On 10 September, more than 300,000 main troops of the six regiments of the Dragon and Tiger Army, 5,000 special forces of the Special Operations Brigade, 2,500 Janissaries of the Dragon and Tiger Guards, plus more than 90,000 people of the Baggage Corps, the Engineering Corps, and the Logistics Corps, totaling 400,000 troops, set out from Yanjing under the leadership of Wang Jundao and opened the prelude to the conquest of Shanxi.

The reason why Wang Jundao chose to personally lead the troops to the battle was that he wanted to deepen his status and influence in the hearts of the soldiers through war, and increase the loyalty of officers and soldiers at all levels to him.

Second, I am not worried about a few army commanders leading the troops alone, not because I am not worried about their loyalty, but because I am not worried about their ability, after all, this war used more than 300,000 main forces, not ordinary people can command them.

None of these corps commanders and deputy corps commanders under Wang Jundao had commanded such a big war, even if their abilities and potentials were enough to compete, but they had no experience, so he decided to personally lead the troops, as long as they went through this big battle, they could rest assured that the commanders of the legions would be able to command the large army in the future.

At noon on September 11, the vanguard of the Dragon and Tiger Army, composed of 9,000 cavalry and 1,000 elite special forces, composed of cavalry regiments under six regiments, totaling more than 10,000 people, arrived in Zhangjiakou first and joined the first division of the tiger and leopard division stationed in Zhangjiakou.

On the morning of September 13, the main forces of the Dragon and Tiger Army all rushed to Zhangjiakou, and at noon on the same day, the "Imperial Daily" controlled by the military hall and the "Zhonghua Daily" controlled by the cabinet both published the major events of the Dragon and Tiger Army's conquest of Shanxi. Local officials in Yanjing, Shandong, and Henan provinces publicized the righteous and correct surnames of this war through various channels.

For a time, officials and nobles, businessmen and wealthy people, peddlers, pawns, workers and peasants all went to the donation points established by the local political axes of the Chinese Empire to donate money and materials to support the front-line soldiers and support the reunification of China.

Young students and people of insight from all over the country, driven by the political axe personnel, enthusiastically signed up one after another, actively responded to the call of the Chinese Imperial political axe, and enthusiastically joined the army and politics.

In Shanxi, since the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Coalition last year, Cixi ordered the troops of various provinces to enter Beijing, and Shanxi is one of the few provinces that have complied with the order and sent troops into Beijing.

In order to win Cixi's award, Yuxian, the governor of Shanxi, who was extremely loyal to the Manchu Empire, sent 10,000 elite soldiers of Shanxi, more than one-third of which died under the guns of the Eight-Nation Alliance during the defense of Yanjing, and the rest were absorbed by Wang Jundao after Wang Jundao entered Yanjing, so they were not returned to Shanxi at all.

More than half a year ago, Yuxian purged the military and political officials in Shanxi, and resolutely decided to read the power and no longer pay attention to Yanjing's orders, so he began to form the Jin army based on the original Shanxi army.

In a few months, Yuxian turned Shanxi's original 30,000 standing troops into 100,000 Jin troops, and with the patrol battalion troops in various parts of Shanxi, he already had a full 150,000 usable troops.

It's a pity that because the time is too short, and there is a lack of thermal weapons, a lack of new military training, the good and bad troops, and the combat effectiveness is not satisfactory, so when Wang Jundao announced the fall of the Manchu Qing Dynasty more than a month ago, he only announced that he did not recognize the political axe of the Chinese Empire, and did not lead the troops to crusade.

However, in the past month, after learning of Wang Jundao's strong military strength when he held a military parade in Yanjing, Yuxian urgently recruited 30,000 new soldiers from all over Shanxi under the panic, so that his standing army had a full 130,000, plus the patrol troops that were increasing one after another in various places, he had 200,000 Jin troops.

Since the beginning of the year, Wang Jundao has deliberately restricted the commercial trade between the three provinces of Zhili, Shandong, and Henan and the Jin merchants, which is equivalent to being imprisoned in the economy of Shanxi, and the economic, commercial, and industrial capacity has seriously declined.

Especially in the past month or so, the Jin army has increased by 50,000, and the 200,000 Jin army has almost 'sucked Yuxian dry', if it were not for Li Tingxiao to mobilize some rich merchants, squires, and celebrities to support him, I am afraid that Shanxi's finances have been bankrupt because of these 200,000 troops.

With a large number of standing troops, the problem of money and food was temporarily solved, and Yuxian transferred 30,000 troops from Taiyuan to Datong Mansion, so that the Jin army in Datong Mansion changed from the original 30,000 to a full 60,000.

Yuxian knew very well that once Wang Jundao wanted to attack Shanxi, Datong was definitely the only way to go, and if Datong was not guaranteed, the northern gateway of Shanxi would be completely opened, and Wang Jundao's army would come to Taiyuan in a short time.

Yuxian also deployed 10,000 Jin troops in Pingding Mansion, the eastern gateway of Taiyuan, although he knew that Wang Jundao from the east of Shanxi to the Taihang Mountain to attack Shanxi may be very small, but he can't help but be careless.

In Zezhou Mansion in the southwest of Shandong, Yuxian deployed 20,000 Jin troops to prevent Wang Jundao from attacking from Henan Province in the southwest of Shandong, but he knew that this possibility was not big, because in this way Wang Jundao's logistics line would be too long, which was not conducive to combat, but there was a field division of 25,000 troops stationed in Henan Province, so the 20,000 Jin troops stationed in Zezhou Mansion could not move at all.

In Hedong, Yuxian also arranged 10,000 Jin troops, although Yuxian is now in alliance with Songfan, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, but the heart of defense is indispensable, so this 10,000 Jin army cannot be transferred to other places.

There were also 50,000 Jin troops assigned to important prefectures and fortresses in Shanxi to become patrol troops.

In addition to Yuxian's 3,000 pro-army and 7,000 guards, the remaining 40,000 troops, 30,000 of which are recruits who have only been recruited for more than a month, will not be trained for more than 20 days.

When evening came, another day of recruit training was over, and looking at the Jin army recruits who had dispersed in groups of threes and threes, Yuxian couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

Seeing Yuxian's worried face, Lu Changyi, the chief soldier of Taiyuan, couldn't help but say, "Why are you sighing? ”

Lu Changyi has been with Yuxian for more than ten years, and is one of the many henchmen that Yuxian has cultivated in more than 20 years as an official in Shandong.

Now that Yuxian is a warlord, an old man like Lu Changyi is a henchman in his heart, Yuxian didn't intend to hide it from him, and said directly: "I'm worried, according to my understanding of Yanjing, with the combat effectiveness of the Jin army today, it is impossible to be the opponent of Wang Jundao's Dragon and Tiger Army, think about it, last year, he Wang Jundao was able to lead the Dragon and Tiger Army to completely defeat the foreign soldiers of the Eight Kingdoms, until now, the foreigners have not treated him well, and now nearly a year has passed, how strong will his army be?" ”

Lu Changyi naturally knew very well that although the Jin army was well trained, it was definitely not comparable to the Dragon and Tiger Army in terms of weapons, morale, or combat effectiveness, but he was not afraid, and after thinking about it slightly, he said in a deep voice: "My lord, now Wang Jundao is looking around at foreign enemies, there is a coalition of himself and the Russians in the northeast, there is a fleet of foreigners on the ocean in the east, there is a threat from the Mongolian cavalry in the northwest, and Liu Kunyi in Jianghuai and Zhang Zhidong in Lianghu in the south, no matter how strong he is, he does not dare to attack Shanxi with all his might, It is already the limit to be able to draw 100,000 troops, and we have a full 200,000 Jin troops, occupying a favorable position in the familiar land of Shanxi, and his 100,000 troops cannot bargain. ”

At the beginning, when Wang Jundao announced the establishment of the Central Political Axe of the Chinese Empire, during the military parade, he used 200,000 mighty troops wearing new military uniforms and using new weapons and equipment, so that the governors and governors of all provinces thought that Wang Jundao only had 200,000 regular troops that could be mobilized.

In fact, to be able to arm such an advanced army, in everyone's cognition, 200,000 is already the limit, how can it afford to arm more troops? I think that the Manchu Armed Guards were less than 150,000 people.

Yuxian naturally thinks so, with Shanxi's industrial strength and economic capacity, he is armed with 200,000 troops to the limit, and nearly half of them are still soldiers without guns, even if he Wang Jundao occupies the land of the three provinces, it is not easy to arm the elite 200,000 troops, not to mention that he has to garrison the provinces, and the total will not be less than 200,000 troops.

In other words, Wang Jundao has to raise at least 400,000 troops, where did he get so much money? Where did you get so many weapons and equipment?

Yuxian forgot that Wang Jundao almost completely occupied the Manchu central political axe, and used all the storage of the Manchu central political axe to develop the land of the three provinces! In addition, Wang Jundao destroyed the homes of many princes and nobles, and also seized more than 100,000 equipment of the Eight-Nation Alliance, plus Wang Jundao used various resources and technologies to develop the military industry on a large scale, not to mention only 400,000 troops, that is, 1.4 million troops, he Wang Jundao can afford to raise them even if he does not expand within two or three years, and he can also cultivate all elite soldiers!

Of course, these are all things that Yuxian doesn't know, after listening to Lu Changyi's words, most of the worries in his heart have gone, and his face has returned to his previous lightness, showing a rare smile, and said: "Let's go, tomorrow is Xiu'er's sixteenth birthday, go to my house for a drink today, and celebrate in advance." ”

The Xiu'er in Yuxian's mouth is naturally his daughter Yuxiu, who will be sixteen years old tomorrow.

As soon as his words fell, Lu Changyi also laughed and said, "Xiu'er's niece is the first beauty in our Taiyuan, but it's a pity that I, who is an uncle, didn't prepare any gifts today." ”

Yuxian smiled: "Haha, let's go, you can figure out a way about the gift tomorrow." ”

Lu Changyi smiled and said, "Then the subordinates are better to be respectful than to obey their orders." (To be continued.) )