Chapter 95 Section 94

For five days in a row, there were ten dinners every day, half of which were resigned, and there were also four or five entertainments.On the sixth day, the regent summoned him for the second time, and he could leave Beijing to take up his post.Relieved, Duanfang returned to Xianliang Temple where he lived, and decided not to go there. He only went to the shopkeeper of Liulichang's study to send calligraphy and painting inscriptions to see. "It's such a hot day, you can quit other entertainments, but," Yang Xingwu said, "there is a man who invites a general, you must come." He said, and he handed over a post.

Duan Fang took a look and was very surprised.Zhang Xun, who entertained guests, is one of the few remaining generals of the green battalion.His original job is the admiral of Gansu Province, and he is currently serving as the battalion commander of the three eastern provinces.I can't read a lot of watermelon-sized characters, and although I know Duan Fang, I don't know the origin. Why is it necessary for him to treat guests?What surprised Duan Fang was not Zhang Xun's invitation, but Yang Xingwu's words. "Is there any significance in it?" "Naturally." Yang Xingwu asked: "The commander-in-chief must have heard about Zhang Shaoxuan's life, right?"

"I know he is a servant of Xu Xianping's family, nothing else matters. We have nothing to do today, so we might as well talk about this person." "He is a newcomer from the Nanchang Mansion. He comes from a humble background. Yes, he is Xu Xianping's Ma Bian..." Xu Xianping is Xu Zhenyi, who was the governor of the river.Zhang Xun likes to gamble, and lost public funds several times in betting, Xu Zhenyi couldn't bear it, and decided to deal with him severely.Mrs. Xu thought that he was usually capable, and judging by his appearance, he did not seem to be a poor man, so she gave him a small amount of money and let him go privately.

So Zhang Xun went to Guangxi and joined Su Yuanchun's subordinates, and later went outside the pass to belong to Song Qing's Yi Army.By chance, he transferred to Beiyang.When Yuan Shikai was training troops at Xiaozhan, he served as a "helper" in the engineering battalion managed by Wang Shizhen.When Yuan Shikai succeeded Li Hongzhang as the direct governor, his subordinates rose and all were promoted.At that time, the army was divided into two systems. The "New Army" who had received new military training was regarded as the country's regular army. If the Hunan Army, Huai Army, Provincial Army, and other miscellaneous armies cannot be selected for training in military schools, they will become the "new army" and the weak will be eliminated and the strong will be retained. They will be organized into patrol battalions to maintain local law and order.With no training and little replenishment, let them fend for themselves as a transitional method during the establishment of a new army.At this time, Zhang Xun led a patrol battalion, stationed at the junction of Zhili and Henan.

As far as Huiluan of the two palaces, crossing the Yellow River from Kaifeng to the north, to Cizhou and entering the border of Zhili, it happened to be Zhang Xun's defense zone.He is very generous, generous and likes to make friends, he gets along well with the eunuchs, he speaks well in front of the "Lafayette", and he has to rush to Beijing to stay as a guard. He was the commander-in-chief of Jianchang Town, and then he was promoted to the admiral of Yunnan, and became the chief military officer of a province.An old man who was born in the army can be regarded as "the best in official residence" when he is honored as "Military Gate" by others!

Soon, Zhang Xun was transferred from Admiral of Yunnan to Admiral of Gansu. Although his title changed, he was still in Beijing.At that time, the Shenji Battalion trained by the old King Chun and the "Tiger God Battalion" in charge of Zai Yi had long since dissipated. Ronglu's military guards, except for the Yi Army led by Song Qing, who were stationed outside the pass, the old troops of Nie Shicheng and Dong Fuxiang , became stragglers, some of them went to other places, and some of them were trained as patrol police.Therefore, Zhang Xun's army has become a "garrison camp" to defend the palace ban, with distinctive armor and full of palaces.Once when Yuan Shikai was in the audience, he was horrified when he saw the situation. If Zhang Xun had any conspiracy, the whole palace was under his control, so what could he do?

At that time, after the Russo-Japanese War, the three eastern provinces were really full of so-called ambush, so Yuan Shikai suggested to the military aircraft that Zhang Xun be transferred to the wing commander of the Fengtian Xingbattalion to control the defense forces of the three provinces.This is majestic but yin-depressing, because the title of "Restraining the Defense Forces of the Three Provinces" is in name only. The new troops of the three provinces are under the command of Beiyang, and Zhang Xun does not command them. , Zhang Zuolin, Feng Delin, Wu Junsheng and others are not easy to mess with.Zhang Xun is also very knowledgeable, so he was able to live in peace, and because there are quite a few rumors that Zhang Xun and the "Red Beard", who has been rampant all the time, communicated with each other early.But there is no supporting evidence, and the generals and governors who have served successively can only be appeased by Rong Rong.Zhang Xun also ended up often prostitution and gambling in the capital of Hongchen Fangdhu. He spends only two or three months in Fengtian in a year.

His permanent residence in Beijing, apart from his greed for prosperity, naturally has other functions.First of all, the relationship between the eunuch and the Ministry of Internal Affairs is absolutely unwilling to be alienated, and he has seen that the then empress and the current empress dowager will gain power one day, so he first made friends with Xiao De Zhang and then joined the clan and became brothers.The eunuch has such an eminent "brother", so it is naturally an honor to close the door. Xiao Dezhang's mother often said to her son: "Your elder brother's business is your own business! He said things, you can't say things." De Zhang had a lot of private savings, all of which were under the control of his mother. Whenever Zhang Xun couldn't pay for the loss, he always accommodated Xiao De Zhang's mother and responded to every request. He never encountered a setback.

In addition, during the holidays, Yang Shiqi must be asked to find Yuan Shikai for help.Yuan Shikai hated him very much, but he had to buy into his account, and Xu Shichang helped him, so Yuan Shikai kept a respectful and distant relationship with him, and had no intention of trying to drive him out. But Xiliang is different.He was transferred from the governor of Sichuan to the three eastern provinces, and his request to take it back was not allowed. He had to go to the post to rectify his strength. The first thing he thought of was Zhang Xun.He had heard people talking about how this person was abusing bandits and abusing the people, how he lax discipline, and what kind of person he was, so he had to take a look and talk about it.Sure enough, the rumors were true, so he took the knife from this person as the beginning of rectifying the administration of officials in the three eastern provinces.

Zhang Xun also knew that he came with bad intentions, so when Xiliang came to Beijing to see His Majesty, he avoided him every day.Xiliang sent people to invite him several times, but to no avail, so he felt that he had to meet him.So one day at three o'clock in the morning, he took his servants and went straight in through the door, finally woke Zhang Xun from the bed, and met face to face. The meeting was in the "study".Between several cases, there are countless antiques on display, the authenticity of which is unknown, but the decorations are all exquisite.Therefore, when Xi Liang met Zhang Xun, he praised the study room at the first sentence: "This room is so beautiful!"

"It's from the two palaces!" Zhang Xun replied. "Two Palaces" refers to Empress Dowager Cixi and Dezong, Xiliang asked: "According to what you said, your residence was granted by the previous dynasty?" "No! After I returned to Luan from the two palaces, I received a lot of antique calligraphy and paintings, not one thousand, but eight hundred pieces. I am very poor, but the things bestowed by the imperial court cannot be sold." Zhang Xun said again: "The two palaces I also know that I am very poor, so I used to reward cash in the past, the most was 15,000 taels at a time, and there were about 60,000 taels before and after, all of which were spent. Now all I have are the things in this house. The grace of the two palaces , I don’t think anyone will laugh at me for showing off.” Hearing what he said, Xiliang knew that he had a deep relationship with the palace and his relatives, so touching his hand might not be able to fulfill his wish, so it is better to keep it as it is for now. But if he doesn't provoke Zhang Xun, Zhang Xun wants to provoke him instead.When I arrived in Fengtian, I worshiped the seal to take over the affairs, and the bureaucrats belonged to the Yamen, but Zhang Xun was alone, so I couldn't help being very angry.Immediately send Goshha to find him and question him face to face. "Do you know that the governor is temperate under the civil and martial arts, and you, the admiral, are also my subordinates?" Of course Zhang Xun knew.Not to mention the governor, even if he met the governor, he would hand over the manuscript for reference.But since he intends to make things difficult for Xiliang, he doesn't say that. "I only know the Great Qing Dynasty Code, and the rank of the governor and the admiral are the same. Besides, I am the admiral of Gansu, and now I am the commander of the battalion in the three eastern provinces, controlling the defense forces of the three provinces. The young commander," Zhang Xun did not call him "big "Shuai", because his name is Qingbi, so he uses this parallel title, "You take care of the three provinces, and I also take care of the three leftovers." Xi Liang was stunned, very angry, but he did not refute him, and he thought of a sentence and thought of it. Question: "Then, when Xu Jushuai was here in the past, how did you perform the rituals of subordinates?" "Xu Jushuai is my old officer." When Yuan Shikai was training at the small station, Xu Shichang was the general manager of his battalion affairs office, and all the battalion palaces were his subordinates.After explaining his origin, Zhang Xun added another sentence: "How can you compare with him!" This time, Xi Liang was furious!For the time being, Zhang Xun was still allowed to be free in Beijing. Until a few days ago, Fang began to participate in the impeachment, accusing Zhang Xun of "when the defense was tight, he dared to leave his post without authorization and did not return for several months. , Discipline is gone. Should be dealt with by the Ministry of Order as usual." For a military officer, this is a very serious crime, especially for the governor who "starts to manage the army and dismounts to manage the people", at least it is a punishment of dismissal and investigation.However, under the protection of Xiaode, Zhang, Xun and Tao, Baylor only issued an edict: "Remove all the missions of the battalion wing commander, and go to Gansu to serve as the admiral." Two days later, there was another special order: "Zhang Xunzhu is still working in Beijing." Xiliang is also very powerful, when he paid homage, he had already predicted that no matter what Zhang Xun could do, he would not be able to be the "Fengtianxing Battalion Wing Commander" anyway, so he had already made an arrangement, and he accepted it on the day he was ordered. his troops.In addition to bringing two hundred soldiers in Beijing, Zhang Xun became a bare-bones admiral. This made Zhang Xun miserable, because without soldiers, there would be no pay, where to "eat vacancies"?For this reason, he discussed with Xiao Dezhang and wanted to get Yi Jun, and Xiao Dezhang expressed his support.At this time, Xiao Dezhang had become very rich, and more than half of the private house money of the Empress Dowager Cixi was in the hands of the Empress Dowager Longyu, who was in charge of it. After Li Lianying and Cui Yugui retired for retirement, he was also in the palace.So as long as he nods, if you want money, you have money, and if you want relationships, you have relationships.Zhang Xun felt ambitious. He was originally from Yijun, and there were still many "brothers" who wore a pair of trousers together. He quietly consulted with him, and they all thought that this matter could be done, and it was neither difficult nor difficult to replace Jiang Gui's problem with it. It doesn't hurt morality, because Yi Jun was not created by Jiang Zuoti. It was Bao Chao's general Song Qing who founded the "Yi Army", so he inherited the tradition of Bao Chao's "Ting Army".If the stragglers still want to serve as soldiers and eat food, as long as they join the Yi Army, they will accept them all, but "name filling" depends on their quota. If there is no shortage, they can only eat "big pot rice" without payment.As soon as the battle starts, put these stragglers at the front, win the first battle, follow up with sharp divisions, and maintain strength if you lose, then look at the opponent's weaknesses, take advantage of the gaps, and attack with all your strength.Bao Chao used this strategy to make great achievements. Although it is not what it used to be, the Yi Army has survived the battle of the Eight-Nation Allied Forces. Among the Wuwei Five Armies under Ronglu's jurisdiction, it can exist on the same level as Yuan Shikai's Wuwei Youjun , and among the new army of six towns with excellent equipment and neat military appearance, it is this loyalty that stands alone. During the Xinyou Rebellion, Ma Yukun had already led Yijun, and Jiang Guiti took over after Ma Yukun died.This person's name is Hanqing, but his name is very elegant, but he is only slightly better than illiterate.He knew his name, but he didn't know it clearly. Once in Rehe, he saw a signboard hanging under the eaves of a noodle shop with the word "hanging noodles" in running script. Write it on it!" Insufficient literacy is not enough to worry about, but it is already in decline.He suffered from wind-dizzy disease, he would feel dizzy after he could not walk much, and he had to sit down and rest for a while before he could walk again.Every time he enters the palace, he has to take three or four rests along the way to get there, and besides, he is already over sixty, so he should go home to retire. Because Jiang Hangti's decline was obvious to all, both the Military Aircraft Department and the Army Department thought it was okay to transfer Zhang Xun to lead Yijun.However, Jiang Guiti is currently the admiral of Zhili. If the governor of Zhili is willing to speak for him, it will be difficult for Zhang Xun to do so. He sincerely invites Duan Fang to eat in order to get through this last hurdle.