In the early morning of the next morning, the burning Dahong Mountain gradually extinguished, the smoke still filled the sky, and most of the officers and men of the two regiments who had launched a search in the face of the scorching heat and mountain fires also withdrew.

Ogasa's body was placed in front of all Chinese and foreign journalists and diplomats at dawn.

The two bandit leaders, Zhang Minghe and Lu Yanshou, whose knees were shattered by bullets, were also escorted to the crowd, and the old-fashioned German-made radio station, 14 telegrams, and more than 300 Chinese-made rifles and training manuals found from the stone cave in the mountain behind the Juyi Hall were neatly placed in front of the stone mill on the platform, and many Chinese and foreign reporters faithfully recorded this precious historical scene with their cameras.

What surprised all the soldiers who participated in the war was not the large amount of money and antique calligraphy and paintings seized during the two-week anti-bandit operation, but the sudden arrival of the commander-in-chief, Xiao Yimin, by train.

After greeting the officers and men of the Second Division, Xiao Yimin immediately entered the temporary headquarters and held talks with George and the six other leaders of the joint investigation team.

After repeated consideration and difficult persuasion, the joint investigation team gave up its request to send the captured 20 or so bandit leaders to the Shanghai Public Concession for trial, and agreed to Xiao Yimin's proposal to set up the trial court in the Nanjing Supreme Court.

Don't underestimate this small concession, this is the initiative that China has never gained in major foreign-related cases since the late Manchu Qing Dynasty, which shows that Nanjing's judicial reading power has been recognized by the great powers, and more importantly, Xiao Yimin has changed the strong position of the great powers in the past hundred years and won the power that should belong to him for the country.

After a simple breakfast, Xiao Yimin politely asked several diplomats: "My special train stops in the small town in the west, if you are interested, please go back to Nanjing together." ”

George and others readily agreed, and most of the more than 100 Chinese and foreign reporters were willing to follow Xiao Yimin's train back to Nanjing.

Before the team left, Xiao Yimin took the time to go to the door to thank the villagers in Mazhuang, and presented the captured 50 rifles and more than 3,000 rounds of ammunition to the old man Ma, and finally boarded the war horse under the farewell of the whole village.

Walking to the entrance of the village, Xiao Yimin suddenly stopped, called Xiao Fei, the division commander who saw him off, and asked in a low voice: "The mountain road from Mazhuang to Xiji Town is twenty kilometers, right?" ”

"Twenty-two and a half kilometers." Xiao Fei answered accurately.

Xiao Yimin pointed to the path under his feet: "If it is doubled, how long will it take for your engineer battalion?" ”

Xiao Fei was stunned for a moment, and quickly completed his mental arithmetic: "Twenty days, but if you can blow up the mountainside four kilometers and eleven kilometers ahead, and build two wooden bridges of about twenty meters, you can shorten the distance by at least five kilometers, and the whole road will become narrow because of those two places, and because of this, there are two more extremely difficult slopes to walk, and it will be difficult for the carriage to go a little more." ”

"Okay, you are in charge of the construction, Dahong Mountain and several mountains on the side have burned it down for us, seeing the big tree trunks standing on the bare mountain, I don't feel a taste in my heart, they are all hundred-year-old trees, so it should be regarded as our compensation to the villagers in Mazhuang." Xiao Yimin commanded in a low voice.

"Yes! Mission completion guaranteed! ”

The train was sent off by many Shandong officials and officers of the local garrison, and slowly headed south.

At this point, Xiao Yimin was finally freed from the cumbersome farewell etiquette, and soon after the train departed, he got into the toilet at the back of the carriage and let go of the stagnant water that had been held for more than an hour.

When he walked out of the toilet door, Xiao Yimin saw the familiar intelligence agent Li Yufen, and hurriedly signaled the guards not to stop him.

Li Yufen pressed her excitement, and after greeting her, she introduced the handsome British reporter behind her to Xiao Yimin:

"This is Mr. Woodgate, a reporter of The Times in Nanjing, we happened to be on the train when the robbery occurred, and then we did not rush to Yanjing to cover the conference, but stayed in Tengxian County to wait, and then we followed General Wang Qian's troops to interview and suppress the bandits.

Xiao Yiming stretched out his hand to Woodgate and shook it: "Fortunately! Mr. Woodgate. ”

"It's a pleasure to meet you, General!"

Woodgate didn't expect to see Xiao Yimin so easily, and greeted Xiao Yimin a little flattered: "General, can you accept our interview...... Of course, not necessarily now, but also in the future, I am based in Nanjing, and I have had the honor to attend many press conferences held by the general. ”

Xiao Yimin smiled happily: "No problem, I am willing to discuss with you the issues of mutual concern...... Well, after lunch, I'll have two hours to spare, and if you can find time, I'd like to sit down with you and have a good conversation. ”

"Great! Thank you, General! We will definitely be there on time. Woodgate was excited, and Li Yufen also shouted happily.

Xiao Yimin returned to the special carriage and immediately met with George, the British Consul General in Qingdao. Royce held a one-on-one meeting.

After drinking half a cup of mellow hot tea, Xiao Yimin finally got to the point:

"Mr. Royce, during my fifteen-day stay in Yanjing, I had four pleasant talks with your minister, Mr. Zhu Erdian, among which there was an important topic concerning the future of Qingdao and the direction of its future development. You are a respected diplomat, and having served as a diplomat in four regions of China for eight years, and it is fair to say that you are as familiar with China's past and present as Mr. Zhu Erdian, so I would like to have an open and honest exchange with you on how to build Qingdao into a civilized, open, vibrant, and international city. ”

George. Royce was taken aback, but after thinking about it, he couldn't help but smile: "General, Qingdao is still in my hands, is it too early to talk about the future of Qingdao now?" ”

Xiao Yimin waved his hand: "Not early, not early...... He said that he would evacuate Qingdao and the Jiaodong Peninsula by the end of the year at the latest, and this was necessary, and he also received the support of the peace-loving Mr. Zhu Erdian of your country, the ministers of the United States and France, and the envoys of nine European and American countries in China. ”

George stared at Xiao Yimin's eyes in disbelief: "I have to say, General, you shocked me very much, if all this is true, I have to pay you a heartfelt salute!" ”

Xiao Yimin was happy: "It's true, but I also paid a huge price for it." First of all, I have pledged the traditional interests of Britain, France, the United States, and other European countries in Canton, and promised that within one year, the local railway company set up by the political axe of Guangdong Province will open up a trade route between Guangzhou and Jiangsu, Hunan, and Hubei, mainly to facilitate the export of precious metals and native products from Jiangxi and Hunan provinces, of which you, the British, have obtained a 32 percent share;

"Secondly, I agreed to Mr. Zhu Erdian's request and handed over the right to build the railway from Nanchang to Ganzhou and half of the equity to the British company. In addition, I intend to make China's three northeastern provinces open to international investment, and to make the ports of Arthur and Dalian free ports, but the customs must be under the direct jurisdiction of the central government and the Ministry of Finance, and the tax on all incoming and outgoing goods and minerals is only a negligible 5 percent. ”

George's mouth was wide open, not knowing how to respond to Xiao Yimin's bold promises and British policy.

However, if all this can be carried out smoothly, it will certainly be dealt a heavy blow, and the capital and multinational corporations of European and American countries will inevitably rush in, which will be enough to change the world's China policy.

Seeing George's stunned appearance, Xiao Yimin politely added half a cup of hot tea to him, and then turned the topic to the Qingdao issue: "Let's talk about the future of Qingdao, according to the development plan of our Nanjing Xingying Economic Committee......"

"I'm sorry, general, I'm a little confused, even if this army withdraws from Qingdao, I'm afraid that the future of Qingdao will need to be directly governed by Yanjing Zhengaxe, right?"

George is not really confused, but has realized an extremely important information from Xiao Yimin's words, that is, Xiao Yimin is determined to win Qingdao, so he dares to speak like this, but George needs to reconfirm his inference.

Xiao Yimin stared at George's somewhat unnatural eyes, and after a long while, he smiled slightly: "Okay, let's continue to discuss...... In fact, there has been no problem with the ownership of the entire Shandong region since the appointment of General Wu Peifu was announced, don't tell me that you don't know that General Wu Peifu is my friend and my staunch supporter. ”

George smiled embarrassedly: "That's true, this matter has been a public fact for a long time, and I know that General Wu Peifu is a strong supporter of the nationalization of the army, and the three infantry divisions he led have received strong support from you, and in the second half of last year alone, General Wu Peifu sent more than 300 outstanding soldiers and officers to the Sichuan Army Military Academy, am I right?" ”

Xiao Yimin nodded happily: "Now let's go back to the theme of Qingdao, can we?" ”

George shrugged helplessly: "There is a saying in China that it is better to be respectful than to obey your fate." ”

Xiao Yimin couldn't help but wonder: "Mr. Royce, you have become a China expert, amazing!" Well, I'll be blunt, we need your support very much, just as we need American and German companies to invest and build factories in China. I have known you for some time and know that your family is a respected and powerful family in Birmingham, England, where your father and your two younger brothers respectively owned the Birmingham Machinery Manufacturing Company, the Special Steel Smelting Company and several affiliated military machinery manufacturing plants......

"By the way, you have an uncle who is a professor at the Royal Naval College, and your father is a shareholder of the venerable Birmingham Football Club, and I was very surprised and envious when I got the report of this, and you know that I love football and that I plan to form my own football team to compete in the football club league that will be held next year in the southern provinces of China."

George. Royce was finally really shocked, staring at Xiao Yimin with a smile on his face, unable to say a word, and let out a long sigh after a while: "General, you have surprised me too much, it is not a pleasant thing to talk to you, in front of you, I have a sense of embarrassment without clothes, as if all my secrets have been seen through by you." ”

"This is mutual understanding, if you are offended, please bear with me." Xiao Yimin expressed his apologies very sincerely.

George shook his head helplessly: "Say, General, what do you need me to do?" However, I would like to declare first that I will never do anything that harms the interests of the British Empire, even if I am not the consul general! ”

Xiao Yimin laughed: "It's serious, it's serious!" I will not ask you to do what you do not want to do, let alone hurt the Sino-British relations that have finally moved towards friendly and healthy development, and everything I need to ask you to do next is not only good for China, but also good for British politics, British business and even your family!

"You know, I advocate friendship and cooperation, pursue a win-win situation with each other, and will never hurt the interests of others for personal interests, which is my principle of life."

George hesitated for a moment, and finally nodded heavily: "I believe that the general's character has always been admirable...... However, the general's vindictiveness is too unacceptable to accept, and I really don't know how today's exchange will affect my future. ”

Xiao Yimin couldn't help but laugh again, and after laughing, he took out a document from the briefcase next to him, George took it with both hands, and was immediately attracted by the English title on the cover, and no longer cared about any etiquette or politeness, and immediately couldn't wait to read it.

Half an hour later, George slowly closed the papers, only to feel his heart beating violently......

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ps: Friendly recommendation Chengdu writer Wangchen's new book "Immortal Dust Soul" (2492960), when the dust soul comes to the world...... He is obsessed with all the feelings of the world, and his body is sonorous and does not extinguish blood; The left hand seals the heavens and the earth, and the right hand destroys the evil; Break the falsehood, take the true self, and walk your own way.

Tears are dry, blood is gone, and the body is ruined, but the dust and soul are not extinguished!

Let's see how the protagonist clears the layers of fog to reveal the mystery of the ancients, break free from the shackles of fate, and cultivate the world in the world.

This is a fairy road, dusty heart, and chivalrous love......

(To be continued)