In the war against the People's Party, the Beiyang forces had fought on the largest scale, followed by Jiangsu's Wang Youhong. Wang Youhong had at least driven off the Restoration Society's troops, though he failed to capture the positions held by the People's Party. The People's Party eventually withdrew on their own initiative, so in that sense, Wang Youhong could be considered to have won. Thus, both Yuan Shikai and even Cai Yuanpei hoped that Jiangsu Governor Wang Youhong could "make persistent efforts and continue to write glory." Unexpectedly, Wang Youhong directly stated that he was no match for the People's Party, which couldn't help but disappoint the two. Yuan Shikai felt that a piece of excellent cannon fodder was missing from his strategic puzzle, while Cai Yuanpei felt genuine regret.

However, Wang Youhong was not a direct subordinate of Beiyang after all. Moreover, the Beiyang Army's strength in Fujian and Zhejiang was not substantial, totaling only 50,000 men. The plan was to expand to 150,000, but facing Wang Youhong, who possessed nearly 50,000 troops himself, Yuan Shikai knew he couldn't push too hard. The current situation was becoming increasingly unfavorable for the People's Party. If Wang Youhong, in desperation, defected to the People's Party, the People's Party would likely welcome him. Yuan Shikai turned to Cai Yuanpei, "Mr. Cai, to exterminate the People's Party in Zhejiang and Fujian, we still need you to provide a list."

Wang Youhong secretly cursed Yuan Shikai for his cunning. If Yuan Shikai hadn't ignored him—if he had said even a single word—Wang Youhong would have asked Yuan Shikai for aid. In reality, Jiangsu not only lacked the ability to attack the People's Party base areas but also lacked the ability to protect itself in front of the People's Party's hundreds of thousands of troops. Beiyang had many soldiers, wide territory, and many generals. Even if the situation was unfavorable for a time, they wouldn't be finished immediately. But the People's Party troops, only a few dozen miles from Nanjing, would take at most a day to attack Nanjing. Furthermore, the People's Party was postured to pincer Southern Jiangsu. Once they struck, the 50,000 troops in Southern Jiangsu wouldn't last long. But begging for help and climbing up a pole offered to you were two different things. If Yuan Shikai spoke first, Wang Youhong could logically ask for help. But if Wang Youhong actively requested aid, he would have to accept whatever conditions Yuan Shikai proposed.

While considering how to bring up the matter of Beiyang's aid, Wang Youhong missed the conversation between Yuan Shikai and Cai Yuanpei. When he listened carefully again, he heard Cai Yuanpei reply: "To stop the People's Party's policies now, the landlords and gentry of the entire world must unite. But small landlords are timid and fearful, muddling along. This group is actually the most important."

Because he hadn't heard the previous words, Wang Youhong felt lost for a moment, completely unclear on what Cai Yuanpei was saying. Then he heard Yuan Shikai say, "Mr. Cai, this matter requires a two-pronged approach."

This time Cai Yuanpei did not respond, only nodding slightly.

Seeing that the talk was about done, Yuan Shikai simply saw the guests out. Wang Youhong originally wanted to continue discussing cooperation with Yuan Shikai. But on second thought, if the People's Party really attacked Jiangsu, would Beiyang dare to leave them in the lurch? If he asked Yuan Shikai to send troops into Jiangsu now, leaving aside whether they could defend against the People's Party's attack, wouldn't Wang Youhong have to guard against the Beiyang Army seizing power? Thinking of this, Wang Youhong actually felt there was nothing to be afraid of.

After seeing these people off, Yuan Shikai received representatives from Sichuan, Yunnan-Guizhou, and Kangding. These provinces had no feeling regarding the People's Party's infiltration and spoke without scruples. Aside from expressing empty support to Yuan Shikai, they had nothing else to say. What Yuan Shikai hoped for was that these people could maintain a pro-Beiyang attitude. As for how much effort they could actually contribute, Yuan Shikai hadn't counted on these provinces anyway.

Meeting people batch after batch like this, by evening, Yuan Shikai sat exhausted in his office, no longer having the spirited feeling he appeared to have during the day. The graying hair and the deep wrinkles on his oily, fat face gave him a haggard look.

"President," Wang Shizhen entered and called out, "I've already sent the Shaanxi representatives away."

"Pinqing, sit," Yuan Shikai said. "Today during the day, the Yunnan-Guizhou representatives mentioned establishing a military academy. I was thinking, should we transfer Feng Guozhang back and let him be responsible for the Beiyang military academy matters? In terms of building military schools, he is more capable than many others."

Hearing Yuan Shikai mention this, Wang Shizhen sat down and nodded slightly. If Yuan Shikai looked exhausted and haggard, Wang Shizhen gave the impression of being old. His gray hair was now almost completely white. Because he was relatively thin, Wang Shizhen's wrinkles were more numerous and deeper. Wang Shizhen said, "President, we publicly claim we want to build an army of 2 million, but how many troops do we actually intend to build?"

"At least 1.6 million right now," Yuan Shikai replied.

Wang Shizhen spoke slowly, "Then we must train at least 50,000 military academy graduates. Last year, Jiang Baili said we needed to build military academies on a large scale. We didn't listen then. If we build the academies now, even accelerated courses will take two years."

Yuan Shikai didn't answer this time; he just shook his head slightly. Jiang Baili's insight was good. If they had made up their minds to build military academies at the beginning of last year, by the end of 1914, there should have been enough low-level officers for a million-strong army. But at the beginning of last year, Beiyang's finances were exhausted. Where would Yuan Shikai get the money to run military schools? It was only at the end of last year that the British reached a loan agreement with Beiyang, and the British gave part of the loan to Beiyang in the form of 300 million taels of silver, which solved Beiyang's urgent needs. But time passed and could not be retrieved. Establishing military academies, training troops—this wasn't something money alone could solve; it required enough time.

Wang Shizhen continued, "President, I won't participate in the establishment of the military academy this time. Why not leave it to the young people?"

Yuan Shikai looked at Wang Shizhen's almost completely white hair and the knife-carved wrinkles on his face. His heart softened, and he almost wanted to agree to Wang Shizhen's request. But he ultimately replied, "Pinqing, it's fine to let young people do more things, let them contribute more, but you supervise them. You decide who to use. If you don't preside over this matter, I really won't be at ease."

Wang Shizhen sighed softly, almost inaudibly. Sighing was a rare thing for Wang Shizhen, but he really couldn't help it. Intelligence on the People's Party was not hard to obtain, and Wang Shizhen paid special attention to intelligence gathering. He knew a lot about the Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army. The People's Party had long established a rotational training system, where commanders at all levels regularly went to military academies for education. Moreover, the People's Party encouraged soldiers to become volunteers. Once they became volunteers, they became the backbone in various aspects. They would first go to military academies for education, and then be assigned work upon graduation. Most volunteers became technical troops. Among the 600,000 troops of the People's Party, at least 100,000 had military academy training experience.

If Beiyang wanted to build an army of 1.6 million, just the squad leaders would number 160,000, and platoon leaders 40,000. These grassroots officers would require 200,000 people. With Beiyang's current situation, all grassroots officers numbered less than 40,000. Even if all military academies were opened, they would need to train another 160,000 people. Not only was it difficult to get so many people, but the scale of the military academies was also insufficient to train so many grassroots officers. Because, primarily, there weren't that many military academy teachers.

If the opposing People's Party wanted to form an army of the same scale, they only needed to train another 100,000 people. It wasn't just that the difficulty was lower; the People's Party currently had one senior military academy, four intermediate military academies, and eight junior military academies. As far as Wang Shizhen knew, each school could train 4,000 students per term. At this rate, they could graduate 48,000 students a year. Beiyang's current military academy graduation scale was only a little over 10,000. The gap between the two sides was simply too large.

But there was no other way right now. If Wang Shizhen didn't personally preside over this matter, others simply wouldn't have the ability to subdue the Beiyang generals. Thinking of this, Wang Shizhen didn't even have the mood to sigh. He nodded, "President, I will handle this matter."

"Then I can rest easy," Yuan Shikai let out a sigh of relief.

In the following days, Yuan Shikai first spoke privately with representatives of the National Assembly, explaining Beiyang's strategy of firmly opposing the People's Party's land reform. First obtaining the support of the representatives from the southern provinces, when the National Assembly officially convened, Yuan Shikai didn't make an overly murderous speech. He didn't even appear in person but let Wang Youhong come forward to make a speech about "opposing radicalism."

"Members of Parliament, after the Qing abdicated and the Republic was established, at a time when we should be resting and letting the people recover, a group of radicals is wandering in China. Attempting to overthrow China's current polity and to find a legitimate excuse for their plundering of the people's land, these radicals have united with local ruffians and hooligans, committing crimes under all sorts of high-sounding excuses."

"Of the provinces bordering the radicals, which one hasn't been cursed by the radicals as a counter-revolutionary government? And which landlord or member of the gentry who tried to protect their own land and property hasn't been slapped with the big hat of being a counter-revolutionary by the radicals?"

"From this fact, two conclusions can be drawn: Radicalism is already the enemy of all China. Because the radicals have expressed, with an undisguised attitude, that they view the governments of China's various provinces as enemies. They have expressed, with an undisguised attitude, that they view China's gentry as their enemies. They have expressed, with an undisguised attitude, that they view anyone who does not agree with or even submit to radicalism as an enemy."

"Now is the time when we must clearly state to the radicals that we will absolutely not submit to them. We do not want war, but we must be able to protect ourselves. Because provincial boundaries mean nothing in the eyes of the radicals. They are just like the State of Qin back then, expanding everywhere. 'Thinking of our ancestors, exposing themselves to frost and dew, cutting through brambles, to gain a foot or an inch of land... Sons and grandsons treat it without care, giving it away to others like throwing away weeds. Today ceding five cities, tomorrow ten, then getting one night's sleep. Waking up to look around, the Qin army has arrived again. However, the land of the feudal lords is limited, but the desire of the violent Qin is insatiable. The more one serves them, the more urgent their invasion becomes. Therefore, the outcome of the strong and weak is already decided without fighting.'"

Wang Youhong's voice was sonorous and forceful, but the faces of the feudal lords and their representatives in the audience became increasingly ugly. The reason for their change in expression was fear.