As soon as the news of the Qing court's acceptance of the peace talks broke, the whole country was in an uproar. This news was more sensational than the original Wuchang Uprising or the capture of Wuchang City, the previous Wuchang Uprising and the capture of Nanjing, at best, can only say that there is a republican trend in the southern provinces of China, but as long as North China is still under the control of the Qing court, then the republic of China is impossible to talk about.

However, now the Qing court has accepted the proposal of the south and is preparing for peace talks, which only shows that there is no one to stop the Chinese republic.

When Yuan Shikai received the holy decree in the palace, he did not show surprise or other obvious joy, but showed a trace of lamentation.

Judging from the first half of Yuan Shikai's life, he personally is similar to Li Hongzhang, otherwise Li Hongzhang would not have chosen him to be the successor of the Beiyang system, loyal to the imperial court while more concerned about the way out of Beiyang, at the same time he also has the same international strategic vision as Li Hongzhang, which is extremely lacking in Chinese today, when Li Hongzhang built the Beiyang Naval Division and created the history of the Chinese Navy, and more than ten years ago Yuan Shikai's small station training also created the modern Chinese army, and the two are almost the same. Although they all have the limitations and shortcomings of one era or another, it is impossible to deny their achievements and vision.

Like Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong and other important Han ministers, Yuan Shikai's mentality towards the Qing court was also extremely contradictory, on the one hand, it was the Confucian thinking of loyalty to the monarch, and on the other hand, he did not see that the pattern of the world was changing, and he understood that the existing system was far behind the world. The product of this ambivalence is the Westernization Movement, which attempts to use Western technology to compensate for the lack of a system, and now, it is no longer a technological revolution that can solve the problem.

Between the interests of Zhongjun and Beiyang, Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang both chose the imperial court, while Yuan Shikai chose Beiyang.

People are ambitious, the difference is that some people can control ambition and bury it deep in their hearts, while some people can't control it and expose their ambition when the time comes.

And Yuan Shikai in the second half of his life is a Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, and Zhang Zhidong who exposed their ambitions.

In front of Xu Shichang and many Beiyang cadres, Yuan Shikai made no secret of his pity for the Qing court, but this expression only lasted for half an hour before disappearing.

"Now Yang Zhezi is in Shanghai, call him to officially contact the south!" Yuan Shikai knew that there was also a meeting of the governors of the Southern Allied Forces in Shanghai, and he knew that this meeting of the governors really represented the thoughts of the governors of the south, and as for Nanjing, it could only be regarded as a superficial political show, and he would take it to Nanjing to negotiate after the negotiations were completed in private.

Xu Shichang said: "I heard that Sun Wen has arrived in Yuben, and he is about to return to China, will his return have an impact on the situation!" ”

Yuan Shikai nodded: "There will definitely be an impact, but it won't actually change anything!" ”

As a super warlord with China's largest military power, Yuan Shikai understands very well that what some people say can be listened to, what some people say must be taken seriously, and what some people say can only be used as a joke, and Sun Wenma, in Yuan Shikai's view, he is a signboard, a signboard that the Southern Party will hold high, and whether the signboard itself is erected high, the key lies in the person who erected him. Therefore, Yuan Shikai's focus is still on the governors in the south who have actual troops, such as Zhu Rui in Zhejiang, Li Yuanhong in Wuchang, Xu Shaozhen in Nanjing, Cheng Dequan in Jiangsu, and Chen Jingyun in Fujian and others.

"But let's let Zhiquan pay more attention to one or two things, and control the proportions of Hubei and Nanjing!" Duan Qirui is now in the south, holding the important position of the president of the First Army, and also serving as the president of the Second Army in name only, and he is a veritable boss of the Beiyang Army system in the south, even if he has more weight than Feng Guozhang some time ago.

Some time ago, Duan Qirui had secretly contacted the south according to Yuan Shikai's secret order, and he could be regarded as Yuan Shikai's plenipotentiary representative.

"Zhiquan's ability is well known to everyone, with him in the south, presumably Nanjing will not be able to turn the game!" Although Feng Guozhang still has a sour taste in his heart, but now that the peace between the north and the south is related to the entire Beiyang, he can't stay out of it, so he is also doing his best in the face of some inquiries from Yuan Shikai these days.

"However, I think the governors in the south still need to deepen their contact, and if the peace talks fail, we will be able to have a way back!" Feng Guozhang arrived at Lao La, and before the peace talks officially began, he planned to retreat after the failure of the peace talks.

But when these words were heard in Yuan Shikai's ears, and then he remembered that Feng Guozhang did not listen to his hints and insisted on taking Hanyang some time ago, which made Yuan Shikai ambiguous about Feng Guozhang's words, and thought to himself, could it be that he still wanted to help the imperial court and want to destroy the overall situation of the peace talks?

The development of the North-South peace talks to this day is no longer something that can be summed up by a simple sentence of the Chinese republic or the like, but it contains the various interests of many forces, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a compromise between the forces of all parties.

For the southern provinces, I won't say what the peace talks represent, but for Beiyang, for Yuan Shikai, the peace talks represent that Beiyang as a whole will replace the imperial court, and he Yuan Shikai himself will become the supreme leader of China. Therefore, the overall situation of this peace talk is guaranteed by Yuan Shikai.

Otherwise, all the efforts Yuan Shikai had made before would have been in vain.

On December 8, Yuan Shikai appointed Tang Shaoyi, minister of the Ministry of Posts and Communications, as his plenipotentiary to preside over the peace talks.

At the same time, Nanjing is as chaotic as ever, since the Southern Coalition Army conquered Nanjing, Nanjing has not been quiet, especially Huang Xing and other revolutionaries, the Southern Coalition Army, the Governors and others of the contradictions, and Wuchang Li Yuanhong The contradictions are intensifying, on the surface, it seems that all the forces in the south have united against Beiyang and want to overthrow the Manchus, but in fact it is a plate of scattered sand. Before the peace talks had officially begun, Li Yuanhong was extremely dissatisfied with his assumption of the title of deputy marshal, and then mobilized representatives from all sides to demand that the generalissimo and deputy marshal be re-elected.

And Huang Xing didn't have time to quarrel with Li Yuanhong at this time, he was the most pragmatic person in the high-level of the Alliance, even if he announced that he would prepare for the Northern Expedition and form the Northern Expeditionary Army in the name of the generalissimo.

Only two days later, I don't know what means he used to persuade Xu Shaozhen to join the Northern Expeditionary Army. Xu Shaozhen, the commander of the Southern Coalition Army, ran away with his troops, and the Southern Coalition Army was announced to be disbanded after only one month of existence, among which Chen Qimei was originally a revolutionary and Sun Wen's most loyal supporter, so he simply joined the Northern Expeditionary Army with his troops. The rest of Cheng Dequan, Zhu Rui, and the generals sent by Shu Zhi were a little confused for a while.

However, before they could react, Huang Xing took over their troops one by one in the name of the generalissimo. When Cheng Dequan, Zhu Rui and others reflected, they regretted scolding their mothers even more.

When it comes to the means of playing politics, the governors of these places are far inferior to Huang Xing, Song Jiaoren and the like. The People's League has developed day by day, and the Qing Dynasty is about to be overthrown, and now it is very convenient to use the name of the generalissimo to seize military power by taking advantage of the revolutionary righteousness and the name of the generalissimo.

In a few days, the troops of the Southern Coalition Army gathered in Nanjing became the Northern Expeditionary Army, and when he learned the news, Chen Jingyun, who was far away in Fuzhou, was also terrified.

This Huang Xing didn't fight well, but the seizure of military power was clean and neat, if Chen Jingyun had sent the first brigade to Nanjing before, I am afraid that he would not be able to keep it.

After Huang Xing initially integrated the Northern Expeditionary Army in Nanjing, he hurriedly recruited new soldiers, during which many so-called revolutionary teams came to take refuge, and in just a few days, more than 100,000 troops gathered around Nanjing, which was comparable to the people's army in Guangzhou.

And this momentum also made the outside feel that Huang Xing's Northern Expedition was very feasible.

However, if you look at the military mobilization of Beiyang, you will find that Beiyang is completely indifferent, Zhang Xun's Jiang Defense Army is still stuck in Nanjing, and even Zhang Xun can't swallow the effort of being driven out of Nanjing, and he also sent a small force to sneak attack, and the results are quite fruitful. The fifth town of Shandong also began to hand over the defense of Shandong to the third town according to the predetermined plan, and began to move to Xuzhou.

At the same time, in order to negotiate the overall situation, Yuan Shikai specially spread the news of the rising momentum of the Southern Army to the palace and a group of Manchu magnates, when Longyu heard that Nanjing had gathered hundreds of thousands of revolutionary troops, and the Northern Expedition could be carried out at any time, the whole person was stunned, even Zaifeng and others were stunned by Yuan Shikai, and the words that had been obstructing the peace talks a few days ago stopped slightly.

"The current peace talks are like a big show, Nanjing and Yuan Shikai are exercising for the Qing court to see!" In the Governor's Mansion in Fuzhou, Chen Jingyun rarely had time to accompany Luo Li during the day.

In the past few days, the north-south peace talks have been boiling over, even Luo Li in the deep house has heard a little, and he talked about the north-south peace talks while chatting.

But Luo Li is a girl in the end, and she doesn't like to say this, although she wants to pretend to listen to it with relish, but her ability to pretend to be a little worse is a little worse, and it didn't take long for Chen Jingyun to see it.

Chen Jingyun stretched out his hand and squeezed her hand: "Alas, I forgot for a moment that you don't like to hear this!" ”

Luo Li shook his head: "No! I'm listening to it very carefully! ”

"Huh! Well, know you're listening! Chen Jingyun didn't argue with her, and changed the topic: "When you go back to your house in the morning, what's going on at home!" ”

Luo Li shook his head: "It's okay, everything is fine at home, it's much more lively than before, I heard them say that many people go to see the old woman and the big housekeeper every day!" ”

Speaking of this, she paused for a moment and said, "There is also an old lady who said that she misses you, so that you have time to go back and have a look!" ”

Chen Jingyun nodded after hearing this: "I haven't been back for a few days, I will take the time to go back, and you can follow when the time comes!" ”