However, Wang Yingkai was able to get to this point today and become the number one boss in the first echelon of Yuan Shikai in Beiyang today, and his cultivation kung fu is not bad, and immediately the fat face trembled twice, and then swallowed back the words that came to his mouth.

changed the conversation and said: "Well, things are indeed a little urgent now, so I won't talk much!" ”

At this time, Zhao Dongyun also retracted the relaxed expression just now, and immediately said: "Since you talk about this, I don't know what the adults did before Brother Shaochen came to Yuguan?" ”

This time the secret gathering at Shanhaiguan was ostensibly because after Duan Qirui arrived at Shanhaiguan, he invited Zhao Dongyun, who was stationed in Jinzhou, to come in the name of discussing the safety of the Liaoning West Corridor, and Wang Yingkai, who lived in Baoding, came as Yuan Shikai's representative.

However, in fact, this meeting was brought up by Wang Yingkai on his own initiative, and behind this must be Yuan Shikai's meaning, to put it bluntly, Yuan Shikai sent Wang Yingkai to convey some of Yuan Shikai's instructions and envelop Duan Qirui, Zhao Dongyun, and Wu Fengling.

If it weren't for the fear of causing a large-scale riot, it is estimated that Yuan Shikai would have come in person.

"You also know that if you come to Yuxian County, it will be too big, so he let me come, and he told me before he came, this time Yuguan and his party must urge the local defense, not to let the defense of Yuguan and Liaoxi erode!"

When Zhao Dongyun heard this, his face became even heavier, and the subtext of Yuan Shikai's words was to let Duan Qirui, Zhao Dongyun, and Wu Fengling firmly grasp the military power, and they must not let go.

Duan Qirui on the side also had a dark face: "Is there any other news?" ”

Duan Qirui, like Zhao Dongyun, couldn't get important information in time after arriving in the field, and could only get a lot of information through private letters and secret telegrams.

Wang Yingkai also took a deep breath at this time: "Three days ago, Cen Chunxuan, who was in Shanghai, had secretly arrived in Beijing, and it was rumored that he had met the Empress Dowager of the West Palace!" ”

Hearing this, Zhao Dongyun and the others' faces became even darker, who is Cen Chunxuan? Yuan Shikai's sworn enemy, in other words, their sworn enemy of the Beiyang system, it was not easy to get him down at the beginning of the year, and now Cixi wants to reuse him?

At this critical juncture, the reuse of Cen Chunxuan means suppressing or simply eliminating Beiyang, how not to make the Beiyang people present frightened.

However, Wang Yingkai's next sentence made them even more worried: "It is rumored that the matter of transferring Lord Duxian from the post of governor of Zhili and serving as the secretary of the household department has now been largely conclusive, and it is true. ”

Hearing this, whether it was Duan Qirui, Zhao Dongyun or Wu Fengling, a word flashed in their hearts: "Bright rise and dark fall!" ”

Seeing that Wang Yingkai still hadn't finished speaking, Duan Qirui, who was a little anxious in his heart, said: "What else to say together, and swallow and spit out!" ”

Wang Yingkai took a deep breath at this time: "The imperial court is ready to take all my seven towns in Beiyang under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War!" After that, he looked at Zhao Dongyun and said: "If nothing else, the imperial court has decided to send Zhao Erxun to serve as the governor of the three eastern provinces, and the whole army will deal with the affairs of the establishment of the three eastern provinces and military and civilian affairs!" ”

Although Zhao Dongyun had heard a little about the above news, after hearing Wang Yingkai's personal confirmation, he was still uncalm, and after a long time, his face was gloomy: "They are trying to force us to death!" ”

These things are not occasional, but a series of succession, the imperial court first used Qu Hongzhen to pit the new official system of Yuan Shikai and Prince Qing, and kicked Xu Shichang, the number one civil official of the Beiyang faction, out of the military aircraft department, so that Beiyang lost the central right to speak.

Immediately afterwards, Qu Hongzhen took advantage of Beiyang's unmanned presence in the center to cooperate with a group of Manchu nobles who wanted to guard against Yuan Shikai every day, and directly merged the military training department controlled by Beiyang, the military department and the Taifu Temple, and then established the War Department with Tie Liang as the secretary.

and now re-enable Cen Chunxuan, Mingsheng secretly demotes Yuan Shikai as the head of the household department!

If Zhao Erxun is transferred to serve as the governor of the three eastern provinces, then it can be announced that the seven towns of Beiyang and the two towns of Fengtian will be controlled by the imperial court, and the results of the efforts of the Beiyang people for more than ten years will come to naught.

It is estimated that in a short period of time, including Yuan Shikai, Zhao Dongyun, Wang Yingkai, Duan Qirui, and other core bigwigs in Beiyang will be transferred from important positions one after another.

In short, nothing ends well!

Among the four people present, Zhao Dongyun was fine, after all, he knew some historical trends, although he couldn't remember what political struggles there were at the end of the Qing Dynasty, whether Yuan Shikai won or lost, but he knew that Yuan Shikai became president after the Xinhai Revolution, which means that even if history goes on according to the original, then Yuan Shikai can also become president.

But the problem is that Zhao Dongyun knows that it won't be long before Cixi and Guangxu will die, and the Xinhai Revolution will break out in a few years, but others don't know!

According to the current situation, if the imperial court is allowed to suppress it, it is possible that the Beiyang system will be completely annihilated!

And what makes Zhao Dongyun very worried is that it is now very different from the original history, not to mention that the six towns of Beiyang have become the seven towns of Beiyang, and he has also made a standing army in Fengtian, and even the Russo-Japanese War on the side was fought from 1905 to 1906.

In the case that history has been changed, to be honest, Zhao Dongyun does not dare to guarantee that history will continue according to the original process.

After everyone was silent for a long time, Wu Fengling said, "Don't you have any other instructions?" ”

Whether it is to use political means to resist the suppression of the imperial court, or to temporarily obey the imperial court and endure humiliation, or simply to rebel, there must be a way!

Wang Yingkai said: "My lord has already entered Beijing before I came, and I believe that my lord will be able to make a decision in a few days." However, what I need to tell you is that now that we are facing an unprecedented crisis in Beiyang, it is the time when we need the big guys to work together, and those previous careful thoughts must be put away for the time being! ”

is worthy of being the boss whose prestige is second only to Yuan Shikai in contemporary Beiyang, among these four people, in addition to him, even Duan Qirui does not dare to say this to others openly, as for Zhao Dongyun and Wu Fengling, they are even more unqualified.

After saying that, Wang Yingkai swept his gaze to Zhao Dongyun and the others, and immediately Duan Qirui snorted coldly: "Hmph, we all know these without you needing to say this!" ”

Zhao Dongyun also immediately replied: "Now that the situation is critical, it is natural to focus on the overall situation!" ”

Wu Fengling also said: "This is natural! ”

Wang Yingkai nodded: "That's good!" ”

After that, he took out a letter from his pocket and put it on the table: "This is an adult's handwritten letter, look at it!" ”

Although it was a little strange that Wang Yingkai only took out Yuan Shikai's handwritten letter at this time, Zhao Dongyun and the others still looked at it carefully, and after a while, Wu Fengling, who was the last to read the letter, put down the letter in his hand, and then showed joy: "This is naturally good with temporary military expenses, but I'm afraid this number is not enough!" ”

Wang Yingkai said: "Now that my Beiyang side is in financial difficulties, it is already a lot to be able to take out three million taels as a backup, and once something happens, it can barely support our Beiyang Seven Towns for a month or two!" ”

Zhao Dongyun frowned: "Three million is estimated to be the bottom, but we have more than seven towns in Beiyang, and other troops have to spend it!" ”

In 1906, after the unification of the national new army number, the six towns of the Beiyang Standing Army continued to use the number of the first town to the sixth town of the army, and the Beijing Banner Standing Army was changed to the seventh town of the army.

In addition to the Jiangbei Mixed Association that Liu Yongqing organized and trained in the Jiangbei Governor before, the most popular is the Fengtian Two Towns, although the two towns of Fengtian are said to be officially formed this year, but in fact, the time of training can be traced back to the Jinzhou Patrol Battalion and the Fengtian Patrol Battalion in 1903, and the large-scale development period was after Zhao Dongyun became the general of Shengjing, these two patrol battalions were reorganized into two mixed associations under the jurisdiction of the Fengtian Standing Army.

What is even more crucial is that these two towns are currently one of the few local new armies in China that are completely organized and trained in accordance with the new army, except for the seven towns in Beiyang, and they are not only fully staffed but also fully equipped with heavy weapons, and the new army organized and trained in local provinces is not only the Fengtian Standing Army, but also the Hubei New Army, but it is far less formal than the Fengtian Standing Army.

In the eyes of outsiders, the two towns of the Fengtian Standing Army are actually the Beiyang Army.

Yuan Shikai said in the letter that he would give 3 million as a temporary fund to build the defense line in western Liaoning, but he was prepared to prevent accidents, and if something happened, it would be the temporary war expenses of the Beiyang Army.

But it's not easy to say about money, anyway, it hasn't been decided yet, Yuan Shikai didn't give a letter from his side, and their generals can only continue to wait, but Duan Qirui said: "In order to prevent accidents, I think it is better to invite some people in the army out, well, for example, Fengshan in the seventh town, if he is there, the seventh town is too variable." ”

At this time, Wang Yingkai looked at Zhao Dongyun: "What do you think of Cao Kun and He Zonglian?" Can the Seventh Town be stabilized at a critical moment? ”

The reason why Wang Yingkai asked Zhao Dongyun this is because Cao Kun, the thirteenth co-commander of the seventh town, and He Zonglian, the fourteenth co-commander, both have a close relationship with Zhao Dongyun, especially Cao Kun is a recognized Soviet general, and He Zonglian also has a very good relationship with Zhao Dongyun.

Zhao Dongyun said: "I am still assured of the ability of the two of them, it is not a big problem to stabilize the seventh town!" ”

Wang Yingkai nodded after hearing this, and then said: "In this case, our seven towns should not be a big problem, well, there are also Ziyang's two towns of Fengtian, which add up to nine towns, I want to see who in the imperial court dares to do anything to us!" ”