Master Yuan, start!

"My relatives of the Yuan family have long owned property in Zhoujiakou and secretly stored food and fodder. As long as Feng Guozhang goes ashore, he can go west to Zhoujiakou to get supplies, and go east to get supplies by sea.

Even if Feng Guozhang had no real identity as a member of the Nian Army, he could still be said to be a Nian Army that came and went like the wind!

"Well, Master Yuan is indeed the most talented general in the world." Guangxu couldn't help rubbing his hands. "After we have supplies, the National Defense Army will be able to march east and west, and will be unrivaled in the Yangtze and Huaihe River regions!"

Chapter 223 Foreign Forces

After discussing the matter of going south, Guangxu began to pay attention to the security issues around the capital.

"Master Yuan, what exactly happened during the crackdown on the Mengdong rebels? Why are there bandits in both the east and the west?"

Originally, according to Guangxu's idea, if the National Defense Army launched a large-scale attack, the minor bandit problem would be easily quelled.

However, the results were not satisfactory.

On the one hand, Yuan Xiangcheng instructed Jin Weidong, who was in charge of suppressing the bandits, to delay, using the excuse that supplies to Mengdong were not smooth, intending to let Jindandao take the opportunity to escape westward;

On the other hand, the anti-Yuan forces in Beijing had secretly colluded with the princes of Outer Mongolia, causing the Jindan Dao, which had already fled westward, to "flash" to Heilongjiang, Jilin and other places.

Heilongjiang General Yiktang Adu reported to Emperor Guangxu that the bandit problem was rampant and was in danger of getting out of control.

Yuan Xiangcheng was also very surprised when he received the question from Guangxu.

This shouldn't be the case. The remaining members of the Jindan Dao had already fled to the Hetao area in the west. Why would they appear in Jilin and Heilongjiang further east?

Because of this incident, some officials in the capital believed that Yuan Shikai was harboring the enemy for his own benefit, and submitted more than a dozen memorials to impeach him.

Yuan Xiangcheng could only pretend to increase his troops and manpower while letting Lu Tianjiawu, who had infiltrated the Jindan Dao, move westward as quickly as possible.

Later, as the Jindan Dao gradually moved to areas such as northern Shaanxi and Hetao where the Guangxu court had weak control, the voices of impeachment faded.

After all, the north and the south had just split at that time, and the northwest has always been a windy and cold place, making it difficult to get supplies.

If the army marches westward, Yang Changjun of the Chu faction, who controls Gansu, may think that the imperial court intends to target him first.

At that time, Guangxu ignored all objections and strongly supported Yuan Shikai without blaming him at all. At most, he urged him twice.

But now that the National Defense Army is about to march south in large numbers, Guangxu has to pay attention to the security measures around the capital again. He wants to ask Yuan Shikai in detail what is going on to avoid being taken advantage of by others.

"When I was outside the Great Wall, in addition to recruiting people to settle on the border, I also paid attention to the movements of the Russians in the north." Seeing Guangxu asking Jindandao the reason, Yuan Xiangcheng thought for a moment and decided to lie.

"Jin Weidong led a large army to wipe out the Jindan Dao. At first, due to unfamiliarity with the terrain, the march was quite slow, which gave the bandits a chance to escape." Yuan Xiangcheng bowed slightly, admitting that the suppression of the bandits was not going well at the beginning.

But soon, he began to "quibble"

"After arriving in Aohan Banner, eastern Meng, Jin Weidong's troops were stationed at Beizi Mansion. A total of 876 bandits were eliminated. This has been reported to the Ministry of War and inspected, so it cannot be false.

Later, surrounded by the army, the remaining Jindan Dao bandit leaders fled westward. Herders from Chahar, Ulanqab, and other Inner Mongolian regions witnessed this with their own eyes, and the local princes also reported it to the imperial court. This incident cannot be false."

Hearing Yuan Xiangcheng say "can't lie" twice in a row, Guangxu nodded slightly, as it was indeed the case.

"Only the Jindan Dao rebels from Heilongjiang and Jilin. Initially, I also thought they had fled here from eastern Inner Mongolia, but later, after investigation, I discovered that these rebels seemed to have come from the upper reaches of the Heilongjiang River."

Yuan Xiangcheng didn't finish what he said, but that was enough. Sometimes, letting the listener figure it out for themselves is more convincing than saying it directly.

"Upper reaches of the Heilongjiang River?"

Guangxu murmured, wondering who were in the upper reaches of the Heilongjiang River.

Outer Mongolian nobles? Unlikely. Guangxu quickly rejected this idea. The Jindan Dao originally rose to power by slaughtering the Inner Mongolian nobles. It was impossible for the Outer Mongolian nobles to take them in.

So who else is there besides Outer Mongolia?

Guangxu's eyes fell on the map that Yuan Shikai had just spread out, and he paced slowly.

Suddenly, he stopped and stared at an extremely important place name in the upper reaches of the Heilongjiang River.

Nerchinsk!

Could it be that the Russians are taking advantage of the situation?

After seeing the three words "Nerchinsk", Guangxu quickly had new doubts.

Yuan Xiangcheng, who was standing by, saw that Guangxu had fallen into the trap and a barely perceptible smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

To divert the trouble to others was the excuse Yuan Shikai made.

He didn't know that someone in Beijing was plotting against him, nor did he know that the "Golden Elixir Sect" in Heilongjiang was sent by the princes of Outer Mongolia to deliberately frame him.

But this did not prevent Yuan Shikai from blaming the Russians.

As luck would have it, the anti-Yuan forces in the capital gave Yuan Xiangcheng an excellent excuse to absolve himself of the responsibility of clearing out the unfavorable forces of the Jindan Dao.

All conflicts are transferred to foreign forces. Who said that there were no guides in the Qing Dynasty?

Alas, Russia!

The Jindandao bandits who appeared in Heilongjiang and other places must have been instructed by the Russians!

The Russians have evil ambitions and are obsessed with the three northeastern provinces. They bribed the bandits outside the Great Wall and planned to explore the situation in the upper reaches of the Heilongjiang River. This logic is completely reasonable.

"According to you, the appearance of the Golden Elixir Dao in Heilongjiang was all the work of the Russians?" After hearing what Yuan Xiangcheng said, Guangxu thought about it for a moment and was successfully fooled.

"I think it's almost right." Yuan Xiangcheng bowed and clasped his fists.

Although the purpose of misleading has been achieved, Yuan Shikai still wants to continue to consolidate Guangxu's wrong perception.

Sure enough, after hearing Yuan Xiangcheng's affirmative answer, Guangxu's somewhat relaxed mood after listening to Yuan Xiangcheng's battle plan gradually subsided.

"Master Yuan, if the Russians take advantage of our situation and invade again during this southward advance, what should we do outside the Great Wall?"

After a brief thought, General Guangxu felt that something was wrong. Last time, it was just bandits causing trouble, but the Russians sent people to intervene.

If the army moves south this time, won’t the Russians really send troops?

"I think Your Majesty has nothing to worry about."

Seeing that Guangxu was a little flustered, Yuan Xiangcheng tried to comfort him.

"Why?"

"Your Majesty, let alone the conflicts between the Russians and the Japanese, the war is imminent. Even if the Russians march south, the British will not sit idly by. By then..."

Yuan Shikai's serious analysis of geopolitical theory successfully convinced Guangxu that the Russians would not move south.

As for whether the Russians would really take the opportunity to invade China, Yuan Shikai did not believe it.

After all, the intelligence is all fake, so how can it be true in the end?

"That's good." Guangxu took a deep breath, put the topic aside, and turned to talk about the navy.

"What a pity, Master Yuan, the original Beiyang Fleet was taken away by Li Hongzhang. If it had all been returned to the imperial court, I wouldn't have to worry so much."

"Your Majesty, it is of course good to have powerful weapons in battle, but if you rely solely on powerful weapons during a march and fight without considering the military's power, it will never work."

"Oh, what do you mean?" Guangxu became interested when he saw that Yuan Xiangcheng seemed to be hinting at something.

"Although Li Hongzhang's Beiyang Fleet has a large number of ships, its prestige has surpassed that of its master." Yuan Xiangcheng recounted the observations and information collected by the Red Confucian Society intelligence station staff from Guangzhou, Hong Kong and other places.

"Admiral Ding Ruchang was originally a bandit, but he became a monk and joined the navy under Li Hongzhang. He was able to cope with naval battles in the Yangtze River.

But after reaching the sea, the deployment of the ships was entirely controlled by the left and right wing generals Lin Taizeng and Liu Buchan.

Lin and Liu were from Fujian, while Ding Ruchang was from Lujiang, Anhui, a fellow townsman of Li Hongzhang.

"Fellow townsmen," Guangxu sighed, "Li Hongzhang is always good at using fellow townsmen."

"That's right." Yuan Xiangcheng replied, and then continued, "If nothing had happened, this kind of situation where an amateur commands an expert would have been the same.

But when Lin and Liu led their ship to visit Manila, Luzon, they encountered the Spanish massacre of Chinese people. After asking Li Hongzhang for instructions, they fired the first shot without waiting for a reply. Although they won a great victory, they were praised in the end.

But after all, we didn't have the permission of our superiors. In the past, this would have been considered as provoking a border conflict in the imperial court, and even if we won, we would still be punished."

Hearing this, Guangxu thought it was impossible, but then he thought again, he felt a little dejected. When Cixi was in power, this was very likely to happen.

After a pause, Yuan Xiangcheng continued, "Although Li Hongzhang appears to be magnanimous, he is secretly thinking about replacing him. There are more and more British and Anhui people in the South China Sea Fleet recently. It is only a matter of time before they replace Lin and Liu.

Your Majesty, if there were another naval battle, what would be the chances of victory for a navy so divided?"

Chapter 224: Not yet successful, still need to work hard

"I see." Guangxu really didn't know the twists and turns in the South China Sea Fleet. After hearing this, he said that he had broadened his horizons.

"What about the Beiyang Fleet today, Master Yuan? Are there any such hidden concerns?"

Drawing inferences from one instance to another, Guangxu asked about the new Beiyang Fleet.

"I dare not say that the Beiyang Fleet will win in battle, but it is absolutely free of regional bias." Yuan Xiangcheng talked about the native place composition of the navy today: "Navy officers and soldiers come from all over the country, including Tianjin, Shandong, Zhili, outside the Great Wall, Korea, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Fujian, and even foreigners are not uncommon.

Furthermore, the navy speaks Mandarin throughout its ranks, unlike the previous Beiyang Fleet, where all the sailors only spoke Minnan dialect."

Yuan Xiangcheng was referring to the inherent flaw of the Beiyang Fleet in history. Due to its over-reliance on Fujianese, not only did most of the mid-level and above naval officers come from Fujian, but even the lower-level sailors had to learn Fujianese in order to be accepted.

Otherwise, what awaits the newcomers is exclusion and suppression.

The new Beiyang Fleet was different. At the beginning of its establishment, Yuan Shikai intended to avoid having too strong regional characteristics as much as possible.

At that time, the majority of students attending the Naval Academy were from Shandong, almost more than half of the total number. The rest were students from Zhili, outside the Great Wall, Henan, Korea, the South and other places.

However, when enlisting, Yuan Shikai deliberately controlled the ratio, allowing a considerable number of Shandong students to join the Sihai Shipping Company after graduation.

This also led to the fact that in today's Beiyang Navy, only one-third of the people were from Shandong.

During this period, Yuan Shikai did not forget to hire foreign instructors, which led to an interesting incident.

Now there is a first mate named Magifin in Li Hongzhang's South China Sea Fleet. He is an American. In the original time and space, he participated in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and fought hard against the Japanese Navy.

The reason why they came from afar to join the Chinese Navy was very simple: the United States had no need for a navy.

After the Civil War, the United States put its weapons into storage and let its horses go to waste.

The federal government believed that there was no need to maintain a large naval military force and turned entirely to civilian use.

During this period, some Chinese even joined the American Navy. Although they were called navy, they were actually just sailors.

Young people who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy could not find suitable jobs and had to leave their home country. Some went to Europe, and some came to Asia.

That's what happened with Magifin.

After he settled down in the South China Sea Fleet, he wrote to his brother in his hometown in the United States, inviting him to join the "China Fleet"

After the letter was sent, Magiffin joined the team in patrolling the South China Sea. He thought it was a routine cruise, but unexpectedly it caused a naval battle against Spain.

After receiving the letter, Magifan's younger brother arrived in Shanghai by boat, but was unable to contact his brother. Searching Un:43, he was discovered by a naval recruiter stationed in Shanghai as he was unfamiliar with the place.

The recruiter asked him to take a boat north on the pretext of helping him contact his brother. After arriving, he found him a job as a naval instructor at the Incheon Naval Academy, allowing him to teach while looking for his brother.