Yang Du finally left the Taiping Mansion and returned to Beijing to resume his life, and the new envoy from Beiyang was the famous Tang Shaoyi.

It is not too much to say that Tang Shaoyi is famous. He studied in Shanghai from an early age, and in 1874 he became one of the third children to study in the United States, and later entered Columbia University, returning to China in 1881. He used to be the president of Peiyang University, consul in Seoul, North Korea, and consul general in North Korea. Moreover, if Li Zhigao had not been born, he would have been the first prime minister of the Republic of China in another time and space, and he had presided over the north-south negotiations, but in this time and space, Tang Shaoyi's name was the Senator of the Presidential Office and the Plenipotentiary Envoy of the Presidential Office.

In the eyes of the outside world, the transfer of Tang Shaoyi to exchange for Yang Du is a dissatisfaction with Yang Du, after all, the "Tang Qianming defection incident" has just happened, and Yang Du, as the former presidential envoy plenipotentiary, has an unshirkable responsibility. But in fact, if you analyze carefully, you will know that Tang Shaoyi is actually not a good negotiator, at least inferior to Yang Du, Yuan Shikai sent Tang Shaoyi, a recognized literati and scholar at this time, which in itself means that there is not much sincerity.

In other words, although Tang Shaoyi came to talk to Li Zhigao about the Tang Qianming incident, Yuan Shikai, who is a powerful and pragmatic person, knew that this negotiation had no effect, and it was impossible for the four boats to come back.

Sure enough, as soon as Tang Shaoyi came, he immediately held a formal meeting with Liu Runsheng, and there were naturally various protests at the meeting, and after getting no clear answer, he had to ask Li Zhigao to sell a batch of special drugs at a low price to alleviate the plague in the north.

The so-called northern plague is actually the Northeast plague. Originally, there was an outbreak last autumn, but because the weather was still cold, coupled with the early warning of Li Zhigao and others, and there were enough special drugs, it did not spread, but now it is the spring of 1911. The weather is warmer, and the health situation in the northeast is not optimistic, so the plague has begun to spread again.

In another time and space, the spring of 1911 was indeed the peak of the plague in Northeast China, but because of the timely rescue of the Qing government, coupled with the effective rescue measures of the famous doctor Wu Liande, especially the strict implementation of the incineration measures, the plague was completely controlled, and successfully curbed the plague on a larger scale.

Yet in this plane. Due to the appearance of Li Zhigao, although there was a special medicine for the treatment of plague in advance, the price was too expensive for ordinary people to consume, but at the same time, the Qing government collapsed ahead of schedule, and Yuan Shikai, who obtained power in the north, was busy fighting for power and expanding military warfare, so he was more negligent in the northeast. At this time, Wu Liande had already been specially hired by Li Zhigao to become the president of the newly established Nanjing Medical College. So it's not in the north either.

Due to the lack of strong official control, professional reminders and strong measures, the outbreak of the plague was quite violent.

Originally, Yuan Shikai didn't take it seriously, thinking that it was just a small scale like last year, and it was easy to control, but when the Northeast region. In particular, entire villages in Harbin began to die, and even Beijing began to be affected, causing panic among people.

Even, the Russians and the Japanese used this as an excuse to send troops to block the Eastern Railway. And after privately expanding their military control areas along the railway, and forcibly isolating the Chinese by various unreasonable means in the control areas, this made Yuan Shikai also have to pay attention to this matter.

In other words, it is precisely because of the outbreak of the plague in Northeast China that Yuan Shikai will not pursue the Tang Qianming incident too much for the time being, at least no longer use it as an excuse to play the sympathy card.

Of course, Yuan Shikai didn't think that Li Zhigao would be kind enough to help him tide over the difficulties, so he asked Tang Shaoyi to protest first, and then ask for help, and the request for help was also vague, just saying that he hoped to buy a batch of drugs at a low price. It can be seen from here that whether it is Yuan Shikai or Tang Shaoyi, they have little confidence in Li Zhigao, after all, if you think about it, if something happens to your own territory, why should others help you?

However, in this kind of major matter, Li Zhigao did not have too much hypocrisy, and after hearing Liu Runsheng's statement, he immediately put aside everything and met with Tang Shaoyi, if nothing else, just for the plague, and promised to provide enough medicine free of charge to treat plague patients and curb the spread of plague.

"However, this matter must be led by our side." After saying the promise of providing free medicines, Li Zhigao said to Tang Shaoyi, "To be honest, I don't believe in your administrative efficiency, so although I will provide medicine this time, in order to prevent you from reselling or using it for private use, you don't need to be in plague relief, so this batch of drugs should be controlled by our personnel, and our personnel will personally go to the epidemic area for disaster relief, and all disaster relief actions should be subject to our side." ”

"Yes." Tang Shaoyi nodded, "However, the people you send can only be unarmed and must not carry weapons." ”

"It's not going to work." Li Zhigao shook his head, "You also know what year this is, and what the situation is in the Northeast region, it is a place full of beards, no weapons, and carrying so many expensive special medicines, isn't that obviously for people to rob?" That's why we have to send a convoy to guard our medical workers. ”

"The problem of guards, we can solve it." Tang Shaoyi said, "When I came, President Yuan said that as long as your medical personnel and special medicine arrived, he would send a battalion of troops to come over as an escort, and he would also order local governments to cooperate, so you don't have to worry about security at all." ”

"You're going to say that...... In this case, I will only send one company, and one company will be the guard, and I will be responsible for all expenses, which will be fine. Li Zhigao waved his hand, "This matter is so decided, a company will not work for you at all, that is, a simple guard." Moreover, my team was also sent over, so it can better reflect the sincerity of our cooperation, right? It also allows outsiders to see the intimacy between me and President Yuan. After all, no matter what, no matter how much our two families fight, it is also our own family, in case outsiders take advantage of the loophole, it will be bad, don't you say. ”

"yes." Tang Shaoyi was very emotional when he heard this, "After all, everyone is Chinese. If you can all put aside your differences and cooperate sincerely, then it will be a great blessing for the country and a nation. ”

In this regard, Li Zhigao just hehehe.

Genuine cooperation? Yuan Shikai has never been a condescending person. I won't agree to look at the face under the hands of people, so in the end, one side can only overwhelm the other, and there is no second choice.

Thinking of this, Li Zhigao no longer said this question, but continued: "So, do you agree to the conditions I said?" ”

"Well, if you want to send troops to follow, I have to ask the above." Tang Shaoyi hesitated. "After all, I can't do this thing."

"Then without further ado, you hurry up and send a telegram asking for instructions." Li Zhigao said, "After all, the plague can't wait, one more day will kill one more people." ”

After a pause, Li Zhigao continued: "Mr. Tang, you must also know that the batch of free medicines I provided to you is actually quite expensive. So I'm very sincere this time, after all. I have no requirements for supporting you this time, and I would like you to explain this. ”

"Yes, I understand that Premier Li's kindness will always be remembered in our hearts." Tang Shaoyi hurriedly said.

The reason why Tang Shaoyi is called Premier Li Zhigao. It is because Yuan Shikai's Beiyang government still recognizes the agreement signed with Li Zhigao before, in which Yuan Shikai is the president of the Republic of China, and Li Zhigao is the prime minister of the country, but only in the north. One is in the South, and the agreement was only recognized by the governors of the parties, and was not subject to regular congressional elections.

"Now that we understand, let's go our separate ways." Li Zhigao sighed, "You want to arrange it as soon as possible, I will organize personnel and materials, and then take a boat to go to Tianjin by sea and land, what do you think?" ”

"Good!" Tang Shaoyi stood up and bowed deeply to Li Zhigao, then got up and said solemnly, "No matter what, I thank the Prime Minister on behalf of the people in the north, what you did today is not only to save the people in the north, but also to set an example for the world, so please accept my personal respect." ”

"Where." Li Zhigao also stood up, "It's all about serving the people, and it should be done." ”

After Tang Shaoyi left, Li Zhigao turned his head and sighed to Zhao Jiayi: "What a nation with many disasters." You say, am I too selfish, always thinking about myself, if I had gone on the Northern Expedition and unified the whole country as soon as possible, maybe it wouldn't have been so troublesome. ”

"If you had gone on the Northern Expedition, it would only be more troublesome now." Zhao Jiayi said, "It may not be a problem to defeat Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army, but if you don't have full preparation and a strong economic foundation to unify the whole country too early, you can no longer continue to implement the current low tax policy, and all kinds of natural disasters will occupy your energy, you will lose your greatest advantage, and you will no longer be able to develop with peace of mind, at least it is impossible to build a strong army in the short term to fight against the foreign powers." ”

"But...... I always feel uneasy. ”

"The country has been weak for hundreds of years." Zhao Jiayi said calmly, "There are many problems, there is almost no industry, it is a classic agricultural country, and the ability of agricultural countries to resist risks is the weakest." Therefore, if you want to strengthen the country, it is right to give priority to the development of industry, and if China wants to develop industry at present, it is inevitable to concentrate its forces and sacrifice the interests of many people at the same time, in other words, you can have compassion, but you can't overflow.

This country is like a patient who has been ill for a long time, you are the doctor who operated on this patient, the most important thing for a doctor is to be calm, compassion can be there, but it must not affect your own judgment.

At present, we are a low-level agricultural country, since it is a weak agricultural country, you can't compare with developed countries, don't always think about how miserable the people of your country are, and don't think about how many benefits and benefits you give to the people too early, this is a necessary stage, even if you can go back and forth, you can't change all this.

To put it bluntly, you should be ruthless to the end now, first establish your own industry, and then consider the issue of people's livelihood when the industry has formed a certain scale and the number of workers has reached a certain proportion. Also, once you start thinking about people's livelihood, then you don't want to continue to expand your armaments, let alone start a war with Japan and Russia as soon as possible. Because, once you improve the quality of life of the common people, after they taste the sweetness, they will not want to continue to live the hard life of the past, and will not continue to follow you to agree to the war. ”

"You mean, don't agree with my gratuitous aid?" Li Zhigao asked.

"Personally, I really don't agree." Zhao Jiayi nodded. "I know that those drug and personnel problems are not a big problem for you, and they won't cause you much financial pressure, but the problem is that once you start this, you can't stop it later."

There was a pause. After organizing the language, Zhao Jiayi continued: "This plague alone is nothing, because according to history, even without you, this plague will not be prevalent for too long. Moreover, the plague thing, quarantine measures must be strictly enforced, and the key is the government's execution, relying only on that batch of drugs. It can only be said that it is a drop in the bucket. So, your support is useful, but it's limited.

However, once you start to provide free support, others will look at it, and if you have any disaster in the future, they will all pretend to be pitiful with you, and you will care about it or not? If you tube. It's going to take a lot of your energy and money, if you don't care. The media will blast you up for being merciless, ruthless, and taking money as your life, and not caring about the local government and bureaucracy. In other words, there will be some natural disaster in other places in the future. If you don't care, that's your problem, not their local government, and it's a big hindrance to your reputation, have you thought about all this? ”

"Maybe you're right." Li Zhigao smiled. "But there is a good saying, justice is in the hearts of the people, everything I do, and everything others do, the people actually see in their eyes. And, morality aside, if I go to help people in other places for free when I don't control the whole country, this can actually win me the hearts and minds of the local people, and they will make comparisons with me and the ruling power above their heads, so that when I want to unify the whole country in the future, there will be less resistance, right? ”

"There are many more cost-effective ways to win the hearts and minds of the people." Zhao Jiayi said, "Your method of free donation is a very cost-effective one. After all, if your people and materials really arrive at other people's territory, they have the final say, what if they take your things, but say that they donated them themselves? In this way, you gave the things, but the reputation was taken away from them, which is also good?

Don't forget, this is not the information age of the Internet, this era is still closed, and most of the Chinese people are ignorant, and when they get help, they don't think too much, they only feel the people who inspire them to give them, that is, the local government bureaucrats, have you considered all of this? ”

"I understand, anyway, you don't agree with it, persuade me not to help drugs for free, isn't that so?" Li Zhigao asked.

"Yes." Zhao Jiayi nodded, "I really don't agree." Because China is not a complete country with centralized power, but a country divided by warlords. In this case, you are usually responsible for the affairs of your own territory, and now you are crossing the line to help your biggest opponent Yuan Shikai, they will not think that you are kind, but will think that you have ulterior motives, and you are using this natural disaster to buy people's hearts!

Tang Shaoyi is a relatively simple literati, he always thinks about problems relatively simply, but I can be sure that Yuan Shikai's idea is definitely not so simple, after he heard Tang Shaoyi's telegram, he must have suspected your motive for doing this at the first time, so when the time comes, it will be ten times to guard against you, and give your rescue team a lot of obstacles, it is impossible to listen to you in everything, let the people you send have the final say.

Besides, if you really want to send the drugs over, at the level of the Beiyang government, it would be good if two out of ten of those drugs could reach the people in need, and they would be deducted by the government and then resold. You know, your batch of free drugs is very expensive when sold outside, a small yellow croaker and a bottle of medicine, anyone will go crazy if they change it. ”

"I've made up my mind, and that's it." Li Zhigao waved his hand, "It's still the same sentence, justice is in the hearts of the people, no matter how they will erase what I did now, but in the end, as long as I win, as long as the propaganda keeps up, all this can be reversed." As you said, people are the easiest to fool, not to mention that I have really done something good. Seriously, I'm not doing this for much utilitarian consideration, just for my own conscience, you know? If I do everything you say, am I still me? What's the difference between that and a ruthless politician? ”

"Aren't you a politician now?" Zhao Jiayi smiled.

"Perhaps, but at least I want to be a politician with a conscience." Li Zhigao said with a positive face, "I believe that politicians are not born without conscience, but they are limited by the general environment and have to violate their conscience for the sake of interests." I now have a golden finger in my hand, and I can travel back and forth between the two worlds, and the advantages are unmatched, so why can't I do it as I want? ”

"Although I still don't agree with the measure you just made." Zhao Jiayi smiled and shook her head, "However, I like you a little bit." ”

"Like me?" Li Zhigao was taken aback, "Please, you are my respected elder, don't scare me, okay?" ”

"What, do you think I'm old?" Zhao Jiayi stroked her sideburns and said sweetly in a mouthful of Taiwanese Mandarin, "People are only seventeen years old now, not only are they young and beautiful, but I also have a lot of experience, which is what many men dream of." ”

"Don't play tricks on me, okay?" Li Zhigao smiled bitterly, "I'm annoying." ”

"Okay, then I won't talk about it, anyway, I'm sure you'll be ...... to me sooner or later Hehe. Zhao Jiayi smiled charmingly.

"Eldest sister, if you say that again, I can only ask you to leave."

"Okay, I'm not going to tease you." Finding that Li Zhigao was angry, Zhao Jiayi then re-corrected, "Let's get down to business, the former Japanese minister to the Qing Kingdom, Ijiin Hikoyoshi, and that Yamamoto Jotaro, both of them have been waiting for you for a long time, do you think it's time to officially summon them?" The matter of the Whale Maru, it can't be dragged on like this forever. (To be continued......)