Yanjing Xuanwu Gate Xiangfang Bridge, Beiyang Political Axe Government Yuan.

Acting President Feng Guozhang returned to his office with tired steps, waved his hand and motioned for all his entourage to stand down, and the entourage gently placed the records of the just-concluded talks with the ministers of the four countries, Britain, France, and the United States on the wide rosewood table, and quietly withdrew.

At this moment, Feng Guozhang felt exhausted.

Although politics is a kind of exchange and compromise of interests, Feng Guozhang found that he no longer seemed to have anything to feed the insatiable hungry wolves of Britain and the United States.

Nowadays, the Northeast has been occupied by Zhang Zuolin, who is supported by the Confession, and in addition to an illusory political name, the Northeast, which has been firmly occupied by Zhang Zuolin, is completely dependent on the central leadership, not only does not share the worries of the central government, but under the temptation and connivance of the Confession, it is eyeing the wealthy Zhili region in the Guannai.

The four northwestern provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxin, which have nine disasters in ten years, can't be counted on at all, let alone let the four provinces pay taxes, and they can recite Amitabha Buddha without the central government's axe; Although the five provinces of Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang were firmly in the hands of the Beiyang Army, with the division within Beiyang, the fierce confrontation between the direct and Anhui factions parted ways, resulting in the armies stationed in each province going their own way, and each one by one had no national and collective interests in their hearts.

There is no need to think about the rich Shanghai, the foreigners have always put forward warnings to protect their national interests at all costs, unless the Anhui family that occupies Shanghai loses the trust of the foreigners, Feng Guozhang will not be able to get his hands on the huge tax source of Shanghai no matter what.

Compared with the two provinces of Jiangxi and Fujian, where the Beiyang army and the southern protector alliance army are constantly fighting, the Lianghu region has now become a major problem for the Beiyang political axe, and the reason for this is that the alliance between the Sichuan army and the Hunan army is the root cause of all the troubles, and the reunification movement initiated by Hunan Tan Yanmin and Cheng Qian and others involved one-third of the Beiyang army's troops.

At this critical moment, the Sichuan army, which has always been in a corner of peace, showed its sharp fangs, and with incredible determination and speed, brazenly captured the Jingxiang area, and the elite of the Sichuan army of four divisions pointed directly at Wuhan, forming a north-south echo trend with the Hunan army, and had the ambition of cutting off the five divisions of the Beiyang Army and encircling and annihilating them one by one.

At the time when Feng Guozhang urgently summoned the Beiyang bigwigs to discuss countermeasures, the envoys of the four countries, Britain, France, and the United States, came uninvited, and as soon as they met, they collectively protested that China's civil war had seriously damaged their huge interests, and the minister even threatened to send troops to Shanghai and Wuhan to protect the interests of the Chinese and the safety of the lives and property of the overseas Chinese.

Feng Guozhang, who has been up and down in the sea for more than 20 years and has rich political experience, is extremely familiar with the bandit face and domineering behavior of the great powers, and it can be said that since Li Hongzhang, the founder of Beiyang, he has been constantly under this pressure, so Feng Guozhang has dealt with it very decently and slowly.

It wasn't until the four countries offered to "help" Feng Guozhang win the civil war and stabilize the dominance of the Beiyang political axe in the form of huge loans, that Feng Guozhang felt extremely shocked and alert.

It was only when the four countries came up with a draft loan mortgage agreement that Feng Guozhang thoroughly saw the fall of the four countries and their huge ambitions, among which the only one clause that used the Jinghan Railway as a loan collateral made Feng Guozhang seem to feel that the earth-shattering "traitor" scolding sounded in his ears, and other terms on expanding the concession areas of 16 cities such as Shanghai, Wuhan, Tianjin, and Qingdao, as well as the four countries' division of the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Railway, the Hunan-Jiangxi Railway, and the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway respectively, were comparable to Yuan Dashuai's original 21 articles, and they were all surpassed.

Feng Guozhang, who was very self-contained, did not refuse on the spot, and he tactfully said that he would convene a congress as soon as possible to reorganize the political axe and improve the administrative organs at all levels, and then he could submit this draft for discussion, and then he changed his voice and asked for the purchase of weapons and equipment for the three army divisions in the form of delayed payment, taking advantage of the hesitation and internal differences of the ministers of the four countries, and easily defusing the sudden huge pressure, but even so, it took him a whole afternoon.

When night fell, the door of the wide and heavy presidential office was gently pushed open from the outside, and before Feng Guozhang's secretary general stepped forward to report, the dusty Duan Qirui had already stood in front of Feng Guozhang with a gust of wind.

Feng Guozhang hurriedly stood up to salute, and after sitting down with each other, he looked the grizzled Duan Qirui up and down: "Didn't Brother Zhiquan meet the Swiss minister in Tianjin?" Coming by car? ”

Duan Qirui nodded, took the wet towel handed by the attendant, quickly wiped his face, threw the towel, picked up the teacup and drank a few sips to moisten his throat, then slowly put down the cup and asked seriously: "I heard that the envoys of the four countries talked to you for an afternoon?" ”

"It's not like they have always emphasized, they want to get our railway rights of way and expand the concession area, this time they are surprisingly willing to lend us money and sell weapons, but unfortunately, the price paid is too great, I am afraid of being scolded by my ancestors, I dare not accept it!"

Feng Guozhang shook his head a little self-deprecatingly and smiled.

In the face of Duan Qirui, who had been friends for twenty years, he never felt the need to hide anything, even if Duan Qirui was now in his own right, not only controlling nearly half of the army in Beiyang, occupying the three wealthy provinces in the south, but also maintaining secret contacts with the powerful Sichuan army.

The adjutant general came in a hurry at this time and whispered that Wang Shizhen, Chen Eun, Liang Shiyi, and others had arrived and were waiting outside for the president to receive them.

Feng Guozhang waved his hand and ordered them to wait first, and then continued to talk to Duan Qirui: "Wang Zichun (Wang Zhanyuan) sent a secret telegram, saying that he didn't want to do it anymore and wanted to hand over the army to Wu Ziyu. ”

Duan Qirui was taken aback, he never thought that his old subordinate, since he wanted to hand over Wuhan, a tax-heavy land, and the remaining three brigades to Wu Peifu, who belonged to Feng Guozhang's family, he didn't know how to express it for a while.

Feng Guozhang smiled: "Zhiquan, in fact, Wuhan is handed over to everyone the same, it is the territory of our Beiyang Army, and you are not willing to hand over the three towns of Wuhan and the Hanyang Arsenal to Xiao Yiming, the commander of the Sichuan Army, right?" I remember that at the beginning of the year, we spent a full 500,000 oceans to buy back a full set of drawings and manufacturing processes for German heavy machine guns from Xiao Yiming, starting in May, the production of German MG15 heavy machine guns successfully copied by the Hanyang Factory has steadily ranked first in the country, and the output of rifles has also soared from 700 per month at the beginning of the year to 1,500 last month, which has become the largest source of weapons for our Beiyang Army. ”

Duan Qirui has already calmed down, where does he not know what Feng Guozhang wants to express? At the moment, he quietly asked: "So, Cao Zhongshan's two divisions have already gone south to Wuhan?" ”

It was Feng Guozhang's turn to be stunned for a moment, and he quickly shook his head helplessly:

"From before dawn to noon, Ziyu sent three urgent telegrams in Wuhan in a row, saying that after Zichun threw the troops to him, he took the train north overnight, and it is estimated that he will soon arrive in Zhengzhou at this time Ziyu reluctantly gathered a group of generals left by Zichun, and found that the troops inside and outside Wuhan are now less than 6,000 guns, and the others have all run away with such a little people, it is definitely not enough to deal with the threat of the Sichuan army, and immediately called to ask me to send Cao Zhongshan south to help, at this time, we can't hesitate, the soldiers are fast!"

"Why are there only six thousand left?"

Duan Qirui was really speechless, he never thought that Wang Zhanyuan would be so miserable and defeated. No matter how strong the Sichuan army was, it only made a circle in Qianjiang, and then retreated with interest, except for sporadic local battles, there was no major battle at all.

Feng Guozhang smiled bitterly: "The Hubei army is basically crippled, and the most complete troops may be the two brigades in Shi Xingchuan's hands and the thousands of men and horses that were hastily gathered, but even if there are 20,000 people, they are all remnants of the defeated army with no morale, and there is no hope in a short period of time, which is a pity and hateful!"

"In addition, according to the secret report sent by our personnel stationed in Yucheng, the Second Division of the Sichuan Army has sailed to the dock of Yucheng, and boarded the ship overnight, and it is estimated that the Sixth Division of the Sichuan Army that sailed to Wanxian County last month has also left Sichuan, so I have to order Cao Zhongshan to rush to Wuhan as soon as possible, so that at least the revolutionary army in Hunan can have some scruples, and by the way, boost the morale of the troops in Hunan and my Beiyang departments, otherwise if Hunan is lost, you and I will never think of taking it back."

Duan Qirui sighed: "That's why you convened such an emergency meeting to discuss countermeasures, right?" Say, how do you want me to cooperate? ”

Feng Guozhang was overjoyed, Duan Qirui's statement in just one sentence undoubtedly showed him that he no longer hoped for Xiao Yimin's initiative to compromise, and realized that the Beiyang Army was integrated and both were lost, and the Beiyang Army, which had been divided into two departments, was finally united again in the face of the crisis.

Feng Guozhang stood up, walked up to Duan Qirui, and asked very moved and sincerely: "Will this affect the guns and ammunition worth two million that you ordered from Sichuan?" ”

Duan Qirui thought about it, slowly stood up, shook his head and showed a wry smile: "I think, Yiming is not just that little open-minded, since I met him in Xinhai Nian until now, I have never seen him lose his trust, even if he is no longer willing to sell me weapons and ammunition, he will return the money." ”

Feng Guozhang couldn't help but think of the scenes when he got along with Xiao Yimin, and said with great regret:

"This time, I don't know what evil Brother Yiming has fallen into, and he is actually mixed with the revolutionary party in Hunan, with his strength and status, he can do whatever he wants when he comes to Yanjing, will our brothers still treat him badly? I don't know how he explained it to the second prince (Zhao Erxun), alas! ”

"When the second father returned to his hometown in Shandong, he couldn't afford to be sick, and he didn't care about any mundane things anymore, I heard that Yiming was very filial to him, and there would be a letter every month, and two doctors were sent to stay by the side of the second father, and this matter was spread as a beautiful talk in Shandong."

Speaking of this, Duan Qirui hesitated slightly, and asked in a low voice, "Shall I send another telegram to Yiming to let him return to a neutral position?" ”

Feng Guozhang happily shook Duan Qirui's hand: "Brother Zhiquan, this is no better, but tonight's emergency meeting still has to be held as scheduled, not only the two lakes issue, Jiangxi and Fujian must also set a clear charter, and they must return to the central flag as soon as possible, otherwise, I am afraid that Ziyu's words will be really fulfilled - the country will not be a country!" ”

Duan Qirui nodded understandingly, and followed Feng Guozhang out of the office with a lot of concern, and came to the reception room outside, several generals and ministers stood up to salute, Duan Qirui just nodded slightly, and flew to Yichang with all his thoughts.

(To be continued)