Master Yuan, start!

Under the influence of political instructors day and night, even though most ordinary soldiers had never been to school, some simple nationalist ideas were instilled into their minds.

They all knew that this war was fought for the country and the nation, and they all had the belief of achieving the unification of the country.

These beliefs are more precious than gold and silver.

"Hello! President!"

A loud and powerful response even drowned out the rumbling of artillery fire.

"Comrades, today is the Little New Year, and you should be reuniting with your families, enjoying the joy of family life. However, you are now on the front lines, suffering from the bitter cold.

That’s why I’ve come here today to celebrate this festival with you all!”

...

Ming Ye watched quietly from the side until Yuan Shikai finished his condolences and walked out of the fortifications with Xu Shichang, Yan Fu and others, then he quickly stepped forward.

"Chief Instructor, fellow Central Executive Committee members, there's an urgent situation in Guangzhou!"

Yuan Xiangcheng had originally walked out with a smile, but upon seeing Ming Ye's serious expression, he exchanged glances with Xu and Yan beside him and asked:

"Guangzhou, was the infiltration plan successful?"

"It succeeded. Not only did it succeed, but it was an unexpected success. However, some unexpected circumstances occurred." Ming Ye didn't wait for Yuan Xiangcheng to continue asking questions and directly told everything:

"Yang Quyun sent a telegram from Guangzhou, claiming that Li Hongzhang was killed in a random bombardment inside the Governor's Mansion, and that his son Li Jingshu also died!

In addition, Navy Ambassador Ding Ruchang led the remnants to retreat to Huangpu, and led all the teachers and students of the Huangpu Naval Academy to board the South China Sea Fleet, lingering near Guangzhou Bay.

Yang Quyun said he has sent someone to contact him, but he does not know what Ding Ruchang's attitude is yet.

Before he could finish listening, Yuan Xiangcheng excitedly grabbed Ming Ye's hands and clenched his fists tightly:

"With Li Hongzhang dead, the Ganzhou defenders can no longer hold on to the isolated city. Perhaps our wish to have our horses drink water from the Lingdingyang will finally come true before the New Year!"

Ming Ye did not stop, he paused and continued:

"After the Huai Army's top brass left Guangzhou, the city fell into chaos and chaos, with Cantonese and Anhui soldiers killing each other.

Although most of the special forces that followed Yang Quyun into the city successfully entered the city, due to their unfamiliarity with the situation and the desire to stop the chaos, they engaged in a fierce battle with the forces in the city, resulting in hundreds of casualties.

Yang Quyun and Liao Zhongkai, who came forward to persuade them, were both shot and seriously injured. They are currently receiving treatment.

Yuan Qi, who had originally been beaming with joy, was somewhat stunned after hearing these pieces of bad news:

"A vendetta has actually occurred in Guangzhou. Could it be that the regional conflicts under the Huai Army's rule are so serious?"

He never expected that the ethnic hatred that should have occurred at the time of the transition between Manchus and Han peoples would actually appear in the city of Guangzhou after the Manchus had been driven out.

Ming Ye took a breath and explained, "Originally, it shouldn't have been so sharp, but after Li Hongzhang's death, Zhang Peilun, the former governor of Guangdong, led his troops to hide in the French consulate.

With the support of the French, he led a group of Anhui subordinates to break into the Governor's Office treasury, killing anyone he saw along the way without mercy.

After plundering the Huai Army's silver that had been stored in the provincial treasury for years, he ordered his men to shoot their way out of Guangzhou City.

As a result, the remaining Anhui residents in Guangzhou who hadn't had time to flee became the target of the anger of the Cantonese people."

After Li Hongzhang occupied Lingnan, he spared no effort to introduce fellow villagers from his hometown in Anhui. At that time, Yuan Shikai's relationship with this place had not deteriorated, so he did not stop him.

According to rough estimates, in the past 10 years, at least 20 people from Anhui were settled in Guangzhou Prefecture by Li Hongzhang, and there were no less than 10 people in Guangzhou city.

Even in the original Manchu city of Guangzhou, most of the houses were allocated to Anhui people by Li Hongzhang, and Guangzhou city almost became the Huijing of Lingnan.

However, 10 Anhui people may seem like a lot, but if they face the millions of angry Cantonese people, they will become lambs to be slaughtered!

Regional feuds must never happen again on the land of the Republic!

Thinking of this, Yuan Xiangcheng's mind sank, and he said decisively: "Give orders to Sheng Fei in Hunan, order him to bypass Hengzhou City, don't worry about the retreat, and go directly to Shaoguan.

In addition, tell Feng Guozhang that today's artillery drill in front of Ganzhou City will immediately be transformed into a formal artillery siege.

Except for the necessary artillery and second-line troops, the National Revolutionary Army in front of Ganzhou City immediately set out, bypassing Ganzhou City and advancing into Guangdong!

"We can bypass the Huai Army defending the city and advance into Guangdong from the east and west routes?" Xu Shichang asked, looking at the hazy Ganzhou City in the distance.

"The Huai Army in the city still has the strength to fight. What if they leave the city and cut off their retreat?"

"Go out of the city to intercept?" Yuan Xiangcheng looked at the tortoise-shell-like Ganzhou City and said disdainfully: "Before Li Hongzhang died, they might have thought of going out of the city to fight in the open.

But now that Li Hongzhang is dead, how can they have the courage to face the National Revolutionary Army?!"

Chapter 417 Blood Pearl River

On the second day after the Guangzhou vendetta, the National Revolutionary Armies in the east and west were still rushing southward without stopping.

With the strenuous efforts of the city's social elites and the rebel army that entered the city, the riots in Guangzhou seemed to be calming down.

However, the chaos can be quelled, but the innocent people who have died cannot be resurrected.

The miserable corpses that floated down the moat into the Pearl River silently told the horrific and bloody massacre that took place yesterday.

The Pearl River, known as the Pearl River in English, finally lived up to its name today.

With the "blood-red pearls" dotted on the river surface, the Pearl River flowing through the south of Guangzhou looks particularly eerie and terrifying.

...

Inside the French consulate in the city, French Consul Fang Suya had just telegraphed to Saigon and Paris about the riots in Guangzhou.

Until now, he still couldn't believe that Li Hongzhang was dead.

If it weren't for the former Guangdong Governor Zhang Peilun who came to inform her late at night, Fang Suya would still be kept in the dark.

He was even thinking about how to persuade Li Hongzhang to cede more interests.

"That's good. Although Li Hongzhang is dead, his successor, Zhang Peilun, has completely sided with France. This isn't such a bad thing."

Fang Suya didn't know that due to Li Hongzhang's sudden death, the Huai Army had actually split into three parts: the front-line army, the rear army, and the rear navy.

Therefore, he thought that with Zhang Peilun's surrender, France would be able to intervene in Lingnan and intervene in the Chinese situation more easily.

French Consul Fang Suerya was very proud of himself for having accomplished such a diplomatic achievement.

After finishing some important matters, he even picked up his camera and walked up the city wall under guard, intending to take pictures of Guangzhou after the riots and record this rare historical moment.

He is an amateur photography enthusiast. After coming to China, he took many photos with a camera and glass slides.

However, when he was taking pictures enthusiastically, he suddenly saw several corpses floating on the river.

When Fang Suya first saw this scene, he thought he was dazzled, but as more and more corpses appeared, he suddenly felt an inexplicable chill on his back.

"Oh my God, what on earth happened in Guangzhou?"

It turned out that when Guangdong Governor Zhang Peilun came to the French Consulate, he did not tell Fang Suya the truth.

It was just that there was a riot among the troops in the city and Li Hongzhang was unfortunately killed by random gunfire. He was Li Hongzhang's deputy and decided to continue cooperating with France and was willing to make greater concessions to France.

Fang Suya knew Zhang Peilun's position in the Lingnan Xinghan Military Governor's Office. With such a guarantee, he thought that the situation in the city would soon be calmed down by Zhang Peilun, so he provided him with weapons support.

In other words, French Consul Fang Suya actually knew nothing about the real cause of the riots in the city.

"Quick, go find out why there's a riot in the city!"

Fang Suya hurried back to the consulate and decided to send someone to investigate the situation while sending someone to invite several other foreign consuls in Guangzhou.

After waiting anxiously for a long time, it was not until the evening of that day that Fang Suya finally understood how brutal the massacre had been in Guangzhou City.

When Fang Suya heard that the people in the city were killing each other, she felt a little regretful that she had trusted Zhang Peilun too much yesterday and even gave him thousands of rifles and tens of thousands of bullets.

If these weapons had not been given to Zhang Peilun, and he had been forced to stay in the consulate, perhaps he would not have started killing people everywhere in the city, and would not have provoked a bloody counterattack from the people of Guangzhou?

French Consul Fang Suya didn't know the answer, but there was no doubt that supporting Zhang Peilun too early yesterday was a wrong decision, which led to the irreversible situation in Guangzhou City.

"This is just like Paris under the rule of the Jacobins. Everyone is a murderer and everyone is a murderer!"

Although the French Third Republic was a republic, it did not advocate the Jacobins of the French Revolution.

On the contrary, due to the existence of a large number of former royalists and landowners in the parliament, French society today is mostly critical of the Jacobins.

So, when he heard the translator describe the scene of the city residents killing each other indiscriminately, he instinctively used the term Jacobins to describe these people.

"Zhang Peilun!" French Consul Fang Suya thought of this man and clenched his fists angrily:

"The person who deceived me must be punished!"

"Mr. Consul, the most important thing at the moment is to protect France's interests in Lingnan." The counselor beside him shook his head and said:

“Although Zhang Peilun deceived Your Excellency, his cooperative attitude towards France should be genuine. Even if it is not true, we should treat it as true.

Otherwise, the northern army will soon invade Guangzhou and even threaten Vietnam, and France will be even more passive by then!"

"Vietnam" heard the counselor's reminder, and Fang Suya nodded: "You are right, compared to Zhang Peilun, Yuan Shikai is France's number one enemy!

France will never allow Yuan Shikai's army to set foot in Vietnam!"

Thinking of the news from Hue, Vietnam a few days ago, Fang Suya was furious: "They actually kidnapped an emperor, even if he is the emperor of Vietnam, an emperor without real power, but it is also a humiliation to France!

The emperor of Vietnam could be exiled to Algeria or placed under house arrest in the palace.

However, only France can do these things!

Only France can depose and replace the Emperor of Vietnam!"

Looking at Fang Suya's flushed face, the counselor wisely did not respond until a staff member from the consulate ran in and whispered, then he decided to speak.

"Ahem, Your Excellency the Consul, the British Consul in Guangzhou, Sir Scott, is here, and the American Consul and the German Consul are also here at the invitation."

"Are you all here?"

"They are all here. The British came the latest, but they have arrived!" replied the counselor.

Fang Suya heard this, calmed down her somewhat excited heart, and said:

"Let's go meet them. We must protect the interests of France during this Guangzhou turmoil!"

No one could stay out of the turmoil in Guangzhou City, and the death of Li Hongzhang also meant that the situation in Guangzhou and even Lingnan would undergo tremendous changes.

Fang Suya knew that he had to do something!

...

The lights in the conference room were bright.

It was already the early morning of the third day after the incident. According to his usual routine, British Consul Scott should have gone to bed long ago, but now he did not feel tired.

Not only that, he also exuded an indescribable confidence at this time, and did not seem to worry that the changes in the situation in Guangzhou would have an impact on British interests.

Scott was originally chatting with the American consul, but when he saw the French consul Fang Suya walk in, he immediately raised his voice.