Although Wan Yufu is just a non-qualified bookstore, his mansion is one of the best mansions in Gaomi County, and I don't know how much more magnificent it is than the county government.

At noon, the sun was shining, and I saw Wan Yufu hurriedly walking into his mansion with 6 or 7 people, ignoring the porter steward who greeted him at the door, and handed the reins to Ma Ling, while saying, "Are the two young masters of the Wang family here?"

The porter hurriedly said: "If you go back to the master, the two young masters have already come, and they have already served tea in the lobby, and they have been waiting for the master for a while." ”

When Wan Yufu heard this, he also breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Okay, okay, I'll go see them right away." ”

Saying that, Wan Yufu hurriedly came to the hall, only to see two young people about 30 years old sitting in the guest seats in the living room, who turned out to be the fish that slipped through the net in Wangjiazhai, Wang Kexing and Wang Kefu brothers.

It turned out that Wang Zhanyuan, the owner of Wangjiazhai, and Wan Yufu still had some friendship, but it was not too deep, so when Wangjiazhai was destroyed, the Wang brothers came to Gaomi County to join their in-laws Li family, but they were treated coldly, but they did not come to Wan Yufu.

However, just more than two months ago, the crossing group issued the [Outline of the Land Reform System], and Wan Yufu also received this [Outline], and he was hesitant in his heart, he was naturally unwilling to hand over the land like this, but the prestige of overseas Chinese, he had also heard some rumors, although Wan Yufu was a person who stomped and trembled three times in Gaomi County, but he also knew that compared with overseas Chinese, he was still out of reach, so it was the time to be in a dilemma and have nothing to do. When he heard that the brothers of the Wang family had come to see him, he immediately asked them to invite their brothers in.

Of course, Wan Yufu heard the news that Wangjiazhai was destroyed by overseas Chinese, and the owner of the village, Wang Zhanyuan, was executed by the public trial, and knew that the Wang brothers had a grudge against overseas Chinese to destroy their homes and destroy their families, and they came to find themselves at this time, and they would not come for no reason, but the enemy of the enemy is naturally their friends, and they have fought with overseas Chinese, and they should also have some understanding of the reality of overseas Chinese, so these two brothers are here, maybe they can be a helper for themselves.

So Wan Yufu also warmly received the Wang brothers, and as Wan Yufu expected, the Wang brothers came to help Wan Yufu deal with overseas Chinese. The two gave advice to Wan Yufu, only Wan Yufu alone naturally could not fight against the overseas Chinese, only by concentrating all the landlords to deal with the overseas Chinese, it was possible to succeed, and now the overseas Chinese have made it clear that they want to expropriate the land of all the landlords, so everyone is the same enemy, as long as someone comes forward to organize, they will definitely be able to pull up an alliance. And with Wan Yufu's prestige in Gaomi County, he is naturally the best candidate for this organizer.

After listening to the words of the Wang brothers, Wan Yufu also felt reasonable, but after all, he was a person who had seen the world, and it was good to unite the landlords and deal with a rogue bandit, but it was still far from dealing with overseas Chinese, at most, it was to get together and strengthen his courage.

The Wang brothers' suggestion to Wan Yufu was to immediately report to the Jinan Mansion and ask Governor Yuan to dispatch the Beiyang New Army to deal with the overseas Chinese. This suggestion made Wan Yufu's heart move, his brother-in-law and youngest son are now serving in the Beiyang New Army.

It turned out that Yuan Shikai was the Beiyang New Army formed at the Tianjin Station, and after he became the governor of Shandong, in the name of suppressing the Boxers, he transferred all the Beiyang New Army to Shandong to station, and continued to recruit troops in Shandong, expanding the scale of the Beiyang New Army, which was originally only more than 7,000 people, to nearly 20,000 now.

Yuan Shikai regarded the Beiyang New Army as the largest capital he started, just like Zeng Guofan's Hunan Army and Li Hongzhang's Huai Army, naturally not satisfied with the scale of the Beiyang New Army of only more than 7,000 people, when training troops at a small station, Yuan Shikai wrote to the Qing Dynasty many times, asking to expand the scale of the Beiyang New Army, but the imperial court refused on the grounds of insufficient costs, on the contrary, he was Nie Shicheng, Dong Fuxiang, and Zhang Zhidong respectively formed a training new army. Yuan Shikai naturally understood that this was the art of checks and balances of the imperial court, and he could not let one family dominate, and there would be a situation where the Hunan army and the Huai army covered the sky with one hand.

Although Yuan Shikai was unwilling, he had nothing to do for a while, because the expenses of the Beiyang New Army relied on the imperial court to draw money, and at the beginning of its establishment, the expenses could still be paid on schedule, but after one or two, they began to delay and withhold, which was not the Qing court's intention to make it difficult for Yuan Shikai, but the practice of the imperial court.

Yuan Shikai was bent on building the Beiyang New Army into his own private army, and when the soldiers were eating and paying, they had to instill in the soldiers that "it was Yuan Guanbao's bowl and Yuan Guanbao's salary", but this must ensure that the army was paid as scheduled, so Yuan Shikai himself also paid a lot of money. However, the army is the most money-burning, not to mention that Yuan Shikai has just started at this time, and he has little savings, not to mention that he has to spend money to pay for the senior members of the court, and he can only maintain it, and he is not able to expand the scale of the Beiyang New Army.

However, after Yuan Shikai became the governor of Shandong, this situation suddenly changed greatly. Because he has the financial and economic power of a province, he has ample room for maneuver, not only can he find an excuse to embezzle the financial and tax paid by interception and make up for military use, but he can also obtain a large amount of additional income from the locality, so Yuan Shikai's financial resources are suddenly full of a lot, so Yuan Shikai immediately expanded the Beiyang New Army, and in just over a year, the scale of the Beiyang New Army has expanded nearly twice.

Originally, at the beginning of the establishment of the Beiyang New Army, all the recruits were peaceful and kind people, while the ordinary unemployed vagrants and local ruffians were not accepted, and the officers at all levels mostly used Yuan Shikai's cronies, and even served as family servants. But in this era, the general people of peace and kindness are not desperate and will not join the army, and the scale of the Beiyang New Army was still small in the past, but now that the scale is expanding, there are so many good people there, so the conditions can only be relaxed, and at the same time, a group of local squire children have been absorbed. First, Yuan Shikai was well aware of the importance of local real power and planned to operate Shandong as his logistics base, so attracting the children of the squires to join the army would also help him get closer to the gentry in Shandong and gain a foothold in Shandong; second, it would also allow the gentry in Shandong to give him more money. Of course, for the Shandong gentry, it is to give some of their own children who have no intention of making a name for themselves a way out, and the two sides can be said to take what they need. Wan Yufu got Xiao'er into the Beiyang New Army, and spent more than 20,000 taels of silver to dot it.

However, after all, Wan Yufu is a person who mixes in the yamen, and he knows that he relies on the power of his own family and son, so he asks the governor of Fudo to come forward to help. At this time, the brothers of the Wang family volunteered, saying that they still had some ways in the governor's yamen, and they could also say a few words in front of Governor Yuan, and they could help Wan Yufu get through the joints, of course, silver was indispensable.

Wan Yufu is not afraid of spending money, but he has no confidence in the Wang brothers, when Wangjiazhai was still there, he was just a local tyrant, and he was not as good as himself, and now that Wangjiazhai is destroyed, how did these two brothers get through the way of the governor. It's just that at this time, he can only give it a try, so Wan Yufu took out 50,000 taels of silver and handed it to the Wang brothers to let them operate. However, the Wang brothers left Wang Kexing in Gaomi County to assist Wan Yufu, but they were actually acting as hostages, and Wang Kefu took Yinxiao to Jinan.

A few days later, Wang Kefu returned from Jinan and explained the results of the operation to Wan Yufu. It turned out that Yuan Shikai would not order the troops, but he could ask Sun Zhongkui to bring troops to reinforce Wan Yufu in his private name, but Yuan Shikai only pretended not to know.

Wan Yufu is also a person who has been in the officialdom for many years, of course he understands the meaning of this issue, this is the operation that the governor should have, if Yuan Shikai said that he would personally lead the army to reinforce him, he would not believe it. And Wang Kefu was really able to open up this way, and he couldn't help but glance at the Wang brothers, it seems that these two brothers really have some ways, and their future prospects are unlimited.

After getting the support of the Beiyang New Army, Wan Yufu suddenly felt that he had a lot of bottom, and he was even more obedient to the Wang brothers, just at this time the crossing group had already carried out land reform in Menbu Village, so Wan Yufu also stepped up his activities, after several runs, and with the assistance of the Wang brothers, he finally established an alliance against overseas Chinese land reform, and Wan Yufu contacted several bandit forces, and also pulled up a team.

After the defection of the villagers, it was the Wang brothers who suggested to Wan Yufu that they should immediately assemble a team to attack Menbu Village, first destroy the land reform committee of the overseas Chinese, extinguish the prestige of the overseas Chinese, and grow their own ambition. Wan Yufu also listened to this suggestion, and they also inquired, knowing that there were not many overseas Chinese troops in Menbu Village, only 5 or 600 people, so Wan Yufu was also full of confidence, believing that this battle would definitely annihilate the overseas Chinese in Menbu Village.

The army that had been painstakingly organized, including more than 400 Beiyang New Army and three artillery pieces, was vulnerable to the overseas Chinese army and was defeated, and the invited bandits and bandits first fled to their own cottages; the landlords' alliance also scattered and collapsed, and most of them went back to their villages, and only 3 or 4 landlords fled back to the villages with Wan Yufu to negotiate countermeasures.

Of course, the landlords couldn't think of any way, and at this time, the Wang brothers made another suggestion, thinking that there was no danger to defend in the village, and it was not advisable to stay for a long time, so they should flee to Gaomi County as soon as possible, first, to avoid overseas Chinese; second, they gathered all the squires in Gaomi County to jointly make a statement to the magistrate of Gaomi County, asking the magistrate to immediately send an urgent document to the governor of Shandong, asking the governor Yamen to send troops to rescue Gaomi County, and mobilize the personnel of the whole county to defend the county seat and resist overseas Chinese.

At this time, Wan Yufu had no idea, and he also felt that it was indeed safer to hide in Gaomi County than in the village, so after listening to the advice of the Wang brothers, he immediately complied, and sent people to contact other landlords while packing up his belongings and fled into Gaomi County overnight.

The next day, eight landlords came to Gaomi County and went with Wan Yufu to meet with the county magistrate.