On the occasion of the Spring Festival in the sixth year of the Republic of China, the generals of the Sichuan Army gathered at the General Headquarters of the North School Field to participate in the annual summary meeting and group meeting held by the provincial political axe, and then secretly held an important meeting to determine the future of the 150,000 soldiers of the Sichuan Army.

Due to the hard-line attitude of Xiao Yimin, the overseer of Sichuan, in handling diplomatic issues, Britain and the two countries not only joined forces with Europe and the United States to reach an arms embargo convention against China, but also cancelled or suspended all aid plans and loan negotiations with the Yanjing political axe, forcing the Yanjing political axe to impose severe penalties on the Sichuan military and political authorities, so as to protect the rights of Britain, Syria, Europe and the United States in China.

Under the constant protests and sanctions of Britain and China, the Beiyang faction, which had finally reached a consensus, once again showed signs of splitting.

President Li Yuanhong, who has always harbored prejudices against Sichuan, and Liang Qichao, head of the National Policy Research Institute, jointly signed a proposal calling for the newly established National Assembly to convene a special session to remove Xiao Yimin, the overseer of Sichuan, who had never betrayed his sincerity to the central government, repeatedly violated international law, and brought great trouble to the national and local governments.

As soon as this proposal was put out, it was immediately strongly opposed by the faction of the new premier Duan Qirui, and the two factions engaged in a fierce debate over it.

Zhao Erxun, the director of the National History Curator who is in a state of semi-retirement, published an article in response to the problem of "tax interception and lack of state" in Sichuan, comparing the total fiscal and tax revenues of Sichuan and Zhejiang provinces in three years, and clearly pointed out the key points:

The average annual tax income of 50 million yuan in Zhejiang Province is that the reason why all industries are depressed and the annual income is decreasing year after year is that the local political axes and armies at all levels have set up clever names and expropriated violently, and the average annual tax income of 50 million yuan in Zhejiang Province is only a positive tax levied legally, and the income from more than 10 kinds of centigold in other names is much higher than the positive tax levied legally, and if the normal tax and the heavy centigold are combined, the total amount of positive taxes and various harsh taxes that the people of Zhejiang need to pay every year is as high as more than 90 million; As early as four years ago, the local government in Sichuan gradually abolished all kinds of centigold, and two years ago completely abolished all harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, which caused the burden on the people of Sichuan to drop sharply and brought great vitality to agriculture, industry and commerce and all industries in Sichuan, which led to Sichuan's development and prosperity today.

As soon as Zhao Erxun, a well-known figure who had served as the governor of the three eastern provinces and Sichuan, opened his mouth, he immediately let Xiao Yimin, who was on the cusp of the storm and was pushed into the political whirlpool, successfully relieve the siege. Liang Qichao denounced Xiao Yimin, who was attacked, but it was a blessing in disguise, and he was once again supported by the vast majority of the people across the country.

However, Zhao Erxun's article and the boiling public opinion could not change anything, and Sichuan, where nationalism was prevalent, was still constantly squeezed out and isolated by the two major political forces in the north and south, and the gunboats of the British and the two countries sailed to the Yichang wharf to tightly seal off the foreign trade of Sichuan Province, and the capital forces of the provinces and the compradors of the Han Dynasty gradually stopped trade with Sichuan under the coercion, temptation, and bribery of the British and the Chinese, causing the foreign economy of the whole province of Sichuan to suffer heavy losses.

On foreign relations, Xiao Yimin and his political ally Duan Qirui gradually became at odds.

On the issue of Germany, Prime Minister Duan Qirui, who was persecuted by Britain and China in all directions, finally made a public political declaration, and tried his best to promote China's accession to the Entente and declare war on Germany, but the conservative Li Yuanhong and Xiao Yimin took the same position, insisting on strict neutrality and opposing China's joining any alliance, but under the strong impetus of Duan Qirui's faction, and under the strong encouragement of the Southern Revolutionary Party and Liang Qichao's faction, Li Yuanhong had to sign an order announcing the severance of diplomatic relations with Germany, and at the same time agreed to the request of the British and Chinese ministers to expel Germany in China. and engineering and technical personnel, and instructed Sichuan Province to immediately repatriate all German military instructors and engineering and technical personnel hired.

The military and political circles and the local political parties in Sichuan have had a great headache because of this, not to mention the obstruction of the export of large quantities of native products, and the hearts of the German engineers and technicians, who have become the main technical force of Sichuan's industry, have been shaken, and many people have been angry and have submitted their resignations to Xiao Yimin, causing Xiao Yimin and Governor Zhang Lan to hold three special meetings in succession to explain in detail the current political situation in China to the German instructors and technicians, to sincerely express their sincere condolences to the German friends who have been wounded in their hearts, to trace the friendship and fraternal feelings between them with deep affection, and to express their concern for the personal safety of all German experts and overseas Chineseand political rights were strongly guaranteed, and only then did they reluctantly keep the worried hundreds of Germans.

In the name of suppressing bandits, Liu Xiang and Yang Sen's two brigades were respectively transferred eastward to Fengjie and Wushan, and a large number of personnel sent by the little-known Sichuan Army Intelligence Bureau quietly entered the Yichang, Enshi, and Jingxiang areas in various capacities and names, and the Sichuan army's long-planned eastward expansion plan began to be launched.

Deng Xihou, commander of the Fifth Division, who was guarding Hanzhong, also began to expand in the name of "suppressing bandits and rebelling and maintaining local areas", and gradually extended his influence to the east and north with the cooperation of local forces.

Within a week, more than 300 owners of more than 100 smelting, casting, machining, dyeing and weaving industries in various parts of Sichuan and Yunnan Province gathered in Daxia of the provincial government to participate in a large-scale bidding meeting of the logistics office of the Sichuan Army General Headquarters to compete for nearly 100 orders for the production of military supplies from the Sichuan Army up to 3 million yuan.

At the tender meeting, in addition to the orders for military uniforms, military uniforms, leather goods, shoes and hats, and auxiliary tools that were rushed by various manufacturers, the Sichuan Army's logistics department came up with more than 30 drawings and ordering plans for weapons and spare parts, which caused a huge sensation.

The army commissioned a certain strength of the business to produce weapons parts, not only by the Sichuan Army Logistics Department to provide raw materials, drawings, processing technology and technical guidance, but also each of them is a huge number of long-term contracts, profits far above agricultural machinery and ordinary machinery products.

After a day and a half of heated discussion and bidding, 37 parts orders were successfully solicited, more than 40 processing enterprises in Chengdu, Yucheng, Ya'an and southeast Yunnan signed entrusted processing contracts with Sichuan Army, and 160 technicians selected from Huaxi Industry and Ya'an Arsenal met with various manufacturers and reached technical guidance agreements.

Immediately afterwards, the cooperation between Sichuan businessmen and Yunnan and Guizhou merchants was rapidly strengthened, and the backlog of pig bristles, tung oil, tea oil and other export native products in Sichuan Province were transported to Bijie in Guizhou and Qujing in Yunnan Province in phases and batches, and were soon bought out by the United States and French foreign companies, and Sichuan's trade in native products immediately regained its vitality and vitality, and the British and the two countries blocked the Yangtze River waterway and the trade sanctions against Sichuan were broken, and Sichuan lost only 50 percent of its profits.

With the intensification of the contradictions between the north and the south, the call of the southern revolutionary party to launch a "revolution to protect the law" is getting louder and louder, and the wars between warlords in most parts of the north have intensified, and China, which has been subject to an arms embargo, has seen a rush to buy weapons, and the imitation Mauser rifle, which originally rose to 80 oceans, has climbed to a new high.

The Sichuan military industrial enterprises, which had already seen the opportunity, under the instruction of the overseer Xiao Yimin, released news to the whole country through various channels and sold a large number of weapons and ammunition, the imitation Mauser rifles produced by the Sichuan Arsenal came with 100 rounds of ammunition, and were sold only 80 oceans, and the "Leopard brand" series of rifles, pistols, ammunition, grenades, TNT, and M1916 water-cooled heavy machine guns produced by the Huaxi Industrial Company were shipped to Shaanxi, Henan, Lianghu, and Yunnan-Guizhou provinces in batches through the sales channels that had already been establishedEven in the Liangguang and Liangjiang regions, there has been a hot sales situation in which "Leopard brand" weapons are hard to find.

In late March, the four blast furnaces of the Sino-US joint venture Qijiang Iron and Steel Plant were all put into operation, reaching the production plan of 4,000 tons of cast iron and 800 tons of steel per month. The alloy smelting plant and special steel branch in the second phase of the construction project of Qijiang Iron and Steel Plant are progressing smoothly with the strong cooperation of American investors, and it is expected that after half a year, the steel output of Qijiang Steel Plant will reach the design requirement of 10,000 tons per month, and Sichuan industry will usher in a qualitative leap.

On March 5, Sichuan Provincial Government Axe issued an incentive policy for industrial development, promising that from the day of the announcement, all new enterprises that invest more than 50,000 yuan in Sichuan will enjoy a preferential policy of tax exemption for two years, and the Sichuan Bank of Sichuan controlled by Zheng Axe will provide low-interest loans with a term of three to five years to manufacturers who actively carry out equipment renovation and expansion of production scale.

On 10 March, Sichuan Provincial Government Axe openly tendered bids from Chinese and foreign financial institutions and enterprises in major newspapers across the country, and the bidding projects for the construction of three large highway bridges in Syria, Luzhou, and Yucheng caused a sensation throughout the country, and more than 10 European and American construction enterprises called to participate in the bidding.

On 20 March, the Sichuan Provincial Political Axe once again announced in a high-profile manner that based on the railway dream of tens of millions of people in Bashu, the Provincial Political Axe Special Meeting deliberated and approved the Sichuan Railway Construction Plan, and that starting this year, 3 million special funds will be allocated from the fiscal revenue every year for the construction of a state-owned standard railway from Chengdu to Chongqing, and strive to complete and open to traffic within four years.

The series of measures taken by the Sichuan Provincial Political Axe and the military caused a sensation throughout the country, European and American consortia and multinational corporations stationed in China rushed to Chengdu to contact the provincial political axe, and the major newspapers in Sichuan tirelessly sang praises, and soon the news came that the private capital of the Sichuan Industrial and Commercial Bank was enthusiastically participating in the shares.

The Sichuan Department of Civil Affairs immediately issued an announcement, explaining in detail that the funds for railway construction and highway and bridge construction are entirely funded by financial appropriations and local banks, and will never levy a penny more from the elders and villagers for this purpose, and face all the people in all aspects such as land occupation, engineering construction along the way, and gravel and stone procurement, so that the people can truly get benefits and benefits from the large-scale transportation construction, so as to completely dispel the concerns of the people and inject great vitality into the economic development of Sichuan.

Seeing the positive news that keeps coming back, as well as the change in attitudes of Chinese and foreign countries, Xiao Yimin, who has been hiding behind the scenes and paying close attention, is finally relieved.

Although the huge sums of money made in order to break through the blockade were enormous, they were far from harming the development of the whole Sichuan province and the interests of the people, and the so-called financial investment and the participation of local banks in the stock were completely a nominal pretense, and the real huge investment came from the growing opium trade and the exponentially increasing profits from arms sales.

In order to achieve the ultimate goal, Xiao Yimin would rather invest his life, not to mention that what he invests now is just a mere wealth that life does not bring to death.

(To be continued)