Song Zhewu promised to reduce the military salary, which made Yan Xishan very happy, but hearing Song Zhewu say that he had another request, it suddenly made Yan Xishan's already relieved heart rise again.

"When I set up the security brigade in Tianjin, Zhang Zongchang just gave me a number, and didn't care about anything else. It's just that it's okay to raise military salaries, but it's absolutely impossible to lower military salaries, because then Zhewu will lose his trust in the troops, and it will even lead to the discouragement of the army, and it is absolutely impossible to do it in this critical situation. ”

"The troops of the former Fourth Route Army stationed in Outer Mongolia and Laiyuan have a total of 425638 people, and if the commander-in-chief approves and distributes them according to the current standards of the Jin Sui Army, even if Chiang Kai-shek is ousted from power in three months, Zhewu will need to make up for the military expenses of 10 million ......."

Speaking of this, Song Zhewu hesitated for a while and said: "The commander-in-chief's difficulties Zhewu understands, and he is willing to share his worries for the commander-in-chief, but after driving out Chiang Kai-shek, can the commander-in-chief hand over Henan and Tianjin to me together." ”

Song Zhewu asked for Tianjin, but Yan Xishan did not care, although Tianjin is the first gateway to foreign trade in the north and a major financial and tax place, Yan Xishan has also been working hard to operate, but compared with driving out Chiang Kai-shek and then entering Nanjing, Tianjin is very insignificant.

Moreover, the current Tianjin garrison commander Fu Zuoyi is also very different from Song Zhewu. Although Fu Zuoyi is one of his thirteen Taibao and a trusted general he single-handedly raised, he is not his absolute confidant, not to mention driving away Chiang Kai-shek, he can give Fu Zuoyi a provincial chairman, and I believe that the arrogant Fu Yisheng will not be unhappy.

What's more, Song Zhewu raised the whole army to vote for him Yan Xishan, and in just a few months, he asked Song Zhewu to pay tens of millions of dollars out of his own pocket, and it was really unreasonable to give some compensation.

Yan Xishan waved his hand and said happily: "Okay! Good! Wen Ge understands the righteousness, understands the righteousness, and can understand Meng's difficulties, Meng Ke wants to thank Wen Ge! As for Tianjin, it will be done according to Wenge's wishes. There is one thing that Meng still has to make clear to Wen Ge first, after driving out Chiang Kai-shek, there are still more than 3 million troops in the country, and it is impossible for them to be supplied with such a high military salary as the original Fourth Route Army, and it is impossible for Meng to list such a high military salary for Wen Ge alone. ”

Yan Xishan was telling the truth, the salary of the three million troops was an astronomical amount even if weapons and ammunition were not counted, and the central government in Nanjing had long been overwhelmed, which was another reason for Chiang Kai-shek to consider disarmament. If Yan Xishan was in charge of Nanjing, he would naturally not raise his military salaries.

It's just that the biggest difference between Yan Xishan and Chiang Kai-shek is that if Chiang Kai-shek thinks that giving Song Zhewu's troops a high salary can effectively win over Song Zhewu, he will never disagree to pay Song Zhewu in full, and only after defeating the anti-Chiang coalition will Chiang Kai-shek find various reasons to take away the high salary of the Fourth Route Army. At that time, if Song Zhewu was dissatisfied, even Chiang Kai-shek would not mind eating Song Zhewu and his Fourth Route Army in one bite. He would never say something ugly like Yan Xishan.

"This matter of the northern frontier defense is still Wenge, you can rest assured, after Meng sees it, Wenge will set up a northern frontier governor's office in Tianjin, which can just lead the troops left in the north for Meng. Meng's finance and taxes in Tianjin were left to Wenge to supplement the lack of military salaries. ”

Yan Xishan thought that just giving Song Zhewu an extra Tianjin was really not enough to reward Song Zhewu, and giving Song Zhewu a position as the commander of the Northern Frontier Governor's Office, Song Zhewu would become a person with great power like Zhang Xueliang. The difference is that Song Zhewu will have many troops under Yan Xishan's orders.

Although Yan Xishan gave Song Zhewu two big "sweet dates", he was still a little uneasy in his heart, he was afraid that Song Zhewu would worry about his lack of military spending, which would affect his loyalty.

"As for military spending, don't worry too much about Wenge, our military spending is still guaranteed. Meng has already negotiated a loan with the French-American and Belfau Bank Company, and plans to borrow 20 million yuan in the initial stage, and this matter is now handled by Lu Zongyu in Tianjin, and it is believed that it will be negotiated soon. In addition, there is also the tax revenue of Tianjin Customs controlled by the British, which has more than 20 million yuan every year, and in addition to repaying debts, the remaining tax revenue every month is deposited in the Tianjin branch of HSBC and remitted to the Nanjing Ministry of Finance on a quarterly basis. As long as the war is together, Meng will immediately let Yisheng take over the customs, and all the taxes remitted to Nanjing will be kept for our military. ”

"In addition, the taxes that should have been paid by the four provinces of Jin, Sui, Chacha, and Hebei have been ordered to be withheld, so that the military expenditure can be supported until October. Mongolia estimates that the war will end in three to five months at most......"

Yan Xishan talked to Song Zhewu for a long time before he reluctantly prepared to leave.

Song Zhewu pretended to be apprehensive and said to Yan Xishan: "Commander-in-chief, ...... today I also went to see Chairman Shang, who was kind to me after all......"

Although Yan Xishan had long known that Song Zhewu had gone to see Shang Zhen, he still wanted to hear Song Zhewu tell him personally.

Yan Xishan stopped, looked at Song Zhewu and said with emotion: "Since ancient times, Yan Zhao has been a chivalrous man, and this is really true. Wen Ge Zhi'en Tu Bao, he is really a man's husband! Montvengo, three lives are fortunate! Three lives are lucky! ”

Then he said with some embarrassment: "Meng and Qiyu are actually some small misunderstandings, Qiyu has fought Guo Jian, Fan Zhongxiu, Fengjun, and the National Army in Shanxi over the years. Meng Ke remembers all these credits of Qiyu, Wen Ge has time to persuade Qiyu more, Meng very much hopes to reconcile with Qiyu and conspire with great things. ”

Yan Xishan's attitude had long been expected by Song Zhewu, if Yan Xishan was dissatisfied with his visit to Shang Zhen, it would not be Yan Xishan.

Song Zhewu nodded and said, "Commander-in-chief, Zhewu will definitely persuade Chairman Shang if he has the opportunity, but Zhewu asks the commander-in-chief to keep Chairman Shang safe." ”

Yan Xishan nodded briskly in agreement. "Wen Ge rest assured, as long as there is Meng, no one will dare to be unreasonable to Qiyu."

Then, Yan Xishan patted Song Zhewu on the shoulder and said, "In addition to Cilong for Qiyu to intercede, there is Wenge you." ”

Then he said slowly: "Wenge doesn't know yet, right? In his early years, Qiyu served as a staff officer in the army's 20 towns, and Feng Huanzhang served as a pipe band in the 20 towns and 80 standards, and the two became brothers at that time. ”

In the eighth year of the Republic of China, Yan Xishan in view of the 105 counties of Shanxi, "the mountain walkers are rugged, the original travelers are muddy, so that the transshipment is difficult, the production is not developed, and the people's livelihood is embarrassed." "The outline of the road repair plan of Shanxi Province has been formulated, and the roads of the province have been planned in detail, and all roads are divided into three levels: provincial roads, county roads, and township roads. In order to ensure the implementation of the plan, the General Administration of Road Engineering was established. In the past ten years, road construction in Shanxi has never stopped.

Song Zhewu was accompanied by Zhao Pilian to the Xihui villa of Yan Xishan in Jian'an Village, Wutai County, from Taiyuan to Xinzhou is a two-way provincial trunk road, from Xinzhou to Wutai is one of the five major branch lines in the province, and it is leading to Yan Xishan's hometown Wutai, so the road is very wide. It's just because there are many mountains and ditches in Shanxi, and there are many detours and slopes, so the car can't run, so I rushed to the riverside village in the afternoon, and after crossing the river, it is Jian'an.

Zhao Pilian, who was sitting in the car, was a little sour and bumpy, looking at Song Zhewu, who was still looking at the snow on the hillside outside the car with great interest, and said self-deprecatingly: "People are old, but they can't compare to you young people, this way is about to break up my old bones." ”

didn't wait for Song Zhewu to answer, "Smack, smack, smack." "There were three gunshots ahead.

In order to hurry up and help Feng Yuxiang return to Taiyuan, Yan Xishan not only asked Zhao Pilian to bring a car, but also brought ten trucks, and Song Zhewu only brought a guard force of 100 people, occupying four trucks, which sandwiched Song Zhewu's car in the middle, and the rest of the trucks followed.

As soon as the gunshots rang out, the convoy immediately came to an emergency stop, and the guards on the four trucks quickly jumped out of the car, quickly seized the favorable position on the side of the road around Song Zhewu's car, set up machine guns, and vigilantly observed the surrounding situation. At the same time, Ye Qing and several guards covered Song Zhewu, who had already jumped out of the car by himself, to hide in a depression on the side of the road, and brought Zhao Pilian, who was still getting out of the car in a panic, over in three or two clicks.

"Bandits here?"

Zhao Pilian, who was a little out of breath who was pulled by the guards, gasped and said: "There have been no bandits in Shanxi for a long time, but since last year, Wen Ge you have wantonly suppressed bandits in Taihang Mountain, and there are many bandits in Taihang Mountain, but they are all small bandits, the largest is only thirty or fifty people, and they only operate at the junction of the two provinces, not only never go deep into the province, but also dare not attack the army?" ”

Li Dayong ran over with a telescope in his hand, pointed to a small height more than 300 meters away, and said: "Commander, there is the Jin Sui Army over there, it seems that there is a squad or so, and the staff liaison officer of the Jin Sui Army who came from us said that this is the army guarding Jian'an Village, and he wants to go over to make contact." ”

Because Song Zhewu's guards reacted very quickly, Zhao Pilian couldn't help but get nervous, and when he heard Li Dayong say, he immediately understood, stood up and said: "Wen Ge, you see I'm old and confused, although we have notified the guard troops here when we came, but Baigong has an order, no troops are allowed to approach Jian'an Village without his warrant, this must be the guard troops firing a warning shot, and the liaison officer has a warrant from Baigong, so let him go over and report." ”

Song Zhewu thought about it, since Yan Xishan was afraid that someone would rob Feng Yuxiang from him, the guards must be very strict, so many of him broke over, and it was normal for the other party to fire a gun to call the police, but he was still cautious to ask Li Dayong to send someone to follow.

After more than 20 minutes, four people hurriedly ran along the road from the small plateau, in addition to one of Song Zhewu's guard staff officers, and the staff officer in charge of liaison with the Jin Sui Army who followed them, in addition to two officers of the Jin Sui Army. Li Dayong stepped forward to inquire for a while, and then trotted to Song Zhewu with a few people, and said loudly: "Report to the commander, the bridge in front has been damaged, and we can't cross it......

(To be continued)