The Qing Dynasty has built a lot of railways in the country during the Westernization Movement, which also makes it much more convenient for the imperial army to quell the rebellion in the south, most of the marching routes can be taken by train, of course, the trains of this era are relatively slow, plus the imperial court sent out a new army of 120,000 people in 4 towns at once, and a large number of weapons and ammunition are transported by train, and not all marching routes can be taken by train, there are still a few sections that need to be walked.

So the imperial court issued an order at the end of March, but by the time Iketanga arrived at Shangrao City in Jiangxi Province with an army of four towns, the time had already reached April 22, and then Iketanga ordered the army to rest in Shangrao for a few days, and then from Shangrao to Pucheng in Fujian Province, this Pucheng is located in the northernmost part of Fujian Province, which is the junction of Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces.

In a Jiangnan-style courtyard in Shangrao, Yike Tang'a summoned the commanders of 4 towns, namely Liangbi, the 3rd town of the Wuwei Army, the 4th town of the Wuwei Army, Tieliang, the 10th town of the Beiyang Army, Wang Yingkai, and the 13th town of the Dingwu Army, Wu Changchun.

In the room, Iktanga coughed and said: "Generals, cough cough, we are here, cough cough, rest for a few days, the day after tomorrow will enter Fujian Province, cough cough, the fourth town is the forward, responsible for capturing Pucheng, and the other towns are the backup, cough cough ......"

Tie Liang, the commander of the 4th town, said respectfully: "Rest assured, the commander, the 4th town will definitely take Pucheng and open the passage for the whole army to march into Fujian Province." ”

If it weren't for the Western medicine produced by Lin Daxin's pharmaceutical factory, Iktanga might have died a few years ago, this time to go south to quell the rebellion, if it weren't for the Qing court, there was no such a respected Manchu general as Iketanga, and the relationship between this counterinsurgency was heavy, Guangxu and Cixi would not have been the only remaining famous general of the Manchu people, and they would not have been the only remaining famous general of the Manchu people, and they would go out with illness.

A pro-soldier saw that Iktanga was coughing badly, and immediately handed the teacup to Iktanga, Iketanga took a sip of tea, and then suppressed the cough and continued: "This time, the rebels of the rebel party have occupied the entire Fujian Province, according to the news, the rebels have expanded their army before we came, and it is conservatively estimated that there must be more than 150,000 troops, although most of these rebels are ordinary people who have just put down their hoes, but you should not take it lightly, cough cough, Tieliang, there should be a lot of rebels in Pucheng, don't be careless." ”

Tie Liang nodded honestly and said, "Yes, Commander, Tie Liang understands." ”

Yi Ketanga said to Wang Yingkai and Wu Changchun: "Although the old man is not the commander of your Beiyang Army and the Dingwu Army, but since you 2 towns have joined the counterinsurgency army this time, you need to follow the old man's orders, cough cough, otherwise the military law is ruthless, don't blame the old man for not making it clear in advance!" ”

Wang Yingkai, commander of the 10th town of the Beiyang Army, said: "The old general rest assured, the officers and soldiers of the 10th town will obey your order. "When he came, the commander of the Beiyang Army, Nie Shi, was dealing with Wang Yingkai, and he must fully cooperate with Yiketanga to attack the rebels in Fujian Province, and strictly implement Yiketanga's orders.

Wu Changchun, the commander of the 13th town of the Dingwu Army, also said: "Old general, our 13th town will definitely abide by your orders and will not discount it at all. ”

Yi Ketanga coughed and nodded with satisfaction, this time the rebel court in Fujian Province attaches great importance to it, if the rebels in Fujian Province are allowed to gain a foothold and become the climate, if it is not good, it will be another chaos like the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, plus there is also Lin Daxin who wants to send troops to Fujian, so before this departure, the Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu ordered him to do his best to eliminate the rebellion in Fujian Province, and although the new army of 4 towns brought this time is strong, after all, 2 towns are not their own descendants, If the fighter plane is delayed for this reason, it is something that Iqtanga absolutely does not want to see.

However, it seems that the 10th and 13th towns have been explained by the bigwigs of their own forces before they came, and there should be no such thing as pulling back on the battlefield, and Iketanga said with a smile on his somewhat sick face: "Okay! As long as the generals are united, these petty gangsters in Fujian Province will not be able to achieve much in front of our new army. After the rebels are eliminated and the class teacher returns to the court, the old man will definitely ask for merit for the meritorious soldiers in front of the queen mother and the emperor! Ladies and gentlemen, early in the morning after tomorrow, the whole army will set off and march into Fujian! ”

The Fujian ** Army already knew that the counterinsurgency army of the four towns of the Manchu Qing Dynasty had arrived in the Shangrao area of Jiangxi Province, and Sun Wen, who was in the process of forming the Fujian Provincial Government Affairs System in Fuzhou, brought Wang Heshun, the commander-in-chief of the Fujian ** Army, to ask: "Dexin, the Manchu army has arrived in Shangrao, how are we prepared?" ”

Wang Heshun's complexion is not very good, these days in order to expand the Fujian ** army, there is hardly much sleep, the reason why he is so anxious to expand the army is to resist the 4 towns full of fresh troops.

These four towns and new armies are all in the ranks of the 13 towns new army that was first established, and their combat effectiveness is not comparable to that of the ordinary southern new army, that is, the strongest Liangjiang New Army and Huguang New Army in the southern new army, and the same strength is not the opponent of the first 13 towns, which is almost universally recognized.

Now that an army of 120,000 people from 4 towns has come all of a sudden, such as the overwhelming trend of Mount Tai, the pressure on Wang Heshun can be imagined.

Wang Heshun said to Sun Wen: "President, at present, we have done our best in Fujian to expand the Fujian Army, and at present, according to the strength of 30,000 people in 1 town, we have expanded out the 6 towns of the Fujian Army, relying on the captured and the arms obtained by the President from the Japanese, the guns of the 6 towns of the Fujian Army are equipped with eighty percent, and the other two are equipped with cold weapons. It can only be taught by the soldiers on the battlefield. ”

After a pause, Wang Heshun continued: "At present, I have asked the Fujian ** army of 2 towns to build positions in Pucheng, hoping to withstand the attack of the Manchu army, and there is also 1 town of Fujian ** army in the Wuyi Mountain area behind Pucheng, which is the backup of Pucheng. In addition, there is 1 town in the area of Fuding County to guard against the Qing army in Zhejiang Province, 1 town of the Fujian ** Army is deployed in the area of Zhangzhou to guard against the Qing army in Guangdong, and finally 1 town as the general reserve, which is currently in Fuzhou, Ningde and Nanping cities. ”

Sun Wen looked at the battle map and frowned and said: "As soon as the 120,000 troops of the imperial court came, the strength of our Fujian ** army was suddenly in a weak position, and most of our troops were just expanded, so they were even worse than the new army of the Qing army in terms of combat effectiveness. Dexin, when Pucheng resisted the Manchu army, the Fujian ** army should continue to expand its army, and we can use troops to supplement the lack of combat effectiveness. ”

Wang Heshun frowned and said: "President, in order to expand the current 6 towns of the Fujian ** army, we have captured the silver of the local government and county government has been almost used, and it is very difficult to maintain the current 6 towns, and we now have no extra weapons to expand the new troops, you must know that the Fujian ** army is equipped with cold weapons, which is already a last resort." ”

Sun Wen reluctantly smiled and said: "The Japanese sent us another shipload of arms free of charge, and we just arrived at Mawei Port in the morning, and the Japanese envoy also sent us a donation of 2 million yen. In the past two days, the British, the French, the Russians, the Italians, and the Americans have all come to the door and expressed their support for our Xingzhong Society to overthrow the Qing Dynasty, but when it comes to the issue of supporting arms and funds, none of these countries are generous to the Japanese, and they have put forward many conditions. ”

Wang Heshun frowned when he heard this and said: "President, these foreigners don't have any good intentions, but the Japanese sent us 1 shipload of arms for free last time, and this time they sent us 1 shipload of arms, what is their purpose?" It can't really be kindness, right? ”

Sun Wen's eyebrows moved slightly, and then he waved his hand and said: "No matter what the purpose of these Japanese is, their assistance to us now is gratuitous, and they have not asked us to sign any secret agreements, and now resisting the Qing army is our top priority, as for the future, we will talk about it when we pass this difficulty." ”

Sun Wen actually didn't tell the truth, as early as when Japan took the arms of the first transport ship, Sun Wen had a secret meeting with former Japanese Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi, and reached a series of cooperation plans with Japan, including the future after Sun Wen's Xingzhong Society overthrew the Manchu Dynasty, including the overthrow of Lin Daxin's rule in more than a dozen northern provinces, Sun Wen promised to return the land plundered by Lin Daxin in the unequal treaty signed by Japan to Japan, that is, South Korea, the Ryukyu Islands, and the Ryukyu Islands that Japan let Lin Daxin occupy more than 2 years ago. Ogasawara Islands and Kuril Islands.

Sun Wen promised to use these lost lands in exchange for Japan's support for the Xingzhong Society, but he did not sign any secret agreements, only verbal promises, and completely relied on Sun Wen's character to maintain this commitment.

However, Sun Wen himself didn't pay attention to any promises, and felt that the Japanese were a little wronged, and when there was a day, what could I do if I didn't admit it? Moreover, Sun Wen believes that if the day really comes to overthrow the Manchu Qing and eliminate the Manchu lackey Lin Daxin, it will be worth it even if the above-mentioned lands are returned to the Japanese.

At present, less than 5 people in the Xingzhong Association know about this matter, Wang Heshun does not know about it, and Sun Wen is not ready to let more people know about this matter.

Sun Wen continued: "This time, the Japanese have shipped us 120,000 Japanese Type 13 single-shot rifles with 35 million rounds of ammunition. In addition, there are 30 Japanese Type 30 heavy machine guns with 300,000 rounds of ammunition. 50 guns with a caliber of 37 mm, 12 mountain guns with a caliber of 75 mm, and a large number of shells, and the Japanese promised to send us the third batch of arms in the near future, Dexin, you have to hurry up and continue to form the Fujian ** army, now we are almost facing the test of life and death, as long as we survive this hurdle, our ** cause will usher in a gushing development. ”

Wang Heshun nodded, although he thought that the Japanese support for the Xingzhonghui would not be so simple, but as Sun Wen said, the most important thing at present is to withstand the attack of the Qing army, otherwise it will be useless to say anything.

In a French-owned hotel in the city of Fuzhou, representatives of several countries sent to Fuzhou gathered in a room, and the representatives of these countries are generally the deputies of the minister in the Qing Dynasty, including Britain, Germany, France, Russia, Italy, and the United States, among which the representative of Russia, Sisojevich, stood up and said: "Gentlemen, now the Qing Dynasty is having a just **, which will affect the interests of every country we are here, we are coming to Fuzhou today, all in order to be able to be in this Qing Dynasty ** So I think we should unite and support this righteous ** and get the benefits we want. ”

In fact, the reason why these countries sent representatives basically hoped that there would be a new force to replace the decaying Qing Dynasty, otherwise, this vast and populous Qing Dynasty would sooner or later fall into the hands of Lin Daxin, a military strongman in the Far East, which basically all the powerful countries in Europe and the United States did not want to see, especially Britain and France, which had huge interests in the south of the Qing Dynasty.

The British Navy and the French Navy were ruthlessly cleaned up by the Northeast Navy, Britain and France still have a grudge, and the Russians and Italians, who regard Lin Daxin as their mortal enemies, are thinking about revenge all the time, and the Americans think that their future is in the Pacific Ocean, so they have always been hostile to the Northeast Navy, which can be called the hegemon in the Pacific Ocean and has cleaned up the US Navy, anyway, the above five countries do not want Lin Daxin to do well, and they are not willing to watch Lin Daxin rule the entire Qing Dynasty.

Simon, the representative of Germany, frowned and said: "But can the provisional government established by this political party called the Xingzhong Society block the attack of the Great Fresh Army?" You must know that the army sent by the Qing Dynasty has reached the edge of Fujian Province, and more than 100,000 troops will enter Fujian Province at any time. ”

These countries only have the Germans who have little entanglement with Lin Daxin, and they are not so hostile to Lin Daxin, but the German Emperor Wilhelm II has always hoped to obtain a colony in Asia, and if he can support the Xingzhong Society and obtain a piece of land in the future that is now the Qing Dynasty, it will be a very wonderful thing for the Germans.

French representative Pierdons said at this time: "The Japanese have been in front of us, to support the Xingzhong Society, to give the Xingzhong Society a large number of arms, but most of them are old-fashioned single-shot rifles, the Xingzhong Society used the arms given by the Japanese and the weapons captured by the Qing Army, has formed a force equivalent to the Qing Dynasty New Army 6 towns, about 180,000 people, I have to say that the Qing Dynasty has too many people, as long as there are weapons, the Xingzhong Society can form more troops in Fujian Province." ”

Simon, the representative of Germany, shrugged his shoulders and said: "The six towns of Xingzhonghui are all newly established armies, and the number of professional soldiers in them is less than one-tenth, and I don't think they can withstand the hundreds of thousands of well-trained Daxin army." ”

"That's why we're here to discuss, we have to support the Provisional Government that will be established by the Xingzhong Society, and let it survive," said Eric, the British representative, with a smile. ”R1152