Xiao Yimin's surname was not as good as the chief military advisor Bao Jiqing said, so the next day his newly built engineer battalion was all dispatched, and he drove majestically to the corner of the city wall at the north end of Zhenxing Road, brandishing steel drills, shovels and pickaxes, and began to demolish the walls on a large scale.

Perhaps it really responded to the "Mandate of Heaven" that spread throughout Chengdu overnight, when Qin Shanqi, the commander of the engineer battalion, gave an order, the gloomy clouds parted at some point, shooting out a ray of golden sunlight, illuminating the northern city wall with golden light. After a while, the Wenshu Monastery in the east rang the morning bell, and the chanting of hundreds of monks was melodious and ethereal, spreading all over the world.

After learning of the situation, the citizens of Chengdu were stunned and amazed-God!

Why do you say God? This is closely related to a recent feng shui news circulating in Chengdu:

Two days after the provincial council passed the resolution to open three more city gates, a sloppy and sloppy madman was babbling nonsense on the street, saying that the reason why Chengdu has been stable for a hundred years is entirely due to the "sleeping turtle-shaped" city wall, which was originally a phase of longevity, stability and prosperity, but if three more city gates are opened, this God-given auspicious omen will be destroyed and become a "crawling turtle".

As soon as the turtle crawls, its head will definitely stick out, and the head sticking out is the goods that are knifed, and I am afraid that Chengdu will never be stable in the future.

This rumor is very marketable, no one paid attention to it at first, who knows that it is spreading more and more widely, and the people who have been superstitious for thousands of years are becoming more and more worried, and when the new deal axe finds out that it is not good and wants to refute the rumor, it is too late, and the parliamentarians have said that they should simply ignore it and treat it as if they did not hear it, otherwise the more they refute the rumor, the more it will look like this is happening, and it will make the people more nervous.

After a few more days, the rumors became more abundant that a nobleman who was born and raised would do something great to save the situation, so as to minimize the bad omen and finally stop the disaster.

The results are self-evident, a local native nobleman nicknamed "Little Teapot" really did a big thing, and without greeting anyone, he sent troops to dig up the north city wall, and I heard that it was necessary to donate money to build a bridge in the east, west and north of the city, so as to facilitate the entry and exit of the fathers and villagers in Chengdu, and in the future, carriages and pedestrians will no longer have to crowd on the three small bridges that have been used for hundreds of years.

Many particularly superstitious people quietly went to Qingyang Palace and Wenshu Monastery to inquire about this matter, all the Taoist priests and monks did not directly say "yes", but everyone was dizzy in the clouds, and then a little hint was over, after the confused people came out, their minds were that Xiao Xiaoge was really a noble man who was destined to return, he built bridges and paved roads to dig the north city wall is definitely right, he is accumulating yin virtue for hundreds of thousands of living beings in Chengdu!

The work of opening the city gate went very smoothly, and until the concrete was poured and the topping out began, there was no obstruction from the political axe officials, but the open space on both sides of the newly opened city gate was filled with blessed incense and candles.

Xiao Yimin was not complacent about the success of this little trick, on the contrary, he spent several days with his chief of staff and repeatedly discussed the implementation of the next plan.

On the day when the newly opened city gate was capped, Xiao Yimin, in the name of the commander-in-chief of the Sichuan Border Army and the Sichuan Kang Army Cadet Envoy, sent three telegrams to Yuan Shikai himself and the Ministry of War respectively.

The approximate meaning of the three telegrams is as follows:

1. Request President Yuan Da to restore the honor and military status of Bao Jiqing, the former general of the army stationed in Tibet, and request that Bao Jiqing be conferred the post of chief of staff of the Sichuan Frontier Army; 2. Since the beginning of this month, urgent telegrams have been sent from all parts of Kangzang in succession, saying that the Kang-Tibet rebellion has revived, and there is a great tendency to spark the plains, and the rebellion is only 40 miles away from Ganzi City; 3. I implore that the rations and salaries of the border troops be allocated as soon as possible, otherwise it will be difficult for the officers and men of the 3,500 border armies to carry out the most basic military training and they will be reduced to the point of eating chaff and vegetables.

In the afternoon of the same day, the three telegrams were all placed on Yuan Shikai's desk, Yuan Shikai read the content of the message, and laughed rarely, and suddenly found that he didn't know this Bao Jiqing, and hurriedly asked Yang Du and Liang Shiyi on the side.

Liang Shiyi hurriedly persuaded: "Don't leave this Bao Jiqing in Chengdu, this person was admitted to the Jinshi one year earlier than his subordinates, and he is one year younger than his subordinates, he was both civil and military when he was young, and he was a rare and outstanding figure in the Mongolian people.

Nine years ago, Feng Quan, the minister in Tibet, was ordered to go to Lhasa, and Bao Jiqing, who served as the commander of the Janissary after returning from the country, volunteered to go to Chengdu as a partial general until Feng Quan was killed, and did not hear the news of Bao Jiqing.

"Earlier, my subordinates thought that he died in the counterinsurgency war in Kangzang, but I didn't expect him to be alive, such a talent, it's a pity to stay in Chengdu!"

"That's true, Dashuai, Bao Jiqing's famous subordinates have also heard that there is a way to be a vain under fame, so Dashuai should recruit him to his side." Yang Du completely agreed with Liang Shiyi's opinion.

Yuan Shikai hesitated, looked down at the telegram, and then looked at the two telegrams of the resurgence of the Kang-Tibet rebellion and Xiao Yimin's request for military salaries, and after careful consideration in his heart, he finally said generously:

"Since Xiao Yimin, this kid has taken a fancy to this Bao Jiqing, let him stay in the Sichuan border army, there is a way that a gentleman does not take the favor of others, as the supreme commander of the whole army, how can I be embarrassed to rob people with a small character? If you spread it, people will laugh at it

"Besides, Xiao Yimin, this kid is only twenty-two years old, and it's better to have an old and respectful person by his side to help him, not to mention that I already have you two prodigies, what more can I ask for? That's it, that's it! ”

Liang Shiyi and Yang Du were both sorry and moved, and they all bowed deeply to Yuan Shikai.

Yuan Shikai smiled and signaled that the two were not polite, and then kindly instructed Liang Shiyi:

"Yifu, you help me prepare a call back to Xiao Yimin, just say that I know about Bao Jiqing, the military department will meet his plea, and the appointment of Bao Jiqing will be issued immediately, so that he can guard against arrogance and rashness and train well. As for the food and salary of the border army, let him figure it out by himself, it's not right to cry to me about poverty in the country of abundance; On the issue of the resurgence of border turmoil, I also instructed Yin Changheng, the governor of Sichuan, to handle it. Let him calm the chaos, I just can't find a chance to vent my anger for my unjustly killed old in-laws, it's a pity not to use this opportunity! ”

"The subordinates understand, let's do it!" Liang Shiyi bowed slightly and quietly retreated.

Yang Du returned to the front office and sat down, the more he thought about it, the more he felt that the young commander-in-chief of the border army in Sichuan was not simple, if it weren't for the fact that there was a master behind him, it would be difficult to come up with such a meticulous plan, even if there was really a master, this Xiao Yimin was also a handsome man who knew how to make good use of people and was as good as a stream, such people can be regarded as rare among the younger generation!

From this time on, Yang Du really fell in love with Xiao Yimin.

The next time, Yin Changheng, the governor of Sichuan, was secretly proud of the success of installing his confidant and classmate Hu Jingyi in Yucheng to take charge of the army and squeezing the ambitious Xiong Kewu out of Chengdu, when a telegram from the Yanjing War Department came, ordering Yin Changheng to report the situation of the Kang-Tibet rebellion as quickly as possible, and to be ready to go out to quell the rebellion at any time.

Yin Changheng panicked and immediately called a group of henchmen to discuss together.

None of the generals knew about the rebellion in the Kang-Tibet area, and only Yin Changheng's new confidential secretary knew something about the situation, and immediately found out the letters for help sent by Phuntsok of the Ganzi garrison several times and read them aloud to everyone.

Yin Changheng was distracted by how to drive out the Dian army and recover the artesian wells and southern Sichuan regions, the source of taxes, and immediately asked dissatisfiedly:

"Isn't this something that the border army should be in charge of? If the War Department doesn't go to Xiao Yimin, what are you looking for me for? ”

Peng Guanglie, the commander of the second division, stood up and said: "My lord, I'm afraid that Yuan Dashuai and the War Department have their considerations, although Xiao Yimin was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the border army, but today's border army is no longer yesterday's border army, Xiao Yimin can use the newly established and insufficient troops to prevaricate, but you can't, my lord, you are the highest military and political commander in Sichuan, just like this time when the first division of our army was dispatched south to drive away the Yunnan army, only if we make some achievements, can we gain the trust and support of all walks of life, if this matter is not handled well, I'm afraid that all the previous efforts will be in vain! ”

Yin Changheng nodded slightly, motioned for Peng Guanglie to sit down, thought for a moment and suddenly asked, "Didn't Zhong Ying already lead his troops back to Ya'an?" ”

Seeing that Yin Changheng still had to shirk his responsibility, the generals couldn't help but look at each other.

The new chief of staff, Wang Youyu, had no choice but to stand up: "My lord, Zhong Ying's department has been divided, his chief of staff Wang Lingji has returned to Chengdu, and the rest of the battalion commanders such as Chen Qing, Zhang Baochu, Chen Xiumei, and more than ten company platoon commanders have left the team and returned to their hometowns, or are watching around.

"The subordinates feel that if the adults are not easy to deal with for a while, they might as well delay it on the grounds that they need to fully understand the situation of the rebels, and things may have a turn for the better."

When the generals heard this, they nodded again and again, and Yin Changheng secretly breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that it was okay, as long as he could get a buffer for a period of time, there would always be a way to solve it.

In particular, on the night of the Chengdu mutiny, the arsenal was looted, and the late rebels could not get anything, so they set fire to all the warehouses of the arsenal in a fit of rage, causing the personnel of the arsenal to flee and suffer heavy losses.

Yin Changheng suddenly remembered that when Zhao Erxun was still in power, he seemed to have purchased a full set of machinery and equipment for 2 million yuan from Germany through Huaxi Company, and the sorrow in his heart was swept away, and he hurriedly reported the matter to the generals.

The generals were excited, this one said that they wanted the machine to resume production, and the other said that they didn't want the machine to return two million, and it was only right to get the money in their hands and put it in their pockets. Speaking of the end, everyone was worried: who went to negotiate with Xiao Yimin? That's a smiling tiger who kills people without blinking! If you really want to offend him, you must not have a good time!

In the end, it was Yin Changheng who made a decisive decision:

"Didn't Speaker Zhang Lan have a personal relationship with Xiao Yimin? Just let Zhang Lan go! I want to see what else Xiao Yimin has to say, if he has the guts, he'd better swallow the two million dollars in one bite, I'm worried that I have no excuse to clean him up! ”

(To be continued)