Wang Hengyue used two divisions to force a landing in Qiongzhou, which relieved the security of the rear of the Northern Expedition. At the same time, the north also fell into a dispute over whether to fight for war or for peace!
And there is a very key figure among them: Xu Shuzheng!
Xu Shuzheng was a busy man at that time. He had to single-handedly organize the election of the new Congress and preside over the military campaign against South Korea. Therefore, he often traveled between Beijing and Hankou.
Since the two main combatant generals Cao Kun and Zhang Huaizhi suddenly changed their minds and refused to obey the plan, he planned to rely solely on Fengjun, set up a Fengjun former enemy headquarters in Hankou, and place all the six mixed brigades that Zhang Zuolin admitted to transfer on the Hunan battlefield.
superior.
He sent Fengjun's 27th Division Commander Sun Liechen, 28th Division Commander Ji Jinchun, and 29th Division Commander Wu Junsheng to Changsha to arrange for Fengjun to enter Hunan.
He rushed back to Hankou from Beijing to supervise its implementation. However, this plan aroused great disgust from Cao Kun of the Zhili clique and Zhang Huaizhi of the Lu clique, so they became more war-weary. At the same time, the plan unexpectedly [Breaking Dawn-Xunqing]
Dreaming] aroused Zhang Zuolin's disgust. Zhang Zuolin had another purpose in sending troops. Putting all the Fengjun who entered the Pass on the battlefield was obviously inconsistent with his purpose; he could not tolerate Xu Shuzheng blatantly treating the Fengjun as his own and doing whatever he wanted.
Therefore, he recalled the three Fengjun division commanders and used the excuse of tight border defense to call back the Fengjun troops who had already moved to eastern Hunan.
But Xu Shuzheng was not discouraged. He went from Hankou to Changsha and then to Hengyang to deal with Wu Peifu personally. He believed that Wu Peifu was a real thug and Cao Kun could only enjoy the benefits. If Wu Peifu was brought over, Cao Kun would become an insignificant role.
Already.
Xu Shuzheng hurried back to Beijing from the front and suggested to Duan Qirui that he should step up efforts to win over Wu Peifu in order to dismantle Cao Kun. Duan Qirui was convinced and immediately communicated directly with Wu Peifu to show his superiority. Cabinet ministers rarely communicate directly with a division commander.
Electrified. On June 3, the Beijing government appointed Wu Peifu as "General Fuwei." Although the general is a title in name only, it is a "special appointment" level in the official system. It is parallel to the governor. A soldier with real power adds this
The title is alternate governor, which is completely different from the role of a general after the governor steps down.
However, this pacification work did not achieve the expected results. After Wu Peifu arrived in Hengyang, he never moved forward again. There are several reasons for Wu Peifu's change of attitude: First, the soldiers were tired from long battles. In fact, they could no longer go south.
Secondly, the Hunan War was his first achievement, but the military governor was snatched away by Zhang Jingyao, which inevitably made him resentful. Thirdly, the domestic opposition to the civil war and the anti-Japanese atmosphere was getting stronger day by day, and internal conflicts among the main war faction were also arising.
Fourth, internationally, Britain and the United States gradually resumed their intervention in the East at the end of the European War and are working hard to support the anti-Duan forces to resist Japan behind the Duan system.
And the person being supported by Britain and the United States is exactly the person Beiyang fears the most: Wang Hengyue!
When Xu Shuzheng went to Hengyang to visit Wu Peifu, Wu Peifu invited him to dinner. After the meal, they had a secret conversation next to a big goldfish tank in the yard, and the conversation was very speculative.
Although Xu Shuzheng was good at politics, it was in vain this time. He had a very speculative talk with Wu in Hengyang, and promised to subsidize Wu's military expenses, and to publish Wu Peifu's name as General Fuwei, [Breaking Dawn - Seeking Qing in Dreams] in exchange for Wu Peifu
However, Wu Peifu thought that Xu Shuzheng had deliberately leaked the information to make Cao Kun feel ashamed.
Wu made himself incapable of being a human being, so he suddenly turned against him.
However, Zhang Huaizhi and Cao Kun were originally fierce militants, but suddenly a war-weary atmosphere arose. Cao Kun repeatedly requested to return to Zhili to recuperate, and left Hankou without waiting for Duan Qirui's consent, taking all the First Route Headquarters with him.
Then Zhang Huaizhi also led his close associates back to Shandong. Before leaving Hankou, these two generals exchanged views with Wang Zhanyuan, Zhao Ti, Chen Guangyuan, and Li Chun, and planned to send a telegram with the false pretense that "the people's livelihood is in decline and we cannot continue fighting..."
, ordered the front line to "cease the fighting and stand by".
Duan Qirui was greatly shocked when he heard that the frontline generals openly advocated peace. He quickly mobilized and tried hard to persuade them not to send this telegram. However, Duan Qirui was deeply aware that the main combatants in his camp were all
The peace faction has changed. This is the new peace faction. Three of them were the original peace faction, and three were the original war faction. Now they have combined. The most unfortunate thing is that this new peace faction
The leader turned out to be Cao Kun.
All the soldiers on the front line of the Zhili Army also jointly issued a telegram, saying that Hunan Province was suffering from monstrous floods and plague, and the soldiers were exhausted and could no longer fight. At the same time, five brigade commanders of the frontline Zhili Army also jointly issued a telegram asking for leave. The so-called request for leave was sabotage.
During the demonstration, the five brigade commanders jointly asked for leave, which was a collective sabotage!
The emergence of the new peace faction shows that the contradictions within the Beiyang faction have become extremely complicated. In the past, Duan Qirui's Anhui faction led the war, Feng Guozhang's Zhili faction advocated peace, and Cao Kun joined the main war faction as a direct general, which contributed to Duan's success in the war with Feng Guozhang.
The main reason why they won the war between the two sides. Now, just as the favorable situation of the Civil War fell into the hands of the Northern Army, all the original war faction suddenly switched to the peace faction. It was really a huge change. Because the main war faction suddenly transferred to the peace faction.
As the war power increased greatly, war weariness spread like an epidemic to the entire main battle camp. Even Ni Sichong, the extremely militant Ni Sichong, did not want his Anwu Army to bear the brunt alone, so he asked Beijing to mobilize his troops.
Go back to rest.
Why did the generals who led the battle actually call for peace at a critical moment? There are also practical factors. Because the military discipline of Zhang Jingyao's troops was too bad, the Northern Army was completely unpopular in Hunan. The people of Hunan hated the Northern Army, which made the Northern Army in Hunan
The situation was completely unfavorable. On the other hand, the main force of the Southern Army in resisting the Northern Army was completely unharmed.
Under this situation, Duan Qirui believed that it was impossible to urge the Northern Army on the front line to attack, so he decided to change the attack on Hunan to Fu, and sent Zhao Chunting as the garrison envoy to southern Hunan and the director of the Hunan Fu Liang Bureau.
To recruit the Southern Army, all those who are willing to be supported will be reorganized into the "government army". The officers and soldiers will still serve in their original posts. Those who do not want to join the army will be allowed to be dismissed with pay. This is a very vicious attempt to divide the Southern Army, especially the Hunan Army.
strategy.
But Duan Qirui himself has never had any intention of ending the policy of unification by force.
Duan Qirui drew up the fifth phase of the battle plan in Beijing, which was to take a defensive position in Hunan but take an offensive in Guangdong.
On June 10, Duan Qirui summoned Wang Jiaxian, chairman of the Senate of the old Congress, and said that he would now send 45,000 people to attack Guangdong. Please tell the members not to go to Guangdong again. Anyone who agrees with the south will be killed.
whether.
The military governors in Tianjin publicly recommended Zhang Huaizhi as their representative. They went to Beijing on June 15 to meet with Feng Guozhang and asked him if he could step down and become vice president. Feng Guozhang said "no", so both Feng and Duan gave up the position of vice president.
As a result, Cao Kun can hope to take up the position of vice president.
The Tianjin Conference was officially held on the 19th. The conference unanimously decided to approve Xu Shichang as the next president and to continue military operations in the south.
Cao Kun switched from peace to war because the vice president was just around the corner. As for Zhang Huaizhi, who was war-weary because he wanted to return to his hometown in Shandong. Unexpectedly, after he returned to Shandong, the acting Shandong governor Zhang Shuyuan was determined to kill him and refused.
He had no choice but to yield to the governor's position, but this time he failed, so he had to look for territory in the south, so he also switched from the main war to the main war.
Zhang Huaizhi was willing to go to the south to command the military, which was in line with the needs of the time. Since Cao Kun wanted to be vice president, he naturally did not want to go to the south. Other generals who were leading the battle, such as Zhang Zuolin and Ni Sichong, were not willing to do so.
Leaving his territory, Zhang Huaizhi was quite senior in the Beiyang faction, and he had no temple to rely on, so he became the main candidate for Duan Duinan's fifth phase of combat commander.
Although Zhang Huaizhi was not a good general who could fight in battle, it was better than sending unknown or less qualified people, so Zhang Huaizhi naturally became the chief general of the Southern Campaign.
Although Zhang Huaizhi is brave enough and willing to serve as the commander-in-chief of the southern expedition, he is still fierce and has a weak heart. He must find a thug. At this time, the one who deserves the title is Wu Peifu!
On June 20, he came to Beijing from Tianjin to report the decision of the Tianjin Conference, so he quietly made this request to Duan Qirui. Duan Qirui was pleased that he was willing to put on his jersey and go to the front line in person, so he naturally agreed immediately. That's it.
On the same day, the Beijing government issued the following orders: Cao Kun was specially appointed as the economic envoy to the four provinces of Sichuan, Guangdong, Hunan, and Jiangxi. Zhang Huaizhi was specially assigned as the commander-in-chief of the army to assist Guangdong, and Wu Peifu was the deputy commander. Li Houji was specially assigned to assist Fujian and Zhejiang in Guangdong.
The commander-in-chief of the army, Tong Baoxuan was appointed as deputy commander. Wei Zonghan was appointed as the commander of the ninth army division. Zhang Shuyuan was ordered to nurse the Shandong governor and provincial governor.
Cao Kun was promoted from "Xuanfu Envoy to the Two Lakes" to "Economic Envoy to the Four Provinces". He was still the largest local official in the government of the Republic of China. The Seal and Casting Bureau specially cast a silver lion button weighing two kilograms for this new official.
The big seal is larger than the official seal. This shows that Cao Kun's status is above the provincial governors, that is, he is the candidate for the vice president. On the surface, it seems that Duan Qirui
I admire Cao Kun very much, but I do so reluctantly. Duan has the most important qualification in his life. He used to look down on Li Yuanhong because he only served as a cooperator in the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Cao Kun was born as a cloth seller, how could Duan think highly of him!
Cao Kun was originally known as an "honest man" among the Beiyang faction, but this time it was repeatedly proved that honest people can also play tricks. In addition to looking down on Cao's background, Duan also distrusted him.
However, the title of military envoy of the four provinces is really empty. Not to mention anything else, Sichuan and Guangdong are now controlled by that so-and-so Generalissimo Wang Hengyue.
Could it be that Wang Hengyue would hand over Sichuan?
In this state of mind, Cao Kun actually stayed in the garden of his residence in Tianjin, drinking wine and looking at flowers, with no intention of going south.
Duan Qirui wanted to increase his military responsibilities for Sichuan and Guangdong provinces, but he took advantage of it and avoided the important and took the easy.
Beijing repeatedly called to urge him to go south. He responded by asking him to clear his salary arrears first, and then stipulate the authority of the general manager. He never mentioned going south to take up a job. He also asked him to go to Beijing, but he refused!!.