Duan Qirui wants to cooperate with the Southern Federation. Although it is right from the perspective that the enemy of the enemy is a friend, from a military point of view, once the Anhui army cooperates with the Southern Federation and cooperates with the Feng army, it will also have great advantages, but this cooperation will be accompanied by great political risks.

The contradiction between the Northern Ocean and the Southern Federation is not a personal contradiction, but the differences between political concepts and the interests of North and South industry and commerce, which are almost irreconcilable.

The Southern Federation represents the remnants of the former Qing Dynasty, many political factions that oppose the republic, support the imperial system and support the constitution, and also represent the traditional landlord forces.

Although Beiyang was born as a former Qing and Han landlord, Beiyang's supporters have become an industrial and commercial class in the past two years, and its political faction is also very clear, that is, to support the republic.

The contradiction between republican and imperialism is almost irreconcilable.

This contradiction was also the root cause of the outbreak of the civil war between the north and the south in 1906.

As one of the leading bosses in the Beiyang Group, if Duan Qirui gives up the political concept of Beiyang and Zhang Zhidong's cooperation that supports the imperial system, he will almost completely give up the republican concept of Beiyang, which will have a great negative impact on Duan Qirui's own political prestige.

It's just that the political negative impact can't be counted as anything before the huge military pressure of the Feng army. If you don't cooperate with the Southern Federation, Duan Qirui will see any chance to defeat the Feng army, so for Duan Qirui, it is necessary to pull several allies to fight against Zhao Dongyun.

Of course, Duan Qirui is not a fool. He can't send any electricity openly, but he cooperates openly with Zhang Zhidong.

Although Duan Qirui wants to cooperate with Zhang Zhidong, it is limited to limited military cooperation and must be carried out in secret.

In Wuchang, Hubei Province, Zhang Zhidong, who has entered the ancient times, tried to stand up from ** and carefully looked at the sealed electricity sent by Duan Qirui in the dim light.

Since the fall of the Qing Dynasty before 1906, Zhang Zhidong couldn't bear to see China's land fall into the hands of the lawless warlords in the North Sea, so he used himself as the only remaining veteran political boss in contemporary China to call on the southern provinces to rise up against the warlords of the North Sea. At the beginning, it was so majestic. At that time, it was established During the Chinese Federal Empire, except for the three eastern provinces, Zhili, Rehe, Shandong and Henan, the other provinces, including Huguang, Liangjiang, Fujian and Zhejiang, Liangguang, Yunnan and Guizhou, Shaanxi and Gansu, Shanxi, Xinjiang and other provinces, all declared their allegiance to the Chinese Federal Empire.

Five Northern Expeditions were established one after another to start the Northern Expedition!

At that time, the Chinese Federal Empire was extremely majestic, but unfortunately this situation did not last for half a year. At the end of 1906, the four major warlords of Beiyang reached a secret agreement in Tianjin and established the Republic of China. Then Wu Fengling marched to Shanxi, Wang Shizhen marched to Henan, Hubei and Duan Qirui to the south. Jiang, with the foundation of the old Beiyang standing army, the Southern Federation, which had been killed all the way, was defeated continuously.

Losing Henan, Jiangbei, and Shanxi, this is not included. Later, Duan Qirui sang all the way down, occupying two rivers and three provinces, Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, and even took Guangdong.

Duanfang was pushed all the way from Jinling to Guangxi, Xiliang retreated all the way from Jiangbei to Zhejiang and Fujian, and finally committed suicide in Chaozhou, Guangdong.

This series of defeats also greatly stimulated Zhang Zhidong, and what really couldn't stand Zhang Zhidong was last year. He finally gathered more than 100,000 troops to launch a counterattack against Wang Shizhen. His troops once captured Hanyang Prefecture and other prefectures and counties, and he could destroy Wang Shizhen, but he didn't think about it. At that time, Wang Shizhen and Zhao Dongyun urgently reached a secret agreement, and then transferred Wu Shengguan's troops south. Coupled with the large amount of military material assistance given by Zhao Dongyun, Wang Shizhen gradually stabilized the situation and launched a counterattack to drive the Northern Expeditionary Army back to the Yangtze River.

In that battle, the First Army and the Fourth Army of the Northern Expedition under Zhang Zhidong suffered heavy losses.

After the defeat of this war, Zhang Zhidong fell ill and began to stay in bed at the end of last year. In the past six months, he could obviously feel the passage of life. He knew that his days were running out.

After living for so many years, he has no fear of death, but he is unwilling and even more worried!

Now the situation in the Southern Federation can be said to be quite bad. Shaanxi and Gansu is better. Although Zhao Erxun himself has no military talent, as the commander of one side, Zhao Erxun is undoubtedly qualified and excellent. The 19th town he prepared and the Shaanxi-Gansu Army have made outstanding achievements in the past two years. The momentum of the westward advance was stopped.

Hubei can barely continue to maintain. Although he can't cross the river to counterattack, Wang Shizhen can't fight.

However, in the direction of Hunan and Guangxi, the situation is very short. First of all, Guangxi, although Duan Qirui has been transferred troops from Guangdong to the north since the end of last year, leaving only the 10th Division of the Liangjiang Army and other troops in Guangdong.

However, the southern federal army in the direction of Guangxi is also not good. The troops left in Guangxi are all old, weak and disabled. Duanfang was driven from Jinling to Guangxi by the Anhui army all the way. Whether it was himself or other generals under his command, they have been broken. In the face of the attack of the Anhui army in Guangxi, Most of the time, he runs without turning around with a shot.

If it hadn't been for the Anhui army that had transferred a large number of troops from Guangdong to the north to the Yangtze River, the Anhui army would have taken Guangxi long ago. Even now, the current Duanfang has lost a small half of Guangxi. Wuzhou, a major military town in eastern Guangxi, had been conquered by the 10th Division of the two rivers of the Anhui army in 1908, and by the way, In Yulin Prefecture, the Anhui army is currently fighting with the southern federal army led by Duan Fang for Pingle Prefecture and Xunzhou Prefecture.

It's just that the scale of the war between the two is not large, and it is not well known by the outside world when large-scale wars are generally carried out in China.

The situation in Guangxi is not good, and Hunan is also unstable. Although the Anhui army has vacavulated all the troops from Jiangxi, the strength of the southern allied forces in the Hunan direction is not very good, and the southern allied forces suffered a lot when the two sides fought.

When the overall situation is not good, and he feels that his big limit is approaching, Zhang Zhidong has to consider carefully in the face of Duan Qirui's sealed electricity.

In the past, in 1906 or even 1907, Zhang Zhidong would not hesitate to refuse any proposal of Duan Qirui, but now he has no confidence in the past.

"What do you think of Duan Qirui's secret telegraph?" Zhang Zhidong rudely called Duan Qirui's full name. In contemporary China, only Zhang Zhidong is qualified to call Duan Qirui's full name.

In modern times, Duan Qirui's political status has ranked among the top three in China. Even if Zhao Dongyun is in front of his subordinates, most of them are called Duan Zhiquan, because in any case, Duan Qirui is Zhao Dongyun's predecessor in Beiyang, and it is inappropriate to call Duan Qirui's name directly.

Although contemporary China has a republican appearance, it still has a strong feudal atmosphere, which is particularly obvious in its name.

Zhang Zhidong called Duan Qirui's full name, but his subordinates couldn't do this. My subordinates, look at me. After I looked at you, then Zhang Biao, the number one general under Zhang Zhidong's command, the commander of the First Army of the Northern Expedition, and the general of the Imperial Army of the Chinese Federation, first said:

From the perspective of the Ministry of Health, Duan Hefei's secret electricity still has a certain credibility. Now he is beaten by Zhao Dongyun and can't raise his head. From Jiangbei to Jiangnan to Zhejiang, he retreats again and again. If it goes on like this, he will not only can't protect Jiangxi and Zhejiang, but even Guangdong in the end, and he will lose these provinces. He is not qualified to compete with Zhao Dongyun for the capital of the world with us!"

Zhang Biao continued: "And he must be unwilling to be defeated like Wang Haicheng, and then ran to the concession to be an apartment!"

Wang Haicheng in Zhang Biao's mouth refers to Wang Yingkai. Wang Yingkai's ancestral home is Shandong, but he settled in Fengtianhai City. According to the model of people calling bigwigs with surnames and place of origin, many people call Wang Yingkai Wang Haicheng, which is the same as Duan Hefei, Zhang Nanpi, Yuan Xiangcheng and Zhao Suqian.

Wang Yingkai's defeat was finally forced to resign as president and went to the Tianjin Concession as an apartment, which has become a model for the defeated warlords in China. Not only he, but in fact, Tianjin and Shanghai Concession still have several other former Chinese figures, such as those who were once very popular. Feng Guozhang, also known as Lu Chuanlin, the former military aircraft minister of the Qing Dynasty and the first cabinet prime minister in the era of Wang Yingkai, the former governor of Henan, the governor of Henan, and Wang Ruxian, the commander of the 8th Division of the Central Army.

In Tianjin and Shanghai concessions, there is a large number of frustrated warlords and politicians.

If Duan Qirui is defeated, it is estimated that he will end up the same as Wang Yingkai and others, and finally go to the concession to be an apartment.

If Duan Qirui still wants to continue to be active in the Chinese political stage, then he has only two choices left. One of them is to take the initiative to make peace with Zhao Dongyun, saying that it is a peace proposal, but it is almost the same as announcing his surrender to Zhao Dongyun. In the end, Zhao Dongyun is expected to give him a comforting position.

The other is hard resistance, and the Anhui army alone can't resist, so he can only unite with other forces to fight against the Soviet faction. Whether it is Wu Fengling, Wang Shizhen or Zhang Zhidong, he has to unite.

After Zhang Biao said this, the group of people behind them also whispered, but no one expressed their objections.

On the one hand, they all recognize the reality. Now the Soviets are unique in China, and they are about to completely defeat the Anhui army. In the future, they can figure out what the Soviets are going to do with their feet. Once the Feng army is free, the next one to clean up must be the Southern Federation. At that time, in the face of hundreds of thousands of Soviet elite soldiers, the Southern Federation I didn't see the hell until I could resist it.

On the other hand, they are also hindered by Zhang Biao's power in the Southern Federation.

As the commander of the First Army of the Northern Expedition, Zhang Biao's status is very similar to that of Meng Enyuan in the Soviet Union. He is the leading bosses of the military. If others want to oppose Zhang Biao's opinion, they have to weigh whether their weight is enough.

Zhang Zhidong looked at a group of subordinates, and then sighed deeply, "Then contact Guangzhou!"

After saying that, he seemed to use all his strength, sighed deeply and closed his eyes!