Volume 2: Famous all over the world Chapter 23 Yang Shiqi's Idea
That night.
The rumbling of artillery outside Weidian Town and the news of Yang Qiu's meeting with Liu Chengen soon reached Wuchang. Huang Keqiang and Li Yuanhong had just seen off Wang Hongsheng who came from the north. When they heard that Yang Qiu had rejected Yuan Shikai's appointment as president, they stamped their feet fiercely and said, "Nonsense! This is too nonsense! Yuan Shikai has a large army under his command, and this time he has received funding from foreigners, and he has been granted the power to control the army of the whole country! We just asked him to emulate Napoleon and Washington and win him over to end the war as soon as possible, but he refused in person! What is his intention?!"
Song Jiaoren also sighed. No wonder Huang Keqiang was dissatisfied. They had just hinted that as long as Yuan Shikai turned against the Qing Dynasty, they would consider letting him be the president. Unexpectedly, Yang Qiu refuted it outright. Wouldn't this give Yuan Shikai a misunderstanding and force him to lean towards the Qing Dynasty?
Li Yuanhong wanted to use the two, but the incident with Sun Wu told him that he must not underestimate Yang Qiu. It would be bad to add insult to injury at this moment. After pretending to consider it, he said, "Didn't Chen Hua say that this was his personal idea at the end? I think there is still room for maneuver at this time..."
"We can't let him do whatever he wants. If he messes up the overall situation, it will ruin the great cause of the revolution!" Huang Keqiang had no selfish motives. It was just that the split of the Xingzhonghui that year, which led to the great weakening of the revolutionary forces, was heartbreaking. In fact, the Battle of Huanghuagang was also due to the lack of strength after the split. Now, after the Wuchang Uprising, the constitutionalists such as Li Yuanhong and Tang Hualong were brought up, which was a big blow to him. He didn't expect that a non-partisan Yang Qiu would rise to take charge of the most important military power. Moreover, from the Liu brothers' incident, it can be seen that he did not consider anything else for the sake of victory. Therefore, he was afraid that the country would fall into a continuous division after the revolution. He immediately pulled up Song Jiaoren and said, "No, we must go to the front line to see." After that, the two said goodbye to Li Yuanhong and took the Miao brothers and sisters who had just returned to take the train to Xiaogan overnight, but when they arrived at Dazhimen, they were told that the train would not arrive until tomorrow morning.
While the two men were anxiously waiting for dawn, they did not know that Yuan Shikai's special train had quietly arrived in Xinyang Prefecture.
The weather was getting colder and colder, and Yuan Shikai, who was only 60 years old, could no longer stand the cold, so he had to put his headquarters on the train. The accompanying radio telegraph machine kept beeping, and more than a hundred guards, carrying Charlemagne rifles and German-made Automobili, surrounded the entire train. When the officials and gentry from all over Xinyang heard the news early, they didn't even have the courage to approach the train and could only wrap themselves tightly and wait for the summons.
A red stove was lit in the carriage. Feng Guozhang, who had just arrived from Wusheng Pass, stood by and kept asking Yang Shiqi with his eyes. The two had a good relationship. The latter quietly raised his eyebrows, reminding him to be careful.
"Yang Qiu, Yang Qiu!"
Yuan Shikai, who was sitting on a leather chair, did not see the two people winking at each other. He was holding two completely different telegrams and muttering to himself, hesitating. One was sent by Wang Hongsheng from the Hankou Concession. The telegram said that he had found out the cards of Li Yuanhong and Huang Keqiang. Both of them said that as long as he persuaded the Qing Dynasty to abdicate, they would be willing to nominate him as the president. He was secretly happy about this news. But the other telegram sent by Liu Chengen overnight poured cold water on him. First, Chenjiaao was attacked at night and lost more than 500 people, and even an artillery company was seized by the militia. Then, after the meeting, Yang Qiu publicly stated that the presidency could only be left to Sun Yat-sen, which made him feel that there would be twists and turns in this matter.
In the past, he would not care about a junior like Yang Qiu, but ever since the newspapers repeatedly publicized the battle report of Wusheng Pass, and Li Songqing somehow made him the commander-in-chief, things suddenly became wrong, and it seemed that he could not avoid this young man in anything. At this moment, he held the military power, and most of the generals in the army were bewitched by him, and the soldiers were in high spirits, which was really a headache.
"Hua Fu." Yuan Shikai put the two telegrams on the table, stretched out his hands to warm himself by the fire and asked, "You are also an old man who has stood with me since I was a child. Tell me the bottom line. How confident are you this time?"
It was the first time that Yang Shiqi heard this tone, and his heart twisted. With his understanding of Yuan Shikai, he knew that he was really angry this time! This was not his fault. The result of more than 4,000 casualties at Wusheng Pass was a pain for the Beiyang behemoth. You have to know that the six towns, except for the first town which was the Banner Guard, had a total of only 70,000 to 80,000 people. They lost 4,000 at Wusheng Pass alone. If they really pushed forward to Hankou, they didn't know how many would die.
Moreover, unlike Yang Qiu who only needed to defend, he had to consider not only the Beijing-Hankou line, but also the Jinpu line in the south. The independence tide had already risen in the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai areas, especially Nanjing, which was a hundred times more important than Wuchang! Even if the imperial guards were counted as the six towns, not only did they have to take care of two lines, but also Wu Luzhen and Lan Tianwei in the north, and the troops were already stretched to the limit. If countless casualties were caused in order to capture Hankou, it would be very bad!
This question also made Feng Guozhang frown secretly. If it was the old eight towns, he would have been confident that he could flatten the three towns, but Yang Qiu's sudden appearance brought hidden dangers, especially since he got so many machine guns and cannons from nowhere, which made up for the disadvantages of the Southern Army . The battle of Wushengguan showed the effect of these new equipment. However, he did not have as many concerns as Yuan Shikai, and immediately said: "Li Chun has led the 11th regiment to Weidian and is attacking there overnight. Si Cheng (Wang Yujiazi) has also passed Wangjiadian and will be able to reach Weidian tomorrow morning. The two regiments should be able to take Weidian. As long as this place is broken, Xiaogan will no longer have any danger to defend... Within ten days, Guozhang will be able to advance to Hankou!"
Feng Guozhang spoke proudly, but Yuan Shikai also heard the hidden meaning. The severance of the Beijing-Hankou Line did cause great trouble for the transportation of troops. Otherwise, how could only two regiments arrive at Weidian now? But he had no choice but to say, "In this case... Huafu, you go. The other three regiments must also arrive at Weidian within two days. Don't make any mistakes this time."
After Yuan Shikai finished speaking, he seemed to feel something was wrong. Fearing that he had forgotten his previous instructions, he held him back for a moment and then said, "Huafu, you must remember that only with Wuchang can we show our importance, so you must be moderate in this matter, and never think of killing everyone! Now the Jinpu Line is not peaceful. Even if we take the three towns, it will be a false alarm if we lose Nanjing in the end. If we get stuck here too deeply, the party members will definitely go north from the Jinpu Line. Once there is chaos in Lianghuai, Shandong will not be spared! Now our soldiers are being dragged to the north, so you must be careful in everything, remember the way of being a commander, and have a good understanding of the overall situation. Only when you can fight and make peace can you be a great general."
Feng Guozhang looked at Yuan Shikai with some embarrassment. He knew what Yuan Shikai was thinking, but now it was a war! How could war be controlled? Besides, the battle of Wusheng Pass had already made the soldiers angry. Forcibly suppressing it would only damage morale. He couldn't help but sigh in his heart. Beiyang was no longer the Beiyang of the past. Is an army mixed with too many thoughts still an army?
Yuan Shikai didn't know what Feng Guozhang was thinking. When he saw Feng Guozhang nod and leave, he thought he had listened to him, so he picked up the telegram again and asked, "Xingcheng, what do you think we should do now?"
After Yang Du went to Beijing to fight as a vanguard, Yang Shiqi regained his position as chief of staff. Seeing Yang Du worrying about the two telegrams, he smiled and said, "If Gong Bao is not afraid of causing trouble, why not send both telegrams to the British newspapers?"
Yuan Shikai was stunned for a moment, then his eyes lit up and he laughed, "Xingcheng, Xingcheng! You are my Zifang! Even your backyard is the same as mine."
Yang Shiqi smiled awkwardly. Everyone knew that he was afraid of his wife, but he didn't expect Yuan Shikai to make fun of this. He didn't dare to continue, "Yang Qiu was unwilling to raise Gong Bao, probably because of the situation. He is now in charge of tens of thousands of troops, but there are Li Songqing behind him, and now Huang Keqiang and Song Jiaoren are here, so the position of commander-in-chief may not be stable. He looked at people's hearts too simply, thinking that he would have a place in the world after becoming famous in one battle, but he forgot that a big tree attracts the wind! The party members planned for so many years and finally got Wuchang, how could they allow him to... He picked the peach and took advantage of the situation! Now the newspapers in Shanghai are still bragging about him every day, and they have already made him the number one in the Southern Army. As the saying goes, a tall tree attracts the wind. The more he is like this, the more uneasy the party members are about him. As long as we spread the news about Huang Keqiang and his words , there will be a fight between the two factions. A few days ago, we learned that Hunan was going to send troops to aid Hubei. It was obvious that they were here to support Huang Keqiang. Now that Yang Qiu is so powerful, Huang Keqiang may not dare to give him the Hunan Army no matter how powerful he is. There will definitely be a conflict! Let's see how he resolves it then."
Yuan Shikai nodded repeatedly and said with a smile: "Since they use newspapers, we might as well use them too. Send a telegram to Keding later and tell him to stir up the storm after the news comes out in the newspapers. Let's see what that old guy Shanqi can do to me!"
Yang Shiqi saw him gritting his teeth when he mentioned Shanqi, and knew that he had not yet let go of the old grudge in his heart, so he smiled and said, "Gong Bao can rest assured. Hua Fu is really angry this time, and he will definitely launch a fierce attack after returning. As long as Xiaogan is captured, Gong Bao can return to Beijing... and be your prime minister. As for the party members... they are scattered and can't make a difference. But without them in the world, how can Gong Bao be important?"
Yuan Shikai smiled slightly and was about to say something awkward when a hurried sound of running came from the aisle of the carriage. Yang Shiqi stopped the person and took the telegram. After taking a look at it, he quickly turned his head and said, "Gong Bao, Kunming..."
“But Cai Songpo?!”
Yuan Shikai stood up suddenly, and when he saw him nod, he slowly sat down again, tapping his fingers back and forth on the table. He knew Cai E's reputation. Although Kunming is located in a remote area and cannot threaten him for the time being, once Yunnan and Guizhou become independent, Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian will be sandwiched between Jiangxi and Yunnan, and the party members will certainly take advantage of the situation. The south of the Yangtze River will definitely not be preserved! After the south is no longer a problem, the party members will definitely take action in Shanghai and Lianghuai to seize the Jinpu Line, so it is crucial to stabilize the north immediately! Thinking of this, he immediately stood up and said, "Go find Zhou Fulin, spend some money, and allow him to be in charge... Let him do it as soon as possible, don't wait until the north and the south are connected. It will be too late."
