Warlords: Rising from the Northwest Border and Sweeping Across the Powers

After the formal meeting, Su Zhengyang temporarily settled down in the Jiaozhou Governor's Mansion. Yang Jiakai had instructed Su Zhengyang to take all the money and wealth that Zhang Chengxiang had plundered and accumulated in the three provinces of Zhili over the years for himself. Of course, other provincial troops that contributed, such as the Yan faction of Yunzhou, the Li faction of Kuanzhou, etc., will also be able to obtain certain benefits in the subsequent rewards and awards.

Today's Northwest Revolutionary Army, while developing rapidly, is also a veritable money-eating beast. No matter how much money it is, the Northwest Revolutionary Army can swallow and digest it in the shortest time.

The Northwest Arsenal is already preparing to build its second and third branches in Yongzhou Sishui City and Ganzhou Nansai City. At the same time, Su Zhengyang has merged Sanjiang County with four nearby county-level administrative regions, upgraded it to Sanjiang City, and plans to establish the Northwest Tank Factory in the new Sanjiang City, slowly exchanging and purchasing professional talents and drawings from the system to build a complete military industrial system of its own.

The Northwest Railway Bureau is also making intensive preparations to lay the entire Linzhou railway network. Money is needed everywhere. Su Zhengyang took away a total of 600 million oceans worth of wealth from Yongzhou and Dongzhou, but it still cannot fill the bottomless pit of the Northwest Revolutionary Army.

According to Su Zhengyang's secretary, Zhang Luanyu's estimation, Zhang Chengxiang served as the Governor-General of Zhili for eleven years. Considering the tax revenue of the three provinces of Zhili and his large industries such as the Jiaozhou Chamber of Commerce, the wealth controlled by the Zhang family would be an astronomical figure that is unimaginable, at least over 1.5 billion oceans.

You know, the annual tax revenue of the entire Northern Frontier government is only about 300 million oceans. You can imagine how exaggerated this number is, which is enough to solve Su Zhengyang's current urgent needs.

However, when Zhang Luanyu personally led his professional team to start counting the property under the name of the Zhili Governor-General's Office, huge discrepancies appeared.

In the Governor's Mansion, there are a large number of land deeds, stock certificates, etc., with a total value of more than 600 million oceans, but the huge underground secret treasury has become empty. It is rumored that Zhang Chengxiang's collection of a large number of antique jades, calligraphy and paintings, gold bars, and even mountains of cash have all disappeared. Now, even if a rat comes in to the treasury of the Zhili Governor's Mansion, it will probably shed a few tears and leave a few grains of rice before leaving.

The underground treasury of the Zhili Governor's Office covers an area of ​​more than 200 square meters, which is subdivided into a cash vault, a jewelry vault, an antique vault, a gold and silver vault, etc. One can imagine how much wealth is hidden in such a huge treasury.

When he heard this, a cold light flashed in Su Zhengyang's eyes and he said only one word: Investigate!

Yan Shuangying personally rushed from the northeast to Jiaozhou and led the people from the Northwest Intelligence Bureau to investigate the matter.

At the same time, Zheng Zeyu also received a piece of news that Zhuang Mingqi's second son Zhuang Shuren, who had lived with him in the Governor's Mansion, had disappeared. Some people saw that before the Allied Forces besieged the city, there were a large number of convoys shuttling back and forth in the city, and Zhuang Shuren disappeared at this time.

Yan Shuangying followed this only clue and traced it back to the British Chamber of Commerce in the city.

Qingyun City is the third largest city in China, the only one that has concessions from foreign powers, just like Haicheng and Jinggang City. In addition to the British Concession, French Concession, Ottoman Concession, and Italian Concession, there are also Russian Concession, German Concession and Fuso Concession. The number of concessions reaches seven, second only to the nine concessions in Haicheng and the eleven concessions in Jinggang City.

The British Chamber of Commerce established by the British royal family in the Far East has its headquarters in the northern border of China located in the British Concession in Qingyun City.

As the coalition forces won victory after victory and advanced steadily in Jiaozhou, Zhuang Mingqi arranged a retreat for his second son Zhuang Shuren, who had high hopes for him. He sent a large amount of wealth from the Zhili Governor-General's Office to the British Chamber of Commerce, and part of it was given directly to the British nobles, only hoping that they could save Zhuang Shuren's life and send him to settle in Europe if there was a chance in the future.

At this time, in the headquarters of the British Chamber of Commerce in the British Concession in the city, Zhuang Shuren, dressed in a neat suit and a black bow tie, looked out the window with a hint of worry in his eyes. Now that the Northern Frontier government army has officially entered the city and his father has been executed in public, if the Northern Frontier government does not find his whereabouts, they will most likely follow the clues and find the British Chamber of Commerce directly.

Zhuang Shuren had no idea whether the British Chamber of Commerce in the Far East, which was said to be founded by the English royal family, could save its life in times of crisis.

For Zhuang Shuren, who had returned from studying in Europe and received a Western education, China was an extremely backward place. He had no intention of avenging his father at all. He just wanted to leave here as soon as possible with a large amount of wealth and find a pure land abroad to live his upper-class aristocratic life.

I wonder if Zhuang Mingqi would crawl out of the cesspool and take him away if he knew that his second son, whom he regarded as a treasure, actually did not take anyone in the Zhuang family seriously and only cared about his own situation.

Just when Zhuang Shuren was feeling worried about his future, a tall middle-aged man wearing a top hat, holding a walking stick, and wearing a pocket watch, who was dressed spotlessly and meticulously, and exuded the so-called British aristocratic aura from head to toe, pushed the door and walked in.

When Zhuang Shuren saw this person, he immediately went up to him and asked in fluent English, "Sir Charles, have you found a way to send me away from Qingyun City and China?"

"Oh! Don't worry my friend. I'm already actively contacting people to help you leave China. Just stay with me for now. I believe the Northern Frontier government won't dare to break into the British Concession and cause trouble for us."

As Charles spoke, his eyes inadvertently moved to the jade pendant on Zhuang Mingqi's neck.

Zhuang Shuren frowned, and when he followed Charles' gaze and saw his jade token, he suddenly realized.

The origin of this jade pendant of his is not simple. It is a treasured piece of the Shuiqing Empire. It is a landscape pendant carved with the finest green jadeite from the Cotton Kingdom. It is a true royal treasure and is priceless. Someone once offered a high price of three hundred thousand oceans, but Zhuang Shuren was reluctant to sell it.

Seeing that Zhuang Shuren was not getting the message, Charles coughed and said, "Oh, my friend, you know, I have always liked Chinese jade. In your country, jade represents a gentleman, which is similar to the gentlemanly demeanor of our England..."

Zhuang Shuren cursed in his heart, "You greedy white pig!" Then he gritted his teeth, took off the jade token, and handed it to Charles.

"Since Sir Charles likes it, I'll give you this jade token. Please arrange for me to leave this place of trouble as soon as possible. I really don't want to stay here for a single day."

Charles looked at the exquisite jade token with a smile on his face, then put it in his arms and said slowly, "Please rest assured, Zhuang, I will allow you to leave Qingyun City safely in three days at most, go to Hong Kong and take an ocean ferry to Europe..."

(I've seen everyone saying they don't know what the uniforms of the Northwest Revolutionary Army look like, so I'll post them today to satisfy everyone.)

The prototype of the Northwest Revolutionary Army uniform is the black uniform of the German Army in World War II