After receiving Huadong**'s reply, Yuan Shikai finally put down a big stone in his heart, because only Huadong** was willing to cooperate with his plan, so this trip to the south would be more than half successful.

Of course, in the past few days, Yuan Shikai has not been idle, just waiting for East China's reply and not doing anything, firstly, Yuan Shikai estimates that East China** agrees with his plan The probability is relatively large, after all, this plan is also beneficial to East China**, and East China** has no reason to refuse, and secondly, now that the appointment of the imperial court has been made, it is basically impossible to change, so it is impossible to change Yuan Shikai's trip to the south, of course, we must hurry up and prepare. After all, in addition to negotiating with East China, Yuan Shikai also had a game with the imperial court.

Although Yuan Shikai was appointed by the Qing court as the governor of Liangjiang, he could not go to the south empty-handed to take office, and always had to bring something, such as troops, materials, money and grain, etc., but the Qing court would not easily pull out the army, money and grain to Yuan Shikai, and fight with the court again.

Yuan Shikai's conditions are mainly in three aspects, army, money, and pushing people.

First of all, in terms of the army, when Yuan Shikai was appointed by the Qing court, he proposed to take the Beiyang New Army of two towns to the south, and also to transfer a part of the army from the Hubei New Army, and later required that all the weapons and ammunition of the southbound army be supplied by the Hanyang Arsenal, which is also a very important thing, if there is no supply of weapons and ammunition, then it is useless to bring more troops to the south.

The second is to ask the Qing court to allocate 2 million taels of silver for disaster relief, although Zhu Erdian said on behalf of various countries that he would support Yuan Shikai, and has collected 3 million taels of silver, and also advanced 200,000 taels to Yuan Shikai, but Yuan Shikai also knows that he has a short hand, so that other people's money will be called by others, so he must have a few money in his hand, and of course this money can only be asked for by the imperial court, of course, Yuan Shikai also understands that 2 million taels of silver, the Qing court will definitely not approve it, this is to leave room for the imperial court to reduce the price in advance, to put it bluntly, it is a sky-high asking price, and pay back the money on the spot。

In the end, it was Yuan Shikai who recommended Xu Shichang, the head of the household department, to the Qing court as the minister of the military aircraft department. Although Yuan Shikai has decided to go to the south to start a new business, but Bi Jing has been operating in the north for many years, with a lot of assets, not to mention that the Qing court is still there, and there are still 1 or 2 years of life, so the Qing court cannot be completely ignored, the most ideal way is to leave a trustworthy person in Beijing, and serve as a senior official of the Qing court, responsible for gradually disposing of Yuan Shikai's assets in Beijing, and at the same time for Yuan Shikai to deal with the central government, and inform Yuan Shikai of the major events that happened in the central court.

Of course, Yuan Shikai had already begun to support his cronies in the imperial court, and after he entered the military aircraft department, he recommended his henchman Xu Shichang as the secretary of Dali Temple, and was promoted to the head of the household department one year later.

Xu Shichang and Yuan Shikai are friends of Mo Zhi, the relationship is quite deep, and it is also Yuan Shikai's most trusted person, and Xu Shichang's ability to deal with things is also very strong, and he can be promoted from Dali Siqing to the household department within 1 year, although Yuan Shikai takes care of it, but it also has a lot to do with Xu Shichang's ability to do practical things, because the household department manages the finances of the Qing court, is one of the most important departments in the six departments, can serve in the household department, without two brushes is not good, and Xu Shichang has served in the household department for more than a year, and the work is also very good, quite praised. Therefore, Yuan Shikai decided to recommend Xu Shichang to the Qing court to enter the military before going south, which was regarded as an agent who stayed in Beijing.

These things, if the Qing court could not satisfy Yuan Shikai, Yuan Shikai would not be lightly ordered to go south.

After receiving these requests from Yuan Shikai, the Qing court also discussed, and the first thing to confirm was the deployment of the army, because Yuan Shikai's request to bring the Beiyang New Army of two towns to the south was put forward when he accepted the order, and the court also agreed to this request at that time, so now it is just a matter of reconfirmation.

In addition, the Qing court also has its own plans, after Yuan Shikai trained into the Beiyang New Army, he has always become a heart disease of the Qing court, and it is not entirely worried that Yuan Shikai will support the army and respect himself, but whoever has military power will become a confidant of the imperial court, and Yuan Shikai also deliberately expanded his influence in the Beiyang New Army when he was training, and the Beiyang New Army "only knows Yuan Guanbao, but does not know that there is a court" It is by no means a lie, not to mention that the six towns of the Beiyang New Army, except for the first town, the other five towns are controlled by Yuan Shikai's henchmen, and it is impossible for the Qing court not to have any scruples about Yuan Shikai, and the voice of asking the court for Yuan Shikai's military power has always been there in the Qing court.

After the end of the war, the Qing court finally dug up the third town of Beiyang from Yuan Shikai under the pretext of restoring these two towns, but Yuan Shikai still controlled four towns, and the Qing court still could not rest assured of him. Although Yuan Shikai asked to take 2 towns to the south, Bi Jing still left two towns, if the Qing court could dig these two towns over, so that the court would control the 4 towns of the Beiyang New Army, and Yuan Shikai's military power would be completely relieved. Yuan Shikai asked for a part of the troops from the Hubei New Army, and the Qing court also agreed to coordinate one of the Hubei New Army to Yuan Shikai's department, which can be regarded as agreeing to Yuan Shikai's request.

In fact, these plans of the Qing court, Yuan Shikai knew in his heart, he asked to take 2 towns to the south, but also after careful calculation, no matter how much the Qing court wanted, the Qing court would not approve it, and as soon as he left, the Qing court would definitely attack the two towns that came down, but Yuan Shikai also had his own plans, although there were only two towns on the surface, but when he set off, Yuan Shikai planned to transfer 1 association from each of the remaining two towns, so that he actually brought the army of 3 towns to the south, plus 1 association of the Hubei New Army, Yuan Shikai had 2 towns and 3 associations in his hands, a total of about 40,000 people, such a force is also considerable。

In addition, Yuan Shikai also planned that once he arrived in the south, he would recruit new soldiers based on the three associations, and then expand it into three towns, so that at most, after one year, he could once again master the army of five towns, which was definitely the strongest military force in the south.

As for Yuan Shikai's recommendation of Xu Shichang as the Minister of Military Aircraft, the Qing court decided to promote Xu Shichang to the head of the household department after deliberation, but he was not elected to the Military Aircraft Department. The reason is that Xu Shichang's qualifications are too shallow, and he was selected by Shilang into the military aircraft, which is too fast, although Xu Shichang has some ability, but after all, he has not made any great achievements, even if he is selected for the military aircraft, it is difficult to convince the public, so he was promoted to the head of the household, even if he looked at Yuan Shikai's face.

In fact, Yuan Shikai also knew that it was impossible for the Qing court to appoint Xu Shichang as the minister of military aircraft, the reason for this recommendation was to ask the Qing court for a price, and the Hubu Shangshu had already met his expectations, Bi Jing Xu Shichang was indeed underqualified, even if he was selected into the military aircraft, it would not play much of a role, it was better to have a few more years of experience in the position of the Hubu Shangshu, of course, if the Qing court could hold out until that time, and the Qing court could not hold out at that time, Xu Shichang could make a detour to the south, to Liangjiang to find himself, and assist himself in creating a new foundation in the south.

But in Yuan Shikai's requirements, only money is the most difficult, not that the Qing court has no money now, in fact, although East China now occupies a lot of places, but the Qing court's financial income in recent years is okay, there are more than 80 million taels of silver every year, which is very considerable, one is the Gengzi State Change, the Qing court did not lose more than 400 million taels of silver like the old time and space, and the second is that East China pays attention to economic development, and at the same time controls Tianjin, The two largest customs offices in Shanghai made it difficult for foreign goods to enter China easily, so as to protect the development of national industry, and even the national industry in the territory of the Qing court also benefited, and the development of national industry also led to the prosperity of the local economy, and at the same time naturally increased tax revenue, so that the Qing court of course also had income.

In addition, although now East China has torn its face with the Qing court, but the Qing court's transportation is still in charge of East China, and the taxes and grain in the south are transported from all over the country to Shanghai for centralized loading, transported to Tianjin ashore, and then transferred to Beijing by train, East China's transportation and demand efficiency is very high, and the price is also fair, and the Qing court can also save a lot of manpower and material resources, and can save hundreds of thousands of taels of silver a year. The Qing court still did not dare to completely have bad relations with East China, and even the Beijing office and garrison of East China did not dare to move, and Caoyun was controlled by East China, which was also an important reason. However, this has also become a strange phenomenon, a country's tax revenue and grain transportation are actually transported by the enemy.

But in any case, in recent years, the Qing court's finances have been relatively loose, and there is still a lot left over from the annual expenses, and now at least 5 or 6 million taels of silver have been saved, so Yuan Shikai opened his mouth to ask for 2 million taels of silver to go south for disaster relief.

However, now the Qing court has too many places to use money, because now Cixi has prepared for the attack in East China and plans to flee again, but because of the experience of fleeing during the Gengzi period, this time Cixi must be fully prepared in advance, but don't be so embarrassed last time, on the one hand, Cixi appointed Cen Chunxuan as the governor of Ganshan and Shaanxi, and Wu Huai as the governor of Shanxi, which is actually to meet himself along the way, and on the other hand, he has to repair the roads along the way, and also build a palace, and arrange personnel to eat and replace chariots and horses, etc.

Of course, these matters are to use money, so during this period of time, the silver of the Qing court has been spent like flowing water, and now it has spent more than 200 thousand taels, although at this time the Qing court still has 3, 4 million taels of silver inventory, but there are more places to spend money in the future, and when fleeing, you also have to bring a little money, naturally it can be saved, so in May, when the provinces along the Yangtze River had a major flood, the Qing court did not provide disaster relief, which is the main reason.