The offensive of the Second Army of the Feng Army in the vicinity of Shanghai exceeded the expectations of the Operations Department, and in less than five days after its launch, they successively captured the Songhu Fort and the Huajie in Shanghai, and in the following few days, they successively captured a series of important towns in southern Jiangsu such as Jiaxing and Suzhou, not only expanding the strategic depth of the Second Army of the Feng Army to more than 100 kilometers, but also completely militarily controlling this area that was crucial to the finances of Anhui.

And Wang Zhanyuan's Seventh Division, which Duan Qirui had high hopes for, although it was said that he joined the Anhui army to fight against Zhao Dongyun because of the cold of his lips and teeth, but he was not stupid and would not go directly to Shanghai to fight directly with the main force of the Second Army of the Feng Army. In addition, Wang Zhanyuan also has his own purpose, that is, to take the opportunity to control the northern Zhejiang region.

With the outbreak of a major war between the two armies of Fengwan on the Yangtze River, Duan Qirui continued to transfer troops from all over the country, and the troops originally deployed in Zhejiang were successively transferred to the Yangtze River.

Now Wang Zhanyuan is busy collecting money and expanding the army, as long as the Feng army does not take the initiative to go south to northern Zhejiang in a short period of time, he will not go north on a large scale to fight to the death with the second army of the Feng army.

After all, this opportunity is very rare for Wang Zhanyuan, since the defeat of the Fengjun army in the summer of 1907, Wang Zhanyuan has been wandering around with the Seventh Division, from north to south, all the way to wander thousands of miles, successively in northern Henan, Anhui-Henan border area, southern Anhui stay, but he is based in the above areas are unstable, can only be regarded as a passerby, although it is said that he has not gone to a place to loot money to replenish the army, but these places are not a rich area, Even if he controlled an entire province, it was impossible for him to develop much, not to mention that he was only temporarily entrenched in a few prefectures and counties.

However, the northern Zhejiang region he went to now was different, although Zhejiang was not as developed as southern Jiangsu and Guangdong in the late Qing Dynasty, it was barely a province with sufficient wealth, at least much stronger than Fengtian before Zhao Dongyun's large-scale development.

Moreover, the province of Zhejiang is very similar to Jiangsu and Guangdong, that is, its financial income is quite concentrated in a few prefectures and counties, Jiangsu has southern Jiangsu, Guangdong has Guangzhou, and Zhejiang is naturally northern Zhejiang.

Zhejiang Province is a huge province, its central and southern regions are hilly and mountainous, and there is not much difference from Fujian in the south, but the northern Zhejiang region is a plain area, which is the main agricultural area of the plain within the Yangtze River Delta, plus close to Suzhou, Shanghai and other places, and also leads the raw silk industry in the place to be more developed.

Jiaxing, Hangzhou, Shaoxing and Ningbo in northern Zhejiang accounted for more than eighty percent of the taxes contributed by Zhejiang Province.

In addition, it is worth noting that Wang Zhanyuan and Duan Qirui, Zhao Dongyun and even Wu Fengling and Wang Shizhen are different, the latter few big warlords are all deep roots, and they have risen to become the leader of one side in 1906.

However, Wang Zhanyuan has a shallow foundation, and he has not had a stable territory for a long time, so every time he goes to a place, he is wantonly looting money, and even extorting the local landlords, gentry and industrial and commercial class for military expenses, and will not say that he is afraid of leaving, what will happen to the local area in the future, and he does not care about the evaluation of him by the mainstream social class.

After coming to northern Zhejiang, Wang Zhanyuan also knew that no matter who won the victory in the Fengwan army, it was difficult for him to have any right to speak with only one seventh division, and the chance of being able to completely control Zhejiang in the future was very small, so he did very realistically in northern Zhejiang. The soldiers did not even have food rations, and they hoped that the vast number of wealthy merchants and landlords would enthusiastically fund military rations and other materials.

In a word, to put it bluntly, it is asking for money!

In the face of Wang Zhanyuan's forcible demand, those rich businessmen were naturally unwilling, and those people on the spot only gave as little as a few hundred, or as many as thousands, and the total amount was not even 20,000. After all, although everyone's money is blown by the wind, even if it is blown money, you can't just give it to others.

However, although Wang Zhanyuan did not say anything on the spot, the next day, the soldiers of the Seventh Division directly rioted in the city, and the rebels rushed into the homes of several wealthy merchants, not only robbing these rich merchants, but also killing them with blood!

As soon as this case came out, Hangzhou was shocked, and directly scared those rich businessmen, and at this time they knew that they were not even a fart in front of these warlords who controlled the army at will in the past.

This was an organized and planned riot plan, and the specific person responsible was naturally Wang Zhanyuan.

The next day, a large number of wealthy businessmen in Hangzhou either came to the door in person, or sent henchmen, housekeepers and the like to the door, and sent cash to Wang Zhanyuan and bank cashier's checks.

"These people are all immortal when they don't see the Yellow River, don't give them some color to see, they still think we are beggars!" Wang Zhanyuan did not hide his contempt for these businessmen and wealthy businessmen.

"Most of the people who have resent it have already sent it, and the equivalent is about three million yuan!" The adjutant beside Wang Zhanyuan flattered.

"This number is still less, only three million yuan, not enough for us to spend a few months, no one knows how long we can stay in northern Zhejiang, and now we can catch as much as we can, otherwise it will be too late to regret it later!" Wang Zhanyuan thought for a while and then said: "You and a few more moves, of course, don't make too much trouble, in the appropriate way to pass the word to those businessmen, just say that it is not enough, if you don't make enough five million, I won't leave!" ”

Speaking of this, he thought for a while and said: "You can contact the banks of a few foreigners and deposit the money in it, it is not convenient to bring so much money in the army these days!" ”

Wang Zhanyuan naturally didn't say that he was going to deposit the money in a foreign bank in order to prepare a way out for himself, the risk of being a warlord playing hegemony was too high in these years, and he was defeated and went into the wilderness if he was not careful, and his life should be unharmed after being defeated, the Beiyang people are still relatively traditional, and the current Beiyang warlords are colleagues and friends in the early years, and they are all people who have drunk and bragged together and called brothers and sisters.

Generally speaking, as long as you announce that you are in the wilderness, whether it is Zhao Dongyun or Duan Qirui, most of them will not say that they are ruthless and kill you directly, at most, they will be under house arrest at first, and then they will drive you to the concession, that is, send you out of the country.

Basically, you can go to the concession to be a free and easy apartment, and when you are a public servant, you have to have money!

Although Wang Zhanyuan is ambitious, he is also a reasonable person, he does not feel that he has many chances of succeeding in the hegemony, eight out of ten will fail, and what to do if he fails, if he is lucky, he may defect to Duan Qirui or Zhao Dongyun, and then get an irrelevant official position, and the tragedy will go directly to the concession as a public servant.

Wang Zhanyuan's experience and practices in the past two years are actually more like the practices of various warlords in the early Republic of China, but now it is not the early Republic of China in history, although the major warlords in the country are fighting, but they are not too scattered, and they are counted in detail Duan Qirui of the Anhui Department, Zhao Dongyun of the Soviet Union, the Southern Federation, as well as Wu Fengling, Wang Shizhen, plus such a Wang Zhanyuan, the other warlords can not actually be regarded as warlords, they can only be said to be generals under the command of the major warlords.

Wang Zhanyuan wantonly scraped in the area of Hangzhou, so naturally he did not have the strength to take the initiative to go north to fight the Feng army in Jiaxing and Shanghai.

Although Zhao Dongyun has already set Wang Zhanyuan as a target that must be eliminated, the biggest goal of the Soviet Fengjun now is not to deal with Wang Zhanyuan, but to use all his strength to clean up Duan Qirui first, and the specific thing is to solve the Jinling war first, take Jinling, and annihilate the fourth division.

For the Feng army, as long as Jinling is taken, as long as Duan Qirui's main force of the Fourth Division is annihilated, it is equivalent to laying the foundation for the strategic victory in the south of the Yangtze River, and most of the subsequent southern China will no longer be able to find an army that can stop the southward pace of the Feng army.

The other remnants of the Anhui army are not good, and Wang Zhanyuan's seventh division is also not good!

The strategic focus of the Feng army can be seen from the dispatch of troops to the Second Army of the Feng Army, which sent to Jiaxing the 15th Division, a relatively weak new unit, and sent to Suzhou the 10th Division, the main force.

From this, it is obvious that the Second Army of the Feng Army did not intend to say that it planned to continue to move south on a large scale, but planned to continue to advance westward along Wuxi, Changzhou, Jiangyin, and Zhenjiang all the way to Jinling.

When the 15th Division stopped its southward march in the Jiaxing area and began to build a defensive line, the 10th Division did not stop after taking Suzhou, but continued to march westward towards Wuxi.

At the same time, the naval fleet led by Cheng Biguang also continued to advance along the west under the strict orders of Zhao Dongyun to maintain naval artillery support for the 10th Division at any time.

Defeated from Suzhou, the 9th Division of Liangjiang retreated to Wuxi without accident failed to resist the fierce attack of the 10th Division, and retreated again in Wuxi, after the 10th Division conquered Wuxi, it was able to continue to advance westward, and the troops were divided into two routes, all the way to continue to pursue the 9th Division of Liangjiang to Changzhou, while the other brigade went to Jiangyin.

What to do in Jiangyin is naturally to take down the Jiangyin Fort and open the way for the naval fleet.