"So-so? Hehe, you are too modest. Huang Xing shook his head self-deprecatingly, "If you are also called so-so, I don't know what it means to be serious." ”

After speaking, Huang Xing turned around and looked at Li Zhigao who was smiling: "Did you just shoot live ammunition in those exercises?" ”

"Of course." Li Zhigao nodded, "All of them are live-fire exercises, and only live-fire can make soldiers feel the atmosphere of war in advance and not panic when they really go to the battlefield." ”

"If that's the case, then I'm weird." Huang Xing shook his head.

"Strange, strange what?" Li Zhigao asked.

"I wonder why you don't just go north, defeat Yuan Shikai, and unify all of China." Huang Xingzheng said, "In my opinion, not to mention anything else, just with the artillery fire of your division, as well as your extravagant dispatch, the Beiyang Army in Yuan Shikai's hands at this time is not your opponent at all, not to mention that this is just one of your garrison divisions, not counting your real elite field division." You only need to concentrate an elite force, set off from Nanjing, break through Huai'an first, defeat the main force of Feng Guozhang's Beiyang Army, and then you can go all the way to the north without any rivals.

So I wondered, what are you waiting for, why don't you do it soon, you have to nest here? Don't you know that the Beiyang Army is expanding aggressively and buying arms on a large scale? If you don't attack while the Beiyang Army is not yet strong, when the Beiyang Army becomes huge, it will be much more difficult to go on the Northern Expedition, and it may not be as easy as it is now, do you know all this? ”

"Hmph, scholar's words." Before Li Zhigao could speak, Yang Du, who came to eavesdrop on the side, interjected first, "How can I be so easily defeated in Beiyang?" What's more, Duke Yuan and Duke Li have a very good personal relationship, and the two sides have long had an agreement on mutual non-aggression, the purpose of which is to make the land of my Shenzhou less miserable. Keep a little more energy. It's just that you, the revolutionary party who secretly stole the power of the country, are stirring up trouble here, Huang Xing, what are your intentions! ”

After speaking, Yang Du turned around and hugged his fist at Li Zhigao, who was still smiling: "Li Gong, don't listen to Huang Xing's nonsense." Their alliance is to hope that you and I can pinch each other as soon as possible, so that they can benefit from the fishermen, because only when we fight, they will have a chance, you must be aware of it! ”

"What, Yang Du, are you afraid?" Huang Xing interjected on the side, "Otherwise, with your style, how could you say these words in a hurry?" Seemingly. You haven't been confused to the end, you finally know that your Beiyang Army can't stop the current Jiangnan Army, and you want to have a delaying strategy, but unfortunately, it may not be possible. ”

"Huang Xing! You! ”

"Okay, okay, don't talk about it." Seeing that Yang Du was going to turn around and continue to reason with Huang Xing, Li Zhigao hurriedly waved his hand, "We are not here to discuss this today. Let's talk less. ”

"Wen Qing." Huang Xing faced Li Zhigao with a straight face, "I'm talking about this. Not for anything else, but to tell you that if you really want to serve the country and the people, and really want to make this suffering China less tortured and let the country rise as soon as possible, you should wave your troops to the north as soon as possible. Taking advantage of the fact that the strength of the Beiyang Army was not strong, it completely wiped out the Beiyang Army, and then unified the north, and then electrified the whole country to unify the whole of China. After the unification of the country. If you are willing to do this, I will persuade the people of the League to let them put aside their prejudices and assist you with all their might, you have to think twice. ”

"I've said it, but I'm not going to talk about it." Seeing that Yang Du wanted to speak again, Li Zhigao shook his head decisively, "Brother Keqiang, I don't think I have heard what you said today, if there is anything in the future, you can tell me in private, today, the purpose of our coming is not this, in fact, I ...... today"

"But you have the ability to unify the whole country, why don't you do it?" Huang Xing interrupted Li Zhigao's words and looked at him with blazing eyes, "What do you want to do?" Whether it's for your own ambitions or for the sake of the country and nation, why don't you seize this opportunity to go all out on the Northern Expedition? ”

"Because fighting a war is not child's play, let alone a drill, it is not as simple as you say." Li Zhigao found that the other party seemed to be determined to talk about this topic, so he could only continue to shake his head, "We're not ready." ”

In fact, what Huang Xing said, Li Zhigao didn't know, he himself knew very well that purely in terms of military strength, even if the number of his own troops was still small, but the equipment, discipline, morale and other aspects were the strongest in the country, and at this time, his own opponent, inherited from the Beiyang Army in the late Qing Dynasty, had not yet completed its expansion, it was not as strong as in history, and the warlords on all sides were also not ready.

In terms of the balance of forces and timing, what Huang Xing said is understandable, but the problem is that even if Li Zhigao can quickly unify the north by military means, he does not have enough administrative personnel, and once he quickly annexes the whole country, he can only use the original bureaucrats.

Moreover, if Yuan Shikai is destroyed, it can only unify China in name, and other warlords still exist, if they continue to be eliminated one by one, it will involve a lot of energy, not to mention rapid reunification, all kinds of problems will be pressed on Li Zhigao's head, but it is better to let Yuan Shikai become bigger, just like this alliance will be in turmoil, let Yuan Shikai go to be a warlord for a period of time first, let him continue to sell the country under pressure to seek glory, let the people see his face clearly, and let his own territory have a clear contrast with the other party.

The strategy of raising Yuan Shikai is an established strategy, because no matter how Yuan Shikai develops, he can't fight Li Zhigao, who has the entire modern society to rely on, and when Yuan Shikai's rule becomes worse and worse, Li Zhigao's rule is becoming more and more prosperous.

In other words, Yuan Shikai is a dictator, and Li Zhigao is also a dictator, and if the two dictators are at the same time, everyone will compare whose rule is better, but if it is both Li Zhigao, everyone's expectations will be too high, and they will put forward too high requirements for Li Zhigao, which will be detrimental to Li Zhigao's rule.

Li Zhigao actually wanted to engage in a kind of Cold War-style arms race with Yuan Shikai, and let Yuan Shikai be a target for others to see; under the pressure of Li Zhigao's constant army expansion, Yuan Shikai could only keep expanding the army, and Yuan Shikai did not have Li Zhigao's advantage, and the result of army expansion was to increase the financial burden. He can only rely on squeezing the people and borrowing money to raise troops, just like history, and once he engages in some 21 articles with Japan or something, he will have an excuse to beat him and abolish all unequal treaties in a grand manner.

In addition, as far as Li Zhigao himself is concerned. He was not ready, after all, he had only been here for a short time to develop, and industrial education and other aspects had just improved, and if the focus was on unifying the whole country, it would inevitably be necessary to distribute resources evenly to other regions, and have a headache for this and that disaster relief and military disasters, so that he would lose the advantage of concentrating on modernization and upgrading.

It turned out that when there was a Qing Dynasty, there was still a unified central government, and the Qing government was suffering from disasters in various places every year. Every year, just for the sake of disaster relief, it is necessary to allocate a large amount of financial revenue to fill it, especially in the last 10 years, there have been major disasters every year, resulting in displaced people everywhere.

Therefore, some people in later generations said that the Qing government was most afraid of the revolutionary party around the Xinhai years, but the starving people. Around 1910, the Empress Dowager Longyu was not most concerned about the rebellion of the revolutionary party. It was the disasters, the displaced people and the food crisis in various places, so the Qing government was not destroyed by the rebel army of the Xinhai Revolution, it was just a fuse, and the Qing government was actually destroyed by continuous natural disasters. It was the successive natural disasters that involved a lot of energy and financial revenue of the Qing government, so that it did not have the financial resources to rebuild a strong army. At the same time, because of this, the Qing government gradually took risks financially and embarked on the road of speculation, and once the speculation failed, the finances faced bankruptcy. Eventually, the government went bankrupt.

Therefore, although the Qing government has perished, but the stalls left by the Qing government are still there, at this time, once the central government becomes the central government, while gaining reputation, but also to bear the burden of the country's weakness, when the disaster and military disasters in various places will not stop, and all localities will definitely continue to reach out to you to ask for money, when you give money, you will not be enough to spend, if you don't give money, you will lose prestige, lose the people's heart, and get away from morality. In short, it's not right for you to give money, it's not right to give money, and you still have to fail in the end.

For example, in another time and space, why did Yuan Shikai fall? It doesn't have much to do with whether he is the emperor or not, in the final analysis, he has no money. It is said that his Beiyang Army was invincible all over the world at that time, but his army was piled up by money, and once there was no money, the entire army would be dispersed. Why did Yuan Shikai cooperate with Japan, and what did he do in the 21st article? Didn't he know that this was a traitor? What's more, he had opposed Japan before, but he was no longer able to borrow money from other places at that time, and once he ran out of money, his subordinates would turn against him, so he was forced to become a traitor.

It is conceivable that once Yuan Shikai can engage in the economy and has enough money, then his final result may not be a traitor, but a great man.

In short, at this time, in the case of insufficient strength, the disadvantages outweigh the benefits, because you have to have a headache for the disaster and all kinds of troubles in the whole country, involving a lot of your energy and financial resources, on the contrary, if it is only a local government, then Li Zhigao only needs to manage his own one-third of an acre of land, at least after disasters occur in other areas, it will not be possible to ask for money on Li Zhigao's head, Li Zhigao gives money is a favor, not to give it is an obligation.

If at the beginning, Li Zhigao did not have an intuitive feeling about disasters and other things, then after more than a year here, Li Zhigao has a deep understanding of disasters and the current situation of China's agricultural society.

The area controlled by Li Zhigao is basically the richest region in China, and it is also the area with the highest concentration of talents, which can be said to be the essence of the whole of China, but it is such a rich place, like Anhui, Jiangsu and other places, all kinds of disasters of all sizes are never stopped, the level of agriculture in various places is also very low, pesticides and fertilizers are not even thought about, and even the basic water conservancy facilities are also very popular, which causes low grain production and insufficient ability to withstand disasters. There will be a large number of ordinary people who will not be able to eat, and there will be no factories and troops to absorb these hungry people and surplus labor, so they can only choose to make trouble and rebel.

Li Zhigao has only been in this world for more than a year, and for most of this time, in fact, most of them were confined to a small Taiping Mansion, which is this small place, in the past, there were also disaster victims and hungry people everywhere, there was basically no industry, and agriculture was generally low.

The first thing to be solved is the problem of eating for the common people. In this regard, Li Zhigao's method is to encourage the development of new agriculture, and use modern seeds, pesticides, and fertilizers to fundamentally increase grain production.

But it will take time to increase food production. Therefore, in the short term, in order to curb grain prices and allow the people to eat, Li Zhigao implemented a grain stamp system in Taiping Mansion, and also set up a grain bureau, coupled with certain administrative means, to forcibly stabilize grain prices, and for the food shortage, it is also through the purchase of grain from modern times.

Meantime. In order not to waste labor and to be afraid of raising troublesome idlers, Li Zhigao did not adopt a simple method of giving soup porridge and giving money, but recruited a large number of construction workers and set up a construction corps, so that these low-level laborers could have a job, so that they could earn money and consume by selling their labor, and in addition, many free schools were opened, so that a large number of students who did not have much labor ability entered free schools. There are also mines and factories that have been opened one after another, and the army has been expanded. These various means came out to stabilize the situation in Taiping Mansion and make Taiping Mansion prosperous.

Others don't know, they only see that Taiping Mansion has gradually become a paradise on earth under Li Zhigao's governance, but Li Zhigao himself knows that all this is caused by money. Li Zhigao subsidized the government out of his own pocket, used his own money as government finances, and made a government investment, which caused today's situation. And the means to support Li Zhigao's ability to spend money is to rely on Li Zhigao to pour modern materials back and forth to sell them in the Republic of China!

If there are no modern materials with huge added value. For example, those drugs that are more expensive than gold and other high-priced modern materials such as daily chemicals have caused businessmen and funds from all over the country and even the world to invest in Taipingfu, plus make a lot of money in the rubber turmoil, and Li Zhigao can't play his administrative model at all.

In other words, the Taiping Mansion model cannot be popularized all at once, and can only temporarily become a special zone.

This is the result of the rich places occupying the poor places, for example, when East and West Germany were merged, West Germany took out a lot of money to support East Germany, resulting in a period of time when the economy did not improve, and similarly, South Korea also made speculations for reunification, saying that if it is reunified, South Korea's economy may regress for a period of time, and only after digesting it can it continue to take off.

Li Zhigao doesn't look at the fact that he has now annexed a large number of territories such as Anhui, Hubei, Zhejiang, southern Jiangsu, and northern Jiangxi, but in fact he only occupies a few big cities, and it is these places that Li Zhigao has to put a lot of money into it every month.

This upside-down fund is mainly for the hungry and disaster victims in the territory, in order to take care of these poor people who can't eat because of natural disasters and military disasters, these people were left to fend for themselves in the past, but after Li Zhigao occupied it, he couldn't be regarded as not seeing.

In order to take care of these people who have no food and clothing, Li Zhigao has set up recruitment points in all major cities in the occupied areas, recruiting a large number of displaced and hungry people to work, and using them to feed these hungry people in the form of work-for-relief.

Li Zhigao's method is a bit like the system of the Northern Song Dynasty, which is to recruit able-bodied people into the army in the year of famine to reduce the occurrence of riots. This method is actually a good way, it is nothing more than some financial pressure, but as long as the way out for these people in the future, such as making them become a construction corps or a farm construction corps, and they can create value on the basis of supporting themselves, it will be a virtuous circle, not just raising them as soldiers like the Northern Song Dynasty.

At present, this cash-for-work relief plan has just begun to be implemented for a few months, and it is said that the plan has been implemented well, quite smoothly, and there are already many large and small construction groups in many places that have started to repair roads one after another, but because this kind of thing is a bit similar to the government labor in the past, there is not much sensation, especially most of these people are bitter haha, not even soldiers, not into the eyes of elites such as the League, so they have not reported much, plus the League has just taken the opportunity to build a temporary government, and is constantly exploring Li Zhigao, And the media controlled by Li Zhigao are also taking the opportunity to find out the other side and trumpet the benefits of dictatorship, ignoring these things.

In this world, the pace of life is slow, information dissemination is underdeveloped, and ordinary people basically rely on newspapers to obtain information from the outside world.

Similarly, although Huang Xing is a rare person of insight, as a representative of the bourgeoisie, he also has great limitations and cannot see these, so he feels that Li Zhigao has a rare opportunity and should take the opportunity to go on the Northern Expedition.

In another time and space history, after Sun Wen became the interim president, he once advocated the Northern Expedition to Yuan Shikai to unify the whole of China, but the most fierce opposition was Huang Xing, and Huang Xing's opposition was based on financial and military strength. At that time, the provisional government had no money, and even the rebel troops were mutiniing, and they couldn't eat, so how could they talk about the Northern Expedition Yuan Shikai? That's Sun Wen's insistence on doing things without measuring his own strength.

From this incident, it can be seen that Huang Xing actually has a vision and is very knowledgeable about current affairs, but due to his limitations, he mainly looks at finance and the army, and in this, Li Zhigao does not seem to be lacking.

"Not ready?" Sure enough, hearing Li Zhigao's words, Huang Xing smiled, "This is the funniest excuse I heard today." If Yuan Shikai and they are not ready, I still believe it, but you are not ready, who is this deceiving? Look at you now, you have enough soldiers and food under your hands, and your territory is the richest place in China, even Shanghai is yours, you are still a big boss, and you have mastered a number of trade routes that are born with golden eggs, so it can be said that there is never a shortage of money under your hands. You don't have a shortage of soldiers and money, so why are you not ready? (To be continued......)