The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

In order to stabilize the territory in North China as soon as possible, Zhang Xueliang moved his official residence to Beiping, and he worked hard to develop the military and political style of North China.

With the departure of Zhang Xueliang, the new mayor of Tianjin was also announced.

This person is Zang Qifang, who majored in economics at the University of California and the University of Illinois. After returning to China, he served as the dean of the law school of Northeastern University. He also worked as a private tutor (teaching economics) for Zhang Xueliang for several years. Ask for one of the secretaries.

Zhang Xueliang's attitude towards Zang Qifang is very complicated. On the one hand, he respects Zang Qifang's talent and learning ability, but on the other hand, he feels that Zang Qifang is unreliable.

Because Zang Qifang did not strictly restrain the students at Northeastern University when they made troubles, the scale of the student movement became bigger and bigger. In Zhang Xueliang's original words, "I didn't take Zang Qifang very seriously, and I almost shot them (many school leaders) to death."

To put it bluntly, Zang Qifang is a scholarly bureaucrat who loves students very much.

Historically, Northeastern University moved to Sichuan. The local Sichuan army often molested female students, making them afraid to go out at night. Zang Qifang, who was the exiled president of Northeastern University at the time, learned about it, and immediately spread the hero post widely, entertaining the company-level and above officers of the local garrison. He told the hardships of being displaced by the school, and the difficulty of the students studying hard, and begged the garrison to strictly control the soldiers to ensure that the students can study with peace of mind.

These are nothing, what is terrifying is that Zang Qifang toasted one by one, and Sichuan Laobaigan drank more than 50 cups in a row, which stunned the generals of the Sichuan army. Since then, the local Sichuan army will give a thumbs up whenever Zang Qifang is mentioned, and there has been no incident of soldiers molesting female students.

Later, Mr. Bo Yang also said in his essay: "Over the past ten years, he has drunk as much as a sea without forcing others. As far as I know, there are two people. One is the deceased Mr. Zang Qifang, and the other is Mr. Zang Qifang. Mr. Ye Mingxun, who is still alive, is worthy of respect and support, and he is also a person who sings praises."

On the third day after Zang Qifang took office as mayor of Tianjin, he invited Zhou Hexuan and Zhang Boling to have dinner together, and the banquet was held in the small courtyard house he rented.

Zhang Boling took a trip to Europe last year and came back at the beginning of this year. It is said that he raised more than 100,000 yuan for running the school. As the president of Nankai University, he no longer cares about the specific school affairs. Anyway, he just asks for money all day long.

This gentleman is a master of asking for money, crying all day long as a beggar, and insisting on making Nankai University bigger and bigger. He opened Nankai Primary School two years ago, and with the addition of middle school and university, Nankai's stalls are very large. He founded the Nankai Institute of Economics three years ago, and immediately planned to establish the Institute of Applied Chemistry. Anyway, this gentleman is busy.

Zang Qifang took office as a new official, and he really wanted to flex his muscles in Tianjin. One is to develop the local economy. He majored in economics in the United States; the other is to revitalize education in Tianjin. Zang Qifang is an educator at heart.

"Mr. Zhang and Mr. Zhou, the two have the highest prestige in Tianjin's education circle. I am new here, and I hope you will support me a lot in education," Zang Qifang raised his glass and said, "Come on, I will toast to the two gentlemen. I will do it. You can do whatever you want." .”

After Zang Qifang finished speaking, she raised her neck and drank it. She drank a glass full of wine in an instant.

Immediately afterwards, Zang Qifang chatted again and toasted Zhou Hexuan and Zhang Boling respectively. Nima is like drinking plain water, drink one cup after another, and drink up half a catty in a blink of an eye, and speak clearly, without any sign of drunkenness.

Wine Fairy!

Zhou Hexuan and Zhang Boling looked at each other, they both sipped their wine and did not speak.

Zang Qifang smiled and said, "I am going to increase the enrollment rate of school-age children in Tianjin. I want to start from two aspects. One is to build public primary schools, and the other is to support private primary schools. This requires two help."

Zhang Boling asked: "How much money does the Tianjin Municipal Government plan to allocate each year?"

"Well, Tianjin's finances are really difficult," Zang Qifang sighed, and then said, "However, no matter how difficult the government is, it can't be poor in education. I can make the decision and allocate 20,000 yuan a year as a subsidy for primary schools."

20,000 yuan is spread over the entire city of Tianjin, what a fart!

Zhang Boling was a little disappointed, but still smiled and said, "It's rare that Mayor Zang attaches great importance to education, and I would like to offer a toast to the mayor on behalf of the students in Tianjin."

"It's easy to say, easy to say." Zang Qifang raised his cup and sighed again.

Zhou Hexuan said: "The Hope Education Foundation's donations can only barely maintain the existing Hope Primary School, and it is really unable to continue to expand the scale. I am afraid that Mayor Zang will be disappointed."

Today Hope Primary Schools are mainly located in Tianjin and Beiping, and there are also some established in Hebei Province around the other two cities, totaling as many as 98 schools. At present, there are more than 10,000 students and more than 300 teachers in the school. The annual salary of teachers is 100,000 yuan. In addition to purchasing teaching materials and providing free lunches, the total annual cost exceeds 150,000 yuan.

To be honest, the donations have long been insufficient.

Wenxiu often took to the streets to publicize and appeal for donations, and Zhou Hexuan also occasionally asked wealthy businessmen in Peiping and Tianjin for alms, but the annual donation was still less than 50,000 yuan, and the rest was all donated by Zhou Hexuan himself.

"Oh, everything is difficult without money." Zang Qifang sighed helplessly.

Zhou Hexuan joked: "The mayor of Tianjin is crying poor, how can you embarrass the civil affairs officials in other places."

"Hahahaha." Zhang Boling laughed out loud.

This is really a joke, because Tianjin is so awesome at this time.

Tianjin was the second largest industrial city during the Republic of China, second only to Shanghai, and also the largest financial and trade center in the north. It can be said that it was very rich.

It is a pity that the most important salt tax in Tianjin does not go to the local finance at all, but is directly handed over to the Changlu Salt Bureau and collected by the central government. In addition, when Yan Xishan was defeated, the previous mayor spent almost the same amount of money, so the new mayor, Zang Qifang, had no money to use.

After a meal of wine, after Zhang Boling left, Zhou Hexuan said to Zang Qifang, "Mayor Zang, I have a way to make money."

"Mr. Zhou, please tell me." Zang Qifang lifted his spirits.

Zhou Hexuan said: "Thoroughly investigate all the factories of large companies in Tianjin and clear up their shares. Some of them must be unclean."

As soon as Zang Qifang was engaged in education, how could he know these things, so he quickly asked, "Mr. Zhou, can you explain the situation in detail?"

In fact, it is very simple. Most of Tianjin's industries are bureaucratic capital.

For example, the well-known Jiuda Refined Salt Company, in order to break the restrictions of the old system of the salt government, directly recruited Yang Du to become a shareholder, and finally obtained the sales right approved by Yuan Shikai. In order to sell refined salt to the south, Cai E, Li Yuanhong, Cao Kun, Cao Rui and others were successively attracted to become shareholders.

As a result, every battle is exchanged for blood.

For example, after the end of the Second Zhifeng War, the Beiyang authorities vigorously seized the Jiuda Refined Salt Company, not only confiscated the shares under the name of Cao Kun and others, but also arrested the chairman of the company, and Jiuda Company paid a fine of 80,000 silver dollars before releasing them. .

Zang Qifang was stunned and hesitated, "I'm afraid it's unreasonable to do so."

Zhou Hexuan sneered and said, "Those warlords and ordinary people continue to live freely after they go to the wild. Why is it unreasonable to confiscate their shares? Some people can easily get shares without even investing real money. To be honest, Zang If the mayor takes the opportunity to confiscate the shares of warlords and bureaucrats and return them to the company, and only collect part of the fine, the bosses of those companies may even thank you. Of course, some people’s shares are still inconvenient for specific issues. Confiscated, you can figure it out yourself."

Zang Qifang was obviously moved, but if he did this, he would definitely be stigmatized as a corrupt official.

But, if some of the money obtained is used for education, public opinion will turn to him again.

Done!

And as soon as possible, Zhang Xueliang is now engaged in the aftermath of the Central Plains War, and a group of warlords have gone to Tianjin to serve as apartments. These people are the best targets.