Several generals who followed Han Zheng to Xuzhou are now receiving territory under Xuzhou, and Han Zheng's plan has never been told to a few people.

Therefore, after hearing the news from Han Zheng's side, he couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat, if it weren't for Han Zheng's repeated requests to let them honestly continue to do their own things below, I'm afraid they would have rushed over with a large number of subordinates by now.

However, the generals still personally sent their own guards to visit Han Zheng, and at the same time, they consciously arranged for hundreds of people to enter Xuzhou City and stay by Han Zheng's side.

However, they were driven back by Han Zheng the next day, and his only request now was for those few subordinates to absorb and digest the important strategic location of Xuzhou as soon as possible.

Next, when the domestic politics and military were in a downturn, various newspapers began to report on this incident in a big way, especially the Wanbei Daily, which had already become famous in the Yangtze River Basin, reacted in a timely manner, and told the whole story of the incident vividly, especially the small actions of Lu Jianzhang and the witness testimony were described in detail, and the photo in Han Zheng's hand was greatly expanded and placed on the front page of the Wanbei Daily!

Then, not to be left behind, other newspapers tried their best to dig up the inside news, and then quickly published it, and at the same time, they reported on Han Zheng's timely aftermath, saving the chaos, and helping the victims in time, plus Lu Jianzhang's reputation was really not very good, and suddenly the people were crusading against Lu Jianzhang.

Lu Jianzhang couldn't imagine that even if he died, he still didn't get a safe life.

Next, Han Zheng once again arranged for someone from the Civil Affairs Department to secretly contact Duan Qirui and send a copy of his heart, and he also wrote an urgent telegram and sent it directly to the Beiyang government, describing the "experience" of this matter on the envelope without any personal tone, as if he regarded himself as a bystander.

At the end of the telegram, he even pasted some gold on Lu Jianzhang's face, saying that the two got along well, and they didn't expect such a thing to happen overnight.

However, the letter did not say anything about the ownership of Xuzhou, and deliberately avoided this topic.

In this way, Han Zheng seems to have taken advantage of a chance incident to temporarily solve the problem of his dominance in Xuzhou, and then used public opinion to successfully mix up this matter.

However, after this incident, the assistance of the Beiyang Military Government to Han Zheng came to a sudden halt, and only a part of it was shipped a few days ago.

At the same time, even Duan Qirui began to deliberately dissociate himself from Han Zheng, although he accepted the gift in the end, he did not provide any intelligence information to Han Zheng.

Obviously, the north has begun to be wary of the emerging local warlord Han Zheng behind the scenes.

According to the news reported by the Civil Affairs Department, Han Zheng finally knew another thing, after Yuan Shikai received his telegram, he once slapped the table in the study, and scolded Han Zheng at the same time.

But later, I don't know what happened, Yuan Shikai seems to be carrying out some secret activities recently, and he didn't even pursue this kind of thing, just like that, this matter was inexplicably calmed down.

However, Han Zheng knew why Yuan Shikai would let go of this matter, that is, Han Zheng is now quite powerful, even if he can't fight against Yuan Shikai, but once Han Zheng is forced to the south, it will really be a big trouble, and it is really Yuan Shikai who is ready to punish Han Zheng's Northern Anhui Army by force, Han Zheng will not be too afraid, just because Yuan Shikai has no money!

To put it plainly, Yuan Shikai didn't have enough funds to maintain his army for a large-scale campaign!

As the saying goes, as soon as the cannon goes off, there are 10,000 taels of gold, this is not a lie, and Yuan Shikai is now spreading too many stalls, and the money is naturally unsustainable.

However, in the next daily report of the Civil Affairs Department, it attracted Han Zheng's attention - Yuan Shikai was carrying out secret activities, and the activities seemed to be related to the Japanese!

When he got the news, Han Zheng suddenly frowned, out of instinctive vigilance against the Japanese, he thought about it for a long time, but he really didn't think of any major political events in the second half of 1913, so he had to ask the Public Affairs Department to pay more attention to this matter in Beijing, and at the same time collect more information.

However, to say that Han Zheng had two conflicts with Zhang Xun and Lu Jianzhang in a row, it seems that some people in the south are the most happy to see it, and the series of wars in northern Anhui seem to have made some people very excited.

Since Yuan Shikai became more and more powerful in Congress, the great powers began to increase their support for Yuan Shikai due to the instability in the European region, wanting to make China their side as much as possible before the outbreak of war in Europe.

In this way, the south is quite uncomfortable at this time, but it is under great pressure.

This time it can be said that the internal struggle in Beiyang filled them with a bad taste of watching jokes, but they remembered Lu Jianzhang's massacre of revolutionaries, Zhang Xun's attack on Nanjing, and Han Zheng's seizure of control of the revolutionary party in Anhui.

But no matter how they guessed, Han Zheng was very excited about the future.

Time flies quickly, especially when a person is busy, and it is even faster.

In the last two months of 1913, Han Zheng had completely integrated the connection between northern Anhui and Xuzhou, the local garrison force was also rapidly strengthened, the initial results of public order management in various localities were achieved, and various organs were gradually improved.

It can be said that the entire northern Anhui and Xuzhou regions are like a starting engine, starting rapidly, and every day is a new atmosphere, and there are new changes every day.

Many local factories in Xuzhou were forced to close, and factories that were on the verge of closure restarted with the support of Han Zheng, and the streets regained popularity.

On the basis of the Xuzhou Ordnance Institute, the original scattered military production was all concentrated together, coupled with the recent collection of talents, the Ordnance Institute has been able to independently produce small-caliber and medium-caliber cannons, although the output is not high, this is indeed a perfect start.

But the only bad thing is that the cost is too much.

During this time, if the only thing that surprised Han Zheng a little was an incident that happened in January.

I don't know who the governor of southern Anhui was bewitched, and he actually launched an army, taking advantage of the fact that Han Zheng's army was distributed in Xuzhou, he brazenly united with the small warlords between southern Anhui and northern Anhui who were suppressed by Han Zheng, and concentrated on attacking Han Zheng's northern Anhui region!

However, this can only be regarded as a surprise, don't look at these people menacingly, but it is the local security army in Huainan and other places that take the lead.

How did these people confront Han Zheng's Northern Anhui Army?! When those people just started, Chen Feng, the brigade commander of the first brigade of the Han Zheng Division who stayed in northern Anhui, laughed at it, and even took advantage of this opportunity to launch a counteroffensive against the rest of northern Anhui, which made Cao Debiao and Li Muchan and others lose a lot of frustration because they couldn't go north, and they had long wanted to take down the rest of the Han Zheng army in northern Anhui.

Then Han Zheng once again transferred 3,000 regular troops from Xuzhou to support, and divided the Huainan troops into three routes, successively capturing Dingyuan, Changfeng, and Huoqiu counties.

The three-way army, led by Cao Debiao, sent troops from Dingyuan to Chuzhou to contain the enemy in the direction of Hefei; All the way from Changfeng to Hefei City, and the last army is in the other two armies under the solidarity, by Chen Feng personally led the main force of the army, from Huoqiu all the way around Hefei, close to Lu'an, before Hefei reacted to occupy the entire Lu'an area, and to the south to occupy Shucheng, the encirclement of Hefei by the three armies was officially completed.

This made Han Zheng, who saw the opportunity, let go again, and transferred garrison troops from the local area to form a detachment of 5,000 soldiers, supporting the front line, preparing to take the entire northern Anhui in one fell swoop.

And at this time, Hu Wantai, the nominal governor of Anhui, was finally afraid, and his army, which had not been fully mastered, suddenly fell apart in the face of this situation, and the support for Hefei was not a single soldier, and he sat back and watched Han Zheng break through Hefei and pull the battle line to the city of Anqing!

In the end, Hu Wantai had no choice but to ask for help from the southern provinces behind the recent incident, and because Han Zheng's troops were too close to Nanjing, therefore, driven by interests, more than 10,000 people from the southern coalition army supported Anqing, which made Han Zheng a little unsatisfied, but he also took advantage of this opportunity to finally infiltrate the Yangtze River.

The final result was that the south and Han Zheng became the winners, and the Han Zheng took the opportunity to take over almost the entire territory of northern Anhui, and the south took the opportunity to take over the southern part of Anhui and the richest areas along the river, which can be described as a great joy.

But the most unlucky is Hu Wantai, who just became the governor for less than half a year, he was tricked by the south, and with the tacit cooperation of Han Zheng, he withdrew from the stage of power, and was finally secretly killed by the Southern Revolutionary Party, and even the body was not found!

In 1913, the whole year was a long-tested year for the Northern Anhui Army of Han Zheng, and it was also a year of great harvest, not only the victory of the army, but also the rise of political status, the expansion of territory, and the enhancement of economic strength and economic foundation!

By the end of 1913, the regular army under Han Zheng had exceeded 20,000, and the local government was able to recruit 15,000 guards from the army at any time, making it a veritable local powerhouse.

Also in this year, Han Zheng's name was unconsciously associated with the governors of the southern provinces, the old-timers, and the main generals of Beiyang, and was about to become a first-level existence! (To be continued.) )