In fact, Yuan Shikai's careful thinking about Cixi's right and wrong is clear, isn't it just for that bit of military power. The Beiyang New Army is an army built by Yuan Shikai, so Yuan Shikai also regarded this army as his own private army, but the Qing court chose Tie Liang and Liang Bi as the commanders to attack Henan, and Yuan Shikai naturally had to give up the right to send troops. And if the Qing court gave up the plan to attack the south, then the military power would naturally return to Yuan Shikai's hands. So Yuan Shikai took the opportunity to stop the imperial court from making a move, which was also a matter of course. Moreover, between the lines of the excerpt, it is obvious that the meaning of asking the imperial court not to anger overseas Chinese is obvious, and it is obviously using overseas Chinese to suppress the imperial court.

Cixi knew from the beginning that Yuan Shikai wanted to seize military power, but she still tolerated Yuan Shikai's behavior, first, Yuan Shikai was indeed capable, and the Qing court also needed this ability; And Cixi thought that she could control Yuan Shikai, so she turned a blind eye to his behavior, as long as she didn't go too far.

Originally, this time Cixi just wanted to knock Yuan Shikai, so that he would not get too carried away, and after a while, Yuan Shikai would be re-appointed, not that Yuan Shikai would never be in charge of the army, after all, the Qing court still needs Yuan Shikai's ability, but he didn't expect Yuan Shikai to really forget it, and actually used overseas Chinese to suppress the imperial court for his own military power, and he couldn't even do it with temporary patience, it seems that this person is too narrow-minded, and it is really embarrassing.

So Cixi was also quite disappointed in Yuan Shikai, and even so, the imperial court could not stop this dispatch of troops, because once Yuan Shikai's intimidation was effective, it was difficult to ensure that no one else would follow suit, so who would still take the imperial court in the eyes in the future. After all, Cixi is not worried about the victory or defeat of this battle, Bi Jing's main force of overseas Chinese is in Liaodong and the Russo-Japanese War, and the new army of the imperial court has also been training for 4 or 5 years, if even this can't defeat the overseas Chinese, then the imperial court should really be finished, Cixi's worries are mainly in terms of public opinion, but now Cixi can't take care of public opinion, and the imperial court must show an attitude. And Cixi also made up her mind, after the end of this battle, she must not be in the important Yuan Shikai, at least not to pay for military power.

In fact, Yuan Shikai is not a person who can't hold his breath, and he also knows that this is Cixi beating himself again, if he behaves obediently, he will definitely be reused again if he endures for 1 or 2 years. It's just that Yuan Shikai doesn't want to forbear in his heart, because Yuan Shikai also knows very well that the consequences of forbearance are nothing more than a cycle between reuse, suppression, and reuse, so it is necessary for him to counter the imperial court and let the court know that he can't be played with at will. But now there is a big grasp that can be used, if this time can make the court suffer a big loss, in the end you still need to come out to clean up the mess yourself, and you can sit on the ground and start the price, and the court will not dare to suppress itself easily in the future.

Yuan Shikai is currently the Qing court official who has the most contact with the East China government, and he naturally has the deepest understanding of the East China government, because he has a very deep study of the military capabilities of the East China government, and because of the battle against the Henan Volunteers in Henan and Hubei provinces two years ago, Yuan Shikai spent a lot of time to study carefully, and also recruited his subordinates to discuss together, and admired the tactics adopted by the Henan Volunteers at that time. Although the troops of Henan and Hubei provinces were not strong at that time, the East China government was only in Henan at that time, and did not dispatch the troops of Shandong, so it easily defeated the coalition forces of Henan and Hubei provinces. If you make another obstacle from it, such as letting your old troops slow down the march and deliberately not cooperate, it will not be difficult for the court to suffer a big loss in this battle.

Of course, Yuan Shikai also knew that the Qing court and the East China government could not coexist, so sooner or later they would meet each other, and his own doing so would undoubtedly increase the internal friction of the Qing court, which was not good for the Qing court, and even if he fought for military power, but in the future, the Qing court and the East China government would go to war, so the responsibility to fight against the East China government would fall on himself, Yuan Shikai still had self-knowledge, and knew that he was by no means an opponent of overseas Chinese.

However, although the current struggle for military power is unfavorable to the Qing court and himself, Yuan Shikai still decided to fight without hesitation, because Yuan Shikai thinks that the Qing court and the East China government will turn their faces in the future, maybe 5 years, maybe 10 years, and he still takes care of his immediate interests first; 。

Knowing that the imperial court may cancel the plan to attack Henan because of the victory of the East China government in the Battle of Vladivostok, Yuan Shikai was also very anxious, if he really canceled this operation, it is difficult to say whether he can restore his military power, and even if it is restored, it may be taken out again at any time, so the imperial court must not be allowed to cancel the plan to attack Henan, so Yuan Shikai thought about it and finally came up with a way, which was to fold up and oppose sending troops. Yuan Shikai believed that Cixi would immediately decide to send troops when she saw her excerpt.

The result was indeed as Yuan Shikai expected, after the excerpt was handed over, it immediately made Cixi firm in her determination to send troops, but she didn't know that she was put together by Yuan Shikai, which is also Cixi's age, and her mind was a little too late to react, if it was 10 years ago, she would have thought about it more, with Yuan Shikai's caution, why would there be such a reckless excerpt.

In fact, the Qing court's attack on Henan this time did cost a lot of money, because Tie Liang and Liang Bi both wanted to use this battle to become famous, and completely seize Yuan Shikai's military power, so naturally they did not dare to be careless, and the Qing court also responded to the two of them and fully supported them, so it can be said that they worked together to fight this battle.

The six towns of Beiyang dispatched four towns, which were the 1st to 4th towns, and the attack on Henan was divided into three routes, with Duan Qirui, the commander of the third town of Beiyang, as the left wing, leading the army to march from Baoding, attacking Henan from Hebei, and threatening Shandong, so that Shandong could not reinforce Henan; Wu Fengling, the commander of the fourth town, was the right wing, and Luoyang sent troops to attack Nanyang to contain the strength of the people's army; Tie Liang and Liangbi personally led the first and second towns as the middle road, and sent troops from Taiyuan to attack Henan from Shanxi, and attacked Kaifeng Mansion.

The establishment of the "town" of the Beiyang Army is equivalent to the "division" of the modern army, and the basic army of each town is about 12,000 people, but the establishment of each town is different, plus the logistics personnel, the total is about 15,000-20,000, and each road is at least equipped with at least 10,000 local troops as a paving, so the total strength of the three armies is about 100,000.

In addition to the formation of the Standing Army of the Beijing Banner with the children of the Eight Banners as the main source of soldiers in the first town of Beiyang, the soldiers were personally selected by Tie Liang, and the commander was Fengshan, the Yellow Banner of the Han Army, which was regarded as his own person, and the commanders and troops of the remaining five towns were Yuan Shikai's henchmen, such as Wang Yingkai, the commander of the second town, had joined Yuan Shikai's new army as early as 1895, and was the early backbone of Yuan Shikai's formation of the Beiyang Army, and Duan Qirui, the commander of the third town, followed at the beginning of Yuan Shikai's small station training, and his stepwife was Yuan Shikai's righteous daughter Zhang Peiling, and Wu Fengling, the commander of the fourth town, was the son of Yuan Shikai's servant, who grew up in Yuan's family and was brought out by Yuan Shikai himself。

Tie Liang and Liang Bi arranged it this way, firstly, the Qing court really had no one and no army available except for the six towns of Beiyang, and secondly, it was also to use this battle to test the attitude of these towns towards the Qing court.

And Tie Liang and Liang Bi have also been carefully calculated, among the three road armies, the middle road has the strongest military strength, with a total strength of nearly 60,000, and there is the most reliable Beiyang first town, in addition to Tie Liang and Liang Bi personally sit in the town to supervise, the second town of Beiyang may not dare not contribute, and the other two roads are containment forces anyway, and they don't need to work hard, the two think that relying on the middle route army is actually enough, and even hope that these two roads will be negative, so that there is an excuse to change people, and completely take back the Beiyang Army from Yuan Shikai.

In addition, the two also decided to let the Hubei New Army also attack Xiangyang to contain the forces of overseas Chinese.

Two years ago, Zhao Erxun, the governor of Huguang, and Zhang Renjun, the governor of Henan, jointly sent troops to conquer the then fledgling Hehu base area, but they were defeated by the volunteers, and even Xie Baosheng, the governor of Henan, was killed, and Zhao Erxun and Zhang Renjun had no choice but to plead guilty to the imperial court.

The Qing court debated endlessly over what should be convicted of the two men, and as a result, it dragged on for several months until the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, and the Qing court was anxious about how to deal with the Russo-Japanese war, so the punishment of the two had to be hastily punished, and only reprimanded, but the result was not only that both of them kept their official positions, but even Zhang Biao, the commander of the Hubei New Army, and Li Yuanhong, the co-commander of the Hubei New Army, who were defeated on the battlefield, were not dismissed.

A year later, Zhang Renjun was reappointed governor of Shanxi, while Zhao Erxun remained in office. However, at this time, the river and lake base area has developed greatly, occupying most of Henan, and even the capital of Henan, Kaifeng Mansion, has been occupied, so after Zhang Renjun left office, the Qing court did not appoint the governor of Henan, and changed the provincial governance of Henan to Luoyang, and the remaining state capitals of Henan were also assigned to the Luoyang prefect.

The Hubei New Army is still under the command of Zhang Biao and Li Yuanhong, and it has basically recovered in two years, and now it is going to send troops to fight against the Volunteers again. Although Zhang Renjun left his post from Henan, the Middle Route Army attacking Henan this time was attacked by Shanxi, so Zhang Renjun, who was the governor of Shanxi, naturally had the obligation to help in the war, and Tie Liang and Liangbi thought that Zhang Renjun had experience in fighting with the volunteers, so they also let Zhang Renjun go with the army to fight the counselor's military aircraft, and transferred 6,000 troops from Shanxi to his own army.