At this time, Xia Bohai announced that the meeting would be adjourned for 15 minutes, and everyone could discuss freely. This is because the speeches made just now have basically made clear the pros and cons of overthrowing the Qing court and reunifying the whole country, and now it is only a question of how to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of these two aspects. In addition, it is necessary for Xia Bohai and others to sort out their thinking.

So everyone was also divided into several groups, sat on the sofa around the conference room, and started their own discussions, and Xia Bohai, Qin Zheng, Xiao Jianjun, Wang Yunpeng, Xu Jichao and other 5 people also gathered together, talking while still writing in their notebooks.

Fifteen minutes passed quickly, and everyone sat around the conference table again and resumed the discussion.

Xia Bohai first said: "Just now Comrade Zhang Yuming proposed that our goal must be clear, this question is really good, and this is indeed our negligence, the goal has not been clearly explained, so just now a few of us discussed it, decided to revise our goal, the overall goal will be divided into two stages, in this five years, our goal is to unify the north, that is, the area north of the Yangtze River, of course, we can also occupy several important cities on the south bank of the Yangtze River, It is of course great to be able to directly destroy the Qing court, but if the Qing court abandons Beijing to the south before we launch an attack, it can also be regarded as a success, and then we can formally establish a state in the north, and unify the whole country and completely overthrow the Qing court, which is the task of the next five years. ”

After listening to Xia Bohai's words, the conference room was silent for 2 or 3 minutes, and everyone was digesting the content of Xia Bohai's words.

After a while, Ye Yanfu said: "Is this how you understand, we will first unify the north and build the country, and then after a period of confrontation between the north and the south, we will unify the south." ”

Qin Zheng smiled: "That's right, that's the step." Although the territory and population that we now have in our hands are not small, it is indeed somewhat difficult to ask us to unify the whole country in one go; after all, neither our military strength nor our personnel reserves now have the ability to control the whole country, so it is more reasonable and practical to divide the process of reunifying the whole country into two steps. With our current strength, after 2 to 3 years of recuperation and preparation, it is completely possible to unify the north, because the three northeastern provinces that we have now occupied, as well as Shandong and Henan, are all northern, and the rest are Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Anhui, and Jiangsu, and we have also occupied some areas of Hebei, Shanxi, Hubei, Anhui, and Jiangsu, which have laid a good foundation for us to unify the north. Moreover, in two or three years, neither Japan nor Russia will recover their national strength, nor will they both interfere in our actions, and I estimate that it will only take about one year, or at most two years, and we will be able to complete the goal of unifying the North, and then we will be able to officially establish the state. After we unify the north, after about 3-4 years of rest and preparation, and in addition to stabilizing our territory in the north, we can cross the army and go south to conquer the areas south of the Yangtze River and unify the whole country. And even if Japan and Russia had already regained their national strength and intervened again, there would be no need to worry, because by then we would rule about 350 million square kilometers of territory and have a population of more than 150 million, and we would already have enough strength to deal with the intervention of Japan and Russia. ”

After Qin Zheng finished speaking, Xia Bohai continued: "This is the new plan for the unification of the whole country that we just talked about discussing, you can speak if you have any opinions and ideas." ”

Lu Hong said: "This plan is very feasible and in line with our current strength, but what I want to ask is, in the next five years, will we still need to develop? Do we still need to build industrialization, and if we still need to develop and build industrialization, then how can we balance the relationship between the development of the war?"

Qin Zheng said: "In fact, fighting a war and developing the economy is not an absolute contradiction, in our first five-year plan, the last one and a half years were in the Far East War, as a result, the goals of the first five-year plan were basically achieved, and even during the war, our economy is still growing, but the increase has slowed down a little, it can be seen that appropriate war can indeed promote economic development, as long as we pay attention to controlling the scale of the war, this point has also been proved in the old time and space." Moreover, as the chief of staff has just said, there is no military difficulty in reunifying the north, and the real trouble lies in public security and management after the end of the war, so relatively speaking, the scale of the war will not be too large, and it is completely controllable. As for the post-war management, it will indeed consume a considerable part of our resources, but it will also be much less than the war, and the security management of the newly occupied areas will increase the demand, which in turn will promote economic development, so that we have already obtained a large amount of reparations, and the funds are quite sufficient, and it is completely possible to develop the economy and industry while waging war, without delay, as long as we do a good job of overall control. ”

"Moreover, during the period when we stabilize the Northeast, it is not that we can do nothing, and if we encounter the right opportunity, we can also take some positive actions, as long as the scale of the action is controlled. In the old time and space, in the next year, that is, in May and June 1907, there will be serious floods in Hubei, Hunan, Anhui, Jiangsu and other places in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. personnel, to maintain order in the disaster area, and there is Li Hongzhang's family in Anhui who can help, so it is completely possible to take this opportunity to still take full control of Anhui, Hubei, and other places in the form of encircling the cities from the countryside. Now you can prepare accordingly. ”

Wang Jun said: " According to what Chairman Xia just said, if the Qing court abandons Beijing and flees to the south when we attack, it can still use the south as the foundation and call on the forces of the whole country to confront us, and the economy of southern China in this era is more developed than that of the north, and most of the foreign forces are concentrated in the south, they will certainly support the Qing court, and if the Qing court implements some reform measures, it will still be able to gain a lot of support, even if we have established the country, but after all, the Qing court is orthodox, will this cause us difficulties in fighting in the south, and even form a long-term confrontation between the north and the south。 ”

Qin Zheng said: " The situation you said can't be said to be completely impossible, but I don't think it's very likely, because now the basis of the rule of the Chun court is in the north rather than the south, the south is actually controlled by a group of local governors of the Han nationality, the Qing court's control over the south is actually very weak, the two sides just formed a tacit understanding of non-interference, in the Gengzi State during the change, the southern governors made a southeast mutual protection, refused to accept the orders of the Qing court, and even planned, once Guangxu and Cixi died in the war, the southern governors will re-establish the country, and elected Li Hongzhang as the president。 Therefore, once the Qing court abandons the foundation of the north and flees to the south, it will completely lose the foundation of its rule, and it will not have the ability to call on the forces of the whole country to confront us, and there will not be many people who will respond to the order of a court that has lost its foundation, and when we resume development, I am afraid that the Qing court will be engaged in a struggle for power and profit with the Han governors in the south. ”

"As for whether the Qing court will reform or not, I don't think it's very likely, even if there are some reform measures, they are all for show, not to mention whether the Qing court still has the ability to reform itself, but in order to reform, it must first have a solid political foundation, once the Qing court flees to the south, it loses this necessary condition. And foreign countries will give support to the Qing court, this is certain, but to what extent, it is difficult to say, after all, no country will support the Qing court unconditionally and regardless of the cost. In addition, now that the two major blocs in Europe, the Entente and the Allied Powers, have basically formed a pattern of confrontation, and the competition and confrontation will become more and more intense, it is impossible to give the Qing court too much support under such circumstances, so I believe that as long as we are fully prepared, it will never be possible to form a long-term situation of confrontation between the north and the south with the Qing court. ”

Wang Yunpeng also said: "Other countries are not stupid, even if they want to support, at least they must choose a reliable force, just like Britain supported Japan against Russia, at least Japan dares to really play with its life, and to be honest, there is something worth supporting in the Qing court, it is completely mud that can't support the wall, so I don't think that country really wants to support the Qing court, at most it is to say a few good words and express a posture, so there is no need to worry." ”

Xia Bohai nodded and said, "Do you have anything else to say?"

For a while, no one spoke anymore, because at this time everyone could see that the five-member group was advocating launching a war against the Qing court within 5 years and officially establishing the state. However, after the discussion just now, this two-step plan is completely feasible, and East China is also fully qualified and capable of doing this, so everyone has no objection to this plan, after all, as long as it is within its ability, then it is better to be able to build a country earlier. In this way, many things can be justified, and it can be handled in the name of a formal country, and many troublesome things can be saved by handling foreign relations in the name of a formal state.

Seeing that no one spoke, Xia Bohai was also very satisfied, and said: "Then it is decided, Director Wang, according to this step, the Executive Yuan will be responsible for the preparation, and formulate a detailed preparation plan." ”

Wang Yunpeng said: "Okay." ”

Xia Bohai said again: "Old Qin, if the war in the Northeast ends as soon as possible, you should worry a little more." ”

Qin Zheng said: "Don't worry, the affairs in the northeast will be handled by me, and within three months, the war in the northeast will definitely end." ”