The Governor of Hong Kong, Stubb, soon received news of the general strike, and the usual arrogance of the British led him to send the Auxiliary Secretary to consult with the union leaders instead of in person, which he thought was already a face-saving gesture for the Chinese.

Unfortunately, the Chinese did not give Shi Xun face, and the union representatives rejected Shi Xun's request, but instead put forward six conditions and asked the Governor's Office to reply within two days.

It is simply whimsical that these lowly yellow-skinned pigs and sick men of East Asia should want to obtain the same power as the noble Caucasians, "This is a challenge to the authority of the British Empire, and it is an insult," Stubb roared angrily, "These rioters should be sent to prison." ”

"Your Excellency, there are instructions in Whitehall, and we should refrain from escalating the incident at this time." Shi Xun hurriedly dissuaded. He was very unimpressed with Stubbat's actions, the empire was no longer the empire it used to be, the European war had exhausted the British Empire, and after the European war, the revolt of the colonies intensified, and the British Empire was overwhelmed and urgently needed time to breathe. At this time, the Shanghai Ministry of Industry actually led the conflict between the merchants and the Chinese to themselves, which cannot but be said to be extremely stupid, and now the wave of protests in China continues to expand, and the spearhead is directed at Britain, which has seriously affected the empire's interests in China.

"Stupid orders, stupid orders from the old men of Whitehall, they don't know that these ruffians should be taught a hard lesson, and if they don't let him, they will climb on your head." Situ Bab angrily tore the conditions to pieces. He shouted, "I will never give in to the ruffians, never." The majesty of the British Empire must not be thrown away in my hands. Never. ”

On June 19, the Hong Kong seamen's, printing and tramways trade unions first went on strike, and then the Hong Kong trade unions responded en masse. Stuart ordered martial law, announced a ban on the export of grain, announced a ban on the export of gold and silver bills, all the marines landed, warships raised fire to patrol the sea, and Hong Kong suddenly fell into a state of war.

According to the advance plan, the workers who participated in the strike returned to China one after another, and more than 200,000 people immediately before and after, and then the foreign workers in the Shamian Concession also declared a strike. Hong Kong's sand surface was suddenly paralyzed, hundreds of ships were stranded in the port, and the streets were full of garbage, emitting a foul stench under the scorching summer sun.

In the newspaper full of news of the strike, there was an article entitled "The Necessity of Nationalizing the Army from the Perspective of the Defeat of the Sichuan Army," in which the author Wu Ren analyzed the reasons for the defeat of the Kuomintang in Sichuan, and pointed out that it was precisely because of the degeneration of the leaders of the Sichuan Army that the Sichuan Army was transformed from a revolutionary army into a warlord army, lost its revolutionary position, and eventually lost Sichuan. Therefore, the external causes of the Kuomintang's defeat in Sichuan and military defeat were the political defeat, and its leader Xiong Kewu laid the political factors for today's defeat when he proposed inter-provincial autonomy in 1918.

This article caused quite a stir in the top echelons of the Kuomintang and military circles, not only because it named Xiong Kewu, commander-in-chief of the Sichuan Army, but also because it boldly asserted that Xiong Kewu was a warlord.

Although Xiong Kewu had just arrived in Guangdong, as the commander-in-chief of the Sichuan Army, a participant in the Huanghuagang Uprising, and a veteran of the Kuomintang, his prestige within the party was still relatively high. Now the Wu people openly declare that Xiong Kewu is a revolutionary and is actually a warlord, which is undoubtedly a bombshell dropped in the military circles of Guangdong. The generals in the army inquired about who the soldiers were.

Others don't know who Wu Ren is, but Yu Peidi does, because some of the views in this article are exactly the same as Zhuang Jihua's conversation in front of the martyr's tomb, but Yu Peidi doesn't know why Zhuang Jihua wants to publish such an article at this time, isn't this obviously to force Xiong Kewu? With this question, he walked into the private room on the third floor of Juxiande.

Today, all walks of life in Guangzhou held a demonstration meeting in the East Campus to help the Shanghai case, most of the shops and restaurants were not open, and some of the guys from Ju Xiande also went to attend the meeting, although it was meal time, there were few guests in the hotel, the store seemed empty, and only one of Zhuang Jihuading's private rooms on the third floor had guests.

"Cultural Revolution, what do you mean by that?" Yu Peidi put the newspaper in front of Zhuang Jihua and asked.

Zhuang Jihua took the newspaper, glanced at the headline on it, threw it aside, and then said lightly to Yu Peidi: "This is only one General Xiong, I can't sit still, there are still two in today's newspaper, and the Republic of China newspaper will publish articles on the transformation of revolutionaries." ”

Yu Peidi was a little stupid immediately, and he couldn't help but ask a little angrily: "Why?" ”

Why? Zhuang Jihua has been reviewing his work for the past two days, and he found that he had made a mistake, placing too high hopes on Yu Peidi's "enlightenment", fantasizing that he would simply rely on persuasion to plot against him, violating the strategy of political siege that he had formulated at the beginning. Therefore, he summoned He Zhenhan, Jiang Xianyun and others, and told them the plan and specific deployment of the siege of Xiong Kewu. He Jinhan and Jiang Xianyun naturally supported it, so Zhuang Jihua took the lead, and the Youth Army Association Sun Society followed to form a huge public opinion offensive to deter the Xiong Kewu group.

"Nothing, just to discuss, the difference between a warlord and a revolutionary." Zhuang Jihua said coldly.

"Revolutionary," Yu Peidi sneered: "When Jin Gong and I participated in the revolution, you didn't know where you were?" What qualifications do you have to talk to me about revolution? ”

"I admit that you participated in the revolution very early," Zhuang Jihua was unmoved, he just looked at the angry Yu Peidi calmly: "But you have deteriorated, Jin Gong, and you, you have been corrupted by power." As I said, whether it is the Sichuan people ruling Sichuan or the autonomy of the provinces, it is a trick played by you to keep the power in your hands, and you split the party. ”

"Can you blame us all? Xie Zhi, together with Yang Shukan and Lu Qingyang, attacked us first, but the prime minister didn't care. Yu Peidi felt aggrieved when he thought of what happened back then.

"So you rebelled." Zhuang Jihua asked.

"If we don't protect ourselves, what can we do? Slaughtered? Yu Peidi asked rhetorically.

"So what's going on in the last few days? Is it someone else who persecuts you? Zhuang Jihua's tone was cold, piercing Yu Peidi's heart.

Yu Peidi suddenly understood that Zhuang Jihua had already realized their purpose. That day, after discussion, they decided that Zhuang Jihua was the one who knew the core secrets of the base camp, so they took turns to set Zhuang Jihua's words, and then decided on their future actions according to the information revealed by Zhuang Jihua. Unexpectedly, Zhuang Jihua was so alert, and he quickly discovered their purpose and turned to a more ferocious attack.

"I know you're going to say it's self-preservation, but no one is persecuting you." Zhuang Jihua did not give Yu Peidi time to defend himself, but continued: "The purpose of reorganizing the army is very simple, that is, the army is nationalized, not private and small groups. Only the nationalization of the army can eliminate the old warlords and avoid the birth of new ones. ”

At this time, there were bursts of slogans outside the window, Zhuang Jihua stood up and walked to the window, pushed open the window, and the procession was passing outside the building.

"Look, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hankow; Foreigners are killing people everywhere and killing Chinese, but we can't do anything, which is a shame for our soldiers and a shame for the leaders of the country. ”

Looking down from the upper floor, the long procession passed by the road outside the building in an endless stream, and Zhuang Jihua saw Director Zhou and some Whampoa students walking in front, followed by workers, peasants, students, and soldiers, and some soldiers on both sides were armed with guns to maintain order. Yu Peidi silently walked to the window and looked at the crowd walking downstairs, and the May Day also caused a great response in the Sichuan army, and some young officers put forward a more radical proposal to reclaim the Shamian Concession.

"Fourteen years after the founding of the Republic of China, the country is still so divided, the reorganization of the army is a necessary step to unify the country, if in the process of reorganization, you are transferred, or arranged to work in other departments, do you also have to rebel?" Zhuang Jihua asked.

Yu Peidi replied wordlessly, he didn't know how to answer. The reorganization of the army will inevitably touch the interests of certain people, even those high-ranking generals. If they are really asked to leave the army or something else, whether Xiong Kewu will lead the troops to leave, the answer is almost certain, otherwise there is no need to listen to the news repeatedly according to Zhuang Jihua.

"What did you talk about with Yang Ximin when Liu Yang rebelled?" Zhuang Jihua asked suddenly.

However, these words undoubtedly detonated a bomb in Yu Peidi's ears, which shook Yu Peidi's brain, and in the scorching heat of midsummer, he felt a chill in his heart. No wonder the base camp has always been lukewarm to them, it turns out that their connection with Yang Ximin has long been known to them, so they will send people to test them, so they will first reorganize the Sichuan army.

"We...," said Yu Peidinuo.

"Multiple roads, huh? Just go more than one road. Zhuang Jihua explained to him lightly: "So you can care whether he is a warlord or not, so you don't care about any revolution or counter-revolution, so you don't care if the base camp was created by the prime minister, right?" Zhuang Jihua asked like a cannonball.

"What can we do?" Yu Peidi weakly defended. The troops walked from Sichuan to Guangdong, and the attrition alone reached 6,000, and the loss of money was even greater, and the entire army was exhausted and could no longer afford to go back.

Zhuang Jihua looked at Yu Peidi without the slightest pity: "Your brother Yu Peilun martyr, in order to overthrow the imperial system and establish the Republic of China, he shed blood and sacrificed. Now in this way, I don't know if he is at ease under the nine springs. ”

The procession had passed, and it was heading in the direction of the sand, and the streets were empty again. Zhuang Jihua didn't close the window, walked to the table, and poured himself and Yu Peidi a cup of daughter red. Zhuang Jihua's words made Yu Peidi's tears almost flow out, and the figure with a bomb on his shoulder and sworn to fight to the death appeared in front of him again, and he silently picked up the wine glass and drank it all.

Yu Peidi was about to speak with red eyes, when a fierce gunfire came from outside the window, occasionally mixed with the explosion of shells. Zhuang Jihua's face changed greatly.

(To be continued)