At this time, the Chinese army had basically not seen any large-scale wars since the First Sino-Japanese War, especially in Jiangxi, which was deep in the hinterland, and did not even have a chance. Therefore, when the gunboats on the river bombarded the battery, the defenders of the battery, which was already very lax, were suddenly stunned.

The fort, which was originally garrisoned by more than 200 people, was left with only a hundred or so people after a round of shelling, and it is really difficult to say how much combat strength will be left after the shelling. At least after the shelling was over, there were only forty or fifty people left on the battery that could still move, and they were shooting at the beachhead for a while, but the quasi-head...

Basically, the landing force was not hindered in the process of landing.

If it weren't for the timely arrival of reinforcements from the third battalion, I'm afraid it would only take one time to take down the battery.

It stands to reason that it is impossible for the defenders of Hukou to be so unbearable, but who told them that they never thought that Yan Shao would do it?

To be exact, they didn't expect Yan Shao to do it now, because Yan Shao didn't follow the routine as they thought, such as having a war of words first, and then setting a deadline like last time, and then waiting until the deadline was up to say anything...

At least in the thinking of Li Guoyun and others, even if Yan Shao wants to do it, he will have a hands-on posture first. After all, in this day and age, no matter what you do, you must first have a reason.

For example, when Sun Yat-sen wanted to have a second revolution, he also used Song Jiaoren's affairs as a reason, but for the second revolution, Sun Yat-sen prepared for several months.

Who knew that Yan Shao would do it without a sound? This is also the reason why Yan Shao's sailors have already come, but the defenders of the fort are still there to play dice—————— at least in their opinion. Now the above is just bickering there, even if there is really going to be a war, it will be clear.

On the other hand, Li Liejun did not prepare enough at Hukou for his own reasons.

Finance...

Everyone knows that there are now countries up and down except for Shanghai (where there is not much money. But the income is quite a lot) and outside of Anhui, the governors of all parts of the country are living in poverty.

It costs money to go to war, even if it's just to prepare. Not to mention anything else, a promotion fee alone is enough to make the Jiangxi army scratch their brains. In this case, even if Li Liejun wants to fight, it will take a while to prepare.

However, Yan Shao came at such a time, and Li Liejun, who had not made any preparations, was in a hurry.

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In the headquarters of the Gan Army in Jiujiang, looking at those busy subordinates. Li Liejun's face was already extremely ugly.

Not long after Hukou was shelled, Li Liejun had already received the news.

It is not that the sound of shelling reached Jiujiang, although the distance between Jiujiang and Hukou is not far. But it's definitely not close, no matter how loud the cannon is, it can't be heard from such a distance.

However, not long after learning the news, Li Liejun had already begun to mobilize troops and prepare ships. Reinforcements were carried out on the Hukou side.

The Jiangxi Jiangxi Army had only two divisions plus a brigade in total. Because of the falling out between the Kuomintang and the Kuomintang over the assassination, Li Liejun had already concentrated the forces of the First Division in Jiujiang.

To be honest, Li Liejun is also a little blind to the fact that he sent someone to assassinate Yan Shao, Li Liejun is an orthodox soldier, and he has a bad relationship with gang figures like Chen Qimei, and he is unlikely to like assassination.

But after all, he was a member of the League and a hardcore revolutionary party, since the Kuomintang had already turned against the National Socialist Party. He had only one way to go by standing on the side of the Kuomintang.

Although he concentrated the first division in Jiujiang, he never thought that Yan Shao would start so quickly. This can be seen from the fact that the mouth of the lake is still only garrisoned by the 10th Regiment.

However, what he didn't expect was that after the attack on Hukou, the assembly speed of his troops would be so slow. It has been more than an hour since the shelling, and the troops have not said that they have prepared their ammunition, even the second brigade that he had planned to reinforce to Hukou has not been fully assembled.

Not to mention the boats needed to cross the river.

And faintly, he can feel it too. This kind of thing that will slow down the assembly speed seems to have some artificial factors in it.

"Could it be that within the Gan army, there are also people who have been bribed?" Li Liejun, the head of the Secret Service Bureau, has also heard that like many people in the Kuomintang, he has absolutely no good impression of this kind of organization, but even so, he is still very cautious, after all, the ability of the Secret Service Bureau is very great in rumors, and in a week, he actually found all 57 people who were hiding, and then executed them at the same time...

In addition, when there was Cihu River, Ying Shan and others were bribed and turned against Bai Wenwei, which eventually led to Bai Wenwei's death in the chaos, which could not help but make Li Liejun suspicious.

As I once said, the Gan army is actually not very stable internally.

Jiangxi has two divisions and one mixed brigade of the army, with a total of 10 regiments. Li Liejun has a high prestige in the army. However, Ouyang Wu, the commander of the 1st Division, was not very loyal to Li Liejun, and Liu Shijun, the commander of the 2nd Division, also wavered a little after receiving the bribe from the Special Affairs Bureau, and only the 1st Brigade (two regiments) of the 1st Division of Lin Hu, Li Mingyang's 10th Regiment, Zhou Bijie's 9th Regiment, Zhuo Renji's Machine Gun Brigade, and Fang Shengtao's new brigade (only two companies were strong, battalion commander Chen Mingshu and company commander Jiang Guangding).

Although it is impossible for them to go against Li Liejun openly, they have made some small actions behind the scenes that can hinder the progress, which is also an important reason why Li Liejun has always wanted to scold his mother...

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Just when Li Liejun was still suspicious in his heart, an officer suddenly ran in outside, holding a telegram in his hand.

It's just that when he walked into the headquarters, the officer's face was full of anger. "Governor, this is a telegram from Anhui..." After speaking, the officer handed the telegram to Li Liejun.

At this time, Li Liejun was worried about reinforcements, but he still looked at it when he heard the officer's words. The hand also took the telegram from his hand and looked through it.

However, it didn't take long for Li Liejun's face to change.

What was written on Telegram was clear and simple. It was precisely because the Kuomintang sent people to assassinate Yan Shao, and because there were examples such as Tao Chengzhang in the past, that the Kuomintang believed that the Kuomintang was a despicable political party that was sanctimonious on the surface, but in fact liked to carry out assassination methods, and was no longer worthy of continuing its activities in the country, so it decided to completely drive the Kuomintang out of the country and Jiangxi. It's the first stop.

Of course, none of this made Li Liejun's face change, since Yan Shao had already done it. Then it's not surprising that there is this, what really changed his face was the time on the telegram...

"Two and a half hours ago?" Reading it softly, Li Liejun's expression had become very gloomy. "Then why did you send it now?"

If this telegram could have been delivered two and a half hours earlier, at least Li Liejun would have had time to reinforce his troops to Hukou. Garrisons in Jiujiang and Jiangxi can also be vigilant. The mouth of the lake will not be in the current crisis.

It can be said that it was precisely this telegram that put Li Liejun in such a predicament.

Hearing Li Liejun's words, the officer was also very angry. "I just asked, it was something wrong with the telegraph office, and it took a full two and a half hours for this telegram to be sent..."

Naturally, something went wrong, and some people in the Jiujiang and Hukou telegraph offices had been bought off by the Special Affairs Bureau.

What they were asked to do was very simple, that is, to let them send as many messages as possible from Anhui. and the postponement of the sending of messages to the two places from other places...

It might be difficult to get the people at the telegraph office to burn all the telegrams. But if it's just an hour or two, it's not impossible to get there...

Everything must be done in the right name, Yan Shao understands this truth better than Li Liejun.

He also understood that what he was doing now was no different from a sneak attack, but although the Hukou Fort was weakly defended, it was also a fort after all, and if Li Liejun was given time to prepare, he would probably have to waste some more time if he wanted to take Hukou.

So Yan Shao played a little trick, the telegram was naturally going to be sent, otherwise it would be a sneak attack, and it would not be too good to say that his reputation would not be too good. However, after the telegram was sent, Li Liejun must not be allowed to know the way before the navy made a move, which required the telegram sent to Jiangxi to be withheld...

As long as Li Liejun didn't know about the matter, Hukou would not be guarded. And as long as the telegram is sent out, then Yan Shao is not considered a sneak attack—————— anyway, the telegram declaring war has already been sent, but you have not received it, and it has nothing to do with us, after all, the whole country already knows the way, only you don't know the way because of your own problems.

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As for the reason for declaring bell, in fact, Yan Shao himself knows that the Tao is very far-fetched, but...

He knew better that it would be almost impossible to get everyone else to admit that he was justified in sending troops.

After a period of chaos, domestic public opinion is inclined not to use force, no matter what happens...

This is also for what Song Jiaoren was killed, although a lot of evidence points to Yuan Shikai, but even the Kuomintang itself has many people who do not act at the same time.

Even if something big happens, public opinion will be inclined to resolve it peacefully.

Naturally, Yan Shao can also let the Special Affairs Bureau get some situations where he has to use force, but that would be too time-consuming, and at least give him a year to prepare and plan...

A year, or at least, there is only one year left before the First World War, and if you play like this, it's good that the First World War didn't break out, but if it does, then things will be in trouble.

In fact, according to common sense, Yan Shao should not be in such a hurry. Even if World War I really broke out, Yan Shao would still be able to catch up with the European war a year or two later.

But what about Qingdao?

As soon as World War I broke out, the Japanese would send troops to Qingdao, and this was definitely a sure thing.

If Yan Shao couldn't complete everything before 1914, when the First World War broke out and the Japanese sent troops to Qingdao, Yan Shao, who was still a provincial warlord, could only watch the Japanese occupy Qingdao—————— although Yan Shao had a good sense of Yuan Shikai, but he didn't think that Yuan Shikai would fight against the Japanese for Qingdao.

The last incident in Outer Mongolia was, on the one hand, because the rebels in Outer Mongolia were too weak, and on the other hand, because Yan Shao was willing to pay. That's why Yuan Shikai was willing to send troops to solve the problem of Outer Mongolia.

But this time...

I am afraid that even if Yan Shao is willing to bear all the military expenses and send all his troops to Lu, Yuan Shikai may not be willing to do anything with the Japanese.

And only with the power of Anhui Province. There is a large group of people around him, even if Yan Shao really attacks Qingdao, Yan Shao can only be helpless, watching the Japanese occupy Qingdao...

It will definitely not be easy to get Qingdao back in the future...

The century-old navy, even if China's development is smooth after World War I, it will take a long time to surpass Japan in the navy. It is unlikely that Japan will be surpassed for at least a decade. And by the end of the First World War, even with your knees you can imagine, the British will definitely play his favorite balancing act between Japan and China. Plus the Anglo-Japanese alliance and so on ...

In addition, after the end of World War I, the British no longer need the French to help, and even France will become one of the forces that the British are afraid of, so naturally there will be no need to count on the French at that time.

So. Yan Shao had to be in 1914. At least before the first half of 1914, the military and political stage will be ended and the political training stage will be officially entered, otherwise, I am afraid it will be too late...

This is also the reason why Yan Shao knew that the reason for Lu Dao was a bit far-fetched, but he still chose to do it.

Time is pressing, and no matter what reason you come up with, public opinion will support a peaceful settlement, and believe that whoever uses force is at fault. In that case, it's better to simply compare your fists. Anyway, in this world, people with big fists will always be the most reasonable...

As long as you win at the end of the game, even if there is a mistake, it is not wrong, on the contrary, if you lose, even if it is right, there is a mistake, this world is so simple.

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Underneath the Hukou Fort, a group of soldiers were trotting briskly to the steps of the fort.

At this time, the naval forces on the river were worried that the shells would not hit their own people, so the artillery fire had all stopped. In other words, the landing troops were no longer supported by artillery fire at this time, which also made the attack much more difficult.

"Quick, set up the machine gun...", the leading platoon commander shouted to his subordinates after the cat's waist ran to a place to hide.

"Yes!" Hearing the words of the platoon commander, the machine gunner and ammunition man immediately ran up with their equipment on their shoulders, and then set up the machine gun in a hidden position.

At this time, on the fort more than 100 meters away, the defenders of the fort were using guns such as martini or fast guns in their hands, and they were firing for a while.

"Platoon commander, alright..."After a little busyness, the machine gunner had already set up the machine gun.

"Good!" Hearing the words of his subordinates, the platoon commander slammed the ground hard. "After a while, you will hit the top of the fort, and my side will rush with people, remember, you must suppress the people above..."

"Don't worry, platoon commander." As he spoke, the three machine gunners had already aimed their guns at the top of the turret. With a slight pull on the trigger, the three tongues of fire were already heading straight for the defenders on the battery.

At this time, the defenders on the fort were shooting down with their guns, and not mentioning how many people were hit by the three tongues of fire, the defenders above immediately retracted their heads.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the platoon commander hurriedly beckoned to the back. Soon, the whole platoon rushed forward under the cover of the machine gunners, and some soldiers on the battery found out about this, but they had just taken their guns and were already pressed back by the machine gunners below.

At the same time, more and more troops followed one after another, and soon nearly a hundred light machine guns were laid out below. With this level of firepower, no matter how brave the Gan army is, it does not dare to take the lead easily.

With the cover of the machine gunners, the landing force did not encounter many obstacles in the process of launching the offensive, only encountered some difficulties in the battle for the batteries.

Although the equipment of the National Socialist Army is stronger than that of the other side, and the combat effectiveness is also stronger than that of the other side, the defenders on the battery are condescending after all, and when the National Socialist Army launches a charge, it is impossible for the machine gunners below to continue to provide fire support, fortunately, the defenders on the battery do not have such a thing as grenades, otherwise the troops who launched the offensive will suffer a lot of losses, but even so, the National Socialist Army still suffered many casualties.

However, compared to the defenders, this casualty was somewhat insignificant.

Gradually, more than two hours passed, and during these two hours, the landing force continued to launch offensives, and finally took several positions from the hands of the defenders.

At this time, Li Liejun of Jiujiang had also prepared the ships needed for reinforcements.

Although it was not clear how the 'declaration of war' telegram came so late, Li Liejun still felt the meaning of the phrase that the comer was not good, and since this was the case, the reinforcements to Hukou must not be less than one brigade.

A brigade, more than 4,000 people, Li Liejun almost collected all the ships at the Jiujiang Wharf, and only then did he get enough of the ships he needed. Naturally, this will definitely offend many people, and those fishermen will not dare to say anything even if they complain, but the owners behind those river boats...

"But for the time being, I can't control so much, if the Hukou is lost, those Anhui people can even go down the river and take Nanchang directly, so the Hukou must be defended..."

If you don't get it right, I'm afraid that even the reinforcements sent over will not be able to protect themselves.

It was precisely for this reason that Li Liejun did not send Lin Hu's first brigade over, but transferred the second brigade. After all, Lin Hu's department is one of the few troops that Li Liejun can trust, and Yu Weiqian's department is relatively inferior... (To be continued......)