On October 17, 1907, a week had passed since the cold dew, and the autumn breeze was already comfortably cool in the early morning and evening.

In Juren Hall, Zhao Dongyun looked at the telegram stamped with the word top secret sent by the intelligence department in his hand, and he didn't look up at An Yutong for a long time.

This telegram is not long, but it is only more than 50 words, but the payment is impossible to ignore, it is Wang Shizhen's telegram!

This is a telegram sent by Wang Shizhen to Zhao Dongyun himself, and the content of the telegram is very simple, that is, Wang Shizhen wants to discuss the overall situation of the republic with Zhao Dongyun.

Although the content of this telegram seems a bit nondescript, at this critical moment, Wang Shizhen sent him such a private secret telegram, and the meaning of it is definitely not represented by the words on the surface of the telegram.

He's going to be soft!

Zhao Dongyun thought about it before and after, that is, he guessed Wang Shizhen's real thoughts, Wang Shizhen's current situation in Hubei is very dangerous, if he wants to block the attack of the Southern Federation, then he must transfer the nearly 30,000 main forces deployed in northern Hubei such as Wushengguan to the south, otherwise, it will be difficult to resist the attack of more than 100,000 troops of the Southern Federation with less than 30,000 troops in the first team of Hanyang and Hanyang.

However, outside Wusheng Pass, there was the 13th Division of the Third Army of the Feng Army, and Wang Shizhen did not dare to send the defenders in Wusheng Pass south to reinforce even when Xiaogan was lost, because he knew that the Feng Army was more terrible than the more than 100,000 troops of the Southern Federation.

However, if he does not make changes, he Wang Shizhen will sooner or later be a dead word, in this case, Wang Shizhen inevitably repeated his actions after the Fengjun conquered Tongzhou during the Beiyang Mutiny last year, that is, to change his position.

It's just that last year he chose to cooperate with Wang Yingkai, and today, he plans to give up the alliance with Duan Qirui and choose to cooperate with Zhao Dongyun instead!

Of course, everyone understands people, this Wang Shizhen did not surrender after being defeated by the Feng army, he is different from Wang Ruxian and Lu Yongxiang, Wang Shizhen wants cooperation, just like the cooperation between Zhao Dongyun and Wu Fengling.

As long as Zhao Dongyun meets his requirements, then he Wang Shizhen is willing to give up opposing Zhao Dongyun, announcing that he recognizes the legitimacy of Zhao Dongyun's presidency and the legitimacy of the central government, and will choose to stand on Zhao Dongyun's side in the subsequent civil war and fight against the Feng army.

If Wang Shizhen really does this, then it will represent a big step forward in the pace of the Feng army's unification of China, and it will also be able to get the help of nearly 60,000 troops of the Hubei army, and then it will be more certain to deal with the southern federal forces of Zhang Zhidong in Hubei, Hunan and other places, and more importantly, Wang Shizhen announced that he would recognize Zhao Dongyun's presidency, then among the contemporary Chinese Beiyang warlords, only one Duan Qirui will be left to insist on opposing Zhao Dongyun.

Among the others, Wang Yingkai and Wang Ruxian were completely defeated, and then they were forced to go into the wilderness!

Wu Fengling chose to form an alliance with Zhao Dongyun at the beginning, although Wu Fengling still basically maintained an independent territory in Shanxi, but Shanxi officially recognized the central government led by Zhao Dongyun.

If Wang Shizhen also chooses to turn to Zhao Dongyun's side, then the former anti-Feng coalition army has actually been declared annihilated, and the only enemy that the Feng army needs to face directly in the future is Duan Qirui's family, well, there is also a crippled Zhang Huaizhi Lu army.

It can be said that no matter from the perspective of politics or military strategy, if Wang Shizhen can turn to support himself, it will be of great benefit.

It's just that Wang Shizhen said that he was willing to support Zhao Dongyun instead, so he would definitely ask for many conditions!

"Say, what does he want?" Zhao Dongyun saw that Li San'an was a little hesitant, and immediately said, "Why don't you say it?" ”

An Yutong looked at the follow-up telegram of secret contact with Hubei, and immediately said cautiously: "Through many secret telegram contacts, the Hubei side has made the following requests, the first is to end the hostility between the two armies, the two sides will use Wusheng Pass as a base to withdraw their troops for 100 miles, and a battalion will be stationed in Hubei inside Wusheng Pass, and our army will be stationed in a battalion outside the Guan. ”

Zhao Dongyun had long expected Wang Shizhen's request for the withdrawal of troops from both sides, what was the fundamental purpose of Wang Shizhen's request for peace? It's not to send the main force of Wusheng Pass to the south to reinforce Hankou and Hanyang, if he still has a large number of troops stationed outside Wusheng Pass, he won't dare to send troops south, and he can't transfer troops to the south, then he will definitely not be able to hold on to the front line of Hanyang and Hankou, and then the peace will lose its meaning!

An Yutong continued: "Second, he requested to purchase a batch of ammunition from Fuchang at the original price, with a total price of 1.5 million yuan, but asked our side to deliver the first batch of ammunition worth 500,000 yuan within half a month, and the remaining batch to be delivered within one and a half months. ”

Hearing this, Zhao Dongyun frowned slightly, this ammunition is not easy to solve, he has invested too many resources in northern Jiangsu, I am afraid it will be difficult to transfer enough ammunition production to sell to Wang Shizhen, but the reason why Wang Shizhen included this condition in the official requirements shows that Wang Shizhen's ammunition inventory of the Hubei army has reached the most dangerous situation, if the ammunition is no longer replenished, it is estimated that even if the troops of Wushengguan are transferred to the south to reinforce, it is estimated that it will fall into an embarrassing situation where there is no ammunition available.

An Yutong looked at Zhao Dongyun's face and saw that Zhao Dongyun's face was as calm as ever, so he also continued: "Third, he asked Huguang to keep the current situation unchanged!" ”

This request is somewhat vague, but it is also very understandable, that is, Wang Shizhen's request to obtain the actual independent status of 'political, military, and financial' on his own territory during the previous Wang Yingkai Republican government, that is, he wants to maintain the previous detached political status.

He wanted to continue to be his mountain king, not Zhao Dongyun's subordinate.

Wang Shizhen's surrender to Zhao Dongyun is very different from Lu Yongxiang's surrender, Lu Yongxiang's surrender was surrendered when the direct army was completely defeated and the first division was defeated, and Lu Yongxiang was just a simple military general, as long as he could continue to lead troops to fight, then he would not ask for any territory or anything like that.

But Wang Shizhen is one of the real Beiyang bigwigs, he was originally a warlord, and now although he is forced to be extremely dangerous by the Southern Federation, but to be honest, there are still fifty or sixty thousand troops in his hands, to put it mildly, people can surrender to you Zhao Dongyun, but he can also surrender to Zhang Zhidong of the Southern Federation, if Wang Shizhen chooses to be loyal to the Southern Federation, it is estimated that Zhang Zhidong will wake up with a smile in his dreams.

Therefore, it is understandable that Wang Shizhen asked to continue to maintain the status of de facto independence.

However, Wang Shizhen can understand, but Zhao Dongyun can't understand it, if he can promise Wang Shizhen, then will he agree to Duan Qirui in the future? If he agreed, then how could he go south to unify China? Give Duan Qirui and Wang Shizhen time to develop slowly, and then give themselves a Northern Expedition?

Although An Yutong didn't follow Zhao Dongyun much, he also knew a lot about the character of the lord in front of him, and knew that although Zhao Dongyun in front of him looked calm and indifferent, what he was thinking in his heart was something that outsiders didn't know, and he was already angry in his heart, so he closed his mouth and stood aside quietly.

At this time, Zhao Dongyun had completely ignored An Yutong, he continued to hold these telegrams with Wang Shizhen's request in his hand, and then began to walk back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back, and then stood on the huge map of China behind his desk, staring at the huge map of China without saying a word.

An Yutong next to him felt that the atmosphere was a little weird, originally his report was finished, but he didn't have time to retreat, and Zhao Dongyun didn't open his mouth to let him go, he had the heart to retire now But looking at Zhao Dongyun standing in front of the map and thinking, he didn't dare to disturb rashly.

Basically, several high-level generals of the military and people who often follow him know that Zhao Dongyun has a habit, that is, looking at the map to think, and at that time thinking is usually related to the entire domestic situation and even the situation in the Far East.

Needless to say, Zhao Dongyun is already looking at the map to think about the follow-up strategy, and An Yutong doesn't dare to disturb Zhao Dongyun at such an important moment.

But it's not good to go out like this, because he doesn't know if Zhao Dongyun deliberately left him behind, so he can only stand with his waist up and continue to stand like before, without speaking!

Zhao Dongyun was the same as An Yutong imagined at this time, and he was indeed already in thought, and now he was thinking about a lot of things, not only the situation in Hubei, but also the situation in northern Jiangsu, as well as the situation in the entire Liangjiang and even the situation in Fujian and Jiangxi and the situation in Liangguang that had nothing to do with the Feng army for the time being.

These places seem to be independent of each other, but in fact the situation in these places is interrelated, for example, after the Southern Federation in the direction of Jiangxi and Fujian suffered a crushing defeat, Duan Qirui not only has troops in Guangdong, but it can also be said that Fujian and Jiangxi have drawn more troops to fight in northern Jiangsu. For example, if Wang Shizhen is defeated in Hubei, then the Southern Federation can restore its rule in Hubei north of the Yangtze River, and then the more than 100,000 troops under Zhang Zhidong will go north to Henan, so that Henan's Feng army will need to bear great pressure.

Even far outside the war zone, Liangguang, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu and other regions, if anything happens to these provinces that are still under the control of the Southern Federation, it will also greatly affect the strength of the Southern Federation, and the strength of the Southern Federation is directly related to the victory or defeat of Duan Qirui and Wang Shizhen, and these two people are related to the victory or defeat of the Feng army.

Therefore, the situation in contemporary China seems to be independent of each other on the surface, but in fact they are all related in various ways, and in order to analyze the situation in contemporary China as a whole, we must start from the perspective of China as a whole, and all the warlords in the country and all the great powers should be taken into account, and it is inaccurate to consider one or two warlords alone.

Now Zhao Dongyun is like this, he is now thinking not only about the victory or defeat of Wang Shizhen in Hubei, but also about almost all the factors that may cause changes in the domestic situation.

Because what he wants is not only Wang Shizhen's surrender, but the reunification of the whole of China!

After thinking about it for a long time, he turned his eyes away from the map, but when he turned around, he found that An Yutong was still standing there, and immediately said: "If you call the Hubei side again, I can satisfy them with the withdrawal of troops and ammunition, but the third one, talk to them again, we can't say anything, we can promise anything!" ”

Listening to Zhao Dongyun's tone was a little indifferent, this was not the kind of superficial indifference that Zhao Dongyun usually faced, but a real indifference.

And from this tone, An Yutong can already feel Zhao Dongyun's true thoughts, that is, he doesn't care about agreeing to these conditions to Wang Shizhen, but what makes An Yutong a little puzzled is how Zhao Dongyun can agree so easily?

The reason why An Yutong is puzzled, in the end, he still doesn't know Zhao Dongyun well enough, if it is replaced by Li San here, then seeing Zhao Dongyun's expression, hearing this kind of words, then Li San will be 100% sure: This Wang Shizhen is dead!