Master Yuan, start!

It is exclusively for the National Revolutionary Army, published every ten days, and is required reading for all military commanders and staff officers at the battalion level and above.

Therefore, Duan Qirui and others were not completely ignorant of the world situation.

In their view, the idea that hundreds of thousands of British troops could not conquer a small country after fighting for a long time was too false.

If the British were really so weak, how did the Qing Dynasty fail?

It can be seen that Yuan Xiangcheng did not explain, so Duan Qirui could only continue the topic:

"If I were French and saw that the British army was hindered in the war in South Africa, I would have to think of other ways to see if I could pry something out of the British."

"exactly!"

Yuan Xiangcheng clapped his hands and said, "I know you all think I'm too impatient. You all think that I just need a few more years of recuperation, even a year, to increase my chances of winning.

But we can afford to wait, but Britain cannot.

If we wait until Britain is bogged down in a tough battle in South Africa and France takes advantage of the situation, and the British are forced to agree to France's conditions, then we will really not be able to fight in Vietnam.

Therefore, if we want to fight Vietnam, we must do it early, before the British start the war!

This will not only attract France's attention and help Britain share the pressure in Africa, but also gain some help while Britain still has spare strength.

Otherwise, if the British transfer their navy to South Africa, our southeastern sea border will be blockaded by the French navy, which would be a real bummer! "

After listening to Yuan Xiangcheng's explanation, although they still had doubts in their hearts, they were no longer worried.

After a moment's silence, Sheng Fei looked up and asked, "Chief Instructor, if we attack Vietnam, where should we attack? Hue or Saigon?"

"It would be good enough if we could take Hanoi, but how about Hue and Saigon?" Yuan Jiuxiangcheng laughed dumbly: "Then we would be stuck in the muddy waters of Vietnam with France."

Yuan Shikai wanted to intervene in the situation in Vietnam in advance and create a fait accompli. When news of Britain's defeat in South Africa came, he would go deep into Vietnam to attract the attention of the French in order to ease the pressure on Britain in South Africa.

Therefore, we cannot intervene too deeply in advance, otherwise it will in turn drag down the domestic situation.

It is very easy to become "clearly just helping Britain share the pressure from France, but in the process of sharing the burden, it ended up facing France alone."

Thinking of this, Yuan Xiangcheng took two steps to the right, shifted his gaze from South Africa to northern Vietnam, and said with sharp eyes and determination:

"This place is the last barrier north of Hanoi. If we take it, Hanoi will be like Sun Wukong, held in the palm of Buddha's hand."

"Where?" Duan, Feng and Sheng looked at the map.

"Lang Son!" Yuan Xiangcheng slapped the Lang Son Pass, which was 20 kilometers away from the Sino-Vietnamese border on the map, and growled:

"Take down Lang Son and the road will be smooth sailing!"

Chapter 421 Cleaning the South

Preparations for war against France are in full swing.

At the beginning of the year 1898, in the last month before the Lunar New Year of Wuxu, the National Revolutionary Army swept across the entire southern country like a whirlwind.

Under the order of the Central Military Commission, Duan Zhigui and Cao Kun led their troops respectively, from south to north, to carry out a large encirclement of Chongqing covering a thousand miles.

The northern route entered Sichuan from the Shu Road in Hubei, went upstream along the Yangtze River, captured cities and strongholds along the way, and headed straight for Chongqing.

The southern route started from Yuanzhou, Hunan, which is the bulge in the map where Hunan Province extends to Guizhou Province. After moving westward, it turned north and first captured Zunyi, intending to capture Luzhou, an important city in western Chongqing.

Although the advance of the two National Revolutionary Armies in the north and south was relatively slow due to the terrain barriers, as soon as the troops arrived at a place, both the local forces and the Huai Army left behind to defend had little will to resist and almost surrendered at the sight of them.

During this process, the Huai Army garrisons, both large and small, in Chongqing and Guizhou showed no intention of stepping forward to support Zero.

Only Ye Zhichao, who had now fled to Kunming, sent a telegram, but all he said was some perfunctory words like "I hope the National Revolutionary Army will treat the people of Sichuan and Guizhou well and not let the lives of the people in these two places be destroyed", without any sense of oppression.

Chongqing was originally garrisoned by the Sichuan New Army, but Sichuan Governor Liu Bingzhang was assassinated. After Yuan Shikai and Li Hongzhang went to war, the Sichuan New Army and the old Huai Army fought each other over loyalty issues.

Relying on its large number of troops, the Old Huai Army seized the command of part of the Sichuan New Army in Chongqing, contacted the then Guizhou Admiral Ye Zhichao, and declared their allegiance to the Lingnan Xinghan Military Governor's Office.

Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. Ye Zhichao abandoned Guizhou and moved westward, leaving the Chongqing defenders in a slump.

At this time, Zhou Shengzhong, who was in charge of Chongqing, was helpless.

Chongqing City is surrounded by water on three sides, with the turbulent Jialing River to the north and the broad Yangtze River to the east and south. In his opinion, such a place is easy to defend and difficult to attack. As long as there is enough food and grass, it will be no problem to fight the National Revolutionary Army for a year or two.

However, Zhou Shengzhong knew that it was extremely difficult for him to capture Chongqing from the Sichuan people by relying on the old Huai Army.

If the Huai Army in the city were not all from Hefei and were not relatively reliable, I am afraid that they would have thrown into chaos as soon as they learned of the encirclement by the National Revolutionary Army.

How easy is it to guard it for a year or two?

Zhou Shengzhong was from Hefei, Anhui Province. He came from the famous "Sheng Army" within the Huai Army. Its original commanders were his cousins ​​Zhou Shengbo and Zhou Shengchuan. He was one of the backbone militias of the Huai Army in its later period.

If everything goes well, Zhou Shengbo and Zhou Shengchuan may not be able to occupy a position in the Lingnan New Army like Ye Zhichao, Wei Rugui and Ding Ruchang.

But unfortunately, the two Zhous died in 1885 and 1888 respectively.

Although a cousin Zhou Shengzhong was left behind, he had no military achievements. Sheng's army lost its protector among the upper class and could only serve as a subordinate. After the establishment of the Lingnan New Army, he was "exiled" to Sichuan.

Just when Zhou Shengzhong felt that there was no hope for advancement in his life, he encountered an opportunity when the Sichuan New Army was in turmoil. Relying on the old foundation of Sheng's army, he seized Yuefei and captured Chongqing.

Everyone thought they could rely on this opportunity to continue the glory of their two brothers, but no one expected that Ye Zhichao would be a traitor. Instead of supporting the nearby Hunan battlefield, he turned around and invaded Yunnan.

This escape directly put Chongqing into an isolated and helpless situation.

It also shattered Zhou Shengzhong's dream of promotion.

"Alas, it's fate."

Inside Chongqing, Zhou Shengzhong sighed helplessly as he looked at the report in front of him about the National Revolutionary Army's march north and south, heading straight for Chongqing.

"Now that Marshal Quan is dead and Ye Zhichao has escaped, what's the point of us defending this isolated city of Chongqing?

Pass the order down that the floating bridges on the Jialing and Yangtze Rivers do not need to be destroyed, and let the National Revolutionary Army in.

Finally, when Cao Kun led the National Revolutionary Army's southern troops to Chongqing, Zhou Shengzhong ordered his men to open the city and surrender.

After receiving the news, Wanxian, Zhongzhou and Shizhu on the northern front chose to give up resistance and opened the city gates to welcome the National Revolutionary Army led by Duan Zhigui into the city.

After the National Revolutionary Army pacified Chongqing, it successfully joined forces with Nie Shicheng and Zuo Baogui's troops marching from Chengdu.

After the successful meeting, in accordance with the wishes of Nie Shicheng and Zuo Baogui, the remaining troops of the Sichuan New Army were disbanded and reorganized.

With the help of the National Revolutionary Army, the Sichuan New Army, after eliminating the diehard elements of the Huai Army, was reorganized into the 1st and 2nd Divisions of the Southwest Military Region of the National Revolutionary Army.

The division commanders were Nie Shicheng and Zuo Baogui respectively, while the division chief of staff and division political instructor would be appointed after the Central Military Commission of the Socialist Revolutionary Party confirmed the candidates.

What happened in Sichuan is not just happening in Sichuan.

8 The entire southern country is like this.

5 On the western front, Ye Zhichao gave up Guizhou Province east and south of Guiyang, allowing the National Revolutionary Army to implement their strategy of encircling Chongqing.

On the eastern battlefield, after Li Hongzhang's death, the Lingnan Huai Army collapsed like a landslide. The local clans and groups that had originally taken refuge in the Lingnan Xinghan Grand Military Governor's Office also had to pledge their loyalty to the Republican government.

When the National Revolutionary Army was infiltrating, detouring, and attacking cities with all its might in Jiangxi Province, the local forces in the neighboring Fujian Province acted as a perfect audience.

6 Even though Li Hongzhang had sent many telegrams to persuade and request them, and even offered to pay them to send troops, they never took any extraordinary action against the National Revolutionary Army in Jiangxi.

Third, even in Zhejiang, where the National Revolutionary Army did not deploy troops to defend it, the Fujian local forces did not set foot in it. Instead, they retreated 50 miles along the provincial border to show that they had no intention of coveting Zhejiang.

4 After the news of Li Hongzhang's death spread, local forces in Fujian sent troops across the Wuyi Mountains to deliver winter clothes, food and a large amount of salted fish to the National Revolutionary Army staying in Jiangxi.

Although the winter in southern Jiangxi is not cold, these clothes still brought a great relief to the Jiangning National Revolutionary Army Headquarters, which was facing increasingly tight logistics capacity.

Although the domestic war had entered the stage of cleaning up the battlefield, the Central Military Commission did not relax.

Everyone knew that war with the French was imminent.

Wang Zhanyuan led his troops to rush into Guangdong first, becoming the first National Revolutionary Army to enter Guangzhou.

However, he had not been there for two days before he was sent west by the Central Military Commission to support the Black Flag Mixed Brigade on the Guangxi border.

Just after Wang Zhanyuan led his troops into Yulin (now Yulin Prefecture), Guangxi Governor Li Jingyi, who learned the news, suddenly took the remaining Lingnan Huai Army and announced an uprising in Guilin.

The reason why the governor was in Guilin was that the capital of Guangxi in the late Qing Dynasty was not Nanning. At that time, Nanning was just a small city beside the Yongjiang River.

Historically, it was not until the French intensified their aggression against China that Guangxi gradually prospered as a blessing in disguise.

After Li Jingyi issued an uprising telegram in Guilin, he not only called the Lingnan Huai Army the "National Protection and Anti-French Army", but also proclaimed himself the "Grand Commander-in-Chief of the National Protection and Anti-French Army" and announced that he would march to the Guangxi border.

After Yuan Shikai in Guangzhou learned about Li Jingyi's uprising, he immediately sent people to Guilin to contact Li Jingyi, asking him to accept reorganization and allow the Social Revolutionary Party to send people in.

Unexpectedly, Li Jingyi refused several times and was unwilling to accept the adaptation.

The National Revolutionary Army has its own rules and organization, and of course it would not sit idly by and watch the existence of such an army that only obeys orders and not propaganda in Guangdong and Guangxi.

Therefore, after the temporary enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission of the Socialist Revolutionary Party was held in Guangzhou, with the approval of the attending Vice Chairman Duan Qirui, Committee Member Sheng Fei, Committee Member Feng Guozhang, Committee Member and Chief of Staff Wang Shizhen and other members of the Military Commission.

Yuan Xiangcheng issued an order to Wang Zhanyuan, who had arrived in Yulin, to "march towards Guilin":

"If we want to attack Vietnam, Guangxi is the throat and we must not lose it.

I now order your troops to march north quickly and attack the provincial capital, Guilin, to lay a good foundation for our subsequent attack on Vietnam and France!"

Chapter 422 Long Live the People!

In Tianjin, the time has come to February 1898, 2, which is also the penultimate day of the Dingyou Year. After tomorrow, we will usher in the Wuxu Year in history.

In the original time and space, the knowledgeable people in China had not yet gotten rid of the dark cloud of China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 0-0, and then came the tragic news that the Germans had forcibly occupied Jiaozhou Bay.

Then came news that France had occupied Zhanjiang and Russia was eyeing Port Arthur.

The great China is like a pig on the chopping board, being slaughtered.

Of course, the most far-reaching event that took place in China in the year of Wuxu was the failure of the Reform Movement of 1898, in which the younger generation and some intellectuals in the Qing government tried to save the Qing Dynasty.

Under such international and domestic situations, during the Wuxu period in history, the hearts of all Chinese people were shrouded in the crisis of national extinction.

However, in this time and space, none of the above things happened. Now, in this year of Wuxu that is about to come, some things are the same, and some things are different.

The same thing is that the international situation is still bad, but the difference is that the domestic situation is not even unified yet, and it seems that the situation is getting worse.

However, even though there are powerful enemies outside and internal unrest, the spirit and spirit of the people of the Republic of China are completely different from those of the subjects of the Qing Dynasty in a parallel time and space.

They are proud, they are proud, they hold their heads high, and they sincerely believe that China's future will get better and better.

Today, on the platform of Tianjin Zizhulin Railway Station, Xu Shichang, who arrived in the north early, was wearing a woolen Republican suit and standing on the platform in the cold wind to personally welcome Yuan Shikai who returned from Guangzhou.

On both sides of the platform, rows of National Revolutionary Army soldiers wore blue cotton military coats, held rifles in their hands, stood upright, and looked forward.

Outside the platform were students, gentry, and businessmen from all walks of life in the north who had come specially to welcome the President.

Even though the traditional Lunar New Year was just two days away, they waited here despite the cold wind, just to see the triumphant Yuan Shikai.

"It's the President!"

"The President is coming down. The President is coming down!"