Since December 1906, when the Beiyang generals stopped the Beiyang internal fighting and then established a republican government, among the major warlords in Beiyang, Wang Yingkai continued to sit in Beijing as the president and controlled Zhili. Zhao Dongyun returned to Fengtian from the pass, and Wu Fengling went south from Rehe and marched to Shanxi.

Duan Qirui and Wang Shizhen led the First Army and the Second Army south to fight with the Southern Federation respectively.

At the end of December, Wang Shizhen, who was heading south along the Jinghan Railway, led his army to Henan, and Wang Ruxian of Henan also led his Eighth Division, which had only three infantry regiments and one artillery battalion, to join the Second Army's combat sequence.

At this time, the Second Army under Wang Shizhen had the Sixth Division, the Eighth Division, and the Eighth Mixed Brigade. Among them, the Sixth Division was Wang Shizhen's descendant troops, and the Eighth Mixed Brigade was formed by Wang Shizhen when Wang Shizhen incorporated some of the troops of the Seventh Town in the Beijing Division and recruited some new troops through Guò.

And the Eighth Division is naturally Wang Ruxian's troops.

The main enemy of the Second Army was the First Army of the Northern Expedition of the Confederate Federation. The ministry has jurisdiction over the first, second, and third towns of the army of the 'puppet Chinese Federal Empire', and the first army of the Northern Expedition entered Henan at the end of last year.

The three towns of the First Army of the Northern Expedition were actually adapted and expanded from the original Eighth Town of the former Qing Dynasty, the 21st Mixed Formation Association, and the 25th Mixed Brigade of Hunan, and the first town was under the command of Zhang Biao, the second town was under the command of Li Yuanhong, and the third town was under the command of Shu Qing'a, and its military president was concurrently served by Zhang Zhidong himself.

Among the three towns of the First Army of the Northern Expedition, the first town adapted from the eighth town was naturally the strongest in combat effectiveness, and the personnel and equipment were all full, while the second town adapted from the 21st Mixed Association was slightly inferior, although the personnel were also full after several months of expansion, but the equipment was relatively lacking, with only two artillery battalions, while the third town adapted from the Hunan New Army was much worse, and the personnel were not fully staffed, only three infantry standards and one artillery battalion, and the old backbone that could fight was actually only one standard.

The above three departments are stationed in Zhengzhou, Xuchang and Xinyang, Henan.

The reason why the First Army of the Southern Northern Expedition controlled the southern region of Henan was not that he fought it, but because of the Beiyang Civil War some time ago, the Beiyang military forces were in the north, and Wang Ruxian's troops also entered the territory of Zhili, and the first town under Zhang Zhidong, that is, the original eighth town, also entered Zhili, but then quickly returned south and occupied Kaifeng, Henan.

Subsequently, the second town of the Southern Federation, formerly known as the 21st Mixed Association, also led the army to Xuchang, Henan, and the third town of the Southern Federation of the Hunan New Army, which was subsequently reorganized and expanded, marched to Xinyang.

In other words, in fact, when the Great War broke out, most of Henan, especially the area south of Kaifeng, was under the control of the Southern Federation, and Wang Ruxian, the governor of Henan, of the Beiyang system, actually only controlled the northern part of Henan.

At the beginning of January, Wang Ruxian's Eighth Division and Wang Shizhen's Third Mixed Brigade attacked Zhengzhou, Henan, defending the city was the first town of the Southern Federation, after a few days of fierce fighting between the two sides, Zhang Biao sent a telegram to Zhang Zhidong to say that there were heavy casualties, ammunition was in short supply, and friendly support was not conducive to Yunyun, at this time the main force led by Wang Shizhen himself The Sixth Division was also about to arrive in Zhengzhou, so Zhang Biao, who saw that the situation was not good, led his troops to retreat south, and he retreated well, and even Xuchang did not want it, and then ran to Xinyang with the second town, and then all kinds of telegrams said that they would defend Xinyang Yunyun to the death……

After taking Zhengzhou without much effort, Wang Shizhen accepted Xuchang and other places, and after resting for half a month, he led the troops to continue to attack Xinyang in the south.

This time the Southern Federation was not much better, if they were allowed to deal with the Eighth Division and the Third Mixed Brigade, it would be okay, they could barely fight, but when Wang Shizhen put his own descendant Sixth Division into the battlefield, the Third Town of the Hunan New Army in the Southern Federation soon collapsed first, and after the collapse of the Third Town on the flank, the troops of Zhang Biao and Li Yuanhong, who were directly directed, were also in danger, so another major collapse was staged, and this time the people fled directly back to Wuhan.

By the end of March, Wang Shizhen had already led the troops to officially enter Hubei, preparing to launch a general attack on the three towns of Wuhan, but this time it was different from the previous two times, now Wuhan is Zhang Zhidong's lair, and it is also the so-called capital of the Southern Federal Empire.

In addition, in recent months, Zhang Zhidong has collected a lot of reinforcements and expanded a lot of troops, and it is said that the southern federal troops deployed around the three towns of Wuhan have reached six towns, claiming that the total strength has exceeded 100,000, and the troops in Hunan, Jiangxi, and even Sichuan in the south are still being transferred to Hubei by Zhang Zhidong in a steady stream, but it is estimated that it will not be easy to take down Wang Shizhen's current main force of more than 30,000 plus the 10,000 auxiliary troops trained along the way.

And another major factor is that the Southern Federation still has a navy, and when the North and the South were separated, most of the naval ships were thrown into the Southern Federation, especially the many Southern Federation combat ships along the Yangtze River.

Although the three towns of Wuhan have not yet been taken down, Wang Shizhen has now taken the northern region of Hubei, and the name of the Huguang patrol envoy is finally a little touched, and he also intervened in the southern part of Henan, not only in these do ask for military funds but also recruit troops on the spot, although Wang Ruxian, the governor of Henan, has the intention to oppose but can only turn a blind eye, Wang Shizhen did not directly eat the whole of Henan is enough to give you Wang Yingkai's face, as for you Wang Ruxian, you want to fight for territory and tender. If there is no Wang Yingkai to support him, it is estimated that the northern part of Henan will not be able to keep it.

Compared with the rapid progress of the Second Army led by Wang Shizhen, which was doing well in Hubei, and only three months of hard work had taken down half of Henan and half of Hubei's territory, Duan Qirui's movements were much slower.

The reason is very simple, that is, Duan Qirui did not have the support of the railway to go south, and most of the way on the way relied on walking south, except for the use of canal transportation, and the situation in Jiangbei and Shandong was quite stable, although the Second Army and the Third Army of the Southern Federation under Duanfang and Tie Liang defeated Jiang Guidi's Jiangfang Army in the early stage and forced Jiang Guiqi to retreat to Shandong, but they were unable to go north to Shandong in a short time.

The situation is relatively stable, and Duan Qirui is also busy expanding the army and recruiting troops along the way, Wang Shizhen went south to get an eighth mixed brigade and a militia group of nearly 10,000 troops, and he Duan Qirui also expanded a mixed brigade, and called Jiang Gui a brother and sister, and got in touch with Zhang Huaizhi.

Therefore, when he Duan Qirui set off from the southeast of Shandong, the strength of the First Army under his command was relatively strong, and there was no such situation that Wang Shizhen and Wang Ruxian were at odds with each other, and he officially went south from Shandong to Jiangsu and Anhui to fight in February, and the First Army under his command had the Fourth Division, the Second Mixed Brigade and a so-called Fourth Division Supplementary Brigade, although this supplementary brigade shouted the name of the supplementary brigade, but it was actually an independent mixed brigade.

Then there is the Fifth Division of Zhang Huaizhi in Shandong and the Sixth Mixed Brigade of Jiang Guidi of the Beiyang Side Department.

There were two divisions and three mixed brigades, and the strength of this first army was much more than that of the second army commanded by Wang Shizhen.

But Duan Qirui also faced a lot of troubles, first of all, the lack of railways, logistics materials are very troublesome, can only rely on canals and road people for transportation, and the south has a lot of water networks, the Beiyang troops are relatively heavy equipment, this size artillery is hundreds, in the face of dense water networks are really difficult to transport, even Beiyang's other advantage 'cavalry' is not easy to use.

At the same time, Duan Qirui has to face a relatively large theater of war, not only in Jiangsu, but also in Anhui, which is forced to divide troops to Anhui.

In late February, Duan Qirui led the main force to fight fierce battles in the Jiangbei and Southern Federation's Second Army, that is, the fourth and fifth towns under Tie Liang.

After nearly half a month of fierce fighting between the two sides, Tieliang's troops suffered heavy losses and were finally forced to retreat south, while the second mixed brigade sent by Duan Qirui to Anhui was also Shun Lì to capture Bengbu.

With the withdrawal of the Second Army and the Third Army of the Southern Federation to the areas of Nanjing and Zhenjiang, Duan Qirui also de facto controlled the northern part of Jiangbei and Anhui.

However, when Duan Qirui was full of confidence and preparing to cross the river to conquer Nanjing and Zhenjiang, he was subjected to intensive shelling by the ships of the Southern Federation Navy when he crossed the river.

By April 1907, the armies of the Southern Federation were still in control of the three towns of Wuhan, Hefei, Chuzhou, Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Nantong and other important strongholds in the Yangtze River valley. The areas north of these cities fell under the control of the northern republican government, and were divided by Wang Shizhen, Duan Qirui and others.

And in April, after the fierce fighting in the previous months, the ammunition and ordnance of the two sides, especially the northern republican armies, were almost consumed, and for a while, Wang Shizhen and Duan Qirui could not come up with enough shells and bullets to launch the next wave of large-scale offensives, so they could only suspend the offensive and instead purchase ammunition from the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, well, that is, from Zhao Dongyun, and at the same time, they also purchased all kinds of ordnance and ammunition from major foreign companies to hoard ammunition for the next large-scale fortifications.

It is foreseeable that maybe a month or two later, maybe three or four months later, after the two armies of the North Sea have hoarded enough ammunition, they will launch the next wave of large-scale attacks, and then it is a question whether the Southern Federation can resist it, once it is resisted, then it is possible to form a long-term stalemate between the north and the south, if it cannot be done, the Southern Federal Empire will be swept into the garbage heap of history.

Compared with the two major wars in the south, although the wars in Shanxi and Shaanxi were also fought, they did not attract the attention of outsiders.