At the time of the meeting between Chiang Kai-shek and Li Zongren in Guangzhou, on the Loess Plateau in the northwest, a strange contingent was passing through the loess mounds, most of them were wearing Kuomintang military uniforms, and some were wearing long robes and horse coats.

The group walked quietly through the mountains, except for the occasional chirping of mules and horses and the shouting of the grooms. The guards walked in front and back of the line with guns in hand, their eyes swept around from time to time, the bare ground, the barren land with only a little grass swaying in the wind. At the gate of Yan'an, several officers of the Northeast Army welcomed them into the city, and everything was so quiet and natural.

From Yan'an to Xi'an, the team is constantly shrinking, but Shanghai Xiaokai has always walked in the team, and it is the horseman who is next to him.

Outside the city of Xi'an, the severely reduced team was welcomed into Qixianzhuang by the Northeast Army, where they changed into a unified Northeast military uniform, with the only exception being that Xiaokai. A few days later, Xiao Kai boarded the train to Shanghai with two young men, and the team completely disappeared into the vast sea of people.

The winter of 1936 came to Shanghai early, and people hurriedly changed into leather jackets and cotton robes, and the colors on the streets became much more monotonous. The French Concession is an exception, where French romance and fashion seem to have been transplanted, with men and women from various fashion stores enriching the colours, and they are dressed in the latest fashions from Paris.

Cangzhou Hotel is not a big hotel in Shanghai, but because of Tagore's stay more than ten years ago and its reputation has been boosted, it has become the first choice for cultural people who go to Shanghai to work hard.

The whole hotel is full of the calmness and calmness of cultural people, even Chen Lifu, who was reading the newspaper in the guest room on the third floor, had this mood at the moment.

"Lifu, do you think he's coming?" The long-shirted man sitting next to Chen Lifu reading the newspaper closed the newspaper, looked at the watch in his hand and asked.

"Of course it will," Chen Lifu didn't raise his head, still looking at the news in the newspaper with concern, and said leisurely: "Their situation is very bad, either reconcile with us, or go to Soviet Russia, if it weren't for the fact that I pressed too hard, the chairman would not have sat down with them to negotiate." ”

"It's been ten years since I killed it, but I can only sit down and talk about it." Cheongsam shook his head with some sighs.

"This negotiation is very different from the negotiation of the other side, Brother Huainan," Chen Lifu said with a smile: "This is our strong negotiation, and there is a world of difference from ten years ago, ten years ago they were so arrogant, now they have to honestly do it according to our terms." ”

Zhang Chong (this Zhang Chong is not Yunnan Zhang Chong, the name is Huainan, the acting deputy director of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee) shook his head suspiciously, today they are here to wait for [***] negotiators.

After the full-scale invasion of the Great Wall, Chiang Kai-shek began to take steps to achieve reconciliation with [***], Chen Lifu became the specific executor of this policy, Chen Lifu planned to get in touch with [***] through the Comintern, so he and Zhang Chong went to Europe last year, planning to secretly go to Soviet Russia via Germany, but unfortunately the matter was revealed and had to cancel the trip and return to China.

After returning to China, Chen Lifu handed over the matter to his Pittsburgh alumnus Zeng Yangfu, who found Zuo Zongtang's descendant and editor of Nanjing's "Rotary Daily" through his classmate Chen Xiaocen, Zuo Gong had contact with the [***] Shanghai Provisional Central Committee, and after he conveyed the requirements of the Kuomintang to the Provisional Central Committee, the Provisional Central Committee sent Zhang Zihua, secretary of the Organization Department, to negotiate with Chen Xiaocen, but the Provisional Central Committee had lost contact with the [***] Central Committee, so they proposed to Zeng Yangfu to send people to northern Shaanxi, Zeng Yangfu agreed with the soldiers to help them obtain passes, and the Provisional Central Committee then sent Zhang Zihua and Tung Chee-wu to report to the Central Committee. However, Zeng Yangfu made a mistake, he did not send someone to escort them. When Zhang Zihua and Tung Chee-wu were in Xi'an, it was raining and snowing in northern Shaanxi and transportation was blocked, so they asked Zhang Xueliang for help in the name of officials of the Ministry of Finance, and they took out Kong Xiangxi's warrant and asked Zhang Xueliang to send them to the Soviet area to investigate the local finances. This reason is undoubtedly ridiculous, Zhang Xueliang immediately verified through Nanjing, and soon got the news that these two people had special identities, and they may have been secret envoys sent by the national political axe, so they were sent to Yan'an by plane, but this time, Zhang Xueliang began to contact [***] with confidence and boldness.

Tung Chee-wu's public identity was that of a pastor, and he relied on this identity to become a liaison between northern Shaanxi and Nanjing. However, the good times did not last long, Yan Xishan soon learned that Chiang Kai-shek had a connection with [***], and he was fighting with the Red Army in Shanxi for the Eastern Expedition, so he urgently telegraphed Chiang Kai-shek to ask why he wanted to collude with the Red Army to attack Shanxi, so Chiang Kai-shek interrupted Dong Jianwu's line, but secretly kept Zhang Zihua's line.

At the same time, another channel has also made a breakthrough, that is, the Moscow channel, and after Deng Wenyi became military attache at the embassy in the Soviet Union last year, an important task was to get in touch with [***] through the Comintern. Deng Wenyi soon held talks with Wang Ming, the representative of the [***] to the Comintern through Soviet Russia, but to Deng Wenyi's disappointment, Wang Ming made it clear that in order to really solve the problem, he had to return to China to find the [***] Central Committee, but he agreed to send a special envoy to northern Shaanxi, this special envoy was Pan Hannian, who left the Red Army in Guizhou, and Deng Wenyi asked Pan Hannian to contact Chen Guofu after returning to China.

After receiving the letter, Chen Guofu sent Zhang Chong to Hong Kong to talk with Pan Hannian, and then the two went to Nanjing together. So Pan Hannian went to northern Shaanxi again.

In addition to these two lines, Zeng Yangfu also opened up the line of Zhou Xiaozhou and Jian Bozan, and among these lines, the Nanjing side attached the most importance to Pan Hannian, because he came back from Moscow and was a representative of the Comintern and the representative of the [***] Central Committee.

Today, Chen Lifu and Zhang Chong are here to wait for the arrival of Pan Hannian to start the first round of KMT-CPC peace talks.

"Zhuang Wenge has started to make big moves in Yunnan again," Chen Lifu said in the reactionary newspaper while Zhang Chong was still thinking about it, "It seems that he wants to build Yunnan into a second Chongqing city." ”

"Yucheng is developing very well, if he can turn Yunnan into a second Yucheng, it will be a great achievement." When Zhang Chong said this, as if he remembered something, he closed the newspaper and looked up and asked, "I heard that the chairman of the committee wants to train Zhuang Wenge as his successor?" Do you see such a thing? ”

Chen Lifu raised his eyes to look at Zhang Chong in surprise, and when he saw that his expression was calm, he said solemnly: "Brother Huainan, this thing can't be said casually, neither the chairman nor Zhuang Wenge will accept it." ”

"Zhuang Wenge still can't accept it?" Zhang Chong asked with some surprise.

"With what I know about him, he will definitely not accept it," Chen Lifu squinted his eyes as if to recall his impression of Zhuang Jihua: "This is a very cautious and cautious person, even if he is 100% sure that he will not easily express his position, so he will not accept this, on the contrary, I think he will strongly counter this rumor." ”

Zhang Chong thought for a while and said: "It seems that he is a smart man, and throughout the ages, the crown prince has been very dangerous. ”

Chen Lifu seemed to be touched, in the eyes of smart people, the prince is a beautiful look, but in fact it is a dangerous profession, not only to be guarded against the emperor but also to guard against the plots of others from time to time, how could a smart person like Zhuang Jihua choose such a profession, he doesn't even want to be a member of the Central Committee, let alone this nominal prince. Now this person, who is not even a member of the Central Committee, is presiding over the work of two provinces, and the chairman of the committee has really found a long-term worker who is easy to use and cheap.

Zhang Chong saw that Chen Lifu had no intention of continuing to talk about this topic, so he opened the newspaper again and continued to read the newspaper, and most of the news in the newspaper recently was Chiang Kai-shek's news in Luoyang and Yunnan.

Needless to say, the news from Yunnan was that Yunnan was initially recruiting teachers across the country, just like Yucheng at the beginning, and then it was a "big construction project", promulgating a two-year transportation plan to build two main roads and more than a dozen branch lines, and then announcing tax cuts as in Yucheng at the beginning, exempting agricultural taxes and collecting only 2% of commercial taxes.

At this time, all the reporters began to run to Yunnan like a cat smelling fishy, and within a few days they sent back reports, what Yunnan-Burma Highway started, Yunnan-Guizhou Highway started, Kunming Iron and Steel Plant broke ground, 100,000 migrant workers went to Yunnan-Burma, etc., which simply portrayed Yunnan as a busy construction site.

But Chen Lifu knows that these are all appearances, Feng Yi gave him a report has long been there, Zhuang Jihua personally sat in Kunming to supervise the development of these projects, in just a few months, three sets of factory equipment from the United States directly pulled into Kunming through Vietnam, and mineral exploration in the province has been launched.

The recovery of Yunnan also brought an unexpected gain, that is, the equipment of Panzhihua could be landed in Vietnam, pulled to Kunming by the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway, and then transported to Panzhihua by car, shortening the transportation mileage by nearly 1,000 miles, so the Southwest Development Team decided to make the Kyaukpyeongdu Bridge a priority project.

In early October, the Yunnan Guard was formally formed, and Chiang Kai-shek gave an army the number -- the 60th Army, and the former Dian Army retained the number of the 38th Army.

In three months, Du Yuming recruited 30,000 men from Guizhou and Yunnan, and now his 60th Army is fully manned, all of them are organized according to the convoy, and they are in full swing training near Kunming.

Within three months, the first training course on government affairs was completed, and all the county and township heads of the five or six counties around Kunming were replaced by cadres from the government affairs class.

"Do you say they will agree to the chairman's terms?" Zhang Chong's somewhat worried voice interrupted Chen Lifu's thoughts.

(To be continued)