On the afternoon of the 18th, Yuan Shikai led everyone to Nanyuan, Beijing, the troops had already blocked the north, east and south gates of Beijing, leaving only the two west gates for people to enter and exit, and the troops did not launch a strong attack. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Wang Shizhen, chief of the general staff, welcomed Yuan Shikai and others into the barracks, and after arranging a temporary resting place, he asked anxiously: "My lord, when will the second town arrive?" When are we going to launch a general offensive? The officers and soldiers could not wait. ”

When Yuan Shikai saw Wang Shizhen say this, he knew that the officers and soldiers would definitely support his actions, and the military heart was available, so he laughed and said: "Hire Qing, you have become the chief of the general staff, and you can't hold your breath, this is not good." The second town will be able to reach Beijing tonight, and by tomorrow morning, it will be able to block the Guang'anmen Gate and Xibianmen in Xicheng and completely surround the city of Beijing. ”

Wang Shizhen continued to ask: "My lord, when will the general attack be launched?" I'm going to give you an explanation. ”

Yuan Shikai couldn't hold back his annoyance and said, "Hireqing, when did your temper become so urgent?" The 9 towns of the Frontier Special Zone have not yet arrived here, what are you anxious about? I don't have a time plan for launching a general offensive yet, and I still want to make Beijing the capital, so how can I let this place be destroyed by artillery fire? It doesn't cost anything to rebuild it in the future? Now we should encircle it well, and then decide whether to launch a general offensive after occupying the whole country. ”

Wang Shizhen thought to himself, if it is over, if the general offensive is not launched, the troops led by the chief of the general staff will have no combat merits, how can they raise their heads in front of the troops in the future?

Yuan Shikai ignored Wang Shizhen's thoughts and continued: "Hirqing, you are not only responsible for encircling Beijing, but also taking on the responsibilities of the chief of the general staff, how is Shaochen's troops progressing?" Where are the 9 towns sent by Shiba Quan now? What time does Huafu depart from Jiangnan? That's what you have to care about. ”

Wang Shizhen heard Yuan Shikai say this, smiled, hid his embarrassed expression, and then said, "My lord, I was about to report to you; The 9 towns of the Frontier Special Zone, can reach a town in Tianjin every day, it takes about 12 days or so to reach Tianjin, I plan to wait for the first town to arrive, then arrange for Hua Fu to set off first, Hua Fu's plan here is to take the Jinghan Railway from Beijing, go directly to Wuhan, first occupy Wuhan, and then go to occupy Changsha or Anqing or Nanjing, I ask to occupy the big cities and provincial capitals first, and then we have discussed the strategy before, declare independence, and coerce the Qing Dynasty. “

Yuan Shikai nodded and said, "Okay, just follow your plan, how is the progress on Shaochen's side?" “

Wang Shizhen continued: "Shaochen's troops are progressing more smoothly, this morning the governor of Liangguang Zhang Renjun has already sent a telegram, praising Shaochen's brother-in-law named Sun Chuanfang is a good material for being a soldier, leading three mixed associations, it only took one morning to occupy Guangzhou, and in the afternoon it has already set off to Changsha, if at this speed, Huafu has not crossed the Yangtze River, it is estimated that the south of the Yangtze River has been pacified. This morning, Shao Chen called that he had already surrounded Xiamen, Fuzhou, and Hangzhou, and that he would occupy all those places by tomorrow at the latest, and then he would continue to attack Suzhou, Nanjing, Nanchang, and other places. ”

Yuan Shikai felt puzzled that the new army in Guangzhou was also trained with the help of the Xia Empire, and how could its combat effectiveness not be as good as the mixed association trained by his own son-in-law in the Peninsula Special Administrative Region, so he asked: "How big is the difference between the combat effectiveness of our Beiyang New Army and the 10 mixed associations trained by the Peninsula Special Administrative Region?" ”

Wang Shizhen said with a sad face: "My lord, this gap is big, I won't tell you, I have communicated with Zhiquan before, and their 1 mixed association can easily defeat the new army of our 1 town, if it is a positional defensive battle, at least it can block the attack of our 3 towns, and now the Xia Empire has given them new equipment, and it is estimated that the combat effectiveness will at least double." ”

Yuan Shikai gasped and hurriedly asked, "Hireqing, what you said is true?" How can the gap be so big? ”

Wang Shizhen continued: "My lord, I also heard Zhiquan occasionally mention that the Xia Empire originally wanted to reorganize the 10 mixed associations into their garrisons, but later felt that our strength was too weak and we didn't have the strength to easily occupy the whole country, so we didn't adapt them for the time being, and they definitely wanted to reorganize these 10 mixed associations into their garrisons in the future." From training to weapons and equipment, it is not comparable to our Beiyang New Army. They helped us train the army, but they didn't show real skills, I consulted their instructors, they said that our soldiers' diet can't keep up, and there is no way to further train their physical fitness, and I don't know if they can cope with me, I asked Zhiquan, but Zhiquan said that the soldiers of the Xia Empire never tell lies, and they didn't give me a positive answer. ”

Yuan Shikai thought to himself, how strong is the strength of this Xia Empire, the Mixed Association is already very powerful, it is not even up to the level of the garrison army in them, and there are also the national defense forces and the Praetorian Guards with stronger combat effectiveness, it seems that it is better to be careful when getting along with the Xia Empire in the future. If all the 10 officers and men of the mixed association stayed, it would be a great help for themselves, so he asked: "How can we let the troops we pay for training be pulled away?" Is there a way to keep this force? ”

Wang Shizhen said with a wry smile: "My lord, all the family members of the Mixed Association have been placed in the Peninsula Special Economic Zone, and we can't provide them with food and drink, and the combat effectiveness of the troops needs financial support. ”

Yuan Shikai thought very much, it would be good to be able to leave half of it, so he reorganized the group of people who stayed behind into the Praetorian Guard, and was specifically responsible for guarding Beijing in the future.

In the following five days, Wang Yingkai's 10 mixed associations occupied most of the area south of the Yangtze River, leaving only Wuhan, Anqing, Nanjing, and northern Jiangsu to Feng Guozhang to occupy, otherwise it would be regarded as not giving face to the Minister of War.

After landing at the mouth of the Pearl River, under the arrangement of the governor Zhang Renjun, the new army and the patrol battalion of Guangzhou stayed in the barracks, and there was no conflict, Sun Chuanfang just sent troops to occupy the political envoy Yamen, the Yamen of the inspection envoy and the general Yamen of Guangzhou, etc., and then left a Liu Cunhou mixed association to garrison Guangzhou, and he and Yan Xishan set off to Changsha.

With the assistance of Governor Zhang Renjun, a mixed association can ensure the safety of Guangzhou; Under Zhang Renjun's maneuvering, the Guangzhou New Army announced that it was willing to obey the dispatch of Lord Yuan, and Sun Chuanfang asked them to assist Liu Cunhou in organizing the Association to maintain law and order in Guangzhou; As for the patrol battalion, as long as they don't make trouble, I believe that in the situation where Yuan Shikai's forces swept the whole country, they don't have the courage.

Under the leadership of Sun Chuanfang and Yan Xishan, the two mixed associations quickly marched into Hunan, and Huang Zhonghao, the commander of the patrol battalion, quickly fled to the countryside after learning the news, making the patrol battalion leaderless and quickly disarmed by the mixed association; 51 teams of green battalion soldiers, as long as 2 teams and Sun Chuanfang's troops had a fierce battle, in order to play the role of killing chickens and monkeys, Sun Chuanfang ordered the rebels to be killed, and finally the 2 teams of green battalions were all wiped out, and the remaining 49 teams were all obediently disarmed; For the patrol battalions in Yongzhou, Changde and other places, they did not take care of it for the time being, and the key was to occupy Changsha first.

As for the new army, Changsha has only one standard, no matter what, Changsha can not be held, governor Yang Wending fell the 25th standard of the new army and retreated to Yueyang, Sun Chuanfang successfully occupied Changsha, after stabilizing the situation in Changsha, ordered Yan Xishan to lead a mixed association of officers and soldiers to the north to occupy Yueyang, Changde and other places.

Wang Yingkai, who stayed in Suzhou, looked at the telegram sent from Fuzhou, his angry face was a little distorted, Sun Daoren of the 11th Town led the troops to block, causing a lot of casualties to the three mixed associations, losing nearly 1,500 officers and soldiers, more than the number of people lost in the entire Jiangnan, I really underestimated him; Wu Peifu, this kid is Leng Touqing, he knows that he must be repaired well next time, and the superior artillery is not used, and he actually let the infantry charge, what a fucking loser, fortunately, Sun Daoren was killed in the end, and the remaining new army chose to surrender after heavy losses; If it weren't for the loss of so many officers and soldiers in the Battle of Fuzhou, the occupation of Jiangnan this time would have been perfect.

On November 26, Feng Guozhang captured Wusheng Pass, successfully occupied the three districts of Wuhan, and then sent troops down the river to occupy Anqing and Nanjing, and then the troops occupied northern Jiangsu and other places in a roundabout way, which was regarded as a successful completion of the predetermined strategic goal.

Zhang Zuolin and Zhang Zuoxiang, who also went south with the troops this time, are already co-unification and are full of confidence in future development.

Zhang Zuolin's troops were responsible for capturing Wusheng Pass, but only fired a few shots at the Qing soldiers on the pass, resulting in heavy casualties among them, and frightened the defending officers to abandon the city and flee, and the lowly soldiers saw that the officials had run away, so they dispersed in a hurry, and the remaining Qing soldiers who did not run obediently opened the city gate and let the Beiyang New Army enter; made Zhang Zuolin get the first combat exploit of the southbound troops.

Zhang Zuolin said to Zhang Zuoxiang: "I heard that your troops went directly into the city, and there was no battle?" ”

Zhang Zuoxiang said angrily: "Who are you listening to, damn it, the combat effectiveness of the Hubei New Army is not bad, our association fought against the 9th town of Hubei, and suffered a big loss in the first charge, and finally relied on the advantage of artillery to achieve victory, and the entire association lost many people, and I was distressed to death." ”

Zhang Zuolin gloated and said: "Yes, I have lost such a small number of people, but I heard that one of Feng Yuxiang's bids met the 21st Mixed Association in Hubei, and even half of the people were beaten, you are lucky." ”

Zhang Zuoxiang sighed and said: "Careless, this time we are careless, we are too underestimate the opponent; Minister Feng finally sent 1 town to defeat the 21st Mixed Association; If we had paid so much attention to the Hubei New Army from the beginning, we would not have suffered such a big loss. ”

Zhang Zuolin pouted and said: "This is still Zhang Biao's kid who escaped in advance, otherwise the loss will be greater; Now that the world is full of adults, I really don't know where this kid can run? ”

Zhang Zuoxiang looked at Zhang Zuolin's happy and slightly distorted face and said: "This time, you took advantage, and it was the green battalion soldiers who were fighting, so I wondered, how to arrange those straw bales to be stationed in such an important place as Wusheng Pass?" If the 9th Town or the 21st Mixed Association were to be stationed at Wusheng Pass, we might still be drinking the northwest wind outside the pass now. But you don't have to gloat, I guess Minister Feng will send your town to occupy Anqing or Nanjing, where the walls are high and the city is thick, so let everyone see your true level. ”

Zhang Zuolin said disapprerovingly: "It is estimated that the new army in those two places is not yet full, and the combat effectiveness is not comparable to the Wuhan New Army. ”

As of November 29, the 8th town conquered Tongguan and successfully entered Xi'an.

So far, Yuan Shikai's forces have successfully occupied all provinces across the country. (To be continued.) )