Beiyang 1917

With Japan as a breakthrough point, the four countries of Britain, France, Japan and the United States finally reached an agreement after three days of negotiation on the four conditions for China's participation in the war. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the following terms of participation in the war through a formal exchange of letters with the ministers of the four countries:

Article 4: If the Chinese government declares war on Germany and Austria before the end of April, the boxer indemnity for Germany and Austria will be permanently exempted, and the payment of boxer indemnity for the United States, Britain, France, Japan and Russia will be suspended for ten years.

Article 10, acknowledging that China can selectively increase import tariffs to [-]%.

Article 20, in the Xin Chou Treaty and Annexes, clauses such as not being able to station squadrons within [-] miles around Tianjin are removed!The squadron can be stationed in any Chinese territory except the concession!

Article [-]. After China's participation in the war, China's responsibility to the Allied countries is to provide raw materials and labor, and it is based on the average price in the international market and not lower than the average income of laborers in the Allied countries.

Once these four terms of participation in the war were formally confirmed by the exchange of documents between the two sides, it was like a single stone stirring up a thousand waves, causing huge waves in the Chinese government and the opposition. The rise can be seen by everyone, and the ten-year deferment of the first boxer indemnity will bring much buffer and relief to China's finances!

Xu Shuzheng and Anhui politicians mobilized the Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai media to set off a huge news and public opinion offensive. On the premise that the current cabinet and State Premier Duan Qirui were praised as unprecedented national heroes and defended the dignity and sovereignty of the Republic of China, Under such affluent conditions, Congress and the President are still unwilling to pass the cabinet to criticize the German-Austrian declaration of war!

Once the Boxer indemnity payment is stopped, the government’s finances will have an additional 3800 million budget funds each year, and the Ministry of Education, Internal Affairs, Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, etc. will be able to slow down and live a good life, especially the education that is seriously underpaid. Ministry, the cultural elites verbally criticized Li Yuanhong and the National Congress for their inaction and perverse actions!

Under Wang Geng's suggestion, Xu Shuzheng simply did not do anything else, and mobilized professors and students from various schools around them through the two factions of parliamentarians Liang Qichao and Tang Hualong in the research department, setting off a mighty parade The team directly surrounded the presidential palace and the Congress, and marched and shouted slogans in these two rallies every day!

The Beiyang Warlords of the thirteen provinces even issued a series of telegrams, resolutely supporting the correct propositions of the professors and students, and resolutely supporting the four conditions for participating in the war negotiated by the Prime Minister, the cabinet and the big powers. Nima, under the instigation of Wang Geng, Xu Shuzheng directly The Ministry of War sent a secret telegram to the governors of the provinces. If the participation in the war is approved, the Boxer indemnity will be postponed. At the same time, the central government will return the regular customs duties that the provinces have to pay in name for five years, and the special funds will be used exclusively for the financial budgets of the provinces.

Even in the Congress where the Southern Party dominates, the Southern Party members themselves have split into two factions. No matter how ambitious the Beiyang and Duan cabinets are, they are nothing. At least their judgment on the prospects of the European War is absolutely correct. The German-Austrian Allies are doomed to defeat. Under such circumstances, the huge benefits China has gained by participating in the war are absolutely not to be missed.

Duan's cabinet obtained the favorable conditions for participating in the war from the great powers through diplomacy. Whoever refuses will be a national sinner!This is not a dispute between doctrines and beliefs, this is the best time for national revival, and any prevarication and far-fetched excuses cannot be justified!

As for President Li Yuanhong, he received strong notes from the ministers of the United Kingdom and the United States one after another. In particular, Feng Guozhang, who originally supported him secretly, was under pressure from the United States. Four conditions for participating in the war!

In the end, even Sun Dapao, the leader of the Southern Party in Shanghai, sent an ambiguous telegram under the pressure of the Japanese government, claiming that whether to participate in the war depends on the decision of the president and Congress!He himself reserves his own opinions, and does not use this to impose demands on the Southern Party members!

For a while, Li Yuanhong betrayed his relatives, retreated and lost ground. With the further development of the situation, under the arrangement of Wang Geng and Xu Shuzheng with ulterior motives, Li Yuanhong's presidential guards and the presidential palace besieged the presidential palace for more than a week. There was a bloody clash among the students.

The guards of the presidential palace, whose head was battered by bricks, shot unexpectedly. Although no one was directly shot to death, the sudden gunshots disturbed the demonstrators, who panicked and trampled on each other, resulting in one death A tragedy in which 17 people were seriously injured.

The whole thing came to an unexpected end. On the morning of April 1917, 4, President Li Yuanhong resigned from the field due to the bloodshed at the gate of the presidential palace the day before, and left Beijing for Tianjin on the same day. On the same day, the Senate and House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the cabinet's motion to declare war on the German-Austrian Allies!

China has officially entered the war!

Li Yuanhong's resignation made Vice President Feng Guozhang take the position of Vice President to act as President in accordance with the provisional agreement in the first year of the Republic of China. The leader of the Beiyang direct line had to obediently come to Beijing to act as President, whether he wanted to or not. In exchange for Feng Guozhang's going north to perform his duties, Duan Qirui agreed to take over the post of Jiangsu Governor General vacated by Old Feng, and Feng Guozhang's direct descendant, Jiangxi Governor General Li Chun!

Li Chun's Jiangxi warlord was taken over by Chen Guangyuan, another direct descendant of Feng Guozhang, the division commander of the Beiyang [-]th Division. In exchange, Duan Qirui appointed Wu Guangxin as the commander-in-chief of Wu Guangxin's upper reaches of the Yangtze River garrison and the investigation envoy of Sichuan, and Fu Liangzuo was the governor of Hunan.

Feng Guozhang, a greedy and cowardly guy, has always regarded Nanjing as his old home and base, while Beijing and Tianjin are dominated by Duan Qirui and Anhui. The brigade was upgraded to the No.15 division, and together with the [-]th division reorganized from the original Imperial Guard, he served as the presidential guard and escorted him to Beijing to report on his duties!

With Xu Shuzheng and Wang Geng as right-hand men, Duan Qirui didn't pay attention to Feng Guozhang, who was as cowardly as a mouse and lustful for money, and after a little discussion with Wang Geng and Xu Shuzheng, he agreed to Feng Guozhang's request.

Wang Geng's training work for the model army in Nanyuan was progressing rapidly. In just half a month, he sent teams to 22 provinces and cities to receive recruited laborers and recruits. 18000 people had been screened and transported back through the railway vehicle and ship system. Young recruits who meet the requirements for joining the army are still getting off from Fengtai to join the ranks of the Nanyuan Model Army every day. In addition to the original 16 mixed brigade, it is no wonder that Prime Minister Duan Qirui has enough confidence.

The recruit training for 18000 strong men after enlisting in the army was a purgatory. What Wang Geng gave them was not weapons, but picks and shovels. The training ground was not the Nanyuan barracks, but the embankments on both sides of the Yongding River. Except for the queue training every morning Unstoppable, 18000 recruits spent their first month sweating in dredging the Yongding River and strengthening the dams on both banks. Wang Geng even asked these recruits, who were mainly peasants who had lost their land, to dig a moat along the Nanyuan Barracks!

The farms and farmers near Nanyuan also benefited. With this irrigation water network that has begun to take shape, this summer's flood will lose its raging stage, and countless dry lands will become paddy fields. Although each of the 18000 recruits was tired and shed a layer of skin, their physical fitness was honed from the physical work on the water conservancy construction site and the three meals a day guaranteed by the combination of meat and vegetables!

Of course, more than that happened during this period. Wang Geng's grand blueprint of turning Yixiangyuan into a sauna and entertainment club was terminated by the Prime Minister's intrusion. The reason is also very simple. It attracted the attention of the press, especially when the recruitment advertisements of the Model Army were overwhelmingly plastered all over the streets and alleys and inside and outside the university.

Wang Geng, the war supervisor who graduated from the West Point Military Academy, is a young and handsome newly appointed Lieutenant General and Commander of the First Division of the Model Army. After wearing a tight but beautiful cheongsam, especially when Erya and Lu Mei are eagerly looking forward to going out with Wang Geng every weekend, her confidant and love will obviously not have such deep ties to the brothel anymore!

It doesn't matter if you call it a sauna, a club or a bathhouse, it's a kiln in Bada Hutong!In the end, the old man just said, you can marry ten or eight girls from Bada Hutong and go home as concubines, but you cannot be the owner of a kiln in Bada Hutong!The old man is not allowed!You have to learn and learn, you are young, you have to cherish your feathers!The Prime Minister hates iron for being weak!

What else can I say?Wang Geng honestly dismissed the girls who had never been with him in the Yixiang courtyard, and he directly handed over the courtyard to Feng Gengguang, the president of the Bank of China. Together with the prostitution contracts of the two girls that Lao Feng had a crush on, he led Xiaoyu Xian, Xiaohong, Xiaocui, and their respective maids, aunts and aunts returned to live in the big mansion on Prince Consort Street.

Chunni, Xiacao, Xiaohong, Xiaocui, and Yuxian all became concubines to supervise the war, and Yuxian was the oldest at 18 in terms of age!It stands to reason that they are the aunts and wives who do their part, but Wang Geng has also been vaccinated in advance, and the five women are treated equally regardless of size!