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The beginning of 1921 was vigorous.

First of all, there was news of explosions in the international community, and the negotiations on the first phase of the Washington Naval Treaty broke up unhappily. Both China and the United States have criticized the Anglo-Japanese alliance, and Ye Zugui even said that as Sino-British relations enter the moment of normalization, Britain's continued maintenance of the alliance undoubtedly hurts the feelings of the Chinese. And in a situation where the tonnage of ships and the quality of personnel are far inferior to those of close neighbors, any treaty that restricts the development of the Navy cannot be accepted. In order to bring China and the United States back to the negotiating table, Britain finally abandoned the Anglo-Japanese alliance, and Japan also knew that this alliance would not last long, so it could only accept it in disappointment. However, the general trend of maintaining a special and good relationship between Britain and Japan has not changed because of their mutual needs.

This was followed by the demise of the Ottomans, the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, and the signing of the Treaty of Riga. The war between Moscow and Poland came to an end due to the failure of the Russian Red Army attack on Warsaw, in which Stalin lost leadership and Lenin and Tonotsky had a conflict, and after the defeat he publicly stated that he was "the only member of the Central Committee who did not agree to march to Warsaw", and he shirked all responsibility. Lenin, who was deteriorating in health, had no intention of arguing with him, and finally agreed to sign the Treaty of Riga, ceding large swaths of fertile land in Belarus and western Ukraine to Poland in order to end the civil war as soon as possible, thus ending the state of war. The war that lasted more than half a year resulted in millions of military and civilian casualties, and the whole of Ukraine and Belarus was devastated.

With threats from the east and huge amounts of money needed to rebuild, Moscow had no choice but to allow the two regions to become independent and self-governing and form the Republic of Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus. This has also led to instability in the surrounding countries. In the end, it turned around and signed new peace agreements with Estonia, Latvia and other countries, allowing them to govern and become independent.

The effects of the European war are far from dissipating.

The country is also deeply trapped in the two heavens of ice and fire.

First, the Qinghai earthquake at the end of 1920 caused serious disasters in Qinghai, Gansu and Shaanxi, and four cities were directly destroyed by the earthquake, leaving more than 4.7 million people homeless. Although the government of the Republic of China dispatched 160,000 troops to the disaster and urgently transported a large number of tents and grain from the interior, Yang Qiu, Li Yuanhong, Hu Weide and others also personally inspected the disaster area. Still due to poor transportation, poor sanitation and severe cold weather, 220,000 people died.

The earthquake heralded a four-year period of high incidence of natural disasters in China. To this end, Nanjing has also established a government public crisis management department following the British model to respond to sudden disasters across the country. Happily, shortly after the earthquake, the whole country finally entered the second five-year national construction plan. With the deepening of the currency reform. The total amount of RMB issuance began to rise sharply, and from May 1921 to May 1921, after the signing of the "Minwai Contract" to recover silver, the Ministry of Finance issued 3 billion RMB banknotes and 2 billion bearer treasury bonds. As Schmitchell described, not many people collect paper money, and the tradition of saving money has led to most of it going back to central banks.

After the funds were secured, the central finance department allocated 1 billion yuan of various funds in the first four months of the year alone, and the local government allocated a total of 2.2 billion yuan in construction funds. The peace of the outside world stimulated the speed of national construction, but the new generation of far-sighted Republic politicians led by Yang Qiu was well aware. China is far from the moment when it can truly say no to the world.

On the train along the Longhai Line, two groups of young people argued with each other about the recent "Treaty of Foreign Affairs", which attracted a lot of attention. The group of people on the left were brightly dressed, and at first glance they came from a wealthy family, and they were the first to ask: "The vice president is wrong this time." Why bother. ”

"The Brest Peace Treaty relied on us and Britain and the United States to win Germany before it was agreed to be annulled, and who can we rely on?"

"In a few years, foreigners will be able to make a lot of products, and then the money of the Chinese people will be all made by them."

The students on the right are not as bright as they are, most of them are ordinary cloth shirts, and many of them still have patches on their clothes. At first glance, it is an ordinary student who has realized his dream of going to university thanks to the free education policy. Many people also wore the emblem of the YMCA on their chests and retorted: "This brother, don't you know that they earn Minyuan? The money they earn still has to be used at home, even if it is to buy a shipload of coal back, the money must be kept. ”

"But this will have an impact on our industry, and the national industry will shrink."

"Nonsense! The country's population is nearly 50,000,000, so many mouths need to be fed and clothed, relying on ourselves to what year and month? As long as the country is rich and the people are strong, what is there to fear if it expands tenfold? What we need to do is to regulate them well, not to close them off from the country. ”

"It's not easy to supervise, these foreigners have been engaged in industry for a hundred years, and the things they have created are better than ours, and the horns are more familiar than ours.

"A great country of 50,000 people! How can foreigners continue to blackmail? Don't you know what virtues foreigners and foreign investors had during the Manchu Qing Dynasty? If we want to say that we can all go to the construction project, why ask foreigners to come? Therefore, it is unwise to open up foreign investment. ”

“”

Gradually, the group of young people on the left who opposed opening up prevailed, and many ordinary people were attracted by their arguments, thinking that foreigners are not good things, so they should not let foreign capital into the country, at least slowly and in large quantities.

Zhan Tianyou, who had been in the corner, was both relieved and frowned when he heard this. The relieved students began to pay attention to the development of the country, frowning because many people had not yet understood some things, and their minds were still in the late Manchu Qing Dynasty, and they did not dare to take the initiative to go out to meet the challenges.

The young assistant next to him was also a little unconvinced, and just got up and wanted to help those students of the national society, but he pulled him back: "Who is it?" ”

"It is a northwest wind collection group organized by Peking University and Nankai University." The assistant was indignant: "Minister, listen to it, it's just a lie, comparing our Republic of China with the Manchu Qing Dynasty!" There is no foreign capital injection, we go there to introduce equipment. ”

"Huh." Zhan Tianyou smiled and waved his hand: "Why fight for this kind of thing, aren't they going to the northwest to collect wind?" If you go, you'll know what the country is like. After saying that, he took a sip of water. Ignoring this debate, he spread out the drawings and took out a hard white steamed bun from his bag, and began to work while eating, asking, "How is the preparation of the southern coastline?" ”

Zhan Tianyou usually doesn't take a box when he goes out, but is crammed into a canned sardine carriage like ordinary people. The construction of the country requires too much money, and the railway is the top priority, so he insists on leading by example. But there are also problems with doing so. It's just that it's very noisy all the way, but fortunately, the seats on the left and right are full of assistants and staff, as well as the guards sent by Yang Qiu. So avoid a lot of trouble.

The young assistant knew his temper, and simply ignored the debate, and introduced: "On the southern line, we will first select seven construction sites. Basically every province has it. The biggest difficulty is Guangxi and Fujian, the mountains and rivers are connected with water, and the construction difficulty is not much worse than that of the Longhai line, and Jiangsu, Shandong and Zhejiang are relatively easy. The biggest trouble in the north is the Changbai Mountain area, where the altitude is too high, and Professor Yan has gone to the field to survey and prepare to see whether to make a detour or dig a culvert. The assistant began to explain the situation of the southern line of the Circum-China Railway, which had received the full support of Yang Qiu and the Ministry of Finance, and allocated 5 million yuan and sent the Air Force and Army Engineers to help with the preliminary surveying and mapping work. This is his lifelong wish, and it is a big project that cannot be wronged no matter what. So listen very carefully, and ask several times if you have something unclear.

"What is the situation of the Longhai line being damaged by the earthquake?"

The railway around China is still far away, Zhan Tianyou came out this time mainly to personally inspect the western section of the Longhai line project, due to the earthquake caused by the collapse of many subgrades, he is very worried. You must know that the Longhai Line is a major project involving national security in the northwest. Nanjing and the Ministry of National Defense had strictly ordered that it must be opened to traffic by the end of 1923.

"The roadbed from East Kazakhstan Qi to Xingxingxia has all started, and the speed from Lianyungang to Tongguan is also very fast, but the road from Baoji to Tianshui is too problematic. The roadbed and railway bridges that had been built before were displaced by the earthquake, and cracks appeared in many places. The idea of the construction workers in front is to simply re-select the line and avoid the seismic zone to avoid further damage in the future. ”

In the sound of rolling iron wheels, Zhan Tianyou's brows gradually twisted. Put the half-eaten steamed buns in the briefcase. The most difficult part of the Longhai line is the section from Tianshui to Baoji, the train needs to climb over the Liupan Mountain in the Qinling Mountains, the mountains are high and the water is dangerous, the gorges are craggy, just all kinds of cement railway bridges, digging culverts need hundreds of kilometers, and the technical requirements are rare in the world! The earthquake devastated the most this section, but he did not dare to make a decision immediately whether to re-select the line, you must know that 100 million yuan has been invested in this section alone, and if the re-selection of the line means that all the early investment has been lost, and the construction period will definitely be delayed.

The long-distance journey seemed to consume too much energy from everyone, and the young people of both factions who were fighting for each other also stopped, and it was not until the train arrived in Hanzhong that the vitality was shown again.

Since the railway from Hanzhong to Tianshui has not yet been repaired, if you want to go to Gansu or Xinjiang, you need to change carriages from here. When Zhan Tianyou got up, the sharp-eyed students immediately recognized the famous railway minister and surrounded him with a hula.

"Minister Zhan, how long will it take for the railway in front of you to be opened?"

"yes, we still want to take a bus directly from here to the northwest."

"It's going to be soon! The country has mobilized all its forces to conquer this trench, and nothing can stop the way forward of our Chinese nation! ”

"Good! Smack. ”

Zhan Tianyou's bold words drew applause from the students, and the young man who refuted Yang Qiu's policy the most in the car walked over. He was wearing glasses, and he looked very imposing, and introduced himself: "The contemptible Hu Shi has seen Minister Zhan. ”

Hu shi? Zhan Tianyou raised his eyebrows, remembering the noisy cultural dispute between the old and the new in the past two years, and asked, "Are you Hu Shi from Peking University?" ”

"Exactly."

Zhan Tianyou looked at it, he was handsome, personable, and had studied in the United States for many years, which made him unconsciously feel close, if it weren't for the fact that he repeatedly said that Yang Qiu's policy was wrong on the train, maybe he would have to look a little higher.

Hu Shi also saw Nanjing ministers for the first time, he had already wanted to enter politics, but he was never allowed to enter, so he couldn't help but ask lonely: "Minister Zhan, did you hear what we said on the train?" Can you share your thoughts? ”

"My insight? Hehe. Although Zhan Tianyou is a minister, he never interferes in political decisions, which is his promise to Yang Qiu to become the minister of railways. What's more, he only has the dream of the China Railway in his heart now, so he shook his head and pointed ahead: "There will be your answer ahead." ”

Hu Shi and other students and young people didn't understand very well, and it happened that the military truck that came to pick up Zhan Tianyou and his party arrived at this time, so he simply asked the truck to take everyone with him, and swayed all the way to Baoji.

"Brother Ensign, how long do we have to get to Baoji?"

Several female students who were singing along the way were so uncomfortable that they grabbed the second lieutenant who led the team and asked how far it was. The second lieutenant had never seen so many girls in a big city, and he squirmed and blushed to comfort them, until a sea of colorful tents appeared in front of him, and he breathed a sigh of relief: "We have arrived." ”

"Wow, look! What is that? It's beautiful. ”

"yes, a lot of colors."

"How can there be so many tents here? Is it a construction team? ”

"Wait, this is God!"

As the convoy approached, the female student who was shouting excitedly because she had seen the beautiful sea of tents for the first time just now suddenly covered her mouth, and her big eyes instantly turned red.

Swarms of rags like a colony of gray-brown ants appeared, soldiers were handing out pitiful rations, and children were naked and holding the hands of adults, looking timidly at the brightly dressed and white-skinned city dwellers.

What kind of tent is this for the railway construction team? It's a big refugee area after the earthquake!

"Get out of the car." Zhan Tianyou took a deep breath and his face became serious: "You are all adults, haven't you been discussing national construction and policies in the car?" Here are all the answers you need. ”…… (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to come to the starting point (qidian) to vote for recommendation, monthly pass, your support, is my biggest motivation. )