Four years have passed, and Yao Yilei, who is brutal and willful, but innocent and lovely, has gradually faded in his mind, but today he suddenly saw such a similar woman, and he realized that he had never forgotten that memory.

A few days later, on the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, the Spring Festival holiday ended, and various government departments opened their offices.

The War Department is still in the Iron Lion Hutong, that is, the place where Chen Zikun once led the troops to sweep, but time has passed, Xu Shuzheng and a group of Anhui cadres have long disappeared, and now the head of the War Department is the Beiyang veteran Zhang Shaozeng, this Chief Zhang is a graduate of the Japanese non-commissioned officer school, and once had the reputation of "three non-commissioned officers", he was a commander in the former Qing Dynasty, and later added the title of the Minister of Xuanfu, in terms of qualifications, much older than Wu Peifu.

According to the regular procedure, Chen Zikun came to the General Affairs Department to report, after the file was submitted, the receiving officer immediately looked at him differently, good smoke and tea waiting, after a while, a lieutenant colonel officer pushed the door in, saluted Chen Zikun and said: "But Chief Chen from Luoyang, Chief Zhang is invited." ”

Chen Zikun followed the lieutenant colonel to Zhang Shaozeng's office, Chief Zhang wore a straight gray-blue uniform, and the golden epaulettes were decorated with three stars.

"The War Department is in need of a rising star like you, Xiao Chen, I'm optimistic about you." Zhang Shaozeng smiled and patted Chen Zikun's shoulder and said, ending the meeting with this sentence.

The army chief valued himself so much, Chen Zikun couldn't help but feel a little complacent, returned to the General Affairs Department, and the receiving officer told him that the file had been transferred to the Military Balance Department for official office, and the military rank and specific work arrangements would not come out so soon, so that Chen Zikun would come back tomorrow.

Chen Zikun politely said goodbye, when he walked out of the War Department compound, he met his old acquaintance Wang Geng, the alumni met, very cordial, chatted for a while, agreed to sit at Wang Geng's house next weekend, Chen Zikun left, when he left five minutes later, a Pontic car drove into the gate of the War Department.

The next day, Chen Zikun came to the War Department as promised, and the officials of the General Affairs Department told him that the official in charge of Quanxu was not there, and the military rank could not be determined, so it was better to wait.

Helpless, Chen Zikun waited for another three days, and finally got the news that his military rank and position were as follows, and rushed to the War Department, and a piece of paper in front of him, Chen Zikun, a second lieutenant officer of the Third Division of the Army, returned from studying abroad, and according to the document of the Ministry of the Army, Quanxu was a lieutenant in the army infantry, and was appointed as a third-class member of the General Affairs Section of the General Affairs Department of the War Department.

Although Chen Zikun didn't care too much about the false name of the military rank and position, but the gap was so big that he couldn't accept it for a while, how did the good colonel drop to the War Department and become a lieutenant, or a third-class member of the General Affairs Section, isn't that just miscellaneous?

I couldn't swallow this breath, Chen Zikun immediately found the Military Heng Division to explain, the other party was obviously prepared, took out a lot of documents, and reasoned with him slowly, it turned out that Chen Zikun couldn't get any diploma except for a "certificate of completion" from West Point, and the War Department awarded him the rank of lieutenant, which was already an exceptional care, and the rank of colonel given to him by Wu Peifu had not been described by the War Department, so it could only be regarded as a temporary military rank, and it could not be counted.

Chen Zikun was speechless, people put all the rules and regulations out, looking selfless and selfless in official business, he can't say with a shy face that I am Wu Peifu's henchman, you give me small shoes to wear like this is not to give Wu Dashuai face, he believes that the other party must know his origins, maybe he treats himself like this just to give Wu Peifu a little color, officialdom is sinister, if you are not careful, you will become someone else's pawn, if it was four years ago, he would have been mad on the spot, but now, he can only smile.

"Do you have any questions? Section member Chen. The colonel of the Military Balance Division asked calmly.

"No, thank you, sir." Chen Zikun saluted, turned around and went out.

The colonel had a smile on his face, and walked out slowly, and came to the office upstairs with the sign of the deputy chief's room, a big white face was sitting behind the desk, and three stars were shining on his shoulders.

"Vice Minister Kim, it's done." The section chief said respectfully.

"Oh, did he whine?" Big White Face asked.

"No, he didn't say anything after he asked why." The section chief replied.

"Very good, you go down, go home another day to play cards, and try my newly bought Pu'er." Kim seems to be in a good mood.

……

Chen Zikun officially took office at the Ministry of War, and the War Department of the Beiyang Government is commonly known as the "Ministry of Salary", which means that there is not much to do except for the salary, and the overseers of the provinces are all doing their own thing, and no one is afraid of the War Department.

The ministry has eight major departments, including the General Affairs Department, the Military Balance, the Military Affairs, the Ordnance, and the Military Doctor, and has raised a large number of idlers, and the General Affairs Section of the General Affairs Department, where Chen Zikun works, is dedicated to running errands for these people.

The head of the General Affairs Section was a fat lieutenant colonel with a rosacea nose, surnamed Bai, who assigned Chen Zikun a difficult task, and the tea room under the General Affairs Section was under his management.

The War Department used to be Princess Hejing's mansion, and a low-pressure boiler was set up in the original kitchen location, heating in winter, and the usual tea was supplied by the tea room, and there were two boiler workers in the tea room who took turns to burn the fire, and a servant was responsible for serving tea and water, which was all Chen Zikun's subordinates.

At the end of February and the beginning of March, Beijing is still cold, and there is no need for heating supply, even if the temperature is a little lower than usual, the old man has to scream cold, and the boiling water every day is essential, because the old man has nothing to do to make tea and taste tea.

It is said that this work is not too complicated, but it can't stand the complicated personnel relations in the yamen, even the two workers who burned the boiler are also very big, I heard that the two masters are workers who worked in the training department in the former Qing Dynasty, and they can be described as veterans of the two dynasties, not to mention Chen Zikun, even the chief of the general affairs section can't command them, and the servant heard that he is also very promising, and he is a cousin and other relatives of the brother-in-law of a section chief.

On his first day in office, Chen Zikun inspected the boiler room, then returned to the office to do nothing, and half an hour later, the director of the General Affairs Department came over angrily and reprimanded: "Why is the heating not hot, don't go and see it." ”

Section Chief Bai hurriedly instructed Chen Zikun to go to the boiler room to check, and when he arrived at the place, the door of the tea room was hidden, and when he opened it, the workers did not know where to go, and the boiler pressure gauge showed that the pressure had decreased, no wonder the heating was not hot.

After waiting for a while, the old worker Ma Youzai came over, still humming Xipi Erhuang in his mouth, Chen Zikun asked: "You don't burn the boiler here, where did you go?" ”

"People have three urgencies, don't you know Section Member, I went to the thatched house." The old horse slowly put on his gloves, opened the furnace door and shoveled coal inside, and Chen Zikun stared at it for a while before leaving.

In the afternoon, the general affairs department was complained again, there was no boiling water, Chen Zikun rushed to the boiler room to see, the temperature gauge showed that the water was only 80 degrees, and Lao Ma actually held a copy of "Seven Heroes and Five Righteousness" and looked at it with taste.

"Master Ma, do you know that the water is not boiling?" Chen Zikun is already a little angry, but his tone is still kind.

"You know, isn't this burning?" The old horse continued to hold the book and read.

"Master Ma, it's not easy to find a job these days, you don't want to do it, there are a lot of people waiting outside." Chen Zikun reprimanded unceremoniously.

"Alright, got it." The old horse lazily left the Seven Heroes and Five Righteousness and went to the fire.

Chen Zikun returned to the office and complained to Section Chief Bai, who persuaded him earnestly: "Xiao Chen, Lao Ma has been working hard with us for more than ten years, but it wasn't like this before, I'm afraid it's not appropriate for you to dismiss someone when you first arrive." ”

Looking at Section Chief Bai's treacherous smile, Chen Zikun seemed to understand something, since he entered the War Department, someone set himself up, and he couldn't even manage a tea room, only showing that he was a waste, not only losing his own people, but also losing Wu Dashuai's face.

The next day, sure enough, something happened again, this time not to mention the heating and boiling water, the boiler room directly stopped fire, there was nothing, there was a separate stove in the office of the chief and deputy chief, which was not affected at all, and the other directors and section chiefs suffered from it, and they shivered one by one, and they ran to the general affairs department to question.

Chen Zikun came to the teahouse to see, his nose was almost crooked, the old horse and the old cow were sitting there smoking and chatting, seeing Chen Zikun coming over in a hurry, he didn't panic, opened his mouth and said: "Section member Chen, the coal is burned." ”

"Why didn't you report it sooner!" Chan was furious.

"I remember the report, I said yesterday that there is not much coal left, and it is time to buy it." The old horse pretended to be surprised.

Lao Niu echoed: "Yes, it was reported. ”

Chen Zikun understood, these two guys didn't take their little lieutenant in their eyes at all, this is a troublemaker, if you complain to the above, it is still yourself who suffers, and you can't even manage the two fire-burning miscellaneous servants, so how can you lead the troops to fight.

I had no choice but to repay Section Chief Bai, approve money to buy coal, and toss back and forth for a lot of time, which made the War Department complain, everyone knows that there is a foreign student lieutenant in the General Affairs Section, and he can't even do this little thing.

The next day, when the old horse and the old cow went to work in the tea room with a small tune, they found that the door of the boiler room had been opened, the furnace was blazing, the steam was overflowing, the heating pipe was burning, and a man with a bare back was sweating in front of the stove with a shovel.

This person is none other than Chen Zikun, a lieutenant and third-class member of the General Affairs Section.