Xiao Yaonan, who is far away in Shaoguan, has been kept in the dark. Recently, the guards have stopped sending newspapers. He has been limited to hearsays from outside. Of course, Deng Keng has already told the soldiers guarding the sidewalk that they must not disclose a word about the press release. Wu Shaoting has rarely seen Xiao Yaonan recently. On the one hand, he tries to avoid leaking news, and on the other hand, he is busy maintaining contact with the north.

The news that Cen Chunxuan and Yuan Shikai officially began the negotiations quickly reached the south. The attitudes of various forces towards the negotiations were very different. Some people thought that Wu Shaoting could not hold on and bent down to the north to seek peace; some people thought that Wu Shaoting was too tenacious to fight, which caused heavy losses to the Beiyang Army and had to change its strategy; of course, there were also some visionary people who could see at a glance that they could not slap. Since the north and the south could sit down to negotiate, it was bound to be because both sides were eager to truce the war.

The views of outsiders have little impact on Wu Shaoting. After all, some people can only comment and cannot bring practical effects at all. He has fought two consecutive wars. Now that he is in March of the Gregorian calendar, it is delayed than the date he originally expected. Fortunately, the battle between the enemy and us entered a freezing period after New Year's Eve is irrelevant. In comparison, the Beiyang government is even worse than Guangdong. It has been delayed from the Lunar New Year to the end of February of the Gregorian calendar, and from the end of February of the Gregorian calendar to the beginning of March of the Gregorian calendar. Not to mention that the soldiers are getting more and more disappointed, even the generals and officials are tired and upset.

However, Wu Shaoting had to leave some thoughts on the voices inside Guangdong. At first, these voices were just helpless complaints and disappointments, and naturally came from those sincere revolutionaries. But in the final analysis, the call for a ceasefire is the general trend. Guangdong has been suffering from the war for too long, and most people don’t want to continue. However, not long after, when Cen Chunxuan forwarded Yuan Shikai’s ceasefire conditions from the north, the restlessness from within Guangdong became even more intense.

On that evening, in the Shaoguan Division Headquarters briefing room, Wu Shaoting, Wei Rutong and others sat quietly on the chair, while Deng Keng stood in front, holding a telegram in his hand and said:

"The President put forward the following five requirements. First, Guangdong cancels the *** before the 23rd day of the first lunar month. Second, within two months after the abolition of the ***, the revolutionary Guangdong army will be rectified and the revolutionary Guangdong army will be cancelled. The provincial military organization will be established to be accepted by the final order issued by the Central Army. Third, the commander of the Guangdong Army Wu Shaoting voluntarily issued a telegram to admit his appointment to the central government and will take the title of governor to wait for the central government's ruling. Fourth, the Guangdong Navy is directly under the jurisdiction of the Central Navy. The Guangdong Military Government has no right to command any naval ships. It was originally planned to be incorporated into the

The gunboats of the Yangtze River Fleet, "Chu Tai", "Chu Tong", "Chu Yu", "Chu You", "Chu Guan", "Chu Qian", and the torpedo boats "Hu Peng", "Hu Eagle", "Hu Ying", "Hu Falcon" should all follow the instructions of the Central Navy Department and go to Zhenjiang to wait for condemnation within three months; fifth, the five counties north of Shaoguan were transferred to the *** garrison, and Lechang was represented by the new Hunan Governor Tang Xiangming, and the other four counties were represented by Jiangxi Governor Li Chun. In addition, Shaoguan was changed to a central municipality, and the provinces and central governments in the territory were not allowed to station troops."

After reading the telegram, Deng Keng sighed long, his face was very heavy, but he didn't say anything more.

After hearing these conditions, Wu Shaoting frowned and looked thoughtful. Wei Rucong, who was beside him, made a move and smashed the table hard, but did not make any comments. However, the other officers of the First Division present could not sit still, all of them were angry, and shouted loudly that these conditions would undoubtedly be destroyed in the province without fighting. Instead of accepting such unfair conditions, it would be better to continue fighting with the Beiyang Army to the end.

"The Beiyang government is too bullying. We haven't lost this battle yet. They even blackmailed us as asking for something. I don't agree. I can't agree to this condition."

"We also need to hand over the naval ships. Chu Tai and other ships are the latest gunboats that have just been received from ***. These are the main battleships of our Guangdong Navy. They are all handed over at once, and our Guangdong defense power has greatly reduced."

"This is absolutely unfair, it's too unfair to us. The old thief Yuan Shikai thought we were easy to bully, so we just fought to the end to see if Yuan Shikai can continue to be proud."

"That's right, the Beiyang government must not be so cheap."

For a time, there were many different opinions, except for the silent people, most of the opinions were consistent. Faced with such overbearing clauses, it was obvious that the originally unified Guangdong would be torn apart again. What are Hunan agents, Jiangxi agents, and municipalities directly under the central government, these steps were all weakening Guangdong's strength. Although these conditions were not as exaggerated as the Progressive Party members before, there was no doubt that there was almost no difference in nature, and they were all about oppressing Guangdong under the Beiyang government and never had a chance to turn things around.

Everyone's eyes gradually fell on Wu Shaoting, and at this time everyone was looking forward to Wu Shaoting making a decision.

Wei Rucong sighed and asked first: "Governor, what do you think?"

Wu Shaoting said calmly: "These are only unilateral conditions in the north. Since it is negotiation, we naturally have to take the initiative. If Yuan Shikai must accept these requirements, we can also make conditions to respond to these requirements. In short, we must ensure our interests as much as possible."

Wei Rucong frowned and said in a deep voice: "Yuan Shikai has blackmailed to such an extent. No matter how much we fight and guarantee, the northern Guangdong and Shaoguan are all from others in the future. Now even the navy will be distributed. Maybe Yuan Shikai will have some conspiracy after the election. If the Beiyang Army attacks Guangdong again based on northern Guangdong, we will open our doors and have no defense line to defend!!"

Wu Shaoting said seriously: "Team Commander Wei, you take the Beiyang Army too seriously. I bet that after this battle, the consumption and losses of the Beiyang Army were three times that of ours. Within a year, the central government could not afford so much money to launch a war of the same scale. It is not scary to lose northern Guangdong, nor is it scary to lose the navy. The most scary is to lose faith and confidence."

Wei Rucong once made some analysis. The Guangdong War was based on the Guangdong Army as the defensive side and the Beiyang Army as the offensive side. Of course, the attacking side was much more expensive. He believed that the reason why Yuan Shikai was willing to sit down and negotiate was that the front line was too expensive was one of the important reasons. But he was not sure. After all, Yuan Shikai represented the legal government, and with the assistance of foreign powers, he could also mobilize the whole country's strength. If Yuan Shikai refused to give up, deliberately transferred the main battleship of the Guangdong Navy and stationed troops in northern Guangdong, if something unexpected happened, what would Guangdong defend?
Chapter completed!