With a gentle sound, Chang Ruiqing placed Sun Yat-sen's handwritten letter on the desk in front of him, and looked at the people in front of him with bright eyes.

"Everyone, Mr. Sun wants to invite me to Guangzhou. What do you think?"

This letter was sent to Fuzhou by Xie Chi, Secretary-General of the Marshal's Office of Sun Yat-sen, and Jiang JShi, Deputy Chief of the Army Department of the Law Guardian Military Government. In the letter, Sun Yat-sen invited Chang Ruiqing, a member of the revolutionary party, to secretly go to Guangzhou to discuss the reorganization of the revolutionary party and the Kuomintang... However, our Chang Da warlord is not a three-year-old child, so he can naturally defeat Sun Yat-sen's true intentions. He saw that Chang Ruiqing was "abandoned" by Beiyang, so he wanted to join the group.

After settling down Jiang JShi and Xie Chi, Chang Ruiqing immediately summoned Wu Shi, Bai Chongxi, Wang Junhao, Lu Yixuan, and Jin Yongyan, the real core generals in the Fujian Army, to his headquarters to discuss major events. Now they are sitting opposite Chang Ruiqing.

When he heard Chang Ruiqing's question, several people didn't say anything for a while, as if they were thinking hard. After a while, Jin Yongyan broke the silence: "Yaoru, if you go to Guangzhou, or not, you are all with you. What is your goal? If you dominate one side and be a hero in troubled times, then Guangzhou will still not go. If you want to unify China and become a great man in the future country, then going to Guangzhou is also a shortcut. But... the situation in Mr. Sun is very complicated, and we will have to spend a lot of effort to fight for power and profit in the future."

Chang Ruiqing nodded silently. The Kuomintang is indeed a hodgepodge, with all kinds of people, mixed with fish and dragons. There are both top talents of this era, and many confused people who have failed to succeed and fail. Although he has secretly joined the Revolutionary Party, he has also used many people with revolutionary Party and Kuomintang backgrounds under his command. However, after all, he is still outside the Kuomintang circle and has not participated in the intrigue within the Kuomintang.

Wu Shi has long been a revolutionary party member, and of course he can't agree with the "convergence of Fujian and Guangdong". At this time, he said loudly: "What the principal said is not bad. Fighting for hegemony in troubled times has always been a boat against the current. If you don't advance, you will retreat! There has never been a place to stay in a corner for a long time, so our goal can only be to unify China, and we must never dominate the world!"

"To unify China, it is not necessary to rely on Mr. Sun, right?" Wang Junhao interrupted coldly: "Using the method we implemented in Fujian, if we develop for another two or three years, are we still afraid that we will not be able to replace Beiyang?"

Wu Shi frowned and shook his head slowly: "Yaoru's method is good, but these methods are not our patents! Mr. Sun can also follow his example. His Guangdong Army and the Yunnan Army stationed in Guangdong are not organizing the law guardian army according to the Fujian Army's methods? When Mr. Sun's law guardian army is reorganized, it is only a matter of time. Guangdong's financial and material resources will be several times more than our Fujian. If we can raise tens of thousands of soldiers in Fujian, Guangdong can raise tens of thousands of soldiers! Can we deal with Beiyang and Mr. Sun at the same time?"

Chang Ruiqing's eyes turned to Bai Chongxi, the "Little Zhuge" who kept bowing his head and silently: "Brother Jiansheng, what do you think?"

Bai Chongxi raised his head and faced Chang Ruiqing's gaze. He said calmly: "Yaoru, our opponents are not only Beiyang and Mr. Sun, but also imperialism! They are not willing to return a customs to China now... If China really shows signs of unification and strength, how could they turn a blind eye? Yaoru, we must not underestimate the difficulty of unifying China!"

"How should we deal with the complicated situation in Mr. Sun?" Wang Junhao retorted coldly: "As the saying goes, it is better to be a chicken head than a phoenix tail! If we defect to Mr. Sun, can we still retain the Fujian Army? Can we continue to control the military and political power of Fujian Province? Brother Yaoru has tried his best to rectify Fujian until the current situation, and it will be all the best for outsiders at once!"

Bai Chongxi shook his head and did not argue with Wang Junhao. Instead, he looked at Chang Ruiqing steadily. Our Chang's warlord's expression can only be described in one sentence, that is, his joy and anger are not reflected, and no one can tell what he is thinking?

He was silent for a moment, and suddenly smiled faintly: "It's just going to Guangzhou to meet Mr. Sun, and he didn't want to surrender to the guardian military government immediately... Now is not the time to turn against Beiyang to start a war. First, the domestic situation does not allow it; second, we and Mr. Sun have not yet rectified the internal situation. We are not sure to win the battle. As for whether we want to cooperate with Mr. Sun, let's look at the future. If Mr. Sun's guardian army can be reorganized according to our Fujian Army's methods, the local government in Guangdong can also be established according to the Fujian methods... Then we might as well join forces with him. As for the internal issues of the Kuomintang, haha, there are struggles in places where people are! I'm not worried about this."

Speaking of this, he suddenly smiled faintly: "Mr. Sun's strength is equal to us. Even if Guangdong is pacified, it is not much better than us... He wants to win me over, so why should he give me the position of deputy marshal of the Dharma Protector Army? This position can be advanced and retreated. Maybe one day it will be the main force. Do you think so?"

Several people looked at each other and felt that Chang Ruiqing's wishful thinking was really not very good. A deputy marshal was fine. Maybe he could also serve as the Minister of the Army or something. But it would be not that easy to be promoted. Sun Yat-sen is only 53 years old now! He just married a 23-year-old new wife two years ago and is in good health! There is no problem living for another twenty years, unless you, Chang Ruiqing, make a bad move and harm him like you did to deal with Li Houji...

Chang Ruiqing stared at everyone for a while, and suddenly said to Bai Chongxi again: "By the way, Brother Jiansheng, did you tell me last time that Jiang JShi was interested in paying me a favor?"

Bai Chongxi nodded: "This is the case."

Chang Ruiqing smiled faintly, stood up, and said with a smile: "This is exactly what I want. Brother Jiansheng, let's go to see Jiang jshi together, Xie Huisheng and the others, and then worship Jiang jshi again. From now on, he will be our elder brother Jieshi."

Bai Chongxi was stunned for a moment and asked back, "Yaoru, do you want to form an alliance with him? Do you think Jiang JShi's character is reliable?"

Chang Ruiqing waved his hand and smiled and said, "It's not a question of reliability or unreliability, but a forced by the situation! Although Jiang JShi is now the deputy chief of the Army of the Law Guardian Army, he is still very isolated within the Law Guardian Army. After all, the main body of the Law Guardian Army is the Guangdong Army. However, Jiang JShi is from Zhejiang! And his seniority is low, so it is certain that he is excluded by a group of Guangdong people. So he must now really need foreign aid like us to support it."

...

"Old Zhi, this is a secret telegram sent by Sa Dingming from the ponytail..."

Xu Shuzheng hurriedly walked into a conference room at the Army Department No. 2, Tieshizi Hutong. In this not-so-spacious conference room, there were a bunch of people listening to Duan Qirui pointing fingers and assignments.

"Have the troops that received the arms arrived in Qinhuangdao? Don't think that Fengtian is the land of Beiyang. The Feng army must be careful. The relationship between them and the Japanese is closer than us! The Japanese have no responsibility to deliver the goods...That batch of arms is the foundation for our turnaround!"

"The recruits can almost start recruiting. First recruit 40,000 people, from Shandong, Zhili, Henan, and Anhui provinces, 10,000 each... All of them must be simple farmers, those people are obedient and easy to train... and middle and lower-level officers must be selected to keep a close eye. Any students in the fourth and fifth phases of Baoding who are suspected of the rebellion are not required! They are willing to select from the ranks. The most important thing is reliability. Do you understand?"

"The "Regulations on Participating Army" must be formulated as soon as possible, and we will follow the methods of the "Regulations on the Fujian Army"! The participating army is a new army, and it must have a new look. It cannot be built into a private army anymore!"

It turned out that Duan Qirui used the "Xiyuan Borrow" to purchase a batch of weapons from Japan and would be transported to Qinhuangdao in two days. With this batch of weapons, Duan Qirui and Xu Shuzheng's direct armed forces - the participating troops, can be greatly expanded! Duan Qirui is also very energetic today and is planning to collect arms and recruit soldiers.

It was only after Duan Qirui sent the task that Xu Shuzheng handed over the secret message. During this period, Xu Shuzheng also became much more low-key. Chang Ruiqing was promoted by him no matter how he said that he had "betrayed" Beiyang. Even if Duan Qirui did not blame him, he always felt that he was wrong. Although he was still Duan Qirui's number one confidant, he also knew that his prestige was not as good as before. Many people complained that he was confused and ruined the big things in Beiyang!

And these days, his main energy has also been focused on how to destroy Chang Ruiqing. On the one hand, he formed an alliance with the Fujian Navy and appointed Sa Zhenbing as the Fujian Sea patrol envoy, allowing him to continue to stay in Mawei to wait for the opportunity; on the other hand, he sent secret envoys to Fujian, taking his handwritten letter to move the generals of the Fujian Army, hoping that they would launch a coup to overthrow Chang Ruiqing! However, all these letters ended up falling into Chang Ruiqing's hands, and most of the secret envoys he sent were in the military prisons of the Fujian Army... And today, a more unexpected bad news came from Sa Zhenbing in Mawei to Beijing.

Duan Qirui finished his work and was still a little excited while sitting there. Seeing Xu Shuzheng's face turned pale and holding a telegram in his hand, his heart sank: "Youzheng, what's wrong?"

Xu Shuzheng looked around and saw Duan Qirui's confidant. Then he took a deep breath and said angrily: "It was a secret telegram sent by Sa Dingming, Fujian. The Yongfeng gunboat from Guangdong suddenly arrived at Mawei Port!"

The naval academy and shipyard in Mawei Port and Mawei are now under the "co-management" of the Navy and the Fujian Army. Chang Ruiqing did not drive away all the navy people, but let his army take over Majiang's defense and did not allow Beiyang warships to dock... Of course, Beiyang warships did not dare to come to Fujian. In addition, the 1.5 million "co-payment" originally promised to the Navy was also written off and no longer fulfilled. Therefore, the relationship between the Fujian Navy and Chang Ruiqing has now broken down.

After listening to Xu Shuzheng's report, Duan Qirui was no longer interested in reading the telegram. He raised his eyebrows: "It's all expected. Now he refuses to step down, so he naturally cannot use the banner of our Beiyang... But so what? The matter of China is ultimately still strength! Now that Japanese arms are coming, we can train a new army in the next step. When the participating troops are organized, we will send troops to flatten Fujian and Guangdong!"

Xu Shuzheng had nodded. He also knew that Duan Qirui was talking about the only way now, but he always felt that it was a little up and down. The current situation was really unfavorable to Beiyang. Once the two customs in Fujian and Guangdong were lost, the Beijing government would lose more than 20 million yuan a year! In addition, the support of the establishment of 10,000 business groups in various places and the support of compensating for the "loss of red disasters", "Guan Yu", the original Beijing government's largest source of wealth left!

At the same time, the Fujian and Guangdong provinces have more than 20 million yuan in annual accounts, plus the original fiscal revenue of the two provinces. Sun Yat-sen and Chang Ruiqing's forces can earn 50 to 60 million yuan a year, which is not much less than that of the Beijing government!

Even if the participating army is trained, will Beiyang really have the strength to push the southwest? Also, with the current fiscal revenue of the Beijing government, do you still have the financial resources to support so many Beiyang troops?

When Xu Shuzheng thought of these problems, he felt a burst of brain pain...

Duan Qirui probably also saw Xu Shuzheng's thoughts. He looked up and smiled at his number one confidant: "Don't worry about finance, Liang Yansun will definitely have a solution. After all, we control most of China. If we don't have any help, we will not be compared by Fujian and Guangdong provinces? Besides, I am not the Premier of the State now. I, as the chief of the army, just train the army well. Are you afraid of not having money with a strong army?"

...

Cracks. A sound of wooden clogs hitting granite floor tiles came in from outside.

Earl Masahiko in Temple raised his head from the official document and rubbed his eyes. There were not many people who would walk swagger in the Prime Minister’s residence in wooden clogs. It seemed that the general behind the scenes came to the residence to meet him... It seemed that a while earlier than the agreed time.

The Prime Minister, who looks a bit like a catfish and is nicknamed "monster" by Japanese citizens, stood up from the not-so-wide office on the second floor of Prime Minister Kasumi's official residence and walked to the door. The secretary outside pushed the door open when he heard the Prime Minister's footsteps.

Masato Tanuchi looked up in the direction of the corridor and saw an old man wearing a kimono and wooden clogs, looking extremely tall and burly among the Japanese, strode with another short old man in a suit. They were Toyama, the leader of the Black Dragon Club, and Toyama, the leader of the Japanese Kuomintang, Inuhi.

The three elderly men bowed and greeted at the door of the Prime Minister's office, and then Masahito Tanaka invited the two of them into the office. After the guests and guests were seated, the Tanaka ordered the secretary to serve the best Chinese tea. Then he looked at the two people in front of him with a smile: "Toushan, Inukai. Regarding the matter of the 'Japanese and Russian League of Three Kingdoms', I have exchanged views with several cabinet officials in the cabinet... This can be considered, but it cannot be reckless. Before the huge interests are determined, the Empire cannot easily commit crimes against Britain and the United States and the Soviet Union, so the Empire is still ready to send an interference army to Russia at the right time!"

"Interference Army?" Toyama Manta and Inuyasu looked at each other, looking a little confused.

Masato Tanuchi smiled and nodded: "It's an interference army! Britain, the United States and France have reached an agreement. As long as the Soviet Union dares to sign a peace treaty with Germany, they will send troops to intervene in an armed manner, overthrow the Soviet regime, and support responsible Russian political forces to rule. And we, Japan, on this issue, must temporarily follow Britain, the United States... so we may have to send an interference army to Vladivostok!"

"Prime Minister, what conditions should Britain and the United States give us?" Inuyasu asked.

"Conditions? No conditions were given, just to let us send troops, but we didn't say anything good to us..."

Masato Tanuchi's tone was steady and he couldn't hear any joy or anger. Toyamaman seemed to understand what the Prime Minister meant. He smiled and asked, "There is no conditions, just let us take it yourself? Prime Minister, do you see if our Japan has the opportunity to seize the entire Siberia?"

But Masato Tanuchi waved his hand and said with a wry smile: "Impossible, impossible, Britain and the United States will not agree to us occupying so much Russian territory... And the Russians are not that easy to deal with. Don't forget the Russo-Japanese War! The empire spent 2 billion yen and sacrificed nearly 90,000 soldiers to barely win. Russia is not China after all!

Moreover, the Russian royalists are all very stubborn guys. It is hard to say whether they will agree to cede land to Japan! Perhaps the Bolsheviks will speak better... But it is still too early to make a decision now. It is best to let the Russians shed more blood in their own civil strife. If the Russians can dry up all the blood! That way we can swallow a piece of land belonging to Russia with confidence!"

Since the Meiji Restoration, Japan has embarked on the road of external expansion, and has always been aiming at China, a big and weak country in terms of its expansion direction. The Japanese are still somewhat afraid of Russia's "steam roller". Even if they win the Russo-Japanese War, they dare not have any inappropriate thoughts about Russia's territory.

But now, the sound of the October Revolution, coupled with the drastic changes in January, seems to have given Japan a god-given opportunity to covet the Russian Far East territory. The whole of Japan is beginning to get a little ready to move, but deep down, they are always a little nervous, fearing that the war that interferes with the Russian Revolution will turn into another extremely tragic Russo-Japanese War...

So the Japanese are now mentality that they want to make a fortune in the Russian Revolution, but are afraid of paying a huge price, but in the end they are in vain! So after Masato Tanaka learned that the Bolsheviks might use cede land from Japan to exchange for Japan's "alliance", they naturally started to think of stepping on two ships...!~!

{Piaotian Literature www.piaotian.net Thank you for your support, your support is our greatest motivation}
Chapter completed!