Nanjing's coldest winter is only more than ten degrees below zero, and the absolute temperature is not very low, but due to the reason of Linjiang, the air humidity is high, and the winter climate is very cold, especially the temperature during the Spring Festival this year. The mood of the military and political officials in Nanjing was also like this weather, full of gloom, and the more senior officials were in a bad mood, especially Chiang Kai-shek, as the supreme leader of the national political axe.

Chiang Kai-shek, chairman of the National Political Axe and chairman of the Military Commission, was not only very tired but also annoying this Spring Festival. Wang Jingwei and Yan Xishan had colluded together, and the news that he was about to leave France and return to China made him feel extremely bad.

Chiang Kai-shek was not afraid of the local warlords such as Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang uniting to conspire to drive him out of the wilderness by force, and if it had been before the Second Northern Expedition, or even before he had defeated the Gui faction last year, such a coalition would have made him have some scruples.

But now compared with the situation at that time, the local forces have been greatly damaged under his Wenlawu in this year, and the only ones that are intact are Yan Xishan and Zhang Xueliang in the northeast, of course, there is another exception, that is, there is another force that has even been greatly strengthened during this period Song Zhewu.

During a period of time, his Central Army, with the help of the crusade against the Gui Department, the Northwest Army, and Tang Shengzhi, not only has its weapons and equipment been enriched and strengthened, but has even expanded many troops, especially the Central Army has been greatly improved by the training and reorganization of some officers and units by the two German advisory groups, and in particular, the instructors of the expanded guard units have imitated the German army for retraining, and the weapons and equipment have also been configured according to the requirements of the German advisory group, and they are definitely the best in the Chinese Army.

On the economic front, after two years of recovery, great progress has been made in the construction of industry, air transport, agriculture, and mining in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the reform of the financial system has also been smooth. The Ministry of Finance presided over by Song Ziwen has withdrawn the total amount of finance and taxation in various localities, and now the financial situation of the central government has greatly improved.

It can be said that he was not afraid of these warlords, both militarily and economically. But the only thing that gave him a deep headache was Wang Jingwei's return to China.

If Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang and others oppose him by force, as the chairman of the national political axe, it will be a rebellion of the local political axe, not only the Western powers will not support it, but even the domestic people will not stand on the side of the rebels, and the name of righteousness is in his hands, and it is only a matter of time before this rebellion is put down. However, if Wang Jingwei, a veteran of the Kuomintang and an extremely influential former leader of the Kuomintang, were united with Yan Xishan and others, the situation would be very different, at least the color of their rebellion would no longer be so distinct, and even some people in the party would be inclined to Wang Jingwei.

The warlord rebelled, and he was sure to put it down, even if the party factions opposed him, or even attacked him en masse, he also had a way to divide them. Even if he had to go into the wilderness temporarily, he would have a way to come back soon. However, if Wang Jingwei drove him away with the military support of the rebel warlords, it would be very difficult to come back. Wang Jingwei has learned the lesson of the last time he went into the wilderness, and it is hard to say whether he will be given another chance this time.

Therefore, in order to prevent instability within the party caused by Wang Ching-wei's return to China, Chiang Kai-shek began to visit the Kuomintang veterans and influential local faction figures in Nanjing one by one before the Spring Festival to win their support. On the other hand, they actively pacified the generals of the local forces who had already submitted to the central government, and tried to stabilize their own positions. Of course, for these large and small warlords who are now gathered around Yan Xishan, he is also actively trying to win over and try to weaken the anti-Chiang forces.

Chiang Kai-shek's forced laughter and telegram exchange annoyed him, but these things had to be done. Since the first half of the Spring Festival, except for the Chinese New Year's Eve, he has not had a good day of rest.

It is not enough to do this, Chiang Kai-shek knows very well that without the backing of strong force, everything he is doing now is a flower in the water, the moon in the mirror, and everything depends on his Central Army to fiercely attack these rogue warlords who do not know the height of the sky.

Therefore, without waiting for the end of the New Year, on the third day of the Lunar New Year, he summoned them to his Xilu Mansion to discuss countermeasures.

Among those who were recruited this time were Dai Jitao, Zhang Qun, Yang Yongtai, Wu Tiecheng, Chen Guofu, Song Ziwen, He Yingqin, Lin Wei, He Chengjun, Zhang Zhizhong, and others.

First of all, Wu Tiecheng introduced him to Shanxi to convey Chiang Kai-shek's request for Yan Xishan to take up his post in Nanjing, as well as the situation of the anti-Chiang forces gathered in Taiyuan.

“…… In short, although Yan Xishan took up the post of deputy commander-in-chief of the Army, Navy, and Air Force of the Kuomintang, he turned a deaf ear to the central authorities' demand that 'those who have posts in the central authorities should no longer hold provincial posts, and state councilors should be in Beijing and must not leave their posts if they have nothing to do,' and he could not pass the buck in every possible way. The representatives of the various local forces gathered in Taiyuan not only swaggered through the market, but even did not shy away from [***] remarks, which shows that Yan Xishan's rebellious heart has been decided, and it is only a matter of time before he raises the banner to rebel. ”

Wu Tiecheng spent more than half an hour detailing what he had seen and heard in Taiyuan, as well as his views on Yan Xishan's imminent rebellion.

After Wu Tiecheng finished speaking, everyone did not answer, and Chiang Kai-shek, who was a little tired, leaned back in his chair very rarely, and said with a flat face: "There are still some things that Tiecheng did not talk about, and I will tell you all today." Yan Xishan is not about to rebel, but already rebelling. The day after Tiecheng returned, Yan Baichuan personally went to his Xihui villa, invited Feng Huanzhang, who had been under house arrest for several months, and thought that he was a strange commodity to live in, back to Taiyuan, and treated Feng Huanzhang as a guest again, and convened a meeting that night to formally decide to rebel. ”

After Chiang Kai-shek finished speaking, he stopped speaking, but quietly observed the people present.

Not only these people here, but also in the officialdom of Nanjing, there is an obvious phenomenon, that is, everyone thinks that Yan Xishan will rebel, and the civilian officials are generally pessimistic about the result of Yan Xishan's armed confrontation with the central government, because the central political axe has to face the vast majority of warlords, and the combined strength of these warlords is too huge, which is obvious.

However, on the contrary to the civilian officials, the generals generally believed that it would not be very difficult to defeat these warlords, especially the middle and senior officers were full of confidence, and the division and brigade commanders headed by Chen Cheng, Hu Zongnan and others even looked forward to Yan Xishan raising the banner of rebellion as soon as possible, and they were already gearing up and eager to try.

The middle and high-ranking officers headed by He Yingqin and He Chengjun had already made their attitude clear to Chiang Kai-shek on many occasions, and there was no need to say anything more at this time. Although these civilian officials have some views on Chiang Kai-shek's method of settling local forces by force, and prefer to handle it slowly and not force Yan Xishan to be in a hurry, they all know Chiang Kai-shek's surname, and know that although Chiang Kai-shek will compromise and retreat when he has no choice but to adopt the strategy of retreating as advance, he will never compromise easily on the things he hates, and the current Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang are the people he hates the most. Therefore, although almost all of these people present are Chiang Kai-shek's confidants and cronies, no one easily dares to touch Chiang Kai-shek's mold on this matter and was silent for a while, Dai Jitao, the president of the Examination Institute and the director of the Propaganda Department who is the troika of the national political axe, felt that it was inappropriate to remain silent like this, and sighed slightly and said: "Chairman of the Committee, after last year's crusade against Li Zongren's Gui faction and Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army, the local powerful factions in Guannei have been dealt a great blow, and they have seen that the strongest Northwest Army and Gui faction have been defeated under the hands of the chairman. Behaviors have converged a lot. ”

"I don't think this is the case, the matter of army organization and dispatch will be put aside for a while, the central government has done more things in government affairs, and now most of the tax revenues in various localities have been recovered, if we are gradually taking back local government affairs, we can also restrict these local powerful factions in terms of local tax revenue, and in time, the strength of the central political axe will continue to increase, and the strength of local powerful factions will be relatively weakened, and then the army will be reorganized, and the resistance will be much smaller."

Although Dai Jitao said it very tactfully, the meaning could not be clearer, that is, he asked Chiang Kai-shek not to force these local forces into a hurry, and there was no certainty of victory in resisting the central government by force, so it was better to slowly take back power and wait for the central government to have the strength to deal with these local forces, and then have a showdown with them.

Although all the civil officials present here have this in mind, no one dares to say such a thing, Shao Lizi was slapped by Chiang Kai-shek in the face last year because he was in a hurry to organize local troops and constantly caused wars to dissuade him a few words. Fortunately, Chiang Kai-shek still admired Shao Lizi's talent, and in order to appease Shao Lizi, he gave him the vice chairman with real power in Outer Mongolia (in real history, Chiang Kai-shek appointed him as the chairman of Gansu Province after beating Shao Lizi).

Now it is Yan Xishan who has made it clear that he wants Chiang Kai-shek to go into the wilderness, which is the most taboo and resentful of Chiang Kai-shek, and if anyone angers Chiang Kai-shek in this matter, then I am afraid that there may not be as good luck as Shao Lizi.

You must know that Shao Lizi, who accepted Chen Duxiu and Qu Qiubai's suggestion to break away from [***], served as the director of the secretariat, secretary general, and director of the Political Department of the Whampoa Military Academy, and after July 1926, he also served as the secretary general of the General Headquarters of the National Revolutionary Army, a member of the Political Conference of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang, the secretary general of the General Headquarters of the Army, Navy and Air Force, and the third Central Supervision Commission of the Kuomintang, which was also deeply trusted by Chiang Kai-shek.

If Fang Cai Dai Jitao's words were said by another person, Chiang Kai-shek would definitely be furious, and he would even be scolded for being a dog's blood. But Dai Jitao is different, not only Dai Jitao is known as the courage of the Kuomintang, but also known as one of the six initiators of [***], not to mention, he also passed his son to Chiang Kai-shek, that is, Jiang Weiguo, although Chiang Kai-shek and Dai Jitao both denied it, but this can not be hidden from these high-ranking officials. For Dai Jitao, Chiang Kai-shek could not get angry no matter what.

In all fairness, Dai Jitao's suggestion is also a solution, but the disadvantage is also obvious, that is, the time must be very long, which Chiang Kai-shek, who is determined to be "a model of the Republic of China and the number one sage and hero of the ages", will definitely not have the patience to wait so long.

Chiang Kai-shek frowned slightly, but soon showed a little smile, but everyone could feel that this smile had a somewhat wry smile.

(To be continued)