At this time, Zhao Bingjun said: "Lord Futai, how to deal with the matter of the officers jointly signing the letter?"

Yuan Shikai's face sank, and he said: "Sun Zhongkui, Wan Kun and others will be executed immediately tomorrow, and the first level will order three days to set an example. And those who interceded with them were all guilty. ”

When Zhao Bingjun heard this, he immediately perked up and said, "Humble and respectful." ”

Yuan Shikai said again: "Zhiquan." ”

Duan Qirui got up and said busily: "Here." ”

Yuan Shikai said: "You immediately recruit your troops, while strictly guarding the execution ground, while paying attention to the dynamics of each unit, anyone who acts rashly will be arrested at the first time, and anyone who dares to resist can be killed on the spot." ”

Duan Qirui's spirits perked up, and he hurriedly responded: "Yes." ”

Yuan Shikai acquiesced to Sun Zhongkui and Wan Kun to lead the army to join the landlord alliance in private, on the one hand, to test the determination of overseas Chinese, to see if they really dared to risk completely tearing their faces with the Qing court, the end was of course very frustrating to Yuan Shikai, the overseas Chinese made a bold and ingenious move, not only seized three county towns in a row, but also wanted to use a trick to replace Li Zhuang, leaving face for the imperial court, so as not to completely fall out. But it also expresses the determination of overseas Chinese to achieve Shandong. Although the overseas Chinese asked Li Hongzhang to come forward to suppress Yuan Shikai, they only hoped to force Yuan Shikai to submit through non-confrontational means, not afraid of war with Yuan Shikai, Yuan Shikai did not doubt that if Li Hongzhang could not play a role, the overseas Chinese would definitely not hesitate to launch a war to seize Shandong.

On the other hand, Yuan Shikai also had an idea, which was to take this opportunity to suppress the Shandong forces in the Beiyang New Army. At present, the Shandong people have formed a force within the Beiyang New Army that should not be underestimated, and although they are basically middle- and lower-level officers, they now also want to go further and climb to the top of the Beiyang New Army. This time, dozens of officers jointly wrote to Yuan Shikai, demanding that Sun Zhongkui, Wan Kun and others be exempted, not only to fulfill the friendship of fellow villagers, but also to challenge the old forces of the Beiyang New Army. If Yuan Shikai succumbed to the pressure of these Shandong officers and pardoned Sun Zhongkui, Wan Kun and others, then their next step would definitely be to seek a higher position in the Beiyang New Army.

Yuan Shikai saw this very clearly, knowing that this kind of atmosphere must not be promoted, and it must be resolutely suppressed, otherwise the Beiyang New Army will get out of control, if it is said that it was before, Yuan Shikai may have to take into account the feelings of the Shandong gentry, because the middle and lower-level officers of the Beiyang New Army are basically from gentry families, and Yuan Shikai intends to operate Shandong as his own backyard, so naturally he can't offend the Shandong gentry too much, so he will also have some scruples when dealing with the middle and lower-level officers of Shandong origin. But now that Yuan Shikai has decided to give up Shandong, he naturally no longer cares about the feelings of the Shandong gentry, and he can take this opportunity to strike hard at the Shandong forces in the Beiyang New Army, remove some people from the Beiyang New Army, and ensure Yuan Shikai's absolute rule over the Beiyang New Army.

So Yuan Shikai was not polite, on the one hand, he still sentenced Sun Zhongkui, Wan Kun and others to death, and on the other hand, he severely cracked down on the middle and lower-level officers who jointly interceded with Sun Zhongkui, Wan Kun and others, and at the same time prevented someone from taking the opportunity to launch a mutiny. The army under the command of Duan Qirui's department was Yuan Shikai's army when he was training at a small station, not only did it take a long time to train, it had strong combat effectiveness, and it was loyal and reliable, so he was in charge of guarding, and Yuan Shikai could also be completely assured.

On the evening of the same day, Zhao Bingjun assigned manpower to arrest and imprison all the middle and lower-level officers who jointly wrote a letter to intercede, and Duan Qirui also led the army of the headquarters to control the important places in the barracks, and on the next day, Yuan Shikai notified the whole army, stating that Sun Zhongkui, Wan Kun and others had disobeyed the military discipline, and executed them in public, and participated in the joint petition to ask 41 middle and lower-level officers to be arrested and imprisoned, waiting to be dealt with, and at the same time warned the whole army that anyone who dared to disobey military discipline would be severely punished.

At this time, the whole army of the Beiyang New Army was shaken, and because they were soldiers and officers from Shandong, they felt a strong impact, but because they participated in the joint letter asking for all 41 middle- and lower-level officers to be arrested, and Duan Qirui sent troops to guard various important places in the barracks, although the rest of the middle- and lower-level officers from Shandong were not angry, they could not do anything.

Subsequently, Yuan Shikai sent electricity to Qingdao and Shanghai respectively, apologizing to the traverser, and explaining to Li Hongzhang and asking Li Hongzhang to help him maneuver.

Just three days later, Yuan Shikai once again ordered the whole army to participate in a joint petition for 41 middle- and lower-ranking officers, only 4 were retained, and all of them were demoted, and 37 were removed, 23 of whom were sentenced to 3-5 years in prison. This caused an uproar in the entire Jinan Mansion, because the 23 people sentenced to imprisonment were all from the wealthy families and the families of the gentry in Shandong, which means that Yuan Shikai offended the main gentry in Shandong at this time.

The gentry in Shandong were naturally unwilling, so they jointly protested to Yuan Shikai, demanding that Yuan Shikai be released immediately and restore their military positions. But Yuan Shikai behaved very tough and resolutely refused to give in.

This time naturally further angered the gentry in Shandong, if it was in peacetime, it was natural to send someone into Beijing to sue Yuan Shikai for the imperial writ, after all, Shandong is very close to Beijing, many gentry have close contacts with the magnates in Beijing, but at this time the court is far away in Xi'an, there is nowhere to appeal for the time being, so the gentry in Shandong united and refused to provide additional support to the Beiyang New Army, and even refused to pay taxes, and a group of middle- and lower-level officers from Shandong applied for resignation from the Beiyang New Army. Because now more than half of the salary of the Beiyang New Army is maintained by the money provided by the gentry in Shandong, which is also the main reason why Yuan Shikai absorbed a large number of gentry children into the Beiyang New Army. Now that Yuan Shikai has removed so many Shandong children from the Beiyang New Army, there is no reason for the Shandong gentry to continue to support the Beiyang New Army.

According to the estimation of the gentry in Shandong, once the financial support of the gentry in Shandong is lost, the Beiyang New Army can only support it for 3-6 months, and it will be up to Yuan Shikai to do what he does. Although Yuan Shikai could use strong means to forcibly collect fees from the gentry in Shandong, although the Qing court has not yet returned to normal, after all, the war has ended, and the court and overseas Chinese are also negotiating, so it is just around the corner for the court to return to the capital and settle down again. At that time, the gentry of Shandong would definitely initiate relations in Beijing and sue Yuan Shikai for the imperial court. In fact, now there are gentry clamoring to go to Xi'an to sue Yuan Shikai.

Yuan Shikai was naturally very clear about the holding and mentality of the Shandong gentry, of course he did not send people to forcibly collect fees from the Shandong gentry, and the middle and lower-level officers of Shandong nationality who resigned were also allowed to leave. In fact, Yuan Shikai pays a lot of attention to the financial situation of the Beiyang New Army, and the property accumulated now can be maintained for at least half a year, and if Yuan Shikai's family property is added, it can be maintained for about 9 months, so in a short period of time, the Beiyang New Army will not have a financial shortage, and Yuan Shikai is also confident that in this 9 months, he can also get some money, so as to ensure that there is no problem in the current operation of the Beiyang New Army for about 1 year.

The resignation of middle- and lower-level officers from Shandong from the Beiyang New Army is exactly what Yuan Shikai wants, because he can clear the Shandong forces in the Beiyang New Army without having to do it himself, although in a short period of time, the loss of a large number of middle- and lower-level officers will indeed have a certain impact on the Beiyang New Army, but it also provides a large number of promotion opportunities for the soldiers at the bottom. In addition, Yuan Shikai had other means to deal with the gentry in Shandong.

About 10 days later, Yuan Shikai received another telegram from Li Hongzhang, which turned out that Li Hongzhang had asked Yuan Shikai to go to Shanghai to meet with him, and then go to Qingdao together to hold talks with overseas Chinese; on the one hand, it was to further resolve the contradictions between Yuan Shikai and overseas Chinese, and on the other hand, it was also to further negotiate with overseas Chinese on various matters concerning the return of the Qing court to Beijing, including the issue of the transfer of administrative power in Shandong.

Yuan Shikai was waiting for this opportunity, so he immediately ordered someone to deliberately leak the news. This time, the gentry in Shandong immediately panicked, there were rumors in Jinan for a long time, saying that the imperial court planned to assign Shandong to the fiefdom of overseas Chinese, and also said that overseas Chinese would build a vassal in Shandong, but these rumors were unfounded, and some of the content was even more absurd, so the gentry in Shandong did not believe much.

But this time it was different, because the news leaked out of the telegraph office, and the authenticity was greatly improved, and from the content point of view, Yuan Shikai wanted to go to Qingdao with Li Hongzhang to negotiate with overseas Chinese about the transfer of administrative power in Shandong. And the overseas Chinese are not comparable to Yuan Shikai, they are engaged in land reform in the area around Jiaozhou Bay, and the gentry in Shandong know that this is an offense to the fundamental interests of the gentry.

And to stop the overseas Chinese, they could only rely on the governor of Shandong, so the gentry of Shandong could only come to Yuan Shikai again, hoping to refuse to let the overseas Chinese manage Shandong. But Yuan Shikai put up a score at this time, rejected the gentry in Shandong, and declared that he was preparing a trip to Qingdao, and he had no time to pay attention to these gentry in Shandong, and he was not ready to stay in Shandong anyway.

At this moment, the gentry of Shandong were all panicked, and at the same time regretted it, they should not offend Yuan Shikai for the affairs of their children, now Yuan Shikai can leave Shandong alone, but the gentry of Shandong can't run. So the gentry of Shandong jointly played about 150,000 taels of silver, and gave it to Yuan Shikai in the name of rewarding the army, and asked to see Yuan Shikai again.

Yuan Shikai's heart was secretly refreshed, these hillbillies still want to fight with themselves, and they don't look at who you are, so don't they just obediently send money to the door? So Yuan Shikai met with the gentry in Shandong, and Yuan Shikai did not say anything about the gentry's request, but only said that he would convey it to Li Zhongtang and try his best to deal with it. The gentry of Shandong, on the other hand, promised to continue to provide financial and food support to the Beiyang New Army.