However, although the battles in the above two directions were also fierce, they were secondary to the entire Jiangnan strategy of the Feng army, and their offensive mainly played the role of containing the Anhui army, and it was unlikely that they would achieve any practical results, at most they would form a war of attrition.

However, this kind of containment and continuous attrition was also a great pressure on the Feng army, and it was precisely because the Third Division continued to launch a fierce attack on the north bank of the Yangtze River in Jinling that Duan Qirui did not send all the Fourth Division out and send it to the direction of Dangtu.

Now the most critical and difficult time in the Jiangnan strategy has passed, and the next war is also important to him, but he doesn't have to wait for the war report to come every day, and he can rest assured after watching it.

However, the military affairs were put down for the time being, but Zhao Dongyun still had to be idle, because he still needed to deal with the government affairs that had been squeezed for many days, for example, he had to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Normal Preparatory University, and he had to organize a drinking party to publicize the third phase of patriotic bonds issued by the Soviet Union to the capitalists in the north, hoping that these capitalists and landlords and old fortunes would be able to actively pay for the bonds, and then there was diplomatic work. This is nothing, the key is that the crew of this ship is Chinese, the arms are Duan Qirui's, but the captain is an Englishman.

After the seizure of the ship transporting the arms, Zhu Erdian had protested several times in a row, clamoring for Zhao Dongyun to give the British Empire a satisfactory answer for the seizure of the British.

In the past few days, Zhao Dongyun's attention was focused on the battle of crossing the river, and he didn't have much mind to deal with other things at all, but now that he is free, he naturally needs to deal with these messy things, especially the protests of the British.

Although this is only a trivial matter, it is impossible for the British to change their attitude towards themselves and the Soviet republican government because they have detained British captains one by one, after all, in fact, supporting Zhao Dongyun to unify China has become the established policy of Britain in China, and it is impossible to change it lightly.

Otherwise, the British would not be guilty of providing Zhao Dongyun with a loan of up to 10 million pounds!

However, this kind of foreign affairs should not be taken lightly, and if it drags on for too long, it may make Zhu Erdian change his impression of Zhao Dongyun and make him think that he maintains an unfriendly attitude towards Britain.

So on this day, before the start of the bond reception, Zhao Dongyun made an appointment to meet Zhu Erdian in the afternoon.

As soon as Zhu Erdian arrived, he didn't sit down yet, but he said: "On behalf of the British Empire, I would like to express a strong protest against the detention of our captain by your army, and I hope that you can properly handle this matter and release our captain immediately!" ”

Although this attitude made Zhao Dongyun very dissatisfied, he represented the number one power on the contemporary earth, and Zhao Dongyun was not stunned that he was angry at the slightest dissatisfaction, he just smiled slightly, and then said: "Don't worry, your captain Harriet has left Hezhou this evening, and he should have boarded the passenger ship to Shanghai by now." ”

When the Fourth Army, the front-line troops, seized the arms transport ship of the Anhui army, and found that the captain above was actually an Englishman, Meng Enyuan also knew that if he was not careful, he would cause some diplomatic disputes, so the ship was detained, and the people were temporarily detained for two days, but the British captain was not neglected, but instead served with good food and drink, and asked Jurentang what to do.

How to deal with it?

What else can I do, let people go!

As for the ship, the arms on board, and other crew members, because the ship was a Chinese-flagged ship, and the other crew members were also from the Anhui army, so they would not let go, and the ships were directly requisitioned, and the arms were also directly used by the Feng army.

Zhao Dongyun released people so simply, which made Zhu Erdian, who brought a belly of rhetoric, feel speechless, and couldn't help complaining about Zhao Dongyun in his heart: You are also a president, the commander of hundreds of thousands of troops, can you have a little backbone, and you can hold on for a few days, otherwise how can I use this opportunity to extort more benefits for the British Empire!

This matter is over, but Zhu Erdian can't stay for a few minutes when he comes to Jurentang, and Zhao Dongyun and Zhu Erdian are also very busy people, so they can't end this meeting without saying a few words.

As a result, Zhu Erdian began to have nothing to say, and the topics were all old topics between China and Britain, and he would talk about the issue of Western Tibet, what the situation in Tibet should be resolved by the Tibetans, and so on. Then he went around in a circle, talking about Mongolia, and the British side resolutely did not allow China to intervene in Tibet, and he expressed great support and support for Zhao Dongyun to send troops to Mongolia to suppress the rebellion last year.

It is said that Zhao Dongyun's move has effectively maintained peace and stability in the Far East.

For these, Zhao Dongyun just laughed over, the Tibetan issue is a bit involved, and the British will not be able to talk about it for a while, and more importantly, now the Soviet control bureau is still 108,000 miles away from Tibet, and if you want to get involved, you must first defeat the Southern Union troops in the northwest, Sichuan, Yunnan-Guizhou and other places.

As for the Mongolian issue, the Russians are involved here, and the current British will never sit idly by and watch the Russians annex Mongolia, or support Mongolia's independence, so it is natural for him to support Zhao Dongyun to send troops to Mongolia to suppress the rebellion.

Zhu Erdian is a veteran diplomat, and during the half-hour meeting, he was stunned to tell all the things about China and Britain, except for Mongolia and Tibet, and also said a few words about the Tianjin-Pudong Railway, complaining that the China Railway Corporation controlled by the Soviet system was too slow to move, and the survey had not yet been completed, which made the British bankers who had already prepared all the money to lend to China to build the railway very dissatisfied, and said that the construction progress of the Jinpu Railway was too slow, even slower than the construction of the Longhai Railway.

Last year, Zhao Dongyun took out two railways to win over Britain and the United States, of which Britain was granted the right to borrow money for the Tianjin-Pudong Railway, while the Americans were granted the right to borrow money for the Longhai Railway.

Unlike the slow progress of the Jinpu Railway, the progress of the Longhai Railway is very fast, just after the signing of the loan contract, the China Oh Railway Corporation is to start the construction of the Longhai Railway, and Haizhou, Xuzhou, Zhengzhou, Kaifeng and other places at the same time.

The reason why the construction started so quickly was, on the one hand, because of the military needs of the Feng army, and the military strongly supported the construction of this section of the railway. On the other hand, it is also because part of this section of the railway has been repaired in front, and since last year, the Fengjun army has planned to build a temporary military railway, and the section has been surveyed, and now it is directly used to build the Longhai railway.

At present, the Zhengzhou-Haizhou section of the Longhai Railway has begun preliminary works, and the fastest progress is the construction of Lianyungang in Haizhou.

Why, because this small port is currently the main shipping supply transit station of the Feng army, a large number of materials from the north to Lianyungang by sea, and then transported to the front-line troops by guò river, land and other means, so the construction of this port is a military need.

Unlike the Longhai Railway, which progressed relatively smoothly, the Jinpu Railway made relatively slow progress because Jinling at the southern end was still in the war zone.

From the Tibetan issue to the Mongolian issue, and then the Tianjin-Pudong Railway and other commercial issues, Zhu Erdian and Zhao Dongyun talked about it, and finally mixed up the half-hour meeting time, but until Zhu Erdian walked out of the door, in fact, they didn't talk about anything.

After ending this meeting, which was not practical and was just to express his goodwill towards Britain, Zhao Dongyun met with several officials and left them for dinner together, and then he took his wife Fang Ruolian to attend the bond cocktail party.

Zhao Dongyun is usually the last to show up at the many dinners, cocktail parties and other activities held in the presidential palace, but the specific preparations are Fang Ruolian's business, Fang Ruolian is very interested in holding these cocktail parties, balls and the like, and all day long she is pulling the ladies in Beijing to do these things together.

And also made a so-called Xiyuan Dance Troupe, choreographed for a period of time is to do a number of public welfare performances, a week ago, they also engaged in a public welfare performance, invited a large group of ladies in Beijing, minister's wife and the like to watch, and then these people who came to see the performance more or less had to donate a lot of money, stunned to let Fang Ruolian raise up to 150,000 yuan of funds, this fund will be donated to Fang Ruolian's own preparation of the 'Hongren Education Fund', specifically to support the development of domestic basic education.

Although this Hongren Education Fund is only a private fund, it was prepared by Fang Ruolian, the president's wife, and basically the powerful capitalists with heads and faces on the ground in Beijing have donated funds to it, and the fundraising has reached more than 500,000 yuan, and many primary schools have been opened in Beijing, Shandong, and the three eastern provinces.

At today's patriotic bond reception, the Xiyuan Dance Troupe will also perform to encourage those wealthy people to enthusiastically buy patriotic bonds to support the great cause of reunification of the Soviet army.

When Zhao Dongyun walked into the venue with Fang Ruolian, as usual, he inevitably had to say a few polite words to these rich people, Zhao Dongyun put on a professional smile from beginning to end, and after a while, he saw Yu Wanling also come over with several other noble ladies to greet him.

Zhao Dongyun smiled: "I'm looking forward to Miss Yu's dance troupe performing more exciting tonight!" ”

Xiyuan Dance Troupe, although it is said that Fang Ruolian hosted it, she only gave some support in terms of funds and venues, and the specific affairs were actually handled by the young woman in front of her.

This woman is not the same as other women of her time!

When Yu Wanling was in the former Qing Dynasty, she held a dance in the palace, and she was relatively close to Fang Ruolian, so she served as the head of the Xiyuan Dance Troupe.

However, she still did not resign from her job in the Foreign Affairs Section of the Presidential Office Secretariat, and when necessary, she would still serve as an interpreter for Zhao Dongyun and his wife.

This woman is not quite the same as other women of her time.