Back to the Republic of China as a commander

Just when the whole world thought that Shandong would become the fuse of a new round of the Civil War and even the Sino-Japanese War, the silent Shanxi became the final fuse. This was beyond everyone's expectations, except Wang Zhenyu .

After the secret meeting with Zhang Zongchang, Zhang Zuolin ordered the Fengjun Sun Liechen and Zhang Jinghui to gather in Shijiazhuang and Suiyuan.Although Zhang Zuolin began to emphasize secrecy under the reminder of the Japanese, but such an obvious military deployment and Fengjun's own secrecy literacy, before the mobilization of these troops is completed, ants in Beijing are running around telling each other: Zhang The old general is going to beat Yan Laoxi.

The Jin army under Yan Xishan's command is obviously a soft persimmon. It is almost an open secret that Wang Zhenyu's face was able to escape the crisis of being annexed by the Feng army two years ago, not the Jin army under his command.However, afterwards, Yan Xishan did not fulfill all the promises he had made when he invited Wang Zhenyu to intervene, that is, the reform of the Jin army by the youth army and Shanxi's entry into the national government.Wang Zhenyu was also very upset about this, and if he didn't honor it, he wouldn't honor it, so Yan Xishan successfully reneged on his debt.

However, there is a price to be paid for doing anything, and now troubles are coming, Zhang Zuolin once again suppressed the situation, Sun Liechen's eight divisions and Zhang Jinghui's five divisions are not fuel-efficient lamps from any point of view.This is a full 33 Fengjun. There are eight divisions under the name of the Jin Army, but they are all the kind of miscellaneous divisions with less than [-] people. Use such troops to fight the Fengjun who won the Zhifeng War Male and female, Yan Xishan really has no temper at all.

"Everyone tell me, what should we do in Shanxi this time?" When you have no ideas, it is obviously a good idea to hold a meeting to think about ideas, so Yan Xishan recruited all the officers above the Jin Army's system battalion to Taiyuan for the meeting .

As soon as Yan Xishan revealed the theme, he looked at these people under his command with full expectation, hoping that they could come up with a good solution for him.The officers of the Jin Army who attended the meeting, including Shang Zhen, Xu Yongchang, Li Fuying, Zhang Yinwu, Zhou Dai, Chu Xichun, Yang Chengyuan, Yang Aiyuan, Wang Jingguo, Fu Zuoyi, Sun Chu, Li Shengda, Chen Changjie, Guo Zongfen, etc., immediately fell into thinking. middle.

Yan Xishan has always treated his subordinates generously, which is not uncommon in the Republic of China, but when it comes to treating people with sincerity, Yan Xishan is probably the only one in the entire democratic party.So now that he is in trouble, the people below can only think desperately with their heads depressed.

However, it is not easy to think of a solution under such a crisis. The first person to speak was Fu Zuoyi, who had the most junior qualifications: "My lord, the humble officer is willing to defend the generals according to the danger and block the Feng army, but I am afraid that relying on our Jin army alone will be difficult." Not enough, you still have to find some foreign aid..."

Fu Zuoyi, who is known as the most capable fighter in the Jin army, said so, and other lower-level generals such as Shang Zhen and Xu Yongchang naturally followed suit, suggesting that the warlord ask the Nationalist government for help.

Yan Xishan was angry and funny, but in the end he could only be helpless, who made his gang of soldiers so bearable.Well, Yan Xishan must have forgotten a saying, a raging soldier, a raging nest.The key to the weak combat effectiveness of the Jin army in history is actually Yan Xishan himself. Otherwise, the Jin army is also a soft persimmon in his hands, but how could it become "seven and a half" in Fu Zuoyi's hands?

Yan Xishan nodded and agreed with this statement: "That's it, Brother Shang and Brother Xu, you each lead an army to the north and east of Jin to meet the enemy, remember one thing, as long as the Feng army doesn't do anything, you don't open fire, If you don’t want to beat us, you don’t want to beat us, and it’s our common people in Shanxi who suffer.”

Speaking of this, he looked at Fu Zuoyi again: "Brother Yisheng, you can just guard Taiyuan for me. After thinking about it, I'm afraid the final decisive battle will be fought in Taiyuan City..."

In fact, Yan Xishan and the senior generals of the Jin army thought the problem was a bit serious. Zhang Zuolin actually had no plan to start a fight, and he was also good at calculating.According to Zhang Zuolin's calculation, as long as he defeated Wang Zhenyu in the south with the help of the Japanese in Shandong, then the world would not belong to his old Zhang family, and he would naturally use the unification of the world to force Yan Xishan to surrender.Of course, it would be even better if Yan Xishan surrendered now, but Yan Xishan, who is usually weak, seemed to have taken too much medicine this time, and actually divided the eight divisions of the Jin Army under his command into three. Yongchang each commanded 2 divisions and Sun Liechen, Zhang Jinghui's troops entered a confrontation, while the other four divisions retreated into Taiyuan City.With a posture of fighting to the end and never giving in, it was Zhang Zuolin's turn to be uncertain.To fight or not to fight, that is the question?

For a while, Shandong and Shanxi became the fuse of the Chinese Civil War at the same time.All walks of life, especially intellectuals in Beijing and the South, have expressed concern about this and issued peaceful petitions, urging all forces to put the overall situation of the country and the interests of the nation first.The British Minister to China, Zhu Erdian, is the opposite example. This old British colonialist who is used to being the emperor in China and dictating the Chinese central government is very excited now.Since I wrongly judged the form to support Yuan Shikai's proclaiming the emperor and triggered the war to protect the country, the whole of China has fallen into an unstoppable state of rise.Although Whitehall did not blame Zhu Erdian, Zhu Erdian, who has always regarded himself as a first-class diplomatic talent, felt very guilty.Therefore, he was full of hostility towards the Southern Nationalist Government and Wang Zhenyu himself, which reached its peak after the squadron defeated the Germans.In Zhu Erdian’s annual report submitted to Whitehall on New Year’s Day in 1919, Zhu Erdian repeatedly emphasized to London that if he continued to sit back and watch China’s strength, then the empire’s interests in China would not only be damaged, but its interests in Southeast Asia would also be lost.Therefore, Zhu Erdian hopes that the imperial government will support Japan to increase its attack on China, and then use the quagmire of Russia to consume Japan's power.The abacus was very loud, but it was a pity that the London side did not reply with a single word, which made Zhu Erdian very frustrated and even dissatisfied. He said to other staff in the legation: "What those people in London are doing now is to bury the British Empire. things, and we are helpless.”

In fact, Zhu Erdian really wronged the decision makers of the British Empire. They not only saw Zhu Erdian's report, but also attached great importance to it. However, the British treasury is too weak.After the European War, the treasury, which once claimed to be the richest in the world, was empty enough to run away with rats, and any measures taken in the Far East would be beyond the financial support of the British Empire, and one carelessness would even lead to the collapse of the entire empire. . .Therefore, they can only choose to turn a blind eye to Zhu Erdian's report full of patriotism and responsibility. After World War I, the British Empire mostly had this mentality when faced with one after another. This also laid the groundwork for the subsequent appeasement policy. Foreshadowing.

Well now, the Chinese are finally going to fight a civil war, and according to news from Japan, their emperor's army, which is as poor as a beggar, is about to start gambling on the country's luck again.They will fight in Shandong and the Nationalist government in the south, and seek to provide support for the central government in Beijing to unify all of China.

In order to gain the support of the British, the Japanese also stated that they would never expand Japan's sphere of influence in China and respect the special rights and interests of Britain in southeast China.And this right is what Zhu Erdian dreamed of. In order to let China send troops in 1916, Britain not only gave up the tariffs of nine provinces, but also gave up many powers in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. These areas have entered high-speed construction after the ebb of the British and French powers. During this period, wealth came rolling in, making him, the minister to China, jealous.And now all of this is possible without the support of the imperial government. How can you make Zhu Erdian unhappy?

But little Japan is not a living Lei Feng. They do things for the benefit, and the condition is that the British Empire subscribes to the war bonds issued by the Japanese government. Wars cost money. . .

In fact, the world economy also showed a downturn in 1919. With the end of the European War, market demand changed dramatically.The demand for weapons and military raw materials fell to the lowest point almost overnight, and the living consumption of residents was clearly in short supply.At this time, the Japanese, whose industrial structure had an obviously high proportion of heavy industry, suffered a great loss. Many products were backlogged in warehouses, many orders were cancelled, and a large number of industrial workers lost their jobs. . .On the other side, South China controlled by the Nationalist government was not affected much.After the reduction of heavy industry orders, they stopped falling and rebounded after only a slight drop. The expansion of the youth army immediately digested their excess production capacity. Amazing changes have also taken place in the consumption and purchasing power of the market.More importantly, the national government put forward the second five-year development plan, Chengdu, Kunming, Guiyang, Changsha, Nanchang, Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Xi'an, Zhengzhou, Xuzhou and other 150 cities were included in the development plan of the national government .The national government plans to spend [-] billion Chinese yuan in five years to carry out large-scale railway and highway transportation and new urban construction centered on these fifteen cities.

What worries Japanese decision makers even more is that once South China achieves their second five-year plan, their national power will surpass Japan even without going to war.And this basically means that Japan will only become a maritime country, and once the Chinese build a sufficiently powerful navy, then Japan's fate will only perish.

"The rise and fall of the empire, this is the battle," Tanaka shouted hoarsely at the final mobilization meeting of the Ministry of War. . .