The sun never sets

The heroes in Shu had different opinions on this issue.

When the whole south was in chaos, the heroes in Sichuan were also in chaos. Various alliances were formed, as well as righteous backstabbings. The Hongmen Banquet was staged several times, which was truly amazing.

The British were very annoyed by the unrest in South China. The gentlemen from England were very interested in swallowing up the whole of China, but they did not have the strength to do so. In order to swallow up India, the British used all kinds of means and spent hundreds of years, almost going bankrupt several times. Later, they relied on robbing a large amount of silver from China, which was considered to be able to support their rule in India.

India is such a troublesome place, so it will be even more difficult to annex China. The most important thing is that the main force of the British army is fighting a bad war in South Africa. They threw 300,000 troops there and still suffered defeats. The masters in Downing Street are ready to kill. Britain has a large navy and a small army. 300,000 elite troops are almost the total number of the British regular army. If it weren't for the temporary conscription of a lot of troops, the British would not even be able to put together an army to suppress the Scots.

According to the British's usual nature, they like to play the balance of power the most. They play this way in Europe, the Middle East, East Asia, and China. Marshal Lin in the north is undoubtedly a powerful warlord. If the south unites, it may be able to fight the north. If the south continues to be in chaos, the People's Army will undoubtedly move south.

If the People's Army crossed the Yangtze River, Britain's rights and interests in China would be ruined. In order to maintain its privileges in China, the British army not only sent warships to cruise on the Yangtze River, but also let them wander in the Bohai Sea near Dagukou. However, the Central People's Republic Government did not care about the British warships at all and moved the capital to Taiyuan. What else could the British do?

Either send 1900 troops to China, or learn to sail on land. Placing the industrial center and capital in Shanxi Province, surrounded by mountains and rivers, is to avoid being blackmailed by imperialist powers. After the most difficult year of , the steel plant was successfully put into production. Marshal Lin said that he would no longer have to be so nervous and sleep with one eye open.

The worst-case scenario is that North China would be destroyed. We would never have to prepare for guerrilla warfare in the Taihang Mountains as we did a year ago.

The British failed to blackmail the People's Government, so they turned around and put pressure on the Provisional Government in Guangzhou and the National Government in Nanjing, asking them to give up their internal struggles and unite to face the outside world. If those people could really unite to face the outside world, they would definitely drive out the French in the south and the British who were causing trouble in the Yangtze River.

Therefore, the British hoped that the various factions in southern China would unite, but they also did not want them to really unite. The instructions given by Downing Street were often wavering, sometimes saying that they should be strict, and sometimes saying that they should be tolerant, which made the diplomats in China feel crazy.

In the final analysis, it was because of the decline of British national strength. Their navy was still able to roam the world, but their army had fallen behind the times, and their technology was no longer ahead of the world. If the British army could have easily defeated the Boers, they might have been able to maintain their status as the world's hegemon. However, their poor performance on the battlefield in South Africa made all the great powers see clearly that the British were weak inside.

The British Empire now relies more on diplomacy than ever before, but some countries are not very interested in diplomacy. After William II drove Bismarck back home, he abandoned his original foreign policy and began to build a strong navy while maintaining a strong army.

According to Emperor William, it should be enough to deal with the British Home Fleet. In another history, the High Seas Fleet was indeed enough to overwhelm the British Home Fleet, but what the Germans did not expect was that the British decisively transferred all the battleships around the world back and directly blocked the High Seas Fleet in the port.

This is really annoying. After spending so much money to build a high seas fleet, it became a fleet of existence after fighting a war and is completely useless. If we had known that this would be the result, wouldn't it be better to invest the military funds in the army?

But from the perspective of William II and the Junker nobles, their choice to develop the naval fleet night raid group: Lu 949, San 6135 cannot be said to be wrong. The previous decision cannot be denied because of the later results. No one was prepared for the world war, and few people expected it to be such a tragic and long war.

The British continental balance policy won the final victory, but the price was that Britain's strength suffered another heavy blow. At the beginning of the 20th century, the British had already felt the aggressiveness of Germany. The newly appointed British ambassador saw the danger of the Germans, and then he gave Downing Street a good idea.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to encourage Emperor William to send a large army to China to eliminate what William II called the "yellow peril"?

Chapter 165 Doing Business

Since 1895, German Emperor Wilhelm II and Tsar Nicholas II have been communicating and exchanging ideas on the so-called "Yellow Peril". Wilhelm II also specially asked the painter Knakovs to create an oil painting "Peoples of the World, Protect Your Most Precious Property" - also known as "The Yellow Peril" - as a gift to Russian Tsar Nicholas II.

In the painting “Yellow Peril”, the angel symbolizing the Germanic people holds a shining sword and warns the patron saints of the European powers that the “Yellow Peril” has arrived.

The Buddha (Japan) is riding a huge fire dragon (China) and is approaching Europe. Europe (France, Germany, Italy, etc.) is watching anxiously. The sky is full of dark clouds, the city is burning, and the catastrophe is about to come. William II also wrote on the painting: "European nations unite to defend your faith and homeland."

The Tsar promoted the "Yellow Peril Theory" for realistic reasons. Every time the Tsarist Russia expanded in Europe and suffered heavy losses, it would inevitably turn around and expand eastward. This has been the case for more than a hundred years. Whether it was Britain's attempt to encircle and block Russia, the powers on the European continent did not want to see the giant Tsarist Russia rush into Western Europe, so the Tsarist Russia had no choice but to move eastward and implement their "Yellow Russia" plan.

Both war and expansion require an excuse and reason, and the "Yellow Peril Theory" was the excuse Tsarist Russia found for itself.

So why did Germany promote the "yellow peril" so much? On the one hand, William II also wanted to expand in East Asia. Not only did the United States need colonies, but Germany also needed markets and raw material production areas. When Germany developed, the colonial wave of dividing the world had come to an end. The only fat meat left in the world was China, which was still controlled by the British. Only the French could drink a little bit of the soup, and other countries could only stare blankly.

In order to grab meat from the British sphere of influence, German Emperor Wilhelm II came up with the "Yellow Peril Theory" to pull in the great powers and force the British to make concessions. In addition, if Tsarist Russia focused on East Asia and transferred millions of troops to the Far East, the situation faced by the Germans in Europe would be much better.

The people in the German General Staff were most worried about being attacked by France and Russia. The Franco-Russian Alliance was established to deal with Germany. If the Russian Empire ran away, the Franco-Russian Alliance would also fall apart. So it is not difficult to understand why Kaiser Wilhelm II proposed the "Yellow Peril Theory". Tsar Nicholas II took advantage of the situation and seized the excuse handed over by Wilhelm II as an excuse for expansion in the Far East.

The Germans played a big role in the formation of the Eight-Nation Alliance. Now that the Eight-Nation Alliance has been destroyed, it proves the foresight of William II, and he also uses it for propaganda. But let him send troops to China? Come on, he is just bad, not stupid. Didn't you see that even the arrogant Russians did not march into the heart of China?

When someone claims that a country has weapons of mass destruction, that country had better really have them. The same is true. When the Germans and Russians were promoting the "Yellow Peril Theory", China had better really have the strength to invade Europe. Well, China doesn't have it yet, but Marshal Lin Biao killed all the Eight-Nation Alliance, which forced the Russians to act cautiously.

Their rule in the Northeast was not stable. The hateful Chinese did not dare to fight them head-on. They only did petty thefts, burning a few checkpoints today and attacking a logging camp tomorrow, which kept the Russians at bay. Even if they wanted to send a large army to attack, it would not work. It was not that they did not want to, but that they did not have the strength. In order to maintain the supply of 200,000 troops, the Russians had already exhausted all their strength, and would be very passive in diplomacy.

During the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese wanted to monopolize Northeast China, and then the "Three-Power Intervention to Return Liaodong" incident occurred, which slapped the Japanese claws back. Now Russia has swallowed up Northeast China in one gulp, and all countries, except Germany, are very dissatisfied with this. The Germans certainly hope that the Russians will get deeper and deeper in the East, and it would be even better if they could transfer most of the main forces of the army to the Far East.

If France were the only powerful enemy, the Germans would be happy to fight another Battle of Sedan.

Now that the Russian Empire was fully committed to building the Trans-Siberian Railway and had temporarily stopped its efforts, the British actually encouraged the German army to go on an expedition to China? This was a trap that William II had dug for Nicholas II. How could he jump into it himself?

Of course, if China is still the same China as before, it is not impossible. Just send 30,000 or 50,000 people to get a big piece of fat meat in the Far East, and such a good thing will make the Junker nobles excited. But China is no longer the China of the past. If you can wipe out the 50,000-strong Eight-Nation Alliance once, you can do it again. To conquer such a barbaric country, you have to send an army of 200,000, right?

If the British did not allow German ships to pass through the Suez Canal or dock at British ports, would the 200,000-man army without supplies have to swim back to Germany? Germany also had a base in Qingdao, where it could do business with northern China. Once the German army showed signs of an expedition to China, Qingdao would be lost first.

Outside Qingdao, the Chinese had launched many offensives and deployed tens of thousands of troops, many of whom were Shandong people who had grudges against the Germans. Once the war broke out, those Shandong heroes would be happy to chop off the Germans' heads.

To be honest, William II was still a little hesitant about whether to send troops. Now the main force of the British army is in South Africa. If they can really conquer China with an army of 200,000, it is not impossible. The Junker officers were not interested in the plan of the expedition to China. What they wanted to do most was to defeat the French.

After the Franco-Prussian War, the French had been preparing for a big move, wanting to defeat the Germans and avenge their previous humiliation. The Prussians had gone too far, and it would have been fine if they had won the war, but they actually wanted to be crowned emperor in the Palace of Versailles? This was intolerable, and what was unacceptable? A strong sense of revenge permeated the French. If the German army sent hundreds of thousands of troops to China, the French would be in trouble.

Will the Chinese take the opportunity to attack us?

The German army is of course the best in the world, but the French are not pushovers either. If the French invade and burn, kill and plunder, the Junker landlords will suffer a great loss. The Junkers are short-sighted and unwilling to suffer even the slightest loss. Sending out a few thousand troops is fine, but sending out 200,000 troops to fight on the other side of the continent? Wouldn't it be better to just push France away?

The people in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce firmly opposed the ridiculous plan proposed by Zhu Erdian. They didn't care whether they could win or not. They finally had a large market with a population of 150 million, which relieved the domestic pressure. Once the war started, those factories that worked overtime would explode immediately. Unless the emperor guaranteed that the war could be over in two or three months, otherwise, they should do business first.

Chapter 166: Three Antis and Five Antis

In 1901, the British were still fighting a painful war with the Boers in South Africa. The war had lasted for a year and a half, and the British were already in a difficult situation. The military expenditure was hundreds of thousands of pounds every day. Such a huge consumption stunned the gentlemen in Downing Street. Modern wars cost a lot of money, far beyond their expectations.

Even if the Boers were suppressed, the gains would not be comparable to the cost of the war. But the British could not just give up. Even for the sake of the face of the British Empire, the British had to hold on. The South African issue was not just a South African issue, but also affected the British Empire's colonies around the world.

After the Boer War fell into a quagmire, Australia took the opportunity to ask for self-government. After repeated consideration, the British government agreed to Australia's request for self-government. It was impossible not to agree, because the Australians were all descendants of criminals, and they were more difficult to deal with than the Boers. If Britain did not agree, the Australians would learn from the Boers.

So the British now have to fight even if they don't want to, otherwise everyone will follow suit. Australia is also planning to be autonomous, because it can't make much money there anyway. Even if it is autonomous, it is still in the big family of the Commonwealth, and the actual benefits have not been lost much.

If India also started to make trouble, the problem would be serious. The British crown came from India. If India had self-government, the British hegemony would fall. The British, struggling hard in the quagmire of war, used various means. Because of the attention of the major powers, the British could not use massacres, so they carried out "village merging" in the occupied areas, which had a good effect, but failed to make the Boers surrender.

The Boers had suffered tens of thousands of casualties, but they continued to fight and brought the war to the British Cape Colony. In the battles from April to September, the Boer guerrillas launched many surprise attacks on the British troops in Transvaal and Orange, and they succeeded repeatedly, capturing a large amount of arms, supplies and artillery.

The Boer War was protracted, and both sides were exhausted. European countries' criticism and accusations against Britain became increasingly fierce. In February, the two sides held secret negotiations, but because the price difference between the two sides was too large, they failed to reach an agreement and the war continued.

The suffering of the British is the happiness of the Chinese, at least the happiness of the northern Chinese. The British were involved in the Boer War and spent too much energy and money, so the suppression of northern China was greatly reduced. Lin Yongchang took this opportunity to import a large number of old guns and scrap machinery from Britain. It was not that he did not want to buy new ones, but one reason was that they were too expensive, and the other was that the British would not sell them.

Just like the Americans in later generations, the British were very sensitive about exporting technology and did not want to spread advanced technology at all. In order to raise military funds, the British wanted to ask the government for compensation and to ask the government to pay for the loans of the previous dynasty, but that was obviously impossible. They had to sell a batch of old weapons and obsolete machines to recover, but it was just a drop in the bucket.

One tael of customs silver was only worth 0.15 pounds. Even if the people's government took out five or six million taels of silver to buy arms and machinery, it would only be 100 million pounds. This amount of money could only last for two or three days and would be of no use at all.

The British were struggling in the quagmire of war, which was a good thing for the people's government. Lin Yongchang wished that more British people would die. If he had not been incapable, he would have provided assistance and volunteers to the Boers. Watching the British suffer was a pleasure, but it was not without unpleasant things.

Just after the Spring Festival in 1901, President Lin Biao convened a meeting, at which he clearly stated that the goal for this year was to continue to implement the policy of "land reform" and to "contract production to each household", while vigorously promoting the "Three Antis" and "Five Antis" campaigns. The so-called "Three Antis" and "Five Antis" refer to the struggles against "corruption, waste and bureaucracy" among government officials and against "bribery, tax evasion, theft of state property, shoddy work and stealing of state economic intelligence" among private industrialists and businessmen.

After repelling the first siege of the foreigners, many people thought they had won and began to abuse their power and indulge in pleasure. According to President Lin, they "did not learn to be a human being by three points, but they were still as good as officials by seven points". The old bureaucrats left over from the previous dynasty hooked up with the new masters and picked up the old ways again. The situation found by the Ministry of Internal Affairs was shocking, which made Lin Yongchang often want to learn from the good example of the "kind father".

But in the end he suppressed the idea of killing them all, and when the campaign was launched, he sent out a number of working groups.

Go to the places where the situation is most serious to conduct investigations. With the plug-in, where the economy is declining, where the output of goods is decreasing, where the population is leaving, where the wasteland is increasing, where the people are dissatisfied, etc., can all be seen clearly on the interface of the [The Sun Never Sets in the Celestial Empire] system, so almost every time the working group is dispatched, they can pull up radishes and mud, and catch a lot of them at once.

Even with the cheats, why is it still “almost”, not all? Because the investigation team is also human, and human beings will make mistakes.

If the people sent out said that there was no problem in the area, President Lin's reaction was not relief, but anger. He then ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs to arrest all the members of the investigation team and interrogate them one by one. Then he sent out military police to conduct a new investigation. The working attitude of the military police was much rougher and simpler than that of the investigation team. In the eyes of the military police, except for the president, everyone was a criminal or a criminal in the making. When they arrived at the destination, they would first arrest people, starting from the top leader and going down.

The Ministry of the Interior would also send a special court to cooperate with the military police. Once caught, they would be interrogated, and after the interrogation, they would be sentenced. It was almost the same as the Great Purge of the Kind Father. However, Chairman Lin said, "We are not launching a campaign to target a certain person. It is to punish the past and prevent the future, to cure the disease and save people. The contradictions among the people must be properly resolved. No one should be killed, and most people should not be arrested. Comrades should be given a chance to reform. As long as they admit their mistakes and correct them, they are still good comrades."

Although this is the case, there are many people who were sentenced to exile to the Western Regions. Often, if one person committed a crime, the whole family would be exiled, and sometimes even relatives and friends would be implicated. Although no one was killed, for many people, exile to the Western Regions was no different from beheading.

In the second half of the year, whenever the working group showed up, local officials and powerful people were terrified, and many of them simply ran away with the money. If the uncles are not allowed to be happy, they will simply quit! If they can't stay in the north, can't they just run to the south?

If they just ran away, that would be considered polite. But something even worse happened in Jiangsu. When the working group went there, the guesthouse they were staying in caught fire. None of the dozen or so staff members escaped; they were all burned to charcoal.

Such a terrible thing was immediately reported to Lin Yongchang, and Premier Wang Qi angrily said that he would arrest all those people and behead them. The usually deep and generous Hebei hero thought that Lin Yongchang killed too few people and was not decisive enough in handling the matter. "To be kind to those bad guys is to do evil to the people!"

Chapter 167: If Leeks Could Grow Legs

Marshal Lin killed too few people? Foreigners probably wouldn't agree. In newspapers such as The Times and The New York Times, Lin Yongchang has been described as a "murderous devil" and a "Far East butcher". Foreign newspapers only say that thousands of prisoners of war were killed, and never mention the Peking Massacre or the public trial, at most just briefly mentioning it.

Even in China, few people think that Lin Yongchang killed too few people. In land reform, it is inevitable to kill people, and many people will be killed, and there will be cases of wrongful killing. In the past dynasties, it cannot be said that every dynasty, it should be said that at the beginning of most unified dynasties, there were mass killings, killings were "white bones exposed in the wild, and no roosters crowed for thousands of miles", resulting in the result of a vast land with sparse population.

In order to increase tax revenue, the imperial court would launch a round of equal distribution of land and tax exemption. As long as the equal distribution of land and tax exemption was implemented, the dynasty could last for two to three hundred years. The People's Daily made a detailed analysis of the reasons for this. At the beginning, the new dynasty would burst out with strong vitality. As time went by and the population grew, land annexation gradually began. After about a hundred years, the situation of "the rich were connected by fields and the poor had no place to stand" began to appear.

However, due to inertia and the fact that the state apparatus has not yet completely decayed, it can often last for another fifty or sixty years. Then it will reach a point where it is beyond redemption. During this stage, various reforms and changes will occur, but the interest groups cannot be eliminated. At most, they can prolong their life for a few years, and then the dynasty will come to an end.

At the end of the dynasty, it was like having cancer, with rebellions and uprisings breaking out one after another, and foreign enemies would take the opportunity to invade. If you were lucky, you could hold on for a dozen or even dozens of years, but if you were unlucky, it would be over in two or three years.

Now the People's Party has become the ruling party and the new ruler, but it has not carried out a major purge of the previous ruling class, which inevitably leaves a lot of residue. Premier Wang Qi's thoughts have undergone several major changes. At the beginning, he thought that Marshal Lin killed too few people. Later, he thought that Marshal Lin's actions were too radical. He believed that many people in the rebel army were not "serving the people" but killing people for personal selfishness. Now, Premier Wang has realized that he still killed too few people!

Corrupt officials, local tyrants, evil gentry and the evildoers of the previous dynasty must be killed, and those bad elements in the new government must also be killed!

Wang Qi said murderously: "If you can't do it, let me do it!"

"A human head is not a leek. It cannot grow again after being cut off." Lin Yongchang sighed, "But this time, I have no choice but to kill someone. I said in the newspaper before that I would not kill anyone, but it seems that I have to contradict myself!"

"So what? Those people should be killed!"

"Okay, don't worry about these things. Let me do it, so that others won't hate you. I know you are not afraid, but the Prime Minister is responsible for big things. Our top priority this year is steel production, which is related to national defense security. You must pay attention to it all the time. If there is any problem,

Remember to inform me as soon as possible."

"What about the situation in Jiangsu?"

"Send the military police over there, kill those who deserve to be killed, exile those who deserve to be exiled! It's only been half a year, don't tell me anyone really thinks that I, Lin Yongchang, have changed my profession to become a vegetarian, right?"

The county where the group was wiped out was soon taken over by the military police, who brought with them a whole regiment of the main force. Before the military police arrived, someone had already set fire to the city and fled with their valuables. After crossing the Yangtze River, the People's Party is no longer in power, so there is nothing to be afraid of!

But the People's Party had been prepared and captured all the people and their property. After several defections, the troops on the border and the Ministry of Internal Affairs had gained experience, and there were militia patrols in the villages and towns. It was almost impossible to move without a letter of introduction.

After the arrest of the suspect and the evidence, a large-scale search was conducted in Xinghua. The state cannot manage the case normally, but as long as administrative resources are concentrated, even the three generations of ancestors can be thoroughly investigated. Nearly half of the local officials in Xinghua were arrested, including those from the supervision department, cultural department, and education department. After an emergency trial, more than 40 people were shot, and the rest were either sent to the Western Regions, Rehe, or the mines in Shanxi.

Generally, no one would choose the last one. Digging coal in the mine is not a good job. It is very hard work, you don't see the sun all year round, and it is life-threatening. Even the locals in Shanxi don't like such work. If the family is not extremely poor, no one would be willing to dig coal in the mine. If there is no death in the mine in a certain month, there will be a bonus.

Wang Qi knew the importance of industry. He had to know it. President Lin talked about it every month and every day. Everyone knew the importance of heavy industry to national defense. Without steel and gunpowder, we could not manufacture guns and bullets, and we could not defeat the enemy equipped with foreign guns and cannons. When hundreds of cannons fired at the same time, the sound was earth-shaking, and the earth seemed to be boiling. People who had fought against the Eight-Nation Alliance had a fear of insufficient firepower.

Boxing and martial arts are really no match for foreign guns and cannons. If a bare-handed boxing master faces a coward with a rifle, he will most likely win. But we can't compare them like that. It's impossible that all our soldiers are masters and the enemy are cowards, right?

When making comparisons, you should choose a "single variable" and change one of the factors while keeping other conditions unchanged. Only then will the comparison be meaningful.

As time went by, the "land reform" and "three antis" and "five antis" movements in the north became more and more intense. President Lin said that he would not kill people, but deaths occurred from time to time, and it was impossible not to have deaths. Many big landlords, big businessmen and gang leaders in the north swam across the Yangtze River and defected to Li Hongzhang's National Government.

Many southerners also chose to go north and join the people's government. Most of them were farmers along the Yangtze River. The agricultural tax in the north was only one-fifth, and if someone in the family served in the army - it was easy for young people to serve in the army - the agricultural tax would be reduced to one-tenth. This kind of good thing was not only unheard of, but also unheard of!

At first, many people didn't take the propaganda from the north seriously. Everyone knew the morals of the government. They said all the good things but did all the bad things. Where was the pleading for the people? There was only exploitation to the point of ecstasy. Landlords, bureaucrats, gangs, religions, etc. worked hard from beginning to end every year. Not to mention that they couldn't eat white rice, sometimes they couldn't even make ends meet with sweet potatoes, corn, etc.!

But it really happened, and the relatives on the other side of the Yangtze River suddenly lived a good life. For most people in those days, being able to fill their stomachs and have some meat during the New Year was considered a good life.

The relatives and neighbors in the north were able to eat well, so they had to help the poor relatives in the south. Then many people learned that the tax exemption for equal distribution of land in the north was actually true! This made many people tempted, and the people fled one after another. The number of poor people who fled to the north reached tens of thousands every month.

Especially after the autumn harvest, many people rushed to collect food, and then the whole family boarded the boat and fled. Sometimes even the whole village ran away, which made the officials in the south very angry. Damn, leeks actually grew legs and ran away, this is unbearable!

Chapter 168 Stocks

It was not only the people along the Yangtze River who fled from the south to the north, but also many from Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, and even Yunnan. The military governments of Guangdong and Hunan did a good job, and the morale of the troops was very good, but their equipment was not good, and their technical and tactical level was not good. The most important thing was that they were not like the Nationalist government, who could sell out their country.

Li Hongzhang agreed to include Guangxi in the French sphere of influence and agreed to allow the British fleet to pass freely on the Yangtze River in exchange for a large amount of French aid and support from the British fleet. Guangzhou was right on the coast and had no way to deal with the British naval guns. The navy fleet in the south had a few warships, but they were definitely no match for the British fleet.

After receiving a large amount of assistance from Britain and France, the Nationalist government's army defeated the military government on the battlefield. The Hubei New Army reached the Miluo River and was about to capture Xiangyin and then Changsha. Huang Xing pushed all his troops forward, and with the reinforcements from Guangdong and Yunnan, he was able to stop the Nationalist government's attack.

In order to fight against Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong, Huang Xing proposed to Sun Yat-sen that the Northern Army should go south. Marshal Lin was so good at fighting that he even defeated the Eight-Nation Alliance.

Isn’t it easy?

Sun Yat-sen agreed with this and sent Wu Tingfang to the north. Sun Yat-sen's most loyal younger brother, Chen Qimei, also wanted to meet Marshal Lin, but he had a bad temper and loved smoking opium, gambling and playing with women. Gambling and playing with women were fine, but smoking opium was taboo in the north. The People's Party had zero tolerance for opium smoking. No matter who it was, unless they were dying, if they were found smoking opium, they would be arrested and sent to labor reform.

If they were found to be still smoking opium after the reform, they would be sent to work in the mines of Shanxi for a month. The work in the mines was very hard, even a strong man could not stand it, let alone an opium addict? Generally, they would start to urinate blood in just three days, and very few people could survive for seven days, and basically no one could survive for more than a month.

It's not that there weren't any, but they were too few. And after they came out, they were like different people, all dark and thin. The People's Government's regulations applied not only to northerners, but also to people from the south. If Chen Qimei had gone there, he would most likely have been arrested and sent to labor reform.

Is Chen Qimei a good comrade? Definitely! He is a good comrade, just like Sun Yat-sen! In order to start an uprising, Chen Qimei often lingered in the foreign lands, drinking and drinking with various militias and tyrants, and fighting with court officials and spies. Chen Qimei organized the assassination of many officials of the previous dynasty and made great efforts to establish the Guangdong Military Government.

However, Chen Qimei also had many unacceptable bad habits. Smoking opium and playing with women was only one aspect. After the establishment of the military government, he continued to carry out assassinations and even sent people to assassinate Tao Chengzhang, the leader of the Restoration Society. This made many people very dissatisfied with the Guangdong Military Government, and some people even defected to the National Government because of this incident.

It’s not because they like Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong, but because they hate Chen Qimei even more.

Sun Yat-sen was very troubled by Chen Qimei and didn't know what to do with him. In the end, he could only let him stay in Shanghai. Chen Qimei was also happy to stay in the foreign land. He had recently become obsessed with stock speculation and instructed his younger brother Jiang Zhiqing to buy a lot of rubber stocks and rubber futures, making a lot of money. Chen Qimei took out part of the money he earned and gave it to Sun Yat-sen as military expenses. In addition to using the rest of the money for personal enjoyment, he invested it all in the rubber business.

Not only did he invest all the money he earned, he also borrowed a lot of high-interest loans and threw them into the stock market. According to Jiang Zhiqing, the stock market is booming now, and you can make money with your eyes closed. Chen Qimei wrote letters to all his relatives and friends, borrowed a large sum of money, and mortgaged his own property. He took a gamble and turned his bicycle into a motorcycle!

If you win, you can continue to enjoy wine and beauties. If you lose, you will go to Guangzhou to be an official.

Jiang Zhiqing also made a lot of money by helping Chen Qimei. When a man has money, he will definitely indulge in wine, women, money and anger. However, he was unlucky and contracted syphilis while visiting brothels, and his penis was almost rotten. In order to cure the disease, he followed the Western doctor's method and used mercury to fight poison with poison, so he was nicknamed "Mercury JJ".

"Brother, we just received a sum of money. It's the money for the Qing Gang's opium. How about we send it to the Qing Gang tomorrow?"

Chen Qimei was lying on the kang, puffing out a cigarette and whining, "Give them shit. Go buy some stocks first. I think they'll go up in two days! I'll give them to them when I make some money!"

Jiang Zhiqing had the same idea. "Big brother is right! The newspaper said the day before yesterday that the North bought a tractor factory from the Americans. From now on, farmers in the North will use tractors to cultivate the land. If we calculate one tractor per village, how many tractors will that be? How many tires will be needed? The price of rubber will have to rise again!"

Chen Qimei took a sip of the "pound" intoxicatedly and said happily: "That's the truth! Rubber is a must for cars. As there are more and more cars in the future, more and more rubber will be used! But rubber is only produced in Southeast Asia and a few other places. Scarcity makes things expensive, so won't the price of rubber go up?"

Jiang Zhiqing agreed with this and threw the huge sum of money earned from opium into the rubber market.

When the Shanghai stock market was booming, Wu Tingfang rode as fast as he could, then took a ferry and rode as fast as he could to Taiyuan. However, he did not meet Marshal Lin immediately. Lin Yongchang had too many things to deal with every day, and occasionally he had to go out for field inspections. Sometimes even Wang Qi, Yan Shuqin and others could not find him.

Because of so many assassination attempts, the whereabouts of the president, prime minister and heads of departments were kept secret. If anyone asked about it, the Ministry of Internal Affairs would come to visit. Wu Tingfang was left out for a few days when he requested to see the president, so he tried to find connections in Taiyuan. He was a rare diplomatic talent, and although he had his own problems, his ability was unquestionable.