108431908 Far Eastern madman

Beijing, Dongjiaomin Lane, Liuguo Hotel. At present, a peace talks between the North and the South are being held here, and the head of the southern delegation is Song Jiaoren, a member of the General Affairs Committee of the United Front, and the head of the northern delegation is Tang Shaoyi, acting general director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China.

In addition to the protagonists of this war, there were also representatives from all walks of life and reporters sent by newspapers who rushed to the Six Nations Hotel; as a symbol of the "justice and fairness" of the peace talks, the British minister to China was presided over by the British minister to China, Zhu Erdian, who made all the speeches by the hosts.

It is worth noting that Tang Shaoyi, the head of the northern delegation who attended the meeting, once joined the alliance and was a member of the same organization as Song Jiaoren, the head of the southern delegation, but now, they negotiated on behalf of two hostile power groups, which was more or less helpless.

The meeting, which began at 9 a.m. sharp, has lasted more than two hours, and is still meeting behind closed doors. But no one knew that all the reporters were waiting in the lobby of the Six Nations Hotel, some anxious reporters had already begun to draft, and those who were more serious were talking to their friends.

Mr. Morrison, the Far East editor of The Times, sat on a couch by the window, exchanging views on the prospects for the peace talks with the French drunkard manager, whom he had known for some time.

"Listen to me, British, in my opinion. This peace negotiation will not achieve any results, because I see no sincerity in the eyes of the negotiators on both sides, I can only see hypocrisy and fraud. As a businessman, I should have stayed away from politics, but as a friend of Commander-in-Chief Zhao, I still wanted him to be in charge of all the power in the country, because I thought that the country did not need a parliament, it needed an oriental Napoleon. ”

Mr. Bessonluc, the captain of the French ship, poured half a glass of whisky down his throat and then gave his personal opinion to Morrison, who was sitting across from him. And he made no secret of his personal friendship with the United Front, the commander-in-chief of Zhao.

"You're a military strongman, a military dictator, aren't you?"

Morrison asked with a smile, although the drunkard captain in front of him had already mentioned his "personal friendship" with General Zhao Bei, but as a sensible reporter, Morrison did not take the Frenchman's words seriously, he really couldn't believe that such a drunkard who was drunk all day long could have something to do with that military strongman, in his opinion, maybe this Frenchman did have an arms business with that Commander-in-Chief Zhao, but if the two were friends, it would be too bizarre, these days, there are many foreigners who love to brag, The French captain is also apparently a braggart

"Not bad! A military strong".

The Frenchman raised his left arm, clenched his fist and waved. He took a sip of the remaining half of the wine in the glass, and then waved the empty wine glass, shouting as if no one was around: "The weakness of this country cannot be saved by a bunch of parliamentarians, only a military strongman can save it!" What the country needs most now is not some law, but order, the order of the strongmen! Without order, the law is worthless bullshit! British, do you think that a group of people who have seen foreigners who are either whispering or scurrying can bring order to this country? No, they can't! Only a military strongman can bring order to the country! Only by first establishing a strong order. Only then can the policies and laws of this small country be implemented! ”

"You do. It seems to make sense. I suddenly remembered what I had seen and heard in a county town in the south, the governor ordered to levy additional land taxes in order to build a new-style school, the governor said that one penny per mu would be levied on silver, but when I went to the county government at the bottom, the county commander raised the levy to half a tael of silver, according to him, it was because the boss sent down so much, God knows how much was recorded in the middle, and the result caused the anger of the villagers, and a local new-style school was destroyed by them with farm tools, so, The local private villa gentlemen are happy again. I think this might explain why there is no order in the country. Because the bureaucrats have broken the order, and the people below have done the same, the whole country looks chaotic, and on the surface it looks like there are rules everywhere, but no one really intends to follow them. ”

"That's right! In the words of the Chinese. This is called "the upper beam is not right, the lower beam is crooked.!" British, you still know too little about Chinese culture, you should learn more from me. ”

The Frenchman snapped his fingers, grabbed the bottle from the coffee table, and filled his own glass.

"So, how do you know that after that Commander-in-Chief Zhao grasps power, he will not be corrupted by power? Can he really bring order to the country? Morrison was asking the Frenchman. At the same time, he was asking himself.

The Frenchman raised his glass and said with a big grin: "I have already said that I am a good friend of the Commander-in-Chief Zhao, and I can see him often, and in my opinion, he is an elegant gentleman. Although not as romantic as us French, his ideals are noble, and the generals around him are also people who are willing to make sacrifices for this country, they may be corrupted by power, but before they are corrupted, they can at least bring order to this country. Or to put it another way, the country needs a new force to correct its path, not the Beiyang Bloc, the remnants of the Manchu bureaucracy to control its direction, the country needs revolution, not reform. British, it looks like we're back to the beginning

"Again, I'm Australian. Not British. Morrison shrugged helplessly.

"In my opinion, you are all the same. You are all subjects under the British Crown. It's a bit rude, but I insist that the British monarchy is backward and rotten. Or the most advanced state system of our French Republic! Let's raise a glass and shout, long live the revolution! Down with the King! ”

The Frenchman stood up, raised his glass, and shouted in French, a gesture that attracted attention and convinced Morrison that the French adventurer was drunk again.

Before the people in the hotel lobby could recover from the shouts of the French, a Chinese journalist with pigtails on the back of his head hurried into the lobby from outside the hotel door, stood at the door, and shouted loudly to the crowd.

"News just came! The UNITED Front troops in northern Henan crossed the Yellow River last night and stormed the Beiyang Army in Weihui Prefecture, and this morning, the 17th Division of the Beiyang Army of the Zhangde Garrison announced its defection and joined the United Front. Cutting off the way back to the north of Wei Hui's Beiyang Army, Bao Guiqing, commander of Wei Hui's garrison, sent a telegram in Xinxiang, announcing that Wei Hui's Beiyang Army had surrendered to the RUF troops! ”

As soon as this person shouted, the hotel lobby suddenly fell silent, and then immediately there was a commotion, and some reporters quickly went to find the map, and everyone circled the map and compared, "Suddenly found that the situation was more complicated than they expected."

"Zhangde is in the south of the border of Zhili Province, and if you go north along the Jinghan Line, it will be Handan."

"So, this Naoli is about to be a battlefield?

"Not only Zhili is a battlefield, a few days ago the southern army occupied Xuzhou, and now it has won Weihui, which makes it clear that there will be two northern expeditions

"Two Northern Expeditions? Take the Jinghan line, this is easy to say, but what about the other, is it out of Xuzhou to plunder Lunan and take advantage of the northeast expedition of the mountain? The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has been closed for a long time. ”

"What! It was the Yi Army who occupied Xuzhou! It's not good next to Yijun, but this horse team is no worse than Beiyang! Can people walk through the canals? ”

"Ouch. If you're like that, we have to go back and buy some food to store, or we'll start a war." Then the price of grain must not be "puffed up, jumping up? ”

"It's better to go to the concession to hide, the revolutionary army will not dare to attack the concession."

"Concession? When the war broke out in Hankow last year, it was not like the shells had not fallen into the concession.

I think it's better to go to the countryside to hide, and when the battle is over, go back to the capital. ”

Some of the reporters quickly left the Six Nations Hotel, while others waited patiently in the hotel, wondering how the North-South negotiators would react.

Soon, the closed oak door of the conference room was pushed open, and the envoys of the six countries to China rushed out, and under the escort of the attachés, they squeezed out of the crowd expressionlessly, got into the embassy carriage at the entrance of the hotel, and quickly left the hotel.

Afterwards, the North-South delegations to the peace talks also left the conference room and held a brief press conference in the lobby of the hotel.

"There is nothing to be said about the backsliding and treacherous actions of the United Front. Now that the United Front has decided to settle the differences between the two sides by force, our central government will also accompany it to the end! Justice is at ease in the hearts of the people, and it is the United Front, not the central government, that does not want peace. ”

Tang Shaoyi, head of the northern delegation, commented.

"This news is unconfirmed, purely hearsay, for the comments of the Beiyang side, I am a pound, people reserve their opinions. As a member of the United Front, I am well aware of the importance of this peace conference and the people's ardent hope for harmony between the North and the South. The current military encounter between the North and the South is a tragedy of fighting in the same room, and our United Front also deplores this very much; now that the overall situation has been decided, how can it unilaterally attack the Beiyang? There must be misunderstandings, and I hope that all reporters will not use false rumors to cause panic. It further exacerbates the tense atmosphere and is not conducive to the cooperation between the North and the South. ”

Song Jiaoren, head of the southern delegation, spoke more sincerely, which somewhat calmed the anger of Beiyang Yimian.

However, the Beiyang side soon became angry again.

Just after the delegations of the two sides walked out of the Six Nations Hotel, a reporter hurried over with a copy of the telegram, and before he could get closer, he was already shouting a few words at the top of his voice.

"Zhao Zhenhua, chairman of the United Front Committee, sent a telegram and set the minimum conditions for peace talks between the north and the south! First, severely punish the culprits of war, defend the dignity of the Constitution, and defend the interests of the people; second, the formation of military tribunals to try war criminals; Third. Quickly convene Congress and restore the law; The Presidential Election Commission was formed. a fair and fair election of the official president; ，”

There are nine "minimum conditions", which are listed in detail, but all of them are vague.

However, these conditions were enough to provoke the Beiyang delegation, and Tang Shaoyi and others brushed their sleeves away.

Holding the transcription of the telegram, Song Jiaoren was anxious and angry. Only then did he realize that the constitutionalist parliamentarians in the United Front did not trust the chairman, but. The chairman also seemed to distrust the parliamentarians.

In a word, the two sides look like they are separated and do not trust each other.

However, this does not contradict the original intention of the United Front, which was used to "occupy the National Assembly", it is only an electoral tool, it is not a monolith, the constitutionalist parliamentarians have their own plans, and the chairman and the soldiers also have their own plans, facing the temptation of the central power that is close at hand. The differences between the two sides seem to have begun to surface.