Chapter 163 Twist and Twist

Before the two divisions of the Sichuan Army reached the junction of Hunan and Hubei, they became well-known to everyone in the whole country under the massive exposure and criticism of the Beiyang Political Department.

People from all walks of life across the country who were unable to withstand the ravages of years of war have called on Sichuan Governor Xiao Yimin to compassionate with the people and stop the civil war. The Beiyang faction and newspapers from Japan, Britain and other countries have launched fierce criticisms of the Sichuan Army's unauthorized actions. For a moment, petition telegrams and inquiries flew to Yichang like snowflakes.

Zhang Jingyao, who was in charge of Yueyang, Hunan and commanded various Beiyang troops to fight fiercely with the Hunan Army, then sent a telegram to the whole country, accusing Sichuan Governor Xiao Yimin of "ignoring the overall situation, provoking disputes, creating divisions, and having ulterior motives" in a very tough tone, and strictly warned the Sichuan Army not to undermine the peaceful policies of the central government. Finally, he said, "Please ask General Xiao Yimin to stop his horse, do not destroy his reputation for ten years with his own private interests, do not show off his courage for a while, and become a public enemy despised by the world."

More than ten famous generals and celebrities who were influential in China and abroad, including Feng Guozhang, Prime Minister Duan Qirui, Deputy Minister of Military Affairs Xu Shuzheng, and Beiyang leader Xu Shichang, who had returned to the mountains, called Xiao Yimin, most of whom were serious and polite public telegrams, which made Xiao Yimin, who had been invisible behind the scenes and racked his brains to make a fortune, and the generals and schoolmen under his command, were at a loss and stunned for a moment.

Before Xiao Yimin could discuss countermeasures, Zhang Jingyao sent another telegram to the whole country, announcing an voluntary ceasefire, retreating the troops 30 miles away, supporting the decision of the special meeting of the Central Senate and House of Representatives, and making every effort to openly and openly engage in peace negotiations with the Hunan army and political factions.

Immediately afterwards, Liang Qichao, who has been active in the Chinese political arena since the 1911 and has become the barometer of China's politics, led dozens of political celebrities such as Lin Changmin, Zhang Guogan, and Cao Rulin to jointly issue telegrams, strongly praising Zhang Jingyao's peaceful propositions, severely criticizing the Sichuan Army and its leaders Xiao Yimin, Zhang Lan and others for deliberately provoking disputes between the central and local governments, and attempting to expand the war to profit from it, which had an important impact on the sensation of Chinese and foreign public opinion.

Faced with the petition telegrams and condolence letters full of tabletops and still sending in a steady stream, Xiao Yimin and his generals felt their powerlessness for the first time.

In addition to Zhang Lan, Zeng Shouwu and Zou Wenhan who rushed to Yichang, they were smiling bitterly and shook their heads helplessly. Everyone finally realized the embarrassment and pain that the thousands of people pointed out. Therefore, they realized how important the long-term political strategy of "occupying the commanding heights of political public opinion and morality" that was not well implemented was to be very important. Although everyone knows that the Beiyang faction and Japan, Britain and other countries took the opportunity to ignore the facts and spread rumors and slander in order to suppress Sichuan to obtain greater benefits, no one could reverse the current extremely passive political situation. All walks of life in the country and most people in the country actually believed in the propaganda of Beiyang politics, which was really speechless.

Just as Xiao Yimin and more than 30 most senior military and political officials in Sichuan were working hard to deal with countermeasures, two brigades of the Beiyang Army stationed in Nanchang quietly drove to southern Jiangxi.

Sun Yat-sen, who was in trouble with internal and external troubles, had to order the withdrawal of troops and stop the Northern Expedition with five consecutive urgent telegrams from many important personnel who remained in Guangzhou. He had not reached an understanding with the Guardian Guizhou Army, and the 6,000 brothers of the Guardian Guard Brigade and the New Regiment Corps were even more frustrated. They were ordered to return all the weapons, ammunition and all the supplies to be seized. Under the strict control of Chief of Staff Chiang Kai-shek, he retreated to Guangzhou with resentment and rectified the situation. Li Liejun's troops, who had suffered heavy losses, retreated to Nanxiong, an important town in northern Guangdong a few days ago, licking his wounds.

The fierce war of protecting the Dharma launched by Sun Yat-sen has come to an end.

All walks of life across the country, including European and American powers who jumped up and down due to the situation being completely out of control, and their evil neighbors, finally wiped their heads with sweat when they had time, and all their eyes quickly turned to the tense Hunan-Hubei border and Yichang.

But no one expected that just two days later, before the Sichuan Army Commander-in-Chief Xiao Yimin made a statement, a series of shocking news came from Guangzhou:

On September 10, Sun Yat-sen, under the witness of Chinese and foreign journalists, hundreds of Kuomintang military and political officials and celebrities from all walks of life, officially took office as the Grand Marshal of the Republic of China in Guangzhou, issued a declaration to suppress civil unrest and restore the law, and welcomed Li Yuanhong to Guangzhou to serve as the President of the Republic of China.

2. The Guangzhou Congress passed the national political organization, and President Sun Yat-sen officially appointed the chief ministers and deputy chiefs of military and political departments: the chief minister of diplomacy is Wu Tingfang, the chief minister of the Internal Affairs is Sun Hongyi, the chief minister of the second chief is Zheng, the chief minister of finance is Tang Shaoyi, the chief minister of the second chief Liao Zhongkai, the chief of the army Zhang Kairu, the chief of the navy Cheng Biguang, the chief of the transportation Hu Hanmin, and the chief of the justice Xu Qian.

3. Appointed by Sun Yat-sen, the Grand Marshal of the Republic of China, Li Liejun served as the Chief of Staff of the Grand Marshal's Office, Zhang Binglin was the Secretary-General of the Grand Marshal's Office, Xu Chongzhi was the Chief of the Army, Lin Baoyi was the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Fang Shengtao was the Commander-in-Chief of the Garage, and Li Fulin was the Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Marshal's Office.

The Guangzhou Political Bureau passed a series of resolutions issued by the National Assembly, which is tantamount to overturning the legality of the Beiyang Political Bureau from a legal perspective.

Since then, the two major camps in the north and south have officially embarked on the road of life-and-death break.

When the news reached Yichang, Xiao Yimin and his civil and military generals finally showed relief smiles. The embarrassment of the Sichuan Army was solved with the formal establishment of Guangzhou Political Fu.

Zhang Lan and others attended the first enlarged meeting of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee of the Democratic Party of China the next day, and then returned to Chengdu with ease, without any concerns about Xiao Yimin's subsequent decisions.

The excited Xiao Yimin and his generals immediately held a decision-making meeting. Faced with the generals who had their eyes turned red and finally put down all their burdens, Xiao Yimin walked to the north and south military force situation map drawn by the General Staff overnight, and started a joke in a relaxed mood:

"Everyone, let's turn our attention to Beijing now. I bet that celebrities from all walks of life who have just completed the convergence of Zhili and Anhui and old friends of the Beiyang Army are probably aiming at the south, dancing and cursing. In a short period of time, no one has the energy to send me another telegram."

There was a burst of laughter in the conference room.

Bao Jiqing, who had always been strict, couldn't help laughing out loud at this time. The series of decisions made by Sun Yat-sen and a group of revolutionary heroes magically relieved the heavy political pressure of the Sichuan army and Sichuan military and political affairs. The negative impact of the Sichuan army leaving Sichuan was thus reduced to a minimum. Major political forces in China and abroad and hundreds of millions of people across the country are now only worried about the division of the country. The two hostile political parties in the north and the south have since become the focus of attention of China and foreign countries. Compared with the division of the country, the actions of the Sichuan army are no longer a big deal.

When everyone calmed down, Xiao Yimin smiled and said:

"I will first talk about this "Zhian and Anhui convergence". As reported and praised by newspapers across the country, it is entirely the result of the full mediation of the Beiyang founding father Xu Shichang. Among them, the expansion of our Sichuan army is also an important factor in promoting this "Zhian and Anhui convergence".

"Now, Acting President Feng Guozhang has firmly made his first deal and is praised as the position of Prime Minister Duan Qirui who cares about the overall situation and is the world-renowned. No one is thinking about it for the time being... I don't know if you heard that Duan Qirui's brother-in-law became Feng Guozhang's chief guard. By the way, you all know this person. General Wu Guangxin, who once served as the commander of our Sichuan border army, has a good alcohol tolerance and sings good Peking Opera. Later, because Xikang was too hard, he couldn't stay and ran back himself."

Everyone burst into laughter, and after laughing, they savored it carefully and found that the "Zhian and Anhui convergence" was very interesting.

Xiao Yimin continued: "This morning, the Beijing Army Department issued a telegram to officially appoint General Fu Luzhang as the governor of Hunan. He rushed to Yueyang today to work with Zhang Jingyao to seek the 'peaceful resolution of the Hunan issue' and other matters."

The generals and schools exclaimed, but they didn't expect that the Beijing government was so fast that the Hunan issue became more complicated and difficult to measure.

Xiao Yimin's face was relaxed:

"You must also realize that the Hunan problem cannot be solved in a short while. Even if we do whatever it takes to do, we will not be able to create a unified Hunan politically. And we don't know what Hunan is thinking now? If we don't do it well, we will turn into a hot face to stick to other people's cold butts, which is not worth the loss, let alone expect to gain huge benefits by helping the Hunan Army's unified war. I am even worried now that the weapons and equipment and loans I invested to the Hunan Army before would be wasted."

The generals and school nodded one after another, and finally knew what the commander-in-chief, deputy commander-in-chief and chief of staff were busy with last night to the early morning of this day.

Xiao Yimin picked up the baton and slightly raised the tone:

"Based on the above reasons, as well as the war in the border areas of Guangdong-Jiangxi and Guangdong-Fujian areas has subsided, we must adjust our strategic plans in time. Without making a decision in Hunan, we have to make another decision to request that we join the war, we can only hold on the side of the wall without moving.

"At the same time, we also need to closely monitor Wu Peifu's troops in Wuhan and Cao Kun's troops who are moving south quickly. Cao Kun fought a battle with us, and probably still holds a grudge to this day. In addition, Wu Peifu, who is good at training troops, is resourceful and ambitious, the situation in Hubei is not much simpler than that in Hunan. Maybe one is not good, our army will have to fight Cao and Wu.

"Of course, based on the current confrontation between the north and the south, the biggest possibility is to sit down and talk slowly with each other, but no one can relax their vigilance!"

Xiao Yimin's baton pointed at the police and Shashi:

"Our Second Division and Sixth Division remain unmoved, but they will never allow taxes and grain collection in the local area. All supplies will be supplied by Yichang Military Station. In addition, the Yichang Security Command Gendarmerie Corps that is being formed will soon lead to the Public Security and Shashi to be responsible for the heavy responsibility of picking. No one can make mistakes during this sensitive period, including the First Division and the Tenth Division stationed in Jingmen and Xiangyang. They have finally stabilized western Hubei and Jingxiang, worked hard to establish such a little honor, and gradually gained recognition from local people. We must cherish it, otherwise don't blame the ruthless military law!"

After Xiao Yimin finished speaking, he returned to his seat.

Bao Jiqing walked to the front desk with a dark face: "Everyone, there will be no war in the next period of time. Don't slackew. The conscription work of the First Division and the 10th Division must continue. As long as it meets the requirements, whether he is a deserter of the original Hubei army or a bandit from the mountain, he will be taken down and sent to the newly completed training camp on the south bank of Yichang. If you have good soldiers, you can stay, but you must not exceed the latest regulations."

Yang Sen, the commander of the First Division, who recruited more than 5,000 deserters and Green Forest heroes, was a little reluctant. He couldn't help but raise his hand. After receiving Bao Jiqing's permission, he immediately stood up:

"Chief of Staff, the newly recruited soldiers from his subordinates are all very good soldiers! Although the bandit suppression work in northern Hubei and northwestern Hubei has come to an end for the time being, the situation is still very unstable. Can you leave more new recruits for your subordinates? It's okay to put them in the teaching team of our division!"

Bao Jiqing shook his head mercilessly:

"This matter is not to be discussed. All recruited soldiers must be uniformly concentrated and carried out three months of strong training and political education. In three months, if you, Yang Sen, have the ability, stabilize northwestern Hubei as soon as possible. If you do well, I am willing to recommend you to the Commander-in-Chief and the Headquarters as the commander of the upcoming Eighth Army."

The generals exclaimed in surprise and looked at Yang Sen, who was lying on his mouth wide, and they were jealous for a moment.

Yang Sen's heart was so excited that it was pounding. He smiled and sat down with a big golden sword, raised his chin, and looked like he was no less than me.

Bao Jiqing continued to announce the defense areas of each division and determined the next stage of training tasks. After finishing his big hand, he announced the meeting to end with a wave of his hand.

Wang Jian, who was about to be promoted to commander of the Seventh Army, and his chief of staff, He Qiwu, were left behind. He followed Xiao Yimin and Wang Lingji to the large map, staring at the map location of Bao Jiqing's finger, and was very excited.

Late at night that day, Wang Jian personally led the 10th Brigade under his command to quietly leave Shashi, turn south, and disappear quietly among the mountains and streams in northwest Hunan.

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Chapter completed!