Duan Qirui wants to cooperate with the Southern Federation, although it is right from the perspective that the enemy's enemy is a friend, from a military point of view, once the Anhui army cooperates with the Southern Federation and cooperates against the Feng army, it will also have a great advantage, but this cooperation will be accompanied by great political risks.

The contradiction between the Beiyang and the Southern Federation is not a personal contradiction, but a difference in political ideas and the industrial and commercial interests of the North and the South, and this difference is almost irreconcilable.

The Southern Federation represents the remnants of the former Qing Dynasty, the many political factions that oppose the republic, support the imperial system, and support the constitution, and even more represent the traditional landlord forces.

As for Beiyang, although it was born from the former Qing Han landlords, in the past two years, Beiyang's supporters have become the industrial and commercial class, and its political faction is also very clear, that is, to support the republic.

The contradictions between republican and imperial regimes are almost irreconcilable.

This contradiction was also the root cause of the civil war that broke out between the north and the south in 1906.

And Duan Qirui, as one of the top bosses in the Beiyang Group, if he gives up the political concept of Beiyang and cooperates with Zhang Zhidong, who supports the imperial system, then he will almost completely give up the republican concept of Beiyang, which will have a great negative impact on Duan Qirui's own political prestige.

It's just that the negative impact on politics is nothing before the huge military pressure of the Feng army, and if he doesn't cooperate with the Southern Federation, Duan Qirui can't see any chance of defeating the Feng army, so for Duan Qirui, it is necessary to pull a few allies together to fight against Zhao Dongyun.

Of course, Duan Qirui is not a fool, he can't send any electricity openly, but he cooperates openly with Zhang Zhidong.

Although Duan Qirui wanted to cooperate with Zhang Zhidong, it was limited to limited military cooperation, and it had to be done in secret.

In Wuchang, Hubei, Zhang Zhidong, who was already in his prime, struggled to prop himself up from the bed, and carefully looked at the secret message sent by Duan Qirui in the dim light.

Since the fall of the Qing Dynasty before 1906, Zhang Zhidong couldn't bear to see the land of China fall into the hands of the lawless warlords in Beiyang, so he used his role as the only remaining veteran political boss in contemporary China to call on the southern provinces to rise up against the Beiyang warlords. Xinjiang and other provinces all declared allegiance to the Empire of the Federal Republic of China.

Five major Northern Expeditionary Armies were established one after another to start the Northern Expedition!

At the end of 1906, the four major warlords of Beiyang reached a secret agreement in Tianjin, and established the Republic of China-for-tat, followed by Wu Fengling marching into Shanxi, Wang Shizhen marching into Henan, Hubei, Duan Qirui going south to the two rivers, the above three Beiyang army with the foundation of the old Beiyang standing army, all the way to the southern federation of continuous rout.

Lost Henan, lost Jiangbei, lost Shanxi, this is not counted, the follow-up Duan Qirui sang all the way down, successively occupied two rivers and three provinces, Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, and even took Guangdong.

Duanfang pushed all the way from Jinling to Guangxi, and Xiliang retreated all the way from Jiangbei to Zhejiang and Fujian, and finally committed suicide in Chaozhou, Guangdong.

This series of defeats made Zhang Zhidong also greatly stimulated, and what really made Zhang Zhidong unable to hold on was last year, he finally gathered more than 100,000 troops to launch a counteroffensive against Wang Shizhen, and his troops once took Hanyang Mansion and other prefectures and counties, and they were able to destroy Wang Shizhen, but they didn't expect that at that time, Wang Shizhen and Zhao Dongyun urgently reached a secret agreement, and then transferred the troops of Wushengguan to the south, coupled with a large amount of military material assistance given by Zhao Dongyun, Wang Shizhen gradually stabilized the situation, and launched a counteroffensive to drive Zhang Zhidong's Northern Expeditionary Army back to the Yangtze River.

In that battle, the First Army of the Northern Expedition and the Fourth Army of the Northern Expedition under Zhang Zhidong suffered heavy losses.

After the defeat in this battle, Zhang Zhidong was ill, and he began to be bedridden at the end of last year.

After living for so many years, he has no fear of death, but he is not reconciled, and he is even more uneasy!

Although Zhao Erxun himself has no military talent, as the commander of one force, Zhao Erxun is undoubtedly qualified and excellent, and the nineteenth town he single-handedly built and the Shaanxi-Gansu Army have made outstanding achievements in the past two years, and they have stopped Wu Fengling's westward momentum.

Hubei can barely continue to maintain, although he has no way to cross the river to counterattack, but Wang Shizhen can't beat it.

However, in the direction of Hunan and Guangxi, the situation is very uneasy, let's talk about Guangxi first, although Duan Qirui began to transfer troops from Guangdong to the north at the end of last year, leaving only the 10th Division of the Liangjiang Army and other troops in Guangdong.

But the Southern Union army in the direction of Guangxi is also not much better, the troops left in Guangxi are some old and weak, and Duanfang was driven to Guangxi by the Anhui army from Jinling all the way, whether it is himself or other generals under his command, they have already broken their courage, and in the face of the attack of the Anhui army in the direction of Guangxi, most of the time they turn around and run without letting go.

If it weren't for the fact that the Anhui army had previously transferred a large number of troops from Guangdong to the north in the direction of the Yangtze River, the Anhui army would have taken Guangxi a long time ago, even now, the current Duanfang has lost half of Guangxi, and Wuzhou, a military town in eastern Guangxi, has been conquered by the 10th Division of the Anhui Army in Liangjiang in early 1908, and Yulin Prefecture has been taken by the way.

It's just that the scale of the battle between the two is not large, and in the context of large-scale wars in the country, they are not well known to the outside world.

The situation in Guangxi is not good, and the Hunan side is not stable, although it is said that the Anhui army has withdrawn all the troops in the west of Jiangxi, but the strength of the southern coalition army in the Hunan direction is not good, and the southern coalition army suffers a great loss when the two sides fight.

When the overall situation is not good, and he deeply feels that his limit is approaching, Zhang Zhidong has to consider carefully in the face of Duan Qirui's secret message.

If it was placed in the past, in 1906 or even in 1907, Zhang Zhidong would not hesitate to refuse any mention of Duan Qirui, but now, he has no confidence in the past.

"What do you think of Duan Qirui's secret message?" Zhang Zhidong unceremoniously called Duan Qirui's full name, in contemporary China, only Zhang Zhidong has the qualifications to call Duan Qirui's full name.

Contemporary Duan Qirui's political status in China has been ranked among the top three, even if Zhao Dongyun is in front of his subordinates, most of them are called Duan Zhiquan, because no matter what, Duan Qirui is considered Zhao Dongyun's predecessor in Beiyang, and it is not appropriate to call Duan Qirui by his name.

Although contemporary China already has the appearance of a republic, it still has a strong feudal atmosphere, which is especially evident in the title.

Zhang Zhidong called Duan Qirui's full name, but his subordinates couldn't do this, subordinates, you look at me, I look at you, and then Zhang Zhidong's number one general, the commander of the First Army of the Northern Expedition, and the general of the Imperial Army of the Chinese Federal Republic of China, Zhang Biao, spoke first:

"From the point of view of the department, Duan Hefei's secret telegram still has a certain degree of credibility, and now he is beaten by Zhao Dongyun and can't raise his head, from Jiangbei to Jiangnan and then to Zhejiang, he is retreating again and again, if it goes on like this, he will not only not be able to keep Jiangxi and Zhejiang, but even Guangdong in the end, and if he loses these provinces, he is not qualified to compete with Zhao Dongyun and us for the capital of the world!"

Zhang Biao continued: "And he must be unwilling to be defeated like Wang Haicheng, and then run to the concession to be a duke!" ”

Wang Haicheng in Zhang Biao's mouth is Wang Yingkai, Wang Yingkai's ancestral home is Shandong, but he is settled in Fengtian Haicheng, according to the model of the people of the time to call the big man with his surname and hometown, many people call Wang Yingkai Wang Haicheng, this is the same as Duan Hefei, Zhang Nanpi, Yuan Xiangcheng, and Zhao Suqian.

Wang Yingkai's defeat, and finally forced to resign from the post of president, ran to the Tianjin Concession as a duke, has become a model end for the defeated warlords in the country, not only him, in fact, Tianjin and the Shanghai Concession are still living in several other former Chinese figures, such as Feng Guozhang, who was once in the limelight, and Lu Chuanlin, the former Minister of Military Aircraft of the Qing Dynasty and the first cabinet premier of the Wang Yingkai era, the former governor of Henan, the governor of Henan, and Wang Ruxian, the commander of the Eighth Division of the Central Army.

In the Tianjin and Shanghai concessions, however, a large number of frustrated warlords and politicians gathered.

If Duan Qirui is defeated, it is estimated that he will end up like Wang Yingkai and them, and finally run to the concession to be a duke.

If Duan Qirui still wants to continue to be active in China's political arena, then he only has two choices left, one actively chooses to negotiate peace with Zhao Dongyun, saying that it is peace but it is almost the same as announcing his surrender to Zhao Dongyun, and in the end Zhao Dongyun is estimated to give him a consolation position.

The other is hard resistance, and the Anhui army alone can't resist hard, so he can only unite with other forces to fight against the Soviet system, whether it is to unite Wu Fengling, Wang Shizhen or Zhang Zhidong, he has to unite.

After Zhang Biao said this, the group of people behind him also whispered, but no one said anything against it.

On the one hand, they all recognize the reality, now the domestic Soviet system is outstanding, and it is about to completely defeat the Anhui army, and the follow-up Soviet system can think of what to do with their feet, once the Feng army is freed up, the next one to clean up must be the Southern Federation, and when the time comes, in the face of hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers of the Soviet Union, the Southern Federation can resist it.

On the other hand, they are also hindered by Zhang Biao's power in the Southern Federation.

Zhang Biao, as the commander of the First Army of the Northern Expedition, is very similar to Meng Enyuan in the Soviet Union, both of whom are the leading bosses in the military.

Zhang Zhidong looked at a group of subordinates, and then sighed deeply and said, "Then contact Guangzhou!" ”

After saying that, he seemed to have used up all his strength, and after a deep sigh, he closed his eyes!