Beiyang reactionaries

After listening to Yang Wei's words, Duan Xun already had a draft in his heart and knew what he should do.

305 Cabinet meeting

On July 1920, 7, Wang Chonghui's cabinet met for the first time.

Although Liang Shiyi left Beijing a long time ago, nominally speaking, Liang Shiyi's cabinet had always been before, and Wang Chonghui was only the acting prime minister of the cabinet.But now Wang Chonghui has removed the agent from his head and has become the official prime minister of the cabinet.Attending the meeting were Duan Xun, the deputy prime minister who is also the chief of the Ministry of War, Dai Kan, the deputy prime minister, Sun Danlin, the chief of the interior, Wang Yongjiang, the chief financial officer, Yan Huiqing, the chief of foreign affairs, Sa Zhenbing, the chief of the navy, Xu Qian, the chief of justice, and Tang, the chief of education. Erhe, Yu Youren, director of transportation, Zhang Lan, director of agriculture and commerce, and Yang Yongtai, secretary general of the cabinet, etc.

Wang Chonghui sat in the middle, and Duan Xun and Dai Kan sat on both sides.

cabinet.

It took Duan Xun seven years to reach this position from a small local warlord.Although he is not yet the president or the prime minister, he is already the deputy prime minister.

It's a nondescript cabinet.

Wang Chonghui is a jurist and a believer in the so-called "good man politics".Some scholars who returned from studying in Europe and the United States called for good people to participate in politics.It is believed that the reason why China is in chaos now is because the people who engage in politics are not good people.If we want to make Chinese politics clear, we need those good people to bravely stand up and join politics.

And Wang Chonghui supports this point of view.

The naive point of view of a group of scholars.

Some scholars who are obsessed with studying and have been on the education front have no idea of ​​the domestic problems at all, and they don't know how to solve domestic problems, and they don't know anything about politics.So they used their influence to come up with a funny point of view called "good guy politics".

The other Chief of Internal Affairs, Sun Danlin, was born in the Revolutionary Party. He was a member of the Shandong Revolutionary Party in his early years, and he was also a subordinate of You Min.Yan Huiqing is an excellent diplomat and has a close relationship with Wu Tingfang.As for the chief of the navy, Sa Zhenbing, needless to say, is a veteran admiral.Chief Justice Xu Qian was not from the Revolutionary Party, but he had a close relationship with Sun Yat-sen.When Sun Yat-sen went south to protect the law in the early years, Xu Qian followed him to the south and served as the secretary-general of the Guangzhou military government and the president of the Supreme Court.Later, Sun Yat-sen was driven out of Guangdong by Lu Rongting, and Xu Qian also left Guangdong.After the Zhiwan War, Beishang served as the Chief Justice.The Minister of Education, Tang Erhe, claims to be a strategist in the cultural field. He is very articulate, but he does not have a clear political philosophy.

These people are very mixed, and there is no common so-called political faction.

It can also be seen how chaotic the Beijing government under the control of Cao Kun is.Wang Chonghui, acting as the chief of the cabinet, was unable to carry out his ideas in the face of these people from different factions.

"Everyone knows each other. Then I will talk about the first topic of today's meeting."

Although Duan Xun strongly controls Beijing, everyone thinks that Wang Chonghui is just a transitional one, and Duan Xun must have the final say on the cabinet.But Wang Chonghui himself didn't think so.When he was an official in Yuan Shikai's government in the early years, he dared to directly confront Yuan Shikai.He didn't listen to some of Yuan Shikai's orders, let alone now.Others underestimate him, but Wang Chonghui is still doing his duty.

"financial problem."

This is the most troublesome thing for Wang Chonghui at present.

No money.

The Beijing government is really poor because it has no income.Various agencies and schools of the Beijing government have not received their salaries for a long time.So when the first cabinet meeting was held, Wang Chonghui's problem was the financial problem.

To put it bluntly, Wang Chonghui raised this question at the first meeting just to get Duan Xun to express his opinion.

Let Duan Xun pay.

"President Wang (Wang Yongjiang), you should have looked at the financial situation. The Beijing government has not been able to pay salaries properly for a year. Many people have only received three or four months' salaries this year. I don't know Wang Is there any way for the chief to solve this matter?"

Wang Chonghui talked to Wang Yongjiang.

But in fact, he looked at Duan Xun and said.What Wang Chonghui wanted was for Duan Xun to solve the current financial problems of the Beijing government.

"Premier Wang, I just took over the work of the Ministry of Finance, and I haven't been able to sort out the problems of the Ministry of Finance. I need to carefully calculate the accounts of the Ministry of Finance before I can find a solution."

Wang Yongjiang answered blankly.

Wang Yongjiang is a literati and has always been in charge of Duan Xun's economic development.But that doesn't mean he doesn't understand politics.Duan Xun needs to speak at this time, and he himself will not make any statement.

Wang Chonghui frowned immediately.

How can Wang Chonghui not know that the Ministry of Finance has no money.But the Ministry of Finance has no money, but Duan Xun's border supervision agency has money.Now that Duan Xun is serving as the deputy prime minister of the cabinet, although the Border Supervision Agency has not officially banned it, it should also be banned.

If that's the case, the money from the border inspectorate should be transferred to the Ministry of Finance.

It's just that Wang Chonghui didn't want to ask Duan Xun for money directly, so he talked to Wang Yongjiang.

"President Wang, how long do you need?"

"At least one month."

"Too long."

Wang Chonghui couldn't wait.

Not only Wang Chonghui couldn't wait, Duan Xun couldn't wait either.Because now everyone knows that it is Duan Xun who controls the Beijing government. If Duan Xun can't solve the financial problem, it will inevitably attract everyone's doubts.

Duan Xun also understood what Wang Chonghui meant.

So Duan Xun coughed, and then said: "President Wang, you can take your time to sort out the accounts of the Ministry of Finance. But the various agencies of the Beijing government and the schools in Beijing can't wait that long. You See if there is any way to embezzle some other funds first, and solve the immediate financial problems first."

"There is only one way."

"You said."

"Mobilize part of the funds from the Finance Department of the Border Inspection Service."

"Yes. It was a last resort for the Frontier Supervision Administration to collect taxes from the provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Tibet, Hunan, Guangxi, Hubei, Shaanxi and Henan. Now they should hand over these taxes to the Ministry of Finance. This is the job of Director Wang."

Duan Xun spoke in a very flat tone.

But everyone present sounded so powerful.Because Duan Xun handed over the tax revenue of the provinces he controlled to the Ministry of Finance in one sentence.In this way, the Ministry of Finance will no longer have no income as before.

Solve a big problem in an instant.

This is strength.

Why is it said that Duan Xun is the behind-the-scenes controller of the Beijing government.That's because Duan Xun controls the army, but also controls the finances.One sentence now can free the Ministry of Finance of the Beijing government from its previous predicament.

"Yes."

Wang Yongjiang nodded.

Then he said to Wang Chonghui: "Prime Minister Wang, I will sort out the accounts of the Finance Department as soon as possible. As for the appropriations needed by various institutions and schools, let them make a report to our Ministry of Finance. After our Ministry of Finance verifies, we will immediately Allocate funds."

"it is good."

Although Duan Xun stole the limelight, since Wang Yongjiang can solve the financial problem, Wang Chonghui will not pursue it too much.Because for Wang Chonghui, solving the problem is good.

"If you have any questions, please ask."

The cabinet meeting is to let the ministries and commissions express their own affairs, and then everyone discusses them.

"Then let me say a few words first."

Dai Kan was the first to speak.

Everyone immediately looked at Dai Kan.Dai Kan is a student of Liang Qichao, one of the famous generals who protect the country, and the second in command of the Duan Xun Group, and now he has become the deputy prime minister of the cabinet.So people want to hear what he has to say first.

"I have read some materials of our cabinet in the past two days, and found a big problem. That is, the materials we have at present are too old. Most of the data were collected in the 30th year of Guangxu (1904) , and now it is already the ninth year of the Republic of China (1920), more than ten years have passed. The whole country has undergone great changes in these ten years. But the materials used are still those from the late Qing Dynasty. How can this continue.”