Because a few days ago, Feng Guozhang ignored Yuan Shikai's hints and took Hanyang in one fell swoop, and at the same time shelled Wuchang to prepare to completely capture the three towns of Wuhan. This made Feng Guozhang get the knighthood of the imperial court, but also made Yuan Shikai very annoyed, and removed Feng Guozhang from his post on the same day, ostensibly to be transferred to the president of the Praetorian Guard, but anyone can see Lao Yuan's thoughts from this seemingly flat position.

When Duan Qirui arrived in Hubei, he stopped shelling Wuchang as soon as possible, and at the same time stopped the offensive against Wuchang, which made Li Yuanhong, who had fled from the Governor's Mansion and fled to the outskirts of Wuchang, breathe a sigh of relief.

On November 30, representatives of the southern provinces arrived at the British Concession in Hankow for the first meeting. This meeting is a bit interesting, at that time Hankou has been taken by the Beiyang Army for many days, but the representatives of the southern provinces even went to Hankou to hold the first founding conference, and the meeting place was still the British Concession, this kind of seemingly slippery thing can only appear in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, and this kind of strange thing cannot occur in any era.

At the same time, Duan Qirui, who knew Lao Yuan's thoughts, had secret contact with Li Yuanhong on the one hand to discuss armistice and peace talks, and at the same time, the British also intervened at this time and sent an envoy to Wuchang, saying that they were willing to act as an intermediary to mediate the war between the two sides.

The actions of the British naturally have something to do with Yuan Shikai, since Feng Guozhang rashly captured and disrupted Yuan Shikai's strategic planning on the 27th, Yuan Shikai felt more and more that things were in danger of getting out of his control, so he didn't want to continue to drag on, and wanted to settle the matter of peace talks as soon as possible. Yuan Shikai's idea was supported by the majority of people, especially the Western countries.

For Britain, Germany, France, the United States, and even now Russia, a weak and stable China is advantageous to them, so that they can extract the maximum benefits from China without wasting a single soldier. If a large-scale war breaks out in China, such as a civil war between the north and the south like the current one, Western countries will feel powerless and want to intervene. Don't intervene, a divided and chaotic China is extremely detrimental to the commercial and economic interests of all countries in China, and the British Minister Zhu Erdian has obtained a simple business report, which says that the economic activities of British businessmen in China have been greatly damaged by the civil war, and in less than two months, British businessmen have suffered business losses of up to one million pounds, and if the war continues, the losses will continue to rise.

At present, the situation on the European continent is tense, and all countries are vigorously expanding their armaments, and even the United States, which is far away in the Americas, is not far behind, and one battleship after another has been launched. The situation in Europe is so tense that the diplomatic and military centers of various countries are focused on the European front, and even Russia is no exception, stepping up preparations for war on the Western Front.

In such a situation, a turbulent Far East is something they do not want to see.

This has created a very interesting situation, although the countries in Europe and other regions have drawn their swords against each other, but the Far East has maintained a surprising unanimity on the issue of China, when the Wuchang Uprising broke out, the ministers of various countries met with various drinking parties, and then verbally agreed and jointly declared neutrality.

and set out to prevent this war, which can be seen from the support of various countries for Yuan Shikai's return to form a cabinet, in their eyes Yuan Shikai is a powerful figure, the only person to unify China, the most suitable agent of interests in China, as for the Manchu nobles of the Qing court, they have long been abandoned.

But Yuan Shikai is a hero, if he plans to rely on this Wuchang Uprising to come back to power, then the current Yuan Shikai is no longer satisfied with the position of prime minister, he wants a higher position, is the emperor, is the president, these two are not much different in Yuan Shikai's view, that is, the name is different.

Yuan Shikai's thinking caused the Beiyang Army to be slow to act, and he was unwilling to deal with the Southern People's Army. At this time, when Yuan Shikai revealed his desire for peace talks to the ministers of various countries, especially Zhu Erdian, Zhu Erdian, who had long wanted to end the Chinese civil war, immediately asked the diplomats of the British Concession in Hankou to contact the Wuchang military and political axe.

After several British diplomats arrived in Wuchang, the people of the Wuchang military and political axes were already panicked, and they were afraid that the Beiyang army would attack the city. Before that, Li Yuanhong also had several secret contacts with Duan Qirui. In this way, the two sides hit it off and prepared to sign an armistice.

However, Li Yuanhong had already escaped from Wuchang City, and Jiang Yiwu, Wu Zhaolin and others in Wuchang City had no choice but to privately engrave the governor's seal, and signed a temporary armistice agreement with Duan Qirui's ghostwriter on the same day.

In this way, on December 1, the war in Hubei, which had been fought for nearly two months, was declared to have entered the armistice stage. Coincidentally, on this day, the Southern Coalition Army under the command of Xu Shaozhen invaded the city of Nanjing.

In Nanjing, after Zhang Xun learned that Hubei Li Yuanhong and Duan Qirui had signed a temporary armistice agreement, he scolded his mother angrily. He had no problem with signing a temporary armistice agreement with the Southern Party, and although he finally came to the imperial court, he also saw that the situation in the South had deteriorated, and if he continued to fight, he would lose both. But what he hated was that the temporary armistice agreement signed by Duan Qirui's guy was only limited to Hubei, and he was not included in Nanjing.

This made him almost vomit blood, the southern coalition army came to Nanjing again, and there was already a small group of southern coalition troops attacking the city of Nanjing, seeing that the overall situation was in front of him, he couldn't care about his loyalty to the imperial court, and began to follow the secret order given to him by Yuan Shikai at the beginning, gathered troops to break through overnight, and went to Xuzhou. Because the Southern Coalition Army did not have many troops and did not form an encirclement in Nanjing, they could only stare at Zhang Xun's breakthrough and let Zhang Xun go all the way.

The next morning, Xu Shaozhen announced the restoration of Nanjing in Nanjing!

As soon as this telegram came out, the whole country was in an uproar! Its influence is no less than that of the original Wuchang Uprising. If the original Wuchang Uprising was a spark, the Fuzhou Uprising added a handful of oil to it, and the provincial uprisings added firewood, then the capture of Nanjing by the Southern Coalition Army means that the vigorous Xinghai Revolution has ignited a raging fire.

As mentioned above, Nanjing's important surname does not lie in its military status, but in its political significance, and the capital of the Six Dynasties, the most important political city in the south, fell into the hands of the Southern Revolutionary Party, which means that the South has completely fallen into the hands of the Revolutionary Party, which can be seen on the surface as a situation of confrontation between the north and the south.

On the same day, the governors of the southern provinces, including Chen Jingyun, sent congratulatory telegrams to Nanjing, and after hearing the news, Sun Wen, who was far away, could not care about 'fundraising' and immediately said that he would return to China to lead the revolution.

After hearing the news, Zaifeng of Yanjing almost fainted in front of him, and then looked at the Empress Dowager Longyu who was crying and holding Puyi, Zaifeng's mind was blank, he didn't speak, and staggered out of the palace alone. Pu Lun and other Manchu magnates were also sad, and there was no other sound in the huge heart cultivation hall except for Longyu's low sobs.

Different from the sad face in the palace, Yuan Shikai and a group of cadres and important ministers from Beiyang in the Yuan Mansion gathered together, originally they gathered here to discuss the armistice agreement on the Hubei side, to prepare to plan the next strategy and follow-up peace talks, just when they were negotiating, they received a telegram from the recovery of Nanjing.

After seeing this telegram, Yuan Shikai was not disappointed but relieved, which finally brought the situation back to the expected control.

The loss of Nanjing was originally Yuan Shikai's intention, in order to give the Qing court, especially the palace, a panic and pressure, so that the abdication in the future can be smoother, and he can't really learn from Cao Ying, and use the army to drive the orphans and widows out of the palace.

If those people in the south are forced to abdicate voluntarily in the palace, then the surname quality will be different.

Although Feng Guozhang, who had just returned to Yanjing, was extremely dissatisfied with Yuan Shikai's move to transfer him back a few days ago, he was a member of Beiyang after all, and in addition to considering the imperial court, he also had to consider the overall interests of Beiyang, which was why Yuan Shikai would come back obediently when he transferred him back to Beijing.

"Nanjing is lost, the southern party is booming, it is difficult to guarantee that they will not go north along the Jinpu line, and now there is only one target in Xuzhou, is the army weaker!" Feng Guozhang is the top level of Beiyang in the end, and no one can speak more confidently than him except Yuan Shikai.

"Now that Shandong has almost stabilized, is it not necessary to transfer the fifth town to Xuzhou." Cao Kun of the third town is Yuan Shikai's confidant and favorite general, and he is also confident in speaking.

Yuan Shikai nodded: "Xuzhou can't be lost, but Shandong can't be messed up either!" Zhang Xun's Jiang defense army has broken through from Nanjing, the main force is not damaged, and I have ordered him to go to Xuzhou. However, for the sake of safety, the Jinpu line and the Jinghan line have to be readjusted. ”

Yuan Shikai fought with himself from the Korean battlefield, and later single-handedly established the Beiyang Army, which in addition to his personal prestige and courage, his own military literacy was also extremely old at that time.

He continued: "Originally, the situation in Hubei was urgent, so we could only draw troops from the nearby Yongping Qiuying, but now that a temporary armistice agreement has been signed on the Hubei side, all departments should also return to the formation as soon as possible after the Jinghan line is initially stabilized. ”

Originally, the First Army of the Jinghan Line was composed of troops from Beiyang who participated in the Autumn Attack in Yongping, mainly the Third Association of the Second Town, the Fifth Association of the Third Town, the Eighth Association of the Fourth Town, the Eleventh Association of the Sixth Town, and a considerable part of the artillery units of each town. In terms of organization, except for the first town of Gongwei Gyeonggi, the 20th and 23rd towns in the northeast and the fifth town in the Shandong direction, several main forces in Beiyang have troops under the command of the First Army. Seeing that the fighting has stopped slightly, it is still necessary to complete the structure of each department, so that it will be better to command in future operations.

In this way, the remnants of the Twelfth Association of the Sixth Town were sent to Hubei, and the remnants of the Seventh Association of the Fourth Town were also transferred to Hubei, and the two towns were under the command of the First Army. Then the third town and the second town belong to the system! After Yuan Shikai finished speaking, he looked at Cao Kun and said, "Cao Kun, you are ready to prepare, your third town is ready to go south to Shandong!" ”

Cao Kun received the order and said: "What about the original fifth town in Shandong? ”

"Let Jin Yunpeng's fifth town go south to Xuzhou!" Yuan Shikai continued: "In this way, there is a town in Xuzhou, plus Zhang Xun's Jiangfang Army, it should be able to ensure that northern Jiangsu is not lost, and even if Xuzhou changes, the third town in Shandong can rush to the aid along the Jinpu line in time." ”