime of shit credit is making that difficult, 1160 01:03:30,160 --> 01:03:33,360 Speaker 1: and I might do the same thing. That seems like 1161 01:03:33,400 --> 01:03:37,080 Speaker 1: a pretty good idea. This is one of his best ideas. 1162 01:03:37,080 --> 01:03:39,240 Speaker 1: And it's great because I will pay the loan, but 1163 01:03:39,320 --> 01:03:45,080 Speaker 1: I am going to get it at gunpoint fucking credit. Yes, absolutely, Yeah, 1164 01:03:45,480 --> 01:03:47,880 Speaker 1: they are funny play about this. So there's like a 1165 01:03:47,960 --> 01:03:49,760 Speaker 1: bunch of banks in Shendong that have been open for 1166 01:03:49,800 --> 01:03:52,240 Speaker 1: like like like a lot, like a couple of hundred years, 1167 01:03:52,400 --> 01:03:54,680 Speaker 1: and she drives like six of them out of business 1168 01:03:56,000 --> 01:03:59,680 Speaker 1: because he just like takes all of their money and loans. Unfortunately, 1169 01:03:59,720 --> 01:04:04,000 Speaker 1: now we have to come to the really bad stuff. Yeah, 1170 01:04:04,280 --> 01:04:06,920 Speaker 1: you know, we've been having fun, but oh boy, I 1171 01:04:06,960 --> 01:04:09,040 Speaker 1: hate it when people do this to me because I 1172 01:04:09,080 --> 01:04:12,640 Speaker 1: normally do this to people. Yea, and only techis like 1173 01:04:12,680 --> 01:04:17,640 Speaker 1: fourteen pages. Yeah. So one of the most famous accounts 1174 01:04:17,640 --> 01:04:20,760 Speaker 1: of what's happening in chang Ndong from this period comes 1175 01:04:20,760 --> 01:04:22,840 Speaker 1: from a guy named Joseph Stillwell, who Okay, I need 1176 01:04:22,880 --> 01:04:26,640 Speaker 1: to mention the outset. Still Will enormous racist, huge piece 1177 01:04:26,640 --> 01:04:30,120 Speaker 1: of shit. Um, he's a white guy in China in 1178 01:04:30,160 --> 01:04:35,240 Speaker 1: this period. Yeah, naturally Yeah, but like naturally be because 1179 01:04:35,240 --> 01:04:37,240 Speaker 1: he's incredibly racist and a piece of ship. He goes 1180 01:04:37,280 --> 01:04:39,760 Speaker 1: on to be an incredibly important American general in World 1181 01:04:39,760 --> 01:04:41,320 Speaker 1: War Two who fights in the like the China and 1182 01:04:41,360 --> 01:04:45,720 Speaker 1: India theater. So that's great. He's like still beloved in 1183 01:04:45,720 --> 01:04:51,560 Speaker 1: the US for reasons. But you know, his accounts, his 1184 01:04:51,680 --> 01:04:54,240 Speaker 1: account of it like matches with other stuff I've seen, 1185 01:04:54,280 --> 01:04:56,600 Speaker 1: so I saw i'd start with that. So so still 1186 01:04:56,600 --> 01:05:01,320 Speaker 1: Will's there, Still Wills in Shandong in and what what 1187 01:05:01,400 --> 01:05:04,880 Speaker 1: he describes is the huge swass the population made homeless 1188 01:05:04,880 --> 01:05:08,320 Speaker 1: by war huddling together desperately in packed city streets without 1189 01:05:08,320 --> 01:05:10,840 Speaker 1: even a tent. The shelt of them at night, bodies 1190 01:05:10,880 --> 01:05:12,600 Speaker 1: begin to pile up on the streets, but there's no 1191 01:05:12,600 --> 01:05:15,080 Speaker 1: one to take them away, and the corpses stayed where 1192 01:05:15,080 --> 01:05:19,320 Speaker 1: they fell as famine ravaged the province. Shown solution, if 1193 01:05:19,360 --> 01:05:22,200 Speaker 1: it could be called that, to this problem of famine 1194 01:05:22,320 --> 01:05:27,040 Speaker 1: is industrial waste. So one of Manchuria's chief exports in 1195 01:05:27,040 --> 01:05:29,840 Speaker 1: this period were soybean cakes, which is it's basically like 1196 01:05:29,840 --> 01:05:32,280 Speaker 1: it's it's a bunch of massive soybean that's been smashed together. 1197 01:05:33,000 --> 01:05:34,440 Speaker 1: And I want to say at the outset, so when 1198 01:05:34,480 --> 01:05:36,960 Speaker 1: I call these cakes, right, these are cakes in the 1199 01:05:37,000 --> 01:05:40,000 Speaker 1: sense that like cakes a uranium or cakes, like they're 1200 01:05:40,000 --> 01:05:42,280 Speaker 1: not food. This this is a this is an industrial product. 1201 01:05:42,360 --> 01:05:43,960 Speaker 1: And you know what you do of them with them 1202 01:05:44,080 --> 01:05:47,560 Speaker 1: is that you you know, you shipped you shipped them 1203 01:05:47,600 --> 01:05:49,520 Speaker 1: somewhere else and then you squeeze the oil out of them. 1204 01:05:49,560 --> 01:05:51,600 Speaker 1: And that that oil is used to make like it's 1205 01:05:51,640 --> 01:05:54,440 Speaker 1: is using like a number of like important industrial processes. 1206 01:05:54,800 --> 01:05:58,160 Speaker 1: And what at least behind is this even worse like 1207 01:05:58,360 --> 01:06:01,920 Speaker 1: quote unquote cake, that's it's it's waste materially people use 1208 01:06:01,920 --> 01:06:03,880 Speaker 1: it as fertilizer or somethings use it to feed pigs. 1209 01:06:04,560 --> 01:06:07,640 Speaker 1: And this is what Jong starts to import from Manchuria 1210 01:06:07,680 --> 01:06:13,240 Speaker 1: and used to feed the refugees. Yeah, like I need 1211 01:06:13,280 --> 01:06:15,760 Speaker 1: to reiterate this. This is not food. This is an 1212 01:06:15,840 --> 01:06:19,960 Speaker 1: industrial waste product. It's edible in the sense that it 1213 01:06:20,040 --> 01:06:24,960 Speaker 1: will fill your stomach and temporarily stop hunger payings without 1214 01:06:25,000 --> 01:06:27,160 Speaker 1: actually providing you with nutrition. And and it might just 1215 01:06:27,280 --> 01:06:29,240 Speaker 1: poison you because again, like the usons are being just 1216 01:06:29,280 --> 01:06:33,000 Speaker 1: taken from a factory, right like you know, and this 1217 01:06:33,120 --> 01:06:35,040 Speaker 1: is this is this is what's happening to people that 1218 01:06:35,080 --> 01:06:39,120 Speaker 1: he's trying to help, the people that he's not trying 1219 01:06:39,200 --> 01:06:43,400 Speaker 1: to help. So I think that the best way to 1220 01:06:43,480 --> 01:06:47,840 Speaker 1: sort of understand how brutal his army is in this 1221 01:06:47,960 --> 01:06:51,840 Speaker 1: period is that everywhere his army goes, it starts to 1222 01:06:52,000 --> 01:06:55,360 Speaker 1: change the leg the language of the provinces, because every 1223 01:06:55,400 --> 01:06:57,120 Speaker 1: time they find a new way to murder someone, it 1224 01:06:57,240 --> 01:06:58,800 Speaker 1: gets popular, like people have to comp with a new 1225 01:06:58,920 --> 01:07:00,880 Speaker 1: term for it. So for example, one of the one 1226 01:07:00,880 --> 01:07:02,640 Speaker 1: of the things in the beginning of this is there 1227 01:07:02,680 --> 01:07:05,880 Speaker 1: there's an expression that becomes popular called to cut apart 1228 01:07:05,960 --> 01:07:10,040 Speaker 1: to catch the light, which means like taking a skull, 1229 01:07:10,160 --> 01:07:12,440 Speaker 1: splitting it into and like exposing the inside of it 1230 01:07:12,520 --> 01:07:17,000 Speaker 1: to the sun. Yeah, and you know, but the thing 1231 01:07:17,080 --> 01:07:18,720 Speaker 1: is like that that that you know, you you split, 1232 01:07:18,720 --> 01:07:20,560 Speaker 1: you split enough skull s, it's like okay, whatever, And 1233 01:07:20,600 --> 01:07:23,240 Speaker 1: so the strips get bored. And when they got forward 1234 01:07:23,280 --> 01:07:26,160 Speaker 1: that account with another one, which is they would split 1235 01:07:26,240 --> 01:07:28,760 Speaker 1: schools in half, like fully clean in half, and then 1236 01:07:28,800 --> 01:07:31,200 Speaker 1: they'd find a telephone poll that's like connected by a 1237 01:07:31,240 --> 01:07:35,240 Speaker 1: wire further telephone pole, and they'd hang the skulls on 1238 01:07:35,360 --> 01:07:37,280 Speaker 1: each end of the telephone pole, at opposite ends of 1239 01:07:37,320 --> 01:07:39,000 Speaker 1: the wire, with their ears like pressed up to the 1240 01:07:39,120 --> 01:07:40,440 Speaker 1: to the things that looked like they were listening to 1241 01:07:40,440 --> 01:07:44,600 Speaker 1: the telephone. And this becomes so widespread the phrase he 1242 01:07:44,640 --> 01:07:46,560 Speaker 1: had been made to listen to the telephone becomes like 1243 01:07:46,560 --> 01:07:50,400 Speaker 1: another popular expression in the province. Jesus, that's dark. Yeah, 1244 01:07:51,160 --> 01:07:53,680 Speaker 1: it's you know. This whole ring of terror became known 1245 01:07:53,720 --> 01:07:56,640 Speaker 1: as the steel sword policy after Drang's policy of just 1246 01:07:56,760 --> 01:07:59,600 Speaker 1: decapitating his political opponents and splitting their heads with swords. 1247 01:08:00,000 --> 01:08:01,960 Speaker 1: And when I say that was pretty straightforward, but you 1248 01:08:02,000 --> 01:08:03,720 Speaker 1: know when I say this is his policy, right, I 1249 01:08:03,760 --> 01:08:06,360 Speaker 1: mean he is literally personally doing this, like he is 1250 01:08:06,400 --> 01:08:10,440 Speaker 1: the guy holding the sword shopping people's skulls open action. Yeah, yeah, 1251 01:08:10,440 --> 01:08:11,800 Speaker 1: and you know, and when when you when when you're 1252 01:08:11,800 --> 01:08:13,280 Speaker 1: when when you're six ft seven and you have a 1253 01:08:13,360 --> 01:08:17,439 Speaker 1: bunch of really sharp swords, like yeah, you can. Mean again, 1254 01:08:17,840 --> 01:08:20,040 Speaker 1: he's making a lot of calls I too would make 1255 01:08:20,080 --> 01:08:24,400 Speaker 1: in his situation. And there's you know, there's, there's there's 1256 01:08:24,439 --> 01:08:26,640 Speaker 1: and I think I think you will also appreciate this 1257 01:08:26,720 --> 01:08:29,400 Speaker 1: one as a member of the press. So very early 1258 01:08:29,520 --> 01:08:32,560 Speaker 1: on when he first started takes power, uh, one of 1259 01:08:32,720 --> 01:08:35,040 Speaker 1: the earliest instances that said the steel sword policies, there's 1260 01:08:35,040 --> 01:08:37,320 Speaker 1: an editor of a newspaper who like publishes an article 1261 01:08:37,400 --> 01:08:41,360 Speaker 1: criticizing him. Yeah. Yeah, so John has the newspaper editor 1262 01:08:41,439 --> 01:08:43,080 Speaker 1: dragged out of his office and shot in the street, 1263 01:08:43,160 --> 01:08:45,040 Speaker 1: and then like you know, after that, all the newspapers 1264 01:08:45,080 --> 01:08:49,840 Speaker 1: sort of stopped criticizing him. Now, and I should mention this, 1265 01:08:49,960 --> 01:08:52,760 Speaker 1: what John and his men are doing here is not 1266 01:08:53,000 --> 01:08:57,280 Speaker 1: just random violence. John has the same legit legitimacy problem 1267 01:08:57,320 --> 01:09:00,400 Speaker 1: that every other warlord does, and his solution to essentially 1268 01:09:00,439 --> 01:09:02,080 Speaker 1: just to cut the gory and not and kill anyone 1269 01:09:02,120 --> 01:09:04,519 Speaker 1: who opposes him in ways. So public and so violent 1270 01:09:04,600 --> 01:09:08,120 Speaker 1: that no one would ever dared do it again. And 1271 01:09:08,800 --> 01:09:11,799 Speaker 1: this has a devastating effect on the population in Shandong. 1272 01:09:12,439 --> 01:09:15,880 Speaker 1: The effects of constant warfare, bandits, droughts, and locusts, combined 1273 01:09:15,920 --> 01:09:18,200 Speaker 1: with the sheer brutality of John's extraction to wealth to 1274 01:09:18,320 --> 01:09:21,920 Speaker 1: leave four to nine million people like including my family, 1275 01:09:22,000 --> 01:09:23,759 Speaker 1: by the way, who are who are in this problems? 1276 01:09:24,760 --> 01:09:28,439 Speaker 1: In the period on the brink of starvation, which luckily 1277 01:09:29,200 --> 01:09:32,800 Speaker 1: that part's not red, you know, but you know, to 1278 01:09:32,840 --> 01:09:35,080 Speaker 1: have a family connection to a story, Yeah, yeah, I 1279 01:09:35,160 --> 01:09:36,439 Speaker 1: discovered it in the middle of and like we we 1280 01:09:36,520 --> 01:09:39,360 Speaker 1: have some records from that period, and I was like, 1281 01:09:39,400 --> 01:09:43,840 Speaker 1: I'm not going to read these, like I'm just not. Yeah, 1282 01:09:44,160 --> 01:09:48,040 Speaker 1: it seems like it would be pretty yeah. Yeah. And 1283 01:09:48,200 --> 01:09:50,880 Speaker 1: so while while the masses ate fertilizer to stay alive, 1284 01:09:51,479 --> 01:09:54,240 Speaker 1: John was partying with an endless succession of local sycophants. 1285 01:09:54,280 --> 01:09:56,200 Speaker 1: He left as every word for a chance to turn 1286 01:09:56,240 --> 01:09:57,800 Speaker 1: the chunk of his favor into a chunk of his 1287 01:09:57,840 --> 01:10:02,879 Speaker 1: stolen wealth. It was gambl fucking constantly, just completely wasted 1288 01:10:03,000 --> 01:10:06,840 Speaker 1: literally all the time, Like driving around with this person 1289 01:10:07,000 --> 01:10:10,160 Speaker 1: personalized Belgian dining set in his personalized training with a 1290 01:10:10,200 --> 01:10:12,400 Speaker 1: bunch of women taken from like who knows where exactly 1291 01:10:12,680 --> 01:10:16,760 Speaker 1: the absolute time of his life. Yeah, And that that's 1292 01:10:16,800 --> 01:10:19,040 Speaker 1: the image I'm going to leave you with today, Chong 1293 01:10:19,160 --> 01:10:23,559 Speaker 1: Zong Chung living out as wildest, Yeah, while the people 1294 01:10:23,640 --> 01:10:27,960 Speaker 1: of China died in droves around him. And in part two, 1295 01:10:28,040 --> 01:10:30,120 Speaker 1: we're gonna see what happens when an increasingly out of 1296 01:10:30,160 --> 01:10:32,479 Speaker 1: touch ruling class leases people to die in birddhism in 1297 01:10:32,520 --> 01:10:35,680 Speaker 1: the streets where they protest, because in part two, those 1298 01:10:35,800 --> 01:10:39,000 Speaker 1: ordinary people are going to start to fight back. Well, 1299 01:10:40,920 --> 01:10:44,639 Speaker 1: that's your brother. It was off the internet for a while. 1300 01:10:45,040 --> 01:10:50,479 Speaker 1: Look ah well, Chris, this has been a great episode. Um. 1301 01:10:51,320 --> 01:10:55,040 Speaker 1: I'm still more on this guy's side than not because 1302 01:10:55,080 --> 01:10:58,479 Speaker 1: I love me a warlord. Um, And it sounds like 1303 01:10:58,800 --> 01:11:02,280 Speaker 1: he's doing he's doing the right thing right, He's he's 1304 01:11:02,320 --> 01:11:06,080 Speaker 1: living it up, committing horrible crimes against humanity, drunk off 1305 01:11:06,160 --> 01:11:09,920 Speaker 1: his ass, just just just being a being a king 1306 01:11:10,400 --> 01:11:13,240 Speaker 1: about it. So, I don't know, I'm excited to see 1307 01:11:13,280 --> 01:11:16,679 Speaker 1: where this guy goes. Yeah, ye, do you have any 1308 01:11:16,920 --> 01:11:21,479 Speaker 1: plauables to plug? Yes? So I guess I'm I'm at 1309 01:11:21,560 --> 01:11:23,920 Speaker 1: me c h R three or since be destroyed, dude, 1310 01:11:23,960 --> 01:11:30,880 Speaker 1: on Twitter. Um, yeah, I have a substack called the 1311 01:11:30,960 --> 01:11:34,160 Speaker 1: Long twenty one century, which I swear I do occasionally 1312 01:11:34,200 --> 01:11:40,880 Speaker 1: post to it. And then I'm also not a turf Yeah, great, great, 1313 01:11:41,160 --> 01:11:43,519 Speaker 1: all right, well we will be back with more of 1314 01:11:43,680 --> 01:11:49,519 Speaker 1: this guy and more um of of of horrible war crimes. 1315 01:11:49,640 --> 01:11:53,280 Speaker 1: I'm gonna guess more horrible war crimes, Chris. Yeah, if anything, 1316 01:11:53,320 --> 01:11:57,559 Speaker 1: they get worse. Yeah, well check in for that. And remember, 1317 01:11:58,200 --> 01:12:00,400 Speaker 1: if you're gonna be a warlord, you kind of got 1318 01:12:00,520 --> 01:12:02,960 Speaker 1: to go all the way. M hm