Under the moonlight, the west garden of the Overseer's Mansion is even more secluded, with the lake sparkling and weeping willows, and the fragrance of flowers overflowing with the full scent of spring.

In the two-story classical-style building with a strong late Ming style, Xiao Yimin, who was thin and pale, sat on the main seat, and on both sides were Bao Jiqing, Wang Lingji, Wang Jian, He Qiwu, Ma Gang, and Zhang Lan, the speaker of the House of Representatives, who had just arrived from Yanjing, Zeng Shouwu, the new governor of Sichuan Province, Xu Weiyue, the behind-the-scenes boss of the French "Far Eastern Post", Tang Heling, deputy director of the Intelligence Bureau, who was extremely secretive, and Wu Ji, the six division chiefs of the Sichuan Army General Headquarters and the chief of the guards, all attended the meeting.

After presiding over the meeting, Bao Jiqing, chief of the general staff, gave a brief briefing on the current situation, and Wang Lingji, deputy commander-in-chief, then briefed the meeting on the cooperation plan and military cooperation plan with Tan Yanmin and Cheng Qian's Hunan army, Ouyang Wu's Jiangxi army, Lu Rongting, and Mo Rongxin's Gui army.

Except for Xiao Yimin, Bao Jiqing, and Intelligence Chief Ma Gang, no one knew that Wang Lingji had been ordered to secretly go to Hengyang, Hunan, as early as early March, to hold secret negotiations with the commanders of the Hunan army, Tan Yanmin and Cheng Qian, the commanders of the Gui system, Lu Rongting, and Mo Rongxin, the commander-in-chief of the Gui army.

In the face of Guangdong's ubiquitous political aggression and armed subversion, the three provinces of Hunan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, which were deeply disturbed, quickly reached a consensus in order to protect their own interests, and established a secret alliance against Guangdong, not only signing contracts for the trading of strategic materials, including weapons, equipment, and mineral resources, but also drawing up a series of plans for military-political cooperation and putting them into practice.

The main content of the secret cooperation plan between the three provinces of Hunan, Guizhou and Sichuan was to carry out an all-round suppression of the military and political forces in Guangdong, and Sichuan, which has deep pockets, purchased a large number of pig iron, copper ingots, zinc ingots, tin ingots, and other metal products produced in Hunan and Guizhou provinces in the form of cash and advanced weapons and equipment deductions, so as to cut off Guangdong's grain supply and trade tax sources. Military cooperation with Guangdong is limited to the blockade of the borders and deterrence by force, so as to achieve the goal of promoting chaos in Guangdong without a war.

The cooperation plan between the three provinces was originally going smoothly, but no one expected that the "Nanjing bombing case" would suddenly occur that shocked China and the rest of the world; fortunately, Xiao Yiminfu escaped with his life, and he had completely woken up the next afternoon, and Wang Lingji received news on the way to Nanjing, and quickly telegraphed the situation to Tan Yanmin and Lu Rongting, who were panicked.

Tan Yanhong, Cheng Qian, Lu Rongting, Mo Rongxin, and others were relieved when they received the secret telegram, and soon made a series of positive reactions, and the four of them followed the heads of the political axes of Sichuan, Guizhou, and Hubei provinces to send a telegram to the whole country, strongly condemning the murderers behind the "Nanjing bombing case," highly praising Xiao Yimin's contributions to the country and the nation, and reiterating their confidence in continuing cooperation and their full support for Xiao Yimin's political stance in the secret telegram sent to Wang Lingji.

"After the news of the commander-in-chief's recovery came out, the Guangdong armies that confronted the Hunan-Jiangxi-Guangdong border army with the allied forces of our three provinces retreated without a fight, and Yang Ximin's Yunnan army and Li Liejun's Jiangxi army even had a brief exchange of fire. Obviously, all the actions of the Guangdong side are closely linked to the 'Nanjing bombing case,' and the murderers behind the scenes are clear at a glance, and it is certain that this assassination operation is by no means a crazy act made by someone in Guangdong on his own.

"My opinion is that our retaliatory actions will continue, and without taking this opportunity to assert our authority, we will not be able to fight those despicable and shameless rebel forces, and we will not be able to deter those hypocrites who will fight to the end for the country and the nation as soon as they open their mouths!"

Speaking of this, Wang Lingji put down the manuscript: "According to the latest news obtained by the Intelligence Bureau, at about nine o'clock in the morning today, Long Jiguang, the former Guangdong overseer who was entrenched on the line from Zhaoqing to Yunfu, was furious and killed two officials and more than 30 guards sent by the Marshal's Office to Zhao'an, and then commanded two mixed brigades under his command to suddenly turn east and go eastward, defeating Yang Kunru's division of the Third Reading Brigade of the Guangdong Army stationed in Shanshui in one fell swoop, and basically controlling the Xijiang and Beijiang water and land transportation hubs. This sudden change will inevitably trigger a large-scale infighting among various forces in Guangdong, and the situation is very favorable to us. Personally, I believe that the operational plan of marching eastward to completely pacify Jiangxi and southern Anhui can be implemented. ”

Wang Lingji's voice fell, and the intelligence chief Ma Gang added: "There is another piece of news that well confirms the judgment of the deputy commander-in-chief: Deng Benyin, the envoy of Qiongya Town, led his troops to leave Haikou and Lingao last night and rushed to Leizhou on two French cargo ships and dozens of large fishing boats, with the aim of taking advantage of the chaos to take Zhanjiang Port, the largest opium and arms smuggling port in the south.

In this way, Deng Benyin's troops will inevitably clash violently with the Fourth Division of the Guangdong Army, which has been stationed in the Gaolian area for a long time. The coastal areas of western Guangdong have been stable for many years, and they are far richer than the outside world imagined, not only Deng Benyin is determined to win there, but also the Gui army stationed on the border of Guangdong and Guangxi, and Shen Hongying, who drove away the Guangdong army to occupy the upper reaches of the Xijiang River, have long been eyeing it, and the battle between Guangdong and Guizhou has become inevitable. ”

Everyone nodded again and again, and quickly thought of Lu Rongting and Mo Rongxin, the commanders of the Gui system, who did not forget the huge ambition of recovering Guangdong.

The meeting continued until 3 a.m., and with the drastic adjustment of the overall strategic plan, almost every action plan and political strategy that was adjusted with it caused repeated trade-offs and even heated debates among the participants.

At five o'clock in the morning, the meeting ended.

Zhang Lan, Zeng Shouwu, and Xu Weiyue hurriedly said goodbye to Xiao Yimin, and went directly to the Xiaguan Military Wharf by car, and boarded the 3,000-ton freighter of the Blue Flag Foreign Bank to rush to Shanghai. Tang Heling, deputy director of the Intelligence Bureau, quietly returned to the Nanjing branch of the Far Eastern Post and continued to stay in Nanjing as a well-known French-Chinese journalist.

The sky was slightly bright, Xiao Yimin, Bao Jiqing and Wang Lingji walked side by side in the garden, Xiao Yimin, who had repeatedly reviewed his own gains and losses since he was injured, seemed to have changed as a person, not only sincerely apologized to the two right-hand men and the eldest brother, but also said something heartfelt that made Bao Jiqing and Wang Lingji extremely moved:

"I'm still too young, not only underestimating the heroes of the world, but also overestimating myself, always thinking that with money and guns, I can achieve my goals, but the result is ...... What a lesson! Don't look at me as polite to everyone, in fact, I have always been full of hostility towards the vast majority of military and political celebrities, looking down on my opponents, always thinking that I am smarter than anyone else, never taking the initiative to unite and win political allies, let alone seizing the opportunity to accept a large number of influential ......celebrities such as Yang Du, Sun Baoqi, Wang Chonghui, etc.

"Thanks to Huang Ying and Wang Jingwei's two bombs, if it weren't for this assassination, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to wake up in time, if it weren't for Senior Brother Xu Weiyue to make up for my mistakes in Shanghai, silently explain to me in many ways, and retain a number of well-known talents at home and abroad, even if I escaped this time, I would have fallen into an extremely passive isolation crisis......"

Bao Jiqing and Wang Lingji glanced at each other, and then showed a pleased smile.

In the past few days, they have witnessed Xiao Yimin's painful thoughts together, and they have experienced one secret order after another issued by Xiao Yimin with trepidation, and it is only now that the two believe that Xiao Yimin has completely calmed down, and has become more mature and realistic.

Bao Jiqing saw Xiao Yimin's remorseful look, laughed and patted Xiao Yimin's arm, and skillfully turned the topic to business:

"There is a problem that I am afraid needs to be considered, the first army of the ark and Liao Zhen's sixth army will soon leave Hubei, and Sun Zhaoluan's second army had better not move after taking over Yichang, and it is not possible to reduce the control and deterrence of the two lakes region because of the large-scale eastward of our army. I had a discussion with Fang Zhou just now, and we agreed that it was imperative to form the Ninth Army. ”

Wang Lingji saw that Xiao Yimin was still a little hesitant, and knew that he was worried about the combat effectiveness of the recruits, so he proposed an ingenious solution:

"According to the practice of the past years, half of the graduates of the current military academy have entered various organs of the General Headquarters for training, and half have been assigned to the grassroots companies of the Xikang Frontier Army, from which a group of outstanding cadets can be selected to serve as company and platoon commanders of the new army. Second, the 500 graduates who had been trained for a year in various organs of the General Headquarters last year have also come to decentralize the training at the grassroots level of various armies.

"I suggest that all these 500 officers who have been trained by organs be transferred to Zhong Ying's Xikang Frontier Force, and then 500 officers with rich combat experience will be transferred from various departments of the Xikang Frontier Army to serve as commanders at all levels of the Ninth Army, so that they will be able to form combat effectiveness in the shortest possible time."

"That's a good idea! It can be executed immediately. Xiao Yimin immediately agreed.

Wang Lingji continued: "In addition, it may not be enough to transfer two engineering corps to Nanjing, and it is safer to transfer the Fifth Engineer Corps stationed in Yichang to come, the military quality and skills of our engineering corps are far stronger than those of the Soviet army, and the combat effectiveness is not even under Li Chun's Beiyang Army, as long as they take up arms, the three engineering corps can be used as three infantry divisions, and if necessary, one of the engineering corps can be drawn to garrison Nanjing, and Wang Jian's Seventh Army can be freed." ”

Bao Jiqing loudly agreed, and Xiao Yimin made a decisive decision after a little weighing: "Okay! Then order the Yichang Fifth Engineer Corps to prepare immediately, without bringing any weapons and equipment, all of them drove to Nanjing with their bare hands, and the weapons and equipment were uniformly transferred from the Chengdu military depot; Sun Zhaoluan was ordered to assist the headquarters and the Yichang base to quickly recruit 20,000 new soldiers in western Hubei and southern Henan to fill the vacancies in the eastward transfer of the three engineering corps, and this special fund was provided by Ma Gang's intelligence bureau. ”

"This is good, the burden of the provincial treasury is already very heavy, and Xikang has to increase investment this year, so the salt tax has to be left to Zhong Ying and them." Bao Jiqing echoed casually, and at the same time reminded Xiao Yimin not to forget the military and political construction of Xikang.

Xiao Yimin smiled slightly, obviously knowing what he knew.

The confidential adjutant who followed behind quickly wrote down the decision of the three of them, Xiao Yimin continued to move forward, and suddenly saw his son running from afar, and he walked to meet him with a big heart, picked up his son and stabbed his beard violently, making his five-year-old son giggle and struggle desperately.

"Daddy......"

Xiao Yimin put down his son, took his three-year-old daughter from his wife's arms and kissed him: "Why did you get up so early today?" ”

"Mom said to take me and my brother to the stone boat to play...... Uncle, the shepherd wants you to hug! ”

The daughter pounced on Bao Jiqing with a coquettish voice, which made Bao Jiqing so happy, she took the little niece and held it high, making everyone laugh.

Xiao Yimin took his son's hand and looked apologetically at his beloved wife: "The meeting ended at dawn, Senior Brother Xu didn't have time to see you and the children when he left, let me invite you to live in Shanghai for a period of time on his behalf, his two children are about the same age as our Nanzheng and Mumu." ”

Yi Zhenying, who rushed to Nanjing from Chengdu in tears, has completely calmed down: "Okay, in the past few years, I have always corresponded, I always look at photos, my sister-in-law and my two nephews have not seen each other, it's okay to go and see them, by the way, I will clean up the house in Shanghai for you." ”

"Report—"

When Xiao Yimin heard Zhang Sike's voice, he had to smile apologetically at his wife, turned around, and asked in a low voice, "Is it important?" ”

Zhang Sike nodded: "General Wang Shizhen and Mr. Tang Zhaoyi's tone on the phone is quite serious, and it is estimated that they will arrive in five minutes." ”

Xiao Yimin turned to Bao Jiqing and Wang Lingji: "As expected, and it came surprisingly early, let's go, let's go out to greet and have breakfast together." ”

Wang Lingji said with a smile: "It is estimated that Yan Jing and Yue myself are in a hurry, so they came to the door in such a hurry, it seems that they can bring us benefits today, haha!" ”

Bao Jiqing sighed a little helplessly: "Duan Zhiquan is afraid that he has gone mad, with the finance we handed over to the central government, he has a wide range of money, and he even has to pick up the 'Xiyuan loan' again to praise his stinky feet, this move is tantamount to drinking water to quench his thirst, and the gains outweigh the losses!" ”

(To be continued)