20 years of the Republic of China

Chapter 474 Situation
As everyone knows, Zhang Laogenda has "three mores" - many brothers, many godfathers, and many in-laws.

When they first entered the world of martial arts, they made friends with people all over the world and became sworn brothers; when they showed their talents, they fawned on the powerful and recognized them as their godfathers; after they became famous, they formed alliances and made friends with the people they married.

Shame?

No, it's ability.

It's easy to call someone godfather, but whether the other person will agree or not is another matter.

Zhang Laogeda was able to recognize his relatives everywhere without causing dislike for them. To be successful, there must be something commendable about the way he conducts himself.

His fate with Chen Jiaxiucai began in the 28th year of the Guangxu period.

That year, Jiang Lianheng broke in at night... Well, what does it have to do with him!

That year, Zhang Laugeda had already made a name for himself in the Fengtian green forest, and was summoned by the imperial court to Xinmin Prefecture. He suddenly became the assistant leader of the local patrol cavalry and served as the personal bodyguard of the prefect.

The prefect of Xinmin at that time was the uncle of this scholar from the Chen family.

Prefect Chen had a successful career in his career. He was powerful, rich, talented, and a big collector. Wherever he went, he was the envy of others.

But how can there be a perfection in life?
Although Magistrate Chen had many wives and concubines, he was destined to be childless. His huge family business had no one to inherit it, so he brought orphaned scholar Chen from the south to Fengtian to adopt him, and personally gave him instruction and took good care of him.

Old Zhang was filled with envy, and soon he found an opportunity to kneel down and kowtow, wanting to make Prefect Chen his godfather.

Prefect Chen was a good judge of people and had long seen that this young man was by no means mediocre and incompetent. In addition, he had always been obsessed with the fact that he had no children. When he unexpectedly met a young man who wanted to recognize him as his father, he was very happy from the bottom of his heart and agreed without hesitation on the spot.

He bent over and helped him up, and they were like father and son.

From then on, his adopted son Chen Xiucai and his adopted son Zhang Yuting became the right-hand men of Chen Zhifu.

The two brothers, one was a scholar and the other a military man, Chen Xiucai helped with clerical work, and Zhang Yuting helped with patrol camp affairs. At the end of the day, they were together again and studied together under the personal supervision of Chen Zhifu.

As summer goes and winter comes, and spring returns to autumn, in addition to the friendship of brothers, we also have the friendship of classmates.

One is a bandit, the other is from a scholarly family. They are thousands of miles apart, so how come they became sworn brothers?
How can this fate be explained?
Could it be that: The heroes of the world come from our generation, and this is the right time for the times to come?
Now, times have changed. Zhang Laogenda has long since become a frontier official, dominating the area between the White Mountains and the Black Waters; and the scholar from the Chen family has long since left the Forbidden City, traveling around the capital and the foreign concessions, desperately seeking a way to save the nation and strengthen the country and the race.

One is the ruling party and the other is the revolutionaries.

His interests are inviolable and his beliefs impartial.

The positions are different.

Brothers are at odds and drift apart.

If Magistrate Chen were still alive, I wonder how he would feel if he saw this scene.

"The saddest thing for a hero is to die for his country without going to the battlefield."

Recalling the past, Zhang Laogeda suddenly recited a poem in a quiet voice.

"The Marshal is so talented in writing!" Jiang Lianheng praised sincerely.

Apart from anything else, these two lines of poetry alone are far superior to the level of his old friend.

Zhang Lao Geda turned around and smiled, saying, "This is something written by my sworn brother. He used to be very energetic, able to speak in plain language, and full of great truths. It seems that he hasn't changed at all now!"

Jiang Lianheng listened quietly, waiting for instructions.

Zhang Lao Geda continued, "The Chongguzhai opened by Old Chen's family has a branch in the south of our city. His eldest brother sometimes comes to do business, and I entertained him once. We are still friends, but I haven't contacted this sworn brother of mine for many years."

"I know that antique shop." Jiang Lianheng suggested, "If the Marshal is reluctant to do so, how about I send someone to check it out?"

"Well, that's not necessary. I still say the same thing: he's just a scholar. He can only talk and write. He can't cause much trouble!"

Jiang Lianheng said nothing more.

He could see that the Marshal still remembered this friendship. After all, it was Zhao'an who helped him. If there hadn't been Prefect Chen back then, there wouldn't be Marshal Zhang today. As long as it didn't involve the fundamentals, there was no reason to repay kindness with enmity.

However, just when Jiang Lianheng thought that the matter was not serious, Zhang Lauge suddenly brought the subject back.

"That group of scholars is nothing serious, but if they collude with the forces in the north, we have to be on guard."

Collude with northern forces?
Jiang Lianheng was stunned, and a word popped into his mind, but after thinking about it, he didn't dare to say it out loud.

Zhang Lao Geda nodded and asked, "The Russians and the Germans have reached a truce. You should know about this, right?"

"I saw the news in the newspaper at the beginning of the month."

"Well, in the past ten years or so, the Russians have been recruiting laborers in our Northeast!"

Jiang Lianheng nodded.

To be honest, since the Gengzi Year, the Russians have been recruiting a large number of laborers outside the Great Wall. Some of the recruitment was led by the government, while others were recruited privately by factories. Among them, many people were even forcibly abducted by the army and then became slaves.

After the war broke out in Europe, there was a shortage of males in the Russian country, so they stepped up their efforts and used all kinds of sweet talk to trick a large number of laborers from outside the Great Wall into heading north. Once they arrived, they beat, abused, withheld their wages, forced them to serve as cannon fodder...all kinds of inhuman treatment were endless.

If the Russians showed any dissatisfaction with the laborers, they would immediately abandon them, leaving them to suffer from hunger and cold, and freeze to death or starve to death, and they turned a deaf ear to it all.

The Beijing authorities made inquiries and lodged solemn protests many times, but nothing was done in the end.

Now that the Russians have withdrawn from the war, many laborers are eager to return home, but after two or three years in a foreign country, not only have they failed to make a fortune, they cannot even afford a train or boat ticket.

Fortunately, although the Beiyang officials were like scattered sand and each was vying for fame and fortune, they were still able to reach a consensus on the proper arrangement of the workers returning home.

The Beijing Foreign Affairs Ministry "pleaded" with the Ministry of Communications and secured preferential treatment for overseas workers to have free transportation fares on the Beijing-Fengtian line.

At the same time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also had to communicate and discuss with local warlords to ask them to help with the proper management of labor.

Most of the laborers from the north had to pass through the three northeastern provinces when they returned home. The authorities discussed with Zhang Laugeda: when the laborers return home, no matter where their origin is, Jiaodong or Hebei, as long as they pass through Fengtian, "can all the expenses of the ship and carriage be waived out of consideration for their displacement?"
A few days ago, Lao Zhang received another telegram order: "If there are workers who arrive earlier within the next few days, please send someone to the station to take care of them, buy train and boat tickets for them, and send them off separately."

Zhang Laogeda's answer was also very straightforward: "According to the instructions in the telegram, we will do it separately." Hearing this, Jiang Lianheng also understood his mission.

After all, after the workers return home, they can't all line up at the government office and wait for arrangements. There must be a business to take charge of the process.

"Marshal, if you trust me with this little matter of welcoming the workers back home, just let me handle it, okay?"

"Xiao Jiang, I was planning to let you do this job, but this is no small matter!"

Jiang Lianheng frowned and pondered for a moment. He then recalled the rumors about Chinese laborers participating in the Northern Civil War. Adding to what Lao Zhang had just said, he immediately came to his senses and asked carefully:

"Marshal, are you worried that there might be Russian spies among these returning laborers?"

"It's not a possibility, it's a certainty!" Zhang Lao Geda corrected immediately, "That's why I want to send you to do this. You have people who are wandering around, and it's easiest for you to get close to those laborers. By the way, help me find out their background and see what their situation is, especially those who want to stay in Fengtian. You must pay special attention to them."

"clear."

"These people may not all have gone to the Russian side in the past two years. They may have forged their identities and intentions. Everything may be false. In short, it can be said in one sentence: It is better to kill the wrong person than to let him go!"

"Of course."

Jiang Lianheng responded, and then couldn't help but steal a few glances at Zhang Laogenda, wondering in his heart: Was the Marshal's reaction a bit too extreme?
However, this is not the case.

The government is too far away. How can a small underworld leader get a glimpse of the whole picture?

In fact, on the issue of being vigilant against the spread of northern influence, it was a unanimous consensus reached by all major factions of the Beiyang government, including the three major factions of Zhi, Feng, and Anhui, the Transportation faction, the Political Science faction, and so on.

It is true that the authorities in Beijing wanted to properly settle the laborers returning from the north, but they were also suspicious and concerned. What they feared most was that this radical broad-sector trend would blow to their own country.

Because they were worried that the northern laborers would be infected with "bad habits", the Beijing authorities even sent a special telegram to the military governors in various places: "When there are vacancies for reinforcements, the backgrounds of the applicants must be questioned. Anyone who has worked as a laborer in the 'north' must not be accepted. The authorities in Beijing also ordered all counties to conduct a thorough investigation and report at any time whether there are such Chinese workers. No perfunctory response is allowed."

The authorities in the capital were all in a state of preparedness, and Zhang Laugeda was no exception, fearing that this trend would cause him to lose his power.

Of course Jiang Lianheng had no choice but to obey the order, and at the same time he took this opportunity to find an excuse to expand his own power.

"Marshal, I will do my best to check the laborers. However, I think it may be too late to check in Fengtian. I think we should start from Harbin or further north to avoid omissions."

Zhang Lao Geda nodded: "That makes sense. What's the matter? Did you hear any rumors?"

Jiang Lianheng did not dare to hide it, so he said: "I went to Harbin a few years ago. I heard that they were going to set up a Far East Intelligence Bureau there. The people there are mixed, and the information is mixed. It's better to be careful and be prepared. But that place is now..."

Before he finished speaking, Zhang Lao Geda suddenly laughed, pointed his finger at Jiang Lianheng, and said, "You are just playing dumb in front of me. To be honest, you want to make a fortune in Harbin, right?"

It’s not that Jiang Lianheng’s words were not thoughtful, but he originally wanted Lao Zhang to understand what he meant. If he couldn’t, then all his words would be in vain.

"General, I'm sorry to have made a fool of myself. Harbin is indeed a good place to make a fortune, but it is also very important..."

"Well, you don't need to bother me with all this nonsense. It's not a sin for a man to want to get rich. What's there to be ashamed of? No matter who it is, as long as he does his job well, I, Zhang, will never treat him unfairly. What's the matter, do you want to open a shop in Harbin?"

"really."

"Hahaha, that's right, just say what you want to say! Xiao Jiang, just wait and see, damn, that old Meng from Jilin Province won't be around for much longer, when I bring our three provinces together, you still have to help me pay attention to the rumors on the lines in various places!"

Jiang Lianheng waved his hands hurriedly and said, "No, no, I don't dare. I rely on the Marshal for my livelihood. I just follow his orders. I can't say I'm helping him."

"Why not a gang?" Zhang Lao Geda smiled, "One hero needs three gangs. No one can accomplish anything on his own. I also started from scratch, rolling in the mud and crawling up. It's not like I haven't been in the underworld before."

Jiang Lianheng did not dare to respond to this, but from Zhang Laoge's words, he understood that the Marshal was willing, or hoped, that he could establish spies in Harbin to serve Zhang.

Afterwards, Zhang Lauge gave some instructions on the details of how to resettle the returning laborers, as well as the relevant plans for opening a port in the west of the city. Jiang Lianheng memorized them one by one, waiting to take care of them when he got back.

The sunlight gradually softened.

After the two of them chatted briefly for a few minutes, Jiang Lianheng said goodbye to Zhang Laugeda at an appropriate time and turned around to go home.

After leaving the Marshal's residence, Jiang Lianheng could not help but carefully calculate this year's plan in his mind: he had to organize a movie theater and set up the Jiang family branch in Harbin; he had to properly settle the laborers and investigate heresy; he also had to take over the commercial port and start construction.

It seems that this year is destined to be busier than ever for the Jiang family.

If he were to ask himself honestly, he would realize that none of these things were what he really wanted to do. The Jiang family's current business was enough to provide him with a worry-free life for the rest of his life, or even the next life, but he had no choice but to continue like this.

It is difficult to enter the world of martial arts, and it is even more difficult to leave it!

Once you’re on a pirate ship, how can you ever get to the other side?
Want to quit while you're ahead? Have you asked others?

The so-called retirement from the world is never decided by oneself. You can only retreat if others allow you to do so. If others do not allow you to do so, then you are surrendering.

The carriage swayed back to the mansion in the north of the city.

"Boss, are you back?"

Yuan Xinfa stood at the gate of the courtyard as usual, and brought a few of the Jiang family's "xiangzi" to welcome Jiang Lianheng home.

Jiang Lianheng jumped off the carriage and responded casually.

Just as he was about to enter the courtyard, Yuan Xinfa suddenly stood up and reminded him, "Master Dong, Xifeng just came back."

"Oh, come back if you want."

"Uh... he brought a girl back and said he wanted you and the Madam to see her. She's now waiting in the small hall on the second floor."

"You brought a girl back?" Jiang Lianheng frowned, looking a little surprised. "Are you bringing your wife over for a visit?"

Yuan Xinfa hesitated for a moment and whispered, "He didn't say it, but it looks like that to me."

"Hey! This kid, for such a big thing, he didn't even tell his family in advance? He should have let them prepare. Besides, whose daughter would be so eager to come directly to his house?"

Jiang Lianheng suddenly became curious, but Yuan Xinfa knew nothing about anything he asked, so he had to walk quickly across the courtyard and head towards the gate of the mansion.

(End of this chapter)