In order to consolidate the territory of North China as soon as possible, Zhang Xueliang moved his official residence to Peiping, and worked hard to develop the military and political affairs of North China.
With the departure of Zhang Xueliang, the new mayor of Tianjin was also appointed.
This person’s name is Zang Qifang. He majored in economics at the University of California and the University of Illinois. After returning to China, he became the dean of the law school of Northeastern University. He also served as a tutor (teaching economics) to Zhang Xueliang for several years. He was also Zhang Xueliang’s opportunity.
I want 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 academic ability, but on the other hand, he feels that Zang Qifang is unreliable.
Because Zang Qifang did not strictly restrain students from Northeastern University when they made trouble, so the scale of the student movement became bigger and bigger. In Zhang Xueliang’s original words, “I didn’t think highly of Zang Qifang, and I almost wanted to kill them (several people in the school)”
leaders) were all shot.”
To put it bluntly, Zang Qifang is a scholar-type bureaucrat and loves students very much.
Historically, Northeastern University was moved to Sichuan. The local Sichuan army often molested female students, so that the students were afraid to go out at night. When Zang Qifang, the exiled president of Northeastern University at the time, learned about it, he immediately posted a hero post and hosted a banquet for company-level and above officers from the local garrison.
Officer. He told the hardships of the school being displaced and the difficulty of students studying diligently. He begged the garrison to strictly control the soldiers and ensure that the students could study with peace of mind.
These are nothing. What is scary is that Zang Qifang toasted one by one, and Sichuan Lao Baigan drank more than 50 glasses in a row, which stunned the Sichuan army generals. From then on, the local Sichuan army gave a thumbs up whenever Zang Qifang was mentioned, and there was no more incidents of soldiers molesting women.
Student events.
Later, Mr. Boyang also said in his essay: "In the past ten years, I have drunk a lot of wine without forcing anyone to drink. As far as I know, there are only two people who have the style of a drunkard. One is Mr. Zang Qifang, who has passed away, and the other is Mr. Zang Qifang, who has passed away.
Mr. Ye Mingxun, who is still alive, deserves to be respected and supported, and he deserves to be praised for his virtues."
On the third day after Zang Qifang took office as mayor of Tianjin, he invited Zhou Hexuan and Zhang Boling to have dinner together. The banquet was held in the small courtyard where he rented.
Zhang Boling traveled to Europe last year and came back at the beginning of this year. I heard that he had raised more than 100,000 yuan in funding for the school. As the president of Nankai University, he no longer cares much about the specific school affairs. He just goes around asking for money all day long.
This man is a master of asking for money. He spends all his time crying about poverty and working as a beggar. He insists on making Nankai University bigger and bigger. He opened Nankai Primary School two years ago, plus the middle school and university, and Nankai's stall is very big. In three years, he opened Nankai Primary School.
He founded the Nankai Institute of Economics before and was immediately preparing to establish the Institute of Applied Chemistry. Anyway, this gentleman couldn't take any time off.
When Zang Qifang took office, he really wanted to flex his muscles in Tianjin. First, he wanted to develop the local economy. He majored in economics in the United States. Second, he wanted to revitalize Tianjin's education. Zang Qifang was an educator at heart.
"Mr. Zhang and Mr. Zhou, there are two people with the highest prestige in Tianjin's education circles. I am new here, so I hope you can support me in education," Zang Qifang raised his glass and said, "Here, let me toast you two gentlemen. I'll do it, you can do whatever you want."
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After Zang Qifang finished speaking, he tilted his neck and drank. The glass filled with one or two glasses of wine was completely drunk in an instant.
Immediately, Zang Qifang chatted again and toasted to Zhou Hexuan and Zhang Boling respectively. He drank one cup after another, just like drinking boiled water, and drank up half a catty in the blink of an eye. He spoke clearly and clearly, without any sign of being drunk.
Wine Fairy!
Zhou Hexuan and Zhang Boling looked at each other, each sipping their wine without saying anything.
After drinking a little more interestingly, 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 people
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 added, "However, no matter how difficult the government is, it can't afford education. I can make the decision and allocate 20,000 yuan every year as primary school subsidies."
Spreading 20,000 yuan to the entire Tianjin city is of no use!
Zhang Boling was a little disappointed, but still smiled and said: "It's rare that Mayor Zang attaches great importance to education. On behalf of the students in Tianjin, I would like to toast the mayor."
"Easy to say, easy to say." Zang Qifang raised the cup and took another sip.
Zhou Hexuan said: "The donations from the Hope Education Foundation can only barely maintain the existing Hope Primary School. It really does not have the ability to continue to expand its scale. I am afraid that Mayor Zang will be disappointed."
Nowadays, Hope Primary Schools are mainly located in Tianjin and Beiping, and some are also built in Hebei Province around the two cities. There are 98 schools in total. There are currently more than 10,000 students enrolled in the school and more than 300 school teachers.
The teacher's salary is 100,000 yuan, plus expenses such as purchasing teaching materials and providing free lunches, the total cost per year 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 occasionally sought help from wealthy businessmen in Peiping and Tianjin. However, the annual donation was still less than 50,000, and the rest was donated by Zhou Hexuan himself.
"Oh, everything is difficult without money." Zang Qifang sighed helplessly.
Zhou Hexuan joked: "The mayor of Tianjin is crying for poverty, how can you make the civil affairs officials in other places so embarrassed?"
"Hahahaha." Zhang Boling laughed endlessly.
This is really a joke, because Tianjin was very awesome at this time.
Tianjin was the second largest industrial city during the Republic of China, second only to Shanghai. It was also the largest financial and trade center in the north. It can be said that Tianjin was extremely wealthy.
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 Department and collected by the central government. In addition, when Yan Xishan was defeated, the previous mayor spent almost all the money, and the new mayor Zang Qifang was just
Became out of money.
After finishing the drink and waiting for Zhang Boling to leave, Zhou Hexuan said to Zang Qifang in a sullen voice: "Mayor Zang, I have a way to make money."
"Mr. Zhou, please speak." Zang Qifang became energetic.
Zhou Hexuan said: "Thoroughly investigate all large companies and factories in Tianjin and clean up their shares. Some of them must be unclean."
Zang Qifang, who was engaged in education, didn't know anything about this, so he quickly asked: "Mr. Zhou, can you explain the situation in detail?"
In fact, it's very simple. Most of Tianjin's industries are bureaucratic capital.
For example, the famous Jiuda Refined Salt Company, in order to break the restrictions of the old salt policy, directly attracted Yang Du to become a shareholder, and finally obtained the sales rights approved by Yuan Shikai. In order to sell refined salt to the south, it successively attracted Cai E, Li Yuanhong, Cao Kun,
Cao Rui and others invested in the company.
As a result, a fight brings a lot of blood.
For example, after the Second Zhili-Fengtian War, the Beiyang authorities vigorously raided the Jiuda Refined Salt Company. Not only did they confiscate the shares in the names of Cao Kun and others, they also arrested the chairman of the company. Jiuda Company paid a fine of 80,000 silver dollars before releasing them.
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Zang Qifang was dumbfounded and hesitated: "I'm afraid it's unreasonable to do this."
Zhou Hexuan sneered and said: "Those warlords are just like the common people, and they continue to live freely after being removed from power. Is it unreasonable to confiscate their shares? Some people can easily get the shares without even investing real money. To be honest, Zang
If the mayor takes the opportunity to seize the opportunity and confiscate the shares of warlords and bureaucrats and return them to the companies, and only collect part of the fine, the bosses of those companies may even thank you. Of course, specific issues will be dealt with in detail, and some people's shares will still be inconvenient.
It’s up to you to decide what’s confiscated.”
Zang Qifang was obviously moved, but if he did this, he would definitely be accused of being a corrupt official.
However, if part of the money he gets is used for education, public opinion will turn to his side.
Done!
And it must be done as soon as possible. Now Zhang Xueliang is engaged in the aftermath of the Central Plains War, and a group of warlords have come down to live in Tianjin. These people are the best targets.