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

Chapter 367 The decision of the Qian and An families: The complex system of Northern Xinjiang

The reason why Chen Tong was able to gain An Chengjie's trust and be valued by the other party was because all of Chen Tong's ideas and advice were based on preserving the interests of the An family. In addition, with his unique vision and outstanding talents, and marrying An Chengjie's daughter, An Chengjie now basically regards him as half his son.

After hearing what Chen Tong said, An Chengjie pondered and said, "This is a serious matter. Let me think about it carefully before making a decision. Brother Qian, no matter what, our An and Qian families will advance and retreat together."

Qian Haodong nodded and said, "I will listen to Brother An about the final decision of this matter. Over the years, our Qian family has always followed Brother An's lead."

"Brother An, I'll take my leave first. When you make a decision on this matter, just let me know."

After Qian Haodong left, An Chengjie locked himself in the study room. It was not until dawn that An Chengjie stood up from the desk with bloodshot eyes. The ashtray on the desk was already filled with stubbed cigarette butts, which was enough to show how complicated An Chengjie's emotions were that night.

"Let Xiaotong come to see me!"

"Yes, Governor!"

A moment later, Chen Tong, wearing a Zhongshan suit, appeared in the study. Looking at his haggard father-in-law and the full ashtray, Chen Tong understood that it seemed that his cheap father-in-law had made the final decision.

The task Chen Tong received was that if An Chengjie decided to fight to the end, he would find a way to get rid of An Chengjie and take over the power of the entire Quzhou from him. Of course, this was only the last resort. Without An Chengjie's An faction, Qian Haodong would at least not listen to him, Chen Tong.

"Xiao Tong, sit down. I've been thinking about this all night. As you said, Su Zhengyang is now a dominant force. Even if our Qian and An families unite, it will be difficult to protect ourselves. In this case, why not go with the flow and show our support for Su Zhengyang's reforms by handing over our military power? However, we must occupy a place in Su Zhengyang's newly established military system. Dad is old, and the hope of the entire An family in the future lies in you. Take this opportunity to push you onto a stage where you can better display your talents."

"With your ability, you will definitely be appreciated by Su Zhengyang. Your future achievements and status may even be higher than mine."

Listening to An Chengjie's heartfelt words, Chen Tong secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Although he was summoned from the system, he was also a living being with flesh and blood and emotions, not a cold-blooded tool. Over the past six months, An Chengjie had given him unparalleled trust, and his wife was also concerned about him. Unless it was absolutely necessary, Chen Tong did not want to take action against his father-in-law himself.

Of course, driven by his 100% loyalty to Su Zhengyang, once the An family had any inappropriate thoughts, Chen Tong would choose to kill An Chengjie without hesitation and be loyal to Su Zhengyang.

"Dad! It's great that you can figure out the key to this. Today, Su Zhengyang has the best military strength in the entire Chinese territory. In this era of power, Su Zhengyang is the most terrifying existence. If our An family stands on the opposite side of Su Zhengyang, I'm afraid we will suffer a catastrophic disaster in an instant."

"Let Xiaoxin prepare the car, and notify Haodong to come to my place. I will personally take you to see Su Zhengyang this afternoon and have a good talk with him!"

An Chengjie put out the last cigarette in his hand and gave the order.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, An Chengjie, who had just had a good sleep, changed into his governor's uniform and rushed to the Central Government Building with Qian Haodong and his son-in-law Chen Tong.

At this time in the President's Office, Su Zhengyang was reviewing the mountains of financial reports of Northern Xinjiang with his brows tightly furrowed.

According to the fiscal report, the Northern Xinjiang government received approximately 3.2 million taels of tax revenue last year, an increase of about percent over the year before. Linzhou alone paid approximately million taels of tax revenue, accounting for almost a quarter of the entire Northern Xinjiang tax revenue.

What puzzled Su Zhengyang was that the entire Northern Frontier was governed by three northeastern provinces (now six provinces), seven Central Plains provinces, three southern provinces, three northern provinces, five western provinces, and six northwestern provinces, a total of 781 provinces, with an area of ​​6 million square kilometers, accounting for nearly % of China's territory, and a population of over million. It stands to reason that it is normal for the entire Northern Frontier to have an annual tax revenue of more than million. Based on the average tax revenue of million oceans per province, the annual tax revenue of Northern Frontier may even reach million oceans.

The territory under the jurisdiction of Northern Frontier is densely populated, with more than ten thousand acres of fertile land and a large number of merchants. The current tax revenue is completely disproportionate to the land and population of the entire Northern Frontier.

During the period when Yang Jiakai was president, in addition to the governors-general of the major provinces, Northern Xinjiang had seven important departments, namely the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Police, the Ministry of Military Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce.

In addition, there are three presidential departments and the State Council.

The main agencies under the direct jurisdiction of the President are: 1. The General Staff Headquarters. The highest military command agency. It has one chief and one deputy chief. Its duties are to assist the President in coordinating military affairs and handling matters related to national defense.

2. General's Office. The highest military advisory body. There is one person to manage the affairs of the General's Office. There are several generals, generals, and military assistants, who are senior officers of the army and navy. In addition to staying in the office to discuss military affairs, they can be stationed in various provinces to organize general offices and supervise military affairs.

3 Audit Office. It has one president and one vice president. Its main duties are to review the annual expenditure and revenue final accounts of the state.

The State Council has seven general bureaus under its jurisdiction, including the Legislative Affairs Bureau, the Personnel Bureau, the Printing and Minting Bureau, the Statistics Bureau, the National Water Resources Bureau, the Currency Bureau, and the Aviation Bureau.

The complexity of the entire Northern Xinjiang system and the multitude of departments gave Su Zhengyang a headache. The entire Northern Xinjiang government officials, from the central government to the local governments, totaled more than 70,000 people, which could be said to be extremely complicated.

According to the financial report, the expenditure on government officials' salaries alone reached more than 3.6 million oceans last year. In addition, the Ministry of Military Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Water Conservancy Bureau, and other departments all needed funds for their activities allocated by the national treasury. The total expenditure of Northern Xinjiang last year reached million oceans. In other words, at the end of the year, the national treasury not only had no surplus, but even had a loss.

Of course, this was also related to the frequent wars in Northern Xinjiang last year. After all, in this era, a cannon shot was worth a fortune, and war meant the consumption of a large amount of money and food. Su Zhengyang only took a rough look at the financial report and realized that there were definitely a lot of tricks involved. It seemed that after he had dealt with the issue of centralization of military power, he would have to gradually streamline and replace the government departments in Northern Xinjiang.

"President, An Chengjie and Qian Haodong are here. They also brought An Chengjie's son-in-law Chen Tong with them. They want to meet you and discuss handing over military power."

Fu Jiang walked into the office at this time and spoke to Su Zhengyang.

Su Zhengyang put down the documents in his hand and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. It seems that the problem between Qian and An's families has been solved.

"Take them to the reception room and wait. I'll be there soon."