Businessmen are the most realistic people in the world, and what is more realistic than businessmen is the party.

Sichuan's closed environment makes the local party many, staggering, the most powerful is the elder association, followed by the filial piety association, the scale of development is very huge, from the Jiaqing period to the Xuantong year, the elder association opened 36 mountain halls in all provinces of the country, Sichuan accounted for 16.

Sichuan people say that one gentleman, two grains, three robes, the squire, the landlord, and the party are the three most powerful local forces in Sichuan, no matter who arrives in Sichuan, they must make friends with the party, and it is even more difficult to move an inch in Sichuan without the support of the party, and the revolutionaries in Sichuan also worship a large number of the party docks, and the main leaders of the league in Sichuan, Huang Fusheng, Xiong Kewu, and Yang Zhaorong, all take the initiative to join the party, and similarly, the leaders of the party in various parts of Sichuan also worship the alliance in large numbers, and the number of people who participate in the liberation meeting is also quite large.

There are also many new troops in Sichuan, because Sichuan is large, and the province actually has two separate towns of new troops, and there are many regimental exercises in Sichuan, as many as cow hair, and there are countless of them, and there are more than one Sichuan security team, as many as cattle lice, as many as ants, and a dozen or so small people can also be regarded as a security team, and there are hundreds of large people, and it is common for each county to have more than a dozen security teams.

Because of the closure of Sichuan, the Qing political axe has not really sorted out the situation in Sichuan, and the problems have accumulated so far that there are too many disadvantages, so in the end, there are so many warlords in Sichuan that there is no way to count them.

There are a group of people around Song Biao who are very familiar with the situation in Sichuan, such as Hu Jingyi among the first-class staff officers, Hu Jingyi is a classmate of the infantry department of the same class recommended by Jiang Fangzhen to stay as a non-commissioned officer and student, the level is acceptable, careful and cautious, and he is known for "not being arrogant, not impatient, not crazy, and not drinking", and has been staying in the Second Staff Bureau as a staff officer.

Hu Jingyi knew extremely well about the situation in Sichuan and the Elders' Association, and if it weren't for the fact that he happened to be in charge of handling the reorganization of the Hubei New Army before, Song Biao would have sent him to Sichuan to assist Liu Gengyun in his work.

It took two days to take a boat from Hubei to Yucheng, and Song Biao happened to listen to Hu Jingyi's analysis of the situation in Sichuan again during these two days, and the intelligence bureau also compiled a list of the main members of the Sichuan Hui Party and the League.

In Sichuan, the party and the league are deeply implicated in each other, which is really very staggering, and the Hanzhong Society, the branch organization of the Liberation Society in Sichuan, is inferior to the League in this regard, and the main organizers of the Hanzhong Society are Wu Jinyu and Yu Peilun, both of whom are literati and scientific and technological elements, and the party is not very effective, and most of the members are from new academic institutions, and they take the Sichuan Science Society and the Chengdu Chemical School in Chengdu as their main base of activities.

This is more embarrassing, and it is also a natural defect of the Restoration Society -- there are too many literati, and the problem of the League is that there are too many parties, so in Sichuan, the Restoration Society has not been as good as the development of the League, almost a similar problem, the development of the Liberation Society in Hubei is not as good as that of the League's branch of the Commonwealth, and the development in Hunan is better than that of the Communist, the reason is that there are more parties and new schools, there are more schools in Hunan, and there are more parties in Hubei.

At this point, the Restoration Society is similar to the Restoration Society of the year, there are a bunch of talented literati, and there are too few who dare to kill their heads and arms.

Now if you want to rectify Sichuan, you must not start with a crackdown on the Hui Party, this is to be chaotic, or to win over first, but the Hui Party is also a messy organizational structure, and it is useless to win over again, all parts of the country are messy and scattered, and it is always difficult to solve the bad things of mutual mercenaries and self-reliance.

Song Biao arrived in Yuchengba County by boat and lived here.

The Northeast Army entered Sichuan and quickly gathered the new army and marched east to attack Yucheng, and the so-called Sichuan Autonomous Revolutionary Army fled in a hurry, making the Northeast Army control Chengdu and Yucheng two important cities.

Since then, Sichuan has been formally included in the jurisdiction of the central government, but the problem is that this jurisdiction lacks a mass base below, and the Brotherhood and the League continue to occupy other areas.

After arriving in Ba County, Song Biao lived in the prefect's yamen in Yucheng Prefecture.

This yamen is very beautiful, delicate and small, the bamboo forest is secluded, even in winter, it is verdant, and the rockery and strange stone arrangement are also quite original.

When Song Biao stayed, Chen Wu and Liu Gengyun immediately came to see them, along with Wu Jinyu and Yu Peilun, and Shu Fangde, Chen Qicai, Hu Jingyi, and Yuan Jinkai, who entered Sichuan with Song Biao, also accompanied the four of them.

This year's winter is very cold, the cold in Sichuan is a kind of yin cold, the temperature is not very low, but not like the dry cold in the Northeast, the cold here is another indescribable taste, especially in Chongqing.

Song Biao, who was very accustomed to living in the north, could not immediately adapt to this terrible humidity and cold, Li Dahan found a copper stove and baked dozens of pieces of refined charcoal in the West Flower Hall to remove the cold.

As long as the room was not so cloudy and cold, Song Biao felt that the winter in Yucheng was not bad, at least not as cold as in the Northeast, and he felt very warm in a dark brown-green tweed military uniform.

Accompanied by Zhang Futian, the military attache of the first rank, Chen Wu and Shu Fangde entered the West Flower Hall together for an audience, and only after bowing down did they sit down in turn under the arrangement of the guard officer.

In ancient times, it was said that His Majesty actually meant the close ministers and guards in front of the emperor, the emperor was supreme, and the courtiers could only ask the close ministers and guards to convey when they spoke to the emperor, so they were called Your Majesty, the meaning of the emperor's steps, and over time, His Majesty became one of the emperor's honorific titles.

Zhang Futian held such a position at this time, at least in terms of etiquette, he could not go away, unless the emperor talked to closer courtiers, such as Zhao Kuangyin and Brother Zhao Guangyi, and did not need to be accompanied by close ministers and guards when eating, so it was a tragedy.

In addition to Zhang Futian, Jiang Zuobin is also a first-class attendant military attaché, but the work he is responsible for is different from Zhang Futian, Zhang Futian is responsible for internal affairs, and he is responsible for foreign affairs.

There is a big change in the number of rituals now and in the past, because Song Biao is now the emperor of the Chinese Empire, no matter whether the people in these southern provinces and the alliance recognize it or not, the Northeast Department and the Guangfu Society are definitely recognized by the ironclad, he is the emperor, and everyone must not set up a banquet to catch the wind and wash the dust.

The emperor's diet is all the imperial food under the control of the internal affairs government, and there is no reason for the courtiers to prepare the imperial meal.

In fact, Song Biao also wanted to invite everyone to have a meal together and drink two glasses of wine to celebrate Chen Wu and Liu Gengyun's great victory, but due to the number of courtesies, he could only prepare some pastries and tea to entertain everyone to sit down.

Song Biao specially called Wu Jinyu and Liu Gengyun to sit down beside him, only two steps away from him. When the tea was served, the guards all retreated, and Song Biaocai and Wu Jinyu, Yu Peilun, Liu Gengyun, and Chen Wu said: "You have made a lot of contributions in Sichuan this time. The problem of Sichuan is relatively complicated, there are too many local forces, and after the year of Tongzhi, the governance of Sichuan by the Qing government axe is actually gradually falling into a rather embarrassing situation, and you now at least ensure that Sichuan is under the control of the central government, not the so-called autonomy, and I think this point has been very successful. ”

When the four of them heard this, they all thanked them together, and then Liu Gengyun replied on behalf of him: "This time in Dingchuan, President Wu can be said to be the first merit, it was he who contacted the members of the Hanzhong Association in the army to force Zhu Qinglan to make the new army of the 17th town collectively defect. However, the proportion of the League and the Party in the 17th Town and the 33rd Mixed Association in Sichuan is still very large, and how to deal with them is indeed a very tricky matter. ”

Song Biao thought for a while and said: "I don't have any good way here, Hu Jingyi put forward an idea that is to win over the party, first of all, drag the party out, whether it is ideological education, small favors or small favors, it doesn't matter if the official is knighted, the point is to win them over first, without them, the alliance will also have no roots in Sichuan." On this basis, we will try our best to persuade a group of members of the League to defect, including doing a good job on the side of the Communist Association. The third is that the local squire must be wooed. Sichuan people say that the first gentry, the second grain, the third robe brother, the squire, the landlord, and the party are the three major local forces in Sichuan, and if the Qing government axe is concerned, like Zhao Erfeng and Xiliang, they are also mainly wooing these people in Sichuan, but they have neglected the party before. I can't stay in Sichuan for a year and a half, and you have to discuss what to do in Sichuan. ”

Hearing this, Liu Gengyun knew that he and the Third Infantry Division would definitely stay in Sichuan for a long time to suppress the situation, and immediately asked: "Your Majesty, who do you consider arranging for the post of Sichuan Governor?" ”

The separation of military and political affairs is a basic principle within the new empire, and in order to stabilize a province, the governor of the province and the overseers of the defense districts are the two most important candidates, followed by the speaker of the provincial council, the chief of the provincial patrol army, and the director of the police department.

Song Biao replied: "I discussed with Tang Shaoyi before I came, and I am currently considering letting Yang Zhaolin serve as the governor of Sichuan, he is a native of Zunyi, Guizhou, and is more familiar with the situation in the southwest. In the past two years, he had a lot of contacts with our Restoration Society, and after returning to China, he served as a right-hand servant in the Qing Dynasty Axe Law Department, and has been secretly helping us in revolutionary work. I took time to talk to him before I came, and I feel that he is still very capable, and his thinking about governing Sichuan is also very clear. Because he works in the legal department of the cabinet government, he still has some things to hand over, and it will take about a week to arrive. ”

Liu Gengyun agreed: "Emperor Shengming, if such a person comes to work in Sichuan, we will rest assured." ”

Song Biao continued to say to Wu Jinyu: "My current idea is to let you serve as the first speaker of the Sichuan Provincial Council, considering the more complicated situation in Sichuan, the work and tasks on your side are definitely much more important and complicated than others, I hope you can do this job well." I don't think your previous work in Sichuan was very satisfactory, and of course it has something to do with the fact that you have had relatively little contact with the party. As the Speaker, you have to think about a lot more than before, and there will definitely be a few key leaders on the side of the parliament who will participate in the work of the parliament as representatives of the poor people. You still have to coordinate this with them. ”

Wu Jinyu hurriedly stepped forward to thank him and said, "Thank you for the emperor's grace, the ministers should do their best to ensure the peace of Sichuan." ”

The speaker of the parliament must not call himself a "minister" with Song Biao.

Song Biao didn't correct these small problems, and he was not very sure about these etiquette matters, and he would have to wait for Zhang Binglin and them to distribute them according to the book and announce them in the newspaper after they were properly formulated, and everyone would find a more definite rule.

Because Wu Jinyu is a local, Song Biao has always had a lot of confusion about Sichuan, so he asked him by the way: "By the way, I just have something to ask you here, I used to look at the information reported below, it is said that Sichuan's tax revenue has increased very much in recent years, and the tax in some places can add up to 14 taels of silver per mu, and the tax expert on my side is Ouyang Xi, I often talk about this problem with him, and I am puzzled." We make a lot of money from farming in the Northeast, and the average agricultural tax on one acre of land is only one or two halves of silver, so I don't understand how the people of Sichuan survived. ”

Wu Jinyu sighed a lot when he heard this, and couldn't help but say: "Your Majesty, our Sichuan people are really bitter, and I ask you to pardon the Sichuan people's tax for three years." As for the local field tax asked by the emperor, all such places with more than ten taels of silver per acre of land are all fields for planting tobacco, because the profit of tobacco, even if the tax of more than ten taels of silver per acre of land will not crush the planting, and the amount of tobacco planted in Sichuan is probably one of the best in the country. The second is that the taxation of mulberry fields is also very strong, Sichuan local silk imported from foreign provinces is very high, and the local mulberry silk is also heavily taxed, because shipping is closed, it is extremely difficult for the silk outside to enter, and the silk tax in other provinces is also high, so even if it is a dozen taels of silver, it has not forced the people to die, but the price of silk satin has skyrocketed. So harvested for a few years, Sichuan's mulberry forest has been destroyed by most of it, the people would rather idle fields do not plant mulberry, I Sichuan is the country of abundance, silk mulberry is famous all over the world, now a year of weaving Shu brocade is only a few thousand horses, the people are down, the weaver is difficult to do, the businessman is helpless, the political axe is also harmful to others, collected a few years of heavy taxes, and then said that it is gradually inferior to the past, and so on Zhao Erfeng took office, had to buy a large number of Yunnan copper cast copper yuan, and issued silver yuan coupons, the currency is overflowing, prices skyrocket every year, the people are poor and miserable. ”

Song Biao was speechless and asked, "Then you didn't push Zhao Erfeng down?" ”

Wu Jinyu said: "Zhao Erfeng is still a very powerful person, he has contacts with the squires and the party in various places in this province, and after the revolution, he also preemptively exempted the local squires and appeased the people." In addition, his younger brother Zhao Erxun was the governor of Yungui, and the two joined forces with each other to control the New Army of the Three Towns, neither we nor the revolutionary army organized by the Alliance had beaten them, and there were also factors that the contradictions between us and the Alliance were too intensified, if we worked together, it should still be possible to fight with Zhao Erfeng. ”

After listening to Wu Jinyu's answer, Song Biao really understood a lot of unbelievable things in Sichuan.

After a little thought, he and Wu Jinyu said: "I am afraid that the possibility of tax exemption for three years in Sichuan is not big, and it is basically handled in accordance with the tax system of the three eastern provinces. Regarding the governance of Sichuan, Premier Tang explained that Sichuan has a large population, a small average land, and that the province is relatively closed, land annexation is too strong, and the number of landless poor people is too large, so it will be very difficult. This is not like the situation in Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Hui and Jiangsu, Zhejiang, where the Taiping Rebellion and years of war led to a relatively large-scale decline in the population of these provinces, including land annexation and the alleviation of land per capita problems. Therefore, we have been in Zhili, Shandong, and have broken into the east, Shanxi and Shaanxi have gone to the west, Guangxi and Fujian have gone to the South Seas, and Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Huguang and Guangzhou have not had such a tendency to migrate in recent years. Sichuan has a population of 48 million, and 5% of the land needs to feed 10% of the population, which is a complicated issue. As a speaker, you must understand the difficulty, recently, the research bureau is going to launch a new book called "governing the country", on the one hand, it is to talk about governing the country around Xunzi's idea of valuing the law and loving the people, on the other hand, it is also to introduce a large number of modern national management ideas and policy methods, we are now basically required to distribute to each county, all parliamentarians must have a copy, and they must study it carefully. After you read it, you will generally be able to understand the difficult governance of Sichuan. ”

After listening to these words, Wu Jinyu pondered carefully, and felt more and more that it was very reasonable and inspiring.

After thinking for a moment, Wu Jinyu said: "Sichuan's problem is still poor and closed, if the Sichuan-Han Railway can be built, Sichuan will definitely be rich." ”

Hearing this, Song Biao's heart was cold, and he felt that the level of the speaker he chose was very average.

Song Biao thought for a while, and replied to Wu Jinyu: "The problem of the Sichuan-Han Railway is a very thorny problem. I know that there is a lot of controversy here, and when a plan was proposed to build a railway from Chengdu to Xiangyang, the Sichuan public opinion reacted greatly, believing that this railway was built in Shaanxi and Hubei, and it was not the Sichuan railway of your Sichuan people. The local gentry and common people in Sichuan raised 10 million yuan to build the Sichuan Railway Company, and it is said that they lost a lot of money, and they lost several million taels of silver by speculating in stocks in Shanghai. Three years have passed, and this railway has not even been built in the slightest shadow. What I mean now is that the construction of the railway will be entrusted to a professional company, whether it will be built by a private company or a state-owned railway company, and it has not yet been decided. ”

Speaking of this, he and others also emphasized: "As for this news, you should not announce it to the public for the time being, and we will talk about it after Yang Zhaolin takes office, and he and the central political axe will discuss it slowly." We say that if you want to get rich, you must first build roads, and this truth is not wrong, but if Sichuan wants to become truly rich and become a real country of abundance, I am afraid there is still a long way to go. It's not that easy to follow either. One of my judgments is that Sichuan's problems mainly lie in the party, and the problem of the party is due to the poverty of the people, so in the final analysis, the problem in Sichuan is to solve the problem of the people getting rich. Overall, I don't have a very good countermeasure at the moment, and the Research Bureau will send an advisory team to investigate and investigate in the near future, and wait for them to figure out a way. Yang Zhaolin and I proposed that the central government guarantee the loan of 40 million silver yuan, but the central finances after the revolution were simply a mess, and recently, there was some not very good news from the Ministry of Intelligence, and the army was likely to be forced to fight another tough battle, which would cost a lot of money. ”

In a government meeting like this, most of the things we talk about are very depressing.

Not to mention that China is now impoverished, poor and white, even if it is a rich and powerful country, politicians have to discuss all kinds of incurable diseases together, China is too big, and there are always many problems.

At this time, Song Biao also had feelings, along the way, he saw some traditional slender men, and he felt a little bit in his heart, and what he talked about at the moment was the real feeling in his heart, and he hoped that everyone here could really realize the difficulties of Sichuan.

Among you, Chen Wu really didn't hear the meaning of Sichuan's hardship, he heard the last sentence, as soon as he heard that the army might be forced to fight a tough battle, his heart was like pouring a pot of hot oil.

Wow.

Chen Wu jumped up all of a sudden, and said, "Your Majesty, send me if there is a tough battle." ”

Song Biao glanced at him, laughed very interestingly, and said to the others: "The matter of Sichuan will be talked about here first, tomorrow I am going to go to the surrounding places to inspect and see the specific situation with my own eyes, and then talk about the others first, and then talk about it later, the army side is all left, and we still have a bad thing to ponder." ”

After he said this, Wu Jinyu and Yu Peilun got up and bowed again under the leadership of Yuan Jinkai before leaving together.

After Yuan Jinkai left with these two people, Shu Fangde, Chen Qicai, Hu Jingyi, Chen Wu, and Liu Gengyun were all members of the army, and they had to continue to stay to discuss new issues.

Song Biao said so many emotional words just now, taking this opportunity to pick up the teacup and drink tea, and light a cigarette for himself to rest for a while, he gave Chen Qicai a look and motioned Chen Qicai to discuss the matter on his behalf.

Chen Qicai pondered for a moment, and said to the others: "We have received some information from Yuben and the North Korean side, and it is expected that the situation is not very good, because during this time, many Manchu people fled to North Korea, and Yuben used this as a reason to gradually increase troops on the Korean border, and everything else is fine, it is not the main force of the Yuben Army, but the Fourth Division is deployed to the Maoshan area on the other side of the Tumen River. It is said that the recent dynamics of the Navy are not very good, and there have been successive deployment adjustments that are unfavorable to us. In addition, because the DPRK took advantage of the civil war to send officials and troops to the island some time ago, there were many conflicts between the Yanji Military Reclamation Bureau and the Korean volunteers, and the General Staff suspected that the General Staff might have intended to use these incidents to interrupt the pace of China's internal reunification. The issue of the so-called Korean volunteers seems to be deliberately supported by the War Department to deliberately create an incident on the Sino-Korean border; just in case, we have already started to mobilize the patrol troops of the three eastern provinces for the second time, and the two infantry regiments of the Sixth Infantry Division have also been secretly transferred to Dunhua to garrison. ”

Hearing what Chen Qicai said, Chen Wu immediately said to Song Biao: "Your Majesty, the terrain around Yanji is complicated, and our department is a mountain division, so let's transfer my department back to the three eastern provinces." As for Sichuan, it is enough to have 20 towns and the fourth town, and after the reorganization of the 17th town, the 19th town and the 33rd association, it is enough to pacify the local rebels and thieves. ”

Song Biao snorted and laughed, and reassured Chen Wu: "I knew you would rush over, but unfortunately you can't go, there are still a lot of things in Sichuan, and you will have to spend it here in a year or two." Zhao Tingzhu and Zhang Yahu can't go either, and my current idea is to send Jiang Yanxing back to Shenyang and transfer Zhang Xiaohuai out to fight the ...... If you really want to fight. There is a division of labor in this matter, it is his responsibility to defend the northeast, and it is a few of you who are the pioneers in the pass. When I said that, you didn't secretly grin very proudly. ”

Chen Wu was very depressed, and said: "That was the beginning, who would have thought that even the Beiyang Army was not enough to fight, we have been training for so long, and rushing out in a swarm is like beating a child." As long as Ben dares to provoke, we will just take out anger on them. ”

Song Biao still waved his hand and said, "If you want to say that you are angry, Zhang Xiaohuai's side is really anxious to get angry." In fact, even if the Third Infantry Division is transferred back, you won't have time to go to Yanji. Zhao Tingzhu and Fu Liangzuo were too late, Shuangzhang could only defend Jinzhou and Liaoyang, and when they arrived on the Liaodong Peninsula, they suffered too much. If it is a small fight, Zhang Xiaohuai's Fourth Division is definitely enough, and if it really wants to fight, the Third Infantry Division must really be transferred back. Therefore, the 2nd Infantry Division should be stationed in Yucheng and be ready to be transferred to Hanyang along the river at any time, and then directly transferred back to Kanto by rail. If we have to draw back four of our six main infantry divisions and continue to fight, I will use the Beiyang Army. As a precaution, the Beiyang Army must speed up its reorganization and reorganization, and we have drawn up a plan for intensive training, hoping that the troops in the north will be readjusted as much as possible, so that they can at least serve as second-line troops and the army in a decisive battle in the northeast. ”

Speaking of this, Song Biao paused for a moment before continuing: "Actually, you don't have to worry too much, it is said that there are currently fifteen divisions and regiments in this army, and if you really want to fight, I am still certain with confidence." ”

Song Biao just said this, and he may not really have much confidence in his heart.

A few days ago, after receiving that the garrisons in Qingjin and Maoshan were the Fourth Division, he had already telegraphed with Russia's newly appointed Minister of the Army, General Infantry General Madenidov, that Russia was very likely to enter the war, and was willing to pay an all-out blow, but the price Song Biao would have to pay would be very high.

Because at this time, Song Biao was no longer the governor of the three eastern provinces, but the emperor of the Chinese Empire, and seeing that the forces supported by his country unified China, Russia naturally couldn't wait to expand its interests in China.

Song Biao definitely didn't want this to be the case, and he felt that if he did this, it would be a typical harm to others and himself, but it was really difficult to use common sense to speculate about this country.

Do you think that the countries now want to interrupt the reunification of the Northeast Army in China?

Think.

Absolutely.

Which great power does not want to.

The only reason why the European and American powers did not interfere with China's "absolute reunification" at this time was that Song Biao and the Northeast Army were too powerful, this unit was not the Qing army in the past, and it was still very powerful in the fight, and it could not be solved by sending a coalition of 20,000 troops from various countries, especially considering the level of Song Biao, the military commander known as the "No. 1 General in the Far East", and all countries were unwilling to interfere in China's reunification, otherwise they would have to pay a huge cost.

Britain did not dare, France did not dare, the United States did not dare, and Russia did not dare.

Song Biao knew very well that Yue Ben had been very close to Britain and France in the past two years, and if Yue Ben really wanted to come over to intervene, it would definitely have the support of Britain and France.

In fact, when Song Biao proposed to revise the treaties signed in the past with Britain, including his verbal refusal to negotiate on the Tibetan issue, Britain probably decided to formally and covertly support the intervention of the "absolute reunification" of China, and the only good news for Song Biao was that the present was not yet fully prepared for war, and it was not clear whether individual units had entered a state of readiness for war.

(To be continued)