The reason why Wang Shizhen is called the "dragon eye" of Beiyang is extremely important is that Yuan Shikai's official documents are basically drafted by Wang Shizhen, and Wang Shizhen will make the final review before they are finally sent. In terms of familiarity with Beiyang military affairs and government affairs alone, Yuan Zhikai is under Wang Shizhen.

Cixi ordered Yuan Shikai to fold up to "defend himself", and Wang Shizhen naturally wanted to revise this excerpt related to Yuan Shikai's future fate in detail. Wang Shizhen has already modified more than a dozen places on the fold, and after these small details were modified, Wang Shizhen stared at the fold for a long time. Yuan Shikai had never seen Wang Shizhen spend so much time on a memorabilia. But Yuan Shikai definitely didn't urge, since Wang Shizhen thought that it would take so long to revise the twists, Yuan Shikai firmly believed that it would indeed take so long.

Seeing Wang Shizhen lift the pen with determination, Yuan Shikai's heart was relaxed. The two of them have been working together on these revisions many times. This is Wang Shizhen's unique look when she makes up her mind. Yuan Shikai quietly picked up the tea bowl, silently took a sip of the white water in the tea bowl, and quietly swallowed the water into his stomach. He thought that Wang Shizhen would work hard to write as usual, but he was surprised to see that Wang Shizhen actually put the brush back on the pen stand.

"Hireqing, don't rush, take your time." On major matters related to his own net worth and life, Yuan Shikai not only did not urge, but comforted.

Wang Shizhen said: "Yuan Gong, just use the current fold and hand it over." ”

"Oh?" Yuan Shikai was a little surprised. He took the corrected excerpt and read it, this excerpt is not so much an excerpt of sincere fear of apology and self-defense, but rather a warm narrative letter. Here, the history of the interaction between Yuan Shikai and Yan Fu is first narrated, and then the understanding process between Yuan Shikai and Chen Ke is the main line, and Chen Ke's actions in Beijing are stated. But what kind of person Yuan Shikai is, this memo mentions very sincerely that the Gengzi Incident is Yuan Shikai's loyalty and service to Cixi, and the process of Beiyang Group's loyalty to the imperial court. Although these contents are mixed in the history of Yuan Shikai's relationship with Yan Fu, the few words are written with deep meaning. The whole excerpt is not false, it just says that Yuan Shikai, as a loyal elder, cares about a junior. The description of Chen Ke is not deliberately ugly, and it also writes what a junior should look like to an elder.

After reading the excerpt, Yuan Shikai couldn't help but sigh, "Ping Qing is well written." ”

These two people are first-class heroes, and they all know that if they go to something at this time, such as "the most deserving death" and "the crime is unforgivable", it is just an excuse for people. At such a critical juncture, when the other party made it clear that he had bad intentions, Yuan Shikai could not be honestly afraid, but had to fight with reason.

"Pingqing, since you have already written this recital, why do you want to make a big change?" Yuan Shikai asked curiously.

Wang Shizhen sighed: "Yuan Gong, Chen Ke is very talented, but I am a little overthinking. ”

Yuan Shikai is also concerned, "I let go of these people easily, and I have some regrets now." ”

After listening to Yuan Shikai's words, Wang Shizhen immediately persuaded him: "Yuan Gong, Chen Ke has no intention of defecting to Beiyang. Even when he met Yuan Gong for the first time, he may have had such a thought. Now that the opportunity has been missed, Yuan Gong must not be soft on Chen Ke. This person has become inseparable from the Qing Dynasty, and he has also become a fire and water situation with my Beiyang. There must be no contempt for this person. Yuan Gong, I think the best strategy now is to mobilize the six towns of Beiyang and Beiyang, plus the Hubei New Army, and the Jiangbei New Army and the Jiangnan New Army will be exterminated together. Don't underestimate the enemy. ”

Hearing this, Yuan Shikai couldn't help but smile bitterly. He didn't think that Wang Shizhen's suggestion had no merit, and the reason why he smiled bitterly was because the current court situation had no possibility of realizing multi-way merger.

At the same time, in the Fengtai County base area in Anhui Province, the People's Party Military Commission also intensified its efforts to combat encirclement and suppression at the upcoming anti-encirclement and suppression meeting. In every military meeting, Zhang Yu does not like to speak first, and in every military memory, Zhang Yu has to speak more first. He picked up the latest Beijing intelligence and looked at it, and then asked, "Chairman Chen, will the Beiyang New Army go south?" ”

"If we eliminate Li Yuanhong and Wang Shizhen's troops, the Beiyang New Army will definitely go south." Chen Ke replied clearly.

After hearing this, Zhang Yu couldn't help frowning, Chen Ke is the leader of the People's Party, and every decision of the People's Party is ultimately implemented in accordance with Chen Ke's opinions. But this does not mean that the comrades will bow down to Chen Ke and obey his orders. Zhang Yu was not unable to understand Chen Ke's plan, and in the early days, Zhang Yu had always been very much in favor of Chen Ke's judgment of the enemy. However, he has been in the army for more than a year, and now that his military ability is growing day by day, Zhang Yu has cultivated a cautious personality more and more. Although the People's Party's opponent, the Manchu Qing, was rotten, Chen Ke's attitude was inevitably too arrogant, and if the Manchu Qing occasionally had a nervous breakdown and changed his previous style of work a little, the People's Party would immediately face a dangerous situation. Chen Ke's practice of never leaving room for his side made Zhang Yu very worried.

"What if the leader of the Beiyang New Army calls?" Zhang Yu finally reminded.

"The leader of the Beiyang New Army?" Chen Ke felt that Zhang Yu was really telling the biggest joke. If the Beiyang New Army could become the leader of the new army in the whole country, then the Manchu Qing Dynasty would never be destroyed.

Yuan Shikai knew that Wang Shizhen was loyal to both himself and the imperial court. So he didn't want to pour cold water on Wang Shizhen. But in the current situation, even if Yuan Shikai can get out of Chen Ke's matter, it is impossible to be unconditionally trusted. The new army of the six towns of Beiyang was all trained by Yuan Shikai. If there was no personal command from Yuan Shikai, these people might not have obediently worked for the Manchurians. In terms of the loyalty of the Beiyang New Army to Yuan Shikai, Wang Shizhen can be said to have contributed a lot.

Since he couldn't talk about it, Yuan Shikai had no choice but to discuss the strategy of suppressing bandits, "Pingqing, don't you think Li Yuanhong is Chen Ke's opponent?" ”

"Li Yuanhong is definitely not Chen Ke's opponent. Yuan Gong, if I was asked to take 3,000 people, run thousands of miles, and break Anqing overnight, I would never be able to do it. Not to mention that the soldiers and horses in Chen Ke's hands were hastily gathered by him in less than half a year. How many Huaibei people are there in our old Beiyang background? Yuan Gong also knew that the people in Huaibei were fierce and there were many gangs and parties. Chen Ke, a foreigner, should not be able to gain a foothold in the local area. But now that Chen Ke can gain a foothold, the local people follow Chen Ke, Li Yuanhong led the Hubei New Army, and the Anhui people do not wait to see the Hubei people. I don't think Li Yuanhong can win against Chen Ke. ”

Yuan Shikai agrees with this point of view, "Zhang Zhidong is obviously inclined to clear the stream now, even if I try to advise him, he will only take it as a deaf ear." If I were to propose the prudent use of troops now, many people in the court would immediately use it as a lever. Li Yuanhong: I don't want to. ”

Wang Shizhen knew that the infighting in the court was far from over, what would be done to those who fought for power and profit, Wang Shizhen could think clearly, and he said with a straight face: "Duke Yuan, if Li Yuanhong is defeated, there will definitely be chaos in the south of Anhui." The Jiangnan New Army is afraid that it will go to the southern Anhui area. I can only fight with the Jiangbei New Army. If the situation becomes like this, I will only ask Yuan Gong to send Duan Qirui south. ”

"Don't worry, I will never let you be alone."

Chen Ke did not believe that with the current internal situation of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, they would be able to achieve a level of unified combat in a short period of time. The most important thing is that the Manchus had no money. After listening to Chen Ke's analysis, although Zhang Yu agreed, he was very jealous of the Beiyang New Army. "Chairman Chen, according to what you said before, after we fought Anqing, we had the strategic initiative for about a year. Now that it is less than a year, the Manchus have begun to besiege the base area, so how far will this battle go? Now the Beiyang Army wants to attack us, and there are three routes to take, the first is to go to Henan and fight from Fuyang. The second is to take the canal and call from Jiangsu. The third is to go to Wuhan and call from Anqing. Even if we have intelligence, will we be unable to prevent it? ”

Chen Ke said confidently: "So we have to play the mode of internal combat, no matter how the Beiyang Army fights, the primary target is the city." In fact, not only the Beiyang Army, but also Li Yuanhong. I don't know how Wang Shizhen will fight, he may chase our main force to fight. But there is nothing to be afraid of, we have the main force stationed in the city, and it is impossible for Wang Shizhen to go to the countryside first. When they come, we can withdraw to the countryside to fight. ”

"But is it really going to work? What if the Beiyang Army directly attacked the Fengtai base area? Zhang Yu was still a little worried. Not only Zhang Yu, but also other comrades of the Military Commission are so worried. The main industries of the People's Party are in Fengtai County, and other cities can be discarded, but the industrial center of Fengtai County must be preserved no matter what.

Zhang Yu has always sought to be safe, and he continued: "Our army is now only 15,000 people. Li Yuanhong won't say anything, if Wang Shizhen is in charge of the new army in Jiangbei, he will have more than 10,000 people. There are also more than 10,000 people in the Jiangnan New Army, and there are tens of thousands of people in each of the six towns in Beiyang. We don't have much advantage in our forces. What's more, the summer harvest has just ended, and the intensive training of our troops has only been a month. These practical difficulties cannot be ignored. ”

Chen Ke said with a smile: "So I want to expand the army to 30,000 now." In addition to the current centralized training of troops, all counties in the base areas must start conscription. ”

After listening to Chen Ke's words, He Zudao couldn't help but say: "I'm afraid that the newly built troops are not the opponents of the new army. ”

Chen Ke patiently explained: "I am not going to let these people fight with the new army, these troops are just cooperating with the work of the main force. ”

Zhang Yu didn't know what medicine he had taken wrong, but he was still entangled in the affairs of Beiyang. "The key now is the ...... of the Beiyang New Army"

Chen Ke was no longer willing to fight Zhang Yu over this matter, and he slapped it on the table. "Comrade Zhang Yu, are you afraid? What's so terrible about Beiyang? A group of transitional troops, let them fight in the city, and they may be okay. Fight sports battles with us, they are a bunch of rubbish. If you feel that you have no confidence, you can say it bluntly now, we have no shortage of comrades with confidence. ”

It was the first time for all the comrades of the Central Military Commission to see Chen Kefa so angry, and although everyone had their own concerns, everyone wanted to be labeled as "cowering in battle".

Chen Keteng stood up, "What are you afraid of?" Aren't you afraid of smashing the bottles and cans at home? Everyone felt that they had finally saved up this idea, and they couldn't bear to let themselves suffer the slightest loss. Let me make it clear to you, I think this kind of thinking is very good, but you have spent this thought on behalf of the common people. If the enemy invades the base areas, everyone must effectively help the masses to transfer their property and food, so that the Manchu troops will not harm the common people. Let's fight on the inside line, we want people to have people, and we want news to have news. The Manchus fought on the outside line, and they couldn't see a single citizen in the base area, and they just had black eyes. As long as we have the support of the people, do we need to be afraid to fight a group of blind people? Is there such a reason in the world? ”

Zhang Yu was severely criticized, if others were only afraid of their faces, they would not be able to hang up. But Zhang Yu didn't lose ground at all, he stood up and said, "I'm just worried that I'm going to stand alone, I can't do it." Since it was Chairman Chen personally commanding, then I was not at all afraid. Chairman Chen, you ordered me to fight, and I will definitely complete the task. ”

When Hua Xiongmao heard this, he didn't want to mention how awkward he was. Zhang Yu wants to be on his own? So what should Hua Xiongmao do? But at this time, Hua Xiongmao can't say anything more. He made a ruthless account for Zhang Yu in his heart. After this battle is over, Hua Xiongmao is ready to settle accounts with Zhang Yu.

As the principal of the military academy, Yan Fu is qualified to participate in the meeting of the Military Commission. He can remember his student Li Yuanhong, although the two have not seen each other for many years, they used to be Beiyang sailors. He said: "Chairman Chen, Li Yuanhong is more cautious in his work, I don't think he will easily risk attacking Hefei, right?" ”

Chen Ke had just been angry, and his anger had not subsided at this time. His voice was stiff, "It is because Li Yuanhong is careful that he will only attack Hefei." Now the Manchu court is complicated by partisanship. If Zhang Zhidong wants to make a difference, he must make achievements in the military. Therefore, Li Yuanhong must capture Hefei as soon as possible, so that Zhang Zhidong can have the capital to prove his ability. Therefore, the target that Li Yuanhong can fight is precisely Hefei. ”

Looking at the blank expressions on the faces of many of his comrades, Chen Ke felt that his military education was really a failure, but after thinking about it, the comrades had never fought such a big battle. The opponent is not a new army, and it is not uncommon for them to not know how to use their knowledge and strength in a hurry.

Chen Ke asked: "Comrades, I have long said that the Manchu mode of war relied on lines of communication, and they chose very few targets. Everyone started from the rural areas, and everyone is familiar with and understands the rural areas. And there is enough experience and ability to fight on the march. But the Manchu army did not have this ability. You can't give the Manchus such an ability out of thin air. ”

After hearing his words, the people were still skeptical. Chen Ke said loudly: "This time I will personally command. If you don't dare to fight, now say that I can get him out of the army immediately. However, if you refuse to leave now, you will give me orders as you give me how to command. I don't care if I win or lose, I only look at who is afraid of the enemy like a tiger, and who can't persist in completing the task. If there are still people who dare not fight at the critical moment, then only military law will do it. ”

The members of the Central Military Commission are not cowards at all, and the main reason why they have many doubts is because they are inexperienced. And things came in a bit of a hurry, seeing that Chen Ke was so confident, the comrades naturally refused to be cowards. Everyone stood up together and replied almost in unison: "Resolutely complete the task." ”

Whether it is the Beiyang Group or the People's Party base areas, the top leaders of both sides have clearly understood the current situation on the basis of their own experience and ability, and have established the direction of military struggle in the near future. Cixi, on the other hand, was not so prepared. She didn't understand military affairs in the first place, and now that the party is fierce, the seventy-two-year-old Cixi has no energy to pay attention to this matter at all.

The political tide is tumbling, the waves are treacherous, and the normalcy is overflowing. Cixi originally wanted to use the incorruptible faction to suppress the Beiyang faction, but the anti-Beiyang plan was reversed. On the surface, the Beiyang faction was the victor of Ding Wei's political tide, but it did not take advantage of it, the incorruptible faction lost power, and the Beiyang faction did not gain power, and the end result was a defeat for both sides. After the political upsurge, Cixi's doubts about Beiyang were not dispelled, but deepened, and she began to support other relatives and old ministers to confront Beiyang.

Because of Chen Ke's matter, before Yuan Shikai handed in his self-defense, it stands to reason that he could not preside over the court's errands. Cixi immediately summoned Zhang Zhidong for several days in a row. She was eager to find a third party who was beyond these two factions to discuss, and Zhang Zhidong was undoubtedly a very suitable person.

When Qu Hongzhen was vacant, Cixi wanted to take Yixuan as well, but Cixi summoned Sun Jianai, Shi Xu, Lu Chuanlin and others to discuss the advance and retreat of Yixuan, and Sun and others proposed that "no one will take over, and it will be useless". On the 19th, Cixi ordered Prince Zaifeng to enter the military aircraft to learn to walk, intending to support Zaifeng to compete and even replace Yixuan. Seeing this situation, Yixuan had no choice but to retreat into advance, resign, and conduct temptation and coercion. Cixi took into account that Zaifeng had just joined the military aircraft, was young and inexperienced, and could not pick up the overall work of the military aircraft department at once, Qu Hongzhen had already gone, and if Yixuan continued to comply with the retreat, the central organ was likely to be chaotic or even paralyzed, and immediately issued an order to comfort him, which was really Cixi's last resort. In addition to Zaifeng, Cixi also reused relatives such as Shixu, Zai Ze, and Shanqi. Prince Su Shanqi and Zhenguo Gong Zaize were appointed as the secretary of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the branch of the Ministry of Civil Affairs respectively. The general history books attribute the situation of the late Qing Dynasty's reuse of relatives and nobles to govern the country, which is not very fair. In fact, in the later period of Ding Wei, Cixi had already begun to implement this transformation.

After Qu Hongzhen's resignation, the Military Aircraft Department became more vacant, and Beiyang wanted to take the opportunity to stuff Yang Shiqi in, and Yixuan recommended it to Cixi for this purpose. And Cixi wanted to invoke Sun Jianai into the center, but Sun felt that "old and sick are not up to the task". However, Sun bluntly told Cixi, "Shiqi is talented, cunning, and the ministers are the same townsmen, and the ministers know the most." Gaigu's so-called hunger depends on people, and those who are full are far away." opposed the use of Yang, and recommended Lu Chuanlin, another important figure in the old minister's forces. Lu Chuanlin thus re-entered the cardinal court. Not only that, Cixi also implemented the strategy of promoting Zhang and suppressing Yuan and dividing Yuan Shi, awarding Zhang Zhidong as a co-organizer of the university and a scholar of Tirenge, not long after Yuan Shikai's self-defense was handed over, Cixi gave instructions to "know", and then appointed Zhang Zhidong and Yuan Shikai as ministers of military aircraft at the same time. The military aircraft department formed a new combination, the Beiyang wing, there are Yixuan, Yuan Shikai two, the anti-Beiyang wing, there are Zaifeng, Zhang Zhidong, Lu Chuanlin three people, the world continues to ride the wall. The Beiyang faction does not have an advantage in the center of power.

Along with these internal messages, it was the news that Li Yuanhong had begun to send troops.