However, to deal with the Qing court, the East China government has enough experience, that is, to threaten with force, because when dealing with the Qing court, it is useless to reason after a good time, only to beat the Qing court violently and then say, it is more effective than anything else, although it is impossible for the East China government to formally overthrow the Qing court now, but it can still be done by beating the Qing court hard. The goal is Baoding.

Baoding Mansion is the capital of the Qing court to Hebei, the southern gateway of Beijing, known as "the north controls the three passes, the south reaches the nine provinces, the auxiliary land of Qi, the capital of Pinghan in the south", the Qing court organized and trained the new army, that is, the new army was stationed in Baoding, in fact, it was to strengthen the garrison of Beijing. Therefore, if the People's Army captured Baoding, it would be a great threat to the Qing court, enough to force the Qing court to refuse the invitation of the four countries.

Although the Qing court has officially recognized the independent status of the East China government, after all, the Qing court is still the legitimate government recognized by the Chinese public, and the East China government must be morally justified if it wants to attack Baoding。

During the period when the East China Government participated in the war, the work of public opinion never stopped, and it made full use of the victory of the People's Army in the Northeast Battlefield to vigorously publicize and push the prestige of the East China Government to a peak; during the Far East War, the second anti-encirclement and suppression operation in the rivers and lakes base areas, as well as the incident in which the East China Government officially broke away from the Qing court and became independent, under the control of the East China Government's public opinion, the prestige rose instead of falling, and public opinion almost unanimously held that the Qing court was wrong.

In fact, in the past two years, the Qing court also realized that public opinion is also important, so it also hired a group of scribes to speak for the Qing court, but the way of propaganda was too backward, blindly emphasizing the "imperial power, three outlines and five constants" and so on, for the modern "freedom, equality" idea has been introduced into China, this kind of condescending preaching propaganda can play an extremely limited effect, and the East China government continues to win in foreign wars, but also provides enough hard material for propaganda, which is precisely the Qing court's shortcomings.

However, after Britain and France announced their entry into the war, it caused a lot of waves in China's public opinion, after all, the Chinese intellectuals in this era still have a little common sense in the world, knowing that Britain and France are both world powers, and since Britain is still the world's number one power, so the announcement of the two countries to join the war will make the war extremely uncertain, and many people have sweated for the East China government. The scribes hired by the Qing court, and some of them were conservative in their thinking, and they were dedicated to defending the Qing court or for various reasons, but those who were hostile to the East China government seemed to see an opportunity, so they also spoke out, accusing the East China government of provoking strong enemies, causing foreign troubles, endangering the country, and affecting the imperial court.

Of course, the East China Government will not swallow its anger and immediately launch a counterattack, first refuting the accusations against the East China Government point by point, and pointing out that Britain and France are supporters of Japan and Russia, and now they are only seeing that Japan and Russia have been defeated by the People's Army, and that they have personally ended up in the battle, and that it is not the East China Government that has been provoked at all, and that even if Britain and France enter the war, the East China Government is not afraid, and has full confidence in defeating the British and French armies. Later, he angrily criticized the people of the East China government, calling them cowards, soft bones, and fearful of foreign tigers.

After the East China government counterattacked, most public opinion was still on the side of the East China government, although the Chinese knew that Britain and France were world powers, but they did not have an intuitive understanding, and did not know where these two countries were strong? And the most important thing is the previous victories of the East China government, including a series of brilliant victories achieved after this war, coupled with the effective propaganda of the East China government, also made many Chinese have strong confidence in the East China government, so the participation of Britain and France in the war did not have much impact on the East China government. This time, the East China government will once again guide public opinion.

Soon, several newspapers in Shanghai published news that the Qing court had decided to join the Quadruple Alliance composed of Britain, France, Japan and Russia, and was ready to deal with the East China government at the same time, and that the Qing court intended to use the power of the four countries to eliminate its greatest threat, and also said that the Qing court had reached an agreement with the four countries, once the East China government was eliminated, the Qing court was ready to cede the three northeastern provinces to Russia and Japan, and ceded Shandong to Britain and France in order to reward the four countries. measure the material resources of China and form a friendship with the country" and so on.

As soon as this news was published, it immediately caused an uproar, and the official newspaper of the East China Government [New China Daily] first published a commentary, severely accusing the Qing court of only caring for the selfish interests of one family, disregarding national interests, and betraying the country to seek glory, and so on, and declaring that the East China Government would take any countermeasures.

And other newspapers, have also published articles, most of them are accusing the Qing court, although everyone knows that the East China government has been independent from the Qing court, but after all, it is still the same line of China, so most Chinese can identify with the East China government, and now the East China government sent troops to the northeast to fight against Japan and Russia, which can also be regarded as a battle between Chinese and foreigners, not to mention that the East China government has repeatedly defeated foreign countries, which has become the sustenance of many people. The contradiction between the East China government and the Qing court is only an internal contradiction between the Chinese, while the East China government and Britain, France, Japan, and Russia are the contradictions between the Chinese nation and foreign races. Although a few newspapers also spoke out in support of the Qing court's resolution, they were soon drowned out in a wave of accusations.

Soon this public opinion spread from Shanghai to Beijing, and the form was not limited to newspapers, but also manuscripts, pamphlets, posters, etc., and it was not limited to civil scribes and squires, governors and governors of the southeastern provinces, and even political envoys, Taoist platforms, prefects and other officials also wrote to the imperial court, some inquiring, and some bluntly saying that they could not form an alliance with Britain, France, Japan, and Russia, and so on.

The Qing court did not expect that this matter would cause such a great public outrage, so it had to issue an edict saying that the court was still negotiating with the four countries on this matter, and there was no conclusion yet, so the Qing court admitted that it was negotiating with the four countries, and it was not a rumor, so the governors and governors of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, and Hubei provinces jointly wrote to the Qing court, asking the Qing court to immediately stop negotiating with the four countries, and officially summoned, saying that the court would never participate in the four-nation alliance.

In fact, the reaction of the governors and governors of the five provinces was so fierce, not really out of righteous indignation, but because it was the Qing court and the four countries in the negotiation, there was also a plan for the Japanese army to land in Shanghai and attack Shandong, so it is very likely that the war will be burned to the southeastern provinces, which will inevitably cause heavy losses to the southeastern provinces, which is of course unacceptable to the governors of the five provinces.

However, at that time, the Southeast Mutual Guarantee was supported by various countries, which was also one of the important factors for the success of the Southeast Mutual Guarantee, but this time the countries obviously would not support the actions of the governors and governors of the five provinces. On the one hand, they put pressure on the Qing court to control public opinion and severely punish those involved in order to suppress the voices of the people, and at the same time ordered the consuls of Shanghai, Nanjing, Hankow, and other places to meet with the governors and governors of the five provinces, demanding that they stop putting pressure on the Qing court and support the Qing court to join the anti-East China government alliance of Britain, France, Japan, and Russia.

And just when public opinion was deadlocked, the East China government also began to take action, ordering the 6th Army to launch an attack on Baodingfu.

The 6th Army of the People's Army is actually the Volunteer Army of the original river and lake base area. After winning the second victory against encirclement and suppression in the Hehu base area, the Hehu base area occupied the entire Henan Province and parts of Hebei, Shanxi, Anhui, and Hubei provinces, with a total area of more than 200,000 square kilometers and a population of more than 30 million, all surpassing Shandong.

After the East China Government completely severed its independence from the Qing court, it also considered that there was no need to cover up its relationship with the river and lake base areas, so it was decided to formally incorporate the river and lake base areas into the East China Government, and set up five administrative organs in Henan, Hebei, Shanxi, Anhui, and Hubei. In addition, if these places are incorporated into Henan Province, then the territory and population of Henan Province will exceed that of Shandong Province, forming a strong cadre without branches, which is obviously not good for the East China government.

The Central Military Commission decided to formally organize the Volunteer Army into the Sixth Army of the People's Army, with four divisions and two regiments, and all the original officers remained in their posts and were still stationed in Henan. It is also in charge of defending Hebei, Shanxi, Anhui and Hubei.

After receiving the order of the Military Commission, the 6th Army also immediately took action, mobilizing 2 divisions and 1 regiment to attack Baoding Province.

In fact, after the second victory against encirclement and suppression, although the Hehu base area did not attack Baoding Prefecture, it secretly infiltrated Baoding Prefecture in the form of protecting the city from the countryside. Now considerable achievements have been made, more than 70 percent of the villages and towns in Baoding Prefecture have been controlled by the East China Government, and the jurisdiction of the Qing court can only be limited to the county seat and the state capital, and as soon as it leaves the city, it is the territory of the East China Government.

However, the Qing court officials in Baoding Prefecture and even the surrounding state capitals were well aware of this, but no one said anything about it, because all the cities were still under the control of the Qing court, so they could explain themselves to the imperial court, so why bother asking for trouble? Therefore, the two sides were at peace with each other, the Qing court officials did not care about the affairs outside the city, and the villages controlled by the East China government also paid the money and grain taxes in full. After a few months of mutual understanding, this balance is finally about to be broken.