The news of the imminent peace talks between the north and the south soon spread throughout the country, and for a time, the whole country was eagerly awaiting it. www.biquge.info Whether it is a young student or a gray-haired gentry, they are all looking forward to it, hoping that this North-South peace talks can quell the war.

While the Chinese people have great expectations for this North-South peace talks, the two sides of the peace talks are still fighting in secret. Although there are no large-scale battles on the Hubei front and Jiangsu, small-scale clashes are not uncommon.

At the same time, the Beiyang Army also made frequent moves, and after a period of mobilization, the rest of the sixth and fourth towns of Hubei had all arrived in Hubei from the Gyeonggi area. The strength of the Beiyang Army in Hubei did not decrease but increased, and the soldiers of the two towns approached the city of Wuchang, so that Li Yuanhong could not sleep steadily. On the Jinpu line, most of the troops of the Fifth Town of the Beiyang Army also arrived in Xuzhou, and together with Zhang Xunjiang's defense army, which had retreated from Nanjing, to guard against the northward advance of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Revolutionary Party.

The military confrontation was far less striking than the political confrontation, and before Yuan Shikai's representative of the peace talks, Tang Shaoyi, had left the city of Beijing, the two sides quarreled again over the location of the peace talks. Naturally, the revolutionaries hoped to hold peace talks in Nanjing, so that they could take advantage of their home advantage to gain the leading position in the negotiations and win more political interests.

But the problem is that Yuan Shikai and other Beiyang people are not stupid, so they naturally will not stupidly agree to such a suggestion. Therefore, they advocated negotiations in Tianjin. As a result, the peace talks were shelved because of the location of the talks before they had even officially begun. Seeing that time passed day by day, and the two sides were still wasting it like this, and finally, under the mediation of the foreign powers' legations, the two sides took a step back and chose the venue for the talks in the Shanghai Concession.

When Tang Shaoyi led a series of Qing court negotiators to the south by special train, Xiao Mubai was frowning, worried about a telegram asking for help.

Since the outbreak of the Shaanxi Revolution, the establishment of the Qin Longxing Han Military Government, although it is claimed that the whole province of Shaanxi has been recovered, not counting the outlier of the Communist Party led by Xiao Mubai, and most of the provinces that have been recovered in this era, the revolutionaries have not really been able to control the whole province, which can be glimpsed from the fact that the important town of Hanzhong is still under the control of the Qing government.

Shaanxi Guanzhong is located in Chong Yao, thousands of stacks of food letters, the end of the south is horizontal, Longshan Liupan, is a natural danger place since ancient times. Since the Wuchang Uprising, the Qing court originally planned to use Shaanxi and Gansu as bases to revitalize the military and restore the southeast, but Shaanxi took the lead in responding to the uprising. This greatly frightened the Qing court, so it sent a large army to attack from the east and west, in a vain attempt to extinguish the revolutionary party forces in Shaanxi in one fell swoop.

In this way, the newly born Qin Longxing Han military government fought hard and tragic battles against the Qing army in the east and west. On the battlefield of the East Road, the revolutionary army and the Qing army had gone through more than two months of bloody battles in the Tongguan area.

And the battlefield on the Western Road is even more heroic. After the Qing government ordered him to act as the governor of Shaanxi and supervise military affairs, he mobilized the 20 battalions of Ma Anliang in Gansu and Zhang Xingzhi, the governor of Guyuan, and personally led them to Shaanxi. Defeated several revolutionary armies along the way and captured Changwu, Yongshou and other places. Although peace talks between the north and the south have now begun, and Yuan Shikai ordered Shengyun to make a truce, how could Shengyun, who was loyal to the Qing court, agree, and after suppressing the telegram and keeping it secret, he stepped up his attack on the revolutionary party retreating in Qianzhou.

The battle at the front is fierce, but the military government in the rear is full of contradictions because of the struggle for power and profit. The revolutionaries represented by the Governor Zhang Fenghui from the League and the deputy governors Zhang Yunshan and Fang Binnan from the Elder Brothers' Association of the Hui Party were already incompatible.

Under the internal and external troubles, the Shaanxi military government, which was tired of fighting, had no choice but to ask for foreign aid. However, looking at the surrounding provinces of Shaanxi, only two provinces, Shanxi and Sichuan, were recovered by the revolutionary party. Because they were not familiar with the Sichuan Communist Party, they had only sent a telegram to Shanxi asking for help, but at this time, the situation in Shanxi was not much stronger than that of Shaanxi, and they were also powerless to ask for help from Shaanxi.

After Yuan Shikai entered Beijing, he ordered the Cao Kun Division, the third elite town of the Beiyang Army, and the Wang Ruxian Division of the Wuwei Army to attack Shanxi. Lu Yongxiang, the assistant commander of the third town, led the 20th battalion of the Beiyang Army to march west along Zhengtai Road and approached Niangzi Pass. The Beiyang Army's artillery fire was fierce and the offensive was very sharp, and the revolutionary army in Shanxi suffered heavy casualties for a time and retreated one after another.

In desperation, the Shaanxi military government turned its attention to Sichuan for help.

Soon after receiving this telegram asking for help, the top military and political leaders of the Communist Party in Chengdu started a series of discussions on this issue.

"Tell me what you think of this telegram?" The first to speak was Xiao Mubai, who presided over the meeting.

"I think we should send troops, we are all revolutionary comrades, after all, at present our goal of opposing the Qing Dynasty is the same, if we sit back and watch the Qing army in the northwest of Shaanxi invade, and the revolutionaries in Shanxi are under the enemy's back, the revolutionary situation in the entire north will be ruined." Yang Zhenhong publicly expressed his support.

"I don't agree with the young man, and I don't think we should agree. Between Shaanxi and Sichuan, there are natural dangers in the Qinling Mountains, dangerous roads, and inconvenient transportation, not to mention that we are now carrying out various kinds of construction internally, and we are at a critical juncture, so the turnover of financial funds is extremely inconvenient, and it is impossible to guarantee this dispatch of troops. Zhao Mingchuan, secretary general of the autonomous regional government, is unequivocally opposed.

"If there are difficulties, we will overcome them, and after so many years, have we communist party members encountered fewer difficulties?"

Yang Zhenhong's words are reasonable, but Zhao Mingchuan's words are not unreasonable. But Xiao Mubai can't just calculate this account from the economy, as the leader of one party's forces, he still has to consider the problem from a political point of view. Nodding slowly, he looked at Jiang Fangzhen and said, "Baili, what is your opinion as the chief of the general staff?" ”

Attending such a high-level meeting of the Communist Party for the first time, Jiang Fangzhen has always held a cautious wait-and-see attitude. At the same time, I was also impressed by the harmonious relationship between these senior leaders, although there were occasional disputes, but they were all for official reasons, and never made trouble for personal gain. As soon as the meeting began, Jiang Fangzhen was listening attentively to the speeches of all the people present, because he, chief of the general staff, had just taken office and was not familiar with the situation in all aspects, so he had an attitude of listening more and talking less.

Now that Xiao Mubai asked him about this, he couldn't continue to sit down like this: "At present, our army is defending a lot of areas, except for the three divisions that cannot be moved lightly in the border areas, and Guangxi, Guizhou, and Sichuan provinces must each leave one division to monitor the surrounding areas. As a result, we can only use the fourth, eighth, and two infantry divisions for combat purposes, but because our army is equipped with semi-automatic weapons, the number of artillery pieces of various types is huge, and the ammunition and weapons required are extremely huge, once we enter Shaanxi to fight, the pressure on logistics and supply will increase exponentially. ”

Speaking of the three divisions deployed in the border areas to prevent the British and French from taking advantage of the fire to loot, Jiang Fangzhen after learning about the equipment of the southwest army, admired Xiao Mubai in his heart. He understands that Xiao Mubai is a person who puts the interests of the nation first,

Xiao Mubai nodded and said slowly: "Based on the opinions of the comrades, I tend to send troops. Not only to rescue the revolutionaries in Shaanxi, but we should also take this opportunity to control Shaanxi in the hands of our Communist Party and lay the foundation for our march into the northwest in the future. Now that revolution has broken out in the country, the situation is unstable and chaotic, and the situation in the border areas is even more severe. It's better on our side, but it's not the same in other areas. A few people also know that just a few days ago, at the instigation of Tsarist Russia, Outer Mongolia actually declared independence, you know, this is not the independence of the revolution, but to separate and independent from China. Is it tolerable or intolerable? ”

Speaking of this, Xiao Mubai is a belly of fire, these old hairy people have always been thieves to China, and as soon as they seize the opportunity, they will bite China hard.

"I agree." Cai Yi's expression was serious, although he only said three short words, but it clearly stated his attitude.

After hearing Cai Yi's words, everyone present reflected and expressed their support. There is no room for ambiguity about the primacy of national interests.