Although the Beiyang forces in 1906 were squeezed by the government and the opposition, the core military power was still not lost, but more tightly controlled.

Among the existing seven towns in Beiyang, in addition to the original Beijing Banner Standing Army, the current command of the seventh town of the army Fengshan is Manchurian, the other six towns are all high-level generals of the Beiyang system, the first town is still Wang Yingkai, the second town is Wu Fengling, who has climbed up in the past two years, the third town is still controlled by Zhao Dongyun, the fourth town is Duan Qirui, the fifth town is Zhang Huaizhi, and the sixth town is Wang Shizhen.

In addition to the top one-town commandery, there are also high-level co-commanders and standard commanders, most of whom are also Beiyang descendants.

Even the seventh town, which is nominally under the control of the banner people, in fact, except for Fengshan, which is under the command of Manchurians, most of the other middle and high-level officers are also Beiyang generals, well, for example, Cao Kun and He Zonglian, who have a close relationship with Zhao Dongyun, served as the commanders of the 13th and 14th associations respectively in this seventh town.

Among these Beiyang bigwigs and descendants, although they are unanimously regarded as a whole in Beiyang to the outside world, they are also subdivided into several factions. Among them, Wang Yingkai and Zhang Huaizhi wear the same pants, and they are the most prestigious and powerful factions in Beiyang, holding the first town of the army and the fifth town of the army.

In the early years, Duan Qirui and Zhao Dongyun were also considered to be a faction, but after Duan Zhao split, they also formed their own factions, Duan Qirui took the fourth town of the army as his family, and Duan Qirui had a close relationship with Liu Yongqing before, so the Jiangbei Mixed Association far south can actually be regarded as Duan Qirui's faction, but now that Jiangbei is controlled by Yinchang, this Jiangbei Mixed Association naturally can't be counted on. In addition, Duan Qirui has many protégés, and there are people who have been installed by Duan Qirui in the second, fifth, and even sixth towns, so don't think that Duan Qirui is much weaker if he only has a fourth town, but in fact, it is not.

Zhao Dongyun is the third town of the army as the core, but after the formation of the two towns of Fengtian recently, Zhao Dongyun's subordinates control the troops of the three towns, which is the most powerful faction in the Beiyang system today, but his qualifications and prestige are far inferior to Wang Yingkai and Duan Qirui.

The remaining Wang Shizhen and Wu Fengling are considered neutrals, and they do not participate much in the factional disputes of several other families, nor do they win over people everywhere like Wang Yingkai, Duan Qirui, and Zhao Dongyun, they are only loyal to Yuan Shikai.

If you analyze it carefully, you will find that contemporary Beiyang is mainly composed of Wang Yingkai's faction, Duan Qirui's faction, Zhao Dongyun's faction and other neutral factions.

Speaking of these people, you may ask, where did Feng Guozhang go?

Feng Guozhang has been very tragic in recent years, not only did he not get a position of control, but also the military education and military reform and other affairs he presided over were also robbed of a lot of limelight by Zhao Dongyun and Duan Qirui.

Today's Feng Guozhang can only rely on the various military academies under his command to compile his own network, trying to rely on a large number of protégés to save the country, and this method is not bad.

Although Feng Guozhang now has no sense of existence in the first echelon of Beiyang, he is still not comparable to those second-echelon generals in terms of prestige, and even Wu Fengling and Zhang Huaizhi cannot be compared with him in prestige.

In addition to Feng Guozhang's tragic urging, several other bigwigs more or less control the real power of the troops, adding up to the entire system of Beiyang There are seven towns, and there are two towns in Fengtian and a Jiangbei Association in the war, with a total strength of nearly 150,000.

The Qing court wanted to suppress and eliminate the Beiyang faction with 150,000 troops, and its difficulty can be imagined!

However, many things cannot be measured by simple numbers, otherwise everyone would not have to fight with intrigue, just compare the book numbers.

"Relying on our strength, it is not a problem according to theory, but once the incident happens, it is difficult to guarantee that there will be no unexpected changes, and the attitude of several southern provinces is also relatively ambiguous!" Duan Qirui said heavily: "Also, now that the autumn exercises are approaching, a town in Hubei and a association in Henan have gone north, and the first and fifth towns have also received orders to go south to participate in the autumn exercises, what do you think about this?" ”

Wu Fengling said: "Isn't it obvious, on the one hand, I will transfer the heavy troops stationed in Gyeonggi from Beiyang to the south, and then use the Eighth Town of Hubei and Henan to contain it, so that we can have some scruples!" ”

Zhang Zhidong's New Army, a town organized and trained in Hubei, was awarded the eighth town number of the army in the recent national unified number reform, which was the first local provincial unit to be awarded the official number after the seven towns of Beiyang, and the Henan Mixed Association was worthy of the 29th Mixed Association, but it still hung the word "provisional formation", and it was not officially formed into an army.

A few months ago, when the court situation was still stable, the imperial court said that it was going to hold an autumn exercise, and at that time, Yuan Shikai and other Beiyang people did not realize that the imperial court was already preparing to suppress Beiyang, so they agreed with a big smile, and prepared to send a force south to conduct an exercise with the Hubei New Army and the Henan New Army, but they did not expect that the situation had changed so much in less than three months.

Under normal circumstances, it is not possible to move troops indiscriminately at this critical moment, but if Yuan Shikai does not mobilize troops, then the imperial court will be even more suspicious.

Wang Yingkai said: "This fashion is inconclusive, and adults have to make a decision!" ”

Indeed, no matter what Wang Yingkai, Duan Qirui, Zhao Dongyun and Wu Fengling say now, in fact, they have no right to decide, whether they submit to the imperial court or choose a moderate political confrontation or simply rebel, it is up to Yuan Shikai to decide, and the four of them can only be prepared now.

Then the four of them discussed for a while, not only talking about the situation but also talking about the detailed action plan!

What is the plan of action, it is naturally to discuss the question of how to raise troops once Yuan Shikai is determined to rebel, as for whether it is used or not, it is a matter of the future, and now it is necessary to be prepared!

"If I am really forced to do something, the first town is too variable, and the sixth town is also close to Beijing, I am afraid that it will be controlled by the imperial court in advance, and if my first town and the fifth town in Shandong are afraid that they will go south, I will have to stop the Jiangbei Mixed Association and the Henan Mixed Association and the first town in Hubei. At that time, I will only rely on a second town and a fourth town, I am afraid that it is still not safe enough, and then Ziyang, your third town will also enter the customs! Wang Yingkai arranged affairs as a big brother as always, and to be honest, his style made Duan Qirui and Zhao Dongyun dissatisfied.

You must know that Zhao Dongyun and Duan Qirui are not following him Wang Yingkai, but following Yuan Shikai, although Wang Yingkai said that he came to discuss with Yuan Shikai's instructions, but the appearance that I am the boss still makes them unhappy, but now that the survival of Beiyang is involved, this battle of will be put down first.

"At that time, I'm afraid that Rehe, Shanxi and other places will also be chaotic, and the first town and the sixth town are too variable, we should still prepare more appropriately, I think the two towns of Fengtian in Ziyang can also enter the customs, so that it can be guaranteed to be foolproof." Duan Qirui said.

However, Wang Yingkai said: "If we do the things on the side of the Qing monarch, these towns on our hands are enough, there are a lot of old soldiers in the Eastern Province Banner, and there are always people in the town, and once there is an incident, if Japan and Russia interfere in the old affairs in the year of Gengzi, they will not be stopped in Fengtian, is it possible to let them cross Liaoxi and enter Beijing?" ”

There are still a large number of banner men in the three eastern provinces, and Heilongjiang and Jilin are not Beiyang's territory, if they want to go south if their heads are hot, they have to leave a part of the troops to resist and suppress. Of course, they are not very worried about these people, and what they are really worried about is the interference of Japan and Russia.

The so-called number of towns needed to stabilize the situation in the mouth of the people is only a small part of the forces used inwardly, and the main force is still used to guard against foreign intervention forces.

"Ziyang, your two Fengtian towns can't move, they must be nailed to the front line of Jinzhou, once they can't hold Liaoxi, then the situation will be broken!" Wang Yingkai's face was heavy: "As for Tianjin and Tangshan, the troops of the two towns will be enough to stabilize the situation at that time." ”

"At that time, as long as it is stable for three or five days, with the prestige of the adults, we will definitely be able to reintegrate the seven towns of Beiyang, and then after the first town and other troops are annexed, the situation will be completely settled, and if foreign countries still forcibly intervene, we will fight with them, and Lao Tzu will not believe that we will be unable to stop more than 100,000 people!" When Wang Yingkai said this, the fat on his face trembled, full of viciousness.

The secret discussion at Shanhaiguan lasted more than four hours, and the four Beiyang bigwigs present talked about how to raise troops from the situation in the DPRK and China, well, the focus is still around how to raise troops to rebel, and it can be seen from this meeting that Yuan Shikai will not rebel I don't know, but a large number of Beiyang bigwigs are still looking forward to being able to rebel, and the temptation of the founding heroes is not something that everyone can resist.

When he left Shanhaiguan and took the train back to Jinzhou, Zhao Dongyun felt that why did he think so much about this matter, Yuan Shikai hadn't said that he wanted to rebel, and his people couldn't wait to discuss how to rebel!

But these thoughts are just over after thinking about it, his mind is now back to Fengtian, this time I am afraid that he will really reorganize the army and fight, well, he has not many troops at hand, if you want to prevent foreign troops from interfering, this Fengtian and even the entire Liaodong can not be defended, and you have to gather troops in Jinzhou as before, relying on the Jinzhou defense line that you have built for many years to resist.

It is estimated that one town is not enough, and when the time comes, he will transfer the infantry of the two towns of Fengtian to defend Jinzhou, and as for the cavalry troops that cannot play any role in this kind of fixed fortification defensive warfare, he can enter the customs with more than 3,000 cavalry troops of the Fengtian Standing Army, so as to avoid himself only taking a lonely third town into the pass, and finally being annexed by Wang Yingkai and them.

Just when Zhao Dongyun was thinking about what to do in the future, in the telegraph room of Linyu County, a person wearing a melon hat had quietly sent a telegram to the outside world.