When Wang Bin was rectifying the north, the south did not settle down, and for the governor of the south, Wang Bin's existence was like a thorn, swallowed in his throat and could not go down. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Therefore, the plan of the Northern Expedition has always been supported by many people in the Southern Qing court.

These people are eager to be able to carry out the Northern Expedition immediately, defeat Wang Bin and regain the capital division.

However, there were various obstacles to this goal, the first of which was that the army had little combat effectiveness, and although the army maintained its allegiance to the Qing court after the purge, combat effectiveness became a major problem.

In addition, arms and military spending are also a serious problem, and Longyu did not expect that the Jingshi would fall when he went south, so the treasury of the household department was directly seized by Wang Bin.

caused the Qing court to lose a lot of money and silver, but fortunately, the tax revenue in the south this year has not been handed over to the national treasury, and the tax of 70 million taels has finally given the Qing court a little confidence.

If you don't even have the money to enrich the army, what a fart! Just surrender directly, so the more than 70 million taels of silver was stimulated by the Qing court allocated 20 million to arm the army.

As for the remaining 50 million taels of silver, of course, they were collected first.

Then the emperor and the queen mother were panicked, so they naturally wanted to hold a large banquet or something, comfort themselves, and then each minister shared some money to serve the royal family well.

So this money spent 10 million in a very short period of time, and if this kind of big money was left on Wang Bin, it would be better to buy more heavy machine guns and some artillery or something.

There would be such a waste there, but the Manchu Qing still did it, and after spending so much money with peace of mind, they remembered to expand the army to deal with Wang Bin's threat.

After the current Qing court moved south, there are finally some people who look a little farther away.

For example, after Duanfang, Zhou Fu, Ding Zhenduo and others got the military expenditure of 20 million taels, they have been personally responsible for the expenditure of this military expenditure to prevent someone from embezzling it.

Of course, the results were also very remarkable, and the 20 million taels of silver were all used to improve the food of the soldiers, increase artillery and ordnance, and of course, expand the army.

Half a year is enough for Duanfang and others to rebuild a decent new army, especially with the support of the Japanese and the British.

The British and Japanese provided low-cost arms, and also provided qualified instructors for Duanfang and others to train the army for free, at least for the time being, this army that seems to be not weak in combat ability finally gave the Southern Qing Dynasty a little confidence.

So the matter of the Northern Expedition was put back on the agenda.

Previously, in order to prevent Wang Bin from going south, the Qing court arranged a lot of troops, and now after half a year, the original somewhat unbearable army of the Southern Qing Dynasty has gradually expanded to the current twelve towns, which are called the twelve towns of the Nanyang Army and also known as the twelve towns of the Northern Expedition.

Half of the armies were all distributed in Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei, and Shaanxi, and these armies were arranged as the first line of defense, and then the second line of defense centered on the three towns of Wuhan was the military strength of the three towns.

At any time, a steady stream of troops could be transported from the rear to the front line through the Jinghan Railway, and for Duanfang and Zhou Fu, the opportunity for the Northern Expedition was already ripe.

"Brother Duan, at present, we have gathered the troops of seven towns in Liangjiang and Shaanxi, as well as the military strength of the three towns in Wuhan, and I am afraid that the Northern Expedition can be expected."

In Wuhan, Zhou Fu said to Duanfang, the governor of Liangjiang, in an extremely proud tone, that it was different from usual because the Manchus lost the north and now relied on many Hanchen in the south.

Now the status of these Hanchen has risen greatly, and the Manchu and Hanchen have to get along a lot.

After listening to Zhou Fu's words, Duan Fang, who was on the side, also smiled, in Duanfang's own opinion, now he has the military strength of the twelve towns, and the rear is still constantly training new troops, and Wang Bin is not too dangerous for the Qing court for the time being.

This army's combat ability can't beat you, so let's use numbers to win.

This kind of thinking was still relatively prevalent in the Manchu court, so the new army of the Manchu Qing Dynasty continued to reorganize and expand with the help of the Japanese.

And what gave Duanfang and others the most confidence was the navy in Nanyang.

Yes, it is the Nanyang Navy, the Beiyang Navy was directly scrapped by the Japanese before, although it was later replenished, but the combat effectiveness of the ships has only reached half of the past.

But Nanyang is different, the Nanyang Navy has never encountered any major blows, and the number of warships has always been full.

In particular, the Nanyang Navy has a lot of small river gunboats and small warships for coastal defense, which can greatly strengthen the army's support firepower.

"Brother Zhou is right, now Jiangsu and Anhui, the land of my two rivers, have already arranged the military strength of three towns, not to mention Hubei, there are four towns, and a town in Shaanxi, such a military force can be said to have surrounded Wang Bin's north."

After listening to Duanfang's words, Zhou Fu immediately continued: "Yes, judging from the map, Wang Bin's Henan is already under enemy on all sides, on the other hand, he Wang Bin has not made any reaction in the face of such a situation. ”

"Yes, what Brother Zhou said is reasonable, we have already arranged the military strength of eight towns on the territory close to Wang Bin, but this Wang Bin still maintains the military strength of four towns, and we are not afraid that our army will eat his Wang Bin's army."

In Duanfang's view, now the army on his side of the front line is twice that of Wang Bin, that is, two people fight you alone, is it possible to lose? Don't win too easily!

So the two chatted and chatted, and couldn't help but have the idea of attacking Henan and starting the Northern Expedition.

"Brother Zhou, since we have such an advantage on the front line, it is better to take advantage of Wang Bin's military strength in Henan that only has two towns, and go over and take Henan down directly in one fell swoop."

As soon as Duanfang's words came out, Zhou Fu was also a little moved this week, he had the military strength of eight towns on the previous line, and he could transport three towns in Wuhan to the front line at any time through the Jinghan Railway.

"Well, Brother Duan, we have to find a few more ministers first, let's join forces to make a secret performance, and then ask the Japanese to take this opportunity to teach our front-line troops more experience in war."

As soon as Duan Fang heard this, he immediately knew that Zhou Fu agreed with his opinion on the Northern Expedition, and immediately patted his thigh and said: "Okay, since Brother Zhou has already said so, then I will first contact a few ministers to ask the Queen Mother for the Northern Expedition, but Brother Zhou will have to worry about it." ”

At the end, Duan Fang had obviously a ridiculous tone, in Duanfang's opinion, this Henan was already in the palm of the imperial court.

"Haha, don't worry, Brother Duan, since the Northern Expedition is about to start, how can the old man drag the court back!" (To be continued.) )