After perhaps the most memorable night, Yang Qiu sailed back to Shanghai aboard an American cruiser under the protection of the German heavy cruiser Gneisenau and three Haizi-class cruisers, along with Lü Bicheng, where she would first register a Huachen Petroleum Technology Company, and then go to the United States with technicians and several officers selected from the southwest to begin a worldwide patent tour of petroleum catalytic cracking technology. At the same time as the whistle whimpered, the north was already in chaos, Yuan Shikai was forced to be at a loss by a fake secret treaty and exposed the fact that the real secret treaty had been signed, Britain, France, Germany, the United States and other countries almost immediately sent a diplomatic note to the Beiyang government, and at the same time, the United States, Germany and Belgium also sent a diplomatic note to the Japanese government before the United Kingdom, asking the Japanese to explain the matter.

However, all this is not over, and the news of Song Jiaoren's assassination at the Tianjin railway station is even more shocking, and people are mourning the talented politician of the Kuomintang while waiting for the results of the trial in Tianjin. Since Beiyang and domestic forces were isolated from this interrogation, Wu Shiying, who wanted to survive, quickly confessed to the fact that Ying Guixin had bribed him to kill Song Jiaoren, and Shanghai and Nanjing immediately sent a wanted telegram after learning about it.

Ying Guixin has not been caught, Chen Qimei instigated Jiang Zhiqing to go to Tianjin to hunt down Wu Shiying, and specially explained that he would wait for Wu Shiying to kill Song Jiaoren before he did it, and the Qing Gang killer confessed, this news is simply devastating to the Kuomintang ()! Who is Chen Qimei? It is the bigwig of Sun, Huang and Song who is second only to them in the Waimin Party, and he is such a bigwig-level figure, but when he knew that someone was going to kill Song Jiaoren, he did not send a telegram for a few days, did not send a warning, and waited until the killer finished his action before he killed him, such a sinister intention is really chilling.

On February 6, Ying Guixin was arrested in Suzhou, and on the same day, he confessed to Hong Shuzu, secretary of the Beijing Ministry of Internal Affairs, that he had asked him to kill Song Jiaoren, and everyone knew that behind Hong Shuzu was Zhao Bingjun and Yuan Shikai's Beiyang government, so the whole country began to unanimously denounce and demand the arrest of Zhao Bingjun and Hong Shuzu, and asked the president to explain the matter.

On 8 February, Chen Qimei, who had fled to her hometown, was arrested and escorted to Shanghai, and on that day the reporters almost surrounded the police bureau, because everyone knew that he was behind Mr. Sun Wen, and the day he sent Jiang Zhiqing to Tianjin happened to be on Mr. Sun's order to return to Shanghai to rectify the scattered Kuomintang Party.

On the same day, Tianjin broke the news again, and after Ma Feihu, a bandit outside the pass, was captured and handed over to Germany by the Wehrmacht who went north to protect Yang Qiu, he immediately said that he had received 100,000 taels from Zhao Bingjun to kill Yang Qiu, and also brought out the provider of the money, Yuan Shikai's eldest son Yuan Keding! One after another explosive news came out, plunging the entire country into turmoil and unrest, and with the help of well-intentioned people, the newspapers almost day and night investigated why Yang Qiu and Song Jiaoren were assassinated at the same time when they went north to negotiate peace, and why Yuan Shikai and Chen Qimei would join forces to assassinate the two.

On February 10, Yang Qiu arrived in Shanghai, in view of Ying Guixin and Chen Qimei's background behind the Green Gang, after getting off the ship, he was interviewed by reporters and hinted that the Green Gang was a crime against the people by interfering in politics with gangs. Except for a few bigwigs in the concession who took refuge in foreigners, there was not even a scum left.

On February 12, after Yang Qiu's stay in Shanghai for two days, he set off for Nanjing on the Hairong ship, and only an hour after his departure, the secret agreement signed by Yuan Shikai and the Japanese was handed over to the table of the famous reporting reporter Huang Yuansheng, who was known for his pungency, and even more poisonous than Zhang Taiyan's mouth, immediately realized the seriousness of this secret agreement, and with his efforts, the secret agreement and the next day appeared in the newspaper, and the clause in it about the betrayal of Manchurian and Mongolian interests angered the people who had not yet recovered from the series of assassinations.

The students began to take to the streets to protest against the Japanese government's plot to permanently occupy Manchu and Mongolia while China was unstable, and to protest against the traitorous behavior of Yuan Shikai and the Beiyang government. In this movement, the most fierce is the southwest, the Southwest United Council issued a statement, saying that all workers who leave the factory in the jurisdiction can be resettled by the government, so in just one month, the southwest factory is facing the result of no work, the southwest industry and commerce representative, the country's largest national cement and power tycoon Song Weichen took the lead in publishing in the newspaper the national industrial and commercial association, the acquisition of the Japanese industry in China appeal, mobilize the domestic big businessmen and the bourgeoisie to join forces, stop the "Japanese raw materials, He stopped the initiative to purchase Japanese goods and import Japanese machinery and equipment, and publicly stated that he would suspend the contract for the purchase of two small thermal power plants from Japan, and also handed over the contract to Jardine Matheson in the United Kingdom in front of reporters.

The vigorous boycott of Japanese goods made the government a little unable to sit still, and coupled with the United States and the British government that joined later, the Katsura Taro cabinet, which had just come to power and was busy with the movement to protect the constitution, immediately stated that the Japanese had not signed a similar secret treaty, and everything except for the provision of loans was a malicious fabrication of the announcement.

However, the people and newspapers did not believe that Yuan Shikai's public scandal had confirmed the existence of the secret agreement, so the movement to boycott Japanese goods became more and more turbulent, according to the later data of the Japanese government, in just half a year, Japan's exports to China fell by 50%, and more than 400 of the more than 1,000 enterprises in China could not get raw materials and faced closure, of which 47 companies operating mercury, tung oil, and raw silk in the southwest were forced to find workers and raw materials, so they had to relocate or sell them at low prices. All direct and indirect losses exceeded 50 million per day.

That's all for later.

Yuan Shikai in the north was exposed and assassinated, and it was only a matter of time before his reputation was greatly reduced, and the Kuomintang also exposed the shady curtain of internal power struggle and collusion with gangs to loot the people's fat and ointment because of the Chen Qimei incident, and faced the unanimous condemnation of the whole country, a large number of radical young people began to throw themselves into the arms of the hard-line Southwest National Socialist Party, and the status of the country's largest party before the general election was in jeopardy, which made Huang Keqiang, who was sitting in Nanjing, anxious ().

In the office, his eyes were blood-red, his voice was hoarse, and he was hit hard by the sacrifices of his friends and comrades in the revolution, Chen Qimei's arrest, Chen Jiongming and Hu Hanmin were far away in Guangdong, and Sun Wen was delayed in Japan, so that he had to take on the great responsibility of the Kuomintang. ”

Wu Tingfang is also uncomfortable, but he is an old party member after all, and he has experienced a lot, so he can still calm down: "The body has been cremated according to the intention of the beginning, and Heqing will stay in Tianjin for the time being to take care of the aftermath, and he will probably come back after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month." After he finished speaking, he looked at Huang Keqiang with concern and said: "Keqiang, at this time, the dragons are leaderless, you have to hold on." ”

Huang Keqiang nodded gratefully: "Brother Wenjue, don't worry, I can still hold on, but after I leave, who do you think can stand up and lead the overall situation?" ”

This sentence made Wu Tingfang suddenly silent, this veteran minister of law and diplomacy who was famous for signing the first equal treaty in modern history, the "Sino-Mexican Trade Treaty", has also been exhausted, Chen Qimei's incident has dealt too much blow to the Kuomintang, and it is not even much lighter than the assassination of Song Jiaoren, and the newspapers are exposing every day that some people within the Kuomintang are taking advantage of the opportunity of the revolution to collect money and bribes, which has seriously affected the reputation of the Kuomintang. Even the Republican Party of Zhang Jizhi, who is close at hand, surpasses them.

But who else can carry the burden now?

Seeing that he didn't speak, Huang Keqiang guessed that he might not have the charter, and waved his hand to Li Shucheng, who stayed in Nanjing and volunteered to be his secretary: "Go and send a telegram to Mr. Sun first, and let him come back as soon as possible to take charge of the overall situation." Li Shucheng smiled bitterly, is it okay for him to come back? That Dai Tianqiu hinted at his relationship with Chen Qimei in the newspaper every day, didn't he just want to use it to attack his authority? Seeing that the civil war is about to start again, now the KMT wants not a big mouth, but an iron-blooded person! But he didn't have any good advice at the moment, so he had to go and send a telegram first.

After Li Shucheng left, Huang Keqiang immediately locked the door before asking heavily: "Brother Wenjue, I heard that Yang Qiu's people were also present at that time, do you think he interfered in the murder of the first time of Dunchu?" ”

Wu Tingfang guessed that he would ask this question, and shook his head: "His people were indeed present at the time, and it must have been a little bit of interference, but this matter could not move his foundation, and the big deal was a crime of ineffective rescue, not to mention that many people knew about his invitation to our warship to come back, and asked the US Navy officers to inform the departure time, so at most it was just to fire some officers ()." ”

Huang Keqiang sighed in his heart and continued: "I am not suspicious, in the past few days, the national society has been pressing step by step, and the momentum and public opinion have overwhelmed us, and from the perspective of the entire peace talks, he is the biggest beneficiary, and my generation may have to live a hard life in the long run." ”

"I know all this, but now that the national society is in charge, we also have to succumb to others, when I came back, Heqing told me that we must not fight against Yang Qiu at this moment, he has mastered the righteousness, we can only continue to grasp the union of the two parties and not let go, and solve the north first in order to have a glimmer of life."

Huang Keqiang closed his eyes in pain, Wu Tingfang's words show that the Kuomintang has actually begun to plan to be a vassal of Yang Qiu and the National Socialist Party, but the vassal is so easy to do? With his understanding of this person, when the whole country decided that he would definitely beat his own people with his backhand, he didn't want the Kuomintang to end up with decades of hard work to cheapen others, and asked: "Wenjue, look, can we win over Zhang Jizhi?" ”

Wu Tingfang said: "Zhang Jizhi and Yuan Shikai were close before, and now after Beiyang is exposed, he and Liang Qichao will definitely keep their distance, but it is impossible for him to fight against Yang Qiu, at most it depends on who can gain power after Yang Qiu and Yuan Shikai fight to the death." Now that the national society is aggressive, it is not a big problem for us to join forces with him, the most important thing is that Yuan Shikai is definitely going to do it this time, once Jiangsu, Anhui and Nanjing are all rushing, can we stop it? ”

When it comes to military issues, Huang Keqiang has a headache, although there are still five divisions in Anhui, Nanjing, Jiangsu and Jiangxi, except for Xu Shaozhen, who participated in the attack on Nanjing, he knows what kind of army the rest are in his heart. The most important thing is that there is no money in Nanjing! On the other hand, there are many generals in the southwest, and the financial resources are sufficient, and there are Wusheng Guan Tianqian to hold on, so it is estimated that their side will suffer the most if they really fight.

Wu Tingfang also knew his difficulties, thought about it and said: "Yang Qiu will come to Nanjing in two days, Keqiang might as well use Li Yuanhong's brain." ”

"Him?"!