Sun Yuanqi said: "If they feel impatient, then we will make some concessions, such as allowing foreign nationals to operate freely in Chinese mainland, as long as they abide by Chinese laws and do not get involved in specific industries such as arms and tobacco." Another example is the joint venture mining of minerals, which can also be done, provided that China must account for more than 51% of the shares, and after how many years the mineral must be unconditionally returned to China. There are also the construction of railways, inland waterway shipping, and so on, as long as it is not a cedion of land or the sale of sovereignty. It will take a year or two, and it will be much easier to deal with it by then. ”

"Why are you sure that things will turn around in a year or two?" Lu Zhengxiang was quite curious about this.

Sun Yuanqi naturally couldn't tell Lu Zhengxiang the news that there would be a big mess in Europe more than a year later, so he had to cover it up and say: "The country can't go on like this!" If possible, Sun will work hand in hand with the president to eradicate the rebel forces in various places in one to two years, ensure the smooth implementation of central and local government decrees, unify the country's financial power, and establish a relatively regular national defense force. I believe that as long as the whole country is united with the outside world, we will be able to occupy more of the initiative in diplomacy. ”

Lu Zhengxiang couldn't help but be stunned: "Your Excellency is going to use troops against the south? ”

Sun Yuanqi's sphere of influence was in the northwest and Sichuan, and Yuan Shikai's territory was in northern China, and if the two joined hands to eradicate the rebellion, the target would only be the revolutionary party in the south. The answer can be said to be knowable without asking.

Sun Yuanqi wanted to take the opportunity to knock Sun Yat-sen and others in the south, who did not know the height of the sky, so he no longer concealed it: "I also know that the current situation in the country is like this, and the use of troops is the next strategy." But lately, the South has gone too far. Some people even know that the National Assembly is being convened and that everything can be resolved by legal means, but they are still stubborn. The proposal for the second revolution is thought-provoking! Of course, Sun is not a militant, if you in the south can restrain yourself from the precipice and think twice before you go, and avoid this scourge of soldiers, it will naturally be a blessing for the country and the nation! If you in the south insist on going your own way, I'm afraid that the president and I will not be able to sit idly by! ”

In fact, the south is also clamoring fiercely. When it comes to military strength, it is really vulnerable. Historically, Sun Yat-sen, Huang Xing and others launched the Second Revolution, and on July 12, 1913, Li Liejun convened the old department in Hukou to establish the General Headquarters of the Yuan Army. The independence of Jiangxi was officially proclaimed, and a telegram was issued to condemn Yuan, and by September 12, the Dian army entered Chongqing, and the Second Revolution was declared a failure. It was exactly two months. Now the power of the revolutionary party has shrunk considerably. Yuan Shikai has Sun Yuanqi to help, and it is estimated that Sun Yat-sen will be able to fight overseas again in less than a month.

Lu Zhengxiang asked, "Will the National Assembly agree to the use of troops?" ”

"Even if Congress doesn't approve of it, it won't oppose it!" As the leader of the second largest party in the National Assembly, Sun Yuanqi still has this self-confidence. Moreover, once a rebellion breaks out in the Southern Revolutionary Party, there is likely to be a split within the Kuomintang, and its influence will inevitably decline sharply. Even if a bill can be proposed, the share of the New China Party plus the small parties that Yuan Shikai can influence. It would be appropriate to reject the opposing proposal.

Lu Zhengxiang couldn't help but nod and said, "What the adults said is extremely true. ”

————

The next few days were relatively peaceful.

Although the Southern Revolutionary Party was aggressive, Cai Yuanpei, who also belonged to the Kuomintang, accepted Sun Yuanqi's invitation. agreed to take up the post of Director of Education; And Wang Chonghui's attitude is very intriguing, he neither agrees nor refuses, but blindly vain. With such an uncertain attitude, even Yang Du is a little uncertain: Wang Chonghui is judging the situation and choosing the good and obeying? Or is he deliberately delaying time to prevent Sun Yuan from forming a cabinet so early?

However, the cabinet list had already been deliberated and approved by the National Assembly and could not be changed at will, so Sun Yuanqi had no choice but to adopt one of Yang Du's bad ideas: deliberately let out a rumor that he was going to appoint Liang Qichao, who was most hated by the Kuomintang, as vice minister of justice, and then force Wang Chonghui to express his position. If Wang Chonghui is still so yin and yang, Sun Yuanqi plans to simply let Liang Qichao, the deputy chief, act as the chief executive.

Just when Sun Yuanqi was about to take over as premier of the cabinet, Hunan Governor Tan Yanmin, Jiangxi Governor Li Liejun, Anhui Governor Bai Wenwei, and Guangdong Governor Hu Hanmin, known as the "Four Governors of the Kuomintang," suddenly issued a joint telegram. The article said:

Recently, I received news from the Senate appointing the cabinet and borrowing money for the aftermath, and I was shocked!

The assassination of our party leader Song Jiaorenjun in Beijing a month ago has been thoroughly investigated by various parties, and all kinds of evidence involving government dignitaries have become a fact and cannot be concealed. As a result, the people were greatly indignant, the whole country was in turmoil, and public opinion was shaken. Now the deceased has not dried up the soil, and the living still have residual sorrow, and suddenly heard that a certain gentleman involved in the case has been appointed by the Senate and has become the chief of the country, and the people of the country are all dumbfounded.

If this gentleman is innocent, he should stay away from this place of opportunity, so that he may be investigated by a special court and clear his suspicion; If this gentleman is not upright, he should not live in this critical place, so as not to mislead the country and the people! Now that the charges have not been gone, and he has been placed in the cabinet in the name of a suspect, where will Congress be, where will the will of the people, and where will the Democratic Republic be! And I am afraid that public opinion will be ridiculed by the government and Congress for being in peace and suffering from each other.

Or the government, knowing that it is guilty of a heinous crime and that it has failed the trust of the people, will inevitably arouse the public indignation of the whole country, and that it will be difficult to protect the throne, so it has concluded a large loan of 25 million pounds with the banks of the five countries without going through the parliamentary office. Now that the people's hearts have been lost, although there is a huge amount of money, how can it be good? The government wants to use this money as military expenses for declaring war on the people.

He and others implored the people of various governments to try to prohibit the banking syndicates, so as not to supply the government with huge sums of money. I implore the National Assembly to immediately abolish the above proposals, and the vice president, all political parties, provincial governors, civil governors, and provincial councils will work together to fight against the death of the Republic of China due to authoritarian dictatorship!

Subsequently, Sun Yat-sen also issued a telegram to all governments and peoples - although the governments and peoples of all countries except Japan may have been dismissive of his telegrams, and even more attractive than not using toilet paper, Sun Yat-sen still pretended to be full of momentum - in the telegram, on the one hand, he vigorously trumpeted his glorious achievements since the republic, including striving to maintain national tranquility, making every effort to build a good government, and promoting the throne to Yuan Shikai, etc., and on the other hand, he vigorously vilified Yuan Shikai and Sun Yuanqi, such as assassinating Song Jiaoren and borrowing money without authorization, destroying the Covenant, trampling on the republic, and so on. It is claimed that Yuan Shikai's loan was purely for the purpose of expanding armaments and warfare, and that the Chinese people had previously obtained the republic at a great cost, and that they would surely support the republic to the death thereafter, and if the people fought a decisive battle with the government because of their support for the republic, not only the Chinese would suffer unlimited losses, but also the interests of foreigners in China would be greatly affected. Therefore, I implore foreigners not to lend money to Yuan Shikai, and not to support Yuan Shikai.

If Sun Yuanqi had not known that Sun Yat-sen's assassination was planned by Sun Yat-sen, and that the current government's finances were indeed scarce, he might have shed tears for Sun Yat-sen's good intentions when he read this telegram. But now that he knew all the truth, when he looked back at the message, he felt that his face was ugly and disgusting.

The contents of the two telegrams were openly and secretly connected to Sun Yuanqi, and Sun Yuanqi could not sit idly by. He immediately ordered Chen Xunen to draft a telegram accusing the Kuomintang in the south of its ghostly tricks of slandering others and framing the government with rumors, in an attempt to stir up trouble between the north and the south and to split the country. He also made it clear that these unfriendly words and deeds are absolutely intolerable to us, and that the Southern Revolutionaries must stop at the precipice and immediately correct them, otherwise they will be responsible for the serious consequences arising therefrom!

Subsequently, the telegram was co-signed by Yan Xishan, the governor of Sichuan, Zhao Jingxing, the governor of Shanxi, Zhang Shiying, the governor of Shaanxi, Cheng Ziyin, the governor of Gansu, Xu Shuzheng, the governor of Qinghai, Yang Zengxin, the governor of Xinjiang, Cheng Fengxiang, the governor of Tibet, and Zhu Rui, the governor of Zhejiang. These people are either Sun Yuanqi's descendants or the periphery of Sun Yuanqi's forces, and the strong smell of gunpowder in the message obviously represents Sun Yuanqi's attitude towards this matter: Do you want to be exploded? If you don't want to be blown up, be honest with me!

After the telegram was published, it was quickly supported by the Beiyang Department and Yuan Shikai's peripheral military and political chiefs, and they sent telegrams one after another to express their response. In just two days, with the exception of Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, and Guangdong provinces, which were controlled by the four Kuomintang governors, all the governors and civil affairs chiefs of other provinces participated in the joint signature; some hoped that the National Assembly would not interfere in government borrowing, some hoped that the Southern Revolutionary Party would see the situation clearly, and some hoped that the north and the south would shake hands and make peace and resolve all problems by legal means. However, it is still largely based on verbal threats in an attempt to maintain the current peace situation.

Against this background, members of the New China Party and the Republican Party said that they would pass a bill on large-scale loans in the Diet as soon as possible. Like Tan Renfeng, Cen Chunxuan, Li Jingxi, Zhang Binglin, Tang Shaoyi, Wu Tingfang and other old and famous people in the political circles, they are running from north to south, trying their best to mediate, trying to turn hostility into friendship. On the surface, the situation in China suddenly calmed down, as if peace had suddenly descended on the land of Kyushu.

However, Sun Yuanqi discovered through the spy network hidden under the China Broadcasting Corporation and the Political and Economic Daily that both the North and the South were constantly making arrangements in private. Sun Yat-sen's arrangements were mainly to send Kuomintang members to the provincial armies to plot rebellion, contact the rebels, including the Henan Bailang bandits, and use assassination methods to assassinate important people in various places, such as Xu Baoshan, the commander of the Second Army stationed in Jieyangzhou, who died in the assassination of the Kuomintang. Comparatively speaking, Yuan Shikai's methods were much more open-minded, mainly using his capacity as the president to falsely intimidate, and at the same time actively adjusting military deployments, weakening the influence of the Kuomintang, and preparing to use force against Jiangxi, Anhui, and Jiangsu provinces.

In this regard, Sun Yuanqi could only order the provinces under his jurisdiction to be vigilant on the one hand, eliminate the infiltration and rebellion of the Kuomintang members, and strive to minimize the damage; On the one hand, he ordered Liu Mingzhao and Yin Changheng, who were stationed on the border of Sichuan and Hubei provinces, to expand their armaments and war, and if necessary, to attack Hunan and other places in the south, so as not to let Yuan Shikai take the opportunity to take advantage of it.

- This really has the feeling of playing mahjong: staring at the upper house, watching the next home, dying at the other family, I don't win, don't think about it! (To be continued.) )