Song Biao had always felt that the recent movements of the Secret Service were abnormal, but it was not until he arrived in Yucheng that he received the latest information through the radio system of the Secret Service Bureau, confirming the news that the Fourth Division of the Secret Service had entered Maoshan.

The news shocked him.

Song Biao originally came to Sichuan to defeat the foundation of the southwestern warlords and completely rule the entire southwest region, but when he arrived in Yucheng, he realized that he was afraid that he was going to come for nothing, and he had to quickly return to the northeast to preside over the preparations for the war.

After secretly discussing with Chen Qicai, Liu Gengyun and others for a night, late at night, after they all went back, Song Biao couldn't sleep alone, so he asked Zhang Futian to find a plate of red-skinned raw peanuts, grab a handful and use it as a snack in his hand while eating and pondering, pacing and thinking in this West Flower Hall.

Now there are three possibilities, the first is that what he did was an illusion, just trying to lure him into being fooled and interrupt the pace of China's reunification at the smallest cost; The second is that Ben has prepared the possibility of a small-scale military conflict, interrupting this pace at a less heavy cost; The third is that he decided to take the opportunity to attack at all costs and hit the ...... Even the Northeast Army was defeated and the road to China's rejuvenation was completely interrupted.

All three are high.

Song Biao carefully calculated in his heart and weighed the pros and cons.

No matter how he calculated, he felt more and more that he would rather be fooled, but also actively prepare for the war and keep this opportunity for the rejuvenation of China.

He also calculated that even if the Northeast Army's offensive ended here, and all divisions were fully reduced back to the Northeast to prepare for the war, as long as he was not defeated, the empire would still be able to control the dominance of the five major regions of the three eastern provinces, Zhili, Jin, Lu, Henan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Huguang.

Sichuan is hard to say.

It's no problem if he is undefeated, if he defeats the Northeast, even if it's just a small defeat, there will be suspense.

Liangguang, Yunnan-Guizhou, Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo, and Xinjiang provinces will not talk about it for the time being, and the chances are very slim.

Similarly, if he really fought a decisive battle with the Yue army in the Far East and let him win, the situation in the country would be completely reversed, even if the vitality of the Northeast Army was greatly damaged, no one would dare to challenge him and the central authority of the empire for the time being.

Thinking about this clearly, Song Biao finally decided to collect his troops and return to the northeast to actively engage in military warfare.

…… Soldiers are fast.

The first trick of all military operations is "fast".

After Song Biao made up his mind, he called Chen Qicai and Shu Fangde over again at two o'clock in the morning, secretly discussed with them to adjust the countermeasures, and turned to adopt a posture of "peace is precious" internally, and recruited more forces from all sides, as long as the central authority of the empire was ensured, as long as the fact of the empire and the emperor was recognized, and the southwest, northwest, and Liangguang were allowed to "autonomously" in an appropriate way.

The five main divisions of the Imperial Army were all transferred back, leaving only the First Infantry Division to sit in North China, and the rest of the divisions retreated to the three eastern provinces to actively prepare for war, and at the same time carried out a rapid reorganization of the new army of the Beiyang system and the towns in the north, and the patrol troops and recruit battalions in the northeast joined the reorganization on a large scale, and set up recruit training camp departments throughout the country to prepare for an all-out war.

In the military, problems are always thought of as the worst.

If it is really going to start a full-scale war with Yuben, the navy can basically only be completely ravaged by Yuben, Song Biao has no way at all, in order to ensure the future construction pace of the Chinese navy, he can't even take out the poor navy to fight, so the only way to win is a large-scale decisive battle of the army, fight a counterattack in the northeast, wave his army south into the Korean Peninsula, and force Yuben to sue for peace.

Without a navy, once a full-scale war breaks out, let the navy ravage the coasts of various places in an all-round way, and keep delaying it, cutting off China's maritime foreign trade for two or three consecutive years, China's economy will really be ruined.

Even if we do not cut off the foreign trade of the whole of China, but only cut off the foreign trade import and export of the three eastern provinces, this will be an unprecedented tragedy.

Therefore, even if the army wins a big victory, it is necessary to let Yuben sue for peace as soon as possible.

After making a series of deployments overnight, Song Biao still quietly continued to maintain his scheduled itinerary in Sichuan, which has already reached this point, and if he wants to give up Sichuan suddenly, he can only give up his previous achievements.

Chen Qicai and Shu Fangde, who accompanied him on his inspection tour of Sichuan, returned to the Yanjing headquarters overnight to complete all preparations for war as soon as possible.

The next day, Song Biao only slept for two hours briefly and then continued to inspect Beibei, Bishan, and other counties around Yucheng accompanied by Wu Jinyu and others.

If it weren't for the fact that the land of Sichuan is known as Tianfu, there has been abundant grain and rice since ancient times, and there is little famine, with such a high tax rate in Sichuan, I am afraid that it would have been starved for thousands of miles, and the officials forced the people to rebel, even in such a cruel situation, the situation in Sichuan is still much better than that of Guangxi, Fujian, Henan and other provinces.

Among the areas inspected by Song Biao during this time, the situation in Henan can be said to be the most powerful, the population is second only to Sichuan, and the land annexation is relatively not as strong as Sichuan, but the total grain output is much lower than Sichuan, only 1/3 of Sichuan.

Henan's problems are very complex, and how to deal with them is also a problem.

After inspecting the vicinity of Chongqing for two days, Song Biao felt more and more in his heart that China's problems are, in the final analysis, the problems of agriculture, that if agriculture is not grasped well, there is no hope for China, and only when agriculture is stable can the country be stable, and only when the country is stable can industry and commerce develop in an orderly manner.

With a population of 48 million, Sichuan has great potential for recruitment, with a large population and poor people, everyone has the ability to recruit a group of armed forces in Sichuan. This is also one of the main reasons for the continuous division of the Sichuan warlords.

Two days later, he continued to summon Pu Dianjun, Xiong Kewu, Cheng Qian, Fang Shengtao, Zhang Baixiang and others from the League in the prefect's yamen according to his plan, and talked about the Liberation Revolution, the Mingzhuo Constitutional Movement, and the great rule of Sichuan and the rejuvenation of the nation.

After meeting and talking with these people, Song Biao once again intensively summoned She Ying, Li Shao, Zhou Hongxun, Liu Tiancheng, Zhang Jiexian, Zhang Dasan, and other leaders of the Hui Party in various parts of Sichuan, first conferred official positions, and promised to bestow knighthoods, encouraging them to unite with the party in various parts of Sichuan to form local political parties, or to participate in the Restoration Society, and enter the provincial assembly to petition for the people.

Compared with Cheng Qian, Zhang Baixiang, and other die-hard factions of the alliance, Pu Dianjun, Xiong Kewu, and Fang Shengtao were all extremely easily co-opted by Song Biao.

In the end, Song Biaocai took time to meet with more than 20 of the most famous gentry in Sichuan Province, and the conversation was also very pleasant.

Before the newly appointed Sichuan Provincial Governor Yang Zhaolin took office, Song Biao had already knocked out all the major forces in Sichuan Province for him, except for a few die-hard republicans, the local forces were basically reined in by him, and there was no need to worry about Sichuan's continued demand for autonomy for the time being.

When Yang Zhaolin arrived in Yucheng ahead of schedule and Song Biao talked with him again, he felt that he could leave Sichuan with confidence.

Song Biao was not afraid that there would be many of them, but he was afraid that they would hide in the shadows and cause sabotage, so he asked Hu Jingyi to organize these associations and organize them into patrol detachments of various provinces, while the Sichuan Provincial Patrol Corps made a special exception to add six headquarters detachments, with Hu Jingyi as the patrol chief, and further made the first adjustment to the patrol force system in Sichuan, changing the name of the commanders of the patrol forces of each province to "patrol chiefs," canceling the setting up of the provincial defense department, and leaving the patrol department to have jurisdiction over its own defense affairs. The head of the patrol department is the chief of patrol, and is subject to the dual control of the military command department of the central patrol force and the local governors.

Sooner or later, the patrol force will be changed to a national armed guard force, but for now, Song Biao feels that the time is not yet ripe.

Through such adjustments, each province has at least one permanent division of the Imperial Army and one patrol corps, which add up to between 25,000 and 35,000, which contain each other and divide labor with each other, the former is responsible for national defense and military affairs, the latter is responsible for local security, and the provincial police departments are responsible for law and order, and the three are combined with each other to ensure the stability and stability of the imperial provinces.

The 3rd Infantry Division quietly withdrew from Yucheng, the 14th Infantry Division was stationed in Chengdu, the 20th Infantry Division was stationed in Yucheng, the 17th Town was reorganized into the 17th Infantry Division in Bishan County, Yucheng, and the 33rd Mixed Association was reorganized into the headquarters detachment of the Sichuan Patrol Army.

According to Song Biao's plan, after the reorganization of the 17th Division and the Sichuan Patrol Corps was completed, the 20th Infantry Division was also transferred back to Hanyang to prepare for the battle.

Before leaving Sichuan, Song Biao made an important and risky decision, he appointed Xiong Kewu as the commander of the 17th Infantry Division, and selected Xu Guining, a first-class staff officer from the Central and Far Eastern Department, as the division's instructor.

The reason why Song Biao did this was because he saw that Xiong Kewu was a real opportunist, where the wind blew, and where people fell.

Tomorrow will leave Yucheng by boat, that night, Song Biao specially invited Yang Zhaolin, Hu Jingyi, Xiong Kewu, Pan Juying, Wu Jinyu, and She Ying to the government office, and specially set up a banquet to entertain them regardless of the restrictions on etiquette.

Yang Zhaolin and the other five people are not very familiar with each other, and Song Biao also personally introduced the newly appointed governor of Sichuan Province to the five people, and when Song Biao introduced them, the five people got up to congratulate Yang Zhaolin on his promotion to the post of governor.

After they were polite, Song Biao said to Hu Jingyi, Wu Jinyu, and She Ying: "Since ancient times, it has been said that Sichuan and Guizhou are not separated, Yang Zhaolin is a native of Zunyi, and he is also half a Sichuanese, and you should fully support him in handling the affairs of this province in Sichuan." In particular, Speaker Wu, you and Governor Yang are the heads of the province's government affairs, and we should cooperate with each other to stabilize the rule of the people in Sichuan. ”

Wu Jinyu hurriedly replied: "Please be relieved, we will serve and do our best to stabilize Sichuan." ”

Song Biao continued to emphasize with Xiong Kewu and Pan Juying: "Because other things have to be arranged, the Third Infantry Division will be transferred back to Hanyang to garrison before it happens, and your local military affairs should be more cautious, and all the departments of the Central Army are directly under the command of the War Department and the General Staff, in other words, they will obey my command and will not interfere in government affairs at any time." Strict military administration and military openness are the foundation of the empire, and you should not commit this big taboo for me. The task of the divisions of the army is to work diligently to protect the security and unity of the country's borders, not to take charge of the affairs of the provinces, and the maintenance of stability in the province and the maintenance of the authority of the provincial political axe are all the responsibility of the chief of the patrol department. ”

Xiong Kewu and Pan Juying immediately clasped their fists and said: "Please rest assured, we should keep in mind the words of the Holy Lord, and we will take the maintenance of national security and reunification as the only military affairs, and will never interfere in local government affairs." ”

Song Biao is very sure in his heart, these two people dare not violate his iron law for the time being, and the two of them staying in Sichuan are also a mutual containment.

After emphasizing with these two people, Song Biao bowed his head slightly and motioned to Zhang Futian to arrange for someone to officially serve the food.

China is a country where there is no wine and no feast, Sichuan is even more obvious, the banquet wine was chosen Luzhou Daqu, Song Biao drank a few glasses and felt more and more mellow and long, not on the head, much better than the Northeast Shochu that he used to drink, he and Yang Zhaolin instructed: "Sichuan's wine is indeed very good, you let people arrange it, the Internal Affairs Office and the central political axe regularly go to Sichuan to purchase liquor for state banquets." This kind of Luzhou Laojiao is first set as the imperial offering, but it is necessary to pay attention to the quality of production. ”

Yang Zhaolin smiled very happily: "With this golden mouth of the saint, our Sichuan wine industry will be prosperous and exported to all directions." ”

Hearing this, Wu Jinyu, She Ying and others were also very happy.

Song Biao didn't say anything more, the foundation of the wine industry lies in grain, and if Sichuan's agriculture is not grasped well, the wine industry will definitely not be able to talk about the scale.

As for how Sichuan should be governed and how to do a good job in agriculture, he and Yang Zhaolin had talked many times, and he basically agreed with Yang Zhaolin's ideas. The biggest problem in Sichuan's agriculture at present is that there are too many taxes and land annexation is too serious, so we must find a way to solve these two problems, especially the problem of land annexation, which must be dealt with as soon as possible, even if it is through the government's coordinated repurchase and bank loans, and the peasants must be allowed to hold more land as soon as possible.

In the late Qing Dynasty, the problem of land annexation was actually precarious, and in Sichuan, where land annexation was most severe, landlords with a population of less than 3/1,000 occupied more than 70 percent of the land, and the peasants had to bear heavy taxes and pay a lot of land rents, which was too heavy.

During the period of governance of the three eastern provinces, in order to help the peasants enter large-scale planting more quickly, the three eastern provinces set up the government-run Northeast Agricultural Bank, and after Song Biao and Zhang Kangren discussed, they already planned to set up a new Agricultural Bank of China on the basis of the Northeast Agricultural Bank, and then the Agricultural Bank of China set up rural credit cooperatives in various provinces to handle agricultural loans, redeem land, and handle mortgage installment loans to sell to farmers.

In terms of land taxation policy, the large landlord class is still restricted throughout the country, and the provinces formulate different tax levels according to different standards, in short, the more land, the more land operation tax.

The disadvantage of this policy was that it would suppress much of China into a small-scale peasant economy, but for the sake of national stability, it was the only option for the central government of the empire, and on this basis, it actively increased food production through the promotion of improved seeds, fertilizers, and new technologies, and by improving irrigation conditions in various places.

By the end of the Qing Dynasty, China's total cultivated land area was 1.6 billion mu, or 3.55 mu per capita; if agriculture can be rationally developed and the average grain yield per mu in Guannai can also be raised to the level of Kanto, China's total agricultural output value will increase by 40 percent, and if it can reach the current level of the United States, the total agricultural output value will increase by 55 percent.

With this alone, China will be able to regain its position as a world power in terms of economic aggregate.

In this regard, the rapid emancipation of women's labor force has become a very important and key factor, and the increase in manpower is usually the first factor in economic growth.

Another point that is very important to note is that China's largest cash crops are not soybeans, sugar beets, cotton, raw silk and tea, but opium, according to the Ministry of Agriculture's current statistics from the archives of the Qing Dynasty, more than half of the land in Shanxi Province alone is used for opium cultivation, and Shanxi is also the largest opium cultivation area in China at this stage.

This means that for the newly formed Central Empire, the two most urgent tasks are to ban smoking and to put foot shut.

Sichuan is even more stricky on these two issues.

Although Yang Zhaolin put forward some good ideas, Song Biao was not very clear whether he could have a real level to control the administrative and economic work of the province, and of course, it was better to use a reformist in the old bureaucratic system like Yang Zhaolin than to use someone like Wu Jinyu who did not understand administrative work at all.

If you think about it carefully, there are so many shortcomings in Sichuan, and in the whole of China, that even Song Biao is not very interested in dealing with them all.

During the civil inspection, Song Biao had both sympathy and compassion for the Chinese people and the people of Sichuan, as well as an indescribable tearing pain, which made him feel more and more that the burden on his body was so heavy.

He has always been a person who is very good at figuring out the big truth, and at this time he can't understand the Chinese nation at all, no, why did the Han people come to this point, why is it so?

What kind of spirit and reason make the Han people so constantly self-harming and let themselves be ignorant and rotten to such an extent?

He really couldn't figure it out.

After pacifying Sichuan, Song Biao no longer went south to Yungui, and directly left Yucheng, the new provincial capital of Sichuan Province, by boat to return to Wuhan, and then took a special train from Wuhan to Beijing.

Cai Yi and Chen Qicai had already returned to Beijing one step ahead of Song Biao, while Chief Adviser Martos was one step ahead of him and returned to Shenyang with the General Staff Bureau at night to coordinate the work of various armies and preparations for war.

As far as the actual level is concerned, after all these years of training and study, Jiang Fangzhen is no worse than the Martost-level officers in major aspects, after all, he understands the national conditions better, and he is more familiar with the preparation of major plans, but he is still not as experienced as the Martost-level officers in the field of dispatching troops to fight and preparing battle plans.

It's a matter of experience.

December 4, 1910, was about to become history.

Song Biao returned to the headquarters of the Imperial Central Army in Tongzhou, the capital, and returned to his own palace, which was not an imperial palace at all, and the Office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy and Army.

At this time, the international situation was just as Song Biao had initially guessed, and he was stepping up his military deployment step by step, and constantly allowing the so-called Korean Empire to expand the territorial dispute over Yeonjima Island.

On the Korean Empire's side, a thousand words converge into one sentence - no matter what, the island is us Koreans, and the Chinese must get out.

(To be continued)