Shuntian Times is a Chinese newspaper opened by the Japanese in China. Although it has always pretended to use the Chinese tone to report the news, its position is Japanese-style newspaper. On the surface, it is run by Japanese businessmen and ronin. But in fact, its direct backstage is the Japanese government's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the political stance it reflects is actually the political stance of the Japanese government.

Because of this background, the newspapers of Shuntian Times maintain close contact with Japanese officials often get first-hand information and confidential news from Japanese diplomats in China at the first time. Because of this advantage, the circulation of Shuntian Times once reached more than 14,000 copies. Now it is well-deserved that the number one newspaper in Beijing and Tianjin has also made this newspaper a "well-informed" among its peers. Every day, there are always some reporters from other newspapers waiting in front of the newspaper. They use money to buy some of the small staff in the newspaper and buy some of the best news from them.

On April 1st, the group of reporters gathered in the teahouse diagonally opposite the newspaper office as usual, chatting while waiting for the staff from the Shuntian Times to enter the teahouse. As long as the two parties meet and shake hands in the teahouse, the transaction will be completed. Then, these newspapers without backgrounds can publish the news that cannot be obtained through official channels at the first time.

However, the reporters waiting in the teahouse soon discovered some different situations from usual. They waited until almost noon and did not see the staff of the Shuntian Times leaving the newspaper. The main entrance of the newspaper was also closed, which was a bit strange. However, the sound of the printing press could be heard behind the side door of the newspaper, which shows that the newspaper printing factory is still operating.

This phenomenon continued until almost two o'clock in the afternoon. Just as the reporters in the teahouse were inquiring each other, the side door of the Shuntian Times was suddenly pushed open from the inside, and a carriage drove to the door. The porter began to carry the bundled newspapers from the newspaper printing factory onto the carriage and prepare to transport them to various newspaper distribution points.

A group of reporters who had been waiting in the teahouse for a long time rushed out and surrounded the carriage. One of the reporters gave the porter a silver dollar. The porter quickly threw a bundle of newspapers over. The reporters snatched the newspaper and went back to the teahouse to take out a newspaper to look carefully. But the headline of the newspaper's front page was particularly eye-catching: "President Yuan Shikai of the Republic of China was attacked and died."

Everyone looked at each other in shock and took a closer look at the news. The news was obtained by a Japanese reporter from the Japanese Embassy in China. There seemed to be no doubt about the authenticity.

The reason why the staff of Shuntian Times dare not visit the teahouse today is probably because they received a warning from their boss.

Yuan Shikai was suddenly attacked and died. This is not just a big news, but it was a bolt from the blue, especially the president of the Republic of China was still bombarded and killed by bombing near the British embassy near Dongjiaomin Lane. According to the newspaper, President Yuan's car caused a shocking explosion. It was suspected that a large number of 'yellow**' was hidden under the car in advance. After the mortar was detonated, the explosion almost shattered President Yuan's car, and its power affected dozens of meters around. Not only did it cause dozens of guards who were traveling with him to die or be injured, but it even shattered a lot of glass in the British embassy.

This is a big news, enough to be taken over by the Shuntian Times, so the newspaper was so anxious to print a page, and he refused to even sell the news to Chinese journalists.

"Return the news quickly"

Someone shouted, and the reporters woke up and each grabbed a newspaper and then scattered. The guests in the teahouse curiously picked up the newspapers they threw down, and were stunned by the headlines on the newspaper.

Before dark, almost all newspaper boys in Beijing were selling different newspapers with the same news.

"The President of the Republic of China was attacked in Dongjiaomin Lane, and the murderer is unknown yet"

"At around 8 o'clock this morning, President Yuan took a car to Dongjiaomin Lane and arrived outside the British Embassy District when he was young. The car had not stopped yet and was suddenly shot by lightning, causing hidden under the detonation of the car, and the scene was covered in blood and blood."

"President Yuan was bombarded, and the murderer fled in the chaos. According to the British garrison, three lightning cannons were found left by the murderer, suspected of creating Dongjiaomin Lane for the Hanyang Arsenal, and the various countries were furious. British Minister Bart and Japanese Minister Hirai said that no matter who the black man is, they will continue to investigate."

"A April Fool's Day joke? President Yuan of the Republic of China was assassinated by villains"

"Prime Minister Sun Baoqi was appointed to the death and said that he would thoroughly investigate the assassination of the President and end the current domestic chaotic situation as soon as possible."

The president was assassinated, and the capital was clamoring all day. At night, most residents in the capital knew about Yuan Shikai's bombing in front of the British Embassy in Dongjiaominxiang. With the release and implementation of the curfew order, this news was basically confirmed that since the riots of the Third Division in Beijing two years ago, the capital has never had a curfew. Now it is suddenly announced. This can only prove that the news in the newspaper is true. Yuan Shikai has indeed encountered an accident and is so bombed that he cannot even find the body.

Yuan Shikai's death caused a significant shock among the world's powers. When Yuan Shikai, the leader of the Beiyang Group, was alive, with his qualifications, reputation and means, he could still control the entire Beiyang Group. After Yuan Shikai was bombed, the Beiyang Group had no leader. Although Duan Qirui immediately sent troops to announce the takeover of Beijing City, and at the same time issued an order to prohibit newspapers, newspapers and even telegrams. The news of the bombing of the president was only his actions were his death-struggling move. Beiyang was never a one-sided mind. Yuan Shikai was still alive and could still control the entire Beiyang Group. But after he left, Duan Qirui, the three heroes of Beiyang, and Feng Guozhang are now in the same power, and Duan Qirui controls the Army headquarters and remotely controls more than half of the forces in the First Army. Feng Guozhang is in Nanzhi.

Although Wang Shizhen did nothing, he also had a group of people under his command. In addition, he was an old minister who personally invited him out of the mountain by Yuan Shikai's eldest son Yuan Keding. Although Yuan Keding did not have great talents, he always regarded Beiyang as his own property and regarded himself as the next president after his father. Although he was shocked that his father was stabbed, he still sent the information to Baoding in the first time, hoping that Wang Shizhen would stand on his side and help him seize control of Beiyang. His Highness Duan Zhigui is not a fuel-efficient lamp, and he may not have any other ideas. Zhou Xuexi claimed to be a Beiyang wallet, and it is not impossible to change the camp at this time. He approached Xu Shichang, and Xu Shichang is now attracted by Sheng Xuanhuai. The three of them belong to the literary faction of the Beiyang lineage, so it is impossible to form a group.

The death of Yuan Shikai, the great loss among the great powers was naturally Britain, and Japan was probably not happy about this. It was difficult for the two countries to investigate thoroughly. After all, they failed to catch the murderer on the spot. No matter how he guessed, he could only guess it would be impossible.

In the south, Li Han immediately learned about the news that Yuan Shikai was killed. His intelligence chief personally went to Changsha to accuse him of crimes, and explained to him one by one the first to assassinate Yuan.

"Sir, please forgive me. I want the revolution to be completed. In order to steal the results of the revolution, Yuan Shikai first instructed the gun to attack the Kuomintang Song Jiaoren, causing him to die in Shanghai Station. Now he has a traitor. He wants to learn from Qin Huigan as a traitor and approach Japan to negotiate what traitor regulations. The Bureau of Investigation found out that Japan wanted to re-engage in Liaodong. At this time, I was unable to conquer Beijing and Tianjin within half a month. I came to the east to take bold moves to overcome them. Please punish me."

He handed Li Han the treaty that Lu Ji stole from Yuan Shikai's room to Yuan Shikai's hand to Li Han, but he did not dare to look at him

Li Han took the contract expressionlessly but did not look through it. It was reported that Yuan Shikai was killed in Wuchang. The first thing he thought of was that the Bureau of Investigation and Li Donglai. Because Yuan Shikai was well guarded, even though he had many means in Beijing, there were only a few means to get directly close to Yuan Shikai. Therefore, it was a kind of idea that he placed ** in Yuan Shikai's special carriage and used mortars to bypass his guards and shelled him. For this reason, last year, he used various means to transport several treated mortars north to Beijing and sent them to the Beijing branch of the Bureau of Investigation.

He was a little angry now. It was not because Li Donglai ordered the assassination of Yuan Shikai. In fact, he was also considering the possibility of assassination of Yuan Shikai. Recently, he was considering the possibility of assassination of Yuan Shikai. However, Li Donglai did not ask him for instructions and ordered the use of resources from Beijing. In particular, his heart was raised to his throat. Li Donglai was so bold and chose to attack Yuan Shikai in Dongjiaomin Lane. Thanks to the Bureau of Investigation that has been organizing and practicing the assassination of Yuan Shikai since last year. If it weren't for sufficient preparation, it would be a problem to escape from the large-scale foreign troops in Dongjiaomin Lane. Once the people of the Bureau of Investigation fell into the hands of foreigners or the Beijing government, people of this era had some means to let the iron man speak up. If he ordered the assassination of a country's highest head of state was exposed, then the matter would have completely changed.

Let's see the Song case last year. Li Han raised an army north to fight against Yuan, but he still had a "protective provisional law, protect the Republic of China" and ordered the assassination of the Supreme Head of State. Now he is seeking to move to the stage of supreme power, his reputation has suddenly become terrible. The conspirator and the Adolph have a better reputation in the hearts of the people.

Fame, after all, he is angry and has begun to make fame. In the past two years, Li Han has not made any progress in politics. In fact, on the contrary, he has made rapid progress and gradually understood what kind of mentality Yuan Shikai, who has always believed that he wanted to establish a chastity arch. I can't blame Yuan Shikai, but I can only blame the country for the education of thousands of years. For thousands of years, the people of the people have a kind of "reverence of the wise kings", which makes the rulers who want to do something unconsciously subconsciously guided by the voices of the people to go to the "reach of the wise kings" to the "reach of the wise kings". Qin Shihuang is like this, Emperor Yang of Sui, Emperor Chongzhen is like this, Emperor Guangxu is like this, and even Yuan Shikai is like this.

Many thoughts quickly turned around in his mind, and he finally suppressed his anger because he was not in control. He picked up the Japanese treaty that Lu Ji stolen by Li Donglai.

After looking around for a while, his face tensed, and it took a long time to ease a little, and he threw the thing on the table

"All participants have withdrawn from Beijing?"

Seeing that he finally spoke, Li Donglai secretly breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly said: "Sir, please rest assured. Donglai has arranged to withdraw all participants from Beiqi Luji's family. He sent them to Tianjin overnight and has entered the German Concession to protect."

Li Han nodded slowly, "You are too reckless this time. The president's position is too much attention. It is a big change at this time. If you are not careful, you will be besieged by many forces. However, although this time, I am dedicated to our military government, I will notify the finance side that you will deduct your annual salary for half a year to be punished. Especially the intelligence agency, the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei, the lesson of the East and West Factory. I don't want this to happen again in the future."

He paused slightly: "Japan's desire to destroy me is not dead. Forget it, Yuan Shikai was assassinated, but he was really worthy of death. I believe that if Song Jiaoren of the Kuomintang knew about it under the fountain, he would be relieved..."

The implication is that it will never admit that this matter was done by the Bureau of Investigation, Li Donglai will understand it

He got up and picked up the phone on the table, "Secret room, prepare cars and horses for me... Contact the Jiangfang Fleet to send gunboats to Yuezhou to wait for me, I want to rush back to Wuchang as soon as possible."

He put down the phone and sighed, "This time you did a little reckless, and the military government was not prepared. If there was another month... no, we defeated the main force of the First Army in Zhili in half a month. Although the losses were inevitable, the unification of force was completely different from now."

President Yuan left, and this country lost its supreme ruler. If there was another civil war at this time, it would be possible to split the country in the Republic of China, which was loosely under the nominal state. Although he would definitely be able to occupy the largest political and military territory in the future, he would eventually leave an opportunity for the great powers to take advantage of. If Japan and Russia take advantage of the situation, for example, Japan supports a group of support in the Northeast, Russia makes trouble in Mongolia, Britain is on the coast of Zhili, France is in the southwest, and the United States is taking advantage of the opportunity to support agents in the southeast. Even if he has military advantages, he cannot directly provoke the great powers one by one to defeat them one by one and unify them again and again. He has to spend a lot of more thoughts, and it has been useless to spend such a good opportunity.

It can only be said that Yuan Shikai can die, but he must not die at this time. From the beginning of the war, he thought that he would directly assassinate Yuan Shikai, the leader of the Beiyang clan, just to unify the whole country by force and maintain the nominal unification of the country. This wire thread was too difficult to walk away, and the force was a little heavier, and everything would be out of control.

"I can't say that I'll cooperate with Sheng Xuanhuai once this time."

He pondered for a moment in his heart, feeling that if the huge Beiyang system suddenly collapsed at this time, he would only get some benefits in the end, and would be occupied by outsiders. The best way is to change his previous plan to defeat the First Army, and change it to cooperate with the interest groups in the Beiyang Group, from force annexation of Beiyang to gradually annexation of cooperation. Now that the situation has become so corrupt, only by doing so can we maintain the unity of this country.

"It seems that it's time to accept mediation from foreigners."

With a sigh, he was angry and could only say that his intelligence officer was still a little less strategic. If Yuan Shikai died again when his army captured Zhili and the army was aiming directly at the capital, he could also take over the situation in Beijing and Tianjin as a victor... Now, in order to make a compromise before the great powers discovered the subtlety of the situation in the Republic of China and supported the agent, he would inevitably make a compromise and stand up to replace Yuan Shikai's position and maintain the nominal unity of the country.

If he takes this step, his heavy responsibility will only become heavier in the future.

The curfew in Beijing has lasted for two days. Late at night, the army department was lit up. Duan Qirui had just returned from the crying presidential palace, but the sorrow on his face had not yet dissipated.

His confidant and confidant Xu Shuzheng has been waiting for him in the Office of the Army Department for a long time

"General, the President..."

"Oh," Duan Qirui sighed and threw his hat on the table

"Don't mention it, the old man is so wise. I must have thought that he would have like this in his life. "The fifth lady can hold on to it, but the old man was so miserable this time. Not to mention the corpse, there was no amount of corpses. He could only hurriedly pick up some flesh and blood and clothes that were connected to the fragments of the carriage, and barely made a coffin."

Xu Shuzheng knew that Duan Qirui respected Yuan Shikai very much. Although he always looked down on Yuan Shikai with an old concept, he was not stupid enough to be at home. At this time, he sighed and agreed, "The President died so miserably, but I wonder what can Director Lu find out?"

Director Lu refers to Yuan Shikai's Law Enforcement Department Director Lu Jianzhang. Xu Shuzheng usually doesn't like him very much, but he knows that Lu Jianzhang has thousands of police officers of all sizes in Beijing. The influence of black and white is too great. He is a good player in inquiring about intelligence.

Duan Qirui sat down, and he cried for the afternoon, his eyes were also red and swollen, rubbing his eyes. He snorted slightly, "Check, how to check? You are not as naughty as a party member. Even if you want to assassinate the bomb, you will be stopped by the guards before you can throw it out."

After a pause, "The insider has found out. The mansion reported that the old coach's car was prepared by his confidential secretary Lu Ji. The grooms also said that Lu Ji had sent them away for a while, and when he saw him passing by, he was also a little bulging."

Xu Shuzheng was shocked, "Has he ever caught it?"

"How to catch it? It's not a party member. Lu Tubo can only catch the party members and buy a few insiders. Maybe now his subordinates have installed insiders for others, and he still doesn't know."

He repeatedly reminded that he was not a party member, and Xu Shuzheng came to his senses and whispered: "Is it really related to the one Wuchang?"

He knew that Duan Qirui and Wuchang had a bad relationship. Yuan Shikai had promised Wuchang to go north and gave him the Chief of the Army to him. The Chief of the Army was Duan Qirui. Although Yuan Shikai's blank check was just a trap, Duan was displeased. Although he did not dare to complain about Yuan Shikai in private, he hated Li Han.

Duan Qirui snorted, "Although the lightning cannon discovered by the British erased the nameplate of the appearance, it was roughly the same as the Western Army equipment we seized in Henan last year. It was obvious that it was made by the Hanyang Arsenal. Besides, Lu Ji went from Hubei two years ago, and Lu Ji went to the north of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to find Lu Ji's body completely broken. His family disappeared two days ago. With such a meticulous layout, who else can be done in China besides him... Foreigners can, but is it necessary?"

"But from the news from the front line, Li Han has ordered the protection of the ** to stop attacking us, and at the same time accepted the mediation of the former British Minister Zhu Erdian... This..."

Not only Xu Shuzheng was confused, but even Duan Qirui and other domestic forces were confused. They couldn't understand why. Li Han gave up such a good opportunity and captured Beijing and Tianjin while Beijing was in chaos. Is it true that President Yuan was assassinated and had nothing to do with him?

Duan Qirui couldn't figure it out, and was a little irritated and loosened the bow tie, saying, "Yang Xizi is responsible for the old coach's funeral. This matter has already reached our scope of ability. What we should think about now is how to solve the current adverse situation and strive for successful mediation."

"General Feng sent a telegram from Nanjing. Because he was worried that the guards would attack Jiangsu while he was dispatching troops north, he had ordered the 7th division that had walked to Xuzhou to stop. The navy also sent a telegram to Deputy Chief Tang, but the navy still docked in Jiangsu, neither going north nor south. It is said that Feng Shuzheng also sent someone to see Tang Xingming, as if he wanted to win over." Xu Shuzheng quickly sorted out the information he received this afternoon and reported it to Duan Qirui.

"Wang Shuai has agreed to send Zhang Zuolin's troops back to Beijing, but the defense in the Beijing-Tianjin area is still a little empty, so it's okay to have the 20th division on Shanhaiguan. I'm worried that Japan will take the opportunity to cause trouble in Liaodong again."

Duan Qirui frowned, "The old coach's body is not cold, and now everyone in Beiyang is starting to think about it."

He sighed again, "I gave Baoding the order that the 16th Division must board the bus before midnight tonight to reinforce the capital; I will send Nanjing to the Seventh Division to the north to reinforce the Seventh Division tomorrow. If he doesn't come, I will go and invite him in person..."

When Xu Shuzheng heard this, he could only smile helplessly and quickly wrote down all these orders.

"Xiao Xu, you also know the situation in Gyeonggi. If you don't pay attention to it, it will be the situation of collapse. I intend to establish Gyeonggi Defense Command. Come and be the commander-in-chief of this Gyeonggi Defense Force. Control the 14,000 troops of the 16th Division and the 7th Division near Gyeonggi, and after the 16th Division and the 7th Division heading north, you will be responsible for it. What do you think?"

Xu Shuzheng just stood a little stunned and nodded in response. He was very arrogant and thought he could take on that position, so he didn't go back and be polite to Duan Qirui.

Duan Qirui finally felt better and said, "The current situation in the capital is corrupt, and all the difficulties and difficulties have fallen on my shoulders. I know your ability. If you can help me, I will make it easier. If the patrol battalion is not enough, then transfer the guards of the two battalions to the side. Be sure to strengthen patrols to prevent spies from entering Beijing from tonight. Without the warrants issued by me and you, anyone can only go out and not enter and exit Beijing at will... You can ignore the city defense, and I will leave it to the Guards."

"Yes" Xu Shuzheng raised his legs together, saluted and received his order Duan Qirui struggled to stand up again, "I'm afraid I still have no rest today. Xiao Xu, please help me handle the documents on the table. I want to go to the State Council. I am a martial artist who is not easy to interfere in this peace talks. I also want Premier Sun to walk to Dongjiaomin Lane and exchange opinions with consulates from various countries."

After finishing his clothes, he waved his hand without waiting for Xu Shuzheng to speak, called a team of guards to escort him to the State Council.
Chapter completed!