Chapter 69 Section 2

  In the midst of running naked

  "Li Biao Tong... Li Biao Tong, everyone is waiting for your instructions... Take a look..."

  In a daze, it seemed like someone had pushed him from the side. Li Han rubbed his slightly sore temples and lifted his head up.

  "Li Biao, everyone is waiting for your opinion. Look at the people in this house, most of them have already experienced Commander-in-Chief's command ability, and it must be a good hand at leading troops to fight battles. Except for you, Cai Biao, Xiong Biao, Jiang Biao, and Sun Biao, none of them have any opinions. What about you~~~~"

  The speaker was a young officer under Jiang Ming's command in the Eighth Artillery Battalion, whom Li Han did not know, but seeing that his words were laced with sarcasm, he clearly didn't mean any harm.

  Li Han slightly furrowed his brow, saying that among those in this house, the one with the weakest strength was him. He had figured it out - Wu Zhaolun must have reached some kind of agreement with Gongjin Association behind closed doors. As a result, Gongjin Association gave up on competing for the second bid and instead pushed him to take the position, half-heartedly. It would be foolish to think there was no reason behind this. In this house, the strongest faction belonged to Gongjin Association. Even Li Han couldn't guarantee that after several rounds of cleaning up, there wouldn't be anyone in the first bid who secretly supported Gongjin Association or was even a member of it. Apart from that, the next strongest factions were Wu Zhaolun's group, which had joined forces with Xiong Wu, and the Huidang, which formed its own faction. Then there was Cai Jimin's 29th bid and Wu Xinghan's new patrol camp combination. In terms of strength and influence, only the 32nd bid of the Qing army, which had just surrendered, was slightly weaker than him, but their influence was much greater than his.

  Moreover, he has almost offended all forces except for the Cai Wu faction, and it would be a blessing if this trip to the Capital was not attacked. As for gains, don't even think about it.

  However, he didn't bother to respond to the sarcasm in the other person's words. When you're not strong enough, you should keep your mouth shut, but that doesn't mean he was afraid of the other person. This was Li Han's principle. Without even looking at the other person, Li Han nodded expressionlessly and said, "I agree..."

  A casual and calm response, seemingly unaffected by the provocation, made a group of onlookers waiting for a good show in the house suddenly realize that there was no drama to be seen.

  "Alright...since everyone is in agreement, Commander, don't decline anymore. I think only you can command the second unit with divine inspiration..."

  "I agree with the first banner, the reason why our revolution can succeed quickly is largely due to the ability of General Wu. Since everyone has no objection, I request that General Wu take the revolution as his priority and accept this second-in-command position." The commander of the 32nd banner, Nan Zongtang, chimed in next, he was also a surrendered general like Wu Zhaolin, so he felt particularly close to him and spoke out strongly in support.

  The rest of the people all agreed.

  Look at the people below, except for those who don't speak from the Kuomintang, most of the revolutionary army officers have already spoken out in support. Wu Chaolin's face showed a hint of difficulty, but he also didn't decline anymore, and nodded slightly to agree.

  "Li Biao, don't mind this, it's their usual behavior. But Deng Yulin is a good strategist, I don't know how he persuaded the commander-in-chief to give the military affairs minister of the military government to Sun Wuzi (Sun Wu), who is not even here. Hmph, what a wonderful move! This Hunan military government, which has yet to be established, will become their exclusive domain. Among the 17 big names on the list, 14 are key members of the Progressive Association, and 11 of them are not even in our city. It's really laughable. And that group of gangsters, it's not an exaggeration to call them hooligans. The chaos in this city can't be separated from their shadow. Now, they've actually been given the position of commanding two battalions for patrol and defense. It's really baffling!"

  Next to Li Han, Sun Guoan, the original Qing army commander of the 32nd Division, suddenly spoke up. He saw that Li Han seemed to be treated with disdain by everyone, and seeing the flashing knives and swords in the room, he was afraid of being affected, so he also had the idea of winning him over. Although Wu Zhaolun's situation was similar to his before, when he saw him enter with Gongchunhui and other armed men like Xiong Bingkun, he felt that he had already surrendered in the past and would not be treated with much respect. Therefore, Li Han, who was also not respected by everyone in the room, entered his eyes.

  Li Han nodded, and the materials of the 32nd banner commander Sun Guoan were also collected by Li Dong. To say that this person is barely considered a half-celebrity, he was a good friend of the giant behind history - Lan Tianwei, who was in the same year and session. However, Lan Tianwei was suspected by Zhang Biao because of his involvement with the revolutionary party, and as a result, he was replaced by Sun Guoan after being forced to flee.

  "Brother Sun has spoken too much, we'll just watch and see..."

  Li Handan smiled and replied, among the five banner generals, even Sun Guoan, a surrendered general, had managed to secure a position in the soon-to-be-established military government. Only he, aside from being the banner general of the first banner, hadn't even been given an idle post as a military affairs consultant. The reason for this was unthinkable, and it couldn't help but make the officers in the room wonder. However, if one were to describe him now with a single word, it would be "detached observer". Indeed, although he had seemed distracted earlier, he still managed to pay attention to the situation in the room, and thus had a clear understanding of what was going on. He suddenly realized many things, including why the Progressive Party had yielded the position of second banner general. It seemed that the two sides had already negotiated with each other beforehand. If someone like him, who had almost offended both sides, could still secure a position in this new government, then history would not have been dominated by Yuan Shikai's Beiyang government for so many years.

  As for the revolutionary party, what kind of people are inside, he must be more aware than Nan Yan knows. In the original history, after the establishment of the Hubei Military Government, some so-called old revolutionaries came to join, and the result was astonishing that when the Yangxia War had just reached its midpoint, most of the true heroes of the Wuchang Uprising in this military government were marginalized and became insignificant pawns. On the other hand, those who shouted slogans loudly and were good at fighting for power and position actually seized the leadership of the new-born military government. The naivety of the true revolutionaries and the exclusivity of these revolutionary party members can be seen as a general phenomenon.

  In the "Xinhai Revolution", there were still many young revolutionaries who were politically naive. Some of them participated in the revolution with the idea of "achieving success and retiring", and immediately retreated after the revolution succeeded. Others used their own blood and even lives to pave the way for those late Qing politicians who were eager to climb up, and also laid the groundwork for the subsequent warlord wars. If these revolutionaries could have been more mature politically, perhaps China's modern history could have been rewritten.

  Of course, not all revolutionaries are naive and simple-minded. Some people take advantage of the revolutionary trend to successfully promote themselves to high positions, and then they also join the warlords' struggle for power. However, by that time, they are no longer revolutionaries.

  The soil of this era's China is more suitable for nurturing warlords than pure revolutionaries.

  "Since I've crossed over into this era, then let me change all of this."

  Look at the strange atmosphere in that house, thought Li Han.