Master Yuan, start!

...

Against this background, after paying tribute to the soldiers who died in the battle, Yuan Shikai received a visitor from afar in Guangzhou.

Governor of Gansu, Commander of the Northwest New Army, Wei Guotao.

After Yuan Shikai ordered the National Revolutionary Army to march towards Guangxi, he also sent a telegram to Lanzhou, asking the Chu faction's Northwest Army to send an army south.

At that time, he only wanted to warn the Chu faction to send some troops and not cause trouble for him in the rear.

However, he did not expect that the person leading the troops was Wei Guangtao, the second-in-command of the Chu faction.

In a parallel time and space, Wei Guangtao was a man of both Hunan and Chu origins. He started his career in the Hunan Army and followed Zeng Guoquan to attack Ji'an. Later, he joined Zuo Zongtang's army to enter Xinjiang to quell the rebellion, and then stayed in Xinjiang to handle military affairs.

His most glorious moment was when he rushed to the Northeast front during the Sino-Japanese War of 3000-2, personally led troops, and resisted Japanese troops in Niuzhuang.

He ordered his men to set up layers of defense on the Niuzhuang defense line, and fought with the Japanese army all the way to the urban street fighting. More than 2000 of his soldiers were killed in the battle, but he was ultimately defeated because his friendly forces could not provide support, and he barely escaped.

After the end of the Sino-Japanese War of 20-, Wei Guangtao was transferred to the posts of Governor of Yunnan and Shaanxi for his bravery in battle. Later, he was promoted to Governor-General of Shaanxi and Gansu for leading troops to defend the country when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing. He was another important official of Hunan in the early th century, following Zeng Guoquan and Liu Kunyi.

However, in this time and space, when Wei Guangtao was serving as the governor of Xinjiang, he happened to encounter the situation where Yang Changjun took office as the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, and the Southeast Mutual Protection and the division of the North and South Qing dynasties occurred.

Seeing this situation, the two men, who had been friends under Zuo Zongtang's command, approached each other and formed the New Chu faction.

Wei Guangtao thus became the second most important figure among the four members of the New Chu faction.

...

In the evening, Yuan Xiangcheng and Wei Guangtao strolled along the banks of the Pearl River in the south of Guangzhou. Listening to the sound of water splashing beside them and looking at the bonfire of dead soldiers burning in the distance, Wei Guangtao suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of depression in his heart.

This bonfire was lit by Yuan Shikai a few days ago to commemorate the soldiers who died in the battle. The original intention was to burn their information.

After the funeral, although no one was ordered to put out the fire, the information was basically burned out, leaving only some flames that were about to go out.

Some young students who were immersed in grief were surprised that the flame representing the heroic spirit could be extinguished so quickly. They hurried to the city to buy some yellow paper and threw it into the bonfire, reigniting the flame.

Seeing this scene, more and more people began to imitate it. Slowly, more and more people imitated it, so that later half of the people in Guangzhou city bought yellow paper and burned it.

After the Lingnan Xinbao in Guangzhou learned about this, it published this news on the front page, with the title "Yellow Paper to Reward the Heroic Souls", introducing this moving scene to people all over the world.

Under the sky full of paper flowers, the bonfire continued to burn for 7 days, and the flames were extinguished for the first time after the first 7 days.

However, even so, people kept coming here to relight the bonfire and keep it burning again.

This was exactly what Wei Guangtao saw when he arrived.

Swollen profit. ?. 9?667?91?025

"Mr. President, with such public sentiment, how can China not be strong?"

French colonies map

The editor said that the previous chapter was garbled, so I deleted the pictures and reposted it.

img src="

French Indochina, ZNU: However, the province of Qizhen was actually divided into five parts, and Vietnam was divided into three parts.

Some book friends said that they could not distinguish the names such as "Vietnam", "Indochina", "Tokchinese", "Cochinchinensis", and "Annan" that I mentioned in the book. Today I will post a picture to make it easier for everyone to understand.

In the Chinese context, Vietnamese Annam, Vietnamese colonies are Indochina colonies, Tonkin is northern Vietnam, Central Vietnam is central Vietnam, and Cochinchina is southern Vietnam.

In the French context, it is the name on the picture in the article.

Chapter 449: Jun as a Lobbyist

From the beginning to the end, the Chu faction was the weakest among the four major local forces of Yuan, Xiang, Huai and Chu.

Not only was the basic foundation at the beginning of its establishment insufficient, but the speed of development after the governor-general became independent was also not as fast as that of the areas outside the Great Wall, Jiangnan, Lingnan, etc. that occupied the seaports.

Therefore, after Yang Changjun and Wei Guangtao knew that the Chu faction was not qualified to be a contender for the throne, in most cases, they adhered to the concept of not offending each other in their interactions with various forces.

Whether it is shaking hands and making peace with the Sichuan-Huaihe area in the Longnan mountainous area;

Or he followed Zhang Zhidong's call and sent a team to safeguard the safety of the "Lanzhou-Wuchang" trade route;

Or perhaps they accepted Yuan Shikai's behavior of sending hundreds of thousands of bannermen to Ningxia and the Hetao Plain to reclaim wasteland and open up farmland after he liquidated the Manchu nobles in Beijing.

In most cases, they chose to agree.

After the establishment of the republican government, the Chu faction expressed its obedience on the surface.

In fact, from the very beginning, Wei Guangtao had a good impression of Yuan Shikai who fought against foreign enemies.

However, after the establishment of the republican government, the continuous victories continued to deviate from the situation he had originally envisioned.

What status will the Chu faction have within the People's Republic of China in the future?

Wei Guangtao realized that if the National Revolutionary Army continued to win in the war against France, the future Republic of China might not need a role like the Chu faction.

After all, if you spend a fortune on horse bones, you are only buying the first horse.

It seems that the Chu faction was the first to recognize the republican government, but they got up early but arrived late.

Zhang Zhidong of the Hubei clique had already received the "Great Order of Merit" comparable to that of a prince, and went to the capital to serve as the president of the Privy Council.

7 Will the second and third horses receive the same treatment?

Lu Wei Guangtao knew that the current situation was different from two years ago.

Two years ago, even though Yuan Shikai had just defeated the Hunan Army and occupied several provinces outside the Great Wall in Jiangnan and North China, looking around, China had the Russians in the north and the Huai Clique in the south, and it was still unclear who would win the world.

Now, with his achievements in pacifying Xiang and destroying Huai, and resisting Russia's war tactics, Yuan Shikai has been recognized by people all over the world.

Wei Guangtao looked at the tall figures of the National Revolutionary Army on the Guangzhou city wall in the distance, and the people who kept throwing paper money into the bonfire.

He knew that even if the war against France failed, there was no one else in the world who could replace Yuan Shikai's current position.

At the moment, it is no longer Yuan Xiangcheng who needs the recognition of the Chu faction, but the Chu faction that needs Yuan Xiangcheng's recognition.

Wei Guangtao was worried about the future of the Chu faction, and Yuan Shikai was actually also thinking about how to make the Northwest Army brought by the Chu faction play a greater role.

He looked at Wei Guangtao, who was standing beside him with a worried look on his face, and said slowly in the sea breeze:

"Bing Weng Wei Guangtao, courtesy name Guangbing, led 5000 Northwest Army troops southward. After a long journey, the army only arrived in Liuzhou when Bing Weng rushed to Guangzhou. It was truly hard work."

Yuan Shikai did not let the Northwest Army of the Chu faction go directly to southern Guangxi. He told the Northwest Army not to rush and to conserve their energy and walk slowly.

However, Yuan Xiangcheng personally ordered the senior military leaders to come to Guangzhou for a meeting as soon as possible.

Therefore, when Wei Guangtao arrived in Guangzhou, the Northwest Army had just arrived in Liuzhou.

Upon hearing this, Wei Guangtao clasped his hands, bowed slightly and said, "How dare I refuse the invitation of the President?

But I am not worthy of the name Bing Weng, so please just call me by my real name."

"In that case, I will call you Lord Wei." Yuan Xiangcheng nodded and no longer worried about the address.

He walked forward a few steps, then suddenly turned back and said:

"Lord Wei, I understand what you're worried about. Xiangcheng can guarantee that anyone who contributes to the country will be treated unfairly by the future republic of China."

Yuan Shikai had a special admiration for Wei Guangtao.

Historically, compared with Liu Kunyi, Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong and others who died before the demise of the Qing Dynasty, Wei Guangtao fully experienced the Xinhai Revolution and the demise of the Qing Dynasty and died in 1916.

However, unlike other high-ranking officials who were loyal to the Qing Dynasty during the Xinhai period, Wei Guangtao never took action against the revolutionaries.

In 1911, the Wuchang Uprising broke out. The Qing government reinstated the new army leader Yuan Shikai in the north and the old army leader Wei Guangtao in the south.

However, this was different from Yuan Shikai's approach of hunting down revolutionaries while bargaining with the Qing Dynasty and demanding higher conditions for his comeback.

Wei Guangtao directly rejected the Qing court's order to restore the country and hid in his villa in his hometown of Shaoyang, Baoqing, watching the situation unfold.

Yuan Shikai never hesitated to express his admiration for those who were able to stand firm during the transition from Manchu to Han Dynasty.

Therefore, unlike his treatment of the Hunan, Huai or Hubei armies, Yuan Shikai did not want to annex or eliminate the Chu faction.

On the one hand, there are already enough defectors within the Social Revolutionary Party and the Republican government. If we eat more, we will choke and suffer indigestion.

Rather than launching a harsh and ruthless rectification campaign in the future, it is better to control the number of people flowing in from now on.

The Huaxing Party is new and can accommodate the voices of some Western-educated intellectuals; the Chu faction is old and can accommodate the voices of some old scholars and conservatives.

In the future, Yuan Shikai may allow the establishment of more factions to accommodate those who have no need to join the Social Revolutionary Party.

However, these things are still too far away for the current situation and are just a concept.

Yuan Shikai invited Wei Guangtao to Guangzhou for a more important purpose.

"Sir Wei, the French in the Qinlian area are difficult to fight. If we want to gather them together and annihilate them, we must have an army of over 100,000.

Even so, the French army can provide firepower support by sea and land, so it will not be easy to capture it quickly."

"What is the President thinking?" Wei Guangtao looked at Yuan Xiangcheng with a puzzled look on his face.

"Sir Wei, you have been in the military for a long time and have read military books for several years. You should know that there have been two roads from the Central Plains to Jiaozhi since ancient times.

One is the Guangxi route where the National Revolutionary Army and the French Army are currently fighting fiercely.

There is one more thing." Having said this, Yuan Xiangcheng looked at Wei Guangtao deeply.

Wei Guangtao immediately showed an expression of sudden enlightenment and said:

"Yunnan! Is the President planning to open a second front?"

Wei Guangtao immediately remembered that in history, when the Nanzhao Kingdom invaded the Jiaozhi area of ​​the Tang Dynasty, it took the Yunnan route.

When Zhu Di of the early Ming Dynasty ordered his troops to attack Vietnam, he also divided his troops into two groups. One group was led by General Zhang Fu and marched from the heartland of China, while the other group was led by the father and son of the Mu family and set out from Yunnan.

The army was divided into two groups and advanced step by step into the heart of Vietnam.

However, after saying this, Wei Guangtao realized that something was wrong, and he immediately asked back:

"Since the President already had a plan to march from Yunnan, why hasn't it been implemented until today?"

Upon hearing this, Yuan Xiangcheng sighed and said, "The National Revolutionary Army is now being watched by all parties. No matter where it is transferred, it is inevitable that the news will leak out.

Moreover, even if they were sent to Yunnan, it would only arouse Ye Zhichao's vigilance, making him think that they were sent to wipe out them.

After all, he once served under Li Hongzhang.

The war with France is tense now and I don't want to cause any trouble.

During the Xianfeng period, Lord Wei and Ye Zhichao served in the same camp and formed a friendship.

Now, can Lord Wei work together with Ding Ruchang to lobby for the Republican government and persuade Ye Zhichao to send troops from Yunnan?

Even if Ye Zhichao is unwilling to send troops, then as a step back, Lord Wei can lead 5000 Northwest Army troops from Yunnan to share the pressure on the front line.