"President, the current plan is to postpone the formation of the Beiyang New Army. Even if the Beiyang New Army of the Eighteen Towns is not enough to attack, the defense should still be okay. Although the rebels were troops from the Northeast, Xu Shichang had been the governor of the Northeast, and he still persuaded.

"Hmm." Yuan Shikai simply responded, but did not express his position.

Xu Shichang, as the current vice premier of the cabinet, is actually in charge of the prime minister, even if he knows that Yuan Shikai is angry in his heart, he has to say, "It is not easy to build the Beiyang New Army in 36 towns, and it is difficult to raise the Beiyang New Army in 36 towns." In the past, the state finance, raising 200,000 soldiers was already the limit. Now raising 500,000 soldiers is simply not financially affordable. ”

"Kikuren, the People's Party has 600,000 people, and we only have 300,000 now. If we don't expand the army, how can we fight with one enemy and two? Yuan Shikai asked as much as he could suppress his anger.

Hearing Yuan Shikai's question, Xu Shichang was silent. In fact, he wanted to ask, "Even if we have one enemy and one enemy, can our Beiyang Army defeat the People's Party?" But this could not be said in any case, because the two commanders of the Third Town, who had lost to the BJP, were close by.

Duan Qirui has not said anything since he participated in the meeting, and after listening to Yuan Shikai's angry speech, he finally spoke, "President, I'm afraid that I really have to fight at the moment." ”

As soon as these words were spoken, the eyes of the three fell on Duan Qirui. Duan Qirui said calmly: "Now that the strength of the People's Party has reached 600,000, it is clear that it is pressing step by step. If we don't fight now, are we waiting for the BJP to increase its troops to 800,000, 1 million, 1.2 million? By that time, the BJP would have come to the rescue. So for the moment, we have to do it first. ”

"No," Wang Shizhen immediately objected, "The People's Party now has the advantage of troops, and we are in a disadvantageous position. ”

Duan Qirui smiled: "At present, the People's Party seems to be strong, and it has an advantage over our Beiyang. But from the perspective of the whole country, he is only a land of four provinces. It's just that the belly and back are attacked. It's just that the provinces can't take the People's Party alone. If the provinces can be united, the BJP will not be able to cope with it. This is the point of the so-called fight. ”

The three of them all knew that Duan Qirui was by no means the type who would do anything when his brain was hot, and just listening to this beginning, they knew that Duan Qirui's plan had been prepared for quite some time. These people are people of great status, and they can listen quietly whether they agree or not.

Whether it is the ministers of various countries in China or Beiyang, in the face of the current situation, they all turn their attention to the People's Party. The reaction of the People's Party to what happened to Beiyang was not too violent.

As a result of the rectification campaign carried out by the whole party, the Third Plenary Session of the First Central Committee of the People's Party defined Chairman Chen Ke's thought as the basic principle of the people's party ideology, including "Analysis of Various Classes in Chinese Society", "Theory of Practice" and "Theory of Contradiction" as the core methods of all work. The meeting clearly pointed out that the main point of ideological work in the near future is to comprehensively sinicize the core and correct ideas of Marxism, construct the theory of scientific socialism, and try to prepare for the construction of the theory of scientific communism. If Chen Ke's status in the past was only that of a leader, now he has finally been promoted to the level of "mentor".

In terms of concrete implementation, the People's Party began to emphasize the implementation of the "labor theory," that is, the style of "emphasizing practice and ignoring words" established by the party in its mature period. For the first time, Chen Ke openly proposed, "The old literati are unreliable, and they have never stood on the side of the broad masses of working people in terms of political and material interests." We, the People's Party, respect knowledge and use all methods to enable the broad masses of laborers to learn and apply science. But this is a premise, if it is not a laborer who is really with the people, but the kind of old literati who wants to be a working person after reading a few sentences, then they can be cooled and stay wherever they want. BJP members must firmly understand that we and those people are not all the same. ”

No matter what the comrades in the upper strata of the wealthy backbone of the old society think, the comrades at the grassroots level understand it simply and clearly: "Scholars who don't work with us say anything is." Grassroots comrades are very happy with this kind of understanding. The original envy and even admiration for scholars has all turned into a similar discrimination, or at least an attitude of ignorance, with the support of the party. Psychologically, he moved away from a certain high-minded existence, and also brought a sense of comfort to the comrades.

In the rectification movement, middle, middle, and high-level leaders took turns to study in party schools, and the grassroots level perfected the system of study meetings, Zhuge meetings, and mobilization meetings. While all attention is paid to self-building, it is inevitable that the People's Party will also be slow in its response to the outside world.

In the Beiyang area, each "enterprise" department of the People's Party has its own armed forces, and the mutinous troops in Beiyang have also tried to attack the location of the People's Party, and when these guys howl and rush to the People's Party company, which has accumulated a large amount of money, they are met with a dense stream of bullets. The rebels led by the rebels were defeated in rows at that time. These people were originally seeking wealth, and the tragic situation of their companions aroused the anger of a small number of people for a while, but more rebels came to their senses. There are so many unarmed businessmen to rob that it is more than worth the loss to rob the BJP at the cost of death.

Beijing's intelligence agencies and companies in Beijing and Tianjin sent the news back to the Party Central Committee in Wuhan, and during the discussion at the party meeting, Lu Huitian put forward his own views on this: "The current work is to improve our own production capacity, which is the main line. If there's something that fits the main story, we'll do it. If the robbery of Beiyang does not conform to this main line, we can put him in a less important position. ”

Lu Huitian's remarks effectively made it impossible for some military cadres who did not want to continue to study at the party school to oppose them, and with Chen Ke's support, the People's Party decided to continue to observe the follow-up development of the situation for the time being.

The ensuing development of events came quickly, and on November 1, Yuan Shikai invited Chen Ke to Beijing by telegram for negotiations. Since Chen Ke had negotiated with Yuan Shikai several times, some comrades believed that Chen Kehui would agree to Yuan Shikai's invitation this time. Unexpectedly, Chen Ke immediately refused on the grounds that he was busy with government affairs.

On November 9, Tang Shaoyi, a representative of Beiyang, went to Wuhan to ask to see Chen Ke. Chen Ke met with the Beiyang foreign minister. Tang Shaoyi's attitude was quite tough, and he asked Chen Ke why he allowed the People's Party to invade the provinces surrounding the base area. "Chairman Chen, as far as we know, the People's Party is constantly expanding and encroaching on the borders of Shandong, Henan, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Fujian, and Guangdong. Although the four provinces in the base area have not yet joined the National Assembly, the People's Party has also sent telegrams expressing its support for the autonomy of the provinces and the peaceful establishment of the country. This is unacceptable. The Beiyang government has received complaints from the provinces and hopes to give an explanation to the People's Party on this issue. ”

Beiyang has a tough attitude, but Chen Ke is unable to answer this question for the time being. The BJP's expansion in "peacetime" has been faster than Chen Ke himself had anticipated. The People's Party loves the "economically backward mountainous areas". In the eyes of other political forces, the mountainous area is a difficult area to manage, with little production and strong people. In the view of the People's Party, because of the backwardness of the productive forces, various social contradictions in the mountainous areas have intensified to a very high degree. Coupled with the limited control of the provincial governments in the mountainous areas, the expansion of the BJP's influence here is really like a fish in water.

As for the plains, the neighboring villages have been living a prosperous life after defecting to the People's Party. As long as the local landlords do not occupy the main leadership position, it is not uncommon for villages in the plains to defect to the BJP. Some villages were doing so to avoid government taxes, while others were trying to get goods from the People's Party supply and marketing cooperatives. In other villages, it is more unusual that the whole village hopes that its children can go to school for free like the villages under the People's Party. Although there are many reasons, the purpose is to live a better life.

The expansion of the base area has brought huge benefits, but for now, the enemy counterattack brought by these benefits can be regarded as officially coming. Let Tang Shaoyi go back to his residence and wait first, and Chen Ke immediately convened a party committee meeting.

Tang Shaoyi's Chenglong fast son-in-law Gu Weijun came to the base with Tang Shaoyi this time, and seeing the People's Party guards outside tightly guarding the gate, Gu Weijun felt a little uneasy, "Father-in-law, the People's Party won't get any news, right?" ”

Gu Weijun, who was quite appreciated by Yuan Shikai, heard some rumors that Yuan Shikai invited Chen Ke to Beijing not long ago, and it is said that he planned to put Chen Ke under house arrest. Whether this is true or not, the appearance of such rumors itself means that Beiyang is ready to take tough measures against the People's Party. The BJP was so heavily guarded that the unfriendly ones said they didn't need to ask about it at all.

"Chen Ke's strength is not so small, if he is not ready to turn his face with the central government, it is naturally impossible to put us under house arrest. If he is ready to turn against the central government, there is no reason to put us under house arrest. Tang Shaoyi was very open, and after answering the question, Tang Shaoyi asked Gu Weijun, "Shaochuan, in the future, our Beiyang and the People's Party will not fight less, as far as you see Chen Ke's attitude, what do you think?" ”

Listening to Tang Shaoyi's question, Gu Weijun was silent for a while before saying in a deep voice: "Weak countries have no diplomacy. ”

Tang Shaoyi never expected that his son-in-law was not optimistic about this negotiation at all, even if he knew that the result of the negotiation could not be satisfactory, Tang Shaoyi didn't think it could be so bad, he asked: "How can Shaochuan think like this?" ”

Gu Weijun said slowly while sorting out his thoughts: "I see that Chen Ke was very surprised by us bringing up this matter, and he himself doesn't think there is anything wrong with him doing this. This mentality is the same as that of the great powers towards China. I don't think Chen Ke is a scheming person, which means that Chen Ke will never back down when it comes to expansion. ”

Tang Shaoyi is also a person who is good at negotiation, and when he heard Gu Weijun's analysis, he already agreed with it in his heart. Before Beiyang sent him, he had already contacted the forces of the surrounding provinces of the People's Party. This time, Tang Shaoyi was not only instructed to negotiate with the People's Party, but if the negotiations failed, he would also hold talks in Jiangsu, Hunan, and Guangdong, which are neighboring to the People's Party. Efforts should be made to create a situation of "common condemnation" in the provinces of the People's Party's base areas. "Then how does Shaochuan think this matter will develop?"

"If there is no common condemnation, the BJP may simply be arrogant. If this joint condemnation situation is reached, I am afraid that the result will be to be jointly condemned. Gu Weijun replied.

Tang Shaoyi listened to the words "jointly begged", and did not say anything for a long time. Tang Shaoyi has always appreciated Gu Weijun's keenness, but he found that he still had some insufficient understanding of Gu Weijun's keenness.

Chen Ke didn't think about what Beiyang was going to do, in fact, he didn't care much about what Beiyang was going to do. Grandpa Mao said a shocking sentence at the founding ceremony, "The Chinese people have stood up from now on!" "The new China in which Chen Ke lives is such a country that stands up bravely in the face of the world. As for the willingness of some to kneel down again, that is purely a personal choice. And China as a country has never bowed to other countries. So the same is true for the base area, Chen Ke has no idea of giving in to any force at all.

After introducing the current situation, Chen Ke said to the comrades of the Central Committee with a smile, "Yuan Shikai is only afraid that his skin is itchy, this is a disease, and he must be treated." ”。

"How to cure it, and where to treat it?" Hua Xiongmao was the first to understand what Chen Ke meant, and he asked excitedly.

"Is there going to be a war?" Lu Huitian's reaction was a little slower.

"It's not enough to fight a war now, and I am ready to tell Tang Shaoyi that the people around the base area have the freedom to join our People's Party. Yuan Shikai cannot infringe on the people's freedom to choose to join the People's Party. He doesn't have that power. Speaking of this, Chen Ke put away his smile, "At the same time, we must make public to the whole country the political program of our People's Party, especially the political program of land reform." ”

The Central Committee of the People's Party is very clear about how much resistance the land reform can arouse. In the four provinces of the base area, tens of thousands of landlords were killed or committed suicide, and more than 100,000 landlords were killed. Chen Ke has incomparable patience and confidence in the people who are willing to become laborers, no matter what their background, and he is also intolerant of enemies who refuse to surrender and surrender.

"What if the enemies unite?" Shang Yuan was a little worried. Never before has the BJP shown such a hardline attitude to the outside world.

"It's all enemies, what else is there to say. Just wipe it out. "Hua Xiongmao has a very tough attitude.

"And how is the military plan arranged?" Lu Huitian asked.

"Whoever moves first will be hit!" Chen Ke replied categorically, "Fight with one punch, so as not to come with a hundred punches." Those people were very afraid of death, and when they saw someone suffering, they immediately became honest. ”

Lu Huitian simply agreed and did not continue to speak. The People's Party had a bumper harvest of summer and autumn grain in 1912, and with a planned conscription of 600,000 soldiers, even the government system had no fear of war.

The party committee passed the countermeasures, and Chen Ke did not go out in person, he asked Zhang Yu, the minister of propaganda, to meet Tang Shaoyi. Zhang Yu participated in the whole meeting and even participated in the voting. Now that he knows the current and future response measures of the People's Party, Zhang Yu is naturally full of confidence when he speaks. "Mr. Tang, after the republic, the people have the right to choose themselves, and the people have the right to choose the life they like, I think you should know this very well."

Tang Shaoyi knew that Zhang Yu was a propaganda minister who was born in the military, and he originally looked down on Zhang Yu in his heart. However, it was even more strange to hear Zhang Yu talk about the people's freedom. Just when he didn't know how to respond, Gu Weijun interjected, "Since the people have chosen the republican system, the people have the obligation to abide by the laws formulated by the central government." Absolute freedom does not exist! ”

Zhang Yu was stunned for a moment, he thought that it would be easier to fool civil officials like Tang Shaoyi in the old era, they were good at reasoning, as long as they knocked on the word freedom, how to play next depends on what Zhang Yu wants to say. Unexpectedly, Gu Weijun, who was from the law department next to him, keenly grasped the main point and blocked Zhang Yu's next words.

"What do you call it?" Zhang Yu said with a smile.

"Under Gu Weijun."

"Oh, it turned out to be Mr. Tang's fast son-in-law." Zhang Yu said with a smile. He actually knew Gu Weijun, but first sold an official tone to interrupt the negotiations, and Gu Weijun of the province followed Zhang Yu's words, but disrupted Zhang Yu's context.

Gu Weijun didn't give Zhang Yu time, he said with a straight face: "In the Republic of China, the affairs of each province are decided by each province. The affairs of each village are internal to the provinces, a principle that the BJP also endorsed. The current situation is one in which the BJP intervenes in the internal affairs of the provinces, bypassing the provincial governments, contrary to the BJP's own commitments. ”

Zhang Yu actually wanted to tell Tang Shaoyi and Gu Weijun, "What you say is." "But if you say it so quickly, you will definitely be scolded and punished by the central government, and Zhang Yu doesn't dare to act so arbitrarily." Mr. Gu, the Constitution of the Republic of China first stated that the Republic of China was established to realize the happiness and freedom of the people of the People's Republic of China. As for the autonomy of the provinces, it is only the organizational structure of the government, and it has nothing to do with the happiness of the people. It is the people's right and the people's freedom to choose which province of the Republic of China to join the Republic of China. These people did not join a foreign country and become traitors. They just made the best choice for themselves in order to realize their own interests. Why should Article 1 of the Constitution take precedence over Article 2 of the Constitution? Because it's about showing who has more priority. There is no need to discuss which of the precedence of the self-government of the United Provinces and the power of the people to pursue their happiness should prevail. ”

After Tang Shaoyi and Gu Weijun listened to Zhang Yu's explanation, their faces changed. What does not need to be discussed at the moment is not the Constitution, but the attitude of the BJP. Zhang Yu can use strong words to reason to such an extent, and the degree of shamelessness is comparable to that of the European and American powers.

"Mr. Zhang, that means that the villages in your base area also have the right to choose whether to join our province or not?" Tang Shaoyi asked coldly.

"We don't have that kind of provision in the constitution of the base area, so they can't do that." Zhang Yu replied.

Tang Shaoyi asked with a gloomy face: "That means that no matter what we say, you will continue to do it according to your own ideas?" ”

Zhang Yu looked at Tang Shaoyi with a regretful look, "Mr. Tang, we will definitely act according to our own ideas, and this has nothing to do with whether you come to our base or not, or whether you speak or say anything in our base." We have the right to do what we want. When you came this time, I heard that you wanted to discuss with us the issue of villages in other provinces taking the initiative to join our People's Party base areas. This question is the choice of the people of these villages. It has nothing to do with us, what you are talking about is not in line with the object you are facing. If you don't want the local villages to join us on their own, you should talk to the people of those villages, not us. Can you tell the difference? ”

Tang Shaoyi was about to be mad by Zhang Yu, and he forced himself to ask angrily, "Then why do you think that you are qualified to accept the village's application for the base area?" ”

Zhang Yu replied: "Our judgment is based on this constitution of the Republic of China. We believe that the Constitution gives these people the right to freely choose their happy lives. We believe that the legitimate use of power by the people should be supported. ”

Tang Shaoyi's face darkened with anger, he didn't expect that the People's Party, a "Qiu Ba", would be so similar when it comes to crooked reasoning. Tang Shaoyi's mission was to negotiate, not to declare war. Although he wanted to drag Zhang Yu out with a thousand cuts, Tang Shaoyi couldn't directly tear his face.

Gu Weijun studied law, and seeing that Tang Shaoyi was stunned by Zhang Yu, even if he knew that no matter how he talked about it, there would be no result, but being justified by an officer in a legal dispute was absolutely unacceptable to Gu Weijun. He said loudly word by word: "You do not have the right to interpret the Constitution of the Republic of China. ”

"We don't, but neither do you!" Zhang Yu knew that he had gained an all-round advantage, so his voice was deliberately coarse, so that it sounded more solemn and oppressive, "Not only do you not have it, but the Beiyang Cabinet does not have this power, and the current President of the Republic of China, Yuan Shikai, does not have this power." According to the Constitution of the Republic of China, only after the formal convening of the National Assembly is the National Assembly elects a Constitutional Interpretation Committee, or entrusts a court to set up a Constitutional Interpretation Committee. in order to interpret issues related to the Constitution. After the explanation, it will have to be approved by a vote of Congress. If you're really going to talk to us about this constitutional interpretation, then go through the process first. ”

was robbed of white by a diplomat from "Qiu Ba" to such an extent, Tang Shao was dizzy. But the military strength of the People's Party is completely above Beiyang, and even if it is strong, it cannot be said that Zhang Yu is messing around. In a burst of embarrassment, Tang Shaoyi suddenly remembered Gu Weijun's words not long ago, "A weak country has no diplomacy!" ”