"What? Patong lost? ”

Looking at Li Yuanhong, the person who came to deliver the news, he lost his voice, and even Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang, who had just arrived in Wuhan not long ago, looked sideways. You must know that it has only been two days since the news of the battle between the defenders of Padang and the Nationalist Army came back, why did Padang County suddenly fall away?

Seeing the surprised looks of the three people, the visitor smiled bitterly and didn't know how to explain, and finally had to say.

"According to the news sent back by Zhang Jiarui and Wang Zhensheng, the two regiment commanders of Zhang Jiarui and Wang Zhensheng originally wanted to defend the city because the commander of the Hubei army, Ma Bangde, escaped from the battle, which made the Hubei army outside Badong County a mess, and then coupled with the surprise attack of the National Socialist Army, the result was only a shock to the peripheral positions and fell into the hands of the National Socialist Army, after retreating into the city, Zhang Jiarui and Wang Zhensheng The two regiment commanders originally wanted to defend the city, but the soldiers had no desire to fight, and as a result, Badong County fell into the hands of the National Socialist Army after holding on for a day..."

Although the explanation was very brief, Li Yuanhong, Feng Guozhang and others could still imagine the scene from a few words.

After learning the news of Ma Bangde's escape, not only the Hubei army defending the city, but also the Beiyang army, which did not belong to the same system, would suffer a great blow in morale. The soldiers have no fighting spirit, even if the Beiyang Army is much more elite than the Hubei Army, I am afraid that they have no intention of defending the city.

But...

"That Ma Bond deserves to die, but why didn't Captain Zhang and Captain Wang send a telegram back when he fled?"

The first responsible person must be that Ma Bond, and Li Yuanhong is also sure that this is not planted by Zhang Jiarui and Wang Zhensheng, because as Ma Bond's boss, Li Yuanhong also knows very well what this guy is, of course, his courage is so big (small) that he dares to escape from the battle, which Li Yuanhong did not expect.

Although it is impossible to shirk responsibility, Li Yuanhong does not want to let himself bear all the responsibility, so he needs to find someone to share the responsibility, this person is Zhang Jiarui and Wang Zhensheng, who were still in Badong County at the time. Ma Bond abandoned the city and fled, although the crime is unforgivable, but why did Zhang Jiarui and them not report the situation back at that time? As long as this point is finalized, Li Yuanhong's responsibility will naturally be much less.

As for Ma Bond? He must be dead, Li Yuanhong doesn't care about his life and death, for him, what is more worthy of concern is Yuan Shikai's anger.

However, after the visitor spoke, Li Yuanhong knew that he was afraid that he would have to bear all the anger of Yuan Shikai with Ma Bangde.

"Ma Bangde abandoned the city and fled, after the problems of the Badong defenders, Zhang Jiarui and Wang Zhensheng, the two regiment commanders, also thought of using the county's telegram to notify Wuhan, but when they wanted to do so, they found that the telegraph office in the county was actually deliberately destroyed, no way, Zhang Jiarui and Wang Zhensheng had to send a signal soldier to the neighboring Zigui County on horseback, and use the telegram there to send a message to Wuhan, so back and forth..."

The telegraph office in Padang County, of course, was run by people from the Military Intelligence Agency.

After learning that the defenders of Padang had rioted, Zhu Qinglan asked several members of the Military Intelligence Bureau to sneak back to Padang and let them destroy the telegraph office in the county seat. In fact, Zhu Qinglan also thought about having people cut off the telephone poles, but Padang will soon become the bag of their National Social Army, if they do this, when they take over Padang County, won't it take a lot of effort to repair it? So in the end, Zhu Qinglan made a decision, and when the MIA's people failed, he sent a cavalry regiment to cut off all the telephone poles along the way. Fortunately, in the end, the CIA people moved smoothly, and a few people with a few bundles of grenades easily blew up the telegraph office into the sky...

After receiving the news of the telegraph office's ascension, Zhu Qinglan ordered to launch an entire attack, took the positions on the outskirts of the county in one fell swoop, and drove the defenses of Padang out of the county seat within one day.

"It's supposed to be someone from the MIA..."

After hearing that the telegraph office was suddenly destroyed, Duan Qirui, who had been sitting in his seat without speaking, spoke.

"MIA?"

Except for Feng Guozhang, who knew a little, he didn't speak, and the others, including Li Yuanhong, all looked at Duan Qirui.

"That's right, both the British and the Yue himself have mentioned to Lord Gong Bao that Yan Guang has two intelligence agencies, one is the Military Intelligence Bureau and the other is the Military Defense Bureau. As the name suggests, the Military Intelligence Bureau is outside the main body, and the Military Defense Bureau is in charge, and I believe that the Telegraph Bureau is the work of the Military Intelligence Bureau. ”

Of course, he and the British only mentioned it, and Yuan Shikai, Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang, who were present at the time, didn't care about it. It wasn't until someone just came to mention that the telegraph office was deliberately sabotage, and Duan Qirui remembered the organization of the Military Intelligence Bureau.

"This Yan Guang is really hard to deal with..."

"That's right."

Hearing what Feng Guozhang, who had never spoken, said, Duan Qirui also nodded.

"What should we do right now?"

Looking at the two people, Li Yuanhong said with an unassertive look.

Although Li Yuanhong seemed to be harmless to humans and animals, Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang did not dare to underestimate him at all, because both of them knew very well how Zhang Zhenwu died back then. What's more, during the Second Revolution, why did Hubei, which had a strong revolutionary atmosphere, fail to make a big move? It was because Li Yuanhong's methods were ruthless enough that everything was nipped in the bud.

Although he didn't like Li Yuanhong pretending to be a pig and eating a tiger, Duan Qirui still said slowly.

"It seems that the reinforcements going to Padang will stop in Yichang first..."

Saying that, Duan Qirui looked at Feng Guozhang.

"Huafu, when will your second army arrive?"

During the Second Revolution, Yuan Shikai reorganized Li Chun's Sixth Division and Wang Zhanyuan's Second Division into the First Beiyang Army, and Duan Qirui led Li Liejun to pacify Jiangxi. Qiao Yunpeng's Fifth Division, Lei Zhenchun's Seventh Division, Yang Shande's Fourth Division, and the Fengtian Mixed Brigade and the Zhili Mixed Brigade formed the Beiyang Second Army, led by Feng Guozhang to pacify the Yuan army in Jiangsu, Nanjing and other regions, (after all, Jiangsu was the strongest against the Yuan army). Now that the Second Army had just set off from Nanjing, Feng Guozhang had taken a boat to Wuhan first, so Duan Qirui wanted to know how long it would take for Feng Guozhang's Second Army to arrive.

However, hearing Duan Qirui say this, Feng Guozhang smiled bitterly and said.

"At present, Nanjing is renting a ship to transport it to Wuhan, but Zhiquan, you also know, my Second Army has too many people and a lot of equipment, and if you want to transport the entire Second Army, I am afraid it will take half a month, but if you only transport some people first, a week's time will be enough..." The Yangtze River is the lifeblood of China, and there are many people begging for a living on the Yangtze River, if you only transport people and guns, regardless of the size of the ship, it is not a difficult thing to transport 40,000 or 50,000 people from Nanjing to Wuhan.

"A week?"

Yichang and Badong are more than 100 kilometers apart, considering that the Wuhan section of the Sichuan-Han Railway has only been repaired to Jingzhou (city), even if the Kuomintang Army takes Badong, it will probably take 3 or 4 days to march to Yichang. In 3 or 4 days, it was enough for the reinforcements from my side to arrive in Yichang...

"Brother Song Qing, your Hubei army already has two divisions that are about to arrive in Yichang, right?"

"That's right." Li Yuanhong nodded. "Originally, they were preparing to support Padang, so the speed of the march was very fast, and now they are almost in Yichang." The Sichuan-Han Railway had already been built from Wuhan to Jingzhou, and the distance between Jingzhou and Yichang was only 100 kilometers, so Li Yuanhong's two divisions marched very quickly.

Originally, according to Li Yuanhong and Duan Qirui's calculations, the defenders of Padang could hold out for at least a week. During this period, Li Yuanhong's two divisions could reach Padang and strengthen Padang's garrison capability. At that time, Qirui's two divisions could also reach Yichang, and then go from Yichang to Badong, so that Yan Guang's National Social Army could be resisted in Badong County. It's a pity that because of a Ma Bond, it actually led to failure.

"Since Brother Song Qing's two divisions are almost in Yichang, let them build fortifications on the spot, and then I am sending a telegram to Li Xiushan and Wang Zichun, asking them not to disembark in Wuhan, but to transfer to Yichang by boat..." Hua Fu, do you want to let Tang Qianming's fleet give Zhu Qinglan some trouble. ”

Hearing Duan Qirui say this, Feng Guozhang thought about it.

"It's better not to, Zhu Qinglan's National Socialist Army is no better than Li Liejun's miscellaneous cards, in case Tang Qianming's fleet and Zhu Qinglan's National Social Army exchange fire, Tang Qianming may not be able to take advantage. And I heard that Yan Guang also built a naval division in Yucheng, and it is also very good in terms of strength, so it is better to leave Tang Qianming's fleet in Yichang. ”

"It's okay..."Duan Qirui smiled bitterly as he spoke. Originally, I wanted Zhang Jiarui and them to try the quality of the National Social Army in Padang first, but they didn't expect to lose Padang before they could try anything, really..."

Feng Guozhang and Li Yuanhong also smiled bitterly, they had never fought with the National Socialist Army, and they naturally wanted to know how the combat strength of the National Socialist Army was, but what they didn't expect was that they lost Badong as soon as they fought, and they really lost their wife and soldiers...

However, hearing Duan Qirui say this, the person who came over to convey the news just now spoke.

"Regarding the combat effectiveness of the National Social Army, Commander Zhang Jiarui also mentioned it slightly in the telegram sent back..."

Hearing him say this, everyone in the room turned their eyes to him.

"A little mention? What did Zhang Jiarui say? ”

"This... Regiment Commander Zhang only said in a telegram that the Kuomintang Army was well-equipped and had fierce firepower, and that it had shelled the defenders' positions for more than half an hour when artillery was used for the first time, and even more than an hour of fierce bombardment during the siege of the city the next day..."

To put it simply, it means that the ability of the National Socialist Army to smash silver is very powerful...

Fortunately, the people in the city at that time almost ran away, otherwise I am afraid that they would be as unlucky as the defenders in the city at that time.

(To be continued)