Chapter 241 Situation of the Two Rivers

In May, Shenyang has no longer had the cold of late winter and early spring, and the warm wind from the south has brought the warmth to this northern city that has not been seen for a long time.

Li Wan, who had changed into a light dress in early summer, looked at Zhao Dongyun beside him with a smile. At this time, Zhao Dongyun held his daughter who was several months old in his arms and showed a rare smile.

This smile is different from Zhao Dongyun's kind smile in daily life. Although this kind smile in the past gives people a kind feeling, people who have seen too much will know that it is a professional smile. You can feel cordial from it, but you will clearly know that it is by no means his sincere smile. Because that smile belongs to politicians.

However, Zhao Dongyun's smile now is a smile from the bottom of his heart, which belongs to his father!

Li Wan watched Zhao Dongyun teasing her little daughter with her fingers. Her little hand was just enough to grab his finger, and then grabbed it and made a giggle. Looking at these, Li Wan herself also smiled. When her daughter was born a few months ago, she disappointed many people, especially the old lady of the Zhao family. Cover up your disappointment. Although you don't say anything on the surface, anyone can feel the disappointment.

In addition, Fang Ruolian finally got pregnant after many years of being infertile. The old lady of the Zhao family didn't even look at Li Wan and her little daughter. She ate fast and recited Buddha in the handsome mansion every day, praying that God would let Fang Ruolian give birth to a big fat boy so that she could inherit the fragrance of the Zhao family.

Fortunately, although others did not like the daughter she gave birth to, Zhao Dongyun was not dissatisfied. On the contrary, he loved the little daughter very much, which made Li Wan feel relieved.

Just when Li Wan was thinking about it, she saw Li San coming in from the outside, which made Li Wan frown, because she knew that whenever Li San came to Zhao Dongyun, it meant that Zhao Dongyun had to work again. Zhao Dongyun had less time to match their mother and daughter. This rare day of companionship is estimated to make Li San give It's mixed.

Li San walked to Zhao Dongyun and said something, and then Zhao Dongyun came over with his daughter in his arms: "I have something to deal with outside. I'll come back in the evening!"

Although Li Wan is a little dissatisfied with the current situation, she also knows that this is not the time to be petty, so she squeezed out a smile: "Well, you go, work is important!"

After walking out of the courtyard, Zhao Dongyun said, "Call Fang Biyong and An Yutong from the Intelligence Department!"

Just now, Li San came in and told him that Wang Yingkai sent himself a secret message, saying that the central government would appoint Zhang Huaizhi as the governor of Anhui. Anhui, coupled with the words Midian and Zhang Huaizhi, is enough to let anyone know that it is absolutely not that simple. Out of the instinct of the warlord, Zhao Dongyun almost immediately thought that Wang Yingkai wanted to take action against Duan Qirui.

Because everyone knows that Anhui is one of the provinces under the jurisdiction of the inspection envoys of the two rivers, the governor and inspection envoy system of the northern republican government is actually not much different from that of the former Qing Dynasty. Due to the shortage of time, the governor system of the former Qing Dynasty has not been directly changed, just a name. In short, it is The governor was replaced by the governor, the governor was replaced by the patrol envoy, and even the administrative jurisdiction was even the continuation of the old example of the previous Qing Dynasty. For example, the governor of the three eastern provinces was the governor of the three eastern provinces in the former Qing Dynasty, the governor of the two rivers in the former Qing Dynasty was the envoy of the two rivers, and the governor of Huguang was the governor of Huguang.

Duan Qirui's two river patrol area includes: Jiangsu, Anhui and Jiangxi, that is to say, this Anhui should be Duan Qirui's territory, no matter whether Duan Qirui has been completely taken down.

Although it is impossible to imitate the arrangement of the officials of local warlords, and it is impossible to say that there are no rules. According to the tacit understanding of the four major warlords in Beiyang, the local personnel power is under the control of the local authorities, specifically nominated by the patrol envoy or the governor, and then approved by the cabinet.

For example, Zhao Dongyun appointed Zhao E as the governor of Fengtian Province, that is, Zhao Dongyun recommended Zhao E as the governor of Fengtian to the cabinet, and then the cabinet approved the formal appointment.

To put it bluntly, the cabinet in Beijing is just a rubber stamp, and there is no decision!

The appointment of the governor of Anhui should be recommended by Duan Qirui to the central government and then officially appointed according to the tacit understanding of several major warlords in Beiyang in the past six months, which is very important, because it represents Duan Qirui's jurisdiction over Anhui.

But this is just a tacit understanding of everyone in private. If your cabinet directly bypasses the patrol to appoint a local official, it is legally possible.

Wang Yingkai directly appointed Zhang Huaizhi as the governor of Anhui through the cabinet, which is legally speaking, but there is no doubt that this has broken the tacit understanding of several major warlords in Beiyang in the past six months. Once Wang Yingkai does so, it reveals a very obvious signal that Wang Yingkai is going to weaken Duan Qirui's power. , er, or territory.

After realizing this, Zhao Dongyun felt that the matter was unusual. Whether it was good or bad, he had to figure out the ins and outs of the matter first. He couldn't agree with what Wang Yingkai said!

After a while, Fang Biyong and An Yutong, who were urgently called, also arrived. Zhao Dongyun was not very polite to them and immediately said to An Yutong, "What's the situation in the south of the Yangtze River now? Have there been any major changes recently?

An Yutong was slightly stunned. Although the North-South War is a major event for today's China, in fact, the direct impact on the three eastern provinces is not great. His intelligence department is not focused on Jiangnan, but mainly on Zhili, and the rest has to pay attention to the movements of the Japanese army in the north. The movements of the Russian army, coupled with the large number of foreigners in Lushun and the Middle East Railway, also needs the attention of his intelligence department.

So many things need to be dealt with by his intelligence department one by one, but the funds of his intelligence department are also limited. It is impossible to say that he can open his mouth to open intelligence stations at home and abroad.

Therefore, the intelligence department's intelligence collection of southern provinces is very limited, and most of them only collect public information in a timely manner.

Now hearing Zhao Dongyun's question, he said, "According to the information we have received, the situation in the two rivers is relatively stable now. Since Zhang Huaizhi conquered Hefei, there has been no large-scale war in the Liangjiang region, and there have been no high-level changes with great impact!"

"Isn't it changed? Impossible!" Zhao Dongyun did not think that Wang Yingkai had no reason to suppress Duan Qirui. Wang Yingkai must have sensed the threat posed by Duan Qirui.

And how can Duan Qirui make Wang Yingkai feel threatened?

Thinking of this, Zhao Dongyun immediately pointed to the map and said, " Mark the deployment of the southern armies!"

After listening, he breathed a sigh of relief. Although his intelligence department could not know some secret information from the southern provinces, the collection of public information was still in place. With these public information, coupled with the judgment of the intelligence department, it can still be generally guessed. The movements of the southern armies.

"Now Zhang Huaizhi's unit of the first army under Duan Qirui has conquered Hefei, and the department is now ready to continue to go south to Anqing. Duan Qirui's fourth division supplementary brigade was in the Chuzhou area two days ago, and there was at least one infantry marker in Yangzhou and Nantong. The specific number is unknown, but it is very likely that Jiang Guiti's sixth mixed brigade.

Zhao Dongyun heard this and then said, "What about the Fourth Division? What about the second mixed brigade? Where is it?"

"The fourth division was recently in Chuzhou, and then went south with the fourth division's supplementary brigade, but later we lost their tracks. At present, the movement of the department is unknown. The second mixed brigade was stationed in the Qingjiangpu area before."

Zhao Dongyun said, "What about the Southern Federation?"

An Yu said: "Today, the number and deployment of the Southern Federation on the ground of the two rivers are quite chaotic. At present, it has been known that there are more than 20 towns and mixed associations, but the gap between ministries is very large. Some towns may only have one or two infantry targets, but some mixed associations have tens of thousands of people, and even the establishment is different.

According to the information we collected, the Southern Federation is currently mainly stationed in the three areas of Zhenjiang, Nanjing and Anqing. There are about 20,000 to 30,000 troops on the front line of Anqing, about 60,000 troops on both sides of Nanjing, and about 30,000 troops on the front line from Zhenjiang to Jiangyin.

"In addition, there are many naval ships patrolling around the Yangtze River!"

Speaking of this, An Yutong seemed to remember something and immediately said, "Yes, yesterday came the news that there were several warships in the southern navy of the Yangtze River declaring a republic!"

"Navy?" Zhao Dongyun heard so much that he felt that he had grasped the point: "What if the southern navy announced the republic? There is no such thing as a naval blockade of the Yangtze River!"

Thinking of this, Zhao Dongyun could almost imagine that Duan Qirui's army crossed the Yangtze River without hindrance and then took the scene of the Jiangnan region in one fell swoop.

I didn't expect this group of guys in the Southern Navy to be so useless. If you don't fight, you will be a traitor! Zhao Dongyun was not happy at all that the southern navy betrayed the federal government and defected to the northern republican government, but was full of worry.

Without the naval blockade of the Yangtze River, Duanfang, Yangchang and others were able to stop Duan Qirui. Previously, in Jiangbei and Anhui, Duan Qirui defeated two Northern Expeditionary troops with a total strength of more than 100,000 troops of the Southern Federation.

Although there are still more than 100,000 troops in the southern federation in the direction of the two rivers under this new defeat, most of them will be defeated by the remnants and the newly recruited recruits*. Not to mention 100,000, even if there are more than 200,000 people, it will not be able to stop Duan Qirui's first army from going south.

Although they are all from the Southern Federation and have suffered consecutive defeats, to be honest, Zhang Zhidong's troops are much better than Duanfang's troops. At least Zhang Zhidong is still guarding the three towns of Wuhan, which makes Wang Shizhen, who has been under the city, feel that although he has won every victory, he can't gnaw on the three towns of Wuhan.

And Duanfang, with the three provinces of two rivers and reinforcements from Zhejiang and Fujian, there are more than 200,000 troops before and after this! Among them, the Qingjiangpu Campaign, the Bengbu Campaign and the Hefei Campaign, which all scaled more than 20,000 people, the southern federal troops as defenders were twice or even three times that of the Beiyang Army, but they were beaten like dogs by Duan Qirui, so that they lost soldiers and their morale plummeted.

In this case, if the southern navy is still there, it can still prevent Duan Qirui from passing through the Yangtze River. Compared with Duan Qirui's army, it can't run to the Yangtze River to fight against warships, right? But now the southern navy has betrayed the south and declared the republic. In this way, if Duanfang can still defend Jiangnan That's weird.

"No wonder Fatty Wang is so nervous. That's what happened!" After Zhao Dongyun understood these, a smile appeared at the corners of his mouth.

If Qirui takes down the two rivers, it will certainly be a big threat to him, but this threat will be in the future. At least you don't have to worry about Duan Qirui before entering the customs. What you should really worry about is Wang Yingkai.

Wang Yingkai can weaken Duan Qirui, but he has to pay some price!