The Yellow Crane Tower is located in the Yellow Crane Rock of the Snake Mountain, on the verge of the Yangtze River, looking at the Parrot Island in the distance, standing on the upper floor can overlook the Qingchuan Pavilion on the opposite bank, it is said that this building was built in the Three Kingdoms period, repeatedly destroyed and built, the current Yellow Crane Tower is rebuilt in the middle of the Qing Dynasty.

When he arrived at Huangheji, Zhao Bei walked up with the guards on foot, and there were many people all the way, and carpenters, plasterers, and small workers were busy driving piles on the rocks and under the rocks.

Just a few days ago, the Yellow Crane Tower and most of the Yellow Crane Rock has been leased to a few big businessmen in Zhaobei to operate, although they didn't say what to do at the time, but now it seems that those businessmen are planning to operate real estate here, and just do what they say, the contract has just been signed for a few days, and the Yellow Crane Rock has become a construction site, but it is now winter, and it has just snowed a few days ago, and the official construction may have to wait until after the beginning of spring.

Zhao Bei once said to those businessmen that he planned to turn the Yellow Crane Tower into a scenic spot and develop tourism in Wuhan, perhaps inspired by the fact that those businessmen had begun to take precautions and occupy land first, whether to build a restaurant or a restaurant, but Zhao Bei could not guess.

Not only was the Yellow Crane Tower rented out, but almost all the places of interest around Wuhan were "rented" by Zhao Bei, there was no way, now the province's work of cleaning up the finances has not yet ended, and the foreign powers have forcibly seized the tariffs collected by them under the pretext of the unstable situation, but all parties of the military government need funds to maintain, and Zhao Bei can't take out so much cash for a while, so he has to make up his mind on those places of interest.

After the revolution, many of the properties that belonged to the bannermen were confiscated by the revolutionary government, including many of their places of interest, which were leased out by the military government, and together with the confiscated government properties, they finally made up enough to make up a million dollars, and there was no problem in maintaining the normal operation of the military government for a few months.

Now that the revolutionary situation is gradually clear, the rise of Zhao Bei has become unstoppable, and those who have watched left and right in the past have begun to move closer to the commander-in-chief intentionally or unintentionally, and the businessmen hiding in the concession have also returned one after another, according to the experience of the rise of the Hunan army and the Huai army, even if the commander-in-chief Zhao can't sit in the world, at least he can mix with Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang's status, and the businessmen in the Wuhan area can't reach the sky, and they can't get to the regency of Yuan, so they have to move closer to the commander-in-chief Zhao. Making money is secondary, the key is to get on the line with the commander-in-chief and buy peace of mind.

Although the merchants' thoughts have a bit of a gentleman's heart, they finally made Zhao Bei make a lot of money.

When the prestige of Commander-in-Chief Zhao rushed to the front of the Yellow Crane Tower, Li Yuanhong and others were already waiting in the Shizhao Pavilion in front of the building, there were not many people, just six or seven people, most of them were unfamiliar faces, everyone was dressed in green clothes and hats, and the quaint Shizhao Pavilion complemented each other, and it was also a little incompatible with Zhao Bei's straight military uniform and shiny riding boots.

Li Yuanhong was wearing a long gown, a satin gold silk jacket on his head, a melon skin hat, and the one-foot-long pigtail at the back of his head was also cut, his face was full of red light, and he was full of energy.

"The commander-in-chief took a break from his busy schedule, Li was very honored, these are all gentlemen and celebrities who came from afar, and Li introduced the commander-in-chief."

Li Yuanhong pointed to an old man who was over fifty years old and said: "This Mr. Zou Tingbi, whose name is Shunqing, is a native of Wuxi, Jiangsu, advocates industry, and has many industries under his name, which can be called a commercial giant in the southeast. This viewing party was actually set up by him. ”

"Fortunately, fortunately." Zhao Bei arched his hand and looked carefully, the person was not good-looking, but there was a shrewdness unique to a businessman between his eyebrows, and his gaze stayed on Zhao Bei's face for a moment, and quickly moved away.

"Speaker Li has been promoted, but in fact, Zou is just a small businessman, and this 'business tycoon' really doesn't dare to be. Others said that the commander-in-chief was only in his twenties, and Zhou didn't believe it, but now he believes it. The commander-in-chief is a young talent, Anqing is famous in the sea, Jiujiang is electrified and the world is shadowed, and the future is limitless. Zou Tingbi arched his hand, humbled himself, and patted the commander-in-chief's ass by the way.

Li Yuanhong pointed to another person and said: "This is Tan Yanhong, the word ancestral nunnery, Hunan Chaling people's clan, Jinshi origin, the title of 'Huiyuan', this is the first Huiyuan master in Hunan in two hundred years, and now he is the president of the Hunan Constitutional Association. ”

This is a historical celebrity, a famous constitutionalist figure in the late Qing Dynasty, who served as the "King of Hunan" for a period of time after the Xinhai Revolution, and is usually criticized as a villain in history textbooks. Zhao Bei couldn't help but look at it a few more times, estimating that the other party's age seemed to be less than thirty years old, quite young, quite dignified, and his temperament was very good, which was consistent with his official eunuch background.

Li Yuanhong pointed to a man beside Zou Tingbi and said: "This is also an unusual person, but the world-famous 'constitutional wizard' Yang Du, the word is white, a native of Xiangtan, Hunan, and a disciple of the great Confucian king Xiangqi (Wang Minyun). This time, Yuan Xiangcheng raised righteousness in the north, and Huizi contributed a lot. ”

Zhao Bei was stunned when he heard this, and asked the man, "Your Excellency is Yang Du?" Aren't you helping Zhang Jilao and them with Zhang Luo's constitutional affairs? What to do in Wuhan? ”

Yang Du, one of the "Six Evils of the Hongxian Empire", that is a great name, one of the earliest celebrities in China to advocate a constitutional monarchy, compared with him, Tan Yanhong's constitutional aura immediately dimmed a lot.

"Yuan Xiangcheng's righteousness in the north was originally a move to conform to the will of the people in the world, but it was just a flag waving and shouting, what merit?" Although the man was humble, his expression was quite proud.

This man is Yang Du, a few days ago he was still in the Shanghai Public Concession with Zhang Jian and others to discuss the plan to respond to Yuan Shikai's action, but suddenly heard of Zhao Bei's "shock", his mind was in turmoil, and Zhang Jian and others who were also at a loss discussed it, and decided to come to see what was going on in person to explore Zhao Bei's mouth.

If the Republican Army refuses to negotiate peace between the north and the south, Yuan Shikai in the north is displeased, the Qing court is annoyed that he "usurped the country," and the southern revolutionary party is also dissatisfied with his maintenance of the Qing court, then the result will either be that the whole country will fall into a scuffle, or it will invite the intervention of foreign powers, and reproduce the scene of the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance. At present, among the various revolutionary parties in the south, Zhao Bei's power is the strongest, not only has the largest army, but also occupies the Hanyang Arsenal, which can be described as a "strong party"; if Zhao Bei cannot be persuaded to agree to the implementation of the constitutional monarchy, then the other revolutionary party forces in the south will naturally follow suit and fight against the Beiyang clique to the end, and this is what Yang Du does not want to see.

On the one hand, if the revolutionaries did not agree to a constitutional monarchy, then Yuan Shikai would not be able to hold the central power and command the world; On the other hand, the Qing court was angry that the Beiyang Army mutinied, and would never trust Yuan Shikai again, not saying anything, but in his heart he regarded him as a "usurper", so Yuan Shikai became a mouse in the bellows, and no one wanted to see him.

In Yang Du's view, the Alliance and the Restoration Society are not worth mentioning, if it weren't for Zhao Bei's "shock", they would not have followed to coax against Junxian, as long as they persuaded the Republican Army and persuaded Zhao Bei, this Junxian state would be stable.

Zhao Bei is full of confidence in opposing Jun Xian, what is the battle? The battle is the hundreds of thousands of horses under his command, and the battle is the tens of thousands of rifles, which is the source of his confidence. Although it was said that "Xiucai met a soldier, it is unreasonable to say", but Yang Du still decided to meet this Qiu Batou for a while, and use his three-inch tongue to pull this historical trend.

Yang Du has always regarded himself very highly, but his career is not smooth, if it were not for Yuan Shikai's appreciation, he also thought that he was unlikely to become a "constitutional wizard", so from the day he entered the Yuan Mansion, he regarded himself as Yuan Shikai's "dead man", willing to be the forerunner of the Yuan family, and now Yuan Shikai encountered this embarrassing situation that the south does not hurt and the north does not love, Yang Du asked himself that he has the responsibility to solve problems for the "lord".

Of course, this is just this scholar's own opinion, as for what Yuan Shikai himself thinks, he doesn't know, and he didn't ask, this time he came to Wuchang was Yang Du's own idea, and he didn't ask Yuan Shikai.

After being humble, Yang Du smiled faintly at Zhao Bei, and said, "It's Yang Du below." It's not a secret, the contemptible people came here to be a lobbyist for Yuan Xiangcheng. ”

"Yuan Xiangcheng asked you to come?" Zhao Bei took the horsewhip and lightly slapped his palm, and began to guess Yuan Shikai's motives.

According to the historical experience of the "Xinhai Revolution", Yuan Shikai has always adopted a "balanced strategy" after the outbreak of the revolution, neither immediately destroying the revolutionary army, nor immediately replacing the Qing court, showing "loyalty" to the Qing court and "righteousness" to the revolutionaries, carefully maintaining the balance of strength between the two opposing forces, neither side is too weakened, neither side is too offended, so that they can compete with each other, and their own fishermen benefit, when neither side can help the other. Then he stepped forward to clean up the situation, giving a little benefit to each side, while he took the opportunity to get the greatest benefit, and it was by using this method that he was able to seize the fruits of the revolution and usurp power.

But now the situation is different, now Yuan Shikai has become a "usurper" in the eyes of the banner people, the Qing court will no longer trust him, and he can't be "loyal"; However, he was not a revolutionary, nor did he respond to the "republic" at the first time; although he launched a "military admonition," he advocated a "monarchical constitution," which ran counter to the republic that the revolutionary army had been advocating since the revolution, and therefore was not respected by the revolutionaries, and the word "righteousness" could not be discussed. Yuan Shikai adopted the method of killing people with a knife, that is, using the power of the Southern Revolutionary Party to intimidate the Qing court, and at the same time using the "Junxian" as a bargaining chip to bargain with the revolutionaries.

The purpose is still the same purpose, the hero is still the same hero, but the situation encountered is completely different.

This, I'm afraid is the reason why Yuan Shikai didn't respond to the "republic" for the first time, he has his own plans, and he is still dreaming of driving the tiger and devouring the wolf, but unfortunately, this time he met a traverser.

Zhao Bei was speculating about Yuan Shikai's intentions, but he heard Yang Du say: "The contemptible people came here, Xiang Cheng didn't know, I made my own opinion, I heard that Mr. Shunqing was coming to Wuchang, so I came with him." If you are presumptuous, you can also hope that the commander-in-chief Haihan. ”

Zhao Bei was slightly surprised, but after thinking about it carefully, he was relieved. According to historical records, Yang Du has always regarded himself as a "national scholar", and his thoughts are deeply influenced by the so-called "emperor's learning", and this kind of self-assertive behavior is not a strange move.

There is no shortage of such "strategists" in history, and in the final analysis, this is a kind of political speculation, and it is a "rainy day" that will be appreciated by the master.

However, considering that Yang Du has constantly changed his governing ideals in history, perhaps, this trip to Wuhan is not speculation.