Master Yuan, start!

Yuan Xiangcheng would not do anything that would make him cruel internally and tolerant externally, so as not to disappoint his comrades in the party.

...

Just after Zhang Zhidong set out north, Hubei was hit by one major earthquake after another.

Although Zhang Zhidong could leave, these forces entrenched in Hubei could not avoid being dealt with.

In fact, this was destined from the beginning.

The reason why Zhang Zhidong gave up resistance so decisively was closely related to the non-cooperation of these local forces in Hubei.

When he took office as the Governor of Huguang, the situation he faced was not optimistic. The local forces in southern Huguang were powerful and he had little control over them, so he could only focus on northern Huguang.

After that, Zhang Zhidong, along with a group of governors and governors-general, issued a telegram to the whole country, calling for mutual protection in the southeast.

But mutual protection is mutual protection. Zhang Zhidong only discovered at this time that the Qing Dynasty was divided into north and south, and Hubei was caught in the middle.

To the north, it faced the Northern Qing Dynasty, and to the east and south were the old and powerful forces, the Hunan Army and the Huai Army.

In order to protect himself, Zhang Zhidong had no choice but to send troops to bring Cixi and the young Emperor Baoqing to Wuchang, which was barely enough to give himself a tiger skin.

Given the situation, Zhang Zhidong inevitably ceded some power to local forces in Hubei.

After all, he was a civil servant, had never organized militia or commanded troops. Even the Hubei New Army, which was said to have 8 elite soldiers, actually only had 5 soldiers under Zhang Zhidong's control.

The rest were the so-called "baojia armed forces" temporarily assembled in villages and towns across the country, and they didn't even have guns.

Therefore, after the four divisions of the National Revolutionary Army of the Central Plains Military Region moved south from Nanyang and Xinyang respectively, they quickly took over the Hubei New Army, which had no intention of resisting.

After their identities were verified, those who were willing to return home would be given subsidies, while those who were unwilling would be incorporated into the Central Plains Military Region of the National Revolutionary Army.

In just over ten days, the Central Plains Military Region of the National Revolutionary Army had added 7 infantry brigades, 2 artillery regiments, an inland navy unit sailing near the Han River and the Yangtze River, and more than a dozen gunboats.

The Hubei New Army was thus declared to have ceased to exist.

Immediately afterwards, under the threat of the National Revolutionary Army, counties in Hubei were ordered to disband the civilian baojia system and hand over their weapons.

Although there were several rebellions during this period, they were all insignificant and were quickly suppressed.

At the same time, the Hubei officialdom was also purged by Yuan Shikai with iron-blooded tactics. Every day and in every place, officials who were corrupt and abused their power and exploited the people were arrested, interrogated, and millions of taels of ill-gotten gains were seized.

Later, under the organization of the local Social Revolutionary Party and with the help of local progressive scholars, farmers, chambers of commerce, societies, trade unions and other institutions were established, temporarily taking over local administrative power.

At this point, the entire Hubei province has completely become the 12th province under the Republican government.

Chapter 395: Battle of Hukou 40 Years Later

"Hurry up!"

"Brothers, hurry up!"

Wang Xiaoqi rode on horseback and asked his adjutant to keep conveying orders to speed up. After coming out of the dense forests in the mountains, although the marching speed of his soldiers had increased a lot, in Wang Xiaoqi's opinion, it was still far from enough.

The sneak attack tactic must be fast enough to prevent the enemy from reacting, thus leaving yourself enough time to attack.

Wang Xiaoqi did not catch up with the battle with the main force of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. When he joined the Huai Army and made his mark, the city of Tianjing had already been captured. The Taiping Army scattered across the country merged with the local anti-Qing forces and became bandits.

In other words, what he was better at was fighting against the Nian Army who came and went like the wind on mules in the Huaibei area.

The key to cavalry combat is speed.

Wang Xiaoqi knew that even if the total number of his own troops could not catch up with the enemy, as long as he could rely on rapid movement in a short period of time and use more troops to defeat fewer, he could continuously weaken the enemy's manpower.

Therefore, in order to reverse the crisis in Nanchang, Wang Xiaoqi brought out almost all the mobile forces that could be mobilized in the city. He wanted to take advantage of the main force of the National Revolutionary Army attacking the city and cut off their retreat as much as possible before they could react, so as to turn the National Revolutionary Army under the city of Nanchang into an isolated army.

This time, the task Wang Xiaoqi set for himself was to capture Hukou, an important town on the flank of Jiujiang!

Half of the reason why Jiujiang is known as the city that controls the Yangtze River and blocks off Jiangxi is because of Hukou Town.

On both sides of the waterway where Poyang Lake flows into the Yangtze River, Jiujiang is on the west side and Hukou is on the east side. The two together form a complete Jiujiang defense line.

At this moment, just as at that moment.

More than 40 years ago, Shi Dakai and Zeng Guofan fought a crucial Battle of Hukou here. In this battle, Zeng Guofan not only lost all the advantages of the Hunan Army after the Eastern Expedition, but also allowed Shi Dakai to reverse the passive situation of the Taiping Army in the Western Expedition battlefield and change the entire peripheral situation of Tianjing.

After this battle, tens of thousands of Zeng Guofan's Hunan Army were wiped out, especially the Hunan Navy, which was caught in a trap and annihilated in Poyang Lake. He himself tried to show off several times and intended to commit suicide by jumping into the river, but was stopped by his subordinates.

Wang Xiaoqi once discussed this battle in the short-term crash course for generals of the Lingnan New Army.

At that time, he believed that the reason Zeng Guofan was defeated was that the Hunan Army itself was advancing from west to east.

When they arrived at Jiujiang City, the Hunan Army did not take Jiujiang first, but instead planned to cross the river with the advantage of the navy to fight, first clear the lake mouth in the east of Jiujiang, and then turn back to deal with Jiujiang.

This approach is wrong.

Naval warfare is inherently volatile. Shi Dakai's move to block the entrance of Poyang Lake to the river completely deprived the Hunan Navy of any room to maneuver. They were trapped in Poyang Lake and doomed to failure.

However, Wang Xiaoqi believed that this surprise attack to the north was different. From the beginning of formulating the battle plan, he felt that there was a great possibility of success.

Because this time, he bypassed Poyang Lake from the south and planned to attack the lake mouth from the east side by land.

No matter how powerful the Poyang Lake navy of the National Revolutionary Army is, they can't go ashore, right?

The opportunity to recapture Hukou and rescue Nanchang was right in front of him. As a rising star of the Huai Army and a fellow villager who was highly expected by Li Hongzhang, Wang Xiaoqi knew that he had to seize this opportunity, so he was very excited, even more excited than when he fought against the Nian Army in Huaibei.

"drive!"

Wu watched his soldiers gradually quicken their pace and were about to reach a dilapidated village ahead. Wang Xiaoqi finally relaxed his frown.

However, just as he was about to gently kick his horse's belly and return to the team, he heard a few cannon shots, and dense artillery fire came from the marching troops in front!

Wang Xiaoqi turned around in an instant, raised the telescope and looked forward.

More than a dozen shells came, and Wang Xiaoqi looked at the gun-gray bullets spinning and expanding in the lens. His eyes widened and his pupils suddenly shrank into cold stars!

"Where, where did the cannon come from?!"

4 Although Wang Xiaoqi anticipated encountering the enemy, the National Revolutionary Army already had a large number of troops, over 20, so it was normal to deploy more in the local area.

However, he still didn't expect that he would encounter such intensive artillery attacks just after stepping out of the jungle-covered mountains!

^"The National Revolutionary Army is so rich that they are willing to place more than a dozen cannons in a small village?!"

At this time, Wang Xiaoqi had no idea that his whereabouts had already been reported to Jiujiang by radio. Wang Shizhen in the Jiujiang Command immediately dispatched dozens of 90mm field guns and forward troops to support the Hukou defenders.

"Disperse the formation and meet the enemy!"

Wang Xiaoqi thought he had only encountered a small-scale enemy force, so he subconsciously ordered the large force to disperse and try his best to avoid the wide-area damage caused by the artillery shells hitting the crowd.

The marching formation that had been dense just now immediately became scattered and rushed towards the dilapidated village in the distance.

Discipline and training are always the biggest indicators of whether an army is mature or not. Although the Lingnan Huai Army is not as famous as the National Revolutionary Army, it does not mean that they are weak.

They also received a certain degree of modern military training, and with the example of the Hunan Army's disastrous defeat in the past, Li Hongzhang rectified the atmosphere in the Lingnan Huai Army. At least in terms of daring to fight, they were much stronger than the Hunan Army, which was still in the feudal era.

Following Wang Xiaoqi's loud shout, hundreds of vanguard cavalrymen quickly adjusted their horses. The method they learned from the Nian army allowed these Huai troops to adjust the rhythm of their horses within a dozen seconds and begin to charge.

The Huai Army's formation also began to change from loose to dense. At the same time, they held the reins with one hand and drew the rifles on their backs, quickly approaching the village where the National Revolutionary Army was located.

Chapter 396 Two Bad News

"Master, it's past three o'clock. Let's have some tea first!"

In the Lingnan Xinghan Commandery in Guangzhou, Guangdong, a concubine from Panyu whom Li Hongzhang took in after he went south moved gracefully and served Li Hongzhang an afternoon tea in a soft voice.

Afternoon tea may seem like drinking tea, but it actually involves eating various Cantonese dim sum.

On the plate are traditional Cantonese dishes such as shrimp dumplings, rice rolls, glutinous rice chicken, and crispy pigeon.

Li Hongzhang, dressed in a long robe, looked contented. He picked up a ball of shrimp dumplings with his chopsticks and put them into his mouth. While eating, he asked:

"Cantonese people love drinking tea, and I don't know when this custom started."

Upon hearing this, the concubine lowered her head and said softly:

"Master, I heard that it was spread by foreign merchants. After the opening of the five ports to trade, foreigners like to have some snacks and drink a cup of black tea in the afternoon.

The Chinese merchants in Guangzhou followed suit, and the custom of enjoying afternoon tea and dim sum began to take root.

"That's it, that's it"

Li Hongzhang sighed, and then continued to focus his attention on the Cantonese dim sum in front of him. He didn't tell at all that his son Li Jingfang had been assassinated a few days ago.

After Li Jingfang was assassinated, Li Hongzhang ordered people to investigate the real culprit and search the whole city for him, but he did not show any sadness in front of anyone and did not shed a single tear.

Today, Li Hongzhang was actually in the mood to have afternoon tea.

I really don’t know if it’s because I’m cold-hearted by nature or if my heart is as hard as steel.

This appearance made Ding Ruchang and Zhang Peilun and others standing beside him couldn't help but say inwardly, "Marshal Quan is really a hero."

In fact, others thought Li Hongzhang was a hero, but only his close aide Yu Shimei knew that Li Hongzhang was just suppressing his grief.

Although he was an adopted son, Li Jingfang was raised as an only son for several years.

How could Li Hongzhang have no feelings for him?

His current appearance was just an act. If Li Hongzhang had not pretended to be nonchalant and confident, the morale of this huge Lingnan Huai Army would have been shaken long ago.

But no matter what, this "calm" mood still allowed the Lingnan Huai Army to maintain stability.

Sheng Xuanhuai, who had been hesitant at first, hurriedly withdrew a sum of money from the Lingnan Bank and sent it to the Governor's Office; Wei Rugui sent a telegram from Nanchang saying that he would live and die with the city; Ye Zhichao also sent a telegram from Guizhou saying that he would enter Sichuan soon to take over the Sichuan New Army.

Even Ding Ruchang came to report the good news, saying that the officers and soldiers of the South China Sea Fleet had all sworn allegiance to the Grand Admiral and would never betray him!

"Marshal Quan, Zhidong surrendered to Yuan Xiangcheng"

Zhang Peilun reported the most exciting news in the world in the past two days.

"The President entered Wuchang single-handedly, and Yuan Shikai took Hubei without a single bloodshed!"

"Haha, the title of this report is really full of flattery." Li Hongzhang put down the newspaper in his hand. Surprisingly, he was not very angry.

"Yuan's army is powerful, and Hubei directly faces the two major military regions of the Central Plains and Jiangnan. Rather than fighting to the death and making enemies with Yuan Xiangcheng, it is better to surrender on the spot and even get a huge reward for buying his horse bones.

I had long expected that someone like Zhang Nanpi would definitely choose to abandon Hubei and preserve his own glory.

However, I didn't expect him to give up so completely, leaving not a single soldier behind."

Li Hongzhang had already had a plan in mind for what Zhang Zhidong would do, otherwise he would not have visited Zeng Guofan's hometown in Hunan several times before and connected with the Hunan Army.

Since ancient times, only Hunan and Jiangxi provinces have entered Guangdong.

In his opinion, even if he took the initiative to attack and capture Hubei, it would be far better to withdraw troops and consume Yuan's army's manpower in Hunan than to defend a Hubei that was leaky everywhere.

"Is there any news from Changsha?" Li Hongzhang paused and asked.

"Don't worry, Marshal Quan, the 8th Regiment has already entered Yuezhou Prefecture with the assistance of the Hunan Braves.