In fact, preparations for this diplomatic reception had been underway since Chen Jingyun arrived in Hangzhou, but it was impossible to make it happen in a short period of time because of the number of matters involved and the complexity of the matter.

First of all, this kind of diplomatic reception is not just Chen Jingyun and the American side of the party, but also the presence of diplomats from other countries, and it takes a lot of work to get diplomats from various countries to be present, but the low level involves all kinds of interests, for example, the British side has been refusing to attend, and it was not until a few days ago that it was agreed.

Originally, Chen Jingyun was going to hold it on his own territory, that is, in the Huajie area of Shanghai, but then those foreign diplomats almost unanimously agreed that it must be held in the concession, and even the United States believed that the Chinese community in Shanghai lacked the necessary security guarantees and a proper place for the reception, which caused a lot of inconvenience, and suggested that it was the best in terms of concession.

In the face of their opposition, Chen Jingyun felt helpless and could only agree to carry out the event in the concession, but then there was a dispute over the specific place of the reception, the American side felt that the American consulate was better, and the British felt that their consulate was the most beautiful.

After the location was decided, he ran into trouble again, because if Chen Jingyun was going to the concession, he would definitely have to bring a large number of guards, and they were heavily armed, not only with light weapons such as rifles and pistols, but also mortars, heavy machine guns and light machine guns, and cavalry units. This point was not requested by Chen Jingyun, but was raised by a subordinate official in charge of Chen Jingyun's security, and even took the initiative to explain that Chen Jingyun had been assassinated several times recently, and that Chen Jingyun would not enter the concession under any circumstances until his safety was guaranteed.

The authorities of the public concession are also worried, and in their opinion, holding such a so-called drinking party in the concession is completely untroublesome. No, if Chen Jingyun wants to come, he will bring in a large number of guards, and this must not break the rules of the concession that the [***] team is not allowed to enter!

However, such a stalemate is not a solution, especially after the diplomats of various countries directly put pressure on the public concession authorities and asked them to relax the conditions, they decided to allow Chen Jingyun to enter with the guards, but they were not allowed to wear military uniforms, only civilian clothes. In addition, only rifles and pistols could be carried, heavy weapons such as machine guns and artillery could not be carried, and the number of guards should not exceed a hundred.

After the concession authorities relaxed the conditions, although the Nationalist Army generally accepted these conditions, and allowed 100 guards to enter the concession with rifles, pistols, and light weapons, they did not agree to enter the concession in civilian clothes as for their attire, and required Chen Jingyun and his accompanying senior generals and even ordinary soldiers to wear military uniforms to enter the concession, and the reason given was that Chen Jingyun and other officers and men of the Nationalist Army had never taken off their military uniforms as soldiers, had not taken them off before, and would not take them off now!

In the face of the insistence of the Nationalist Army, the concession authorities were too lazy to fight, and they directly agreed without refutation.

Therefore, on the 20th, Chen Jingyun wore a straight national army general's officer uniform, wearing the double sword medal and the medal of the two medals, and sat in three black bridge cars that were the same, and then under the protection of 100 armed guards, he entered the Shanghai public concession with several other high-ranking officers and generals in the national army system.

Sitting in the car, through the window of the car, Chen Jingyun could clearly see a large number of people in the passage leading to the concession, they waved the five-color flag and shouted, they shouted excitedly, but the distance was too far, Chen Jingyun could not hear clearly.

After entering the concession, Chen Jingyun looked at the buildings of various countries with different styles on the road, and at this time he really felt the prosperity of Shanghai as the first city in the Far East. As the International Architecture Expo, the Bund in Shanghai is even more dazzling for others to see, Yu Shifeng, who is sitting next to Chen Jingyun, is also the first time to enter this concession, seeing the prosperous world outside the window, Yu Shifeng did not say anything for a long time!

"I thought that it was good enough that the Chinese realm in Shanghai was so much more prosperous than Fuzhou and Hangzhou, but now look at this concession!" Yu Shifeng did not hide his envy for this place at all: "When will Fuzhou be like this!" ”

Chen Jingyun didn't say anything about Yu Shifeng's amazement and envy, nor did he hit Yu Shifeng that Fuzhou could not be the same as Shanghai in the next thousand years, and the almost gorgeous architectural style and scenery of the Shanghai Concession is a microcosm of history, and there is only one in the world, after all, not every city will have most of the area is a foreign concession, and then countries around the world will treat it as a colony to establish their own style of architecture.

Behind this intoxicating prosperity is a shame that makes people breathless!

Of course, if you don't investigate the problems behind these beautiful scenes, then these buildings and scenery of different styles in front of you are indeed fascinating, especially when Chen Jingyun stepped out of the car and looked at the most luxurious and modern hotel in China in this era, a very unique sense of historical sightseeing emerged.

The vague feeling in front of him seemed to have been seen there, but it was different from what he remembered, and this vague feeling brought Chen Jingyun a great sense of novelty.

However, he did not show this feeling, it has been more than a year since he became the governor of Fujian, and Chen Jingyun has already known how to hide what he thinks in his heart and then show everyone a smile without the slightest mistake.

Chen Jingyun walked into the hotel hall as dazzling as Venus in the night sky, at this time dozens of people had gathered in the hall, most of them were wearing standard banquet dresses, men were almost all black leather shoes, black tuxedo inside a white shirt and white vest, and a white bow tie in the collar, this kind of dress is the standard dress of gentlemen, there is a strict distinction, and the wrong match will make people laugh off their big teeth, for example, if a gentleman wears a black bow tie, Then 100% will be used as a waiter serving plates. In addition to the standard attire, some men also wore uniforms, such as the military attaches of several countries in China present, including Chen Jingyun and other generals of the National Army, who wore their own officer uniforms and medals.

In short, the men present are dressed more uniformly, but the ladies are not dressed in a variety of colors, some wear a long skirt with a skirt to the floor, the older ladies may wear a lace light gauze shawl, and the younger ladies are generous to expose a large piece of spring under the collarbone, and there are also fashionable ladies who follow the fashion trend in Paris, wearing trousers only to the upper part of the ankles, and it is a very loose warehouse tube at the top of the belt, which looks like a skirt from a distance. They also wore a pair of pale yellow or pink and purple high-heeled leather shoes, and a pair of expensive silk stockings made their looming jade feet even more tempting.

In addition to these dresses, there were also several Chinese who wore traditional horse coats, and their female companions were wearing vintage Hanfu from the late Ming Dynasty, and some were wearing traditional costumes such as big plackets.

Chen Jingyun glanced at everyone present with a smile, and then soon Mr. Doll Qing, the U.S. Consul in Shanghai, who was the nominal organizer of this kind of reception, greeted him with a smile: "General Chen, welcome to you!" ”

At this time, a person next to him also came over and said: "Yes, if the general doesn't come again, I will think that your convoy has driven to the Huangpu River!" ”

As soon as this person spoke, Yu Shifeng, who was beside Chen Jingyun, was already whispering in Chen Jingyun's ear: "This is Mr. Philippe, the French consul in Shanghai!" ”

Chen Jingyun smiled at this time and said: "The Huangpu River is still a little small, and it can't fit me!" ”

Then he said to Doyle: "Thank you, Mr. Consul, for the invitation!" ”

Doyle Qingdao: "This is my honor! Then he said: "Come, Your Excellency the general is afraid that he still doesn't know the people around him, I'll introduce you!" ”

Then Chen Jingyun took a small turn in this hall, basically meeting the consuls of various countries in Shanghai who were present tonight, this kind of hurried meeting is naturally impossible to say anything, it is nothing more than a familiar face, after a turn, Dao Erqing said: "General Chen, you like cigars, I have good Cuban cigars here!" ”

Chen Jingyun naturally didn't come here to smoke cigars, but he still nodded: "Please lead the way!" ”

They quickly left the hall, then went up to the second floor, pushed open one of the doors, and Chen Jingyun saw that there were already a lot of people inside, the British, French, German, and Russian consuls stationed in Shanghai were all there, plus the American consul Dao Erqing, this was a full group.

Looking at these people, Chen Jingyun understood very well that these people here were the people he wanted to see when he came to Huizhong Hotel, and his meeting with them was also the purpose of this cocktail party.

After Chen Jingyun took Yu Shifeng in, after the door of the room was closed, Dao Erqing also did it: "Everyone has met just now, so I guess I don't need to introduce it!" ”

Chen Jingyun nodded and said, "This is naturally not necessary!" ”

Several other people also laughed and said no, for the convenience of conversation, but also for convenience, everyone did not bring any translation and the like, let alone any standard diplomatic language French, as for why not use French, it is because Chen Jingyun will not, Chinese Chen Jingyun is convenient, but these professional diplomats are somewhat troublesome, so they simply chose English that everyone knows to talk. Anyway, the meeting on this occasion today is basically a simple exchange, and it will not involve anything too in-depth, and it is basically an expression of attitude.

After a few polite words in the opening remarks, Sir Fareis, the British Consul General in Shanghai, directly said the first important sentence of the day: "General, what will end the war between the Nationalist Army and the Beiyang Army?" ”