The chain reaction triggered by the capture of Guangzhou by the Gui army far exceeded people's expectations, and China's political map was greatly changed as a result, and in an instant, it affected the sensitive nerves and interests of the northern and southern forces, as well as Chinese and foreign countries.

Without waiting for all sides to react to the complete defeat of the revolutionary party, the central political axe led by Duan Qirui immediately issued a special arrest warrant for more than 140 absconding revolutionaries, among which the reward for the capture of party leader Sun Wen was raised to 100,000 oceans, and it was unprecedentedly and grandly stated that life and death were not counted.

As soon as the special wanted warrant came out, the whole country suddenly jumped up.

Before the Chinese and foreign forces sympathetic to Sun Wen's party issued appeals for "respecting human rights" and so on, bloody news came from Guangzhou:

After Mo Rongxin, commander of the Gui army and former overseer of Guangdong, who had invaded Guangzhou, returned to his duties after he telegraphed the whole country, he announced that the 70,000 Gui troops who had entered and occupied Guangzhou would immediately launch a large-scale manhunt and arrest and would uproot the remnants of the chaotic party.

In just three days, more than 5,000 revolutionaries were "corrected on the spot" by various units of the Gui Army under the pretext of "stubborn resistance," more than 1,000 large and small shops and money houses that "sheltered the remnants of the chaotic party or were operated for the chaotic party" were confiscated, hundreds of thousands of Guangzhou citizens were looted by the Gui officers and soldiers who were arrested, and the flames on more than a dozen streets in the south of the city burned for three days. The woman's screams continued for three days and three nights, and the whole of Guangzhou and outside was like hell on earth.

Although Duan Qirui and Xiao Yimin urgently sent a telegram to Lu Rongting and Mo Rongxin, the commanders of the Gui system, and strictly ordered them to immediately stop the large-scale search and arrest operation in Guangzhou and restrain the various units of the Gui Army stationed in various parts of Guangdong in order to mitigate the negative impact, under the strong protests and great publicity of European and American countries, especially Yue himself, the Gui Army became the target of unanimous condemnation from all walks of life at home and abroad overnight.

Duan Qirui, who had long been deeply dissatisfied with Lu Rongting, who had betrayed his direct line, and after repeated discussions with Xiao Yimin through secret telegrams, he conformed to the will of the people and removed Mo Rongxin from his post as the overseer of Guangdong, and reactivated Cen Chunxuan, the former governor of Guangdong Province who had been driven out of Guangdong by the Kuomintang and was currently temporarily residing in Shanghai.

The Chinese and foreign forces were extremely dissatisfied with the punishment of Duan Qirui's central political axe, but Duan Qirui's series of personnel appointments were widely supported by the Chinese people, and Cen Chunxuan, who was honest and honest, had already enjoyed a good reputation throughout the country, and he had a good relationship with Duan Qirui.

After Duan Qirui finished handling the affairs of Guangdong, he immediately devoted his energies to the postponement of the two presidential elections to be held in early October. Previously, the open and secret struggle between the two groups headed by Acting President Xu Shichang and Prime Minister Duan Qirui has never stopped, although the Xu Shichang group has suffered a great loss in strength under Duan Qirui's unscrupulous open and secret attacks, but after all, the emaciated camel is bigger than the horse, and Duan Qirui, who is determined to go to the next level to dominate the country, will never easily let go of this golden opportunity to reach the top.

In this way, the disposal power of Guangdong was naturally held by the Nanjing Xingying of the Ministry of Military Affairs, which was also another political transaction between Duan Qirui and Xiao Yimin.

Except for the Sichuan Army general Wang Zhanxu, who was appointed as the envoy of Chaomei Town and led the three divisions of the Fourth Army of the Sichuan Army to be stationed in the Chaomei area, Xiao Yimin did not have the slightest intention of interfering in the political situation in Guangdong, but announced the lifting of the military blockade of the entire territory of Guangdong, and called on the people from all walks of life in Guangdong to unite and rebuild their homes and restore the people's livelihood under the wise leadership of the provincial governor Cen Chunxuan.

The core of this plan is to re-plan the territory of Guangdong, to divide the Qinlian area, which is far away from Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province but under the nose of Nanning, the capital of Guangxi Province, to the territory of Guangxi, and then to divide the Qiongya area, which hangs alone in the sea, from the administrative map of Guangdong, and to establish "Hainan Province" following the example of Xikang Province, and the newly established "Hainan Province" will be completely under the full control of Xiao Yimin's Nanjing camp.

This plan is essentially the political distribution of the spoils of Xiao Yimin Group, Duan Qirui Group, and Gui Group, and it is also the substantive compensation of Duan Qirui and Lu Rongting for Xiao Yimin, who has always supported him. This proposal has been secretly handed over to Zhang Lan, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and submitted through the House of Representatives in accordance with the law, and the Duan Qirui Group is responsible for the resolution and completion of relevant legislation.

Fortunately for Xiao Yimin's group, Duan Qirui and Lu Rongting didn't look down on Qiongya Island hanging alone in the sea, and they didn't know what was worth fighting for on this miasma-filled, hot and desolate island, even if the rice on the island was harvested three times a year, and there were a few small iron mines that had been discovered as early as the Manchu Dynasty, they were not worth Duan Qirui and Lu Rongting to take a look at, but they were worried that they would have to spend huge manpower and material resources to garrison after occupying it, so the two agreed to Xiao Yimin's request almost without thinking about it.

In return, Xiao Yimin only took in the small cake of the Chaomei region, and had the military and political leadership and personnel jurisdiction of the Chaomei region; in addition, Xiao Yimin and Nanjing Xingying never interfered in the political situation in Guangdong, did not seek Guangdong's political interests, did not interfere with Duan Qirui's collection of taxes in Guangdong in the name of the central government, and did not interfere with the military control of Guangdong by the Lu Rongting clique, but supported Lu Rongting in including Qinzhou, Lianzhou, Fangcheng, and Hepu in the Linhai Qinlian region into the Guangxi territory.

Since then, Guangxi, which is small and closed, has finally had its own outlet to the sea for the first time, and this is of great strategic significance for balancing the interests of the two Guangxi provinces, and is in line with the interests of the central authorities and even more in line with the interests of Guangxi.

Although Duan Qirui and Lu Rongting both suspected that Xiao Yimin had already secretly arranged in the Qiongya area, neither of them was very interested in this, let alone that Qiongya, which was far out of the sight of most people, had undergone great changes

Haikou, a small city across the sea from the land of Guangdong, with a radius of only one kilometer, is now shrouded in a heavy and frightening atmosphere of war.

On the third day after the fall of Guangzhou, six steamers ranging in size from 400 tons to 1,500 tons slowly sailed to the wharf through the darkness of night, and more than 1,200 remnants of the Guangzhou Revolutionary Party Army, who were scarred and exhausted of ammunition and food, and more than 100 revolutionaries who had escaped death, had already poured onto the deck, nervously looking at the comfortable and quiet wharf in the hazy night.

The long cargo wharf was as sporadic as ever, with a dozen fishing lanterns hanging sporadically, and hundreds of small fishing boats moored on the fishing dock next to it swayed with the waves, all signs that no one knew that the six freighters in the open sea were quietly approaching.

The "Jiang Peng" in the middle is the only intact offshore gunboat of the Guangdong Navy at present, and it was this gunboat, which had been in service for five years that had been purchased from Britain and had been in service, and led the other five freighters to escape from Baietan's bloody way to Haikou Port at the last moment.

"Brother Yanyang, do you think there will be danger?"

Qin Huaiyu, the head of the internal affairs department of the Guangdong base camp and a graduate of the political science department of Waseda University, looked very nervous, his thin body was stained with dirt, the original color of the Western-style white shirt and trousers made of high-quality materials was no longer visible, and the right foot in a pair of French leather shoes was opened, revealing two black toes.

The young and strong captain Lin Xu shook his head slightly, glanced at the group of officers who were looking around him, and finally said to Qin Huaiyu, who was not giving up:

"We came suddenly, Haikou and Qiongya must not have known about the sudden change in Guangzhou, and there were no officers and soldiers stationed on the dock of Qiongya Town Guard Deng Benyin, and it is estimated that no one knew about our arrival."

"In that case, let's get to the shore quickly, the hundreds of wounded on board, as well as the comrades in the base camp, are almost unbearable." Qin Huaiyu made a decision eagerly.

Lin Xu thought about it, raised the telescope again, and carefully observed the quiet harbor, after a long time, he finally put away the telescope and nodded heavily:

"Well, the fresh water and coal on our ship are almost exhausted, the ammunition is even more depleted, the brethren are tired and hungry, and we must replenish them at the mouth of the sea before we can rush to the South Seas, alas! The ships were ordered to enter the harbor in order, and I commanded the gunboats to take cover in case of contingencies. ”

When the officers around them heard this, they were immediately relieved, and went separately to send signals to the ships, and for a while the lights flickered, and the voices of the people were boiling, and the captain Lin Xu, who had returned from studying in the UK, shook his head.

The first cargo ship of more than 800 tons, the "Changheng," smoothly docked, and the seamen on board quickly stretched out the gangplank, and more than 30 revolutionary officers and men covered in gunpowder quickly boarded the wharf through the gangplank, and under the guidance of the seafarers who were familiar with the situation at the wharf, they quickly surrounded the outposts on the wharf.

Seeing the frightened appearance of the two poor sentries hiding in bed, the leading revolutionary army officer immediately pointed a gun at the head of one of the sentries for interrogation, and learned that most of the defenders of a company at the wharf were sleeping in the city, and that a regiment of defenders in the city had already been taken to Guangdong by Deng Benyin to grab territory, all the revolutionary officers and soldiers breathed a sigh of relief and quickly informed the commander of the ship of the news.

Half an hour later, more than 1,000 officers and soldiers and more than 100 civilian officials all boarded the wharf, and the port authority office and several rows of warehouses on the wharf were all occupied by the exhausted revolutionary troops.

Lin Xu saw the scene on the dock clearly, and finally completely relieved himself, ordered the gunboat to dock slowly, and soon stepped on the dock, and met with more than ten civil and military officials such as Qin Huaiyu, nervously discussing whether to take the opportunity to capture Haikou City, which was low in the city wall, in order to obtain supplies to complete the replenishment, and then leave this place as soon as possible and rush to Nanyang to meet the rest of the base camp.

Lin Xu repeatedly asked the city's trading company and pharmacy if they were willing to provide support? After receiving a positive reply from Qin Huaiyu and the other two intelligence officers of the base camp, they agreed to select 500 officers and soldiers to forcibly occupy Haikou City, which was within a radius of one kilometer.

Before the words fell, a huge explosion sounded, and then, a dense rain of bullets swept towards the dock in the earth-shattering gunfire, and the dock suddenly screamed and shook the sky, and there was chaos.

Lin Xu saw at a glance that his gunboat had been tightly attached by five or six fishing boats, and the officers and soldiers who remained on the boat kept falling to the ground under the gunfire, and dozens of black shadows threw ropes and hung on the gunboat, boarding their gunboats at an incredible speed, and then saw the ignition tongue flickering on the deck again.

"It's over......"

This was the last consciousness left in Lin Xu's mind, a flying bullet broke half of his neck, his body suddenly spun back, and the last scene he saw in his eyes was - half of Qin Huaiyu's head was shattered, and his brains and blood splashed up.

(To be continued)