Di Tingbi and Huang Hancheng followed Tian Jinfu into the barracks dormitory. The guards came to take a look. A young man sat on the marching bed, set up Erlang's legs, and chatted with the two merchants.

Huang Hancheng has nothing to do in his heart, but it's okay. But as soon as the Ministry Tingbi heard that Zhao Bei was here, he was already absent-minded, and chatted with Tian Jinfu without a word, but in his heart he was thinking about how to explain what happened some time ago after meeting the commander-in-chief. After all, Zhao Bei went to his Prudential Bank and invested half a million in the ocean.

"Why did the commander-in-chief come to the Wuxue?" Bu Tingbi gathered his mind and asked cautiously.

"Inspect water conservancy. Seeing that the flood season is approaching, the Yangtze River flood control must not be sloppy, and a few water conservancy technicians from Germany and the Netherlands were invited a few days ago. After arriving in Wuhan, he clamored to inspect the Yangtze River, and just two days ago, several revolutionary comrades of the League and the Liberation Society were going back to the southeast, and the commander-in-chief took the opportunity to see them off and led those foreign water conservancy technicians to set off from Hankou to the east. The commander-in-chief took those foreigners to Xingguozhou in the south of the Yangtze River to check the terrain, and the foreigners said that the place used to be a lake, which was used for flood storage, but later it was surrounded by the people to make fields, and the lake disappeared, although the place is now the land of fish and rice, but once the Yangtze River flooded, the place was the first to suffer, so ah, the commander-in-chief wanted to take precautions and move the people of that place to a high place, but the people did not do it. The commander-in-chief had no choice but to take the strategy and lead the local armor chief to go door to door to point the strong men, and let them build an earthen embankment outside the village to resist it. Yesterday morning I was bitten by a local dog, so I had to come back to recuperate, and now the commander-in-chief is still in Xingguozhou, and I can't say when I will come back. ”

Tian Jinfu pulled up his trouser legs as he spoke, revealing the bandages on his feet, and only then did Bu Tingbi and Huang Hancheng understand why he was limping when he walked.

"The commander-in-chief cares about the people and is a role model for my generation. Although the flooding of the Yangtze River is worrying, compared with the Huai River, it is a small thing, and the Ministry of Tingbi sighed again and again.

"Yes, the commander-in-chief also said that the Huai River is a big disaster for the people of the Central Plains, but in the final analysis, it is still the problem of the Yellow River, if it wasn't for the Yuan Dynasty emperor who built the canal indiscriminately, the Yellow River would not have taken Huai into the sea, to say that this godson emperor is stupid, whether it is the Yuan Dynasty or the Qing Dynasty." Tian Jinfu nodded solemnly.

"Those foreigners have made any suggestions after watching this way? Will there be a major flood in the Yangtze River this year? Huang Hancheng hurriedly asked, although he is engaged in the dismantling industry, but also a large landowner, not only in his hometown Xianning has hundreds of acres of fertile land, other counties also have a lot of land, many of these fertile fields are on the Yangtze River, harvest, field rent are closely related to the Yangtze River, have to pay more attention to this aspect

cease

Tian Jinfu said: "Foreigners are not immortals, how can they say so quickly that the Yangtze River does not flood?" Foreigners rely on observation to judge the flood season. What temperature, humidity, precipitation, climate zone, we basically don't have these foreigners' things now, just rely on the machines brought by foreigners, it is not good to say whether the Yangtze River will flood or not. Besides, the Yangtze River is several thousand miles long, and there is more than one province along the Yangtze River, Hubei Province, and the flood control of the Yangtze River is not something that a province can do well. However, the foreigners suggested that a dam be built in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, one for flood storage, and the other for power generation, killing two birds with one stone, and the commander-in-chief also appreciated this proposal, and the commander-in-chief said that in the future, China will have funds and technology. Let's build a large hydropower station in Yichang, and when the country is stable in the future, the electricity generated there will be able to light up several provinces in central China. Dams should also be built on the Yellow River, so that. Not only will the flooding of the Yellow River be eliminated, but even the Huai River will be able to come down, and the people of the Central Plains will be stable. However, now the military is in financial difficulties, and it is not easy to raise private funds, so this large hydropower station cannot be built in a short time, and can only be built from a small hydropower station first, and now the fourth "there is exploration, and the commander-in-chief plans to build several small hydropower stations in Sichuan first, once built, it can not only generate electricity to supply factories, but also store floods and flood control, and also irrigate farmland, which are all undertakings that benefit the country and the people. ”

"Repair a hydropower station to control flooding? It's ingenious. Ministry Tingbi exclaimed. Some rì sub before. Contemptible people visited Zhang Jilao, learned that he also has a long-cherished wish to repair the Huai River for the benefit of the people, but no one has presided over it, and now President Yuan Da sits in the north, inviting Zhang Ji Lao to go north to assist the government, if it goes well, maybe the Huai River repair period is not far away. ”

"Yuan Shikai?" Tian Jinfu smiled bitterly.

"Yuan Shikai can't count on it, that person is now busy calculating how to clean up the southern revolutionaries, thank God if he doesn't fight, expect him to contribute money and efforts to repair water conservancy? Then it's really better to hope that the wind and rain will be smooth, and the Sea Dragon King will not come to make trouble. ”

The smashing man said very aggressively, Bu Tingbi and Huang Hancheng could only say a few words, they didn't dare to say anything bad about Yuan Shikai, and if they wanted to say it, only these martial artists with guns in their hands and guns behind their backs dared to say it.

The news that Yuan Shikai was going to dismantle the southern army had already spread, and although the official order had not yet been issued, anyone with a little knowledge understood that after any powerful person came to power. It is inevitable to wantonly cut off dissident forces and support the forces of the descendants, and now Yuan Shikai is the president, so the southern army must be abolished, and if the southern revolutionaries are replaced as presidents, I am afraid that it will be the Beiyang Army that will be abolished.

In the end, it is the struggle for power between the two factions of the north and the south, and the people are caught in the middle, so it is a matter of watching the small liveliness, and in addition, the only thing that can be done is to pray that the war will not break out around Zigong. Yuan Shikai was still very "generous" to the Republican Army, and gave the Republican Army two divisions. There is not even a limit to the types of troops, but at present, the Republican Army has seven divisions of regular troops alone, and if it is calculated according to Yuan Shikai's reduction, it will be reduced by more than half of the troops, not counting those Revolutionary Guards.

On the other hand, however, the Beiyang Army was expanding its strength on a large scale, and it is said that it had expanded from the previous six towns to nearly 10 divisions.

Everything must be stressed, fair, and the Chinese have always paid attention to "not suffering from widowhood and suffering from unevenness." Yuan Shikai is so blatantly favoritism, no wonder the southern soldiers have opinions, and the soldiers want to eat. If an officer wants to be promoted, he can't do without the army, and they are nothing without the army, and they are not even as good as the party that is mixed up in the concession, so who can not complain?

Therefore, the news of the abolition of the army came out. The revolutionaries in the south were suddenly in a state of turmoil, and there were several mutinies, although they were quickly suppressed by the bombs, but the situation became more and more tense, because the foreigners refused to allocate the surplus of customs revenue to the southern provinces, and did not allow their own businessmen to provide loans to the revolutionaries, whether they were armed by the League or the Liberation Society, they were all faced with the urgent problem of military salaries, and in order to raise military salaries, some southern provinces have begun to collect taxes from merchants in various names. When passing by the city gate, you have to pay "more dung donations than the taxes in the previous Qing Dynasty." It can be said that the "Metropolitan Commanders" from all over the world who can think of it have already thought of it. The ancients called "fishing with tears" is such a scene.

Under this heavy oppression, the mentality of the merchants and people in various places began to change subtly, and the excitement after the revolution gradually faded, and they all hoped that Yuan Shikai would dismantle the southern army as soon as possible. Lest these Qiu Batu emperors stay in the local area and do not leave, so, from the perspective of public opinion, the southern army zhèngfǔ has lost some points.

In order to prevent those governors and commanders from blackmailing themselves, the chamber of commerce in Shanghai has convened a meeting and took the initiative to invite the Beiyang Army to enter Shanghai. As for Zhang Shisuo, the hero of Shanghai's recovery, he has been transferred to the north to take up a post, "The Dragon of Beiyang." Wang Shizhen concurrently served as the mayor of Shanghai in the name of the governor of Jiangbei. The Fujian army, which had originally entered Zhabei and Nanshi in the name of "aiding Shen", was also "invited" out of Shanghai and drove back to Fujian in a gloomy manner.

In return, the Shanghai business community enthusiastically purchased the Beiyang zhèngfǔ "public bonds" in just a few years, and had raised a huge amount of nearly one million silver yuan for Yuan Shikai, which unsurprisingly turned into rifles and cannons, which continued to strengthen the strength of the Beiyang Army.

The revolutionaries in the south also saw the crisis, but if they wanted to arrest these rebels with their heads, they were also desperate for fish, and in order to get out of the crisis, the revolutionaries stepped up efforts to clean up their finances. On the one hand, he strengthened ties with the Hubei Republican Army and tried to ask for some assistance from the Republican Army, which was relatively financially well-off. At the same time, we are actively preparing to unite political parties and prepare to use the means of parliamentary struggle to maintain the balance of power between the North and the South.

The North is aggressive, and the South is step-by-step. If neither side is willing to compromise, then sooner or later there will be a war between the North and the South, this is the common view of all radicals, and the only question left is who will take the first shot?

It's a chaotic situation.

Ministry Tingbi could only lament in his heart that Yuan Shikai in the north was a big tree, but this big tree looked down on him as a small person. Although the Republican Army looks down on him, it is the Beiyang Group, which is not as strong as Yuan Shikai, and it is not yet able to command the whole country.

But then again, the Republican Army cannot command the whole country, and the Beiyang Group is also unable to command the whole country, and now although the North and the South have nominally unified their decrees, they are still in fact their own domains. Yuan Shikai is nominally the leader of the country, but in fact his influence is limited to the north, where he can only control the areas around Jiangsu, and the powerful factions in the south basically follow the example of the Republican Army. Obstructing the implementation of the central government decree at the local level under various pretexts is a matter of one's own accord.

It should be said that in this power struggle between the center and the locality, Zhao Bei, the commander-in-chief of the Republican Army, has become the "jīng divine mentor" of the powerful faction in the south. What did he do, the local powerful factions also followed suit, and he refused to pay local taxes to the center under the guise of the "Xinzhou tragedy". The powerful factions in various parts of the south also followed suit, refusing to hand over the local taxes controlled in their hands to Yuan Shikai, and also under the same patriotic banner, Yuan Shikai was blameless, and there was no way but to intercept the tariffs through the General Taxation Department, which was controlled by foreigners, and retaliated with a tooth for a tooth, although it was very effective, but this move further aggravated the friction between the north and the south.

In the eyes of Yuan Shikai and his staff, Zhao Bei's actions are "domineering", but in the eyes of others, this is a kind of ambition, ambition, and a vigorous vitality that is unwilling to be subservient. This kind of vigorous vitality is precisely the necessary condition for the rise of the heroes in the troubled times, whether you are a hero or not, without this vigorous vitality, you will never be able to win the world.

The commander-in-chief has this vigor, and the IRA has this vigor.

Under the agitation of this vigorous vitality, it is not a distant dream to win the world.