Respectfully

When the news spread that the two divisions under Marshal Lou were going to Manchuria, most people, regardless of the northern government or the southern government, had the same question.

"Has Lou Shengfeng gone crazy?"

All the newspapers in the six northern provinces, especially the ones connected with the Tsarist Russians, all wrote in important pages that Dashuai challenged the Russian Empire with the power of local warlords.

Worries and doubts overwhelmed the voices of support. Except for a few people such as Song Qining, most people believed that Marshal Lou would definitely lose this battle.

Russian Minister Kusovitz even jumped up and down, and directly issued an ultimatum to the northern government. If Marshal Lou insists on going his own way, the Chinese side will bear all the consequences.

Japanese Minister Hikokichi Ijuin deliberately rushed back from the south, and together with Acting Secretary Kumataro Honda had a secret meeting with Kusowitz. Although Russia and Japan had conflicts of interest in the Northeast, and they had had a very unpleasant fight over the Liaodong incident, however, One thing is the same, both sides hope to take the opportunity to drive Lou Shengfeng out!

"This is an ambitious warlord." Ijuin Hikokichi was dressed in a black suit. Even though he straightened his body, he stood in front of the tall Russian bear, but was still as short as a monkey: "His existence is of great importance to the Great Japanese Empire and your country." They are threats that cannot be ignored!"

Kusovitz raised his glass, "The soldiers of the great tsar will teach this stupid pig a lesson!"

The ministers of Britain, France, Germany and other countries are also very concerned about the Sino-Russian border conflict.

The cause of this incident couldn't be clearer. The greedy polar bear stretched out its bear paw impatiently, but he didn't expect that the owner of the land was no longer a servile man with a pig's tail, but dared to slap the table directly. Lou Shengfeng challenged him.It was like a scoundrel chasing after a girl, thinking that he could catch him, but unexpectedly, the girl turned around and gave him a brick.

"This is an ambitious warlord. So will his heir."

British Minister Zhu Erdian said the same thing as Japanese Minister Hikokichi Ijuin.However, unlike Yijiyuan, he focused on Lou Xiao at the same time.

"Maybe this complacent warlord expects a victory, but the goddess of victory doesn't bend down to kiss a yellow monkey."

Pan Sunna's words represented the thoughts of most people present.Rather than a local warlord, they still believed that the gray cattle of Nicholas II would win the final victory.

Even if Tsarist Russia lost to the Japanese, no one is optimistic about Lou Shengfeng's army.

The Lou family in the center of the vortex, after Lou Xiao followed the troops to Manchuria, faced many malicious voices, but behaved very calmly.

In addition to dealing with government affairs every day, Marshal Lou spent the rest of his time paying attention to the military information sent from the west.Even the telegram sent by the President was ignored.I don't even bother to waste my tongue with the bastard who made a long speech in the newspaper, swearing that the troops of the six northern provinces will be defeated.

Only at the suggestion of the staff, a call was sent to settle the matter.

The content of the power-up is only eight words: defend the soil, defend the country, and die well!

In fact, the content of this telegram has been whitewashed.The original words of Marshal Lou are: I have a fight with the Russians, it's none of these people's business!As long as I live for a day, Lao Maozi will not even think about getting my wish!

As soon as Marshal Lou's telegram came out, the whole country was in an uproar. The patriots and young students praised Marshal Lou as a patriotic soldier, and Marshal Lou's reputation was second to none. '

The telegram sent by the Presidential Palace to the Marshal's Palace came to an abrupt end.

"It seems that this battle must be won." Marshal Lou touched his bald head and muttered to himself: "If you win, the Lou family will go to a higher level. If you lose..."

You bastard, you have to live up to me!

Mrs. Lou still joked and played cards with her concubines all day long, and occasionally brought Mr. Qian and Mrs. Du's wives together.Miss Lou Liu will marry into the Qian family after the Chinese New Year, so she can take this opportunity to get closer to her future mother-in-law.Since the sixth concubine was sent to accompany the third concubine, Miss Lou Qi suddenly became quiet, and she no longer showed her mean temper all the time.Whether it's superficial or genuine correction, at least, Mrs. Du, who had always wanted to propose marriage to the Lou family on behalf of her nephew, looked more and more kindly when she looked at Miss Qi.

Li Jinyan suddenly became busy.

Loujia's soap factory has been built, and the machines have been put in place one after another.Foreign technicians are only responsible for installation and commissioning, and the subsequent production must be done by their own people.

The manager of the soap factory is a middle-aged man named Pan Guangxing. He is not tall and has a southern accent. When he speaks, he speaks with the boldness of a northerner.Both he and his two sons worked under Marshal Lou, and the youngest son was still serving as a soldier in Lou Xiao's independent regiment, and is now a platoon leader.

Li Jinyan had a pretty good impression of Pan Guangxing. Pan Guangxing had read the charter that Li Jinyan handed over to Marshal Lou, and knew that this young master Yan was not simple.

"Manager Pan, I won't say much about other things, just two points," Li Jinyan said with a smile: "First, the financial affairs must be clear. If there is a problem with this, let alone me, the commander-in-chief will Can't be merciful."

Li Jinyan paused deliberately, and seeing Pan Guangxing nodding, he continued: "Second, rewards and punishments must be clearly defined. If you do a good job, if you do a lot, you will be rewarded; if you are cheating and cheating, you will be punished. It is best to make a rule of law and post it. On the wall, let everyone understand."

Pan Guangxing's expression changed, as if he had something to say, Li Jinyan knew what he was going to say, and without waiting for him to speak, he said directly: "Our ancestors have a saying that the law is nothing more than human feelings, but when we do business, we can't just talk about human feelings. It’s still necessary to have a clear regulation, let the people at the bottom know what can and cannot be done, and everyone will act in the same way, so no one will feel that you are not showing respect, right?”

At this point, Pan Guangxing had no choice but to agree.

After inoculating Pan Guangxing in advance, Li Jinyan plunged into the factory.According to his plan, the products of the soap factory will be divided into two categories, one is machine-made, priced at two to five cents; to two corners.Li Jinyan specially invited a few skilled craftsmen to make a lot of exquisite molds. In this way, there is no need to use a knife to carve soap flowers, which is time-consuming and wastes materials.

When the first batch of finished products from the soap factory came out, Li Jinyan specially borrowed Mrs. Lou's name to present a box of special handmade soap and a bunch of exquisitely packaged soap flowers to the wives of officials and wives of the military government of the six northern provinces.

There is a circular mark printed on each soap, so that people can tell at a glance that it is a product of Loujia Soap Factory.

The reputation spread, not only local businessmen, but also some businessmen from other provinces came here admiringly.

The products of Loujia Soap Factory are not only of good quality, but also cheaper than those sold in foreign firms. After a full dozen, they are not much more expensive than a piece of soap, so they are naturally very popular.Although there are expensive ones, the audiences are different, and it just satisfies the mentality of some officials' wives and rich people that "the expensive ones are the best". Naturally, Li Jinyan will not be polite to these "big households".

Combining small profits but quick turnover with big eaters, when the first financial report prepared according to Li Jinyan's request was placed on Lou Dashuai's desk, Lou Dashuai's jaw almost fell to the ground.

Such a three-to-five-point thing can earn so much?

Domestic soap factories are still in their infancy, and the current production capacity of Loujia Soap Factory is also limited. It will not have an impact on the two soap factories in Tianjin and Shanghai. On the contrary, the foreign firms in the six northern provinces have been robbed of a lot of business by Li Jinyan. .

However, with the Lou's family standing there, the executives in the foreign firm could only watch with envious eyes.

Machine-made soap will produce some by-products, the glycerin in it is more valuable than the soap itself, and has a wide range of uses, but Li Jinyan only focuses on two types, one is skin care products, and the other is nitroglycerin, liquid explosives!

Making explosives is a dangerous job. After thinking twice, Li Jinyan still didn't go to Qiao Leshan who was busy developing sulfonamide. Instead, he found the people in the Gunpowder Bureau of the North Six Provincial Military Factory through Adjutant Ji and gave them the relevant information. .It is only said that the use of glycerin to make explosives was proposed by Qiao Leshan.Qiao Leshan, the banner of a top student in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Berlin, is very useful. Anyway, he can't speak Mandarin well, so Li Jinyan is not worried about him exposing himself.

People from the Gunpowder Bureau must report to the higher authorities. After Lou Dashuai learned about it, he specially asked the finance department to allocate a sum of money as research expenses.

Li Jinyan was too busy to keep his feet on the ground, but he still felt that time was running out.

The incident in Manchuria sounded a wake-up call for him. If you fall behind, you will be beaten. If the country is poor and weak, no one dares to bully you!

He has neither military talent nor political skills. The only thing he can do is to start a business and make money!

He doesn't believe it anymore, what else can't he do if he has money?Waiting for him to grab a handful of gold bars in each of his left and right hands, and carry a sack of oceans on his back, smashing the heads of foreigners, and still can't buy the machines and weapons he wants? !Can't find the talent you want? !

Even if Japan's little scorpion tried every means to prevent the West from exporting weapons to China as it did in history, it would be a big deal to make it by itself!

Why did Japan make the idea of ​​playing the Northeast early?

The biggest reason is for the resources here!Iron from Benxi, Anshan, coal from Fuxin, Hegang, oil from Liaohe, Daqing, just thinking about it makes Li Jinyan's blood boil.

However, when he was busy making money, Li Jinyan did not forget that he asked Li Bing to find all the cotton and homemade cloth accumulated in the cloth shop, and began to make waistcoats and knee pads for wearing in military uniforms.

Although the military uniforms of the soldiers in winter are cotton-padded clothes, but remembering that Manzhouli is next to Siberia, Li Jinyan felt that no matter how much they wear, they will not be warm.

After the first batch of waistcoats and knee pads were ready, Li Jinyan asked Adjutant Ji to send them to the logistics department.

Because the first division and the second division moved too hastily, the logistics supplies were not in place immediately. During this period, all the trains from Qishi to Hailar were requisitioned by the military, and a large number of mules and horses were also collected to transport supplies.

Jiang Yulin touched his chin when he saw what Adjutant Ji sent, "Is this from the young marshal's wife?"

Adjutant Ji nodded and said, "Yes. But the young marshal ordered you to address him as Young Master Yan."

Regardless of what Adjutant Ji said, Jiang Yulin directly picked up a waistcoat and put it on, and gestured with knee pads, "My dear, it's all made of cotton, so thick. How much does it cost?"

On the same day, the "warm products" sent by Li Jinyan were loaded onto the train, and the members of the logistics department specially told the escorting soldiers: "This is from the young marshal's wife."

Brother Bing nodded solemnly.

Marshal Lou has arrived at the junction of Hailaer and Manzhouli with the vanguard of the first division.The sound of artillery from the direction of Manzhouli can be heard from a distance, which is deafening.

"This is the old man's cannon."

The battalion commander of an independent regiment listened for a while, and smacked his lips: "Listening to this movement, it must be a grenade with a caliber above 105. Liao Xiwu is driving the old man into a hurry."

Lou Xiao didn't speak, but immediately formed a team, the cavalry mounted their horses, the infantry lined up, "speed up!"

As the battalion commander said, the border guards did push the Russians into a hurry.

The frontier army stationed in Manzhouli is a reinforced regiment, with less than 500 people at full strength. Now, even the documents are brought up with guns. If the reinforcements don’t come, it doesn’t matter if this person explains it. Let the old Maozi in, it will be fatal. !

The Russians have already robbed Manzhouli Station, if they break through the last line of defense...

Liao Xiwu didn't dare to think about it anymore.

The sound of the guns stopped, but the familiar gray did not appear in front of it, but the sound of horseshoes came.

Liao Xiwu's face changed, and the staff officers around him also looked shocked.

"Cossack!"

The border guards who have been guarding the border all year round are no strangers to this group of Cossacks who ride horses, carry lances and wield sabers.

The voice of the staff officer almost changed: "Tuan Zuo, I can't hold it anymore, I can't hold it anymore! We have less than [-] brothers left! One charge, and we will all be accounted for!"

Liao Xiwu gritted his teeth, and the muscles on his face began to tremble.Pulling the staff officer's collar: "If you can't keep it, you have to keep it!"

Throwing away the staff officer, Liao Xiwu yelled: "Give me my order, whoever dares to retreat, I will die!" He said, and tied all the grenades around him, "The bullets are gone, pull the string! Even if it is If you die, you have to pull one!"

The sound of horseshoes was getting closer, and the saber illuminated by the snow could already be seen, and the whistle of the Cossack on horseback could be heard.

The blood on the faces of several clerks was gone, and there was a deathly silence on the defensive position.

As the terrible torrent approached, gunshots rang out...