Master Yuan, start!

Jin Weidong issued a telegram in Acheng, Heilongjiang, announcing his appointment as commander of the Northeast Military Region.

Duan Qirui sent a telegram from Beijing, announcing that he would take office as commander of the North China Military Region.

The four commanders of the National Revolutionary Army successively sent telegrams to the whole country, urging them to obey the orders of the Republican government.

Immediately afterwards, Lu Chuanlin of Shaanxi and Yang Changjun of the Chu faction in Lanzhou successively sent telegrams announcing their appointment as deputy commander and commander of the Northwest Military Region.

Only the appointments of commanders for the Southwest, South China, and Southeast regions had not yet received a reply.

Among them, the Southeast Military Region can be excluded for now because local factions in Fujian are constantly fighting each other. Yuan Shikai did not appoint a specific candidate, but asked them to "publicly nominate" and no one has been nominated yet.

However, Yuan Shikai explicitly sent a telegram to appoint Liu Bingzhang, the former governor of Sichuan, and Li Hongzhang of Guangdong as the commanders of the Southwest and South China Military Regions.

But these two people did not respond.

"Li Hongzhang, are you really planning to use force?" Yuan Xiangcheng couldn't help but frowned as he listened to everyone's analysis.

Now that the country has nominally completed its unification, it should take time to develop industry and work hard on its internal strength so that it can slowly catch up with the foreigners.

If we start fighting again just after we have recovered some strength, wouldn't it be like the same old story of the feudal lords in the late Tang Dynasty?

Moreover, Sichuan and Guangdong are full of mountains, which are different from the plains in the Jiangnan area. If the army moves south, the rugged terrain and long supply lines alone will be enough to cause trouble for the National Revolutionary Army.

If the situation remains deadlocked, there is no guarantee that the currently submissive Chu faction will not rebel.

Most importantly, Yuan Shikai did not want to waste the development window that he had finally won through the anti-Russian war on a civil war.

The newly born republic is not meant to be compared with the late Tang Dynasty court!

... 4

Just as everyone was discussing this, news came from the telegraph office nearby.

"Urgent, urgent call from Guangzhou!"

"Say!"

Yuan Xiangcheng asked the telegraph operator to read the telegram without waiting for him to come closer.

The telegraph operator nodded nervously and said in a loud voice: "Now that the Republic has just been established, people are at peace.

The Manchu barbarians left their country and the Han people took control of the country. Shaoquan congratulated the people of the world.

Yuan Shikai made great contributions in the anti-Manchu and anti-Russian campaign in Xiangcheng. He appointed himself the provisional president, established rules and regulations, and established the government. He worked tirelessly day and night, which was a blessing for the country.

However, in a republican country, the first thing to do is to promote the republican leader. The word "temporary" will not make sense if the name is not right.

I once heard that Yuan Shikai once told the people of Beijing in front of the Forbidden City that all matters of the republican government should be decided by public opinion.

Now that the external threat has been eliminated, why not invite eminent men from all over the world to convene a parliament to discuss national affairs, turning a temporary meeting into a formal one, and reassure the people of the world?"

Here it comes, Li Hongzhang’s counterattack is finally here.

Although Yuan Xiangcheng had been mentally prepared, he still didn't expect it to come so soon after hearing the telegram.

On the surface, Li Hongzhang's telegram was to praise him for his contributions in resisting Russia and to persuade Yuan Shikai to convene a congress and remove the word "temporary" from the title of "provisional president".

But in reality, where are the conditions for a democratically elected government in China today?

Yuan Shikai's boast in front of the people of the capital that everything would be decided by Congress was just a temporary measure.

Are you kidding? Half of the people in the British Empire didn’t have the right to vote. In China, which had just emerged from the feudal dynasty, how many people knew what an election was?

After the founding of the Republic, Yuan Shikai retained the word "temporary" just to find a loophole.

It's temporary, but it doesn't say how long it will last, so it's not impossible to be temporary for more than ten years.

Yuan Shikai wanted to take the path of military rule, training rule, and constitutional government.

After the people across the country have acquired basic political awareness, we will gradually relax their electoral rights.

His original plan was to reduce the power of the Huai faction first and to postpone convening the National Assembly as long as possible.

Anyway, Yuan Shikai was confident that he could live longer than Li Hongzhang.

But Li Hongzhang's telegram undoubtedly put Yuan Shikai in a difficult position.

If China had started republican politics prematurely in the late 19th century, Yuan Shikai could almost assert that it would have been a complete mess.

"Li Hongzhang, Li Hongzhang, are you so sure that you can defeat me in parliamentary politics?

Or, do you feel that it is hopeless to fight with force, so you deliberately want to disgust me with this matter? "9"

Yuan Xiangcheng raised his head and looked south, his gaze passing through Xiangluan Pavilion, through Zhongnanhai, through the land of North China and the hills of Huguang.

He wanted to know what Li Hongzhang was planning!

Chapter 357: The Blowing Political Winds

Beijing at the foot of Yanshan Mountain was suffering from the ravages of the cold wind, but Wuchang on the banks of the Yangtze and Han Rivers was a completely different scene.

Pouring 89597.3.8

Wuchang is a town that prospers because of water. The waters of the Yangtze River and the Han River here are wide and calm. Occasionally, a few ripples are left behind by passing ships, which are then replaced by new ship tracks.

Wuchang was damp and cold at the beginning of the year, but even so, it could not stop the merchant ships from all over the country from shuttling back and forth on the waterway.

The melodious sounds of whistles on both sides of the Han River and the Yangtze River are pleasant to the ears.

The trackers pulled the tow ropes with their shoulders, exhaled hot air, and the occasional shouts mixed with the whistle, forming a symphony unique to the working people.

After the war, ships requisitioned from all over the country returned home one after another, and Wuchang Port entered a period of prosperity.

Due to its unique geographical location, Hubei has become a distribution center for goods traveling from south to north.

Between winter and spring, the Yangtze River is calm, and Sichuan's mountain products, Shu brocade, tung oil, etc. cross the difficult and dangerous Three Gorges waterway and arrive in Hankou for docking.

Beef, mutton, leather products and dry goods from the north were transported by horse teams to Xinyang in southern Henan, and then loaded onto trains and sent directly to Hanyang Station.

Cloth, raw silk and salt from Jiangsu and Zhejiang were loaded onto steam cargo ships, sailed upstream and docked at the Hanyang Wharf.

After a winter of fumigation, Hunan's tea, indigo, hemp and other crops were shipped south by boat along Dongting Lake and arrived in Wuchang along the old course of the Yangtze River.

Although the three towns of Wuhan were not developed into inland ports by the great powers as in the original time and space, they became the biggest beneficiaries in the situation of confrontation between the North and the South.

Huai salt was transported from Yizheng into the Yangtze River and then to Hankou, and then distributed from Hankou to various parts of Hubei and Hunan, with a total amount of up to 2 million jin per year.

The returning salt ships were never empty-loaded. They were loaded with various goods such as furs from the north, mountain products from Sichuan, and grain from Huguang, forming a circular transit trade system.

When Zhang Zhidong first became the governor of Hubei, the direct import and export trade volume of the three towns of Wuhan was only one million taels, and the indirect trade volume was more than 5000 million taels.

However, now, 10 years later, the annual direct trade volume of the three towns of Wuhan has exceeded 2000 million taels, and the indirect trade volume is approaching 1 million taels.

Logically speaking, both the north and the south would want to take possession of such a treasure trove.

But Zhang Zhidong was an old and shrewd man, and he did not want to offend either family.

On the one hand, he persuaded the central government to send a telegram to the Republican government in Beijing, saying that he would take the initiative to bear half of the cost of building the "Zhenghan Railway" from Xinyang north to the Yellow River.

On the one hand, he said that he wanted to have friendly relations with Guangdong and Hubei, and even sent people south to Guangzhou, saying that he and Li Hongzhang should each occupy southern and northern Hunan, and both sides should be friendly neighbors.

Even so, Zhang Zhidong still felt that he had not done enough.

After much thought, he contacted Liu Bingzhang, who was also from the Huai faction but was far away in Sichuan.

He proposed that Sichuan and Hubei repair the Yangtze River waterway during the dry season, and was willing to donate a batch of small steamers free of charge for the transportation of goods from Sichuan and Hubei out of Sichuan.

If the Hunan clique entrenched in Jiangnan had not been destroyed, Zhang Zhidong would probably have stepped forward, swallowed the insult, forgotten the "Pingxiang Coal Mine" dispute with the Hunan clique, and taken the initiative to seek peace with Liu Kunyi.

The reason was simple: he really couldn't bear to leave Hubei and Wuchang.

Merchant ships from all over the country came and went, with an annual direct trade volume of 2000 million taels. Hubei had not yet abolished the lijin system and switched to a merchant system, but Zhang Zhidong had already made a lot of money just from collecting lijin.

However, the three towns of Wuhan, which had been economically prosperous for a long time, also encountered political noise after the founding of the Republic.

...

Merchants traveling back and forth wore felt hats, wrapped themselves in scarves, and exhaled hot air from their mouths.

Whenever a new ship docked, they would rush forward and ask loudly.

"Is this the best Shu brocade?! How much is it? Is it still the same price as before the New Year?" Someone has been waiting here for an entire winter just to be the first to buy the Shu brocade shipped out of Sichuan this year.

However, it was obvious that he was not the only one who had set his eyes on this batch of Shu brocade.

"I'll add an extra ounce of silver per horse. Sell it to me, sell it to me!"

"You zebra, stop stealing my stuff!"

"The highest bidder wins. If you can't afford it, get out of here!"

A group of vendors waved the silver notes and banknotes in their hands, wanting to buy the latest batch of goods and load them back on the ship as soon as possible.

"Bah, you have too much money to burn, you idiot, let's see how many you can buy!"

Some vendors had never competed before. After cursing at the backs of people scrambling for Shu brocade by the boat, they had to try their luck on the other side of the dock.

At the same time, the newsboys on the river bank were shouting the latest political news at the top of their lungs.

"Extra number! Extra number!"

"General Li proposed to convene the National Assembly!"

President Yuan replied, "D: Blame 04! 5. I suggest that both sides choose a place to discuss!"

"Ezhou Governor Zhang has offered to mediate and invite both the North and the South to come to Wuchang!"

Changes in the national situation have always troubled the hearts of many people in Hubei.

Whether it is a peddler traveling around for business, a small vendor setting up a stall by the river, a student in school, or an old man living in a mansion.

The vast majority of Chinese men have a natural interest in politics.

The vendor looked at the newspaper boy hawking his wares by the river and called out, "Hey boy, give me a newspaper!"

The newsboy's shouting was not in vain. He took the few copper coins handed to him by the vendor, asked him to pick out a newspaper, and then skipped away with his bag on his back.

The vendor took the newspaper in his hand, found a breakfast shop and sat down, eating hot dry noodles while glancing at the latest news in the newspaper.

Such scenes are happening everywhere in the three towns of Wuchang.

This is different from the practice of suppressing local public opinion when Liu Kunyi was the governor of Jiangnan.

Zhang Zhidong had no direct troops. After his initial failure in the confrontation with the Hunan Army, in order to consolidate his rule, he paid great attention to cooperating with local forces in Hubei.

He relaxed the Qing court's previous strong control over public opinion, and at the same time opened various new-style schools to encourage new trends and discuss new knowledge.

Zhang Zhidong's move ignited the enthusiasm of the people in the three towns of Wuhan for politics.