On the afternoon of 11 June, Xiao Yimin returned to the Chengdu General Headquarters.

The commanders of the various divisions of the Sichuan Army, who had been waiting for a long time, gathered together, and Bao Jiqing, chief of staff, read out a lot of information on the current chaotic situation in the whole country, and the joint election of Li Yuanhong by various factions and the Kuomintang to succeed him as president, and the generals all looked at Xiao Yimin, the commander-in-chief who had not yet been washed.

Xiao Yimin quietly turned to Bao Jiqing and Wang Lingji, and asked softly: "What is the opinion of the provincial government?" ”

Bao Jiqing replied: "The provincial government was originally going to announce the reading power, but in the past two days, the situation changed abruptly, Shaanxi Chen Shufan took the lead in the 7th of June to electrify the whole country, canceled the reading power, said to obey the leadership of the central government, Liangguang and Yunnan followed Shaanxi, one after another canceled the reading power, if we insist on announcing the reading power, I am afraid it will trigger a chain reaction, so the provincial government does not dare to act rashly, for fear of going against the trend and suffering a disaster. ”

"Chen Shufan has always had a close relationship with us, Shaanxi is still in the midst of a civil war, and the flames of war are burning all over northern Shaanxi, and he has telegraphed the whole country on the west bank of the occupied country not long ago, and canceled the reading power, which is undoubtedly a gesture of goodwill to Li Yuanhong and the Kuomintang with an unstable foundation, to strive for the legitimate right to rule Shaanxi, and to completely drive out Lu Jianzhang and other Beiyang troops.

"As for the statements made by Liangguang and Yunnan, they are entirely the result of the activities of the Kuomintang from top to bottom, no matter what Tang Jiyao, Lu Rongting, and Chen Jiongming shout, with most of Guizhou already under the control of Lu Pingshan, no one can change the current situation in the southwest unless we in Sichuan make a public statement." Wang Lingji added.

Xiao Yimin nodded, and asked again: "What are the recent transfers of the Hubei and Henan garrisons?" ”

Bao Jiqing, Wang Lingji and others looked at each other and smiled:

"Li Tiancai's headquarters was swallowed by Cao Kun and Zhang Jingyao, who returned to Wuhan, and almost became a mess in the Jingxiang area of the commander of the light pole, and the Hubei army in Yichang currently has only one regiment in panic and is watching around; After Zhang Fang fled back to southern Henan, he reorganized his headquarters and reached a non-aggression agreement with the Bailang peasant army, and he was afraid that he would not have the strength to toss again within half a year; Jia Deyao and Feng Yuxiang recruited troops in Tongguan and practiced at night, but as soon as Yuan Dashuai died, the two immediately became a lone army that no one cared about, before they used the excuse that the battle was seriously damaged and unable to fight, and politely refused to reinforce the teacher Lu Jianzhang who was besieged in Xi'an, and did not dare to fight with Bai Lang's people's army again, and the situation was quite embarrassing, if our estimate is good, Jia and Feng are likely to take the opportunity to support Li Yuanhong, and try to improve relations with the Kuomintang, and then drive to the Zhili area, in order to mix food and clothing. ”

Xiao Yimin glanced at the smiling generals in a circle, and suddenly understood that everyone had a unified opinion, so he pretended to suddenly realize: "Do you want to take the opportunity to go out and go out?" ”

When the generals heard this, they laughed, and Deng Xihou stood up and said: "Hanzhong is preferable, Yichang is preferable!" Commander-in-chief, don't miss the opportunity, it's not going to come again! ”

The lieutenant generals echoed one after another, and Xiao Yimin kindly motioned to Deng Xihou to sit down:

"In this way, everyone's thoughts are the same, well, in fact, I myself mean the same, but there are still many questions that need to be sorted out, first of all, take Hanzhong or Yichang? The second is to choose when to send troops, and the best time? In the end, after taking these two places, which one is more suitable to station? And how to deal with the reaction of Li Yuanhong and the Kuomintang, and the possible siege? ”

The generals fell silent.

In particular, the last problem raised by Xiao Yimin, including Bao Jiqing and Wang Lingji, there is no way to solve it, let alone make an accurate prediction, and now Xiao Yimin put it forward sharply, which immediately calmed down the warm atmosphere of the venue, and everyone realized that if the last key problem cannot be solved, even if Hanzhong and Yichang are occupied, it will bring huge trouble, and the last time Zhou Jun's Yichang fiasco is still fresh in people's memory.

With a faint smile on his face, Xiao Yimin stood up and walked to the large map on the wall, turned his back to the crowd for a long time, returned to his position again, and directly said his opinion:

"Ladies and gentlemen, judging from the current situation, the Kuomintang bent on seizing power is too impatient, they think that the Beiyang family, which has lost its backbone, is torn apart because of the grievances and grievances between the generals, and it is undoubtedly a golden opportunity for them, so they put up the puppet of Li Yuanhong, and before they got their hands on Liangguang and Fujian, they hurriedly sent the Kuomintang veteran Ju Zheng and others to Shandong to seize power, and it seems that they have forgotten an important fact, the Beiyang family also has Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang, two generals who are highly regarded by the public, There are also emerging forces such as Wu Peifu and others, who have never been soft on the Kuomintang!

"I dare to say that as long as Duan, Feng, and Wu do not fall, there will be no fierce civil war in the Beiyang series in the near future. In my opinion, the current chaos should be only temporary chaos, and I believe that the Beiyang family will soon reach an internal compromise, and the civil strife will soon subside. ”

The generals thought about it carefully and felt that it was reasonable, so they put away the little Jiujiu in their hearts one after another, sat solemnly one by one, and listened to Xiao Yimin's analysis.

Xiao Yimin took the cigarette handed by Wang Lingji, leaned over and lit it and took a deep breath, slowly exhaling the smoke while sorting out his thoughts:

"Ladies and gentlemen, I wonder if you remember the Wuchang riots in Xinhai? At that time, Li Yuanhong, the commander of Wuhan, was revolutionized by the rioting officers under his command with guns to their heads, and was not long abandoned by the provisional political axe of the Republic of China established in Nanjing. Will the Kuomintang abandon him again after taking power? ”

The generals immediately woke up and couldn't help nodding frequently.

Xiao Yimin continued: "According to the analysis of the current situation, Beiyang will not fight internally, and it is also the part of the armed forces that surrender to the Kuomintang, and there will be a small-scale bloody struggle for turf, and the five main forces of Beiyang, which control Beijing, Tianjin, Zhili, Lianghu and Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Anhui, will definitely not kill each other before the form is clear, but will temporarily unite and strive for greater interests for themselves. That's telling! ”

"That's right! If Beiyang did not have the intention of uniting, the Kuomintang would not have hurriedly pushed Duan Zhiquan out to suppress the formation, and from this point of view, General Duan's role was far greater than that of Li Yuanhong, a puppet without soldiers in his hands. Xu Xiaogang immediately agreed with Xiao Yimin's analysis, and Wang Lingji, Sun Zhaoluan, Bao Jiqing and others also held the same opinion.

Xiao Yimin nodded with satisfaction: "Ladies and gentlemen, the reason why I have said so many reasons is not to attack everyone's positive surname, let alone to oppose our army to seize the opportunity to expand outward, on the contrary, after clarifying the situation, our every step will be more stable, and we will be more sure and confident." ”

"So, the commander agreed?" Deng Xihou asked impatiently.

Xiao Yimin nodded: "Not only agree, but I also hope that your First Army will immediately and quietly take action, make all preparations for war, and if you don't move, you will have to achieve your goal."

"I suggest, let go of the sensitive Yichang first, just wait and see from afar, ready at any time, as long as the two lakes and Jiangsu and Zhejiang are in chaos, Yichang under our noses is ready at any time! In the near future, our target should be placed on the Hanzhong region, which has been ruined by the civil war, and Hanzhong, which has been the granary since ancient times, is of great significance to our Sichuan, so I don't need to say more, right? ”

The generals discussed enthusiastically, and Deng Xihou, who had long been unwilling to be lonely, quietly walked behind the army commander Wang Lingji, bent down and approached Wang Lingji's ear for a while.

Wang Lingji smiled slightly and did not say anything, motioned for Deng Xihou to go back and sit down, and patiently waited for the commander-in-chief's order.

After the generals finished their discussions, they asked Xiao Yimin several questions, the biggest of which was: If you send troops to occupy Hanzhong, which has no troops, how to get along with Chen Shu's clan in the future?

Before Xiao Yimin could speak, Chief of Staff Bao Jiqing smiled coldly:

"Could it be that before Chen Shufan was electrified, he also had such kindness as you? Why did we support him for two years, but he didn't even say hello, and hurriedly ran to pat the Kuomintang's sycophants? Don't forget that when he attacked Xi'an in the most difficult time, we sent two regiments to help him fight, and now we take Hanzhong, which is far away from the Tiangao Emperor, as interest, which is equivalent to helping him, how much opinion can he have? Does he dare to fight us? ”

The generals burst into laughter, and the last of their worries vanished with laughter.

(To be continued)