August in Shandong is as hot as ever, in Gushan Town, countless soldiers wielding shovels digging trenches, due to the hot weather, many soldiers are taking off their shirts and shirtless.

Although the weather was hot, the soldiers who dug the trenches did not complain too much, because they knew that the trenches they were digging now would be the guarantee of their lives.

While the soldiers were digging trenches, Pei Lianying also climbed a small high ground with a large group of officers and observed the Lu army in the distance with binoculars.

"Since they repelled their tentative attack yesterday evening, they have been delaying the attack since last night, they should be waiting for the arrival of the main force in the rear!" One major said: "And their reinforcements are relatively fast, yesterday it was only a battalion, and now there are more than one regiment, and the artillery units have also arrived!" ”

Pei Lianying put down the binoculars: "Let the troops continue to prepare, if they don't come to take the initiative to attack, they will hold their troops first!" ”

Although Pei Lianying himself had already arrived in Gushan Town, the main force of the Sixth Brigade under his command was still behind, and he arrived at Gushan Town first to inspect the fortifications and terrain here, so as to prepare for the subsequent battle.

However, the Lu army on the opposite side did not give the Feng army too much time, and the Lu army gathered at least 3,000 troops to launch the first large-scale attack on Gushan Town in the afternoon, and at this time, the Feng army in Gushan Town was only more than a battalion, and the strength was less than 1,000 people.

Because of the disadvantage in terms of troops, the Feng army adopted the tactics of holding on to the ground, anyway, if you fight defense in this year, you can occupy a great advantage, although it is more difficult to fight, but it is not a problem to hold the position.

However, when the Lu army on the opposite side attacked Gushan Town, Pei Lianying's eyes were already on Zhang Xia Town, which was seven or eight kilometers away.

"The defense of Gushan Town is still not a problem, but you must know that the task given to us by the Military Department for the Third Division is not only to hold Gushan Town, but to eat this enemy army! Now that the main force of the enemy army is gathered outside Gushan Town, as long as we can send troops to capture Zhangxia Town, then we can completely encircle this enemy army in the narrow passage of Gushan Town and Zhangxia Town, and it is also very possible to completely annihilate the department at that time! ”

"But there are deep mountains and old forests on both sides, and we have to send a large force to make a detour from the side, I'm afraid we won't be able to get by!"

The generals of the Lu army on the opposite side are not stupid, they naturally know the importance of Zhang Xia Town, so even if the main force gathers outside Gushan Town, there will definitely be troops left behind in Zhang Xia Town, this Feng army enters the pass and sends a small force to travel lightly, and it will be very difficult to go south, but it is restrained by the terrain on both sides, and there is no way to send a large force to detour!

"Although the terrain on both sides is limited, and the artillery troops cannot accompany it, it is still possible for the troops to be lightly armed, and it is not a problem to increase a certain number of mules and horses, carrying mortars and heavy machine guns, and the enemy's troops staying in Zhangxia Town will not be too much, as long as we lightly detour a regiment past, then it is not a big problem to take Zhangxia and hold it, as long as Zhangxia is taken, then this second mixed brigade will be completely surrounded by us, and when the time comes, the north and south will launch an attack at the same time, However, they will never be able to hold on to the length of seven or eight kilometers. ”

Pei Lianying did not hesitate for too long, and soon proposed a light and roundabout battle plan to the division headquarters, and the current commander of the Third Division, Gu Lanyu, was best at detouring, after discussing with a large number of staff officers, Gu Lanyu immediately ordered Pei Lianying to send an infantry regiment to the southwest Taishan Mountains to make a detour, and strive to cross the mountainous area to attack Zhangxia Town.

Two days later, the 12th Regiment of the 6th Brigade, led by a local guide, successfully crossed the deep mountains and old forests and appeared outside Zhangxia Town, and launched an attack on the town as soon as possible.

The troops of the Third Division suddenly appeared outside Zhangxia Town, which surprised the Lu army at the same time, almost that day, the Lu army's offensive in Gushan Town was suspended, and it was urgent to transfer troops back to defend Zhangxia Town, but the Fifth Brigade, which had already taken charge of the defense of Gushan Town, was able to let the Second Mixed Brigade draw troops, and almost at the same time, the Fifth Brigade also launched a large-scale counterattack against the Lu army outside Gushan Town.

For a time, Gushan Town and Zhangxia Town, two small places, were engaged in extremely tragic offensive and defensive battles at the same time, and although these two places were small, with the mobilization and deployment of troops on both sides, the battle situation here had risen enough to affect the entire Jinan Campaign.

If the Feng army can annihilate the second mixed brigade of the Lu army in Gushan Town and Zhangxia Town in one fell swoop, then it will be equivalent to completely cutting off the connection between the Jinan defenders and other Lu troops, and Jinan will no longer be able to get Zhang Huaizhi's reinforcements in the foreseeable future, and it is logical for the Feng army to take Jinan at that time.

When the tragic battle was going on in Jinan, Shandong, there was already a lot of singing and dancing in the Beijing Division, and a large number of craters and bullet holes left by the previous battle between the two armies of Zhifeng were still in the streets and alleys, but the streets of the Beijing Division had already restored their former livelihoods.

Xiyuan, that is, the area of Zhonghai and Nanhai where Jurentang is located, there were huge royal garden buildings in this area, since the republic Cixi and Guangxu were placed under house arrest by Wang Yingkai, and the Forbidden City and Xiyuan and other royal gardens were all state-owned. Among them, the Forbidden City should be converted into a museum, but the other royal gardens, especially many buildings in the West Garden, were used for the president's office and residence.

After Zhao Dongyun became the master of Beijing, he continued Wang Yingkai's policy, and the Forbidden City continued to be used as a museum, and the Bauhinia City Aftermath Committee was established, which was responsible for the dismissal and resettlement of eunuchs and palace maids, as well as the repair and protection of the Forbidden City's cultural relics and a large number of materials in the palace, while a large number of the original royal garden buildings in the West Garden were unceremoniously occupied by him.

In fact, there are more than these buildings that have been nationalized, there are also a large number of Manchu nobles' mansions, basically those former Qing princes' mansions are all state-owned, and have been successively changed to government departments and even schools and other institutions, but the money obtained from the original raid was taken away by the previous Wang Yingkai, and Wang Yingkai got most of the money used to expand the army, fight, and a small part of it had to maintain the operation of the government, so Zhao Dongyun was not able to seize too much money after taking the Beijing Division.

After entering the Beijing Division, it is naturally gratifying that Zhao Dongyun became the president in terms of politics, but he did not gain much economically, because he did not make too much floating wealth, which led Zhao Dongyun to enter the customs and still rely heavily on the supply of the three eastern provinces financially.

As for the fiscal revenue of Zhili Province, it takes time to sort out the finances, and it has not been long since Feng Jun took Zhili, and he has not had time to collect a lot of taxes.

After taking Zhili, the economic income is not large, but the expenditure of the Fengjun is getting bigger and bigger day by day, Xiong Xiling, who is in charge of finance, almost plays with tearing down the east wall and making up the west wall every day, Zhou Xuexi, the chief minister of finance, said that there is no money in the face of people who come to ask for money every day.

Therefore, when the Feng army rapidly expanded its army and went south to fight, the good news was frequent, but the government officials, especially the officials in the financial system, were all full of sadness.

In order to solve the financial dilemma, those civilian officials tried their best to auction and confiscate assets and sell government-run enterprises to recover funds, but these are a drop in the bucket, far from solving the gap in military spending of tens of millions of dollars.

At present, the Soviet government can barely maintain its finances without going bankrupt, and many of them have to be attributed to the over-issuance of Fengyuan banknotes, but these banknotes cannot continue to be over-issued indefinitely, and other methods must be relied on to solve the current financial predicament.

Among the many methods, whether it is to clean up the tax system, increase commercial taxes, agricultural taxes, etc., or direct fundraising, auction of enemy funds, etc., it will not work in a short period of time, and in reality, the only way to let Zhao Dongyun get tens of millions in a short period of time is one word: borrow!

And this borrowing is to borrow from foreign countries, Zhao Dongyun also tried to find foreign loans before entering the customs, but people didn't bird him at that time, after all, Zhao Dongyun was just one of the warlords entrenched in the three eastern provinces, but now Zhao Dongyun's Feng army has successfully entered the customs to completely take Zhili, and go south to fight Shun lì, it is expected that it will not be a big problem to take Shandong and Henan in the near future.

In this case, the attitude of the great powers towards Zhao Dongyun has also undergone a certain change, and in the face of Zhao Dongyun's request for a loan, they did not refuse it at the first time, but sent relevant diplomatic personnel to have a preliminary conversation.

Faced with this situation, Zhao Dongyun felt that it was necessary to strike with hot iron!

So, a diplomatic reception was naturally held!

On the night of August 22, the Xiyuan Juren Hall was brightly lit, and the Western-style banquet hall gathered a large number of military and political dignitaries and diplomats from various countries wearing ceremonial clothes.

Lu Weixiang, who had a long beard on both sides, walked around the venue in a dress, talking to everyone in various languages or Chinese from time to time, and the big dress on this person was different from the ordinary Western-style dress, and he also wore a medal micro-medal, and the four beads printed on the peony medal represented the four honors.

After the establishment of the republic, Wang Yingkai prepared to formulate the merit system, but before he had time to find a way to go into the wilderness, after Zhao Dongyun came to power, in order to show his status orthodoxy, so many of the policies of Wang Yingkai's era, especially the etiquette system, these things are basically the same. After coming to power, Zhao Dongyun also began to officially award medals to his subordinates, and the first batch of awards was a few people Xiong Xiling, Meng Enyuan, and Xu Bangjie were awarded two medals, and Zhao E, Lu Weixiang, Lin Yongquan, Chen Guangyuan, Liu Guanxiong and others were awarded three medals, and Cao Kun, Gu Lanyu and others were awarded four or five medals.

As for Zhao Dongyun himself, he was specially awarded the Great Honor.

Because it is the first batch of awards, the overall number of people is not large, and there will definitely be more people who will be awarded in the future, and Lu Weixiang is honestly not an important member of the Soviet Union, this person is a Beiyang neutral faction, and the reason why he was awarded the medal is largely because Lu Weixiang contributed to the loan, regardless of whether it was negotiated later, but it is already a great achievement to be able to start this head.

When Lu Weixiang said this, he suddenly heard the banquet hall quiet, and soon he saw Li San, who was also wearing a big dress, walk in and sang: "The president has arrived!" ”

Immediately, Lu Weixiang tidied up his clothes a little, and then stood behind Xiong Xiling, together with Zhou Xuexi and other cabinet ministers, while the ministers of various countries on the other side also stopped talking to each other and looked at the door.

Under the gaze of hundreds of pairs of eyes, Zhao Dongyun, who was wearing a presidential dress and a big medal of honor, quickly appeared at the door, only to see him smiling, and then slowly walked through the middle of the crowd into the banquet hall.