Warlords: Rising from the Northwest Border and Sweeping Across the Powers

On December 27th of the 12th year of the Republic of Dahua, Su Zhengyang, wearing a black military coat, stood on a mountaintop outside Songyuan City. As time entered deep winter, large-scale snowfall began to occur in the Northeast, which brought great pressure to the logistics supply of the Northern Expedition Corps and the advancement of the motorized troops. Now in Hakushu, Fuso only controlled three major cities: Songyuan, Jiamu, and Liaodong.

In the recent war, the Northern Expedition Corps has shown particularly outstanding combat effectiveness on the battlefield. In the Battle of Tsuruga Castle, it annihilated five major divisions and captured alive the deputy commander of the Kwantung Army, Okada Yasushi. After that, it gradually advanced, and in the battle led by the First Army of the Northwest Revolutionary Army, it captured the ice field and the two cities of Siping. In just less than a month, the Fuso Kwantung Army suffered more than 40% losses.

Now, the various troops under the Kwantung Army trembled in fear when they saw the Northern Expedition Corps, and were in a state of being crushed.

The desperate Kwantung Army began to gather the local people from Jiamu City and Songyuan City, using them as shields. They escorted thousands of people to the city walls every day and threatened that as long as the Northern Expedition Corps dared to attack the city, they would kill all the gathered people in the city.

Under such circumstances, the Northern Expedition Corps was forced to stop its offensive, and Su Zhengyang, the commander-in-chief of the Northern Expedition Corps, was also constantly looking for countermeasures.

Having accumulated a very high reputation in China and gained the support of countless people, if Su Zhengyang ignores the safety of the people in the city and launches a general attack, his status in the hearts of the people will suffer a very heavy blow.

The two sides have been in a stalemate outside Songyuan City for three consecutive days, and neither side dares to take any action easily.

"Governor, President Yang of the Central Government has sent a telegram personally, and has important matters to discuss with you."

Su Zhengyang turned around, exhaled a breath of white air, rubbed his almost frozen palms, shook off the snow on his body, nodded and said: "Let's go, let's go back and take a look together."

Liu Chengxu, Zhou Weiguo and others followed Su Zhengyang and rushed towards the camp at the foot of the mountain.

In the combat meeting room of the temporary headquarters of the Northern Expedition Corps, Jiang Yanlin and others were already present. It was obvious that they had already known the contents of the telegram.

Su Zhengyang took the telegram from Qiao Weimin, read it carefully, and a gleam of light flashed in his eyes.

The content of this telegram was that the Northern Frontier government had received a letter of peace from the Fuso Cabinet. The letter stated that as long as the Northern Expedition Corps was willing to withdraw from Baizhou and Xingzhou and return the recovered land to Fuso, Fuso could sign a contract with the Northern Frontier that it would not actively provoke war within 15 years, and could even make a series of sincere compensation to the Northern Frontier government.

Yang Jiakai, Duan Jinshu and others gave the final decision on this matter to Su Zhengyang. The telegram mentioned that no matter whether Su Zhengyang decided to negotiate or continue the war, the Northern Xinjiang government would support Su Zhengyang unreservedly.

Su Zhengyang casually placed the telegram paper in his hand on the conference table beside him and said to Jiang Yanlin: "Commander Jiang, I believe you have read the contents of the telegram. I wonder what you think about this matter?"

Jiang Yanlin, who was always known for his hot temper, stretched out his right hand, slammed the table heavily, and said angrily: "Damn little devils! They started the war, and my Northeast Army lost half of its brothers. Now that they can't win, they want to ask for peace. What a dream! In my opinion, they should be wiped out! There is no compromise!"

Gao Jibang, a trusted general under Jiang Yanlin, also said with a serious face: "Commander Su, Fuso's ambition is well known to everyone. In addition, your Northwest Intelligence Bureau has previously reported from Fuso that the Kwantung Army is deliberately showing weakness to paralyze us. Once the local support arrives, they will definitely tear up the so-called contract and launch another war of aggression against China. We can't be fooled by the devils."

The high-ranking generals of the Northeastern Army and the generals of the main force of the Duan faction who were present seemed to have found an outlet for their emotions and began to express their opinions at once. Judging from their opinions, the vast majority of the generals advocated a direct and concerted effort to drive the Kwantung Army out of the Northeast and not give them a chance to revive.

Instead, the senior officers of the First Army, led by Liu Chengxu, sat upright, silent, waiting for Su Zhengyang's statement.

The Northeast Army and the Fuso Kwantung Army have had a long-standing grudge against each other. Countless Northeast Army soldiers have died tragically at the hands of the Kwantung Army. Now that there is an opportunity to make the Kwantung Army pay the price and repay blood with blood, the Northeast Army's senior officials headed by Jiang Yanlin naturally will not let go of this opportunity.

After pondering for a moment, Su Zhengyang expressed his opinion for the first time.

"At present, the Kwantung Army has become a spent force. It can only hold the local people of Northeast China hostage to make us afraid to act rashly. The Northern Expedition Corps, representing the Northern Frontier Central Government, must proceed from the overall situation and try to save the lives of these people. What I mean is that we should first agree to their request for peace talks, and wait until they relax their vigilance, and then wait for an opportunity to act. Of course, I, Su Zhengyang, here promise to Commander Jiang and my brothers in the Northeast Army! We will never let the Kwantung Army go easily, and we will not let the Northeast Army soldiers bleed and sacrifice in vain!"

After Su Zhengyang finished speaking these words in a resounding voice, he turned his gaze to Jiang Yanlin.

Jiang Yanlin pondered for a moment, then nodded slowly and said, "Zhengyang, since you already have a specific plan in mind, on behalf of the Northeast Army, I support your decision. I only have one request! That is to bury those damned devils in the Northeast. Don't let them go easily!"

Seeing that Jiang Yanlin showed clear support for Su Zhengyang, the generals of the Guanzhou Army and the Northeast Army also successively expressed that everything would be based on Su Zhengyang's will.

"For the people, find a way to get through to the central government right away. I want to discuss this matter in detail with the president!"

"Yes, Governor!"

That afternoon, Su Zhengyang personally called the Northern Xinjiang central government and had a conversation with his father-in-law, Northern Xinjiang President Yang Jiakai, which lasted nearly an hour.

At this time, Fuso Cabinet Minister Miura Uchie was already leading a negotiation team on the way to the Northeast.

What Fuso wants is temporary surrender and paying a certain price in exchange for stability and control over the two northeastern places of Hakushu and Xingzhou. The only bargaining chip they have now is the more than 200,000 northeastern people in Hakushu and Xingzhou who are controlled by the Kwantung Army.

Five days later, on New Year's Day, Miura Uchie landed from the Hakushu Liaohai Naval Port, exhausted, and then rushed to Liaodong City where the Kwantung Army Headquarters was located. After making preparations for the negotiations, he rushed to Songyuan City where the front line was located again.