On the first day of the first lunar month in 1911, the Qing court finally agreed to start abdication negotiations, and after nearly a month of negotiations and preparations, on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of 1911, when Feng Guozhang's troops arrived in Cangzhou, the Qing court officially telegraphed to the whole country, announcing a conditional abdication.

From then on, the Manchu Dynasty, which represented the feudal imperial system, was completely over, and a new era was about to begin, at least as most people at that time thought.

On the day that the Qing court officially announced its abdication, Chen Qimei, the provisional mayor of Shanghai, took the lead in issuing a telegram announcing that a preparatory meeting for the provisional government would be held in Shanghai, calling on the governors of all provinces to immediately send people to Shanghai to attend the preparatory meeting for the provisional government.

However, on the afternoon of the day that Chen Qimei announced the telegram, the Taiping Mansion also quickly issued a telegram, and the content of the previous telegram was similar to that of Chen Qimei's telegram, except that the venue of the negotiations was changed from Shanghai to Nanjing, and the meeting time was changed to February 2 of the lunar calendar, that is, the day of the folk Qinglong Festival.

Later, however, the Taiping Prefecture continued to issue a telegram announcement, which said that Chen Qimei was only a temporary local official appointed by the former Taiping Provincial Military Government and the current Jiangnan Provincial Military Government, and that she had no right to privately make a decision to hold and prepare for a nationwide provisional government conference without the approval of the higher-level government, that is, the Jiangnan Provincial Military Government. In view of Chen Qimei's ultra vires behavior, the Jiangnan Provincial Military Government officially announced the removal of Chen Qimei from the post of interim mayor of Shanghai, and declared all orders issued by Chen Qimei null and void.

After this telegram was released, it immediately caused an uproar in the whole country, and Chen Qimei immediately followed the telegram, announcing that he did not belong to the Jiangnan Provincial Military Government, and that Shanghai Guangfu was an uprising on its own. and appointed himself as the governor of Shanghai.

However, just after Chen Qimei sent this telegram, the Jiangnan Provincial Military Government immediately sent another telegram, saying that Shanghai was taken by the original Taiping Rebel Army from the Qing army, and that Chen Qimei's position as temporary mayor of Shanghai was also appointed by the Taiping Rebel Military Government at that time, and that it was not a self-uprising at all. Chen Qimei's behavior of appointing the governor on her own. It is a betrayal of the revolution, and if it does not repent, the Jiangnan Provincial Military Government will send troops to suppress it on the same day.

After this telegram was sent, Chen Qimei did not seem to be afraid at all, or did not believe that the Jiangnan Provincial Military Government would send troops at this time, so he continued to play with the telegram, and kept quoting scriptures and classics to refute the Jiangnan Provincial Military Government, saying that they were usurping the fruits of the revolution and engaging in warlordism.

However, at this time. The Jiangnan Provincial Military Government did not give up electricity again, but sent a battalion of troops from Nanjing in a high-profile manner, rode a dozen steamships straight to Shanghai, landed in Shanghai in less than two days, and then after less than a day of firefighting, completely annihilated the so-called Shanghai army composed of Chen Qimei's ruffians and hooligans.

In the scuffle, Chen Qimei fled into the concession and then disguised herself. Fleeing south on a British ship, the battalion sent by the Jiangnan Provincial Military Government retook the defense of Shanghai. He also appointed Wang Ziyu, a member of the Liberation Party, as the new interim mayor of Shanghai.

As soon as this incident came out, the whole country was in an uproar, and members of the League in the south wrote articles criticizing the barbaric acts of the Jiangnan Provincial Military Government and calling on everyone to resist the Jiangnan Provincial Military Government's call to hold a meeting of the provisional government in Nanjing.

Unfortunately, the situation at this time is different from the original plane, and the strength of the Alliance is not strong. Not to mention the lack of prestige, there is no real army and territory, and the predecessor of the Jiangnan Provincial Military Government, the Taiping Rebel Army, has always been the forefront of the anti-Qing Dynasty and the main target of the Qing court. Moreover, in several battles with the Qing army, the Qing court new army in the entire Jiangnan area was almost swept away by the Taiping rebel army, and the Qing court also announced its abdication directly or indirectly because of the Jiangnan Provincial Military Government, so the Jiangnan Provincial Military Government, especially the head Li Zhigao, was full of prestige, and his speech was particularly tough.

In addition, the Jiangnan Provincial Military Government and Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army were already the two most powerful warlord factions in China at this time, with soldiers, money and territory, so after Yuan Shikai announced that he would send people to attend the meeting as promised, other places also followed suit, saying that they would send people over to participate in the provisional government's meeting as promised.

Seeing that the general trend has been achieved, the life of the League is afraid that this time the seizure of power has nothing to do, and the famous Huang Xing personally issued a call in Nanjing, announcing that he should seek common ground while reserving differences, and the most important thing at the moment is to elect a provisional government first, and Sun Wen, who is also in Europe, also announced that he would attend the meeting in Nanjing as promised, so other people also borrowed the donkey to get off the slope, no longer mentioning Chen Qimei's matter, but also sent people to Nanjing, wanting to win the biggest cake at the temporary meeting.

In this way, on the 26th day of the first lunar month in 1911, 46 delegates from 14 provinces, including Hubei, Hunan, Fujian, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Guangxi, Zhili, Henan, Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Sichuan, arrived in Nanjing and convened the first consultation meeting of the provisional government on February 2 of the lunar calendar as scheduled.

At the meeting, Tan Renfeng was elected as the speaker, and then the representatives of all parties spoke to each other, but to put it bluntly, they were desperately trying to get benefits for themselves, because everyone was too different, so the meeting was held day after day, but there was no final charter.

Finally, the meeting decided to implement the strategy of one country, two governments, that is, to jointly recognize the Republic of China, a country that belongs to the same republican presidential system, but the central government is divided into two, namely the presidential office and the prime minister's office.

Among them, Yuan Shikai is the interim president, in charge of the presidential palace, and Li Zhigao is the interim prime minister, in charge of the prime minister's office, which is fine, but the strange thing is that the presidential palace and the prime minister's office of the Republic of China are not in the same place, but one south and one north.

To put it simply, the presidential palace in Beijing in the north is under the direct leadership of Yuan Shikai, and the prime minister's office is located in Nanjing in the south, which is directly led by Li Zhigao. Although they are called so, their respective functions are very large, they are both in charge of civil affairs and military affairs, and they both have their own armies, and they are two military governments.

Because of this situation, everyone also calls the presidential office the Northern Military Government, and the Prime Minister's Office the Southern Military Government, which is the so-called two governments.

The two governments, or the two military governments, are bounded by the existing Line of Control and do not interfere with each other in peacetime. When it comes to state-level diplomacy, it is up to the two military governments to discuss it.

Obviously, although such a speechless measure recognizes one China, it is to divide the whole of China's north and south into two local regimes, and it also shows that there is no real sincerity in negotiations. is not a saint who sacrifices his own interests to fulfill everyone, at this point, whether it is Yuan Shikai or Li Zhigao, they are all half a catty.

Of course, although it is said that it is one country and two governments, neither the presidential office in the north nor the prime minister's office in the south can truly represent the north or the south.

For example, Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army currently only controls Beijing, Tianjin, Tang, Hebei, and Shandong. These areas in northern Jiangsu, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, the three eastern provinces and other northern regions are only nominally obedient to orders, and they do not belong to the core areas of the Beiyang Army.

The same is true in the south, where Li Zhigao's Jiangnan Army actually controls only Anhui, Hubei, Zhejiang, southern Jiangsu, and northern Jiangxi, and other areas such as Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Guizhou are also areas beyond Li Zhigao's control.

In other words, although the Republic of China has been established and one country and two governments have been established, China has actually entered the era of warlord separation. Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army and Li Zhigao's Jiangnan Army were only two of the most powerful warlords. It is precisely because the two of them are the most powerful that Yuan Shikai has become the representative of the northern warlords, while Li Zhigao is the representative of the southern warlords, and that's it.

As for who will win the world in the end, it is still unknown.

Obviously, this temporary policy of one country and two governments only satisfied Li Zhigao, Yuan Shikai and other warlords in various places. The members of the League, who had not gained much territory and power, were quite dissatisfied, so they insisted on the establishment of a formal central provisional government, and could not engage in such a trick of one country and two governments.

It's a pity that this time and space is selfish because of Li Zhigao, who does not take the world as his own responsibility. The special person who refused to give up the power in his hand had the Jiangnan Army, which was strong enough to compete with the Beiyang Army, and even had a slight victory, so the North-South talks became an inevitable balance situation, which was not the same as the North-South talks in the original time and space.

In other words, Yuan Shikai did not expect Li Zhigao to give up power, and Li Zhigao did not expect Yuan Shikai to be selfless, so everyone engaged in such a temporary armistice agreement for the demarcation of territory, which belonged to the cooperation agreement in the struggle.

"Wen Qing, how can you be like this! I still believe in you so much, you actually ...... One country, two governments? If you think about it, you are splitting the country, you are betraying the country, you know? ”

It was none other than Tao Chengzhang, who had just been nominated by the Prime Minister's Office or the Jiangnan Military Government to be vice premier of the Prime Minister's Office and president of the Executive Yuan, the post of president of the Executive Yuan, which is equivalent to that of the premier of the State Council and the supreme head of the executive branch. As for Li Zhigao, who is said to be the premier of the highest level of the administrative department, in fact, he is more in charge of the army, and giving Tao Chengzhang a vice premier is just a foreign statement, and the real effective position is still the president of the Executive Yuan.

Nowadays, with the development of the situation, Li Zhigao's authority is becoming more and more important both inside and outside the party, and there are not many people who dare to speak to Li Zhigao like this, let alone in the Jiangnan region, even in the whole country.

You must know that those who belong to the Li family system regard Li Zhigao as the supreme leader, and they usually don't dare to come out when they see the atmosphere, and those outside the system, even if they scold outside, but if they meet in person, they usually don't dare to say anything presumptuous, even Huang Xing, who has always been upright and fierce, is very restrained when he speaks to Li Zhigao.

Only Tao Chengzhang, because his personality is like this, and his status in the party is also very high, he can often see Li Zhigao, so he dares to confront him face to face, of course, this is also related to Li Zhigao's good personality and the reason why he deliberately tolerates the other party.

"It turned out to be Lao Tao, I guess it's you." Seeing the other party's posture of asking for guilt, Li Zhigao smiled bitterly and shook his head, "You can come at this time, it's already too late." ”

"Don't talk about what works and doesn't work." Tao Chengzhang glared angrily, "What the hell do you think?" Why do you want to make such a plan? ”

"Don't worry, sit down first, have a cup of tea, and go to the fire." Li Zhigao pointed to the tea tray next to him and the young woman wearing a white satin kimono, with a beautiful appearance and a dignified kneeling in front of the tea tray, "I am a first-class Wuyi Mountain big red robe, and Meizi's tea ceremony is also quite authentic, if you don't taste it, you will regret it." ”

"I don't have time to drink any kung fu tea!" Tao Chengzhang frowned. Then he glanced at the woman in the same costume, "You go out first, I have something important to tell the chairman, and it is inconvenient for you to listen." ”

Hearing Tao Chengzhang say this, the woman did not leave immediately, but looked at Li Zhigao. After Li Zhigao nodded slightly, he slowly got up in a decent manner, bowed to Li Zhigao and Tao Chengzhang respectively, and slowly took a few steps backwards in small steps, and then turned around and left gently.

I have to say that this kimono woman is decent from getting up to leaving, revealing a kind of Zen everywhere, giving people a very elegant and comfortable posture, even Tao Chengzhang. After seeing such a situation, the anger was much smaller unconsciously.

After the other party closed the door and left completely, Tao Chengzhang recovered from that artistic conception, sighed, turned his head and asked Li Zhigao: "Japanese?" ”

"Well, yes, the Japanese." Li Zhigao nodded, "This Meizi." It was a geisha given to me by a Japanese businessman, and nothing else. However, this tea ceremony is quite good, and he can be a senior tea master. ”

"Then you have to be careful." Tao Chengzhang continued to frown, "The Japanese have never been so kind. ”

"Then you can rest assured." Li Zhigao pouted, "How can I be so easy to fool, in fact, the other party is just a sexual bribe for me, but I still use them for the time being." Wait a minute...... Forget it, let's not mention those, what did you just say? ”

"One country, two governments!" Tao Chengzhang also reacted, "Why do you want to engage in one country and two governments with Yuan Shikai?" I heard that you first came up with this idea, why? ”

"Let's have some tea first." Li Zhigao pointed to a circle of purple sand cups on the tea tray. "Just brewed, drink it, don't waste my good tea."

"You!" Seeing Li Zhigao's appearance, Tao Chengzhang just wanted to get angry, but he quickly shook his head, quickly picked up a cup, and swallowed the tea in the cup with a bang.

"Tsk, I heard that you still studied in Japan, why are you still so temperamental?" Li Zhigao said with a smile, "Didn't you hear that people studying in Japan will order tea ceremony and kendo or something?" ”

"I went to Japan to do revolution, not to be a vassal and elegant." Tao Chengzhang simply sat opposite Li Zhigao, "Okay, I also drank the tea, you should always hand over the bottom with me, right?" Why are you doing this? ”

"Why, do you still need me to say this?" Li Zhigao smiled, took a slow sip of tea, and then said, "Let me ask you, even if I don't mention this one country and two governments, do you think under the current situation, Yuan Shikai and I can really talk together?" ”

"Why not, as long as everyone is open and honest, we will always come up with a charter." Tao Chengzhang said.

"Be honest? What an open and honest one. Li Zhigao sneered, "What do you mean by being open and honest?" Let me give away the army, the territory, the factory wealth and so on? Listen to Yuan Shikai for everything? ”

"I didn't say that." Tao Chengzhang frowned, "It's just that everyone can sit down and talk little by little, it's all for the country, there's nothing that can't be discussed." ”

"Lao Tao, you are not too young, and you are an old revolutionary, I should say that you have a lot of experience in struggle, do you say these words, do you bury me, or bury yourself?"

"What do you mean?"

"What do you mean? Don't you understand? Li Zhigao continued, "Who is Yuan Shikai, don't you know yet?" How could he give up the power in his hands on his own? Let us slaughter? In the same way, it is impossible for us to give up our power and let Yuan Shikai command, so we can only do this now. ”

"I understand." Tao Chengzhang sighed, "But if you are like this, you are putting the country under private power, and it is not beneficial to the country." You, you ...... Can't you just play a little bit of style? At least don't do it on the surface? ”

"Don't do that on the surface? Just continue to do it in private? ”

"At least, at least you have to get a unified government, isn't it, it's a joke for you to separate the two governments!" Tao Chengzhang continued, "When the time comes, it will be all of us Chinese who will be laughed at, not yourself. ”

"Jokes, hehe, what's wrong with foreigners' jokes?" Li Zhigao pursed his lips disdainfully, "To be honest, nowadays, there are still few places where foreigners laugh at us?" And in this world, the emphasis is on the strong for respect, as long as we are strong in the future, what will happen if we are laughed at for the time being? And don't drop a piece of meat. ”

"But if you're like this, what will the Chinese people think of you?"

"What do you think of me? Hehe. Li Zhigao smiled lightly, "Our countrymen, we have always paid attention to the winner as the king, as long as I can finally achieve victory and seize the national power, then all this is not a problem." As long as I can let the majority of the people live a good life with food, clothing, safety and dignity, then no matter what I have done before, I will be a good person and a great sage in the eyes of the people. Do you agree with what I say? ”

"You, you're clearly ......"

"Old Tao," Li Zhigao waved his hand, interrupting Tao Chengzhang's words, "It seems that you have been carried away by the victory recently." Do you think I'm willing to do that? Don't I want to fight in one go and liberate the whole of China? But no, our strength is not enough, so we can only compromise with Yuan Shikai for the time being. In fact, if you look at the current situation, since the abdication of the Qing court, we are about to face an era of fragmentation and warlord separation.

In this era of upcoming warlord melee, what public opinion, what morality is useless bullshit, real strength is the most important thing, fists can't be beaten, everything is illusory. Therefore, the most important thing for us now is to diligently cultivate our internal strength, first do a good job of our people's livelihood economy and military strength, and then use the overwhelming momentum of Mount Tai, use force as the backing, and use the general trend as the vanguard to sweep the whole country, so that people can be truly convinced and achieve real national unity. Let me put it this way, reunification obtained by compromise is incomplete and unreliable, and only by forcibly bulldozing it with strength, relying on iron and fire, can we exchange for a truly cohesive country! And I'm willing to fight for it all my life! ”

Speaking of this, Li Zhigao looked at Tao Chengzhang fixedly: "Lao Tao, as I said in the constitution of the Liberation Party that I revised before, my goal is not only to unify the whole country, realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and make China the strongest superpower on the planet, this is my greatest ideal, are you willing to help me achieve all this?" ”

"You...... Hey, okay. Tao Chengzhang could only shake his head helplessly, "What else can I say, you have said so, I can only do it, anyway, you are the boss." Still, I want you to do what you say and don't lie to me. (To be continued......)