Long Qian officially appointed Fang Shengyuan as the right-wing senator of the Weisheng Army, and his specific responsibilities were actually Long Qian's personal secretary. Prior to this, Long Qian did not set up the post of secretary. This sudden appointment order surprised the Mengshan Army Command. Long Qian specially paid out of his pocket to set up two tables of banquets, invited officers above the commander of the battalion commander of the headquarters and nearby garrisons to have a meal, and officially introduced Fang Shengyuan to the generals.

In the early summer of 1901, Li Hongzhang, who presided over the negotiations with the foreigners, died of illness in Xianliang Temple in Dongcheng, Beijing, and Yuan Shikai, who was then the governor of Shandong, took over as the governor of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang Commerce, bringing the main force of the right army of Wuwei, who had been repeatedly defeated by the Mengshan army in Shandong, to Zhili. At that time, the foreign soldiers had not yet retreated from Beijing and Tianjin, and Yuan Shikai had to set up a governor's yamen in Baoding Mansion, the capital of Zhili Province.

At the end of that year, the Beiyang Army expanded and established three associations, Wang Shizhen, the first assistant, Duan Qirui, the second assistant, and Wang Yingkai, the third assistant. At this time, Long Qian's headquarters had been reorganized into the right wing of the Weisheng Army and returned to Lunan.

In the summer of 1902, all the allied forces occupying Beijing had withdrawn from Beijing, and the imperial court, which had been in exile in Taiyuan for nearly a year, also returned to Beijing. Foreign troops stationed in Tianjin also began to retreat, and according to the Treaty of Xincho, China was not allowed to station troops within 30 miles of Tianjin. However, if Tianjin does not garrison troops, it will not be able to exercise political power. Yuan Shikai thought of a way to change his appearance, and reorganized 3,000 elite soldiers from each battalion of the new army into the "northern section of the patrol police battalion", and sent his godson Duan Zhigui to lead him to Tianjin to receive the main points of the withdrawal of foreign soldiers.

In the spring of 1903, Yuan Shikai cited "the failure to uniformly enforce the national military system, operation methods, and equipment". It was suggested that the Qing government set up a central military training office, and strongly recommended Prince Dai Qing to host this matter, and he was willing to be his deputy. This was a clever plan for him to expand the force of his cronies and avoid the suspicion of the imperial court.

The Qing government approved the request. In April, the establishment of the Military Training Office was officially ordered. Prince Yixuan of Pai Qing was the minister of supervising the new army, Yuan Shikai was the minister of the meeting, and soon the Manchurian Tie Liangxiang was sent to do this.

Yuan Shikai asked Xu Shichang to be promoted to the training department, and the training department set up three divisions, Duan Qirui, the head of the Military Orders Department, and Wang Shizhen, the head of the Military Science Department. The Department of Military Affairs is envoy Liu Yongqing.

Prince Qing was deaf. corrupted the law, and the power basically fell into the hands of Yuan Shikai. In the early summer of 1903, Yuan Shikai began to intensively plan the establishment of the Six Towns of Beiyang.

Long Qian was most worried that Cixi was bewitched by Yuan Shikai and dismantled the Mengshan Army that he had built into the six towns that were about to be born. In that case, the Mengshan army will be finished. Long Qian had no confidence to maintain the morale of the army at all.

Fang Shengyuan, a madman who suddenly appeared, mentioned the founding of the party. In fact, Long Qian did not think about the founding of the party. But the course he determined was to hide his strength. Even if the party is founded, it is unwilling to raise the banner of opposing the Qing Dynasty. A political party without a clear political programme is a fragmented party. How much cohesion can there be? Unless they openly raise troops against the Qing Dynasty and call for the establishment of a new dynasty, the generals under their command will unite and fight under the temptation of the founding heroes. However, with a mere corner of Lunan Province, which can't even make bullets, how sure is it that it will succeed in resisting the national military strength alone?

Before Fang Shengyuan appeared, Long Qian secretly discussed the formation of the six towns in Beiyang with Lu Shan, Wang Mingyuan and other henchmen, and he had to start with the worst-case scenario and formulate countermeasures. However, Lu and Wang also had no good solution, and both decided that the Mengshan army must not be separated, and in case of that situation, they could only raise troops to resist and raid Beijing. Long Qian even personally drew up a plan to gather the main force of the Mengshan Army and defeat Beiyang in one fell swoop in the name of the Qing monarch's side, for this reason, Long Qian ordered Situ Jun to hurry up and buy weapons and ammunition from the Germans, especially shells and bullets. In a word, prepare for the worst.

Long Qian really didn't want that kind of situation. He thinks success is extremely unlikely. But Yuan Shikai would not let go of the opportunity to destroy the Mengshan Army without blood, and Long Qian firmly believed this. What to do? During that time, Long Qian was calm as usual on the surface, but in fact he was worried, feeling that this was the biggest crisis since he reorganized the army in Mengshan.

The intelligence department also received a strict order from Long Qian, and tried its best to find out the imperial court's plan to form the six towns, but it has never received accurate information.

Fang Shengyuan suddenly appeared, and he talked loudly, concluding that the imperial court would not let Yuan Shikai's family sit big. Long Qian thought carefully and felt that what Fang Shengyuan said was very reasonable. In the past, when reading history books or historical novels, there was always a word that he felt very mysterious, that is, "imperial mental art", and now he finally understands that the so-called imperial mental art is just a balancing technique, and it is worthless to put it bluntly. It is certain that the supreme ruler of the Beiyang family is in a situation where the supreme ruler will never want to see it, especially in the military, the supreme ruler has to be more careful.

It's always worrying to sit back and wait. Long Qian sent Jiang Yun to Beijing and ordered Jiang Yun to directly contact Prince Qing, and it was impossible for Yixuan, an old corrupt official, not to know the specific plan for the reorganization of the army.

Jiang Yun met Yixuan smoothly. The mouth of eating people is short, and in the past two years, Yixuan has not taken much money from Lu Nan, so Jiang Yun reported Long Qian's name and was immediately received by Yiqian. Accompanying Jiang Yun to see Yixuan was Li Ning, the head of the Beijing Station of the Intelligence Department, his ancestral home in Beijing, followed his father to sell leather goods, and in 1900, when the Mengshan Army Qinwang was stationed in Taiyuan, he was connected by Jia Jiying and hung up with the Mengshan Army. After coming and going, Li Ning actually joined the Mengshan Army. After a short period of training, Li Ning was sent to Tianjin to assist Jia Jiying in taking care of the Jinyuan ticket number, which was appreciated by Jia Jiying. Last year, Jiang Yun set up the Beijing Station, transferred Li Ning back to Beijing, and opened a Fengyu Teahouse in Dongsi as a cover, and Li Ning officially became the stationmaster of the Beijing Station. One of the main tasks is to contact Yixiao, and the specific content is to give gifts to Yixiao, which was done by Jia Jiying himself at the beginning, and later completely taken over by Li Ning. As long as there is a happy event in Yixiao's family, such as the birthday of Prince Gege of Fujin on the Fujin side, Li Ning will have a heavy gift. Of course, Yixuan knew who made the money, Li Ning accompanied Jiang Yun to visit Prince Qing, and was immediately introduced to Prince Qing by the head of the palace.

Jiang Yun handed over Long Qian's handwritten letter, which contained a silver ticket issued by Jin Yuan's ticket number, Jiang Yun saw Yi Xuan take out the letterhead and glance at it, he must have seen the silver ticket. Seeing that the old prince's gaze turned to himself, he cleared his throat. Straight to the point, he explained the intention, "The imperial court reorganized the new army, and the contempt was particularly concerned. Originally, the prince was in charge of his affairs, and he was very relieved. However, recently, there have been many rumors that Governor Yuan has a personal vendetta and a proposal to dismantle and reorganize the headquarters of the Weisheng Army, which has caused the officers and soldiers of the headquarters to waver. He was deeply worried, and wanted to come to visit the prince in person, but Chen said that it was powerful, but the king's life was there. Don't dare to leave your post without permission. Specially sent a lowly official to visit the prince, and the prince is expected to uphold justice......"

Yi Xuan was surprised by Jiang Yun's youth and sophistication, he had heard that Long Qian had such a number one person under him, "Why doesn't the Dragon Town Guardian have confidence in himself?" He has the great merit of King Qin's rescue. Lunan did a good job of suppressing bandits. The New Deal is also the first achievement. These are all remembered in the heart of the Queen Mother and her old man. This time the army is reorganized, how can the imperial court treat the heroes badly? Go back and report to your family. said that the king wanted him to train his troops well, and the court had high hopes for him. As he spoke, Yixuan stretched out his hand, spread his five fingers, and shook it at Jiang Yun.

Jiang Yun didn't get the essentials, so he came out of the palace and discussed with Li Ning, who said that if you look at King Qing's meaning, there will never be a situation that the commander is worried about. Jiang Yun said, it means that, but what does it mean when he reaches out and shakes it around? Don't let us look for it?

With doubts, Jiang Yun Pegasus returned to Qingcheng and reported to Long Qian the situation of his meeting with Yixiao, and Lu Shan, Wang Mingyuan and Fang Shengyuan also listened to the report at that time.

"Congratulations to the commander," Fang Shengyuan said with a smile, "Prince Qing means that the imperial court has given us the number of the fifth town." ”

Long Qian was shocked, and vaguely remembered that Shandong did make up a fifth town in history, but the troops were all Yuan Shikai's descendants, did Yixuan use this method to tell that the matter had been decided?

"General, the only one who can be worried is that the imperial court sent someone in the name of the military training department to serve as the head of the fifth town department. After all, the right wing of the Wasion Army is a cooperative, and the formation of a new town must at least double the expansion of the army, right? ”

"It's easy to do." Long Qian replied casually. He thought that as long as the Fifth Town was in his hands, a few people would not make any waves, and he would not turn against the Qing court for the time being.

"Commander, if the imperial court uses us as the main body to expand and form the fifth town, I'm afraid that Lunan will not be enough, what will Feng Guozhang's soldiers do? Will Feng Guozhang's department be merged with us? Lu Shan raised new questions.

"Leave him alone. Now it's up to Mr. Fang's judgment to be accurate......" Long Qian looked at Fang Shengyuan, who was wearing a military uniform, with a smile.

"The general plans the personnel arrangements in advance, Fang estimates that the official will will arrive in less than a month."

"Okay, we'll see. Ming Gao (Fang Shengyuan), how did the materials I asked you prepare about the situation in the Northeast go? ”

"It's done."

"Very good, convene a meeting of relevant personnel on a certain day, you can talk to everyone, let me talk."

"Okay." Fang Shengyuan agreed. The first task given to him by Long Qian was to prepare a document to analyze in detail the political and military situation in Northeast China, especially the situation of Japan and Russia in Northeast China. Fortunately, the General Staff Office and the Intelligence Department had already done meticulous work beforehand, and on the basis of possessing these materials and combining his own understanding of Russia and Japan, Fang Shengyuan quickly prepared a report. I thought it was for Long Qian to read, but I didn't expect Long Qian to ask him to make a report to the generals.

"General, do you want to wait for the official results of the imperial court on the formation of the Six Towns before holding this meeting?" After thinking about it, Fang Shengyuan made another suggestion.

"It's fine." Long Qian understood what Fang Shengyuan meant. This is a smart man, and he doesn't need to speak for himself to understand why he studied the situation in the Northeast.

On August 12, the imperial court's decree on the formation of the six towns of the new army was officially transmitted to the headquarters of the right wing of the Weisheng Army in Shandong, and the order was to form the fifth town of the new army under the command of the soldiers, mainly on the right wing of the Weisheng army, stationed in Shandong, and awarded the commander of the fifth town of Longqian. At the same time, the number of the right flank of the Wasion Army was revoked. The order clearly stated that the fifth town of the army was under the jurisdiction of the ninth and 11th associations, and the 17th~20th infantry standards. Zhentai also has a battalion of artillery, engineering, cavalry, and baggage. Long Qian was asked to report the officials of each ministry to the Ministry of War for approval within 10 days, and the soldiers who were lacking should be recruited on the spot in Shandong.

This document also reported the formation and garrison of the remaining five towns: the first army town was formed with the left wing of the Weisheng Army and the standing army of the Beijing camp, stationed in Fengtai, Beijing, with Fengshan (Manchu) as the commander; The second town was expanded and established based on the first association of Beiyang, stationed in Zhangbei, with Wang Yingkai as the commander; The northern section of the Beiyang Patrol Battalion was mainly expanded into the third town of the army, stationed in Shanhaiguan, and Duan Qirui was the commander; With the Beiyang Second Association as the main expansion, it was expanded into the fourth town of the army, stationed in Baoding, and Wu Changchun was the commander; Feng Guozhang's department and the Beiyang Third Association were reorganized into the sixth town of the army, stationed in Hengshui, and Feng Guozhang was the commander.

There is no such thing as a dispatcher "mixing sand"! And Feng Bu actually transferred north to Zhili and ceded Shandong to Long Qian's fifth town! Moreover, the Ministry of War actually gave Long Qian the right to appoint the officials of the Fifth Town!

What a joy! It made Long Qian overjoyed!

The first thing Long Qian did was to ask Fang Shengyuan to draft a thank you excerpt for Cixi for himself, saying that the more fleshy the better, the core meaning is that he must be optimistic about Shandong for the Queen Mother, train good soldiers for the Queen Mother, the fifth town is definitely the Queen Mother's protective shoulder, where the Queen Mother points, the officers and soldiers of the Fifth Town will kill wherever they are! Long Qian also openly expressed his longing for the Queen Mother in this thanksgiving fold, hoping that the Queen Mother would allow him to enter Beijing to thank him in person.

Fang Shengyuan walked the dragon and snake, and immediately prepared a thank you excerpt, and Long Qian sent it out without changing a word after reading it.

This result is definitely not what Yuan Shikai wants to see. But the situation is as Fang Shengyuan analyzed, Cixi did not want to see that all the new troops except for the first town came from Yuan Shikai's department, and she was well aware of the contradiction between Long Qian and Yuan Shikai, so she completely handed over the fifth town and Shandong to the Mengshan army! Cixi believed that it would be beneficial and harmless to keep an army in Shandong that had contradictions with Yuan Shikai but was absolutely loyal to herself. Therefore, the reorganization plan of the Central Military Training Department (which was actually Yuan Shikai's plan) was rejected several times, and the more Yuan Shikai tried to dismember the right wing of the Weisheng Army, the more it aroused Cixi's suspicion. Cixi even reprimanded Yi Liang for being stupid, Xiaolongzi is someone I trust, do you have to break up this army loyal to the palace!

Cixi's personality seemed unpredictable and moody to the courtiers, especially the Guangxu Emperor. But there is no mystery for Long Qian. She is a woman with a strong desire for power, and she is also a woman with clear grievances and retribution, and Wu Tang's story can be an excellent interpretation of Cixi's character. Long Qian led the army to King Qin, and appeared by Cixi's side at the most difficult and dangerous time, which has established Cixi's greatest trust. In Cixi's eyes, awarding Longqian and the two states to guard the envoy is not enough to reward the merit! Because of Long Qian's background, because of Long Qian's age, it is impossible for Cixi to transfer Long Qian, who is in his twenties, into the center, in fact, she has not summoned Long Qian since 1901. Cixi confessed that what Long Qian was doing in Shandong had been under her close surveillance. When Sun Wen's revolutionary party was making more and more trouble overseas, Cixi was most worried that Long Qian and Sun Wen's party were together, but Cixi did not get any reports about Long Qian's dealings with Sun Wenyou, which made Cixi relieved. And her attitude towards Long Qian's attitude of burying himself in military training and vigorously developing industry in Lunan regardless of politics made Cixi satisfied. Cixi said to her cronies in private, this kid Long Qian finally lived up to my trust in him!

Long Qian's adventure two years ago finally bore fruit. (To be continued......)