Yan Xishan hesitated slightly, looked at Song Zhewu and said, "Meng wants to invite Wen Ge to work hard and go to Xihui to persuade Feng Yuxiang and Meng to abandon their previous suspicions and jointly oppose Jiang." ”

Feng Yuxiang's resentment of Yan Xishan is certain, he was deceived by Yan Xishan and came to Shanxi soon before he was placed under house arrest, this hatred of Feng Yuxiang may not be forgotten for the rest of his life, as long as there is a chance, Feng Yuxiang will definitely double the reward to Yan Xishan. It's just that for Yan Xishan's worries, Song Zhewu is very unimpressed.

Song Zhewu believed that Feng Yuxiang was a smart man who understood that he was the biggest threat to him now, and in the end it was Chiang Kai-shek, and if he didn't drive out Chiang Kai-shek, Feng Yuxiang would never be able to return to the Northwest Army. And if you want to oust Chiang Kai-shek from power, it is not possible to rely on his Northwest Army alone, and last year, the Northwest Army was defeated in two contests with Chiang Kai-shek, and Feng Yuxiang would not fail to understand this.

The only way left is to join forces with Yan Xishan and other powerful factions in other places to oppose Chiang, and as long as he cooperates to drive out Chiang Kai-shek, his Northwest Army will have a chance to develop and grow, and he will also have the capital to compete with Yan Xishan and even Li Zongren for the highest power.

It should be easy to persuade Feng Yuxiang, and Feng Yuxiang can only complain about Yan Xishan's house arrest at most. And if Feng Yuxiang can be moved, there is no doubt that Yan Xishan's trust in him will increase a little more. Therefore, Song Zhewu happily agreed.

However, he could only go and pave the way for Yan Xishan first, so that Feng Yuxiang could dissipate his anger, and Yan Xishan had to come forward in person for this matter to come forward, so that Feng Yuxiang could have steps to go down.

Regarding Song Zhewu's suggestion, Yan Xishan agreed and told Song Zhewu, 'After he attended the inauguration ceremony presided over by Wu Tiecheng, he immediately went to Xihui to personally invite Feng Yuxiang back to Taiyuan to discuss the anti-Chiang plan. ’

Yan Xishan was very happy, not only did he come here completely achieve his purpose today, but even greatly exceeded his expectations, and without much effort, he really incorporated Song Zhewu's Fourth Route Army, which greatly increased his strength, and for opposing Chiang, and even climbed to the highest peak of power, he Yan Xishan had a lot more chips in his hands, which was no longer within the reach of Feng Yuxiang and Li Zongren.

For Song Zhewu to take the initiative to join the Jin Sui Army, although it was completely unexpected by Yan Xishan, but he was not overly surprised, he thought that Song Zhewu could rise rapidly in just a few years, which is enough to show that he is a smart person, after Li Zongren and Feng Yuxiang fell, if he Yan Xishan was killed by Chiang Kai-shek again, then Chiang Kai-shek's next target would definitely be him Song Zhewu.

It's just that Yan Xishan regretted it a little, if he had encircled Song Zhewu earlier, he believed that Chiang Kai-shek would never dare to force him Yan Xishan like now, so that he had no way to retreat and take risks.

Although Yan Xishan still had some gains and losses in his heart about the armed confrontation with Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang Kai-shek had already forced him into a corner, and there was no room for maneuver. Moreover, if he wants to stop now, these powerful factions gathered in Taiyuan will no longer look at him Yan Xishan, and even Chiang Kai-shek will not give him a second chance.

There is another thing that makes Yan Xishan a little uneasy, since Song Zhewu proposed that the whole army of the Fourth Route Army join the Jin Sui Army, Yan Xishan, who was extremely surprised, has been thinking about a problem in his heart, that is, the issue of military spending.

Although Song Zhewu's Fourth Route Army reported more than 300,000 people to Nanjing according to Song Zhewu, according to the information he had, the actual number of the Fourth Route Army was greater than this number, and the salary of the Fourth Route Army was much higher than that of ordinary troops, and the Fourth Route Army alone required millions of funds per month, which was undoubtedly a huge burden on Yan Xishan, who was anxious to organize and integrate the anti-Chiang forces. Because the salaries of the Fourth Route Army were much higher than those of other troops, the salaries provided to the Fourth Route Army could fully guarantee the use of troops twice the current number of troops of the Fourth Route Army. In particular, what if the Fourth Route Army was paid a high salary, and other troops would also ask him?

Yan Xishan has been in control of Shanxi for nearly 20 years, although through his continuous efforts, in the past 20 years of frequent wars, especially in the nearly 15 years when he completely controlled Shanxi, Shanxi has not been harassed by major wars, whether it is the invasion of more than 100,000 troops by the Northeast Army, or the invasion of Fan Zhongxiu's Jianguo Yu Army, they have all been repelled by his Jin Sui army, so that Shanxi has a stable development environment, and the economy has also developed greatly.

However, Yan Xishan did not levy taxes on a large scale like other far-sighted local forces, he built Shanxi as his hometown, and implemented the policy of raising the people and enriching the province, although the province's economy developed greatly, but his finances were not very sufficient. Even after he successfully issued tens of millions of yuan of Jin banknotes with the reserves of Shanxi Bank of 3.5 million, the finances were still a little stretched.

Most of the financial accumulation in the past few years has been spent by him because of the establishment of industries, especially the complete military industry in Shanxi, which has consumed most of his funds, although he Yan Xishan has always been careful in his calculations, and his current balance is only more than 20 million. Of course, the military expenses of his Jin Sui army have already been included in this year's budget.

And once he raises the banner of anti-Chiang, he will never give up the position of commander-in-chief of the anti-Chiang coalition forces to others. But it is not easy to hold this position, that is, he theoretically has to provide military salaries for all the participating troops of the anti-Chiang coalition army, and the monthly salary of more than one million troops alone is more than 10 million! This made Yan Xishan a little breathless.

Yan Xishan pondered for a long time in his heart, and decided to tell Song Zhewuming that if Song Zhewu agreed, it would not only reduce his financial burden, but even test Song Zhewu's "loyalty" to him.

Yan Xishan picked up the teacup, moistened his throat, which was a little dry because of excitement, and said while carefully observing Song Zhewu's expression: "Wenge, Meng still has one more thing to discuss with Wenge Wenge. ”

Song Zhewu said, "I have taken the initiative to join the Jin Sui Army, is this Yan Laoxi still not at ease?" ”

Although he was a little puzzled in his heart, he still said: "The commander-in-chief is Zhewu's boss, and if he has something to order, Zhewu will obey everything." ”

Yan Xishan nodded and said: "Wen Ge, the snake can't be headless, since you want to oppose Chiang, you must have a leader, and this leader is likely to be the leader of China in the future after driving out Chiang Kai-shek." Meng is nearly fifty years old, and he doesn't want to do much good things for the people, and he has no ambition for power, but Meng can ignore us Jin Suijun and Wen Ge. ”

Yan Xishan resolutely continued: "In another ten years, when Wen Ge has established enough prestige in our Jin Sui Army to completely dominate the Jin Sui Army, Meng will hand over the Jin Sui Army, maybe it should be the Central Army at that time, and it is even likely that he will have the right to do good things for the country and the nation to Wen Ge." Therefore, for the development of the Jin Suijun and the future of Wenge, Meng decided to take the lead and must fight for this position. ”

The surprise that flashed in Song Zhewu's eyes did not escape Yan Xishan's eyes, and he was secretly proud in his heart, but there was no expression on his face, he deliberately sighed deeply, and said with a wry smile: "But this position is not so easy to do, whoever is in this position, the military expenses of the 1.3 or 400 million people of the anti-Chiang coalition army will have to be paid, this is nearly more than 20 million military expenses per month!" Li Zongren, He Jian, Cheng Qian, Liu Wenhui and others should not have to pay us for the time being, and our arsenal can also solve the problem of arms for the coalition forces and save money on weapons and ammunition, but this will also require more than 10 million yuan per month. ”

"Meng has prepared 20 million, if the second half of the field is also collected, you can also make up more than 20 million, in addition to our Jin banknotes have always been very good, can be guaranteed to be paid at any time, you can also print another 20 million Jin banknotes. It's just that it is impossible to issue too many Jin banknotes, otherwise once we don't have enough oceans to pay, we will immediately depreciate sharply. According to the governor of the Provincial Bank, Xu, this is already the limit. ”

"Although 60 million is a large number, it is only enough to pay for three months. Therefore, can Wen Ge's troops be paid according to the standard of the original Jin Sui Army for the time being, so that the military expenses can be supported for an extra month. Moreover, if the military salary was paid according to Wenge's original army standard, it would be difficult for others to ask Meng Lai. Can Wenge understand this? ”

Yan Xishan's words couldn't help but be taken aback, originally he always thought that under Yan Xishan's painstaking management, Shanxi's economic development was very good, and Yan Xishan would be very rich, but he didn't expect Yan Xishan to be very "poor"! But when you think about it, it's not surprising. Yan Xishan has spared no effort to develop Shanxi's economy over the years, and his fiscal revenue has risen steadily year by year, but he has also spent a lot of money, not only the military expenditure of the Jinsui army is more than 30 million yuan a year, but Yan Xishan has spent a lot of money on building roads and factories.

In particular, his arsenal is a big money-eater, and most of the weapons produced were given away by Yan Xishan as a means to win over local powerful factions, except for the Jin Suijun's own use. Very few were actually sold, and it was not enough to pay the workers of the arsenal.

For example, Yan Xishan ordered more than 10 million people in Shanxi to plant one tree per year, and the saplings were of course free. From this point of view, Yan Xishan is definitely the first person in China to advocate afforestation.

Song Zhewu didn't care much about Yan Xishan's military salary, even if he didn't oppose Chiang, Chiang Kai-shek would give him this way, and it was not according to the actual number of the Fourth Route Army, Yan Xishan would at least issue it according to his actual number of troops. What's more, what Yan Xishan said is reasonable, if he is doubled, don't say that he can't say anything to other troops, even if he can't explain it to Jin Suijun.

However, Song Zhewu was not ready to agree very happily, after all, it was a large amount of money, and it was too happy to make Yan Xishan suspicious.

Song Zhewu hesitated for a while and said: "The commander-in-chief's bitterness Zhewu understands, so he will do what the commander-in-chief wants." But Tetsumu has a request......"

(To be continued)