Zhou Xuexi's letter to Zhang Jian suggested that he should unite with the Zhejiang business community and go north to Shandong to participate in the Shandong Provincial Investment Promotion Association, and Zhang Jian thought so. For political reasons, Zhang Jian needed to unite with the business celebrities of Zhejiang Province.

Zhang Jian sent a manager of his Dasheng Yarn Factory to Hangzhou to lobby in person, and because of the business relationship, the business circles of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces had close contacts. Hangzhou was still hesitating, and Zhang Jian's suggestion reached the ears of a young Hunan newspaperman. He personally wrote an article and vigorously advocated it in the "National Daily", so in July 1904, a group of 43 people from Jiangsu and Zhejiang came to Jinan in two batches.

That newspaper man is Zhang Shizhao, who "became famous" last year.

Zhang Shizhao, strict in words, Hunan Shanhua people. He was only twenty-three years old. Zhang Shizhao left Hunan in 1901 and studied at the Lianghu Academy in Wuchang, where he met Huang Xing. The following year, he entered the Nanjing Lushi School to study military affairs, and in the second year, he entered the Shanghai Patriotic Society, and in the early summer, he served as the chief writer of the "Su Bao". He became opposite-sex brothers with the main contributors Zhang Binglin, Zou Rong and Zhang Ji. Two months later, Su Bao was shut down by the authorities for publishing a large number of anti-Qing articles. His celebrities, Zhang Binglin and Zou Rong, were arrested, but Zhang Shizhao escaped the case because of the favoritism of Yu Mingzhen, the general manager of the Lu Shi School, who hosted the "Su Bao" case. In August, the restless Zhang Shizhao, Chen Duxiu, Zhang Ji and others founded the "National Daily". In the winter of that year, he and Huang Xing formed the Huaxing Association. Embark on the road of thorough anti-Qing.

Zhang Shizhao was one of the earliest domestic intellectuals in China to promote Sun Yat-sen. He compiled "Thirty-Three Years of Falling Flowers" written by Sun Wen's close friend and Japanese Miyazaki Inzo into "The Great Revolutionary Sun Yat-sen", and he combined Sun Wen's pseudonym in Japan with his surname. Sun Yat-sen became famous all over the world.

Probably because of running a newspaper, Zhang Shizhao's understanding of the domestic political situation is far better than that of ordinary people. Even Huang Xing, who secretly planned an armed uprising, could not compare. Zhang Shizhao has long noticed the changes in Shandong, not only because of the rise of his industry, a large number of novel and practical commodities into Ninghu and other places, but also because of the Mengshan Army, which was born of horses. Relying on a group of Hui parties whose main goal was to make money and make a fortune to overthrow the Manchu Qing was obviously not as practical as an army uprising, and after inquiring about Long Qian's origins, he thought that this was a military powerhouse worth befriending, but he had no chance. Now, Zhang Jian, a constitutionalist organization, is an investment promotion group. Zhang Shizhao decided to get involved. Go to Shandong to see the movement in person.

Jinan has already established a telegraph room, and telegraph contacts with Shanghai and Nanjing have long been communicated. The list of Jiangsu and Zhejiang investment promotion groups was transmitted to Jinan at the end of June. Long Qian saw that there was Zhang Shizhao in the list, looked down, pointed to the list and asked Zhou Xuexi, who was in charge of the affairs of the China Merchants Association. "Brother Wanted. Who is this Zhang Shizhao? ”

Zhou Xuexi, who is immersed in industry, doesn't know at all. "Probably a rich businessman in Jiangsu and Zhejiang that we don't know, right?"

"Oh." Long Qian remembered Zhang Shizhao's origin, but he didn't say it.

"Don't worry, they're coming. Naturally, you will know the way. ”

"That's it. Ha Luha, Brother Wanted has worked hard lately. ”

"Wherever and where, the military is still knowledgeable, I think it will be difficult for them to return empty-handed."

"Don't underestimate the heroes of the world." Long Qian smiled and said, "Zhang Ji is famous all over the world and shrewd. ”

Zhou Xuexi, Zhang Lianfen, Xu Jianyin and others worked hard to run the China Merchants Association. A leading organization headed by Zhou Xuexi was set up and a lot of preparatory work was made. The first is to organize a Shandong commodity exhibition hall, which classifies the civil commodities produced in Shandong and lists them all, and each commodity included in the exhibition hall is printed with exquisite brochures. The second is to come up with a detailed agency plan for Shandong Province commodities to enter the Jiangsu and Zhejiang markets. The third is to convene a meeting to list the 17 enterprises under Huayuan and ZTE, and welcome Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces to invest in them. To this end, the China Merchants Association has planned the visit route and prepared detailed enterprise introduction materials.

In addition, detailed arrangements have been made for the publicity, accommodation, safety and security of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang business groups arriving in Lu. To this end, Long Qian Shang Jinan Governor Ding Weiji, with the Jinan Police Department as the mainstay, is responsible for the safety of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang investment promotion groups after they are stationed in Shandong. At the same time, Jiang Yun's intelligence department was ordered to fully cooperate to ensure that nothing went wrong.

The scheduled investment promotion will last for a total of 10 days.

This is a major event in Shandong, especially in Jinan. Therefore, Zhou Xuexi and Zhang Lianfen came forward to inform Yang Shixiang, the governor of Shandong, and reported in detail the intentions, organization, agenda and other matters of the China Merchants Association, so as to obtain Yang Shixiang's permission. Long Qian did not come forward, originally thinking that Yang Shixiang would set up obstacles to hinder his affairs, but who knew that Yang Futai agreed with it, and said that he would personally help this matter when the time came.

Yang Shixiang's attitude surprised Long Qian a little.

At that time, the Tianjin-Pudong Railway was still under planning, but the construction had not yet started. In fact, as early as 1898, Germany and Britain held a meeting in London behind the back of the Manchu Qing government to build the Tianjin-Zhenjiang Railway (Tianjin-Zhenjiang). However, another railway in Shandong, the Jiaoji Railway, was officially opened to traffic at the beginning of last month. This railway, which was extremely important for Shandong, was built by the Germans and was built for five years. During this period, the local people encountered armed resistance in the Gaomi area, and the project could not be carried out for a while. It was not until the formation of the Fifth Town, Long Qian, out of comprehensive consideration, instructed the Ninth Association stationed in the two prefectures of Thanh and Lai to do their best to help the Germans in the construction, and the project was successfully completed.

How the Jiangsu and Zhejiang business groups led by Zhang Jian came to Shandong were discussed by telegram. In the end, the opinions of Shandong were adopted, and the Jiangsu and Zhejiang merchant groups first gathered in Shanghai, took the German ship to Qingdao to disembark, and then took the train to Jinan. The Germans were not only willing to cooperate deeply with the Longqian military group, but also eager to open their eyes for the newly opened Jiaoji Railway, and expressed their full assistance in this matter. To this end, China Merchants sent Jiang Jiying, President of Jinyuan Bank, and Zhou Tingan, Vice President of Huayuan Industry and Director of Huayuan Vehicle Factory, to Qingdao to welcome him.

On July 12, Zhang Jian led the first batch of 23 people to arrive in Jinan by train. On the platform, a big red banner was written that warmly welcomed the Jiangsu and Zhejiang business groups to Jinan, and Zhou Xuexi, president of Huayuan Industry, personally went to the railway station to greet him, but as soon as he received the guests who got off the train, he made a joke.

As soon as I got out of the station. Zhou Xuexi was introducing the Jinan Station he had just used to Zhang Jian, and a merchant surnamed Kong in the investment promotion group was caught by the orange armband responsible for maintaining the order of the platform. This businessman named Kong Fanyu runs a cloth factory in Hangzhou, and when he heard that Ludi cotton yarn was of good quality and low price, he followed the group to Shandong, and threw a piece of oiled paper wrapped in roast chicken on the ground when he left the station, and was immediately pulled by the orange armband, which was an old man in his fifties, speaking with a strong Jinan accent, and speaking to Kong Fanyu like a cannon, and took out an armband from his arms and handed it to the stunned Kong Fanyu.

"What's going on?" The merchants of the investment group hurriedly gathered around.

"Ahh That is true. Zhou Xuexi hurriedly came over to explain, "He is the station to maintain environmental hygiene, and he was caught littering." No way, sir. According to the rules, you must wear this armband for an hour. Or catch three people who have violated the rules before they are allowed to leave. Zhou Xuexi pointed to the "Jinan Railway Station Health Appointment" pasted on the platform pillar. Apologetically said to Kong Fanyu, "It's our negligence, I'm sorry." I didn't warn you in advance. He pointed to the striking yellow trash can, "All garbage should be thrown into the trash can." ”

"But we are merchants who have come to discuss business, and you have invited us, aren't we just throwing away a piece of waste paper? As for this? Otherwise, the penalty will be fined. Kong Fanyu reached out and took out the money.

"No, no," Zhou Xuexi immediately stopped, "They don't fine, it's useless for you to pay money, it's useless." ”

"For what?" Zhang Shizhao asked with interest. He had already heard the conversation between Zhou Xuexi and Kong Fanyu, and also noticed the unusually neat and clean Jinan Railway Station.

"Fines won't solve the problem." Zhou Xuexi said to Zhang Shizhao, "Needless to say, Chinese people have always been less particular about hygiene, spitting, littering, and personal hygiene. Long Junmen believes that changing a nation needs to start from small things, but the method of imposing fines is wrong, because today's people's livelihood is in difficulty, and some people will not be able to remember it for a long time if they are fined, and some people will not be able to afford more fines. So, General Long came up with this solution......"

"The result?"

"Well, just look at the results, you'll see ......"

"Hmm," Zhang Shizhao nodded, "It's really clean and abnormal, and it's not much better than the Shanghai Concession." Mr. Zhou, wasn't this Jiaoji Railway built by the Germans? Isn't this train station in charge of the Germans? Zhang Shizhao looked at the German-style buildings of the train station again and noticed that there were not many German employees in uniform.

"Ah, this," Zhou Xuexi was anxious to get out of trouble for that Mr. Kong, and threw away Zhang Shizhao, who was pestering him, "In this way, they are guests invited by Huayuan and ZTE, can you be accommodating and let my subordinates be on duty on their behalf?" ”

"For the sake of them being Huayuan's guests, okay." The orange armband gave in.

Zhou Xuexi waved his hand to put on an orange armband for one of his entourages, and Kong Fanyu was out of trouble.

Four American-made cars had stopped in front of the station, but they couldn't seat all the guests. But this has sent all the cars in Jinan, and one of them is ready to be "dedicated" to Yang Shixiang. After Zhou Xuexi explained, Zhang Jian assigned, the old and famous fourteen merchants were invited to the car, and the remaining nine people, accompanied by the reception group, took the four-wheeled carriage produced by Huayuan and went to the Huayuan Group Guest House.

Zhang Shizhao did not take the car, although Zhang Jian arranged for him to take the car. First, I felt that I was young and it was not good to rob with those middle-aged and elderly businessmen, and secondly, I thought that it was more convenient to take a carriage to see the city. So I got in the carriage. He was accompanied by a young man wearing a blue cloth uniform, and the chest pocket of the uniform was embroidered with the four red characters of Huayuan Industry, which was very eye-catching. As soon as he got in the car, Zhang Shizhao asked a question that he had not received an answer from Zhou Xuexi just now.

"That's right." The Huayuan clerk said, "The railway was built by the Germans, but the railway station is jointly managed by China and Germany. The Germans were only in charge of railway affairs, and the rest of the affairs, such as public security and sanitation, were all managed by the Jinan government. ”

"How so? Would the Germans be willing? ”

"What can he do if he doesn't want to?" The young clerk said, "Long Junmen personally negotiated with the German governor, and it was a matter of sovereignty that could not be compromised. ”

"The Germans would listen to Admiral Long Qian?"

"There is no way in Qingdao. In Jinan, but the fifth town has the final say. The clerk said proudly. (To be continued......)