In the evening, Li Shirui, who was tired and tired, returned to Yangzhou single-handedly, although he was so tired that he was about to fall down, and his inner thighs were worn out on horseback, but he still said with firm eyes: "Yun Shuai, I ask to be the commander-in-chief of the war against Japan." Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info”

"Are you sure you can defeat the Japanese?" Wang Yongan looked directly into his gaze and said, "I want to hear your true thoughts, many people want to be the commander of this time against Japan, what ability do you have to recommend you to be the commander against all opinions?" ”

Li Shirui said: "I don't have any credit to recommend myself to everyone, but I have studied the Japanese very thoroughly, and even during my study in Japan, I studied the weaknesses and strengths of the Japanese army. In addition, I can't make any guarantees on the battlefield, but if the Japanese regular army does not come forward, I am completely sure that the Japanese irregular army will be driven out into the sea. ”

After Wang Yongan was silent for a long time, he thought about the selection of candidates, and then said: "In this case, I will only give you three months, and you must beat the Japanese to tears in these three months." Li Shirui, let me tell you the truth, because our finances can only support us to fight a war for half a year, and if you can't end the war within half a year, we will have to use another three months of Jiangbei finance to pay reparations to Japan, otherwise our Jiangbei government will go bankrupt. I even estimate that in less than half a year, we will go bankrupt. ”

Li Shirui was stunned for a moment, and then said with a wry smile: "Yun Shuai, is our finances so bad?" ”

Wang Yongan sighed and said with a wry smile: "Jiangbei's finances should not be so embarrassed, but we have invested a lot in the early stage of building four railways in Jiangbei, coupled with the convenience of Jiangbei's infrastructure and army construction, we have spent a lot of money, especially army construction, how do you think our 200,000 Jiangbei troops are supported by food, clothing, housing and transportation, these are all invisible money." ”

Li Shirui said with a smile: "There is also the salary of the recovery of Jiangbei, after the reform of the Jiangbei government, many departments have been added, although I also think that these departments are necessary, but they do cost a lot." ”

Wang Yongan patted him on the shoulder and said: "If there is no Japanese sideways, even if Yuan Shikai's army goes south, we are not afraid, the problem now is that the Japanese have always refused to throw out the bottom line." ”

Li Shirui promised: "Yun Shuai, I will fight until they have to show the bottom line, I promise." ”

Chief of Staff Feng Heng said: "I still have a request for you. ”

"Chief of Staff, please." Li Shirui said.

Feng Heng said: "Ammunition and ammunition, we have been sanctioned by the great powers, so you must save some money." ”

"......," Li Shirui said depressedly, "you can't let the soldiers carry bayonets, right?" ”

Wang Yongan said: "Then it depends on your ability, I plan the Jiangbei Army 1st Division, 2nd Division, 3rd Division, 6th Division, 7th Division and 9th Division, a total of 6 army divisions of 120,000 people at your disposal, if you are defeated, don't see me." ”

"There is only Li Shirui who died in battle, and there is no Li Shirui who was defeated." Li Shirui said loudly.

Li Shirui said that he set off overnight and couldn't delay time, Wang Yongan saw that he was tired, so he let him take his own car forward, and asked people to bring two quilts to stuff into the back seat of the car and put them on the seat, so that Li Shirui could lie in the back seat and sleep. Li Shirui was grateful and repeatedly refused, but Wang Yongan did not allow him to refuse himself, Li Shirui couldn't shirk it, so he had to get into the car and drive to Nantong overnight.

At this time, Nantong was not as nervous as the outside world imagined, because the Japanese navy did not rush to land after shelling the Chinese defenders of Langshan Port. After all, they are a civilian army, not part of the Japanese regular army, and they are in Shanghi, as well as the Eighth Wing of the Japanese Marine Corps, but the Eighth Wing has no intention of participating in the operation, so the Wing in China does not dare to take action.

But the Chinese defenders on the opposite side were actually collapsed by a burst of artillery fire from the Japanese Navy, and the two regiment commanders left their team members and ran away, or Qiao Zhen, the police chief of Nantong County, led the Nantong police to take the lead in running to Langshan Port to be responsible for defense, and the other soldiers returned one after another.

After receiving Wang Yongan's telegram, Qiao Zhen escorted the two fleeing regiment commanders to the position, and then shot the two fleeing regiment commanders to the wall in front of more than 3,000 garrison officers and soldiers. Two families came to collect the corpses, many people blocked them, Qiao Zhen let everyone disperse, although these two people committed a great crime, but after being arrested, they knew that they were wrong and repented, and repeatedly begged to be able to fight with the Japanese and be killed by the enemy's bullets, and they were not willing to be killed by their own people, which shows that although they are cowardly in their hearts, they are not unpatriotic.

After the two families collected the bodies, the leaders of the two families brought all the adult men over the age of fourteen and said to Qiao Zhen: "There are only two cowards in our two families, and the rest are good men, this time let the rest of us wash away their shame." ”

Qiao Zhen was very embarrassed, but the two old patriarchs wanted to kneel down and request, both of them were seventy or eighty years old, how could Qiao Zhen let them kneel for themselves, so they had to accept ten strong men from each family, and the rest were either too old or too young, and it would be a burden when they arrived on the battlefield.

After the two old patriarchs returned home, one of them was angry with the runaway officer in his clan that day, and the other person was lying on the bed and couldn't get out of bed.

The Japanese soldiers saw the scene of the shooting of the two fleeing regiment commanders on the ship, and applauded one after another, and they were also a little bored, and from the morning until it was dark, they did not hear the news of the call for attack from above. The members of the Chinese Brigade were talking a lot, and some were complaining about why they were involved in the matter in the first heat of the moment, and they were soon driven back to the cabin by the navy sailors, demanding that they must stay in their rooms and not go out.

The soldiers complained about returning to the cabin, and the Japanese sailors complained to their superiors that the soldiers of the Chinese Brigade were not polite, and some even urinated in the corners of the cabin. The Navy looked down on the Army, and the habit in the Japanese Army was long-standing, and the two sides quarreled, which then led to a brawl between sailors and infantry, and the discipline of the militia organization was demonstrated. The captains complained to Suzuki Thirty-two about the soldiers, and Suzuki Thirty-two asked the soldiers who urinated and the soldiers who were fighting to wash the deck, which was considered a punishment, and immediately made the naval officers scold the army for being dirty, messy, and uneducated.