After the war, the last formed non-descendant army in the northeast was wiped out, and Zhang Zuolin had complete control of the armies in the three eastern provinces, both nominally and practically. This battle also allowed Wu Junsheng, Zhang Jinghui, and Ji Jinchun to see Zhang Hanqing's extraordinary courage and resourcefulness, and finally recognized the young marshal's military ability in their hearts.

It may not be very remarkable that a regiment of the Guards Division managed to block Gao Shifu's all-out attack, but the special operations brigade with the strength of one battalion forced Gao Shifu to give up his plan to rescue his beloved artillery battalion, and it was impressive to capture a large number of baggage and almost a complete artillery battalion for the Jijin Chuncheng formation. Therefore, in the evaluation of merit, Ji Yiqiao is the first.

Ji Yiqiao's military rank was originally a major general (although the special operations brigade was originally a battalion-level organization), but this time he deliberately took the rank of major general and lieutenant general, and was transferred to the Northeast Lecture and Martial Arts Hall to serve as the captain of the student teaching team. The reason why it is called the Northeast Lecture Hall is because the same rising tide lifts all boats, and the Fengtian Lecture Hall is also open to the whole Northeast to recruit students, so it is correspondingly renamed the Northeast Lecture Hall.

It is understandable that Zhang Hanqing has always insisted on recruiting knowledgeable students to join the army, so he attaches great importance to their training teachers, and the student army can be regarded as Zhang Hanqing's signboard. Previously, it was led by Wang Yizhe, but after he served as secretary of the Heilongjiang Provincial Party Committee and director of the Political Department of the First Division, he no longer had the energy to continue the teaching of the student army.

The main officers of the Guards Division and the First Division were all students and officers from the Jiangwutang, and their performance under Zhang Hanqing's tutelage was extraordinary, which made Zhang Zuolin strengthen the idea of reusing the Jiangwutang as an officer. He stipulated that in the event of a vacancy in the regimental and battalion commanders of the Fengjun Army, the chief of staff of each unit, the deputy of the regiment, the instructor of the lecture hall, and the captain of the brigade should fill the position. Senior officers who have been in the army for a long time should also regularly return to the lecture hall to serve as instructors, pass on their experience to their juniors, and form a spiral promotion channel between the army, the school, and the army.

Of course, returning to the unit is not necessarily the original unit, and the rotation of senior officers in a timely manner is also Lao Zhang's means to ensure that his subordinates do not form personal forces. Needless to say, this is Zhang Hanqing's move. It doesn't matter who everyone is aiming for, but invisibly everyone has a deeper awe of Zhang Zuolin's authority.

In order to ensure Zhang Hanqing's status in the army, Zhang Zuolin also stipulated: Class and platoon commanders and other junior officers should be outstanding student army graduates or soldiers with military merits. In this way, the ability of the army to be continuously improved from the grassroots level has also been ensured that the officers of the new generation are all from the disciples of the young marshal, thus laying the foundation for the young marshal to take full power in the future.

In addition, Fengjun is not xenophobic: whether you graduated from Baoding Wutang or studied in Japan and Europe, as long as you have the ability, you are welcome to come to Feng. Therefore, graduates of all military academies believe that there is a future for following the army. At this time, the Beiyang warlords generally liked to lead the troops with people from the army, and those from the students could only be used as staff officers and other staff. Yang Zhengzhi, Dai Lianxi, He Zhuguo, Mao Fucheng and other famous military training experts who have served as instructors in the Baoding Army School for many years have all defected to Fengjun and have successively served in the army.

Zhang Hanqing also received the rank of major general and lieutenant general because of his outstanding military achievements, and after this battle, he established his authority in the upper echelons of the Feng army, so Zhang Zuolin, after careful consideration, temporarily resumed the post of general staff of the Patrol Embassy and held it by him, so that he gained fame and fortune.

Military power and political power are firmly in hand, but the economic power is monopolized by the Japanese, which makes Zhang Zuolin choke in his throat, especially the railway transportation route that is related to the lifeblood of Northeast China, except for the North Manchurian Railway is still in the hands of the Russians, other railways are basically controlled by the Japanese.

The Treaty of Portsmouth, which stipulated that "three kilometers along the railway line would be controlled by the Japanese," the Japanese opened a large number of mines, cultivated agricultural land, and set up forests and grasslands in Kyrgyzstan and Feng, and stationed troops in important places. On both sides of the Japanese-controlled railway, the Japanese had the privilege of taking soil, fuel, and construction, which was called an annexed area. Taking Mukden Station as an example, the annexed area occupies a large area, the same area as the urban area, forming a concession. It not only has streets, shops, schools, etc., but also has its own police station and barracks, and Chinese must also be under its management when entering.

The Japanese controlled important lines of communication, making it impossible for Zhang Zuolin, who legally unified the northeast, to geographically connect Feng, Ji, and Hei. On the surface, he had a huge strength of five divisions and nine brigades, but as long as the Japanese did not agree to use the railway line to transport troops, Zhang Zuolin's superiority in strength could not be shown at all, but because he had to fortify everywhere, he had to fight separately in the event of a major battle. When he was exterminating the Babu Zabu bandits, he was forced to walk on two legs, which was cited as a great shame by both the old and young marshals.

Therefore, Zhang Zuolin organized the army of the nine brigades into three security headquarters, which were placed in Mukden, Jilin and Heilongjiang, all of which were under the control of the overseers (Fengtian was also managed by himself) for the purpose of guarding the place; The five divisions were mobile as the main force and were directly under the jurisdiction of the General Headquarters of the Feng Army.

The book is the same as the text, the car is on the same track. Having unified the army and administration, it has never been a matter of not having the transportation hub in its own hands. Zhang Zuolin had already discussed with Zhang Hanqing how to plan to bypass the Japanese sphere of influence and build his own railway to control the three eastern provinces, and Lu Ronghuan and Wang Naibin, who followed Zhang Hanqing, were all railway experts, and they were also sent to the post of director of the Department of Communications. They were instructed to send a large number of public works personnel to survey the terrain and calculate the pros and cons, and after half a year of hard work, they were fruitful.

In the second year after the victory in the Russo-Japanese War, Japan built railways from Mukden to Andong and Mukden to Xinmin. The reason why he went to Xinmin was to prepare to extend to Inner Mongolia in the future, in order to control the inland station. Zhang Hanqing placed the main force of the Guards Division here, that is, in order to cut off his mind of infiltrating all parts of Inner Mongolia.

The reason for going to Andong was to connect Mukden to North Korea so that it could strategically control Mukden. Andong is today's Dandong, just across the river from North Korea. At the same time as the establishment of the Republic of China, the Japanese built the Yalu River Bridge from Andong to Sinuiju in North Korea.

During Yuan Shikai's tenure, Japan obtained the privilege of building the Manchurian-Mongolian Five Railway. Among them, the borrowing rights of the three railways of Sitao, Kaihai and Changtao, and the priority of borrowing of the Taocheng and Jihai railways. The so-called right to borrow means that you have to use my loan; The so-called priority of borrowing means that if you want to take out a foreign loan to build a railway, you must use my ---- to understand the financial situation of the Republic of China. Through these overlord clauses, Japan laid the groundwork for continued in-depth control of Northeast China.

Bongsin, Gyeongbong, South Manchuria, Anbong, and the five routes leading to other places in the provincial capital of Mukden were all under the control of the Japanese; The Changji and South Manchurian railways have monopolized the transportation of Changchun, the capital of Jilin Province; In Siping, an important town at the junction of Ji and Feng, Siping to Zhengjiatun was completed in the sixth year of the Republic of China, so the Japanese built a police station in Zhengjiatun, which is also one of the reasons why Zhang Hanqing clashed with them when he suppressed bandits. The so-called "Zhengbai Railway" (Zhengjiatun to Baiyin Tailai, that is, Tongliao) from Zhengjiatun to Tongliao in the west, about 230 miles of road map planning has been completed, and Cao Rulin, the chief of transportation and finance of the Xiqi Ruizheng Government of the Republic of China, has renewed the loan of 2.6 million yen from the Zhengjin Bank of Japan to prepare to start construction. Once completed, Japan's plan to extend its route into Mongolia from the east will once again succeed.

Looking at the colorful route maps on the map, you can't let the old and young marshals not be frightened.

How to deal with the Japanese encroachment on the Tohoku and the hinterland of Mongolia? Zhang Zuolin decided not to borrow money from Japan to build the railway, but to use self-reliance to raise funds by himself. It doesn't matter if it's not enough, repair a section, use a section, how much the funds will be returned, and continue to repair when you have money. It is foreseeable that the finances of Tohoku will improve dramatically, and it is a serious matter to build the major cities of the three eastern provinces in order, and it is most important to limit the expansion momentum of the Japanese first. There is no money, Zhang Hanqing came up with some methods, which won the approval of the old commander, and the idea of using the newly captured officers and soldiers of the Jilin Mixed Brigade to build the railway is Zhang Hanqing's latest move: autonomy.

As early as May 26, 1918, Zhang Zuolin and Sun Liechen jointly announced: "From the beginning of May, all political affairs in the three eastern provinces and the people of the three eastern provinces will make their own opinions; and to take concerted action with the provinces of the southwest and the Yangtze River; Uphold the law, foster self-government, eradicate violence, and promote reunification. At that time, it was to support Duan Qirui, not only Zhang Zuolin, but also more than a dozen other provinces of the Overseer Corps announced this.

Because the central government controlled by Duan Qirui has always acquiesced, it is time to make the fake come true.

Taking advantage of the wind of Northeast autonomy, Zhang Zuolin rejected the loan for road construction from the Central Government, saying that now the Northeast Government is in good financial condition and has plans for internal construction, so the "Zhengbai" Railway does not need to bother. Because it is "autonomous," the Beijing government is not able to impose a hard grip on the civil affairs construction in the northeast, so this matter has to be handled coldly. However, the Japanese consul Shigeru Yoshida in Mukden still personally visited Zhang Zuolin for this purpose.

Yoshida Shigeru is Zhang Zuolin's "old friend", and in the foreseeable future, he will continue to be and will become Zhang Hanqing's "new friend". When it comes to major matters, Zhang Hanqing, as a member of the General Council, is naturally present.

Yoshida Shigeru first touted Zhang Hanqing's dazzling performance in recent years, and then talked about the "friendship" with Zhang Zuolin, and also talked about the history of everyone's happy cooperation. Of course, his original intention was not to catch up with Zhang Zuolin. He said to Zhang Zuolin with a very sincere attitude: "I heard that the inspection envoy rejected the loan of the central government of your country on the 'Zhengbai Railway', and I thought it was very inappropriate. The tour made it clear that the Northeast is large and rich in products, but traffic problems restrict the development of people's livelihood in various places. The construction of railways is fundamental to solving this problem, and it can also improve the lives of the people under the general's rule. However, I know that His Excellency the General does not have the financial resources to raise troops and build, and I heard that His Excellency also wants to establish a university in the Northeast, and the cost of this is too great. Japan's borrowing just solved the urgent need of the general, and it also integrated Ji, Feng, and Mongolia, which was a good thing for both sides. The Government of our country deeply regrets this matter. ”