The war in which Henan and Hubei sent troops to encircle and suppress the Hehu base area two years ago is called "the first anti-encirclement and suppression campaign in the Hehu base area" in the archives of the East China government. After the end of this campaign, the Hehu base area also won a period of great development.

The reason why the base areas did not occupy the big cities was that they did not want to excessively stimulate the Qing court, but since they were all fighting, they naturally tore their faces, and the base areas had nothing to scruple about.

In fact, at that time, many large cities were actually divided and surrounded by base areas, and the villages outside the city were all spheres of influence of the base areas, and a large number of people had infiltrated them, so it was very easy to capture them, and the base areas soon captured Guide Mansion, Chenzhou Mansion, Xuzhou, Weihui Mansion and other places, and set up the base area in Shangqiu County, Guide Prefecture, because it was close to Shandong, not only could it get support from Shandong, but it was also convenient for the base area and Shandong to carry out various material transactions and exchanges, and promote the economic development of the base area.

Subsequently, the base area continued to expand to the periphery, and successively captured Zhangde Mansion, Weihui Mansion, Kaifeng Mansion, Chenzhou Mansion, Xuzhou Mansion and other places, occupying almost half of Henan Province. The Qing court could only keep Henan Province, Shaanzhou Province, Huaiqing Province, as well as a few areas such as Nanyang Province and part of Qianding Province.

Moreover, the expansion of the base area was not limited to Henan Province, but also included the surrounding areas of Henan and Shandong Province, in addition to the early Xiangyang Mansion and De'an Mansion in Hubei, it also occupied Lu'an Mansion and Zezhou Mansion in Shanxi, Xuzhou Mansion in Jiangsu, Yingzhou Mansion and Fengyang Mansion in Anhui Province, just in order not to oppress the Qing court too much, and under the restrictions of the East China government, the base area did not expand into Hebei.

By 1905, the Hehu base area actually included Henan, Hubei, Shanxi, Jiangsu, and Anhui provinces, with a total area of more than 160,000 square kilometers and a population of more than 1,700,000.

The occupation of the cities meant that the base areas had a large population, as well as industry and commerce, and at this time, the East China government's industry had already begun to scale up and could provide a large number of industrial products, and the development of the river and lake base areas provided a large market for Shandong's industrial products; moreover, after the implementation of land reform in the river and lake base areas, the peasants' incomes have increased by a large margin, and their purchasing power has naturally increased a lot, and the prices of industrial products are lower than those of handmade products. It's just that the Hehu base area has not been established for a long time, and the East China government is preparing for war, so it has not made large-scale investment in the base area to build factories and promote industrialization.

After the East China government entered the war, Britain, France, Russia, Japan and other countries were instigating the Qing court to send troops to attack the East China government, so in order to cover the East China government and attract the attention of the Qing court, the river and lake base areas began to expand to Hebei, and successively captured the Daimyofu, Guangping Mansion, Jizhou Mansion, Shunde Mansion, Zhaozhou Mansion and other places, and approached Baoding Mansion, which really aroused the vigilance of the Qing court and decided to send troops to recruit and suppress.

In fact, when sending troops to expand to Hebei, the government of the base area took into account that the Qing court would send troops to recruit and suppress, after all, once it developed to Hebei, it would coerce the Beijing division, and the Qing court would never sit idly by and take action, so while the base area was expanding to Hebei, it was also actively preparing for the second battle against encirclement and suppression.

The area of the base areas has expanded, the population has increased, the economy has also developed considerably, and the military strength has naturally increased greatly. At present, the army volunteers in the base areas have a total of 3 divisions and 7 independent regiments, with a total of about 60,000 troops, and the reason why so many independent regiments have been established is that the territory of the base areas is too scattered, and the garrisons in various places do not need too many, so they can only set up more regimental-level troops. In addition, there are about 30,000 militias in various localities.

Although the weapons and equipment of the volunteers are not comparable to those of the KPA, they are not bad, and each soldier is equipped with basic weapons such as rifles, bayonets, *, etc., and each squad is equipped with two grenadiers.

However, there is a considerable gap between artillery and fire support weapons compared with the People's Army, and the whole army is only equipped with a 75-mm field artillery regiment, under the jurisdiction of four battalions, a total of 72 75-mm field guns, and 100 mm, There is not a single large-caliber artillery gun such as 125 mm; divisional combat units are equipped with two 82 mortar batteries with a total of 18 82 mortars; a 60 mortar battalion with a total of 54 60 mortars without 100 mm mortars; one Maxim machine gun company with nine Maxim machine guns; and two general-purpose machine gun companies with 36 general-purpose machine guns.

The regimental combat unit was equipped with only one 60 mortar company with 18 60 mortars, and two general-purpose machine gun platoons with 12 general-purpose machine guns, without 82 mortars and Maxim machine guns.

The militia can only ensure that half of the army has weapons, because the East China government does not equip the militia with standard weapons, so the militia uses weapons seized from the battlefield before, in the first anti-encirclement and suppression battle in the base area, the volunteers captured more than 10,000 rifles, of which more than 6,000 rounds of Hanyang-made 88 rifles, and the East China government pulled out a batch, which only assembled half of the militia troops, and the other half of the militia can only use cold weapons.

This kind of weapon configuration is actually not bad for China in this era, only slightly worse than the Beiyang New Army, but there is no qualitative gap, and it is still much stronger than other Qing armies.

The Beiyang New Army adopts the modern army establishment method, so it also attaches great importance to the unification of weapons, and the main weapons it is equipped with are Japanese-style Type 31 rifles, Hanyang-made Type 88 rifles, and Maxim machine guns; artillery is mainly German Grusen 75mm field guns, 57mm rapid-fire mountain guns, Krupp 75mm mountain guns, British Wicks 75mm mountain guns, and Japanese Trinity-type rapid-fire guns.

Only the first town of the six towns of Beiyang is equipped with 2 artillery battalions, and the remaining 5 towns are equipped with only one artillery battalion, each artillery battalion is equipped with 60 artillery pieces of various kinds, the mouth type is divided into 75 and 57 two, and the class shape is divided into field artillery and mountain artillery. However, due to the production of a large number of mortars of various calibers, the East China government was not equipped with mountain artillery and rapid-fire guns, and all artillery was field artillery. And if mortars are also included, the firepower of the Volunteers is actually no worse than that of the Beiyang New Army.

In addition, the volunteers have a certain advantage in machine guns, although the Beiyang Army is equipped with Makqin machine guns, but the number is not much, of course, it is still more than the rebel army, but the volunteers are equipped with a large number of general-purpose machine guns, although the power is not as good as the Makqin machine gun, but the victory is in the number, mobile flexibility, can move with the infantry to fight together.

However, the Beiyang New Army is still equipped with a cavalry battalion in each town, and the Volunteer Army has not yet formed a cavalry unit, in fact, let alone the Volunteer Army, even the People's Army now has only one cavalry brigade. Therefore, now the cavalry is the biggest shortcoming of the People's Army.

On the whole, the equipment of the two sides actually has its own strengths, basically comparable, and the total strength of the Qing army is slightly more, but it is the attacking side, and the volunteers are fighting at home and have a home advantage, so no one has a clear advantage.

Li Wenfei, military responsible person of the Hehu base area, believes that the general operational principle is still the same as in the first anti-encirclement and suppression war, which is to lure the enemy deep into the territory of the base area, mobilize the enemy troops during the movement, and look for fighters to annihilate the enemy troops. Although the overall strength of the two sides is not very different, there is no need to fight hard with the Qing army, so even if it wins, it will have considerable casualties, which is obviously not cost-effective, and this idea has also been approved by the East China government.

After learning that the Qing court was preparing to send troops, the base area also officially began the pre-war preparations, and the various units of the Volunteer Army were also grinding their fists and preparing to do a big job, because after the People's Army sent troops to Liaodong to participate in the war, they won consecutive battles, defeated the Japanese and Russian troops, and now captured Vladivostok, which also made the soldiers of the Volunteer Army, and the soldiers who crossed by it were envious, after all, the People's Army, The Volunteer Army is actually a different name for the same army, and looking at the companions who crossed together in the past made meritorious contributions on the battlefield of Liaodong and became famous, but they were still staying in the country, they were naturally unhappy. Although the Qing army cannot be compared with the Japanese and Russian armies, it is also better than nothing, and after defeating the Qing army, the base area will definitely be expanded, and there are still many opportunities for meritorious service.

Of course, at this time, the Hehu base area did not know the Qing army's troop deployment and tactical arrangements, so a large number of reconnaissance personnel were arranged to carry out activities around the base area to reconnoiter the movements of the Qing army, and to set up sentinel points and observation points in various communication areas, so as to facilitate the monitoring of the Qing army's whereabouts.

And combat readiness is mainly in terms of logistics and propaganda. In terms of logistics, the main contents are the preparation of supplies, the establishment of relief points, the establishment of field hospitals, the strengthening of tactical training for the troops, and the reorganization of the militia. In terms of propaganda, the first victory against encirclement and suppression was taken as an example to propagate to the people in the base areas the belief that the volunteers would win and the Qing army would be defeated, and at the same time, it also demanded that the people in the base areas obey the arrangements of the government in the base areas, because the tactics formulated by the base areas were to lure the enemy into depth, and naturally the tactics of fortifying the walls and clearing the fields would inevitably be implemented in some areas, so the cooperation of the residents was also very important.

During the first anti-encirclement and suppression campaign, there was an example of a former landlord's family refusing to carry out the evacuation order of the government of the base area, and even wanted to welcome the Qing army to exterminate the base area.

At the same time, we will strictly investigate and deal with those and organizations who have spread all kinds of negative remarks, rumors and slander in the base areas, and even secretly incited the people to support the Qing army and intend to assist the Qing army. After all, the base area has not been established for a long time, the foundation is not completely stable, and the implementation of land reform in the base area has indeed offended a group of landlords and squires, but at that time, the landlords and squires were forced by the general trend and could only succumb to the management of the base area, but they may not be really convinced, many people are looking forward to Wang Shi being able to fight back as soon as possible, and now the Qing army is really coming, so it is difficult for these people to guarantee that there will be no risky actions, and they cannot be unguarded.