At night, Hankou and Wuchang are two worlds. Especially in the area along the river in Hankou, because it is a concession of various countries, the street lights flicker at night, which is much more foreign than Wuchang, which has only a small number of medium gas street lights.

The side of Pinghu Gate facing the Yangtze River in Wuchang. It was also pitch black, but there were many people standing in the dark, some of whom were carrying lanterns and lanterns, which provided a little poor lighting.

A staff officer hurried over from the side of the table division yamen, muttered a few words in the ear of a senior officer, the officer nodded, the staff officer walked to the military band and shouted, and the majestic military music immediately sounded, although the command could not be carried out in the dark, but the cooperation of the military musicians was quite tacit.

Taiqun, who was originally in a commotion, suddenly quieted down, held his breath and concentrated, and Emperor Qi Roar cast his eyes on the dark and dreary building.

A moment later, the pitch-black building in front of everyone was surrounded by dazzling lights, and hundreds of foreign lamps were lit up at the same time, illuminating the large plaque in front of the building:

"Wuchang Officers and Officers."

The crowd burst into cheers and excitement. Some even threw lanterns on the ground. Extinguish with one foot.

Amid the cheers, Zhao Bei walked to the door of the officers' club with a smile on his face and stood by the Yijiang field gun. Loudly announced to the elated crowd: "I declare that from now on, the era of no electricity in Wuchang City is gone forever!" Although only a few hundred lights are lit today, I can assure everyone that as long as the revolution is real, it will not be a few years before we can spread the lights and electricity to the cities of the country! The age of oil lamps will come to an end, and the age of electricity will come! Long live industry! Long live the revolution! ”

"Long live industry! Long live the revolution".

The crowd rejoiced, more lanterns were tossed aside, and men and women, dressed in military uniforms and robes and horse coats, rushed into the gate and pointed at the lamps up and down the courtyard.

Zhao Bei, Lan Tianwei and others stood at the door, and from time to time, local celebrities came forward to greet them, and they inevitably wanted to shoot some sycophants.

Just sent a few Hankow celebrities to the club. Several people who looked like gentlemen came over again, clasped their fists at Zhao Bei, and said, "Your Army Club is completely new, which is really gratifying." ”

Zhao Bei returned the salute and said, "Thank you for all the directors, if it weren't for your dedication to the work." The first power plant in Wuchang City would not have been completed so quickly. In the future, the power construction in Wuhan will depend on you a lot, if you encounter any difficulties, whether it is a ruffian or a foreign businessman, you will come to me, I will support you! ”

"With the words of the commander-in-chief, we can rest assured that we can set up an industry." A middle-aged god smiled from ear to ear. This person's name is Song Fuchen, a cloth merchant in Ningbo, who operated a woollen, cloth and match factory in Wuhan in his early years. Therefore, the merchants of the Han Dynasty prepared to set up, and Song Fuchen and a number of recommenders should be gathered, raised funds and shares of 5 million silver yuan, and established the "Commercial Hanzhen Jiji Hydropower Co., Ltd." to hire engineering technicians from the United Kingdom to guide the construction of the factory. The thermal power plant was built to transmit electricity first, but due to the outbreak of the "Shushen Revolution", the construction of the factory came to a halt, and the Republican Army appropriated the company's high-quality seamless steel pipes stored in the arsenal for mortars. As a result, the construction of the company's waterworks was completely stopped.

The scale of the power plant of the Jiji Company is not large, only five watts and three DC generators, which can barely pay for the power supply to the Rìben Concession, and take into account the street lights of the Hankou Huajie, after the "Xinzhou Incident", the Republican Army began to blockade the Rìben Concession. The power supply to the concession was immediately cut off, and the Jiji Company began to fully develop the power market in the Chinese realm, which coincided with the plan of the Republican Army. At noon, the two sides immediately cooperated to relocate part of the equipment of the thermal power plant in Hankou to Wuchang, which led to the transparency of the officers' club.

The relocation of the thermal power plant could not be done in a short period of time, not to mention the fact that the Chinese community in Hankou also needed to be promoted vigorously, so only the military officers and a few zhèngfǔ departments in Wuchang now used electric lights.

The officer's club was formally established at the beginning of the year, using the yamen of the aftermath bureau of the former Qing Dynasty, although it covers an area of small size, and the decoration is not luxurious, but it is the best place for every officer in Zhaobei to contact feelings, as long as it is an officer, regardless of the size of the military rank or official position, you can talk cordially with the commander-in-chief in the club, and you can also find your favorite entertainment here, whether it is the most traditional Peking opera, storytelling, or the most fashionable civilized drama, billiards, gramophone, movies, can be found here.

Because of the limited space, it is impossible for all the officers to come at the same time, so they can only take shifts, and all the officers of a certain brigade will be present today, and all the officers of the group will be present tomorrow, and the officers must wear military uniforms when they come. And you can bring a friend, male or female, and identity is not limited.

In addition to all the officers of the special operations regiment, all the officers of the gendarmerie set up by the network also came to join in the fun, and a few of those with families brought their wives over, while those officers who did not have families either went to the meeting alone or made an appointment with a good female student from a new-style school to dance in the club's ballroom.

The lights are bright, the dance music is moving, and if it weren't for those neat green costumes, people would probably think that they have arrived in the concession and attended a banquet organized by the Ministry of Industry.

Of course, there weren't many officers dancing with their female companions, firstly, because this kind of interpersonal recommendation was too new, only a few officers who had studied had ever studied did, and secondly, there were very few ladies who had the courage to dance face-to-face with men in full view. So, most of the officers could only stand aside and be quietly jealous.

Of course, these jealous people who stood aside did not include a few high-ranking officers, such as Lan Tianwei, Jiang Fangzhen and others, as for Commander-in-Chief Zhao Beizhao, he was not so lucky, after all, the ballroom dances of this era are the so-called "court dances" and those ballroom dances he danced are two different things at all.

"I can't think of it, I can't think of it, Jiang Baili has a set of military theories, this girl's skills are not bad, I just don't know which new-style school that female student is, she looks good, and she is also talented." Zhao Bei stared at the pairs of dance partners on the dance floor

Past. But soon, his mind flew to the Nine Heavens Away. "Jiang Baili in history married a wife from his son, and his relationship was quite good, and later a rocket expert in China was still the son-in-law of his old man" This, this catty "I don't know if Jiang Baili in this time and space will marry Rì's wife?".

Just when Zhao Bei's mind was relaxed, Tian Jinfu on the side pushed his arm and whispered, "Commander, Xiong Weigen has arrived." ”

The woman looked at the door of the dance hall and saw Xiong Chengji walking in with a few people, and he specially invited Xiong Chengji to the meeting today, but he didn't expect to be late, half an hour later than the agreed time.

Zhao Bei took Tian Jinfu to greet him, and Xiong Chengji also grabbed a few steps, and said: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I've kept the commander-in-chief waiting."

Zhao Bei said with a smile: "It is said that revolutionaries work tirelessly. But being as idle as Xiong Dudu's whole rì axis is not a long-term solution, and it is the right way to balance work and rest. ”

"It's just that I don't want to be idle. I really don't dare to be idle. Several cadres of the Fangcai Alliance and the Liberation Association arrived in Han, and I rushed to greet them, but I didn't want to meet and talk, but it took more than half an hour, which was too late. ”

"The Alliance and the Liberation Society are coming over again?"

Zhao Bei was a little surprised, when Xiong Chengji arrived in Wuhan yesterday, he brought a few alliance members and Guangfu members over, and he didn't want to come again, and it seemed that he didn't say hello in advance.

"They were just outside the club, waiting for the commander-in-chief to receive them." Although Xiong Chengji didn't say it explicitly, the god clearly said, "Hurry up and go out to meet you."

"Since I came from afar, I must have been tired. Tian Jinfu! Zhao Bei nodded.

"Here!" Tian Jinfu took a step forward.

"Ma Shi arranged a place to live and supper, and first invited those Huang Zhi of the Alliance and the Restoration Society to rest in the tea room, and I will go later, and show them a movie first. Tell them to also see the scene where the Manchu royal family rolls out of the Forbidden City. ”

Xiong Chengji breathed a sigh of relief, yesterday he held a secret meeting with Zhao Bei to discuss the matter of dealing with Yuan Shikai's dismantling of the Southern Revolutionary Army. He also solved the problem of military salaries for the southern army. In other words, Zhao Bei's support is only lip service. Therefore, Xiong Chengji has always wanted to hold another formal meeting, and now that several heavyweight revolutionary comrades have rushed to Wuhan, everyone is working together, and it must be said that Commander-in-Chief Zhao has been moved.

"Akine, the previous paragraph said that the Liberation Society is planning to merge with the Alliance, how is it going now?" Zhao Bei pulled Xiong Chengji to sit at the table and asked tentatively.

"I don't know the details, but there have been a few key meetings. This coalition party includes not only the League and the Liberation Association, but also many small heads, and once formed, the parliamentary election can be said to be a sure victory

"So, who will be the leader of the merged party?" Zhao Bei asked. He really didn't expect that because of his interference, the Restoration Society would merge with the Alliance, and in history, the two organizations can be said to be very estranged, and many bones of the Restoration Society have very opinions about Sun Wen, the leader of the Alliance.

"It is said that President Tao is the most compatible with Mr. Sun of the Jinhuan Alliance, and he is also qualified. There are still disagreements. It is difficult to say who will hold the post of party leader in the end. ”

"If this problem is not solved, I am afraid that the merger will not be able to talk about it."

"I'm also worried, after all, the two organizations have sisters, and if they can't talk about the party leader. It seems that they have to do their own thing. However, I do not think that the immediate task is to form a big party, but to disarm. ”

Seeing that Xiong Chengji pulled the topic back again, Zhao Bei frowned and said: "The matter of disarmament is very tricky. My opinion is that the Southern Revolutionary Army must not be completely dismantled, nor can it be cut off, and my opinion is that it is better to dissolve the armed forces of the Communist Party of China that opportunize the revolution, and if they cannot be disbanded, they will be reorganized into local armed forces to eliminate bandits and maintain order. Funds are raised by the local zhèngfǔ. ”

The League also held the opinion that the Southern Army should at least maintain the same size as the Beishan Army, that the Beiyang Army should have several divisions, and that the Southern Revolutionary Army should also have several divisions. But firstly, Yuan Shikai did not agree, and secondly, he lacked military salaries and could not maintain the army, so he sent an envoy to discuss with the commander-in-chief. ”

"The finances are indeed catties. Issue. At present, there are a total of seven divisions of the Recommending Peace Army, each division needs about 1.5 million yuan per year, and the seven divisions are more than 10 million yuan, and this is still peacetime, and the wartime funding is doubled. ”

Zhao Bei's words are true and false, although the annual expenditure of the first division is more than one million, but the maintenance of the second division and the Revolutionary Guards does not need so much military spending, but military spending is indeed a difficult problem, and the current military expenditure has accounted for nearly forty percent of the total expenditure of Hubei and the four provinces, but the fourth provincial financial clean-up and rectification has not yet been completed, and the salt administration has not been refreshed. Disarmament seems to be an easy thing to do, but Zhao Bei is well aware that the original intention of the Beiyang Reduction Motion is by no means intended for the people.

Xiong Chengji said: "It is precisely because of this difficulty that we have to pool our ideas and make profits, and the revolutionary forces in the south can only form a fist. Only then can the revolution continue. ”

This is true, and only by uniting can we continue the revolution. However, disarmament is only Yuan Shikai's strategy. His big president still has the words "Temporary." In two words, this plan has not been deliberated by the Congress, and the Congress has not yet been established, so it will be said after the establishment of the Congress. At this count, I can provide a small amount of assistance for the Guangfuhui and the League, a total of four divisions, but the Hubei and the four "armies are also very financially constrained, and it is impossible to pay them on an annual basis. This salary can only be allocated on a monthly basis, and these four divisions should become the jīng rui of jīng, and you should incorporate the most revolutionary soldiers into these four divisions, and the officers with the best military qualities should also be sent over

Zhao Bei finally made up his mind that the current situation was very unfavorable in the south, and it was necessary to cheer up and encourage the southern revolutionaries, but on the other hand. It also depends on how Yuan Shikai accepts, or rather, how to bargain.

If Yuan Shikai is not willing to bargain. Well, the commander-in-chief will not watch him weaken the southern army either.