Republic of China game

If the Beiyang government is compared to a farce where you sing and I come on stage, then its front stage is Beijing, and Tianjin is its backstage.

As the backstage of Beiyang, and at the same time the largest commercial city and trading port in northern China, Tianjin is not as prosperous as Shanghai, which is ten miles away, but it is much better than Guangzhou, which lives in the south.On the ship going north, a few veterans who had seen the world had nothing to do along the way, and they talked endlessly to Luo Yaoguo, Lu Xiaobei and other young people about the bustling, lively, scenic spots, and special snacks in Beijing and Tianjin.Let these "bumps" who have never been to the capital of China gain a lot of insight.But when the ship slowly sailed into the bleak Dagu Port, Luo Yaoguo realized what he had heard was false.

In the entire port area, except for some old wooden sailboats, there are a few Japanese destroyers flying plaster flags, and there is only this merchant ship on which the delegation is on.Such a port is not as good as Guangzhou, even the small seaports in Guangdong such as Shantou and Haikou!Where is it worthy of being the number one commercial port in the north?However, the wharf area in Tanggu is not small, and it is not bad at all compared to Guangzhou.The delegation disembarked from Tanggu and took a car prepared by the Zhili Governor's Office of Fengjun to gallop all the way into downtown Tianjin.The urban area of ​​Tianjin, like Shanghai, is composed of Chinese and foreign concessions.The northwest of Tianjin is the Chinese territory, and the southeast is the concessions of Britain, France, Japan, Italy and Belgium. There were originally American, German, Austrian and Russian concessions. Later, the American concessions were merged into the British concessions, and the German and Austrian concessions were It was taken back one after another after World War I, and the Russian Concession was returned to China in 1924.

At this time, the urban area of ​​Tianjin was under martial law. The roads in the Huajie were full of Fengjun soldiers with live ammunition, and the garrisons of various countries in the concession were also fully armed patrolling the streets.In this extremely tense atmosphere, the Kuomintang delegation officially entered the backstage of the Beiyang government and stayed in the famous Liuguo Hotel in Tianjin.

In the Liuguo Hotel, there is a school of singing and dancing, not as depressed as outside.Luo Yaoguo, who had already seen that something was wrong, asked Wan Yanhao to investigate the situation.After a while, the sleazy intelligence officer returned to Luo Yaoguo's suite with a gloating expression.

"Mr. Fu, I have found out the situation clearly." Wan Yanhao tilted his head and smiled and said, "There is a revolution going on in Beijing these days, and the workers and students in Tianjin also got up last month to join in the riots, and there was another demonstration. , It was a strike again, which angered General Zhang and ordered the military and police to suppress it, and the foreign troops in the concession were also dispatched, arrested many people, and opened fire. Since then, martial law has begun.”

"Oh, that's how it is." General Zhang is a reactionary warlord!Naturally, revolutions by workers and students cannot be tolerated.Luo Yaoguo thought for a while and asked again: "Then why is the port so depressed? Could it be that the dock workers went on strike?"

Wan Yanhao nodded and said: "That's right, you can guess right away. It has been a month since the dock workers' union in Tianjin launched a strike. Moreover, some sites in Beijing and Zhili controlled by Feng Yuxiang are now boycotting foreign goods. They are not allowed to be sold, nor allowed to cross the border. The goods transported to Tianjin have to be transported to other places by railway, and now the trains passing through Feng Yuxiang’s site must be inspected by the workers’ picket team, and foreign goods cannot be brought, otherwise they will be confiscated.”

"Well, I see, the workers are very enthusiastic." Luo Yaoguo waved his hand to let Wan Yanhao go to rest.Luo Yaoguo and the delegation were also at a loss for the current situation in Tianjin. They didn't expect Feng Yuxiang's revolutionary enthusiasm to rise to such an extent. At first everyone thought he was speculating on the revolution, but it turned out that this old man was playing for real.

"Report." Just as Wan Yanhao left, Cen Biqing's voice came from outside the door: "Deputy Head Zou invites you to go once." It turned out that it was Zou Lu who invited him.This Zou Lu is a well-known rightist of the Kuomintang and an old comrade-in-arms of Sun Yat-sen. It is estimated that he also knows about Feng Yuxiang and Beijing's revolutionary actions.

"The country will not be the country! The country will not be the country!" Zou Lu's scolding with a Cantonese accent can be heard in the corridor.

"Mr. Zou, is your old man alright?" Luo Yaoguo pushed the door open and went in, seeing the furious senior, he hurried up to greet him.

Seeing Luo Yaoguo coming in, Zou Lu beckoned and said, "Fuwen, come here. This is a telegram to appeal to the Prime Minister. Please sign it." In Zou Lu's eyes, Luo Yaoguo was just a junior, er, actually a junior, the KMT There are many elders who sell their elders in Liyilao, and this Zou Lu is the elder. Luo Yaoguo's uncle Luo Yiqun also called him "Zou Gong Zou Gong" when he saw him.

"Mr. Zou, this telegram cannot be sent." Luo Yaoguo took the draft of the telegram and knew it could not be sent: "Let Feng Yuxiang and the Communist Party make trouble like this, our country will not perish, and if they don't make trouble, the big powers will give in to us. ?"

"You! Why are you so ignorant, kid? Do you know what's going on in Beijing now? Students go on strike and march every day, and workers don't work hard and go on strike all day long to raise wages. Now the salary of a shop assistant is almost a hundred! You How much is the first lieutenant general? Even worse, the rural areas around Beijing, now..." Zou Lu complained for half an hour, and the content was nothing more than frightened by the rising revolutionary situation.What's the point?Revolution!There's always going to be a little overkill.

"Except for the Soviet ambassador, the ministers of other countries can't stay in Beijing any longer. They all came to Tianjin. Just now their representatives came to us to protest." Dai Jitao's face was also very ugly. Scared.

"They came to us to protest? Hehe, it seems that these big powers have lost their minds, and we are not the central government. They should go to Feng Yuxiang to protest." After the last negotiation between the four countries, Luo Yaoguo had already figured out the details of the big powers. Just a bunch of paper tigers.Even Japan is unlikely to send troops to intervene now. At most, tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers will be sent to "help" in Fengjun's clothes.

At this moment, Young Master Sun was sitting on the sofa, with his legs crossed, and he echoed Luo Yaoguo leisurely. He said, "If they want to send troops, they should do so. If they don't send troops to our territory anyway, let Feng Yuxiang deal with them." Well. Anyway, we are only responsible for helping him get into the position, and we don’t care about the future.” Sun Ke looks a bit clumsy, but he has great wisdom at critical moments.It is good that the Kuomintang can manage its own one-acre three-point land. The situation in the north and the central government of this doormat really can't control it.

"Mr. Zou, Mr. Liao is coming from Beijing today. Let Mr. Liao make up his mind." Luo Yaoguo also hurriedly advised.

"Didn't Liao Zhongkai wear the same trousers with the Communist Party? It's too late for him to be happy with the troubles in Beijing now, so why would he object?" Zou Lu got angry, but there was nothing he could do. He took the telegram and tore it to pieces. Then went back to the room sulking.

The Kuomintang is such a noisy and unserious party, especially the gang of elders is even more lawless. Now that Mr. Zhongshan is still there, they are already like this. If Mr. Zhongshan is gone, who can restrain them?After dealing with Zou Lu, Luo Yaoguo talked with the crown prince Sun Ke for a while.The discussion was still about the situation in Beijing. Although Sun Ke had helped Luo Yaoguo out of the siege just now, he was still very worried about the current situation. It seemed that the evacuation just now was ordered by his father in advance. Sun Yat-sen probably expected it in the north delegation. There will be quarrels, so let the son come along as a peacemaker.

"As for Fuwen, I'm not talking about you. This is really inappropriate. How can you let Feng Yuxiang be the 'central'? Who can be convinced?" Sun Ke shook his head: "This Feng Huanzhang is also, why is he willing to sit on the top? The central My father is afraid to sit on the stove now, how much does Feng Yuxiang weigh?"

"It is reported that Soviet Russia now supports General Huanzhang very strongly. They have given 500 guns and 15 million rounds of ammunition. Now the National Army has [-] people." The General Staff knew it, and Luo Yaoguo went on to analyze and said: "Chahar's Red Army is estimated to be no less than [-], and the two together have [-] troops. Although it is slightly smaller than the Feng Faction, Duan Wan and Luo Wu are probably not theirs. opponent."

"A crowd of 150! How much will it cost for a month?" Sun Ke said flatly: "We need to pay military salaries, food money, and rice noodles according to the standard market. A [-] army can't get [-] million a month without [-] million. Feng Yuxiang is acting like this now, what will he use to pay the army?"

Young Master Sun is often able to find the root of the problem. It is estimated that this is due to the wisdom of the Prime Minister.Feng Yuxiang now has to spend more than 100 million yuan for the Moonlight Army, and there are still a group of Beijing officials to support, and he is also responsible for the expenses of embassies and consulates abroad as usual.It’s not enough to have less than 3000 or [-] million this year, but how much can you charge around Beijing now?What does he rely on to maintain the army?How long can it last?

"Fu Wen, you don't know yet, right? Now the banknotes of China Bank and Bank of China can no longer be circulated in our territory." Sun Ke suddenly said again.

Now the only Chinese banknotes that legally circulate on the territory of the Kuomintang are legal tenders, the currency issued by the Central Bank of the Nationalist Government.Issuing banknotes at that time was also a way for various warlords to make money. Of course, banknotes were often turned into waste paper.At that time, the Bank of China and the Bank of Communications were banks controlled by the Beiyang Central Committee, and they also had the business of printing money.In history, Yuan Datou's funds for being emperor came from the Bank of Communications, which resulted in a huge deficit, and finally caused the Bank of Communications to stop paying the banknotes.Now that the Kuomintang has stopped the circulation of banknotes issued by Bank of China and Bank of China on its ground, it is tantamount to strangling Feng Yuxiang's last source of income.

Chapter 0118 Entering Beijing ([-])

At the same time that the Kuomintang delegation to the north entered Tianjin and stayed at the Liuguo Hotel.A train from Beijing was speeding on the Tianjin-Beijing Railway dragging billows of black smoke. The leftist leaders of the Kuomintang, Liao Zhongkai and Deng Yanda, were on this train at this moment. Zhou Enlai and Li Dazhao of the Communist Party accompanied them to Tianjin. leaders.

The four leaders together with a dozen guards and entourages packed a carriage.Liao Zhongkai was sitting on the seat by the window, drinking tea while looking at the white expanse outside the window.It has just snowed in the Beijing-Tianjin area, and silver-white snowflakes have covered the entire land. It seems that the coming year will be a bumper year. Maybe the supply situation of Feng Yuxiang's army will be much better by then, right?Although the Soviets generously provided Feng Yuxiang with weapons and ammunition, they did not have much spare power in terms of funds. After all, the Soviet Union had just ended its civil war and was still in extreme difficulties.Because there is not enough funds to maintain expenses, Feng Yuxiang's [-] troops are almost on the verge of running out of food. As for the military pay, nothing can be issued this month except for those banknotes that are like waste paper.

Thinking of this, Liao Zhongkai let out a long sigh.In his trip to Tianjin this time, apart from meeting the delegation going north, he wanted to raise some military expenses for Feng Yuxiang.The only one who can provide funds to Feng Yuxiang now is the national government that occupies the fertile land in the south.However, this money bag is now in the hands of the rightists of the Kuomintang. Will Hu Hanmin and that villain Wang Jingwei agree to give the money?Besides, how do you open your mouth?

"Mr. Liao, what are you thinking?"

When Liao Zhongkai heard the voice, he realized that Zhou Enlai and Deng Yanda had sat across from him at some point.He slightly bowed to the two of them, and a little smile appeared on his face.

"Enlai, you came just in time. I have something I want to discuss with you." Liao Zhongkai put down the teacup in his hand, and his tone was a little dignified: "General Feng Huanzhang's army is very difficult now, it is not an option to continue like this, your party Can you give me some more money?" This month, the Communist Party squeezed out [-] yuan from their very difficult funds and gave it to Feng Yuxiang to maintain the army.

Before Zhou Enlai could speak, Deng Yanda answered first. He said: "Mr. Liao, the Communist Party is already in a difficult situation. How can we let them pay for it? The rightists should pay for this money. Now they have taken half of the money." China has set up an independent customs territory again, isn’t it rich enough to keep fuel?” Speaking of these Kuomintang rightists, Deng Yanda also wished to bite off a few pieces of meat from them. These misers never gave his National Revolutionary Army North The general headquarters of various departments gave out a dime, even his own salary was not paid, because he refused to go to work at the engineering headquarters.

Zhou Enlai didn't know how to answer.If the Kuomintang is now the central government, Feng Yuxiang's difficulty will of course require them to pay.But now the Kuomintang is not the central government, and Feng Yuxiang is not affiliated with the Kuomintang. How can you ask Zhou Enlai to say this?Moreover, the Kuomintang delegation has brought 1000 million yuan to help Feng Yuxiang in the election, which is already enough friends.

Seeing Zhou Enlai's silence, Liao Zhongkai's heart sank. Feng Yuxiang is not the Communist Party now, and the Communist Party has no obligation to solve his financial difficulties.Besides, the high-ranking military officers under Feng Yuxiang all live a luxurious life. There are a lot of wives, maids and servants in the family. They play mahjong or listen to big dramas every day. You should not ask the Communist Party to pay for these corrupt warlords. of.Thinking of this, Liao Zhongkai shook his head and said, "It would be great if Feng Yuxiang's officers could be like your party."

The Communist Party is now supplying officers and soldiers together. Officers and soldiers are all five yuan a month, and the 25 Red Army can spend only [-] a month.This money can be maintained for a long time by relying on the ill-gotten gains confiscated by the Chahar land reform, and the farmers who are allocated land are also very motivated to pay public grain.

"Hmph! I see that the way is to carry out the agrarian revolution in Beijing and Zhili, and at the same time reorganize Feng Yuxiang's army and turn them into a revolutionary army like the Red Army." Deng Yanda was a little excited. He had been with the Red Army for a long time. I am deeply moved that the system of the Red Army is definitely stronger than the mercenaries of the Kuomintang and Beiyang warlords.

After listening to Deng Yanda's words, Zhou Enlai nodded appreciatively: "It would be great if General Feng Huanzhang had the consciousness to choose his own life. But the solution now is the coalition government. As long as a coalition government is formed, we can take back the interests that the imperialists have grabbed from China." , then Feng Huanzhang's financial difficulties will be resolved."

Liao Zhongkai shook his head with a wry smile and said, "How much profit can the imperialists get from General Huanzhang's little territory? Even if he spits it out, it's not enough for his [-] troops to maintain."

"At that time, the coalition government will be able to hold the tariffs and salt taxes of various places in their hands with a single order. Are you afraid that there will be no money?" Li Dazhao's loud voice suddenly rang out, and it turned out that he had been listening for a while.

"An order?" Liao Zhongkai really didn't know what to say. He had been dealing with the warlords at the head of the Kuomintang in the past. Those lawless guys, your orders are beneficial to them, and they can still listen to you. Orders are not good for them, hehe, it would be strange not to meet you in battle.

"Yes, as long as the coalition government is established, everything will be solved." Deng Yanda quite agreed with Li Dazhao's proposal, and he said with a smile: "Tariffs and salt taxes have always been collected by the central government. Once the coalition government is established, it will be representative The central government of all the people should take back the customs and salt taxes, and we will attack anyone who dares to disobey." Deng Yanda's "we" refers to the Communist Party, the Kuomintang and Feng Yuxiang's national army.

"Well, let's think about how to live in front of us first." Liao Zhongkai looked serious, and his mind was very clear. It was unrealistic to turn Feng Yuxiang's troops into a real revolutionary army, because Feng Yuxiang was also a big warlord coaxing a small warlord, and his subordinates The division commanders, brigade commanders and even regimental commanders can pull away their own troops.So Feng Yuxiang had to coax them, not to be too demanding. In fact, Feng was already harsh enough to his subordinates now. After a while, some people might want to pull troops to join Zhang Zuolin.

"Right now, Mr. Liao, can you send a telegram to Premier Sun in Guangzhou?" Zhou Enlai looked at Liao Zhongkai with some expectation: "Now we can only trouble Premier Sun, and the National Army is implementing the national revolution in response to his call! If General Feng’s National Army fails, the reactionary warlords backed by the imperialists can return to Beijing and unite to attack the Nationalist government in the south. Will the Kuomintang be able to guarantee victory over the joint attack of domestic and foreign reactionary forces?”

Liao Zhongkai was startled when he heard the words, but after thinking about it carefully, he found that Zhou Enlai made sense.Now the Kuomintang seems to be taking advantage of everything on the surface, holding the most affluent territory in China, and has won back a lot of benefits from the foreign powers.But can the great powers let it go?Can the Beiyang warlords watch the Kuomintang eat alone?As long as they free up their hands and unite to attack together, the Kuomintang's rule in the south is likely to be wiped out.

"Okay, when I arrive in Tianjin, I will send a telegram to the Prime Minister, asking him to give Feng Huanzhang's national army an equal part of the income from the national government's customs area." Liao Zhongkai immediately decided to advise Sun Yat-sen after thinking clearly about the stakes.

"Great, with Liao Gong's advice, Prime Minister Sun will definitely understand that Feng Huanzhang's National Army is a vital part of the national revolution. As long as we have the support of Premier Sun, we will definitely be able to defeat the Beiyang warlords and realize the national revolution. However, what should we do if the Prime Minister is surrounded by rightists and Liao Gong's advice cannot reach his old man?" Zhou Enlai was full of worries about the situation within the Kuomintang, and not long ago the right wing of the Kuomintang took advantage of Mr. Sun Yat-sen's critical illness and imperialism. The "Guangzhou Secret Treaty" that humiliated the country and humiliated the country was reached. Now those rightists are willing to spit out the fat that they have finally got their mouths?

"It's okay." Liao Zhongkai waved his hand confidently: "When I arrive in Tianjin, I will send a telegram to the Prime Minister in the name of the Kuomintang's northbound delegation, so that they will not dare to stop it. And this time the northbound delegation also brought 1000 million French currency, I can use it first to support General Huanzhang's army."

"Okay, let's do it like this." Zhou Enlai heaved a sigh of relief in his heart. Finally, someone from Feng Yuxiang's 2 troops was willing to adopt him.It is unrealistic to rely on the Communist Party to carry this big burden, and the Soviet Union is not willing to help Feng Yuxiang solve the difficulty of military pay.Because this expense is simply a bottomless pit. Before Feng Yuxiang entered Beijing, there were only more than [-] people, and he developed an army of [-] in just over two months.

Chapter 0119 Entering Beijing ([-])

"Woo--" With a long whistle, a train from Beijing slowly entered Tianjin Railway Station.As soon as the door opened, the passengers who had been crowded for seven or eight hours rushed out.Although the markets in Beijing and Tianjin are currently depressed, it can be seen that most of the people who get on and off this train are well-dressed, rich people with servants, wives and children, and large and small suitcases.A train full of rich people!It seems that the wealth in the north is no less than that in the south of the Yangtze River!

The four leaders, Liao Zhongkai, Deng Yanda, Zhou Enlai, and Li Dazhao, came down from an empty carriage hanging at the end of the train, talking and laughing.

Looking at the chaotic scene at the train station, Li Dazhao shook his head slightly: "This group of landlords and bourgeoisie ran away one by one at the slightest sound. They are really cunning."

Now Beijing has not carried out the land revolution, but many reactionary landlords and unscrupulous capitalists have smelled blood from the Chahar revolution, and they fled early one by one, trying to escape the justice of the people.They also left Beijing with a huge amount of capital. Naturally, these capitalists and their capital did not dare to stay in Tianjin, which is only a short distance from Beijing. Even many local capitalists and big landlords in Tianjin fled south with their money. , went to Shanghai and Nanjing to develop.

At this time, a group of Fengjun soldiers carrying brand-new [-]-style rifles appeared on the platform fiercely. They beat the crowd with rifle butts to disperse the crowd and cleared a passage. The car drove over at a high speed.This is the car and guards that the Kuomintang delegation to the north borrowed from the Zhili Warlord's Office of the Feng Dynasty.The governor of Zhili in this time and space is not "General Sword Immortal" Li Jinglin, but Zhang Xueliang!Of course, Young Master Zhang still doesn't take much care of things, so the supervisor Guo Songling is responsible for the big and small affairs of Zhili.Guo Songling is a member of the old alliance, and of course has a relatively close relationship with the Kuomintang, so he is responsive to the northbound delegation, especially the son-in-law Sun Ke. The car and the guards are Sun Ke who asked Guo Songling to come.

Getting out of the car was a young lieutenant general of the National Revolutionary Army, and this person was naturally Luo Yaoguo.Seeing Liao Zhongkai and Deng Yanda standing on the platform, Luo Yaoguo didn't dare to neglect and hastened to greet him: "Mr. Liao, General Zesheng, I'm sorry to trouble you to come from Tianjin to greet him."

"Fuwen, let me introduce you. This is Comrade Li Dazhao, the leader of the Communist Party, and this is Comrade Zhou Enlai of the Communist Party." Liao Zhongkai first introduced two Communist Party leaders to Luo Yaoguo.

"Mr. Li, Mr. Zhou, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to pick us up from Beijing. Please get in the car, we have prepared a banquet at the Liuguo Hotel to welcome you." Luo Yaoguo had no impression of Li Dazhao , but Zhou Enlai's name is very famous, so he couldn't help but look at him carefully when shaking hands.