Dramatic changes in the movies and TV shows

Chapter 1493 Great Unification

"He has two hundred tons of gold in his hands, and he has dealings with Citibank and HSBC. He is also pushing forward fiscal reforms with great success."

"By marrying a woman in a wedding dress, he was telling foreigners, as well as those new-style figures who were involved in industry and banking, that Lin Hao was one of them."

General Zeng hummed in agreement and nodded thoughtfully. "What about the one this afternoon?"

"The afternoon's event is even more elaborate!" Envoy Cheng said with admiration.

"The traditional wedding ceremony with eight sedan chair bearers, phoenix coronet and embroidered robe, and the traditional way of bowing to the ancestors was made to impress the old bureaucratic landlord class."

"The military governors of the Beiyang provinces, the powerful families in various places, and those old gentlemen who adhere to the ancestral rules, they do not recognize Western clothes or pastors, but they will definitely recognize Lin Hao, the man who is willing to marry in a grand sedan chair and phoenix coronet and embroidered robe."

"The fact that Chief of Staff Lin married a wife in a phoenix coronet and embroidered robe is to tell them that he has no intention of breaking their rules or ruining their livelihoods."

The tea room was silent for a few seconds. Then, Deputy Chief of Staff Shen put down his teacup and said with a hint of realization:

"So you mean that Lin Hao's wedding wasn't about taking a wife, but about making a statement to the people of the South?"

Vice Minister Chen nodded and said, "To be precise, I suspect that Chief of Staff Lin is plotting something much bigger!"

Upon hearing this, everyone became interested and looked at Vice Minister Chen, asking, "What grand strategy?"

"Thanks to General Lin's efforts, the North and South are about to be unified. But what will happen after that?"

"Isn't it time to govern the entire Republic of China?" Vice Minister Chen said with increasing confidence.
"He was making his stance clear to all levels of society in the Republic of China: he wanted to unite everyone to govern the country and maintain its unity!"

General Zeng smiled and said, "That makes sense. Anyway, judging from General Lin's condition today, it was definitely intentional. It was definitely not his idea alone. For example, the President is sitting firmly in his high seat today!"

"Otherwise, Jin Quan and Bai Xiongqi wouldn't have formed a community of shared interests and agreed to Chief of Staff Lin marrying two women from the same family!"

Special Envoy Cheng glanced at the people present, finally fixing his gaze on Deputy Chief of Staff Shen's face and reminding him:
"Chief of Staff Shen, what's your opinion?"

Deputy Chief of Staff Shen remained silent for a moment, then picked up the teapot and poured himself another cup.

Thinking to himself, given the current situation, continuing to target the Jin family would be a terrible idea. Instead, he should take the initiative to join this alliance, otherwise, because of his previous grudges with the Jin family, they might turn around and punish him.

"You've all analyzed it so thoroughly, what else can I say?" Deputy Chief of Staff Shen shook his head and said with a wry smile:

"The key point is that I also think your analysis is very correct. Since the day he joined the Ministry of Finance, Minister Lin has never made a single bad move."

"Two hundred tons of gold is the first step, fiscal reform is the second step, soldiers' accounts are the third step, and today's wedding should be the fourth step: governing the country."

······
Lin Hao naturally didn't hear these analyses from the Beiyang warlords. Even if he had, he would have said, "As expected of Beiyang warlords, their reading comprehension is too strong. I must study hard."

He was walking around the room with a wine glass in his hand, and then walked up to the president to offer him a toast.

The president stood up, patted him on the shoulder, and said with a slight smile, tinged with drunkenness:

"Work hard! Beiyang can't do without you. Beiyang's future depends on you!"

Those nearby heard the president's words, which seemed to imply, "The crown prince is weak; you should strive harder."

Deputy Chief of Staff Shen, holding a wine glass, walked over and clinked it against Lin Hao's glass, saying:
"Chief of Staff Lin, you've married both Chief of Staff Jin's and Chief of Staff Bai's daughters. You'll have to shoulder even more responsibilities in the Beiyang Army from now on!"

Lin Hao smiled and said without hesitation, "I never shirk any responsibility I should shoulder!"

After exchanging pleasantries, Lin Hao escorted his two wives home when the wedding banquet ended.

Lin Hao's bridal suite consists of two adjacent rooms. If Bai Xiuzhu and Jin Meili hadn't objected, he would have actually wanted to arrange for his two wives to be together.

However, it was their wedding night, and Lin Hao couldn't go against their wishes.

"Xiuzhu," Lin Hao called her gently.

"Mmm!" Bai Xiuzhu hummed in response, blushing as she looked up at Lin Hao.

Looking at the adorable girl in his arms, Lin Hao couldn't help himself, even though it wasn't the first time he'd seen her face.

Then Lin Hao lowered his head and gently kissed her delicate pink lips, greedily seizing her sweetness and youthful innocence.

"Uh-huh……!"

Half an hour later, after settling the unconscious Bai Xiuzhu, Lin Hao quickly went to Jin Meili's bridal chamber.

Upon seeing Lin Hao return, Jin Meili said with a shy smile:

"Brother Lin, you're back."

"Oh dear, you must have been waiting impatiently for my little darling!" Lin Hao teased, hugging Jin Meili.

"Ugh, how annoying!"

"Mmm~~!"

······
Before the wedding festivities had even subsided, Lin Hao had already boarded a plane bound for the south.

His current aircraft is no longer the Hendripé biplane he borrowed from Nanyuan Aviation School.

It was the Yun-5 that was manufactured under Lin Hao's guidance!

That's right, it's the Y-5, a copy of the Soviet An-2 transport aircraft, nicknamed the "flying tractor."

Its other structures are extremely simple, robust and durable, with excellent low-altitude and low-speed performance and easy maintenance. It is as unpretentious as a tractor in the farmland, but extremely reliable.

The fuselage cover was also printed with the five-colored star emblem of the Beiyang Air Force. The two pilots and two secretaries were all Lin Hao's absolute confidants.

The plane's engines roared as it swept across the North China Plain, the clouds outside the window shimmering with gold in the morning light.

Lin Hao leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes to rest, and held a list in his hand. The list contained twelve names: the Three Governors of the Yangtze River, the heroes of the Southwest, the powerful figures of Guangdong and Guangxi, and the two Lius who were playing in the mud in Sichuan.

In fact, apart from Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Xinjiang, and Tibet, all other places in these twelve locations have already established direct payment accounts for soldiers.

Originally, seeing that the situation was hopeless, they took the initiative to cooperate in processing the soldiers' direct payment accounts, and Lin Hao was even planning to slack off a bit.

As a result, they kept delaying the issue of taxes, so Lin Hao simply stopped waiting and went directly to their door to "persuade" them.

He planned to spend a month "persuading" all of these people.

First stop, Sakura City.

Governor Wang's official residence was a three-story Western-style building on the banks of the Changwu River, with armed guards standing at the entrance.

When Lin Hao's plane landed at Nanhu Airport, Governor Wang did not come to pick him up, but only sent an adjutant with a beat-up Ford.

"Chief Lin, Governor Wang said he's not feeling well today and is waiting for you at your residence!" the adjutant said with a forced smile.

Lin Hao smiled but didn't say anything. As long as he saw the person, the outcome wouldn't change.

As the car pulled into the official residence, Governor Wang was sitting in the living room, smoking, surrounded by three advisors. Seeing Lin Hao enter, he slowly stood up, casually cupped his hands in greeting, and said:
"General Lin, it is an honor to have you here. I, Wang, have not been able to greet you properly!"

Their attitude appeared polite, but there was a hidden agenda beneath that politeness.

Lin Hao didn't exchange pleasantries. He sat down on the sofa opposite him and took a document out of his briefcase, placing it on the coffee table.

"Commander Wang, this is your military expenditure allocation details for last year!"

Commander Wang's expression changed slightly, and he was about to speak when Lin Hao, too lazy to waste words with him, looked up at him and activated his skill.

Looking into Lin Hao's emotionless eyes, Commander Wang felt a buzzing in his head, as if something had been forcibly shoved into it.

"If you don't hand over this tax money to the central government, how will the central government pay the soldiers' salaries?" Lin Hao's voice echoed in his ears, each word seeming to be engraved into his bones.

"Why do you disregard the central government's orders? Are you planning a rebellion? Don't forget the lessons of the mutinies in Changyi and Changwu. You don't want it to happen again, do you?"

Commander Wang's gaze wavered for a moment before refocusing. He looked at Lin Hao, cold sweat pouring down his forehead.

"General Lin is right!" he said, his voice trembling slightly.

"I'll make arrangements right away, with the entire army cooperating to remit the tax revenue to the central government!"

The three advisors beside him looked at each other, wondering why their warlord had suddenly changed his tune and softened after being threatened a few times.
Lin Hao stood up, patted Commander Wang on the shoulder, and said:

"Commander Wang is a man of great integrity, and I admire him. In that case, I will represent the President and watch your performance."

After saying that, he turned and walked out. When he reached the door, he glanced back at his three advisors. All three of them shivered at the same time and felt a buzzing in their heads.

Three days later, Sakura City sent a telegram to the whole country, supporting the central government's fiscal reform, immediately paying taxes, and supporting the direct distribution of military funds from the central government to soldiers' personal accounts.

When the news reached Beiping, the President drank three cups of tea in his office.

For the rest of the trip, Lin Hao followed the map, traveling from province to province.

Anhui, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan.

His flight path drew a huge fan shape on the map, from Central China to South China, and from Southwest China to Southeast China.

The process is pretty much the same wherever you go: land, meet, take out the documents, use the skill, and then the other party will "understand the greater good".

The efficiency was ridiculously high, so much so that even Lin Hao's secretary felt it was unreal.

"Chief, I find these warlords quite easy to talk to. How did you manage that?" the secretary couldn't help but ask on the plane.

"Because they all have a sense of national responsibility and patriotism." Lin Hao said with his eyes closed and a faint smile on his lips.

The secretary opened her mouth, but swallowed back the words that were about to come out.

Patriotism? What a load of rubbish!

Those warlords who misappropriated military funds to buy land, allowed their troops to mutini, and shot civilians.

However, the facts are clear: all twelve provinces in the south and the border regions, and all eleven military governors, without exception, sent telegrams supporting the central government and cooperating with the reforms.

These warlords, who held considerable military power and controlled their own territories, were like puppets under a spell in front of Lin Hao, obediently handing over their tax and military authority.

The most interesting case is Sichuan, which is why only eleven of the twelve provinces had the support of the military governors.

When Lin Hao's plane landed in Ducheng, Liu Xiang was fighting with Liu Wenhui.

Upon hearing that Lin Hao was coming, the two of them actually ceased fire at the same time, and several other minor warlords, each leading their guard companies, rushed to the airport.

"Chief Lin, you've seen the situation in Sichuan!" Liu Xiang was a shrewd person, and she immediately began to complain as soon as they met:

"It's not that I'm not cooperating, it's just that this mess is impossible to clean up."

Lin Hao glanced at him, then at Liu Wenhui beside him, and then at the other slightly larger warlords.

Lin Hao smiled and said gently:
"Generals, I've heard that you've collected all the taxes of the Republic of China up to the 60th year of the Republic. Should the Central Government help you calculate this?"

Everyone present changed their expression at the same time.

But Lin Hao didn't give them a chance to explain. His gaze swept back and forth between the two of them, and then he simultaneously activated the True Illusion Technique.

Fortunately, there were no more than 40 people on site, so the situation could be brought under control in one go.

"Sichuan has been in chaos for decades. This once prosperous land of abundance has been reduced to the point where the people are barely surviving. It's time for it to be unified!"

Therefore, I propose that everyone present,

Lin Hao said calmly:

"Whoever hands over the territory and accepts reorganization first will be able to obtain a position in the new government and receive the most support. I will recommend him to the President to be the Governor of Sichuan!"

Liu Xiang and Liu Wenhui exchanged a glance, the hostility in their eyes vanished, replaced by a strange tacit understanding.

"We'll leave it all to Chief of Staff Lin!" the other minor warlords said in unison.

"What about the others who didn't come?" Liu Xiang asked quickly.

"Didn't come?" Lin Hao raised an eyebrow and said calmly, "They must have ulterior motives and are unwilling to be disciplined. In that case, they have no reason to exist!"

"I don't care about anything else, I only care about those of you who came!"

Upon hearing this, everyone's eyes lit up. If they could annex more territory, would their positions be promoted even further?

So, in the next half month, the warlords in Sichuan quickly annexed or merged, and their numbers rapidly decreased...
That's right. All other places combined took only half a month to unify, while it took only a little over half a month for Sichuan to complete the unification.

Two weeks later, Lin Hao's plane landed at Beiping Nanyuan Airport.

The President, accompanied by Jin Quan, Vice Chief of Staff Shen, Bai Xiongqi, and other high-ranking Beiyang officials, personally went to the airport to welcome them.

"Xiao Lin, you've traveled all over half of China on this trip!" The President shook his hand with excitement.

Jin Quan stood to the side, his smile more genuine than ever. Although he did logistical work, he still deserved some credit.

The key point is that Lin Hao still enjoys the president's favor and has made new contributions. Now that the Jin family has formed a marriage alliance with Lin Hao, the Jin family's power has been preserved.

Bai Xiongqi couldn't stop smiling. His brother-in-law had made a great contribution, and naturally, he, as the elder brother-in-law, would also rise in rank.

Deputy Chief of Staff Shen also smiled, but there was a hint of complexity in his smile.

"You flatter me, Your Excellency!" Lin Hao bowed slightly and said with a smile, "The provincial governors are all men of great principle; I was merely stating the advantages and disadvantages!"

"Hahaha~, what a profound sense of righteousness!" The President laughed heartily. If those warlords were truly profound in their sense of righteousness, then something really strange would happen.

In his delight, the President pulled Lin Hao into the same car.