Five years have passed since the Battle of Liaoyang, and Song Biao himself rarely remembers the old things now, but the prestige he accumulated in that battle is very terrifying, in short, the news of his arrival in Kaiping directly frightened the officers and soldiers of the Beiyang Army.

Although the Beiyang Army knew about the Northeast Army uprising before, I always felt that it took half a time from the Northeast Army uprising to the south, but it was only two or three days, and Song Biao arrived in Kaiping, and it was a large army gathered in Kaiping.

This speed is simply the crane level, just like the madness of the Liaoyang raid back then, God doesn't know, ghosts don't know, the 100,000 army has arrived in Kaiping, everyone counted the mileage, everyone was shocked into a cold sweat, and it was estimated that it would be their turn to be surrounded and annihilated tomorrow.

This situation is really stormy to the extreme, and even Zhang Yongcheng, who is stationed in Jinan, feels that he is too close to Kaiping.

After the Manchu Qing and Jingshi heard the news that Song Biao had arrived in Kaiping, they were also suddenly frightened, frightened and urinated, and Zaifeng was shocked into a cold sweat, and they didn't want any royal dignity and etiquette, and they were going to flee to Wuchang with the Empress Dowager Longyu and Emperor Xuantong overnight.

The Praetorian Guards Nanxie followed and frantically got on the train together, and the princes of the Manchu clan also grabbed seats together, and before the train started, I knew that the Northeast Army had raided Zhuozhou and cut off the way to the south, which was called a real horror.

The train went around in a big circle, turned around and got on the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, and now it can only go to Zhangjiakou and escape in the direction of Inner and Outer Mongolia.

The train still hasn't started, and something even more terrifying is coming, saying that the Northeast Army has hit Zhangjiakou, all the way to Xuanhua and Zhuolu, and is coming to Beijing.

The person on the train was frightened and fainted.

This time, all roads were blocked.

Ma Longbiao and the second town stationed in Baoding were also in a cold sweat, they did not move, neither attacked Cai Yi's first cavalry division, nor fled south, frantically dug trenches around Baoding City to prepare for war, and blew up the railway from Zhuozhou to Baoding, but hoarded three trains in Baoding to prepare to flee south.

Interestingly, Yinchang is also in Baoding, after the Beiyang Armed Forces Academy in Tianjin was destroyed by the Eight-Nation Alliance, Yuan Shikai took office as the governor of Zhili to supervise the Beiyang Army, so he moved the military headquarters of the Beiyang Army to Baoding, and purchased the Baoding Army Accelerated Military Preparedness School in Baoding, which was later changed to the Army Officer Academy, and the military headquarters of the Beiyang Army was also located here.

After Liangbi took office, he transferred Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang, and Wang Shizhen, the backbone of Yuan Shikai's old department, out of the Beiyang Army, and successively sent them to various provinces to serve as governors, especially the Jiangbei Governor, who was idle once, installed Duan Qirui and Wang Shizhen, which was equivalent to idling them in Huai'an.

As a result, at this moment, the entire Beiyang Army was leaderless, and even Zhang Xun was sent out to be the governor of Jiangnan, which was actually not allowed to be reused.

During this time period, Song Biao was extremely precise and fast, so that the Manchu Qing Dynasty could not reactivate the various important ministers of the Beiyang Army, and Ma Longbiao and Cao Kun were clearly rice buckets.

Yin Chang had already received a telegram from the Beijing Division, asking him to personally supervise the second town of the Beiyang Army to go north to rescue the Beijing Division, and then asked him to meet him on the spot, but it didn't take long for the telegram to let him continue to supervise the army to the north.

The repeated telegram orders made Yin Chang dizzy, he could only go to Ma Longbiao in person, wanting to discuss a countermeasure, and when he arrived at the headquarters of the second town of the New Army, he found that Duan Qirui was actually discussing things with Ma Longbiao, which made Yin Chang pleasantly surprised.

Duan Qirui should have gone to Jiangbei to take office a few months ago, but he never went, so he lived at home, and usually avoided Yinchang and did not interact with Yinchang.

At this time today, Duan Qirui will not hide, no matter what, he and Yin Chang are still friends, and it was Yin Chang who recommended him at the beginning, so that he could stand out and find a place under Yuan Shikai.

Seeing this Lord Yinchang, the governor of Zhili, Duan Qirui bowed his hand to see it, and Ma Longbiao also hurriedly paid his respects.

Yin Chang was very painful in his heart, but when he saw Duan Qirui, he seemed to have finally found a little hope, and hurriedly pulled Duan Qirui to sit down, and sighed: "The situation has been said so far, if you didn't force Lord Yuan to retreat at the beginning, how could you come here today?" ”

Duan Qirui also sighed slightly, they all understood in their hearts that if Yuan Shikai was still in the position of the governor of Zhili and controlled the six towns of Beiyang, even if he was not necessarily the opponent of the Northeast Army, he would definitely not be scattered like this, and the towns would be cut into pieces by the Northeast Army.

Duan Qirui glanced up at Yin Chang, and there was a lot of emotion in his heart, and said: "Lord Governor, the situation has reached this point, the imperial court must not be protected, don't let Ma Longbiao and the second town go north, sit on the ground to protect yourself, you can still contain the strength of the Northeast Army in one and a half towns, if we are allowed to go north directly and attack other people's positions in the middle of the road, it will be undoubtedly looking for death." ”

Yin Chang hurriedly said: "Although I think the same way, but the holy decree has been issued, and the holy order is difficult to disobey, and it is not okay if you don't go to the second town." ”

Ma Longbiao stood aside and said hatefully: "Your Excellency the Governor, if you are not humble and do your duty, but the situation is already like this, do you want our whole town to send the soldiers to death in vain?" As the so-called generals are outside, the king's order is not subject to it, let alone the chaotic life? The court will say a word for a while, and a telegram for a while, I think we should meet it on the spot. ”

Yin Chang felt very uncomfortable, but he didn't dare to force it, since Song Biao had arrived in Kaiping, it was too late, and now he had to force the second town to go north to rescue the Jingshi, which was equivalent to forcing others to die, no one wanted to go north to fight against the Northeast Army, and if it was urgent, it would be military chaos.

After thinking about it, he and Duan Qirui asked, "Now restart Governor Yuan, what do you think?" ”

Duan Qirui scolded urgently: "Fart, the imperial court is self-inflicted, and it is only at this point that I think of reactivating Governor Yuan, where is it too late, before Lord Yuan returns to Baoding, the Northeast Army has already overturned the Beijing Division." As soon as I heard that Song Biao had arrived in Kaiping, who would dare to fight, Ma Tongzhi and I had just estimated that if the Northeast Army entered the customs, it would be basically equivalent to the twenty-two towns of our Beiyang Army, we still have one town in Jinan, the third town has half surrendered, half defeated, and the soldiers of the four towns plus the Praetorian Guard want to confront the twenty-two towns, which is tantamount to moths to the fire. What's more, the main trump card of the Northeast Army is the First Heavy Artillery Brigade, with 102 heavy artillery pieces in the brigade, one shell is three times heavier than our 75-mm shells, the muzzle velocity is large, the firing range is long, and it cannot be hit at all, and there are more machine guns than our rifles, and there are several times more rifles than our people. Now he has surrounded the Beijing division with the strength of six towns, 54 artillery pieces in each town, plus 204 light and heavy artillery pieces of two artillery brigades, and 500 cannons gathered in the Beijing division. ”

Ma Longbiao couldn't help muttering: "Lord Admiral, this battle can't be fought, I'm afraid that everyone in the world knows about it, don't say it anymore, what I said is cold in my heart, like a sharp knife on my stomach." Thinking that he Song Zhongtang had already arrived in Kaiping, I was afraid that the officers and soldiers from all walks of life would not dare to move, but I was afraid that it would be hard for Zhao Guoxian and Wu Hongchang to go into battle, and they would have to go into battle hard, and they would be beaten in vain, and it would be difficult to say how many brothers would die, and maybe the whole army would be wiped out. ”

Duan Qirui felt pain in his heart, but he couldn't help it.

The second town and the sixth town are the iron army he supervised and trained, and all his life's efforts are here, seeing that he has reached this point, he doesn't want the non-commissioned officers and soldiers to be sent to death, so he specially came over this time to persuade Ma Longbiao not to go north, and stayed in Baoding to wait and see the situation.

He estimated that as long as the second town did not go north, the Northeast Army would not deal with them for the time being.

The positional warfare of the Northeast Army is extremely powerful, and it was already famous all over the world when the battle of Liaoyang was held, as long as the other side built the trench fortifications, not to mention that they could not rush through the second town of the Beiyang Army, even if the six towns of the Beiyang Army gathered together, they could not rush through.

Thinking of this, Duan Qirui persuaded Ma Longbiao and Yin Chang: "The opponent is General Song, we are not ashamed to be a shrinking turtle in Baoding, but if we go out, we will definitely die." If we really rush forward and are wiped out by someone else's positional battle, the troops of the Northeast Army who stayed in Zhuozhou to guard us will continue to participate in the siege of the Beijing Division, and we will not even be able to do so. Therefore, at this time, we must shrink our heads, they dig fortifications, we also dig fortifications, we do not surrender, we do not betray the court, but we must do what we can. ”

Ma Longbiao immediately patted his thigh and said, "It's still the old ruler who is right, that's what I fucking think." ”

Yin Chang was speechless in his heart, he could only say that Liangbi did this thing too poorly, although he was the governor of Zhili, he had no real power to govern the six towns, and the real power was in the hands of him Liangbi alone, now it was okay, he couldn't mobilize the troops of the second town in Baoding, so he could only sit back and watch the Jingshi be besieged.

…… In just two days after Song Biao arrived in Kaiping, the large forces of the Northeast Army had arrived in Guannei, and the First Infantry Division and the First Cavalry Division cut off the six towns of Beiyang, and the first and sixth towns could only sit in the Beijing Division, without any foreign aid at all, and the Second Infantry Division of the Northeast Army as the main force was directly stationed in Tongzhou, and the Third Infantry Division and the Second Artillery Brigade were located in Jixian County.

The 1st Artillery Brigade, the 5th Cavalry Brigade, and the 5th Infantry Division arrived at Kaiping one after another to converge, the 2nd Cavalry Division continued to move south after capturing Zhangjiakou, and the 4th Cavalry Brigade arrived at Zhangjiakou and Xuanhua and other places, and surrounded the Beijing Division.

Eleven patrol detachments drawn from various parts of the Kanto region were stationed along the Jinzhou, Shanhaiguan, Luanzhou, and Kaiping lines, controlling the railways.

In fact, everyone knows that the Qing Zheng axe really can't hold it this time, and the speed of the Northeast Army is too fast and the action is too fierce.

I didn't know Song Biao's level of use of troops before, but now when I compare, the new armies from all walks of life know that the gap is really too big, and the Beiyang Army has a deeper experience, and it is more and more afraid to fight against Song Biao.

The strength of the Beiyang Army is definitely not bad, and if you really want to go all out, it is by no means an opponent that the Northeast Army can win quickly, but the current problem of the Beiyang Army is too complicated, one is to meet a god-like opponent, the other is that there is a leader who is not able to control the three armies at all, and there is a group of teammates who are all at the level of rice buckets, and finally there is a group of subordinates who are not willing to fight with the Northeast Army at all.

If Yuan Shikai commanded the three armies, and Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang, Wang Shizhen, and Tie Liang served as the commanders of each town, they might not really be able to stop the Northeast Army.

Even if the Northeast Army is allowed to enter the customs, concentrate its forces in Langfang, Tongzhou, and Baoding, hold the intersection of the Jinghan Railway and the Zhengtai Railway, mobilize troops from Zhili and Shanxi to aid the Beijing Division, and then protect the Manchu royal family of the Beijing Division and retreat to Baoding, or retreat directly to Shanxi, and use the Taihang Mountain to compete with the Northeast Army, not to mention holding it for three months, it is possible to hold it for half a year.

Now that this battle is fought like this, there is really no way at all, even if Song Biao is transferred to command the Beiyang Army, the situation cannot be reversed, this is not a problem of a certain person, but there are problems from top to bottom, of course, the root of the problem is still in Liangbi and Zaifeng.

After Yuan Shikai was dismissed, Song Biao waited in the Northeast for two more years, in fact, he was waiting for Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang, Wang Shizhen, and Tie Liang to be squeezed out by Liangbi.

Liangbi is still not good in the end, he graduated from Lu Shi, which itself is equivalent to a secondary school graduate, before that, Liangbi did not have any military experience and other experience, unlike Tie Liang and Yuan Shikai who came out step by step from below, unlike Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang, and Wang Shizhen who came up step by step, they all have the ability to work hard and control their subordinates.

The only big gap between it and the Northeast Army is the machine guns, and the gap between the heavy machine guns is not big, and the key is that the light machine guns of the Northeast Army are deployed to the squads, and each squad has a Madsen light machine gun.

From this point of view, Cao Kun is very wise to escape from the battle, if he really fights, if Cao Kun and Chen Wenyun choose a more clumsy tactic, it is likely that they will be killed by the Northeast Army as soon as they get started.

Don't look at the scale of 12,512 people in a town of the Beiyang Army, the front-line combat force is also the scale of 8,000, according to the example of the Battle of Liaoyang, you can die in half an hour when you rush up, this depends on the commander's on-the-spot adaptability.

The problem now is that Song Biao has already arrived in Kaiping, and as soon as he arrives in Kaiping, the officers and soldiers of the Beiyang Army heard that he was coming, and they were collectively afraid of the battle and did not dare to fight him.

At this time, in Kaiping County, the Northeast Revolutionary Army formally established a general headquarters, which consisted of the First Staff Bureau, the Second Staff Bureau, the Intelligence Bureau, the Logistics Bureau, the Fortification Bureau, the Railway Bureau, the Militia Bureau, the Propaganda Bureau, and the Liaison Bureau.

For the Qing political axe, Song Biao's arrival in Kaiping is a very terrifying thing, and for the revolutionary armies of all walks of life, Song Biao's arrival in Kaiping is a great news, which means that the Manchu Qing Dynasty will die, and the rest is only a matter of time.

In the general headquarters, Song Biao has been carefully speculating with Jiang Fangzhen and Maltost about the strength that the Qing army can gather in Beijing, at present, there are still three towns of new army left in the hands of Zaifeng and Liangbi, the original eight banners in Beijing have long been decayed, among which the elite was drawn out to make up the first town, before the commander of the nine gates still had five battalions of patrol battalions, each battalion was full of 2,900 people, and later assigned to the patrol police department, after the patrol police department was reorganized into the Ministry of Civil Affairs, these flag soldiers were drawn out and reorganized into the Praetorian Guard.

Coupled with the police force of the patrol police station that was later newly established by the Beijing Division, the strength of the Fengfeng hand is 40,000 people, as long as it is properly transferred, it is not a big problem to defend Yanjing City.

The level of Liangbi fluctuated, and Song Biao and Jiang Fangzhen couldn't tell how Liangbi would be arranged, so they made four speculations in the headquarters, one was that it was most likely that the whole army would shrink to the outer city to defend; the second is a decisive battle in the Tongzhou area; the third is to send a part of the division to defend Beijing, and the rest of the main force will go south to attack Zhuozhou, and strive to join the division of the second town and flee south; The fourth is to leave a part of the division to defend Beijing, and the main force will go north to break through from Zhangjiakou.

The first one may be the largest, and the other three situations may also occur, the Intelligence Bureau and the Secret Service Bureau have different intelligence points in Beijing, but now there is no reconnaissance of the dynamics of the Qing army, it is not that the intelligence officers and spies on Song Biao's side are not effective, but Liangbi and Zaifeng are a mess, and several contradictory telegrams have been issued in a day, and it is not clear what the Qing army intends to do.

The intelligence work of the Northeast New Army was first in charge of Shu Fangde, and later replaced by Zhang Jun of the Liberation Society, and now Jiang Zhengyuan is in charge, and Zhang Jun, who gradually gained Song Biao's trust, replaced Yuan Jinkai and Li Shirui to preside over the work of the Secret Service Bureau.

There are three sources of intelligence on the side of the revolutionary army, one is through espionage activities within foreign embassies in Yanjing, mainly through the telegram of the Danish company Great North; Second, some members of the Restoration Society buried in the Beiyang Army sent wireless telegrams in Beijing through the Restoration Society; Third, some commercial personnel disguised as commercial organizations transmitted information within the Beijing Division by cleverly arranging and sending commercial telegrams to Shanghai and other southern units.

These are three different sources of intelligence, and when they are put together, they are not right.

Dozens of completely different pieces of information made Song Biao confused, the news from the sixth town of the Beiyang Army was that it was going to Tongzhou for a decisive battle, the first town was going north to Zhangjiakou, and the police force had no news at all, only that it was to defend the Beijing division.

After reading the information, Song Biao asked Jiang Zhengyuan and Zhang Jun, suspecting that Liangbi was deliberately confusing the information, and actually wanted to continue to break through to Zhuozhou? Jiang Zhengyuan and Zhang Jun couldn't say it clearly.

Song Biao lit a cigarette of the Genshengjing brand and smoked it, sat at the large conference table of the headquarters and pondered his thoughts, Zhang Jun and Li Shirui could only accompany him, and on the other side of the conference table, Jiang Fangzhen and Martos were respectively responsible for the two staff bureaus and separately deployed countermeasures.

No matter what Liangbi's choice was, they still had to start guarding in four aspects at the same time, the Fourth Cavalry Brigade was deployed in Xuanhua, actively guarding along the road, and controlling the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway as much as possible; Cai Ye also had to step up his defense in Zhuozhou to prevent the possibility of the Beiyang Army attacking from the north and south; On the Tianjin side, the 1st Infantry Division and the 20th Town simultaneously advanced to attack Machang, the 1st Infantry Division attacked south, the 20th Town Division was divided into the 19th Association to garrison Tianjin, and the 20th Association was sent south to attack the 4th Town stationed in Machang.

The main force of the Second Infantry Division had already set up a defensive line in Tongzhou, adopted the strategy of pressing step by step, and was advancing head-on to the Beijing Division, preparing for a decisive battle with the Qing army around Tongzhou.

After thinking about it roughly, Song Biao and Jiang Zhengyuan asked, "With your understanding of Liangbi, which countermeasure will he probably choose?" ”

Jiang Zhengyuan sighed: "General seat, although Liangbi and I have been classmates for three years in Zhenwu School and Lu Shi, we are not familiar with him, and it is difficult to explain his thoughts clearly. If I were him, I would definitely choose to break through to the south along the Jinghan Railway, the key is that now Zaifeng and him are deciding at the same time, the prince of that place in the Jingshi said that Prince Su is in charge of the military and police, and he may have the idea of sticking to the end, Zaifeng may want to run with the emperor first, or he may have the idea of staying behind, anyway, all roads are blocked. ”

Song Biao nodded slightly, handed back the telegrams to them, and said, "You should hurry up and find out all kinds of information, and be sure to send the news back before the Manchus determine the final plan." ”

Jiang Zhengyuan and Zhang Jun both nodded, and hurriedly returned to the intelligence bureau to do things.

They have been in the Northeast New Army for nearly five years, and they have been by Song Biao's side all these years, and it can be said that they have won Song Biao's trust, otherwise they would not have been allowed to manage the most important intelligence department.

After the two of them left, the Liaison Bureau sent intelligence from the navy, the Qing Navy was mainly the cruiser fleet and the Yangtze River fleet, the commander-in-chief of the cruiser fleet was Cheng Biguang, this person was a revolutionary party, the problem was that he was a member of the League, participated in the Guangzhou Uprising, and then withdrew, and returned to the Qing Navy under Li Hongzhang's amnesty.

Cheng Biguang knew about the existence of the Tongguang Society, but he neither joined nor intervened.

At this time, the cruiser fleet had not yet started the round-the-world voyage at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and was anchored in Qingdao Port and Tianjin separately, and Liangbi ordered Cheng Biguang to lead the fleet north to attack Jinzhou and Haizhou, trying to force the Northeast Army to go back, this idea was very naïve.

Cheng Biguang did not move.

However, Cheng Biguang did not say anything about an uprising.

The liaison bureau of the general headquarters is responsible for contacting the new army and other revolutionary forces in various places, and the focus at this time is to contact the navy, and the Yangtze River Fleet is no longer a big problem, even if there is no uprising, it will definitely not affect the revolution, and Cheng Biguang has not expressed his position for a long time.

Finally, after Cheng Biguang's call back, the liaison bureau hurriedly sent the telegram to Song Biao.

Song Biao opened the telegram book and saw that Cheng Biguang's reply was very simple - revolution first, republic first, willing to encourage the commander and only observe the ambitions of his subordinates.

Seeing this telegram, Song Biao at least breathed a sigh of relief, there should be no problem on the cruiser's side, the revolution is certain, after all, the general situation is already like this, as for whether the navy supports the Liberation Society or the Alliance, it depends on the collective attitude of the officers and men of the navy of each fleet.

Cheng Biguang was not easy to mess with, and was later assassinated by someone close to Mr. Sun, and the contradiction between the two sides was just a struggle for control of the navy.

Song Biao thought for a while, and then called Cheng Biguang back with seven words - congratulations on the revolution and encouragement.

He didn't want to say anything else for the time being.

(To be continued)