Chapter 383 Under the battlefield without gunpowder smoke
Wan Lei closed the door to see the envoys from the Ming Dynasty, but Fang Xiaoru was anxious. He thought for a moment, thinking that it was because the Ming Dynasty did not send envoys to congratulate when the Republic of China was founded, which hurt Wan Lei's face. At this time, he deliberately To make things difficult. Or maybe they thought the envoys sent by the Ming Dynasty were too low-level, so they refused to summon them.
No matter what the reason was, Wan Lei disappeared behind closed doors, and only the Ming Dynasty was harmed. So Fang Xiaoru gritted his teeth, resigned from Emperor Jianwen, and went north to see Wan Lei in person. Emperor Jianwen was not worried about letting Fang Xiaoru go, but after a while Seeing that the country in his hands was in ruins, he simply took a gamble that Emperor Fang would still be loyal to the court.
Since the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River are already under the full control of the Peking Army and Navy, Fang Xiaoru cannot go north if he wants to. He must obtain the approval of the Peking Army in advance. Sitting on the Yangtze River is the new Second Fleet of the Peking Army and Navy. Jin commander Li Chengkun had received Wan Lei's secret order earlier, so he still refused to give Fang Xiaoru permission to cross the river.
Fang Xiaoru is a high-ranking minister and is originally from Shandong. Now he wants to cross the river and go home for a visit, and he needs other people's approval. He really feels bad. However, the situation is stronger than others. The Peking Army is tyrannical, so he has to endure it no matter what his opinions are. With.
This delay lasted until the end of April. Since there was no answer to the question of ceding Sichuan to offset war reparations, the Ming Dynasty was hesitant on the issue of whether to send troops to suppress the rebellion. The rebels developed rapidly like a spark igniting a prairie fire. More than half of Bashu territory was invaded by Duzhang barbarian rebels. Countless people fled with their families. Sichuan, known as the land of abundance, was severely damaged.
On April 27th, Fang Xiaoru, whose patience was exhausted, finally received a reply from Li Chengkun allowing him to cross the river. The special envoy led by him could finally cross the river. However, they were not eligible to take the Hua-class cruise ship to go north, so they could only If you can land in Yangzhou, hire a car all the way north.
At this time, Yangzhou City was completely under the control of the Republic of China. It was not only military but also politically and economically integrated with Peiping City. There were merchants everywhere in the city, and various workshops, industrial and commercial ones could be seen everywhere outside the city. The prosperity far exceeded that of the Ming Dynasty.
And whether inside or outside the city, whether it is an official building or a residential building, the unique blue sky and red sun flag of the Republic of China is hung. The faces of bustling passers-by are full of smiles. Many people also like to watch outside the bulletin wall set up by the government. Announcements were made, affairs were discussed, and the most talked about was the Pingyang Railway. Every citizen of Yangzhou Prefecture was filled with smiles when they talked about the Pingyang Railway.
Because once the Pingyang Railway is opened, Yangzhou City can truly become one of the transportation hubs. By then, materials from the north will be gathered in Yangzhou, and then go out to sea along the river and shipped overseas. Even goods from overseas will be shipped to Yangzhou. The goods were transported northward to various places, and Yangzhou became a distribution center for materials. It was difficult for the locals not to become rich.
And not only the people of Yangzhou City saw the business opportunities, the Yan Chamber of Commerce also saw this booming business opportunity. Several large business groups of the Yan Chamber of Commerce went south to Yangzhou with huge sums of money. Most of the workshops and factories outside Yangzhou City were these large business groups. established.
Since Yangzhou is located in the north of the Yangtze River, it has the advantage of Yangtze River water transportation. It is also the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and has the advantage of sea transportation. Once the railway is opened, it will have the advantage of land transportation. If you build a factory here, both raw materials and products can be easily transported, reducing transportation costs.
Moreover, a large number of bankrupt people in the Jiangnan area went north. These people who had just joined the Republic of China had no civil rights and could only be residents. They were landless and propertyless, so they were the ideal workers. They built factories here and hired refugees as workers. It can reduce production costs. Anyone with a bit of business acumen will do this, not to mention the extremely smart consortium of the Yan Chamber of Commerce.
It has to be said that the arrival of these large financial groups promoted the prosperity of Yangzhou City and created a grand scene of numerous shops. When Fang Xiaoru and his party entered Yangzhou, which was more prosperous than Jinling, they truly realized that the gap between the Ming Dynasty and the Republic of China was widening. Even if we try our best to catch up, it may take decades to catch up.
Realizing the huge gap between the two sides, Fang Xiaoru's sense of urgency became stronger. The group did not stay in Yangzhou City for long, and the hired carriage quickly headed north. This road was smooth, because the Pingyang Railway had been repaired. The roads have been repaired, and steel bridges are being built on all rivers.
From Yangzhou to Fengyang, passing through Xuzhou and crossing the Huaihe River at the Xuzhou Bridge, then to Jinan, and crossing the Yellow River at the Second Yellow River Bridge in the north of Jinan, it only took four days for Fang Xiaoru to reach Peiping, which was much faster than before. , and this is before the Ping-Yang Railway is opened. When the railway is opened, it will only take one day from Peking to Yangzhou.
Moreover, the Pingliao and Pingxi railways have been opened. Once the Pingyang railway is opened, a railway network running from east to west, north and south will be formed. The Peiping army can gather troops stationed in various places in Yangzhou within a few days, and then cross the river to attack the south of the Yangtze River. Launch an assault. Every time he thinks of this, Fang Xiaoru feels doubly frightened.
Fang Xiaoru and his party came to Peiping. Although they were "cordially" received by the Executive Yuan and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they still could not meet the real speaker. They went to Huayuan every day to ask for an audience, but they were all turned away. Those envoys from small countries from Southeast Asia could come in every time, which made Fang Xiaoru feel that it was a bargain, but there was nothing he could do about it. In short, the president just didn't treat the envoys from the Ming Dynasty as food, so what could he do?
After waiting for several days without seeing the speaker, Fang Xiaoru also knew that continuing like this was not an option. After asking around, he learned that Wan Lei would go to Peking University to give lectures every night, so he came to the gate of Peking University early to prepare. Come and wait for the rabbit.
In the evening, a carriage finally appeared outside the gate of Peking University. When Fang Xiaoru saw it, he was a little suspicious that it was not Wan Lei's car, because there was only one driver on the carriage. The two people in front opened the way, and there were only two people behind him. , in sharp contrast to the grand scenes of the Ming Dynasty emperors supporting each other when traveling.
What surprised Fang Xiaoru even more was that the carriage actually stopped at the gate of the university. A man in black dark clothes and a woman in a Confucian skirt got out of the carriage. The two walked into the gate of the university and met with each other at the gate. The security guard greeted the students entering and leaving the school cordially. If not for the fact that everyone around him addressed the man as Mr. President, Fang Xiaoru would not have been able to tell that the man in front of him was Wan Lei.
"Your Majesty the President, Your Majesty the President." It was rare to see Wan Lei, so Fang Xiaoru didn't care about anything else and immediately chased after him. However, before he could get close to Wan Lei, he was stopped by two elite guards.
"Who are you? What do you want from me?" Wan Lei pretended not to recognize the other person and asked.
"This is the envoy from the Ming Dynasty, Fang Xiaoru, the Minister of Rites." Fu Wei was next to Wan Lei. She knew what her husband was going to do, so she reminded her in a low voice to help him calm down.
"Oh, it turns out to be Mr. Fang, I'm disrespectful." Wan Lei said politely, but he reached into his pocket, took out an exquisite pocket watch and looked at it, then frowned.
"Your Majesty the President, I'll wait." Fang Xiaoru was about to state his intention when he was interrupted by Wan Lei, "I'm really sorry, class time is coming soon. If Mr. Fang is not in a hurry, let's see you another day; if Mr. Fang really is If it's an emergency, please go sit down in the living room first and I'll discuss it in detail after class."
"This." Fang Xiaoru suddenly felt extremely embarrassed, because he could see that in Wan Lei's eyes, receiving the Ming Dynasty envoys was not as important as giving lectures to the students. However, he was not afraid of having an attack. He was just afraid that if he left, he would come back again. Wan Lei was put off by Wan Lei, so he said: "His Majesty the President is giving a sermon. Can I attend the lecture?"
"Since Mr. Fang is interested in elegance, it's okay to listen to him. It's just that I'm not very knowledgeable and can't tell you any great truths. I'd better not laugh at him then." Wan Lei shrugged. He wasn't afraid of what the other party would learn from listening in. Anyway, today In the evening he talked about applied mathematics.
"His Majesty the President is so humble. I admire His Majesty the President for giving sermons despite his busy schedule." Fang Xiaoru said this, but the underlying meaning was that Wan Lei did not distinguish between priorities.
Wan Lei couldn't hear what the other party said, but he just smiled lightly, stretched out his hand to make a gesture of invitation, and walked into the university with his wife's hand.
"Every time Mr. President comes to give lectures, he gets off the car outside the school gate and walks in to show his respect for the academic holy place. Nowadays, no one who comes to our Peking University, no matter how big an official, dares to drive in directly."
"That is, Mr. President values academics first and comes to give lectures almost every night. Every time he gives a lecture, he talks about the most novel knowledge. Every student rushes to listen, and even the professors are keen to listen. "
Behind Wan Lei, the guards were talking, which made Fang Xiaoru, who was walking behind, frown even more, because he found that he had underestimated Wan Lei. Although this kid became the president, he was still worried all the time. Forget about selling people's hearts, this is enough to show that this kid has great ambitions and will not be corrupted easily.
And if Wan Lei does not become corrupt, the chances of the Ming Dynasty turning around will be slim. This is Fang Xiaoru's biggest headache, because the first step in his strategy to strengthen the country is to find ways to make Wan Lei corrupt. Now the third step is to make Wan Lei corrupt. If one step is difficult to achieve, the following steps will be even more difficult to achieve.
When Fang Xiaoru, who had evil intentions, was thinking about how to destroy other people's dirty thoughts, he unknowingly followed him to a large auditorium in the university. This auditorium is one of the main classrooms of the School of Engineering and can accommodate hundreds of people. It was brightly lit and filled with students from the Engineering College, and students from other colleges stood and listened.
Wan Lei just waved his hand and motioned for Fang Xiaoru to sit next to the podium, and then walked slowly up to the podium. All the students under the stage stood up and bowed their heads in salute. Wan Lei waved his hand to signal them all to sit down, full of energy. A voice rang out in the auditorium: "Everyone, today we are going to talk about binary."
"Binary system?" Fang Xiaoru was stunned. He thought Wan Lei was talking about the road to governing the country. Unexpectedly, as soon as he opened his mouth, a term he had never heard of came out, which made him even more puzzled.