Chapter 106 Chapter 107 The Death of Du Lisan

On the eve of the Russo-Japanese War, the Beiyang system, from Yuan Shikai to ordinary Beiyang officers, they were all facing great enemies and were worried. At this time, they naturally had no good impression on the southern governors and those important ministers of the imperial court, especially the great resentment for several large provinces in the south. It's strange that you have so much money in your hands and refuse to take some money to support my Beiyang arms expansion and prepare for war, and shouting for us to fight the Russians every day.

Zhao Dongyun knew that it was not just as simple as standing and talking without back pain. Yuan Shikai and Cen Chunxuan were sworn enemy. The competition between the two of them almost revolved around the whole New Deal period at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and Zhang Zhidong, as a leading figure of the Nanyang faction, although he cooperated with Yuan Shikai in the reform of the New Deal, It is still tit-for-tat on the principled issues of the struggle between the North and the South.

Today's China is not a whole.

"They say theirs, we do ours!" Zhao Dongyun didn't care about the urging of those southern governors. Not to mention those feudal officials who sealed Xinjiang to generate electricity for him, even if Cixi personally asked him to send troops, he dared to refuse directly.

On key issues involving troop mobilization and operations, he did not listen to anyone except Yuan Shikai's orders!

This is not just a matter of standing in line, but also a matter of the survival of the whole Beiyang system!

First of all, with Yuan Shikai and Beiyang New Army, he has Zhao Dongyun and his third town. Once Yuan Shikai and Beiyang fall, his Zhao Dongyun's fate will certainly not be much better, so even for his own interests, he must unswervingly support Yuan Shikai.

For example, on the current situation in Northeast China, the interests of Yuan Shikai and Zhao Dongyun are the same: that is, from the perspective of Beiyang's own interests, the interests of the country and the nation have to be ranked behind.

"I'm afraid the pressure on Governor Xian is greater than us now!" Lin Yongquan said, "Since the Governor's proposal of external neutrality, there have been a lot of curses inside and outside the government and the opposition, and now there are many people shouting that the alliance will send troops to Russia!"

In the face of this complex northeast situation and the domestic situation, Zhao Dongyun is also deeply powerless. His current status is still too low, and there is no way to affect the domestic situation for the time being. What he can do now is to use his army as the backing of Yuan Shikai and let Yuan Shikai represent him. Let's fight for the interests that belong to the North Sea.

"Of course, the general direction is controlled by Lord Du Xian. We don't have to worry about it. Just do our internal affairs well!" Zhao Dongyun still trusts Yuan Shikai. Both history and reality have proved that Yuan Shikai is a veritable hero in troubled times. Zhao Dongyun believes that Yuan Shikai can deal with a series of complex problems at home and abroad.

What he has to do is to practice the third town and guard the western corridor for Yuan Shikai. As for the future, he can only leave it to fate!

"And Zhang Zuolin is coming again. I don't think he can stand it anymore. Now my bandit suppression Dongjin detachment is almost ready. Can we do it!" Meng Enyuan opened his mouth at this time.

"Oh, is the Dongjin detachment ready?" Zhao Dongyun continued: "Since you are ready, don't delay any longer. Let Zhang Zuolin and others lead the way and destroy Du Lisan first. Remember that this battle to suppress bandits in the east is the same as last year's battle to suppress bandits in the north. The first task is to seize property, not to kill and injure many bandits!"

Meng Enyuan said confidently, "Don't worry, this time I will also take a few old camp leaders. They are all familiar old brothers and know how to do what to do!"

The suppression of bandits in the east was decided last year. In fact, the suppression of bandits in September and October last year was just an early exercise, but the scale and harvest of the drill were a little larger than previously scheduled.

At the end of last year, Zhao Dongyun began to prepare for the 'Suppression of Bandits East Detachment'. This time, the combat leader is still Meng Enyuan. After all, the fight against bandits is mainly cavalry. In addition, Du Lisan's territory is too close to the Liaohe River to bring a large number of slow infantry. In fact, even if it is the eastward detification detachment, Instead of wearing military uniforms, he will dress up as bandits to avoid causing tension among Russians.

Even in order to avoid conflict with the Russians, Zhao Dongyun also took the initiative to inform the Russians in private that his troops would fight against bandits in Xinmin, Tai'an, Panshan and Liaozhong to avoid excessive tension among the Russians.

Zhao Dongyun was scheduled to fight against bandits in the east of Jinzhou, which naturally caused a lot of tension among the Russians. However, now that the war in Japan and Russia is about to break out, they are not willing to drag China into the war, so they acquiesced to Zhao Dongyun's east to suppress bandits, but they also asked Zhao Dongyun not to send 3,000 people. The above forces must not be close to Fengtian and Yingkou, otherwise they will be regarded as a provocation to their war.

From this point of view, it can also be found that the confidence of the Russians has declined rapidly in just a few months. When Zhao Dongyun first arrived in Jinzhou, the Russians protested every day, saying that China violated the Treaty on the Confluence of the Three Eastern Provinces, because the treaty stipulates that China shall not send new troops to the three eastern provinces, and training troops must also be sent to Russia. The country will inform.

However, now they basically have no problem with Zhao Dongyun's control of Jinzhou. Even when Zhao Dongyun sent a large number of cavalry to Panshan, Tai'an and other places to suppress bandits, this would have been absolutely impossible.

From this, we can also see how dangerous the situation facing Russia in early 1904 was!

"Your army wants to eliminate Du Lisan, Feng Delin and other bandits. China maintains a welcoming attitude, but now the situation is tense, and I hope your army can maintain restraint and avoid some misleading periods!" The speaker is a foreigner with a beard, a suit and a civilized stick. This beard alone is enough to show his race: Slavs.

This person's name is Andrei Ivanovich Stove, and his tuxedo and civilized staff are in the Far East, and they also appear in Zhao Dongyun's headquarters, so they can show his identity to a certain extent: diplomatic official!

Andre is a diplomatic official sent to Jinzhou by the Russian military authorities in Fengtian. His main task is to monitor the movements of Zhao Dongyun's third town and negotiate some diplomatic affairs. For example, this time Zhao Dongyun will send troops east to suppress bandits. In order to avoid unnecessary troubles and military conflicts with the Russian army, he took the initiative. Andre was notified.

After some negotiations, Andre said that the Russian army would allow Zhao Dongyun's anti-bandit operation, but he also asked Zhao Dongyun's troops to try not to approach strategic places such as Fengtian and Yingkou, and to avoid going through the Liao River as much as possible when necessary to avoid conflicts between the two armies.

This is a very rare concession for Russia, which has always been used to being arrogant. In 1903, if Zhao Dongyun wanted to enter this area, he had to fight with the Russian army first.

After talking about this matter related to suppressing bandits, Zhao Dongyun did not see off the guests at the first time, but continued: "As far as I know, your country's Lushun defense has been quite nervous recently!"

Andre listened to a series of diplomatic tone: "The empire has built the world's most powerful fortress defense system in Lushun, which is enough to resist any enemy's attack!"

When he said this, Andre was already puzzled. What did Zhao Dongyun care about Lushun's defense?

Although the Qing court still maintains a tough attitude towards Russia and has not officially announced any provisions other than neutrality, Andre, a foreigner, knows that the only Chinese forces involved in the situation in the northeast are the North Sea, that is to say, whether China is neutral or not has nothing to do with the Qing court in the capital, nor does it have anything to do with the governors of the south. Only Yuan Shikai can make a decision.

And Yuan Shikai's attitude is very clear, that is, to carry out armed external neutrality. Zhao Dongyun's third town stationed in Jinzhou is the product of this armed external neutrality policy.

Considering Yuan Shikai's attitude, in fact, Russia, Japan and other countries have concluded that it is impossible for China to participate in the war.

That's why Andre was puzzled by Zhao Dongyun's inquiry: What does he care about? Is it possible that I don't have enough defense strength to help your third town!"

However, Zhao Dongyun obviously did not have the habit of buying customs, but said directly, "I recently bought a lot of new machine guns from Germany to replace the original heavy machine guns. As you know, my small business in the third town is small, so the replaced machine guns are ready to be shot. I don't know if your army is interested. I think it's okay to have another batch of machine guns in Lushun!"

Andre was even more surprised to hear that Zhao Dongyun wanted to sell more machine guns and sell them to the Russian army? This is already against common sense!

Not to mention where Zhao Dongyun got so many machine guns, it is doubtful that he took the initiative to sell the machine guns to the Russian army.

You should know that the current domestic public opinion in China is that Japan rejects Russia. There is a large group of people who support the alliance with Japan to fight against Russia. Even in the North Sea, if they do not consider their own lack of strength, it is estimated that there will be such a public opinion.

Even if the strength is not enough to resist Russia, it is impossible to help Russia in reverse!

Now Zhao Dongyun's behavior is completely an act of betraying the country in the eyes of the majority of Chinese people today, and Zhao Dongyun does not look like a brainless person. There must be his reason why he made such a decision.

It's just that Andrea didn't think of this for a moment!

Andre thought a lot, but he only didn't expect that Zhao Dongyun didn't want Russia to lose so quickly. He wanted Russia to support it longer than history. It is impossible to send troops directly to help the Russians. There is no need to support artillery or rifles, but machine guns are not the same. .

While countries are not reacting now, if Zhao Dongyun sends a large number of heavy machine guns to Russia, whether it is arranged in Lushun or to the Fengtian war zone, 100% can bring a large number of casualties to the Japanese army, which can eliminate the original history of the Japanese army. Shi Li has such a little advantage.

The situation in Northeast is like this. Zhao Dongyun has no chance to fish in troubled waters, and if the Japanese army defeats the Russian army as much as in history, then Zhao Dongyun will have no chance.

So no matter what happens in the future, now he has to muddy the pool of water first.