Although Zhao Dongyun had made up his mind to leave the Shunde Mansion and act alone, he was not arrogant enough to order the march to the southeast region without authorization, in the final analysis, Duan Qirui was the commander of the reinforcement of the new army, and Zhao Dongyun was just one of the many reinforcements.

On 13 March, Zhao Dongyun sent people to Zhengding to inform Duan Qirui that the reconnaissance cavalry of his department had found traces of the Lianzhuang Hui thugs north of Ningjin, and that a large number of boxers and bandits had gone north from Guangzong, Julu and other places, and seemed to have the intention of marching into Ningjin, Xinhe and other places.

This news can't be said to be false or true, Zhao Dongyun's reconnaissance cavalry found the thugs of the Lianzhuang Society in the area north of Ningjin, as for the Lianzhuang Society and the boxers in Guangzong, Julu and other places going north, it is barely a fact, because at this time, the Lianzhuang Society and boxers in Guangzong, Julu, Weixian and other places have begun to spread on a large scale, expanding in all directions to the southeast and northwest. Therefore, the news that Zhao Dongyun said is not very accurate, but it must not be said to be false.

After Duan Qirui received Zhao Dongyun's report, he was also a little worried for a while that the situation in Shunde Mansion and other places would continue to expand, and finally evolved into a point out of control, so he immediately approved Zhao Dongyun's request to send troops south in the direction of Zhaozhou, but also asked Zhao Dongyun to leave a machine gun team to go to Shunde to cooperate with friendly forces.

The reason why Duan Qirui made up his mind so quickly is because the scale of the civil uprising in Shunde Mansion has become larger and larger, if it was only the armed resistance of Jing Tingbin and others half a month ago, then it has now evolved into the turmoil of the entire Shunde Mansion, and the Lianzhuang Association of many states and counties in Shunde Mansion and the remnants of the boxers hidden in it are in great force, although the banner of rebellion has not been officially raised yet, and the important places of the state and county have not been conquered, but now it can be said that the storm is surging.

Duan Qirui was worried that he would not be able to control the situation by relying only on the training army on the side of Shunde Mansion, and he was even more worried that the turmoil in the Lianzhuang Society would continue to spread to the surrounding areas.

That's why he asked Zhao Dongyun to go directly south to Julu, and then go straight to Guangzong, he hoped that Zhao Dongyun could destroy the Lianzhuang Society headed by Jing Tingbin in one fell swoop with the momentum of thunder, even if it could not be completely destroyed, at least it would hit their momentum and control the expansion speed of the Lianzhuang Society.

Zhao Dongyun naturally didn't know that the development of things was much stricter than he imagined, and when the Lianzhuang Society, a villager armed self-defense organization, was combined with the Boxers, the energy it burst out was immeasurable, and it could be seen from the speed of the deterioration of the situation in Shunde Prefecture.

A month ago, the Lianzhuang Association was just one of the countless villager self-defense organizations in China, but under the urging of the Boxers, it quickly expanded to the surrounding prefectures and counties, and now the counties in Shunde Mansion basically have the power of the Lianzhuang Association, and what is more worrying is that the expansion of the Lianzhuang Association has not stopped, and they are still rapidly expanding to places outside Shunde Prefecture, and the nearby Zhengding Mansion, Yizhou, Zhaozhou, Guangping Mansion and other places have successively appeared with the slogan of anti-foreign tax villagers' organizations, if this situation spreads, Then the consequences will be unimaginable.

Although this kind of turmoil does not pose any threat to the Beiyang clique militarily, its real danger lies in the danger to the people's livelihood, and even more, because their actions are almost the same as those of the Boxers two years ago, they will besiege churches on a large scale and kill foreigners, which will attract foreign armed intervention.

Historically, this peasant uprising affected more than 20 prefectures and counties in Nanzhili, western Shandong, northern Henan and other regions, the rebel army was once as high as more than 50,000 people, the rebels defeated Zhengding Town and Daming Town's training army, until Yuan Shikai sent the Wuwei Right Army, Wuwei Right Army Vanguard, Ziqiang Army and other new armies, a total of thousands of new troops from many sides to quell this rebellion, in this process because the rebels besieged the church, killed foreigners, but also attracted direct military intervention from the powers, The great powers directly sent more than 6,000 troops to encircle and suppress the rebels.

Perhaps for later generations, this was just an inconspicuous one of the countless peasant uprisings in China, just a small riot sandwiched between the Gengzi Incident and the Russo-Japanese War, but for the people of Nanzhili in 1902, it was undoubtedly a disaster, a disaster that turned into a cruel disaster than the Gengzi Incident.

Although the above historical events have not happened yet, and Zhao Dongyun does not know them, Yuan Shikai and Duan Qirui above have already seen the risks behind the Guangzong civil uprising, otherwise Yuan Shikai would not have sent an elite new army south as soon as there was turmoil on Guangzong's side.

And Duan Qirui will not allow Zhao Dongyun to quickly go south to Zhaozhou and Julu after learning that the scale of the Guangzong Rebellion has expanded.

As the presidential official who put down this rebellion, Duan Qirui didn't care about Zhao Dongyun's attempt to monopolize military merits, and even if necessary, he would directly support Zhao Dongyun's behavior, and he really cared about suppressing the Guangzong rebellion as soon as possible.

However, when Zhao Dongyun received Duan Qirui asking him to march into Zhaozhou, Ningjin and other places, he showed a smile: "It seems that the general office is still worried about the villagers of Shunde!" ”

Li Zejun next to him also smiled: "This time we have to do a big job, otherwise we can't live up to the love of the general manager!" ”

Lin Yongquan also laughed!

Then Zhao Dongyun led an army of 2,000 troops consisting of the second battalion of the Wuwei Right Army, the third team of the newly built machine gun battalion and a cavalry team to soon leave Shijiazhuang, and they were to go all the way to the southeast, passing through Zhaozhou and arriving in Ningjin.

After arriving in Ningjin, Zhao Dongyun began to divide his troops, transferred the left team of the second battalion and the first post of the machine gun battalion to continue to march along the southeast to Xinhe, and the division took Bi Xiaoqiang of the left team as the commander, and sent the front team of the second battalion and the first outpost of the machine gun battalion to march to the southwest and rush to Longyao. And he himself led the remaining main force to continue south, heading straight for the giant deer.

The reason why Zhao Dongyun divided the troops was mainly because the people of Guangzong were all thugs and bewitched villagers, and their combat effectiveness would not be very strong, and the Lianzhuang Society had not launched any large-scale military attacks against the Qing army so far, nor had they captured any towns, and their activity pattern was a bit like the countryside surrounding the city, and they were mainly active in the countryside in peacetime.

In this case, Zhao Dongyun's southward quelling of the chaos naturally could not use the usual concept of war mode, because there were not many regular enemy troops in front of him to fight, and some were only scattered people in various villages. Therefore, the operation is mainly based on encirclement and suppression, and it is unlikely that there will be large-scale battles.

The following days seemed a little calm for Zhao Dongyun, limited by the level of transportation and communication in this era, Zhao Dongyun's troops were relatively slow, even if they went south at full speed, they would only walk twenty or thirty kilometers at most, not to mention that he couldn't go south at full speed, because he had to go all the way south to clear the local Lianzhuang Association and boxers.

On March 13, he led his army south from Shijiazhuang, and it took him five days to reach Ningjin, and after arriving in Ningjin, he continued southward even more slowly.

Because south of Ningjin are Julu, Guangzong and other places, where there are many rebels in the Lianzhuang Society, Zhao Dongyun can't say anything and go directly to Guangzong regardless of it, he must always clear the Lianzhuang Society in the surrounding areas to be able to continue to go south with confidence.

In addition, he also needs time to find the hiding place of many minds of the Lianzhuang Society, and only after catching Jing Tingbin and others of the Lianzhuang Association can he fundamentally solve this popular uprising.

In this case, his southward speed naturally became extremely slow, until mid-April, he led the army into Julu County, but although he walked slowly, but along the way, many Lianzhuang strongholds in the north of Julu County were eradicated by him, from Ningjin all the way south, he has found more than a dozen Lianzhuang Guild and boxer strongholds, killed at least hundreds of thugs, and arrested more than 300 people.

When Zhao Dongyun gradually persecuted the rioters of Lianzhuang Society in a steady and steady way, the training army in the direction of Shunde finally tried to march eastward and rushed to Nanhe, Jize and other prefectures and counties.

At this time, the trend of history has completely changed, due to Zhao Dongyun's gradual elimination of the area north of Julu, the forces of the Lianzhuang Association north of Julu suffered huge losses, and forced them to move to the south and east.

And in this way, it is equivalent to strengthening the power of the Lianzhuang Association and the boxers in the south of Julu, especially in the areas of Nanhe and Wei County, where the Lianzhuang Association and the Boxers are combined, and the momentum is huge.

In mid-April, the large open space of Shizhao Bridge in the northeast of Nanhe County was crowded with thousands of people, most of whom were peasant men, but there were also quite a few people who were stealing chickens and dogs or hooligans! In addition, there are hundreds of monks and Taoist priests who do not know what scriptures to read.

In the middle of the altar, there is a monk who has just shaved his head, he is Zhang Zhenbang, the leader of the Boxers in Nanhe County, the year before last when the Gengzi Rebellion shouted invulnerability, burning, killing and looting, but after the Gengzi Incident, the Qing army led by Yuan Shikai killed the Boxers and killed them badly, he was also forced to flee to Nanhe, and shaved his head as a fake monk to continue his rebellion, and now the law name is 'Cijing'!

And beside him, there is Hu Jingfang wearing a martial artist's short robe, this person is not small, he is the head of the Nanhe County Lianzhuang Association, today these two people each gathered together with their subordinates, just to swear an alliance!

After the group of fake monks on the stage who danced the great gods finished dancing a song, Zhang Zhenbang, that is, the monk Cijing, stood up, reciting the scriptures of the demon gate that he didn't know which one it was, only to see him muttering for a long time and then suddenly shouted: "The gods are possessed!" ”

Then at this time, there was a burst of flash of light on both sides of the altar, and at the same time there were bursts of smoke, such visual effects and Zhang Zhenbang was still dancing with his hands, shouting about the possession of the gods, invulnerability and other nonsense, it is very like a modern stage play.

For a while, many people below bowed down together, saying something about Guanyin miracles, Buddha apparitions and the like, and at this time, the dozens of fake monks carried a virgin girl who was only eight or nine years old to the stage.

The virgin's face was flushed with cold, her long eyebrows were very delicate and lovely, and she was wearing a white robe and a paper hat that was also white.

At this time, Zhang Zhenbang walked to the middle of the stage, took out a few yellow talismans and recited them, and after reading them, he pasted the yellow talisman on the virgin, and then shouted: "Immortal talisman body, invulnerable!" ”

Immediately after a flick of the hand is I don't know where to escape an ancient pistol, aimed at the virgin raised his hand is a shot, after the gunshot, the virgin immediately fell down, at this time, suddenly the vocal music is loud, the smoke rises on the stage, thick enveloping everyone's sight.

At this time, in the smoke, two fake monks quickly rushed out of the back stage, and then one of them directly dragged the virgin whose clothes had been stained red with blood to the back stage.

At the same time, another virgin dressed in the same way was pushed out of the back stage, she didn't seem to know what was happening, and she looked at the fire and smoke around her, and her little face was flushed with excitement.

When the sound stopped and the smoke fell, everyone in the audience opened their eyes and saw that the virgin on the stage was standing well, and immediately shouted excitedly: "Immortal talisman body, invulnerable!" ”