Of course, these actions of the Qing court could not escape the intelligence network set up by the East China government in Beijing. In the past few years, the East China Government has set up a huge and tight intelligence network in Beijing, and it can be said that everything that happens in the city of Beijing, including the affairs in the Imperial Palace, cannot escape the eyes and ears of the East China Government. Moreover, the level of secrecy of the Qing court was too low and poor, and there were no less than 20 eunuchs who were bought by the Beijing Office of the East China Government, so all the affairs of the Qing Dynasty were almost completely transparent to the East China Government. It can be said that as soon as any decision of the Qing court is made, the Qingdao side will be able to receive it after two hours at most.

The Qing court's preparations for escape, including the carriage prepared in the palace, the deployment of the army in the Summer Palace, and so on, have long been transmitted to Qingdao, for the East China government, if Cixi and Guangxu flee to the south, it will definitely be the most unfavorable result for themselves, because Cixi and Guangxu represent the orthodoxy of the Qing court, once they flee to the south, and with the support of various countries, it is very likely that they will integrate the local forces in the south in a short period of time and compete with the East China government. Although even if the whole south is unified, it is impossible to be the opponent of the East China government, but it is much more difficult to deal with than the south, which is scattered and fighting its own battles, and requires the East China government to consume more energy, manpower, material resources, and financial resources. So the Executive Yuan also instructed the Military Commission and the Ministry of Security to cooperate to prevent Cixi and Guangxu from escaping south, even if they were killed on the battlefield, it was better than letting them flee to the south.

After receiving the order of the Executive Yuan, the Military Commission and the Ministry of Security also immediately began to formulate corresponding plans, the Ministry of Security is mainly responsible for monitoring the dynamics of the palace and providing intelligence support, and it is still up to the army to prevent Cixi and Guangxu from escaping south.

The East China Government has a garrison at the railway station in the east of Beijing, stationed 1 battalion of troops, plus logistics personnel, about 900 people, although when establishing this camp, there is a large margin, but at most it can only add 1 more battalion of troops. The number of available troops is around 1500 people. Therefore, the Military Commission decided to use special forces to carry out this task.

The KPA formed special forces before the Far Eastern War, and also participated in the Far Eastern War. However, in a large-scale war, the role that the special forces can play is limited, and at that time, the special forces had just been established, the training was insufficient, and the actual combat experience was also limited, so they did not send special forces to carry out difficult combat tasks such as raids, beheadings, and operations behind enemy lines, but engaged in relatively simple work such as reconnaissance, pathfinding, and collecting battlefield intelligence. And after the war in the Far East, the special forces also carried out targeted training according to the actual mistresses on the battlefield.

As early as before the Tianjin negotiations, the two special forces brigades, totaling more than 840 people, had been stationed in the camp of the Beijing garrison in batches, and began to familiarize themselves with the terrain, roads and other preliminary preparations, and the weapons and ammunition used by the special forces were also transported in succession.

The Central Military Commission has also drawn up three operational plans:

The first plan is to launch an attack by special forces during the war, before Cixi and Guangxu withdraw from Beijing, seize the palace, capture Cixi and Guangxu, and then wait for reinforcements in the palace, waiting for the main force to attack Beijing to support.

The merit of this plan lies in the suddenness of the battle, that is, with lightning speed, it will go straight to the palace and capture Cixi. Guangxu has a great chance of success; and the disadvantage is that there are about 60,000 to 70,000 troops stationed inside and outside Beijing, and about 30,000 troops are stationed in Beijing, and although the combat effectiveness of the special forces is strong, it is difficult to resist so many Qing troops by relying on only more than 800 soldiers, and if the main force cannot arrive in time and invade Beijing, the special forces will fall into a bitter battle, and even suffer heavy casualties.

The second plan is that after Cixi and Guangxu withdraw from Beijing and before entering the Summer Palace, they will set up an ambush to intercept them on the way, capture or kill Cixi and Guangxu, and quickly withdraw from the battlefield, taking advantage of the special forces' ability to fight in the field, and dealing with the Qing army.

The advantage of this plan is that the combat space and room for maneuver of the special forces have become larger, and they can fight as soon as they can fight, and they can run away if they can't; this combat method can give full play to the operational advantages of the special forces, and they do not have to worry about the damage to civilians and the ancient buildings in Beijing when they are fighting outside Beijing, and they can fight with their hands and feet freely; the disadvantage is that the requirements for intelligence are higher, because the time between Cixi and Guangxu's withdrawal from Beijing and their entry into the Summer Palace will not be too long, and if they cannot get information in a timely manner, it is very likely that they will miss the opportunity to intercept them.

The third plan is to send troops to attack the Summer Palace after Cixi and Guangxu enter the Summer Palace, and capture or kill Cixi and Guangxu in the Summer Palace, or besiege the Summer Palace, waiting for the large army to arrive.

The advantage of this plan is still to operate outside the city, the combat space, There is a lot of room for maneuver, and the garrison of the Summer Palace is far less than that of Beijing, and with the combat effectiveness of the special forces, there is still a considerable degree of certainty; but the shortcomings are also very obvious; first of all, the Summer Palace is also a very valuable royal garden, once it is damaged by the war, it is also a great loss, and the scope of the Summer Palace is too large, relying only on the special forces of more than 800 people, it is basically impossible to completely besiege it, and can only hold a few nodes of the Guanjian, but in this way, it leaves a lot of space for the Qing army, and there is a certain chance that it will be able to break through successfully.

Among the three operational plans, the General Staff Department and the command of the special forces conducted repeated studies and comparisons, and also organized several deductions, and finally decided that the second plan should be given priority, and the third plan should be used as an alternative, while the first plan was abandoned.

Of course, in addition to preventing Cixi and Guangxu from escaping, on the frontal battlefield, the East China government was also fully prepared for battle. In this operation, three field armies, totaling about 130,000 troops, will be deployed to encircle the urban area of Beijing from the east, south, and west.

In the east, the 11th Field Army of the Central Military Region was responsible for attacking from Tianjin, advancing along the Tianjin-Beijing Railway, and attacking Beijing; in the south, the 12th Field Army of the Southwest Military Region was in charge of attacking from Shunde Prefecture in Hebei Province, and marched all the way north along the line of Zhengdingfu, Baodingfu, and Zhuozhou, and joined up with the 11th Field Army in Beijing to form a joint attack on Beijing; in the west, the 5th Field Army of the Northwest Military Region was responsible for attacking from Lu'an Prefecture and attacking along the eastern foot of the Taihang Mountains to capture Xuanhua Prefecture, cut off the connection between Beijing and Shanxi, and prevent the retreat from Beijing to Shanxi.

The Northeast Military Region is responsible for monitoring the movements of the Russian army, because Russia seems to be very active at this time, so it is necessary to guard against Russia.

In addition, in the south, the East China government will also have military operations, and this front will be under the responsibility of the Marine Corps and the 9th Field Army of the Southeast Military Region, swimming up the Yangtze River, attacking Wuchang Province, and then occupying the area south of the Yangtze River in Hubei Province. The Marines were responsible for the landing operation to attack Wuchang Province, and the 9th Field Army was responsible for the subsequent capture of the area south of the Yangtze River in Hubei Province.

At present, the southeastern local forces of the East China government and the Qing court are bounded by the Yangtze River, the East China government occupies the north of the Yangtze River and Taicang Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture, and the southeastern local forces of the Qing court occupy the area south of the Yangtze River. Moreover, the goal of this operation was to capture Beijing, destroy the Qing court, and unify the north, and the southern region was not in the battle plan this time.

However, sooner or later, the south will also have to be occupied, and it is impossible for the East China government to accept the division of the north and the south with the Yangtze River as the boundary, so the Central Military Commission believes that in this operation, it should also make some moves in the south and occupy at least a few key points in the areas south of the Yangtze River; first, it will break the illusion of the Qing court's southeastern local officials dividing the north and the south; and second, it will have several reliable fulcrums in the south of the Yangtze River when the East China government marches to the south in the future, and there will be no need to carry out the operation of crossing the river.

The targets chosen by the Central Military Commission are Wuchang and Nanjing, which are the two most important cities along the Yangtze River, and once the East China Government controls these two cities, plus Taicang Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture, which are already in the hands of the East China Government, the three points will be connected into a line, and the East China Government will be able to completely control the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

The Central Military Commission submitted this operational plan to the Executive Yuan, and after careful consideration, the Executive Yuan basically agreed with this plan, but held that Nanjing was Yuan Shikai's territory, and that the relationship between the East China Government and Yuan Shikai was not bad, and there was no need to destroy it for the time being, so Nanjing was removed from the target of this operation, leaving only Wuchang Mansion, and at the same time it was decided to expand the scope of the operation to the area south of the Yangtze River in Hubei Province.

This is because the main objective of this operation is to occupy several key points in the area south of the Yangtze River, to prepare for the future advance of the East China government to the south, to occupy the area south of the Yangtze River in Hubei Province, and to basically achieve this goal, whether to occupy Nanjing or not, the role is not too great, and Hubei Province is located in the middle of the Yangtze River, bordering Anhui in the east, Sichuan in the west, Shaanxi in the northwest, Jiangxi and Hunan in the south, and Henan in the north. Since ancient times, it has been a key road between the east and the west, north and south, and a strategic place, so it occupies the entire territory of Hubei Province and can be used as the general base for the East China government to march to the south in the future.

In addition, when Zhang Zhidong was the governor, a large number of modern industrial and mining enterprises and schools were built, although in the eyes of the East China government, the level is very backward, but in the whole of China, it is considered to be very advanced, at least it can be regarded as a certain modern industry, education base, or still has great value.

The current governor of Huguang is Zhao Erxun, and the governor of Hubei is Duanfang, and the East China government has no friendship with them, so there is no scruple at all about capturing Hubei Province, and they can do it freely.