In July 1910, there seemed to be a sudden reconciliation between the Manchu clan and Song Biao.

At this time, Zaifeng still believed that his strength was much stronger than Song Biao, after all, eight of the nine governors of the country were Manchurian, with new armies in all provinces of the country, and he had the strength of twenty-nine towns, and Song Biao's full battle was only the scale of ten towns.

Yin Chang and Liangbi had some special networks in the three eastern provinces, and they had a certain understanding of the strength of the Northeast New Army, and he also hoped that the Qing army and the Northeast New Army would go to war, and constantly provided Qing Zhengaxe with all kinds of spicy information about the Northeast New Army, sold a large amount of arms and equipment to Qing Zhengaxe, and even provided loans and inducements, which played a vital role in the Manchu clan's preparation for the new army.

In this case, Zaifeng is not afraid of Song Biao on the one hand, and on the other hand, he really needs to buy more time, and when he has a new army in the forty-two towns of the country, and the banner guards dominated by Manchu and Mongolia are full, and the equipment is more sophisticated, he will consider the real Song Biao.

Everyone who stands at the pinnacle of this era, even if it is because of a coincidence, will feel that he is eloquent, a few years ago, Song Biao needed time to stabilize his power and expand his advantages, and now it is the turn of Zai Feng and Liangbi to think so.

This was the main factor in the Manchu clan's decision to temporarily ease relations with Song Biao.

I am afraid that the development of the situation is far beyond the expectations of Zaifeng and Liangbi, for the simple reason that when Song Biao intends to make a quick decision, this delaying strategy will only paralyze them, not Song Biao.

In the second year of Xuantong, July 1910 was such a bizarre time period.

The rubber bubble in Shanghai finally burst, under the control of various strange factors, Cai Naihuang, the Taoist of Shanghai, who originally intended to protect the business of Shanghai Qianzhuang, was suddenly dismissed and investigated, and more than 6 million official banks originally existed in Shanghai Qianzhuang were transferred to the China International Commercial Bank, at this time the Shanghai Qianzhuang had lost tens of millions of taels of silver inventory, and most of them had already been damaged, and after this, the whole army was wiped out, and then the official bills and silver bills run turmoil caused by it spread all the way to the whole country, and even the Far Eastern Bank was not exempt, only in May. Far Eastern Bank has already suspended business under the auspices of Zhang Kangren.

The bursting of the rubber bubble, the bankruptcy of the Shanghai Qianzhuang, and the run on official bills broke out almost at the same time, and even this month, the Manchu clan continued to step up preparations for the new army, and the military funds were transferred from various places, and the marriage was really promulgated.

The most outrageous thing is the second national petition of the constitutionalists, and in Shandong, Zhejiang, and Beijing, large-scale patrol battalions have taken place to suppress student petitions, and the matter is very serious, especially in Zhejiang, where several students have died.

In previous years, I only heard that there were floods in Huguang, and no one thought that there would be a drought, and after the financial turmoil in Shanghai, trade in various places came to a standstill, and it was not possible to buy grain from the northeast to stabilize grain prices as in the previous two years, and Huguang was the granary of the whole country, Huguang was hungry, and the whole country was faint, and the grain prices in various places rose accordingly, and the price increase was a bit too outrageous.

What is even more outrageous is that the Sichuan Railway Company and several other commercial railway companies have participated in rubber stock speculation, suffered heavy losses, and simply cannot afford to continue to undertake railways.

As a result, July 1910 became the most chaotic year in the history of the late Qing Dynasty.

Among these messy events, there is one thing that Song Biao did not think of before, this matter was originally very small, the cause was that Hunan in the first year of Xuantong floods and droughts, Changsha grain prices rose sharply, and so on to Xuantong in April of the second year of drought again, Changsha grain prices rose twice compared with previous years, a family in the south gate of Changsha, the man went out to work, a day of hard work earned 80 yuan, let his wife go out to buy a pound of rice.

This wife went to the rice shop, because there are a few pennies that are not standard money, that is, money minted in other provinces, Hunan is not universal, the wife had to go back to change money, and when she came back, the price of rice had risen to 85 wen a catty.

Because there is no money left at home, the child is waiting to be fed, the wife is ashamed and jumps into the river to commit suicide, and the two children around her cry by the river, and in the evening, the husband goes to the river to find the child, after hearing about this, the husband is disheartened, and also takes the two children into the river to commit suicide.

The second day, the neighbors around the family were furious, so they carried the bodies of a family of four to the rice shop, and asked the owner of the rice shop to pay for the coffin, but the boss did not agree, and the result was that in this day, the price of rice rose from 85 Wen per catty to 90 Wen, and then another woman jumped into the river because of the quarrel between the rice price and the store, so that the entire Changsha City fell into a riot, and the local Taoist platform declared that daring to go against the court was a rebellion, and the rebellion would be beheaded, and the result was really completely out of control.

Changsha is a place where the people are fierce, and it has always been an important place for the spread of the Restoration Society, and the local Hunan Army Middle School and Primary School are all run by members of the Liberation Society, and other new schools are also the focus of the secret activities of the Liberation Society, and Zhang Xianren, the co-commander of the 25th Mixed Association of the Fresh Army stationed in Changsha, and more than half of the non-commissioned officers inside are also members of the Liberation Association and the Alliance.

At first, the students and squires were organized first, and there were indeed a lot of rebellious people in various places, and the 25th Mixed Association could not be held, and resolutely did not suppress the turmoil in various parts of Changsha, until June, the situation was chaotic to the extreme, and the Hunan Governor Cen Chunbei was forced to report to the imperial court, I don't know how the War Department Shangshu Liangbi and the Governor of Huguang decided, probably considering the special relationship between the 25th Mixed Association and the New Army of the Eighth Town of Wuchang, and the 25th Association did not directly rebel, so the 27th Mixed Association in Nanchang, Jiangnan was sent to quell the rebellion, the distance between the two places is indeed relatively close, and there is a Pingxiang railway in the middle of the road, which is roughly the reason.

As a result, this matter was really wrong, Zhu Qian, the co-leader of the 27th Mixed Association, was a native of Zhejiang, and he was also a member of the Liberation Association during the current period, earlier than Zhang Xianren joined the Liberation Association.

Previously, Zhu Qian had received news that Xiao Xingheng, the commander of the 21st Town, had agreed to the uprising, plus Jiang Zungui's Zhejiang Mixed Association, and the troops of the three brigades were all over the world in Hangzhou, sending the First Association to attack Suzhou and unite the 23rd Association in Suzhou to revolt.

Zhu Qian's task is to stay still for the time being, if the new army of Wuchang goes south to the south to suppress it, Zhu Qian will take the opportunity to launch an uprising, reach Hanyang through Pingxiangye all the way, and occupy Wuchang.

After these years of development, the Guangfu Association has become extremely influential among the new army, new schools, and squires in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

As a result, Zhu Qian was temporarily transferred to Hunan, so he had to urgently discuss with Zhang Xianren, because the situation in Changsha was already very chaotic, either send troops to suppress it, or directly take advantage of the situation to revolt, anyway, the Zhejiang uprising was imminent, and they persuaded the non-commissioned officers of the whole army on the night of the meeting to hold an uprising together, killing the governor of Hunan Cen Chunbei and the local Daotai, and calling on the people to kill all the way to Beijing, eliminate corrupt officials, and abolish the Manchu Dynasty.

Zhang Xianren said that after the Jinghan Railway was repaired, the grain from Huguang was transported to Beijing to supply the Manchurians, and they would rather starve to death the Hunan people, and only by killing all the Manchurians, would the Hunan people have food to eat.

The matter was out of control.

Qing Zheng Axe initially did not expect the 27th Concord and the 25th Association to rebel at the same time, they were worrying about too many things, the students were killed, the people of Jingshi Zhili were furious, and Yin Chang, who had no military power, instead carried the black pot for Shang Shuliangbi of the War Department, and could only swallow his stomach with teeth and blood, and was removed from the position of Governor of Zhili, Liangbi acted as Governor of Zhili, and the culprit shook hands and continued to suppress student petitions.

The financial turmoil in Shanghai has spread all the way to Zhili, because the Northeast Bank and the Far Eastern Bank suspended the exchange of the Kanto silver yuan in the Guannai area in advance, the provinces have tightened the bank on a large scale, the copper yuan has flooded again, and the indiscriminate issuance of silver bills in the provinces has been frantically run again.

In this case, Hunan actually revolted.

Holy.

So, no one could have predicted everything that would happen in the situation.

Just before the Hunan uprising, Song Biao was completely unaware of this, and he was secretly arranging for the secret service to track down those rubber stock swindlers in the Shanghai securities market, and the most powerful swindlers were none other than Mai Benley, Kadoorie, Bai Kewen and his son, and the secret service had already begun to lay out for them half a year in advance, and had been chasing them to Hong Kong and Singapore and other places, and they had started hijacking and kidnapping tickets in these places.

There are many masters of bandits on the side of the secret service, and Bai Kewen and his son were caught on a freighter fleeing to France, and when it was inconvenient to hijack, they could only force them to sign a huge bill of exchange, and then kill and bury them in the coal pile.

That night, Song Biao went home from work early without any expectations, and after having dinner at home, he planned to take a walk in the garden with Shu Xuan, because there was just a rainstorm in the afternoon, and the cool breeze was blowing in the evening, which was a good time to go out for a walk.

As soon as he and Shu Xuan were about to go out, Jiang Fangzhen, Chen Qicai, and Shu Fangde all ran in in a hurry, and several people looked panicked.

Song Biao was talking to Shu Xuan about Mrs. Sheng's birthday gift, he had already asked people to prepare a pair of gold bracelets inlaid with rubies and a pair of jade bracelets, I don't know which pair Shu Xuan planned to give, Shu Xuan said that he would give the gold bracelet to Mrs. Sheng, and the jade bracelet wanted to be kept for his mother.

Song Biao listened to Shu Xuan's words, his eyes looked at these people who hurriedly ran in, and at a glance he knew that something big had happened, Shu Xuan didn't say anything halfway through, and said to Song Biao: "You go get busy first, I'll take Yuanyuan home to take a look." ”

Song Biao nodded, gave Li Dahan a look, and motioned for him to take a few people to follow Shu Xuan's mother and daughter to the Shu family compound.

Shu Xuan didn't leave, Jiang Fangzhen and they were very frightened, but they didn't dare to say it, until Shu Xuan took her daughter out of the yard, Song Biao and Jiang Fangzhen asked, "What's the matter, can you come with three people?" ”

Jiang Fangzhen was a little excited, but he was also surprised and said: "General seat, the 25th Association in Hunan and the 27th Association in Jiangxi have revolted, they are all brothers of the Restoration Society, originally said that the Wuchang New Army passed, but as a result, Zhu Qian's 27th Association was sent to Changsha, Zhu Qian and Zhang Xianren combined, the two sides jointly revolted, killed the governor Cen Chunbei in the afternoon, and now occupies the entire Changsha City, and also sent a part of the troops to attack Yueyang, preparing to unite the Hubei New Army to occupy Huguang. ”

Song Biao was also surprised, because the Hubei New Army was not a key area for the development of the Restoration Society, but it was not a wrong decision to attack Yueyang, because Changsha had no danger to defend, and if Yueyang was captured, he could hold it for a period of time, and wait for other places to revolt, reflecting each other.

This time came too early, in terms of the Hangzhou Uprising, although Xiao Xingheng had spent a period of time in the Northeast New Army in the early days, he also had close contacts with the Restoration Society, and it might take a little time for him to decide to revolt immediately.

What to do?

Song Biao was a little confused, which was a bit too advanced, because his arrangement was to revolt at the end of September, and he responded in mid-October, with at least half a month's persistence in between.

At this time, the construction of the Guangdong-Hanzhou railway was in a mess, there was a railway from Wuchang to Yueyang, and there was no railway from Yueyang to Changsha.

The towns of the new army of the Qing army are generally well equipped, while the associations are still in the process of being formed, and they can only be merged into towns after they are fully equipped.

Because of the long-term cultivation of Lan Tianwei and the Alliance, the Wuchang New Army has many members of the Alliance, and there is cooperation between the Restoration Association, and there have been divisions in recent years, so it is really difficult to say what the specific situation will be.

In short, things came too quickly.

After thinking for a while, Song Biao decided to deal with it cautiously, and called Jiang Fangzhen and them into the study to sit down and discuss the matter together.

The arrow is on the string and has to be sent.

When things got to this point, Song Biao was not allowed to play cards as planned, he carefully weighed the pros and cons in his heart, and thought about it for a full ten minutes, and then said to Jiang Fangzhen: "Send a telegram to Tao Chengzhang, let him personally persuade Xiao Xingheng, and tell Xiao Xingheng that a week after the Zhejiang uprising, the Northeast New Army will definitely move south." Changsha and Zhejiang fought against the Qing Dynasty together, and it was difficult to take care of the Qing Dynasty, even if he wanted to send the Beiyang New Army to suppress it, it would take more than a week to go to Zhejiang, and as long as he stabilized this week, it would be the first contribution to the restoration of the revolution. ”

After a pause, he added to Jiang Fangzhen: "Let him not worry about the Beiyang Army, as long as our army moves into the customs, we are sure to annihilate the main force of the Beiyang Army within a week." ”

Jiang Fangzhen was overjoyed and said: "General seat, as long as you say this, the Xiao command will definitely revolt, the strength of our Northeast New Army is so strong, all the new armies are very clear, as long as our army moves south, even if it does not annihilate the Beiyang Army, the new armies in the rest of the provinces already have the strength to defend one side." ”

Song Biao thought for a while and said, "Actually, what we have to worry about now is what to do if they sit big, and now we definitely can't take care of so much, let Xiao Xingheng revolt first." This person has a lot of dealings with us, and he is not a person who is greedy for money and forgets his righteousness, don't talk about money, just say that it is necessary to strengthen the country, China is already expected to become a great power in the world, and the rejuvenation of China is only in his move this week, not to mention that there are other armies to help. ”

Jiang Fangzhen nodded solemnly, and went out to do things first.

Song Biao turned around and asked Shu Fangde to take out the map of the whole [***] affairs that the Intelligence Department had only sorted out again in April, and check the situation of the new army in the provinces, the Restoration Association is currently mainly centered in Zhejiang, and has developed in the seven provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, and Hubei, although the rest of the provinces have a certain number of members, but they have not yet played a leading role, and the Alliance will take the two Guangxi as the center, and the efforts made in Hubei will be even more powerful than that of the Restoration Society.

The Liberation Society is better than having sufficient funds, is good at being well-organized, and can secretly develop in various places, while the League is fighting everywhere and is famous, while the Liberation Revolution and Mr. Sun's Sanming Cooking Revolution have their own strengths in theory, and the personnel they absorb are also different.

Generally speaking, Jiangsu and Zhejiang are the strongest areas of the Restoration Society, followed by Jiangxi, Hui, Hunan, Fujian, and Hubei Provinces, and the three eastern provinces are mainly the headquarters of the Xinhua Society and the Chinese Revolutionary Association.

In terms of military strength in various places, among the new armies of the 20 towns and the 16th Association of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the Beiyang Army was the strongest, followed by the eighth town of Wuchang, followed by the surrounding towns of Zhili.

Zaifeng had always felt that his strength was stronger than Song Biao, and to a large extent, he was counting the number of heads, and felt that he was far stronger than Song Biao, but he never thought that the more troops on his side, the higher the risk of Manchu death.

Because of the extremely rapid expansion of the new army in various localities, most of the co-ordinators, commanders, and instructors in various localities are members of the revolutionary party, either the Liberation Party, the Republican Party, and various other revolutionary members in a broad sense, and all kinds of revolutionary organizations have also developed extremely rapidly among the middle and lower-level officers and soldiers; even in the 19th town garrisoned in Kunming, Yunnan, there are more than 1,000 members of the Guangfu Party, while in the 21st town in Hangzhou, almost 70 percent of them are clear members of the Guangfu Party, including the control system and the two co-unifications, and more than half of the 23rd mixed association in Suzhou also belongs to the Guangfu Society.

No matter which new army the Qing Zheng axe mobilized to suppress it, except for the six towns of Beiyang, which had been controlled by Yuan Shikai and the Manchus, the rest had more or less members of the revolutionary party, and once the balance collapsed, the Qing Zheng axe would perish.

The only question now is how Song Biao can quickly control the situation in the whole country after the elimination of the Manchus.

Song Biao looked through the map, once Jiangsu and Zhejiang revolted, the new army of the ninth town stationed in Nanjing must go south, and the control of this town was Xu Shaozhen, this person was born in the old army, not a revolutionary party, but Ding Hongfei in the two co-unifications was the person who was installed in the past by the Guangfu Society.

Compared with Suzhou and Hangzhou, there are fewer members of the Restoration Society in the New Army of the Ninth Town, and if there is no Xu Shaozhen's turn, it is theoretically impossible to affect the whole army, or there will be some exceptions and the like.

If Xu Shaozhen really goes south, it will take two or three days for the whole town to go south by train, and with the rectification and deployment, it will only be possible to arrive in Hangzhou or Suzhou in a week at the earliest.

In other respects, if the Northeast New Army suddenly launches an offensive a week later, it is first necessary to seize Shanhaiguan and control the Jingfeng Railway, at least the Luanzhou-Fengtianfu Railway, and the main force will break through as quickly as possible, using Luanzhou as the base point to ensure the continuous influx of follow-up troops, and the two infantry divisions and one cavalry division of the main force of the front line will advance separately and attack all the way along the railway, and fight a decisive battle with the Beiyang New Army in the Langfang and Wuqing areas.

The first cavalry division went south to assault Baoding, defeated Baoding, and seized the throat of the Jinghan Railway southward, plus the second cavalry division seized Zhangjiakou, the main force of the Jinzhou patrol army occupied Tianjin, and the first, second, and third infantry divisions and the subsequent second artillery brigade concentrated on encircling the Beijing division.

Considering that the Manchus and the Praetorian Guards might defend the Beijing Division, an artillery regiment of the First Artillery Brigade would also follow the Second Artillery Brigade to the south and directly smash Yanjing City all the way.

After that, 2/3 of the main force of the Northeast New Army, with a patrol army of more than 100,000 people, went south, occupied Shanxi, Zhili, Shandong, and Henan, and joined forces with the Guangfuhui New Army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and continued to fight for control of Huguang.

This is Song Biao's first battle plan.

During this period, Song Biao could only continue to adhere to the No. 1 operational plan, but the time was advanced, and all divisions were to be fully prepared for war this evening, and they had to make full preparations for war within three days.

Martial law in the three provinces should be three days later, all railways will stop commercial transportation, all will be transferred to a state of arms control, all military supplies and personnel will be transported down, and the conscription of horse teams in various places will be carried out at the same time to ensure a large amount of transportation capacity.

(To be continued)