When Zhao Dongyun invited the ministers of various countries to China for an informal meeting in Xiyuan, he promised not to harm the commercial interests of various countries in the Yangtze River valley and other southern provinces, and promised that the war would never affect Shanghai and other concessions in various places, and then talked a lot about his own actions to support industry and commerce.

After the Yingkou Industrial Zone and the Huludao Industrial Zone, the republican government will prepare for the establishment of a third industrial zone, the Tangshan Industrial Zone, and follow the example of the first two industrial zones, which will not only be equipped with various infrastructure required to set up factories, but also promise that foreign investors will enjoy the same preferential tax treatment as domestic capital investment.

He also said that the republican government has launched a series of investment promotion plans, including the development plan of Fushun Coal Mine, Zhangjiakou Iron Mine and other mines.

For the development of these mines, Zhao Dongyun said that he will also adopt a Sino-foreign joint venture plan, and foreign capital can be pooled to enterprises designated by the Chinese side for cooperative development.

What is interesting here is that the Soviet republican government under Zhao Dongyun was not very interested in government-run enterprises.

Unlike the Westernists in the pre-Qing era, who liked to run the government or supervise the business, except for a few industries such as banks and railways, the Soviet system led by Zhao Dongyun preferred to be completely business-run.

At present, there are very few government-run enterprises under complete control in the Soviet republican government, and they are mainly concentrated in the two major industries of railways and banking.

In terms of railways, it is China Railway Corporation, which currently owns and operates two main railways, the Beijing-Feng Railway and the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, as well as several railway branches, including the Huludao Railway Branch, the Yingkou Railway Branch, and the Fushun Railway Branch.

At the same time, it is also borrowing money from foreign investors to build the Jinpu Railway and Longhai Railway, and the company will also be responsible for the operation of these two railways after completion, but the foreign side will send personnel to supervise the operation.

In addition to the central bank of the Bank of China, the Ministry of Finance wholly owns two state-owned commercial banks, namely the Industrial and Commercial Bank of the Middle East and the Huatong Industrial Bank.

In addition, it also has a certain number of shares in a small number of enterprises, such as Luanzhou Mining Company, Fuyuan Machinery Factory, Shenyang Arsenal, and Baoding Arsenal, all of which have a varying number of shares, and the shares of these enterprises are not managed by the Ministry of Finance or the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, but are managed by the State-owned Assets Office under the Statistics Section of the Secretariat of the Presidential Office.

Sell the shares directly or transfer them to the two state-owned banks, and implement a complete commercial operation.

The reason why Zhao Dongyun vigorously advocates commercial offices is not because he thinks those capitalists are so good, but because the official really can't take out so much money to run enterprises, and his money is not enough to expand the army.

On the other hand, it is also out of consideration for winning over domestic business circles and foreign capitalists.

What does he Zhao Dongyun rely on to dominate the country?

It relies on the Soviet system, and the Soviet system is still strictly a part of Beiyang, and what is the system of Beiyang?

Broadly speaking, it is a northern business interest group.

When the Soviet Union and the Anhui army were fighting, countless military expenses were spent, and in addition to the salaries of the soldiers, there were tens of millions of military purchase orders, which were taken by whom, except for a small part for imports, most of them were divided among the capitalists in the north.

One of the most representative is the Fuyuan machine qì factory.

In the past few years, the military purchase orders obtained by the Fuyuan Machinery Factory from Fengjun have almost never stopped, and it has been expanding and expanding production again, and its output value has increased several times is not worth it.

After the Soviet Union went south, it grabbed a large number of territory in the southern provinces and prepared to build the Jinpu Railway and the Longhai Railway. It was taken by Tangshan Iron and Steel Company, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fuyuan Machinery Qì Factory.

And who does the Fuyuan machine qì factory belong to? Although Zhao Dongyun occupies a certain stake in it, and the government also owns a small number of shares in it, the majority belongs to the entire northern industrial and commercial community.

Basically, in the northern industrial and commercial circles, individuals or organizations with assets of more than one million basically own shares or indirectly own shares in Fuyuanji Factory.

In addition to military purchase orders, with the southward movement of the Fengjun, followed by countless businessmen and products, such as the Fuyuan Cigarette Factory, the previous market was still limited to the three eastern provinces and the scope of Zhili, but with the southward movement of the Fengjun, their cigarettes have gradually occupied the markets in Shandong, Jiangsu, Henan, Anhui and other places on a large scale, not only squeezing the market for imported cigarettes, but even another major domestic cigarette giant, Nanyang Company, is gradually retreating.

Therefore, the southward movement of the Soviet Feng army was on the surface a matter of Zhao Dongyun and a group of Soviet military and political dignitaries, but if you look at the essence through the appearance, this is a war initiated by the northern industrial and commercial circles, and those businessmen supported the Feng army to the south more than Zhao Dongyun.

It is precisely because the Soviet Union is an interest group composed of industrial and commercial capital circles as the core that it spares no effort in supporting industry and commerce.

While supporting domestic industry and commerce, Zhao Dongyun did not forget to win over foreign capitalists!

To put it bluntly, the so-called governments of the great powers are just representatives of the interests of the capitalists of various countries, what are the national interests? To put it bluntly, isn't it just making money, as for what ideology, territory, sovereignty and the like are just superficial products, and the most essential thing is one word: money!

Capital pursues profits, and Zhao Dongyun lets them make money!

As long as these foreign capitalists make money, then their government will naturally look at Zhao Dongyun and support him Zhao Dongyun to unify China.

Zhao Dongyun's attitude made the ministers of various countries who came to participate in the Spring Festival garden party, especially the American minister Rou Keyi, quite comfortable.

The Americans came to China bitterly, not to save the Chinese people, but to make money, otherwise you think that people really care about the life and death of the Chinese.

So when Zhao Dongyun said that he would vigorously support industry and commerce and welcome all countries to invest in China, he was very happy!

Perhaps in his future, it is not far off for the United States to completely open up the Chinese market!

And when Zhao Dongyun was holding informal meetings with ministers of various countries to win diplomatic support for the Soviet Union's military moves in the new year, the Soviet military was naturally not idle.

The military table that got the aftermath loan came out with a rare boldness!

Not only did it place a large number of arms purchase orders for a large number of manufacturers, including the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, but also paid a considerable part of the arrears, and when Zhao Dongping waved a check for large-scale purchases, Fengjun also accelerated the speed of the armament war.

Taking advantage of the money in hand, on the basis of the rest and replenishment plan at the end of last year, the Feng army also added a number of non-main forces to the plan, for example, Lu Yongxiang's first division only replenished part of its personnel in the rest and replenishment plan at the end of last year, and now the high command has decided to supplement the first division with another battalion of artillery, dozens of light and heavy machine guns, and about 40 mortars, intending to build the first division into a new main division and restore the combat effectiveness of the first division in the past.

Lu Yongxiang's first division, as Wang Yingkai's starting troops, is also the cradle of the Beiyang Standing Army, its combat effectiveness is the top in the Yuan Shikai era, in last year's Tangshan Campaign and Jingshi Campaign, although it was heavily damaged by a brigade, but it also made the Feng army suffer a lot, the first division in Tangshan was directly subordinate to resist the attack of tens of thousands of Feng troops.

Wang Yingkai went into the field, Lu Yongxiang led the remnants of the first division to surrender to Zhao Dongyun, and after the division surrendered to Zhao Dongyun, it was transferred south to fight in the forefront of the front, and successively transferred to the southern part of Zhili, Henan, northern Jiangsu, Anhui and other provinces, and the losses were still relatively large. If it weren't for the fact that the General Headquarters had been supplementing the losses of the department, Lu Yongxiang would have thought that Zhao Dongyun was using himself as cannon fodder.

However, although the division has always replenished its battle losses, after arriving in Anhui, there were only about 10,000 people left in the department, and it was only in the last two months that more than 2,000 new troops were replenished, and the strength of about 13,000 troops and two artillery battalions were restored. However, it is still much worse than a few main divisions.

The total strength of those main divisions was generally more than 16,000 men, and they not only had three complete artillery battalions, but also a 120-millimeter mortar battalion.

This time, after Lu Yongxiang's first division is replenished, it is expected that the strength of the army will reach more than 15,000 troops, and the artillery regiment will also be able to restore the strength of three battalions and 48 guns.

In addition to reinforcing several units with acceptable combat effectiveness, the pace of the 15th Division's training was accelerated.

The 15th Division and the 14th Division were formed and trained during the same period, but the resources in the early stage were basically concentrated in the 14th Division, and the 15th Division has only trained one infantry brigade so far, and there is no division commander yet.

However, although the 14th Division has not yet fought a large-scale war, but in the case of public security operations in southern Henan, although its combat effectiveness cannot be compared with that of a strong army such as the Third Division, it also has great potential, and many senior generals believe that as long as the 14th Division fights a few wars and sharpens it, it is not impossible to get a second and third division.

At least this 14th Division is much stronger than the 11th and 13th Divisions, as well as the 9th, 10th, and 11th Mixed Brigades, which were trained in front.

Therefore, many senior generals of the Feng Army are also more concerned about the follow-up of the 15th Division, and even now that the division has not yet become an army, many senior generals in the army are already eyeing the position of division commander, especially He Zonglian, the commander of the Eighth Division, and Cao Kun, the commander of the 11th Division, have already hinted to Zhao Dongyun that they are interested in the position of the commander of the 15th Division, which has not yet become an army.

In addition to these two active division commanders, the other brigade commanders and the generals such as the directors of various divisions are even more staring at it!

"At present, the artillery of the 15th Artillery Regiment is still relatively short, there is only one battalion of mountain artillery, and the missing two battalions of artillery are afraid that it will not be ready until two months later!" Fang Biyong said: "Most of the other armaments are also like this, and in a short period of time, the ordnance will be given priority to replenish the southbound troops!" ”

Zhao Dongyun said: "There is no way to wait for the shortage of heavy weapons such as artillery, wait for two months, wait for two months, but people can wait for weapons, but there can be no weapons and other people." The personnel of the 15th Division must be fully prepared first, and they should first be trained with existing weapons, and when the equipment is in place, so that they can form combat effectiveness in the shortest possible time! ”

Fang Biyong said: "The problem of personnel is not big, there are a lot of recruits from the Ministry of Education now, and five or six thousand people should be drawn out this month, so that the recruits needed by the 30th Brigade will be complete!" ”

Zhao Dongyun nodded and said: "That's it, we don't produce enough heavy weapons such as artillery and machine guns, and the purchase is not timely, but we can't relax the training of personnel because of this!" ”

"In this case, this fifteenth division should be able to form an army in April, although it is a little late, but it should also be able to catch up!" Zhao Dongyun said to himself: "In this way, after the shelves of the 30th Brigade are put up, let the 15th Division go south, and go over early to wait for the equipment to arrive while conducting adaptive training." ”

Fang Biyong naturally said respectfully after hearing this: "The ministry has orders!" ”

After saying that, he looked up at Zhao Dongyun again, and then asked tentatively in a low voice: "If the 15th Division wants to go south, the commander of this division and the commander of the 30th Brigade can't just be empty, I don't know ......."

He didn't finish saying this, but Zhao Dongyun already understood the meaning of his words when he heard it, the position of division commander of the 15th Division was held by many people, and this Fang Biyong in front of him would not recommend himself, because Fang Biyong was very self-aware, he was a civilian general, and it was not a big problem to let him be the chief of staff, but if you let him really go to the front line to lead the troops to fight, it would be really difficult for him.

But looking at him like this, he should recommend someone else!

Immediately, Zhao Dongyun said: "Don't talk in a hurry, say, who do you think is suitable?" ”