The third year of the Republic of China was destined to be a turbulent year, with a large-scale war of repression just over, and local turmoil and armed conflicts broke out one after another throughout the country, and there was a tendency to spread rapidly.

Bai Lang, a good man in Henan's green forest, took the lead in raising the banner of rebellion, first gathered hundreds of outlaws to capture the counties in southern Henan, played a prestige, and opened a way out, so that thousands of poor people who could not survive gathered under Bai Lang's battle banner and launched wave after wave of attacks against the county officials, and in only one and a half months, the rebel army of more than 50,000 people occupied more than 30 county towns from southern Henan to southeastern Henan.

In the face of the encirclement and suppression army assembled by officers and soldiers, Bai Lang imitated the strategy and tactics of Li Zicheng, the king of Chuang: if you can fight, you will fight, and if you can't fight, you will leave! More than 50,000 troops that resembled rogue gangsters, crisscrossing thousands of miles from southeast Henan to western Henan, showed amazing destructive power everywhere they went, hundreds of officials and gentry fell to the ground, all the public treasury and wealthy families were looted, and the local army of Henan and a main division sent by Yuan Shikai to suppress it were helpless against the more than 50,000 rebels who traveled hundreds of miles and were tactically flexible.

Under the covert command of the core forces of the Kuomintang, they began to attack the counties and towns in the Yangtze River valley and Guangdong and Fujian provinces after the withdrawal of the army, and the assassination teams commanded by the leaders of the Kuomintang at all levels behind the scenes frequently assassinated and killed important military and political officials in various provinces loyal to Yuan Shikai by means of assassination, explosions, and poisoning, and the major newspapers throughout the country reported the news of the assassination of a famous figure almost every day.

Yuan Shikai, who was furious, began to plan a series of-for-tat assassinations, and the warlords of the Beiyang Army stationed in the provinces took action one after another, launching a massive search and encirclement of the Kuomintang and the rebel army.

The spring of 1914 came in such a bloody storm.

With the help of a staff group secretly dispatched by Xiao Yimin, the commander-in-chief of the Guizhou Army, Lu Mangzi, who was still engaged in frequent fighting between Yunnan and Guizhou provinces in southwest China, abandoned the original frontal confrontation strategy and adopted a more flexible mode of operation, avoiding the superior strength of the Yunnan army's well-equipped forces, no longer entangled in the gains and losses of one city and one place, and shouted the slogan of "taking the elimination of the vital forces of the Yunnan army as the ultimate goal."

In addition to retaining five well-equipped main regiments for mobility, the rest of the troops were divided into pieces and launched elusive attacks on all county towns, transit stations, and transportation arteries where the Yunnan army was stationed, inflicting a heavy price of more than 5,000 casualties on the Yunnan army in just two and a half months, forcing the Yunnan army to abandon a large area of control and retreat into the county towns along the line from Guiyang to Qujing, and endure the fear of death caused by bullets and grenades flying at unknown times every day.

Just when the headquarters of the Yunnan army was planning to increase the number of troops in Guizhou, the more than 1,500 defenders of Dali could not bear the abuse of the new regiment commander and suddenly rebelled, and the people in western Yunnan swarmed up, killing the county officials stationed by the provincial government, attacking the Yunnan troops stationed in the counties, looting weapons and ammunition, burning the county government warehouses, and setting off a vigorous anti-rent and anti-tax movement.

The Yunnan political axe and the headquarters of the Yunnan army hurriedly dispatched troops to suppress it, and because the repression methods were too cruel, it aroused the anger of the people in western Yunnan, and the anti-rent and anti-tax movement soon turned into a violent rebellion of many ethnic groups and regions.

In the face of internal and external troubles, the military and political circles of Yunnan Province had no choice but to compromise with the Sichuan side, took the initiative to request the resumption of bilateral peace talks, which had been suspended for three months, and signed and sealed the peace talks agreement in just one week, took the lead in abolishing the tax inspection posts and military checkpoints all over the Sichuan-Yunnan border areas, promised to protect the legitimate rights and interests and personal safety of Sichuan businessmen in the form of laws and regulations, and hoped to strengthen exchanges and understanding between the two provinces, suspend the commercial trade between Sichuan and Yunnan for a year, and thus return to normal.

Compared with the provinces in the country, the people of Sichuan are undoubtedly very lucky, and every time the people in various places see or hear the tragic news of the national turmoil and local wars published in the newspapers, they will think of the peaceful environment in which they live, think of the various tax reduction and exemption policies that have won the hearts of the people of the New Deal, and think that the peaceful life is so precious and hard-won.

All this is exactly what Xiao Yimin and his local political alliance need most, in high-sounding words: whoever wins the hearts of the people wins the world!

In the most practical words: if you want to ensure that your power is not deprived by the Yuan Shikai group that is eyeing you, and if you want to protect your vested interests for the benefit of future generations, you must unite closely, unite with the outside world, and fight hard.

In the face of the increasing pressure of Yuan Shikai's political axe, the political and military forces in Sichuan were unprecedentedly united, and Xiao Yimin's political status and personality charm rose rapidly.

On 16 February 1914, amid the warm applause of more than 4,500 members of the Chinese Mingzhuo Party, Xiao Yimin officially announced his assumption of the post of vice chairman, and 15 people, including Kuang Youmin, chief of civil affairs of Sichuan, and Zeng Shouwu, speaker of the National Assembly and minister of finance, respectively took up the posts of second vice chairman, secretary general, and standing executive member of the Mingzhuo Party.

At the end of the three-day meeting, Xiao Yimin, in the name of deputy military and political minister, immediately set off for various localities to inspect various units of the Sichuan army.

The trip was very cleverly arranged and very intriguing.

Xiao Yimin's first inspection object was Sun Zhaoluan's headquarters of the Third Division of the Sichuan Army in Daying, the headquarters in the eastern suburbs of Chengdu, and then he went to the Wang Lingji Department of the Fifth Division of the Sichuan Army, which was headquartered in Neijiang, Zhou Jun's headquarters of the First Army of the Sichuan Army, which was headquartered in Wanxian, Wang Jian's Department of the Fourth Division of the Sichuan Army, which was headquartered in Xufu, Peng Guanglie, the headquarters of the Second Division of the Sichuan Army in Leshan, and finally the Ya'an base of the Frontier Army.

It took more than 40 days to walk down such a big circle, and everywhere Xiao Yimin went, the party departments and chambers of commerce of the Mingzhu Party sent rich gifts of condolences to the officers and soldiers of all departments, and accompanied Xiao Xiao Yimin to inspect the troops.

Xiao Yimin delivered an impassioned speech at every unit and held a military meeting with the generals and colonels of various ministries to analyze in detail the situation in the whole country and the military situation in the surrounding provinces of Sichuan, and reminded everyone that it is necessary to strictly train the troops and be ready for war at any time.

In addition to the indispensable reviews, speeches, and high-level military meetings, every day Xiao Yimin stayed in the barracks of various ministries, he would follow the grassroots officers and soldiers to go out and train together as an ordinary soldier.

Faced with the bold challenge of the soldiers, Xiao Yimin immediately faced the battle as long as time permitted, either carrying a rifle and going to a fully armed five-kilometer cross-country race, or putting on protective gear and playing real - holding the wooden Baotou spear in the popular army to fight and assassinate.

Xiao Yimin's approachability and noble character, as well as the martial spirit he displayed, were deeply praised and supported by the officers and men of various departments, and also won the admiration and reverence of the officers of all departments.

It was April 8 when he returned to Chengdu, Xiao Yimin did not rest, and immediately attended the annual meeting of the Sichuan Federation of Industry and Commerce, listened to the summary and plan reports of various industry chambers of commerce, and discussed with everyone to solve the problems in the development of Sichuan industry and commerce, as well as the changes and countermeasures in the domestic and foreign markets in the future.

On the last day of the meeting, Xiao Yimin informed everyone in the form of a special report that the prices of various imported commodities and industrial raw materials had risen by 8%-30% in an important way, and clearly told the delegates:

Due to the large-scale turmoil in Europe and the possibility of a world war, in the next four years, the main energy of the European and American powers will be on Europe, and the vast majority of imported raw materials and machinery and equipment will continue to rise in the price of the world. Establish your own banking system as soon as possible before the crisis hits, and put an end to the inflow of all kinds of currencies from the surrounding provinces without security; Concentrate funds, speed up the establishment of the Qijiang Iron and Steel Plant, encourage the establishment of mines and smelters in various localities, do their utmost to reduce the harm caused by the rapid rise in raw material prices, and even introduce the technology and capital of major iron and steel enterprises in Europe and the United States, and jointly set up factories under the premise of political axe participation, so as to develop Sichuan's coal and smelting industries; Establish a special incentive fund to encourage technological imitation and invention...... Xiao Yimin's special report has brought tremendous shock and positive impact to Sichuan's industrial and commercial circles, and has also set up one foreign enemy after another for him.

First of all, the Chamber of Commerce in China lodged a stern protest against the Yanjing political axe and issued a warning of "trade punishment" against Sichuan and even the three southwestern provinces.

This was followed by a solemn remark by the British ambassador to China, Mr. Chuerdian, who was "shocked and regretted" at the trade conservatism in China's Sichuan, and urged the Yanjing and Sichuan provincial governments to take it seriously and immediately cancel all kinds of retrogressive behaviors that "violate the modern trade system".

As soon as British Ambassador Zhu Erdian's statement came out, Norway, the Netherlands, and seven other small European countries immediately made the same voice, and only Germany, which has established close cooperation with Xiao Yimin, and the United States and France, which have reached consensus with Xiao Yimin and the Sichuan Federation of Industry and Commerce, remained silent.

The Americans, who had been worried about not being able to enter the western Chinese market, quickly moved to contact and cooperate with all walks of life in Sichuan through their commercial office in Chengdu. France, which was unable to lose this rare opportunity for market expansion because of the stagnation of trade and industrial investment due to the war between Sichuan-Yunnan and Yunnan-Guizhou, and even seriously regressed, also sent three trade delegations to Sichuan for inspection and consultation.

Xiao Yimin was calm about the various reactions of the European and American powers, especially the domineering industrial and commercial circles and institutions in China, Xiao Yimin disdained it, and after going to the house of Genjiro Motozuka, a giant businessman, to drink flower wine twice, Xiao Yimin severely criticized the hegemonic behavior of the political axe and the consortium in the China policy in the newspaper, and in response to the proposal of the political axe to set up a consulate general in Chengdu, Xiao Yimin solemnly expressed his attitude and that of the Sichuan army -- resolutely opposed!

Since May, this commodity has begun to be affected by a large number of American goods, from textile machinery to screws, from cheap cloth to clothing, shoes and hats, American goods, German and French goods, and local manufacturing in Sichuan, all of which have launched a very tacit encirclement and suppression of this commodity.

The newly established "Sichuan Baiye Bank," which is located in all counties of Sichuan, openly refused to use any exchange vouchers and checks written by the bank, and the Chamber of Commerce for Local Products under the Sichuan Federation of Industry and Commerce greatly reduced the number of commodities exported to Sichuan.

One evening in late May, Yang Shukan, deputy secretary general of the Kuomintang, who was wanted by Yuan Shikai, quietly came to Chengdu, and accompanied by Major General Liu Bingxian, director of the professor department of the Sichuan Military Academy, he hurriedly entered the Liu family compound in the northwest region of Chengdu.

As the Minister of Military Affairs of Sichuan, the Commander-in-Chief of the Frontier Army, and the Vice Chairman of the Ming Cooking Party, Xiao Yimin is crawling on the grass in the front yard shirtless, like a turtle, and his wife Yi Zhenying is holding her eight-month-old son to sit on Xiao Yimin's back......

(To be continued)