Volume 2 King of the Northwest Chapter 45: Northern Expedition (X)
"Don't shoot, don't shoot!"
Although Li Yuanding was very angry about the Shaanxi Army's repeated attack on the militia-controlled area, considering that the current situation was very unfavorable to the Shaanxi Democratic Party, he finally crossed the front line as a mediating envoy.
"I am Li Yuanding, Li Ziyi, and I am an acquaintance of Brother Boying and Master Hu Liseng. Please send someone to inform them immediately."
As a sign of sincerity from the Shaanxi Army, Li Yuanding also brought a dozen previously captured militiamen northward. Looking at the militiamen soldiers who appeared on both sides of the road with alert faces, Li Yuanding shouted at them with a wry smile.
"Mr. Ziyi, why are you here?"
Soon, Li Yuanding met Hu Jingyi outside Suide City as he wished.
"Could it be that he is here to lobby for Dai Jiliang?"
"Monk Li, you really guessed it right."
Although Li Yuanding was wearing a thick robe, he was a weak scholar after all, and he was freezing along the way.
"First, have a cup of hot tea to warm yourself up, and then you can listen to me slowly."
Looking at Hu Jingyi with a bad expression, Li Yuanding repeated Dai Jiliang's explanation verbatim.
"Dai Jiliang fell ill two days ago. The attack on Suide was his chief of staff's own decision. When I came here just now, Dai Jiliang and I confirmed in the telegram that the conditions have not changed. As long as you agree, he can order an immediate halt to the attack."
"Recruitment!"
Hu Jingyi chuckled without commenting .
"By the way, Mr. Ziyi, is there any new situation in the south recently?"
Yulin was the only telegraph branch in northern Shaanxi, and Hu Jingyi had been busy reorganizing his troops and scheming with Zhang Xun these days, so he had no time to care about it. He only asked this question now that he remembered it.
"There is a popular revolution in Russia."
Li Yuanding sighed.
“The Bolsheviks have established a provisional government.”
As a member of the Kuomintang, Li Yuanding certainly hoped that the Allied Powers would fail, as that would prove that their anti-war rhetoric was correct. However, as a Chinese, he naturally hoped that the Allied Powers would win since the central government had already announced its entry into the war. His conflicting psychology made him just pass over the matter, and Hu Jingyi was even more confused. The two had no idea what impact a butterfly flapping its wings in Russia would have on China.
"Also, the fighting in the south is intense right now. The newspapers say that the Guangdong-Guangxi aid Hunan Army led by Tan Yuebo has already captured Xiangtan and Changsha, and the Sichuan National Salvation Army has also surrounded Chongqing and other places."
Dai Jiliang never imagined that the lobbyist he sent would actually become the other party's intelligence provider.
"The Fujian Provincial Allied Forces supporting Fujian and protecting the law fought a series of battles in Chaozhou with the Chaozhou Army led by Mo Qingyu, and both sides won and lost. The situation is still unclear."
"It seems that the situation in various places is still very favorable to our Yasukuni Shrine Army."
Hu Jingyi couldn't help but sigh when he thought about the situation in northern Shaanxi.
"We in Shaanxi are holding you back!"
"What the monk said is both right and wrong."
Li Yuanding shook his head.
“The reason why I say you are right is that we did lose, and we lost miserably, so much so that we cannot keep up with the pace of the national law protectors.
As for saying that you are wrong, it is because the current situation has changed. President Feng in Beijing still hopes to restore the Provisional Constitution and achieve peaceful reunification of the North and the South.
However, Duan Qirui's cabinet firmly disagreed and hoped to further march south to unify the country by force. As a result, a new dispute between the government and the parliament was brewing.
Now let's look back at the situation in Shaanxi. Dai Jiliang was originally Duan's man, so he had to launch an attack on northern Shaanxi to show his true intentions to Duan.
But he didn't want to destroy Shaanxi, so he asked me to negotiate peace.
Therefore, it can be said that it was the struggle of the Shaanxi National Salvation Army that forced Dai Jiliang to undergo a certain transformation.
Li Yuanding sighed as he looked at Hu Jingyi who was listening to him silently.
"I am not speaking for Dai Jiliang just because I am his director of education. He is very different from other warlords. We can all understand that he has many wives and concubines and his money-making methods are more covert. But there is one thing: he is sincerely committed to the development of Shaanxi, from attaching importance to education, water conservancy construction, industry, and Shaanxi's transportation development. We cannot speak against our conscience."
Seeing Hu Jingyi's frown getting deeper and deeper, Li Yuanding dropped another bombshell.
"There is another point I want to emphasize. Dai Jiliang never kills people randomly. Since he became the governor of Shaanxi, there has not been a single death penalty in Shaanxi. Even the few people arrested during the Lequn Academy were released one after another. You may say that he was paid, but it cannot be denied that he is a hundred times better than Lu Jianzhang."
"Even if they are a hundred times better, they are still Beiyang's dogs."
Deng Baoshan listened for a long time and couldn't help but retort.
"Mr. Ziyi, you also said that Dai Jiliang's means of making money are covert, but no matter how covert, it is all about taking money from the people of Shaanxi. You also said that Dai Jiliang doesn't kill people, but how did the thousands of brothers in northern Shaanxi die? Which one of them was not killed by Dai Jiliang himself?"
Deng Baoshan's words were obviously directed at the Kuomintang in the provincial capital.
Ever since Han Jun suffered a setback in northern Shaanxi, the contradictions between the two sides have become irreconcilable. Li Yuanding's words just now made Deng Baoshan feel uncomfortable. Does it mean that the Kuomintang in the provincial capital is a good man because Dai Jiliang did not die? Then was the blood of the good men in northern Shaanxi shed in vain?
"On the battlefield, swords and guns are blind."
Li Yuanding was very dissatisfied with Deng Baoshan's words.
What was his identity and what was Deng Baoshan's identity? Zhang Boying was still polite . A junior who didn't know his place dared to contradict him in person, so he became impolite in his words.
"You said he killed someone, and he also said you killed someone!"
After saying that, he glanced at Deng Baoshan coldly, then turned to Hu Jingyi and spoke again.
"Shi Zhai and I have analyzed the current situation. The Beiyang Army will definitely make a big move. I'm not saying this to discourage people. The Beiyang Army is still capable of fighting. Hundreds of thousands of troops are waiting and watching. If we push them too hard, the army might go south and everything will be out of control."
Of course, for the militia in northern Shaanxi, it was not a question of whether or not to deploy the hundreds of thousands of Beiyang troops, but how to survive under Dai Jiliang's aggressive attack.
"Can Dai Jiliang keep his word?"
Tian Yujie interrupted and asked.
"What if he doesn't keep his word?"
"Even if he doesn't keep his word, the worst that can happen to us is the same as the current situation, but we will at least have an extra half year."
These words were not said by Li Yuanding. Hu Jingyi's subordinate Jiang Shijie suddenly said this after listening for a long time, which made half of the people in the room nod their heads.
"Lang Ting, what are you talking about? We have an extra half year, and Dai Jiliang also has an extra half year, right?"
Deng Baoshan glared at Jiang Shijie, who remained silent and turned to look at Li Huchen beside him.
"Yunlong, you've been clamoring to compete with Dai Jiliang all day, why did you just back off?"
"Baoshan, we can't even get enough food right now, but we don't want our brothers to go to war on an empty stomach, right?"
Li Huchen showed an awkward smile on his face. It was true that he was born a swordsman, but he always knew which battles he could fight and which he could not fight.
"I also think that we must not be fooled by Dai Jiliang."
No one expected that Yang Hucheng, who was recruited by Hu Jingyi to be the battalion commander of the guard battalion, would interrupt at this time.
"We are in a difficult situation now, but we should never give up the banner of our army to protect the law and maintain the country just because of such a small difficulty. We are the power of the people of Shaanxi, and we cannot go along with Dai Jiliang just for the official title of a garrison commander or a brigade commander."
"Hucheng is right!"
Deng Baoshan immediately stood up to support, but there were subtle differences in the starting points of the two people.
"We can't give up the banner of the Yasukuni Shrine Army. Otherwise, how are we going to explain to Mr. Ranweng and Mr. He?"
"alright!"
Several people expressed their attitudes, and the rest also followed Hu Jingyi's lead. If they didn't express their opinions at this time, the team would be on the verge of breaking up, so Hu Jingyi made a prompt decision and shouted loudly, and everyone immediately fell silent.
"Who said this matter has to be decided now? We still need to listen to everyone's opinions!"
"Yes, yes! We need everyone's opinions. Gao Fengwu, Cao Junfu, Jing Songsheng and Brother Boying are all away, so why not ask them what they think!"
Li Yuanding tried to smooth things over with a smile.
"But I think Brother Boying will most likely agree."
Looking at the puzzled people, Li Yuanding explained.
"Zhang Puchu, the chief of staff of the Shaanxi Army, told me personally that a few days ago, Brother Boying sent someone to negotiate peace with him, but he refused because Dai Jiliang had already asked me to come forward.
Now that the Shaanxi Army is so sincere, I think Brother Boying will agree.
Oh, by the way, where are Brother Boying and the others? Where did they go?"
"Zhang Xun."
Hu Jingyi responded coldly. From his tone, Li Yuanding suddenly felt something was wrong. As expected, he heard what Hu Jingyi said.
"Our deputy commander-in-chief should probably go back to Henan to uphold the banner of the National Salvation Army."
"What!"
Zhang Xun looked at Lu Zhankui in surprise. He didn't expect that the person sent by Jing Xiuyue to greet him would have such a result.
"You want me to go back to Henan?"
He could hardly believe his ears, but the cold barrel of the gun reminded him that this was not a joke.
"Good, good, good! A three-year-old kid is falling for me, good, good, good!"
He said six good words in a row, but in fact they were not good at all.
"Deputy Commander-in-Chief Zhang, please stop wasting time. Do you think Kang Ziding and Feng Ziming can come to save you? Stop dreaming!"
Lu Zhankui looked at Zhang Xun coldly, completely shattering his last hope.
"Right now, the two of them are drinking in Gao Fengwu and Cao Junfu's headquarters. If I'm not mistaken, it won't be long before their two regiments come over together."
Zhang Xun's face turned pale. He understood that all this was premeditated.
"Where's Hu Jingyi? Where's Hu Liseng? Hu Liseng won't agree with you doing this."
This was one of his few remaining straws, but unfortunately it sank soon.
"If Brother Liseng hadn't nodded, do you think this would have gone so smoothly?"
Indeed, upon hearing the three words "don't care about your life", except for a few old soldiers brought by Zhang Xun from Henan who still resisted stubbornly and fired a few shots, the other soldiers from northern Shaanxi scattered in a hurry. This allowed Lu Zhankui to disarm the guards almost without bloodshed.
"Old man, I call you the deputy commander-in-chief, but you really think you are the commander of the Second Division of the Shaanxi Army. You are such a fool, stop dawdling and pack up your bags and go back to Henan to be the leader."
"You guys, does Mr. Sun know about this? Does Brother Youren know about this?"
Zhang Xun was so angry that he played all the cards he had left.
"I am the deputy commander-in-chief of the National Salvation Army appointed by Mr. Sun himself. You are committing rebellion!"
"Rebellion? That's right, this is rebellion! Come on, since Deputy Commander-in-Chief Zhang refuses to go, let's give him a hand."
Lu Zhankui waved his hand, and several militiamen rushed forward and tied Zhang Xun up like a dumpling.
"I'm sorry, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Zhang."
Lu Zhankui apologized hypocritically and then gave orders.
"Someone, escort Deputy Commander-in-Chief Zhang out of Shaanxi!"
