'The southern provinces quickly formed an alliance, and after discussion, each province sent a division of troops, with Xiao Zhenlei as the commander-in-chief of the Northern Expeditionary Army, and the Northern Expeditionary Army was divided into two armies, the East Route Army, with Cai Guodong as the commander-in-chief, led the First Army in East China (composed of the 21st and 23rd Divisions) and the Second Army (composed of the 26th and 29th Divisions), and one division of the Anhui Army from Anhui and northern Jiangsu to Shandong and Henan; Zhang Xiaozhun was promoted to the commander of the Third Army in East China, under the jurisdiction of the 31st Division of the Army and the Fourth Reserve Division, under the command of Xu Shaozhen, Xu Shaozhen was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the West Route Army, Huang Xing was appointed as the deputy commander-in-chief, commanding the Third Army of East China, a division of the Guangdong Army, a division of the Yunnan Army, a division of the Sichuan Army, and a division of the Hunan Army. The West Road was commanded by Cai Yi, who had jurisdiction over a division of the Yunnan Army, a division of the Sichuan Army, and a division of the Guangdong Army to march from northern Sichuan to Shaanxi.

Xiao Zhenlei set up the General Headquarters of the Allied Forces in Nanjing, and issued military orders to the southern provinces, and the troops participating in the Northern Expedition in the provinces were to arrive at the designated place to assemble before June 15 at the latest, and to prepare their own food, grass, and military supplies, and the General Headquarters only supplied ammunition.

After the military order was issued, the provincial armies moved one after another, most of them began to recruit soldiers, and now the provinces are divided by warlords, each with its own thoughts, Xiao Zhenlei and others proposed to crusade against Yuan Shikai, this is the general trend, these shrewd warlords are of course not far behind, but these people do not want to consume their elite troops on the battlefield of the Northern Expedition, so after the military order issued by the coalition headquarters, these warlords have recruited troops, wanting to send these hastily recruited troops to the battlefield, leaving their elites in the nest, in order to recruit enough troops, the warlords even forced the strong in the people.

On 28 April, while sending a telegram to the governors of all provinces informing them to rush to Nanjing to attend a high-level military meeting of the allied forces, Xiao Zhenlei ordered preparations to be made to organize the Northern Expedition.

On the second day after Xiao Zhenlei sent a telegram to attack Yuan Shikai, Yuan Shikai certainly didn't want to let himself lose the upper hand in name, and he instructed the literati mouthpiece to publish an article in the newspaper saying that Xiao Zhenlei and other southern warlords disregarded the general interests of the country and the nation, and the Republic of China had just been established.

Xiao Zhenlei saw Yuan Shikai's gunmen scolding himself like this, and immediately did not want to show weakness, and instructed the news department to fight back, and the Beiyang government headed by Yuan Shikai was criticized in newspapers and periodicals such as Yuan Shikai for excluding dissidents, appointing private individuals, and destroying the provisional treaty. What is such a government going to do? Does it harm the common people? Will it harm the whole of China? The Qing court was corrupt, weak and incompetent, we rose up and overthrew the Qing court, and now Yuan Shikai's Beiyang government is even better, we must pick up the sword and gun to overthrow him again!

The newspapers and news media of the two sides quickly launched a war of scolding, refusing to give in to each other, exposing each other's scandals, and public opinion suddenly escalated; at this level of public opinion confrontation, there are no losers or winners at all, and the two sides only need to ensure that they are not at the bottom of public opinion.

While the two sides are striving for the support of public opinion, they are also secretly preparing for war, Yuan Shikai has borrowed 25 million pounds from the banks of the great powers, with an interest rate of up to five percent, but this time the powers did not ask for anything to be used as collateral, the intention is very obvious, the powers want to borrow Yuan Shikai's hand to suppress Xiao Zhenlei, they are supporting Yuan Shikai, and do not want Xiao Zhenlei to hold power.

Xiao Zhenlei was not surprised by this, his rise so fast had already frightened the great powers, it was normal for the great powers to use this method to deal with him, if it weren't for the fact that the great powers were also holding each other back, I was afraid that there would have been great powers that had directly sent troops to deal with him.

Lu Rongting, the governor of Guangxi, Tang Jiyao, the governor of Guizhou, Zhang Fenghui, the governor of Shaanxi, Yan Xishan, the governor of Hubei, and Li Yuanhong, the governor of Hubei, were all bribed with money and refused to participate in the Northern Expedition.

These people took Yuan Shikai's money, on the one hand, because they themselves were short of money, on the other hand, they did not want to participate in this kind of war that did not have any benefits in their opinion, among which Lu Rongting only wanted to run his own territory and be a local warlord, and Tang Jiyao had just gained a firm foothold in Guizhou, in order to consolidate his power in Guizhou, he never wanted to transfer the power in his hands again, you must know that Guizhou is not calm at this time, the Kuomintang is making a lot of trouble here, and the position of Guizhou governor he just sat on is a little unstable.

And Zhang Fenghui, the governor of Shaanxi, advocated a legal solution to the issue of the assassination of the Song Dynasty, and did not want the two sides to meet each other, while Yan Xishan, the governor of Shanxi, was completely a wall-to-wall grass, and whoever had great power would move closer to him, and his Shanxi was surrounded by the Beiyang Army, he didn't want to be dumpled by the Beiyang Army before the war began, as for Mengman and the northeastern provinces, of course, Yuan Shikai was the leader, after all, Yuan Shikai's current power was not something they could contend with.

Hubei Governor Li Yuanhong didn't have the heart to participate in the Northern Expedition at all, he was forced by the ** party to be the governor of the Hubei army, after the peace between the north and the south, Yuan Shikai had already secretly communicated with him, and in August last year, he conspired with Yuan Shikai to trap and kill Zhang Zhenwu, deputy minister of the military affairs department of the Hubei Military Government, and Fang Wei, head of the Hubei General School.

After getting loans from the foreign powers, Yuan Shikai began to recruit troops on a large scale, originally he had twenty integrated divisions, and after a month of recruitment and strong recruitment, thirty divisions were added. In addition to Xiao Zhenlei's 16 divisions that are fully manned, well-armed and well-trained, the armies of the northern provinces and southern provinces are also not fully staffed due to local financial problems, and their weapons and equipment are even more varied, so among all the armies in the country, only Xiao Zhenlei's 16 divisions are the most elite and the most powerful in combat, followed by Yuan Shikai's original six Beiyang divisions. The second is the fourteen divisions formed by Yuan Shikai later, and the most important is the army of warlords in various places.

In addition to recruiting and selling troops to continue to form a new army, Yuan Shikai also purchased guns and ammunition and other weapons and equipment from the foreign powers, and all the stocks of the foreign banks scattered in the north by the foreign powers were bought by Yuan Shikai, but this was not enough, Russia and Japan were relatively close to here, so the great powers shipped a large number of weapons and ammunition from Russia and Japan to sell to Yuan Shikai. For a time, Yuan Shikai had strong troops and sufficient weapons and ammunition, and Yuan Shikai was full of confidence in using war to resolve the dispute between the north and the south.

On May 15, the governors of all provinces arrived in Nanjing, and on the same day Xiao Zhenlei met with the governors of all provinces, except for the governors of the four southeastern provinces, who were his own people, the governors of other provinces were either members of the League, constitutionalists, or old bureaucrats, including Tan Yanhong, the governor of Hunan, Hu Hanmin, the governor of Guangdong, Cai Yi, the governor of Yunnan, Bai Wenwei, the governor of Anhui, Ma Mingrui, the governor of Jiangsu, He Hansheng, the governor of Zhejiang, Cao Shichang, the governor of Fujian, Chen Jingxiang, the governor of Jiangxi, and Yin Changheng, the governor of Sichuan. He has led troops to quell the incursion of the rebels, which lasted more than a year and has not returned, and this time he was replaced by Zhang Peijue, the deputy governor of Sichuan.

Yunnan Governor Cai Ye was the farthest away, he was the first to set off and the first to arrive in Nanjing, Xiao Zhenlei and Jiang Baili went to the railway station to greet them.

After the train stopped, Cai Yi got off the train with some accompanying soldiers in a Du Du military uniform, and Jiang Baili hurriedly said to Xiao Zhenlei after seeing it: "Cai Songpo has arrived!" ”

"Let's go, go pick it up!" Xiao Zhenlei said and walked forward.

When he walked in, Jiang Baili waved his hand and smiled: "Songpo, I haven't seen you for many years, it's even more powerful!" ”

"Brother Baili has won the prize, I see that you are much more nourishing than me!" Cai Yi said with a smile.

Both sides wore military uniforms and saluted each other, and Jiang Baili hurriedly introduced: "Songpo, let me introduce, this is the governor of the four provinces in East China and the commander-in-chief of the Northern Expedition Coalition Army!" ”

He also introduced to Xiao Zhenlei: "Commander-in-chief, this is Cai Yi and Cai Songpo!" ”

"Commander-in-Chief!" Cai Yi stood up and saluted.

After Xiao Zhenlei returned the salute, he stepped forward to hold Cai Yi's hand and said, "General Cai has come from afar, and he has worked hard!" Thanks to the great help of General Cai, this Northern Expedition will definitely succeed! ”

Cai Yi said modestly: "The commander-in-chief is too exalted to me, Yuan Shikai is perverse, he must crusade, how much strength Cai has, he will definitely do his best."

Xiao Zhenlei said happily: "Okay, okay, I'm relieved to have General Cai's words, the car has been prepared outside, General Cai, let's get in the car first?" ”

"Okay, Commander-in-Chief, please!"

The people who came from the provinces this time were not ordinary, all of them were provincial governors, the number one person, Xiao Zhenlei had already instructed the person in charge of the reception to arrange a separate courtyard for each governor as a place to stay, anyway, when taking over Nanjing, many officials in the former Qing Dynasty left their houses, and these mansions were idle when no one lived in them, so it was better to clean up and entertain these governors from all provinces.

Xiao Zhenlei and Jiang Baili sent Cai Ye to his accommodation and then had a free talk with him, when it came to strategy and command issues, Xiao Zhenlei said: "General Cai, because Lu Rongting in Guangxi, Tang Jiyao in Guizhou, Li Yuanhong in Hubei, Zhang Fengxiang in Shaanxi and Yan Xishan in Shanxi refused to participate in the Northern Expedition against Yuan Shikai, according to the information we have, Lu Rongting was close to Yuan Shikai, and Tang Jiyao received his money, so we have to guard against Lu Rongting and Tang Jiyao in the rear. Sichuan and Hunan each transferred a division to the border to deter Lu Rongting and Tang Jiyao, and if necessary, they could directly start a war with them, if they were honest, once they made a move, we must strike first to avoid worries, what does General Songpa think? ”

Cai Yi nodded in agreement when he heard this, and then said angrily: "Tang Jiyao, this bastard, at the end of the year before last, I sent him to lead the army north to participate in the Northern Expedition commanded by the commander-in-chief, who knew that when he led the army through Guizhou, he didn't leave, occupied Guizhou and became the king of Guizhou, I read that he was born in the League, and he respected me, but I didn't expect that he would be allowed to sit big for more than a year, and ignore the Northern Expedition launched by the commander-in-chief and Mr. Sun, this person is too selfish, I can't wait for it, the commander-in-chief's handling is very good, I agree!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei said with a smile: "General Songpo doesn't have to be angry, the general trend of the world is on our side, Tang Jiyao and other clowns can't set off much storm, since General Songpo agrees, then I will discuss with them after I meet Hu Hanshan, Tan Yanmin and Zhang Peijue, the deputy governor of Sichuan, this matter will be postponed for the time being, I still want to ask General Songpo's opinion on the strategic deployment and command of the Northern Expedition!" ”

Cai Yi smiled: "The commander-in-chief is too polite, if you don't dislike it, just call me Songpo!" ”

"Alright then, Brother Matsupa!" Xiao Zhenlei said and continued: "According to the operational deployment of the General Staff of the Northern Expeditionary Army of Brother Baili, we will divide the entire battle situation into three parts, namely the Eastern Front Battlefield, the Central Line Battlefield, and the Western Front Battlefield, the Eastern Front Battlefield will march to Shandong and Henan with northern Jiangsu and northern Anhui, with General Cai Guodong as the commander-in-chief, commanding the 53rd Division of the First and Second Armies of East China and the Anhui Army Bai Wenwei, and the Central and Western Fronts will be commanded by General Xu Shaozhen, of which the Central Line Battlefield will be commanded by Brigadier General Zhang Xiao, and the 31st Division of the Army will be under its jurisdiction. Reserve the 4th Division and the 43rd Division of the Hunan Army to attack Hubei, and the Western Front battlefield is commanded by Brother Songpo, under the jurisdiction of the 39th Division of the Yunnan Army, the 41st Division of the Sichuan Army, and the 34th Division of the Guangdong Army from northern Sichuan to Shaanxi, I don't know what you think? ”

Cai Yi thought about it and felt that there was no problem in strategy, and Xiao Zhenlei put the focus of the offensive on the Eastern Front battlefield, obviously wanting to fight on the Eastern Front battlefield, as long as the Eastern Front battlefield won the victory, even if the Central Front Battlefield and the Western Front Battlefield could not achieve a heavy victory, it did not matter, but he came this time with the confidence of victory, and he was bound to play the prestige of the Yunnan Army in this Northern Expedition.

"I am very impressed by Brother Baili's strategic deployment, I agree to deploy troops in this way, and General Xu Lao is the commander-in-chief of the central and western fronts, I have nothing to say, General Xu Lao has a high reputation in the new army in the former Qing Dynasty, I believe that the generals in other places will also give him a little thin face and obey his command, the commander-in-chief is so good at arranged!"

"Brother Songpa has a broad mind, I admire him!"

Several people chatted for a while, discussed the specific details, and seeing that the time was not early, Xiao Zhenlei got up and said: "Brother Songpo, tonight I will hold a banquet in the Governor's Mansion to entertain you and the governors of other provinces, I hope you can enjoy the light on time, and the three cars and drivers outside will stay here for you to use!" ”

Cai Ye also hurriedly got up and said: "Okay, I will definitely go on time, thank you Commander-in-Chief for thinking so thoughtfully!" ”R1152