Beginning with the assassination of Yuan Shikai on October 6, almost all of China fell into turmoil in the following days, especially in the Chinese region north of Shandong and Henan, where the situation was even more tense, and the troops under the Beiyang generals were all preparing for war.

Needless to say, the army under the command of Wang Shizhen, Feng Guozhang, Wang Yingkai, Duan Qirui and Zhao Dongyun at the core of the storm has been preparing for war almost since the evening of the 6th.

And the two marginal generals of Beiyang, that is, Wu Fengling and Zhang Huaizhi, although they both expressed their intention to stay out of the matter, they did not dare to relax one by one, Wu Fengling was better, he ignored it and took his second town directly to Rehe. Although Zhang Huaizhi of Shandong wants to stay out of the matter, he is still inevitably involved in this Beiyang infighting.

In the face of Wang Yingkai, the former boss, constantly urging him to send troops to the north, Zhang Huaizhi learned that Zhang Zhidong's Eighth Town and Henan 29th Mixed Association also continued to go north, and after two days of silence, he sent secret telegrams to the Beiyang generals one after another, in which he did not talk about how to deal with the Qing court, nor who would be the leader of Beiyang, but said that in order to avoid letting the southern provinces take advantage of the fire and loot, he Zhang Huaizhi had the unshirkable responsibility to stop the new southern army led by Zhang Zhidong.

As a result, Zhang Huaizhi did not resign from the appointment of governor of Shandong because of illness, but he did not give thanks to Feng Guozhang and Wang Shizhen like Feng Guozhang, but put on a 'I don't know' appearance, and then led his fifth town to the west, with a very obvious intention, that is, to avoid meddling in the Beiyang internal struggle by blocking the new armies of Hubei and Henan from going north.

On the morning of October 9th, after two days of delay, Zhao Dongyun issued a telegram to the outside world for the first time, and he did not mention a series of appointments to the Qing court in half a word, let alone accept the appointment of the Qing court.

It means that the most important thing today is the matter of Yuan Gong's posthumousness, and the handling of Yuan Gong's posthumous affairs is to find out who assassinated Yuan Gong, and after finding out, then it must be all kinds of revenge!

"No matter who murdered Yuan Gong, more than 100,000 soldiers from my Beiyang will make them pay the price!" In the telegram, Zhao Dongyun's last sentence is directly in an easy-to-understand vernacular, even if a peasant who can't read big characters hears this, he can feel the meaning of Zhao Dongyun's blatant rebellion.

Looking at Zhao Dongyun's power-up, Wang Yingkai, who had been sad for several days, smiled for the first time: "Okay, with the three towns of Ziyang, then this time we are more sure!" ”

Immediately Wang Yingkai also issued a telegram, in which he not only reiterated the affairs of Yuan Gong's posthumous affairs, but also expressed great praise for Zhao Dongyun's decision to focus on Beiyang, saying that Zhao Dongyun is the hope of Beiyang's future.

The implication is that Zhao Dongyun is the hope of Beiyang in the future, and now, he Wang Yingkai is the hope of Beiyang!

Duan Qirui of Shanhaiguan also sent a telegram in a comfortable mood, saying that the top priority in Beiyang today is to deal with the funeral of Duke Yuan and welcome back Duke Yuan's body for burial as soon as possible.

Although there is no mention of direct rebellion and overthrow of the Manchu Qing on the surface, it can actually be seen that the three of Wang Duan and Zhao have reached a de facto political and military alliance, and the next step is to find an excuse to send troops.

That night, Wang Shizhen and Feng Guozhang sat opposite each other in the Forbidden City, although they had some scruples about each other, but now the situation is so tense, and the careful thinking that has been fighting for so many years in the past has to be put down, if they don't cooperate, it is estimated that they will be destroyed by Wang Duan Zhao and the three of them.

"In this situation, they are determined to fight!" Feng Guozhang's face was heavy: "If there is only the first town and the fourth town, then relying on the sixth town and the seventh town under you and me, then it will not be a big problem to deal with it, but now Zhao Ziyang's three towns are combined, even if Zhao Ziyang only brings one third town into the customs, then we will be at a big disadvantage!" ”

Wang Shizhen also frowned: "It is estimated that it will be a little difficult to block it by relying on our two towns alone, but what about the Twenty-Nine Mixed Association?" You've been seeping sand over there for so many years, and it won't be fruitless, right? ”

In the past few years, Feng Guozhang has been so aggrieved, he can't control the military power, and he also set his sights on several other provinces, such as Henan used a lot of Beiyang officers when he trained the new army, and most of these Beiyang officers were his Feng Guozhang's protégés, but Feng Guozhang did this thing more secretly, and most of the other Beiyang bigwigs didn't know about this situation, but they didn't expect Wang Shizhen to say it directly now.

Obviously, Feng Guozhang thought it was a secret, but in the eyes of others, it had already been made public.

Since it is not a secret, Feng Guozhang did not stop it, and immediately said: "The 29th Association is a little chaotic now, although my people control a few battalions, it will still take a while to completely control it, and Wang Ruxian's attitude is also a little ambiguous now!" ”

Wang Ruxian, who is also an old Beiyang, one of Yuan Shikai's descendants, Henan's preparation for the new army is naturally inevitable from the infiltration of Beiyang, so Yuan Shikai transferred Wang Ruxian to the Henan New Army to serve as the commander of the 29th Association. But although this Wang Ruxian can only be regarded as a second-echelon role in the Beiyang system, he is not the core role of the major factions, but a neutral faction.

And Feng Guozhang's people in the 29th Association are mainly those middle and low-level officers, and if Feng Guozhang wants to control the entire 29th Association, he must first win over Wang Ruxian.

"His attitude is not clear now, mainly because the price we gave is not enough, and now it is useless to rely only on the past favors, they have always wanted to expand Henan into a town, I think he can be given a town to build, as for the funds let him raise in Henan himself. Well, give him the title of governor of Henan again, and I don't believe that he is not tempted! Wang Shizhen continued: "If Wang Ruxian is on our side, and there is the eighth town of Zhangzhidong who wants to take advantage of the fire to rob, so that once they go north, they can give us a lot of help!" ”

"It's just that they want to go north, and it's not easy for Zhang Huaizhi to do it! You know his fifth town, but our old Beiyang troops, if they want to go west to intercept it, I'm afraid that Li Yuanhong's eighth town and Wang Ruxian's 29th Association may not be able to fight! ”

Feng Guozhang was unimpressed: "Zhang Huaizhi, he doesn't dare to fight with us, hmph, if he had the guts, he would have gone north a long time ago, and now the westward interception is just an excuse to preserve his strength, as long as the town in the south shows his real skills, he Zhang Huaizhi will definitely retreat!" ”

Feng Guozhang didn't say that Zhang Huaizhi couldn't beat the Eighth Town and the Twenty-ninth Mixed Association, he just said that Zhang Huaizhi would not take the initiative to fight with them.

"And don't underestimate Yin Chang, this person has some means to squeeze out our old Beiyang people in a few days, and now the Jiangbei Mixed Association has fallen into his hands, although it will take several months to rectify before the combat effectiveness can be restored, but once the combat effectiveness is restored, go north to Shandong, you see what Zhang Huaizhi should do, then he must run back to Shandong, otherwise he will lose his territory!" Feng Guozhang is actually quite optimistic about the situation in the south, he is not worried about Shandong, Henan, or even Wang Duan, but Zhao Dongyun in the northeast.

"Now our henchmen are still in trouble with the three towns of Fengtian, if Zhao Ziyang only takes one town out of the customs, it is okay, we can barely stop it, but if he brings three towns into the customs at once, then we will lose this battle if we don't fight!"

Wang Shizhen said: "It is impossible for Zhao Ziyang to bring three towns into the customs, his Fengtian is not a kind place, Japan and Russia are still on the border, if he brings all the troops out of the customs, once Japan and Russia repeat the old events of Gengzi Year, what will he do to defend Jinzhou, and if he can't hold Jinzhou, he will not want Fengtian!" ”

After this discussion, although Feng Guozhang and Wang Shizhen were quite worried in their hearts, they still took the Beijing division as the core and prepared to deploy the defense line.

After the two discussed, someone soon came to report, saying that it was the Queen Mother who summoned them!

Feng Guozhang and Wang Shizhen glanced at each other, at this time they both saw a look of disgust in each other's eyes, Wang Shizhen said: "Later, I will go to inspect various recruitment stations, the expansion is urgent, I won't go to the palace, you go and deal with it!" ”

Although Feng Guozhang was also reluctant, Cixi called each other, and it was enough for the two of them to go to only one, if they didn't go, it was estimated that Cixi would have to vomit blood in the Forbidden City.

Immediately said: "Okay, now the preparation for the new army is more urgent, the recruitment of new soldiers can not be lost, you can go and sit in the town, I will deal with it alone in the palace!" ”

In front of the Qing court, the Qing court took out tens of millions of taels of silver to Feng Guozhang and Wang Shizhen to expand the army, and after having the silver, the two of them were not polite, and immediately the two of them verbally agreed that the new army was one and a half, as for the so-called establishment given by the court in front, in fact, no one cares now.

Feng Guozhang didn't even directly prepare for a new town, but planned to directly integrate the newly formed troops into the seventh town, and the situation was tense, and they didn't have time to get another town. Not to mention the shelf, even qualified senior officers are not easy to find.

The middle and senior officers in Beiyang basically have their own factions, and there are only so many people, and there are only a few of them, and more importantly, Feng Guozhang and Wang Shizhen's appeal is far less than that of Wang Duan, and they are not even as attractive as Zhao Dongyun.

There is no way to casually recruit those high-ranking generals, such as the two major co-commanders of the Seventh Town, He Zonglian and Cao Kun, Feng Guozhang has personally met them several times but has not been able to persuade them to take refuge in him.

And He Zonglian was even more simply, and escaped directly from the place of house arrest, thinking with his toes that Feng Guozhang knew that He Zonglian had gone to Fengtian to seek refuge with Zhao Dongyun.

But in the face of the remaining Cao Kun, Feng Guozhang did not give up directly, but once again opened a big price, that is, he was going to base the 13th Infantry Association, with an artillery battalion and other auxiliary units, to establish a 13th Mixed Association. As long as Cao Kun agrees to take refuge in him, then the position of the leader of this mixed association is his Cao Kun's.