After receiving Ogasa Yoshihara's promise to "stop the shelling and settle the interests of the people in Yichang and the safety of the overseas Chinese through peaceful consultations," Yang Sen ordered the withdrawal of a regiment of officers and men who surrounded the embassy and the overseas Chinese area, and more than 70 mortars and 36 heavy machine guns that had been deployed on the 3-kilometer Yangtze River embankment on the north bank were also withdrawn to the camp in the city, and two gunboats were still cruising along the Yichang River.

At nine o'clock that night, Wang Lingji, deputy commander of the Sichuan Army and commander of the First Army, arrived in Yichang, listened to the reports of Yang Sen and Liu Xiang, and greatly appreciated the tenacity and decisiveness of the two subordinates.

In the early morning of the next day, the transport ship that departed from the Wuhan concession wharf, escorted by another 500-ton gunboat, arrived in Yichang with 300 marines on board.

When the four ships were more than 800 meters away from the wharf, they were surprised to find that the originally empty Yichang wharf was full of all kinds of large and small wooden boats, and more than 1,000 Sichuan officers and men wearing pine green military uniforms and steel helmets completely controlled the upper and lower parts of the wharf, and the wooden houses built on both sides of the entrance above the wharf had been pushed to the ground, and hundreds of Sichuan army engineers were going all out to build permanent fortifications.

After urgent consultations, the 300-ton gunboat "Penghu Maru" sailed to the Yichang wharf to get in touch with the officials of the Yichang consulate as soon as possible and then decided on the next move.

Prior to this, the remaining two gunboats and the transport ship carrying 300 Saiben marines could only continue to wait in the upper river bay for their own safety, and did not dare to approach within four kilometers of the Yichang wharf.

An hour later, the "Penghu Maru" returned to the upper reaches of Jiangwan, bringing back news that the officers and men of the Saimoto Navy were extremely angry: Consul Ogasayoshihara and Military Attache Harukawa were holding negotiations with Wang Lingji, deputy commander of the Sichuan Army, who led his troops to occupy Yichang, and until the negotiations were inconclusive, the two sides would maintain the current situation and not provoke any disputes.

While Wang Lingji, deputy commander of the Sichuan Army and commander of the First Army, was holding talks with Ogasa Yoshihara, the chief of the military in Yichang, Wang Zhanyuan, the overseer of Hubei, Xu Shuzheng, the special representative of Duan Qirui, the prime minister of the Central Political Axe, and Feng Guozhang, the leader of the Beiyang Army in Nanjing, also hurried to Wuhan to hold talks in Wuhan with Yoshiichi Tanaka, chief of the general staff of the Chinese army, who was visiting China.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, a huge fleet appeared on the river three kilometers upstream of the bay where the gunboats and transport ships of the Japanese army were moored, and at the forefront were two river gunboats with a new look, each of which was equipped with a German Krupp 75 rapid-fire gun, two French-made Hatch Chase 37 twin machine guns, and two heavy machine guns.

Behind the two gunboats, followed by four 500-ton transport ships loaded with Sichuan officers and men and artillery, and two identical 300-ton gunboats escorting the escort on the right side of the transport ships, and when the fleet passed through the main channel to the north of the ships as if nothing had happened, the people on the ships discovered that there were as many as six Sichuan gunboats escorting the four troop carriers down the river, with the port numbers "Jiangfang 11," "Jiangfang 17," "Jiangfang 19," "Jiangfang 20," "Jiangfang 22," and "Jiangfang 26." If we look at the number of armaments of any single gunboat, it seems that it is not as good as the "Penghu Maru", which is the second lowest in the Yue army, but the combat power of the six guns together is definitely more than the total combat power of the three river gunboats.

After a brief period of panic, the three gunboats, which were waiting for the results of the talks, immediately formed a zigzag formation and formed a battle formation, and the slower troop carriers retreated early to the waters near the south coast, turned their bows, and were ready to break through at any time, until the Sichuan army's fleet passed about 200 meters ahead, and the officers and men of the Saimoto Marine Corps on the troop carriers wiped the sweat from their foreheads.

The three captains of the military held an emergency meeting again, and they were deeply shocked that Sichuan in the inland area had so many river gunboats, and how did they know that the six gunboats of the Sichuan army were actually hastily converted from brand-new river transport ships made in the United Kingdom, and the number was painted the day before according to the suggestion of Xiao Yimin, commander-in-chief of the Sichuan army, and it seemed that the number was not small, making people think that the number of river defense gunboats of the Sichuan army was at least more than 20, but in fact, there were only these six in front of them, and the remaining four military transport ships that had not been changed. They are already driving on the river from Ya'an to Luzhou, and they are constantly transporting raw materials to the Ya'an Arsenal day and night, and then transporting all kinds of weapons and ammunition produced by the arsenal to Luzhou, and then selling them in batches to the troops of Guizhou, Hunan, and Guangxi, which are in urgent need of weapons and ammunition, thus provoking changes in the situation in the world.

It was said that the captains of the warships did not discuss it for long, and then came to a depressing conclusion: Based on the analysis of the current situation, I am afraid that the 300 marines who have come from afar will not be able to land in Yichang.

After a few days, the three captains learned that the person who raised the binoculars and looked at them on the first troop transport ship that passed under their noses was Xiao Yimin, the commander-in-chief of the Sichuan Army.

Xiao Yimin, the commander-in-chief of the Sichuan Army, who was wearing an ordinary training uniform, took the lead and stepped down from the broad and sturdy springboard, and more than 30 generals and colonels, including Deputy Commander Wang Lingji, Brigade Commander Yang Sen and Liu Xiang, who had been waiting on the dock, strode up to meet them, saluting in unison when they were five meters away, and every face was filled with a proud smile.

After the salute was completed, Xiao Yimin, who was in high spirits, glanced at the officers and soldiers who were heavily armed and heavily guarded within a kilometer of the wharf, and then looked at the rather simple but very wide wharf, and smiled with satisfaction at Wang Lingji and the generals of the First Army:

"From now on, this pier belongs to your first division, and the second engineer regiment directly under the headquarters will assist you in expanding the exclusive military dock, in addition, the six gunboats on the river, together with the brothers on the ship, will also be assigned to you, I hope you will complete the adjustment of the establishment as soon as possible, establish the Yichang River Defense Command, and recruit 5,000 local youths to enlist in the army after gaining a firm foothold in Yichang, and strive to win the support and support of the people of Yichang in the shortest possible time, and firmly control this gateway to eastern Sichuan."

Deputy Army Commanders Zhong Tidao and Yang Sen were overjoyed when they heard this, and immediately thanked Xiao Yimin, knowing that the establishment of the Yichang River Defense Command and the recruitment of 5,000 local recruits were equivalent to the expansion of the headquarters into a corps-level unit, and it was a sure thing that the first division would be promoted to one level from top to bottom.

"Commander, Consul Ogasa is waiting." Wang Lingji reminded with a smile.

Xiao Yimin grinned, surrounded by Wang Lingji and Zhong Tidao, walked straight to the pergola ten meters away, shook hands with Ogasa Yoshihara who came up, glanced at the army Shaozo who followed closely behind Ogasa, and greeted Ogasa Yoshihara with a smile:

"Ogasa-kun has worked hard! I wanted to sit down and rest after going ashore, so I went to the consulate to visit Your Excellency, but I didn't expect Your Excellency to come to greet you in person, Xiao was deeply ashamed! ”

Ogasa Yoshiwara, who is nearly forty years old, bowed again, raised his head, and smiled kindly: "The general is polite, it is my honor to meet the world-famous general himself!" Please allow me to introduce to the general, this is our consulate military attache Harukawa Masagen Shaosa, speaking of which Qingchuan Shaosa is also the junior brother of General Wang Lingji. ”

Xiao Yimin took half a step forward and raised his hand to salute Qingchuan, saluted back, looked up and down at the moderately built, dark-skinned officer in front of him, turned sideways and asked Wang Lingji: "Fang Zhou, Qingchuan Shaozuo is a few years younger than you, right?" ”

Wang Lingji said with a smile: "Four years younger, he just entered school the year I graduated, he and Liu Zicheng, Zeng Chaoran in the same class, and Wang Qian and others in the lower class, yesterday at the dinner party Qingchuan Shaozuo asked me about the current situation of Wang Qian and others, I only learned about this situation." Harukawa-kun is a native of Kobe, and his uncle, you know, is the former baggage instructor of our Army's crash course, Kanaya Jinxian Shaoza, I heard that Kanaya Shaoza has now been promoted to Dazuo, and is currently training the newly formed Taiwan brigade in Hsinchu, Taiwan. ”

"Oh......"

Xiao Yimin turned to Qingchuan Zhengyuan, put away his smile, and showed a yearning look:

"Qingchuan-kun, Jin Gu-jun is a professional officer I respect very much, when I served as the quartermaster chief of the Sichuan Army Crash School, I got the enthusiastic help of Jin Gu-jun, at present, we Sichuan Army Military Academy use the quartermaster baggage textbook, is based on the textbook that Jin Gu-jun and I co-authored at the beginning, the manuscript of the textbook we wrote together is still treasured in my study, whenever I see that textbook, I think of Jin Gu-jun who is not smiling but has outstanding ability, I don't know if I can see my old friends again in the future!"

The hostility in Qingchuan's eyes slowly dissipated, replaced by respect and seriousness, he didn't expect that Xiao Yimin, who was said to be arrogant and arrogant among the officers stationed in China, would be such an elegant and affectionate person, he didn't think much about it at the moment, and bowed deeply and thanked politely:

"Thank you for the general's good evaluation of the predecessors of Kanaya Daisa, it is my honor to meet the general today, and it has also allowed me to correct many incorrect views, and I hope the general will give me more advice in the future!"

Qingchuan's Chinese pronunciation was not good, but Xiao Yimin could still understand it completely, with a happy smile on his face, but he was wary of the young man in front of him, who was over thirty years old.

This is a very assertive person, there is no arrogance like an ordinary soldier, and he is not proud of his uncle, but expresses his respect for Kanaya Dazuo from the position of an ordinary colleague, which shows that Harukawa has a strict surname, maintains strict self-discipline, knows what to say on what occasions, and also has a strong sense of self-motivation.

After being polite to each other, Ogasa Yoshihara and Xiao Yimin walked side by side to the dock and frankly conveyed an important message to Xiao Yimin: "General Tanaka Yoshiichi, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, hopes to meet with the general and sincerely exchange views on the international situation and Sino-Chinese relations. ”

Xiao Yimin agreed without hesitation: "Very welcome, General Tanaka is a great soldier, and he is also a rare politician in this military circle, I feel very honored and looking forward to meeting such a prominent and important figure as General Tanaka." ”

Ogasa Yoshihara finally breathed a sigh of relief and stopped to respectfully thank Xiao Yimin.

Xiao Yimin politely returned the salute and continued to walk on the dock with Ogasa Yoshihara, but his heart was thinking quickly about the purpose of his request to meet.

Xiao Yimin came to Yichang to hold an ad hoc meeting with Xu Shuzheng, the premier's special envoy, Wang Zhanyuan, the overseer of Hubei, and Feng Guozhang, the leader of Beiyang, on the order of Premier Duan Qirui.

(To be continued)