Yang Du, who received Yuan Shikai's telegram, immediately took his entourage south and came to Xiao Zhenlei's military camp again, and started a new round of negotiations with Xiao Zhenlei.

In fact, after Yang Du left the telegraph company, the people from the Iron and Blood Investigation Department had already obtained the results of the telegram from the telegraph company, and this result had already been handed over to Xiao Zhenlei on the way back to Yang Du.

"One condition, Yuan Shikai's bottom line is to give me the four provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Fujian at most? The second condition, I can only be given a maximum of ten divisions? The third condition, Lao Yuan does not have to be a navy, it seems that Lao Yuan also knows that his finances can't afford to support so many navies, so he is too lazy to ask for it, and he can also save a sum of military spending, but I can't be careless, maybe this old guy will make trouble in secret, let me raise the navy for him, this can not be guarded against, but also to strengthen the control of the navy."

After reading this telegram sent by Yuan Shikai to Yang Du, Xiao Zhenlei felt confident in his heart, since ancient times, there have been policies and countermeasures, and only ten divisions have been given numbers? As long as he has money, he can reorganize twenty divisions, ten of which have numbers on the surface, and the other ten divisions can only be hidden in the shadows.

On January 7, Yang Du and Xiao Zhenlei sat at the negotiating table again, Yang Du first said that Yuan Shikai did not agree with the conditions put forward by Xiao Zhenlei, if Xiao Zhenlei was really sincere in peace talks, Yuan Shikai could give him the Jiangsu territory south of the Yangtze River and the whole province of Zhejiang, this is the first point, second, he said that Yuan Shikai can only give Xiao Zhenlei [the number of the five divisions, and finally the third and fourth conditions, Yuan Shikai can agree.

Xiao Zhenlei listened to Yang Du's conditions and immediately turned his face. "Mr. Huizi, it seems that Yuan Shikai does not have the slightest sincerity in peace talks. Now that my army has occupied the whole territory of Shandong, I can march into Hebei at any time. Hit the capital directly, he not only let me spit out Shandong, but also robbed Jiangxi, Fujian and Anhui, he really played a good calculation, since this is the case, we don't have to talk about it, just continue to fight, I see what else he Lao Yuan can do! ”

Xiao Zhenlei turned around and left, and Yang Du panicked. He opened the conditions too low, and suddenly provoked Xiao Zhenlei, this is not good, Yuan Shikai really can't afford to fight, the second town, the fourth town and the third town of Beiyang have already lost very strict losses in soldiers when they were in Wuchang, although they have been supplemented, but the combat effectiveness has also declined, the key is that the ammunition is no longer enough to support it, and if it continues to fight, it will expose the shortcomings of insufficient ammunition. If it is discovered by Xiao Zhenlei, it will be troublesome, Xiao Zhenlei will definitely directly wave his troops north to fight all the way to the capital, and there will be nothing to do with Yuan Shikai in the future.

In fact, Xiao Zhenlei's side is similar, although there is no loss in terms of troops. However, the logistics could not keep up, and it was also a problem of insufficient ammunition reserves, and Xiao Zhenlei was still trying his best to cover up the lack of ammunition. He didn't dare to push Yang Du too hard, so he continued to fight while shouting on his mouth. But in fact he walked slowly towards the door.

Yang Du was much more anxious than Xiao Zhenlei, after all, Yang Du was not Yuan Shikai himself. After he learned that the Beiyang Army was short of ammunition, he kept going up and down in his heart, lest Xiao Zhenlei see any flaws, just now Xiao Zhenlei was furious, and directly slapped his ass and left, he immediately panicked, and hurriedly grabbed Xiao Zhenlei and said: "Hey, Commander-in-Chief Xiao, don't get angry, since it's a peace talk, then you have to talk about it, don't talk about where peace comes from?" It's like doing business, you can make an offer, of course I can make a counteroffer, right, come on, don't be angry, let's continue to talk, if you are not satisfied with our counteroffer, you can continue to offer! ”

Xiao Zhenlei heard this: "Okay, since this is the case, I'm not welcome, I don't want Anhui, but Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, plus Fujian occupied by our army must belong to me, and I also need at least fifteen divisions, which is already my bottom line!" ”

Yang Du's face darkened when he heard this, and he thought that Xiao Zhenlei's appetite was really big, and he actually asked for the number of five provinces and fifteen divisions, and after thinking about it, he said: "In this way, let's stop buying vegetables like the vegetable market, I will directly report to Yuan Gong's bottom line, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Fujian, the four provinces belong to you, and give you the number of eight divisions!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei pondered for a while, shook his head and said: "No, the four provinces belong to me, which I can accept, but there are only eight divisions with too few numbers, at least fourteen divisions!" ”

Yang Du said: "Commander-in-Chief Xiao, I really don't have the authority to give you the number of the fourteen divisions, the bottom line given by Yuan Gong is to give you the number of ten divisions, you see if this will work, I will make the decision and give you the number of two more divisions, but the War Department only bears the military expenses of ten divisions, and the military expenses of the other two divisions are up to you, but the financial power of your four southeastern provinces must be handed over!" ”

"Turn over the treasury?" Xiao Zhenlei laughed, "Lord Yang, don't you think you're whimsical?" If I hand over the financial certificate, Lao Yuan can cut off my military expenses at any time, you just give me the number of a hundred divisions, I can't control so many troops without money, and it is impossible to hand over the financial power! I will also give you a final bottom line today, the four provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Fujian belong to me, I need the number of the 12th division, otherwise there is no need to talk about it, if you can't be the master, you can go to ask Lao Yuan, but I don't guarantee that you are asking for instructions during this time, and my army will not react."

"Don't, don't do this, Commander-in-Chief Xiao!" Yang Du said, weighing it in his mind, considering that it would not end well for Xiao Zhenlei to be provoked, he gritted his teeth and said: "Okay, I am in charge of the numbers of these two divisions, and I will give you the numbers of the twelve divisions, then Commander-in-Chief Xiao, then let's just decide?" ”

"I want the official title of Governor of East China, otherwise in what name will I use to rule the four southeastern provinces?" Xiao Zhenlei said again.

Things have come to this point, Yang Du doesn't have to care about an official title, since Xiao Zhenlei wants this official title, then give it to him, anyway, the four southeastern provinces are his, and it is nothing to give him this official title, so he agreed: "Okay, I agreed to this matter on behalf of Yuan Gong!" ”

The two sides reached an agreement, Xiao Zhenlei immediately asked people to prepare a banquet to bring Yang Du to celebrate, and ordered the army to stop the advance, and stationed on the spot, waiting for Tang Shaoyi in Shanghai and Wu Tingfang, the representative of the south, and others to reach an agreement to withdraw to Jiangsu.

Yuan Shikai didn't care too much after getting an agreement between Yang Du and Xiao Zhenlei, and the conditions slightly exceeded the bottom line he gave, as long as he could get Xiao Zhenlei. None of this was a problem, so Lao Yuan immediately ordered the second and fourth towns of Beiyang to stop their march into Jiangsu. Stationed in Anhui territory, it confronted Xiao Zhenlei's 3rd Soviet Division and 4th Zhejiang Division.

Xiao Zhenlei and Yuan Shikai reached an agreement. However, there was a serious disagreement within the League over the appointment of the various ministries of the Provisional Government.

Originally, the relationship between the revolutionary comrades in Wuchang and Shanghai was not very harmonious, and the cause of the incident was Huang Xing, who himself had tried his best to mend this rift, but there was often a rift in the world, which would only expand, and it would be difficult to heal the crack. When Nanjing formed the government, Li Yuanhong was elected vice president, and it was also Huang Xing's Jianyi, whose purpose was to reconcile Wuhan. However, there are many people with lofty ideals in Wuchang, and it is unfair to let Li Yuanhong be the vice president alone. At that time, among the revolutionary comrades under Li Yuanhong, the most important one was Sun Wu, who made great contributions to the planning of the uprising. Sun Wu was the Minister of Military Affairs after the uprising, and before the establishment of the Nanjing Provisional Government, Sun Wu went from Wuchang to Shanghai, because he was close to Li Yuanhong. So it's very bad for Huang Xing, because he is not on good terms with Huang Xing, and he talks about it. Naturally, it was not good for the revolutionary comrades in Shanghai. Chen Yingshi's impression of Sun Wu was very bad. When the provisional government was formed, Sun Wu wanted to be the deputy minister of the War Department. However, the chief of the War Department is Huang Xing, and Huang does not like Sun Wu. Since he will not be pulled as the second chief, and with Xiao Zhenlei in front, Sun Wu is even more useless. As a result, Sun Wu was abandoned, which made the relationship between Wuhan and Ninghu more distant.

In late January, Tang Shaoyi, who was in Shanghai, basically reached an agreement with Wu Tingfang, a representative of the Southern Revolutionary Party, and others, and Xiao Zhenlei's army was basically rested; according to the agreement, he ordered Huang Yingjie's division of the Third Division of the Second Army of the Zhejiang Army to withdraw from the Shandong Peninsula and take away the money and grain collected from those old bureaucrats on the Shandong Peninsula, and Huang Yingjie's department was ordered to garrison in the important towns of Xuzhou, Lianyungang, Suqian, Huai'an, and Yancheng in northern Jiangsu, and left Liu Chenglong's division of the Third Division of the Jiangsu Second Army to be stationed in Yangzhou, Taizhou, Nantong, and Zhenjiang. At the same time, he led the Fourth Division of the Zhejiang Army, Dong Keqiang's Division, the Third Division of the Shanghai Army, the First Division of the Jiangxi Army, the Sun Ming Division, Shen Tongwu's Division, Lin Shuqing's Division, and Bai Wenwei's Division of the Soviet Army to return to Nanjing.

On January 28th, Xiao Zhenlei's Northern Expedition Coalition Army squad set off to return to Nanjing, on the march, Lin Qingshu, Bai Wenwei and others rode war horses to catch up, Lin Shuqing shouted to Xiao Zhenlei who was riding in an off-road jeep: "Commander-in-chief, I don't understand, this Northern Expedition War is fought well, we have already occupied the entire territory of Shandong, and we can go north into the Central Plains and smash Huanglong, why give up halfway?" Please, Commander-in-Chief, for the sake of the lowly ranks! ”

Xiao Zhenlei frowned when he heard this, and motioned for the driver to pull over, after the jeep stopped, Xiao Zhenlei got out of the car, and at this time, Lin Shuqing and others also jumped off the warhorse, Xiao Zhenlei said coldly: "You don't stay in the army and watch, you came here just to ask me this question?" ”

"Yes!" Lin Shuqing said: "Commander-in-chief, if we don't ask this question clearly, we will always feel uncomfortable!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei was furious: "Once the order of the superior is issued, you can not understand it, you can reserve your opinion, but it must be carried out, it is the duty of a soldier to obey the order, do you understand?" ”

As Xiao Zhenlei's fierce gaze swept over, the eyes of Lin Shuqing, Bai Wenwei and others couldn't help but dodge, and Xiao Zhenlei continued: "You ask me why? I wonder why? You ask me, and I ask who goes? The representatives of your League in the provinces, the representatives of the old bureaucrats in the provinces, and the representatives of the constitutionalists in the provinces gathered in the Shanghai Tan Concession to hold peace talks with Tang Shaoyi, the representative sent by Yuan Shikai. We lasted two months, the soldiers fought bloodily, and countless brothers died on the battlefield, but because those old men moved their mouths, those brothers died in vain! What if we don't want to? Soldiers take obedience to orders as their duty, understand to carry it out, and carry it out without dissolution! I can only give you such an answer, if you want to know more clearly, when you return to Nanjing, you can ask the president! (To be continued......) R1292