On June 12, since the Third Division under the command of Zhao Dongyun officially entered the Guannai by train, the domestic situation suddenly boiled.

Zhao Dongyun's large-scale mobilization of troops into the customs In the early stage, that is, when the troops originally stationed in the three eastern provinces gathered in Shanhaiguan, the secrecy action was relatively appropriate, although the forces of all parties noticed that it was inappropriate, but it was also difficult to find out the actual situation, but when the third division took the train out of the customs, the news of Zhao Dongyun's large-scale entry into the customs immediately spread through the airwaves.

The first day to learn the news was to inform Wang Yingkai of this urgent military situation, and then Wang Yingkai ordered the 1st Division and the 1st Mixed Brigade to take relevant actions when the sky was just dawning, and then ordered Wang Zhanyuan's 7th Division to go up from the northeast of the mountain.

As the main descendant of Wang Yingkai, this first division has been in a state of combat readiness since Zhao Dongyun made some changes in early June, and after receiving Wang Yingkai's order, it quickly marched eastward.

The same was true of the 1st Mixed Brigade, which was originally deployed on the Tangshan front, and that morning, the 1st Mixed Brigade and the 1st Division were advancing eastward from the Jixian, Baodi, and Ninghe fronts.

However, at this time, although they advanced eastward, they still did not enter the Tangshan area in a big way, and at the same time, because Li Chun's Seventh Mixed Brigade also took measures to shrink the defensive line, by the afternoon, although the two armies moved frequently, they still did not make direct contact.

At the same time, Wang Yingkai also sent a sternly worded telegram to Zhao Dongyun in the name of the War Department, demanding that Zhao Dongyun abide by last year's Tianjin agreement and immediately transfer the Third Division out of the customs.

Zhao Dongyun sent a telegram to the War Department, saying that the Third Division's move to enter the customs was a normal change of defense, and that it was to replace the Fourth Mixed Brigade and the Seventh Mixed Brigade that had been stationed in the customs for a long time.

Although everyone knows that this is nonsense, in this case, it is natural to delay it for as long as it can, even if it is a day or two, it is extremely important for Zhao Dongyun.

Wang Yingkai was obviously not satisfied with Zhao Dongyun's reply, and even Wang Yingkai had already decided that Zhao Dongyun was going to enter the customs in a big way, so at noon, Wang Yingkai once again sent a telegram to Zhao Dongyun, demanding that the Third Division immediately withdraw its troops, otherwise his headquarters would directly enter the Tangshan area and take over the defense of Tangshan.

Zhao Dongyun was still unmoved, and still reinstated in the name of normal defense change!

"President, we can't wait any longer, Zhao Dongyun's third division is already on the way, and this third division will arrive in Tangshan tomorrow at the latest, and we will be passive at that time!"

"Now that the situation is urgent, we must immediately send troops to capture Tangshan, so that we can occupy the strategic initiative in the future!" Someone persuaded Wang Yingkai again.

Wang Yingkai also looked stern, although he had long expected that Zhao Dongyun would enter the customs sooner or later, but he did not expect Zhao Dongyun to come so quickly, according to his concept, the north and the south are still in the civil war, Zhao Dongyun is also in the process of expanding the army in the northeast, and the barrenness of the three eastern provinces will not be able to complete the initial expansion until next year at the earliest.

At that time, his newly formed 11th and 12th divisions should also be in the army, and even if Zhao Dongyun wants to enter the customs, he will be able to deal with it easily.

But he didn't expect that it was precisely because the barrenness of the three eastern provinces could not support Zhao Dongyun's large-scale expansion that Zhao Dongyun was so eager to enter the customs.

On the surface, Zhao Dongyun's entry into the customs is related to the situation in the south, but in fact, it is because of the factors of the three eastern provinces themselves.

In 1906, the total population of the three eastern provinces was only more than 14 million, and the fiscal revenue was only more than 20 million taels.

Since last year, in order to restrict Zhao Dongyun's development, Wang Yingkai has not directly introduced a policy of prohibiting immigration to the three eastern provinces, but he still vigorously obstructs the immigration work of the three eastern provinces in private, and in the first half of this year, the number of new immigrants in the three eastern provinces was less than 300,000, and without a large number of immigrants, Zhao Dongyun would not be able to further develop agriculture and industry in the three eastern provinces.

In fact, if Wang Yingkai is allowed to be suppressed all the time, it is not impossible to give Zhao Dongyun ten years to make the population of the three eastern provinces exceed 20 million.

Without a sufficient population, the agricultural industry will not be able to develop rapidly, and without development, there will be no tax revenue.

In the long run, Zhao Dongyun's military superiority in the face of the warlords in the Guannai will be smaller, and if he wants to maintain his military superiority, he will have to continue to expand the army, but this will further aggravate the financial deterioration of the three eastern provinces, and when the new one division and two brigades are expanded, and the patrol force is also redressed, if the army is expanded by a few more brigades, it is estimated that by next year the number of troops will have to exceed 150,000, and when the time comes, the three eastern provinces will not be able to scavenge so much military expenditure to maintain such a large number of troops.

In other words, by next year he will have to play himself to death!

In any case, the population and the scale of industry and agriculture in the three eastern provinces are so large that it is enough to raise the current army of 100,000 people, and if we continue to expand the army in order to maintain military superiority, it will be 100 percent financially bankrupt.

If it continues like this, it is better to take advantage of the current military superiority and directly enter the customs in one fell swoop.

War, politics, and economy are mutually reinforcing, and only with the impetus of political and economic factors can it lead to the outbreak of war.

Zhao Dongyun made up his mind to enter the customs, Wang Yingkai is not a person who sits idly by, seeing that the precious day is about to pass, and Zhao Dongyun still did not give him a reasonable explanation, nor did he show any signs of retreating, and at the same time he learned that the Fengjun army was gathered at Shanhaiguan, and even the numbers of the ninth and tenth divisions appeared.

"Since he Zhao Dongyun wants to fight, then fight! Let the 1st Division and the 1st Mixed Brigade let go of their hands and feet and attack Tangshan directly! Wang Yingkai gave the order and then said: "Also, what do you say about Liangjiang, Hubei and Shanxi?" ”

"Nanjing has not yet expressed its position, Zhang Dudu of Anqing has already transferred a brigade north to Bengbu, as long as the war starts, he can immediately take the Third Army north! The deputy governor of Hubei did not express his appearance, and the governor of Xinyang had already sent a telegram saying that he could go north at any time. ”

Wang Yingkai nodded after hearing this, Duan Qirui and Wang Shizhen's ambiguous attitude was also expected, this and Zhao Dongyun just fought, they must be happy to see it, if they want to go north, it is estimated that they will be defeated, as for Wang Ruxian and Zhang Huaizhi, although they are inseparable from themselves, they are still loyal to the central government on the surface, and it is estimated that they will send troops to fight north after the war. As for Wu Fengling, this person's attitude is just as ambiguous, blindly persuading and maintaining restraint, it seems that he also wants to take advantage of the fire to rob.

At this time, Wang Yingkai didn't know that Wu Fengling had already reached an alliance with Zhao Dongyun, and now he had led the army to leave Taiyuan and go straight to Shijiazhuang along the railway.

Zhao Dongyun wanted to delay time, but Wang Yingkai saw that the opportunity was not good, and in the afternoon of the same day, he ordered the troops to officially attack Tangshan, of course, the outbreak of war cannot be used now, they used the excuse of taking over the defense of Tangshan.

At five o'clock in the afternoon of June 12th, Hanhezhuang on the outskirts of Tangshan, this former small village has been completely quiet at this time, outside the village is a long trench, this trench looks old, and at the same time after the construction of complete civil fortifications, some areas also built a strong cement fortress, it is obvious that this is a permanent fortification built by the Fengjun for a long time.

Not only Hanhaso, but also the area on the left and right sides of Hanhaso are also full of moats and fortresses.

Since the Feng army was stationed in Tangshan last year, it began to build the Tangshan defense line, with the Tianjin agreement reached, because the Tangshan garrison can only have 5,000 people, while the direct army on the opposite side is more than 20,000 or 30,000, so the Feng army pays more attention to the construction of fortifications, in addition to the troops in this half a year, it also hired a lot of people to build trenches and fortresses.

Most of these fortifications were built around the Fuyuanji Factory, and simply put, the deepest part of the defense line was the Fuyuanji Factory.

At the same time, in order to further strengthen Tangshan's defense, according to the order of the General Staff, the workers of the Fuyuan Machinery Factory were also organized to conduct several military trainings, so that the workers of the factory could be requisitioned to join the defensive operations in wartime.

At the beginning of June, after Zhao Dongyun officially decided to enter the customs, Li Chun began to requisition 500 workers of the factory for training in the name of training, and after today's incident, Li Chun requisitioned another 2,000 people to work, but these people are naturally not feasible to fight, and it is not even good to be cannon fodder.

As for more workers, they are now working overtime in the factory for arms production, even if the front line is fighting, but this arsenal cannot be stopped, otherwise Zhao Dongyun will use some bullets and shells to fight.

Han Wuduo looked coldly at a few looming figures hundreds of meters away, and he didn't need a telescope to know that those wearing gray military uniforms were Zhijun.

He bent down, then walked through the trench, and as he went, he said, "Hold on, no one is allowed to fire without my command!" ”

In the trenches he passed, many soldiers were already lying on the trenches, all of them looking nervously at the direct soldiers in the distance, and some of them were even beginning to tremble with their fingers.

After Han Wuduo walked through this trench, he came to a machine-gun fortress: "How are you preparing?" ”

A sergeant touched the heavy machine gun in his hand and said: "This gun was just taken from Fuchang, what about the new guy, but there are not many bullets, and I am afraid that it will not be enough to fight later!" ”

"I've already applied for bullets, and it's estimated that they'll arrive soon, don't be afraid, looking at the whole country now, there is no unit that has more ammunition than ours!" Han Wuduo said: "Wait a minute, if there is a fight, you will give Lao Tzu a hard beating, don't be afraid of running out of bullets!" ”

The Seventh Mixed Brigade is stationed in Tangshan, and this arsenal is on the side, and all kinds of ordnance, especially bullets and shells, can be said to be taken casually, as for how to pay for these ammunition and ordnance taken away is a matter for the Ordnance Department, Li Chunke does not plan to worry about this.

And at this time, the sergeant suddenly said: "Company commander, look, the direct army is coming up!" ”

Han Wuduo just wanted to look up when he heard this, but there was a whistling sound in his ears, and as soon as he lay down, several explosions were thought of on the battlefield!

It's shelling!

With the shelling, the soldiers of the direct army wearing gray military uniforms in the distance also gradually appeared in Han Wuduo's eyes!