In the conference hall of the Hainan Palace, Chen Chuwang, the king of Hainan, was presiding over a military meeting of the highest level in Hainan.

The commanders-in-chief of the four major group armies in Hainan sat at the conference table, and the operational staff officers pointed to a military map and talked about the important topic of the military meeting -- the Qing court's mobilization of elite troops from seven provinces to encircle and suppress the peasant rebel army in Guangxi.

The events originated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. At that time, the Guangxi Hui Party Heaven and Earth Society, the Three Points Society, and the Triad Society continued to launch uprisings in order to resist the rule of the Qing Dynasty.

In 1898, Li Liting, the leader of the Three Points Society, rebelled in Luchuan and conquered Luchuan, Beiliu, Bobai and other counties. In 1899, Su Zhensong rebelled in Wuming, but all of them failed. Although the uprising failed, the people's struggle did not cease, but instead contributed to the upsurge of the uprising of the Guangxi Hui Party.

Later, an uprising of the Huidang with the Heaven and Earth Society as the core and You Yong as the main force quickly swept the province.

Under the leadership of Lu Yafa, the leader of the Elders' Association, the peasants in Guangxi put forward the slogan of "robbing the rich and helping the poor"; Dong San rebelled in Shangsi, Qin Laofa rebelled in Yongning, and another 50,000 or 60,000 people rebelled in the Zuojiang area, and the uprising forces spread throughout the southern and western parts of Guangxi, occupying more than 20 cities and towns.

Later, some of the mutinous Qing soldiers joined the party and began to launch an uprising. The rebel army successively conquered Wuming, Shanglin, Nandan, Donglan and Liuzhou, and approached the provincial capital Guilin.

In 1904, the rebel army continued to grow, and its power spread throughout the province and expanded to the borders of Hunan and Guizhou, controlling Qingyuan, Nanning, Wuzhou, Sien, Liuzhou, Xunzhou and other vast areas, forming two centers of Nanning and Liuzhou, shaking the whole province and making the Qing rulers fall into the dilemma of "prevention and suppression".

After capturing Liuzhou, the rebel army attacked in three directions: one route crossed Guilin in the northeast direction and went straight to Zhaoqing, Guangdong; One route crossed Rongxian and Luocheng in the northwest direction to attack Hunan and Guizhou; One route crossed Qingyuan in the southwest direction, and Ensi attacked Qianjiang and Shanglin.

Seeing the current situation, the Qing government panicked and urgently dispatched troops from seven provinces, including Guangdong, Hunan, Yunnan, and Guizhou, as well as a standing new army south of the Yangtze River, totaling nearly 200,000 people, to prepare to go to Guangxi to carry out "meeting and suppression."

After the operational staff officer finished telling the situation in Guangxi, the commander-in-chief of the four major group armies looked at the prince of Hainan.

Chen Chuwang, who had a sickly face, cheered up, looked at the four generals in front of him who had followed him to fight Hainan and said, "Brothers! Everyone has also understood the current situation in Guangxi, what do you think? ”

General Zhou Zhiguang, commander of the Third Group Army, frowned and said, "Lord Wang, what does the Qing court's suppression of the peasant uprising in Guangxi have to do with our Hainan?" ”

Xiao Yang, commander of the Second Group Army, glanced at Chen Chuwang and nodded, and said, "Yes, what General Wang Ye Zhou said is that the Qing court did not let us go to encircle and suppress. Wouldn't it be better for them to fight themselves? ”

Chen Chuwang paused, coughed a few times, took a sip of tea, and cheered up and said, "Zhang Tong, what do you think of Li Chuang?" ”

Li Chuang, commander of the Fourth Army, did not answer Chen Chuwang's question, but looked at Zhou Zhiguang, looked around again, then lowered his head and began to fiddle with his tea set.

There was a moment of silence in the conference hall.

With a violent cough, Chen Chuwang gasped for breath quickly, a trace of desolation passed through his heart, he knew that he was not far from the limit.

The guard beside him immediately brought a towel and put it on Chen Chuwang's hand, and then gently massaged the elderly prince.

Chen Chuwang knew that the commanders of these group armies saw that their health was getting weaker and weaker, and the little prince was careless, drunk and lying on the flowers all day long, ignoring current affairs, and they now each had their own ideas.

Among these people, Zhou Zhiguang of the Third Group Army has the greatest strength, with more than 300,000 elites in Hainan and as many as 150,000 in the Third Group Army. In recent years, with the aging of the king of Hainan, there seems to be an undercurrent surging in the Third Army.

Xiao Yang of the Second Group Army and Li Chuang of the Fourth Army were also ready to move, and only Zhang Tong of the First Group Army was Chen Chuwang's close confidant. Zhang Tong has nearly 100,000 elite soldiers in his hands, and is the best-equipped unit in Hainan's elite.

It's just that Zhang Tong saw that Chen Chuwang's health was getting worse and worse, and the little prince Chen Zhong was obsessed with flowers all day long, and he was full of infinite worries about the future of Hainan.

Zhang Tong cleared his throat and said, "Commander Zhou, I have a different opinion from you about the Qing court sending troops from seven provinces to encircle and suppress the peasant uprising in Guangxi. ”

Zhou Zhiguang raised his eyes and looked at Zhang Tong and said, "Oh, what does Commander Zhang have in mind, let's listen to it." ”

Zhang Tong got up and walked to the map, pointed to the land of Guangxi and Hainan, and said: "Guangxi and Hainan are not far away, and it is only a day's journey to mobilize troops. The army of the peasant uprising in Guangxi, although it was huge, was not an extremely cohesive force. As far as I know, there are more than a dozen of these peasant rebel armies, and they are fighting on their own, and they do not echo each other, but they are just scattered sand. The offensive may have been fierce at first, but as their territory expanded, the confusion and contradictions became more and more apparent. In time, they will collapse on their own. ”

Speaking of this, Zhou Zhiguang laughed: "Commander Zhang, you said a lot of words, and it doesn't mean the same thing as what I said. These mud-legged uprisings are no threat to the Qing court at all, let alone to our strong Hainan. Therefore, the Qing court's encirclement and suppression has nothing to do with our Hainan at all! Let them do it themselves. ”

Zhang Tong returned to his seat, took a sip of tea, and then said: "The Qing court will definitely see the mystery in this." However, why did they not hesitate to spend more than 3 million taels of silver to urgently dispatch nearly 200,000 elites from seven provinces to encircle and suppress? Among them is also the trump card of the Qing court, the Jiangnan New Army. Think about it, what is the meaning of this? ”

Li Chuang, commander of the Fourth Group Army, sat up straight, turned his head sideways and asked: "Since the Qing court knows that these peasant rebels are just a group of rabble, what is the meaning of spending such a big price to encircle and suppress them now?" ”

"That's a drunkard's intention, not wine! If you think about the thirteenth year of Guangxu, the Qing court saw that our Hainan was getting stronger and stronger, and it mobilized hundreds of thousands of elites from five provinces four times to encircle and suppress it. Since then, Hainan has been able to achieve peace and development for nearly 20 years. However, the strength of our Hainan has always been a major problem for the Qing court. This time, the Qing court sent heavy troops to Guangxi, which has a deep meaning, I think it must be to encircle and suppress my Hainan! ”

Chen Chuwang nodded and said, "Commander Zhang Tong's analysis is very good!" This time, the Qing court came to Guangxi in the name of encircling and suppressing the peasant rebel army in Guangxi, which was a great threat to our Hainan. ”

Xiao Yang was a little puzzled and said: "Is the prince too worried, even if the Qing court's encirclement and suppression of Guangxi this time is intended for our Hainan, but the strength of the Qing army is only more than 100,000 people, besides, there are more than 100,000 Guangxi peasant rebels blocking my north." Even if these peasant armies were scattered, they could consume nearly half of the Qing court's strength. Now, we have nearly 300,000 troops in Hainan and are well-armed and equipped, so what is there to worry about? ”

Chen Chuwang, the king of Hainan, looked at the map and said, "On the surface, this is the case. However, you see, we have the French army entrenched in Vietnam to the west, the British army in Tibet, the Portuguese and British fleets in the east, and the south side, and the British ships can land in our Hainan at any time. Recently, the military intelligence department submitted me information that these forces have changed on a certain scale. If this is the case, we in Hainan are completely surrounded by them, and we are in danger! ”