In war, benevolence and righteousness are the least valuable and have no value.

Hu Chuyuan never needed this kind of thing.

In contrast, he cares more about another list, from which he will select the right talents and form a new military department.

After countless thoughts, he finally decided that he could not and would never be able to assign the Hunan army to his own strength, even if he invested countless funds.

However, he had another way to solve this problem, and that was to form a Huguang corps outside the Hunan army. Focusing on the generals and veterans of the Hunan army, absorb the sources and generals of Hubei, and use the concept of the entire Huguang Corps to integrate them.

This plan flickered in Hu Chuyuan's heart for a long time, and began to be implemented very early, in the Nanchang Martial Arts School, Jiangning Martial Arts Academy, and Fuzhou Shipbuilding School, he began to slowly transfer Hubei students very early, consciously increased the training efforts, and successively sent them to Germany and the United States for further study.

For this reason, he pulled out Xiao Delong, the fierce general of Zuo Zongtang's old department under Wang Debang's account, and let Xiao Delong lead three Hunan battalions to be stationed in Port Arthur as the main force of the naval division and land battalion of the Beihai Allied Fleet.

He has a list of 307 young noncommissioned officers in Hunan and Hubei provinces who have been the best in the past five or six years, and 104 of them have studied at the Academies of the British, German, and American Navies and Army.

After roughly skimming through the list, Hu Chuyuan took out a locked iron box from the box and took out another list.

Here is a list of the Renaissance Society's list.

The Renaissance Society is a branch of the Chinese League, which hides the internal activities of the Self-Love Association of Overseas Students, mainly absorbing those Chinese young people studying abroad, with the purpose of "restoring China and creating a republic".

Comparing the two lists, Hu Chuyuan soon installed 55 members of the Renaissance Society among the more than 200 new young noncommissioned officers, half of whom were from the Berkeley Military Academy in the United States.

The Berkeley Military Academy of the United States is a comprehensive military academy sponsored by the All-American Chinese Association, which mainly employs American instructors, and separately hires some senior instructors from Germany and Britain in the two branches of the Army and Navy.

This military academy is the base camp of the Renaissance Society.

Hu Chuyuan was basically a revolutionary team to build at this time, and for the sake of safety, he also transferred Lu Guangquan, one of the first batch of young children studying in the United States, from the Philippine Reading Force to participate in the formation of this army.

After graduating in 1883, Lu Guangquan went to Germany for an internship and visited for half a year, and then participated in the establishment of Berkeley Military Academy as a Chinese instructor.

In September 1887, he led 13 of the first batch of graduates to the Philippines to organize the Filipino Chinese to carry out armed movements, and won several big victories in successive battles with the Spanish colonial army, laying a very good foundation for the Philippine Reading Movement.

After finalizing the two main responsible persons and the specific list, Hu Chuyuan invited Xiao Delong over, and the two talked privately for half an hour, and finally got Xiao Delong to agree, reorganize one battalion of the Hunan army he brought into three battalions, draw troops from Huguang, and form a prototype of the Huguang Corps.

At the beginning of May 1890, the 2nd Sendai Division and the 6th Kumamoto Division had completed the encirclement of Pyongyang, and successively encroached on several battalions arranged by Song Qing on the periphery, compressing the Huai army in Song Qing's hands to Pyongyang.

Siege is inevitable.

Around the same time, Lu Guangquan arrived in Lushun.

Whether a person can achieve a career, ability is one aspect, opportunity is more important, without previous opportunities, where does the ability come from?

Lu Guangquan is such a typical person, he is a very special person, at the age of thirty-three, he looks younger, handsome and heroic, looks particularly energetic, has an indescribable influence and vigorous spiritual temperament, so that others are always happy to cooperate with him.

Years of living in the United States made him look a little out of place with the people around him, his cheeks were always clean, and he was wearing an American-style military uniform without a military badge and braids, but that was fake, so he always had to wear a hat.

After getting off the boat, Lu Guangquan immediately went to the naval division Lu Ying to meet Hu Chuyuan, before in Kuching, the two had met once, and that time, Hu Chuyuan realized that Lu Guangquan was a military general with a great sense of the overall situation.

In the past few days, more than 600 recruits have been transferred from Huguang one after another, and dozens of young generals have arrived, some of them have just graduated from the two military academies in Changsha and Nanchang, some have graduated from the two artillery schools in Fuzhou and Jiangning, some have just returned from the United States, some have just returned from Europe, some have been transferred from Zeng Guoquan, and some have been transferred from the Fuzhou Ship Administration.

Therefore, the naval division also looks chaotic in the land camp.

Hu Chuyuan walked in front quickly, and saw Lu Guangquan with several young officers behind him, these guys were wearing some old American-style military uniforms, which looked very special.

Hu Chuyuan was really happy, he stepped forward and shook hands with Lu Guangquan, and said with a smile: "It's great that you can come over, come, let's go into the house and talk!" ”

Lu Guangquan smiled, nodded silently, and followed Hu Chuyuan and the others into the Naval Division Luying General Hall.

Hu Chuyuan often works here, and more than 100 grass houses have been temporarily built around it for the troops to camp permanently.

After entering the main hall, Lu Guangquan introduced the three young people he brought to Hu Chuyuan, all of whom were selected from the battlefield in the Philippines.

Hu Chuyuan took a cursory glance and saw that they were all around twenty-five or sixteen years old, and it was estimated that they were the young non-commissioned officers who first went to the Philippines with Lu Guangquan.

In particular, the establishment of the Fuxing Society in the establishment of the Qing army really requires the handling of one's own people among one's own people, and one must be extremely careful.

There are many people, Hu Chuyuan is not in a hurry to say anything, ask something, first pick them up and wash the dust, and then introduce Lu Guangquan to Xiao Delong, Ye Bojun and others.

waited until the evening before Hu Chuyuan left Lu Guangquan alone.

At this time, it is late at night, and Port Arthur has become extraordinarily quiet and quiet, and the sea breeze blows into the bay along the shore, making the night here cool as autumn.

Hu Chuyuan made a pot of good tea and poured it for himself and Lu Guangquan, and then asked Lu Guangquan: "How is the situation in the Philippines?" ”

Lu Guangquan said: "The northern island of Luzon has been stabilized, and the Spanish colonial army has basically retreated to the Visayas and Mindanao. In the Lingayen Bay and Manila Generation, we established four Chinese autonomous regions, three near the Lingayen Bay, including Baguio, and Manila has one. According to the results of our discussions with the Filipinos, the Chinese can gather in the central plain of Luzon, from Lingayan Bay to Manila, Quezon City is our junction and the capital of the Republic of the Philippines. ”

Hu Chuyuan nodded slightly, this point, he had said in advance, do not vainly try to occupy the entire Philippines, but concentrate on a relatively wealthy region.

He then asked, "After you leave, who will be in charge of the army over there?" ”

Lu Guangquan said: "Cai Jinzhang is in charge of the army, Deng Shicong is in charge of the navy, and the three of us are all fellow villagers in Xiangshan, and we were admitted to the Military Academy of the University of Virginia together." At the moment, the problem is not too big, we urgently need more assistance in the navy, and the army has a clear advantage. The Spanish colonial army and their native forces combined were only 7,000 men, and we had more than 30,000. At the moment, Deng Shicong is negotiating with the Spaniards to try to make peace in the back areas, in Mindanao and Visayas, the Chinese have very few territories, the number is even smaller, and the brothers are not very hardworking, so fighting for peace is the best way. ”

Hu Chuyuan snorted, able to understand Lu Guangquan's thoughts.

The number of Chinese in the Reading Force is about half, but the real main force is the Chinese troops, and it is not a good thing for the Chinese and Spain to fight for a long time.

Speaking of this, Hu Chuyuan remembered another thing, and asked Lu Guangquan: "How are things going on in Guam?" ”

From the very beginning, Hu Chuyuan did not think that China could occupy the Philippines for a long time, and there was no need for that, and Guam had to be occupied.

Lu Guangquan said: "He Yanliang is mainly responsible for the affairs of Guam, I am only assisting to help, at present, as long as the affairs of the Philippines are settled, the Spaniards must leave, and the affairs of Guam can also be decided." In the Guam area, we have thousands of Guangdong immigrants who have reclaimed wasteland and run a small port. Ouyang Geng said that the United States' determination to invade and occupy Hawaii is becoming more and more obvious, and he seems to have this intention, especially in the past two years, the expansion of the navy has been very violent, and last year he lined up cruisers to Hawaii to demonstrate. ”

Hu Chuyuan thought for a while and said: "I still have the same opinion, the expansion of the Americans is inevitable, and there is no need to have a direct conflict with them there, and the most important thing is to ensure the number and interests of the Chinese." I'll talk about that later. The domestic affairs have not been resolved, and I want to take care of other places in a hurry, but I really can't do it, that is, Guam is not far from us, so we can reach out and grab it. ”

Lu Guangquan nodded slightly and said, "That's okay, for now, we still have to focus on domestic affairs." ”

Hu Chuyuan didn't intend to be distracted, and continued to pay attention to the affairs of Hawaii, and instead asked Lu Guangquan: "I am in a hurry to invite you back to China this time, just to let you clean up the domestic problems with me, help me form a Huguang Corps, recruit troops from Hunan and Hubei provinces, and dispel the original dividing line between the Hunan army and the Hubei army...... Of course, our goal is also obvious, to do our best to assimilate this force. ”

Lu Guangquan pondered for a moment, and then said after a while: "There are domestic traditions in the country, I can only take the lead temporarily, and in the long run, I still have to find another person for this matter...... Over the years, I have been planning to go back to Liangguang to establish a new corps, which is based on the independent army I have developed in the Philippines. ”

Hu Chuyuan already knew his thoughts, and said, "It's okay to transfer temporarily." In the Huguang Corps I arranged, there are more than 20 graduates of Berkeley Military Academy, all of whom are members of the Fuxing Society from Hunan and Hubei, and with you and the three people you brought, there are 58 members of the Fuxing Society. It can be said that the foundation of the Fuxing Society is concentrated here, and you have to lead the team well. Speaking of which, many of them are your students. ”

Lu Guangquan breathed a sigh of relief and said, "If Mr. does it like this, it will be really easy to say and manage." If I had known that this was the case, I would not have been guilty of bringing three of the five Tigers of Luzon with me. ”

Hu Chuyuan asked a little curiously, "The three people you brought?" ”

Lu Guangquan laughed and said: "Actually, they are all my students, because the war is fierce, and they will fight, we Chinese will follow the example of the five tiger generals of Shu and call them the five tiger generals of Luzon, namely Li Kaiye, Yang Zongyue, Yang Zongli, Sun Yuanheng and Zhang Shiying, Li Kaiye is from Huanggang, Hubei, Er Yang is from Shunde, Guangdong, Sun Yuanheng is from Ruichang, Jiujiang, Jiangxi, Zhang Shiying is from Xiangshan, Guangdong, and is also my fellow villager. Li Kaiye and Sun Yuanheng are both graduates of the first phase of Nanchang Wubei Academy, it can be said that they are talents among talents, I brought them to you in particular, Zhang Shiying is my little fellow, it is easier to use, and I also brought it. ”

Hu Chuyuan was naturally very happy, and said with a smile: "Talents are rare, then let's stay, a few of them, I didn't expect it in advance, and I will let people get things done tomorrow, just say that they have been interning in the US Army all these years." Now that he has returned to the country after completing his studies, he will be given the treatment of a registered general soldier in accordance with the rules and regulations, and then start as a general. ”

Lu Guangquan also smiled and said, "It's not all about Mr. 's words, oh, I'll have to call you Senior Minister or Lord Qincha in the future, right?" ”

Hu Chuyuan nodded his head quite solemnly and said, "It's better to do this." ”

He was the honorary chairman of the Chinese League under the pseudonym "Gu Yinghua", and he also used Gu Yinghua's pen name to write various revolutionary theoretical articles.

In order to avoid revealing his identity, Lu Guangquan had better pretend not to know.

In the Philippines, Lu Guangquan can form a single army according to the characteristics of Western-style establishment, but not in China, the Qing court has not yet issued an order for formal military reform, but Hu Chuyuan and Guangxu Emperor Zaiyan made a discussion, and the experimental surname of a semi-new army.

The whole change was very small, and the battalion was still the backbone unit, but the size of each battalion was increased by about 3,300 men, and according to the system of battalions, columns, guards, companies, platoons, and sentinels, three battalions to five battalions were one army.

Since it is a naval division and land battalion, it is naturally a mixed battalion, and the artillery unit is at the company level.

Lu Guangquan was an expert in this area, and soon found out that there were only some adjustments in the name, and the overall establishment characteristics were still Westernized, and they were very German, and the entire army system regarded artillery as a key force.

Hu Chuyuan dared to do this, there was quite a reason and foundation, the Huguang Corps he wanted to prepare would be equipped with the best artillery and have a systematic artillery unit in the future.

(To be continued)