【217】Thousands of miles of rivers and mountains open up a new face (21)

For 1876, two months of training for the expansion of the army was not a long time, but it was enough for the PLA infantry training system that copied later generations. According to the wartime recruit training system provided by Yao Fan, recruits can be sent to the battlefield within a month. For a period of time in the Republic, some infantry squads used to have only squad leaders and deputy squad leaders who were veterans, and the rest were all recruits with less than a month of military experience. But even so, the wartime recruit training system still puts the queue in the first place in training, and discipline is more important than anything else.

By 8 August, the training of the 20 armies had been basically completed, and the commanders of the various units were begging for battle with a loud voice, and every day they asked Yao Fan's general headquarters in a routine telegram to be arranged for the first round of sorties.

For the direction of sending troops, Yao Fan's first consideration was Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Huguang, and the grain-producing areas were too eye-catching for the new government in the year of the Great Famine.

As for the retaliation of the British, Yao Fan did not pay much attention to it, but only arranged a heavy garrison in the liberated area to wait for the rabbit.

In the past two months, the foreign missionaries in the liberated areas of North China have been swept away, and all these de facto spies have been forcibly stopped from illegal preaching and sent to Tianjin. The new government requires them to leave China as much as possible, and all churches in Chinese soil must be registered and operate in accordance with Chinese law, and all religious practitioners must be state-approved and registered Chinese.

Yao Fan's religious nationalization decree angered many foreign consulates, who protested to Yao Fan, in response to which Yao ordered the People's Daily to publish an editorial entitled "Patriotic Movement to Welcome Catholics and Protestants."

According to the article, at the initiative of the vast number of patriotic and religious groups and personalities, the revolutionary government expelled those lawless missionaries from the country and confiscated the land occupied by the lawless missionaries in China and the outbuildings on the land. The article justly condemned the illegal foreign missionaries' espionage infiltration and illegal opium trafficking in China.

The German minister, Barland, also complained about Yao Fan's religious toughness, but after a patient explanation by Guo Songtao, who had just been appointed acting minister of foreign affairs in the provisional government, he finally expressed his understanding.

Guo Songtao, in his original history, would go to England in the winter of 1876 to serve as ambassador to Britain, and now, under the recruitment of Li Hongzhang, he has entered Yao Fan's acting diplomatic work in the provisional government.

During this time, Yao Fan also expelled four foreign expeditions from North China, one German, one British, one Russian, and finally one Japanese. Due to the strong protest of the British minister Wei Tuma, Yao Fan decided to exchange the British expedition with Wei Tuma for Yi Xin, and this negotiation was handed over to Guo Songtao, but unexpectedly, Wei Tuma actually refused Yao Fan's request.

In the Zhongnanhai Yi Nian Hall, Yao Fan and the members of the party committee held a daily summary meeting.

Li Hainiu spoke: "Chairman, during this period of time, the capital seems to be calm, but in fact, the dark tide is surging, I heard that Li Hongzhang has gathered a large number of people in his hands now, in the name of forming a CPPCC, gathered in Honglu Temple all day long for a meeting, I think they want to seize power!" ”

Bai Xiaoqi said: "Chairman, our Intelligence Department has collected a list, mainly the people that Li Hongzhang has contacted during this time, please take a look." ”

As he spoke, Bai Xiaoqi, who was currently the Minister of Intelligence, handed the envelope in his hand to Yao Fan.

"Guo Songtao, Liu Xihong, Li Fengbao, Xu Jingcheng, Xu Yongyi, Zeng Jize, Yuan Chang, Weng Tongyi, Wang Zongyi, Fang Zongcheng, Li Hongzao, Zhang Deyi, Peng Yulin, Li Chengmou, Wu Tingfang, Shen Guifen, Zhou Fu, Sheng Xuanhuai, Xue Fucheng, ............" Yao Fan carefully checked and thought about what these people did in history.

Yao Fan said slowly: "Since we have promised Li Hongzhang the position of chairman of the CPPCC, we must always allow him to do things, and when he does things, he always has to contact people." Didn't he also help us contact many civil and military officials in the south during this time? This will be beneficial to our liberation of the whole country.

Now there are so many officials in Beijing, many of whom have been idle by the imperial court for a long time, and these people have the idea of taking refuge in us. There are also many people who used to be very brilliant, but after we entered Beijing, they were depressed, and he Li Hongzhang can play a balancing role in this. I don't think we should worry too much, we as the ruling party must have self-confidence, and we should not be afraid of them in tandem.

I recently took a look at many of them, and many of them were from Jinshiju backgrounds, who had served as idle officials for a long time or simply had idleness, and these people were now arranged to study Marxism-Leninism in Marx's party school, and I think that a few real revolutionaries may emerge among them.

Of course, it is not excluded that some people come for our thick thighs. ”

Yao Fan's last sentence was funny, and everyone laughed.

Li Jun said: "Then leave it alone for the time being, now that the troops have begun to assemble and move according to the established deployment, I think military victory is our biggest goal at the moment." As long as we win the whole country, our party will have the capital to gather the world's talents. ”

Yao Fan said: "It is true, now we still have to take the military struggle as the main line, and the main task of the various newly established departments in Beijing is to serve the military, and at the same time do a good job in the study of politics, and the study of politics and ideology cannot be relaxed for a moment. ”

……………………

After the meeting ended, Bai Xiaoqi stayed behind and reported to Yao Fan alone.

"Chairman, I have a situation to report to you. Do you still remember, after capturing Jinan, you asked Su Sanjie to secretly execute Guo Jixiu. ”

"Yes."

"I just received a secret telegram from Gui Ba, political commissar of the 15th Army, principal of the Qingdao Artillery School and secretary of the party committee, which was sent with a new code from the Ministry of Intelligence, saying that Su Sanjie sent a telegram to Yuan Guanghai, the commander of the 15th Army, ordering him to execute the Guo family's Manmen who were serving labor in Qingdao, and asked not to stay. Yuan Guanghai yesterday carried out his order and secretly executed 131 people in a ravine in Laoshan Mountain. ”

Yao Fan was taken aback, thought for a while, and asked in a deep voice: "Third Sister Su is now the Minister of Health and Secretary of the Party Committee, and Yuan Guanghai is an active soldier, how can she listen to her command." ”

Bai Xiaoqi said: "Third Sister Su used a telegram from the Military Commission, and after our intelligence department investigated, we found that although the signature of the telegram was Third Sister Su, it was Li Hainiu who ordered the report, and it was ......."

Yao Fan frowned and said, "And what?" ”

Bai Xiaoqi bowed his head and said: "And we found out that Li Hainiu has recently given Su Sanjie two gifts, one silk and one gold ring, Su Sanjie has accepted them, and the two are now very close, probably Li Hainiu is pursuing Su Sanjie." ”

Yao Fan said: "Your intelligence department discovered it in a timely manner this time, and this information is very important. ”

Bai Xiaoqi continued: "At present, the work of the Intelligence Department is relatively chaotic, and there is all kinds of intelligence other than military intelligence, so we want to quickly divide the part of the internal intelligence of the organization to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, or hand it over to the Ministry of Public Security." ”

Yao Fan said: "There is no harm in intersecting, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is now mainly responsible for managing civil affairs intelligence and intelligence on the investigation of cadres' backgrounds, and the Ministry of Public Security is mainly responsible for social security intelligence, so your intelligence department does not need to hand over this part of the business to them." ”

Bai Xiaoqi nodded.

Yao Fan said: "You don't sue anyone about this matter, it will be recorded in the top secret files of the Ministry of Intelligence, and no one will be allowed to access it without my permission." ”

"Yes."

After Bai Xiaoqi left, Yao Fan was a little angry, he had always treated Su Sanjie as a sister, and he did not object to Li Hainiu pursuing Su Sanjie, but why did Su Sanjie do this now?

"It's nothing more than revenge, but in this way, this is an indelible stain, this black material ......" Yao Fan shook his head and continued to think: "Not many people know about her affairs, and they are all upper-class, and her tone is very strict, but she is really too bold to do this." ”

"Li Hainiu dares to bypass me now and give orders in the name of the Central Military Commission, and ...... in the future"

Yao Fan was in a complicated mood, pondered for a long time, and finally decided not to move for the time being.

……………………

Beijing has entered summer, and the white sun already makes people feel the scorching temperature.

British Minister Wittoma paced back and forth in the British Embassy with a folding fan in hand.

"This Yao Fan is simply crazy, he does not allow the embassy personnel of various countries to enter and leave freely, does not allow British citizens to travel freely, and even asks us to go to his so-called Ministry of Foreign Affairs to apply for special passports for diplomatic personnel, which is simply an insult to us!"

Counsellor Schwaites said: "I suspect that in the next step he will refuse to recognize the treaties signed by the Qing Emperor with other countries, Your Excellency, your decision is correct, we should indeed send troops to China." ”

Wei Tuma said fiercely: "It's a pity that we started late, when he was in rebellion in Qingdao, he should have sent the troops of the East India Company to land from Yantai. ”

"At that time, no one would have believed that a rebel army would grow to the size it is today, and their newspaper, the People's Daily, said that they now have 300,000 troops, which is terrible," Swaites said. ”

Wei Tuma shook his head and said, "It's just a rabble, didn't the former Taiping Heavenly Kingdom claim to have two million troops, and it was not wiped out in the end. Now they did not kill the emperor and the queen mother, according to my information, the emperor and the queen mother are in the back court of the palace, they are safe, they are just imprisoned. ”

Swaites said: "I wonder how many troops the East India Company will send this time?" If the East India Company did not act immediately, it was likely that a large-scale military operation would be carried out, in which case an autumn offensive would probably be chosen. ”

Wittoma said: "Wait, I think the East India Company will quickly coordinate the forces of all parties......

The two were discussing when suddenly there was a commotion outside.

Wittoma was surprised to walk out of the three-entrance compound to check, and found that the British embassy was actually surrounded by armed soldiers, and the soldiers surrounding the embassy were loaded with guns and steel helmets, obviously menacing.

Angry, he stood in the courtyard of the embassy and shouted, "You crazy peasants! This is the British Embassy, a sacred territory protected by Great Britain, and you are violating international law by doing so! ”

A leading officer stood up and said: "According to the order of the superiors, if the embassy of your country does not hand over the wanted criminal Yi Xin, we will close the embassy and expel all British personnel in China!" ”

Wei Tuma was furious, Yao Fan asked for a British expedition in exchange for Yi Xin, but he didn't agree, Yao Fan had to expel the British expedition from Tianjin on a British cargo ship bound for Shanghai, and now Yao Fan actually wants to play hard. ”

"You are a provocation by Yan zhòng, if you don't stop immediately, you will be retaliated against by the British army! All the perpetrators will be hanged! ”

However, Wei Tuma's stiff Chinese was exchanged for a burst of laughter, and the soldiers scolded the foreign devil in front of them in Shandong's dialect.

There is only one reason why Yao Fan began to take a tough stance, the 300,000-strong army has been trained.

On the morning of the same day, at the Wucheng Hall of Zhongnanhai, at the meeting of the Central Military Commission, Yao Fan issued an order to liberate the whole country, 20 corps, 60 infantry divisions, and 60 divisions belong to mortar battalions, ready to meet glory and challenges in the upcoming war, temper themselves in blood and fire, and grow rapidly.