Since the assassination of Yuan Shikai in early October, Zhao Dongyun's name and the names of several Beiyang bigwigs such as Wang Yingkai and Duan Qirui have been widely published in newspapers around the world.

Especially in mid-October, after Zhao Dongyun, Wang Yingkai, and Duan Qirui reached a de facto military alliance and marched into Beijing, the names of the above three people spread throughout China overnight.

Among them, Wang Yingkai and Duan Qirui are better, although they have great prestige in Beiyang, but their reputation in the outside world is far less than Zhao Dongyun, Zhao Dongyun as early as 1903 led the army to live in Shanhaiguan, with the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, as China's direct military head in the Mukden region, the Qing court's mouth of the 'armed neutrality' executor, his name in 1904 was widely published in domestic newspapers and foreign newspapers, many people even put his photo with the day' The Commander-in-Chief of the Manchurian Army, Dashan Yan, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Far East, Kuropatkin, were published side by side.

It can be said that at that time, Zhao Dongyun was already well-known in China, and then became one of the feudal officials after serving as General Shengjing, coupled with his young and excessive age, so more people were interested in him.

So before Yuan Shikai's assassination, Zhao Dongyun's reputation was not small, and then Yuan Shikai was assassinated, and when the Beiyang generals directly led the army to enter the Beijing Division, Zhao Dongyun's name appeared in newspapers almost every day.

But the newspapers say he's good and he's bad!

For example, in the southern regions such as Liangjiang and Huguang, public opinion in these areas as a whole maintained criticism of the Beiyang generals, including Zhao Dongyun, Wang Yingkai, and Duan Qirui, believing that they had undermined domestic peace and plunged China into civil war.

Not only the people, but even the officialdom of the southern provinces also have quite a lot of opinions on this, Zhang Zhidong named and said that Zhao Dongyun's entry into the customs will greatly undermine the constitutional process, and it is not a wise move.

As for the Manchu ministers such as Duanfang and Yinchang, they even scolded Zhao Dongyun for being a chaotic minister and a thief.

In fact, it was not only Zhao Dongyun who was rejected and slandered by them, but even Wang Shizhen and Feng Guozhang, who stood with the imperial court, could not please them, and a large group of people pointed at their noses and scolded them, saying that they were incompetent and plunged Jingshi into the flames of war.

Generally speaking, the southern provinces are not divided into Manchu and Han, in fact, they don't have a good impression of Beiyang, and they can't wait for Wang Duan Zhao and Feng Wang to kill each other and lose both.

In addition to these traditional folk and officialdom public opinion, those revolutionaries of the League also jumped out, and they expressed countless words of praise to Zhao Dongyun, saying that Zhao Dongyun and others are really the heart of the country and the nation, and the bitterness of the republic.

Moreover, Sun Wen hid in the Japanese book and published an article saying: If necessary, he will personally return to the country and lead the rebel army to carry out the revolution!

However, he was just talking, if he really dared to go to Zhili to lead the so-called revolutionary uprising, it is estimated that Wang Yingkai and Duan Qirui would kill him first.

Recently, public opinion has been one after another, and Zhao Dongyun's name has once again spread all over the country!

And this famous man in China in recent months, his every move has affected the entire course of Chinese history, he frowned slightly at this moment, and after putting down the binoculars, he said: "The progress of this tenth bid is a little slow!" ”

Chen Guangyuan, who was on the side, immediately stepped forward and said: "Opposite the tenth standard is the first standard of the main force of the sixth town, and the terrain in the direction of attack is relatively flat, if you attack rashly, you will be afraid of too many casualties, so the headquarters ordered them to adopt steady and steady tactics!" ”

Zhao Dongyun said: "Although it is good to avoid casualties, this battle still has to be fought, and it looks like winter is about to begin, and we can't spend a winter in this Tongzhou!" ”

Chen Guangyuan's face was bitter when he heard this, looking at what Zhao Dongyun meant, it seemed that he wanted the troops to launch a forced attack, but in the contemporary war mode, if a forced attack was launched, the casualties would definitely not be something that the third town could bear, and he immediately said: "Now the sixth town is defended according to the fortifications, if our army attacks rashly, I am afraid it will ......."

Zhao Dongyun directly interrupted him: "The way to attack is more than 10 million, is it possible that in addition to learning from Japan and Russia to play the sea of people charge, you won't order anything else?" ”

Chen Guangyuan was choked with such a sentence, his face was also a little red, Zhao Dongyun was angry today, he also expected it, this attack on Tongzhou has been five or six days, but in addition to the beginning of the fight was quite smooth, the next few days were in a stalemate, Chen Guangyuan personally commanded the Fifth Association to launch an attack two days ago, but it was quickly repulsed.

In this case, Chen Guangyuan adopted a more conservative strategy, letting the troops dig trenches and slowly advance little by little, but although the casualties were small, the time required was too much.

In this case, it is normal for Zhao Dongyun to be dissatisfied with him.

However, at this time, Zhao Dongyun did not continue to criticize Chen Guangyuan, some words are enough to say once, if Chen Guangyuan can't achieve his expected results, then Chen Guangyuan will not have a second chance.

The Soviet Department said that it was not big, and it was not said that it was small, and a large number of young and promising officers were staring bitterly at these positions of coordination and control!

If you Chen Guangyuan don't play well, then Zhao Dongyun will not hesitate to replace him and replace him with a general who can give him victory.

At this time, he turned around, and then said to Fang Biyong: "Chief of Staff, what do you think!" ”

Fang Bi Yong said: "Although the terrain of Tongzhou was average before, but the sixth town was built here for more than half a month before the fortifications, although these fortifications can not be compared with the Liaoyang defense line during the period of the Japanese and Russian stations, but it should not be underestimated, if you directly launch a frontal attack, I am afraid that you will suffer great casualties, if you want to attack, you must bypass these places." ”

Speaking of this, he turned around and pointed to an officer who was about twenty-seven or eighteen years old and wore the rank of assistant to the army and said, "Section Chief Yang proposed a combat plan before, maybe it can give the commander some reference!" ”

As soon as Zhao Dongyun heard this, he knew that this Fang Biyong was giving this young man a chance, and Duan Qirui recommended him to Yuan Shikai like this back then! immediately looked over: "Oh, Yang Deming, is this time good?" ”

This person is the only student who was admitted to the Berlin Military Academy among the many elite students selected by Yuan Shikai a few years ago, and he is the second student in the Beiyang system and even in China after Zhao Dongyun to study at the Berlin Military Academy, and after him, in the past few years, four more people in the Beiyang system have been successfully admitted to the school, but the other four have not graduated and returned to China, and Yang Deming has just returned to China in the second half of this year.

Because of Zhao Dongyun's successful experience, Yuan Shikai had great expectations for him, he was awarded the rank of assistant staff leader as soon as he returned to China, and then entered the Beiyang Military Academy as an instructor.

This is not fast, Yuan Shikai spent a lot of money in the past few years in order to be able to cultivate a few real talents from famous military schools, such as Yang Deming's several years of study in Germany, he spent at least 3,000 pounds in Beiyang, which took a lot of money to cultivate talents, it is not important that he can't live with his own money bag!

But the good times didn't last long, Yuan Shikai just died, and Yang Deming's military career was immediately in jeopardy, why?

Because he is not only a student studying in Germany, but more importantly, Zhao Dongyun is worthy of his name, and he is also the only junior of the same school, no need for others to say, he himself feels that he has the word Su engraved on his head.

So as soon as he gritted his teeth, he went directly to Jinzhou to seek refuge with Zhao Dongyun like many other young Zhuang faction and Soviet officers.

Zhao Dongyun still has something to say about such a talent to take refuge, of course, he immediately reused it, and he didn't learn from Yuan Shikai to let him go to the military academy to sharpen or something, but directly waved his hand, which was to give him the position of the head of the operations section of the staff office.

If he can embody the talent he should have, Zhao Dongyun plans to let him go to the army to bring a target in a short time, and if he can show loyalty to himself again, then Zhao Dongyun doesn't mind continuing to push him to the top of a town.

So this Yang Deming, although he just returned to China this year, but his life prospects are already red and purple, as long as he does not travel, as long as he can embody the Su zhì that a graduate of the Berlin Military Academy should have, then he will be able to grow up in a few years.

At this time, Zhao Dongyun was also a little curious, what can this Yang Deming do to solve the current predicament!

Yang Deming looked a little nervous, after all, it was normal to have pressure to talk alone in front of so many seniors and put forward a battle plan, only to see him take two steps forward and say: "If you go back to the senior, I'll be fine!" ”

Everyone is very resentful of his 'senior', because everyone is called a commander or an adult, a few young generations, who have attended Zhao Dongyun's advanced class, at most don't have the cheekiness to shout 'teacher', but for the time being, there is only this Yang Deming.

However, Yang Deming didn't care about other people's thoughts, but continued: "At present, our army is taking a frontal attack on the front line of Tongzhou, and it is certain that the fortifications of the Sixth Town will be blocked to a certain extent, and from the experience of the Russo-Japanese War and some of the examples of our army's battle with the Sixth Town some time ago, even if our army surpasses the Sixth Town in terms of equipment and equipment, the difficulty of a frontal attack is still very great!"

According to the opinion of the department, the First Association was left to contain the attack in Tongzhou, and then the First Association was dispatched to the north, bypassing Tongzhou and advancing from the northwest, so that even if the other side also divided its troops to intercept it, the enemy army would not have the fortifications that had been built in advance, and the difficulty of the attack would be greatly reduced.

At the same time, you can also send cavalry troops to the north to completely block the Beijing Division!

The capital division has a large population, and once it is completely blocked, it is only a matter of time before the army is defeated! ”

However, Gu Lanyu on the side said: "General Meng's cavalry troops are going to stay in the south to guard against Tianjin, if they are transferred to the north, what if there is an abnormal movement in the countries?" ”

Unexpectedly, Yang Deming said: "If there is any change in the countries, then they have moved half a month ago, and they will not wait until now, and looking at the public opinion of various countries, there is no sign of large-scale military intervention in our country at present." As long as we ensure the safety of Tianjin and the embassy area of Beijing, there is no reason for all countries to send troops! ”

Speaking of this, Yang Deming had to say again: "Take a step back and say, even if they want to send troops?" Who will send troops? Who can send troops? Britain, France, the United States, Germany and other countries are far away, and it is difficult to send troops, and the Russian army and the Japanese army, which are the most likely and convenient to send troops, have been burdened by the Russo-Japanese War, and it is impossible to launch a foreign war in the next ten years. So don't worry too much about the intervention of the nations! ”

When Yang Deming said this, he seemed full of confidence, but several other people obviously disagreed, in the many foreign wars of the late Qing Dynasty, to be honest, the Chinese people were already afraid, they used to look down on foreigners, thinking that they were all barbarians, and now they are afraid when they see foreigners, and they will subconsciously think about what to do if foreign adults come over?

However, Zhao Dongyun was also calculating the gains and losses in his mind, and dispatched the first cavalry to the north, which can certainly form a certain strength advantage for the attack on the Beijing division, but if there is no such cavalry division in Tianjin, Zhao Dongyun is not at ease, in case there is really another Eight-Nation Alliance, and then the coalition army will end Tangshan as soon as it sends troops, and then capture Shanhaiguan, then the situation will be very bad.

It's just that now it is not possible to rely on only a third town, even if Tongzhou is finally won, it is estimated that it will be a big loss, so what capital does he Zhao Dongyun rely on to compete with Wang Yingkai and Duan Qirui?