"This is Jinan Mansion?" Qiu Jin is like a baby who has just stepped out of the cradle, and has seen the outside world for the first time. In her impression, in addition to Japan, there are also some modern cities in Asia, that is, Shanghai, and even rich cities such as Jinling and Shaoxing are just the epitome of thousands of years of feudal cities. I just changed the train from Yanzhou, and after a day's trek to Jinan Mansion, I hated Wu Chenxuan's teeth, this broken boiler was ventilated and ventilated, and he dared to smoke and exhaust in an hour after running twenty or thirty miles, and an hour was enough for the high-speed train to run from Jinan to Beijing. However, Qiu Jin and Xu Xilin, who took the train for the first time in China, were very curious, in fact, most of the passengers on the train were taking the train for the first time, so that the conductor had to keep shouting to let those guys who probed their brains retract their heads, lest people arrive in Jinan Mansion and their heads remain in Yanzhou City.

Qiu Jin, who was amused by the conductor's words, made Xu Xilin and Wu Chenxuan very helpless, and the humor of these women was really far from that of men. However, when she got off the train, on the German-style platform, Qiu Jin found that Jinan Mansion was full of two-story and three-story houses and shops, which seemed to be better than the Shikumen of Jing'an Temple in Shanghai.

A group of several people walked to the street, and Wu Chenxuan's mansion had already sent a vehicle to wait outside the station. The beautiful four-wheeled English carriage was made of pure black polished lacquer, galvanized brackets and connecting rods, driven by a high-nosed Westerner, flanked by a Sikh guard with a rifle and a turban, and even the white horse pulling the carriage had the emblem of a silver eagle on its head, needless to say that it was a gift from the Earl of Winston from England. In order to avoid suspicion, Qiu Jin and the others then put on a veil and a parasol to enter the carriage. The neat streets and shops on both sides of the road opened the eyes of Qiu Jin and Xu Xilin, and Tao Chengzhang, who revisited the old place, made a guest tour guide and introduced the prosperous scenery of the commercial port area to Xu Xilin.

After sending the group of Datong Academy to Shandong University and handing it over to their boss Cai Yuanpei, Wu Chenxuan took time to go to the Yamen of the Domain to deal with the backlog of official business, and by the way, he visited the nominal governor of Shandong.

Duan Fang had already gone on an errand at this time, fishing by the pond in the backyard, Wu Chenxuan's visit to Duan Fang was also very casual, one was that he was a Shangguan after all, and he was a Manchu nobleman, and second, he knew that Wu Chenxuan was not a person in etiquette, and he could save money on etiquette. Sure enough, Wu Chenxuan came in in his nondescript training uniform, first poured a large bowl of mung bean soup from the well, and then sat on the Taihu Lake stone, looking at Duanfang's steady fishing, this guy monkey anxiously looked at Duanfang's harvest for an hour, and found that when there were only three or two small grass carp, Duanfang spoke,

"Brother Chenxuan, although the soldiers rescued Hangzhou City this time, although they did not do their best, they were worthy of those clansmen if they were able to catch the thieves and rectify the law on the spot, and the old man thanked him here." Seeing that Wu Chenxuan waved his hand indifferently, knowing this guy's temperament, he didn't care about any rewards and punishments at all, let alone his big Buddha. "This time, your brother finished the murder. I'm afraid I'll have to let the old man wipe your ass for the rest of the hand. ”

"This, could it be that Zhang Renjun is out of class?" Wu Chenxuan is also a little bit clear, how could he not be aware of the change in this position in the political arena. "Then congratulations to Lord Duanfang, this is the second throne of the Nine Great Frontier Ministers."

"Okay, the old and decrepit catties are still clear, but if you take over the old man's position, with your temperament, I don't know if it's a blessing or a curse." Duan Fang is actually very satisfied with his current life, not to mention the family business that he has earned for several lifetimes, and the government affairs are not laborious, while fishing and playing cards, he also reaps the rewards of the imperial court, who makes Shandong's economy developed and the two taxes grow together, this Development and Reform Commission, uh, is a few masters in the study to see in the eyes and keep it in mind, as one of the few feudal officials in the Manchurian people, Duan Fang, this time he was transferred to the second position of the nine governors, and he is already a saint.

"Lord Duanfang, do you have anything to explain to the lower officials, the lower officials are willing to listen to them." Although Wu Chenxuan and Duan Fang did a few battles against Mai Mang at the beginning, neither side tore their faces, so it was just a normal political struggle, which was very common among Manchu and Han officials, and no one needed to hold grudges. However, after Duanfang understood his situation, his political wisdom was also reflected, and it seemed that he had come to a big deal, and he didn't care about anything, but Shandong's taxes increased year by year, and the establishment of Manzhen also received his secret support, and what he could do for the Manchus, this old bureaucrat has already done it, and he is now in the position of Liangjiang Governor who should have been his for a long time, and he deserves his merits in ruling by doing nothing in Shandong. Wu Chenxuan also wanted to hear what this old man who had struggled all his life in the court had to explain.

"Brother Chenxuan, you have talent, the talent of the world, the means, the clouds, the courage, the courage to think and dare to do, plus you have the strength of the three towns, it is indeed the scale of a strong domain. It's a pity that our Qing Dynasty is not Japan before the Meiji Restoration, and there is no soil for the existence of feudal towns like daimyos. Duan Fang took a sip of the sunshine green tea, "This tea is really killing, with a strong fragrance, much more refreshing than the medicinal soup of foreign devils." But after all, it is a fledgling wild tea, and Longjing, Monkey Kui, Da Hong Pao is still worse than the background, if you wait for ten years and eight years, quietly walk the people, and the future will be famous all over the world. ”

"The lower official has been taught." Wu Chenxuan changed his hippie smile in the past, and stood up respectfully and gave Duan Fang a big salute, but the gesture was always a little rusty, so that Duan Fang, who was proficient in etiquette, couldn't help but shake his head and smile bitterly.

"Forget it, I may not be able to live another three or five years, if I can see Shandong under your command Haiyan River clear, strong troops to resist humiliation, it can be regarded as a few years of Wujiapu's rice has not been eaten in vain." Duan Fang said calmly, "I'm afraid the world of the people will not be done, waiting for Lafayette and a group of old ministers to pass away, this world is you and Yuan Xiangcheng, if the Holy Son of Heaven is in the court, maybe there will be salvation, but now, hehe, don't mention it." The old man is a man, but this man also has to recognize the situation, the trend is prosperous, the trend is against the trend, if there are still people who follow the sky, please also ask your brother to see the old man's face to give a way to live, and the man has no hope of resurrection, that is, to ask for a New Year's festival so that the ancestors and ancestors will not be swept away. I wonder if my brother can grant me this request? ”

"This, this" Wu Chenxuan never expected that this seemingly peaceful old man would actually have a killing move, is this a trap, or is it the true meaning of Duanfang? "Isn't it time for lunch to rest, sir?"

"The old man is old, and he feels very light. Brother Wu, please rest assured, out of the mouth of the king, into my ears, is there anything I dare not say about this old coffin that is about to be put into the ground? ”

"In that case, Lord Duanfang, I can only say that the way of heaven is constant, you and I are just an inconspicuous side of this worldly chess game, far from the player, you ask me this question maybe only God knows."

"Yes, children and grandchildren have their own children and grandchildren, but I am an old man." Duan Fang, who smiled bitterly, stopped talking, and Wu Chenxuan also sat on the Taihu Lake Stone thinking about his thoughts, and the two were silent for an afternoon. Many years later, Fang's granddaughter recalled the scene when she peeked into the backyard, and always felt that it seemed to be predestined: an old man who was dying was obsessed with the gains and losses of a small fish, while a young man who became the world's number one angler was on the sidelines.

"Dear Lord Wu, gentlemen, and brothers, in the past year, the land of the ten prefectures and two prefectures in Shandong Province has been considered to have been smooth and prosperous, and all industries have been prosperous, and in agriculture, there has been a bumper harvest of summer grain this year, and in addition to the bottom of last year's autumn grain, this year's grain reserve task of 25 million tons is expected to be achieved. In terms of industry, the industrial added value in the chamber of commerce this year has exceeded the 25 percent growth plan set at the beginning of the year, although there is still a month to the end of September, but this year's industrial added value has reached 32 percent, and it is not surprising that it will exceed 35 percent for the whole year, and there are 347 factories with more than 100,000 taels of capital, and 171 have been put into operation. At present, there are 488 industrial enterprises within the Chamber of Commerce, and a relatively complete modern industrial system construction has been formed, and in terms of railways, this year's new Dezhou to Yantai line, Caozhou to Rizhao Port Ricao line, in addition to Jinan and Qingdao between the all-Chinese-funded Jiaoji line double-track project is also basically completed, and is expected to open to traffic by the end of the year. Xiong Fenghuang's slightly Hunan-flavored Beijing-accented official dialect showed Shandong's economic development in detail over the past year, which obviously greatly inspired the military and local governments.

"On the military side, I would like to invite General Duan Qirui, Chief of the General Staff, to make a report."

"Ladies and gentlemen, our military has done five major things this year. The first is to send troops to the northeast, save the people upside down, and also fight with the strong professors of Japan and Russia, and the troops have been tested in actual combat, and the combat record is a hard standard. Although we lost thousands of brothers in the four rounds of battles, the troops participating in the battle won ten times as much, and completely played out the military prestige and bloody nature of our army. Second, the organization of the six major field towns has been completed; except for the middle town, all towns have been fully staffed, all light and heavy weapons have been allocated according to the establishment, and the ammunition base of each town is more than five. In addition to transferring some troops to participate in the Beiyang Autumn Exercise this autumn, the General Staff Department is already drawing up plans to organize a large-scale cross-regional mobilization exercise of real troops and a number of staff officers to conduct an exercise on the map. ”

Duan Zhiquan continued to read in a soft voice:

"Third, all units have completed the first round of training on rules and regulations, and the first batch of rules and regulations of our army have been officially promulgated and implemented. At the same time, the General Staff is in the process of setting up a gendarmerie command, and in the future it will send gendarmerie units to all units and ask the heads of departments to support the gendarmerie in law enforcement. Seeing that all the generals agreed, Duan Zhiquan continued his preaching.

"Fourth, the building of the reserve force has already begun; on the basis of the first batch of soldiers who will be discharged on schedule this year, relying on the equipment, venues, and officers of the patrol battalions in various localities, we will begin to organize regular training for the reserve forces in all prefectures and counties, and recruit young students and young people who are interested in joining the army to join the reserve forces, and by the end of this year, 117 reserve companies will be reorganized and trained, and the number of reserve soldiers will reach more than 18,000."

"Fifth, the patrol battalion began to participate in rotation training last year, and this year will continue to carry out rotation training for the patrol battalion, striving for full coverage of rotation training. This year, it is also planned to organize patrol battalions from various prefectures to take part in a large-scale technical contest at the Huamawan base, so as to promote the training level of the patrol battalions through competitions, so that these 30,000 or 40,000 patrol battalions can at least reach the level of one-year recruits of the Japanese army's standing divisions. ”

Speaking of this, Duan Zhiquan paused, looked at the generals who were listening attentively, and said with a wave of his hand: "It is foreseeable that by this time next year, our army will reach the scale of 100,000 field troops, 15,000 directly subordinate troops, 40,000 patrol battalions, and 50,000 first-class reserve forces, and the number of fully mobilized troops in the whole army will be no less than 200,000, not only in terms of quality but also in terms of quantity. ”

Just listening to Xiong Bingsan's government work report or the strong fighting spirit of the generals of the Wuyi New Army almost went crazy now, the first strong army in China, Du Zicheng, Wei Keren, these veterans of the insurance regiment era are even more born from the heart, in just six or seven years, the regimental training of more than 100 people has become an iron-blooded hero of the 200,000 army, and how can they not feel emotional.