At the time of the Russian civil war, China was not idle. However, with the support of Japanese imperialism, the Beiyang government of Duan Qirui of the Anhui dynasty vigorously expanded its armed forces. Duan Qirui put forward the slogan of "unification by force" in an attempt to use the direct army to eliminate Sun Yat-sen's protector military government, and to achieve the goal of weakening the direct line.

Politically, Duan Qirui manipulated the "illegal" Anfu Congress (which was the common perception of Sun Yat-sen, the direct line, and the Feng line) to elect Xu Shichang to replace the direct head of the line, Feng Guozhang, as president.

This move made the Anhui department feel very satisfied: now, there is no longer a dispute between the government and the court, the political arena is clean, and they are all their own people---- although Xu Shichang is an old man in Beiyang, he has always stood in the center as a mediator, and he has no military power, so he is "obedient" to Duan Qirui's actions. Cool is cool, and the seeds of direct anger have also been planted.

Militarily, after misappropriating part of the "Nishihara loan", he finally made up for the arms that had been robbed twice, and in January 1919, he successfully built the so-called "participating army" with three divisions and four mixed brigades as his descendants---- and the First World War was over, and he was still formed in this name, and he was really speechless.

These armies hired Japanese officers as advisers. Because of the relationship between the two sides, Japan has made real efforts to arm and train the Anhui army, so the Duan government has adopted an attitude of tolerance and compromise toward Japan's policy.

But there are also capable people in the direct line, at least Wu Peifu is not willing to be fooled by him and see the expansion of the Anhui system, and he does not contribute to the front line, so the military progress has been tepid. Under his leadership, the direct line proposed "peaceful reunification" and confronted Duan with the support of British and American imperialism. Feng is based on the Guanwai with the mentality of taoguang and obscurity, ignoring the political scene in Beijing, and is happy to see the conflict between the two sides come to fruition.

But a major event occurred soon after, so Zhang Hanqing had to temporarily abandon this process of single-minded development, and devote himself to the great changes that followed with a larger vision. After decades of humiliation, the Chinese nation finally voiced its strongest voice since the Opium War: the May Fourth Movement.

Sometimes Zhang Hanqing is also secretly thinking that his birth has accelerated the strength of the Northeast (Feng) system, and advanced the economic and military capabilities of the Northeast by more than 2 to 3 years. But why does history still follow its original trajectory? Do you want to do it again on 9.18? A 77 incident? An eight-year war of resistance? And ---- Nanjing Massacre?

But then he figured it out: his strength was too small, so small that he could only play a limited role in the Northeast. As for the international trend, he has not yet been able to influence or change, he can only be like ordinary people, but the difference is that he can look at history with his eyes open and follow the old path. But is this the result he wants?

In 1918 the First World War ended and Germany was defeated. On January 18, 1919, the victorious powers convened a "peace conference" in Paris. The Beijing government and the Guangzhou military government jointly formed a Chinese delegation to attend the peace conference as a victorious power, and put forward such demands as the abolition of the privileges of the foreign powers in China, the cancellation of the "21" unequal treaty concluded between Japanese imperialism and Yuan Shikai, and the return of all rights in Shandong that Japan had taken from Germany during the war.

This is the glory and right of the victorious powers, as a matter of course.

As for the privileges of Qingdao and Shandong under the former German occupation, because of Germany's defeat, it is right to return to China as the victorious country.

Although no troops were dispatched, more than 400,000 Chinese laborers were sent to France, Russia, and other Allied countries to work, which objectively strengthened the strength of the Entente bloc, hastened the end of World War I, and logically made China a "victorious power." So when the news of the victory in World War I came, Cai Yuanpei couldn't hold back his excitement and raised his arms and shouted: "Labor is sacred!" "Long live the laborers! ”

But the facts are in plain sight: as soon as the Paris Peace Conference began, the Western powers violated their pre-war commitment to treat China on an equal footing, giving China only two seats on the grounds that China had contributed very little, while Britain, the United States, France, Italy, and Japan each had five seats. And that's not even counting the fact that the highest body of the Peace Conference is called the "Council of Ten," and each of the five countries mentioned above has two representatives, and China is excluded.

What is even more infuriating is that the Japanese representative Makino went so far as to claim that all the rights of the Jiaozhou Bay concession, the railway, and Germany in Shandong should be unconditionally ceded to Japan! The reason is that China did not send a single soldier to participate in the war, and it is a typical "declaration" but not "war", so why should it enjoy these rights?

More than 20,000 Chinese laborers died on the battlefield, aren't they people? The only officer in China who took the initiative to ask to participate in the war, Ma Yubao from the Kunming Lecture and Martial Arts Hall, died on the battlefield of the Franco-German battle on the eve of the victory.

Ma Yubao's body is buried in the French Army Cemetery, his hometown Kunming held a grand public memorial for him, Sun Yat-sen's "Huang Zhou Glory", Li Yuanhong's "The Light of the Bang Family" ink has not dried, Chen Rongchang's personal biography is still being read for thousands of people, and the plaque sent by the martyr's hometown clearly reads four big characters "There are people in China!" "How do you call China no one to go to war?!

Gu Weijun, known as the "No. 1 diplomat of the Republic of China," prepared a "Commentary on the Shandong Question" for this purpose, strongly expounding the justice of China's recovery of Shandong, and he shocked the European and American representatives with the sentence "China cannot give up Shandong, the birthplace of Confucius, just as Christians cannot give up the holy land of Jerusalem", which shocked the European and American representatives, reversed the situation of public opinion, and won the sympathy of the foreign powers. U.S. Secretary of State Lansing later wrote: "Gu Weijun's speech was very convincing, and his arguments 'completely overwhelmed the Japanese'. ”

But weak countries have no diplomacy, and this advantage based on sympathy is quickly defeated by political interests. After Italy withdrew from the peace conference due to a conflict of interests, Britain, France, and the United States, fearing that Japan's threat of withdrawal would take effect and cause the peace conference to be aborted, turned to pressure the Chinese representatives.

British Prime Ministers Lloyd-George and Gu Weijun said: "We all really want to help you, but since you China signed a treaty with Japan first, we should respect the treaty." ”

U.S. President Wilson asked then-Foreign Minister Lu Zhengxiang: "Why did you China sign the Treaty of the Fourth Republic of China with Japan in 1915?" Now that the treaty has been signed, the solemnity of the treaty must be maintained! ”

On 30 April, the Peace Conference decided that "Germany's rights and privileges in Shantung, railways, mines, submarine wires, state-owned movable and immovable property, shall be ceded to Japan." At this time, the head of the Chinese delegation, Lu Zhengxiang, left Paris, so Gu Weijun effectively took over the functions of the head of the delegation, and under his auspices, the Chinese delegation refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles. British Prime Minister Louis George saw that the situation was deadlocked, and proposed that the matter be submitted to a special committee of Britain, France, and the United States for approval.

On May 1, Lu Zhengxiang, China's negotiator and foreign minister, telegraphed the matter to the Beijing government, saying that if the agreement was not signed, it would be detrimental to the abolition of consular jurisdiction, the abolition of Gengzi's indemnity, the autonomy of tariffs, and compensation for losses.

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Beijing Government (a think tank of the Presidential Office) held an emergency meeting and decided not to sign the agreement. Shanghai's "Continental Daily" "Beijing Newsletter": "The government received a call from the Chinese delegation in Paris, saying that the diplomatic war against Japan on the return of the lease of Jiaozhou had failed. ”

However, because the Duan government had a request from Japan, on May 2, the Chinese representative of the Beijing government government and government could sign a secret telegram.