The Qing Empire was lucky.

was able to suppress Li Hongzhang, Liu Kunyi, Zhang Zhidong, and finally climb to the throne of the first auxiliary minister, Hu Chuyuan actually relied on military merits.

In any feudal dynasty, military merit is the first merit.

The reason why Hu Chuyuan can become the only political oligarch in the Qing Empire today is precisely because his military merits are too high, except for Li Hongzhang, who has fallen in the middle, no one else can compare.

After the Bingshen military mutiny, the Manchus were squeezed out of the government by military force, and since then no one has been able to compete with Hu Chuyuan.

Zhang Zhidong can now sit in the position of deputy minister, and all he relies on is the Qingxu Corps in his hand.

Very lucky.

As the first and auxiliary minister of the Prime Minister's Cabinet, Hu Chuyuan can also be regarded as a person who has been tempered in the military, although there is not enough information for him to judge and make decisions, but he knows what he should do now.

Hu Chuyuan decided to stay in Shanshan, but he also immediately transferred the 24th Division of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo Corps stationed in Lanzhou and the 15th Division of the Qingxu Corps stationed in Baotou to the west.

At the same time, all the green battalions from all over the country were transferred to the railway line to protect the railway and cable, and then the backup cable buried in the ground was activated to prevent emergencies.

Hu Chuyuan knew very well in his heart that one of the weaknesses of the Qing Empire had been caught.

Cavalry.

After the death of Seng Lingqin, China has not formed a large-scale cavalry, in the northwest of this kind of flat place, there is no cavalry troops is indeed a great loss, in the mobile surname is a big difference to others.

The situation is particularly urgent, Yarkand claims to have 100,000 troops, but in fact about 60,000 or 70,000, half of them are cavalry, the advantage is guerrilla warfare, but they also have a large number of artillery units for siege.

It's a very troublesome place.

Hu Chuyuan did his best to dispatch and block the only division of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ning Corps in the shortest possible time, holding two passes, and then the 15th Division of the Qingxu Corps arrived in Shanshan.

Because it was stationed in Baotou, this division was the only unit among the seventeen main integrated divisions equipped with a cavalry brigade.

The current military structure of the new army was designed by Hu Chuyuan with reference to the German army, and for the time being, the setting of corps, divisions, brigades, regiments, columns, companies, platoons, and squads was adopted, and each brigade had about 7,000 people.

The 1st Division of the Huguang Corps was stationed in Jinzhou, and its main role was to go north into the northeast, and it could also go south to defend Tianjin, so the 1st Division added an additional artillery brigade to the normal three regiments.

The role of the 15th Division, which was subordinate to the Qingxu Corps, was to be stationed in Baotou to monitor Mongolia and prevent the Russians from causing trouble in Mongolia, so a cavalry brigade was added to the normal infantry establishment.

This cavalry brigade is also the only cavalry brigade of the new army in Hu Chuyuan's hands, and it is still nominally under the control of Zhang Zhidong...... At least that's what Zhang Zhidong and the others think.

The Gan army suffered heavy losses, collected the remainder, and successively left more than 5,000 people, and the baggage was thrown cleanly, and more than 100 howitzers were all cheapened by the Yarkand department.

This really annoyed Hu Chuyuan.

In a fit of rage, he still withdrew Dong Fuxiang and became a governor of Xinjiang Province with no real power, reintegrating the rest of the Gan Army into a cavalry brigade and transferring the establishment to the 24th Division of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ning Corps.

The general soldier of the 24th Division was Ha Peiying, a native of Longxi, Gansu, of the Hui nationality, who went to Beijing at the age of 17 to participate in the martial arts test, and later stayed in Beijing to learn Baguazhang and Yang's Changquan (Taijiquan) with others, and then was recommended by Wang Zhengyi to Li Cunyi.

Because this person is quite willing to join the army, both civil and military, Chen Shanyuan recommended him to go to Jiangxi Military Academy.

In 1890, Hu Chuyuan intended to train a group of Mongolian and returning generals, and just as he graduated from the Jiangxi Military Academy, he specially approved him and many other minority students to go to Berkeley Military Academy for further study.

In 1894, he returned to China to be awarded the title of Registered General, and after four years of training in the Third Division of the Huguang Corps, he was sent to Lanzhou to organize the 24th and 25th Divisions of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo Corps, and prepared the Lanzhou Army Academy in Lanzhou.

According to Hu Chuyuan's plan, it was not until at least 1905 that the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo Corps would be expanded to the size of one integrated division and two regular divisions, and then the Gan Army would be eliminated and the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo Corps would be responsible for garrisoning the northwest.

In short, everyone has their own destiny, and sometimes, you can't predict it yourself.

The world also has the fate of the world, and no one can predict it.

Who would have thought.

Now there is no other choice, Hu Chuyuan can only test Ha Peiying and the young people cultivated by the Lanzhou Army Academy in the war.

After the 3rd and 5th Divisions of Huguang, the 15th Qingxu Division, and the 24th Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo Division arrived in Turpan one after another, the situation gradually stabilized, and Hu Chuyuan transferred the entire command center to Turpan, and transferred the 3rd Huguang Division and the 15th Qingxu Division to Jiadeguan and placed them under the command of Li Kaiye, and the 5th Division of Huguang was solely responsible for defending the Houxia Pass and holding the crossing from Ili to the Turpan Basin.

The 24th Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo Division was left at the headquarters of Turpan by Hu Chuyuan, and Ha Peiying was asked to continue to send people to draw troops from the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo region, and concentrate them in Turpan by rail for new recruit training, with cavalry as the main direction, to prepare for the general attack in the later period.

That night, Li Kaiye hurriedly arrived in Turpan.

After entering the camp of Hu Chuyuan's rear headquarters, he stepped forward to give Hu Chuyuan a military salute.

This person is very cunning, and he is directly exempted from half-kneeling worship.

To a certain extent, this is the prerogative of their group of commanders of the new army.

Hu Chuyuan was discussing the next step with Ha Peiying, Sun Daoren, Lan Jianshu and others, and Dong Fuxiang, who was transferred back, was also accompanied here.

Seeing that Li Kaiye was safe and sound, Hu Chuyuan was like taking a reassuring pill, and immediately asked him to sit down and asked, "How is the situation at the front line?" ”

Li Kaiye did not hide it, and replied expressionlessly: "The opponent's artillery strength is very concentrated, and the casualties are relatively heavy, I came to Lord Shoufu this time, just to hope that Shoufu will approve and let me replenish the strength of 7,000 troops from the Huguang Reserve Division, and it is best to set up a supply center in Lanzhou to draw people from Lanzhou at any time." ”

Hu Chuyuan said: "You can rest assured that since I am here, I will naturally help you do it." I'm going to let Sun Daoren go to Lanzhou, and I'll be responsible for being your logistics guard. ”

Li Kaiye let out a rare laugh, raised his eyebrows coldly, and laughed a little arrogantly: "I knew that Lord Shoufu was sitting behind me, so I didn't have to worry about other things." ”

Hu Chuyuan asked, "What's the situation on your side?" ”

Li Kaiye frowned slightly, and said: "The opponent is still relatively powerful, I tried to lure him into rushing into the pass, but the result was unsuccessful." Now that the snow is falling heavily, it will not be convenient to start a war in the past few months, so I just need to adjust...... However, even if it is delayed until the beginning of next spring, I will fight a few large-scale raids head-on, and it will be very troublesome later. So, I think it's just dragging, unless our cavalry forces can keep up. ”

Hu Chuyuan thought about it, he was already prepared in his heart, he just wanted to see if Li Kaiye had any special methods.

He knew that Li Kaiye was a very smart person, and as long as he could choose another way, he would definitely be able to think of it.

At the moment, Hu Chuyuan couldn't help but be a little disappointed, but he was not in a hurry, so he said: "Okay, the enlightenment movement is at a critical juncture, and a new constitution must be finalized this year, and a formal alliance agreement with Britain must also be negotiated, I am afraid that I will not be able to stay here for a long time." I've thought about appointing you as Commander-in-Chief of the Overseer, and I'll leave it all to you. When the time comes, I will personally return to Turpan to support you in an all-out war. ”

At this point, he paused for a moment and said, "I think, when the time comes...... We need to be ready to fight the Russians! ”

Li Kaiye thought for a moment and said, "I think it's ...... The Russians may come to the west and attack the east, maybe in the northeast, and their railway has been built to Kamensk, where it is easier to transport troops...... What's more, they still have allies there to flank back and forth. ”

Hu Chuyuan sneered a little and said, "Leave the affairs of Manchuria to Governor Ronglu to consider, let's handle the affairs of Xinjiang Province first...... I'll take precautions. ”

Li Kaiye said: "That's fine." The affairs of Xinjiang Province, Lord Shoufu don't have to worry too much. According to my estimates, the opponent may not be able to hold out for long. They should come to us through Russia and France to negotiate, so leave them alone. These rebels had no economic base at all, and were paid for by France and Russia for their funds, equipment, and supplies. As long as we hold out until the number of cavalry of the new army is sufficient, we can kill it back immediately. In terms of the quality of individual soldiers, the overall quality and the level of equipment, including the reasonable surname of equipment and the unified surname, the gap between them and ours is not small. I saw that they have three kinds of 150mm caliber howitzers alone, with different diameters, ballistics and multiples, and even old-fashioned rack guns, rifles, they are also equipped with at least four types, and there are actually two different specifications of machine guns, there are French-made Habegkais, and there are also Maxim machine guns, and the supply must be a very big problem. They don't have much money themselves, and they suddenly mobilize 70,000 or 80,000 troops, and if these people don't have military salaries, I don't think it's justified, and if they do, it's a big expense. If they can't hold on, they will rob, and as soon as they start robbing, we will not be far from victory. ”

He said so much in one breath, it was nothing more than one sentence -- it is not easy to fight for the time being, and delaying it is the best way.

Hu Chuyuan just smiled and said, "Okay, you can guard here, I'm not in a hurry." ”

He now understands why Zuo Zongtang dragged on for so long, the people in the northwest are poor and fierce, and dragging it down is the best way, and dragging it out until the opponent would rather be a bandit than fight, then he won.

The key here is to compete for the hearts and minds of the people, they are local people, of course, it is easy to get the hearts of the people, but once they become bandits, the hearts of the people will be transferred to the imperial court.

Hu Chuyuan left Li Kaiye overnight, and continued to talk about some specific details in the evening.

The next day, as soon as Hu Chuyuan sent Li Kaiye back to the front, Ding Bingqian, the new governor of Xinjiang Province who had been temporarily drawn, arrived, got off the train in the dust, and Ding Bingqian also hurried to Hu Chuyuan's camp.

Although Turpan is an oasis, it is also relatively desolate, and many years later it is completely incomparable, and now it seems that it is not as large as a town in the east, and there are many vendors.

The desolate and desolate houses are all made of mud and sand, and they don't worry about being washed away by the rain, which has never rained much anyway.

The water here mainly depends on the snow water that melts in the spring, after planting a season, it is impossible to have more water in the autumn, planting crops is busy in vain, especially planting fields, the fields are not able to grow, planting trees is still a good job, picking up some fruits for nothing, and the yield is not high.

Hu Chuyuan lived near the Yaerhu Hui Temple, and there was a large family that vacated their large courtyard and contributed it to him, and also sold a lot of family property, and organized a Uygur regimental training unit of more than 1,000 people in the local area, and wanted to follow Hu Chuyuan.

That big family will never understand what Hu Chuyuan's identity means, and Hu Chuyuan is not Dong Fuxiang back then, but Hu Chuyuan really needs friends from these ethnic minorities.

He gave the man Ilya Kurban the rank of Named Staff General and assigned him two young officers to help him train the troops.

When Ding Bingqian entered the courtyard, Hu Chuyuan was in the corridor of the courtyard watching several wives and children of Ilya Kurban weaving blankets there, and a beautiful eldest daughter was combing the sheep.

He seems to have gone back to his teenage years, when there was a cage of chickens in the yard of the family, and sometimes, his sister would sprinkle some rice to feed them, and he would stand at the door and watch the hens peck, swarming and grabbing.

Ding Bingqian quietly stepped forward, half-kneeling and worshipped: "Lord Shoufu! ”

Hu Chuyuan closed his eyes slightly, and said, "Get up, don't you use so many courtesies here!" ”

"Yes!"

Ding Bingqian agreed.

Among the officials at the level of governor, Ding Bingqian is very young, only 38 years old, one year younger than Hu Chuyuan.

Hu Chuyuan picked him at a glance, in the final analysis, because he was a Hui and a protégé of Xu Qichang, a great Confucian in the northwest. felt that this person did have some ability, Hu Chuyuan was even more attentive to his cultivation, personally supervised his study, and sent him to Germany to serve as a minister to Germany for two years.

This is a real lineage.

There happened to be a few benches nearby, so Hu Chuyuan invited him to sit down and asked about the journey.

After talking for a while, Hu Chuyuan turned to the topic and asked him, "Do you know why I transferred you to the governor of Xinjiang Province?" ”

Ding Bingqian said: "Xia Guan understands, because I am a Hui person. Religion is the same, and it's easier to govern here. ”

Hu Chuyuan nodded slightly, and said, "I will return to Jingshi in a few days, and the matter here will be handed over to you and Li Kaiye." Li Dujun is a cold guy on the outside and cold on the inside, very shrewd, ruthless and ruthless, and there will be no good end if you go against him. You are the person I cultivated, and as a governor here, he will give you some affection, if you don't give it, you have to bear it! ”

Ding Bingqian said sincerely: "Now is the time to beg him, and the subordinate officials must do their best to do things for him, and they will definitely not let him have anything dissatisfied." ”

Hu Chuyuan chuckled lightly and said, "Can you think like this...... That's for the best. There's a question I've been thinking about these days...... You are a Hui and live in Gansu, so you can tell me why Xinjiang Province and Northwest China always keep making rebellions? ”

Ding Bingqian thought for a long time, didn't dare to speak, was very cautious, and quietly sorted it out in his heart.

Hu Chuyuan was not in a hurry.

He has focused on cultivating Xie Yuanqi, Yang Shipai, Sun Zongyuan, Li Xiling, Ding Bingqian, Chen Kuilong, Song Yuren, Xu Shichang eight people, each of whom has different characteristics, Ding Bingqian's characteristic is that he is careful and cautious, very, very cautious, sometimes it always seems like he is half a beat slower than others, but this is precisely his advantage.

Ding Bingqian was silent for nearly ten minutes, and replaced someone else as the first assistant, so he slapped him with a big slap, Hu Chuyuan was different, he just waited very silently, without saying a word, quietly, quietly, quietly.

At this time, Ding Bingqian said: "If it is not my race, its heart will be different!" ”

Seriously.

Hearing these eight words, Hu Chuyuan also had the urge to slap Ding Bingqian.

What is the answer?

But when he thought about it carefully, he seemed to understand again.

He and Ding Bingqian asked, "You mean, they are wary of us and afraid that we will treat them badly?" ”

Ding Bingqian breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Yes." ”

Hu Chuyuan nodded slightly, and asked again, "That's all?" ”

Ding Bingqian said: "That's not all, it's really more detailed." There is also a more critical issue, and that is our congregation, we believe in Allah's halal. As for Halalism, in the final analysis, the Ottoman Empire's theocracy was the so-called caliphate and sultan. The Hadith of the Holy Book calls for halals everywhere to rise up and establish an Islamic state, so that the light will shine on the world and everyone will believe in Allah. This is also a big problem after all. The third point is that people are not poor, poor mountains and bad waters come out of the people, and if you don't do it, you can't do it, and you can't live if you don't do it. ”

Speaking of this, he paused for a moment and said to Hu Chuyuan: "My lord, we have to invest a lot of money in Xinjiang Province to do something big." We have been exploring minerals in Xinjiang Province over the years, Shanshan has very good coal mines and iron mines, and there are more coal mines in Changji, especially Shanshan, gold, silver, coal, iron, copper, manganese, chromium, lead, zinc are not lacking, and the reserves are very large, I propose to establish a large-scale industrial city in Shanshan, increase capital to build larger-scale karez, and even karez, promote the cultivation of cotton and grapes in the local area, and use the advantageous industries and Shaanxi and Sichuan to replace grain. Planting trees, resisting the desert, and striving to expand the size of the oasis. ”

"Hey!"

Hu Chuyuan laughed softly, he understood that his support and supervision over the years had finally been effective.

In 1886, the Jinshi of Bingyin's department were further advanced than those of Zhang Baixi and Qu Hongji's generation, especially those who defected to Hu Chuyuan, who were generally placed abroad by Hu Chuyuan to serve as ministers and counselors, so that they could increase their efforts to learn foreign knowledge.

Ding Bingqian has only lived in Germany for two years, he speaks German very fluently, and when he returned to China, he also brought tens of thousands of German books and materials, Hu Chuyuan knew at that time that this person would be very promising, although the reaction was always very slow and slow, and it would take half a day to say a word.

Hu Chuyuan was very happy in his heart, and said, "Since you have thought about it, then I will leave it to you to be responsible." That place in Changji is also very good, and when it is regained later, it will be renamed Ningzhou and Shanshan together as Zhili Prefecture, and it will be well governed. ”

"Well, Xia Guan understands!"

Ding Bingqian responded simply.

Hu Chuyuan continued to ask him: "What should you do about Islam?" ”

Ding Bingqian continued to be silent.

After waiting for a while, as if he had made a lot of determination, he said: "Change the doctrine, if you don't change it, you will never be at peace." ”

Hu Chuyuan asked, "How to change?" ”

Ding Bingqian said: "Replace the caliphate with imams and imams, preach the new Islamic modern liberalism of Muhammad Abd and Saeed Ahmed Khan, pursue the freedom of individual will and autonomy, and reorganize the liberal ideas of the Mu'athyazir school. ”

Hu Chuyuan had also been pondering the problems of Xinjiang Province and Gansu during this period, and he could generally understand what Ding Bingqian had said, that is, it was necessary to carry out a new reform of the Islamic sect and promote the birth of a new sect suited to this era.

This new sect will completely break away from the legacy of the four caliphs, gradually move away from politicization, and become purely religious, and replace the caliphs and sultans with prophets, who combine political and religious power.

Hu Chuyuan felt that this method was still relatively safe, so he nodded and said: "You will be responsible for this matter, what to do, you can sort out a detailed draft for me, you can rebuild a Muslim scripture institute in Shanshan, cultivate a suitable imam, and slowly promote it." When the opportunity is ripe, we will increase our efforts to promote it. ”

Ding Bingqian nodded silently.

This kind of thing is always full of countless unknowns, whether it can succeed or not, only time can know, Hu Chuyuan did not have too much hope, but he also hoped that this matter would succeed in the end.

Hu Chuyuan did not leave Xinjiang Province in a hurry, but together with Ding Bingqian, Sun Zongyuan, Dong Fuxiang, and others, he went deep into Turpan, Shanshan, Tuoxun, Kumish, Yanqifu, and other places to conduct on-the-spot inspections to check the living conditions of the Uygur and Hui people, as well as the level of economic and cultural development.

He formulated a set of long-term development strategies for Xinjiang Province, and the first task was to build underground water canals and a large number of small reservoirs to ensure water for local construction and development, strengthen soil and water protection and sandy land planting, prevent wind, heat and sand, and reduce the amount of water evaporation.

With the surplus of financial resources of the Qing political axe, it began to follow the example of Germany to increase investment in education, and Shanshan and Yanqi in Xinjiang Province are experimental places for promoting new education.

Whenever he went to a place, he would personally invite local Hui and Uygur leaders to hold meetings and exchange ideas with them and ask them about some things, and at the same time let them try their best to rest assured that after Xinjiang Province is established as a province, the central government will definitely vigorously support the construction of Xinjiang Province, and 40 million yuan will be invested in the construction of infrastructure in the first phase.

As the first auxiliary minister of the Great Qing Dynasty, he personally traveled to various parts of Xinjiang Province to lobby and pacify, which played a very key role in maintaining the stability of the local surname.

However, while Hu Chuyuan was busy running around for Xinjiang Province, the most brutal riot was brewing in the Central Plains since he came to power, and the Russians were causing trouble in Xinjiang Province...... To some extent, it just happened that the Chinese ignored the imminent arrival of this matter.

(To be continued)