On the morning of September 22, Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi led their cavalry into Liu Zhou City. Unlike Li Zongren who was in high spirits, Bai Chongxi's mood was somewhat depressed.

  Li Zongren looked around at the welcoming crowd and comforted him in a low voice, "Alright, Jian Sheng, it's already a great achievement to take down Liu Zhou City so easily. Don't be too upset about letting Shen Hongying escape."

  Bai Chongxi shook his head: "Big brother, you don't know, I thought I had planned everything out, but Shen Hongying turned out to be a strange person. His actions were completely beyond my expectations - instead of going south to join Lu Rongting, he ran away from the north gate. This is really the greatest shame of my life. If I don't catch Shen Hongying back, I won't be able to swallow this anger."

  Li Zongren knew his sworn brother's temper and shook his head without saying another word.

  A group of people finally arrived at the Fifth Army Commander's Mansion, visiting Liu Guxiang and others who were recovering from their injuries. This matter was a risk taken by Li Zongren. According to Bai Chongxi's intention, it would be better to directly eliminate Liu Guxiang and others, so as not to cause more trouble when the commander-in-chief arrived, due to the issue of control over the Liuzhou area. However, Li Zongren had witnessed the tragic situation and ultimately could not bring himself to do it, vetoing Bai Chongxi's suggestion.

  Fortunately, Liu Gu Xiang had already learned about the situation from Liu Zhen Huan, and as an old hand, he immediately guessed what King Wang of Xiangxi was up to by sending troops to Guangxi. So when he saw Li Bai enter, he expressed his willingness to lead his troops (if they still existed) to surrender to King Wang, in order to repay the kindness that had saved his life. This time, it really was a case of winning people over with virtue.

  The news of the Hunan army's arrival in Liuzhou spread throughout Guangxi within just three days. The reason was simple: Bai Chongxi had issued a nationwide telegram in Liu Guoxiang's name, inviting the Hunan armies to enter northern Guangxi and put down Shen Hongying's rebellion. This move, which seemed somewhat superfluous at the time, later received lavish praise from Wang Zhenyu, who considered it a perfect maneuver.

  While sending a telegram to congratulate Generalissimo, Bai Chongxi also did not intend to let Shen Hongying off the hook. How could he tolerate someone who dared to leave his own calculations!

  Including Li Dachao's unit, an entire regiment of officers and soldiers were used for the pursuit action. The officers and soldiers took turns day and night, constantly taking shortcuts to get close, but although they captured a large number of Shen Hongying's subordinates, they didn't catch any member of Shen Hongying's family. After severe interrogation, Bai Chongxi received even more infuriating news: after breaking through the north gate, Shen Hongying had played another trick. He let his guards and trusted followers run towards the big mountain, while he himself took his whole family to the riverbank, rented a boat, and escaped to Wu County to the home of his relative Mo Rongxin.

  When Bai Chongxi received the news, he seemed to hear Shen Hongying's voice mocking him. For this guy who dared to insult his intelligence, Bai Chongxi's anger had escalated. If previously he just wanted to get him back and deal with him according to the law, now he wanted to get him back, torture him, and then deal with him according to the law. (Is there any difference in the end?)

  On September 26, Wang Zhenyu, who had marched over 400 miles on horseback, finally arrived in Liuzhou under the escort of Long Yunfei's cavalry guard from the Jingzhou Security Brigade Mobile Corps. Almost at the same time, Lu Rongting issued a national telegram in the name of the Guangxi Military Government, ordering Wang Zhenyu's troops to withdraw completely from the Guangxi region within ten days, otherwise he would mobilize the entire province's military to wipe out Wang's rebel army.

  As the situation in the southeast gradually stabilized, Wang Zhenyu finally caught the attention of Beijing's President Yuan Shikai.

  Zhongnanhai's Rendan Hall, a stout Yuan Shikai sat in a large armchair listening to his secretary finish reading Lu Rongting's telegram. He said to Yang Duan: "This Wang Zhenyu, I seem to have heard of him somewhere! Ah, I remember now, it was more than a year ago when Ke Ding mentioned him."

  Yang Du's astonishing memory replied: "Report to the President, the student just remembered that two years ago in Hankou, the one who led the troops to launch a surprise attack on Yudaomen Railway Station was this person."

  Yuan Shikai immediately exclaimed: "What's going on in this Xiangxi and Guangxi area? Does the Ministry of War have any details?"

  Yang Du said calmly, "In August, the Xiangxi garrison commander Wang Zhenyu's troops captured Changde, and the Lizhou garrison commander Wang Zhengya surrendered. At that time, the war in the southeast was intense, and this place was also a self-inflicted wound, unrelated to the war situation, so it was not reported in time."

  Yuan Shikai thought for a moment and said, "Don't worry about Hui Zi, it's just a small matter. Now that Sun Da Pao and other major threats have been eliminated, we don't need to worry about Wang Zhenyu's minor problems either. Your focus should still be on next month's presidential election. Also, Cai E from Yunnan has already sent troops to enter Guizhou, and this time the second revolution of the rebel party has been pacified by me. For the personnel arrangements that follow, you need to come up with a plan. The most important thing is the selection of the Hunan governor, isn't Li Yuanhong in favor of Tang Hualong? Then let's go along with his idea. This time, we were able to put down Sun Da Pao's rebellion so smoothly, and Li Buzi did have some merit. However, we can't let him get too arrogant. Have Cao Zhongshan's third division move to Yueyang and station there, and also send Shen Jinyan to be his deputy."

  Yang Du nodded and thought for a moment before asking: "Mr. President, what about Tan Yankai, the former governor of Hunan?"

  Yuan Shikai waved his hand: "That's the new governor's business, I don't care."

  Yang Du nodded and said he would do so, then asked another question: "What about Guangxi?"

  Yuan Shikai stood up with a satisfied smile and said, "It's just the last few provinces, let them make trouble, we'll clean up the mess later. What do you think, Xiazi?"

  Yang Du knew in his heart, the self-inflicted wound just now was intentionally reminded by Old Yuan. However, he still pretended to be very impressed and gave a free flattery: "Great President, you are wise!"

  Yuan Shikai smiled and left the Rensheng Hall.

  Yuan the President walked away, Yang Du also pulled his Western-style suit sleeves and then stepped out of Rensheng Hall with a swagger.

  This Zhongnanhai was the southern garden of the imperial palace, and more accurately, it was also a part of the imperial palace. More than a decade ago, after the failure of the Hundred Days' Reform, Emperor Guangxu was placed under house arrest in the Yingtai Pavilion within Zhongnanhai. Now that the Republic has been established, Emperor Guangxu is no longer around, and the Empress Dowager Cixi, who once held absolute power, has also passed away. As Yang Du sighed at how things had changed, he became even more disoriented.

  Yang Du actually has a public identity as a disciple of Wang Yangming, but in the Beijing political circle, this point has been intentionally or unintentionally ignored.

  However, Chen Shao under Wang Zhenyu would not, almost every half month, there would be a letter and a 10,000 yuan remittance through a certain secret channel (Military Affairs Bureau Beijing Station) handed over to Yang Du.

  This is also why Yang Du had to go to great pains in front of Yuan Shikai and shift his attention from Xiangxi.

  It's not just the relationship between Wang Men Xuezi and the sponsorship fee of 10,000 yuan per month, but also some personal factors of Yang Du that are at play.

  Yang Du was a talented and ambitious man, so he joined Yuan Shikai and, like traditional intellectuals, mastered the arts of literature and martial arts. His idea of selling himself to an imperial family was consistent with this. He pursued fame and wealth, then entered the cabinet as a minister, leaving a good name in history for his descendants.

  Yuan Shikai, the president, used his talent but not his will: on one hand, he would consult him on major and minor matters and fully adopt many of his proposals; however, on the other hand, he never promoted or reused him, only giving him an empty title as a counselor in the presidential palace.

  Yang Du was not very interested in being called a Shaoxing-style staff officer, so he also had some subtle words about this.

  In fact, he still recognized Yuan Shikai's character and gave himself a good treatment. He was also polite in his daily life. Moreover, in private life, it was not as rumored outside that he slept in the imperial palace and had an affair with a palace girl.

  This Zhongnanhai, although it was once a part of the imperial palace, is now an office area for the Republic of China's central government, while the last emperor Puyi's small court has long been compressed into the adjacent Forbidden City and cannot come out.

  As for the palace maid, it's even more unreliable. Yang Du had seen her out of curiosity before, and basically, there wasn't a single good-looking one among them, all were ugly and disfigured. It makes sense, these palace maids have no future to speak of, and when they're released at 25 years old, finding someone to marry will be difficult. Therefore, families with pretty daughters usually arrange marriages for them around 13 or 14 years old, just to avoid the suffering of entering the palace. Yang Du could only silently mourn for the imperial consorts in the palace.

  As for Old Yuan, he has already kept dozens of concubines, and even if he is starving to death, he wouldn't stoop to that level.

  I reckon it's those ignorant and useless Eight Banners' sons, from young to old, they've only read Luo Guanzhong's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and all the treacherous officials are molded after Dong Zhuo.

  Although Yuan Shikai was better than Sun Yat-sen, who only knew how to shout revolutionary slogans in the south, Yang Du always felt that something was not quite right with the President, making him feel uncomfortable.

  After seeing Chen Shao's letter, Yang Du knew what was wrong with the President: two words to sum it up - decline.

  After all, President Yuan still represents the original ruling order, and this set has already been doomed to be unworkable. In such a situation, even if unity is finally achieved through force of arms, the future of this country will still go back to the old path.

  On the contrary, if what Chen Shaoxin said is true, then what Wang Zhenyu, the defender of Xiangxi Town, is doing now is a very promising and bright thing.

  At the local level, the county is governed by the people of the county, which is something that China has not dared to think about for thousands of years. At the central level, there is a high degree of centralized power, and what's more solid than Yuan Shikai is that Wang Zhenyu completely relies on institutional control over the military. Although it is also a recruitment system, from the most basic soldiers to all levels of officers are uniformly allocated by the general staff, which greatly avoids the emergence of private soldiers and warlords. The most important point is that although the central core level is engaged in politics, it has limited the role of local governments in economic aspects, and surprisingly, it is through a company called Xiangxi Development Company to coordinate economic projects.

  Yang Du can even determine that ordinary small officials absolutely dare not extort a company with such policies and background. And once the local economy is no longer disrupted by zhèngfǔ, its development speed will be extremely astonishing.

  It's not hard to think of a solution, but it's hard to put it into practice. Obviously, Wang Zhenyu not only thought of it, but also did it.

  Yang Du was slightly excited, but then calmed down. His junior's words were inevitably exaggerated, but the monthly check of 10,000 yuan was real. Since he couldn't make a name for himself under President Yuan, it was necessary to leave a way out for himself.