The follow-up Northern Expedition strategy formulated by the General Headquarters was roughly divided into three directions, the first was the continuation of the main force of the Sixth Army to the north to Zhili, and finally to attack Beiping

The second is that the First Division, which was originally coordinated with the Sixth Army, will march westward to attack the Daimyo Prefecture in the south of Zhili and the northern part of Henan, and this strategic arrangement can be used to respond to the Third Division of the First Army advancing into the central region of Henan on the one hand, and on the other hand, it can also cover the flank of the Sixth Army.

The Third Division of the First Army and many auxiliary defense divisions launched a strategy against most of Henan, with the core goal of conquering Kaifeng, Zhengzhou, and Luoyang, the three cities along the Yellow River, and at the same time sending partial divisions to attack other areas in southern Henan.

Lin Zhe did not change too much about the strategic arrangements made by the Command, and he was very happy to sign his own name on the strategic plan.

After so many years of training, the command organs at all levels of the Chinese Army now have considerable capabilities in tactics and strategy formulation, and they do not need Lin Zhe's intervention in everything as before.

After several years of construction, the Joint Staff Department of the General Headquarters has initially acquired the functions of a modern staff organization and has the ability to make arrangements in line with the strategic planning of the whole army, which also makes Lin Zhe feel a lot more at ease, after all, there is no need for Lin Zhe to personally go out and hold several days of imperial meetings whenever it is necessary to make strategic plans.

Now Lin Zhe is relatively hands-free about military affairs, especially on the issue of detailed command, he has delegated most of the power to the command, especially the Joint Staff to decide, and he generally only makes a decision in the final stage. If you think you can, you can sign it directly, and if you think the strategic plan is not good, you will reject it. Let them re-plan.

Lin Zhe's attitude towards military power has always been changing. In the era of Yu Shengjun, Lin Zhe was eager to catch every soldier in his hands, in those years, he often went to the barracks to ask the soldiers for warmth, and the battle plan was almost the whole process of participation and personal decision, and as early as the era of the Yongying in Yuyao County, he was able to say the names of some of the most grassroots soldiers.

However, by 1856, Yu Sheng's army began to expand on a large scale, and finally by the time of the Chinese army, the total strength of the Chinese army alone in the Royal Army and the Royal Navy had exceeded 100,000. Today's Chinese army has 13 infantry divisions, two more guard divisions, dozens of large and small warships, and more than 10,000 soldiers.

With such a large scale of the Chinese army, Lin Zhe naturally could not control everything, so he gradually delegated military power, especially command power.

At present, due to the limitation of the level of communication, the front-line officers of the Chinese army almost have all the command rights of the battle, for example, how to fight the Jinan Campaign is something that Shi Qingxuan can decide alone. Although the command can also give orders, the orders given are generally strategic rather than specific combat orders.

For example, in the follow-up northward strategy, the order given by the General Headquarters to Shi Qingxuan of the Sixth Army did not mean when he would enter Zhili. When to conquer Tianjin, but some instructive texts, such as for the great cause of reunification. It is necessary to capture Beiping as soon as possible and completely overthrow the puppet Qing regime.

As for how to attack Beiping. Even when to attack Beiping, in fact, the command has no right to decide. Only Shi Qingxuan, a front-line general, can decide, he feels that he is sure to conquer Beiping next month, then he will fight next month, if he feels that the troops need to rest and recuperate, and wait for a while, then the Sixth Army will wait for a few months, and even if he feels that if the Sixth Army alone cannot be defeated, and the attack on Beiping needs to be suspended, then the rear command can only stare dryly.

At this time, either Lin Zhe personally ordered Shi Qingxuan to be removed, or Shi Qingxuan was asked to fight according to his own ideas.

This is not a question of whether Lin Zhe or the Joint Staff of the General Headquarters is willing, but the objective limitation of communication conditions, in the era when there was no telegraph, it was basically impossible to command a large army thousands of miles away, even if it was a matter of decades after the telegraph technology matured, but under normal circumstances, the rear command could not command the front-line troops remotely at will, otherwise it would be the second principal.

Remote command, or even skipping the level of remote command to command troops to fight, will generally die a miserable death!

Based on the restrictions of communication conditions and other factors, Lin Zhe gave the front-line generals, especially the commanders of all armies and divisions, relatively large autonomy, of course, in order to prevent the front-line commanders from making abnormal moves due to fever in their heads, the Chinese army also assigned a complete staff team to the headquarters of all armies and divisions.

Taking the Sixth Army as an example, in addition to Shi Qingxuan, the army headquarters, there are also chief of staff, seven or eight operational staff officers, and then quartermaster, logistics, ordnance, military livestock, military medicine, and other sections.

However, although Lin Zhe was relatively lenient in terms of command, he had a very tight grasp of the rights of military and government, personnel, and finance.

So far, all the weapons of the Chinese army, whether they are captured or purchased, are all uniformly deployed by the Ordnance Department, for example, when the Sixth Army conquered Jinan, many weapons were captured, although in fact the front-line troops will directly use these captured weapons when there is a shortage of weapons, but they still need to report to the officials of the Ordnance Department with the army and obtain approval.

Not to mention the salaries of soldiers, the salaries of soldiers in the Chinese Army, like the salaries of employees in other countries, are directly paid to the accounts of individuals in the Royal Bank, even Shi Qingxuan cannot interfere with the salaries of the lowest soldiers, let alone deduct them.

The direct control of salaries is also an important measure for Lin Zhe to control the private placement of soldiers in the troops, and prohibiting the front-line troops from recruiting soldiers on their own is the basic measure of the Chinese Army since its establishment, in order to control the private expansion and development of a certain unit, all the soldiers of the Chinese Army are uniformly recruited and trained by the Military Training Department, and then distributed to various units.

Even the Auxiliary Defense Force, which was reorganized from among the prisoners, was also under the control of the Military Training Department, which was solely responsible for the selection, reorganization, and initial training of prisoners of war. Even when it comes to the formation of an army, front-line generals have no right to meddle in these affairs.

Only after the above-mentioned reorganization work has been completed by the Military Training Department. Only then will the command of the units of the Cooperative Defense Force, which have been officially numbered, be transferred to the front-line generals.

Although there will be some procedural problems in actual combat, such as the excessive losses of the auxiliary defense force. In the event of an urgent need for prisoners to be replenished on the spot, the troops will generally directly accept prisoners for replenishment, but even then the consent of the officers of the military training department accompanying the army must be obtained.

The promotion of officers, even if a second lieutenant is promoted to lieutenant, is not in the hands of senior generals like Shi Qingxuan, they are at most to report for the officers under their command and submit promotion proposals, but the formal promotion needs the approval of the Commander's General Department.

The promotion of the school officer was recommended by the Quanxu Division, and then Lin Zhe's personal approval was required. As for the promotion of generals, Lin Zhe has the sole discretion to decide, and the people below don't even have the right to suggest.

The strict control of military training, military administration, and salaries is the basis for Lin Zhe to control the entire Chinese army today.

After the follow-up strategic plan formulated by the high command was approved by Lin Zhe, it was quickly sent to the troops through the military's mail channel, and through the fast horses and the navy's steam clippers, although these orders were delayed for many days, they could be regarded as being able to be delivered to the commanders of the ministries in time.

When Shi Qingxuan received the battle order from the headquarters, he had already led the army out of Jinan.

Although it took a lot of time for the Sixth Army to conquer Jinan. But most of it was preparation time, such as digging communication trenches, or even digging tunnels, building artillery positions for artillery, and so on.

The actual siege time was only three days. The first day was only an armed and tentative attack, and the general attack on the second day was to rely on the Eighth Division of the Sixth Army to break through the West Gate of Jinan in one fell swoop, and then enter Jinan. After a day of fierce fighting between the two sides in the city, on the third day, Du Xing'a felt that he was no longer capable of repelling the Chinese army. In the end, he led the army to retreat very simply.

Although Shi Qingxuan also sent troops to pursue in time, Du Xing'a actually took out the 3,000 elites in the seventh town of the Qing Army and cut them off. This Seventh Town was the only new army in the Qing army that used the Mini rifle, and although it had not been in force for a long time, its combat effectiveness was significantly stronger than that of other Qing new armies.

By the time the Ninth Division of the Sixth Army defeated the 3,000 elites of the Seventh Town and nearly 10,000 other Green Battalion regimental training troops, Du Xing'a had already fled dozens of kilometers with the main forces of the Second Town, the Third Town, and the Seventh Town.

In the next two days, Shi Qingxuan was busy gathering troops, and at the same time he was also clearing out the fleeing Qing troops respectively, you must know that Du Xing'a commanded more than 70,000 troops in Jinan, the Changqing and Jinan two battles, were killed and captured by the Chinese army about 30,000 people, but Du Xing'a took away the remnants of the army only said less than 30,000, that is to say, more than 10,000 people do not know what happened.

Where did they go?

Most of them were scattered in the fierce battle, some remained in Jinan City, and some fled to the periphery of Jinan City, and they couldn't ignore these remnants, Shi Qingxuan had to clean them up, otherwise he would take the army away, and the Jinan City would probably have to return to the hands of the remnants of the Qing army.

After cleaning up the remnants of the Qing army inside and outside the city, Shi Qingxuan continued to go north with the main force of the Sixth Army, before that, Du Xing'a had already led his remnants of nearly 28,000 troops from dozens of miles east of Jinan to successfully cross the river and be returned.

It is worth noting that although Du Xing'a lost troops in Changqing and Jinan, and more than 70,000 people have fought to the present, only 28,000 people remain, but in fact, most of the troops lost are auxiliary forces such as the Green Battalion, Regiment Training, and Eight Banners, and he has always been very careful to use the main force of the new army, so the vast majority of the more than 20,000 people he brought back are new troops, in other words, although Du Xing'a's troops have suffered losses, the main force still exists.

Now Shi Qingxuan has received an order from the headquarters, and the order is very simple, that is, let him conquer Beiping and completely destroy the puppet Qing regime.

As for how to complete the combat mission of the command, that is what Shi Qingxuan himself has to consider, and Shi Qingxuan now has to think about how to completely defeat the new army under Du Xing'a first, if he does not completely defeat the new army under Du Xing'a's first, there is no way to talk about marching to Beiping.

When Shi Qingxuan led the Sixth Army north to Dezhou, the Third Division of the First Army launched the Henan Campaign together with seven or eight auxiliary defense divisions, and at the same time, the First Division also urgently advanced westward from Jinan and marched into the northern part of Henan through Liaocheng and other places.

The 1st and 3rd Divisions of the First Army, together with many auxiliary defense divisions, launched a strategy against Henan, and their enemies were the new army dominated by the 4th and 6th towns under the command of Nader, as well as nearly 30,000 green battalions and regimental training troops.

Immediately after the Battle of Jinan, a large-scale battle was about to unfold in the Central Plains. (To be continued......)