Chapter 461: Republic of China: Starting from the First Class of Whampoa Chapter 471 The Republic of China Is Being Carried on My Sho

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Protagonist:

Lv Muzhi

After hearing the old man's words, Lv Muzhi looked left and right, saying:

"This is the Republic of China; there is no Great Qing emperor, so how could there be a Governor of Zhili? I am merely defending the borders for the country."

The old man forced a laugh: "Wei Yue is truly humble!"

Li Zongren walked up from the steps: "The wind is strong outside; both of you, sit inside and chat."

The three entered the official residence together and took their seats in the reception hall.

After the attendant refilled the tea, they all withdrew, leaving only the old man, Li Zongren, and Lv Muzhi.

Li Zongren sat between the two, seeing that everyone was just drinking tea without speaking, he spoke first: "The winter counteroffensive achieved great success; the Japanese Army has retreated from North China overall, leaving only a few port cities difficult to recover. Wei Yue, is that right?"

Lv Muzhi put down his teacup and nodded: "Qingdao is currently occupied by the Japanese Navy and Marine Corps, and Tianjin is frequently harassed by the Japanese Navy; apart from these two places, there is no trace of the Japanese Army on the land of North China."

The old man sat with his legs crossed, hands on his knees, saying: "Among the most fertile lands of North China, Hebei, Henan, and Shandong are all controlled by the Youth Army."

On the land of Shanxi, the Jinsui Army and the Eighth Route Army run rampant; Yan Xishan nominally controls Shanxi, but is almost your Lv Weiyue's puppet. Saying you alone occupy the mountains and rivers of four provinces is not an exaggeration, is it not, my Governor of Zhili?!

After a winter counteroffensive that nearly exhausted the national treasury ended, the Central Government got nothing at all!

The old man was complaining, laying his dissatisfaction directly on the table.

Lv Muzhi also crossed his legs like the old man: "That's not right. My Youth Army defends the borders for the country; we are not dividing territory like warlords. How can you say it's like warlords splitting land?"

"Furthermore, Jiangsu and Anhui north of the Huai River are currently entirely garrisoned by the Central Army. Before this, they were in the hands of the Japanese. How can the Central Government say it got nothing?"

The old man widened his eyes: "Fine, you say you defend the borders for the country, so you should obey the state's orders. I want the Central Army to take over North China and the Youth Army to withdraw. Do you agree?"

Lv Muzhi spread his hands: "I'm afraid only the Japanese would agree to that!"

"If the Japanese want to retake North China, they will surely attack from multiple routes: one route with the Kwantung Army's main force advancing south from Shanhaiguan;"

"one route transporting army troops by sea to land at multiple points in Tianjin and Qingdao, advancing west to attack;"

"and using the 11th Army from Jinling and the 13th Army from Shanghai to advance north and attack North China."

"Although the Japanese are currently exhausted, I can state definitively that the Central Army still cannot stop such an offensive."

"Go ask your generals Tang Enbo and Hu Gongnan—can they stop such a multi-pronged Japanese attack?"

The old man was actually speechless for a moment. Given the state after the winter counteroffensive—the national treasury empty, the Central Army exhausted, facing hundreds of thousands of Manchurian Kwantung Army troops waiting at ease—they truly had no chance of victory.

Although that was the fact, they could not lose in momentum. The old man immediately organized his words: "Your meaning is that the Central Army cannot defeat the Kwantung Army advancing south; I cannot agree to that!"

"I request replacing the Youth Army with the Central Army. In fact, this is for the sake of the country: while defending against the Kwantung Army advancing south, we can also eliminate those internal forces outside the Central Government!"

Whether Lv Muzhi was ultimately a force outside the Central Government could not be concluded, but Li Zongren present was clearly the leader of the Guangxi clique.

As soon as these words were spoken, Li Zongren immediately sat up straight, coughed twice, and announced his presence.

Although everyone knew this in their hearts, there was no need to say it directly to someone's face, was there? It seemed the old man was so angry he was about to lose his reason.

Of course, the old man regretted it as soon as he finished speaking, and tried to patch it up: "Delin's army is the vanguard force resisting Japan; these words do not include you."

Lv Muzhi did not care. Thinking of the old man's act of cutting off the firewood from under the cauldron during the Xubeng Battlefield, he became furious.

To force himself to eliminate Yan Laoxi and the forces on the Taihang Mountains, the old man could even give up the major matter of recovering Pingjin, and even attempted to withdraw the Central Army used to pin down the Japanese main force on the Xubeng Battlefield, hoping to lure the Japanese back to reinforce Pingjin, thereby forcing Lv Muzhi to stay in Shanxi.

Although these methods did not succeed, Lv Muzhi had almost lost his trust in the old man in his heart.

One day, his own Youth Army would also become a target the old man needed to eliminate!

Lv Muzhi kept the last shred of reason and asked: "If the Central Army garrisons North China, where does the Youth Army go?"

The old man thought Lv Muzhi was considering it, and in his excitement, thought for a moment and said: "You take your troops back to Henan South as usual. If there is a change in North China, I will summon you to advance north."

Lv Muzhi asked again: "I heard my properties in the Southwest with the Zhu Family have some trouble. How does the Central Government want to handle it?"

The old man answered: "The Ministry of Finance provides capital to buy shares, and some control is handed over to the Central Government."

Lv Muzhi threw out the final question: "My parents took a plane and had a traffic accident on the way. Was that an order you gave to the Military Statistics Bureau?"

The old man was stunned: "I really don't know about that!"

Lv Muzhi stood up with a whoosh. Li Zongren and the old man were startled and both looked up.

"With you like this, you dare to talk extravagantly about serving the country?!"

"How urgent are you exactly? The Japanese haven't even left, and you can't wait to carry out a purge?!"

"The foreign enemy hasn't been expelled, yet you can't wait to wield the knife inward. Who will still devote themselves to resisting Japan? We might as well all become slaves of a conquered nation for the Japanese!"

Li Zongren blinked his eyes, thinking that being this middleman was worth it, and he could watch the show for free.

The old man hadn't even reacted yet. The Lv Muzhi before his eyes—he no longer recognized him.

Where was that humble appearance from before? When had Lv Muzhi ever lost his temper like this in front of him?

"You... you are simply outrageous!" The old man also stood up, pointing at Lv Muzhi's nose and shouting.

Lv Muzhi pointed outside the window: "Whether you admit it or not, this Republic of China's mountains and rivers of four provinces are being carried on my shoulders!"

"The national treasury is empty. I and the Zhu Family tried every means to make up the deficit, begging and pleading with the countries of Western Europe to borrow so much money."

"But you want to pull the firewood from under the cauldron and kick us out?"

"It would be one thing to just kick me out, but to do this at the critical moment of recovering North China, to do this when hundreds of thousands of Kwantung Army troops are eyeing us like tigers!"

"Do you still have the country in your eyes? What face do you have to talk to me about doing it for the country?"

The old man was so angry he plopped back onto the sofa, cursing: "Damn it, you took out such a huge deficit in loans, and you still have the face to say this? You told me at the beginning that you had a way to pay it back!"

"Now you say you can't pay it back, dragging it on and on, and the creditors have come knocking!"

Lv Muzhi stepped forward: "The Central Government also used the borrowed funds! Furthermore, ten years ago during the US stock disaster, various families all had short-selling profits. The Kong and Song families had already accumulated vast wealth. How could they really be unable to pay it back?"

"With so much money, how come I didn't see you give the Central Army more and better equipment? Where did it all go?"

You have money but are not satisfied, and still want to dig more money from me, while conveniently and justifiably taking over the Zhu Family's assets!

Li Zongren's two eyes, one moment glancing left at the standing Lv Muzhi, one moment glancing right at the half-reclining half-sitting old man, suppressed the excitement in his inner heart, many inside stories, he himself was knowing them for the first time!