"Our people are basically in place in many provinces in the Central Plains and along the Yangtze River, and personnel optimization and land reform are on track."

"In the Fujian and Zhejiang areas, civilian resistance is relatively serious, and local officials have requested to send troops to assist."

"Investigation reports from the three provinces show that Japanese infiltration is extremely serious, public attitudes toward Japan have improved, border defense pressure has increased, and officials have requested a postponement of local reforms."

"The Administrative Office of the Prairie Border Guards reported that the railway construction process is slow due to lack of raw materials; in addition, all units of the Prairie Border Guards are in place and are gradually taking over the defense."

"Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou region..."

In Jinling, at a regular government meeting, secretaries made briefings on various recent events and informed them to senior officials of the interim government.

The briefing is just a brief introduction. If you want to know more, there are more detailed documents beside it.

These secretaries are all from South China. Many of them were originally under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Secretariat and have rich experience.

It was precisely because of their arrival that the provisional government was able to consolidate its forces in the shortest possible time and rectify the country.

"I really don't know how expensive firewood, rice, oil and salt are when I'm not a master. There are so many things to do all day long. No matter how much energy I have, I can't do it. No wonder the Qing Empire is like this." During the intermission, Huang Keqiang held a pot of herbal tea and started talking to the pot.

drink.

"You can't say that. The corruption in the Qing Empire is rotten at the root. It doesn't matter whether there are too many things or not. Even if there is nothing, it will not affect the corruption of officials." Sun Zaizhi took a sip of tea gracefully and retorted.

"Plateau Border Guard Headquarters Battle Report." A secretary hurriedly knocked on the door and walked in, handing a document to Sun Zaizhi.

Huang Keqiang, who was on the sidelines, was about to pull Qing Empire out and whip the corpse, but he stopped talking when he saw this.

"Okay! The victory is over!" Sun Zaizhi read the battle report twice carefully. The battle report was not long, but because he read it carefully, it also took a lot of time.

Huang Keqiang, who was next to him, was holding a teapot that was out of tea, staring at Sun Zaizhi while sipping it. Hearing this, he couldn't sit still.

"Let me take a look." Huang Keqiang "took" the telegram.

"After forty days of arduous march, our troops arrived at Sunlight City and conquered Sunlight City in one battle."

"In this battle, our unit suffered 167 casualties and 89 casualties. The consumption..."

"In this battle, our troops annihilated the main force of the rebels, annihilating more than 4,000 enemies, annihilating the 60th Rifle Regiment of the British and Indian Army, annihilating more than 800 enemies, and captured..."

"The 13th **Lama was kidnapped and brutally killed by the British..."

"On the march, our army lost 861 people, including 590 due to illness and more than 200 missing..."

"After this battle, our department has recovered all the area northeast of Sunlight City, but more than half of the food supplies have been consumed. We request that replenishment be arranged as soon as possible."

"After interrogating the prisoners, we learned that a division of the British and Indian Army and three thousand Gorkha mercenaries were entrenched in the southern part of the plateau, building roads."

"Due to insufficient supplies of food and supplies, our unit has temporarily stopped advancing and is instead reorganizing the place..."

The battle report is very short, but contains a lot of information. There are not a few nonsense words in the whole article. After Huang Keqiang read it, the first thing he looked at was the signature at the bottom.

"Headquarters of the Seventh Division, has the Seventh Division gone to the plateau?" Huang Keqiang muttered.

The radio station in Zhao Erfeng's hands broke down on the road, and contact was lost. The new radio station was delivered relatively late. During this period, communication was all through Sichuan Bei.

"Yes, we crossed the Sichuan border half a month ago and entered the plateau. After all, we are directly confronting the British. I am not worried about Zhao Erfeng's old army alone." Sun Zaizhi nodded.

"Yes, it's a matter of national territory, and we have to do something about it after all." Huang Keqiang put down the telegram with a fierce look in his eyes.

Dong dong dong...

There was a knock on the door, attracting their attention.

As soon as the door opened, Lin Pingzhi came in carrying a handbag.

"Why is Pingzhi here? What happened? Has the negotiation concluded?" The two looked at Lin Pingzhi in confusion.

During this period, Lin Pingzhi has been busy with diplomatic matters, negotiating with various countries on the inheritance conditions of various treaties, as well as trade negotiations.

These matters are very important, and at the same time very complicated. Without enough experience, it is easy to be fooled by the big powers, so Lin Pingzhi personally came on stage and was very busy.

Especially in the past few days, the customs negotiations have entered a critical period, and Sun Zaizhi couldn't even see him.

"No, it will take several days for the negotiations to be concluded. That's why I came today." Lin Pingzhi took out a large stack of newspapers from his handbag.

Since the provisional government officially took over the country's work, Sun Zaizhi has completely relaxed restrictions on the media, changing the atmosphere of the Qing Empire's literary prison.

Under such circumstances, various news media have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. The most prosperous industry in China at the moment is actually the printing industry.

"After Nanhua occupied Tianjin, the local people's self-reports..."

"Nan Hua is the best among people in China..."

"The emperor was overthrown, and a new emperor was ushered in..."

"Nanhua wantonly violated China's sovereignty..."

"We have ushered in a cowardly government again, which dare not say no to the power of Nanhua..."

"What are all these things? Isn't there anyone who cares about these random fabrications?!" Huang Keqiang was the most grumpy and couldn't help it after reading six or seven copies.

Sun Zaizhi looked at them one by one, counting the number.

"Indiscriminate fabrication, creation out of nothing, random deletions, how can it be interpreted like this? What are all these?!" Huang Keqiang summarized the newspaper in his hand.

"Thirty-two copies, six percent of which are considered newspapers with a large readership in Jinling, and seventy-eight percent of which are quite popular in other places." Sun Zaizhi finished counting calmly.

"Is there anything to tell the truth?" Huang Keqiang grabbed the pile and looked through it impatiently.

The reason why Huang Keqiang is so impatient is because his values ​​have been challenged and even subverted.

He originally thought that the Qing Empire's practice of banning newspapers at every turn was wrong and a sign of power. Therefore, when Sun Zaizhi opened the ban on newspapers, he, like many revolutionaries, fully supported it.

But how long has this been? How can it become like this in a few months? Freedom of speech should not be like this.

"Except for a few historically fair newspapers that did not report on the relevant events, small and medium-sized newspapers were all involved." Sun Zaizhi shook his head.

Except for a few newspapers that were moved from the leased areas, almost all newly opened newspapers participated.

"Zi Zhi, this needs to be changed. Not to mention restricting their speech, at least they must be responsible for what they say. Those who make up nonsense and interpret it randomly must be severely punished!"

"If you don't know anything, you will talk nonsense. An argument like this is that the industrial construction, engineers, managers and other high-paying positions carried out by the interim government are all held by South Chinese..."

"What? They don't need to investigate? Why don't they say that they searched all over China and couldn't find a few engineers? Managers, they just want to move government projects to their homes!"

"And why don't they say we adopt an apprenticeship system? How great would it be if engineers take apprentices and directly participate in the work, and they can graduate in three or two years without affecting the speed of construction?"

"Everyone involved in this newspaper from top to bottom must be held accountable!"

Huang Keqiang said angrily.

Freedom of speech, in his imagination, should mean that everyone has their own ideas, but can communicate, collide, and integrate harmoniously.

Instead of becoming a tool to throw dirty water on others, interpret policies randomly and attack, as it is now.

"You can imagine what Jinling, or the whole country, will be like today." Sun Zaizhi nodded thoughtfully and looked at Lin Pingzhi.

"Can we find out who did this? What is the purpose?" Sun Zaizhi asked.

"Preliminary investigation, it is the British." Lin Pingzhi took out a cigarette, lit it and started smoking, without saying the purpose.

Because he couldn't figure out what the British's purpose was.

Provoking confrontation between the two countries? But on the bright side, the relationship between the two countries cannot be provoked by this level of means.

Even if the Provisional Government is not from Nanhua, but is a political power that can operate independently, it will not sever ties with the Nanhua Empire because of some inexplicable dirty water that comes from nowhere.

After all, Nanhua is still making large-scale investments in China, and the dawn of China's industrialization has appeared...

"Could it be that we want to disrupt our industrial construction? After all, if we do it, it will directly affect its market." Lin Pingzhi guessed.

"If this is the case, it should use a gentle and silent method to affect things. Instead of this, everyone can guess that there is a problem." Sun Zaizhi frowned, feeling that he was being shrouded in conspiracy.

"That's it, the plateau issue." Huang Keqiang took out the battle report of the plateau border guard and said.

"The Plateau Border Guards just wiped out a British regiment. The British are afraid, so they want to cut off our foreign aid."

"This is a time when everything is waiting for improvement. The little money we have is invested in restoring society. Our production capacity, transportation capacity, and economic capacity are not enough to support a war on the plateau."

"They probably want to create a conflict between Huaxia and Nanhua, at least on the surface. This will definitely affect local exchanges."

"If Nanhua puts forward some conditions at this time, or we make some compromises, they will have more to say."

"The Qing Empire has just been destroyed, and there are still countless demons and monsters lurking around the country. When the time comes, chaos may come."

The more Huang Keqiang analyzed, the more frightened and angry he became.

"I think it makes sense." Sun Zaizhi looked at Huang Keqiang and then at Lin Pingzhi.

"Public opinion attack, we have used this tactic during the South-Netherlands War. Since the other party has taken action, there must be back-up tactics." Lin Pingzhi nodded, also thinking it was reasonable.

This is the most reasonable explanation at the moment, otherwise? Is there any point in simply instigating relations between the two countries?

Of course, several people who already had positions in Nanhua couldn't figure out the meaning of this.

"Issuing martial law! Arrest all these people. They are all white-eyed wolves, living and wasting resources." After hearing this, Huang Keqiang said forcefully.

"Isn't that what they want? During this period, the policy cannot be changed, otherwise we will admit these things in disguise."

"The resources we have are far beyond what they can match. Fighting against them is a good opportunity to consolidate domestic forces." Lin Pingzhi waved his hand.

"Then let them go like this?" Huang Keqiang looked at the newspaper on the table in frustration.

There is a picture on the top newspaper, which is a photo of multiple fishing boats.
To be continued...