Duan Qirui, commander of the Henan Theater of Operations, felt that the attitude of his subordinates had been very respectful recently, perhaps because the group beating incident had released the pre-war anger of the Beiyang officers, or perhaps it was Yuan Shikai who personally ordered the officers who participated in the group beating to be arrested and beaten with military sticks. However, Duan Qirui could never be satisfied with such a small change. If he was such a shallow person, he would have died dozens of times in the Beiyang Group.

In the Henan Military Region Headquarters in Handan, Duan Qirui looked at the map slowly, and beside him, several officers stood straight. More than two hours have passed since the start of the report, and the officers have always stood so straight. Now, these people are sore legs and stiff muscles. Coupled with the heat, these people were already covered in sweat. However, the attention of these people was put on Duan Qirui and the two military commanders Zhang Shaozeng and Wu Peifu beside Duan Qirui. Especially on the extremely gloomy face of the commander-in-chief Duan Qirui. Since May, Duan Qirui has punished more than a dozen officers, which is enough for Liwei.

After looking at the map for a while, Duan Qirui finally turned his head. He wasn't pretending to be annoyed in an attempt to establish his personal prestige. With Duan Qirui's qualifications, status, and ability in Beiyang, he didn't have to do anything deliberately at all. What made Duan Qirui angry was that it was now June 9, and the Beiyang Army's military arrangements for the People's Party had not yet been clarified. As in the war in Anhui a few years ago, the reconnaissance units of the People's Party fiercely strangled the reconnaissance units of the Beiyang Army. More than half a month has passed, and more than 500 people can see the corpses of the Beiyang Army, including cavalry and infantry, and more than 2,000 people who have not seen the corpses alive or dead. In the face of such a group of waste subordinates, Duan Qirui was extremely polite to just let them stand for two hours.

If he fought with someone else, Duan Qirui would dare to attack the enemy's important stronghold with a light army. However, the opponent is the People's Party, and Duan Qirui himself was wiped out a few years ago because of the light troops who ignored the intelligence. And last year, the Japanese also proved with the lives of a division and regiment what would happen if they marched recklessly on the territory of the BJP. Duan Qirui felt very puzzled, how could the People's Party manage its own territory like an iron bucket, and the needle could not be inserted into the water and splashed in.

Duan Qirui was thinking about whether there was a good way, but he saw that one of the officers of the reconnaissance force in front of him stumbled because of his unsteady standing, although the person hurriedly regained his feet. Because of holding his breath, the officer's face turned a little purple. And the two legs have begun to grow, and the whole person is as straight and swaying as a wooden pole. Others were no better than this officer.

Seeing that the purpose of the punishment was almost there, Duan Qirui said coldly: "You guys sit down first." ”

One by one, the officers thanked each other and hurriedly pulled up their stools and sat down. But after standing for too long, I sat down on the stool, and immediately felt a pinprick in my leg. These people did not dare to scream under any circumstances, and one by one they kept their faces tense and tried to swallow all the sounds into their stomachs.

"You've had so many dealings with the People's Party, and you still haven't figured out how many scouts there are from the People's Party?" Duan Qirui now wants to figure this out the most, and in terms of investigation, the People's Party has adopted a-for-tat approach. Once the spies of the Beiyang Army enter the middle area of the two armies, the People's Party will send troops to strangle the Beiyang spies. However, the People's Party was very restrained, and as long as the Beiyang Army ran back to the area controlled by the Beiyang Army, the People's Party never pursued it deeply. The Beiyang Army set up ambushes many times, and the ambushers did not even capture the prisoners of the People's Party.

The officers looked at each other, and they didn't dare to talk nonsense about this kind of thing. Not long ago, there was a lesson from the past, and some people did not find out clearly at all, so they reported to Duan Qirui that they had identified a location for the People's Party's troops. As a result, after the Beiyang Brigade raided the place, they didn't even find a single bird feather. Duan Qirui directly executed that guy on the charge of lying about the military situation. Now the guy's head is still hanging in front of the barracks. At stake in their own lives, no one dares to risk their lives.

It's not okay to stand up and not speak, just because everyone spoke in a vague way, which annoyed Duan Qirui, and then everyone stood for more than two hours. The one who was unsteady on his feet and almost fell down because he was afraid in his heart, he spoke first, "Shuai, the People's Party's reconnaissance mainly relies on airplanes. There are regular daily patrols, and there are at least a few dozen mobile and fixed sentinels. The subordinates of the lowly post suffered the most losses, and if we carefully extrapolated, there were two or three thousand People's Party sentries on the opposite side of the area in charge of the lowly posts. ”

"Two or three thousand?" Duan Qirui felt that this was a dream, and he asked coldly, "You have already determined that the People's Party has indeed discharged so many troops. ”

Seeing that Duan Qirui was already angry, the officer couldn't help but shudder, and he hurriedly explained: "Marshal, the People's Party will send troops to harvest with the people every summer harvest. Now that the summer harvest is coming here in Henan, they are afraid that they will participate in the harvest as in previous years......"

There will definitely be no shortage of people who echo Duan Qirui, and someone has already begun to speak, "This is impossible, there is going to be a war soon, and troops will be sent to harvest." If the BJP forces are harvested, then who is fighting us? ”

"The BJP is not three-headed and six-armed, even if there are planes in the sky, there must be so many people fighting. I also tried to advance in multiple ways, but I encountered enemies in every way. Without two or three thousand people, it would never have had this effect. ”

Duan Qirui watched his subordinates arguing, and he was also thinking in his heart. The width of the reconnaissance that the person in charge of the person who spoke just now was about 20 li, and if the People's Party had placed two or three thousand sentry agents on such a front, the entire area bordering the People's Party and Beiyang would be more than 600 li. Then the BJP needs to put nearly 100,000 people in this vast area. It would be more cost-effective to use such a large number of troops as sentinels than to launch a direct attack.

Thinking of this, Duan Qirui really wanted this nonsense guy to continue to punish him. But he just thinks about it, blindly punishing his subordinates will only make his subordinates deviate, and there are indeed anomalies in the places where the People's Party has behaved, and such a tight blockade really requires tens of thousands of troops to do it.

"Haven't any spies come back lately?" Duan Qirui changed the subject.

"I didn't see anyone coming from the BJP." All the officers said one after another.

Duan Qirui was silent again, even if there was a war, even if there was a strong blockade, it would be impossible to completely block traffic in such a vast area. If the common people really want to go north, this area of Hebei will not be able to stop them at all. And it's strange that no one has been to Handan in the last month.

"Hurry up the investigation." Duan Qirui finally gave a basically meaningless order.

The officers in charge of the investigation left the conference room as if they had been amnestied, and Duan Qirui asked Zhang Shaozeng and Wu Peifu, who had never spoken, "What do you think?" ”

"Boss, I think the People's Party is preparing to attack by doing this." Zhang Shaozeng replied, "In terms of the style of the People's Party, they are not very willing to bully the enemy. If it weren't for the attack, there would have been no need for them to make such a big move. ”

As for someone who said that the People's Party sent so many people to cover the harvest, Zhang Shaozeng did not believe it at all. In fact, if it were not for the conclusive evidence, Zhang Shaozeng would not even believe that the People's Party troops helped the masses harvest grain.

Duan Qirui was noncommittal about this, and he asked Wu Peifu, "What do you think?" ”

"Marshal, I caught two Japanese spies in the army yesterday." Wu Peifu replied.

Duan Qirui didn't expect Wu Peifu to say such a question, everyone knows that Wu Peifu and the Japanese have just finished fighting for half a year, and Wu Peifu's attitude towards the Japanese is extremely hostile.

"What's going on?" Since Wu Peifu said this matter so publicly, Duan Qirui didn't want to take it lightly.

"The Japanese are very concerned about our battle this time, but they don't know what they want to do with such hard work." Wu Peifu himself felt very incomprehensible.

"What did those two spies do?" Duan Qirui asked.

"It's still fighting, these two are not honest, they have to fight for a while." Wu Peifu tried to say it lightly, but the pleasure in his tone was too obvious.

Duan Qirui knew that this torture would not be easy, but it was not a big deal, and he had already made a decision in his heart at this time, "The Japanese don't have to worry about what they want, they must want to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight." As long as the BJP can be eliminated, they will choose to support us. I think what Commander Zhang said is reasonable, the People's Party is preparing to attack by doing this, so you should hurry up and prepare. ”

At this time in Tokyo, several Japanese were discussing China's recent movements, and one asked, "Why didn't Beiyang, as an attacking party, attack?" ”

The question was interesting and vicious, but the attendees said viciously: "They probably think that preparing for the war with their troops is an attack, right?" ”

If it weren't for the heartfelt malice of a few people, the latter sentence would have caused laughter.

"Originally, I thought that the Chinese would be able to carry out a campaign with millions of participants, and later I thought that Beiyang would be able to carry out a campaign of 200,000 people. After watching Duan Qirui's performance, I knew that I was wrong. The leader finally said with a smile.

"But our intelligence officers have not been able to get the military plan of Beiyang."

"Whether Beiyang has this military plan or not is a matter of ambiguity."

"Does the BJP have a full-fledged military plan? Several of us have recently been discovered by Beiyang. But all of us sent to the BJP have been arrested. ”