At the same time that the new governor of Shandong, Zhou Fu, arrived in Jinan, the imperial court's appointment of Feng Guozhang and the special policy of Yi and Yan arrived in Jinan at the same time. After reading the will, Zhou Fu put away the urgent task at hand and ordered him to go to Long Qian, the town guard of the two states who did not know that he had left Jinan, to come to the governor of the yamen to discuss matters.

Needless to say, the prefects of Qingzhou, Wuding, Tai'an, Laizhou, Dengzhou, Dongchang, Caozhou, and Yizhou, as well as the only one in the province who was also the town guard of the two prefectures of southern Shandong, Long Qian, went to Jinan to greet the new governor of Shandong to show his respect for Futai.

But yesterday at the reception banquet hosted by Jinan Mansion to welcome Xinfutai, Zhou Fu saw Long Qian for the first time, but expressed his contempt for this military general in public. He noticed this young general who became famous because of the Gengzi national disaster, because he wore a new army uniform, which was very eye-catching among many generals, and he judged at a glance that this person was Long Qian, who dared to wrestle with Yuan Shikai. But Zhou Fu not only didn't talk to him, but faced Long Qian's toast at the banquet, and Zhou Fu objected to the attitude of the prefects, so he didn't even serve a cup. It made the originally harmonious atmosphere a little awkward. It was Long Qian who looked for the steps and said, since Lord Futai doesn't want to drink, then I'll do it first as a respect. After drinking, Long Qian returned to his seat with a blank face.

After the banquet was dispersed, Zhou Fu was accompanied by several "provincial leaders" such as Shandong Domain, Xuezheng and Ding Weiji, the prefect of Jinan, to return to the governor's yamen to chat.

The attitude was very clear, and Ding Yuji immediately judged it. Zhou Fu must have heard about the siege and persecution of Yizhou, and wanted to give this general Xiangma, who stirred up Shandong's unrest, a dismount.

Sure enough, when the entourage went out, Zhou Fu said to the senior officials, "The old man can't see the military generals supporting the army and respecting themselves. If you have the grace of the queen mother, you will be lawless, and it will not work here in the old man! ”

Ding Weiji and the others are just the same, but they also feel happy in their hearts.

The next day, Zhou Fu officially began to take care of the governor's official duties, but he didn't expect that as soon as he arrived at the signing room, the imperial court actually chased a special will about the two states of Lunan and Lunan, which made him temporarily decide to summon the young man who was very high-flying in Zhou Fu's opinion.

Zhou Fu was satisfied with the appointment of the imperial court. He has been in officialdom for more than 30 years. Finally achieved positive results. became the feudal official of the ruling party. Zhou Fu, who is already sixty-five years old, thinks that this is the last stop he is trying to make, and when the court learns from the pain, Zhou Fu's decision to set up a new policy makes Zhou Fu quite excited, and he is determined to show his ambitions. him well. Moreover, because the Shandong University Hall that Yuan Shikai applied for has been located in Luoyuan Academy. and determined that his most admired son Zhou Xuexi would be appointed as the general office of Shandong University Hall. The family can be reunited in Jinan.

The appointment of Feng Guozhang, a general of the New Army from the Wubei Academy, as the governor of Shandong was not a surprise to Zhou Fu. But the imperial court specially ordered this to be done in Lunan, which made him unhappy. Isn't this one province, two systems?

Regarding Long Qian, Zhou Fu had extremely complicated feelings. Zhou Fu had already heard of this person's name. The Xigu victory was the only bright spot in the war last year, and Long Qian's escort of the two palaces in Taiyuan was favored by the Queen Mother, and it also became a legend of officialdom. In the last days of Beijing, Li Hongzhang talked to Zhou Fu more than once about the young general who was "driven away" by him for beating a German officer. Li Hongzhang lowered the indemnity proposed by the foreign powers from 900 million taels at the beginning to 450 million taels and finally to 300 million taels, and the biggest capital was the hundreds of foreign soldiers in his hands, especially the British Vice Admiral Seymour. Without the Xigu victory, the outcome of the negotiations would have been very different.

Zhou Fu's dislike for Long Qian comes from his most admired son Zhou Xuexi. Zhou Xuexi is Yuan Shikai's person, Zhou Xuexi, who was promoted from the general office of the Kaiping Mining Bureau to Shandong last year, entered the Yuan Shikai shogunate and won Yuan Shikai's appreciation. During the Spring Festival, Zhou Xuexi went to Beijing to accompany Zhou Fu for the New Year, and talked about the grievances between Long Qian and Yuan Shikai, which aroused Zhou Fu's interest. At that time, Zhou Fu was not disgusted with Long Qian. Zhou Xuexi told him in detail in his letter to him what happened to him, even if you are a general directly under the imperial court, after all, you are on the ground in Shandong, not only did you not go to Jinan to visit Futai, but also dared to besiege Yizhou and persecute friendly troops. At that time, Zhou Xuexi was busy preparing for the construction of Shandong University Hall, and the talented Yuan Shikai had just sent out the signal of the new policy in the imperial court, so he wrote to the imperial court to establish Shandong University Hall and recommended Zhou Xuexi to serve as the general office of Shandong University Hall. In Zhou Xuexi's letter, he naturally stood in Yuan Shikai's position and whipped Long Qian. After the imperial court appointed Zhou Fu, Zhou Xuexi immediately wrote a letter to introduce the political situation in Shandong, especially pointing out that if Long Qian could not be subdued, his father's ambition to govern Shandong was to paint cakes.

The most important thing is that Yuan Shikai told Zhou Fu about Long Qian's situation. At that time, it was in Baoding, and Yuan Shikai enthusiastically introduced the political situation and public sentiment in Shandong, as well as some of the measures he had already carried out. When talking about Lunan, Yuan Shikai sighed very much, "It's not that Yuan doesn't tolerate him, it's really arrogant and arrogant with the grace of the Queen Mother, the boss is in charge of Shandong this time, and you must beware of this person." ”

Yuan Shikai is the most outstanding talent in the later generation after Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong by Zhou Fu, and Zhou Fu admires the management of the army and government. Of course, Zhou Fu did not work with Yuan Shikai, and his impression came more from Li Hongzhang's conversation with him and the views in his son Zhou Xuexi's letters. This son is a talented man, and he knows very well that whether the Zhou family can continue the official fortune to the next generation depends on this son. Since Xuexi admires Yuan Weiting so much, he can't help but impress Zhou Fu.

Originally, Zhou Fu went to Shandong to resign from the Empress Dowager and the emperor, but this time it was very special, Rong Lu hurriedly stepped down as the governor of Zhili, Yuan Shikai took over in a hurry, and the imperial court quickly announced his appointment, and he hurriedly came to Shandong to receive the seal before His Majesty had time to resign. I didn't have the opportunity to tell the Queen Mother in person about my views on the military and political situation in Lunan. Originally, he wanted to say to the Queen Mother in person that since the imperial court asked me to govern Shandong, the Shandong garrison must obey the jurisdiction of the governor's yamen, and there must be no "ringing horses" of separating one side! But I didn't have a chance to say this to the Queen Mother in person__

Therefore, it was Zhou Fuchu's cold reception to Long Qian when he arrived in Jinan.

I didn't expect this guy to have great powers. It was so favored by the imperial court that it was specifically specified that the taxes of the two states of Lunan did not have to be paid, and all of them were used to raise soldiers. Moreover, the province has to pay its military expenses of 500,000 taels of silver every year! Not only that, but the will also makes it clear that Yizhou and Yanzhou can take the lead in implementing the new policy to run industry and commerce, and the province should support it.

Zhou Fu had to face Long Qian. He needed to talk to Long Qian in person.

While waiting for Long Qian's news, Zhou Fu closed his eyes and pondered the meaning of the imperial court's will. Undoubtedly, the Empress Dowager trusted Long Qian and placed infinite hopes on his army, which had defeated the foreigners.

With the strength of Yizhou and Yanzhou, 7,000 new troops were raised. Zhou Fu thinks it's difficult. When he was a feudal priest in Naoli. Zhou Fu has done research on the military expenditure of the new army, and believes that if he is directly subordinate to the whole province, he will raise three cooperative soldiers at most, which is the limit. Only rely on the two most barren states in Shandong to raise a new army. It's child's play. Even if the province allocates 500,000 taels of silver every year, I am afraid it will not be able to do it. As for vigorously setting up industry and commerce. Zhou Fu is even less optimistic about Lunan. Is it so easy to run a business and prosper foreign affairs? With such a great talent as Li Wenzhong, it is still such a result. The imperial court can rely on Long Qian to make a name for himself in Lunan?

Zhou Fu turned his thoughts to Tang Shaoyi and Wu Yong, Wu Yong did not come to Jinan because of a leg injury, but Zhou Fu knew Wu Yong. is average, but his own people are all Li Hongzhang's Huai people, and he has been promoted from the county to the prefect by virtue of his rescue. It is said that he has a good personal relationship with Long Qian. And Tang Shaoyi is Yuan Shikai's person, who was at the same table with him at the banquet yesterday and had a good conversation. At the beginning, he recruited Long Qian's subordinates and acted as the supervisor of King Long Qianqin, and it is said that the relationship between the two was also good.

To contain Long Qian, it is still necessary to fall on Tang and Wu. Zhou Fu thought, Long Qian can train in Lunan, but he must not be allowed to participate in political affairs! What's more, a martial artist, what do you know how to govern the place?

Long Qian was talking to Jiang Yun in an inn on Qushuiting Street at the moment. There is also Zhang Meng in the house, this person is the stationmaster of Jinan Station selected by Jiang Yun, and after receiving a month of training in Zhengjiazhuang, Zhang Meng came to Jinan in advance. A yard was bought on Qushuiting Street as a foothold for the intelligence station. Zhang Meng was the small businessman who was almost shot dead by Fan Deping when he accidentally broke into Mengshan, and later helped the Mengshan Army establish the first foreign intelligence station in Caozhou in the name of doing business, and then joined the Mengshan Army with his son Zhang Xiaozhu and became a full member of the intelligence department. Caozhou Station has been operating very well in the past two years, and this time Jiang Yun transferred him to Jinan to set up Jinan Station, which shows his trust in Zhang Meng. And the Caozhou station was handed over to his son to preside.

This time he came to Jinan, he only brought Jiang Yun and twelve elite guards, and chartered a small courtyard of the inn. The inn was also chosen by Zhang Meng.

"You do your thing, don't rush, make a decision after full research. But don't come to this yard again in the future. Long Qian explained the precautions for Zhang Meng to establish Jinan Station, of course, in the name of business.

"Yes, Commander, take care." Zhang Meng did not salute, but bowed to Long Qian and withdrew.

"Commander, it looks like the old thing is very unfriendly to us." Jiang Yun listened to what happened to Long Qian yesterday, and he was still indignant.

"That's for sure. Number one, they will never treat me as one of their own. The second is that our strength is too weak, but it doesn't matter. I'm here, everything that should be expressed has been expressed, and that's it. Long Qian's eyes flickered, as if he was thinking about something.

"A bunch of bastards! Come and see how I pinch them to death one by one! ”

"Calm down! Compared to our original situation, I don't know how many times better now! In the future, we will encounter countless bureaucrats who are hostile to us, so what's the use of being angry? In particular, you must learn the thinking methods and habits of the Manchu officials. ”

"Yes. Why haven't you heard of this Zhou Fu? ”

"Neither do I. There are so many officials, how can they remember? It doesn't matter, anyway, we already occupy two states, and there are so many things to do. At most, this Governor Zhou doesn't support us, and it's not a big deal. ”

While the two were talking, a guard came in and reported, "The Tang Governor's Mansion has been found, can you see it?" ”

"Please. Jiang Yun, you go, don't go with me when you go back. I also want to see Feng Guozhang and come back. Long Qian waved Jiang Yun away, hurriedly greeted him out of the house, and saw Tang Shaoyi leading a middle-aged man with high eyes into the courtyard.

"Retreat, you make it easy for me to find! But it's nice here, it's quiet. Tang Shaoyi bowed, "This is Mr. Bai next to Lord Futai__"

"Lord Futai is invited, so come with me." The middle-aged man surnamed Bai arched his hand at will, and there was no respect.

"Oh, fortunately. It turned out to be Mr. Bai. Long Qian returned the salute, "I don't know what happened to Zhou Futai calling Long?" ”

The surnamed Bai stiffened his face, "This is not what Bai knows." Please, Futai-sama wait. "I really didn't know where Long Qian lived just now, and I found Tang Shaoyi, who lived in the yamen of Ding Weiji's prefect's mansion, in a hurry, and I found Long Qian.

"Okay, wait a minute, Rong Long will change his clothes." Long Qian went back, changed into civilian clothes, and when he came out again, he found an opportunity to stuff a silver ticket into the hand of the surnamed Bai, and immediately changed his attitude, "Then I wronged General Long to take Bai's car, not far, it will be there soon." The surname Bai finally had a smile on his face. (To be continued......)