Beiyang 1917

July 1917 is destined to be an extraordinary month. The Russian army’s defeat on the Eastern Front brought the domestic situation in Russia to the brink of collapse. The armed parade in Petrograd caused a strange split in the Soviet itself. On the 7th of last month The Central Committee of Soviets (vtsik) was elected by the First All-Russian Conference of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies in all Russia, and was actually headed by Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries.

First, at the end of June, in order to cooperate with the upcoming offensive of the front-line Russian army against Germany and Austria, the Soviets stopped the Bolshevik demonstrations originally planned to be launched in Petrograd. On July 6, the official Soviet demonstrations held for unity appeared. The slogan was the slogan of the Bolsheviks to overthrow the bourgeois ministers.

With another defeat of the Russian army on the front line and the end of the offensive on July 7th, Trotsky, who had been in exile for ten years, detoured to Canada and rushed back to Russia after the February Revolution, and his district faction joined the Bolsheviks. The emergence of the so-called founder of the Soviet Red Army made the Bolsheviks extremely strong.

On July 7 and 15, a large-scale armed parade was held in Petrograd. The Bolshevik slogan demanded "do everything possible for the Soviet", which was called the "July Crisis". Called for Kerensky to become prime minister and form a new government.The second cabinet of the Russian Provisional Government was established on July 16.

In July 1917, the western front of the European battlefield was relatively calm. The landing of the US advance detachment in southern France was more symbolic. As for the Chinese advance detachment, it was escorted by the Princess Mary troop carrier. floating in the Indian Ocean in the fleet.

The Japanese government now feels that it is caught in a dilemma. On the one hand, the loan of 2 million yen to China has enabled domestic capital to find a vast Chinese market and a way out. The extension of the Beijing-Suizhou Railway, that is, the railway construction project from Zhangjiakou to Guisui, started again, and Japan won the priority construction right.

On the one hand, Japan felt a little fear and anxiety about the growing and armed forces of China, especially after more than 300 British fighter planes arrived in Nanyuan and began to prepare to form an army. Do the Chinese really want to go to Europe to join the war?

The construction of the 240.3-kilometer Fengsui section from Fengzhen to Suiyuan started. Only God knows, anyway, Wang Geng asked the Japanese contractor to speed up the construction of the Zhangjiakou to Guisui section of the Beijing-Suizhou Railway with the largest investment and the fastest speed.

Wang Geng’s request for the construction period of the Beijing-Suizhou Railway was exaggerated to the extent that one kilometer was laid every day. The reason was that the Beijing-Suizhou Railway completed the exploration and route design a few years ago, and the Yankees can build 6000 kilometers a year in China. 3000 kilometers of railways and 4 kilometers of roads. Judging from the general construction progress of railways laid in China at that time, it is a remarkable speed to be able to lay [-] kilometers of railroad tracks a month.

In fact, in Wang Geng’s previous life, the construction speed of the Zhangjiakou to Guisui section of the Pingsui Railway in history created a miracle of railway construction at that time. Construction started in August 1919, and the 8-kilometer railway was fully completed on May 240.3, 1921. and finished.It only took 5 months, and the average monthly mileage is 1 kilometers, which is almost two and a half days to lay one kilometer.

Wang Geng's current requirement for Japanese contractors is to reach one kilometer a day, and manpower and material resources are not a problem at all. In fact, if the funds used do not come from loans from Japan, Wang Geng is not willing to waste words with the Japanese at all. Zhan Tianyou When the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, which was designed and constructed by a Chinese company, opened to traffic in 1909, it set a record for the fastest and lowest-cost domestic railway construction at that time.

Since the construction of these railway projects under the chairmanship of Wang Geng only used loans from Japan as construction funds instead of using railway rights of way as mortgages for construction, these proposed railway projects are all state-owned railways after completion, and Japanese construction companies only Under the same conditions, it has obtained the priority to contract construction. Of course, Japanese suppliers of raw materials and equipment also have the priority to purchase at the same price.

In order to speed up the construction progress of the Beijing-Suizhou Railway, Wang Geng started the widening and strengthening project of the Beijing-Suizhou Highway at the same time. The two measures went hand in hand. Firstly, to ensure the transportation of raw materials for the railway construction, and secondly, it would take half a year at the earliest for the Beijing-Suizhou section to be fully connected. After that, before that, Wang Geng hoped that the road transportation and transport capacity between Beijing and Zhangjiakou and Zhangsui would be guaranteed. Before the main artery of the railway is not connected, the small artery of the road network can only bear greater responsibilities.

The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Communications, the major investors of Beijing-Suizhou Railway Company, each hold 50% of the shares. In addition, Bank of China and Bank of Communications each hold 25% of the shares. Bank of China and Bank of Communications, which have completed capital increase and share expansion at the end of April At that time, each had a capital of 4 million yuan. What surprised people was that the largest shareholders of Bank of China and Bank of Communications were actually the newly established China Charity Foundation, which each held 3000% of the shares in Bank of China. , holds a 50% stake in Bank of Communications.

The China Charity Foundation alone holds 2500 million yuan of equity capital in Bank of China and Bank of Communications. In addition, the China Charity Foundation also holds 80% of the equity in Shanghai Commercial Savings Bank, one of the three banks in the South, which was acquired by Wang Geng. This acquisition was also quietly completed at the end of April. Chen Guangfu, Wang Geng’s hometown in Jiangsu, from Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, could not refuse Wang Geng’s offer:

The net assets of Shanghai Commercial Savings Bank increased its capital and shares at a premium of 1:5. The combined share capital of Shanghai Commercial Savings Bank from the original 7 shareholders was less than 20 yuan.After a premium, the price was 100 million yuan, and Wang Geng invested an additional 400 million yuan, making the registered capital of Shanghai Commercial Shanghai Savings Bank reach 500 million yuan, becoming a heavyweight bank among private commercial banks in the country.

The acquisition of the Shanghai Commercial Savings Bank would have had no chance of success if Song Hanzhang and Zhang Jiaao, the two brothers of Wang Geng, had not been introduced as introducers. and squeezed commercial banks.

But when the Bank of China itself has been transformed into a commercial bank dominated by private equity under the leadership and promotion of Wang Geng, coupled with the trust in the two old friends Song Hanzhang and Zhang Jiaao, the trust in Wang Geng, a recently rising national elite A glimmer of expectation made Chen Guangfu take over Wang Geng's olive branch.

In particular, Wang Geng promised that the daily operation and management of Shanghai Commercial Savings Bank will be dominated by Chen Guangfu and his management team. Chen Guangfu was even appointed as the first lifetime president in the history of Shanghai Commercial Savings Bank!

As for the China Charity Foundation, which holds shares in three banks, has 200 million yuan in liquidity, and has total assets of 3200 million yuan, it is managed by a 12-member board of directors, and the chairman of the board is Wang Geng, the royal residence on Shifuma Street in Beijing. The former resident of the hotel, Xiong Xiling, the first elected prime minister of the Republic of China, had no reason to refuse Wang Geng's request for the former prime minister who quit officialdom and politics to devote himself to charity and industry.

In fact, Wang Geng unknowingly became the founder of China's largest charitable foundation in this era. Of course, after he invited Xiong Xiling to manage the charitable foundation for him, he continued to be his shopkeeper. They all happened quietly during the three months from May to July 1917.

Looking back on the railway, while the Zhangsui section of the Beijing-Suizhou Railway was in full swing at the end of April earlier, at the same time that the second extension of the Beijing-Suizhou Railway: from Guisui to Baotou, the exploration and design work was restarted after several years of interruption. Zhan Tianyou, the technical director of the Ministry of Railways, also served as the chief engineer of the Beijing-Suizhou Railway Company.

1917年7月底，5月初正式开工的张家口到归绥那240公里的铁路线已经铺设到了100公里处，詹天佑领导的勘探队伍从归绥到包头的149.6公里线路也顺利勘探完毕。接着詹天佑的勘探设计队伍一分为三，第一支队从包头出发往北勘探设计到白云鄂博的100公里支线铁路，第二支队从包头出发往南勘探设计到鄂尔多斯的90公里支线。

The third detachment was even more outrageous. It went directly from the middle of the Guisui and Zhangjiakou railway lines, which is the Ulanqab Station where the project was just laid, all the way north. The first goal was Erlianhot on the border between Inner Mongolia and Inner Mongolia!The mileage of this main line is more than 310 kilometers.And according to Wang Geng's plan, the reason for construction while exploring is also old-fashioned: to connect with the Siberian Railway line as soon as possible, and to open up a railway artery from the land to the Eastern European War as soon as possible!

Everything the War Participation Supervisory Office did seemed to be aimed at enabling China to enter the European battlefield as soon as possible and to work with the U.S. military to save the precarious situation of the Allies in the European War, especially in July 1917, when Russia was already showing signs of collapse.