Just as the sound of killing in the north was earth-shattering, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River suddenly broke out again!

On February 14, 1918, Feng Yuxiang sent a telegram in Wuxue to declare his independence, denouncing the Civil War as the most unconscious and unreasonable war. In the past, he was ordered to "aid Fujian" and not advance to Pukou, just to promote peace between the north and the south. The basis for the peace talks is that Yuezhou will return to Hunan and Jingxiang will return to Hubei, each defending its territory and not violating the two sides, which is not impossible to achieve. Finally, he said that the military should obey the president. And the president has always been the main peace, so the main peace is to obey the president.

His conclusion has two ways: "Either stop the army, or kill Yuxiang to thank the world." "Feng's move was of course an arrangement of the main battle faction to disrupt the main battle party's attack on Hunan, because Wuxue was between Hubei and Jiangxi, and Feng's actions had an impact on the first and second route armies of the main battle faction. It is said that this was planned by Lu Jianzhang behind the scenes, and Lu also had a plan to raid Anhui and drive away Ni Sichong.

At the same time as Feng Yuxiang issued a cold telegram, the Anhui rebel army appeared on the Hubei-Anhui border and in the areas of Huoshan and Lu'an, issued a document on Ni Wei, and publicly recommended Lu Jianzhang as the commander-in-chief of the rebel army. Ni Sichong hastily transferred troops to defend himself, and telegraphed Yanjing Zheng Axe to order the removal of Li Chun and the crusade against Feng Yuxiang.

However, the actions of Feng Yuxiang and Lu Jianzhang failed to get a response from the three governors of the Yangtze River, so they were isolated and helpless, and the main battle faction shouted to punish him, while Wang Shizhen was like an old monk and never spoke.

On February 25, Yanjing Zhengax ordered Feng Yuxiang to be dismissed from the post of brigade commander and handed over to Cao Kun for investigation and handling, with Dong Shilu, the commander of the brigade, acting as the brigade commander. Feng Yuxiang telegraphed Zhang Huaizhi and was willing to wear the guilt and try to make merit. On 1 March, all the officers and men of the Feng Brigade also sent a telegram asking Yanjing to retract the order to remove the brigade commander.

Duan Qirui was extremely shocked by Feng Yuxiang's sudden peace, so he focused all his anger on Feng Guozhang, determined to carry out a military coup to drive Feng from power. However, because the troops of the Anhui system were all transferred to the south, there were not enough troops in his hands to support his plan, so he sent his cronies and think tank Xu Shuzheng, under the pretext of "contacting national defense", to go to the northeast to find Zhang Zuolin, saying that Zhang Zuolin would send his Feng army into the customs to implement the plan to drive Feng.

Although Zhang Zuolin was born in the green forest, he has long had great ambitions, and he supports troops outside the customs to respect himself, just waiting for the opportunity to win the Central Plains. Duan asked him for help, and he readily agreed, and immediately waved his troops into the customs. After the news of Fengjun's entry into the customs came out, the most unsettling person was, of course, Feng Guozhang, Fengtian was behind Yanjing, and the morning and evening came, and he would come.

Feng Guozhang is a president without soldiers and powers, and he has a premonition that he may be expelled or placed under house arrest at any time, so he has calculated 36 plans, and still takes going as the best plan, secretly arranging the second "southern tour", planning to go south from Jinghan Road to Hubei, but how can the people of the Duan family let the tiger return to the mountain. Of course, don't let him leave Yanjing City.

However, after Duan Qirui summoned his cronies for a secret meeting, they changed the military regime to a military threat, so that Feng Guozhang felt threatened and did not expel him immediately.

At the same time, it is planned to convene a new Congress as soon as possible so that the president can be re-elected early.

On February 17, Feng Guozhang was forced to promulgate the Organic Law of the National Assembly and the Law on the Election of Members of the Two Houses as amended by the Provisional Senate, and on the 18th ordered the Ministry of the Interior to prepare for the election of the new National Assembly.

On February 24, the Jingfeng Road train was detained by the Feng army to transport troops. On the 25th, the 53rd Brigade of the 27th Division of the Fengtian Army was transferred to Luanzhou, and Yang Yuting, chief of staff of the Fengtian Military Administration, led troops to Qinhuangdao and robbed the first batch of more than 27,000 rifles that had been transported according to the Central Ordnance Loan Agreement. When the news reached Yanjing, Feng Guozhang and Duan Qirui were shocked together; In particular, the batch of ordnance that Duan Qirui borrowed money from Yueben to buy was to train his descendant troops to "participate in the army", but now he was taken by the Feng army, how can it not be a big headache. On the 26th, Zhang Zuolin asked for "the original to be returned" and shipped to Yanjing. On the same day, Zhang also sent a telegram, saying that he had already arranged for the southern expedition, and that he had not started it because of the lack of arms, and that he was now taking the arms without reporting, and that he was afraid that it would take time to go back and forth to ask for instructions, so he had no choice but to keep them and report them later.

Zhang Zuolin did not steal the arms without authorization, because he did not know that the arms had arrived in Qinhuangdao. So who hinted at Zhang Zuolin? It turned out to be Xu Shuzheng!

Due to the rapid entry of the Feng army, Feng Yuxiang's "surprise army plan" to attack Anhui could not be realized. Yan Jingzheng ordered the removal of Brigade Commander Feng Yuxiang before, Feng Yuxiang had threatened all the officers and soldiers to advance and retreat with the brigade commander, and the situation forced him to bow his head at this time. Ni Sichong asked Yanjing Zheng Axe Xun Cao Kun to send troops to attack Feng Brigade in order to stop the huge trouble of the Yangtze River, and accused Feng Kang of not confessing, and added troops to the upper and lower reaches of Wuxue to strangle, and secretly went back and forth with Su Du to discuss the military strategy, which shows that his ambition is unrestrained and he is instructed by others. But Cao Kun refused to send troops, so Ni Sichong didn't dare to attack alone!

Feng Yuxiang had already risen to prominence at this time. Zhang Huaizhi suggested that Feng Brigade be transferred to Heilongjiang to garrison, but Feng Yuxiang naturally refused to fill the army and "sent it to the frontier to serve." And Zhang Zuolin did not welcome this army. It was not until March 18 that Yanjing Zhengaxe adopted Cao Kun's opinion, gave Feng Yuxiang the punishment of "dismissal and retention", abducted the lieutenant general of the army, temporarily allowed to remain as brigade commander, and handed over to Cao Kun for moderate dispatch.

After the Feng army entered the customs, Zhang Zuolin put forward two demands: the dismissal of Li Chun and the crusade against Feng Yuxiang, which he said was to "support the Führer." But Feng Guozhang, the head of state who was supported by him, was frightened and flustered.

Duan Qirui didn't know that Zhang Zuolin, the king of Guanwai, was not easy to mess with, and it was not easy to invite him out, but since he drank to quench his thirst, he could only "go hard".

Feng Guozhang knew that it was impossible to ask Duan Qirui to retire from Fengjun, so he had to invite Zhao Erxun, who had been the governor of the three eastern provinces in the late Qing Dynasty and personally appeased Zhang Zuolin, to Fengtian to persuade Zhang Zuolin to withdraw from the army.

Feng Guozhang's pain at this time is really for the sake of the people of peace and can't get it, he is now a bare-bones president, although the prime minister of the cabinet is represented by Qian Nengxun, but Qian refuses to go on his behalf, and he wants to explain every day. Feng wrote to Yang Shiqi and asked the old fox from Anhui to come out of the mountain, but Yang didn't even reply to the letter. And the Overseers are self-inflicted, without a president, and the Feng army not only sends troops without authorization, but also takes weapons without authorization, is it tolerable, but it is unbearable?

On 5 March, it was said that the first section of the Fengjun army had left Tianjin to Langfang to inspect passengers at the station, which surprised the Chinese and foreign people, and the State Council in Yanjing sent a telegram to persuade them, explaining that Langfang was not a martial law area and that passengers could not be checked. And the telegram sent by Zhang Zuolin took care of him.

At this time, there was a new terror inside and outside Yanjing City, and it was believed that the situation of the restoration of the pigtailed soldiers would reappear. Because the warlords of the main battle faction had a joint telegram to bail Zhang Xun out, Zhang Xun and Zhang Zuolin were sons and daughters, Zhang Zuolin had many restorationists in the scene, and the Feng army drove into the customs for a long time, directly forcing the Beijing division, everything was like Zhang Xun on the eve of entering Beijing, how could it not make people shock the old things. Therefore, many wealthy officials in Yanjing City have left Beijing, and the station is crowded with passengers who have left Beijing, helping the old and the young, as if a catastrophe is coming.

On March 7, Fengtian published a telegram between Zhang Zuolin and Cao Kun and Zhang Huaizhi, and on March 5, Zhang said that his purpose was to "support the central authorities, maintain the overall situation, always unite, put down civil strife, liaise with comrades, and jointly save the peril." ”

He also said that the Tianjin Conference had incorporated the Feng army into the first route, and later reorganized it into the second route, and he was extremely sympathetic, and had now organized it into six mixed brigades, and if they did not open up, they would not believe in their comrades and be unjust to our brothers. Zhang Zuolin tried his best to explain in this telegram: "I have no personal ambitions, I have exceeded my wealth, wealth, fame and power, what do I hope for, I only focus on the current situation, my brother expands his strength, and he specializes in tutoring my brother, and he has no selfish intentions. ”

Cao Kun's Yangdian on March 7 was to welcome Fengjun into the customs, and praised Zhang Zuolin for his righteousness, uprightness, and friendship. Please concentrate on Xuzhou and join the second road; Please also send one or two more mixed brigades to Hankow to join the first road. Zhang Huaizhi's Yangdian praised the entry of the Feng army into the customs as "strengthening my morale and strengthening our support", and said that Hanzhuang had been designated as the first stop of the Feng army's southward movement.

On March 7, Feng Guozhang sent out a telegram that had been shelved for three days.

After Feng Guozhang's telegram was published, the situation seemed to have eased, mainly because the Anhui faction and the main battle faction did not want to immediately expel Feng from power, so Cao Kun, Zhang Huaizhi, Zhang Jingyao, and others of the main battle faction all called back to Feng to praise Feng, and the overseers of the six provinces, including Zhi, Shandong, Suzhou, Anhui, and Jiangxi, sent a joint telegram to rebuke the overthrow of the Führer and prepare for restoration as nonsense.

On March 8, the situation in Yanjing appeared to be very tense, the presidential palace was in a state of emergency martial law, and the Fuxue Hutong section was also heavily guarded.

On March 9, Wang Shizhen fled to Tianjin in disguise. After he arrived in Tianjin, he wrote a letter to two old friends, Feng and Duan, in which he vowed never to return to Beijing to take up his post.

During this period, the Anhui system used all its strength to oppress Feng Guozhang and exclude Li Chun. Although Feng Guozhang is weak, he has a very tough attitude on Li Chun's issue, he said that the president has no right to recall the overseers, if he has the power to recall the overseers, then the first overseer he wants to recall is not Li Chun but Zhang Zuolin, who led troops into the customs without authorization and robbed the arms.

Duan Qirui instructed the cabinet members of the Anhui department to pass a motion at the State Council: Li Chun often asked for leave, told him to leave his post to recuperate, and sent Lu Yongxiang to act as the superintendent of Jiangsu. Feng Guozhang refused to put his seal on the order, and at the same time instructed Li Chun to immediately cancel the fake in order to boycott it. Duan Qirui also suggested that Li Chun be transferred to the chief of staff, but Feng Guozhang did not agree. Due to Duan's increasing pressure, Feng Guozhang agreed to follow the previous method of disposing of Chen Guangyuan and give Li Chun the punishment of "dismissal and retention", but Duan Qirui also disagreed.

On March 12, Ni Sichong, the extremist main battle faction, came to Tianjin again and invited Zhang Zuolin to Tianjin to jointly instigate the formation of a cabinet and the dismissal of Li Chun. On this day, the Fengjun set up the general headquarters of the Fengjun army in the military grain city 50 miles away from Tianjin, Zhang Zuolin was also the commander-in-chief, and Xu Shuzheng acted as the commander-in-chief in the name of deputy commander.

Yanjing is finally starting to mess up!

(To be continued)