To Cai Yi? There is nothing special about the officers and colonels in the National Socialist Army. In my impression, this is at most a guy who once provoked the National Social Army, as for the later reconciliation between the National Social Army and the Yunnan Army? Now, apart from Beiyang, is there any warlord who has not taken the initiative to contact the National Socialist Army?

Therefore, when Cai Ye and Yan Guang walked together, the generals and officers of the National Social Army were not very surprised, and those civilian officials were even more happy to see such a thing, after all, if Yunnan could be included in the sphere of influence of the National Social Army, then at least the National Social Army would have no worries in the ground.

Just let Cai Ye be the chief of staff of the National Social Army? You must know that although the chief of the general staff does not lead troops, he theoretically belongs to the rank of general, and the commander of an army who commands troops is only a lieutenant general, and such a high military rank is given to an outsider but not given to them? Yan Guang's decision provoked a strong reaction within the National Socialist Army—————— you must know that there is no shortage of people in the National Social Army who are eyeing the position of chief of the General Staff.

Therefore, for Yan Guang's decision, except for a few people such as Wang Yaowu and Yang Xincheng, almost everyone else found Yan Guang, hoping that he could take back his life.

However, after all, the National Socialist People's Party was founded by Yan Guang, and the Sichuan Army and the National Socialist Army were even more so.

Of course, these generals don't dare to have an opinion on Yan Guang, after all, they are all pulled up by Yan Guang, but there is some friction between Cai Yi's —————— and the non-descendant lineage in the Guoshe Army, but after the Dian Army also joined the Guoshe Army, this attitude of exclusion was almost transferred to the Dian Army...

Yan Guang has no way to do this, after all, he can't change the attitude of others, fortunately, in the future, the National Social Army will also have the Hunan Army, the Jiangxi Army, the Zhejiang Army and other local armies to join, as long as the ingredients are mixed, I believe that this group of people will not have so much leisure at that time...

——————————

In Wuchang City, groups of Beiyang soldiers in gray military uniforms walked by with guns, but there were not many pedestrians on the street.

It's no wonder, after all, the National Social Army has arrived in Xiantao County, not far from Hanyang.

You must know that only 2 years have passed since the Yangxia Defense Battle of that year, and many people in the three towns of Wuhan still remember the war vividly. Now that the war is approaching, after the Nationalist Army defeated the Beiyang Army in Qianjiang, it is now under the city of Wuhan, and the people in the city are naturally fleeing and hiding, and the shops are even more closed and closed, and only those people who cannot escape are still in the city.

As a result, with the exception of Hankou, which was an important wharf, the rest of the Hanyang and Wuchang areas were almost desolate. (During the Republican period, the population of Hankou was equivalent to the sum of Hanyang and Wuchang...) ）

And the soldiers of the Beiyang Army stationed in the city also looked unmotivated when they walked on the silent and uninhabited streets. This will happen, firstly, because the whole city has become desolate, and some "entertainment venues" and "technical workers" in entertainment venues have naturally left the city, and now the defenders of the three towns of Wuhan have almost more than 100,000 people, and there is no place for entertainment to naturally become weak. Then there is the fear of the unknown future, you must know that since the defeat of the Qianjiang Battle, there are not many people in the Beiyang Army who still have expectations for the next battle, and even many people are thinking that if Beiyang fails, then where should they go...

For this kind of negativity that pervades the entire Beiyang Army, even if the officers above know about it, there is nothing they can do, first, because they themselves are the same, and then they don't know how to raise the morale of the soldiers, if it is in the past? Maybe they could take two days off and let them go to "some tech workers" for some comfort, but now?

The "technical workers" have already fled the war with the successful people, and there are only a handful of "entertainment venues" that are still open, which is not enough for the officers to share? But what if these soldiers are allowed to amuse themselves? Not to mention for the time being, how many people are left in the three towns of Wuhan? I'm afraid that the three Hubei army divisions stationed in Wuhan will also fight with them, after all, the Hubei army of those three divisions is also from Hubei, and it is impossible to let them mess around in Hubei, not to mention that now is not the time to mess around...

"Your Excellency!"

Just when the generals and officers didn't know what to do with the current morale, in front of the gate of the Hubei Military Governor's Palace, a group of guards saluted a carriage with their legs together.

"Well, hard work..."

Duan Qirui, who was sitting in the carriage, did not put on a show, and walked into the governor's mansion after nodding to the guards at the gate.

Because the battle is approaching, and there is no other good place in Wuchang City, the command post of the Beiyang Army is now set up in the Governor's Mansion of the Hubei Army. So although there is nothing to be seen outside, the lobby of the Governor's Mansion is already quite lively.

Discussing the current situation and discussing tactics, many officers even stood in front of the sand table and argued over where a stronghold on the defensive line should be deployed.

But even so, when they saw Duan Qirui walking in from the outside, the Beiyang officers in the lobby still stood up straight.

"Your Excellency!"

"Well, hard work..."

Saying the same thing as he had just said to the guards outside the door, after nodding his head to these officers, Duan Qirui walked in the direction of the second floor.

The lobby, which was originally calm because of Duan Qirui's arrival, fell into the atmosphere of the vegetable market again after Duan Qirui disappeared on the second floor.

Although the figure disappeared on the second floor, the voice downstairs still came into Duan Qirui's ears, and Duan Qirui didn't say anything about it, after all, in his opinion, the atmosphere should be like this when the officer was discussing things.

Not long after, Duan Qirui walked to the door of a room and knocked on it.

"Fourth brother, I'm in!"

Feng Guozhang is 6 years older than Duan Qirui, so Duan Qirui has always called Feng Guozhang his brother, plus Feng Guozhang is the fourth oldest in the family, which is why Duan Qirui will call Feng Guozhang the fourth brother.

And after hearing Duan Qirui's fourth brother, Feng Guozhang, who was still in the room, hurriedly replied.

"The door is unlocked, come in."

When Duan Qirui walked into the house, he found that Li Yuanhong was standing in front of the window with Feng Guozhang, looking at a group of Beiyang Army soldiers who had just walked by in the distance.

"Alas, the morale of the army is sluggish, and I don't know what to do."

Feng Guozhang naturally didn't know about the current situation in the army, but in addition to using heavy money to boost morale, Feng Guozhang didn't know what else to do, plus the heavy money sent by Yuan Shikai was still on the way, so Feng Guozhang and the others could only watch anxiously.

Looking at the appearance of Feng Guozhang and Li Yuanhong, Duan Qirui also smiled bitterly, but then took out a telegram and walked in front of the two.

"Fourth brother, good news, the telegram just sent by Gong Bao said that Tan Yanmin's Hunan army had moved to Hunan and Jiangxi."

"Oh? That's good news. Hearing the news, Li Yuanhong, who was followed by Li Yuanhong, who had a sad face on the side, was happy. After all, the Hunan army is known for being good at fighting, and Tan Yanmin himself is not a good stubble, if the Hunan army of that division can move to another place, it will be good news for them.

After all, there is no need to worry about the safety of the flanks, and there is no need to waste too many troops to guard against the Hunan army.

However, after hearing the news, Feng Guozhang's brows stretched slightly, but then they wrinkled again.

"It's just a division, it's not too much good news..."

After all, there are now ten infantry divisions of the National Social Army assembled in Xiantao, and although the Hunan Army is relatively good at fighting, it is incomparable with the threat posed by more than 100,000 National Social Army.

After seeing Feng Guozhang's face, Duan Qirui was comforting on the side.

"Fourth brother, no matter what, you don't have to waste a brigade of troops to go to the Hunan and Hubei borders, you can relax a little..."Now that Yuan Shikai is still alive, Li Yuanhong and Feng Guozhang don't have such a big conflict of interest, so the personal relationship between the two is very good.

After listening to Li Yuanhong's words, Feng Guozhang also nodded lightly, anyway, Feng Guozhang is also in his 50s, although his body is still old and strong, but his energy is not as good as before...

However, just when Duan Qirui and Li Yuanhong were still there to persuade Feng Guozhang to pay more attention to his body, a Beiyang officer suddenly ran in without knocking on the door.

"What's the matter?"

Looking at the officer with a flustered face, Duan Qirui said with some displeasure.

The officer, after taking two breaths, replied loudly.

"Three adults, the news just came from Hanyang, saying that the cavalry of the National Social Army was found on the guard post outside Hanyang."

"What?"

Hearing the officer's words, Feng Guozhang, Duan Qirui and the others were shocked.

"Didn't the spies say yesterday that the National Social Army was still resting in Xiantao? Why did I find a trace of the National Social Army in Hanyang today! ”

Looking at Feng Guozhang, who was full of emotion, the officer shrank his shoulders in fright.

He's just a messenger, how could he possibly know those things.

It's just that just when Feng Guozhang was about to vent his anger on him, an officer suddenly ran in from outside again.

"Three adults, the spies in Xiantao have just reported that the National Social Army has been drawn in the direction of Hanyang..."

Hearing the officer say this, Feng Guozhang and the others, who were originally about to shoot at that officer, turned their heads to look at the other officer.

"What do you say? The National Socialist Army has moved. ”

"That's right." The officer, who didn't know what had just happened here, nodded.

"Which divisions of the National Social Army are moving?"

"This is not clear, but the people in Xiantao are inquiring..."

"In this way..."Feng Guozhang and Duan Qirui glanced at each other, and finally Duan Qirui spoke. Fourth brother, what should come is always coming. ”

"Yes..."Listening to Duan Qirui's words, Feng Guozhang sighed. The fate of Beiyang depends on this battle, if you can win, it is naturally the best, if you don't win..."

Hearing Feng Guozhang's words, Duan Qirui and Li Yuanhong naturally understood what he meant. If you can't win, then the best result is that half of China will not be owned by Beiyang from now on.

Duan Qirui is naturally worried about this, after all, as the core figure of Beiyang, Duan Qirui and Beiyang's fate are tightly tied, if Beiyang's final fate really disappears, then his fate may not be much better.

As for Li Yuanhong? He didn't worry too much, after all, Li Yuanhong was not the core figure of Beiyang, at least in Yuan Shikai's eyes, he used to be one of the people who needed to be vigilant, so even if Beiyang finally fell, for Li Yuanhong, it was just to find another proprietor, of course, it was difficult to say whether he, the governor of Hubei, could keep it at that time, and this was also the most worrying thing for Li Yuanhong at the moment.

Feng Guozhang and Duan Qirui were naturally very clear about Li Yuanhong's careful thoughts, but they didn't want to say anything, after all, Li Yuanhong was not a person with them, even if they said anything, it would be impossible for Li Yuanhong to be of the same mind as them...

"Ugh..."

Looking at the sparsely populated streets outside, Feng Guozhang let out a long sigh again.

——————————

Just when Feng Guozhang, Duan Qirui and others were still worried about Beiyang and their own fate, Zhou Zining, the commander of the Third Cavalry Regiment of the Third Division, was taking his subordinates to look at the Beiyang outpost in the distance.

"It doesn't look like it's that far from Hanyang..."

As he spoke, Zhou Zining looked at one of the cavalry battalion commanders under him.

"Go, pull out that outpost for me."

"Yes!"

The cavalry battalion commander who followed Zhou Zining replied loudly.

It's just that there are about 300 people in a cavalry, and the outpost in the distance can only hold more than 10 people, and there are no weapons such as heavy machine guns in the outpost, so the cavalry battalion commander asked a cavalry company commander under him to go up with people after receiving the order. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the infantry battalion was 659 people, the artillery battalion was 576 people, the cavalry battalion was 363 people, and the cavalry company was 78 people. Using 363 people to deal with a post of only more than 10 people is definitely overkill, but if it is 78 people, it is just right...

And at the same time that Zhou Zining asked his subordinates to pull out the outpost in front of him, the soldiers in the outpost had also sent an alarm to the other outposts around him.

"Head, let's surrender..."

Although the outpost was built on a hillside, it was not steep, and there were only 14 soldiers in the outpost, which happened to be the size of a squad. In addition, when the task was assigned, no heavy weapons were assigned to this group of people, and the cavalry of the National Social Army below was composed of a cavalry regiment no matter how you look at it, since they must not be able to fight, and their duties have been completed, they naturally don't have to send them to death.

And after hearing the words of the deputy squad leader, the squad leader also felt that there was really no need to fight hard with the National Social Army below after looking at his subordinates.

It's just that just when he was about to give the order to surrender, he found that nearly a hundred cavalry had rushed up the hill below.

"Surrender, head!"

Seeing the more than 70 cavalrymen who were rushing up below, the deputy squad leader who shouted for the squad leader to surrender trembled in both legs.

This is true of the deputy squad leader, and even more so of the soldiers below.

After all, doing this kind of task that is almost dying already shows their status in Beiyang, and since their status is so low, there is no reason to work for Beiyang.

But just as the squad leader mustered up his courage and was about to walk out of the post and shout surrender, a bullet flew in his face and smashed the squad leader who had just opened the door into a stopper.

"Head!"

Seeing the squad leader like this, the deputy squad leader and more than a dozen other soldiers in the outpost all screamed.

At this moment, a few small sounds suddenly came, and while the soldiers in the outpost were still unknown, they saw a lot of black things flying over, although many of them flew off, but a few of them flew into the outpost...

"Boom!"

Before the soldiers could figure out what it was, the black thing had already exploded, and the power of the explosion, though only as powerful as a grenade, was enough to blow the outpost into ruins...

"Commander, that outpost has been pulled out."

"See." Zhou Zining nodded. "I didn't expect that grenade launcher sent down by the governor is really easy to use..."

After the revolver grenade launcher was officially finalized, the arsenal began mass production of this simple individual weapon. Of course, because of the relationship between production capacity and time, the production volume of this weapon is not very large, but in order to test the surname of this weapon in actual combat, after producing a batch of grenade launchers, Yan Guang still sent these launchers to the third division.

After all, among the National Socialist Army, the strongest combat effectiveness is the Third Division of the National Socialist Army, which originally belonged to the provisional 17th Town. Because of this, Zhou Zining's cavalry regiment was also assigned a lot of grenade launchers.

"But I really didn't expect that in the end, I still relied on the help of that gambling friend to become the head of the cavalry regiment..."

Sitting on horseback, looking at the outpost that had become a ruin in the distance, Zhou Zining, who had become the commander of the Third Cavalry Regiment, smiled bitterly.

Because he couldn't understand why the man he met on the passenger ship with great luck ended up becoming the governor of the Sichuan military and political axe, the leader of the National Socialist People's Party—————— and his own immediate boss.

As Yan Guang's former gambler, now in addition to Zhou Zining becoming the commander of the cavalry regiment, Chen Yuguo and Zhao Wenping also serve as the commanders of the infantry regiment respectively, but one of these two people is in the fifth division and the other is in the sixth division...

Because of the relationship between positions, the companions who used to get together often are not always able to meet now.

"Alas, it's really unpredictable..."

Just when Zhou Zining was still sighing there, an officer suddenly rode up behind him.

"Regiment commander, the division commander just sent a message asking you to pull out all the Beiyang Army posts along the way."

"The order of the division commander?"

Zhou Zining nodded.

"You go and reply to the division commander, just say that Zining will know all the Beiyang outposts on the periphery of Hanyang before the division commander and them arrive..."

"Yes!"

After the officer replied to the order, Zhou Zining looked at the other three battalion commanders.

"You have heard the commander's order."

"I heard you!"

"Okay, let's do it!"

"Understood!"

In a short time, Zhou Zining's cavalry regiment was divided into four parts, three of which were advancing in three directions, leaving only Zhou Zining's regimental headquarters and the same group of cavalry remaining at the regimental headquarters.

The Battle of Wuhan officially began...

(To be continued)