Back to the Republic of China as a commander

Beijing, Dongjiaomin Lane, British Legation, Mr. Zhu Erdian, Minister of the British Empire to China, is losing his temper very ungentlemanly.

"These damned Chinese are all dishonest guys! They are a bunch of thieves and robbers." Minister Mr. Zhu Erdian probably forgot when he scolded others for being thieves and robbers. The empire seems to be the biggest thief and robber in the world, otherwise how was the empire on which the sun never sets established?

However, we can’t blame Zhu Erdian for losing his temper. A week ago, due to the excellent performance of the Chinese Expeditionary Force in the Verdun counterattack, the Whitehall side praised Minister Zhu Erdian who proposed to let China send troops, and planned to send the troops stationed there as soon as possible. The Chinese embassy was upgraded to an embassy in China, and the consulates in Nanjing and Wuhan were upgraded to consulate generals.Our Mr. Zhu Erdian hadn't come to enjoy his diplomatic achievements in a hurry. As a result, the news of the Chinese marching into Tibet made him so sick that he couldn't eat for a day.Minister Zhu Erdian went to the Beijing government to lodge a protest almost as soon as he got the news, but the Minister of Foreign Affairs Lu Zongyu who was in charge of receiving him told him very helplessly that the rebel general Liu Xiang who declared his support for the Beijing government so far has not Have made any contact with the Beijing government.To use the jargon of the stock market, people are probably playing a trick of backdoor listing now.Now Zhu Erdian was dumbfounded. This incident was obviously the result of manipulation by the emerging strongman in Wuhan.And the British Empire, which was mired in the quagmire of the European War, obviously did not have the power to control the booming national government. What's more, in the northern region that could still be controlled, the direct line and the Anhui line that originally belonged to the Beiyang had already started to fight. I have made up my mind, and the nasty Japanese dwarf is also trying to play tricks here.Minister Zhu Erdian felt a sense of powerlessness in his heart, how, this made him explain to Whitehall?

Zhu Erdian is troubled here in Dongjiaomin Lane, and Duan Qirui in Iron Lion Alley is not much better. Li Yuanhong is destined to be a short-lived president. The president's special fee of 400 million silver dollars per year is still unable to compete with Duan Qirui, the latest boss of the Beiyang family.

So on the day of the mutiny, Li Yuanhong hid in the Dutch legation, and then sent a telegram in the name of the president to remove Duan Qirui from the post of Prime Minister, and called on the whole country to discuss it.

Naturally, the direct lineage of Cao Kun as the new boss announced that they would respond to President Li Yuanhong's name to openly discuss the matter with force, and the Zhiwan War inevitably broke out. . .

On May 5, when the Chinese European Expeditionary Force and the German Army were fighting to the death, Wu Peifu, the immediate leader, led the 21rd Division, Wang Chengbin, Yan Xiangwen, Xiao Yaonan's 3 mixed brigades and Feng Yuxiang's 3th Division to withdraw from Henan. Arrived in Zhengzhou on the 11st.Then, Wu Peifu and Feng Yuxiang stationed troops in Zhumadian, Xuchang, Zhengzhou, Xinxiang and other places along the Beijing-Hanzhou Railway.Cao Kun also sent troops to monitor the Dezhou arsenal, and used Dezhou as an outpost for the right wing of the direct army. On June 31, Wu Peifu went to Baoding, and together with representatives of Jiangsu, Fengtian and other provinces, participated in a secret military meeting called by Cao Kun. On July 6, Duan Qirui also established the "Dingjiao" General Headquarters in Tuanhe. The commander of the road and the commander of the former enemy, Wei Zonghan was the commander of the third road, and announced the order to punish Cao Kun, Wu Peifu and others in the name of the prime minister.On the same day, Duan traveled from Tuanhe to Beijing, convened a joint meeting of all cabinet members and military and political personnel in the general's mansion, and decided to "crusade" Cao and Wu with troops.At the same time, Wu Peifu's troops stationed in Henan began to march north; Cao Kun's troops marched from Baoding to Gaobeidian.

Compared with the first straight-anhui war in history, the time was fully five years earlier, so the result was not what Wang Zhenyu, who was far away in Wuhan, could have expected.

Looking at the calendar on his desk, Wang Zhenyu couldn't help but shook his head and sighed, "I'm sorry, History, I've muddied your pool of water."

Individual abilities won't change much, but the gap in strength is obvious.The first is the military power of Cao Kun and Wu Peifu. In the War of National Defense last year, the third division and the No.11 division all suffered heavy losses.After that, I didn't get even a little bit of supplement from Duan Qirui, but this seems to be a fundamental factor for Cao Wu's determination to oppose Duan. You treat me as an outsider, and I regard you as an enemy.However, this is not the biggest gap between the two warring parties, because the direct army has received a large amount of military aid from the south, especially in terms of weapons and funds, otherwise they would not dare to attack on their Henan territory anyway, and they would have obtained the strength of the Xiyuan loan Duan Qirui, who has become unprecedentedly powerful.

Since Duan Qirui received the Japanese loan in July last year, he quickly turned the Japanese loan into equipment for the participating troops. The 7 participating troops were quickly recruited, and they quickly formed an army under the training of Japanese instructors.

This is why even though Cao Kun has been receiving aid from the Southern Nationalist Government since last year, he is still hesitant to launch a dispute.

Wu Peifu didn't have so many worries. He was thinking more about military issues. In his opinion, now is the best time to discuss Duan. Once Duan Qirui's new army is trained, its combat effectiveness will be formed.Then the gap between direct relationship and pity will become more obvious. Wu Ziyu, who is good at leading troops, knows the essence of the army very clearly.Once the officers of the Anhui Faction matured, it would be bullshit to try to win more with less, and any strategy in front of absolute strength would be nothing.

So no matter how much Cao Kun was worried, Wu Peifu insisted on launching a discussion without hesitation: "Brother, now we have to make a move. If we miss this opportunity to make a big difference with a small one, there will be no place for you and my brother in China in the future." gone."

Cao Kun thought about it and did it. . .

On Duan Qirui's side, some changes have taken place. The first change is that the support of the Japanese has been strengthened compared to history, due to the effect of Wang Zhenyu, a big butterfly.The Japanese government has reached a new consensus on the issue of China, that is, to use all means to attack the unified South China government. After all, the current policy direction of the Great Japanese Empire is doomed. Five years later, their steel output will only be 200 million tons. Left and right, this item alone, Nanzhi surpassed the whole of Japan (you don’t even look at how big your big Japan is), although the militarists emphasized that the imperial warriors could defeat the Chinese army even with bamboo spears.But these lies are just used to fool the common people, and the decision-makers of the empire will naturally not believe the lies they fabricated.Therefore, after the formulation of the three policies for attacking Southern China, all Japanese institutions in China were mobilized.

And the first of the three policies that was heavily instigated by the Japanese military and diplomats was to arm Duan Qirui's Beiyang Army and then provoke a civil war in China. In this way, no matter what the outcome is, even if the National Government of South Chinana does not collapse, their industry will It is estimated that the plan will also come to a standstill, so that the empire's mainland plan will continue to be implemented smoothly.

As for whether Wang Zhenyu will take advantage of the trend to unify the country, the Japanese side has also been worried about this, so not only Duan Qirui, they have also increased their support for Zhang Zuolin's Feng family in Shenyang.The Northeast Arsenal also entered the stage of history in advance, and the Japanese military even formulated a plan to let the Kwantung Army wear the uniform of the Fengjun and enter the customs with the Fengjun when necessary.

But no matter how perfect the plan was, it couldn't keep up with the pace of change, and the Zhiwan War inevitably broke out.When Cao Kun and Wu Ziyu first fled from Sichuan to Henan, the Japanese also had contact with them as usual, but Wu Ziyu was a dead-headed person, from south to north, no matter which powers from Britain, France, the United States and Japan came to win him over. Ignore them all.In history, the Soviet Union also wooed Wu Peifu, but it turned out that Wu Peifu ordered the suppression of anti-revolutionary and labor movements.Because in Wu Peifu's view, anyone who supports foreigners must be a traitor, and since he is a traitor, he, Wu Peifu, a patriotic thief (defined by the Soviet Union), must have trouble with him.Wu Ziyu is not Wang Zhenyu, this is a real warlord, if he gets angry, he will really kill someone.

Secondly, Cao Kun, Wu Peifu, and Feng Yuxiang's troops are all remnants and defeated generals in the eyes of the Japanese. In addition, most of their biggest backers in Beijing, Feng Guozhang, and others have already fallen and resigned. So they took a pessimistic attitude. In their plan, the final outcome of these people was nothing more than being subdued by Duan Qirui.

But the operation of the matter finally made a huge joke with the Japanese. This army, which the Japanese regarded as doomed to perish, openly challenged the Duan Qirui government, which was being vigorously supported by the Empire of Japan. This was really a very troublesome trouble.Originally, according to the plan of the Ministry of Military Affairs, about 30 troops of Duan Qirui's government, which had almost formed an army, could go south to attack Nanjing and Wuhan by about the middle of the seventh year of the Republic of China.Even though Wang Zhenyu has hundreds of thousands of troops under his command, although there is not enough intelligence to provide data support, the report analysis of the Japanese Special High School clearly pointed out that although the army in South China has won enough international reputation in Europe, the South China Now it is precisely at the weakest time. First, the elite expedition is outside, and the interior must be empty. Second, the actual control area is too wide. It is impossible to form a concentrated use of troops during strategic defense. Third, as long as the imperial fleet appears in Zhejiang , Fujian, and the coastal areas of Guangdong, Wang Zhenyu's youth army will inevitably divide its troops for defense.

The author of this report seems to be a China hand, especially at the end of the report, he added a sentence: "Now China is almost the era when King Wu defeated Zhou. Duan Qirui is King Wu, and Nanzhi is King Zhou. One hit is enough to defeat."

The Japanese are always used to thinking of things too beautifully, so it is a tragedy. It is not yet known whether Duan Qirui, the king of Wu, can defeat Zhou, and he himself will be defeated first.