Late at night on 8 April, the mobile brigade of the security detachment stationed in the Wuhan area suddenly received an order to assemble urgently, rushed to the Wuchang wharf in full gear, and then set up a guard in an orderly manner under the command of the officer leading the team. After a while, more than a dozen Ford cars drove into the wharf, a large number of dignitaries got out of the car, their eyes turned to the river, the ship lights flashed in the distance, and Wang Zhenyu's special passenger ferry Yuanjiang was slowly approaching the Wuchang wharf.

Tang Hualong, the special envoy of Vice President Li Yuanhong of the Republic of China, and Ye Zuwen, the acting governor of Hubei Province, including Qing Heng, director of the Wuhan Military Management Committee, were all waiting at the dock.

No one would have imagined that in just four months, Wang Zhenyu, who was still nesting in the ravine of Xianggui Mountain, would become a big man who could decide the direction of the whole of China. Shili in all aspects is paying attention to him, after all, Wang Zhenyu has almost controlled a large part of the territory today.

Wang Zhenyu's decision to come to Wuhan was made a month ago, and the Fifth Division of the Youth Army was therefore ordered to be stationed in Hankou under the leadership of division commander Zhao Dongsheng.

The victory came so quickly and smoothly that the entire Wang Zhenyu clique, from the Youth Army to the Kuomintang Socialist Party, was not ready for victory. Take the Ministry of Armaments as an example, they accepted all kinds of mines and factories all the way during these days, but they did not have enough manpower to manage them. Zuihou had to adjust his policy and handed over a large number of non-militarily necessary factories and mining areas to the China Development Corporation, but under such circumstances, Ma Xicheng's younger brother Ma Xiren was still very efficient in only half a month to lead the full production and resumption of work of the Hanyang Arsenal, which provided great convenience for the next southeast operation, for which Wang Zhenyu also specially commended Ma Xiren. At present, the total number of party members who have joined the Kuomintang is only more than 40,000, and this itself includes the political cadres of the army. However, the speed of the march of the Youth Army was too fast, and Hubei, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Anhui, Jiangsu and other provinces fell into the hands of the Youth Army. In many places, there were simply not enough task forces, and a large number of former government officials were allowed to remain in office. As for Weishenme's choice, Wang Zhenyu's feeling is to avoid the political party being too large, which will eventually lead to the problem of mixed reverse elimination, the National Socialist Party is just a tool for him to be a righteous name, and he doesn't want to turn this party into the largest party in the damn universe in the future.

And on the battlefield, the goddess of luck also seemed to favor Wang Zhenyu very much, just when Zhang Zizhong and them were nailed to Hongmu Mountain like nails, the door of the four divisions of the army commanded by Feng Guozhang was tantamount to being closed.

First of all, under the onslaught of Tao Zhiyue and Zeng Jiwu, the troops of the 1st and 2nd Divisions of the Jiangsu Army were completely vulnerable and lost Wuhu at an astonishing speed. This result made Feng Guozhang cry and laugh, the combat effectiveness of the two Jiangsu local divisions was even worse than he expected, and he not only could not be held accountable, but also had to comfort himself, fortunately, these two divisions did not defect.

A full 90,000 Beiyang troops were blocked on the road between Hongmu Mountain and Wuhu, and there was no way out.

Although they were very dissatisfied with Duan Qirui's behavior in this southeast battle, Feng Guozhang still made a very decisive decision out of public intentions, and sent this decision to Beijing in the form of a proposal, roughly ordering Zhang Huaizhi's Fifth Division, Li Chun's Sixth Division, Lu Yongxiang's Tenth Division, as well as Zhang Xun's Dingwu Army, and Ni Sichong's Anwu Army to quickly retreat to Xuzhou. While Lu Yongxiang's 10th Division and He Fenglin's 6th Brigade retreated to Shandong by sea, Feng Guozhang's suggestion to Lao Yuan was to form a cluster of these troops and hand them over to Xu Shuzheng, who had the soldiers and horses of the 15th and 16th Beiyang Divisions but had been staying in Xuzhou and refused to go south. Feng Guozhang's army was basically lost, and if he wanted to hold the foundation of Beiyang next, he could only rely on his Duan Zhiquan's army. And once Nanjing and Shanghai fell into the hands of Wang Zhenyu, Feng Guozhang didn't believe that Duan Zhiquan dared to continue to play a negative strategy.

As for him Feng Huafu himself, there are currently two ways in front of him, one is to leave the troops in Beijing to ask President Yuan Da for guilt, and the other is to find a way out with the troops under his command. As for suicide or something, Feng Guozhang never thought about it.

Yuan Shikai's first reaction after seeing Feng Guozhang's telegram was to faint in Huairentang, which was also the first time he went to Huairentang to discuss matters. After being sent back to the Iron Lion Hutong, Yuan Shikai, who slowly woke up, ordered to leave and right, just send it according to Feng Huafu's opinion!

The mental blow led to the further deterioration of Lao Yuan's physical health, and he suffered a stroke and was unable to see customers that night. Less than a week, on April 11, Yuan Shikai died of illness, and the Beiyang dragons were leaderless.

However, for Yuan Shikai's death, everyone blames Feng Guozhang.

Because on April 9, after being besieged for five days, the two divisions of the Left Route Army commanded by Bai Chongxi reached Ma'anshan. Seeing the situation, Feng Guozhang completely lost the will to continue fighting, no baggage, no supplies, no reinforcements, and no hope.

The final result was that on the morning of April 9, Feng Guozhang signed an order, ordering 88,000 officers and soldiers under his command to surrender to the Youth Army under the white flag, which was also the first large-scale surrender of the Beiyang Army in history.

On April 11, according to Wang Zhenyu's order, Bai Chongxi's Seventh Division, which had made great contributions in the southeast operation, was allowed to be the first to enter Nanjing, and the next day, April 12, the First Division commanded by Tao Zhiyue successfully entered Shanghai before Sun Yat-sen's Chinese Revolutionary Army, and on the same day, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, Zhu Rui declared his opposition to Yuan (Yuan Shikai was dead at this time, did Zhu Rui intend to whip the corpse?). ), and the army of the commander joined the battle sequence of the Youth Army (the Chinese Revolutionary Army was so angry that it was angry that it was itching its teeth when it attacked the city for four consecutive days), and it was reorganized into the 12th Division of the Tiger Youth Army.

Yuan Shikai hiccups two months earlier than in history, which also opened a new page in history, and China entered the "post-Yuan Shikai era".

The Beiyang Army, which originally controlled most of China and was not good, was defeated by the anti-Yuan army led by the Protector Army, the Youth Army, and the Revolutionary Army in just four months, and the Shili range was directly retracted to the line of the Huai River in the Qinling Mountains. What's more, Yuan Shikai died, Feng Guozhang surrendered, and the entire Beiyang fell into a state of leaderlessness. By this time, it was almost time for the war to end.

On April 15, Liang Qichao and Jiang Baili, representatives of Cai Yi, Zhao Hengti and Yang Yongtai, representatives of Wang Zhenyu, Hu Hanmin and Chen Jiongming, representatives of Sun Yat-sen, Tang Hualong, personal representative of Li Yuanhong, and Xu Shichang and Cao Rulin, representatives of the Beiyang Government, finally sat down at the negotiating table in Nanjing, and began the famous nine-person talks, also known as the five-party meeting......

In the first three days of the talks, the military operations of the two sides had actually stopped, and the Beiyang Army did not dare to fight, while the Youth Army wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, Cai Ye had a physical problem with the main general, and Sun Yat-sen had no choice but to fight if he wanted to, and he could only fight with Wang Zhenyu if he fought again.

The Protectorate War has reached this point, and fools can see that Wang Zhenyu is the biggest winner. Although Sun Yat-sen's Chinese Revolutionary Army (also known as the Three Provinces Alliance) occupied most of Zhejiang, including Ningbo, Wang Zhenyu's youth army successfully captured Nanjing and Shanghai, known as the Paris of the East. Coupled with the fact that they had seized extremely wealthy places such as Hubei and Guangdong in a series of previous military campaigns, Wang Zhenyu was likely to become China's number one man in the future as long as he managed it properly. With Wang Zhenyu's army entering Shanghai, Ye Guoxuan, general manager of the China Development Corporation, finally signed a package purchase contract between the French Concession in Shanghai and the French side, which included a series of materials including steel, pig sideburns, tung oil, and various ores.

What is very surprising is that the price decided by Wang Zhenyu, including steel, is 10% lower than the current price in the international market. This is not Wang Zhenyu's desire to curry favor with the powers, but an exchange, according to the content of the attached secret political agreement.

First, the Great Powers would recognize a regional government in South China organized by Wang Zhenyu, and at the same time recognize that this government has independent tariff powers (limited to British and French recognition);

Second, the customs and customs duties of Guangdong, Shanghai and other South China regions controlled by Britain and France, as well as their customs duties, will be transferred to this regional government after the establishment of this regional government;

Third, all obligations involving reparations are not relevant to the regional government;

Fourth, negotiations on the resumption of the concessions in Wuhan and Guangzhou could begin and be completed within five years;

Fifth, Britain and France hoped that after the establishment of the local regional government in South China, they could export labor and even war troops to Europe in the form of cooperation, and all salaries, weapons, and expenses would be borne by Britain and France;

Sixth, if General Wang Zhenyu's army eventually appeared in Europe and helped Britain and France to win the war, then after the end of the war, the Chinese side was allowed to obtain the preferential right to dispose of the military supplies of the defeated country at a more favorable price.

It should be said that Britain and France gave up some major interests in the negotiations with Wang Zhenyu for the sake of the victory of the European war, especially the transfer of the customs in the south China region to the South China government led by Wang Zhenyu, which was absolutely impossible if it had been placed before the war. As for the issue of the concession, Britain and France also adopted an attitude of delay, and the British and French representatives refused to even talk about the issue of the Shanghai concession raised by Wang Zhenyu, and their attitude was very tough. Since Wang Zhenyu has talked about it with Britain and France, the next future of China depends on the results of the meeting with the princes at home.