Chapter 139 138. Battle and Peace

Zhang Huaizhi and Cao Kun were originally fierce main fighters, but suddenly there was an atmosphere of war weariness. Cao Kun repeatedly asked to return to Zhili to recuperate. On May 29, he left Hankou without waiting for Duan Qirui's consent. Take it all away. On the 30th, Zhang Huaizhi also led his cronies back to Shandong.Before leaving Hankou, these two generals had exchanged views with Wang Zhanyuan, Zhao Ti, Chen Guangyuan, and Li Chun. They planned to send a telegram, falsely saying that "the people's livelihood is dying, and it is unbearable to fight any more", ordering the front to "stop fighting and stand by."

When Duan heard that the frontline generals openly claimed peace, he was greatly shocked, and hurriedly mobilized and dredged up. It took a lot of effort to persuade them not to send this telegram.Even so, Duan already deeply felt that in his camp, the main combat faction had completely changed into the main peace faction. This was the new main peace faction, three of them were the original main peace faction, and three were the original main combat faction. Now they are combined.The most unfortunate thing is that the new leader of the peace faction was actually Cao Kun. All the soldiers on the front line of the Zhijun Army also jointly issued a telegram, saying that the floods in Hunan Province were overwhelming, the plague was prevalent, and the soldiers would be exhausted and unable to fight again.At the same time, the five brigade commanders of the direct army on the front line also jointly issued a telegram asking for leave. These five brigade commanders were Wang Chengbin, Yan Xiangwen, Xiao Yaonan, Zhang Xueyan, and Zhang Fulai.The so-called leave is a sabotage demonstration, and the five brigade commanders jointly asked for leave is collective sabotage.

The emergence of the new peace faction shows that the internal contradictions of the Beiyang faction have become extremely complicated.In the past, Duan Qirui's main battle against the Anhui faction, Feng Guozhang's direct lineage main battle, Cao Kun joined the main battle faction as a direct line general, and contributed to the main reason why Duan won the Feng-Duan battle.Now, just as the favorable situation of the Civil War fell into the hands of the Northern Army, all the original main combat faction suddenly turned to the main peace faction, which is really a great change.Due to the great increase in the power of the main force, war weariness has spread to the entire main battle camp like an epidemic. Even Ni Sichong, who is an extreme main battle, does not want his Anwu Army to bear the brunt alone, so he also asks Beijing to put his The army was called back to rest.

Why did the generals in the main battle make peace at a critical moment?This also has practical factors, because the military discipline of Zhang Jingyao's troops is so bad that the Northern Army is completely unpopular in Hunan.The people of Hunan hate the Northern Army, which makes the situation of the Northern Army in Hunan completely unfavorable.On the other hand, the Southern Army's main force in resisting the Northern Army was not damaged at all, especially the vitality of the Guangxi Army was completely intact. If the Northern Army went further to the border of Guangdong and Guangxi, the Southwest would unite and resist. Victory is unknowable.

Under such circumstances, Duan Qirui believed that it would be impossible to urge the Northern Army to attack, so he decided to change his attack on Hunan to Fu, and appointed Zhao Chunting as the guardian envoy of southern Hunan, and also the director of the Hunan Recruitment and Clearing Bureau. To appease the Southern Army, all those who are willing to be appeased will be reorganized into the "National Army", and the officers and soldiers will still serve in their original positions.This is a vicious strategy to divide the Southern Army, especially the Hunan Army. Duan himself has always had no intention of ending the policy of unification by force.

Just when Zhuhe air was gaining momentum, a well-known figure, Long Jiguang, arrived in Beijing after being defeated and expelled from Guangdong.Long Jiguang couldn't gain a foothold in Guangdong, so he wanted to come to Beijing to find opportunities. He had two purposes. One was to brag about himself, saying that he still had a lot of strength in Guangdong. If he got strong support, it would not be a problem to fight back to Guangdong. The other is to ask for money. He said that he had advanced 10 million yuan in military pay and asked the Beijing government to return it to him. Duan tried his best to win over Long Jiguang, and wanted to use him as a demonstration, so he still called him the patrol envoy of Guangdong and Guangxi, and gave him a warm welcome.Long Jiguang asked Duan for permission to recruit 30 battalions of recruits in the north for short-term training, and then transport them by sea to Guangdong as the basic force for counterattacking Guangdong.Duan promised Long Jiguang to set up the Zhenwu New Army Office in Tianjin, and gave him a sum of military expenses and a batch of arms.At the same time, they preached loudly that there were gaps in Guangdong that could be exploited, and that the Dragon Patrol Envoy still had potential in Guangdong.

When Long Jiguang sang to conquer Guangdong in Beijing, the situation on the Fujian-Guangdong border was quite unfavorable for the Northern Army.It turned out that under Duan Qirui's urging, Li Houji had joined forces with the Zhejiang army to attack Chaomei, but was blocked by the Cantonese army Chen Jiongming, who took advantage of the momentum to counterattack. On May 17, the Cantonese army occupied Wuping and Luxiaba, which belonged to Yongding. On the 30th, Yongding was occupied, and on the 31st, Changting was occupied. Before June 2, the Cantonese army completely took over all the subordinates in Tingzhou with the momentum of breaking through.

Duan Qirui drew up the fifth phase of the battle plan in Beijing, which was to take the defensive in Hunan and take the offensive in Guangdong. On June 10, Duan Qirui summoned Wang Jiaxiang, the former chairman of the Senate of the National Assembly. Duan Zeng asked Wang how many members of Congress went to Guangdong?Wang said: Recently, many congressmen have gone to Guangdong, so it is very possible that the Congress may gather a quorum to hold a formal meeting.Duan said: I will send 45,000 people to attack Guangdong now, and the attack will start in two weeks. Please tell the MPs not to go to Guangdong again.Anyone who agrees with the south will be killed.

After Duan formed the cabinet, he never visited Feng Guozhang at the presidential palace. Someone told Duan that Feng was still the president and that the prime minister should go and have a talk with the president. On May 31, Duan made an exception to meet Feng at the Presidential Palace, reporting that the negotiations between China and Japan had come to an end, and that he should still report at any time in the future. On June 7, Xu Shichang, who had been living in Tianjin, came to Beijing suddenly. After he arrived in Beijing, he proposed cooperation between Feng and Duan.In the past, people said that Xu Shichang was living Cao Cao. When Feng and Duan had an affair, everyone believed that Xu Shichang should stand up to reconcile, but Xu hid in Tianjin and refused to meet people. Xu said to Liang Shiyi: "In the past, in the Li era, the government and the court were fighting openly, and I was still able to mediate. Now it's a secret fight, and I can't do anything. I really have more than I can do." , everyone knows that new changes are brewing in Beijing's political situation, otherwise Xu would not have rushed to Beijing.

Of course Xu Shichang would not come to Beijing without a purpose. At this time, the Anhui Clique planned to hold a military meeting, and the theme of the meeting was not only to discuss the military, but also the issue of the election of the president.Cao Kun advocated that this meeting should still be held in Tianjin.As for the presidential issue, Duan Qirui adopted a showdown opinion and suggested that Xu Shichang be elected as the next president. He himself said that he would not be the vice president. If Feng Guozhang is willing to retire as vice president, he can also agree, otherwise he is willing to go down with Feng Guozhang at the same time .On the surface, Duan made this trip to unite the Beiyang faction, because Xu Shichang is a veteran of Beiyang and has a deep connection with the Zhili.

The Overseers elected Zhang Huaizhi as their representative in Tianjin, and they went to Beijing on June 15 to meet with Feng Guozhang and ask Feng if he could step back as vice president. As a result, Cao Kun has the hope of becoming the vice president. On June 19, the Tianjin meeting was officially held. In addition to the warlords and warlord representatives of the warlord regiment, Long Jiguang was also added.The meeting unanimously decided to adopt Xu Shichang as the next president and to continue military operations against the South.Cao Kun turned from the main peace to the main battle because the vice president was within reach. As for Zhang Huaizhi, he was tired of the war because he wanted to go back to his hometown in Shandong. He had no choice but to give in when he handed over the position of the warlord. This way, he failed, so he had to look for territory in the south, so he also changed from the main peace to the main battle. Zhang Huaizhi's willingness to go to the south to command the military just met the needs of the time, because Cao Kun was unwilling to go to the south since he was going to be the vice president. The qualifications in the faction are quite old, and he has no temple to rely on, so he happens to be the main candidate for Duan Xiangnan's fifth battle commander.Although Zhang is not a good general who is used to fighting, it is better than sending unknown or less qualified people, so Zhang Huaizhi naturally became the main general of the Southern Expedition. Although Zhang Huaizhi was brave and willing to serve as the commander-in-chief of the southern expedition, he was still ruthless, and he had to find a thug.At this time, it is Wu Peifu who deserves it. On June 20th, he came from Tianjin to Beijing to report the decision of the Tianjin meeting, so he quietly made this request to Duan Qirui. Duan Qirui was glad that he was willing to put on the uniform and go to the front line, so naturally he immediately agreed. The following day, the Beijing government issued the following orders: Cao Kun was specially appointed as the economic envoy of Sichuan, Guangdong, Hunan and Jiangxi provinces. Specially appointed Zhang Huaizhi as the commander-in-chief of the Guangdong aid army, and Wu Peifu as the deputy commander. On the 22nd, Li Houji was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Fujian-Zhejiang Aid to Guangdong Army, and Tong Baoxuan was the deputy commander. On the 24th, Wei Zonghan was appointed as the commander of the Ninth Division of the Army. On the 28th, Zhang Shuyuan was ordered to nurse the governor and governor of Shandong. Cao Kun jumped from "Two Lakes Propaganda Envoy" to "Four Provinces Economic and Strategic Envoy", and he was still the largest local official in the government of the Republic of China.The Bureau of Printing and Casting specially cast a silver lion seal weighing two catties for this new official, which is larger than the official's seal.This shows that Cao Kun's status is above the governors of the provinces, that is, the vice president's candidate.On the surface, it seems that Duan Qirui admires Cao Kun very much, but in fact he is very reluctant. The most important thing in Duan's life is his qualifications. He used to look down on Li Yuanhong because he only achieved Xietong in the Qing Dynasty. Cao Kun was born as a cloth dealer. How could Duan think highly of him.Cao Kun was originally known as an "honest man" in the Beiyang School, but this time, he repeatedly proved that honest people can play tricks. Duan Zai looked down on Cao's background and distrusted him. Duan selfishly wanted to choose a literati as president, so he found Xu Shichang. Since he doesn't like a military man as president, how can he welcome a military man as vice president?Therefore, agreeing to Cao Kun as vice president is only a temporary measure. After Cao Kun served as an envoy to the four provinces of Sichuan, Guangdong, Hunan, and Jiangxi, he stayed in the garden of his private residence in Tianjin to drink and watch flowers. He had no intention of going south.Duan wanted to increase his military responsibilities to Sichuan and Guangdong provinces, but he took the time to avoid the important ones and ignore the minor ones.Beijing repeatedly urged him to go south, and he replied, asking him to pay the salary in arrears first, and to specify the authority of the economic and strategic envoy. The largest local official in the Republic of China, Cao Kun, the governor of the four provinces, quietly worked as an apartment in Tianjin, neither going south nor in Beijing. He asked Beijing to send someone to manage the three arsenals in Dezhou, Hanyang, and Shanghai.Beijing replied to him: "Arms will be fully supplied, and there is no need to manage arsenals."Zhang Huaizhi originally wanted to go south with him, but seeing that he had no intention of leaving, he was really anxious, so he patted him on the shoulder and said, "Brother, I'm going to Shandong. When will you go south? Make an appointment and let's go together." In late June, Duanzhai in Fuxue Hutong, Beijing, uncovered a murder case. People in Anhui Province thought Feng Guozhang was instigating it. Later, it was found out that it was the remnants of braided soldiers who wanted to avenge Zhang Xun. They organized a secret agency in Beijing. His name was Chen Yan. He bribed two Japanese to drop bombs in Duanzhai, but was discovered by the guarding police and arrested.And send the Japanese to the Japanese legation.