Qiao Yu didn't expect that Lu Wanqing, who was born in the salt merchant family, would have such a big complaint about the current salt administration, but it seemed that this bold girl was completely gone from the casualness of the past and looked extremely solemn.

"Miss Lu, maybe just say it!"

"Well!" Lu Wanqing agreed, sorted out her thoughts a little, and said, "The salt industry was originally a necessity for ordinary people's lives, and it was not short of it. The current salt administration follows the Ming Dynasty system and implements the system of official supervision and sales. Officials are the protective umbrellas of salt merchants. Salt merchants are the vaults of officials and blackmail them at will. Many people think that salt merchants are rich and look very glorious, but in fact they know the warmth and coldness. In order to maintain the privileges of monopoly, they have to give silver to officials. Tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is not enough to just give silver. They also have to give jewelry, cultural relics, and even women. They often have to rely on marriage to maintain privileges. No matter how family affection or blood ties are, they cannot beat white silver and salt!"

Lu Wanqing was indeed extremely disappointed with her family. She saw with her own eyes that her sister-in-law was forced to marry a husband with tuberculosis. She was a widow before she even passed the door. She also saw that in order to please the officials, her family bought dozens of beautiful babies and gave them to the old bureaucrats. She pushed them all into the kang and saw those salt workers who had to work for fifteen or sixteen hours all day, with her thin body carrying more than 300 kilograms of salt-filled wooden barrels. Lu Wanqing talked in a nagging manner, and Qiao Yu listened quietly.

The salt administration in the Qing Dynasty did have serious problems. The most critical point was the monopoly of privilege. In order to maintain privilege, salt merchants tried their best to curry favor with the people in power. Once they obtained this privilege, they did not have to consider how to reduce costs and improve efficiency. They could completely rely on high salt prices to obtain generous rewards. At the same time, they could also be assured and boldly oppressed by salt workers. This is the power of privilege.

Under such circumstances, the people are the biggest victims. They have to endure the high salt prices. The salt tax of the court will not reach the expected level due to the layers of skins of bureaucrats. The efforts that salt merchants have to spend in order to maintain privileges are extremely huge, and they have to endure the exploitation of bureaucrats. Even as a small treasury to withdraw money, Qiao Yu couldn't stop thinking that salt is the most important income of Sichuan at this stage and the financial pillar of the military government. It is necessary to break the existing solid chain of interests, otherwise his own salt tax will be greatly reduced, and the high salt price is also a heavy burden. It is pressed on the shoulders of the people to reduce the burden on the people. It is an important task for Qiao Yu to rule in the future. Only in this way can he truly gain the support of the people.

Countless warlord groups emerged in the history of the Republic of China. Even if they were unified in the whole country in the end, they would inevitably disappear. The key problem was that they did not really receive support from the people, just like duckweed, which could be blown away with just a gust of wind. What I had to do was to firmly establish a solid foundation for the regime.

Lu Wanqing suddenly found that Qiao Yu's eyes were slightly stiff, and she knew that he was in deep thought, so she no longer complained, but looked quietly. A man was still very charming when he was thinking deeply. Suddenly, the little girl's face turned red. Although she had been studying abroad for several years, and because of her experience of studying abroad, she became even more disgusted with things at home, but the little girl maintained a unique reserve that was a woman in the East.

In the blink of an eye, three days passed, and the two divisions began to officially advance towards southern Sichuan. The two divisions had more than 20,000 people in total, and the civilians reached 25,000, which was a huge momentum. This advance was not just a war, but a demonstration to local forces and implementing the new bill. Therefore, as the army advanced, the Lijin checkpoints were cut off one after another, and the old bureaucratic landlords who still had fantasies about the Qing court were also ruthlessly suppressed, and local order was restored...

The originally scattered civilian army also disbanded nearby and went home. After walking for five days, they finally approached Luzhou. At this time, a large number of civilian army gathered in Luzhou, with more than 10,000 people. The team led Wang Tianjie and Wu Yuzhang, who were strengthening Luzhou's defense at this time, wanting to stop Qiao Yu from continuing to march.

It turns out that after Qiao Yu announced independence in Chongqing and issued a new bill, it attracted dissatisfaction from the civilian army. The top leaders generally believed that this was blatantly stealing the fruits of the victory of the revolutionary party. When Wang Tianjie, Wu Yuzhang and others learned that Qiao Yu was advancing to southern Sichuan, they were even more furious. Since Qiao Yu announced independence, he would not attack the loyal lackeys of the Qing Dynasty, but instead marched towards southern Sichuan, which was nothing more than coveting the salt tax. Now the salt tax in southern Sichuan is also the lifeblood of the democratic party. How could they be willing to give it up? Then they took the initiative to send troops to Luzhou to stop Qiao Yu from going south.

In fact, when making this decision, Yang Shukan was extremely opposed. He knew very well that Qiao Yu's power was not beneficial to directly confront him. Yang Shukan advocated cooperation with Qiao Yu, actively joined the Sichuan military government, and first preserved his power. The revolutionary situation in the country is now very good. After the power of the Tongmenghui further develops, he can use the forces of other provinces to suppress Qiao Yu and take control of the power of Sichuan without using force. His proposal was approved by Zhang Peijue and Zhu Zhihong, but instead attracted the contempt of Wang Tianjie and others.

They believed that Yang Shukan and others had been scared by Qiao Yu. The two sides had a quarrel for several days in a row and finally decided to divide the army into two parts. One team led by Wang Tianjie and Wu Yuzhang to fight Qiao Yu, and the other team led by Yang Shukan to guard Rong County and nearby prefectures and counties.

The revolutionary party's forces split, and Qiao Yu had already obtained accurate information through the spies placed inside the Tongmenghui. After arriving at the periphery of Luzhou, Qiao Yu did not rush to enter the city, but set up a camp first and sent representative Yao Liquan to enter Luzhou to negotiate with Wang Tianjie and others.

Wang Tianjie and Wu Yuzhang also knew that Qiao Yu's army was well-equipped, so they tried their best to defend themselves. Unexpectedly, Qiao Yu actually played the game of first rituals and then soldiers, and sent representatives. The two were also shocked. What tricks the other party wanted to play, so they invited the representatives in.

"On behalf of Governor Qiao, I would like to say hello to all the heroes of the Anti-Qing Dynasty. Thank you for your hard work!"

"What credit does Qiao Yu have? He can call himself the governor, just a thief. We have nothing to say!" Wang Tianjie seemed very arrogant.

Yao Liquan is very alert and very good at speaking. When he heard Wang Tianjie's rude words, he was not angry at all. Instead, he said with a smile: "This is Mr. Wang Tianjie. Governor Qiao has mentioned you several times and is amazed. Why do you do this? Governor Qiao is the acting governor. What is an agent? I believe everyone understands that as long as there are more suitable candidates, they can be replaced. This time, we marched into southern Sichuan to unify Sichuan as soon as possible. All of us are all patriots of the Sichuan revolution. We are all to overthrow the Qing Dynasty. We should not be hurt by the relatives and the enemy is happy. Besides, everyone is a person with great military achievements. There will be a high position in the government in the future. Even if we want to be the governor, it is not impossible!"

Everyone present did not expect that the other party would say that Qiao Yu would give up the governor, and they were extremely surprised.

"Hmph, it sounds nice. Qiao Yu will be willing to give up the position of governor. Isn't it a joke? Are we going to be three-year-old children?" Wu Yuzhang retorted.

Yao Liquan smiled slightly: "Everyone is a member of the Democratic Party. Don't you know that the Republic of China is a country of people? Naturally, the position of the governor is not something that can be given up on the ground, but that you must obey the public's opinion. Whoever the people choose is who they are. If the people can support you, they will naturally become governors. Even the president has to be decided by elections. Don't you know this?"

Wu Yuzhang and others didn't know how to refute it. This was indeed their proposition. Of course, they might not take it as true from the bottom of their hearts, but naturally they could not slap themselves in the face in front of others. Yao Liquan continued: "Governor Qiao said that he came to southern Sichuan not to fight with you, but to concentrate his efforts to eliminate the remnants of the Qing Dynasty as soon as possible. The civilian army must not misunderstand, and hope that all leaders can join the military government. At the same time, he also hopes that all wise men from all walks of life in southern Sichuan can join the parliament and formulate a new policy bill to make due contributions to the people of Sichuan!"
Chapter completed!