Chapter 345 'Chicken' Gongshan

"Chicken" Gongshan is located in Henan, not far from Wushengguan at the junction of Henan and Hubei, because it is a mountainous area, high altitude, cool climate, is a summer resort, since the end of the Qing Dynasty after the country "door" and "hole" opened, this "chicken" Gongshan area has appeared in the figure of foreigners, they fancy the scenery and climate here, so they have purchased land here, built villas, and regarded "chicken" Gongshan as a summer resort for foreigners, but in the late Qing Dynasty, under the impact of the teaching plans that arose in various places,' It was impossible for the Chinese and foreigners to live in peace with the Chicken Gongshan Treaty, so taking advantage of the signing of the Xinqiao Treaty in 1901, the foreign consul officially declared the Chicken Gongshan a summer resort for foreigners, and set up a local management body similar to the Concession Industry Bureau, where the Chinese could not purchase land at will, and the Chinese living in the Chicken Gongshan Mountain must also be under the management of the Ministry of Industry.

In this way, the "chicken" Gongshan area has become a country within a country, and foreigners have turned it into a paradise for foreigners under the banner of "autonomy", and the same situation as "chicken" Gongshan is also in the same situation as Lushan in Jiangxi, Beidaihe in Zhili, Moganshan in Zhejiang, Guling in Fuzhou and other areas, the decline of the state and the decline of sovereignty can be seen from this.

**Later, although the republican government was established, it did not dare to move lightly on foreign privileges in China, and this 'chicken' Gongshan was still a paradise for foreigners. Some time ago, because of the congressional election, there was a confrontation between the powerful factions in the north and the south, and eventually turned into a war, in order to avoid the war, many foreigners who were doing business and preaching in Henan moved to the 'chicken' Gongshan one after another, plus it is now the end of summer, and there are many foreigners and Chinese who are here to escape the summer, so this 'chicken' Gongshan has become particularly lively.

Although the war in Yunan is basically over, the situation is still 'swinging', foreigners and Chinese living in 'Ji' Gongshan are reluctant to leave this paradise, the weather is gradually getting a little cooler, and living on the mountain at night is not very comfortable, so many people move from mountainside villas to hotels at the foot of the mountain.

In addition to those foreigners, many wealthy people in Henan also took refuge from the war, although they could not buy land here at will, but they did not mind renting those expensive villas from foreigners, hiding from the heat of late summer, and waiting for the end of the war.

At the northern foot of the 'Chicken' Gong Mountain, there is a villa. The district, because it was built by French builders, gave it a very French name, called "Champs-Élysées", but the Chinese called it "Perfume Garden", because there are several French perfume merchants living here, and the cheap perfume they sell to the Chinese has penetrated into the countryside of Henan, and in the Henan region, perfume represents France.

But now this perfume garden dwells the law. There are not many Chinese people, and most of the villas here are rented to wealthy Chinese people who have fled the war, and many of them are officialdom figures.

As the Manchu Dynasty once had a great feudal territory. Official, the former governor of Henan Wu Chongxi lived in a small villa in the perfume garden, this villa is the property of a French foreign manager, when Wu Chongxi was a 'waiter' of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, he had some 'dealings' with the foreign manager, and now he lives in this villa and does not need rent, on the one hand, because of the two of them' On the other hand, it is also because the French businessman has now returned to France, and the villa is empty, so it is better to earn personal favors, because in such a country, a fallen former official may rise at any time, and the French businessman is also planning to make a political investment.

Wu Chongxi is indeed quite depressed now, since **, he has been based. Ben was squeezed out of the officialdom, only with the title of "Henan Constitutional Commissioner" in the provincial parliament to receive a carriage fee, and with the fall of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the previous gray 'color' income has also lost its source, what Tan Jing, Bing Jing are all gone, and those who used to always shout "teacher" when they meet will not come to visit the teacher, as for the farewell and teacher respects they sent, they are also gone.

Wu Chongxi, of course, understood why he was so down, because he was in the revolution. After the death, it was announced that Henan's action of "anyway" was not active, but a helpless move to be 'forced' under the guns of the Beiyang Army, Wu Chongxi himself understood, and Yuan Shikai was also very clear in his heart, as a political figure, Wu Chongxi knew that Yuan Shikai regarded him as an outsider because of this.

However, Wu Chongxi didn't care what Yuan Shikai thought of him. An outdated politician, he knows very well that he is unlikely to make a comeback in the political arena, because the Beiyang Group wants to resettle its own people, Yuan Shikai also wants to resettle his own cronies, there are more monks and less porridge, and outsiders like Wu Chongxi, the Beiyang Group will not absorb them, and it is very polite to give Wu Chongxi the hat of a "constitutional commissar" to wear.

Originally, Wu Chongxi was. I plan to just wear the hat of a "constitutional councilor" and eat and drink souls, but I don't take a few hundred silver dollars a month for carriage and horses, and I don't take it for nothing.

However, with the development of the situation, Wu Chongxi's political sense of smell has recovered, and he suddenly found that his choice seems to be a little inappropriate, and what made his thinking fundamentally change is the "Hunan and Guizhou Incident", Wu Chongxi was surprised to find that the first power in the south was attacked by the Junxian faction in Hunan and Guizhou provinces, not only did not fall, but took this opportunity to further strengthen the control of the southern provinces, which made Wu Chongxi have to re-examine the strength of the north and the south.

After a painful choice, Wu Chongxi resolutely resigned from the post of "constitutional commissar" in Henan to show his heart, but at this time, he had not yet decided whether to fall to the powerful faction in the south, and he decided to continue to wait and see.

Soon, the "Southern Henan Campaign" between the powerful factions of the north and the south began, and in just a few days, the armed forces of the United Front easily defeated the Second Army of the Beiyang South and won a brilliant victory, which not only surprised Wu Chongxi, but also prompted him to finally decide on his new allegiance.

Wu Chongxi decided to turn to the United Front and conduct a political speculation in exchange for the opportunity to revive in the political arena, as a former governor, Wu Chongxi was unwilling to be lonely in his heart, he also yearned for political power, yearning for that feeling of being on top.

If he wants to defect to the United Front, Wu Chongxi must find a way to come up with some "meeting gifts", or "vote for his name", otherwise, with his current white state, even if the United Front is willing to accept him, he will never treat him as a person, at most he will give him a false title like Yuan Shikai.

Wu Chongxi wanted real power, so he decided to take a risk.

has been the governor of Henan for nearly a year, and Wu Chongxi can't do anything like his political achievements, but he still weaves some of this network of favors and relationships, which is the capital he can use now.

Wu Chongxi's plan was very simple: he was going to use the network at hand to instigate the local armed forces in Henan in northern Henan to rebel and cooperate with the united front to control the entire Henan province, so as to use this as a vote to join the united front.

At present, the northern part of Henan is still controlled by Beiyang, and the local armed forces are also under the unified command and dispatch of the Beiyang side, and many of these local armed forces are adapted from the original patrol battalions of the Qing army, and they do not change the soup but not the 'medicine,' and even the military uniforms are still old-fashioned coats; these units are not strong in combat effectiveness, but they still have some ability to cause 'chaos,' and as long as the troops of the United Front continue to 'advance' northward, these local armed forces can be completely utilized.

This is exactly Wu Chongxi's wishful thinking, but he can't fight this abacus alone, without the presiding and coercing of the United Front, his plan as governor Wu is a joke.

A few days ago, Wu Chongxi had sent people to northern Henan and Wusheng Pass, with those who went to northern Henan responsible for liaising with the patrol battalion, and those who went to Wusheng Pass to liaise with the United Front.

Up to now, the people in northern Henan have not yet sent back the news, but the people from Wushengguan have rushed back and 'handed over' a letter to Wu Chongxi.

This letter turned out to be a handwritten letter from Zhao Bei, chairman of the United Front Committee, which surprised Wu Chongxi and at the same time felt a little flattered; he originally thought that it would be very good to be able to contact a high-ranking officer, but he never thought that Chairman Zhao would personally reply to him in a letter, and the wording in the letter was also quite polite.

Who is the chairman? A man who has a lot of opportunities. Moreover, he has now actually become the leader of the powerful faction in the south, and this time he has taken command and defeated the main force of Beiyang, and his prestige is rapidly improving, and there are faint signs of sitting in the world.

Moreover, along with this letter, there is also a special telegram codebook, which is convenient for the two sides to contact at any time.

The chairman personally replied to the letter, which shows that he attaches great importance to this matter. We must get this matter done, otherwise, it will be a trivial matter for the chairman to underestimate us and delay your future, and it will be a big matter. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have any ideas, just say it, let's talk about it with the three stinkers. ”

Wu Chongxi read the letter, and 'handed over' the letter to several cronies present to circulate it, among these people, some were his former guests when he was a governor, and some were former low-level officials.

After reading the letter, everyone was as excited as Wu Chongxi, but in addition to being excited, they were also somewhat worried, because Chairman Zhao's letter clearly stated that it was not enough to cooperate with the troops of the United Front to control the northern Henan region, and the chairman planned to swallow the whole of Shanxi in one fell swoop with the might of victory, and condescendingly looked down on the Zhili and Beijing-Tianjin regions from the west.

This is a very bold strategic idea, and if it can be implemented, then strategically, the united front will have a complete advantage, and the Beiyang group will have to retreat to the Zhili and Shandong areas for a long time.

However, if you want to implement this strategic plan, it is not so easy, Wu Chongxi is the governor of Henan, and his network is mainly in Henan, not Shanxi.

Perhaps, this was a test for Wu Chongxi by the chairman of the NPC committee, and if he passed this test, then his status in the eyes of the chairman of the NPC committee would be higher in the future.

Everyone discussed the plan to attack Shanxi, but after discussion, Wu Chongxi really didn't have a good network, and just as he was thinking about it, a curtain guest suddenly remembered someone.

"Gong Wu, you haven't been the governor of Shanxi, but Cen 'Chun' Xuan did, back then." Gengzi country change', Shanxi governor Yu Xian connived at the boxers to kill foreigners, and then the Eight-Nation Coalition refused to give up, named and named to kill, the Qing court in order to negotiate peace, had to behead Yu Xian, the position of the governor of Shanxi was vacant, temporarily taken care of by the political envoy, and later transferred Xiliang from Hunan to Shanxi as the governor, but did not wait to take office, Xiliang was transferred to Hubei, the governor of Shanxi could not find a suitable person for a while, when the Queen Mother and the Emperor Guangxu were in Xi'an to hunt in the west, was worried about the matter of the governor of Shanxi, when Cen ' Chun'Xuan is the governor of Shaanxi, and when he saw this, he volunteered to serve as the governor of Shanxi, because of this matter, Cen 'Chun' Xuan was very valued by the Empress Dowager of the West, and he was transferred to Guangdong as the governor after only one year of being the governor of Shanxi. Wu Gong, this Cen 'Chun' Xuan has been the governor of Shanxi for more than a year, and at that time, Shanxi has undergone a 'chaos', and the local officials were either blackmailed by foreigners to kill the Qing court, or fled, and the officials who took over were all pulled up by Cen 'Chun' Xuan, so Cen 'Chun' Xuan still has some kindness to the current local officials in Shanxi, and he has a much better chance of winning than us if he came forward to instigate it. ”

After listening to the words of the curtain guest, Wu Chongxi bowed his head again and again and said, "Not bad, not bad." Cen 'Chun' Xuan did serve as the governor of Shanxi, but I heard that this person is now living in the Tianjin Concession, I wonder if he is willing to wade into this troubled water? ”

"Cen 'Chun' Xuan has always been at odds with Yuan Shikai, the two have deep contradictions, the last time Yuan Shikai was in charge of Beijing and Tianjin, the 'chaotic' soldiers almost captured Cen 'Chun' Xuan, who was the governor of Zhili at the time, and the hostility between the two may not be resolved. Now that the United Front is anti-Yuan Shikai and anti-Beiyang, Cen Chun Xuan will definitely be willing to contribute if he doesn't want to hide in Tibet all day long. Of course, this benefit will have to be given, but this will need to be negotiated with the United Front. ”

The suggestion of the curtain guest was very reasonable, and Wu Chongxi immediately decided to handle it accordingly, so he hurriedly found the housekeeper and asked him to take a secret telegram to Wushengguan with the password given by the United Front, and inform the United Front of this plan of action.