The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

Chang Kaishen has become more and more anxious recently. Not only has the Central Army lost successively in Henan and Shandong, but the situation in the south is also precarious. The Gui army of Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi had already invaded Hunan and successfully occupied Changsha. Half of Hunan province became the Gui army's world.

Chang Kaishen began to call for "peace". He kept telegraphing the whole country, calling on the warlords of all factions to quell the war, and he almost shouted the slogan "Chinese people will not fight Chinese people".

Although Yu Youren had conflicts with Chang Kaishen and often got involved with Wang Zhaoming, he is now on the side of the Central Army. Maybe it was because of the fear that after the defeat of the Central Army, China would fall apart again and the warlords would fight each other. Yu Youren had already started to actively work for Chang Kaishen.

Chang Kaishen formulated a "peace movement", and Yu Youren was responsible for persuading Wang Zhaoming, hoping to convene an interim national meeting of the Kuomintang to negotiate and resolve the disputes between the previous two congresses of the Kuomintang. This is a compromise Chang Kaishen made to Wang Zhaoming, because in the previous two conferences, Wang Zhaoming's power struggle actions all failed.

Of course Wang Zhaoming was unwilling. Now that the anti-Jiang situation is very good, he can force Chiang to step down.

Li Shi was once another executor of the "Peace Movement". He was responsible for leading the team to persuade Zhang Xueliang. It's not asking the Northeast Army to enter the border to help fight the war, but asking Zhang Xueliang to be the referee and stand up to mediate. Everyone has a truce and a strike. All conflicts can be resolved by political means.

Not to mention, Chang Kaishen's "peace movement" has been widely recognized due to the powerful propaganda capabilities of the Nationalist Party, and many celebrities and scholars have publicly called for a truce. Chang Kaishen has the righteousness of the central government, but also coerces the people's desire for peace, so the public opinion is completely lopsided towards the central government.

It's a pity that if you want to start a war, you can start it if you want, but you can't stop it if you want to.

The anti-Jiang coalition forces are on the offensive more and more fiercely, especially Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army, which can be described as invincible. The Central Army in Shandong and Henan even had a fear of the Northwest Army. Every time they learned that the opponent was the Northwest Army, the Central Army, from the generals to the soldiers, would shrink back.

As a last resort, Chang Kaishen could only go north again, to the front line to supervise the battle in person, hoping to boost the morale of the army.

Feng Yuxiang detected the movement of the Central Army and deployed a pocket array in advance, hoping to take the elite of the Central Army in Shandong into one pot. Fortunately, a senior staff member of the Northwest Army was bribed by Chang Kaishen, who quietly sent a secret message to leak the military plan, so Chang Kaishen quickly ordered the troops to change their marching route.

Even so, the elite of the Central Army did not completely withdraw from the encirclement, and Zhang Zhizhong, who was in charge of covering the retreat, suffered heavy losses.

Although the Northwest Army fought bravely, their coach Feng Yuxiang made two consecutive mistakes in strategic decision-making, which caused the successively defeated Central Army to gain a firm foothold again. The Northwest Army was too poor, and the money, food and arms supported by Yan Xishan were not enough, so they had to give up good fighters for nothing.

Chang Kaishen was able to finally win the Central Plains War, apart from Zhang Xueliang's help, the most important thing was that he was richer than Feng Yuxiang. If the Northwest Army had enough food, pay, and ammunition, Chang Kaishen would not have been able to support the army to enter the customs, and would have been forced to leave the field a long time ago.

Yan Xishan is too picky, he is not made for big things at all. As the leader of the anti-Chiang coalition army, after raising enough food and salaries, he treated his troops very generously. He not only paid monthly salaries, had sufficient supplies, but also distributed canned food to the soldiers.

As for Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army, let alone canned food, they couldn't even eat pickles.

The Northwest Army and the Jin Army often fought together. Every time the soldiers of the Northwest Army saw the empty cans thrown away by the Jin Army, they scolded Yan Xishan for his injustice.

Since ancient times, the most fatal weakness of the warlord alliance lies in this, the enemy is not outside, but inside.

Because Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army's combat power was too terrifying, it not only made the Central Army frightened, but also made Yan Xishan feel jealous of Feng Yuxiang. Yan Xishan deliberately dragged Feng Yuxiang back several times, and often found various reasons to cut off the Northwest Army's logistical supplies at critical moments.

During the period of the Three Kingdoms period, the 18 princes begged for Dong, and Yuan Shao did the same. Sun Jian beat him too hard, so Yuan Shao tacitly allowed Yuan Shu to cut off Sun Jian's food and grass.

During the Central Plains War, Chang Kaishen was Dong Zhuo, Yan Xishan was Yuan Shao, and Feng Yuxiang was Sun Jian and Cao Cao who were actually fighting.

Feng Yuxiang didn't think much about it at first, but gradually he felt something was wrong. He once said to the people around him: "I don't know what kind of medicine is in this gourd of Yan Baichuan (Yan Xishan)."

Feng Yuxiang was suffering too, he was working hard on the front line, but Yan Xishan stabbed him in the back, it was as if Chang Kaishen and Yan Xishan were teaming up to deal with him.

Yan Xishan's various practices made the generals of the Northwest Army complain and fight. Everyone didn't want to fight anymore, but suggested to Feng Yuxiang to "join Chiang Kai-shek against Yan".

As a result, a strange situation emerged in the war in the Central Plains. The Central Army was defeated by the Northwest Army, but the Northwest Army wanted to join the Central Army. Both the Northwest Army and the Central Army suffered heavy losses. Yan Xishan's Jin Army has been preserving its strength and seems to want to reap the benefits of fishing.

Even with Chang Kaishen personally supervising the battle, the morale of the Central Army is still low. The situation of the Northwest Army, which has won countless victories, is worse than that of the Central Army. The morale of the army is about to collapse, and it is completely supported by Feng Yuxiang's personal prestige.

It was a bad fight.

Yan Xishan calculated too much, and treated state affairs and war affairs as a business, and wanted to play some tricks to drive away wolfs and tigers. But his cleverness was misunderstood by his cleverness, and he had already counted himself in. It would be a matter of time before the generals of the Northwest Army were bought by Chang Kaishen.

Even if Zhang Xueliang doesn't lead the army to help, Chang Kaishen is very likely to win the Central Plains War. After another half a year at most, Chang Kaishen would be able to bribe the generals of the Northwest Army and force Feng Yuxiang to resign, and then the Central Army and the Northwest Army would join forces to counterattack the Jin army.

It's just that the longer the time drags on, the more dead and injured all parties will be, and the greater the damage to the country and the nation.

Although Zhang Xueliang entered the customs for his own consideration, objectively speaking, this move hastened the end of the Central Plains War and preserved the last trace of vitality for China. He has made great contributions to the country.

...

Haig Road, Zhou Mansion.

Cai Yuanpei visited again: "Mingcheng, shouldn't it be time for you to go to Beidaihe to persuade Zhang Hanqing?"

"No hurry, no hurry, we have to wait until the Central Army takes Jinan down." Zhou Hexuan laughed.

This guy Yan Xishan captured Jinan some time ago.

Chang Kaishen mobilized a large number of troops from the south, attacked from Qingdao along the Jiaoji line by sea, and defeated Yan Xishan steadily.

Yan Xishan panicked immediately, and quickly asked his cronies to bring huge sums of money, ammunition and flour, and asked Feng Yuxiang to command the Northwest Army to fight back. Feng Yuxiang's staff members were very dissatisfied, and they discussed in private: "Yan Xishan would have been improvising. If these supplies had been delivered earlier, Sun Lianzhong would have already reached Bengbu. How could this be the current situation?"

Feng Yuxiang was also very upset, but he took the overall situation into consideration and went to fight honestly. After receiving the supply of logistics supplies, the Northwest Army came out of the gate like a tiger, beating the elite of the Central Army, almost retreating across the board.

Chang Kaishen was even more panicked in the face of the Northwest Army's attack. He didn't dare to attack, but only dared to defend. He even announced that as long as he sticks to his position, he will be promoted to two ranks and rewarded with 50,000 yuan.

Fortunately, due to the heavy rain for several days, the Northwest Army's offensive was suspended, otherwise the Central Army would be defeated again.

Chang Kaishen was so anxious that he couldn't sleep, but Zhang Xueliang still didn't express his opinion, so he could only ask Cai Yuanpei to come to Zhou Hexuan, begging Zhou Hexuan to go to Beidaihe to help persuade him.

"Mingcheng, for the sake of the country and the nation, you can give me a letter!" Cai Yuanpei was also anxious.

Zhou Hexuan smiled, led Cai Yuanpei to the study, picked up a pen and wrote seven words on the letter paper—the army can be transferred to prepare for war.

"Send someone to deliver this letter of mine to Zhang Hanqing." Zhou Hexuan said.

"That's enough?" Cai Yuanpei was surprised. He didn't believe that Zhou Hexuan's handwriting would allow Zhang Xueliang to lead the army into the customs.

Zhou Hexuan smiled and said, "You just do it."

Cai Yuanpei was skeptical, carefully put away Zhou Hexuan's letter, and then ran to Nanjing to report without leaving a moment.

Zhou Hexuan was just pretending to be coercive, Zhang Xueliang had almost beaten Chang Kaishen, and it was only a matter of time before he mobilized the Northeast Army to enter the customs.

Just as Cai Yuanpei left, the servant knocked on the door and said, "Sir, there is a call from Miss Ruan."

Zhou Hexuan came to the living room and answered the phone: "Hi, Miss Ruan, what's the matter?"

Ruan Lingyu hesitated and said, "Well... is Mr. Zhou free tomorrow? I'd like to treat you to coffee."