During the Spring Festival, there were no firecrackers and no laughter in Yichang City, every house closed its door, the streets and alleys were full of shivering civilians and Sichuan officers and soldiers hurrying to and fro, and the drizzly wharf was crowded with civil and military officials and baggage soldiers who were rushing to transport supplies and preparing to flee back to Sichuan.

The road west of the city to Sichuan was bustling with traffic, with horses, ox carts, and porters galloping westward, driven by the whips and rifle butts of officers and soldiers.

On the morning of the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, more than 30,000 officers and soldiers of the Hubei Army led by Li Tiancai, the envoy of Jingxiang Town, the first division of the Hunan Army led by Chen Yan, the new Sichuan Military Affairs Office, and the mixed brigade led by Zhang Fang, who had just been appointed by Yuan Shikai as the envoy of the town of southern Henan, braved the drizzle to attack Yichang, an important town in western Hubei from the east, south, and north.

Li Tiancai, who served as the commander of the former enemy, never dreamed that he would occupy Yichang so easily, and the generals of the various departments who had finally attacked quickly were annoyed, as if they had raised their fists high and punched them in the air, so they could only scold and lead their troops into the city, and sent someone to call Tang Python, the commander of the first mixed brigade of the Hunan army who was fighting the vanguard, to ask.

Tang Python rode a horse to report in detail, Li Tiancai and other generals only then knew that the first army of the Sichuan army stationed in Yichang had been dispersed before the arrival of the three-way army, and the officers at all levels did not think of setting up defensive positions to resist, but fled back to Sichuan with the family property and women obtained by cunning and robbery in the past year, and the army commander Zhou Jun shot three battalion commanders in a row, but still could not stop the rout, so he could only abandon Yichang yesterday evening and flee to Yucheng in a panic.

After Zhou Jun left, they directly led the remnants to cross the Jiangnan River and surrendered to the old commander Chen Eun, who was in charge of the offensive command of the southern front, and turned into the main force of the Sichuan under the command of the old commander Chen Eun, and continued to be their brigade commander under the care of Chen Eun.

When the news reached Chengdu, Hu Jingyi, the overseer of Sichuan, immediately sent a telegram to Yuan Shikai to report the good news, praising President Yuan Da for surrendering his troops without a fight, but just informed the press and issued an order to Zhou Jun, the general of the Sichuan army, to be transferred to Yanjing, which forced Zhou Jun to advance and retreat, and caused the morale of more than 10,000 troops under Zhou Jun to be completely demoralized, and the sound collapsed.

In the headquarters of the border army of the North School, Xiao Yimin, who had just received the urgent report, was stupid for a long time, and then helplessly told everyone that Zhou Jun's department had fled, and Zhong Ying, the general of the Sichuan army, was so angry that he yelled and scolded Zhou Jun for being weak and incompetent and having no eggs, the old Jiang Qiluo and the chief of staff Bao Jiqing shook their heads and sighed again and again, and the fierce generals such as Zheng Yi and Tang Wulin took the case, and they gritted their teeth in anger one by one, scolding Zhou Jun for embarrassing the Sichuan army.

No matter how angry and frustrated the generals and colonels of the border army were, and the hope that Zhou Junbu would be able to resist for a while was completely frustrated, a division led by Chen Yan was driving directly to Yucheng without hindrance, and Xiao Yimin, as the commander-in-chief, had to immediately summarize and react.

After a small discussion, Chief of Staff Bao Jiqing walked to the map again, and began to analyze in the face of the indignant generals:

"Although none of us expected Zhou Junbu to be so defeated, we can still find some clues from it: First of all, it is the key for Chen Huan to lead a division of the Hunan army to return to Sichuan, if I judge with the commander correctly, Chen Huan has already secretly contacted a group of generals under Zhou Jun, because Chen Huan was originally the old instructor and old boss of the original Sichuan Military Academy, and nearly half of the generals and schools in the Sichuan army came from his subordinates, so it caused the sudden collapse of Zhou Junbu."

"That's right! Chen Huan's grandson is very insidious, it is not good to lead troops to fight, and he is definitely a master of conspiracies and corruption and bribery, and my official hat of the deputy commander of the New Army and the general office of the army primary school was sold to me for 50,000 yuan before Chen Huan's grandson left Sichuan. ”

Zhong Ying spoke out loud about the past, causing a burst of laughter from the brothers.

Bao Jiqing was helpless against Zhong Ying, who interrupted him, so he had to wait for the brothers to finish laughing before continuing:

"The second important reason is that President Yuan suddenly announced on the first day of the Lunar New Year that Zhou Jun, the lieutenant general of the First Army of the Sichuan Army and the guard of Yucheng Town, was transferred to the Yanjing Military Department to hold an important position. What's more, most of the First Army of the Sichuan Army were veteran ruffians with loose military discipline. ”

All the generals nodded in unison, Bao Jiqing picked up the baton, and continued:

"Now the situation has become very simple, within two days, Chen Eun, who has been appointed by President Yuan Da as the head of the Sichuan Army, will sit in Yucheng in a grand manner, and then get in touch with the overseer Hu Jingyi, and give various orders to the generals of the Sichuan Army, and slowly level the divisions of the Sichuan Army.

"However, before that, they must obtain the consent of the Fifth Division, please see...... As long as General Wang Lingji and the 8,000 brothers of the Fifth Division do not give way, Chen Eun will not dare to act rashly, and as long as he dares to come hard, he will be severely attacked by the elite Fifth Division and Wang Jian's Fourth Division, which is guarding southern Sichuan.

"Therefore, whether it is Hu Jingyi or Chen Eun, it is impossible to master the divisions of the Sichuan Army, in the end, it depends on our faces, what we have is time to arrange calmly, you don't need to be nervous, what to do and what to continue to do."

Bao Jiqing put down the baton and returned to Xiao Yimin to sit down.

Xiao Yimin looked at the veteran Qi Luo: "Uncle Luo, I'm afraid that you should go to Yanjing as soon as possible, let General Phuntsok make some trouble for the Yunnan army in northwest Yunnan, bring a thousand old guns and a batch of ammunition, and then go to the Ya'an military station to receive one or two hundred boxes of grenades, and generously give them to the rebel forces of all ethnic groups in northwest Yunnan, and can't let the Yunnan army calm down."

"In addition, I will also ask Wang Jian to increase his support for Lu Mangzi, let Lu Mangzi lead the Guizhou army to attack Guiyang, and prevent the Dian army from freeing up their hands to attack southern Sichuan. As long as the Dian army could not go north, Chen Eun and Hu Jingyi would not dare to move, and when we had packed up Feng Yuxiang's troops from northern Sichuan to the south, and the two elder brothers Chen Shufan and Liu Zhenhua, who had been driven to southern Shaanxi and northern Sichuan, would be able to besiege Hanzhong without any scruples, and we would not be in danger of being attacked on many sides. ”

Qi Luo nodded heavily: "I'll leave tomorrow morning, I've been in Chengdu for more than half a month, and I don't feel solid if I don't go back." ”

Zhong Ying hurriedly asked, "What about me?" What do I do? You can't let me eat, sleep, sleep and eat every day, right? If Chengdu doesn't have anything to do with me, let me go to Ya'an to recruit and train soldiers! ”

Bao Jiqing glared at him unhappily: "What are you anxious about?" Let's settle down with the family first. ”

"It's all settled, what do you want for such a big house, and how do you settle down?" Zhong Ying asked dissatisfiedly.

Xiao Yimin had no choice but to explain in detail: "Brother Zhong, wait a few days, we have already called President Yuan Da to ask for the appointment of you as the deputy commander of our border army, and the headquarters has already published a newspaper yesterday afternoon to appoint you as the chief instructor of the cavalry section of the military academy, and it is estimated that the telegram from the military department will come down in the next few days." ”

Zhong Ying was taken aback: "This ...... Is this possible? Yuan Datou can't wait to kill me! ”

Bao Jiqing said impatiently: "At this time and that time, now President Yuan Da has a request for us, as long as we don't cooperate, Chen Eun and Hu Jingyi will no longer be able to gain a foothold in Sichuan, so he will not easily refuse our request, not to mention that you are not guilty at all, you were also a general of the Sichuan Army before, and now you are back to serve as a deputy What's the big deal?" ”

"But, I don't want to be a military academy instructor, don't you know how many drops of ink I have in my stomach? It's okay for me to lead the troops to fight, let me teach, find the wrong person, right? Zhong Ying looked at Xiao Yimin and Bao Jiqing suspiciously.

Xiao Yimin patiently explained: "The reason why you were appointed as the director of the cavalry section of the military academy is to confuse President Yuan Da and the group of officials in the capital, so that they think that they are just giving you a comfort surname, and they will not let you lead troops to fight. ”

Qi Luo glanced at Zhong Ying dissatisfiedly: "You should get ready, Master Bars and I are both old, and now the old subordinate brothers who live on the front line of Chuankang, as well as thousands of Manchu and Mongolian people, rely on you to lead, our group of old guys are not injured?" You're going to have to let us have a few days of comfort, right? ”

Zhong Ying suddenly realized, grinned, the brothers at the meeting finally understood the hardships of the commander and the chief of staff, and successively guessed that Zhong Ying would soon go to Chuankang to take charge of the army, and couldn't help but deeply admire the good intentions of the commander and the chief of staff, as long as Zhong Ying took over as the commander of the Chuankang border army, the brothers of the whole army could be completely relieved.

Zhong Ying, who had completely figured it out, stood up: "Commander, Chief of Staff, let me accompany Uncle Qiluo tomorrow!" I want to meet my soldiers sooner. ”

"This ......"

Xiao Yimin looked at Bao Jiqing in embarrassment, and when he saw Bao Jiqing nodding, he turned to Zhong Ying and asked, "Big brother, do you think you need anything?" ”

Zhong Ying pointed to Tang Wulin, the commander of the cavalry regiment sitting opposite: "A group of my old subordinates under the command of Wulin, let me pick a company." ”

Tang Wulin immediately stood up: "Commander, please allow your subordinates to return to General Zhong's command, and your subordinates are willing to follow General Zhong, completely quell the Kangzang rebellion, and lay a place for the commander and our people to recuperate!" ”

Xiao Yimin was surprised: "Wulin, you just got married, let's wait, the current cavalry regiment can't do without you." ”

Tang Wulin puffed up his chest: "Commander, don't worry, it's enough for half of the brothers in the cavalry regiment to stay, Uncle Bars's son Barth's ability is far above his subordinates, and Bart has just graduated from the military academy, with him, the cavalry regiment is still an indomitable strong army!" ”

Xiao Yimin pondered for a moment, raised his head and smiled slightly: "As long as General Zhong is willing, I have no objection." ”

Zhong Ying laughed: "It's done!" My cavalry regiment is finished! Wulin, good job! ”

(To be continued)