Sometimes, Song Biao is not a person who speaks in the strict sense of the word.

Duan Qirui initially negotiated with Song Biao on the terms, thinking that he could continue to control the Beiyang Army, which made him really surprised at the time, and soon found out that everything was a scam, the fact is that with his help, the Beiyang Army was completely torn apart and reorganized into four new infantry divisions, not a single place was familiar to him, and even the military uniform was changed.

Of course, the military uniforms of the Northeast Army are very beautiful, and they are definitely more presentable than the military uniforms of the Beiyang Army and the Manchurian New Army.

Song Biao is a person who is very good at taking advantage of opportunities, taking advantage of the sharp drop in the price of domestic textiles in the past two years, he hoarded a large number of military uniforms in the quartermaster department, so that it is enough to quickly change all the new troops in Twenty Towns.

The military uniforms of the Northeast Army have been adjusted and replaced many times, the current winter uniforms of the army are gray-blue, the spring, summer and autumn uniforms are light brown-green, the winter clothes are made of wool, the military cap is changed from the French cylinder hat to the large-brimmed hat, and the helmet is on the basis of the German-style helmet to remove the pointed end of the top, there are two kinds of three-gun pattern and wheat ear pattern, and the winter military hat has two kinds of fur cylinder hat and black amphora dog skin cotton hat.

Soldiers in all armies do not tie their legs, but use uniform lace-up leg guards.

Officer uniforms tend to be dark in color, with dark brown and dark brown-green depending on the season, navy blue dresses for army officers and blue-black military dresses for admirals.

After changing into a more majestic uniform, the fourth town under Duan Qirui's jurisdiction was transferred to participate in the military operation to suppress Sichuan with the twentieth town, at this time, the army number of the new army in these three towns was the 14th and 20th infantry divisions, and the main force of the attack on Sichuan was the 3rd integrated infantry division.

These four divisions, together with the newly formed Fourth Artillery Brigade, were temporarily organized into the Seventh Army of the Chinese Revolutionary Army, and Liu Gengyun temporarily assumed the post of supervising the army.

It's not that Song Biao hasn't considered Chen Wu, the problem is that Chen Wu's surname is very strange, there is no problem in fighting and charging ahead, and commanding the overall situation must consider the general's surname and coordination ability, and Liu Gengyun's coordination ability is impeccable, and he is also one of the few instructors who can get along with Chen Wu.

Under normal circumstances, Song Biao would not deliberately exercise a general's ability to be a marshal, the more special ones are Zhao Tingzhu and Jiang Yanxing, if there are multiple troops to command, Song Biao generally chooses the two of them, especially the large-scale anti-bandit campaign is basically responsible for them.

Liu Gengyun definitely didn't have this kind of experience and experience, and Song Biao was also worried, but he couldn't let Jiang Yanxing go, because Jiang Yanxing was the overseer of the Tenth Army, and now he was responsible for guarding the entire Zhili and Jinghan Railway, and at the same time, he had to guard against the situation on Duan Qirui's side.

During this time, Song Biao also considered going to Sichuan in person, because the problem of Sichuan Yungui is very complicated, the Sichuan army, the Sichuan army, as we all know, is a place where small warlords are like clouds, and there are all kinds of miscellaneous teams.

After signing the military order, Liu Gengyun led the Seventh Army into Sichuan, and Zhu Qinglan, the commander of the 17th Town, led the army to resist in Jiange County, trying to rely on the traditional mountain pass to resist the Seventh Army, as a result, Zhu Qinglan, a military outsider, first lost control of the army, and Cheng Qian, the staff officer of the 17th Town, resolutely disagreed with the new army to return to the Seventh Army because he was a member of the Alliance, triggering a riot of lower-level non-commissioned officers, and the two fled the barracks in a hurry.

As a result, the Seventh Army entered Sichuan without firing a single shot, and appointed Zhou Daogang of the Guangfu Society as the commander of the 17th Town New Army, and reorganized it into the 17th Infantry Division of the Chinese Revolutionary Army on the spot to attack Chengdu as the front.

At this time, there were two new armies in Sichuan, namely the 17th Town and the 33rd Mixed Association, which was led by Zhong Ying, a Manchurian from the Zhenghuang Banner.

The Manchurians are now mixed into this part, although Zhong Ying took revenge, he did not dare to work hard with the Northeast Army, and hurriedly retired, and as soon as he left, the 33rd Mixed Association was in chaos, and it was announced that he was included in the revolutionary army without fighting with the 17th Town, and Zhao Erfeng left Sichuan overnight and went to Yunnan to join his younger brother Zhao Erxun.

If you want to say that Zhao Erxun has a grudge with Song Biao and the Northeast Army, it is very deep, and he can basically write a legend of the late Qing Dynasty, but he can't stop the attack of the Northeast Army, and before Zhao Erfeng arrives in Kunming, he also announced his resignation as the governor of Guizhou Autonomous Government in Yunnan.

The fact that these two people are out of the field does not mean that the situation in the southwest is completely clear, in fact, on the contrary, as soon as they leave, they only expose the larger internal problems.

Liu Gengyun, Chen Wu and others were confused at this time, and there was no problem in fighting the war, and the 17th Town, the 19th Town, the 33rd Mixed Association, the Guizhou Mixed Association, and the Yunnan Mixed Association combined were also 45,000 troops.

As for the various local small armed forces in Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Chongqing, Liu Gengyun did not know how to deal with them.

After receiving dozens of telegrams from Liu Gengyun, Song Biao only felt that it was also full of holes and chaos, and he didn't know how to deal with these problems, and in the end, he decided to go to Sichuan in person.

If the problem in Sichuan is not solved well, if it continues to be chaotic, Yungui will also be chaotic, and Song Biao decided to go on a trip in person to fundamentally eliminate the problem of warlord secession in Yungui, Sichuan.

In mid-December 1910, Song Biao arrived in Wuchang by train, and then took Yu Qiaqing's Hongan Steamship Company merchant ship to Yucheng, accompanied by two small warships.

At this time, Song Biao was the emperor of the Chinese Empire after all, so did the emperor have to travel?

Because of the great importance of safety, Yu Qiaqing personally inspected the route in advance, selected the best new passenger ship in the company, and the Yangtze River Fleet also sent two patrol ships in the best condition as escorts.

It is no surprise that Yu Qiaqing's passenger ship and patrol ship are all made in this book, and Song Biao only found out about this matter after getting on the ship, and there was an indescribable sense of humiliation in his heart, but he was not in a hurry to express it, because this kind of pain may only be his own, and others cannot experience it yet.

The passenger ship slowly sailed out of Hanyang port, and the two warships sounded their horns in front of the thousand-one thousand, just in case, Yu Qiaqing and Jardine Shipping Company rented two freighters to sail behind, and prepared a team of sailors and rubber boats of more than ten people, in case of hitting the rocks, there were ways to protect the emperor to leave safely.

The Secret Service and the Yangtze River Fleet have also made a lot of preparations, although it is said that the probability of a passenger ship hitting a reef in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River is very small, but there have been such examples in the past two years.

After the passenger ship officially set sail, Song Biao inspected the ship everywhere in the name of visiting, estimating the level of the shipbuilding industry, in many corners, the handling of the shipyard was relatively rough, and the laying of the wooden planks on the ship was more fine, so that it looked very high-end, and the wood was very exquisite.

Really went to the cabin, as well as the wheel room, boiler room to see, Song Biao was more and more able to understand what it means to get what it means to get what it means to get what it is, it is undeniable that the level of traditional mechanics is still very superb, and there is a certain level in the processing of wood on the deck of the ship.

Such a level of craftsmanship is not difficult for the old carpenters in China.

Song Biao visited around and had a lot of feelings in his heart, Yu Qiaqing didn't know what was going on, but he had been accompanying Song Biao and explaining a few sentences from time to time.

Walking out of the boiler room, Song Biaocai and Yu Qiaqing asked, "How much does it cost to buy this ship from Yueben?" ”

Yu Qiaqing said: "Back to the Holy Lord, the purchase price of this ship is 200,000 Kanto silver yuan, which is relatively high, because the double-expansion steam engine they use is imported from the United States, and they actually earn a wood and labor fee. ”

Song Biao thought for a while and reminded: "Steel, pig iron, boilers, pipes and hardware are all called books, where is just to earn a manual fee." Boss Yu, there are so many waterways in China, how much do such small cargo ships and passenger ships need, and if they are all imported from Yueben, how much silver do we have to pay? You are also a big industrialist who runs an industry, why don't you want to build a shipyard for Chinese? ”

Yu Qiaqing sighed: "The saint, the grass people also feel the same way, but they are not proficient in this matter, and they dare not act rashly. ”

Song Biao looked at Yu Qiaqing and smiled evilly, and said, "I said that we are also old friends, and you still use words to trick me, right?" Who runs a factory is not to make money, as long as you can run it well, how can you not make money, such a large business and market capacity, even if there are shipyards in all provinces of China, can roughly feed these factories. You don't want to be a grass people, what age are you, you are the emperor of the Manchurians, the Buddha said that all living beings are equal, in the era of the empire, everyone is equal before the law, I am the emperor, and you are not a grass people. The people who do things for me, who call themselves micro-ministers and lowly people, have a little truth and are humble. You don't eat public food and official salaries, you are a big taxpayer, and I am waiting for my parents. ”

After saying this, he also deliberately asked Shu Fangde, the Minister of War next to him: "Minister Shu, do you think this is the reason?" ”

Shu Fangde also laughed out loud and said, "The emperor is shengming." ”

Yu Qiaqing panicked at this time, the old saying is like a companion to the tiger, he really can't tell what the emperor means, remembering that people said that the emperor's parents and brothers died in the Lushun Massacre, and he bought this steamer to carry the holy car, that is the crime of deceiving the king.

Thinking of this, Yu Qiaqing was suddenly frightened, he really didn't have such intentions, and hurriedly knelt on the deck and blamed himself: "Holy Lord, the grass people deserve death, and they have committed the great crime of deceiving the king. ”

Song Biao only felt a headache, and he finally understood why the Alliance would stop him from becoming emperor.

There is also an emperor in China, and it seems that it is difficult for the people to understand what the concept of true equality is.

Song Biao could only shake his head, sighed, and asked Shu Fangde to pull Yu Qiaqing up, there were still many people on the deck at this time, including sailors, foreign technicians, navigators, wheel captains, and people from the Secret Service, Wang Yongjiang, Yuan Jinkai, Chen Qicai, Chen Qimei...... A whole bunch of people are here.

Everyone looked at Yu Qiaqing's panic and didn't know why.

Song Biao's understanding of this thing of the emperor is relatively one-sided, because he does not have many customary surnames in this era, and other people stand here, thinking that he is His Majesty the Emperor of the Empire, and their hearts are filled with a mysterious sense of fear.

This is very different from the attitude of the British towards the Queen, and even different from the attitude of the Russians towards the Tsar and himself towards the Emperor.

Because they couldn't figure out what the situation was, everyone thought that Song Biao was angry, and everyone suddenly became very worried, which made the atmosphere on the entire steamship deck extremely tense, and the people on the side of Hongchang Steamship Company hurriedly knelt down together, and Yuan Jinkai and the others also bowed their heads and were silent, thinking in their hearts.

Shu Fangde finally pulled Yu Qiaqing up, and Yu Qiaqing was still very scared until this time.

He said that it was the crime of deceit.

Song Biao basically understood what he was afraid of, and it might be meaningless to say anything else, so Song Biao made a magnanimous gesture and said to Yu Qiaqing: "I actually don't feel very good in my heart, and I even have a feeling of being humiliated by myself, but I know that you definitely didn't do it on purpose, and things are already like this, I really don't have any intention to blame you." Don't worry, if you continue to worry like this, it will make everyone nervous, and there is really no need. As for you saying that I, a Chinese emperor, have to take a small freighter to Sichuan to inspect Sichuan, this must still be a very embarrassing thing, but it is better than taking the ship of the ship of the company and the British company, the national shipbuilding industry and the shipping industry in China are almost blank, and it is not easy to make some achievements, so not only do I not want to blame you, but I also want to continue to support you and strive to do more industrial things that benefit the country, the people and yourself. ”

After hearing these words, Yu Qiaqing was relieved, and she was also very moved in her heart, feeling that she was indeed a little overreacted just now.

This is also normal, after all, the emperor has been the biggest weapon of mass murder in China since ancient times.

This small change made Song Biao feel a lot of emotion in his heart, so he asked Yuan Jinkai, the director of the secretariat, to deal with the matter, so that the sailors who were kneeling on the ground got up and didn't have to be so nervous, and he went back to his cabin first.

He now knows that it is better for the emperor to go out less, which is quite scary.

After waiting for a while, Shu Fangde called Yu Qiaqing over again, and talked about something alone in the cabin, saving Yu Qiaqing from being startled and frightening others.

At this time, Yu Qiaqing was honestly frightened, her heart was still beating wildly, and the old heart was almost frightened, and at this moment she could only try her best to pretend to be calm, and first thanked Song Biao for his pardon again, and then sat down, took the tea cup from Shu Fangde's hand, and couldn't help but take a big sip.

Song Biao smoked a cigarette very depressed.

Since he became emperor, he has basically dealt with the most familiar subordinates in the past, everyone is more cautious and cautious than before, more reverent, more etiquette, and the title has changed, in addition, he really hasn't found anything too difficult to adapt to.

Today is for him to meet.

Song Biao basically realized what the emperor meant at this moment, in other words, this feeling is still quite cool, no wonder Chinese subconsciously want to be an emperor.

Song Biao smoked more than half of the Shengjing brand cigarette in his hand, and then said to Yu Qiaqing again: "Let's continue the topic just now, because there are still many very noteworthy issues in this matter." If the country wants to be rich and strong, and the people want to be rich, the economy must first develop, and to develop the economy, it must come from trade, and trade is tied to transportation, which is why we should attach importance to railways and shipping. I want to solve a lot of problems when I go to Sichuan, but I think that all problems stem from the closure of Sichuan, and if we can open up the connection between Sichuan and the Central Plains and Huguang, the key lies in the railway and shipping, and if these two points are done well, all the problems in Sichuan can be solved. ”

Yu Qiaqing deeply agreed, and said: "Your Majesty Shengming, in fact, when it comes to shipping in Sichuan, the first thing to solve is the problem of the Three Gorges Waterway...... The previous dynasty attached great importance to solving this matter, the Xiajiang channel is dangerous, the reef is very many, the ships are in distress 12 out of 12, in previous years, Yunnan copper from Yucheng to Wuchang, because the copper is heavy, the shipwreck rate is higher, during the Daoguang years, Fengjie County has donated more than 10,000 taels of silver to clear dozens of reefs, remediate the dangerous shoal, because of insufficient funds, the effect is not very good, Daoguang 20 years, Hubei giant businessman Li Pingzhong donated 200,000 taels of silver at a time, dredged the Xiajiang channel between Kuizhou in Sichuan and Zigui in Hubei, so far, the navigation of the Xiajiang River has become safe, Nowadays, it is rare to encounter a thing that hits the reef, because a steamer like ours can control its own speed and slowness, and it can slow down when it encounters danger, and the danger is even smaller, but in my opinion, if the political axe continues to fund the renovation and dredging of the channel, the capacity of navigation in the gorge can continue to improve, and during the flood season of the river, thousands of tons of large ships can also reach Yucheng. ”

Song Biao asked, "How much do you estimate it will cost?" ”

Yu Qiaqing thought for a while and said: "You can only do small things with a small amount of money, and to do such a big thing, I'm afraid it will take hundreds of twenty thousand silver, which will take a long time, and it will take three or four years to complete." It's just that if it can be done, there are thousands of tons of large ships between Yucheng and Wuchang, and it will only take a week to go from Yucheng to Shanghai. Maybe in seven or eight years, the political axe will be able to recoup investment through tax revenue. ”

Song Biao nodded and said: "Your statement is right, and this thing must be done well, I think you can think about these things in the past few years, increase the thousand-ton ship in advance, and maybe you will be able to take the lead in making the business bigger in the future." Modern countries are full support for capitalists, because you are not only a big taxpayer of political axes, but also can create a large number of jobs, Britain, France, Germany and the United States are like this, and this is even more active, and I am the same, I see you become a generation of shipping giants and shipbuilding kings, if you are confident, I can lease the shipyard of Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau to you to operate, and you can use the profits from the operation to gradually buy this shipyard. If you are confident, it is no problem to buy it directly, if the capital is insufficient, the political axe can be collected in installments, and there is only one condition, that is, to run the factory well and do a good job in China's shipbuilding industry. Now it is to build ships, and in the future it will be possible to build warships. ”

Yu Qiaqing was overjoyed.

At this time, although Yu Qiaqing was the leader of the Ningbo Business Gang, he was only forty-three years old, and when he was upright, energetic and ambitious, after listening to Song Biao's words, he naturally wanted to run such a big business.

Song Biao has been thinking about the problem of Sichuan during this time, why Sichuan has become the most serious place for warlords to divide and split, and why local forces are so rampant.

A road into the river since ancient times.

It is difficult to go to Shu and it is difficult to go to the sky.

This is the most important reason why the central government can not directly control Sichuan, want to break this situation, first of all, the construction of the Sichuan railway must be accelerated, the idea of the Sichuan-Han railway should not be tossed, this road has not really been built until the 21st century, before all kinds of tossing and turning in the end, the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China spent more than 30 million yuan of loans before and after the construction of only a few small railways.

Song Biao plans to engage in a more realistic plan, either the Xiangyu line, or the Rongxiang line, from Chengdu to Hanzhong, from Hanzhong to Shiyan, Xiangyang, Suizhou to connect the Jinghan Railway, this railway seems to go around a big circle, the middle in the middle of the Hanzhong section of the construction is also more difficult, but it is certainly much easier than the current Sichuan-Han line, otherwise it will not be built in the sixties, and the latter has been repaired until 2010 to complete, it is said that the Three Gorges section because of the existence of a large number of karst landforms, belongs to the world's most difficult construction of the railwayThe cost is higher than that of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.

From this point of view, it is normal for the 30 million silver yuan loan of the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China to easily disappear.

Another advantage of going out of Hanzhong is that the railway can be built directly to Tianshui City and Wuwei, so that the grain from Sichuan can be directly transported to the northwest region of China, where there is the greatest shortage of grain.

As for the railway in Sichuan Province, how to repair it is not a big problem, as for how the Sichuan railway to Yunnan, this is also a headache, Song Biao can only say that no matter how much money is spent, even if foreigners are completely invited to build it, it must be repaired.

It is not difficult to measure whether the right of way is important or the territorial sovereignty of the country is important.

There are many things that can be talked about between Song Biao and Yu Qiaqing, definitely not only about shipping, using this time, he also asked Yu Qiaqing about the textile factory, Yu Qiaqing is not as good as the Far East Commercial Bank and Zhang Bishi's Nanyang Department, Ningbo merchants can not withstand the big losses in the past two years, coupled with the civil war and the financial turmoil some time ago, Ningbo businessmen have suffered heavy losses, and the money industry has suffered a big loss, and even Yu Qiaqing cannot escape the disaster, they can only sell the large shares of the textile factory to the Far East Textile Corporation.

Bank of Shanghai, Bank of Shanghai.

If it weren't for the Far Eastern Bank's loans, the Bank of Shanghai would have closed its doors in Shanghai, but Rongxingqiao was not a fuel-efficient lamp, and took the opportunity to buy most of the shares of the Bank of Shanghai at a low price.

Among the Ningbo merchants, Yu Qiaqing's loss was the smallest, because he listened to Zhang Bishi's persuasion and sold the rubber stocks in his hand at the end of last year, and now his losses are only affected by the whole turmoil.

After listening to Yu Qiaqing, Song Biao knew these things.

Song Biao sighed truthfully: "The business field is really very sinister, I don't know that the Far East Commercial Bank bought your textile factory, so it's okay, in fact, you Ningbo businessmen are not good at this, do business together, see what business makes money, you will invest in a share, and you don't want to concentrate on doing one thing well." There is huge room for development in the shipping industry, so you might as well concentrate on doing a good job in shipping and shipbuilding. As for the Bank of Shanghai, when your strength is restored and you want to take back your shares, then talk to Rong Xingqiao again, I don't think it's a big problem. Rong Xingqiao did not specifically report this matter to me, indicating that he did not think it was a very big deal, and perhaps in terms of the amount of total assets, he did not think it was a particularly big deal, and he needed to tell me separately. ”

Yu Qiaqing said with a smile: "Your Majesty, your words really hurt the hearts of us Ningbo businessmen. ”

Song Biao said: "Don't be sad, if I hadn't asked Zhang Bishi to secretly inform you to sell those scammers' stocks earlier, I'm afraid you would have lost more." The rubber turmoil happened to be that the Intelligence Bureau found some very special information from abroad, and Zhang Bishi also inquired about the background of these rubber companies everywhere, only to find out that they were all fake companies that falsely reported their assets. It's just that the situation at that time was already very complicated, and it was a big mess when we said it, so we could only sit back and watch it change, and no one thought that people were not as good as heaven, and in the end it was still a big chaos. ”

Yu Qiaqing was silent for a long time, and said: "Your Majesty, I thought that this was the destiny of heaven, and it was destined to be so. Now that I think about it, I also got away with it, and it happened that it was because of the loss of the textile factory at that time, as soon as Zhang Bishi and I said, I sold these stocks early and re-injected capital to set up Hongchang Shipping Company. Speaking of which, Hongchang Shipping Company still has a dry stock of Zhang Bishi. ”

Song Biao doesn't like to talk about this matter very much, after all, there are too many hidden events behind it, for example, where have the big liars of rubber companies such as Mai Benley, Kadoorie, and Kewen Bai who have been questioned by someone recently?

How to say this question, it is natural to ask the Secret Service.

It is precisely because there are too many spicy secrets that cannot be disclosed that Song Biao cannot continue to talk about this issue.

He changed the topic and asked Yu Qiaqing: "I remember that in the past, you were asked to co-establish a silk tea trading company with the Far Eastern Commercial Bank, how is it now?" ”

Yu Qiaqing was a little embarrassed, and said: "Back to the emperor, Zhongrun Silk Tea Trading Company can be called a dismal operation, and there are really not many ways on my side." If you want to talk about the quality of raw silk, I have compared the raw silk, the quality is actually not as good as ours, the key is that our taxes are too outrageous, and there are many taxes and miscellaneous taxes, I sell a load of silk to the country, the selling price is only more than 400 taels of silver, and the tax rate is only 1/3 of us. Their raw silk is exported to the United States, the price is two or three percent cheaper than ours, the textile industry is only one or two percent of the profit, which is one percent lower than the cost of the purchase price, which factory will not want our raw silk, unless there are really special requirements for quality. As for tea, this is another thing, one is that all countries now have a place to produce tea, the second is that countries buy more black tea, the third is our high taxes, the fourth is that we have difficult transportation, the cost is high, the fifth is that the quality of our tea is indeed not as good as before, and the sixth is that even the small citizens of Shanghai are proud to drink Indian tea, which can be called shameless. ”

Song Biao said: "The problem of taxation is easy to solve, now Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian are under the control of the imperial political axe, I have asked Ouyang Xi to investigate this, it is expected that the domestic silk tea tax will be temporarily adjusted before February next year, and the harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes in Jiangsu and Zhejiang have been exempted in advance, and next year take advantage of this good season to do a big deal." If there is a shortage of capital, you can find another bank to think of more solutions. ”

Yu Qiaqing only feels extremely happy at the moment, in previous years, doing business in China was like a grandson, empty and rich, and being exploited by the imperial court everywhere, and now it is really the first time that she has the pleasure of turning over and becoming a master.

Thinking of this, he sincerely praised Song Biao: "Your Majesty, if you can call the enthronement ceremony as soon as possible, it will really be the blessing of my people." ”

Song Biao laughed slightly and didn't say anything.

Money can make ghosts grind.

If he can make money under his rule, of course, he wishes that he would ascend the throne sooner.

The current situation is that Song Biao has said that he wants to be the emperor, and he will do it first, everyone knows that this is really a certainty, and the forces of all factions in the country together can't beat him, and the last question now is when Song Biao will officially ascend the throne.

After the official accession to the throne, the name of the year must be changed, and the other general rules must be reformulated.

Everyone thinks so, but now it depends on the specific time.

Yu Qiaqing really wished that Song Biaoming would officially ascend the throne as emperor at this time, proclaim to the world, follow the mandate of heaven, and govern all the people.

(To be continued)