Another World: Naval Storm

"I have always disagreed with lending money to Yuan Duren, although I admire his wonderful idea of ​​using the loan agreement to combat the separatist forces in Xunyang! But the empire's funds are likely to be wasted!"

The loan agreement has a special provision that in the future local provinces are not allowed to borrow from foreign banks without authorization, and can only raise funds from abroad by the central government.

This regulation caused a strong backlash from the opposition parties, especially the South, which used the excuse that it received 2500 million pounds but actually received 900 million pounds, which was a humiliating act for the country. In fact, this was just the Southern comprador class and capitalism not wanting their financial power to be interfered with, and there was a lot of trickery involved.

Since the end of Xunyang's reign, it has become a common practice for governors and governors-general of each province to raise funds on their own. Even the customs duties and likin within the province are customized by each province, and the imperial court has only nominal final discretion.

This practice resulted in different provinces operating almost independently, but the power to appoint governors and governors-general was firmly in the hands of the imperial court at the time, and the tendency towards separatism was not so obvious.

However, when the Xunyang Democratic Republic was first established, the governors and parliaments of each province were almost all controlled by local celebrities and elites, and the local governments monopolized the financial and military powers. In fact, each province was like an independent government. If Yuan Du wanted to reverse this trend, he had to remove the financial power of each province, especially restricting the behavior of borrowing from foreign banks.

"Does the new Xunyang government dare not repay the money? But the first installment of principal and interest has already been deducted!"

"That depends on how the situation develops. This loan may have to be used for the war!" Leo felt that the situation was more and more like a repeat of Yuan Shikai's march south in his previous life.

The three major political parties in Xunyang today, Ye Wu's National Socialist Party, the pro-Yuan Republican Party, and Liang Buju's Democratic Party, all used all kinds of dirty tricks to win votes. However, the National Socialist Party won the votes and financial support of gentry at all levels because of its support for local autonomy.

In the general election, the National Socialist Party won and is expected to become the prime minister of the cabinet, but Yuan Duren will not give up power.

On June 6, Li Liejun, the governor of Jiangyou from the Kuomintang, was dismissed. At this time, Yuan Duren had already gained the support of Li Yuanhong and others in Fujian, so on June 9, he went a step further and dismissed Gu Hanmin, a member of the Kuomintang, from his post as governor of Qiongdong.

On July 7, Lü Chun, a member of Yuan's faction, led the Sixth Beiyang Regiment into Jiangyou. Although the KMT had objections to the campaign against Yuan, Ye Wu had made up his mind and ordered Li Liejun to return to Jiangyou, declare Jiangyou independent in Hukou, and set up the General Headquarters for the Campaign against Yuan. Later, Gusu, Qiongdong, and Funan successively declared independence.

"Ye Wu is a patriot, but not a qualified manager." Leo hopes that Yuan Duren can win the final victory. He does not like any behavior that splits the country.

The local gentry who supported the National Socialist Party hoped that each province would have room to develop independently, but they forgot that this might cause Xunyang to fall apart and lead to endless fighting in various places.

"The Yuandu people want us to send out troops? Directly send troops to land in the southern coastal cities? Go straight to the heart of the matter! Great! Great!" Leo shouted to Governor Qi Feng who came to discuss the matter.

"Let us make the decision on the mainland. We are just transporting troops!"

“Do you know what other countries do?”

"Wakoku and Tarun asked for restraint, but Faran and Luosha did not respond!"

"Then we will only support the transport ships, and the fleet will not move! This way we will have plenty of room for maneuver!"

Li Yuanhong of Fujian Province has openly supported Yuan Duren and has stationed 10,000 Beiyang troops in Jiangcheng. The important military locations in the south are now under the control of Yuan Duren.

Therefore, after the eight southern provinces declared independence, the Beiyang Army transported troops to the southern region along the railways and the Yangtze River. The first battle between the North and the South was the Jiangyou battlefield.

The Kuomintang planned to capture Jiujiang. If the plan was realized, on the one hand, it would prevent the Beiyang army from moving south along the Yangtze River to the core areas of the eight provinces, and on the other hand, Jiujiang could be used as a springboard for counterattacking Jiangcheng.

On July 7, the Kuomintang-Socialist Army took the lead in launching an attack from De'an and Gutang near Jiujiang, and defeated Yuan Du's Sixth Division, forcing the Beiyang Army to wait for rescue in the west of Jiujiang City. Unfortunately, the anti-Yuan army failed to drive the Beiyang Army out of Jiujiang in one go, and missed the opportunity.

On July 7, the Beiyang 17nd Division came from Jiangcheng and attacked the Kuomintang's left and right armies. On the 2th, under the cover of four naval warships, the Beiyang attacked Hukou. The Jiangyou anti-Yuan army was isolated and retreated towards Hongzhou.

On August 8, a large number of Beiyang troops entered Jiangxi and captured it. The anti-Yuan commander-in-chief Li Lie's army left Jiangyou. On the other hand, Ma Guozhan led the Beiyang Second Army to the south on the Jinpu Railway. Another Beiyang army, led by Zhang Xun, attacked from the east. The revolutionary army commander Huang Ying ordered part of the revolutionary army to hold Xuzhou and control the railway to prevent Ma Guozhan's troops from coming down so smoothly. He also deployed troops in the Yangzhou area to prevent Zhang Xun from invading from the east.

On July 7, the anti-Yuan army attacked the Beiyang Army stationed in Hanzhuang, south of Qingzhou, while the Beiyang Army had not yet completed its assembly. Although the initial battle was a success, the next day, Zhang Xun led the Beiyang reinforcements to arrive. At this time, the Kuomintang reinforcements from Suzhou also arrived, and the two armies formed a confrontation in Hanzhuang. However, the Kuomintang's main cavalry regiment defected to the Beiyang at this time, and the Kuomintang's defense line collapsed.

At the end of July, Zhang Xun successively captured Xuzhou and Yangzhou, and almost surrounded Zhenjiang, approaching Fengyang, the temporary capital of the south. At the same time, Huang Ying heard that Hukou in Jiangyou had been lost, and the Beiyang army would soon come along the Yangtze River to form an encirclement of the revolutionary army. Huang Ying decided to abandon Fengyang and go to Shanghai.

? At this time, the main force of the Second Army in the Battle of Maguo had taken the railway to the south to attack the important stronghold of Anwan Province. The division commander of Anwan Governor Bai Wenwei defected to Yuan Shikai. Bai Wenwei fled, and Beiyang controlled Hefei. In just one month, Beiyang crushed the Kuomintang army in the south with its railway and firepower advantages.

The Fujian and Funan provinces, which had originally supported the Kuomintang in its fight against Yuan Shikai, quickly gave up their independence and submitted to the Beiyang government after seeing the failure of Jiangyou and Suzhou. As for the revolutionary armies in Qiongdong and Shuchuan, they were quickly wiped out by Lu Rongting in western Guangxi and Cai En in southern Yunnan.

Cai En supported centralization and opposed local separatism. In fact, the number of Kuomintang troops in the south was far greater than that of the Beiyang Army, which had only 80,000 standing troops at the time. However, the Beiyang Army was well-trained and supported by countries such as Talen, which were willing to give the salt tax revenue controlled by various countries to the Beiyang government.

In contrast, the various revolutionary armies in the South had no unified command, insufficient military training, and the treatment of soldiers was far inferior to that of the Beiyang Army.

What's even more terrible is that the Kuomintang Socialist Party only raised the banner of anti-Yuan and did not take any other measures. Not to mention the Beiyang Army, which hoped to have a strong central Xunyang, so it attracted the support of Li Yuanhong, Cai En and others.

There are also many factions within the National Socialist Party. There are many revolutionary members of the Xunyang Democratic Republic who do not support separatism and hope to have a strong central government. Although there are still many people in the Southern Army who prefer local autonomy, the entire revolutionary army does not actually have a unified goal.

The local gentry realized that Yuan Du's forces were dominant and feared being liquidated, so they secretly began to join the Beiyang government.

Finally, in September 1913, the Beiyang Army defeated the Kuomintang Army like an autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves. Huang En and Ye Wu fled to Japan, the Kuomintang was also banned, and Yuan Duren finally actually controlled the entire country of Xunyang and commanded the world from then on.