Yang Du and Zhao Bei were just talking and left the other few people aside.

Seeing that the two of them were getting deeper and deeper, Li Yuanhong said: "It's windy outside and it's cold. This is not a place to talk. Why not go upstairs and talk again. After watching the river view, we will have dinner downstairs. I originally prepared a full sheep banquet, but Tan Zu'an looked down on it and called his chef Cao Jingchen to take the spoon himself. Xiangxiang flavor, such as "cured and steamed meat", "good fermented black beans," "Dongting golden beans," "butterflies floating in the sea," "Xiangxi sour meat", and "fried blood duck", either sour or spicy, it has a unique flavor in this mid-winter season."

After saying that, he introduced several other people to Zhao Bei, all of whom are unknown small characters and there are not many big names. This is not surprising. A few days ago, Yuan Shikai issued another telegram in Tianjin, calling on constitutionalists to go north to "discuss politics". Compared with Yuan Shikai, Li Yuanhong's telegram seemed much smaller. Some constitutionalists who had already arrived in Wuchang turned around and went north to Tianjin, which made Li Yuanhong quite embarrassed. You can imagine how flattered he was when the "constitutional genius" Yang Du arrived.

Li Yuanhong led the way, and Zhao Bei followed behind with his guards. The group went up to the deserted Yellow Crane Tower and sat in the small warm pavilion on the top floor. Li Yuanhong called the horseman to serve some snacks and tea first, and ordered the horseman to open the window a little so that everyone could look into the Yangtze River, but no one was intent on enjoying the river view. Now in the middle of winter, the war was coming, and even the Parrot Island bamboo and wood market was closed. The Yangtze River was deserted. In addition to gunboats and gunboats, what scenery could there be for viewing?

The warm pavilion is very small, with two charcoal basins in the middle, which are warm, but also occupying a place. A coffee table is filled with snacks and tea, and it is placed next to the charcoal basin. A few chairs are placed next to it. The warm pavilion becomes narrower and it is not easy to turn around. But in this small space, two guards still squeezed in, with "box cannons" on their backs. Standing aside, Tian Jinfu led his men to guard the stairs outside the warm pavilion.

Zhao Bei sat up without hesitation, put the horse whip on the coffee table, and did not beat around the bush, making the words clear, and said, "I'm afraid you're not here to enjoy the river view and taste famous dishes in Xiangxiang? Even if you have something to say, the revolution has not yet succeeded, and you must not slack off. There are so many things that I'm busy with, so I don't have much time to drink and chat."

Li Yuanhong and others looked at each other, and finally turned their eyes to Yang Du's face.

Yang Du put down the teacup, stood up, bowed to Zhao Bei, and said in a humble and arrogant manner: "Since the commander-in-chief is quick, Yang doesn't talk nonsense. In fact, Yang came this time to discuss constitutionalism with Speaker Li, and the other hand to ask the commander-in-chief for the people of the world."

"Please call for the people of the world?" Zhao Bei frowned slightly. This kind of Chinese traditional intellectual pretended to be exaggerated and made him feel a little awkward. He was obviously "being a lobbyist for Yuan Xiangcheng" just now, but now he has become "praying for the people."

"That's right!" Yang Du took a few steps forward and cried deeply at Zhao Bei.

"Please send another telegram to Yuan Xiangcheng's constitutional monarchy initiative, take troops back to Hubei, stop troops and support the people. In this way, the world will be safe and the people will be happy. After a few years, Yuan Xiangcheng will be famous in history, and the commander-in-chief will also be famous in history."

"You asked me to enlist in favor of 'constitutional monarchy'?" Zhao Bei raised his hand and pointed at his nose, but heard Tian Jinfu's dry laughter coming from outside the door.

After Zhao Bei's "current affairs propaganda" these days, the Republican Army only knew "iron-blooded republic" and did not know "constitutional monarchy". Although the soldiers may not understand what "republic" is, the title of "republic Army" has clearly expressed Zhao Bei's position. It is no wonder that Tian Jinfu felt ridiculous about Yang Du's "not knowing the current affairs".

However, few people can truly understand Zhao Bei's intention. "Race Revolution" is suitable for dealing with the Qing court, but it cannot be used to deal with Yuan Shikai. Therefore, this "republic" position cannot be shaken. The "social revolution" must follow closely and put the shackles of this "republic" on Yuan Shikai's neck.

"Yang also knows that the commander-in-chief is deeply fascinated by the word "republic", but I don't know if the commander-in-chief has ever thought about it. How many Chinese people today recognize words? How many people understand what "republic" is?"

Yang Du smiled faintly, shook his narrow sleeves, put his hands behind his back, turned around and walked a few steps, leaned against the window and looked at the surging river water, and sighed.

"When Yang arrived in Hankou yesterday, he saw many people parading on the street holding republican slogans and shouting slogans. Yang dared to hold up a few people and asked them 'What is republic?'. How do you think they answer?"

Yang Du turned around, glanced at everyone in the warm gaze, shook his head helplessly, and said, "Those people answered, 'Republic is white-floured buns!' Isn't this a gimmick?"

After hearing Yang Du's words, everyone present couldn't help laughing. Even Tian Jinfu, who was standing outside the door, couldn't help but stick his head into the door, looked at Yang Du a few more times, and secretly gave him a thumbs up. In fact, many people disagree with Zhao Bei's selling of "Republican steamed buns" and thought that using braids to exchange steamed buns would be a bit unworthy. Moreover, connecting "Republican" with steamed buns is indeed a bit gimmick.

Zhao Bei also smiled faintly, then curled his smile and said seriously: "Mr. Xizi, this is wrong! Although steamed buns are inconspicuous, in the eyes of the people today, the Republic represents steamed buns. They understand that in the imperial era, they did not eat white flour steamed buns, but in the Republic era, there were steamed buns. If anyone talked about the benefits of the imperial system in the future, I would probably have to use steamed buns to let everyone eat them after they had eaten them. Although there are only a few steamed buns, they taste wonderful in their mouths. For those poor people who have never eaten white flour steamed buns, this steamed bun can make them savor for many years and make them miss them for many years. For them, steamed buns are republics, and republics are steamed buns. What is 'faith'? That's it."

Everyone was shocked. They thought that the "Republic steamed bun" was just a trick to seduce the people to cut their braids, but they did not expect that Zhao Bei's intention was so far-reaching.

After careful consideration, this skill is indeed very clever. The people do not understand republic, but they understand the principle that steamed buns are better than wild vegetables. It is indeed much better to penetrate the concept of "republic" into people's hearts so simply and bluntly. However, this technique is indeed a bit vulgar, and this statement has a bit of a slander.

"In this way, Yang asked someone to sell steamed buns, and wrote the words "Constitutional Monarchy" in brown sugar honey. Wouldn't it be able to deeply root the concept of the Constitutional Monarchy into people's hearts?" Yang Du said slowly.

Zhao Bei looked up and shook his head and said, "It's hard. Now the braids around Wuhan are almost cut off. I'm afraid your steamed buns can't be sold out. If the people are asked to buy them with money, it seems to prove that the imperial system is not as good as the republic."

"Puchi", the two Li Yuanhong's horsemen who were standing aside to serve him couldn't help laughing. Only then did everyone truly see the ability of Commander-in-Chief Zhao, who was following the rest of the world.

However, if the "Junxian steamed buns" are delivered for free, how should the people understand it?

Yang Du was speechless. He obviously did not think of the idea of ​​delivering steamed buns for free. He just turned the topic away and said, "Commander-in-Chief, you said in the 'Zheng-Ship' that if you cannot republic, you will lead the northern expedition and use cannons to blow out a republic. But I don't know if you have calculated that with your current strength, when will you fight to the capital? How much food and salary is needed to support the Republican army? If Xiangcheng insists on constitutional monarchy and refuses to give in, then the war will continue, the people will be in trouble, foreign merchants will stop, trade will be cut off, taxes will not be raised, and foreigners will not borrow money for you, how long can your Republican army last? War is to fight money, without silver, and no war can be fought."

Zhao Bei touched his chin, and he had calculated the account.

The maintenance of the Republican Army does require a lot of money. If an infantry division is full of troops, if it is a Class A Division, the annual military expenditure will be between one million silver dollars and one.5 million silver dollars. This is a period of peace. If it is a war, the military expenditure will have to double. Of course he understood this principle, but as for Yang Du's concerns, it is indeed a worry, because Zhao Bei did not plan to really fight the Northern Expedition at all. His "shocking" was just a thumping of the mountain and a tiger, and a shot was just a simple purpose. First, it was to encourage the Southern Revolutionaries to continue to rise up and force them to agree with the Republican initiative, and second, it was to scare the Qing court and Yuan Shikai, and at the same time it also increased his prestige. In addition, it was also his purpose to test the bottom line of the great powers.

The Republican Army is indeed in difficulty now. Not only is the military expenditure stretched, but the troops have not been reorganized. The personnel are of varying quality and combat effectiveness cannot be guaranteed. Moreover, Hubei has just recovered, and there are still sporadic resistances from stubborn forces in various places. As for the western Hubei, as soon as Yang Wangpeng left, the already restrained local party armed forces began to jump up and down again, carrying the banner of the Republican Army to fight for houses and houses. These armed forces must be digested as soon as possible. The reorganization and the elimination of the elimination of the reorganization are required. This requires the use of the Republican Army.

The power of regular troops and revolutionary guards has become more scattered, and it is impossible to form a fist to carry out a fatal blow to the stubborn forces in the north. In addition, Zhao Erxun from Sichuan claimed to launch a large-scale expedition to wipe out the Republican army, which is also a bit worrying. Although the combat effectiveness of the Sichuan army is not strong, it is also necessary to guard against it. If the base area in Hubei is unstable, the Northern Expedition will be a tower in the air. At this time, foreigners also came to join in the fun, claiming to interfere with the revolution by force and intercept tariffs. Zhao Bei had to worry about this.

Of course, the most important point is the extreme lack of weapons and ammunition. According to Zhao Bei's reorganization plan, the Republican Army will form five infantry divisions, of which at least two Armored divisions should be trained, equipped with the most advanced light and heavy weapons. Each division has a total of more than 12,000 officers and soldiers, and a total of more than 60,000 rifles are needed. However, now, we have only got more than 70,000 poles to get the guns together. Many of them still use single-shot guns from the Black Fire Yao. The loss of rifles in the war is quite large. The troops of 60,000 people must prepare at least 100,000 rifles. As for machine guns, barrel-retreating cannons, it is even more luxurious, and only equips the most elite Armored divisions.

Before the Hanyang Arsenal resumed work in full swing and obtained enough raw materials, it was indeed unrealistic to launch a large-scale Northern Expedition.

In view of this, Zhao Beicai bluffed and deliberately made a large-scale Northern Expedition. He also took advantage of the opportunity of Yang Wangpeng's Northern Expedition Army's opportunity to enter southern Henan to issue a "seismic power" to deter stubborn forces.

This is a psychological warfare, it depends on which side sticks to the end.
Chapter completed!