The Anti-Japanese War Begins with the Northeast Army

"I won't go home. It's been three or four years. I finally received two telegrams, both of which scolded me..."

Zhang Tingshu curled his lips and changed the subject inconspicuously, then took his wife and walked out with Jiang Cheng.

There are two more business cooperation meetings to be held in Shuangchengzi City in the next few days;

At that time, no matter whether the Russians are sending people or not, countries such as Britain, France, and the United States will gather here to discuss medium- and long-term projects in the areas of mining, forestry, animal husbandry, and industrial development. The total investment may exceed 100 million silver dollars.

Once these projects are negotiated, they will bring about a new era of development for Jilin, and the cycle will last as long as ten years.
Under such circumstances, having a strong navy becomes even more important.

There is no way to explain these things to Zhang Tingshu for the time being, but even if he doesn't know, given his character and personality, he will definitely do his best after taking on the naval mission.

Just as Jiang Cheng had just arrived in Shuangchengzi by car and was personally supervising several persons in charge to carry out preparatory work, urgent letters from Jilin Prefecture and Fengtian arrived at the same time.

The General Staff Department conveyed the information in Beijing. After Jin Yunpeng stepped down, Liang Shiyi was supported by Marshal Zhang Yuting to take the position. Finance Minister Duan Zhigui and Chief of Military Affairs Bao Guiqing also took office on the same day.

Even the dumbest person could see clearly: after driving away Jin Yunpeng, who represented the Fengtian clique, the old fox outside the Great Wall, who had become a powerful force, actually placed so many people in the cabinet in one go!
“It’s almost like a Fengtian cabinet.”

These words came from Wu Peifu's mouth, so one can imagine how fearful the Zhi army was.

Jiang Cheng stared at the murderous intent between the lines and knew very well that the first Zhi-Feng War was inevitable.

But he didn't want to join the war.

Jiang Cheng knew in his heart that after two years of military training and the purchase of a large amount of supplies, his Jilin Army was definitely the strongest in China.

But he absolutely did not want to spend his energy and military funds on a civil war, especially a civil war to help the Marshal conquer the world.

Especially when the Fengtian clique was divided into many factions, the overall quality of the army was relatively low, and the generals of all parties were still mainly old-school outlaws... Even if he helped Zhang Yuting to take over the Central Plains, the future would still be messed up by these old guys.

In fact, according to subsequent developments, the defeat of the Zhi-Feng War to Cao Saner and Wu Xiucai in 1922 was not a bad thing for the entire Fengtian clique.

Zhang Yuting learned from his mistakes and carried out military reforms, built new schools and factories... In just two or three years, the entire Northeast was transformed.

and so--

Jiang Cheng planned to find an excuse, or even create some big trouble to avoid entering the country to fight.

After thinking for a moment, he handed the telegram to Han Ming and picked up the one from Jilin Prefecture.

He stood up suddenly, his face gloomy.

Something big happened in Shandong.

…………

A serious accident occurred on the railway on the Jiaozhou Peninsula. A train loaded with cargo derailed shortly after leaving Qingdao, killing many train crew members and workers and dumping a large amount of cargo on both sides of the tracks.

You should know that this batch of goods was shipped from abroad to Tianjin for distribution, and most of them were daily necessities such as cloth, grain, wax, soap, etc.
These things are hot commodities in the capital, not to mention in the relatively backward Shandong. After hearing the earth-shaking noise, the people nearby came to watch the excitement and found these good goods, so they would definitely rush to grab them regardless of the risks.

But after World War I, the railways in Shandong were also managed by the Japanese. When they patrolled here and found that some unruly people were stealing things, they would rush up and kill them. The people in the hometown of Confucius and Mencius were also full of martial virtues. Even if their opponents were the Japanese, they would not shirk their responsibilities when faced with so many good things.

The conflict broke out, killing seventeen civilians and injuring hundreds; twenty Japanese railway guards were injured, and three were seriously wounded and died.

It would be fine if there was really a battle point between the two sides, but this is the Central Plains region, and the Paris Peace Conference also stipulated that Shandong is Japan's sphere of influence, so the Chinese side would be even more unreasonable.

On that day, the Japanese troops in Qingdao and Weihai almost came out in full force and rushed towards Jinan, Tai'an and other places:
Hai Pingchuan, the governor of Shandong, certainly didn't back down. He deployed his troops and started fighting the devils. Don't say that someone a few years later left the city and ran away without firing a shot.

This young and vigorous member of the Fengtian clique even went to the front line in person, with an attitude of not giving up until he had crushed the Japanese.

After reading the signature on the telegram, Jiang Cheng looked up and cursed: "Damn it, this letter is three days old! What is the communication company for... They should be shot for wasting so much time."

Han Ming didn't dare to say anything. Sun Zhengnan on the side quickly said, "The news arrived in Changchun first, and Jilin Prefecture didn't dare to delay at all before passing it on—"

Before he finished speaking, Jiang Cheng gritted his teeth and said, "Damn devils, I knew they would seize every opportunity to attack my territory!"

"Immediately order reinforcements to be sent to Luanzhou... We in Jilin must also move immediately. We must go to Pingchuan to fight the Japanese, and we must go to help!"

Sun Zhengnan said in embarrassment: "Master Jiang, it is easy to fight in Luanzhou, after all, it is inside the Great Wall; but the matter of Jilin..."

He knew that Jiang Cheng always disliked hesitating, so he quickly said the second half of the sentence, "Think about it, Changchun must have known the news one or two days later than Fengtian. Pingchuan sent the letter to Jilin, so how could the Marshal's Office and the General Staff Headquarters not report it?"

"But in the past two days, no matter if it was the handsome guy or anyone else, who made the announcement? We don't know what the higher-ups mean!"

Jiang Cheng's face froze.

Even though he had a thousand swear words in his heart, he knew that his chief of staff was right.

Neither the General Staff nor the Marshal's Office said anything. To put it bluntly, they just didn't want Shandong to really fight the devils.

If it's just a regional conflict, it would be easy to either give in or negotiate, but if the outside world is also involved, it would be tantamount to an all-out war.

Not to mention whether there is any chance of winning in a face-to-face fight with the Japanese, now the Zhi and Feng factions have turned from cooperation to confrontation. What if the fighting in Shandong is raging and my hometown outside the Great Wall is robbed by Cao Saner?

"But can this allow Pingchuan to fight the Japanese alone in Shandong?"

Jiang Cheng gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up, "Oh yeah - damn, we still have a fleet!"

"Send a telegram to the Imperial Court immediately and have the Russians set out with full loads of artillery shells. We'll steal Qingdao's ass and smash a few of their broken ships."

"Go to Liu Runchuan of UMC Jinzhou and tell him to do whatever it takes to send all the equipment to Luanzhou by rail..."

"Tell him that for every item he takes, I, Jiang Cheng, will return three in the future. Anyway, no matter what, our navy and army are attacking from both sides. Even if we want to negotiate in the end, we have to make these arrogant devils fall flat on their faces first."

Sun Zhengnan hesitated to speak, but still stood at attention and did as he was told. (End of this chapter)