January 18th is the traditional Chinese New Year. On this day, Yuan Shikai held a family banquet in the Huairen Hall Banquet Hall.
However, for Yuan Shikai, family banquets are often not purely family gatherings. Whether it is the New Year's Day in the past few years, New Year's Eve and other festivals, or other traditional festivals, he will invite some people who are not from the Yuan family.
Guests attending banquets have almost become a tradition of the Yuan family's family banquets, and this tradition is said to have already appeared in Luangshang Village at that time.
Xiaonian's family banquet was in the evening. Starting from this morning, the attendants and servants of the Presidential Palace were setting up in the banquet hall. From the backyard to the kitchen, and then from the kitchen to the banquet hall, busy figures could be seen everywhere.
As you come and go, you can see the lively and festive atmosphere everywhere.
In the afternoon, Yuan Keding sent one of his attendants to Beihai Guest House, notifying Yuan Su to come to Huairen Hall at four o'clock, and also ordered a carriage to be ready at the door of the guest house.
It has been seven days since Yuan Su came to Bei Jing. The serious things that need to be done have basically been done. The investment of 500,000 yuan received from Yuan Keding was just delivered yesterday afternoon with a cashier's check from the Bank of Communications. The key to promoting China's industrialization
Regarding policy, there was a meeting the day before yesterday in the afternoon, and he was also present to participate. Although the bustling discussion did not produce any results, and he did not even know what the members were discussing, he believed that there would be some progress after the beginning of the new year.
Some policies were sent out.(.
Even if these policies are really meaningless, at least they can play a certain role in "fanning the flames", which can still promote the development of domestic industry to some extent.
As for the standardized application of the new rifle, there was almost no follow-up except that Yuan Su attended the Ministry of War meeting last time. Yuan Shikai never came to him to talk about this matter again, and neither Cai E nor Jiang Baili were found.
In this matter, he is still a little worried. The standard rifle is a big deal, and there are a lot of profits in it. In addition, the standard rifle can indeed improve the combat effectiveness of the Beiyang Army.
In addition, although the new rifle is only an episode of this military reform, he is still very worried that Cai E will be completely disappointed with the Beiyang government because of the unpleasantness of the last War Department meeting. But even if he is worried, according to history
Judging from the above situation, nine out of ten cases will indeed be like this.
Therefore, during these two days, Yuan Su's main mental activity was thinking about how to win over Cai E.
Even if Cai E cannot get a good development space in the Beiyang government, we must try our best to win him over to his personal command.
But how could a senior general and regional leader like Cai E succumb to his small temple?
Before four o'clock in the afternoon, Yuan Su set off for Huairen Hall in Nanhai. There were dedicated attendants at the gate of Huairen Hall to receive him. When he got off the car, he noticed that there were three cars parked at the gate of Huairen Hall.
There were four other carriages. It seemed that my uncle had invited many other people to the family dinner tonight.
After entering the door, he made a roundabout way to the small living room directly opposite the banquet hall in the backyard. Several children of the Yuan family were here. However, Yuan Su discovered that the fourth son of Yuan, Ke Duan, was not there. Only Yuan Kewen, Yuan Keliang and a few others were there.
A junior. Accompanying Yuan Kewen was Zhang Zhenfang's son, Zhang Boju. Zhang Zhenfang and Yuan Shikai had long been related, so Zhang Boju was naturally not an outsider.
After everyone met, Yuan Kewen and Yuan Keliang were very polite and stood up to shake hands with Yuan Su and exchange greetings for a while.
This is the first time that Yuan Su has met these Yuan family members in the past few days since he came to the Presidential Palace. Yuan Keding did not introduce them properly, and there is nothing he can do about it. Fortunately, he met them all during the Chinese New Year last year.
Therefore, they were all familiar with each other. Especially Zhang Boju, Zhang Zhenfang was somewhat benevolent to him, and they had a good relationship when he was the governor of Zhili. However, Zhang Boju was in Beijing all the year round, so he didn't meet much.
Zhang Boju also had a deep impression on Yuan Su. Even though he didn't meet much, he would hear some news from his sister Zhang Hanling and his father Zhang Zhenfang every time he returned home.
Under Yuan Kewen's greeting, Yuan Su sat next to Zhang Boju. After all, Zhang Boju came from a scholarly family, and often visited places with calligraphy, painting, and ancient books. He was quite gentle and elegant as a scholar. He took the initiative to chat with Yuan Su, and first asked questions in a formal manner.
Recent situation, and then we talked about some family matters.
"In the middle of last year, I just went to Kaifeng and stayed for a while. My family heard that I had met you before, and I have been asking Keli about your current situation. I am ashamed to say that the news about Keli is actually different from what I know.
There is no difference between what was reported in the newspaper. When I returned home the year before last, my father had already mentioned the matter of Keli to me. We are all members of the same family and are active in the north. Naturally, we hope that we can take care of each other." Zhang Boju led.
He said with a friendly smile.
"It seems that I am at fault. When I was in Zhili, I was just a staff adjutant. If I hadn't been promoted by Uncle Zhang, how could I have the status I have today? How could I sit together with all my brothers in the hall? I think about it every time.
, the person who pointed out the future for me was Uncle Zhang, and the person who helped me know my fate was my uncle, the President. These two brothers will not be ungrateful in this life. As the saying goes, when you drink water, remember the source, I always wanted to find an opportunity to go to Kaifeng to visit Uncle Zhang, but unfortunately I never had time.
Get out of here." Yuan Su said sincerely.
"Ke Li, please don't say that. Nowadays, everyone is in important positions, and many things cannot be controlled by ourselves. As long as Ke Li has this concern in his heart, I believe my father will be deeply comforted. Furthermore, even if you go to Kaifeng, Ke Li, I'm afraid
During this period, my father was not able to meet me. Nowadays, disasters have happened one after another in Henan, Zhili, and Shaanxi. My father is already very stressed when dealing with official duties every day. A few days ago, Uncle Yuan even came to me specifically to criticize my father for his incompetence in doing things.
I'm so ashamed." Zhang Boju said with a wry smile.
Yuan Su thought to himself: Could it be because of Bai Lang's uprising?
It is said that the direct cause of Bailang's uprising was Zhang Zhenfang's excessive taxation in the area, which aroused strong dissatisfaction among the farmers. Of course, this statement was an official statement for political purposes in later generations. He was not trying to defend Zhang Zhenfang, but in this era
Almost every province's governor-general has corruption and exploitation, it's just more or less. Zhang Zhenfang's excessive taxation should not be the direct cause of Bai Lang's uprising, but just an indirect factor.
Of course, since this is the introduction in history, it can only be Zhang Zhenfang who takes the blame.dd