At noon on September 19th, the county government of Linyu County first received seven or eight emergency notifications, informing them that serious riots had occurred in several villages, and it had been confirmed that "many people" had died in the riots.
High-speed update [ ] When Wu Like was hesitating whether to report it to the garrison office, the garrison office instead sent someone to issue an order, asking the Linyu County government to take immediate measures to suppress the refugees.
After Wu Like inquired from the visitor, he learned that there had been no less than twenty reports yesterday evening and this morning that two groups of refugees with more than 3,000 people had detoured back to Northeast Hekou Town in Linyu County and to the north.
Shuitou Town. In less than two days, these two towns were all occupied by refugees. The official warehouses in the town were looted and many wealthy families were robbed and killed. The situation was very critical.
Hekou Town and Shuitou Town are two towns close together. Although they are not big, they are only less than 20 miles away from the suburbs of the county. Previously, the Shanhaiguan Patrol Camp had troops stationed nearby, so refugees did not dare to detour easily.
However, a few days ago Wu Chenglu transferred all the garrison into the city, so the entire area lost its defenses, which led to an influx of refugees.
After reading the official document sent by Wu Chenglu, Wu Like couldn't laugh or cry. He actually expected the county government to send people to suppress the matter when it got to this point. The total number of county government guards was less than 150 people, with firearms and weapons.
In total, there was no way to fully deploy all the troops. He was anxious and complaining. The refugees were pouring into the city. If the situation continued to get out of control, Linyu County would be in danger. It was only because Wu Chenglu did not act in a measured manner and transferred all the troops into the city.
Even if we have to deal with Yuan Su in the city, why do we need so many people?
In desperation, he had no choice but to send people to appease the refugees in Hekou Town and Shuitou Town, and at the same time issued an order to organize the strong men in the city to go to the northern city wall to strengthen security. However, these were not easy things to do, so sending people there
To appease the refugees, someone must be willing to go there, and recruiting strong men is not something that can be effective immediately with just an announcement. [New]
What he fears most now is that the refugees will soon rush towards the county town with their hot heads, and by then it will be really over.
For this reason, he had to send people to guard the envoy office and asked Wu Chenglu to send soldiers to strengthen the defense of the city. Even if he did not send people to garrison, he still had to be prepared for emergencies.
For Wu Chenglu, he had finally made some progress in investigating Zhao Fangyu in the past few days. By investigating Zhao Fangyu's entourage and the attendants at the county government guest house, he finally found some clues that could be further investigated.
We learned from Zhao Fangyu’s attachés that Zhao Fangyu went to the commander-in-chief’s camp and never came back. Although two of his attachés said that they left after returning, no one else had seen him; and from the attendants at the guest house, we learned
, on the night when Zhao Fangyu "disappeared", someone from the disaster relief commander's camp seemed to have come to the guest house, but they didn't know who they were and what they were doing.
These two clues point to Yuan Su. With a little trickery, he can quickly clear up the clouds and see the fog.
But before he had time to be happy, the problem of refugees suddenly gave Wu Chenglu a headache. Disaster relief food was distributed as usual, and no one was hungry. Why did these unruly people cause trouble? Fu stared at it.
That's what happened. Not to mention the current situation of the refugees, it got out of control too quickly, and there was really no chance to react. Of course, Wu Chenglu couldn't have known that the symptoms of the refugees had been obvious as early as five or six days ago.
It's just that the officials below deliberately concealed it for a while, and the cumulative effect suddenly made the overall situation seem very sudden.
Wu Chenglu had no choice but to dispatch a battalion to the north of the city to strengthen the area, and put pressure on the county government, who was responsible for stabilizing the violent mood of the refugees. [Thanks for supporting the novel] Yuan Su's incident was still on his mind.
, after all, there is still room for improvement if disaster relief is not done well. If Yuan Su does not handle this matter well, it will be a bad thing.
Early in the morning on September 20th, Robertson, chairman of the Beidaihe British Chamber of Commerce, hurried to the Tao Qing Mansion sponsored by Chen Wennian, sweating profusely, went directly to the door of Chen Wennian's room and knocked on the door.
In the past seven or eight days, Robertson had almost no contact with Chen Wennian. He only secretly sent people to keep an eye on Chen Wennian's whereabouts. He had made up his mind to draw a clear line from this matter and was completely watching the fire from the other side.
Not only that, he also deliberately used the British Chamber of Commerce and his personal network to prevent others from getting involved in the matter.
Originally, everything was a foregone conclusion, and we were waiting for the outcome of this foregone conclusion.
But what Robertson didn't expect was that on the 19th, he actually received two messages, one from the Beijing-Fengcheng Railway Bureau Board of Directors, and the other from Luanzhou. The former
The telegram is a report on the operating conditions of the Beijing-Fengcheng Railway in the latest quarter. As a shareholder of the railway, the Beidaihe British Chamber of Commerce will bear a loss of nearly 10,000 pounds in the past two months due to refugee congestion, and this 10,000 pounds
The pound does not include the reconstruction of damaged railway lines.
Because the disaster situation outside the city was effectively controlled some time ago, and the situation of the victims was also very stable, Robertson ignored the congestion situation in the Shanhaiguan section of the Beijing-Fengcheng Line. Today's message sharply awakened him. As a person involved in Beijing
For businessmen who invest in the Fengcheng Line, the Shanhaiguan section of the Beijing-Fenghuang Line Railway has been congested for two months. This is a very serious problem.
As for the telegram from Luanzhou, it was Reynoldson who conveyed the order of the British Consulate in Jinan. After three days of detailed consultations and constant lobbying by He Qigong, who stayed in Luanzhou, the Jinan Consulate finally decided to help Yuan Su through this crisis. Chen Wenian said in
The entire matter had already been explained in the telegram sent to Luanzhou, so when He Qigong negotiated with Reynoldson, he only said that the British side would provide some help, which was not a difficult task at all.
The Jinan Consulate naturally agreed with He Qigong's words. There was no need to spend money or labor for diplomatic negotiations. It only needed to entrust the Beidaihe British Chamber of Commerce to come forward to put pressure on the guardian envoy. No matter from which aspect, this is indeed nothing.
It's not a big deal, not to mention that as long as it can help Yuan Su gain control of Shanhaiguan, it will be more advantageous for the extension of British snobbery in the future.
Considering that the Jinan Consulate had no authority to issue orders to the British Chamber of Commerce in Beidaihe, Reynoldson specifically added some threats and inducements when forwarding the message. For example, if the Shanhaiguan matter was not handled properly, someone else would be arranged to take over Robertson's position and Robertson would be excluded from serving in Beijing.
Line Railroad's shareholdings.
It was due to this dual pressure that Robertson had to give up his previous arrangement and decided to come forward to help Yuan Su.
After meeting with Chen Wenian, he did not mention the problem of receiving the telegram. On the contrary, he deliberately said that after several days of lobbying, he finally persuaded other businessmen in the British Chamber of Commerce to side with Yuan Su.
Of course, Chen Wennian would not believe Robertson's one-sided words. You should know that in the message he sent back to Luanzhou, he mentioned that He Qigong should contact Reynoldson as soon as possible. It is obvious that Reynoldson used his status as a British official to put pressure on Robertson.
Only then did this profit-seeking British guy stand up again.
But these are not important. Yuan Su has been detained by Wu Chenglu for seven or eight days now. The most important thing at the moment is to rescue Yuan Su first.
After a brief exchange of greetings and courtesies, Chen Wennian hoped that Robertson would immediately leave for Linyu County to find Wu Chenglu, and by the way, notify the patrol battalion of the national security teams stationed at the train station about the confrontation with the first regiment.
Robertson agreed wholeheartedly, and then made some excuses with Chen Wenian before saying goodbye and leaving to prepare for the county seat.
After Robertson left, Chen Wennian finally calmed down a little after being anxious for several days. He knew very well that even with Robertson's help, it could only ensure that Yuan Su's life was safe, but it would not be enough to completely overthrow Wu Chenglu. And once
This matter has been delayed for too long, and if Wu Chenglu finds the whereabouts of Zhao Fangyu, the consequences will be disastrous.
With this in mind, Chen Wennian went to the Beidaihe Post and Telecommunications Bureau and sent a telegram to Luanzhou again, asking He Qigong to send a telegram to Bei Jing as the First Mixed Brigade Headquarters to further clarify the situation at Shanhaiguan.
The contents of the report included that Wu Chenglu had embezzled relief materials and forcibly kidnapped the disaster relief commander-in-chief Yuan Su at night for fear of investigation. Fu was investigating the relationship between Yuan Su and foreigners, but on the one hand there was no evidence, and on the other hand Yuan Su had no prior knowledge
A corresponding report was also made. What's more, a formal official was forcibly arrested without legal procedures. The arrested official was the nephew of the president, which deserves attention anyway.
As long as the central government issued an order, even if it was just a high-sounding statement, Wu Chenglu had to obey it.
This matter will eventually go through zhong yang's side, so simply use zhong yang's intervention to completely resolve the matter.
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[The Beijing-Fengcheng Line, also known as the Beijing-Fengcheng Railway (also known as the Guanwai Railway), starts from Bei Jing Zhengyangmen East Station and ends at Fengtiancheng (Shenyang) Station. The main line is 842 kilometers long and several branch lines were built. In 1898
Construction officially started in October, and was renamed the Beijing-Fengtian Railway in August 1907. In 1912, the entire line to Fengtian (today's Shenyang) was opened to traffic.
Due to the fierce competition between Britain and Russia for the construction loan rights, the Qing government was hesitant about the construction of this railway. In the end, Britain and Russia directly negotiated and exchanged notes to establish a mutual non-obstruction agreement for the right of way. In this way
, the China-British Railway Loan Contract formally signed in October 1898 on the internal and external railways was implemented. The British Jinda served as the general manager and chief engineer, and the real power of this railway also fell into the hands of the British.]