In the atmosphere of peaceful and democratic temporarily emerging on the land of China, time is passing by rapidly. The past March and April 2018, 2018, were probably the happiest and most hopeful days for those who were keen on using bottom-up "federal" democracy to resolve the separatist and civil war in China.

First of all, although the North-South peace talks held in Zhangyuan, Shanghai have not reached a final consensus on "unilateral autonomy and peaceful reunification", the differences between the two sides are significantly narrowing. After bypassing the problem of "negotiation with Russia", Chen Jiongming and Liang Qichao, the two chief negotiators representing the two governments of the North and South, are not so much in negotiations, but rather in exchanges and cooperation.

The two of them are probably experts and the most enthusiastic promoters of China's local autonomy. Their belly is filled with a bunch of methods about local autonomy. Now they are together, and they simply exchange their experiences and opinions on this aspect at the negotiating table. After nearly two months of exchange and discussion, the idea of ​​"unilateral autonomy and peaceful reunification" proposed by Sun Yat-sen has finally been turned into a specific method with "extreme practical value" by them!

According to this method, the Republic of China in the future will be a loose federation, with each province having its own constitution, parliament and army! Except for the lack of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Customs, the composition of each provincial government is exactly the same as that of the central government.

The future central government will be a central government with very limited power, and it has no right to appoint and remove the governors and governors of each province, nor has the right to interfere in the internal affairs of each province. The central government's power can only be reflected in maintaining national unity and diplomacy, while the central government's finances still come from tariffs and salt taxes, as well as taxes from the capital (referring to Beijing). In addition, the central government shall not borrow money privately without the consent of the federal provincial parliament, and the local government will no longer bear the responsibility for repayment of the central government's loans. As for the central army, the navy will of course still have to retain it, but the size depends on the central government's financial resources, and all officers and soldiers will adopt the recruitment system. The central army's stationing and passing locally must also obtain the consent of the provincial government...

Of course, Chen Jiongming and Liang Qichao, the two great sages, also considered the problem of the country's invasion of foreign enemies. When the country encounters foreign enemies, China must of course unite under a strong government and implement a wartime system. Therefore, they also formulated a method to deal with the "wartime state". It stipulated that in the wartime state, the central government has the right to mobilize local financial and military power, and also has the right to recruit troops from local governments, etc.

In short, this series of methods seems to be perfect for Chen Jiongming, Liang Qichao and others. Their methods are also praised in newspapers in Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai, and are considered to be a panacea to solve the Chinese problem. As for the diplomats of the great powers such as Britain, the United States, France and Japan in China, they have issued statements, expressing their most sincere support for this...

As for the governors and governors of various provinces in China, of course, the one on the left and the other on the right expressed their agreement in a statement. Speaking of which, they are the biggest beneficiaries of such a provincial autonomy method where provincial powers are almost equal to state powers!

Secondly, the local council elections held in Hunan, which are claimed to be "trial joint provincial autonomy", seem to be smooth sailing. The Kuomintang and Tan Yankai generally remained confident in their promises and did not participate in the election publicly. However, there are still many people from the Kuomintang and Tan Yankai who participated in the elections of Hunan local councils under the sign of GCD candidates.

However, what surprised the Beiyang government and Zhang Jingyao, who ruled Hunan, was that Zhongg's performance in this election was far from being strong! Perhaps it was influenced by the "Fujian Land Reform". The gentry in Hunan had doubts about candidates with the Zhongg sign. The Progressive Party of Beiyang promoted it in the newspaper, saying that once Zhongg won the Hunan election, it would use the "Fujian Land Reform" method to deal with the gentry and wealthy families in Hunan... Therefore, most of the landlords and wealthy businessmen in Hunan stood on the side of the Progressive Party in this election. These people accounted for 70% to 80% of the voters qualified to vote!

On May 1, when the results of the Hunan local council election were announced, among the 209 seats of the provincial Senate, the Hunan Branch of the China Progressive Party led by Xiong Xiling won 107 seats, which is already more than half! However, the China GCD Hunan Provincial Campaign Committee led by Mao ZD only won 51 seats, less than half of the opponent! The remaining 51 seats were won by several local party and ** candidates supported by Tan Yankai.

It seems that Zhang Jingyao from Beiyang can protect his Hunan Governor!

Of course, some people are happy and some are disappointed. However, the disappointed one is not the Kuomintang, the senior executives of GCD, but the Beiyang bosses who control the central government of Beijing...

Over the past few days, Duan Qirui, the real power figure of the Beijing government and the Chief of the Army, has completely focused on training the participating troops. Since the "Qinhuangdao Arms Raid Incident" did not happen, the speed of the participating troops was organized was much faster than in history.

It was May 1918, and the personnel and equipment of the three divisions and three mixed brigades had been fully arrived. The three divisions had two brigades and four regiments, plus one regiment of artillery, cavalry, and one battalion of each of the engineering, and one battalion of each of the supplies. The three mixed brigades were equipped with two infantry regiments to add artillery, cavalry, labour, and one battalion of each of the supplies. The total force of the entire participating army had as many as 52,000, and all Japanese instructors were hired for strict training!

The artillery configuration of this participating army adopts a large organization of 18 guns per battalion. The entire nine artillery battalions of the participating army are equipped with a total of 162 Japanese mountain field artillery! Compared with the 6 12 gun artillery battalions owned by the Fujian Army of our Changda Revolutionary Revolutionary, it is more than twice as powerful!

By the way, the Zhao Zhen's troops sent to Outer Mongolia have now been adapted into the First Brigade of the Mongolian Border Defense Army (but only a first regiment of soldiers). They are no longer a member of the war army, nor are they part of the Central Army... According to the "Encourageous Autonomy Measures" proposed by Chen Jiongming and Liang Qichao and others, they can only raise their own military funds in Outer Mongolia to solve their livelihoods.

However, Duan Qirui, the chief of the army, has no extra energy to care about Mongolia now... Let Zhao Zhen's regiment let him fend for himself.

Seeing the powerful army gradually forming an army, Duan Qirui finally felt that his back could be harder! This army was referring to the "Fujian Army Charter", and it was completely controlled by the Army Department and the General Staff Department!

With the direct army of more than 50,000 people as the core, and the Beiyang Army of more than 100,000 or 200,000, it should be possible to reunify China before Sun Yat-sen, Chang Ruiqing and others in Fujian and Guangdong became bigger? Although during this period, he took laissez-faire measures to call for "unilateral autonomy and peaceful reunification". However, in the minds of traditional Chinese warlords and politicians, unification will always be the only option!

After learning about the results of the Hunan election, Duan Qirui stood in a conference room of the Army Department with several staff members in a well-equipped military uniform, and frowned at the map of China that was hanging widely.

After thinking for a moment, he used a red pencil to outline a huge arrow extending south from Beijing along the Beijing-Hanzhou Railway. The end of the arrow was Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province. Then Duan Qirui picked up his arms and started to ponder.

No one in the room spoke. After a while, he was quiet before he saw Duan Qirui suddenly turned his head: "Have Sun Yat-sen also started to suppress local gentry?"

Just when the whole country was immersed in a harmonious atmosphere of peaceful reunification, Sun Yat-sen, who proposed the idea of ​​a joint provincial autonomy, provoked a civil war with the Gui army in Guangdong! Although the central government issued several ceasefire orders in succession, the public opinion in Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai were also full of condemnation. However, this revolutionary pioneer ignored it. After more than two months of civil war, Guangdong was finally completely unified in April.

Xu Shuzheng, the deputy commander of the Army, seemed to be a chief executive, and the information obtained by the Beiyang system was also summarized to him. He heard Duan Qirui's question, and he sneered: "Old Zhi, it has already started! As early as January, before Sun Yat-sen proposed "Union of Provincial Autonomy and Peaceful Reunification", he had already begun to rectify the civilian army in eastern Guangdong, rectify local governments, and build the so-called Zhongshan primary schools and township governments with great fanfare. All policies are similar to Fujian. The most hateful thing is that Sun Yat-sen also used the excuse of expelling Gui in February to implement military and political affairs in Guangdong. Now the Gui army has been expelled, but there are no signs of cancellation of his military and political affairs!"

He looked at Duan Qirui again, seeing that he had no expression. He continued: "Recently, news came from Guangdong. Sun Yat-sen is also preparing to follow Fujian to carry out land reforms under the perpetual divination law! He also established the Guangdong Fishermen Association and established the so-called national mobilization system. It is estimated that when all these measures are completed, it is time to tear off the disguise and fight with us!"

Duan Qirui felt annoyed when he heard this and said coldly: "To others, he talks about local autonomy, but he engages in military and political dictatorship on his own territory! This Sun Yat-sen is a huge national bandit. It must be eradicated as soon as possible, and we cannot let it grow bigger!"

He asked again before returning to Beijing from Mongolia: "Is there any echo in Yunnan? Is a tour of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan that Tang Jiyao was not satisfied?"

Qu Tongfeng smiled and said, "Tang Jiyao has replied to his subordinates. He expressed his willingness to accept the appointment of the Central Committee to protect the safety of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces. However, he refused the matter of asking him to send troops to aid Guizhou. It seems that he was meditating on the mountain to watch the tiger fight."

Duan Qirui snorted: "Tang Jiyao is just a talented person... As long as he doesn't make things difficult for the time being, he might as well leave it aside first. Weiqing (Qu Tongfeng), Qingjie (Fu Liangzuo), when the first training session of the participating army is over, you will command the main forces of the three divisions to enter Hunan! Then it's time for us to play cards and force Sun Yat-sen to hold local council elections in Guangdong!"

He slapped the location of Guangdong on the map: "We already have the Third Division, the Seventh Division and the Eighth Division in Hunan, as well as the Anwu Army with twenty battalions, plus the three divisions of the war, but there are more than 100,000 troops! As long as Sun Yat-sen dares to refuse to hold local council elections, our army will be pushed over... First pacify Guangdong and then take Fujian. This time, we must use force to unify China!"

Fu Liangzuo hesitated for a moment and reminded: "The things in Hunan are probably not so easy to settle? Tan Zu'an, Cheng Songyun's Hunan Army, and Yang Ximin's Yunnan Army are still entrenched in southern Hunan Province, and they also have tens of thousands of people..."

Before he finished speaking, Xu Shuzheng smiled and said, "It's only tens of thousands of people, just destroy them!"

Fu Liangzuo glanced at Xu Shuzheng and thought to himself: "This little fan (Xu Shuzheng nickname) has been low-key for a few days and has started to sing its teeth again!" But he had no emotion on his face. He just smiled and shook his head and said: "Youzheng, you don't know that those Yunnan troops and Hunan troops are not weak! Although our participating troops are not bad, they are all new soldiers after all, and they cannot compare to their veterans who have been practicing on the battlefield for a long time."

Xu Shuzheng smiled and glanced at Fu Liangzuo with his eyes squinted: "We also have veterans... Zhang Xunchen's Seventh Division, Wu Ziyu's Third Division, Wang Ruxian's Eighth Division, and Feng Huanzhang's 16th Mixed Brigade who had just returned from Mongolia are all veterans?"

He took a photo of Hunan: "When our third division joins the war army arrives in Hunan, we will push these troops forward and let them fight against the people from Sun Yat-sen! At the same time, we will contact the Gui army to attack Sun Yat-sen's flanks to restrain the main force of the guardian army. As long as the Yunnan and Hunan Second Army are finished, Sun Yat-sen's Guangdong will be ours!"

He was talking there with great spirits. However, Fu Liangzuo, Qu Tongfeng and others knew that this time was probably the last attempt in Beiyang!

Don’t think that if the Progressive Party wins the local election in Hunan, it is the victory of Beiyang. On the contrary, this local election in Hunan has allowed the Beiyang warlords who are separatist in the region to see the benefits of the Union Autonomy, and the degree of division in Beiyang has been further deepened.

It was in this case that Xu Shuzheng offered advice to Duan Qirui and took advantage of the "favorable situation" after the election of the Hunan local council. He used the three divisions of the war army to enter Hunan and worked with the main force of the Beiyang Army who was already in Hunan to force Sun Yat-sen in Guangdong to carry out local council elections.

According to Xu Shuzheng's analysis, the military and political practices implemented by Sun Yat-sen in Guangdong will inevitably harm the interests of local gentry, which gives the Beiyang government the opportunity to win over local forces in Guangdong. Therefore, forcing Sun Yat-sen to hold local council elections in Guangdong will inevitably be supported by Guangdong gentry. Sun Yat-sen, who offended the gentry, must not be sure to win the election.

However, if Sun Yat-sen refuses elections and insists on implementing military and political affairs, not only will the Guangdong people see clearly his true face of "fake democracy and real dictatorship", but even the people of the whole country will no longer regard him as a revolutionary leader who saves the country and the people. Once he loses the halo of "revolutionary leader", Beiyang will send troops to attack in the name of protecting Guangdong's local autonomy, and it will definitely completely eradicate the power of Sun Yat-sen's law-protecting military government!

Such a calculation is indeed very satisfactory. But the question is, does Beiyang still have the power to implement Xu Shuzheng's plan now?

Beiyang is not short of troops now. They have 15 divisions on their books (excluding Li Tiancai's 9th Division). Plus 17 mixed brigades of the CSKA. There are 3 divisions and 3 mixed brigades of the war, with a total force of more than 300,000! And this number does not include the local troops on the territory ruled by the Beiyang warlords.

However, Beiyang's current finances are extremely difficult, with a deficit of more than a few million yuan every month! When paying wages everywhere, the officials of the Ministry of Finance have to hide from the east and dare not show up, for fear of meeting those Beiyang officers urging wages. If they still have to fight, the only way is to apply for a large loan! But if you want to borrow money, you must have a mortgage. Now the tariffs and salt tax have been detained. The Beiyang government seems to have no mortgage in its hands, but the newly-entered Chief Finance Minister Liang Shiyi really has a solution. He actually found something that can be used for mortgage - the Middle East Railway!

"Sakanishi, it's your turn to make a move." Japanese Minister to China Lin Quan was stationed in a room in the Japanese Embassy. He calmly held a white piece and waited for Sakanishi Rihachiro to play chess opposite him. During this period, the eyes of the diplomats of the great powers in China were also attracted by the "North-South Peace Talks" held in Shanghai. The great powers generally had a welcome attitude towards the "United Provincial Autonomy and Peaceful Reunification" proposed by Sun Yat-sen and Chen Jiongming.

Especially the diplomats of Western countries such as Britain, the United States and France do not understand the deceits of the Eastern style after all, and are already planning how to use future elections in various provinces and localities to help the people they like to go to power. Instead, the Japanese diplomats who have always been keen on splitting China are a little indifferent to this, and only verbally praise and support.

Sakasi Rihachiro is now the chief military adviser of the Beiyang government. He helped him arrange the Japanese military advisers in Duan Qirui's war army. The role he plays is an old friend of the Beiyang government. The purpose of coming to the embassy today is to find out the story from Lin Quanzhu and see if it is possible to use the Middle East Railway to mortgage a sum of money?

He looked at the chessboard, sighed and threw himself into the trap.

"Lin Jun is indeed a national player. The lower official has lost consecutive battles. Why don't you be here today?"

Lin Quansuke smiled and messed up the chess piece casually: "Sakanishi's mind is probably no longer on this small chess board, right? Big Chinese is your real chess game! Am I talking about it?"

Sakanihachiro shook his head lightly: "What a pity, what a pity..."

Lin Quansuke looked at him: "What a pity? Did Sakanishi-kun encounter any problems on the big chessboard in China?"

Sakanichi smiled bitterly: "It's a pity that the chess player is not a chess player, but a chess piece! I can only watch the great opportunity missed like this... The eyes of Tokyo are now attracted by Russia! It is impossible to make any big moves in China, it's just a little fight!"

"A little fight?" Lin Quanzhu frowned and asked, "Where is there a place to make a small fight now?"

Sakagi nodded solemnly and spit out three words: "Zhongdong Road!" (To be continued...)

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