107931908 Far East Maniac Chapter 312 on the Xiping outpost

Biping is located in the north of Runing Province in southern Henan. A few miles to the north. On the ground of Xuzhou Mansion in Sichuan Maoxiao, because the Jinghan Railway passes through Xiping, it is also a strategic place on the Jinghan Line.

Xiping was originally an obscure town. Although it is the traffic channel in southern Henan since ancient times, but it is still mainly agriculture here, cotton, wheat is the main crop here, after the Jinghan Railway is completed and opened to traffic, the north-south traffic is more convenient, and the cotton of Xiping is also sold smoothly, in recent years, the people who grow cotton in Xiping are more and more, so that the grain is not enough for local self-use, and a large amount of grain needs to be purchased from other places, and these grains are also transported to Xiping by train.

Xiping Railway Station is the most popular place in the area. Like other cities, Xiping Railway Station is located outside the city, and a new town has formed around the station because it was originally a small village. With sesame seeds and oil extraction as the main livelihood, there are several oil mills in the village, so this new town is called Youfang Town.

In the past, merchants came and went in the town of Youfang. Carriages loaded with all kinds of goods between the station and Xiping County, although not as prosperous as Zhengzhou, Hankou and other important trade towns, but in this poor countryside in southern Henan, can be regarded as a first-class town, not to mention the south of the past more than 200 miles is Xinyang, where is the distribution center of native goods and foreign goods in southern Henan, Xiping is more or less stained with some light, and there are so many hundred businesses outside the city.

But now, there is a depressed scene outside the city of Xiping, not only the merchants who come and go are almost invisible, but even the small merchants and hawkers are basically extinct. The horse-drawn carriages and mule carts that traveled between the city and the railway station also lost business.

Xiping has become a military city since half a month ago, and troops from all sides have entered Youfang Town one after another, and some troops have also marched into the city to surround the railway station. Several large barracks were erected, and soldiers in military uniforms and carrying large guns could be seen everywhere inside and outside the city, and they had the same nickname:

"Revolutionary armed forces of the United Front."

In the past, Xiping was also garrisoned by revolutionary troops. However, the unit at that time was called the "Hubei Military Government's Northern Expedition Advance Army", and although it was under the sign of "Hubei Military Government", most of the officers and soldiers in the army were indeed native of Henan. It is spoken in Henan dialect, and it is eaten in Henan cuisine, which is no different from the people of Xiping.

But now, with the arrival of the Southern Revolutionary Army, the Henan accent began to be mixed with Hubei dialect and Hunan dialect, and they also disdained the noodles that Henan people loved, and they loved rice more.

As soon as there were many troops, the people in this place became a little frightened, for fear of being bullied by soldiers from other places, and some clever people had sent their young women to other places to join relatives and friends, and small merchants and vendors also packed up their stalls one after another, and watched the movements, but facts proved that the people's worries were superfluous. The arrival of these foreign revolutionary armies not only did not increase the chaos of the social order, but on the contrary made the social order more stable, because they were all under the command of the republican army, and naturally they had to abide by the military discipline of the republican army, and the big leader of the republican army was Zhao Zhenhua of Zhaobei, who was worshiped by the people of Henan, and the revolutionary army that had been stationed in Xinyang for the first half of the year was his unit, and the military discipline was also the same

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As a result, the small merchants and hawkers in Xiping County immediately resumed business, and the people who sent young women to other places also took their daughters-in-law and daughters back to Xiping one after another. continue to live their bland and closed lives.

However, the previous calm cannot be restored for the time being. Because the Beiyang Army is also advancing towards Xiping County. According to the news from the foreign businessmen stranded in Xiping, the revolutionary party in the south is now in trouble with President Yuan Da in the north, and both sides have torn their faces over a matter of "Congress," and they are both mobilizing their troops to start a fight. And it is said that this battle is much bigger than the original battle with the Manchu court officials and soldiers, if it were not for the lack of buses, Xiping's foreign merchants would have run out long ago, because the Beiyang Army was along the Jinghan line to the south, this Xiping stationed so many southern revolutionary troops, I am afraid that this is the battlefield.

And so it goes. And the people were terrified. So the daughters-in-law and daughters of each family were sent to other places, and some large families even moved their families out, not wanting to do this road down, and the harvest year of Xiping suddenly appeared only in the famine year of the fleeing crowd.

The people don't know why there is another war between the north and the south, doesn't it mean that the republic is over, and the world will be peaceful? What is that "Congress"? I heard that I learned it from foreign foreigners, but are all foreigners' things good? Don't say anything else. That big smoking gun is not a good thing, for that thing, I don't know how many solid people have become broken households, and I don't know how many strong young people have become down. Nowadays, the people have to cheer up the things that are related to the word "foreign".

It is better to be a peace dog than to be a chaotic person.

Now these Dao, seeing that it is the "troubled times" mentioned in the history books, it seems that no one can count on it. The people can only ask for more blessings for themselves.

The people have the minds of the people, and the soldiers also have the minds of the soldiers, and it is the duty of the soldiers to obey military orders. Since this Xiping has been determined by the General Headquarters of the United Front as the first line of defense to block the southward advance of the Beiyang Army, then the soldiers have to be nailed here, and as for whether they can defend it or not, it is not something they can talk about casually.

Xiping is the outpost of the Henan battlefield of the United Front.

As the newly appointed commander of the Xiping City Defense. Jiang Zuobin has been very worried for the past two days, not because he is not sure about holding the Xiping defensive line, but because of the unity of command of the united front troops under his command.

In addition to an infantry brigade of Jiang Zuobin's 16th Division, there was also an infantry regiment and a cavalry battalion of the former Republican Army stationed in Xinyang.

These more than 15,000 people are all the forces that Jiang Zuobin can use, but this force is formed by several different revolutionary forces, the Republican Army, the Communist Advancement Association, the Endeavor Association, and some scattered revolutionary armed forces in southern Henan, although they have all announced that they have joined the united front, but it is not easy to turn them into a strong and powerful fighting force in a short period of time, moreover, because most of the troops sent by the Endeavor Society to Xiping to garrison are the units of the Western Henan People's Army, which are relatively banditry and are used to being free and loose, it is difficult for Jiang Zuobin to command them. They can only rely on their leaders to enforce their bonds.

The leader of the People's Army in western Henan is Wang Tianzong, he is a member of the League, this person is a native of Song County, western Henan, a few years ago in the mountains and forests of Yangshan, under the banner of "robbing the rich and helping the poor", roaring in western Henan, and later was defeated by the Qing court, fled to Shanghai, where he joined the League, after the outbreak of the "Wushen Revolution", he immediately returned to western Henan, ready to rise up again, in Yangshan, he was promoted by Henan webbed generals, green forest heroes as "old shelf" to form the "Western Henan Han Army" officially carried the banner of the anti-Qing revolution, Later, he led the people's army to the southeast and entered Nanyang Province, where he was stationed for a period of time and then accepted the reorganization of the Endeavor Association, and was appointed as the "commander of the South Road." ”

Wang Tianzong's troops numbered more than 10,000 people, and this time he was ordered to assist in the defense of Xiping, and he only brought 4,000 people. The other troops either stayed in Nanyang or were stationed in various parts of southern Henan, since the Endeavor Society marched into Shaanxi, most of the Endeavor troops in southern Henan were armed with green forests like Wang Tianzong, so they had no confidence to confront the Beiyang Army head-on, and could only rely on the Southern Revolutionary Army dominated by the Republican Army.

For Jiang Zuobin, Wang Tianzong admires him very much. Although he was born in the green forest, he also knew that people who had studied military affairs and those who had not studied military affairs were the difference between heaven and earth in war, so if Jiang Zuobin had any orders, Wang Tianzong would definitely resolutely carry them out.

But theory is theory after all, the actual situation is much more complicated, Wang Tianzong is certainly the "old shelf" recommended by the generals, and is the supreme leader of many green forest heroes, but Wang Tianzong alone cannot unite so many green forest heroes, he must rely on those middle-level leaders to control the troops, and for these people, blind orders are not enough, and they must also be encircled.

In the past, Endeavor would use official positions and Lilu to envelop these green forest figures, which was very effective, but it was also easy to be imitated, and this imitator was Yuan Shikai.

Since the military confrontation between the powerful factions in the north and the south began because of the congressional election, Yuan Shikai on the one hand sent the Beiyang Army to march south on a large scale to exert military pressure on the south, and on the other hand, he also wantonly peddled official hats, and through newspapers, telegrams, and other means, he won over the leaders of the people's army in Henan, especially in southern and western Henan, and Yuan Shikai's requirements were not high, as long as these leaders of the people's army in southern and western Henan remained neutral, maintained local order, and did not "make trouble" for the Beiyang Army when the Beiyang Army "went south." Once the Beiyang Army was completed"Drills." Then, these "well-behaved" leaders of the People's Army can be county magistrates and governors. And the troops can also get weapons and ammunition from the Beiyang Army.

In this way, the big leaders under Mei Tianzong turned their minds, and they disobeyed Wang Tianzong's orders and disobeyed them half-heartedly. As for Jiang Zuobin's order, these people can completely ignore it. Wang Tianzong's direct subordinates are still like this, not to mention those Green Forest teams that are not under his direct command.

And this is the main reason why Jiang Zuobin is worried.

In addition to this main reason, there is also a secondary reason, that is, the southern advance of the Beiyang Army has stopped, and the main forces of the Beiyang Ninth Division and the Third Division have moved their troops after they have gone out to Linying, Xuzhou Prefecture, and Xihua, Chenzhou Prefecture.

But they really didn't move on.

Intelligence from the General Staff in Xinyang indicated that the Beiyang Army had suddenly stopped its southward advance. He received an order from Yuan Shikai, and the reason why Yuan Shikai issued this order was ostensibly to negotiate with the south and make a final effort for peace between the north and the south, but in fact, the General Staff judged that Yuan Shikai wanted to take this opportunity to adjust the deployment of the Beiyang Army in Henan and Anhui in preparation for a large-scale attack on Hubei.

Therefore, the reason why the 3rd and 9th Beiyang Divisions stopped advancing was most likely just to wait for reinforcements to arrive.

The new order given to Chiang Zuobin by the General Staff was simple: take the initiative to launch a tentative attack on the main force of the Beiyang Army, and then lure it to the south to complete the original battle plan.

After receiving the order, Jiang Zuobin immediately took action, not only sending troops to repel the forward troops of the 3rd and 9th Divisions, but also sending a cavalry company to Gaoqiao Town in the south of Xuzhou Prefecture and destroying the cable telegraph office there.

However, this action did not cause a reaction from the Beiyang 9th Division, and Wu Peihu still restrained the troops. There doesn't seem to be a rush at all.

Jiang Zuobin was in a hurry, if he couldn't lure the 3rd and 9th Beiyang Divisions to the south. Then the "pocket array" combat plan drawn up by the General Staff could not be implemented, and his task could not be completed.

This is another reason why Jiang Zuobin is worried.