Yang Rui, who was disturbed by a woman for the New Year, was still angry in the study, he couldn't bear to bear this woman appearing in front of him, and at the same time he had to sigh that reality was always ironic, he had to marry him before, but now it is difficult to give up, the political level, the human level, and the blood level, these will firmly glue together the marriage that has been completely broken.

This kind of trouble also makes Yang Rui deeply feel that he is just a prisoner - he can't do what he likes and is willing to do according to his preferences and personality, and many times he has to conform to public opinion, follow certain laws, and follow the rules of this era to do things, which he doesn't like very much. This couldn't help but remind him of a sentence he saw a long, long time ago: The emperor is just a slave of history!

He forgot that this sentence was from that foreign novel, but Guangxu's relief and his current helplessness made him deeply agree with it. In terms of personality, he never wanted to be a revolutionary leader, a head of state, but history has pushed him to this point, and if he does not follow the track set by history, then naturally someone else will 'replace' him, and this 'substitution' may be mild or bloody. Even if it was moderate, he feared that the country would take a detour. Being in the position of ruler for half a year only made him understand one truth: that is, in hundreds of years, the prosperity and decline of a country are closely related to the leader's judgment of the international situation, and how to find his country's position in the international arena is the most important task of the ruler of a country, rather than attaching importance to education, science and technology, economy, and so on.

Japan's rise twice in the last hundred years. Of course, there are reasons why the Japanese are vying for a large navy and education, but the influence of international factors on Japan's internal affairs is reflected in every historical juncture of Japan: Without the support of the Netherlands and Britain, it would not have been the Downfall faction that won the War. If it weren't for the Korean War and the Cold War after World War II, Japan would not have prospered as it did later.

Therefore, for China now, even if it has painstakingly established a complete system and cultivated many talents, once it misjudges the international situation, those in power will take the wrong path. Then the country will fall into the whirlpool of history and will not be able to extricate itself. Even, even if there is no decision-making error, if you are not there. What will happen to the Revival? Beiyang after Yuan Shikai's death was infighting, and the Kuomintang after Sun Wen's death was also infighting. There is no end to strife and infighting.

Maybe I really won't let go until the end of World War II...... When Yang Rui lit a cigarette. The thought popped into his head, and then he thought it was very likely. The Revival Association will now be dominant for a while, and its accurate judgment of the international situation and the establishment and rectification of the internal management system will make it firmly control the position of president until decades later.

"Why can't you speak well?" When Yang Rui was thinking about when he would be able to retire and travel around the world, Han Xianfeng came in, and she had a good relationship with Cheng Ying. So I persuaded Cheng Ying for a while just now before coming in.

"Hehe, why are you on her side?" Yang Rui asked with a smile. There was some displeasure in his eyes.

After all, Han Xianfeng came out of the kiln, and she was the most observant of words and expressions, although she was indifferent to others even if she understood, but seeing that Yang Rui was displeased, she walked over in a few steps, hugged Yang Rui's neck, let his head stick to her waist, and then said softly, "Okay, I won't say it." Sister Cheng is too, when is it not easy to mention it, you have to mention this kind of thing when you have a Chinese New Year's Eve meal...... You're not full yet, I've already got you covered. ”

Seeing that Han Xianfeng changed his breath, Yang Rui extinguished the cigarette, and said, "Some people are not married to me, but to someone else." If someone else has something, of course they have to come out, which does not matter if they eat Chinese New Year's Eve dinner or eat New Year's breakfast. You remember to tell her when you have time, and then you have to eat inside and out, be careful that I kill her! ”

Han Xianfeng's body stiffened when he heard this, and he said half-loudly, "It's actually ...... You're not going to be serious, are you? ”

"Seriously, of course! What's there to joke about this. Yang Rui nodded affirmatively, "I'm not a good person, if I really get angry, then I can't care about being rational or irrational." After he finished speaking, he felt that Han Xianfeng seemed to be frightened by himself, and wanted to ease but held back—he thought that his greatest strength was that he never compromised and tactful—and instead said in an accentuated tone, "Although I'm talking about her, if you want to eat inside and outside like her, then it's better to kill them together." ”

"I ......" Han Xianfeng suddenly didn't understand what this man was thinking, 'I' didn't say anything for a long time, and finally only said that the water in the kitchen was hot, and I ran to make noodles.

Yang Rui was not surprised to see her fall, his words today were a little abnormal, but why was it so abnormal? He thought to the side of his head. However, before Han Xianfeng brought the noodles in, he didn't think about what was wrong with him. The only thing he knows is that he has never been in the habit of dealing with his own problems gently, and he does not regard them as a disadvantage, but as an advantage.

The Chinese New Year's Eve dinner was irritating for Yang Rui, and the same was true for Liang Qichao, who was also in the capital.

When the Democratic Party was holding a general election, his good student and the actual controller of Yunnan, Cai Yi, actually did not listen to his persuasion and ran to the capital. Cai Yi looked at Liang Qichao's appearance and knew that he was displeased, but he still said: "Teacher, I ......"

"Songpa, let's eat first." Cai Ye was interrupted by Liang Qichao before he finished speaking, and the people next to him also took his luggage, helped the water to freshen up, and invited him to the living room as soon as he stopped, so Cai Ye had no choice but to eat first.

After finishing the meal, the two went to the study, Liang Qichao looked at Cai Yi, who was still in the dust, and said: "Songpo, Beijing is not very peaceful, you shouldn't come!" ”

"Teacher, the capital is nothing more than those two cases. During the general election, the Kuomintang was the second largest party, and it was normal for it to fight openly and secretly with the Renaissance Association. "Cai Ye has long known what is going on in the capital, so he didn't say anything to Liang Qichao." Before the end of last year, the General Staff sent electricity to the students. Students are asked to go to Beijing to find jobs, and after the students think about it, they will take the strength of the country as a consideration. I still think it's good to come to Beijing to get a job. Judging from the current situation, Yang Jingcheng still has the idea of the rule of law, otherwise it would be impossible for Han Yuxiu to file a case. ”

"Hey!" Liang Qichao, who had already known that Cai Ye was thinking like this, kept shaking his head, "Songpo, the political struggle has always been your life and death, this is the case in the Wuxu year, and the Bingwu year is like this." The same is true for the year of Xinhai! The reason why Han Yuxiu's matter can be spread all over the world is because she can't sue Yang Jingcheng, and the reason why Dali Temple is in court. It's more to tie up the revival association, so that the people can say good things about Yang Jingcheng. This time, it was the people of the Alliance who were really tried, and Yang Jingcheng was trying to force Sun Yat-sen to death! ”

"Why did the teacher say that?" Cai Ye was puzzled.

"Why?" Liang Qichao sneered, "Although I don't know what the case is." But revival will be so unhurried. I'm afraid that Han Yuxiu's matter is not what the world imagines. Now the Revival Association has started another case and pulled the members of the League into it, because of the fierce infighting between the two associations. In addition to the other party, the Kuomintang, Yang Jingcheng is still not worried about our Democratic Party, which is why people made a proposal to ban holes and a case of land nationalization in the Congress, and he clearly wants to fight to the death with us. ”

"Teacher......" Cai Ye listened to Liang Qichao's analysis and felt that it was very wrong, in his understanding, Han Yuxiu's side was a life lawsuit after all. Yang Jingcheng, as the head of a country, can become a defendant, which is already a huge amount of people. If you want to be someone else, you will never let Han Yuxiu live to this day. The same is true of the affairs of the Alliance, the Revival Association is in power, and it is rare to use legal means instead of military means to resolve the grievances between the two associations; As for the prohibition of Confucius and the state-owned land, it may be that revival will make people mention, but sooner or later Confucianism will be abolished, and the state-owned land is also extremely normal for the revolutionary party, and the League will also have the slogan of 'equal land rights'. Cai Ye has his own opinions on Yiqiē, but in front of his mentor Liang Qichao, he can only be silent.

Feeling that what he said was not recognized by the students, Liang Qichao had no choice but to divert the topic and asked with concern, "Songpo, is your illness better?" What position is the General Staff going to put you in this time? ”

"Ahem...... "Ahem" Cai Yi touched his throat and coughed a few times uncomfortably, unlike the humid Yunnan, the winter in Beijing is extremely dry, which is extremely unsuitable for him, "After the military plan written by the student a few years ago was sent to the General Staff, the people in the General Staff Department deeply praised it, and now the place I am sent to is the Reserve Bureau, which is specially responsible for the mobilization of the reserves. ”

Cai Yi completely advocated militarism, and the book of military plans was written when he was in Guangxi in light of the Japanese reserve situation, and he hoped that the country would establish a complete reserve force, so he came to Beijing to take up his post. He is like this, but Liang Qichao only thinks that it is not worth it for him to be bribed by the general office of a reserve bureau, but now that the wood is in the boat, he has no choice but to say: "You better not go to work first, and recover from your illness first." ”

Liang Qichao was so concerned, Cai Yi happily said yes, he didn't want Liang Qichao to think about it, or he was unwilling, and finally asked, "Songpo, when you came, how was the situation in Yunnan?" ”

"When I came, the working group of the Revival Society had already entered Yunnan in large numbers, and now it is Li Gengen who is in charge of government affairs, and Luo Peijin is in charge of the army." Speaking of this, Cai Ye glanced at Liang Qichao, "Teacher, now that the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Household have joined forces to implement the monopoly of opium, in order to revive the control of the countryside, and when these people who smoke opium are dead, then the opium will be extinct in China." If it is a confrontation with the imperial court, a few years later, it is not Yunnan soldiers who are brave and self-defeating, that is, the revival of the army will not be bloodless, and invade Yunnan ......"

Cai Ye told the truth, Liang Qichao agreed, in addition to a new military town in Yunnan, there are tens of thousands of patrol battalions, even if these soldiers in the former Qing Dynasty even if they have Sichuan to help, they still can't eat, Yunnan really wants to fight against Beijing, and when the opium can't be exported, it will definitely not last long.

"Hey! This Yu Hanzhang is worthy of being a good hand at making money. Not only is opium monopoly, but now even salt and tobacco are also monopolized. According to the draft of the salt monopoly published by the Ministry of Households, the implementation of the salt monopoly is actually 100 million taels of salt tax a year, if you can have so much money before, I am afraid that the emperor will ...... "Speaking of Guangxu Liang Qichao's mood is very gloomy, no matter how much Guangxu was messing around in the past, he was also a southbound study walking, and the major affairs of the country can be frequently suggested, that is like now, except for making macro comments in the newspaper, no one pays attention to himself. A husband can't be without power for a day.

The opium monopoly, the salt monopoly, the tobacco monopoly, and even the grain monopoly are estimated to be monopolized, Liang Qichao sighed. Others were cursing that the only one who opposed the tobacco monopoly was British American Tobacco, whose turnover was increasing in the Chinese market, although a minister greeted Mr. Yang. But the tobacco monopoly remains unwavering. Yang Rui only promised not to discriminate against British American Tobacco, and at the same time he took out the market number of British American Tobacco and used the success of American tobacco cultivation in China as a basis to persuade the ministers of the two countries: even if the tobacco is not monopolized, British American Tobacco will not be able to defeat the local Chinese tobacco company with a huge cost advantage;

The tobacco monopoly was caused by British and American tobacco, but no one dared to openly oppose the opium monopoly, and smoking was banned in the Manchu Qing Dynasty in 1907. The following two years, the International Anti-Smoking Conference was held in Shanghai, which has made everyone shout and beat the opium. It is opposed at home, and foreigners abroad are also opposed. According to the report of the International Opium Commission, in 1909, China's opium production had reached 600,000 quintals, while imports were less than 50,000 quintals. Speculation in terms of national taxes. Most of these 50,000 quintals are also domestically produced opium, and the reason why they hang the signboard of imports is probably to avoid taxes. The output of 600,000 quintals is not a small number of exports, which is the origin of foreigners to ban smoking.

Foreigners want to ban smoking, China also wants to ban smoking, but what kind of ban law is very particular, blindly seeking politics zhì cleanliness is not the choice of the IRS. Profit maximization is the style of the national tax gang. According to the established plan, it will start with the official meeting of the National Assembly. The whole country began to realize the monopoly of opium, smokers everywhere must register and issue certificates, determine the number of smoking according to the addiction, determine the minimum amount of smoking every month, and all smokers who have not completed the smoking quota will be fined, of course, smokers can also choose to quit smoking, but if the quitting is not successful, it is still necessary to complete the minimum number of smoking.

For example, Yan Fu believed that the IRS violated personal privacy by registering smokers, and that requiring each smoker to complete the minimum smoking amount was to condone the national consumption of opium. Public opinion is so, but the opium monopoly department of the State Taxation Bureau dismisses this, what they care about is how much the tax will be after the retail price of opium will increase tenfold, based on the estimate of the 18.5 million taels of local medicine tax before the Manchu Qing Dynasty's smoking ban, after the implementation of the monopoly system, the original 60 percent opium tax that was originally thought to be corrupt and evaded will be levied 50 percent, that is, without adjusting the tax rate, the opium tax in 1912 will reach 34 million taels, and to achieve a tenfold increase in the retail price of opium, the original tax rate of 60 taels per quintal will become 900 taels per quintal. Extrapolating from this, the opium tax in 1912 will be more than 100 million taels, minus the part of the tax refund for exports, and the opium tax will also be 100 million.

Because of this, Wu Xifen of the National Taxation Bureau called for the expansion of the tax police force, that is, at least one field battalion in each county, and there will be more than 600,000 tax police troops in the country, and the tax police and whistleblowers in various places should be heavily rewarded according to the annual tax revenue. According to his meaning, the reward for reporting that smokers do not buy opium from specialty stores should be more than 1,000 taels, and the reward for reporting opium smugglers should be more than 10,000 taels. If this reward is announced, then the good deeds in the world will be crazy, and one thousand taels is the income of ordinary people for more than 20 years.

Yang Rui did not object to Wu Xifen's request, because the opium chip monopoly is controlled to the household, and the salt is also controlled to the household, and each household is also a voucher to purchase a certain amount of salt.

Although the household department symbolically received the 10,000-word book written by Zhou Xuexi and Zhang Jian of Jiangsu on the salt monopoly system, and even Zhang Jian personally visited Yu Huizu for the salt monopoly, but to tell the truth, Yu Huizu not only bluntly said that the salt monopoly system would not change, but even revealed that Yang Rui's original intention was to even have salt farms in various places state-owned, but under the constraints of the constitution's protection of private property, he could only choose the salt monopoly.

Liang Qichao sighed, Tianjin Zhou Xuexi is also complaining to Yuan Shikai, he is Yuan Shikai's descendant, Yuan Shikai is the governor of Zhili, and he is the director of the provincial household department - the current governor is completely different from the former Qing governor, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs...... Anyway, the twelve ministries in Beijing have set up departments in Zhili, although many of these departments are Yuan Shikai's people, but the people in the State Taxation Bureau are completely from the Fuxing Association, but the only advantage is that the taxes obtained by the Zhili from the State Taxation Bureau are directly divided rather than the appropriation system, that is, the central and local governments are open to three or seven, unlike other provinces that have to go to Beijing to ask for funds.

"Alright, Jizhi. Today we are discussing the congressional election and those two cases, and you don't want to keep bringing the IRS to the scene. Yang Jingcheng sold the opium chips ten times more expensive, and it has no effect on us, and he can live in the Tianjin concession. Imported opium chips from the concession are cheap, and even if the price rises, it will not be sold ten times. At the secret meeting of his cronies on the third day of the Lunar New Year, Yuan Shikai looked at Zhou Xuexi with a worried face and had a headache, "Besides, the IRS overcharged taxes, so aren't we rich, what are we doing with money." With such a good place in Zhili, can't we do something decent for others to see? When Galeries Lafayette was alive. She told me to do a good job, and now her old man is gone......"

Yuan Shikai said that he didn't know how to get involved with Cixi, only to make Yang Shiqi, who was on the side, uncomfortable, and he immediately said: "Handsome." Today is a matter of deliberating on the general election of the Diet. Now the Fuxing Association has established peasant associations in all counties of Zhili, and this election of peasant associations has contributed the most. ”

Yang Shiqi pulled the topic back, but Yuan Shikai didn't care, "No matter how Zhili chooses Yang Jingcheng, he still has to give us some face, at least we still have a few towns of Beiyang Army in our hands." Didn't you send a telegram to Dunchu a few days ago, he has nothing to do with the case in Hangzhou. And the Kuomintang was not completely transferred by the Confederacy, don't we have so many people in it? What's so panicked about this? ”

"Great. It is precisely because Song Dunchu had nothing to do with the Hangzhou case that I said that I would remove Sun Wen, the honorary premier of the Kuomintang, and then the post of party leader would be done by the marshal, and Song Dunchu would be the deputy ......" Yang Shiqi insisted on his point just now, "The people of the League have long said that Song Dunchu is a traitor, and we can take this opportunity to purge Sun Wenna's faction from the party, so that the Kuomintang can reassure everyone." ”

Yang Shiqi mentioned yì, Wang Shizhen, Duan Qirui, Zhang Yilin and others also agreed, but Yuan Shikai still had scruples, "Let's slow down this matter, it's too early to say this, then Sun Wen is really guilty, the leader of the Kuomintang naturally can't take his turn, whether I want to be the prime minister or not, do you want us to talk to Dunchu?" He would mention it himself. ”

"Dashuai, if you don't make a clear relationship with Sun Wen now, then the reputation of the Kuomintang will suffer a big loss, and I will go and say that with his relationship with Sun Wen, he will definitely agree to this matter." Zhang Yilin said.

"Still not working!" Yuan Shikai still shook his head, "If you agree at the beginning, will Huang Keqiang and the others agree?" Will the revolutionaries of the two lakes agree? Once this is the case, what other parliamentarians can the Kuomintang have besides directly subordinate to these parliamentarians? ”

"Dashuai!" Yang Shiqi still insisted, "Why don't we invite Song Dunchu over now to discuss this matter, what do you think?" "Escape Chu is in Tianjin now? Didn't he say that he would come to Tianjin after the Lantern Festival? Yuan Shikaiqi said.

"Anyway, the patrol saw him, probably yesterday afternoon, or he arrived early this morning." Duan Zhigui, the patrol sergeant who did not speak, said that he received the news of Song Dunchu's return to Tianjin at noon.

"Good! Then go and please, please. Yuan Shikai said happily, "You said that you can't win the election of Zhili, but you will definitely win when you come to the first place." ”

Yuan Shikai was overjoyed when he heard Song Zexi, and only made his cronies around him feel disappointed. In the case that the gun can't do it, only the political party and the government can truly guarantee the long-term power of the Beiyang line, and everyone in Beiyang agrees with this truth. Originally, Yuan Shikai still had the intention of pulling Liang Qichao over, but those people in the reform faction still had old grievances against Yuan Shikai, although Liang Qichao did not resist his wooing, but because it involved party politics, if no one else agreed to the merger of the democratic and revolutionary parties, Liang Qichao would not be able to come over.

The Kuomintang without Liang Qichao was only a fusion of the Lianghu Revolutionary Party and the Beiyang First Line, because the time of the congressional election was chosen before the spring ploughing, and Song Jiaoren's schedule was extremely tight. The spring ploughing in the south was early, and he had to go to Lianghu and other places to give lectures and help the election before the year, and then go to Zhili to give speeches and campaigns everywhere after the year, but now the situation in Lianghu and other places is not very optimistic, so he had to go north early, wanting to use the experience of Lianghu in Zhili, and must ensure the Kuomintang's status as a big party in Zhili.

Song Jiaoren actually arrived at noon, he took a train from the Jinghan Line north in the Chinese New Year's Eve, and when he arrived in the capital, he was too tired, so he found an inn near the Zhengyangmen Railway Station and slept overnight, and arrived in Tianjin at noon the next day and a half. (To be continued......)