It was Lu Liang's original intention to use public opinion to achieve the goal, but public opinion turned into a storm in a very short period of time, and it was difficult to completely control it. The call for sending troops became higher and higher, and the "Second Northern Expedition" became the hottest topic among the people.

It's just that now the preparations for the Northern Expedition have just begun, and it takes time to transfer troops from all over the country, to gather materials, to formulate plans, to make political contacts, to make follow-up arrangements, and so on. The Second Northern Expedition was no simpler than the first, and it was the last concentration of interests of the Great Powers in the Far East, which would never be easily abandoned, and it was even possible to send an army to obstruct it. It borders Russia to the north, and there are still a large number of Japanese and Russian troops in the northeast, and the Mongolian direction and the northwest direction need to divide the attention of the Chinese state.

In addition, China's internal transportation network is not perfect, the railway system and highway transportation system are in full swing construction, this kind of resource, manpower-intensive large-scale project needs time, can not be completed overnight. At present, the main capacity of the south is waterways, but it takes more time to build transport ships, that is to say, now the capacity has become a bottleneck restricting the development of the south, and it has become a constraint on military operations.

After the end of the Japanese operation, the large tracts of land acquired needed to be thinned out of transportation forces, and the supply army to Taiwan, Ryukyu, Jeju Island, and other places needed a large number of transport ships. Even if a large number of fishing boats, ferries, and sailing boats were collected, it was difficult to meet the needs of a large number of troops on the Northern Expedition. Therefore, Lü Liang instructed the General Staff to set the time for the Northern Expedition in May 1906, and now it is just February, and at most one division of troops can cross the Yangtze River, and no amount of logistical support can keep up.

The Northern Expedition of this division's troops was simply a lone army, once Yuan Shikai mobilized a large number of Beiyang Army to besiege it. The consequences are unimaginable. Therefore, now is not the time to send troops, in the face of surging public opinion, Lu Liang remembered a word - lift a stone and shoot himself in the foot!

However, whether from an emotional perspective or a practical point of view, the disaster relief operation in Henan must be carried out, and how to adjust the contradictions is a problem that Lu Liang needs to consider now. Since you can't use swords and soldiers. It is necessary to solve the problem through negotiation, this is the most hated thing for Lu Liang, and the contact negotiation in a roundabout way is not as good as talking with the barrel of a gun!

Facts have proved that Lu Liang is inseparable from the help of his pen and mouth, and he has 500,000 troops and a powerful Pacific Fleet, and in the end he has to rely on negotiations to persuade Yuan Shikai.

Therefore, in a small western-style building in Shanghai, after a week of bargaining, a regiment of troops and a huge amount of supplies of the Chinese army were able to enter Henan. As for the things that happened in Shanghai, let's continue later, let's take a look at the fate of Mr. Zhou Shuren and the Eagle Mountain Claw Bandits.

There is still about thirty miles from Fanjiabao to Xuchang, and according to the level of hunger, it is good to be able to arrive at noon. Especially the leader of Zhou Shuren, not only was he hungry, but he was also addicted to smoking, and he couldn't walk. I finally stopped the guards and walked by myself, how can I say that I am also a member of the Zhenguo Party. How can such a corrupt thing be done!

Along the way, there were refugees fleeing the famine, and the empty belly was blown down by the cold wind, easily blowing down the skinny man in his prime.

The group of people who were walking against the north wind suddenly saw a commotion in the refugee crowd, and many people began to move towards their side, as if something terrible had happened.

"Run, the horse bandits are coming!" Shouts rang out from the crowd. The commotion intensified, and the emaciated people burst out with startling energy and fled in all directions.

"Isn't it just a horse bandit, you need it?" Xiao Xu frowned and looked at Xiao Liu, among these people, Xiao Liu had the most experience in the rivers and lakes. That should explain this.

"Let's run quickly, the horse bandits at this time are unreasonable, usually have more money, even if they kill people, they will not affect too many people, but now it is different, you don't see that there is nothing worth robbing in the hands of the refugees, they will choose delicate children, young men and women, as food to eat, and even eat alive, hungry horse bandits can no longer be called people."

Everyone understands that these refugees run away when they see the horse bandits, which means that they have seen a lot of such situations, even if they are hungry, but the refugees still do not want to die in vain, and the escape from the famine shows that they pursue the hope of life, how can there be people who are willing to be killed for food?

The cries of children and the shouts of adults were mixed together, the flow of people dispersed without direction, and Zhou Shuren and others also ran with it, now is not the time to fight hard, who knows how many people and how many guns there are in those horse bandits? Xiao Liu, the tallest, glanced back, there were about 200 horse bandits, the front one was killing refugees and snatching meat, and the one behind was already lying on the ground eating meat and drinking blood, with a bloody face, and there was no trace of human beings at all.

Surrounded by the refugee brigade, the original direction of progress was north, but now it has turned back to the south, helplessly, Xiao Liu asked a few guards to protect Zhou Shuren and Xiao Xu, and he was anxious to look around, hoping to find a place to hide, leave the crowd, and avoid the attack of the horse bandits. After running for several miles, more and more of the physically exhausted refugees were left behind, and finally, the horse bandits stopped pursuing, and the group was safe for the time being, but looking around, it was impossible to figure out what place was here.

Now the group is in a small valley, and the refugees around them are slowly scattering, but they can't find the way they came, so they can only determine the direction according to the direction of the sun and the compass, and then slowly move north along the path in the valley, hoping to get out of this hilly area and find Xuchang and the organization there.

Fortunately, Xiao Liu still has a military map on him, and the direction will not be bad, but he doesn't know where he is now, and he can't pinpoint it. Fifteen minutes later, Zhou Shuren already had the urge to find grass roots below the ground, and even if an insect appeared, he could fill his stomach. The others weren't much better, and Liu even started to look into the ground and try to pull out the dead grass and dig up the roots.

"Brother, I seem to be asking a smell of meat, it's so fragrant!" Xiao Xu was a little hungry and confused, and his mouth was talking nonsense, Zhou Shuren looked up at him blankly, focused on finding the grassroots, and suddenly raised his head and was still a little dizzy.

"Don't think about it so much, the more you think about it, the hungrier you get!" Xiao Liu replied.

"Captain, I seem to smell it too!" Another guard said to Xiao Liu.

"Me too, it's not far ahead!"

"Yes, yes, it's not an illusion, it's real!" Several people can smell it in a row, which means that it is not an illusion, Xiao Liu and Zhou Shuren carefully arched their noses, it is true!

Seven people climbed up a small hill, and the smell came from the other side of the hill. Panting and lying on the top of the hillside, looking down, it was indeed meat, but not the imaginary pork and beef.

The sight was so disgraceful that several people threw up, even though there wasn't much in their stomachs to vomit. It was more than 200 horse bandits cooking human flesh, a dozen cauldrons were propped up, hungry horse bandits threw the spoils of war into the pot, the open space was full of blood and stumps, and some of the horse bandits were stirring on the young woman's body, they should have eaten raw meat and vented their exuberant energy on the booty.

"Big boss, there's someone over there!" Eagle Talon was enjoying a piece of bone when he heard his men shouting loudly, and following the direction of his finger, he did see six or seven people standing or lying on the top of the mountain.

"Little ones, there's food delivered to your door, come on!" Eagle Mountain Claw shouted, and many horse bandits immediately ran up the hillside.

"Smack!" A horse bandit entered a range of about fifty meters, was hit by Xiao Liu's shot, didn't run, no one said to run, no one ran, just climbed the hill and exhausted all his physical strength, even if he ran, he couldn't run away from the horse bandit who had just eaten human flesh!

"Report the ammunition!" knocked down several horse bandits one after another, and Xiao Liu shouted. "Ninety-five rounds and two grenades remaining", "Eighty-eight rounds of ammunition and two grenades", "One hundred and twenty rounds of ammunition and two grenades", "One hundred and ten rounds of ammunition and two grenades".

After listening to the report, Xiao Liu's confidence increased greatly, if it weren't for his physical exhaustion, with such firepower, he could even attack!

In the previous operation, there was no fighting except in the Fan family compound, so the ammunition was well stocked, and all the ammunition was carried with them and was not snatched.

The physical strength is exhausted, but the guards are supported by a will, and the horse bandits in front of them are not human beings at all, but animals, scars that must be eradicated and attached to the body of the country. This will force is strong, allowing the guards to hold back the recoil of their guns and precisely aim at each of the horse bandits who rush towards them.

Through the alternating use of firepower, five guards three in front and two in the back, ten Mauser pistols completely suppressed the crazy horse bandits, bullet casings continued to scatter aside, and soon the magazines of the two guns were finished, and the two behind continued to continue the firepower. (To be continued.) )