In 1926, the following process was required to take a train from Shanghai to Beiping.

Take a train from Shanghai Railway Station along the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway to Nanjing Railway Station, which was built by the British and officially opened to traffic in 1908 and takes about four hours.

After arriving at Nanjing Railway Station, you also have to buy a ferry ticket and take a boat to Pukou Railway Station on the north bank of the Yangtze River.

In this era, there was no Yangtze River Bridge, the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway was on the south bank of the Yangtze River, and the Tianjin-Pudong Railway was on the north bank of the Yangtze River.

Take a boat across the Yangtze River, come to Pukou Railway Station, take a train to Tianjin and follow the Jinpu Railway north to Tianjin Railway Station.

Opened to traffic in 1912, it was the longest railway built in the last years of the Qing Dynasty.

Because there was no technological breakthrough in the Yangtze River moat at that time, it could only be repaired to Pukou on the north bank of the Yangtze River, and could not be repaired to Nanjing, resulting in the Tianjin-Pudong Railway and the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway on the south bank of the Yangtze River could not be connected, otherwise there would be a direct train from Tianjin to Shanghai.

Because of this, this railway is not used much for freight transportation, and is mainly used for carrying people, so it is more convenient to use cargo ships to travel by water.

It takes one day and one night to get from Nanjing to Tianjin.

When you come to Tianjin Railway Station, you have to transfer to the Jingfeng train to Beiping, and the Jingfeng Railway is repaired from Beiping to Fengtian, that is, Shenyang.

From Beiping to Fengtian should not have passed through Tianjin, but because Tianjin is a strategic place, the Qing government deliberately made a turn for this railway when building the road, from Beiping to Tianjin, and then from Tianjin to the northeast.

The railway was officially opened to traffic in 1912, and it takes about six hours to travel from Tianjin to Beiping.

In other words, it will take at least two days for Lin Zixuan to reach Beiping. Transferring trains along the way takes a lot of time.

In fact, many railways were built in China during this era. But because of the warlords, most of them are on their own. The railways in various places cannot be connected, resulting in inconvenient transportation.

Like the last time Lin Zixuan and Miss Song Jiasan rushed to Beiping, they suffered a lot of crimes.

The other way is to take a passenger ferry from Shanghai to Dagukou in Tianjin.

It takes a lot more time, maybe five or six days.

Because of the war in the north, there are warships from various countries docked near the mouth of Dagu in Tianjin, and it is not safe to take a passenger ferry.

Lin Zixuan arrived in Tianjin on the evening of March 3, where there was a war.

The Nationalist Army led by Feng Yuxiang and Zhang Zuolin's Feng Army were in the thick of the battle.

On January 11, 1926, Zhang Zuolin sent a telegram to the whole country, announcing that the three eastern provinces would sever all administrative relations with the Beiping government. In the name of General Zhenwei, he presided over the military and political affairs of the three eastern provinces.

The independence of the three northeastern provinces was officially proclaimed.

Even if he does not have access to electricity, the three northeastern provinces are still his territory, but this shows the attitude of the three northeastern provinces and the Beiping government.

This is a signal that he wants to compete for hegemony in the Central Plains.

During this period, Guangdong was the territory of the Nationalist Government, and the area of Jiangsu and Zhejiang was controlled by the direct warlord Sun Chuanfang, Wu Peifu was in Wuhan, Yan Xidan was in Shanxi, Feng Yuxiang occupied Tianjin and Beiping, and Zhang Zuolin dominated the three northeastern provinces.

The country is in turmoil.

Just ask, the vast earth. Who is the master of ups and downs?

Since Feng Yuxiang's rebellion, Wu Peifu's strength has been greatly reduced, and he has lost the qualification to compete for the world, so he can only wander around.

Yan Xishan was the Emperor of the Soil of Shanxi. only thinks about dominating one side, and has no idea of getting involved in the world.

Sun Chuanfang was arrogant and arrogant, although he occupied a place south of the Yangtze River. The world is rich, but it is difficult to become a great tool.

Feng Yuxiang took control of the government in Beiping. Supporting Duan Qirui to come to power is a bit of a coercion of the Son of Heaven to order the princes. It's just that he lacks a foundation and has a bad reputation, so it is difficult to convince the public.

The only ones who really have the strength and ambition are the Nationalist Government in Guangdong and Zhang Zuolin in Northeast China.

Behind the Guangdong Nationalist Government was the support of the Soviet Union, and behind Zhang Zuolin was Japan as the backstage.

One south and one north, competing for the world.

Feng Yuxiang's Nationalist Army originally belonged to the direct warlords, and after he broke away from the direct warlords, he called himself the Nationalist Army, and he also had the support of the Soviets behind him, so that he could gain a firm foothold in Beiping.

Lin Zixuan stayed in Tianjin for a few days and met his third uncle, Lin Boren.

Lin Boren is quite worried about the current situation.

He was a local official in Tianjin, in charge of business affairs, and had close contacts with foreigners in the concession.

Lin Zixuan couldn't help this, in this big era, a small bureaucrat could not control his own destiny, so he could only go with the flow, hoping to be on the side of the winner.

Once you stand on the wrong team, you will lose your official position at least and your life will be at worst.

He hinted that he was optimistic about the Nationalist Government in Guangdong, that the Northern Expedition was very likely to succeed, and hoped that the third uncle would take refuge in the past as soon as possible.

But Lin Boren hesitated, he felt that Zhang Zalin had a better chance, and he was still in a wait-and-see attitude.

This is perhaps the common attitude of most petty bureaucrats, who are waiting to see the final outcome of this war, and who will be able to dominate the Central Plains and dominate the world.

As soon as Lin Zixuan left Tianjin, the Dagukou incident occurred in Tianjin.

The reason was that in order to cover the Feng warship, the Japanese warship sailed into the mouth of Dagu in Tianjin and shelled the Nationalist army, killing and wounding more than 10 defenders.

The Nationalist Army resolutely fought back and expelled the Japanese ships from Dagukou.

Japan, together with Britain and the United States, and eight other countries, issued an ultimatum to the Duan Qirui government, putting forward an unreasonable demand for the removal of defense facilities at Dagukou.

This involves the Treaty of Xincho, signed in 1901 between the Western powers and the Qing government.

One of them was that the Qing government demolished the fortified forts along the line from Dagukou in Tianjin to Beijing, and allowed the foreign powers to send troops to garrison important places along the railway from Beijing to Shanhaiguan.

This is a direct handing over of national defense strength, and China has since become a semi-colonial country.

When Lin Zixuan came to Beiping, the newspapers in Beiping were hotly discussing this matter, unanimously opposing the unreasonable demands of Japan and other countries, and protesting against Japan and other countries' interference in China's internal affairs.

While there were calls to abolish unequal treaties with Western powers, the Duan government took a compromising approach.

Lin Zixuan only sighed, the weakness of the government and the fact that it can be bullied is one of the root causes of the arrogance and hegemony of the Western powers.

He came to Peking to accompany Feng Chengcheng to revisit his hometown, meet his former friends, and contact some writers.

The second series of new literature introduced to Western society was dominated by the publication of poetry collections and essays.

The Crescent Society is a literary group dominated by poets, and Xu Zhimo and Wen Yiduo are both outstanding poets of this era.

This matter was left to Xu Zhimo to deal with, and two personal poetry collections and one new poetry collection were selected.

According to Lin Zixuan's opinion, a personal poetry collection should have personal characteristics, that is to say, the poet himself must have characteristics, while the selected collection should have the characteristics of the times, and the selected poems should best reflect the voice of the times.

He leaned towards the poetry collections of Xu Zhimo and Wen Yiduo, one a liberal poet and the other a revolutionary poet.

As for Guo Moruo's "Goddess", it is too free-spirited, I'm afraid it is not easy for Westerners to understand, so forget it.

In terms of prose, he has several candidates.

Zhou Zuoren's essays are indispensable, Zhu Ziqing and Yu Dafu are both prose masters, and he hopes that Shen Congwen will write some prose travelogues about Xiangxi, with a peculiar regional color.

The prose of these people has its own characteristics, culture, history, feelings, and feelings, which are all-encompassing and melted into one furnace. (To be continued.) )