Just when the whole world thought that Shandong would become the fuse of the new round of Civil War and even the Sino-Japanese War, the silent Shanxi became the final fuse, which was beyond everyone's expectations, except for Wang Zhenyu.

After the secret talks with Zhang Zongchang, Zhang Zuolin ordered the Feng army Sun Liechen's troops and Zhang Jinghui's troops to gather in Shijiazhuang and Suiyuan areas. Although Zhang Zuolin began to emphasize confidentiality everywhere under the reminder of the Japanese, such obvious military deployment and the Feng army's own confidentiality literacy, before these troops were mobilized, the ants in the city in Beijing were running around and telling each other: Old General Zhang was going to attack Yan Laoxi.

The Jin army under Yan Xishan's command was obviously a soft persimmon. The reason why he was able to escape the crisis of being annexed by the Feng army two years ago was Wang Zhenyu's face rather than the Jin army under his command was almost an open secret. However, afterwards, Yan Xishan did not fulfill his promises when he invited Wang Zhenyu to intervene, that is, Wang Zhenyu was also very upset about this. If he didn't fulfill it, he wouldn't fulfill it. So Yan Xishan successfully refused to pay.

However, doing anything requires a price. Now trouble is coming. Zhang Zuolin is in a big army again. Sun Liechen's eight divisions and Zhang Jinghui's five divisions are not easy to deal with from any perspective. This is a total of 330,000 Fengmen. There are eight divisions under the name of the Jin army, but they are all miscellaneous divisions with less than 10,000 people. They use such troops to fight against Fengmen, which won the Zhifeng War. Yan Xishan really has no temper.

"Everyone tell me what to do this time in Shanxi." When I was unaware of it, it was obviously a good idea to hold a meeting to think about it, so Yan Xishan recruited all the officers above the Jin army system battalion to Taiyuan for a meeting.

Yan Xishan looked at the people under his command with expectations as soon as the theme was revealed, hoping that they could come up with a good idea for him. The officers of the Jin army attending the meeting, including Shang Zhen, Xu Yongchang, Li Fuying, Zhang Yinwu, Zhou Dai, Chu Xichun, Yang Chengyuan, Yang Aiyuan, Wang Jingguo, Fu Zuoyi, Sun Chu, Li Shengda, Chen Changjie, Guo Zongfen and others immediately fell into thinking.

Yan Xishan has always been generous to his subordinates, which is not uncommon in the Republic of China. However, when it comes to treating others sincerely, Yan Xishan is probably the only one among the warlords of the Republic of China. So now he is in trouble, so naturally the people below can only think hard with their heads.

But it is not easy to think about the solution under such a crisis. The first person to speak was Fu Zuoyi, who was the least experienced: "Mr. Governor, I am willing to command the troops to defend the Feng army in danger and block the Feng army, but relying solely on the Jin army is probably not enough. You still have to find some foreign aid,."

Fu Zuoyi, who was known as the best fighter of the Jin army, said so. Other second-level generals such as Shang Zhen and Xu Yongchang naturally followed suit and suggested that the generals ask for help from the National Government.

Yan Xishan was both angry and funny, and in the end he could only helpless. Who made his subordinates so powerful? Well, Yan Xishan forgot a statement that one soldier would be a bear, and the general was a nest. The key to the poor combat effectiveness of the Jin army in history was actually Yan Xishan himself. Otherwise, the Jin army was also a soft persimmon in his hands, how could it become a "seven and a half" in Fu Zuoyi's hands?

Yan Xishan nodded and agreed to this statement: "In this way, it will be hard for Brother Shang and Brother Xu. You will lead an army to northern and eastern Jin to meet the enemy. Remember, as long as the Feng army does not take action, you should not open fire. If you can do it, don't fight. If you don't fight, you will still be the people of Shanxi who are suffering."

Speaking of this, he looked at Fu Zuoyi again: "Brother Yisheng, just guard Taiyuan for me. I thought about it and thought about it. This final decisive battle is probably going to start in Taiyuan City,."

In fact, Yan Xishan and the senior generals of the Jin army thought the problem a little serious. Zhang Zuolin actually had no plan to start a fight. They were also good at calculating. According to Zhang Zuolin's calculations, as long as he defeated Wang Zhenyu in the south with the help of the Japanese in Shandong, the world would not belong to his old Zhang family. Then naturally, he would use the situation of unification of the world to force Yan Xishan to surrender. Of course, it would be better if Yan Xishan wanted to surrender now. But Yan Xishan, who was usually weak, was like taking too much medicine this time, and actually divided the eight divisions of the Jin army under his command into three. Shang Zhen and Xu Yongchang each commanded two divisions and Sun Liechen, and Zhang Jinghui's troops entered a confrontation state, while the other four divisions retreated into Taiyuan City, and fought to the end and did not give in. Now it was Zhang Zuolin's turn to be unable to take it himself. Whether to fight or not is a problem.

For a time, Shandong and Shanxi became the fuse of China's civil war. All sectors of society, especially intellectuals from the north and south, expressed concerns about this and issued a peaceful petition, urging all forces to put the overall national situation and national interests first. However, the British ambassador to China Zhu Erdian is an opposite example. This old British colonialist who has been accustomed to being the emperor in China and pointed at the Chinese central government. He is now extremely excited. Since he misjudged the form of supporting Yuan Shikai as an emperor and triggered the National Protection War, the entire China has fallen into an unstoppable rise. Although Whitehall did not blame Zhu Erdian, Zhu Erdian, who has always regarded himself as a first-class diplomatic talent, felt very guilty. Therefore, he was for the Southern National Government and Wang Zhenyu himself. Full of hostility, this point reached its peak after the Chinese army defeated the Germans. In the annual report submitted to Whitehall on New Year's Day in 1919, Juerdian repeatedly emphasized to London that if he continued to sit idly by and his interests in China were not only damaged, but his interests in Southeast Asia would not be guaranteed. Therefore, Juerdian hoped that the imperial government would support Japan to increase its crackdown on China, and then use the quagmire of Russia to consume Japan's power. The abacus was very loud. Unfortunately, London did not reply in a few words, which made Juerdian very depressed and even dissatisfied. He told other personnel in the embassy: "The people in London are doing things to bury the British Empire, but we can only helpless."

In fact, Juerdian really wronged the decision makers of the British Empire. They not only saw Juerdian's report, but also attached great importance to it. However, the British treasury was too weak. After the European War, the once richest treasury in the world was empty and could run away. Any measures taken in the Far East were beyond support. An inadvertent could even cause the collapse of the entire empire. Therefore, they could only choose to turn a blind eye to Juerdian's report full of patriotism and responsibility. After World War I, the British Empire had this mentality most of the time when facing one after another, which laid the groundwork for the subsequent appeasement policy.

Now that the Chinese are finally going to fight a civil war. And according to Japanese news, their imperial army, which is as poor as beggars, is about to start betting on national destiny again. They will fight in Shandong and the South National Government and strive to provide support for the Beijing central government to unify the entire China.

In order to gain the support of the British, the Japanese also expressed that they would never expand Japan's sphere of influence in China and respect the special rights and interests of Britain in southeast China. This rights were dreamed of by Juerdian. In 1916, in order to get China to send troops, Britain not only gave up tariffs on nine provinces, but also gave up many powers in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. These areas entered a period of rapid construction after the decline of the British and French powers. The wealth rolled in, which made him, the ambassador to China, jealous. Now all this could be achieved without the support of the imperial government. How can you make Juerdian unhappy?

However, the Japanese are not living Lei Feng. They have to do things with benefits. The condition is that the British Empire subscribes to war bonds issued by the Japanese government, and it costs money to fight.

In fact, the world economy in 1919 also showed a downward trend. With the end of the European war, market demand changed tremendously. The demand for weapons and military raw materials dropped to the lowest point almost overnight. At the same time, the supply and demand for residents' living consumption were significantly in short supply. At this time, the Japanese, whose proportion of heavy industry in the industrial structure was significantly too high, suffered a great loss. Many products were piled up in the warehouse, many orders were cancelled, and a large number of industrial workers were unemployed. On their opposite side, the South China controlled by the National Government was not affected much. After the orders of heavy industry decreased, they stopped falling and rebounded just after a slight decline. The expansion of Nian Jun immediately digested their excess production capacity. With the rapid economic development in recent years and the emergence of a large number of overseas Chinese remittances and the emergence of European war dividends, the consumption capacity and purchasing power of the domestic market have also undergone amazing changes. More importantly, the National Government proposed the second five-year development plan. Fifteen cities including Chengdu, Kunming, Guiyang, Changsha, Nanchang, Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Xi'an, Zhengzhou, and Xuzhou were included in the National Government Development Plan. The National Government plans to spend 15 billion Huayuan in five years to carry out large-scale railway and highway transportation networks and new-style urban construction with these fifteen cities as the center.

What worries Japanese decision makers even more is that once Nanchina realizes their second five-year plan, even if they do not need to go through war, their national strength will surpass Japan, which basically means that Japan will only become a maritime country. Once the Chinese build a strong enough navy, Japan's fate will be only one way to perish.
Chapter completed!