In fact, it is not that there is no news about the Nanjing political axe, but there is not much relevant news, and Wang Xu believes that these problems are not related to the Fourth Route Army, and the primary problem of the Fourth Route Army at present is how to deal with Yan Xishan and seek to seize Shanxi. Therefore, the focus of his intelligence was on Shanxi, and the news about the "Middle East Road Incident" was not handed to Song Zhewu, and Song Zhewu was very busy, so naturally he didn't know about these things.

Seeing that Song Zhewu did not know anything about the "Middle East Road Incident" and was very concerned about the development of the situation, Wang Xu knew that he had made a mistake and hurriedly reported the news he had to Song Zhewu.

However, Wang Xu doesn't know much, and his news now comes from radio and newspapers. That is to say, on July 10, the Northeast Army deployed troops in various places along the Middle East Railway, confiscated railway telegraphs and telephones, seized the Soviet Merchant Shipping Company, Trading Company, and Fire Oil Company, dismissed all senior Soviet officials such as Yemushanov and Deputy Director Esmont of the Eastern Railway Administration, ordered Fan Qiguang to act as the director, dissolved the Soviet Union of Workers' Union, the Communist Youth League, the Women's Department, the Boy Scouts and other organizations, and arrested more than 200 Soviets, triggering the "Middle East Road Incident."

Then on 13 July, the Soviet Union issued a three-day ultimatum to the Nanjing political axe on the Middle East Road incident. At the same time, official mail sent by steamship to Luobei, Aihui, Wuyun, Qike, Xunhe and other counties from 1 to 13 July in Heilongjiang Province was detained by the Soviet army. On the 15th, the trucks on the Middle East Road were stopped, the Ussuri Iron Bridge was destroyed by the Soviet side, and the troops of Jilin and Heilongjiang drove to Wuzhan and Manchuria. On the 17th, the Soviet government announced the severance of diplomatic relations with the Kuomintang government, the cessation of railway communication with China, the reservation of all rights stipulated in the 1924 Sino-Russian and Feng-Russian agreements, and warned the authorities in northeastern China and the Nanjing government that if the Middle East Road was not restored to its original state, China would be in great danger. ’

Although Song Zhewu was very dissatisfied with Wang Xu's intelligence work, he didn't say much at this time, you must know that Wang Xu was forced to this position by him because he "drove ducks to the shelves", and it was normal for some mistakes to occur, and Wang Xu, a layman in intelligence work, still needs to continue to study, accumulate experience, and even learn lessons.

Ge Guangting, a native of Mengcheng, Anhui Province, was born in 1880, and was admitted to the Anhui Military Academy in the twenty-third year of Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1897). During his study abroad, he successively joined the "Xingzhong Society" and "Alliance Association". After returning to China, he served as an instructor in the artillery department of Baoding Military Academy. In the early years of the Republic of China, he served as the chief of staff of Lu Jianzhang's department and the commander of the Fourth Mixed Brigade. In November of the 12th year of the Republic of China, he once served as a senior staff officer of the Generalissimo of Sun Yat-sen's army and navy. At the same time, he is also Zhang Xueliang's confidant and old friend.

Ge Guangting, who had a worried face, came to the reception room under the guidance of Liang Bi, and Song Zhewu hurriedly got up to greet him and introduced Tao Rong, Wang Xu, and Li Wentian to Ge Guangting one by one.

Ge Guangting saw that the high-level core figures of the Fourth Route Army were all present, and knew that they must have disagreements on whether to send troops, it seems that Song Zhewu seems to be very inclined to send troops, otherwise Song Zhewu would not have found his right-hand men. It's just that Song Zhewu shouldn't have made up his mind yet, and he came to find out the details of the "Middle East Road Incident" so that he could make a final decision.

Ge Guangting knew very well that whether the Fourth Route Army could send troops depended on the attitude of the few people present. However, he was confident in convincing them. Ge Guangting is nearly 50 years old, has traveled from south to north for many years, and has seen a lot of things, and he believes that the more educated and young people are, the deeper their patriotic feelings, the stronger their sense of national righteousness, and even sometimes they may seem very naïve, and they can give everything they have without scruples for the interests and honor of the country and the nation. This point starts with "V. Fourth, the "Movement against Yuan Shikai's betrayal" Twenty-one Articles, "Five" anti-British, to "Three. The "18 Massacre" was the first of the young students to rush to the streets.

The situation of these people in front of him, his old subordinate Shang Zhen when he was in Lu Jianzhang's army, had already told him in detail, and they almost all met these two conditions. Tao Rong, the oldest of these people, is less than forty years old, and the lowest education is also a graduate of Jiangwutang, so if you want to convince them, it seems that you can only start from the two aspects of the nation and the country.

Song Zhewu asked Ge Guangting to sit down, but Ge Guangting repeatedly refused to sit down. Song Zhewu smiled and said, "Mr. Ge's character is Jingcen, right?" ”

Ge Guangting was a little surprised, and thought: "I have never seen this young and powerful faction who is in the limelight in China, and he is not a famous person, how can this Song Zhewu know his name?" ”

Although he was a little surprised, he still nodded and said, "Yes, Ge's character is indeed Jingcen." ”

Song Zhewu smiled and said: "Mr. Jingcen, you are an old timer of the Alliance, if you don't sit on this seat, how can we sit well?" Besides, if you talk about it in detail, Mr. Jingcen and Canxuan still have the friendship of teachers and students, Canxuan is the sixth graduate of Baoding Military Academy, although Mr. Jingcen has left Baoding Military Academy when Canxuan entered the school, but after all, they are in the same school. Moreover, our Fourth Route Army used to be Chairman Shang's subordinate, and Chairman Shang was Mr. Jingcen's subordinate in his early years, so we can all be said to be Mr. Jingcen's subordinates, so Mr. Jingcen had to sit down. ”

At this time, Li Wentian stood up and saluted Ge Guangting and said, "Li Wentian, a student of the sixth phase of the Baoding Military Academy, greets Mr. ”

Seeing that Song Zhewu, a general, and his subordinates were so respectful to him, Ge Guangting was so happy that the wrinkles on his face smiled, and he took the hand of Li Wentian, a lieutenant general student who had just picked up, and said repeatedly: "It's not like this, it doesn't have to be like this." ”

Ge Guangting said as he thought to himself: "Just Chong Song Zhewu's high but not arrogant bearing is enough to deserve today's achievement, which is by no means a fluke." No wonder Shang Zhen not only did not get annoyed and jealous because Song Zhewu left him, but on the contrary, he praised him vigorously. Look at the generals of the Northeast Army with their tails up to the sky......" As soon as he thought of this, Ge Guangting was sullen for a while.

Song Zhewu repeatedly gave in, and Ge Guangting saw that Song Zhewu was sincere, so he walked to the upper seat and sat down with peace of mind.

After Liang Bi waited for the orderly to serve tea to a few people, he withdrew from the door with the guards and set up a guard, so as not to disturb the people in the house, he knew that something big was going to happen again.

When I think of the Northeast Army, I can't help but think of the young marshal Zhang Xueliang, who has the grace of knowing him. The young marshal's pale and haggard, worried brows covered with sad face, immediately appeared in Ge Guangting's mind, Ge Guangting not only felt nervous, but also was not polite at the moment, he looked at Song Zhewu and asked inquiringly: "Commander Song, you have read Han Qing's letter, I wonder if Commander Song is ready to send troops to help the Northeast Army?" ”

Although Song Zhewu knew a lot about the issues related to the war in the historical events, he was only very one-sided and limited to purely tactical issues such as the course of the campaign, the tactical arrangements of the two belligerents, and the comparison of strengths. Moreover, he has never explored or thought about why Zhang Xueliang had the courage to challenge the Soviet Union, one of the world's five great powers, with the strength of his local forces? Moreover, it is a private act authorized without the consent of the central government. In his previous life, Song Zhewu always thought that Zhang Xueliang was dizzy, arrogant and impulsive, and wanted to expand and consolidate his power in the three eastern provinces.

However, although the Northeast Army is one of the most powerful local forces in China, Zhang Xueliang will never be arrogant to the point of "Yelang", which makes Song Zhewu very puzzled, but he has not studied it in depth. But now it was different, it was a real thing to do, and it was likely that it would involve him and his Fourth Route Army, and he had to figure it out before he could make a decision.

If it is said that the "Middle East Road Incident" was Zhang Xueliang's Northeast Army provoking a dispute on its own initiative, Song Zhewu believed that all the Western powers would not believe it, at least the Soviet Union would never believe it, and the Soviet Union did not repeatedly protest to Nanjing and ask it to stop Zhang Xueliang's move, but simply severed diplomatic relations with Nanjing.

Song Zhewu tried his best to search for the broken memories of the "Middle East Road Incident" in the minds of the people, and thought about it and said: "Mr. Jingcen, we have all read the letter from Deputy Commander-in-Chief Zhang, but we still have a few questions that we have not clarified, and I would like to ask Mr. to solve the doubts of us outsiders. ”

Ge Guangting intuitively felt that Song Zhewu was inclined to send troops, but he seemed to have some concerns, and hurriedly said: "General Song, please speak, Jing Cen knows everything." ”

Song Zhewu said with some embarrassment: "What's going on with the Eastern Railway? ”

The construction of the China Eastern Railway was thirty years ago, which is older than Song Zhewu's age, and it is not surprising that Song Zhewu did not know what was going on. Ge Guangting had no choice but to start giving Song Zhewu and others "history lessons." ”

"The Eastern Railway is also known as the Dongqing Railway or the Eastern Provincial Railway, referred to as the East Railway. It is a product of Tsarist Russia's invasion of China. At the end of the 19th century, in order to invade Northeast China and dominate the Far East, Tsarist Russia built the main line of the Eastern Railway from Manchuria to Suifenhe via Harbin in accordance with the "Sino-Russian Secret Treaty" in 1896, using China's cheap labor and various equipment along the road, and connecting with the Trans-Siberian Railway in Russia. Later, according to the 1898 "Luda Land Lease Treaty", the branch line of the Middle East Railway from Harbin to Dalian via Changchun was built, thus forming a "D" shaped railway composed of more than 2,800 kilometers of main line and branch lines. After the Russo-Russian War in 1904, Tsarist Russia was defeated, and according to the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905, the Changchun-Dalian section of the Eastern Railway was ceded to Yueben and renamed the South Manchurian Railway. The rest, with Harbin as the center, east to Suifenhe (east line), west to Manchuria (west line), south to Changchun (south line), still controlled by Tsarist Russia, then called the Middle East Railway. ”

Ge Guangting took a sip of tea and moistened his thirsty throat, although he was a little anxious, he still had to endure the surname to give these young people a "make-up lesson".

"On May 31, 1924, China and the Soviet Union reached an agreement on the establishment of diplomatic relations, under which the Soviet side abrogated all treaties signed during the Tsarist era that undermined China's sovereignty, and renounced all leased lands, consular jurisdiction, extraterritoriality, and Gengzi indemnities. The Sino-Russian Agreement was signed (i.e., 15 articles of the Sino-Russian outline for the settlement of outstanding cases, 11 articles of the agreement on the provisional management of the Middle Eastern Railway, and 7 declarations). Regarding the Middle East Road, the "Outline of the Unsolved Case" said: "The political axes of the two countries declare: The Middle East Railway is purely a commercial surname; It also declares that, except for the business affairs of the road itself, all matters related to China's national and local sovereignty, such as justice, civil affairs, military affairs, police affairs, municipal administration, taxation, land acres (except for railway land), etc., shall be handled by the Chinese government. "The Russian government promised that China would redeem the Eastern Railway and all the property belonging to it with Chinese capital; and promised to transfer all stocks and bonds to China." "The political axes of the two countries recognize that the future of the China Eastern Railway can only be decided by China and Russia, and no third party is allowed to interfere." The "Sino-Russian Agreement on the Provisional Management of the China Eastern Railway" stipulates that the Middle East Road shall have a board of directors as the decision-making organ and 10 directors, with the chairman of the board of directors being the Chinese side and the vice chairman of the board of directors being the Russian side. The railway shall have 1 director, which shall be held by the Russian side, 2 deputy directors, and 1 person from Russia and China, all of whom shall be appointed by the council and approved by the respective political axes, and their functions and powers shall be prescribed by the council; The chief and deputy directors of the road bureau are appointed by the council, and if the director is Chinese, the deputy director is a Soviet Russian, and vice versa; The personnel at all levels of the road bureau are appointed in half according to China and the Soviet Union. ("Sino-Russian Outline Agreement and Declaration" (May 31, 1924) and "Sino-Russian Agreement on the Provisional Management of the Eastern Railway" (May 31, 1924), Subsequently, in view of the fact that the Middle East Road was under the influence of the Feng warlord Zhang Zuolin, the Soviet Russian political axe signed the "Feng-Russia Agreement" with the local authorities in the northeast in September of the same year, which included in addition to the contents of the "Sino-Russian Agreement". It also shortened the period of handing over the Middle East Road to China free of charge from 80 years in the old Russian era to 60 years (until September 7, 1956); During this period, China is allowed to redeem the road, and the redemption price is determined by the principle of fairness after the actual price of the road is assessed by both parties. ”

"Since this Sino-Russian Agreement has been signed, it should be abided by!" Wang Xu asked with some confusion.

"This is an agreement that humiliates the country, and it was imposed on us by the Soviet Union in the mantle of the old Tsarist Russia, why should we abide by it." Xiao Guodong glared at Wang Xu fiercely.

Ge Guangting sighed and said: "If it is an agreement signed between Nanjing and the Soviet Union, we will naturally abide by it, but the key is that it was signed with Beiyang Zhengaxe. The current Nanjing political axe is not willing to accept this agreement. ”

(To be continued)