The snow was still falling, and the living room, which had been noisy and crowded just a moment ago, became unusually quiet again, and the two small braziers and the newly added fragrant charcoal had made the room much warmer.

Minister of Internal Affairs Goto Shinpei, Minister of the Navy Yuzaburo Kato, and Vice President of the China Friendship Association and Chairman of the Black Dragon Society Mitsuru Toyama sat neatly in a row.

Goto Shinpei took the hot tea and tasted it, then frowned, as if he was quite unhappy with the fragrant tea carefully prepared by the owner of the house, and the four secretaries who knelt behind the three of them discussed in a low voice, and one of them got up and went to find trouble with the owner.

In the face of the members of the cabinet who suddenly came to the door, Sun Wen was in a disordered mood and felt pressured, but he kept smiling and answering very decently, but Wang Jingwei, Hu Hanmin, and Wu Tingfang, who stayed by his side to participate in the talks, were even more nervous, and did not dare to say a word except for nodding their heads and bowing their heads from beginning to end.

The tedious greetings and inconsistencious chatter finally ended, and Tou Shanman put away the humble smile on his face and looked at Sun Wen on the opposite side seriously:

"Takaya-kun, following the 'Lunan Railway Robbery' that shocked the world two weeks ago, another incident occurred in Teng County, southeast of China's mountain, that shocked China and the rest of the world...... In the past week, the two brigades of Zhang Huaizhi, the overseer of Shandong, and the Second Division of Reading Li stationed at the Pukou military training base on the north bank of Nanjing, jointly suppressed the bandits, and they used a large number of mortars and light and heavy machine guns, and adopted the means of encircling them on all sides, pressing step by step, and finally concentrating on annihilation, mercilessly slaughtering more than a dozen bandit gangs along the Lunan Railway, and three days ago, besieging Dahongshan, the largest armed base in Lunan. ”

"Big Red Mountain?"

Sun Wen turned to Hu Hanmin rather puzzled: "Does Da Hongshan have anything to do with us?" ”

Hu Hanmin hurriedly replied: "The student is not very clear, maybe he will understand by calling Ju Zheng to ask...... Two years ago, when our revolutionary army was in the northern expedition to Jinan, Ju Zheng served as the commander of the Eastern Route Army of the Northern Expedition, and then sent Chiang Kai-shek as the chief of staff. ”

Sun Wen was taken aback when he heard this, and finally remembered that most of the Shandong Revolutionary Army was adapted from the bandit armed forces in Lunan, and when he sent Ju Zheng to Shandong, he could not open up the situation at all, and in the end, it was he Sun Wen who asked him to send 2,000 30-year-old rifles and a batch of ammunition, which allowed Ju Zheng to pull up a revolutionary team of 3,000 or 4,000 people, but before it reached Jinan, this revolutionary armed force, which was mostly composed of bandits from all walks of life, was torn apart.

Thinking of this, Sun Wen couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat, turned to Toushanman, and said apologetically: "We really don't know the recent situation in the Lunan area, and we don't know whether the 'Lunan Railway Robbery' that happened some time ago was attended by revolutionary comrades from Shandong, please tell my brother the details." ”

Toushan was full of annoyance in his heart, but he had no way to vent, so he could only let out a long sigh:

"Well, that's the case, due to the huge pressure exerted by European and American countries on the Yanjing Central Political Axe and the Shandong Provincial Political Axe, Zhang Huaizhi, the overseer of Shandong, had to urgently transfer two brigades of troops to the south to suppress the bandits, the newly elected President of the Republic of China Duan Qirui and the Minister of Military Affairs Xiao Yimin felt that it was not enough, and appointed a major general named Wang Qian to suppress the bandits on the South Road, the insidious and cunning Wang Qian acted quickly, and in just one day led the second division of the Nanjing Xingying Reading Force into Zaozhuang, and began the bloody killing and suppression. According to our information, this Wang Qian graduated from the Non-commissioned Officer School of the Imperial Army, and you introduced him to the Alliance back then. ”

Through the introduction of Chen Qimei and Chiang Kai-shek, he met the young and promising non-commissioned officers Liu Bingxian, Zeng Chaoran and Wang Qian, and encouraged them to join the League and fight for the restoration of China.

What is even worse is that in the previous paragraph, according to the reports of several friends of the Yueben military and Toushanman, Sun Wen learned that Zeng Chaoran, Wang Qian, and other eight people who had studied in Germany for five or six years after graduating from the Yueben Army Non-commissioned Officer School had returned to China, and all of them had joined the command of Xiao Yimin, a powerful figure in the south. Wang Qian and the other two became the chief officers of the troops directly under the Nanjing Xingying, and the others all entered the newly established Nanjing Military Academy and served as chief instructors of various departments and departments.

Seeing Sun Wen's stunned appearance, Tou Shanman had no choice but to close his eyes and continue to report: "Wang Qian's troops surrounded Dahong Mountain at an astonishing speed, but did not immediately attack the more than 800 bandits on Dahong Mountain, but summoned reporters and diplomats from various countries who followed the army to the scene of the bandits, dragged the captured Yue Ben Lang and the two bandit leaders to all the reporters and European and American diplomats, openly slandered my political axe and the army, and hinted to everyone that the Da Yue Ben Emperor [***] team stationed in Qingdao was' The mastermind and actual commander behind the Lunan Railway Tragedy. ”

Admiral Minister Yuzaburo Kato seemed to be very dissatisfied with Toyamamitsu's moderate attitude, straightened his short neck, and glared at Sun Wen who was at a loss for words:

"Takano-kun, this incident is the greatest slander against the Empire and has caused an extremely bad impact on the international community, and the ongoing Paris Peace Conference has also suspended its normal meetings for this reason, and we are asking this delegation to give a reasonable explanation. What is even worse is that almost all the Chinese newspapers have blamed our political axe and the army on the basis of this slander, and many trips have taken place in Yanjing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan and other cities. The protest movement and the anti-protest wave spread throughout China, which we never expected.

"Now, in order to achieve their goal of expelling the imperial forces and monopolizing China, the public opinion of the European and American countries has seized on this falsified incident, pursued it relentlessly, and without conducting any in-depth investigation and understanding, they unanimously accuse the troops of the Great Imperial Empire stationed in Qingdao, and then accuse the Great Imperial Empire of political axes, and begin to organize and premeditate to force the Great Imperial Emperor [***] team to evacuate Qingdao.

"In this regard, we will never agree, let alone lose the confidence of goodwill and common development! However, we ask you and your party to stand up and cooperate with our political axe and army to clarify the facts, you and your party have this responsibility and this obligation! ”

Wu Tingfang, Wang Jingwei and the others were completely dumbfounded, and before they could react, the two ministers of the Cabinet had already stood up and walked away unceremoniously.

Tou Shanman, who sighed and shook his head frequently, shook hands with everyone amicably as before leaving, and comforted Sun Wen very gently for a while.

There was silence in the living room, a pin drop could be heard, and everyone was lost in painful contemplation.

Wu Tingfang, who had a keen mind, quickly thought of the many problems that had occurred recently, and although the newspaper had tightly sealed off information from the outside world, and any news that had a negative impact on the army and the political axe had been strictly blocked, Wu Tingfang, who had been the diplomatic chief of Yuan Shikai's political axe and the Guangzhou revolutionary political axe, still relied on his rich experience to perceive many subtle changes.

At this moment, Wu Tingfang finally realized that the Chinese Revolutionary Party under the river was no longer in good shape, and I was afraid that it would be difficult to gain the support of the political axe and the army, and perhaps he would push the Chinese Revolutionary Party out in exchange for benefits.

"Sir, I can't stay any longer!"

"What? What did you say? ”

Wu Tingfang's sudden sigh frightened Wang Jingwei and Hu Hanmin almost jumped up, Sun Wen's face was solemn, and his mood was extremely bad for a while, staring at Wu Tingfang's eyes tightly without saying a word.

Wu Tingfang moved forward: "Don't get excited, let's listen to my analysis first, okay?" ”

Sun Wen nodded solemnly, and the others didn't have any opinions, at this point, it really needed to be analyzed rationally.

Wu Tingfang took a deep breath: "The two major events that happened in Lunan in a row are by no means isolated, I feel that there is an invisible big hand behind my back, and I even suspect that the mastermind behind this series of events is either Duan Qirui of Yanjing or Xiao Yimin of Nanjing."

"Their fundamental purpose in doing so is not only their own political interests, but also the recovery of Qingdao and the surrounding areas in Shandong Province and the ongoing Paris Peace Conference...... Don't look at me like that, you should all know the mainstream direction of domestic public opinion since the Spring Festival, the people's demand for national unity and territorial dignity is getting stronger and stronger, and it is not the little teapot in Nanjing that has set off waves of public opinion again and again? ”

Sun Wen suddenly realized, Wang Jingwei and Hu Hanmin looked at each other, and still couldn't figure out what Wu Tingfang wanted to express.

Seeing this, Wu Tingfang had to patiently explain:

Of course, what the Japanese army has done in China is indeed a great problem, because they are too domineering and unscrupulous, and have repeatedly harmed the fundamental interests of Britain, the United States, France, Belgium, Italy, and other countries, especially the demand for occupying the entire Qingdao and Jiaozhou Peninsula openly put forward at the Paris Peace Conference, which I am afraid has aroused public anger.

"What is even more serious is that the Qingdao army has been secretly supporting the bandit forces in southern Lunan and has been coercing and luring the various factions of the Beiyang Army stationed in Shandong and North China, and has also sent military instructors to the Beiyang army, Zhang Zuolin's Feng army, and the bandit forces in the coastal provinces all year round.

"Therefore, it is not surprising that the two major events that happened in Lunan this time were used by all parties to play on the topic and be used by all sides to attack the political axe and the army in order to seek their own interests!"

"I see, I understand, I finally understand......"

Wang Jingwei sighed greatly and admired Wu Tingfang even more.

Hu Hanmin pondered for a moment: "If this speculation is correct, our situation is indeed becoming more and more difficult...... Since withdrawing from Guangzhou, our organization has suffered heavy losses, and under the continuous propaganda and judicial crackdowns of the two counter-revolutionary political axes in the north and south, the provincial branches in the country have completely collapsed, a large number of revolutionary party members have published statements in the newspapers, and thousands of party members have joined the Kuomintang reorganized by Cai Yuanpei, Zhang Ji, Yu Youren, and others, and the Mingzhuo Party of Xiao Yimin and Zhang Lan.

"In this way, in the eyes of Yue himself, we no longer have the important role of the past, and Xiao Yimin, a reactionary madman, has continuously submitted extradition requests to Yue Ben and European and American countries, maybe our situation in Yue Ben has become very dangerous at this moment."

Hu Hanmin licked his dry lips and continued: "Now, I am openly persecuting us, but the two major incidents in Lunan have become like this, no matter who is right or wrong, the spearhead of the whole world is pointed at Yue Ben, who of us dares to speak for me at this time?"

"Even if you stand up and publicly accuse Xiao Yimin and Duan Qirui, you need a little reasonable 'evidence', right? Otherwise, it will usher in the strong anger of 40,000,000 people throughout China, so this must not be done! ”

Wang Jingwei suddenly broke out in a cold sweat: "If I put everything on us, the consequences will be even more terrifying...... In order to appease the anger of the great powers, they said that they would not necessarily push us out as scapegoats and extradite us back to China for trial, then we would all be in danger! ”

The generous argument in the room continued, and the thin sliding door could not cut off the sound inside.

Everyone in the room, including Sun Wen, didn't know that more than 20 people in the room, including Li Liejun, Gu Pinzhen, Ju Zheng, and Chiang Kai-shek, turned back after seeing him leave, and couldn't help but stop after hearing Wu Tingfang's analysis, and all stood outside the cold wind door, listening quietly.

(To be continued)