November 1, 1927, Nanjing, Xiyuan.

Li Zongren, who was full of tiredness, sat on the Western-style high-backed soft chair where Commander-in-Chief Chiang once sat high, rubbing his swollen temples with his hands, his elbows propped up on the wide table, and in front of his elbows was an open copy of the "Oriental Outlook" weekly.

Ten days ago, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi took advantage of the name of the Northern Expedition to lead the two armies to the north and march together, and when Tang Shengzhi relaxed his vigilance and pondered whether to take the opportunity to attack Nanjing, he suddenly turned around and went eastward to encircle the two armies in front of Tang Shengzhi's troops, and in the blink of an eye, they annihilated tens of thousands of enemies, and drove more than 60,000 officers and men of He Jian and Liu Xing's armies out of the front line of Wuhu and Anqing in one fell swoop, and won a huge military victory.

Just when Tang Shengzhi was protesting in the Wuhan media against the Gui family's undeclared war, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi immediately convened a military meeting of the special committee with He Yingqin, announcing that Tang Shengzhi would be permanently expelled from the party and the army, and calling on the national revolutionary army to crusade against Tang Shengzhi, the "new warlord and revolutionary traitor"; The next time, the other two giants of the Gui family, Huang Shaohong and Li Jishen, also sent a telegram to the whole country after defeating Ye Ting and He Longbu, responding to the call of the Nanjing Special Committee, raising troops to attack Tang Shengzhi, announcing that they would march into Hunan from the junction of Hunan and Guangdong to attack Tang Shengzhi's lair.

After returning to Guangzhou, Zhang Fakui and Huang Qixiang, who put forward the slogan of "Cantonese people governing Guangdong," successfully controlled Guangzhou and the surrounding areas, and forced Li Jishen, a veteran of the Cantonese army whose ancestral home was Wuzhou, Guangxi, to make concessions.

Feng Yuxiang, who dominated Henan's Gansu and Shaanxi, was not far behind, because Tang Shengzhi had already been resentful of the more than 2 million munitions and medicines given to Feng Yuxiang by the commander-in-chief of the greedy Jiang before leaving, and seized this rare opportunity, Feng Yuxiang immediately exerted the spirit of beating the water dogs, and sent a telegram to the whole country, expressing that the 300,000 officers and men of the Northwest Army fully supported the decision made by the Nanjing Special Committee, that is, to wave his army south to crusade against the new warlord Tang Shengzhi, who had betrayed the revolution.

Tang Shengzhi, who was originally invincible and domineering, was attacked by the enemy on several sides, and was tired of parrying, although he had strong troops, he could only temporarily retreat to eastern Hubei and retreat in the two lakes on the whole line, and it was no longer possible to form a substantial threat to Nanjing.

However, the successive military victories could not save the fate of political defeat, and the Nanjing United Political Axe, which Li Zongren had finally set up with great difficulty, was rapidly split, and Wang Jingwei, who had no military power and was squeezed out by Li Zongren and Tang Shengzhi at the same time, ignored the repeated retention of the special committee and did not want to be a puppet of the Gui family anymore.

On the second day after returning to Guangzhou, Wang Jingwei, together with seven veteran military and political veterans, including Zhang Fakui, Chen Gongbo, and Huang Qixiang, sent a telegram to the whole country, announcing that the fourth plenary session of the Central Committee would be held in Guangzhou, and at the same time the Standing Committee would be restored, and the Secretariat of the Standing Committee, the Central Executive Supervision Committee, and other organs would be established.

After Tang Shengzhi, who was in a desperate situation on all sides, saw Wang Jingwei's telegram, he was like grasping at a life-saving straw, and even heckled to follow suit, giving a telegram in favor of the correct decision made by party leader Wang Jingwei, and brought out the long-sealed party constitution and constitution, criticized Li Zongren's Nanjing Special Committee for having no legal basis, and announced that the tens of millions of soldiers and civilians in the Lianghu area absolutely did not recognize the legal surname of the Nanjing Special Committee.

Seeing the opportunity, the pro-Chiang people in Shanghai, who controlled the financial and media affairs, also attacked the special committee controlled by Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and He Yingqin, and the targets of the attack were very accurately and skillfully chosen; almost all the newspapers questioned and fiercely attacked the 30 million public bonds issued by Li Zongren's special committee; the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce and the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce announced that they could not accept this kind of unwarranted apportionment, and the major newspapers successively published that all circles in Jiangsu and Zhejiang had "harmed industry and commerce, invaded the people, and disturbed the people" As a result, the tens of millions of public bonds in the hands of Zhang Dingfan, the new mayor of Shanghai, became a pile of waste paper, and the hope of the Gui department to get out of the military spending predicament through the issuance of public bonds was instantly dashed.

Immediately afterwards, the newly established "Oriental Outlook" weekly magazine published a series of interviews and reports on the emerging industrial and commercial base in Nanchang, Jiangxi, and published in a conspicuous position the full text of the "Northern Expedition Declaration" issued by General Zhu Peide, chairman of Jiangxi Province and commander-in-chief of the Fifth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army, which reported in detail in detail the excellent equipment and high morale of the Third Army of the National Revolutionary Army in the form of pictures and texts, and also published an exclusive interview with Zhu Shigui, commander of the newly established New Third Army, and Jin Handing, commander of the New Ninth Army, which attracted everyone's attention.

The newly created 50,000 copies of "Oriental Outlook" were put into Shanghai, Nanjing, Nanchang, Wuhan, Suzhou and Hangzhou markets in the form of free gifts, and everyone was surprised to find that this beautifully printed magazine actually had the inscriptions of Yu Youren, Cai Yuanpei, Zhang Jingjiang, Wu Zhihui and other more than a dozen celebrities in the political and educational and cultural circles, and the content of the magazine was extremely rich, covering all aspects of politics, economy, diplomacy, culture and education. Strongly Opposing the Acquisition of the China Eastern Railway by the US Political Axe with a Loan" and other articles exposing many insider stories and writing sharp and spicy articles, which immediately aroused a strong sensation and resonance among the people, and the news of the grand launch of "Celebrating the Founding of the China Young Journalists Association" on the back cover page of the magazine also attracted the attention of China's press, intellectual, business, and political circles.

Li Zongren endured the discomfort in his head, pondered for a long time, and felt unacceptable that Zhu Peide chose to expand the army at this time and openly confront the Xingui faction, and at the same time he was very disappointed. He never thought that this good old man would get angry when he was forced to be in a hurry, and as soon as he made a move, he was so ruthless, and two armies appeared at once, it seems that he still underestimated him before.

"Click!"

There were two knocks outside the office door, and before Li Zongren could say please come in, the door was pushed open from the outside, he looked up at Bai Chongxi, who strode in, nodded and said a few words, and then pushed the "Oriental Outlook" in front of him in front of Bai Chongxi: "Jiansheng, have you read the report above?" ”

"After reading it, I can only say that I am very surprised, this Shanghai Oriental News Agency that suddenly appeared has received the support of so many veterans and celebrities, which is really unexpected!

It can be seen from this that this news agency, headquartered in Shanghai's French Concession, has a deep background, and the younger brother even suspects that it may be that the old Jiang who has not changed his surname is behind the scenes. ”

Bai Chongxi picked up the magazine and flipped through two pages, and put it down casually.

Li Zongren frowned slightly, nodded lightly, and said meaningfully after a while: "Yes, Brother Fool also had this suspicion, but judging from its content, there is no obvious political tendency...... The urgent investigation report sent by the Shanghai side said that the president of this news agency was He Jing, a reporter for the "Central Daily," and the vice president was the bearded Lao Zhuang who had taken pictures of us, and judging from the composition of the news agency's shareholders, the situation was very complicated, and among the three shareholders there was an American named Sharapova, and he claimed that the news agency had already obtained the approval of the registration and issuance of the California State Political Axe, and also obtained the approval of the French Concession Board of Directors for registration and issuance.

However, according to the gossip in the news circle, before He Jing and others founded the news agency, they received strong support from the new rich man An Yi in Nanchang in September, and it was rumored that An Yi once lent He Jing and others a huge sum of 2 million yuan, so there was a series of big deals from this sudden news agency. ”

Bai Chongxi's eyes widened and he asked in surprise, "Involving An Yi?" ”

"That's right! This kid doesn't seem to be very peaceful, I don't know how he used to persuade Zhu Peide, even from the beginning of September to stop tungsten mining and trading in Jiangxi, so that the price of tungsten ore rose by three percent in two months, business officials in Europe and the United States have a lot of opinions in private conversations with us, this time I wanted Mr. Niu to intervene in this matter after serving as the chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Party, now it seems that I am afraid that this wish will never be realized, Mr. Niu submitted his resignation to me last night, unwilling to serve as the chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Party, It seems that Zhu Peide's fierce reaction five days ago has made the party and the generals of various armies see something from it, and the impact is extremely bad!

I now regret my imprudent initial decision, if He Jingzhi's newly established Ninth Army had been given a different name, perhaps there would not have been the current deadlock, and if we properly express our sincerity to Zhu Peide, we might be able to issue 5 million to 10 million public bonds in rich Jiangxi...... Alas, it's too late to say anything now, and the road in Jiangxi is completely blocked by ourselves. Li Zongren let out a long sigh.

Bai Chongxi didn't speak, but picked up the teacup and drank tea slowly, he heard that although Li Zongren's words did not mean to blame, but the decision to deprive Zhu Peide of the Ninth Army at that time was indeed the result of his Bai Chongxi and He Yingqin's insistence, and again, Bai Chongxi himself did not expect that Zhu Peide, a good old man who has always been like a Maitreya Buddha and no one can offend, would be so tough this time, originally wanted to put pressure on Zhu Peide and force him to enter his camp, but in the end it was self-defeating and hostile.

Bai Chongxi suppressed the remorse in his heart, thought for a while and said: "Things are not so bad, at present, our western expedition is going very well, four of the five generals under Tang Mengxiao are all from Guangxi, and they are all Baoding classmates of the younger brother, the contact work is in full swing and has made progress in the substantive surname, if nothing else, we can take Wuhan this month and march into the front line of northern Hunan." The development of the situation is very beneficial to us, and after we take Wuhan, Zhu Peide will definitely react, and we can also free up our hands and put a little more pressure on him, I don't believe that he will not bow down. ”

Li Zongren's face changed, and he shook his head resolutely: "Jiansheng, we can't make any more defeats!" You must understand that Zhu Peide is no longer what it used to be, and after secretly recruiting two batches of recruits from Yunnan, his command quickly swelled to more than 60,000 people in three armies, and he is still recruiting troops all over Jiangxi. As you must know, since the end of August, Zhu Peide's Third Army has hired hundreds of dismissed officers from An Yi's remnants who have survived a hundred battles as instructors, and has frequently appeared in more than 10 counties around the Poyang Lake Plain for several months to carry out military training and confrontation exercises of various scales, and its combat effectiveness has been rapidly improved.

Nanchang area and the surrounding areas are the land of fish and rice, An Yi and brought the rich and rival Kong Xiangxi, Ou Yaoting, Yu Qiaqing and others, tens of millions of huge funds piled up in Nanchang and the surrounding areas, miraculously created a miracle of Nanchang industry and commerce, now even Tang Shengzhi's Wuhan, Zhang Zongchang's Shandong, a huge stream of rich people are constantly going to Nanchang to invest and trade, Zhu Peide made a lot of money in taxes, rich and oily, plus he seized the precious opportunity of the chaotic situation in southern Jiangxi and western Jiangxi in August and September, In one fell swoop, it controlled five of the eight major tungsten mines in Jiangxi Province, and has strong financial resources and huge development potential.

Therefore, even if we defeat Tang Mengxiao completely, it will be difficult to clean him up anymore, even if we win the battle in the end, it will attract criticism from all forces, after all, Zhu Peide's good popularity over the years has not come in vain. What is particularly frightening is that we are also very likely to be jointly attacked by several major domestic and foreign consortia and foreign banks that have invested huge sums of money in Nanchang, which will bring about greater passivity economically and politically.

Looking back now, we have missed the precious opportunity, and we have not seen Jiangxi, a land with huge wealth potential, and I am really ashamed! ”

The more Bai Chongxi listened, the more frightened he became, ashamed of his short-sightedness in politics, and envious of Zhu Peide's good fortune in making a fortune.

Li Zongren's words fell, Bai Chongxi sighed, and said in a low voice: "I was wrong...... Brother, the investigation of An Yi has already been revealed, he himself is wearing a set of literati robes, wandering around, either attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony or inviting guests to a banquet, hugging before and out, spending a lot of money casually, and seems to be really focused on business. Now, all the remnants of his command have joined Zhu Peide's newly formed Nanchang Security Regiment, and they have been recruiting recruits for strict training for months, and the number has reached more than 5,000 people, stationed in Nanchang County and Fengcheng, which is dozens of kilometers to the south.

According to the secret report, the security regiment was sporadically equipped with a powerful new German-made flower machine gun and an American-made Colt pistol, and each squad was equipped with a new Czech-made light machine gun, and the firepower was quite amazing.

Three days ago, Zhu Peide suddenly sent all the newly established New Third Army to Jiujiang to station, and after arranging artillery positions, he immediately began to build permanent fortifications in several strategic places, cast pillboxes and set up outposts, and one of Tang Shengzhi's divisions obediently withdrew from Jiujiang the next day and returned to the eastern Hubei front, and Zhu Peide himself frequently sent personnel to liaise with the generals of other armies in our Second and Third Route Armies. Now that the military budget is poor, all the armies are reaching out to us, if Zhu Peide secretly sends a small favor to buy and win people's hearts, it will be quite unfavorable to us. ”

Li Zongren nodded: "It seems that I can only ask for peace and cannot be rejected, I will send a telegram to Zhu Peide later, and take the opportunity to go to the Hukou Military Station to inspect the front line, and meet with him to clarify the misunderstanding, I believe he will not go to extremes." ”

Bai Chongxi smiled indifferently, picked up the "Oriental Outlook" on the desktop again and slowly flipped through it.

(To be continued)