After receiving the telegram, it clearly stated that Chen Jingyun was awarded the rank of lieutenant general and general. Seeing this military rank, Chen Jingyun also nodded, although he said that there was a lieutenant general in front, but he was followed by a general, which means that in the future, his military uniform epaulettes and so on can be hung with the rank of general.

"The ranks of several governors in the south are the same, commander, Lu Rongting in Guangxi, and Cai Yi in Yunnan are all lieutenant generals with the rank of general!" Yu Shifeng explained: "The Ministry of War called, let us report the generals of the National Army and the corresponding military ranks, and they will confer titles in turn!" ”

"This time, Yuan Shikai thinks very clearly!" Chen Jingyun still agrees with Yuan Shikai's method, and it is better to report it himself than to seal it indiscriminately with Yuan Shikai.

"Since the War Department didn't say it clearly, then don't send it to the generals and below, as for the list of generals, I'll draw it up myself!" Chen Jingyun thought in his heart that he had been promoted by half a level, and when he called out in the future, he could also say that he was a general, so that there would be room for his generals to be promoted by one level.

In addition to the Beiyang system itself, the first conferment of titles by the Northern Political Axe War Department was large, and in addition to the Beiyang system itself, it also gave the titles of various warlords in the south who were subordinate to the central political axe, such as Chen Jingyun in Fujian and Zhejiang, Cai Yi and Tang Jirao in Yunnan and Guizhou, Lu Rongting in Guangxi, Chen Jiongming in Guangdong, and Long Jiguang in Guilin.

The conferral of titles is also very practical, all the lieutenant generals of a province are added to the rank of general, and then to Long Jiguang and other warlords who have territory and an army but do not have the title of governor are all given to lieutenant generals or major generals, etc., and the first batch of people who are awarded the title is as high as more than 50 people, and then two days later there is a group of dozens of people, and there is a great posture of netting all the warlords in.

In the Beiyang system, the title is simpler, the division commander is all lieutenant general, and the rank of major general or major general plus lieutenant general in other brigades and the like, Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang received the title of general.

In addition to these actual generals, Yuan Shikai issued the military rank casually, Huang Xing and Li Yuanhong were given to the generals, and then a group of so-called revolutionaries such as Xu Baoshan, Wang Zhixiang, Du Xijun, and Yao Yuping were all lieutenant generals and generals, the previous titles don't count.

In short, what Yuan Shikai did this time can be said to be satisfactory to everyone, and various generals, including Chen Jingyun, went to Yanjing to express their gratitude to President Yuan.

That's not all, a few days after the award, Beiyang Political Axe called Chen Jingyun again, saying that he wanted to award Chen Jingyun a medal!

Honours? Chen Jingyun was still a little unfamiliar when he heard this term, he knew about the award, but how could he still be awarded? Could it be that Yuan Shikai also came up with a duke and earl or something like that? But Chen Jingyun remembered that Yuan Shikai hadn't gone crazy to become an emperor yet, why did he get a knighthood or something?

However, upon closer inspection, it turned out that this title was not a knighthood. According to the order of honor issued by the Beiyang political axe, it is roughly divided into six levels, that is, the big honor, the first honor, the second honor, the third honor, the fourth honor, and the fifth honor. Moreover, there is a detailed comparison between the title and the title promulgated by the former Qing Dynasty in accordance with preferential conditions, such as the prince, the prince of the county, the bezi, and the bailer are like the great lords, while the duke is like the first lord, the marquis is like the second lord, the earl is like the third, the viscount is like the fourth, and the baron is like the fifth.

In fact, in terms of meaning, the similarities between the title and the knighthood are both hierarchical honorary titles.

This title is the same as the title of the former Qing dynasty that was kept because of the preferential conditions, and has no privileges other than a small subsidy.

It's just that for the title, Yuan Shikai values it a lot, and he doesn't issue it casually like the previous rank, but restricts the personnel.

After the order was issued, Yuan Shikai himself, Sun Wen, and Li Yuanhong received the great honor, and then Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang, Tang Shaoyi and a few others received one honor, and Sun Wu, the vanguard of the Wuchang Uprising, was awarded two honors.

In addition to the above few people, only Chen Jingyun and Cai Yi were awarded the second honor.

The first is that these two people are currently the strongest people in the south, Cai Yi holds the two provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou, and Chen Jingyun controls the two provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang, so it can be said that the warlords in the south are basically headed by these two people. If Yuan Shikai wanted to unify the south, in addition to defeating Anhui, Nanjing, Jiangxi, and Guangdong controlled by Sun Wen and Huang Xing and other allies, the rest would be Chen Jingyun and Cai Yi.

Based on the military strength of the two, to a certain extent, Cai Yi and Chen Jingyun were the biggest obstacles to Yuan Shikai's unification of South China.

Now Yuan Shikai is not ready for the military unification of China, and he must encircle Chen Jingyun and Cai Ye before the big loan for the aftermath is in place, so he specially awarded these two people medals, and once again sent a telegram inviting Cai Ye and Chen Jingyun to go north to take up their posts, and said that as long as the two of them go north, the positions of chief of staff and chief of the army will be kept for them.

For this kind of talk, Chen Jingyun directly haha, in short, he didn't give permission to say, and Cai Ye was a little more cheerful, saying that he would go north after a while, as for whether it would be really Beiyang except Cai Ye himself knew, others had no clue.

"These two should be marquises!" Chen Jingyun said with a smile, and several people around him came over to say hello when they heard the news.

"Commander, but this President Yuan is also a little stingy, according to the merits of our commander, it's not impossible to be a duke!" Lin Chengkun laughed loudly.

Shen Gang on the side glanced at the two gold stars on Lin Chengkun's shoulders, and after a flash of envy, he also smiled and said, "That's right, President Yuan Da is indeed a little stingy!" ”

After congratulating Chen Jingyun, Shen Gang fell on Lin Chengkun's epaulettes again, the two Venus stars on Lin Chengkun's epaulettes were very dazzling, and after shifting his gaze, it was Feng Qin, who also had two Venus stars pinned to his shoulders, and then his gaze continued to move, Ouyang Tian, Sun Guangliang, and even Lin Zhaomin all had two Venus stars pinned to their shoulders. Among the people present, he was the only one who was a major general. I felt a little uncomfortable for a while, thinking that I should not have come with these people if I knew earlier, and I was a major general who stayed in this group and made it a little embarrassing.

After Yuan Shikai gave Chen Jingyun a lieutenant general and the rank of general, Chen Jingyun changed his epaulettes to the rank of general with three gold stars, although the Beiyang political axe gave him the rank of lieutenant general plus general, but he consciously ignored the word lieutenant general in front of him and directly regarded himself as a general. For this reason, he also recustomized the general's uniform, etc., and Chen Jingyun did not forget to promote his subordinates in addition to his own promotion.

First of all, the three major commanders, Feng Qin, Ouyang Tian, and Sun Guangliang were directly promoted to lieutenant generals, mainly to maintain the military ranks of the three major commanders not lower than the chief officers of each department.

Then there were three meritorious Yuan Fang, Ma Cheng, and Lin Zhaomin who made meritorious contributions in the Hangzhou operation as lieutenant generals, and Lin Chengkun was also promoted to lieutenant general by Chen Jingyun because of his good military training, and several relevant deputy division commanders were also promoted to the position of major general. As for the ranks of other divisions and regiments, they have not moved, this is mainly to give them motivation, and it cannot be said that Li Jimin and several of them have been promoted to lieutenant generals without fighting, so it is easy to arouse the disgust of meritorious soldiers.

Chen Jingyun promoted Shen Gang of the Operations Department to major general, and he can be regarded as the only major general and director of each department under the three major headquarters of the headquarters. In addition to Shen Gang's exploits in the war in Hangzhou, this is mainly because the Department of Operations is too important, and it is also necessary to give a major general the rank of pressure.

It's a pity that when Shen Gang came to congratulate Chen Jingyun today, it was unfortunate that he came with Feng Qin and them, so there was an embarrassing thing about Shen Gang, a major general, among the only small group of lieutenant generals in the National Army.

Shen Gang's unease in his heart naturally did not affect the good mood of others, and not only the high-level military and political axes came to congratulate him, but even the whole Chen Mansion was overjoyed.

Liuhe Lane even sent someone over to let Chen Jingyun go back to his house, saying that he was going to entertain his clansmen or something.

Chen Jingyun was also in a good mood, so he took Lin Yun back to Liuhe Lane together, which made Chen Yu's smile from ear to ear, the reason why Chen Yu's family was so happy was mainly because someone told her that Chen Jingyun's two honors were equivalent to the marquis of the former Qing Dynasty, which in Chen Yu's opinion, the marquis was much better than the governor of Fujian, and much better than the army general.

"It's good, it's just that the name is a little messy, and the two of you sound a little awkward, why doesn't the president just use the Marquis Duke or something?" Chen Yushi was not only happy, but also did not forget to bury Yuan Shikai a few words.

In this regard, Chen Jingyun only laughed a few times.

Yuan Shikai's wooing of Chen Jingyun became more and more obvious, but it made Chen Jingyun more and more worried, although he expressed his loyalty to Yuan Shikai through various channels, and repeatedly hinted that if a war broke out in the south in the future, the national army would resolutely stand on the side of the central political axe.

However, these hints are the same as Yuan Shikai's wooing, just superficial means, and Chen Jingyun doesn't expect Yuan Shikai to believe it.

In order to deal with the crisis in the future, Chen Jingyun has sent two handwritten letters to Cai Jie, persuading Cai Yi to postpone his northward journey for the sake of the national situation and the republic. Now Chen Jingyun is afraid that Cai Ye is really the same as he said at the beginning, in order to be an example for the whole [***] team, and take the initiative to give up military power and go north for the reunification of the whole country, if this kind of thing happens, then the situation in the whole country will change greatly.

Without the containment of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, the armed reunification of the Beiyang Army would be much smoother, and without the containment of the Yunnan and Guizhou parties, it would be impossible for the Nationalist Army alone to resist the Beiyang Army's southward advance, and as for the army under the control of Huang Xing and Sun Wen and others, Chen Jingyun never counted on it. According to various circumstances, the military power in the territory controlled by the alliance is still very limited.

Nanjing's Eighth Division is considered to be the strongest, but the number is too small, and the Anhui side is now also caught in infighting, anyway, until now Chen Jingyun has not figured out who the two divisions on the Anhui side listen to, as if one will listen to the Alliance, and the other will listen to Beiyang. The military forces in Jiangxi are now under the control of Li Junlie, which can be regarded as a relatively large force of the alliance, but Jiangxi is barren, although the number of troops is quite large, but the quality is limited, according to the report of the military intelligence department, the troops of the alliance in Jiangxi are estimated to be a little stronger than the bandits.

The rest of Guangdong is a bit chaotic, there is a Guilin Long Jiguang in the west, and Chen Jiongming and Sun Wen in Guangzhou are not very right, not to mention that the two divisions in Chen Jiongming's hands are not capable of going north to support, even if he has the ability, whether Chen Jiongming is willing to support is another matter.

If we analyze the situation in this way, we will find that the situation of the National Army is very bad. If Chen Jingyun and Cai Yi rely on each other, they may be able to resist in the military conflict with Beiyang in the future, but if Cai Yi goes north and Yungui watches the Beiyang Army go south, it will be very difficult for the Nationalist Army to resist Beiyang.

What to do?