Of course, the artillery position of the Qing army was not with the main position, but on the main position, you can still clearly see the flames on the side of the artillery position, and hear the sound of a huge explosion.

And not long after, some soldiers came to report to Zhang Biao and Li Yuanhong that the artillery positions had been dealt a devastating blow, and at this time Zhang Biao and Li Yuanhong were also a little confused, and their artillery troops were finished like this? But the bad news was not enough, and then another soldier came to report that the blocking troops on the left and right lines had been attacked by the volunteers.

In fact, this was something that the two expected, so they arranged two armies to block, but in the case that their artillery positions were knocked out by the opponent and it became extremely difficult to get through the place of return, and then listened to the report that the blocking army was attacked, the mood was naturally very different, after all, there were not many troops to block, and it was definitely impossible to stop the attack of the volunteers, and now there was no progress on the assault front, once the blocking army was defeated, the Qing army in Hubei would fall into a huge unfavorable situation of being attacked from both sides.

Just when Zhang Biao and Li Yuanhong were at a loss, on the side of the position of the volunteers, the sound of artillery rang out again, and this time the target of the artillery bombardment was the position of the Qing army in Hubei.

After knocking out the artillery positions of the Qing army, the field artillery company of the Volunteer Army quickly withdrew from the position and entered the second position, at this time it also received the news that the artillery position of the Qing army had been destroyed, and the regimental headquarters ordered the field artillery company to immediately bombard the position of the Qing army. At this time, the position of the Qing army's position had already been clearly detected by the scouts of the volunteers, and the artillery quickly calculated the firing unit on the map, and then launched an artillery bombardment on the Qing army's position.

Originally, the Qing army was preparing to take the initiative to attack and open up the reason for returning to Hubei, but it did not think about defense at all, nor did it build fortifications, but the shells fell on the positions of the Qing army, so that the Qing army could pay for the bombing.

Knowing that the artillery positions of the Qing army had been knocked out, the field artillery company of the Volunteers was much calmer, and the shelling lasted for more than five minutes, dropping more than 400 shells, and all the remaining shells of the field artillery were wiped out in one go. The position of the Qing army was dealt a heavy blow, because at this time the position was completely unobstructed, and the Qing army could only be bombed, and suddenly there was chaos.

After the artillery bombardment of the volunteers ended, the first regiment immediately took the initiative to attack the Qing army, and this time the speed was much faster when the Qing army in Henan was encircled and annihilated, and the attack began less than five minutes after the shelling, first, because it was daytime, the field of vision was clear, and the action was naturally faster; second, it also absorbed the experience of the previous operation, and after the shelling began, the first and second battalions of the first regiment attacked from their positions and advanced to the positions of the Qing army. The 2nd Battalion quickly launched an attack on the positions of the Qing troops.

Although the position of the Qing army was chaotic at this time, Bi Jing had a large number of troops, among which the Hubei New Army still had a certain military quality, and Zhang Biao and Li Yuanhong were still there, and there were still people in command, so the two sides launched a melee, and the soldiers on both sides were intertwined and fought desperately with guns.

However, in contrast, the Volunteers are based on squads and platoons as units, conducting organized battles, and although the two sides are mainly engaged in white-knuckle combat, the Volunteers are equipped with a large number of Type 96 pistols, which can play a great role in white-knuckle operations. The fighting spirit is strong, although the Qing army does not know that the Qing army in Henan has failed, but the battle in the past few days has not been smooth, and now it has fallen into the encirclement of the volunteers, and the artillery positions have also been knocked out by the volunteers, and the soldiers of the Qing army have inevitably given birth to great frustration, so although the number of the Qing army is much more than the volunteers, the two sides are inseparable, and they cannot tell the winner for a while.

But at this moment, the second regiment first broke through the resistance of the Qing army and joined the battle group, which immediately changed the balance of the battle situation, and the volunteers began to gain an advantage on the battlefield, and Fu Chenghang immediately ordered that the third battalion as a reserve was also put into battle.

Although the strength of a battalion is not much, it is a new force after all, and at this time the volunteers have already gained the upper hand, so after the soldiers of this battalion joined, the Qing army was naturally even more unable to parry, and many Qing troops had begun to retreat from the battlefield. And at this time, the third regiment of another volunteer army finally broke through the resistance of the Qing army and rushed to the battlefield.

In the previous battle, the reduction of the three regiments reached more than 700 people, which was close to one-third of the whole army, and the strength had been greatly weakened, so when attacking the blocking army of the Qing army, it was also quite difficult, but the Qing army lost one after another in other battlefields, and the blocking Qing army was finally shaken, and the position was finally broken by the three regiments.

The three regiments joined the battlefield and also gave the Qing army the final blow, although the total strength of the Qing army was still above the volunteer army at this time, but the mental state of both sides was completely different from the same level, and the Qing army finally completely lost the power of resistance and was defeated from the battlefield. Zhang Biao and Li Yuanhong, also under the protection of a small number of soldiers, broke through to the southwest of the battlefield.

However, although the People's Army formed an encirclement of the Qing army, after all, the strength was limited, and it was impossible to form a complete encirclement of the Qing army, so there were large gaps in the battlefield, and many Qing soldiers took advantage of these gaps to escape from the battlefield. Li Yuanhong was able to get away from the battlefield, after all, both of them were the main generals of the Qing army in Hubei, and they also had some prestige in the army, because they were Li Yuanhong, because they were quite kind to the soldiers in peacetime, they could be regarded as winning the hearts of the army, and the two of them could still gather 2 or 300 soldiers to break through when the whole army was defeated.

Of course, the process of breaking through is also very thrilling, both of them pulled out their pistols, personally went into battle, after highlighting the encirclement, the two still did not dare to stay, led the soldiers to run out of more than ten kilometers in one breath, and fled to the territory of Xiangyang Mansion to stop the footsteps, and at this time there were only more than 200 people left around the two people, but one after another Qing soldiers escaped, seeing that the two main generals were still alive, so they also gathered over one after another, and in the afternoon, the two contained a total of more than 800 soldiers.

But thinking that when the two of them led the army from Hubei more than ten days ago, the army of 10,000 people was so high-spirited, and now it has fallen into such a field, so Zhang Biao and Li Yuanhong can't help but feel sad and crying, Li Yuanhong even pulled out a pistol to commit suicide, fortunately he was pulled by the soldiers left and right, and comforted him in every possible way, so he persuaded Li Yuanhong.

Then Zhang Biao and Li Yuanhong discussed it again, thinking that they would go back to Wuchang like this, and they really didn't have the face to see Zhao Erxun, so they decided to temporarily retreat to Xiangyang Mansion, of course, there were still soldiers escaping one after another, so the two divided into several small troops, but searched for other scattered fleeing soldiers.

After Zhang Biao and Li Yuanhong retreated to Xiangyang Mansion, they learned that the Qing army in Henan had already been defeated by the volunteers, and even the main general Xie Baosheng was killed, and this time the campaign was a complete failure. At this point, the two had no other way, so they jointly sent a telegram to Zhao Erxun in Wuchang, informing them of the defeat and asking the court to punish them. Although it is said that this time the troops were sent to Hubei and Henan provinces in private, and they did not report to the imperial court, but now that the conquest and suppression have failed miserably, and the loss of troops and the demolition of generals must not be concealed from the imperial court, and the loss of officials and abandonment of posts is inevitable, not to mention the two of them, even Zhao Erxun, the governor of Huguang, and Zhang Renjun, the governor of Henan, I am afraid that this time they are all in a catastrophe.

Of course, the defeat of the Qing army was the victory of the base area, and in this battle, more than 2,700 enemies were annihilated, more than 3,000 people were captured, more than 1,500 rifles and more than 80,000 bullets were captured.

In the whole war, the volunteers annihilated more than 7,300 enemies, captured more than 5,700 people, and the volunteers themselves lost 971 people killed and another 1,603 were wounded, which can be said to have achieved a very brilliant victory. In order not to leave a gap for the Qing army, a total of 27 villages were relocated, involving a population of more than 50,000 people, and the relocation and resettlement of these people were all responsible for the local government, and some villages were also destroyed by the Qing army or destroyed by the war, and the reconstruction was also paid for by the local government.

Although the base areas confiscated the property of a number of landlords during the land reform and accumulated some money, because the base areas are basically in rural areas and the economy is very backward, the finances of the base areas are not sufficient, and the relocation and resettlement of residents and the reconstruction of villages, in addition to the pensions of the soldiers who died in battle, and the large number of captured Qing soldiers to feed, all these have put tremendous pressure on the finances of the base areas. Therefore, Chen Zhao, the person in charge of the base area, was not happy for long, and then frowned, after all, the army would not care about these matters, and could only be solved by administrative officials.

Therefore, in his report to the Qingdao Executive Yuan, Chen Zhao not only talked about the achievements of the base areas, but also gave a detailed account of the financial pressure that the base areas are currently experiencing, and at the same time, of course, he also put forward his own solutions: First, send the list of captured Qing soldiers to Henan and Hubei and demand payment for the cost of ransom the prisoners, which can not only reduce the pressure on the base areas but also increase the income of the base areas; second, allow the base areas to capture the big cities, because the big cities are economically developed, and can also crack down on a number of Qing court officials. Of course, it is not possible to last long just by relying on ransom money and cracking down on local tyrants and stumbling on the bad stumbling blocks of the local tyrants, so in order to fundamentally raise the economic level and financial revenue of the base areas, it is necessary to immediately and comprehensively capture Guide Prefecture, so as to ensure the smooth flow of traffic between the base areas and the East China Government, then the base areas can carry out economic exchanges with the East China Government, and even the base areas can also use Shandong's ports and wharves to develop foreign trade, and this is the fundamental method for ensuring the economic development of the base areas。