Speaking is a skill that requires great finesse. Faced with Yuan Shikai's inquiry about the recent situation in the Handan theater, Jiang Baili answered straightforwardly, "President, although Wu Peifu is fighting a hard battle in Handan, the overall situation is still advantageous for us Beiyang."

Sure enough, just as Jiang Baili had expected, a sense of relief appeared on Yuan Shikai's oily, fat face. Without asking Jiang Baili to explain exactly where the advantage lay for Beiyang, Yuan Shikai waved his hand, "Hurry up and handle things. Don't let those people cause unnecessary trouble."

"Yes!" Jiang Baili responded loudly, then went out. As soon as he left the door, Jiang Baili's face darkened. What he had just told Yuan Shikai was naturally not the truth. The battle situation in Handan, several hundred li away from the Presidential Palace, could absolutely not be called advantageous. The situation inside Beijing city, within a dozen li around the Presidential Palace, was also fraught with crisis. As an attendant military officer, Jiang Baili could access a lot of information. After discovering that the grain shops in Beijing surprisingly had no grain for sale, Jiang Baili reviewed some information regarding military provisions. Just this partial and far from comprehensive information terrified Jiang Baili.

After Beiyang expanded its army by a million, the grain in Hebei was almost exhausted. Jiang Baili had asked several friends who were connected to grain merchants, and their answers were exactly the same. This process was like boiling a frog in warm water. Faced with constantly rising grain prices, landlords and farmers had already sold the grain in their hands cleanly. Currently, there was not a bit of grain left in the countryside; everyone was waiting for this year's summer harvest.

"Since the grain has all been sold, the grain is naturally concentrated in the hands of Beiyang?" Jiang Baili drew his own conclusion based on the intelligence provided by these people. This judgment was naturally reasonable, but at least from the official documents back and forth, one could not clearly see the limit of Beiyang's massive grain hoarding. Because Jiang Baili found that in recent official documents, a considerable portion were documents from the army demanding grain. And this type of document was increasing; some units even sent two or three consecutive requests for grain in a single day.

From a military organizational perspective, there was obviously something fishy about these documents. Military provisions are allocated on time; the troops are not granaries, so storing that much grain is useless. Before the war started, the Beiyang Army had statistics; the current military grain reserves were definitely enough to eat until September. Now it was only June, and troops were already clamoring that there wasn't enough food. There were only two possibilities for this: either someone lied when the initial plan was formulated, or these troops applying for grain were lying.

Whether it was the high-ranking officials who formulated the plan or the various Governors who implemented the plan, neither of these two groups were people Jiang Baili could afford to offend. Even though he had various doubts in his heart, Jiang Baili could not possibly go and question these people, let alone that this investigation was Jiang Baili's own private action. Encountering such a situation just as the war started, Jiang Baili had completely not expected before the war that such a big problem would occur with grain.

Thinking of this, Jiang Baili's mood became extremely heavy. The grain supply for a million troops was simply not something one person could shoulder. Having already encountered such a problem now, what other unexpected things would continue to happen as the war proceeded?

With things on his mind, Jiang Baili's reaction was inevitably a bit slow. At a corner in the corridor, he was staggered by a collision with someone rushing over. The person's nose hit Jiang Baili's forehead; in the pain, his eyes involuntarily reddened. Before Jiang Baili could understand what happened, he heard the person curse, "Do you walk without eyes?" After saying this, the person pushed Jiang Baili aside and continued to walk hurriedly towards Yuan Shikai's office.

The incident happened suddenly; Jiang Baili was temporarily dazed and didn't even have a reaction of anger. But seeing the person's back, it looked familiar. The hair was graying, and the color of the uniform and the shoulder boards clearly indicated a general. This general strode towards Yuan Shikai's office. The guards naturally wouldn't announce him casually and immediately blocked the general outside the door. The man was also forthright; he shouted loudly in a Tianjin accent with a Jiangxi flavor, "President, Zhang Xun seeks an audience!"

Only then did Jiang Baili remember that the person was Zhang Xun. Zhang Xun had come from Jiangxi to Beijing to seek refuge with Yuan Shikai. Although he had been idled for the past few years, Zhang Xun was after all an officer with a background in leading troops in battle. Beiyang also lacked people, so Yuan Shikai had given Zhang Xun the rank of Major General in the Army, letting Zhang Xun hold a sinecure in the logistics department. Heaven knows what medicine Zhang Xun took to come looking for Yuan Shikai so actively.

Watching the excitement was naturally inappropriate, and Jiang Baili also didn't like watching excitement. In any case, as an attendant military officer, Jiang Baili couldn't go and reason with Zhang Xun, who was a Major General, let alone that Zhang Xun was thirty or forty years older than Jiang Baili. Sulking, Jiang Baili turned and continued to go convey Yuan Shikai's orders.

Like the Presidential Palace, the Army Ministry was also covered in gloomy clouds. As the highest command authority of the Beiyang Army, they were always able to receive intelligence first. The faces of the soldiers shuttling through various rooms holding official documents were solemn; Jiang Baili could tell that everyone was very unhappy. To prohibit the spread of "the foreign military observation group suffered heavy casualties under the People's Party bombing," one had to first find the Vice Minister of the Army, Duan Qirui. Wang Shizhen, as the Minister of the Army, definitely couldn't personally manage this kind of thing.

However, the door to Duan Qirui's office was tightly closed. The guard said coldly to Jiang Baili, "Master Duan is seeing no one right now. If you want to see Master Duan, then wait first."

No matter what Jiang Baili said, the guard only had this one sentence. Just as Jiang Baili didn't know what had happened, he heard someone call from behind, "Isn't this Baili?" Turning his head to look, the speaker was Zheng Wenjie, Deputy Director of the Intelligence Department of the Army Ministry.

Zheng Wenjie said, "Baili, go to my office to talk first." Regardless of whether Jiang Baili was willing or not, Zheng Wenjie pulled Jiang Baili and went elsewhere. That direction was also the direction of Zheng Wenjie's office. Arriving at a relatively secluded place, Zheng Wenjie said in a low voice, "Just received news, Wu Peifu has already withdrawn troops back to Handan. Commander Duan is gathering people to discuss this matter. I think you'd better not wait."

"Wu Peifu withdrew back to Handan?" Jiang Baili completely hadn't expected the war situation to develop to such a stage.

"Not only did Wu Peifu withdraw back to Handan, but a unit of the People's Party has already gone north to attack Xingtai. Now Wu Peifu's two hundred thousand men in Handan have been surrounded. Someone in the Army Ministry thinks we should send troops south to open up the Beijing-Hankou line. There are also people suggesting giving up Handan and letting Wu Peifu withdraw. Baili, you are someone in Beiyang who understands warfare, can you give me, your brother, some advice? If Commander Duan asks, I will have something to say."

"Regardless of whether it is breaking out or holding fast, we must hurry up and send troops south." Jiang Baili answered casually. After finishing, he couldn't help but ask again, "Brother Zheng, this news... isn't mistaken, right?"

Zheng Wenjie smiled bitterly, "We originally didn't believe it either, but the Third Army stationed in Xingtai confirmed repeatedly that a People's Party force of over a hundred thousand has already circled to Wu Peifu's rear and is approaching Xingtai. As for what exactly to do now, no one in the Army Ministry has an idea."

"This news hasn't been told to the President yet?" Jiang Baili now suddenly wanted to leave. Telling Yuan Shikai such news would be purely looking for trouble. Yuan Shikai's mood couldn't possibly accept such a fact.

"The situation is like this. The Army Ministry wants to come up with a solution first, then report this matter to the President." After saying this, Zheng Wenjie sighed deeply.