The news of the death of the former premier soon spread to the city of Beijing, thousands of miles away. It also injected a stimulant into the warlords who were there to negotiate a coalition; The two armies are facing each other, a decisive battle is imminent, and there are internal problems on the other side, which is what they are most willing to see.

Undoubtedly, this incident also accelerated the formation of a military alliance of Beiyang warlords.

In the Shunwang Mansion in Beijing, a group of soldiers wearing tweed coats and carrying steel guns walked back and forth, and before 9 o'clock in the morning, black cars kept driving into the gate of the Shunwang Mansion. Under the chairmanship of Zhang Zongchang, Zhang Zuolin, Wu Peifu, Sun Chuanfang, and others sat down at the negotiating table again to discuss the state of the country.

It's already spring for another year, but in the northern city of Beijing, I don't feel the slightest sense of spring, and the cool northeast wind is still blowing, so that when these warlords come to the meeting, they don't dare to take off their thick tweed coats.

Fortunately, the house of the king of Shun was burning with charcoal, and bursts of warmth kept coming, and when they arrived in the house, the warlords took off their tweed coats one after another and sat down at the negotiating table.

Zhang Zuolin, the most powerful of the warlords, showed full arrogance in this meeting, and he knew the family background of Wu Peifu and Sun Chuanfang, both of whom were not to be feared now.

Zhang Zongchang and Cao Kun are the hosts of the meeting, and they can be regarded as peacemakers of the meeting, but this time the peacemakers are not good, in addition to the previous contradictions between the warlords, they are now unbalanced in strength, and it is really difficult to find a balance between them, especially the requirements that Zhang Zuolin made to him before.

Before the meeting of the Shun Palace, Zhang Zuolin said to Zhang Zongchang unceremoniously, "If I really want to get a combined naval army, I must be the generalissimo of the combined naval and land army, and Wu Peifu and Sun Chuanfang can only be the deputy marshals." ”

Zhang Zongchang felt that it was a little difficult, but Wu Peifu and Sun Chuanfang were also handsome people, if they abandoned their strength, they were not much worse than Zhang Zuolin, they should be on an equal footing, but now they bow their heads, and no one will want to put it on anyone.

After hearing this, Zhang Zuolin smiled and said: "Wu Peifu's troops are now mainly concentrated in Henan, although there are hundreds of thousands of guns there, but there are many factions, and Wu Dashuai may not even have 100,000 troops that can be mobilized." Not to mention Sun Chuanfang, the East Route Army is about to reach Shanghai, and the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions may also be difficult to preserve. If you don't want me to be a marshal, it's okay, I'll take the troops back to the Guannai and give the Guanwai to the Southern Government. ”

Zhang Zongchang and Cao Kun both heard the meaning of Zhang Zuolin's words, and he was obviously blackmailing them with the withdrawal of troops. What Zhang Zuolin said about retreating outside the border means that Beijing and other places will be surrendered to the National Defense Force, and it is impossible for a country to have two governments, which means that the Beijing government at this time will be eaten.

Although he knew that Zhang Zuolin was blackmailing, Zhang Zongchang had to agree. The atmosphere of the meeting for many days was not very harmonious, and the contradictions between the direct and Feng factions were still fierce, and there was no way to sign the two agreements if they could not be negotiated.

After Zhang Zuolin put forward his opinions, Wu Peifu did not speak, and Sun Chuanfang did not speak, and the meeting became very embarrassing for a while.

Seeing that the atmosphere was a little wrong, Zhang Zongchang adjusted: "You can put forward your opinions as much as you like, we must have a leader in forming a joint army of sea and land after all." Marshal Wu and Marshal Sun belong to the military affairs of their respective jurisdictions, and it is more convenient for Marshal Zhang to serve as Generalissimo. ”

After Zhang Zongchang finished speaking, no one spoke, and it was still as silent as death.

"Wu Dashuai, what is your opinion?" Seeing that no one spoke, Zhang Zongchang set his eyes on Wu Peifu, who was closest to him.

Wu Peifu slowly turned his head to Zhang Zongchang, and said in a tone as calm as possible: "In this troubled time, we should unite to resist the enemy together. ”

"The size of the rank is secondary, the most important thing is to be suitable. I have no opinion on Marshal Wu taking up the role of Generalissimo of the Combined Army, I will be in charge of the defense of the Lianghu region, and Marshal Wu will be in charge of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The Wehrmacht is now approaching the city, and the artillery I purchased from abroad has arrived on the battlefield in Wuhan; The next step is to form a combined naval and land army as soon as possible and go to the front, and we will start a decisive battle with them in Wuhan and Nanjing, and beat Huang Ke, a yellow-haired boy, back to Guangdong. ”

Hearing Wu Peifu's statement, Zhang Zongchang smiled, he turned his head and asked Sun Chuanfang again, Sun Chuanfang said that he had no opinion.

Opinions were quickly consolidated and differences were quickly resolved. In the spring of the 15th year of the Republic of China, under the auspices of Zhang Zongchang and Cao Kun, Zhang Zuolin, Wu Peifu, Sun Chuanfang and others signed the "Formation of the Chinese Navy and Army" in Beijing. The formation document required that Zhang Zongchang form a new cabinet of the Beijing government, Zhang Zuolin was appointed generalissimo of the navy and army, and Wu Peifu and Sun Chuanfang successively served as deputy marshals, respectively responsible for the war in the Lianghu and Jiangsu-Zhejiang regions.

From now on, 50,000 troops from Feng went out of the customs to Wuhan and Hangzhou to form a combined army of sea and land to start a decisive battle with the Northern Expeditionary Army.

When the news of the Beiyang Warlord Alliance came, Huang Ke went to the front line in Wuhan to inspect the situation of the Cui Wu Department of the Middle Route Army; The source of the artillery some time ago was not found out after all, but Huang Ke firmly believed that Wu Peifu would not buy weapons from the Japanese, and he couldn't control so many of these things, and the most important thing at the moment was to eat all the warlords in a decisive battle.

"Concentrate superior forces to annihilate the enemy" This is the operational principle that Huang Ke has always pursued, he knows the quality of the troops of the Beiyang warlords, these armies are like stragglers, there is no fighting spirit at all in the war, and there are many factions in these armies, and if these living forces are not all wiped out, Huang Ke knows that he will not achieve results in the decisive battle with the Japanese in the near future.

Therefore, Huang Ke's goal is to eliminate all the factions and military forces of the Beiyang warlords as soon as possible, and form a national defense force that obeys orders and is loyal to the country.

The Beiyang warlords formed an alliance so that Huang Ke was not worried, he liquidated the strength in his hands, and now the three-way Northern Expeditionary Army has a total of 300,000 troops, plus the expeditionary force led by Batu, although the strength of the Northern Expeditionary Army is not as large as the number of the Beiyang Alliance, but it completely suppresses the Beiyang Warlord Alliance in terms of strength.

Originally, Huang Ke was ready to implement various strategies to break through, but now it seems that a big decisive battle is about to be held. In his opinion, this is a lot of trouble.

Now what bothers him the most is Guangzhou, after the death of the first premier, the situation in Guangzhou has become a pot of porridge, first his own city defense commander died inexplicably, followed by the alert announced on the same day, and then the Xiguan Military Academy was suddenly blocked, and all military cadets are not allowed to be equipped with ammunition.

On the surface, all this is a normal arrangement made for the death of the prime minister, but in fact all the fingers are pointed at him.

The first prime minister died of illness, there was a vacuum in power, and some people wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to take the position, there is no doubt that Huang Ke was the biggest obstacle in this, and it was also expected to create a movement in Guangzhou, but he did not expect that in the Guangzhou city defense force that he had cultivated, someone had infiltrated it.

Political struggles and people's hearts are unfathomable things, and Huang Ke feels an unprecedented pressure.

Changsha Northern Expeditionary Army Headquarters, at noon Huang Ke had lunch and rested in the lounge, his lounge was very simple, there was a white table next to a white bed, and a basin shelf, the most in the room was books, all kinds of books, four famous books, some history books, and even the Bible, Capital and the Communist Manifesto.

In this era, there were no entertainment activities, and Huang Ke's only hobby was reading.

When he was resting in bed at noon, Huang Ke still picked up the "Zeng Wenzheng Gongwen Collection" at the bedside and flipped through it casually, this is his favorite book, and he liked it before he crossed over.

It hadn't been five minutes since he lay down, and there were a few soft knocks at the door, and Huang Ke knew that it must be fourteen boys when he heard the steps and footsteps.

"Is it Fourteen?" Huang Ke asked.

"Commander, Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi and others from the General Staff Department are waiting at the door, saying that they have something important to report."

"Let them wait in the reception room, I'll go now." Putting on cloth shoes with thousand-layer soles, Huang Ke went straight to the reception room. In the reception room, several senior officers of the staff department were all dressed in khaki military uniforms, and after seeing Huang Ke coming, several of them stood up one after another.

Huang Ke waved his hand to signal them to sit down, and he sat down nearby, and then picked up the teacup next to him and took a sip of water.

Li Zongren and they didn't sit down after looking at each other a few times, Huang Ke put down the water cup and asked, "Why don't you sit down?" You have to sit down and talk about everything. ”

After Bai Chongxi glanced at several officers, he took out a piece of paper and said, "Commander, this is a document that we drafted, please check it out." ”

Huang Ke took the piece of paper, which was a proposal, which suggested that Huang Ke should return to Guangzhou immediately and mobilize other troops stationed in Liangguang to be stationed in Guangzhou.

When Huang Ke looked at it, the chiefs of staff all turned their attention to Huang Ke, and after a minute, Huang Ke's face became grim, he put the proposal on the table next to him, and then knocked on the table with his hand and said, "That's why you are coming to me now?" ”

Li Zongren suddenly stood up and said, "Commander, our staff department suggests that you return to Guangzhou now to rectify the situation there!" ”

"What situation? Isn't Guangzhou still good? The former prime minister has just passed away, are you just staring at that position like some people? Huang Ke slapped it on the table, and the staff officers all stood upright.

Huang Ke took a deep breath and tried his best to calm his mood: "Now is the period of the Northern Expedition, and I can't leave the front-line command headquarters of the Northern Expeditionary Army. In addition, you senior staff officers must make it clear that there will be no chaos in Guangzhou, and there will be no chaos in China, so go back, and I should not have seen this proposal. ”

After speaking, Huang Ke got up and returned to the lounge, leaving a few staff officers standing there looking at each other.