The first year of Xinhai ended in the bustling national turmoil, and the new year came in a disturbing dispute.

With the support of the European and American powers, Yuan Shikai's political axe finally made three killer features in a row:

1. Announcing the Exchange Charters of Bank of China, the exchange coupons issued by Bank of China are equivalent to silver dollars, and the restructured Bank of Communications shall conduct business in accordance with the relevant Articles of Association of Bank of China; 2. The new salt tax policy was promulgated throughout the world, strictly ordering all provinces not to withhold, withhold, or misappropriate taxes paid to the central government; 3. Reform the establishment of political organs in all provinces throughout the country, formally establish the post of chief of civil affairs, order all provinces to reduce their armed forces, reduce military expenditures, and prohibit local armies from interfering in local government affairs.

These three policies are good things at the national level, but it depends on whose hands the state power is in the hands -- this is the focus of the special editorial expounded in the Kuomintang organ newspaper "Minli Bao," which has been praised by people from all walks of life at home and abroad as the first shot fired by the Kuomintang at Yuan Shikai's political axe in the new year.

The day after the promulgation of Yuan's three policies, the Kuomintang caucus headed by Mr. Zhongshan was held in Shanghai, and at the press conference that followed, Mr. Zhongshan issued two public resolutions:

1. To effectively guarantee the construction of the Guangdong-Hanchuan Railway, call on the central government to allocate special funds for railway construction year by year, and all provinces along the railway should actively donate funds and go all out to support a series of railway construction undertakings that will benefit the present and future generations; 2. Cooperate with six countries in Europe and the United States to establish a Sino-Western joint venture bank in Shanghai.

After the news broke, there was a heated discussion across the country.

Consuls and offices in China of various European and American countries have issued statements one after another, stressing that they have never held any talks with Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang under his leadership on investment and joint ventures, nor will they ignore the stability of China's political situation and cooperate with any opposition party at the risk of affecting China's political prestige and the overall plan for economic recovery and development.

Yuan Shih-kai responded within three days by holding a press conference at the Presidential Palace, at which he made a public statement on the KMT's resolution at the meeting, expressing strong support for Sun Yat-sen's views and greatly appreciating the KMT's beautiful blueprint for economic construction and planning, but he did not approve of any political party's irresponsible remarks that undermined the interests of the country and the prestige of the political axe.

In private, Yuan Shikai did not allocate a penny to Sun Yat-sen's Railway Association and the Guangdong-Hanchuan Railway Company established by the Kuomintang itself, so that Huang Xing, who hurriedly took up the post of the general office of the Guangdong-Hanchuan Railway, ate boiling water and soaked rice every day during the inspection, and finally brushed his sleeves away in anger.

Secondly, the Sichuan people, who were deeply injured in the road protection movement and have not healed their scars so far, are very opposed, and the Sichuan people and organizations from all walks of life who have been deceived once and have lost their money, but whether you are Sun Yat-sen or Yuan Shikai, you will ask for the old book that is still nowhere to be seen, and the newspapers in Sichuan are full of angry denunciations, demanding that Sun Yat-sen and Yuan Shikai first make up the 25 million Sichuan people.

Seeing the boiling of public resentment, where did Mr. Zhongshan dare to respond? Yuan Shikai ignored it even more, and it seemed that he didn't hear it at all, which made the call for "Sichuan people governing Sichuan" unprecedentedly high.

Obviously, Mr. Zhongshan's beautiful blueprint touched the scarred and fragile nerves of the Sichuan people, and then involved the policies vigorously promoted by Yuan Shikai, which were jointly rejected by all walks of life in Sichuan.

In order to establish branches of the Bank of China in Chengdu, Yucheng, Syria and other places, Yuan Shikai successively sent three telegrams to the Sichuan Provincial Political Axe and the Metropolitan Governor Hu Jingyi, ordering them to forcibly implement the exchange of banknotes by the Bank of China and the Bank of Communications, collect a salt tax of no less than 18 million yuan per year, and hand it over to the central treasury, and then appointed three Sichuan political axe officials in one go, the most important and powerful of which was the post of civil governor, to Zhang Peijue, the former deputy governor of Sichuan, who was rushed to Yanjing by Yin Changheng. The post of salt envoy was given to Yang Jiashen, the former Qing Sichuan salt envoy who lived in seclusion.

This move is not ruthless, aren't you yelling at Sichuan people to govern Sichuan? Good! Now the Sichuan officials I have appointed are you Sichuanese, see what you do! In addition, Hu Jingyi, the governor of Sichuan, who had already taken refuge in Yuan Shikai, waved his flag and shouted for the new policy, took out the sharpest sword of "national unification to ensure legal unity", and looked down on all living beings from the height of morality.

The key is that no matter how much you oppose it, there is no legal basis, and all localities do their own thing, and they cannot reach the prerequisites for a referendum on the enlarged meeting of the provincial assembly, unless they openly oppose Yuan Shikai's Yanjing political axe and announce [***] again, they can only endure the endless exploitation of the central political axe.

On the surface, if Yuan Shikai's three policies are implemented in Sichuan, the biggest losses will be the political axes at all levels and the people of Sichuan, but as long as we peel back the cocoon and analyze it carefully, the landlords and capitalists of all sizes in Sichuan will undoubtedly bear the brunt.

Without the salt tax dividends that have just been enjoyed for half a year, in order to ensure various financial expenditures and continue the construction and repair projects of farmland water conservancy and road facilities, the political axes in various parts of Sichuan can only transfer the tax pressure to the fields of land production, industrial and commercial production and circulation.

If you really go to that point, it doesn't matter if the grassroots officials can't keep their black hats, and if they can't save their lives, it will be a big loss! Not to mention anything else, the whole of Sichuan is now flooded with guns, and the people of Sichuan have gone through the long-suffering road protection movement, the Sichuan-Yunnan War, and the "West China Times" spared no effort to publicize the idea of human rights and civil rights for more than a year, and their temper is generally not as good as before.

As a result, during the period from New Year's Day to the Spring Festival, celebrities and gentry and officials at all levels in Sichuan were so anxious that they jumped up and down, and the provincial assembly was noisy and happy every time it met, and almost staged an all-military exercise many times, but the governor Hu Jingyi fully supported the decision of the central government, and Zhang Peijue, the new civil governor of Sichuan, also changed his revolutionary image of shouting "Sichuan people governing Sichuan and protecting the people's rights", and vigorously and eloquently defended state power and central authority, and used the official mouthpiece "Sichuan Yuebao" to launch round after round of high-sounding arguments. The local forces in Sichuan gradually fell behind, and finally reached the dangerous edge of parrying the imminent collapse.

During this period, Hu Jingyi, the governor of the capital, and Zhang Peijue, the chief of civil affairs, also frequently went to the headquarters of the Beixiaochang Border Army to visit Xiao Yimin, the largest warlord leader and industrial tycoon in Sichuan, in order to gain his support.

Xiao Yimin adhered to the moral principles of a soldier from beginning to end, and warmly received all visitors, but also said solemnly:

"As the commander-in-chief of the Sichuan Frontier Army appointed by the central government, the first president of the Sichuan Army Military Academy, and as an ordinary soldier who regards honor as his life, I must abide by principles and not interfere in civil affairs."

On 20 January 1913, Xiao Yimin, commander of the Sichuan Frontier Army, delivered a New Year's speech and outlook on the front page of the English edition of Zilinxi Bao and the front page of Huaxi Times, reiterating his and the Sichuan Frontier Army's clear stand of supporting the central government's political axe and obeying the central leadership. ”

Xiao Yimin's article aroused a response and enthusiastic support from all walks of life across the country, and Yuan Shikai, who was tormented by the alliance, was extremely excited, and immediately held a special press conference to vigorously commend the merits of Xiao Yimin, commander of the Sichuan Border Army, and praised Xiao Yimin's move as an example for the whole political circles, and he was a real and pure soldier, and an excellent general with a broad mind and farsightedness.

This is also a great thing for the Kuomintang, which has been unable to open up the situation in the southwest for a long time.

Newspapers under the Kuomintang then published comments one after another, praising Xiao Yimin's exemplary role in taking the overall situation into account, and calling on all political officials to be like General Xiao Yimin and strive for the stability of the country and the prosperity of the nation for the rest of their lives.

On 23 January, the Sichuan Provincial Special Conference, by two-thirds of the votes, passed a special proposal by Metropolitan Governor Hu Jingyi and Civil Affairs Minister Zhang Peijue, formally bringing the 25,000 officers and men of the frontier army into the Sichuan standing army system, making up the arrears of the frontier army for two years and the total expenditure of 1.6 million yuan in the Kang-Tibet Counterinsurgency War and the Sichuan-Yunnan War, and allocating 1.2 million yuan in advance the salary of the border army for the current year.

On February 20, 1913, Luo Fa, general manager of Sichuan Huaxi Group, held a press conference at home and abroad, officially announcing that the company's former largest shareholder, General Xiao Yimin, had completed the transfer of shares and officially resigned from the chairman's position, Huaxi Group Company was successfully reorganized, Sichuan Huaxi Group Company was split into two parts, and all the hardware machining enterprises under the original Huaxi Group were stripped off as a whole to form "Sichuan Huaxi Industrial Corporation", and the chairman and general manager were served by Luo Huafa, the largest shareholder.

The power plants, waterworks, garment factories, construction engineering companies, import and export companies and trading enterprises and transit terminals and warehouses set up in Shanghai, Nanjing, Hankou, Yucheng, Xufu and other places under the former Huaxi Group were integrated into "China Huaxi Commerce and Trade Group Corporation", the chairman of the board of directors of the company was Zeng Shouwu, the largest shareholder Zeng Shouwu, the directors were Luo Fa and British businessman Johnson, German businessman Schmeide, and the general manager was Deng Xianke, a famous industrial and commercial industrialist in Yucheng.

Xiao Yimin completed the transfer of shares, and his wife Yi Zhenying quietly became the first shareholder of the largest industrial enterprise in southwest China's provinces, "Sichuan Huaxi Industrial Corporation", Xiao Yimin recovered 2.45 million yuan in the share transfer, and deposited it in the name of the "Sichuan Huafeng Trading Company" founded by his wife Yi Zhenying, respectively, in the Deutsch-Hua Bank and Standard Chartered Bank, and purchased special steel, machinery and equipment and industrial products from Germany, Britain and the United States.

On 25 February, the Sichuan Provincial General Chamber of Commerce held a New Year's meeting in Chengdu, and more than 500 representatives of the industrial and commercial circles from all over Sichuan attended the large-scale meeting, which was held at the Chengdu Hotel on Hanjiang Road, which is a subsidiary of the "China Huaxi Commerce and Trade Group Corporation."

At the end of the three-day meeting, the participants unanimously discussed and adopted the following resolutions:

The "Sichuan Federation of Industry and Commerce" was formally established, and Mr. Zeng Shouwu, a celebrity in Sichuan business and commerce and chairman of the board of directors of "China Huaxi Commerce and Trade Group Corporation", was elected as the president, Mr. Deng Xianke, a famous entrepreneur in Yucheng, was the executive vice president, and Luo Fa, a young rookie in the Sichuan business community, served as the secretary general.

After reading the list of presidents, vice presidents, and members of the board of directors of the "Sichuan Federation of Industry and Commerce" listed in the newspapers, people from all walks of life were surprised to find that more than half of the well-known figures in the list were all figures at the level of vice chairmen of provincial and local councils.

The news of the grand establishment of the Sichuan Federation of Industry and Commerce has been reprinted by newspapers all over the country, and the sharp-eyed newspapers of various countries in China, such as "Zilin Xibao", "Beijing-Tianjin Times", "Mainland Daily", as well as domestic "Declaration", "Ta Kung Pao", "Yanjing Morning Post", and so on, have successively published long commentaries, greatly surprised by the rapid integration of local capital forces in Sichuan, and have speculated that it is likely to be an important warm-up before the formation of political parties by local forces in Sichuan, predicting that Sichuan's move will have a negative impact on the entire political situation in China. and the incalculable impact of the capital forces of the provinces.

In the Yanjing presidential mansion, Yuan Shikai and his staff were also troubled by this, no one expected that the local forces in Sichuan would be so stubborn and rise so unexpectedly quickly.

They are deeply aware that the establishment of the Sichuan Federation of Industry and Commerce shows that the local forces in Sichuan have united and turned from a loose local non-governmental organization into a powerful political interest group, and it seems that President Yuan Da will have difficulty getting money from Sichuan.

At the end of the discussion, Yang Du, the chief strategist wearing a moon-white brocade robe, stood up, elegantly put away the ivory bone fan in his hand, took a few steps, turned back suddenly, and said word by word to the worried Yuan Shikai:

"Handsome, Xiao Yimin is really smart! His subordinates dared to conclude that everything was planned by him, and he skillfully drew the attention of the whole country to the newly established Sichuan Federation of Industry and Commerce, and led the contradictions to the Sichuan Provincial Political Axe and the Governor's Mansion.

"This guy judged the situation, stretched out his hand and gently flicked one or two, and he got a fame and fortune ending, and it also laid a solid foundation for his future development, which is really high!"

Liang Shiyi nodded in agreement: "That's true!" Originally, we all thought that he had a group of hermit masters around him to guide him, but his core staff were only Zou Wenhan and Bao Jiqing, the two of them were civil and military, and the others were not enough to mention, and this series of clever strategies that advanced and retreated freely and interlocking were by no means something that the old Zou Wenhan and Bao Jiqing, who were better than Wen Tao, could come up with, it seems that we have always underestimated this young man! ”

Yuan Keding on the side was greatly annoyed, this Xiao Yimin has become more and more arrogant recently, and he has frequently seen the limelight, which makes Yuan Dagongzi, who is also in his prime and known as the four princes of the world, very unhappy, and he can't care about any etiquette at the moment, jumped up from the sofa, walked in front of Yuan Shikai in a few steps, and said loudly:

"Isn't it just a teapot running the hall? Dad, let my son go to Chengdu to clean him up, I want to see how much goods are in this little teapot! ”

"Smack-"

Yuan Shikai waved his hand and slapped his son, beating his son to the ground, a group of strategists hurriedly stepped forward to persuade him, Yuan Shikai was so angry that he pointed at Yuan Keding and scolded loudly:

"You loser, except for eating, drinking, and gambling, you don't even deserve to pour tea for a small teapot! Dare to act in front of Lao Tzu, your uncle, Lao Tzu killed you, a thing that doesn't grow......"

The strategists hurriedly rushed up, hugged the furious Yuan Shikai and kept persuading.

Yang Du hurriedly gave Yuan Keding a look, Yuan Keding had no stage fright, spit out thick phlegm in annoyance, saw Daddy's tiger body shake, and got rid of a group of masters, really got up the stool, and was so frightened that he seemed to rush out of the lobby, and disappeared in an instant.

(To be continued)