That night, the military government sent a large amount of wine and meat. Li Yuanhong himself did not appear, but according to the people who brought the gifts, he had not slept for several nights in a row, and it was said that after hearing about the great victory, he let out a sigh of relief and fainted, but it's unclear whether this is true or false.

  The Hunan and Hubei troops set up a banquet, with no distinction between officers and soldiers, gathering together to celebrate the great victory of Yudaomen Station. Everyone ate and drank openly, and everyone was overjoyed. The second battalion's officers and men who made great contributions were the center of the entire banquet, and as their leader, Wang Zhenyu was naturally the center of attention, with the officers surrounding him to toast.

  Lu Diping drank two more cups, his face red and his neck thick as he held the wine cup and squeezed in front of Wang Zhenyu, shouting: "Wang old brother, you are not being kind, we agreed to make a big splash together in Hankou, but you had to order me to lure the enemy. Now someone has spoken out, saying that I am greedy for life and afraid of death, and that I left you behind in Hankou to save myself, I am speechless with injustice, this grievance is too great, you must punish yourself with a cup, can't just let me take the blame for you!"

  Lu Diping was the last team to return to Hanyang, so the whole army was spreading rumors that the second camp was covering him up and Lu Diping was the one who abandoned his comrades. When the news of losing the second camp first came out, Wang Longzhong also scolded Lu Diping and others, even punching and kicking them. Lu Diping was not afraid of being beaten, but he was afraid of losing face. Now that the rumor of abandoning his comrades had spread throughout the entire Xiang Army, if Wang Zhenyu didn't help him wash it away, he would have no way to continue mixing in the Xiang Army, which was notorious for its brutality.

  Wang Zhenyu was taken aback, and it seemed that the actual situation was different from what this old brother said. However, seeing Lu Diping's bright red eyes with a hint of embarrassment and tension, Wang Zhenyu from the future suddenly understood everything. He smiled at Lu Diping: "Yes, I did something wrong in this matter, I should punish myself with a cup."

  With a cup down, Wang Zhenyu spoke again: "But Brother Lu wrongly blamed me. At that time, the situation was very critical and dangerous, you couldn't go, it's hard to let those kids from Hubei Student Army go, right? If so, the Jade Belt Gate wouldn't have been blown up, and we wouldn't be having this drink either. So I say Brother Lu is really wrong about me, you should also be punished, and self-inflicted three cups, what do you guys think?"

  Everyone was drunk and cheering, which gave Lu Diping a chance to speak. Lu Diping was already grateful to Wang Zhenyu and hurriedly said: "Yes, yes, it's Brother's fault for misunderstanding younger brother, I'll punish myself, I'll punish myself."

  As a result, three cups went down his throat, and Lu Di Ping got drunk to the point of being unconscious, becoming a mess. This wine is potent.

  What Wang Zhenyu did not expect was that this small matter, which seemed like just one sentence to him, would unexpectedly bring about a lifelong friendship with Lu Diping.

  On November 20, Wang Longzhi's First Division and Gan Yisheng's Third Division were ordered to return to Wuchang. The General Command of the War Department issued a very clear order that Li Yuanhong, the Governor-General of Hubei Military Government, would personally award honors to the troops who had fought bravely in this Hankou counterattack battle.

  When the troops of the Hubei and Hunan armies entered Wuchang City, the whole city was stirred up. The citizens spontaneously went to the roadside to welcome this triumphant army. Colorful flags fluttered on both sides of the street, with people standing in two rows as far as the eye could see. People excitedly handed eggs to the soldiers, thinking that it was these brave soldiers from Hunan who had defeated the Tartars and saved Hanyang and Wuchang. Otherwise, if the Tartar army had really attacked, everyone would have been unlucky, hadn't they seen how the Tartar army had burned Hankou to ashes? Thank goodness, fortunately, we still have this group of brave and victorious militia in front of us.

  This is also the result of the military government's deliberate high-profile propaganda. The previous battles were really fought too hard, with consecutive defeats, and the entire Wuchang was shrouded in a gloomy atmosphere. Therefore, although the Yu Dai Men battle did not kill many Beiyang soldiers, considering that this battle not only had significant results but also alleviated the overall situation, Li Yuanhong and others thought about it repeatedly and decided to ignore Huang Xing's exclusion and directly make high-profile propaganda to boost morale and calm people's minds.

  All major media are competing to report the victory of this Hankou counterattack, despite both sides insisting that they have won. The Qing government even announced that it had killed more than 10,000 enemies and suffered only a few hundred casualties. However, this will not affect the judgment of the media, because the Yudaomen railway station was indeed destroyed by the militia, and the deafening explosion could be heard clearly in the Hankou concession area. Moreover, after that, the Qing army did not continue to attack Hanyang, so even a fool knows who got the upper hand.

  However, the first to report on this war was not "Shen Bao", "Wanguo Gongbao", "Dagong Bao" or "Xinwen Bao" and other old-brand newspapers, but "Hanjian Daily", which had just been established for more than ten days.

  The chief editor of the Hankou Daily, Shao Piaoping, personally rushed from Hangzhou to Wuhan after learning about the victory in Hankou. He arrived just in time for the award ceremony in Wuchang. However, the article was not written solely by him, but also with the help of a journalist named Huang Yuansheng, who happened to be in Wuhan at that moment.

  Out of personal interest, Wang Zhenyu also studied a little journalism in his spare time after class. To say the least, he was still familiar with several well-known newspaper reporters during the Republic of China period.

  I really didn't expect that when I first arrived in this era, I would be so fortunate to meet the two most famous journalists of the early Republic of China, and still as an interviewee.

  For later generations of journalists, Wang Zhenyu is still relatively well-known, especially among Chinese journalists.

  If American journalists are dung removers, then Chinese journalists are dung eaters.

  Of course, this person cannot be blamed entirely on the reporter, to a large extent it is also a problem of the system and social reasons. The largest source of income for Western media comes from two parts, one is advertising, and the other is sales volume, which ultimately boils down to sales volume.

  The key to sales is the reader's recognition. You can imagine a newspaper that sings praises every day, such as Pravda during the Soviet era. No matter how good its name sounds, it cannot hide the fact that it is full of lies. Such a newspaper, no matter how strong its background is, do you think readers with normal sexual orientation will spend their own money to buy it? And without readers spending money to buy the newspaper, will advertisers spend money to advertise on it?

  What is called market choice is like this. You can say it's down-to-earth and popular, but that's just in line with human nature.

  Later generations of Chinese media people are in such an embarrassing position, a full page of lies is not feasible, the frugal government will not allocate much funds to the media, and many times the media are struggling to make ends meet. But telling the truth is also not feasible, with layers of censorship, severe administrative penalties after the fact, or overt or covert high-pressure lines. Media reporters and doctors of the same generation are all struggling to survive in the cracks, and achieving both fame and wealth is no different from chasing the Chinese dream.

  At this time, if a journalist wants to live well and comfortably, they can only play one role: a mouthpiece for the government or a public intellectual.

  Wang Zhenyu's high school classmate graduated and entered a government agency newspaper. The content of this newspaper is the same every day, reporting on the personal itinerary of leaders and the achievements of government projects, praising the wisdom of the party and government, and depicting the gratitude of ordinary people. If you really can't write an article, it doesn't matter, just take out last year's newspaper from the same period, copy it down, remember to change the time, place, and characters. Anyway, ordinary people basically won't spend money to buy such a newspaper, and the largest reader group is retired cadres.

  Oil and water naturally have their limits, the biggest income is every time the government holds a meeting or a company does publicity, running over to receive already written speeches and red envelopes, then converting the report into news and publishing it can be done, those red envelopes are gray income outside of legitimate income.

  The above is the survival state of local official media reporters.

  Wang Zhenyu's younger brother graduated from a university in the capital and was assigned to a commercial newspaper in Guangzhou, which is said to have some scale. He specializes in writing about real estate, where there are even more secrets. If you have any questions, don't worry, I'll investigate and find out the inside story. I won't rush to write the article, but first, I'll give your PR department a call. For this article, I've also put in some effort, so if you don't want the truth to come to light, then just pay me some labor fees.

  Of course, it depends on the situation. Generally speaking, articles that are fair to the issue but not to individuals will be published, but those that are unfair to individuals and fair to issues should not be published. There have been cases where individual journalists were killed or injured because they were blinded by a sense of justice and conscience. In such cases, the newspaper company may not dare to use you again. Because one day, you might offend some powerful figure, and as a result, even the editor-in-chief of the newspaper company would lose their job.

  So what you often see is some minor villains' evil deeds being exposed in the news, while the big shots' evil deeds are left unspoken.

  Truly brave and conscientious journalists are those who dare to expose the behind-the-scenes deals and truth, rather than being a public intellectual who is there just making a lot of noise. The former are being weeded out by the strict news auditing system, while the latter feel good about themselves and continue to act with abandon.

  Shao Piaoping is exactly the kind of journalist Wang Zhenyu admires, with a conscience and courage. Throughout the Republic of China era, he exposed the truth more than anyone else and had the greatest guts. As a result, he repeatedly offended powerful figures and ended up having no place to stand in all of China. He could only hide in the embassy district to continue writing until his tragic death at the hands of Zhang Zuolin. This kind of journalist is truly a seeker of truth, a true hero. As for his death, it's not so much a pity as a sign that this nation still has hope because there are people who dare to shed blood for speaking the truth. People like him are the real seekers of truth and true Chinese media professionals.

  In addition, later historical textbooks often put Shao Fengping's death together with the assassination of a certain party founder, giving people the illusion that the two are closely related. However, Wang Zhenyu has verified that there was a full year between the deaths of these two individuals, and apart from both being killed by Zhang Zuolin, there is basically no other connection. It's also unclear who is using whom to elevate whom through such propaganda!

  But now, the problem is that Wang Zhenyu looked at Shao Fengping with a face full of admiration, like a worshiping pig brother, which made Shao Fengping feel inexplicably good about this militia officer.