The news brought by the captive made Duan Qirui attach great importance to it, and after careful investigation, after confirming that it was not a lie, from this news, he knew some of the purposes of Baotou, what kind of goodwill came out of Baotou's table, plus his own feelings, he judged the basic purpose of Baotou, at least he would not pursue him, and their 4 towns Beiyang Army could return safely, he thought for a while, and sent a detailed secret message to Yuan Shikai. —

After receiving Duan Qirui's secret message, Yuan Shikai called Yang Du in again and said, "Yezi, it seems that you are very accurate in seeing things, and they are not ready to come out." ”

"I'll just say, no matter what, this is a huge opportunity for Dong Weng, if you don't seize it."

Yuan Shikai is also very decisive, the previous worry is due to the fact that the movement of Baotou is not particularly clear, now, the movement of Baotou has basically become clear, they are ready to develop in Shanxi Mongolia, or the direction is not here, it is on the other side, in short, it will not be the right of Beijing and the center, at this time, Shangjing, holding the power of the Beiyang Army, must be above, occupy the opportunity.

"Then I'll go to Beijing." Yuan Shikai said decisively.

Yuan Shikai quietly entered Beijing, but his entry into Beijing, he couldn't hide the northwest where the intelligence network had been set up, for Yuan Shikai, Yang Yuanzhao did not dare to have the slightest carelessness, and looked at all his movements, as long as he entered Beijing, then with Yuan Shikai's vision, he knew that he would no longer attack Baotou such a hard bone, but instead consolidate his power and eliminate the revolutionary party.

Sure enough, after Yuan Shikai entered Beijing. began to be in tandem, not to call the Beiyang Army. Instead, he visited important ministers of the DPRK and China, including the ambassadors of the great powers. Maybe when he was in Xiangcheng, he could play tricks and didn't care about Zhu Erdian's opinion, but when he entered Beijing, if he wanted to sit firmly under himself, Zhu Erdian, a China expert, and the British ambassador to China, must be valued.

Zhu Erdian was also full of complaints, what the Beiyang Army and Yuan Shikai did before. made him very dissatisfied, but now, with Baotou completely showing his fangs, he knew that it turned out that unconsciously, Baotou was already a behemoth, although deep down, he didn't believe it. Baotou's steel output will be as much as 20 million tons, and the Chinese are accustomed to exaggeration and lying, as a Chinese expert. He understands it very well, so he doesn't see it too seriously.

But no matter how pompous, there are always millions of tons. At least the railways and highways that come out of Baotou are all kinds of steel consumption. It's just a little more, and it suddenly reached the level of the British. Coupled with the industrial capacity that came out of the various machines and equipment, Baotou has a certain ability to manufacture weapons. In this case, it is really difficult for them to let the Beiyang Army attack at the current level, and they are not too harsh on Yuan Shikai.

Yuan Shikai came to see Zhu Erdian, in order to obtain the understanding of the British, in the case of both of them were very clear, the guest and the host had a very pleasant trip, Zhu Erdian in the scope of his duties, Beiyang carried out considerable support, and took the initiative to put forward a large-scale support plan, including a batch of 108 heavy artillery and a variety of guns and ammunition, enough for Yuan Shikai to arm the two towns.

Yuan Shikai was very satisfied, this can be said to be an unexpected joy, it was to bridge the relationship, but unexpectedly got direct support, of course he was full of agreement, a series of requirements put forward by Zhu Erdian, all accepted, very satisfied Zhu Erdian, directly informed Yuan Shikai, about his status, he will directly support, by the way, France, Russia, the United States and Japan will also support the same.

The support of the great powers gave Yuan Shikai a reassurance, and next, he was more eager to connect in Beijing, stabilize his position, and seek greater development, which is what Yuan Shikai needs to do at present.

In Baotou, from the first day of knowing that Yuan Shikai entered Beijing, the entire northwest began to move, the sixth division and the newly built tenth division, replacing the first and second divisions, the fortress of Zhangjiakou, has used actual combat, showing his strong, fixed defensive warfare, after strict training of recruits, enough to deal with, the tenth division is not very conspicuous, just established, but the sixth division has a fairly old team, plus the eighth and ninth divisions still in Baotou and Suiyuan as the general reserve, should be enough to deal with all the problems.

The five divisions in front of them were dispatched together, along two directions, and slaughtered Shaanxi in a big way, preparing for a war against Shaanxi, and Baotou did a tremendous job for this, and all kinds of logistical conditions were guaranteed.

When five divisions and more than 100,000 troops set out, Baotou itself began a new round of conscription, and after replenishing the population of various places, especially many poor people across the country, rushed to the northwest, and the treatment of soldiers in the northwest was first-class in the country, and there were many applicants.

Because of the revolution itself, Shaanxi, which made people panic, almost did not resist, most of the cities heard the scenery, but such an external battle, really made the five divisions suffer, before the capture of Mongolia and Shanxi, because Baotou had made preparations before, all kinds of traffic conditions were OK, even if there was a route a little worse, it was also in the range of endurance, but Shaanxi was different, it was completely the original 20th century China, there were no roads, no railways, and the official roads could not withstand the heavy artillery pass. With the help of the heavy horses acquired by Baotou for a long time, he pulled 75 guns to go, and the heavy guns of more than 100 mm were basically lying at home.

Without heavy artillery, the strength of the new army in Baotou has been reduced a lot, but the well-trained soldiers, coupled with the intensive 75 artillery and Makqin, are still unstoppable in dealing with the Shaanxi army, which is dominated by the old army and a small number of new troops, and the two armies are rushing away, and in less than 15 days, they rushed to the city of Xi'an, most of which were delayed on the road.

The governor of Shaanxi and the general of Shaanxi, who had no time to escape, had no choice but to start guarding Xi'an, but unfortunately part of the green forest and the new army they relied on were not armed to the teeth at all, and the opponent of the new army in Baotou, which had passed the test of real war, was conquered under the first war, and the harvest was huge.

After the Baotou New Army conquered Xi'an, it stopped for a while, and the battle report and the actual situation on the front line made the staff headquarters and Yang Yuanzhao know that it was impossible to continue, and even the southern part of Shaanxi was not absorbed.

As soon as the news came out, it immediately made headlines in major newspapers and periodicals, and now in China, revolution is almost the trend of the times, Yunnan and Guizhou have also declared independence a few days ago, and the entire half of the south of the Yangtze River, except for Sichuan and Hunan, all the others have become independent, plus the northwest, almost all of them are connected, and only a few provinces belong to the Qing court.

Hearing the actions of the Northwest Army, Yuan Shikai, who was rushing to Beijing, not only was not shocked, but breathed a long sigh of relief, it seems that the goal of the Northwest Army is not to enter Beijing, as Yang Du guessed before, is to prepare to develop westward, Shanxi and Shaanxi are more important provinces in the north, a large amount of coal in Shanxi, and the Guanzhong Plain in Shaanxi are all rich lands, but they are not the focus now. The two major ones are occupied, more or less, some are unhappy, this is already the meat in the mouth of the Northwest Army, and no one can let him take it out, which is not good for Beiyang, which may want to unify the north, and other northwest provinces, Yuan Shikai doesn't care at all, the people are fierce, it is difficult to govern, and it can't collect much tax, so it goes.

China's history proves that the Central Plains is the focus of the Central Plains, and the Beijing-Tianjin River basin in the north and the Yangtze River basin in the south occupy almost half of the entire China. Entering Beijing for 10 days, Yuan Shikai with the support of Beiyang and the center's eagerness to quell the rebellion, under several confrontations, obtained a large number of rights, Zhu Erdian also fulfilled his previous promise, not only to the Beiyang Army to get another 12 doors 108, but also to provide a large number of arms and ammunition, the strong Beiyang Army, even if there are still 4 towns have not returned, but they have also recovered their previous strength, they have a deep foundation, as long as there are enough arms and funds, the expansion is basically no problem, The Beiyang Army can be expanded from 70,000 to 100,000, and there are 3 towns that can obtain the same equipment as the third town, and even the third needle is slightly more powerful after being equipped with heavy artillery.

After sitting in his position, Yuan Shikai found Yang Du, who had been following Yuan Shikai and giving advice to Yuan Shikai in Beijing, had just finished the work at hand, heard Yuan Shikai's call, and quickly came, and after saluting Yuan Shikai respectfully, he asked: "What is Dong Weng looking for me to do!" ”

Yuan Shikai knocked on the table and said, "Oh Zi, next, I need you to come and take a trip!" ”

"Dong Weng, you mean to go to Baotou?" Yang Du's eyes lit up, he was good at strategy, and he could see at a glance what Yuan Shikai asked him to do.

"For Baotou, as far as possible with the northwest to delineate the sphere of influence, with Zhangjiakou as the boundary, we can make concessions, and even do not prohibit the northwest sales machine qì and products!" Yuan Shikai said with some distraction: "Zhiquan's team is also coming back!" ”

Yang Du thought so, Yuan Shikai came back, it was an expedient measure, Beiyang is also expanding, if you don't fight a battle, you can't say it, fight with Baotou, even Yuan Shikai doesn't dare to say that, that's a huge gap, concentrate the whole army of Beiyang, maybe you can hit Zhangjiakou, but after that, after the huge loss, Yuan Shikai has no capital to continue to gain a foothold, he nodded and said: "What Dong Weng said is that the northwest is a merchant's power, and commerce is what they value the most, which should be no problem." ”

"To confirm that there is no problem, it is best to sign a contract, Baotou is not very trustworthy." Yuan Shikai said.

Yang Du smiled bitterly, judging from the past history, Baotou is really trustworthy, but any peace cannot be pinned on the other party's trustworthiness, which itself is in a weak position, and the shape is stronger than people, and after thinking for a while, he said: "I will do my best!" (To be continued......) R527