Chapter 62 Zhangde

The first major station on the Pinghan Railway in Henan Province is an extraordinary feature.

More than 3,000 years ago, Pan Geng, a famous monarch of the Shang Dynasty, moved the capital from Qufu to this place, thus creating a new era of vigorous development of the Shang Dynasty. It was passed into the hands of the king of Zhou, because of the cruelty and unreasonableness, it caused the anger of the heavens and people, and finally caused the revolution of King Wu of Zhou, the king of Zhou set himself on fire in Lutai, and the 800-year-old Shang Dynasty perished, and the prosperous capital of more than 200 years also disappeared.

The sky swirled, the years passed, and it slowly turned into a ruin. Later, because this place is the intersection of Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan provinces, it is the hole that the chariots and horses must pass through, and the soldiers must fight for the important place, and gradually it is densely populated, and the merchants are scattered, forming a lively city. It is today's Zhangde Mansion, an important town in northern Henan.

Zhangde is located in the northernmost part of Henan, belongs to the eastern foot of the Taihang Mountains, the mountains are staggered, the land is faulted, most of the mountains form a single-sided mountain of more than a kilometer, the front of the mountain is low-lying hills, and forms basins of different sizes.

And outside the north gate of Fucheng, there is a small river that flows quietly from west to east. The common people call it Huanshui. There is an old wooden bridge on the Huanshui River, called Guitang Bridge. Stepping across the Guitang Bridge, it is a village with more than 100 families, and the old name that has been passed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years is called Huanshang Village. There is a former Ming Domain's palace covering an area of more than 200 acres in Huanshang Village, although it has been barren for many years, but the shelf is still there.

As early as when Yuan Shikai was training at the small station, Yuan Keding bought it on the orders of his father, built it for half a year, and renovated the abandoned palace. There are vegetable gardens, orchards, melon gardens in the newly renovated Yuan Mansion, and a large group of pigs, sheep, chickens and geese are raised. There are nine courtyards between the trees, each with its own door, and a cobblestone path leading to the large garden of the house. The garden is full of rockeries, pavilions, and a ten-acre pond. The pond is planted with lotus lotuses and fed to fish and turtles. There are also several small fishing boats tied to the willow trees by the pond all year round.

Originally, according to Yuan Shikai's thoughts, if one day, when it was difficult to protect himself in Nanjing, he would resign, and Yuan Shikai in Huanshang Village "lived in peace", but he never thought that first the Minister of the Interior, then the Governor of North Korea, and finally at least the Prime Minister of the Empire, Yuan Shikai can be described as a very deep saint, so that he has not come back to the Yuan Mansion in Huanchang Village.

It was not until the autumn of the previous year that Yuan Shikai came to the "Yuan Mansion" for the first time with a huge team of relatives. He especially liked this large garden and named it Yangshou Garden himself. Later, in the courtyard house where he lived, there was another wall around it, and a flower hill was built in it, which was named "Raising Strange Stories". Gangli, stacked stones for the mountain, flowers and trees shine, and bring in the water, open up a pond, plant lotus ling, fish and shrimp, like a paradise.

In fact, Hengshang Village of Zhangde Mansion is not Yuan Shikai's ancestral hometown, Yuan Shikai is often called "Yuan Xiangcheng", his hometown is located in Xiangcheng in the southeast of Henan, but he does not choose to govern the city, which involves a past of the Yuan family.

When Yuan Shikai was the governor of Shandong, his mother Liu died of illness in Tianjin. After the coffin was transported back to Xiangcheng, Yuan Shikai's half-brother Yuan Shixiao presided over the household affairs as a son-in-law. He believes that the Liu family is not the main house, and he is resolutely not allowed to go out of the funeral from the main gate, and the coffin cannot be buried in the main cave of the ancestral tomb and buried with Yuan Baozhong. Although Yuan Shikai was an official of the imperial court and was quite powerful, he could not come hard because of the code of ethics, so he could only argue with his brother to do his brother's work, and Yuan even knelt down and begged, but he did not get Yuan Shixiao's permission, which made Yuan Shikai extremely sad and angry.

In desperation, Yuan Shikai had to buy another cemetery to bury his mother in the ground, but he also fell out with his brother Yuan Shixiao. Yuan Shikai, who was furious, broke off friendship with his brother and never returned to his hometown in Xiangcheng, and took Zhangde as his hometown. …,

When Yuan Shikai was a child, he knew that there was a Huanshang village in Zhangde, according to legend, Yi Yin, the famous minister of the Shang Dynasty, was slandered in the court, and lived in seclusion in Huanshang Village for three years, and then the king of Shang personally went to Huanshang Village to welcome him back to office, and this is also the birthplace of Yuan Shikai's distant ancestor - Yuan Shao, the general of the Han Dynasty, so Yuan Shikai will choose this place as his hometown, and it is normal to arrive.

It's just that for Yuan Shikai, although he regards Zhangde Huanshang as his hometown, but over the years, he rarely returns to the Yuan Mansion in Huanshang Village, and occasionally comes here to live here for half a month every year, but after resigning as prime minister, Yuan Shikai, who served as the president of the House of Nobles, unexpectedly returned to live in Huanshang Village.

For Yuan Shikai, although he is not yet sixty, he is obviously much older, and his already stubby figure is even shorter; His eyes were tired, and the wrinkles between his eyebrows and temples became more and deeper overnight. What's even more surprising is that although he is still the head of the House of Lords and enjoys the honor of an earl, now he really doesn't care about political affairs. Every day, in addition to playing chess with others, he goes to the pond to fish, as if he is really going to live a detached life.

From 34 years ago, the 22-year-old Yuan Shikai went to Shandong to defect to the Huai Army, a full 34 years of officialdom, after two countries, enjoying honor and not retreating, he has already become a professional officialdom figure, he never thought that he would return to the land for the people, and felt that he would climb up step by step in the officialdom and climb to the highest and highest place. Where is the highest place, and what is it? He didn't quite understand in his mind, and even he didn't draw a blueprint for his "supreme" as the pinnacle of struggle. All he wanted to do was climb, step by step. Every time he climbed the stairs, he was in a good mood and had a smile on his face; The faster he climbed and the higher the steps, the happier he felt.

It can be said that when he achieved the position of prime minister, Yuan Shikai understood that he had climbed to the top of his life, and then upward, there was no way to climb, and later blocked for His Majesty, after resigning from the post of prime minister, although His Majesty gave him the position of president of the House of Nobles out of comfort, but Yuan Shikai suddenly found himself tired, and after thirty-four years of operating in officialdom, anyone would feel a little tired.

It was at this time that Yuan Shikai remembered an old incident of the Yuan family, the male of the Yuan family never lived past sixty, this is a curse or a life, this old thing, but it made Yuan Shikai's heart turmoil at the same time, his heart was suddenly quiet, and within a few days, he took his family and left the house on the outskirts of Nanjing, and lived in Huanshang Village.

Huanshang, sure enough, is a paradise land.

Yuan Shikai was determined to be a fisherman wearing a hat and a cape.

Just after the Spring Festival, it was still a day of ice, Yuan Shikai walked back to the study from the lotus pond in Yangshou Garden, about the sadness of the remnants of the lotus leaves, and his heart was a little sad.

"The lotus pond of the sun, half of the clouds and sky are red, and in the blink of an eye, it has reached a moment of sparseness. How short is the life of plants and trees!"

Cherish the grass and pity the trees, and suddenly think of life, life is not short!

Thinking that he was fifty-six years old, and there were still four years to go through the Yuan family's hurdle, he sat in a daze for a moment, feeling calm, and he was secretly laughing again.

"How could I be sentimental? It's femininity. No, don't worry. Thousands of sails on the side of the sunken boat, and ten thousand trees in front of the sick tree! This is spring, isn't there still a lotus flower in the lotus pond that is different from the sun!"

raised his eyebrows, and Yuan Shikai's heart suddenly glowed with excitement.

He wanted to write poetry.

What to write? After all, he was negligent. The long years of officialdom and frequent battles and fights, although they all have "poetic feelings", they are the actions of literati, and he Yuan Shikai is not a "vassal". Even the eight-strand article, he was a little disgusted. In the previous dynasty, when he was the governor of Zhili, he united with Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, Cen Chunxuan, the governor of Liangguang, and Zhou Fu, the governor of Liangjiang, to play the title of the Qing court and stop the imperial examination system. …,

Now, there is nowhere to use it. The article was raised. Lately, he has been reading a lot, and this is the case Wang. Today I want to write poetry again. He took out the four treasures of the study, frowned and pondered sometimes, and finally remembered the word "sorrow" that had just sprouted from a few of his fishing photos.

The life experience is bleak, and the smoke and rain are a fishing boat.

Joss leads red knotweed all day long, and friends ally only white gulls.

I don't care about the gain or loss of bait, but I have a grudge against the hook fish.

Looking back at how many Central Plains things, Lao Tzu lifted his beard and smiled.

After the poem was written, I appreciated it carefully, and I felt satisfied. Especially the last sentence, as if it was a stroke of genius, he actually laughed happily. Subsequently, he raised the pen and crowned a question: "Self-titled Fishing Boat Photo". The title was decided, and he still felt that the poem was not over, so Suo Xing continued the second:

A hundred years of heart is always long, and the ambition is not rewarded at that time.

The wild old man has a soldier armor in his chest, and he is a little prince under the eyes of the fisherman.

Thinking that there is no rock in the world, sighing that Shenzhou has become lacking.

The end of the world is gone, and the smoke and rain are a fishing boat.

The latter one was written, and he didn't laugh again. He had to write the poem anyway, and he felt very uncomfortable. Why is it uncomfortable? But I don't understand. He put down his pen, turned his back, and paced slowly.

What is uncomfortable, I'm afraid that the meaning between the words of the poem makes him extremely uncomfortable, although this is with the idea of "recuperating for a long time", but for Yuan Shikai, after chasing things all his life, how can he let go easily.

"Hey......"

After a long sigh, Yuan Shikai frowned, and shook his head and sighed from time to time, as if he was lamenting his changing mentality.

At this moment, a servant came in and said softly into Yuan Shikai's ear:

"There's a visitor from afar."

Then he handed over the name thorn in his hand. After taking the famous thorn, Yuan Shikai glanced at it, was stunned for a moment, and then immediately got up and walked towards the outside of Yangshou Garden.

"Huizi, what kind of wind blew you, the vice president of the lower court, to Zhangde?"

As soon as Yang Du stepped on the stairs of the reception room, Yuan Shikai came out of the side pod shed and greeted him loudly. The lower house is different from the noble house, the noble house only meets a few times a year, but the lower house is now full of things, and he Yang Du is a confused person, if there is nothing to do, how can he come to visit him.

"Yuan Xiang."

Yang Du still smiled and said with his usual title,

"Coming to Zhangde from Nanjing, of course, it is the spring breeze blowing in the south of the Yangtze River!"

"I don't think it's a spring breeze, I'm afraid it's the north wind blowing."

Yuan Shikai had already walked to Yang Du's side and stretched out a big slap to slap him on the shoulder.

Yang Du was stunned for a moment, and soon came back to his senses and said:

"You know that I came for the expansion of the Japanese army and the training of new recruits in Mongolia?"

"Huizi, you don't come to Zhangde to see me, this newspaper just said that 10,000 Japanese recruits went ashore through Dagukou, and you came. If not for it, can it be for anything else? ”。

"Really shrewd."

Yang Du said in his heart, and laughed twice.

"Let's not talk about that, please sit in the room!"

Yuan Shikai let Yang Du into the reception room, and the servant came in with a plate of melons and fruits. Yuan Shikai picked up a piece and handed it to Yang Du:

"Try this vegetable melon, I planted it with my own hands."

"Did you really grow it yourself?"

Yang Du asked suspiciously, let alone at this time.

"Don't believe me?"

Yuan Shikai smiled, and then said.

"Don't say it's me, even Your Majesty is in the palace, don't you also plant some melons and fruits in the greenhouse, I also built a greenhouse here, planted some melons and beans, and passed the free time!"

Yang Du took a bite:

"This melon is much more crispy than what is sold outside."

It's really crisper than what is sold outside, and there are fresh melons and fruits sold in Nanjing, but they are all shipped from Hainan Island in Guangdong, even if it is fast, it is also something that has been stored for six or seven days. …,

"Is Jingzhu and Yizhu good? Does the child look good? ”。

Yuan Shikai cordially started a family routine with Yang Du. Yang Du also asked him how his body was now, what books he read every day, and his mind was thinking about how to get to the point. Seeing that Yuan Shikai didn't mention anything else, he had to be perfunctory.

"Is the car still smooth? How many hours did you sit? ”

Yuan Shikai lit a cigar and smoked it leisurely.

Let's cut to the chase here! Yang Du thought for a while and said:

"The car was smooth and arrived in Zhangde on time."

"Oh!" Yuan Shikai was slightly surprised.

"It's not uncommon to be a few hours late."

After the declaration of war, the railroad always had to make way for military trains, so it was extremely normal for them to be late.

"It doesn't dare to make a mistake on this trip."

"Huh?"

Yuan Shikai took the cigar off his mouth and his expression began to become solemn.

"On this train were more than 600 advisers sent by the War Department to Mongolia to train the Japanese army."

"Oh."

Yuan Shikai nodded.

"That's right, Your Majesty will not take the liberty of agreeing to Japan's military expansion, even if it is an expansion of the army, it must be within the control of our country, at least to control their movements!"

For His Majesty in Nanjing, in the past ten years, Yuan Shikai can be said to be more fearful than respectful, and the "Lafayette" who was in charge of life and death in the past has never given him the feeling that everything is under his control, and because of this, when he got the news of Japan's military expansion, he had only one thought in his heart, His Majesty was going to attack Japan, as for how to start, it was not something he could control, and even if they expanded the army, with His Majesty's character, it was obviously impossible for them to get out of control, combined with the news brought by Yang Du, It confirmed his previous speculation.

Those Japanese were happy to think that they had finally broken free from the arms restrictions of the security treaty, but they knew that with His Majesty's person, he would not leave such a big loophole behind, and the bigger the loophole he exposed, the bigger the thing he wanted, this time, this Oriental is afraid that he will suffer a catastrophe!

Yang Du thought that Yuan Shikai would continue to talk about the topic, but who knows, Yuan Shikai suddenly smiled and said:

"Huizi, you probably haven't eaten yet! Eat first, it's the road, sleep for a while, please come to the study at three o'clock in the afternoon, and we'll have a good talk. ”

Just now, because I saw Yuan Shikai for the first time, I had something in my heart, but I didn't feel hungry, after this reminder, Yang Du suddenly felt tired and hungry, so he said:

"Yuan Xiang, I'm not welcome."

"What's so polite, it's all your own family!"

Then Yuan Shikai raised his voice and shouted.

"Someone!"

Immediately, a capable young man walked in.

"Take Mr. Yang to dinner!"

Saying that, Yuan Shikai stood up, shook Yang Du's hand and said.

"I won't accompany you, he will arrange everything for you."

"Thank you! Yuan Xiang! ”

After Yang Du followed the servant out of the reception room, Yuan Shikai immediately summoned the servants of the telegraph room and ordered him to contact the eldest prince of Beijing as soon as possible, this telegraph room was the privilege he enjoyed when he was the prime minister, and in order to facilitate contact, the Zhangde Telegraph Office pulled a telegraph line to Yuan's mansion.

As soon as the bell struck three times, the capable young servant politely entered the guest room and invited Yang Du to Yuan Shikai's study. When Yang Du walked into the study on the third floor, Yuan Shikai was already sitting on the upholstered mahogany low chair waiting for him. Yang Du glanced at the study. This is a study room completely decorated according to the traditional Chinese literati customs. On the antique bookshelves, there are almost all wire-bound books. The desk is large and heavy, with a stone inkstone that is a foot square placed on it, and a dozen or so stout brushes are erected in a large tripod-shaped antique bronze pen holder. All this seems to be very close to the personality and appearance of the owner of the study. Several landscape paintings hang on the four walls. A word hangs on the wall near the window. Yang Du recognized that it was the owner's handwriting. Although the calligraphy is not good, it is strong and powerful, and it is a five-character quatrain entitled "Ascending the Tower":

"The building is small enough to accommodate the knees, and the eaves are high and the old trees are together. Kaixuan Ping Beidou, turning over too low. ”

"This poem is really bold!"

Yang Du hurriedly praised.

"Laugh, laugh!"

Yuan Shikai said happily.

"Ascend to write poems, I'm a layman, just talk about it."

"Open the scale and level the Beidou, and feel too low. These two sentences can't be chanted by non-heroes. ”

Yang Du commented with a smile,

"Emperor Wei Wu, who wrote poems back then, seems to be afraid that he will lose a little in front of you."

"Hahaha!" Yuan Shikai laughed very happily. "Huizi, you're really good at telling jokes."

"Yuan Xiang, this time I came to Zhangde from Nanjing, because I have an inquiry."

Yang Du didn't want to gossip anymore, so he shook out the purpose of this trip straight to the point.

"Oh? I don't know what I'm asking? ”

Yuan Shikai asked knowingly, he already knew some things from Yuan Keding's telegram, but he was not sure yet.

"I don't know if Yuan Xiangke has heard that several companies have entered Arabia."

Yang Du stared at Yuan Shikai's chubby face that seemed to be smiling but not smiling and asked.

…………，