It can be seen from Yuan Shikai's transfer that the main military deployment of the Beiyang Army is along the Jinghan Line and the Jinpu Line as the benchmark, of which the Jinpu Line is the most obvious, and there is only one town in the direction of Xuzhou on the front line and Zhang Xun's Jiangfang Army, but through the Jinpu Line, the Beiyang Army can send the third town stationed in Shandong to Xuzhou for reinforcements at any time, even if the situation is corrupt, the second town stationed in Tianjin can quickly reinforce the front line through the Jinpu line.

Take 10,000 steps back and say that all the above three towns have been defeated, and Yuan Shikai can also mobilize the first town responsible for defending Gyeonggi, the Praetorian Guard, the Zhili Mixed Association, and even the 20th and 23rd towns in the northeast region to reinforce the front line by rail, from this level, the strategic advantage of the Beiyang Army is far superior to that of the Southern Coalition Army.

From here, it can be seen that the railway is an important surname for military mobilization, and through several railway arteries in northern China, Yuan Shikai can completely concentrate large-scale troops in a short period of time, so as to gain an advantage in military strength. If Beiyang did not have the Jinpu Line and the Jinghan Line, the Beiyang Army would need to add at least six more towns to the current military advantage

The Beiyang Army took advantage of the gap time of the temporary armistice in Hubei, and once again mobilized the various departments on a large scale to carry out the integration of strategic surnames, relatively speaking, the military operations of the southern provinces were much backward, after the capture of Nanjing, almost all the southern provinces set their sights on Nanjing, and the representatives of the provinces also went to Nanjing from the British Concession in Hankou to prepare for the founding of the country. However, Nanjing has fallen, and the important surname of Wuchang has dropped sharply in the hearts of the revolutionaries, and it cannot be stopped at all.

"Governor, someone from Shanghai is asking and wants to know our attitude!" Zheng Zuyin asked Chen Jingyun.

After the Southern Coalition Army took Nanjing, many people said that they would set up a temporary political axe in Nanjing, and this proposal was almost unanimously supported by Sun Wen, Huang Xing and other revolutionaries, as well as real power figures such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and as a member of the Southern Coalition Army, although the first brigade sent by Chen Jingyun was still in Shaoxing, no one ignored Chen Jingyun, and the representatives of the governors who stayed in Shanghai also made a special appointment to meet with Lin Changming and asked what Fujian meant.

The representatives of the governors of Shanghai are different from the representatives of the provinces who are heading to Nanjing from Hubei, and the representatives of the provinces belong to the official level, while the representatives of the governors who remain in Shanghai are the personal representatives of various powerful figures of the Southern Coalition Army, such as Chen Qimei, the governor of Shanghai, Tang Shouqian of Zhejiang, Cheng Dequan, the governor of Jiangsu, Lin Shuqing, the governor of Zhenjiang, Li Xie, the commander-in-chief of the Wusong Guangfu Army, and Chen Jingyun and Xu Shaozhen, the governors of Fujian.

Up to now, the governors of the Southern Coalition Army are still very united on the issue of building the capital of Nanjing, and unanimously decided to build the capital in Nanjing.

Chen Jingyun also said this, at present, there are only two cities suitable for China to be the capital, one is Yanjing, the other is Nanjing, and other cities are more or less flawed, which is why the Southern Coalition Army was in a hurry to take Nanjing, and what is important is its political significance.

"After all, Nanjing is the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, and it is better to choose that side than Wuchang!" Chen Jingyun said: "I think Mr. Zheng also thinks so!" ”

Zheng Zuyin smiled and nodded: "I also see it this way, Nanjing's pattern is unique in the whole of South China!" ”

It didn't take long for the meeting of the governors of Shanghai to unanimously decide to support the capital of Nanjing, and at this time, Li Yuanhong of Wuchang could only accept his fate.

When all parties were in turmoil, Chen Jingyun sent another telegram in the name of the governor of Fujian, asking Yuan Shikai to approve the republic and reiterating his willingness to support Yuan Shikai as the president.

This move does not have much practical significance, since Huang Xing and Chen Jingyun successively issued a message to persuade Yuan Shikai to support the republican telegram, the governors of the southern provinces have also sent similar telegrams, so the influence of Chen Jingyun's telegram is far less important than the first time, but Chen Jingyun does not care. To put it mildly, Chen Jingyun's move is completely to brush up his sense of existence and earn some prestige, so that his name can be published in major newspapers, telling people not to forget that it is me Chen Jingyun who led Fujian to recover the second time, and I Chen Jingyun first supported Yuan Shikai as the president. Sometimes it's worthless, and sometimes it's really not good without him.

For example, Xu Shaozhen, this person is the commander-in-chief of the Southern Coalition Army, and he can be regarded as a powerful figure in the eyes of the governors of the southeastern provinces, but when the provincial representatives of Nanjing held a meeting, they elected the generalissimo to prepare a temporary political axe, but no one voted for him, as for Chen Jingyun, Tang Shouqian, Cheng Dequan and others, no one was elected, but Huang Xing, who had no soldiers under his command, was elected as the generalissimo, and Li Yuanhong, who was far away in Wuchang and barely maintained the situation in Hubei, was the deputy marshal. The reason for this is because Huang Xing's prestige can be compared to Sun Wen, and Li Yuanhong is the first governor to recover.

At the same time that Nanjing was selected as the capital and Huang Xing was elected as the generalissimo to prepare for the provisional political axe, the provincial representatives also agreed on the preliminary terms of peace talks, with Wu Yanfang as the representative and Yuan Shikai to negotiate peace.

In the face of the chaos in the south, the Forbidden City was mourning for a while, Longyu hugged Pu Yi and cried all day long, and all the Manchu Qing ministers and magnates were also sad.

"Regent, is it true that the south side can't hold on?" Longyu finally stopped crying, and asked Zaifeng while wiping his tears.

Zaifeng didn't know how to answer, although he was young, he also knew the military pattern of the Hubei front and Nanjing, it wasn't that the Beiyang Army couldn't fight, but he didn't want to fight.

After pondering for a moment, he said: "Duan Qirui of Hubei, who was previously speaking, and many generals of the First Army together with the above letter, asked for a republic. ”

Pu Lun on the side said: "This is not what Yuan Shikai did, if he doesn't speak, Duan Qirui will dare to do it!" ”

At this time, Xu Shichang stood up and said: "Now the Du branch can't come up with any money, and the two months of war have exhausted the last silver deposit of the household department, even if you want to continue fighting, you can't get the military funds!" ”

What he said was half the truth, half a lie, and the truth was that the Qing court really couldn't come up with the money to maintain the military expenses, not only did they spend all the money of the Du branch, but even Longyu took out a million taels of silver from his underwear. However, there were more than 100,000 troops in Beiyang, and the consumption during the war was not a small amount, and the Qing court had to rely on Yuan Shikai to raise it himself if it couldn't come up with the money. During this time, Lao Yuan took great pains to spend on military expenses, and the Beiyang family funds accumulated from the era of Li Hongzhang also took out a lot.

But on the other hand, did the Manchu magnates really run out of money? No, everyone in the world knows that Yixuan is rich and rivals the country, but in this war related to the national fortune of the Qing court, it is a dime a dime, not only Yixuan, but among the powerful and important ministers here, it is not rich and oily, but if they want to take out the money for military expenses, it is better to kill them directly.

Therefore, in addition to the factor that Yuan Shikai wants to be the president, it is also related to the economy. The imperial court and a large group of Manchu magnates did not take out money for military expenses, did they really want to completely empty out the family funds of Beiyang, Li Hongzhang did this at the beginning, but the Beiyang Navy Division paid for it, and the family background of the Beiyang system was also discounted, and the final result was that Li Hongzhang stepped down. Yuan Shikai, who took over Li Hongzhang's class, worked hard to maintain Beiyang for more than ten years, and developed step by step to regain today's foundation, Yuan Shikai naturally didn't want to let Li Hongzhang's old things repeat.

Long Yu just wanted to say that he still had hundreds of thousands of taels of gold in his inner treasury, but he remembered that the first of the important ministers below was rich but refused to give a dime, and the woman's surname also came up. Seeing that Nanjing is also lost, the north and the south want peace talks, listening to this peace talks means to abdicate, not afraid of 10,000 in case, in case the emperor really wants to abdicate at that time, there is no silver in the palace to prepare, will it be necessary to eat at that time, and the surname Suo will not mention this matter.

Then the cadres talked about it again, and no one mentioned military spending anymore, but they started talking about peace talks.

"If the party in the south wants peace talks, it is not impossible to establish a constitution, but if the emperor wants to abdicate, it is absolutely impossible!" Zaifeng's words represent the meaning of the vast majority of the Manchu elites, and they feel that peace talks, republicans, and the like are acceptable, but their bottom line is to establish a constitution and retain the name of the emperor.

"I'm afraid the Southern Party doesn't want to!"

Xu Shichang sighed in his heart, if the imperial court had accepted the constitution a few years ago instead of changing out a royal cabinet, there would have been the Wuchang Rebellion, and now the gentry and governors in the south of the country do not expect the constitution to be established, but to unite with the revolutionary party to have a republic.

After Xu Shichang left the palace, on his way to Yuan's mansion, Yixuan stopped him: "Look, is this south really irreparable!"

Xu Shichang said: "The situation in the south, Lord Wang, you also know that the republic is the general trend!" Right now, not only the south, but the whole country is looking at the palace to make a decision, don't you know this situation? ”

Yixuan also sighed, others are not stupid and understand the situation clearly, knowing that Beiyang can fight, but he also knows that Beiyang does not want to fight, he has no confidence in whether he can keep the status of Aixin Jueluo's family, the only thing he is worried about is the treatment of the royal family after the republic, what is the attitude towards these such magnates, if it is to be clean and killed, he Yixuan will immediately take the bank cashier's check to rent.

"Alas, the times have changed!" Yixuan sighed while following Xu Shichang to Yuan's mansion, and then Yixuan and Yuan Shikai talked for a while before leaving.

"My lord, what did he say?" Immediately, Xu Shichang asked Yuan Shikai.

Yuan Shikai shook his head and chuckled: "Prince Qing is also old, how majestic he and Master Li were inside and outside back then, but now they are only thinking about the family's wealth. ”

Xu Shichang also sighed after hearing this: "The qi of the imperial court is indeed exhausted!" ”

In the face of the chaos in the south, few of the civil and military ministers of the Manchu Dynasty paid attention to the future of the imperial court, but they were mostly worried about their own lives and family wealth.

There was a breath of despair in the Forbidden City, in this atmosphere, the Empress Dowager Longyu finally could not support it, in the face of the persecution of many important ministers in Beiyang led by Yuan Shikai, either explicitly or covertly, Longyu finally ordered Yuan Shikai to be the minister plenipotentiary in despair two days later, and appointed him to send a representative to the south to discuss the overall situation.