Regarding Tao Rong's surprise that he and Jia Jiying also thought that the Jin banknote would depreciate, Song Zhewu was very difficult to answer, he couldn't say that I knew it in my previous life. In order to hide his predicament, the helpless Song Zhewu used his best method and immediately changed the topic.

Song Zhewu asked Xiao Guodong with some doubts: "However, it is okay to prohibit businesses from opening the market for a short time, but after a long time, not only will it not stabilize the mood of the people, on the contrary, it will also cause difficulties for the people's livelihood and make the people more resentful of us, isn't Jia Junchen clear about this problem?" ”

Xiao Guodong glanced at the busy staff officers around him, and carefully pulled Song Zhewu and Tao Rong to the corner of the large war room and sat down.

Regarding Xiao Guodong's caution, Song Zhewu thought it was true, if the news that the Jin banknote was about to depreciate spread now, it would be very unfavorable for him who had not yet figured out the most suitable way to deal with it.

Song Zhewu looked at Tao Rong and said solemnly: "Chief of Staff Tao, anything you say in the war room can be called top secret, these staff officers will not be unclear about this, anyone who dares to leak our words is a serious violation of military discipline, such a person can even be said to be a traitor to our Fourth Route Army, and must be severely punished." ”

Anything said in the war room is, of course, a military secret, and of course Tao Rong understands this common sense, nodding and saying, "Yes, I will ask Mengxi to emphasize the issue of secrecy again in the war department." ”

Xiao Guodong was afraid that Tao Rong would not be able to come to the stage, so he also said: "Not only the War Department, but also the whole army must emphasize this issue, and any leakage of secrets is not allowed." ”

However, Xiao Guodong still lowered his voice and said: "Jia Jiying specially cares, regarding the imminent depreciation of the Jin banknote, it must be kept secret now, otherwise it will inevitably cause panic immediately." ”

Xiao Guodong continued: "Jia Jiying is very clear about the dissatisfaction of the people who will be dissatisfied with the closure of the market, but he believes that there are many ticket numbers in Shanxi, and the judgment of the imminent depreciation of the Jin banknote will not be foreseen by him alone, and many people with ticket numbers will have this judgment." He said that before the commander made a decision, all shops, especially banks and ticket numbers, had to be forced to close. ”

Regarding Jia Jiying's statement, Song Zhewu thought so. You must know that since the rise of the Jin merchants in the early Ming Dynasty, they have been in the Chinese financial industry for hundreds of years, and it is only after Xinhai that the patriarchs of the Jin merchants are complacent and stick to the rules, and gradually decline. However, the financial heritage formed by the Jin merchants for hundreds of years is profound, and even in the current ticket numbers, it is still a hidden dragon and a crouching tiger, and it will not be only Jia Jiying who can foresee the depreciation of the Jin banknotes in advance, and it will not even be the elites in a few ticket numbers.

Song Zhewu re-lit a cigarette and asked thoughtfully: "Since Jia Junchen has foreseen that the Jin banknote will depreciate, what can he do?" ”

Although Song Zhewu also knew that the Jin banknote would depreciate, the several plans he prepared were not very ideal, so he was anxious to know what better way Jia Jiying could deal with it.

"Jia Jiying proposed three sets of plans, and he asked you to choose by yourself." Xiao Guodong frowned slightly and said.

"His first plan was that we would not do anything and let the Jin banknotes depreciate. The advantage of this method is that the favorability of the people of Shanxi towards Yan Xishan will drop sharply along with the depreciation of the Jin banknotes; The disadvantage is that the people of Shanxi will no longer believe in the banknotes issued by Shanxi, that is, Wenge, you can no longer use the banknotes to raise money in the future. ”

"The second plan is to comprehensively and actively rescue the market, which can be done with the strength of the Northern Investment and Development Bank. The advantage of this method is that Wenge's prestige in Shanxi will increase rapidly because of the stability of the Jin banknote, and will be recognized by the people of Shanxi; The disadvantage is that Yan Xishan's prestige will be damaged limitedly, and although we will not have anything to lose, we will not gain anything. ”

Song Zhewu has thought about both of these plans, but he thinks that they are not ideal.

For the first plan, Song Zhewu believes that this will certainly deal a great blow to Yan Xishan's prestige, and he can even secretly poke out the matter of Yan Xishan sucking away a huge amount of ocean, and the people of Shanxi will think that Yan Xishan snatched their money from them by deception, leaving them only a piece of Jin banknotes that are undoubtedly scrapped paper.

But the disadvantage is also obvious, that is, he Song Zhewu can no longer issue banknotes to raise funds, because the people of Shanxi will no longer believe in any banknotes issued by Shanxi. Moreover, it is not only that he will not be able to continue to raise the money he urgently needs from Shanxi to develop the economy and build an industrial system, but the most important thing is that the people of Shanxi will lose trust in any ruler who represents Shanxi, including him Song Zhewu, which will be very detrimental to the social reforms he is about to carry out in Shanxi.

For the second plan, Song Zhewu is also not satisfied, although he has enough economic strength to stop the depreciation of the Jin banknotes, but that is only making a wedding dress for the Shanxi Provincial Political Axe, and the Shanxi Provincial Political Axe, which is not under his control, can continue to print money to meet the financial needs of the provincial political axe, and even because of the continued indiscriminate issuance of Jin banknotes, it is likely to cause the depreciation of the Jin banknotes again. And the most critical problem is that this plan has little impact on Yan Xishan's prestige in Shanxi, and is even so small that it is negligible.

Therefore, Song Zhewu will not adopt these two plans, at least he will not be willing to adopt these two plans now.

Song Zhewu nodded lightly and asked Xiao Guodong: "What is Jia Junchen's third plan?" ”

Tao Rong has been busy directing and deploying the "Turtledove Plan", and other things are being handled by Xiao Guodong, about the matter of Jin Banknotes, he heard about it for the first time today, but he can see that Song Zhewu is not interested in these two plans. What Song Zhewu wants to know most is the third plan.

However, to his surprise, Xiao Guodong was a little hesitant about the plan that Song Zhewu wanted to know the most. After a pause, he said: "This third plan, Jia Jiying did not say specifically. He just said, 'In this plan, there are some things that cannot be put on the table, whether you agree with him or not is not guaranteed, he can only say it if he reports to you alone and knows your clear attitude.' ”

Although Song Zhewu didn't know the content of this third plan, he thought that this plan would definitely be the most beneficial to him, but the means might not be very open, otherwise, Jia Jiying would not hide it from Xiao Guodong.

Song Zhewu nodded slightly, thought for a while and said, "Yes." In this way, Chief of Staff Xiao arranged to convene a meeting of the members of the Military Management Committee in Taiyuan in the evening, and I had to explain some things, and after the meeting, I would like to meet He Qigong and Jia Junchen separately. ”

At 8 o'clock the next morning, on a densely wooded hill south of Jinmiaopu, Pang Bingxun, commander of the 14th Provisional Division of the Northwest Army, was kicking his lame leg on a rock, and together with his chief of staff Wang Shouwu, he held a telescope to carefully observe a hill more than 1,000 meters away.

The hill was also shaded by dense trees. In Pang Bingxun's telescope, a thin layer of milky white morning fog was faintly shrouded in the opposite hill, and it was difficult to observe any hostile situation at this distance due to the obscuration of the morning fog. In particular, under the bright sunlight of summer, the strong light tenaciously pierced this layer of morning mist, shining on the dew drops on the branches and leaves of the grass and trees, scattering crystal clear bits of dazzling light, which brought great inconvenience to the observer. In this little bit of glittering pearl, it is not only difficult to find opponents in military uniforms of the same color as the grass and trees, but also the reflection of metal on bayonets and guns.

Pang Bingxun put down the binoculars, rubbed his eyes that were a little sour, looked at the quiet hill opposite and asked Wang Shouwu: "Is it true that the Fourth Route Army has not withdrawn yet?" ”

Wang Shouwu nodded and said: "Since we chased here in the middle of the night last night, we have been taking the company as a unit, constantly taking turns to attack and probe, every time they counterattack very resolutely, the firepower is also very strong, their main force must still be there." ”

Seeing that Pang Bingxun didn't say anything, Wang Shouwu added: "From here to the south, there are more than forty miles to Jincheng, and we have entered the Changzhi Basin, this area is flat, and this rear guard regiment of the Fourth Route Army, it will be more difficult to break away from us, and if their large army does not leave, they dare not withdraw easily." ”

According to Yan Xishan's telegram from Mr. Feng, Song Zhewu's army is besieging Jincheng and Changzhi, and it must be that they are waiting for this rearguard regiment to dare not withdraw. In other words, as long as we bite this regiment tightly, it is equivalent to biting Song Zhewu's army, and we will have fulfilled Mr. Feng's requirements, and he will not blame you. So, we can no longer chase after the casualties as we did before. ”

Wang Shouwu glanced at the troops that were gathering at the foot of the hill, and said cautiously: "Division, in the eyes of Mr. Feng, we are also miscellaneous cards of the Northwest Army, if there is a supplement of weapons and personnel, Mr. Feng will definitely not give us priority." ”

Seeing Pang Bingxun's slight frowning and preoccupied look, Wang Shouwu sighed and said: "When we fought on the Longhai Line, although we also fought a lot of tough battles, but the division was well commanded, although we also had personnel losses, but we also captured a lot of weapons and ammunition, and also replenished a lot of prisoners, even if Mr. Feng did not give us any supplements, but our strength not only did not shrink, on the contrary, it also grew a lot, and the weapons were updated a lot. But after a day and two nights of pursuit, we suffered more than 1,000 casualties......"

"Where is Xu Yongchang's Jin Suijun now?" Pang Bingxun asked absent-mindedly.

At the mention of Xu Yongchang, Wang Shouwu couldn't help but admire: "I thought that only our Northwest Army could endure hardships the most, and it could march continuously for one or two hundred miles in one day and one night, but I didn't expect that the pampered Jin Sui Army could also walk two hundred miles in one day and two nights, which is really difficult for them......

(To be continued)