Yang Rui had already discussed with Cai Yuanpei a few days ago about the enrollment of the school examination, but at that time, it was only determined that the middle school and primary schools would take the provincial joint examination, and because of the consideration of teaching students according to their aptitude, the university hall still decided to enroll students independently under Cai Yuanpei's insistence, or to be precise, each department should enroll students independently. But now seeing that so many students were agitated because a teacher was arrested, Yang Rui changed his previous thinking and thought that universities, middle schools, and high schools should all be recruited in a unified manner.

Cai Yuanpei did not oppose it as strongly as last time, and the students of the geology department across the country were all encouraged by Wu Yangzeng's case, which was completely unexpected by him, he said: "But after all, the university is different from the high school, how to recruit the national unified enrollment?" ”

"Take the test twice." Yang Rui said, "The first time is the national joint examination, the school set a score line, and those who pass the line are eligible to participate in the school's independent enrollment. Yang Rui, who has been partial to the subject since he was a child, did not forget to add a single subject, "Then there is the exam to be kept secret, the small high school, the high school entrance examination, and the college entrance examination, all of which must be selected from all over the country to gather outstanding teachers to Beijing to produce the examination papers, and after the questions are printed, distributed, and examined, and then uniformly marked, before the end of the exam, these instructors can only live in Beijing or nearby, and the right is to cultivate." ”

"That's ......," Cai Yuanpei twisted his goatee, "I am afraid that it will take a lot of time to gather teachers from all over the country, and the test papers will be printed in Beijing, and then distributed to all provinces and counties, which will cost a lot." ”

"I want fairness, not giving the powerful a chance to take advantage of the loopholes. You look at the university hall run by the Manchu Qing Dynasty before. Aren't they all those who are rich or know the powerful? Yang Rui emphasized that the college entrance examination system, which was hated by later generations, is now praised by him. You've heard a lot of the word 'appreciation' and the word 'way', right? You've heard a lot of it, right? That network is established by 'appreciation' and 'doorway', even if there are poor families, after passing the exam, they are entangled with them, and it has become an impenetrable network. ”

"Brother Less. It's right, it's expensive, but it's really fair. Children of poor families. It's really not easy to study, and it's even more difficult for girls, if it's not fair. There's no way they'll get into school. Qiu Jin interjected beside him. She is only responsible for people's livelihood work in the Ministry of Civil Affairs, but she attaches great importance to the protection of women's rights and the protection of girls, and even the British feminist Madame Pankhurst will visit Wèn China this year at her invitation.

"The people, even a small rich family like ours, it is not easy to study. Now that you are implementing free education above the high school, such a good thing, those powerful families don't break their heads and send their children to the school? And the officials are officials based on examinations, and the examination selection of the officials is fair. It's pitch black in your school, and the people who come for reference are all the children of powerful families. In the end, the revolution became like the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and it was still those people who were above the people, and the people would never come out. "Zhang Taiyan has a very thorough view of the scientific examination, he is different from Cai Yuanpei of Zhongjinshi, and he belongs to the supernumerary personnel who have not been listed.

"Good. Let's just say that when I go back, I will discuss with the students in the school department a practical solution. Cai Yuanpei said.

"Be quick," Yang Rui told him. "The lunar calendar is already in February, and you will have to recruit in May and June, you have to transfer people to Beijing, and there is not much time to issue papers and distribute them. In addition, those university halls, as long as they are affiliated with the faculty, must be notified below, and they are not allowed to recruit supernumerary personnel, as for those privately run schools and church-run schools, if they do not join the national joint examination for enrollment, then the academic qualifications issued by the school department will not be recognized. ”

"It's easy to say that it's easy to run it privately, but it's difficult for the church to run it." Cai Yuanpei said that the church school is now a big trouble, "They all have to study theology, and the textbooks are also different, and the school department is having a headache about this." ”

"Textbooks must be assigned by the department!" Yang Rui said, "The enrollment must also be the unified enrollment of the department, and the teachers should also be uniformly assessed by the department. However, this article should not be hyped up, and the language should be more obscure. Yang Rui explained that he had to be obscure, everyone here understood what he meant, now that the country has just been established, although the foreigners are strong, they can also endure it, especially now when they ask for foreigners.

On the way back to Prince Zheng's mansion from Dali Temple, Yang Rui and everyone talked about the school, and when he got out of the carriage and wanted to continue talking, he saw that Xie Jintai was already waiting there. Because the provisional government inherited the official arrangement of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was still in the Wuliang Hutong, that is, the Forbidden City, as the vertical axis, in the east of the imperial city. Just now, Xie Jintai also knew from the phone that Yang Rui was surrounded by a group of petitioners, and he wanted to come, but he was just stopped by the new Japanese minister Enjiro Yamaza.

The contract has been concluded, and although both China and Japan know that there will be a war between the two countries in the future, they are still extremely polite to each other when they are recuperating. After all, the previous defeat made Japan realize that if it wants to defeat China in one fell swoop, it is not enough to rely on 100,000 people alone, and judging from the current military strength of the Renaissance Army, there are more than 300,000 people not counting the Beiyang Army, and more than half of these 300,000 people are in the northeast, so if you want to completely conquer China, you must have more than 400,000 troops to fight in China, so that there is a possibility of defeating the Renaissance Army.

In addition to the number of troops, diplomacy is also extremely important, especially the ally Britain does not want a war in the Guannai, but judging by the base camp, some places that cannot directly enter the heart of China, such as Beijing, then with Yang Rui's toughness, the war is unlikely to be like the First Sino-Japanese War, China will stop and surrender before the army enters the Shanhaiguan. If Yang Jingcheng's government implements a scorched earth policy like in the Battle of Mukden and drags the war on completely, it will be very disadvantageous to its own side in the cross-sea war, after all, the war cost cannot be unlimited, and the previous defeat has made countries worry about borrowing. Based on this, the headquarters agreed to an armistice between China and Japan last year to save military spending, and at the same time formulated a plan to occupy Beijing in one fell swoop and then use diplomatic means to force the Funahua to admit defeat.

Enjiro Yamaza joined Genyosha at an early age and, like his predecessor, Hikoyoshi Ijiin, was a continentist. The biggest purpose of his visit to China was to prepare for another Sino-Japanese war in the future, and the most important of these preparations was to use a pretext for war and to create a favorable diplomatic situation. Like now. China and Britain cannot talk about a piece of land that is beneficial to Japan because of the Tibet issue, but this is only a matter between China and Britain, and there must be obvious disputes between China and Japan in order to create a pretext for war and diplomatically isolate China.

Yanza did not find a suitable reason for coming to China for several months, and the only thing that can be said is that the Japanese advisers hired by the Chinese government, factories, and schools were all dismissed, but this happened during the Mukden War, and the armistice negotiations did not take this into account. So that's not the point. But since last month, the mountain has continued to find opportunities, one is the Shaanxi oil mine. In the past, I invited Dr. Otsuka and technicians from Japan to mine it, but now I hastily handed it over to the United States to handle it, which is to ignore Japan's priority;

The second is the Jiujiang Railway, that is, the Nanxun Railway. It belongs to the Jiangxi Railway Company. And the railways in Jiangxi Province will be built by this company, although the establishment of this railway said that it will not solicit foreign shares, and the stocks are not allowed to be resold to foreigners, but the Japanese capital is still through the Shanghai Chinese business Dacheng Chamber of Commerce and Industry Wu Ruibo invested 1 million taels of shares, and obtained more than 270,000 shares, since the start of the railway, the railway company has successively asked the Chinese businessmen Dacheng Chamber of Commerce and Industry to borrow money, and hired Japanese technicians. Japanese equipment was purchased.

The new government immediately implemented measures to state the main railways and to make up for the refund of civilian funds, and the liquidation of other railway companies, even the cases that had accumulated over the years like those in Sichuan, were clearly investigated. The original share capital of the railway company, which should be withdrawn and supplemented, was handled very properly, but the shareholders of the Jiangxi Railway Company, Huashang Dacheng Chamber of Commerce and Industry, resolutely refused to accept the shares and the shares because they borrowed the shares from the Japanese, or because they did not dare to offend the Japanese, or because they thought that the government would be afraid of the Japanese. But even so, the more than 50 kilometers from Jiujiang to De'an have been laid - because the Japanese designers designed the roadbed too low in order to save money, and the turning radius and slope restrictions were not appropriate, the official construction team has begun to implement rectification, and the construction of the entire railway has been fully rolled out.

The troops marched in, the peasant associations were launched, and the shareholders of the original railway company were disgusted with foreigners taking shares, but now the government has taken over and returned the principal and interest, and the major shareholders have also been included in the industrial plan by the Ministry of Industry and will support them to set up factories, so the road construction work has not been helped, and it is extremely smooth. The shareholders are satisfied, the people are also satisfied, and there are even rumors that the railways in so many provinces in the country are not repaired, but only Shanxi and Jiangxi, because there is coal in Shanxi, and there are people in Jiangxi - this is the prime minister of the current dynasty did not forget Sangzi and strongly presided over, and this railway is said to pass through Nan'an Fucheng regularly. The provisional government did not buy the accounts of the Chinese businessmen Dacheng Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Wu Ruibo insisted on not wanting shares.

"What do the Japanese say that they want us to borrow their money to build this road?" Yang Rui said.

"Yes!" Xie Zhangtai replied, weak. "I pushed him back as I had agreed."

The work of diplomacy is not so easy to do, in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, foreigners often do two things, one is to deduct money, that is, to withhold the surplus, so that the Manchus can agree to their special requirements, do not agree not to give money; The other is mainly aimed at officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that is, they are angry, slapping the table and kicking the stool, not only verbal intimidation, but also intimidation, which only makes people nervous, and they do not agree to give up [Note 1]. This was the case in the Qing Dynasty before, and it is also the case now, Xie Jintai is usually fine when he is young, but once the minister comes to the door, he is physically and mentally exhausted.

"Actually, when are we going to go to war with Japan? Let's start early. Xie Jintai took a sip of tea and said again, over the past six months, the excitement of the success of the revolution has gradually faded, and he, who is in charge of diplomacy, has gradually become uncomfortable.

"What, the Japanese are going crazy again?" Looking at his appearance, Yang Rui smiled, he knew that diplomacy was not easier than fighting. "Gu Shaochuan, can't he share your worries for you?" Gu Shaochuan is Gu Weijun, he just came back this year, he is a doctor of law, he originally wanted to go to the Tingwei Mansion, but Yang Rui let him go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"This man is talented, but he is too arrogant, and his strength is extremely small, and he is completely unusable[note 2]!" Xie Zhangtai said. What he said surprised Yang Rui very much, isn't Gu Weijun a recognized diplomat in later generations?

Feeling the difference between the real and the history textbooks, Yang Rui was no longer in a hurry to ask about the Japanese, but sighed: "Then you say, who is available on the diplomatic side?" You can't do everything alone. ”

"Hehe," Xie Zhangtai smiled bitterly, and he said, "Diplomatic talents are not so easy to find, and these are the ...... Gu Shaochuan didn't say anything. The older generation left behind in the Manchu Qing Dynasty didn't say anything, just talked about the few in front of them...... Lu Zhengxiang is modest and peaceful and clumsy in his decision, while Shi Zhaoji is old and has a perverse temperament. Although Wei Chen's group was eloquent but lacked regulations, Hu Weide, hehe, saved money behind closed doors, and was more than 100,000 yuan a year [Note 3]. ”

"What is a closed-door deposit, more than 100,000 a year?" Yang Rui listened to Xie Zhangtai's evaluation and was very puzzled.

"What does it mean to save money behind closed doors?" Xie Jintai said this, and suddenly laughed. Tears of laughter are about to come out, "When Hu Weiyong was the minister to Russia, I went to Petersburg to do business. I also went to inquire about him by the way. This Hu Weiyong is most afraid of meeting Russians, and he does not socialize with Russians, except for the time of Hallomy, he will invite local students to dinner, and will never invite outsiders. He was going to the Russian Foreign Ministry. Liaison with general staff only. Not to mention that it is not easy to meet the chief or deputy director, it is not easy to even meet the director of the department and the section chief, he has been in Russia for many years, and the Russian press has not even said his name.

And the reason why he saves money behind closed doors is because the funds of diplomatic embassies are fixed and contracted, unlike us, and there is no list of bills. If you go out and spend more, you will have less left for yourself. He just kept his door closed. He can village 100,000 rubles a year, and the money is his own, haha...... That's why I said he was saving money behind closed doors, more than 100,000 a year. ”

"Chong'an, you...... You're still laughing, damn it, the Manchu Qing Dynasty spent three million diplomatic dollars a year, and that's how it was spent! Yang Rui's shopkeeper was furious and slapped the table. Get rid of all these bastards! If you love to do it or not, if you don't do it, Lao Tzu's money is not so easy to make! ”

"Who are you looking for?" Xie Zhangtai smiled, and his mood was much better, "Now let's let these people top it first, and wait for our people to come up and talk about changing things." This kind of diplomacy is more appropriate to do it if you have to kill people. Why? Because of the courage to kill people, those foreign ministers and counselors are the most scary, and the timid ones will only tremble when they are frightened; and then there is cleverness, just like those cousins in the teahouse, who can see the needles and speak well; Finally, it is necessary to be good at foreign language and understand diplomatic etiquette.

The people I have at hand now, there are only two people left by the former Qing Dynasty who are available: Wang Guangqi, counselor in Russia; Another one is Lu Zhengxiang and his wife, nominally appointing Lu Zhengxiang as the principal and his wife Peide as the deputy, but in fact, with his wife as the principal and himself as the deputy, then the couple can still be in charge alone. Then there is a person available on our own side, that is, Zheng Yuxiu, who shouted at the legation on the night of the Beijing call, she is bold, clever, and fluent in French, and it is okay to send her to a more gentlemanly country. ”

"A woman, even if she is familiar with French and knows etiquette, I am afraid that she will be laughed at by foreigners if she is sent to be a minister, and she has no education and no experience, where do you want to send her, the United States, Britain, Japan? Russia? Yang Rui said, saying that he had forgotten about his business.

"To England." Xie Zhangtai said, "The British claim to be very gentlemen, they can't lose their temper with women, they are not afraid of no education and no experience, let Zhu Kuansu casually climb a relative, recognize her as a cousin or cousin, and don't you become a county lord and county lord?" Britain itself has a royal family, and it also respects the aristocracy, and she will go with the title of the royal family, and then make up a set of good stories for her like you sold MSG in the beginning, and it will definitely be popular.

She went to England, and Wang Guangqi went to Japan, with his cleverness, he stabilized the Japanese in recent years, and gained insight into some signs, and he could still do it; Lu Zhengxiang is reliable, and what is bad is determination and talent, but his wife is known for her talent, and she is a European nobleman, so it is best to suppress the Americans. Once the affairs of these three countries are decided, the affairs of the other countries will be handled easily. By the way, Russia can't forget, Russia sent Chen to get sick, he has been there for many years, and he is very familiar with the way, but Russia is too cold, he is not in good health, we have to do it quickly in the past few years. ”

"I know! Even if it's not fast, Japan won't give us time. Yang Rui thought of this and pulled Xie Jintai and said, "Let's go, follow me to the General Staff, I also just want to see how the navy is doing now." ”

Because of the large number of personnel and strict secrecy, the General Staff, the General Rear Department, and the Superintendent (Supervising Army) were not located in Prince Zheng's Mansion, but were located in the Stick Beizi Mansion (now Jishuitan Hospital) in Desheng Gate, where the place was not small, and it was far away from the envoy area, which was relatively safe. Yang Rui took Xie Zhangtai to the General Staff, and the carriage began to verify a few hundred meters away, and after the dense sentry, the two finally arrived at the place. Because he knew that Yang Rui was coming, Leo was already waiting.

Xie Jintai and Leo have long been familiar with each other. Yang Rui was not polite, and after signing to take Xie Zhangtai into the war room, he looked at Leo and several other staff officers. There are also Liu Boyuan of the Security Bureau and Zhang Shidao, the new director of the Intelligence Bureau, who asked: "What is the situation of the Navy now?" ”

When Leo heard that he was asking the navy, he lit a cigarette that had nothing to do with him, and he thought that Yang Rui was here to talk about the war against Japan. Zhang Shi and Liu Boyuan glanced at each other, but Liu Boyuan said, "Sir, the situation is only temporarily stable." In addition, what is more troublesome is that the navy side is somewhat involved with Lin Shuqing, the former co-commander of the Ninth Town of the New Army, who is also from Minhou, Fujian. And the navy is very familiar. "The Ninth Town of the New Army was reorganized last winter, and the troops were dismantled, but some generals still remained in office, and Lin Shuqing was one of them.

"What's wrong with him?" Yang Rui is not worried about this kind of person. It is difficult to achieve great things without soldiers and major generals. "Is he dissatisfied with the treatment, or is he dissatisfied with the position?"

"Both." Liu Boyuan said, "After all, he is only a deputy brigade commander now, and he can't be compared with the previous co-commander, and if someone instigates him, then he will be motivated." Moreover, he now earns 34 taels a month, and for 13 months a year, it is only 442 taels. Although it is not much different from the previous five hundred taels, there is no public expense to be paid. The blood of the soldiers could not be drunk - the new army drank the blood of the soldiers by suppressing three months' salary and taking it to the bank for loans, and then exchanging it for copper dollars to be issued. In his position as co-ordinator, he could receive no less than four hundred taels of silver in a month, and now all the soldiers' salaries were paid to the bank, and the officers had no blood to drink. ”

"And how many people can he pull?" Yang Rui asked.

"He ......" Liu Boyuan glanced at Xie Zhangtai when he said this, and saw that Yang Rui did not stop him, so he said: "There are about 300 people, all of whom are old oilmen of the army, mainly old non-commissioned officers from the Ninth Town. ”

Liu Boyuan's words did not fall, and Xie Jintai felt a chill in his heart, but he remained silent and did not speak much. Yang Rui said: "Then Lin Shuqing will keep an eye on it, it's best to find out their plan." And on the Navy side, what is the situation now? How did they react to the Americans who went before? ”

"Tremendous reaction!" Liu Boyuan said, "The navy has always said that non-Fujian people are not allowed to hold important positions such as commanders [Note 4]. Before appointing the Cantonese Cheng Biguang as the commander, the Manchu Qing Dynasty had the intention of supporting the Cantonese to suppress the Min people, but now suddenly a foreigner came to be the deputy commander, and the commander was not appointed, and everyone reacted greatly, especially the Min officers, plus the word Lin Xi Bao reported, saying that we didn't want to set up a commander at all, and the reaction was even greater!

At the beginning, the boycott was launched by Du Xiqi, the captain of the Hairong ship, who was only a pipe band on Jiang Zhen before, and the original pipe band of the Hairong ship was full of Xichang, and when he and Ji Sheng were driven away, Du Xiqi took advantage of the noise of the Min soldiers, and became the captain of Hairong, this person was fond of opium, and lay on the opium shop all day long, and rarely went on the ship, in the past when the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Sa Zhenbing once ridiculed him for being the army pipe band [Note 5].

After last year's uprising, probably seeing that the naval commanders Sa Zhenbing, Shen Shoukun, and Cheng Biguang were not there, he sent a telegram to the General Staff to show goodwill, saying that he could persuade all the ships to fall to us together, but because he had no name, he probably wanted to get an official and a half post. At that time, according to our previous discussion, we did not give him any name, and I think that at that time he began to be dissatisfied with us; When Cheng Biguang of the Haiqi ship came back, he saw that we were at odds with the Alliance, and he ordered people to publicize that Cheng Biguang and Sun Wen were fellow villagers and had joined the Xingzhong Society.

In short, this person wants to be an official in the world, but his knowledge is extremely ordinary, his experience is unusual, and his addiction to smoking is very deep, even if he is not a Fujian person, he can't be an official. Now he and the others resisted Colonel Moffett, thinking that we, like the Manchus, would use a little softness to promote the captains of the most troublesome ships to appease the soldiers.

He is like this, Lin Yongmo of the Haichen ship, Huang Zhongying of the Hai chip, and most of the Fujian pipe bands hold this idea. But when they later understood that Colonel Moffitt was going to completely clean up the entire fleet, these people were really going to make trouble......"

"Cheng Biguang, how about that? Is he making trouble too? "Yang Rui of the Fujian fleet doesn't want one, but Cheng Biguang is still knowledgeable and experienced, and he doesn't dare to use it if he wants to.

"Cheng Biguang also made trouble over there, but it was mainly the people below him who made trouble, and their statement was that the General Staff discriminated against Cantonese people and admired foreigners. It is found that this was arranged by the interns of the Whampoa Sailor Torpedo School, and they are likely to be members of the League or peripheral members of the League; The same is true of the Jingqing, although its captain Song Wenhui was also born in Mawei, he is a native of Xiangshan, Guangdong, and there are also some interns from Guangdong. Liu Boyuan said. (To be continued......)

PS: Note 1: Paul S. Ryansch, "An American Diplomat's Mission to China", p95

Note 2: Fu Guoyong, "The Man in the Republic of China", p33

Note 3: Ibid

Note 4: Zhang Xia et al., Naval Historical Materials of the Late Qing Dynasty, p742

Note 5: Ibid., p740

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It's the New Year, everyone is all the best!