Master Yuan, start!

"Hold on firmly, there is a way!"

Chapter 232 Dimensionality Attack and Bodhisattva's Heart

Xuzhou was abandoned.

After more than ten days of siege, at some point, a rumor began to spread in Xuzhou City.

Perhaps, it should not be called a rumor, but a "fact"

After all, the black and white words on the telegram are real.

What does it mean to “hold on firmly and there will be a way”?

The men of Xiang have traveled across mountains and rivers to fight in battles all over the country. Could it be that Governor Liu Kunyi would abandon us without even a glance?

When the old Hunan Army soldiers came to Zhu Hongzhang's tent with a clamor, they found that he was already sitting inside. The desk that used to be filled with military information was now empty except for a lonely teacup.

"You don't need to say more. Marshal Xian said there is a way to hold on, so we must obey his orders." Zhu Hongzhang looked at it with a calm mind.

From the moment he raised the butcher knife against the Yuan family, he believed that he had lost the conditions to surrender to the National Defense Army.

Under the siege of the army, Xuzhou City was already a dead city, and the telegram sent by Liu Kunyi nailed the last nail in the coffin for Xuzhou.

There are clearly troops stationed in Huai'an, which is nearby, and tens of thousands of troops in Jiangning, so why can't we go north?

Zhu Hongzhang fought for more than 40 years and made his fortune by suppressing the Miao uprising in Guizhou. Later, he followed Zeng Guoquan to conquer Jingdezhen. Finally, he conquered Yuhuatai in Tianjing during the Battle of Tianjing, and was listed as the general with the greatest merit in recovering Jiangning.

How could he be abandoned by the Hunan Army in the end? Zhu Hongzhang couldn't understand.

Try your best to defend it, which can be regarded as repaying the kindness of the old and ninth marshals. Zhu Hongzhang shook his head and didn't want to think about it anymore.

Xuzhou City is not big. Although he has ordered to defend it with all his strength, there are still some old Hunan Army soldiers who are unwilling to wait for death and want to lead their troops to break out and gallop south on horseback.

After overcoming numerous obstacles, they finally returned to Jiangning City more than ten days later. As soon as they entered the city, they questioned their superiors why they did not rescue Xuzhou.

But the Jiangning Governor's Office replied that it had not received any telegram from Xuzhou at all.

As for the reply message saying "Hold on firmly, there will be a way", the Jiangning Telegraph Office also swore that it was definitely not sent by them.

After Liu Kunyi met with the 8th Hunan Army that had fled south and heard about the situation in Xuzhou City, he realized that something was wrong and immediately wanted to send a large army north to provide assistance.

However, at this time, the Shanghai newspaper published a front-page news that the "Ox" and "Wolf" of national defense joined forces to capture Xuzhou, and the Hunan Army Admiral Zhu Hongzhang committed suicide.

The moment he saw the newspaper, Liu Kunyi couldn't help but let out a long cry to the sky.

"Huanwen Zhu Hongzhang's words, you've fallen into the trap, you've fallen into the trap!"

He held a newspaper in his hand, heartbroken over the loss of a great general of the Hunan Army!

...

The time goes back to before the Battle of Xuzhou.

Since the siege of Xuzhou City, Ming Ye brought the students of telegraph expert Niu Shangzhou and several hundred cavalrymen to a small village called Shiji, more than a hundred miles south of Xuzhou City.

This is an important ferry crossing where the telegraph line of Xuzhou City extends southward. There is a small telegraph station here. Due to the raids by the National Defense Army, the militia, and the Hunan Army patrol battalion, the employees in the telegraph station have long disappeared.

"According to the Chief Instructor's instructions, intelligence warfare is also an important part of modern warfare." Ming Ye set up a temporary base and gave the two a friendly smile: "What happens next depends on you!"

Although he was not sure how to conceal the truth, he believed that the chief instructor would create a miracle again.

Mingye took out two intact telegraph machines and placed them on the table. The two students were not shy either. Once the venue was set up, they took out the tools they needed.

Cut the telegraph cable to the thickness of a finger, then pull a new wire from the telegraph machine and connect it to the original telegraph wire.

Nineteenth-century telegraph wires were, after all, just ordinary electrical wires, nothing special.

During the American Civil War in the 19s, soldiers eavesdropped on and sabotaged telegraph lines to pass enemy intelligence to their side.

And what Yuan Xiangcheng had to do was to go a step further and directly connect the telegraph line outside Xuzhou City to the telegraph machine.

In this way, the final destination of all telegrams in the north of Xuzhou City became that small telegraph machine.

All telegrams heading south were sent from another telegraph machine.

The two telegraph machines split the telegraph line from Beijing to Shanghai into two parts, one from Beijing to Xuzhou, and the other from Xuzhou to Shanghai.

Zhu Hongzhang suffered because of his lack of foresight. The telegraph in Xuzhou City was interrupted for several days, and he thought it was a malfunction. In fact, the city was in a dilemma where intelligence could not be transmitted.

During the American Civil War, there was a special "Line Patrol" to patrol telegraph lines. Anyone caught eavesdropping or damaging the telegraph lines would be shot on the spot.

Since the establishment of China's telegraph in 1880, it has never considered the issue of "being used by the enemy".

Therefore, Yuan Xiangcheng simply took advantage of the defensive blind spot that the Chinese had not paid attention to at that time to launch a "dimensionality reduction attack" on the Qing Dynasty.

After intercepting the telegraph line, the telegraph operator immediately sent a telegram to Yuan Xiangcheng via the northbound line to inform him of the success of the plan.

As soon as Yuan Xiangcheng received the news, he ordered Sheng Fei to launch another fierce attack on Xuzhou.

Although Sheng Fei didn't know why the chief instructor was so anxious, he just did as he was ordered.

Information was transmitted in seconds, and the counterattack was launched with thundering means.

Sure enough, after receiving the telegram saying "Hold on firmly, there will be a way", Zhu Hongzhang, who was defending the city, seemed to have lost his soul. The remaining defenders in Xuzhou organized several breakouts, but after being forced back by yellow explosive mines, they had to retreat into the city and make plans again.

The few Hunan troops that were not affected by the mines, even if they escaped, faced encirclement and suppression by the National Defense Army cavalry.

Only a very lucky few were able to escape the encirclement and flee south.

Finally, after resisting for more than ten days, the remaining Hunan Army opened the gates of Xuzhou and raised the white flag.

"Commander Sheng, Xuzhou has opened its gates and surrendered!"

"Really that fast?!"

Such an outcome was something Sheng Fei could never have imagined before the war. How could they surrender after only a few days of siege?

Where is the backbone and the comradeship?

Isn't it just a siege?

Hong Xiuquan held out in the city of Tianjing for several years under the siege of an army of over one hundred thousand. How come you, Zhu Hongzhang, can't stand it with only tens of thousands of troops now?

It turns out that the mighty Hunan Army that led the troops to capture Yuhuatai was no more than this!

Although he was mocking her in his heart, Sheng Fei's most urgent task was to send a telegram to Yuan Xiangcheng to report the latest situation on the battlefield in Xuzhou.

After receiving the telegram, Yuan Xiangcheng, who was discussing military intelligence with a group of staff, was extremely satisfied to see that his plan had been successful.

Starting from temporarily abandoning the strategy of behind enemy lines in Jianghuai, all the rest of the process was deduced in his mind and was not put into practice.

Of the three things, only the large-scale detour strategy is certain, and I am unsure about the remaining two.

For example, the yellow explosive mine, due to its unstable nature, injured more than ten workers when it was installed in the rear. If it was really sent to the front line, it would kill the Wehrmacht before it hit the enemy.

For example, as for intercepting telegrams, although he had the impression that the Americans had done it and the staff of the Incheon Telegraph Office had also tried it outside the Great Wall, electronic components were a new thing after all, and no one could guarantee that there would be no mistakes.

Fortunately, everything went well and nothing went wrong.

"Chief Instructor, how should we deal with the surrendered Hunan Army?" Wang Shizhen saw that Yuan Xiangcheng was in a very good mood, so he came forward and asked with a smile.

"Although the Hunan Army's hands are stained with blood, they have fought against insults for the country after all." In a trance, Yuan Xiangcheng seemed to see the tragic scene of the young men of Hunan rushing towards Yakub Beg under the leadership of Zuo Zongtang.

"Come here, give the order."

Yuan Xiangcheng looked at the northwestern border on the map, a place that would be turbulent for decades to come, and said calmly: "Give Sheng Fei an order to treat the Hunan Army prisoners well. Except for the killers who slaughtered Yuan's relatives, the rest will be taken to Lanzhou, Gansu, and handed over to the new Governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, Yang Changjun, for disposal.

Tell Yang Changjun that the country can have civil unrest, but it cannot sell out the country to foreigners, otherwise Zhu Hongzhang will be the price!

Aren't the Russians eyeing Xinjiang covetously? I'll send him these Hunan Army soldiers, so he can use them well. Don't use the excuse of insufficient troops to sit back and watch the Russians invade the south! "

Hearing that Yuan Shikai wanted to spare the Hunan Army's life, Wang Shizhen and Wang Yingkai behind him couldn't help but widen their eyes.

Although Xinjiang is a cold, windy and sandy place, being sent there is almost like exile.

But even if it's exile, it's much better than losing your head!

In the past, the chief instructor often talked about the "cruelness of the Hunan Army". They thought he would seize the opportunity this time, but unexpectedly he did not kill them all.

"Chief Instructor, you are truly a kind-hearted person." Looking at Yuan Xiangcheng's back as he walked out, several people felt deeply moved.

Chapter 233 Decryption

Xuzhou, an important city in northern Huaibei, fell in January;

Zhu Hongzhang, the infantry commander of the Jiangnan New Army, committed suicide by hanging;

The Hunan Army in the city raised white flags, knelt down and surrendered, and was exiled to Xinjiang.

One after another, shocking news spread throughout the Jiangnan officialdom at an extremely fast speed.

The strength of the National Defense Forces was once again refreshed in the hearts of all the people.

Before the Battle of Xuzhou, although the people of Jiangnan knew that the National Defense Army was the strongest army in the world, they had no direct experience of it. Some people even believed that the New Hunan Army was not necessarily weaker than the National Defense Army under the long-term misleading of public opinion in Jiangnan.

Although China won the Korean War against the Japanese, the Chinese people at that time looked down on Japan, with the mentality of "Although my family has fallen on hard times, it is still better than yours, a country bumpkin."

Historically, this mentality was not broken until the Sino-Japanese War of 10-, but as luck would have it, Yuan Shikai's actions in Korea during the past years actually strengthened this mentality.

Therefore, in the eyes of some stubborn people, repelling the Japanese is not an achievement worth boasting about.

During the Anti-Curtain Movement, the army reached Beijing on the 50th, which made people all over the world look at them with admiration.

However, the subsequent suppression of the Jindan Dao caused others to lower their evaluation of the National Defense Force again.

It took them 50 days to defeat the imperial army, but why did they fail to completely suppress the small civil uprising and even allowed the bandits to escape and run all the way west to the Hetao area?

Therefore, many people regarded the National Defense Army as the old Hunan Army after it broke through the city of Tianjing, which had lost its fighting spirit and could no longer fight tough battles.

When the old Hunan Army besieged Beijing, everyone was holding their breath and was determined not to give up until they achieved their goal of breaking the city.

After the city was broken, Zeng Guoquan ordered his troops to plunder the entire city for three days in order to reward the entire army.

But on the first night, Li Chendian, the commander of the Xin Camp who took the lead in blowing up the outer wall of Tianjing, died on a woman's belly due to excessive drinking.

The Hunan Army's rapid corruption did not begin when boxes of gold, silver, and jewelry were shipped back to their hometown in Hunan, but had already begun when they burned, killed, and looted in the city of Tianjing.

In the eyes of ordinary people, being a soldier in the Qing Dynasty has always been about getting promoted and making money.

Judging from the example of the old Hunan Army, the National Defense Army had already eaten its fill after several battles, while the New Hunan Army was still hungry. Isn't it obvious at a glance which one was stronger?

Everyone knows the name of the National Defense Army, but who knows if it will be the next Eight Banners? There are many people who hold this idea.

However, after the Battle of Xuzhou, the National Defense Army responded with the most powerful force, giving a slap in the face to those who advocated for the New Hunan Army.

Even though the Jiangnan Governor's Office in Jiangning kept denying it, the increasingly detailed reports in the declarations strongly refuted it time and time again.

At first, the "Hunan Town" where the families of the Hunan Army gathered in the north of Jiangning City did not recognize it, and some people even thought that this was a psychological warfare by Yuan Shikai.