Just when the Sichuan Baolu Movement was getting more and more noisy, in the headquarters building of the Wuhu Innovation Association, hundreds of members were walking in front of the ballot box in turn, putting their own votes into the ballot box, and the first person to walk in front of the ballot box was Yan Shao, naturally, his name was written on the ballot, not only him, but even Elano and Caterina behind him.

About half an hour later, the last member will put his own vote.

Seeing that the voting had ended, Fu Xiuming, who was responsible for maintaining order in the venue, waved his hand, and soon a squad of soldiers stepped forward to escort the ballot box out of the venue.

After watching the ballot box leave, Elino and Caterina sat in the second row, chatting with the other female members and some young ladies and ladies.

To be honest, the two don't like this kind of scene very much, even if the people around them are complimenting them, but they also know how much trouble they will cause if they show an impatient expression on this occasion, so they can only deal with those twittering women patiently.

After getting along for so many years, Yan Shao could naturally see the true thoughts of the two, and he couldn't help but show a gloating smile on his face. After noticing Yan Shao's gloating smile, Elaline and Caterina glared at him fiercely.

Shrugging his shoulders, Yan Shao turned his head back and looked at Li Guoyun and the others who were talking about current affairs beside him.

“……… I heard that hundreds of thousands of people have already risen up in Sichuan, and I don't know what will happen to the situation in Ludao..."

"There shouldn't be any problems, this time the end can be a new army with two whole targets. There are more than 4,000 of them..."

Most of the members of the Reform Society were constitutionalists, so they were relatively mild-mannered.

In other words, they were inclined to the Qing court, but the matter of the 'imperial cabinet' last time completely disappointed them. In addition, this incident was entirely caused by the Qing court's declaration of state-owned railways. Therefore, almost everyone here is inclined to the Baolu Comrade Army, but even so, in their opinion, the Baolu Comrade Army still has no chance of winning.

Yes, it is true that there are hundreds of thousands of people in the Baolu Comrade Army, but it is a rabble of hundreds of thousands, most of whom are holding broadswords, spears and even sharpened wooden sticks, and only a few have guns in their hands. Most of them are like Martini, and even Hanyang-made are very rare.

However, this time, it was the 31st and 32nd bids of the 8th Town of the Hubei New Army that followed Duanfang into Sichuan, with more than 4,000 horses. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the New Army was the establishment of one town, two associations, and four standards. Among them, the town is equivalent to the division, the association is equivalent to the brigade, and the standard is equivalent to the regiment.

The 31st and 32nd standards add up to two regiments, equivalent to a brigade or half a division.

Moreover, among the new armies of various provinces, the only one that can compete with the Beiyang New Army is the Hubei New Army. Autumn 1906. When the New Army of the North and South conducted a large-scale exercise, people at the time evaluated the Beiyang New Army as "winning with courage" and the Hubei New Army as "winning with knowledge."

(At that time, the Hubei New Army had two towns, although it was only organized into a town (the eighth town) and a mixed association (the twenty-first mixed association was tentatively formed, that is, Li Yuanhong's one), but the Hubei New Army still became the largest military force except for the Beiyang New Army, which is also one of the reasons why Yuan Shikai could only be allowed to go on for the Hubei uprising... ）

The Hubei New Army may still be deficient compared with the Beiyang New Army. However, it is by no means comparable to the Sichuan New Army, a new army that has barely become an army. Some time ago, Comrade Baolu's army besieged Chengdu, but had to retreat after a long period of attack. In Chengdu, there is only the Sichuan New Army and the patrol battalion that cannot be conquered, and when the Wuhan New Army arrives, I am afraid...

When talking about this, Li Guoyun and the others sighed, and they were very optimistic about the future of Comrade Baolu's army.

On the other hand, Yan Shao knew that it would not be long before the revolutionary party in Wuhan would take the opportunity of a large number of new troops entering Sichuan to launch an uprising, which is the famous Wuchang Uprising in history.

Of course, Yan Shao has changed so much history, so it is possible that the uprising will not happen, or that it will happen but fail, but Yan Shao has long been prepared for this...

Just when Li Guoyun and others were talking about the situation in Sichuan worriedly, the host in charge of the election suddenly came out from behind the scenes.

Seeing this scene, the hall that was still a little chaotic suddenly quieted down, even the women who were originally chattering, everyone was waiting quietly, although they knew very well that there would only be one result in this election...

After walking to the center of the stage, the host gently lifted the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose, and after a moment of silence, he picked up the list that had just been written, and raised his voice to the hundreds of members in the venue. "Now announce the results of the sixth election of the Reform Council...", his voice was so loud that almost every member of the Reform Council could clearly hear what he said.

"The results of the vote count will be announced below...", the host opened the list, nodded slightly, and continued. Yan Shao had 653 votes, Li Guoyun had 19 votes, and Jiang Xin had 3 votes. In accordance with the regulations of the Innovation Association and the provisions of the Election Law, I announce that Mr. Yan Shao has been elected as the sixth president of the Innovation Association! When he said the last few words, he had already taken off his glasses, and his voice was high-spirited.

Hearing this result, neither Yan Shao nor Li Guoyun were surprised, but these people still stood up from their seats and applauded to greet Yan Shao.

So far, Yan Shao has become the president of the Innovation Association for the sixth time.

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After the election results came out, Yan Shao and Elaline attended the celebration banquet together.

At the banquet, many people stepped forward to congratulate Yan Shao, and some people talked to Yan Shao about the manufacturing plant—————— the parts produced by the manufacturing plant are all for the use of the automobile factory, and there is only one choice for the automobile factory, so it has become inevitable to communicate with Yan Shao.

“…… After learning that it was to cooperate with you, the president, our gentry there were very enthusiastic, but in just over a month, more than one million yuan had been raised, and more than 300 workers had been recruited locally..."Standing next to Yan Shao's left hand, a young man in a long braid wearing a robe and a horse coat coughed and reported the preparations of the manufacturing plant.

After hearing the words of the middle-aged man with long braids. A young man in his 30s on the side said with a smile. "More than a million, old horse, your situation there is much better than ours. We're in the middle of nowhere. So far, I've only raised more than 800,000 yuan..."

With these two people speaking, the other people surrounding Yan Shao also talked about the preparations in their respective places without saying a word. A few of them even said to Yan Shao with a flattering face, and it was up to him how to do it next.

Regarding this, Yan Shao naturally nodded in agreement.

After all, those factories were originally dedicated to providing him with parts, and...

As if thinking of something, Yan Shao's face showed a strange smile.

"What do you think, laughing so treacherously..."After getting rid of those ladies and young ladies. Katarina, who came from the side, patted Yan Shao's shoulder and said with some disgust.

Behind Katarina, Elaline nodded to Li Guojun with a smile on her face.

I saw two people coming over. Li Guoyun and the others were naturally very interested in leaving Yan Shao's side, leaving a little private space for the three of them.

Seeing that Li Guoyun and they all retreated, Yan Shao touched the position that Caterina had photographed just now with his hand and said with a smile. "Nothing, I was just thinking. These guys are finally in the trap..."

"Into the set?" Heard Yan Shao say this. Elaline and Caterina looked strange.

"Yes, into the set..."When he said this, Yan Shao smiled very proudly. Now these guys are raising money to set up a factory, and when the factory is set up, won't they have to listen to whatever I say? ”

Yan Shao originally summoned some powerful gentry and businessmen in the Reform Association to the manor, hoping that they could build more manufacturing factories in the local area to provide parts for Yan Shao's automobile factory. On the one hand, it is indeed for the development of national industry, but on the other hand, he also has his own plans.

Now Yan Shao has come to Wuhu. It's been more than 7 years.

Over the past 7 years, Yan Shao has done a lot of things in Wuhu. Naturally, there are countless people who look at them. is also because of this relationship, except for the first session because no one can be found, the second session is because of coercion and temptation, and after the third session, many people are already willing to support Yan Shao.

After all, in the past 7 years, Yan Shao can be said to have made the greatest contribution to Anhui, and many people have even regarded Yan Shao as half of Anhui.

The thing is, it's just a lot of people...

Although Yan Shao has done a lot of things since he came to Anhui, there are still many people who reject Yan Shao because of their local feelings.

There are not many such people in the Innovation Association, after all, in a small number of times, this kind of person can still be used as a vase, but if there are too many people, then things will be troublesome. Therefore, in the Innovation Association, Yan Shao has been working hard to maintain the number of such people, so that they can maintain their presence and will not threaten Yan Shao.

In this election, except for a few joking people who voted for Li Guoyun and Jiang Xin, the rest were such people. Of course, there were more than a dozen abstentions, and all of them were like this...

At this time, the support rate for Yan Shao in the Innovation Association has exceeded 90%.

The problem is that it would be nice if this could be done outside the meeting, in Anhui Province, there are still many gentry and celebrities who are somewhat repulsive to Yan Shao, and almost none of these people have joined Yan Shao's innovation association.

If things go on like this, taking Anhui will certainly be a sure thing for Yan Shao. But after taking Anhui, whether these people will cause trouble to Yan Shao has to be worried.

So Yan Shao planned this matter, that is, to let the local gentry raise funds to set up a manufacturing factory, specifically to provide parts for their own automobile factory. In this way, on the one hand, it can strengthen the national industry, and on the other hand, it is equivalent to tying them to their own chariots—————— at this time there is only one automobile factory in China, and when the manufacturing plant is completed, even if they want to find a second buyer, it is impossible.

And in the case of Yan Shao as the only buyer, they must try their best to please Yan Shao, even if it is only for the money invested in setting up the factory.

It is impossible for them to disobey the orders issued by Yan Shao, after all, Yan Shao can be said to have mastered their lifeline.

"You guy, you're really getting more and more insidious..."After listening to Yan Shao's explanation, Elaline and Caterina both looked at him in surprise.

Hearing them say this, Yan Shao scratched his head with embarrassment. "Don't praise me, I'm embarrassed..."

"I didn't praise you!"

Just as the three of them stood there arguing. At this time, someone suddenly walked in from outside, holding a telegram in his hand and handing it to Yan Shao. "Boss, this is the telegram you wanted..."

"Good. Leave it to me..."After speaking, Yan Shao took the telegram from the man's hand, and then opened the telegram and looked at it.

The content on the telegram was simple, it was all about the situation in Sichuan and Hubei.

Because the above information was transmitted back from the branches of the Yushi Group stationed in Sichuan and Hubei, and now each branch has a wireless telegraphy, the content of the telegram is very detailed.

————————————————————

After receiving the telegram, Yan Shao didn't have much of the heart to continue playing around at the banquet.

After staying for a while, Yan Shao said goodbye to Li Guoyun and others. Then he took Elano and Caterina and returned to their own estate.

"Is something wrong with you leaving in such a hurry?"

Sitting side by side with Yan Shao in the back seat, Elaline was a little strange.

Although she knew very well that Yan Shao was the same as her. I don't like things like banquets that are too noisy. But this banquet was held to congratulate him after all, and he, the protagonist, left halfway, which was somewhat bad...

"It's not a big deal..."After reading the telegram again, Yan Shao closed the telegram. Just got the news back. Comrade Baolu declared independence in Rong County..."

September 25, 1911. Wu Yuzhang, Wang Tianjie, Long Mingjian, and others convened a meeting of all walks of life in the county yamen to declare the independence of Rong County and establish the first county-level political power in the country, —————— Rong County Military Government, which broke away from the Qing Dynasty.

A mere Rongxian military government is naturally nothing extraordinary, even if this military government is 15 days earlier than the Wuchang uprising.

However, the independence of Rong County reminded Yan Shao that in addition to being busy with other things, the most important thing is to focus on the uprising.

After all, the most important thing for Yan Shao at the moment is to find a way to occupy a place in the independent wave of the Xinhai Revolution. After that, I was plotting something else.

"And you're going to do that?"

Turning his head sideways, Elaline looked at Yan Shao.

"Gather all the patrols in Xiangshan back. At the same time, organize the security guards in various places..."After a little silence, Yan Shao gave such an answer.

At this time, the patrol team plus the guards was only more than 900 people in total, close to the number of 1,000.

However, because there are too many enemies, some of the patrol team are stationed in Xiangshan and other places to prevent the recurrence of incidents like the last time.

Originally, if it was normal, there would be no big problem in doing so. However, the current situation has become more and more complicated, and Yan Shao must call back the patrol team scattered in Xiangshan and other places as soon as possible.

lest you wait until you really need it, only to miss the opportunity because of time.

As for the original security work that was taken care of by the patrol team, it will be transferred to the security guards—————— in fact, these should have been the jobs they were responsible for, but because Yan Shao offended too many enemies later, and there were more people who hated him, so they had to let the patrol team appear, and now they will just be reinstated.

As for organizing security...

At this time, the group had more than 3,000 security guards, scattered across various factories and departments.

There are more than 3,000 security guards, which is not much to be serious, after all, there are almost 70,000 people in the Yushi Group at this time. Coupled with the fact that there is no monitoring or anything in this era, more than 3,000 people are already a little stretched.

On the other hand, although none of these security guards have ever used a gun, they have undergone some formal military training. Even if the combat effectiveness is only equivalent to the militia at most, it is more than 3,000 people after all, and even after removing those who must stay in various places, there are more than 2,000 people, that is, a target force.

Listening to Yan Shao's plan, Elaline pondered for a while and spoke.

"Gathering more than 2,000 people, of course, is nothing, the question is where do the guns come from? At this time, it may not be too easy to get the governor's yamen to approve it. ”

"To be exact, it won't be approved at all." Yan Shao cut the road categorically.

After all, he is too sensitive at this time, unless Zhu Jiabao's brain is burned out, it is almost impossible to agree to the gun license of more than 2,000 guns.

"So I'll leave this matter to you..."As he spoke, Yan Shao reached out and gently kneaded it on Katerina's smooth thighs. Zhu Jiabao's guy will definitely not agree to this matter, so we only have to use smuggling, 2000 Mauser 1904 rifles, you go to find a way, no matter what method you use, you must get it within half a month..."

"Within half a month..."Katarina's eyebrows frowned slightly. Time is a bit tight, but I'll try..."

"Hmm..."

Yan Shao also knew that the time was a little tight, but this was the only way to achieve it.

And this matter can only be resolved now, and it can neither be advanced nor postponed.

In advance, if it was discovered by Zhu Jiabao, Yan Shao would definitely be speechless, after all, a businessman suddenly bought more than 2,000 rifles, no matter how you look at it, it is a suspicious thing.

And if it's later, if you delay things, it's really bad.

So it can only start now, half a month, not more, and definitely not less...

After returning to the manor, Yan Shao took out 300,000 silver dollars from the safe behind the bookcase and handed it to Caterina to let her take charge of the matter.

Smuggling, in general, should be cheaper than a normal purchase, but it also depends on what it is.

Guns were not forbidden to be purchased at the end of the Qing Dynasty, so if they were to be smuggled, the purpose would inevitably be the kind that could not be exposed, and even the price of carrying guns would be more expensive than those in ordinary foreign companies. So 300,000 words, for 2,000 guns, can only be said to be just right... (To be continued......)