Chapter 359 Receal of Rou Keyi

Like all contemporary professional diplomats, Rou Keyi wears a never-changing smile on his face, wears a layer of unchanging black swallowtailed dress and a white bow tie, and wears a black dome hat, black leather gloves and a civilized cane in his hand.

After getting off a carriage facing the U.S. national emblem, Rou Keyi looked up slightly at the 'presidential palace' in front of him.

The presidential palace, which has experienced the two masters of Wang Yingkai and Zhao Dongyun, has almost occupied the whole Xiyuan, and occupies an area even larger than the Forbidden City separated by a wall.

What is different from history is that many buildings in Xiyuan have been used as office space in history. Beihai has even been opened as parks to the people, so that Xiyuan will no longer have the grandeur of royal gardens after the demise of the Qing Dynasty. However, although there are many institutions in this Xiyuan today, it can be seen at a glance. The old maintained the grandeur of the royal gardens of the pre-Qing Dynasty.

At present, the offices in Xiyuan are subordinate institutions of the presidential palace, such as the secretariat, military attacharies, etc., while most of the other major administrative agencies of the government follow the offices of the previous Qing Dynasty.

And these administrative agencies only occupy some of the buildings in the front of the South China Sea, while the second half of the South China Sea and the Zhonghai and Beihai areas still retain the royal garden style of the pre-Qing Dynasty.

In Wang Yingkai's era, although Wang Yingkai plundered a lot of money from Beijing, he did not have the leisure to repair and maintain a large royal garden, let alone a lot of construction. For warlords like Wang Yingkai, he couldn't wait to use all his money to buy ordnance to compete for hegemony, which was not good for the living environment. I don't care. To be honest, if it hadn't been for the strong political significance of Xiyuan, Wang Yingkai would not have even chosen to set up a presidential palace here, because hundreds of soldiers are needed just to maintain the safety of such a large garden. If Xiyuan is to keep its original appearance, let alone prune flowers and plants. A lot of gardeners are needed.

Therefore, when Wang Yingkai moved into Xiyuan, although he also brought his family to check in together, his daily activities with his family were mainly concentrated in Jurentang. Not to mention going to Zhonghai and Beihai, even large areas in the South China Sea rarely went. Moreover, the presidential palace in Wang Yingkai's era was a solid responsible cabinet system, and there were not many people in the presidential palace, so the presidential palace in Wang Yingkai's era was basically concentrated in Jurentang.

After Zhao Dongyun moved into Beijing, his presidential palace and Wang Yingkai's presidential palace are different. Although the Constitution of the Republic of China is still a responsible cabinet system, from the constitutional point of view, Zhao Dongyun, the great president, does not have much practical power.

However, Zhao Dongyun said that he would respect the Constitution, but he still went his own way. He set up a large number of subordinate institutions under the presidential palace, especially the scale and responsibilities of the secretariat, which has greatly expanded. To some extent, the secretariat with more than 300 formal secretaries has already replaced the Prime Minister's office. Ability to handle domestic military and political affairs.

Zhao Dongyun has many office staff in the presidential palace, but it can't be installed in a Jurentang, so he began to occupy many buildings in the South China Sea of Xiyuan.

In addition, he also has something to do with Zhao Dongyun's family. The first impression of Zhao Dongyun is that he is the leader of Beiyang and the fourth political leader in charge of Beiyang, a huge interest group after Li Hongzhang, Yuan Shikai and Wang Yingkai.

Although Wang Yingkai's position as leader has only been maintained for about half a year, and both Zhao Dongyun and Duan Qirui were not convinced by Wang Yingkai at the beginning, anyway, Wang Yingkai is the leading boss in Beiyang after Yuan Shikai was assassinated in 1906. He led Duan Qirui, Zhao Dongyun and Zhang Huaizhi to rise up and sent the Qing Dynasty into the historical garbage heap, bringing the word republic for the first time to this country that has been ignorant for thousands of years.

So regardless of the historical evaluation of Wang Yingkai in the future, his achievements in overthrowing the Qing Dynasty are real. With this alone, he can proudly wear the hat of the father of the Republic for a lifetime. Although he has done a lot of ridiculous things with Sun Tailor in the original time and space, he is still respected as the father of the country by more than one billion people.

Wang Yingkai is undoubtedly a Beiyang leader who is comparable to Li Hongzhang and Yuan Shikai.

Although Zhao Dongyun is now powerful, holding half of China's hundreds of thousands of troops, he ordered millions of military and political officials to serve him. However, only speaking of prestige, Zhao Dongyun is still far inferior to Wang Yingkai when he was president.

However, after being listed as Wang Yingkai in people's minds, he skipped Duan Qirui and became the fourth generation of political leader in Beiyang, and Zhao Dongyun was also satisfied.

When people talk about Zhao Dongyun now, they will say that he is the boss of the North and the president of the Northern Republic, but few people will think of his other identities.

Everyone often forgets that Zhao Dongyun is still an active soldier. Even if he became the president, he did not give up his status as an active soldier. He is also the president and the 'Marshal of the Republic of China'. However, since Zhao Dongyun became General Shengjing, in fact, people have not regarded him as a simple army. For people, they are regarded as pure politicians such as local governors.

He is also an internationally renowned military strategist in recent years. The 'trench theory' he wrote has been translated into more than ten languages and has been widely used as a textbook for military schools in the world. The book has become a must-read textbook for contemporary army officers. The 'general war theory' later written has also attracted international There is a heated discussion in the military community, especially the Germans.

In addition to the status of soldiers and military personnel, Zhao Dongyun is also a big businessman!

Although Zhao Dongyun has never personally handled any business affairs, but handed them over to his family and those managers, it is undeniable that Zhao Dongyun is the richest businessman in contemporary China!

A Fuyuan company has allowed him to have tens of millions of wealth

Rich, he knows that the government's finances are very poor. In addition, he also knows that his two wives are full of money. He has just moved into Jingshi Xiyuan, that is, to repair Xiyuan, which has not been repaired on a large scale for almost a year. Later, it is the garden areas of Zhonghai and Beihai, which requires the government. Of course, Xiong Xiling over there will not let go, so Zhao Dongyun let Fang Ruolian directly use the family's private property to maintain the huge expenses of the big Xiyuan.

That is to say, the Zhao family's strong financial resources can maintain the normal operation of the huge Xiyuan, otherwise this Xiyuan can only follow the decline of everything in the Qing Dynasty.

Crossing the Baoyue Gate, Rou Keyi continued to walk in with his entourage. Although he has entered and left Xiyuan many times, every time he came in and saw this huge royal garden, Rou Keyi had to admire it. These Chinese people are really strange. The Juren Hall in front of him It is said that millions of taels of silver were spent on the national treasury, and the Beiyang New Army's military expenditure was only tens of thousands a year.

The cost of repairing these large-scale gardens, such as the Yuanmingyuan and the Summer Palace, is enough to build a top-class fleet.

However, it is also good that the Chinese people do not strengthen the army or the country, but spend a lot of money to repair gardens, and are proud to say what the treasures of the world are.

If there are no these so-called treasures, what will our Eight-Nation Alliance rob in the year of Gengzi?

Thinking of this, Rou Keyi, who marveled at the rockery and vegetation in Xiyuan, also smiled: I like this kind of China!

Rou Keyi, who shuttled through the South China Sea in Xiyuan, did not go forward for too long, but crossed the stone bridge in the South China Sea and arrived at Yingtai.

Although Yingtai is just an island in the center of the lake, the scale of the architectural complex is not small. In the last years of the pre-Qing Dynasty, it was used as a place for house arrest for Guangxu. After the Republic, Guangxu and Cixi and other royal family members were secretly placed under house arrest in various places. This Yingtai ushered in a new life and was used as a place of state affairs. Receive foreign envoys, dignitaries, etc.

Not long after entering Yingtai, Rou Keyi saw Zhao Dongyun!

After the formal ceremony, Rou Keyi took the initiative to say, "On the way, I found that after this Xiyuan had President Zhao, it was even more vibrant. It not only reproduced the style of the past, but also had a new atmosphere!"

Although Zhao Dongyun is also a veteran of observing words and colors, it is naturally impossible to guess that the back of Rou Keyi's words is not boasting, but contains deep irony!

This politician, especially the diplomat, basically can blow as much as he can. If he can't blow, he will continue to blow. Moreover, when he speaks, he can't talk about the main body for a long time.

For example, in the current conversation between Rou Keyi and Zhao Dongyun, he started with the gardens of Xiyuan, then talked about the gardens in the south of the Yangtze River and the highlands of the northern gardens, and then talked about his trip to Tibet.

"I am deeply sorry that I failed to enter Lhasa during my two trips to Tibet. If there is still a chance, then I must arrive in Lhasa next time!" When Rou Keyi said this, his face showed his longing for Tibet.

When it comes to Tibet, it naturally comes to neighboring India, which is known as the jewel on the crown of the Queen of England, so the topic of the two inevitably involves Tibet, India and Britain.

At this time, Rou Keyi also said appropriately: "The federal government has always adhered to the principle of neutrality and does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries!"

Although he is very interested in Tibetan and Buddhist culture, his personal preference is his personal preference. As a professional diplomat, Rou Keyi is still very rational in this regard. Although China and Britain have signed a Sino-British renewal of the Tibet-Indian treaty on Tibet-related issues last year. However, the Tibet issue is still a ** problem of Sino-British relations, and a little carelessness will trigger a war between China and Britain.

Rou Keyi didn't want his country to be entangled in the ** problem of Tibet, so he didn't wait for Zhao Dongyun to say anything, he came up with the so-called principle of neutrality first.

However, since it comes to Britain, Rou Keyi naturally has no reason to turn the topic around the garden, so he naturally provoked a new topic: "I heard that your country has sent people to private equity in the London financial market!"

As soon as Zhao Dongyun heard this, the professional smile on his face was even fuller. The two of them walked around for most of the day. If they hadn't talked directly in English and Chinese, it was estimated that half an hour of gossip would have collapsed the translation of the foreign affairs department.

Now he is finally starting to touch the topic, and immediately he is ready to start real negotiations!