Since October 6th, that is, the day Yuan Shikai was assassinated, almost all the Beiyang generals in other places have done the same thing, that is, to prepare for war!

Zhao Dongyun in Fengtian, Duan Qirui and Wu Fengling in Shanhaiguan, Wang Yingkai in Baoding, and Zhang Huaizhi in Shandong all began to mobilize troops without exception, and this situation became even more obvious after the news of Yuan Shikai's death came out on October 7.

Taking Fengtian's Zhao Dongyun as an example, on the night of the 6th, after he learned that Yuan Shikai was assassinated, he began to gather the main generals of the army, and on the morning of the 7th, after learning the news that Yuan Shikai had died, Zhao Dongyun immediately ordered the third town to prepare to enter the customs, and also established a temporary Fengtian Cavalry Association.

At the same time, he also went to the barracks non-stop, met with all the officers above the rank of officer in Jinzhou, and also went to the station of the ninth standard in the third town to inspect the barracks and comfort the soldiers. According to the words of later generations, Zhao Dongyun cordially visited the officers and soldiers of the Ninth Standard, expressed the cordial greetings of the Beiyang Central Committee to the soldiers, and personally awarded medals to the soldiers who had obtained excellent training results.

As an aside, this medal is still made of pure gold, and Zhao Dongyun's head is engraved with a relief.

For almost the whole day, Zhao Dongyun stayed in the barracks of the third town, and in addition to constantly inspecting the battalions and meeting with hundreds of middle and low-level officers, he also constantly made arrangements for many military affairs.

However, just as Zhao Dongyun was preparing to enter the customs and march into Beijing with several other Beiyang tycoons, the news came that Cixi agreed to establish a province and appointed Zhao Dongyun as the governor of the three eastern provinces.

Governor of the three eastern provinces, this temptation is not small!

You must know that in Zhao Dongyun's original plan, he was thinking about how to completely control the three eastern provinces, just a few days ago his plan was still like this, that is, relying on Yuan Shikai to block Zhao Erxun out of the gate of the three eastern provinces, postponing the timetable for the establishment of the three eastern provinces, and waiting for two or three years after his development in Fengtian, his strength and qualifications will be enough, and then he will promote the establishment of the three eastern provinces in one fell swoop, and then seek the plan of the governor of the three eastern provinces.

Originally, this plan went very smoothly, and a secret discussion in Yuguan made the imperial court give up all plans to suppress the Beiyang system, but what Zhao Dongyun did not expect was that Yuan Shikai was assassinated the next day.

As soon as Yuan Shikai died, it meant that all Zhao Dongyun's previous plans had come to naught!

Now in order to stabilize itself, the imperial court has sent out the entire three eastern provinces at once, to be honest, it is impossible not to be moved, but this temptation is a veritable sugar-coated cannonball, the current governor of the three eastern provinces looks very good, but as long as Zhao Dongyun accepts it, let the Qing court go through this difficult period a little, and then it is estimated that they will deal with the Beiyang generals separately, and then Zhao Dongyun's fate will be in addition to rebellion or illness and return to his hometown.

But now it's not appropriate to go straight to the customs!

Once he enters the customs, if he will raise troops with Duan Qirui and Wang Yingkai, even if the Qing court can win over Wang Shizhen and Feng Guozhang, it will not be able to stop the joint attack of the three of them, and it is inevitable that the Qing court will die.

However, now the question arises, once the Qing court is destroyed, who will be the lord of Beiyang at that time?

The question is not about who will be the president, but who will be the lord of the Beiyang!

Looking at the entire Beiyang, there are actually only three people who have the ability to compete for the lord of Beiyang, the top of the list, the most likely is Wang Yingkai, he is already strong, and his prestige is also the highest, if he still takes the Beiyang generals to destroy the Qing court, whether it is Zhao Dongyun or Duan Qirui, it is estimated that he will have to pinch his nose and admit that he is the heir of Beiyang.

However, will this kind of thing happen to Zhao Dongyun and Duan Qirui?

It is absolutely impossible, if Wang Yingkai wants to be the heir of Beiyang, let alone whether Zhao Dongyun agrees or not, a large number of Soviet generals under Zhao Dongyun must first not agree, and he knows with his toes that if Wang Yingkai ascends to the position of the lord of Beiyang, and then becomes the president or something, then the Beiyang civil war will be proper, even if Zhao Dongyun does not want to fight, but the fierce generals of the three towns of the Soviet system, and the Beiyang Young Zhuang faction led by Zhao Dongyun will hold high the banner of Zhao Dongyun and raise troops again.

If the previous Beiyang was a whole, and the Beiyang people had the overall pursuit of interests, then now after Yuan Shikai died, the Soviet faction split from it has become a separate interest group, and this interest group is absolutely unable to accept another faction of Beiyang to ascend to the presidential throne.

And in addition to Zhao Dongyun, there is also Duan Qirui, who is a sworn enemy of Wang Yingkai, if Duan Qirui can bear Wang Yingkai to climb on his head to and pee, then he is not Duan Qirui.

So now the question of whether the Beiyang generals will send troops or not is not whether to fight the Qing court, in fact, there is nothing to discuss!

The crux of the matter now is, once the army is raised, who is the boss of Beiyang?

Wang Yingkai can't do it, and Duan Qirui can't do it either, although Zhao Dongyun holds the three towns, but to be honest, in addition to the generals of the Su family, the generals of other factions will not obey him.

As for Wang Shizhen, Feng Guozhang and Zhang Huaizhi, as well as Wu Fengling and others, there is even less hope.

Well, in addition, there is Xu Shichang of the civilian system, if it is in peacetime, Xu Shichang is barely qualified to be a nominal president, but the problem is that it is not peacetime, in this Beiyang system with military power as the core, the civilian faction can only be regarded as an auxiliary, and the real power bosses are all Beiyang generals who hold military power.

The Beiyang bigwigs in people's mouths generally refer to generals such as Wang Yingkai, Duan Qirui, and Zhao Dongyun, not Xu Shichang and Zhou Xuexi.

In contemporary Beiyang, there is no heir who can convince the public!

Therefore, the split of Beiyang is actually inevitable, even if there is no Cixi's trick, it will be divided, the only difference is that if Cixi does not use these power tricks, many factions in Beiyang will split and break out into civil war after destroying the Qing court, and now after Cixi has played these tricks, Beiyang will immediately split.

In the headquarters of Baoding First Town, Wang Yingkai's face was full of anger: "He Wang Pingqing is so bold, now that most of the time has passed, isn't it enough for him to resign?" ”

"I think he has already taken refuge in the imperial court!" The lowly person immediately spoke: "And that Feng Guozhang, I see that he has already forgotten Yuan Gong's kindness, and a title will make him run over!" ”

Wang Yingkai is in a very bad mood!

During the day, he also frequently exchanged secret telegrams with Duan Qirui and Zhao Dongyun, although he did not say it explicitly, but he also secretly agreed to raise troops in accordance with the secret agreement of Yuguan, but after Cixi's several appointments in the afternoon, Zhang Huaizhi, who was regarded as his confidant, cut off the news, and there had been no telegram from Shandong for more than six hours.

Then Wu Fengling of Shanhaiguan immediately announced that he had no intention of arguing, and actually led the second town to Rehe overnight, which made Wang Yingkai overturn the table angrily.

The only one who kept the same pace as Wang Yingkai was Duan Qirui, and Duan Qirui had already sent several secret messages to him, saying that he was ready to enter the Beijing Division in accordance with Yuan Gong's last orders.

In addition, Zhao Dongyun, another major faction in Beiyang, although he was fine during the day, but in the afternoon and evening, according to the secret telegram report of the spy arranged by Wang Yingkai in the third town, Zhao Dongyun was also shaken, and in the evening, a large number of middle and high-ranking officers were once again convened for an enlarged meeting, obviously discussing the gains and losses of this matter.

When Wang Yingkai was busy co-opting the various factions in Beiyang in Baoding, he also continued to be surging in Beijing!

First of all, Feng Guozhang, when the imperial court announced that he would be crowned the crown prince Shaobao, he was the first to go to the thanksgiving, the reason why he chose to join the imperial court so happily, the reason is very simple, that is, the imperial court took the jurisdiction of the original Beijing Banner Standing Army and the current seventh town of the army into the Ministry of War, in other words, it was in the hands of him Feng Guozhang.

This seventh town was originally dominated by banner soldiers, and there were also a large number of flag men among the officers, and the rest were a large number of Beiyang descendants!

In order to maintain the overall situation, Tie Liang naturally had no big problem in wooing those bannerman officers and soldiers, and the remaining Beiyang officers were handed over to Feng Guozhang one by one to appease and woo.

However, for a few well-known officers of other factions in Beiyang, they have no way to win them over, such as Cao Kun, who wears the same pants as Zhao Dongyun in the eyes of outsiders, has been monitored since Yuan Shikai was assassinated, and Yuan Shikai was immediately placed under house arrest by Tieliang after the news of his death on the seventh day.

And He Zonglian, who also has a good relationship with Zhao Dongyun, is a little luckier, although he was also monitored before, but on the afternoon of the 7th, after Cixi issued a series of personnel appointments, he sneaked out of the house under house arrest, and then changed into civilian clothes and boarded the train to Mukden.

For Cao Kun and He Zonglian, who have obvious Soviet imprints, the current Guannai is definitely an extremely dangerous place, so it is better to go to Fengtian early to seek refuge with Zhao Dongyun.

Tie Liang and Feng Guozhang joined forces, and within two days, the seventh town of the army was controlled, which can be described as a quick action, of course, this is inseparable from Feng Guozhang's contribution, although they are not as famous as Wang Yingkai and Duan Qirui, but they are also Beiyang bosses, but they have never had actual military power before.

followed by Wang Shizhen's side, from beginning to end, Wang Shizhen's attitude has been very ambiguous, not only to Wang Yingkai and Duan Qirui, but also to make the Qing court extremely worried, otherwise Feng Guozhang would not have just collected the first town, and immediately transferred the first town to Beijing, afraid that Wang Shizhen would suddenly turn his face.

On the night of the 7th, in the Huici Church Hospital, which was still brightly lit, Wang Shizhen looked at Yuan Shikai, who had been scrubbed and put on a new official robe, and Yuan Shikai, who had no longer spoken, lost his majesty in the past.

Wang Shizhen took a deep breath and muttered: "The current Beiyang is no longer the original Beiyang, my lord, don't blame me!" ”