Zhang Hanqing was determined to turn it into an industrial center in the northwest and a perfect military industrial system with independent viability as a rear base---- and it was difficult to predict whether it would face the Japanese soldiers in advance in the process of the growth of the Feng system.

The northeast and northwest roads are far away, the transportation of armaments and strategic materials is inconvenient, and there are still several major wars to be fought in China's history, and the northwest military needs to have the ability to deal with the situation here independently.

But if you want to gain a foothold in the northwest, you must have great courage.

When he was still at war with Ma Jiajun, Zhang Hanqing began to investigate the customs and customs here, and also saw its barrenness. But when Zhang Hanqing finally had the opportunity to go deep into the remote countryside after the war had calmed down, the scene he saw made people feel desperate. It turned out that the bleak scene seen before the capture of cities and market towns was still good!

Eighty percent of the peasants here are in a state of poverty, except for families with more than 50 acres of land, who can solve the basic food and clothing. In the absence of a major change in agricultural input and the failure to increase the yield per mu, the shortage of cultivated land directly leads to a shortage of grain, which also restricts the development of other aspects.

According to the investigation team from the early organization, in March and April, the peasants had to eat weeds and tree bark, and they also ate oil residues, bran, etc.

By May, there was no grass left on the ground. After harvesting the wheat, the farmers threw the flour into the weeds and boiled it in water to form a paste, which was called a companion soup. It's such a thing, they eat less than two taels of flour per meal, and sometimes only one meal. As for rice crumbs, cereal crumbs, sweet potato wedges, and bashan beans, they have all become good conditions.

Cotton is produced here, but in the countryside it is common that "only half of those who have cotton clothes in winter, and almost all of them are thirteen or fourteen years old, and almost all of them have no pants." ”

Because the threshold of financial institutions is difficult to enter and the conditions are harsh, the common people can only borrow usury from pawnbrokers, money banks, landlords, rich peasants, merchants, etc., in arrears and disasters, and this result is certain, which accelerates the state of poverty.

So much so that there is a ballad that sings: "The wind and the sun are rainy, and the world suffers more than the sufferers: the broken gate where the carpenter lives, the stonemason has no inscription on the stele, the tailor wears a rotten jacket and trousers, and the bricklayer has no house to live in." This year, I hope that next year will be good, and next year I will wear a torn leather jacket. ”

If the Northwest People's Army wants to gain a foothold here, and if the People's Party wants to win the support of the people, it needs to make great efforts to improve the people's livelihood. Like the New Deal in Northeast China, the first thing Zhang Hanqing had to do was to carry out land reform, squeeze out the waste of land resources, and then give the surplus labor a chance to make ends meet through industrial development.

Fortunately, he now has money, and he doesn't need to use all kinds of means to "repay the debt", just buy the land directly---- since he is ready to use this as a rear base, why is Zhang Hanqing reluctant to invest a lot of money?

He vigorously used the local people to govern, and took advantage of the abundant local water resources to gradually develop an industrial system based on electricity, machinery, metallurgy, etc. With the provincial capital as the center, it is planned to build Liujiaxia, Bapanxia, Yanpanxia and Daxia hydropower stations one after another, and other hydropower stations in the adjacent areas constitute one of the largest hydropower centers in modern times, and preparations for the construction of Lanzhou---- Tianshui, Pingliang, Xining and the highway connecting Longbei Suzhou.

As a military family, Zhang Hanqing's real father in his previous life was a veteran who enlisted in Lanzhou, and from his mouth, he knew that Shizuishan, located at the northern end of Ningxia, was the "Saiwai Coal City", and many soldiers were recruited to dig coal here at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China. As a raw material base for the construction of industry, such coal mines can not only supply the needs of industry, but also create many jobs.

History proves that the more ignorant the place, the more frequent and more likely it is to be incited. Gansu is a mix of ethnic groups, the people have a very low level of education, and those who can go to private schools for two or three years are considered literate people. After Zhang Hanqing entered Gansu, he demanded that the troops, party members, and cadres respect local customs, and that "the mosque prohibits the garrison of troops," while on the other hand, he put the improvement of education level on the agenda.

What needs to be praised is Ma Fuxiang, although he is a warlord, he knows the truth of rejuvenating the country through education. Since the seventh year of the Republic of China, 59 Muslim primary schools, 10 middle and senior primary schools, and 49 junior primary schools have been established in various counties of Ningxia, with 1,230 students. In the autumn of the eighth year of the Republic of China, he founded Menghui Normal School, and in order to solve the problem of running a school, he took the lead in donating 1,500 taels of silver, and donated money to establish 5 primary schools in Linxia this year, with a total of more than 500 students.

Zhang Hanqing knew people well, so he appointed Ma Fuxiang as the director of the Gansu Provincial Education Commission to prepare for the establishment of Lanzhou Industrial School (the predecessor of Lanzhou University).

In order to run Gansu, according to the model of the northeast, mobilize the masses, carry out extensive land reform, and suppress local forces. The People's Party has successively dispatched a number of cadres to Gansu to actively propagate the party's ethnic policy, and to respect the customs of the Hui people, thus creating an excellent situation of national unity. The expansion of the Northwest People's Army has been so smooth that the policies of the BJP are one of the laws that have won the hearts and minds of the people.

Zhang Hanqing made such a big move in the northwest, where did the huge expenses come from? No one knows, but the barren Gansu province quickly regained its strength after that, and various infrastructure projects sprung up like mushrooms after a rain.

Without taking a penny from his father in the Northeast, Zhang Hanqing quickly restored its glory in the north and south of the Yangtze River even if Lanzhou became an important military and economic town and logistics support base in the northwest in the short term. This point made the high-level people in the Northeast who did not know secretly wonder, but they had nothing to say.

God knows what Zhang Hanqing's mood is when he listens to Mi Chunlin's report on the loss of tons of gold in his reserves! In the Republic of China, every ton of gold is equivalent to 9 million oceans! But just like that, a new "Silk Road" has been smashed!

In order to meet the changes in the coming Zhiwan War, Zhang Hanqing successively formulated a strategic decision to stabilize Xinjiang in the west, Sichuan in the south, and place the main force in the east, in order to prepare for the eastward invasion of Shaanxi and expel the Shaanxi governor Chen Shufan. As a countermeasure, he needed to choose the opportunity to enter the customs and make early arrangements for the political situation of the Later Anhui system, so he left Han Linchun as the acting commander of the Northwest People's Army and returned to Feng to make arrangements.

While the army was stabilizing the northwest, on December 12, 1919, Feng Guozhang, the direct head of the family and former president, died of illness in Beijing at the age of 62. When he was in danger, he dictated Zhang Yilu's last telegram, hoping that "peace will be realized at an early date, and I regret that I cannot see reunification in person."

The Beijing government ordered the flag to be lowered at half-mast for three days, Xu Shichang and Duan Qirui went to Feng Yu to mourn in person, Duan Qirui remembered the small station training in front of Feng Guozhang's spirit, and decades of joys and sorrows, and couldn't help crying. Xu Shichang, who is the current president and a member of the Beiyang superpower, sent 10,000 yuan for Feng's funeral.

The "dog" in the "Three Heroes of Beiyang", who fell behind with Duan Qirui in the "Battle of the Mansion and the Academy", finally failed to defeat Duan Lao "Tiger", who was also one of the Three Heroes of Beiyang, in his lifetime, and went away peacefully. Cao Kun, who was the overseer and governor of Zhili, was promoted as the new leader of the direct line. He is not like Feng Guozhang, who attaches great importance to the overall situation of Beiyang and has tried to restrain the compromise of the direct family to the Anhui line. Cao Kun, who has soldiers, power and generals, is unwilling to be manipulated by Duan Qirui.

On January 17 of the following year, Wu Peifu, the first general under Cao Kun, sent a telegram requesting instructions to withdraw from southern Hunan, and then he and the "National Protector Army" in the south jointly formed the "National Salvation Alliance", planning to expel Xu Shichang and form a unified government between the north and the south after overthrowing Duan Qirui.

This move made Duan Qirui very nervous, and it was also one of the important reasons why he didn't dare to support Zhang Guangjian in the end: for the sake of Zhang Guangjian, it was not very cost-effective to offend the Feng faction who was in the limelight. It would be a big mistake in strategy to push the Feng faction into the camp of the Alliance for National Salvation.

On the surface, Feng Guozhang is just a paper tiger who was defeated by Duan Qirui, but if Lao Duan knew that Cao Kun came to power and immediately gave him a fatal knife, would he regret that he had suppressed Feng Guozhang desperately?