The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

In the last month of 1927, Feng Yuxiang was like a god of war possessed by him. He fought repeatedly without defeat, and besieged Sun Chuanfang, Zhang Zongchang and Chu Yupu in the city of Xuzhou.

He Yingqin also followed President Chang's order to go northward along the Jinpu line and join forces with Feng Yuxiang to attack the city. After two days and two nights of fierce fighting, Xuzhou City was breached on December 16, and Sun Chuanfang, Zhang Zongchang and Chu Yupu led the remnants and fled north in a hurry.

The war situation in the south has collapsed!

Zhang Zuolin was devastated, but there was nothing he could do. In fact, two months ago, in order to gain the support of the Japanese, he signed a traitorous treaty called the "Manchurian-Mongolian New Five-way Agreement".

Fearing that Zhang Zuolin would turn his back on him again, the Japanese forced him to sign the secret agreement. Zhang Zuolin had no choice but to forcefully write the word "read" as evidence of agreeing to betray the country.

But the Japanese have suffered too much in this kind of thing, and they still refuse to trust Zhang Zuolin. As a result, Zhang Zuolin was forced to exchange letters with the Japanese minister, hoping to replace the previous personal secret agreement with a formal agreement between China and Japan.

Zhang Zuolin is not a bad writer, once this kind of contract is signed, he really can't stand up. Yu Gong is a traitor and bears the eternal infamy; Yu private is a seller, and his interests in the Northeast will be seriously damaged.

When the two sides were negotiating, Zhang Zuolin deliberately leaked the news, causing an uproar in the public opinion, and the southern government even scolded Zhang Zuolin bloody.

Zhang Zuolin took the opportunity to ask Yang Yuting to issue a statement, claiming that it was fake news, and Zhang Dashuai never signed a secret agreement with Japan.

The Japanese side was furious and sent multiple letters questioning Zhang Zuolin.

Zhang Zuolin turned around and pretended to be his grandson again, saying that he had no choice but to say that he refused to turn the private secret agreement into a formal contract between the two countries.

The Japanese were disgusted by Zhang Zuolin's rogue behavior, but they were afraid that he would not fulfill the agreement he signed before, so they had to hold their noses and admit it.

Although Zhang Zuolin's trick succeeded, it completely angered the Japanese. Many Japanese radicals clamored to kill Zhang Zuolin in order to solve the Northeast issue once and for all.

Sun Chuanfang, Zhang Zongchang, and Chu Yupu were defeated at the end of the year, and when the war in the south collapsed, Zhang Zuolin was harassed by the Japanese all day long, forcing him to quickly fulfill the private traitorous agreement he had just signed.

Facing the crisis, Zhang Zuolin really betrayed his country this time.

Unexpectedly, after betraying the country, the Japanese turned their backs on their promises. Not only did they not help Zhang Zuolin deal with the Northern Expedition, but they persuaded him to give up the territory in the pass and return to the northeast honestly.

It is conceivable that our Zhang Zuolin and Marshal Zhang would scold the Japanese many times a day, "Damn you!"

But the battle still had to be fought. Zhang Zuolin no longer cared about Yan Xishan, who was shy, and transferred the main force of the Feng army to the Beijing-Han line to fight against Feng Yuxiang. Northern Expeditionary Army.

In this way, the battle situation stabilized a little.

...

Just as the warring parties licked their wounds to prepare for another battle, Tianjin grew taller.

The 61.6-meter-tall Tianjin Department Store was finally completed and opened, and the old Tianjin people called it Zhongyuan Company.

Zhongyuan Company originally planned to open a department store in the French Concession, but the land price was driven up by the British Shannon Company, so it had to choose another location. Due to China's boycott of Japanese goods, the market in the Japanese Concession was deserted. In order to prosper the economy, the Japanese Consul in Tianjin promised various preferential conditions, and hit it off with Zhongyuan Company.

So the tallest building in Tianjin was built in the Japanese Concession.

On the day of the opening, all the leading figures in Tianjin received invitation letters, and Zhou Hexuan was no exception.

Huang Wenqian, the deputy manager of the department store, even paid a visit in person. Zhou Hexuan couldn't shirk it, so he reluctantly agreed to attend the opening reception.

Early this morning, the department store was crowded with people.

Many Tianjin citizens, who didn't buy anything at all, made a special trip to watch the excitement. This is the tallest building in Tianjin, and it is also our Chinese property. If you don’t come and see it, do you still deserve to be a Tianjin person?

Department stores took the opportunity to hold promotional activities. Imported goods from countries such as Germany, Japan, Britain, and the United States are already in high demand. Now they offer 10% or 20% discounts, which makes Tianjin people who have some spare money very happy. People scrambled into the mall, waving silver dollars to buy frantically, and even collapsed a counter.

In the evening, the opening reception went smoothly.

The Consul General of Japan in Tianjin personally attended the congratulations, and there were also some bureaucrats and capitalists present, and the rest were cultural celebrities like Zhou Hexuan.

Zhang Leyi came to her aunt today, so she didn't accompany Zhou Hexuan to the reception. After parting with the Sun family brothers, he stepped into the banquet hall alone, and immediately saw Puyi surrounded by everyone. There is also a beautiful woman next to Puyi, with short hair cut and dressed in fancy dress.

Zhou Hexuan's eyes froze, and his heart beat faster. He was not fascinated by that woman, but recognized her identity - Yoshiko Kawashima!

Yoshiko Kawashima has left too many photos in later generations, photos of girls, photos of palace clothes, photos of military uniforms, photos of suits... everything, how could Zhou Hexuan recognize the wrong person?

According to the original history, Yoshiko Kawashima had already cut her hair at this time, dressed as a man all day long, and had just married the Mongolian royal family. She actually came to Tianjin now, and she was wearing women's clothes, so she must have some other purpose.

Zhou Hexuan walked over as if nothing had happened, took a glass of red wine from the waiter's tray, and raised his glass to signal to Puyi across the air.

Puyi's expression turned pale when he saw Zhou Hexuan. He had already heard the rumors about Zhou Hexuan's affair with Wanrong, so he turned his face away and ignored it.

Yoshiko Kawashima asked, "Who is that person?"

"Zhou Hexuan." Pu Yi said.

"Oh, I've heard of his name." Yoshiko Kawashima looked at Zhou Hexuan with interest, but that was all. She came to Tianjin from Dalian this time to help the Mongolian royal family and the Japanese find Puyi for secret talks.

As for what? All fools know it.

The Japanese had made up their minds to eradicate Zhang Zuolin, so they naturally had to support the new puppet, so that they could send troops to occupy the Northeast in a legitimate name. And they have many puppet targets, including Zhang Xueliang and Yang Yuting, and Puyi is just one of the backup candidates.

"Mr. Zhou, rare customer, rare customer!" Several Chinese businessmen bid farewell to Puyi and walked towards Zhou Hexuan quickly.

After self-introduction, Zhou Hexuan knew that these people were: Lan Xiangzan, the prime minister of Zhongyuan Company, Lin Ziyuan, the manager, Lin Shoutian, the deputy manager, Chen Guangyuan, the shareholder, and Yang Tingbao, the architect.

The composition of Zhongyuan Department Store's shareholders is very complicated, mainly including the tripartite cooperation of national capital (comprador), overseas Chinese in Japan (fund-raising) and bureaucratic capital. The background is extremely powerful, with support from all sides, and there may be Japanese spies among the shareholders.

Zhou Hexuan was not interested in those managers and shareholders, but paid more attention to Yang Tingbao, the architect and designer of the department store.

Speaking of Yang Tingbao, it is estimated that many people have never even heard of this name. But the buildings he participated in designing in his life are famous: Purple Mountain Observatory, Monument to the People's Heroes, Great Hall of the People...

This is a big cow in the field of modern Chinese architecture!

"Hello, Mr. Yang." Zhou Hexuan offered a toast.

Yang Tingbao was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and said, "Mr. Zhou is good."

Zhou Hexuan said flatteringly: "Mr. Yang is a great talent, he designed the department store so beautifully and generously."

Yang Tingbao said modestly: "Wherever you are, do your best."

"Don't be too modest," Zhou Hexuan said with a smile, "Mr. Yang is very famous in the American construction industry."

"It's just a nickname." Yang Tingbao became more modest. Before he graduated from university, his work won the first prize in the National Design Competition for Architecture Students, and it was included in the book "Architectural Design Exercises". Decades later, this book is still an important reference book for architecture majors in European and American universities.

Zhou Hexuan didn't see any friends at the reception, so he chatted with Yang Tingbao. Yang Tingbao was introverted and didn't like to talk. Most of the time, Zhou Hexuan was talking. He listened attentively and occasionally added a sentence or two.

Not long after, Chu Yufeng suddenly brought Liao Yaquan in, clasped his fists from afar and laughed, "Boss Lan, Boss Lin, congratulations!"

"Commander Chu, welcome! It's rare for you to come to join us."

Lan Xiangzan and Lin Ziyuan hurried forward to greet him, but before they said a few words, their expressions turned ugly.

Chu Yufeng actually came to apportion the public debt on the day of the family's opening, and the lion asked for 10,000 yuan, which was simply disrespectful.

Chu Yufeng promised to be deflated this time, because the background of Zhongyuan Company is too large, Chinese compradors, bureaucrats, and Japanese all have shares in it, and at most he will be given hundreds of dollars as a beggar.