Wang Ya-qiao and his entourage set out from the Qingxin Wangfu in a carriage belonging to the Qingxin Wangfu. At that time, although Beijing had a curfew regulation, it mainly targeted ordinary civilians, and it seemed that the nobility were never subject to this restriction.

  As for the police patrolling the streets at night, they didn't dare to stop the horse carriage of the royal family. Firstly, it was a royal family's carriage and secondly, most of the officers in charge had been bribed by someone so everyone just turned a blind eye.

  Yi Yi was still in a coma, and Zai Yun was very cooperative, not daring to move randomly or shout loudly for help.

  Several horse-drawn carriages swayed all the way to Chaoyangmen.

  The rot of the Beiyang Army did not start after Yuan Shikai's death, but had already begun to rot after Yuan Shikai forced the Qing Emperor to abdicate. The so-called righteous and noble officials of the Beiyang Six Towns were mostly intellectuals, even if they weren't scholars or Confucian students, they were all educated in traditional feudal ethics and not revolutionary ideology. In their minds, Yuan Shikai's actions were a serious offense against authority. Therefore, the officers had many complaints about Old Yuan, but didn't openly oppose him because his military power was too strong, and also because they couldn't find another choice. Looking around the world, apart from Old Yuan, there really wasn't anyone else to follow. Everyone couldn't possibly go and follow Sun Baoqi, so they just had to make do with their fate and get by.

  However, the problem was not solved and still existed, erupting from time to time. For example, the Beijing troop mutiny mentioned earlier was such a situation. If it weren't for Lu Jianzhang's calmness in the face of crisis, I estimate that Yuan Shikai would have been the first to suffer disaster that night. History textbooks say that the mutiny was instigated by Yuan Shikai and carried out by Cao Kun, completely ignoring a basic fact: Cao Kun had little control over the Northern Third Division, which had not received military pay for half a year. In history, Cao Kun was often the victim of troop mutinies; one time his subordinates even used cannons to directly attack his headquarters. Fortunately, Cao Kun was in the toilet at the time and it was his concubine who was killed instead. Of course, the last time he was the victim of a mutiny led directly to the collapse of the Zhili clique. This famous mutiny was personally launched by our comrade Feng Yuxiang.

  A recent example is Feng Guozhang's occupation of Nanjing, which actually formed a separate regime. What did he rely on? He relied on the extreme dissatisfaction of middle and lower-level military officers with Old Yuan.

  In Beijing, many of the old six town battalions were still manned by bannermen who could be considered the backbone of the anti-Yuan forces. Unfortunately, at this time the bannermen had already become a loose sand and, having lost their political status and future prospects, more and more bannermen began to seek to break away from the Beiyang Army, which was also one of the reasons why Yuan Shikai reorganized the five town infantry.

  It so happened that the twenty soldiers responsible for guarding Chaoyang Gate that night were all Banner people. These twenty men had long been planning to desert from the army.

  "Tie Er Ge heard that Zuo Team ran away with three more flag people yesterday" said a slightly younger flag person in the city gate tunnel.

  That tall and sturdy man, who was being scolded by Tie Er Ge, glanced around cautiously at the several dozen meters distant probationary officer, and after confirming that he hadn't been overheard, said in a low voice: "Speak softly, if you're heard, you little runt will get beaten with a stick."

  "After a while, Tie Erge said: 'Can't we not run away? Our family has old and young people. Nowadays, our flag people are soldiers, unlike the Qing Dynasty back then. Back then, promotions were all given to our flag people first. Now, we are suppressed everywhere. How long has it been since our First Town promoted a flag person as an officer? No future, let alone our salary is in arrears. Although this Republican government is financially difficult, other troops still issue 30% or 40%. Our First Town doesn't even issue a single penny just because there are many flag people. And you see, those deserters haven't been pursued or caught.'"

  "It's been a long time since we discovered that Gu Wu, the one who escaped from our team, is now living in a villa in the suburbs of Beijing. Who went to catch him? They would be delighted if we escaped, not only would they not have to pay us our military salary, but they would also save on dismissal fees." Another short man directly pointed out the essence of the question, and that's all there is to this broken matter.

  Tie Er Ge nodded in agreement: "Brothers, I've got a deal for you all today. Everyone will get 50 big bucks. We'll hand over our duties at dawn and leave this crappy military camp behind. Once we're out of the city, we'll split the money and ditch these crappy uniforms. Then we can go home and live our own lives."

  Others didn't even think about it and said: "Let's all listen to Tie Er Ge, these dog skin brothers have long been unwilling to obey Tie Er Ge, what do you say we should do?"

  Tie Er Ge couldn't help but feel a bit proud and arrogant. He cleared his throat and said, "I have a distant relative who works at the Qing Wang Fu. Tonight, the master has something to deliver to our Chaoyang Gate. When he arrives, we just need to open the door and pretend we didn't see or hear anything. We'll get 50 big oceans (a unit of currency) for it."

  The crowd again applauded in a low voice, but only the short man who had spoken before raised a question: "We twenty brothers have been eating from the same pot for so many years, but what about that probationary officer? Tonight, the squad leader is out drinking with the master of the house. If he doesn't agree to open the Chaoyang Gate, can we really kill him? If we really kill someone, things will be different."

  Iron Second Brother frowned and took a look at the probationary officer standing outside the city gate, feeling annoyed.

  That handsome and upright probationary officer was none other than Wang Zhenyu's fourth brother, Wang Zhenbang.

  The graduation time of the first period of Baoding was November in the third year of the Republic of China, but all the students of the first period had to go to the troops for internship and command in February. In fact, the biggest difference between Baoding Military Academy and the later Whampoa Military Academy is that they do not assign posts, that is, they are only responsible for cultivating military talents and do not take care of the future of these cultivated military talents.

  This is also a reflection of the serious bureaucratic phenomenon of the Beiyang government. This is also an inevitable phenomenon of the development of the bureaucratic system to its peak, no longer valuing the absorption of talents. All work can become an important project for power rent-seeking and a source of external income for officials. Everything has to be paid by oneself, you pay for your own education, you pay for your own position, if you don't have money, forget it. Under this model, the military officers who are cultivated basically only have the fate of following the old path, after all, investment still needs to have returns.

  Wang Zhenpeng is now facing this problem. Graduation is imminent, but where to go has not been determined yet. According to the principle of "where you come from, where you go", Wang Zhenpeng naturally wants to return to Hunan. However, the Xiang Army had undergone large-scale downsizing before and after the Second Revolution, and now there are tens of thousands of officers waiting for resettlement. How can they possibly accept this new officer who graduated from Baoding?

  As for Wang Zhenyu, the third brother from Xiangxi, who has been in Beijing for more than two months, except for the time when he went to Baoding Military School and met with his second brother, the two brothers have not seen each other again. To get to the root of it, Wang Zhenpeng still doesn't concede to his third brother deep down. In his memory, his childhood third brother was someone who couldn't do anything right, studying was a mess, and even when fighting, he would always end up at a disadvantage. It wasn't until he had no choice but to send him to Wang Longzhong's place that something finally worked out. This put a lot of pressure on Wang Zhenpeng, who is only one year younger than Wang Zhenyu. He vaguely felt that no matter how hard he tried, he might never be able to surpass his third brother. As a result, over time, in his subconscious mind, he developed a repulsive attitude towards Wang Zhenyu, which is why he hasn't gone to see him and always thinks about doing better than him before going.

  The life of an intern is very dull and tasteless, especially after being assigned to the original Beiyang First Division, now the Guards Army. The internship was completely uninteresting to the extreme. The entire unit was in a state of low morale and instability, and this situation had been going on for a long time. Commander Li Jincheng seemed to be ignoring it. Whenever there were vacancies, he would fill them with people from his hometown in Xuzhou. Officer Wang Zhenpeng knew that he would not be able to serve as an officer in this unit, so he fell into deep thought again.

  At this time, a burst of horseshoes and the sound of carriage wheels crushing the stone road woke up Wang Zhenbang. He didn't notice at all the excited expressions on the faces of the twenty flag-bearing soldiers behind him. His mind only had the dead order of curfew and not opening the city at night. So he stretched out his right hand with five fingers upwards, palm facing the direction of the incoming carriage, and shouted loudly: "Halt!"

  Wang Ya-qiao coldly stared at the small military officer who was more than ten meters away, his expression calm and collected, handling matters in a professional manner. If it weren't for Wang Zhen-yu's guarantee that there would be no problem, Wang Ya-qiao would have definitely charged down with an axe to clear a bloody path. Once they left the door, their plan would have been accomplished. How could he not be anxious?

  Two groups of people stood under the Chaoyang Gate. They all wanted to open the door, but between the two groups, a lonely figure stood upright there. This Chaoyang Gate was impossible to open.

  At this time, a horse carriage came along the city wall and stopped at the root of the wall. The person who jumped off the carriage was none other than Wang Chenhao, the deputy officer of his third brother, whom he had met last time. Moreover, the other party beckoned him to come over.

  Wang Zhenbang hesitated for a moment and said to Tie Er and others who had already moved to kill him: "Did you hear my order? No one is allowed to open the Chaoyang Gate."

  As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Zhenbang walked over to the horse carriage and took a closer look. It was indeed his third brother: "Third brother, it's so late, what are you doing here at Chaoyang Gate?"

  Wang Zhenyu smiled and nodded: "Fourth elder, it's windy outside, let's talk in the carriage."

  Wang Zhenpeng didn't expect that he had just gotten on the horse cart when he heard Tie Er and others' surprised voices outside: "Open the door quickly, open the big gate!"

  Wang Zhenpeng was shocked and immediately got up to get off the car, but his head hit the roof of the car. He was then grabbed by Wang Zhenyu's left wrist. Wang Zhenpeng panicked and said: "Third brother, Chaoyangmen can't be opened!"

  Wang Zhenyu smiled and said: "Old Fourth, do you know how Third Brother became a lieutenant general?"

  Wang Zhenpeng was stunned as soon as he heard it. Wang Zhenyu grasped his hand and said, "That's because your third brother opened a city gate at the right time."