The Jiangbei Army's response was very fast, but Yuan Shikai's reaction was even faster, and after Yuan Shikai gave the order, the Qing Army's Fourth Route Army immediately launched a military operation against Jiangbei after readjusting some of the troops and commanders. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info Qing army is not short of people, money, materials, it can be said that this attack on the Jiangbei Army gathered the last military strength of the Qing army and the strong intervention of foreign forces, but in the eyes of many Beiyang Army, cooperation with foreigners is not considered a traitor, they temporarily choose to borrow other forces for reunification.

The Qing army's four-way army, advancing from four directions towards two military targets.

The first route of the Qing army was the third town of the Beiyang Army, the fourth town of the Beiyang Army, the 11th Association of the sixth town of the Beiyang Army, the 29th Association of the Henan New Army, and the 20 battalions of the patrol battalion of the Henan Road, totaling more than 80,000 people. Feng Guozhang led his army from Hubei, first recovering Anhui, then down the river to occupy Pukou, along Pukou to occupy Fengyang Province, and then attacked Yangzhou in an attempt to outflank the Jiangbei army.

The second route of the Qing army, Jin Yunpeng, led the 5th Town of the Beiyang Army, the 47th Association of the Shandong New Army, the Yi Army originally stationed in Rehe, the 20th Town of the Beiyang Army originally stationed in Luanzhou, the 10th Battalion of the Shandong Road Patrol Battalion, and the 10th Battalion of the Zhili Patrol Battalion, with a total strength of 100,000 people, along the Jinpu Railway to Xuzhou and occupy Xuzhou.

The third route of the Qing army Wang Zhanyuan led the third association of the second town of the Beiyang Army, the 10th battalion of the patrol battalion of the Henan Road, and the 10th battalion of the Yi Army, with a total strength of 30,000 people, to launch an attack from the river to northern Anhui, outflanking the Xuzhou defenders of the Jiangbei Army from the right side.

The fourth route of the Qing army was led by Wang Tingzhen, the Praetorian Guard, the 5 battalions of the patrol battalion of Shandong, and the 10 battalions of the Eight Banners to launch an attack from Haizhou (Lianyungang), with a total strength of 30,000 troops, trying to outflank Xuzhou from the left after occupying Haizhou, and completely occupy Xuzhou.

The Qing Army's four-way army totaled 240,000 people, of which the main force of the Beiyang Army was as high as 100,000, which shows that Yuan Shikai not only planned for a long time, but also knew that attacking the Jiangbei Army would inevitably destroy it in one go, and must not give the Jiangbei Army a chance to breathe.

Among the four armies, Feng Guozhang's troops attacking Pukou on the first route and Feng Guozhang's troops attacking Xuzhou on the second route were the main focus of the attack, while the third and fourth routes were both outflanking auxiliaries.

In particular, the troops led by Wang Tingzhen's department on the fourth road were all forbidden troops and Eight Banner soldiers, while the patrol battalions of various roads in Shandong were only five battalions of more than 3,000 people, and they were all temporarily recruited, and they had no intention of fighting. However, the Fourth Road is not without combat effectiveness, the forbidden army is composed of the children of the Manchu, Han and Mongolian Eight Banners and Hui youth, they are more loyal to the imperial court, so the military salaries, weapons and equipment that the imperial court spends on them every year are not inferior to the six towns of Beiyang, especially Yuan Shikai also hired his own Japanese advisers to form a Japanese advisory group to supervise the fourth road, to avoid the fourth road war-weariness. What's funny is that Yuan Shikai and other Han people in the late Qing Dynasty threw their heads and spilled blood for the Manchu Dynasty, but the Manchus saw through the end of the Qing Empire early on, and were unwilling to continue to protect the country, so the fighting spirit of the forbidden army and the Eight Banners Army was not high, and Yuan Shikai had to ask the Japanese advisory group to supervise the Eight Banners and the forbidden army, but the effect was obviously very poor.

After Yuan Shikai issued the order, he met with Sir Nelson again and secretly discussed a method, he hoped to borrow more money from the Four Nations Bank, and in order to deal with Wang Yongan and his Jiangbei forces, the Four Nations Bank promised to lend the Qing government 50 million taels of silver at a low interest rate for five years, specifically for the war against Jiangbei.

At the same time, Wang Yongan also discussed with Feng Heng the issue of the commander of the army in Xuzhou and the army commander in Fengyang Mansion, who would lead the four Jiangbei Army divisions in Xuzhou, and who could command the four Jiangbei Army divisions in Fengyang Mansion.

"I propose two candidates," Feng Heng said, "Luo Yinxian and Han Linchun, these two people have deep qualifications and great prestige in the army, and there will be no objection to them commanding the army." ”

Wang Yongan smiled and looked at Li Yao, Li Yao immediately waved his hand and said, "Don't look at me, big marshal, I don't know anything about military command." ”

"Hahaha......" Wang Yongan laughed and said, "I know, I know, in fact, it would be good if Lao Gong was here, he has the most seniority." ”

Feng Heng nodded and said, "I don't know if Lao Gong is abroad, whether he has changed his stuttering problem." ”

Wang Yongan said: "Not to mention qualifications, but to talk about command ability, who do you think is competent?" ”

Feng Heng thought for a while and said: "Fang Xianwu and Li Shirui are both acceptable, if Fang Xianwu is the conductor, everyone will obey, but if Li Shirui is the conductor, I'm afraid few people will obey, after all, he is too young, and Li Shirui is not from Jiangbei, after all, Fang Xianwu is from Yangzhou, everyone is afraid of Fang Xianwu and your nepotism, and they will not oppose him." Li Shirui is a native of Hunan, and this Hunan baby is only twenty-five years old, so he rashly serves as a conductor, I am afraid that he will ......"

Wang Yongan said: "Speaking of this military command talent, there are a lot of people in our army, but there are not many Li Shirui who is so calm-headed and far-sighted, you are counted as one, Fang Xianwu is counted as one, and there is one person is also counted as one, but I don't worry about him." ”

"Who?"

"Jiang Yanxing, chief of staff of the Third Division."

Feng Heng knew that Wang Yongan had always been afraid of Jiang Yanxing, and with Jiang Yanxing's ability and qualifications, he should have served as the commander of the army division a long time ago, but he didn't know why Wang Yongan was reluctant to issue Jiang Yanxing's appointment. How did he know the reason for Wang Yongan's jealousy, Jiang Yanxing was a revolutionary party in history, and in history, the southern revolutionaries occupied Nanjing, and the Jiangsu New Army led by Jiang Yanxing played a very important factor, and then Jiang Yanxing served as the commander of the Jiangbei New Army and led the army to fight with the Beiyang Army in central Anhui and northern Anhui. After the establishment of the Republic of China by the North-South Peace, although Jiang Yanxing was a revolutionary party, he was not Sun Yat-sen's confidant, and Jiang Yanxing himself wanted to be a warlord, so he was abandoned by Sun Yat-sen and other people's parties, and after being summoned into Beijing by Yuan Shikai, he was detained together with Cai Yi and others. Later, Jiang Yanxing has been entrusted with a vacant position by the Beiyang government, Jiang Yanxing was disheartened because he was betrayed by the Kuomintang and excluded by the Beiyang Department, and finally resigned from all his jobs and retired at home. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the Japanese hired Jiang Yanxing to go out of the mountain, but Jiang Yanxing refused, and finally died of illness and family in 1941 at the age of 66.

Jiang Yanxing's ambition was extinguished only after repeated blows, and before that he was also a hot-blooded soldier who was bent on building a new China for the country, but with some warlord thoughts. And Wang Yongan's biggest worry is that Jiang Yanxing is related to the revolutionary party, if Jiang Yanxing leads the army to defect to the Southern Revolutionary Party, won't the foundation he has worked so hard to build make wedding clothes for others?

However, after thinking about it carefully, this Jiang Yanxing essentially only opposed the Manchu court, and he had already announced his recovery, so he could use Jiang Yanxing boldly and confidently, so he said: "In this case, it is time for Jiang Yanxing to make a contribution, so let's do it, Jiang Yanxing will be transferred to the Eighth Division as the commander of the Eighth Division, replacing Li Shirui." ”