Chapter 173 Storm Surging

When Zhao Dongyun buried his head in Fengtian to carry out new policy reform and expand his army, the situation at home and abroad was still surging. After several large-scale offensive and defensive battles in the Russo-Japanese War last year, the two countries that had killed and injured hundreds of thousands of people in this war were exhausted.

Although Japan has won at sea, it has not progressed smoothly on land. The front has been deadlocked on the front lines of Liaoyang, Fengtian and Fushun. Even if it is deadlocked, there are still many casualties. After two years of fighting, there are hundreds of casualties.

Of course, the Russian army can't go there. The navy has been almost completely annihilated, and the army has survived. If the Japanese army is willing to pay a certain price to attack, it is estimated that it can be taken down last year, but Japan itself is not stupid. Anyway, now Lushun has no strategic value, so Japan I only stationed a division here, and I didn't attack and waited for the Russian army in Lushun to starve to death!

In the strategic stalemate on the front line of Liaoyang, Fengtian and Fushun, the Japanese army suffered a lot of casualties, and the Russian army suffered a lot of casualties. Don't think that the trench war is that everyone squatted in the trenches and did not fight. In the era without tanks, the attack and counterattack speed of both sides was quite limited, so you often conquered a certain tactical point. , the reinforcements sent by the enemy will also arrive, and then there will be a repeated attrition battle for a certain tactical point. At that time, whether it is the attacking side or the defending side, they will eventually be forced to invest a lot of living force to consume.

So in this super-large-scale battle, whether it is the Japanese army as an attacker or the Russian army as a defense and counterattack, in fact, the casualties are half a catty, at least hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries!

And since last year, revolutionary uprisings have frequently broken out in Russia. When the Russian army fought fiercely with the Japanese army on the front line, Lenin and others in the rear took funds supported by Japan to launch various uprisings, resulting in the suspension of arsenal production, the suspension of trains, and the Russian army in the Far East without supplies!

This does not weaken the combat capability of the Russian army, making it more and more difficult to maintain the Far East war.

More importantly, since the almost complete destruction of the Russian navy last year, Russian war debt has become more and more difficult to sell in the international market. Even France and Germany, which have been supporting Russians, have begun to reduce their support for Russia.

This makes Russia's war machine more difficult to maintain!

It can be said that by early 1906, the war driven by Britain had perfectly met Britain's expectations, that is, to weaken Russia.

After this war, Russia will not want to expand in the Far East for ten years!

But after weakening Russia, Britain is naturally unwilling to let its Japan continue to expand. After all, its main purpose of supporting Japan's war is not to support Japan's expansion, but to weaken Russia. Therefore, once the purpose of weakening Russia is achieved, Britain immediately began to reduce its war against Japan. Ben's support.

Just as the reason why the war was launched was the impetus of the British. The end of this war was also the impetus of the British. Of course, politicians from all over the world will certainly not admit these words.

But don't listen to those messy political slogans, just look at who is buying Japanese war debts in financial markets such as Paris, London and New York.

When the Japanese bonds in the London and New York markets cannot be sold, then the Japanese side will know that the war should be over.

So, starting in 1906, Japan and Russia really played meditation. Not to mention large-scale wars, even small-scale confrontations rarely occurred. At the same time, diplomats of various countries have been frequently trying to negotiate and reach an armistice agreement.

When the international Russo-Japanese War has come to an end, China's domestic situation has suddenly become tense since the second half of last year.

Since last year, there has been a comprehensive political conflict between Cen Chunxuan and Yuan Shikai, the governors of Guangdong and Zhili, and these two men are not fighting alone, but with a large number of allies and subordinates. For example, Cen Chunxuan has the support of Qu Hongzhen, the military minister in the center of the imperial court, while Yuan Shikai took his staff at this time. Xu Shichang promoted the Military Machinery Department as the Minister of Military Machinery, and also had a political ally with Prince Qing Yiqi.

In addition to other centrists, wall grass and so on, almost from the second half of 1905 to 1906, the domestic political situation basically revolved around the struggle between the two political factions of Cen Chunxuan and Yuan Shikai.

To tell the truth, last year, Zhao Dongyun and Zhao Erxun competed for the position of General Shengjing, which was actually a battle between the two political factions.

However, at the beginning of the year, Yuan Shikai and Prince Qing took advantage of their political advantages and persuaded Cixi to transfer Cen Chunxuan to serve as the governor of Yungui. This governor of Yungui was not a good place. Cen Chunxuan naturally did not want to go, so he claimed that he was ill and stayed in Shanghai.

At the same time, Yuan Shikai promoted Zhou Fu to be the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. Who is this Zhou Fu? He is Yuan Shikai's son and daughter-in-law. It may not be suitable to say that he is from the Beiyang faction, but he is definitely a political ally of Yuan Shikai.

However, in this series of Nan Cen Bei Yuan struggles, on the surface, Yuan Shikai seems to have achieved a huge political victory. However, the large-scale expansion of the Beiyang faction in the past two years has also caused Cixi's prevention.

In recent years, Beiyang, led by Yuan Shikai, started from a small Wuwei Right Army, and then quickly controlled a province of Zhili, and then trained the Beiyang Standing Army. Not to mention a few years ago, last year alone, the Beiyang system has done many major events that no other political faction could do, not only the six towns of the Beiyang Standing Army and The standing army of Jingqi became an army, and in 1905, it also promoted Xu Shichang to enter the Military Machinery Office to become the Minister of Military Machinery, supporting Zhao Dongyun to take office as General Shengjing to control Fengtian Province in all aspects, and even the possibility of radiation to control the whole three eastern provinces. In addition, he also pushed Wang Yongqing to take office as Admiral of Jiangbei.

This incident alone is a huge political event, but in 1905, it happened in the Beiyang system. How can this not attract the attention of outsiders? How not to attract the prevention of the Qing court?

Although Yuan Shikai sends a lot of money to Prince Qing Yiqi every year, and Yiqian is also very supportive of Yuan Shikai, he can't suppress the Qing court's defense against Beiyang!

The most obvious example is that when Japan and Russia were negotiating an armistice in the summer of 1906, although the new official reform jointly promoted by Yuan Shikai, Yishan, Xu Shichang and others in China has achieved certain success, it is still strongly opposed by Qu Hongxuan, the political ally of Cen Chunxuan, and Defeated.

Not to mention many of the irrelevant things in the reform of the new official system. What really affects the core of power is the reform of the Military Machinery Department and various ministries. Many military aircraft ministers in the Military Machinery Department have lost the right to participate in the central government and become Shangshu, including Yuan Shikai's direct in the Military Machinery Department. On behalf of Xu Shichang, Qu Hongzhen, Yuan Shikai's sworn friend and political ally of Cen Chunxuan, has not lost any power and is still in charge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the Minister of Military Affairs.

In this way, the Beiyang faction led by Yuan Shikai was completely defeated in this official reform, or in the central power struggle!

And this failure soon caused a chain reaction. In July, in the face of many impeachment chapters, Yuan Shikai was forced to resign from part of the job. However, this did not count. What really dealt a major blow to Beiyang was the Qing court's edict in August to officially establish the Army Department, which was under the jurisdiction of the national new army.

The establishment of this army department is actually a major blow to the Beiyang system. As mentioned above, the training office is actually the training office of the Beiyang faction. Since its establishment, it has been fighting for power with the representative 'military department' of the imperial court, trying to compete for the control of the new army across the country.

However, the Qing court directly merged the two departments and established the Army Department after joining the Taipu Temple.

If the Army Department is established and the secretary of the Army Department is held by people from the Beiyang faction, such as Duan Qirui, Wang Yingkai and even Yuan Shikai himself, it is a good thing for the Beiyang system, but the key to the problem is that the secretary of the Army Department is not a Beiyang person.

It is the Manchu general Tieliang. Although Tieliang had a close relationship with Yuan Shikai in the early years, in recent years, as the court has become more and more obvious to guard against the North Ocean, Tieliang has gradually opened up relations with the North Ocean and has become a Manchu general in the traditional sense.

With the establishment of the War Department, Tieliang became the secretary of the War Department, representing the failure of the Beiyang system in the war for national military power.

The specific performance is that soon after the establishment of the Army Department, it announced the unification of the national new army number, and was prepared to change the 'Beijing Flag Standing Army' to the 'First Town of the Army' at the beginning of 1906, and the six towns of the Beiyang Standing Army to the second town to the seventh town of the Army.

At the same time, it will also grant the new army that has become an army in other provinces in the future. However, at the beginning of 1906, the two towns of Fengtian, which Zhao Dongyun trained in the past two years have not actually become an army, and the army department has not sent anyone to review, so it continues to use the number of Fengtian's standing army for the time being.

However, the establishment of the Army Department and the unified number may be a good thing for future generations, but it is a big bad thing for the Beiyang system, which relies heavily on military power for survival!

Why?

Because the War Department was established, it has the right to govern all the armies in the country, that is to say, theoretically, both Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Standing Army and Zhao Dongyun's Fengtian Standing Army are under the control of the Army Department. Whether the army department said or not to develop a new domestic army is better than a department made by the Qing court to try to weaken the Beiyang faction and collect the Beiyang military power.

As soon as it was established, it tried to bring the six towns of the Beiyang Standing Army and the Beijing Flag Standing Army under the jurisdiction of the Army Department!