In the war with the People's Party, Beiyang fought the largest, followed by Jiangsu Wang Youhong. Wang Youhong at least defeated the Liberation Society's troops, but failed to capture them when attacking the positions held by the People's Party. The People's Party finally took the initiative to withdraw from its position, and in this sense, Wang Youhong could be regarded as winning. Therefore, whether it is Yuan Shikai or even Cai Yuanpei, he hopes that Wang Youhong, the governor of Jiangsu, can "make persistent efforts and continue to write brilliantly". Unexpectedly, Wang Youhong actually directly said that he was not the opponent of the People's Party, which could not help but disappoint the two. Yuan Shikai felt that there was a lack of excellent cannon fodder on the strategic puzzle, and Cai Yuanpei really regretted it.

But Wang Youhong is not a direct subordinate of Beiyang after all, and the strength of the Beiyang Army in Fujian and Zhejiang is not strong, only 50,000 people. The planned expansion of the army can reach the scale of 150,000 people, but at the moment, facing Wang Youhong, who has nearly 50,000 troops, Yuan Shikai also knows that he can't be forced too much. The current situation is becoming more and more unfavorable to the People's Party, and if Wang Youhong defects to the People's Party in a hurry, the People's Party will really welcome Wang Youhong. Yuan Shikai turned to Cai Yuanpei, "Mr. Cai, to exterminate the People's Party in Zhejiang and Fujian, Mr. Cai needs to make a list." ”

Wang Youhong secretly scolded Yuan Shikai for being cunning in his heart, if Yuan Shikai didn't ignore Wang Youhong, even if he said a word, Wang Youhong would ask Yuan Shikai for assistance. In fact, Jiangsu is not only incapable of attacking the People's Party's base areas, but also unable to defend itself in the face of the People's Party's hundreds of thousands of troops. There are many Beiyang soldiers and a large territory. Even if the situation is unfavorable for a while, it will not be over. However, it would take at most a day for the People's Party troops, which were only a few dozen miles away from Nanjing, to attack Nanjing, and the People's Party would be attacking southern Jiangsu from both sides, and once they attacked, the entire 50,000-strong army in southern Jiangsu would not last long. It's just that asking for people and climbing along the pole are two different things, if Yuan Shikai speaks first, Wang Youhong can naturally ask for help. But if Wang Youhong took the initiative to ask for assistance, then whatever conditions Yuan Shikai offered, Wang Youhong would have to accept.

Thinking about how to talk about Beiyang Aid, Wang Youhong missed the conversation between Yuan Shikai and Cai Yuanpei. When he listened more carefully, he heard Cai Yuanpei reply: "If you want to stop the policies of the People's Party at the moment, you must unite the landlords and gentry all over the world." But the small landlords are timid and afraid, and they have to get by. This group of people is the most important. ”

Because he didn't listen to the previous words, Wang Youhong felt like falling into the clouds for a while, and he couldn't understand what Cai Yuanpei was talking about at all. But I heard Yuan Shikai say: "Mr. Cai, this matter must be done in a two-pronged manner. ”

This time, Cai Yuanpei didn't respond, just nodded slightly.

Yuan Shikai saw that the conversation was almost over, so he simply sent the guests off. Wang Youhong originally wanted to continue to talk about cooperation with Yuan Shikai. But after thinking about it, when the People's Party really enters Jiangsu, will Beiyang still dare to see death and not save it? At the moment, he begged Yuan Shikai to send troops into Jiangsu, not to mention whether he could guard against the attack of the People's Party, wouldn't Wang Youhong need to guard against the Beiyang Army taking the opportunity to seize power? Thinking of this, Wang Youhong felt that there was nothing to be afraid of.

After sending these people away, Yuan Shikai met with the representatives of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Kangding, and these provinces had no sense of the infiltration of the People's Party, and they had nothing to scruple about when they spoke. They had nothing else to say other than to express their empty support to Yuan Shikai. What Yuan Shikai hoped was that these people could maintain an attitude of leaning towards Beiyang, and as for how much effort they could really make, Yuan Shikai did not count on these provinces.

Just met people in batches, and at night, Yuan Shikai sat in the office tiredly, no longer looking so radiant during the day. The gray hair and a few deep wrinkles on the fat face all gave people a haggard feeling.

"President," Wang Shizhen shouted when he came in, "I have sent out the representative of Shaanxi." ”

"Sit, sit." Yuan Shikai said, "Today, when the representative of Yungui talked about the establishment of the lecture hall, I was wondering whether to transfer Feng Guozhang back and let him be in charge of the affairs of the Beiyang Military Academy. In the construction of military schools, he is more capable than many people. ”

Hearing Yuan Shikai talk about this, Wang Shizhen nodded slightly after sitting down. If Yuan Shikai looks tired and haggard, Wang Shizhen gives people the feeling of being old. His gray hair is almost completely white at the moment, because he is thinner, Wang Shizhen has more and deeper wrinkles. Wang Shizhen said: "President, we claim to build 2 million troops, but in fact how many troops do we want to build? ”

"At the moment, we need at least 1.6 million." Yuan Shikai replied.

Wang Shizhen said slowly: "That also has to train at least 50,000 military academy graduates, last year Jiang Baili said that a large number of military schools will be built, we didn't listen at that time, if the military academy is built at the moment, even if it is a crash course, it will take two years." ”

Yuan Shikai didn't answer this time, he just shook his head slightly. Jiang Baili's insight is good, if he had made up his mind to build a military academy at the beginning of last year, by the end of 1914, it should be enough for the junior officers in the million-strong army. However, at the beginning of last year, Beiyang's finances dried up, where did Yuan Shikai have the money to run a military school? That is, at the end of last year, the British negotiated a loan agreement with Beiyang, and the British also gave a part of the loan to Beiyang in the form of 300 million taels of silver, which solved Beiyang's urgent need. But after time passed, it was irretrievable, and military schools were established to train troops. It's not something that can be solved with money, it has to be done with enough time.

Wang Shizhen continued: "President, I will not participate in the establishment of a military academy this time, so I might as well leave the matter to young people." ”

Yuan Shikai looked at Wang Shizhen's almost white hair and the wrinkles on his face like a knife, his heart softened, and he almost wanted to agree to Wang Shizhen's request. But in the end, he replied: "It's okay to let young people do more things, let them do more, and you will supervise them." If you don't preside over this matter, I'm really not at ease. ”

Wang Shizhen sighed softly in an inaudible voice, sighing was a very rare thing for Wang Shizhen, but Wang Shizhen really couldn't help it. It was not difficult to obtain information on the People's Party, and Wang Shizhen paid special attention to the collection of information, and he knew a lot about the situation of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. The People's Party has long established a rotational training system, and commanders at all levels of the unit regularly go to military academies to receive education. Moreover, the BJP encouraged its soldiers to join the volunteer army. Once they become volunteers, they become the backbone of all aspects, and after they go to military academies to receive education, they are assigned jobs when they come out, and most of the volunteers become technical soldiers. Among the 600,000 People's Party troops, at least 100,000 have military training experience.

If Beiyang wants to build an army of 1.6 million, the squad leader alone must have 160,000 people, and the platoon commander needs 40,000. These grassroots officers need 200,000 people alone. With the current situation in Beiyang, there are less than 40,000 grassroots officers, and all military academies are open, and 160,000 people need to be retrained and trained. Not only is it difficult to get so many people, but the scale of the military academy is not enough to train so many junior officers. Because in the first place, there are not so many military school teachers.

If the People's Party on the other side wants to raise an army of the same size, it only needs to cultivate another 100,000 people. It's not just that the difficulty has been reduced, the People's Party currently has one senior military academy, four intermediate military academies, and eight junior military academies. As far as Wang Shizhen knows, each school can train 4,000 students per session. In this way, 48,000 students can be graduated in a year. The current scale of military academies in Beiyang is only more than 10,000 people. The gap between the two sides is simply too great.

But there is no other way at the moment, if Wang Shizhen does not personally preside over this matter, other people will not have the ability to subdue the Beiyang generals at all. Thinking of this, Wang Shizhen didn't even have the mood to sigh. He nodded, "President, I'll take care of this matter." ”

"Then I'll be relieved." Yuan Shikai sighed in relief.

In the days that followed, Yuan Shikai first spoke privately with the congressional delegates about Beiyang's strategy of firmly opposing the People's Party's land reform. First with the support of the representatives of the southern provinces, and then

If Beiyang wants to build an army of 1.6 million, the squad leader alone must have 160,000 people, and the platoon commander needs 40,000. These grassroots officers need 200,000 people alone. With the current situation in Beiyang, there are less than 40,000 grassroots officers, and all military academies are open, and 160,000 people need to be retrained and trained. Not only is it difficult to get so many people, but the scale of the military academy is not enough to train so many junior officers. Because in the first place, there are not so many military school teachers.

If the People's Party on the other side wants to raise an army of the same size, it only needs to cultivate another 100,000 people. It's not just that the difficulty has been reduced, the People's Party currently has one senior military academy, four intermediate military academies, and eight junior military academies. As far as Wang Shizhen knows, each school can train 4,000 students per session. In this way, 48,000 students can be graduated in a year. The current scale of military academies in Beiyang is only more than 10,000 people. The gap between the two sides is simply too great.

But there is no other way at the moment, if Wang Shizhen does not personally preside over this matter, other people will not have the ability to subdue the Beiyang generals at all. Thinking of this, Wang Shizhen didn't even have the mood to sigh. He nodded, "President, I'll take care of this matter." ”

"Then I'll be relieved." Yuan Shikai sighed in relief.

In the days that followed, Yuan Shikai first spoke privately with the congressional delegates about Beiyang's strategy of firmly opposing the People's Party's land reform. First with the support of the representatives of the southern provinces, and then

In the days that followed, Yuan Shikai first spoke privately with the congressional delegates about Beiyang's strategy of firmly opposing the People's Party's land reform. First with the support of the representatives of the southern provinces, and then