"Fujian?" Sun Yuanqi suddenly shook his head again and again and said: "This southern expedition, it is already a non-divisive idea to seize Guangdong, dare to win Longwangshu again?" Moreover, Fujian is in a corner, and we only have Guangdong bordering it, and now the army entering Guangdong has been exhausted after a long-distance attack, and it is simply unable to go north. What's more, now Li Xiushan's (Li Chun)'s Beiyang Sixth Division is stationed in Jiangxi, and the one on the left is eyeing Fujian? ”

Speaking of Fujian, we cannot but talk about the current political situation in Fujian.

The current governor of Fujian, Sun Daoren, is a second-generation official. His father Sun Kaihua was a native of Hunan, his family was poor, and when he was young, he joined the Bao Chao Department of the Hunan Army, participated in the battle to pacify the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and was tired of officials to the governor, and was given the title of "Yong Baturu" by the Qing court. In the ninth year of Guangxu (1883), the Sino-French War broke out, Sun Kaihua led the army to Taiwan to preside over the defense, and defeated the French army's coveting of Taiwan several times, and was a famous national hero in modern history. Sun Daoren can be described as a "tiger father without a dog", and he followed his father to Taiwan to participate in the Sino-French War before he was twenty years old. Because of his illustrious family background and his own talent, he soon became prosperous in his official fortunes, and in more than 20 years, he was gradually promoted to the chief soldier of Funing Town, Fujian, the commander of the tenth town of the Fujian Provisional Army, and the commander of Fujian water and land, etc., and became a powerful figure in the Fujian army.

Although Sun Daoren received the emperor's grace, he knew very well the truth that the wind made the rudder and the good birds chose trees to perch. After the rise of the Wuchang Revolutionary Army, seeing that the Qing Dynasty was crumbling, he immediately joined the League under the introduction of Peng Shousong, president of the Fuzhou branch of the Alliance, and then launched an uprising with Xu Chongzhi, the 20th Association of the New Army, resulting in the Fuzhou general Pu Shou being captured and shot, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, Song Shou, committing suicide in defeat, and the Fuzhou Manchurians were killed and wounded. It is said that "hundreds of flag soldiers and women were killed by throwing themselves into the river".

After the restoration of Fuzhou, the Fujian Provisional Military Government was established, and Sun Daoren was elected as the governor of Fujian by all walks of life. Like the military governments of other provinces, the Mindu Governorate was a political hodgepodge. There were all kinds of people in it, including the revolutionary party, the old bureaucrats, the constitutionalists, and so on, and it was originally intended to reconcile contradictions and participate in politics together, but who knew that it later turned into a stage for various factions to attack each other and compete for power and profit. In the early years of the Republic of China, the most ferocious thing was the struggle between Sun Daoren, a powerful faction born in the old bureaucracy, and Peng Shousong, a new warlord born in the revolutionary party.

It is said that Sun Daoren and Peng Shousong's parents were both generals of the Hunan army, and as representatives of the Hunan faction in Fujian's political arena, they should have worked together to deal with the local faction. However, both of them tried to monopolize the military and political power of the province, and the result was a lot of trouble. Relatively speaking, Peng Shousong has an impatient temperament. audacity; And Sun Daoren has a thick and introverted personality and knows how to forbear and thin hair. Perhaps it was Sun Daoren's deliberate weakness that made Peng Shousong even more unrestrained, and soon his brutal behavior and perverse behavior aroused great public anger. Not only the strong opposition of the members of the Fujian League. It also gave an opportunity to the Fujian Provincial Constitutionalists and the Republican Party composed of the old bureaucrats, who were waiting for an opportunity to seize power. Song Yuanyuan, chairman of the Fujian Provincial Assembly, took the initiative to ask Ying to travel north to the capital to cry to Yuan Shikai about Peng Shousong's various crimes and demand that Peng Shousong be investigated.

At that time, Yuan Shikai, who had just been inaugurated as interim president for less than half a year, was full of ambition and was planning how to extend the Beiyang forces into the south and drive a wedge into the territory of the Kuomintang. When he heard the petition of the people of Fujian Province, it was like drowsiness and a pillow, so he successively dispatched Jiang Shejing, a Fujianese who had been the prefect of Ningbo, to serve as the director of Fujian's internal affairs, Lan Jianshu, commander of the Navy's First Fleet, who was also a Fujianese, and Cen Chunxuan, the former governor of Liangguang who was upright in temperament, to serve as Fujian's envoys. In the name of investigating Peng Shousong, he flocked to Fujian.

Cen Chunxuan's father, Cen Yuying, served as the governor of Fujian for about half a year in the seventh year of Guangxu (1881), and Cen Chunxuan also entered Fujian with the eunuch at that time. He is quite familiar with the local customs and customs, and this time he has received strong support from the old bureaucrats and constitutionalists in Fujian Province, and the momentum is quite huge. Sun Daoren, who had been holding back, also suddenly showed his minions and put pressure on Peng Shousong. Peng Shousong was originally ready to fight a big war, but seeing that the situation was becoming more and more unfavorable to him, he had to obediently resign and leave Fujian in line with the principle of "heroes do not suffer immediate losses".

Cen Chunxuan was also regarded as a bachelor, and after completing the mission of driving Peng, he withdrew from Fujian in November 1912 with the navy and army under his command. Although this suppression of Fujian Province removed a harm, it also opened a precedent for Beiyang forces to enter Fujian.

In order to further control Fujian, Yuan Shikai soon appointed his confidant, Zhang Yuanqi, a Fujian native who was formerly the director of the civil affairs department of Fengtian, to Fujian Province to serve as the chief of civil affairs. In this regard, Fang Shengtao, a member of the Fujian Revolutionary Party, was resentful: "Is it tolerable for the revolutionary party to sacrifice and become an official in the Beiyang department?" Then he plotted to assassinate Zhang Yuanqi. Because of poor planning, only Zhang Yuanqi's sedan chair driver and a passer-by were killed.

Although Zhang Yuanqi escaped, he was so frightened that he immediately took a leave of absence and returned to the north in May 1913, and his position was handed over to others. As soon as Zhang Yuanqi left, Fujian became Sun Daoren's world.

But Sun Daoren did not go away for long, and Huang Xing, Bai Wenwei, Li Liejun and others successively raised the revolutionary banner and declared independence against Yuan. Fujian is sandwiched between Guangdong, Jiangxi and other revolutionary provinces, and is already in a dilemma. Xu Chongzhi, commander of the 14th Army Division stationed in Fujian, also coerced and induced representatives from all walks of life in Fuzhou to petition the Governor's Mansion to demand the declaration of independence.

Sun Daoren has been in officialdom for 20 years, and he has already become as slippery as a ghost. Although he telegraphed to declare Fujian's independence, he did not dare to criticize Yuan Shikai and Sun Yuanqi in the telegram, let alone mention the Northern Expedition. Xu Chongzhi asked for troops to be sent to the Northern Expedition several times, and Sun Daoren quickly gave him the title of "Commander-in-Chief of Fujian's Yuan Army", but under the pretext of lack of food and firearms, military expenses were not available, and he perfunctorily shirked the matter of sending troops and constrained him everywhere. In the end, after the end of the Second Revolution, Fujian's army against Yuan did not leave the province for half a step. Without the support of the upper peak, there was no military salary, and even if Xu Chongzhi was full of ambition, he could only send a few telegrams to scold Yuan Shikai and Sun Yuanqi for their actions.

In late September, the Kuomintang fought against Yuan's army and suffered military defeats everywhere, and the northern army entered Guangdong and Jiangxi successively, and Sun Yat-sen, Huang Xing and others were forced to die in Japan. Sun Daoren, whose attitude was unclear at the beginning, was even more ambiguous at this time, so frightened that Xu Chongzhi hurriedly fled Fujian and hid in the French Concession in Shanghai. The day after Xu Chongzhi left, Sun Daoren sent a telegram to cancel independence, and the telegram not only flattered Yuan Shikai and Sun Yuanqi to the extreme, but also put all the responsibility for Fujian's independence on Xu Chongzhi.

At present, Yuan Shikai is silent about Sun Daoren's confession of guilt, I don't know if they have reached some kind of agreement in secret, or Yuan Shikai plans to wait for his free hands to settle accounts later. Sun Yuanqi never expected that Yang Du would actually hit the idea on Fujian's head, and he was ready to strike first!

Yang Du was not in a hurry, and explained slowly: "Baixi, do you think that we are seeking Fujian now, but in Yang's opinion, it is 'people have no long-term concerns, and there must be near-term worries'!" Why? First of all, although Fujian is located in the corner of the sea, it is connected to Zhejiang in the north and Guangdong in the south, which is very important for our future development. Originally, the governor of Zhejiang was Tang Yuweng, and Zhejiang was the fundamental place for my New China Party in Jiangsu and Zhejiang; Later, he went north to take office in the central government, and Zhu Jieren (Zhu Rui) took over the post of governor of Zhejiang. Zhu Jieren has a lot of dealings with Tang Yuweng, but he has no deep friendship with Baixi before, and at present, he has no plans to have a deep friendship, and seems to be ready to swing between you and Yuan Xiangcheng, wanting to be left and right. It is precisely because of Zhu Jieren's ambiguous attitude that the situation in Zhejiang Province has also undergone subtle changes, at least not as stable as in the past.

After the war, three of the four provinces bordering Zhejiang (Jiangsu, Anhui, and Jiangxi) were occupied by Yuan Xiangcheng, and only Fujian in the south was currently unclear. If we let it go and let Fujian be pocketed by Yuan Xiangcheng, Zhejiang will completely fall into a situation of isolation and helplessness and being attacked on all sides. Zhu Jieren's position was already wavering, and in this case, as long as Yuan Xiangcheng put a little pressure, he would completely fall to the Beiyang side. Then we will lose all our advantages in East China!

"What if we get Fujian? We can take advantage of the situation to connect Guangdong, Zhejiang, and even Shanghai and northern Jiangsu as a line, consolidate our existing advantages in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and ensure that Zhu Jieren will not dare to completely fall to Yuan Xiangcheng's side in the short term. Moreover, the four provinces of Hunan, Guangdong, Fujian, and Zhejiang could form an encirclement of Jiangxi, which would limit Yuan Xiangcheng's coveting of southern and southwestern China to the greatest extent possible. The pros and cons are weighed, Baixi, you will understand that Fujian is the winner and loser after the two sides compete to enter the middle game! ”

After Yang Du said this, Sun Yuanqi also felt that Fujian played a huge role in maintaining the stability of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but he was still not very optimistic: "The so-called 'thousand birds in the forest, it is better to have a bird in hand', even if Fujian is good, then we have to have the ability to get it, otherwise it is just a mirror." Why do you think we can invade Fujian and defeat Sun Daoren (Sun Daoren) now? And how to deal with the Beiyang Sixth Division, which is close to Fujian? ”

"It is true that Li Xiushan (Li Chun)'s Beiyang Sixth Division is now near Fujian, but there is nothing to worry about!" Yang Du seemed to have a bamboo in his chest, "The Sixth Division of Beiyang went from Hubei to Jiangxi this time, and fought fiercely with the Gui Army's Lin Yinqing (Lin Hu) Department in the area of Jiujiang and Shahe. The Gui army is well-trained and not afraid of death, and Lin Yinqing is from the army, and once defeated Li Xiushan's department. Baixi, you think about it, the Hubei army rushed from Hubei to Guangzhou, there are railways and waterways in the middle, and the road is smooth, the real battle is just the battle between Deng Jinkang's regiment and the Ji army under the city of Guangzhou, and the veterans of the division are tired and unable to go north, not to mention the Beiyang Sixth Division, which has encountered a vicious battle and has been defeated?

"Even if the Sixth Division of Beiyang has now recovered its vitality and is able to walk well, and can travel hundreds of miles a day, I am afraid that entering Fujian will be regarded as a daunting road! Because Fujian is full of mountains, lofty mountains and mountains are everywhere, starting from Nanchang, once passing the Fuzhou road will be rugged and dangerous, since ancient times there is a saying that 'Fujian Road is more difficult than Shu Road'. Li Xiushan's army may not be able to reach Fuzhou in a month or two, and a month or two is enough time for us to take Fujian lightly without laboring to attack far! ”

Sun Yuanqi was a little curious: "What is the trick of the skin?" (To be continued.) )