The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

Zhou Hexuan handed over the bandits to Zhao Yunxiang, sent away the members of the Red Gun Club, and took Meng Xiaodong and others to the hotel.

In the afternoon, Zhao Yunxiang sent someone over, saying that Chairman Sun wanted to meet Zhou Hexuan.

Zhou Hexuan arrived in front of the temporary official residence of the Shandong Provincial Government by car, and Sun Liangcheng went downstairs to greet him in person, and smiled from afar: "Oh, Mr. Zhou is a rare visitor, please, please!"

"President Sun, I take the liberty to interrupt you." Zhou Hexuan clasped his fists and said.

Sun Liangcheng looked like a corporal and warmly took Zhou Hexuan's hand and said: "I am in charge of Shandong now, and I am overwhelmed by the disaster relief. All the righteous men who came to Shandong for disaster relief have helped me a lot."

Zhou Hexuan couldn't help but look at Sun Liangcheng more, and found that this person didn't seem to be lying, and his impression of him was much better in an instant.

Sun Liangcheng is also regarded as the No. 1 figure in the Republic of China. He is the "Thirteen Taibao" and "Five Tiger Generals" of the Northwest Army. Since he surrendered and served as a puppet army for several years, his historical evaluation is very low.

This person's character can be summed up in eight words: courageous but not scheming, scheming but not decisive.

He fights very fiercely, and he never hesitates to charge forward, but he just doesn't know how to use his brain. When encountering major events, even if he finds someone to discuss the countermeasures, he often hesitates. In the end, he doesn't use the good ideas from others, and uses his energy to play foolish tricks.

Apart from bravery, Sun Liangcheng's only advantage is honesty, and he doesn't know how to engage in those vain things. If he doesn't like you, he won't cooperate with you even if it is beneficial. This kind of person is only suitable for fighting, not for being a politician, not even for being a local governor.

As a well-known traitor in North China during the anti-Japanese period, Sun Liangcheng's biggest highlight in his life is probably the disaster relief and bandit suppression when he was in charge of Shandong, which indeed brought many benefits to the people of Shandong.

Although he was the chairman of Shandong Province at this time, Sun Liangcheng was still wearing a military uniform. He invited Zhou Hexuan into his office, stroked the soldier's forehead and said with a smile: "Commander Feng, you have a lot of praise for Mr. Zhou. He often holds the book "The Rise of Great Powers" so that those of us who lead the army can read more when we have time." Read. Mr. Zhou, you said that I am an old man, why do you read? I feel sleepy when I read a book, and I haven’t finished reading "The Rise of Great Powers" for a year."

Zhou Hexuan said with a smile: "Get on the horse to fight, and get off the horse to rule the people. Chairman Sun must study more in the future."

"Hahahaha, that's true," Sun Liangcheng laughed, and then complained, "Actually, I don't want to be a provincial chairman, I just want to lead troops to fight, but Commander Feng and Commander Chang insist on letting me manage the mess in Shandong."

What Sun Liangcheng said was true. Shandong was indeed in a mess. The Japanese army, bandits, and famine were all very difficult problems.

But the location of Shandong is very important. Sun Liangcheng is Feng Yuxiang's old subordinate, and he joined the southern army the year before last. He has connections on both sides. Feng Yuxiang and Chang Kaishen could both accept him as the ruler of Shandong, and it was a product of compromise between the two parties.

After chatting about some irrelevant topics, Zhou Hexuan finally got to the point: "Chairman Sun, apart from the Japanese, the biggest problems in Shandong are famine and banditry. Maybe I can help in these two areas."

"Say it quickly!" Sun Liangcheng said eagerly.

Zhou Hexuan said with a smile: "Let's talk about the famine first. Most of the disaster relief food shipped from the south is used to relieve the hardest hit areas in southern Shandong. If you go a little further north, you have to rely on the red food from the northeast."

Sun Liangcheng said: "But now we are fighting with the Feng army, how can they help save Shandong?"

"Maybe I can be a lobbyist," Zhou Hexuan said, "I have a good relationship with Zhang Xueliang, let's see if I can persuade him to help. But I need a warrant from Chairman Sun, and I need to communicate with Principal Chang."

Sun Liangcheng quickly said: "No problem, as long as the Northeast is willing to transport grain, I will never stop it."

Zhou Hexuan smiled and said, "Then I'll try it."

Sun Liangcheng asked again: "How to solve the banditry problem? I only have one regiment on hand now, and I have to be stationed in Tai'an, so I don't have time to suppress the bandits at all."

"Two ways." Zhou Hexuan said.

"Mr. Zhou, please speak." Sun Liangcheng's tone was very respectful.

Zhou Hexuan said: "First, appease. There are many bandits in Shandong, all of whom are remnants of the Zhi-Shandong Allied Forces. It will be a matter of time before the Northern Expeditionary Army takes over the world. As long as they are organized, these remnants will definitely be willing to accept appeasement."

Sun Liangcheng said in embarrassment: "But these bandits are too scattered. There are hundreds of people in the east and hundreds in the west, all over the place. One by one, how many years do you have to recruit?"

Zhou Hexuan said with a smile: "You can recruit Anda first. As far as I know, the Zhilu coalition forces in Jiaodong are now fighting among themselves. The prestige of the commander-in-chief Fang Yongchang is not enough to convince the public. The deputy commander-in-chief Liu Zhilu and the third army's Liu Zhennian Ambitious, the latter two want to annex each other. You can send people to contact them, and you can easily separate and instigate rebellion."

"Wonderful!" Sun Liangcheng said happily, "As long as he can be persuaded to surrender, Jiaodong will be able to recover. That is a great achievement. But is Mr. Zhou's news reliable?"

"Whether it's reliable or not, Chairman Sun can send people to test it out," Zhou Hexuan said, "as long as one of them is subdued, they can be sent to suppress bandits and recruit bandits and remnants from all over Jiaodong."

Sun Liangcheng asked again: "Let's not talk about Jiaodong, what about other places?"

Zhou Hexuan said: "The security team!"

"Security regiment?" Sun Liangcheng frowned and said, "Mr. Zhou, to be honest, I just became the provincial chairman. I have no prestige and connections in Shandong, so I can manage Tai'an to Lunan for a generation. Other counties in Shandong have no Listen to my greetings, just send a telegram asking me to allocate funds for disaster relief."

Zhou Hexuan said: "Bandits and refugees are everywhere now, and wealthy gentry also hope that there will be security groups to protect the people. Chairman Sun, you don't need to do anything else, just issue an order to let all localities form security groups by themselves. Especially those organized by the Red Gun Club , Most of them belong to good people, and they can just take this opportunity to recruit and form a security team, which can eliminate the hidden dangers of the Red Gun Society, and can also control bandits."

Sun Liangcheng scratched his head and said, "It seems to be such a reason. It's Mr. Zhou who has a good brain. Those staff officers under me are all good at fighting, so they give me some bad ideas."

Zhou Hexuan took the opportunity to suggest: "I met bandits on the way, fortunately Zhangqiu's Red Spear Society was there to help. The leader of the Red Spear Society there is Huang Ziming, who is upright and can let him form a security team." Zhou Hexuan suddenly whispered, "Chairman Sun, with all due respect, I'm afraid that Jinan City won't be able to take it back for a while, and the surrounding counties can't just leave it there. You ask Huang Ziming to build a security team, and the money and food will be taken care of by the local wealthy gentry. You only need to provide some guns and ammunition. , we can occupy those county towns in the name of the security regiment.”

"Good idea!"

Sun Liangcheng clapped his hands happily and praised him. Although he was brave and foolhardy, Zhou Hexuan explained the situation thoroughly, and he would be a fool if he didn't understand.

In the name of building a security regiment, the surrounding counties of Jinan can be brought under the actual control of the Shandong provincial government without offending the Japanese. This is a great achievement. Even if any accidental disputes arise, they can be completely dismissed by then, and the local security team will take the blame.

Sun Liangcheng excitedly grabbed Zhou Hexuan's hand and said: "Mr. Zhou, your accent is from Zhili, right? I am from Jinghai, Tianjin, and we are also from the same hometown. I hit it off with Mr. Zhou, so let's forget about it!"

"Chairman Sun, you are the governor of a province, and I'm just a scholar, so I don't dare to climb high." Zhou Hexuan declined politely. He didn't want to befriend the future big traitor.

Such an obvious refusal, Sun Liangcheng couldn't hear it, and said with a smile: "I don't care about being high-ranking or not. I, Sun Liangcheng, don't care about people's backgrounds, as long as they taste it. Come here, prepare scented paper candles, and catch a rooster." Come!"

Zhou Hexuan: "..."