Because in the European part of Soviet Russia, the Soviet Russian Red Army had already controlled the situation, and the United States and other intervening forces believed that the general trend had passed, and it was no longer meaningful to stay in the Far East. On January 14, the United States notified Japan of the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Siberia; China, Britain, France, and Italy also withdrew at the same time, and the withdrawal was scheduled to be completed on April 1. Only Japan, which has a huge vested interest, has expressed its opposition.

Can it not be opposed?

Japan has long had ambitions for the eastern territories of Soviet Russia. At the end of the 19th century, it formulated a policy of "Greater Japan" for expansion, stating that the territorial scope of its expansion was "Western---- Siam, coastal China, Mongolia, Manchuria, Korea, Amur Oblast, and coastal provinces; The north ----Sakhalin, Kamchatka, Belin and Kut provinces". In order to realize this national policy, Japan must occupy Sakhalin and the coastal province of Russia as its own.

The most important reason for the covetation of the Russian Far East was the economic plundering of the Russian Far East. According to the strategy of the Japanese Empire, "the first place to realize the continental defense of the 'Great Japan' should be the first place to put coal and iron mines, oil springs, and fish products in Siberia in eastern Russia." Only by occupying the zone of such treasures and fixing itself in the territory of eastern Siberia will Japan be able to climb the springboard and jump from here to the extreme edge of the world and realize the policy of Greater Japan."

Under the impetus of this national policy, Japan waited for an opportunity to step up its aggression against the Russian-affiliated eastern Siberian region. The Russo-Japanese War was a product of this idea. After the war, Japan acquired a large territory south of the 50th parallel of Sakhalin Island, and Japanese fishermen were able to operate fishing in the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk, and the Bering Sea off the coast of Russia.

But the Japanese were far from stopping.

The outbreak of the October Revolution provided an opportunity for Japan to send troops to Siberia. Under the pretext of maintaining order in the Far East and preventing the spread of the revolution in Soviet Russia, Japan tried to invade the Far East of Soviet Russia.

Japan's military expansion was accompanied by an intensification of economic plunder, and the Japanese capitalists, with the assistance of the government, took advantage of its armed intervention in the Far East to fill Siberia with cheap goods. Military trains or Red Cross trains, often loaded with Japanese goods that had nothing to do with the needs of the Japanese army or the Red Cross, came from Vladivostok. In the book "Japan", it is written: "In 1918, when a railroad was damaged, it was found that 21 of the 29 military trains were loaded with various goods that were not military supplies. This shows Japan's economic dependence on the Far East.

Russia is a fighting nation, and Japan's sweeping plunder cannot but arouse strong resistance from the Soviet and Russian people. Following the guerrillas' bombardment of the Miaojie Consulate, on May 27 of the same year, the local guerrillas set fire to the Miaojie City, killing a total of 384 Japanese personnel in the fire. On this ground, the Japanese government decided to increase its troops again, and the situation in the Far East became confusing again.

This time, Japan's troop buildup was different from what it used to be.

Previously, there was a pretense of "maintaining security in the Far East" as a member of the Far East Intervention Force of the Six Nations, but now with the withdrawal of the armies of the other five countries, this title is no longer available. In its second declaration to the Far East, it explained the reason for the Japanese army's stay, saying: "The political situation in Siberia has affected Manchuria and Korea and endangers the Japanese nationals, so it is inconvenient to withdraw troops. ”

As for the reason for the increase in the number of troops instead of decreasing, the Japanese government issued a statement saying that it was in retaliation for the "Temple Street Incident." As a sign of its promise, the Japanese government sent troops to occupy the northern part of Sakhalin Island in Russia and obtained the right to exploit oil, coal, and forests in the northern part of Sakhalin Island as compensation.

It is said that the new round of conflict between Japan and the Soviet Union has nothing to do with the government of the Republic of China, but the Japanese have to involve China because they mention that they want to ensure the security of Manchuria.

Manchuria is China's territory, what security do you want Japan to guarantee? Isn't this obviously creating a vested trend in public opinion! The Central Government of the Republic of China was still unambiguous on this matter, and issued a protest, saying: "Regarding the timing of the retreat from Siberia, your country has the terms Manchuria and Korea together. If it is found that Korea is a union with Japan, the country should not be questioned, and Manchuria is one of the three eastern provinces and a part of the province of our country, so how can there be such a continuous record? It is really a contempt for the sovereignty of our country, and I hereby protest! ”

Zhang Zuolin also took advantage of this to extend his hand into the river defense fleet, and in the name of the commander-in-chief of the security of the three eastern provinces, he asked the river defense fleet to cooperate with the Feng army in exercising the responsibility of defending the territory, so as to observe his political attitude.

At that time, the Chinese navy was still under the unified jurisdiction of the central government, and as a local government, the Feng faction did not dare to risk the condemnation of the world to eat these warships that seemed to have a weak background but were not small, because the navy was a symbol of the country. Moreover, the Chinese Navy has long been dominated by the Fujian system, and if the command of this navy in the northeast wants to change hands, it depends on the will of the commander-in-chief of the navy, Sa Zhenbing.

At this time, after more than a year of hard work, the Jihei River Defense Preparatory Office has built a set of administrative frameworks, and the Jihei River Defense Command is ready to come out. As the founder, Wang Chongwen was the natural candidate for commander, and when the staff team was set up, it was not surprising that Shen Honglie took office.

Before the northbound fleet entered, Wang Chongwen reported to the Navy Headquarters that the merchant ships "Jiangning," "Tongchang," and "Jiangjin" of the Maotong Company were respectively changed to the shallow gunboats "Jiangping," "Jiangan," and "Jiangtong," and that the No. 6 patrol ship of the China Eastern Railway Bureau was changed to "Liji." Together with a coastal defense gunboat, two shallow water gunboats, and an armed tugboat of the Kitakami Fleet, it formed the core of the Jihei River Defense Fleet.

However, the construction of the navy is not a matter of buying a few warships, and money is needed everywhere for shore facilities, communications, logistical supplies, and equipment maintenance. The government of the Republic of China is poor, and sufficient resources have been given to facilitate the conversion of several merchant ships into shallow-water gunboats, and the investment in the future will inevitably be stretched. Moreover, with the subsequent evolution of China's political situation, Anhui, Zhizhi, and Feng successively took over, and the navy, which was originally one of the symbols of national sovereignty, also began to divide internally, and naturally lost attention to the pitiful "fleet" of the Jihei River Defense Fleet.

So Wang Chongwen faced the pressure of Zhang Zuolin from the beginning.

His pressure was invisible: Zhang Zuolin offered to make the fleet grow with generous treatment and increasing capital investment in exchange for its allegiance to him. On this issue, Wang Chongwen, as the commander of the fleet, was opposed to Shen Honglie as a staff officer from the beginning.

Wang Chongwen insisted on the view that the fleet was a navy, and he tried his best to resist Zhang Zuolin's intentions, but the well-being of his subordinates depended on the three eastern provinces. A group of people represented by Shen Honglie believe that the Yangtze River Defense Fleet, as a local fleet, naturally cannot emphasize autonomy in the same way as the Yangtze River Fleet, and that it is necessary for it to accept the dual management of the navy and the local government, otherwise it will have a hard time surviving.

Shen Honglie received the favor of Zhang's father and son, and got the 500,000 yuan from them to form a good relationship with the original 4 ships of the northbound fleet. In addition, Chen Shiying served as the consultant of the preparatory office of Zhang Zuolin's newly established "Water Security Brigade" and the "director of the preparatory office of the Northeast Aviation Police", with Chen's prestige and connections in the northbound fleet, it was enough for Shen to gain a foothold. Therefore, although he was a staff officer, he was able to control half of the Jiangfang fleet and fight against Wang Chongwen as the commander.

It is expected that the jurisdiction of the "Maritime Security Brigade" will almost coincide with the waters of the river defense fleet, and it is destined to deal with the river defense fleet from the beginning of its establishment. Zhang Zuolin now has money, so he ordered twenty 50-ton cruisers in one go and handed them over to Chen Shiying to train his own naval talents in Northeast China.

Because Zhang Zuolin still needs to pay attention to the influence if he wants to intervene in the Jiangfang fleet, and the scale of this fleet is too small, and it is far from the scale that Zhang Hanqing expected to be on an equal footing with the army, so Zhang Hanqing repeatedly asked Zhang Zuolin to start a new business. The "Northeast Aviation Police Department," the leading organ of the "Northeast Water Security Brigade," was established under such circumstances.

Zhang Zuolin, who was harassed by the Japanese, had long hoped for a natural buffer to block the Japanese infiltration into the Feng territory, and after the Tumen River Estuary was controlled by the Feng system, the situation had changed for him. Through the blockade of the Tumen River, the Japanese, who used to be pervasive, can now only enter and exit through Andong and a few other places that are actually under Japanese control.

After the establishment of the Jiangfang Fleet, the possibility of entering the northeast from the long boundary of the Heilongjiang and Ussuri rivers was greatly reduced, and he was not worried that the Japanese would stir up trouble in Jihei under any pretext, which made Zhang Zuolin begin to attach importance to the development of water forces. It turned out that there was no talent, but now Chen Shiying is under his command, and suddenly there is almost endless money, and he suddenly has the idea of doing a big job.

As a result, he added a "Northeast Aviation Police Department" to the eight major departments of the Patrol Embassy Department, which was responsible for the management of the "Northeast Water Security Brigade." Its essence should be similar to today's water police station. However, the power of the "Northeast Aviation Police Department" is very large, and the marine police, fishery, shipping, and ports are all under its jurisdiction. Chen Shiying, who came from the navy, served as the chief of the aviation police and an adviser to the "water security brigade", so he naturally turned this water police station into a navy-like organization.

However, the navy is a branch of the military that spends money, and the operation of docks, machinery, logistics supply, and the training of technical personnel is a bottomless pit, not to mention that the Northeast is poor and white, and I have never even seen a decent warship. There is still a long way to go to build a decent navy.

However, since then, Chinese warships have entered the inland rivers of Heilongjiang and have begun to carry out patrols and defense tasks on the northern boundary rivers, which is a qualitative improvement over the previous ones. Between the white mountains and black waters in the northeast, steam-iron Chinese naval ships began to appear, and the Feng Department entered the era of river and defense.