[[[CP|W:575|H:315|A:L]]] "That can't be so underestimated," Kato Takaaki shook his head and said, "The China Navy is not worth mentioning, but the scale of the China Army is very large, and the equipment is not too bad, and almost all the troops with combat effectiveness are in the hands of Yuan Shikai, and Yuan Shikai will never dare to refuse our country's ultimatum like this if he does not have a certain strength to back him up." ”

Koike seemed to be a little unimpressed by the Foreign Minister's words, but it was difficult to refute them openly, and he was very clever not to continue the discussion with Kato Takaaki on this issue, but chose to remain silent.

Takaaki Kato looked at the letter on the table again, got up and said, "You hurry up and do it." ”

"Yes!" Koike Zhang Zao got up and agreed.

"I hope to be able to hit Beijing within a month, as the guys from the military department said." Takaaki Kato turned his head to look at the calendar on the wall and sneered, "If they can do it, we can all resign." ”

At this time, a Japanese man who looked like a civilian official hurriedly walked in and whispered a few words to Kato Takaaki, and after listening to his words, Kato Takaaki and Koike Zhang Zao were all stunned.

"Looks like I really underestimated the Minister of China." Takaaki Kato said thoughtfully.

May 12, 1915, Beijing, Generalissimo of the Army and Navy of the Republic of China.

"I really didn't expect that this Minister Lu is still a person with a lot of backbone and scheming." Yang Shuoming smiled bitterly and put down the newspaper in his hand.

On the front page of the newspaper, the news of the attempted suicide attempt of the Chinese minister to Japan, Lu Zongyu, was seriously injured.

After the Japanese cabinet passed the resolution to declare war on China, Lu Zongyu, the Chinese minister to Japan, pasted the main contents of the "21 Articles" and the details of the negotiations between the two countries in front of the embassy, and then committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest with a gun.

This "traitor" who was reviled by 10,000 people during the "May Fourth" period, when the country's survival was in danger, expressed his greatest anger and protest against the barbaric aggression of the Japanese bandits with his actual actions.

"This is a 'bitter meat plan' in a hurry, but for him, the price is a bit big. This Minister Lu is known as a pro-Japanese minister, and those who scolded him this time can shut up. Fu Xiao'an, the acting commander of the Beiyang Fifth Division, nodded and said, "But it's okay, the Japanese are even more embarrassed diplomatically this time." ”

After the news of Lu Zongyu's attempted suicide broke, newspapers and media around the world criticized and condemned Japan's barbaric aggression against China and expressed sympathy for China's plight.

"These diplomats can be said to have done their best, and next, it depends on us soldiers." Yang Shuoming looked at Fu Xiaoan and said, "I didn't plan to bring your Fu family's militia here this time, but Brother He Run insisted on letting them accompany me, so I will hand them over to you." I heard Brother Herun say, you once took more than 200 people to the north before? ”

"That's all in the past." Fu Xiaoan shook his head, as if he was very sad.

Yang Shuoming looked at the slightly melancholy Beiyang officer with some strange reasons and didn't ask again.

After partnering with the Shiqiao Fu family in Jiangxi, Yang Shuoming learned that Fu Xiaowen, the patriarch of the Fu family, had a younger brother Fu Xiao'an who had been serving in the military in the north, so he asked the Fu family to help him contact him and help him in the future (this time he went north to resist the enemy, and Yang Shuoming also received the full support of the Fu family). After getting in touch, Fu Xiaoan became Yang Shuoming's liaison in Beijing, this time Yang Shuoming came to Beijing, which he was not familiar with, thanks to Fu Xiaoan's presence, he was able to quickly get on the line with the senior members of the Beijing military circles.

But for Yang Shuoming, this Fu Xiaoan is actually a rather mysterious figure.

Fu Xiao'an was admitted to the Beiyang Army Academy at the age of 12, and in early 1900, he went to study at the Army University in Berlin, Germany, majoring in infantry, and in 1902, when his studies were not completed, he returned to China ahead of schedule, and took away more than 200 young people in his hometown. ,

In an era when the general education level of the people is low, we want to concentrate so many "intellectual youths" among the young children of the direct and collateral lines. Even if the Fu family has a tradition of "poetry and book heirlooms", and the male family has always been more prosperous, this is a big action that is almost heartbreaking. And after that, he and all the people he took with him never returned home.

During the Xinhai Revolution, Fu Xiaoan, as one of Tang Shaoyi's attachés, also participated in the North-South peace talks, and then served in Beijing and never returned to his hometown.

Regarding the past when Fu Xiaoan led his clansmen to the north, the Fu family has always been secretive, which once made Yang Shuoming feel very confused. Yang Shuoming later learned that at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the Fu family's base camp was originally in Laiyang, Shandong, and when the Qing army entered the customs, the Fu family had sent 3,000 family troops north to defend Beijing. He was familiar with history, so he vaguely guessed the purpose of Fu Xiao'an to lead his clansmen north, but now he can't confirm his thoughts.

But what made him feel relieved was that in this war against the Japanese invaders, there was another reliable comrade-in-arms.

"Your Fu family's militia has a total of 1,200 people, and 300 of them are all using 'Fifty Rings', they have all been trained in rotation with me, and their combat effectiveness is no worse than that of the regular army." Yang Shuoming continued, "The fifth town of Beiyang that you are acting for is not thick, and you are a newcomer, these people can just help you." ”

Fu Xiaoan smiled bitterly and nodded.

"The heavy artillery brigade you are going to take over, that is, an empty shelf, some people have no artillery, I have already arranged it, and after a while, fifty eighteen mm heavy guns will arrive, you just take it." Yang Shuoming looked at Army Chief Duan Qirui, Army Vice Minister Xu Shuzheng, and Jiangsu General Feng Guozhang, who were arguing in the distance, and said calmly to Fu Xiaoan.

"What? Eighteen mm heavy artillery? Where did you get that? Fu Xiaoan couldn't help but be taken aback when he heard Yang Shuoming's words, "Could it be that it was also made in my hometown?" ”

"It's still difficult to get this kind of cannon on the horse in my hometown. It was designed by ourselves, commissioned to be produced by the Springfield factory in the United States, and it just arrived a few days ago. Yang Shuoming smiled and said, "There is no way, in order to grab time, this method can only be adopted." ”

"We designed it ourselves?" Fu Xiaoan looked at Yang Shuoming with an incredulous gaze, "How many are there?" ”

"I ordered two hundred." Yang Shuoming remembered the large amount of money he threw out for this, and he couldn't help but feel a pain in his heart.

The 180mm howitzer designed by Yang Shuoming is not a pure Chinese artillery to be precise, it is actually an emergency product developed by Yang Shuoming using the "supercomputer eye" based on Skoda's 180mm heavy gun. However, compared with its parent type, it has better versatility, and due to the use of "single meat self-tightening" technology, the weight of the gun is greatly reduced. Due to the limitations of the current industrial base in China, this artillery was commissioned for production at the Springfield Arsenal in the United States by providing drawings from the company "Renhe", and now it has all arrived.

"Some of these heavy artillery pieces are delivered in Tianjin, and some are delivered in Shanghai, and I have already allocated them, and there is only so much for you." He turned his head to look at Duan Qirui, Xu Shuzheng, and Feng Guozhang, who were still arguing there, and sighed.

Although before coming to Beijing, through the historical data stored by the "supercomputer eye", he already knew the state of the Beiyang Army during this period. Due to various historical reasons, the current Beiyang Army has uneven weapons and equipment, but the quality, training, and combat capability of officers and soldiers are also far from those of the Japanese army in this era.

But when he saw it with his own eyes, he realized that the actual situation was much worse than the historical record.

Not to mention, the two elite heavy artillery brigades that Duan Qiruixin worked hard to transfer to Yang Shuoming and Fu Xiao'an were all manned and without artillery, and the shortage of personnel was more than 20 percent, which once made Yang Shuoming and Fu Xiaoan stunned.

If it weren't for Yang Shuoming's advance preparations and the pre-order of advanced heavy artillery of his own design in the United States, these two heavy artillery brigades would not be useful at all in future battles.

Despite the current enemy, many generals of the Beiyang Army, like Duan Qirui and Liu Guanxiong and other main battle generals, behaved impassionedly in front of Yuan Shikai, as if they wanted to fight to the death with the Japanese, but when Duan Qirui really wanted to use them to the front line, they quietly retreated one by one for various reasons. There are not many people who really plan to die for the country. Like Jin Yunpeng of the Beiyang Fifth Division, this old bandit-born guy became "seriously ill" after receiving Duan Qirui's order, and called Duan Qirui that he was now "riddled with serious illnesses and unable to see things", and "begged to be virtuous to avoid misleading state affairs", Duan Qirui had no choice but to let Fu Xiaoan, the chief inspector of training who was a staff officer, take over his command of the Fifth Division.

For example, the two divisions of the Yunnan Army, which entered Beijing to participate in the deployment, have always been known for their "most sophisticated weapons and the most radical thinking," but Tang Jiyao, who came to lead the troops, and some Yunnan generals could no longer walk when they "felt the epidemic" when they walked to Sichuan, so they handed over the troops to the leadership of the generals and stayed in Chengdu to "recuperate." Cai Ye, who was really sick, did not have the slightest intention of retreating. Cai Ye ignored his throat disease and aggravated his physical weakness, after the two divisions of the Yunnan Army arrived, he personally inspected the troops, gave speeches among the soldiers to boost morale, and actively prepared for war, which made Yuan Shikai and Duan Qirui sigh with emotion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fever...... I'm sorry to everyone today......

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