At this time, Zhao Bingjun said: "Master Futai, how should the officers jointly write a letter?"

Yuan Shikai's face darkened and he said, "Sun Zhongkui, Wan Kun and others will immediately execute the firing tomorrow. The head order will be issued for three days to serve as a warning to others. All the famous personnel in the letter will be removed from the military positions, and they will be arrested and imprisoned immediately, waiting for the resignation. If anyone who pleads for them will be punished the same crime."

When Zhao Bingjun heard this, he was immediately excited and said, "The order of the low-ranking position."

Yuan Shikai said again: "Zhiquan."

Duan Qirui stood up and said hurriedly: "Here."

Yuan Shikai said: "You will immediately recruit your army, while strictly guarding the execution ground, while paying attention to the dynamics of each army. Anyone who acts rashly will be arrested at the same time. Anyone who dares to resist can be killed on the spot."

Duan Qirui was excited and hurriedly responded: "Yes."

Yuan Shikai acquiesced Sun Zhongkui, and Wan Kun led his troops to join the army of the landlord alliance in private. On the one hand, he tested the determination of overseas Chinese to see if they really dared to take the risk of breaking up with the Qing court. The ending of which of course made Yuan Shikai very depressed. Overseas Chinese took action and were both bold and clever. Not only did they seize three county towns in a row, they even wanted to use Taoist instead of Li Zhan's plan to replace Li Zhan, leaving face to the court, so as not to completely fall apart. But it also expressed that overseas Chinese were determined to win Shandong. Although overseas Chinese asked Li Hongzhang to come forward to suppress Yuan Shikai, they just hoped to force Yuan Shikai to surrender through non-confrontational means, and not to be afraid of going to war with Yuan Shikai. Yuan Shikai did not doubt that if Li Hongzhang could not play a role, overseas Chinese would definitely launch the war to seize Shandong without hesitation.

On the other hand, Yuan Shikai had another idea, which was to take this opportunity to suppress the Shandong forces in the Beiyang New Army. Now the Shandong people have formed a force within the Beiyang New Army that should not be underestimated. Although they are basically middle and lower-level officers, they now want to go further and climb to the top of the Beiyang New Army. This time, dozens of officers jointly wrote a letter to Yuan Shikai, asking him to dismiss Sun Zhongkui, Wan Kun and others. This is not only to fulfill his friendship with his fellow countrymen, but also a challenge to the old forces of the Beiyang New Army. If Yuan Shikai succumbed to the pressure of these Shandong officers and pardoned Sun Zhongkui, Wan Kun and others, then their next step would definitely be to seek higher positions in the Beiyang New Army.

Yuan Shikai saw this very clearly and knew that this trend would never be encouraged. It must be suppressed resolutely, otherwise the Beiyang New Army would lose control. If it were the past, Yuan Shikai might have to worry about the feelings of Shandong gentry, because the middle and lower-level officers of the Beiyang New Army were basically from gentry families, and Yuan Shikai planned to manage Shandong as his backyard, so naturally he could not offend Shandong gentry too harshly. Therefore, he would also have some concerns when dealing with middle and lower-level officers of Shandong. But now that Yuan Shikai has decided to give up Shandong, he naturally will not care about the feelings of Shandong gentry anymore. And he can take this opportunity to severely attack the Shandong forces in the Beiyang New Army, eliminate some people from the Beiyang New Army, and ensure Yuan Shikai's absolute rule over the Beiyang New Army.

So Yuan Shikai was not polite. On the one hand, he was still sentenced to Sun Zhongkui, Wan Kun and others. On the other hand, he severely cracked down on the middle and lower-level officers who pleaded for Sun Zhongkui, Wan Kun and others, and also prevented anyone from taking the opportunity to launch a mutiny. The troops led by Duan Qirui's troops were all Yuan Shikai's army when he was training at the small station. Not only did he have a long training time, strong combat effectiveness, but he was also loyal and reliable. Therefore, he was responsible for the vigilance, and Yuan Shikai could also be completely relieved.

That night, Zhao Bingjun sent people to arrest and arrest all the middle and lower-level officers who had jointly written to plead for mercy, and Duan Qirui also led the army to control the important areas of the barracks. On the next day, Yuan Shikai informed the entire army of the army, explaining the military disciplines that Sun Zhongkui, Wan Kun and others disobeyed, and carried out gun executions in public. He participated in the joint letter asking 41 middle and lower-level officers to arrest and be imprisoned, waiting for processing, and at the same time warned the entire army that no matter who dared to disobey military discipline, all those who dared to disobey military discipline, would be severely punished.

This time, the entire Beiyang New Army was shocked. Because they were soldiers and officers from Shandong, they felt a powerful impact. However, because they participated in the joint letter asking for all 41 middle and lower-level officers to be arrested, and Duan Qirui sent troops to guard all the important areas of the barracks, although the other middle and lower-level officers from Shandong were resentful, they could not do anything.

Then Yuan Shikai generated electricity to Qingdao and Shanghai respectively, apologized to the travelers, and expelled Li Hongzhang to explain himself and asked Li Hongzhang to help him deal with him.

Just three days later, Yuan Shikai once again ordered the entire army to join the joint letter to request 41 middle and lower-level officers to be requested to be given only 4 of them, and all were demoted, and 37 were removed, 23 of them were sentenced to 3-5 years in prison. This caused an uproar in the entire Jinan Prefecture, because all the 23 people sentenced to imprisonment were from the great tyrants and the home of the gentry in Shandong. In other words, Yuan Shikai offended all the main gentry in Shandong.

The gentry in Shandong was naturally unwilling to give in, so they jointly protested to Yuan Shikai, demanding that Yuan Shikai release the people immediately and restore their military posts. However, Yuan Shikai was very tough and refused to give in.

This naturally further angered the gentry in Shandong. If it were normal, they would naturally send people to Beijing to report Yuan Shikai's imperial examination. After all, Shandong is very close to Beijing, and many gentry had close contacts with the powerful and powerful in Beijing. However, at this time, the court was far away in Xi'an and had nowhere to appeal. Therefore, the gentry in Shandong united to refuse to provide additional support to the Beiyang New Army, and even refused to pay taxes. In addition, a group of middle and lower-level Shandong officers applied to resign from the Beiyang New Army. Because most of the military pay of the Beiyang New Army is supported by the money provided by Shandong gentry, this is also the main reason why Yuan Shikai absorbed a large number of gentry children into the Beiyang New Army. Now that Yuan Shikai removed so many Shandong children from the Beiyang New Army, there was no reason for Shandong gentry to continue to support the Beiyang New Army.

According to the estimates of the gentry in Shandong, once the financial support of the gentry in Shandong is lost, the Beiyang New Army can only last for 3-6 months. It depends on what Yuan Shikai will do. Although Yuan Shikai can use tough measures to forcibly collect fees from the gentry in Shandong, although the Qing court has not yet returned to normal, the war has ended after all, and the court and overseas Chinese are also negotiating. Therefore, it is only time for the court to return to the capital and settle down again. At that time, the gentry in Shandong will definitely launch Beijing relations and sue Yuan Shikai for his imperial complaint. In fact, there are gentry now shouting that they will go to Xi'an to sue Yuan Shikai.

Yuan Shikai's mentality was naturally very clear about the gentry in Shandong. Of course, he did not send anyone to force fees from the gentry in Shandong, and he also let the resigned middle and lower-level officers from Shandong who resigned. In fact, Yuan Shikai paid great attention to the financial situation of the Beiyang New Army. The accumulated property can be maintained for at least half a year. If Yuan Shikai's property is added, it can last for about 9 months. Therefore, in a short period of time, the Beiyang New Army will not be financially tight, and Yuan Shikai is also confident that he can get some money in these 9 months, so there is no problem in ensuring that the current Beiyang New Army will be in operation for about one year.

The middle and lower-level officers from Shandong resigned from the Beiyang New Army, which was exactly what Yuan Shikai wanted, because they could eliminate the Shandong forces within the Beiyang New Army without having to do it themselves. Although losing a large number of middle and lower-level officers in a short period of time will indeed have a certain impact on the Beiyang New Army, it also provides a large number of promotion opportunities for the lower-level soldiers. In addition, Yuan Shikai has other means to deal with the gentry in Shandong.

About ten days later, Yuan Shikai received another telegram from Li Hongzhang, which turned out that Li Hongzhang asked Yuan Shikai to go to Shanghai to meet with him, and then went to Qingdao to have a meeting with overseas Chinese. On the one hand, it was to further resolve the conflict between Yuan Shikai and overseas Chinese, and on the other hand, it was also to further negotiate with overseas Chinese on the various matters of the Qing court's return to Beijing, including the transfer of administrative power in Shandong.

Yuan Shikai was waiting for this opportunity, so he immediately ordered people to deliberately leak the news. This time, the gentry in Shandong was immediately panicked. There had been rumors in Jinan that the court planned to allocate Shandong to overseas Chinese fiefdoms, and that overseas Chinese were allowed to establish vassals in Shandong. However, these rumors were unfounded, and some of the content was even more absurd, so the gentry in Shandong did not believe much.

But this time it was different, because the news was leaked from the Telegraph Bureau, and the authenticity was greatly improved. From the content, Yuan Shikai wanted to go to Qingdao with Li Hongzhang to negotiate with overseas Chinese on the transfer of administrative power in Shandong. This is a matter of being slight and cannot be faked. Overseas Chinese are not comparable to Yuan Shikai. They carried out land reforms in the Jiaozhou Bay area and confiscated land by landlords. The gentry in Shandong knew that this was offending the fundamental interests of the gentry. In comparison, Yuan Shikai's matter was nothing at all.

To stop overseas Chinese, we can only rely on this Shandong governor, so the gentry in Shandong could only come and ask Yuan Shikai again, hoping to refuse overseas Chinese to manage Shandong. But Yuan Shikai made a statement at this time and refused to see the gentry in Shandong. He also claimed that he was preparing for his trip to Qingdao and had no time to pay attention to these gentry in Shandong, and he was not going to stay in Shandong anyway.

At this moment, the gentry in Shandong were panicked and regretted it. They should not offend Yuan Shikai for their children's affairs. Now Yuan Shikai can leave his hands alone, but the gentry in Shandong cannot escape. So the gentry in Shandong joined forces to play about 150,000 taels of silver, and gave it to Yuan Shikai in the name of repaying the army, and asked to see Yuan Shikai again.
Chapter completed!