Chapter 409 408 [Second Child of the Zhang Family]

In the blink of an eye, it was New Year's Day in 1931. Xu Zhimo stayed at Zhou Hexuan's house for two days before leaving Tianjin to work as a professor at Peking University and Peking Women's University. Before leaving, he also went to Liang's house to visit Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin and his wife. The three seemed to have completely forgotten their original entanglements, chatted about the current situation, and had a good time.

This year's New Year's Day has a particularly festive atmosphere. Government departments have a collective day off, and newspapers and magazines have also launched "New Year's special issues".

Regardless of the opposition voices in the society, the Nanjing government formally designated the Western calendar as the "National Calendar" as the only official calendar recognized by China. The lunar calendar, while still in use, is no longer recognized by the government and no longer appears in official documents.

It is worth celebrating that on January 1, New Year's Day, the Nanjing government began to implement the "Customs Import Tax Tariff". This move marks China's realization of tariff independence, which is a huge progress since the late Qing Dynasty in terms of historical significance.

Zhang Xueliang held a grand banquet in Beiping, and he and his wife Yu Fengzhi invited many celebrities and dignitaries to celebrate his first New Year's Day after taking charge of North China. After the celebration in Beiping was over, Zhang Xueliang brought his "secretary" Miss Zhao Si to Tianjin to hold a ball and invite the celebrities and gentry in Tianjin.

Although Zhou Hexuan repeatedly urged Zhang Xueliang to send elites back to the Northeast to prevent the Japanese from taking advantage of the situation, he only sent back a full-staffed division with about 8,000 troops.

"Mingcheng, it's not that I disregard the safety of the Northeast, but that the situation in North China is too complicated." Zhang Xueliang wondered.

Zhou Hexuan asked, "The situation in North China hasn't settled down yet?"

Zhang Xueliang shook his head and said, "Old warlords such as Shi Yousan and Sun Dianying have surrendered on the surface, but secretly they kept making small moves. I just received news a few days ago that Shi Yousan is secretly contacting the Japanese. I don't know what the hell they are going to do."

Zhou Hexuan was silent, not knowing what to say.

From Zhang Xueliang's point of view, what he did was indeed correct. It is impossible to leave the newly occupied North China territory alone.

Although the Great War in the Central Plains had long since ended, the recruited warlords all harbored dissent. Zhang Xueliang's obsession with tenderness has indeed won the favor of many warlords, but his methods are obviously not as good as Lao Jiang's.

Chiang Kai-shek was much smarter. He kept mobilizing the troops of miscellaneous warlords and attacked the red zone under the banner of "suppressing bandits", causing both warlords and our party forces to suffer.

Zhang Xueliang's current situation is quite embarrassing. Although he has a bright future on the surface, his territory in North China is extremely unstable. The newly attached warlords under his command did not listen to the announcement, and had to pay them a large amount of military expenses. The warlords used military expenses to expand their strength, and secretly accumulated strength to take advantage of the opportunity to make trouble.

There are more than one or two warlords who want to drive Zhang Xueliang away and become the "King of North China".

According to the historical trajectory, Mr. Wang Zhaoming, the shit-stirring man of the Republic of China, will form the Guangzhou Nationalist Government in a few months. Not only did Wang Zhaoming fight Chang Kaishen in the south, but he also secretly contacted the northern warlords and the Japanese to drag Zhang Xueliang's elite Northeast Army to North China.

Among them, Shi Yousan jumped the most, was defeated by Zhang Xueliang and Chang Kaishen, and fled to Shandong to join Han Fuju.

To say that the famous rebellious general in the Republic of China, Feng Yuxiang is really not as good as Shi Yousan who burned the Shaolin Temple. In his life, Shi Yousan went to Feng Yuxiang 3 times, Yan Xishan 2 times, Chang Kaishen 2 times, Wang Zhaoming 1 time, Zhang Xueliang 1 time, the Eighth Route Army 1 time, and the Japanese 1 time. The number of ordinary warlords is counted.

Just because those newly attached warlords were about to move, the elite Northeast Army deployed in North China could not move at all. It would take Zhang Xueliang at least one or two years to completely digest the newly occupied territory.

The dance music started, and men and women walked onto the dance floor one after another.

Zhang Xueliang said with a smile: "Let's not talk about worrying in advance, just dance and dance!"

Zhou Hexuan frowned tightly, drinking red wine without speaking.

Zhang Xueliang, who wanted to dance with Miss Zhao Si, let go of Zhao Yidi's hand when he saw this, drank red wine and said, "Mingcheng, don't think too much. With the current strength of the Kwantung Army, even if you want to provoke trouble in the Northeast, I will It is not too late to temporarily transfer the army back.”

"I hope." Zhou Hexuan said.

Zhang Xueliang pointed to Liao Yaquan, who was dancing with Zhang Xueming on the dance floor, and said with a smile: "Your confidante is very lively. I heard that she is already well-known in Tianjin social circles. Even the British and French consulates general in Tianjin praised her greatly." Sister Yu (Fengzhi) also told me that Liao Yaquan invited her to participate in a radio program to do some kind of charity promotion.”

Mentioning Liao Yaquan gave Zhou Hexuan a headache and said in a low voice, "Six Commander, that woman is a Japanese spy."

"What?" Zhang Xueliang's face changed drastically, and he asked in surprise, "Are you sure?"

"One hundred percent sure," Zhou Hexuan nodded, "I already knew that woman when she first approached me."

Zhang Xueliang asked, "Should I arrest her?"

"Is it useful?" Zhou Hexuan asked with a wry smile, "Six Commander, if you arrest her today, the Japanese may send a new spy over tomorrow. It's even more dangerous not to know the details."

"The Japanese are really pervasive!" Zhang Xueliang said angrily.

Due to the lack of progress in the Japanese investigation in the United States and the excessive consumption of manpower and material resources, Liao Yaquan's spy mission has begun to change. From investigating the secret forces behind Zhou Hexuan to relying on Zhou Hexuan's fame and influence, he wandered in the upper circles of Tianjin's political and business circles and obtained various commercial and political intelligence.

Not long after today's dance started, Liao Yaquan took the initiative to approach Zhang Xueming, apparently Zhang Xueming was her new target.

Zhang Xueming is Zhang Xueliang's younger brother, and also serves as the police chief of Tianjin (he will also serve as the mayor of Tianjin in three months). Such a pivotal position will naturally be closely watched by Japanese spy agencies.

The song is over.

Zhang Xueming and Liao Yaquan came back from dancing, and greeted with a smile: "Brother, Mr. Zhou, why don't you dance tonight?"

"I'm a little tired, let's take a rest first," Zhou Hexuan smiled slightly, and said to Liao Yaquan, "Yaquan's dancing skills have improved very quickly."

Liao Yaquan made a shy look and said, "I've made a little progress."

Zhang Xueming asked the waiter for a glass of red wine, and praised: "Miss Liao dances very gracefully, she is indeed Mr. Zhou's confidante."

Zhang Zuolin's sons have their own characteristics. The second son, Zhang Xueming, is very smart, but he doesn't have Zhang Xueliang's backbone and pride, and even once served in the Wang puppet regime. The third child, Zhang Xuezeng, was wise enough to protect his life, not keen on power and wealth, and went to the west to live happily. The fourth son, Zhang Xuesi, is a patriot with backbone. After the Xi'an Incident, he followed our party wholeheartedly.

After Zhou Hexuan left with Liao Yaquan, Zhang Xueliang said to his younger brother: "Xueming, be careful about that Miss Liao, she has connections with the Japanese. When she comes to approach you in the future, try to be as hypocritical as possible, and never divulge any important information!"

Zhang Xueming was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said: "It's interesting. Mr. Zhou is very courageous. The person next to the pillow has ulterior motives and he can still keep calm. If it were me, I would definitely not be able to sleep."