Chapter 422 Southbound Shandong (II)

Jinan is located in the central part of Shandong. On the south bank of the lower reaches of the Yellow River, Jishui was in the north of the city in ancient times, so it was named "Jinan".

The north of Jinan is the southern edge of the North China Plain, the south of Jinan is the Taiyi mountainous area, the Jinpu railway passes through here, it can be seen from the topographical characteristics, the railway construction difficulty in the north of Jinan is low, and the railway in the south of Jinan because of the entry into the mountainous area, the difficulty of construction has increased a lot, it is precisely for this reason that the northern section of the current Jinpu railway has only been repaired to Jinan, and the project in the south has not yet started construction.

After the outbreak of "Wushen**", the situation in Shandong has been relatively calm compared with the southern provinces, Shandong governor Yuan Shuxun actively responded to Yuan Shikai's call for "constitutionalism" and declared "independence" in Shandong. After the powerful factions in the north and south officially broke up because of the parliamentary election, Yuan Shuxun also actively followed Yuan Shikai and sent troops south, and the more combat-effective troops in Shandong Province joined the first army of Beiyang southward under the command of Wang Shizhen, and were finally trapped in the Nanjing area.

In the face of such a critical situation, Yuan Shuxun wavered a little, while continuing to show loyalty to Yuan Shikai on the sickbed, he sent a special envoy to the United Front, and at the same time published a communiqué in the newspaper, taking Zhang Renjun, the governor of Guangdong, as an example, declaring Shandong "outside neutrality", trying to get out of this struggle between the interests of the north and the south, and continue to maintain his rule over Shandong.

As soon as Yuan Shuxun's "outside neutrality" communiqué was published, it was welcomed by the Beiyang Group and the United Front at the same time, which was a big surprise to Yuan Shuxun, in fact, the Beiyang Group and the United Front also had their own small calculations, and the Beiyang Group wanted to kick Shandong out of the 'chaos' situation in order to leave a way back for Beiyang's future development, and the United Front was by no means out of trust in Yuan Shuxun's "neutral" posture, to be precise, Zhao Bei was planning to use Yuan Shuxun's excuse of "outside neutrality" to stretch one of his hands into Shandong. Figuratively speaking, this is called "mixing sand", and that "sand" is Wang Zhanyuan.

Wang Zhanyuan has a special identity. He was born in the Beiyang New Army, but he surrendered to the ** army, for Beiyang, he is a rebel general, for the ** faction, he is the "** father" and "uprising general", as for the truth, no one cares, anyway, he Wang Zhanyuan has been in the Beiyang Army and the Republican Army, but this qualification is not blown.

In this regard, Zhao Bei, the leader of the United Front, and Xu Shichang, the leader of Beiyang, both had their own small calculations, and in their opinion, it was a very wise choice for Wang Zhanyuan to serve as the governor of Shandong and maintain the "neutral" situation of Shandong.

Because the hat of "Governor of Shandong" was given by Zhao Bei, Wang Zhanyuan was grateful to Chairman Zhao Dade, when Zhao Bei replaced Xu Shichang as the president of the Republic of China. Wang Zhanyuan was the second Beiyang officer to send a congratulatory telegram, and the first Beiyang officer to send a congratulatory telegram was another Beiyang general, Lu Yongxiang, the envoy of Heilongjiang Town.

There is such a layer of relationship, this time Zhao Bei toured Shandong in the capacity of the president, Wang Zhanyuan of course to lead Shandong civil and military officials to the railway station to greet the president, this honor guard is also quite grand, Jinan city celebrities and gentlemen, celebrities also rushed to the railway station in accordance with the order of Wang Du, to welcome President Zhao.

Now, Wang Zhanyuan is sitting in a waiting room at Jinan Railway Station, waiting for the arrival of the presidential train with anxiety.

The reason why I was nervous was only because of a telegram, a telegram from the War Department.

This telegram was taken from the War Department to Jinan City on the eve of President Zhao Da's trip to the south, and the person who took the report was Cai Yi, vice minister of the War Department, because it was a special password, Wang Zhanyuan had to translate it himself, but the content of the translation surprised him a little.

The content of the telegram was not complicated, Cai Yi suggested to Wang Zhanyuan that in view of the stable situation in Shandong, Shandong's military and political affairs could be dissolved, and Shandong Province should first realize the so-called "military and civilian separation", that is, military affairs and government affairs should be handled separately, so that there would be no need for the "Shandong Governor" to exist. In the future, the province should be in charge of the military, and as for the administration and finance of Shandong, it should be 'handed over' to the governor and the provincial parliament.

"Military-civilian separation", was first proposed by Yuan Shikai, but no one responded, when Zhao Bei was still the governor of Hubei military and government, he was also against the division of military and civilian rule, but now, as a head of state, Zhao Bei also seems to be planning to advocate the division of military and civilian rule, after all, by a person who holds both military power and financial power, which is not conducive to the implementation of the central policy, any eloquent head of state will not allow this situation to continue for a long time, power is necessary, and the first step to collect power is the division of military and civilian rule, In particular, this financial power must be taken back into the hands of the center.

For Wang Zhanyuan, the throne of the governor of Shandong has not yet been hot, and now someone has come to "suggest" him to resign from the post of governor, which is indeed a bit unbearable, but on the other hand. Wang Zhanyuan also knew very well that he, the governor of Shandong, could not compare with the governor of Guangdong and Anhui, he did not have many troops in his hands, and most of the troops that could fight were still staying in the Nanjing area, and it was impossible to transfer them back to Shandong for the time being, and even if they were transferred back, they might not have the courage to confront the center.

Wang Zhanyuan had no other choice, he could only compromise, but whether the center would fulfill its promise after compromise, his heart was completely bottomless, so he was always uneasy. I am afraid that I will offend Zhao Bei unintentionally, otherwise, why did the War Department take him to sacrifice the flag first this time? Although it was Cai Ye who took the telegram, it was not a trivial matter to change the "governor" to "overseer", which involved the redistribution of power, and if it was not for Zhao Bei's nod, it would be impossible for Cai Ye to shoot this telegram.

In order to be just in case, Wang Zhanyuan had to find a way to pat President Zhao's ass, this time at the train station to welcome President Zhao, Wang Dudu has prepared a lot of gifts, gold bars, antiques, not to mention, plays, songs 'women' have also prepared some, are the famous characters of opera troupes and teahouses in Jinan City. Although he has spent a lot of time in the Republican Army, Wang Zhanyuan has always been in a depressed situation and doesn't care about anything, so he really doesn't know what President Zhao's preference is, whether he likes to listen to small songs or prefer more straightforward pastimes? Wang Zhanyuan was not sure, so he simply prepared with both hands, this method was taught to him by the frustrated politician Yuan Shuxun, and in return, Wang Zhanyuan also promised that if President Zhao Da was "Longyan Dayue", he would recommend Yuan Shuxun to serve as the governor of Shandong Province.

As Wang Zhanyuan's current chief of staff, Yuan Shuxun, the former governor of Shandong, sat in the waiting room with Wang Zhanyuan, the current governor of Shandong.

Dai Xiuguo is Zhao Bei named Wang Zhanyuan to take with him, this time President Zhao Da inspected Shandong, the main purpose is to inspect the Shandong Machinery Bureau, which is also an arsenal opened by the Qing court, located in Jinan, ** After that, the general office of the arsenal changed several people, this Dai Xiuguo has only been in office for a few months, but he has been serving in the Shandong Machinery Bureau. He knew a lot about the affairs of the factory, so Zhao Bei wanted to let this person meet him directly to see if he was qualified for the work of the general office.

As for the German businessman, he was not an ordinary businessman, it was an arms dealer, the Chinese name Balde, was originally a German army major, in 1900 as the adjutant of the commander of the Eight-Nation Alliance, Wadsey, stayed in Beijing and Tianjin for a period of time, and made a small fortune during this period, and then chose to retire, and became a shareholder of this foreign company specializing in arms. Plans to rectify the military industry, Lihe foreign company also received an order from the War Department, so Baulde was sent to Jinan, to the Shandong Machinery Bureau for a field trip, to see what kind of new machine is needed, this time Zhao Bei inspected Shandong, named Dai Xiuguo at the railway station to pay homage to the president, this Baulde refused to let go of the opportunity to befriend Mr. President, so he also followed.

As a German arms dealer, he is very aware of the current Sino-German relations, in order to get more orders, he must establish a solid 'private' friendship with the head of state of this country, although Lihe Foreign Company is the leader of German arms dealers, but as a competitor of Lihe Foreign Company, German Jebsen Foreign Company also operates' The elite German munitions, except that the backstage of Lihe Foreign Company is the Krupp Military-Industrial Group, and the backstage of Jebsen Foreign Company is the Erhard Military Industrial Group, and the two industrial monopoly groups compete all over the world, and this country is no exception.

After many years in China, Bauld spoke Chinese well, and his 'communication' with Dai Xiuguo did not need an interpreter, and now the focus of his conversation with Dai Xiuguo is also the personal hobby of the president of the Republic of China.

But Dai Xiuguo didn't know what kind of person Zhao Bei was, he only knew that the president acted decisively and was by no means a foolish master.

Since there is no substantive 'sex' content from Dai Xiuguo's mouth, then Baulde can only turn to Wang Zhanyuan in silence.

"This ...... Mr. President hates, and Mr. President likes new weapons and equipment the most, Mr. Bald, if you can buy him some better machines and planes, Mr. President will definitely make a good impression of you. ”

Wang Zhanyuan himself is still nervous in his heart, where can he have time to deal with this German? Just as 'Yu' was casually perfunctory, he suddenly heard a few long whistles outside, so he hurriedly stood up.

"The president has arrived, go! They all stood on the platform, and they all straightened their waists! Lift your face up! The president hates people bending over and keeping a straight face! ”

Wang Zhanyuan got rid of the entanglement of the Germans, pulled Yuan Shuxun and ran out of the waiting room, the others saw this, and did not dare to slack off, and rushed out of the waiting room in a 'chaotic manner', Dai Xiuguo also hurriedly sorted out the instrument, threw down Bauld and hurried over.

"It's a big deal, and I can't afford to miss it."

Bald also hurriedly tidied up his clothes, and then carried a heavy briefcase and rushed to the platform with several assistants to greet President Zhao.