The news that the Sichuan army sent troops to Yichang to confront the warships soon spread, and in the boiling news of various wars and turmoil, it seemed very abrupt, and the major forces reacted differently, some were shocked and worried, some praised, and more ignored and numb.

Li Tiancai, the Jingxiang town guard who secretly took refuge in the southern national political axe, occupied the western Hubei region and announced the Yizhi Revolution, was undoubtedly the most shocked, and at the same time, he could not understand the actions of the Sichuan army.

The Yichang garrison that was expelled by the Sichuan army was a mixed brigade of the Hubei army under Li Tiancai.

The two brigades of the Sichuan army that reached Yichang, with strong troops and fierce offensive, captured the county seat and the surrounding towns in only three hours, but did not kill innocents indiscriminately, nor did they exterminate the two regiments of Hubei troops who escaped and were captured, in addition to detaining the defenders' only four old-fashioned artillery pieces and seven light and heavy machine guns, the Sichuan army immediately released 3,000 prisoners, each of whom was issued three oceans, and then expelled them from the country, and the captured officers could also keep their own guns.

When Xiao Yimin, the commander-in-chief of the Sichuan Army, arrived in Yichang, he said that all the 3,000 Hubei troops who had been driven out of Yichang returned to Xiangyang, which made Li Tiancai sad and joyful. The surprise was that more than 3,800 of the 4,000 brothers of the mixed brigade returned, and the entire organization was able to survive, which made Li Tiancai and his generals secretly call luck, and they successively realized that the menacing Sichuan army did not mean to kill them all.

The 6th Beiyang Mixed Brigade, which was ordered to attack Li Tiancai's rebels, arrived in Xiaogan, and the news came that the Sichuan army had defeated Li Tiancai's rebels and occupied Yichang, and the brigade commander Wu Peifu and Hubei overseer Wang Zhanyuan were also shocked.

Although all the counterinsurgency armies knew that the Sichuan army was also an important force ordered to counterinsurgency in the crusade order issued by Prime Minister and Army Chief Duan Qirui, no one expected that the Sichuan army would come so quickly and the rebels would be so unbeatable.

In the two years since Wang Zhanyuan served as the overseer of Hubei, he had never really controlled the wealthy Yichang, which is why Wang Zhanyuan quickly sent a brigade to attack Yichang after receiving Duan Qirui's order, but the Sichuan army came too quickly, not only defeating the Yichang rebels, but also occupying Yichang in one fell swoop before all the crusading armies.

What's even worse is that the Sichuan army finally confronted the powerful warship Yuben, and it is very likely that a military conflict will occur, which will cause an uncontrollable disaster.

Wang Zhanyuan was surprised and surprised by this result, but he was not too frustrated about not being able to occupy Yichang, the three towns of Wuhan and the eastern and southern Hubei regions that were rich in taxes were the areas that Wang Zhanyuan had to ensure, and with Wang Zhanyuan's current only one division and two local garrison brigades, it was already very reluctant to control most of Hubei, and if Yichang was divided again, it would be overstretched.

Therefore, Wang Zhanyuan felt that there was no need to send troops to Yichang full of hidden dangers to entangle, and there was no need to have a dirty relationship with the powerful Sichuan army, the young and domineering commander-in-chief of the Sichuan army was not a good type, even if he couldn't become a friend, it was best to stay away from him, Yichang was always under the jurisdiction of Hubei, and after a period of calm, it was not too late to ask the Sichuan army to return Yichang through the central political axe.

Only Wu Peifu, the commander of the Sixth Mixed Brigade who had to stop in Xiaogan, saw the true face of the Sichuan army, Wu Peifu was shocked, lamented repeatedly, and finally worriedly explained to the ignorant regiment commander under his command:

"The Sichuan army took the opportunity of counterinsurgency to move eastward to occupy Yichang, it is definitely a huge conspiracy that has been prepared for a long time, Xiao Yimin, commander-in-chief of the Sichuan army, is a fierce tiger, it is not terrible to shrink into a corner of Bashu, and now the tiger is out of the box, unstoppable, I am afraid that the situation in the country will be more variable...... Brother Zhiquan is confused! ”

For Sun Yat-sen and the revolutionary army, who were determined to go on the Northern Expedition and were preparing for war in full swing, the greatest revolutionary force in the whole of Hubei was undoubtedly Li Tiancai, a general of the Hubei army who had just joined the revolution, and his two infantry brigades.

Originally, Sun Yat-sen expected Zhang Fang's troops to be entrenched in southern Henan and Li Tiancai's troops occupying Jingxiang Yichang to echo each other, so as to contain the large number of troops of the Beiyang army, so that the revolutionary army could launch the Northern Expedition from Fujian in the east and Hunan and Jiangxi in the west.

The Jingxiang area occupied by the Hubei Revolutionary Army was under the attack of the Sichuan Army and the Beiyang Army, and Zhang Fu, who was so frightened that Zhang Fu in southern Henan sent two telegrams to Sun Yat-sen in a row, and his troops nominally drove to the Hubei-Henan border to wait for instructions, but it seemed that they would not go south to Jingxiang again.

After a day and a night of fierce discussions, the base camp of the Guangzhou Revolutionary Army finally found that China's third military and political force has risen unstoppably, and many people have put the old yellow calendar of the Three Kingdoms on their lips, but Cao Ying, who represents the Beiyang forces, is extremely powerful, and the Sichuan army, which represents Liu Huangshu, has also sprung up, but the southern national political axe does not have the capital of Sun Quan in Jiangdong.

In the midst of lamentation, Sun Yat-sen finally made an important decision, and once again sent Yang Shukan, a revolutionary veteran from Sichuan, and Dan Xiexin to Shanghai by boat, and then rushed from Shanghai to Sichuan, striving to reach cooperation with Xiao Yimin, the general leader of the third-party forces.

Regardless of the reaction from the outside world, the Sichuan military and political authorities are still following their own steps, and Sichuan Governor Zhang Lan and Bashu celebrity Zou Wenhan have quietly gone to Changsha to visit Tan Yanhong, a Hunan overseer and a celebrity in the cultural circles, who had just been removed from his post by the Beiyang political axe but had not yet been handed over.

Except for a few local warlords in Hunan who paid close attention to this matter, there was not even the slightest sound from other provinces, and the well-informed Hunan industrial and commercial circles called the visit of the Sichuan political axe delegation an important exchange between the two provinces in terms of industry, commerce, and even overall economic development, and the economic and trade ties and cooperation between Sichuan and Hunan provinces have since made a breakthrough, which is of great significance to the people's livelihood of the two provinces.

No one realized that this was the first outreach since the establishment of the Sichuan military and political authorities, and Zhang Lan and his entourage left Sichuan almost in the footsteps of the Sichuan army to occupy Yichang, thus taking the first step for the local political parties in Sichuan to move towards the whole country.

Xiao Yimin, commander-in-chief of the Sichuan Army, who was in charge of the military and political affairs, also behaved unusually in Yichang; in the afternoon of the same day, he met with the panicked Yichang County Magistrate Huang Xufu, the representative of Qianzhuang Zhou Hengxing, and the representative of the newspaper Mu Zibin, sincerely explained the reasons for the Sichuan Army to send troops to Yichang, listened to the opinions of the three people, and finally promised that the officers and men of the Sichuan army would strictly abide by military discipline, do their best to safeguard the safety of the lives and property of the people in Yichang and the surrounding towns and towns, and cooperate with the Yichang government and all sectors of society to restore the order of production and life. Assist the political axe to establish its own police force, except for ensuring the safety and defense of the Yangtze River section of Yichang and the collection of taxes for military spending, it will never grossly interfere with local civil affairs.

In the evening, in the name of the commander-in-chief of the Sichuan Army, Xiao Yimin hosted a high-profile banquet for more than 100 representatives of the Yichang Chamber of Commerce and celebrities from all walks of life.

"I've heard of Yichang's wealth before, but I didn't expect this wealth to far exceed my estimate, everyone, please see, these more than 50 red envelopes containing silver bills and cash checks from banks in various countries, as well as a plate of silver dollars that can't be piled up on the table, just now my staff officers counted it, and the meeting gift you gave me Xiao was as high as more than 218,000 yuan!"

There was a sound of chopsticks falling to the ground, and then the audience was silent, and the eyes were either frightened, or confused or even implied with anger, staring at the personable Xiao Yimin on the stage, the county magistrate and the representative of Qianzhuang, who had just met Xiao Yimin in the afternoon, were already scared into a cold sweat, and everyone was in one thought at this time: It's over, it's less, the boss of the Sichuan army is going to be angry!

Xiao Yimin put down the red envelope in his hand, took off his hat, stroked his neatly trimmed head, and seemed to hesitate for a moment before continuing:

"Ladies and gentlemen, among you are politicians, celebrities in the education circles, industrial and commercial owners, and representatives of various civil society organizations in Yichang, it can be said that you can fully represent the public opinion of the entire Yichang, and the reason why I hurriedly invited you today is nothing more than to take this opportunity to meet with you, nothing more than to hear your real thoughts, but no matter how I go to the table, no matter how I ask everyone about the current situation in Yichang, everyone trembles and does not answer, and even talks about him left and right, which makes me sad.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is no longer the era of tyranny of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and everyone here, including many erudite and respected elders, has already cut off their long braids, don't you even have the courage to tell two words of truth?"

The expressions of more than 200 people in the audience changed suddenly, and their faces were full of complicated colors.

Xiao Yimin sighed slightly: "Although I only arrived in Yichang today, but I am very clear about the current situation of Yichang, which is connected to the mountains and rivers of Sichuan, I know that since the first year of the Republic of China, Yichang has been exploited by various armies who come and go, I know that the fathers and villagers of Yichang, including all of you here, need to hand over to the warlords three times the tax of the province every year, except for some agricultural taxes and commercial taxes collected by the political axe according to law, the rest are all kinds of taxes and taxes that are cleverly established, and the heavy taxes have weighed down the fathers and villagers of Yichang!

"Ladies and gentlemen, you are all cultural people, Sichuan's newspapers have been circulating in Yichang, and there are fewer businessmen and students from Sichuan who come to Yichang and pass through Yichang every year? But so far, I have only heard you praise the bravery of the officers and men of our Sichuan army, praise the officers and men of our army for their fair trading, do not bully the common people, and praise the officers and men of our army for their excellent weapons and equipment, but I have not heard you praise the political axes at all levels in Sichuan, why is this? ”

Xiao Yimin stopped, stabilized his excitement, and pointed to the red envelopes and trays on the table again:

"This 218,000 yuan is a huge amount of money, I can buy weapons and ammunition for a reinforced battalion, I can build 50 western-style buildings covering an area of three acres and two stories high, and I can buy three warships of the kind of warships of our Sichuan Army and River Defense Force, and now I want to tell you where this money will be used

"When I entered the city, I saw that the school building of Yichang Public High School was very old, the street at the entrance was full of stagnant water and garbage, and the open-air market opposite the middle school was full of messy straw huts and wooden houses, and there was dog feces and horse manure everywhere, which smelled bad, so I wanted to use the money in these two places

"I would like to entrust the county magistrate of Huang County to come forward to gather craftsmen to rebuild Yichang Middle School and Bazaar, using the best technology and the best materials, of which cement and steel are provided by our Sichuan army, which must be completed and put into use before the end of August! After my words, if you have anything to say to me, please go to the camp in the city to find me, and I will stay in Yichang for the next few days. ”

After Xiao Yimin finished speaking, he put on his military hat and turned to leave, a group of generals and guards also left, the wide hall was lonely and silent, and more than 100 local Mingliu were shocked and looked at each other, and soon after, bursts of cheers and noises suddenly broke out.

(To be continued)