In mid-September, Lu Zhengxiang, the second prime minister of the provisional government's cabinet, who had been in office for less than three months, was impeached by the provisional Senate and had to resign in anger. Tang Shaoyi, the second premier of the Cabinet, and Lu Zhengxiang, the second premier of the Cabinet, were unable to do their jobs after three months, and the government of the Republic of China has only been established for more than half a year, and three successive prime ministers have been replaced.

Yuan Shikai is a person who likes to monopolize power, and he can't tolerate others opposing him, and the provisional Senate is composed of constitutional people, old bureaucrats, and members of the League, and these people are deceitful for their own interests, but Lu Zhengxiang is a scholar and has not joined any political organizations, and he is not Yuan Shikai's person.

Lu Zhengxiang's character traits are destined to play a tragic role, he is kind and weak, full of bookishness, some people describe him as "humble and peaceful and clumsy in decision", which is very pertinent. In a bad political environment, such a bookish atmosphere can only make him cannon fodder for careerists and the biggest victim of factional turmoil.

Thinking that when he worked in the legation in Russia, Tang Shaoyi and Yuan Shikai successively sent telegrams inviting him to return to China to serve as the chief foreign affairs officer of the provisional government. Second, because he has served as a diplomatic mission abroad for many years, he is familiar with Western diplomacy and is the first person to do diplomacy for the Qing court. Lu Zhengxiang resigned again and again, and as a result, even Interim President Yuan Shikai came to invite him several times in a row. Before returning to China, Lu put forward three conditions to Yuan: the vice minister of foreign affairs should be proficient in English; Lu did not recommend people to other ministries, and other ministries were not allowed to recommend people to Lu; and the personnel of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should not be interfered with by others. Yuan Shikai agreed, and he set off to return to China. In the end, I didn't expect it to be such an ending.

Yuan Shikai saw that Lu Zhengxiang, the middleman he had found to ease the conflict with the gang in the Senate, also quit, so his heart was on fire. The heart said that since you guys who eat idle food are so shameless, Lao Tzu simply won't give you face. So Yuan Shikai appointed his hardcore henchman and super thug Zhao Bingjun as the third cabinet premier.

thought that at the beginning, Yuan Shikai wanted to force the Qing court to abdicate, but he was unwilling to bear the infamy, so he secretly instigated Zhao Bingjun and others to come forward. Zhao Bingjun knew that this was a godsend opportunity to please Yuan, so he worked extra hard to force the orphaned and widowed Empress Dowager Longyu and Pu Yi to abdicate. At the Imperial Council, Zhao Bingjun openly proposed that the northern and southern governments abdicate at the same time. In addition, a provisional government was organized in Tianjin. The princes and ministers were silent, and the Manchurian young relatives and nobles swore to oppose it, Zhao Bingjun shouted: "Today's meeting, tomorrow's meeting, the discussion has not been discussed so far, so the cabinet has to take the blame and resign!" After saying that, he walked away, and the princes and nobles of Manchuria were so frightened that their faces were like earth. Afterwards, Zhao Bingjun simply had a direct showdown and threatened the Empress Dowager Longyu. If he can abdicate voluntarily, he will be guaranteed preferential treatment to the royal family, otherwise the revolutionary party will urge him to order, and "there will be unpredictable things". At this time, the real power of the Qing court and the army were firmly in the hands of Yuan Shikai. The helpless Empress Dowager Longyu had no choice but to obey her fate.

Some time ago, Song Jiaoren, the leader of the League, was planning to form a small party into a big party in order to realize the political party's cabinet proposals. Based on the Alliance, unite and unite the Republican Party. The National Communist Party, the National Public Party, and the Republican Practical Progressive Association were reorganized as the Democratic Party. Yuan Shikai in order to find out the truth of the Kuomintang. Let Zhao Bingjun join the Kuomintang, Zhao Bingjun complied, and then had a close relationship with Song Jiaoren, who lived outside Beijing, often entered the city at night, went to Zhao Bingjun's secret room for private conversations, and left until dawn. Song Jiaoren admired Zhao Wudu with the skill of a politician, and promised to support him as prime minister after the establishment of the National Assembly, and even elected president. Zhao Bingjun also admired Soong as the leader of the big party and organized a political party cabinet. Song Jiaoren sometimes confided in the secrets of the party, and Zhao Bingjun also told the Beiyang bottom, and there seemed to be nothing to hide, so the two had a good time.

Regarding Yuan Shikai's appointment of Zhao Bingjun as the prime minister of the cabinet, this caused even more dissatisfaction with the gang and the alliance in the provisional senate, and the two sides fought more fiercely.

Xiao Zhenlei listened to the secretary Xiao Gao report on the situation of the Beiyang government in the office, and he could only report it. At this time, the phone rang, and he picked it up and said, "Hey? ”

"President, Cheng Biguang has already led the Haiqi back and is currently arriving in the waters of Zhejiang!"

At this time, Sa Zhenbing's voice, this voice was a little old, but very excited. Xiao Zhenlei immediately asked, "What about the Zhaohe and Yingrui?" Did you go back to China together? ”

Zhaohe belongs to the practice cruiser, built for the British Armstrong Company, Yingrui is a light cruiser, built by the British Wicks Company, both ships were ordered by the Qing court to the British side in 1909, due to the fall of the Qing court, the buyer naturally became the provisional government of the Republic of China, and Yuan Shikai now has no money, and the navy is in the hands of Xiao Zhenlei, he is willing to pay, so these two ships naturally belong to Xiao Zhenlei, Cheng Biguang originally led the Haiqi ship has been in London, is specifically waiting for the delivery of these two ships.

In the original history, these two ships were delayed until 1913 due to the lack of money from the Provisional Government of the Republic of China, and now Xiao Zhenlei is willing to pay, so it was advanced by a year. The Zhaohe cost £21 and the Yingrui cost £204,000, and the two ships were equipped with the same weapons, both equipped with two 6-inch Armstrong guns, four 4-inch guns, six 47mm Armstrong guns, two 1-pounder Maxim guns, and two 18-inch torpedo tubes.

Sa Zhenbing's voice came from the phone: "I'm back, I'm back together!" Do you let them go directly to the port of Zhoushan or ??????? ”

Xiao Zhenlei immediately said: "Let them go to Shanghai together, moor at Huangfu Wharf for review, I am ready to leave for Shanghai, and your naval command will organize some personnel to go first!" ”

"Okay!"

After putting down the phone, Xiao Zhenlei said to his secretary Xiao Gao: "You go and inform Chief of Staff Jiang, just say that Cheng Biguang and the Haiqi ship have returned, and the Zhaohe and Yingrui have also returned, and I plan to go to Shanghai tomorrow to have a review ceremony, and ask him if he is going?" ”

"Knock knock-" There was a knock on the office door, and Xiao Zhenlei's words just fell. Jiang Baili knocked on the door and came in, obviously hearing Xiao Zhenlei's words just now. In his left hand, he held a bag of papers, followed by a guard carrying several bags of things. He said as he walked: "I already know this, I have been busy all day long, how can I have time to leave?" And there can't be no one left behind at the headquarters, I see you just go, when you see General Cheng, they say hello on my behalf," said the orderly behind him and put the bags of things on the sofa next to him.

Xiao Zhenlei thought for a while and said, "Okay, you're here for this?" ”

"Of course not, or I might as well just give a call!" Jiang Baili said and handed over the Wen Jiàn bag in his hand and said: "The twelve reorganization divisions and the four reserve divisions have all completed their training, and the weapons and equipment have all been changed, so it's just a matter of clothing." However, I have brought a customized sample, two sets of sea, land and air respectively, one set for training uniforms, one set of military uniforms, wait for you to see how it is, if there is no problem, I will let the logistics department officially place an order for the garment factory, all the production will be completed within a month, and all the officers and soldiers will officially ship the new military uniforms next month! And also. This is the initial list of appointments to officers at and above the deputy regimental and deputy regimental level drawn up by us throughout the army, as well as a number of reserve candidates, most of which have remained unchanged, with only a few positions changing. It's up to you to make the final decision! ”

Xiao Zhenlei took the bag and put it in the drawer and said: "I will make a decision as much as possible, how did you handle the matter of sending international students to study in Germany and the United States this time?" ”

Jiang Baili said: "The candidates for our army have long been decided, and a total of twenty places in the Education Department have not yet been reported. But I'll urge them to send someone to lead the team and bring the students here! ”

Xiao Zhenlei said: "Okay." Do your best to do this, don't miss the enrollment time. These places are not easy to come by, and it is a pity to waste them, but the team leader who leads the team this time must choose people who are excellent in politics, and we let those students go out to study in Germany and the United States, so that they can go out to see the outside world, let them learn advanced knowledge and then come back to serve the motherland, not let them go out to have fun, not let them come back to bring back the bad ideas of foreign countries to poison the people! ”

Jiang Baili was surprised: "Where does this start?" ”

"Sit down!" Xiao Zhenlei pointed to the sofa, the two walked to the sofa and sat down, and the secretary Xiao Gao and Jiang Baili's guard battalion retreated to the side.

Xiao Zhenlei threw a cigarette at Jiang Baili and said: "During this time, the cultural circles have made a lot of trouble, especially those scholars who have returned from abroad, one by one shouting to abandon the old culture and promote the new culture, what is the new culture?" In their view, it is to introduce advanced ideas and culture from abroad, change all classical Chinese into vernacular at home, and abandon the old customs and etiquette, so it is called a new culture. Looking at the great powers and countries of the world, which powerful country has not become strong on the basis of its own culture, has there ever been a precedent for using foreign culture to make the country strong? Having given up their own culture, is this nation still this nation? Is this country still China?

In the past half century, the Western powers have not only invaded our country by force, but have also gradually encroached on our economy and now have begun to invade the ideas of our intellectual strata with culture, and then these intellectuals have influenced all strata of society. In the matter of the invasion of our country by the foreign powers with culture, most of the intellectuals who returned from studying abroad acted as accomplices, saying that foreign countries are good, foreign people are polite and hygienic, the moon is full abroad, the air is good, in short, everything is good to foreigners, it is really unreasonable!

In addition, those scholars are still clamoring for the abolition of classical Chinese, and in the future, whether it is official correspondence, teaching, or books, all vernacular Chinese will be used, and classical Chinese will not be used. Some people give an example that the vernacular text is more concise than the classical Chinese, and also give an example, the word powerless is only four words, and in the vernacular, only the three words 'can't do it' are enough, it's just nonsense, can the meaning of these two words be the same? I have no objection to the use of the vernacular, after all, the vernacular is indeed easier to understand than the classical Chinese, but it is absolutely not advisable to completely deny the culture handed down from the ancestors! Therefore, the candidates sent to lead the team this time must be carefully considered, students want to be free, we can all understand, but too much freedom is indulgence, nothing can be too laissez-faire, it must be restricted! ”

Jiang Baili thought about it, it is true, there are many people in the cultural circle who have returned from overseas and have extreme thoughts, and it is not good to do anything that is too extreme, he nodded and said: "Okay, I will talk to the people from the Education Department about this!" ”

"By the way, look at these sets of military uniforms, that Xiao Liu, open these bags and take out all the military uniforms for the president to see!"

"Yes, Chief of Staff!"

Xiao Zhenlei took a set of military uniforms handed over by Xiao, these military uniforms are divided into three colors, the military dress and the training uniform are the same color, the army uniform is grass green, the air force is sky blue, the navy is white, and the winter cotton clothes, he asked Xiao Liu to wear them one by one, and sure enough, people rely on clothes, and Xiao Liu became much more heroic after changing into these clothes.

"Yes, yes, just customize it according to these styles, let the soldiers change all before the end of next month, if there is not enough time, make training uniforms first, and then send the military dress to the troops after a month, and then send the cotton clothes to the end!" Xiao Zhenlei looked satisfied and made a decision.

Jiang Baili said: "Okay, I'll immediately ask the logistics department to place an order for the garment factory!" ”

The next day, Xiao Zhenlei went to Shanghai, and when he arrived, Sa Zhenbing and others had already arranged all the matters of the review ceremony at Huangfu Wharf, because of the hype of Sa Zhenbing and others, all walks of life knew that Cheng Biguang led the Haiqi ship, the Zhaohe ship and the Yingrui ship to return to China, and the people who came to Huangfu Wharf to watch the warship on this day were simply crowded, in order to reduce the probability of accidents, not only did the new Shanghai special government send a large number of policemen to maintain order, The 25th Army Division stationed in Shanghai sent a battalion of men to serve as guards.

When Xiao Zhenlei appeared at the wharf, he was accompanied by Lin Zhiqiang, the new special mayor and a member of the Predator Party, and other city government personnel, and saw that the leading figures from all walks of life in Shanghai stood in a row and looked over, including Li Pingshu, Yu Qiaqing, Zhu Baosan, Shen Manyun and others, so he walked over and shook hands with them and said hello.

Li Pingshu and others couldn't help but sigh in their hearts, thinking about Xiao Zhenlei a few years ago, he still didn't ask a bag coolie on the dock of Shanghai Tang, but in just a few years, he became the king of the southeast, which is really impermanent, and the experience can only be described as a legend. (To be continued......) R1292