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Wuchang City is bordered by the Yangtze River in the north, and the west gate and south gate are the exits to Xiangyue Avenue. The northeast area is where the wharf is located, where goods are distributed, people swim, and the scene is noisy and chaotic, and it is a place where porters, hooligans, and beggars gather. The bustling commercial area of Wuchang is in the south of the city. There are many shops, department stores, streets and alleys, densely populated, and restaurants, theaters, and theaters that have risen in conjunction with business activities can be seen everywhere. Although the land of Sanchu is full of hunger and poverty, Wuchang and the cities of Hankou and Hanyang on the other side of the river are deformed and prosperous.

But now, this Wuchang has disappeared so many drunken dreamers, the tension of the current situation affects everyone, in the recent period, the newspaper has always scared everyone for three days and two ends, what imperial court hundreds of thousands of troops have arrived in Nanyang, what army gathered in Jiujiang, what Sichuan army gathered in Chongqing, this newspaper news said that the head is the Tao, it seems that there will be a big time to send troops, set foot on the two lakes, and in Hunan, there is even more faint instability -- many local people have called for Huguang not to be a one-person ambition, Tens of millions of Huguang people were caught in the flames of war.

There is even some news in the newspapers,

In short, it seems that this day is really going to change.

Before the day changes, the heart changes, and when the heart changes, all kinds of affairs are changing, such as the price of rice in Hubei, is a number of changes in a day, the "morning and evening market prices are different" rice price card, but also directly affects the lives of many people, at this time, this day is higher than the price of rice for a day, in previous years of floods, the price of rice is only more than 4,000 Wen per stone, and now it has soared to six or seven thousand Wen, and now it is the time for the new rice to go on the market, the price has risen so far, but also to make the people in the city complain.

As for the newspaper, it even asked the government to stabilize grain prices as if asking for the people's lives, but the government's pacification did not seem to have any effect, and every time the government finally managed to get some rice, it was just sold out as soon as it was put on the market -- it seemed that some people were rushing to buy rice and grain, and they were working against the officials.

If it were normal, maybe the government would have sent the police to investigate, but now this people's hearts are in turmoil, even the police have also felt the situation before the sky changes, and naturally no one cares about the "hoarding" of those "bad gentry" anymore.

"Master, the price of this rice has risen by 500 Wen this time, shall we release it?"

In the study of Zhao Mansion in Wuchang City, several shopkeepers stood there, and the old man in front of them was not Zhao Fengchang, who had "Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, and Zhao Fengchang, the wife of Yipin". Although this is a joke, it is enough to see the importance of Zhao Fengchang to Zhang Zhidong and the importance of Hubei's new policy. But after all, the political arena was dark, and political opponents attacked him many times, Zhang Zhidong had no choice but to depose Zhao Fengchang in the end, and since then Zhao Fengchang has left the government and withdrawn from the political arena. After quitting, Zhao Fengchang took Zhang's relationship with him, although he was cloth, but he has been active in Shanghai, and the place where he lives has become a key place, not only to collect intelligence and internal and external information, but also to be a transit station, an office sent to overseas students. Zhao Fengchang himself, on the other hand, has established a wide range of Chinese and foreign contacts with his ability, and his influence has become stronger and stronger, acting as a liaison in Shanghai and playing a role in threading the needle in all forces.

But now, when the situation is tense, he left Shanghai and returned to Wuchang, which in the eyes of many people is a sign of Zhao Fengchang's "loyalty", after all, at this time, Shanghai has already supported the new dynasty with the two rivers. But what no one would have thought was that it was this Zhao Fengchang who single-handedly instigated the rise in the price of rice in Hubei.

"No, continue to collect it, tell them, and push the price of rice up to 8,000 Wen ......"

After the shopkeepers left, Zhao Fengchang wrote the three characters "Tang Ziran" on the paper with a brush, thinking about his downfall on the ship back then, who would have thought that now he would become the king of a country?

And he Zhao Fengchang.

"Ziran, this time, brother, I have given you the hearts of tens of millions of people in this lake!"

What is a vote, for Yuan Shikai, he can use the head of a man to make a vote, he can kill all the registered soldiers in Hangzhou, thinking that he is a vote, but for Zhao Fengchang, a literati who is almost equal to Zhang Zhidong's "intelligence director", what is his vote?

Naturally, it is to help the imperial court dismantle the ruling foundation of Hubei, can it be used by the new dynasty? There is no shortage of smart people in any era, and Zhao Fengchang is one of those thousands of smart people.

"When it rises to 8,000 Wen, there will only be one thing missing......

Again, Zhao Fengchang picked up the manuscript that had already been written on the table and said to the servants outside the door.

"Zhao Yi, you go and send this manuscript to the "Huguang Times" ......"

After everything was ordered, the corners of Zhao Fengchang's lips lifted, but he thought of Xiangshuai while he was proud, and his mind couldn't help but sink, and he thought to himself.

"Xiang Shuai, I'm sorry for ......"

When changing the dynasty, you must make a suitable choice, just like Zhao Fengchang, although he has benefited from the Zhang family over the years, but at this time, when he saw that the situation was more and more favorable to the Northeast, he had already privately contacted the Northeast side, thinking that he would "repay the effect".

The next day, although the news of "the price of rice skyrocketed" was published in the newspaper, one news shocked the whole of Wuchang and even the whole of Hubei

“…… Now it is only for the ambition of one man, so that the price of rice in the lake and breadth is soaring day by day, and the poor people have a miserable lack of food - and from this time of peace, the people are almost exhausted in vegetable chaff, and then they are fed on grass and trees, hemp roots, fern roots, palm trees, and other barks...... When I think about the famine in other days, there are many hungry wives and children who have been displaced and died, and the situation is unbearable...... I ask the adults in the house, how can I endure the people of Huguang for the selfishness of one person, and fall into such a miserable situation"

The unceremonious accusations in the "Huguang Times" made the whole of Wuchang almost silent, and while people talked about the boldness of the newspaper, the entire governor's palace was angry and worried, and even when Zhang Zhidong and his staff were deliberating, they were only discussing how to stabilize grain prices, rather than seizing the newspapers -- at this time, he could no longer care so much.

As a guest, Sang Zhiping naturally listened to the rumors, and after the staff dispersed, he went to Zhang Zhidong's study as usual. I saw Zhang Zhidong leaning on the chair, looking tired.

"Zhongzi, this is another killing move......"

Slowly opened his eyes and glanced at Sang Zhiping, he didn't drink tea, just asked:

"Zhongzi, what do you say Ziran will do next?"

Without too much consideration, Zhang Zhidong can also faintly see the "conspiracy" behind the rise in Hubei rice prices, which must be inseparable from Tang Ziran, maybe others don't know him, but Zhang Zhidong knows himself very well as a student.

War, for him, was never the first choice. It can even be said to be the most forced choice, and it is precisely because of this that he feels that this matter must be planned by Tang Ziran.

"Go up to the army to plot, then attack the enemy, then attack the army, and attack the city below."

Sang Zhiping quoted Sun Tzu's Art of War.

"A soldier who surrenders without a fight, and a good man who is good. Over the years, Ziran has become more and more adept at this! ”

This exclamation actually agreed with Zhang Zhidong's speculation, and Sang Zhiping also saw the hidden conspiracy and the shadow of manipulation, if it were not manipulation, how could the price of grain in Wuchang rise several times a day.

"Since Xiangtao knows that this matter is being manipulated, why not ......"

"Won't you stop it?"

Shaking his head, Zhang Zhidong sighed:

"It's not that it can't be stopped, it's that it can't be ......"

After this long sigh, Zhang Zhidong continued.

"There are so many smart people in the world, Li Hongzhang, Liu Kunyi, the people who were as famous as the old man back then, are all people with great wisdom, as for other people with little intelligence, it is like a carp crossing the river, countless, even if you win a few of them, what can you do? That will only make more people devote themselves to it, and use it as a vote, and then seek to get in, and then ......"

The voice sank slightly, and Zhang Zhidong said helplessly.

"Even now, if the old man wants to do this, how can others investigate thoroughly? Maybe......"

Zhang Zhidong's words were not finished, but Sang Zhiping had already heard the meaning of his words, maybe those people were involved in this matter, after all, there are too many smart people in the world.

"Zhongzi, you say, how long does Ziran's patience last?"

With a little newspaper in hand, Zhang Zhidong had already vaguely guessed that the article in this newspaper was probably Ziran's rallying number......

"Good!"

Tang Haoran, who was at the mouth of Jiujiang Lake, was on the passenger ship, and when he listened to the report behind him, he just answered quietly. Then he turned his attention to the gunboat "Jiangxi" escorting the passenger ferry.

Different from the Northeast Navy's development of ocean-going navy, the Liangjiang Governor's Office has also developed a large-scale river patrol fleet in the past ten years, and the Liangjiang class is the main force of its fleet, as the second ship of the Liangjiang class, the "Jiangxi" has a very good performance among the inland gunboats, it is 54 meters long and 7.3 meters wide, which is already relatively wide in terms of its displacement and can effectively accommodate more weapons.

In terms of weapons, the Xianning is considered to be very powerful, and the main gun is 1 120 mm gun produced by the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau. This main gun is also the main gun of the destroyers of the Northeast Navy, and the gunboats of the Yangtze River cannot carry larger guns, this is the limit. The gun has a firing range of up to 15000 meters and a rate of fire of 7 rounds / min. And the position of the main gun later was 1 75-mm gun purchased from the northeast. The gun, like the 120-mm main gun, had a rate of fire of up to 20 rounds per minute. There was another 76 mm tail gun in the stern of the warship.

In this way, the whole warship has 1 120-mm gun and 2 75-mm guns. In addition, there are 2 57-mm guns on both sides of the ship, as well as 1 20-mm gun and several machine guns!

This armament is very powerful, far exceeding what it should have with a displacement of 400 tons. Because the 1,200-ton destroyer ship of the Northeast Navy only has two 120-mm main guns.

The main purpose of the Liangjiang-class gunboats was to contend with the People's Army, which had penetrated deep into Poyang Lake again and again over the past many years, and had used its powerful firepower to block the expansion of the Revolutionary People's Army. This is even the reason for the rapid development of the Liangjiang River Patrol Fleet -- in order to suppress bandits.

Correspondingly, with the growth of the river patrol fleet, the river bandits and lake bandits in the two rivers also tended to die out -- while attacking the people's army, they also wiped out the river bandits and lake bandits so that they would not be used by the people's army.

Now, however, this Jiang Patrol Fleet, which had made great achievements in the past of "suppressing bandits," has turned its guns and turned to its former ally, Huguang.

It is precisely because of the multiple blockade lines set up by the Jiang Patrol Fleet that it is now impossible for rice and other materials to attack Hubei, which has led to chaos in the Hubei market, and now the blockade has had a certain effect, and Hubei's economy is being hit hard as never before -- not only has the price of grain in Wuchang skyrocketed, but now there are mountains of coal stored on the wharf in Wuchang -- the coal from Hunan cannot be transported to all parts of the Yangtze River for sale as in the past, especially in Shanghai and other places, and the Daye Iron and Steel Plant has almost stopped production -- Huainan coal used for coking, Because of the blockade, it cannot be transported to Daye, in a word, the economic blockade is disintegrating Hubei's economy little by little.

"It's a good job!"

It is extremely rare that Tang Haoran praised Li Muchen's action, and the reason why he appreciated this action was precisely because this kind of action was a real "soldier who surrendered without a fight", and it did not even need a single shot to break up Hubei's resistance and make Zhang Zhidong give up resistance.

"What's next for you?"

"Next, the bureau is going to make some articles in Huguang Coupons!"

Huguang bills are banknotes issued by Huguang Bank, if in the past ten years, what is the biggest change, that is, in order to broaden the financial resources in addition to the issuance of copper dollars, but also the issuance of silver two bonds, silver dollar bills, and now the most widely circulated in Hubei is the Huguang Bank issued by Huguang Bank.

"Your Majesty, now Huguang, because of the rumors, so that the people's hearts are shaken, the financial has been in fluctuation, although the Huguang bonds have not fallen sharply, but the wind of robbery is present, in the face of robbery, if Huguang Bank can't get enough cash......"

"Then the credit of Huguang Bank will also go bankrupt, and its currency value will definitely fall sharply at that time, and without money, Huguang will not be able to rely on it! What's more important is people's hearts! ”

If the hearts of the people are scattered!

This is the most important thing, as long as people's hearts are scattered, even Zhang Zhidong's prestige will not be able to clean up the situation in Huguang, and for Tang Hao, all he needs to do is wait for Zhang Zhidong to write and support him.

"Hmm,"

Nodding slightly, Tang Haoran did not object to this plan, although he knew that he didn't know how many people would go bankrupt, but for him, he knew very well that in the face of the country's righteousness, personal interests are never worth mentioning, as for ordinary people, they always need to bear some price for changing the dynasty.

"Just do it! I'm going to Guling today, and I'll leave all the Wuchang matter to you......"

When mentioning Guling, the corners of Tang Haoran's lips raised slightly, compared to Wuchang, the Guling meeting is probably one of the grand events...... (To be continued.) )