On the first day of June, the 19th Division of the Seventh Army and the Artillery Regiment of the Nanjing Garrison Division under the Nanjing Xingying took three trains to Suzhou, and together with the Second Division of the Jiangsu Army stationed in Suzhou, they divided into two routes and drove into the Nanxun and Jiaxing lines in northern Zhejiang.

At the same time, the 25th and 26th divisions of the Ninth Army, which had been stationed in southern Anhui a week ago, entered Zhejiang via Xuancheng and Guangde, and suddenly appeared under Huzhou in the middle of the night of 2 June, and Zhou Fengqi, commander of the Third Division of the Zhejiang Army stationed in Huzhou, announced his obedience to the leadership of Zhejiang Province and the wishes of the majority of the people in Zhejiang under the persuasion of Governor Gong Baoquan, Commander-in-Chief of the Zhejiang Army, Yang Shande, and other celebrities.

Xiao Yimin, who received the report from Zhejiang, immediately telegraphed Yang Zhaoxi, deputy chief of general staff of the Sichuan Army and commander of the Ninth Army: There is no need to stay in Huzhou, and the division will be in Yuhang as fast as possible, and the retreat of the fifth and seventh divisions of the Zhejiang army gathered on the front line of Jiaxing will be cut off in one fell swoop!

Under the command of Yang Zhaoxi, the two divisions of the Ninth Army, composed of new recruits from Lianghu and experienced officers at all levels drawn from other units, launched a rapid march overnight and surrounded Yuhang in only nine and a half hours.

The battle came suddenly, and it went quickly, the reinforcements from Hangzhou who received an urgent report had just left Hangzhou, and all the battles in Yuhang had ended, so they had to hurriedly retreat to Hangzhou and hastily build a blocking position.

As a result, the Fifth and Seventh Divisions of the Zhejiang Army, which had set up three solid defensive lines north of Jiaxing, were in the middle of a north-south attack by nearly 70,000 troops of the four divisions of the Nanjing Xingying before they could meet the enemy, and there was no longer any room for maneuver.

This result had a strong deterrent effect on all units of the Zhejiang Army and the entire Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions.

Many generals and colonels of the Zhejiang army have heard rumors that the Sichuan army is well-equipped and has strong combat power, and they have also learned from Xiao Yimin's military papers published over the years that the Sichuan army is well-trained and fast-moving, but when the Sichuan army really attacked the front, the generals and colonels of the Zhejiang army found that the speed of the other party's march was so amazing, and the military skills and equipment level of the officers and soldiers far exceeded their own estimates.

Seventeen kilometers north of Jiaxing, on the south bank of the Taipu River that originates from Taihu Lake and flows eastward into the Huangpu River in Shanghai, Chen Tiaoyuan, chief of the general staff of the Zhejiang Army, who is sitting on the front line in Jiaxing, hurriedly climbed to the top of the large warehouse in Shengjiagang, crawled in the bunker built by triple sandbags, raised his binoculars, and carefully observed the Sichuan army arrayed on the north bank of the Taipu River.

A few minutes passed, the breathing sound around him became heavier and heavier, and the face of Chen Tiaoyuan, who was observing in the center, changed greatly when he put down the binoculars, and the young general, who was pulled up by the famous Beiyang general Li Chun, no longer had the slightest confidence:

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is really hard to imagine that the equipment of the Sichuan army is so advanced, not to mention the steel helmets, just look at the light and heavy machine guns that are spaced fifty meters apart and the small steel cannons equipped to the company row, and more than ten armed cargo ships cruising on the east and west sides of the river.

"Only now do I understand why Cao Zhongshan, Li Xiushan, Zhang Xunchen, Ni Danchen, Feng Huanzhang and other famous generals were all defeated by the Sichuan army, and now our army has been surrounded by four times the elite enemy army on three sides, and behind it is the vast sea, this battle has no point in continuing!"

The generals were already extremely depressed, and after listening to Chen Tiaoyuan's words, they were even more depressed, and after going down to the ground, Zhou Chengyan, the commander of the Seventh Division, suggested in a low voice:

"I heard that Zhu Shenfu's division of the Second Division of the Jiangsu Army is opposite, and Zhu Shenfu and his subordinates are both classmates in the seventh phase of the Army Non-commissioned Officer School, and it is estimated that they can give their subordinates a little thin noodles."

The generals and colonels reacted differently, some were unwilling, some were happy, and more were helpless and angry, but in the face of the cruel reality, no one dared to raise any objections, and it was already a great luck to be able to ask the Sichuan army and the Soviet army to spare a horse, and the more than 13,000 brothers in the whole army left unscathed.

With Chen Tiaoyuan's approval, Zhou Chengyan only brought his adjutant to the front to negotiate.

Two hours later, 13,000 Zhejiang officers and men laid down their weapons and left the front line listlessly, returning to two barracks in Jiaxing and on the outskirts of the city, waiting for final orders.

It is worth mentioning that the combined forces of the Sichuan Army and the Jiangsu Army were very polite, and in addition to confiscating all heavy weapons, spears, and ammunition, they generously allowed all officers to keep their weapons and horses, and even the soldiers' own property was well protected.

The news that the coalition forces easily took Jiaxing and Haining counties without a single shot or bullet came out, causing a shock throughout the country, and no one expected that a big war that touched the hearts of tens of millions of people would end like this, and no one expected that the Zhejiang army, which had been full of confidence and threatened to fight to the death, would be defeated so quickly and so simply.

……

On 5 June, the 70,000 allied officers and men under the Nanjing Xingying camp began to mobilize again and calmly launched a three-sided encirclement of Hangzhou, and just when the people of Hangzhou were terrified and rushed to flee, the 70,000 allied troops stopped their advance and immediately dug trenches five kilometers outside Hangzhou to build a 15-kilometer-long semi-arc encirclement.

On the morning of June 6, another frightening piece of news reached the city of Hangzhou, and then spread throughout the country:

The second division of the first army of the Sichuan army stationed in Jiangxi captured the city of Quzhou guarded by the fourth division of the Zhejiang army in one fell swoop, and the fourth division of the Zhejiang army, with a total strength of only more than 4,600 people, faced the powerful Sichuan army and collapsed, the division commander Li Baozhang had sent troops to Jiangxi before, and cooperated with the Sichuan army to fight, so he naturally knew how strong the combat effectiveness of the Sichuan army was, so he did not dare to compete with Liu Xiang, the division of a hundred battles in the main force of the Sichuan army, and did not wait for Liu Xiang to order the siege of the city, Li Baozhang had already led his troops to flee Quzhou, and gave up the largest strategic town in western Zhejiang to the Sichuan army.

Xiao Yimin, who was sitting in Nanjing, soon received a joint telegram from Gong Baoquan and Yang Shande, learning that the first and second divisions of the main force of the Zhejiang army had returned to the arms of the Zhejiang Provincial Government and the Overseer's Mansion, and that the control of the army had once again returned to Yang Shande's hands, and that the opposition forces composed of unscrupulous salt merchants, Han compradors, and local tycoons had fallen apart under the threat of strong force. Resolve the remaining issues of the opposition forces in Zhejiang in a peaceful manner.

Xiao Yimin finally breathed a sigh of relief, and immediately gave a big favor to the boat, authorizing the Zhejiang Provincial Political Axe and the Overseer Army to deal with the remaining problems, and then transferred the Second Division of the Zhejiang Army to Zhenjiang, leaving the 19th Division of the Seventh Army to continue to be stationed in the northern suburbs of Hangzhou, and ordered the 25th Division of the Ninth Army to be stationed in Jiaxing, the 26th Division to be stationed in Yuhang, and Liu Xiang's Second Division to continue to stay in Quzhou, supervising the deployment of the Zhejiang Army throughout the process.

Immediately afterwards, Zhang Jian, director of the Nanjing Xingying Economic Committee, led a working group to Hangzhou to assist Gong Baoquan in rectifying the salt industry in Zhejiang, and the city's salt industry chamber of commerce implemented a new salt tax policy.

Because Zhejiang's sea salt production is far below Lianghuai and Shandong, it is basically not strictly constrained by the central government's political axe, and the total salt tax paid to the central government axe every year is only 2.5 million yuan, so Zhejiang's salt industry has a more relaxed living environment.

In this regard, up to the governor Gong Baoquan, down to the ordinary people, Xiao Yimin is still deeply grateful, and the performance of the Sichuan army after entering Zhejiang is extraordinary, not only the military discipline is strict and Mingqiu has not committed any crimes, but also the fair and kind attitude of buying and selling, and soon won the favor and support of the people of Zhejiang, Xiao Yimin not only did not suffer criticism for sending troops to Zhejiang, but his prestige increased greatly.

However, it is an unchangeable fact that Xiao Yimin's descendants are stationed in Zhejiang, and even if the Zhejiang army completes the reorganization and disarmament work, Xiao Yimin will leave a unit in Zhejiang to ensure the effective jurisdiction and supervision of Zhejiang by the Nanjing camp.

Secondly, Zhejiang Province will soon have to pay taxes to Nanjing every year, like Jiangsu and Jiangxi provinces, even if it is to pay the taxes of the central government, it must first go through Nanjing, the advantage is that it can obtain the policy support and security guarantee of Nanjing, and can also share the various benefits brought by Nanjing, including industrial and commercial technical assistance, overall arrangements for food supply, support for import and export trade, guidance for industrial investment, support for low-interest loans, and so on.

Since the withdrawal of the siege of Hangzhou, the frightened people of Zhejiang have finally put their minds at ease, and Zhejiang has begun to gradually return to its former calm, but public opinion in the outside world is still in full swing, and the huge victory of Xiao Yimin's group has once again pierced the nerves of Yanjing and Yueben Zhengaxe.

……

The atmosphere in the Yanjing Prime Minister's Office became more and more solemn, and Prime Minister Duan Qirui no longer had any smile on his face, but the unexpected visit of Acting President Xu Shichang still made Duan Qirui smile a little.

"Fifth Brother Bu, a rare guest!"

Duan Qirui waved away the attendants around him and made Xu Shichang a cup of fragrant tea with his own hands.

After a few days, the sixty-three-year-old Xu Shichang seemed to be even older, with many more wrinkles on his forehead and around his eyes, and a few age spots on his left forehead.

Xu Shichang sat down peacefully, showing his usual calm smile: "Zhiquan, I heard that in the past two days, Minister Ben has come to the door to quarrel every day, and it is not easy for you!" ”

The look of surprise in Duan Qirui's eyes flashed, and he smiled faintly and sat on the sofa opposite Xu Shichang: "Yes, this family is not easy to do!" It is said that I have always ignored my country's decrees, and through various unseemly means, I have been controlling Zhejiang salt merchants behind my back for a long time. Right? It's unbelievable! ”

Xu Shichang nodded slightly, and then sighed faintly: "This Xiao Yiming is getting more and more amazing, not only is he fast enough, but he is also ruthless, amazing!" Zhiquan, I guess you have a headache too, right? ”

"What's more than a headache? I almost vomited blood! Duan Qirui did not hide his true feelings at all.

Xu Shichang sighed again: "I'm here today, mainly to greet you, our brothers haven't had the opportunity to sit together alone and talk for many years, no matter what happened before, what differences there are between our brothers, but in the end, they are in the same vein of Beiyang, and have common interests...... Now in the face of life and death, we should abandon our previous suspicions and unite sincerely!

"Zhiquan, I don't know what you thought before, but Nanjing really needs to be restrained, if you continue to indulge like this, it will be difficult to return, and eventually raise a tiger and get out of control completely!"

Duan Qirui's eyes slowly closed, he thought for a long time, suddenly opened, and quietly looked at Xu Shichang, who sighed for a long time, and didn't say a word for a long time.

(To be continued)