Chapter 170 Travel Notes in Tibet Part 2
Zhao Kunlun is a man born to plead for the people!
This is Ozil's evaluation of the entire Zhao Kunlun, and it is also recognized by more than two million people in Tibet.
Since he became sensible, Zhao Kunlun has shown great differences from his peers. When children of the same age like to play house, hide and seek and other games, and hold wooden sticks as toys, this guy has already found the flintlock rifle left by his grandfather and beat the chickens and ducks at home. If it weren't for the ban on guns in the Empire and confiscated these antique-level weapons, no one could tell what kind of monster Zhao Kunlun could do.
Because in childhood, his grandfather was the master of the family, Zhao Kunlun's primary school was spent in traditional clan schools, which made him the king of children. He beat him up from the same clan uncles to the same nephews. When he was able to go to middle school, Zhao Kunlun's grandfather also passed away and he successfully entered a private middle school in Chengdu, a real aristocratic school.
But he couldn't adapt to school life because Zhao Kunlun could not stand the inequality. His mother was a mixed-race of Southeast Asian descent and one-eighth of Malay blood. This was impossible to tell, but his classmates knew this and were sarcastic at him. They were directly hit by Zhao Kunlun's heavy hammer, and even he dared to beat the teacher.
The difference between school canteens treating poor students, the unknown scholarship allocation, etc., will cause the strikes led by Zhao Kunlun, so he is easily expelled from the school. However, due to his family's power, he is easy to transfer to schools. Therefore, in just four years of middle school, he has experienced seven middle schools and attended national private middle schools.
In the second half, many schools were unwilling to accept him. This was also the origin of Zhao Kunlun’s name when he first met Sun Weigong, because every time he entered a school, he would change his name so that the teachers in the school did not know that he was the student with a serious record.
Zhao Kunlun was not a good material for learning. He went home after graduating from high school and studied and ran a farm with his father. However, this did not mean that he had calmed down. When he was fifteen, he participated in and led a political activity - a farmer strike. The location was on his father's farm. He was organized to hire farmers, which were more than 400 farmers and workers in his family.
The strike was successful. Because of the strike, the rent on the Zhao family's land was reduced by one fifth. The hired farmers did not have to bow or kneel when they met their boss, nor did they need to bear all kinds of free labor for the landlords, such as herding cattle.
He also became the representative of "father kindness and son filial piety" in Chengdu.
At that time, Ozil also carried out land reforms in Tibet. Because the two places were bordering, Zhao Kunlun immediately went to Lhasa to participate in the Datong Society organization established by Ozil.
Datong Society naturally has nothing to do with Datong, Shanxi. It is a political organization led by Ozil, and may also be the first political party organization of the empire.
In the early Datong Society, Ozil's classmates or vassal soldiers and imperial guards, some young officers from Ozil came from the Guihua Church. They were in a similar mood with Ozil. With the support of the empire, they went to Tibet to take over the reforming regime. However, as Ozil controlled Tibet, the organization gradually expanded and absorbed some intellectual youths in Tibet. These young people were originally nobles or monks, but were only advanced and enlightened in their thoughts. Later, Ozil's reforms deepened and the talents gradually decreased. While opening schools to train, they recruited from the empire.
The program of Datong Society is to pursue the world's great harmony in the traditional culture of the Chinese nation, and it is therefore named.
When Zhao Kunlun and his father were nervous about going to Tibet, Zhao Kunlun learned about the news that because of his grandfather, the Zhao family had a place to join the imperial guards, so Zhao Kunlun asked to go to Shenjing and join the imperial guards. However, Zhao Kunlun was only seventeen years old at that time, and his father was afraid that he would cause a big trouble, so he refused to let him go.
So, Zhao Kunlun ordered the house at home and got his father's compromise.
After joining the Imperial Guard, Zhao Kunlun calmed down for a while because there was no reason in the military camp. Even if it was protesting, he only got whips and military sticks. However, this calm was limited to certain radical levels. Zhao Kunlun did not calm down at all within the Imperial Guard because there were also many young people of minority groups in the Imperial Guard. In order to get equal treatment and completely eliminate ethnic discrimination, Zhao Kunlun fought many times with some noble children.
Until the emperor noticed the ethnic discrimination in the imperial guards and asked King Cheng to deal with it, and Zhao Kunlun also made his mark. This time, the rise of his talents was a dream journey. He was sent to Tibet as a secret sect in the imperial court and joined Datong Society.
Zhao Kunlun's exposure was almost inevitable. He was promoted all the way to the Datong Society, which attracted Ozil's attention. Officials who appointed important positions would undergo background reviews. Zhao Kunlun directly gave his home address to Datong Society. His struggle when he was young became an important political capital, but he could not hide his participation in the imperial guards, so Zhao Kunlun was exposed.
After hearing the story of this guy, Sun Weigong could no longer understand which side he was looking for. It seemed that he was sent by the empire, but in fact, Ozil's Datong Society was where he was willing to give everything for it.
Perhaps Ozil also understood this truth and did not expel Zhao Kunlun, but just refused to allow him to enter the confidential department.
In Ozil's men, the Zhao Kunlun heard by Sun Weigong was completely different from what he saw. This was a cheerful person with no fear of fear. Although he was from a good background, he was very easy-going to everyone. Although he was once a secret school in the Chinese court, he was always considering the Tibetan people. It was because of his characteristics that he could win more aid and supplies for the Tibetan people.
According to the agreement, Sun Weigong wanted to stay in the transportation team and headed all the way to Lhasa. Only after meeting Ozil could the next action plan be determined. Zhao Kunlun never refused Sun Weigong to meet anyone and ask any questions, but he was not allowed to leave the transportation team.
As we head south, there is an inn every few dozen miles. In addition to some sections of roads that cross mountains, there are also bridges, iron cable bridges, and pontoon bridges on some rivers with relatively small widths. Each location is responsible for the responsibility of special people, and there are villages around. The herdsmen provide supplies for this, forming relatively special settlements.
Sun Weigong's feelings were not very good along the way. After moving in some larger villages and communities, local officials would organize children or women to perform singing and dancing for the business group. At first, Sun Weigong was very interested, but soon, he became a little annoyed because after singing and dancing, they had to ask the business group to give a "friendly gift", which was almost mandatory, and the singing and dancing were the same, and the level was not high. In some smaller villages and communities, some children even directly grabbed Sun Weigong's camel and refused to let go. Sun Weigong was forced to use half a pencil and a few candy and other gadgets. These people didn't want money, as if they didn't want money, it was not a robbery.
Of course, this is nothing to Sun Weigong. As a reporter in many places in the empire, he has seen all kinds of people. It is not the first time he has seen such a child. The poorer and more ignorant places are, the more this happens. However, in legend, Tibet's reforms not only achieved the goal of not picking up the road and not closing the door at night, but also greatly improved people's moral level, like heaven. These ugly behaviors brought Sun Weigong back to reality.
It was not until Yanshiping that Sun Weigong saw the unique Tibetan boys. They were still local people, but their mental outlook was completely different.
This is an inn south of the Tanggula Pass, and it is relatively large in scale. It can be called a town, because it is very difficult to climb the pass, and there will be various problems with livestock, carriages, horses and people. Therefore, after the first small transportation team crossed, special people like Sun Weigong climbed over in advance and went to Yanshiping to rest and wait for the transportation team.
Therefore, Sun Weigong arrived in Yanshiping in the evening with Zhao Kunlun, but was beaten by several teenagers.
"Who are you?" Sun Weigong rode on Camel Mountain and walked all day long and was drowsy. He was shocked by this silence, but he only heard the sound and did not see anyone. Sun Weigong had specially learned Tibetan and barely understood this sentence, but could not find anyone, as if there was a ghost talking.
Then, another slightly eased sentence sounded: "Are you from Central Plains?"
Sun Weigong still couldn't see anyone, but he had already found that the sound was coming from the pile of rocks beside the road. When he looked back, he saw Zhao Kunlun's camel was behind and was rushing over.
"I am a Han from the Central Plains. I am here to visit Lhasa. Who are you? Why don't you show up and talk?" Sun Weigong said in Tibetan. Four young people walked out of the pile of rocks. They were also wearing uniforms similar to Zhao Kunlun, but they didn't have hats. One of the four was holding a flintlock rifle, and the other three were holding a red tassel gun. The one with the flintlock rifle was tied with a red scarf on his neck. These children looked more than ten years old, and the oldest was only twelve or thirteen years old, with a look of vigilance.
The four people looked very professional. One went forward to search, and the two of them used red tassel guns to guard the firelock guns, while the one holding the flintlock gun aimed at Sun Weigong in the distance.
"Don't do anything randomly, this is Lord Ozil's friend." Zhao Kunlun shouted while running.
The four people stopped until they heard this, but when Zhao Kunlun arrived, they also verified the certificate. Then they quarreled a few times over Sun Weigong's identity. The children complained that Sun Weigong should not act alone, and should not refuse to show the certificate on his own initiative. However, Sun Weigong did not explain, because these children also blamed Zhao Kunlun for not taking good care of "Mr. Ozil's friend". Seeing Zhao Kunlun being scolded, Sun Weigong felt much better.
"Who are they? It seems to be the village's sentry?" asked Sun Weigong.
"Yes, they are members of the Youth League." Zhao Kunlun helped Sun Weigong pick up the things on the ground and explained.
"What is a Youth League?" asked Sun Weigong.
Zhao Kunlun said: "Four years ago, an organization established by Lord Ozil is considered a preparatory group for Datong Society. The members are all children. Only the best children in the school can join. After the age of fourteen, the best of them can go to Lhasa and join Datong Society."
"Then why do we meet so many idle children? What I am talking about is the ones who reach out to me for things." Sun Weigong packed up his things and led the camel to the town with Zhao Kunlun.
Zhao Kunlun sighed: "Originally, we were planning to let all children have school, but there were really not so many educational resources, especially because there were too few teachers. Moreover, not all families were willing to let their children go to school, even if they were free to enroll."
Sun Weigong was deeply touched by this. Like the vast rural areas of the empire, children are also important laborers in the family, especially for a place like Tibet, where the population is mainly based on pastoralism, the amount of the population is directly linked to the size of the herds. Tibet is a place with a large area of vast land and sparsely populated areas, with a large number of herders scattered on the vast grasslands. It is obviously very difficult to popularize education at such grassroots level, requiring a lot of manpower and financial expenditures, and it is very difficult for the Datong regime in Tibet.
At present, the Datong regime only ensures that at least one child is admitted to school in a family. Even so, the educational popularity level of the Datong regime has exceeded the average level of the empire.
Seeing that Sun Weigong was very concerned about the education here, Zhao Kunlun arranged for Sun Weigong to live in the school in Yanshiping, which was a reality, because not only were there a large number of business groups, transportation teams coming from north to south, but the Lifanyuan delegation that went to Lhasa last year had also gone north, and some had moved into Yanshiping, which made the accommodation resources here short of their weakness.
At school, Sun Weigong read the children's teaching materials and understood why the Empire would allow or even support such an independent regime. Even if the whole country completed the reform of the foreign vassal state, it was still in a relatively independent state.
The school’s textbooks are based on the textbooks of Guihua Hall of Lifanyuan as the main body, and some additions are mostly about the historical anti-tyranny content. Sun Weigong and his children quickly became a group because Sun Weigong could tell them in detail about the peasant uprising in the late Ming Dynasty. From Li Zicheng to Zhang Xianzhong, they are all familiar names for the children here. Compared with the textbooks of the imperial history, such peasant uprisings were given neutral evaluations. In the textbooks of the Datong regime, they were completely positive.
Because the Datong regime believed that they were pioneers of resisting exploitation and tyranny. The land reform that the Datong regime now practiced seems to be a continuation of those peasant uprisingers.
Chapter completed!