The good news that the Governor's Office had been conquered quickly reached Mai Zilong's ears, and the newly baked chairman of Jiangdong Province led his subordinates to visit, and the tragic battlefield made their hearts tremble.

Mai Zilong has been doing police work for half his life, and he can be regarded as an iron-fisted strongman who has seen blood, but everything in front of him still makes him gasp, Mai Ping in order to show his great military exploits, deliberately did not let people clean the battlefield, the stumps and broken bodies all over the ground, bricks and tiles, the gate of the former grand public office was bombed into ruins, and the pungent smell of blood and gunsmoke made people breathless.

Mai Ping introduced on the side: "Uncle, the battle was very hard, and we used high explosives to break through the gate, and many comrades were sacrificed for this. ”

Mai Zilongqi said: "Where did you get so many explosives, isn't the arsenal empty?" ”

Mai Ping was a little proud: "It was prepared by the students of the Department of Chemistry of Jiang University." ”

Mai Zilong sighed and didn't ask again.

When he inspected the back house, it was a mess everywhere, the provincial chairman frowned, pulled out a handkerchief to cover his nose, and asked, "What about Chen Zikun's family?" ”

Mai Ping said: "I escaped, it's too late to mobilize the clippers to chase after me." ”

Mai Zilong waved his hand: "Forget it, poor Kou Mo chases." ”

There was a burst of cheers, and it was the soldiers of the workers' pickets who waved their weapons to celebrate the victory, and the policemen, who had just been busy looting gold and silver, took the opportunity to seize all the guns in the hands of the dead men, and together with the bolts, in an instant armed a team with strong firepower.

Mai Zilong laughed and said: "What a team of tigers, go back and reward a thousand oceans, let the brothers, oh no, let the comrades eat and drink and go to the kiln." ”

Mai Ping said with a straight face: "Uncle, we revolutionaries don't want this. ”

Mai Zilong is very strange, is he not interested in eating and drinking and visiting the kiln, or is he not interested in taking rewards? But he didn't follow any further.

……

Huai River, the overwhelmed shallow water gunboat is pulling the black smoke downstream, carrying more than 100 people, there is no room for the plug on the boat, Chen Zikun looked at the Lang flower at the stern of the ship and the outline of the city in the distance, full of emotion, suddenly behind him with a bang, looking back, it was Zeng Jiao kneeling on the deck, and said bitterly: "Marshal, you are guilty of despicability." ”

Chen Zikun said: "What are you guilty of? ”

Zeng Jiao said: "You have an order to let the marine police strengthen their vigilance, I didn't take it seriously, and went to Mai Zilong's house for a banquet, fell into his trap, was drunk and captured alive, and escaped in the middle of the night, but unfortunately it was too late, except for this ship, the rest of the ships and brothers were captured by Mai Zilong." ”

Chen Zikun said: "My order? When was it ordered? ”

Zeng Jiaolong took out the official document from his arms and presented it, Chen Zikun glanced at it, and signed it coolly, but it was definitely not signed by himself, and immediately smiled: "Mai Zilong is cunning and cunning, it is understandable that you are deceived, don't talk about you, even I didn't expect them to be so ruthless this time, don't take it seriously, just let Lao Mai play with the seal for a few days, and we will kill it back in two days." ”

Zeng Jiao's eyes lit up: "Dashuai, you have already made arrangements?" ”

Chen Zikun sneered: "Everything is under my control." ”

Zeng Jiao went with peace of mind.

Behind the cabin door, his clothes fluttered, and Chen Zikun said, "Secretary Liu, don't hide, come out." ”

Liu Ting walked out calmly, her light blue dress was stained with blood, although she did not participate in the battle, she had been taking care of the wounded, and the courage and meticulousness she showed made everyone admire.

Chen Zikun said: "Say, what's going on?" ”

Liu Ting said: "Yes, I fraudulently used your signature to order the garrison headquarters and the Marine Police Corps to strengthen their vigilance, and asked the arsenal to bolt the rifles in stockpile." ”

Chen Zikun looked her in the eye: "You know that Mai Zilong will cause trouble. ”

Liu Ting shook her head: "I didn't know it was Mai Zilong, I only knew that the office would be attacked, I didn't expect them to be so ruthless and kill so many people...... Everything is my responsibility. ”

Chen Zikun said: "Raising tigers is more troubleless than this, I always want to be kind to others, and others will treat me like this, but I don't consider that you are not ordinary people, this fault is in me." ”

Liu Ting bit her lip and didn't speak, and her heart was extremely conflicted.

Chen Zikun said again: "I know what you think, you want them to succeed, because you are one of them, but you don't want me to die, you don't want my family to suffer, because you still have a conscience, so you took a compromise approach, sent a telegram asking me not to return, and fraudulently used my name to give orders to the army, but in the end you are not pleasing to both ends, you should think about it during this time, don't do the work of the secretary again." ”

After speaking, he went straight back to the cabin, his daughter, who had been frightened for a day and night, was already asleep, looking at her red face, Chen Zikun regretted infinitely, he was still too careless, he didn't expect that Mai Zilong would unite with the party, and as a result, the situation that could have been controlled became out of control, and his wife and children almost suffered.

"What should I do?" Yao Yilei asked him softly.

"I've been singing on stage for so long, and no one else can figure out whether it's good or not, so it's not a bad thing to take advantage of this time to change the role and let the people weigh it themselves."

"Shall we come back then?"

"Go back, of course you have to go back, when Mai Zilong's drama can't go on, let's come back."

"How long will that take?"

"It won't be long, and according to my estimate, Mai Zilong will help me do a big thing."

"And where are we going now?"

"Go to Nanjing, the capital of the Nationalist Government." Chan said.

Outside, the whistle whistled for a long time, Yan'er rubbed her eyes and woke up.

……

The change of ownership of Jiangdong Province shocked the whole country, a few families were happy and some were sad, and the area controlled by the Wuhan government was originally only Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi, and there was one more province of territory out of thin air, Wang Zhaoming was overjoyed, and urgently ordered Tang Shengzhi's Eighth Army to quickly enter Jiangdong, and gave an order to the new provincial chairman Mai Zilong, asking him to raise two million military salaries.

Mai Zilong, who received the order, almost cried, Jiangdong Province is a poor place, the annual financial income is pitiful, and the few dollars are tight, and his own expenses are not enough, how can he have spare money to supply the Wuhan authorities, but Tang Shengzhi's army has already moved in, and it is not appropriate to openly disobey the order, so he has to make a pretext.

In fact, Wang Zhaoming didn't want to look so ugly, he couldn't continue, the rural areas of Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi provinces were all controlled by the peasant associations, fighting the landlords all day long to divide property, urban industry and commerce came to a standstill, financial revenues plummeted, and without money, he couldn't fight, and he couldn't defeat Nanjing, and this was what he was most concerned about.

Chen Zikun built a lot of construction, built iron bridges and ran schools, and spent money like flowing water, all because he had 2 million yuan sponsored by Chiang Kai-shek every month, after Mai Zilong seized power, this money was naturally gone, and there was not even a dime in the provincial financial account, so he had no choice but to stop unnecessary expenses first, such as public schools and free student lunches, and then re-collect some of the taxes that Chen Zikun had exempted, and add special donations, so that he could cope with March and May.

What made Mai Zilong's head a headache was not only the military salary, but what made him even more uncomfortable was that his nephew Mai Ping and his subordinates were becoming more and more unrestrained, giving speeches and marching on the streets all day long, establishing the Federation of Trade Unions, peasant associations, provincial party schools, provincial special courts and other organs in the provincial capital, and also sending people to the countryside to fight local tyrants and divide the land, and groups of squires came to the provincial government to cry and complain, and they couldn't manage it if they wanted to.

During the construction process, he repeatedly asked the architect whether the reinforced gate could withstand the bombardment of high explosives.

……

At the end of April, news came from Beijing that Li Dazhao and others, who had been arrested by the Angolan military government, had been hanged.

In early May, Xia Douyin, who was stationed in Yichang, Hubei, made an attack and led a division of men and horses eastward to overthrow the Wuhan government, but was fortunately repulsed.

In the second half of the Wu month, a major incident occurred in Changsha, the workers' pickets arrested a poor gentleman who was rich and unkind, and tortured him, but this person was the father of He Jian, the commander of Tang Shengzhi's army, and the revenge of the deceitful father could not be avenged, He Jian ordered his subordinate Xu Kexiang to lead troops to raid the provincial federation of trade unions, rescued the old father and a large number of imprisoned gentry, and wantonly hunted down and killed the trade unionists.

……

Nanjing, the foot of the Purple Mountain, the empty mountain valley, the scenery is pleasant, the workers on the mountain platform are sweating like rain, Chiang Kai-shek and Chen Zikun stood side by side, pointing to the first prototype of the hall in the distance and said: "When this place is built, Beijing will almost take it, and we will jointly usher in the premier's body and bury it here according to his wishes." ”

Chen Zikun said: "Easy cypress, vast forests, really a good place, when the revolution succeeds, I also want to find a place to retreat to the mountains and forests, not to ask about the world." ”

Chiang Kai-shek said: "Zikun's words are wrong, there is a lot of revolutionary work waiting for you to do, you have worked hard during this time, I will not treat you badly." ”

Chen Zikun said: "For the revolution, it is nothing to sacrifice some personal sacrifices. ”

After Chen Zikun withdrew from Jiangdong two months ago, he was stopped by Chiang Kai-shek before he mobilized the army to kill back, because the main force of the Jiangdong Army was on the front line in Xuzhou, and the rash retreat would inevitably cause the front to be empty, if Zhang Zuolin took the opportunity to kill him, the great cause of the Northern Expedition would definitely be affected, so Chiang Kai-shek strongly persuaded Chen Zikun to forbear, and promised to bear all the expenses of the Jiangdong Army's logistics, food, straw, ordnance, salaries, etc., and gave a house in Nanjing to Chen Zikun for settling down.

"Without a unified national government, without a unified national revolutionary army, there is no way for the Northern Expedition to continue, so Wuhan must be determined before the Northern Expedition, Zikun, I will go to Xuzhou to meet Feng Yuxiang in a few days, you go with me, go to meet your old friend." Chiang Kai-shek extended a sincere invitation.

Chan readily agreed.