In a blink of an eye, on New Year's Day in 1931, Xu Zhimo spent two days at Zhou Hexuan's house, and then left Tianjin to be a professor at Peking University and Beijing Women's University. Before leaving, he also went to Liang's house to visit Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin, and the three of them seemed to have completely forgotten the original entanglement, chatting about the recent situation and talking happily.

This year's New Year's Day has a particularly festive atmosphere, government departments have a collective holiday for a day, and various newspapers and magazines have also launched "New Year's special issues".

Ignoring the opposition of the society, the Nanjing government officially designated the Western calendar as the "national calendar" as the only calendar officially recognized by China. Although the lunar calendar is still in use, it is no longer recognized by the government and is no longer allowed to appear in official documents.

It is worth celebrating that on New Year's Day on January 1, the Nanjing government began to implement the Customs Import Tariff Rules. The move marked China's achievement of tariff independence, which is historically a huge step forward since the late Qing Dynasty.

Zhang Xueliang held a banquet in Beiping, and his wife Yu Fengzhi invited many celebrities and dignitaries to celebrate the first New Year's Day after he took charge of North China. After the celebration in Beiping, Zhang Xueliang brought the "secretary" Miss Zhao Si to Tianjin and held a ball to invite the celebrities and gentry in Tianjin.

Although Zhou Hexuan repeatedly urged Zhang Xueliang to send elites back to the northeast to strictly prevent the Japanese from taking advantage of the situation, he only transferred a full division back, with a strength of about 8,000 troops.

"Mingcheng, it's not that I don't care about the safety of Northeast China, but the situation in North China is too complicated." Zhang Xueliang was embarrassed.

Zhou Hexuan asked: "The situation in North China has not settled down?" ”

Zhang Xueliang shook his head and said: "Shi Yousan and Sun Dianying, these old warlords, although they have surrendered on the surface, they are secretly making small moves. A few days ago, I just received news that Shi Yousan was secretly in contact with the Japanese, and I didn't know what the hell he was going to do. ”

Zhou Hexuan was silent, not knowing what to say.

From Zhang Xueliang's point of view, his approach is indeed right, and it is impossible to leave the newly occupied territory in North China alone.

Although the Great War in the Central Plains had long ended, the warlords who had been incorporated all had different intentions. Zhang Xueliang was blindly gentle, and he did win the favor of many warlords, but his methods were obviously inferior to Lao Jiang.

Lao Chiang was much more clever, constantly mobilizing the forces of miscellaneous warlords and attacking the red zone under the banner of "suppressing bandits", so that both the warlords and our party forces would be defeated.

Zhang Xueliang's current situation is quite embarrassing, although he has unlimited scenery on the surface, but the territory in North China is extremely unstable. The new warlords under his command did not listen to the announcement, and had to pay them a large amount of military expenses, and the warlords used the military funds to expand their strength, secretly accumulating strength and preparing to take advantage of the opportunity to make trouble.

There are more than one or two warlords who want to drive away Zhang Xueliang and become the "King of North China" by themselves.

According to the historical trajectory, Mr. Wang Zhaoming, a-stirring stick of the Republic of China, will form the Guangzhou National Government in a few months. Wang Zhaoming not only fought Chang Kaishen in the south, but also secretly contacted the warlords in the north and the Japanese, dragging the elite of Zhang Xueliang's Northeast Army in North China.

Among them, Shi Yousan jumped the most fiercely, was defeated by Zhang Xueliang and Chang Kaishen, and fled to Shandong to take refuge in Han Fuyu.

To say that the famous defective general of the Republic of China, Feng Yuxiang is really not as good as Shi Yousan who burned down the Shaolin Temple. In Shi Yousan's life, he defected to Feng Yuxiang 3 times, Yan Xishan 2 times, Chang Kaishen 2 times, Wang Zhaoming 1 time, Zhang Xueliang 1 time, the Eighth Route Army 1 time, and the Japanese 1 time, which is not counting the number of times he defected to ordinary warlords.

It was precisely because those newly attached warlords were ready to move that the elite of the Northeast Army deployed in North China could not move at all, and it would take Zhang Xueliang at least a year or two to completely digest the newly occupied territory.

The dance music sounded, and men and women stepped onto the dance floor.

Zhang Xueliang said with a smile: "Don't talk about the worries in advance, dance!" ”

Zhou Hexuan frowned, drinking red wine and not speaking.

Zhang Xueliang, who wanted to dance with Miss Zhao Si, also let go of Zhao Yidi's hand when he saw this, drank red wine and said, "Mingcheng, don't think about it." With the current strength of the Kwantung Army, even if I want to stir up trouble in the northeast, it will not be too late for me to temporarily transfer the army back. ”

"I hope so." Zhou Hexuan said.

Zhang Xueliang pointed to Liao Yaquan, who was dancing with Zhang Xueming on the dance floor, and said with a smile: "Your confidante is very active, I heard that she has become famous in Tianjin's social circles, and even the British and French consul generals in Tianjin have praised her." Sister Yu (Fengzhi) also told me that Liao Yaquan invited her to participate in radio programs and engage in some charity publicity activities. ”

Speaking of Liao Yaquan, Zhou Hexuan had an incomparably headache, and said in a low voice: "Sixth handsome, that woman is a Japanese spy." ”

"What?" Zhang Xueliang's face changed greatly, and he asked in surprise, "Are you sure?" ”

"100% sure," Zhou Hexuan nodded, "I already knew about that woman when she first approached me. ”

Zhang Xueliang asked, "Do you want me to arrest her?" ”

"Does it work?" Zhou Hexuan smiled bitterly and asked, "Liushuai, if you arrest her today, the Japanese may send a new spy over tomorrow, and it is even more dangerous to know the details." ”

"The Japanese are so pervasive!" Zhang Xueliang said indignantly.

Due to the lack of progress in the Japanese investigation in the United States, and the consumption of manpower and material resources, Liao Yaquan's espionage mission has begun to change. From investigating the secret forces behind Zhou Hexuan, he turned to relying on Zhou Hexuan's fame and influence, wandering in the upper circles of Tianjin's political and business circles to obtain all kinds of business and political information.

Soon after today's dance began, Liao Yaquan took the initiative to approach Zhang Xueming, obviously Zhang Xueming was her new target.

Zhang Xueming is Zhang Xueliang's younger brother and also serves as the Tianjin Municipal Police Chief (who will also be the mayor of Tianjin in three months). With such a pivotal position, it is natural that the Japanese spy agencies will be closely watched.

The end of a song.

Zhang Xueming and Liao Yaquan came back from dancing, and greeted with a smile: "Big brother, Mr. Zhou, why don't you dance tonight?" ”

"I'm a little tired, take a break first," Zhou Hexuan smiled slightly, and said to Liao Yaquan, "Yaquan's dancing skills are improving very quickly." ”

Liao Yaquan made a shy look and said, "It's a little bit better." ”

Zhang Xueming asked the waiter for a glass of red wine and praised: "Miss Liao's dancing posture is very elegant, and she deserves to be Mr. Zhou's confidant." ”

Zhang Zuolin's sons have their own characteristics, the second Zhang Xueming is very smart, but he does not have Zhang Xueliang's backbone and pride, and even once served in the Wang puppet regime. The third Zhang Xue, Zeng Mingzhe, protects himself, is not keen on power and wealth, and goes to the West to live happily. The fourth Zhang Xuesi is a backbone patriot, after the Xi'an Incident, he wholeheartedly followed our party, and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he was appointed as a major general and chief of staff.

When Zhou Hexuan left with Liao Yaquan, Zhang Xueliang said to his younger brother: "Xueming, be wary of that Miss Liao, she has contact with the Japanese." In the future, she will come to you again, try to be as humble as possible, and never divulge any important news! ”

Zhang Xueming was stunned for a moment, and then smiled: "It's a little interesting." Mr. Zhou is very bold, and the person next to the pillow is suspicious that he can still be quiet, and I will definitely not be able to sleep. ”