Xu Shuzheng didn't bat at death, his eyes looked at the sky, the hot blood melted the snow, forming a bright red under his body, Li Yaoting inserted the revolver back into the armpit holster, and scolded himself: "It's cheap for you." ”

Somehow, an inexplicable sense of loss came to his heart, Chen Zikun took a step back, solemnly raised his hand in salute, and then took off his tweed coat and covered Xu Shuzheng's corpse.

The barking and shouting of dogs sounded in the distance, and it seemed that many people were rushing to this side, Chen Zikun jumped into the car, and took one last look at Xu Shuzheng in the wind and snow, a pair of bare feet under the coat were so pale, and he couldn't help but think of the heroic admiral who borrowed a sword from him in the banquet hall of the Six Nations Hotel.

"General Zheng, rest in peace." Chen Zikun silently recited and ordered to drive, and the car quickly disappeared into the wind and snow.

The soldiers of the National Army Brigade followed the footprints and arrived and found the corpse lying on the snow, and opened the coat with a bayonet to see that it was indeed Xu Shuzheng.

Zhang Zhijiang came to the scene and sharply questioned who fired the gun, but everyone said that they did not know, and the law did not blame the public, so they had to move the body back to the warehouse and report the news of Xu Shuzheng's death to Beijing.

In the morning, Lu Jianzhang's son Lu Chengwu came from Tianjin, shouting where Xu Shuzheng is, I want to personally rip out his heart to avenge his father, Zhang Zhijiang led him to the warehouse, and looked at Xu Shuzheng's stiff body, Lu Chengwu said angrily: "Why don't you kill him without waiting for me to come?" Who did this to you? ”

Zhang Zhijiang did not explain to him that Xu Shuzheng was killed, but only gave him a face-to-face lecture and told him how to release the news to the press.

Lu Chengwu was not a fool, nodded again and again, and went to the stable where Xu Shuzheng's attaché was imprisoned and scolded, shouting that he wanted to debone Xu Shuzheng's heart to avenge his father.

The next day, the attachés were arraigned by the military judge, only to learn that Xu Shuzheng had died last night, the military judge said slowly: "Xu Shuzheng was killed by Lu Jianzhang's son, this is revenge, and it has nothing to do with others. ”

The attachés were cold and hungry, and they were already frightened, so naturally Nuo Nuo said yes, signed and drew a book, and each took a photo to keep the military, and then left the sad place of Langfang with a short-distance train ticket.

……

The major newspapers in Beijing and Tianjin successively published the extra news that "Lu Chengwu avenges his father's hand and stabs Xu Shuzheng," and immediately published a telegram from Feng Yuxiang to Duan Qirui, claiming that General Xu Shuzheng was an important minister of the country, but unfortunately he was robbed by bandits on the way, and his death was very tragic, and he asked the government to give him a better pension.

There was no response from the ruling government, Duan Qirui was alone, the advisers and staff around him were all arrested by Feng Yuxiang, and the guards were sent by Lu Zhonglin, and he had no personal freedom, how to avenge Xu Shuzheng, he could only cry secretly, the head of state who was powerful at the beginning was now reduced to a puppet, and he could only use silence as a weapon to make a silent protest to the world.

Poor Xu Shuzheng, a dignified army general, a man of the year who traveled to Europe and the United States, the corpse stopped in Langfang and no one cared, waited for a day, only a man in his twenties came from Beijing, claiming to be Xu Shuzheng's nephew, to collect the corpse for his uncle, but he was penniless, and he couldn't even afford a train ticket, Zhang Zhijiang saw that he was pitiful, sponsored ten oceans, let him hire a mule cart, and rolled up the corpse with a broken straw mat and pulled it to Beijing.

The weather was cold, the ice and snow were everywhere, the mule cart was pulled from Langfang to Beijing, and he suffered all the way, Duan Qirui learned that the corpse had returned, and hurriedly went to visit, looking at the miserable white face on the mule cart, Duan Qirui cried bitterly, and others were infected and cried.

After crying, Duan Qirui noticed that the young man was stupid, his clothes were in tatters, his hands were covered with blood blisters and chilblains, he was still wearing single shoes on his feet, and his toes were exposed, so he asked, "Who are you?" ”

The man nodded and said, "If you go back to Duan, my name is Xu Tingge, and Xu Shuzheng is my second uncle." ”

Duan Qirui muttered: "Xu Tingge, it seems that I have heard and mentioned this name, where have you been all these years and what have you done?" ”

"Xu Tingge" said: "Back to your words, after I graduated from Peking University, I have been mixed up in Beijing, because of my uncle's relationship, I have been blinded and bullied, and I have never had a serious job. ”

Duan Qirui was a little suspicious, it is said that although the Anhui department has fallen, a Peking University student will not end up so bleakly with his own knowledge, so he asked him something about Xu Shuzheng's family without a trace, and this person answered fluently, without any mistakes.

"You Zheng has a nephew who is not a weapon, but he is also filial, since You Zheng is gone, I have to take care of him." Duan Qirui said in his heart.

"I'll sponsor you a sum of money, you can go abroad to study." Duan Qirui said.

"Xu Tingge" looked happy: "Thank you Duan for ruling the government." ”

The corpse was handed over to Duan Qirui for convergence, and a check for 5,000 yuan was written, and a set of half-used cotton robes and shoes were found for "Xu Tingge", and the nephew received the check and changed his clothes, and came out with a thousand thanks, called a foreign car and drove away, the coachman looked back and said with a smile: "Fuck, isn't this Xu Er, what are you doing when you got rich, Leng didn't recognize it." ”

Xu Eryi kicked him on the back and scolded: "Pull your car honestly, if you don't speak, you can still be sold as a dumb person, from now on, Lao Tzu's big name is Xu Tingge!" Remember! ”

……

On the last day of the 14th year of the Republic of China, Chen Zikun and Li Yaoting went to the suburbs of Beijing to go to the grave of Aunt Yanhong, after Li Yaoting made a career, he moved his mother's grave, and repaired it with water-milled bricks to blew it beautifully, like the grave of a large family. ”

Chen Zikun patted Li Yaoting on the shoulder: "It's time for you to start a family, let's go, let's go back." ”

The two entered the city gate by car, and they heard the newsboy shouting at the top of his voice: "Look at the newspaper and read the newspaper, Wu Peifu is connected to the Feng, Zhang Zuolin is sent to Shanhaiguan!" ”

Chen Zikun hurriedly asked the coachman to pause, bought a newspaper to browse, and on the front page was Wu Peifu's telegram, ending the crusade against Feng Zhang from now on, and instead declaring war on Feng Yuxiang's Nationalist Army, Sun Chuanfang also issued a telegram in Nanjing, supporting Wu Peifu, while Zhang Zongchang, a general of the Feng Department in Shandong, expressed his willingness to follow Wu Peifu's lead.

"This is all caused by Xu Shuzheng's death." Chan put down the newspaper and sighed.

Li Yaoting said: "How do you say this? ”

Chen Zikun said: "Wu Yushuai is not a villain who turns the clouds and rains, he can give up his hatred of Feng Zhang and turn to deal with Feng Yuxiang, it is because Feng Yuxiang is good at killing Xu Shuzheng, so that the Beiyang elders feel the cold to the bone. ”

Li Yaoting said: "But...... Didn't we kill Xu Shuzheng? ”

Chen Zikun sneered: "If we don't kill him, will he be able to live?" Xu Shuzheng is arrogant and domineering, enemies are everywhere, his life is over, he can't complain about us, Feng Yuxiang is not aggrieved, he doesn't detain Xu Shuzheng in Langfang, and we won't kill him so easily. ”

Li Yaoting nodded and said, "I understand, all this is providence." ”

Chen Zikun said: "Pack up and go back to the south, there is nothing to see in the drama in the north." ”

……

In fact, this time Chen Zikun went north alone, the most important thing is not to kill Xu Shuzheng, killing Xu is the profession of an assassin, not the business of a handsome, just send a few capable generals to come and do things properly, but there is one thing, no one can replace himself.

That is, he was worried about Lin Wenjing and wanted to come to see his first love.

Lin Wenjing has a very fulfilling life, she has enough living expenses, after buying a large number of books, she still has spare money to help poor classmates, and in her spare time, she also goes to the student apartment in Dongwenchang Hutong to help, where Xing'er is now in charge, and a large number of talented young people from all over the world get together, and they will not be bored at all.

Sweet days are always very short, Chen Zikun only passed three days in the forest house, the two of them had to save a little, but never crossed the thunder pond one step, Beijing is not a place to stay for a long time, taking advantage of the war for a while, he said goodbye to Lin Wenjing, and returned to Jiangdong with Yao Yilei's parents, the Spring Festival is approaching, the Yao couple who became grandparents have not seen their granddaughter, anyway, the cabinet is also closed, the messenger of the chief of transportation has also left, there is nothing to worry about in Beijing, the old couple and son-in-law stepped on the train to the south.

After Wu Peifu joined the army, Feng Yuxiang announced by telegram the next day, that is, on the first day of 1926, that the commander-in-chief of the Nationalist Army was represented by Zhang Zhijiang, and Zhang Zhijiang sent a telegram to Wu Peifu saying: "I am willing to follow my commander and gallop reluctantly." Yu Yue Weijun, commander of the Second and Third Armies of the National Army, and Sun Yue also telegraphed to follow Wu Yushuai, while Zhang Zongchang of Shandong simply called Wu Peifu "I am handsome", which was closer than Zhang Zuolin.

For a time, in addition to the three eastern provinces, the whole of North China seemed to be harmonious, Wu Peifu seemed to have regained the majesty of the tiger when he was in Luoyang, and the traffic between Zhili and Shandong also returned to normal, and the Jinpu line was unimpeded.

When the car arrived in Langfang, stop to get off the passengers, and it was necessary to delay for a while, Chen Zikun took two guards to get out of the car, found a vacant land, drew a circle, took out a stack of paper money to burn, stood in place and chanted for a while, and then returned to the soft sleeper box.

Yao Qizhen helped the gold wire glasses and asked, "Zikun, who are you burning paper for?" ”

Chen Zikun said: "I am paying tribute to Xu Shuzheng, and he died in Langfang. ”

Yao Qizhen is also an old Anhui person, and he is familiar with Xu Shuzheng, he couldn't help crying when he heard this, and touched his handkerchief to wipe the corners of his eyes: "Zheng is arrogant again, knowing that the situation in Beijing is chaotic, and there are enemies everywhere, he wants to come, alas, he is only forty-five years old, and he died young, if he doesn't die, ...... if he doesn't die."

"If he doesn't die, Duan Qirui won't give up." Chan said.

"Duan Hefei was such a stubborn person back then, monopolizing power, saying one thing, but now he is being fiddled with by Zhang Zuolin and Feng Yuxiang like a dough, and after Zheng died, I went to see him, he seemed to be ten years old in a few days, it seems that the days of the resurgence of the Anhui system will never be again." Yao Qizhen sighed, quite lonely.

Chen Zikun knew that his father-in-law was a very old politician, and his eyes were very poisonous, so he asked: "Father-in-law, in your opinion, where will the situation evolve?" ”

Yao Qizhen said: "Zhang Yuting is killing each other, the internal friction is serious, and he can't slow down for a while, Feng Yuxiang is a rat crossing the street and everyone shouts and beats, although Wu Peifu has become a fragrant glutton, but the people who really support him don't even have one, Sun Chuanfang in the south, with shallow qualifications, and his ambitions are not ambitious enough, a hat of the commander of the five provinces is enough for him to wear, let me see, there is no hero at the time, so that the vertical son becomes famous." ”

Chan's heart moved.

~