Objectively speaking, Guangxu's "cooperation" with the Russians was still very careful. But be careful, if you want to do something in this place of Zhili without letting Li Hongzhang, who has been the governor of Zhili for more than ten years, know the way, it is almost impossible. And more importantly, no matter what form the Russians' aid takes, it must land at the port of Tianjin before it can be handed over to Yuan Shikai. And this is not possible to be absolutely confidential!

And this is only one aspect, the acceleration of the construction of the Russian Far East Fleet and port facilities has also caused alarm on the Beiyang and Japanese sides. In particular, the acceleration of the construction progress of the second-line naval base with Vladivostok as the core directly made Xu Jie feel the crisis, and this situation of building a second-line base is actually a signal that a major war is about to start.

While the preparations for war at sea were being carried out, the movement of the Russian army in the Far East was not very obvious, or the Russians were willing to increase their troops but could not do so because of supply problems. However, just in case, while Xu Jie stepped up naval preparations, he also began to strengthen the army preparations under the jurisdiction of the Northeast Armed Guard, the speed of railway construction accelerated, and various military regions began to hoard a large number of supplies and equipment, set up supply stations on the main transportation arteries, and contacted Liu Mingchuan and Li Hanzhang in the south to transport some materials to the northeast and Zhili in advance. It is used to strengthen the military strength of the two places.

Although many preparations were made, Xu Jie was still troubled by why the Russians were in a hurry to do it. Before the construction of the Eurasian railway was completed, it was simply unthinkable to assemble a large corps in the Far East to carry out operations. The Russians, although greedy, are definitely not brainless. In this case, why should they take the initiative instead of waiting for the railway to be repaired? This question has plagued Xu Jie for quite some time.

However, as time went by, Xu Jie finally got some news from other aspects, and the most important of them was that the information actually came from Yiktanga! And the information provided by the emperor outside the Guanwai really shocked Xu Jie.

Soon after Xu Jie and Iketanga reached a consensus, it would take two months at most for Iketanga's envoy to come to Weihai and say that he would come to Xu Jie's jurisdiction in the name of visiting the Dalian shipyard. There are extremely important matters to discuss. And when Iktanga came to Dalian to meet Xu Jie, he handed a secret report to Xu Jie without saying a word.

"I see." After watching the secret report, Xu Jie let out a sigh of relief. The mystery that plagued him was finally solved. It turned out that after Guangxu and Yuan Shikai agreed to unite with Russia, they found that there was too much suffering in the specific implementation process. First of all, how to transport large quantities of arms to Zhili through Tianjin without realizing it is a basically unsolvable problem. Guns can be hidden, what to do with artillery and shells? So Weng Tongyi gave Guangxu another idea to see if he could win over Iktanga and let him operate from it and transport supplies from Russia to Zhili by land. In addition to letting Iketanga be responsible for transportation, Guangxu also asked Iketanga to shrink the troops under General Shengjing from the Heilongjiang line, and keep a close eye on the various units of the Northeast Armed Guards in various parts of the Northeast. In order to minimize the interference of external factors when Guangxu launched a coup d'état.

And just after receiving this secret report, Iketanga was still undecided, whether to defect to Guangxu. Even in the future, with the help of the center and other forces, Xu Jie's Wuwei Army will be digested and absorbed, or he will choose to stand with Beiyang. These two ideas had been fighting in his mind for quite some time, and if he chose the former, Iktanga thought that General Shengjing's troops would not be able to compete with Beiyang's power in the northeast. And no matter who wins in the center, it will not be the opponent of Li Hongzhang, the governor of Zhili, and Liu Mingchuan's department who rushed over from the south, and it can be said that the probability of winning is very small. …,

But if we talk about letting Iktanga join forces directly with Beiyang. Over the years, the thought of Zhongjun made him unable to give up completely. If you don't do it yourself, the psychological pressure is still less, but if you do it yourself, this hurdle is not something he can overcome in one step. And just when he was in a dilemma, the actions of the Russians made him aware of an unprecedented crisis.

As a by-product of the talks between Iktanga and Xu Jie, Xu Jie partially shared intelligence with Iktanga on Russia. Xu Jie's financial and human resources are obviously even greater. But after all, Iktanga is the emperor of the northeast, and he has confronted the Russians for so many years, and his understanding of certain situations is not comparable to that of an outsider like Xu Jie.

After summarizing information from many sources, Iktanga keenly felt that once the two sides of the center started a war and merger, he was not sure who the final winner would be, but the Russians in the Far East would inevitably take advantage of the fire to rob. If you do what Guangxu wants, then the military strength of the entire Northeast is likely to fall into serious internal friction. And in this way, it can only be cheaper, the Russians who have been eyeing the other side of Heilongjiang!

How Beiyang would treat the Manchus once they gained power, Iktanga was not 100% sure that Xu Jie would fulfill his vow. But as for what the Russians will do to these "yellow-skinned monkeys" in their eyes, Iktanga, it is certain that the Russians will cleanse, at least slaughter a considerable part of the local population! What the Russians want is land, and if they want to firmly grasp this land, then there can't be too many so-called aliens, what if there are too many people? The Russians will not hesitate to raise their butcher knives in their hands! The thought of this made Iktanga shudder!

At this time, Iktanga still had a trace of illusion about the center, so he immediately expressed his suggestion to the center, that is, the Russians had other plans, and even if they joined forces with them, then the guard in the northeast must not be relaxed, let alone a conflict with the North Ocean in this situation! Of course, Yi Ketanga also said that he could provide Yuan Shikai with some armaments through his own channels at an appropriate time. Originally, Iktanga planned to use this letter with suggestions and compromises to make the imperial party led by Guangxu understand the situation, and it was okay to fight for power and profit, but it was absolutely impossible to sell the country.

But then Guangxu's instructions did completely disappoint Iktanga, maybe Guangxu really didn't think of this, maybe he thought of it. But all this is not important, almost the same content as the first secret letter, but it gives him greater benefits, and after the matter is completed, the family background of the Northeast Armed Guards in the Beiyang system can be accepted by him. Looking at this secret letter, Iktanga was completely dead, because he knew that if he really followed this instruction, then the result would be that the Russians would be completely cheap, whether it was Beiyang or him, there would be no good fruit to eat in the end! Therefore, in this case, Yi Ketang Ah decided to have a showdown with Xu Jie. There is no need for this court to exist, and he doesn't want to be buried for this so-called "True Dragon Prince"!

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