After the reorganization, the total strength of the 12 divisions and the four reserve divisions in the four southeastern provinces is 192,000, and the plan drawn up by Xiao Zhenlei and Jiang Baili is to form a combat strength within half a year, complete the whole training, and gradually complete the unified change of equipment within this half year, and strive to complete the formation of an army by October this year.

After taking care of the affairs of the army, Xiao Zhenlei set about the government restructuring of the four southeastern provinces, and he set up the East China Governor's Office in Nanjing, under which he set up the Department of Internal Affairs, the Department of Legal Affairs, the Department of Supervision, and the Bureau of Information Administration, and also set up a headquarters to take charge of the military affairs of the four provinces. Fujian was originally the territory of the Alliance, but after it was assigned to the East China Governor's Office, Xiao Zhenlei immediately sent three divisions into Fujian, Xu Chongzhi and others were worried that Xiao Zhenlei would murder them, and before Xiao Zhenlei could do it, the League would run away by themselves, which made Xiao Zhenlei cheaper, and he won a Fujian in vain without spending a soldier, a gun or a cannon.

The departure of these people made many positions vacant in the government departments of the four provinces under the East China Governor's Office, and Xiao Zhenlei immediately arranged for the members of the Iron and Blood Salvation Party to fill in, and in the four provincial government departments, the Iron and Blood Salvation Party originally accounted for more than one-third of the positions, but now it completely accounts for more than two-thirds, and the other remaining positions are occupied by some constitutional figures and some League members.

In order to better control the local government, Xiao Zhenlei assigned some key positions in the government departments to members of the Iron and Blood Salvation Party, such as the governors of the four provinces, the finance bureaus of the four provinces, and the police departments, which will control the local economy and public security.

By June, Xiao Zhenlei had basically completed his control of the four provinces in East China, until now. He became a veritable king of the southeast, and some tabloids also appeared in reports calling Xiao Zhenlei the king of the southeast.

Xiao Zhenlei was very clear. In politics, you can't play without financial support. Therefore, after Xiao Zhenlei completed the control of the four provinces in East China, he immediately introduced relevant policies to support local economic development, encourage commerce, and reduce commercial taxes. In terms of law, restrictions and controls have also been carried out to avoid the occurrence of commercial crimes as much as possible.

At the end of June, Premier Tang Shaoyi submitted his resignation after only three months in office, and when Xiao Zhenlei got the news, he knew that Yuan Shikai's ambitions for dictatorship had been exposed. Why did Tang Shaoyi submit her resignation after only three months? It's because he can't do it anymore as the prime minister.

When Tang Shaoyi was appointed as prime minister by Yuan Shikai, he had great political ambitions at the beginning, and he selected Song Jiaoren, Cai Yuanpei, Chen Qimei and other key members of the League to join the cabinet and serve as the chief ministers of agriculture and forestry, education, and industry and commerce, so that the members of the League accounted for the majority in the government, and was called the central cabinet of the League. Tang Shaoyi is diligent in official affairs and pays attention to efficiency. It has given the government a new look.

However, Yuan Shikai has always liked to monopolize power, and he was very dissatisfied with Tang Shaoyi's implementation of the responsible cabinet system and his compliance with the law in everything, and he was very dissatisfied with the appointment of personnel, finances, and abiding by the power of the prime minister's subsidiary office stipulated in the "Provisional Law." The rift between the two gradually deepened. Tang Shaoyi advocated employing people in the Republic of China, and refusing to arrange for the old people from Beiyang to enter the cabinet without permission. Zhao Bingjun actually threatened to resign. In terms of fundraising, Tang Shaoyi rejected the unreasonable request of the banking group of Britain, the United States, Germany, and France to supervise China's finances. It caused a joint attack by Yuan Shikai, the chief financial officer and the bank group of the four countries. Wang Zhixiang's direct incident eventually led Tang Shaoyi and Yuan Shikai to part ways. In early June, the Zhili Provincial Council elected Wang Zhixiang (suitable to join the League) as the governor of Zhili. Yuan Shikai did not recognize it, and put aside the premier's power to sign and issued another order. Seeing that the "Provisional Covenant" had been destroyed, Tang Shaoyi understood Yuan's various behaviors and deliberately deceived the KMT, so he angrily submitted his resignation on June 15, when he had been prime minister for less than three months.

Regarding Tang Shaoyi's resignation, Yuan Shikai had a completely indifferent attitude, since Tang Shaoyi was unwilling to do it, he couldn't ask for it, and only ten days later appointed Lu Zhengxiang as the prime minister to replace Tang Shaoyi.

At this time, many people in the League did not know Yuan Shikai's dictatorial ambitions, and they wanted to win the future general election with the political party and government, and use the political party to form a cabinet to empty Yuan Shikai as the president, but Yuan Shikai was so easy to deal with? Xiao Zhenlei wished that the alliance would continue to fight with Yuan Shikai, so Yuan Shikai would not have the energy to deal with him.

But Yuan Shikai did not forget Xiao Zhenlei, the person who almost forced him to lose his chess, before he really couldn't spare his hand to deal with Xiao Zhenlei, and now the people in the League are trying to use the political party and government to empty him as the president, he can only put Xiao Zhenlei aside for the time being and concentrate on dealing with the Alliance.

Xiao Zhenlei is also happy to see Yuan Shikai continue to fight with the Alliance, anyway, the number of the Iron and Blood Salvation Party in the Provisional Senate is not large, and it does not pose much threat to Yuan Shikai, he is now in the construction of railway transportation in the four southeastern provinces, this plan was quickly learned by the outside world after the Governor's Palace was proposed, and the newspapers carried out overwhelming reports.

Xiao Zhenlei meant to want Sun Wen to preside, Sun Wen resigned from the post of interim president and took up the post of national railway superintendent, but now the power is in the hands of Yuan Shikai, his position of national railway superintendent is in vain, Yuan Shikai has no railway to supervise him, so Xiao Zhenlei sent a telegram to ask Sun Wen to come to Nanjing to preside over the construction of the railway in the four southeastern provinces, and hired Zhan Tianyou as the chief engineer of the construction, it is expected to build a road from Nanjing to Jiangxi Jiujiang, from Hangzhou to Nanchang, Then build a railway from Hangzhou to Zhangzhou, Fujian, and from Jiujiang, Jiangxi to Xiamen, Fujian, a total of four railways.

The distance of these four railways in Calais was quite long, much longer than all the railways built before, and Sun Wen immediately went south from Beiping after receiving Xiao Zhenlei's telegram, and took Zhan Tianyou with him.

The matter of building the railway was handed over to Sun Wen and Zhan Tianyou, and Xiao Zhenlei was only responsible for paying the money, and the specific bidding work of the construction company and the procurement of construction steel were all handed over to the Department of the Interior.

When Sun Wen saw Xiao Zhenlei, he immediately asked, "Huanyu, do you really want to build a railway in the Governor's Palace?" ”

"Of course, how could I joke with you about such a thing?" Xiao Zhenlei said and took out a cigarette and handed it over, and when he saw Sun Wen waving his hand and refusing, he took back the cigarette and took out one and lit it himself.

Sun Wen asked again: "Then from where to where to cultivate?" How much does it cost? How long is it expected to be completed? ”

Xiao Zhenlei took a puff of cigarette and got up to go under a wall, tore off the curtain to reveal a huge map, he picked up a long whip and pointed at the map and said: "I am going to build four railways, first, from Nanjing to Jiujiang, second, from Hangzhou to Nanchang, third, from Hangzhou to Zhangzhou, and fourth, from Jiujiang to Xiamen." I don't know how long these four routes are, which needs professionals to measure, and calculate how long it will take to build and how much money it costs, and the specific route also needs Chief Engineer Zhan Tianyou to explore and plan, I just put forward such an idea, the specific work needs to be done by Mr. Sun, and the funds will be provided by the Governor's Office to establish the Southeast Railway Corporation, and the Southeast Railway Corporation will be responsible for the operation of the railway after it is completed! ”

Sun Wen sighed: "The combined distance of these four railway lines is not short, and the funds spent are probably an astronomical amount, your governor's palace has just been established, how can you get so much money?" ”

Xiao Zhenlei said with a smile: "Please rest assured Mr. Sun on this point, the Governor's Mansion will find a way to solve the problem, the question is whether you and Chief Engineer Zhan have the confidence to complete this work, to complete these four railways, I estimate that it will take at least five to ten years!" ”

Sun Wendao sighed and said: "I am now the general office of the national railway, but there is no railway under construction, after leaving the president, I have looked for President Yuan several times, hoping to put the construction of the Sichuan Provincial Railway on the agenda, but Yuan Shikai always said that there is no money now, let me think of a way by myself." As for the question of confidence, please rest assured, as long as you can ensure that the funds are in place in time, Chief Engineer Zhan and I will do our best to complete the construction of these four railways, after all, this is a good thing for the benefit of the people, but I am still worried that you will not be able to provide funds in time, once the funds are not in place, I am afraid that the construction of the railway will have to stop, and I don't know how long it will be delayed! ”

Xiao Zhenlei frowned and said: "Mr. Sun's concerns are not unreasonable, but it is impossible for you to let me take out all the funds for the construction of these four railways at once, and I don't know how much it will cost to build these four railways, in fact, I plan it this way, these four railways cannot start construction at the same time, they must be repaired one by one, there is a sequence, the first railway can be opened to traffic immediately, and the money is used to sell tickets to support the construction of the next railway, I am ready to build the railway from Hangzhou to Nanchang first, This should be the shortest distance among the four railways, and from Nanjing to Jiujiang there is Yangtze River shipping, from Hangzhou to Zhangzhou there is shipping, the demand for transportation is not so urgent, only can be built from Hangzhou to Nanchang this line, the construction of the latter few railways is facing much less financial pressure, Mr. Sun, what do you think? ”

Sun Wen thought about it and turned his head and asked Zhan Tianyou: "Chief Engineer Zhan, what do you see?" ”

Zhan Tianyou nodded and said: "I think Governor Xiao has a good plan, if this plan is carried out, as long as the funds for the construction of the Hangzhou-Nanchang railway are in place, and the proceeds from the opening and operation of this railway are not diverted for other purposes, I am confident that the construction of these four railways will be completed within eight years!" (To be continued......) R1292