Rewind time a little. Long Qian led the fifth town to Shaozhou, but the heavy rain stopped the advance, and the troops marched in the scorching heat for several days, and they were already tired. Long Qian then decided to take a short break. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Long Qian convened a top-secret meeting of senior officers above the standard level.

Before the meeting, he and Situ Jun, Zhou Yi and Wang Mingyuan studied the overall arrangements for the occupation of Guangdong, and decided to divide the troops into two routes, the left and right, Situ Jun commanded the Ninth Association and most of the troops directly under the Fifth Town as the Left Route Army, and went south to Guangzhou along the Shaoguan-Guangzhou Avenue, established the Fifth Town Headquarters in Guangzhou, raised supplies, and placed the sick, and then sent an elite army (no less than four infantry battalions and related special forces) to go straight to Lianzhou along the coastline in a large outflanking posture. He commanded the 10th Association as the right route army, marched west from Shaoguan to Lianzhou, and pressed Lianzhou head-on along the official roads of Lianzhou and Wuzhou, and broke the rebel army in Lianzhou in one fell swoop.

"With such a deployment, the enemy may flee west to Guangxi." Situ Jun used a complete map of the Qing Kingdom made by the British, which was relatively rough and could only be regarded as a map of the political region, and the terrain could not be seen at all.

"Then Brother Zhou will follow him into Guangxi." Long Qian smiled.

"It's not good to have too much appetite, let's take advantage of Guangdong first." Situ Jun was clear about Long Qian's strategic purpose.

"Ha Luha, that's right. Take one step at a time, and you can't become fat in one bite. Wang Mingyuan has been in a stomach trouble recently, and his cheeks have been significantly thinner.

"It's not a matter of eating fat, it's about how to keep your roots." Zhou Yi quipped, "If you show your younger siblings like this, you must blame the commander." ”

"Ha Luha, it's good to be thinner. Light. ”

The atmosphere was relaxed. But for the Left Route Army, which aimed at Guangzhou, the task of the Right Route Army was obviously more arduous. Situ Jun suggested that the Right Route Army should be completely lightly armed, all the traction artillery should be left to the Left Route Army, and a large number of sick numbers were also transferred to the Left Route Army.

"That's good. My soldiers will be left in your care. Zhou Yi patted Wang Mingyuan on the shoulder and said.

"No problem, if they are willing to stay in the Nine Associations, you can't ask me for someone."

"Definitely, definitely. Ha Lu Ha. "In recent years, there has been less and less time to stay together and joke, and it is difficult to see each other, especially generals like Zhou Yi and Wang Mingyuan.

"Don't underestimate the enemy, the state of the troops is not good. The long march dragged the troops down. Situ Jun frowned. The General Staff Department went down to find out the situation, and the problems were quite serious, especially the ideological problems, although they could not rise to the level of unstable morale of the military. But it was necessary to call the officers for a couple of meetings. ”

"That's what you're talking about. I think. Since the troops are assembled in Shaoguan, let's hold a conference. I'll talk about it. Long Qian nodded, Situ Jun's suggestion was exactly what he thought.

The Mengshan Army began with the establishment of the Mengshan Army. In peacetime, the infantry has a march every day, ranging from a minimum of 10 kilometers to a maximum of 30 kilometers. What recruits fear most is the field march, which has to grind dozens of foot bubbles and shed a few layers of skin. The fifth town from Shandong to Jiangxi has very few people left behind, and it depends on this rigorous training. However, from Jiangxi to Guangdong, the problem came out, the march in midsummer, and the troops were mostly northerners, the bites of mosquitoes, the unaccustomed temperature difference, and the unaccustomed food all brought great difficulties to this elite, and when they arrived at Shaoguan, the troops were two days later than the planned march plan of the General Staff Office, and there were many sick days, and the average proportion of sick people in each infantry company exceeded 10 percent, and a small half was a very annoying "rotten" disease. In particular, the two new regiments recruited and organized in western Jiangxi, although most of the soldiers were children of Hunan and Jiangxi, could not stand such a difficult march, and more and more people fell behind and fled.

What particularly worried Long Qian was the complaints of the troops, and even the officers of the unified level complained bitterly.

Shaoguan rest has become a must.

At the Shaoguan Conference, Long Qian once again made a meticulous mobilization, and he felt that the idea of occupying and building Guangdong into another base of the Mengshan Army would not be realized without resolving the thinking of the senior officers.

Fortunately, by now, there is no need to hide the goal of the Mengshan Army. Therefore, the Shaoguan Conference became a very important meeting in the history of the Mengshan Army.

"It has been a full fifteen days since I set off from Linjiang. The daily marching mileage dropped again and again, and it almost became a snail crawling! Long Qian sneered, "Not to mention the soldiers, the key is that some of us here are in a worrying mental state, and if they are riding horses empty, what about those soldiers who carry dozens of pounds of equipment?" Could it be that Mengshan Jun is really getting more and more squeamish? Are you so squeamish that you can't even walk? I, the commander, can walk, but why can't you walk? Well? ”

Long Qian set off from Linjiang, most of the time on foot, he usually changed the standard after two days, everyone saw it. Long Qian's words made several people lower their heads.

"What worries me is that some of us here say a lot of things that shouldn't be said. It's okay for soldiers to complain, squad leaders, platoon commanders, company commanders, and even battalion commanders to complain, but all of us here are the core figures of the Mengshan Army. ”

These words shook the spirits of the officers. Long Qian really hadn't talked to everyone before.

"Since the establishment of the Mengshan army in 1899, it has been eight years, and eight years is not a short time, and the vast majority of you have experienced the whole army in Mengshan. My goal was to seize the Manchu dynasty from the beginning, and I don't need to hide this from everyone. I don't think I would be surprised if I had a little brain, a little bit of ambition. ”

Long Qian was satisfied to see that the eyes of most of the officers showed a fanatical look.

"The Manchu court made the country like this! Since the First Opium War in 1840, the Manchus have not won a single war with foreign countries! Twenty years later, the Second Opium War lost Beijing, and the Old Summer Palace, which was piled up at tens of millions of taels of silver, burned to the ground by the British and French. Later, Vietnam, Korea, and Siam, the countries that our ancestors conquered for us lost one by one, from south to north, millions of square kilometers of territory were lost! In the First Sino-Japanese War, the Beiyang Fleet built with tens of millions of silver was sunk to the bottom of the sea by small Japan, and many people here participated in the war in the year of Gengzi. The Eight-Nation Coalition of 20,000 or 30,000 defeated more than 100,000 Qing troops, and Beijing was occupied for the second time. Counting the interest, there is a loss of about five or six billion, and our country is not divided into young and old, so everyone will have to pay one or two halves of silver. Those princes, ministers, and the emperor and the queen mother will not pay a penny, and the silver will eventually have to be paid by the common people. Everyone is from a bitter background, and I know what it means to have one or two halves of silver, many families. All the belongings were converted into two taels of silver. ”

Long Qian took a sip of water. "If we hadn't caught Seymour in Xigu, I dare to guarantee that Gengzi's compensation would not be 300 million taels, but more. At least 450 million taels! How many good brothers did we lose in the Battle of Xigu? Fenning's appearance still shakes in front of my eyes. Their blood was not shed in vain. Because they have preserved a trace of vitality for the country with their lives and blood. I once said that when the conditions are met, I will erect a monument for them in Xigu. Engrave their names so that future generations will always remember their names. As for the future, the Manchu Qing Dynasty also committed a lot of traitorous acts, such as the war between Japan and Russia, but the battlefield was in China, which smashed Liaodong and Liaonan, and I don't know how many innocent people were displaced and their families were destroyed. Let's think about it, why should the word "country" and "home" be read together? Because the country is a home, but it is just a family. Many of us have seen a large family of several hundred people, and the patriarch must manage the family well, educate the children well, manage the money well, and make sure that the small have something to rely on, and the old have something to support, and the children who do a lot of work must be rewarded, and those who do not do well must be punished, and those who seriously violate the clan rules must be expelled from the family and their names removed from the family tree...... This is the responsibility of the patriarch. Compare our country to a family, and the court is the patriarch and the head of the family. So, what did the Manchu court do? Are they in charge of the house? Obviously, no. They're doing a terrible job, and they're about to ruin this house. The children of this family did not have a good life under their management! Many people do not have enough to eat, have no cotton clothes to wear in winter, cannot study, cannot marry a daughter-in-law, and cannot live in a decent house. In a word, they should have gotten out a long time ago! ”

I don't know who was the first to applaud, and immediately, the applause rang out. The participants were all core officers of the Mengshan Army, and most of them had the idea of following Long Qian to change the dynasty. So when Long Qian made it clear that he wanted to drive out the Manchus and establish a new country, everyone felt overjoyed.

Yes, it's just a joy of heart. Maybe when Zhengjiazhuang established a base area to defeat the official army, maybe it was when it was recruited and successfully reorganized into the right wing of the Weisheng Army to base itself in Lunan, or maybe it was when it went north to fight floods and expanded into the fifth town...... Long Qian's core team gradually believed that following Long Qian was really promising. The biggest future is to establish a dragon dynasty, and they are undoubtedly the founding heroes of the country!

"Brothers, just now I said that when the conditions are met, I will erect a monument to Fei Ning and them. When is the condition in place? Quite simply, it was to overthrow the Manchus and establish a new China. Does anyone doubt that this goal cannot be achieved? I tell you, this goal will be achieved, and, soon, not for another eight years! ”

The applause rang out again, this time even more enthusiastically than before.

"What will the alliance have? Do they have a little more strength? They all believed that they could kill the Manchu Qing and establish the Republic of China, but the Mengshan army, which had 70,000 or 80,000 troops, did not dare to think about it? Don't look at me like this, Han Ziying, I'm not wrong, it's seventy or eighty thousand, this is the strength that has been organized and trained, and the potential strength has already exceeded 100,000! Moreover, we have our own economic base, we can make guns, cannons, bullets and shells! Soon, we will even be able to build a car! Where are the 100,000 people? Let me tell you, in distant Manchuria, the northeasternmost part of our country, there is also a unit of the Mengshan Army, they already have an official number, which was also given by this foolish court, yes, that's right, it is the eighteenth town of Northern Manchuria! It was the unit of the Mengshan Army, and the commander was called Lu Dashan, and his real name was Lu Shan! Used to be the old boss of many of you! ”

The secrets of Lu Shan and others began to be hidden, but Long Qian said it himself, which still shocked and excited the officers present, especially Zhou Yi, Feng Lun, Du Sanli, Lan Xinzhi, Cao Minzhong, Liang Huada, these "old men", when Lu Shan and others left, it caused a shock in the army, and now the mystery has been revealed, it turned out to be this situation.

"Yes, most of them are alive and well, and they have created a large part of the world in the Northeast! Fan Deping, Xiong Xun, Shi Dashou, Deng Qinghua, Cheng Erhu, and Sheng Guang are all senior officers in the eighteen towns, and the eighteen towns are now fully staffed with Russian-style equipment. When it comes to cavalry, it's much stronger than our old five towns! You don't have to doubt the number of troops I'm talking about, do you? ”

"Ha Luha, let me just say, how could Brother Lu Shange betray the commander? Ha Lu Ha, that's great! Commander, when are we going to do it? Lushan, they fight from north to south, let's fight from south to north, and kill the Tartar court of the dog day! Du Sanli stood up, waving his hands and shouting.

"Sit down, sit down your shit. Listen to the commander. Lan Xinzhi tugged at Du Sanli's shirt. Let him get back to his seat.

"Not yet. Yes, no. Someone must think like this, it is said that you Long Qian received the great favor of the Empress Dowager Cixi, and there is no Empress Dowager Xi. There is no such thing as you Long Qian today. Yes. The Empress Dowager of the West remembers the work of my rescue. Since the year of Gengzi, I have been repeatedly promoted. It seems that I should be loyal to her, or I will not be qualified to be a human being. No. It's not right to think that way, my allegiance is to this country, not to a certain person. If the Empress Dowager of the West governs the country well, and the people live better and better day by day, and the powers dare not bully us, I will not oppose and cannot rebel, because no one will rebel against me. Some people also think, since you have long been preparing to rebel against the Tartar court, and the League is also a rebel, why do you have to send troops to suppress it? Aren't we like-minded? Yes, we are of the same kind in opposing the Tartar court. That's why I'm not allowed to kill Liu Daoyi and the others. However, rebellion is a profound technique, and it is much more difficult than training troops to fight......"

The big man laughed and laughed.

"When the conditions are not ready, it is not brave to rebel, but to be unplanned. Last year, when we went south, someone advised me to rebel with this move, but I didn't think it would work. I weighed our strength and thought that the conditions were not yet in place. At that time, the army will be in ruins, and even attract the intervention of the armies of the great powers, only with tens of thousands of horses in our fifth town, it will not work. I have to think about the future of everyone, we rebelled to build a new country, not to lose our heads. In addition, the alliance will not succeed, and it is we who are unlucky to unite with them. Think about it, is there anyone willing to form a new country with the Alliance? ”

"I don't want to!"

"Yes. Speaking of which, everyone should understand the significance of our southward trip to Guangdong. Guangdong, like the Northeast, is located in an extremely important position, is the southern gate of our country, connecting a large number of overseas passages, if it becomes another solid base of our Mengshan Army, what will it look like? From south to north, the strength of the Mengshan army will run through the whole country, everyone has read the book of soldiers, the long snake formation is very powerful, the head is the tail, the tail is the first, and the hit is the first and the last...... When the time comes, with Shandong as the center and the north and south echoing, the Manchu Qing will soon be over! ”

"Now our task is to run Guangdong by suppressing the uprising. Guangxi in the west, Fujian in the east, Hunan and Jiangxi in the north, are the places where our fifth town shows its talents, from now on, we are the dragon into the sea, the sea and the sky! ”

"But why should anyone not understand the meaning of going south? Why do you want to be bitter and tired? Who can take over the world without sweating blood? I didn't make it clear to you before, I don't blame you, but now that I've said everything, what should you do? ”

"I didn't say it, what to do with the commander!"

"It's no problem to go back and forth!"

"Very well, that's it. Everyone understands our strategic goals, and the momentum should be fine. Here are a few things I would like to highlight, the first of which is discipline. Discipline is fundamental to our victory. We must regard Guangdong as Shandong, and the people of Guangdong as our Shandong fathers, and only strict military discipline can ensure that we can gain a foothold in Guangdong. When we were in Jiangxi, some of our troops violated discipline, such as stealing chickens and dogs, molesting big girls and little daughters-in-law, and robbing rich families in private. Although it is not serious, it does not mean that it does not exist. Some of the officers and soldiers who committed the crime were dealt with, but on the whole I was more lenient and only shot two. Cao Minzhong has an opinion on me, and he did the right thing! His opinion is good! I understand that tolerance is wrong, and it is a waste of our common cause! The troops have entered Guangdong, I will put my words in front, military discipline cannot be violated, no matter who it is, how to deal with it, no tolerance! The second is to be careful, very careful, don't underestimate the rebels of the Alliance, and the enemy will lose the battle. The third is to save ammunition, local replenishment may not be smooth, from Shandong to Guangdong, everyone knows the difficulties, therefore, everything must be based on itself, do not rely on the old base in Shandong. The fourth is to learn how to run and learn to do the work of the people, and when the rebellion is put down, we will expand our army in a big way, at least one more town. Whether the court admits it or not, we have to fight hard to expand the army, and we must train our soldiers to meet the big march to the whole country in the future! The last point is secrecy, what I talked about today will not be conveyed to the lower part of the city for the time being, we still have to use a period of time to make our strength stronger. ”

"I'm going to talk about this today, give you an explanation, encourage you, and make your next task clear. Starting from Shaoguan, we will divide the troops into two roads, I will follow the right army, I promise you, from now on, I Long Qian will not ride a horse, on foot! Walk with the soldiers, I believe that as long as our senior officers are at the head of the queue, the soldiers will not be left behind! Okay, now I would like to ask Chief of Staff Situ to announce the organization and command structure of the left and right route armies. ”

The Shaoguan Conference lifted the veil on the long-concealed Mengshan Army, especially the news of the Eighteen Towns of Northern Manchuria, and greatly encouraged the senior officers, the vast majority of whom were convinced that the prospects outlined by Long Qian would come to fruition. What could be more inspiring than building a new dynasty? After a short rest, the soldiers of the fifth town divided into two routes and went straight to the west of Guangdong. The face of the army has changed, the military flag is unfurled, the military song is loud, and all the previous difficulties are gone. (To be continued......)