On April 8, the Nanjing Xingying Special Court issued a notice to the whole country:

The investigation and evidence collection of the Lunan train robbery case has been completed, and a court hearing will be held at that time, at which time 137 criminals involved in the case will be sentenced.

Two days later, in the morning, Wu Peifu was officially electrified as the overseer of Shandong; In the afternoon of the same day, Zhu Qinglan, who had made a comeback, was electrified in Yanjing to take up the post of governor of Shandong Province.

The change of military and political jurisdiction in Shandong is actually a political deal that was agreed upon long before the National Convention.

In view of the fact that the Kou was occupied in Qingdao, Jinan, and Jiaodong in Shandong, the Duan Qirui clique, which did not dare to provoke the tyrannical and tyrannical Duan Qirui clique, had no name for holding the military and political power in Shandong, but did not have the normal power to govern the government, but had to guard against the despicable and shameless provocations and threats of war by the Yuben army at all times, and in addition to the fact that the Yellow River had burst its embankments in the border areas of Shandong and Henan and northern Shandong for three years, hundreds of counties and towns had lost their income, and tens of millions of people were waiting to be fed. On the contrary, due to inaction and disregard for people's livelihood and other reasons, he has been severely condemned by all walks of life at home and abroad.

In the past three years, Zhang Huaizhi, the overseer of Shandong, has not been able to sleep peacefully for a day, and has repeatedly applied to Duan Qirui for his transfer, but no one is willing to take over in Shandong, which is full of internal and external troubles and crises, Duan Qirui Group can only accept the suggestions of Xiao Yimin Group in the helpless situation, and the two major political factions have finally reached a political deal to exchange the interests of Shandong for the interests of Henan after more than ten secret negotiations and bargaining.

To this end, in addition to handing over the entire Henan territory, the Xiao Yimin group, which took over Shandong, also needs to hand over "5 million yuan of Shandong tax compensation for the past years" to the central government every year in the next five years.

Although this secret political deal made the Duan Qirui clique a lot of money, and it was voted on to adjust the appointment of military and political officials in various provinces at the National Congress in February, it has not been carried out due to the obstruction of the pro-Japanese faction in the Beiyang forces and the coercion and inducement of the local institutions in China. If it weren't for the fact that Xiao Yimin, who was angry, decided to treat others in his own way, secretly concocted the "Lunan Train Robbery" that shocked China and foreign countries, and then quickly dispatched elite troops to suppress the bandits when Duan Qirui was panicked and secretly sent a secret telegram asking for help, I am afraid that the political transaction that took Xiao Yimin's efforts and consumed huge financial resources would still be a dead letter.

In the end, it was the reckless Xiao Yimin and the Nanjing camp rebellion that won the victory, which not only pushed Wu Peifu, a capable and independent general in the group, to the high position of the Shandong overseer, but also successfully contributed to Zhu Qinglan's comeback.

The three successive energies have aroused strong repercussions from all walks of life at home and abroad.

Most people from all walks of life welcome and support this, and generally believe that this is not only a great progress in China's judicial system, but also shows that the authority of the central government in Yanjing has been strengthened, and it reflects the further unity and cooperation between the two major forces in the north and the south.

Only the two major forces in the north and south of China must immediately release "the civilians who have been brutally arrested for entering the area of banditry by mistake" or "the political axe and the army will take severe retaliatory measures."

In the face of dissatisfaction and doubts from all walks of life across the country, Duan Qirui Group still adheres to the coping strategy of "stability overriding everything" and "no argument and no toss". It also won the support of countless people who were suffering from internal and external troubles and being oppressed, so he skillfully threw the hot potato of Shandong into Xiao Yimin's arms.

Although he handed over half of Henan, which was rejuvenating to life, in exchange for half of Shandong, which was incomplete and could trigger a war crisis in China, Xiao Yimin and his military and political clique finally succeeded in breaking the situation and took a big step toward the grand goal of reunification and rejuvenation with difficulty.

However, the huge test suddenly came with the electrification of Wu Peifu and Zhu Qinglan.

On 11 April, the headquarters of the Qingdao Army openly declared that in accordance with the "21" agreement and the powers of the victorious powers, it had full authority to own the German-built Jiaoji Railway and the Sifang Locomotive Factory, as well as all the mineral resources along the railway, openly expelled the Chinese railway guards, wantonly burned down the houses along the railway, savagely occupied all large and small mining areas, and wantonly beat and massacred hundreds of road guards and unarmed civilians.

In the early morning of the following day, the army completely occupied the Jinan Railway Station to the Qingdao Railway Station and all the railway stations, and openly announced to the whole world the power and determination of the Marine Corps and the army stationed in Jinan, and attempted to coerce the Paris Peace Conference to agree to inherit all the privileges possessed by the defeated Germany in Shandong, and then achieve the stage of invading China and wantonly plundering resources. In this way, he dealt a severe blow to the forces in southern China controlled by the Xiao Yimin clique and completely smashed the great cause of China's reunification and the historical process of national rejuvenation.

……

On the night of April 12, Nanjing camped.

The concise, bright, spacious, and bright conference room was star-studded, and fragrant tea had already been placed on the table of the huge oval-shaped conference table, and the commanders of the group armies, divisions, divisions, and commanders of various departments of the Nanjing General Headquarters who had changed the number of the National Defense Force were in groups of three or five, discussing in low voices, and only Xiao Yimin's chairman's position and the two high-backed chairs on the left and right were still empty.

In the rest room separated from the conference room by a wall, Xiao Yimin and Yang Du were listening to the report of the intelligence director Ma Gang.

After the reorganization of Wu Peifu's department, the combat effectiveness has been significantly improved, as its elite troops have been smoothly stationed in Liaocheng through the railway, the 34th Division in Jining and Zhang Huaizhi after the completion of the handover, leaving a regiment of troops, the remaining brigade and two infantry regiments continue to march to Yanzhou, it is estimated that tomorrow afternoon can reach Tai'an.

"Wu Peifu's headquarters followed the instructor, that is, the newly formed 35th Division, to advance, and can reach Pingyin City by tomorrow afternoon at the latest, and the 5th Heavy Artillery Regiment, which was urgently transferred north at Wu Peifu's request, secretly boarded the train on the Bengbu special railway line an hour ago, and arrived in Liaocheng at about 10 o'clock tomorrow night to join the 33rd Division.

"In addition, the 20 radio stations and 50 noncommissioned officers who graduated from the communications major that were urgently transferred to Wu Peifu's department rushed to Wu Peifu's forward headquarters this evening, passed the one-and-a-half-hour test, and basically met our requirements."

Yang Du saw Ma Gang sitting down, picked up the teacup and handed it to Ma Gang with concern, turned to Xiao Yimin, and asked, "At present, how many students sent by Ziyu are there in the Sichuan Army Military Academy?" ”

Xiao Yimin replied: "He only selected talents to be sent to Chengdu in the second half of the year before last, plus the batch of students enrolled last year, there were only two classes of students with a total of 120 people, and the first batch will not graduate until next summer at the earliest, and he can't count on it for a while." What, he asked you to help intercede? ”

Yang Du nodded: "Last time, you sent him four instructors who came back from Germany to set up and train his instructors for him, and the appearance of the troops has changed greatly in just two months, which has touched him a lot, so he knows that all divisions of our army and various departments in Hainan are also being trained, and he still hopes that we can send him more instructors and staff groups of various disciplines with combat experience, after all, he is facing a lot of pressure, and he may have to fight a war before he can be stationed in Jinan." ”

Xiao Yimin shook his head helplessly: "This is the only way to do it at present...... Xiao Fei's Second Reading Division is stationed in Haizhou with the number of the 57th Division, and Chen Lanting's First Reading Division has already assembled at the Pukou base, and they will carry the number of the 55th Division and will go to Shandong at any time to help in the battle, and the 1st Artillery Regiment and the 2nd Running Regiment, which have just completed the whole training, have also been strengthened to the above two divisions.

"My manpower here is also very tight, how can I say that this is the first battle of our army's foreign war, I am more worried and anxious than him Wu Ziyu!"

Yang Du couldn't help it for a while, he knew how much pressure Xiao Yimin was under, in a series of plans for the huge battle plan, and how to deal with the complete plan that the army might open up the Songhu battlefield, for this, Xiao Yimin made great efforts and sacrifices, one of which is very admirable: in order to avoid infighting, Xiao Yimin reluctantly agreed to Duan Qirui's henchman Lu Yongxiang to replace the seriously ill Yang Shande as the overseer of the Zhejiang Army, and also allocated a division of equipment to the two reorganized Zhejiang Army, Although these pieces of equipment have just been replaced by the First Division of Reading Force, the equipment is less than a year old and is well maintained, which is still a considerable amount of money.

"Commander, I'm not worried about the two divisions going north, Wu Peifu estimates that the problem will not be too big, after all, General Liao Zhen stationed in Xuzhou still has two elite divisions under his command, which can reinforce the Shandong battlefield at any time, and his subordinates are worried about the aviation force, only a dozen fighters may not be enough, can you quickly contact the Americans, find a way to bypass the arms embargo inspection of the great powers, and buy a batch of fighters back? The naval guns of the warships cruising along the coast of Shandong are a great threat! Ma Gang suggested in a low voice.

Xiao Yimin smiled bitterly: "No way, even if we double the price, the Americans will not dare to sell it to us again, if it weren't for the reminder of Sharpler three months ago, I bought off the two generals of the British occupation forces who are still stationed in Germany through Johnson, I am afraid that I would not even be able to get the 120 Junkers new aircraft engines."

"Although the hundreds of German engineers and technicians hired by the West China Aircraft Manufacturing Company with high salaries are very dedicated, there are only 120 aircraft engines of two models, and other aircraft parts purchased from the United States and smuggled back from Germany are still floating at sea, and it is impossible to produce fighter planes before the end of the year.

"Therefore, the existing dozen or so warplanes can only be used for aerial reconnaissance and small-scale ground attacks, and as for dealing with the warships, I am afraid they will not be able to do so within two years."

Ma Gang had a headache: "In this way, the battle damage will be great!" ”

Xiao Yimin thought about it, suddenly stood up and said loudly: "No matter how big the price is, we must fight, even if we die 180,000, we must fight to the end, this battle will determine the fate of the entire country and nation, and we must persevere to the end no matter how big the price is!"

"Let's go, let's have a meeting, today I want to unify everyone's thinking and understanding, no one wants to have any luck, let alone expect any intervention from the League of Nations, we are not ready, is Xiao Yue ready? Only by fighting, beating everyone to the death, can we see the dawn of dawn! ”

(To be continued)