Two fly sunset. It's dusk. The light faded away. The streets were in a hurry, trying to get to their destinations before dark, and even the cars and horse-drawn carriages moving on the streets sped up, and some anxious drivers even turned on their headlights and honked their car horns all the time.

Sitting in the car, Xu Shichang closed his eyes, listening to the sound of the car horn coming from outside the car, and his mind couldn't calm down, so he had to open his eyes and tell the driver to speed up and rush back to Xu's house as soon as possible.

Xu Shichang moved from Wuhan to Tianjin last year, and originally lived in the Russian Concession, but with the deterioration of social security in the Russian Concession, he had to move out of the concession again, bought a piece of land near the Haihe River near the root of the Tianjin city wall, and used the money earned from running an industry to build a two-story Western-style villa.

Because Xu Shichang's villa by the Haihe River has a private garden, that villa is also known as the "Xu Family Garden." "Usually Xu Shichang invites friends, most of them hold dinner parties and dances in the garden, and now the central government is also advocating modern communication methods, therefore, Xujia Garden will play Western-style repertoire such as dance music from time to time, which means that the garden is holding a ball, and the participants in the dance are basically Xu Shichang, the figures in the business circle, Xu Shen is old, Shen Shi is famous and entertaining, and the characters of all classes will render this new garden drunk and fameful, so that some newspapers will call the dance party of Xujia Garden directly" The sound of glamour, the sound of decadence".

But Xu Shichang wants this effect, he is not afraid that others will say that he is "decadent and decadent." He was afraid of being drawn into the political whirlpool, so he also hurriedly dressed up the Xu Family Garden as a place of glittering lights, imitating the old wisdom of the "Ran Le, not thinking about it" back then. In order to show the grandeur of Xufu, every festival, Xujia Garden will hold a grand celebration, and even invite the civil flight team to hold a flight show, which requires the support of a large amount of money, and Xu Shichang can also get this fund.

After all, after running an industry, earning so much money, and making so many friends in the shopping mall and officialdom, don't you spend the money you earn in this way, can you use all the money in politics? So, what is your intention?

Don't blame Xu Shichang for being suspicious, just blame him for his special identity, he is not an ordinary politician, back then, he was the president of the Republic of China for a period of time, although he didn't sit on the president's height for long before he stepped back, but after all, there was this "former president." Many people want to have a relationship with him, frustrated politicians want to use his appeal to fake the tiger, but businessmen and industrialists want to use his influence in the Beiyang Group to get in touch with the current so-called "Beiyang Industrial Group".

Doing business, the most important thing is the social circle, the more people you know, the easier it is to do business, Xu Shichang as one of the important souls of the Beiyang Group, has a pivotal place in the Beiyang Group, and it is because of this. After not being president, Xu Shichang was smooth sailing when he devoted himself to industrial construction, the reason is very simple, because many of the Beiyang politicians like him who had to withdraw from the political arena chose industrial construction, and they also had enough funds and interpersonal relationships, therefore, after several years of rapid development of industry and commerce, in the northern region of China, a powerful industrial and commercial group was formed, and most of its members were politicians or soldiers of the Beiyang Group, and it is for this reason that this industrial and commercial group was called " Beiyang Industrial Group

It would be a big mistake to despise this industrial and commercial group because most of its members were frustrated politicians in Beiyang; in fact, this industrial and commercial group not only has sufficient economic strength, but also has a lot of political power, because this industrial and commercial group has already joined hands with the "National League" of that year, and although it is impossible to play any role in the National Assembly, it has a decisive role in the provincial parliaments of the northern provinces of China. The parliaments of Shaanxi and other provinces are controlled by this Beiyang industrial and commercial group and the Kuomintang League, and as long as the interests of the central government are not violated, this political and commercial group can call for wind and rain, which is enough to discourage any foreign competitors.

Now, Xu Shichang is the de facto spiritual leader of this political and business group, although he does not directly intervene in the internal affairs of the group, and also refuses to hold any clear position, but most members of the group still regard Xu Shichang as the brains of the group, and they have to seek Xu Shichang's opinion every time they have major affairs

Xu Shichang is an old politician, officialdom has been mixed for a long time, this political sense is not generally keen, although the domestic political situation in the past two years has been very stable, and there has not been any enough turmoil to make people panic, but Xu Shichang has been paying attention to every move of the United Front anytime and anywhere, he knows very well that the rapid economic development in recent years has covered up many social and political problems, once the economic development slows down, then these problems may be exposed, then, then the United Front may not be as "easy to speak" as it is now. After all, after Zhao Bei's transformation, the United Front has changed from a loose political alliance to a political bloc with an obvious pyramid structure, in this group, Zhao Bei is high, and all the members obey him" Erer, it is also the wine to beg the political group, Zhao Bei controls the central political bottom Zhen Shu Department, and also controls the parliaments and governments of some provinces, in a sense, the current United Front is the central government, and the central government is the united front.

Knowing this, it is also possible to understand why Xu Shichang carefully handled the relationship between him and the old people in Beiyang, he would rather let people say that he was a plaything, rather than let the president have any political suspicions about him, according to the history of China's thousands of years of political struggle, any old and young of the previous dynasty, once they show even a little attachment to their homeland, they will be ruthlessly attacked by the new court.

The Beiyang government was replaced by the United Front government, in the eyes of the Beiyang Chinese, this is the change of dynasty, so, Xu Shichang is unwilling to participate in politics, even if it is the current Beiyang political and business group, he also hopes to get rid of it as soon as possible, so when he lives in Xujia Garden, he can not see the guests, even if he sees the guests, he sees all the familiar guests, strange guests, he does not see anything, this is the rule. It is also a necessary precautionary measure.

There is no way, the concessions are gone, Xu Shichang, a Beiyang relic, is used to drinking Chinese tea, and it is indeed difficult to ask him to go to a foreign country to drink coffee, and he is not used to foreign lifestyles, as for Hong Kong and Macau, it is too hot, and Xu Shichang is not used to living, so he has to choose to live in Tianjin in a low-key manner.

"Master, the road ahead is blocked by the students, so we can only take a detour.

”

Hearing the bodyguard sitting in the front row speak, Xu Shichang opened his eyes, looked ahead, and saw some teams of parades and marches, all of which were students and teachers from various schools.

"I'm afraid I'm celebrating the resumption of the Russian concession in Tianjin again

The driver guessed, stopped the car, and waited for Xu Shichang to say something to see which way to go.

"It's not easy, I didn't accept Zhao Zhenhua before, but now, I can't accept it, but in just a few years, all the foreign concessions are gone, this is called ability, if we change the government of Beiyang, I'm afraid that we will need the British and French to nod when we go to Zizhulin today."

Xu Shichang sighed a few words, and then instructed the driver to go around the alley on the right.

The car passed through the alley, turned onto another street, took a long detour, and finally arrived at the Xu Family Garden, and when Xu Shichang got off the car, the housekeeper was already waiting in the garden with two guests.

The two guests were not strangers, but regular guests, in fact, they were Xu Shichang's old subordinates, one was called Duan Qirui, the other was called Wang Shizhen, Xu Shichang became the head of Beiyang after Yuan Shikai's death, so these two people were also his direct subordinates in name.

Wang Shizhen was assassinated in Nanjing that year, was injured by a bomb, although he was lucky not to die in the end, but the injury was serious, until now, there are still many shrapnel and shotguns in the leg have not been taken out, usually can only move in a wheelchair, although he can stand, but he can't last long, but now, seeing Xu Shichang returning, Wang Shizhen still stood up from the wheelchair to show respect for Xu Shichang.

As for Duan Qirui, he also stood with his hands down very respectfully, and respected Xu Shichang very much, and the reason was very simple, because Xu Shichang dismantled the debt for him after learning that he was being collected for debts, and officially introduced Duan Qirui into the rather mysterious Beiyang industrial circle.

It is said that "things gather by like, people by groups", this Beiyang, in the end, must still be grouped, otherwise it will be nothing.

Xu Shichang knew that the two were going to visit him today, but he was not too surprised, and after seeing the two of them, he exchanged a few words of greeting, and then instructed the housekeeper to lead Duan Wang and the two to the living room to serve, while he himself went to see his old subordinates after changing his clothes.

Duan Jurui and Wang Shizhen came to talk to Xu Shichang for the matter of Shanxi and Hebei coal mines, and now, the German Hannagan is planning to organize the media mines in Shanxi, Hebei and other places into a large-scale coal mine syndicate, this plan conflicts with an industrial plan of Beiyang Industrial Group, and the two sides are now brewing a business war, but because it involves Zhang Hanwei's South China Industrial Group, which has a relationship with both parties, this struggle will be very fierce and very weird.

Drawing on the lessons of the defeat of the United Front in the past, the current Beiyang Chinese do not fight uncertain battles, Wang Shizhen and Duan Qirui used to be known as the "Wang Long and Duan Hu" in Beiyang, and the strategy is naturally not ordinary, and the reason why Xu Shichang called the two over is that he hopes that they can give themselves ideas to see how they can use "legal means" to squeeze out the Shanxi and Hebei coal industry groups with Hannagen as the leader. Wang Shizhen said that Duan Qirui was somewhat restrained, if he was asked to make a strategy for sending troops to fight, it would be no problem, but now Xu Shichang is asking for his views on the business war, which is somewhat ironic, after all, if he Duan has a high business strategy, he would not have owed a lot of debts when he ran the steamship company, so now Duan Qirui can try not to say anything, so as not to make a mistake in planning, which will cause Xu Shichang's investment to fail, and then make the industrial development strategy of Beiyang Industrial Group a failure.

Today's Beiyang Industrial Group is still prosperous and lossy, and it must indeed act cautiously.