Chapter 183 Entry 2

Since Yuan Shikai was assassinated on October 6, almost the whole of China was in turmoil in the following days, especially in China north of Shandong and Henan, which was even more tense. The troops under Beiyang generals were all preparing for war.

Needless to say, the troops under Wang Shizhen, Feng Guozhang, Wang Yingkai, Duan Qirui and Zhao Dongyun, who are at the core of the storm, have been preparing for war almost since the evening of the 6th.

Although the two marginal generals in Beiyang, Wu Fengling and Zhang Huaizhi, both said that they would stay out of the matter, they did not dare to relax. Wu Fengling was better. He took his second town directly to Rehe. Although Zhang Huaizhi of Shandong wants to stay out of the matter, she is still inevitably involved in this Beiyang internal fight.

In the face of Wang Yingkai, the former boss who kept urging him to send troops to the north, Zhang Huaizhi learned that the eighth town of Zhang Zhidong and the 29th Mixed Association of Henan also continued to go north. After two days of silence, Zhang Huaizhi sent secret telegrams to the generals to Beiyang one after another. In the secret telegram, he did not talk about how to deal with the Qing court or who would be the north. The foreign leader said that in order to avoid letting the southern provinces take advantage of the fire, Zhang Huaizhi had the duty to stop the new southern army led by Zhang Zhidong.

Therefore, Zhang Huaizhi did not resign from the appointment of the governor of Shandong, but he did not thank Feng Guozhang and Wang Shizhen, but pretended to be 'I don't know', and then led his fifth town to the west. His intention was very obvious, that is, to stop the new armies from Hubei and Henan from going north. In order to avoid getting involved in the infighting in the North Sea.

On the morning of October 9, after two days of delay, Zhao Dongyun issued a telegram to the outside world for the first time. In the telegram, he did not mention a series of appointments of the Qing court, let alone accept the appointment of the Qing court. He reacted in the telegram, which was more than 800 words long and cost nearly 10,000 taels of silver. Reply only said one thing: that is the after-law of Yuan Gong!

said that the most important thing today is the aftermath of Yuan Gong, and the handling of Yuan Gong's aftermath is to find out who assassinated Yuan Gong, and after finding out, it must be all kinds of revenge!

"No matter who murdered Yuan Gong, more than 100,000 soldiers in Beiyang will make them pay the price!" In the telegram, Zhao Dongyun's last sentence was directly in easy-to-understand vernacular. Even if the farmers who didn't understand heard this, they could feel the blatant rebellion in Zhao Dongyun's words.

Looking at Zhao Dongyun's electricity, Wang Yingkai, who had been sad for several days, smiled for the first time: "Okay, with Ziyang's three towns, then we are much more sure this time!"

Immediately, Wang Yingkai also issued a telegram. In addition to reiterating Yuan Gong's afterth, he also greatly praised Zhao Dongyun's decision to focus on the North Sea, saying that Zhao Dongyun is the hope for the future of Beiyang.

The implication is that Zhao Dongyun is the hope of Beiyang in the future. Now, Wang Yingkai is the hope of Beiyang!

Duan Qirui of Shanhaiguan also sent a telegram in a good mood, saying that the priority in Beiyang today is to deal with Yuan Gong's funeral and welcome Yuan Gong's body for burial as soon as possible.

Three telegraphs sent by the three Beiyang bosses on the 9th. Although there is no mention of direct rebellion and overthrowing the Manchu Qing Dynasty on the surface, in fact, it can be seen that Wang Duan and Zhao have reached a de facto political and military alliance, and the next step is to find an excuse to send troops. .

That night, Wang Shizhen and Feng Guozhang sat opposite each other in the Forbidden City. Although they had some scruples with each other, now the situation is so tense that they have to let go of their thoughts after fighting for so many years. If they don't cooperate, they will probably have to be destroyed by Wang Duan and Zhao.

"In this situation, they are determined to fight!" Feng Guozhang's face was heavy: "If only the first town and the fourth towns are opposite, then relying on the sixth and seventh towns under you and me, then it is not a big problem to deal with, but now Zhao Ziyang's three towns add up, even if Zhao Ziyang only brings a third town into the customs, we will be at a great disadvantage!"

Wang Shizhen also frowned: "I guess it's a little difficult to block it by our two towns alone, but what about the 29th Mixed Association? You have been seeping sand there for so many years, and you won't have any results at all, will you?"

In recent years, Feng Guozhang has been so aggrieved that he can't control the military power. He also focused on several other provinces. For example, when Henan trained the new army, he used a lot of Beiyang officers, and most of these Beiyang officers were his students of Feng Guozhang, but what Feng Guozhang did was relatively secret. Other Most of the Beiyang bosses didn't know about this situation. They didn't expect Wang Shizhen to say it directly now.

Obviously, Feng Guozhang thought it was a secret, but in the eyes of others, it was already public.

Since it is not a secret, Feng Guozhang did not stop him and immediately said, "The 29th Association is a little chaotic now. Although my people have controlled several battalions, it will still take some time to completely control it. Wang Ruxian's attitude is also a little ambiguous now!"

Wang Ruxian is also one of Yuan Shikai's direct line. Henan's preparation for the new army naturally cannot avoid the infiltration of Beiyang, so through the operation of Yuan Shikai transferred Wang Ruxian to serve as the 29th assistant commander of the Henan New Army. However, although Wang Ruxian can only be regarded as the role of the second echelon in the Beiyang system, he is not the core role of the major factions, but a neutral faction.

And Feng Guozhang's people in the 29th Association are mainly those middle and low-level officers, and if Feng Guozhang wants to control the whole 29th Association, he must first bring Wang Ruxian over.

"His attitude is unclear now, mainly because the price we gave is not enough. Now it is useless to rely on the past. Haven't they always wanted to expand it into a town in Henan? I think we can give him a town, and as for the funds he can raise by himself in Henan. Well, give him another title of governor of Henan, and I don't believe he won't be moved!" Wang Shizhen continued, "If Wang Ruxian is on our side and the eighth town of Zhang Zhidong who wants to take advantage of the fire, so that once they go north, they can give us a lot of help!"

"It's just that they want to go north, and it's not easy for Zhang Huaizhi to do it! You know his fifth town, but our old Beiyang troops. If we want to go west to intercept it, I'm afraid that Li Yuanhong's eighth town and Wang Ruxian's 29th Association may not be able to fight!"

Feng Guozhang didn't care: "Zhang Huaizhi dares not fight with us. Humph, if he had the courage, he would have gone north long ago. Now the westward interception is just an excuse to preserve his strength. As long as the town in the south shows his real ability, Zhang Huaizhi will definitely retreat. But!"

Feng Guozhang didn't say that Zhang Huaizhi could not beat the eighth town and the 29th mixed association. He just said that Zhang Huaizhi would not take the initiative to fight with them.

"And don't underestimate Yangchang. This person has some means to exclude our old Beiyang people in a few days. Now the Jiangbei Mixed Association has fallen into his hands. Although it will take several months to restore combat effectiveness, once he recovers his combat effectiveness and goes north to Shandong, what do you think Zhang Huaizhi will do? He must run back to Shandong, otherwise he will lose his territory!" Feng Guozhang is actually quite optimistic about the situation in the south. What he is worried about is not Shandong, Henan, or even Wang Duan, but Zhao Dongyun in the northeast.

"Now our confidant's big trouble is still the three towns of Fengtian. If Zhao Ziyang only takes one town out of the customs, we may be able to stop it, but if he takes three towns into the customs next time, then we will lose this battle!"

Wang Shizhen said, "Zhao Ziyang can't take three towns into the customs. His Fengtian is not a good place, and Japan and Russia are still on the side. If he brings all the troops out of the customs, once Japan and Russia repeats the old events of Gengzi, what will he take to guard Jinzhou? He can't keep Jinzhou and his Fengtian!"

After this discussion, although Feng Guozhang and Wang Shizhen are quite worried, they still take Beijing as the core and are ready to deploy the defense line. As long as they are properly prepared and perform well, who dares to say that Wang Duan and Zhao will win this uncoming war?

After the two discussed, someone soon came to inform, saying that the empress dowager was summoned!

Feng Guozhang and Wang Shizhen looked at each other. At this time, they both saw a trace of disgust in each other's eyes. Wang Shizhen said, "I'm going to inspect the recruitment stations later. The expansion is urgent, so I won't go to the palace. Go and deal with it!"

Although Feng Guozhang also looked reluctant, Cixi summoned her to be rebellious enough to go to only one of them. If none of them went, it was estimated that Cixi would have to vomit blood in the Forbidden City.

Immediately said, "Well, it's urgent to prepare for a new army now. It's not allowed to recruit new soldiers. It's okay for you to sit down. It's enough for me to deal with it alone in the palace!"

The Qing court took out tens of millions of taels of silver to expand their army. With the silver, the two of them were not polite. Immediately, they verbally agreed that half of the newly edited troops were half. As for the so-called staff given by the previous court, in fact, no one cares about it now.

Feng Guozhang did not even directly prepare for a new town, but prepared to directly organize the newly formed troops into the seventh town. The current situation is tense, but they don't have much time to get another town shelf. Not to mention the airs, even qualified senior officers are not easy to find.

Middle and senior officers in Beiyang basically have their own factions, and there are only a few people. More importantly, the appeal of Feng Guozhang and Wang Shizhen is far less than that of Wang Duan, and they are not even as attractive as Zhao Dongyun.

There is no way to casually recruit those senior generals, such as He Zonglian and Cao Kun, and Feng Guozhang, who met several times in person and failed to persuade them to turn to themselves.

And He Zonglian simply fled directly from the place of house arrest. She thought with her toes that Feng Guozhang knew that He Zonglian had gone to Fengtian to rely on Zhao Dongyun.

However, in the face of the remaining Cao Kun, Feng Guozhang did not give up directly, but once again opened a big price, that is, he was going to assign the 13th Infantry Association as a base to an artillery battalion and other auxiliary forces to establish a 13th Mixed Association. As long as Cao Kui agrees to turn to him, then the position of the leader of the mixed association will be Cao Kui.