Sichuan Governor Yin Changheng has been in a very painful situation recently, and finally sought the appearance of leading figures in all aspects, and reached a verbal reconciliation with Xiao Yimin with difficulty.

In addition, Yuan Shikai, who had just been sworn in as interim president, and the inspectors sent by the War Department raised their eyebrows and raised their eyebrows all day long to find fault with the Governor's Mansion, Yin Changheng didn't even have a chance to sleep peacefully, and his highly tense nerves tensed up all night, when will this kind of talk come to an end?

The first spring rain fell outside the window, and the dripping raindrops were very annoying, but they couldn't stop the carriages from gathering in Mingyuan Building from all directions.

In addition to Zhang Peijue, the deputy governor of Yucheng, the three division commanders of the first to third divisions of the newly organized Sichuan Army, Xiong Kewu, who grabbed the number of the fifth division of the Sichuan Army, and Liu Cunhou, who was satisfied with taking over the number of the fourth division of the Sichuan Army, Zhang Lan, chairman of the provincial assembly, and the responsible persons of various departments and bureaus such as civil affairs, transportation, taxation, and police, should gather together to discuss how to restore the province's tax revenue. I can't live anymore.

In front of the governor's office on the top floor of the Mingyuan Building, Sun Zhaoluan, the new chief of staff of the Sichuan Army, pushed open the hidden door, hurried in, and handed Yin Changheng a telegram: "I just received an urgent telegram from Shanghai. ”

"Remember to knock next time!"

Yin Changheng put down the brush in his hand, glanced at Sun Zhaoluan unhappily, took the message and checked it slowly, and suddenly, Yin Changheng jumped up and roared loudly at Sun Zhaoluan:

"How so? Yes?! How so? Didn't you swear that Xiao Yimin would take care of the overall situation and would not retaliate again? Why didn't he give up, even Xie Jiong, who fled to Shanghai and hid? Why?! ”

"This adult, Xie Jiong did too much at that time, and even Xu Weiyue's pregnant concubine didn't let go......

"Shut up!"

Yin Changheng kicked the chair away: "Xie Jiong is guilty, I don't have any opinion on Xiao Yimin killing Xie Jiong, but why did he kill all the seventy or eighty members of Xie Jiong's family?" It's not enough to kill it, and hang all your heads on the telephone poles in the Shanghai Public Concession, this is not something that people can do, this is a beast! It's a madman, it's a mad beast! ”

Yin Changheng's roar spread throughout the entire Mingyuan Building in an instant, so frightened that all the officers passing by the door ran away, and no one wanted to touch his moldy head at this time.

Sun Zhaoluan smiled miserably, wiped the foam off his face, took a step back, and gave Yin Changheng a dignified military salute:

"My lord, the old mother of the subordinate family is seriously ill and can no longer serve in the army. Please take care and see you soon! ”

Yin Changheng stared blankly at Sun Zhaoluan, who left without hesitation, screamed in annoyance, and swept away everything on the huge desktop, and a broken sound suddenly sounded in the wide office, and the flying manuscript paper floated around for a long time.

Downstairs in Mingyuan in the imperial city, a pair of eyes looked upstairs in dismay, and Liu Cunhou, who was smiling, walked up to Xiong Kewu, who was frowning, smiled with goodwill, and then asked in a low voice:

"Brother Jinfan came so quickly? I heard that I just went to the North Campus, why did I come back so soon? ”

Xiong Kewu snorted coldly, and then laughed self-deprecatingly: "People are not at home, deliberately avoiding us, unwilling to come to the meeting, brother, I don't hurry back, are you still sitting there waiting for tea?" ”

"Oh! However, Liu heard that Brother Yiming personally sent the old man from Yanjing out of the east gate early in the morning, and the accompanying carriage was full of local specialties such as Shu embroidery and antelope skin, which was probably delayed and there was no time to come over for a meeting" Liu Cunhou's face was full of gentle smiles.

Xiong Kewu may have been a little tired from the muscles on his face, put away his smile, and asked strangely, "Could it be that Brother Feiji also attended the farewell banquet of the Xiao Mansion last night?" ”

Liu Cunhou smiled and shook his head: "I don't have that blessing!" But Brother Yiming is also very interesting, yesterday afternoon he sold Liu 500 'Leopard brand' shell guns and 100,000 rounds of ammunition, and he is still very supportive of Liu's fourth brother, no, Liu smashed the pot and sold iron, and finally set up the pistol battalion, haha! ”

The corners of Xiong Kewu's eyes twitched a few times, and under the pretext that there was an old friend in front of him, he hurriedly turned around and left, I don't know how many times he secretly scolded Liu Cunhou who disgusted him in his heart.

Liu Cunhou was triumphant, his smile was extraordinarily happy, and he turned to Zhang Peijue, the deputy governor who had just come over: "Lord Governor, why do you have a bad face?" ”

The emaciated deputy governor Zhang Peijue helped his myopic glasses, took off the big cap, took out a handkerchief, and sighed while wiping his sweat:

"The Governor suddenly felt unwell, the meeting was rescheduled to tomorrow, I have to go back to see it first, the broken yard where I live is full of water, and if I don't go back, I don't have to sleep tonight."

After Zhang Peijue finished speaking, he loudly announced the news of the rescheduling of the meeting, and the more than 100 officials who were talking in a pile in the hall were stunned, chattering for a while, and finally could only leave one after another in despair, and the vast hall was soon empty, leaving only dirty footprints and water stains all over the ground.

On the wall of the north gate, Xiao Yimin, who refused to hold an umbrella from his subordinates, was talking cordially with the officers and soldiers guarding the city gate, and from the upright bodies and eager eyes of the officers and soldiers, it was easy to see their respect and love for the commander Xiao Yimin.

Xiao Yimin returned after seeing off Yuan Shikai and the envoy of the Ministry of War, and after entering the city, he suddenly remembered the notice sent by the parliament the day before yesterday, so he temporarily decided to climb the city wall to visit his brothers, and from tomorrow, the defense of the north gate will be officially handed over to the Chengdu Police Department to take over.

After talking with the officers and soldiers, Xiao Yimin, who was full of interest, walked west along the city wall, and said with a smile that he would not go down until he walked to the west gate. A group of officers behind him are happy to walk the city wall, after all, there are not many such opportunities, and they can enjoy the city of Chengdu in the spring rain while walking.

The scenery outside the city wall is very charming, misty and rainy, fascinating, but the inside of the city wall is not good-looking, from the east of the city to the west of the city, from the south of the city to the north of the city, there are dug roads and demolished walls everywhere, the whole city is muddy, the north of the east gate and the west gate, the west of the south gate of the city wall has been dug up, and three new city gates have been added at the same time, and the names have been given.

The reason why this huge urban renovation project has won the support of the people is that the huge losses caused after the Chengdu mutiny, dozens of bustling streets have been burned down, and hundreds of thousands of people live on the temporary ruins.

Ten days before the Spring Festival, the proposal jointly submitted by the provincial political axe, the Ministry of Military Affairs and the newly established Chengdu Municipal Government Axe was easily approved by more than half of the members of the provincial assembly, and the construction began the next day.

Xiao Yimin walked to the city wall above the north end of Zhenxing Road and stopped, looking at the wide asphalt road in the city and the tall buildings neatly arranged on both sides.

Only Bao Jiqing, the new chief of staff of the border army who is tall and full of vicissitudes of life, does not join in this excitement, he carefully looks at several large factories outside the city, and then walks to the edge of the city wall and leans down to look down, observes for a long time, returns to Xiao Yimin's side, half-closed deep sunken eyes, and points to his feet: "Commander, dig from here!" ”

The brothers turned their heads in surprise and looked at the chief of staff with a face like a knife, and Bao Jiqing still looked at the straight Zhenxing Road in the south, without any expression on his face.

Xiao Yimin was heartbroken, pointed to the brothers around him, and said loudly:

"See? This is where the chief of staff has a lofty vision, and you are all looking at the flowers, have you ever noticed that this place is the key point related to our survival? As long as a passage is opened from under our feet and a bridge is built, the three important factories outside the city and the entire northwest area of the city can be connected, plus the land adjacent to the big camp outside the western city wall that we bought, forming a complete defensive area, to put it mildly, a kingdom of reading that cannot be splashed by water. ”

Only then did all the brothers suddenly realize that their eyes were different when they looked at Bao Jiqing.

"Commander, can you not pass the provincial council?"

Adjutant Zheng Changze asked in a low voice, and the brothers looked at Xiao Yimin with concern.

Xiao Yimin was just about to ask Bao Jiqing to explain, but Bao Jiqing snorted disdainfully, tightly Ying [***] used the collar of his raincoat and walked slowly west without saying a word, as if this problem was not worth his explanation at all.

Xiao Yimin was not unhappy at all, but asked Zheng Changze with an ambiguous face: "Changze, you said that none of us care, build a city gate by ourselves, what will be the reaction of all walks of life in Chengdu?" ”

Zheng Changze and the brothers were all thinking, and Zheng Yi said with a grin: "Who dares to react? If you dig it, you dig it, will anyone dare to come and bite our follicles? ”

The brothers burst into laughter, and Xiao Yimin couldn't help laughing and scolding, making everyone want to go by themselves.

Bao Jiqing, who walked more than a dozen steps to the west, was also happy, he stopped and turned around, beckoning to Zheng Yi, who hurriedly ran over, walked slowly with him, and asked the chief of staff to talk to him well with his eyebrows, and see what other good tricks there are in addition to hard work.

Bao Jiqing likes the brave, capable, brave and loyal Zheng Yi very much, and Bao Jiqing's wife was carried out of the fire by Zheng Yi at that time, so Bao Jiqing patiently explained to Zheng Yi:

"Don't think that the commander is hot-headed, I guess he has already made up his mind, the reason why he asked you is completely in the hope that you can use your brains more, in addition to charging into battle, an excellent general must learn to deal with all kinds of complex issues, including military and civil affairs related to himself, understand?"

Zong Yi scratched his head: "Understand some, not all of it, I don't know what the commander will do?" ”

Bao Jiqing smiled: "How to do it?" In less than three days, he will definitely dig up the city wall, and no one can stop it, this is not recklessness, but a declaration of power and majesty!

"The reason why the commander gave up all his interests in this huge old city reform and did not take over any of the works, apart from seeing at a glance the new political axe, was to devote his strength to this place and the cavalry battalion to the west of the camp.

"Secondly, in less than a month, the hundreds of thousands of taels of silver that the New Deal Axe managed to get back will definitely run out, the businessmen who contracted the project will stop work if they have no money, and the hundreds of thousands of people who have been taken away from their homesteads by the political axe for street expansion will not have the money to build houses, and they will definitely unite to make trouble at that time, and who will be able to solve this big problem at that time?"

"Of course it's our commander! I can't think of anyone else who can carry it but the commander...... Chief of Staff, I understand everything you say that! Zong Yi was impressed.

Bao Jiqing said with a smile: "Also, in the past few days, you have also seen that officials at all levels of the New Deal Axe and major businessmen in Chengdu have come to visit the commander with their eyes, and the commander is so kind to everyone.

"Zheng Yi, don't think that you kid is just opening a city gate and occupying a piece of land, it's very complicated, it not only involves a competition for the highest power in Sichuan, but also affects the future of each group, which can be said to affect the whole body!"

Zong Yi thought about it along this line of thought, but in the end he still didn't think of the key, and said with his mouth open: "That's right! The political axe has no money and can only rely on selling land to tide over the difficulties! By the way, in the past few days, the two hosts of Qingyang Palace and Wenshu Monastery have also sent people, and they all came quietly after nightfall, I don't know what they discussed with the commander? ”

"It's very simple, as long as you pay close attention to the rumors all over the city, you will know the commander's foresight."

Bao Jiqing sighed when he said this, stopped his steps, looked back at Xiao Yimin, who was chatting and laughing with the brothers in the back, pulled this Yi Yi's arm, and continued to move forward:

"Zongyi, from now on, you have to learn more and think more, follow the commander closely, pay attention to how he behaves and makes decisions, and you will be useful for life if you learn well! Speaking of which, both of us are blessed people, we have met such a worldly talent as the commander, and God treats us well......"

(To be continued)