Chapter 407 British Protest

However, although the battle in the above two directions is also fierce, it is a secondary direction for the whole Jiangnan strategy of the Feng army. Their attack mainly plays the role of restraining the Anhui army and is unlikely to achieve any practical results. At most, it is just a war of attrition.

However, this containment and continuous consumption is also a great pressure for the Feng army. It is precisely because the Third Division continued to launch a fierce attack on the north bank of the Yangtze River in Jinling that Duan Qirui did not transfer all the Fourth Division to the direction of Dangtu.

Under the good circumstances of the Jiangnan war, Zhao Dongyun, who is in Beijing, is also relieved. Now the most critical and most difficult time in Jiangnan strategy has passed. Although the next war is also important to him, he does not have to wait for the war report every day. After reading it, he is relieved.

However, military affairs have been temporarily put down, but Zhao Dongyun still has no time, because he still needs to deal with the government affairs that have been squeezed for many days. For example, he has to attend the opening ceremony of Beijing Normal University and organize a reception to publicize the third phase of patriotic bonds issued by the Soviet Union to capitalists in the north, looking forward to this Some capitalists and landlords can actively pay for bonds, and then have diplomatic work. A few days ago, because the Feng army was fighting across the river, they temporarily seized a ship that transported ammunition to the Anhui army. This was nothing. The key is that the crew of the ship is Chinese and the arms are Duan Qirui's, but the captain is An Englishman.

After detaining the ship transporting arms, Juldian has protested several times in a row, demanding that Zhao Dongyun give the British Empire a satisfactory answer for the seizure of the British.

In the past few days, Zhao Dongyun's attention was focused on the battle of crossing the river, and he didn't have much mind to deal with other things. Now that he is free, he naturally needs to deal with these messy things, especially the British protests.

Although this is just a small matter, it is impossible for the British to change their attitude towards themselves and the Soviet republican government because they have detained British captains one by one. After all, in fact, supporting Zhao Dongyun's unification of China has become an established British policy in China and cannot be easily changed.

Otherwise, the British will not have to provide Zhao Dongyun with a loan of up to 10 million pounds!

However, this kind of foreign affairs can't be fooled. If it is delayed for too long, it may make Zhu Erdian change his impression of Zhao Dongyun and make him think that he maintains an unfriendly attitude towards Britain.

So Zhao Dongyun made an appointment with Zhu Erdian in the afternoon before the bond reception began.

As soon as Juldian arrived, he had not yet sat down and said, "On behalf of the British Empire, I would like to express strong protest against the detention of our captain by your army. I hope you can handle this matter properly and release our captain immediately!"

Although Zhao Dongyun was very dissatisfied with this attitude, he represented the number one power on the contemporary earth, and Zhao Dongyun was not a little dissatisfied but furious. He just smiled and then said, "Don't worry, your captain Harriet has left Hezhou this evening. Now it should have been a passenger ship to Shanghai.

When the Fourth Army of the front-line troops seized the arms transport ship of the Anhui Army and found that the captain above was actually an Englishman, Meng Enyuan also knew that if he was not careful, there would be some diplomatic dispute, so the ship was detained and the person was temporarily detained for two days, but that The British captain was not neglected. Instead, he ate and drank well and asked Jurentang how to deal with it.

How to deal with it?

What else can I do? Let people go!

So after staying in the barracks of the Fourth Army for two days, the British captain Harriet was sent to the passenger ship to Shanghai. As for the ship, the arms and other crew members, because the ship is a Chinese ship, and the other crew members are also from the Anhui army. Naturally, they will not be released. Only directly requisitioned, and the arms were also directly used by the Feng army.

Zhao Dongyun was so straightforward, which made Zhu Erdian feel speechless. He couldn't help complaining about Zhao Dongyun: At least you are also a president and the commander of hundreds of thousands of troops. Can you be a little backbone, at least for a few days? Otherwise, how can I take advantage of this opportunity for The British Empire extorted more interests!

This taining matter is over, but Zhu Erdian can't stay in Jurentang for a few minutes. Zhao Dongyun and Zhu Erdian are also busy people, and they can't end the meeting without saying a few words.

So Zhu Erdian began to have nothing to say, and the topics were also those old topics between China and Britain. After a while, he talked about the Western Tibet issue and said that the situation in Tibet should be resolved by the Tibetans themselves. Then he took a detour and talked about Mongolia and the British side's determination not to allow China to intervene in Tibet. He expressed great approval and support for Zhao Dongyun's start sending troops to Mongolia to suppress the rebellion last year.

said that Zhao Dongyun's move effectively maintained peace and stability in the Far East.

For these, Zhao Dongyun just laughed. The Tibetan problem is a little big, and it will be difficult to talk to the British for a while. More importantly, the Soviet control bureau is still 18,000 miles away from Tibet. If you want to intervene, you have to defeat the southern federal army in the northwest, Sichuan, Yungui and other regions. Let's talk about it later.

As for the Mongolian issue, the Russians are involved here. The current British will never sit back and watch the Russian annex Mongolia or support Mongolia's independence, so it is natural for him to support Zhao Dongyun to send troops to Mongolia to suppress the rebellion.

Zhu Erdian is a veteran diplomat. After half an hour of meeting, he talked about the affairs of China and Britain. In addition to Mongolia and Tibet, he also said a few words about the Jinpu Railway. He complained that the China Railway Corporation controlled by the Soviet system was too slow and had not been surveyed yet, which made The British bankers who were ready to lend money to China to build railways were very dissatisfied, and said that the construction progress of the Jinpu Railway was too slow, even slower than the construction of the Longhai Railway.

Last year, Zhao Dongyun took out two railways to win over the United Kingdom and the United States. Among them, the United Kingdom obtained the loan rights of the Jinpu Railway, while the Americans obtained the loan rights of the Longhai Railway.

The progress is different from that of Jinpu Railway, but the progress of Longhai Railway is very fast. After signing the loan contract, China Railway Corporation began the construction of Longhai Railway, and it was built in Haizhou, Xuzhou, Zhengzhou, Kaifeng and other places at the same time.

The reason why the construction started so quickly is that on the one hand, it is because of the military needs of the Feng army and the military strongly support the construction of this railway. On the other hand, it is also because part of the front of this section of the railway has been repaired, and since last year, Fengjun had planned to build a temporary military railway. The section of the road has been surveyed, and now it is directly used to build the Longhai Railway.

At present, the Zhengzhou-Haizhou section of the Longhai Railway has begun preliminary projects. The fastest progress is the construction of Lianyungang in Haizhou. As soon as the American loans arrive, China will be the first to start the construction of Lianyungang.

Why, because this small port is currently the main maritime supply transfer station of the Feng army, and a large amount of materials are transported from the north to Lianyungang by sea, and then transported to the front-line troops by river transportation, land transportation and other means, so it is a military need to build this port first.

The progress is relatively smooth with that of the Longhai Railway. The Jinpu Railway is relatively slow because Jinling at the southern end is still in the war zone.

From the Tibetan issue to the Mongolian issue, and then the Jinpu Railway and other commercial issues, Zhu Erdian and Zhao Dongyun finally mixed up half an hour of meeting time, but until Zhu Erdian walked out of the door, in fact, they didn't talk about anything.

After ending this meeting without practicality, just to express his goodwill with Britain, Zhao Dongyun met several officials and left them to have dinner together. After that, he took his wife Fang Ruolian to the bond reception.

Zhao Dongyun is generally the last to be present for many dinners, receptions and other activities held at the presidential palace, but the specific preparation is Fang Ruolian's business. Fang Ruolian is very interested in holding these receptions, dances and so on. She pulls the ladies in Beijing to do these things all day long.

And they also set up a so-called Xiyuan dance troupe. After practicing for a period of time, they had several public welfare performances. A week ago, they also held a public welfare performance to help students and invited a large group of noble women, minister ladies and so on in Beijing to watch it. Then these people who came to watch the performance had to donate more or less. The funds of the Philippines let Fang Ruolian raise up to 150,000 yuan, which will be donated to the 'Hongren Education Fund' organized by Fang Ruolian himself, which is specially used to support the development of domestic basic education.

Although this Hongren Education Fund is only a private fund, it is organized by Fang Ruolian, the wife of the President. Basically, the powerful capitalists with faces on the ground of Beijing have donated funds to it. More than 500,000 yuan have been raised before and after, many primary schools have been opened in Beijing Normal University, Shandong, Dong Province and other regions. Learn.

At today's patriotic bond cocktail party, the Xiyuan Dance Troupe will also perform to encourage those rich people to actively buy patriotic bonds to support the unified cause of the Soviet Fengjun.

When Zhao Dongyun walked into the venue with Fang Ruolian, it was inevitable to say a few words to these rich people as usual. Zhao Dongyun showed a professional smile from beginning to end. After a period of gloating, Yu Wanling also came to salute with several other noble women.

Zhao Dongyun smiled: "I'm looking forward to Miss Yu's dance troupe to perform more wonderfully tonight!"

Although the Xiyuan Dance Troupe was hosted by Fang Ruolian, she only gave funds and some support on the venue. The specific affairs were actually handled by the young woman in front of her.

This woman is different from other women of her time!

When Yu Wanling was in the Qing Dynasty, she held a dance in the palace. In addition, she was closer to Fang Ruolian, so she served as the head of the Xiyuan Dance Troupe.

However, she still did not resign from the Foreign Affairs Section of the Secretariat of the Presidential Palace, and will still serve as an interpreter for Zhao Dongyun and his wife when necessary.

This woman is different from other women of her generation.