The sudden declaration of war by the government of the Republic of China on Germany disrupted not only the positions of the great powers. In Shanghai, Sun Wen and his entourage, who had already made preparations, had to temporarily cancel their trip, and Sun Wen himself took an American merchant ship directly from Shanghai to Guangzhou in the south. Now the headquarters of the Kuomintang has been relocated to Guangzhou. Hu Hanmin had also negotiated with Lu Rongting, and although Lu Rongting was extremely resistant to the Kuomintang's decision to establish a military academy and train party troops, after the Republic of China declared war on Germany yesterday, for unknown reasons, Lu Rongting agreed to the Kuomintang's demand, but strictly limited the size of the Kuomintang's party army. After arduous negotiations, Lu Rongting only agreed to establish a party army of no more than 3,000 people in Guangdong. This is undoubtedly very good news for the Kuomintang, which has never held military power.

Although 3,000 people is extremely small for a big warlord like the Northeast and Southwest, Sun Wen and others are very excited, after all, this is a team that completely belongs to the revolution and is the seed of the revolution. The 3,000 army has nothing to fear from any warlord, but what if it is a graduate of the 3,000 military academy, 3,000 officers? It's a huge system. This matter is related to the future of the Kuomintang, and of course Sun Wen has to preside over it himself, so of course he has no intention of going to the Northeast. After all, in Sun Wen's mind, the Kuomintang was the seed of the Chinese revolution, and the warlords were only the source of turmoil, and if they could be used by the revolution, Sun Wen did not mind making appropriate concessions. If you do not support the revolution, you will sooner or later be extinguished by the forces of the revolution. Sun Wen was convinced of this.

Sun Wen was going south by boat, and Song Qingling was supposed to go south with Sun Wen. But Song Qingling asked to stay in Shanghai to recuperate on the grounds that he was not feeling well, although Sun Wen felt that Song Qingling was alienated from him, but he didn't say anything! After all, the two never spoke about their feelings from beginning to end. Sun Wen asked her to stay in Shanghai to assist Huang Xing in handling the affairs of the Shanghai branch of the Kuomintang. He set off to the south alone, and compared with a woman, Sun Wen valued power more in his heart.

The northeast's uncharacteristically supportive of the central government's decision-making suddenly pushed the new army in the southwest to the forefront. During this time, there were always suspicious characters walking around the Southwest Governor's Mansion in Chengdu. This is a secret agent from all sides, who wants to find out Cai Yi's decision in advance. This made the guards of the Governor's Palace in the southwest feel like a great enemy. After all, the southwest is already a mixture of dragons and snakes, and various forces are intertwined, and Cai's new army has risen strongly to suppress various local forces, making them powerless to resist and hibernating. But they don't look like killing Cai Ye all the time and restoring the original "prosperity" of the southwest.

"General! Now the whole country is looking at our new army. It's time for us to make a decision. The subordinates suggested that the power supply support the Beiyang government's decision-making. Tang Jiyao, deputy commander of the Southwest New Army and concurrently the overseer of Yunnan, said.

"Old Tang, do you think the Beiyang government can win?" Cai is not optimistic about the central government's decision. After all, the West is too far from China. In his view, war is the business of the Western powers, and China, which is located in the east, is taking advantage of this good time to accumulate strength and develop its national strength. It really shouldn't be mixed in. After all, no matter who wins or loses in Europe, it will be difficult for China to benefit. Moreover, decades of wars of aggression have made Cai Ye have some understanding of the faces of the great powers, and if China does not have the strength, the tragedy of the great powers' invasion of China will still happen.

"It's hard to say, I haven't been in contact with Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang, so I don't know what their personalities are. However, the support of the Overseers and the Northeast is worth considering. After all, from a geographical point of view, the Northeast is geographically closer to Beijing, and it should deal with the greatest threat to the Northeast. The forces of the two sides cannot be harmonious. Could it be that the Northeast is so sure that the central government has bet on the right treasure this time? Although Tang Jiyao is nominally Cai Yi's deputy, his prestige in the New Army is also very high, and he is not even under Cai Yi. Although Cai Ye was powerful in the southwest in the early days of the revolution, he was later recruited to Beijing by Yuan Shikai and placed under house arrest for several years. What made Cai Ye happy was that Tang Jiyao did not forget his feelings back then, and after Cai Ye returned, he was willing to give up the position of overseer and support Cai Ye's revolutionary actions. It can be said that without Tang Jiyao's strong support. It would have been impossible for Cai Ye to launch a vigorous war to protect the country, and there would have been no new army in the southwest that is now in full swing.

After the establishment of the Southwest New Army, Cai Yi served as the commander-in-chief and concurrently served as the Sichuan overseer, and Tang Jiyao served as the deputy commander and concurrently served as the Yunnan overseer. The mutual cooperation between the two people is the foundation for the strength of the Southwest New Army. The conditions for the establishment of the new army determined that Cai Ye could not have the same control that Feng Yong had over the Northeast Security Army. Fortunately, Cai Yi himself does not have much power**, many specific things in the Western Army are handled by Tang Jiyao, and Tang Jiyao himself also admires Cai Yi, which is probably the reason why the two can cooperate tacitly from beginning to end.

"I can't grasp Feng Yong's thoughts. But from what I know about him, he doesn't do anything untargeted. But no matter what attitude the Northeast has towards this matter, I do not support the Republic of China's participation in the quagmire of world war. And we must take a clear stand against it! Cai Ye said firmly. The news of Cai Ye and Li Junbai was blocked in the northeast, and even fewer people knew about it in the new army in the southwest, after all, everyone knew the truth of avoiding suspicion. It can be seen from Cai Yi's words that Tang Jiyao knows.

"Against? Commander! That's not good! Will we do this and cause a siege by the whole country? Now public opinion is in favor of China's entry into the war! Tang Jiyao shook his head, Cai Yi's approach is too risky!

"Old Don! The Beiyang government's sudden declaration of war on Germany must have been facilitated by Duan Qirui. Now in the central government, the power of President Li Da has been completely hollowed out, and Feng Guozhang has also turned his back on the president and colluded with Duan Qirui. The current central government is already in charge of the Beiyang military. I suspect that they suddenly declared war with Germany because Duan Feng and the others reached some kind of agreement with the great powers, and they may even have betrayed the rights of the country! Cai Yi said with a frown. Through the Protectorate War and the opposition of the people of the whole country, Yuan Shikai, who was engaged in dictatorship, was finally ousted, and now there is another Duan Qirui who is in line with the yang and the yin, and this kind of dictatorship is the most unaccustomed to Cai Ye and the most intolerable. In the final analysis, Cai Ye is just a qualified soldier, not a qualified politician, and the characteristics of a soldier are simple and strong. Cai Ye is no exception, he can raise troops to fight against Yuan Shikai because he is the emperor and is not afraid of life and death, and he is naturally not afraid of raising troops to overthrow Duan Qirui again.

"Commander! I am worried that if we do this, we will arouse the dissatisfaction of the people of the whole country, and now the outside world has called our Southwest New Army the third largest warlord in the Republic of China, and if we oppose the government in this matter, the Beiyang Government will definitely hype up our warlord nature and incite all forces to resist us, which will be very detrimental to the development of the New Army. I hope you will think about this, Commander. "Cai Ye has strong military ability, but his political vision is average. Tang Jiyao's military ability is average, and his political ability is also a good job, and his ability to sit firmly in the position of the overseer of Yunnan is more dependent on the old foundation laid by Cai Yi back then. But his ability does not mean that his vision is not good. Tang Jiyao's vision of things is still good. He could see what kind of predicament the new army would suffer in Cai's way.

"Old Tang, you can't back down just because there is a predicament ahead. The road of revolution is already full of thorns! It can only be achieved with bloody sacrifice. There is no bloodless revolution in the world. Now it is the Republic of China. No matter what the outside world says, we are not warlords, our new army must ensure the inheritance of the fruits of the revolution, and absolutely will not allow the country to have a dictator again! Cai Ye said very firmly.

Tang Jiyao nodded, although he was noncommittal about Cai Yi's insistence in his heart, he chose to support Cai Yi, because he understood that although his prestige in the new army was not small, he could not compare with a famous general like Cai Yi, and the new army would have such an amazing cohesion because of a famous general like Cai Yi. And his own lacks this charisma. He couldn't imagine what the new army would have become without Cai.

Unifying his internal thinking, Cai Ye quickly issued a strong statement, clearly opposing the Beiyang government's declaration of war on Germany, claiming that this was a conspiracy of certain careerists and a trampling on the peace of China!

When the news reached the northeast, Feng Yong sighed. Cai Ye is still the same Cai Ng, and he has not changed in any way because of the establishment of a new army and becoming the de facto king of the southwest, so Cai Ng, who is dedicated to the country, is undoubtedly admirable. But for a country and a force, a leader like Cai Ye is unqualified. Because Cai's behavior is the thinking of a soldier, not the thinking of a politician, the soldier is brave and resolute, but politics is another field entirely. There is a saying in later generations that politics is the art of compromise!

Cai Yi**'s shouting against the decision of the central government almost did not directly oppose anyone. The strong reaction of the new army has caused public opinion in the country to be noisy, and various arguments have emerged one after another, and some support Cai Yi, after all, China has experienced decades of war and turmoil, and its national strength is weak, so it is not suitable to participate in the war again. But compared with these supporters of Cai, there are more people who support the Beiyang government. Although China has been defeated for decades, the government's actions have shown a positive attitude towards the people. And who can guarantee that China will not be able to win this war. Decades of defeat have made the Chinese nation's mentality in the face of war complicated, both eager for victory and afraid of defeat again. It is precisely because of these contradictory mentalities that China became the victorious country in World War I that it had such a great impact on the Chinese nation. It was also after the hope was dashed that the ideological emancipation movement that swept the whole country broke out. Opened another most glorious chapter of time and space.

(To be continued)