September 1st, 1913, night, the bathroom on the second floor of the Hunan West Garrison Commander's residence.

  Wang Zhenyu was lying comfortably in the steaming western-style ceramic bathtub, motionless, savoring the beauty of every pore expanding. The entire bathroom's sink, toilet, and bathtub were all sent by his second brother Du Yuesheng from Shanghai.

  Since Wang Zhenyu monopolized the tobacco trade in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces, Du Yuesheng became the general agent in Shanghai, and it's not an exaggeration to say that he was making a fortune every day. Having benefited, he naturally didn't forget to return the favor. In addition to the half-year dividend of 150 million yuan that had just been received, a whole shipload of British furniture, French red wine, kitchen and bathroom appliances were sent to Anjiang by Du Yuesheng's enthusiastic staff.

  Ye Zhiwen, who had just given birth to a child and was experiencing some postpartum depression, saw these new and interesting things and suddenly felt much better. She even personally instructed the servants to arrange for someone to decorate immediately. This move made Wang Zhenyu have to sigh that women's material desires were indeed very strong, strong enough to cure illnesses.

  However, now Wang Zhenyu himself also likes to soak in the bathtub. As long as his wife is not soaking, he will quickly take off his clothes and grab a spot. Of course, sometimes his wife suddenly wants to soak too, but our shameless King generally gives up his spot and joins Ye Zhiwen for a soak together. The happiest situation is when Ye Zhiwen frowns and surprisingly agrees, this kind of lovers' bath is naturally unavoidable, it's really blissful...

  Tonight our King Da Shuai did not have such good fortune, he was resting his head on a leather cushion, quietly staring at the top of the bathroom, but in his heart he was thinking about various messages from the Military Intelligence Division and the General Staff.

  On August 11, Nanjing's anti-Yuan military officer He Haoming led 2,000 soldiers to launch a rebellion and once again declared independence. This He Haoming later abandoned his military career for literature and became an important figure in the "Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School" of the Republic of China, other notable figures of this school include Zhang Ailing and Qiong Yao. However, at this moment, all you can find on this young man from Hengyang, Hunan is hot blood and a murderous aura.

  On September 1st, Zhang Xun led his army to capture Nanjing and then slaughtered the city in revenge.

  The wheels of history did not change, and Sun Yat-sen and others who hastily provoked war were easily suppressed by Yuan Datou. In this regard, Wang Zhenyu, who claimed to be loyal to the revolution, could only express his deep sorrow and hatred, and he would have liked to die for it. However, considering that the revolution had not yet succeeded, he put off sacrificing his life for the time being.

  In the grand scheme of things, Sun Dapao and his men are doomed to lose. Although he didn't openly join the anti-Yuan army, many of them did not do bad deeds that he himself committed, such as bringing down Changde, which supported Zhongyāng and President Yuan. Fortunately, this battlefield does not affect the overall situation, and President Yuan is completely unaware of it; otherwise, it would have ruined his mood, which would be an unforgivable crime punishable by death, and would require the execution of nine clans.

  In Beijing, Wang Zhenyu was still prepared and Tian Ying had already taken 500,000 yuan to make arrangements. Of course, the focus of the activity is still to find a new backer, after his uncle Wang Longzhong's death, he has not had a reliable backer for a long time.

  Although my career is now developing smoothly, I don't need much material support from the outside world. However, not having a powerful backer in politics is a very dangerous thing, it's easy to get caught in the crossfire. If I can find a powerful backer in Beijing, then for Yuan Shikai, that would be a controllable force. For such a force, Yuan Shikai absolutely won't have the energy to deal with you before eliminating the uncontrollable forces.

  Xiong Xiling was Wang Zhenyu's first choice, this brother is currently in the Beijing political circle, but also has power without soldiers. Naturally, strong support will be needed locally as well. Moreover, Xiong Xiling is a native of Western Hunan, taking care of his hometown is only natural, and last time's railway construction rights were handled by him personally. However, these relationships are still not enough to get under his wing...

  Annoyed, I'd better think about my plan in Liuzhou again.

  Wang Zhenyu shifted his body, feeling that the warm water had soothed his chest a lot. Liu Guxiang from the Liuzhou Military Government was an old member of the Tongmenghui who had participated in the Guangzhou Uprising. Logically speaking, during this second revolution, he should have been one of the first to respond, if not the very first. However, up until now, even Tan Popo's fake Tongmenghui had declared opposition to Yuan Shikai for over a month, but our comrade Liu Guxiang still remained inactive.

  In fact, in the two Guang provinces, which are considered the foundation of the Alliance, the situation is much more complicated than in Jiangsu and Nanjing.

  There were two extremely reactionary armies, Long Jiguang's Guangdong Army and Lu Rongting's Guangxi Army.

  Secondly, most of the officers in Chen Jiongming's revolutionary army had accepted bribes and were unwilling to go north to fight against Yuan Shikai. As for not betraying him, it was mainly because they gave Chen Jiongming a bit of face, after all, they were sworn brothers.

  Liu Guoxiang delayed announcing the fight against Yuan, which is the first situation. He only had more than a thousand regular troops under his command, while Lu Rongting held the Guangxi New Army with tens of thousands of elite soldiers. This old man also announced his support for the central government, positioning himself right behind Liu Guoxiang's backside, how could Liu Guoxiang fight against Yuan?

  Wang Zhenyu understands this mentality very well. The current Liu Guoxiang is a person with a family and a career, wearing shoes, and is naturally different from the reckless revolutionaries of the Huanghuagang Uprising.

  Although he knew that Liu Guoxiang would eventually be betrayed by Shen Hongying, and his head and body would be separated, he could have waited until then to launch a major attack on Shen Hongying, taking the opportunity to seize Liuzhou or even the entire northern Guangxi region.

  However, the development of the situation has made Wang Zhenyu somewhat impatient. The first division led by Xu Yuanquan personally, with more than 15,000 officers and soldiers, along with their equipment, had already assembled in Jingzhou. Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi's troops had advanced to Tongdao County, basically making final preparations for war. Wang Zhenyu's plan this time was to take the field himself.

  It's worth mentioning that the railway from Jingzhou to Tongdao has been opened to traffic, and Anjiang to Qiancheng has also been opened to traffic. Currently, the entire Antong Railway only has the section from Qiancheng to Jingzhou that is not yet open to traffic. Unfortunately, there are too many mountains in this section, making construction difficult.

  Belgian engineers such as Ferlanti and Chinese engineers such as Ding Wenjiang have already surveyed the terrain in Suizhou, Yuanzhou and other places. With the capture of Changde, the Belgians proposed building a railway from Qincheng via Luzhou, Yuanzhou to Changde.

  The total length of this railway is 320 kilometers, which is longer than the Antung Railway, but because it runs along the Yuanjiang River, the construction cost and difficulty are reduced by half. The estimated cost by Belgian engineers is 11 million yuan (including three large bridges across the river). As for the construction period, it is expected to be three and a half years, but if the segmented construction method continues, it will be two and a half years. It is expected that if the construction starts at the end of this year, it can be completed around June 1916.

  Anjiang's steel plant project has been scaled back again and again, finally shrinking from the terrifying 1 million tons per year to 200,000 tons. Wang Zhenyu could only nod in agreement. There was no other way, as all raw materials relied on supply from Hanyang Iron Factory and Pingxiang Coal Mine. If you wanted to produce 1 million tons a year, it would be a bit of a Great Leap Forward. Although Wang Zhenyu had been somewhat self-aggrandizing recently, he still hadn't reached the point where he could ignore natural laws at will.

  However, for this 200,000-ton scale, the Luxembourg engineer of Anjiang Steel Plant also predicted that it would not be until January 1914 to officially produce steel.

  Wang Zhenyu's greatest fear now is that his finances are on the verge of bankruptcy. The 100 million silver dollars he swindled from Hong Shang to set up the Xiangxi Development Company have been used up by about 70%. The ￡10 million borrowed from the Belgian cannot be touched, otherwise what would the three major banks use to issue paper currency? Would they use rifles?

  Wang Zhenyu was clear in his mind that nearly half of the 700 million spent had gone to the military. Although his munitions factory had increased production, costs had also risen, and sometimes it cost as much to make a gun as to buy one, which was something that made Wang Zhenyu very unhappy. However, there was no choice - if you didn't have a munitions factory, the final outcome would be being ruthlessly eliminated by history.

  And it's not all bad news, at least the benefits of taking Changde are obvious.

  Firstly, the Hong merchants who were originally worried about losing their investment saw a glimmer of hope for profit and have now become our General Wang's most loyal friends.

  Secondly, the capture of Changde means more goods, better docks, and more taxes. To name a few, just the opium tax alone increased Wang Zhenyu's annual income from 20 million to 40 million. The business tax is even more impressive.

  Thirdly, Wang Zhengya's 80 million at the bottom of the box was cheaper than Wang Zhenyu.

  Fourth, Du Yuesheng now completely monopolized the opium trade in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan. Unless they went to Guangxi, these opium would eventually enter Du's pocket. Du Yuesheng estimated that he would have to pay a total of 200 million yuan in opium tax to the concession authorities and the Chinese authorities every year. His annual income would not be less than 500 million yuan, after deducting necessary expenses and his own share, he guaranteed to give Wang Zhenyu an annual profit difference of 400 million yuan to make up for military expenditures.

  Thinking of this last point, Wang Zhenyu couldn't help but shake his head with a bitter smile. Many years later, he might end up like Cai Yun, leaving behind the reputation of an opium dealer in history.

  There is gain and loss, now in China, if you want to make money by walking the right path, it's basically impossible, unless you wait until the outbreak of World War I.

  Thinking and thinking, he felt a bit uncomfortable again, so he turned his body over. But in his mind, another thing jumped out, that is the role played by the Military Affairs Department in the Battle of Changde.

  It's no exaggeration to say that without the Military Intelligence Bureau, this Battle of Changde would not have gone so smoothly.

  It was the military intelligence agents who gathered information about the enemy and turned Qing Heng, it can be said that their series of meticulous work made this battle a trip. Of course, for Bai Chongxi, the process of this trip was very unpleasant. However, the road to Guangxi from now on will probably be more difficult than Zhangjiajie.

  The words returned to the right path, and He Jian's performance in the Military Intelligence Bureau had already made Wang Zhenyu feel a little apprehensive. If these things were used against his own enemies, it would be fine, but if they were used against himself? Could he withstand it with the hidden strength of Zhou Dang and Ma Xicheng?

  After harboring doubts, Wang Zhenyu sat up in the bathtub, and at this time the door was pushed open. Wang Zhenyu turned his head to look back, and Ye Ziyun, wrapped in a bath towel, walked in lightly. She looked at herself for a moment, then frowned slightly: "Brother Yu, you used my bathtub again, and now it's all stinky."

  Looking at his half-exposed wife, Wang Zhenyu suddenly became interested, stretched out his big hand, and in the midst of Ye Ziyuan's screams, he pulled Ye Mei into the bathtub. Then, using his arm to support Ye Ziyuan's neck, he whispered against her delicate ear: "Mei sister, don't you think our life is actually quite lonely?"

  Ye Zhiwen didn't understand the meaning of this sentence: "He's just over a month old, so small, and Grandpa Nai is coaxing him every day, where does his loneliness come from?"

  Wang Zhenyu chuckled and poked Ye Ziyuan's forehead with his finger, saying: "What I meant wasn't that kind of loneliness, but the loneliness of not having any siblings, you little fool."

  Ye Zhiwen suddenly understood and scolded in a delicate voice: "I knew you, this big pervert, didn't have good intentions. I'll bite you to death..."

  The bathroom is in a mess...