In fact, it is not uncommon to pretend to be overseas Chinese, after all, the prestige of overseas Chinese is now in full swing, and anyone with a discerning eye can see that overseas Chinese did not take the Qing court seriously at all, so many bandits and robbers pretend to be overseas Chinese. Zhang Renjun and Zhao Erxun used this name to issue a document to the East China government.

After receiving the official letter, the East China government of course understood what these two men meant, because the development of the river and lake base areas had threatened the rule of local officials in Henan and Hubei. However, there is no news about the relevant authorities in Beijing, so it is likely that the two local officials want to solve the problem within their own purview. Of course, this also depends on the attitude of the East China Government; if the East China Government wants to intervene to protect the rivers and lakes base areas, Zhang Renjun and Zhao Erxun naturally do not dare to do so, and they will not think that they can contend with the East China Government, so they can only report to the Qing court; on the contrary, if the East China Government says that it will not interfere, then the two are very likely to take a gamble and wipe out the rivers and lakes base areas within the scope of their powers.

After consultations with the Executive Yuan, the East China Government held that once the two of them informed the Qing court, then the East China Government was very likely to tear up its face with the Qing court, and the Qing court could tolerate the East China government's self-control step by step, but the premise was that the East China government's influence could only be within the scope of Shandong, and the East China government's establishment of river and lake base areas would undoubtedly break through this range, and the Qing court would absolutely not tolerate it any longer.

But now is not the time for the East China government and the Qing court to completely turn their faces, after all, the Russo-Japanese War is about to start, and the East China government's main energy should be focused on this direction. And if the East China government says that the river and lake base areas have nothing to do with it and does not interfere in the Qing court's conquest and suppression, even if Zhang Renjun and Zhao Erxun's conquest and suppression fail, and finally alarm the Qing Dynasty, at least there is still this layer of fig leaf, and it will not completely tear its face. Of course, the East China government cannot really ignore the river and lake base areas, but only secretly support itself. However, the premise is that the river and lake base areas now have sufficient self-protection capacity.

The East China Government immediately contacted the government agencies in the Hehu base area and asked whether the current military strength of the base area could resist the attack of Henan and Hubei. Soon after, he received a reply from the government of the Hehu base area, saying that he was fully capable of defeating the Qing army's conquest and suppression and protecting the safety of the base area. At the same time, it was also suggested that the Qing army should take advantage of the conquest and suppression to expand the territory of the base area and occupy large cities. After discussion and consultation, the East China Government held that it was now impossible to conceal the Hehu base area, and since this was the case, it was better to let go of its hands and feet and make a big effort, so it also agreed to the request of the base area government, and would immediately provide support for a batch of weapons and ammunition in the base area, and after the war ended, it would also send a group of personnel to support the management of the base area government.

Therefore, the East China government replied to Zhang Renjun and Zhao Erxun, saying that the bandits in Henan, Hubei and other places had nothing to do with it, and if Henan and Hubei wanted to send troops to recruit and suppress them, Shandong could help.

After receiving the reply from the East China government, Zhang Renjun and Zhao Erxun also breathed a sigh of relief, it seems that overseas Chinese still have some scruples, of course, both of them are not stupid, it is not ruled out that overseas Chinese will support the bandits in secret, but such support is much smaller. So the two replied to the East China government on the one hand, expressing their gratitude, and on the other hand, they began to discuss the plan to exprohibit this bandit.

At this time, the two of them had already inquired clearly, the army of this gang of bandits was about 7-8,000 people, and in Henan and Hubei, they could dispatch an army of between 15,000-20,000, and there was also an ace army - Hubei New Army, which was where the confidence of the two lies.

In the old time and space, when it comes to the new army at the end of the Qing Dynasty, it generally refers to the Beiyang New Army trained by Yuan Shikai, but in fact, there is also a new army organized and trained in Hubei, usually called the Hubei New Army.

Like the Beiyang New Army, the Hubei New Army was also established by Zhang Zhidong after the First Sino-Japanese War, when the Qing court organized and trained the new army in order to improve itself. Although the Beiyang New Army has incomparable advantages in many respects over the Hubei New Army. For example, the source of income. The Beiyang New Army can get financial support from the state, while the Hubei New Army can only rely on the support of Hubei Province, which is not wealthy, so the fame and influence of the Hubei New Army in history are far less than that of the Beiyang New Army. However, there is a historical achievement of the Hubei New Army that cannot be compared with the Beiyang New Army, that is, the Xinhai Revolution that broke out in the old time and space was launched by the Hubei New Army.

In 1903, the Qing court set up a military training office, planning to train 36 towns (equivalent to divisions) and 18 mixed associations (equivalent to brigades) in the whole country, and Hubei allocated the indicators of two towns and one mixed association, but now only one town and one mixed association is established, which is the eighth town, and the commander is Zhang Biao, with 10,502 soldiers and 702 officers; the 21st mixed association, the commander is Li Yuanhong, the commander of the association, with 4,612 soldiers and 288 officers. In terms of military strength, it is second only to the Beiyang New Army.

Although the Hubei New Army was founded by Zhang Zhidong, and the two commanders Zhang Biao and Li Yuanhong were also raised by Zhang Zhidong, the difference between Zhang Zhidong and Yuan Shikai is that he did not build the Hubei New Army into his own private army, so after Zhang Zhidong entered Beijing, the Hubei New Army obeyed the orders of Zhao Erxun, the governor of Huguang, who succeeded him.

Before deciding to send troops to expropriate and suppress the Hehu base area, Zhao Erxun made a special trip to meet Zhang Biao and Li Yuanhong, because the Hubei New Army has the duty to expropriate and suppress local bandits, so the two of them are also duty-bound for this conquest and suppression operation, so after the two negotiated, they said that they could send about 5,000 new troops to participate in the war, plus other local troops, a total of about 10,000 troops.

In contrast, Henan is much more shabby, originally the Qing court planned 36 towns, 18 mixed association of the new army, Henan has two towns and one association indicators, but now has not begun to form, because Henan is close to Beijing, there is the Beiyang New Army nearby, once something happens, the Qing court can also quickly send troops to reinforce, so the establishment of the Henan New Army is ranked behind. Of course, in the old time and space, Henan finally only compiled a mixed association. But now there is no new army in Henan, and it can only mobilize the local army of Xianghe, and about 7,000 troops can be raised.

After consultations between Zhao Erxun and Zhang Renjun, it was decided that the Hubei army would be the main force, supplemented by the Henan army, and that the Hubei army would send troops from Xiangyang Prefecture and advance from south to north to Tang County of Nanyang Prefecture, while the Henan army would send troops from Kaifeng Prefecture to attack Linying County in Xuzhou from north to south, and of course the main purpose would be to contain the forces in the Hehu base area. The required military expenditure was partly financed by the local gentry and haoqiang, and partly from local taxes. After the Westernization Movement, the local interception of taxes handed over to the Qing court has become normalized, and the Qing court's finances are mainly maintained by customs and commercial taxes, so there is nothing wrong with Zhao Erxun and Zhang Renjun intercepting taxes for military expenses.

In fact, the preparations for the conquest and suppression had already begun, so after Zhao Erxun and Zhang Renjun made up their minds, the army was quickly assembled, and it only took more than 20 days to set off from the north and south respectively.

Although the government of the Hehu base area is full of confidence in defeating the Qing army's conquest, it does not dare to be careless, after all, this is the first time that the base area has faced a full-scale attack by the Qing court since its establishment, and if it wins this battle, not only will the base area achieve great development, but also the traversers of the base area will gain enough political capital, but if they lose this battle, although they can escape back to Shandong, the future development space will be limited, but the opponent's strength is far above the volunteers, so this battle is not easy to fight.

Although the Volunteer Army now has three regiments, each regiment lacks heavy weapons and fire support weapons, and is equipped with only one 60 mortar company with a total of 18 60 mortars, and each combat platoon is equipped with two grenadiers; in addition, a separate fire reinforcement battalion is formed, each with a 75 mm field gun company with 6 artillery pieces, a 100 mortar company with 9 100 mm mortars, and a machine gun company with 9 Maxim machine guns. Whether it is equipment or troops, compared with the Qing army, it does not have any advantage compared with the Hubei New Army.

At the beginning of the establishment of the base area, there were only 7 crossing soldiers in charge of the military affairs, and the commander Li Wenfei, but with the expansion of the base area and the increase in the army, the number of crossing soldiers has now reached 16, mainly serving as officers at the regimental level or above, and all the officers at the battalion level are locals.

After receiving the allocation of troops and directions from the Qing army, Li Wenfei also immediately recruited group-level officers to negotiate the tactics of response. Everyone unanimously agreed that although the number of Qing troops was large, the strength of the army was divided into two routes, north and south, which was a great taboo for dispersing troops, because with the communication technology of this era, it was impossible for the Qing army to maintain smooth communication between the two routes. The Volunteer Army, on the other hand, can make full use of the advantages of the inner line, mobilize troops rapidly, concentrate superior forces, and break them one by one, but it is necessary to determine whether to attack the Qing army in Hubei or the Qing army in Henan.

In terms of the distribution and strength of the Qing army, the Qing army in Hubei was of course much stronger than the Qing army in Henan, so some soldiers advocated that the Qing army in Hubei should be fought first, as long as the Qing army in Hubei was defeated, then the Qing army in Henan was naturally not an opponent, and it might retreat without a fight.

However, after a detailed analysis, it is believed that the Qing army in Hubei still has a certain combat effectiveness, and it is the first time to fight, so the morale will not be too bad, plus the large number of troops, it should not be underestimated, if it first engages the Qing army in Hubei, even if it can win, the loss will not be small. It is better to temporarily avoid its peak, contain it with a small number of troops, and mobilize the Qing army in Hubei, concentrate the main force, and defeat the Qing army in Henan first.

Due to the weak strength of the Henan New Army, the Volunteers defeated the Henan Qing Army, and there would not be too many casualties, and they could also rely on victory to improve the morale of the army, and at this time, the Hubei Qing Army was almost exhausted and demoralized under the containment and mobilization of the Volunteers, and at this time, they concentrated their forces and annihilated the Hubei Qing Army in one fell swoop.