On April 8, as soon as the tomb sweeping was completed, Wang Longzhong appointed Wang Zhenyu as the commander of the Jingzhou garrison and the commander of the Ninth Brigade in the name of the Baojing Town Guard, and led the Ninth Brigade to take office. Wang Longzhong also paid attention to this matter, he knew that most of the officers under his command had been taken care of by Tan Yanhong. Therefore, sending his only trusted nephew to Jingzhou Mansion and thus staying away from Changsha was also a step for him to deal with the situation, although he himself did not have any hope that this move would play a big role.

Jingzhou, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period belonged to Chu, Qin belonged to Qianzhong County, Han Dynasty was Wuling County, Wucheng County, Eastern Jin Dynasty to the Southern Dynasties was Wuyang County, Sui belonged to Longbiao County, and Tang Zhenguan was Langxi County in the eighth year (634). In the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the Dong chieftains who lived here proclaimed themselves Chengzhou. Five generations later, Yang Zaisi, the "chief of the Ten Mountains", was called the history of the Chengzhou Thorn. At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, it was a state of bondage. In the fourth year of Song Yuanfeng (1081), Chengzhou was officially established. Five years of analysis of Yuanzhou, through the fort, the beginning of Quyang County. In the second year of Song Chongning (1103), Chengzhou was changed to Jingzhou, and the name of Jingzhou originated from this, and Quyang County was changed to Yongping County. In the third year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1370), it was promoted to the Jingzhou Mansion, and it was reduced to the state in nine years.

At this time, Jingzhou was not today's Jingxian County, in fact, it included today's Jingzhou, Huitong, Tongdao and the four counties of Suining in Shaoyang. Historically, a large-scale plague occurred in Jingzhou at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and the population was almost extinct, and a large number of Shaoyang people moved from Baoqing Mansion to Jingzhou.

However, these have little to do with Wang Zhenyu, what he is most concerned about is the current situation in Jingzhou, and the little policeman named He Jian who he accepted in Changsha had already led people to infiltrate Jingzhou Mansion half a month earlier, and sent back very valuable first-hand information to himself.

Speaking of this He Jian, it was also an adventure, when he came back from Nanjing and entered Changsha.

At that time, He Jian was still a small policeman in the Police Section of the Changsha Civil Affairs Division, and he had always been eager to get ahead, but although his family was solid, he lacked a hard backer, and he had no way to get into the army primary school several times, so Zuihou could only go to the Fazheng School to become a small policeman. As a result, when he reached the age of 25, he was still wasting his time, and He Jian was very unwilling to do so.

So when he saw the eight-sided scenery of Wang Zhenyu when he entered the city in Xiaowumen, in addition to envy, he also had a thought of startling himself, and the young general in front of him may be worth following himself. Although He Jian doesn't like to read, he even left a famous limerick poem in history: Spring and Autumn Geometry? How much is life? Geometry and seeking poverty? Geometry and great wealth?

But in fact, this person is quite smart, and he graduated from the School of Law and Politics He has a strong ability to analyze things, and he came to an astonishing conclusion through the resume of Wang Zhenyu that he was able to get it, and this person named Wang Zhenyu is in a period of rapid rise. And what's even better is that, according to He Jian's judgment, there won't be too many people available around this young general in a short period of time, let alone negative talents. And this is precisely the opportunity to devote yourself to it.

Therefore, he was very bold and went to see Wang Zhenyu that night.

He Jian was also dizzy, he was a small policeman who went to ask to see a major general, how could he see him. But the most difficult thing to explain clearly in life is the word luck, Zhao Dongsheng, the captain of the officer guard team who was on duty at the brigade headquarters that night, happened to be from Liling, and he Jian's village was not far away.

Although it was very embarrassing, Zhao Dongsheng, who valued the face of his fellow countrymen and made his brain easily hot, made a report for He Jian.

Originally, he did his best, but he didn't expect Wang Zhenyu to agree to summon him as soon as he heard the name of the person who came. Just kidding, if Wang Zhenyu didn't even know the name of He Jian, the king of Hunan, his history would really be studied in vain, just like that, He Jian actually met Wang Zhenyu.

He Jian also calmed down after seeing Wang Zhenyu's head, knowing that he was reckless, and at the same time he was very grateful for a big man like Wang Zhenyu who was willing to see his small role.

Wang Zhenyu has now begun to appear in the temperament of a superior, he is no longer in a state of excitement when he first arrives in this era when he sees historical figures, he has determined to become the greatest figure of this era, so the plot of worshipping celebrities has naturally subsided, who will have nothing to worship their opponents or subordinates?

Therefore, after hearing that He Jian wanted to follow him, he was not ecstatic, but analyzed it very calmly, and felt that this should not be a trap. Anyone would use a little cop as bait? So he asked He Jin to introduce himself like an interviewer in later generations.

He Jin estimated that it was the first time to face this situation, but when Wang Zhenyu was amazed, very people really did extraordinary things, He Jian did not have any nervousness, he calmly brought his resume one by one.

Wang Zhenyu looked at this celebrity as tall as Zhao Dongsheng and thought for a while: "You stay with me and serve as a lieutenant staff officer first." ”

In this way, He Jian became a full-fledged officer of the Ninth Brigade and played a key role in the subsequent Changsha Mutiny.

After learning that the whole army was going to Jingzhou, Wang Zhenyu sent He Jian the first task, organizing a group of personnel to enter Jingzhou Mansion before his own army to understand the local situation.

Now Wang Zhenyu has the information sent back by He Jian in his hand:

Jingzhou Prefecture has jurisdiction over Zhili Prefecture (Jing County), Huitong, Tongtong, and Suining. After the outbreak of the revolution, Su Zhaokui, the last governor of Jingzhou in the Great Qing Dynasty, abandoned his post and fled, and the Baojing area was under the control of the Baojing military and political sub-government established by Jiao Dafeng.

However, on November 3, 1911, Tan Yanmin deceived Xie Jieseng and Zou Yongcheng, the "Governors of the Military and Political Bureaus", into Changsha and imprisoned them, and appointed Tan Xinxiu, a member of the League, as the "Baojing Recruiting Envoy", and ordered him to lead a battalion of troops under Mei Xin's Department to Baoqing and Jingzhou to "recruit and appease". Zou Dailie, a radical member of the League, was killed, and Baoqing fell into the hands of Tan Yanhong.

As for the Jingzhou Mansion, because of the geographical location, Tan Xinxiu was anxious to return to Changsha with the army, so he appointed Wang Dezhi, a local gentry in Jingzhou, as the acting governor of the state.

It is worth mentioning that although He Jian infiltrated Jingzhou for only half a month, he accurately sent an important message, which played a very key role in Wang Zhenyu's future development.

This news is about the Xiangxi region: Jingzhou, Chenzhou, and Yuanzhou all belong to the Xiangxi region. The shili here is very complex, and there are armed liliang militarily such as Miao villages, bandits, phoenix pole army, and divine soldiers. Politically, the actual control of the successive officials of the Qing Dynasty did not exceed the county seat, clan, and village shili strong, and more importantly, it was not the government that played a coordinating and buffering role in many shili, but the four major merchant families of Hongjiang Zhang, Zhu, Liang, and Liu.

What surprised Wang Zhenyu the most was that He Jian clearly told Wang Zhenyu that the local garrison was very small, and the most powerful force was in the hands of businessmen, and the chamber of commerce's own armament was still very worth seeing in terms of equipment.

He suggested that Wang Zhenyu stabilize the market through Chen Hongji, a well-known timber merchant in Jingzhou, in order to achieve a normal transition of power.

After He Jian himself waited for Wang Zhenyu to take office in Jingzhou, he personally took people to Hongjiang to understand the actual situation. It is worthy of graduating from the School of Law and Politics, and the intelligence analysis is very organized, which is very good.

On 10 April, Wang Zhenyu led more than 4,300 infantry regiments directly under the headquarters of the Ninth Brigade of the Hunan Army, directly under the brigade headquarters, a teaching team, a special service company, a reconnaissance company, and an engineer battalion, into Quyang, where the Jingzhou capital is located. Wang Dezhi, the acting governor of Jingzhou, and the gentry, officials, and businessmen all went out of the city to greet the new garrison commander.

Wang Zhenyu first comforted Wang Dezhi, and he was still the governor of Jingzhou Prefecture and presided over the state's large and small government affairs. In this way, all walks of life in Jingzhou can be regarded as breathing a sigh of relief. Then, naturally, it was to kill pigs and send wine to reward Wang Zhenyu's department.

The first thing Wang Zhenyu did after the reception banquet that night was to ask He Jianmi to invite Chen Hongji to meet him.

Chen Hongji is also a figure in Jingzhou Mansion, he is not a native of Jingzhou, his ancestral home is Baoqing Mansion, and in order to survive, he had to leave Baoqing, which has many people and few places, to come to Jingzhou to survive. As a result, he sat down from a young man in a tung oil shop who ran errands to today's big boss, and in the entire Jingzhou, this boss Chen's industry accounted for almost 20%. Moreover, he is kind to others, repairs bridges and paves roads, and has an excellent reputation in the local area, which is quite popular.

Of course, if according to the red education of later generations, such influential people in the local area should be shot directly, not to mention more, the local people will definitely be deterred, and the prestige of the new regime will be established in that shot.

But Wang Zhenyu has no interest in this, although he also grew up with red education, but he has a point of view that is spontaneously formed, they are all Chinese, always talk about compatriot love, kill your own people, is it glorious to kill so vigorously?

Chen Hongji is in his forties this year, not tall, dressed like a former dynasty, and behaves like an old-school businessman. It was very polite to see Wang Zhenyu, because He Jian had done a good job before, so Chen Hongji had to answer Wang Zhenyu's questions.

The focus of Wang Zhenyu's attention was not Jingzhou, but the four major families of Hongjiang that He Jian highlighted in that information, which was not covered at all in later history textbooks.

According to Chen Hongji, the specialty of Jingzhou Prefecture is timber, and this trade is basically done by Baoqing people, with an annual transaction volume of more than one million, but in Hongjiang, timber only accounts for a small proportion, and there are two most profitable businesses, one is tung oil, and the other is opium tung oil, and the annual transaction volume of opium is almost 10 million, and opium is not clear, but it is estimated that it will only be more and not less.

The tung oil business is currently monopolized by the four major families of Zhang, Zhu, Liang and Liu. Among them, the Zhang family and the Zhu family are from Jiangxi and Anhui respectively, and they are not locals, but they have taken root in Hongjiang for decades and have become big families that can influence the entire Xiangxi.

The purchase and sale of tung oil, the two of them each accounted for three percent, and the expansion of the two families also had a tacit understanding, the Zhang family expanded to the north, towards Yuanzhou, Xuzhou direction, and the Zhu family went in the direction of the same meeting. The first generation of the Zhang family, Zhang Jichang, has died, and now the third generation Zhang Jingkun is at the helm of Zhang Jichang's oil number. Although it is no longer the No. 1 of the eight major oil numbers in Hongjiang, it is still very important.

Zhu Zhida, the first generation of the Zhu family, is still alive, but he is over seventy years old and is dying. Needless to say, Chen Hongji told Wang Zhenyu about a common anecdote between the two families:

It is said that a fortune teller told Zhang Jichang that Zhang's family was rich for only three generations, and his children and grandchildren would starve to death on the streets in the future. Zhang Jichang went to the street to find 30 random people and gave them money to do business, the only condition was that he could give alms when his children and grandchildren begged for food in the future. This is not counting, when Zhu Zhida came here, another fortune teller said to Zhu Zhida that the Zhu family was rich for only three generations, and Zhu Zhida, in order to leave a way back for future generations, took out a large amount of money, built 360 shops, and rented these stores to businessmen for free, on the condition that when his family was in decline and his children and grandchildren had no food and clothing, each family would take turns to give them food. Later, when others used Zhang Jichang's story to talk about Zhu Zhida, Zhu Zhida actually said something very philosophical: "Children and grandchildren are like me, what do you want money for?" Children and grandchildren are as weak as me, what do you want money for? This word soon spread throughout the business community in Xiangxi.