In order to stabilize the territory in North China as soon as possible, Zhang Xueliang moved his official residence to Beiping, and made some efforts to vigorously develop the military and political style in North China.

With the departure of Zhang Xueliang, the new mayor of Tianjin has been released.

This person's name is Zang Qifang, majoring in economics at the University of California and the University of Illinois, and after returning to China, he served as the dean of the law school of Northeastern University, and also worked as a tutor (teaching economics) for Zhang Xueliang for several years, and he was also one of Zhang Xueliang's confidential secretaries.

Zhang Xueliang's attitude towards Zang Qifang is very complicated, on the one hand, he respects Zang Qifang's talent and learning ability, and on the other hand, he feels that Zang Qifang is unreliable.

Because when the students of Northeastern University made trouble before, Zang Qifang did not strictly restrain it, so that the scale of the student movement became bigger and bigger. In Zhang Xueliang's original words, it is "I don't take Zang Qifang very seriously, and I almost shot them (many school leaders)."

To put it bluntly, Zang Qifang is a scholar-type bureaucrat and loves students very much.

Historically, Northeastern University moved to Sichuan, and the local Sichuan army often molested female students, so that the students did not dare to go out at night. When Zang Qifang, who was the exiled president of Northeastern University at the time, learned about it, he immediately posted a heroic post and feasted the officers above the company level in the local garrison. He recounted the hardships of the school's displacement, and the difficulty of the students studying diligently, and pleaded with the garrison to strictly inculcate the soldiers and ensure that the students could study with peace of mind.

These are nothing, the horror is that Zang Qifang toasted one by one, and Sichuan Lao Baigan drank more than 50 glasses in a row, which stunned the generals of the Sichuan army. Since then, the local Sichuan army has to give Zang Qifang a thumbs up, and there has been no incident of soldiers molesting female students.

Later, Mr. Bai Yang also said in his essays: "In the past ten years, the amount of alcohol has been like a sea but not strong to fill people, and those who have the wind of wine fairies, as far as I know, have two people." One is the deceased Mr. Zang Qifang, and the other is Mr. Ye Mingxun, who is still alive, who deserves to be honored and supported, and those who sing praises are also praised. ”

On the third day of Zang Qifang's tenure as mayor of Tianjin, he invited Zhou Hexuan and Zhang Boling to have dinner together, and the banquet was held in the small courtyard he rented.

Zhang Boling went around Europe last year, and only came back at the beginning of this year, and I heard that he had raised more than 100,000 yuan in funds for running the school. He, the president of Nankai University, doesn't care much about specific school affairs anymore, and he just asks for money all day long.

This gentleman is a master of asking for money, crying all day long and being poor and called Huazi, and he insists on making the scale of Nankai University bigger and bigger. He opened Nankai Primary School two years ago, plus middle school and university, Nankai's stall is very large. Three years ago, he founded the Nankai Economic Research Institute, and immediately prepared to establish the Institute of Applied Chemistry.

Zang Qifang, the new official, really wants to show his strength in Tianjin. One is to develop the local economy, he majored in economics in the United States; The second is to revitalize education in Tianjin, and Zang Qifang is an educator in his bones.

"Mr. Zhang, Mr. Zhou, there are two of the most prestigious in Tianjin's education circles. The contemptible people have just arrived, and I hope that the two of you will support you a lot in terms of education," Zang Qifang raised his glass and said, "Come, I will give you a glass to the two gentlemen, I will do it, you are free." ”

After Zang Qifang finished speaking, he raised his neck and drank it, and the big cup of five-dollar wine was drunk clean in an instant.

Immediately, Zang Qifang chatted again and toasted Zhou Hexuan and Zhang Boling respectively. Nima was like drinking boiled water, cup after cup, and drank most of the catty in a blink of an eye, and spoke clearly without any signs of drunkenness.

O wine fairy!

Zhou Hexuan and Zhang Boling glanced at each other, and they each sipped wine without speaking.

After drinking a little more meaningfully, Zang Qifang smiled and said: "I plan to increase the enrollment rate of school-age children in Tianjin, and I want to start from two aspects, one is to build an office primary school, and the other is to support private primary schools. It all took the help of both of them. ”

Zhang Boling asked: "How much does the Tianjin Municipal Government plan to allocate each year?" ”

"Well, Tianjin's finances are really in some difficulty," Zang Qifang sighed, and then said, "But no matter how difficult the government is, it can't be poor in education." I can make the decision and allocate 20,000 yuan a year as a subsidy for primary schools. ”

20,000 yuan is spread to the entire Tianjin City, there is a fart!

Zhang Boling was a little disappointed, but still smiled: "It is rare that Mayor Zang attaches great importance to education, and I also give the mayor a glass on behalf of the students of Tianjin." ”

"Well said, well said." Zang Qifang raised the cup and took another sip.

Zhou Hexuan said: "The donation of the Hope Education Foundation can only barely maintain the existing Hope Primary School, and it is really unable to continue to expand the scale, I am afraid that Mayor Zang will be disappointed." ”

Today, Hope Primary Schools are mainly located in Tianjin and Beiping, and some are also being built in Hebei Province around the other two cities, with a total of 98 schools. At present, there are more than 10,000 students and more than 300 teachers in the school, and the annual salary of teachers is 100,000 yuan, plus the purchase of teaching materials and the provision of free lunches, the total annual expenditure is more than 150,000 yuan.

Truth be told, the money has long been insufficient.

Wenxiu often went to the street to publicize and call for donations, and Zhou Hexuan occasionally found wealthy businessmen in Beiping and Tianjin, but the annual donations were still less than 50,000 yuan, and the rest relied on Zhou Hexuan's own donations.

"Alas, it's hard to do anything without money." Zang Qifang sighed helplessly.

Zhou Hexuan joked: "The mayor of Tianjin is crying poor, how can you make the civil affairs officials in other places embarrassed." ”

"Hahahaha." Zhang Boling couldn't stop laughing.

This is really a joke, because Tianjin at this time is particularly awesome.

Tianjin was the second largest industrial city during the Republic of China, second only to Shanghai, and the largest financial and trade center in the north.

It's a pity that Tianjin's most important salt tax did not go through the local finance at all, and was directly handed over to the Changlu Salt Administration, which was collected by the central government. In addition, when Yan Xishan was defeated, the previous mayor spent almost the same amount of money, and Zang Qifang, the new mayor, became out of money.

After drinking a meal, after Zhang Boling left, Zhou Hexuan said to Zang Qifang in a sly manner: "Mayor Zang, I have a way to make money." ”

"Mr. Zhou, please speak." Zang Qifang's spirits perked.

Zhou Hexuan said: "Thoroughly inspect all the factories of large companies in Tianjin and clean up their shares, there must be some that are not clean. ”

Zang Qifang was engaged in education, where did he understand this, and hurriedly asked: "Mr. Zhou, can you explain the situation in detail?" ”

In fact, it is very simple, most of Tianjin's industry is bureaucratic capital.

For example, the well-known Jiuda Refined Salt Company, in order to break the restrictions of the old salt system, directly attracted Yang Du to become a shareholder, and as a result, it obtained the right to sell the goods approved by Yuan Shikai. In order to sell refined salt to the south, it successively attracted Cai Yi, Li Yuanhong, Cao Kun, Cao Rui and others to become shareholders.

As a result, fighting a battle for a handful of blood.

For example, after the end of the Second Zhifeng War, the Beiyang authorities vigorously raided the Jiuda Refined Salt Company, not only confiscated the shares in the names of Cao Kun and others, but also arrested the chairman of the company, and the Jiuda Company handed over a fine of 80,000 silver dollars before releasing the people.

Zang Qifang was dumbfounded when he heard this, and hesitated: "I'm afraid it's a little unreasonable to do this." ”

Zhou Hexuan sneered: "Those warlords and common people, after going into the wilderness, continue to be free, what is unreasonable to confiscate their shares?" Some people don't even have real money to invest, and they can easily get shares. To tell the truth, if Mayor Zang takes the opportunity to confiscate the shares of the warlords and bureaucrats and return them to the company, and only collects a partial fine, the bosses of those companies may thank you. Of course, for specific problems, some people's shares are still inconvenient to confiscate, and you can do it yourself. ”

Zang Qifang was obviously moved, but if he did this, he would definitely be infamous as a corrupt official.

However, if part of the money he gets is used for education, public opinion will fall to his side.

Done!

And as soon as possible, now Zhang Xueliang is engaged in the aftermath of the Central Plains War, and a group of warlords have gone to Tianjin to serve as dukes, and these people are the best targets.