Of course Johnson knew that Yuan Shikai was talking nonsense, but after this point, he could not continue to talk anymore. Yuan Shikai obviously would not accept Britain's advice and defect to Pu Wei, so he stood up and said goodbye: "Okay, I will respond truthfully to our government."

Yuan Shikai sneered in his heart, and dared to threaten himself. Now is not the time for you foreigners to cover up the sky. Although Yuan Shikai still has some concerns about foreign forces, he would not be afraid of it. Therefore, he also smiled and said, "Mr. Consul, please give me a message. However, I want to remind the Consul and ask the Consul to tell your government."

Johnson said: "What?"

Yuan Shikai said: "In the end, our Chinese affairs will be solved by us Chinese. I think your government should worry less."

Johnson was also very unhappy, but it was useless to say anything now, because Britain had no substantial means to threaten Yuan Shikai at this time, so he had to say, "Okay, let's go."

After Johnson left, Yuan Shikai immediately attracted his confidant Zhao Bingjun and asked him to immediately take 500,000 taels of silver to Shanghai to sign an arms purchase contract with the East China Government. The 500,000 taels of silver is a deposit, and the faster the delivery time, the better. Yuan Shikai was not afraid that the East China Government would pay the debt after collecting the money, because according to what Yuan Shikai knew, the East China Government was quite trustworthy in commercial trade.

Zhao Bingjun naturally knew that the current situation was urgent, so he did not dare to neglect it. He immediately rushed to Shanghai with money. At the same time, Yuan Shikai immediately recruited his generals and prepared to mobilize troops to respond to the attack of Pu Wei.

After arriving in the south, Yuan Shikai expanded his army and reorganized the army. Now he has established three towns: Wu Changchun, the first town commanded Wu Fengling, and Wang Yingkai, the third town commanded Wang; 6 associations: Feng Guozhang, Duan Qirui, the second association commanded Duan Qirui, Cao Kun, the fourth association commanded Duan Zhigui, the fifth association commanded Zhang Huaizhi, and the sixth association commanded Zhang Xun. Xu Shichang served as the General Office of Military Affairs, Wang Shizhen served as the Chief of Staff, and Zhao Bingjun served as the General Office of Logistics.

Xu Shichang was originally an official in Beijing, and with Yuan Shikai's recommendation, he entered the Military Affairs Office. Later, the city of Beijing was broken and the Qing court was destroyed. Xu Shichang fled to the south to join Yuan Shikai, and was still entrusted with important tasks by Yuan Shikai. Duan Qirui was originally idle, but he had been following Yuan Shikai and refused to leave. Yuan Shikai still remembered his old love, and now it is time to use people, so he promoted Duan Qirui to be the commander and led an army of association.

After the generals arrived, Yuan Shikai first explained the current situation to the generals. The war with Pu Wei was inevitable. After hearing this, the generals were very angry and expressed their desire to fight Pu Wei and teach Pu Wei a good lesson. Because Pu Wei and his group had a strong sense of exclusivity when they were in the Qing court, they only trusted the Manchus and looked down on the Han people, so the generals under Yuan Shikai naturally disliked Pu Wei and his group. In addition, they really did not take Pu Wei's army seriously and thought they could not fight with the People's Army, but they were still more than enough to fight Pu Wei's army, which was just right to make more military achievements in this battle.

Yuan Shikai was naturally very happy to see his subordinates' morale. After all, it was a good thing to be able to be morale, so he immediately ordered the First Association to enter Xiushui, the Second Association to enter Yichun, and the Third Association to enter Yongxin, guarding all the important routes from Hunan to Jiangxi. The First Town and the Second Town were stationed in Nanchang, and the Third Routes were connected. The Third Town was stationed in Shangyun to prevent Fujian. The other three associations were all staying in Anhui as reserve forces. At the same time, Yuan Shikai ordered Xu Shichang to immediately organize 2-3 associations to serve as reserve forces.

In fact, Yuan Shikai was also very confident in this battle. Although Pu Wei's army was large, the war could not be won by the current war. However, Yuan Shikai was very clear in his heart that his territory and population were too small, and even if he won this battle, he would not be able to swallow Pu Wei at once. Therefore, Yuan Shikai's goal of this battle was very clear, which was to seize the entire Hunan Province, or most of the part, to expand his strength. At the same time, he could cut off the route of foreign countries to transport supplies from Guangdong to Pu Wei. Since the Yangtze River route was controlled by the East China Government, once Yuan Shikai cut off the transportation route from Guangdong to Sichuan, he would have to transport from Yunnan to Sichuan. This road was rugged and difficult to move, so Pu Wei was not afraid.

In fact, some of Yuan Shikai's army has been arranged in place. After all, after Pu Wei occupied Hunan Province, Yuan Shikai's main defense direction was the west, and he had already prepared. After receiving the orders, he also said goodbye to Yuan Shikai one by one, either turning back to his defense zone or leading the army.

Zhao Bingjun rushed to Shanghai with money and immediately asked to see Li Songchen, demanding to sign a contract for purchasing weapons and ammunition immediately, and said that money is not a problem, but the purchased weapons and ammunition must be delivered as soon as possible, the faster the time, the better. After all, the situation in the south is tense now, and the war is almost triggered, so the sooner the weapon and ammunition is in place, so naturally the faster the better.

The weapons that Yuan Shikai wants to buy this time include: 25,000 Type 01 rifles, 5,000 Type 01 rifles, 3,000 Type 96 pistols, 200 Maxim machine guns, 300 Type 03 general machine guns, 3,000 sets of Type 01 grenade barrels, 500,000 wooden handle grenades, 200 50mm lip-type rapid-fire guns, 100 75mm lip-type field guns, 50 100mm lip-type field guns, 5 million various bullets, 100,000 shells, and several other military supplies, including 6 small boats, of course, all of which are displacements of about 300 tons, and are mainly used for combat boats fighting in the Yangtze River. After all, the location of this battle is on the edge of the Yangtze River. If a fleet participates in the war, it will naturally greatly increase the chance of victory.

The total cost of purchasing weapons this time was about 3 million taels of silver. It can also be said that Yuan Shikai spent a lot of money, but these weapons can be equipped with an army of about 30,000 people and a small inland fleet, so the cost-effectiveness is still very considerable.

Although Yuan Shikai wanted to buy more weapons this time than the previous two times, it was nothing in the East China Government because the military industry of the East China Government is developing rapidly and the production capacity is very sufficient. After all, the military scale of the East China Government had exceeded one million at this time. Without sufficient production capacity, how could it be used by such a huge army?

Since Yuan Shikai did not care about the price and the East China government had enough production capacity to deliver, the two parties naturally agreed and signed a contract. The payment and delivery were carried out in two sessions, each time lasting for one month. The delivery location was in Nanjing, and the East China government sent a ship to Nanjing for delivery.

So Zhao Bingjun returned to Nanjing with the signed contract. Yuan Shikai was also very happy. Now everything is ready and he is waiting for the war to start. If it weren't for Yuan Shikai's tactics of taking the lead, he could only wait for Pu Wei to take the lead in attacking, otherwise Yuan Shikai would have thought of going out to attack.

At this time in Qingdao, the VII Zhangjia Living Buddha was visiting everywhere. Because Qingdao is an emerging city, it basically developed after the establishment of the East China Government. Therefore, the layout, architectural style, municipal facilities, etc. of the city are basically designed according to the modern urban architectural style, and there are almost no shadows of traditional Chinese urban buildings.

Moreover, Qingdao has fully realized the electrical generation. All buildings in the urban area are equipped with electric lights, street lights are also available in street lights, and some factories have also begun to use motor equipment.

Although the Seventh-generation Living Buddha Zhangjia has been to many cities, it is the first time I have seen a modern city. Even the Fahai Temple where they live is equipped with electric lights, and it is much more convenient to recite scriptures and Buddha at night. This has broadened the horizons of the Seventh-generation Living Buddha Zhangjia, and it is a huge feeling. It is indeed a major change that has not been seen in 3,000.

After the Seventh-generation Living Buddha Zhangjia ended his visit to Qingdao, Qin Zheng met him again, saying that the East China Government hoped that the Seventh-generation Living Buddha Zhangjia could return to Qinghai, assist the local government, stabilize the situation, appease the people, and help the army and persuade the forces in Xinjiang to surrender.

Originally, the Seventh-generation Living Buddha Zhangjia wanted to stay in Beijing. After all, during the Qing court, he lived in Beijing most of the time because Beijing was the imperial capital at that time, and the Zhangjia lineage was always dependent on the central court. Although Beijing is not the capital for the time being, the Seventh-generation Living Buddha Zhangjia already knew that the East China Government had indeed been the capital of the future New China, so it would be better to stay in Beijing.

However, the Seventh-generation Living Buddha Zhangjia is also a wise man. He understood after Qin Zheng said this. This is not a request, but a task assigned to him by the East China Government. After all, he has just surrendered and has not made any contributions. Why should the East China Government believe in himself and entrusted with important tasks? Isn’t Mongolian Zhebuzundanba still under house arrest now? And if he does well in Qinghai, he will naturally have the opportunity to be reused. Moreover, the East China Government will not move to Beijing within 2-3 years. It happened that he has achieved some results in Qinghai during this period. When the East China Government begins to relocate, he may be able to return to Beijing.

So the Seventh-generation Living Buddha Zhangjia immediately expressed his pleasure in accepting it and promised to do his best to assist the local governments, stability bureaus and unite the people of all ethnic groups in Qinghai, Gansu, Shaanxi and other places. However, the Seventh-generation Living Buddha Zhangjia also made a request, which is to go back to Beijing before returning to Qinghai and arrange the affairs of the temples in the Zhangjia lineage. After all, he may not return to Beijing for 2 or 3 years, so the matter here needs to be arranged. In fact, the Seventh-generation Living Buddha Zhangjia is going to make arrangements for his return to Beijing in the future.

However, this request is reasonable. After all, the Zhangjia family has 6 rooms in Beijing, so of course it needs to be arranged. Moreover, the reply from the seventh generation Zhangjia Living Buddha also satisfied him very much, so there is no reason to refuse.
Chapter completed!