Republic of China: Guandong Ginseng King

Chapter 484 New Governor Arrives
Chen Yunzhe was in a hurry to take up his post, so he only stayed in Jilin City for two days before taking his family and entourage on a train to Qiqihar.

However, the two boys, Yanbin and Yanhui, stayed in Jilin City and studied with Zhenzong, Zhentang and others.

Thanks to Qu Shaoyang's strong support, the educational environment in Jilin Province is very good.

It has elementary schools, high schools, middle schools, and higher professional schools. It can be said to be the best in the three northeastern provinces.

Chen Yunzhe had just arrived in Heilongjiang Province and was not familiar with the affairs yet. It was unknown how long he would be busy. How could he have the time to take care of the children's studies?
It would be better to stay in Jilin City, with the children of the Qu family as companions, and study peacefully.

It’s a good thing that the children are all together, which can also enhance their relationship.

The relationship between Qu Shaoyang and his generation, which was formed through countless life and death battles and blood and bullets, is indestructible.

They also hope that the next generation can do the same, working together and closely cooperating.

The relationship between people who have been together since childhood is always much more solid.

Within two days after Chen Yunzhe took office, the Qing court ordered the dismissal of Du Xueying, the governor of Binjiangguan, and Li Minggui, the prefect of Hulan Prefecture.

Qiu Tongyu was sent as the Legal Envoy of Heilongjiang, Ni Sicong as the Civil Affairs Envoy, and Tan Guoji as the Finance Envoy.

Chen Yunzhe took the opportunity to submit a memorial to the emperor, proposing to set up a Financial Cleanup Bureau in Heilongjiang Province and appoint Wang Minyuan as the director. At the same time, he also appointed Wang Minyuan as the assistant police officer of Heilongjiang Province.

Chen Yunzhe was very talented and capable. He served as the governor of Dongbian Road for many years and achieved outstanding political achievements.

With the help of Wang Minyuan, He Houqi and others, the political affairs of Heilongjiang Province were quickly sorted out and all affairs were put on track.

Because the jurisdiction of the Eastern Road was too large, the imperial court ordered that the two prefectures of Changbai and Hailong and the three counties of Linjiang, Ji'an and Tonghua be separated to establish the Linchanghai and other military preparation roads, with their headquarters in Linjiang County.

The Dongbian Dao was renamed Xingfeng Dao, which governed Fenghuang Hall, Xingjing Hall, as well as Andong, Xiuyan, Kuandian, Huairen and other counties.

Shen Chengjun is still the governor of Xingfeng Province, and Gao Jiangcheng is arranged as the governor of Linchanghai Military Preparations Province under the operation of Qu Shaoyang.

He was an assistant in charge of wood tax in the East Circuit, then became the magistrate of Ji'an County, and then the co-magistrate of Hailong Prefecture, and now he has been promoted to the position of circuit commissioner.

Ever since Gao Jiangcheng followed Qu Shaoyang, his career has been smooth and he has risen to prominence.

For this reason, Gao Jiangcheng specially sent his son to Jilin City to express his gratitude with generous gifts.

In March, Xiong Chengji, the leader of the Anqing New Army Uprising, obtained the consent of Huang Zhen, who was in charge of the daily work of the Tongmenghui, and went to Changchun via Fengtian under the pseudonym Zhang Jianxun, and contacted the officers and soldiers of the Third Regiment of the New Army to revolt.

At that time, the Changchun Daily, sponsored by Jiang Datong, Dong Gengyun and others, was the secret contact point of the Tongmenghui in the three northeastern provinces.

Xiong Chengji lived and worked in the newspaper office, and secretly discussed the strategy of the revolution with Jiang Datong, Shang Qiyu and others.

They established a revolutionary base in Fengmi Mountain in northern Jilin, where they engaged in land reclamation on a daily basis to store grain and purchase weapons. They also contacted new and old soldiers and local armed forces such as Ma Huzi, waiting for an opportunity to revolt.

In fact, all activities of these revolutionaries in Jilin were monitored by Qu Shaoyang's spies.

Qu Shaoyang’s principle is not to take the initiative to get close to these people, nor to hate them.

It is these people who have driven the progress of the times and awakened the people. Their intentions are good.

As long as these people don't cause any major vicious incidents and don't affect the safety of people's lives, Qu Shaoyang can turn a blind eye.

Moreover, Qu Shaoyang had a lot of things to do at the moment and couldn't take care of anything.

Since March, all provinces have started to elect members of the Advisory Council.

In fact, starting from the 32nd year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu, the Qing Dynasty, which was on the verge of collapse, had to announce the implementation of a preliminary constitutional monarchy in order to win over the upper echelons of the bourgeoisie and jointly resist the revolutionary movement in the country.

In September of the 33rd year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu, the central government announced plans to set up the Council of State Affairs. In October, an imperial decree was issued to each province to set up advisory bureaus and for prefectures, counties and districts to establish deliberative councils.

By August of the 34th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu, it was announced that the period for preparing for constitutionalism would be nine years, and an outline was promulgated.

Amid calls for constitutionalism, elections began in all provinces, and the three northeastern provinces also held their first election for the Advisory Council under the direct planning and supervision of the governors-general.

Fengtian Province elected 53 members of parliament, while Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces each elected 30 members of parliament.

The Qing government imposed various restrictions on the election of parliamentarians, and coupled with people's indifference to elections, the number of people participating in the election in each province was relatively small.

These were actually just tricks made up by the imperial court to fool people.

Qu Shaoyang knew it very well, so he was just going through the motions and pretending.

On the first day of April, the new governor-general of the three northeastern provinces, Xi Liang, took office. Xu Shichang resigned and left Fengtian.

As the saying goes, a new official starts with three things to do upon taking office. As soon as Xiliang took office, he immediately made some major changes.

Taking Jilin Province as an example, Xiliang proposed to abolish the deputy governors garrisoned in the five cities of Ningguta, Alchuka, Sanxing, Hunchun and Bodune, and the military system of the garrison of the Eight Banners in Jilin came to an end.

At the same time, Yitong Prefecture was changed to Yitong Prefecture, directly under the provincial government, and Yushu County was promoted to Yushu Prefecture.

Yanji Hall was changed to Yanji Prefecture, Helongyu Defense Division was changed to Helong County, and Wangqing County was established in the Wangqing River Basin.

In addition, a military patrol station in the southeast of Jilin was set up, with its office in Hunchun, to manage border affairs and coastal military preparations in the Hunchun, Yanji and Suifenhe areas, and to handle Hunchun's customs duties and negotiation matters.

A Northeastern Military Preparations Department was established in Sanxing to handle border affairs in Yilan, Mishan, and Linjiangzhou, as well as military preparations along the northeastern border, and to manage customs negotiations in Yilan and other places.

All the provincial governors of Jilin Province were appointed to take the lead.

Immediately afterwards, Xiliang ordered that the Fenglin telegraph line (starting from the provincial capital of Fengtian, passing through Fushun, Xingjing, Tonghua to Linjiang County) and the Fenglin branch line (from Huanren and Ji'an to Tonghua) be started from that day on.

Qu Shaoyang took the opportunity to submit a memorial, stating that he wanted to build a railway from Tonghua to Linjiang, and estimated that he would need 1.5 million taels of silver.

Xiliang replied that part of the funds could be raised from the taxes on Linchang Sea Road in the next five years, part could be allocated by the imperial court, and the rest could be raised by the provincial government. Once the funds were in place, the construction could begin.

When the news reached Linjiang, Gao Jiangcheng, together with officials from Linjiang, Tonghua and other places, immediately took action to raise funds.

With the instruction of Qu Shaoyang, Qu Jiang expressed his willingness to provide a support of 300,000 taels, plus 200,000 taels allocated by the imperial court, 200,000 taels allocated by the provincial government, and Qu Shaoyang's attempt to borrow 300,000 taels from the Bank of America.

By the end of that year, they had finally raised 1.5 million taels of funds for road construction.

Japan did not react much to the construction of railway on Linchang Kaidao.

On the one hand, Japan's attention was focused on the new law and the Jingfeng Railway.

On the other hand, Jilin Province has built many railways in recent years.

The Jilin-Changchun, Ji'an, Anfeng, Jilin-Harbin and Harbin-Aixi railways have been opened to traffic one after another, and the railway from Jilin to Hunchun has been mostly built.

The construction of a railway from Longjing to Tonghua has also been put on the agenda, and Jilin Province has almost established a complete railway transportation network.

Qu Shaoyang adopted a tough approach and completely ignored Japan's opposition. As long as he had money, he could repair the river however he wanted and no one could interfere.

Therefore, this railway from Linjiang to Tonghua is nothing at all.

On May 13, the newly appointed Governor-General of the Three Northeastern Provinces, Xi Liang, visited Jilin Province.

Xiliang was a member of the Mongolian Bordered Blue Banner. He once served as a county magistrate in Shanxi, and later as a prefect and alternate prefect of Zhili Prefecture.

This person has served in Shanxi for 20 years and is known for his integrity, benevolence, seriousness and simple style. It is said that he is deeply loved by the people of Shanxi. As soon as Xi Liang arrived in Jilin City, he immediately inspected various places. In recent years, Jilin has developed very well under the governance of officials such as Qu Shaoyang.

The streets in the city center are smooth, clean and well-connected. Street lights are installed on both sides of the streets. There are many shops and the city is bustling and lively.

There are many peripheral factories, various industries gathered, and the economy is developed.

Patrolmen in uniform patrol the streets to maintain law and order. Everywhere you look, everything is in order.

Xiliang stayed in Jilin City for several days, and then went to Changchun, Harbin and other cities accompanied by Qu Shaoyang and others.

He also personally inspected various railways, schools, factories, farms, etc. to gain an in-depth understanding of the lives and economic conditions of the people in various parts of Jilin Province.

“Good, good, no wonder Lord Xu praised Lord Qu so highly.

Lord Qu is so young, but he has been able to manage Jilin Province in an orderly manner, with prosperous industry, agriculture and commerce, and the people living and working in peace and contentment. This is truly rare.

If the court were full of capable officials like Lord Qu, why would we worry about the prosperity of the Qing Dynasty? "

After the inspection, Xiliang was very satisfied with the achievements made by Jilin Province and praised Governor Qu Shaoyang.

"I am ashamed to receive your praise, sir. I am just following your instructions and support."

Just listen to Shangguan's compliments and don't take them to heart.

Qu Shaoyang was modest for a moment, and then he praised the officials of the provincial government, asking them to show their faces in front of the governor.

In the end, everyone was very satisfied.

After the inspection in Jilin, Xiliang took his men to Heilongjiang Province.

Chen Yunzhe had received the news a long time ago. However, he had just taken office and had just gotten familiar with all the affairs of the provincial government, so he could not compare with Jilin Province.

Fortunately, Chen Yunzhe responded appropriately and Xiliang did not find any fault with him. After staying in Heilongjiang Province for a few days, he returned to Fengtian.

After seeing Xiliang and his party off, all affairs of the provincial office returned to normal.

It’s time for Chen Yanchuan and others to pack their bags and set off to study in Germany and Japan.

Among this group of children who went abroad were Zhensheng from the Quhe family, Zhenyi from the Qufu family, and siblings Chen Yanchuan and Chen Jingya.

Even more are the orphans of the soldiers who died in the battle against the Japanese invaders following Qu Shaoyang.

Qu Shaoyang had promised at the beginning that he would be responsible for training these people's children into useful persons.

As long as the children are willing to learn and study hard, Qu Shaoyang will continue to support their studies, even to send them abroad.

It’s true that there are quite a few promising kids among these and they are good at studying.

Qu Shaoyang also kept his promise and arranged the children to study in industrial, normal, medical and other related schools according to their performance and ideas.

The most outstanding ones are selected to study abroad.

Not only these people, but also the children of Lin Xingjia, Lin Xingye, Jiang Chunfu, Zhou Chuanyong, Zheng Tiezhu, Li Zhengwen and other families have basically reached the age.

Those who are good at studying will continue their studies in school or go abroad to study. Those who are poor at studying will be arranged to go to the military academy, or directly join the Dingbian Army or local government offices to get a job and gain experience.

These are Qu Shaoyang's confidants and his hope for the future.

If we put these children in suitable positions and train them to become talents, they will become the backbone of the construction of Northeast China in the future.

In recent years, various countries have competed to cooperate with the Qing government and attract Chinese students to study there.

Moreover, the Qu family has a lot of cooperation with countries such as Britain, the United States, Germany, and France. It is not difficult to send children to study abroad, and the number of places for studying abroad increases year by year.

Basically, more students are sent to the UK, the US and Germany, followed by France.

As for Japan, we only sent some students there in the past two years, and we basically haven't been going there recently.

For this reason, the Japanese consul in Changchun once approached Qu Shaoyang, wanting to strengthen cooperation with Jilin Province, but Qu Shaoyang just dealt with it.

Zhensheng, Zhenyi, Yanchuan and Jingya have all gone abroad. After graduating from Zhenwu Middle School, they will also go to Fengtian Military Academy.

The children in the family grew up one by one and flew away. Whenever Chen Xiuyun thought of them, she couldn't help but feel reluctant and empty inside.

Fortunately, Zhenkai, Jiaxin and Zhenxiang are gradually growing up, and are at the age where they can tease cats and dogs and cause trouble everywhere.

There was chaos and bustle at home all day long, it was so lively that Chen Xiuyun forgot about her sadness when she was busy.

On May 20, in Baicaogou, Yanji, Japanese military police broke into a resident's home with guns and committed murder, injuring one person and the other two escaped.

This incident caused dissatisfaction among the villagers, and the Joint Defense Council clashed with the Japanese military police, injuring one military policeman.

Upon learning the news, Yanbian garrison commander Han Dengju and Yanbian military assistant Wu Luzhen immediately led their troops to the area to prevent retaliation from the Japanese army. The two sides were at loggerheads and neither side was willing to give in.

Faced with the Japanese's aggressive pressure, Han and Wu refused to give in.

It was also stated that it was the Japanese army that first harassed the people, and the people of Baicaogou had no choice but to resist. The blame did not lie with the people but with the Japanese army.

The two said that the Japanese army must apologize and compensate the people for their losses.

While the two men led their troops to confront the Japanese army, they also reported to the Governor-General of the Three Northeastern Provinces and the Governor of Jilin that the Japanese army had recently occupied civilian land, harassed civilians, and shot and injured people at will on many occasions.

The local people fought back only because they could no longer tolerate it.

The two men pleaded with Xiliang, the governor-general of the three northeastern provinces, to ask the Qing government's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to conduct a stern negotiation with the Japanese envoy.

After receiving the report, Qu Shaoyang immediately sent reinforcements to Baicaogou, Sandaogou and other places to put pressure on the Japanese so that they would not dare to act rashly.

On the other hand, they also took the opportunity to report to the court.

Xiliang also received the news and immediately telegraphed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make a solemn representation to the Japanese envoy, demanding that they compensate the Yanbian people for their losses and apologize.

The Japanese side had a tough attitude and naturally refused to agree to these demands. The envoys of both sides engaged in verbal battles and failed to reach any results after several rounds of negotiations.

Qu Shaoyang is no exception.

The Qing government was corrupt and was only capable of arresting traitors and oppressing the people, but it was always weak and incompetent in dealing with foreign affairs.

Relying on them is basically nonsense.

However, without clear orders from above, Qu Shaoyang could not act rashly. If a war between the two countries was triggered, he would not be able to bear the consequences.

Therefore, Qu Shaoyang could only send more troops to the Yanbian area to protect the local people and prevent the Japanese army from causing trouble.

Since Qu Shaoyang had always maintained a tough attitude towards the Japanese, and this time he sent a large number of troops to maintain order, the Japanese army did not dare to act rashly. The two sides confronted each other and neither side was willing to give in.

Later, the imperial court stepped in to compensate the people who had suffered losses and somehow appeased the Japanese army, and the matter was temporarily settled.

(End of this chapter)