Yang Shixiang, a native of Si County, Anhui Province, is a member of Lianfu. Forty-four-year-old Yang Shixiang was appointed acting governor of Shandong by the direct subordinate envoy. After being active for a long time, he finally only got one "acting", which inevitably made Yang Shixiang a little frustrated.

It has been a long time since he planned to go to Shandong to replace Zhou Fu, and probably after transferring from Jiangxi to Zhili, Yuan Shikai envisioned letting him go to Shandong. He knew that Yuan Shikai had always been reluctant to Shandong, although he had been in charge of Shandong for less than two years, but he left his political achievements there. However, those things that made Yuan Weiting proud have been fully accepted by his successor, including connections. With the sharp rise in Shandong's strength, the team left by Yuan Weiting basically took refuge in Zhou Fu, and Zhou Fu is undoubtedly the puppet of the person he has never met but has long been like thunder and even seen more than once in his dreams!

Investing in Yuan Shikai's disciple is the "credit" of his younger brother Yang Shiqi. Although his younger brother was not like him, he was a junior sergeant, a little Hanlin, and took the right path of officialdom, but he has always admired the depth of scheming and the disease of strain. Originally, the brothers were both from Li Hongzhang's disciples, but the younger brother Yang Shiqi thought of a way out earlier, and turned into Yuan Weiting's henchman, and even reached the point of obeying his words, and the biggest hero who prompted himself to shepherd the side was his younger brother, if there was no younger brother in Zhili Governor and Beiyang Minister Yuan Shikai to follow the words, Yuan Shikai may not have pushed himself to the throne of Shandong governor.

Self-discipline to be taught, hard work in the cold window, show talent and raise people, raise people and enter the scholars, and then enter the Hanlin, point to the Shu Jishi in the place, and become a feudal frontier is the highest ideal of the literati of this era. In this regard, his younger brother, who has been smart since he was a child, and who is full of scheming, is far behind himself. Throughout his life, he is just a lifter, and it is difficult to achieve Zuo Zongtang's achievements. Strangely, the younger brother seems to be content to hide behind the scenes and be a staff member, rather than standing in front of the stage.

There are many people who are planning for the position of governor of Shandong, and Cen Chunxuan in Shanxi is one of them. It is said that Cen left Li Lianying's door, but was defeated in the end. It can be seen that although Yuan Weiting was squeezed out by Tie Liang and others, the holy family was still prosperous. Yang Shixiang knows that the reason why many people are eyeing Shandong. In addition to Shandong being a large province. It also takes a fancy to the vigorous rise of Shandong in recent years, and there is a wide lake that overwhelms Zhangzhidong, which once led the trend. Zhou Fu, the old and mediocre guy, was able to enter Liangjiang, of course, because of the light of Shandong's outstanding political achievements in recent years.

Yang Shixiang, of course, longed to shepherd Shandong. Since this goal was determined, Yang Shixiang began to collect relevant information about Shandong. What attracted his attention the most was the two major industrial groups that were born and grew in Lunan. From power generation, mining, steelmaking, explosives to pharmaceuticals, textiles, printing. There are so many products, and almost no one can count how many things Qing Lunan has invented. It is said that the officials of Yizhou and Yanzhou cities and some wealthy families have used electric lights, which are comparable to the imperial palace. He was skeptical of this. But recently, a friend went to Jinan with King Qing to observe the military appearance of the fifth town. He was very shocked, and came back to tell him a lot, among which he was very impressed by the beauty of the military uniform of the fifth town. Those military uniforms, weaving cloth and ready-made garments are the products of the two major industries in southern Lunan, and the level is definitely beyond the textile industry in Tianjin, and it is estimated that the factories of Zhang Jian and Zhang Jizhi in Jiangsu and Zhejiang cannot be built.

To Yang Shixiang's amazement, there is foreign capital in the two major industrial groups in Lunan, and it is said that the Americans have invested a lot, and there are Americans among the senior staff of the company, but the company is really controlled by the Chinese people, and Zhang Lianfen and Zhou Xuexi, whom he knows, are in charge of ZTE and Huayuan respectively. Last year, he and Zhang Lianfen wrote a letter about the affairs of the Zhongxing Coal Mine in Zaozhuang. Because the Kaiping Coal Mine eventually fell under the control of the British, he was worried that the Zaozhuang Zhongxing Coal Mine would also be controlled by the foreigners. But Ms. Zhang replied that the mine was under her control, and that with the opening of the Zaozhuang-Taierzhuang railway (and the opening of passenger traffic) and the expansion of the power plant, ZTE's coal production had almost doubled. This year, more funds will be invested to renovate coal mines, coal washing plants, and coking plants, and Zhongxing Mine alone can earn back 400,000 taels of silver for Zhongxing Industry in a year.

That's a staggering statistic.

Physical data is one thing, but the financial data is even more striking. His younger brother Yang Shiqi showed him a letter from a friend of the Shandong Domain, saying that since the 28th year of Guangxu (1902), Shandong's fiscal revenue has continued to soar, with a growth rate of more than 50%. Guangxu 28 years is 1300 taels, Guangxu 29 years, that is, last year, surged to 19.8 million taels, this year due to the successful merger of Huayuan Industry and Shandong Machinery Bureau, the manufacturing base moved to Jinan, the growth rate has slowed down, but it will definitely exceed 22 million taels of silver.

What is this concept? According to the data mastered by Yang Shixiang, the annual fiscal revenue of the eighteen provinces of the imperial court is less than 140 million taels, and Shandong Province alone accounts for as much as one-seventh! No wonder some people say that Zhou Fu was reluctant to go to Liangjiang to become the governor!

Since the implementation of the Westernization Movement, the main purpose of the imperial court has been to manufacture modern munitions. Previously, the main production bases were in Jinling and Hanyang, and Tianjin could barely rank third. Countless amounts of money have been spent on this, and no one can say exactly how much money has been invested. However, since Zhou Fu took charge of Shandong, Shandong has unknowingly become a major arms manufacturing base in China. According to friends in Shandong (the news is all from Yang Shiqi), they can already make explosives, gunpowder, and bullets on a large scale, and after a while, maybe this year, or next year at the latest, Jinan Company will be able to produce rifles and shells at night. In a letter to his brother, the friend said that Shandong Province had established good cooperative relations with Germany and the United States, and that the Germans, in particular, had agreed to sell a complete production line of rifles and artillery shells (including the main accessories such as seals, primers, cartridges, etc.).

This is amazing news. The most shocking thing for Yang Shixiang is that the imperial court has hardly invested a penny in the completion of these industries, and all of them are solved by Shandong itself!

This is the case for industrial construction, and the achievements in other aspects are also amazing. After building the ash factory (they called it a cement factory) and an explosives factory, Lunan Industrial built a high-end highway that was said to be able to carry three horse-drawn carriages in parallel, connecting the traffic between Yizhou and Yanzhou. This is undoubtedly for the convenience of Huayuan Industry in Yizhou and Zhongxing Industry in Yanzhou. Now, that is, this spring, the reconstruction of the roads from Yizhou to Jinan and Yanzhou to Jinan has started at the same time, and it is expected to be completed in two years. The Germans kept their eyes on the railways in Shandong. No one else is allowed to touch it. But they can't interfere with the construction of highways. Yang Shixiang was eager to see such a magnificent construction project, but he never had the opportunity.

The traffic is like this. In terms of education, Shandong is also at the forefront of the country. Shandong University Hall was established almost at the same time as Jingshi University Hall, Nanyang Public School and other institutions, and it was also the handiwork of Yuan Weiting, who flourished after Yuan Weiting left, and the cumulative investment in silver was almost one million taels. It is said that the number of students enrolled in the school has surpassed that of the Kyoto Normal University, and the number of foreign teachers and courses offered is even more eye-popping. "Journal of Shandong University Hall" has become the object of emulation by Beijing Normal University, and there are even children of Beijing officials and eunuchs who abandoned the first good mansion and went south to Jinan to study, which shows its huge influence.

It is nothing to run a nationally renowned institution of higher learning, and it is worth marveling that Zhou Fu has come up with a general education plan for Shandong. The plan is to have an intermediate school set up in every county in Shandong Province within five years. 20% of the villages and towns in the province have established village and town primary schools, and it is proposed to make the province's literacy rate reach 30% within five years! Yang Shixiang doesn't know what this figure really means, but he knows that the current literacy rate in rural areas is less than 5 percent. Based on his experience as a political envoy in Jiangxi, the literacy rate in Jiangxi Province certainly does not exceed 5%. It is important to know that Jiangxi is also a place of humanities in history. There are many more great writers in history than in Shandong! How dare Zhou Fu put forward such an ambitious plan to the imperial court? How much does it cost?

Since Yang Shixiang decided to strive for the position of governor of Shandong, he has been paying attention to the Yellow River. The Yellow River meanders thousands of miles in Shandong. Because it's close to the sea. Sediment siltation is serious and is a problem for Shandong's henchmen. In the 26th and 27th years of Guangxu, there were two breaches, and the losses of personnel and property were extremely serious. Twenty-eight years. That is, last year, thanks to the intervention of the army, it finally did not cause a catastrophe (but it was still decided). According to Feng Guozhang, if there is no army to rescue them, several prefectures will break down, especially the Wuding Mansion at the most bottom, which will never be spared. His younger brother Yang Shiqi told him that Zhou Fu had reported to the imperial court that from this year onwards, the province would invest heavily in repairing and strengthening the river embankments, and that it would take five to seven years to renovate all the river sections in Shandong, in order to solve the Yellow River problem once and for all.

This excerpt made the Queen Mother extremely happy, and praised Zhou Fu for his solid work and being a model for Xinjiang ministers. The Queen Mother finally decided to let the governor of Zhou Fu, who was nearly seventy years old, Liangjiang, hand over the land of the imperial court to that old man, whether it was affected by this river control excerpt is hard to say, but there must be a relationship.

Where did Shandong get the money for such a huge construction? Yang Shixiang discussed this issue with his younger brother more than once. According to the younger brother (who is always well-informed), the Jinyuan ticket number played a big role in it. Now the Jinyuan ticket number has become Jinyuan Bank, the headquarters is in Jinan, and the Beijing branch has also opened. Yang Shixiang learned about this new bank, the boss is a native of Shanxi, surnamed Jia, before it was just a small shopkeeper of a ticket number in Shanxi, and within a few years, it became a famous ticket number in the north, and the business is not only in Shandong, but also in Zhili, Shanxi, Suiyuan and even Jiangsu. Shanxi people are rich Yang Shixiang is knowledgeable, but a Jinyuan ticket number that has been established for only a few years can raise such a huge amount of money for Shandong? And many of these industries have a long construction period, how dare they release such a huge amount of money?

Xingcheng (Yang Shiqi's character) answer: Long Qian. It is the military general who was born in Xiangma that Yuan Weiting will never forget. Because Jia Jiying (president of Jinyuan Bank) is Long Qian's person. With Long Qian's army as the backing, Jia Jiying certainly has no scruples.

Yang Shiqi also pointed out that all changes in Shandong originated from Long Qian, and Huayuan and Zhongxing were all controlled by Long Qian. If you don't believe it, you will know when you ask Zhang Yurui and Zhou Xuexi.

This still made Yang Shixiang puzzled. Before he felt that Yuan Weiting had always regarded the young military general as a great enemy in his life, he still maintained close correspondence with Yuan Shikai when he was the political envoy in Jiangxi, Yuan Weiting sighed more than once in the letter that he did not use the power of the lion to fight the rabbit to cut off Long Qian's ringing horse armament, so that the disaster has been left so far, the six towns have been formed, Long Qian's wings have been completed, and it is difficult to shake.

Yang Shixiang was a little unconvinced. Even if Long Qian won the blue eyes of the Queen Mother because of his rescue efforts, and then rose to the top, in just a few years, he became a town commander comparable to Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang, Wang Yingkai, Wu Changchun and other generals, but it would not make Yuan Weiting so depressed and afraid, right? Yang Shixiang has read a lot of people, since Li Hefei, no one who can compare to Yuan Weiting has not seen it, why is this Xiangma leader surnamed Long so jealous of Yuan Weiting? Based on these changes in Shandong, if it is really promoted by Long Qian, it is no wonder that Yuan Weiting has scruples.

Now, hope has become a reality. According to the custom, he was going to the Empress Dowager to resign from the Emperor, and of course, the main thing was to listen to the Hadith of the Empress Dowager. Poor Emperor Guangxu often didn't say a word, I don't know if it was a silent protest to his aunt, the Empress Dowager. For this majesty's resignation, he waited for half a month, and it was said that the queen mother was sick. His Majesty's speech that day was very simple, the Queen Mother didn't seem to remember his resume, and when asked about his career, he had to tell the truth. The Queen Mother said, Yuan Shikai strongly recommended you to Shandong, what are you going to do?

He kowtowed according to etiquette, saying that he would do his best to govern Shandong well and live up to the high expectations of the queen mother and the emperor. The Queen Mother said that these are all clichés, so don't say it. Your official reputation is good, now that Shandong's new policy is doing well, the silver of Shangjie has doubled, you have to cooperate with Long Qian, govern Shandong into a model province, and relieve the worries of the imperial court.

The key to this sentence is to cooperate well with Long Qian, and you won't be incomprehensible if you say such a simple thing. Of course, Yang Shixiang said that he must act in accordance with the holy teachings of the Queen Mother, please rest assured that the Queen Mother will not worry. After His Majesty's resignation, Yang Shixiang's mood became heavy. Of course, he knew Yuan Shikai's intention of recommending him to govern Shandong, but how did the Queen Mother act so highly and protectively and protectively Long Qian?

After eating and inviting for nearly 20 days in a row, I finally had the necessary banquet. Yang Shixiang left Beijing in early April, passing through Baoding, Hejian, and Dezhou, and went straight to Jinan. (To be continued......)