Republic of China: German-equipped divisions massacred as warlords guarded the nation's borders

Chapter 258 Xiang Zhuang's Sword Dance Aims at the International Settlement

The meeting room of the Shanghai Municipal Council building in the Shanghai International Settlement.

The heavy velvet curtains were drawn tightly shut, and the atmosphere inside the room was so oppressive that it felt like you could wring water out of it.

Beside the long, oval oak conference table, the British Consul-General in Shanghai, Barton, slammed a copy of the "Shen Bao" newspaper, which smelled strongly of ink, onto the table with a livid face.

"This is fraud! This is utterly outrageous warlord thuggery!"

Baldon's proud gentlemanly demeanor vanished completely; he brandished his cigar and his voice was almost a roar.

"That idiot Chiang Kai-shek! Is his brain filled with the mud of the Pearl River? Does he think giving Chen Zijun a nominal title can restrain him? He's issuing a legal hunting license to an extremely dangerous Far Eastern behemoth!"

The American consul sitting opposite him, Cunningham, appeared slightly calmer, but his white knuckles gripping the coffee cup tightly betrayed his inner unease.

"Sir Baldon, watch your words. Anger will not solve anything, but Chen Zijun's 300,000-strong army is indeed stationed in the five southeastern provinces."

Cunningham took a deep breath, his tone heavy, "Yesterday, our Far East Intelligence Bureau sent a secret report. Chen Zijun's so-called 'obey orders but not orders' reorganization agreement clearly stipulates that the defense, taxation, and diplomacy of the Southeast will be entirely handled independently. This means that the Nationalist government's Northern Expeditionary Army will not enter Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and Chen Zijun can unscrupulously and completely digest the war potential of the entire five southeastern provinces."

"That's the most terrifying part!"

Bardon slammed his hand on the table and stood up abruptly.

"The British Empire will never allow a powerful nation capable of independently integrating China's resources to emerge in the Far East! Look at what it has been doing lately! It has forcibly seized our merchant ships, forcibly withheld customs duties, and the day before yesterday, it even conducted live-fire artillery tests with 15-inch heavy guns off the coast of Mawei Harbor! A destroyer of the Japanese Empire was so frightened by that cannon shot that it turned around and fled 300 nautical miles!"

Bardon was panting heavily, his eyes filled with a complex mix of imperialist arrogance and fear.

"He's simply a Prussian militaristic madman in the guise of a warlord! You Americans often talk about 'fear of insufficient firepower,' but I think Chen Zijun just wants to use cannons to blast us all into the Huangpu River! If he gains a firm foothold, the next step will be for his 300,000 elite troops to aim their guns at our concessions and customs!"

Cunningham shrugged and helplessly spread his hands.

"So what can we do? Direct armed intervention? Sir Barton, don't be ridiculous. Taxpayers at home aren't willing to pay a cent more for the quagmire in the Far East. And those politicians on Capitol Hill are even less likely to agree to send young men to Shanghai to fight a war of attrition against a regular army fully equipped with German weaponry, heavy artillery, and armored trains."

"Of course we can't just jump in; that's a poor strategy, and a foolish thing to do!"

Barton sneered, a cunning glint in his eyes. As a seasoned politician who had played the "offshore balancing" game globally, he knew all too well how to deal with such a rising power.

"The British Empire dominated the world for three hundred years, never by shedding its last drop of blood, but by making its enemies bleed." Bardon walked to the huge map of China on the wall and pointed precisely at the border between northern Jiangsu and Shandong.

"That 'young marshal' of the Fengtian clique in the north has been eyeing the southeastern region like a piece of fat meat lately. Although Marshal Zhang has made preparations to retreat beyond the Great Wall, the Zhili-Shandong coalition army of that dog-meat general Zhang Shizong is still stationed in the Shandong area." Barton turned to look at Cunningham, "We need to give these old warlords some 'confidence'."

Cunningham raised an eyebrow: "What do you mean?"

"HSBC and Citibank can jointly provide a secret, interest-free, long-term loan."

Bardon lowered his voice, his tone filled with a chilling murderous intent.

"They don't need to openly wage a full-scale war against Chen Zijun. They just need to constantly provoke friction on the border of northern Jiangsu to tie down the main force of Chen's army. This money is specifically used to purchase British and American weapons for them."

"Furthermore, isn't the Military Intelligence Bureau, that secret service organization in Guangzhou, the southern government, struggling to infiltrate Shanghai?"

Barton returned to his seat, coldly exhaling a smoke ring. "We can 'relax' the censorship standards of the International Settlement Police a little, and give them a wide berth. Let them fight dog-eat-dog with Chen Zijun's intelligence network."

Cunningham's eyes gradually lit up after hearing this: "One move is to use one tiger to devour another, and the other is to use another knife to kill someone. As expected of the traditional skills of the British Empire, you are indeed professional as the world's number one 'troublemaker'."

Baldon was taken aback by the less-than-pleasant teasing remark, but he didn't refute it; instead, he continued to add:

"The final step. Notify the Special Department of the Municipal Council to activate all the spies we've planted in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Chen Zijun has risen too quickly and ruthlessly in recent years. How many old warlords, compradors, and gang leaders have he cut off their financial resources? Those local bullies he trampled underfoot are all driven by greed and resentment. As long as we hand them a knife and promise them a place in the new regime afterward, they will absolutely be willing to cut off Chen Zijun's flesh!"

"Even...if it comes at any cost."

Baldon's eyes revealed a murderous intent.

"Planning a high-profile 'accident' targeting Chen Zijun himself is not out of the question."

A brief silence fell over the meeting room, then the two men raised their coffee cups in unison.

Although the Qing Dynasty had been gone for over a decade, in the eyes of these foreigners, the warlords on this land were still pawns they could manipulate at will, with just a flick of their finger. They would never allow an uncontrollable overlord with terrifying military power to overturn their rules at the Far East table.

Meanwhile, far away in Fuzhou, Chen Zijun was standing in front of the sand table in the temporary command room, quietly listening to Shen Li report on the unusual intelligence from the Shanghai Concession.

He looked at the flags representing the concessions and foreign banks on the sand table, a chilling smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

"Getting all worked up? Starting to pull some dirty tricks?"

"Excellent." Chen Zijun casually slammed a red chess piece representing the German-equipped heavy artillery battalion heavily onto the edge of the concession. "I was just looking for an excuse to chop off these foreigners' hands one by one."

"If they dare to extend their claws, I'll show them what true 'Prussian militarism' really is!"